The Mech Touch

Chapter 7083: Natural Cooperation

After concluding her private meeting with her husband, Gloriana made an announcement to the Design Department.

“It is time. No more waiting. No more delays. The moment you have been waiting for has finally arrived. If you think about it, it is absurd for a clan that is founded by a mech designer and is known for publishing the most innovative mechs in both galaxies has not even fielded its own first-class mechs up to this date.”

The expanded crowd of mech designers assembled in the main design lab did not look too surprised. Many of them looked eager while others knew that this had nothing to do with them. The latest announcement was mainly targeted to those who possessed enough understanding of high technology or first-class mech design.

As for the others? Well, the Design Department still had a lot of demand for new and updated second-class mech designs.

This also meant that it was largely the EdNet graduates who had the greatest chance of participating in the inaugural round of first-class mech design projects.

“As far as ideas go, we have yet to lock in our development strategy for the mech roster of the Premier Fleet.” Gloriana continued to explain. “This is despite the fact that the Premier Fleet has made good use of several first-class multipurpose mech designs originating from the Red Association. All of that only proves that our mech pilots can make use of the paradigms and systems of the mechers. We are different. The Larkinsons should rely on our own systems to win their fights. This is why we are not necessarily restricting your mech proposals to ideas that attempt to replicate the magic of the Dracoloid, Omega Thresher or E-MULE models.”

That was good news to more than a few mech designers!

One of the most cumbersome aspects of designing a first-class multipurpose mech was that it required a broad foundation across multiple specializations.

A first-class mech designer needed to be proficient in designing melee mechs, ranged mechs as well as both at the same time.

Furthermore, the mech designer also had to possess an excellent grasp and comprehension of miniaturized mech parts and understand how to cramp them all together without causing them to interfere with each other, which was much harder than people expected.

“Yes. We are not prohibiting you to submit mech proposals on first-class mechs that do not conform to the multipurpose archetype.” Gloriana clarified to everyone. “If you have a compelling mech proposal that is only effective at one job, as long as you manage to convince us that it is an excellent addition to the mech roster of the Premier Fleet, you will have your chance to persuade us to realize your idea.”

That was excellent news! Specialists such as Dulo Voiken might still have a chance to make his mark in the Premier Fleet so long as his first-class spearman mech added enough value to its mech roster.

“That said, we are not ignoring the potential first-class multipurpose mechs either. We will be paying special attention to mech proposals that encompass this archetype. If you want to increase the probability that your vision will earn our approval, then I highly recommend you to team up with each other and collaborate at the conception stage. A good first-class multipurpose mech that can handle itself well in one scenario and decently in other scenarios are often better than a first-class specialized mech that is only useful in a single instance.”

She reminded everyone that first-class mech combat was different from second-class and third-class mech combat.

Multipurpose mechs were nearly ubiquitous in most serious engagements because the tech existed to make them versatile without making too many painful compromises.

The biggest disadvantage to them was the insane cost of miniaturizing powerful components, but the largest players were still able to afford the expenditures, at least until recently.

The Larkinson Clan’s income may have dropped due to the deteriorating economic conditions, but so long as the Premier Fleet continued to win its battles with minimal losses, it should be able to make up for the scarcity of resources, the rising inflation and the partial breakdown of the shipping industry.

At this time, the Cybernetic Empire had yet to open up its borders or deploy its vast armada of warfleets and trade ships.

The economy would definitely experience a massive boost once the Cybers began to engage with the rest of human-occupied space in earnest.

However, all of that depended on the progress of the secret negotiations that took place between the Cybernetic Empire and all of the other human powers.

Gloriana wrapped up her announcements. “You have several days to submit your mech proposals. We could give you more time, but it is best if we know what mech design projects we will be working on before we depart from Yernstall. If your mech concept relies on special tech, rare materials or other strange conditions, we can attempt to satisfy those demands while we still have easy access to the goods and services of this central star node. If you need more time than that to devise a good idea, then save it for next time. That is all. Now get to work.”

The mech designers instantly buzzed as they already began to think about what ideas they should propose.

Multiple mech designers already started to gather into small groups of two or three in order to discuss collaborations on first-class multipurpose mech designs.

After all, they knew that the Premier Fleet needed versatility more than specialization at this early stage.

It had enough first-class mech pilots that were fully qualified to make use of the more complicated multipurpose mech models.

The theoretical output of first-class mech designs of the Design Department was also limited.

There was no way that the Larkinsons could pump out a dozen first-class mech designs in a year!

Given these constraints, many mech designers came to the conclusion that specialized mech design proposals would essentially suffer a handicap going forward.

