The Mech Touch

Of the 'second batch' of Journeymen to enter the Design Department, the Voiken siblings attracted the most attention.

Hailing from a family of mech designers, Sara and Dulo Voiken grew up preparing for their eventual careers in the mech industry since they first learned to read.

Sara was definitely the most valuable among them due to her defensive specialty. There was hardly any mech that could forgo the advantages that she could bring. Ves actually found it regrettable that there was only one of her at the Larkinson Clan's disposal. There were many mech models that lacked the defensive strengths that she was able to add to a mech design.

Her brother's design philosophy was not as widely applicable as hers, but his work on the Rigid Spine and the Transcendent Charger showed that he was able to add powerful new melee mech models to the lineup.

Compared to the Voiken siblings, the pair of Journeymen from the Ochre Mirim Star Sector did not stand out in this design round. This was odd considering that both Janassa Pellier and Tifi Coslone possessed strong foundations due to being taught by a genuine Master Mech Designer.

It was not their fault. Janassa Pellier may not have led any design projects on her own this time, but she had lent her aid on a bunch of melee mech designs, the most prominent of which was one of Ketis' pet projects.

Tifi Coslone only led a single mech design project herself, and she tried to make the most of this opportunity to impress her colleagues of her strengths.

She stepped forward and presented her work.

"The Splitter Project is called this way because of its incomparably powerful physical strength. I have applied my specialty to the fullest when designing its arms and internal architecture. While my solutions have caused my axeman mech model to become bulkier and less mobile than ideal, it should not even have to rely on outmaneuvering its opponents. I have always found that as long as my work possesses enough overwhelming strength, it can break through almost any enemy arrangements."

With a specialty like hers, axeman mechs were one of the best mech types for her to demonstrate her capabilities. They benefited more from possessing greater strength than other mech types such as slender swordsman mechs or light skirmishers.

The latter two did not purely have to rely on brute force to defeat a tough opponent. They usually preferred to dance around their opponents and strike their sharp weapons at an enemy machine's weak points.

The Splitter Project obviously gave up on this possibility so that it could maximize its frontal combat capabilities. Its main use was to throw itself onto a relatively static enemy line and hack away with their two-handed axes and their powerful mechanical strength!

"The characteristics of the Splitter Project's offensive capabilities make it relatively simple to pilot." Tifi continued. "Its agility and range of motion are not the best, but its reaction and attack speeds are relatively decent. A good mech pilot will be able to use this axeman mech to duel a swordsman mech in terms of skill. However, the point of the Splitter Project is not to outfight an enemy, but to overwhelm the opposition and make all of their measures invalid!"

She pointed towards the rear of the mech that she had fabricated. "To that end, I made sure the Splitter Project possesses enough mobility to keep up and pursue retreating enemy units. My work might not be fast, but it is still mobile enough to keep up with enemy units. Its decent acceleration properties also allows it to reposition itself fairly easily on the battlefield."

"What about its defenses?" Gloriana quizzed. "All I have seen is how well your Splitter Project performs when it is on the offensive. However, its armor does not look formidable enough to withstand the same amount of damage it is inflicting."

Tifi nodded seriously. "I made sure not to hollow out the defenses of the Splitter Project. I invited Sara Voiken to help me address this shortcoming. She hasn't been able to help me as much as she would have liked due to her busy time schedule, but her limited contribution has strengthened my axeman mech's defenses to a more adequate level. I wouldn't say it is good, but it is tougher than it looks."

"What is particularly important to the Splitter Project is that I have applied an armor system that is particularly good at resisting physical attacks." Sara Voiken commented. "This will give our new axeman mech a small advantage in melee combat, primarily when attacked from the front. The pilot should take care not to get attacked from the sides or rear. I did not have much room to work with, so the defenses outside of the front are not that good."

Sara could have done a better job if had more room to work with and if she was able to spend more time on the project. However, Tifi wanted the Splitter Project to possess incomparably powerful direct offensive capabilities. Piling it up with armor and other defensive systems not only ate up a lot of capacity, but also weakened its offensive parameters in other ways.

Giving another mech designer a lot of leeway in a project was not always a good idea. Depending on their design philosophies and their specializations, their solutions could actually conflict with each other.

Tifi and Sara's respective specialties didn't overlap that much, but there were definitely a lot of areas where one could directly weaken the other's efforts.

Since defense came second to offense to the Splitter Project, Sara was only able to apply her work to the outer portions of the mech. She was unable to add much of her internal defensive solutions to the mech because that would displace the special design elements that Tifi used to amplify the physical might of the axeman mech.

Fortunately, both women had come to an accord on this division. Their relationship would have become a lot uglier if they vehemently argued that their solutions should take priority!

