“She’s so adorable.”
Venerable Brutus Wodin gazed lovingly at the squirming and bubbling baby cradled in his arms.
Though Gloriana did not casually allow others to hold her infant daughter, she held unreserved trust for her brother.
“Guuu… buuabawaaaaa…”
The protective aura that Brutus had tried to dampen as much as possible couldn’t help but flare out a bit. Nevertheless, the adorable girl did not feel bothered by his presence at all. In fact, she basked in it given how she began to make encouraging sounds.
Brutus gently stroked and played with the baby’s tiny hands. Her soft skin was so delicate and seemed to glow in the bright light of the hangar bay of the Indigo Tremor.
Gloriana did not pay a visit to the Glory Seekers in order to let Brutus play with his new niece. She came for a more important purpose.
Currently, she was completing her inspection of the new Star Dancer Mark II. Venerable Brutus already performed numerous trials with his new expert rifleman mech. The data gathered on its performance when moving its limbs, engaging its flight systems and performing target practice all indicated whether the powerful new machine performed as it should.
In general, the Star Dancer Mark II was a well-designed and well-built machine. Gloriana had poured her love for her brother into its design and creation, so the mech did not show that much discrepancies or unexpected faults.
That wasn’t enough for Gloriana, though. She wanted the best for her blood relative and closest sibling in the Wodin Family. She could not forgive herself if her negligence caused her brother suffered an accident in a future battle!
“Are you finished, sister?”
Gloriana nodded as she stepped away from the workstation. “I didn’t need to make a lot of adjustments to your new expert mech, but I wanted to be as precise as possible. I’ve already written up instructions that your maintenance crew needs to follow. The Star Dancer Mark II is not designed to require frequent maintenance, but it is always helpful if it is being attended to on a daily basis. This is a mech that will maintain its strength and maybe even grow stronger if it is treated as a valued treasure.”
“Don’t worry, sister. Marshal Ariadne assigned the best mech technicians of the Glory Seekers to care for this expert mech. It’s the only one we have after all. still can’t believe that I obtained an expert mech that is much more powerful than my previous Star Dancer.”
Venerable Brutus would always remember his former machine that had served him well for a time, but by all measures his current expert mech was leagues better.
Its design budget was much more generous. This allowed for the inclusion of two fairly powerful and special resonating exotics that were compatible with Venerable Brutus.
A Hexer Master Mech Designer who specialized in evasive mobility had seriously put a lot of effort into the design project. Her work elevated the mobility of the Star Dancer Mark II near the top of its category.
The luminar crystal weapon was another custom work from his brother-in-law. The beautiful crystal rifle was fairly slim but packed a surprising amount of punch for its dimensions. Though it used up energy at a more rapid rate, Brutus found this to be a worthwhile tradeoff if it meant that his mech could more easily overcome the defenses of enemy expert mechs.
That was the primary purpose of his Star Dancer Mark II, after all. It was not a machine that was meant to defeat a lot of regular mechs, though Brutus always had the option to do so if there weren’t any better targets in range.
Brutus looked up at his new machine that he hoped would serve him well for many years.
The expert mech’s exterior was covered by a gleaming blue-and-black coating that added a lot of class and mystique to the machine and paired well with its crystalline rifle. Its overall contours were fairly slim and resembled that of light mech though its mass and dimensions conformed to that of a medium mech.
Even the signature looks of the mech designers were added with loving detail. Ves had added an elegant third eye made out of high-quality luminar crystal to the Star Dancer Mark II’s forehead. Gloriana had surrounded it with her usual hexagon though in a blue rendition to fit with the color tones of the expert mech.
The Master who led the project also added her own touch to the machine by marking a portion of the flight system with red-and-blue stripes. They were meant to symbolize the power of the expert mech’s flight capabilities.
Of course, the appearance of a mech had little to do with its actual performance. Brutus had already piloted the mech a few times and what he experienced initially blew him away.
He was not unaccustomed to piloting living mechs. During the time he was left without an expert mech, he had piloted the Valkyrie mechs in the hands of the Glory Seekers plenty of times.
The mechs brought him closer to the Superior Mother and also responded lovingly to his presence.
Yet the experience of piloting a truly tailored living mech like the Star Dancer Mark II was leagues better!
The expert mech was not only a lot more responsive to him, but it was also easier to develop a mutual understanding with it. The two were figuratively and literally made for each other and that allowed the both of them to bring the best out of each other when they got serious!
The Star Dancer Mark II was not perfect though, much to Gloriana’s regret. Its high maneuvers and its powerful rifle all consumed a lot of energy. This was a problem because the rifleman expert mech did not contain a lot of space for energy storage.
This was not a problem in short-duration fights, but Venerable Brutus would have to make tough choices if a battle stretched out longer.
