The Mech Touch novel Chapter 850

The idea to design a new mech that fit better with the environment than their existing mechs appealed to Ves very much. He restrained his design tendencies for so long while he worked with the Vandals that he’d almost forgotten his true purpose!

While the brief opportunities he gained in the past to design a competition mech satisfied his thirst for a bit, it was like a single drop of water in a vast desert. Now that he found a chance, he didn’t intend to let go.

Previously, the Flagrant Vandals already possessed an abundant amount of suitable mechs for the jobs at hand. While they made use of fairly random Vesian mechs they stole from their raids, the Vandals weren’t entirely stupid and they prioritized older but serviceable military-grade mechs.

None of the designs that Ves could come up with could outperform these optimized mechs, even if he incorporated military-grade component design schematics.

Ves was just a single mech designer, while most of the other military-grade mechs were often designed by design teams led by one or multiple Senior Mech Designers. Therefore, from the start, there was no point in offering the Vandals to design a mech that didn’t add any value to their combat effectiveness.

The situation changed once they landed on Seven and entered the storm lands. With the breakdown effect wreaking greater havoc the closer they got to the source of the phenomenon, the Vandals faced the unpalatable prospect of restricting their mechs to the periphery.

Even up to this day, the Vandals and Swordmaidens seriously considered sending their warriors and soldiers to the battleship on foot!

While they knew that they needed to secure the interior of the Starlight Megalodon with foot soldiers, what about the exits? There was no point in sending them in only for some other force that managed to field their mechs to wait outside and capture any infantry force coming out with valuable loot.

The Flagrant Swordmaidens deeply worried about securing their exit lanes. The problem sounded similar to spaceborn fleets maintaining orbital supremacy so that their landbound forces had a way out after finishing their business on the ground.

"The power disparity between a mech and a soldier on foot is too huge. Even the worst mech in history can easily crush a soldier in combat armor."

Due to the increasing strength of the breakdown effect, the Flagrant Vandals already realized that their tough, strong and heavy suits of exoskeleton armor suffered the same fate as the mechs.

Powered fully by a raft of servos and artificial musculature, the exoskeleton armors possessed way too many moving parts. The more moving parts a machine possessed, the higher the chance of suffering a failure. Perhaps one minute an arm would lock up. That was fine, because the exoskeleton armor could still fight even without a functional arm.

It would be bad if one of the legs malfunctioned next. That would practically immobilize the suit that could easily rival or exceed the mass of a cow. This incredible mass also exacerbated the exoskeleton armor’s needs as they all needed to wear heavy-duty gravitic backpacks that expended its energy reserves within hours. This ultimately limited their applications, as they simply didn’t possess the necessary reach to venture deep within the Starlight Megalodon.

Just like with mechs, the simpler the combat armor, the longer it lasted. The Vandals and the Swordmaidens already adjusted to this mentality and their armorers began to fabricate a raft of light combat armor.

Yes, light combat armor, which was the weakest and lightest possible protective suit specialized for combat operations.

This was because medium combat armor depended on internal motors and servos, all of which basically consisted of lots of tiny parts that underwent a lot of strain from lifting all of the weight!

"Since the same logic that applies to combat armor is also valid to mechs, I don’t see why we shouldn’t consider this option."

Ves thought too simply. When he put the arguments forth in front of Captain Byrd, she frowned.

"While I’m not a mech designer of a chief technician, even I know that adding a new mech model to our lineup is a huge undertaking. It’s one thing to fabricate new combat armor. They’re small, simple and don’t take too much effort to mass-produce. It’s an entirely different story when you’re talking about something as large as mechs. Let me call in a specialist."

He waited as Captain Byrd called in Lieutenant Commander Soapstone. The logistics officer entered the meeting room aboard one of the heavy transports converted into a mobile headquarters.

"You called, captain?" She asked as she sent a curious glance towards Ves.

They hadn’t interacted lately as they became preoccupied with their own issues. The ground expedition expended vast amounts of energy and supplies. Trying to make both of them last as long as possible tired her out continuously ever since she stepped foot on the ground.

"Please provide a judgement on Mr. Larkinson’s proposal."

When Ves briefly summarized his plan to develop a breakdown-proof mech, Soapstone weighed the proposal seriously.

"What kind of materials are you looking to draw upon?" Soapstone asked.

"Nothing too fancy. I know our limitations. I’m not going for quality but simplicity. We won’t be making use of the best alloys and exotics."