The Mech Touch (Web Novel)

5639 The Adaptations of the Transcendent Punisher Mark III

Upgrading the Zeal to a customized variant of the Transcendent Punisher Mark III should not be a difficult task.

Ves did not intend to make anything close as powerful or ambitious as the Elemental Lord.

Although the Transcendent Punisher Mark III was a powerful quasi-first-

class transphasic hyper heavy artillery mech that contained a range of complicated technologies, its complexity was not that concerning for his current level.

The Lionheart was a lot more complicated and difficult to design and make in comparison!

The Transcendent Punisher Mark III may be one of the most important mech models of the Larkinson Clan, but it still had to conform to the same requirements as any other mass production machine. Ves was not able to indulge in his desires as much as when he designed one of his high-end expert mechs.

Regardless, a heavy mech that not only pushed the limits of second class could still fit a lot of nice goodies!

Compared to the recently completed and submitted Supremo Project, the Transcendent Punisher Mark III benefited from even more extensive applications of phasewater technology and hyper technology!

The design budget of the Transcendent Punisher Mark III was around 220 MTA credits, which was 55 times higher than the Supremo Project and more than twice as much as the Elite Edition of the Fey Fianna!

This showed how much the two mech designs diverged so much from each other. They were designed with different target audiences in mind.

The recently completed heavy artillery mech that Ves originally designed for Davute had to be affordable for the second-rate state.

Not only that, the Davutans were also a lot more reluctant to invest their precious phasewater into construction mass production models, so Ves had to limit the usage of this strategic resource to the specialized shells of the super-heavy gauss cannon that exemplified the Supremo Project.

Ves had no reason to abide by all of these limitations when he designed the Transcendent Punisher Mark III.

He solely designed it according to the existing template of the mech line as well as the current circumstances of the Larkinson Clan.

Ves boldly assumed that his clan would not only be short on funding, but also have sufficient access to phasewater to support the construction of thousands of costly transphasic mechs.

This was why the true cost of producing the Transcendent Punisher Mark III was way higher than 220 MTA credits. The value of phasewater was so high that it was mostly bartered rather than sold for money these days.

In truth, Ves previously thought that he had set the production cost of a single copy a little too high.

Even if the expeditionary fleet occasionally returned from the frontlines with a huge amount of plunder that could be sold for a lot of money, the Larkinson Clan usually spent much of the earnings into other useful investments.

The money and resources needed to upgrade all of the older versions of the Transcendent Punisher to the Mark III iteration would wipe out the entire profit gained from a single battle!

However, Ves and many other people believed this investment was more than worth the hefty price.

In a time where the expeditionary fleet was only able to field one small warship at most, heavy artillery mechs served as the closest substitute to warship gun batteries.

Starships could only accommodate a limited number of bunker mechs based on their designs. There was no way to increase them without making huge sacrifices, so the defensive firepower from these vessels was always limited.

The newer ship classes that had been developed rather recently tended to fit a lot more bunkers onto their hulls. That did not help all of the older hulls that were mostly built well before the Phasewater Generation.

All of these constraints meant that if the Larkinson Clan could not increase the quantity of Transcendent Punishers protecting its crucial main fleet, then Ves could only focus on improving the quality of each individual machine!

He believed he had done a good job at that. The Transcendent Punisher not only encapsulated much of the advice and lessons from Master Decimus Horst, but it also contained a few adaptations that addressed a lot of long-

standing complaints.

Every major revision and update was another opportunity for a mech designer to revisit his old work and make corrections.

As Ves and Gloriana headed down to the workshop and got ready to embark on their fabrication run, both of them studied the design schematics one more time.

The female half the pair looked critical as she directed her attention to the elaborate weapon system.

The previous iteration of the Transcendent Punisher line made use of a balanced configuration of two second generation luminar crystal cannons, two gauss cannons and two rapid-fire pulse cannons.

The mix of armaments had long served the Eye of Ylvaine well.

The luminar crystal cannons excelled at long-range precision bombardment.

The gauss cannons struck considerably harder but were predominantly effective at medium range.

The pulse cannons were much smaller and lighter, but that made them extremely suitable for intercepting incoming ordinance as well as highly maneuverable small craft at closer ranges.

All-in-all, when Ves originally conceived of his first heavy artillery mech model, he wanted to bring a well-rounded bunker mech to life.

"One of the strengths of the Transcendent Punisher is that it is able to play a useful role in nearly any space battle." Ves explained to his wife as he gestured at the armaments of one of his latest designs. "Yet the old configuration is so balanced that it is also unable to bring most of its strength to bear in any specific combat scenario. The heavy artillery mechs are lacking in flexibility. For example, their pulse cannons have long remained unused as they are completely useless in a typical battle against an alien raiding fleet."

His wife nodded in understanding. "That is true. The aliens do not rely as much on small craft as us, and unless they rely heavily on missile armaments, there is nothing for the Transcendent Punishers to intercept."

