The Mech Touch

5815 Killing Many Birds With A Single Stone

Nobody was stupid enough to throw away an astronomical sum of 1.5 trillion credits.

Even if the Nayald Ancient Clan of the Terran Alliance had a lot of spare cash in reserve, it would have been smarter to invest all of that cash into its own civilian or military infrastructure.

Why did the Nayalds insist on giving Ves a huge bag of cash and an invitation of founding an entire first-class colony within their territory?

He knew that people who operated at this exceedingly high level rarely made their intentions clear on the surface.

They also had a habit of killing a lot of birds with a single stone. The more birds they managed to fell with a single toss, the more profit they harvested at the end!

This was how winners separated themselves from the losers. The groups that tended to be more successful than others had merely gotten really good at translating modest effort into massive gains.

This was exactly the mode of operation that the Terran Ancient Clans excelled at. Many of them were so old and ancient that they managed to maintain direct continuity dating back to the Age of Stars and before!

For organizations to be able to weather so many storms, survive so many setbacks and remain at the top of their society took a lot of practice and intelligence.

It was impossible to see this invitation to colonize a star system as a simple transaction.

Ves already figured out that the main reason why the Terrans bid so aggressively this time was because they needed to counterbalance the Inferno Spear Prince's moves.

The Rubarthans had managed to sink another teeth into Ves by persuading them to exchange his company shares for the E-66 Experimental Yard.

So long as the orbital shipyard remained in Rubarthan space, Ves and his clan would always have to cooperate with the locals on a frequent basis. It was impossible for the facility to operate in complete isolation with the regional economy, after all. The frequent transactions and interactions would allow the Rubarthans to develop stronger relations with the Larkinsons over time.

The Terrans clearly recognized this ploy, and sought to exceed it by stepping up! Founding a massive colony well within the Nayald Ancient Clan's territory would practically force the Larkinsons to cooperate a lot more actively with the Terrans in the neighborhood to get stuff done!

Compared to constructing a single starship every few months, building up an entire first-class colony settlement from scratch happened on a much bigger scale!

This was a much more effective way to push the Larkinson Clan into developing more solid relationships with the Terran Alliance. It might even lead to the partial integration of the Larkinson Clan, or at least the relevant branches, into the first-rate colonial superstate!

All of these potential gains made it a lot easier to stomach the cost of 1.5 trillion MTA credits.

It was not as if the Nayald Ancient Clan gained nothing in return for this massive investment.

First, Ves suspected that the Nayalds were not operating by themselves. The entire Terran Alliance had a vested interest in pulling him closer to their orbit. It would not be surprising if the other Terran ancient clans each pitched in a few billion MTA credits to sweeten the deal to this extent.

Second, the Larkinson Clan needed to spend all of that money somewhere in order to build a colony.

The clan could not build up a complete colony from scratch. It did not have the manpower, resources and other assets required to do so. This was why the clan needed to spend that 1.5 trillion MTA credits on a lot of raw materials and high-tech construction machines in order to get started.

The Larkinsons clearly could not do all of this work alone. They would definitely have to recruit a lot of first-raters who could do many of the essential jobs required to build a complete settlement in a matter of years.

Even then, it would never be enough. It was impossible to make a colony settlement completely self-sufficient. Before the Larkinsons ever made landfall on a chosen planet, they needed to hire a lot of employees, contract a lot of construction companies and invite a lot of entrepreneurs to set up their business in a newly settled star system.

Additionally, the Larkinson Clan needed to form a huge amount of supply agreements to keep the rapidly growing colony settlements supplied of food, construction materials, advanced machinery, system-locked spaceships and more.

Where would his clan purchase all of these goods and services?

It did not make any economic sense for Ves to acquire them far away from Terran space. Not only was it prohibitively expensive to purchase a lot of bulk hardware from the Rubarthan Pact and ship them all the way to the territory claimed by the Nayald Ancient Clan, the political storm ignited by this insulting move was not worth all of the hassle!

The most logical choice for the Larkinson Clan was to spend much of the allowance it gained from this deal right inside Terran Space!

In fact, a lot of shipping costs and delays could be delayed if the Larkinsons simply purchased what they required from the businesses operating under Nayald Ancient Clan itself!

From that perspective, the 1.5 trillion MTA credit interest-free loan did not seem so absurd anymore. It was merely a convoluted way of transferring a huge pile of cash from the left hand to the right hand.

Sure, the money would follow a circuitous route, but as long as it was spent on real infrastructural development of a star system that was slated to directly contribute to the Nayald Ancient Clan's economy, the clever Terrans actually stood to earn a profit in the end!

This was especially the case when Ves added up all of the intangible gains made by the Nayalds. Befriending the Larkinsons and integrating a part of them in their community would allow them to benefit from Ves' many unique services, either directly or indirectly.

