The Mech Touch

Designed solely for the Protectorate's mech market, the Holy Soldier was mostly a cosmetic spin on the Desolate Soldier. Ves added some aesthetic decoration to the mostly-bare frame of the Desolate Soldier in the form of religious iconography and symbols.

This was just one aspect of change. The other aspect concerned its spiritual nature and was just as important if not more so to the Holy Soldier's success in the Protectorate's mech market!

Despite the makeover, his variant still resembled the Desolate Soldier in contour any many other aspects. One of the most distinguishing touches he added at the end was the Rescue Particle Generator.

Ves refrained from incorporating it in his previous Devil Tiger project, but he didn't want to leave it out this time. While the Rescue Particle Generator was just a tiny component, adding it to the Desolate Soldier design and its variant still added a small burden to their designs.

Fortunately, with the help of Gloriana, he minimized the impact of its addition. He puzzled more over how he wanted to express its visual impact.

"You always turn every mech design into a work of art." Gloriana observed as she cuddled up next to him. "To be honest, I don't entirely approve. Adding superfluent components and decorations to your mech affects its performance. The reason why most mech designers haven't followed suit is because the spec sheets of her products will look worse."

"The performance drop is minor, especially if I'm careful about it. To me, the technical performance of a mech is not the sole factor in determining whether it's a good product. How people react to my mech is just a factor in determining its effectiveness. If a mech looks impressive, it can lift up the mech pilot's confidence and boost the morale of friendlies. If my artistic expression can allow the mech pilot to become five percent more effective in exchange for a single percent percent performance drop, then that is more than worth the tradeoff!"

Though Gloriana understood his logic, it conflicted with her own principles. She placed a very high importance on the technical excellence of her mechs. To sacrifice performance for visual flair was difficult for her to accept.

Nonetheless, her definition of perfect vessel was not as inflexible as Ves initially thought. Having worked alongside her many days now, he learned the best way to make her swallow something different was to convince her that it produced a better outcome on the battlefield.

After a bit of time, she reluctantly nodded. "Morale and courage can't be measured. It's not surprising for mech designers to neglect the impact their products have on the attitudes of the mech pilots and other friends. You know more than me on this front."

"If you look at the battle reports of my mech models, you'll see that a lot of victories have been achieved because the mech pilots of my products have performed better than expected."

Since Ves managed to resolve Gloriana's difficulties, they continued to work together to integrate the Rescue Particle Generator in the two designs.

What Ves hoped to see was entire formations of Desolate Soldiers or Holy Soldiers firing at the sandmen invaders in unison. He wanted to enhance the visual impact of witnessing so many identical mechs fighting in unison, knowing that if the footage became more striking, those who watched it became more interested in the mechs.

Since Ves still wanted to keep the Desolate Soldier and its variant as simple as possible, he limited his implementation to a small module affixed into chest plating of the mech.

The module was easily installable and removable. Its impact on the mech was kept to a minimum. Its only purpose was to release a simple vapor trail from the position of the heart of a human body.

Ves set the default tint of this vapor trail as orange, but its owners could opt to change the tint to any shade they wished, allowing it to match their outfit or regimental colors.

For example, Ves turned the vapor trail white for the Holy Soldier to symbolize the purity of the Ylvainan Faith.

"I like how it looks." Gloriana tentatively nodded as they studied a simulation of how the Rescue Particle Generator performed in a theoretical battle. "It only works best when the mech is flying backwards, though."

"Against typical sandmen threats, my mechs will predominantly be asked to fire at the sandmen while maintaining distance as much as possible."

"I like how the Desolate Soldier and the Holy Soldier both resemble each other in this regard. Despite their differences, it's immediately apparent that they belong to the same product line."

Ves placed a lot of importance on tying the two designs together. If the Holy Soldier ever grew in popularity, Ves hoped that the variant's success would also lift up the base model. Ves cared far more about the latter because of its universality.

"These changes only represent one side of the coin."

Ves snuck back to his guest room and surreptitiously recalled his design for the Transcendent Messenger and made contact with Prophet Ylvaine's spiritual fragment.

To his surprise, the spiritual fragment felt much stronger now! Though he only recreated it from a tiny spiritual remnant of the original prophet, it somehow grew exceedingly fast! Though it was still a way off from reaching the level of an ace pilot, Ves believed that it was only a matter of time!

No matter how the spiritual fragment grew so fast, Ves still had a job to do. He made his request.

Yet before he communicated his request, the fragment silently split off a mote of its spiritual energy and deposited to his mind. It was as if it already anticipated his request and accepted ahead of time!

"What?"

The fragment didn't stick around to resolve his confusion and quickly withdrew as if it had better things to do. Ves was left befuddled as his spiritual senses tried to wrap around the mote that Ylvaine's spiritual fragment had gifted without a word.

"Mysterious bastard! Keep pretending you can predict the future!" He cursed.

Whatever. He got what he wanted without the fuss he expected. Though Ylvaine's spiritual fragment only left him with a minute piece of itself, Ves could feel the same holy presence from this tiny mote.

While it didn't appear to be very impressive, just a tiny hint of its awe-inspiring presence should be enough to invigorate the faiths of every Ylvainan within the range of its aura!

