THE MECH TOUCH

Chapter 6860  Ferocious Piranha Mark IV

There was no hurry to supply superdimensional matter to his relatives back in the old galaxy.

Ves was not willing to reveal his capacity to open up dimensional breaches in the Milky Way.

He also did not want to spend too much of his AP on opening up dimension breaches. It was better in the long run if he earnestly saved up the massive amount that was necessary to create permanently active tears in space.

He may change his mind on this matter if he needed anything urgent or if his mother and Master Moira Willix managed to develop a powerful application of superdimensional technology.

Until that happened, it was better for him to save his AP and hope that others could manage without his assistance.

He decided to push this matter aside and direct his attention to his work.

Several days passed by in relative peace.

As Ves waited for the day the Premier Fleet could finally set off and make a difference in the Red War, he finally received welcome news from his direct disciple.

"Sir? The first batch of Mark IV projects are finally done. Would you like to review the end results?"

"Yes! Let's bring over the Saint Commander as well. She would love to take a look at the next generation of living mech designs that we are about to publish."

This was how Ves, Alexa and Casella came together in the design lab.

"I have heard that your clan has finally designed proper updates for the mainstay models of our clan."

"Sort of." Ves responded. "I wouldn't really call them 'proper' updates by my standards. I have mostly remained hands-off on these mech design projects. Alexa here has supervised most of the work done by the different design teams. I only made sure to update every design to the seventh generation of living mechs, but once I was done, I did not pay close attention to the projects anymore. My schedule is too packed. I don't have the luxury to give my full and undivided attention to every single mech design project these days."

Casella frowned. She did not like what she heard.

"Does that mean the Mark IV's are not as good as they could have been?"

Alexa Streon answered on behalf of Ves. "I have diligently supervised the design teams that have completed most of the design work, Saint Commander. If the patriarch took charge of the projects, then he may have been able to devise transformative solutions that could represent an evolution of our old mech concepts. This is one of his greatest strengths as a mech designer. The design teams are predominantly led by Journeyman Mech Designers who cannot match his ingenuity. They have mostly worked on incremental and generational upgrades that are straightforward."

"I think I already understand what you are saying." Casella thoughtfully responded. "Instead of trying to reinvent our old mech lines, your design teams have predominantly tried to update your existing works to the Hyper Generation without being too adventurous, is that correct?"

Ves nodded and smiled. "That is true more or less. I put a bit of effort into designing basic but serviceable Ultimate Modules for all of the updated mech lines. That is probably my most creative contribution to the different projects. It is not that the design teams are incapable of innovation. They just did not want to take too many risks for fear of ruining the mechs that our clansmen in the expeditionary fleet and the various side branches are already familiar with. The Mark IV's should be regarded as purely iterative updates."

It was rather similar to taking the same product and giving it a more modern coating. The surface looked new, but the underlying components did not experience any revolutionary changes.

The Saint Commander grew a little disappointed after making this realization.

While she had already separated herself from the expeditionary fleet, she still cared a lot about the clansmen who continued to entrust their lives on tried and true Larkinson mech designs.

Many of the mech models utilized by the Larkinson Army also happened to be commercially available.

This could have a big impact on tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of mech pilots that already made use of LMC products!

Numerous years had passed since the start of the Age of Dawn. More and more hyper mech models became available on the market. Each of them opened up new possibilities to harness the power of E energy.

LMC mechs such as the Ferocious Piranha Mark III or the Valkyrie Redeemer Mark III lacked this integration.

The only ways they could make effective use of E energy were to purchase third-party variants or apply hastily designed mod kits to existing mechs.

Neither solution sounded ideal to the loyal customers of the Living Mech Corporation.

These people no longer had to make use of unreliable solutions anymore. Once the LMC released the Mark IV's, many new and existing customers could finally make use of living mechs that were designed to natively leverage the power of hyper technology and E energy!

After Ves made sure that the Saint Commander knew what was about to come, he gestured for Alexa to proceed with the presentation.

The Journeyman Mech Designer began to project the design of a familiar looking mech.

"Is that the new Ferocious Piranha?" Casella asked.

"Yes. As you can see, the Ferocious Piranha Mark IV looks almost identical to the previous iteration that is currently being used on a large scale. This is a deliberate design choice as we expect most customers to upgrade their existing Mark III's to this new generation. The greater the similarities, the more convenient it is to implement upgrades. In fact, the design teams have tried their best to retain as many parts of the Mark III's whenever possible. Even in the instances where this is not viable, the newer parts should ideally match the shape and dimensions of the older parts."

It became clear that upgradeability was one of the highest priorities of the Design Department.

The Larkinsons greatly valued their living mechs. Those that had fought alongside their battle partners for multiple years should not be discarded just because their hardware became obsolete. It would be great if they could receive a technological refresh while retaining their existing lives.

