The Mech Touch

Chapter 6405 Special Features of the Yellow Jackets

The Scotara Armor's so-called luck factor generated a lot of controversy.

Many mech designers and laymen found its value to be questionable.

Why couldn't the mech designers of the Swarm Project include a proper defensive specialist and design more robust armor systems?

Although Jovy Armalon definitely shouldn't be a weak mech designer due to his origins and his participation in the Swarm Project, that did not necessarily mean he was the best man for the job!

Jovy could have explained himself more, but he declined to do so for whatever reason. Instead, he calmly completed his obligatory presentation about the Scotara Armor before addressing a few other aspects of the Yellow Jacket designs.

He briefly explained the performance characteristics of the flight systems of all three versions of the Yellow Jackets. The persistent goal was to make all three Carmine mechs fairly fast and maneuverable, and the flight systems successfully met this standard for every tech level.

Of course, the limited design budgets also constrained how fast and agile they could become.

There were limits to how fast they could fly or how quickly they could change directions.

This was not necessarily a detriment, as excessively fast and mobile mechs tended to be much harder to pilot and control.

Beginner and less experienced Carmine mech pilots could never be as skilled and acute as Saint Tusa Billingsley-Larkinson, so pairing them with mechs that featured exceptionally high mobility was just asking for collisions!

Jovy also moved on to explain other relatively boring aspects of the Yellow Jackets such as the performance of their sensor systems, the properties of their power reactors and the efficiency of their heat management systems.

More and more people started to get distracted and pay less attention to this lecture, but there were still enough mech insiders who paid careful attention to this mundane information.

This was because those who intended to make actual use of the Yellow Jackets needed to master all of the information regarding the new products.

Oftentimes, Jovy not only recited data that could easily be retrieved from the documentation of the Carmine mechs, but also added his personal insights and recommendations.

This was all valuable information to the right parties. No one knew the Yellow Jacket models better than one of the contributing mech designers!

Once Jovy had finally supplied the public the necessary information about most of the remaining systems of the Yellow Jacket, he finally stepped back. [Jovy.] Ves communicated with his friend over a private channel. [Why didn't you mention to the public that the luck factor of the Scotara Armor has a theoretically high upper limit? It can potentially save the Yellow Jackets from getting wiped out in an instant after suffering a direct hit from a warship-grade cannon strike!]

Yes, according to the theories and calculations made by Jovy, such an unlikely outcome could actually happen in reality!

Jovy's design philosophy was so unreasonable in this aspect. As long as the probability of surviving an overwhelming attack was non-zero, then he could magnify this tiny probability and make it a little more likely to occur!

Of course, the actual probability that this would happen would not be as high as 2 percent, but substantially less. [Seeing is believing.] Jovy nonchalantly responded. [I am not as famous and familiar to the public as you, Ves. You have become an increasingly more known quantity to the mech community and wider population. I am an unfamiliar name to both groups. They do not understand my design philosophy or know any of the mechs that I have designed. The mechanics of my design philosophy are also difficult to test in this product reveal. I prefer to keep it simple and let the masses discover the value of my contribution through their own efforts. It is not as if my luck factor is a core feature of your mech design.]

That was true. Jovy was perhaps the poorest fit to the Swarm Project. He only took part because Ves trusted him and because he was able to represent the interests of the Survivalist Faction.

Still, Ves did not believe that many other mech designers could design such a sound and comprehensive armor system that took both cost savings and regional resource availability into account.

Even if Jovy outsourced a lot of the hard work onto the various R&D institutions of the Red Association, he had proven to be excellent at contacting and coordinating these efforts.

Collaborating with him was like collaborating with the entire R&D support structure of the Red Association!

Now that Jovy Armalon had concluded his presentation on the defenses and other properties of the Yellow Jacket, there were a few more key features that had yet to be introduced.

Ves slowly strode forward again. The noise in the massive exhibition hall quickly subsided again now that he attracted everyone's attention.

His ability to command the attention of the people had risen to a higher level. His pivotal work on the Carmine System had earned him this privilege! "Ladies and gentlemen." Ves spoke with a naturally composed speaking voice. "I hope that you have gained a thorough impression of the capabilities of the three editions of the Yellow Jacket. Before we conclude this presentation of 3 of the 6 designs of the Swarm Project, I still need to introduce a few more special features that you cannot find on other mechs."

That attracted a lot more interest. People had already become thoroughly convinced of the value of the Yellow Jackets. Even if it did not score full points in every category, the priceless utility of the Carmine System alone was enough for them to place as many orders as possible!

Now that the Yellow Jackets ostensibly possessed even more nifty features, people began to develop even higher expectations for the budget mechs! "Earlier, I have mentioned that the Yellow Jackets are sixth generation living mechs. That means that they incorporate numerous design applications that I have added on top of the more basic and familiar framework of living mechs that you are familiar with. Let me show you a brief overview of what every generation has added to my living mech paradigm." [First generation living mechs: X-Factor

Second generation living mechs: Design Spirits

Third generation living mechs: Orders of Life

Fourth generation living mechs: Ascension Runes.

