The Mech Touch novel Chapter 6876

Chapter 6876 The Future of Combat Armor

After Ves completed his draft design on the 'Superdimensional Regalia', he finally decided to invite Beatrice Hendrix to his personal design lab.

"You requested my presence, sir?"

"Ah, come over here and take a seat beside me. I would like to receive your consultation on a personal project of mine. It is of great importance. Please study my draft design and notes first before you offer your opinion."

The female Journeyman did as she was asked. She took her seat and calmly perused the projected sketch and documents without making an immediate judgment.

"Your plan is… viable, sir. The application of superdimensional alloy in the form of modular armor plating will require additional engineering. The electronics of the modular armor plating are vulnerable unless they come in the form of archetech, but it does not make sense to apply it in this context. Besides, we have yet to combine archetech with superdimensional matter."

"Are you saying that we shouldn't resort to modular armor plating for my Superdimensional Regalia?"

"I would not go as far as that." Beatrice cautiously replied. "I mainly wanted to point out that relying on modular armor plating for your combat armor will introduce obvious weak points that are far easier to exploit than the armor plating itself. I am sure that weapon-grade superdimensional alloy will resist nearly any attack. What they might not be able to do is to block all forms of vibration, gravitic, EMP or more exotic attacks from disabling the components that are responsible for moving and locking the modular armor plating into place."

He understood what she was getting at. An armor system was only as strong as its weakest link.

Modular armor systems all shared this common weakness. An excellent hacker might be able to access the programming of a mech and cause all of the modular armor plating to go out of control and collapse, thereby exposing the internals of a mech to enemy attacks!

Although most modular armor systems possessed a lot of protection against hackers, it was impossible to close every possible gap. Each modular armor plate had to be connected to the same network and accept wireless transmissions in order to work.

Ves had read about rare cases where hackers succeeded in stripping mechs of their modular armor.

Such cases happened infrequently, but they did happen.

Ves did not expect the native aliens to be able to hack advanced human systems, but who knew whether the cosmopolitans might lend them a hand. He could not ignore this possibility.

"Using a solid armor system will result in fewer points of failure." Ves stated.

"That is most definitely true, but it will also cause you to relinquish the advantages of modular armor plating." Beatrice responded. "There is no single right choice. You will ultimately have to make the decision yourself. The chance that an enemy will exploit the vulnerability of modular armor plating is small, but not zero. If you choose to make use of modular armor anyway, then we must pay special attention to this aspect."

Ves did not have to think too hard to form his answer.

"I agree with you, Beatrice. I think I will take the risk and commit to applying modular armor to the Superdimensional Regalia. The advantages are too great. I think I can also reduce the chance that enemies can successfully hijack my modular armor plating. I will just have to tie them into the living artifact." _{ƒrēewebnovel.com}

He already planned to turn the Superdimensional Regalia into an artifact. He did not intend to turn it into a D-arm or anything crazy like that, but it just needed to be alive enough to maintain a tighter grip on the modular armor plating.

This way, simple hacking attempts should not be able to compromise the programming and functioning of the modular system.

Beatrice nodded in response. She did not question his decision, nor try to argue against it. She trusted him to understand the pros and cons of his own choice.

"If you wish to turn your Superdimensional Regalia modular, then we will need assistance. I have yet to master the knowledge and expertise required to process superdimensional matter, especially the weapon-grade variety. I will also have to learn how to design and fabricate electronics that are either made of superdimensional matter or can remain stable while in close proximity to it. I will need additional time as well as tutoring from the Red Association in order to complete my work."

"Then make it a priority. You will need to master the secrets to working with superdimensional matter anyway in order to obtain the qualifications to work on superdimensional mech design projects. The sooner you get the hang of this, the more we can make use of our existing stockpile. It will do us no good to keep all of those precious materials in our cargo holds."

"Agreed."

The two continued to confer with each other as they refined the draft design and tweaked its configuration.

They also began to work on the related designs for Ves' wife and children.

The Larkinson Clan could still afford to use precious weapon-grade superdimensional matter to construct the additional suits of armor.

"We should make sure to reserve additional weapon-grade superdimensional matter for any future expansions." Beatrice said. "In fact, we can model the physical growth of your children and fabricate spare superdimensional armor plating that is optimized to fit the bodies of your children at different growth stages. The predictions may not fall in line with reality, but the deviations will likely not be great enough to matter. We can design the suits of combat armor to incorporate more stretching and other flexible accommodations. At worst, we can redesign an entire suit of combat armor."

Ves nodded. "I have no objection to that. Unlike other groups, we don't have to abide by any quotas. The protection of my wife and children takes precedence over other goals. Do you have any other suggestions?"

"I do, sir. As a phase lord, your physique has transcended human limitations. You are able to survive while being exposed in a vacuum and subjected to cosmic radiation for extended periods of time, is that correct?"

"Have you ever seen an alien phase lord or phase whale suffocate in space?"

"No."

"I am no different, Beatrice. As far as I am concerned, I can survive a lot of environmental hazards. I am sort of like a human astral beast in this regard. I can't fully explain how phasewater can make this all possible, but that has not stopped me from enjoying the advantages."

Beatrice reached out and modified the draft design for the Superdimensional Regalia.

They moved on to discussing other aspects about the Superdimensional Regalia.

Unlike mechs, the capacity for a suit of combat armor was extremely limited. Superdimensional matter enabled them to cheat this restriction to an extent, but it was still frustrating for Ves to hold himself back from adding too many features.

"We don't have to finalize the designs for the additional suits of combat armor right away." Ves eventually said. "We should finish the Superdimensional Regalia first before we apply the lessons that we have learned on other projects."

"I have no objection."

Ves did not expect this side project to take a long time to complete. The Superdimensional Regalia was only a fraction of the size of a mech. It might contain a lot of small components, but the total amount of parts was much lower.

The raiment that he intended to design next would take a lot more time to complete.

Ves probably wouldn't be able to finish it before the Premier Fleet set off to the frontlines, but that was okay.

The Saint Commander did not want to plunge into the most dangerous battlefields right away.

It was best to remain in the periphery and take out smaller alien raiding elements first.

The probability that Ves would be forced to take action himself should be minimal.

"I am rather envious of you, sir." Beatrice eventually said. "This is the future of combat armor. I cannot think of anything that can offer greater individual protection by itself."

"Would you like to build a suit of superdimensional combat armor for yourself?"

"I do. Will you make superdimensional matter available to other mech designers such as myself?"

Ves thought about it and did not see a reason why he should keep all of the good stuff for himself.

"I will put all grades of superdimensional matter in the Larkinson Exchange. The exchange requirements for them will all be steep, especially for the armor-grade and weapon-grade variety. I won't make it impossible to redeem samples of them, so it should still be possible for you and the others to save up your Larkinson merits. As long as you have made enough contributions, it should fully be within the realm of possibility for you to construct your own superdimensional combat armor."

"That is all I could ask for, sir. Thank you for giving us a chance.