The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1697

Chapter 1697 The Prophet's Dignity

In the subsequent testing sessions, Ves and Gloriana divided their work.

Ves mainly paid attention to the integration between mech and mech pilot and also kept an eye on any spiritual interactions.

Meanwhile, Gloriana busied herself by observing the prototype's technical performance.

"The Deliverer is performing exactly as expected in this regard." She noted as Sergeant Jezebel Kronon was having the time of her life with the Ylvainan mech. "Our prototype excels in offense but is poor in everything else."

"We haven't stress-tested its weaknesses yet."

"It doesn't matter. I can already see it. The armor of our mech is so poor that a simple Desolate Soldier can defeat with ease. It's acceleration is so weak that it is poor in dogfights, skirmishing and any other form of maneuver warfare."

As the mech designer responsible for making these design choices, Ves was fully aware of these shortcomings.

However, planning for them was one thing, seeing the mech perform so poorly in reality was another thing! _{fɾēewebnσveℓ.com}

If the Deliverer failed to live up its promises, then Ves doomed a lot of customers!

"Well, its special features aren't as reliable as I thought." He murmured.

The prototype failed in trying to dodge weak practice rounds launched by tiny bots. The second special feature of the mech designed to rely on prediction to dodge incoming attacks did not seem very useful.

Perhaps it already activated a few times, but with how the test was put together, Ves couldn't distinguish external assistance to the judgement and instincts of the mech pilot.

It seemed that making Prescient Movement one of the selling points of his mechs was not a good idea.

As for the Guided Aim ability, each Kronon mech pilot managed to display it once, hitting the primary objective after firing just a few shots.

This was definitely not a coincidence anymore. Ylvaine's spiritual fragment truly intervened and directed the mech pilot to aim at a specific target bot!

The only issue was that subsequent attempts to snipe down the bot designated as the sandman admiral failed.

Certainly, Dominic, Edward and Jezebel became increasingly proficient in their marksmanship as they grew accustomed to piloting the Deliverer. Yet this growth was just an ordinary progression that took place with every mech pilot's introduction to a new mech model.

While the control room gathered plenty of precise and useful data about the Deliverer's regular operation, Ves did not really find it all that interesting.

He knew how the mech performed in ordinary times. When it came down to it, the performance exhibited by the prototype did not differ too much from its performance in the simulations.

Ves already anticipated this result long ago. For all of its extremes, the Deliverer was not a complex mech design. Its frame did not incorporate a lot of systems and most of its available internal capacity was filled with energy cells and ammunition containers.

The most complex part about the mech was its Executor rifle, but even then it was just a mech-sized weapon. Such weapons were always simpler than the mechs that wielded them in battle.

Even so, simulating the operation of a gauss rifle was pretty easy as long as it did not contain any abstruse effects. Though Gloriana worked on it for some time, the optimizations she made did not reach the point where modelling became skewed.

Therefore, the physical tests mostly served to affirm the Deliverer's theoretical performance parameters.

Only the special features couldn't be tested in simulated tests. There was no 'human' mech pilot to bond with the design spirit. Ylvaine's spiritual fragment could not develop a connection with an entity that was neither alive nor sentient.

Ves had hoped that the testing sessions today showcased the promise of the Deliverer's Guided Aim ability.

His hopes only partially came true. Demonstrating this capability just once per mech pilot was too stingy!

Perhaps he should go directly to the source for answers.

He stood still as he concentrated his mind and centered his thoughts on the design of the Deliverer.

Soon enough, he made contact with Ylvaine's spiritual fragment.

He mentally conveyed his doubts towards it. Why did it offer its assistance so infrequently?

The fragment already transmitted its answers.

"You are.. not a dispenser to be drawn upon as someone wishes. You.. must pay a price to affect the material realm. Is that what you're trying to say?" He mentally conveyed.

The spiritual fragment sesemed rather proud, Ves. It did not wish to be turned into a slave to the mechs it was supposed to be watching over. The Great Prophet was a great man in the past who stood far above everyone's heads. Its spiritual fragment was just as conceited, if not more!

Ves was unsure whether the spiritual fragment accurately represented its origin's attitude. He found it to be a little bit too arrogant for his liking.

However, the impressions conveyed by the fragment were not ungrounded.

It demeaned the prophet if his spiritual remnant was used too much in tests. The fragment only complied once because Ves would have beaten it up if it withheld its powers entirely!

"What's the deal here?"

The fragment conveyed a series of impressions that clarified its stance.

If Ves was interpreting them correctly, then Ylvaine's spiritual fragment did not wish to extend its powers too frequently and arbitrarily. It only intended to come to a mech pilot's assistance if he truly needed it and if helping him truly benefited the Ylvainan people and faith!

"This sounds.. reasonable." He muttered in a mixed tone.