Ves long harbored an ambiguous relationship towards biochs.
As a ch designer who was born and raised in a fairly ordinary third-rate state in the galactic rim of the Milky Way, he never had much contact with biotechnology throughout his life.
Unlike the citizens of the rare states that committed to biotechnology such as the Life Research Association, Ves did not receive years of exposure to biochanical products. This ant that he regarded it as akin to alien technology. Every bioch and product of biochanical engineering ca across as inhuman to Ves. There was just sothing about all of the icky flesh and bloody fluids that disturbed both his conscious and conscious parts of his mind.
This rejection reaction gradually lightened up as Ves grew older and gained more understanding of biotechnology.
After Ves managed to gain a more systematic grasp of the science of biotechnology, he beca a lot more tolerant towards it. The acquisition of relevant knowledge dispelled much of the mystery surrounding biotech products. Now that he was able to figure out their basic functions and working principles, they functioned just like any other piece of technology.
They just ca in a more disgusting form.
Still, Ves may have gone as far as incorporating biotechnology in his design philosophy, but that did not an he was completely comfortable with working on this organic tech base!
This was one of the two main reasons why he always felt reluctant to take the next step and design a true bioch.
The other reason that held him back from designing such a ch was because he strongly felt that he would be crossing a line that could never be undone.
Ves had gathered plenty of clues that indicated that his design philosophy possessed excellent synergy with biochs.
Perhaps far too well.
It frankly made Ves both afraid and suspicious of what he might create from his own hands.
His prior trials involving an experintal piece of organic mounted wargear produced a savage monstrosity that constantly sought to fight and rebel against Venerable Joshua Larkinson and the Everchanger.
The Titan-5 Project had been his first foray into discovering the interactions between living chs and biochs.
He discovered that biochs or any form of biotissue could serve as an excellent carrier
for the spiritual foundation of a living ch.
It was so much easier that the biomass behaved as if it was ant to carry a living spirit. While all of this sounded great, the problem was that there was an awful lot of bleedthrough!
Certain properties of the organic tissue transferred to the spiritual foundation, causing the latter to beco contaminated to the point of mutating into a monster!
This sounded awful to Ves as the unpredictable behavior and increased resistance from the savage and degenerated living entity led to a severe loss of control!
The problem beca so bad in his opinion that he saw no choice to suspend the use of the Titan-5 Project. The large 'at suit' as he affectionately called it had just beco too violent to bother.
Venerable Joshua already ntioned that he had to spend more ti and energy on fighting against his own at suit than the enemy during those final days!
Ves was not a mad scientist who liked to push the envelope just because he could. He knew his limits.
There was no reason for him to play with fire and risk a catastrophic accident with the Titan-5 Project when there was no prospect of a huge payoff.
He had already decided to suspend all studies related to the Titan-5 Project. He also instructed the Larkinson Biotech Institute to freeze the at suit in a block of ice and lock it inside the deepest and most secure vault of the Dragon's Den.
He could have ordered the at suit to be destroyed, but he felt reluctant to do so. It was still a fairly powerful and unique living object. Ves had not extracted all of the value out of it. He was very reluctant to throw it all away when he could still mine more secrets out of this bizarre creation.
In any case, if his biochs ended up similar to the Titan-5 Project, then Ves did not want to birth a much more potent and complete monstrosity into the universe.
Every ti Ves ca up with a new bioch concept, he would think back on the at suit and consider whether his idea had any chance of solving or handling the problems that he could foresee.
In all of those cases, the answer was always no. His knowledge base and his concept. lacked enough counterasures and safeguards that could keep the biochs under control.
Ves did not want to invest 6 to 12 months worth of design ti onto a bioch design project that only ended up in catastrophe.
Sure, the failures might be able to teach him a lot of harsh lessons about the perils of combining his design philosophy with biochs, but he would rather wait until he gained enough confidence to do it right the first ti.
This long-awaited mont had finally co.
For the first ti in years, Ves ca up with a concept of a living bioch that far exceeded the promise of his previous ideas.
"You do not fully understand the weight of what it ans to design a living bioch, Talas." Ves spoke in a serious tone. "My previous living chs were all machines made out of tal. At most, they incorporated a bit of organic tissue like my Carmine chs. The furthest I have gone so far is incorporating the Biodo into the Yellow Jacket design. Turning so much of the Carmine ch organic is one of the reasons why this organic mass alone can constitute an entire living ch. It also provides other benefits that are rather... difficult to explain."
Vice Director Redmond looked more intrigued than anything. He was not a ch fanatic, but Ves had a way to make any of his chs sound intriguing.
"If you sound so vigilant towards your own work, then why are you proposing to design a dangerous bioch for our Hunting Association?"
"There is a good reason for that. Based on my prior experints and exploration, designing a living bioch will always cause it to develop a primal and savage personality. For whatever reason, the flesh contaminates the spirit, and I do not know how to stop this process at this ti. In most cases, this is a defect that is severe enough to scrap the entire project. There is no way I can responsibly sell these defective and outright dangerous products to the ch market when I know for a certainty that most
ch pilots will suffer an accident."
"What has changed?"
