The Mech Touch novel Chapter 2129

Chapter 2129 A Shot At Redemption

Inspired by the bunkers he had seen in use by the forces of the House Kaine and the Flagrant Vandals, Ves wanted his factory ship to possess sufficient teeth to repel a pirate assault on her own if necessary!

He turned to Abigail Evern. "What is the Hexer doctrine concerning the use of bunkers on starships?"

The Penitent Sister gestured at a grouping of bunkers on the hull of the Estrella Klavier-class.

"Hexer ships usually concentrate six bunkers in a hexagon pattern on their broadsides. The bunkers are designed to accommodate specialized heavy mechs armed with powerful artillery cannons. The heavy mechs themselves are grouped into teams and are usually linked in some way. Their mech pilots constantly train together and practice together in order to be able to saturate a zone of space with partially-overlapping fields of fire."

The hexagon-shaped bunkers were grouped into a hexagon-shaped pattern, thereby making the association to the Hexadric Hegemony very clear.

Obviously, Ves was not a fan of this bunker placement.

He began to alter the arrangement of one of the bunker clusters. He completely broke up the hexagon pattern and trashed the hexagon-shaped designs of every bunker. Instead, he sketched in a different cluster of bunkers. He added some extra mass on top of them in order to tie them together.

The result was a cluster of five bunkers arranged in the form of cat claws!

Abigail Evern looked upset at this change. Removing the hexagon-shaped bunker cluster was still a very odd sight to her sensibilities! This was how Hexers protected their large ships for centuries. To see them replaced with a different arrangement almost caused her to speak against the change.

Unfortunately, she held no power here. If not for expertise on advanced, second-class ships, Ves wouldn't have invited her to this session!

As for Gloriana, despite being a Hexer herself, she was used to Ves rejecting her people's ways. Even though the factory ship would become her home as well, she was already happy enough with the other accommodations towards Hexers. Letting Ves personalize a few aspects of the factory ship to make it less Hexer did not affect her fundamental DNA!

Still, to Ves, the exterior of the capital ship reminded him a lot less of Hexers, and that was what mattered the most. As long as he paired the exterior changes with some interior changes, the factory ship would come much closer to representing the Larkinson Clan!

He couldn't go too far in transforming mechs into gun turrets. The MTA and CFA imposed a lot of rules and the design program literally blocked him from adding conveniences such as directly linking the heavy mech's heat management system to the heat management system of the factory and such.

"The Big Two really doesn't want starships to be heavily armed." Ves scowled.

He understood the rationale. From an outside perspective, it was a good way to limit the damage that humans inflicted on each other.

However, now that he was about to acquire a large and vulnerable ship on his own, the various rules that restricted him from allowing the factory ship to defend herself against attackers really began to annoy him! The Big Two even imposed limits on the maximum size and caliber of the cannons wielded by the heavy mechs!

There was nothing from stopping him from adding more bunkers to the ship per se. The rules only limited him from scaling up the mechs and weapons past a certain point. It didn't matter if he built a hundred bunkers along the length of the hull.

The only reason why he refrained from doing so was the fact that the factory ship couldn't accommodate too much mechs.

By default, she came with enough space to accommodate two mech companies of heavy mechs. This was already a considerable amount of mechs for a starship to carry, but compared to other capital ships, the figure was rather anemic.

It couldn't be helped. The production facilities and the cargo bays for the materials and end products took up a lot of space as well.

If Ves really wanted to, he could sacrifice some other functionary in order to add room for up to two additional mech companies.

However, he didn't think it was worth it. He would rather dedicate this role to another vessel, preferably a large fleet carrier, and focus purely on strengthening the self-defense aspects of his factory ship.

Therefore, Ves ended up with eighty bunkers clustered in groupings of five.

From a visual angle, the broadsides of the factory ship now featured sixteen giant golden cat paws!

Each of their claws were capable of scratching approaching any approaching enemy formation!

As Gloriana busied herself with rearranging the living space for the crew and occupants of the factory ship, she briefly glanced at his handiwork.

"That's a very pretty-looking change. We don't have the heavy mechs to fit in the bunkers, though."

Ves did not look concerned. "We'll just design our own, then. This grouping of five claws is already giving me some ideas. Perhaps I can combine five different glows that activate at specific times depending on the battle situation!"

Several ideas already tempted him to design the mechs in question!

If some enemy mechs were taking potshots at the factory ship from extreme range, he could employ Ylvaine's glow in order to increase the accuracy of his heavy artillery mechs.

If a large formation of light mechs were about to reach the hull, he could employ the same kind of spiritual counterbalancing he used in the Doom Guard design to prevent them from landing onto the hull!

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