The Mech Touch

5810 Starfarer Berth

Obtaining a shipyard that was located awfully close to the frontlines of the Red War sounded anything but ideal.

However, the easy access to raw materials along with the other favorable conditions offered by the Octara Kingdom made up for this very obvious downside.

Another factor that earned his appreciation was that any orbital shipyard that received the 'royal' designation was definitely among the largest and most productive of its kind!

According to the fact sheet transmitted by Duke Elijah von Reevus, the specific shipyard that the Octarans were willing to 'gift' to Ves was capable of constructing capital ships up to a maximum length of around 3 kilometers!

That was a huge luxury as first-class capital ships were always impressive.

The capacity for the Larkinson Clan to design and construct its own first-class fleet carriers was so valuable that Ves was willing to put up with the very real risk that an alien incursion might one day invade the Octara Kingdom and destroy the royal shipyard!

He wondered whether it was possible to break the shipyard into pieces and ship them over to a safer location where the orbital construct could be rebuilt anew.

While many people became preoccupied with weighing how much they needed to offer in order to beat the Octara Kingdom's bid, another individual rose up from her seat.

"Greetings, Professor Larkinson. I am Master Francesca Castillo, but you may know me as the Adaptive Scale. I am a lifelong servant of the Red Association, and I have represented the Guidance Faction on many occasions. I am not approaching you as a representative of either of these groups, but instead wish to offer a partnership in my personal capacity."

Ves had never heard of the Adaptive Scale before, but a quick search on the galactic net told him that she was an RA Master Mech Designer of decent renown.

The woman activated a projection that displayed a relatively small but much more advanced orbital shipyard.

"This is the Starfarer Berth, a small but modern first-class orbital shipyard. I am the sole investor and owner of this facility. It was initially rated to construct civilian sub-capital ships such as logistical and industrial vessels, but it has recently completed an upgrade that enables the construction of military hulls such as combat carriers and armed cruisers."

Starfarer Berth was truly a lot smaller than the royal shipyard offered by the Octara Kingdom. There was no contest when it came to scale.

However, despite the huge difference in size, Ves had a feeling that Starfarer Berth was actually just as valuable if not more due to its much more advanced tech!

The Adaptive Scale smiled with pride. "Starfarer Berth is capable of constructing the highest specifications of sub-

capital ships designed by the shipwrights of the Red Association. It is equipped with full materialization and fabrication suites that are fully capable of producing all of the components in-house. Unless the design of a starship demands the inclusion of exotic components, my shipyard can fully convert raw materials into complete first-class sub-

capital ships in a matter of months."

This was powerful tech!

While the royal shipyard from earlier also possessed decent production facilities, it was not exactly meant to operate independently from the regional economy.

Ves knew that if he wanted to obtain a powerful fleet carrier, the royal shipyard would have to place many different orders from a lot of third-party producers in order to obtain specialized high-tech parts such as superdrives and azure shield generators.

This shouldn't be a problem most of the time, but Ves did not like it that the royal shipyard was at the mercy of other people.

Granted, Ves should be able to develop friendly relations with these contractors easily enough, especially the Octara Kingdom bestowed him with official positions.

Was it really worth it for Ves to play along with this charade just so that he could guarantee the smooth operation of the royal shipyard?

Ves much preferred to obtain an orbital shipyard that could minimize any entanglements with external parties. He only needed to arrange a sufficient supply of raw materials to keep a cozy facility like the Starfarer Berth running.

"Where is your orbital shipyard located, Master?"

"Good question, Professor Larkinson. I believe you will be especially pleased to know that Starfarer Berth is located in the Yernstall Star Node."

A lot of people who hadn't bothered to look up information about the orbital shipyard reacted with surprise!

Yernstall Star Node!

Every Central Star Node was a stronghold that was jointly colonized and managed by the Red Association and the Red Fleet!

The initial attraction to Yernstall was its powerful blue supergiant star.

When the Big Two wanted to establish additional strongholds in the rim of the Red Ocean, they chose to construct an immense Dyson sphere around the powerful blue sun in order to channel almost all of its immense output into a huge supply of energy!

The massive undertaking was mind boggling and expensive beyond belief, yet the MTA and CFA at the height of their power easily managed to complete this titanic construction effort!

Of course, it helped a lot that the Big Two constructed most of the semi-autonomous modules of the gigantic Dyson sphere in the old galaxy. They only had to ship the finished modules across galaxies and put them in the right places.

Capturing the energy of an entire blue supergiant fully transformed the Yernstall Star Node into a location with great economic development!

Out of all of the Central Star Nodes, the biggest and most important one of them all was Bridgehead One.

Yernstall Star Node happened to rank second on the list.

It was a Star Node that was fully dedicated towards servicing the needs of first-raters. Initially occupied by the mechers and the fleeters, it soon opened up for business and welcomed any first-class visitors who were wealthy enough to pay the extremely high fees.

