[1-200] THE MECH TOUCH

Chapter 157: Stealth Armor

He had no other choice. He underestimated the amount of buffers a high-powered laser rifle demanded. Many simulations frequently ended badly due to minute unintentional heat dispersion. Some of the rifle's more sensitive components had a tendency to melt into a puddle if that happened.

The materials he had to work with limited his options. While Dr. Kawasaki had the luxury of working with modern materials, Ves could only choose from a small selection of exotics. What he couldn't accomplish with quality, he had to substitute it with quantity. Hence the added bulk.

The only good thing that came out of it was that the rifle could now handle six shots at a time.

"Now that I'm done with the weapon, let's move on to the mech."

He already completed one major modification. The next phase entailed modifying the frame to compliment its intended fighting style. In order to be an effective mech right out of the gate, it had to avoid enemy detection and pursuit.

"Didn't I already own a license for a particle generator?"

His Mist Prowler threw up a cloud of vapor and particles in order to obscure his surroundings. While the Mist Prowler used the cloud offensively, it could also be used as a tool for escape.

He browsed his existing licenses and saw that he owned the virtual license of the Relix Systems Valhalla Particle Ejection Module 1st Edition.

"It'll do."

Before he integrated the particle generator into his design, he first had to revamp the entire frame. He did his usual routine of updating and optimizing the mech's internal layout. His previous experience along with his broad if somewhat shallow knowledge allowed him to make many minor modifications.

As a stationary mech employed strictly behind a defensive line, the base model suffered from an abysmally low RF and CF. Anything that penetrated past its relatively lackluster armor could easily cripple the Tryops.

While Ves considered doing nothing, his professional attitude forced him to at least give his variant a chance to survive. He spent quite a bit of time increasing the mech's redundancy, but focused mostly on increasing its internal compartmentalization.

His design was not meant to be a tank, and he didn't wish to compromise on the mech's offensive capabilities. This forced him to make a lot of compromises in order to insure his design possessed enough high capacity energy cells and solid heat sinks in order to complement its demanding weapon.

As the days went by, Ves continued to tweak and redesign the mech's internals until he became satisfied with what he had. The mech's survivability was never going to break any records, but now it could at least withstand a couple more potshots.

That left his variant's armor.

If Ves wanted to turn his design into a viable long-ranged ambusher, then he would have to make it much more difficult to detect. Even in a thickly forested environment, mechs could still detect other mechs.

If you thought about it, mechs were giant hunks of metal that generated a lot of power and heat. This gave a lot of mech designers headaches because an early detection could easily ruin an entire mission.

"The particle generator is no use in this case. It's hard to stay hidden if there's a giant cloud of sensor-blocking particles hovering over your hiding spot. It's like holding up a giant 'I AM HERE' sign."

Ves had to turn to Iron Spirit's catalog in order to find another answer. He entered the armor section and filtered out everything he didn't want. Nothing too heavy, nothing too light, nothing too obvious, he briskly threw away anything that failed to meet his standards.