The Mech Touch (Web Novel)

5722 Thick Praise

Esbeth Sandhurst gave a supporting and flattering speech upon earning tenth place. She sounded grateful to the customers that had given her old search and rescue concept a second life. On top of that, she also expressed her gratitude at Ves for giving her this chance to achieve success in a different way than usual.

"The Fey Fianna is a drone mech like no other." She openly praised. "Its unique ability to grant a living intelligence to any fey, no matter the design, turns every spur that is connected to the base mech into a smarter and more caring combat asset, as strange as it may sound. I have programmed artificial intelligences myself and made use of many third-party solutions. None of them has reached the depth of understanding and responsiveness of the fey. I don't know how Professor Larkinson has done it. Whether his work is based on a clever application or E-technology or a secret project from the Red Association is not important. All I know is that every fey based on the template that the LMC has provided just works no matter whether it is designed for attack or support. It is amazing to see how little bugs and glitches have occurred when I paired by Trixie DARTERs to the Fey Fiannas for the first time. The drone mechs are much more universally compatible with different fey than I could have ever imagined. I suspect that if Professor Larkinson makes a serious entry in the artificial intelligence sector, I fear that he may exceed all of the competition straight away!"

The praise given by Miss Sandhurst sounded like a love letter. The Journeyman Mech Designer not only praised the Fey Fianna's amazing fey compatibility in order to get in the good books of the Larkinsons.

She highlighted an important trait that Ves had put a lot of work in. Every Fey Fianna possessed one superior personality and four subordinate personalities. The latter could flexibly occupy a compatible fey each, thereby taking partial control over the small machine's programming and could even override it in certain cases.

That latter part was crucial. By acting outside of the strict and rigid algorithms set by the original developers, the living fey truly came into their own. They were able to mimic the performance of much higher grades of AIs that required a lot more coding in order to exhibit intelligent adaptive learning.

Yet the magic of turning a fey into a machine that was driven by a truly intelligent life form went beyond that. There were limits to how extensively an AI was able to adapt and respond to dynamic situations on the battlefield.

Many of these limits existed because of technological or workload limitations, but it was also common for developers to impose artificial restrictions to prevent their AIs from accidentally engaging in harmful or self-destructive behavior.

For example, an AI programmed to watch for intruders and strike preemptively in order to eliminate a threat may choose to attack a friendly mech just because it had briefly pointed the muzzle of its rifle in the wrong direction.

Accidents like these happened many times throughout the years, and had been the cause of many standard software modules that expressly limited the ability for AIs to take dangerous actions for fear of harming friendlies.

This also led to industry standards where the use of armed drones had to be avoided at all cost.

If they had to be employed for whatever reason, then a human should always be able to oversee their operations and override any actions if necessary. In no way should these drones stray too far from their origin or lose contact with their human controllers.

The odd properties of the Fey Fianna did not fit this paradigm at all. Ves was certainly aware of the prevailing standards, but he outright disregarded them when he designed this mech. This was why the fey acted so much more intelligently and demonstrated amazing adaptation in battle.

In fact, this was just the just.

The older the Fey Fianna, the smarter the living fey became!

Only half a year had passed since the release of the Fey Fianna line. Once a few more years went by, Ves bet that the living fey would become a lot more effective in battle!

Not only were the living fey capable of gaining experience and becoming more proficient in pulling off difficult combat operations, but they could also rely on cultivation to boost their power through alternative means!

In short, the Fey Fianna provided every developer with an interest in developing autonomous combat units an excellent platform for their works to reach their full potential!

"As a mech designer, I am not ashamed to say that I adore the Fey Fianna and its unique possibilities." Esbeth Sandhurst wrapped up her string of praises. "The Trixie DARTER will not be the last fey that I will design for this drone mech platform. Many people think that the Ultimatum is the ultimate commercial work designed by Professor Larkinson, but I do not think so. The Fey Fianna has so much more potential due to its ability to augment any fey in ways that I cannot fully describe. We are all lucky to live in a time where we have gained access to an industry-changing mech. AI-operated devices will never be the same again, and we are all better for it. To those who are still harboring doubts about the Fey Fianna, please try them out yourselves. It is only when you experience them in person that you will understand why the living fey are so much better than if they are paired with any other drone mech. Thank you for listening to me, and thank you for supporting my product!"

The audience clapped as the talkative woman finally left the stage, but not before looking up at Ves and giving him a salute.

"She has done you a favor." Jovy transmitted to Ves as he remained unseen in the rear. "She has highlighted the superior intelligence of your living fey and made more people appreciate this aspect of your work."

