The Mech Touch

\'You should leave this up to Ketls and Dulo." Gloriana placed her hand on his arm. "We are not designing this expert mech alone. Ketis has developed a few interesting ideas on how to design the plasma sword, and Dulo knows much more about spears than either of us. Leave this work to the specialists."

"Hm, you\'re right, I suppose." Ves conceded. "It doesn\'t really matter if the plasma sword and the spear are not as advanced as the rest of the Jupiter Project\'s configuration. They can easily be updated or replaced since they are just external equipment. From everything I\'ve witnessed during the Survivalist conference, 1 expect that the Red Association will soon announce a new mech generation that will introduce lots of new innovations."

His wife\'s eyes brightened as she stared at him with repressed enthusiasm. "Can you give me a preview of what is to come?"

"Hm, I\'m not sure how much I can share with you. A lot of the stuff I\'ve learned is confidential. 1 can tell you that part of the new release will consist of restricted technology that the inechers have decided to let go in order to strengthen the masses. None of this is new to the big shots, but it can make a substantial difference to everyone else. Another part of it will consist of counters to phasewater technology. Overcoming transphasic energy shields is one of the greatest hurdles to defeating alien warships. The most important part is any useful tech on hyper materials and E energy radiation."

"I believe the final parr is Che most critical set of tech." Gloriana insightfully said. "The Age of Dawn shall truly commence once our industries start to incorporate this new category of technology."

Ves shared the same sentiment. "The Survivalists at the conference already started to use different umbrella terms to name this new field. The most common ones 1 have heard are hyper technology or dawn technology. 1 think the former will win out since it is much easier for most people to harness the power of E energy radiation by manipulating hyper materials."

Hyper technology or whatever people decided to call it was on the cusp of revolutionizing the tech base of red humanity!

Not all of it was new. Applications such as general cultivation elixirs originally came from ancient cultivation heritages.

What Interested Ves much more was how red humanity would manage to blend modern technology with E energy. The fusion between modern technological principles and ancient knowledge might produce wonderful surprises that could redefine mechs In the new age!

Every mech designer had high hopes for the future. They had to in order to maintain their faith in mechs. If the Age of Dawn did not do enough to benefit mechs, then the future of every mech designer and mech pilot would come under question!

"What will become of red humanity?" Gloriana wondered. "Will unexplainable powers like yours become the norm in our society? Will science experience a regression as 1 + 1 no longer equals 2? Our clan is blessed by your innovations, but if your works are representative of what Is to come, I am not certain whether 1 will like what our technology is mutating into. Will we still be human by the lime we are done?"

Ves shook his head even as he leaned over and pulled her into his embrace. Her scent wafted in his nose, causing him to appreciate her company even more.

"We don\'t have the luxury to consider all of this high-minded philosophy stuff. Leave that to the tier 1 galactic citizens. Our only concern should be to figure out a way for our family to survive the coming years. I would do everything to keep our children happy and alive. I don\'t want them to grow up in darkness and despair. Whether that means that we will have to turn ourselves into the monsters of the dark, I will do so without a heartbeat. Survival trumps everything."

His wife smiled as she relished in his body warmth. "Spoken as a true Survivalist. J suppose you are correct. 1 have noticed that the Red Association has taken charge as of late. The Red Fleet hasn\'t generated as much attention as of late. Do you know what the Heelers are planning?"

"Not really." Ves shook his head. "Just because they\'re being quiet doesn\'t mean they are weak. Don\'t underestimate them. There is talk that the fleeters are working on their own brand of hyper technology that is highly applicable to warships. For example, what 1 can do with fourth generation luminar crystal technology, the Heelers may be able to accomplish with conventional human tech."

That time was coming closer. He could feel it. It was not sustainable for the Red Fleet to remain low-key all of this time. A day would come when they would unveil whatever they had boon cooking up all of this time and shock everyone who thought that they wore slowly fading into oblivion!

His wife continued to nuzzle her head against his shoulder. "I hope that the fleeters will inject much-needed common sense into human technology. No offense to you, but much of your work is so counterintuitive and psychoactive that nothing makes sense anymore."

"Hahaha! J don\'t blame yon, Gloriana. It takes a special mindset to navigate it all. To be honest, the main reason why 1 haven\'t gotten lost is because I let my intuition do much of the heavy lifting. 1 know it is not entirely proper to build up a dependency on factors outside of my understanding, but J think this is how cultivation science was originally practiced in ancient times."

His wife made a contemptuous expression. "Back then, ancient people did not have access to modern computers and scientific principles. An ascended barbarian is still a barbarian. 1 very much doubt that our distant ancestors could achieve anything meaningful without resorting to metaphysics to cheat their way out of a problem."

