The Mech Touch

It would take months for the Larkinson State Plan to go into effect. The extensive package of reforms were so drastic and far-reaching that it was mandatory for it to go through extensive rounds of consultations. Ves predicted that the input of other Larkinsons would eventually result in many tweaks and compromises. No one wanted to be left out of the party.

Ves sighed. "I'm turning more and more into a manipulator like Senator Tovar."

Even though a third-rate statesman like Senator Camden Tovar no longer matched up to Ves' identity, the man still left a profound impression behind. The way the senator for life kept the Tovar Family in power and manipulated others like chess pieces in order to advance his goals were universal methods that applied to every layer of power.

If Ves wanted to maintain control and avoid getting hoodwinked by his own underlings, it was necessary for him to learn some of the tricks of players like Senator Tovar.

"I'm still a mech designer, though." He shook his head. "As long as I improve my original foundation, I'll always remain respected."

Mech designers possessed an outsized influence in the Larkinson Clan, and Ves was the most prominent and successful among them. Even if newer talents such as Ketis showed signs of catching up, he was immensely confident in his ability to remain relevant!

After Ves processed the aftermath of this pivotal meeting, he turned his attention back to his more immediate priorities.

The expeditionary fleet was just about to reach its next stop. While Ves didn't have to pay any attention to most of what the clan intended to do, he might have to take a more active stance in order to close the deals on the capital ships that he intended to add to his fleet.

"One way or another, I'm getting those ships." He muttered.

The fleet was getting closer and closer to the beyonder gate. He much preferred to fill up his capital ship quota sooner rather than later.

The only major concern he had about the clan's capital ship composition was that it featured a distressing lack of fleet carriers.

"It's essential for our clan to bring enough mechs into the Red Ocean."

While building up a versatile and rounded expeditionary fleet sounded nice, it was even more important to ensure that all of these vulnerable non-combat vessels enjoyed sufficient protection.

He shrugged. "Well, if we really can't get our hands on any fleet carriers, we'll just pack as many mechs as possible into the cargo bays of our existing vessels."

This was an emergency solution that was actually employed by many pioneers. As long as any starship possessed sufficient internal space, there was always a way to convert them into temporary mech hangers.

It was far from ideal, though. Dedicated carrier vessels accommodated mechs in many different ways. They were also suitable to be deployed fairly close to the battlefield.

However, as long as Ves was willing to accept more burdens, it shouldn't be a big problem to stuff a lot of mechs into ships like the Spirit of Bentheim, the Dragon's Den, the Vivacious Wal and other large-hulled starships.

The only vessel that wasn't able to fit any mechs was the oddly-shaped Blinding Banshee. Her extreme specialization along with her unorthodox design heavily limited her ability to take on large cargo.

In any case, if the Larkinson Clan wasn't satisfied with the amount of mechs it could bring into the Red Ocean, the Larkinsons could employ even more tricks to increase that number.

A quick and dirty example would be to affix extra cargo modules onto the hulls of the starships. They only had to be large enough to hold additional mechs in packed or even disassembled forms.

Even though this meant that it was impractical for the Larkinson Clan to deploy them into battle right away, it was better than abandoning a lot of existing mechs.

Though there were technical limitations that prevented the Larkinsons from turning every capital ship into huge and chunky external cargo carriers, as long as the engineering was sound, his fleet would easily be able to bring in a couple of thousand extra mechs in this fashion.

Vivian Tsai had already been tasked with exploring these improvised measures.

"Maybe I should fill up our remaining capital ship slots with even larger hulls." He wondered.

A lot of large trading companies made extensive use of huge capital-grade mass conveyors. These titanic ships were little more than immense hollow hulls that contained enough essentials to allow them to traverse the stars. They were the most economical means to conduct inter-sector and inter-cluster trade.

The only problem was that these vessels were mostly built for massive trade corporations with extensive reach. The Larkinson Clan would have to expend a great amount of effort to obtain a mass conveyor, especially considering that many other pioneering fleets preferred to make use of these titans to bring all of their precious mechs and bulk cargo into the new frontier.

"Ugh, I shouldn't have to worry about this problem." Ves shook his head. "This is what Mr. Shederin is for. He should understand the importance of bringing a sufficient amount of mechs into the Red Ocean as well as I do. Our clan might suffer the fate of his former family if we go in without sufficient protection."

The Larkinsons were victims of the current galactic environment. Their lack of strength and reputation caused them to miss many opportunities to obtain the ships they truly needed.

Ves no longer expended any time on these matters. Instead, he left his office and headed over to the design lab in order to engage in something much more interesting.

All of the mech designers were still basking in the aftermath of the successful test run of the Dark Zephyr. They not only felt satisfied that all of their hard work paid off, they also gathered a lot of real data that provided them with countless little insights.

After so many days of trying to imagine the performance of their first expert mech as best as possible with the help of complicated mathematical formulas and spurious simulations, they finally obtained a huge amount of verification!