It was for this reason and more that mech designers of the Design Department worked hard to make the upgrade process as affordable and convenient as possible. The Larkinsons wanted to lower the threshold of upgrades to the point where all owners of the Mark III's would make the logical decision to upgrade their existing LMC products.

Ves liked to think that the Design Department succeeded. As he studied the design of the Ferocious Piranha Mark IV, he could see how well it preserved the original concept of this mech line.

"What are the details?" The Saint Commander asked.

"The Ferocious Piranha is still the fast and agile light skirmisher that this mech line is known for." Alexa replied. "Just like the Mark III's, the Ferocious Piranha Mark IV is split between the Larkinson Edition and the Standard Edition. The former is still a transphasic quasi-first-class mech, while the latter also remains a non-transphasic second-class mech. The Standard Edition is a straightforward iterative upgrade, but the Larkinson Edition has gained an extra capability."

The former Terran activated a projection that displayed simulated footage of a Ferocious Piranha Mark IV closing in on an elite phasefighter.

Unfortunately for the light mech, the elite phasefighter possessed superior straight-line mobility and managed to keep its distance from the pursuing mercs.

Just as the alien pilot thought he could get away, the Ferocious Piranha Mark IV flitted forward as if it was a flighty butterfly.

This enabled the light skirmisher to abruptly move forward and take its alien target by surprise!

Saint Commander Casella grew impressed. "It looks similar to teleportation, but that is prohibitively expensive for products like these. Is it related to warp travel?"

"Yes. Mr. Adrian Marceau happens to specialize in developing instant combat warping systems. They do not work too well in regions that are heavily interdicted by the enemy, but other than that, Marceau's proprietary tech has given the Ferocious Piranha Mark IV a powerful option that can be useful in a pinch. The Standard Edition unfortunately has to make do without this additional feature."

The Standard Edition may be lacking, but it still offered a good value proposition to many customers.

The Larkinson Edition was simply better after gaining instant combat warping upgrades.

"Regardless of the editions, the Ferocious Piranha Mark IV's retains the glow that is somewhat effective at breaking the concentrations of enemy mech pilots. This is a core feature that we are trying to preserve as best as possible. The gimmick is not as powerful as before, but it can still distract most enemy mech pilots."

The infamous glow of the Ferocious Piranha used to paralyze every enemy in the vicinity of the light skirmisher.

The good times did not last.

Constant exposure to E energy radiation not only strengthened the spiritualities of humans, but also the aliens!

Even if the latter did not have any clue about systematic cultivation, just the exposure to exotic radiation alone was enough for their spiritualities to grow several times stronger.

As an ace commander, Casella was aware of this trend. She knew that there was little that Ves or any other mech designer could do to strengthen the glows of the Ferocious Piranhas.

"The glow is one of the most attractive features of the Ferocious Piranha line." She stated. "If it is not as effective as before, it needs other advantages in order to remain relevant in the battles of the future."

Ves shook his head. "For reasons we have explained before, the Mark IV does not try to rethink the Ferocious Piranha concept. It mainly relies on generational upgrades in order to remain competitive. For example, it is a seventh generation living mech. It receives many of the benefits that other living mechs have access to since the release of the Mark III. This includes Ascension Runes, living mech cultivation, embedded auxiliary qi cultivation instruction, hyper keystones and Ultimate Modules. Each of these solutions enrich the Ferocious Piranha concept and gives our customers compelling reasons to upgrade to the latest editions."

None of the features mentioned by Ves were weak.

Ascension Runes enabled third order living mechs to structurally plan their growth trajectories.

Hyper keystones enabled portions of the living mechs to survive and potentially revive after their original mech frames got blown to pieces.

Ultimate Modules often functioned as trump cards for living mechs.

Casella focused on the latter. "What is the Ultimate Module for the Ferocious Piranha?"

Ves activated another projection that displayed a pair of unusual-looking knives. "These are the Piranha Teeth. They are specially designed weapons that rely on hyper technology to accumulate rage and purification-attributed E energies. Once the Piranha Teeth have reached saturation, the mech pilot can choose to expend all of that energy to empower the next strikes of these special knives."

"That sounds… rather simple."

"That is deliberate. I did not have enough time to design a more elaborate Ultimate Module for the Ferocious Piranha Mark IV. I stuck to a tried and true solution in order to satisfy the minimum requirement. Don't underestimate the Piranha Bite Ultimate Ability. So long as the knives are fully charged with the aforementioned E energies, they can probably collapse the azure energy shields of most elite phasefighters. The downside is that it takes a long time for the Piranha Teeth to charge themselves up again."

It may sound basic compared to the other Ultimate Modules that Ves designed, but those were custom jobs for individual expert mechs and ace mechs.

It was unreasonable to expect the same level of creativity and ingenuity for standard mech designs.

Besides, more powerful and elaborate Ultimate Modules often required the use of more expensive materials. They were also difficult to fabricate. Many of them could only be handmade by Ves.

The Piranha Teeth on the other hand could be fabricated in any production facility as long as the workers followed his instructions to the letter.

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