The Mech Touch

When Ves expressed an obvious interest in trading away 6 RF Frigate Tokens and 1 RF Light Cruiser Token for a cutting-edge computing system, Commodore Reze was more than happy to play the role of an enthusiastic salesman.

From the perspective of the Red Fleet, the Warship Quota Program functioned as a double-edged sword.

On the one hand, it was one of the most powerful ways for the fleeters to motivate third party groups into killing phase lords and phase whales.

These groups were not as selfless and noble as they painted themselves as. They were all shrewd opportunists who never entered a losing deal if they could help it. The Terrans, Rubarthans and many other powerful groups managed to maintain their seat of power for so long due to their sound judgment and rational decision-making.

There was no way to truly mobilize them to defend human space if the Red Three tried to appeal to their honor and duty alone.

After all, the powers that be that operated on this level would never allow themselves to get used up as cannon fodder at a loss.

This was why the Red Fleet had to make this painful concession. Nearly every fleeter hated it, but its effectiveness was never in doubt.

The fleeters adored the might of warships, and so did the other first-raters once they got over their apprehension towards breaking this long-standing taboo.

The parties that had just managed to earn their first RF Warship Tokens and fielded their own self-designed warships on the battlefield all came to appreciate their value.

Four centuries of focused mech development may have raised the standards of first-class multipurpose mechs to an incredible height, but warship development had not entirely stagnated during these times.

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At the very least, many of the innovations that were applicable to mechs could easily be applied to warships after a bit of adaptation!

Warships were easily able to accept new alloys, stronger weapons, better control systems and many other technological improvements depending on the designs of their ship classes.

This allowed the fleeters to harness the power of increasingly more destructive warships, but also granted third parties the ability to do the same!

Although everyone was focused on turning their formidable guns at the invading aliens, how long would this situation last?

If red humanity managed to beat back the invasion and gain enough breathing room to return to its typical infighting, could they truly resist the urge to hold back their warships when they inevitably waged war against each other?

The fleeters had a very pessimistic view on this matter.

Alas, once the RF handed out the right to field warships, it would be difficult to revoke it again.

The parties who earned this precious boon would resist the revocation with as much political pressure as possible!

Considering that the Red Fleet wasn’t doing so hot these days, the fleeters did not have full confidence in their ability to put the genie back in the bottle.

These reasons and more therefore made the fleeters extremely reluctant to actually award RF Warship Tokens to the irresponsible space peasants.

Only the fleeters possessed the discipline and restraint borne of noble tradition that went back before the start of the Age of Mechs.

The CFA amassed more warships than any single human polity that existed before, yet never abused all of this destructive might.

The fleeters may have grown increasingly distant from the rest of human civilization in the Milky Way, but many of them earnestly saw themselves as the noble protectors of humans who were too impulsive and immature to wield so much power.

The Red Fleet ideally wished to preserve the Common Fleet Alliance’s successful operating model, but the circumstances in the Red Ocean were too different to make that viable.

Adaptation was necessary, but every change came with risks.

In any case, the fleeters only begrudgingly gave others the right to field first-class warships.

While they had to abide by the terms of their own Warship Quota Program, the higher ups actually incentivized their subordinates to convince people to swap their RF Warship Tokens for alternative rewards.

Anything was better than letting third parties play around with warships!

As Commodore Reze wrapped up his miniature lecture on the latest generation of RF computing systems, he began to mention the specific options available for exchange.

"I am authorized to offer you a selection of three different processor cluster series. The DF series is suitable for large space stations or surface-based facilities. It is physically enormous and demands an excessive amount of energy to run at full capacity, but all of this will grant you the capacity to perform calculations at dizzying speeds."

"Too big." Ves immediately shook his head. "I need stuff that can fit in a warship like the Tortuous Scream."

"The SF series and the KF series are both designed to be installed in warships. The SF is mainly designed for warships that measure over 5 kilometers long, but we can make it fit into your alien battleship by rearranging her interior to an extent. The KF series is much smaller and can fit into most light cruisers and larger naval classes, but their power is also the weakest. Their value also differs substantially, but we can equalize that by raising the quality and performance of the smaller processor clusters. You should make a choice based on size and needs."

"I think the SF series is the obvious choice for me here." Ves mentioned. "The KF series sounds nice if I want to make myself home on a faster and nimbler sub-capital ship, but since I have a RF Battlecruiser Token, I may as well make myself home in the Tortuous Scream. Maybe I will go back to you and exchange other stuff for a KF series in the future. I can already tell it is immensely useful for stealth vessels."

