The Mech Touch novel Chapter 811

Despite the violent cursing of the test pilots, they largely managed to survive the endurance tests.

Some mech pilots failed.

Some mech pilots succeeded.

Ves recognized that the determining factor for success was genetic aptitude and willpower. Those whose minds adapted better to their mechs and possessed firmer wills tended to be more resilient against outside interference.

The polluting thoughts of the dwarves was like a virus. They only posed a serious threat to the mech pilots if their minds were brittle.

Unfortunately, many Vandal and Swordmaiden mech pilots didn’t possess much promise in their genetic aptitudes. The rank-and-file mostly exhibited a lower-than-average genetic aptitude, so the vast majority of them couldn’t rely on their piloting talent to withstand any intrusions in their man-machine connection.

As for willpower, perhaps only ten percent of the Vandal mech pilots possessed strong enough minds to endure for ten whole minutes.

Ves didn’t expect a mind struggle to last that long on the battlefield. It was already good enough if a mech pilot could withstand the foreign pressure long enough to kill the source or move out of range from the attack.

"The Swordmaidens are probably best at bearing through the pain."

To confirm his guess that willpower was the decisive factor, he borrowed a couple of Swordmaiden test pilots. The women didn’t come willingly, having heard all the horror stories of what went on in his lab.

That didn’t matter, though. Commander Lydia agreed with the test and figured her Swordmaidens could use some toughening up.

Indeed, the results matched his expectations. Even the weakest-minded Swordmaidens performed better than the average Vandal mech pilot. Their rigorous training and discipline allowed them to bear the foreign thoughts sent out by the dwarf captives with hardly any impact on their performance.

When Ves laid out all the results in a conference meeting, Captain Byrd looked at the mech pilots in the room and shook her head.

The mech pilots all appeared subdued when Ves gave his report. They still wanted to avoid him like the plague!

"You say that your best achievement so far is an eighty percent reduction in intensity." Captain Byrd said. "Is there no way to provide our mech pilots with complete immunity against this attack?"

Ves grimaced. He hated to leave a job undone, but his inability left him with little choice. "Unlikely. I’m already working out of my depth here, hence all the trial and error attempts. Now that I’ve applied all the basic solutions I can come up with, I’ll have to take an undue amount of risks in search of an even better solution. Suffering permanent brain damage won’t be out of the question anymore if I do so."

All the mech pilots showed some panic once he mentioned the possibility. None of them wanted his experiments to go on!

"Enough is enough!" Captain Orfan yelled. "Eighty percent is enough! We’re strong enough to shoulder the rest, isn’t that right, guys?"

"I agree with you, ma’am!"

"Yeah!"

"It’s our own fault if we lose control of our mechs then!"

Ves looked at the mech officers and grinned a little bit. He silently discounted at least half of them. From what he gathered from his tests, it took a focused and strong-willed mind to endure the influence of a third mind in the man-machine connection.

That meant someone like Captain Orfan would actually be able to bear the strain. She had confidence in spades!

As for the other mech pilots and mech officers, Ves held much less expectations. Some of them were rather decent while others didn’t possess the right mindset to excel in their profession.

One of the major deficiencies of the Flagrant Vandals had always been their lack of skilled and talented personnel.

The Swordmaidens suffered from the same problem, but the difference was that Commander Lydia selected promising gems from the frontier and brutally trained them until they shaped up to be elites among pirates.

In terms of willpower, confidence and projection of strength, the Swordmaidens actually beat the servicemen in this regard!

Ves found that to be rather pathetic! As members of a military mech regiment, the Vandals didn’t conform to standards. Their unconventional esprit the corps may be able to bind them together, but it didn’t actually make a serious attempt at uniting their minds as one!

As for the Swordmaidens, much of their individuality had been drilled out of their bones out in order to fit them in the same mold. They were Swordmaidens first, and individuals second.

As for the Vandals, they were self-serving bastards first, and Vandal bastards second.

The things he learned about willpower through his experiments gave him a lot of insights in the nature of mech pilots.

The contrast between the bastard Vandals and the disciplined Swordmaidens taught him that willpower wasn’t an intrinsic quality. It could be trained!

Ves guessed that may be why expert pilots overwhelmingly tended to emerge from the willpower. Only rarely did they pop up among mercenary of pirate outfits.

However, the existence of outfits like Lydia’s Swordmaidens showed that the military didn’t hold a monopoly on the practice of instilling discipline and willpower in their mech pilots.

The reason why Ves paid a lot of attention to this was because he intended to take advantage of the insights he gained. Once he finally returned home, he planned to overhaul the Avatars of Myth and attempt to turn them into an elite personal force if his cousin Melkor hadn’t done so yet.

As much as he developed a minor kinship with the Flagrant Vandals, Ves disliked their undisciplined aspects. He did not want his principal bodyguards to be as sloppy and dubious as the Vandals. He’d much rather shape his retinue into something more dependable like the Swordmaidens who could be trusted to follow orders without slacking off.

In any case, right now Captain Byrd needed to decide whether to continue the research or end it here. Due to the vehemence of the other mech pilots and the advice of Ves, she had no choice but to leave this problem half-solved.