"I can't believe you, Ves. Instead of taking care of your actual responsibilities such as leading our clan in a moment where we have entered an active warzone, you instead squirrel away in our private workshop just so that you can work on your latest obsession!" Ves completely ignored his wife's complaints as he gazed appreciatively at the end product that he had meticulously handcrafted in cooperation with Vulcan. He had been able to elevate the quality a lot more than usual with the active assistance of his design spirit. Ever since Vulcan acquired the Heart of Steel and the new mantra associated with it, his affinity, understanding and workmanship with metal had reached an entirely new height! To be honest, he would have been able to grow his Heart of Steel to a considerably stronger state if he practiced the mantra, but the stubborn design spirit insisted on modifying to his own needs. This was probably one of the reasons why the new mech pistol hadn't been able to reach the masterwork threshold. Of course, the main reason why the new gun did not reach the second rung of the craftsmanship ladder was because it was a rush job! If Ves had an extra week or month to develop a better version of the attack phase crystal or optimize the design of the whole pistol, then he would have probably been able to make a much more exquisite work! As it was, the iteration that Ves ended up with attracted both admiration and disgust from his wife. While Gloriana was able to appreciate the forward-thinking aspects of its design, she also grew aghast at all of the corners that Ves had cut in order to "You should have involved me in this project, Ves. I could have done a much better job at perfecting its design." "And delay its completion for at least several weeks. No thanks, honey. I can manage it myself. I'm the mech designer with the greatest expertise in luminar crystal technology, after all. It is also not a personalized weapon that is especially tailored to any of our expert mechs. This new relic weapon is meant to be compatible with all humanoid expert mechs, whether it is the Dark Zephyr or the Shield of Samar." Ves had actually taken a liking to developing this kind of mech equipment. The intimate cooperation with his design spirits along with the use of rare or exclusive materials resulted in the creation of a brand new weapon that was both powerful and unique! Unless he was able to get his hands on another batch of Black Demon Steel, there was no effective way for him to make a second weapon of this kind. The best way he could make a weapon that was close enough was to find a substitute material that possesses similar properties to Black Demon Steel, but neither Ves nor anyone else in his clan specialized in this kind of research. In any case, that did not diminish his enthusiasm for this sort of side project at all. As long as the end product was powerful enough, it was worth it for him to spend a significant portion of his time and resources into making these so-called relic weapons! Ves briefly thought about all of the other rare or unique materials that were available to him. He recalled that the Larkinson Biotech Institute still had large quantities of fish-whale meat and bones in cold storage. While a part of these organic materials had already been used up in different development projects and experimental research activities, there were so many tons of them left that he was glad to get rid of the rest to be honest. Once the Trailblazer Expedition kicked off in earnest, Ves expected to fill up all of the storage spaces with much more valuable loot! Clang! Gloriana punched the rear of his Unending Regalia with her suited first! "...Are you listening to me, Ves?! Sometimes, I can't believe how distracted and scatter-brained you can be. This is probably one of the worst possible moments you can choose to shut yourself off from reality and lock yourself up in your own little world. The fact that you did so without involving me makes it all worse!" Ves turned around and leaned over in order to lock Gloriana in a surprise kiss! This was certainly an excellent way to shut up his wife provided she didn't bite his face apart! "Quiet, Gloriana." He said as he retracted his lips. "Nothing bad happened in the last few days, am I wrong? The clan is in good hands and I don't need to hold everyone's hands all the time. We haven't arrived in orbit of Pima Prime V just yet, so the chance that something will happen is fairly low." "Mmph! You rascal!" Once his wife calmed down, Ves finally had an opportunity to introduce his work properly. "You have the honor of witnessing the first of a series of relic equipment for mechs!" Ves proclaimed as he waved his arm towards the large, gray-coated weapon. "Why call it a relic?" "Because it is both valuable and one-of-a-kind." He said. "I have come up with more ideas about developing other powerful equipment for mechs, but I will leave that for another time." "Why doesn't the color of your final product match your design? Isn't it supposed to be black?" "It is, but then I thought that it resembled Helena's Death Lotus a bit too much. Since it spits out gray beams of death with the help of its new attack phase crystal, I thought it would make more thematic sense to coat it in this color." "So what is its name?" "Gray Lotus. It doesn't need to be more complicated." When Ves compared the design of the Death Lotus in pistol mode with the design of his new Gray Lotus, he found that they matched quite closely. This was deliberate on his part because the Gray Lotus was supposed to echo the Death Lotus! With the help of the new gray beam attack phase crystal as well as other spiritual engineering shenanigans that Ves had hastily cobbled together, the two lotuses had formed an active spiritual bond! Ves looked at the time and noticed that Gloriana did not seek him out without reason. A lot more time had