The Mech Touch

The Doom Guard had entered the market for just several months, but already the astonishing new striker mech model had shook up the mech market!

Within Hegemony-aligned space and a little bit beyond, the local and regional branches of the LMC worked together with hundreds of third-party manufacturers to deliver as many Doom Guards in the hands of customers as possible.

Sales had shot up in the first weeks and already reached an enviable height so far! Numerous other mech designers could only look on with envy as the LMC benefited from a massive amount of publicity as numerous news publications and mech publications gushed over the intimidating but incredibly novel Doom Guard.

Propelled by enthusiastic journalists and industry insiders, the market came to adopt the Doom Guard through a combination of factors.

First, despite its problematic handling issues, the mech already proved at the start that it was extremely effective at its designated role.

Second, it received the support of several authoritative figures within the mech community. Even the renowned Master Willix of the Mech Trade Association indirectly endorsed the new product!

Third, the early battles where it had been put to use had already resulted in dramatic swings in battle. Those who fielded the Doom Guard almost always achieved better results than before!

Fourth, the consistently stellar reputation of the LMC caused many customers to trust in its latest product.

Fifth, the rising fame and accomplishments of the Miracle Couple dazzled everyone in the local mech community!

All of these factors and more caused the Doom Guard to solidify its place in the mech market for the foreseeable time. If not for its premium price tag, it might have easily reached the sales of the Soldier product line at its prime!

In a war-stricken star system, forces from the Hinsen Protectorate and the Phantasm Republic struggled to take control of a piece of territory that used to belong to the Chuka Republic.

With the fall of the latter, the three third-rate states that surrounded their prey had gorged upon the carcass and annexed many star systems.

Yet that wasn't enough for some!

The states were very reluctant to declare war against each other, therefore preventing their mech militaries from engaging in hostities.

Yet they didn't want to let go of any star system within reach! The upper ranks all knew that in this volatile time, this is their best opportunity to grab some extra stars. Once the borders solidified, it was much harder to grab more territory!

Due to these realities, a large proxy war erupted. The Traditional Tribe, the Hinsen Protectorate and the Phantasm Republic all hired and armed the local mercenary corps and sent them off the contested star systems to struggle for supremacy.

Proxy wars offered some of the most lucrative opportunities to enterprising mercenaries!

They also tended to turn into bloodbaths. This meant that only the most patriotic, greedy or overconfident mercenary corps participated in these proxy wars.

Though the skirmishes and conflicts taking place in this contested region had swayed back and forth without much result for a time, the introduction of a new mech model changed the equation.

Doom Guards started showing up by the dozens, then the hundreds, then the thousands!

With some of the early adopters fielding entire Doom Guards, the formation of striker mechs foiled many attempts to come to blows!

Many offensive maneuvers failed as the melee mechs that eagerly closed the distance all flew back at the last moment or fought under visible suppression.

The slow-moving striker mechs did not remain on the defensive either. Despite their low mobility, plenty of outfits started to experiment with employing them in offensive actions.

From slow-marching them towards the enemy to modifying the mechs in order to enhance their acceleration, a vast community of enthusiasts and professionals banded together to develop the best solution!

Just one month after the release of the Doom Guard, the first modification kits started to enter the market.

Designed by teams of various mech designers who licensed the Doom Guard design, these mod kits consisted of a large collection of parts and components as well as instructions on how to install them onto a base model.

In many cases, the mod kits for the Doom Guard mostly entailed replacing some of the stock parts of its flight system and adding some extra components meant to increase the mech's mobility!

Though the price of these mod kits ranged from 100,000 to 1,000,000 hex credits, many owners of the base models who were frustrated by the lack of mobility eagerly spent the money to address this shortcoming!

The aftermarket modifications were very simple to apply. No mech designers needed to supervise the procedure as the mech technicians merely had to follow the instructions to the letter.

Two results emerged after installing the kits.

First, the overhauled Doom Guards accelerated much faster in space, allowing them to keep up with most spaceborn mechs!

Second, their glows weakened a bit as the modified mechs differed drastically from the original design.

By now, the mech community had already learned that it was very difficult to preserve the strength of the glow of a mech when making alterations.

The owners of LMC mechs had gradually learned that only slow adjustments and customizations over a longer stretch of time allowed the glow to remain strong. The adjustment period aborted many attempts at introducing radical changes to prior LMC mech models.

In any case, it wasn't a big deal in the past. The Desolate Soldier and other LMC mechs already performed well enough in their original incarnations. The demand for mod kits wasn't particularly strong.

That was before the Doom Guard entered the scene. Months before the LMC was prepared to release a light skirmisher that was meant to address this need, the customers themselves had already come up with their own remedies!

With several different mod kits selling like hotcakes, the proxy war in the former Chuko Republic abruptly intensified!

Mercenary corps fighting for all three sides started to experiment with their modified Doom Guards.

Battles that pitted one group of Doom Guards against an enemy group of Doom Guards became increasingly more common!

