Ves and Gloriana spent too much ti apart.
After Ves led Task Force Predator into the Nyxian Gap, his collaboration with Gloriana mostly happened through remote.
While that did not significantly impact the quality of their ch designs, they still grew rusty when it ca to knowing each other's habits and preferences.
It also didn't help that both of them progressed their design philosophy significantly. Ves not only made several breakthroughs in his specialty, but he had also evolved his design style further.
The increasingly desperate circumstances of his task force forced him to develop new tricks and solutions to cope with the restrictions he faced. He put his life on the line for every change or modification he made to his chs.
He also beca exposed to a lot of pirate chs. Though their quality and maintenance left much to be desired, the pirates exhibited quite a lot of ingenuity when it ca to keeping their chs running even if they hadn't been properly serviced in years.
Pirates were consurs of chs as well. Just like regular custors, they had their own wants and needs. They abided by several familiar conditions such as limits on complexity, piloting difficulty and budget.
Though most pirate ch designers were as sloppy and awful as Johnny Blast, the chs utilized by the more organized pirate groups such as the Dry Snakes and the Allidus Alliance were not inferior compared to his own work!
Observing how his pirate counterparts solved or mitigated the challenges unique to the Nyxian Gap provided Ves with a lot of inspiration. His design style shifted even further towards emphasizing robustness and reliability.
This was an evolution of his design style. He beca less hung up on maximizing performance because he had witnessed plenty of tis in battle that making chs last was a much greater priority.
It didn't matter if he could squeeze 5 to 10 percent more performance out of a ch. Ves had to make a lot of tradeoffs to achieve increasingly smaller gains. Just a tiny amount of extra performance could easily cause a ch to reach its limit 20 percent sooner!
Different ch designers had different ideas about the balance they should set. While Ves increasingly leaned towards the side of stability, the problem was that Gloriana went in the opposite direction.
Performance mattered. Many custors evaluated and bought chs by comparing their prices and specs with each other. When ch designers developed their products, they had to make so very hard choices on how to configure their chs.
Should they pursue the limits of performance? How much reliability was acceptable to them? To what extent should they account for improper handling?
Ves and his wife were on increasingly opposite ends with regards to these spectrums.
Gloriana followed the direction of typical ch designers. While she knew that offering rugged chs was important, she believed it was worthwhile to sacrifice a bit of longevity and reliability to increase the peak performance of her designs.
To her, designing the strongest chs gave her much more satisfaction!
"It's what custors want as well." She clarified her views to him. "I feel bad if a ch degrades by 10 to 20 percent after several years of intensive use, but chs aren't sustainable products to begin with. It's better to achieve the highest possible performance paraters so that if the ch does degrade over ti, it starts to drop from a higher height."
"That makes little sense. We can easily lessen the performance drop over ti by making our chs more robust! Besides, in actual battles, other factors play a much greater role in determining victory or defeat than a asly 5 percent difference in performance!"
"You idiot! This margin is enough to sway the outco of duels!"
It shouldn't have been a surprise that they leaned towards opposite directions with regards to this profound issue.
Ves was much more attuned to large-scale battles where the complex environnt, large quantities of chs and the combination of different ch models often resulted in lots of chaos and confusion!
Under these anything-but-ideal conditions, plenty of factors that seed important actually didn't matter as much. Instead, Ves learned to set aside every variable except how long a ch was able to last and how much punishnt it could take.
Such an extrely basic and simplistic approach rubbed Gloriana the wrong way.
"If every ch designer adopted your perspective, the ch industry would have been a lot more boring!" She yelled! "chs are already designed to take hits and endure damage. You're getting overboard when it cos to maximizing reliability. How will our chs ever stand out from the competition if they consistently underperform compared to their peers?"
"Our chs have other advantages that make them strong."
"THAT'S NOT AN EXCUSE TO LET WEAKNESSES SLIDE!"
"A ch that lasts longer always retains a good reputation. A ch that perford great at the start but falls off sooner won't sell as much after a decade."
"That's just because too many ch owners are too unwilling to invest in proper maintenance! If our custors service their chs exactly according to manufacturer instructions, they wouldn't lose so much value in so little ti!"
"You can't expect perfection from your custors, Gloriana! Most people are inherently sloppy and don't understand the value of proper maintenance. Custors are also constrained by how much manpower, resources and capacity they can allocate towards servicing and repairing their chs."
"THAT'S THEIR FAULT! We gave them the conditions to maximize the value of their chs. If they don't take our recomndations seriously, then they are unworthy to pilot our chs!"
Ves looked exasperated at his obstinate partner. Gloriana based her approach from an entirely different background.
While Ves frequently spent ti among the lowest class of consurs such as rcenaries and pirates, Gloriana mainly preferred to interact with the upper end of the ch market.
In her formative years, Gloriana mainly designed custom chs for rich and wealthy Hexers who could easily afford to provide the best maintenance to their products.
Hexers were very vain about their chs. Their machines not only needed to perform well, but be in their best state as possible in order to show them off without feeling ashad.
