The Mech Touch

Ves finally completed the Tutor Project!

After a relatively simple design journey that just so happened to have generated a lot of interest from the MTA, Ves finally wrapped up everything that was necessary to introduce a new paradigm of mech training onto the mech market.

No one aside from Ves and maybe a select group of Transhumanists had any idea of what the LMC was about to unleash to the public!

Though the MSTS undoubtedly stole the show, a mech cadet wouldn't be able to gain as much value out of it without a training mech that played to the spiritual simulation program's strength.

The Tutor Project and the MSTS were literally made for each other. Both of them were already independently capable of providing a lot of helpful training and instruction to any mech cadet lucky enough to get in touch with them, but when used together they produced a form of synergy that would be certain to win over a lot of mech cadets!

He looked up at the first batch of training mechs fabricated by the LMC at the Hammerworks, the new manufacturing complex located in the heart of the Cat Nest on Davute VII.

The mechs possessed a substantial amount of armor but could also move quite deftly on land, in the air and in space. It was designed in a way that mech academies could conveniently slot in different models of semi-modular flight systems depending on the need. They could also leave them out entirely and deploy the new training mechs as landbound machines.

The visual design of the new training mech deviated from the more functional appearances of other training mechs. Ves had spent a decent amount of time on stamping his new design with his own artistic style.

While he was aware that imposing his own art on his works might cause it to look repugnant to a decent slice of the market, he didn't care about that. His machines stood out more as a result and possessed their own distinct identities.

His new training mechs already looked like they were more than ready to enter into scraps and earn new dents on the training fields. When paired with a glow that felt as if these mechs were eager to learn, they conveyed an impression that they were the ultimate training mechs!

"My Tutor Project, no, my War Squire is ready to be used."

He settled on naming his new training mech the War Squire to convey the right meaning and to shape people's attitudes towards the machine.

By calling his work the War Squire, he essentially boasted that his new training mech model was not only capable of training any mech cadet into a competent mech pilot, but that it could also prepare them for the toughest wars and the most brutal battlefields!

His expression worsened. "Now I need to make it sell."

This was not as easy as it sounded. Private individuals and groups almost never bought individual training mechs from the market.

The reason was because it was too expensive, time-consuming and troublesome to train mech pilots from scratch in-house. Every security company, mercenary outfit, mech military and other mech organizations found it much more convenient to hire new troops that had already graduated from the mech academies.

By the time the graduates who were all in their twenties entered the workforce, they had all gained the qualifications to pilot combat mechs. There was no way they wanted to go back to piloting neutered mechs with training wheels at this stage!

"As a result, the training mech market is almost entirely based on servicing big clients."

It was similar to the market for law enforcement mechs. Without a well-known brand or an established reputation in a specialized sector, it was extremely difficult to break into a market where trust and stability were highly valued!

Ves already went through a minor ordeal when he tried to market his new Pacifier model. The circumstances regarding his first true law enforcement mech were considerably more generous because he already partnered up with a reputable mech designer with a good foundation in the law enforcement sector.

Also, Ves was able to take advantage of the broad applications of the Pacifier model's glow by marketing it towards an entirely new audience.

A growing number of security companies and mercenary organizations had already discovered the many uses of Lufa's glow and eagerly ordered one batch after another of the increasingly hotter Pacifier mechs!

Ves smiled when he thought about how his Pacifier model finally became a bestseller. His smile faded a bit when he recognized the circumstances surrounding his new training mech model were much less favorable.

There was no way for him to push his completed work onto another segment of the market like before. The applications of the War Squire were solely limited to training mech cadets.

At most, recent graduates who required a little more preparation before stepping onto the battlefield might find it useful to pilot them, but most organizations preferred to put them into real mechs instead.

"I need to create demand for my new product." Ves recognized.

To do that, he had to prove that his new War Squire possessed substantially more value over training mechs at comparable price ranges.

Ves didn't make it easy for himself. He set out to design a premium training mech, and he succeeded in doing so. With a list price of 0.75 MTA credits per copy, the War Squire was cheaper than many combat mechs but considerably more expensive than the run-of-the-mill training mech models on the market.

All of this meant that the War Squire had to compete against excellent products made by mech companies that had built up a huge track record and trusted reputation over many years!

Each of their training mechs were designed by Master Mech Designers. With entire catalogs of products that were characterized by superior performance, superior optimization and incredibly low malfunction rates, it was hard for any new entrant in the market to dislodge the market leaders!

Normally, it was a pipe dream for a smaller and less established mech company like the LMC to vie for the attention of the elite mech academies that consisted of the main group of customers of premium training mechs.

Fortunately, Ves and his fellow clansmen already anticipated that it wouldn't be easy to gain a foothold in the market. The LMC's Marketing Department already spent months working on a multi-pronged strategy to turn the War Squire into a hot new product.

