Humanity's Greatest Mecha Warrior System

One week later, Max found himself in a meeting aboard Creeping Darkness with a dozen major Reaver Company Commanders. The topic of the meeting was naturally the rebuilding of the space stations and the ships of the fleet.

"Greetings everyone, and welcome to the newest, as well as oldest, World Ship of the Terminus Trading Company fleet. With us today are a collection of my officers to serve as assistants, as well as Sylvie, the ship's AI avatar." Max welcomed everyone to the meeting.

There were some amused smiles as they saw Sylvie leaned against Nico's arm in a large chair as if she were sleeping, giving the appearance of two young women having an intimate moment. But most realized instantly that the truth was something much different.

All the Colony Ship and larger vessels that the Terminus Trading Company produced came with AI built in, and the new ones came with the avatar projectors equipped. It was no secret that direct contact with the AI avatar was necessary for direct mental communication, so the two were more likely to be in an intense discussion than to be napping during a meeting.

"Thank you for having us, Commander, especially during an important moment such as this, where the fleet is doing its best to recover lost battle power. We do feel that these concerns cannot wait, though.

With the manufacturing abilities of the Terminus Trading Company, and the efficiency advantages that they have over traditional construction methods, we are already seeing a bias in the designs of the fleet. The fleets in active engagement are leaning toward the new vessels of Terminus design, and the space stations here in Rae 5 are becoming the same way.

What we are concerned about is the tactical considerations. If all the ships are of similar design, then it becomes increasingly simple for the enemy to target weak points, and faster for them to take control while boarding.

In short, every time we lose an engagement, it will give the enemy an advantage for the next fight."

Nico raised her head from her conversation with Sylvie and nodded. "That is a valid concern, Commander. We do have the intention to change the design scheme regularly, but with so many vessels lost at once, there is naturally a bias if you are looking only at the newly created units."

The Commanders' relief was clear to Max, as they realized that their concerns were being taken seriously.

Nico cleared her throat and continued. "There are other designs using similar technology levels that wouldn't compromise the combat capabilities of the Companies that are receiving new vessels. Those designs might not be as efficient to create, but they would still be considered the same standard.

We can give the option to select one of those designs from our production facilities with only a minor delay to the timeline.

Would that be sufficient to ease the minds of the Commanders?"

"That would be a good start. We will also negotiate with some of the other Companies, to see if we can get vessels with alternate technologies built. The greatest concern we have is that the enemy will adapt to the weapons, shields and armour that we are using and cause a massacre that could have been prevented with a mixed fleet.

It was that sort of mixed technology here that allowed the Rae 5 defence force to remain partially intact during an extreme invasion, and the consensus of most Commanders is that it is a tactic that we should continue." The leader of the visiting group announced.

Max considered it for a few seconds before agreeing. "Alright, we will provide production and design schematics to the other production facilities, and we will work to get another facility of our own online here to keep up with demand.

I think that for the stations, it will be less of an issue. They aren't intended to take direct hits with their shielding down, and they can be equipped with every sort of shielding that we are capable of producing, so they can be optimized against an attacking fleet.

For a space station, the size is less of an issue than for a ship that needs to consider power usage for warp travel and portal creation. We can implement multiple shield generators into the core area without concern."

That would be a big upgrade from the original competitive method of creation, where everyone kept their designs and technologies secret and proprietary to maximize profit.

That was best for the individual Companies, and until very recently, it would have been best for the Reavers as a whole, but now that they had been thrust into the role of coordinators for the majority of the human military might, along with the representatives from Cygnus, there wasn't really an option for anyone to hold back on the technologies that they had.

The best path now was to spread them far and wide, and hope that they got popular so that you could maximize the royalties that you were getting from them.

Nico took over the conversation after a few more seconds of discussion with Sylvie, who was currently curled up beside her in the oversized chair. "Now, on to the next, and probably more important, topic. Staffing. Having young Reavers learn the ropes for twenty years as they grow up on a trade ship is perfectly fine, but that's not feasible for a combat vessel. We don't have decades to replace the staff, we need more of them today.

We could go the android route, but that will inevitably lead to issues, including the possibility that Great Enemy forces will manage to neutralize or possess them.

So, we're going to need to do intensive military training to get crews ready to staff not only the ships, but also the Mecha forces.Does anyone have a particular plan for that issue?"

This topic was a nightmare for the Reavers. They didn't have the numbers that a normal planetary nation did, and they had taken heavy losses already. If they were going to solve the staffing issue, they were going to need to bring in outside experts.