Since actual conflict wasn't very frequent in the highly-secure space of the Hexadric Hegemony, ch designers such as Gloriana had so very different ideas on what constituted the best chs.
The Hexers placed much less emphasis on the problems that arose when their products were subject to wear and tear.
Ves and Gloriana couldn't ignore their widening philosophical differences any longer. Along with other factors, their opposing beliefs caused their first attempt at fabricating the Valkyrie Redeer to fall far short of their expectations.
They clashed way too much against each other during the three days it took to produce a diocre copy by their standards!
"We need a reset." Ves stated to his wife. "We can't possibly go on to fabricate the next ch on the list with such a dark cloud hanging over our heads."
Even Gloriana recognized the futility of proceeding further. The disgraceful result showed how urgently they needed to find a middle ground.
While their assistants carted the completed Valkyrie Redeer from the ch workshop, the two newlyweds sat on a bench while holding their cats.
The impromptu pet therapy had a wonderful influence on the couple. Just a few minutes of taking comfort in the company of their pets already cleared up much of their tension.
"ow?" Lucky looked up at Gloriana as he settled in on her lap.
"You've grown even closer to perfection than before, hihi!"
To her, Lucky was a remarkable work of engineering. In her eyes, almost every aspect about him was refined, elegant and subli. Admiring his construction and trying to figure out how she could incorporate his exquisite form in her own work always aroused her interest.
"Miaow miaow miaow."
Clixie's furry tail gently swayed back and forth as Ves ran his hands over her soft fur. Her physical warmth along with her emotional warmth caused his heart to ease and lt.
There was just sothing about furry felines that brought him a lot of joy!
As a cat person, he adored cats. While he also liked Lucky's company, he was not a traditional pet.
As soone who was attuned to life, Ves found it much more relaxing to interact with Clixie. She wasn't as naughty as Lucky and was quite obedient. She also luxuriated in his love and attention. His ability to understand and communicate with animals easily allowed her to make her demands known!
"Miaow miaow."
"I understand your frustrations, but I can't do that yet." He smiled adoringly at the Rubarthan Sentinel Cat.
"Miaow?"
"You're asking for sothing that trillions of humans in the galaxy would kill to have. Let alone empowering a human, I don't even know how to grant this ability to a cat!"
"Miaow!" Clixie cutely showed off her claws!
Ves chuckled and rubbed her colorful head. "If you've been observing my work for a ti, you know that it tends to get dangerous. I don't want to risk harming you, so you'll have to wait until I've solved all of the problems. I'll boost you right away once I've developed a viable solution!"
It seed that Clixie had run out of patience with regards to her lack of capabilities. Compared to Lucky's frequent upgrades and Goldie's easy growth, the organic cat was getting very frustrated at being left behind!
While Ves had never seen her in action, he knew that Rubarthan Sentinel Cats were actually quite formidable in battle. It was just that she had already reached her maturity and couldn't grow any further.
It was not a good idea to perform further genetic modifications on her. She was a precisely-engineered designer cat developed by so of the best cat geneticists of the New Rubarth Empire.
Let alone Dr. Ranya, not even the best cat specialists of Felixia would be able to add any improvents to her highly-developed gene design!
Perhaps it was possible to augnt her with implants, but that was very precarious due to her complex internal physique.
Ves saw no way to improve her aside from augnting her spirit. Yet that was another challenge in itself because Clixie did not possess any spiritual potential!
As he racked his head for ideas, he suddenly developed a novel idea.
"Why should I do everything myself? Don't I have other helpers?"
He wasn't talking about Jas. The obnoxious bastard may possess deep insights into the extraordinary, but he was completely useless when it ca to developing specific solutions.
Instead, he turned to the Larkinson Mandate. After taking the book from Nitaa, he called up the spirit resting inside.
"Goldie."
A glowing cat quickly materialized in the air and began to brush against his head.
"Nyaaa!"
"Hehehe. I have a little problem here that you might be able to help with. Can you figure out a way to solve Clixie's problem?"
As soon as he explained the issue to the Golden Cat, the two cats began to converse with each other.
"Nyaa?"
"Miaow miaow."
"Nyaaa… nyaa…"
"Miaow!"
Goldie looked back at Ves in puzzlent.
He sight. "I know it's not any easy problem to solve, but I think we can work together on this. Let's just take it slow while we co up with so good ideas. Moving too quickly will only lead to danger. Is that okay, Clixie?"
"Miaow…"
Clixie looked downcast, but Goldie soon swooped down to cheer her up. His lap beca very busy as the two cats began to lick each other.
Ves smiled at the sight.
He hoped that pulling in Goldie might help with solving this critical issue. With how much Goldie cared about her 'mother', she had plenty of motivation to figure out a solution!
Perhaps Ves might even be able to freeload off her hard work!
Ves and Gloriana continued to relax with their pets for a couple more hours before retiring for sleep.
They slept in the sa bed.
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