The Mech Touch

nitude of the next operation.
This was no simple smash and grab kind of raid.
This was a major assault on a highly developed star system.
The ensuing damage would be hard to imagine, but so would the loot the Vandals might be able to abscond.

To his eyes, the Vandals definitely played with fire this time.
They took on an unimaginable amount of risk, but if their daring action succeeded, the rewards would be enough to turn around the fortunes of the declining mech regiment.

Besides robbing the abundant amount of riches that any industrialized star system possessed, a victory would also be a major boost to their reputation.
Striking the Imodris Duchy a blow that they would continue to feel for generations would definitely be a feat that the Mech Corps had to propagandize as far and wide as possible.

The Vandals definitely aimed to secure a continuation of their existence.

Because the stakes were so high, Iris had been tasked to find any way boost the performance of the neural interfaces in any way possible.
Even if the manipulation of neural interfaces was fraught with catastrophic failures, Velten did not have the luxury to keep an expert on the sidelines.

Due to her strange expertise, Ves happened to be a good fit for her.
His supposed expertise accomplished something similar to what Iris accomplished, but from a different approach.
In the end, they both aimed to increase the compatibility of the mech pilots with their mechs.

Since the Akkara and Hellcat designs already enjoyed the attention of the two other Vesian designers, Ves steered Iris into working on the much less appreciated Inheritor design.
She broke her perpetually charming smile upon hearing his suggestion.

”Is the Inheritor not a low-class design? It is hardly worth our attention. ”

Ves became a little angry at her casual dismissal of a design that hundreds of mech pilots relied on to stay alive.
”There are many lives at stake, far more than with the Hellcat and the Akkara mechs.
If you care at all about the lives of those poor pilots, then you owe it to yourself to better their chances of surviving the coming battle. ”

To her credit, Iris noticed his displeasure and quickly turned contrite.
She bowed in front of him.
”I ’m sorry! That was very insensitive of me.
I hope you can forgive me! ”

He had mixed feelings about her sudden apology.
She made a very convincing display of being sincere in her regret, so Ves couldn ’t it again her.
He softened a bit and nodded.

”Don ’t forget our creed as mech designers.
We exist to serve the mech pilots and better their ability to fight.
Sometimes I think that some of my colleagues have forgotten this priority. ”

As someone who grew up among the Jupiters, it was impossible for her to be ignorant of this saying.
Otherwise, their family wouldn ’t have been trusted by the MTA to work on developing new neural interfaces.

”I will take your words to heart. ” She pressed her hand on her chest.
”Please show me around. ”

Ves brought Iris to the workplace of Inheritor design team.
All of the mech designers were somewhat familiar to Ves, but the presence of Iris was a novelty to them, especially since she was a very pretty girl.

However, Iris stuck close to Ves, which somehow made it impossible for the other men to approach her or pull her into a conversation.
They all looked back at Ves with mixed expressions.

Ves did not have time to play any games.
He immediately broached the topic of coming up with some short-term fixes for the Inheritor.
”What kind of fixes have you guys been planning? ”

The Journeyman in charge of the team answered his question.
”You know our situation as well as I do.
We essentially have nothing to suggest. ”

Ves expected this answer, though he still felt disappointed when he heard it from the team leader ’s mouth.
Every easy fix possible had already been exhausted before.
The Inheritor design team had in fact come up with many more solutions, but the only way they could implement them was if Professor Velten lifted the restrictions imposed on the design.

Fat chance of that ever happening.

Therefore, Ves planned to be a little creative this time.
”This is Iris Jupiter.
As you know, she knows more about neural interfaces than all of us put together.
I suggest we allow her total leeway into seeing if she can improve the neural interface of the Inheritor and assist her in any way possible.
What are your thoughts? ”

No one objected to his suggestion, partially because they didn ’t have a direction and Ves just pointed one out for them.
Even the Journeyman went along with him.
Years of working on the frustrating mess that was the Inheritor design had really taken a toll on his confidence.

Meanwhile, Laida sat quietly at the side.
She hadn ’t spoken up even once, but she regarded Iris with an ambivalent attitude.
The design teams of the Vandals generally held quite a few more men than women, and the introduction of Iris to their team completely changed their dynamics.

After settling in, Iris immediately went to work.
She sat behind a spare terminal and browsed all of the relevant design schematics and documents in rapid tempo.
Ves sat next to her and worked on preparing his own solution.

His main issue was that it wasn ’t easy to foster the X-Factor in a mech.
Certainly, the difficulties increased exponentially when dealing with a collaborative project that had already produced many copies of the mechh.

Ves simply didn ’t think about raising the X-Factor of the Inheritor all the way to a B-grade.
Raising it to an F or an E-grade would be enough of an accomplishment, but only if he could find a way to achieve such a feat.

How could he bestow the X-Factor to a design that was already mature? How would he be able to achieve this without overhauling an entire mech?