The Mech Touch

It took a moment for the audience to realize what had happened.

The Fey Fianna lost against the Montebra!

This almost broke their cognition.

After all, the Fey Fianna had continually produced one success after another. The drone mechs exhibited so much strength and versatility that they looked as if they could defeat any adversary!

For them to lose against a pair of lancer mechs was... perplexing.

"The Montebras are so cool!"

The audience clapped and cheered in order to express their appreciation for the winner of the second challenge match.

Even though the Montebras exhibited major flaws and shortcomings, they didn't seem to matter as the mechs managed to defeat the Fey Fiannas for the first time!

The sole mech that still remained operational looked like it was close to collapsing. The damaged machine was in a deplorable state, and the uncontrolled discharges of electricity obviously did not do its longevity any favors.

Nonetheless, the lightning warrior looked incredibly dashing to many mech pilots. This kind of all-or-nothing lancer mech satisfied one of the most primal needs of humans.

As an army of bots and other facilities started to clear the arena ground of any wrecks and debris, Ves had eventually come around to the fact that his works had failed for the first time since their reveal.

The Fey Fiannas had lost the halo of invincibility that graced them before. Ves was sure that this defeat would have considerable implications to the popularity and sales pattern of his mech model.

Fortunately, the Fey Fiannas managed to leave a good impression during this match. Ves had no doubt that they could have won this match so long as the other Fey Fianna managed to surface the charge attack as well. The additional machine could have bought more time for the fey to finish off both enemy mechs.

Alas, it was not to be. The Montebras had won the second challenge match fair and square.

Once the RA supervisors officially recorded this result, Ves let out a deep breath.

He did not like to lose, but he could accept this outcome. Fey Fiannas did not lose in an ugly fashion. They showed a portion of their strength and clearly would have been able to resolve the threat posed by lancer mechs of another make.

Many people recognized that the Fey Fiannnas did not lose because they were too weak, but because the Montebras were too strong and perverted!

Ves couldn't help but develop a greater interest in the tech that made it so special.

"The TEMP mechanism is a fantastic piece of work." He complimented her work. "What stage of development has it reached? It is clearly not a finished product, but how soon will we start to see it on the battlefield?"

"The implementation is still too rough. The power is satisfactory, but the practicality is not close to reaching the requirements that I have set. I estimate that it will take at least a year before I can reduce the load on the mech and make it safe enough for specialized use cases." Master Ginevra Hubert-Colmain candidly replied. "I need to experiment with different alloys and hypers to better control and contain the uncontrolled electrical discharges. The only materials that are able to do so are prohibitively expensive."

Seeing that Master Ginevra was willing to explain her work, Ves did not let this opportunity go to waste.

"I see. What sort of purpose do you have in mind for the Turbo-ElectroMagnetic Pairing mechanism? Mech-on-mech combat has entered into a decline, so the demand for such a powerful function is not great at the moment."

Master Ginevra crossed her arms. "Master Aulaus Kreshnikwho came before is not wrong in his assumptions. The native aliens are in the process of developing more extensive countermeasures against human mechs. Our enemies are increasingly coming to the realization that it is detrimental for mechs to be able to fly around the battlefield without any hindrance. Not only are the aliens beginning to equip their warships with larger quantities of small-caliber rapid-fire gun batteries, but they are in the process of developing increasingly more effective starfighters and phasefighters."

Clearly, both of these Master Mech Designers had access to a high-level intelligence channel that informed them of this trend.

That meant that Ves had to take it seriously as well.

Ves understood why Master Ginevra went through the trouble of developing such a strange electromagnetic attraction mechanism.

"Are mechs like the Montebra designed to prevent alien phasefighters from using their superior mobility to prevent interception?"

"That is partially the goal." Master Ginevra confirmed. "The Montebra is a tech demo. The TEMP mechanism doesn't have to be paired with a lancer mech per se. It can be fitted to a space knight as well. I am still considering whether to complete the development of the Montebra or shelve the design in order to revise the TEMP mechanism. The concept that I have envisioned at an earlier stage has proven to be too fragile to endure the excessive load."

That sounded wasteful to Ves. He could not really bear the fact that the Fey Fianna lost to a mech that was not even a serious product.

It became clear that Master Ginevra did not issue her challenge because she wanted to market an upcoming product like Master Kreshnik had done.

Her motivations went much deeper than that. Though Ves was not able to guess all of her goals, he believed that she mainly wanted to increase her profile, attract more publicity to her mech consulting bureau and her work and attract potential collaborators who could assist in her research efforts.

That last part was especially important. Master Mech Designers increasingly had to work with other peers in order to fulfill more ambitious goals. A mech designer who previously held a lower profile like Master Ginevra needed to show her strength in a more public setting in order to get taken more seriously by her peers.

