The Mech Touch

"The last holiday destination is also located in Krakatoa." Gavin explained to Ves. "Port Salience was originally colonized to take advantage of its proximity to the Torald Middle Zone to attract customers from there as well. It is set up as a cheaper and more remote version of Chance Bay. That means that it hosts a lot of gambling establishments as well as mech arenas, though there are also many other activities that you can enjoy if you are looking for more variety."

Port Salience was a lot more barren than the previous planet. It definitely looked like a place that attracted all kinds of profiteers and luck seekers.

"This does not really look like a kid-friendly destination, Gavin." Ves said.

"That is true, but I have added this option in case you want to pass on a bit more frontier wisdom to your children." His assistant replied. "You do not have to go for this option if you do not think it is a good idea. That said, the competitive scene over there is something else. It is not only highly active, but has developed its own set of rules and traditions in the few years the planet opened up for business. The colonizers have done so well that Port Salience has actually attracted a large crowd of people who were originally staying in the Bortele System. That should tell you enough how exciting its mech games and tournaments have become."

Ves took a closer look at the barren rocky planet that only hosted a few colonial settlements.

He could actually spot large craters on its surface. It looked as if Port Salience had turned much of the lifeless and rocky landscape of the planet into open competition fields!

"If I want to watch a mech duel, I can take a trip to the local arenas in the city of Sandan." Ves said. "I trust you well enough that there are other reasons that make it worthwhile to visit this planet."

Gavin smiled. "There are other planets throughout the zones that try to undertake similar business, but there are two reasons that make Port Salience more interesting. The first is that it is owned and operated by the Wild Fighter Association."

"Oh? You mean the same organization that is filled with melee combat enthusiasts?"

Though it had been a long time since he thought about the Wild Fighters, his clan had a fruitful business relationship with them. The Larkinsons had managed to win Wild Torch, a powerful fleet carrier, after winning a large mech tournament.

No average organization was willing to award a precious second-class fleet carrier so easily!

Ves suddenly frowned. The Wild Fighter Association was unusually large, wealthy and widespread. It was way more successful than it should if it was an independent group.

The Wild Fighter Association was almost certainly backed by a first-class power!

Was it the mechers? Was it the Rubarthans? Either of these possibilities sounded likely, but Ves did not know the correct answer.

He activated his desk terminal and conducted a few searches on the galactic net.

Nothing.

The Wild Fighter Association did not mention its backing, though there were plenty of rumors that it definitely enjoyed a bit of care from above.

This was concerning to Ves because his clan still had an ongoing business relationship with the Wild Fighters.

"By the way, the other reason why I encourage you to visit Port Salience is because many of the mechs that are used in the competitions are actually sold by the LMC."

"Huh?"

Gavin smiled at Ves. "This shouldn't come as a surprise. The LMC has a strong market position in the Krakatoa Middle Zone. Port Salience is one of the more notable markets for the mech company. Living mechs possess certain advantages that make them very interesting to discerning mech athletes. Sales of our staple products have been on an upward trend for years until recently."

"Let me guess. The start of the Hyper Generation has broken that trend."

"Sadly, yes. Our mech company isn't moving as quickly to refresh its product catalog with hyper mechs as other competitors. The market has been reset, which means that a lot of customers are looking forward to buying the early models of hyper mechs that have been coming out as of late. You have to be aware that hyper technology adds a notable amount of combat power to a mech without excessively raising its production cost depending on the hyper material composition."

Ves knew this a lot better than Gavin. It was always the case that currentgen mechs were stronger than lastgen mechs on average.

The Hyper Generation exacerbated the problem by introducing a brand new technological field that was just as powerful if not greater than phasewater technology.

This was of great importance to mech athletes who relied heavily on winning in order to earn a living.

So long as they had the money to spare, they would definitely be willing to pay hefty premiums to acquire early generation hyper mechs!

Even though the supply of high-grade hyper materials was still exceedingly constrained, the same was not the case for low-grade hyper materials.

"What is the opinion among our existing customers?" Ves inquired.

"A lot of mech pilots have developed an attachment to their living mechs. It is not so easy to persuade them to switch over to a newer hyper mech as the piloting experience is too different. Besides, not every competition format allows for the use of hyper mechs quite yet. A lot of old and experienced competition operators have instituted rules that allow for a few years of buffer time before mechs of the newer generation can be put into play. This also grants a buffer time for competitive teams to replace or upgrade their old machines. That said, there is definitely growing pressure to switch over to hyper mechs. They are strong crowd pleasers and always attract the largest audiences."

