The Mech Touch (Web Novel)
chapter-4114

"It's done." Professor Benedict Cortez announced in front of all of the mech designers who contributed to the most important design project of the Cross Clan.

Everyone who had gathered in the main design hall of the Primary Cross Lab felt a mixture of emotions.

They felt relieved now that they no longer had to wrestle with the advanced science and the extremely complicated design challenges of this high-end expert mech design project.

They felt proud for being able to do their part in delivering an expert mech design that was more powerful, more advanced and more transformative than any other design the Cross Clan had ever handled.

They felt nervous because their work was not truly complete. Sure, the design of the highly ambitious Mars Project was complete in form and function, but it only existed in a virtual form.

So long as the Mars Project only consisted of a large amount of documents and design schematics, it wasn't truly real as far as anyone was concerned.

The only remaining challenge to this project was to fabricate the mech and realize the vision that Professor Benedict and every other participating mech designer and component developer had worked on for eighteen months straight!

The five mech designers who stood at the front of the crowd experienced more accomplishment than anyone else. They were the leading designers and contributors to the mech design. It was through their efforts that the Mars Project was able to contain all of the new technologies and integrate them in a cohesive and synergistic fashion.

They also felt more pressure than most due to the heavy expectations that everyone set for the upcoming fabrication of the Mars Project.

None of the five mech designers forgot that Patriarch Reginald insisted on obtaining a masterwork version of his fantastic new expert mech design.

While the mech designers all believed that the Mars Project was powerful, innovative and sound enough to be worthy of becoming a masterwork, the difficulty of fabricating all of the high-end systems was not small.

Professor Benedict and Gloriana already had a taste of the challenges ahead of them when they fabricated the partial and complete scale models of the Mars Project.

This precious experience had given them a clearer picture of what they needed to pay attention to and what they needed to improve in order to get ready for the crucial fabrication run.

Both of them looked at each other for a moment before they wordlessly formed a common understanding.

"We shall begin with fabricating the new expert mech in two weeks." Professor Benedict declared. "While we can technically start right away as we have already prepared all of the necessary raw materials and production equipment in advance, there are plenty of actions that we can undertake to gain more assurances."

Ves inwardly nodded in agreement. Two weeks was a good buffer period. Benedict and the Larkinson mech designers could devote much of their time on familiarizing themselves with the production equipment and studying additional articles on how to handle difficult materials such as phasewater.

Most importantly, the mech designers would also be able to calm their restless spirits and make proper psychological preparations for the responsibility invested into them. Ves and all of the other mech designers were keenly aware that this was not 'just' another completed project.

This was an opportunity for them to change the course of history of their clan and alliance in their favor!

Since the future of the Cross Clan and the Golden Skull Alliance was at stake, it was logical to be extra thorough and make additional preparations.

However, this could easily become detrimental when everyone made so many excessive preparations that their mentalities changed too much. It would be hard to maintain their original enthusiasm and mood if the time between the completion of the mech design and the attempt to fabricate the mech grew too long.

Two weeks was relatively short, but the mech designers could still make good use of this available time. Ves anticipated that everyone would still retain the right condition to embark on the fabrication project in a good mood.

"Professor." Ves turned to the lead designer of the project. "Since the fabrication run is so important to your clan, do you want to turn it into a spectacle? It might be nice for your men if they can witness the making of the most important expert mech with their own eyes."

The older man frowned a bit before shaking his head. "It is not necessary. There are too many security risks involved with fabricating the mech in front of an audience. The Mars Project will be the trump card of the Cross Clan for many years if not decades. While it is foreseeable that we will parade the Mars Project in public in future events, showing off the finished product is different from letting people see how the internals are put together. There are too many sensitive secrets that can give opposing champions a major advantage if they prepare targeted strategies towards our expert mech."

"I see. That is indeed the most prudent choice."

The Mars Project was not like the C-Man. The latter mech was just one of the many expert mechs that the Larkinson Army had in its collection. While the C-Man was definitely on the more expensive side, the Larkinsons did not put all of its eggs into a single basket.

The Cross Clan's attitude towards the Mars Project was different in this regard. The clan valued martial strength above all else and no mech pilot was stronger than its patriarch.

Therefore, equipping him with the most powerful expert mech of the Golden Skull Alliance was seen as a comprehensive upgrade of the entire clan. It was of utmost importance to ensure that Patriarch Reginald and his new expert mech remained as unbeatable as possible!

As Ves turned back to the projection of the completed mech design, he could fully see that the mech was not only designed to achieve absolute superiority on the battlefield, but also appear natural while accomplishing this result.

