Chapter 7070: Cybernetics and Mechs
Chapter 7070: Cybernetics and Mechs
Ves brought Isobel back to the same compound where he and his family resided on Yernstall IV.
There was no need to bring her to the Tarrasque right away. In principle, Ves could even let her remain at the recovery facility for a few more weeks until the Bluejay Fleet was ready to depart to the Rubarthan Pact.
However, Ves grew concerned about the RA’s attempt to win her over. The more Isobel remained in the custody of the mechers, the greater the possibility that she might actually choose to defect to their side.
Ves liked to think that Saint Isobel possessed too much loyalty to the Larkinson Clan to ever contemplate such a choice, but nothing was impossible. It was best to remove the possibility entirely by keeping Isobel closer to him than the mechers.
This decision burdened him with keeping Saint Isobel occupied. She needed to spend her time wisely in order to start off with the best possible footing once she was finally able to get back into action.
Ves thought for a moment before deciding to dredge a hefty amount of knowledge before transmitting it to Saint Isobel over a secure channel.
Her new cybernetic form also caused her mind to become partially digitized, so she was able to receive, decrypt and skim over the documents at a rapid pace.
“This is…”
“Do you remember the set of fire element spells that I have given you in the past?”
“I do. Kiroshi and I have learned most of them already. They get easier to learn the more spells you have already mastered. I stopped studying more because they do similar things to the previous ones. As useful as it is to know how to cast a fireball and so on, they are too weak for me to bother with using in person or while piloting a mech. I can get better results with a firearm.”
“They are beginner spells. They are not meant to be too powerful. They are meant to be easy to learn and digest. You may have outgrown those beginner spells already, but the principles and concepts that you have comprehended while mastering them serve as the foundation for more advanced applications of fire energy manipulation.”
“You want me to continue with learning more spells?”
“Not the spells, but the working principles that make them work.” Ves corrected the ace pilot. “Learning the spells is a means to an end, though they are quite useful by themselves. Have you taken a look at the documents I have sent?”
“Yes. From what I can understand while skimming over them, they all have to do with teaching me how to defend myself against flames and make myself more fireproof.”
“You will need this knowledge for what is to come.” He told her. “Since you have agreed to upgrade the Promethea Mark II into the very first Bloodfire mech, I want to aim high rather than low.”
“What do you mean by that, sir?”
“Unlike the Yellow Jackets which have one of the lowest possible floors of my works, the Promethea Mark II shall leverage her experimental Bloodfire System to the highest theoretical configuration that I can get away with. I should normally be cautious and err on the side of caution when implementing a brand-new experimental system like this. Trying to form a Blood Pact by using raw and hot fire energy as a substitute for regular human blood is already a risky choice, but I am not satisfied with settling for lower concentrations. I have a theory that the greater the quantities and concentration of fire energy circulating through your body and the mech frame of the Promethea Mark II, the stronger the positive and negative effects of the Bloodfire System.”
As a woman who specialized in playing with fire, she was not unaccustomed to this setup.
“So in other words, you want to push the limits of your new tech as far as you think you can go. You want to trade stability for power. I can definitely see why that is risky, but since we are both so new at this, we don’t entirely know where we should set the limit.”
Ves nodded. “That is true, but I will attempt to determine the safety threshold through numerous experiments that I will conduct on you in the following weeks. At the same time, I want you to learn the theories and practice the techniques described in the documents that I have sent you. I have acquired them by exchanging resources with the Red Collective, so I do not want you to waste this investment. It is vital for you to learn how to make yourself more resistant against fire energy and excessive heat exposure.”
“Is this truly necessary?” She wondered. “I do not mind learning this theory, but I am anything but a normal person now. I hardly have any flesh left. Most of my body is now made up of heat-resistant alloys.”
“I know, but more is always better. I am especially concerned about your ability to tolerate spiritual flames and heat. The fire element is one of the more dangerous E energy attributes that you can encounter. Your advanced tech won’t be able to help you there. When you interface with your ace mech, you will be able to rely on your true resonance and Saint Kingdom to strengthen your artificial body and veins, but I do not think the effect will be too strong. It is a body, not a mech. Normal ace pilots are unable to reinforce their own fleshy bodies with their true resonance, and I expect your case to be the same.”
“I was meaning to talk to you about that, Ves.” Isobel said with a frown. “Ever since I gained this powerful new body of mine, I repeatedly tried to resonate with it, with and without the help of my companion spirit. However, aside from making my body parts slightly stronger and hotter, I failed to produce the same results as I can with a mech.”
