The Mech Touch

This was why Shederin immediately called for a recess. He and Ves moved to another room in the conference building before requesting the virtual presence of a number of advisors.

General Verle, Director Calabast, Chief Shipwright Vivian Tsai and Chief Minister Abigail Evern all gathered around a smaller conference table.

With Ves, Lucky, Calabast and the Black Cats employing their own precautions to secure the communication channels, it was unlikely for Davute to be able to eavesdrop on their conversation.

Ves went straight to this business. "Vivian, Abigail, the two of you are our highest-ranking naval experts. How would you judge the value of Davute's offer?"

"I have cooperated with multiple shipbuilding companies in Davute and have extensively studied the rest." Vivian Tsai began. "I can tell you that based on my own experiences with growing up and working in a shipyard, every single shipyard in our current region is backlogged with existing orders from many large and influential organizations. It has become rarer and rarer for the shipyards to accept priority orders that they are willing to fulfill ahead of their regular obligations. This is especially the case with large-scale drydocks rated to build capital ships. Only a few parties are powerful enough to force this action not once, but multiple times. Governments can definitely make this happen, though not without paying a massive price."

"Prospective President Yenames Clive will most definitely offend many other clients if he makes this move." Abigail Evern added. "Dozens of clients are depending on those shipyards to get around to completing their orders. They have already recruited and trained the necessary spacers to crew the vessels. They may have even acquired all of the expensive mechs and supplies needed to put a new fleet carrier into service. They may have even made plans on how to deploy these new fleet elements in advance, especially with regards to the upcoming war. How do you think they will feel when they learn that the government blatantly pushed them back in line so that our clan has priority?"

"Not good, I guess." Ves wagered a guess.

Calabast chuckled. "That is an understatement. We will generate animosity because of this, but that pales in comparison to the backlash that President Yenames Clive will incur because of this initiative. He will most certainly pay a heavy political price and has to offer a lot of compensation to other parties in order to placate them all. It should be easy for the colonial government to please them, though. What truly matters to Clive is whether he can get Ves onboard. That is worth almost any price."

Several people nodded. They did not question whether it was worthwhile to gain the cooperation of Ves. He already proved multiple times that he could significantly alter the direction of entire wars with his work. Doing it one more time did not sound like an outlandish idea.

Ves looked pretty satisfied. "Okay, I understand that letting us gain priority on ship orders and especially capital ship orders is a big deal. What does Yenames exactly mean by telling us he will pay us in the form of medium-sized capital ships?"

Vivian Tsai easily answered this question. "It is an informal classification of the length or size of a starship and is widely used by laymen. As you already know, a capital ship is defined by a length that is 1 kilometer or longer. Although length alone cannot be the sole criteria to put different ships in specific boxes, it is a convenient shorthand to use. For example, small-sized capital ships are always 1 to 2 kilometers long regardless of their other dimensions. It doesn't matter whether one small-sized ship is shaped like a cube that measures at almost 2 kilometers in every direction. She would still be considered a small-sized ship. In practice, the professionals in my industry have other ways to communicate these differences."

"How long is a medium-sized capital ship supposed to be, then?" Ves frowned.

"The most common definition that people adhere to is a length that rests between 2-4 kilometers. There are major differences in the performance and strategic value between small-sized and medium-sized capital ships. For Yenames Clive to specify the latter right away is a generous concession on his part."

Chief Minister Abigail Evern raised a concern. "We should discuss and clarify the additional parameters of the capital ship in any treaty that we are about to sign. At the very least, we cannot leave the width and depth of starship up for interpretation. Davute will have an opportunity to disadvantage us by heavily limiting the other two dimensions. We can only receive ships that look similar to the Blinding Banshee if this is the case."

The Blinding Banshee was technically a capital ship, but her internal volume was smaller than some sub-capital ships!

This was because her hull was essentially shaped like a long and thin needle. She mainly needed the length in order to increase her surface area and accommodate more sensor arrays and ECM modules.

While it was fine to design an intelligence-oriented ship in this fashion, it was not okay for a fleet carrier!

The taller and wider the hull of a fleet carrier, the more mechs and cargo could fit inside the giant metal box!

The cost and construction time of a capital ship could also diverge wildly depending on the mass, volume and complexity of her hull!

"I do not think it is likely that President Yenames Clive will betray our trust in such a banal fashion." Minister Shederin spoke as he crossed his arms. "He has already incurred enough anger as it is. It is counterproductive to incur our wrath as well. Besides, it takes months if not a year to design the mechs and construct the capital ships. Both sides can track each other's progress and see whether Ves or the shipyards are not working up to expectations. It is still best if we can specify more exact ship parameters into the contract in advance so that there is much less ambiguity with regards to what we expect to gain for our services."