"Are you calling me a barbarian?" Ves asked.

"I think you are barely clever enough to answer your own question."

The couple went back to mech design. They passionately discussed the design choices for the configuration of the Jupiter Project.

Compared to before, the lion-headed machine embodied General Ark Larkinson\'s personality and combat approach a lot better!

The flair and personality that Ves had injected in the draft design elevated it into a promising piece of artwork that had yet to be realized.

Though neither Ves nor his wife addressed this directly, the Jupiter Project had the makings of a potential masterwork expert mech.

It had all of the necessary \'ingredients\' to become a work that transcended the mundane.

Ves and Gloriana cared a lot about this project. Their passion burned hotter as they continued to puzzle over how they could turn their ambitious design goals into reality.

The upcoming expert mech had great significance to its intended pilot and the rest of the Larkinsons. This was not only a vehicle tor General Ark Larkinson to break past his bottleneck, but also held the potential to become rhe first proper ace mech of the Larkinson Clan!

What was even more important was that the Jupiter Project incorporated a lot of new innovations. Aside from incorporating fourth generation luminar crystal weapons, the mech would also come equipped with more powerful armor systems and flight systems.

Gloriana and the other mech designers did not neglect the potential of hyper materials and had become determined to figure out their uses in the following months!

All in all, the Jupiter Project had the potential to become just as big if not bigger than the Mars at the time of its completion. The expert mech design project outshone all of the others of its kind, which also included the Blood Star Mark 11.

While Ves did not intend to put less effort into designing an expert mech for his grandfather, the scope and significance of his first proper Carmine expert mech were entirely different.

The Blood Star Mark 11 was much more experimental and speculative in nature, which meant that nobody could foresee what it would turn into when the project had finally reached completion.

As the hours passed by, Ves and Gloriana eventually finished their collaborative work session on the Jupiter Project. They spent a bit of time going over their other design projects.

"The Fey Project is turning out to be a time-intensive project." Gloriana told Ves. "The scope and features of all of these fey will take too many hours to flesh out. Are you sure you want to persist in this design? If 1 were you, J would postpone it for next year or the year after that. 1 am sure that the new tech introduced during this period will significantly increase the potential of the automated combat drones of this special mech."

Ves shook his head. "Our clan needs this mech. Tile concept is excellent and it is the most suitable mech to help our second-class mech forces fight against alien warships. Our troops will continue to go on expeditions without me as linefighters. They are not going to wait 5 years or so before the first deep strike operations commence. The sooner they can get accustomed to making use of the Fey Project, the better they will be able to take advantage of its powerful properties in the battles that matter. Besides, the interaction between the living mech and its living fey is a new area that I have yet to explore. I think I can do something new and interesting with this dynamic, but I will have to work it out by myself. I think I might be able to enhance their connection with the use of hyper materials."

His wife shrugged and didn\'t argue with him further. She could tell that he was still passionate about this project.

"I think that your Fey Project has great potential as a commercial mech design." She told him instead. "I can understand your desire to keep it exclusive to our clan, but if I am being honest hero, I think it is a waste of its potential to limit its proliferation. If this drone mech can truly live up to its promise, then I am sure it can bo of fantastic use to all manner of second-class mech forces."

She had a point. Compared to the drone mech models on the market, the Fey Project simply offered a lot more added value due to all of the quirks that Ves wanted to add to his work.

However, he already considered this idea before.

"It won\'t work." He said. "1 intend to design the Fey Project as a quasi-first-class transphasic drone mech. The production cost is projected to go through the roof. While the expense is bearable for our clan, not many other organizations will be able to afford it, and don\'t get me started on the need for phasewater."

"I think you are underestimating the tipper segments of the second-class mech markets. There are more wealthy organizations out there besides the Larkinson Clan. They are all suffering from a shortage of carrier vessels. More and more of them are striving to invest in quality over quantity. It should not be a problem for their organizations to supply a decent amount of phasewater. In fact, if the value proposition of the Fey Project is high enough, we can apply market races for ottr product. If a customer wants to purchase a copy of our new mech, he or she has to supply enough phasewater to produce two copies!"

Ves looked intrigued. He was well aware of this exploitative scheme. He still remembered the instances where he had to supply double the amount of phasewater to various development companies in order to obtain their experimental transphasic mech components.

While the transactions were sort of worth it, he deeply resented those companies for forcing him to give up so much phasewater in vain!

This was why he felt rather strange now that his wife suggested that he could occupy the opposite side of this transaction.

It didn\'t necessarily have to center around the Fey Project either. Ves could think of a number of other possible Larkinson-exclusive mech models that could fool people into transferring lots of phasewater...