The Mech Touch

5830 Rubarthan Dream

The new ship design needed to undergo a lot of refinement before the E-66 Experimental Yard could begin construction.

That was fine as the facility still needed to complete the escort carrier in her main yard. The shipwrights and other planners would be eager to cut their teeth into a brand new challenge.

As Ves and Kezi studied the draft of the 1.5 kilometer long fleet carrier with the preliminary designation 'Grave Exemplar', both of them regarded the new ship concept from different angles.

To Chief Shipwright Keziramous Demodian, the vessel was a significant departure from Rubarthan naval doctrine.

The inclusion of support link technology that demanded the inclusion of mecher consultants significantly changed the role of the armored fleet carrier.

Though she was not armed with actual gun batteries like the carriers of the Red Association, her amazing support functions transformed her into a powerful force multiplier, but only if she accompanied her mechs at a closer proximity than normal.

The configuration of the base Exemplar design needed to be extensively redesigned in order to support her much more arduous goals. The new gravitic crusher that was supposed to thicken the prow armor by using literal salvage as input was insanely demanding. It was an incredible technical challenge to make it work on a consistent basis under the most difficult circumstances.

Kezi grew excited at the idea. He had not worked on a ship concept so different and from what his shipyard developed in the past. The Larkinson Clan clearly had different ideas on how to wage warfare.

That becobvious when Ves demanded that the Grave Exemplar still leave enough open space for future upgrades and refits. The ship needed to be built in a way that allowed her to be converted to a full 'Larkinson-style' fleet carrier at a future date.

What exactly Larkinson-style even meant was anyone's guess. Not even Ves could supply a well-defined definition of what he had in mind.

This was mainly because Ves had not yet explored what was possible with starships in the Age of Dawn.

Ordinary hyper ships did not cut it anymore. Everyone believed that slapping hyper technology onto modern human starships was enough to unlock their full potential, but Ves was of a different mind.

If E-technology was capable of augmenting the combat performance of mechs, then logically it should offer comparable benefits to starships.

It was much harder to do so in practice. Ves knew his limitations. He could design wondrous mechs, but he was an amateur when it cto designing starships.

He could not leverage his design philosophy at all as starships were conceptually different from mechs in so many different ways.

Ves could only cup with a limited number of ways he could make the starship alive, but none of them had been put to the test.

Starships were much more intricate than mechs. There were so many moving parts that were interdependent from each other that there was always a slight chance that small errors could cascade into catastrophic consequences.

What this meant was that Ves had to limit his proposals and rein in his desire to make his mark on the Grave Exemplar design.

He at least needed to wait until he tested his ideas to ensure they were safe and effective to use on a starship.

This was why he insisted that the Grave Exemplar retained enough room for future modifications. The shipwrights wouldn't like it because the cumbersdemand added a lot of additional complications to the shipbuilding project, but it was better to establish a solid foundation than to get stuck with a stopgap fleet carrier that would soon grow obsolete due to rapid technological development.

To Ves, the current concept of the Grave Exemplar was still incomplete. Once E-66 completed her initial construction, the resulting fleet carrier would enter into service as an 'incomplete' product.

Of course, incomplete did not mean that she would have gaping holes in her hull or anything. Most people probably wouldn't think that anything was amiss, but Ves would always know that the Grave Exemplar was still far from reaching her full state.

He did not know how much tneeded to pass before the Larkinson Clan was ready to transform her into a proper Larkinson ship. Ves hoped that he did not have to wait too long to produce significant advancements that were powerful enough to make his vessels stand out from the rest.

As a Holy Son of the Metal Scroll and the most innovative mech designer of his generation, it would be a disappointment if his starships were only superficially different from the hulls utilized by the remainder of human civilization!

In any case, Ves and Kezi concluded a highly fruitful preliminary design session.

Although Ves was not able to convey everything he wanted to see from Grave Exemplar, he had already given plenty of food for thought to the chief shipwright.

"It is difficult for you to understand what being a Larkinson truly means without formally joining my clan." The physical projection of Ves said at the end. "My clan will dispatch an extensive group of personnel to induct you into the Larkinson Clan and teach you why we are different. There are many benefits to joining. One of the most life-changing boons of becoming a Larkinson is that you can readily obtain companion spirits. This is a free benefit to every valuable talent or high-ranking personnel. As for everyone else, they only need to work hard and accumulate enough Larkinson merits to redeem this reward from the Larkinson Exchange."

Kezi's eyes sparkled when Ves brought up this subject.

"I have heard about that. There is a lot of talk and rumors about these companion spirits. Here in the Rubarthan Pact, there is talk that these living E energy constructs are derived from the god cat that has always accompanied the Destroyer of Worlds. Is… is there any truth to these claims?"

Ves wanted to palm his face. This again. Kezi was not the first person to ask this question.

