The Mech Touch

Each time Ves fabricated a copy of a new design, he felt as if he was exploring his own work from a fresh perspective.

There was a difference between designing something and building it with your own hands.

The latter was distant and impartial.

At many times, Ves felt as if he was a god creating a new life out of nothing. While he still had to abide by the laws and constraints of reality, he had countless options at his disposal.

Such an approach easily caused Ves to develop a warped perspective towards his own work.

This wasn't necessarily bad as his design work was often better if he became engaged. His passion and enthusiasm fueled his imagination, causing him to develop all kinds of novel and interesting solutions to the problems at hand.

However, Ves didn't truly know his mech design from inside-out until he actually built it for real.

There was always something.. missing.. in his understanding of his own work. No matter how many virtual mechs he simulated, the fakeness of it all prevented him from fully realizing what he actually birthed into reality.

Not even crafting scaled-down copies of the design fully did the job. It helped, but Ves still had to rely far too much on his imagination to fill in the blanks.

Only when a mech design stopped being something that existed purely in the virtual realm would Ves be able to make a definitive judgement on his efforts.

Had he designed a mech that matched his vision or did he inadvertently create an uncontrollable abomination?

Never had this question become relevant until today. While the Devil Tiger featured some self-harm aspects, the Doom Guard practically centered around it! Due to its two hostile design spirits, the mech's glow was completely indiscriminate in who it affected!

The one person who the mech should harm the least was the mech pilot. Yet Ves envisioned that this individual would likely incur the most pressure!

Even with an off switch, Ves still worried a bit whether he had overdone the glow.

Fortunately, he could still adjust his design after he evaluated the finished product. Unlike modifying an existing mech, which would require a lot of troublesome recalls if he put it out for sale, modifying its glow was pretty much hassle-free.

It was like pushing a software update on the operating system of his products. He didn't even have to convince his customers to download and apply the update to their mechs. He could just directly tweak the design spirits and have the changes take effect on the entire design and all of its copies in an instant!

Ves bet that countless programmers and software developers would likely strangle him to death if they found out about this convenience!

"Are you ready?" Gloriana asked with a lukewarm smile.

Though she was still a bit apprehensive at the decision to fabricate the mech while immersing themselves in its glow, she could at least lean on the Golden Cat. The Larkinson Mandate attached to her back did wonders in shoring up her mental defenses!

Ves didn't enjoy this luxury. He had to brave the storm without shelter, but this was exactly what he wanted!

The closer he experienced the raw intensity of his mech, the better he would be able to reproduce its glory! Whether a glow was helpful or harmful, much of his specialty revolved around their use, so Ves could not afford to shield himself from them if he wanted to progress his design philosophy!

The pair of Journeymen finally began the process. Ves had already arranged the shipment of materials while Gloriana had spent a lot of time in setting the mech workshop.

They used the same fabrication equipment as before. By now, Ves was well-versed in the use of Gloriana's high-quality production machines, so he didn't exhibit the mistakes and lack of fluency he demonstrated the first time laid hands on them. The 3D printer and other advanced devices practically purred under his ministrations.

Even if Ves was flummoxed by a small, unknown function, he could rapidly read throug the manuals he downloaded into his implant. As long as he didn't interrupt his workflow, he didn't lose any momentum.

In the beginning, he entered into a good groove. He produced the components and subcomponents with hardly any issues, and most of them only mattered because Gloriana kicked a fuss whenever she saw that something exceeded her personal tolerance levels.

"This is our first Doom Guard! We better make it as perfect as possible!"

Despite the slight delays, the fabrication session proceeded briskly over one-and-a-half continuous days. As Ves and Gloriana finished producing and checking over the parts, they began the laborious process of assembling the mech.

This was where the situation began to grow a little tricky. When the parts were still by themselves, they didn't really exude a glow on their own. The only sensations Ves and Gloriana had to deal with emerged from the intangible design itself whenever they referred to it. The pressure was very manageable for them both.

Yet as they began to erect the internal frame and add the various core components such as the power reactor and the cockpit to it, the mech began to exude more life.

This was normally a cause for celebration to Ves. The gradual emergence of a glow proved that the mech he was building fully conformed to his intended design and vision.

Yet.. this was different. The more the mech came alive, the more it posed a threat to its own makers!

Nyxie's terror was enough to drive anyone insane if they remained in proximity! Though Ves drastically weakened the alien tyrant's aura in the Doom Guard design, it still retained the pervasive quality that made it seem that there was no way to avoid this threat!

Ves began to grit his teeth at times as his remarkably high spiritual perception worked against him this time. His resilience could barely keep up with the various spiritual ripples and other influences hammering against his mind.

