The Mech Touch (Web Novel)

5637 Talk with Tusa

Just as Ves and Gloriana anticipated, Venerable Tusa became ecstatic once he learned about the Dark Zephyr Mark III Project!

Though he did not anticipate the addition of the Combat Warp System and a dedicated mass hacking module to his expert mech, Tusa was open-minded enough to understand the implications of these additions.

"I can see how better maneuvering and strong hacking abilities can increase my survivability and impact in battle, but are you sure the Dark Zephyr can keep all of this fancy tech running?" The expert pilot questioned.

"To be honest, you will have to make a lot of judgment calls on how much power you want to allocate to these high-tech systems." Ves honestly replied. "I highly advise against running all of them at full power all of the time. You will have to get accustomed to entering into battle with the mindset of only using the right tools for the right job. If the opposing units are not that good at tracking your mech with their weapons, then it is better to keep the Combat Warp System at low power. If you are fighting against puelmer warships that are known for their relatively powerful computing systems, then it isn't worth the effort to hack the alien modules."

Tusa's projection nodded. "Understood. I can deal with that. I have been fighting for too long without enough options at my disposal. It would hardly make sense for me to complain about having too many ways to fight against our enemies."

"It will get even better if you manage to advance to ace pilot in the near future." Ves grinned. "My wife and I will try to stuff as much powerful tech into the updated design as possible, but we cannot go too far. Those considerations will go away as soon as you break through. Not only will you be able to control much more powerful technologies, but once we start to integrate proper first-class tech into your new ace mech, we can put a much more potent power reactor inside your machine, especially now that budgets have become less of a constraint than before. You will go from wandering through a withering desert to relaxing in a nice oasis."

The overall message was that the Dark Zephyr Mark III would not just be an high-tier expert mech, but also a precursor to a much more powerful ace mech.

This added a considerable amount of pressure onto Tusa's shoulders. His expression grew a little more strained as he realized that he needed to work even harder in order to live up to the expectations of his battle partner and the Design Department!

The more time he spent as an expert pilot, the longer everyone else had to wait for the Dark Zephyr to unlock his greater potential.

Given the kind of opponents that the Larkinson Clan were fighting against these days, Tusa felt more and more that only ace mechs possessed the individual agency to fight against huge alien battleships.

Seeing the Jedda Sandivar and the Royal Jeem defeat one powerful enemy asset after another had made Tusa feel more inadequate than ever!

After Ves had conveyed a summary of all of the important design characteristics of the upcoming version of the Dark Zephyr, he began to inquire about other matters.

"How is your battle partner doing these days? Is he happy?"

"Not really, but you know why. I am sure you can make him happy again by applying your promised upgrade."

"How many Ascension Runes has he accrued?"

"He has 12 of them now." Tusa said with a smile. "We have put all of the new ones into the Path of the Wind Dancer. Together with Trisk and Blackwing, we managed to streamline my ability to bypass transphasic energy shields. It is not as exhausting to pull off this move than before. I can sabotage more alien vessels in a single battle now. If the Mark III can make it easier for me to free myself from the shackles of reality, then that would be great."

"I already have a few ideas on how I can facilitate this process. Your ability is absolutely powerful, and I have no intention of neglecting it. I want to make it so that no obstacle can bar your passage."

From what Ves could ascertain, Tusa's iconic Leap of True Freedom was based on the concept of freedom.

Freedom happened to share a certain relation to the wind element. As long as Ves integrated strong wind-attributed hypers into the Dark Zephyr, the mech should not only become a lot faster, but also make it a lot less strenuous for Tusa to activate his strongest ability.

"What is the mood among the fleet?"

"We're doing pretty well. When you left the expeditionary fleet, more than a few people thought that you had chosen to abandon us, but not many Larkinsons feel that way anymore. We are continually amazed whenever we hear about your new successes. Our mech pilots have just begun to try out the Fey Fianna and they have already started to fall in love with them. If your other hyper mechs are just as good, then the troops really cannot wait to upgrade their old machines so that they can finally enjoy the benefits of hyper technology."

"They won't have to wait too long. My wife and I have already set a new plan after we have expanded the Design Department. If everything goes as planned, it should only take about 2 years to completely update our entire mech roster." Ves promised.

"We will hold you to that. I heard that you have already completed an upgrade to the Transcendent Punishers. When will Ylvaine's Eye be able to pilot the upgraded mechs? Their firepower is not bad, don't get me wrong, but more and more forces are starting to deploy hyper versions of their heavy artillery mechs."

