The Mech Touch

The departure of Saint Davia Stark and the Amaranto Mark III Rev 2 returned Diandi Base to calm.

Ves returned to his old routine. He devoted much of his time to developing his slate of mech design projects. His main preoccupations at the moment were the Minerva Mark II Project and the Arboreal Project.

Aside from that, he also began to spend a bit of his spare time on helping Ketis set up the Elemental Universe. The comprehensive reform and expansion of the MSTS was an ambitious project, so much so that the two mech designers couldn’t complete it by themselves and still had enough time left over to design their mechs.

This was why the two had already begun to set up a new organization that was specifically tasked with managing, maintaining and expanding the Elemental Universe.

Finding the right programmers, architects, virtual system designers and so on was not that difficult these days. The gradual compression of human space created a lot of refugees that urgently sought new homes and jobs to rebuild their lives.

It took a lot of administration to set it up and hire the right personnel. Ves and Ketis had to find the right directors and head researchers in order to make sure that the Elemental Universe Consortium enjoyed a good start.

Fortunately, once the key positions at the top got filled, the executives and leading researchers were able to do the remaining work without needing any hand holding. Once Ves handed over the initial set of work goals to the new consortium, he made Ketis responsible for supervising its operations from this point and returned his attention to his main line of work.

The Minerva Mark II Project progressed at a brisk pace, especially after Gloriana enlisted the aid of the Red Association to figure out how to properly make use of a Mentalist Crystal inside a mech.

Mentalist Crystals were very powerful and possessed many different use cases due to how flexible they turned out to be. They were crystallized hyper materials that were overwhelmingly aligned towards the mind E energy attribute.

Just carrying raw, unprocessed Mentalist Crystal in a suit pocket was enough to make the carrier a lot smarter and more assertive than before!

Of course, this was the simplest and least efficient way to make use of a Mentalist Crystal. It was much better to integrate them into a logic machine or cranial implant set that could vastly improve the quantity and quality of data processing activities.

"In ancient mythology, Minerva was the goddess of wisdom, war, strategy and many other domains." Gloriana told Ves as she presented her solution to Ves one day. "She is often depicted with a helmet, a spear and an owl. We have no obligation to mirror these historic symbols in our present work just because it is tradition, but it would be pleasant if we could make it work. To that end, I have designed a single unique ’fey’ of sorts that should be of considerable assistance to the Saint Commander. Please gaze your eyes on Victrix."

The fey she designed came in the form of an owl that was larger than the size of the Minerva’s head.

Naturally, the owl did not look anything like a real owl. Its exterior was matte white and its surface showed the distinct characteristics of archemetal.

The eyes and the wings of the owl grabbed his attention. The wings could flap like the wings of a real avian creature, but they were not the primary means of traversal for the fey. The actual propulsion modules were cleverly hidden within the folds of the feathers.

What also stood out to Ves was how the virtual fey moved in the simulated environment. His wife had put in a significant amount of effort to increase the articulation of the owl. Every feather could move on an individual basis and the wings displayed a surprising degree of flexibility.

This was more than a purely functional product. This was a work of art, one that encapsulated Gloriana’s pursuit of perfection.

"So this is the destination that you have chosen for the Mentalist Crystal?"

"Yes."

"Don’t you think it is rather precarious to insert a hyper that is as rare and precious as a Mentalist Crystal in an external construct that can easily be targeted by any enemy?"

"Oh, please. The Victrix will remain under the control of Saint Commander Casella Ingvar at all times. It, or rather she, will hardly fall into danger."

"Victrix sounds familiar to me." Ves furrowed his brows for a moment. "Wait, isn’t that the name of one of the Hexer Matriarchal Dynasties?"

"I did not name the Victrix after the Victrix Matriarchal Dynasty!" Gloriana defended her decision. "We both took inspiration from the same source!"

"Okay, then. What is this owl supposed to do? You must have compelling reason for you to integrate the Mentalist Crystal in a fey as opposed to the mech frame itself where it is much safer."

"Did you recall one of the requests that Casella Ingvar has made to us, Ves? She told us that one of her constraints is that her Command Field may have grown much larger after her most recent breakthrough, but its range is not good enough in every warzone. There may be times where she has to be at two places at once. Being restricted to deploying her Command Field in only one location can be a severe handicap for her. It also limits the extent to which she can convert melee mechs into Knights or Barons."

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That was indeed a heavy limitation to the Saint Commander. She was only really good at commanding troops on one big battlefield as opposed to a lot of small and highly dispersed skirmishes.

There was nothing wrong with that, but Casella clearly wanted to gain more flexibility.

Ves suddenly understood the idea behind the Victrix.

"Wait, you want this fey to turn into a relay that can extend the Saint Commander’s Command Field in locations that are further away from her ace mech’s position?"

