The Mech Touch

After Ves and Gloriana put the children to bed, they retired to their own bedroom.

The cats had gone off to cuddle with the slumbering children, thereby leaving the parents with relative privacy.

Their vigilant bodyguards still kept watch over their principal. They did a good job of making themselves appear unobtrusive despite wearing formidable suits of combat armor.

In fact, the soldier cultivators dispatched by the Red Collective had increased their alertness.

They had multiple reasons to believe that the native aliens were about to launch several major operations in the near future.

Striking out at the inventor of Carmine mechs, kinship networks and many other dramatic innovations was a sound strategic choice!

Fortunately, the New Constantinople System was not directly located in a region of imminent danger, but that could change at any time depending on how the Red War unfolded.

As his wife got ready for bed, she turned her head to cast a suspicious glance towards Ves.

"The Riot Mark III."

"I have noticed that you have become much more fixated on the Riot Mark III Project as of late." She spoke. "This is not normal. The Minerva Mark II Project that we are currently working on is a much more strategic priority for our clan. You have said so multiple times yourself. Saint Commander Casella Ingvar is the single-most important champion in our clan. Nobody can do what she can do. Not even ’Saint General’ Ark Larkinson possesses the virtue of humility and sacrifice that is necessary to become a true mech commander. This should be more than enough of a reason to clad the Minerva Mark II with superdimensional armor plating."

She raised an excellent point, but Ves did not look as if he was willing to change his mind.

"I acknowledge that there is a strong argument to use up the armor-grade superdimensional matter on the Minerva Mark II first, but I have good reasons of my own to reserve it for the Riot Mark III." Ves calmly responded.

"And those are…?"

"The first point is that superdimensional matter is new to us." Ves quickly raised his palm. "I know that it shares a lot in common with transphasic alloys, but you know very well that it is different. I foresee problems with trying to integrate it into archetech. There is a large chance that the strange superdimensional properties will cause damage and other glitches when this new stuff is intertwined with more conventional forms of matter."

"It will not remain a problem for long. I am far from the only person who is working on solutions to increase the compatibility between superdimensional matter and conventional matter. Besides, we have already discovered that transphasic alloys suffer less disruptions when coming into contact with superdimensional matter. That gives us a solid direction to work towards." Gloriana retorted.

"I know about that, honey, but it will take time to improve the results to the point where it is viable to incorporate superdimensional matter into your archemechs. We cannot afford to delay the Minerva Mark II Project any further. Completing it at its current specifications is already enough, especially when we consider the addition of the Victrix. I expect that by the time we work on completing the Riot Mark III Project, the scientists of the Red Three have worked out most of the kinks. The timing is much better in this case."

His wife did not quite agree, but she did not bother to argue any further.

"What other reasons do you have to favor the Riot Mark III over the Minerva Mark II?"

"Well, the Riot is a melee mech that has always been designed around the concept of confronting enemies head-on. He needs superdimensional armor much more than the Minerva Mark II. The same can be said for the Bastion and other melee mechs, but I believe the synergy is greatest with the Riot Mark Mark III. When Tusa hands back the tier 3 Destroyer spear to the Riot Mark III, the result will be a scrappy fighter that can fearlessly entangle lesser and maybe even greater phase lords."

"Ketis has reserved all of our weapon-grade superdimensional matter for the First Sword Mark III, correct?" Ketis asked. "Why not complete the First Sword’s transformation to a superdimensional ace mech by upgrading her armor as well? The application will be easier considering that the First Sword Mark III is not being designed as an archemech."

"The need is not as great so long as Venerable Orfan breaks through in the near future, which I fully expect to happen after she recovers from her injuries." Ves retorted. "Both the Riot and the First Sword are melee mechs, but their approach towards combat is different. The Riot is better armored but also less mobile. He inherently relies on his hard defenses to keep himself in the fight. The First Sword on the other hand is clad with thinner armor plating, but possesses superior maneuverability. The earlier battle has already proven that Venerable Dise is skilled enough at evasion that she can keep her machine out of harm’s way even if she is confronting a greater phase lord."

"That is true, Ves, but it only takes one accident or misstep for the First Sword Mark III to get impaled. Ketis has foolishly chosen to deny my participation in her project, so the internals of this ace mech will break much easier. Once the First Sword suffers a crippling blow that impairs her mobility, her ability to survive the subsequent attacks is very low."

"I trust that Saint Dise is skilled and experienced enough to avoid that possibility from happening. This is what she is good at. Besides, the armor of the First Sword Mark III is not completely garbage just because it isn’t made out of archmetal. It relies on an active form of transphasic armor system that can resist superdimensional attacks to an extent. I expect that all of the new studies on the samples of superdimensional matter will lead to an improvement in its performance. Perhaps you can even blend in a modest proportion of hull-grade dimensional matter to increase this parameter even further."