Tifi continued to present the characteristics of her work. The mobility of the mech was a little above average, which befitted an offensive melee mech well.

"The Splitter Project performs at its best when it is fighting against stationary enemy mech formations, but if we ever face a more elusive enemy force, it should be able to catch up to most medium mechs. I can't say how well it will perform against alien assets considering that they come in so many different varieties, but I would argue that our new axeman mechs will fare better against them. Their powerful axes can hack into thick hull plating with greater ease than swords."

"What is the endurance of your design?" Dulo Voiken asked. "It looks like swinging that two-handed axe all the time will quickly drain its energy reserves."

"The staying power of my work is relatively decent. It is not fantastic and it indeed goes down faster if it is performing intensive actions, but it is worth it as hardly any defensive line can withstand that much strength." Tifi answered.

Energy was a resource. It represented potential that could be used to obtain different advantages.

There was no point for mechs to conserve all of their energy in battle. The more they were able to expend their energy cells in a short amount of time, the greater the combat power they could exert!

To someone who specialized in designing offensive mechs like Tifi Coslone, it made a lot of sense to design energy hungry mechs that could quickly transform stored energy into powerful results!

The more drastic the transformation, the greater the impact of the mech!

Of course, not everyone agreed with this approach. A more efficiency-oriented mech designer such as Gloriana and Professor Benedict Cortez would have found it abhorrent to implement such solutions.

This was because the more energy they used up at a time, the more waste heat they produced!

Mechs that didn't possess energy-hungry systems were much more efficient and could keep going for longer periods of time. In larger and more expansive battles, the uptime of a mech was just as important as its maximum combat power.

From what it looked like, the Splitter Project definitely wasn't a frugal mech. As soon as it got going, its powerful components would definitely demand a lot of energy in order to power the mech's attacks!

Once the mech designers understood these characteristics, Tifi briefly brought up the final important trait of the Splitter Project.

"As you can no doubt feel, the glow of the Splitter Project is more aggressive than our other mechs. I am told that our patriarch has tied its design to Zeigra, which is derived from some sort of giant cat that he has hunted in the past."

Ves hadn't utilized Zeigra in a standalone design for a long time. While the former Crown Cat had always played an integral role in mechs such as the Doom Guard and the Ferocious Piranha, those were instances where the feline design spirit had to share the same spaces.

This was the first time in years that Zeigra was able to express his ferocity and aggression in a mech design of his own. The mech's glow truly reflected his savage majesty in a way that Ves had not experienced since the completion of the Prideful Soldier variant!

Ves crossed his arms as he inspected Zeigra's glow. Over the years, the big cat had changed remarkably.

At the beginning, the feral design spirit expressed pure rage and anger due to its death at the hands of humans.

Zeigra's attitude towards Ves was especially poor considering that he played a key role in his demise!

Yet… that hunt on Felixia I was ancient history as far as he was concerned. Perhaps Zeigra's trauma of its violent death had faded as well, because Ves no longer perceived any heightened sense of animosity towards himself.

In fact, he even had the illusion that Zeigra's attitude towards him had grown friendlier!

"Is it the spiritual feedback that he has been getting all of these years?" Ves wondered.

Zeigra was actually one of the 'wealthier' design spirits in his connection. The Prideful Soldier may be an outdated third class variant design, but it was still a fairly popular alternative to the more boring Desolate Soldier.

What was even better was that Zeigra also received a portion of the spiritual feedback of the two bestsellers of the LMC, the Doom Guard and the Ferocious Piranha!

Perhaps the spiritual feedback from tens of millions of mech pilots had finally overwhelmed Zeigra's grudge against humanity and convinced him that his current life wasn't all that bad!

"No one is incorruptible. As long as anyone receives enough bribes, they can betray any principle!"

In any case, Zeigra's attitude may have grown more temperate, but the alpha predator still retained his aggressive and savage attitude.

This made it an excellent fit with the Splitter Project. Even if Zeigra did not bestow any special abilities to the axeman mech model, his aggressive influence easily put the mech pilot in a more optimal mindset.

For an axeman mech like this, ferocity and aggression were much better than calculation and caution.

The Splitter Project needed to be on the offensive in order to perform well. As soon as an axeman mech was forced on the defensive, it would not be able to make as much use of its advantages!

"The Avatars of Myth will need to adjust to the aggressive character of the Splitter Project." Ves mentioned to everyone. "Its glow will encourage its mech pilots to go out of control. That is not ideal. The Avatars will need to find a way to take advantage of its glow without getting consumed by it. Seeing how well they have been getting along with various design spirits, I am sure they will find a way to work together with Zeigra."

The Avatars had shown a lot of creativity when they developed new ways to leverage the properties of the Bright Warrior and the Golden Cat. Maybe they could do the same with the Splitter Project and its bigger feline design spirit!