Chapter 7370: Inhuman Demands Ves spent the next few days reorienting his focus to supervising the elaborate design process of his Woodsap mechs. The Terrans invested so much manpower and resources into the elemental Carmine mech designs that it became a challenge to stay on top of every single development. His collaborators were not just satisfied with publishing a single model. They split up the project into several different branches, each led by a different team of Master Mech Designers. This way, the Terrans not only promoted greater diversity, but also increased the fault tolerance of the overall effort. All of this increased the complexity of the Carmine design project. Too much was at stake here. The Terrans thoroughly considered it to be a prestige project, one that could reinvigorate their national pride should it meet their more ambitious goals. This was good news for Ves as the Terrans assigned some of their best talents to the project. While it was difficult for Ves to assert his authority over academics who dedicated at least a century of their life to their chosen fields of specialization, he was still glad that he had nearly unreserved access to their wisdom and problem-solving skills. The physical projection of Master Laila Rebecca Devos looked particularly pleased with the progress the Terrans had made so far. "We are roughly on schedule. Our progress has been brisk. While we have faced many difficulties, most of them are related to the overly ambitious goals set by our researchers and developers. The core design formula is solid as far as we have ascertained. We want to make the new Woodsap mechs widely available as soon as we have unveiled them to the public, so we have decided to tighten up the scope of our R&D. Our mech designers will spend less time on exploration and more time on optimization." Ves smiled. "That is good. You can design more ambitious and unusual variants after we have completed the initial batch of Woodsap mechs. The ones that are currently in the works should already satisfy many of the Terrans that have rejected the Yellow Jackets for their cheapness." The Woodsap mechs as intended not only possessed enough power to compete against the more impressive first-class multipurpose mechs in use today, but also offered a much lower learning curve. Due to the special technologies applied by the Terrans, the early testers had already begun to experience a new way of controlling their biomechs. Rather than piloting their mechs as if they were two distinctly separate entities, the individuals who piloted the Woodsap mechs controlled them as if they controlled their own bodies! Although the early tests already revealed a host of problems and complications to this novel method of controlling a machine, Ves had faith that the Terrans would be able to work out most of the technical problems in the coming months. In the past, the mech industry never had a strong incentive to develop this alternate control system to the fullest. While it offered a much lower learning curve, it imposed severe restrictions to the mech design in question. For example, it had to adhere closely to the humanoid form and could not deviate too far from the proportions of the pilots in question. The alternate control system also promoted a sense of laziness that could prevent many mech pilots from exploiting their machines more effectively by performing actions that were impossible to replicate with normal human bodies. It was only because the Terrans prioritized the Woodsap mechs so much that they invested serious resources into solving many known problems while tolerating the rest. The Terran Alliance couldn’t wait for five to ten years for the first batch of Carmine mech pilots to complete their accelerated training programs. The norms-turned-Carmine mech pilots needed to make their Woodsmap mechs combat effective as soon as possible. The best candidates outside of potentates were trained infantry soldiers. The Terrans had already begun to train tens of thousands of handpicked troopers. Each of them had already scored high in terms of martial arts, marksmanship and teamwork. They only needed to learn the theory and practice of piloting multi-ton humanoid war machines. The importance of this initial batch could not be overstated. They would bear a great amount of responsibility in debuting the Woodsap mechs. Their performance would directly determine everyone’s first impressions of the first advanced Carmine mechs in existence! While it was fairly easy to teach them the necessary knowledge to pilot their future machines, the job demanded more than just theory. Their physiques needed to undergo fairly radical modifications in order to gain the qualifications to interface with their upcoming biomechs! This was the most controversial aspect of the collaborative design project. "How is the augmentation of the prospective pilots proceeding?" Ves asked. "Last I have heard, your people have generated plenty of disputes about this subject." The physical projection of the Terran Master Mech Designer made a troubled expression. "It is not a question of whether we can do it. We can already execute the necessary steps needed to transform a ’normal’ Terran citizen into a tree-human hybrid. The greatest issue is that our mastery of the relevant technologies is not extensive enough to minimize all of the sequelae. This is how the first sequence of fully-transformed Woodsap mech pilots appear." Master Laila Devos transferred an encrypted data package over the communication channel. When Ves decrypted the package and projected the contents to the side, he immediately frowned. The physical transformation was worse than he expected. The people who voluntarily agreed to undergo experimental augmentation regimes had lost the elegance and suppleness of the human form. They grew taller and thinner. The worst cases had grown at least 50 percent taller than their previous forms, causing them to appear so inhuman that they could scare any child! What was worse was that every test subject had lost their healthy pink human skin. Instead, their bodies all became covered by bark-like textures. The most severe