The Mech Touch

The Oclis Zemo was an unusual second-class mech.

Back when Ves was still a humble third-class mech designer, he regularly came in touch with ballistic weapons.

In a society where laser beam weapons and many more advanced weapon technologies became available, the demand for the most basic ballistic weapons had never faded.

This was because more advanced weapon systems usually imposed greater requirements. These could range from needing to master more advanced knowledge, the use of higher grades of materials and the necessity of having access to a much stronger power source.

It was human nature to chase after the most expensive and powerful toys, but not everyone had the opportunity or the capital to handle them. In a cosmos where scarcity was a universal phenomenon, the ordinary masses could only dream of piloting the most advanced mechs or wielding the most destructive weapons.

Ballistic weapons as well as certain types of artillery weapons were extremely common in battles between small and unsophisticated forces.

Even the weakest and most destitute alien races had little choice but to resort to more primitive weapon systems to defend their homes!

Based on firing lots of simple chemically propelled bullets or shells, ballistic weapons had many compelling advances. They were cheap, low-tech, did not expend a lot of energy on use, easy to mass produce and actually quite versatile.

However, their disadvantages were also clear. They were heavy, cumbersome, took up a lot of capacity and needed to reserve even more space for ammunition!

When it came to mechs and starships, space always came at a premium. All of the space occupied by the propellant needed to launch bullets at distant targets was so wasteful thaty this was the primary reason why most ballistic weapons fell out of favor in second-class and third-class combat.

Ballistic weapons also had another major shortcoming.

Compared to gauss weapons that relied on generating a lot of electromagnetic force to propel solid alloy rounds with much greater power, most conventional ballistic weapons were unable to generate high enough muzzle velocities to guarantee accurate fire in space combat.

Energy beam weapons were much superior in this regard!

This was why the Oclis Zemo seemed like an oddball to many of the people viewing the third challenge match.

Ballistic weapons were not the only kind of armaments that could produce rapid-fire damage output. Specialized laser cannons and hybrid energy pulse cannons could be used for intercepting missiles just as well.

The latter two weapon systems were also a lot more accurate at longer ranges!

The reason why the Oclis Zemo was classified as a striker mech rather than a special sub-type of rifleman mech was because its rotary cannons were too inaccurate at longer ranges!

In space combat where the distances between enemies could easily range from tens to hundreds of kilometers, the muzzle velocities of most ballistic weapons were so slow that it was impossible for them to hit anything aside from large stationary objects such as space stations.

The Oclis Zemo's effective range was too limited.

Yet so long as people could look beyond this shortcoming, the Oclis Zemo possessed certain advantages that made it a lot more compelling than normal.

Its twin rotary cannons not only fired quickly, but also struck with great force. Every bullet was impregnated with a small quantity of cheap, low-grade earth hyper material.

This was the kind of material that could easily be dug out of a random planet or asteroid after a casual search.

Though the properties of this hyper material was nothing special, a solid hyper round was always able to carry a lot of E energy than an insubstantial energy beam!

Solid projectiles were also able to contain E energy in a more concentrated and directed fashion, enabling them to produce more powerful and sophisticated effects!

During the Phasewater Generation, the general consensus of the mech industry was that energy weapons possessed a decisive advantage.

The existence and the effects of phasewater was powerful, but the exotic itself was too scarce to be squandered on consumable goods such as projectiles.

Firing a transphasic rotary cannon that was fed by actual transphasic bullets was no different from throwing away a huge fortune!

Though energy weapons could not produce such a powerful transphasic effect, they were much more sustainable as they did not throw out any actual phasewater.

The Hyper Generation suddenly reversed this trend.

Phasewater still remained as scarce and prohibitively expensive as ever, but the same was not the case for all of the new hyper materials that emerged!

Higher grades of hyper materials were still relatively scarce due to how troublesome it was to produce them, but lower grades of hyper materials had become incredibly common nowadays!

That made the latter incredibly suitable to be used for consumable products such as ammunition.

Master Acze Redmond practically designed the Oclis Zemo since the start of the Hyper Generation by relying on this exact premise!

"Ballistic weapons are making a comeback in second-class combat." The Master Mech Designer boldly stated to Ves as the match continued to unfold. "Do you hear all of that noise? People will begin to encounter it much more often. There are far more low-grade hyper materials in the Red Ocean than we can ever use up. We can integrate all kinds of them into our projectiles to improve the physical damage output of our mechs. Energy weapons simply cannot compare."

The Hyper Generation was like a dream come true for Master Redmond. He happened to specialize in the development of rapid-fire weapons, but such weapons never really gained enough traction in the past.

In the previous age, mech-on-mech combat often centered around penetrating armor. It was much easier for single heavy attacks to punch through layers of armor than a stream of smaller projectiles.

While this reality hadn't changed, the introduction of hyper technology could transform every existing tech!

Master Redmond gained a lot more confidence in his specialization due to the natural synergies between hyper technology and physical weapon systems.

