The Mech Touch

The Bright Warrior!

It was a fitting name for a mech that centered around the Larkinson Clan and the Golden Cat!

Its name reflected the heritage and identity of the Larkinson Clan.

A warrior was different from a soldier. For a very long time, the original Larkinson Family devoted itself to the armed forces of the Bright Republic. To become a military mech pilot was one of the greatest ambitions of a Larkinson!

"No more. That time is over."

The old family may have stuck to the old ways, but the Larkinson Clan followed a different trajectory!

A warrior was not a soldier. A soldier fought for a state and served its people.

That was not the case this time. The Larkinson Clan fought and struggled for its own desires and ideals.

The reason why Ves settled on a simple name like the Bright Warrior was because he wanted to preserve the strength of their Larkinson heritage. However, he also wanted to get rid of the compulsive desire to serve in the Mech Corps.

Reorienting the Larkinson Clan from soldiers to warriors was one of the ways he settled on to transition the clan into becoming a strong but independent group.

The essence of both the Larkinson Family and the Larkinson Clan was fellowship! Ves wanted to channel this pursuit in a way that made his clansmen want to fight on behalf of their fellow Larkinsons!

One peculiar aspect about the name was how similar it sounded to the Desolate Soldier. It followed the same naming convention as his most successful mech design, but also stood out by how it conveyed a different message!

"The Bright Warrior will light the way!"

The use of the word 'bright' was deliberate and alluded to multiple meanings.

The most obvious reference was towards the Bright Republic, the state where the original Larkinson Family originated.

While the Larkinson Clan severed most of its ties to its former state, many of its clansmen were still undeniably Brighters. This kind of connection could not be severed in its entirety.

Even Ves felt reluctant to stop calling himself a Brighter.

"I can leave my state, but my state still hasn't left my heart." He sighed.

Calling his mech the Bright Warrior also had another meaning. It alluded to the fact that he designed this mech with an aim to train his mech pilots and elevate them past their current limits.

As long as the Bright Warrior became ubiquitous in his mech forces, Ves anticipated that it wouldn't take long for his mech pilots to become qualified to pilot second-class mechs en masse.

"It's more than just a teaching tool. It's more than just a mech design. It's more than just a product."

The Bright Warrior was the culmination of most of his hopes and ambitions. In a span of three intensive months, Ves labored earnestly to make sure it embodied his vision as much as possible.

He didn't hesitate to stuff it with all kinds of toys, such as the expensive Breyer alloy or the very risky high-capacity neural interface model, in order to achieve his high expectation for this design!

"I've succeeded!"

The prototypes proved that the design was not a failure! It not only met his expectations, but also surpassed it in the case of the lancer mech configuration!

That reminded him of something. Each different configuration needed a separate name. Otherwise, it would be highly confusing to ask for a rifleman mech but receive a space knight instead!

"The Bright Warrior only refers to the overall modular mech platform. Each different configuration is like a different variation of the same design!"

The rifleman mech configuration was the backbone of his mech forces. In space, distance was king, and ranged combat reigned supreme. It was practically a given that the Avatars and Sentinels would rely heavily on this configuration to form the bulk of their mech rosters!

Given the vital nature of the rifleman mech configuration, Ves decided to call it the Illuminating Warrior!

"With their bright lasers and their powerful rounds, the Illuminating Warriors will light the way forward!"

In contrast to the offensive role of the rifleman mechs, the space knight configuration served as the primary defensive assets on the battlefield.

They were most suited to be employed defensively by guarding his light carriers and other vulnerable assets from enemy attacks.

However, the defensive properties of Breyer alloy was so strong that the space knight configuration still retained sufficient mobility to go on the offense as well!

Regardless of how they were employed, it was undeniable that they were built to take beating no matter the circumstances!

To reflect their nature as enduring machines that inspired confidence, Ves dubbed the space mech configuration the Solar Warrior!

"With their constant and unshakable presence on the battlefield, the Solar Warriors shall warm the hearts of fellow comrades!"

The lancer mech configuration was the offensive powerhouse configuration of the Bright Warrior design. Though not as good in a dogfight as the other configuration, it was completely geared to excel in only one single mode of combat.

The charge.

Like a bright and furious comet, the lancer mech configuration possessed the potential to collapse a second-class mech!

Not only that, but the mech was capable of mitigating so much shock and force that the mech and mech pilot would actually be able survive the ultraviolet collision!

Even so, the lancer mechs constantly toyed with danger as it pursued constant extremes in combat!

As the Larkinson Clan's only hope of defeating superior mechs, Ves settled on referring to the lancer configuration as the Shining Warrior!

"With their indomitable charges and world-shaking collisions, the Shining Warriors must keep burning when all other lights have dimmed!"

