Chapter 6870 Dragon Queen’s Art The Red Association needed a bit of time to produce and ship the Dracoloids, the Omega Threshers and the E-MULES ordered by the Premier Branch. However, the mechers still had a few dozen copies of each model on hand within the Bluejay Fleet and other nearby RA strongholds. The Saint Commander easily managed to persuade the mechers to transfer those readily available copies to the Larkinson Clan. It didn't really matter to her whether they were 'used' products. She believed it was more important to familiarize the mech pilots in the Premier Branch with the new stopgap models as quickly as possible. Ves supported her decision, though he mostly wanted to get his hands on the first-class multipurpose mechs himself. He had already read their spec sheets many times and studied their design schematics in detail. He became fascinated with the foreign high-end design principles and the intricate integration of shield link and energy link modules in the mech designs. Support link technology originally introduced by the Web Mistress was one of the biggest game changers that set the mechs and warships of the RA and RF apart from other human powers. Their continued ability to maintain this monopoly was one of the main reasons why they managed to stay on top of human civilization. Now, the mechers and the fleeters had begun to loosen up on this restriction out of desperation more than anything else. As long as the native aliens continued to take over more human territories, the old hegemons cared less about protecting their own monopolies. Ves actually felt a little bad about taking advantage of the tragedies unfolding across the more vulnerable parts of human space. The Larkinson Clan's adoption of shield link technology and energy link technology indirectly came at the cost of a huge amount of red human lives. "So these are our new mechs." He said as he looked up at the three machines that had been delivered to Diandi Base. "That is correct." Casella Ingvar nodded. "I will be piloting all three models over the course of the day in order to completely familiarize myself with their strengths and weaknesses." "Now that we can observe the first-class mechs with our own eyes, they appear so much more powerful." Gloriana said with genuine appreciation in her voice. "The mechers have all designed them to a higher standard that we have ever applied to ourselves. Their mech designers have mastered their skills to a higher level and they also have much greater processing power at their disposal. The degree of optimization of these machines are sublime. Production with materializers may cause these copies to be deficient in terms of life and craftsmanship, but they are so uniform in their technical perfection that it is a dream to observe them at this distance." The Association lived and breathed mechs. It would be stupid if the mechers failed to maintain their superiority in this industry. While mech designers like Ves developed innovative design applications that not even the mechers could replicate, the latter not only had access to far more trade secrets, but also mastered them to a much greater degree! This caused the mechs designed by the RA to convey a completely different feel. The three first-class mechs dripped with refinement and professionalism. The mechers certainly knew how to convey the impression of superiority without making it too explicit. It was enough to shame mech designers such as Ves and Gloriana. They had tried so hard to push their own products to the top of the industry, yet they were still far away from reaching the impossibly high standards attained by the RA over many years. "Let's take a closer look, shall we?" Ves proposed as he already began to move forward. "I have been looking forward to examining the Dracoloid. This first-class mech speaks to me in a way the others don't. Ever since I first examined this mech model in detail, I had a notion that the Dragon Queen has a few things in common with me. Both of us don't pay too much attention to the prevailing status quo and like to push our own interpretation of mechs." Gloriana hummed as she floated off the air and approached the iconic dragon head of the Dracoloid mech. "Hm, I can see that. Her love for dragons is clearly impressed in the detailed artistry and design of this head. It is far more than a mechanism for biting enemies and swallowing up any loose transphasic alloys. This level of detail goes far beyond function. The more you look at it, the more you become taken in by the horror and the might of what appears to be a real dragon. There is even a whole layer of redundant articulation here that can make the eyes and parts of the jaw more menacing than normal." None of it was strictly essential from a functional standpoint, but these additions made the Dracoloid appear so much more alive and organic. The Dragon Queen had clearly applied this level of articulation onto many mechs. Her methods were not only highly refined, but also incredibly efficient. She only needed to install a few minor mechanisms to massively make the dragon head more vivid. This was probably the female Master Mech Designer's way of making her work alive from her perspective. The only real dragon mechs were ones that convincingly sold the illusion that they were actual fire-breathing reptilian menaces. That design principle resonated with Ves. Even though he had never met her or talked to her in person, he already felt as if he was already receiving a lecture from the Master Mech Designer with her product as a medium. This was a level of communication that people outside of the mech designer profession could never comprehend. Ves lovingly rubbed the smooth exterior of the Dracoloid's armor plating. Even if the mech was not alive according to his own paradigms, he could still feel how much care and attention the Dragon Queen put into its design. When Ves finally began to examine the more functional parts of the mech, he noted that the integration of shield link technology imposed a heavy burden onto the mech design. The Dracoloid was rather small and slender compared to