passed. It would only take one more day before the combined attack fleet was ready to attack Pima Prime V-A! This left him with precious little time to test out the weapon in its complete form. In fact, he probably wouldn't be able to preside over the testing session in person. He turned to his wife. "Can you handle the follow-up process for my Gray Lotus on behalf? I'm not asking for much. As long as the pistol is effective enough to be used against Sundered Phalanx, I will be happy." "I can do that…" Gloriana answered in a reluctant tone. "Which mech do you want to bestow this weapon? The Everchanger?" Ves shook his head. "No. This is no time to play favorites. Venerable Joshua already has more than enough power at his disposal. It will have to be an expert melee mech because the Gray Lotus is just icing on the cake to mechs like the Amaranto." "The Dark Zephyr, maybe? The mech pistol is a handy weapon to wield at close range and it vastly increases its versatility." That was a good suggestion, but Ves eventually shook his head. "Maybe it is useful to equip the Dark Zephyr with the Gray Lotus in some situations, but don't be deceived by its relatively compact size. This gun consumed a lot of power. It's the only way to make it powerful and sustainable enough to be useful in mech combat. The Dark Zephyr simply can't supply enough juice to keep it firing often enough to be useful in an extended battle." One of the brilliant successes that he had achieved with the development of the Gray Lotus was that it successfully reduced the load on Helena. The weapon did so by substituting a portion of her death energy with conventional energy! Instead of sucking Helena dry, the Gray Lotus induced a smaller load on her energy reserves. Meanwhile, the special attack phase crystal also drew in electrical energy from other sources and effectively amplified the original output of the mech pistol! The resulting gray beam possessed slightly different properties than a gray beam, but to Ves it was just as lethal to organic life forms as Helena's original attack methods! "Then what else do you have in mind, then?" Gloriana placed her hands over her hips. "In my opinion, there is nothing better than the Dark Zephyr. They are almost a perfect match in my eyes." "I was thinking of handing it over to either the Riot, the Shield of Samar or the Blade Chaser Mark II." These were all great choices in his opinion. The Riot would definitely be fighting against many enemy expert mechs, so equipping it with an extra weapon gave Venerable Orfan a way to poke at targets that were out of range. The Shield of Samar was the guardian of the main fleet and was the final line of defense against any threats that sought to decapitate the Larkinson Clan. Venerable Jannzi might be an obstinate fool at times but she always abided by her duty. The Blade Chaser Mark II also had a responsibility of defeating a lot of enemy expert mechs. The difference between it and the Riot was that Venerable Imon Ingvar possessed wonderful synergy with his sister. When Ves thought about the Blade Chaser Mark II wielding the Gray Lotus while it and its pilot was Commandeered by Commander Casella Ingvar and the Minerva, the new relic weapon would perhaps be capable of outputting the maximum possible damage in the upcoming battle! Gloriana likely had the same idea in mind, because she made the same suggestion. "I think the Blade Chaser Mark II is a good alternative, but only if Venerable Imon Ingvar is open to using a ranged weapon." "That won't be a problem, I think. Imon may be a mule head, but he's not a traditional swordsman. As long as I come up with an argument that is centered around protecting his precious sister, he'll likely agree." "Let me handle this, then." Gloriana offered. "Even I can pull off this argument. You should go back to where you belong and take charge of everything. You can't remain absent in these kinds of situations. Now go make your presence known and function as the figurehead of this entire operation." "Okay." Ves left the design lab after entrusting the remaining handling of the Gray Lotus to his wife. As he headed to the bridge of his flagship, he quickly called General Verle to get appraised with the situation. "So how are we doing, Verle?" "Nothing that merits your immediate attention, sir." He said. "Aside from entering a higher state of alert, our forces have been standing by without incident. Task Force Fury under the lead of General Alisky Victrix has been sweeping every outlying settlement, space station and other construct in our way." "What about the defending troops?" "The Sundered Phalanx has moved exactly as we expected. The Gaugers aren't even making a pretense at defending their exposed holdings. They have all been evacuated in advance with whatever valuables they can bring away in a hurry. The bad news is that the local troops are all converging onto Pima Prime V in order to make their stand at their most important and best-defended stronghold. We have a hard fight ahead of us. The enemy mech divisions will be able to confront us in their peak conditions." "A pity. Whoever is in charge is not an idiot. Are there any unexpected surprises that I should know of, general?" "There are a certain number of foreign visitors in the star system. Many of them are trade convoys that are guarded by a considerable amount of escorts. There is a chance that the Gauge Dynasty might hire or outright commandeer them in order to bolster their immediate defenses." "I see. I've read about this in one of the reports. Is it likely that this will happen?" "It depends on how desperate they are." General Verle stated. "Our spies are monitoring this development closely. So far, a lot of foreign trading fleets have evacuated in haste, but there are a number of them that are slower to move. I am afraid that we may have to fight thousands of additional mechs." "Damn."