It's not really that expensive if its cost is shared by a community and it has little to no maintenance or operational costs. Plus it can be utilized for decades so they can market it as a long term asset.

It adds another factor increasing the overall complexity. Sniping with projectiles that go in a straight line is easier than compensating for the altered trajectory.

The gravity well will affect nearby marksman mechs, both aiming and the trajectory of their projectiles. It wont combine well with Davia Stark at least while resonating.

I think you have to be someone who puts mech piloting above everything else. They are so desperate to become expert pilots that they are willing to throw away their lives.

Well, atleast he has a few years this time. He can develop a safer method to develop their spirituality.

I wonder if this will be the last time Ves holds a meeting with Master Willix in person. After he enters the Red Ocean Galaxy, It may take decades to return to the Milky Way.

I think it was right to prioritize the safety of their fleets over finishing their expert mech designs earlier though. Plus, Ves doesn't want to just create any bog standard expert mechs utilizing his design philosophy.

Ves really needs a dedicated vessel for research and high technology.

If I recall correctly, the dwarves found an ore while mining at their dig site. Timpala steel was the the exotic material obtained from processing this ore. I hope Ves gets more manpower so he can get a dedicated research vessel for materials and high technology.

Saving up for expert mech knowledge maybe?

Now the spies have been rooted out, the clans can cooperate more closely.

Great setting, the author uses some popular tropes like systems, returning to the past etc.. but puts his own twist on them. The only issue I have with the story is that the author tends to drag on with his philosophical thoughts.

Basically, Ezra's glow acts as a force multiplier for living mechs by improving the synergy between the man machine through a stronger emotional connection and improved perception. 'Non living' mechs receive a smaller gain to their synergy as they benefit from perception of their surroundings but not through a stronger emotional bond with their mechs. Enemy mech pilots are also affected as they are more emotional making them take irrational decisions. If Ezra can boost the emotional connection between man and machine, any living mech with Ezra as the design spirit should be the easiest 'living mech' for a pilot to synergize with. Ezra can also help pilots detect enemies when conventional sensors fail. Thanks for reading, Exlor. If you select either of my entries please feel free to change any aspects you wish.

Poor expert pilots, first they get manipulated into various wars and after their service, the remains are harvested. I bet their descendants don't receive anything either.

Too bad James isn't around anymore. He could have easily answered how clones and spirituality work. So far, Ves only has clues but not answers about how spirituality and life is connected.

He would go ballistic if he had any inkling of what happened to his fathers body.

Wow, he revealed a lot of sensitive information

Hey Daniel, you forgot to include the ingredients for your design spirit and how they are utilized to make the design spirit.

Design Type: Artificial Design Spirit. Name: Ezra the Astral Empath. Ingredients: Spiritual fragments (Ves, Lucky, Blinky, Joshua, Nitaa and Quilanxo) and Life Serum. Appearance: Humanoid female youth with cat ears, tail and fangs. Intelligence: 4. Adaptability: 2. Ability Diversity: 2. Ability Power: 2. Ves, concerned by increased activity of the compact in civilized space, wanted to prepare his fleet against covert infiltrators. Having experienced advanced spiritual abilities like invisibility, he knew his clan was woefully under prepared. He also had greater ambitions, he wanted to see whether his new design spirit could nurture the spiritual perception of his pilots. To create an adequate design spirit he wanted to hold an elaborate ceremony but rather than an ostentatious display, he decided on a more intimate ceremony. Moreover, since the spiritual fragments were all obtained from his most loyal clansmen and spiritual friends, they could also take part in the ceremony. In a large, lively chamber four humans and three spiritual beings sat in a circle surrounding a humanoid statue. Ves started talking about the limitless potential of life. He described how life was not just a simple consciousness with a will. Life needed keen senses to observe the world and communicate with other lives to fulfill its potential. Life came in many forms flesh and blood, spiritual and even non organic but all life needed powerful senses to manipulate their world. Ves selected six ingredients to represent a specific sense. Ves's fragment represented sight as he could perceive spiritual phenomena, Lucky represented hearing as she could listen to the pleas of the Larkinsons, Blinky represented taste as he had the ability to decipher and consume spiritual energy, Joshua represented touch as he could connect to various spiritual beings, Nitaa could detect scents using her spiritual sense of smell and Quilanxo represented the extrasensory perception of ones body and its position in relation to the surrounding space. Ves directed the participants to hold an image of their specific sense in relation to the new spirit. As the ceremony came to a close Ves shattered the six fragments and added the life serum, Gloriana aided in perfecting the being. Soon, the statue in the center seemed to come to life. While in the presence of the glow Ves felt more sensitive to the lives and emotions of those nearby. He felt more aware of himself and his surroundings. Ves imagined that pilots would be affected more emotionally by other glows while under the affect of Ezra's glow. This would make mech pilots improve the coordination and handling of their mechs through a closer connection with their living mechs. He hoped that spiritually gifted pilots would be able to detect spiritual phenomena from mechs and even be able to project their emotions to allies or enemies. Perhaps they would be able to read the intentions of enemy pilots. All of this would help pilots detect stealth mechs and enemies outside their direct line of sight.

Imagine the profits the MTA could make off Ves if he sold expert pilots for 500,000 a pop. If the MTA do use expert pilots for life serum, I bet they could easily charge 10,000,000 for lower grade serum and upwards of 100,000,000 and higher for high grade serum. Those mech designers are getting milked for all their worth.