The Mech Touch

The people of the Red Ocean learned pretty soon that giving Carmine mechs to completely untrained civilians was a big waste.

It was not impossible to train them into effective combatants, but the time it took to instill so many essential fighting skills and theories was so long that the Red War might already be over by the time these folks could prove themselves on the battlefield.

Clever people quickly realized that by prioritizing existing infantry soldiers, they could not only shave valuable years off that lengthy training period, but also gain a large amount of obedient and disciplined Carmine mech pilots!

More importantly than that, these pilots might not all be blooded, but their prior training should have already hardened them for warfare. This meant that they were much less likely to lose their morale and trigger a premature rout.

If Carmine mech pilots did not possess the courage to stand their ground when the battle went against their favor, then they were practically useless in the current war.

Compared to ordinary civilians who were still not used to the reality of warfare, infantry soldiers could at least be counted upon to know when to stand their ground and when to retreat.

This was why a lot of states had suddenly begun to reserve a lot of Yellow Jackets for their newly raised Carmine mech units.

Many infantry soldiers had already begun to sign up for a coveted transfer to these experimental units. Only the best and most qualified among them would earn a chance to become military Carmine mech pilots!

Ves paid loose attention to this new and emerging trend. Since many states were currently under martial law, it was not that difficult to divert a lot of Carmine mech production to service military needs as opposed to private demand.

This made it a lot harder for civilians and private mech forces to get their hands on Carmine mechs. This subsequently tempered the insane demand spike as the civilians could not justify why they should get their Carmine mechs first before actual soldiers.

After all, ever since a consensus had emerged that every Carmine mech pilot had to volunteer for war duty, a lot of people who initially reacted with great enthusiasm towards the Yellow Jackets had suddenly grown a lot less eager to obtain their machines.

Ves could clearly see that this was Red Association meddling at work. With a number of deft policies, the mechers elegantly solved the problem of excess demand and rising dissatisfaction stemming from an inability to obtain a Yellow Jacket.

Hopefully this would keep the masses satisfied for a few years. After all, unless they were rich or possessed good connections, it was really not possible for common folk to fulfill their dreams of piloting actual mechs.

"What about the Jacket Commander?" Ves asked his personal assistant. "Many people are talking about the Yellow Jacket models and Carmine mechs in general, but there is hardly any mention of the command mech in the news. Are they selling on a proportional basis, or is everyone ignoring the Jacket Commander because it isn't shiny enough?"

Gavin Neumann shrugged. "The sales of the Jacket Commander are currently meager, but we do not expect this to stay this way. Once our customers know what the Yellow Jackets are capable of, they will eventually acknowledge the value of the Jacket Commander. The purpose of this command mech still exists even if the Yellow Jackets are piloted by trained infantrymen."

No matter what, infantry troopers that only spent a few years in Carmine mech boot camp could never develop all of the necessary skills. They would still remain rookies in many aspects related to mech piloting. It was fully worthwhile to allow a professional mech pilot to accompany them in a purpose-built Jacket Commander.

"If sales of the Jacket Commander doesn't pick up in the next few months, then consider lowering the price and marketing it more aggressively. I really don't want to see Carmine mechs flying around like headless chickens on the battlefield because infantry soldiers don't know how to orient and navigate in a space environment."

Infantry soldiers should not have too many issues with acclimating to landbound mech combat, but it was a different story if they were piloting Carmine mechs in space.

Real mech pilots devoted entire years in the mech academy to learn physics and orbital mechanics, and how to apply these stuffy theories in practice by piloting spaceborn mechs in reality or in simulation programs.

The younger the mech cadets began to learn how to fight in space, the more fluently they would be able to navigate space battles.

Infantry soldiers who were already past their adolescence would have a harder time picking up the necessary skills as they had already exited their rapid growth stages.

This was why they needed the guidance of a trained and seasoned mech pilot that knew his business in a space environment.

"I will pass on your recommendations to the LMC." Gavin affirmed.

"How much production is the LMC handling by itself?"

"Very little on a proportional basis. The LMC has essentially lost control over the production and proliferation of the Yellow Jackets and the Jacket Commanders to a lesser degree. So many mech manufacturers have licensed our new mech designs so they are free to dominate the mech market and tap into a much larger customer base that had previously been neglected. Every large and respectable mech company has realized how crucial it is for 'their' Yellow Jackets to capture the hearts of all of the norms that they previously treated as bystanders. If the mech manufacturers are too slow, they will miss out a critical chance to develop a good 'first impression' to a brand-new customer base."

That made a lot of sense. The LMC did not have to join this rat race as it was the only mech company that produced and sold the most original versions of the Yellow Jackets, but other mech companies were eager to stand out from the competition!

