The Mech Touch

5731 A Whole New Battle Tactic

The shield infiltrator fey possessed a huge amount of potential.

This was clear to many people, especially those who struggled to penetrate or overwhelm the transphasic energy shields of alien warships.

The mech industry had been working hard to release new mechs and technological innovations that could make this job a lot easier.

From the relatively basic but effective stormblade technology to the recently introduced anti-shield pulse fey, it became clear that the demand for effective solutions against the ridiculously powerful defenses of enemy warships still remained high!

This was a powerful indication that the mech industry had failed to meet the needs of all of the mech pilots and mech forces struggling to defeat the alien raiding fleets in the frontlines.

At the very least, the mech industry had yet to come up with an effective answer thus far. The lack of progress could be excused for the time being as the Red War had raged for only less than two years.

Was this because the mech industry was incompetent?

Ves did not think so. The challenges were just too great to overcome. The most difficult variable to work around was phasewater. It was too damn scarce, and it did not help that human space occupied so little territory that red humanity was starving for this precious substance!

In contrast, the aliens were literally swimming in it. They occupied the Red Ocean for so long that their stockpiles were astronomical. Even if they wasted most of it on promoting the cultivation of their phase leaders, they still had plenty of phasewater left over to equip every decent warship with at least a basic set of transphasic energy shield generators.

Red humanity was fighting an uphill battle. The lack of territory, manpower, combat assets and more placed a lot of pressure on mech designers such as Ves to come up with a silver bullet that could pierce through transphasic energy shields as if they were nothing.

Such a solution was simply not available at this time, but the successful development of the shield infiltrator fey at least showed that they were taking a step in the right direction.

The only aspect that Ves did not like about the product was that it originated from a first-class mech designer.

The Fey Shaper Contest was supposed to be an event that celebrated the innovations of second-raters. Ves had set the prize pool low to the point where no first-class mech designer would find it attractive enough to bother with the competition.

Even if they had other motives in store, it was quite risky for them to compete against many other second-raters. If they did not have absolute confidence that they could win first place, then any other outcome would be a huge stain on their record! Their reputation would plunge as they had essentially proven themselves to be inferior to people who were supposed to be their lessers!

It was one thing to admit one's inferiority to an anomaly like Ves. He had long transcended his roots as a second-rater.

It was another thing to rank lower than 'ordinary' second-

class mech designers such as Tristan Wesseling!

The loser might as well quit the industry and retire after suffering a humiliating loss.

Yet… that did not happen.

Somehow, Kelsey Ampatoch not only made a huge gamble, but managed to win his bet!

Ves had thought deeply on whether he should designate the shield infiltrator fey as the winner of the competition.

After all, Tristan Wesseling's luminous fire fey and Dr. Czilia Avoqee's stealth field fey were both so powerful that their presence could easily sway the outcome of a battle!

However, the single most important factor that set these two fey models apart from the shield infiltrator fey was their affordability.

The Rubarthan Journeyman somehow managed to outclass many second-raters by developing a living fey that was cheaper and easier to fabricate than almost any other contest submission!

The man could teach a master class on cost-saving measures. The sheer amount of work and effort he put into slimming down the shield infiltrator fey was so extreme that even Ves learned a few useful tricks from studying the design!

It was clear that Mr. Ampatoch did not randomly take part in the Fey Shaper Contest because he wanted to win a grand prize of 10,000 MTA credits.

He had greater motives in mind.

Ves already had a guess what they may be. Participating and winning this contest was certainly a good way to catch his attention, but all of that had to wait until they formally wrapped up this event.

As the first-rater deftly completed his initial presentation of the shield infiltrator fey, the audience still looked fascinated by this amazing new product.

Perhaps the ability to pass through enemy transphasic shields by pretending to be a friendly vessel may have been done before in first-class combat, but this capability was unheard of in second-class combat!

Why had these people never heard about it? Why was it only available now? How come the tech was first applied in a fey as opposed to a mech or shuttle?

Ves entertained these doubts as well.

"Mr. Ampatoch."

"I am at your service, Professor Larkinson."

"Is the shield infiltrator fey based on existing first-class technology?"

"It is." The Journeyman admitted. "The technology is relatively niche. When the original developers discovered that its effectiveness was vastly reduced against the modern warships of the major alien races, the decision was made to shelve it as there was little point in developing specialized solutions that are only effective against lesser warships."

Typical. The first-raters could already rely on brute force to overcome the defenses of weaker warships.

"What has led you to repurpose this tech for a second-class fey?"

Mr. Ampatoch smiled. "I took it on myself to give this tech a second chance. It may not be particularly compelling for first-

raters, but it is clear that second-raters and third-raters feel much differently about the ability to pass through enemy shields without encountering any hindrance. I recognized an opportunity to service the needs of the brave mech and women who have taken upon themselves to challenge powerful warships with fairly weak mechs, and I took it. I am pleased that my hard work in the development of my shield infiltrator fey has earned your appreciation."

