The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1055

The escort fleet made brisk progress in returning to the Bright Republic. It took more direct routes while enjoying heightened protection from the Spiral Shockers.

The highly-alert mech pilots of the elite mech regiment took their previous failures very hard. In order to make up for their abject performance, they intensified their security measures and proactively scared away any ships or mechs that strayed close.

Most of the attachés began to mingle together on the Lormant Carnival. Each of them maintained connections with the Tovar Family, so all of them belonged to the same side.

Ves didn’t really quite fit into their circles due to his youth and perceived lack of value. In their eyes, he was Senator Tovar and Professor Ventag’s pet. Even owning a multibillion credit business like the LMC failed to qualify him as an equal among their esteemed ranks.

"Well, I’ll reach those heights in time." He shook his head.

He was still young and had a long and fruitful life ahead of him with the help of his genetic optimizations.

Still, he missed the company of Lord Javier. As part of some under-the-table dealings, the Bright Republic finally surrendered custody over the Vesian noble. Lord Javier was now a free man once again and would be returning to the Imodris Duchy under Prince Colchester’s protection.

He did not miss Venerable Foster. That acrimonious expert pilot never hid her intense dislike for Ves. She used to hate him because he was a Brighter, but lately she began to develop a personal vendetta against Ves for some reason.

"That woman needs to learn how to relax. She’s way too intense for an expert pilot."

Most of the Larkinson expert pilots were much more well-adjusted. However, none of them quite ever measured up to Venerable Foster’s rapid growth and future potential. Ves had a notion that Foster’s single-mindedness was the source of much of her strength.

"The purer the mind, the more coherent the spirit."

Of course, it wasn’t all good. There were downsides associated with developing in this direction. Most notably, Venerable Foster’s personality exhibited some extreme traits that reminded Ves of the Skull Architect. They possessed a similar kind dedication towards their own pursuits, to the detriment of everything else.

"It’s too bad she’s isn’t specialized in piloting space knights. She would have been an interesting test subject to use." Ves idly chuckled. "Then again, her strong affection for the Hafner Duchy and the Vesia Kingdom might lead to adverse effects."

This was also why Ves limited his search for a suitable human myth to Brighter expert pilots. He did not wish to introduce a strong discomfort to his domestic customers by saddling them up with lingering animosity towards their own state!

"I’m not that stupid."

At this point, Ves felt less like a mech designer and more like a wizard. He found it remarkable how he incorporated a spiritual component to what others purely regarded as a technical and artistic profession. The increasing involvement of metaphysical elements in his design philosophy led to a design style that placed more importance on the spirit behind a design than its performance parameters.

It was fine if his mech did not perform at its best on paper. A mech was not a machine that worked in isolation. Instead, it achieved its full potential when paired with a mech pilot.

Properly speaking, his main specialty concerned the combination of man and machine rather than the machine by itself. When he designed a mech, he wasn’t only making design choices with regards to the technical specifications of his mech, but also attempted to influence the performance of the mech pilot!

The former required technical design skills, while the latter demanded more ephemeral intervention on a spiritual level.

It all sounded a bit tenuous to Ves. If not for believing in his own design philosophy and for all of the empirical proof he observed, he would have dismissed all of the hocus-pocus as pseudoscience.

"The more I excel in this area, the more noticeable the effect. At some point, some very observant industry insiders are going to ask some uncomfortable questions."

Ves didn’t know yet how he would handle the inquiries when they came. He couldn’t lie when it came to his design philosophy, because it was the central belief that underpinned his entire work!

As much as he became increasingly more apprehensive at what the hell he was actually doing, he had already decided upon this direction. There was no turning back unless he wanted to break his design philosophy, which at this point would negate everything he worked towards.

"I’m almost a Journeyman. It’s too late for second thoughts."

Right now, Ves wanted to access the records of expert pilots specialized in piloting space knights. He only knew a couple of them who occasionally popped up in the news, but there might be more of them in the Mech Corps who emerged recently during the war.

Ves visited Professor Ventag’s stateroom and approached the Senior with his unusual request.

"The records of our expert pilots are extremely sensitive and strictly guarded." Ventag frowned. "You are asking for a lot. Worse, you haven’t provided me with a good reason for me to give you access. Why do you need to study their records?"

"My upcoming super-medium space knight design is a mech that is suitable for highly-skilled mech pilots specialized in piloting space knights." Ves replied as he came up with an excuse. "I want to study the best and see what they have in common and how they employ their space knights to their full potential."

"Even so, I can grant you access to plenty of records and archival footage of advanced pilots. They are the actual target audience for your design, and you should tailor your space knight to them. Expert pilots operate on an entirely different paradigm and it is a bad idea to copy the traits of expert mechs onto more conventional mechs."