The Mech Touch novel Chapter 7392

Chapter 7392: Naval Developments

As the center of human-occupied space in the Red Ocean, Yernstall was an incredibly busy place.

The ongoing wars had not caused traffic and commerce to decline in the slightest. Pretty much every major group or faction established a stronghold in the central star node.

This included the Larkinson Clan.

Starfarer Berth continued to pump out first-class combat carriers and other sub-capital vessels.

Though its limited scale prevented it from constructing any larger hulls, Saint Commander Casella Ingvar recently authorized large-scale upgrades and modernization, allowing the orbital shipyard to produce more effective starships in smaller timeframes.

Though the clan could have upgraded and expanded its operations even further, it did not make sense to do so at this time. The deteriorating economy and the unstable supply situation meant that it became more and more difficult to ship sufficient quantities of raw materials.

Phasewater became increasingly more scarce. Bulk metals also became a lot more troublesome to procure, as more and more groups preferred to keep their resources in-house rather than trade them away.

Fortunately, the Larkinson Clan forged enough business ties to overcome these difficulties.

The so-called Open Consortiums helped a lot with bringing different trade partners together. Though many of the members were only small players, they wouldn’t have been able to exchange their goods with each other with so much ease if they did not have access to such a convenient trading platform.

Interestingly enough, even though most Open Consortiums had originally been founded by the Larkinson Clan, much of the leadership and management responsibilities gradually shifted to other groups.

The Larkinsons maintained a lot of branches in different locations, but most of them were rather small. There was no way for them to maintain a large presence in most zones, so it did not make sense for them to possess such outsized influence in consortiums that they barely used.

This was why the Larkinsons deliberately relinquished much of their power and control over the Open Consortiums.

The working model was robust enough that even if others took over the regional consortiums, everything should still work well enough, especially if the participants continued to sign the Open Books that compelled them to conduct honest transactions.

The only Open Consortium that the Larkinson Clan continued to exert a significant amount of control was the one based in the Krakatoa Middle Zone.

It couldn’t be helped. It was home to the Davute Branch, which happened to be the largest branch of the Larkinson Clan.

While the regional Open Consortiums were technically independent from each other, their identical origins and many similarities made it easy for them to trust each other.

In a period where trade networks continued to experience greater pressure, the clan still had to rely on these Open Consortiums as well as other trade deals to guarantee the supply of goods and materials.

Not just Starfarer Berth, but all of the mech manufacturing plants demanded constant input of materials.

If not for the fact that the Yellow Jacket was not that picky in terms of materials, it would have been a lot more difficult to keep its costs at a reasonable level.

As Ves toured his advanced shipyard, Eric Poderin continued to report on the latest happenings.

"We are grateful for the latest upgrades. Combined with access to newer and better ship designs, we have recently been able to produce combat carriers that are roughly 15 percent more effective on average. We even have the option to mount small guns on them, though we have yet to do so as the Red Two have yet to greenlight them for privately-held first-class ships."

Ves briefly frowned as he heard that. He still found it rather annoying that the Red Association and the Red Fleet continued to suppress the proliferation of first-class warships.

This was in stark contrast to second-class and third-class warships, which had begun to show up increasingly more in the Middle and Lower Zones.

Though most of them consisted of civilian hulls that had hastily been converted into military ones, their firepower offered vital support in a way that was difficult for mechs to match.

The benefits would definitely be greater if private organizations such as the Larkinson Clan could field its own first-class warships, but their power was exponentially greater.

It was understandable that the mechers and fleeters grew nervous about the prospect of random people gaining control over warships that possessed enough firepower to raze entire cities and planets from orbit!

However, Terrans and the Rubarthans clearly did not take this restriction.

Shortly after they regained their sovereignty, they had already begun to field their own warships.

Therefore, the enforcement of rules became increasingly more farcical. The main reason why the Red Two still prohibited the use of first-class warships must have been out of pride more than anything.

"I do not expect the mechers and the fleeters to greenlight the private use of first-class warships anytime soon." Ves analyzed. "Most of us will have to make do with mechs. You should continue to focus on building the best possible combat carriers for the Premier Fleet. We can never have too many combat carriers in my opinion."

Aside from a few points, Ves was generally satisfied with how Starfarer Berth conducted its operations.

The Larkinson Clan was still lacking in terms of shipyards, but the ones it had in its possession operated long enough to produce plenty of hulls by this time.

Ves was not too worried that anything would happen to Starfarer Berth. It was based in one of the only star systems that merited the protection of a god pilot.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify