Gloriana made their goals clear. The ch designers had to design expert chs that were entirely geared towards defeating other expert chs.
Even if the Larkinson expert chs lacked the power to finish off a powerful opponent, then they at least had to pose enough of a threat to entangle powerful enemy elents.
With the considerable advantages built up by the Larkinson Clan's ch forces, they did not fear a fight against any second-class opponents. Even if the Friday Coalition launched another ambush by dispatching a couple of ch divisions, the Avatars, Penitent Sisters, Swordmaidens and so on possessed more than enough confidence to fend off elite military ch units!
Yet this scenario beca a lot trickier if those enemy ch divisions also brought their resident expert pilots. The inclusion of these powerful elents introduced a lot of variables on the battlefield and made it much harder for the Larkinsons to limit the damage they incurred.
What was most concerning about facing enemy expert chs was that their extrely high individual power granted them a lot of possibilities to swing the battle in their favor!
From assassinating officer chs to charging into the fray to disrupt a solid formation, expert chs were able to act as powerful force multipliers. They could even form a commando team and fly all the way to an enemy flagship or headquarters in order to execute a decapitation strike!
The disproportionate power possessed by these great machines ant that no one could ignore their presence. Even if the Larkinson Clan was able to field ten tis the amount of chs, this situation still wouldn't change all that much!
"Expert chs are best handled by other expert chs." Gloriana stated. "While it is possible for us to design additional configurations that allow our expert chs more flexibility, we cannot compromise on their main purpose. We have many different solutions to defeat weaker opponents, but we don't have many answers against powerful foes. We can either sacrifice a lot of lives or design the strongest expert chs we can. I think we all prefer to settle on the latter."
Their work had real and profound consequences. Each powerful expert ch was a ga changer to the Larkinsons. Ves had long admired the powerful expert chs of the Cross Clan. Though the martial culture of the Crossers caused them to place a lot more emphasis on them, there was no denying that Lord Reginald Cross and his fellow expert pilots were utterly domineering in battle!
Ves wanted the Larkinson Clan to acquire the sa kind of strength. As long as he could solve this final shortcoming of his ch forces, he was confident that his clan would beco a lot more prepared to face the perils of the Red Ocean!
After Gloriana explained her thoughts on this subject, she moved to the final common elent.
"Each of our expert chs will also beco pri chs." She stated. "I've already discussed the feasibility of this with my husband. According to him, it is possible to transfer the sa powers of a pri ch to an expert ch as long as we incorporate Unending alloy in their designs. Considering that it is not possible for us to apply better armor systems to our projects, I do not see a reason to refuse. Our pri chs have already showcased the superior defensive properties of their armor plating."
This didn't an that Ves and the rest were about to tear down the pri chs that had served the Larkinsons well. The expert pilots would still be able to pilot them for quite so ti until the Design Departnt was finally ready to fabricate their real battle machines.
Aside from the Shield of Samar, Ves did not plan to retain any other pri ch. The Valkyrie Pri, the Piranha Pri, Bright Sword Pri, the Bright Spear Pri and the Bright Beam Pri did not deserve to end their service so soon, but Ves didn't really have another choice.
To make the expert chs of his dreams, he had to kill the chs that he sotis regarded as his own children. This was the woe of every ch designer and sothing that was never an easy decision to make.
Gloriana did not spend too much ti on explaining the more esoteric properties of their upcoming expert ch designs. This was not her specialty and the assistants wouldn't understand the finer details anyway.
Before she moved on to explain her projects on an individual basis, she made a final announcent.
"It is no secret that we have managed to secure the services of Master Moira Willix of the ch Trade Association as an external contributor and consultant to our projects." Gloriana bead with happiness. "Think about what that ans. A Master ch Designer that is superior to any other Master that we know of will be spending her precious ti to observe our work and provide guidance to us. I hope you do not waste her ti and sha us all by slacking off and putting anything less than your best efforts in your assignnts. If you cannot fulfill this demand, then I will kick you out of the Design Departnt myself!"
Every assistant winced. Joining the Design Departnt was a dream opportunity for many of these individuals, and getting fired was one of the worst outcos that could happen to them! The ch designs they got in touch with beca progressively better and more impressive. They even reached the point where they received the honor of being able to work on expert ch design projects, so who would ever be stupid enough to screw this precious chance?
Though Gloriana's warning sounded a bit ominous, it had the desired effect on the assistants. From the way they were vigilantly looking at others, it beca clear that they intended to step in and intervene themselves if anyone in their ranks did not do their part.
"Hmph." Gloriana nodded in satisfaction at the diligence shown by the Apprentices. "Now that I have made all of that clear, let us dive into the individual projects. Let us begin by examining the project outline for Venerable Joshua's expert ch."
Prior to this mont, Gloriana already perford extensive prep work. This included quizzing the expert pilots of what they sought in their expert chs and making many observations and asurents in order to ensure that their future machines fit them like a glove.
