The Mech Touch

After Ketis was done with drooling over the Amphis Extremis, Saint Linda Cross briefly gave her a tour of the standard mechs that were currently stored inside the hangar bay of the Hemmington Cross.

Every crew member and mech pilot bowed low and expressed their deepest respect to the female saint.

As the second ace pilot of the Cross Clan after Patriarch Reginald Cross, the status of Saint Linda Cross had already exceeded that of Master Benedict Cortez!

The Crossers respected high-ranking mech pilots a lot more than high-ranking mech designers.

Ketis actually found this cultural difference to be a little jarring because it was a lot. different in the Larkinson Clan.

The clansmen still looked up to the ace pilots and expert pilots of their clan, but nothing could break their utter belief and adoration of mech designers such as Ves Larkinson!

She shouldn't be surprised that the two clans looked up to the leaders of different professions.

The Cross Clan had always based its success off the leadership and accomplishments of its strongest mech pilots.

The Larkinson Clan grew incredibly fast and achieved great prosperity largely due to the efforts of its best mech designers.

The founders and leaders of the clans exerted so much influence that the members took on different shapes.

Ketis actually found it rather refreshing that the Crossers did not revere the ground that the most prominent mech designers in their clan walked upon.

Of course, it was also because there was a notable deficit in excellent mech designers in the Cross Clan.

Master Benedict Cortez was not originally a member of the Cross Clan, so he already suffered from a handicap. Even if the clan later went on to copy the model of the Larkinson Clan and open itself to mass external recruitment, the Master Mech Designer never received the respect he deserved.

She could pretty much hear it from the idle talk of the Crossers who were working on the Hemmington Cross.

"Tch. My mech has broken down again. It only took a small hit on the arm, but I lost complete control over the rifle. How am I supposed to keep my shots straight when a single attack can ruin my mech's accuracy? Master Benedict is slacking off again." "Is this what the CMC worked on in the last eight months? Why did they remove the third ammunition canister? Don't they know how many shots it takes to get past the

Energy shields of those annoying phasefighters?! What, the caliber has increased but the firing rate has dropped by half? That out-of-touch Master Mech Designer has gone too far! How are we supposed to land so many hits when it has become harder to shoot down those fast and maneuverable phasefighters? I don't care if the math claims that it works out a lot better for us. That geeky old guy Benedict has no idea how difficult it is for mech pilots like us to eliminate phasefighters that are becoming faster with every generation!"

"Why is he telling us to abandon our swords? Does he not know how much I trained and fought to become the best swordsman of our class in the mech academy? I won first place in two competitions! Even if I am not as good as those Heavensworders over at the Larkinson Clan, I have been learning from them! Now, I have to set most of my specialized swordsmanship aside because this haughty mech designer thinks that swords are no use against energy shields! Hah! He can kiss my butt!"

Ketis couldn't believe what she heard. Master Mech Designers were among the more respected people of a society, yet the Crossers spoke so crassly about him that they clearly held far too little respect towards the man who was responsible for developing the mechs they relied upon.

Such talk would never take place in the Larkinson Clan!

Granted, the Crossers who carelessly voiced their true opinions did so out of typical earshot from anyone important.

Even if these Crossers did not dare to share their true feelings directly in front of Ketis and Saint Linda Cross, the fact that they shared these words at all was a sign that the Cross Clan did not give mech designers their due.

The ace pilot shrugged when her extraordinary senses were able to pick up the disrespectful chatter as well.

"Please excuse our clansmen for their lack of consideration. Our culture has always put. mech pilots on top of mech designers. Some of our clansmen take this too far and cannot fully appreciate the work and sacrifice that mech designers have put into arming them with the best machines." ℞𝐚ℕöＢΕ𝐬

Ketis waved her hand. "It is okay. I am not a frail flower. I can handle it. I am just surprised that this problem has gotten so bad in your clan. I am not unfamiliar with how the Garlen Empire of the Vicious Mountain Star Sector operated back in the old days. Even if mech designers played second fiddle over there, the Garleners still looked up to mech designers who can design good machines. I don't think this is true for your clan anymore."

"There are better leaders in our clan that can explain it to you." Saint Linda said in a measured tone. "In my opinion, I think it is because our clansmen are making constant comparisons between the works of Patriarch Ves Larkinson and the works of Master Benedict Cortez. The latter are not necessarily weak, but they are not very... flashy. Let me show you what I mean."

Linda led Ketis to a section where dozens of mechs had been parked.

Many of the mech models looked familiar to Ketis. What stood out was that most of them fell into two different categories.

There were ranged mechs that overwhelmingly relied on energy weapons as their source of damage output.

This paired well with Master Benedict's design philosophy as the Crosser ranged mechs were able to output greater damage and last significantly longer on the battlefield than other comparable rifleman mechs!

The melee mechs tended to put much more emphasis on their azure energy shield generators. They relied on their superior power generation to keep their azure energy shields active for a longer time, enabling them to withstand greater punishment than most of the competition.

It was not entirely effective when these machines got struck by a warship-grade cannon, but it worked quite well in confrontations against alien phasefighters.

