The Mech Touch

Ever since the expeditionary fleet left the Smiling Samuel Star Sector, it had advanced continuously until it had crossed over into the Antilla Star Cluster. After almost two months of nonstop travel, the Golden Skull Alliance had finally reached a particular port system in the Sticky Pernois Star Sector.

Everyone was finally able to take a relatively short breather in this busy trading location.

"I've heard this place was busy but I didn't expect there to be so much traffic." Ves commented as he looked at the local plot of the port system.

He hadn't bothered to learn any details about the state or star system because his fleet would soon be leaving them anyway. All he knew was that this was a particularly popular pitstop where a lot of aspiring pioneering organizations stocked up on essential goods and supplies.

Traders flooded the port system knowing that they could sell a product at vastly higher prices.

The pioneers that flooded to this central location reluctantly accepted the exaggerated premium because it was difficult to find certain essential goods elsewhere.

Even if they were able to find the products at a different place, the price wouldn't be any cheaper as long as it was located inside this star cluster!

The insane amount of profiteering taking place in port systems like these made Ves dizzy for a moment. The market was distorted beyond recognition and many standard supplies such as nutrient packs cost as much as ten times more than normal!

Fortunately, the Larkinson Clan had already completed most of its necessary purchases a long time ago. What the Larkinsons were more concerned about was offloading their excess mechs and ships.

Although it wasn't safe to get rid of hundreds of sub-capital ships at once when they hadn't reached the gate system yet, there was no need to hold onto the smaller support and logistical ships at this point.

The Larkinson Clan planned to use this short break to empty and get rid of its cargo haulers, repair vessels, fuel tankers and other marginal ships.

Due to the oversaturated market for sub-capital ships, the clan had no choice but to sell them at a huge discount. Some vessels even sold for less than 30 percent of their original value!

The only reason why the price levels hadn't sunk any further was because the value of scrapping the ships and recycling all of the usable materials was greater at that point.

For now, the Larkinson Clan did not have any plans to sell its combat carriers quite yet. Even if the gate system was closer than ever, there was still a chance those thousands of mechs would be needed in battle.

While the Larkinson fleet slimmed down to a considerable degree, it also welcomed two new large hulls.

Ves and many other clansmen eagerly welcomed the arrival of two capital ships!

"How impressive!"

Chief Ship Designer Vivian Tsai, who stood next to Ves as the clan finally added the two new vessels to its fleet, looked rightfully proud at her work.

After many months and years of drafting and building up ideas, the Larkinson Clan finally helped her realize her dreams!

"They're both beautiful."

The Gorgoneion was the Larkinson Clan's first dedicated fleet carrier as well as its second defensive capital ship.

Although the Larkinsons should have gotten a fleet carrier sooner, much of their tension was relieved now that they gained a vessel comparable to the Indigo Tremor and the Hemmington Cross.

There were still major differences, though.

Compared to the flagships of the Glory Seekers and the Cross Clan, the Gorgoneion was much more durable!

The initial ship design drafted by Vivian Tsai already turned the Gorgoneion into a defensive bulwark that was not much worse than the Graveyard.

After the Larkinsons invested more money into the Gorgoneion's construction, the ship building company augmented her defenses through several means, the most notable of which was adding a strong suite of shield generators!

Just as with the Spirit of Bentheim, the Gorgoneion was able to withstand light to moderate damage by projecting energy shields all around her hull. Though they wouldn't last that long against concentrated bombardment, this feature was incredibly useful against weaker opponents.

What was even better was this added increase in defenses did not impact her mech capacity. In fact, the Gorgoneion was able to hold 750 mechs at full combat readiness, which was up from the 500 mechs she was originally meant to carry!

The way the upgraded and revised ship design was able to carry so many more mechs was because Vivian increased the Gorgoneion's length by half a kilometer.

By transforming a shorter snake into a longer snake, the ship remained the same in many aspects but gained a lot more internal volume. Vivian subsequently allocated much of this extra capacity to holding more mechs.

Of course, this drastic change wasn't as simple as it sounded. The shipyard workers had to put in a lot of effort to cut open the hull and insert a brand new section in between. The requested changes weren't cheap, and the Larkinson Clan's debt grew even larger as a result.

Ves considered it to be worth the cost, though. Though he generally favored relatively compact and mobile capital ships, the lack of fleet carriers in the clan meant that he had to rely heavily on the Gorgoneion to carry the bulk of his combat capable mechs!

Though the Gorgoneion was able to stuff more mechs inside her hull, it came at the cost of weakening the integrity of her hull and compromising on her ability to service the mechs she carried.

The ship also became a lot more sluggish. Since the rest of the ship design remained identical including the sub-light propulsion system, all of that extra mass and hull structure resulted in significantly lower acceleration and agility!

"She has definitely become one of the slowest capital ships in our fleet." Ves murmured when he gazed at the Gorgoneion's inadequate thrusters.

