The Mech Touch novel Chapter 5047

Nobody knew what Ves was thinking when he proposed a mech as ridiculous and counterintuitive as the Elephant Project.

The Larkinson Army needed a powerful and fairly mobile ranged mech in order to serve as the mainstay in every battle against warships.

Why did Ves suddenly propose a crazy elephant mech with two thick legs, four meaty arms and an elephant trunk of all choices?

Sure, the mech offered a lot of value in theory. Its thick armor, its high carrying capacity, its versatile weapon choices and its ability to provide support to other friendly mechs could all help the Larkinsons defeat their opponents faster, but mech design was never a simple game of stacking one feature on top of each other.

The combination of parts and design features had to synergize well with each other.

The configuration also had to result in a reasonable allocation of resources in order to be competitive.

The mech also had to fulfill a real need for the end users in order to justify its usage in battle.

Right now, the Journeymen of the Design Department questioned all three points with regards to the Elephant Project!

The previous design projects such as the Storm Sword Project and the Transcendent Punisher Mark II Project all had solid justifications that made them more than worthwhile to the Larkinson Clan.

The same could not be said for this crazy boondoggle of a design project!

Gloriana looked more pensive than most.

"Do you think that phasewater grows on trees? The requirements and expectations that you have set for the Elephant Project will result in a mech design that will absolutely drain all of our phasewater reserves! No mech aside from our expert mechs will demand more phasewater in its construction than this illogical heavy support mech!"

Ves remained unconcerned. "You are not wrong about the high cost of producing this mech, but that is not necessarily a disadvantage in my book. The large investment of resources will absolutely pay off once we have a few hundred copies of these new heavy mechs in our lineup. They can serve as powerful heavyweights in space and on land. They are flexible enough to fulfill one role or another role. They will pay off their cost." "Phasewater." Gloriana repeated the word. "You can fantasize about your Elephant Project all you want, but if our clan doesn't have enough phasewater to produce your new mech in sufficient quantities, you will waste the time spent on designing a mech that you can only admire in a projection."

"The phasewater requirements won't be a problem, dear." He told his wife in an annoyed tone of voice. "Do you think that our expeditionary fleet is roaming the Torald Middle Zone without aim? Our alliance is currently in the middle of preparing for a greater action. I can't say much about it as we still don't know much about our targets, but we should gain a sufficient amount of phasewater to meet all of our immediately needs if we succeed."

Ves was a clan leader as well as a mech designer. He had access to more information than his fellow mech designers and he also had the power to steer the direction of the expeditionary fleet.

He originally set up his clan to fulfill his needs as a mech designer, and it had done a great job at that. The clan played an even more important role for him now that red humanity had entered a much more dangerous era.

Though many people still expressed skepticism towards the Elephant Project, Ves used his prerogative as a leader to turn it into a formal mech design project.

He roped in Sara Voiken, Merrill O'Brian and Tifi Coslone as well.

The three women did not look particularly enthused to spend so much time on designing a difficult and overcomplicated heavy mech, but their expertise could all play a useful role in rounding out the design.

"What of an actual rifleman mech, sir?" Miles Tovar asked. "While it is clear that your Elephant Project can offer heavy fire support in assaults, we still need a more potent rifleman mech that can offer superior performance compared to a more general purpose mech such as our Bright Warrior."

He was right. The Elephant Project could not replace the role of a rifleman mech due to its high mass, terrible maneuverability and lack of focus.

Ves leaned back on his seat and steepled his fingers together. "I have a different plan in mind when it comes to this particular requirement. I am sick of being forced to take the lead on every ranged mech design project. We haven't been doing our utmost to recruit a Journeyman who specializes in ranged mechs. I intend to remedy that in the following weeks. I will either recruit a suitable mech designer or settle for collaborating with a third party."

"A third party?" Ketis questioned. "Aren't you contradicting yourself again, Ves? I thought our priority was to reduce our dependence on external consultants."

"You're right, but these are special times." Ves patiently responded. "While it is true that we cannot put much trust in a random mech designer, I am sure I can leverage my network to find a more trustworthy candidate. At least give me time to find a good recruit or collaborator. If I don't find any, we can always gather together and figure out a solution ourselves."

He already had a few ideas where he could find a decent ranged specialist.

The meeting continued as the mech designers proposed numerous other design projects.

Numerous Journeymen were still too preoccupied with ongoing projects to think about proposing any new designs, but that was okay.

It was also necessary to update the designs of existing mech models, particularly their commercial products. The changes brought about by exotic radiation at least demanded an adjustment to the material composition of every design.

As the meeting almost came to a close, Gloriana addressed the need to design two new high-tier expert mechs.

"It is high time for us to begin our development of the expert mechs for your grandfather and your uncle." She told her husband. "I will take the lead on the Jupiter Project for General Ark Larkinson. I have taken the first steps of understanding what he seeks in a new expert mech. You should take the lead on the Blood Star Mark II Project. You possess the greatest understanding of the Carmine System integrated with the current stopgap mech."

Although Ves' design schedule had already grown cramped from accepting so many new mech design proposals, he did not refuse this additional burden.

His grandfather was family.

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