When Ves presented his mounted wargear plan to Joshua and Ketis, they acquiesced quickly enough.
Who said that expert pilots couldn’t be persuaded?
They might be stubborn about their own likes and the causes they fought for, but they could still be swayed in other matters!
After
getting Venerable Joshua’s buy-in, Ves already began to develop some
ambitious plans for the mounted wargear loadouts that he had sketched
out. The artillery, lancer and so-called meat suit loadouts were all big
but not that terribly complex. This meant that he could delegate much
of the crunch work to his ȧssistants.
As Ves finalized the details of his proposal, he rose from his chair and left his workplace to visit his wife.
“Meow.”
Mrow.
Blinky dematerialized and returned to Ves’ mind while Lucky jumped off the desk and followed like a lost puppy.
When
Ves reached his destination, he saw that Gloriana was explaining her
thoughts to a design team. He patiently waited for her to finish her
instructions.
“Miaow~”
“Meow~”
Meanwhile, Lucky
landed on a large pillow where Clixie comfortably rested. The two cats
bumped their noses and sniffed each other.
Mrow!
Blinky
materialized above them and fell on top of Lucky’s back. The gem cat did
not appreciate the passenger on his back and rolled around in order to
swat the spiritual cat away!
“Meow!”
The two tomcats
wrestled against each other again while Clixie watched on with an amused
expression. Her tail elegantly swished from side to side as she watched
the boys defend their pride.
“What are you doing here?” Gloriana
eventually turned to Ves after dismissing the little ȧssistants.
“Aren’t you supposed to be fleshing out our draft design for the Chimera
Project?”
Ves grinned and approached his wife in order to
embrace her and plant a kiss on her lips, but she firmly raised her palm
before he got too close.
“This is not the time! We are on duty
at the moment. Can’t you control your beastly urges for once and remain
professional for once?”
“Hey! You never complained in the past!”
His
wife frowned and crossed her arms. “That’s because we weren’t under so
much time pressure. This is different. We are working on the most
important projects of our lives. I don’t want them to be ruined because
we slipped up. Be serious!”
“Uhm, okay.” Ves lamely replied. He
would just have to try again when they were off-duty and back in their
grand stateroom. “Anyway, I did have some business to talk about. I just
came up with a fantastic new idea that would definitely elevate the
Chimera Project!”
He enthusiastically explained his proposal. He
even projected his sketches in order to convey his thoughts in the
clearest fashion possible.
“…With all of this mounted wargear,
we can use the Chimera Project as a powerful rallying symbol and a
vessel to intimidate the mech pilots arrayed against us. The impact on
morale when fighting against an extremely powerful giant is not
something you can imagine.”
“…The best part of this all is that
it plays to our strengths and mitigates our weaknesses. Since we are
nowhere near the size of conventional states, we don’t have a large base
of mech pilots to establish a continuous supply of expert pilots.
People like Venerable Joshua are very scarce to us, so it makes sense to
invest in them and empower them as much as possible.”
“…Since
it is much easier for us to acquire funding, we can invest them all in
large amounts of regular exotics and low-grade resonating exotics that
are readily available on the market. It doesn’t matter if their
properties are relatively shabby. As long as we cobble them together
into a loadout that is massive enough, sheer quantity will ensure that
the final product is still powerful!”
“…In short, this plan is perfect! This will truly make the Chimera Project shine!”
As Ves finished his brief presentation, he waited to hear the praises of his wife.
..She did not look amused. Her frown grew deeper as she formulated a lot of thoughts.
“Uhm, Gloriana?”
“Ves.” She finally ground out. “Have you gone crazy?”
“What?”
“Did you go mad?”
“No.”
“THEN WHY DID YOU DEVIATE FROM MY INSTRUCTIONS AND EXPAND THE SCOPE OF THE CHIMERA PROJECT?!”
