The Mech Touch

6034 Stark's Ulterior Motive

Ves adored Gloriana's vision for the Amaranto.

He also felt conflicted by her decision to double down on turning the expert marksman mech into a machine that existed for no other purpose than to launch powerful attacks from the rear.

If Venerable Davia Stark successfully managed to advance to the rank of ace pilot, the Amaranto at that twould amplify all of her strengths and only modestly increased her ability to cope against powerful enemy champions.

This was a very risky choice. Ace mechs in people's imagination were machines that were prototypical god mechs. They had already gained so much power that they completely transcended the existence of ordinary mechs.

Ace mechs were rare and often deployed alongside a large troop of mechs on an individual basis.

This meant that ace mechs were always designed to be self- sufficient. They at least needed to possess the ability to fight against other ace mechs.

It would be great if ace mechs possessed pronounced strengths based on the specializations of the ace pilot, but it would be devastating if their weaknesses were severe enough to cause them to be defeated with ease!

As long as they confronted the wrong sort of enemy, a state might lose an incredibly valuable asset!

This was why ace mechs increasingly tended to evolve into multipurpose mechs as their pilots continued to grow in strength. It didn't matter if the ace mechs no longer excelled in any area as long as their weaknesses no longer becas glaring.

The more valuable the ace pilot, the less their employers were willing to lose their precious investment!

States and organizations would rather see their ace pilots get defeated to the point where they had to flee the battlefield in tatters than to see their most valuable strategic assets get countered and killed with ease!

Of course, not every ace mech evolved in this direction. The personality and stubbornness of many ace pilots sometimes made their employers helpless.

For example, Saint Jeremiah Gauge insisted on sticking to the swordsman mech archetype. This somewhat worked out as the powerful Fridayman ace pilot was able to launch very powerful sword energy attacks that could easily strike targets at a distance.

However, there was no way his Neo Amadeus could beat a true ranged ace mech in terms of ranged firepower back when the ace pilot was alive.

The Amaranto Mark III envisioned by Gloriana would suffer from a similar shortcoming. No matter whether she beca high-tier expert mech or an ace mech, the high-end marksman mech would always be able to dominate any enemy from afar, but instantly becincredibly vulnerable up close!

Venerable Stark's persistent offensive focus caused her to neglect the development of her defensive skills and abilities. Even if the Amaranto was able to wield a few backup knives or swords, there was no way the relatively fragile mech could overpower an equivalent enemy up close!

As Ves continued to feel conflicted over the glaring shortcomings of Gloriana's draft design, his wife leaned forward and placed her palm onto his hand.

"You are still thinking about an ace mech like a member of the Larkinson Family from the Age of Mechs. Haven't you realized that its role has changed? The Red War is a very different sort of conflict from the wars of the past. Unlike the human mech armies that our clan fought against in the past, the alien fleets are made up of completely different enemy types that all possess very different traits."

"The aliens may be different, Gloriana, but that does not mean our expert mechs and ace mechs have becinvincible. You cannot underestimate their determination to defeat our champions."

"Do you think it is that easy for the native aliens to counter our high-ranking mechs? You already identified that the aliens are much less able to field genuine champions at the ace mech level on the battlefield. The only champions that can truly pose a threat to our ace mechs are phase whales and phase lords, but they rarely put their lives at risk. The native aliens have nothing else to rely upon. Their elite phasefighters are nothing without the ability to induce pilot breakthroughs."

His wife raised a good point. The Amaranto Mark III should have little to fear from the enemy so long as the enemy did not deploy a rare phase leader.

The Amaranto should easily be able to deal with enemy warships and phasefighters, especially if the living mech was able to maintain distance. Venerable Stark never feared a duel at range!

However, if the enemy fleet happened to host a phase lord, then the Amaranto would not be able to fare well if she failed to snipe this powerful foe at a distance!

Phase lords were infamously tough and difficult to kill. Their body mass was enormous and their spatial barriers were very difficult to breach. If they happened to possess giant suits of armor like the Eminence of Torment, then they could gain even more layers of protection!

All of that made it increasingly more difficult for the Amaranto to take down phase lords at a distance. There was little the living mech could do to stop such a resilient foe from getting closer.

Ves let out a helpless sigh. "If we commit to this design direction, then the Amaranto Mark III should never be deployed by herself. She must always be accompanied by an ace mech that can stop enemy champions in their tracks."

Gloriana did not see a problem with this arrangement.

"You are fixating too much on the demerits of my proposal. I admit that the Amaranto Mark III at the ace mech-level is not able to take care of herself as well as other ace mechs, but the main advantage we gain is that we can gain a supremely powerful offensive platform that is able to inflict the greatest amount of precision damage that a Saint can produce! Such an ace mech can rival an alien battleship in terms of firepower. As long as Davia Stark continues to grow and develop her abilities, she will develop in a similar vein to the Destroyer of Worlds, who also chose to commit to piloting artillery mechs when she could have chosen differently. In an age where warships have made a resurgence, it has beceven more important for us to gain the ability to dominate our enemies at range."

