The Mech Touch

For this final testing session, Ves didn’t plan to waste too much time. After using the results of the previous testing session to develop a sixth variant beast rider neural interface, he only wanted to see whether it was safe to use.

In this short amount of time, the Vandals selected a bunch of strong dwarf warriors from the large wildling tribe they previously gassed and corralled into makeshift internment casmps. Doctors performed surgery on them, but many of them suffered from complications and died.

In the end, the beast rider project only received five surviving dwarf captives to use as their test subjects for this session.

"Five dwarves are enough." Ves nodded. "Unless something horribly goes wrong, there shouldn’t be any major swings in the sensor readings. No matter what kind of test subject we employ, the neural interface automatically adjusts to their individual traits."

This was a fairly advanced procedure involving some original software. Ves only touched upon this function lightly as he was afraid he could cause someone’s head to explode if he let go of his restraints.

"Sir, the first dwarf captive is strapped and ready to go."

"Alright, commence the first test of the sixth variant."

The sixth variant beast rider neural interface was the culmination of all of their hard work. Based off the stable fifth variant, it incorporated elements of all the other variants, but to a tiny degree.

It squarely sat in the middle ground as far as Ves was concerned. Although holding the middle ground likely didn’t lead to any spectacular results, it came with the advantage of maintaining a near-optimal balance between power and stability.

It was like baking the perfect cake after five different tries. After learning his lessons from his previous five attempts, his sixth attempt should be good enough to satisfy anyone’s taste buds!

The first test proceeded without any substantial differences compared to tests involving the fifth variant. Ves expected nothing less as the final neural interface shared the same roots.

The second, third, fourth and fifth tests all proceeded slowly through hour-long tests. They didn’t let the dwarf captives open a connection and do nothing. Instead, they put the dwarf to its paces, and monitored every scrap of data flowing in either direction.

"The initial tests have finished, sir." An expert reported after completing the fifth test. The older researcher looked at Ves with great respect. His achievements and his involvement in the project contributed greatly to its eventual success. "What do you wish to do with the dwarves? All of them have survived."

Ves thought over it for a moment. "I don’t plan to perform any future sessions. I think the sixth variant is stable enough to be employed by our candidate beast riders. Still, it’s a waste to keep the dwarves alive. Releasing them back to their tribe didn’t give the Flagrant Swordmaidens any benefits.

Since they still had some test subjects on hand, the beast rider project might as well use them all up. "Let’s test out some extreme conditions and see how much the dwarves can take it. We can simulate the results of battle damage in this way."

Dwarves that continued to live through the tests was like unspent money to Ves. Money by itself had little practical use. What made money truly valuable was what they could be exchanged for. Considering that Ves had no more use of this living currency, he might as well spend them in a rush to gather some final data.

Ves proceeded to tamper with the sixth variant neural interface in various ways to simulate battle damage.

In one instance, a vital subcomponent got disconnected, causing the neural interface’s functioning to partially malfunction.

In another instance, he borked the neural interface’s connectors, causing it to transmit half as much data as before.

In a final instance, Ves tampered with the programming by inserting the same lines of code used by the third neural interface.

He wanted to see if he could get a dwarf’s head to explode again.

"The test subject’s vital signs are fluctuating!"

"Pressure is building up in the test subject’s heart and brains!"

The final dwarf left alive finally joined his fallen comrades as he puked up his lungs and bits and pieces of his internal organs.

He died with his head left intact.

"Damn. His head didn’t explode." Ves cursed. "Well, it was a longshot anyway. The sixth variant is too stable compared to the third variant."

In any case, Ves felt more than satisfied with their progress. They wrapped up their equipment and cleaned up the testing site.

"What about the wild god? Do we release it back into the wild?"

Ves looked at the sedated wild god. All the while, it acted as a good prop for their experiments. Maybe it deserved a favor.

Then his stomach roiled a bit. "I think I’m in the mood for some god meat hamburgers. Let’s ask the cooks to butcher it for its meat. All the Vandals and Swordmaidens are still craving for god meat, right? And I’m sure that we can feed a bunch of it to Qilanxo as well."

"If you say so."

According to the exobiologists, the god species sometimes exhibited cannibalism. The wild gods derived an amazing amount of benefits from eating the flesh from a sacred god. They grew enormously in strength for some reason and became incredibly formidable, to the point that the blessed people called them by various names such as ascendant gods or god eaters.

On the other hand, sacred gods didn’t derive much benefits from eating wild gods. Their flesh was of much worse quality, and the sacred gods had little use for the intermediate energy and matter running through wild god meat.

Nonetheless, eating any god meat was a treat to the men.

In the following day, Ves made some final adjustments to the sixth variant neural interface. He incorporated the final bits of lessons and insights learned in the last testing session and shaped the sixth variant closer to perfection.

