The Mech Touch

Ves ultimately found it refreshing to learn more about Saint Jelmer Osenring.

The cybernetic man was much different from Patriarch Reginald Cross, who had given Ves a bad impression of ace pilots.

Though his opinions regarding the difficulty of handling such powerful warriors hadn't changed, he at least confirmed that Reginald was not the only mold of ace pilots in existence.

In addition, the more he learned about Saint Osenring, the more he understood the Thunderer Mark II.

The heavy artillery mech was one of the most destructive varieties of second-class ace mechs that could be built. There were hardly any other types of mechs that could unleash more mass destruction!

Each time Saint Osenring interfaced with the Thunderer Mark II, he did so with the awareness that the power at his fingertips could destroy entire cities, rearrange expansive landscapes, blow up expensive space stations and kill millions of humans under the right circumstances!

Yet it was exactly because he possessed so much capacity for destruction that he exercised great discipline over his piloting and his ambitions.

The man styled himself as a guardian who supported humanity and the Santana Group in an unassuming position.

As a heavy artillery mech specialist, Saint Osenring was no stranger to supporting friendlies from the rear. The position was also far enough removed from the heat of the action that the man was able to avoid heated confrontations where he had to take action without thought.

This was a much different approach to battle than the one favored by Patriarch Reginald Cross.

The Mars was arguably a ranged powerhouse in its own right, but the mech was designed in a way that enabled it to excel in duels against other powerful ace mechs.

All of its weapon systems and all of its design elements were designed to perform well in short-range duels.

Ace pilots who specialized in this mode of combat had to adopt different approaches to survive and thrive in this arena.

Ves might fault the many personality defects of Patriarch Reginald as many times as he wanted, but that did not change the fact that the Cross Patriarch was a survivor who made it out with his life intact while many of his contemporaries fell in battle.

That deserved respect, at least.

As Ves continued to expand and revise his understanding of ace pilots, he eventually learned enough about the heavy gauss cannons of the Thunderer Mark II to begin his modification work.

"Okay." He said as his armored floating form approached one of the 10 impressive gauss cannons. "I have figured out what I can do to make this mech stronger."

"What is your plan?" The ace pilot asked.

"The mech designers who designed your Thunderer Mark II are good. Really good. I can tell you endlessly how brilliantly they have pooled their expertise together to develop a machine that integrates all of their strengths in the most harmonious fashion possible, but I think I can skip all of that boring stuff. The point I want to make is that while the designers are truly great, they are still limited by humanity's early foray into phasewater technology."

Saint Osenring frowned. "What do you mean by that, exactly? Are you telling our mech designers don't know how to make use of phasewater?"

"That is exactly what I am saying." Ves boldly replied. His tone made it clear that he was not joking. "Humanity are like children that have just begun to play with a new an exotic toy. Despite the massive increase in the supply of transphasic products, much of them are based on relatively rudimentary applications of phasewater. They are literally child's work in front of a proper native alien phasewater expert. When it comes to making the best use of this exotic, the indigenous alien races who literally evolved alongside it are much better at utilizing its potential."

"I... can believe that. This will only be valid for a generation or two at best. Eventually, our scientists will be able to catch up to the progress made by the aliens before surpassing the locals entirely. We did it back in our original galaxy and we can do it again in this new and exciting frontier."

Ves did not deny the ace pilot's assertion. "That may be true, but we can't wait that long for our scientific community to get to that point. We all need to become stronger now rather than several decades later. What I am saying is that if you are willing to give me permission, I can tweak and optimize the transphasic properties of these heavy gauss cannons so that they can inherently penetrate through obstacles with greater ease than before. These changes will also allow the Phase King to anchor himself more to your Thunderer Mark II, thereby enabling him to amplify its offensive performance to a greater degree."

The ace pilot remained silent for a few seconds as he studied the guest mech designer carefully.

"You are asking for much, Patriarch Larkinson. I find it hard to believe that a young Journeyman Mech Designer such as yourself can improve upon the work of the best mech designers and specialists of our company."

Ves turned to face the ace pilot with a serious expression. "I am not overestimating my abilities. My understanding of phasewater is far better than you assume. I can truly improve the performance of these cannons by making modest changes. All I am asking you is to give me a chance. If it turns out that your cannons are going backwards, then your mech designers can always revert the changes to their original states. You will just have to expend more phasewater to make up for the losses."

He still didn't sound credible enough for the Saint.

"If you have so much confidence in your proposed changes, then you wouldn't showing off your plan to a team of mech designers and phasewater engineers, would you?" Jelmer Osenring asked.

