Though the burden of taking on his new assignment troubled Ves a lot, he couldn't neglect his other priorities.
With the promise of firm material support from Master Willix, Gloriana's search for compatible and suitable resonating materials became a lot simpler.
Now that they had a better idea of what they were working towards, every mech designer was able to do their work in a much more targeted manner.
Everyone wanted to complete the preliminary phases and begin with the actual design work. The Journeymen of the Design Department made substantial progress into refining the draft designs of all six expert mechs.
It wasn't fast enough for Gloriana's liking though. Every day, she cracked her metaphorical whip onto the backs of other mech designers.
Gloriana had become so passionate and frenzied that she practically rode the entire Design Department to exhaustion.
This was not all bad, though. What Gloriana lacked in tact, she made up for it with her sound judgement and excellent eye for detail. Her heavy-handed instructions steered every mech designer to the right path and prevented anyone from wasting too much time on fruitless endeavors.
Her leadership style caused her to treat every subordinate like an automaton. As long as a mech designer worked as quickly, efficiently and effectively as a well-oiled machine, Gloriana would have no problem.
The downside was that as long as anything went wrong, she got triggered. She had a very low tolerance to failure, excuses and inability to comply with her instructions.
"Ves you idiot! I told you to lay off with the idea of adding a missile launcher module on the Chimera Project. Venerable Joshua doesn't need it and it will only introduce a number of structural weaknesses into the frame. Now remove that stupid module or I will remove your bedroom privileges!"
"Nonono! Don't do it like that! You might have become a Journeyman, Ketis, but you're a long way into mastering the art of mechanics. The center of mass is too low here. That might not be an issue if we're talking about a landbound mech, but we're talking about an aerial and spaceborn machine! The Decapitator Project relies a lot on evasion and maneuverability to fight, so it is pivotal to keep the center of mass closer to the middle."
"You are completely letting down your Hexer heritage, Juliet. It is no wonder you got exiled from the Hegemony! While I admire the solution you have applied to the Disruptor Project's flight system, you took thrice as much time to come up with this answer than you should have! Next time, don't explore so many alternate options. Figure out the best way forward first next time!"
Fortunately, Gloriana had a sense of measure when dealing with the Apprentice Mech Designers. She didn't expect too much from them to begin with, so she only did not raise her voice all that much.
The high pressure she exerted on everyone increased their stress levels. Yet none of the lead designers and the assistants hired by the LMC were average.
Journeymen were quite competent or they wouldn't have been able to advance to begin with. The Apprentices hired by Ves and Gloriana both had their good points.
For example, the Braves might not be the smartest and most inventive of the bunch, but they fared quite well under pressure. They were quite suited to complete lots of smaller and easier tasks within tight deadlines.
As for the Erudites, Gloriana knew them best. She depended on Miles Tovar, Mayer Torto, Merill O'Brian and other clever heads to solve the more difficult and time-consuming tasks.
What especially helped was that the Apprentices all started to receive their cranial implants.
With the addition of lots of Lifer implant surgeons and other related specialists, the Larkinson Biotechnology Institute was able to perform a lot of implantation procedures at once. The excellent and abundant treatment facilities aboard the Dragon's Den increased the capacity of operations even further.
Ketis was the first of many mech designers and professionals who fused their minds with life-changing, quality cranial implants!
The difference in cognitive abilities was drastic. Even the most average Apprentice Mech Designer became something akin to a genius after receiving a high-quality brain implant.
The result of all of this was that the Design Department under Gloriana's lead got more work done in remarkably less time!
As long as people got used to the pressure, it didn't feel all that bad to meet Gloriana's high expectations. True mech designers never shied away from challenges and they always sought to surpass their limits. Everyone in the Design Department confirmed this description.
This was the benefit of maintaining strict and thorough hiring criteria. The Design Department may be too small and short-handed for the projects they were working on these days, but none of the mech designers were total letdowns.
During one briefing, Gloriana focused her attention on the Disruptor Project.
"How much speed and acceleration can I expect from Venerable Tusa's expert mech?" She asked.
Juliet Stameros pointed to the flight system and additional booster modules mounted onto the most recent draft design.
"The forward acceleration of the Disruptor Project is not the best, but this tradeoff has allowed me to implement powerful short-term boosters that can near-instantly push the expert mech in other directions. The impulse that these boosters modules can exert is formidable for their size, but the downside is that they are expensive and use up materials that are not easily found. However, as long as we stock up on the necessary exotics, we won't have to worry about running out for years."
That was going to cost a lot of money, but nobody cared about that. Ves had already made it clear that they did not need to limit their budget allocation too much. As long as they didn't buy wildly-expensive first-class materials, everything else was fine as long as it could be sourced.
Gloriana studied the contextual parameters of the booster modules. By necessity, they had to be placed on the sides and front of the light skirmisher in order to push it in directions other than forward.
