Chapter 7066 An Unbounder’s Desire
Chapter 7066 An Unbounder’s Desire
After the pair was done with talking about Ves' meeting with the Web Mistress, they moved on to Gloriana's shorter meeting with the Resonance Smith.
"So how was he?" Ves asked.
His wife adopted a complicated expression. "The Resonance Smith was… eccentric to say the least. I am used to that from you, but His Excellency is much less restrained in this regard. He has no desire to hide his true nature from anyone."
"Why should he? He is a Star Designer. Very few people can restrain him these days, and none of them have a compelling reason to do so. He can do damn near anything so long as he doesn't threaten the core interests of his peers."
"Well, I can tell you that he was probably in a good mood. Human civilization in the Red Ocean was moving towards a future envisioned by the Unbound Humanity Faction. Jose Ukewe believed that this will 'unlock' our race's potential and help us regain the astounding growth rate that we last experienced during the first half of the Age of Conquest. Only through overwhelming pressure will we be able to cut out the rot that has festered our society and let a new generation of proven leaders take charge."
"I can already tell he is a big fan of the Societal Revival Theory." Ves mildly said. "I do not necessarily disagree with this sentiment, but isn't the Resonance Smith being a bit too… celebratory about all of these changes?"
"He is, and he is being shameless about it. You should have heard him bragging about this to me. He thinks that the breakdown of RA authority is essential to creating room for upstarts like you and I to grow and take their place."
"Is that the only subject he talked about?"
"Of course not." Gloriana said. "We merely chatted about various topics while he devoted most of his attention to devising a solution for my problem. After working for over half an hour, he granted me documents containing initial solutions to the problems that arise when trying to merge archetech with superdimensional technology. As far as the Resonance Smith has tested, his solution works, but the outcome is still far from perfect. Fortunately, he has been generous enough to bestow me with a roadmap that outlines what research we must complete in order to produce incremental performance gains."
She shared the virtual documents to Ves.
He skimmed through them quickly but quickly got lost in all of the dense jargon, mathematical formulas and complicated theories.
Perhaps he might be able to understand half of what is contained in the documents, but that would require him to sit down and read the pages carefully while referencing all kinds of textbooks.
That was way too tedious and time-consuming for him, so he ceased his examination and decided to leave this matter to Gloriana as originally planned.
"So does that mean we can proceed with completing the Riot Mark III as a full superdimensional archemech?" Ves asked the most important question.
"The short answer is yes. The long answer is more nuanced than that." His wife replied.
"You will need to elaborate that further."
Gloriana drew a projected graph in the air.
"The initial solutions provided by the Resonance Smith are far from perfect. They do the job by meeting the minimum standards. In my eyes, they are akin to half-failed solutions. Incorporating them in the Riot Mark III Project without implementing any further changes and adjustments will lead to an expert spearman mech that is not as light and strong as he could have been. The archetech-compatible alloy formulas that he managed to research and placed in my possession incorporate a lower proportion of high-grade superdimensional matter and a higher proportion of stabilizing materials."
She placed a dot at the lower end of the performance graph.
"The only advantages of these superdimensional alloy formulas is that they are cheap in terms of superdimensional matter requirements. We only need to use up less than half of the volume of raw matter in order to produce a stable alloy. Best of all is that the formula contains a number of complementary exotics that slightly increases the potency of the existing superdimensional matter. The Resonance Smith told me that he has 'taken inspiration' from his study of alien-grade superdimensional alloys to come up with this small improvement, but that he still has much to go before he can find more effective combinations."
Ves looked intrigued. "I see. So the performance of this alloy is not good if we compare it to the theoretical peak that can be attained with a much better variation of superdimensional alloy, but it should be enough to satisfy our short-term needs, is that correct?"
Gloriana nodded. "From a purely physical perspective, the solutions provided by the Resonance Smith will make the Riot Mark III less resilient than the First Sword Mark III if their mass is equal."
"Their mass and volume are not the same, though." He pointed out the obvious. "The Riot Mark II is significantly thicker and should also be denser as well. The Riot's armor system is truly designed to resist serious blows, while the First Sword's thinner armor system is more of a reliable backup option if the ace swordsman mech has failed to evade attacks."
"That is true, but I hope you can understand my point, Ves. If we abandoned the use of archetech, we can make use of simpler but more powerful superdimensional alloys to significantly increase the damage resistance of the Riot Mark III's armor system. This version will bounce away projectiles and resist energy beams noticeably easier. However, its internals are much softer, so any attack that is powerful enough to punch through armor-grade superdimensional plating can obliterate whatever internals are sheltering behind."