Eventually, he finished fabricating the final product according to the latest iteration of the design.

The experts of the beast rider project surrounded the neural interface components with reverence. They spent so much time on aiding the development of this fairly compact but significant piece of equipment.

"We have completed something that the galaxy has likely never seen before." Ves stated solemnly. "While we still need to engage in one more test to see if the neural interface works with our candidate beast riders, it is amazing what we have achieved so far from scratch."

"Most of the credit belongs to you, Mr. Larkinson!"

Ves earned the respect of most of the experts that aided him in his research. All of them contributed bits and pieces here and there, but Ves played the leading role in this research project.

From the start, many experts in fact didn’t think they could produce something as ludicrous as a beast rider neural interface. All of them lacked the required expertise even if they combined all their knowledge.

Only Ves remained undaunted by the challenge. He persevered and made some extreme decisions that caused a lot of test subjects to die, but their sacrifices hadn’t been in vain.

He managed to develop a working product in a reasonable timeframe under difficult field conditions!

"What we have accomplished is an advancement for all of humanity!"

Of course, the dwarves that laid down their lives so that a bunch of foreigners could play at becoming beast riders likely didn’t agree. Nobody cared about their opinions, however. The Vandals dumped their remains into a pit and covered it up with soil.

Things moved quickly from then on. Just a half-day later, the experts set up a bunch of equipment around Qilanxo’s form. They inserted her with a bunch of sensors and monitors, but not as much as with the wild god because going overboard might provoke her ire.

Unlike their previous test subjects, the beast rider project needed to take the feelings of their current participants into account.

"Be careful with that! Qilanxo is on our side!"

"I think that’s enough. Qilanxo is starting to get angry!"

Once they finished the preparations, Ves personally climbed up Qilanxo’s back and entered the alloy riding cage the Vandals recently developed. He carefully installed the final version of the beast rider neural interface before inviting the first test pilot to strap themselves in and don the interfacing helmet.

"Who’s going first?" He asked.

Captain Orfan and Lieutenant Dise looked at each other. No one wanted to go first. From what they observed of the beast rider project, the experts didn’t really know what they were doing. A lot of dubious stuff went on that they didn’t fully understand.

To be frank, Ves didn’t blame them for thinking that the beast rider project muddled about in their research. They hadn’t exactly held themselves to the highest standards.

After two minutes of staring into each other’s eyes, the two mech pilots still couldn’t make up their minds.

"Damnit, just decide already! Go roll a dice, guess a number, play rock-paper-scissors or whatever!"

They eventually employed a random number generator that produced a random number between one and a hundred. Orfan and Dise kept guessing the right number in alternating turns until Dise happened to guess the winning number correctly.

"Forty-two!"

"Correct!" Ves declared, and inputted a command on his comm that displayed the result of the random number generator. "Captain Orfan, it seems you have the honor of going first."

"Damnit." The mech captain cursed. "I hope to hell this neural interface of yours won’t fry my brains or anything. You guys tested it on some random dwarf captives, right? Did any of them die?"

Ves released an awkward laugh as some technicians began prepping her into the modified piloting seat. One of the technicians pulled down the interfacing helmet onto her head.

"Technically, all of the dwarves who underwent the proper tests survived."

Captain Orfan looked at Ves with suspicion. Her intuition was quite sharp. "Why do I get the feeling you’re hiding something from me?"

"It doesn’t matter." Ves quickly waved his hand. "All of this science stuff shouldn’t be of interest to you. Just trust me. You’re in good hands here."

Once Captain Orfan sat comfortably in the piloting seat, Ves and the others quickly climbed off Qilanxo’s back and stood back at a healthy distance.

There was a risk that Qilanxo might go crazy or lose control over her body. That was why they made sure to conduct the test far away from the camp. A company of mechs surrounded Qilanxo from a fair distance away. That left them close enough to react if Qilanxo became a threat, but far enough away that they wouldn’t be in reach if she went on the attack.

"Begin the test."

The neural interface began to connect with Captain Orfan’s mind. Ves paid careful attention to this stage because her baseline human brains differed substantially from that of the dwarves. Ves had to incorporate some substantial changes in the interfacing helmet and the settings of the neural interface to compensate.

However, Ves didn’t appear to be too worried because the relevant settings weren’t too different from those of a standard neural interface for mechs. In other words, this was familiar territory.

Once the beast rider neural interface connected with Qilanxo, Ves held in his breath. The connection engaged smoothly as expected, as Qilanxo brain structure didn’t differ too much from the brain structure of a wild god.

After a couple of minutes of stabilization, the connection opened up. Thought patterns translated into data, and data started flowing in both directions.

"Captain Orfan is starting to interface with Qilanxo’s mind!"