While Ves wanted to admit the truth and state that he had been the person to create Emma, nobody would ever accept the explanation because he hadn't been alive at the time!

Perhaps he could lie and say that the mysterious 'Mr. S.' had been the one to develop companion spirits a long tago, but that would deprive Ves a lot of credit that he rightfully deserved.

He therefore decided to address this annoying issue with a straightforward lie.

"I cannot give any classified information to you." Ves apologetically responded. "The Red Association regards companion spirits as a strategic advantage of humanity. I can tell you that contemporary companion spirits share a lot in common with the giant feline construct that accompanies her Her Holiness. I hope that clarifies a few of your doubts."

"Thank you for your confirmation! With your permission, I will share your words with the rest of my personnel. Once they learn that they too can have god cats of their own, they will not hesitate to surrender their Rubarthan citizenships in order to becproper members of your young but promising clan!"

Ves raised his hand. "Whoa, there. Don't be in such a hurry! I applaud your enthusiasm, but do not make any unreasonable assumptions. Companion spirits all have the potential to evolve into incredibly powerful entities, but that depends heavily on the strength of their principals and their chosen development trajectory. Regardless of how they develop, it takes a huge amount of tbefore any of them grow strong enough to defeat mechs and change the outcof entire battles."

That successfully tempered Kezi's unreasonable expectations. "Ah, you are right, sir. This is much more realistic. It is too much to hope that obtaining companion spirits would allowto gain the power of a god."

"There is still hope for you." Ves placated the chief shipwright. "Actually, you have two chances to transcend into a higher life form. You can start to cultivate by yourself once the Red Collective gets up and running. You can also rely on your upcoming companion spirit to grow stronger, either on a passive or active basis. I know you don't quite understand what I am saying, but everything will becclear soon enough."

This reminded Ves that the Larkinson Clan had yet to develop and distribute formal cultivation methods to its members.

He should really get around to tackling this issue, but he was a bit reluctant to do so before the Red Collective had finished a set of rules that every cultivator had to abide by. One of the principal mandates of this future organization was to regulate cultivators and their weird methods.

This was an issue for later. The Evolution Witch had already scheduled the first virtual meeting of the much-hyped Interim Leadership Council. This pivotal event would enable every council member to figure out the basic framework of the Red Collective.

A part of Ves looked forward to this, as he could help shape the rules of this future rival of the Red Two.

Another part of him dreaded it as the inclusion of so many different powers would definitely result in constant arguments and disagreements.

Ves questioned whether the councilors could get anything done during these meetings.

In any case, once Ves ended his virtual meeting with the chief shipwright of the E-66 Experimental Yard, he went back to work and tried his best to catch up to his design work during the remainder of the journey.

A number of his incarnations had never slacked off in this regard, but it was always best for Ves himself to tackle this kind of work.

The only design project that Ves truly prioritized at this twas the Dark Zephyr Mark III Project.

Progress on this revolutionary new archetech expert mech design project was mainly dependent on Gloriana. She had been working hard non-stop while he took care of other business.

It remained difficult for her to make any significant progress, but her effort was not in vain. She started to look and sound more hopeful by the day.

"There is a secret to archetech that my mentors have yet to grasp." She claimed to Ves one day. "It surprisesthat the mech designers who received direct instruction from the Xenotechnician have yet to grasp this key insight. Maybe it is an illusion, but I do not think it is the case. The more I study and work with archetech, the closer I am getting to an answer. I think this may be the breakthrough that I am waiting for. Once I have learned this crucial secret, I anticipate that there will be no obstacles to the development of our first proper archemetal mech!"

Ves did not know what to make of her claims.

A part of him felt deeply skeptical that Gloriana discovered a hidden aspect of archetech that the entire mech industry including the Xenotechnician had managed to overlook.

Another part of him recalled all of the times where Gloriana had given him the benefit of the doubt when he acted on his own feelings and hunches.

The least he could do was give his wife the slevel of support.

"I hope you succeed in finding out whatever it is you are chasing, honey. Just keep our schedule and our timeline into account. We cannot stall our planned updates for all of our existing expert mechs for too long. They need to be brought into the Age of Dawn. If you haven't made any progress in months, then it may be better to put archetech aside until you have developed a deeper grasp of the technology."

Gloriana vehemently rejected this approach. "NO! You are wrong! This is the opposite of what I should do! I am increasingly developing the impression that everyone has fundamentally misunderstood what archetech means and how it is supposed to work! Every interpretation of this alien tech base is flawed from the beginning because humans such as ourselves are incapable of approaching it from the perspective of the race who invented it in the first place. I think we need we need to overturn our entire approach towards deciphering archetech! I already have an idea on how we can make this happen!"

Ves was taken aback by her strong response.

"How?"

"I need to understand the arche like I understand mech pilots. I can think of no better way to do so than to interface my mind with a living member of this alien species! It's perfect!"

"WHAT?!"