The Mech Touch (Web Novel)

5698 Gavin's Upgrade

The Larkinson Clan had a decent range of well-established mech models whose concepts still remained relevant to this day. They just needed to be refreshed and brought up to the standards of the Hyper Generation in order to become useful again.

The Valkyrie Redeemer Mark III was not the only project designed to give mech workshops and factories throughout the new frontier a lot of upgrade commissions.

Ves also aimed to satisfy a range of different consumers by updating old hits such as the Desolate Soldier and the Ferocious Piranha.

The former served as a cheap and affordable option to turn more irregular mech pilots into useful combat assets, particularly in planetary defense battles where planetary militia could quickly hop into their mechs and fight to save their colonies.

The latter was not only useful in disrupting the crew of a warship when it came close enough, but it had proven to be remarkably effective at destabilizing alien starfighters.

There were even cases where the Ferocious Piranhas easily caused the downfall of the more elite phasefighters!

Not every species possessed strong mental resilience, and their training varied considerably. As long as the alien pilots were susceptible to the disorientation glow, it was even possible to capture a precious phasefighter intact!

However, as much as Ves prized his existing designs, all of them had been conceived before the Age of Dawn. They were all products of their time. Fighting against alien warships was a whole different game than fighting against human mechs.

In order to meet the changing demands of the mech market, Ves and his fellow Larkinson mech designers could not afford to rest on their laurels. They needed to study the gaps that currently existed in the mech market and conceive of a new product that should hopefully be enough to satisfy this need.

Market research was an important activity. Gavin usually supervised most of this effort, but he had finally traveled to the core territory of Streon Ancient Clan in order to install a powerful but extremely invasive first-class digital brain augment.

Just like the original Benny, Gavin wanted to become a better and more competent assistant to Ves by digitizing his mind to a much more extensive degree than ordinary people.

It was an extreme choice that could not be reversed once it was done. People who had turned over half of their brain into circuitry lost so much of their humanity that they had lost their ability to sleep!

"Are you sure about this, Gavin?" Ves asked with a concerned expression. "We are no longer living in the Age of Mechs, you know. There are more ways for people to improve than cutting out whole parts of your brain and replacing them with electronic equivalents."

Gavin looked utterly serious when he responded.

"I have already discussed this matter extensively with the Senechal over the galactic net. I know more about this process than you. I have made my decision. All of this cultivation stuff sounds great, but it is slow and can lead to unpredictable changes in personality. I don't want to gamble my future on methods that are notorious for making people more irrational. No offense, boss, but you already have plenty of that. What you need is a more rational and sober counterweight to keep you on your toes and remind you of variables that you have overlooked."

That made sense, but Gavin would still be making a large sacrifice by undergoing this procedure.

"What about your humanity? Don't you value the stuff that most people take for granted? I heard that people with heavily digitized minds are unable to experience emotions as strongly as unaugmented people."

Gavin smiled. "It's okay, Ves. Look, nothing satisfies me more than to stay by your side as you rise in status and become a man respected by all of red humanity. However, not everyone is as insanely smart and talented as you. Don't forget that I used to be a kid from Cloudy Curtain. I was not born as a designer baby or received the most elite education of a first-rate state. I am already struggling to keep up with the increasingly higher-level affairs that you have got mixed up in these days. I am not even qualified to handle most of the administrative burden imposed by your recently established partnership with Isthmus Manufacturing. Once I come back with an upgraded brain, that won't be an issue anymore. I will be able to accompany you even if you are promoted to a Star Designer one day."

The personal assistant cared so much about his job that he could not be dissuaded from this upgrade. The only way to change his mind was to offer him a better alternative, but Ves did not have anything in mind.

Although cultivation increasingly started to become the latest dominant trend, the older methods were still valid.

"Tell me about the digitized brain that the Streons want to install?"

"I can transfer you the technical details, but in short it is a recently developed hyper version of a similar model that Benny Smith has installed. The Streons had gone above and beyond to improve the performance of the implant by acquiring fragments of a rare hyper material called Mentalist Crystal that is purportedly able to make people smarter by exposing them to the right kind of E energy."

Ves' eyebrows shot up. "That is the same hyper material that is integrated in my wife's implant set! I've been trying to get my hands on a Mentalist Crystal, but it is so rare that I have yet to receive an offer to this point. The Streon Ancient Clan is really going all out to boost your competence. This is a heavy favor that I will have to repay in the future one day."

He no longer felt concerned that Gavin was making a choice that he would regret over the long-term.

Even if the personal assistant's newfound capabilities became inadequate in the distant future,

Ves could just spend a lot of money and resources to upgrade Gavin's digitized brain to a new model.

