The Mech Touch



Pretty much everyone knew that Team One was finished as soon as it lost a mech without damaging a single opposing machine in return.

Team One's surviving knight mech did not go down easily. Its flail might be able to do serious damage if it struck a mech, but the machine holding it was simply too slow to cope with Team Larkinson's fast mechs!

The knight mech only lasted two more minutes. It was unable to defend itself against both the front and the rear.

The mech pilot had opted to rely on the naturally thick armor plating of his defensive mech and tried to spin around and make random flail attacks in every direction in the hopes of dealing a crippling attack!

Unfortunately for Team One, neither the Furia nor the Sensia ever came close to getting struck by the obvious telegraphed attacks.

The Furia continued to stay comfortably out of attacking range while utilizing its integrated luminar crystal laser weapons and shotgun to steadily chip away at the thick armor of the knight mech from a comfortable distance.

The Sensia meanwhile danced in and out of the edge of the knight mech's frontal attack arc. Its swift and agile movements took on a playful quality as its pilot clearly started to revel in the high mobility of his light skirmisher.

Ultimately, the knight mech fell down as soon as its rear armor got breached and its internals started to suffer serious damage.

It was a rather anticlimactic end to an explosive opening.

The cheers and reactions from the crowd did not grow any lesser because of this fault!

"Wow! The Furia's weapons are a lot more powerful than I thought!"

"Look at how smoothly and fluently the light skirmisher is able to move. That is not an ordinary rush job. Even if its design is not loaded with as many features as the Furia, the Sensia may very well be the fastest and most agile mech in the tournament!"

"It turns out that the Larkinson mech designers are so strong. Their mechs really didn't give the machines of Team One a chance to show their own merits. The latter got beaten from beginning to end!"

The commentators and the laymen in the crowd all showered the Larkinson mechs with praises right away.

Even if this was just the first match where the Sensia and the Furia made their debut, the strength and relatively excellent characteristics they demonstrated during the short but intense fight already showed a lot of promise!

In fact, Ves himself lamented that Team One's competition mechs hadn't been strong enough to draw out the full strength of the Sensia and the Furia.

In the end, the mech pilots assigned to the two living mechs only utilized basic tactics and maneuvers to comfortably win this match.

Ves deeply hoped the next round would make the Twin Souls break a sweat. The Sensia and the Furia could not truly shine in the arena unless there were strong enough dance partners that could put them through their paces!

None of the others understood his plight. They patted his back and congratulated him for making it through the second round so easily.

"You truly managed to do it, you crazy mech designer. I shouldn't have expected less from you, sir." Dulo Voiken spoke with a hint of amazement. "You managed to design a fully functional hybrid mech and not a perfunctory one either within the deadline. If I tried to do the same, I would have only completed a third of the design within two days."

Ves responded with a mild and encouraging smile. "Don't sell yourself short, Dulo. You are an authority on spearman mechs. I look forward to seeing your work in action. Hopefully your mechs will be up soon enough."

Though he wanted to stick around and watch the other mechs fight their own matches, he and Juliet decided to retreat to an underground workshop where they saw their competition mechs resting besides a familiar superfab.

This was the time where the mech designers could make use of the available time to repair significant battle damage, replenish spent ammunition and energy cells, make last-minute modifications to fix any flaws in the design and more.

It was also an opportunity for the mech designers to meet with the pilots assigned to their competition mechs.

Before Ves and Juliet had come close, the pilots had already shut down their machines and hopped out of their cockpits. Their piloting suits allowed their bodies to gracefully descend to the floor where they promptly straightened their backs and greeted the arriving mech designers of their current mechs.

"Pleased to meet you." The male mech pilot. "I am Sergeant Bobby Orwell. It is an honor to pilot your Furia."

"Sergeant Lizzie Cado, currently assigned to your Sensia." The woman standing next to the male military mech pilot spoke as well.

Ves curtly nodded. "Understood. The two of you should have already been briefed about us, so let us get into business. Before we talk about anything substantive, please share your first impressions of your respective mechs. I assume you have piloted the same mech types while serving in the Federal Military of Davute. Please use comparisons if possible."

It took a few seconds for the military mech pilots to formulate their words.

"The Sensia is a decent light skirmisher, sir." Lizzie spoke. "I cannot say it pilots better than the models that I am currently piloting in the service, but… your work is better than what I have been told to expect. I have been limit testing your light mech during the entire first match and found that I can comfortably push its speed and maneuverability to its limit without straining its parts and frame too much. I am not sure how quickly the mech will wear out because of this. That is more your expertise than mine."

Ves turned to Juliet who fell into thought.

