Tarsa Merovik pursued a design philosophy that sounded considerably more extreme than usual.
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Not even Ves went as far as to attempt to give humans the chance to enter a second life as a living mech!
As the man who pioneered living mechs in the first place, he could think of hundreds of different problems that could hinder Tarsa from turning her life-saving mechs into a reality.
From trying to preserve as much of the soul of the deceased human as possible during the transfer process, to trying to instill everything it needed to know to manipulate the mech frame on a more technical level, Ves did not look forward to solving all of these problems.
Still, that did not stop him from appreciating the female Terran Apprentice for trying to put a radical spin on living mechs.
If Tarsa succeeded in her ambitious design philosophy, then she would definitely earn a lot of fame and recognition for her invention!
Ves briefly glanced at Gloriana. He figured out her game easily enough.
Both Klaus and Kalister were sure bets. They had already realized a part of their potential and their talents were clear. Their design philosophies presented interesting new possibilities, but did not try to subvert the functioning of human society.
Tarsa Merovik’s ambition was different. Her aspiration to grant deceased soldiers a chance to live again in a shell of metal held a lot of promise.
Still, Gloriana should know better than to take a screwball design philosophy so seriously.
The fact of the matter was that Tarsa’s design philosophy faced too many hurdles. It would take a long time to resolve them all. It could take decades before the ambitious former Terran mech designer produced a successful result.
Ves could lend a hand and speed up her progress, but the Apprentice Mech Designer ultimately had to do the most important work herself in order to prove herself worthy and dedicated enough to advance to the rank of Journeyman Mech Designer.
"Gloriana." He spoke in an expectant tone.
"Our children." His wife curtly answered.
"Ah."
That explained everything. If there was one matter that could persuade Gloriana to break her criteria and make an exception to her own rules, it was their children.
Sooner or later, Andraste and perhaps her siblings would end up piloting mechs on the battlefield.
No matter whether they piloted conventional mechs or Carmine mechs, each time they deployed against an enemy, they always faced the threat of death.
This was an intrinsic part of warfare. No one could guarantee absolute survival.
The Larkinson had a good track record of keeping its soldiers alive, but in truth a lot of ordinary mech pilots died in almost every engagement.
Most clansmen tended to gloss over the casualties and focus on the glory of earning another victory.
Yet that did not make the families of the deceased any happier. They had no choice but to grieve for their loved ones.
Besides, not all Larkinsons died on the battlefield. They could lose their lives through ambushes and assassinations.
Ves particularly worried about the possibility of his enemies trying to get to him by targeting his kids.
He absolutely could not stand this possibility!
So long as Aurelia, Andraste or Marvaine remained alive and moved away from him and his core power base, they constantly required protection.
What if that was enough?
His children could only fend for themselves, and if that was enough…
Ves narrowed his eyes. Death was not an ending to certain people.
If entities such as Qilanxo and his mother could come back from the dead, then so could his son and daughters.
Unfortunately, he was not familiar with the methods. Perhaps he should have a good talk with Helena about this subject, but he doubted that she could intervene directly in case the worst had happened.
There were too many limitations to defying death that he was not familiar with. If it was more straightforward, then he would have been able to preserve Venerable Imon Ingvar.
While Ves believed that there were multiple ways to save his children from death, there should never be enough options.
The Design Department could afford to support a single Apprentice Mech Designer who hoped to design a living mech that could not only save the lives of his children, but every other Larkinson!
"I have spoken extensively with Miss Merovik about her design philosophy." Gloriana spoke up again. "She cannot give us any guarantees that she can succeed in her goal, but she will do her best and hope that she can attain a breakthrough in her work with the support of our clan. In the meantime, she is still willing to perform all of the duties expected of an assistant mech designer and more."
Tarsa was quite aware of her situation. It was impossible for her to make any substantial progress in her design philosophy if she went at it alone. She needed access to funding, knowledge, lab instruments, workshop equipment and testing facilities in order to conduct her research.
Supporting her activities should not be cheap, but that was not a particularly serious problem to the Larkinson Clan.
"I will allow it." Ves said. "You should know how busy my schedule is, so I cannot teach her too much in person, nor supervise her work all that often. The same goes for the other recruits as well."
As much as he was interested in tutoring Klaus and Kalister on more advanced theories related to living mechs, Ves could not afford to take too much time off his schedule.
The Minerva Mark II Project and the Final Glory Project were beginning to reach their completion fairly soon. Ves wanted to finish them as soon as possible so that his works could make a real difference in this critical period.
Ves suddenly thought of a good way to give the kids the tutoring they needed. He turned towards his direct disciple.
"Alexa."
"Yes, sir?"
