The Mech Touch novel Chapter 4340

The high-end workshop of the Spirit of Bentheim had become a busy place as soon as the Larkinsons commenced their repairs on their expert mechs.

It became a hazard to keep the paltry remains of the Shield of Samar in this space, so Ves had it moved to a spare hall where it could remain undisturbed.

Venerable Jannzi spent a lot of time in this compartment. Though she still went back to her family from time to time in order to care for her son Mercer, the Shield of Samar was such an important part of her life that she couldn't bear to stay away for long.

Ves looked rather troubled as he noticed how unreasonable she behaved. Jannzi had sat down and leaned her back against the exterior of the Shield of Samar's separated head.

If not for the fact that a maintenance crew had carefully cleaned it so that it didn't pose a hazard anymore, he wouldn't have allowed Jannzi to stick so close to whatever was left of her expert mech.

She had stripped off her protective suit and touched the metal surface with her unprotected hands!

"Jannzi." Ves greeted the expert pilot as he approached. "I'm aware that you are still in a mourning period, but it is time to discuss how we should proceed with your future."

"Isn't it obvious what you should do?" Jannzi looked up at him. "You can fix this. You can fix my battle partner. She's still alive. I know she is. I can feel it inside this head. I have been trying so hard to contact and resonate with my living mech, and I have made a bit of progress."

She pressed her palm harder against the metal surface and closed her eyes.

Ves could feel that she was trying her best to extend her force of will and resonate with the remnant of the Shield of Samar's spiritual foundation.

"Do… you see… Ves? My Sammie… is still alive."

The close relationship and compatibility between the two actually yielded a result. The giant mech head glowed blue for a moment, but much of the activity quickly faded as Jannzi had overstrained her willpower.

"Be careful, Jannzi." He warned. "What you have just done could be dangerous for you. The Shield of Samar may no longer be complete, but it is still a stretch for you to resonate with this remnant without the help of a neural interface."

Ves became quite impressed with what Jannzi managed to accomplish. What she had done was similar to how a swordmaster was able to resonate with a treasured sword.

Of course, Jannzi's efforts were much less effective because the scale was too big. It was just far too difficult for an expert pilot to resonate with just a small part of a mech in this fashion.

The demonstration had given Ves a few ideas. Though the connection between Jannzi and the spiritual remains of her expert mech lasted for a short moment, he noticed that the latter actually revitalized to a tiny extent.

The spiritual feedback of an expert pilot provided it with rich nutrition!

Not only that, but the strong bond and affection also seemed to help it regain a bit of personality again.

The differences may have been too small to notice any obvious changes, but Ves was probably the greatest authority of living mechs. His observation capabilities were great and he was exceptionally sensitive towards fluctuations in life.

Ves became a lot more certain on how he should proceed with this case after processing the empirical data that he had just received.

"I have a couple of suggestions on how to go forward, Jannzi. Would you like to hear what I have in mind?"

The female expert pilot nodded. "Please. I have been waiting to hear from you for days. The longer my Shield of Samar goes on without getting restored, the more I fear for its future."

"That is understandable. In my opinion, the Shield of Samar has already died, but there is enough of it left that we may be able to get a version of it back."

"What would this version look like, exactly?" Venerable Jannzi critically asked.

"That is indeed an important question." Ves replied. "The process is important. What we can get at the end will heavily depend on the steps we take to provide you with another expert mech. Let's start with the obvious approach. Normally, a situation like yours is solved by providing you with a brand-new expert mech that might share resemblances to your old machine but is fundamentally a separate machine."

"That is unacceptable to me. I will never pilot another mech that isn't my Sammie. I made a vow. More than that, the two of us simply belong together. I can't imagine ever entering the battlefield in a mech that is different from my long-standing partner."

Ves frowned a bit when he heard that.

Normally, he would applaud a mech pilot's strong attachment to a living mech, but certain people tended to take it too far. Mech pilots inevitably needed to switch to new machines when their older ones broke down in battle.

Still, Jannzi's attitude fell in line with his own ideals. Ves did not want to discourage this behavior, especially considering that Jannzi's relationship with the Shield of Samar had provided him with a lot of research and reference data on third order living mechs over the years.

"Okay, so we can agree on trying to restore your battle effectiveness by providing you with an expert mech that is related to the Shield of Samar in one form or another. The question now is how closely the reconstructed machine should match your original expert mech."

Jannzi narrowed her eyes. "What's wrong with trying to reconstruct the Shield of Samar according to its latest design? Someone with your skill should be able to do it, and if you can't do it, your wife can probably do better. I don't care if it can't be a masterwork anymore. As long as the form is the same, the living mech should be the same as well."

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