The Mech Touch novel Chapter 422

The transport ship sluggishly separated from the military station and fell into formation alongside a convoy of vessels heading in the same direction. Most of the other transports would drop out along the way as they reached their destination star system. Only one ship was scheduled to reach the Tarry System, an important but fairly isolated defensive border system.

In the standard territorial depiction of the Komodo Star Sector, the Bright Republic and the Vesia Kingdom were situated at the northwest portion the map. Any ship that travelled further northwards reached the borders to the vast frontier.

The Tarry System was located at the southern portion of the border between the two warring states. It anchored a vast stretch of low-value star systems with scarce resources and even scarcer population. The Tarry region therefore held limited value even for the Vesia Kingdom, because they would need to allocate far more mechs to garrison the region than what was economical.

This didn’t mean that the Vesians ignored the border region entirely. Sometimes, desperate nobles shied away from the heavy fighting at the center of the border. On paper, the Tarry region only held a couple of mech divisions, so it should have been an easy target.

The truth turned out to be different. Located far away from Bentheim or Rittersberg, the Tarry divisions sat at the far end of the supply lines. Nevertheless, they learned how to make the most out of limited resources. The sheer amount of distance from the political and economic centers of the Republic granted the Tarry divisions a lot more leeway on how to operate their mechs, and they did well in adapting to the circumstances.

"From what I heard about the Tarry divisions, they form their own faction within the Mech Corps." Ves explained in front of Laida and Pierce. The strength he displayed during the training sessions elevated him to the forefront of their little group. "They’re often the last divisions in line to receive new upgrades or additional resources. I think this is the case for us as well. There’s no getting around the fact that we are the least desirable mech designers of our batch."

Somewhat surprisingly to Ves, the other two designers accepted his assertion without any challenge. Both Pierce and Laida encountered many disappointments in their lives.

"Let’s make the best of things. At least we aren’t being accompanied by some Journeyman Mech Designer that wants to boss us around. We can relax throughout the journey." _{freewebnoveℓ.com}

Ves studied the appearances of his newly assigned colleagues. Pierce looked similar to what Ves looked like before his various enhancements. Though he appeared rather skinny, his eyes reflected a very keen and measured mind. He possessed a black mop of hair not too different from Ves, though he let the grooming bots style his hair in a very neat and slick fashion.

As for Laida, Ves felt as if he faced a timid cat. The young woman’s body language displayed her lack of confidence that shouldn’t be present in Apprentice Mech Designers. She possessed dull light brown hair which was styled in a plain and boring bun. Her standard green uniform added a bit more sharpness to her body, and if not for her slouch, she would have looked moderately attractive.

Ves met a handful of female mech designers in his life. Those who achieved some success always held their heads up high and asserted themselves in some way.

For example, despite being just a Novice back then during the Leemar Open Competition, Miss Barakovski acted like she was a queen among peasants.

Patricia on the other hand acted in a more enigmatic fashion. Both at Rittersberg and at Leemar, she acted as if she was no one special, but her stellar performance made it impossible for anyone to dismiss her presence.

Therefore, Ves really didn’t understand why Laida put herself down like that.

Through some prodding, they got to know each other a little better. Ves expected that they would be working together from now on, so it was important for him to establish a good rapport with designers of the same level.

Ves shared some of history to the two designers. What they found most impressive with Ves was his willingness to partake in dangerous expeditions.

"I don’t have the guts to do the same." Pierce admitted with a rueful expression. "Mech designers aren’t meant to be out in the field."

Ves understood the sentiment. "That’s true in the strictest sense, but sometimes you won’t be able to achieve your dreams without putting in some extra effort. With so many mech designers out there doing the same things over and over, it takes a lot of inspiration and a unique perspective to stand out from the crowd. The rewards are also good as well."

"It’s too dangerous. Sorry, but I don’t agree with you. Better designs come from hard work. As long as you study hard and apply your knowledge well, you should be able to achieve more solid results."

That only worked up to a point, Ves thought, but he didn’t argue the point. Instead, he asked the other man a question. "You’re an Apprentice as well, right? What kind of work did you do since you graduated?"

"I worked at at a major mech manufacturer and joined their design teams. It wasn’t as large as the ones where we are heading into. The lead designer did most of the work and assistants like me only played a role in the debugging process."

"How good is the lead designer?"

"Oh he’s really good. He’s old but he’s a very seasoned Journeyman Mech Designer. He often stopped by to teach some points to us. I really benefited from his tutelage."

Unmentioned by Pierce was that the Journeyman Mech Designer likely held an ulterior motive for doing so. The way Pierce spoke about the leader designer didn’t carry a lot of endearment.

Likely, the Journeyman wanted to catch the attention of Pierce’s father.

There was nothing wrong with that in his eyes. Both Pierce and the lead designer benefited from such an arrangement. The only problem was that it didn’t look as if the lead designer succeeded in his goal.

"What kind of mechs have you worked with?"

"I have an extensive amount of experience in working with several different types of landbound mechs. I’ve taken part in the design process of at least eight different types of mechs."

That sounded very impressive, though it was easier to do when you spread the workload over multiple designers.

"Sounds like you have a lot of experience working in a team." Ves nodded. "I only worked on my designs on my own. I’ve never really collaborated with others when it came to developing an original design."

While Ves admired Pierce’s experience in working on many collaborative projects, the other two mech designers expressed their own admiration to him for relying on himself to develop a functional design.

Pierce let out a weary sigh.""Even with my experiences, I only ever attempted to publish a single original mech. I couldn’t get the lead designer to release the funds for me to fabricate a prototype. It wasn’t a commercially attract product, he said."