The Mech Touch

"What is it like to design a first-class multipurpose mech?" Gloriana asked as she and her husband sat behind the same desk terminal.

Though Ves had reduced many of his commitments, he made sure to spare enough time to work on the Larkinson expert mech design projects together with his wife.

He did not want to lose touch with the Amaranto and the Riot. They were unique and stellar expert mechs that possessed unlimited potential. Just their upcoming upgrades was enough to make him excited beyond measure!

"Designing a first-class multipurpose mech is like being a kid in a candy store with unlimited money in your pocket." Ves vaguely responded. "The only hard limitation is that your stomach can only fit so much candy. It is extremely liberating to be able to stuff a lot of different advanced technologies into your mech frame. It is also very frustrating to keep hitting capacity limits so many times."

"Does the Swarm Project truly include a first-class multipurpose mech?"

"Sort of. It depends on the exact definition of this phrase. The reason why we do not want to go cheap for this specific mech design is because this is the only way the pilot of the command mech receives any respect from his subordinates. You have to understand that first-raters are all arrogant to the bone. They do not easily bow down to professional mech pilots with slightly inferior genetic aptitudes. The first-raters revere their multipurpose mech pilots so much that every other type of pilot is seen as inferior stock. Even though it makes more sense for the latter to take up command duty, this is a culturally unviable idea."

Gloriana actually looked like she agreed with this sentiment. "That is an understandable idea. Mech pilots do not prefer to be ordered around by those who have no understanding of their plight."

Ves looked at his wife as if she had just said something alien. "Carmine pilots are not originally mech pilots at all. They have no qualifications to pilot something as difficult to control as first-class multipurpose mechs. It is truly absurd for them to put themselves on the same level as those top mech pilots."

"That still does not defeat my point. Moving on, how 'affordable' are the first-class versions of your wasp mech concept?"

"They won't come cheap, that is for sure. They need to perform well enough to survive on a first-class battlefield. You cannot skimp too much on anything important because doing so would introduce clear vulnerabilities that the enemy can exploit. The Carmine mechs at least need to possess a fighting chance against the more powerful phasefighters employed by the native aliens."

"Those phasefighters that are designed to fight against first-class multipurpose mechs are not all that strong, correct?" Gloriana asked. "They mainly rely on quantity to overwhelm the numerically disadvantaged first-class multipurpose mechs. Shouldn't the demand for first-class Carmine mechs be less as it is much easier to field them in large numbers?"

Ves nodded. "That is true, but there are many other hazards on the battlefield that mechs have to contend against, no matter whether they possess the Carmine System or not. Those new anti-mech warships are a real pain. The native aliens haven't replaced their entire fleets with the new generation warships, but there are already enough to make the lives of many mech pilots hell. A first-class version of my subordinate mech needs to be tough enough to withstand as many attacks as needed to flee to safety. We cannot afford to drive too many first-raters to their deaths."

"Are you not afraid you are coddling your first-class Carmine mech pilots too much?"

"I don't think so." Ves shook his head. "Despite their arrogant tendencies and their demands to pilot mechs that are way outside of their ability to control, each of them deserves to be treated as heroes as long as they actually step onto a first-class battlefield. The fighting in the upper zones are extremely intense. Mech pilots can die for all sorts of reasons outside of their control. Both sides are a little bit more likely to resort to weapons of mass destruction that can wipe out lots of mechs at once."

The mention of weapons of mass destruction was enough to make a lot of people spooked. Even Gloriana looked fearful for a moment.

"About that, Ves…"

"What is it, honey?"

"You appear to be much better informed than I, so please clarify my confusion for me. Why have neither side begun to bomb each other to oblivion by employing as many weapons of mass destruction as possible?"

"Haven't you read all of the analysis on the galactic net?"

"I did manage to look into it, but there are too many pundits putting forth their own private little theories in an attempt to claim credit. I would rather hear your perspective as you are much better connected with the top of our society."

Ves helplessly sighed. "Then I am afraid I have to disappoint you. I truly do not know a lot of solid information about this subject. I can share what I heard, but it is definitely not the complete picture. As best as I can tell… the reason why both sides are still holding back to an extent is because neither side wants to trigger an unstoppable escalation. Think about how quickly the infamous fleet admirals of the Age of Conquest tried to one-up each other by wiping out more planets than their foes. It is exactly because of this prior experience that red humanity is putting a lot of effort into showing restraint."

"What about the aliens, Ves? They have already shown that they do not like to abide by human rules. Why do they make an exception for this rule?"

