The Mech Touch (Web Novel)
chapter-2077

The raid conducted by the Purple Hangmen quickly spread to the galactic net!

The battle was the first real example of a clash between glows!

Though battles between LMC mechs happened before, they mostly amounted to both sides pulling out their Soldier mechs.

Desolate Soldier against Desolate Soldier, Prideful Soldier against Prideful Soldier, Desolate Soldier against Prideful Soldier, the cases went on and on. The LMC continued to proliferate both mech throughout the Komodo Star Sector even after the end of the Sand War.

Most of these battles turned out to be rather tame and underwhelming. Both were ranged mechs that weren't very suited for battle against mechs. They were fragile and needed to enter medium range in order for their Sandbreaker rifles to land reliable hits.

Most outfits that fielded these mech models merely used them in a supportive capacity.

Legitimate organizations adored the duty-based glow of the Desolate Soldier. The presence of these mechs in a squad of mech company stiffened the sense of obligation of the career mech pilots, which meant that they were much less likely to slack off or put up a half-hearted fight!

In contrast, irregular and underground forces took a much greater fancy to the Prideful Soldier! The Desolate Soldier's glow was a bit too upright for their tastes. The Prideful Soldier was not only cheaper, but also more ferocious, which was exactly what scum relied on to win their battles!

As a result, a battle between a mercenary corps and a pirate gang usually devolved into a contest between defense and offense. The glows rarely came into range with each other, and even if they did, they largely focused on strengthening friendlies rather than weakening hostiles.

The Doom Guard was the first LMC mech with a negative glow. The mech was the first product designed by Ves and Gloriana that was meant to harm rather than help!

This meant that its interactions with the other mechs sold by the LMC became rather interesting! Depending on whether the different LMC mechs were being piloted by friendly or hostile mech pilots, the subsequent clashes between the glows produced some remarkable outcomes!

"The Doom Guard's glow isn't omnipotent!" Gavin stated with excitement, but not of the good kind! "The mech community is already experimenting. Some of the early adopters have already found ways to alter or suppress the Doom Guard's signature ability by fielding some of our older products!"

Ves blinked. To be honest, he never thought that something like this should happen.

Logically, he should have anticipated this outcome, but he never encountered this situation before in his previous mech designs.

In the past, the sales figures of his mech models weren't very impressive. The odds that two opponents would both field LMC against each other was rather slim.

Even if they did, the glows of the mechs never explicitly clashed against each other. Combining them together produced mildly-interesting results, but they didn't significantly shift the outcome of battles.

It was different this time. The inventiveness of the pirates and the armchair generals on the galactic net exceeded his imagination!

"I need to see this for myself." Ves immediately announced. "Call Commander Melkor and tell him to ready a couple of copies of every LMC mech model in his roster. I need to do some experimenting!"

He soon left his office and entered a nearby training ground reserved for the Avatars.

Due to the importance of this issue, Ves reluctantly called up his girlfriend as well. She soon arrived with Clixie nuzzling against her neck.

"Miaow."

"Hey there, Clixie."

The cat jumped into his arms and enjoyed his petting.

Meanwhile, Gloriana looked around the yard and stared at the Avatar mechs that had gathered a short distance away.

"What is this about, Ves?"

"It's about the interaction between our mechs." Ves replied, and briefly explained the battle involving the Purple Hangmen.

She raised her eyebrows. "I admittedly didn't think about it either, but it makes a lot of sense if you think about it. The proto-gods that you have invested in the mech designs are living entities. Some of them get along pretty well with each other, but not all. In our case, a confrontation between different mech models is not just a contest of technical performance, but also a clash between divine personalities!"

Though Ves disliked her constant allusions to divinity, he had to admit that the image she evoked wasn't that off the mark in this case.

The glows of a mech basically represented the spiritual domain of the design spirit. Within the area of effect, a portion of the will and presence of the spiritual entity in question gained dominance.

Sometimes, different glows existed alongside each other with hardly any problem. For example, the glow of the Aurora Titan and the glow of the Desolate Soldier complimented fairly well with each other. One focused on protection and the other on duty.

While the mech pilots that came under the influence of both didn't suddenly become twice as courageous, they still derived a bit more strength than usual!

In order to investigate these interactions even further, Ves wanted to conduct an immediate field test.

He turned to Commander Melkor who approached with an eclectic group of mech pilots in tow.

"Our mechs are ready to be deployed." He spoke. "Most of our mechs are spaceborn units, so they won't fight well on land."

Ves dismissively waved his hand. "I don't need them to fight. I need to test every possible interaction between different glows."

The Avatar Commander frowned. "This is your specialty. How can you not know?"

"It wasn't relevant before. It's different now." Ves shrugged.

This time, Commander Melkor pulled out all the stops. He wanted to show off the strength of the Avatars!

For this reason, he summoned some interesting mech pilots to pilot the LMC mechs.

He suited up in order to pilot a Doom Guard in person.

He assigned Joshua and a radically devout Ylvainan to a pair of Deliverer mechs.

He asked Jannzi Larkinson to participate with her Shield of Samar.