Professor Benedict and Ves had both worked extensively on designing the exterior of the mech.

It had been quite difficult at first for the two of them to agree on a single cohesive visual design of the Mars Project.

Ves possessed an artistic flair that he had exercised many times on all of his mech designs. He wanted his mechs to stand out and look unique amidst a crowd of other machines.

Benedict on the other hand did not place that much additional value on the look of his mech designs. His design philosophy always centered around function over form. The piloting experience of the mech and the impact it made on other people was secondary to attaining the highest possible performance parameters.

In theory, that meant that the Senior shouldn't care too much how Ves wanted to turn the Mars Project into a mech that exemplified might and power from its appearance alone.

In practice, Benedict became just as bad as Gloriana at times whenever Ves wanted to make a bolder and more extravagant addition to the visual look of the Mars Project.

"No! I will not allow you to engrave this surface! According to the preliminary calculations that I have performed, the aerodynamics of the Mars Project will deteriorate to a point where the mech will lose 0.03 percent of its flight speed under standard atmospheric conditions."

"You are crazy if you think I will allow you to shape your shoulders into eagle heads! The additional mass and structure that you intend to add to the design will change the total mass and its distribution to such an extent that our design will slightly deviate from the most optimal center of mass."

"NO CAPES!"

Remarks like these frequently hindered Ves from implementing his full vision onto the Mars Project.

What was worse was that Professor Benedict made plenty of objections but did not offer any constructive suggestions of his own. If he had his way, then the Mars Project would look plainer and duller than what it deserved!

Fortunately, this was not the first time that Ves worked with a collaborator who possessed a radically different attitude towards the visual design of a mech. He already accrued a decent amount of experience with that when he worked with Professor Taigen Voiken on the Pacifier Project.

Just as with the rapidly growing law enforcement mech model, Ves and Professor Benedict eventually found a middle ground and formed a compromise on the look of the Mars Project.

Ves opted to apply a more streamlined and restrained version of his original vision and turned the Mars Project into a high-end mech that looked like a futuristic version of a metallic god.

Inspired by its codename, Ves tried to realize a visual concept that could loosely be described as a futuristic wargod.

It started with the head of the Mars Project. Ves applied a remarkably human-looking face on the sculped front of the head design. The top of the head resembled a helmet and featured a prominent vertical crest.

Similar to one of his earliest designs, Ves applied a projector inside the crest that caused it to project an energetic red crest out of the C-shaped construction.

The best part about this projected crest was that Patriarch Reginald could alter it into any form or color as he liked.

That was also the reason why Ves was able to secure this addition despite how it altered the performance of the mech. The client liked it so much that Professor Benedict had no choice but to tolerate its existence!

The rest of the Mars Project also looked fairly ostentatious. Its iconic Abasis Armor caused the exterior of the mech to be covered in a large number of small circular shapes.

Ves rolled with this feature and generally shaped the mech in a way that made it seem as if it was wearing chainmail.

With great difficulty, he managed to add a short 'skirt' at the waist as well as more defined shoulder plating in order to give the Mars Project a more soldierly appearance.

It was a pity that he failed to convince Professor Benedict to add a real cape to the Mars Project, but with Patriarch Reginald's support he managed to add an acceptable alternative to the mech.

He borrowed a page from yet another one of his old designs and added a projector to the back that allowed the expert mech to project an insubstantial cape to the back.

There was no purpose to this cape other than to make the Mars Project look more heroic, but Patriarch Reginald absolutely loved how much gravitas it added to his future expert mech.

The projector was relatively small and it did not take much energy or other requirements to support its operation, so Professor Benedict reluctantly agreed with its placement.

The rest of the Mars Project also looked a bit better due to the additions that Ves and the others had made.

The most important part to the mech designers was the addition of their signature looks, albit in smaller and more subtler forms than usual.

Since the Mars Project first and foremost belonged to the Cross Clan, it was not appropriate for the Larkinson mech designers to leave a large footprint behind on the exterior of the expert mech.

Ves' third eye and Gloriana's hexagon were smaller and placed in an inconspicuous place below the 'helmet' of the helmet.

Juliet's red six-sided wings had shrunken as well and were difficult to distinguish on the surface of the red-coat Pulsvar V-1 transphasic flight system.

Sara's brown coating was only applied to the feet of the Mars Project instead of the entire underlegs.

Only Professor Benedict was allowed to prominently apply his signature look on his pride and joy. He placed a black infinity symbol on the upper left side of the chest of the Mars Project.

Its addition did not detract too much from the prominent white cross that marked the front of the entire expert mech's torso!