“It’s not as bad as it sounds! This is a great way to—
“YOU
IDIOT! THE DESIGN DEPARTMENT IS HORRIBLY SHORT OF MANPOWER! IF WE
PURSUE YOUR INANE IDEAS, THE CHIMERA PROJECT WILL BE DELAYED BY AT LEAST
A YEAR!”
“It won’t take that long! We’re not designing an extra
expert mech, but merely external add-ons that can temporarily augment an
existing expert mech. It’s just another form of mech equipment!”
Gloriana
slapped her palm against his ċhėst. “YOU ARE OVERLOOKING AT LEAST ONE
CRUCIAL FACTOR! I participated in an expert mech design project. Even
though I was just working in an ȧssisting capacity back then, I still
know something that you don’t! Have you ever considered the issue of
resonance compatibility?”
Ves finally paused. “Uhhh… what?”
“Thought
so.” Gloriana huffed and crossed her arms. “To be honest, if you
proposed to apply this mounted wargear concept onto regular mechs or
prime mechs, I wouldn’t be so opposed to it. This is different. Do you
know why? Because expert mechs must be internally consistent when it
comes to their resonance profile.”
Ves scratched his head. “Please explain.”
The
two of them sat down on a nearby couch. Clixie moved over and dropped
herself onto Gloriana’s ŀȧp. She curled her back as a dainty hand began
to stroke her furry back.
“Miaow~”
“The most defining
factor that makes expert mechs so powerful is because they resonate with
expert pilots. This is something that you already know, but think
deeper about what I just said. Why are some expert mechs stronger and
some of them weaker? Assume that they are designed by the same mech
designers with the same materials and mech components.”
That left out a lot of obvious answers. Ves had to think over it a little deeper.
“It has to be a design factor, then.”
“Correct.”
She said. “Just by having the same designer, the same materials and the
same components doesn’t ensure that the end result will be similar in
terms of quality. This is because resonating materials have to abide by
additional rules in order for them to show their value. One of them is
that they also affect the resonance of other resonating exotics. Do you
understand?”
A light shone in Ves’ eyes. “If that is the case…”
Gloriana
waved her hand and activated a simple projection. “Let me give you a
brief example. Let’s say that material A is a resonating exotic that can
regenerate armor systems and is compatible with Venerable Joshua. Since
the material’s properties are relatively simple and uncomplicated, we
can easily implement small or large quantities of it onto his expert
mech.”
“And that is not always the case?” Ves puzzlingly frowned.
“Yes.
Many resonating exotics are weird. Don’t ask me why. However, let’s say
that material B is also a resonating exotic that is compatible with
Venerable Joshua. Now, let me say that it can empower the firepower of
his energy rifle, but when we test it out, it turns out that it is only
effective when used at a quantity at or greater than 50 kilograms. Any
less and it loses its resonance effect.”
Those were some odd rules, but certain regular exotics also work in this fashion.
“Now
let me state a third rule. Material B inhibits the resonance of
material A and vice versa. In other words, they cancel each other out.
Now think about that. What does this mean, Ves?”
“It means… a
powerful rifle must incorporate a large quantity of material B in order
to be powerful enough, but that will directly weaken the effects of
material A. The regeneration resonance ability of the expert mech drops
as a consequence. That.. is quite bad.”
“There’s more to it than
that.” Gloriana said. “The large quantities of material A that is
incorporated in the armor system will also weaken the effectiveness of
material B. The energy rifle won’t receive as much empowerment. In fact,
the degree of weakening is so much that it makes it so that material B
acts as if there are less than 50 kilograms incorporated in the expert
mech. When it falls below this threshold, the resonance is canceled out.
That lump of material B has effectively been neutralized.”
“Then we apply more material B.”
“Ah,
but then material A will be weakened even further.” Gloriana shook her
head. “The end result is an expert mech that makes only a fraction of
the use of the expensive resonating exotics it incorporates. The degree
of utilization is just 20 percent from what it could have been if the
two resonating exotics didn’t fight each other.”
