The Mech Touch novel Chapter 407

Over the course of several weeks, Ves fabricated eight gold label Crystal Lords. Together with the first production model, the LMC would be able to show off nine of them at once at the looming press conference.

A while ago, Ves tentatively settled on holding the press conference in a couple of days. Though the announcement didn’t leave much time for everyone else to arrange their schedules, he believed that a lot of people still planned to attend.

"Interest in our new model is has peaked." Gavin spoke as he reported the matter to Ves in his private office. "The teasers have done their job, but without showing anything more solid than a silhouette, it’s extremely hard to generate new fans."

"We’ll make do with what we have. How many confirmed guests are we talking about?"

"We’ve roped in over two-dozen local publications. None of them are major players, and only a couple of them have state-wide reach."

Ves frowned. "Nothing bigger has shown any interest?"

"No. We tried our best and even offered a substantial amount of bribes, but those huge publications that are followed by people throughout the Komodo Star Sector hardly pay attention to Apprentice Mech Designers. You have to be an extremely talented Journeyman Mech Designer in order to rouse their interests."

Though he found it disappointing, Ves did not expect anything else. It had already been an extremely rare occasion for a publication such as the Rimward Star Herald to do a feature on him. Even that got quickly ignored and buried underneath all of the major news that popped out shortly afterwards.

"Have you gathered any more intelligence about the second wave?"

"According to the latest rumors circulating in the mech industry, the Mech Corps has almost finished settling the first wave of mech designers. They’ll likely call up the second wave early next week."

"Ves tapped his fingers. "Hm. I’ve done what I can in Cloudy Curtain. The Barracuda arrives in orbit tomorrow morning. We’ll depart for Bentheim to prepare for the press conference. Make sure you finish everything that needs to be done on this end before you go."

"Will do, boss!"

As Gavin left his office, Ves contemplated how the LMC would fare in his absence. Right now, a lot of tiny mech workshops and mech boutiques shuttered their doors by the thousands. Hardly a day went by without reading up on the doom and gloom among the tiny mech manufacturers.

These marginal companies only managed to cling onto solvency as long as their only mech designer remained in charge. The sudden absence of a vast majority of of mech designers caused most of these businesses to shutter their doors, sometimes by the founders themselves.

This in turn disrupted plenty of supply chains and caused a deluge of unemployed people who used to work for these small mech manufacturers to end up on the streets.

Fortunately, the LMC remained steady throughout all the turmoil. With two currentgen product lines in its catalog, the company would be able to remain relevant for at least eight more years without any further input by Ves.

"This is a good time for my company to grow and accumulate more wealth."

Unless someone else published a design that competed directly against his mechs, the LMC should be able to sustain a regular cash flow. It mattered little whether Ves published more designs or not. His current two designs already covered a decent swathe of the market.

Ves spent his final day in Cloudy Curtain meeting his people one more time and saying goodbye to them. He even took a shuttle trip downtown and visited Dietrich to get in touch with the Whalers.

Ever since they helped out in repelling the Vesian raiding force, their prestige enjoyed a substantial boost. Their rule over Cloudy Curtain had solidified and couldn’t be shaken anymore.

Dietrich obviously looked like he was having a good time. Ves entered a recently constructed night club that the Whalers had demolished and built from the ground up with all the bells and whistles. It made heavy use of wide-area projectors to cast an illusion of walking among the stars.

The view disoriented Ves somewhat, but he slowly got used to walking in the middle of space. Comets zipped by while stars emitted light and heat. He eventually reached Dietrich who nursed an expensive drink.

"Are you off to join the war?" He asked with a bit of alcohol on his breath.

"In a way. I’ll likely be allocated to a design team."

"I heard about that! My mates tell me that they’ll gather a hundred or so mech designers and put them in a single base in some forgotten corner of the Republic and let you guys sort things out from there."

"It’s not quite as simple as that. Mech designers like me will be joining the existing design teams as extra manpower. They can never have enough mech designers to do all of their grunt work."

Most of the time, people like Ves would be granted the privilege of running loads of simulations or repetitive computations. Some jobs could be left to AIs while other jobs required a lot of creative judgement. Mech design was both an art and a science, after all.

Ves hoped that publishing the Crystal Lord design would enhance his status just enough to avoid the lowest level of grunt work. It remained to be seen whether the Mech Corps took note of his work, but it couldn’t hurt to try.

Ves ordered a light drink and sat on the opposite side of the table to Dietrich, who dismissed his hanger-ons. As Ves enjoyed the imported liquor, he turned to an important topic.

"What’s in store for the Whalers in the next few years? You guys are expanding like crazy. Cloudy Curtain alone won’t be able to hold you all."

"Hahaha!" Dietrich burst into laughter. "It’s that obvious? Well, since you already guessed, there’s no need for me to hide. We’re planning on branching out, but not in the way you think. All the neighboring star systems in the Bentheim region is spoken for. The gangs who occupy these systems all have backers just as troublesome as Monty the Beheader. We can’t just fob them off without provoking a lot of formidable existences."

"So you’re looking for places further ahead?"

"Exactly! Right now, we’re eying a quiet star system that’s closer to Rittersberg than Bentheim, but not too close to make things difficult. You know what everyone is saying about this war. There’s always a chance the Vesians might accomplish the impossible and conquer the Bentheim System. Having a few fallback options ready would be really handy."

Strictly speaking, with the self-destruction of the old spaceport in Orinoco, Ves did not have to make this detour. He could have chosen to lift off into orbit directly from his doorstep. _{free𝑤ebnovel.com}