"That is because the native aliens can still understand the horror of mutual destruction, even if they have never lived through a period as traumatic as the end of the Age of Mechs. The aliens consider the Red Ocean to be their home. They possess a strong sense of responsibility towards preserving the overall galactic environment. As long as they think they can win the Red War without resorting to scorched earth tactics, they will try to pursue the course of action that results in the greatest benefits."

"Ah. The native aliens are treating us as parasites who have despoiled their garden. They only want to get rid of us without inflicting even greater damage to their domain."

The fact that the aliens maintained such a condescending attitude towards 'the human plague' showed that they were still fairly confident in their superiority. The huge disparity in size and numbers alone gave them the capital to feel this way.

"So how does this all tie back to your first-class Swarm Project mechs?"

"I am wondering about that as well. I guess… my first-class Carmine mechs need to be tough enough to withstand a lot of crazy stuff on the battlefield, but I do not need to make them especially resilient against weapons of mass destruction. Not only is it completely outside of the scope of this mech design, the native aliens are unlikely to throw them around at a far greater frequency than in recent times."

"And what if you are wrong, Ves?"

"Then… I guess they will die. It won't be my fault though! Any mech below a certain level of survivability will meet the same fate. If these Carmine pilots want a stronger machine, they can take their bonded mechs to a mech designer and request an upgrade."

"I think that many first-class Carmine mech pilots will attempt to do so straight away." Gloriana predicted. "There are so many first-raters who would love nothing more than to become a serious first-class mech pilot. They can finally fulfill their dream with the help of your work, but the fact that it comes in such a limiting and frankly insulting package will frustrate many early adopters. Since there should be a large proportion of wealthy and powerful individuals among them, they are much more likely to enlist third-party assistance to completely overhaul their Carmine mechs into the machines that can allow them to star as heroes of their own shows."

"We have already taken that into account, Gloriana. This is one of the reasons why we are making these mechs as open platforms. We actively welcome other mech designers to take our work and shape it according to their ideas. So long as the customers are satisfied, it's okay if my work ends up looking completely different."

"That is remarkably magnanimous of you. There was a time where you used to dislike it whenever others steal your work."

"I was a lot shorter on cash at the time. I also did not want incompetent mech designers to get their hands on my designs, only to ruin them due to their complete lack of understanding of what it is they are working on. I have seen far too many cases where these dummies screw up my products in order to satisfy their own egos. I can't stop this phenomenon, but I can reduce the chance that stuff like this will happen by making my mech easier to understand and modify by third parties. There is much less chance of confusion that way."

Now that Ves had reached a higher rank and perspective, he had a completely different mindset towards licensing out mech designs and allowing low-ranking mech designers to play with successful products.

Ves had surpassed the point where he constantly feared that he was a few accidents away from going out of business. It was impossible for his products to lose all of their market share. Even if this happened due to the release of an epochal new tech that made all existing machines obsolete, Ves could just adapt the new innovations in his next commercial mech design projects in order to rebuild the revenue streams of the LMC.

A competent man would always find a way to succeed.

In any case, now that he was working towards promoting to the rank of Master Mech Designer, he had already started to adopt the perspective of a Senior and Master.

There was never enough of them. The mech industry constantly needed to put a lot of effort into raising new mech designers.

Giving them various conveniences encouraged them to persist in their craft and attract more to join their industry.

It was not as if the mech industry was short of mech designers. In fact, far too many mech design universities were pumping graduates into the job market where most of them received a brutal introduction of adulthood.

What the mech industry was desperately short of were innovative mech designers who possessed the courage, intelligence, judgment and initiative to develop radical new products.

Even if the proportion of a true innovator to an average mech designer was as little as 1 to 1,000, the mech industry still earned a profit if the mech design universities managed to achieve this ratio!

Now, the Swarm Project was on track to present these hopeful young mech designers with another classification of machines to sink their teeth into. As long as they read all of the instructions related to Carmine mechs and never touched the crucial Carmine Systems without a deliberate reason, they should be able to do good work on these machines.

"Wait." Gloriana suddenly widened his eyes. "If your Swarm Project mechs all become popular to the point where so many people want to work with your products, you will be able to earn astronomic licensing fees from these works!"

"Yup. To be fair, the profits aren't as exaggerated as you think. Jovy and Vector are making a lot of contributions and deserve a commensurate share of the profits. I don't think they get to keep all of their money, though. They are representatives of the Red Association and rely heavily on its resources and other advantages to make so much progress. In the end, I think the Red Association will be the biggest beneficiary."

"That is not important, Ves. Even a fraction of the share of profits will still amount to more than enough to commission a new fleet carrier in a short amount of time!"

"So?"

"We are finally rich enough to buy the most exclusive and prestigious handbags made out of phase whale skin!"

"..."

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