The Mech Touch

Ves had never doubted his ability to rise above the masses and become a part of the upper echelon of whatever society he lived in. He enjoyed too many advantages and he had already started to get on the good side of the MTA Survivalist Faction.

Due to this certainty, Ves was not impatient about his own development. He would work his way to becoming a Senior and a Master and gradually increase the scope of his business activities corresponding to his rank.

This was how every other mech designer worked and for good reason. It was a bit overblown for Apprentices or Journeymen to compete directly against Masters due to the enormous disparity in design ability!

Calabast’s proposal forced Ves to break from this comfortable pattern and capture much more market share than he should!

The repercussions would be great and the Larkinson Clan would definitely get embroiled in different struggles.

However, the anticipated payout would be great as well. If he was bold enough with his ECM mech designs, he could easily imagine a scenario where it could become the leading product in the market for this mech type for generations to come!

Ves could not imagine the amount of money that would flow into the coffers of the LMC.

“What matters is not the millions of MTA credits that we stand to earn from this initiative, but how much we can convert it into actual strength.” Calabast explained to him as she sat next to him on the couch. “The Red Ocean isn’t safe. We don’t face too many threats right now because we are accompanied by an MTA frigate. Have you ever thought about what we would do once your buddy Jovy is gone? Our expeditionary fleet will turn into a legitimate target to all of the human predators in this dwarf galaxy. Have you ever thought about how we will survive those future challenges?”

“Our next design round was supposed to earn us the money needed to pay for all of the necessary upgrades.” He told her. “Even without this plan, we can still earn plenty of money as long as our other products achieve success.”

“How much income do you expect to earn in the first months, Ves? 10,000 MTA credits? 50,000 MTA credits? Whatever the case, I doubt whether they can become bestsellers even if their designs are good. Their sales potential simply cannot compare to wresting away a huge amount of market share from dominant market players. With all of the MTA credits that we stand to gain from a high-level competition, we can upgrade our ships and mechs so that our deterrence power against the majority of powers in Krakatoa will reach a peak.”

Money was power. More money meant more power. Calabast’s argument was simple, but that did not mean she was wrong.

Many problems could be solved with enough money!

If it took too much time for the Larkinson fleet to get up to strength, then the clan could simply hire enough mercenaries to cover its defensive needs!

As Ves imagined all of the ways that enormous sums of money could help his situation, he became a lot less reluctant about her proposal.

The plan was not about greed.

It was about survival.

Framing the matter of earning as much money as possible in terms of keeping the clan alive was an excellent way of winning him over.

The foundation of his success in the coming decades was his ability to navigate and survive the various threats in the Red Ocean.

More money made this arduous journey a lot easier.

Stronger ships. Better mechs. Greater connections.

It was never enough. There were always bigger threats on the horizon. Becoming stronger gave Ves and his clan the capital to resist a greater proportion of enemies!

Calabast continued to share her sentiments on this matter.

“In my many discussions with Novilon and Shederin Purnesse, we have developed a view that the Red Ocean is a competitive arena. I am sure you already heard the gist of it. The Big Two has attracted the best and most ambitious players from the old galaxy so that they can fight. The goal is to ensure that humanity is strong enough to confront its enemies in the future. To accomplish this, the new frontier is set up as a game where winning and losing comes with the highest stakes.”

The stakes were high because the Red Ocean’s power structure was still nascent. There were no states like the Greater Terran United Confederation or the New Rubarth Empire that had built up an iron grip on their territories. Every human was a newcomer in the new frontier and that gave many ambitious people the unprecedented opportunity to found states that would go on to become enduring fixtures in the future!

Ves previously sought to stay out of this rat race.

The actual circumstances made it difficult for him to maintain this cautious stance. It was highly tempting to topple down many of the barriers that prevented his clan from gaining access to greater goods and services.

He looked into her eyes and nodded. “Alright. You’ve convinced me to give this plan of yours a chance.”

“I knew you would make the right choice.” Calabast grinned as if she had already foreseen this ending.

Ves raised his hand. “Hold on for a moment. I am only conveying my intention to play along. That does not mean we will actually go through with it. The steps we need to take before we put an ECM mech on the market are huge. From organizing an enormous marketing campaign to convincing dozens of third-party manufacturers to fabricate our new products by the thousands, all of this requires a huge amount of politicking and preparation that I frankly cannot solve.”

“Then put others in charge of these matters.”

“That is exactly what I have in mind. I think that your lover Novilon Purnesse ought to possess the skills necessary to pull this off. His diplomatic training will definitely be a boon in building up relations with the various external parties that we will engage with in Davute.”

