The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1104

Sometimes, the simplicity of a ballistic weapon trumped more advanced ones such as plasma weapons or gravitic weapons.

High tech weaponry often implied more firepower or more damage dealing capabilities, but they also imposed higher demands.

To Ves, he already possessed a copy of one of the pinnacle personal weapons in human space. While his Amastendira saved his life time and time again, there would come a point where even its prodigious firepower might fail or be pushed to the limits of its heat capacity.

In those times, a second weapon might come in handy. If his opponents ever learned about his Amastendira and made a lot of preparations to negate energy damage, then possessing a weapon that dealt a surprising amount of physical damage would be able to throw them off a loop.

What Ves requested earlier shouldn’t be so easy to fulfill. He wanted to pick out a ballistic pistol that possessed both a high capacity but also packed a lot of punch.

Cheaper ballistic pistols could only fulfill one or the other. In contrast, some of the products offered by Renny’s Outfitters did their best to accommodate both demands.

A ballistic weapon in this day and age could be quite simple and cheap. Some were barely distinguishable from their more ancient counterparts that humanity used when they were still stuck on a single planet.

However, the use of more sophisticated materials, more potent propellants, more advanced rounds, more capable integrated software and most importantly the use of inertial dampeners to mitigate the enormous recoil of the powerful rounds allowed them to remain relevant even in an age of laser and plasma weapons!

Therefore, none of the ballistic pistols on display were negligible. Some could outright even punch through a suit medium combat armor with a single shot!

Unfortunately, those powerful weapons usually consisted of massive handcannons or revolvers that carried only six rounds at most.

After discounting the pistols with way too much power and not enough capacity, Ves studied the various weapons that met his criteria. He eventually noticed one ballistic pistol that exuded a bit more spirituality than the other handmade products.

"Ah, that is one of young Mato King’s most recent works." Dias said appreciatively. "Mato King is a relatively young gunsmith, but he has already started to make a splash in the Bentheim gun community. The weapon you are holding in hands is called the Hope by Force."

Ves raised his eyebrows. Names carried a lot of significance, particularly with the regards of one-off crafted products like this one. "What’s the story behind the name?"

"Mato King did not share the story behind the weapon to us. He desires its users to develop their own interpretation of its name."

When Ves brushes his senses against the Hope by Force, he felt a sense of loss, fury and above all else a desire for retribution.

It was a weapon fit for vengeance rather than self-defense. Even as Dias rattled off a number of desirable features of the Hope by Force, Ves firmly placed the weapon back onto the table.

Its X-Factor, as rudimentary as it seemed to Ves, simply did not fit with his requirements.

Instead, Ves inspected the other weapons until he finally came across an artful-looking ballistic pistol. It immediately caught his eye due its sensuous design and its intricately sculpted shape. It looked like a marble statue of an elf with its wide open mouth serving as a muzzle.

As far as the weapons on the table went, this weapon seemed to emphasize art over function.

Yet Ves felt inexplicably drawn to it for some reason. As Ves extended his spiritual senses once again, he noted that it felt like the weapon had been designed and made with great care. The X-Factor of the gun carried a touch of.. remembrance to it, as if the weapon signified the passing of someone important.

"Ah, that is the work of one Bentheim’s oldest gunsmiths, Keon Aluis. Mr. Aluis is not the most renowned gunsmith on Bentheim, but he served as a mainstay in the community for many decades. The Peaceful Repose that you are holding is one of the finest expressions of his distinct design style. Mr. Aluis believes that every individual weapon that he crafted in his hands is a piece of art. He designed and crafted the Peaceful Repose in remembrance for the passing of his wife."

That explained it. This was a weapon that carried a great meaning to its gunsmith, and it showed through his spiritual senses.

While the Hope by Force exuded a stronger X-Factor, the Peaceful Repose’s sense of peace, contentment, remembrance and finality spoke much strongly to Ves. Although its artistic design went a little overboard on the visual spectacle, it nonetheless made Ves feel good when holding it. It was a classy weapon beyond compare!

"This is a weapon that makes an artform out of ending other people’s lives!" Ves uttered softly.

"Is that gun even a functional weapon?" Ketis asked. "It’s more of a sculpture and less of a weapon in my eyes."

"I can assure you that the Peaceful Repose can be just as deadly as your Udor." Dias said.

He went went on to state some of the ballistic pistol’s specs.

Overall, the weapon featured a medium capacity, medium degree of firepower and a medium ability to pierce armor. Although it sounded as if the Peaceful Repose didn’t excel at anything, the quality of the entire gun elevated all of its capabilities to a respectable level.

"The secret ingredient behind the Peaceful Repose’s performance is that it only fires the Exil rounds developed by Keon Aluis. Each round is individually handmade by either Mr. Aluis himself or one of his apprentices. The rounds made by their apprentices are available in bulk, while the rounds made by Mr. Aluis himself we have on hand is not even enough to fill a single magazine."

"How much?"

"We offer the Peaceful Repose for 21 million credits. A single Exil round handmade by Mr. Aluis costs 1 million credits. The Exil rounds made by his apprentices only go for 50,000 credits per round."

Expensive. Very expensive. While the Peaceful Repose was cheaper than the Udor, it cost a lot more money to fire the weapon than the Udor!

Unlike a laser pistol which could be recharged on the cheap with any available power source, the potent Exil rounds that were so sophisticated that the gunsmith had to craft them one by one all cost an arm and a leg with each shot fired!