other multipurpose mechs, so the shield link array and essential supporting systems took up a lot of capacity. This was why the mech relied so much on its compact short-barreled gauss guns for sustained damage. Although they all consumed energy in order to launch their projectiles at a fairly high rate of fire, they did not expend as much energy as pure energy weapons. That meant that the kinetic weapons imposed a relatively lower burden onto the energy reserves of the Dracoloid. "The endurance of the energy defenses of the Dracoloid is rather disappointing if it does not maintain active shield links." Gloriana observed. "The dragon mech's energy reserves are limited, and it has to feed multiple hungry systems. The azure energy shield, the space suppressor, the integrated plasma guns and most importantly the powerful flight system and its demanding Rush Mode can quickly drain this machine. The absence of energy link technology is a major shortcoming in this regard." That was definitely one of the biggest shortcomings of this dragon mech. The Dracoloid lacked the endurance to last when engaged in intensive battles. It needed to defeat its foes and complete its mission quickly, or else its performance would rapidly degrade as it could no longer afford to maintain its azure energy shield or activate its powerful Rush Mode. Ves recalled what he saw in the RA mech catalog. "The Dragon Queen has designed a larger and heavier dragon mech that does happen to include an energy link array. The problem I have with this alternative product is that it makes too many tradeoffs. It is slower and less maneuverable. It isn't fast enough to catch up to most alien phasefighters anymore, and its version of Rush Mode can only multiply its acceleration by a factor of 2.2 as opposed to 3. Superior mobility is the entire reason why we chose the DFN-72CEG Dracoloid model." 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚 Was it worth it to sacrifice better armor, greater endurance and access to energy link technology for better mobility? He believed so. Mobility was one of the performance parameters that was difficult to measure its value in reality. It was much easier to judge the value of a mech by how many shots it took to destroy an opponent or how many attacks its energy and physical defenses could withstand. Superior mobility on the other hand enabled so many intricate maneuvers that could have a drastic impact on the course of a battle that it was difficult to quantify in simple numbers. This was why expertise and experience were vital to making the right judgment. The Saint Commander was smart and experienced enough to know how to leverage the superior mobility of the Dracoloid model. "As long as we do not commit too much in any battle, the limited endurance of the Dracoloid model will not be a problem." Casella stated as her mind was already refining the tactics and strategies she intended to employ with these machines. "In the situations where we are badly outnumbered, our intervention alone cannot prevent the native aliens from overrunning a planet and conquering a star system. As much as I dislike it, we must make the difficult decision to withdraw in time before we fall victim to sunk cost fallacy."' Ves seriously nodded. "I agree. The enemy fleets that are assigned to invade the Upper Zones are much better equipped and more professionally crewed than the ones that are rampaging across the Middle and Lower Zones. We cannot afford to underestimate any enemy we encounter. The Dracoloid and so on are also not the best of what first-class mechs can offer." The Red Association fielded more expensive and powerful first-class multipurpose mechs, but they demanded much greater logistical and technical support than the Larkinson Clan could bear. The Larkinsons eventually needed to field its own first-class mechs. Ves already began to think in this direction. He still thought about whether it would be worthwhile to design a Larkinson version of the Dracoloid concept. Ves could convert the dragon mech to a tiger mech. He could ditch the wings in favor of bulking up the rest of the mech frame. He could attempt to replicate the unique augmented flamethrower weapon, or he could replace it with another weapon system that synergized better with Casella's Command FIeld. "Not good enough." Ves shook his head in disappointment. Trying to design an alternative to the Dracoloid for the sole purpose of putting his own spin on the concept was not a good enough justification. The Premier Fleet would not gain all that much if his alternate design did not perform any better than the original Dracoloid model. Sure, the fact that his mech enjoyed all of the advantages of a seventh generation living mech may make it more attractive to his clan, but he would also be trading away the strong advantages of the highly developed design philosophies incorporated into the Dracoloid design. Maintaining parity was probably the best case scenario. If he wanted to develop a true replacement for the Dracoloid, then Ves needed to take a step further and come up with truly powerful design applications. Innovation was key. It was the best way to break parity and develop a truly superior product. Ves could either wait for enough time to pass for new technologies to become available, or he could invest his time in R&D and hope that he developed a new innovation by himself. The former sounded like a lazy way to outcompete the Dragon Queen. He would essentially be taking advantage of her inattentiveness to develop a superior product. He wanted to do better than that. The more he desired to design his own version of the Dracoloid concept, the closer he came to receiving inspiration that could drive him into action. He did not try his best to grasp this ephemeral feeling. He hesitated. It was too premature for him to think about designing a first-class multipurpose mech that could replace the Dracoloid model. The Premier Fleet first needed to make use of it before learning what worked and did not work in practice. Only then could Ves design a new mech that addressed the unmet demands of his troops.