The Mech Touch

Now that Ves had returned to New Constantinople VIII, a new phase in his life had begun.

The release of the Fey Fianna line continued to produce massive ripple effects. Many people held such high regard for the presentation of the revolutionary new hyper drone mechs that they continually rewatched the footage over and over again.

Demand continued to increase over time, making it more and more difficult for the Living Mech Corporation to manage customer expectations.

Fortunately, it did not take long for the Living Mech Corporation and the Isthmus Manufacturing to issue a joint statement where they announced their massive cooperation!

A lot of senior figures had already learned about this development in advance, but once the rest of the public became informed about this dramatic event, people's opinions towards Ves and his mech company rose even higher!

"Professor Larkinson is getting chummy with both the Terrans and the Rubarthans. Not many mech designers can get away with that. It will be interesting to see whether he can keep up his balancing act."

"The Larkinsons have become rich! How are these second-raters able to convince the Rubarthans to give them a fifth of a mech company as large as Isthmus Manufacturing? It doesn't make sense! Don't tell me that any tier 3 galactic citizen can obtain all of those shares with the same ease. The other shareholders of Isthmus Manufacturing are not charities. They collectively gave away trillions of MTA credits worth of stock! What did Professor Larkinson promise to do in return?"

"Isthmus Manufacturing has already announced a new plan to retool many of its second-class production lines so that they will soon pump out Fey Fiannas en masse. The buyers hailing from the Rubarthan Pact are so lucky. They will be able to get their hands on these powerful new mechs first!"

"Hey, at least all of that Rubarthan mech production will shorten the waiting list. I was originally scheduled to receive my order 7 months from today. With luck, that will soon be cut down in half."

A lot of customers reacted to the news with delight and optimism. They had a strong interest in the success of the Fey Fianna. The fact that such a large and reputable Rubarthan mech company chose to partner with the Larkinsons to expand the production of living mechs added a lot of legitimacy and certainly to this much-hyped mech line.

More importantly than that, Isthmus Manufacturing had a huge amount of mech factories at its disposal.

Even if only a part of them allocated their production capacity to the Fey Fianna, that could already increase the monthly output of living mechs by five to ten times depending on the Rubarthan company's commitment!

This assuaged a lot of concerns about the LMC's ability to fulfill its astronomical amount of orders.

In fact, a lot of potential customers that previously turned away because they worried too much about the enormous delays in production and delivery had changed their minds.

They reluctantly placed their orders with the expectation that it should take no longer than half a year for them to receive their amazingly powerful and technologically advanced drone mechs.

Ves chuckled when he saw that the latest announcement sparked a second wave of orders.

"It seems that the credibility of Isthmus Manufacturing is really high. Everyone has total confidence that our new partner should be able to make up for any shortfall in production. It is rather disappointing to see how little faith people have in our own company's production capacity."

"You don't have to feel sorry for yourself, boss." Gavin assuaged Ves. "Isthmus is centuries old and has a strong foundation in the old galaxy. The LMC only rose up in less than two decades. When you look back at our history, it is amazing to see how far we have come since we started out on Cloudy Curtain. The version of you back then probably would have never imagined that you would have been able to design a mech that went on to become a mainstream mech model in so little time."

His assistant was right. Ves had made so much progress that he had exceeded all of his expectations. He and his clan grew far too quickly, making it so that they lacked the time to address all of the flaws and inconsistencies that emerged as of late.

This was far from the first time that Ves encountered this problem. The fact of the matter was that the Larkinson Clan changed so much in so little time that its foundation had become dangerously unstable.

What the Larkinsons needed the most was another period of stable and steady development. That was the only way to sustain the momentum of the clan while at the same time grant enough breathing room for everyone to consolidate their new gains.

Ves was more than willing to oblige. He and many other people were waiting for the Red War to enter the next phase.

Once the Red Two completed the ambitious conversion of the greater beyonder gate, humanity would enter a new era of violence and plunder!

That reminded Ves of all of the work that he needed to do in order to prepare his clan for the exciting deep strike operations that were set to begin in a few years.

"Has Isthmus Manufacturing given us an updated timeline on when it intends to introduce the Supremo Project?"

Gavin shook his head. "The Rubarthan company has yet to give us an update on it. The new heavy artillery mech has shaken so many people who have witnessed the performance of the test versions that they do not want to waste this opportunity to completely push Isthmus to the forefront of the second-class mech industry."

"Do they need my help?"

"No." Gavin shook his head. "No offense, boss, but you have a habit of sucking up all of the attention. That is not what Isthmus wants. The company wants to strengthen its own brand name among its customer base in the Rubarthan Pact and the Red Ocean Union. Its executives are more than confident that they can do a good job of marketing your new commercial heavy artillery mech without relying on your characteristic flamboyant stage performances."

