[401-600] THE MECH'S TOUCH

Chapter 433: Rotten Core

As a spaceborn hybrid mech design, the Hellcat had been stretched into two opposite directions right at the onset of its conception. In the eyes of someone like Ves, he would argue that the Hellcat lacked a unifying vision that could have guided the design to better straits.

"It's as if two stubborn kids wanted to play with the same doll and stretched it out between them as they tried to claim sole ownership over the toy."

The consequences to this could be imagined. The Hellcat, with its incongruous tiger head and substantially armored build looked like a cross between two very different mechs. The addition of the nail drivers and the missile launchers seemed more like gimmicks tacked on as an afterthought rather than a mainstay that the mech could rely on to save the day.

"At least the Caesar Augustus can rely on its miniature laser cannons to take out targets just out of range of its sword."

The Caesar Augustus was a much more inferior mech in terms of specs and scope, but the mere fact that it had been designed by a single mech designer who knew what he wanted made it a more coherent design.

Compared to the first work of an Apprentice Mech Designer, the Hellcat incorporated many advanced techniques and applications. Even after studying the additional documents made available to him, Ves hardly understood how the original designers managed to stuff so much capabilities in so little space.

Nevertheless, the current foibles with the Hellcat design underscored that technical prowess couldn't compensate for a lack of vision.

"It's not that it can't be done, but this is just a case where the original designers didn't leave any leeway for the future."

Ves found it sad that such a promising design had been born with what effectively amounted to a deformity. It didn't became very evident at birth, but as it grew older, the design started to crack and show its weaknesses.

Therefore, the responsibilities piled up on the shoulders of the Hellcat design team was too much for them to cope. Even Ves couldn't steer away a ship that was determined to travel right into a sun.

Sadly, even if Alloc and Professor Velten were aware of this critical fault, they couldn't convince the Vandals to replace their prestige mechs with a different design. Organizational inertia meant that the design team needed to stick with this creaking product no matter how much it fell apart.

"How depressing."

This important realization put his role into perspective. He shouldn't attempt to do anything too ambitious. With his current level of skill, he had no chance in revamping the design to a healthy state.

The best he could describe its situation was that the longevity of the design was running out. Rather than extending its useful lifetime, Ves could only improve some minor performance parameters in order to let the Hellcat make the most out of its final years of active use.

Ves had no doubt that the Vandals would eventually be forced to drop the Hellcat design during this war. The Vesian mech designers faced a lot of pressure in improving their own designs, and if the Hellcat failed to keep up, its end would come sooner or later.

"That's something that will happen at least a year from now on. For now, the Hellcat is still a viable mech."

He returned to the list of problems and decided to tackle an issue that was challenging but one he could also complete within a month. It concerned a very persistent problem regarding the energy efficiency of the mech.

The Hellcat's high performance metrics and ability to make an immediate impact on the battlefield came at a cost. The power draw was enormous and the heat that it built up was very problematic for a mech in space.