His wife reacted very poorly to the Final Glory Project. She did not see the necessity of this project. She did not understand what people trapped on a planet with an overwhelming alien fleet hanging over their heads wanted to do. She did not approve of weaponizing the cultivation of people to produce the greatest possible bang. Above all else, she hated that Ves had become distracted again. While Ves had done his best to minimize the amount of time investment in the Final Glory Project, every hour spent on designing this travesty of a Carmine mech was an hour not spent on a high-end mech design project! Aside from that, Ves figured that his wife responded negatively to the Final Glory Project because of its variable nature. Due to the need to accommodate a wide variety of materials, not much of the mech templates could be defined according to the strict standards that she was accustomed to. The lack of precision and definitions offended her sensibilities! All of this made it pointless to discuss this side project any further with Gloriana. She was a mech designer who only cared about expensive, personalized and above all high-quality products. She hated cheap and low-quality mass produced mechs! Her tolerance for them continued to drop over time. As the fortunes of the Larkinson Clan continued to rise, Gloriana became more and more pampered by her growing access to more expensive materials and more advanced tech. The constant upgrades caused her to look at low-end stuff with an increasingly less favorable eye. Ves liked to think he was better than that. There were no useless mechs as far as he was concerned. Powerful ace mechs such as the Dark Zephyr Mark III and the Amaranto Mark III were fantastic machines, but could only ever serve individual ace pilots. Ordinary mech pilots comprised the root of the mech community. They might not be powerful on their own, but they could make a huge difference on a larger scale. They also did not necessarily need the fancy stuff. Sure, Ves placed a high value on quality, but he understood that not every customer could afford to purchase and maintain an expensive machine. What Ves wanted to bring to life was a cheap but effective means for people to convert their remaining strength into a single, big explosion. Hence the Final Glory Project. Ves began to think about who could help him in this eccentric venture. He immediately came up with a good name. "Hello, Ves. I did not expect you to contact me so soon again." "I need your help, Jovy." Ves began to present his mech proposal to the RA Senior. Jovy immediately became intrigued. His background as a Survivalist allowed him to appreciate the aspects that Gloriana failed to understand. "This is… an unconventional and subversive idea." Jovy said as he rubbed his chin in thought. "This draft design of yours violates the principle that mechs should never do harm against their own pilots. A mech that is literally designed to weaponize the soul and any form of qi cultivation of a Carmine mech pilot for the purpose of enhancing the power of an explosion is beyond what we usually permit." "Usually." "I believe it is easier than before to request an exemption for your project so long as you can prove its viability. If it is truly possible to convert a person’s qi cultivation into an accelerant for a lack of a better word, then this taboo project of yours has merit, as distasteful as it looks. Your means are horrible, but your intentions are noble. In my personal opinion, I can see the demand for this sort of mech. We would have designed such a sacrificial mech ourselves already if not for the fact that only you can design proper Carmine mechs." Ves was glad to hear that Jovy was receptive to the idea. Just as expected, the Survivalist acknowledged how horrible it was to design a mech that would kill its own pilot, but its usefulness during the ongoing crisis was too great to ignore. In other words, Jovy approved. "I did not call you just to check whether the Red Association is okay with my admittedly dangerous mech." Ves said. "I want you to collaborate with me on this design project." "This… does not appear to be a mech design with a great amount of technical content." Jovy responded while raising his eyebrow. "You only intend to design a second-class and third-class version of this mech concept, so what is it that you require from me exactly?" "What else? Your design philosophy, Jovy. I have a better idea what you are capable of now that we have worked together on a few projects. I have been keeping track on how the Yellow Jacket mechs respond to getting struck by large-caliber warship-grade weapon attacks. The probability that a Yellow Jacket is able to resist such massive blows are slim, but they are not really statistically discernible. This situation becomes a lot more interesting when I look at the actual battle footage. There are Yellow Jackets that are still operational despite getting struck by kinetic projectiles as large as their mech frames. It is very obvious that your design philosophy has changed the fates of the mech pilots of the affected machines." His friend understood what Ves was getting at. "You have taken an interest in my design philosophy. Specifically the ability to make extremely low-probability events happen." "Yup. Instead of trying to use your probability manipulation to produce better defensive outcomes, I want you to focus on making the Final Glory Project more effective at penetrating through azure energy shields and other defenses. A single suicide mech is unlikely to trigger this condition, but what about a thousand? If so many suicide mechs slam into the same starship at the same time, at least a few of them should be able to inflict serious damage that can get through whatever defenses are in the way." Jovy furrowed his brows. "Your idea has merit, but I fear that the reality will not be as optimistic as you