Organic growth was hardly the only way for people to improve. Ves reminded himself that not everything had to abide by the principles of his design philosophy.

"Very well. I trust the Streons. You shall be in good hands. Just make sure that your operation will take place within the range of General Axelar Streon's Saint Kingdom."

General Axelar had proven himself to be a reliable friend and ally, but the same could not be said for the implant surgeons and other members of the Streon Ancient Clan.

Gavin chuckled. "You do not need to remind me of that. I would not ever allow my new additions to be compromised in any way. It would be a dereliction of my duty if I was negligent about the risks."

The Streons projected that it would take months to complete this augmentation process, so Ves was left to work with other assistants that he was not familiar with. While the recent hires from the Terran Alliance were clearly a lot more knowledgeable and more adept at working with numbers, they lacked the personal connection that he took for granted.

Nonetheless, Ves was able to gain a lot of detailed market research data on the second-class mech market.

The mech landscape was evolving quickly. Hyper technology had become widely available for a while now, and most large players had already released their initial batch of proper hyper mech models.

It became increasingly hard to steal their market share as mech designers did their best not to get overtaken by their faster rivals.

They did not want to end up as the next SKL Mech Industries by having one of their reliable cash cows taken away from them because they had been a bit too slow to refresh all of their aging mech lines!

"Most of the immediate gaps in the markets have already been filled by the established mech companies, but there are still many niches that you can fill, sir." One of the assistants of Terran origin explained to Ves. "Landbound mechs sales have diverged. Melee mechs without flight capabilities have become so unpopular that many mech companies are forced to suspend production on them because inventory kept piling up. They are partially able to recoup their losses by offering to convert them into aerial mechs, but that is not a high-margin activity."

"What about ranged mechs?"

"Landbound ranged mechs have become more popular as of late. What sells especially well are cheap and simple frontline mechs. Colonies have been buying them up in droves because of their affordability, lower maintenance requirements, disposability, ease of piloting and so on. They are being used by planetary militia to put any remotely decent potentate in a cockpit in the event of a planetary invasion."

Ves furrowed his brows as he imagined this mobilization scenario. "I suppose these mech models are able to do their jobs, but I get the feeling that they are mostly employed as mobile turrets, and even their weapons are only able to attack targets that have dipped into the atmosphere of a planet. Their calibers are probably not enough to strike warships hovering in high orbit."

"Many buyers are aware of the limitations, but people are desperate for security, sir. They want the comfort of being in the presence of a large quantity of mechs and guns. The frontline mechs can still play a useful role in repelling or slowing down planetary raids where troop transports and smaller warships try to approach a settlement to plunder it as opposed to bombarding the entire site into oblivion."

Ves tapped his chin in thought. "We already have the Desolate Soldier, which can already play a similar role in a better capacity so long as they are stored on orbital space stations. The margins of this model are already very low. If we proceed to design a frontline mech, I doubt we'll earn any meaningful profits. Let's leave this to the other mech companies who are able to make significant savings by producing on a wider scale."

"Very well. Our mech company is already contributing to planetary defenses by selling the Ultimatum. Although it is a highly specialized mech that is not only vastly more expensive, but also requires much more competent mech pilots to be utilized in an effective manner, their ability to strike targets from land-to-orbit has made them increasingly more popular in more and more settlements throughout the middle zones."

In other words, there was no pressing need for the Larkinson Clan to design any further mechs meant for groundside deployment.

Ves expected this to change in a few years once the deep strike operations came online. A lot of alien planets accumulated a huge amount of wealth and phasewater that would be difficult to recover without deploying a lot of forces to the ground. Demand for premium landbound mechs and possibly even demimechs that were able to navigate small and complex urban environments should probably shoot up during that time.

"Tell me about the most immediate unmet demand for premium spaceborn mechs." Ves instructed. "At this time, it is most worthwhile to focus on selling good spaceborn mechs that people are willing to pay a hefty premium for. What do the mech forces fighting in the border need the most? What sort of mech are we able to make that can produce the greatest impact?"

The young man paused for a few seconds before he offered a response.

"Most mech companies have put their focus on two types of products. First, they have prioritized the release of hyper ranged mechs that can more effectively strain the defenses of alien warships. Second, they developed new hyper melee mechs that are equipped with space suppressors that can effectively finish off the weakened vessels. This is the basic strategy employed by most mech forces in the Red War. What is missing from this approach is a third pillar."

"And that is…?"

"An auxiliary mech. An effective support mech can act as a force multiplier that can increase the survivability of both ranged and melee mech units."