He did not look surprised. “It won’t work. Your cybernetic body may remind you of a mech, and it does share a number of similarities, but they are not the same. The reason why it isn’t working is because your body is fundamentally not a mech by definition. It may be a machine, but it is not significantly larger than a human body, and it does not contain any resonating materials. More importantly, it is not developed by a proper mech designer. Instead, your cybernetic body is a custom job involving hundreds of biotech experts, cybernetics specialists and other engineers. All of this means that your body lacks the essential connection that all mechs share.”
Ves was not able to perceive the Red Kingdom and its many connections, but he did not need to guess that it had absolutely nothing to do with Isobel’s cybernetic form.
Whether this was the source or a symptom behind Isobel’s inability to resonate with her body was not quite clear. This was a chicken and egg problem where everyone probably came up with their own opinions.
Regardless, Ves was clear that Isobel’s attempts would never succeed even if she possessed the willpower of a god pilot.
Just as a sword practitioner could only resonate with swords, a mech pilot was only meant to resonate with mechs.
Perhaps you could get away with stretching the definition of the latter by employing machines as small as demimechs or as large as juggernauts, but there were limits to how far you could test the definition of a mech.
Saint Isobel looked disappointed.
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“Oh. I see. Is it possible for you to ‘design’ a new cybernetic body that contains resonating materials? Will that work, you think?”
Ves had to seriously think about the answer. He could see how it could theoretically work, but he still did not believe his work would connect to the Red Kingdom.
“The short answer is that it is unlikely to work.” He told her. “However, there may be a chance to make it work if I attempt to create a demimech instead. It will be considerably larger than a suit of heavy combat armor, but it will be far smaller than a light mech. You won’t be able to fit through tight indoor corridors, but you will still be able to squeeze through larger ones, though stuff like this depends on the design more often than not. If indoor operation is truly necessary, then I could design a very compact tiger or dwarf-style demimech.”
“And I would be able to interface it with my cybernetic body connections rather than a neural interface?” She asked.
“Yes, but… have you just forgotten about your decision to turn the Promethea Mark II into a Bloodfire mech? Bloodfire is just a label. The proper designation for this kind of mech is an advanced fire-attributed Carmine mech. The point is that as soon as you form a Bloodfire Pact with your Promethea Mark II, you must abide by your promise. You are not allowed to pilot any other mech. You will not be able to control this theoretical cybernetic demimech that I can design for you. The fact that your current cybernetic form is not defined as a mech is therefore a boon rather than a curse. If the opposite was the case, you would no longer have a body to control once you exit the cockpit of your ace mech.”
Isobel clearly did not think about these consequences. She frowned and looked down at her artificial arms and body. She started to understand the greater limitations imposed by her new corporeal form.
“I see. We should forget about it, then.”
“We might be able to take advantage of your cybernetic form to do other cool stuff in the future.” Ves proposed. “For example, we can technically detach your head from the rest of the body and place it into a smaller and much more compact cockpit, though that may be a bit too much considering that your torso is essential to the functioning of the Bloodfire System. How about detaching your arms and legs instead? If you are willing to pilot your mech while removing the limbs and stashing them somewhere safe, then Romanda Devos, Gloriana and I can completely redesign the cockpit of the Promethea. Instead of making a traditional cockpit that has enough open space to fit two or three individuals if they squeeze in tight, we can reduce this free space to fit just your head and torso but nothing else.”
Isobel had never thought about this. She looked perplexed as she tried to imagine what it would be like to pilot a mech while residing in such a cramped cockpit.
“Are you treating my body as if it is a plug that needs to be inserted into a socket?”
“That is a pretty good analogy. You can think of it that way. Do not underestimate the benefits of shrinking your free space. The additional capacity can be used to increase the energy reserves of the Promethea Mark II or add enhanced protection to your cockpit. There are many reasons to favor this design choice, and not many reasons that argue against it. I highly recommend you think about accepting this new layout. It won’t work for most mech pilots as they do not like to chop off their arms and legs, but that is not a problem for you. From what I have learned about your cybernetic body, your configuration is semi-modular, meaning that trained personnel can detach your arms and legs without compromising the functionality of the rest of your artificial body. This is ideal for the new cockpit that I have in mind.”
Ves already had plenty of ideas on how he could take advantage of these new conditions!
With a mech as compact as the upcoming Promethea Mark II, it was best to reduce the size of the cockpit and make it a lot more compact without making too many sacrifices in terms of defense, mobility and other essential features.
If the cockpit could be shrunk by a factor of 3 or 4, then that would free up enough capacity to integrate another module or significantly improve the performance of one core system!