The Mech Touch

"So what is your plan, Ves?"

"I'm not too sure of that myself. I don't have enough information about what I can do these days, and my situation is changing so quickly that a plan can quickly become obsolete the next day. I am just taking this as I go. This is why I still have no idea how long I will stay in New Constantinople. I could be sticking around for a couple of months to a couple of years."

Jovy Armalon did not look pleased with this answer. He and Ves had gathered in private again so that the Red Association would have a better idea of what their newest tier 3 galactic citizen had In mind.

From what it sounded like, Ves might not have any solid ideas floating in his mind at the moment!

Il was no wonder that the predictive software returned so many deviating results. Ves was still blundering around!

Jovy sighed. "You can make a lot of people's lives better if you form a solid plan and stick to it. You have great talent and a proven ability to come up with fantastic innovations. The second generation Carmine System that you have described to me earlier sounds highly promising, if somewhat dangerous. We are more than willing to provide you with support to conduct experiments related to your Blood Knight Project. However, it is difficult for us to anticipate what you may have in store next time."

What could Ves say in response?

"I can't tell you much. 1 come up with most of my ideas through inspiration. You can't really predict or anticipate stuff like this. I only came up with the innovations for the second generation Carmine System a few days ago. I did not put any thought into the possibility of improving the Blood Pact by upgrading the blood itself. I can only tell you that I am also working towards developing fourth generation luminar crystal weapons. I think I can make them a lot more special and powerful by incorporating hyper materials into their construction. The Gray Lotus and the upgraded Ignitron rifle are prototypical examples of this new design."

As a person assigned to monitor and accompany Ves, Jovy had grown quite familiar with luminar crystal technology.

"It is rather impressive how those two weapons can directly convert E energy into metaphysical effects that add powerful net properties to attacks." The RA Senior spoke. "The research team that is still engaged in this alien tech has managed to produce similar results by copying your methods with our own batch of hypers. We have found that not every hyper can increase the threat of a luminar crystal weapon, but the results are not promising enough compared to what we have accomplished with more conventional alternatives."

Ves was still bound by an agreement that he had made with the Red Association about sharing technological advances related to luminar crystal technology.

Although the mechers would probably steal his tech without this agreement, at least Ves was able to get a lot of valuable data in return.

The only problem was that much of the mechers who were originally assigned to study this branch of alien technology resided in the Milky Way.

Very few of them had been stationed in the Red Ocean when the Great Severing occurred, which meant that a lot less of them were left to spend their time delving into luminar crystal technology.

These RA researchers were already busy with many other projects, especially ones related to E energy and hyper materials. The main priority of the Red Association was to develop new applications that could strengthen conventional technological products.

This was why Ves did not expect to receive too much support from the mechers related to this field.

"There is more to luminar crystal technology than what is obvious on the surface, Jovy. 1 have found that it synergizes well with both E energy and living mechs. It would be a mistake to dismiss this tech just because it is alien in nature. Sure, there is still stuff that we do not entirely understand, but its power is undeniable, especially now that we have entered a more favorable environment. Now that we live in a time where too many mechs are struggling to penetrate the transphasic energy shields of alien warships, they urgently need access to an affordable means of boosting their firepower.'1

Though Ves made a lot of sense, Jovy shook his head.

"I know what you mean, bur do nor underestimate our research gains in our attempts to improve conventional energy weapons. You will learn what we have worked on to improve the firepower of every mech in the following months. Some of them are based on phasewater technology while others are based on hyper technology. We are already working on combining both, but I am not too up to date on research in this highly promising field."

This was important news! Jovy essentially confirmed that the Red Association was ready to announce the next mech generation in the near future!

Everything was about to change once again.

This time, the shift in tech would be much more expansive than the introduction of the Phasewater Generation!

After all, phasewater remained fairly scarce all of this time. Ordinary people had no way to take advantage of transphasic products.

Hyper technology offered greater promise. A lot of ordinary materials throughout the dwarf galaxy were being transformed into different hyper materials. Even if much of it was fairly weak and lower quality, they still introduced a lot of new ways for products to derive additional power from E energy radiation!

This meant that the spread and penetration of hyper technology would quickly exceed that of phasewater technology and become the dominant trend at the start of the Age of Dawn!

"Arc you sure your Association wants to introduce all of that new tech so quickly?" Ves asked with a tinge of doubt. "I mean, if you take your time and wait for a year or so, you'll be able to introduce a much more expansive, systematic and most importantly tested set of technologies and technological standards."

"Those are my thoughts as well. We have discovered that there are numerous risks to working with hyper materials that are completely new and unfamiliar. It would be bettor if we can spend more time on verifying the safety and reliability of much of the new tech, but our hand is forced. The Red Fleet doesn't want to wait that long."

