The Mech Touch

After several hours of handling numerous different affairs, the time had come for Ves to attend his first meeting with the CEO of Isthmus Manufacturing.

This was a crucial event and could directly determine whether the LMC could solve its immediate shortcomings related to production and market access.

"Meow..."

Lucky yawned as he rested on the desk. The gem cat had just devoured another meal of high-grade exotics that was worth as much as 50,000 MTA credits.

Ves would have balked at feeding his cat so much excessively overpriced materials in the past, but recent events had vastly improved the financial position of the Larkinson Clan.

Just the instant cash infusions from selling all of the licenses of the Fey Fianna models was enough to resolve all of his immediate money concerns!

"How are you doing, Lucky? How long will it take for you to repair all of your damage now that your stomach is a lot fuller than before?"

"Meow meow meow." Lucky eloquently explained as he lazily rolled onto his back.

"That's not much of an improvement."

"Meow." Tail flip.

Ves shook his head and ignored his cat. He examined his appearance one more time. Though he did not want to put any special effort into dressing himself up, he did not want to present a sloppy appearance either.

His assistant meanwhile had just completed a final briefing on all of the points that Ves needed to pay attention to if the talk started to turn to more substantive matters.

Ves roughly understood what the LMC needed the most in the short and medium term. Increasing production was the main priority. Quickly opening up the Rubarthan market was a nice benefit, but not an essential one. At most, the Larkinsons would do the hard work of setting up retail channels themselves.

"The Larkinson Clan should extend its tentacles in the Rubarthan Pact sooner or later." Gavin reminded his superior. "The issue is that we are short on time. Our clan and our subsidiaries already have their hands full with setting up branches throughout the Red Ocean Union. Our presence in the Krakatoa Middle Zone is particularly strong, but our footprint in the Magair Middle Zone is rapidly catching up. It will take at least a decade before we have established enough branches in the remaining middle zones of the Red Ocean Union."

Although the Larkinson Clan could already set up a few branches in the Terran Alliance and the Rubarthan Pact, it was impossible to maintain control over all of the branches if too many of them popped up in far-flung territories.

This meant that relying on a third party to handle the Larkinson Clan's business in Terran and Rubarthan space was a viable choice.

The biggest issue was how many concessions the Larkinsons needed to make to get a foreign company to do business in its home turf.

Gavin gave Ves a confident grin. "Our potential is high. Ever since you managed to get promoted to a tier 3 galactic citizen, you have started to form a high-level network with several notable human leaders. Hooking up with the Devos Ancient Clan and the Destroyer of Worlds has turned you into a leading figure that is worth befriending. Don't forget that. If the CEO of Isthmus Manufacturing starts to sound greedy, then do not hesitate to reject his proposals. As long as you continue to do well, we can just wait and increase our value. By that time, it will be Isthmus that will have to make concessions in order to gain our cooperation."

That took valuable time. Red humanity had entered a time of rapid change and upheaval. The faster Ves expanded his business operations, the more he was able to increase his influence in high society.

After all, once his bestselling products such as the Fey Fianna started to become ubiquitous throughout human space, it became a lot easier for Ves to gain a voice in how red humanity should be run!

Even if Ves was not interested in enacting policies himself, he at least wanted to stay in the loop. He had learned a lot of secrets as of late that made it clear that the upper echelon were holding back way more information than they disclosed to the public.

Ves despised it whenever people kept him in the dark. He hadn't even known about the possible approach of a God King-level threat from Messier 87!

"The time has come." Gavin announced. "Good luck with your talk. I will be standing out of projection range so that I can pass on all of the information that you need."

A secure communication channel started to form between two distant locations. The Red Comm Consortium that managed the galactic net had recently upgraded the speed, bandwidth and privacy of its elaborate network of quantum communication nodes.

The Red Ocean was much smaller than the Milky Way, and red humanity only occupied a part of the dwarf galaxy.

This made it much cheaper and more convenient to implement large-scale improvements to the communications infrastructure.

Any significant improvement made it easier to conduct business across interstellar distances. This was one of several ways the Red Two sought to stimulate the economy.

While Ves had certainly noticed the increase in bandwidth of any other useful services, he did not believe in the claims that the privacy and security of all remote connections had improved.

This was why he preferred to meet with important leaders in person. It was a lot harder for the mechers and other parties to eavesdrop on his conversations.

It was too bad that his schedule did not make it possible this time. If Isthmus Manufacturing anticipated a possible business deal with Ves in advance, the company would have dispatched an envoy to Bortele III months in advance.

This meeting was clearly arranged on short notice, but that was not a big deal to Ves and his Rubarthan counterpart. Neither of them cared too much about ceremony and tradition.

The office suddenly changed. The physical projectors created a new illusionary environment that resembled a well-lit reception hall.