"The Sensia should be able to withstand the load at the highest intensity that you have displayed in the last match." The Penitent Sister mech designer said. "I will not lie to you. The wear and tear on the mech is high. However, I will be able to mitigate the worst of it as long as I can perform emergency maintenance after every match. The Sensia should be able to last more than enough rounds to stay in one piece, provided you have not allowed your mech to incur damage. I will warn you in person if the equation has changed."

"Thank you, ma'am."

"What about you, Bobby?' Ves asked in a friendly tone. "What do you have to say about the Furia?"

"I… can say much about it." The male mech pilot responded in an uncertain tone. "The Furia is the most exotic hybrid mech that I have ever piloted. I love its varied weapon loadout even if they are not individually powerful. A few of the weapon choices leaves me with questions. The throwing axes look intimidating, but the Furia does not have the strength to throw them with enough force to split through thicker armor or shields. I suppose they can serve as distractions, but that is not an effective use of this resource."

Ves frowned and mimed the motion of throwing an axe. "That is because you are not leveraging the full power of your mech when you throw those axes. Sure, it may be nice to quickly lob them over shields and have them fall on top of the heads of enemy mechs like a grenade, but the force of gravity alone isn't enough to make them strong."

He tried to make his point by starting to run around the expansive workshop hall. He reared up his arm before he combined his forward motion and his throwing motion to propel an invisible axe at much greater speed and power than normal!

Ves stopped and turned around. "Do you understand, now?"

Bobby Orwell looked enlightened. "I understand. I have not thrown any weapons since the earliest days of my mech academy days. The Furia needs to run forward so that it can add its speed and force to the axe."

"That isn't all, sergeant. I haven't been able to reproduce it with my untrained throwing skills, but there are techniques to better leverage the mechanical structure of the human body or a humanoid mech to add more power and range to a thrown axe. You don't need to invest an unreasonable amount of time in learning this technique, but I think it will be helpful if you look it up on the galactic net. The Furia isn't technically designed to throw stuff at the enemy, but it should theoretically be able to turn those axes into deadly projectiles as long as it has a running start and employs a more optimal technique."

"I shall take that under advisement, sir."

Sergeant Bobby Orwell did not see this study as a distraction or a wasted effort. The axes intrigued him as well and he wanted to make the most out of the arsenal at his mech's disposal.

Ves and Juliet received a bit more feedback about the Sensia and the Furia. Both competition mechs were well-designed considering how quickly they designed them, but Bobby and Lizzie were both unique individuals who possessed their own piloting quirks, styles and preferences.

The two Larkinson mech designers still had a lot of work to do to make the necessary adaptations to the mech designs.

After a few minutes of fruitful talking, Ves finally brought up the matter that he cared about the most.

"As both of you are no doubt aware of, my design philosophy is centered around synergy and living mechs. I basically design my mechs in a way that allows them to forge more proactive relationships with their pilots. Did you experience that from the moment you interfaced with your living machines?"

The mech pilots did not look weirded out at all. They simply nodded as they recalled what it was like to pilot those living mechs.

"The Sensia is a pleasure to pilot." Lizzie Cado admitted. "We have received warnings beforehand on what to expect, but the actual experience is better than I expected. I quickly fell in tune with the light skirmisher."

Bobby Orwell also shared the same opinion. "I can say the same for myself. It is a new way to handle my relationship with my mech and I do not necessarily dislike it. I was afraid that all of the extra variables would distract me from my main priorities, but I am pleasantly surprised it is the opposite. The living mech keeps an eye on everything and nudges me whenever I overlook anything important."

"Those living mechs are more than smart AI assistants." Ves explained. "The reason why I call the two mechs the Twin Souls is because they connected to each other to a greater degree than is obvious on the surface. Did you notice a clear mental connection between yourself and your fellow mech pilot?"

"...I do not recall such a connection."

"No, sir."

It looked as if Ves still had his work cut out for him. Bobby and Lizzy were probably too focused on all of the more obvious traits of their assigned mechs. They became so focused on the surface elements that they missed what was taking place on a deeper level.

Fortunately, Ves was able to correct this fault. He encouraged the two mech pilots to hop back into their cockpits and proactively seek out the connection between the Twin Souls.

"I think… I think I found it, sir!"

"This is not unlike anything I have worked with before. I am not sure how to make use of it in combat."

"We can figure this all out in the time we have left." Ves replied. "The Twin Soul System is the defining feature of your two mechs. It would be a disservice to your mechs if you do not take advantage of the possibilities of this unique bond. I think that you will find it much more useful once you are matched up against a tougher opponent."