The Mech Touch novel Chapter 410

Ves left Marella’s office and boarded an armored shuttle that conveyed him towards the convention hall. Along the way, he tried but couldn’t quite get Marcella’s words to disappear from his mind. _{ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom}

On a whim, he activated his comm and performed a few casual searches on the galactic net.

The cursory search revealed a statistic that Ves had always overlooked. "Casualties as a result of collateral damage?"

He knew what collateral damage meant. Backlash against it arguably ended the Age of Conquest, which some people referred to as the Age of Warships. With the onset of the Age of Mechs, mass extinction and widespread slaughter ceased to happen, but that didn’t mean it stopped happening entirely.

Missile barrages notoriously inflicted wide swathes of devastation. With the effectiveness of ECM these days, over eighty or ninety percent of missiles never hit their targets. Instead, they veered away and flew a bit further before exploding upon the first obstacle they came across.

Many cities hollowed out and collapsed this way.

Cannons also frequently pled guilty to this, but surprisingly the humbler laser rifle took the crown. Their ubiquity, availability and low cost per discharge meant that mech pilots who piloted laser rifleman mechs frequently showered their opponents with laser beams.

Ballistic rifleman and railgunner mechs exercised much stricter trigger discipline because they couldn’t afford to waste their ammunition.

Therefore, Vs got a completely different conception of laser rifleman mechs. Who knew that the humble straight and narrow laser beams actually resulted in more deaths and collateral damage than more explosive weapons?

"This is mainly the fault of the mech pilot."

If these laser-happy mech pilots exercised the same trigger discipline as their ballistic and kinetic counterparts, they wouldn’t let this statistic balloon.

"This isn’t my responsibility."

By now, over a thousand Blackbeak mechs circulated throughout the Bright Republic and elsewhere. Ves did not keep tabs on what their pilots did. Someone could have crashed their mech through a school full of children and Ves wouldn’t know. Even if he did, what did it have to do with him?

"People don’t blame a shuttle manufacturer if some madman took their shuttle, hacked all the safeties, and crashed it into office building."

The only reason he would check up on his products was to see whether their X-Factor aged and developed unique flavors. Right now, it would be too early to tell, so Ves planned to wait a couple of years before performing an in-depth study of the effects.

Once the shuttle arrived at the convention hall, Ves went inside and oversaw the final preparations of the product reveal. This time, the LMC went for a more elaborate concept that transformed the entire hall into a projected battlefield. It all looked impressive and lifelike as Marcella’s brokerage supplied the advanced equipment to turn illusion into a hyper-realistic simulations.

The experience went beyond spectacular visuals. Ves felt the vibrations from the footsteps of a Crystal Lord as it walked by. He could heard the sharp tang of a laser rifle discharge as another projected mech fired its weapon at a distant enemy mech.

For the battlefield, they picked out a sprawling ruined urban landscape. Rubble and debris littered much of the abandoned city, as months of fighting turned every street into an unlivable mess.

"This is what happens after every battle."

Seeing the awful state of the buildings and the remains of abandoned vehicles strewn about put everyone present in a somber mood. In light of the recent attack on the Coscos System, Ves opted to color his presentation in a serious tone. He nixed the original plan which involved excessive cheer and exuberance.

Not everyone supported this last-minute style change, but Ves knew that they needed to be tactful in order to avoid public condemnation.

"Are all the props and projectors in place?"

"We installed and tested every prop yesterday. Everything works as planned, boss." Gavin answered as he studied a data pad that contained all of their planning. "All nine mechs are shipped in place as well, with the first production model standing in the place of honor."

"How about the permits? Did we receive permission from the convention hall and the authorities to activate all nine mechs?"

"We only managed to do so after Marcella’s brokerage greased the wheels. It’s harder than usual for the LMC to do business in Bentheim because we aren’t based here. We only have a branch office that’s in charge of marketing and after-sales support, and it’s too small for us to cultivate important relationships with the people in power. If not for Marcella’s deep connections, we wouldn’t have been able to get away with this plan."

Ves nodded as if he expected the outcome. As the LMC grew up from a one-man operation into a medium mech manufacturer, he gradually realized that many rules could be overcome with a sufficient amount of power and influence. Nothing was impossible, and only very few rules turned out to be absolute.

While the prohibition on activating mechs was a very sensible one to limit the chances of disaster in the middle of a densely-populated city, too many people flouted these rules and got away with it. "It’s like an unofficial tax."

A few hours went by as Ves prepared and rehearsed his presentation. He couldn’t delegate the responsibility of introducing the Crystal Lord design to anyone else. Mech designers needed to show their pride at their own products. Therefore, even if he wasn’t the best public speaker in the company, he readily accepted the responsibility.

In the meantime, the entrance to the hall opened up and let in the first attendees. The journalists and representatives of various publications and organizations arrived first. They blinked past the omnipresent projections of the ruined urban landscapes and the silhouettes of the new design skulking in the shadows and claimed their preferred spots to record the upcoming press conference.

Batches of collectors arrived next. Some of them previously showed up to the Blackbeak’s reveal event as well, but for many of them, this would be the first time they got to see Ves up close.

The mech industry as a whole started to take note of the LMC due to the spread of the Blackbeaks. While the poorest mercenary corps eschewed the expensive models entirely, many of the better-off outfits started to take a shine on the models.