The Mech Touch

5974 Larkinson R&D Expansion

Just as Ves predicted, the Design Department did not undergo a lot of upheaval when the organizational changes took place.

Nothing really changed as far as most people were concerned. They had already taken their orders from Gloriana and her two first-class deputies. They continued to do so going forward.

The only difference now was that the instructions had become a lot more legitimate as they were backed by concrete authority rather than nebulous influence.

Gloriana previously managed to get everyone to listen to her because Ves implicitly backed her actions.

Now, he essentially made it all official, so there was no excuse for the mech designers to reject her anymore, not that this ever happened.

As the shifts continued to take place, one of the more awkward circumstances was the position of Ketis.

The swordmaster was a member of the old guard and had proven herself more than the other Journeymen of the Larkinson Clan.

She already had a few bestselling mech models under her name and only got beaten by Ves in terms of earning revenue for the Larkinson Clan.

This granted her the rare but coveted position of Exemplar. Though she did not get to own any shares in the LMC, she still received a hefty monetary reward equivalent to the dividends issued to a 1 percent ownership stake.

That had made Ketis very rich, especially in recent years. She did not have the habit of hoarding money or saving up for useless luxuries, so she had made herself a lot more popular in the clan by spending much of her personal income on upgrades for the Swordmaidens and the Heavensworders.

Even though Gloriana firmly placed herself on top of Ketis within the hierarchy of the clan, the actual balance of power between the two had a lot more nuances.

Gloriana never dared to issue orders to Ketis. The most the former could do was to issue politely worded requests.

It hadn't been a problem so far. Ketis never made any excessive demands and preferred to spend most of her work time on her personal swordsman mech design projects.

Still, that did not change the fact that Ketis had become an existence in herself. She was the most successful student of Ves so far and had recently completed the very powerful Storm Sword design.

It only took a few days for Gloriana to come to Ves with a proposal.

"Ketis has exceeded the status of a lead designer." She explained to her husband. "Her design skills may be rougher than mine, but she possesses a remarkable ability to innovate, just like you. I think it is better if she assumed the position of elder designer alongside yourself."

Ves raised his eyebrow when he heard that. "You are in charge now. It is within your right to make this decision without consulting me. That is the entire point of me stepping down from my former leadership position."

Gloriana let out a frustrated grunt. "I am not ignorant of that, but this goes beyond the usual concerns. I do not want to alienate Ketis, nor all of the other mech designers, many of whom think they can do far better now that they enjoy the same opportunities as her. The issue right now is that Ketis has only earned part of the qualifications to become an elder designer. I cannot fully justify an immediate promotion, but delaying it is not fair. It is difficult for me to form a decision."

He chuckled. "I see that you are beginning to understand the true burden of leadership. I get where you are coming from, but in my opinion you are worrying too much over an issue that is ultimately not a big deal. Ketis has been doing fine as a lead designer. Sure, her status has grown along with her reputation and accomplishments, but that does not demand an immediate adjustment. Give it time. Allow her to prove herself further. You have already mentioned that there are a lot of Journeymen who are not convinced by her. They need to be taught a lesson that Ketis can sell more mechs than multiple of them put together. She will not back away from this contest."

His wife looked thoughtful at that. "So your recommendation is to maintain the status quo for the time being?"

"Yes. I think the best you can do in this situation is to avoid making any mistakes. You do not want to alienate Ketis and the others. Doing nothing is the best course of action because you have not taken direct responsibility so far. If anything, I am the one that is culpable, as it was my original leadership that has resulted in this situation."

"Hmmm… you make a good point." Gloriana said as she tried to game this scenario. "I will do as you advised. Once Ketis has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that she can contribute much more to the Larkinson Clan than almost all of the other mech designers, no one will have any reason to fault my decision to elevate her to the position of elder designer. It should not take too many years I believe."

Both of them had watched Ketis grow up and become more established as a mech designer.

They believed in her potential, and they believed that the Larkinson Clan would give the Swordmaiden mech designer enough of a stage to showcase her talents.

Aside from this little incident, Gloriana did not come to Ves to discuss any further problems. The Design Department was well-behaved as a whole, and the recently appointed director had amply proved her ability to run this important institution.

Weeks went by as everyone continued to remain productive.

Ves had made a lot of strikes in the development of his first Ultimate Module. He did not hesitate to conduct a lot of experiments related to both Omen Stone, Teraixe-063 and other compatible hyper materials to determine how they worked and how they could be combined.

The empirical data combined with his increasingly more detailed theoretical framework gave Ves the backing he needed to develop a viable destructive phasing module.

