The Mech Touch novel Chapter 7279

Gloriana did not make the decision to develop a minor specialization in plasma weapon technology on a whim.

Not only was she trying to take advantage of an enlightenment fruit that could kickstart her entry in this field, she also intended to take advantage of the local environment to boost her studies further.

The Rubarthan Pact invested a lot in plasma weapon technology in order to compensate for the absence of Terran Destroyer technology.

The rise of the Plasma Shaper was one of the greatest successes from this national effort.

Through her works, the Rubarthans gained access to more refined and advanced plasma weapon technologies that were not as easy to replicate.

“What aspect about plasma weapon technologies are you interested in particular?" Ves asked his wife. "There are many variations that all possess their own strengths and weaknesses."

“I have yet to make a decision on that." His wife replied. “I am still a newcomer in this field. There will be plenty of time for me to choose whether to pursue an existing design application or develop my own in cooperation with you or other Larkinsons. The only decision that I am certain of is that I want to become proficient in developing up-scaled plasma weapons. I can already foresee a demand for them in the future. Not only will I be able to design a suitable giant-scaled weapon for your other self, I also want to design warship-grade plasma weapons for the warships that Aurelia will command in the future.”

Ves raised his eyebrows. His wife certainly harbored big ambitions.

“You don't necessarily have to design the weapon systems for warships. The Red Fleet and other major groups have plenty of engineers that can take care of that. The Larkinson Clan can also gain this capability by investing more into its shipbuilding facilities and R&D institutions. As a tier 2 galactic citizen, it is much easier for me to gain access to the right tech and hire the right personnel.”

Gloriana sighed. "I know that, but I want to reserve the best for our daughter. Even if we are mech designers, we will have to expand our horizons and design other products sooner or later. You have already started to do this early, and it is time for me to think about engaging in similar activities."

“That only truly becomes important once you become a Star Designer." Ves flatly responded. "You don't need to take this too seriously for now. Well, it is your business. I have no right to tell you what you should spend your time on. In my opinion, you can do a lot more with plasma weapons if you focus on mech-grade weapons. Do not forget that we are mech designers first. Designing arms for Ascended Giants and warships comes second.”

"Do not worry. I will not neglect our mechs. Many of our future first-class multipurpose mechs will probably be armed with plasma weapons due to their wide applicability. With my new minor specialization, we do not have to depend on external experts to develop good plasma weapons for them. Even if we collaborate with outsiders, my expertise will help with speeding up our progress and ensuring that the third parties have not intentionally left behind any backdoors or vulnerabilities.”

This was a serious risk that weighed increasingly more on their minds.

In the past few years, they had drastically expanded their collaboration projects with third parties.

Collaborating with the mechers, Terrans and so on was pretty nice as they brought an abundance of high technology and competent experts to the table.

However, it also caused the Miracle Couple to understand their works less due to the prevalence of complicated tech that fell outside of their area of expertise.

This was not a particularly bad development. The practice of collaborating with renowned specialists became increasingly more prevalent at the higher levels of the mech industry.

The problem was that it would be hard to find substitutes if their original partners no longer decided to cooperate. If they became too dependent on third parties to supply their mech designs with advanced tech, the Larkinson Clan would get in big trouble if its partners suddenly ended their support.

This was why the clan never ceased to invest in its own capabilities. It may be young and far behind compared to the major players, but that might change one day. Unfortunately, all of this took a long time to accumulate. Ves roughly estimated that the Larkinson Clan would not be able to get close to matching the technological prowess of a first-class sun nation until his children all graduated from their schools and were ready to begin their professional careers.

Before that happened, Ves needed to make sure he played nice with all of the major players.

“I miss her." Gloriana sighed.

it did not take much guessing who she was referring to. Ves moved closer and embraced her shoulder. "It's okay. I miss her as well, honey. We can't hug her anymore now that she is gone.”

“Let us get back to more relevant work, Ves. We need to look for compatible ace mech- grade resonating materials for the Promethea Mark Il. Which criteria should we prioritize the most this time? The previous resonating material we used for the Mark I is ARB-34, which enabled Isobel to imbue her energy attacks with flaming properties. This is clearly a redundant feature to Saint Isobel. Even if we substitute ARB-34 with an equivalent resonating material suited for ace mechs, I do not believe that Isobel will gain much benefits.”

“I agree.” Ves nodded. "Now that I understand more and more about how stuff works, I am increasingly more convinced that resonating materials are a crutch. They can enable high-ranking mech pilots to do stuff that they are normally incapable of. A good expert pilot or ace pilot will not be happy with this, and try their best to replicate the methods that can produce an extraordinary result without trying to resonate with the special materials. Saint Isobel Kotin has clearly succeeded in this, so we need to give her a new resonating ability to learn and master."

Gloriana already had a few suggestions in mind.

“What do you think about choosing ChargeMate? If Saint Isobel is compatible with it, then it is a good choice to extend the staying power of the Promethea Mark Il. We are already familiar with it since we last implemented it in the Amaranto Mark IL."

"No." Ves immediately shook his head. "I do not think that they are a good fit. The Promethea Mark Il will make use of more advanced tech and energy sources. The availability of energy link technology also makes it easier to top up the Promethea Mark II's energy reserves during a lengthy engagement. While there may be situations where the ability to generate electrical power from true resonance can be handy, it doesn't actually increase the ace mech's firepower. I think that a solution that can increase the potency of her flames may be more useful."

They sought out a few alternatives, but it was hard to know whether they were valid choices without testing their compatibility with Saint Isobel Koti.

“We need to bring our ace pilot to an industrialized sun system and have her test her compatibility with a large collection of samples.” Gloriana said. "We can make a shortlist of favorites, but there is a chance that the results of the compatibility test will render most of them invalid."

Ves nodded in agreement. "We can do that as soon as we are done in the Philaster Crestia System. We should at least make sure to conduct the test sometime after we have implanted Artificial Fire Heart inside her body. I have a suspicion that her compatibility scores will change after the conclusion of this life-changing transformation.”

“Shouldn't we conduct this test twice, then? I imagine that the Red Association harbors a strong interest in making a direct before-and-after comparison.”

"Maybe, but then we will have to send Saint Isobel away by herself. The Bluejay Fleet cannot afford to depart from this sun system at the moment. If the mechers want to conduct studies on this, then they can do it themselves."

Ves did not believe that Saint Isobel Kotin was the only ace pilot who ended up in this state. The RA or its predecessor organization should have conducted similar studies already. (More chapters in Buyers club for TMT)