Ves spent more time in the design lab, and he was happy about that.
His wife became happy at his increased commitment as well.
Important matters such as the acquisition of new capital ships, the production of Larkinson mechs, the ideological training of the former members of the Purnesse Family, the development of a high-level diplomatic strategy and so on did not require his input for the time being.
Now that the Design Department progressed the Disruptor Project and all of the other ones to the main design phases, the main design lab had become a lot more frenetic.
The mech designers no longer spent most of their time on looking up information or discussing various options to add to the mech designs. Now that they set firm and clear directions for all of the design projects, they were no longer running around aimlessly.
The draft designs all gave them clear ideas of what they were working towards. Gloriana in cooperation with Master Willix and the other Journeymen had already settled all of the major design choices.
Just like with the Disruptor Project, the incorporation of resonating exotics was relatively straightforward and predictable… With a Master Mech Designer solving all of the truly difficult problems related to integrating the materials into a mech design and allowing an expert pilot to resonate with them in an effective manner, the rest merely had to address the more mundane issues.
Of course, expert mechs were still in a league of their own, so Ves had to contend with many new problems that he had never tackled before.
"It's a lot more difficult than I thought to combine high-performance components." He said as he sat next to his wife while she was fiddling with the Bulwark Project. "They are like violent beasts that can easily go out of control if they aren't properly contained."
"Then just put more effort into containing them, Ves. This is not an insurmountable problem." She spoke as she refined the next iteration of the Shield of Samar.
"I can do that, but then I'll stuff the designs with too many structural components that don't provide any significant performance boosts aside from toughening up the internals.
Gloriana briefly paused and turned to Ves. "Did you come here to complain about this difficulty? You're not the only one who is grappling with this issue, you know. I have to work hard to search for solutions as well when I have to do the same."
"I thought you were good at this sort of work."
"I am." She confidently replied. "That also means that I have set higher expectations for myself. There is always a better balance. You just have to be good enough to grasp it. I hope you don't expect me to do all of the heavy lifting this time. I have to oversee so many different projects that I'll be stuck here forever if you skip too much work. I expect more from you this time."
Ves briefly soured, but he did not stay upset for long. What his wife was asking was more than fair. Since he used to lead all of the mech design projects, he understood the pressure she was enduring. Anything he could do to help would allow the projects to proceed much smoother.
After Gloriana finally became satisfied with the implementation of a shield generator, she waved her hand, causing the partial mech design to disappear.
She called up the current iteration of the Disruptor Project in its place. At this stage, the design was mostly illusionary as the draft outlines dominated the projection.
The Miracle Couple intended to change that fairly soon.
"Since we chose to prioritize Venerable Tusa's future expert over the other ones, we should aim to make its design feature complete in two months."
Ves almost jumped into the air!
"Two months?! That's too fast!"
"We're dealing with a light mech here." Gloriana crossed her arms. "What are you afraid of? The total volume of the Disruptor Project is small enough that it is doable to complete the first iteration within the timespan that I have given."
"Sixty days is still cutting it close! Light mech or not, the fact that we are dealing with an expert mech is still a huge factor. While you're right that the smaller volume means less work for us, it also means that we are packing more powerful components in a very slim frame and with precious little buffer for us to work with. It is going to take a lot of effort to integrate all of those powerful expert mech-grade components without causing them to interact with each other in an undesirable fashion."
Matters such as heat management and power transmission became a lot harder to deal with when there was much less room to work with. Even if the smaller components of a light mech were less powerful, this reduction did not keep up with the drop in capacity in relation to a medium mech.
Gloriana huffed and turned her back to him. "I am tired of your constant delays, Ves. Even if you have good reasons to stay away from the design lab, the rhythm of our design work has never been quite right since we embarked on the current round of design projects. You were never like this when you were still in charge."
"Our clan was a lot simpler back then. It has grown a lot larger and stronger, but it hasn't reached maturity yet. We're dealing with a lot of growing pains."
"Well, whatever it is, most of that ends here." Gloriana declared. "In sixty days, we're completing the first iteration of the Disruptor Project no matter what. It has to be functionally complete to the point where we can fabricate an actual prototype based on the work we have managed to accomplish."
"What if we fall short of this ambitious goal of yours?" Ves cautiously asked.
The stare he got in return clearly conveyed an ominous message.
She sighed. "It's for your own good, Ves. If I don't increase the pressure on you, who knows whether you will let yourself get pulled away from the design lab again. You need to be more disciplined at least for the next two months. As long as you can meet my expectations and make it through for the next sixty days, you can be just as productive for the rest of the year."
Gloriana essentially employed a management trick where she made a difficult demand more achievable by setting a smaller sub-goal.
She also wished for him to find a working formula for himself that he could depend upon to complete the other mech design projects.
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