The Mech Touch novel Chapter 6536

Chapter 6536 Dysfunction in the Cross Clan

After Ketis was done with drooling over the Amphis Extremis, Saint Linda Cross briefly gave her a tour of the standard mechs that were currently stored inside the hangar bay of the Hemmington Cross.

Every crew member and mech pilot bowed low and expressed their deepest respect to the female saint.

As the second ace pilot of the Cross Clan after Patriarch Reginald Cross, the status of Saint Linda Cross had already exceeded that of Master Benedict Cortez!

The Crossers respected high-ranking mech pilots a lot more than high-ranking mech designers.

Ketis actually found this cultural difference to be a little jarring because it was a lot. different in the Larkinson Clan.

The clansmen still looked up to the ace pilots and expert pilots of their clan, but nothing could break their utter belief and adoration of mech designers such as Ves Larkinson!

She shouldn't be surprised that the two clans looked up to the leaders of different professions.

The Cross Clan had always based its success off the leadership and accomplishments of its strongest mech pilots.

The Larkinson Clan grew incredibly fast and achieved great prosperity largely due to the efforts of its best mech designers.

The founders and leaders of the clans exerted so much influence that the members took on different shapes.

Ketis actually found it rather refreshing that the Crossers did not revere the ground that the most prominent mech designers in their clan walked upon.

Of course, it was also because there was a notable deficit in excellent mech designers in the Cross Clan.

Master Benedict Cortez was not originally a member of the Cross Clan, so he already suffered from a handicap. Even if the clan later went on to copy the model of the Larkinson Clan and open itself to mass external recruitment, the Master Mech Designer never received the respect he deserved.

She could pretty much hear it from the idle talk of the Crossers who were working on the Hemmington Cross.

"Tch. My mech has broken down again. It only took a small hit on the arm, but I lost complete control over the rifle. How am I supposed to keep my shots straight when a single attack can ruin my mech's accuracy? Master Benedict is slacking off again." "Is this what the CMC worked on in the last eight months? Why did they remove the third ammunition canister? Don't they know how many shots it takes to get past the

energy shields of those annoying phasefighters?! What, the caliber has increased but the firing rate has dropped by half? That out-of-touch Master Mech Designer has gone too far! How are we supposed to land so many hits when it has become harder to shoot down those fast and maneuverable phasefighters? I don't care if the math claims that it works out a lot better for us. That geeky old guy Benedict has no idea how difficult it is for mech pilots like us to eliminate phasefighters that are becoming faster with every generation!"

"Why is he telling us to abandon our swords? Does he not know how much I trained and fought to become the best swordsman of our class in the mech academy? I won first place in two competitions! Even if I am not as good as those Heavensworders over at the Larkinson Clan, I have been learning from them! Now, I have to set most of my specialized swordsmanship aside because this haughty mech designer thinks that swords are no use against energy shields! Hah! He can kiss my butt!"

Ketis couldn't believe what she heard. Master Mech Designers were among the more respected people of a society, yet the Crossers spoke so crassly about him that they clearly held far too little respect towards the man who was responsible for developing the mechs they relied upon.

Such talk would never take place in the Larkinson Clan!

Granted, the Crossers who carelessly voiced their true opinions did so out of typical earshot from anyone important.

Even if these Crossers did not dare to share their true feelings directly in front of Ketis and Saint Linda Cross, the fact that they shared these words at all was a sign that the Cross Clan did not give mech designers their due.

The ace pilot shrugged when her extraordinary senses were able to pick up the disrespectful chatter as well.

"Please excuse our clansmen for their lack of consideration. Our culture has always put. mech pilots on top of mech designers. Some of our clansmen take this too far and cannot fully appreciate the work and sacrifice that mech designers have put into arming them with the best machines."

Ketis waved her hand. "It is okay. I am not a frail flower. I can handle it. I am just surprised that this problem has gotten so bad in your clan. I am not unfamiliar with how the Garlen Empire of the Vicious Mountain Star Sector operated back in the old days. Even if mech designers played second fiddle over there, the Garleners still looked up to mech designers who can design good machines. I don't think this is true for your clan anymore."

"There are better leaders in our clan that can explain it to you." Saint Linda said in a measured tone. "In my opinion, I think it is because our clansmen are making constant comparisons between the works of Patriarch Ves Larkinson and the works of Master Benedict Cortez. The latter are not necessarily weak, but they are not very... flashy. Let me show you what I mean."

Linda led Ketis to a section where dozens of mechs had been parked.

Many of the mech models looked familiar to Ketis. What stood out was that most of them fell into two different categories.

There were ranged mechs that overwhelmingly relied on energy weapons as their source of damage output.

This paired well with Master Benedict's design philosophy as the Crosser ranged mechs were able to output greater damage and last significantly longer on the battlefield than other comparable rifleman mechs!

"... You are not wrong, I suppose." Linda actually felt ashamed for the failure of her clan to give mech designers their due regard.

Ketis was not finished yet, though. "At the same time, Master Benedict Cortez deserves

his own share of blame. He has not reformed from the days where his customers were

ignorant pirates who did not know what was good for them. Don't get me wrong. His mech designs are all sound and his design choices are all logical. The problem is that he hasn't shaken the attitude that he knows what is best for mech pilots, and therefore tries to impose his decisions onto them. He is too dismissive of the feelings and opinions of the mech pilots that he is supposed to serve. That would never fly in our clan. Ves has always tried his best to understand the actual demands of the mech pilots of his clan and respond to their demand even if it doesn't lead to the most optimal and efficient

mech designs."

The differences were too great!

One of the reasons why the Larkinson mech pilots adored Ves so much was because he

always did his best to make the piloting experience as pleasant and comfortable as he could manage.

Even if the mechs did not offer superior performance, they always responded so well

and contained so little sources of irritations that the mech pilots never minded the shortcomings. The end result was that the Larkinson mech pilots became more motivated and managed to utilize their machines more effectively than average. Master Benedict apparently adopted a different paradigm. He focused much more on maximizing the technical performance of his mech designs, thereby enabling them to attain considerably stronger results... in theory.

The only issue was that the Crosser mech pilots had plenty of reasons to complain about their machines. Master Benedict may have tried to make the objectively best design choices, but they collided so much against the personal needs of individual mech pilots that far too many of them were unable to utilize their machines to their full potential. At least, that was the way that Ketis saw it. The latter approach was not necessarily the

worst one, but she personally did not agree with this philosophy as it led to a lot of tension and frustration.

She could practically feel it across the hangar bay. The mech pilots of the Cross Clan were blessed with well-designed quasi-first-class transphasic hyper mechs that possessed strong advantages that they could give the Larkinson mechs a run for their money, yet none of the Crossers were grateful for being able to pilot such powerful

machines!