Chapter 6836 Minerva Mark II Completion Ves could not adequately explain why he changed his mind and wanted to save up the Otalon Sprius for a major upgrade in the future. His rather whimsical decision threw Alexa off and caused her to grow rather upset. She had spent a considerable amount of hours studying the viability to upgrade the juggernaut into a machine that could help the Premier Fleet win its battles. "Your work is not useless! Ves tried to console her. "You have given me enough data to understand the pros and cons to overhauling the Otalon Sprius early or late. Your work has made a convincing case to hold back the urge to fix it up right away and instead wait until we can redesign and modernize it in a more systematic fashion. Information is valuable in itself!" "If you say so." Alexa said, not bothering to hide her dismay. "Are you okay?" His direct disciple looked morose after her proposal got shot down. She must have been a lot more emotionally invested in her work than he expected. Ves found it unusual to see Alexa in such a vulnerable state. She was ordinarily so professional and enthusiastic that she never was never unpleasant to be around. Perhaps aware of how much attention she was attracting, Alexa made an effort to straighten her posture. "This is not a serious setback. You do not need to feel concerned about me. To be honest, I have developed the ambition to turn the Otalon Sprius into a hypothetical ancestor' living mech "Oh?" "My idea is not fully developed yet, so I cannot properly explain what I had in mind." She said. "To put it in the simplest terms, I believe that a juggernaut can serve as a more ideal head of a mech dynasty. The Otalon Sprius could therefore serve as the common ancestor of an entire dynasty of related living mechs, of which most excel in melee combat. As long as the larger size of a juggernaut carries a much larger and stronger spiritual foundation, it should be easier to take samples out of it and implant them onto other living mechs or mech designs." "That sounds... rather fantastical. Ves responded as he looked both impressed and skeptical. "It is good to hear that you have continued to develop other solutions. Just be careful. Not all ideas will produce results. Even fewer produce results that you are satisfied with. This is the life of a mech designer that must rely on empirical data to go forward. You cannot fully control when you are able to proceed with a specific line of research." "How do you deal with the difficulties of facing a bottleneck in your research? The younger mech designer asked. "Everyone has different coping mechanisms!" He gently responded as he reached over and held her slender palm. "My wife for example likes to simmer the problems that have stood in her way. She hasn't forgotten about her difficulties, but she will simply choose to work on another project while mulling over her original issues. I sometimes do that well, but my preference is to improvise my way out of a problem. Alexa's lips curled into a smile. "That is more than obvious. It is a testament to your skill, experience and ingenuity that you can overcome most of these problems and make your mechs work! "That is the charm of living mechs, Alexa. You don't always need a full solution ready. You merely have to create the framework of a solution that you are comfortable with and let the living mechs do the rest." "That... sounds excellent! How do you know that your framework of a solution is enough to produce positive results?" "You don't. This is always a gamble, but that adds a lot more spice to a project! The pair of mech designers continued to have a hearty talk about work and other subjects. Though Ves failed to have a true heart-to-heart talk with his student, he still managed to improve his relationship with her. A former Terran scion like Alexa most definitely noticed that he was trying his best to make up for his inattention. Two weeks passed by. The 3 new hires quickly settled into their new workplaces and started to attract attention. Klaus, Kalister and Tarsa may still be assistant mech designers, but they were much more productive than their second-class counterparts. The 3 former Terrans were not only proficient in working with projects related to first-class mechs, they were also good at every other form of work. As long as it related to mechs or engineering, they could whip up solutions. They also adapted remarkably quickly to the resident smart Als. While the Terrans had never worked with Als as clever as the likes of Polly or Momo, they adapted quickly. Unfortunately, the specter of war continued to cast an increasingly more oppressive cloud over everyone's heads. The good news was that the native aliens suffered much greater losses in their attempts to crumble large parts of the 5th defensive band. Combined with the intense resistance at the border of multiple Upper Zones, the native aliens had no choice but to slow down their operational tempo and wait for reinforcements to arrive from the rear of alien space. Even so, slowing down did not translate into withdrawal. The aliens stubbornly tried to hold onto any major star systems they conquered. The native aliens had developed the habit of transporting prefab defensive structures and deploying them in a single star system en masse. The aliens did not manage to complete their most ambitious goals, but they at least secured the most essential ones. It became clear to more and more people that the enemy intended to encircle the Upper Zoness. After that, all of the first-rate states become subjected to destructive raids! It didn't matter if the invading fleets conquered any territory. Every factory and orbital facility that got blown up would weaken red humanity's ability to make a comeback. The Larkinson Clan suffered damage at the hands of the native aliens as well. Numerous branches that were located close to the border regions suffered serious losses. Factories got wiped out. Branch headquarters got bombarded into pieces. Many side branch members of the Larkinson Clan had to evacuate in a hurry. What Ves feared the most had come true. A growing pile