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As a ch designer, Ves acquired a fascination for adapting chs to the unique characteristics and preferences of ch pilots.
Spending lots of ti with Gloriana and learning a couple of tricks of her trade deepened his appreciation for custom chs.
High-ranking chs were all personalized by definition. The configuration of all of their customized aspects resulted in a unique machine that was extrely unlikely to exist in any other place or ti.
What further differentiated them was that their ch designers exerted a large influence on the design style and the traits of the chs in question.
Every expert ch and every ace ch existed as a unique marker in the long history of the ch industry.
As Ves, Patriarch Reginald and Master Benedict continued to stare at the spotty image of the Neo Amadeus, they began to make all kinds of associations based on their backgrounds.
Master Benedict frowned in frustration. "This capture is taken at extre range. While I can understand why it is difficult to get within this range of the most sensitive combat asset in the Pima System, I would have appreciated it if the spy could get 20 percent closer or brought a larger sensor. I could probably discern at least twice as many details if that was the case."
"It is already a miracle that the spy could grasp this window of opportunity." Ves said. "Getting any closer will likely trigger the ace pilot's vigilance. There will be no second attempts."
"A sha."
Obtaining a fuzzy image was better than nothing. The Gauge Dynasty had done a good job at hiding their latest trump card.
"I think it might be best if we start from figuring out the ch designers who participated in the ace ch's developnt." Ves spoke. "Who designed the Neo Amadeus?"
Master Benedict smirked. "I can answer that. I'm quite familiar with the design styles and design philosophies of the Masters of the Friday Coalition. I can identify the distinctive characteristics of at least three Masters. For a machine of this caliber, at least two more Masters are also involved, but I believe their work is applied to the internals of the Neo Amadeus."
The new Master ch Designer paused for a mont as he carefully evaluated the design of the ace ch.
"There are plenty of Masters in the Friday Coalition, but the amount in the Gauge Dynasty is not as big. Of this group, only a small proportion have the seniority, experience and competences to lead the design of an ace ch. As such, I am fairly confident about the identity of the lead designer of the Neo Amadeus."
"Who is it, Benedict?"
"Master Ishi Veldam, otherwise known as the Multi-Ard Designer."
Ves recalled the information he read about the Gauge Dynasty's eminent ch designers.
"Master Ishi Veldam was more than 280 years old and had beco one of the most senior surviving ch designers of the Friday Coalition." Benedict said with obvious familiarity and respect in his tone. "Her prestige was great and she had designed so many different chs that she has made a considerable mark in the Sundered Phalanx. She has always specialized in designing offensive lee chs, most particularly ones that wield multiple weapons at the sa ti."
Benedict waved his hand, causing the central projector to display a sample of the Multi-Ard Designer's work.
Patriarch Reginald quickly beca intrigued as the comrcial and military chs on display all wielded at least two weapons in the sa hand.
Most of them wielded swords but there were also ones that carried a combination of axes, maces, picks and spears.
One of Ves' personal favorites was an expert ch that wielded a pair of morningstars.
The skill and control required to pilot such a ch was stupendously high!
In fact, this was one of the common thes of the Multi-Ard Designer's work. Her ch designs all demanded greater skill and mastery over weapons in order to make the most out of their expanded options.
As far as dual-wielding chs went, the ones designed by Master Veldam are certainly the best and most advanced that Ves had ever seen!
"Dual-wielding chs is not what Master Veldam is fad for." Benedict told the other two. "The actual reason why she gained her extra moniker is her successful research and implentation of quadruple-ard and sextuple-ard humanoid chs."
The projected slideshow changed to display all manner of larger and odder chs.
What imdiately stood out was that the humanoid chs all featured four arms or six arms!
More limbs ant that the ch was able to wield more weapons at once!
When these powerful monsters could unleash their full potential, they could easily overwhelm multiple conventional lee chs at once!
Of course, the downsides were also obvious. The fras of the multi-limbed chs needed to be considerably larger and more massive in order to support so many additional arms.
The extra arms themselves also couldn't be too strong because there simply wasn't enough capacity to channel as much strength to so many simultaneous limbs.
Each pair of limbs added a massive load on the ch, which ant that the ch parts needed to be tougher and made out of higher-quality materials in order to prevent the machine from wearing out prematurely. All of this significantly amplified the cost of production.
However, the biggest downside of these four-ard chs and six-ard chs was that it took extre training for ch pilots to master their usage!
Even if the Gauge Dynasty poured lots of money into the Sundered Phalanx, it was impossible to raise too many ch units centered around multi-limbed chs because there weren't enough talented ch pilots that could et the insanely high control requirents!
In fact, without specialized augntations, ordinary ch pilots could forget about piloting these humanoid monsters!
"Master Veldam has a great desire to design the strongest and most unbeatable offensive humanoid lee chs. It is a must for her work to be able to defeat any other ch in a close engagent." Master Benedict continued to share his understanding. "In her mind, that equates to humanoid chs with additional limbs. Humans such as you and I may be limited in how many swords we can wield due to our physical limitations, but technology always has answers."