These were acceptable tradeoffs to Ves. As long as the upfront combat power of the core Larkinson fleet became greater, these little irritations weren't that important, at least in the critical early period after entering the Red Ocean!

Fortunately, the Gorgoneion was still able to retain her iconic wall configuration. When she was fully deployed in a defensive configuration, her length increased to 4 kilometers, which allowed her to provide cover for a large number of ranged mechs as well as shield a large number of ships from damage from the front.

In terms of FTL traversal, nothing much had changed. Her standard capital-grade FTL drives were merely adequate and did not possess the advantages of the extended-range models installed on the Spirit of Bentheim.

The Gorgoneion at least wouldn't slow down the expedition fleet as long as it stuck to FTL travel.

Strangely enough, Vivian Tsai did not pay that much attention to the fleet carrier of her own design. The Gorgoneion would definitely play a critical role in the defense of the Larkinson fleet in the coming years and decades, but most of her features were related to mechs and mech combat.

The Diligent Ovenbird was much more interesting to a shipwright!

Unlike the other capital ships, the strangely-named fleet repair vessel was not supposed to carry any mechs.

The Ovenbird was primarily geared towards servicing starships. Compared to her original design, the recent upgrades applied to her design made her more efficient.

What was also notable was that she gained limited ship building capabilities!

At her current level, the Ovenbird was able to construct small starships such as corvettes, frigates and various other ship classes at this size range from the ground up. Due to her 'oven' like hull, she was able to offer stable drydock-like conditions as long as she wasn't on the move.

Technically, construction and repair work was still possible even if the capital ship was on the move, but the chances of anything going wrong were far greater!

"For now, the Ovenbird can only construct frigates at most." Vivian told Ves. "However, if we can get our hands on some powerful and expensive shipbuilding systems in the Red ocean, it's not impossible for us to start building our own combat carriers!"

His eyes lit up at this mention, but he quickly tempered his excitement. As a mech designer, he possessed enough engineering knowledge to know that it was anything but simple to build a serious carrier vessel.

"How quickly?" Ves turned to his resident shipwright.

"Not… that fast." She reluctantly admitted. "A mobile drydock can't catch up to a fixed drydock. The Ovenbird is too cramped and cannot accommodate ultra-large building equipment. This will impose a significant penalty on both the efficiency and speed of construction. I can't give you a solid estimate on how much worse it is, but it wouldn't be strange for a capital ship to take twice as long to build."

That didn't sound so bad. While these realities made the Diligent Ovenbird commercially unviable compared to traditional drydock facilities, Ves did not mind at all. Since the fleet repair and construction vessel was wholly owned by the Larkinson Clan, he had complete control over her operation and whatever ships she produced!

"Are there any other limitations that I need to be aware of?" Ves asked.

"The Diligent Ovenbird can construct most simple and large-scale ship components such as hull plating and so on, but she is not capable of fabricating high-tech and more intricate systems such as FTL drives."

"That's not a problem." Ves smiled and waved around the bridge of his flagship. "The Spirit of Bentheim is the manufacturing complex of our fleet. Her production halls can produce more than mechs. As long as we hire the personnel with the right expertise, we can probably start producing our own FTL drives."

Vivian concurred. "That is possible, but you don't have to go through so much effort. It is cheaper and more convenient to purchase individual FTL drives from specialized vendors. We depend so much on these components and the ones designed and produced by reputable companies are always more consistent and reliable. If we try to make them ourselves, then we cannot guarantee the quality and fault tolerance of our home-made products. We're amateurs in this field."

That was unfortunately true, but Ves didn't think it would stay that way in the long term. Once the Larkinson Clan grew stronger and more numerous, the demand for in-house ship components would surely rise. It would make a lot more sense to produce essential systems such as FTL drives in-house rather than trusting third-party manufacturers to do an honest job!

"There's another limitation that will trouble us once we enter the new frontier." Ves spoke up. "From what I've read, the raw material and intermediate goods markets in the Red Ocean are still too small and incomplete. It will be incredibly difficult for us to purchase all of the necessary goods and raw materials that are needed to build just a single frigate. It will be even worse if we gain the capability to construct a combat carrier."

This was not a problem for the shipbuilding activities of the Larkinson Clan, but also its mech production activities!

Vivian didn't look too concerned. "That is also why I recommend we wait before we upgrade the shipbuilding capabilities of the Diligent Ovenbird any further. I think the supply of raw materials won't be so constrained after a decade of development. Many of the earliest colonies will have passed their most critical period and be able to export their local specialties."

"I'm not so sure about that, Vivian. Colonies will still require a huge amount of resources to build all of their cities, space stations and factories."

It might take an entire generation for a proper functioning economy to emerge in the Red Ocean. This was the downside of taking part in the initial wave of colonization. All of the services that people in the old galaxy took for granted simply didn't exist in the new frontier!

Ves didn't entirely mind. The absence of a functioning regional market was also why the dwarf galaxy was so exciting!