The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1990

Chapter 1990 Low Expectations

When Ves met up with Gloriana, he showed off his latest efforts. He handed over another mech figurine that served as a mockup of his alternative concept for their striker mech.

Gloriana looked nonplussed. "Is this what you were talking about when you stated you wanted to think outside the box? You could have at least resorted to a bestial shape that works better in space! Why not a dragon mech?"

"It doesn't matter." Ves shrugged. "A dragon is merely a mech with a large flight system and a bit more arcing in its body shape. I decided upon a tiger shape because it's already familiar territory to me. It also helps that it fully conforms with its intended design spirit. I think Zeigra always works best when he's matched with a tiger mech design."

Though his arguments made sense, Gloriana knew that there were a lot more implications that her boyfriend hadn't mentioned!

"There's not much point to quadruped mechs in space. There is hardly any solid soil for the legs to grip in. This is all wasted resources."

"I don't think so." Ves replied. "The legs make up for the lack of swords to the mech. When any humanoid mech comes close, they'll have to fend off the mech equivalent of a tiger! As long as the tiger mech is piloted by someone competent, my striker mech can be quite a beast in close combat!"

"You're talking about turning our striker mech into a hybrid mech!"

"Not exactly..." Ves shook his head. "It's not a powerhouse in melee combat. Compared to conventional tiger mechs, most of the capacity of the mech is devoted to empowering its flamethrower mounts. With the way I've configured this draft, it features the same amount of internal volume of a humanoid mech, but actually offers a lot more space for external mounts. Did you notice that my alternative concept has a decent amount of room on its back?"

She turned her gaze back to the mech figurine in her hand and touched its back."With humanoid mechs, the flight system occupies at least fifty to eighty percent of the available space on the back. It's different for tiger mechs since they are quadruped machines with more but comparably smaller legs." _{freёwebnoѵel.com}

The flight system and the twin flamethrower mounts only occupied around forty percent of the mech's back. While that didn't mean that sixty percent of the real estate could be used to mount external modules, his alternative concept was at least a lot better off in this regard!

Nonetheless, Gloriana immediately pointed out the critical flaw to this alternate design.

"This mech is a bit worse off in terms of defense. Compared to a humanoid mech which is able to present its entire strong side towards the enemy, your bestial striker mech can easily expose its vulnerable flight system and back-mounted components to the enemy. If the enemy attacks from multiple angles, its difficult for this mech concept to guard all of its VULNERABLE external modules."

Ves reached out to the figurine in her hands and oriented it so that its snarling maw directly looked in her face. "Its front profile is a lot smaller as a consequence. Against distant opponents who are all approaching from a single direction, it's difficult to target its broader side profile. The only way to target its back-mounted modules is if they gain a favorable angle, which won't be easy."

In most space battles, the enemy closed in from a single direction. Only when they came close enough did the distance shorten to a point where flanking maneuvers actually resulted in greater angles of approach.

"I don't know, Ves." She continued to frown as she put down the figurine on a table. "I understand what you are trying to accomplish, but an excessive amount of back-mounted modules is nothing different than exposing its internals. The point of armoring a mech is to protect the critical but fragile components that make it work. Both melee mechs and ranged mechs can easily cripple your bestial striker mech's external modules if they attack from the sides. In comparison, our original humanoid striker mech design is better off since its back is firmly oriented to the rear, which is much more difficult to reach."

She was right. Ves deflated a bit as he tried but failed to muster up a good counterargument. Though he already anticipated this problem to an extent, it was very difficult to determine whether the humanoid version or the bestial version fared better in actual combat.

"Let me think about it some more."

"No." Gloriana lifted her palm. "A lot of times, your ideas have merit. This is not one of those times. If you wanted to design a melee mech or an artillery mech, then the tiger shape makes a bit more sense. A striker mech is not as fitting. You're casting aside the advantages of a tiger mech in the form of its superior mobility on solid surfaces for marginal benefits that bring their own host of problems."

"It features a higher capacity!"

"That capacity comes at a greater cost! Unless you are willing to turn your tiger mech into a camel mech, there is no way to adequately protect its back exterior!"

The two argued a bit further, but Gloriana succeeded in gaining the upper hand. She pointed out all of the critical conceptual and practical flaws related to trying to turn a tiger mech into a striker mech.

With the requirements and limitations they were working under, Ves' alternate concept simply failed to bring enough advantages to convince his girlfriend to adopt it. To her, it was a failed experiment.

"Don't take it too hard." She said and pressed the side of her body against him. "Your mech is still viable, but not enough to pass muster. It's just that there aren't a lot of bestial mech pilots in the Komodo Star Sector, which will certainly affect its immediate market appeal. Striker mechs are supposed to be quick to learn but slow to master. Turning to a tiger mech shape will just increase the skill floor of our mech while keeping its skill ceiling just as high, if not higher. It won't be a good sell."

Ves took the mech figurine from her hands and studied it a bit further. "You're right."

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