[201-400] THE MECH'S TOUCH

Chapter 241: Market Research

He wanted to adopt such a feature into his own design to complement its undying nature, but practical concerns prevented him from going through with this idea.

"It's a lot easier to pull this off in the water than on land. The diminished form will have to come with its own miniature engine and power source, as well as a form of mobility."

Such demands took up too much space to make the concept feasible with the means at hand. Nesting mechs like the fish mech became more prevalent in the galactic center, where superior technology and materials brought about significant gains in performance while requiring relatively little space.

He turned his newly invigorated imagination in another direction. What do mech pilots want in their knight mechs? Ves poured into his research materials to look up the answer.

Ves spotted a tiny detail hidden beneath the personal testimonies. Besides the usual demands for power, armor and speed, the mech pilots wanted to own a mech that could dig.

He played a clip of an interview with a veteran mercenary pilot.

"How often did you find yourself huddled underneath the ground?"

"More often than I liked. The noble armies of the Vesians generally consists of a hodgepodge of designs, but one thing that's very consistent is that they bring lots of artillery, particularly missiles. They ship them in by the bulk and fire off their entire magazines in our direction to soften us up. Sometimes, the Vesians don't even care if they don't hit anything, because the bombardment has already frayed our nerves."

"If you know that they will be throwing missiles at you, why not prepare a portable bombardment shelter?"

"Those things work well, but they're only good for a single time. The cheaper ones weigh a lot so it's a massive pain to lug them around. The more expensive ones don't last long enough to pay for their expenses. It's better to take advantage of the natural soil around us and put a lot of earth between your mech and the missiles raining down in your sector."

"What about bringing in a digger module?"

"Are you kidding? Those things take up even more space, and they're finicky as hell! No, forget about those stupid gadgets. The only thing I need is an old-fashioned spade."

The veteran proceeded to detail the intricacies of digging a makeshift shelter. Different planets and climates led to different soil conditions. It took a lot of technique to dig out a semi-enclosed trench in a reasonable amount of time.

Ranged mechs that formed the mainstay of any squad often broke down easily if they helped with the digging. The arms of a rifleman mech specialized in aiming the weapon as accurate as possible. These types of limbs easily exceeded their maximum carrying limits if they went too far with digging.

More often than not, squads designated knight mechs as their go-to diggers. While knights possessed a lot of strengths, that didn't mean they excelled at digging. Many mech designers overlooked such demands when they came up with their knight designs.

"Interesting." Ves spoke to himself. "Could this be a gap in the market?"

In truth, many mercenaries preferred to be deployed in areas with readily available cover. If they couldn't find anything nearby, they would rather retreat and avoid the bombardment entirely. Only rarely did they decide to stay and ride out the storm.

However, his research into this topic revealed that digging became more prevalent in the later stages of the war. Most battles shifted from well-prepared fortifications to bombed-out ruins and temporary encampments in the wilderness. As everything started breaking down, a mech could only rely on his simple spade for suitable cover.