"I hate to add to your workload, but I would like you to teach them what I originally taught you about living mechs. You don’t need to delve in the most advanced stuff. Just teach them the follow-up lessons of my Introduction to Living Mech Design course."
Alexa did not look particularly surprised at receiving this task. "I can do that. I may not be able to answer all of their questions, but I should be able to give them a more comprehensive foundation in living mech design. It will only take around half a year to bring them up to standard. All of us are former Terrans, and I assisted you at the Eden Institute, so I should be able to give them structured lessons that they can quickly absorb."
"Thank you, Alexa."
He felt rather bad for delegating less pleasant and important assignments to Alexa Streon. It was as if he was treating her as free labor instead of a valued mech designer who shared a similar vision towards mechs.
Perhaps he needed to make time to give her more personal attention. Just because she had been incredibly competent and diligent so far did not mean she could solve every problem.
"Alexa, I’d like to talk to you in private after this is over." Ves spoke.
The female Journeyman did not expect to hear this request, but she only raised her eyebrow. "I will be at your disposal."
Now that Ves and Alexa had been formally introduced to the new recruits, Gloriana moved on and addressed staffing issues.
"Klaus, Kalister, Tarsa, the three of you will need to split your time between study and work. We are short on manpower and could deeply use the help of first-class mech designers who are proficient in the data-driven design approach. As long as you are able to complete the assignments that I am allocating to you, we should be able to complete the Minerva Mark II Project up to a week in advance."
That made a significant difference. Saint Commander Casella would not have to wait as long to pilot her new machine. She would also be able to unveil her full power on the battlefield in case an emergency took place.
Ves had grown more worried about the security of the New Constantinople System.
Even if the Devos Ancient Clan garrisoned a lot of first-class multipurpose mechs in this star system, it was still possible for the native aliens to bypass other locations and launch a direct strike on New Constantinople.
They would most definitely attempt to attack this star system in order to kill Ves, the mech designer who had made their lives a lot more difficult!
If Ves had a choice, then he would have rushed the Tortuous Scream over here already, but unfortunately he had no way of speeding the refit process of the alien battleship.
The sooner Saint Commander Casella received her Minerva Mark II, the safer everyone would be. Ves had high hopes for her Command Field when she was no longer limited by her outdated machine.
"From the moment you have joined the Larkinson Clan, you should have already accepted the fact that we do not always avoid danger. We confront it directly." He told the new recruits. "While I don’t ask you to fight directly against the aliens, we will soon be relocating to a new first-class fleet that will be seeking to confront the alien raiding fleets that have crossed into the Upper Zones. Are you sure you can stomach the risks?"
"I am not a soldier, but I will not run away." Klaus vigorously responded. "I admire the Larkinson Clan for taking the bull by the horns. I have faith that you will keep us all safe to the best of your abilities. As a Larkinson, I cannot ask others to confront threats that I am not willing to brave myself. I am more than willing to work alongside the mech technicians and service damaged mechs during combat."
Ves grinned. "Well, at least one of you has the courage expected of a Larkinson! Working in a mech workshop or hangar bay during active engagements is an excellent way to familiarize yourself with the practical side of mechs. The dangers are not trivial, but as long as you are able to stay alive, you will learn many valuable lessons from this experience."
"We may as well prepare ourselves for emergency repair duty." Kalister Devos said. "Now that the native aliens have breached the 5th defensive band, no red human is truly safe anymore. Whether we turtle on New Constantinople VIII or roam the stars in a fleet, our enemies can arrive at any time and attempt to take away our lives. They will not pay attention whether we are combatants or noncombatants. This is total war. None of us are innocent. Since that is the case, we should serve our armed forces as best as possible."
Ves nodded with approval. Despite his privileged upbringing, Kalister did not grow up with a spoiled personality. He sounded quite tactful about needing to contribute.
Tarsa Merovik frowned. She appeared to be the only mech designer among them that disliked the idea of subjecting mech designers to greater risks.
"I have heard many stories about the bravery of the Larkinson Clan. While I do not want to sound like a coward, I am not a soldier. I do not think there is much logic behind putting highly educated but defenseless noncombatants such as ourselves closer to the line of fire."
"Thank you!" Gloriana enthusiastically responded. "Finally one of you has displayed actual common sense! Not every mech designer is as addicted to playing with fire as you, Ves. What you think of as ’character building’ or ’gathering inspiration on the battlefield’ is pure stupidity in my own opinion! Your fault tolerance may have grown explosively ever since you somehow became a phase lord, but nobody else shares your physical prowess. You cannot apply your own standards onto others, Ves. You are one-of-a-kind."
"That is exactly the problem, Gloriana. Too few mech designers are willing to step down from their ivory towers and witness how their machines truly perform in the field."
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