The Mech Touch novel Chapter 3706

Chapter 3706 Mars Project

Ves needed a moment to adjust to Professor Benedict's explosive revelations.

Right now, any form of minidrive was new technology to humanity. They were insanely expensive and considerably inefficient depending on their complexity.

It would take multiple generations of continuous development in order to mature the tech to a more practical and affordable state. By that time, the amount of phasewater required to build a minidrive would probably be half or a third as much as before.

This was why most powers weren't in a hurry to add minidrive-equipped mechs into their arsenal.

Though they opened up a lot of new possibilities, investing that money into more or better mechs was much more cost-effective!

"You never mentioned this before in our prior talks about our upcoming collaborative expert mech design project." Ves said.

"That is because we did not imagine that we could get our hands on a substantial quantity of phasewater this early. It is only when we have managed to defeat the pakklaton refugee fleet that Reginald has told me to find a means to make use of our new bounty in the successor mech to his Bolvos Rage."

In other words, big boy Reggie wanted to have the latest toys. He was the kind of spoiled kid who nagged his parents to buy the latest released version of a popular virtual game upon the first day of its release.

Ves glowered as he thought of how the addition of a combat drive could completely mess up the design of an expert mech!

Not only would a combat drive take up valuable space in the rear of the mech, it also imposed a huge burden on the entire machine!

"From what I've heard, all forms of minidrives are notoriously power hungry." He told the other man. "How are we going to power Reginald's upcoming expert mech?"

"By investing more in its power reactor." Professor Benedict answered simply. "We must also upgrade the power transmission systems and other relevant parts. Though the cost and complexity of our expert mech design will rise at a geometric rate, the benefits we can obtain from these improvements are not light. The power levels of the expert mech's energy weapons will also rise in turn."

"That's true, but I bet they will also generate an insane amount of heat. You will need to add dimensional heatsinks or other advanced tech in order to prevent Patriarch Reginald from getting cooked alive by his own machine!"

"Heat management will indeed pose a major problem, but many issues can be resolved with enough funding." Professor Benedict nonchalantly replied as if this was not a great concern.

Ves truly couldn't see how they could design and make this expert mech at a reasonable cost. By the time they were done, the cost of the Cross Clan's extravagant new machine might be a hundred times more expensive than the Everchanger!

"I suppose this is one of the consequences of having an expert pilot in charge of a clan." Ves sighed.

"Indeed. To be fair, there is good justification for doing our best to empower Patriarch Reginald's expert mech. Even if he does not break through to ace pilot, he can still take advantage of the enhanced firepower and additional mobility options of his new expert mech to turn around losing battles. The impact he can exert on the battlefield may even exceed that of the Amaranto."

Ves asked another important question. "What if Reginald successfully breaks through, though? His brand-new and superexpensive high-tier expert mech will become obsolete in an instant. He will need to pilot an ace mech in order to showcase his full power and I don't think we can straightforwardly upgrade the expert mech that we have painstakingly designed and built for that. Only the best Masters tend to design ace mechs."

The older man looked dismissive. "This is the Cross Clan's problem, not yours. We will see what we can do once we reach that point. For now, even if it is not necessary to equip Patriarch Reginald's new expert mech with a combat drive, we will do so anyway because of the reasons I have mentioned before and because it will make our client feel better. When it comes to matters like these, boosting the confidence of the pilot is worth all of the additional expensive."

The implicit theory here was that Patriarch Reginald would increase his chances of achieving a breakthrough if he piloted a more powerful and expensive mech.

Whether it was accurate or not, the Cross Clan appeared to be quite willing to squander tens of thousands of MTA credits on this bet!

Ves shrugged. The professor was right. It was none of his business how the Crossers spent their money.

Of course, he would feel quite upset if they wanted to splurge half of their total funds on building a giant statue of Saint Hemmington Cross in the center of Kotor City on Davute VII!

The strength of the Cross Clan directly affected the strength of the expeditionary fleet.

This was why he was not strongly inclined to object to the Crosser spending plans. Perhaps it might sound foolish to invest a disproportionate amount of money on just a single expert mech, but the hope of creating a new ace pilot was worth the gamble.

"Take a look at my initial drafts." The Senior offered as he projected a few sketches.

Ves immediately grew fascinated by the mechs that Professor Benedict had visualized. They not only included all of the elements they talked about before, but attempted to combine them in a way that squeezed out as much efficiency as possible!

"As you can see, I have presented two different draft designs to you. One of them depicts an expert mech without a combat drive while I have recently added one to the other draft design. The latter needs more work in order to make it more viable, but you can already see my overall direction from studying it. Take your time, Ves. These are not simple designs."

That was an understatement. Through their prior collaborations, Ves already understood that Professor Benedict tended to hold extremely high expectations for both himself and his customers.

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