Calabast grinned when she heard this. “Oh, don’t worry, Ves. I will make sure that your chief minister will go above and beyond to organize all of these steps. This will be a fine test of his capabilities.”

Difficult work should be left to the experts. Though Calabast talked a good game, she was not as suited to solve all the problems as a born politician like Novilon Purnesse.

Even if the fellow was way over his head, he could always count on the help of other Larkinsons such as his father.

The two briefly discussed how they should tackle their plan and what they needed to pay attention to. It was not that easy to persuade the parties in Davute to buy into Calabast’s master plan.

The reason for that was that it would definitely be difficult to prove that Ves’ upcoming ECM mech models had the capital to compete against the Xaxu Specter line!

Most organizations didn’t pay attention to unfounded claims. It was not unusual for mech designers to approach potential business partners with ideas that they had never realized.

Without a working example of an ECM mech that delivered on its promises, it would probably be ten times harder for Chief Minister Novilon to conclude a new business deal!

Calabast apparently thought that her ‘boyfriend’ could handle it, so Ves did not question her confidence any further.

Though she had made a few intelligence blunders over the years, she was still a frightfully competent analyst!

If Novilon botched his tasks and failed to obtain sufficient support from Davute’s business and political communities, then Ves could choose not to publish his finished designs until everything was in order.

When the two had finally ended their discussion, Ves was in no mood to stay any longer. He could think about designing his commercial ECM mech later when he wasn’t distracted by all of the complexities of Calabast’s ambitious plan!

They left her office and walked all of the way to the hangar bay. Once they stood before the armored shuttle, Ves turned to Calabast one last time.

“You are more daring than I thought.”

“I was always like this, Ves. I wouldn’t have cut my ties with the Hegemony and defected to your camp so decisively if I let caution dictate my decisions. Going with the flow will never get you to the top. There are far too many humans in both galaxies that think they can achieve ultimate success by following the rules. Both of us know that the only way for us to climb above everyone else is to break the rules and force our way up by force!”

Ves had rarely seen Calabast speak as passionate as today. She truly put in her all to sway Ves to switch from a safer track to a faster track.

Although he possessed enough awareness to know that Calabast was manipulating him to further her own agenda, he did not mind it that much. After all, he benefited from success as well!

“I will need to think about the mech concept of our new commercial ECM mech design project a lot more. I don’t want to design an imitation of Master Hao’s work but with extra features. Each of my works must have their own identities and the same goes for this mech. Besides, we don’t have any qualified ECM mech specialists in our clan. I need to consider whether our Design Department is capable enough to design a Xaxu Specter killer in-house or whether we need to team up with an external mech designer.”

Calabast frowned a bit. “I suggest that you should look into the second option. The Xaxu Specter models possess excellent ECM capabilities on top of their good communication functions. If your new ECM mech is not able to keep up in the electronic warfare department, then you will not be able to dethrone our main competitor entirely.”

Ves sighed. “We will definitely need outside help if that is the case. I will try to get my hands on a willing collaborator. I will tell our lead designers to make use of their networks as well. With eight Journeymen in our Design Department, there has to be one that can obtain the cooperation that we need!”

He finally boarded his shuttle and returned to the Spirit of Bentheim after saying goodbye to Calabast.

He studied and read up on the various developments of the Krakatoa Middle Zone on the return trip.

The various news articles he skimmed through indeed described looming tensions between the alliances between the two rival port systems.

The escalating competition between Davute and Karlach no longer encompassed the port systems alone. The colonies located close to them had also become embroiled in the invisible struggle.

Taking sides was indeed lucrative. Any pioneering organization that committed to Davute or Karlach received a lot of direct and indirect boons.

Gaining access to resource markets, being able to order starships and getting the chance to cooperate with various research institutions were just a handful of the perks that the Larkinsons could obtain!

“The premise is that we are worth the effort to win over.”

The Davute Alliance held much of the power in the star system. Its threshold was high and the Larkinson Clan shouldn’t be able to catch its attention in normal times.

“They’ve clearly never met someone like me.” Ves jested.

Ves actually didn’t feel comfortable with cooperating with such a large power. The Davute Alliance would certainly try to pull him into their orbit, but that went against his goals.

After his dealings with the Bright Republic, he never wanted to answer to a higher authority again!

He and his clan needed to dance around the Davute Alliance carefully in order to maintain the right balance. He did not mind cheering for its success, but he would definitely be the first one to run if it all went downhill!