The Mech Touch
Chapter 7085: Spatial Anchor Field Generator

Chapter 7085: Spatial Anchor Field Generator

Although the returned Dulo Voiken did not convince Gloriana to accept all of his suggestions, he at least managed to show a glimpse of his attainments.

He had spent his time in the EdNet well. He not only learned much of the advanced principles of the high technologies that were common in first-class multipurpose mechs, but also focused much of his studies on strengthening spearman mechs to the greatest possible extent.

"I will be the first to admit that I am not as amazing as Ketis when it comes to mastering a single mech archetype." Dulo said. "My companion spirit has not engaged in any willpower cultivation if that is the correct term. I am not a warrior so I am not arrogant enough that I can design a better spearman mech if I master the art of wielding this weapon. I only attended a handful of basic training courses on spearmanship. The downside of training in the EdNet is that your body does not develop the muscle memory and physical growth that is associated with physical training. The EdNet is only truly good for theoretical studies."

Ves looked interested. "You should have chosen a more specific development direction for yourself. What is your vision of spearman mechs? What are their signature features? Why should a customer prefer your products over ones designed by others? You just mentioned Ketis earlier. She has already done a good job making sure that each of her swordsman mech designs possess their own compelling value propositions. What have you done in the RA’s accelerated virtual learning environment that has set you up for success?"

Before undergoing EdNet training, Dulo Voiken had always been known as the less impressive of the Voiken siblings. He was much like the late Venerable Imon Ingvar in that regard.

Dulo Voiken certainly did not regret his decision to specialize in designing spearman mechs.

It was a narrow specialization, but spears and the mechs that wielded them had their uses in combat.

Ves actually felt that spearman mechs should experience a light resurgence in the next decade or so. This was due to the high-end resource requirements to elevate the lethality of their weapons.

A mech sword usually possessed a thick and hefty blade in order to keep it in one piece as it hacked into armor or energy shields. The blade also had to be long enough in order to give its wielder enough reach.

All of this meant that a long and thick transphasic blade required a hefty amount of phasewater in order to make it effective.

Sure, the producers of transphasic swords could cheap out by only making them with single edges and only infusing phasewater in the top half and other strategic places, but that always resulted in uneven and inferior results.

A good transphasic sword should be impregnated with an even amount of phasewater throughout its entire structure aside from the edges, which needed to be even sharper in order to reinforce and retain its sharpness.

All of this consumed a considerable amount of resources that many people would rather spend elsewhere.

A spear was usually a lot more frugal in this regard.

No matter whether the speartip was long, short, flat, three-dimensional, diamond-shaped, leaf-shaped or so on, it never matched a mech sword blade in terms of mass and volume.

What did this mean?

It took much less phasewater to turn it into a proper transphasic weapon!

Sure, the shaft was relatively weaker if it lacked phasewater reinforcement, but that was not a big deal.

The shaft could be made thicker in order to increase its durability the stupid way.

It could rely on alternative and more easily available exotics and hypers to grant it greater resistance against transphasic weapons.

The simplest solution was to do nothing and treat the shaft as disposable.

So long as the salvaging parties were able to retrieve the most precious transphasic speartips after the end of an engagement, everything would remain fine.

There was another reason why Ves believed that spearman mechs would experience a resurgence going forward.

It was an easy weapon to get started with. Mastery was a different story, but poorly trained mech pilots and more importantly Carmine mech pilots only really needed to learn how to stab with their spears.

Given that the native aliens did not field anything equivalent to mechs themselves, it was not important for mech pilots to learn how to parry or sweep their polearms. They just needed to thrust their spears forward at the right time and retract them quickly so that they could launch another attack.

All of this had already become fairly relevant due to the relative scarcity of phasewater, but it became especially more pertinent with the introduction of superdimensional matter.

The Larkinson Clan could afford to allocate a generous amount of low-grade and modest amounts of mid-grade superdimensional matter to upgrade its mechs, particularly the first-class ones.

In this area, the spearman mechs favored by Dulo Voiken was clearly the most cost effective choice compared to the swordsman mechs favored by Ketis.

Perhaps the latter may be stronger and more versatile as far as melee mechs were concerned, but the former used up considerably less phasewater to deliver performance that was close enough to earn a passing grade.

This dynamic was already important when it came to arming mechs with transphasic weapons.

It became even more relevant with the introduction of superdimensional weapons!

Ves knew that sooner or later, the material scientists would figure out cheap and cost-effective low-grade superdimensional alloys.

Even if their performance fell far short of the high-grade stuff that enabled the First Sword Mark III to defeat a greater phase lord outright, the low-grade superdimensional matter happened to be abundant enough that it was the most suitable materials to use for limited mass production.