In the meantime, Gloriana did not let her directorship go over her head. She understood the importance of prioritizing her progression as a mech designer. To that end, she not only delegated more work to the vice directors, but also implemented a huge expansion in staff.

The Design Department gained a new Staff Office that comprised of a lot of staff personnel.

From secretaries to occupational therapists, every mech designer gained access to much more extensive support and conveniences than before.

Aside from that, the ambitious new director also began to lay the groundwork of setting up new technological development companies under the Larkinson Clan.

This was a goal that went beyond the scope of the Design Department. She presented her plan to the chief ministers, who saw merit in the idea.

The current Larkinson Clan depended far too much on external research institutes and development companies to gain access to superior component designs.

Ves previously rejected the notion of setting up more development companies because the barrier of entry was way too high. It cost a lot of money to create a decent development company, and it might not even end up creating anything useful due to the lack of star developers.

Neither money nor talent became an issue anymore.

The income of the Larkinson Clan had grown so much that it could easily fund a major expansion in R&D activities.

So many people wanted to join the clan that Ves presided over that qualified manpower never became an issue.

The rise of the Larkinson Advanced Research and Development Institute showed that it was the right time to expand on this front.

Ves originally founded the LARDI a few years ago in order to figure out how to make better use with all of the phasewater that the Larkinson Army earned as spoils, its pace of development had never caught up to Ves' insanely fast progression.

That was not the fault of the researchers working at the LARDI. They had not received as much funding, infrastructure and top researchers until fairly recently. Ves expected them to produce better results now that they could embark on more ambitious R&D projects under the leadership of proven and successful lead developers.

Though Ves occasionally paid attention to the planning on this subject, he remained hands off and trusted that the existing leadership structure of the Larkinson Clan would be able to handle this matter from beginning to end.

The initiative sparked a lot of debates. Plenty of people had a lot of opinions. Many mech designers possessed their own wish lists, and they all thought it was best if the new development companies conducted R&D in their respective specializations.

Ultimately, the Larkinson Assembly voted on a bill that reorganized the clan's existing R&D institutes and mandated the creation of 4 additional ones.

The Larkinson Biotech Institute, the T Institute and the Larkinson Advanced Research and Development Institute mostly remained the same. What changed was that they needed to coordinate their R&D activities better and provide a better accounting for their spending.

The Larkinson Mech Component Development Institute was a very necessary addition to the Larkinson Clan. Its purpose was to conduct independent research and development on many ordinary mech parts and components that did not fall under the responsibility of other institutes.

The LMCDI became responsible for developing in-house models of power reactors, mech engines, flight systems, boosters, armor systems and more.

Any mech designer working for the Design Department was allowed to collaborate with or request support from the relevant R&D teams of any institute. They no longer had to conduct a lot of specialized work themselves anymore.

The Larkinson Industrial Development Institute was meant to support the Larkinson Clan's rapidly growing resource harvesting and industrial activities. They were meant to develop better ways to harvest gasses and mining ores. They were also tasked with developing superior production machines to facilitate both light and heavy industry.

The Larkinson Naval Design Institute previously consisted of the old Naval Design Department that used to be part of the Larkinson Army.

By turning it into a fully fledged R&D institute, the LNDI not only expanded by a large extent, but also gained a lot of status and priority. This came at a good time because the acquisition of both Starfarer Berth and the E-66 Experimental Yard had turned the Larkinson Clan into a legitimate starship producer!

The LNDI not only designed new starship designs, but also updated the designs of existing Larkinson vessels. The new naval-oriented institute also became responsible for providing support and coordinating with the two Larkinson-owned shipyards.

Ves appreciated this expansion because the additional support would massively speed up the design of the first true Larkinson battlecruiser.

The C Institute was the most controversial and least understood of the bunch. This was the only part of the new bill that he saw fit to intervene.

The reason why he insisted on the creation of the C Institute was because Ves wanted to found an organization that was centered around individual and more traditional forms of cultivation.

Although it would take a long time to hire the right personnel and get the institute up and running, it would eventually conduct structured research on qi cultivation, traditional craftsmanship as well as traditional swordsmanship.

A part of its functions overlapped with the T Institute, but Ves made sure to divide their responsibilities.

The T Institute shifted its focus on hyper technology, E-

technology as well as mech pilot support.

If this arrangement proved unworkable, then Ves could always come back and implement further changes.

For now, the new and reformed institutes deepened the foundation of the Larkinson Clan and reduced its dependence on external service providers.

Ves felt a little sorry for the Cross Clan for reducing his dependence on its own development company, but the Larkinson Clan had outgrown all of its allies.

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