The Mech Touch

Chapter 7531  Overallocation

The expanded threat profile of the deathborn forced Ves and the other Larkinsons to reevaluate the future needs of their clan.

They could no longer take their time to develop highly suitable living mechs that precisely met the needs of their mech pilots.

The Premier Fleet possessed a number of very glaring shortcomings that had been brutally exposed during the most recent engagement.

Ves did not want to take too many chances and let these vulnerabilities fester for too long.

This was why he decided that as soon as the Nemesis Campaign came to an end, he would go back and immediately adapt the completed version of the Arboreal Project for the Premier Fleet.

The positioning of his Woodsap mechs had to be changed.

His wife described this shift in the most succinct fashion.

"It seems that you have made up your mind to have your first Woodsap mech model play the role of the Bright Warrior in the Premier Fleet. I can foresee how this can go. It will work, but not entirely. The Bright Warrior is irreplaceable in my opinion. Though it has never ranked at the top of the list in terms of power or popularity, its universality, modularity and customizability are well-praised. While your Woodsap mechs are also highly adaptable, that still does not change the fact that they are entirely designed for Terran needs and specifications. It will take a considerable amount of work to make it more compatible with Larkinson standards and sensibilities, and you will never be able to reach perfection."

Ves did not look too bothered. "I am fine with that. I don't need to reach perfection in a single leap. You can consider this a stopgap solution. It should tide us over for a few years until I have completed the development of more first-class mass production models. At the very least, once I have completed the design of our Bloodfire mech, many of our mech pilots will be attracted. Bloodfire mechs are not only closer to familiar territory, but they are also ideal for highly passionate soldiers, of which we have in abundance in our clan."

He truly looked forward to the introduction of his much-anticipated Bloodfire mechs. They worked according to very similar principles as the Dominion of Man, though hardly anyone was aware of this connection.

What mattered was that Ves had seen how much the deep utilization of fire energy completely transformed the Dominion of Man from a regular dreadnought into what people had already begun to describe as a god ship.

Although the birth of Furia played a very big role in that, Ves believed that granting his upcoming Bloodfire mechs just a fraction of this transcendent boost was enough to trigger a qualitative change on the battlefield!

However, all of this could only be realized months or years from now on. Ves did not see much point in spending too much time on making increasingly more elaborate plans for the future when he still needed to overcome the challenges of the present.

The gathered users of the Mech Designer System soon turned back to the more immediate issues at hand.

"I can contact the Red Collective and ask whether they have any knowledge related to the manipulation of death E energy for you." Ketis responded after Ves made his first request. "I personally doubt they can offer any immediate solutions. Death energy is… obscure. It is difficult to generate it in great quantities unless you find yourself in the middle of a large battlefield or a planetary cleansing in the making. Such events do happen across the frontlines from time to time, but it is not as if there are collies nearby that are avidly collecting detailed data with their specialized sensor systems."

"I know, but perhaps they have something useful in their preserved scrolls and dusty tomes." Ves responded. "We cannot count on them to bail us out, though. We need to proceed according to the worst-case scenario. It will be up to us to bear the burden of mitigating the dangers of combating the deathborn."

Alexa Streon looked around the System Space. "How do you plan to do so, sir?"

"Let us start with identifying the exact problems that we need to solve, Alexa. I can mention a lot of things, but let us focus on the two biggest issues. First, the dark miasma is too debilitating. We need a more effective way to even the odds in terms of energy field warfare. We can do so by developing a strong energy field that can more effectively counter the dark miasma, or we can develop an upgrade that can make our assets more resistant to its effects."

"Neither of them sound easy to realize." Ketis commented. "The former probably demands you to upgrade the qi formation that you have mentioned. That sounds impossible, especially since it not only falls outside of your expertise, but also requires a lot more time to come up with a truly effective solution."

Ves grimaced but nodded. "You are right, Ketis. That is why I am personally banking on the second option. There has to be a way for us to develop a quick gadget or other product that can patch our existing vulnerabilities. It does not have to grant perfect immunity against the dark miasma. A partial solution is better than no solution."

The other mech designers nodded as well. They agreed that this was probably the most practical and realistic approach.

"The second problem that we need to address is just as troublesome if not more." Ves continued. "I am highly concerned with our personnel's vulnerabilities to mental and spiritual attacks. Since the Red Association has refused to authorize the implementation of their so-called true mechs in this operation, it is up to us to develop a solution ourselves. Perhaps our work on addressing the first problem will also incidentally help with the second problem, but that may be too good to be true. Regardless, letting our mech pilots and other personnel fight against the deathborn when they are inadequately protected against these invisible attacks sounds extremely stupid to me. We owe it to our boys and girls to provide them with decent protection."

That sounded very difficult. Even Ketis could not completely guarantee that her Swordmaidens could resist such esoteric attacks with 100 percent certainty.

"So how do you plan to address these two problems?" She asked. "Do you want to take a look at the Tree of Possibilities?"

"Yes, though I also plan to stop by the Infinite Bazaar on the way. Who knows whether it sells a convenient item that can give us the key we need to address one of the core issues."

The four users of the Mech Designer System proceeded to climb up the mountain.

They took their time in doing so. Here in the System Space, the urgency of the situation was not as strong.

Ves did not realize how much he needed a break from reality. It was only now that he became immersed in the completely clean and pure atmosphere of this artificial space that he could feel much of the tension of his true body starting to fade.

His wife and his direct disciple loosened up as well. They no longer appeared to be as stressed and high-strung as before.

Though they all realized that they would soon revert to their previous selves when they exited the System Space, that did not diminish the value of this period of serenity.

"I wish I could bring our children here." Gloriana wistfully sighed.

"Perhaps in the future." Ves responded. "It will take a few years, though. It is not good to expose them to the wonders of the System too soon."

"I know."

As they entered the Infinite Bazaar, they began to browse and admire all of the potions, alloys, high-tech gadgets and other bits and pieces on display.

Of course, many of them charged a premium in terms of Ascension Points. In a time where they had to work hard just to earn a single AP, they could not afford to spend their meager budgets so freely.

It did not take long before they all found out how far they could go with their spending.

"Does no one have more than a hundred AP in their accounts?" Ves asked with a bit of distress in his voice.

The three women all shook their heads at once.

Let alone a hundred, it was questionable whether they could scrounge up half that amount!

"Who told us that we needed to invest at least half of our earnings into upgrading the Dimension Observatory?" Ketis flatly said. "We have been diligently following your directive all this time. It paid off so far. I can create breaches into the dimensional walls that last much longer than before. We have mined so much superdimensional matter that we have already changed the course of the Red War."

"Superdimensional matter will not help us all that much when fighting against the deathborn." Gloriana regretfully said. "Our AP allocation is problematic now that we have the benefit of hindsight. We overspecialized in mining strategic resources that can serve us especially well in our fight against the Red Cabal. This would have been perfect if the phase leaders are the only enemies that matter. The sudden outbreak of mutated voribugs has already introduced a flaw in that argument. The arrival of the deathborn has almost broken it entirely. Superdimensional technology is still useful, but it is no longer a miracle solution."

This was an unpleasant realization, but one they had to accept.

Ves regretted that he did not retain his old habits and put more effort into building up a healthy reserve of Ascension Points.

Now, he and the other users had very little AP available to spend on System goods.

Gloriana already thought of a way to remedy this particular issue.

"Since we are short on AP, why not start a new marathon? The deathborn has pushed our backs against the wall. There is no stronger motivation for us to complete several Missions in a row. We cannot overlook any opportunity to earn large amounts of AP."

That… actually made sense.