The Mech Touch (Web Novel)

5664 Heavy Artillery Redefined

"Attrition is our worst enemy. Without the support of the Milky Way, we are cut off and isolated in the periphery of the Red Ocean. The territories under our control cannot possibly support the construction of too many warships. We can partially compensate for that by salvaging the debris of alien warships that invade our space on a regular basis, but even if we multiply our shipyards by ten times, the warship industry's output will still be unable to keep up with the monumental rate of losses! We need smarter solutions. We must be more frugal with our resources and learn how to do more with less. Anything else will only cause us to play on our enemy's terms!"

The audience all sat at the tip of their seats. They had become both energized and incredibly curious at what the CEO of Isthmus Manufacturing had to say next!

Micky Tarukan finally began to swing his speech in the other direction. He leaned forward and gestured vigorously with his arms to add more force to his words.

"As a modern human, I believe with all my heart that mechs are the present and the future of the human race, in either galaxy. Here in the Red Ocean, we are blessed with many new resources that can enable us to produce hyper mechs with unsurpassed capabilities. In these difficult times, each of us in the mech industry must do our best to fulfill our collective mission. We must develop and promote a new generation of hyper mechs that can either match or come close enough to the performance of warships to make the latter redundant!"

That was indeed a noble mission, but it was anything but easy for mechs to overcome their enormous scale disadvantage.

Micky Tarukan smiled as he spoke his next words. "Do you think that this is an impossible mission to fulfill? Think again. Hyper mechs have more potential than you realize. Our most recently produced Fey Fiannas are already doing a fantastic job at using their disposable fey diverting enemy firepower and preventing much more important mechs and starships from suffering ruinous damage. However, as fantastic as our new drone mech model may be, their most pronounced strengths are mostly defensive or utility in nature. Today, we seek to introduce a hyper mech that can fulfill a different need. The product that I am about to reveal possesses such potent offensive might that they can give some of the gun batteries of warships a run for their money!"

The tall curtains that hung behind the speaking podium slowly parted to reveal an exhibition chamber that was shrouded in darkness behind an invisible electronic screen that blocked most scanning measures.

The ceiling lights gradually illuminated the enormous machine that looked larger and thicker than the typical mech.

Due to the dark coloration of the mech that was about to be revealed, most viewers were only able to observe its contours for the time being.

As the lights gradually unveiled the true form of what must clearly be a heavy mech, the CEO continued to address his audience with his impassioned words.

"The single most deficiency of mechs compared to warships is not speed, defense, longevity or personnel. Their limited capacities are inconsequential as long as they can undertake their duties much more efficiently than warships. As our industry is in the process of developing many mechs that seek to close the gap with armed starships, there is one aspect that has always eluded our efforts. That is offensive power."

The Rubarthan businessman briefly lowered his head.

"We always like to assume that size does not matter, but that is not the case. Outside of high-ranking mechs, the machines in use today can only carry weapons up to a certain size. Just as humans such as ourselves are unable to lift mech rifles with our tiny arms, a ranged mech is physically incapable of carrying a warship-grade cannon by itself. They can only wield weapons that match their overall size and capacity. That puts a hard limit on the caliber of ranged weapons that they can wield."

The large silhouette behind the CEO became increasingly more defined. It soon became clear that it was most definitely a heavy mech, and one that prominently featured ranged weapons.

When combined with Micky Tarukan's speech, it was pretty easy for most people to guess that he was about to introduce a heavy mech!

"Despite these limits, we cannot afford to admit defeat so early. Limiting the caliber of a mech cannon does not mean that it is hopeless for our products to match the firepower of warships. It is only a signal that we must be more inventive and seek alternative solutions that can make up for the obvious gaps in performance."

The lights began to shine brighter and brighter. This gradually revealed a black-coated heavy mech that looked unusual for numerous reasons.

Supported by six thick and heavy legs, the heavy artillery mech was more horizontal than vertical.

Featuring clear curved lines and a particularly prominent frontal main cannon, the mech began to resemble a beetle, the kind that possessed an exaggeratingly large horn!

"The first is to push the limit of the size of the cannon that a heavy mech is able to bear. One of our latest partner designers has successfully accomplished this in the product that I am about to reveal."

That certainly generated a bit of commotion among the more attentive guests and viewers.

The Larkinson Clan recently acquired a 20 percent stake in the massive mech manufacturer!

Isthmus Manufacturing had been enthusiastically producing lots of Fey Fiannas to meet the constantly growing market demand and raking in a huge amount of revenue in the process.

The unnamed mech designer that Micky Tarukan was clearly referring to could only be Professor Ves Larkinson!

His works had become increasingly better known. The miracles that he was able to produce had amassed a growing number of die-hard fans. Given how much Isthmus Manufacturing invested in this product reveal, there was no doubt that the heavy artillery mech being revealed at this time must have its own special strengths!

Tarukan smiled as the audience remained receptive to his words.

"Arming the largest possible cannon on a second-class heavy artillery mech is not enough for our purposes. When our bunker mechs are expected to breach the defenses of enemy warships from a distance, they often face an uphill battle as their calibers are incomparable to the primary gun batteries of a typical enemy vessel. If we seek to improve the firepower of our heavy artillery mechs even further, we must think laterally and increase their lethality in other ways."

As the light in the exhibition chamber finally reached their optimal levels, everyone was finally able to view the newly announced mech for the first time.