Not everyone was pleased by this conclusion.

Second-class mech designers who did not undergo EdNet training such as Beatrice Hendrix and Viktor MacMillan suffered a disadvantage because their studies had not advanced far enough to design first-class multipurpose mechs by themselves.

This caused them to cast their glances towards the EdNet graduates. Even the least academically inclined among them had learned a lot of theoretical knowledge from the virtual mech design universities of the Red Association.

At the same time, the Larkinsons who mastered the same fundamentals as RA first-class mech designers also felt troubled.

Their theoretical knowledge on hyper technology and E-technology was incomplete and full of gaps due to their complete lack of practical experience.

EdNet was not able to simulate the full and comprehensive effects of hyper technology. It had been updated a few times in order to produce crude approximations, but they were completely inadequate when it came to anything that required serious engineering.

It was for this reason that the returnees such as Juliet Stameros and Tifi Coslone already thought about reaching out to the Journeyman Mech Designers who had gained valuable realspace experience in the past few years.

The EdNet graduates may not be too familiar with these strange new faces, but if they wanted to make their mark on the most powerful mech fleet of the Larkinson Clan, it became necessary for them to cooperate.

It would be the greatest honor for their works to be among the first to serve under the command of the new matriarch of the Larkinson Clan!

Both Ves and Gloriana stood apart from the crowd and observed the dynamics unfolding in front of their eyes.

“See, Ves?” Gloriana smirked. “I told you this would happen. It is difficult to forge new friendships when they have no reason to do so. I just gave them one, so they are already bridging across the gap on their own accord. There is not much more we need to do. They will sort it out by themselves.”

He looked mildly impressed. “You are right.”

After the mech designers came up with their initial ideas, a few of them realized that they needed access to special tech or materials.

In order to make sure that their mech concepts would not get disqualified because of an inability to satisfy a difficult condition, they privately met with Gloriana in order to learn whether their special demands could be met.

“Solus Gas will be available in reasonable quantities.” Gloriana confirmed. “Our clan has foreseen this kind of situation, so we made sure to extract as much as we could get away with before the native aliens drove us back from the planet where it is harvested.”

“There is a good chance that we will be able to regain control of the Reticula Corein System where Solus Gas can be harvested.” Ves added to the side. “The Arboreal Project that I am working on with the Terrans is heavily dependent on Solus Gas to produce the remarkable wood type that it depends upon. Without Solus Gas, the first Woodsap mech will become much more detectable and easier to lock on. In order to make sure it performs to the best possible abilities, the Terrans will definitely find a way to push back the native aliens from the Torald Middle Zone just enough to regain control over the Reticula Corein System.”

His biggest concern was that the native aliens found out about the strategic value of Solus Gas and sought to deny its benefits to red humanity by bombing Reticula Corein V into oblivion.

Ves and the Larkinsons still had not figured out the source of Solus Gas after all of this time. They had their theories, but they were unable to verify them before they were forced to retreat from the star system.

That was bad because their lack of understanding meant that there was almost zero chance they could artificially reproduce Solus Gas at a different location.

There was no other material that possessed similar properties to Solus Gas in the Red Ocean as far as everyone was aware of. This made it vital for the Larkinsons and the Terrans to recapture the only star system where it was being produced in abundance to the point of distorting the planetary ecosystem!

Soon enough, Harry Kaikkonen approached the director of the Design Department with another request.

“I would like to know whether our clan is able to gain the right and technical know-how to make use of the Cybernetic Empire’s persistent laser beam tech or irradiator gamma laser beam tech. If it is not possible to gain access to those powerful techs, then I would at least like to know if it is possible to gain a license of the RA’s Omega laser weapon tech.”

That caused Ves and Gloriana to exchange looks with each other.

Ves replied first. “You have made a difficult request, Harry. As far as I know, the Cybers treat their energy weapon systems as their exclusive advantages. Once they sell out the tech to one party, everyone will be able to master its secrets in a matter of years. The Cybers will probably hope to delay that as long as possible by preventing any outflows of these special energy weapon systems. I can ask around, but the chance of fulfilling your first request is close to zero.”

“Omega laser weapon tech is much easier to secure.” Gloriana stated. “It is also exclusive tech, but its confidentiality level is not as high, especially now that the Cybers have developed much more impressive energy weapon tech. Given our good relations with the Red Association, the mechers shouldn’t demand too high of a price to give us access to Omega laser weapon tech. However, if you want to merge its design principles with that of luminar technology, then you are largely on your own. The mechers will not help us offer them significant concessions. You will have to justify the additional costs if you want to go through with adding Omega laser weapons into your mech proposal.”

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