The Mech Touch

Ves encountered plenty of design philosophies over his career. His recent tour throughout the star sector allowed him to come into contact with plenty of Journeymen who each developed their own ideas on how to design better mechs.

He admired the creativity of those Journeymen. The galactic mech industry was incredibly huge and countless competitors had already come up with their own solutions.

It was very difficult to develop an original design philosophy that still hadn't been explored!

Out of all of the design philosophies he learned, Master Huron's design philosophy was probably one of the most extreme ones he heard!

It sounded even crazier than Class IX design philosophies! Not only did Master Huron decide to dedicate himself in the very sensitive field of neural interfaces, he opted to explore one of its most extreme applications in the form of connecting neural interfaces together!

Lady Curver allowed Ves some time to get over his shock.

"Many mech designers like you react like this when they first learn what neural interconnectivity means. Before you attempt to lecture me, don't forget that my Master has managed to realize his design philosophy. Neural interconnectivity is a real thing, and he's not the only mech designer in the galaxy who succeeded in applying it in a safe and useful manner!"

She was right. While Ves was imagining all sorts of horror stories, a mech designer would never be able to reach Master with this specialization if he didn't find a way to apply it without excessive risk!

Ves grew curious how Master Huron managed to grapple with the risks of experimenting with neural interfaces.

"The premise is simple, though the application is much more complex." She replied. "Two peas in a pod are very similar to each other. One of the simplest ways to form a stable neural network that connections the mind of a mech pilot to the mind of another mech pilot is by finding and pairing identical twins. Since they are already identical in many ways, there isn't much incompatibility if we form a small connection between their minds."

"It can't be that simple, right? One mistake can instantly ruin both of their brains!"

"That is true. My Master and I have never dared to open the floodgates. We only open up a tiny slit so that only a limited amount of data can be transferred back and forth. The bandwidth of this connection can be expanded gradually to strengthen the coordination between the mech pilots as they get more familiar with operating in this fashion."

"Identical twins, especially naturally-born ones, should be rare. Are those the only customers your Master is catering towards?"

"That was just his starting point, Ves. As he developed his design philosophy, he focused on expanding the pool of eligible mech pilots. He developed a way to pair brother to sister, father to son, mentor and student, and so on. My Master also engaged in a lot of research to expand the size of what we call the neural network. While this was incredibly difficult, he managed to find a way to pair an entire squad with each other. Once he achieved this breakthrough, it became easier for him to expand the neural network to encompass an entire mech company and mech battalion!"

That sounded incredibly powerful! Ves knew the importance of coordination in battle.

If a mech battalion numbering 500 mechs all fought in perfect sync with each other, Ves could easily imagine it beating twice its numbers! Even when the quality of the mechs and the skill of the mech pilots were identical between the two forces, the side with the better coordination possessed an absolute advantage!

Ves understood why neural interconnectivity was such a worthy goal to pursue despite all of the inherent risks surrounding neural interface technology. If Master Huron truly managed to develop a safe application of connecting mech pilots together, then this was absolutely a way to circumvent the conventional limitations of increasing the battle performance of mechs!

Unlike adding more expensive exotics or incorporating high technology in a mech design, the cost to set up a neural network was not that significant!

The only requirement to form a stable network was to upgrade the neural interface and some other components in the cockpit. Nothing more was necessary!

While the underlying tech was very complicated and abstruse, this was not a significant problem as long as Master Huron specialized it to the point where he could design a specialized neural interface in his sleep!

Ves couldn't help but convey genuine admiration for Master Huron's success! However, he quickly grew suspicious. If neural networks were so fantastic, why hadn't he heard of it? Why hadn't this tech become more widely known?

"There has to be a catch, right?" He asked.

Aisling dropped her smile and sighed. "Sadly, my Master hasn't been able to develop a way to solve all of the issues surrounding neural interconnectivity. The risks you've mentioned still exist. It is just that one of the main solutions my Master has come up with has mitigated them to an extent."

"What is his solution?"

"It's very simple! He only designs mechs for elite, highly-trained outfits and military units! When a mech regiment has developed a strong martial tradition and identity, all of its mech pilots share the same values, mindsets, training and fighting spirit! The greater their commonalities, the easier it becomes to unify them in a neural network!"

"There should still be a lot of differences between the individual mech pilots, right?"

"Correct. The neural networks my Master has formed for mech companies and mech battalions are only the shallowest versions of what he can provide. We don't dare to expand the bandwidth of the connections for fear or unpleasant side effects. Only smaller units such as squads made up of close companions are safe to form a greater network."

"I see. That makes sense. It sounds like your Master still has a lot to go. This field is far from mature."