The heavy artillery mech definitely looked imposing. Its beetle aesthetic made it resemble a ferocious exobeast, but the 4 heavy cannons mounted on its back and the even more exaggerated super-heavy cannon mounted on the front caused the machine to look as if it truly meant business!

"Among second-class mechs, the heavy artillery mech is our most dependable source of fire support. In the Red War, they are most often utilized as bunker mechs for their ability to output the greatest amount of firepower while not requiring to move by themselves. For several centuries, our predecessors have refined and optimized the framework of heavy artillery mechs until it has reached its present form."

Despite the unusual features of the mech that Isthmus Manufacturing had unveiled, its visible characteristics did not deviate all that much from what people expected from this classic mech type.

This was not what Isthmus wanted people to think. It was up to Micky Tarukan to correct people's viewpoints.

"Many people have come under the belief that heavy artillery mechs have been perfected to such an extent that there is nothing more for mech designers to update this framework in any significant fashion. The development of better materials, technological refinements and so on may make the next generations of heavy artillery mechs stronger, but have they truly changed all that much compared to the past?"

Industry insiders knew exactly what Tarukan was talking about. The heavy artillery mech archetype had been iterated so much by so many different mech designers in the past that the sweet spots had all been figured out. Many professional mech designers tended to abide by the same formulas that defined their basic characteristics.

This was not necessarily bad, but it had also caused the performance of many heavy artillery mech models to fluctuate within the same range. It became harder for people to distinguish the superiority of one model to another.

"The market for heavy artillery mechs needs to be shaken up." Tarukan said to his audience. "The hyper versions of heavy artillery mechs that have come out in recent months are all powerful, but their offensive threat to warships has not changed all that much. Supporting hyper technologies can only do so much to amplify the damage inflicted by their attacks. The new product behind me can do all of that as well, but the difference is that it is built with a better relationship with E energy in mind."

The newly unveiled heavy artillery mech began to activate.

It was like a giant exobeast coming to life. Even before all of the machine's systems came online, the imposing heavy artillery mech spread a remarkable glow that caused many people to feel as if they had touched the presence of two powerful beings!

These beings were clearly different from each other. One of them even felt familiar to many guests!

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

The floor of the exhibition chamber shook as the heavy artillery mech turned around and began to point its massive main cannon at an upwards angle.

At the same time, a section of the ceiling slowly slid apart, revealing an open sky where a target was already hovering in the distance.

It turned out that the demonstration target was a properly functioning second-class combat carrier!

Although the ship was typically human, she approximated the defensive characteristics of alien sub-capital ships decently enough to serve as a stand-in for alien adversaries.

Was Isthmus Manufacturing actually willing to risk a combat carrier to make its point?

Once the heavy artillery adopted the right orientation, it began to load a transphasic round inside the massive main gun.

At the same time, the super-heavy gauss cannon began to accumulate a lot of energy. It needed to generate immense amounts of electromagnetic force in order to propel its round forward to the best of its ability!

The thrum of charging components caused the heavy artillery mech to look more and more menacing and dangerous, yet Micky Tarukan remained unruffled.

"As the Fey Fianna has proven on the battlefield, mechs can become stronger when they are alive. They can absorb more E energy than ordinary machines and they can utilize it more proficiently as well. Yet living mechs possess another trait that has proven to be a gamechanger on many different occasions. Through the methods of their inventive designer, his living mechs have gained the ability to connect to gods. For a long time, their glows have been regarded as a complementary function, nothing more, nothing less. This is a grave oversight as glows can be much more helpful to us than you realize."

A grin gradually emerged on the CEO's face.

"Instead of allowing living mechs to borrow the power of unknown and inhuman gods, why not turn to our own deities? Our civilization is guarded by 8 protector gods, each of whom excel in their own areas. Our Rubarthan Pact is blessed with the protection of two god pilots in particular, but it is difficult to notice their unceasing contributions in practice because they are so distant and engaged in their own important missions. What if I can tell you that is no longer the case? What if I reveal to you that you can readily borrow the help of one of our esteemed god pilots just by utilizing a single mech model that is made in the image of her iconic god mech?"

Though Micky played fast and loose with the truth, it didn't matter as the hype had suddenly spiked and reached another level!

"With the release of the latest mech model that we have prepared together with its principal designer, we seek to upend the paradigm for heavy artillery mechs and strike our most important blow yet against the resurgence of warships! No longer shall these massive and titanically wasteful vessels be able to claim that they hold a monopoly on heavy firepower. Their dumb gun batteries may have the advantage in size, but their power is entirely derived from scale and material construction. In the case of our latest release, its power is not just derived from excellent material design, but also its capacity to borrow the power of the most destructive god pilot of all time!"

As the main cannon had reached its full charge, it could only maintain its state for a brief moment of time before something started to break!

"Are you skeptical of my claims? Then let the results speak for themselves."

BOOOOOOOOM!

The transphasic super-heavy gauss round cut through the sound barrier in an instant and generated such a loud noise that the people in the audience could feel the power of the weapons discharge through the vibrations of their bodies!

Before the guests regained their composure, a titanically powerful impact struck the combat carrier in the distance!

Crunch!

Though the vessel flew too far away to produce another shocking noise, the strike was so powerful that the entire hull of the starship deformed all at once!

Not only that, but the vessel suffered such catastrophic kinetic damage that she was no longer able to maintain altitude!

The heavily deformed and half-broken vessel plunged to the ground as if the sole hit had completely broken her spine!

Though the demonstration did not reveal too much, what everyone saw just now made many of them suspect that the newly introduced mech model had just redefined the concept of heavy artillery!