The Mech Touch (Web Novel)

5701 Support Mech Renaissance

Master Vayro Goldstein was an unusual mech designer. He had dedicated most of his life to designing auxiliary mechs.

This was rather odd as much like mech pilots, mech designers loved to create war machines that possessed the biggest guns or the flashiest armor. It was so satisfying to design a mech that could crush other opponents in a direct confrontation that people could do it over and over.

Instead of designing such powerful mechs, Master Goldstein instead made the unusual decision to specialize in support mechs of any kind. He had turned the craft of designing mechs that could amplify the combat performance of other combat assets into an art form.

His greatest strength was to design singular powerful support mechs that could provide useful assistance to a lot of mechs at once. Whether it was through exceptionally potent jamming or the ability to replenish the energy reserves of exhausted mechs over longer distances, his works had become a fixed addition to the mech roster of many RA mech units, particularly the larger ones dedicated to fighting the most arduous battles against the native aliens.

Although he became implicated by the downfall of the Polymath, he was way too good of a mech designer for the mechers to ostracize him. It was not as if he was an insider to the Star Designer's grand master plan to reform red humanity under her exclusive rule.

The knowledge and insights contained within his mind were extremely valuable. Even a casual conversation with Master Goldstein was easily worth millions if not hundreds of millions of MTA credits!

However, Ves was effectively able to obtain the guidance of this bright mind for free due to his high standing with the Red Association.

Ves might not like the mechers most of the time, but he had no qualms about taking advantage of this organization's many useful services.

"The state of auxiliary mechs is in the best place in five mech generations." Master Goldstein's projection explained as he pressed his fingers together while sitting behind his clean white desk. "Support functions are highly dependent on external factors such as viable technologies, resource availability and in certain cases pilot qualifications. While this is also the case for combat mechs, external factors play a much greater role in the breadth and reach of support mechs that can be designed."

"So you're saying that the introduction of hyper technology and E-technology has sparked renaissance in the support mech sector?"

"You can say that for every sector, Professor Larkinson, but that is indeed the message that I wished to convey. Phasewater technology has led to fantastic advancements in materials science, energy shield technology, faster-than-

light travel, spatial sciences and other related fields, yet in the decade that these possibilities became available, their impact on our society has been well below their potential."

"That's because phasewater is too damn scarce." Ves grumbled. "It's really hard to obtain enough of this substance to mass produce anything."

"Correct. The Hyper Generation is different from the Phasewater Generation due to how ubiquitous and abundant the new resources have become. Every mech designer worth their salt has been avidly researching and exploring all of the new technological possibilities that have become available with the change in environment. The mech industry has already made many strides into improving combat mechs, but I believe that support mechs can benefit much more. Do you know why I think this is the case?"

The Master clearly did not want to hear a shallow answer to his question. Ves thought carefully about what Goldstein had been steering towards all this time.

He suddenly made a connection that seemed very relevant to support mechs.

"E energy radiation."

"Continue." Master Goldstein made an encouraging gesture.

"The secret is E energy radiation." Ves became increasingly more certain in his answer. "One of the most persistent constraints of most auxiliary mechs is that they are only able to produce energy-dependent effects as much as their energy reserves allow. While it is true that more advanced first-class mechs can mitigate this problem somewhat by making use of support link technology, this feature is only viable for the most extensive range of standard mechs. There is no way to economically apply this high technology to second-class mechs and third-class mechs. This is the main reason why auxiliary mechs in those markets are not as strong relative to combat mechs. The arrival of E energy radiation changes that because space is no longer as barren as before. It can help to sustain useful effects without being limited by the power supply of a support mech."

"Precisely!" Master Goldstein grew more enthused when Ves brought up the correct subject. "E energy is a difficult resource to work with, but that does not stop clever and inventive mech designers such as us from devising new design applications that can effectively leverage it for our own purposes. Think about jamming fields that can be sustained over longer distances at reduced power consumption for an ECM mech. Think of scout mechs that can utilize E energy to make detailed observations on the disposition of an enemy force several light-minutes away. Think of repair nanites that can keep filling up the gaps of a damaged mech despite their notoriously limited energy supply."

All of this sounded fantastic, but Ves was not immediately swayed by all of these promising possibilities.

"All of that sounds great, but that is based on the premise that you can convert E energy into electric energy. This is not an easy process, and even if work on it has produced a number of useful results, I doubt that E energy can replace the power reactors of entire mechs. The concentration of E energy in the environment is too dispersed to power anything too intensive."

"That is true." Goldstein sighed. "E energy radiation cannot be used to substitute the existing energy model for mechs. However, it is still a useful addition nonetheless. You are not entirely correct in your earlier assessment. Which mechs generate and consume the greatest amount of energy?"