Ves was sure that numerous Master Mech Designers became so attracted by her TEMP mechanism that they were planning to make contact with her in the coming days and weeks!

He knew this because he was entertaining the same idea!

Compared to all of the other mech designers who were sitting far away, Ves happened to be floating next to the female Master in question.

"The Montebra has great potential." Ves honestly conveyed his interest and appreciation for the model that had defeated his Fey Fianna. "Sure, it is still rough around the edges, but I believe that it can become an incredibly effective combatant, not just against small craft, but also against starships."

His words aroused Master Ginevra's interest.

"Please elaborate, professor."

Ves waved his hand and projected an image of the Redlance.

"Lancer mechs are not useless against starships. One of our exclusive mech designs makes use of transphasic blast lances to inflict heavy damage against powerful transphasic energy shields."

He waved his hand again, which caused the projection to show an image of the Stormblade Samurai.

"We have worked with offensive electricity-based tech as well. The Stormblade Samurai designed by one of our mech designers makes use of a much tamer and less destructive form of electrical charge to destabilize energy shields at a faster rate."

"What are you working towards, professor?"

"While we are not familiar with your experimental tech, we have worked on mech designs that share a number of commonalities with your Montebra design. We have even fielded the mechs of our making in battle, allowing us to prove a lot of theories and gather a lot of useful data. What I am trying to say is that we can work together to turn the Montebra into a competitive lancer mech that can serve an incredibly useful function on the battlefields of the present age."

It became abundantly clear that Ves wanted to get involved in the continued development of the Montebra.

Though Master Ginevra already anticipated that other mech designers wanted to work with her, she did not expect that Ves himself would express such an intention.

The Montebra defeated the Fey Fianna in a high-profile challenge match!

A more petty mech designer would have developed a lot of resentment towards the Montebra and its mech designer for causing the Fey Fianna to fall off its pedestal.

Ves was different. He saw so much untapped potential in the unfinished Montebra design that he couldn't help but try and see if he could get a piece of the action!

When Master Ginevra discerned that Ves was being utterly serious about participating in the development of the Montebra, she had to know more.

"I did not anticipate that you would develop such an interest in the Montebra. You state that it has a large amount of untapped potential, which means that you believe that you have the ability to apply major improvements to my work. Can you explain how you would elevate the Montebra design?"

Ves smiled. He had been waiting for this answer.

"When the Montebra converged a lot of metal E energy into electric E energy, the mech actually squandered most of the power of the latter. Much of the reason why your lancer mech is shocking its own internals to such an extent is due to the uncontrolled amplification of all of that excess electric E energy. It is obvious that your design is unable to tame this exotic energy."

"That is correct." The older woman confirmed. "As I have explained before, the design budget is limiting my ability to develop an effective solution. I require the services of an expert in materials science to develop new alloys that can better control the violent electric discharges while also remaining reasonably affordable. It may not be possible to develop a material that satisfies both requirements, so the future of the Montebra design is still in question."

Even though it sounded as if Master Ginevra did not really value her lancer mech design all that much, how could a serious mech designer discard her work so easily?

No authentic mech designer would feel happy about throwing away a mech design that had consumed months of earnest design work!

Ves claimed to offer a way for the Master Mech Designer to 'save' her mech design.

Even if she was skeptical about his proposal, she owed it to the Montebra to consider it properly.

"What are your solutions?"

"The short answer is E-technology." Ves immediately replied. "If you haven't noticed already, this happens to be one of my strengths. Have you witnessed how my Fey Fiannas are able to harness the power of E energy radiation? They aren't able to absorb as much raw E energy as their own work, but because they are alive, they can utilize the E energy much more effectively. In other words, E-technology allows my living mechs to go beyond the limitations set by hyper technology."

"How does that benefit the Montebra design?" Master Ginevra critically asked. "Your descriptions are too abstract. Be more concrete."

"Sure. The greatest advantage of what I have just told you is that all of these extra capabilities do not require the use of expensive materials or even more expensive components. Most forms of E-technology are intangible, so they do not increase the production cost of a mech at all. I bet you that I can make the Montebra a lot safer and less self-destructive if you give me an opportunity to integrate my own design philosophy in your work."

This caused the older woman to pause for a time. She would never believe these claims if they came from any other Senior Mech Designer, but Ves happened to be a tier 3 galactic citizen.

He had made it much further than herself! Master Ginevra had only managed to reach tier 7 after working for a much longer period of time.

"This is not the time and place to discuss business." She eventually said. "You should complete your remaining challenge matches. Once your schedule is clear, we can meet again and discuss the possibility of further collaboration. Is that acceptable to you, Professor Larkinson?"

"That sounds great! I will make sure to prepare a more detailed proposal for our next meeting. I truly believe that I can transform the Montebra into a true lighting warrior."