hope. Bypassing the defenses of a target is a very low-probability event. My design philosophy will not be able to make much of a difference as you hope." Ves dismissively waved his hand. "It will be fine. It would be great if a suicide mech is able to trigger this rare condition and inflict damage that goes straight through the azure energy barrier during a battle, but if it doesn’t happen, then that is just bad luck on the part of the pilots." "Hm. That is a good attitude to take. Playing with probabilities means accepting outcomes that you may not be happy with. I can work with this so long as you do not expect me to raise the probability of a successful result. There is not much I can work on considering that your draft design does not leave any room for expensive materials. I believe that the use of phasewater can dramatically increase the effectiveness of this mech of yours. If a planet still has this substance to spare, its people can still integrate it into the warheads to produce much more effective explosions." "I do not think that you will find much phasewater lying around in the Middle and Lower Zones." Ves shook his head. "In fact, I want to achieve the same effect as phasewater technology but without using any actual phasewater." "You are asking me… to replicate the effect of phasewater technology without using any of this substance. Do you know how difficult it is? You may as well be asking an ace pilot to fight like a god pilot. The technological leap you seek is far from mature." "But you guys are making progress, right?" "We are." Jovy admitted. "Our long-term studies on phasewater have already yielded limited results. Obtaining large amounts of superdimensional matter has greatly advanced our understanding of what truly takes place underneath the surface layers. The recent insights in our research has given us new avenues of research where we can replicate some of the effects of phasewater technology through alternate means. If our researchers are able to make progress fast enough, I can incorporate some of their results in your Final Glory Project. That should enable your suicide mechs to inflict greater material harm onto their enemies." That was good news. Ves looked forward to seeing how much a difference Jovy’s design philosophy could make. The two Seniors continued to talk about the planning and logistics of this project. "Will you seek out the cooperation of other mech designers?" Your journey continues on freewebnovel "If possible. I am still considering a few names. I think it should be important for the Final Glory Project to be equipped with well-programmed ECM systems. Solutions related to making a mech tougher or faster are bound to make the product more expensive. ECM modules don’t have to be expensive in order to produce a satisfying result. It would be especially interesting if tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of suicide mechs deploy at the same time. They can combine their interference and blind the enemy sensors even further." All of this could help the suicide mechs to get close enough to the alien warships without getting shot down along the way. Ves decided to call two lead designers to his office. Soon enough, Ariana Roux and Kelsey Ampatoch arrived. When Ves briefed them on his mech proposal, the pair of Journeymen immediately understood their possible roles in this mech design project. "Both of us are specialized in hacking and electronic countermeasures." Kelsey pointed out. "Ariana is more effective at compromising enemy systems on a large scale, while I prefer to dive deeper into subverting the computing systems of important targets. Together, we should be able to develop second-class and third-class ECM systems that can help your new mechs survive the journey from surface to orbit. It will be a challenge for us to keep the cost and reliance on high-grade materials low." "Do your best." Ves said. "Do not forget that there will always be hundreds if not thousands of Carmine mechs launching at the same time. Try to figure out a simplified and user-friendly way for all of those living mechs to link up with each other and use their collective processing power to hack any visible alien unit." "You are asking for too much." Kelsey Amatoch warned Ves. "What you have just described is similar to data link technology. We do not have to be so ambitious. It is enough for the Carmine mechs to be able to synchronize their actions and prevent any unnecessary or wasteful overlap." Ves liked what he heard. Once the pair of mech designers understood their assignments, they had already begun to brainstorm. "This should be enough." Ves decided. "We will leave the final slot open in case I think about involving another mech designer. The probability that will happen is low, but not non-zero." "I can forward you a handful of names." "No thanks. I can take care of this myself. I want to keep this project as in-house as possible. We will have to design two mech templates, though. Can you do that, Jovy?" 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂 "Theoretically. I have yet to employ this method on a real mech design project, but I should be able to get by with assistance." The Final Glory Project was not that complicated or technical, so Ves did not think it would take longer than a month to bring it to completion. It would still be a rush job, though. The lack of prototype testing was painful, but Ves wanted to bring his product out sooner than later. "The people will have need for a product like this." Ves predicted. "There are few ways for civilians to effectively strike back at their enemies. I suppose they can volunteer to man a turret or drive a tank, but they will get blown up all the same. It is better to design a Carmine mech that is just functional enough to make it to orbit and crash into enemy ships before unleashing explosions fueled by a sacrifice ritual."