All of that was bad news to Ves. His previous stance on upgrading his product catalog was that he was willing to take his time.

The longer he waited before he updated one of his old mech designs to the new generation, the more time he had to develop his hyper technology applications.

While that undoubtedly remained true, the LMC may actually lose a lot of loyal customers if it didn't hurry up and refresh its entire mech catalog!

The performance improvements were too great and the competitive pressure was too high.

No matter whether it was on the frontlines of the current war or the many mech arenas located in the safer parts of human space, there were far too many customers who demanded mechs that incorporated the latest tech!

Ves frowned when he realized that he had grown far too out of touch with the sentiments of the customers he served.

This was a dangerous development. The less he was able to understand his customer base, the greater the extent his mech designs would become less and less aligned with their needs!

His expression grew stern as his gaze swept back and forth between the projections of Ocanon VI and Port Salience.

Emotionally, he felt a greater connection to Ocanon VI.

While Ves did not consider himself to be a serious hunter, he had fond memories of the few times he participated in hunts.

A part of him deeply wanted to travel to Ocanon VI and spend a week on different hunting activities.

He particularly wanted to bring his children along and give them a taste of 'real' action.

In peacetime, it was not that important for Aurelia and Marvaine to experience what it was like to take the lives of other organisms.

However, the looming conflicts between red humanity and the native aliens of both the Red Ocean and Messier Sy were bound to engulf the entire dwarf galaxy in the throes of war!

Ves did not want his children to grow up soft and ill-disposed towards violence. Bringing them on a week-long trip across alien biomes sounded like a great way to prepare them for the darker times ahead.

Another important benefit to visiting Ocanon VI was that he could vent his own desires.

He missed the rush of the battle that he enjoyed with disturbing regularity whenever he went on an expedition with his fleet.

All of the months he spent in New Constantinople VIII had been fruitful in many ways, but it also prevented him from experiencing the excitement of entering into a life-and-death struggle against irreconcilable enemies!

There was also his recently improved phase lord cultivation.

Even though he had yet to explore the strength of his true body, Ves strongly believed that it should not be weak in combat, especially if he was able to master a few basic spatial abilities!

It did not matter if Ves never had any combat training. Plenty of phase lords in the Red Ocean consisted of scientists, statesmen and other members of the ruling class.

Few of them enjoyed military training, but they still became formidable in a fight once their bodies grew large and dense enough!

Of course, the really effective combatants among them not only knew how to utilize their enormous bodies a lot better, but also dedicated a large amount of time on training and developing their spatial abilities.

Ves was sorely lacking in both areas. He did not have the time to become a good combatant, and it was completely unnecessary for a tier 3 galactic citizen to take charge of his own defense.

Nonetheless, he was still curious to see how he would fare in an actual fight by himself. He had gone through far too many situations where many of his defensive arrangements failed and where he had to take action in person to resolve a crisis.

The most recent debacle of this nature was the time where he and a lot of important figures of his clan got kidnapped by the remnants of the pescan race that originally lived in Davute.

The extensive alien wildlife on Ocanon VI definitely offered Ves a lot of opportunities to explore his newfound combat capabilities in the most satisfying way!

Yet... Port Salience had its merits as well. Ves felt obliged to visit the rowdy planet in order to take a first-hand look at how his living mechs were doing in the competitive scene.

However, doing that felt too much like work to him. While he did not think he would counteract the purpose of a vacation by accumulating more stress during his visit, he wanted to let go of all of his work responsibilities for a time.

Still, it would be fun to take a look at many different living mechs in use and see how they had grown over the years.

"If I recall, a lot of competitive teams have in-house design teams that regularly modify and upgrade the mechs in their stables." Ves remarked.

"That is usually correct. Some of them even outsource this work to professional design studios or small-scale mech boutiques."

"Have they begun to upgrade their LMC mechs with hyper technology by themselves?"

"Many of them have attempted to do so." Gavin replied. "The results were mixed at first, but a few enterprising mech companies have taken upon themselves to design variants of our products that do a decent job at dragging them into the Hyper Generation. Much of the upgrade work is not that sophisticated. It is mostly mech designers who apply the standard formulas and templates published by the Red Association."

"Hmm. That sounds interesting. I would like to take a look at those third-party variants."

Ves faced a difficult decision. He had already dismissed Nirian IX-B as a vacation destination, but he couldn't make up his mind between the remaining two options.

Both of them had their pros and cons. Though Ves could split his time between both of them, he did not want to spend too little time on either planet. He wanted to stay longer and immerse himself long enough to start the second year of the Age of Dawn with a fresh mindset.

Which one should he choose?