The Mech Touch

Alexa looked astonished as her companion spirit clearly witnessed what her mentor had done.

He not only bestowed life to a collection of free-floating water energy, but actively leveraged it to form a water-empowered spatial barrier!

During the design process of the Lionheart and the Blood Star Mark II, Ves had worked hard to learn the working principles of azure shield generators.

It was challenging for most mech designers to learn how transphasic energy shield generators worked.

Figuring out how these powerful shield generators could become even more effective by leveraging the power of water hyper materials added another layer of difficulty to their operation!

Fortunately, Ves not only possessed a good grasp of phasewater technology, but also possessed an existing foundation in E-technology and cultivation science.

While he might not be able to develop any iterative improvements to the existing processes of azure shield generators, he was still able to replicate a part of the relevant working mechanisms when he formed a spatial barrier!

Though the effect was still rudimentary, the main reason why he succeeded this time was not because he was depending on Blinky's control over water energy, but because he outsourced this function to his newly born 'water elemental!'

The water elemental was a relatively simple life form. Its sapience roughly matched that of a second order living mech. There was no reason for Ves to improve this further as its current level of intelligence was already enough to fulfill its programmed directive.

Ves' enlarged face smiled as he saw that his whimsical idea actually bore fruit.

The successful experiment not only granted him a means to refine his combat methods while he was in his true body form, but also provided a starting point for a new design application!

"What is it you are trying to accomplish, sir?" Alexa asked.

A mech designer as smart as her definitely generated a few guesses in her mind, but it was better to just ask and receive a clear answer from the source.

Ves smirked even wider as he studied the interaction between his water elemental and his spatial barrier.

"DO WE HAVE ANY ARMED BOTS IN RESERVE? PLEASE SUMMON THEM AND COMMAND THEM TO FIRE AT MY MODIFIED SPATIAL BARRIER. WE NEED TO COLLECT PRECISE DATA ON ITS PERFORMANCE."

"Acknowledged."

"AS FOR YOUR QUESTION, THE ANSWER IS SIMPLE. YOU HAVE TAKEN PART IN THE DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF THE FEY FIANNA, SO YOU SHOULD BE AWARE THAT IT ACTUALLY CONSISTS OF MULTIPLE LIFE FORMS. MY LATEST IDEA THIS TIME IS THAT SINCE A DRONE MECH CAN HOST MULTIPLE LIVING ENTITIES, WHY NOT OTHER MECHS?"

Alexa immediately realized what her mentor tried to accomplish.

"Is it possible for you to design a mech that contains sub-lives without living fey?!"

"WHY NOT?" Ves grinned as he continued to rely on Blinky to feel out the properties of his water elemental. "IF YOU THINK ABOUT THESE DEPENDENT LIFE FORMS, I SHOULD AT LEAST BE ABLE TO INSERT THEM INTO EXTERNAL EQUIPMENT SUCH AS SWORDS AND RIFLES. HOWEVER, I THINK I CAN TAKE THIS A STEP FURTHER AND ADD THEM TO INTERNAL MODULES SUCH AS AZURE SHIELD GENERATORS AND POWER REACTORS."

This would add another layer of complexity to his living mechs! It was like evolving a single-celled organism into a multi-celled organism! This was such a major advancement of his design philosophy that it had the potential to qualitatively improve his living mech designs going forward!

The Fey Fianna mech line was just the harbinger of this new variation or rather new generation of living mechs!

Even Alexa understood the explosive implications of these advancements. She wasn't even able to design any actual living mechs as of yet, but she had already learned enough about it from her mentor to foresee how much more versatile and powerful they could be with multiple intelligent controllers!

However, she wouldn't be a good mech designer if she only paid attention to the benefits of this new design application.

"Wait, won't combining different life forms in a single mech frame lead to E energy attribute conflict?"

"THAT IS POSSIBLE, BUT THAT IS WHY THE PRIMARY LIFE FORMS AND THE SECONDARY LIFE FORMS HAVE TO BE ABLE TO WORK TOGETHER FROM THE BEGINNING. THIS MUST BE ESTABLISHED BEFORE THE MECHS HAVE COMPLETED THEIR PRODUCTION."

The fabrication of the Elemental Lord already taught Ves that mixing multiple elements together during production would inevitably lead to a volatile buildup of conflicting energies.

The closer the opposing hyper materials were put together, the more violent these interactions may become!

However, one of the advantages of living mechs was that they could consciously exert control over these rioting energies and tame them into submission.

Ves was banking on this advantage to keep his multi-life mechs stable.

"Will hosting multiple life forms in a single mech slow down their collective growth?"

"I CANNOT SAY FOR SURE. IT IS LIKELY THAT THEY WILL GROW SLOWER BECAUSE THEY MUST SHARE THE SAME RESOURCES. THE SECONDARY LIFE FORM IS TECHNICALLY AN OFF-SHOOT OF THE PRIMARY LIFE FORM. YOU CAN THINK OF IT AS BESTOWING A 'COMPANION SPIRIT' TO A MECH. HOWEVER, I CAN COMPENSATE THIS SHORTCOMING BY ENABLING THE SECONDARY LIFE FORM TO ABSORB E ENERGY OF AN ATTRIBUTE THAT IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH THE MAIN LIFE FORM."

For example, a living mech that was primarily aspected towards metal could carry an azure shield generator that was occupied by a water sub-spirit.

