The Mech Touch (Web Novel)

The Hexer communication mech that Gloriana envisioned was one of the most basic, simplest, cheapest and pathetic second-class mechs that Ves had ever seen.

The entire concept of it made it clear to anyone that the auxiliary mech was nothing more than a movable, adaptable communications relay.

"It carries some decent sensors as well." Gloriana defended her vision. "If we want to turn it into an asset on the battlefield, then it has to do more than opening up reliable communication channels. Since we aren't putting any weapon systems and everything related to them in our mech, we've freed up a lot of capacity. It can fulfill the role of a scout as well, though I want to make sure we devote enough space for its ECM systems and short-range communication systems."

The latter caused Ves to raise his eyebrows. "I can understand the need for ECM systems. It's too costly to turn it into a stealth mech, so the next best option is to add modules that can reduce its energy signature to enemy sensors. What I don't understand is why you want to invest so much in additional communication components. The mech doesn't need anything extra in order to perform its main role."

After all, the greatest advantage of spiritual components was that they did not take up any physical space. No matter how little space the mech had left, it took no effort for Ves to squeeze in a couple of spiritual constructs.

Of course, Ves had to pay another price in order to add spiritual capabilities to a product. The spiritual foundation of a mech design essentially represented the spiritual capacity of a mech.

The greater the foundation, the more spiritual load it could bear.

Adding one or two powerful abilities was his current limit. He could add more, but that entailed weakening everything else. That was not a good design approach in his opinion.

For this simple communication mech, Ves did not intend to add any extra features. He intended to devote as much spiritual capacity as possible to instil the strongest possible spiritual communication capabilities into this design.

While Ves didn't exactly know how powerful he could make these features, he was confident he could spark a minor revolution in this field!

However, Gloriana did not stop her thoughts at this point. She pointed her finger at the various communication arrays and other components.

"The long-range communication system that you're responsible for implementing is good for connecting mech units to central commands and so on. However, it's not useful in connecting to mechs that lack this system. Try and imagine a situation where a mech company is fighting under heavy jamming. A lot of signals will become garbled, thereby preventing individual mechs from transmitting lots of crucial data to each other. Our comm mech must be able to pick up and transit high-fidelity communication signals even under heavy jamming."

"You're talking about very expensive equipment."

"That's only for communication systems that are meant to transmit signals across longer distances." Gloriana shook her head. "We already have your divine arrays for that. What we need is to ensure solid connectivity at shorter ranges. On land, we're talking an effective range of 1 kilometer. In space, it needs to be at least at least 10 kilometers, though ideally we should aim for more."

He had to admit her logic was sound. While Ves personally didn't have much experience with the level of jamming that Gloriana talked about, he knew that it could get quite intense in second-class mech combat.

This was a necessary development on land. It was not that difficult for second-class mech designers to develop an artillery mech that could fire at targets over the horizon with pin-point accuracy.

Still, in order to hit anything at such distance, the artillery mech needed accurate targeting data.

If a mech unit was able to observe an enemy formation and transmit precise data to a prepared group of artillery mechs, then a lot of shelling would commence very soon!

Of course, artillery mechs were never able to pound enemy fortifications and units with impunity. They were large, heavy and somewhat immobile. Each time they fired, they emitted a lot of heat, sound, pressure and other emissions, thereby exposing their positions to any watchful scouts. This left them vulnerable to counter-battery fire or lightning raids by enemy aerial mechs.

In short, the side who fired first might not have the last laugh!

A tenuous balance had formed due to all of these developments. An intricate web of threats and countermeasures forced both sides to make careful use of their artillery mechs. These were powerful but very vulnerable and expensive assets that played a crucial role in constraining the actions of the enemy. Ruining an entire artillery mech company not only deprived its owners with a lot of valuable machines, but could also exposed many other other mech companies to lots of shelling!

The insertion of a single communication mech that promised to enable reliable communication transmissions across battlefields could easily upend this balance!

This was what Gloriana was truly aiming for. The communication mech might not be that impressive in itself, but once it slotted into the mech lineup of the Hex Army, it could amplify the performance of many other mechs!

As Ves comprehend Gloriana's goal, he became impressed by her foresight and ambition.

"I see! It's much like the Blessed Squire in that regard. Both function as force multipliers!"

The Blessed Squire boosted the performance of other mechs with the Superior Mother's glow. To perform its function effectively, it had to be in the thick of combat, so it made sense to turn it into a knight mech.

The communication mech envisioned by Gloriana did not need to be in a central position. In fact, it was the opposite. The mech wanted to attract as little attention as possible.

"It doesn't make much sense for this mech to possess a glow." Ves remarked. "We'll have to suppress it for this design."

"Can you do that, Ves?" Gloriana curiously asked.

