The Mech Touch novel Chapter 3548

Chapter 3548: Two-Mode Weapon

Gloriana believed that the Minerva Project must come with clear and stable communication capabilities.

It had to be a powerful communicator so that it could reach out to friendly, neutral and possibly even hostile units even in highly chaotic battlefields where heavy jamming, energetic weapons fire and powerful explosions could affect the integrity of even the strongest signals!

The true power of Commander Casella Ingvar lay not in her marksmanship ability, but her command ability!

While many people might argue whether Casella was actually better at commanding a large number of friendly units than dedicated officers, none of them were expert pilots like her! With her extraordinary identity, she was able to instill much more confidence in her own men.

The ability to raise the morale of friendly units to an insane height was a precious advantage that could definitely make a substantial difference in battle!

Even if soldiers were fighting for a good cause, they could still get lost or demoralized if they weren't adequately led. The Larkinsons did not have to worry about this problem if Commander Casella was in charge. She had repeatedly shown that she cared for her men. The work she did for the Living Sentinels more than proved her empathy.

This was why giving Casella the best possible means to stay in contact with her own men was so important. The Minerva Project had to be able to reach the most distant parts of the battlefield in order to make sure that no one felt abandoned!

Still, a balance had to be struck. Too many communication modules would obviously detract from the Minerva Project's other attributes.

Ves looked uncomfortable with the current direction of the Minerva Project. "I understand the importance of good communication capabilities, but there won't be much capacity left for the mech's other functions such as its ranged combat capabilities. Don't forget that our expert mechs are mainly needed to resist against other expert mechs. It would be a waste for us to turn it into a pure auxiliary mech."

"Are you sure about that?" Gloriana challengingly raised her eyebrow.

"What are you thinking?"

"I am thinking that Commander Casella might be more capable of defeating enemy expert mechs than you think. Do you recall Venerable Ghanso and his Charlemagne?"

Ves quickly understood what his wife was hinting at. "That's an entirely different case! Ghanso is not a commander at all! It's the mech that is doing all of the work! If we want to reproduce the means that Master Huron employed to create his Scarra, then we need the expertise of a neural interface specialist which we don't have."

"Why are you being so pessimistic?" Gloriana frowned. "Haven't you seen the footage of Commander Casella's breakthrough event? Her forced resonance manifestation directly elevated the mech pilots under her command into pseudo-expert candidates!"

"I know that, but that doesn't mean it is easy for us to reproduce! Besides, the Larkinson mechs that fought alongside Commander Casella after her breakthrough fell short of performing as good as the Scarra. We need the right solutions to enable Commander Casella to channel her powers in this special way, and I'm not sure whether we can reproduce the effect that Master Huron once achieved. Don't forget that both the master and slave units were specifically designed to facilitate this process!"

The implication here was that Gloriana's dream of creating an expert mech that could replicate this powerful effect required the design of a companion mech!

This was not something that Ves wanted to do at this time. Although he favored bold ambitions, that didn't mean that mech designers should pursue them right away. He was afraid that Gloriana wanted to bite way more than she could chew with this ambitious goal!

Ves turned to the oldest man in the room. "What do you think, professor?"

Professor Benedict looked relaxed as he had watched the argument play out. It didn't appear he was invested in the matter, so he shouldn't be too biased.

"Despite your expanded capabilities, it is best to take it slow. While the end user of your expert mech has shown an impressive capability to empower friendly mechs, she might not be strong enough to reproduce this effect. The first expert mech of any newly-ascended demigod should focus on the basics first because we can clearly model the pilot's fundamental performance characteristics. It is more difficult to determine the more advanced capabilities of the expert pilots, especially at an early stage where she is still developing her own powers."

Everyone else nodded. He brought up an important point. Perhaps Commander Casella might become a powerful battlefield commander one day, but that would certainly take a lot of time.

There was a limit to what newly-ascended expert pilots could do. Even if she was equipped with a more powerful expert mech, Commander Casella might not be able to utilize more than 30 percent of its potential!

In that case, rather than aim too high, it was easier and more economical to settle for a more modest expert mech design that Casella could utilize 80 percent of its potential at the start.

This provided her with enough room to grow in without unnecessarily adding too much bloat to the mech design.

"If we do this, then we should revisit our expert mech and upgrade or replace it in the future." Juliet Stameros remarked.

Ves nodded. "That is already the case with our other expert mechs. There is nothing unusual about doing this. The premise is that Commander Casella will remain active at that time."

While the Minerva Project still possessed much superior communication tech than the other expert mechs of the Larkinson Clan, it still offered enough room for other functions! _{freeweɓnovel.cѳm}

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