The Mech Touch

When Ves returned to the Spirit of Bentheim, he found that numerous Larkinsons had also heard about the birth of a new design spirit.

The reason why his clansmen already knew so much was because there were third order mechs that had already spilled the beans!

Pretty much every mech and design spirit had felt Gaia's birth.

Despite the distance between the Larkinson fleet and the Aduc fleet, Gaia was so powerful and released so much energy in the first moments of her existence that she was like an explosion in the night!

Everyone who possessed a bit of sensitivity towards spirituality had definitely sensed that something extraordinary took place!

Not just the Larkinsons, but also certain individuals among the Glory Seekers, the Crossers and other groups in the vicinity of the Aduc fleet's orbit must have sensed the wave of power propagated by Gaia's emergence!

Fortunately, aside from making dozens of expert pilots and high-ranking mech designners suspicious, none of the third parties followed up and made any pressing inquiries. Ves became relieved when he found out that Gaia's unexpectedly powerful birth did not attract too much unwelcome attention.

He had no way of determining how long that would last. Ves already had a hunch that a spirit as powerful as Gaia would never remain unnoticed, especially when she possesed such a strong relation to Old Earth and universal life energy!

As Ves wanted to give the Aducs time to process their changes and come to grips with Gaia, he decide to spend his time on other matters.

His assistant Gavin just happened to provide him with a helpful distraction.

"Do you remember our negotiations with the Voiken Family, boss?"

"Hmm? Oh, I remember. I recall there is a significant disagreement between us and the Voiken Family about the division of earnings for a potential collaboration project centered around a line of law enforcement mechs."

Ves had not forgotten about the Pacifier Project. It was probably one of the most commercially lucrative ventures of this design round. Part of the reason why he thought it was so promising was because the Voiken Family would be laying all of the groundwork for the introduction of this revolutionary new law enforcement solution.

It was a pity that the Voikens attempted to scam him by limiting their collaboration and the proceeds from it to a single mech model. While that wasn't unusual in most cooperative ventures between different mech designers, this was a different situation!

When Ves figured out that Professor Taigen Herman Voiken intended to publish an entire mech ecosystem targeted towards law enforcement agencies, he did not get fooled.

He was not unaccustomed to situations where others exploited him for his own gains. This was merely the way that human society and many other societies worked.

If he somehow got scammed, then there was little he could do about it aside from accepting his losses.

However, now that he became aware of it in advance, there was no way Ves would make it easy for the Voiken Family to profit from his unique design solutions!

"Well, I am happy to announce that our negotiation team has managed to achieve a lot of progress in the past week."

"Oh?" Ves raised his eyebrow. "That sounds curious, Benny. There is a lot of money and interests at stake here. Shouldn't the Voikens be standing their ground and making it difficult for us to secure any concessions?"

Gavin smirked. "Ordinarily, you are right, but the situation of the Voikens is not as optimistic as ours. Time is not on their side. While our clan is set to establish itself in Davute and rise to greater heights, the detachment of Voikens sent to the Red Ocean are still strangers in a strange land. According to Minister Shederin, they have already missed the first and most crucial phase of the opening of the new frontier. If the newcomers delay any further, they will completely get suppressed by their competitors."

"Is their situation bad?"

"Don't forget what faction they are aligned to." His assistant reminded Ves. "To those who are in the know, it is not difficult to find out the MTA factions that are favoring specific pioneers. This is not too relevant for us as we are tied to factions that are able to get along with many other groups and factions."

That wasn't entirely true. The Survivalists and the Transhumanists may both be relatively harmless to other powers, but the latter had a serious conflict with the first-rate superstates!

Whether that would have any consequences to Ves and his clan remained to be seen, but for now Gavin's statement mostly held true.

The Voiken Family was apparently in a different position. Ves quickly thought about it. The Preserving Order Faction probably held the greatest sway in the more developed and stable regions of human space back in the Milky Way Galaxy.

These were the areas where humanity was at its most prosperous! A lot more people were happy with their lives and their place in society. The last thing they wanted was for chaos and disorder to disrupt their sweet arrangement!

Unfortunately for the Voikens, the Red Ocean Dwarf Galaxy was a completely different environment. This was a frontier that was filled with people who sought change!

A bit of chaos and disorder did not sound that bad to them. If every zone in the Red Ocean had completely stabilized, then there was no room for other pioneers to rise to power!

Even if the pioneers aligned to the Preservers did not intend to do anything of note in the Red Ocean, their ideological leanings already made it impossible for them to receive a warm welcome from other groups!

After Ves derived all of this from the brief amount of information provided by Gavin, he grinned and leaned back in his chair.

"I see. If this is true, then the Voikens need us even more than I thought. If they can't come up with a killer product that can establish their mech designers in the regional market, then they will not have the capital to do anything of note in this dwarf galaxy."

New novels chapters are published ᴏn !