This became evident by how the Fey Fianna was struggling to maintain its energy shields in the face of the Oclis Zemo's excessive firepower!

The rotary cannons continually spat out earth hyper bullets that stressed out the water energy shields of the main body as well as the two defensive fey at an alarming rate.

The Fey Fianna hadn't even managed to reach the other side of the mech arena, but already it was on the verge of relying on its adaptive modular armor system to withstand the storm of bullets!

The fact that a weapon system that people previously regarded as weak and primitive could deplete the energy shields of the Fey Fianna and its accompanying fey so quickly caused many observers to change their minds about ballistic weapons!

"Have ballistic weapons become so good all of a sudden?"

"I wonder how much a magazine costs. If it is not too expensive, then it is more than worth it to pay this much money to wear down the defenses of our enemies at a faster pace. I do not know of any energy weapon at the same price range that can produce results as quickly!"

"Where can I buy the Oclis Zemo? A mech this good is a great deterrent against mechs and alien starfighters so long as they enter its effective range."

More and more people became impressed by the enhanced impact damage of the earth bullets.

If weapons such as the rotary cannons continued to perform well in other situations, then it was conceivable that much of the mech industry might choose to exchange their energy weapons for physical weapons!

Ves did not entirely embrace the hype. As the leading developer of luminar crystal weapons, he had long developed a preference for energy weapons.

He did not want to see his products losing value just because they were equipped with luminar crystal weapons!

"I don't agree with your premise, Master Redmond." Ves asserted his own position. "Your ballistic weapons are strong, but there are many ways to leverage E energy. Physical projectile weapons currently enjoy a head start because it is much simpler to enhance their firepower with hyper materials. Energy weapons are momentarily behind because it is clear that we need to develop a more sophisticated solution, but I have no doubt that the latter will catch up in time."

"It is good for you to feel confident, but the development of hyper ballistic weapons is not stagnating at all." The older mech designer gently admonished Ves. "I am in contact with numerous like-minded mech designers such as myself. Each of us recognizes that we have a golden opportunity. Only by setting aside our rivalries, sharing our research and collaborating together can we change outdated biases and preferences of the customer base!"

That was a considerable undertaking! Ves became impressed by Master Redmond for the first time. The man was truly passionate about the superiority of hyper ballistic weapons.

It was a pity that Ves did not quite agree with the other mech designer.

Ves did not like ballistic weapons because they imposed too many burdens on a fleet-based mech force.

The ammunition needed to supply thousands of ballistic rifleman mechs was astronomical!

All of that would inevitably occupy a large amount of cargo space aboard starships.

Producing them in larger numbers was also troublesome. Even with a fully-fledged factory ship such as the Spirit of Bentheim, the Larkinson would still be unable to produce the right bullets if it was lacking in many types of raw materials.

Ves much preferred to work with energy weapons because many of them only needed to be equipped with energy cells to keep them fed.

This imposed a significantly lower logistical burden to forces such as the Larkinson Army. Expended energy cells could easily be recharged through any means in many different circumstances, so they were much more suitable for longer missions and deep expeditions.

It was a pity that all of the logistical advantages that Ves valued so much did not translate into greater combat power.

This was why the Fey Fianna looked like it was becoming increasingly more suppressed by the Oclis Zemo!

Bang-bang-bang-bang-bang!

Once the last water energy shield succumbed from the twin barrages of the rotary cannons, the earth bullets started to hammer the exteriors of the two depleted energy shield fey at a blazingly fast rate!

Already, dozens of modular armor plating rapidly deformed at the same time. Each modular armor plate was not that thick and tough to begin with. Though they were able to bounce individual earth bullets with relative easy, once they started to get pummeled by a hundred projectiles or ore, it became impossible for them to retain their integrity!

Clink-clink-clink-clink.

Broken plate after broken plate continually separated from the Fey Fianna and fell onto the arena ground in a distressing fashion.

More and more modular armor plates emerged from less critical or exposed sections of the main body and its fey, but the replacements wore down so quickly from all of the physical attacks that a new batch of replacement plates had to come in and take their place!

In contrast to powerful rotary cannons, the three luminar crystal weapons of the Fey Fianna only managed to break the striker mech's earth energy shield after expending a lot of effort.

Even then, the armor of the Oclis Zemo was so good that they easily resisted dozens of fire energy beam strikes while only incurring shallow damage to its thick frontal armor!

It was unreasonable to expect that the Fey Fianna could breach the defenses of such a mech by relying on its luminar crystal weapons.

However, the Larkinson mech pilot decided to shift his target from the torso of the enemy mech to its rotary cannons!

Several salvos of precise fire laser beams struck the twin weapon systems of the Oclis Zemo!

The resilience of the rotary cannon was quite high. Master Redmond was not stupid and made sure to construct the big and powerful weapons out of sturdier and more damage-resistant materials.

As such, the laser beams only inflicted minor exterior damage up to this point!

"This is not enough."