The Mech Touch (Web Novel)

As its name suggested, the Odineye shared a lot of relations with the Vulcaneye.

Ves was very satisfied with the advanced handheld scanner that he had purchased from the System's Store a long time ago. Even though his larger workshop scanners performed much better, the Vulcaneye was unmatched in portability.

If he was willing to spend more DP to level it up, the Vulcaneye would definitely be able to scan and glean more useful data from the materials he possessed. He might be able to decipher better ways to utilize unusual materials such as Unending alloy, P-stone and B-stone with the help of an upgraded scanner.

"There are much better ways to spend my DP, though." He sighed.

Upgrading his Skills and Sub-Skills remained his primary focus. The Skill Tree not only allowed him to access knowledge beyond his reach, but also provided him with enormous time savings. Many mech designers would be willing to kill expert pilots or add taboo weapons to their mechs if that was what it took to gain more time!

"Time is the scarcest resource to every mech designer. It is constantly being spent, but it can hardly be supplemented. Even Star Designers wish they can buy more time for themselves."

The ability to exchange an imaginary currency for time was definitely the most useful and cost-effective benefit offered by the System. In a perfect reality, Ves wouldn't need to spend any DP in the Store.

Sadly, it was not to be. The cosmos was filled with danger. While danger brought many opportunities, such as thriving demand for mechs, it also inconvenienced the lives of many ambitious mech designers.

The Store essentially served as a vendor of last resort. He could obtain various useful goodies that he could use to get past an obstacle.

Of course, the premise was whether he earned enough Design Points to use the Store for its intended purpose. Ves continually needed to design a lot of mechs in order to be able to afford anything the System offered.

"What a slave driver." He muttered.

It was not as if he was doing anything different. The Larkinson Merit Exchange he set up within his clan was doing the exact same thing to his clansmen.

The most insidious aspect about these reward systems was that they didn't force anymore to play by the rules. They just aroused people's greed, causing them to voluntarily submit to exploitation on their accord!

The main reason why these unfair and unequal exchanges remained viable was because the alternatives were worse. Most people didn't have access to anything better, Ves included.

Ves shook his head. He was being way too paranoid and suspicious of the System lately. While he felt it was a good idea to remain skeptical, he lacked the power to actually do anything about his concerns.

He turned his attention back to the Odineye. For a sensor that was capable of providing very detailed observation data within a range of 5 kilometers, it was surprisingly small. The entire module was about the size of his palm if he left his fingers out of consideration.

He could easily free up some room on his Unending Regalia to integrate this 400,000 DP sensor system.

"Perhaps I'll do so after this battle. No stealthy bugger will be able to sneak up to me as long as it is working at full power!"

As Ves explored his curious new module, he quickly gained access to its control interface. He skimmed over the specifications of the expensive device.

He discovered various useful insights about the Odineye.

It turned out that its stated maximum range of 5 kilometers only applied to its main sensor capabilities. It was able to detect objects further ahead, but the resolution and amount of useful data was very limited. That meant that the Odineye might easily be able to detect an active mech, but it wouldn't be able to spit out a lot of useful details.

The second useful property of the Odineye was that it was very resistant against damage. While the sensor module wasn't as ridiculously tough as the Darkbreak module, it was still capable of withstanding a couple of direct second-class attacks!

"It's still breakable though." He frowned.

He would probably cry if a sensor module that was worth 400,000 DP broke in the upcoming battle!

The third property that Ves took notice of was that the Odineye was quite capable of detecting stealthed people and objects. Its performance against first-class stealth technology was actually rather bad, but it was probably capable of thwarting nearly every form of conventional second-class stealth system!

The reason why he added the word 'conventional' to that description was that there were bound to be a lot of alien and unorthodox stealth tech that might be able to sneak past the Odineye!

This was not a big deal to Ves. "No piece of tech is devoid of loopholes. It's already good enough that the Odineye is capable of doing so much at this level."

He didn't believe the Friday Coalition, the Preator Clan and the Planat Clan possessed anything advanced enough to fool the Odineye. This was probably a much greater concern once he reached the Red Ocean.

"Even then, I can just upgrade the Odineye to higher level to mitigate this vulnerability."

As much as the Odineye astounded Ves, not everything was great.

The biggest shortcoming was that the Odineye did not supply its own power!

The Vulcaneye scanner was a self-contained product. It was meant to be used on its own.

The Odineye was designed to be slotted into a suit of combat armor and draw power from a central source.

Normally, this wasn't a big deal. His Unending Regalia supplied plenty of power to its various modules and other systems.

This time was different!

"What a power hog!"

At its current state, the internal power supply of his Unending Regalia wasn't even capable of supporting the Odineye when it was at full strength!

