?Chapter 6536 Dysfunction in the Cross n


    After Ketis was done with drooling over the Amphis Extremis, Saint Linda Cross briefly gave her a tour of the standard mechs that were currently stored inside the hangar bay of the Hemmington Cross.


    Every crew member and mech pilot bowed low and expressed their deepest respect to the female saint.


    As the second ace pilot of the Cross n after Patriarch Reginald Cross, the status of Saint Linda Cross had already exceeded that of Master Benedict Cortez!


    The Crossers respected high-ranking mech pilots a lot more than high-ranking mech designers.


    Ketis actually found this cultural difference to be a little jarring because it was a lot. different in the Larkinson n.


    The nsmen still looked up to the ace pilots and expert pilots of their n, but nothing could break their utter belief and adoration of mech designers such as Ves Larkinson!


    She shouldn''t be surprised that the two ns looked up to the leaders of different professions.


    The Cross n had always based its sess off the leadership and aplishments of its strongest mech pilots.


    The Larkinson n grew incredibly fast and achieved great prosperityrgely due to the efforts of its best mech designers.


    The founders and leaders of the ns exerted so much influence that the members took on different shapes.


    Ketis actually found it rather refreshing that the Crossers did not revere the ground that the most prominent mech designers in their n walked upon.


    Of course, it was also because there was a notable deficit in excellent mech designers in the Cross n.N?v(el)B\\jnn


    Master Benedict Cortez was not originally a member of the Cross n, so he already suffered from a handicap. Even if the nter went on to copy the model of the Larkinson n and open itself to mass external recruitment, the Master Mech Designer never received the respect he deserved.


    She could pretty much hear it from the idle talk of the Crossers who were working on the Hemmington Cross.


    "Tch. My mech has broken down again. It only took a small hit on the arm, but I lostplete control over the rifle. How am I supposed to keep my shots straight when a single attack can ruin my mech''s uracy? Master Benedict is cking off again." "Is this what the CMC worked on in thest eight months? Why did they remove the third ammunition canister? Don''t they know how many shots it takes to get past the


    energy shields of those annoying phasefighters?! What, the caliber has increased but the firing rate has dropped by half? That out-of-touch Master Mech Designer has gone too far! How are we supposed tond so many hits when it has be harder to shoot down those fast and maneuverable phasefighters? I don''t care if the math ims that it works out a lot better for us. That geeky old guy Benedict has no idea how difficult it is for mech pilots like us to eliminate phasefighters that are bing faster with every generation!"


    "Why is he telling us to abandon our swords? Does he not know how much I trained and fought to be the best swordsman of our ss in the mech academy? I won first ce in twopetitions! Even if I am not as good as those Heavensworders over at the Larkinson n, I have been learning from them! Now, I have to set most of my specialized swordsmanship aside because this haughty mech designer thinks that swords are no use against energy shields! Hah! He can kiss my butt!"


    Ketis couldn''t believe what she heard. Master Mech Designers were among the more respected people of a society, yet the Crossers spoke so crassly about him that they clearly held far too little respect towards the man who was responsible for developing the mechs they relied upon.


    Such talk would never take ce in the Larkinson n!


    Granted, the Crossers who carelessly voiced their true opinions did so out of typical earshot from anyone important.


    Even if these Crossers did not dare to share their true feelings directly in front of Ketis and Saint Linda Cross, the fact that they shared these words at all was a sign that the Cross n did not give mech designers their due.


    The ace pilot shrugged when her extraordinary senses were able to pick up the disrespectful chatter as well.


    "Please excuse our nsmen for theirck of consideration. Our culture has always put. mech pilots on top of mech designers. Some of our nsmen take this too far and cannot fully appreciate the work and sacrifice that mech designers have put into arming them with the best machines."


    Ketis waved her hand. "It is okay. I am not a frail flower. I can handle it. I am just surprised that this problem has gotten so bad in your n. I am not unfamiliar with how the Garlen Empire of the Vicious Mountain Star Sector operated back in the old days. Even if mech designers yed second fiddle over there, the Garleners still looked up to mech designers who can design good machines. I don''t think this is true for your n anymore."


    "There are better leaders in our n that can exin it to you." Saint Linda said in a measured tone. "In my opinion, I think it is because our nsmen are making constantparisons between the works of Patriarch Ves Larkinson and the works of Master Benedict Cortez. Thetter are not necessarily weak, but they are not very... shy. Let me show you what I mean."


    Linda led Ketis to a section where dozens of mechs had been parked.


    Many of the mech models looked familiar to Ketis. What stood out was that most of them fell into two different categories.


    There were ranged mechs that overwhelmingly relied on energy weapons as their source of damage output.


    This paired well with Master Benedict''s design philosophy as the Crosser ranged mechs were able to output greater damage andst significantly longer on the battlefield than otherparable rifleman mechs!


    The melee mechs tended to put much more emphasis on their azure energy shield generators. They relied on their superior power generation to keep their azure energy shields active for a longer time, enabling them to withstand greater punishment than most of thepetition.


    It was not entirely effective when these machines got struck by a warship-grade cannon, but it worked quite well in confrontations against alien phasefighters.


