The Mech Touch novel Chapter 3442

Chapter 3442: Checkered Gabardine

Currently, the Larkinson Army's mech roster was heavily slanted towards medium mechs.

This was not a big issue in most cases. Medium mechs were the most balanced and versatile of weight categories. The general definition of it was that it was massive enough to resist a fair amount of damage while also being light enough to evade a fair amount of attacks.

Of course, there were a lot of ways a mech designer could shift this balance.

There were times when speed and flexibility were more important, so a mech design might lose a little weight.

There were other times when a mech needed to resist more damage, so its design consciously sacrificed a bit of speed.

Ideally, any mech should rank high on categories, but such a perfect configuration either didn't exist or required the use of materials that were worth as much as an entire first-rate state!

In a reality where scarcity and physical limitations couldn't be overcome, mech designers like Ves had no choice but to make tradeoffs.

Light mechs presented a rather extreme package compared to medium mechs. They were smaller, lighter and more fragile in order to increase their mobility far above the limits of their larger cousins!

Although this sounded rather simple, light mechs possessed a lot of depth and nuance that Ves had not yet sufficiently explored.

He became eager to work with light mechs in a different way than he had before.

The characteristic light mech was the light skirmisher, a fast and agile melee mech that could be employed in various ways. In most cases, they were either used as scouts, flankers, saboteurs or even assassins.

Although they were fairly cheap to produce, they demanded a higher level of skill and courage to pilot than more ordinary machines. This had always been one of the significant hindrances towards popularizing them, as mech pilots generally didn't like to entrust their lives to flimsy machines that could easily collapsed when struck by just a couple of serious blows.

However, those who excelled at speed and possessed the courage to pilot these high-risk and high-reward machines, the impact they could exert was significant!

From circling around to attack the enemy's weak side to outrunning any opponent that was stronger, superior mobility conveyed a lot of advantages that could significantly change the course of a battle.

Light mechs revolved around initiative. Their superior acceleration and their nimble maneuvering gave them the choice to engage whenever they wanted and prevent the enemy from forcing it to take action under adverse circumstances.

When Ves was thinking about designing a new light mech for the Flagrant Vandals, he didn't think about providing them with another light skirmisher.

The Ferocious Piranha Mark I Version B served that purpose adequately for now. Perhaps it needed to be updated with new tech and materials that were available in the Red Ocean, but the overall concept was still sound.

Even if the elite mech pilots brought by the pioneers were firm enough to retain their battle effectiveness under the effect of a suppressive glow, they still needed to spend at least some effort to resist the effect, which inevitably threw them off and affected their performance.

What Ves truly sought was a complement to the Ferocious Piranha. He wanted to create a form of synergy between different mech models that allowed them to exert much greater strength when working together than if they fought by themselves.

The Molten Hammers and the Hivar Roarers already provided him with two working examples. Each of their systems worked out for them, but Ves couldn't blindly copy them. He had to create a new system for the Vandals that fit their fighting style and martial tradition.

The fundamental character of the Flagrant Vandals was that they were a bunch of devious bastards who loved to play dirty and had no scruples about using dishonorable means to defeat an opponent.

"I need to use the Ferocious Piranha as a base since it already serves them well. What kind of addition can complement its performance?"

The second light mech design for the Flagrant Vandals had to meet three goals.

First, it needed to be quick enough to keep up with the maneuvers of the Ferocious Piranha. The Flagrant Vandal units shouldn't be shackled with slower mechs that restricted their tactical flexibility and forced them to wait until their heavier units caught up to their vanguard.

Second, the new mech design had to take advantage of the suppression produced by the Ferocious Piranha. One of the shortcomings of the light mech was that it could get close enough to affect enemy mech pilots with its glow, but did not necessarily have the capability to close in for the kill! This led to awkward situations where the Ferocious Piranhas just buzzed around enemy formations like aimless flies!

Third, the new addition had to be able to exert an additional form of suppression towards the enemy. Ves figured that since the Ferocious Piranha's disorienting glow wasn't enough to disable most elite mech pilots, perhaps his troops might achieve better results by stacking another suppressive glow on top of this effect!

In fact, the Larkinson Army was already capable of doing this to a degree. In the previous battles, there were several instances where the Flagrant Vandals combined forces with the Penitent Sisters. When their Ferocious Piranhas and their Valkyrie Redeemers both directed their glows towards the same targets, the enemy mech pilots displayed even less battle effectiveness than before.

This gave Ves a better idea on how the Flagrant Vandals should be distinguished from other mech legions.

Aside from specializing in fielding light mechs, Ves wanted the Vandals to excel at making the lives of enemy mech pilots hell!

The couple slowly floated back to one of the earlier halls they visited. Ves stopped before a mech that was designed and made in a completely different region of the galactic rim. _{ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm}

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