In this case, the defenses of such a mech should be much stronger than normal. It was able to rely on its excellent hyper armor system as well as its 'living' azure energy shield to resist a lot more damage than before!

This was one of the possible research directions that Ves had come up with to design a powerful defensive mech of the Hyper Generation.

Just as Ves wanted, he did not want to design a hyper mech that any mech designer could develop on their own. He simply wouldn't be able to beat the competition by relying on ordinary hyper technology applications such as using the water element to create vortexes or whatever.

He needed to tap into his own advantages and start with his own specialty.

Only a single experimental attempt had been enough to prove the viability of his idea!

While he had no idea how much more difficult it would be to design a stable secondary life form inside the frame of a mech, he was determined to see it through!

In fact, Ves just recalled that he still had a couple of ongoing design projects where he could test out this fantastic idea.

Both the Supremo Project and the Transcendent Punisher Mark III Project centered around heavy artillery mechs.

He couldn't help but recall the most recent battle involving the Destroyer of Worlds.

Her Ragnarok launched an extremely powerful explosive shell that was directly amplified by the presence of Emma!

Seeing the god mech's attack demolish a third of the body of an ancient phase whale with a single attack was one of the most memorable sights of the public broadcast!

Ves couldn't help but breathe faster at the thought of being able to bring this mode of combat to the masses.

Naturally, there was no way that the secondary life forms of his heavy artillery mechs could come close to matching the amplification power of Emma, but any increase in firepower was a welcome addition!

Ves barely paid attention to the armed bots that had emerged from another room. They fired their relatively weak weapons at the spatial barrier, causing it to barely lose stability.

In order to gather enough data to make a proper comparison, Blinky recalled the water elemental and no longer supported its existence.

The water elemental soon lost cohesion and started to break apart into loose water energy.

Blinky then took control of this water energy and started to use it to empower the spatial barrier by himself.

Ves allowed the bots to fire at his spatial barrier that had taken on the characteristics of a regular azure energy shield.

Though Ves was not able to take precise measurements, he could feel that his defenses were not as effective as before.

The difference was fairly minor, but he was still able to notice the difference.

Back when his spatial barrier was 'alive', the water elemental took it upon itself to adapt to the incoming attacks. The life form was able to tweak its own body so that it reinforced the sections that were being actively worn down by the barrage of shots fired by the bots.

Both Ves and Alexa grew impressed by this difference. Though minor, it could always be improved through further development.

"I can see how this can be useful, but do you truly have to embed multiple lives in a single mech design?" Alexa asked as she did not fully understand her mentor's rationale. "I mean, it is not always necessary to rely on a secondary life form to create this enhancement. Your mechs are already alive. You can choose to go in a different direction and increase their versatility instead."

Ves appreciated her feedback. "YOU ARE NOT NECESSARILY WRONG, BUT I THINK MY CURRENT IDEA IS MORE SUITABLE WHEN WORKING WITH HYPER TECHNOLOGY AND E-TECHNOLOGY. THE LIVING FEY OF THE FEY FIANNA ADD VALUE BECAUSE THEY CAN NOT ONLY SPECIALIZE IN DIFFERENT FUNCTIONS, BUT CAN ALSO POSSESS DIFFERENT AFFINITIES FROM THE PRIMARY LIVING MECH. THIS IS WHAT I AM TRYING TO RELY UPON TO MAKE MY PRODUCTS STAND OUT FROM THE COMPETITION. I CANNOT THINK OF A CHEAPER AND MORE COST-EFFECTIVE WAY TO COMBINE CONFLICTING E-ENERGY ATTRIBUTES IN A SINGLE MECH FRAME!"

It was not impossible to design a mech that possessed conflicting and contradictory E energy attributes.

However, a mech designer had to make a lot of compromises in his design. He had to separate the strongest mech parts that incorporated the opposing hyper materials. Even then, the designer had to employ other measures to suppress the residual conflicts that came about whenever two hostile E energy attributes came in close proximity to each other.

Ves had the potential to drastically increase the tolerance of conflicting E energy attributes into his mech designs by relying on his latest concept!

He recalled the time during Operation Night Jazz where the Guns of Armageddon exposed a clear flaw in the operation of her new hyper technology.

Her absurdly powerful energy cannon batteries relied on fire energy to enhance their damage output.

However, from the moment the Guns of Armageddon came under focused attack, she had to draw in a lot of water energy in order to reinforce her azure energy shield.

The simultaneous use of water and fire energy caused the performance of both ship systems to degrade, thereby preventing them from reaching their full potential!

If such a problem could happen on one of the Red Fleet's most vaunted dreadnoughts, then it could also happen on mechs!

Now, Ves might be able to reduce or in some cases remove this negative interaction!

He just had to design a mech that relied on at least two conflicting E energy attributes and pair them up with a separate living entity each to test out his idea!

"If your idea has merit... then your mechs will gain a selling point that cannot be matched by anyone." Alexa spoke with a hint of awe in her tone. "What is even more important is that it is cost-effective at every mech class. If you can make it work on second-class mechs, you can make it work on first-class mechs as well!"

That meant that if Ves promoted to a first-class mech designer and relied on this concept to design products for the first-class mech market, it wouldn't be too difficult to match the much more powerful competition!

Of course, Ves needed to bring a lot more benefits to the table in order to impress the wealthy and powerful customers at this level.

It was a start, at least

.