In fact, the actual performance of the Dark Zephyr exceeded their expectations! The amplification effect of true resonance was a bit more potent than they initially thought.

With the help of all of the new data, the mech designers would not only be able to gain a greater understanding of how the Dark Zephyr worked, but could also use what they learned to increase the accuracy of their assessments of the performance of their subsequent expert mech designs.

This was an especially crucial benefit to a detail-oriented mech designer like Gloriana. When Ves dropped by her corner of the design lab, she didn't even acknowledge his entry.

"Miaow."

"Hey there."

Clixie, who looked as if she was being neglected, rose up from her perch and padded over to Ves. She brushed her side against his legs as if to mark her scent.

Ves grinned and bent down to hold her in his arms. The furry cat lovely settled in the embrace as if he was her favorite pillow.

"Miaow~"

Even a cat knew when it was necessary to hedge bets. With Gloriana openly dreaming about obtaining another pet like Blinky, Clixie felt as if her position as her favorite feline companion was being threatened.

"Don't worry." Ves smiled at the cat. "Gloriana won't forget about you. She's just a bit too obsessed with her work right now. Once the excitement dies down, she'll take care of you like always."

"Miaow."

Once he finished reassuring Clixie, he moved behind Gloriana's back and watched over her shoulders in order to see what she was currently doing.

Her perfume already started to pamper his nose. He relaxed in her presence.

It turned out that Gloriana was already using the conclusions she derived from the real test data to refine the formulas and models used in the other expert mech design projects.

The more accurate their predictions, the more they were able to anticipate potential faults and inefficiencies. This would eventually result in more optimized end results.

It shouldn't have been a surprise to Ves that Gloriana exuded so much happiness as a result. She even hummed a playful tune as she gained a significantly more accurate picture of the other expert mech designs.

She eventually noticed his presence and pulled herself from her current preoccupation. "You're finally back, Ves. Look at this. With all of the lessons we're learning from the Dark Zephyr, we can make more extensive preparations to ensure our other expert mechs will become even stronger."

She quickly detailed what she had come up with. Every project benefited in some way, but the additional data also pointed out more issues that they needed to address in some way. This meant that it would take slightly more time than expected to complete the other design projects.

"All of this sounds interesting, but I'm more interested in knowing which expert mech designs you want to prioritize next." He said.

"Hmm, I already have some thoughts on the matter." She replied. "The next easiest expert mech that we can complete is the Sentry Project. It is the second-lightest mech design after the Dark Zephyr. Since it doesn't incorporate a significant amount of Unending alloy, it is substantially easier for us to work with its armor system. As long as we pour enough attention to it in the next two months or so, we can probably complete it in the shortest possible time frame."

While the Design Department rushed the Disruptor Project to completion, the mech designers hadn't completely neglected the other projects. Ves and some of the design teams had already made a decent start at designing Venerable Davia Stark's future expert mech, though they weren't able to invest enough time to get it anywhere close to completion.

All of that would change once the entire Design Department raised its priority. The only issue that Ves had trouble with was whether it was appropriate to continue working in this fashion.

"I'm not entirely sure that it is a good idea to keep prioritizing one project over another." He spoke. "Our work efficiency won't be high and we'll end up taking more time to complete every project one at a time as opposed to working on them concurrently."

Gloriana didn't look convinced. "You have a point, but you're overlooking a vital aspect. We've already learned a lot of new lessons and became aware of what we need to improve for next time. Don't forget that expert mechs are very new to us and that we are far from mastering this classification of machines. I don't think we have learned all that we can just from completing a single expert mech. If we tackle another expert mech this way, we'll be able to gather other insights after we complete it. We can go on and on until we have achieved our optimal state when we finally finish our final expert mech design."

Her argument sounded highly compelling to Ves. He hadn't been considering this dynamic beyond the Disruptor Project. Since he agreed with her that they had only scratched the surface of expert mech design, it would be very helpful if they could continuously level up after finishing one expert mech after another as if they were playing a game.

"Which mech should we reserve as last?"

In this proposed chain, the last one left would likely be the best of the batch.

"The Shield of Samar, of course! It's not only the largest and most massive expert mech, but it is also a lot more complicated to make because we have to perform an upgrade on an existing mech rather than fabricate a new machine from scratch. With all of the variables that we have to take into account, I want to accumulate enough experience with working on other expert mechs before we tackle the most difficult one."

"I don't agree!" Ves firmly shook his head. "While you have a point, the combat value of the Shield of Samar is not as high as that of the Chimera Project. Venerable Joshua's expert mech is by far the most promising and versatile expert mech out of the batch. We should reserve this project as the last!"

"Are you stupid, Ves? The Shield of Samar is not a worthless mech! With Master Willix's help, we can completely transform this defensive mech into an impassable bulwark that can serve as the final line of defense of our fleet!"

"The best defense is offense. Our clan has always been on the attack!"

"That's a simplistic attitude!"