Ves nodded. He had already done so for the Devil Tiger. Though repressing its glow caused the mech to acquire a strange charm, at the very least it didn't resemble a spiritual torch in the dark!

"No problem. Only the mech pilot will experience its glow."

"Wait. Try to gear our mech towards the dust phase of existence. Maybe it will have a surprising effect." She requested.

Ves considered her proposal. "You might be onto something. I can't promise it will have the effect you desire."

"If it works, we can also implement this effect onto our stealth mech!"

That was a much more complicated project. While Ves was interested in designing a real stealth mech, he did not look forward to solving all of its technical challenges. It took a lot of precision design work in order to contain or dampen as many possible emissions as possible.

Just a single leak or design flaw could easily expose the stealth mech to enemy sensors, thereby dooming it! Without the ability to hide from enemy sensors, stealth mechs were incredibly vulnerable to enemy attacks!

That particular project was not on the agenda today. For now, Ves and Gloriana just wanted to establish a solid plan for their communication mech design project.

Their discussion continued on for a while. They made a number of other notable design choices.

One of them was to split up the mech into two variants.

"You want us to design two versions of this mech?!"

"It's not as bad as it sounds, Ves! Look at our draft design. Does this look like a complicated mech to you? If we leave aside the auxiliary modules, its frame is incredibly simple and free of clutter. Since our communication mech is meant to be paired with low-quality mech pilots, we have to simplify its controls as much as possible."

For low-skilled mech pilots, piloting a regular Hexer military mech was out of the question. Modern mechs were already several times more difficult to pilot than mechs developed in the past, and they would continue to become more complex over time.

In order to simplify the controls of a mech, its design needed to be stripped with many innovations that made modern mechs better.

It was like turning back the clock in a sense.

This meant that while the mech became easier to pilot, its performance and control range decreased as well.

Even if Ves insisted on retaining some combat ability for the mech, it simply wouldn't be able to keep up with the high-intensity battles of the Komodo War!

"Maybe you have a point. Since the mech design is so small and simple, I guess it's possible to design two concurrent versions."

Gloriana wanted to design a version of the communication mech that was optimized for landbound deployment. She also wanted a slightly more complicated version that was optimized for spaceborn combat.

Mounting a flight system onto a light mech was very cumbersome. The design needed to devote a fair amount of capacity in order to accommodate such a module. A lot of other characteristics of the mech would change as well such as the energy consumption and heat management of the mech.

Still, despite these complications, the communication mech was still an easy mech to design to design. Its relatively low budget, simplified internal architecture and basic components meant that designing two versions at once did not match the workload of designing a more advanced second-class mech such as the Valkyrie Redeemer or the Transcendent Punisher.

Ves reluctantly nodded. "We can do this I suppose."

"That's great! The Hex Army will be pleased to receive two separate versions. By the way, this mech design needs a name or at least a temporary codename. I'm thinking of Cherub."

"Cherub?" Ves frowned for a moment.

He quickly accessed the galactic net and became flooded by images of pink-cheeked boys with flying wings. Some of them carried bows and arrows, but more often than not they were depicted as cute or mischievous infantiles!

"So what do you think, Ves?" She asked as her eyes sparkled with delight.

She loved the name she came up for the mech!

"..."

In the end, he didn't bother to argue with Gloriana. She obviously insisted on it and Ves didn't want to ruin their fragile harmony over a trivial naming issue.

Besides, he had to admit that the name fit the vision of the mech. It was a harmless auxiliary mech that was meant to be piloted by the equivalent of baby boys in Hexer society.

Ves wasn't sure what the male Hexer mech pilots would think if the Hex Army compelled them to pilot the Cherub. Would they understand its meaning? He wasn't sure whether its intended mech pilots would interpret the name as an honor or an insult.

With that decision set, he brought up one more issue.

"Since this project entails designing two related mechs, we need to work together with Juliet."

"What? No! There's no need for her involvement. I can take care of everything. This is such a simple mech design that her expertise won't have much room to play."

Ves crossed his arms. "Let Juliet be the judge of that. The spaceborn variant especially needs her input. Don't fight me on this. I've already made my choice. The Cherub has no weapons at all and very little armor. It relies entirely on mobility, cover and ECM in order to stay alive on the battlefield. Since mobility plays such a crucial role in its effective performance, we need to pull in a specialist who can amplify this aspect as much as possible."

Though Gloriana kept shaking her head, Ves held his ground on this issue. He truly believed the Cherub would become a significantly better mech if Juliet worked on its mobility.

As a Journeyman, she should not be weak in this aspect!

Fortunately, Gloriana finally acquiesced. It was difficult for her to deny that her Cherub design would probably be better off if Juliet was able to provide her input.