cases had lost a lot of mobility due to the rigidity of all of the bark covering their exterior forms. Fortunately, the milder cases still retained enough mobility to prevent too many hindrances to their daily lives, but they still resembled trees more than humans! As a mech designer, Ves had long learned the lesson that appearances matter. An attractive product always earned more favorable reviews than ugly ones. The mechers conducted plenty of studies where mechs of varying appearances performed quite differently despite possessing nearly the exact same performance parameters. The mechs that possessed greater visual appeal always delivered better actual performance! This was because their aesthetics boosted the confidence and morale of their pilots. It was much more likely for them to appreciate and enjoy the act of piloting visually inspiring machines. In that sense, Ves did not have confidence that the test subjects could perform anywhere close to their maximum potential. Their sheer inhumanity had become so blunt and obvious that it would be a miracle if they still regarded themselves as human! Ves was quite familiar with such problems having undergone radical physical transformations himself. At least he was lucky enough to retain an outwardly human appearance. Even though he had already lost most of the physical aspects of his humanity, so long as he could still pass off as a human in a crowd of regular people, then he could still preserve his sanity! That may not be possible for these poor test subjects. They looked like treants who had just uprooted themselves from the soil more than humans who tried to cosplay as trees. Many of the test subjects had even lost their natural hair. Branches and leaves had taken their place! Suffice to say, the radical transformations had a strong effect on the psyche of the test subjects. This already exacerbated the altered brain chemistry of the transformed individuals. Even if the augmentations tried to minimize the physical alterations to the brain and central nervous system, they could not be avoided entirely. This was because the entire bodies of the test subjects needed to substitute blood for Woodsap. Without gaining a compatibility for Woodsap, the prospective pilots would never be able to satisfy the physical requirements to interface with Woodsap mechs. Now that Ves became enlightened by the Myth Reproduction Theory, he knew that the Carmine System essentially served as a vessel for the Blood Pact. Since Venerable Jannzi Larkinson forged the very first Blood Pact in existence with the Bastion, she established a myth that enabled the operation of the Carmine System. Ves very much doubted that the Carmine System would work if not for this accidental miracle! While he was grateful that this happenstance eventually resulted in an innovation that broke the genetic aptitude tyranny, he felt somewhat regrettable that the Blood Pact could not be separated from the mutual exchange of blood between man and machine. This was not a big deal as long as the fluid in question consisted of the blood that already flowed through the veins of Carmine mech pilots. Yet in his desire to draw out the greater potential of Carmine mechs, Ves could not stop himself from experimenting with more potent mediums than mere human blood. The Woodsap Mech Design Project was his first systematic attempt at developing an elemental Carmine System. He already accounted for setbacks and complications. Yet he still found the results of the physical transformations to be repulsive. "This is not acceptable." Ves plainly stated his opinion. "We cannot force the brave pilots of our upcoming Woodsap mechs to sacrifice their humanity in exchange for piloting more potent Carmine mechs. Even if these individuals are otherwise competent in piloting their new biomechs, they can never earn the trust and admiration of the masses in this form!" They practically looked like aliens who evolved from alien trees! Master Laila Devos shook her head. "I agree with you, but... according to the geneticists and biotech researchers that I have spoken with, reducing the side effects for entire groups of humans is a difficult and time-consuming endeavor. The necessary augmentations are so new and radical that the augmentation sector is forced to navigate uncharted waters. In these cases, it normally takes decades to produce acceptable results. It takes too much time to perform all of the calculations and verify them through iterative testing. It is unrealistic to compress this extensive development cycle in a span of a few months or years." "What are you saying, Master Devos?" "If we have failed to make any breakthroughs in this area, the pilots paired with our Woodsap mechs.... will continue to maintain these forms. At most, we can wrap their bodies up with false organic human shells, but that only covers up a part of their inhumanity. Their altered mentalities and brain chemistry are much harder to repair." Ves frowned deeper. He did not miss the unspoken implications of her words. While Ves felt extremely bothered by these flaws, not all of the Terrans felt this way! Perhaps they believed that any sacrifice was worth the ability to pilot the most powerful Carmine mechs that they knew of. The native aliens posed such a great threat to the Terran Alliance that a whole line of soldiers stood ready to sacrifice their humanity in order to protect their people! "Is there really no way to solve this problem in the short term?" Ves asked with a frown. "Well... it is not entirely out of the question, Ves." Master Laila Devos responded with a slower cadence than before. "While we are confident in our biotechnology, there are still many facets of human augmentation that we have yet to master as extensively as we would like. The Transhumanist Faction of the Red Association may be able to offer helpful solutions to this problem. There is also a fringe group that claims that Woodsap mech pilots can retain their humanity through mysticism. They believe that the right application of rituals can avoid the worst manifestations, but they have yet to produce solid results. Perhaps you can lend a hand once you arrive."