"You guys." Ves grinned. The more he looked at the grizzled old hunter, the more he saw promise in his new and still-developing ideas! He was rapidly filling up the gaps in his initial plan as he spoke! "Ordinary people and soldiers cannot handle my savage biochs. They just can't. They will either be driven mad or get killed by their hostile living machines sohow. They are just too weak and unfamiliar with the monsters they are dealing with. Yet when I think about Hunters such as yourself, I see how you are anything but unfamiliar with what I have created."
Talas Redmond puffed his chest. "We have overco our fear of monsters. We do so each ti we set out to hunt a mighty beast. Out of all of the humans in our society, Hunters have the most experience with fighting against large, savage and utterly violent exobeasts. We are professionals in this area. No matter whether they are naturally born mutated beasts or biochs gone rogue, they are all the sa to us. They may see themselves as the ultimate predators, but we human Hunters have taught them ti and ti again that we can turn them into prey under the right conditions. The more great and powerful exobeasts we have felled, the less we fear the potential threat they
pose."
Ves grinned more and more. "That is exactly what I wanted to hear, Talas! This confidence! This concept towards exobeasts! The utter certainty that you will be able to turn the tables against any superior opponent! You will need all of that in order to harness a living bioch, no Carmine bioch of my design! Regardless of whether a Hunter has the right genetic aptitude or not, they live a dangerous lifestyle where they rigidly follow a code in order to gain strength. A Blood Pact fits right into your culture
and customs."
The vice director contemplated that claim.
"I truly have no interest in your ch proposal or any chs for that matter." The old man said. "However, given what the younger generations of Hunters pursue, I can imagine that they will enjoy this challenge that you have presented to them. It reminds of the sub-set of hunting colleagues that ta an exobeast in the wild in order to leverage its power in future hunts. These beast tars are more daring than most hunters for tracking down their prey with the help of their not-always-docile exobeast pets. From what I understand of your speech, you seek to present our Hunters with Carmine biochs that serve a similar role."
"That is a pretty good comparison to what I am proposing. This is not a Carmine bioch for the weak and feeble. I actually doubt whether any mortal can fully harness such a dangerous machine. Your Hunters are different. Through the feedback generated by your sacrificial rituals, you beco infused with greater strength, clarity and ntal power. I have not studied any Hunter up close, so I am not entirely familiar with what improves, but I am sure that my guess is close to the truth."
The old Hunter crossed his arms and nodded. "We hunt our prey and take from it the strength of the beast. It is... fascinating to hear a ch designer try to imitate our thods with an unconventional ch design."
"Oh, this is more than a quant ch design. There is great potential in it." Ves grinned
wider as he continued to flesh out his idea. "In my imagination, this bioch will start off as bland and aligned to the human race as possible. While I intend for it to beco a living ch, I do not want it to develop its own personality at this stage. I will take special asures to prevent the birth of a conscious personality in order to minimize the risk of accidents. When a person enters the cockpit and forms a Blood Pact with the bioch, it will hopefully develop the first vestiges of a personality that is based on the Carmine ch pilot."
"I imagine that this will not remain this way." The Hunter guessed. "It will embody the idea that you have ntioned earlier. Once the bioch begins to hunt, it will begin to absorb the superior flesh and organs of the exobeasts that it has felled. This will not only result in grotesque physical mutations, but even more terrible transformations to the personality of the living ch. Perhaps... the bioch may even revive portions of the slain exobeast's personality and consciousness!"
Whereas other ch designers considered this to be an imnsely dangerous idea that needed to be rejected, Ves saw a huge amount of promise in this idea!
Ves beca so enamored with his latest vision that inspiration struck him yet again!
It was not enough to design a quaint little Carmine biochs oriented towards the Hunting Association.
He increasingly felt inclined to base his water-attributed elental Carmine ch around this concept!
He already ca up with a fitting na for this type of advanced Carmine ch!
"The greatest strength of my future rgewater Carmine biochs is that they can reflect the strength of the prey a Hunter pilot has defeated." Ves boasted with an increasingly more maniacal smirk! "Just think how glorious that would be! Every rgewater bioch will evolve into a unique trophy and combat machine. The Hunter
pilot has earned every powerful upgrade."
"What about the potential backlash from these Carmine biochs, Ves? Can you truly promise us that your products will be stable or manageable enough for us to pilot?" "You are right to ask this question. The greatest risk factor to these special biochs may serve as an incredible disadvantage to other ch pilots, but I believe in the strength of the mbers of the Hunting Association. They have already defeated the exobeasts in their hunts. How can they ever give in to the savage remnants of their personality that the rgewater biochs have absorbed? A true Hunter will master his own machine no matter how violent and unruly its personality has beco! A competent Hunter will know how to control and direct all of that potent aggression towards his real enemies, thereby allowing them to defeat much more opponents than normal!"
All of that sounded great, but the vice director wondered what would happen to Hunters
that did not et these high standards.
"The danger cannot be eliminated." Talas Redmond concluded. "This ans that only the strong and capable deserve to pilot this special Carmine bioch of yours. Those who overestimate their abilities and succumb to their dangerous biochs considered themselves to be predators, only to find out far too late that they are prey to their own
machines. I... do not object to this as much as I should. As long as the risks are known and predictable enough, these strange Carmine biochs still hold value. However, these interesting machines must also be significantly stronger than conventionals that lack these additional complications. Your words alone are not enough to convince us. We need proof that you can realize this ambitious ch design."
Ves' eyes glinted. "Does that an you are finally willing to form an agreent between our two organizations?"
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