That was not an ideal situation for a mech that was designed to confront enemies head-on without fear of suffering injuries.
"Let me get this straight." He said. "You are claiming that the superdimensional archetech version of the Riot Mark III will possess the advantages of both superdimensional technology and archetech, but it won't really excel in the former because too many compromises had to be made to develop an alloy that is stable enough to be used throughout the entire mech frame in the form of archemetal. However, you think that this is still a superior alternative to using the same approach that Ketis has used for the First Sword Mark III, right?"
"Correct. The initial implementation of the Riot Mark III may be further from perfection than I prefer, but it is possible to upgrade the composition of his archemech frame over time. As long as our scientists and I continue to conduct follow-up research in the directions pointed out by the Resonance Smith's roadmap, we can develop better and more optimized superdimensional archemetal alloys that effectively bestow greater resilience and damage resistance compared to older versions. This will be a long-term effort."
That was okay. At least there was a way to improve the relatively mediocre initial solutions. The Resonance Smith had truly done the minimum work required to reciprocate the 'minor favor'.
He did not do more work because he had more important priorities to work upon, but also ensured that a young Senior Mech Designer like Gloriana remained active and invested in her archetech specialization.
If the Resonance Smith solved all of the technical problems, there would be little opportunity for Gloriana to conduct research on archetech and understand its nature better.
So this was a good outcome all-considered.
"Did the Resonance Smith convey anything more during your meeting with him?" He said. "Did he mention anything that is of great political significance? Did he talk about the Larkinson Clan specifically?"
His wife had to pause and recall the conversation. "His Excellency seemingly spoke without constraint or filters. He made more than a few outrageous remarks that would have definitely stirred controversy if not for his high status and identity. He has not mentioned anything about our clan, unfortunately. I have the sense that he does not take us seriously. Our clan is too young and the two of us are merely Senior Mech Designers. We may have a healthy amount of ace pilots in our service, but they are far from the peak ace pilots that have a chance of turning into god pilots in the short term."
In other words, if his wife's assessment was correct, then there was not much point in engaging with the Resonance Smith at this point. He sounded as if he looked down on Ves and Gloriana due to their relative youth and inexperience.
Perhaps it was just Gloriana that was the problem. Her attainments were much less impressive than his own. She did not really deserve to speak with a Star Designer. It must have annoyed the Resonance Smith to be spending an hour of his time on a mech designer with insufficient qualifications.
That made sense given his ideology. He was an anti-establishment figure who railed against the corruptive nature of old organizations and institutions. He was a strong believer in meritocracy and thought that taking down the old structure would clear enough room to accommodate the rise of leaders among the newer generation.
The important part here was that only the best deserved to lead red humanity in the future.
Whether Gloriana belonged in this group or not remained to be seen, but so far she still had a long way to go before she made a big enough contribution to the mech community.
"Anything else I should know? Did he say anything about me?" He asked.
"He approves of your work." She said with a hint of jealousy in his tone. "He specifically commended your Carmine mechs as the most disruptive invention that the mech industry has received in the last century. The availability of the Yellow Jacket line has already disrupted a large amount of existing structures and rewrote many rules. He hopes that you can continue your work in shaking up the status quo and unsettle the lives of those who have grown too complacent in their positions of power and wealth."
Ves' lips twitched into a smile. "I think he will not be disappointed at what I have in store for the future. His Excellency is certainly not afraid of confronting new challenges. Is there anything else about the meeting that I should know?"
"Not about the meeting itself, but I have received a number of invitations during the rest of the afternoon." She told him. "When I took the children out to shop and sight-see, numerous attendants approached and hand-delivered their invitation letters to me in person. There are not too many of them, and I think that each of them represent various important groups and consortiums. I think it is worth it to attend at least half of the gatherings and events. Not only will we be able to mingle with Yernstall's high society, but we can also seek out new partners and business opportunities."
Ves frowned. "I don't know. We have better things to do than socialize every day. I am not opposed to attending one or two gatherings, but that is my limit. Let us look over the invitations and accept the ones that bring together the largest amount of guests. That should give the groups who are interested in doing business with us and our clan enough opportunities to get in and come up to us with business proposals on hand."
"Hm, I like it. Let them come to us rather than the other way around. We should make sure to coordinate this with our new matriarch, though. We should check whether we have discretion to trade away superdimensional matter. We are in the possession of highly coveted materials whose value far exceeds phasewater. While we should reserve most of it for internal use, it does not hurt to trade modest amounts of superdimensional matter for a new starship or proprietary technologies."