The Mech Touch

　　The Open Consortium of Krakatoa officially went into operation. Even though the consortium was horribly understaffed and still had to wait until its headquarters was complete, Chairwoman Calsie was optimistic about the future.

　　Ves met with the woman in a rented office in one of the buildings of the Commercial District. The two Larkinsons discussed much of the work that the consortium needed to do in order to achieve stability.

　　"We are facing two challenges at the moment." Calsie explained. "First, we need to make sure we can retain our members. I get the feeling that many of them have much less reason to stay once Murphy & Sons delivered their ship order. They will have to wait years until they can receive another ship, and that may be too long of a wait for them. Our consortium needs to make sure that continued membership conveys other substantial benefits."

　　"Hm, that's disappointing to hear, but not surprising. The binding force on them is rather weak, after all. This is the downside of making it so easy to exit the consortium."

　　Ves and Calsie gained a better appreciation of long-term contracts that bound parties together more securely. They did not have to spend so much time and effort into keeping all of the members appeased.

　　"The second challenge is trying to establish a good working relationship with several major resource suppliers." She said. "As I've stated earlier, the prominence we've gained along with roping in Murphy & Sons has made this job much easier. That doesn't mean we are in the clear. Our negotiating power is still weak and only the fact that multiple companies see promise in us has made the offers more reasonable."

　　"Do you need any assistance?"

　　"I need manpower." She told him. "I need trusted managers to staff our offices. I need agents to track what our members are doing. I need financial wizards who can wrangle all of the money flowing in and out of our consortium."

　　Ves grimaced for a moment. "That… is a difficult request."

　　"It is not." Calsie spoke in a firm tone. "I've already talked to plenty of clansmen who are currently serving aboard our fleet. You may not realize it, but there are already clansmen who have never been able to adjust to life on starships."

　　"Don't we have the Vivacious Wal for that?"

　　"The Vivacious Wal is a pleasant place to live on, but she is still a ship. The skies above people's heads aren't real. There are no cities and towns aside from Dawn City and Twilight City. Even the air that people breathe isn't natural. This might not sound like a problem to you, but there are people who value their living environment more than the convenience of being able to flee hotspots. Besides, the fleet is about to head into dangerous regions, so the argument that it is safer for Larkinsons to be there is not valid. It is arguably safer for the clansmen to settle in Davute."

　　Though Ves wanted to object to her arguments, it was difficult for him to refute her logic. Given the amount of crises the Larkinsons dealt with during the short existence of the clan, the assumption that living in a mobile fleet would keep everyone safe was false!

　　Ves pressed his fingers against his forehead. "How many Larkinsons are willing to relocate to Davute?"

　　"Thousands, sir. We don't need that much, to be honest. Just a couple of hundred Larkinsons is enough to ensure a good start for the Open Consortium. If you give us your approval, we can ship them over right away."

　　Ves felt conflicted. He did not want to split the clan. It was already enough for Calsie and a handful of trusted assistants to settle on Davute VII for a few years.

　　Sending in 300 more clansmen was a much greater commitment. He would feel compelled to return and save his people if the Davute System ever came under threat.

　　Yet… having these Larkinsons over here would truly help. Not only would the clan become more in touch with the developments in Davute, but his people would also guarantee that the Open Consortium firmly remained in his grip.

　　There was another factor that caused him to waver. If there were clansmen who were truly unhappy about shipboard life, Ves did not want them to suffer for years on end. Maybe it was better for everyone involved if these ground lovers moved to a more comfortable environment.

　　"Fine." Ves decided. "Coordinate with Chief Minister Novilon Purnesse so that everything will be in order. Don't send down more than 300 clansmen. This is just a start."

　　"Thank you, sir. Your decision truly means a lot for the clansmen who can't bear to live on ships anymore."

　　After discussing a few other business matters, they began to discuss more personal matters.

　　"This is quite a drastic shift in your career for you." He said. "Do you truly want to do this?"

　　The new chairwoman nodded. "I do. I previously served as the director of the Living Stars Club, but there is only so much I can do when I am a galaxy away from the LMC's main market. Aside from that, you haven't released any new commercial models in a while, so the enthusiasm among our loyal customers has begun to fade."

　　"That's my fault. We'll remedy this problem in the next design round. I don't intend to abandon the Yeina Star Cluster. The problem right now is that we need to strengthen our forces in the short term in order to make sure that we don't get toppled. The new mech designs that we've completed and are about to complete will definitely help."

　　"You don't need to justify your decisions to me, sir. I've heard good things about our upcoming mechs."

　　"How long do you wish to stay on Davute VII and run the Open Consortium? Are you one of those folks who prefer to keep their distance from starships or are you treating this as a form of vacation?"

