The Mech Touch

When Ves was done with playing with Emma's spiritual fragment, he tossed it into the Vault of Eternity.

He would have preferred to keep it close on hand, but it was a little too big and unwieldy to carry by himself.

Once Nitaa returned from EdNet training, Ves would develop a custom suit of armor for her that would allow her to carry the Novastella relic in a dignified manner.

While it was fine for Ves to treat the cat statue like a toy in private, he needed to be much more careful about its treatment once he appeared in public.

Many people literally treated god pilots like deities!

They were worshipful towards god pilots that they would take any perceived insult as a personal affront!

Ves turned his attention to other priorities after dealing with this little matter.

"Are you sure you want to cancel your trip to Port Salience?" Gavin asked in confirmation.

"I am sure." Ves confirmed as he entered the penthouse office on the top floor of the branch headquarters. "Master Quan's assassination attempt may have failed, but I am pretty sure that there are many opportunists lurking in the background. The Red Association already managed to capture dozens of other suspicious characters. This tells me that there are multiple ambitious people and organizations who are looking forward to claiming my bounty. I will just be tempted fate if I visit a rowdy place where the security arrangements are much weaker than on this planet."

The Bortele System had become heavily affected by the increased investment from the Red Two. No one was able to come and go without undergoing strict inspections. The use of mechs and the possession of weapons also became subject to increasingly stringent regulations.

All of this was deemed necessary due to the large intermingling of mech forces looking to earn war merits at the front.

Port Salience was much less trafficked but also much less regulated. It attracted an even less discipled crowd of people, so the rate of incidents was considerably higher.

Ves would just be asking for trouble if he stepped foot on Port Salience during this sensitive period!

He at least needed to comprehensively upgrade his security arrangements before he dared to show up in public in less secure spaces again.

Gavin Neumann did not object to his direct superior's decision. He quietly felt relieved as well, though he felt it was a pity that he would have to cancel all of the planned meetings and events.

"How are the negotiations with the Eternal Vulcan Empire proceeding? I would like to conclude this deal before I am scheduled to depart from the Bortele System."

"Don't worry. Talks are happening quickly now that the Iron Emperor has given his approval. We are just haggling over the details. At this moment, as long as you agree to allow a batch of 10 Novice Mech Designers to learn from you and intern in the Design Department for a period of 3 years, the Eternal Vulcan Empire is willing to transfer ownership of a relatively modern first-class fleet carrier. The caveat is that she is one of the smaller ones in the dwarven armed forces. The hull is only 1.9 kilometers long and she can only fit 320 mechs."

Ves frowned for a moment. The Vulcan fleet carrier did not fit as much as a typical second-class fleet carrier, but he knew that it was simply a lot more expensive to construct and maintain larger vessels.

First-class combat was all about quality over quantity. Bringing in a large quantity of cheap mechs and cheap starships was a good way to get stomped by superior opponents.

Mech capacity was not the only factor that made fleet carriers so valuable. As long as their hull plating, their power generators, their azure shield generators and so on were good enough, then he was willing to accept this deal.

In any case, it hardly took any effort for him to teach the basics of living mech design to a bunch of Vulcanite mech designers.

After Ves gave his assistant a few instructions regarding this upcoming deal, he soon addressed the next item on the agenda.

"How much progress has Alexa made in her attempt to recruit a batch of Journeyman Mech Designers for our Design Department?"

"Her progress was adequate before, but now that everyone believes that you have formed a connection with the Destroyer of Worlds, the amount of applications has skyrocketed. It has become much easier for her to sway the minds of freelancers who previously played hard to get. There is a definite sense that if they do not take this opportunity to get aboard our pirate ship, they might never be able to join us in the future based on their qualifications."

"Interesting. That sounds great. No matter what their motivations may be, as long as they pass all of our tests, their commitment to our clan shouldn't be too bad."

It would take at least a few days for Alexa to sort out all of the applicants and get to know the candidates well enough to make a final selection.

Ves did not want to rush this process. The Design Department would definitely depend a lot on their work in the foreseeable future. The LMC needed to refresh plenty of outdated product lines, and it could not afford to tarnish its reputation by releasing a mech that fell far below the standard set by the Fey Fianna.

Hopefully, Alexa would be able to recruit a bunch of ranged weapon specialists this time. Ves was tired of shouldering most of the responsibility for designing a set of decent weapon systems for his ranged mechs.

Master Xieliq Quan may be a bastard and a human traitor, but that did not detract from his amazing technological applications.

The power of his molecular disintegrators was amazing. Such weapons could be devastating in the right situations, and made Ves look forward to what else mech designers were able to develop.

"When will I meet with the CEO of Isthmus Manufacturing?"