It took a lot of daring to commit to the design of four-ard and six-ard humanoid chs. Most other ch designers wouldn't even dream about designing them because the downsides were too great.
What Master Veldam essentially sought to accomplish was to reverse this truth and make it so that the advantages of these odd machines far outweighed the costs!
So far, it appeared that the Multi-Ard Designer managed to achieve her goal when it ca to high-end chs.
The greater the design budget and skill of the ch pilot, the more these multi-limbed humanoid chs demonstrated their incredible combat power in combat!
Master Benedict most certainly appreciated this persistence. "There have always been many skeptics that have always questioned whether it is worthwhile for the Sundered Phalanx to invest in Master Veldam's work, but the Komodo War vindicated her design approach. I believe that might also be one of the reasons why the Gauge Dynasty has agreed to let her take charge of the developnt of the Neo Amadeus."
Everyone turned their attention back to the spotty image of the Gauge Dynasty's latest ace ch.
Now that Ves had seen plenty of images of the Multi-Ard Designer's work, he could easily spot a few common design elents in the exterior Neo Amadeus. From the proportions of the limbs to the shape of the torso, it could definitely fit into Master Veldam's ch catalog.
There was just one incongruity, though.
Ves stated the obvious. "For a Master ch Designer who is crazy about quadruple-limbed chs and sextuple-limbed chs, it's kind of odd that her most powerful and advanced work to date only cos with a single pair of arms. With her pattern of adding more pairs of arms as her expert chs beco more high-end, I would have expected the Neo Amadeus to co with eight, ten or even twelve arms!"
This was not as ridiculous as it sounded. Ace chs were even further detached from the normal limitations of chs. Money solved many problems, and as ch pilots beca more superhuman as they advanced up the ranks, they could effectively control much more complex ch systems.
As such, if Master Veldam truly wanted to design an ace ch with twelve whopping arms, then she should easily be able to do so! Ves could not understand why soone with her dreams and ambitions would settle for designing a more conventional and boring swordsman ch.
"This is odd. The Neo Amadeus doesn't quite match with Master Veldam's pattern." Ves spoke. "Is this because she has to compromise with the other Masters in her design team or is it because Saint Jeremiah Gauge insists on piloting a 'simple' swordsman ch?"
As Patriarch Reginald took in all of the information and studied the snapshot of the Neo Amadeus with his own eyes, he ford his own judgnt.
"I have a theory." He began. "From my impression, Jeremiah is a warrior who knows what he wants. His discipline and training throughout the years has always focused on mastering his swordsmanship. His expert chs only ever carried a single sword in battle because he believed it is pointless to utilize other weapons when he still has to master the usage of a single weapon. Now that he has beco a Saint, the story is different. If he sees his ti as an expert pilot as a preparation period for the next stage, then his ti as an ace pilot is his breakout period. This is what he has been working towards!"
Ves widened his eyes. He understood what Patriarch Reginald was saying. Jeremiah Gauge essentially treated his ti as an expert pilot as an extrely long training period.
The man could have exhibited more strength on the battlefield by piloting more advanced expert chs, but he stuck to simpler designs all this ti because he didn't think he was good enough to deserve all of that luxury.
The implication of this theory was that Jeremiah Gauge sohow beca assured that he would advance to ace pilot early on in his career.
Perhaps his exchange to the Heavensword Association and his subsequent pattern of piloting simple swordsman chs was all part of a 100-year long training plan that was ant to transform him into the ultimate swordsman ch pilot of the Friday Coalition!
If Jeremiah Gauge never succeeded in becoming a Saint, then much of his hard work and effort would eventually amount to nothing. It took a lot of guts for him to stick to this deliberate training strategy to the end, especially when the Komodo War broke out and forced him to fight against one powerful Hexer expert pilot after another!
Master Benedict felt that Reginald's theory made sense. "It would explain why the Multi-Ard ch Designer led the design project that resulted in the Neo Amadeus. If Saint Jeremiah Gauge wanted to pilot a more conventional ace swordsman ch, then there are several other Masters that are much more appropriate for the job. Instead, Master Veldam ended up in charge."
"What… does that an?" Ves asked in confusion.
"It ans… the Neo Amadeus may be a multi-limbed ch after all. The Neo Amadeus would never carry so many weapons without a reason." Benedict said as he gained a whole new appreciation of the enemy ace ch.
"How? I don't see any extra arms on this fra. Wait, is this ace ch capable of wielding additional swords and daggers by relying on miniaturized arms that are ordinary hidden inside the fra?"
That didn't entirely make sense. The ch looked too lean for that. If the arms were too small and thin, then it would have been far too easy to break them in half.
"No." Patriarch Reginald said. "I think I get it now. The reason why it carries so many swords and daggers is because that is probably the limit that Saint Jeremiah Gauge can control to a strong enough degree. Any more and his concentration and strength exertion will drop to an unacceptable level."
"Wait! You an…!?"
"This guy doesn't need to rely on the physical limbs of his ace ch at all. His Saint Kingdom has beco his arms!"
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