Commodore Reze nodded in agreement. "You do not need to exchange as many Warship Tokens to exchange a basic version of the KF series with us. If you desire greater processing power while maintaining the compactness of this series, then you can always wait until you have accumulated more Warship Tokens. For now, the next choice you need to make is to select the smart AI templates that will govern and optimize the performance of your processor cluster. These smart AI templates are all based on ARCHIE and are more than the inflexible AIs that you are accustomed to. Think of them as the software equivalent of adding weapon and utility modules to a mech design. The more, the better, but be aware that they will all draw from the same pool of processing power, so the busier they are, the slower they become."

"How many of these ’smart AI templates’ can I choose from?" Ves asked.

"The DF series can typically accommodate 5-8 smart AI templates. The SF series can typically accommodate 3-5 smart AI templates. The KF series can only accommodate 1-2 smart AI templates. There are exceptions, but they require a disproportionate amount of customization and use of strategic materials. The standard options presented to you are all defined by their computing architectures. Their hardware is specifically configured to allow for the aforementioned range of smart AIs to serenely work alongside each other without generating any conflict or congestion. You do not want to deal with the headaches produced by inserting too many smart AI templates in a processor cluster that is not designed for those numbers."

The ugly look on the RF Commodore’s face indicated that there were fleeters out there that had ignored this recommendation.

While Ves did not quite understand why a processor cluster couldn’t install 1000 smart AI templates and simply keep most of them inactive until there was a need for their services, he wisely kept his mouth shut.

He was not the expert on computing systems and AI systems in the compartment. Sigrund had already risen up to become one of the foremost experts in this field.

"You didn’t answer my question, commodore. How many smart AI templates can I choose?"

"The SF-02 that is suitable for your converted alien warship should be able to host 5 smart AI templates. I will present to you a list of options. It is not complete, but it should provide you with an adequate selection. Be mindful that you can choose to select one of the smart AI templates that improve the operations of any starship, but they will remain inactive so long as the SF-02 processor cluster remains isolated from the control network of the Tortuous Scream. We are only offering these options to you if you intend to transfer the SF-02 to a proper human capital ship in the future."

"That is good to know."

Sigrund proceeded to transmit a small shopping list to Ves.

[Smart AI templates

STAR WATCHER - Naval, exploration, survey.

SEA SOVEREIGN - Naval, command.

BARBARIAN WARLORD - Combat, offensive.

KNIGHT COMMANDER - Combat, defense.

LOCK BREAKER - ECM, Hacking, information warfare (offensive).

WIZARD KING - ECCM, information security, information warfare (defensive).

THIEF LORD - Stealth systems.

LORE MASTER - Research & development, general.

ARMOR POLISHER - Research & development, mech design.

OCEAN WITCH - Research & development, naval design.

PLAGUE DOCTOR - Research & development, biotechnology.

…]

The list presented over 100 options, though many of them sounded rather niche and circumstantial.

The broadest and most universally applicable smart AIs were conveniently listed at the top.

Ves narrowed his eyes. "I see now. This is similar to hiring a team of specialists. In this case, instead of hiring human professionals that are good at specific jobs, I am filling up the available smart AI template slots with digital specialists."

"The smart AI templates are more comprehensive than that, but if that is how you wish to perceive them, then it is not too inaccurate of an analogy. Be warned that your selection will be permanent. Since the selection of smart AI templates will make parts of your processor cluster develop sapience over time, you will suffer ruinous consequences if you attempt to swap out one smart AI template for another one. It is much easier for everyone involved if you simply maintain your selection going forward. If you wish to acquire the services of other smart AI templates, then you should collect more RF Warship Tokens before exchanging for a new processor cluster."

"Understood." Ves grunted.

That put this selection process in a different light. He did not like all of the restrictions, but if the fleeters could tolerate it, then so could he. Ves merely had to make careful choices that would be useful in the short-term as well as the long-term.

The most difficult choice he had to make at the beginning was to choose how to decide the distribution of 5 smart AI template slots.

Should he allocate all of them towards research & development, thereby enabling the Larkinson Clan to expand its technological superiority?

Or should he allocate most of the slots towards naval combat so that his future warship would be able to perform much closer to an RF dreadnought?

He could also choose to split up the allocation between combat and non-combat smart AI templates. That sounded like the most suitable choice if he was only able or willing to exchange one processor cluster from the Red Fleet.

Since Ves could not know for sure whether he could have an opportunity like this in the future, he decided to work on the assumption that this would be his only chance.

"I think I will split my choices between smart AI templates that can directly boost the performance of a warship and ones that directly benefit our R&D activities."

Commodore Reze smiled. "Good decision. What split are you aiming for, Professor Larkinson?"

Ves rubbed his hairless chin in thought. "2 smart AI templates should be oriented towards direct naval combat. 2 more smart AI templates should be specialized in R&D. As for the remaining one… I feel I can afford to allocate this towards a more eccentric and unusual option. Do you have any recommendations?"

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