Ves maintained an impassive look as he continued to hover high above the stage with his refined black suit.

"Not necessarily." He discreetly transmitted back. "She may have turned the Fey Fianna into a more attractive product, but she has also raised the matter that the living fey are operated by more powerful intelligences. That is bound to spook the people who have organized the public inquiry against my works."

The public inquiry was hanging over his head like a Sword of Damocles. It was an unnecessary distraction but one that Ves had to overcome sooner or later.

He just wished that it happened a few decades later when his works were more entrenched. It would be even better if he was promoted to a Master Mech Designer by then. The rank granted him a lot of prestige and authority over his field. That would have made it easier to overcome the opposition against his works.

"There is no need for you to concern yourself too much." Jovy said. "The opposition that has organized this public inquiry against you may be composed of numerous powerful parties, but they cannot overrule the absolute authority that the Red Association has on any subject that is directly related to mechs. Your living mechs are too strategically valuable to allow a band of conspirators to prohibit it. We will do our best to work behind the scenes to tilt the scales in your favor, but you must ultimately stand up for your own work in order to attain a more favorable outcome."

Ves felt uneasy about this upcoming circus. "I get the feeling that the organizers know that as well. I think their real goal is not to impose a legal restriction on my living mechs, but to cast so much doubt on my works that more and more people will begin to distrust my products."

"That may be the case. We shall see."

The time had come for Ves to announce the 9th place winner. He put the matter of the public inquiry aside and focused on the present.

"The Trixie DARTER developed by Miss Sandhurst has earned my appreciation for its unparalleled ability to save many valuable human lives during and after a battle. The product that I am about to introduce next serves a different purpose. The Fey Fianna can be employed in many different roles, and the next one offers much-needed offensive power that is both powerful and versatile. Let me introduce to you the tetralaser fey designed by Dr. Paul Reemar!

The next fey clearly looked like a laser gun fey, but with a twist.

The design of the fey looked like a long rectangular tube where the laser barrel was offset to a corner. The entire look of it was strange, but suddenly made a lot of sense when three identical fey appeared above the stage.

The laser gun fey did not look particularly special when it was by itself, but once its three brothers showed up, they all slotted together in a way that caused their offset weapon barrels to press together and form a larger weapon system!

[Tetralaser Fey

Developer: Dr. Paul Reemar, Weapons Engineer

Category: Offensive

E Energy Attributes: Fire

Summary: The tetralaser fey is a versatile laser weapon fey that is designed to cooperate with multiple identical fey. The offensive fey can be deployed as separate fighting units, but they can also combine together to form a single combination fey that can output much more power laser beams.]

"So that is why it is called a tetralaser fey!"

"How much power does this combination weapon have?"

"It is a pity that it is not one of the LMC's luminar crystal weapons. At least that will make it easier to repair and maintain these interesting fey."

The tetralaser fey clearly possessed a relatively simple design, but possessed a special gimmick that made it far more useful than what was apparent on the surface!

"It is quite daring for a weapons developers to present a fey that is meant to compete against the luminar crystal cannon fey that I have already designed for the Fey Fianna." Ves shared his thoughts about this contest entry. "However, I think that Dr. Paul Reemar has done a good job at presenting a competitive alternative. The firepower and efficiency of a single tetralaser fey may be inferior to one of my own fey, but it is cheaper and easier to modify. More important is its ability to combine together to form a combination weapon system. Its power is greater than any offensive fey that I know of, which is quite impressive as their limited capacities usually do not lend to greater power."

Ves did not know whether he could design a luminar crystal version of the tertralaser weapon system. The engineering involved in making this product only applied to conventional human technology.

If Ves wanted to adapt this approach to luminar crystal weapons, he would have to research this alien tech a lot more in order to make more extensive use of powerful luminar crystals.

This was not feasible for him at the moment, so he was happy that Paul Reemer provided his own solution.

"Dr. Reemar's work has earned 9th place due to the ability for his tetralaser fey to inflict more damage against larger, stronger and better-shielded targets than other fey. Greater firepower is always desirable for any mech forces that have chosen to participate in the Red War. With so many powerful alien warships trying to inflict losses on us, the Fey Fianna armed with tetralaser fey may possibly inflict greater damage upon the alien vessels. However, bringing these fey together also increases their vulnerability and removes a lot of redundancy. Those who want to benefit from the enhanced firepower of the combination fey should also take into account that they can be shot down at the same time, thereby stripping a Fey Fianna of its supporting element right away."