The Mech Touch

Ves and his family interviewed a bunch of other clients in the following two hours.

The flagship store manager thoughtfully selected clients that represented a broad base of customers of the LMC.

From the owner of a competitive mech team to a mid-level procurement agent of a large mercenary organization, each of them explained their own reasoning why they favored LMC mechs over the products sold by rival companies.

"As a fellow alien hunter, you should already know that raiding alien ships and settlements can be extremely lucrative." A pioneer who ran a formidable expeditionary fleet said. "While we do our best to do our research and scout our targets before we attack, there are times when those stinking aliens bring out strange and unexpected phasewater tech that causes a lot of damage to us. Subduing them quickly is our highest priority, and we found that some of the glows of your mechs makes it much easier for us to do so. Ever since we started to field Ferocious Piranhas, Doom Guards and Pacifiers in our mech force, we have been able to neutralize our alien opposition much faster, saving us a lot of damage and more than a couple of lives."

The suppressive glows of those three mech models played a large role in why they had become enduring bestsellers. While it was a pity that the Pacifier mech line was a joint mech design where the Larkinson Clan had to split its profits with the Voiken Family, the latter also bore much of the burden of production, thereby causing the famed law enforcement mech to become a lot more ubiquitous in the zones where it was sold!

"Are those three mech models the only LMC products that you have added to the mech roster of your expeditionary fleet?"

The pioneer nodded. "That is correct, Patriarch Larkinson. No offense, but we are professionals. We don't need to make use of cheap tricks to pepper up our mech pilots. There is little point in adding mechs such as the Desolate Soldier, the Crystal Lord or the Aurora Titan. The only other possible LMC mech we are considering to add to our ranks is the Buzzy Bee. That is also the reason why I visited this store today. I wanted to see for myself whether your ECM and communication mech can truly talk to each other through heavy interference."

"I believe that you will not be disappointed with the communication strength of my Buzzy Bee line." Ves smiled as he did not neglect this opportunity to market one of his products. "What is your favorite mech?"

"It would definitely have to be the Doom Guard." The other man wickedly grinned. "It is just so satisfying to hear the odd and exotic aliens scream as my Doom Guards break into their cities and burn them all to a crisp with their powerful flamethrowers. The name of this mech model is truly appropriate. While my men often go overboard and cause way more collateral damage than necessary, there is no better way to short circuit these stupid aliens than to engulf them with fire and a glow that can paralyze their minds depending on their species."

That… was not what Ves had in mind when he designed the original third-class iteration of the Doom Guard a long time ago, but oh well. At least his old mech concept still found a way to remain useful by recontextualizing its advantages in a different environment.

"Be sure to recommend my Doom Guards to your friends and allies." Ves spoke after the interview with the pioneer came to an end.

"I will! There are more than enough aliens in the galaxy that are still waiting to get burned to a crisp. It's a lot easier to chase them down and cleanse them with fire if they become insensitive and too mentally tormented to put up any decent resistance. You should really consider expanding the range of mechs that carry this terrific glow. I would definitely want to buy hundreds of knight mechs, spearman mechs, lancer mechs and most definitely a stealth mech if your company is able to develop one for sale."

Marvaine became a lot more excited when he imagined what those mechs could do. Combining the glow of the Doom Guard and the Ferocious Piranha with a stealth mech sounded like a fearsome combination! The amount of terror and disruption it could cause while remaining under active stealth was enormous!

The little boy patted his tiny palms onto Lucky's plated back, causing the cat to make a soft sound of enjoyment.

"You should design those mechs, papa! This glow is so useful that it is good with any melee mech. You can build an entire collection of mechs that can disorient their enemies!"

"We have other priorities, my son. Applying the same glow to all kinds of mechs without any other reason except that we can isn't enough to justify their creation. Only a few more combinations make sense. I think pairing up this glow with a knight mech and possibly a stealth mech should be the limit. Any mech force can then employ this mech by mixing and matching models that include one of the four LMC mechs that possess this glow."

"If we publish too many mech designs with this glow, we will also encourage our competitors and enemies, both human and alien, to invest more resources into countering their defining characteristics." Gloriana told Marvaine. "We can't make our company too dependent on a single collection of mech designs. If their sole gimmick loses their value, a lot of customers will get stuck with LMC mechs that are plainly not as good as the alternatives sold by other mech companies."

In fact, most customers already made do with the Ferocious Piranha for offensive actions and the Doom Guard for defensive stands.

A knight mech with a disorienting glow was handy in situations where a true melee mech that could resist a lot more attacks needed to be used.

A stealth mech with the same glow provided an incredible amount of utility and flexibility under the right circumstances. It could be considered a weakened and much more watered down version of his upcoming Ghost Project as both operated on similar logic.

As Ves interviewed a bunch of other fans of the LMC, he became increasingly more interested in what demands they had that his mech company had yet to meet.