"Exactly!" Gloriana grinned! "I am hoping that it would be possible for the Victrix to be deployed far enough away that she can essentially project a smaller version of Casella’s Command Field at distances that are tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of kilometers away. If that is not possible, then the Victrix should at least be capable of projecting a lesser Command Field in a sphere that partially overlaps with the existing Command Field centered around the Minerva Mark II."

It was like trying to expand a swimming pool. Gloriana ideally wanted to create a second swimming pool that was located on another side of a house.

If the second pool could not be dug because of water flow issues or whatever, then she at least wanted to create a secondary pool that directly drew its water from the original swimming pool.

Right now, Ves did not have enough information and expertise to judge whether the more ideal situation was feasible. Their only choice was to try and create the Victrix and hope for the best.

"This is a good and practical way to expand the Minerva’s reach." Ves judged. "What else is special about the Victrix? It doesn’t have any armaments and it doesn’t carry anything else aside from carrying a lot of archetech processors that are probably designed to take advantage of the effects of the Mentalist Crystal."

This was another reason why he had doubts about whether his wife made the best choice on how to utilize the Mentalist Crystal. Ves had a strong suspicion that integrating it directly into the mech frame of the Minerva would cause Casella to grow smarter and more capable of manipulating her Command Field!

However, if the Victrix was successfully able to project Casella’s Command Field way beyond the Minerva’s normal range, then the tradeoffs may be worth this result.

Gloriana directed a sharper look at her husband.

"You are right that there is more to the Victrix. I want to make her as strong as possible. I am already aware that the fey are essentially the companion spirits of living mechs. I also happen to know that Ultimate Modules are powerful and possess divergent growth capabilities because they are also imbued with the mech version of companion spirits. Since that is the case, why not combine the two in one and make the Victrix an Ultimate Module as well!"

"What?!" Ves almost wanted to stand up. "I am already in the process of designing an Ultimate Module for the Minerva Mark II! I envisioned a slim but elegant silver crown to reinforce the identity of a sovereign leader. Its purpose is to amplify the effectiveness of the Command Field, either by increasing the number of Barons that she can Enfeoff, or strengthen this ability so that she can promote Barons into more powerful Viscounts. Doing this will directly increase her ability to cope against powerful enemies such as lesser and maybe even greater phase lords!"

Gloriana listened to his explanation. "These are good improvements. It would be great if you can realize them in an Ultimate Module. I am not asking you to suspend your work on the Ultimate Module. I am asking you to integrate it into the Victrix. I believe this is a superior solution as your Ultimate Module can directly benefit from the most powerful mind-attributed hyper material, namely a Mentalist Crystal. If you are so attached to the crown symbolism, then just design it so that it can be planted on the head of this fey."

Her suggestion… actually did not sound that bad.

She made a good point about the proximity to the powerful Mentalist Crystal. Also, the Ultimate Module that Ves had in mind could still work while remaining detached from the mech frame. Perhaps the Victrix must remain in closer proximity to Casella’s main Command Field in order for the strengthening effect to work, but that was not a big problem!

In this way, Saint Commander Casella Ingvar could choose to use her Victrix in two different ways.

She could deploy her fey at a distant battlefield that she was ordinarily not able to exert her influence because her Minerva Mark II was needed elsewhere.

This was great for large campaigns and most interestingly clandestine operations.

It was much easier to smuggle an owl-shaped fey behind enemy lines than an ace mech!

If Casella needed hard power more than extended reach, she could recall the Victrix back to her Minerva Mark II. The fey could even physically integrate into the mech frame to make sure the Mentalist Crystal boosted the ace command and Saint Commander Casella as best as possible!

In this mode, the Ultimate Module could truly get to work by strengthening the Command Field so that Casella could more easily channel a greater proportion of her true resonance into her Commandeered and Enfeoffed subjects!

This would help with closing the absolute power gap between the Minerva and enemy champions!

While the ace command mech still wouldn’t be as effective at taking down enemy champions as the Amaranto Mark III Rev 2, that was not the primary purpose of the Minerva Mark II.

The two ace mechs actually complemented each other pretty well.

The Amaranto Mark III could focus on eliminating or suppressing enemy champions while the Minerva Mark II could focus on mowing down the regular enemy military units!

Ves looked forward to seeing the two fight alongside each other one day, preferably as part of a greater first-class Larkinson mech force.

After considering the Victrix further, he started to appreciate its merits. It was a marvel of craftsmanship and high-tech engineering. The archemetal construction, the utilization of the Mentalist Crystal and the promising features all won him over.

"Okay, Gloriana. You’ve convinced me. I can try and turn this fey into an Ultimate Module that will still be able to augment the Minerva as I have originally planned. There is just one issue. I really think it is not appropriate to call it the Victrix. Let’s consider another name."

"NO."

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