The Mech Touch

Chapter 6216  A New Collaborator

Ves patiently listened to Sigrund present a wish list of items that the Red Fleet wanted to pass.

The policy proposals that the Red Fleet wished to realize in the remaining sessions of the Interim Leadership Council sounded predictable for the most part.

The fleeters advocated for greater restraint and enforcement towards cultivators. They were a potential source of instability that could explode and damage a lot of innocent people if left unchecked.

Although the fleeters were no longer as gung ho about abolishing cultivators as before, the faction led by Fleet Admiral Amelie Jameson had not lost that much power. There were still plenty of fleeters who feared the consequences of letting space peasants get their hands on way too much power than they 'deserved', whatever that meant.

Once Sigrund was done with making an appeal on behalf of the Red Fleet, Ves responded with a noncommittal answer.

"I will think about the issues that you have mentioned, but don't expect too much from me. At most, I can tell you that I will give your ideas fair consideration. Many of the motions that end up getting passed during those big sessions were either negotiated in advance in all sorts of backroom deals, or simply common sense ideas that would attract widespread support in the first place. As far as I have noticed, no single group has managed to get others to pass their pet projects on a frequent basis. It would be a wonder if just one of these proposals gets passed since they only really benefit the Red Fleet."

Captain Reze did not look too disappointed when he heard this response. "I am only the messenger. It is the various admirals that you will disappoint if you find yourself unable to please. Regardless of your opinions and feelings towards the Red Fleet, there are still people who are on your side. We believe that our commonalities are more important than our differences. If you can reciprocate, then we can deepen our relations further. We have our own specializations that you may find interesting. Of course, we can also reward you with additional warship tokens if you desire a more concrete form of remuneration than vague favors."

Now that certainly caught Ves' interest!

"I wouldn't mind it if I could earn another Battlecruiser Token, especially one that doesn't come with strings attached."

"Hehe." The RF captain chuckled. "Do not aim too high. You only earned the last one because of what you have done for the Dominion of Man. Until the Red Fleet is ready to solicit your help to transform a second dreadnought, it is unlikely that anything you can do will earn you enough merit to exchange for such a precious token. The right to field a battlecruiser is of great significance. By granting you this right, we are putting our trust as well as our credibility on the line. If you or your clansmen ever abuse the battlecruiser under your control to the detriment of our civilizations…"

"You don't need to finish that sentence, captain. I have no intention of pushing the limits of your rules, and neither does my clan. Once the Tortured Scream is converted into a human-operable battlecruiser, we only intend to direct her formidable arsenal against our alien foes."

At least for the time being. Ves could not predict what could happen in the future. What if a human force got in the way between him and his objections?

"That better be the case. If you ever violate this rule, you will instantly lose the trust and support of many fleeters. They will instead turn against you because you have proven your critics right. It is better for you if you do not make enemies out of the entire Red Fleet. We may not be as familiar to you as the Red Association, but we can be just as powerful."

"Is that your opinion, or is that what your superiors instructed to tell me word for word?"

Captain Reze smiled at Ves but did not offer a solid response.

Instead, he stood up and shut off all of the jamming devices. "I believe that is all. I need to get back to my programming duties. The rapid expansion and the influx of people with a much wider range of backgrounds has put a much greater load on ARCHIE. As intelligent as the evolved AI has become, there are still improvements to be made in its programming and subroutines."

"How are the fleeters taking to ARCHIE after learning that their former evaluation ssytem has already started to outgrow its base parameters?" Ves inquired as he exited the secure chamber alongside his fleeter friend.

"The initial shock and indignation from the more cautious fleeters has already begun to fade. They have become increasingly less reluctant to make active use of ARCHIE considering that those who are willing to employ the expanded range of services are receiving the lion's share of commendations and promotions. If the skeptics do not begin to take ARCHIE seriously, then they will find themselves eclipsed by their more open-minded colleagues."

This must feel really good for Sigrund considering that he was secretly an AI himself.

Ves wondered once again whether fleeters had caught onto Sigrund's real identity. He was always leaning towards yes, but he could never quite make up his mind about this issue. Perhaps only a small group of fleeters learned the truth but kept it to themselves in a desire to see whether the first sentient AI within their ranks could help the Red Fleet in ways that actual humans could not replicate.

As he eventually got teleported back to Diandi Base, he barely had a second to take a step forward when a different teleporter brought him right back up to the Tarrasque in orbit!

"Ahem, if you wanted me to go up, you could have shown some courtesy by asking first, you know."

"This is too important, Ves. Please head down to the design lab."

Ves had entered the flagship of the Bluejay Fleet enough times to know the route to the place where all of the mech designers were working.

Once he reached the design lab and entered a secure section, both Jovy and Vector looked eager as they sat around the central projector.