The entire place was empty, giving Ves an opportunity to admire the tall ceilings, the beautiful company banners hanging from the walls and the hand carved statues of the most successful mech models produced by Isthmus Manufacturing.

The entire space was so large and spacious that Ves gained a strong sense of grandeur from the decor. Isthmus Manufacturing had steadily built up its scale of business with each passing generation.

The Great Severing may have cut its Red Ocean operations off from its parent organization in the Milky Way, but the foundation of the former was healthy enough to continue its business without any significant disruptions.

"Magnificent, is it not?" A new voice sounded from afar.

A man dressed in a purple pin-striped suit with the stripes flashing in staccato frequencies had passed through the main entrance.

"It is. Much of it appears to be new but handmade. That is a nice touch."

"We try. It never fails to impress mech designers such as yourself. Micky Tarukan. I am in charge of the operations of Isthmus Manufacturing. It is an honor to meet with the favored of the Destroyer of Worlds."

Ves smiled back as he shook hands with the physical projection.

"It is a pleasure to meet with you as well, but I have to warn you that I cannot comment on my relationship with the god pilot of your superstate. Please do not make assumptions about the nature of my ties to the Destroyer of Worlds."

"We understand. We shall not speak of it any further."

Both of them knew that the only reason this meeting came about was because Ves had gotten in touch with the Destroyer of Worlds. It was not realistic to ignore this major factor.

Now that the two had opened up a dialogue, they started to get to know each other a little more.

"Under my leadership, Isthmus has successfully overcome the crisis sparked by the Great Severing. Many of our existing product lines needed to be refreshed and replaced in the short term in order to maintain our profitability. We also had to work together with our extensive network of suppliers to ensure an abundant supply of hyper materials, particularly ones that are based on the most popular elements. Our success in solving all of these unanticipated problems has strengthened the cohesion of our company more than ever. We are also much better equipped to produce large quantities of hyper mechs no matter their material requirements."

Ves politely nodded as he listened to the 170-year old CEO.

He already researched the recent history of Isthmus Manufacturing, but it was always helpful to gain a better understanding of its leadership.

So far, Micky Tarukan had been remarkably approachable. This was a man who knew how to handle people like Ves. He had to be in order to be able to climb his way up to a chief executive position after starting from the bottom.

Back in Terran space, it was unimaginable for a relatively unremarkable Rubarthan businessman with a middle-class background to eventually be in charge of running a multi-billion MTA credit business!

"I have taken a look at the hyper mech models that your company is currently producing." Ves spoke as he studied one of the sculptures of a bestselling mech. "Many of the second-class models are quite decent, if limited by the timing of their development. You could have replaced them with more modern and updated hyper mech models. Aside from the obvious reason, Why did you take the initiative to approach the LMC all of a sudden?"

This question was a test. Ves wanted to know what Isthmus Manufacturing truly wanted out of cooperating with him and his mech company.

Mr. Tarukan clearly anticipated this sort of question. He chose to be frank and direct.

"There are two reasons. My patron, the Impresario Prince, has taken a personal interest in you. He has nudged our company into investigating whether there is an opportunity to do business with your Living Mech Corporation. Let me assure you that we are not being forced or ordered to explore business opportunities with you. After we have conducted an analysis of your business prospects, we discovered that a partnership with your mech company can be highly lucrative. You supply the designs. We will handle production and all other downstream business activities."

"You are not our only choice." Ves said.

"That is true, but Isthmus is one of the few mech companies that not only has the capacity to mass produce hundreds of thousands of mechs, but is also willing to devote the majority of its production to third-party mechs. Many other mech manufacturers have locked in production for the mechs that they have developed in-house."

"That also makes it easier to collaborate with their mech designers." Ves retorted. "This will be especially helpful once I am ready to design first-class mechs."

"I advise you against cooperating with small and unreliable companies. They are not as experienced in catering to the needs of partners such as you. Their average production costs are also significantly higher." Tarokan shook his head." We are willing to fabricate and sell as many mechs as we can if you choose to partner with us. If you agree to sign a long-term contract with us, we are even willing to reduce our fees by a small extent. We are also prepared to raise your priority in our business relationships. That means that if there is any available production capacity, the available production lines will be allocated to the production of your characteristic living mechs first as long as demand is sufficient."

That sounded incredibly attractive to Ves, but he tried his best to suppress his enthusiasm.

"That is a remarkably generous proposal. However, I expect that your company wants something in return."

The CEO's expression turned serious. "If you wish to obtain the highest level of treatment from our company, we would like to obtain exclusivity in this business. Allow us to be your sole authorized producer and seller of your products within the borders of the Rubarthan Pact. We have the contacts and the infrastructure to do this cheaper and on a larger scale than any other party. As long as your mech company agrees to do business with us on a permanent basis, we will always have your back whenever you require anything within Rubarthan space."

This was definitely a big proposal!