The Mech Touch novel Chapter 3216

Chapter 3216: Dwarf Mechs

The journey into the Vulcan Empire was a contentious one to say the least. Even though Ves had made an agreement with the Glory Seekers and the Cross Clan, his allies didn't want to fly straight into a black hole!

It took a lot of effort to assure both his allies and his own clansmen that Smiling Samuel was not as dangerous as a black hole. Too many people had read or heard all kinds of awful stories about the dwarves while the fleet was parked in Amswick.

The locals constantly exaggerated the menace of their archenemies whenever they interacted with outsiders. The Empire of the Lost was filled by traumatized survivors and descendents who inherited the hate and fear of their parents towards the dwarves.

Ves personally thought that the mania towards the Vulcanites had reached an excessive degree. Though the Lost were justified in demonizing their threatening neighbors, the Golden Skull Alliance did not play any part in this local turf war.

No matter how much tensions flared between states, it was of no concern to transient travellers such as the Larkinson Clan.

In fact, Ves was even willing to do business with the dwarves if it was convenient to do so! It was too bad that he didn't intend to expand his business presence in the Fermi Star Cluster.

"There's also another problem. The dwarves don't like to pilot conventional humanoid mechs."

Their hatred against the tall folk did not just lead them to question the true nature of their supposed patron god. They also moved away from piloting normal humanoid mechs in favor of bestial mechs and most notably dwarf mechs.

A dwarf mech was exactly what it sounded like. It was a shorter but much more stockier version of a typical humanoid mech. Its contours basically matched that of a dwarf scaled to the size of a war machine.

From what Ves had heard about the Vulcan Empire's mech community, the local mech industry was relatively young but already came up with numerous innovations that increased the competitiveness of dwarf mechs.

Dwarf mechs were characterized by their lower profiles. This not only made it a little harder to hit them at range, but also conveyed substantial defensive advantages when fighting up close.

Since dwarf mechs did not stretch as high as traditional humanoid mechs, they also possessed a lower center of mass. They were a lot more difficult to trip and they remained rock solid even when the terrain became unstable.

Of course, just like the dwarves themselves, the mechs that took on their form performed quite well in heavy gravity environments.

The advantage was so substantial that even the so-called 'tall folk' preferred to pilot dwarf mechs whenever they had to deploy on a heavy gravity planet for an extensive amount of time.

"Heh, the dwarves probably don't like that." Ves chuckled.

That said, dwarven mechs also came with significant downsides. If that wasn't the case, they would have become a lot more ubiquitous than today.

Their short and stocky limbs made it a lot more difficult for normal mech pilots to get used to piloting them. Many pilots described the experience as turning into a fat and muscular child. They simply couldn't make the same movements that they had been accustomed to making as normal human adults.

While this issue went away with time and practice, there were other downsides to dwarven mechs that were not as easy to brush away.

Dwarf mechs were characterized by worse than usual mobility. For one, they possessed shorter pairs of legs. That made them a lot slower when they traversed on land. They were also a little more awkward to maneuver in the air and in space.

The lack of length in their limbs also made it more difficult for them to perform melee attacks. Though they were able to hit harder than an equivalent normal humanoid mech, their shorter reach and reduced range of motion mostly limited them to performing simple and more straightforward moves.

Their deviating forms also suffered from lower carrying capacity and less efficient heat management. These were important factors for ranged mechs, so they suffered a small disadvantage even at range.

Overall, the complications surrounding dwarf mechs ultimately stopped them from gaining popularity in circles outside dwarven communities. The only reason why the latter clung to using dwarf mechs was because they identified with the stockier machines!

While Ves was aware of these well-documented disadvantages, he did not automatically look down on dwarf mechs. They offered a lot of value under the right circumstances and fulfilled certain niches very well.

"At the very least, they are one of the most efficient mech types in heavy gravity environments."

Quadruped mechs actually offered a lot more stability in the same locale, but moving four limbs was a lot more energy-intensive than moving two limbs. Dwarf mechs occupied a sweet spot where they offered a reasonable amount of stability while still remaining fairly energy efficient.

"Well, it only matters on the few settled planets that possess higher than normal gravities."

One of the ironies of the Vulcan Empire was that most of its settled planets possessed standard gravities. The dwarves had taken them all over from the former human states that occupied the various territories before the dwarven revolution. These planets had all been terraformed and featured a lot of expensive infrastructure that took decades or centuries to accumulate.

Even though the dwarves preferred to settle on heavy gravity planets, the fact of the matter was that there were too few of them that were terraformed and developed. Not even the Vulcanites could afford to start from scratch.

This had led to the current result where the overwhelming majority of dwarves resided in the former homes of the tall folk they hated. The gravities they were subjected to were also a lot lighter than their bodies could handle. This came with all kinds of complications that Ves didn't bother to explore.

"I'm not a dwarf, so why should I care?"

Ves wasn't in the mood to get back to designing mechs right away, so continued to spend some time on reading up on the Vulcanites and the dwarves in general. He became surprisingly engrossed in their lives. They had developed quite a unique culture that was eerily familiar yet also different in a couple of crucial details.

"It's like looking at a twisted mirror of humanity."

While Ves contemplated the dwarves, his two cats engaged in their weekly tussle for dominance.

"Meow!"

Mrow!

Both Blinky and Lucky rolled as they scratched and bit each other. They continued to cry out aggressively as they tried their best to assert themselves as the top cat aboard the Spirit of Bentheim.

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