"That's where you come, Ves." Aisling directed an intrigued glance at him. The hunger in her eyes was not that different from how Gloriana stared at him sometimes! "Your specialty has a lot of potential. While I'm not sure what metaphysical man-machine symbiosis really means, it is obvious that it bears close relations with my field!"

"What.. what do you want to do?"

"Why, combine our specialties together! Just imagine it! What if we add one of my specialized neural interfaces to your Desolate Soldier? We'd create a revolutionary new mech! The biggest issue concerning neural interconnectivity is that it's hard to sustain a neural network if there is too much discondancy between the mech pilots. The further their thoughts and attitudes diverge, the greater the risk of adverse effects!"

Ves realized what she was after! "You.. you want to make use of my glows to increase the synchronization between connected mech pilots!"

"Exactly! I've performed a lot of research on your customers in my free time. It is not difficult to discover that every mech pilot of your Desolate Soldier and other mechs have each come under the influence of the glows of their machines! This essentially means that when they are put in battle together, they have already started to exhibit a rudimentary form of close coordination!"

This did not sound very strange to Ves. He knew that when a bunch of his mechs were put together, their mech pilots always exhibited greater coordination! The overlapping of glows created some mysterious effects that subtly enhanced the performance of the mechs in many ways.

Ves had always wanted to explore the potential of using glows to connect different mechs and mech pilots together to achieve better results, but he didn't have the time to explore this tangent!

Nonetheless, he couldn't help but imagine what it would be for him to collaborate with Aisling.

"You're a direct disciple of Master Huron, right? Does that mean you are already set in your way?"

"I see you aren't very familiar with what it means to inherit a Master's design philosophy." She said. "It merely means that my starting point and my early progression is entirely shaped by my Master. Once I reach Journeyman, I can diverge from my Master's research direction and explore a branching direction! Perhaps one of the best ways to describe it is that I'm specializing in a possibility that my Master has once considered but rejected in favor of another possibility!"

Ves understood this explanation. It was as if he decided to choose a different direction than the path of balance to progress his design philosophy. While the path of determinism, the path of balance and the path of life ultimately led to different outcomes, they still shared the same root!

"How is your research direction different from that of your Master?"

Aisling lifted her head in pride. "I chose to develop a dream that Master Huron has never achieved! I wish to widen the application of neural interconnectivity so that every outfit and every group can form a neural network without any cumbersome prerequisites!"

That sounded incredibly difficult! Ves couldn't help but admire the audacity of her ambition!

"If your own Master hasn't managed to achieve this, then you'll certainly have a difficult road ahead of you! However, if you succeed, you can absolutely revolutionize the mech industry with this innovation!"

One of the biggest shortcomings of her field had always been its limited applications! No mech designer who specialized in neural interconnectivity ever managed to make their tech safe and accessible to the wider public! Only very close family members or highly-trained elites possessed the ability to sustain a coherent neural network!

"I've long tried to explore a way to achieve this on my own. It wasn't until I found out about your design philosophy that I've realized that my ambition is too impossible for me to achieve by myself! I have a very strong hunch that if I combine my specialty with yours, we can absolutely invent a new application of mechs that will astound the MTA and immortalize our names! As a fellow mech designer, surely you can see the potential of our collaboration!"

Ves nodded in reflex. "I can imagine how it can work in theory, but that is just a guess. I can already tell that it is absolutely not simple to form a neural network between mech pilots who aren't very similar."

"We can explore the solutions of our problems in time." Aisling stated with confidence. "I have left you some primers on neural interface technology in your quarters. You should read them first to develop a basic understanding of my specialty. After all, how can we design a mech together if you can't follow my design choices?"

"Isn't that supposed to be restricted knowledge? The MTA never provided me with the authorization to study neural interface technology."

"It's fine." Aisling brushed the matter off. "I'm only giving you a basic introduction, which isn't enough for you to design your own neural interfaces. I just want you to understand its mechanisms and some of the basic underlying theories."

Ves would have studied the textbooks regardless of whether it was allowed, but it relieved him to hear that he wouldn't get in trouble with the MTA.

Seeing that Ves already had a lot to think about, Aisling decided that she had revealed enough for today.

"You have just arrived aboard my ship. Take a break and think about your new future. You don't have to pretend to like Gloriana anymore. Unlike her, I'm not a Hexer who looks down on men like you! As a Brighter, I'm sure you'll come to appreciate our Friday Coalition as you have done in the past!"

She flicked her fingers at Patricia.

"Please escort Ves back to his quarters."

"Yes, milady."

Patricia rose from her seat and looked at Ves with expectation.

When he stood up, he silently followed after his former classmate to the exit.