What a radical idea!
For a long ti, Ves often stated that his chs were alive. His design philosophy centered around the premise the chs were just as alive as humans and should be treated as such.
While it was too impractical to grant them rights equivalent to that of a human, it was already good enough to treat them with respect and pay attention to their needs.
Yet despite sticking to this core principle, Ves hadn't entirely treated living chs according to his own ideals.
It couldn't be helped. chs may be alive, but they were also products made to fight. Getting too attached to them was a bad idea for most people as the loss of a living companion was much more hard to stomach than the loss of a piece of hardware.
Another reason why Ves wasn't able to push for better treatnt was because he needed to convince a lot of people that it was worthwhile to do so. While many of his clansn had steadily co around to treating their chs as if they were alive, only Joshua fully embraced this mindset.
Other Larkinsons were only partially there. Both their hearts and minds had to agree that chs were alive. Otherwise, these people would continue to treat their chs as machines for the most part.
This was what their learning and senses told them. They simply couldn't see the potent spiritual foundations of living chs!
Ves shook his head. This was not the ti to investigate this radical idea. He resolutely added it to his to-do list before shoving every related thought out of his mind.
He found it rather strange that he managed to generate several promising new ideas in a short amount of ti. In his ntally-exhausted state, his creativity and imagination should have suffered.
Did he misunderstand his low state? Was there more to draining his spiritual energy than what he already ascertained?
Perhaps his current conditions were similar to that when he activated the remote domain fragnt in his mind. When he was able to gain access to Gloriana's domain, he was able to view himself in the lens of another person.
By adopting a different perspective, he was able to pay more attention to details that his normal self overlooked.
Ves believed that he might be benefiting from a similar dynamic at the mont!
By draining a significant chunk of his mind, his personality and thinking patterns had changed. Since he hadn't lost too much spiritual energy this ti, his changes weren't too severe, but it was noticeable enough to produce a contrast.
Contrast!
This was the key word! By creating contrast, his hidden biases beca obvious and the flaws that he never took notice of beca extrely eye-catching.
What all of this ant that it was not a waste to put himself in a low state sotis! As long as he took advantage of his temporary conditions, he might be able to co up with solutions from angles he never would have considered when he was his old self.
Of course, just like every other tangent he ca up with today, he intended to explore these ideas later. He still had to brainstorm two more potential ch design projects.
Since Gloriana had just finished her turn, Ves began to dig up another potential ch concept from his mind. As a ch designer, he frequently ca up with new ideas for chs. He stored everything that was interesting and viable enough in his implant. Therefore, he would always be able to push forward a potential ch design even if he wasn't able to invent one on the spot.
"My next proposal is more specifically geared towards the needs of our clan. As far as I'm concerned, the Transcendent Punisher is the foundation of our expeditionary fleet's defense. It is our greatest weapon against a variety of threats, whether it is vast swarms of pirate chs or smaller numbers of elite chs. With sufficient numbers, they can even pose a threat against expert chs or weaker first-class chs!"
That last part was especially important to Ves. In the Red Ocean, pioneers of all backgrounds mixed together in a relatively small pond.
Even though the Big Two divided the dwarf galaxy into many zones that restricted the conduct of more powerful pioneers, how could anyone possibly enforce the rules at a distance?
Even if so mad Terran and Rubarthan broke the rules and bullied a second-rate fleet, the punishnt ted out to them only ca in effect after the incident!
By that ti, it was too late to save the victim!
The only way to avoid this unfortunate outco was to present enough of a threat against these powerful parties to deter any hostile actions.
Order was in short supply in the new frontier. The Big Two's authority did not extend far beyond their star systems and the active frontline against the indigenous powers of the dwarf galaxy.
What happened in the already-conquered hinterland of the Red Ocean was hardly a priority to the chers and fleeters!
This was why Ves prioritized giving his Larkinson Clan so teeth. He added one tooth in the form of the successful developnt of a powerful heavy artillery ch was one tooth. He planned to add so additional teeth by developing so expert chs.
Yet that was not enough to constitute an actual threat against first-class fleets.
"What makes first-class chs so powerful against second-class chs?" Ves suddenly asked.
His wife looked confused. "Why would you ask such a simple question to ? It's the sa as pitting a second-class ch against a third-class ch. The quality difference is so great that the better ch can easily beat several weaker chs. Of course, there are also other variables such as teamwork to consider, but overall much of the disparity cos from better tech, better materials and better ch pilots.
"The gap between third-class and second-class chs is quite big, but not insurmountable." Ves added. "In the Battle of Kesseling VII, the Swordmaidens managed to take down so Fridayn chs with third-class swordsman chs."
"I recall that part of the battle. The Fridayn were too overconfident and brazenly dispatched a squad of knight chs without sufficient support."
