The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1659

Chapter 1659 Spacer Life

Shortly after the defense force gathered together, the fleet flew out to meet the incoming sandmen.

All of the vessels in the fleet consisted of light carriers. Only the detachment of the Equinox Stingers possessed a speed-oriented combat carrier.

Ves looked enviously at the projection of the combat carrier. Though he wasn't a shipwright, his vast technical competence and his prior experience in traveling aboard ships gave him a very good appreciation of combat carriers.

"She's a beauty." Captain Silvestra whistled as she walked up to him. "Ships like these are built with enough exotics and materials to produce at least ten standard mech companies. Some combat carriers are even more expensive than expert mechs!"

She was right. Due to the large variety of combat carrier classes, their costs varied very widely. However, even the cheapest ones cost as much as a hundred Blackbeaks!

Ves understood the horror of their value very well. He remembered the losses the Flagrant Vandals had suffered. Not only did they lose hundreds of mechs, but also several highly valuable combat carriers and other vessels.

However, even more grievous was the loss in trained and loyal soldiers.

While the Flagrant Vandals appeared to suffer from money problems, with a backer like Flashlight, they probably would have been able to scrounge up the money to rebuild their lost assets.

However, trained mech pilots, engineers, ship captains, medical doctors and other highly valuable personnel were not so easy to accumulate. They formed the true heart of any organization!

As an employer himself, he experienced the difficulty in hiring competent and loyal subordinates. It was already difficult to ensure a new hire fell into one of those boxes

That reminded him of the crew of the Barracuda. Captain Silvestra and her girls had been serving on the ship for many years. From one of their earlier conversations, Ves learnt that they didn't plan to stick around forever.

"Do you ever wish to captain a combat carrier?"

Silvestra smiled wryly. "Who wouldn't? I'm not qualified, though. I'm just a captain of a tiny corvette configured as a pleasure yacht. I haven't acquired the relevant experience and knowledge to captain a vessel that ordinarily requires a crew of at least a hundred spacers to function properly. Unlike the mechs you work with, ships are incredibly ponderous vessels that can never function by a single person alone."

"There's the dummy mode, right?"

"Haha!" She chuckled. "Excuse me, sir. That was a funny joke. Think of what starships represent to us. They are more than means of travel. They are self-contained habitats that just happen to possess the capability of stellar travel. A ship regularly launches into the cold and breathless void of interstellar space for months and years at a time. Think of what might happen if an accident occurs and there aren't any knowledgeable engineers or specialists to fix the problem."

"You risk losing a ship worth hundreds of mechs or more along with all of the valuable cargo and people onboard."

"Exactly, sir. Ships aren't just empty shells with an engine and FTL drive strapped onto them. There are thousands of different systems running at the same time. Since you're a mech designer, you should probably know that the more systems are present, the greater the chance that something can go wrong. Even the latest vessels such as our Barracuda are not exempt from unexpected incidents."

"So the need to staff a trained and knowledgeable crew onto a ship is because they are a form of insurance, then?"

The captain nodded. "It's cheaper and more effective to pay for a crew than to let an automated starship be subject to the whims of Murphy's law. Automation has come a very long way. Bots and AIs can run entire starships by themselves, but you never see a ship that is automated to that degree for a very good reason."

"That said, ships still incorporate a lot of automation, right?"

"Right. Some degree of automation is indispensable to modern starships due to their incredible complexity. I believe that is the same case for mechs. The key is to strike a balance between control and convenience. The personnel also have to be trained in taking over the automated functions if they malfunction somehow."

"And this makes combat carriers extremely difficult to crew?"

"Yes. Aside from a combat carrier's high procurement cost and the difficulty of ordering one from the few shipyards capable of constructing them, finding the right crew has always been the biggest challenge. For the captain position, I need to accumulate at least twenty years more experience. For the chief engineer position, Jenn not only has to do the same, but also study all kinds of complicated engineering subjects! The amount of engineers who manage to gain a proficiency in FTL drive theory is extremely small! The position of chief engineer is often the most difficult one to fill!"

Ves gained a deeper appreciation of combat carriers. Unlike small and relatively simple ships like his Barracuda, a big combat carrier truly required highly-trained personnel to function optimally.

"Are light carriers the same?"

"Of course not." Silvestra shook her head. "Light carriers do not have to fulfill so many functions. They're not designed to participate in battles directly, so they lack much of the defensive and damage control systems that are prevalent in combat carriers. Light carriers are more like taxis for mechs. As long as they can fulfill this function adequately, there is no need to add anything more complicated."

"I see. So it's much easier to crew a light carrier."

"Right. Even if you manage to obtain a combat carrier somehow, with the spacers employed by the Avatars and the Sentinels, you won't be able to make full use of your new acquisition."

"How difficult is it to fill up the positions of a combat carrier?"

"Extremely difficult. These spacers are cherished talents. Usually, the ones who enter the private sector are often spacers who have been discharged from the military. Big organizations such as trade consortiums usually keep a very close eye on them. It's practically impossible for you to hire a chief engineer on the open job market!"

Just like every other profession, there were too many people and organizations looking to snap up the truly valuable talents. Even before a chief engineer resigned from the military, he would have probably received hundreds of job offers!