His assistant made it sound as if Ves was an overly dramatic attention seeker. He was not that bad!

Still, he could see where Isthmus was coming from. The Rubarthans did not want to be reduced to supporting characters in this new partnership. Otherwise, it would only be a matter of time before they became his vassels.

"By the way, the Marketing Department of our new business partner has mulled over a proper name for the Supremo Project. For various reasons, the marketing executives are not particularly enthused about calling it the Supremo. It makes your heavy artillery mech sound like a child's toy. They want to give the upcoming product a more dignified name, particularly because it is tied to one of their eminent god pilots."

Ves personally thought it was not a bad idea to stick to calling it the Supremo. It was a fairly short but distinct name that could easily become another valuable addition to the mech community's lexicon.

However, now that Isthmus Manufacturing had taken over the original commissions, the Rubarthans had the right to set the final names.

"I take it the Rubarthans have already come up with their own alternatives."

"They came up with three different suggestions as a matter of fact. They are currently trying to finalize their choice. You can make your own recommendation, but Isthmus cannot guarantee that it will follow suit."

Ves didn't care too much about that. "What are the proposed names?"

"The names in contention are as follows: the Kitty Howl, the Ultimatum and the Godhammer."

"...You're serious?"

"I am only conveying what I have received from our new channels with Isthmus Manufacturing." Gavin confirmed.

None of the three names sounded normal for a mass production model!

The Kitty Howl was clearly the silliest of the three suggestions. It was a clear reference to Emma and the Destroyer of Worlds. It was a deliberately understated name that produced an ironic contrast to the awesome power of the actual living heavy artillery mech.

The Ultimatum sounded a lot more domineering. It was the name that resonated with him the most. He actually found himself liking it over Supremo because it just sounded so awesome. It also had a much closer association with doomsday weapons.

As for the Godhammer... Ves did not like all of the associations it evoked. It sounded just as impressive as the Ultimatum, but it did so in a different fashion. His upcoming product would definitely be unable to maintain a low profile if the Rubarthans claimed that the new heavy artillery mech could strike down enemies with the the power of a god pilot.

All in all, the three proposed names all had their good points. Ves wouldn't feel too dissatisfied if any of them got selected in the end.

"Tell the Rubarthans that I strongly recommend they go with the Ultimatum. The Supremo Project is so powerful in its current iteration that its realspace performance should already speak for itself. There is no need to tarnish the model with all kinds of silly and over-the-top associations. Ultimatum is a clean and simple enough word that conveys just the right dominance to complement our product."

Gavin nodded in understanding. "I shall convey your words to our new partner."

"Is there any business that I need to know about?"

"Nothing further with the Rubarthans, no, but the Terrans are eager to speed up their negotiations with you. The Devos Ancient Clan invites you to its palace that is located in the capital city of Sandan to hold formal talks."

Ves grinned. He had been waiting for this. The Devosans were finally ready to get off their lazy butts.

"Have the Devosans made any indication of what they seek from our clan?"

"Well, they are still interested in acquiring a kinship network for the Terran Alliance as a whole. Your most recent assassination attempt has actually spooked a lot of people, especially other high-tier galactic citizens. Each of them have bounties on their heads by virtue of their status. The thought that any trusted human by their side could turn against them at any moment is scaring them out of their wits. They think that connecting everyone to an exclusive kinship network should give them a powerful means to monitor and guarantee everyone's loyalties."

That made a lot of sense. The Red Cabal had inadvertently helped to expand Ves' business.

He would never thank the aliens, of course.

"I see." Ves responded. "Please tell the Terrans that I cannot give assurances that my kinship networks can detect hidden double agents. If Master Quan had been able to lurk within human society for so long without drawing any suspicion, then his ability to partition and camouflage his mind is top-notch. Even I cannot guarantee that a kinship network can overcome these exceptional means."

"It should at least raise the threshold of treachery by an enormous margin. That should be enough to give these troubled VIPs peace of mind."

Ves was fine with that as long as nobody cast any blame on him if the kinship network happened to fail.

"Are the Devosans planning to do other business?"

"Most certainly. They will definitely seek to bind you in a deal that is similar to your arrangement with Isthmus Manufacturing. As long as you agree to design a few mechs for the Terrans, you can ask for heavy concessions in return."

Ves smirked at that. "This should be a fine occasion for me to ask for a couple of first-class starships."

The Devos Ancient Clan was not in a good position at the moment. Its territory was located a bit too close to the frontlines, and its mech armies were a lot weaker than the bigger ancient clans.

If not for the fact that Ves had yet to earn the qualifications to design a first-class mech, he would have been able to exploit these conditions a lot better!