Was Ves bashing his head against a wall?
He certainly felt like it after trying to co up with several alternate ch concepts. Each ti, he attempted to co up with a ch shape that was able to offer better and more tailored performance compared to what a bog-standard vanilla humanoid striker ch had to offer!
"I refuse to give up! I refuse to give in! I'm a ch designer! I can work with multiple ch shapes!"
Designing humanoid chs was very familiar territory to Ves. He almost never designed a ch that deviated from the premise of an upright machine that walked on two legs and used its two arms to wield its primary armants.
This standard was very popular in the ch community, and for good reason.
Ves didn't need to reiterate that it was a shape that was easy to pick up and understand by his custors.
He didn't need to say that research on humanoid chs had been done to death, so there were a lot of standard layouts that offered imdiate answers on how to structure their internals and artificial musculature systems.
All of these advantages and more turned humanoid chs into the predominant ch shape in human space. Bestial chs took second place, but were very popular in certain states and star sectors.
Outside of these established conventions, there was still room for more ch shapes, so of which weren't inspired by the shapes of existing humans and beasts.
These days, the ch industry ca up with a lot of standards and best practices. A lot of excellent ch designers over the generations experinted with what they could do. The MTA and other organizations gathered all of the results and aggregated them in order to determine which one was the best out of all of them. After a very long process, the solution the MTA chose would eventually beco the most optimal standard which every ch designer had to respect!
Was there anything nefarious behind this drive towards pushing standards on the ch industry? Not necessarily. They were often the most optimal solution to most situations. It was a waste of ti trying to explore other options when the existing standards were already the best!
"Still, it's a mistake to assu that the standards are unquestionably the best in every situation."
Technology constantly progressed, opening up newer options and making unviable choices more practical.
The imagination of the entire ch industry was vast, but not unlimited. The most deviant minds who weren't satisfied with the existing standards always tried to figure out if there was a better way to solve a problem!
Most attempts ended in failure, but occasionally soone got lucky. Still, their successes were usually marginal and limited to specific circumstances. After so much technological developnt, it was very rare that a single ch designer was able to co up with a radical solution that was good enough to overturn existing standards!
Changing the shape of a ch to suit a certain purpose was not that unusual. However, most chs designed in this fashion still fell within the boundaries of conventional standards.
Not many ch designers chose to take it a step further and design a true deviation from the standard.
Now that Ves started to tackle this challenge himself, he found out first hand why even Seniors and Masters declined to explore this direction further.
"It's too difficult!"
He felt as if he was straining his creativity to co up with good ideas. Most of them sounded promising at first, but as soon as Ves sketched a rough draft, they turned out to be very deficient in certain aspects.
So far, many of his chs ca across as dented frontline chs. Removing the legs and turning the arms into flathrower mounts vastly increased the capacity and efficiency of his ch.
However, these design choices neutered his striker ch's ability to defend against lee threats. This was not sothing striker ch pilots liked to see. Their ch types were designed to fend off approaching lee chs, so they were at high risk of getting attacked by enemy chs up close!
"They'll probably equate my ch to a starfighter." Ves tiredly remarked as he ntally threw his latest draft design into his implant's trash bin.
Spaceborn frontline chs were often indistinguishable from starfighters past a certain point. The only reason why they still fell under the category of chs at all was because they required a pilot with the right neural aptitude to operate.
That said, which ch pilot wanted to pilot such a limiting machine? ch pilots possessed their own pride! They spent at least eight, ten or twelve years learning how to pilot complicated, multi-limbed war machines! Putting them into the cockpit of a glorified starfighter was an insult to their identity!
After making so many futile attempts, Ves was out of inspiration. He no longer possessed the drive and energy to research alternate concepts.
"Enough!"
Ves threw his hands and decided to end this session. He wouldn't gain anything when his inspiration ran dry. Even his creativity had limits!
Even though he hadn't gained any concrete results so far, Ves nonetheless gained at least so satisfaction.
He felt he was going back to his roots. Lately, Ves had been pushing off a lot of problems to Gloriana. It felt good to tackle a technical problem by himself. Unlike the other problems, Ves cared a lot about this issue, so he was fully invested in trying to solve it in a better way than the standard formulas could achieve.
It reminded him what ch design was really all about. His design philosophy had more in common with spiritual sorcery than the nuts and bolts of creating technically-sophisticated war machines. It was easy for Ves to beco more and more detached from the technical side of ch design, especially since his girlfriend was so good in this aspect.
Ves couldn't help but be reminded of a warning he received from Master Moira Willix.
"Specialization is good for gaining greater efficiency in my workflow, but not necessarily good for my developnt. If I keep handing off work I don't like to my girlfriend, I will eventually lose the ability to perform this work myself!"
He needed to design chs by himself in order to keep his comprehensive design skills sharp. Right now, the challenge he accepted forced him to exercise several technical design skills that he had neglected for a very long ti!
