The Mech Touch

Ves was not sure whether he could persuade Master Ginevra to collaborate with him and convert the Montebra into a powerful living mech.

He could not hide his clear desire towards TEMP mechanism and all of the other tech related to Master Ginevra's incredibly useful specialization.

Exotic Energy Conversion was too useful to a mech designer like Ves!

Ever since mech designers started to play around with hyper mechs, many of them faced the same limitation that limited the power of their works.

They were unable to absorb enough E energy from the environment!

The medium-energy environment of the Red Ocean restricted the potential of hyper technology and E-technology.

Compared to the much more saturated environment of Messier 87, the circumstances in the new frontier were highly unfavorable!

This meant that mechs could never harness the power of heaven to the same extent as equivalent machines in the much larger supermassive galaxy.

If Ves wanted to break past the limitation set by the environment, then he had to get his hands on tech that could convert other forms of power into E energy.

Ves recognized that Master Ginevra Hubert-Colmain just happened to be one of the mech designers who could break this limitation!

If she had developed tech that could convert electrical energy to E energy, that meant that any hyper mech could receive a powerful performance boost that could make a crucial difference in battle!

The Montebra was the best example of that. Its powerful TEMP mechanism could not have become so powerful or gained such a useful function if the mech was not able to produce an absurd amount of energy.

He believed that there was clear and obvious synergy between his work and that of Master Ginevra.

The older Master Mech Designer had the capacity to produce large amounts of E energy, while Ves was confident that he could channel all of that power into effective results.

However, nothing was certain. Ves could only wait until he could discuss the Montebra and its powerful technologies at a later time.

Once Master Ginevra Hubert-Colmain exited the arena, the third challenge match commenced after a brief delay.

Master Acze Redmond issued a challenge on behalf of Fusion Arms, a middling mech company that was headquartered in the Magair Middle Zone.

The man definitely possessed a good understanding of living mechs as he was based in a zone where the Hexers occupied a significant chunk of territory.

The older man pushed forth a striker mech called the Oclis Zemo to earn fame and steal a bit of the hype accrued by the Fey Fianna.

His motivations were much simpler than the ones of his predecessor.

When Ves shook hands with Master Redmond, he did not gain a particularly good impression of the older fellow.

Master Aulaus Kreshnik was a powerful Rubarthan mech designer who came down to the middle zones in order to make a new start and successfully take over Pritchard & Terse.

Master Ginevra Hubert-Colmain sought to increase her profile and find collaborations who could help her complete her difficult research projects.

As for the third challenger, Master Redmond simply wanted to save on marketing costs by leeching off the fame of a tier 3 galactic citizen.

Though the mech designer was a bit boring, his striker mech possessed a few interesting traits.

The Oclis Zemo looked like a typical striker mech at first. It was covered with fairly thick armor and did not excel at mobility.

This was normally a huge disadvantage in a duel against a more agile ranged mech.

One of the common characteristics of striker mechs was that their weapons possessed limited range.

When they were armed with flamethrowers, then their attack range was hardly better than melee mechs.

Their ability to attack distant targets improved remarkably when they were armed with shotguns that were configured for longer ranges, but they could never get close to a rifleman mech in terms of range and precision.

There were also more exotic weapon types that striker mechs could make use of to fulfill their area denial roles, but most of them defaulted to using flamethrowers and shotguns

The Oclis Zemo happened to be one of the few exceptions that eschewed these obvious weapon systems.

Instead of using a shotgun that would likely not be able to pose a significant threat against the Fey Fianna in this challenge match, the striker mech instead armed itself with two rotary cannons.

Yes, multi-barreled machine guns.

The striker mech had to carry a sizable backpack module in order to carry all of the ammunition needed to feed the twin monsters!

Master Acze Redmond designed the Oclis Zemo with abnormally thick and sturdy arms. They were able to hold and brace the rotary cannons in a stable enough manner to control their recoil.

Even so, the caliber of the rotary cannons were a bit too large for a mech of this size.

The power of the two rotary cannons was undeniable. Any mech would not feel good if it was attacked by twin streams of lots of kinetic rounds.

However, that shouldn't be enough to defeat the Fey Fianna. The unusual striker mech definitely possessed another secret that was responsible for giving it the edge it needed to win the third challenge match.

Ves already had a strong suspicion of what that secret may be. Hyper technology had the ability to transform the capabilities of any existing tech. "Can you tell me what the intent is behind the Oclis Zemo?" Ves asked.

"I initially designed the mech as a point defense platform for vulnerable starships." Master Acze Redmond replied. "Unlike proper warships, most human starships are not allowed to mount any weapon systems, including point defense guns. The Oclis Zemo is designed as a relatively expedient solution to this problem. It can not only intercept missiles, but also small craft."

Ves nodded in understanding. "I see. What sort of advantage does it possess that will persuade potential customers to opt for your product over the competition?"