"So what got you all excited?" Ves asked as he came closer. "Seeing as you invited me over to this lab, I can already guess it is related to the Swarm Project."

"You are correct, Ves." Jovy said with a grin. "As we have mentioned before, we have taken it upon ourselves to find two suitable collaborators for the Swarm Project in order to round out our specializations. We have expressly sought candidates that satisfy our requirements among the Terrans and the Rubarthans. After an exhaustive search, we have come across two names that can add a great amount of value to our mech designs, all six of them. There are alternate candidates available if they are not willing to participate or if they are not to your liking, but we truly think that bringing them in is the best way forward."

Ves looked intrigued. For both of the mechers to feel so excited about the candidates suggested that they were truly worth consideration.

"You have my attention."

Vector decided to introduce the first candidate. "Let us begin with the Terran. This is Romanda Devos of the Devos Ancient Clan. Yes, she is a name that is quite closer to us than you would have expected, but that plays no role in what she is able to bring to the table."

The central projector lit up to display the Terran mech designer in question. She looked a bit older than Ves and the two mechers, but it was within tolerance.

Technically speaking, age shouldn't matter in stuff like this, but Ves simply found it awkward to work with someone twice or thrice his own age when he, Jovy and Vector all belonged to the same generation.

The Carmine mechs were revolutionary new products that broke many of the established rules that mech designers had invested many years of their lives into upholding.

Ves was afraid that if he took on one of those rigid old fogeys, he would only be met with obstruction at every turn. This was why it was important to hire someone young enough to retain a flexible and open mind.

Naturally, the candidate also had to be a Senior Mech Designer. Ves was not willing to get outshone by a Master, and he did not want to add too much deadweight by bringing on a Journeyman.

"I am not familiar with her." He said. "Perhaps I should have memorized her name given my dealings with the Devos Ancient Clan, but I am far too busy to waste my time on that. Who is Romanda Devos and what makes her work special?"

"Lady Romanda Devos is a branch member of her ancient clan." Vector patiently explained. "As such, she received attention and resources when she grew up. Despite initially falling behind from her main branch counterparts, she managed to excel early on and graduate at a prestigious mech design university back in the old galaxy. After that, she disappeared from the public eye for 20 straight years."

"Let me guess. A secret Terran institution picked her up and put her to work on all manner of secret research projects, am I right?"

Vector smiled. "That is correct. We do not have information on what sort of projects she has been working on during her employment at the secret research institution. If our Association is in possession of that intelligence, then I am unable to access it. We can make a guess by examining what Lady Romanda has done after she emerged in public again. As a Journeyman Mech Designer, she began to surprise her former classmates and family by her unusual approach to mechs. While she did not possess the ability to start an independent business and gain a foothold in the highly regulated Terran mech market, she was able to get her work out by working as a freelancer for various medium-sized mech companies."

"What did those companies see in her?" Ves asked. "For them to go out of their way to hire a Journeyman to contribute to one of their projects means that they see real value in her design philosophy."

"That is indeed the case. Lady Romanda Devos actually bases her work around a Class IX design philosophy."

"Class IX?!"

Both Ves and Jovy's design philosophies were also categorized in the same bucket.

Every Class IX design philosophy was so weird, different and unprecedented that the mech industry simply couldn't figure out if it belonged to Class I-VIII.

Anytime such an attempt ended in failure, the mech industry simply chucked the abnormal design philosophy into the bin corresponding to Class IX and called it a day.

What Ves found unusual was that a Terran and a descendant of an ancient clan no less had adopted a weird design philosophy. The Terrans as a whole tended to be a lot less experimental than their rivals.

"Her design philosophy is rather special but also controversial. You see, the greatest strengths of her mechs are how good their cockpits are. Although they are designed to take up a considerably larger proportion of the torso of a mech, they are much tougher and can be ejected much easier from the machine. The cockpits are able to flee back to safety at a faster rate and can also resist more damage. If desired, they can also be mounted with small armaments that can be used to intercept missiles and slightly deter pursuers."

The central projector showed one of the first-class mechs where Lady Romanda had made a significant contribution.

Ves could immediately see what Vector meant. The cockpit was not just a small section of the mech that was entirely buried within the chest of the first-class mech. Romanda had actually expanded the definition of what a cockpit should encompass and designed it so that it pretty much took the place of the entire upper torso!

"This is not a cockpit. This is an entire vehicle in itself!" Ves exclaimed. "It is as if Romanda has integrated an ultralight starfighter inside the torso of a first-class mech!"

He immediately understood why Jovy and Vector developed such a strong interest in Lady Romanda's work. If their suspicions were correct her design philosophy possessed a strong synergy with the Carmine System!