The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1156

What was a hero mech?

From a technical perspective, a hero mech was simply a mech that occupied the role of both a rifleman and a swordsman.

Sounded simple, right?

Yet when Ves tried to come up with a vision for a great hero mech, he felt that this answer didn’t encompass the full range of meaning behind a hero mech.

First, the name. Why not call it a musketeer mech or a dragoon mech or something?

"Because those names don’t describe the usage of the mech." Ves’ consciousness mentally mused inside Axelar’s mind.

He tried his best to ignore the hammering of Axelar’s weak core consciousness.

The name of the mech type conjured up a specific image. Anyone who heard the phrase would think of the many action dramas broadcasted throughout the galaxy of adventurous young mech pilots who performed many heroics with their versatile mechs.

Whether it was to save a galactic princess from the clutches of nefarious pirates, or buy time for a beleaguered colony fleet to flee from a horde of astral beasts, a hero mech always managed to save the day!

The hero mech archetype couldn’t be separated from its public image as the iconic mech of a protagonist!

Even in a first-rate superstate like the Terran Confederation, before the advent and popularization of multipurpose mechs, hero mechs already gained a reputation for achieving the impossible and fighting in a flamboyant manner.

From the perspective of a show maker, Ves knew that pairing up the main character with a hero mech was initially out of convenience.

If the protagonist piloted a knight mech, then they’d be toast if they encountered an aerial ranged mech.

This was why the early action dramas that incorporated mechs predominantly paired their main leads with ranged mech. A rifle-bearing mech looked much cooler.

Yet that was not enough!

What about facing threats up close? What is a light skirmisher stabbed a dagger into the back of the main character’s mech?

There was nothing cooler than to see the main character’s mech whip out a sword and fend off the fatal blow and turn the tides on its attacker!

Initially, the portrayal of a mech that excelled at both melee and ranged combat excited the audience!

At the same time, the mech designers in the early days of the Age of Mechs experimented with pairing mechs with both close-ranged and long-ranged solutions.

The results were rather mixed. The technology wasn’t quite there yet to make both of them effective at the same time in a single mech.

Yet the popular emergence of hero mechs in fictional dramas led to a spike in demand for such a mech!

Business-savvy mech designers smelled an opportunity. If they succeeded in developing a viable mech that matched the unrealistic capabilities depicted in the action dramas, then they stood to make a lot of money!

A lot of mech designers poured a lot of time and effort into making hero mechs practical, and eventually they succeeded!

The early hero mechs did come with a lot of caveats. The tech to make hero mechs possible was a lot more advanced and expensive than normal, as long. As customers could bear the price, they got themselves a mech that was much more versatile than anything else on the market!

Eventually, the hype died down when the new mech pilots learned that it was really hard to be skilled in both modes of combat at the same time. Most baseline mech pilots could forget about mastering both marksmanship and swordsmanship in their lifetimes!

"A hero mech is only suited to be piloted by a hero!"

Only the hero of the story who possessed a high genetic aptitude or possessed some other advantage could make full use of such a complicated mech!

Soon enough, many mech pilots learned this lesson the hard way! Stuck with expensive mechs that only exhibited half of their potential in most cases, these fancy investments led many mech pilots and outfits to ruin!

Aside from some exceptions, hero mechs were thoroughly derided as an impractical mech type only fit for entertainment!

"Yet that’s a rather outdated perspective now, especially in the more developed regions of human space."

Four-hundred years after the start of the Age of Mechs, both humanity and technology advanced by leaps.

The Terran Confederation already surpassed hero mechs and moved on to true multipurpose mechs for some time! Why settle for two weapon systems when a mech designer could stuff ten weapon systems in a single mech frame?

The more weapons, the more versatility a mech possessed! Not only that, but destroying or depleting the ammunition of one weapon system would not instantly cripple the mech’s offensive capabilities.

Mech pilots in advanced states also kept up with progress. Through the help of genetic and other biological enhancements, mech pilots became more skilled in the operation of multiple weapon systems.

"All of this is very expensive, but as long as a state can afford it, it’s definitely worth it! Who doesn’t love a mech that’s useful in every situation?"

Right now, the galactic rim fell behind on this trend due to limited resources. Without a sufficient amount of wealth, the conditions to make hero mechs and multipurpose mechs practical simply weren’t there yet. Ves estimated it would take at least a couple more centuries to make them affordable and usable in his home state.

The current landscape of mechs never stood still. While some mech designers saw it as a detriment, true mech enthusiasts always looked forward to innovation.

"Let’s get back to my mech design."

Recalling the history behind the hero mech type provided him with much-needed context. No matter if it was the galactic rim or the galactic center, hero mechs always played a controversial role.

If Ves paired Axelar with a hero mech instead of a standard multipurpose mech, then he would definitely be raising a lot of eyebrows!

A very scary realization suddenly emerged.