"First-class multipurpose mechs."

"Which mechs consume the least amount of energy?"

"Third-class mechs."

"When you compare their energy levels to the state of E energy radiation, which sort of mechs benefit the most from the addition of the latter?"

Ves widened his eyes as he made another connection with the help of Master Goldstein.

"Third-class mechs stand to gain the greatest benefit from the availability of E energy radiation! Sure, they don't have access to better and more expensive hyper materials, but this is not a big deal. Many low to mid-grade hyper materials are so abundant in the Red Ocean that their bulk prices have already begun to hit rock bottom. Their attributes are not bad at all. As long as mech designers are able to leverage them effectively enough, their third-class mechs will be able to experience the most dramatic performance boost!"

E energy radiation was free and ubiquitous. Its concentration might not be high, but when utilized in certain ways that was not as dependent on existing mech systems, it could easily boost the performance of an auxiliary mech by as much as 100 or 200 percent!

Second-class mechs possessed much stronger power reactors that could sustain the operation of much more potent parts, so the difference that E energy radiation was much less. Ves loosely estimated that it could only boost the performance of an appropriately designed auxiliary mech by only 20 to 50 percent.

As for first-class mechs, their power reactors were so extravagant that E energy radiation could only play a minor assisting role at best. Its presence and absence wouldn't make a measurable difference in most functions.

However, this did not apply to every possible function.

"The true potential of E energy radiation in relation to support mechs does not lie with hyper technology in my opinion." Master Goldstein said. "Hyper technology is simply conventional technology that is augmented with hyper materials so that they can amplify their existing performance with E energy. This makes it so that hyper tech always shares a strong relationship with what our industry can already do. Azure energy shields and space suppressors of the most successful examples of existing tech that have become much more effective by producing effective synergies with E energy, but that does not change the fact that we are only doing what we have always done, but better."

"E-technology is different because it is not so heavily dependent on the available tech and materials." Ves stated.

"Yes. It makes sense that you understand this principle, especially given that you have developed so many E-technology solutions well before the start of the Age of Dawn. Your E-tech has become considerably more powerful after the Great Severing, is that correct?"

"That's an understatement. It is like moving from a desert to a well-hydrated forest."

"This is a clear indicator that the availability of E energy radiation has a much higher multiplier for E-technology. To support mech designers such as myself, this is a key interaction that compels us to direct more research in this exotic field with the hopes of developing a brand-new auxiliary mech that can provide powerful support without relying on expensive materials or significant advancements in conventional technology. This is your home game, Professor Larkinson. You have an enormous head-start in this field, so you have greater promise in developing a new kind of support mech that can fulfill a need that has never been met so extensively in the past. What class of mechs are you planning to design?"

"Second-class." Ves answered. "It is my most familiar territory. I am aware now that I can design a much more effective third-class support mech, but that is not my focus at the moment."

"I see. Second-class support mechs tend to be more effective in electronic warfare relative to the other classes, but it is usually not cost-effective enough to engage in repair or replenishment functions. What role do you envision for your proposed auxiliary mech?"

"Electronic warfare." Ves replied. "More specifically, I am hoping to develop a special mech that can produce a smoke screen or a more exotic equivalent that can persistently obscure all friendly mechs within range from enemy detection. I have been inspired to explore this mech concept due to the existence of an ace pilot and ace mech that is able to produce this effect."

Ves explained the preliminary ideas he had on his mind. Master Goldstein listened patiently and fell in thought.

"I agree with you that if you are able to design these auxiliary mechs, you can make an enormous contribution to the war effort. I understand now why you desired to seek my consultation. The challenges that you have taken upon yourself are not easy to solve. Trying to convert the free-floating E energy in the environment into a 'smoke screen' that can effectively block the target acquisition of alien warships over an extended range is an ambitious goal to say the least. I do not have any readily available solutions. I may be able to refer you to a handful of other specialists that can assist you in this matter, but I expect that you will still have to do most of the heavy lifting yourself. Are you up to the task?"

"I already have a few ideas in mind." Ves said with a confident smile. "I can't guarantee that it will work out, but I am not entirely hopeless."

"Oh? Pray tell me your idea."

Ves had been thinking about this specific proposal for a while now. It was not an entirely reliable solution, but he would be happy as long as it did the job.

"It's not actually a proper solution. Instead of developing the E-technology myself, I can cheat by borrowing the capabilities of other powerful entities. I am thinking about taking advantage of the glows of my existing design spirits or simply acquiring a new one that can produce the effect that I desire. There are so many exotic and diverse mutated beasts out there that one of them should be good at blocking the sight of dangerous predators. As long as I have found the right design spirit and glow, everything else will be easy to solve!"