Even if hull-grade superdimensional matter was considered not good enough to be used on high-end mechs, that was only from the perspective of first-raters with very high standards!

Hull-grade superdimensional matter should still outperform most if not all variations of transphasic alloys in terms of defense, especially against other transphasic attacks!

"Besides, this is only a stopgap solution." Ves continued. "Once Ketis opens up a few more portals to the Blue Dimension, our clan should be able to harvest enough superdimensional matter to clad a few more melee mechs with proper superdimensional armor. The First Sword, the Bastion, the Dark Zephyr, the Lionheart and other melee mechs rank high in priority. Ranged mechs such as the Prometheus and unfortunately the Minerva will have to wait a lot longer until they get their turn."

"..."

"I have already shown you the design of the soon-to-be-refurbished Tortuous Scream, Gloriana. The warship possesses formidable defenses of her own and can extend much of her protection to any mechs that take shelter inside of her hull. Unless there are good reasons to deploy the Amaranto Mark III and the Minerva Mark II in open space, it makes much more sense to keep them within our warship where they cannot be sniped or ambushed at will."

His wife frowned, but she eventually sighed. "Very well. While I do not fully weigh your arguments as highly as mine, I can acknowledge that your arguments are sound. I still believe that you are fixating on the Riot Mark III for other reasons, however. What exactly do you have in mind that makes you reserve our first batch of armor-grade superdimensional alloys to this machine in particular?"

Ves smirked. "I can’t share the details to you yet because I still need Venerable Orfan’s consent. I have a very ambitious plan in mind that should make it extremely powerful. The addition of superdimensional matter will complement my plan. It is better to apply it sooner rather than later."

"Not enough. I need more information."

Ves paused for a moment. He decided to throw his wife a bone.

"Do you know about the Chaos Armor that Jovy is developing?"

"I do." She said. "I do not understand the mechanisms, but I know it is meant to add more randomness to its performance through quantum mechanics."

"Chaos Armor is designed to be inherently unstable." Ves emphasized. "It is supposed to be formed out of a mix of volatile exotics and hypers that are still able to remain in balance just enough for the Riot Mark III to remain in good condition… most of the time. Now think about superdimensional matter. How do you rate its stability?"

"Low." Gloriana immediately responded. "It remains stable when it is left inside the Blue Dimension, but that is largely because it is exposed to vacuum or other superdimensional matter. As soon as it comes into frequent contact with conventional matter, the two begin to interact with each other, thereby generating changes that are mostly undesirable."

"Exactly. Right now, a lot of material scientists are working hard to figure out how to make the two kinds of matter play nice with each other. My idea for the Riot Mark III is that we don’t entirely neutralize the interaction between superdimensional matter and conventional matter. This will admittedly make the Riot Mark III even more self-harming than usual, but the Chaos Armor will not only become a lot tougher, but also way more random and chaotic! Can you imagine it, Gloriana? Nobody will be able to predict how the Riot Mark III will fare against enemies!"

"That includes us as well." She pointed out. "This is trying to embrace randomness for the sake of randomness. Each time you deploy the Riot Mark III on the battlefield, you are rolling the dice. Your gamble may pay off when the Riot successfully relies on her Chaos Armor to hold back a greater phase lord. However, there is also a considerable risk that the variables will produce unfavorable combinations that cause the Riot to fold and weaken ahead of time. The mech will have to retire much earlier from the battlefield than expected."

"You are not wrong, but only if you discount the involvement of the pilot." Ves said. "While Venerable Orfan is not strong enough yet, once she advanced to the rank of ace pilot, her willpower should become strong enough to partially control for the randomness of the Chaos Armor. She can deliberately improve the results of positive outcomes while suppressing the results of negative outcomes. This is not only a good way to exercise her resonance strength, but also prevent her from becoming complacent."

"That is cheating."

"Every high-ranking mech pilot is a cheater." Ves gently reminded his wife. "The higher the rank, the more outrageously they cheat reality. The Chaos Armor that we are developing for the Riot Mark III takes advantage of this to produce a unique armor system that will define this machine."

The Chaos Armor should become the defining feature of the Riot as far as Ves was concerned. Not even the tier 3 Destroyer spear could match the importance of the Chaos Armor!

Best of all, Ves hadn’t even mentioned his intention to turn the Riot Mark III into a D-mech to his wife.

If he was able to pull this off, then he expected the performance of the Chaos Armor to be thrice as good!

Even if Ves made life a lot more difficult for Rosa Orfan as a result, he still believed the tradeoffs were worth it as the Riot stood to gain an incredible amount of defensive power, enough to fearlessly duel against any greater phase lord!

"Hehehehe…"

"You are making that evil laugh again, Ves. Now I truly know you are up to no good."

"Hey, I only want what is best for Venerable Orfan and our clan!"

"Uh huh."

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