"Tell the Ylvainans that they don't have to wait long at all." Ves quickly replied. "I plan to fabricate the initial copy of the Transcendent Punisher Mark III very soon. Once I have confirmed that the new mech has properly integrated its additional design spirit, I will clear the Spirit of Bentheim to begin the exhaustive upgrade process. Given how much work it takes to upgrade a single machine, it will probably take a while to complete this process. Our manufacturing complex in Davute will try to pitch in as well."

"Commander Melin will be happy to hear that. He's been waiting for this for a long time. I heard that once the updated Transcendent Punishers becomes available, he will resign from his position as a legion commander and fully turn his attention to piloting mechs."

Ves raised his eyebrow when he heard this piece of gossip. "Is Taon Melin struggling to fulfill his duties as a legion commander and an expert candidate?"

"He is. He has learned a lot about the bigger picture and what it takes to run a mech legion, but… it's clear that he isn't really suited to lead anything. I think he will finally undergo apotheosis if he can go back to basics. He expressly spent the last year on recruiting more command personnel and expanding the staff of his mech legion. He also put a lot of effort into bringing up Commander Derrick Kronon, who currently serves as his deputy."

"What do you know about Derrick Kronon?"

"Not much. He's a former citizen of the Ylvaine Protectorate, just like Commander Melin, so they are alike in many ways. It doesn't really matter because the Eye of Ylvaine has a lot more personal than before. It is already able to run on its own at this point."

"I see."

Ves personally felt it was a shame that Taon was unable to maintain his leadership position, but maybe it was for the best. He just hoped that the poor expert candidate did not feel as if he had wasted the years he spent as a leader.

"How is your wife Ranya faring?"

"She's busy. A lot has been happening since the start of the Age of Dawn. She is spending so much time aboard the Dragon's Den that I have been seeing her less and less. She's a lot happier than before, though. The Larkinson Biotech Institute is making so many interesting discoveries that a party takes place over there every week."

Director Ranya-Wodin Larkinson kept Ves regularly appraised with her reports.

Due to the unique capabilities of the Larkinson Clan, the LBI adapted particularly well to changes wrought by exotic radiation.

It should not take too much time for the LBI to complete enough innovations to run a profitable business.

The hope was to turn the Larkinson Biotech Institute into the second or third economic pillar of the Larkinson Clan!

Ves talked a bit more with Tusa about the state of the expeditionary fleet.

The more Ves heard about what went on over there, the more he grew nostalgic about the time he spent among the Larkinsons.

Though there were certainly advantages to living in the New Constantinople System, Ves possessed a restless heart. He still craved adventure.

"I need to go now, Tusa. It has been nice talking to you. Rest assured that we will try to complete the upgrade project as soon as possible. You should be prepared to take a trip to New Constantinople in order to initiate the actual upgrade process. I can't come to you, so you will have to come to me instead."

The expert pilot nodded. "I already had a feeling that would be the case. I won't mind a vacation."

Once the call came to an end, Ves went back to performing his other duties.

Gloriana invested most of her attention on supervising the new recruits and laying the groundwork for the Dark Zephyr Mark III Project.

She had also begun to explore the upgrade possibilities for the other expert mechs of the Larkinson Clan.

Fortunately for the likes of Venerable Dise and Venerable Joshua, Unending alloy was a form of hyper material, so the First Sword and the Everchanger were already technically hyper mechs.

The problem was that the expert mechs clad with Unending alloy did not fully utilize its potential.

After all, back when Ves still regarded Unending alloy as a prime material, he did not have access to an entire civilization's worth of study and technological accumulation on hyper technology.

This example taught Ves once again that the power of a civilization was much stronger and more encompassing than the efforts of any single individual!

Still, the fact that many of the early expert mechs of the Larkinson Clan were basically precursors to hyper mechs meant that their performance did not fall too far behind.

The Amaranto was just as capable of launching powerful precision attacks from long range as before. It had grown even more powerful due to the gradual strengthening effect of exotic radiation.

Ves knew that his wife was eager to launch more upgrade projects, but she did not want to apply too many untested technologies at the same time.

The Dark Zephyr could serve as a useful testbed for new technologies that the Larkinson mech designers hadn't been able to integrate in the Lionheart and the Blood Ember Mark II.

Gloriana had a big invention in the works, and Ves wanted to refine the E-

technology aspects of the Dark Zephyr.

As an older and more developed third order living mech, the Dark Zephyr was capable of utilizing its strong spiritual foundation for many more purposes than before!

Ves did not have a clear idea in mind yet, but he was ready to explore numerous different directions to find out how to exploit a third order living mech.

For example, he could impart the Dark Zephyr with a special cultivation technique that enabled the machine to accelerate his movement by producing extraordinary winds.

He also wanted to find a way to make Trisk play a bigger role as a design spirit. He needed to flesh out all of these ideas in order to make sure he was ready to implement them once the upgrade project started in earnest.