The Mech Touch novel Chapter 5046

"Were you drunk when you came up with this stupid mech?"

"Er... no. At least I don't think so. I was... in a special creative mood, I guess."

To be honest, Ves did not know what he was thinking when he came up with his latest mech concept.

The draft design he showed off today looked like an upright humanoid elephant creature with a pair of solid legs, four arms and a long and flexible trunk!

Although it looked formidable at first glance, every decent mech designer could immediately list its many shortcomings. It was a mech that did not look like it belonged in a space battle in the slightest!

How could Ves possibly come up with such an absurd spaceborn mech?

It was as if he formed a list of all of the deficiencies of the current mech lineup of the Larkinson Army, drank himself stupid and picked the first ridiculous idea that came to mind in order to resolve as many shortcomings with a single design as possible!

Although Ves indeed generated a lot of doubts about this highly unorthodox mech proposal, he did not dismiss it out hand.

When he thought about it a bit more, he found that its logic was actually quite sound!

His greatest difficulty was convincing others that he was being serious about introducing this new mech to the Larkinson Army!

"That... is not a dedicated ranged mech." Ketis stated. "It has four arms, and one of them is holding an axe."

"Yup. That is because its large frame bestows a lot of mechanical power to its limbs. It is a waste to leave all of that strength untapped. Besides, I don't want this new mech of mine to be unable to defend itself at close range. It needs to be able to protect its transmission channels from various threats."

Gloriana made her own remark. "I understand that you positioned the Transcendent Punisher Mark III as a powerful defensive ranged mech solution. It is logical to keep it stationary considering its comparatively enormous mass."

"That is right, honey." Ves replied with a loving smile.

"THEN WHY ARE YOU PROPOSING TO DESIGN A HEAVY MECH AS AN OFFENSIVE SOLUTION?! Can you not see how slow it will be when movingin space?! Adding this ridiculous mech to our offensive formations will slow down all of the mechs that it is accompanying!"

"That is true... under normal circumstances. This is not a normal circumstance."

"Explain."

Ves smirked and highlighted a specific module in the unusual draft design. "Look at its flight system. It's big, right? It can provide a lot of forward acceleration to this hefty mech frame. Sure, it won't be able to dance as nimbly in the void of space as our light mechs, but nobody is asking for that. Look at this cruise drive. Don't you think it looks larger and more powerful than the ones in the previous sketches? You guys haven't completely adapted to the Phasewater Generation. Even if my proposed Elephant Project is twice as slow as our medium mechs, as long as its cruise drive can amplify its speed twice as much, it can still keep up with most general offensive maneuvers!"

His wife looked at Ves as if he had gone completely bonkers!

"Did you hit your head too hard with that hammer of yours? This is the opposite of a cost-effective mech! The amount of phasewater needed to fabricate this powerful cruise drive may be four times or ten times as much as the cruise drive of a medium mech! The scalability of this new and experimental tech is too poor!"

Ves shook his head. "What you are saying is not wrong, but it doesn't matter. We are living in an age where red humanity has fallen into an existential crisis. Multiple alien races from multiple galaxies have the potential to overrun our fragile patch of space in the corner of the Red Ocean. We need to go all-out and fight aggressively in order to keep our heads afloat. This ambitious mech design is a reflection of our need to push our mechs to the extreme."

"I think it is better for all of us if you take the time to explain your vision for your latest proposal, sir." Merrill O'Brian spoke up. "It will give us more clarification than if you keep replying to these ad-hoc questions."

"You're right. Let's begin with the most distinctive feature of the Elephant Project. I am sure you are asking why it has four arms. Isn't two arms standard? Well, this is a heavy mech, so it has a lot of room for additional modules and weapons. The four arms grant my new mech a lot of flexibility and versatility. One of the arms holds an axe, while the other three arms can be used to hold other equipment. For example, our current situation demands a lot of additional hard firepower. The Elephant Project may not be a totally dedicated ranged mech platform like the Transcendent Punisher, but it can freely carry a pair of transphasic luminar crystal cannons and keep firing them for a long time due to its large energy reserves and high heat capacity."

The other mech designers began to comprehend why Ves did not discard this ridiculous mech concept out of hand.

Even though it looked like a slow and unwieldy heavy mech, as long as its mobility no longer became an issue due to the addition of a powerful cruise drive, it might actually make for a decent offensive mech!

The key to this machine was that it was multiple times more massive than a typical medium mech such as a Bright Warrior.

This meant that it could bring a lot of hard firepower to the table!

The four arms offered the Elephant Project a generous combination of versatility and power. The limbs all looked thick and strong, so they could easily carry a heavy mech weapon each!

Ves displayed various different loadouts in the central projection.

In one striking image, the sketch displayed the Elephant Project wielding an axe, a shield and two heavy luminar crystal cannons!

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