Ves tentatively nodded. "That is a good idea, but I think the colonial government will ask us to reciprocate by forcing me to meet more precise performance criteria for the commissioned mech designs. This isn't necessarily a problem as long as the requirements are reasonable, but more rules will mean that I won't have as much freedom to design what I want, which is not ideal for me. I can still work with it, though."

He decided to leave the specifics to Minister Shederin and his negotiation team. It wasn't really that important to set a lot of details in advance as long as both sides sincerely wanted to cooperate with each other.

At the very least, no one questioned the wisdom of accepting this exchange.

"We are gaining a massive advantage by trading a portion of Ves' design time for six capital ships." General Verle said as he was already drooling about what he could do with so much extra mech capacity. "Fleet carriers are treated as hard currency among the different pioneering organizations in the Red Ocean. I cannot think of an easier and less costly way for us to obtain so much in a single deal. We can not only expand our mech legions on a much larger scale than before, but we can also begin to think about splitting up our increasingly more unwieldy fleet."

Many people nodded. They also experienced the difficulty of expanding the fleet with additional starships. No matter what angle they pursued, the clan always collided against a wall each time it tried to obtain more vessels.

Minister Shederin Purnesse added another dose of harsh reality with his words.

"The cold hard truth is that major colonies and states effectively maintain an oligopoly of capital ships. Every other player is subject to the conditions that they decide to impose. In our case, we technically have the ability to shop around and offer our services to Karlach in order to encourage Davute to raise a more competitive offer. In practice, the heavy presence of our side branch in Davute makes it unwise to deteriorate our relationship with the upcoming colonial state."

"The only consolation is that President Yenames Clive has opened up with a considerably generous offer." Chief Minister Abigail Evern said. "I cannot think of other mech designers, especially Journeymen, who were able to command such a high premium on their services that they can trade two medium-sized fleet carriers for a single mech design!"

Everyone had to acknowledge that this 'exchange rate' was pretty amazing in itself!

There were many factors that prompted Davute to set such a high price. From the lack of effective living mech models to the need to placate Ves as an individual, Yenames Clive and his team knew exactly what they were doing.

It was unlikely that Davute would be willing to prioritize capital ship orders for the Larkinson Clan to this extent again, so this was the only opportunity for the Larkinsons to expand their capital ship roster without making any excessive commitments.

Just as Ves and his advisors came to a consensus on whether to accept this generous deal, Calabast raised her voice.

"Not so fast." She spoke as she pressed down on Lucky's back, eliciting a soft complaint from the cat. "I have been thinking about this entire setup. Combined with the intelligence that my Black Cats have been feeding me, I think that this is the setup for a greater scheme."

That caused a lot of people to freeze, though Shederin's aged expression slowly shifted as he began to guess at what the spymaster might be alluding towards.

"Explain." Ves spoke in a grave tone.

Calabast smirked at him. "You don't need to sound so serious. Davute is not plotting to disadvantage us. President Yenames Clive is still keen on improving the relations between your clan and his state. The difference is that he also wants to hook you deeper into Davute's embrace. He can only do that if you are willing to play along. To do that he needs to create a chink in our armor."

Ves looked to Shederin. "Is her story plausible?"

"It is. In fact, given the goals as well as the strategy adopted by the Davutans, it is the most probable case." The shrewd diplomat claimed. "The prospective president is not prepared to offend a dozen other groups and give two fleet carriers for every single mech design from you. He is playing a greater game than that. If we assume that he wants to turn the rest of our clan into his colonial state's assets for his upcoming war, then he will use this opening exchange as bait for a follow-up proposal."

That made far too much sense to Ves! His intuition had already told him that it was too good to be true. Devious bastards like Yenames Clive who also had an entire army of analysts and experts at his disposal never traded at a loss!

"So what should we do, Calabast?"

"Do not be so quick to reject a good deal out of hand." She advised. "We should at least hear out the rest of Davute's pitch. Even if it has become clear that we are getting baited, it is not necessarily a bad idea to get hooked. We need to make a rational decision on whether we should bite after we gain all of the information we need to make a complete cost-benefit analysis. Don't forget that if we want our fleet-based organization to grow stronger, we need to get our hands on more capital ships."

General Verle sneered. "Short of engaging in outright piracy against our fellow pioneers, the only other viable method of obtaining more hulls is to play along with the states that govern all of the shipyards."

Ves sighed. His clan was still too dependent on the supply of ships produced by third parties.

"We need to upgrade the shipbuilding capabilities of the Diligent Ovenbird and think about obtaining another mobile shipyard."