"It feels good to approach a design like I did at the start of my career!" He smiled.
Though he failed to yield any useful results, the entire process benefited him in a different way. He felt ntally stimulated in a way that caused him to discover so of the original charm he appreciated about chs.
No matter what shape they ca in, chs represented the ultimate creative potential of the human race. The vibrant ch industry constantly produced an uncountable amount of designs, many of which contained wonderful new innovations!
Leaving aside glows and design spirits, chs fascinated Ves because they were capable of outputting a lot of damage or withstanding a lot of attacks through their clever design and thorough destruction.
Ves rediscovered so of the childish fascination he held towards chs. In his childhood, he didn't know any better, but that didn't stop him from admiring these great and terrible machines!
"Maybe I'm forcing the matter too much."
His latest setbacks and realizations cleansed his mind and snapped him out of his obsession. Now that he was able to look back at the past few days, he felt a bit ashad. He was so determined to achieve the impossible that he disregarded his girlfriend's sound advice and proceeded to do exactly what she said, hitting his head against a wall.
"At least I knocked off so dust in my mind when I did all of that head bashing!" Ves joked.
He decided to take a break from work and occupy his ti with other matters.
He spent so ti tutoring Maikel and Zanthra Larkinson. Both of his pupils weren't ready for the real lessons yet, but that was no excuse for the two teenagers to slack off! Ves was determined to push them in order to make sure they earned their progress through blood, sweat and tears!
When the two kids whined to him that their workload was too high, Ves verbally slapped aside these argunts.
"Do you think it's easy to beco a Journeyman? Do you think you can stroll your way to my level of success? That's impossible! There are so many ambitious and hard-working ch designers in the ch industry that there is always soone better! The best you can do is keep up as much as possible while finding your own strengths. You can play after you beco a ch designer. Until then, I expect you to manage your ti well so that you keep learning sothing new every day!"
He had to give the Larkinsons at least so leisure ti. Ves was very careful about that. If he forced Maikel and Zanthar to study from morning to evening, they wouldn't be able to unwind and live their lives!
Ves had long developed a hypothesis that spiritual potential erged from individuals who made the most of life. Spirituality seed to have a very strong correlation with sentience. He guessed that clever and emotional people were much more prone to develop spiritual potential than soone dull!
After he finished checking their progress, Ves exited the design lab and wandered through the halls of the Scarlet Rose.
He couldn't help but recall the mories of the original-prefitted version of the ship and what took place in the corridors and compartnts. With the help of his implant, he could call up the exact positions of the bodies on the deck and the damage to the interior.
Now, none of those signs were visible. The refit had extensively repaired the damage and wiped away the traces. Instead, the comfortable white interior was interspersed with the symbol of the LMC and the Larkinson Clan. Two different cats adorned the logos, though many people thought they were the sa!
It felt very gratifying to own a ship as expensive and capable as the Scarlet Rose. It felt even better when Ves realized that he didn't pay fortune to obtain this ship!
"No wonder the pirate profession holds so much attraction! It's so easy to steal soone's pride and joy through the use of force!"
That said, Ves would be crazy if he decided to go pirate. Stealing the possessions of others was a very fast way to tanking his reputation and earning the ire of every lawful organization!
Eventually, he returned to his stateroom. Gavin stood and waited patiently at the entrance.
"Benny? Why are you here?"
"Sothing important has co up." His assistant answered as his eyes darted in several directions. "Let's head inside to talk."
When they entered the stateroom and took their seats, Gavin activated his comm and projected a recording of a compartnt turned into a chamber of worship by a bunch of Ylvainans.
"What is so concerning about this, Benny? All I see is a bunch of Ylvainan crew mbers performing their daily prayers."
Gavin zood in the projection. "Ah, that is normally the case, but recently the Ylvainans have altered their worship rituals. Look closely at the statue placed in the back."
Now that Ves directed his attention towards it, the tal statue that usually depicted the robed form of Prophet Ylvaine was absent.
Instead, a new statue took its place! Ves studied the figure it depicted carefully and found so very disturbing aspects about it. Its face and deanor looked very familiar!
"Is that.. ?"
"Yes." Gavin answered. "We don't quite know yet when it started, but the thousands of Ylvainans running our ships and piloting so of our chs have all started to worship you directly! To be honest, that was already happening to so extent, but lately the Ylvainans have started to put you ahead of the Great Prophet! It's as if the Living Prophet voluntarily relinquished his central role in his own faith in favor of you! Jas has to be responsible for this massive shift, but the reason for it eludes us! None of the Ylvainans we've questioned can provide us with a solid answer!"
Ves looked shocked at the news! If what happened in the recording took place throughout his entire fleet, then he was basically enjoying the worship of the entire True Ylvaine Dynasty!
This was incredibly surprising because he didn't even believe in the Ylvainan Faith!
"What is that bastard Jas up to now?!"
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