"Tell me what you've got, Benny." Ves demanded as he entered his office in his so-called Royal Mansion.

He stepped towards the thick and hard windows and peered out at the greenery that lay beyond.

He and his little family had made themselves home in the Royal Mansion for a year at this point. Located within the Blue Cat Estates of the Cat Nest, it was surrounded by a luscious forest that the Aducs had arranged with great care and thoughtfulness.

The sense of nature evoked by the surroundings put Ves at peace and made it easier for him to separate himself from the hustle and bustle that dominated the rest of Davute VII.

Even though the Royal Mansion looked a bit vulnerable and exposed from afar, appearances were deceiving.

The entire Cat Nest was constantly guarded and protected by a combination of shield generators, underground fortresses and mechs hailing from the Battle Criers, the Living Sentinels and the Eye of Ylvaine.

While these mech legions might not excel at offensive actions, their mech doctrines and mech rosters were much better predisposed towards defensive missions!

Combined with the fact that the Larkinson Clan also set up a random guard rotation of two expert mechs, Ves was certain that there was no compound in Industrial District 2 that enjoyed more luxurious protection!

Of course, that was mainly because the other lots in the district were mostly ordinary fabrication plants, logistical centers and other industrial facilities.

None of the groups that invested in the district had been eccentric enough to build residential housing next to their manufacturing complexes and surround everything with fortress-grade defenses!

Those who lived their entire lives on safe and peaceful planets could not possibly understand why Ves and the Larkinsons took matters into their own hands and invested so much in their own protection.

Ves could only shake their heads at the complacent behavior of other pioneering organizations. Didn't they realize that they were operating in a frontier environment that was much less safe than civilized space back in the old galaxy?

A year of living in Davute had made it clear that there were way too many colonists in the Red Ocean who treated their new ventures as low-risk opportunities to open up new lands and markets!

How naive.

Hopefully, his War Squire could help make their armed forces a little more prepared for the wars to come.

Gavin Neumann presented Ves with a data pad that contained the preparations as well as the progress the Marketing Department had made so far. Now that the War Squire model was finally ready for production, the LMC could proceed with pushing its new products onto the clients that it had identified in advance!

"There are many ways for us to promote the War Squire. Aside from running an ad campaign and setting up a long-term exhibition in the city center where curious visitors can try out the War Squire for free, we also intend to loan out copies of our new training mechs for free."

"Say what?"

"It makes perfect sense, boss. The overwhelming majority of mech academies in the Red Ocean are private institutions. They are businesses that need to earn a profit in order to remain alive. Right now, the market environment is not that good for them. Each of them has to build their campuses from scratch. Even if they have managed to secure grants and subsidies from local governments, it is expensive to build the necessary facilities and hire the right mech instructors. Add the need to buy hundreds of training mechs and obtain the necessary licenses and accreditation to teach up-and-coming mech pilots, virtually every group that has started a mech academy has suffered substantial losses."

It took money to start a business, and the money required to start an operation in the Red Ocean was considerably more expensive due to the awful infrastructure and lack of existing amenities!

While Ves was aware that a lot of different mech academies had popped up like mushrooms across Davute and beyond, many of them had gone through a lot of money but did not immediately attract enough mech cadets to cover their expenses!

This was because many of the immigrants arriving from the Milky Way were predominantly working age adults that had chosen to embrace new lives and challenges. Not many of them brought kids as those who already started their own families were much less willing to uproot their lives.

This meant that there were considerably less mech cadets in proportion to the total population of humans in the Red Ocean than normal!

Everyone expected this problem to be remedied within a generation as colonists in the new frontier started having kids, but how long did the education sector have to wait until the classrooms were finally full?

Each of the mech academies that had emerged in recent years were hoping that they could make it through the difficult early period. Their goal was to leverage their early establishment and turn into reputable and long-established schools.

However, in order for them to last in this survival game, they needed a constant flow of capital in order to pay all of the bills.

The larger the mech academy, the greater the costs!

According to the data pad that Gavin handed over to Ves, the Marketing Department had already identified dozens of struggling mech academies.

Each of their founding groups had underestimated the challenges and overestimated the enrollment figures!

"I see." Ves said as he comprehended his mech company's strategy. "Mech academies that are tight on money are much more sensitive to free stuff."

"Exactly. They won't say no to receiving a batch of War Squires on loan. This is the best way for our War Squires to start getting used. Once the initial mech cadets start generating positive word-of-mouth advertising, we can truly start with stoking up demand at other mech academies."

Ves nodded in understanding. "All of this sounds good, Benny, but there is only one little problem. Why are we pushing our War Squires to the cheapest, worst and bottom-ranking mech academies first?"