She made a very good point. Ves couldn't help but becswayed by her arguments. So what if the Amaranto Mark III continued to possess glaring weaknesses? As long as the future ace mech continued to act in concert with a well- equipped mech army that could adequately block enemies from getting close, then the powerful marksman mech would be able to take down every threatening target from a distance!

"We already have plenty of ace pilot candidates who are versatile such as Venerable Joshua and others who excel in close quarter combat such as Venerable Vincent Ricklin." Gloriana continued. "It still remains uncertain how long it will take for them to break through, but I am convinced that enough of them will advance into ace pilots in the coming decade that we do not have to be concerned about the Amaranto lacking protection any longer. The main reason why you are so worried is because we only have one other ace pilot at the moment."

If Stark was the only ace pilot who fought on behalf of the Larkinson Clan, then Ves would feel a lot more reluctant about adopting Gloriana's proposal.

The rise of Saint Tusa slightly relieved Ves' concerns, but not to a large extent.

The Dark Zephyr Mark III was not a suitable complement to the Amaranto Mark III at all. The former was a light mech that was not able to block tough and powerful enemies aside from killing them. If the latter was not possible, then the Amaranto would still be in grave danger!

It would be better if the Amaranto Mark III was paired with an ace mech version of the Bastion. If Jannzi managed to break through, she could resher old responsibility of serving as an indomitable shield to the most powerful offensive asset of the Larkinson Clan.

Unlike the Dark Zephyr Mark III, the Jedda Sandivar of the Adelaide Mercenary Company excelled at confusing and containing enemies, both weak and powerful.

In the previous battle, the Jedda Sandivar completely managed to stop the Eminence of Torment from launching deadly spatial ripple attacks at the starships of the expeditionary fleet!

This told Ves that the Amaranto Mark III probably wouldn't have much to fear if she resumed her place in the expeditionary fleet.

The trouble cwhen it was tfor the Premier Branch to participate in the first wave of deep strike operations.

Unless the Jedda Sandivar got upgraded into a first-class ace mech and joined his first-class fleet as a hired retainer, it would be difficult for the Amaranto Mark III to remain safe while she was deployed deep behind enemy lines.

The probability of encountering phase whales and phase lords was much greater when attacking the heartland of alien space!

Perhaps another ace pilot or two might emerge among the current candidates of the Larkinson Clan in the next few years, but what if they took longer to trigger their second apotheosis?

Ves found it far too risky to embark on a deep strike expedition with just the Dark Zephyr Mark III and the Amaranto Mark III in tow!

He quietly cursed the high-tier expert pilots who apparently took their sweet tto breakthrough before he turned his attention back to Gloriana's proposal.

Although Ves was tempted to pull back on her extrdesign concept, that would be detrimental to the Larkinson Clan in the long run. The fit between Venerable Stark and her battle partner would also drop.

"Okay." He eventually said. "I am fine with this proposal as long as Venerable Davia Stark is aware of all of the pros and cons of your proposal."

"Venerable Stark already approves of my design choices. I consulted her first before I drafted the Amaranto Mark III. She is very cognizant of the vulnerabilities of this mech concept, but she prizes the ability to snipe targets at long range far too much to accept any compromises in this aspect. In fact, she sounded absolutely obsessed with preserving this key strength."

Though Ves did not think about it, hearing how Venerable Stark not only accepted this design direction, but absolutely embraced it, reminded him of the reason why she managed to regain her strength when she was at her lowest point in her career.

His expression turned to stone when he made a very frightening guess about Venerable Stark's plan.

What if she aspired to becthe most powerful sniper in the Red Ocean so that she could assassinate everyone she perceived to be at fault for the original tragedy that had befallen the people of the Komodo Star Sector that got engulfed by the sandmen?

Although hardly anyone today remembered the Sand War, Venerable Davia Stark was one of the few people who still remained traumatized by the genocide that swept up entire third-rate states!

Though she managed to do a good job of hiding it, Ves could not forget that she harbored a grudge against the mechers and fleeters for being so neglectful to the lives and wellbeing of ordinary space peasants!

Still, even if she wanted to tear down the foundation of the offshoots of the MTA and CFA in the Red Ocean, it would be far too easy for her to get wiped out if she went on a one woman crusade.

The only way she could make the Red Two pay for the sins of the past was by engaging in guerilla warfare.

The most effective way to do this was to becso good at sniping targets at range that not a single defensive measure could stop her attacks!

As long as her Amaranto becstrong enough to pierce through the defenses of phase leaders, Davia Stark should also be able to assassinate important officers and dignitaries of the Red Two!