While the Solemn Guardian played the leading role, the insertion of this tiny extension of Ylvaine's spiritual fragment ought to be enough to add some flavor to a monotone-tasting drink.

"Just like what I did with the Transcendent Messengers." He nodded confidently, certain that his idea would work.

Back then, he varied the individual expression of each separate mech by messing with their spiritual components. This time, Ves would extend the same idea to an entire variant rather than a couple of physical copies.

"I just have to make sure that the two components don't cancel each other out." He muttered.

He needed the Solemn Guardian and the mote to share the same space in the Holy Soldier design. Ves had never done this before.

The time had come to finalize his designs and infuse them with their design spirits.

He faced an important decision. He turned to Nitaa, who was standing guard from the side of the guest room.

"Do you think Gloriana can be trusted?"

His bodyguard did not dismiss the question out of hand. "I'm not sure. My judgement is that she is very sincere towards you, but that might not necessarily be the case of the people around her. Her secretary Melody, the crew of Stellar Chaser and the Glory Battalion responsible for guarding her life all answer to Madame Constance Wodin or the Wodin Dynasty."

Her words pointed out an uncomfortable truth. Unlike Ves, Gloriana had always been raised with the full support of her mother. The Wodin Dynasty poured a lot of resources into her upbringing and always took care of many matters in her stead.

This led to a situation where Gloriana lacked the kind of confidantes that Ves slowly surrounded himself with. He had no doubt that if her mother issued an order to recall Gloriana back to the Scimitar System in Hegemony space, the Glory Battalion would drag her back by force!

Gloriana's overreliance on forces that didn't necessarily answer to her was one of the reasons why Ves still persisted in cultivating his own forces.

"Okay, I think you have a point. I think I will let Gloriana have a glimpse of what I can do, but only her. No one else must pry."

"I'll be sure to keep an eye out on the guards."

Ves turned to Lucky, who was lounging lazily on his bed. "You have to help me too, buddy."

"Meow."

Once he made his decision, he decided to call Gloriana to his guest room rather than head back to the workshop compartment. The latter still possessed an intact monitoring system.

Some time passed until Gloriana and her assistant Melody entered the guest room.

"What is the meaning of this, Mr. Larkinson?" Melody clutched her hexagonal data pad tightly.

Ves innocently held out his hands. "It's not what you think. I just want to show Gloriana something in private. You can stay in the guest room while we're busy. I swear we aren't up to anything funny!"

Though it took some convincing, Melody eventually acquiesced. She stood next to Nitaa and observed Ves and Gloriana sitting on the bed.

Once they made themselves comfortable, Ves activated his jammer. It was enough to interfere with the surrounding air without blocking Melody's view, so the latter did not object.

"What did you want to show me that's so important that you had to call me here?"

"I've been thinking about showing you some of what I can do. It will be difficult for you to perceive, but you deserve to witness this moment. What I'm about to do is putting the final touches to our designs."

She looked curious at him. "I thought we already completed the designs."

"Not quite." He smiled. "While it's true that we have declared their physical designs complete, there is still one more component missing from both designs. I think it's best for me to demonstrate."

For the first time in his life, Ves was about to reveal one of the methods that made his mech designs special to another mech designer.

While Nitaa already witnessed him in action before, her lack of understanding towards mechs had mostly left her in the dark.

Someone like Gloriana would be able to pick up a lot more. Not only because she understood mechs as well as him, but also because she was a spiritually-strong individual. Even if her spiritual perception was nowhere close to his own, she should still be able to sense something.

Ves silently activated his comm and projected two of his designs. At the same time, he concentrated his mind while dragging one of the P-stones to his side.

"What does this exotic have to do with your designs?" She questioned.

As the owner of the Stellar Chaser, she knew that Ves brought a bunch of containers when he moved onto the ship. She never understood what kind of role his exotics played.

"Observe." Ves smiled at her. "Try and feel what I do instead of relying on your conventional senses."

Ves started by placing his finger onto the surface of the occupied P-stone. He utilized his Spirituality to lift the trapped spiritual product from its prison.

The Solemn Guardian hadn't matured very much since he put it into the P-stone. This was exactly as Ves intended. It still emanated a pure and innocent aura of duty.

The moment Ves pulled it out, Gloriana shifted a bit. It appeared she sensed something remarkable, but she failed to spot anything with her eyes!

Without explaining anything, Ves ushered the Solemn Guardian into the Desolate Soldier design.

As if sensing the immense compatibility between the two, the Solemn Guardian did not resist the move. Once it settled into the conceptual space of the Desolate Soldier design, the newly-installed design spirit quickly melded into its new home, instantly empowering its X-Factor to greater heights!

"Ves!" Gloriana gasped. "Your design suddenly changed! It feels so much more remarkable, just like the Aurora Titan and your other designs! Did you just infuse it with one of your proto-gods?!"

Ves did not want to admit it directly. "I added in the final component. Pay careful attention to what I do next."

He retrieved the mote of Ylvaine's spiritual fragment and put it into the Holy Soldier design. Next, he began to do something he always theorized but never put into action before.

He projected his Spirituality and applied it towards the Solemn Guardian. He conveyed a request to the spiritual product.

Some time passed before the Solemn Guardian suddenly projected itself onto the Holy Soldier design!

The variant's close similarity to the Desolate Soldier made this interaction possible!