Ves briefly browsed the galactic net. He could already find brand-new entries of hastily modified variants of the first commercial Carmine mechs. More third-party variants were bound to flourish in the next month as many people sought to improve upon the base models!

"Okay, I understand. Let these companies play with my mech designs. They are already out there, and we will receive the appropriate fees even if we have deliberately set them at a low level to encourage proliferation. Enough about the Yellow Jackets. Is there anything else on the agenda?"

Gavin nodded. "Another matter has come up, boss. Vice Director Maria Abselon wishes to enter into a discussion with you on how to handle all of the phasewater organ projects that you have foisted onto the Larkinson Biotech Institute's lap. According to her words, she believed it would take far too long to research and decipher the working principles of all of the phasewater organs that you have recently acquired. The vice director wants to discuss numerous different possibilities on how to handle your demands. I believe that there is a high probability that she will request that you arrange a collaboration between the Larkinson Biotech Institute and the Red Collective's Phase Lord Department. She is convinced that it will massively cut down the research time and grow artificial new phasewater organs that fully fit your physique. What are your thoughts?"

The idea was sound on the surface, but had one big problem.

Ves would be exposing a large amount of details of his own combat system to third parties.

He did not have enough trust in the collies that worked in the Phase Lord Department to protect his privacy.

Many researchers and others who worked in the Phase Lord Department originally came from other forces such as the RA, RF, Terran Alliance, Rubarthan Pact and more. It should be an expectation that they would leak all of the sensitive information about Ves' true body to the other players.

This might be fine so long as Ves remained friendly with them all, but there may come a time where he had to treat them as his enemies.

If they got their hands on detailed information that described the functioning of all of his phasewater organs, then they could plan out a targeted ambush that may very well claim his life!

"Let us investigate whether we can afford to divert our course to the Reticula Corein System." Ves proposed. "As far as I remember, the Dragon's Den is still parked in orbit of the untamed planet. What's going on with Reticula Corein V anyway?"

"The Dragon's Den has indeed remained in place, primarily to conduct research on Solus Gas and how the local exobeasts have adapted to frequent exposure to this exotic substance. The situation on the surface of Reticula Corein V has shifted, but the local garrison reports that the planet remains calm for the most part. The calamity beasts that we have detected so far remain content to stay in their own territories."

Ves felt pleased after hearing that. "How is the harvesting of Solus Gas?"

"It is proceeding smoothly, but we are only piling up canisters of this special gas in any warehouse or cargo hold that is convenient. We have not yet begun to produce a new Larkinson-exclusive mech that utilizes Solus Gas on a wider scale. However, that may be about to change as one of our mech designers is on the cusp of completing our latest mass production mech design."

"Oh yeah. I remember. Ketis is about to complete her Stormblade Samurai Mark II that is designed for commercialization. We don't intend to use any Solus Gas for commercial products, though."

"Ketis has also designed a variant that is Larkinson-exclusive. The Stormblade Samurai Mark I is still a respectable mech model, but it has already turned into a lastgen mech. Your former protege is eager to equip the Swordmaidens with a relatively affordable but still very modern hyper mech for the rank and file of her mech legion."

"Hm, that is a good idea. We could use every advantage that we can get, and all of the ad-hoc hyper technology upgrades that our mech designers have applied to our outdated mechs is getting rather annoying."

"When you return to New Constantinople, you should discuss with your wife on diverting more design teams to upgrade all of our outdated mech lines. The fact that we are still relying too much on older mech models that hail from the Phasewater Generation is a travesty. Ketis is doing her Swordmaidens a great service. The rest of you need to respond to the demands of others."

His assistant made a good point. Ves should spend more time on updating other Larkinson-exclusive mech lines, but he was so busy that he might not be able to spare enough time for this chore. He should delegate this task to other design teams as the straightforward upgrades did not necessarily require his personal intervention.

"Speaking of Ketis, has she come in touch with the Heavensword?" Ves asked his assistant. "I am 99 percent sure that the autonomous sword that immigrated to our dwarf galaxy the other day is on its way to a certain Journeyman Mech Designer. When I looked back at the footage and extrapolated the direction of travel, it is pretty obvious that the sword is heading straight to the location of the expeditionary fleet at the time. There is only one swordmaster that is remotely worthy of wielding this blade. If the Heavensword hasn't already arrived, then it should still be on its way."

Gavin made a brief check. "The Heavensword has not made a reappearance. Neither Ketis, the expeditionary fleet or any third parties have discovered the presence of this remarkable weapon. If it is relying solely on warp travel based on the spatial manipulation abilities of a lesser phase whale, then it may take multiple weeks or even months for the sword to traverse all of that distance. Perhaps Ketis can speed up this rendez-vous by boarding a fast courier and try to intercept the weapon in advance."

"That is a good suggestion, though I doubt she will agree."