Even though It seemed that mech generations had little to do with the fleeters, this was not the case.

A lot of the tech introduced by the mechers were applicable to both mechs and starships. Advances in materials, fundamental sciences and so on did not discriminate between combat platforms.

Ves couldn't figure out why the fleeters wanted to publish their findings sooner rather than later.

"Why the hurry?"

'Well, we have received word that rhe Red Fleet is working on a large initiative that must be unveiled fairly soon." Jovy revealed. "Part of that initiative also involves the release of tech that is presumably related to the construction of starships and warships. I believe the fleeters are finally ready to unveil their new frameworks on how to fight enemies that are growing stronger and develop greater powers by the minute."

That sounded interesting. The fleeters had been laying low while the mechers hogged all of the attention. Thar might change in the near future if the Red Fleet decided to take a more proactive stance in society.

Ves and Jovy continued to chat and speculate about the future.

Compared to previous conversations, Jovy had become a lot more candid and informative than before.

As a tier 3 galactic citizen, it wouldn't do for Ves to remain uninformed and in the dark about the major developments that were taking place across the new frontier

Ves appreciated these talks a lot. Even if many of the topics had little to do with him, they still painted a broader and more detailed picture of how red humanity was doing In this new era.

The good news was that the recent announcement of the Deep Strike Plan and the New Elites Program hadn't destabilized human space all of a sudden.

Most people still continued on with their lives as if nothing had changed. Only the upper layer of society had begun to make a lot of preparations for the dangerous operations to come.

In addition to that, a lot of forces that were previously involved in ordinary wars and conflicts were preparing to venture to the frontlines.

Many troops could already earn a significant amount of benefits if they became linefighters right away!

The sooner they took part in the defense of human space, the more war merits they would earn.

Earning war merits early on was extremely helpful because they allowed forces to strengthen their assets several years before the deep strike operations commenced!

"By the way, Ves, there is another interesting development that you might want to learn about. Do you remember the time when you had to attend a secret session on hitman phase lords?"

Ves remembered that alright. The mechers hadn't given him much choice about that. He still resented that. His rise in status should at least prevent incidents like this from happening again.

"Let me guess. Experiments aren't going well."

"It is still too early to say, but from what I have heard, you are correct." Jovy said with a sigh. "Our researchers have attempted to apply the strange orven ritual that you have talked about, but every attempt results in a fatal outcome."

"I warned you that this would happen. This stuff is too dangerous. You will need to make additional preparations to increase your success rate. Blindly trying to mess with an important piece of yourself in the hopes of becoming a phase lord is foolish."

Jovy did not look disturbed. "It is alright. Our researchers know what they are getting into. The test subjects should not be anyone important. Many of them actually comprise of orven prisoners of war. Since this ritual was developed by this race in the first place, it should work best on them. However, it seems that the method utilized by these aliens is too unreliable."

"It mostly has to do with qualifications, I think." Ves said. "The vast majority of orvens are part of the lower castes of orven society. Their names are shorter and their growth circumstances are much poorer. It is the higher caste members of the orven race that you should target. These fellows are stronger and more developed. This gives them a slightly higher chance of success."

"Out researchers have the same idea. This is why we have increased the priority on such prisoners, but it will take time to capture enough of them to resume our experiments. In the meantime, we can only settle for other rest subjects."

"Why did you bring this up, Jovy? I have already provided my input on this matter. I have been quite frank and forthcoming. I am sure you guys can figure out the rest."

"That may be true, but our researchers have begun to assume that they attain results much faster if you participate in this secret project."

That caused Ves to straighten his back. "Yon want me to serve as an external consultant to your human phase lord project?"

Jovy shook his head. "Not an external consultant. You are already a part of us, Ves. Have you forgotten about that already? However, your guess is mostly correct. Our secret research team does not require you to contribute to its research on a full-time basis. We only need you in an advisory capacity. Does this interest you in any way? I can tell you that this is an easy and cost-effective way for you to earn MTA merits, especially if the project manages to produce solid results."

Thai certainly intrigued Ves. He was open to this offer so long as it was rewarding enough.

"How much?"

"At minimum, a few million MTA merits. At most, 50 million MTA merits."

Ves immediately lost his enthusiasm. "That's not enough, Jovy."

"It is when you consider how little commitments that we demand from you. This is how most mech designers earn their merits, by the way. We cannot all be like you and risk our lives in dangerous expeditions all of the time. I think it is good for you to get accustomed to earning merits the normal way."

"I'll think about it, then..."

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