The Mech Touch

Ves felt a lot better after Gloriana made a useful suggestion.

Despite all of his thinking, he still got caught up in a faulty loop of his old thinking.

He always felt it was better for him to restrain his desire to spend a lot of money and focus more on cheaper and most cost-effective initiatives.

However, the situation of the Larkinson Clan had changed too much. Trying to save money at every possible opportunity wasn't necessarily the best approach anymore.

Money was power! Money conveyed unlimited possibilities! Money could transform the future!

Money was like phasewater in this sense. A little bit of money could hardly change the future of the Larkinson Clan.

It took a huge amount of money in order to enact real and drastic change that could make his future and that of his fellow Larkinsons skyrocket.

There was an ocean of difference between a pioneering organization that possessed a capital shipyard and one that didn't! The ability to independently construct capital-grade starships was one of the most essential measures of power and independence!

An organization that was able to construct any large starship ranging from fleet carriers to mining ships was obviously able to take better advantage of the trends of the Red Ocean.

In a dwarf galaxy where starships were of immense strategic value, the ability to produce them was truly an immensely useful capability!

Although Ves harbored many doubts about getting into the shipbuilding industry without possessing an inherent advantage in this difficult sector, he was too attracted by the benefits to dismiss this option.

Ves always sought to make the Larkinson Clan as self-sufficient as possible!

Being able to make its own starships and particularly capital ships would go a long way into turning his clan into a self-contained state!

He wouldn't be like those other companies and pioneering organizations that had to beg shipbuilding companies to take their order at inflated prices.

"This is definitely worth 500,000 MTA credits!"

In fact, the total cost of the most ambitious shipyard plan cost even more than that. It took around half a million MTA credits to convert the Diligent Ovenbird into a modern capital shipyard, but that did not address the hole in the core fleet's lineup.

If the Larkinsons wanted to construct a new capital fleet repair vessel that could take the place of the Ovenbird, then they would have to invest around 200,000 MTA credits to construct a modern capital fleet repair vessel!

While it wasn't necessary to spend that much money on this particular vessel, it was highly advisable for the clan to do so. The standards of a more expensive repair vessel was much higher and could provide a lot more conveniences to an expeditionary fleet.

If the clan decided to go cheap on this, then Ves and the others would probably regret their decision later on when they fell into another crisis in the future!

"So the total cost of this plan is 700,000 MTA credits."

"Perhaps."

"What do you mean by that, Vivian?"

Ves looked at the projection of the chief shipwright. After Gloriana had guided him on the right path, he had waited until night had fallen and Aurelia went to bed before following up on this matter.

Though he had made a rule to himself that he shouldn't be thinking about work while he was supposed to enjoy his holiday, he was too much of a workaholic to wait until the end of the week.

He needed to make an inquiry! Otherwise his mind would be filled with so much speculation that he wouldn't be able to relax anymore!

The chief shipwright's projection smiled. "I have formed many different plans for many different starships and eventualities, sir. The one you are referring to is just one of the many ones I have outlined. The Diligent Ovenbird is an aged and second-hand capital fleet repair vessel that is not all that great to be honest. However, as long as we invest enough money, we can transform her into an entirely new construct. The more money we put into her upgrade program, the more drastic the improvement we can obtain. If you truly want to go cheap, then we can probably spend as little as 150,000 MTA credits or less to turn her into a capital-grade shipyard. However, if we spend 2,000,000 MTA credits…"

Ves quickly raised his hand. "Let me stop you there. There will be no talk about pumping in two million MTA credits in a single vessel. That is way too risky for us. I don't feel comfortable at all with increasing the value of the Ovenbird to this extent. What if someone else's starship randomly crashes into her side? What if a terrorist managed to sneak in and detonate a bomb that is powerful enough to destroy those extremely expensive superfabs? We can't handle a loss of this magnitude!"

"You're right, sir." Vivian sighed. "I hope you will revisit this matter in the future. Just because we invest 500,000 MTA credits into the Diligent Ovenbird's refit does not mean we can no longer upgrade her a second time."

Ves relaxed a bit when he heard that. "That's good to hear. For now, I think our clan is large and strong enough to guard a shipyard that is worth around half a million MTA credits. If our clan grows a lot stronger in the future, then it won't be that big of a deal to invest another million MTA credits or so. The premise is that we have the strength, manpower and funding to protect such an insanely precious asset."

"I understand, sir. As for the Diligent Ovenbird's replacement, you can freely decide how much money you are willing to spend on this shipbuilding project. Spending 200,000 MTA credits on this commission will get you a serviceable fleet repair vessel with all of the necessary bells and whistles. Spending less will decrease this new vessel's efficiency and weaken her defenses, so I do not recommend you go any cheaper."

"What about more? What will we get if we spend more, Vivian?"

