The Mech Touch

The Red Association sure worked efficiently.

With Jovy Armalon taking charge of the evaluation process, he guaranteed that the Red Association would award Ves and Gloriana their latest masterwork certificates before the end of the day.

"As one of the first masterwork versions of a hyper mech, your Lionheart is of slightly greater interest to our researchers than before." Jovy explained to Ves as a team of researchers diligently scanned the expert mech from top to bottom. "We are especially impressed by how well your new expert mech is able to combine a large quantity of hyper materials in a favorable arrangement. The fact that it can passively attract and sustain a larger concentration of light-attributed E energy is rare and slightly novel. You have certainly taught me a few lessons on how to better utilize the properties of hyper materials."

Ves smiled at Jovy. "I am glad to be of service. How many MTA merits can we expect this time?"

"Well, given the slightly high research value of an early masterwork mech of the Hyper Generation, I can award you and your wife with 500,000 MTA merits each. Miss Alexa Streon-Larkinson has not significantly contributed to this effort, so she is ineligible for any reward. These are the rules."

The former Terran mech designer did not look upset at all. "I accept this verdict. I have already gained far more out of this than I could have hoped for by witnessing the birth of a masterwork mech with my own eyes."

Earning 500,000 MTA merits was pocket change to Ves. He was already accustomed to earning hundreds of millions of MTA merits after defeating powerful alien fleets.

His wife could probably exchange for a nice product with her own share, though.

Once Jovy and his team had completed all of the necessary steps, they bid the Larkinsons goodbye and teleported back to their fleet in orbit.

This was just a small interlude as far as Ves was concerned.

He was much more interested in seeing the newly completed Lionheart in action!

Even though he had been up for 6 whole days, Ves still felt as energized as ever.

There was no way he was willing to take a break when he could be observing the Lionheart in action for the first time!

"Let us prepare for the inaugural testing session." Ves commanded. "Alexa, please head over to the testing grounds first. Check whether it is fully stocked and prepared to test the various functions of the Lionheart according to our predetermined plan."

The young woman obediently nodded. "Acknowledged."

"Oh, you should also send a reminder to Saintess Ulrika Vraken to be present at the appointed time. I think it should be safe enough to give the Lionheart an opportunity to exercise its brand-new capabilities against an excellent sparring partner."

"Will do, sir."

Another hour went by until everyone had moved to the testing facility.

Since the Lionheart was a machine designed to act as a public symbol of power and hope, there was no compelling need to keep its performance confidential.

General Ark would be employing this powerful new expert mech against the native aliens soon enough. It was much more important to understand its basic performance and determine if anything was out of place.

Of course, the chance that the Lionheart needed any adjustments was low. It would not have turned into a masterwork mech if it was riddled with serious flaws.

At this time, Ves and the others were about to enter a control tower.

Before he moved inside, he turned around and called out his children.

"Come on, kids! Leave the Lionheart alone so that Ark can finally explore its capabilities."

"Okay, papa!"

Aurelia, Andraste and Marvaine had been circling around the new expert mech ever since they caught sight of the machine.

In their childish eyes, the Lionheart looked and felt as impressive as the mechs piloted by the protagonists of popular action dramas!

The expert mech looked so valiant and heroic that they grew delighted at the thought that their clan had gained a powerful hero!

The children did not want to leave the side of this attractive mech so soon. Eventually, Lucky and Clixie had to nudge them away from the Lionheart.

"Meow meow."

"Miaow!"

When everyone entered the top floor of the control tower, the three Larkinson mech designers had already set up their control stations.

Venerable Benjamin Larkinson watched on with great anticipation even as he kept the children company.

"Will your mech be as strong as the Lionheart?"

"I do not know, Andraste. I do not particularly care if my mech ends up weaker. My time to shine on the battlefield has passed. It is up to the younger generations to lead red humanity in the current day and age. I am content to dedicate my remaining service to protecting our family. That includes cute little munchkins like yourself!"

"Hihihihi!"

A few minutes passed. Once the final preparations fell into place, Ves transmitted a long-awaited instruction to the cockpit of the Lionheart.

"You can start now, Ark. I have one more piece of advice for you. Your Lionheart may be a powerful living mech, but because it is a second skin mech, it has a large void. I expressly designed your machine in a way that enables you to employ your companion spirit to good effect. You should make use of Noah to strengthen your control over your mech."

"I shall take that into account."

Ark had been holding himself back long enough. Now that he received the permission he had been waiting for, he activated his Lionheart and began to interface with his surprisingly deep machine.

From the outside, the Lionheart started to glow brighter as various different sources of light came online.

Not only did the Lionheart begin to activate the various light fixtures spread across the surface of its powerful frame, but the expert mech also started to resonate with Ark's strong willpower!

As a high-tier expert pilot who had hit a bottleneck a long time ago, General Ark's force of will was not as weak and trivial as the last few Larkinson expert pilots that recently received their mechs.