of reports described instances where Larkinsons effectively wanted to make their last stand. They were usually older and expected to enjoy peaceful retirements in an exotic new drarf galaxy. What they got instead was genocide and despair. "COME ON, PEOPLE! IF WE ARE DESTINED TO DIE, THEN WE SHOULD AT LEAST GIVE OBSERVERS A SHOW WORTH REMEMBERING! FIGHT!" "This is madness, but it is just the kind of madness that I can condone! WE DO NOT FEAR DEATH! IF SHE WANTS TO TAKE OUR LIVES, THEN SHE CAN COME AND TAKE IT FROM MY FISTS!" The heroic displays were incredibly uplifting to people who only heard one piece of bad news after another. Ves gained more motivation to complete the Final Glory Project. All of those Larkinsons and allies that remained behind and resisted the alien advance could truly make excellent use of his upcoming Carmine mechs. Fortunately, his progress was fast on both fronts. The 3 new hires were still acclimatizing to their workplace, but that did not stop them from completing a frightening amount of work assignments. With their assistance, the Final Glory Project was already close to completion. Ves could have finished it sooner, but he decided that it was more important to finish the Minerva Mark II Project first. His wife agreed with him. They made heavy use of the smart. Als to automate a lot of problem solving. Polly, Momo and Aria learned rapidly from the Miracle Couple and became increasingly more adept at anticipating the solutions they demanded. Finally, Ves and his wife had tentatively finalized the most important mech design project of the year. "Casella? It's done." "Oh. That was... fast. How long did it take to design the Mark II in total?" "That's a bit complicated to explain. To put it very simply, we invested approximately 4 to 5 months of full-time design work into the Minerva Mark II Project." "Not even half a year? Will my Minerva truly be okay after her latest upgrade, sir?* "Don't worry, Casella. One of the demands we have set on our work is that the overall quality of your living mech cannot be allowed to degrade. We rushed the design project to completion, but only on the premise of retaining its quality. There should be nothing wrong with the new design." "I hope you are not wrong in this, Ves." Though the Saint Commander expressed a bit of doubt, it was not a big deal. She knew as well as the other Larksinsons that the Design Department had made a lot of improvements. Its productivity had grown by leaps and bounds! What was important was that the most crucial pipeline for high-ranking mech design projects was not as slow as before. Progress was still limited by Gloriana's productivity, but at least she had access to much better facilities and assistants. Ves and Gloriana planned to commence the upgrade process as soon as possible. This was a fairly big job as it entailed a nearly full rebuild and replacement of the original Minerva. Hardly anything of the old machine would be left in the Mark II. The extensive use of archetech promised to completely transform how the mech worked and how it reacted against damage. The addition of a singular living fey in the form of a relatively large archetech owl called the Victrix added a sense of mystery to the ace command mech. "This is madness, but it is just the kind of madness that I can condone! WE DO NOT FEAR DEATH! IF SHE WANTS TO TAKE OUR LIVES, THEN SHE CAN COME AND TAKE IT FROM MY FISTS!" The heroic displays were incredibly uplifting to people who only heard one piece of bad news after another. Ves gained more motivation to complete the Final Glory Project. All of those Larkinsons and allies that remained behind and resisted the alien advance could truly make excellent use of his upcoming Carmine mechs. Fortunately, his progress was fast on both fronts. The 3 new hires were still acclimatizing to their workplace, but that did not stop them from completing a frightening amount of work assignments. With their assistance, the Final Glory Project was already close to completion. Ves could have finished it sooner, but he decided that it was more important to finish the Minerva Mark II Project first. His wife agreed with him. They made heavy use of the smart. Als to automate a lot of problem solving. Polly, Momo and Aria learned rapidly from the Miracle Couple and became increasingly more adept at anticipating the solutions they demanded. Finally, Ves and his wife had tentatively finalized the most important mech design project of the year. "Casella? It's done. "Oh. That was... fast. How long did it take to design the Mark II in total?" "That's a bit complicated to explain. To put it very simply, we invested approximately 4 to 5 months of full-time design work into the Minerva Mark II Project." "Not even half a year? Will my Minerva truly be okay after her latest upgrade, sir?" "Don't worry, Casella. One of the demands we have set on our work is that the overall quality of your living mech cannot be allowed to degrade. We rushed the design project to completion, but only on the premise of retaining its quality. There should be nothing wrong with the new design!" "I hope you are not wrong in this, Ves." Though the Saint Commander expressed a bit of doubt, it was not a big deal. She knew as well as the other Larksinsons that the Design Department had made a lot of improvements. Its productivity had grown by leaps and bounds! What was important was that the most crucial pipeline for high-ranking mech design projects was not as slow as before. Progress was still limited by Gloriana's productivity, but at least she had access to much better facilities and assistants. Ves and Gloriana planned to commence the upgrade process as soon as possible. This was a fairly big job as it entailed a nearly full rebuild and replacement of the original Minerva. Hardly anything of the old machine would be left in the Mark II. The extensive use of archetech promised to completely transform how the mech worked and how it reacted against damage. The addition of a singular living fey in the form of a relatively large archetech owl called the Victrix added a sense of mystery to the ace command mech.