The weapons loadout of the newer melee mechs were pretty interesting to Ketis. She had apparently caught the Cross Clan in the middle of a major technological refresh. It was no wonder that she heard some Crossers complaining about a weapon swap." "Has the armed forces of your clan decided to replace their swords with maces?" "It is a controversial change because it is imposed from above. Linda confirmed. "The same rationale that applies for my Amphis Extremis partially applies to standard mechs as well. Blunt weapons with heft to them can inflict more damage to energy shields than bladed weapons. Master Benedict cannot stand the inefficiency that comes with wielding swords against enemies where swordsmanship is not as relevant. He truly believes that we can achieve statistically better results if our melee mechs all start to bash against energy shields with maces as opposed to swords."

As a swordsman mech fanatic, Ketis felt offended by the disregard that Master Benedict had shown towards the use of swords.

"It is true that maces can deal more effective damage against energy shields, but that is too simple of a perspective. Swords are lighter, but also faster and easier to handle. A skilled swordsman mech pilot should be able to launch attacks at a higher frequency and maintain greater control over the mech frame. The slight difference in mass also makes it a little easier for swordsman mechs to catch up to fleeing phasefighters. Finally, far more mech pilots are comfortable with wielding swords since it is the first weapon they trained in since they enrolled in the mech academies. It is deeply uncomfortable for them to lose their swords and get maces in their place. They are all forced to train their proficiency in maces in order to keep up their performance in combat." Saint Linda Cross brought Ketis to a more isolated corner of the hangar bay before turning to face the swordmaster directly.

"I think you have seen and heard enough to gain an impression on what it is like in our clan. What do you think, Ketis?"

Ketis grimaced and tapped her finger against her forearm. "So far, your Cross Clan has not made a good impression on me. I do not know whether what I heard from the

Mouths of your clansmen is universal in your clan. If it is, then there is clearly a dysfunctional relationship between the mech pilots and the mech designers around here. Maybe it won't lead to any major blunders, but it is clear to me that neither groups harbor good feelings towards each other. That will lead to constant friction and frustrations that will only hold you all back in the end.""

As an ace pilot, Linda Cross could easily hear the truth in the swordmaster's words. She could not deny that there was something wrong in her clan.

"Who do you think deserves more blame, mech pilots or mech designers?"

"It is not as simple as that." Ketis shook her head. "Both groups have reasons to blame

Each other. The mech pilots over here are justified in their belief that mech designers aren't doing enough to listen to them. The mech designers meanwhile are constantly met with lack of gratitude despite all of the earnest work they are doing to give mech pilots a better chance of winning the Red War. I think the ultimate culprits behind all of this dysfunction are Patriarch Reginald Cross and Master Benedict Cortez. Both of them

Deserve equal blame."

"It is quite brave of you to blame both of them at the same time."

"Oh, come on, Linda. I know you Crossers tend to forgive a huge amount of transgressions made by Patriarch Reginald, but you cannot possibly be blind to the fact. that he is an idiot who cannot properly administer a clan! That does not necessarily make him a bad leader, but he is much better at inspiring and leading troops in battle than fulfilling the other responsibilities of a leadership figure. His lack of attention towards the treatment of mech designers is a serious mistake. Every other Crosser has blindly taken over this attitude and continues to devalue my profession. That has probably made it much harder for your clan to recruit and retain talented mech

Designers."

"... You are not wrong, I suppose." Linda actually felt ashamed for the failure of her clan to give mech designers their due regard.

Ketis was not finished yet, though. "At the same time, Master Benedict Cortez deserves

His own share of blame. He has not reformed from the days where his customers were

Ignorant pirates who did not know what was good for them. Don't get me wrong. His mech designs are all sound and his design choices are all logical. The problem is that he hasn't shaken the attitude that he knows what is best for mech pilots, and therefore tries to impose his decisions onto them. He is too dismissive of the feelings and opinions of the mech pilots that he is supposed to serve. That would never fly in our clan. Ves has always tried his best to understand the actual demands of the mech pilots of his clan and respond to their demand even if it doesn't lead to the most optimal and efficient

Mech designs."

The differences were too great!

One of the reasons why the Larkinson mech pilots adored Ves so much was because he

Always did his best to make the piloting experience as pleasant and comfortable as he could manage.

Even if the mechs did not offer superior performance, they always responded so well

And contained so little sources of irritations that the mech pilots never minded the shortcomings. The end result was that the Larkinson mech pilots became more motivated and managed to utilize their machines more effectively than average. Master Benedict apparently adopted a different paradigm. He focused much more on maximizing the technical performance of his mech designs, thereby enabling them to attain considerably stronger results... in theory.

The only issue was that the Crosser mech pilots had plenty of reasons to complain about their machines. Master Benedict may have tried to make the objectively best design choices, but they collided so much against the personal needs of individual mech pilots that far too many of them were unable to utilize their machines to their full potential. At least, that was the way that Ketis saw it. The latter approach was not necessarily the

Worst one, but she personally did not agree with this philosophy as it led to a lot of tension and frustration.

She could practically feel it across the hangar bay. The mech pilots of the Cross Clan were blessed with well-designed quasi-first-class transphasic hyper mechs that possessed strong advantages that they could give the Larkinson mechs a run for their money, yet none of the Crossers were grateful for being able to pilot such powerful

Machines!

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