When Ves stepped aboard the gargantuan Hemmington Cross once again, he noted that the Crossers had stuffed a lot of mechs in the hangar bay.

Every ship in the expeditionary fleet was in the same straits. The alliance picked up so much salvage from the battlefield that every space had to be utilized as efficiently as possible.

In fact, a lot of mech stables, hangar bays and cargo bays were stuffed with ugly wrecks and broken parts.

Of course, the crew of the Hemmington Cross didn't haphazardly toss their salvage in the hangar bay used to greet the incoming guests.

Instead, the best mechs of the Cross Clan stood in neat rows. When Ves and his wife studied their appearances, they instantly recognized that they had been deliberately fixed up and polished to a shine in order to present a magnificent image.

The sight of all of those military mechs that had proven themselves in battle was capable of impressing everyone, especially those who worked with them and knew about them. In fact, the more they knew about mechs, the more they appreciated the design and deadliness of these machines.

What was even more interesting was that these standard mechs only served as a backdrop to the expert mechs of the hosts.

The Amphis took up a prime position further ahead. The sturdy and dependable knight mech with its iconic chainsword had been the only Crosser expert mech to make it through the Battle of Reckoning intact.

As the Miracle Couple and cats moved closer, they eagerly studied the design characteristics of this solid machine.

"It's not the most sophisticated expert mech I've seen, but it definitely ranks at the top when it comes to sturdiness." Gloriana remarked.

She possessed substantially more experience with expert mechs than Ves. Her experience in certain Hexer development projects gave her a more critical understanding of their design principles.

"I can tell that the Amphis is a Senior-grade mech, which means that a Senior must have been its lead designer. This is obvious in how simple it is. While there is nothing wrong with aiming for simplicity, the mech clearly lacks additional features that can amp up the mech even further."

Ves nodded in understanding. "The previous battle showed that the Amphis possesses a distinct lack of mobility. While it doesn't have to be able to catch up to a light skirmisher, it could have benefited from having a short-duration booster system that allows it to jump on its opponents or catch them by surprise."

One of the lessons he learned from the previous battle was that the weaknesses of any expert mech became a lot more impactful.

In the case of larger forces, standard mechs which often fought alongside hundreds or thousands of different mechs. Different specialized mechs were able to cover each other's weaknesses, allowing them to make full play of their strengths.

For example, the Transcendent Punishers were extremely vulnerable against melee mechs, but the Ylvainan mech pilots never had to be afraid of that because other Larkinson mechs would fend off these threats on their behalf.

Yet at the expert mech level, it was impractical to depend too much on mixing and matching. The low quantities of expert mechs involved in battle meant that every powerful machine was vulnerable.

This was especially the case when the opposing mechs were being piloted by expert pilots, who possessed the skill and acumen to exploit every identifiable weakness.

Ves thought that the performance of one-dimensional mechs was quite poor in the previous battle.

The Imperial Verdict was no doubt a lethal mech up close with its trident. Yet it spent much of its time trying to get within striking distance of the Crosser expert mechs while fending off attacks from multiple directions.

The Amphis possessed stellar defense and a surprising amount of threat within the range of its chainsword, but the Preator and Planat expert mechs weren't stupid enough to let it approach.

Hybrid mechs such as the Bolvos Rage and the Trost proved to be more flexible and more able to respond to different situations.

Even Venerable Damira Planat's Erin Tear displayed some enhanced mobility and ranged threat despite its excellence in melee combat.

This was why both Ves and Gloriana soon dismissed the Amphis in favor of admiring the Bolvos Rage.

Expert mechs were informally split up into different performance tiers. Low-tier expert mechs were the most common. They had to be designed with lower budgets in mind, so they utilized less resonating materials and didn't possess too many features.

The Bolvos Rage was different. Its entire frame was packed with either stellar parameters or extremely useful features.

"It looks like Professor Cortez worked overtime to repair the battle on this expert mech." Gloriana remarked. "I can still spot some of the signs of hasty repairs. Its chest projector may look operational, but I'm sure that's only the case on the surface. In truth, its overall effectiveness may have dropped by as much as a fifth."

Ves missed that particular detail, but now that his wife had pointed it out, he could see why she made this judgement. The Bolvos Rage was still a wounded mech underneath its shiny metal exterior.

Regardless, it was still the best hybrid mech that Ves had ever witnessed with his own eyes. He was mentally running back the battle performance of this expert mech as he examined each and every known weapon system.

Every aspect of the Bolvos Rage was meticulously designed. The more Ves studied it, the more he admired its nuances.

"It's amazing how the Bolvos Rage is able to accommodate so many integrated weapon systems." He expressed. "The expert mech is able to integrate all of these armaments seamlessly without overly compromising its defenses. Its other parameters are also up to par, and it can even fight up close with a pair of handheld weapons. Perhaps its only true shortcoming is that it doesn't possess any supremely powerful weapons."