Ves grimaced a bit. "Fine. I will prepare a presentation for them, but they better not hold me back due to their own ignorance. I don't have time to hold an entire lecture."

The meeting took a bit of time. Just as he expected, the people who had spent time on studying phasewater simply couldn't match his level.

Though Ves used to be just like them, his recent experiences had drastically boosted his affinity and understanding of phasewater.

To him, phasewater was just as familiar to him as mechs. Not only did all of the difficult and nearly indecipherable theories that he learned in the past make sense to him, he also gained a powerful intuitive understanding of this special substance.

All of this meant that Ves could easily spot numerous defects and flawed implementations of the phasewater technology applied to the heavy gauss cannons.

To be sure, the cannons themselves were extremely good. Their traditional technological elements made excellent use of the properties of many different materials. The mech designer responsible for them knew his craft well.

It was just the phasewater implementations that Ves slightly objected to. Not even a Master Mech Designer was able to attain the same level of proficiency in phasewater technology as a high-level puelmer engineer.

BANG!

Ves ultimately slammed his armored fist against the metal table. "I am not here to tutor you on what is possible with phasewater! I am here to do my job, which is to improve the offensive capacity of your Thunderer Mark II within my means. I am telling you now that you can either accept my proposal and end up with an ace mech that can easily penetrate the defenses of a powerful monster like the unclean whale, or forgo this opportunity and settle for a half-hearted solution. What do you prefer?"

That shut them all up for a time.

In the end, Saint Jelmer Osenring decided to follow his instincts and speak in favor of the current proposal.

"We invited Patriarch Ves Larkinson to this workshop for a reason. If his prior work is any indication, then we can rest assured that he is not a mech designer who is prone to failure. Just like anything else in the Red Ocean, we must take risks in order to leap ahead of others. The promise of obtaining an ace mech that can become much more effective at destroying alien warships is too good to pass up. Let us put our faith in him and his abilities."

The ace pilot's words practically decided the matter. None of the gathered technical experts possessed the courage and the confidence to push back against the Santana Group's resident ace pilot.

Once Ves finally gained approval, the ace pilot pinned him with a warning glance.

"You better live up to your promises, Larkinson."

"I wouldn't dream of screwing up your ace mech." Ves steadily replied. "Our clan stands to earn 28 kilograms of phasewater from this deal. While that is not as much phasewater that I have hoped to gain from your Santana Group, I am not the sort of person to turn my back on a trade agreement. You will have ace mech that you have dreamed of by the time I am done. Now let me work."

Ves felt a lot more comfortable now that he was starting to work on the Thunderer Mark II. He already spent enough time on his preparations. His massively improved cognitive capabilities had allowed him to plan out his entire series of modifications in the confines of his powerful mind.

He began to hover all around the enormous ace mech. He directed advanced bots and robotic arms to partially disassemble the heavy gauss cannons and their housing so that he could access the parts he wanted to change.

It wasn't necessary for him to replace them with new parts. He had gained enough mastery and comprehension of phasewater technology to be able to make small technical changes to them that fixed numerous issues while also introducing additional supportive elements.

Saint Osenring silently observed Ves at work, but the ace pilot never raised his voice to cast his doubt.

Perhaps the older man became reassured by the Larkinson Patriarch's absolute certainty and total dedication to his work.

Whatever the case, Ves did not encounter any objections as he continued to modify part after part.

Once he completed all of his work on a single gauss cannon, he put it back together and nodded appreciatively at the results of his initial work.

Ves could already tell that the weapon would perform exactly as intended even without trialing the modified weapon in a live testing session.

"That's one cannon. Now I need to apply the same changes to the other nine guns."

It was at this time that Saint Osenring broke his silence.

"Before you continue, is it possible for me to pilot my ace mech in its current state? I would like to test the performance of the newly upgraded cannon and compare it to the performance of the weapons that you have yet to change."

Ves shook his head. "I wouldn't recommend you do so. I still need to program the changed parameters to the software of your ace mech. Firing the new cannon without taking this step will produce glitches. I also need to make more comprehensive changes to your ace mech that will complement the improvements applied to the weapon systems. Please wait until I am done with my work."

The Thunderer Mark II was like a sculpture that Ves wanted to refine into a better version of itself.

It was not enough to carve out a few sloppy traces. He wanted the artwork to look comprehensively better, and that entailed a lot of work.

Another reason for him to invest so much effort into upgrading the Thunderer Mark II was that he could leave his own mark on the mech.

He wanted to make it so that if the Thunderer Mark II ever succeeded in defeating a powerful enemy, the Santanas would have no choice but to credit Ves for the work he had done!

The more acknowledgement Ves received for his work, the more he was able to spread his influence.

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