A bright and strong resonance shield surrounded the Lionheart right away!

Even though this was his first time interfacing with the Lionheart, his extensive skill and experience enabled him to master his own machine fairly quickly!

Of course, it helped a lot that General Ark had already spent months on reading the constantly expanding manual for his future expert mech. He possessed a good grasp of the many different functions and controls that could help him dominate the battlefield in the coming years!

When the bright and shining expert mech finally completed its first and most important startup sequence, all of the parameters remained in good condition.

"The Lionheart's systems are all green. No major errors or anomalies have been detected up to this point." Alexa reported from her own station.

Ves nodded. He did not pay too much attention to his own console. He was much more interested in observing the Lionheart directly with his own senses.

"What is Ark's current resonance strength?"

"His resonance strength... has already increased to 65.2 laveres! That is close to the ceiling of 67 laveres!"

Ves already expected that Ark would experience an exhilarating boost of strength now that he was piloting the mech of his dreams.

"How much volatility is the resonance meter showing?"

"General Ark's resonance strength has remained fairly stable up until this point."

That meant that Ark was excited, but not to the point of breaking through on the spot.

This was an expected outcome. Not everyone could be like Patriarch Reginald Cross who was so driven by his strong emotions that he managed to break through with ease once he became satisfied!

"Let us proceed with the basic movement tests. Let us verify how maneuverable, agile and precise your expert mech can be under your control."

The Lionheart began to walk and move its arms in many different ways. As an expert command mech, the new machine did not display too much excellence in these aspects.

Ves grew mildly impressed at his uncle's excellent control. The highly experienced expert pilot not only performed powerful movements, but also controlled the mech frame so precisely that he could stop a punch just a few centimeters before they struck a wall!

"Alright, now that we have gotten the basic mobility and defense tests out of the way, let us proceed with exploring the offensive capabilities of your new machine. We shall start with the integrated luminar crystal weapons. We will soon deploy swarms of disposable bots. Try and shoot them at the lowest settings first and gradually ramp up their power."

"Roger that. My weapon systems are armed and ready."

Numerous small ports slid open, revealing small but still fairly powerful integrated luminar crystal cannons.

They soon fired white beams of light that were not quite lasers, but more exotic and mysterious.

Regardless, each of these beams unflinchingly burned through the relatively weak bots with excellent precision!

Even the more resilient and expensive bots got felled with ease as the casual firepower of the Lionheart proved too much for their ordinary defenses!

Ves mildly grinned at the sight.

The fourth-generation luminar crystal cannons were not only transphasic, but also equipped with newly developed bright light beam attack phase crystals!

These attack phase crystals were all blended with light-attributed hyper materials, causing them to convert electrical energy into considerably more potent energy beams that possessed numerous advantages!

General Ark already discovered one of the benefits to the fourth generation luminar crystal weapons when he resonated with the brand-new weapon system.

His eyes lit up as he discovered that he could resonate with them a lot more extensively than he anticipated!

"Noah. Let us see what you can do with these interesting energy weapons."

"Rwoar."

An impressive looking spiritual white lion emerged from his head. The majestic animal phased through the mech and began to occupy one of the cutting-edge luminar crystal cannons.

Now that Ark established a more direct connection with this particular weapon, its damage output instantly skyrocketed!

Salvo after salvo, the damage dealt by the weapon system that Ark resonated with the most exceeded all of the others!

Even when Ark resonated with all of the luminar crystal cannons at his disposal, they could only penetrate strong armor up to a certain depth.

Just like his nephew had said, Noah's presence seemed to fill up a certain amount of empty space in his Lionheart that enabled him to draw upon the untapped potential of his expert mech!

The Lionheart glowed brighter and brighter as Ark became more fascinated by the enormous power at his disposal!

More expensive targets appeared on the grounds. These targets were not only protected by energy shields, but also consisted of strong and thick alloys that equated to several meters of alien battleship hull plating.

Without the support of true resonance, the Lionheart's ranged output struggled to penetrate through all of this protection.

However, once General Ark seriously resonated with luminar crystal cannons, the bright light beams glowed a lot brighter and penetrated the defenses with much greater effectiveness!

Though the strongest attacks still failed to delight Ves or Ark, they both knew that the current conditions were not ideal.

General Ark and his Lionheart derived a lot of power from leading a large troop!

By themselves, the expert pilot and his expert mech could not make use of this advantage, so it was not surprising that its fantastic fourth generation luminar crystal cannons could not melt through the targets with ease.

Ves was still satisfied with the base performance of his latest tech. The bright light beam attack phase crystal exhibited a noticeably greater amplification effect when empowered by true resonance.

As long as Ark grew stronger, his luminar crystal weapons would become a lot more threatening!

It was not impossible for this high-end weapon suite to breach through the defenses of formidable alien battleships in a single salvo!