Gloriana mentioned another weakness. "Don't forget about its short endurance. In the previous battle, the mech expended much of its weapon systems, leaving it with relatively few options at the end. I think Patriarch Reginald demanded a solution that excels in fighting against other expert mechs, either in a fair duel or in a short brawl between mechs of the same level."

"It clearly does the job considering that it managed to fight against the Erin Tear on an equal basis."

The two stopped their current discussion as they finally reached the greeting party.

Patriarch Reginald Cross, Professor Cortez, Venerable Linda Cross and some other important Crossers wore their best dress uniforms. Golden cords and epaulettes embellished their white and pale blue uniforms. Impressive-looking medals rested on their chests as if to emphasize the battle prowess of their wearers.

Ves felt distinctly underdressed in their company. While he still had a collection of old Brighter medals, he felt it was too shameless to show them off. After all, the people he was meeting with wouldn't be impressed by awards given out by a pitiful little third-rate state.

Still, he quickly suppressed this feeling. He was a mech designer. As far as he was concerned, his mech designs were his medals.

"Patriarch Ves. Welcome back to the Hemmington Cross."

The leader of the Cross Clan didn't appear to have sustained any lingering wounds from the previous battle. The older and larger man stepped forward and patted Ves on the shoulder.

"I truly feel vindicated for partnering up with you. The mechs your clan deployed are so remarkable that I truly cannot wait to receive an expert mech that has benefited from your input. If you can design a mech that allows me to slaughter the entire crew of a capital ship like the Auralis, I promise to fight your enemies unconditionally for the span of a decade!"

The other Crossers in the greeting party looked surprised at their patriarch's spontaneous offer. Reginald clearly hadn't discussed this demand with the rest of his people!

Professor Benedict Cortez quickly stepped forward. "I believe that some of the capabilities displayed by the Larkinson Clan are subject to very harsh requirements. We cannot expect Patriarch Ves to reveal his trump cards to us so casually. Isn't that right?"

"Your guest designer is correct." Ves nodded, but then proceeded to display a slight smile. "However, there is a possibility that I might be persuaded to offer some of my more exclusive services to your clan. Just take into account that the results might not be as drastic and the price will be steeper than you can imagine."

That left the Crossers with a lot of food for thought.

While Ves wanted to keep his trump cards for himself at first, the salesman within him recognized a potentially lucrative business opportunity. Patriarch Reginald badly wanted to obtain the strongest expert mech possible.

Ves just happened to have a couple of methods that could strengthen any mech in a unique fashion. These methods were not only strong, but unable to be replicated by any other competitor!

As a result, as long as his services were attractive enough, he could keep teasing Patriarch Reginald with possibilities, theory driving up his desire until he was willing to give up almost anything to empower his mech!

Of course, Ves didn't expect to sign a deal right away. He left his pitch at that and only answered a couple of questions.

"Can you truly enable our clan to perform an extraordinary group attack comparable to that of your Penitent Sisters and Swordmaidens?"

"It's possible, but it only works for close comrades who are all uniform to a degree." Ves openly explained. "They need to be closely aligned in thought, training, inclinations and so on. They don't have to be identical, but there has to be enough common ground to pool their strengths together. Also, there has to be someone powerful enough to enable this move. An expert pilot will do as far as I know."

Professor Cortez carefully memorized the revealing information. "This application reminds me of the neural networks of a certain Fridayman Master. Is there any relation?"

"I have a history of fighting against Master Huron. I had a few brushes with Master Huron's apprentice in the past." Ves calmly replied. "She even showed up during the previous battle, along with two different applications of neural networks. It's a shame that I haven't been able to capture the Master's research data."

"You wouldn't be able to comprehend his work anyway, Mr. Larkinson. Neural network tech is exceedingly obtuse to understand to those who do not specialize in this field. It isn't good for your development to spend an excessive amount of time on studying the work of another Maser."

"You do not need to remind me. I am still focused on making my own creations rather than copying someone else's work."

The two continued to chat about general mech designer topics. Patriarch Reginald quickly became bored as he could no longer keep up with the technical jargon.

Fortunately, his boredom soon passed as the next guests arrived.

Colonel Ariadne Wodin, Venerable Brutus Wodin and a couple of other senior officers of the Glory Seekers arrived.

"Good day, patriarchs." The older woman tactfully greeted them all. "I see your mechs are back in shape."

"We have been knocked down more times than we can count. We always get back up." Patriarch Reginald grinned.

The relations between the Larkinson Clan, Glory Seekers and Cross Clan had warmed up considerably after the Battle of Reckoning.

No matter what, fighting alongside each other brought them closer together. By combining their forces to take down their collective opponents, they learned they could trust their allies to cover each other's backs.

This was an important development to Ves. It was better to fight alongside friends rather than a bunch of strangers. While he still cared about binding allies together through mutual interests, he saw hope of forging more permanent bonds.

He didn't mind offering some extra benefits as long as his allies reciprocated. Besides, it was a good way to gain another batch of voluntary test subjects.