After the opening of the Red Ocean, the Yernstall Star Node quickly rose up to become an economic pillar due to the huge influx of Terrans, Rubarthans and the citizens of other first-

rate states!

The fact that both Terrans and Rubarthans flocked to the same star system was remarkable and made Yernstall all the more special!

Ves could think of few places in the new frontier that were safer than the Yernstall Star Node.

Not only had the mechers and fleeters fortified the star system to an nigh-unbreakable stronghold, Yernstall also happened to be located far to the rear of human-occupied space!

Many colonial states and zones would have to fall for the alien invaders first before Yernstall was ever exposed to serious enemy incursions!

Ves expressed a lot more interest after he learned where the orbital shipyard was located. Master Castillo's bid became a lot more competitive due to this crucial factor!

"I am offering you an 80 percent stake in Starfarer Berth in exchange for your company shares." The Adaptive Scale straightforwardly said. "Letting me retain the remaining 20 percent will allow the orbital shipyard to retain its personnel, contracts, permissions and suppliers. You will be able to take operational control over a hypermodern shipyard that can produce the most advanced human starships imaginable. It is well-staffed with elite Association-trained personnel who value their current employment because it allows them to live in one of the richest and safest star systems in the new frontier."

Even if Starfarer Berth was a little small, it was still a dream come true for many shipwrights and naval engineers to work at this orbital shipyard!

The Yernstall Star Node was such a popular and desirable place to live and work that it had put up a lot of barriers.

Just like the Vulit Central Star Node that Ves was familiar with, ordinary visitors had to pay exponentially more money or merits in order to stay in a place that would probably be among the last human strongholds to fall if the Red War turned against human civilization.

If nothing else, Starferer Berth might serve as an emergency fallback point if the Larkinson Clan ever suffered a devastating blow throughout the new frontier.

In any case, Ves did not have to worry too much about running into personnel shortages or experience any difficulties in hiring qualified personnel. Every job opening probably attracted thousands of applications from people eager to enjoy the best possible protection from the mechers and the fleeters.

"I take it that operating Starfarer Berth must not be cheap." Ves remarked after he thought about how much people complained about the cost of everything in this Central Star Node.

The Adaptive Scale nodded. "Yernstall is one of the most developed high-tech hubs in human-occupied space. Its inconvenient location and high price levels makes it difficult to earn a profit by producing low-margin products. Starfarer Berth is still able to maintain its profitability by targeting the upper segment of the first-class starship market. Its speed of production is not high compared to other shipyards, but its quality and technological sophistication ranks close to the top. Only the shipyards operated by the Red Fleet are superior in this regard."

Interesting. Ves could readily believe this boast because Starfarer Berth truly looked like it could back up all of these boastful claims.

"I take it that Starfarer Berth excels at constructing a specific type of starship in order to maintain its competitiveness." He guessed.

"Correct. Starfarer Berth is configured to maximize the production of my signature Ripple Energized Armor Systems. My armor systems excel at becoming more effective at resisting specific damage types that strike at them progressively more. In the most ideal conditions, my best Ripple Armor can resist up to 70 percent more damage from the same weapons."

That sounded impressive!

"You can apply your Ripple Armor to both mechs and starships?"

"That is the case, though I have to warn you that the Ripple Energized Armor Systems designed for starships are less effective because they are optimized for bulk and economies of scale. Starfarer Berth is the best orbital shipyard to fabricate and install Ripple Armor to the hulls of starships. If you accept my bid, I shall grant you permanent access to all of my Ripple Energized Armor Systems with the notable exception of highly classified versions. You may use my technologies as you see fit, but as you are already aware, the price will not be cheap."

That caused Ves to frown.

"How much does it actually cost me to operate Starfarer Berth if I stop all commercial production and dedicate its output for my own purposes?"

"Yernstall is an expensive star system. It is at least several times more expensive to construct starships in this Central Star Node than in the Ector System." Master Castillo honestly replied. "There are few orbital shipyards in orbit of this planet that can construct sub-capital ships as advanced and resilient as Starfarer Berth. They are all owned by entrenched groups that are unlikely to sell their strategically valuable military production facilities. I am one of the few who are capable of doing so because I chose to concentrate my investment in a wholly-owned orbital shipyard."

"I see."

This turned out to be an intriguing bargain. The offer of gaining 80 percent ownership in a small but extremely high-

tech orbital shipyard located in one of the safest star systems imaginable sounded attractive as hell.

The only sticking points were the extravagant production costs and the shipyard's limited scale.

Ves did not regard the cost of operating Starfarer Berth to be an insurmountable problem. He just had to do well in the mech market.

Besides, the shipyard was incapable of producing big and expensive capital ships, so that also played in his favor.

That last point also served as one of the biggest shortcomings of Starfarer Berth. The inability to produce capital ships of any kind almost served as a dealbreaker to Ves.

As it was, all of the other selling points successfully compensated for this critical weakness.

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