"Exactly, boss. While we have shown our willingness to take our time, the Voikens have no choice but to crack and give up the high ground in order to bring our talks closer to conclusion. We have already settled the most important terms."

Gavin passed on a secure data pad to Ves.

When Ves perused the incomplete treaty document, he skipped through all of the complicated lawyer speak and focused on the key phrases that he truly cared about.

He quickly began to frown.

"Is this real, Benny?"

"What is the problem?"

"According to this term, the split in earnings is heavily favored towards the Voikens. It clearly says here that the Living Mech Corporation only gets 20 percent of the earnings while Voiken Industries is entitled to the remaining 80 percent! This is too far apart from the 50 percent target that I set at the beginning!"

His assistant coughed. "You should read the text more closely. While Minister Shederin found it possible to convince the Voikens that we should earn half of the proceeds from selling the completed Pacifier Project, this will almost certainly mean that we cannot demand a satisfactory share of the earnings of the rest of the Voiken mech ecosystem. In order to make sure our contributions to its success are fully accounted for, Minister Shederin took the liberty of altering your original demand and insisted on a different one that better satisfies our commercial interests."

Ves slowly widened his eyes. "Do you mean…"

Gavin grinned. "That's right, boss. Our negotiating team has convinced the Voikens that we are entitled to a fifth of the proceeds of each sale that is related to their ambitious law enforcement mech ecosystem! While Professor Taigen Voiken has not told us how many mech models and auxiliary equipment and supplies that entail, a conservative estimate already puts us at a dozen unique mech models, of which hundreds of derivative variants can be spawned. In other words, if everything goes right, we would pretty much earn 20 percent of the money that Voiken Industries is earning from their complete catalog of law enforcement mech lines and related products!"

This was a massive concession!

If Voiken Industries completely focused on servicing the law enforcement sector, then this was hardly any different from owning 20 percent of the company and earning a proportionate amount of money in the form of dividends!

"Hahahaha!" Ves exploded in laughter! "Shederin has struck once again! I knew it was the right choice to pick up a family of professional diplomats. Power is the foundation of our strength, but relationships are the key to our future development. Having good talkers in our clan can make a huge difference!"

The more Ves engaged in matters at this level, the more he discovered the importance of diplomacy. No one was strong enough to defeat every opponent and overcome any challenge by themselves. Being able to make friends and convincing others into giving up more concessions could easily yield powerful advantages!

Of course, Ves did not forget that the root of this success lay in the desirability of his own services.

The fact that the Voikens agreed to surrender 20 percent of the earnings of their entire mech ecosystem showed that they fully understood the value of his glows, most particularly that of Lufa!

When Ves thought about how Professor Taigen Voiken would be able to generate huge advantages by relying on the killer function of Lufa's glow, it did not sound too excessive to pay a high amount of 'royalty fees' to the Larkinsons.

Gavin wasn't finished, though. "There's more, boss."

"You mean the Voikens agreed to give away more than this generous share?"

"That is correct. In order to express their friendship towards us, the Voiken Family has even agreed to gift us a large combat carrier."

"...Say what?"

"I wasn't misspeaking, sir. You should scroll to the end of the current draft. It mentions the ship right at the bottom!"

Ves did so and saw that the Voikens seriously offered to transfer possession of one of the combat carriers they brought over from the old galaxy to the Larkinsons!

While the ship was not as impressive as the Wild Torch that the Wild Fighter Association gave away as a prize, Ves did not look down on this generous gift.

The Voiken gift was not an ordinary combat carrier!

According to the brief details provided by the document, the ship was able to carry up to 100 mechs!

"We didn't give up anything important to compel the Voikens to gift this combat carrier to us, right? I don't want to find out later that we accepted this gift in exchange for lowering our share by 1 percent or something. This would definitely be a loss for us in the long run!"

"Don't worry. Minister Shederin never let up on his Voiken counterparts. He already guessed that this gift is an attempt from their patriarch to deepen his family's relationship with our clan."

"Well, it's working. I already feel a lot closer to the Voiken Family in my heart! If Master Barnard Solas Voiken can gift us a capital ship on top of that, then I will make sure to put in additional effort to watch out for his descendents who have relocated the Red Ocean!"

"Err… I am afraid that their generosity can only go so far. They still need the bulk of their fleet to protect and anchor their own presence in the new frontier."

That was right. Ves was being way too greedy. No pioneer in his right mind would give away a strategic asset as essential as a capital ship in exchange for favors and illusory promises!

In any case, Ves already became satisfied with this gesture. The Voikens of today were different from the Voikens more than a week ago. They had lowered their demands and showed a lot more sincerity towards him and his clan.

"If this is how the deal will look like, then I have no problem with it." Ves relaxed and smiled. "Tell Minister Shederin that he has done a good job and that he should proceed according to his own judgment."

Shederin had fully earned his trust this time!