　　"More of the latter than the former." Calsie replied. "I do wish to return to the fleet one day. Whether it will take years or decades, I hope I can pass on the chair to another capable leader so that I can take over a different and hopefully more important function. Truth to be told, I see my current responsibilities as an opportunity to accrue experience and build up my qualifications for higher office."

　　"You want to become a politician?" Ves raised his eyebrow.

　　"Not necessarily. Becoming an executive is also good enough. If possible, I would like to lead the clan as one of its chief ministers one day."

　　"That's a bold ambition!"

　　He was happy to learn that she held a great ambition. Leading the clan was an honor and becoming a chief minister of an increasingly more powerful clan would definitely be the highlight of her career.

　　"It's an uphill struggle for me." She said. "I didn't attend any fancy second-class universities nor possess a lot of augmentations that would have allowed me to stand out early on. I have to spend a lot of time on supplementing my studies just so that I can shrink the gap between myself and those Purnessers that we have absorbed into our clan. Accepting my current post is one of the best ways for me to prove that I am just as capable."

　　Her ambitions sounded trivial to Ves. Compared to all of his grand goals and ambitions, Calsie's perseverance in climbing up the hierarchy was a lot smaller in scope.

　　It didn't help that Ves was the patriarch and effective leader of the Larkinson Clan since its founding. He vaguely remembered what it was like to be a nobody in the old family, but those times were long gone.

　　"I wish you luck in your endeavor. For what it's worth, I truly want to see you succeed. I can't give you any unfair advantages since everyone in the clan must abide by its rules, but that doesn't mean that it is okay for others to screw you over. If you encounter any unfair hindrance over the course of your career, you can bring it up with me and I'll sort it out. I value a fellow Cloudy Curtainer such as you over any other adopted Larkinson. Those Purnessers are highly competent at their jobs, but they often give me the impression that they think they should be in charge because they know better."

　　"They're smooth political operators, that's for sure." Calsie chuckled.

　　Once Ves made sure that Calsie was well-prepared for her current assignment, he ended the call after saying goodbye.

　　He wouldn't be meeting her in person for quite some time.

　　As his focus returned to his office aboard the Spirit of Bentheim, he called over his assistant to discuss their upcoming departure.

　　"When do we leave?"

　　"It will probably take around a week to buy and ship all of the goods we can obtain on short notice. The more important question is whether you have a destination in mind."

　　Ves activated a projection that displayed a star map of Krakatoa.

　　"I've been considering that in the last few days. The local MTA colonization bureau offers plenty of missions for pioneers. Exploration missions are a gamble and extermination missions are distasteful. Given that we are one of the few fleets that possess a capital mining ship, I think it would be better for us to start with an ordinary mining mission."

　　He tapped the map, causing dozens of star systems to light up in red.

　　"These are the sites where there are outstanding missions that we can accept. Most of them simply entail heading to the designated site and mining specific resources that the MTA wants for some reason."

　　The materials requested by the MTA were usually oddities that humanity had never encountered before. They weren't necessarily special or powerful, but their properties were still different enough to make them interesting to researchers.

　　Most of the time, the missions took place in relatively minor and less attractive star systems. This made it difficult or cumbersome for pioneering fleets to mine the resources in sufficient quantities.

　　This gave the Larkinson Clan a competitive advantage. The Andrenidae had long been nothing while she formed a part of the core fleet. It was high time that Ves took advantage of her capabilities.

　　"Sounds good, boss. Do you have any preference?"

　　"I don't think we should pick a mission site that is too close to the frontlines of the ongoing invasion." Ves stated. "We aren't ready to duke it out against lost alien fleets. While there aren't as many missions in the rear of Krakatoa, we still have a few choices."

　　"Are they worth our time, though?" Gavin questioned.

　　"Probably, but I can accept that. This is the first time that we are truly venturing out in the unknown. Before this, our expeditionary fleet has always stuck to more familiar routes that threads through relatively pacified star systems. This will no longer be the case once we distance ourselves from Davute and other human colonies."

　　It would be the start of the Golden Skull Alliance's true adventure. Ves was well aware that they could encounter anything in the wild. The most Ves could do was to pick a mission further away from the frontlines so that the risk coefficient wouldn't be so high.

　　"I will inform the others to make sure that the Andrenidae is well-equipped for large-scale mining operations."

　　The crew of the Andrenidae had been waiting to become relevant for a long time. The mining vessel was already prepared and did not need any additional help to mine exotic materials.

　　Before the expeditionary fleet departed from the Davute System, Ves finally received a message from a long-awaited source.

　　"Jovy…"

　　The Survivalists wanted to talk with him about a matter that had lingered on for months.

　　"Welp, here I go. Make sure to hold down the fort while I'm gone, Lucky."

　　"Meow?" Lucky twitched his ears in confusion.

　　Ves' body shimmered out of existence as the MTA directly teleported him away from his ship.