"You will bear witness to it soon enough, professor. My Oclis Zemo may not be as complex as the previous challenge mechs, but it is solidly designed and built to complete its mission."

Their mechs had entered the main arena by this time.

Unlike the previous challenge matches, this one turned into a duel.

Only a single Fey Fianna and a single Oclis Zemo squared off against each other.

This caused the scale of the impending fight to become a lot smaller. Less mechs translated into less complications.

Ves could not say for sure which side benefited more from having less mechs in the field. He could easily come up with arguments that could favor one mech or the other.

This time, the Fey Fianna that had been selected to fight against the striker mech possessed a loadout that consisted of two luminar crystal cannon fey and energy shield fey.

The balanced loadout granted the Fey Fianna with decent defenses but not that much of a punch.

The danger in using this loadout was that it might not be able to resist the continuous attacks of the two rotary cannons long enough for its offensive fey to breach the defenses of the Oclis Zemo.

However, Ves was pretty confident in his work. The luminar crystal cannon fey had proven their competence several times. They could always break down the defenses of a target as long as they were allowed to fire their weapons long enough.

The key was how the Fey Fianna intended to approach this tricky fight and how quickly the fey could crumble the defenses of the Oclis Zemo.

The countdown started.

After a minute had passed, the two mechs immediately exploded into action!

The Oclis Zemo did not do anything fancy. It simply braced itself onto the arena floor and began to open fire right away!

RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!

The firing rate of the rotary cannons was so high that the two weapons produced loud whines that seemed to overpower every other noise in the arena!

Bright tracer rounds allowed the observers to clearly track their blazingly fast trajectories as they crossed the length of the arena and struck the Fey Fianna's energy shield.

The energy shield shook and flared immediately as it came under heavy strain.

There was no way that it could last too long under all of this concentrated fire.

The two energy shield fey soon flew closer in order to relieve the main body and resist a part of the attacks.

Just like in the first match, it became clear that the Larkinson mech pilot intended to rotate the energy shields in order to give them time to recharge when they weren't subjected to heavy pressure.

While the energy shields were able to resist the damage of a single small round fairly well, the insanely high firing rates of the two rotary cannons more than compensated for this shortcoming!

The result was that the Fey Fianna would not be able to shelter behind its energy shields for long.

It had to go on the attack!

The main body's luminar crystal rifle and the two luminar crystal cannon fey had already begun to do so. Familiar fire laser beams streaked across the distance and struck the energy shield of the striker mech.

As a fairly large and hefty mech, the Oclis Zemo was equipped with a rather strong energy shield.

The fire-attributed attacks had a reduced effect on the striker mech as the machine was mostly integrated with earth hyper metals.

The strong earth element not only enabled the Oclis Zemo to add additional force and impact to its rapid-fire ballistic attacks, but also strengthened its defenses against fire and most energy-based attacks!

However, the concentration of earth-attributed E energy around the Oclis Zemo was not as high as the Nelerat Mark I during the first challenge match.

The Oclis Zemo did not carry around a lot of spare armor plating that had been augmented with a lot of earth hyper materials!

As such, the striker mech was unable to reduce the damage of the incoming attacks by a large extent. The constant fire energy beams steadily wore away the earth energy shield.

Unfortunately, the situation did not look too optimistic for the Fey Fianna. It clearly had a lot more staying power, but what mattered the most was that the Oclis Zemo had more than enough firepower to shred the drone mech and its fey in a relatively short amount of time!

If the Fey Fianna wanted to win, it had to take the initiative!

It was not enough to perform evasive maneuvers in order to make it more difficult for the Oclis Zemo to keep training its weapons onto the drone mech.

The mech was designed to intercept missiles and fast-moving small craft. It was able to consistently land its shots with the help of the rapid-fire nature of its rotary cannons.

This was the main reason why the Oclis Zemo was equipped with this weapon system as opposed to a more traditional gauss weapon!

The Fey Fianna could only try to close the distance and make use of superior maneuvering to complicate the aim of the Oclis Zemo.

This presented quite an interesting change. During the previous challenge matches, it had been the opposing mechs that charged towards the Fey Fianna.

The fact that the Fey Fianna had to make a proactive move meant that the mech was most definitely in hot water!

As the main body advanced, its fey continued to stick close. The mech pilot had thought about splitting up its fey into two groups and command them to advance separately, but that would just turn them into easy targets against the deadly firepower of the Oclis Zemo.

It was much better to keep them all close and rely on the shared defenses of the energy shields as much as possible!

"Those energy shields aren't going to last long."

The Fey Fianna had only managed to make it past the halfway point, but the three energy shields at its disposal were already on the verge of breaking! Though the Oclis Zemo had to fire its rotary cannons so quickly that their barrels already started to heat up, it was worth it so long as the striker mech could quickly shred a few fey apart!