That did sound
like a huge problem, but Ves didn’t think that was all. “If there are
resonating exotics that cancel each other out, then there should also be
ones that mutually reinforce each other.”
“There are. The
problem is that there are way more relationships that lead to mutual
suppression than mutual reinforcement. The latter is relatively rare,
and that leads to all kinds of complications. Let’s say that there is
material C that can enhance the resonance shield of an expert mech. When
this material is in close proximity to material A, a wonderful effect
happens. They strengthen each other by as much as 50 percent. The
defensive properties of the expert mech become drastically stronger.”
“I can hear a ‘but’ coming…”
Gloriana
grinned. “Of course. Do you think that everything is perfect? Far from
it. Material C also happens to be incompatible with material B. The two
weaken each other, causing the rifle of the expert mech to lose power
while the resonance shield weakens as well.”
“Then why not just get rid of material B since it is such a problem?”
“What
if I told you that it is the only viable material that we can use to
strengthen the offensive power of our expert mech? It wouldn’t be a big
deal if we’re talking about an expert space knight, but what if we’re
dealing with an expert rifleman mech? It is intolerable for us to
abandon this means of strengthening for a mech that centers around
ranged combat!”
“Then we ditch material A and C instead! I don’t
believe there are more resonating materials out there that can also
strengthen the defenses of an expert mech!”
“Then we have to deal
with other problems! Say that there is material D that can also
strengthen the armor of an expert mech. It also happens to establish
mutual resonance with material B, causing the resonance abilities based
on both of them to strengthen by as much as 300 percent! It is in fact
the best possible solution that we can identify.”
Ves narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “Then what is the problem?”
“It’s
a high-grade resonating exotic. Let’s say we need at least 3 kilograms
of material D in order to make it worthwhile for us. There are no
deposits of this rare resonating exotic in any of the local states. The
only way for us to obtain it is to exchange 5 million MTA merits per
kilogram of material D. Would you agree to such a deal?”
Increasing
the effective performance of a couple of resonance effects by 300
percent sounded insanely powerful, but if Ves had to cough up a whopping
15 million MTA merits for it, then he would rather forget about it. He
didn’t even want to relinquish even a single merit!
Gloriana
suddenly looked tired. “Do you understand now what I have been trying to
deal with in the past month? A typical expert mech does not incorporate
so few resonating exotics. A low-tier expert mech incorporates at least
a dozen of them, and that is mostly to take advantage of the mutual
resonance of cheaper exotics to produce a strong effect.”
“If it is already that complicated for lower-end expert mechs, then what about the better ones?” Ves curiously asked.
High-tier
expert mechs incorporate as much as thirty different types of
resonating exotics, and the amount of work that goes into making
everything fit together is insane! There are countless properties to
take into account. For example, material E only works if it is shaped in
a horseshoe form. Material F only works if it is blended with material G
in a 1-to-103 proportion. Material G is relatively easy to obtain, but
it suppresses the effectiveness of materials D, H and I. Do I need to go
on, Ves?”
He finally understood the reason why she objected to
his proposal. “So the point is that making an expert mech bigger and
adding more resonating exotics will make it difficult to achieve a high
degree of mutual resonance?”
“Exactly! The smaller the expert
mech, the fewer the quantities and varieties of resonating exotics, the
less complications we have to face. This is why I think we will probably
complete the Disruptor Project first and leave the Bulwark Project for
last. What you have just suggested will definitely push the Chimera
Project further behind, because each mounted wargear loadout has to be
compatible with the mech that carries all of that extra gear! And before
you suggest, if you just make it out of regular materials, then the
loadout won’t be able to enjoy any strengthening and protection effects.
The expert mech will probably tear it apart when it activates its
resonance shield or exerts lots of force and stress due to its extreme
performance!”
If this was the case, then applying mounted wargear
to Venerable Joshua’s expert mech would be a lot more complicated than
he thought!