"I don't like how there are so many of them placed in positions that a frontal enemy can easily attack. These boosters are more than adequate when it comes to allowing the mech to evade quickly, but they are not particularly known for their toughness. A single decent attack can knock them offline or even shatter them entirely. We'll quickly go through our stock of spare materials after every intensive battle if that's the case."
"That is true, but these are the only booster models that provide the performance we need." Juliet replied. "I have implemented two solutions to reduce their chances of getting damaged. First, every booster is covered by a grid made of Unending alloy. While this grid is relatively thin and fragile compared to the rest of the armor system, it should be enough to withstand casual physical strikes by other expert mechs."
"That doesn't help much with energy attacks." Ves pointed out. "A grid can easily block solid slugs and sword attacks, but most of the energy of a laser or positron beam will just slip through the many gaps."
Juliet nodded. "The Disruptor Project is not the most suitable mech to fight against mechs that utilize energy weapons. Striker mechs, laser rifleman mechs and any artillery mech that utilize very precise energy cannons can more easily land their attacks on light mechs. This is not a weakness that we can fully negate."
She had a good point. Light mechs and light skirmishers depended heavily on evasion to stay alive. Weapons that affected a wide area such as flamethrowers or weapons that were pinpoint accurate with muzzle velocities that equaled the speed of light such as laser weapons possessed an inherent advantage against these elusive mosquitos.
"We can't make too many compromises. I can get behind the choice you've made, Juliet. It is not ideal, but it is truly important that Venerable Tusa gets the power he needs to survive on the battlefield in his own way. He will just have to rely on his superior evasion abilities to prevent his boosters from getting eliminated by energy attacks. I hope he can also make use of his resonance shield to save us the trouble of repairing these finicky boosters." Gloriana reluctantly affirmed.
Weaknesses were undesirable, but not completely unacceptable as long as they could be compensated in some fashion. It didn't matter if the booster modules were relatively fragile compared to the rest of the expert mech as long as Tusa was able to use the capabilities he had at his disposal to prevent them from ever getting hit!
There were other downsides to the booster modules, though. Part of the reason why they were so powerful and so fast-acting for their dimensions was because they burned a very potent type of high-grade second-class booster fuel.
It was quite difficult and expensive to source this fuel. The Larkinson Clan would have to make sure to spend big and buy it in bulk so that Venerable Tusa didn't have to worry about running out of this essential combat resource anytime soon.
Ves quietly sighed. He already knew that expert mechs were expensive and difficult to maintain, but it was only now that he started to experience the headaches that others in this position suffered.
High-end machines were completely different beasts from standard mechs. They required very different logistical approaches.
Regular mechs came in lots of copies so it always made sense for the Larkinsons to buy a lot of necessary supplies and raw materials in bulk. The more copies of a single mech model the Larkinson Clan fielded, the easier it was to provide the right support.
Still, all of this trouble was acceptable as long as they fully complemented Tusa's fighting style. Juliet was practically gambling on the hope that Venerable Tusa possessed enough skill and piloting acumen to keep the precious boosters out of harm's way.
"He'll become an excellent dogfighter and duelist with this choice." Ves smiled as he mentally mapped out the probable performance of the Disruptor Project. "This expert mech will be able to fight at a considerable advantage against other melee expert mechs up close. It is also deadly against larger and more sluggish expert mechs that can't keep up with its speed."
Gloriana didn't look as optimistic. "The fuel capacity of these boosters isn't much, though. I agree that its performance is excellent as long as it is fresh and fully charged. However, if it fights too intensively, it can quickly run out of steam in just 15 minutes in the worst case. Once the booster fuel runs out, the Disruptor Project can only rely on its flight system to remain untouchable. Suffice to say, that is not an ideal situation."
"I don't think it will come to that unless Venerable Tusa is an absolute moron." Ves quickly commented. "Tusa is skilled and experienced enough to know how to conserve the use of the boosters. He won't squander the fuel when he's not being focused upon or not locked into a duel against an expert mech. In any case, many parts of his expert mech can take a lot of hits, so he doesn't have to evade every attack that comes in his direction."
The mech designers would have to instruct Venerable Tusa carefully about these considerations. It wouldn't do for him to have the time of his life on the battlefield only to lose half of his evasion capabilities because his expert mech already ran out of booster fuel!
"What else do we need to talk about concerning this project?"
"I have some questions regarding the possible resonance materials that you plan to attach to the boosters." Juliet spoke up. "Do we use them to integrate an ability that increases the impulse of the boosters at all cost or can we implement a solution that can reduce their fuel consumption and increase their longevity? Right now, the running time of this expert mech is the shortest out of the six. If we continue in this direction, it will be the first expert mech to enter the battlefield and the first one to exit it as well."
"Hmm.. that is indeed a problem. Light skirmishers are actually expected to last longer on the battlefield so that they can chase after fleeing enemies and perform other crucial tasks that require a quick response." Gloriana frowned.. "Let me think about it further."