"Since the typical battles of the Red War have made these pulse cannons a lot less relevant, I decided that I might as well remove them from the Mark III. The Supremo Project doesn't have any rapid-fire cannons either."

"That is because the latter is designed to fit in a larger mech force that can compensate for its shortcomings." Gloriana astutely mentioned. "The same rationale applies to the Transcendent Punisher Mark III, but we do not have an alternative bunker mech that can cover for its weaknesses. It is not a wise choice to remove pulse cannons entirely. There may come a time where you will regret the decision to remove the Mark III's ability to efficiently intercept a lot of fast-moving ordnance."

"That is true." Ves sighed. "Normally, we should design a second heavy artillery mech that can function well in a different capacity, but I chose a different solution. I turned the Mark III into a semi-modular weapon platform. Instead of having a single fixed weapon loadout, I redesigned its frame so that its naked form starts off with 8 empty weapon hardpoints across its frame. Each of them can be slotted with different armaments depending on the need."

He changed the projection so that all of the large weapon modules got removed from the central mech frame. He had specifically designed the armaments so that they shared a lot of common dimensions and such.

Gloriana looked intrigued as Ves proceeded to slot in different weapon configurations. From a full loadout of 8 gauss cannons to a more balanced configuration that highly resembled the previous iteration of the Transcendent Punisher.

"Every hardpoint is able to fit one heavy cannon or two smaller cannons. I have also made a special adaptations where the Transcendent Punisher can use up 4 hardpoints to mount the ultra-heavy Devora Cannon that is similar to the Onyx Cannon of the Supremo Project."

The main cannon of the Supremo Project was so good at sieging enemy warships in space or on land that Ves had to implement it in the Transcendent Punisher Mark III as well!

However, Ves did not want to sacrifice the Transcendent Punisher's ability to fight against other opponents as well.

He basically wanted to have it all, but a single mech could only enter into battle with a single weapon loadout at a time.

This dilemma drove him even harder into turning the Mark III into a semi-

modular weapon platform!

This way, Ves and the other Larkinsons no longer had to abide by a single rigid pattern anymore. They could easily change the modular weapon configuration of every Mark III based on the most up-to-date circumstances in the field!

Gloriana appreciated this approach. Ves did not turn this mech model into a complicated and expensive semi-modular weapon platform on impulse. He chose this design because of multiple legitimate reasons.

"You have done a fine job as far as I can tell. The cost is higher and the mech has become more cumbersome as a result, but these are acceptable tradeoffs in our cause. A mech such as this does not conform to the demands of more general clients. You have truly turned this into a mech that can be adapted to fight under many different circumstances and opponents. The premise is that there is enough time to switch their configurations and enough manpower and facilities to complete this process in a timely manner."

The Transcendent Punisher Mark III was very unfriendly towards smaller and poorer forces!

If the Larkinson Clan hadn't grown so quickly, Ves would have never dared to design such a demanding but powerful machine!

Ves briefly explained the available weapon systems that he had designed to be compatible with the standardized weapon hardpoints of the Mark III.

"The fourth generation transphasic hyper heavy luminar crystal cannons are easily many times more powerful than the much older second generation versions of the Zeal and other older machines. They are probably the most powerful luminar crystal cannons that I have designed to date. The guns utilized by the Larkinson Edition of the Fey Fianna simply cannot compare against the firepower of a genuine heavy artillery mech. As long as our fleet can bring thousands of these cannons to bear against an alien warship, I can assure you that the enemy vessel will not be able to last too long!"

His wife gazed at the design of the big luminar crystal cannon with appreciation. "Our expeditionary fleet can confront much more powerful enemies once all of its existing heavy artillery mechs have completed their costly upgrades."

"The transphasic hyper heavy gauss cannons are not as big of a performance improvement compared to the previous version. However, their firepower is highly dependent on the rounds they are loaded with. They work especially well with the newly introduced design spirit of the Mark III."

If the expeditionary fleet ever faced a much more threatening opponent, then the Transcendent Punishers could switch to more expensive transphasic ammunition and defeat the fearsome foe by effectively throwing a lot of money away!

This was a capacity that energy weapons did not possess, so Ves never discounted the usefulness of kinetic weapons.

"These rapid-fire energy cannons are completely new." Gloriana remarked as she looked at the smallest modular weapon system. "You have completely abandoned the use of licensed pulse cannons and instead designed a new rapid-fire luminar crystal weapon system from the ground up. That must have taken you a considerable amount of time to design."

"Not really. Luminar crystal weapons can actually fire at much higher frequencies, but I normally don't bother with that because it is much more important to maximize their punch. This happens to be an exception. Just because I have yet to design a true rapid-fire luminar crystal cannon in the past doesn't mean I am incapable of doing so. I just had to change stuff around so that it fires a lot of weak pulsed laser beams at high frequencies. I reduced the overall power behind the attacks in order to prevent them from overheating and overburdening the various weapon parts. Compared to the old pulse cannons, the new rapid-fire luminar crystal cannons are not only a lot more accurate at longer distances, but they also happen to be more efficient!"