Ves narrowed his eyes.

He did not feel particularly pleased about getting taken advantage of. The main reason why he was barely able to stomach this deal was because he and his clan clearly stood to take advantage of the Nayald Ancient Clan's 'generosity'.

Ves did not feel particularly enthused about building a serious colony, but he knew that a lot of Larkinsons thought otherwise.

This may be a good way for them to do more than settle on a relatively isolated branch on a planet owned by other groups.

By having an entire star system for themselves, the Larkinsons could freely indulge in their own dreams of building their own communities.

Of course, doing so also came with the obligation to defend the colony when it came under threat.

This was a burden that Ves was least enthusiastic about. It was one of the main reasons why he always refrained from colonizing a planet in the past.

Although his stance had softened due to the Larkinson Clan's prolific habit of setting up a lot of planetary branches, the level of commitment expected from him was much greater this time.

The Caesarion Upper Zone might fall under the protection of the Terran Alliance, but the fact that it was rather close to the frontlines did not bode well for every colony.

Ves clearly sensed that one of the reasons the Nayalds wanted to pull the Larkinson Clan into their orbit so badly was to gain his friendship and benefit from his protection.

They had made a good calculation as far as he was concerned. Ves always tried to do right by his friends and allies, but the premise of that was that they showed enough sincerity towards him. It was not so easy to earn his true friendship.

Though Ves had no particular reason to trust the Nayalds, he was willing to give them a chance on account of the generous terms of their offer.

When Ves had announced his verdict, numerous people looked surprised.

It was no secret that he had tried to evade the act of founding his own colony in the past, so the unexpected break from his established pattern invalidated a lot of people's calculations.

Tough luck. Ves had already grown sick and tired of people like the Polymath who thought that they could anticipate everything by crunching a lot of numbers. He couldn't help but admit that he took a vindictive amount of satisfaction in breaking the predictions of others.

The moment people figured him out was the moment he lost his touch!

There should never be a time where Ves lost the ability to exceed or circumvent people's expectations!

"Is there anyone here that is willing to override the bid made by the Nayald Ancient Clan?" Orion Leeds spoke up when no one took the initiative to speak out anymore.

The silence was understandable. It was hard to cough up 1.5 trillion MTA credits in capital, even if much of it would gradually flow back into the regional economy.

However, only the wealthiest powers could match or exceed the benefits offered by the Nayald Ancient Clan.

Only other Terran ancient clans possessed this capacity, but they had little reason to do so. The current bid was already sufficient to pull the Larkinson Clan closer to their superstate.

There was no need for the Terrans to compete against themselves.

"Going once…"

"Going twice…"

When no one displayed any intention of supplanting the current bid, the auctioneer closed the current round.

"Sold! I congratulate the Nayald Ancient Clan for exchanging a subsidized colonization opportunity with a 5 percent stake in the Living Mech Corporation. This concludes the second round of bidding. Of the shares that Professor Larkinson has made available, 15 percent have already been committed to numerous transactions. There are only two more opportunities left to buy a stake in the future of the most prominent mech designer of his generation, so advise you to make your offers before it is too late."

A lot more people looked sharper after Orion Leeds reminded them of the stakes.

A lot of players had held back during the last round because they intelligently recognized that the Terrans demanded an opportunity to catch up to the Rubarthans.

Now that Terran Alliance satisfied its needs, it was finally time for the remaining groups to compete for the remaining two lots.

"Let the third round of bidding commence!"

A government official immediately rose to his feet. "On behalf of the Kromo Republic of the Liebhart Upper Zone, I have been empowered to convey an offer to grant the Larkinson Clan full control over an entire province of one of our newer but settled planets. This is an excellent location to build up a large industrial agglomeration that can not only satisfy the demand for goods from the Kromo Republic as well as the surrounding first-rate colonial states, but also fulfill the highly lucrative orders from the nearby Yernstall Star Node."

Ves looked impressed at this offer.

While the Kromo Republic did not offer the entire planet or star system at this time, prime real estate in the rear of human-occupied space was already worth a huge premium!

Unlike the previous offer from the Nayald Ancient Clan, the one offered by the Kromo Republic was not as risky as the native aliens would have to overrun a lot of zones before Liebhart ever became subjected to serious threats.

However, Ves was not sure whether the Larkinson Clan could still muster enough money to invest in building up a serious industrial complex in one of the most expensive regional economies in the new frontier.

The prior commitments already imposed a huge burden on the clan's finances and operations.

Still, the Larkinsons could always decide to take it slow. The rather basic offer did not mention any deadlines.

Since that was the case, there shouldn't be much harm in saying yes.

"I find your bid acceptable." Ves nodded to the representative of the Kromo Republic.

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