"My point remains. It is difficult but not impossible for third-raters to defeat second-raters. However, everyone says that you can basically forget about second-raters defeating first-raters. Why is there such a difference?"
"That's because the difference in tech and quality is much greater this ti. I already know this." Gloriana answered with an annoyed expression. "This is one of the reasons why the cost of our expert chs can be insanely high. It's too difficult for second-raters to catch up to the power of a first-rater."
"What would you say is the best way for second-class chs to threaten a first-class ch?"
"Deploy a lot of second-class Ferocious Piranhas?" She replied. "The quality of a ch jumps by a huge margin, but the improvent of the ch pilot is not so drastic. The Piranhas have to get close, though. I don't think the light chs will be able to survive the approach. First-class chs are usually equipped with a variety of miniaturized weapon systems. They almost always co with solutions against swarming opponents."
As much as he wanted to deny it, she was right. Throwing large amounts of relatively fragile chs against a first-class multipurpose ch was no different from sending them to their deaths!
This was also one of the reasons why dispatching lancer chs might not work.
While these chs were capable of punching above their weight, their other paraters weren't able to catch up. It was too easy for a first-class ch to snipe the incoming lancer chs at a distance or dodge aside a lance charge at the last mont.
First-class chs were just as difficult to beat if not more as expert ch!
And Ves only considered the lowest and cheapest first-class chs in his consideration. The range of performance between different first-class chs was huge!
However, different from expert chs, first-class chs did not enjoy the power of true resonance. This made them more fallible in Ves' eyes, but that did not an they were easy to threaten. Their shield generators were much more powerful than that of second-class chs. This advantage was enough for them to toy with his expeditionary fleet!
"I have had my hands on a first-class alloy for so ti now." He said. "I've been thinking about how to integrate them into our expert chs to ensure the best possible defense. I have also been thinking about how such a ch can be defeated head-on. Do you know what I've concluded?"
"No, but I can tell you that if the rest of the expert chs are still second-class, then they will be much more exploitable than a simple first-class ch. The difference is just too big."
"You're not wrong, Gloriana. It would be great if we can defeat chs with strong protection by exploiting their weak points, but I don't think we can do that against first-class chs. The only way to confront them is to confront them directly."
"Isn't that the stupidest solution?"
"Tricks won't work against first-class chs. As far as I'm concerned, the only reliable thod to threaten a first-class ch is to overpower them the old-fashioned way. We need to attack their shields until they pop, attack their armor until it has ford a hole and attack the internals to disable the functioning of the ch."
His rather basic explanation caused Gloriana to beco even more doubtful at his sensibilities?
"Are you kidding , Ves? Is this the answer you ca up with? Even a six-year old could give you this answer. The difficulty does not lie in identifying the right thod, it is coming up with the requisite power to accomplish such a feat."
Ves did not speak a word this ti. Instead, he raised his finger and projected so very specific archival footage.
The clips he chose all centered around one of his other recent inventions, the so-called battle formation and battle network.
Gloriana beca engrossed as she watched a tiny portion of the Battle against the Abyss. It depicted the Swordmaiden chs entering into a battle formation. Every Swordmaiden ch pilot harmonized with the center of the battle network, which happened to be Venerable Dise!
Once the Swordmaidens united as one, Venerable Dise extended her power to her fellow Swordmaidens, causing them to beco an extension of her will!
In a situation where Venerable Dise had just broken through to expert pilot, her overflowing power was imnse. In truth, it was too much for her to harness!
However, by sharing so of that excess power to the other Swordmaidens, Venerable Dise was able to lighten her burden while at the sa ti spread out her force of will over multiple minds.
The result was that the Swordmaiden battle network managed to form a giant greatsword that literally scythed through large amounts of pirate chs!
This wasn't the only battle network in play.
The Penitent Sisters entered into a battle formation as well! The battle network centered around the Superior Mother all caused the Hexer ch pilots to borrow so of her power and manifest her silhouette!
Gloriana instantly beca more attentive. "Isn't this what I've just talked about? This is exactly what the Hex Army needs to defeat the Friday Coalition's expert chs."
He knew that she would react in this fashion.
"Don't be foolish. This is a very sensitive invention. We can't share it with the public. Besides, the conditions to make this happen are simply too onerous. I don't think most Hex Army units are qualified to activate this power."
"Says who?"
"Says , the inventor of this thod!" Ves patted his chest. "Look, I'm too afraid of what might happen if more people find out the power of my battle formations. It should be reserved as one of the trump cards of our clan. I'm only putting it on the table today because I want to design an affordable solution against first-class chs. It is a weapon of last resort. Under normal conditions, we should never reveal we possess this capability. Understand?"
Gloriana did not look convinced.
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