When all but one projection faded, the expert ch outline that remained grew larger until it dominated the main lab compartnt.
The sketch did not display too many distinctive characteristics, but there were a number of elents that stood out. The most obvious one was that the dium ch fra carried both a rifle and a sword.
"Venerable Joshua Larkinson is a rare multi-disciplinary and multi-talented expert pilot who is comfortable with fighting both at range and up close. While he has primarily piloted lee chs in recent battles, that is primarily because we are unable to et all of his demands. This is a suboptimal situation and one that we must urgently address in order to enable Venerable Joshua to make use of his full strength and capabilities."
The outline of Joshua's expert ch did not seem to possess any pronounced strengths. It actually shared a number of similarities to the Bright Warrior product line.
"This expert ch design project is characterized by one codeword. Chira." Gloriana stated. "This is a ch that is designed with flexibility, versatility and adaptation in mind. Just like Venerable Joshua himself, his first expert ch should be able to perform well from afar, at midrange or in the thick of a clash. It should be able to snipe priority targets at range and outduel enemy chs up close. It must have enough mobility to catch up to every other dium expert ch but boast enough toughness to survive destructive charges."
It went without saying that these were very ambitious aspirations. It was extrely difficult to design a ch that could perform well in many different situations and still make sure that all of their specs remained high.
So of the assistants already began to look doubtful, but Gloriana did not take their doubts seriously.
"The Chira Project is not about designing the fastest ch, the toughest ch or the strongest ch. It is about designing a ch that can perform well no matter the circumstances and would always remain useful. In the expert ch lineup of our Larkinson Clan, we need this stable anchor. To that end, Ves has also agreed to implent a variable glow to this design!"
Ves had already demonstrated the capability to swap the design spirits of his products during his last design duel. Since it made sense to apply it to Venerable Joshua's expert ch, it beca a core feature from the ground up. The Chira Project was an attempt to make the most out of this unusual feature!
Once Gloriana finished her brief presentation on this project, Miles Tovar cautiously raised his hand.
"Yes?"
"You have been quite clear on the overall design direction of the Chira Project, ma'am, but we have yet to hear about the most distinctive feature of this expert ch. What are its planned resonance abilities?"
"It is too soon to talk about this. I am still discussing this issue with Master Willix. In the last two months, we have already researched and collected a number of resonating exotics that are compatible with our expert pilots. Our clan are still experiencing so difficulties in procuring usable quantities of rarer resonating exotics. We have identified so very juicy ones, but they are so rare that not even Master Willix can readily supply them. If we are unable to buy them soon enough, then we will have to cut back our options."
Gloriana sounded rather helpless towards this reality. Humanity discovered many different resonating exotics, but their supply was very scattered and inconsistent. States that were able to mine them usually didn't dump them in the open market. Instead, they treated these goods as strategic materials and hoarded them for their own expert chs.
While it was still possible to buy lower grades of resonating exotics in one market or another, the more potent ones were too difficult to obtain for the Larkinsons. The main reason for this was because they got used within months after they were excavated!
This was one of the fundantal reasons why the power of a state was necessary to accumulate a lineup of quality expert chs. Without the advantages of territory and all of the powers that it bestowed, it was too hard to obtain many necessary goods.
Fortunately, Master Willix was willing to lend a hand according to their prior agreent, but even she couldn't completely ignore the rules established by the MTA.
As long as the Larkinson Clan was able to acquire enough quality resonating exotics, the Design Departnt did not have to start off with developing low-tier expert chs but could start with designing mid-tier expert chs straight away!
Even though they were much harder for beginner expert pilots to control, this was not a big deal as there were several ways to temporarily suppress the more powerful functions.
The only relief they had was that Master Willix was willing to provide a little assistance, but she still expected the Larkinsons to source the bulk of the resonating exotics they intended to use. Collecting these valuable materials was a challenge that everyone who intended to develop an expert ch had to solve!
Ves already had so ideas in mind that might help. Though he was not willing to exchange his MTA rits to procure these rare exotics, he was confident he could trade sothing else in order to acquire higher-quality resonating exotics.
"Will this hero ch co in multiple configurations like the Bright Warrior?"
"It shouldn't be necessary, at least at first." Gloriana shook her head. "Let us not get ahead of ourselves. I have worked on expert ch designs in the past. The scope and difficulty of these projects are far greater. We must set simple goals at first and do our best to et them. It is not necessarily the case that we will put down our work once we complete a project. Expert chs traditionally remain in active developnt for a long ti. We can slowly implent changes and upgrades to our proudest work so that they can beco better over ti."
This was the advantage to working on custom chs as opposed to mass market models. It was very important for the production-ready version of a ch design to remain consistent and up to date for a long span of ti. This is not necessarily the case for expert chs. The importance of making them as strong as possible ant that their developers should frequently go back to their finished works and examine their prior performance. If actual battles showcased a new shortcoming, then the developers would definitely do their best to plug the gap before it turned into a fatal vulnerability!
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