"If nothing changes, you can initiate a virtual call in a couple of hours. It is still night at the planet where the mech manufacturer's headquarters are based."

"Do you have an updated intelligence packet on Isthmus Manufacturing?"

"Here you go, boss. We do not have the ability to collect first-hand information in the Rubarthan Pact, but there are numerous investigation and market research bureaus that specialize in this kind of stuff. We have managed to develop a much greater understanding of the company."

Ves already started to skim through all of the information.

The ownership structure of the company was interesting.

"It turns out that Isthmus is a public company."

That was not too unusual, but most mech-related businesses tended to be privately owned due to being founded by high-ranking mech designers.

Many serious mech companies had to offer increasingly larger proportions of stock to leading mech designers in order to retain their services.

Isthmus Manufacturing did not bother with this kind of business as it never put a lot of emphasis on developing in-house mechs. It was more than happy with catering to the large-scale production needs of other successful mech designers.

"The strongest advantage of Isthmus is its extensive networks of contacts and business partners." Gavin spoke in an admiring tone. "Ever since it started business over 300 years ago, it persistently scaled up its business activities while winning over increasingly larger and more capable business partners. It is a much bigger player in the old galaxy, but the branch in the Red Ocean has inherited the same business model as well as many long-standing contracts and business relationships. It enjoys a stellar reputation in the supply side of the mech community. It is never short on raw materials and its many friendships with Rubarthan government institutions allows it to gain exemptions and receive better treatment."

These were all key advantages. Isthmus Manufacturing was able to rely on its 300-year old heritage and its enduring reputation to easily open doors that would be closed to other companies such as the Living Mech Corporation.

Although Isthmus Manufacturing only focused on developing its networks in Rubarthan space, that was already a massive advantage.

Not only was Isthmus able to leverage the large amount of resources and services in territories where the LMC did not have a strong presence, but it was also able to open up a lot of new sales channels throughout Rubarthan space!

Of course, it went without saying that Isthmus had no ties with the Terran Alliance. Ves would not be able to make use of the company to expand the LMC's reach inside Terran space.

While Isthmus was in the process of strengthening its business networks in the Red Ocean Union, the LMC already built a decent foundation within this broad alliance.

One of the reasons why Isthmus Manufacturing was able to get along with many parties while still remaining publicly owned was because of its largest shareholder.

"The Impresario Principality owns the largest proportion of shares in the company." Gavin explained. "Much of the remaining shares are owned by half-a-dozen investment groups. It looks as if each of their voices are roughly equal, but the reality is that those institutional investments generally do not bother to manage their investments too actively. They are happy to sit back and take their money as long as business is doing well. This effectively means that the Impresario Principality is de facto in control of the company. It has appointed much of the board of directors and it is primarily interested in using Isthmus for non-monetary purposes."

To a Rubarthan principality, owning a large and influential company was about controlling a part of the economy and forming lots of strategically valuable relationships.

For example, the current situation could be regarded as an attempt to form a friendship with a mech designer who earned the favor of a powerful Rubarthan god pilot.

However, Isthmus was not a loss-making institution. Profits were vitally important to keep the remaining shareholders happy. Not even the Impresario Prince could upset these big investment companies if he wanted to maintain his reputation in the business community.

Gavin pointed out the strict standards set by the mech manufacturer. "As I have explained the day before, the business model of Isthmus Manufacturing is centered around mass producing large volumes of mechs in the most cost-effective manner. It relies heavily on economies of scale to lower overall costs and increase its profit margins. This is why it only focuses on a small selection of wildly popular mech models. In fact, much of its production is dedicated to producing mainstream mech models that have proven to be so popular that their original mech companies lack the ability to meet all of the rising demand. Such phenomena happen every once in a while. We are but the latest in a long list of mech companies that have managed to strike it big."

Ves rubbed his hairless chin in thought. "All of that sounds nice, but that is only when business is doing well. What if a mech model starts to fade in popularity? Is Isthmus willing to accommodate a business partner that has entered into a slump?"

"Nope." Gavin immediately replied. "Isthmus is all business when it comes to profitability. The moment a mech model starts to lose momentum in the mech market is the moment where the mech manufacturer is ready to retool its production lines. Success is the main criteria that determines whether Isthmus is willing to fulfill our production needs. Anything that causes its production to fall below full capacity is wasted money as far as the Rubarthans are concerned. Unless you happen to be the Destroyer of World's secret great-great-grandson, the executives of the mech manufacturer won't wait long before they replace the LMC with more successful competitors."

"I see."

Getting in bed with Isthmus was a commitment as well as an opportunity. The large mech manufacturer could handle a lot of cumbersome but lucrative affairs in the Rubarthan Pact, but once the LMC started to falter, it would lose all of the borrowed production capacity and other business activities in an instant!