The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1054

The closing ceremony and all the recordings made there signified the end of the peace talks. No one expected it to pan out so smoothly as the negotiators found common ground a lot easier than they should. It was as if the irreconcilable hatred between the two states never even existed!

"It’s probably a function of the real threat looming over our heads." Ves surmised as he boarded the Lormant Carnival. Their stay on Harkensen II had ended and now everyone was on their way back. "As long as you’re rational enough, it just makes too much sense to put down the fighting between us to a halt."

Preparations for ratifying the recently-finalized peace treaty were already underway in the Bright Republic and the Vesia Kingdom. Despite the collusion of several highly-placed officials and statesmen in both states, getting everyone else to play along took a lot of wheeling and dealing.

The political machinations behind getting domestic support for the peace treaty went way above Ves’ head. He was not a politician nor a bureaucrat, so he left that domain to those who reveled in it such as Senator Tovar and his allies.

One welcome surprise that reassured Ves and the others was that the need to maintain secrecy decreased by a lot. The escort fleet received additional ships and mechs from the Spiral Shockers as reinforcements.

The best part of this development was that the reinforcements stopped bothering with any camouflage and brought their military-grade equipment! The elite Spiral Shockers that arrived to usher the Tovar Peace Delegation back home were able to display their full combat strength!

"Not that anyone has any reason now to attack us besides kidnapping Senator Tovar."

Even then, with the reinforcements from the elite mech regiment, the cost of attempting an attack was too ruinous to attempt.

"Besides, the negotiations proceeded without a hitch and the peace treaty has already been finalized. Even though we’re bringing back the data pad with the formal copy of the text, the contents have already been sent back to the Republic through the galactic net."

It wasn’t worth it to throw a mech regiment onto the bulked-up escort fleet just so they could destroy a fancy single data pad that only held some historical value at best.

To the opponents of the peace initiative, the rice had been cooked. Right now, the political battlefield concerning their attempts to continue the war moved on to the Bright Senate instead of wherever Senator Tovar could be found.

In short, it meant that Ves could finally put down his guard somewhat and retract some of his paranoia.

The long ride from the Reinald Republic to the Bright Republic took several weeks. During this time, Ves quickly finalized his vision for his mech after receiving occasional input from Professor Ventag.

He couldn’t have crafted such an intricate and well-put vision without the experience and depth of knowledge of a genuine Senior. As he finished his presentation of his super-medium space knight, the professor looked somewhat pensive if intrigued.

"It is not a space knight for the average mech pilot." He declared. "The additional options help compensate for the weaknesses brought by your design’s unusual weight class, but it is up to the mech pilot to make the most of it. A great mech pilot can achieve fifty percent more value out of your mech compared to a regular space knight, but how many of those are around? Most will squander your super-medium space knight’s potential."

This wasn’t anything new to Ves, who made peace with his design choices. "If that is the price I have to pay to design a unique mech, then so be it. This is a mech worth designing in my eyes. It’s more expensive than regular space knights and it will very likely fall into the premium price category, so amateurs have no place in piloting such an expensive machine."

"Even if your upcoming design flops in the market, it’s fine. For a young mech designer like you, it’s the experience that counts. In any case, NORA Consolidated takes up most of the burden of producing and maintaining your upcoming mech model, so you’ll only have to be concerned with a loss of reputation."

The LMC would still be able to rely on the success of its existing mech catalog to keep it aloft. However, Ves truly did need to add a third product to his meager catalog because the impending transition to the next generation already depressed sales and forced margins lower.

A niche product like the one he intended to design might not have much mass market appeal, but the high product margins allowed it to be an enduring source of cash flow just when the profits of his first two mech models failed to cover his company’s ongoing expenses and debt obligations.

The professor just wanted to make sure that Ves would be prepared for the consequences if he proceeded to continue onto this path.

"The internal architecture of my design will probably be above me." Ves admitted. "Since this falls under your specialty, I will rely on you to shore up my shortcomings in that area. I’ll instead focus most of my design efforts on the exterior and mechanical layout of my design."

"That is for the best. This is mainly your design, after all, so try not to rely on me more than you have to. From my evaluation of your design skills, your fundamentals are all robust, so it is not a problem for you to independently design the exterior features."

Now that both mech designers came to an agreement on the overall concept of his super-medium space knight, Ves returned to his quarters and proceeded to flesh out his vision into a formal draft design.

Ves had been thinking about how to employ his Triple Division technique. At this stage of the design process, it would help him out a lot to finalize the image intended to shape the X-Factor of his upcoming design.

He already thought over it for many times. Similar to the Crystal Lord, this time Ves introduced an incredibly strong spiritual entity in the form of Qilanxo.

As Ves held her in his thoughts all the time, he felt as if he managed to connect to her, if only nebulously.

He even had a feeling that she was still alive somehow. The imagine of Qilanxo in his mind was just too rich and vibrant, though it was only a pale copy in comparison to her actual spirit.