The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1818

Chapter 1818 Merrill Truman

"I must say, compared to the other pirate designers my men have captured, you are remarkably well-behaved."

Merill Truman offered Ves a modest smile. "I never intended to become a pirate. I was forced into this life."

She had given him a very plain story of her background. According to her words, she was born and raised in the Roppo Principality.

After graduating from a good mech design university from the Principality, she attracted the attention of a Senior who mentored her. Over the course of her duties, she went on some sort of assignment that brought her close to the frontier where her entire life upended.

"A gang of ruffians ambushed our ship. Our escorts were too weak and stood no chance, so they ran." Merrill growled. "After that, the pirates took possession of our passenger ship as well as everyone inside."

"It seems you didn't suffer too much in their care."

"I'm a mech designer." She shrugged. "No matter how stupid pirates can be, they recognize the value of a properly-educated mech designer. I managed to impress the pirate captain with my.. wit and intelligence."

"What happened after that?"

"I got put to use. A mech designer is useful in many ways. By the time I gained a measure of status within the loose pirate community, I already developed a reputation for myself. Even if I found a way to get rid of the pirates who 'protect', it was too late for me to go back. They deliberately tarnished my reputation and tainted my name to cut off any possibility of going back to civilized space."

"How horrendous." Ves replied mildly. "Those pirates truly deserve death."

She grinned. "They did. The sandman destroyed half of their mechs. Your Battle Criers did the rest after they limped their way into civilized space."

That left Ves with Merrill, a seemingly well-behaved mech designer who was resourceful enough to survive in the frontier after falling in the hands of space scum.

Ves had no doubt that Merrill left out plenty of details in her story. The fact that a mech designer with so little bargaining power managed to survive and thrive in the brutal frontier was very exceptional!

This was especially so because Merrill was a woman!

The frontier was not kind to women. Civilization had gone backwards in this lawless region, and men dominated the Faris Star Region. The Hexadric Hegemony possessed absolutely no influence here, and all-female outfits like the Swordmaidens were the exception rather than the rule.

All of these adverse conditions made Ves regard Merrill in a different light. Since Ves was short on capable subordinate mech designers, he could not bear to throw away a talent regardless of how much dirt she accumulated.

Of course, Ves did not forget to maintain his basic vigilance. Anyone who managed to navigate the perils of the frontier ought to be suspect.

When Ves studied Merrill's calm appearance, he finally found out the reason why he sensed a familiar vibe from her. She gave off the sense of someone with tight control over her emotions, just like Patricia!

This was quite remarkable, as Ves hadn't met too many rational mech designers!

His interest in Merrill increased even further after Ves ascertained that she possessed spiritual potential.

In general, only those with definite spiritual potential were able to adopt the methods of a rational mech designer. There were definitely some shenanigans involved with regulating their spiritualities and spiritual energy reserves.

Though Ves wasn't able to inspect Merrill's spiritual state in greater detail due to its diminutive and underdeveloped nature, it should definitely be weaker than a mech designer of her level ought to possess!

It seemed that Ves would not have to blast her head with his laser pistol. As long as she was useful to him, he did not mind offering her a second chance.

He still had some questions, though.

"One of the reasons the Battle Criers sought you out is because you designed an unauthorized variant of my design." He spoke, deliberately revealing some of his displeasure. "One of my biggest pet peeves is someone stealing my work without paying the price."

"My apologies, Mr. Larkinson." Merrill lowered her head in apology. "It is not as if there is a mechanism for pirate designers to purchase licenses under their name. I didn't possess the capital or the right currency to pay you either. Pirating other people's work is extremely widespread in the frontier."

Ves waved his hand. "It's no big deal to me anymore. I understand the position you were in. Tell me about your work instead. You designed a variant of my Blackbeak, yes?"

She nodded and became a bit more engaged when the topic turned to her work. "That is correct. I had need to design a rugged and robust knight mech, and browsed the galactic net for decent works. Your Blackbeak popped up by chance. While it was a premium mech, it fully met my needs with its strong internal structure and decent balance. In order to make it suitable to the frontier, I modified it by downgrading its armor system and other materials in order to develop the Greybeak, a variant that is much easier to produce in the frontier."

"How did the market react?"

"I didn't sell many Greybeaks, if that is what you are wondering, but I did okay. The Greybeak fulfilled the role I intended it to fulfill. It might be a lot worse off in terms of damage resistance, but it functioned well enough on rugged, untamed planets. I've also applied my specialty to it to increase its burst power and mechanical strength. It can deliver quite a punch in the right conditions."

Ves had briefly studied the design of the Greybeak beforehand and noted several unusual modifications that he suspected to be part of her specialty. They were very interesting modifications and additions that increased the force exertion of a mech at the cost of accelerating its wear and tear.

"What is your specialty? Is it related to the musculature system?"

"Not exactly, though I won't fault you for making that guess. My actual specialty is imbalance. It's.. a more abstract design philosophy that is related to introducing deliberate imbalances in a design in order to generate temporary mechanical advantages that can be employed to increase a mech's mobility or empower its blows."

Ves silently rubbed his chin. Maybe he made the wrong assumption. _{freewёbn૦νeɭ.com}