The Mech Touch

Suffice to say, Gloriana was not happy in the next few days. She grumpily announced a rest period where every mech designer enjoyed a few more hours of free time.

That was as far as she was willing to go. The intensity of the work assignments she handed out had not receded too much. Nonetheless, every assistant mech designer looked relieved.

Ves could clearly observe that some of them wouldn't have been able to keep up much longer if Gloriana stuck to her original plan. Though there was a chance that the Apprentices might surprise him, the odds of that happening was too low.

Neither Ves nor Gloriana lingered too much about their prior argument. Their work took precedence and both of them still wanted to make the Disruptor Project their best mech design yet. Now that they began to work towards optimizing and refining the expert mech design, they became confronted with a host of new problems.

"We don't have enough processing power!" Gloriana barged into Ves' corner of the design lab and complained. "We need to borrow more processing capacity from the rest of the fleet. The other ships aren't doing anything data intensive anyway so why not put their calculating power to a better use?"

"As far as I'm aware, we are already doing that." Ves replied. "We lost a couple of ships recently so the total capacity of our fleet has dropped a bit."

"I've looked up the situation on a couple of ships. The Dragon's Den is a research ship. Why aren't you demanding more tribute? Those fancy bioprocessors are not for show!"

"That's not fair to Dr. Ranya." Ves shook his head. "Besides, the projects that the Larkinson Biotech Institute are working on are also crucial to the future of our clan. You're trying to do the same thing as last time. We can't cut off our left arm in order to strengthen our right hand. We'll just end up in a crippled state."

His wife did not back down so easily this time. "Your analogy is stupid. Our clan has always centered around mech design. Look, the lack of processing power is a much greater problem this time because we have to depend on simulation testing to a much greater extent than usual. At least find a way to expand our processing capacity. You can do that at least, right?"

Her suggestion was actually good this time. Ves hummed and leaned back in his chair.

Lucky, who lazily swayed his tail back and forth, was lying on the work table while imagining the taste of powerful processors.

"Meow."

"There are several ways for us to expand our total processing power." He stated. "First, we can add processing power to our existing ships. I'm sure that Vivian Tsai can tell you that it is not as simple as it sounds. We would have to juggle several conflicting priorities such as security, power draw and other factors."

"Don't give me that excuse, Ves. The Spirit of Bentheim still has room to spare. There are more power generators on this vessel than any other capital ship in the fleet, so power supply shouldn't be a major issue either."

"Our factory ship's production lines depend heavily on all of that power supply. You can't just take it away from them. The safety of our fleet is a fundamental priority and I will not slow down the replenishment of our mech roster because you want to power an additional data room or something."

"Then add more power generators to the ship! Problem solved!"

"Those power generators add a considerable burden to a ship section. You know as well as I do that adding more power generators will lead to dangerous circumstances."

There were no easy solutions to this problem because all of the low-hanging fruit had already been picked.

After exploring some other options, Ves quickly concluded that adding more processing capacity to the other ships of the Larkinson Clan was not enough to alleviate the problem.

"The only way for you to get what you want is to add more ships to the fleet." He concluded. "We do have a pair of capital ships on the way, but we have to cross an entire star cluster to take possession of them. Their construction time is fairly extensive so it makes no sense to place our orders close to our position."

"Then find a way to get some additional ships quickly! We need to assemble a rounded fleet of capital ships sooner or later."

"Our capital is a bit short."

"Have you ever heard of the concept of loans?" Gloriana retorted. "And don't give me the excuse that it is difficult to find a bank that is willing to lend us money. Those Purnessers we took on should easily be able to solve this problem."

Ves acknowledged her point. "In fact, I have already scheduled a meeting with our new chief diplomat about this topic. He happens to agree with you and has come up with a couple of suggestions on where to acquire additional capital ships."

The Larkinson fleet was long overdue an expansion. The Spirit of Bentheim, the Graveyard and the Dragon's Den functioned as an adequate core for the fleet, but there were still some glaring holes.

The Spirit of Bentheim and the Dragon's Den were not combat vessels. The Graveyard may be able to function as a tough and scrappy damage sponge, but her split functionality meant she was not as useful as the Auralis in battle.

What the Larkinson Clan urgently needed was a fleet carrier that could not only withstand a lot of hits, but also hit back hard through the mechs she was able to carry.

Whether the Larkinsons were able to acquire such a dream vessel depended on whether Shederin Purnesse was able to persuade the right parties to conduct a transaction.

With stability levels dropping across human space, there were a lot of powerful groups who wanted to obtain their own capital ships!

After promising Gloriana to do his best, Ves returned to his work and went about his day.

Soon, the meeting rolled in. When Ves dropped by the Foreign Relations Department, he entered a much more elegant office than before.