"It depends on what functions you wish to prioritize. If you purely treat the vessel as a tool to repair our damaged starships, then she can complete her jobs a lot faster and more efficiently. If you think time is of the essence, then you need to put in a substantial amount more money to produce a noticeable change. If you want to turn her into a part-time shipyard like the Ovenbird, then we need to invest even more."

From her tone, Vivian probably felt that it was not necessarily efficient to splurge more money on this project.

All of these options were incredibly expensive, so much so that Ves constantly had to repress the urge to shoot down all of this talk about spending hundreds of thousands of MTA credits at a time.

There was no way that Ves could make any solid decisions on whether to invest this much money on these projects. The Larkinson Clan didn't even possess the cash to pay for all of those expenditures as of yet! Much of the wealth was still locked in phasewater and MTA merits.

Still, this wasn't a big deal. Ves knew he could convert phasewater into cold hard cash at any point of time. The market price for this rare and desirable substance was so high that he didn't need to worry about getting scammed either.

Once Ves gained the information he wanted on the new shipyard plan, he grew curious at what else Vivian might have in store.

"You told me that you have formed more shipbuilding plans, right? I guess you and your department must have spent a lot of time designing starships. What else do you have in mind that you think we should consider?"

"I think that we are still short on fleet carriers. The Gorgoneion and the Wild Torch are both good at what they do, but if our clan wants to grow, then acquiring more is essential." Vivian stated.

She was right. It was all well and good to consider ark ships, refinery ships, factory ships and so on, the root of any pioneering fleet's power was how many mechs it could deploy at any time!

The Larkinson fleet's mech capacity was still woefully inadequate compared to when the clan was still roaming around in the old galaxy.

Expanding the amount of mechs his fleet could deploy in space was an essential priority!

There was never an instance where the Larkinson Clan would have enough fleet carriers!

"Can you show me your designs?"

"Certainly, though I should caution you that many of them are still drafts."

The projection changed to display the wireframe models of several different capital ships.

Though Ves was not an expert in starships, his technical background allowed him to understand and appreciate a lot of nuances.

Vivian clearly expanded the budgets for these fleet carriers. They were larger and better-equipped than many of the ship designs that he had seen before.

Ves became impressed by the creativity of some of her designs.

For example, there was one fleet carrier that was able to carry a full mech regiment's worth of mechs!

It was no coincidence that this ship design also happened to be the largest and most extravagant one. Her sheer size turned her into an imposing presence in any fleet, though Ves was not as enthused about her price tag.

Starships that were more than four kilometers long tended to become extremely unwieldy. One of the troublesome points about larger capital ships was that they required larger and more powerful FTL drives to keep up with a fleet.

Ordinary capital-grade FTL drives no longer sufficed! While phasewater made it a lot more convenient to power them up these days, it still cost a lot of money to obtain these powerful devices!

Besides, massive and unwieldy capital ships also introduced many other issues and burdens.

The latest expedition showcased the importance of keeping a fleet fast and mobile enough. If the MTA wasn't around when Moby Dick burst out of Garimel I, then Ves wouldn't be sure that his fleet would still be in one piece!

Having survived many different destructive ordeals, Ves had learned that the ability to run away was a vital necessity.

Losing a battle and getting chased by monsters were not that big of a deal as long as he was able to evade the worst consequences!

With that in mind, Ves no longer paid much attention to the largest fleet carrier designs and directed his attention to the slightly more modest ones.

"Getting a fleet carrier that can carry a thousand mechs sounds nice." Ves said. "I notice that this particular ship design is smaller than the fleet carriers that I am accustomed to seeing."

"That is because we deliberately designed to minimize her dimensions and profile, sir. We shaved as many layers and structural support elements as we could without compromising the design's defenses too much. In order to make sure that the fleet carrier does not collapse too easily, we have employed stronger alloys. This is why the budget for this fleet carrier is higher than normal. She's expensive, but she is smaller and faster than comparable capital ships."

"Interesting."

There were so many different options for fleet carriers that Ves didn't even know where to begin. He faced the same problem as earlier as there were simply too many options for him to choose from. If he wasn't satisfied with Vivian's work, he could even turn to Murphy & Sons or another shipbuilding company to obtain even more ship designs!

"Let's not think too far ahead." Ves eventually said. "We can consider the matter of fleet carriers later once we have erected our own large-scale shipbuilding operation. For now, I want you to flesh out the earlier capital shipyard plan so that you can present it to the rest during our next leadership meeting. If your plan is good enough, then I have no qualms about approving it quickly. The sooner we get a large shipbuilding facility, the sooner we can pump out these fancy fleet carriers!"

Vivian Tsai looked incredibly excited when she heard this. She already guessed that Ves pretty much approved of this initiative in his heart. He just needed to obtain a complete plan that detailed all of the steps the clan needed to take in order to make sure it spent its money well.

Once the Larkinson Clan successfully transformed the Diligent Ovenbird, she could finally start with turning her most ambitious ship designs into reality!