Though he heard many of the same requests, the diverse customers occasionally came up with oddball requests.

"We could use a nanny mech. Ah, by that I mean a dedicated support mech. Don't get me wrong. It is useful to have a lot of combat mechs, but the way we operate is reminiscent of how a balanced military mech regiment is run. We don't want our combat mechs to be forced into performing support duties that they are not good at in the first place. If you can make a new mech that can provide area energy shielding, rescue trapped mech pilots from their stuck cockpits and launch utility missiles."

"We'll think about it." Ves said in a vague tone.

He had been thinking about designing a dedicated support mech for both his clan and the market ever since Master Vayro Goldstein showed off his flower-shaped first-class support-oriented mech.

Another customer wanted to acquire more mechs with powerful energy weapons.

"Of all of the ranged mechs we have tried, your machines satisfy us the most. No one else can equip their mechs with anything comparable to luminar crystal weapons. They are slightly smaller, lighter, more efficient and produce less heat. We don't like how they are difficult to repair or how we can't really modify them in any substantial way, but they are fantastic when employed in large numbers. We would love it if you can sell light mechs, marksman mechs, cannoneer mechs armed with luminar crystal weapons. I think you would make a killing!"

"Your wish may come true one day, but luminar crystal weapons are specialty products that are a bit expensive and troublesome to produce due to their alien nature."

A local security company from Davute were big fans of the Pacifier model and wanted more mechs that complement its features.

"Our Pacifiers are fairly fast, light and affordable, but that is not always what we need. We perform many guard missions, and in order to do this job well, we need massive and intimidating defensive mechs that can carry thick riot shields and contain enough modular capacity to mount other optional gear."

"Interesting suggestion." Ves replied. "I am open to do so, but we will need to gain the cooperation of Voiken Industries, our partner that we collaborated with on the Pacifier mech line. Right now, Voiken is more interested in expanding the market for its own mech ecosystem, so we will have to enter into difficult negotiations if we want to release a big brother to the Pacifier."

In the end, Ves gained a much better idea of what the existing customers wanted from the LMC.

They wanted more mech models and a more varied selection of mech types. They did not mind whether the new products largely copied the winning formulas of older LMC products.

"I think the market demand is clear." Gloriana said at the end of the interview session. "People want more of the same."

Ves shook his head. "Not exactly. Our existing customers want more of the same. These are the folks that our mech company has already captured with our existing products. Making more of the same may attract new customers who did not consider us before, but what this approach will mainly do is allow us to earn money from the same customer base."

"You speak as if this is a bad development. A good company should always seek to satisfy its core supporters first. You can focus on attracting new customers after you have exhausted your old clients."

Ves was not too sure about that. He preferred to focus most if not all of his time on designing new and original mech concepts as opposed to putting old wine in new bottles.

Still, he could see the merits of this approach.

"We can pursue this strategy if we are able to double the number of Journeymen in the Design Department." He eventually said.

"How much progress have you made on that, Ves? You told me that you wanted to take care of it yourself. Have your recruiters collected any worthwhile applications from interested Journeymen?"

"Our clan is constantly receiving applications from random Journeymen every day. There are a number of decent mech designers among them, but they are not good enough in my eyes."

Gloriana frowned. "Then how will you solve our shortage?"

"By doing exactly what worked before." Ves grinned. "I managed to recruit four fairly young, ambitious and promising Journeymen after competing against them in a mech design tournament back when we were staying in the Vulit Central Star Node. It just so happens that Davute is planning to hold a huge festival to celebrate the founding of its colonial state. The festival won't last long, so I can only sign up for one or two mech design contests, but that should be enough to showcase my improved design prowess and impress my fellow contestants."

"That… can work." Gloriana admitted. "You should tell Ketis and some of the other Journeymen to sign up to the tournaments as well as long as they meet our standards."

"I have already notified them of this suggestion."

Sara Voiken, Dulo Voiken, Janassa Pellier and Tifi Coslone already participated in numerous mech design contests in the past, so they should have no problem with attaining at least a decent result.

Ketis would doubtlessly steal the show if she signed up for a mech design contest that centered around melee landbound mechs. Ves wasn't confident that she could achieve a good result under other conditions, though.

The remaining three Journeymen of the Design Department would probably embarrass themselves and ruin the reputation of the Larkinson Clan if they attempted to compete.

Miles Tovar and Merrill O'Brian lacked the depth of knowledge and the experience to perform well in high-pressure, time-limited events.

Cormaunt Hempkamp might score better in these areas, but his neural interface specialty provided him with a fairly limited advantage by itself.

Of course, Ves never even considered Gloriana in the first place. He already understood her objections to taking part in design competitions and she would rather sell her expensive collection of handbags than be forced to design a working mech in a matter of days!