The Mech Touch novel Chapter 443

The old mech technician’s claim sounded very absurd to Ves. Perhaps the reason why this fellow hadn’t made it as a mech designer was because he constantly came to weird conclusions like this. How could a design of a disposable mech like the Inheritor be a variant of a high-end mech design?

Ves turned to Chief Carmon. "Have you ever seen a superior version of the Inheritor?"

"Not even close." The chief shook her head. "I’ve been a Vandal for over twenty years and been posted on more than eight different carriers and I’ve never seen any other version of the Inheritor than the one we’re currently looking at. I know this model like the back of my hand and there’s no tolerance for improvement besides using better materials."

That caused Ves to look at the frame of the Inheritor in a different way. The design might not be all that good, but what would happen if he replaced the low-quality materials with better ones.

He performed a brief visualisation of the result. His conclusions led to the a similar route to the road that his Crystal Lord design had taken.

"What is the Inheritor design is clad in compressed armor?" He asked. "The main advantage of the Inheritor is that it’s fast even for a spaceborn light skirmisher. The downside to that is that its armor is extremely flimsy. Replacing its lightweight armor with compressed armor plating will substantially negate this disadvantage."

"That’s exactly right." The former mech designer said. "You can also replace the core parts with better versions."

It would be a completely different design. The performance of such a machine would be a multitude of times more effective than the cheap hunk of alloys the Vandals relied on as one of its workhorse models.

Yet none of it mattered.

"This design you’re describing doesn’t exist." Ves said. "Not if what Chief Carmon said is true. It might be that the original designer had a quality mech design in mind when he originally developed a premium mech, but he never made it into fruition. Afterwards, when the Vandals commissioned him to design an affordable light skirmisher for space battles, he must have recycled some of his old work."

Every mech designer created more designs than they could put to use. They usually archived their unused designs and utilized some of its elements in other projects to cut save a lot of time and effort.

The more Ves thought about it, the more this conclusion resonated to him. Maybe that was why the Inheritor was a little unsuited in its role as a disposable mech.

"It sounds possible, but without any proof, we’re guessing in the wind. Besides, even if it turns out to be true, that doesn’t make this model any better." _{fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm}

Ves wanted to get the conversation back on track. He steered the conversation away from baseless speculation and turned back to his original job of gathering feedback on the Inheritor mech.

He didn’t learn much new after talking with all of the mech technicians. Sometimes, they described some problems concerning the difficulty in assembling or repairing certain sections, but fixing those issues required a lot of time and didn’t measurably strengthen the mechs at all.

Still, in the back of his mind, Ves could fathom the reason why the Vandals possibly utilized a heavily downgraded version of an excellent design. It made no sense. Someone as skilled as Professor Velten or any of the Senior Mech Designers that used to work for the Vandals should have been able to design an optimal spaceborn light skirmisher from the ground up.

Ves left that question to the side and concentrated on his work. He also didn’t forget about observing his surroundings. He hadn’t forgotten his earlier desires to figure out what made the Vandals tick.

At the end of the day, Ves returned to his cabin and summed up the feedback he received in a bland report. Ves didn’t focus too much about what he put into words because they mainly echoed all of the existing problems known by the design department.

Instead, he focused on his other observations.

The main takeaway from his walk around the ship was that the Vandals acted with less discipline than they should have behaved, but they made up for it in their sense of unity and their trust in their leadership.

Besides the malcontents who piloted the Inheritor, everyone else displayed no displeasure at being assigned to one of the least desirable mech regiments of the Mech Corps.

"The Vandals maintain a true esprit de corps."

This identity that set them apart from everyone else lifted their hearts and gave them strength. Ves had seen similar beliefs in outfits like Walter’s Whalers. Their esprit de corps arguably made them fifty percent stronger, if only because they wouldn’t cut and run at the first sign of trouble.

This strong collective belief made it even stranger that it did not extend to the pilots of the Inheritor mechs. Their relationship to the Vandals was akin to the status of Pierce and Laida in their design teams. As temporary workers, they would only stay for a stint or two before being assigned somewhere else.

The difference between the two situations was that mech designers transferred away in peace, while the mech pilots most often had had to pay for their lives.

The possible kept nagging at Ves to he called to Laida for them to meet at the canteen.

When he arrived at the place, he ordered a quick coffee and some snacks and sat down on the opposite of Laida. The young woman looked tired.

"Did I call you up when you were about to go to bed?"

"Yes."

"I’m sorry about that." Ves sheepishly scratched his head. "I didn’t think about the time."