[1-200] THE MECH TOUCH

Chapter 21: Cladding

In the Marc Antony's case, Ves decided keeping its engines and power reactor working his main priority. The mobility of the mech must not be compromised. The cockpit still enjoyed adequate protection, but not to the exaggerated extent of the base model. The cockpit's frontal protection got reduced by as much as 50%, an inevitability considering the HRF armor plating's lack of exceptional attributes. Layering too many plates on top of each other not only wasted Ves' armor budget, it also threatened to upset the mech's balance.

Still, considering the HRF's much cheaper cost, it was a price worth paying in some situations.

Ves spent some time with the rear torso, but not too much except for thickening it a little bit. The Caesar Augustus possessed above average rear armor, but if Ves replaced it the same thickness in HRF plating, he'd turn the Marc Antony in a mech with its rear section dangerously naked. He had no choice to bulk up the rear, choosing to incorporate some subtle angles that helped deflect damage aimed at the cockpit or engines, but otherwise keeping it plain.

The shoulders deserved special attention. Jason's CA-1 employed shoulder launchers for long-ranged missiles. This wasn't anything unusual for mech designers who wanted to offer a long-ranged solution to round out their mech's deficiencies in that area, but Jason very clearly half-assed the attempt. The Caesar Augustus was not a mech that specialized in lengthier engagements at longer ranges, so it carried no room for additional missiles. In short, the launchers only fired the missiles in its tubes before they became useless ornaments.

He considered removing them. Sure, the launchers were relatively small and light, and didn't hinder the mech's mobility all that much. On the other hand, it added little firepower beyond its initial salvo and the addition of the system and its mechs meant its logistical footprint grew larger than what could be justified.

"Well, it's not like anyone has to stick to these missiles. They can easily change them to something to their liking."

These days, missile systems became a lot more standardized than in the past, where each manufacturer used different sizes to monopolize the sale of refills. The missile launchers employed by Jason came from a reputable manufacturer, so plenty of missile types could fit in. Shorter ranged missiles that lacked sophisticated guidance options packed a lot of punch, which might be crucial when employed with great timing.

He spent a lot of time refining the torso before moving on to the arms. Most humanoid mechs employed arms as their primary weapon platform. They required protection from harm due to their essential role in a mech's offense, but they also had to retain their nimbleness in order to operate their weapons as smoothly as real human arms.

Regarding the use of arms, mech designers generally chose from three different options. One was to keep the arms articulated like a human's, letting the mech depend on external weapons like pistols and rifles. Great importance is placed on mimicking the arms to its biological equivalent, sometimes achieving a synchronization of up to 99%. This allowed marksmen to fire their weapons as accurately as they could in real life without depending on aim assist and other guided aids, which provides a remarkable advantage in certain times.

Another route was to embed weapons in the wrists. Usually smaller and less powerful than handheld weapons, it kept the arms free to wield weapons while simultaneously offered additional firepower without detrimentally affecting weight and carrying capacity all that much. However, such weapons systems needed to be fed energy or other resources from the torso. Accommodating these needs weakened the arms internally and created more weak points. The wrist-mounted weapons also unbalanced the arms and made hand-mounted weaponry less accurate.

The third, most extreme way of employing arms was to replace the lower arm or even the entire arm for a dedicated weapon emplacement. This made mechs lose the ability to hold external equipment, but they gained a powerful weapon affixed to a stable platform. Mech designers generally regarded these designs as trying to marry a tank into a mech. Such a solution is generally employed on frontline mass production models. Larger Mech Corps made the best use of large numbers of uniformly equipped mechs and also had the most need for large-caliber weaponry that the weapon arms usually affixed.