The Mech Touch novel Chapter 119

Many mech manufacturers boldly entered the market with a superstar designs. Only a few companies demonstrated enough staying power to persist until today. The Lindholm Armament Company outgrew its modest roots to become a giant trans-galactic corporation. Lindholm was a household brand name in the mech market, to the point where loyal customers brainlessly bought their latest products.

Ves normally disdained mainstream mechs, but their introductory model deserved a look.

The story of Lindholm started with their first commercially available design, the Hoplite HPL-100P. Two-hundred years ago, the introduction of the Hoplite propelled a small and obscure company to galactic prominence. Its design deviated significantly from convention.

First, the Hoplite used a spear instead of a sword as its main armament. Lindholm was not content with a simple spear.

Instead, they introduced an innovative weapon capable of adjusting its own length. Through a sturdy layered tube design, the Hoplite could extend or shorten the length of the spear at will. The only downside to this structure was that the spear could not withstand as much force.

"It’s still a daring innovation." Ves said admiringly.

True, the weapon had flaws, but it worked out for the model. It proved a design didn’t have to be flawless in an engineering perspective in order to sell well. "

The Hoplite also made use of an unconventional heavy shield. Its large round shield sported a flat, broad spike in the center, allowing it to pierce through armor when used as a weapon. Lindholm expressly designed the shield for offensive use by adding a couple of unconventional augments.

First, they attached miniature boosters to rear of the shield. They automatically ignited their charges when the Hoplite initiated a bashing motion. The boosters only burned for a quarter of a second, but that was sufficient to magnify the impact by up to fifty percent.

If that wasn’t enough, the Lindholm designers also stuffed in an inertial manipulator. Normally, it remained inactive. The module only took effect when the Hoplite started to bash. It only reduced the shield’s weight by thirty percent, which sped up the bash.

At the last instant before impact, the module reversed its settings, making the shield thirty percent heavier. This slowed down the bash but that hardly mattered when the shield impacted its target an instant later. The extra weight gave the bash more momentum, making the shield harder to fend off.

Hoplite pilots usually followed up by striking their target with an extended spear. This was the Hoplite’s staple combo, one that propelled the design to prominence.

There were downsides to the augments. While Lindholm reinforced the boosters and inertial manipulator against shocks, they were still prone to malfunction. The augments also only carried a limited amount of charges, enough for three times.

The critics called it a gimmick. The mech pilots who performed the move professed their love for it. Despite the controversy, Lindholm aggressively marketed the ridiculous move and sold hundreds of thousands of Hoplites. The hype eventually faded out, but by that time Lindholm earned enough of a killing to fund the development of better designs.

If that was it, then the model should be forgotten by now. Instead, the Hoplite enjoyed enduring popularity in Iron Spirit due to its final feature.

Lindholm wanted to design a knight with offensive prowess. Upgrading the weapons wasn’t enough. They also wanted to give their mech the ability to rush forward at high speeds. To do that, they extensively modified the Hoplite without relying on boosters.

Installing boosters was the conventional way of enhancing a mech’s short-ranged boost. While powerful, they also imposed many limits on the design. Instead of dealing with issues such as fuel storage and heat management, Lindholm instead augmented the legs.

While the legs still appeared humanoid, the designers massively strengthened the artificial muscles. No one knew how they did it, but they introduced an original muscle scheme that allowed mechs to push off the ground in an extremely powerful burst. Extendable claws embedded in the feet helped maximize the Hoplite’s grip, which prevented it from slipping.

Overall, Ves admired the original developers of the Hoplite. They were not afraid to implement their own vision onto the staid old knight archetype. The work done on the spear, shield and legs all complemented each other’s strength, amplifying their effects when combined together. The designers succeeded in turning their outlandish vision into a practical product.

"The Hoplite is a masterpiece."

In design terms, the model was difficult to improve but easy to ruin. Many mech designers tried and failed to develop variants that significantly improved upon its performance.

Ves did not fear a challenge. He wanted to prove he could handle a difficult model like the Hoplite. The way to to that was to succeed in creating a new variant that was not some minor rehash of the base model.

[Lindholm Armament Company Hoplite HPL-100P]: 1.2 million bright credits

He winced at the price. While he still possessed a substantial amount of savings, he hadn’t been earning any money lately.

"I still need to make another purchase."

Ves had a very simple plan in mind. He wanted to design that took advantage of the current trend. Many teenage potentates were currently flocking to Iron Spirit in order to polish their piloting skills.

Mastering a knight was one of the basic classes offered by mech academies and mech institutions. It was the simplest mech type and one that offered beginners an excellent starting point in piloting mechs.

One reason the base model only enjoyed a limited amount of popularity was that it was built around the spear. Trainee pilots only practiced with sword-wielding knights.

He intended to meet their needs by designing a sword-wielding Hoplite variant. While several such variants could already be found in the catalog, Ves thought he could put his own spin on the concept. After browsing the catalog, Ves found an appropriate weapon and added it to his shopping cart.

[J.J.V. Limited Imperial Sword ISX34]: 250.000 bright credits

The so-called Imperial Sword sounded fancy, but shared the same shape as the weapons used by trainees. The one-handed sword was not too long, not too short, not too heavy, not too light and so on. It had no distinguishing features due to the need to accommodate every possible mech pilot, at least at the start of their training.

Ves chose the Imperial Sword because it was a well-designed upgrade from the cheap and sub-standard training swords. J.J.V Limited poured a lot of research into improving the simplistic sword design, from changing its composition to adjusting its shape and center of mass. It led to a weapon that many recruits loved to use at the start of their careers.

"It’s not a very exciting sword, but it is a time-tested design. It’s sharp, tough and not too expensive. That’s good enough for most mech pilots."