In order to make sure he was in tune in his own design, he didn't dare to erect a strong spiritual barrier around his mind. He made it very permeable, thereby letting through most of the spiritual pressure exerted by the incomplete mech.

"Are you holding, Ves?" Gloriana asked with concern at the other side of the mech.

"Don't worry about me. I'm strong. You should worry about yourself."

"This book is pretty handy so far." She smiled, though the tension in her voice betrayed her strain.

Even with Goldie protecting her less resilient mind, she too needed to subject herself in the sensations emanating from the mech.

The most thorny aspect about the Doom Guard's pervasive glow was how it possessed multiple attack vectors.

Nyxie and Zeigra both exerted a different kind of harmful pressure on the mind. While the former was the most poisonous, the latter couldn't be disregarded!

On top of that, their endless conflict generated a constant frequency of very disturbing spiritual ripples that mostly induced nausea and other uncomfortable effects on the body.

Those with stronger bodies such as well-trained mech pilots might be able to endure the spiritual ripples, but they probably wouldn't fare as well with one of the former!

The Doom Guard tested both the mind and body of those who fell under its sway!

In fact, this condition reminded Ves of the old mental resilience training program he once set up on the surface of Aeon Corona VII.

Affectionately called the Mind Blender by the Vandals and Swordmaidens, it slowly trained their mental resilience by hooking them up their minds with the minds of the indigenous dwarves.

Though it was a rather sordid invention that slowly wore out the captive dwarves they used as an expendable resource of this training program, it was nonetheless effective in strengthening the mech pilots!

Could Ves employ the Doom Guard in a similar fashion? Perhaps he should try it out once he finished this project. Mental resilience was not only useful in resisting spiritual pressure, but also prevented mech pilots from breaking down during a harrowing battle!

Mental resilience could be built through training, diligence and discipline. Yet by making use of an external prop like his Doom Guard, Ves could accelerate the improvement of the mental resilience of his clansmen, thereby raising their effective performance in battle!

The vast potential of this use inflamed his passion and boosted his motivation for his work. It became a bit easier for him to endure the pressure emanated by his own mech whenever he thought about all of the utility he could derive from his creation!

Gloriana.. didn't hang on as well as him. The fact that she had to rely on a helper like the Golden Cat for support did not bode well.

As much as she was a fantastic young Journeyman, she was not someone who responded well to certain types of adversity.

"You can do it, Gloriana." He encouraged her. "The mech may be uncomfortable, but it is well worth it once we complete it. Just like any childbirth, joy often follows after pain!"

She threw an angry look at him. "Don't talk about something you are clueless about!"

At least she regained some of her fire when she snapped back at Ves! She endured the pressure a little easier when she became prickly!

Three days passed in total. After all of their constant and steady labor, Ves and Gloriana finally walked back with sweat pouring out of their brows.

The mech they built had finally reached completion.

"It's too bad.." Gloriana spoke as she rubbed her tired eyes. "The quality of our mech is fine, but…"

She didn't voice the rest of her sentence, but she didn't have to. Ves knew as well as her that their efforts fell short of reaching masterwork quality.

Not by a little, but by a lot.

Perhaps it wasn't to be. Perhaps the constant pressure exerted by the mech sabotaged their opportunity. Perhaps they fabricated the mech at the wrong time.

Whatever the reason, they expended this precious opportunity. The next time they fabricated a mech, the chance was still there, but it would be vastly smaller now that it wasn't as meaningful

Ves had already taken the failure into account. He didn't look surprised at all. It would have been ludicrous if all of the stars aligned this time.

"This isn't the easiest mech to turn into a masterwork, and besides, it's just a third-class mech. A masterwork version of it would never be as impressive as the Quint."

That was not much consolation to Gloriana, who always got her hopes up whenever they reached this point.

By now, Ves basically ignored her glumness. She would get over it in a day anyway. Instead of wasting his time on cheering her up, he gazed at his imposing striker mech and beheld its formidable bulk in the flesh for the very first time!

The dark red coating of the mech set the tone of the Doom Guard. Large and heavily armored, the slightly-fat mech was easily able to withstand a barrage of lasers!

Though it could barely fly circles in space, as long as an enemy mech entered within reach, its large Enison Spreader would be able to block an entire approach!

Ves was very familiar with the complex glow of the mech at this point. What came as a surprise to him was how well it worked together with the appearance of the mech.

The striker mech gave off a sense that it was able to doom anyone who entered its reach! The customized red third eye that Ves added to the forehead of the Doom Guard seemed to magnify the terror to anyone who stared at it for an extended time!

"Our Doom Guard.. is finally complete!" Ves officially announced!

No one clapped. No one cheered. The assistant mech designers who witnessed most of the fabrication session all stayed as silent as a mouse.