He even tracked down Vincent Ricklin-Larkinson in order to call up his Adonis Colossus.

What surprised Ves the most was that Melkor even brought along Taon and James so that they could field their Transcendent Messengers!

Seeing older mechs standing alongside the newer ones was an interesting experience. They stood close enough together for their glows to blend in with each other in interesting ways.

Ves turned to the familiar faces who had all joined the Larkinson Clan.

He nodded in a friendly manner towards Jannzi and Joshua before turning his attention to the resident baboon of his clan. "Melkor, when I told you to call up every LMC mech, I meant that you should bring every mech in your mech roster. As far as I know, the Adonis Colossus is not a part of the Avatars!"

If someone as vain and ignorant as Vincent was able to qualify for the Avatars, Ves might as well kill himself right away!

"Hey, bro, don't be like that!" Vincent complained. "My mech is a bona fide LMC mech! It's one of a kind!"

Ves grimaced. "Don't call me 'bro'. While we Larkinsons aren't too big on formality, it is unbecoming of you to resort to slang."

"Oh come on, we're brothers! Calling you bro is a compliment!"

"Whatever."

He turned to the Ylvainans. Taon Melin stood a half step behind James as if he was an attendant.

"Bright Martyr." Taon Melin-Larkinson greeted him. "It is an honor to be called up to service!"

Ves hadn't really paid attention to the former Ylvainan. In fact, he almost forgot about the chosen of Zeal in his quest to ignore the existence of the True Believers in his clan!

It didn't help that the Larkinson Clan recently shifted its focus towards spaceborn operations. The landbound contingents received much less attention in recent months.

He studied the Transcendent Messengers. The sight of the stolen prototype offended Ves a bit, but it happened such a long time ago that he was more inclined to let this matter slide.

"Your Transcendent Messengers are impressive machines, but I think they could use an update."

"This is not necessary, sir." Taon spoke. "There are more mech designs that require your attention. I am already used to my machine and it will fare well in the land battles to come. You should take the time to design other essential mechs."

"Uhhh.. okay."

Gloriana, who stood at his side, chirped up. "Maybe I can work on this project by myself, Ves. As long as you can make sure that its glow remains the same, I can upgrade it to a second-class standard on my own! It will save you some effort and I can exercise my solo design capabilities on a wonderful design."

"I'm not so sure about that. The Transcendent Messenger is a very picky design." Ves frowned.

"It will be fine." James reassured. "Your lover is more than capable of working around your quirks."

Ves automatically ignored the Living Prophet's remark.

"Enough socializing. Let's proceed with the tests. We need to know how the Doom Guard's glow reacts in the presence of other glows."

The tests soon began. They weren't anything fancy. Ves merely ordered the opposing mech to approach each other in the center of the practice field while doing their best to treat each other as hostiles.

This was an important step. Most LMC mechs exerted its glows differently to allies and opponents. This could be considered one of the hidden built-in features of his mechs.

The first test was the simplest one. Ves merely called for two Doom Guards to confront each other.

Commander Melkor and a veteran Avatar piloted both machines. As they slowly neared each other with their slow and underpowered legs, the glows of the two mechs started to blend and superimpose with each other.

It didn't matter if the two mech pilots regarded each other as enemies. The glows of the Doom Guards reacted similar to the time when Ves called up an entire squad to enter the podium!

They strengthened each other!

It became significantly more difficult for Melkor and the other Doom Guard pilot to maintain their composure. While they hadn't reached their limits, it became a bit harder for them to maintain their concentration!

"Describe everything you feel no matter how inconsequential it sounds." Ves commanded over the communication channel. "I need to gather as much data as possible. While I am already recording all of the telemetry, I can't read your minds."

Ves hated this subjective, biased and imprecise method of data collection, but it wasn't as if he could get anything better.

Once he had his fill of putting two Doom Guards togethers, he ordered one of them to retreat and another mech to come forth.

He first started with his older and aging mech models. The Blackbeak's ferocity was no match against the Doom Guard. The latter easily suppressed the former! The difference in strength was too great!

The same went for the Crystal Lord. It held up marginally better, but it was clear that its obsolescence turned it into a poor match against the newer model.

"I already expected this result." Ves noted to Gloriana.

"I think these old mech models deserve a boost."

Once he got these mechs out of the way, Ves proceeded to do something more exciting. He proceeded to test the Doom Guard against the Desolate Soldier and Prideful Soldier.

The Desolate Soldier exhibited a straightforward reaction. Its glow gave ground to the gloom emanated by the Doom Guard. However, the mech pilot of the ranged mech was largely protected by the design spirit, allowing him to retain much of his wits!

"It's only useful for self-protection." Ves muttered.

"That's not useful at all considering the likely battle scenarios for the two mechs." Gloriana pointed out. "The Doom Guard is an immobile defensive mech that should never take part in an offensive action. The Desolate Soldier is a fragile ranged mechs that belong in the rear lines of any formation. There should be no instance that the mechs would ever confront each other at a range where their glows interact with each other!"

Compared to the Desolate Soldier's mundane result, the Prideful Soldier interacted substantially differently against a Doom Guard!