Surprisingly, Vivian Tsai was present as well. This signalled to Ves that Shederin may have attained some results in placing new orders.

"Patriarch Ves. You've come at an opportune time. We have good news." Vivian enthusiastically said.

"Oh?" Ves raised his eyebrow as he sat down on the available seat.

Lucky flew forward and landed on Vivian's lap. The chief shipwright happily scratched the metallic cat's chin.

"Meow~"

Seeing that Ves had settled in, Shederin Purnesse quickly commenced the meeting and went straight to the point.

"Considering our essential demand for capital ships, I made their acquisition my highest priority as soon as I assumed office. After discussing this issue with General Verle, Miss Tsai and Fleet Coordinator Ophelia Kronon, I realized that our relatively short journey to the beyonder gate won't allow us to wait our turn at all of the shipyards that are still willing to accept outside orders. If we wish to build up our core fleet without suffering excessive delays, we must adopt an open mind and take a serious look at the second-hand market."

Ves remained fairly calm. "Although I don't think that acquiring second-hand capital ships is ideal, it is better than nothing. Just make sure that we have at least some guarantees that the vessels under our consideration are secure and not bugged from top to bottom."

"There are a few reliable suppliers of large starships if you know where to look for them." Shederin stated. "While I admit that most of my old contacts and network are based in Winged Serenade, I can still leverage numerous old friendships with influential contacts who reside in other regions. Together with Miss Vivian here, we have managed to get within reach of a number of attractive prospects."

The Gorgoneion and the Diligent Ovenbird were still under construction. Much to Ves' relief, nothing had changed in that regard, though the Larkinson Clan had to pay a hefty amount of fees in order to ensure that the shipyards working on the fleet carrier and the fleet repair vessel did not renege on their contracts!

This had already happened a lot of times. The states where the shipyards operated in either prohibited any further outside sales of capital ships or wealthy patrons paid three or four times the money to prioritize their own demands!

Due to the need to keep incentivizing the shipyards to do their jobs, the Larkinson Clan's financial position had become a lot tighter than before.

However, Shederin Purnesse merely dismissed the issue of financing when Ves brought up the topic.

"Money should not pose a hindrance, patriarch. The high and stable earning pattern of your mech company is our strongest backing. As long as the LMC does not collapse, the debt we take on will not become a significant burden."

The discussion moved on to more exciting topics such as the ships that Vivian and the rest of the clan were eying.

Vivian projected the first vessel. The distinctive form of the capital ship immediately brought unpleasant memories to Ves.

"Is that.. a Hexer ship?"

The shipwright nodded. "The Andrenidae is a rather novel capital mining ship that acts as a mobile hive for a large swarm of 'bees'."

Whoever designed and built the Andrenidae seemed to have gone overboard with adopting a bee theme. The capital ship resembled a giant tube that was made up of honeycombs. The fact that honeycombs just happened to look like hexagons was a complete coincidence, of course.

The structure of the mining vessel was fairly simple. As a mothership, her layout had a lot in common with a fleet carrier. The only notable distinction was that she possessed some mineral processing facilities.

"The Andrenidae is capable of processing most of the common types of minerals in house, but that is not her primary function. Her original owners intended the mining vessel to be a part of a larger fleet. The responsibility of refining the ores laid elsewhere."

"What are these odd mechs that are responsible for doing all of the mining action?" Ves asked as he zoomed in the projection on the various bee-shaped machines that came with the mining ship.

As a mech designer, he already had a good idea of what they were capable of, but he needed to make sure his impression was correct.

"Those are the worker bees that do all of the heavy lifting." Vivian smiled. She found the bee-shaped mechs rather cute. "The worker bee models are split into different models. The main one is the mining bee, but there are many other varieties that can be added and removed from the Andrenidae at any time. There are recycler bees that can assist with salvage operations, recon bees that can survey both asteroid fields and enemy positions, repair bees that can perform repairs in open space and so on. We are not limited to utilizing the models that the capital ship comes with. I'm sure you can design better ones."

This was an interesting proposition. Designing non-combat mechs was not exactly his cup of tea, and there were many other projects that were much higher in priority.

However, he could probably treat the design of industrial mechs as minor projects and leave most of the work to his design teams.

Ves shook his head. He could consider this matter later.

Right now, he had one burning question on his mind.

"Why the hell is a Hexer ship this far out from the Komodo Star Sector?"

Neither Shederin nor Vivian had an answer.

"Nobody knows, sir." Vivian shrugged. "There is probably a story behind that, but the seller hasn't been very forthcoming so far. We might be able to learn the truth if we successfully conclude a transaction."

A mining ship was an essential addition to the Larkinson fleet. The question was whether the Andrenidae was the best choice.