"The ability to infiltrate enemy transphasic energy shields by imitating the patterns of enemy craft should not be an easy process. How have you managed to control the cost of your shield infiltrator fey considering that it was originally based on first-class technology?"

Mr. Ampatoch exuded a lot more pride as he offered his response.

"The secret is your Fey Fianna. My previous competitors have already mentioned how your drone mech platform is able to enhance the computational and decision-making processes of all of their fey. I have made the same discovery, and specifically took advantage of it. The intelligences that are driving the fey may not be most effective at performing an immense amount of raw calculations, but they possess a measure of wisdom, intuition and judgment that enable them to adapt to specific scenarios and bypass a large amount of redundant processes. I have been able to produce large gains in efficiency. There are other means to reduce the processing load on my fey. As long as you are not afraid of interference and interception, you can have the AI cores of your starships do the heavy lifting for you. This is not always possible, but as long as the circumstances are favorable enough, the shield infiltrator fey will not have to wait before they can attempt the crossing."

"I see. Is it possible to apply this tech on larger constructs such as mechs and boarding shuttles?"

"It is possible, but the difficulty is exponentially greater. The smaller the object, the easier it is to calculate and imitate a friendly pattern. I do not believe it is possible to reproduce this result with first-class mechs, let alone second-class mechs. Not even the assistance offered by your living mechs can compensate for the exponential increase in necessary calculations. It is only a solution that should be applied to smaller objects such as fey or explosive warheads, at least for the time being."

That was a disappointment. It would have been a lot more practical to grant mechs the ability to bypass transphasic energy shields, but oh well.

"Your shield infiltrator fey are remarkably cost-effective, but they also happen to be very vulnerable to enemy fire. Is there a means to bolster their defenses while preserving their main effect?"

"It is possible, but I will have to redesign the fey from the ground up." Ampatoch apologetically said. "The materials I have selected for my fey are inherently softer and weaker. This does their defense little good, but the greatest advantage to utilizing this collection of materials is that they are considerably more malleable. It is much less cumbersome to alter their properties and successfully imitate a valid pattern. Employing harder and tougher materials will result in the opposite. I believe that the cost of developing more damage resistant shield infiltrator fey will result in a much more expensive variant."

That made it practically useless. The shield infiltrator fey were clearly disposable by nature. They had to take on a lot of risks in order to subvert the expectations of the aliens.

Once the fey successfully slipped in and approached the vulnerable hull, the alien crew members were bound to become alarmed!

If their gunnery crews weren't sleeping, then the point defenses of any decent warship would definitely open fire on the approaching shield infiltrator fey before they could complete their mission!

This made it even more important to keep the shield infiltrator fey affordable. Only by employing them in greater numbers would allow at least some of them to successfully make the journey.

Ves gained a much better understanding of the context surrounding the shield infiltrator fey.

It was still an incredibly useful product, but they needed to be utilized correctly in order to make the most of them. The risks were too great to load them all up with human commandos. Who would possibly be crazy enough to enter these death traps that had a high chance of getting shot to pieces by enemy point defenses?

The only approach that made sense was to load them with as much explosives as they could carry!

Ves could already imagine how the shield infiltrator fey would be used in the coming years.

The Fey Fianna that ferried them across the battlefield probably had to bring along a set of spare fey in order to maintain their full combat effectiveness after they had 'delivered' their initial payloads.

Kelsey Ampatoch clearly came to the same conclusion, because he activated another projection that showed a simulation of how they could be employed.

It showed a swarm of hundreds of Fey Fiannas accompanied by thousands of shield infiltrator fey.

They all approached an alien raiding fleet that was actively trying to shoot down the incoming machines as much as possible.

The fey made this a lot more difficult by dispersing their formations and generating decoys.

Once the Fey Fiannas successfully came close, they sent forth their shield infiltrator fey towards half-a-dozen warships!

Even though the fey started to get blasted to pieces at a much higher rate, there were simply too many of them. Roughly half of them collided against the transphasic energy shields as their attempt to pass off as friendly units failed for whatever reason.

The remaining half successfully passed through the energy shields before their crossed the remaining distance and detonated their payloads next to powerful gun batteries, open hangar bays and massive thruster nozzles!

The enemy warships had become crippled!

What an inspiring demonstration.

Even if it was just a simulation, it successfully captured the imagination of many people.

Ves' eyes lit up as he realized what this approach entailed.

"The Fey Fianna… have turned into bombers!"

The shield infiltrator fey opened up a brand new battle tactic that had not been seen since the early days of the Age of Conquest!

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