In fact, if the Larkinsons obtained enough mid-grade superdimensional matter, it was even possible to reserve sizable quantities of it to develop even more effective superdimensional spears than normal!

There was a serious gap in performance between the low-grade and mid-grade stuff.

If the Larkinson Clan could justify the expenditure of the latter by minimizing its usage in the development of a new first-class spearman mech, then Ves would definitely applaud such an addition to the Premier Fleet’s mech roster!

It would certainly make a very clear distinction with the Dracoloid mech model. The Larkinsons had always favored the use of humanoid mechs. That was not to say that beast mechs were bad, but they lacked the familiarity and versatility of articulating hands.

As far as phasewater expenditure was concerned, a quadruped beast mech could be quite frugal so long as its claws and fangs were not too long and exaggerated.

However, Ves worried about the relatively slow skill ceilings of such machines. Many beast mechs lacked the articulating arms needed to engage in more complex actions that humanoid mechs took for granted.

"I would like for my updated vision for spearman mechs to remain a surprise." Dulo mysteriously said. "It would make a better impact if I introduce it alongside the mech proposal that I am working on. My ideas are dependent on what is possible with different technologies, including hyper technology and E-technology. I need to investigate further before I can finalize my presentation."

Though Ves felt a bit frustrated that Dulo did not provide a straight answer, it was fine so long as there was a payoff at the end of a delay.

"You will have your chance to present your ideas soon enough." Ves said. "Our clan is negotiating with multiple parties over access to technology and support. The situation might change any day, especially when I have an appointment to make with a liaison of the Cybernetic Empire.

Both Dulo and Gloriana reacted in surprise.

"You did not tell me that you are about to meet with a Cyber." His wife said with a tinge of unhappiness in her voice.

"The Cybers just confirmed the time and date of this appointment." Ves responded. "Besides, a personal meeting had always been on the horizon since the Larkinson Clan started to negotiate with the Cybernetic Empire. We know that the Cybers have already sent a sizable delegation to Yernstall. The talks between our clan and the new empire have advanced to the point where we can choose from a limited selection of advanced CE tech to obtain in order to give the Cybers access to future mining runs into the Blue Dimension."

Strictly speaking, the Cybers did not necessarily have to pay tribute to the Larkinson Clan for this benefit, but it was good manners for them to provide a hint of compensation for gaining access to the incredibly valuable opportunities of mining extra-dimensional materials.

There was more behind the negotiations. Ves had been spending a bit of time in the last few days to prepare for a more consequential talk that had direct implications for his progression as a mech designer.

Dulo certainly perked up when he heard this. "Does this mean that it is possible for you to obtain the CE techs that I and my fellow colleagues have been asking for, sir?"

"Don’t call me sir. I am no longer the patriarch anymore. As for whether I can obtain the goodies that you have requested for, I cannot make any promises. The Cybers are only giving us access to a fraction of its complete technological library. We also have to make heavy concessions if we want to obtain the more valuable tech. Finally, I am not the final decision maker on this matter. The new matriarch will have to approve the final list."

"I see."

"Is there any special tech on your wish list that you wish to bring to our attention?"

Dulo briefly paused as he went over all of the CE tech that he knew of. He knew most about the techs demonstrated by the three warfleets, but the Cybers had revealed a number of other promising technological advancements after the initial battles.

"If you can, I would like you to see if you can gain access to the Space Supremacy Tower’s spatial anchor field generator. If you cannot obtain the blueprints to produce them, then I would be happy to settle for purchasing fully-produced modules from the Cybers. I just want to have access to these devices. They are true gamechangers for mechs and particularly melee mechs in the Red War."

"Good choice." Ves was impressed by Dulo’s apt choice.

Gloriana on the other hand had to retrieve the information from the galactic net. "From the scant information that I am able to obtain, the spatial anchor field generator is basically a warp interdiction field generator that is shrunken down to be able to fit inside or onto the exterior of a mech frame."

"That is true, but that is not the complete story, honey. Their working principles are the same, but a spatial anchor field generator simply cannot interdict enemy phase fighters of warships. On an individual basis, its range is too short and its power is too low. That is why the Polymath designed it to function en masse. Hundreds of mechs equipped with this module are supposed to spread out across a region of space. When their spatial anchor field generators are all active and perfectly in sync, they can combine their effects and essentially produce a distributed version of a warp interdiction field."

In other words, the spatial anchor field generator tried to reproduce the effects of a warp interdictor field without relying on a sizable starship that contained this large and powerful device!

They also posed as the next evolution of space suppressors. The fact that spatial anchor field generators were able to build upon each other to produce a compound effect completely set it apart from the much simpler space suppressors.

Even if Dulo did not issue this specific request, Ves was sure that other mech designers such as Ketis possessed a vested interest in the acquisition of this tech.

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