Still, these faults did not detract from the Star Dancer Mark II’s excellent dueling and battle potential.
The mech could outfight many other expert ranged mechs at medium range. It was blisteringly fast and as long as Venerable Brutus utilized excellent judgment, he could probably evade most incoming attacks!
However, the Star Dancer Mark II performed even better against expert melee mechs. As long as the powerful enemy machines were not as fast, they would never be able to catch up to Brutus’ swift new expert mech unless there were special circumstances.
All in all, Brutus could already imagine having a much easier time defeating the Charlemagne and many other enemies that he fought against in the past with this new machine!
When Gloriana returned to her brother’s side, she took back her baby within her arms.
“Did you miss me, Aurelia?”
“Booobooowaaa…”
“Miaow~”
Clixie sidled up to Brutus and rubbed her side against his legs. The expert pilot smiled and bent down in order to cradle the cat instead.
Gloriana was in absolute bliss at the moment. She reveled in the company of her baby, her latest expert mech and her dear brother. The only way her day could go any better if Ves and her remaining direct relatives in the Wodin Dynasty were here as well.
“The true power of the Star Dancer Mark II does not solely lie in its basic performance parameters.” She explained. “Its key resonating exotics can completely turn around a losing fight in the right circumstances. We selected and incorporated them in order to make your expert mech stand out as machine that can rescue itself and others.”
Brutus nodded. “I know. I do love the abilities that come with my expert mech. They compliment me well and I can easily find uses for both of them. The only ability that I truly lack is to amplify my attacks to the power of that of the Amaranto, but I don’t expect you to achieve that in an expert rifleman mech of its configuration. My mech might not be able to match the Amaranto’s firepower, but its mobility and dueling capabilities are leagues ahead.”
The two were quintessentially different rifleman mechs. Though they shared the same mech type, they performed substantially differently which meant that their pilots had to fight in vastly different ways.
Though Venerable Brutus figured he could perform decently well if he switched over to piloting a ranged mech with a sniper configuration like the Amaranto, it would be a waste of his talents. His long-ranged marksmanship was not as good and he wouldn’t be able to make proper use of his advanced evasive skills.
“What are your experiences with the two main resonating abilities of the Star Dancer Mark II?” Gloriana asked.
“They both worked well, though I only tried them out a few times. They’re powerful and extremely useful, but they impose such a strain on my mind that I can’t activate them repeatedly. For now, I can only comfortably trigger each ability once. Any more than that and I will not be able to maintain as much resonance as before.”
That did not sound good to Gloriana. “I hope this problem will alleviate over time. Now that you’ve obtained an expert mech, you should be able to exercise and progress your resonance strength again. Try your best to grow quickly. This is the only way for you to utilize the resonance abilities multiple times.”
When Brutus looked back at his expert mech, he imagined how he could turn around a battle if he activated those new and amazing abilities.
One of them was the Maestro Mode. This resonating ability was a fairly simple amplification of his expert mech’s mobility. The Star Dancer Mark II’s flight system and boosters could become up to 3OO percent more effective for a short amount of time.
While Brutus was aware that there were other expert mechs that could obtain even greater amplifications, he was already happy with what he got. It was always harder to pull this off in a ranged mech as opposed to a melee mech.
The other ability was far more special. It might not define the Star Dancer Mark II like the Maestro Mode, but it uniquely fit his conviction and his inclinations. This rare ability would definitely allow him to differentiate himself from Venerable Stark and define his own identity in the expeditionary fleet!
“The key to using your offensive ability is confidence.” Gloriana noted. “I don’t know how it works exactly, but from what I have learned and inferred, its effect can only work if you believe wholeheartedly if you are doing the right thing. If not, this ability can easily backfire on you and mistakenly harm our own side.”
As an expert pilot, Brutus never lacked any confidence.
That did not mean he wanted to be careless, though.
“I’ve successfully pulled it off in the first try, so it definitely works. I haven’t tried it out in an actual battle, so I might not be able to maintain the right mindset. I already plan to activate this ability as many times as I can during my practice sessions. With repeated use, using it will become second nature.”
“That’s good to hear.” She smiled. “I hope we won’t encounter anything dangerous in the near future. You still haven’t spent enough time piloting your new expert mech for my liking.”
Unfortunately, events did not play out that way. As Gloriana and many of the other mech designers of the Larkinson Clan provided support to the Larkinson mech pilots from the design lab, she looked with great concern as her brother was about to lead a battle formation against a massive astral beast!
“Please be safe, brother. Don’t get too close.”
As a living Hexer mech, the Star Dancer Mark II possessed an intimate connection to the Superior Mother. This turned it into one of the best machines to channel the Supreme’s power!
However, there was one other expert mech that was able to form an even better connection to the Superior Mother.
The Everchanger was not meant to be a Hexer mech, but at this moment it was hard to believe in this fact!