    The weapons loadout of the newer melee mechs were pretty interesting to Ketis. She had apparently caught the Cross n in the middle of a major technological refresh. It was no wonder that she heard some Crossersining about a weapon swap." "Has the armed forces of your n decided to rece their swords with maces?" "It is a controversial change because it is imposed from above. Linda confirmed. "The same rationale that applies for my Amphis Extremis partially applies to standard mechs as well. Blunt weapons with heft to them can inflict more damage to energy shields than ded weapons. Master Benedict cannot stand the inefficiency thates with wielding swords against enemies where swordsmanship is not as relevant. He truly believes that we can achieve statistically better results if our melee mechs all start to bash against energy shields with maces as opposed to swords."


    As a swordsman mech fanatic, Ketis felt offended by the disregard that Master Benedict had shown towards the use of swords.


    "It is true that maces can deal more effective damage against energy shields, but that is too simple of a perspective. Swords are lighter, but also faster and easier to handle. A skilled swordsman mech pilot should be able tounch attacks at a higher frequency and maintain greater control over the mech frame. The slight difference in mass also makes it a little easier for swordsman mechs to catch up to fleeing phasefighters. Finally, far more mech pilots arefortable with wielding swords since it is the first weapon they trained in since they enrolled in the mech academies. It is deeply ufortable for them to lose their swords and get maces in their ce. They are all forced to train their proficiency in maces in order to keep up their performance inbat." Saint Linda Cross brought Ketis to a more isted corner of the hangar bay before turning to face the swordmaster directly.


    "I think you have seen and heard enough to gain an impression on what it is like in our n. What do you think, Ketis?"


    Ketis grimaced and tapped her finger against her forearm. "So far, your Cross n has not made a good impression on me. I do not know whether what I heard from the


    mouths of your nsmen is universal in your n. If it is, then there is clearly a dysfunctional rtionship between the mech pilots and the mech designers around here. Maybe it won''t lead to any major blunders, but it is clear to me that neither groups harbor good feelings towards each other. That will lead to constant friction and frustrations that will only hold you all back in the end.""


    As an ace pilot, Linda Cross could easily hear the truth in the swordmaster''s words. She could not deny that there was something wrong in her n.


    "Who do you think deserves more me, mech pilots or mech designers?"


    "It is not as simple as that." Ketis shook her head. "Both groups have reasons to me


    each other. The mech pilots over here are justified in their belief that mech designers aren''t doing enough to listen to them. The mech designers meanwhile are constantly met withck of gratitude despite all of the earnest work they are doing to give mech pilots a better chance of winning the Red War. I think the ultimate culprits behind all of this dysfunction are Patriarch Reginald Cross and Master Benedict Cortez. Both of them


    deserve equal me."


    "It is quite brave of you to me both of them at the same time."


    "Oh,e on, Linda. I know you Crossers tend to forgive a huge amount of transgressions made by Patriarch Reginald, but you cannot possibly be blind to the fact. that he is an idiot who cannot properly administer a n! That does not necessarily make him a bad leader, but he is much better at inspiring and leading troops in battle than fulfilling the other responsibilities of a leadership figure. Hisck of attention towards the treatment of mech designers is a serious mistake. Every other Crosser has blindly taken over this attitude and continues to devalue my profession. That has probably made it much harder for your n to recruit and retain talented mech


    designers."


    "... You are not wrong, I suppose." Linda actually felt ashamed for the failure of her n to give mech designers their due regard.


    Ketis was not finished yet, though. "At the same time, Master Benedict Cortez deserves


    his own share of me. He has not reformed from the days where his customers were


    ignorant pirates who did not know what was good for them. Don''t get me wrong. His mech designs are all sound and his design choices are all logical. The problem is that he hasn''t shaken the attitude that he knows what is best for mech pilots, and therefore tries to impose his decisions onto them. He is too dismissive of the feelings and opinions of the mech pilots that he is supposed to serve. That would never fly in our n. Ves has always tried his best to understand the actual demands of the mech pilots of his n and respond to their demand even if it doesn''t lead to the most optimal and efficient


    mech designs."


    The differences were too great!


    One of the reasons why the Larkinson mech pilots adored Ves so much was because he


    always did his best to make the piloting experience as pleasant andfortable as he could manage.


    Even if the mechs did not offer superior performance, they always responded so well


    and contained so little sources of irritations that the mech pilots never minded the shorings. The end result was that the Larkinson mech pilots became more motivated and managed to utilize their machines more effectively than average. Master Benedict apparently adopted a different paradigm. He focused much more on maximizing the technical performance of his mech designs, thereby enabling them to attain considerably stronger results... in theory.


    The only issue was that the Crosser mech pilots had plenty of reasons toin about their machines. Master Benedict may have tried to make the objectively best design choices, but they collided so much against the personal needs of individual mech pilots that far too many of them were unable to utilize their machines to their full potential. At least, that was the way that Ketis saw it. Thetter approach was not necessarily the


    worst one, but she personally did not agree with this philosophy as it led to a lot of tension and frustration.


    She could practically feel it across the hangar bay. The mech pilots of the Cross n were blessed with well-designed quasi-first-ss transphasic hyper mechs that possessed strong advantages that they could give the Larkinson mechs a run for their money, yet none of the Crossers were grateful for being able to pilot such powerful


    machines!