The Mech Touch

awing upon our diminishing resource stockpiles. ”

Ves made this consideration after much thought.
He figured that Captain Byrd and Lieutenant Commander Soapstone would be more inclined to reject his proposal if he insisted on designing an expensive mech that drew upon an excessive amount of expensive materials.

Everyone tended to favor cheaper options over more expensive options, especially in a time of scarcity.
The Vandals had always paid an extreme amount of attention on their energy and resource expenditures and really wouldn ’t be pleased if Ves dumped a huge burden on their laps.

”It ’s doable, captain. ” Soapstone concluded.
”If the mech is as simple and cheap as he claims, we won ’t have to make too many sacrifices to produce a squad of these breakdown-proof mechs.
Is it possible to fabricate them on the move? ”

”I can design them in a way that they can be assembled in a semi-modular fashion.
This way, the mech technicians can first fabricate all of the individual parts separately that can easily be stored in containers until we have need of them.
When we wish to deploy them, it will only take half a day of work for a single crew to assemble them into working condition. ”

Ves made his final pitch.
”You can consider it as a contingency option, ma ’am.
I have experience with designing original mechs by myself, so I ’m fully capable of taking on the design project by myself.
Fabricating these mechs will take some effort but it won ’t draw too many mech technicians away from their regular duties because they can easily and quickly reproduce all of the parts.
If the breakdown effect isn ’t as serious as we thought, we can simply keep the parts in storage or recycle them down to their base materials.
Besides, the Swordmaidens aren ’t sitting still.
They ’re already on the move. ”

Eventually, his arguments convinced Captain Byrd.
”If you put it that way, it ’s worth a try.
However, I don ’t want you pull away too many mech technicians from their regular duties.
It ’s my understanding that they already have enough work on their hands.
We can ’t afford to be delayed in our forward progress because our mechs take longer to be repaired. ”

”Good! I ’ll be sure to keep you apprised of my progress, captain.
I think it will take roughly a month for me to design a breakdown-proof mech that ’s fit for our circumstances. ”

They began to discuss his choice for opting for a laser-armed frontline mech.
Why go for a ranged mech instead of a melee mech?

”The simplest quadruped melee mechs are bestial mechs, and I don ’t have enough experience with their structure to design anything reliable.
A frontline mech on the other hand is more like a humanoid mech with every redundant part stripped away.
A ranged mech is much more mechanically simple than a melee mech that has to perform complicated movements to inflict damage. ”

Not to mention that Mayra already declared her intention to design a tiger-shaped melee mech.
Allowing the Vandals to field ranged mechs neatly covered the weaknesses of the Swordmaiden bestial mechs and strengthened the synergy of their allied forces.

”Don ’t forget that we only have a limited pool of mech pilots to draw upon Mr.
Larkinson.
Any ranged mech pilot that we allocate to your breakdown-proof mechs is one less mech pilot in our main force.
We both know that frontline mechs work best in greater numbers, but I ’m not willing to weaken our main force. ”

”How many breakdown-proof mechs are you willing to support, ma ’am? ”

”We ’ll have to see once we arrive at the mission site.
For now, let ’s assume that I want to have a squad of ten or twelve or so mechs. ”

According to their estimates, they were getting closer and closer to the Starlight Megalodon.
It might take two to three months to finally get close enough to contest for control over the battleship.

This meant that Ves needed to have his new mechs ready by then.
While this timeframe was rather tight considering their limited fabrication capabilities, Ves possessed enough confidence that he could finish the job in time.

”Leave it to me, captain. ”

Ves eventually left the meeting room and returned to the mobile workshop.
He managed to obtain approval for his latest project, but only after he agreed to several provisions.
They weren ’t anything unexpected.
He was basically on his own during the design process and when it was time to fabricate his designs, he couldn ’t draw on more than two crews of mech technicians at a time.

”If I want to complete everything in time, I ’ll have to stick to my promises and keep my mech as cheap and mechanically simple as possible. ”

He considered this project a rare and valuable opportunity to showcase his design prowess after  a long time of dormancy.
Properly speaking, this design project amounted to developing his third formal original mech design!

Even though the plan was to only fabricate twelve of them at most, with very little possibility of using outside of this mission, it did not take away the fact that Ves had the opportunity to design a mech for the purpose of serving his clients.

In the case of the Blackbeak medium knight mechs and the Crystal Lord medium laser rifleman mechs, Ves explicitly designed those mech models for the market.

This time, his third original mech design exclusively served the Flagrant Vandals and no one else, but that did not take away the sanctity of the designer-client relationship.
Whether a mech designer developed a mech for the market or for a specific client, they both served their core purpose of their profession.

Mayra was no less of a mech designer than those who ran multi-billion credit mech manufacturers in civilized space.
While the pirate designer mainly designed mechs for the Swordmaidens and a couple of allied pirate gangs, her designs did not lose out too much to those who designed mechs meant for sale in the brutally competitive mech markets.

”Well, since this is my first formal design project in a very long while, I ’ll have to start from the beginning.
What is my vision for my third original design? ”