Fortunately, the power consumption was only excessive relative to the human scale. The load was much more reasonable when utilized by one of his better mechs. Certainly, any machine that attempted to make use of the Odineye would have to take the increased power draw into account, but that was not a big deal in most battles.

"Besides, it doesn't have to be dialed up to maximum all the time."

If he just wanted to utilize the Odineye on his own, then he could just set a regular interval where it was active for only a couple of milliseconds or so. That was enough time for the sensor module to sweep the surroundings and detect any possible hidden threats.

In the remainder of the time, Ves could put it on a lower standby setting where its range and effectiveness was vastly reduced in order to minimize its power consumption.

"I have a lot of options here. This is a very versatile module."

He got what he paid for. He did not regret splurging 400,000 DP on this useful tool!

After gaining a good understanding of the basic capabilities of his new purchase, he began to delve a bit deeper into its configuration. He needed to know to what extent he could integrate it into other systems and devices.

Just as he expected, the Odineye was a very high-end product that was primarily designed to mate with other first-class gear. That said, it was designed to be widely compatible with both standard and proprietary connection standards, so Ves didn't have to worry about this problem.

"I can proceed with my plan." He grinned.

He immediately left his personal workshop and raced back to the hangar bay with Lucky following right behind.

During the journey, he briefly considered which mech he should integrate the Odineye.

The Prophet's Fist wasn't a suitable choice. As a bunker mech, it was fixed in place and was only able to make detailed observations up to 5 kilometers from the Spirit of Bentheim.

"This is completely redundant considering that heavy artillery mechs mostly rely on sensor data supplied by other mechs and ships."

What about the Bright Beam Prime? Venerable Stark's rifleman mech was one of his killer weapons. Once it came under the effect of prime resonance, the mech was able to fire incredibly powerful energy beams, but only a few times!

With three attacks before the mech ran out of juice, every shot counted. While Venerable Stark possessed superhuman marksmanship, she was limited by her mech. Adding the Odineye to her machine would grant her much greater accuracy.

Yet Ves still hesitated!

"It's not worth it to commit this precious resource on a mech that can fire just three shots at full power."

Besides, the battle plan called for deploying the Bright Beam Prime at the rear, where the Odineye was too far away from the front to resolve anything useful.

He rapidly went through his remaining options.

The Piranha Prime would definitely be a good choice. It would enhance its role as a scout and be able to transmit detailed observation and targeting data to other friendly forces. The ability to detect weak points would also be of great help in increasing its killing efficiency.

The Bright Sword Prime already possessed enhanced cutting power after Ves augmented it with a gem. Combining it with the Odineye would allow Venerable Dise to pierce through even the toughest mechs!

While both of these choices sounded good, emotionally he had already made a choice.

He stopped in front of the Valkyrie Prime.

Like any human with feelings, Ves was susceptible to favoritism. Out of all of the mech pilots in his fleet, he liked Venerable Joshua the most.

"Well, that's enough of a reason, I guess." He shrugged.

The other two prime mechs already possessed sufficient advantages. In his heart, Ves believed that the Valkyrie Prime was the most powerful prime mech. Temporarily lending it the Odineye was also a good choice.

He already had the perfect place in mind to affix the Odineye. He called over a few bots and tools and floated up to the forehead of the mech.

Just like every LMC mech, the Valkyrie Prime proudly boasted a third eye surrounded by a hexagon.

In the next twenty minutes, Ves installed the Odineye in the 'pupil' of the third eye. He covered it with a transparent protective material to give it a bit of a buffer against incidental damage. He also integrated the Odineye in the operating system of the mech.

He also provided brief instructions to Venerable Joshua.

The expert pilot looked puzzled. "If this new sensor system is able to detect stealthed opponents, shouldn't you be putting it onto a mech that is assigned to the rear? I'll likely be fighting in one of the hotspots of the battlefield. Stealth mechs have no place there because it's far too easy for them to get hit by random shots and debris."

"I'm aware of that, but I mainly want you to use the Odineye to help us expose the weak points of every enemy mech in range. The military mechs we're about to confront are just too tough. It's too difficult to take them down the conventional way. We need to cheat as much as possible, and informing our mech pilots where they should concentrate their attacks will definitely even the playing field!"

Joshua quickly understood the importance of his additional role. He not only had to lead the Penitent Sisters in battle, but also act as a forward scout that relayed critical sensor readings back to the fleet!

"So my mech must stay up as long as possible in order to supply all of this data, right?"

"Correct." Ves nodded. "The Odineye is an extremely rare and expensive component. Try your best to prevent the enemy from targeting it. Even if you can't prevent your mech from getting trashed, at least make sure we'll be able to salvage this sensor module intact!"

He did not want to flush 400,000 DP down the drain!