Compared to the previous three configurations, the swordsman mech configuration was a little less illustrious. On land, its role was just as important if not more so than lancer mechs. In space, it occupied an awkward middle ground where it was decent in aspects but possessed few pronounced strengths.

Yet Ves did not look down on the swordsman mech configuration because of that. As a jack-of-all-trades, the sword-wielding version of the Bright Warrior could fulfill many possible roles. Not only was it decent against fending off light skirmishers, it also fared well against other melee mechs.

In the hands of an excellent mech pilot, the performance of the swordsman mech configuration had the potential to dazzle an entire region!

To encapsulate the potential of the swordsman mech configuration, Ves called it the Nova Warrior.

"Well, it's a more flattering name than the other options I had in mind."

The Bright Warrior. The Illuminating Warrior. The Solar Warrior. The Shining Warrior. The Nova Warrior.

Each of these names stood for different mechs or configurations. While distinct, all of them were part of the same mech platform!

By imparting the mech design with a design spirit and a set of names, this was ordinarily the time when Ves formally ended the project. Aside from filing some paperwork and handling some other administrative steps, the development of the mech should come to an end.

"Not this time!"

Now that he had reached this point, Ves firmly committed to his choice to use the Superpublish function on the Bright Warrior!

Whether the design deserved this treatment or not, Ves wanted his Larkinsons and other subordinates to pilot the best possible mech he could design! Utilizing the Superpublish ability would definitely boost the design in a holistic manner that accentuated its strengths while diminishing its weaknesses.

The result was hopefully a comprehensively better mech design that nonetheless conformed to Ves and Gloriana's original vision.

"Well, here goes nothing."

It had been a long time since he last used it. Once he loaded the design into his System comm and activated the function, a transformation occurred in real time.

Ves keenly watched as the design projected by his System comm changed in real time.

It was as if his System comm connected to a Master Mech Designer who casually adjusted the design from a much greater height!

While Ves had no clue how the System gained the knowledge or inspiration to perform all of these improvements, it was undeniable that each adjustment added something more to the design!

"How ingenious! So that is how I should have solved this problem!"

Ves tracked the results and tried to figure out their logic. Since thousands of small and subtle changes occurred at the same time, Ves could only capture a few of the more noticeable alterations at this time.

What he managed to pick up already surprised him beyond belief. He knew that the Superpublish function was strong, but the last time he used it, its operation was a lot more basic due to his inferior mech design ability.

Now that he became a mech designer and partnered up with a perfectionist like Gloriana, each of his mech designs became cleaner than the last. This meant that there was much less room to improve the performance of his designs by making some basic tweaks.

As a consequence, the System had to implement more inventive solutions in order to elevate the performance of the mech by ten percent!

Ten percent didn't sound by much, but in a mech that was already good, this was a huge jump.

This was especially so when the improvements came from pure design ingenuity as opposed to replacing the materials or components of a mech!

What Ves witnessed before his very eyes was a masterful transformation where the System reinvented his entire mech from the ground up! The Bright Warrior turned from a good mech into an excellent mech by the time the rapid cycles of improvement settled down.

"What a fantastic mech design!"

In order to elevate a design that was already high in quality, the System seemed to pull out all the stops and resorted to many different tricks that Ves never even learned of! Neither his experiences nor his book knowledge ever conceived of the dazzling methods that the System casually demonstrated!

Ves continued to the study each and every angle of the improved design. He summoned a projection of the original version of the Bright Warrior and marked out each and every measure that changed the mech for the better.

There was a lot for Ves to go through! Ves couldn't afford to spend so much time locked up in a guarded chamber.

"I can't do this alone."

There was also another problem.

Witnessing the incredible transformation of the Bright Warrior humbled Ves so much that he began to lose his sense of belonging to the mech design.

Ves anticipated this response and shook his head. "I shouldn't think this way! This design is still my work!"

He forcibly attempted to shift his mentality. He wanted to resist the sense of alienation and rejection that threatened to ruin his chances of fabricating a masterwork.

Regardless how much credit he deserved for developing the Bright Warrior up to this point, Ves firmly believed that his role and implementations were essential!

"The Superpublish function may have added some icing on the cake, but I'm still responsible for baking it in the first place!"

He could lie to others, but he couldn't lie to himself.

No matter how much he tried to change his mentality, a part of him would always feel that he and Gloriana didn't deserve full credit for designing such a high-quality mech.

Ves decided to change tack. Instead of lying to himself, he decided to resort to excuses!

"It doesn't matter!" He turned to Lucky, who had been lounging in the air for the entire time. "Cheating or not, the mech is still significant and meaningful for all of the right ways!"

"Meow?"

"You believe me, don't you, Lucky?"

"Meow."

"Yes! I'm the lead designer of the Bright Warrior! It bears the unmistakable character of the Golden Cat and the Larkinson Clan! No other mech designer can add those qualities to the Bright Warrior!"

"Meow meow."

"You lie!"