The duels between the Doom Guards quickly became notable for how much they diverged from traditional clashes between mechs.

First, many mercenary corps desperately hired and trained mech pilots who exhibited strong mental fortitude. In order to pilot a Doom Guard, they had to be strong-willed enough to withstand its glow from point-blank range!

Fortunately, unlike the mech designers who applied to work under the Miracle Couple, it was not as difficult to headhunt fearless mech pilots.

As every mech pilot trained for combat since their teens, the best of them developed considerably solid minds!

Even so, no Doom Guard pilot could withstand the nauseous ripples and inexplicable terror forever, especially when several of the glows overlapped with each other!

As a result, battles between Doom Guards rarely ended up with one of them downing the other.

The mech pilots always broke before their mechs sustained critical damage!

As long as one side's Doom Guards all retreated from the field, the other side gained a substantial advantage for the remainder of the battle!

"Damn these Doom Guards! I hate the LMC for introducing them to the galaxy."

"Stop whining! If you want to beat these Doom Guards, then go train your courage some more. What the others have been doing is actually working, you know."

Even the mercenary corps who had no intention of relying on Doom Guards to win their battles were still compelled to purchase at least one copy, if only to train their mech pilots to withstand the harmful glow!

Through these developments, the Doom Guard model became more and more ubiquitous in the states that offered it for sale.

Even the people in Coalition-aligned space started to pay more attention to the Doom Guard and other LMC mechs!

Sadly, no matter how much the demand pent up, with the Friday Coalition officially sanctioning Ves Larkinson and anything related to him, no glows graced their territories.

It was also at this time when LMC mechs began to establish a serious presence in the Vicious Mountain and Majestic Teal Star Sector.

Buoyed by all of the accomplishments of the Miracle Couple, the foreigners from other star sectors began to acquire a couple of LMC mechs to see what the fuss was about.

It was difficult to obtain the mechs. Importing the mechs from the Komodo Star Sector was prohibitively expensive. Only a handful of mech designers and mech companies licensed some LMC mechs, and even fewer bothered to produce them locally.

As the LMC was still a new and unknown brand in this foreign region of space, the initial sales had been pitiful.

Yet the first customers who bought the best-selling Desolate Soldier and Doom Guards quickly fell in love with them. When they employed the mechs for various new ends such as boosting the morale of their troops or depressing the courage of enemy mech pilots, the opponents who were unprepared to face these befuddling new mechs mostly suffered for their ignorance!

With the growing amount of drastic victories achieved with the help of these revolutionary new mech models, the demand for LMC mechs soon built up. Demand exceeded supply, which gave many a lot of heartache as they forked over excessive premiums in order to obtain their copies!

Even without the LMC maintaining a significant presence in these star sectors, the Vicious Mountainers and Majestic Tealers all began to grow fascinated at the products the Komodans cooked up. The frontier star sector presented a great surprise to many first-time buyers or victims of LMC mechs!

When Raymond Billingsley-Larkinson and Calsie Doornbos-Larkinson met in the former's office, they discussed the rising trend of foreign sales.

"I think we can go ahead with setting up branches in both Vicious Mountain and Majestic Teal. My office has already dispatched numerous loyalty medallions to both destinations."

Raymond looked concerned. "I am not happy with this development. It is difficult to exert control over what takes place in those star sectors."

"I think the loyalty medallions will play a surprising role in accelerating the establishment of the new sector headquarters. We need to move early and establish at least some presence in the foreign markets. If we continue to allow random mech companies to sell our products after licensing our designs, they may completely crowd the marketplace, leaving little room for the LMC."

She was right. Right now, the LMC maintained a high degree of control over the activities of its partners due to the contracts they enforced.

Every third-party manufacturer that had entered into a partnership with the LMC had to abide by standardized pricing, quality levels and other requirements. Aside from mandatory adjustments due to local laws and customs, the LMC mechs had to be sold as uniformly as possible!

Right now, this was not the case in Vicious Mountain and Majestic Teal. Several mech designers creatively interpreted the Desolate Soldier and Doom Guard design and developed warped variants that lost some of the essence of the base models.

The pricing was also excessive and all over the place, while the quality of the mechs sometimes left much to be desired.

It was a chaotic development that risked ruining the LMC's brand name even before the company formally expanded its operations in the foreign star sectors!

"Ves has great ambitions." Raymond told Calsie. "And regardless how much he claims to leave everything here behind when he departs for the Red Ocean, he is a sentimental individual. Knowing that his products are still sold and used in the Yeina Star Cluster will still make him happen in the end. Besides, the Larkinson Family isn't going anywhere."

Thinking about the Larkinson Family and its current search for a new home panged Raymond's heart. Though he wished to offer his support to Ark Larkinson, the old family possessed its own pride.

"We Larkinsons must make our mark in this star cluster. The clan and the family are still tied to each other. As long as we share the same name, we must always support each other."