Chapter 1150. Extreme Abundance (1/2)
The Greater Terran United Confederation was the latest manifestation of the oldest continuous state in human civilization. Although the names might change, the humans who looked up to the ancestry of Old Earth always referred to themselves as Terrans.
As one might expect, Terrans thought highly of themselves. Old Earth was the original birthplace of mankind and even in the Age of Mechs it continued to play a pivotal role as one of the most important cultural institutions of the human race.
The stuck-up ancient clans that ruled at the top were so oppressive and insufferable that at some point during the Age of Conquest, a large amount of colonies rose up in rebellion!
Suffice to say, a lot of non-Earth humans hated the Terran elites and were just waiting for a moment to shake loose from their rule!
While the Terrans managed to suppress most of the uprisings in time using their awesome military might, the cowardly Terran leaders kept too many warships close to home. This afforded some of the more powerful rebellious colonies situated further away from Old Earth precious time to establish themselves!
By the time the conservative Terrans finally realized what their cautious defensive and reactive stance had wrought, the New Rubarth Empire already came into existence!
Ever since then, the Terrans needed to contend with the new kid on the block.
Having unshackled themselves from the stuffy Terrans, the newly-emerged Rubarthans quickly caught up and overtook their old masters! The bold and daring reforms they implemented through every layer of their society enabled the Rubarthans to become incredibly productive!
Seeing the Rubarthans rise up and take over the crown that rightfully belonged to the original birthplace of mankind, the Greater Terran United Confederation tentatively reformed their own society.
They had no choice! If they continued to stick to the old ways that led to most of their far-flung colonies rising up in arms, the Terrans would continue to decline!
In the end, while the Terrans implemented a lot of decent reforms, the ancient clans were far too unwilling to enable others to challenge their oligopoly on power. Many outside observers considered their reforms to be too half-hearted. Many of the same inefficiencies and excesses that plagued the old Terrans still existed in modern times.
This was why most of the galaxy considered the New Rubarth Empire to be the new standard bearers of humanity. Other than the Big Two, most of human space now looked up to the Rubarthans for leadership.
Ves always thought that the weakness of the Greater Terran United Confederation had always been overstated. Much of the galaxy became so inured in the wide reach of pro-Rubarthan influences that they completely disregarded the fact that the Confederation was still a first-rate superstate!
Yet now that the System forcefully inserted his consciousness in the mind of a decadent junkie like Axelar Streon, he began to think the Rubarthans may had a point!
Axelar possessed so much talent and ability, but he squandered it all!
Just the a-la-carte automatic mech design service he had access was an incredibly powerful tool in the right hands! Ves had never seen a layman put together a mech so easily!
In the right hands, a mech pilot would be able to use the auto designer to pick and choose the properties of a mech from the ground up!
This was incredibly valuable because a mech pilot would not be stuck with the same strengths and weaknesses of their existing mechs. A mech pilot who used an auto designer to their full potential would be able to put together a mech that precisely countered the opposition!
Combined with materialization technology that could faithfully reproduce any mech design down to the atom, then the power and versatility at Axelar's disposal should have been enough for him to dominate
Yet what did Axelar do with all of this power?
He just picked and chose random components and let the AIs mash them together without any regard for fit and synergy!
Ves was vaguely able to determine the date from some of the tech he witnessed in the auto designer's catalog. He estimated that the System sent him back at least ninety years this time.
Even then, most of the high technology at Axelar's disposal astounded him! Even though this junkie probably hadn't been coherent enough to know what he was putting in his own mech, the parts he selected all cost a fortune!
The mech that Axelar ended up with was technically a multipurpose mech. It featured half-a-dozen weapon systems, most of them integrated all over the torso and the head of the abomination the AIs produced.
Axelar only added a positron rifle and a Destroyer Sword out of force of habit.
The bloated hero mech that came out possessed arms unsuited for the weapons they carried, a targeting system that only worked well with heavy artillery weapons, legs that were a bit too light for all of the mass it was meant to support, a flight system with wings that were way too massive and cumbersome, an armor system that should have only been used in heavy mechs, and an amazingly resilient active shielding system that drained the mech's insufficient power supply within minutes!
In other words, the auto-generated hero mech that Axelar was about to duel with was a sluggish, bloated mess with practically no endurance should it activate all of its systems!
If Ves was in charge, he would have easily been able to build a mech that was at least ten times more effective in battle!
”You stupid drug-addled idiot!” Ves mentally cursed at Axelar. ”Even if you know nothing about mech design, you should at least know better than to weigh your mech down with such a cumbersome armor system! Even if the flight system you chose is powerful, that is only the case with proper medium mechs!”
As it was, the hero mech that Axelar ended up with was practically a sitting duck! Its turning rate was so slow that practically any competent opponent would be able to circle around and attack Axelar's mech from the rear!
Even as Ves vented his frustration at Axelar for constantly clouding his mind with recreational stimulant, he also noted the technologies at the Terran highborn's disposal.
Practically every aspect surpassed the technology used in the galactic rim by an incredible margin!
”With all of this high technology and high-grade exotics at the Confederation's disposal, it's no surprise that they don't stick to specialized mech archetypes.”
Many weapon systems didn't take up a lot of space, but could nevertheless inflict a lot of damage. This led to the trend of integrating various weapon systems in the frame of the mech.
It was kind of like integrating frontline mech traits into the frame of a standard humanoid mech. Through combining numerous internal and external weapon systems into a single machine, a multipurpose mech exhibited much fewer apparent weaknesses.