Fifth generation living mechs: Active and Passive Living Mech Cultivation

Sixth generation living mechs: Ultimate Modules, Strong Living Mech Cognition, Active Cultivation Techniques]

Few people possessed a systematic understanding of living mechs, so this brief summary held a lot of value to mech designers and other interested groups! "In the first generation, my living mechs exhibited slight responsiveness and warmth towards their mech pilots through a phenomenon that used to be known as the

X-Factor"

The X-Factor was an obscure phenomenon that did not ring a lot of bells. "In the second generation, I discovered design spirits and learned how to attach them to my mech designs so that they can bestow glows and other useful properties to my products."

Design spirits had become a known if poorly understood feature of Ves' products. Most people had given up on trying to understand how they worked. "In the third generation, I discovered that living mechs can 'break through' and reach a new order of sapience, intelligence and responsiveness. Most of my products start off as second order living mechs and can naturally grow into third order living mechs over time."

This had also become a known phenomenon. People understood it much better because a lot of third order living mechs had emerged by this time. They still alienated certain groups, but had become so common that most mech pilots had gotten used to piloting a mech that possessed so many human traits. "In the fourth generation, I discovered the existence of Ascension Runes and managed to learn how they could structurally be organized in my products."

Only the mech pilots of third order living mechs came into contact with these mysterious Ascension Runes. They did not seem to do much aside from slightly improving the performance of a living mech. "In the fifth generation, the Great Severing occurred. I discovered that living mechs could not only grow by absorbing E energy radiation, but that I can also improve the direction and efficiency of the absorption process by imparting my living mechs with their own cultivation techniques."

This explanation generated a bit more controversy than the other descriptions! Many authorities had already labeled the process of cultivation to be dangerous. For Ves to develop mechs that were smart enough to cultivate by themselves sounded rather frightening!

Fortunately, so many third order living mechs had engaged in their own forms of cultivation for a while now, yet none of them ever misbehaved. This successfully lowered the vigilance of a lot of concerned parties.

There was a lot more depth into living mech cultivation that Ves could talk about, but none of that was relevant to the product reveal. "Now, the sixth and latest generation of living mechs came relatively shortly after the fifth generation. The advancements that I have made after discovering E energy radiation are myriad. The subjects related to strong living mech cognition and active cultivation techniques are too advanced for me to elaborate today, I shall only talk about the main benefit of sixth generation living mechs."

Ves waved his arm. The angular bottom sections of three display mechs began to glow, drawing many people's attention towards this section. "The Yellow Jackets are deliberately designed to resemble wasps for multiple reasons. Real wasps come with stingers, and these Carmine mechs are no exceptions in this regard. It is just that I have applied a more abstract meaning of a stinger to my works. Instead of turning this section into a 7th modular hardpoint or simply mounting a very sharp spike on it, I have incorporated what I have taken to calling an Ultimate Module inside this section."

Another series of overlays became active at the bottoms of the Yellow Jackets. They gave the audience images of the Ultimate Modules that were squished inside these sections. "There are many situations in the battles of the Red War where a mech is outmatched and on course to suffer defeat. Under normal circumstances, the mech gets destroyed while the winner suffers relatively little consequences. The Sacrifice Ultimate Modules that I have integrated in all three editions of the Yellow Jacket is my attempt to mobilize all of the remaining power of the Carmine mech before unleashing the potent energies as a form of payback!"

Was this just a fancy and more harmful version of scuttling your own Carmine mech?! "Before you ask, there is nothing to be concerned about." Ves reassured his listeners. "After activating the Superpurge Ultimate Ability, the Biodome of a Carmine mech will first eject ahead of any other actions. After that, the Ultimate Module will forcibly induce the remaining metallic components of the Yellow Jacket to overload every component that is capable of doing so and attempt to engulf as many nearby assets in an attempt to take them down. Even if the resulting detonation cannot take down the enemies of the Carmine mech pilots, the violent explosion should at least distract the enemies enough to give the ejected Biodome a better chance of returning to the rear intact." That sounded rather impressive, but not exceptional. So far, nobody had heard anything that deserved the description of 'ultimate! "I understand your doubts and skepticisms." Ves smiled at everyone. "You must be thinking why I am attempting to dress up what may simply be a self-destruct option. You are not entirely wrong, but you are vastly underestimating the damage that the Ultimate Module can do. Every Ultimate Module derives a large amount of power from E energy radiation. It also gains more advanced direction from an aspect of the living mech. There are also several other factors that I cannot mention that make my Ultimate Modules more potent. Perhaps a demonstration is in order."

The only way to convince his audience that the Yellow Jacket could achieve amazing results by sacrificing its metallic shell was to witness this phenomenon in reality!