The Mech Touch novel Chapter 952

Having encountered many different pirate outfits, Ves knew that a trustworthy one practically didn’t exist.

The value of the Swordmaidens was that they cared about their reputation for honesty. While this didn’t rule out the possibility of betrayal, Ves nonetheless felt much more confident about going into bed with them than with any other gang of pirates.

If Ves let this opportunity to hitch his wagon onto the Swordmaidens go, then he would have to approach some other pirate outfit to do business with the frontier. Without a shared history of fighting and working together, and without approaching a pirate gang that used to be strong but was temporarily down on their luck, he would never obtain such good conditions for a private, under-the-table deal.

Certainly, even though he figured he got off rather cheap, maintaining a relationship with the Swordmaidens could easily cost him billions of credits a year, so the deal he just secured wasn’t cheap in absolute terms.

However, Ves believed the business opportunities that opened up with this deal would more than pay back his investment.

While he might not be able to apply rare exotics to any of the LMC’s standard mech models due to issues with explaining how he obtained them in the first place, they were enormously useful in designing custom mechs.

While he already had a lot of designs on his plate, he did not intend to neglect the top end of the market. Customized, high-quality mechs took a lot of time and effort to design, but it earned Journeyman Mech Designers a lot of fame and reputation if they became known for delivering hot mechs.

The more extravagant and powerful the custom mech, the more he and his products entered the news cycle.

Publicity and exposure was key to building his brand and gaining a higher profile without dumping in billions of credits each year on marketing.

Ves quickly shook his head to get his mind off the future. Right now, he was just laying the groundwork for his future ascension. Rather than fantasizing about advancing his career, he should go back to trying to survive the return trip!

"I believe that’s all?" He asked.

"There are no more issues to address." Commander Dise said. _{freēwebnovel.com}

After wording and enumerating the two agreements on separate data pads, they shook hands as well, though it didn’t have any greater meaning as of yet. Only after Ves returned to the Shield of Hispania and have Major Verle sign off the main agreement would the deals truly be closed.

Of course, some words in a virtual documents and a cheap handshake didn’t mean the deals would pan out. There was no way anyone could enforce contracts made with pirates.

In fact, if Ves arrived at the Jaded Sword with just the deal on behalf of the Flagrant Vandals and the Bright Republic, Commander Dise would have probably doubted their sincerity.

The Swordmaidens would have to incur the burden of protecting the Flagrant Vandals while crossing the entire frontier. Yet their payment only came afterwards and it was a question whether the Bright Republic would honor this agreement in the first place.

What pushed Commander Dise into accepting it was because Ves wanted to close another deal at the same time. Not only did he show sincere intention into cooperating with the Swordmaidens, he also promised to ’compensate’ them in the future if the Bright Republic reneged the main deal for some reason.

However, with Ves clearly aiming to build a closer relationship with the Swordmaidens, they felt a bit more assurance that both of the deals would be honored. This was because it benefited everyone involved if they played along. Achieving a win-win condition was the most secure kind of deal that they could make.

After they chatted a bit, Ves made to leave, but Ketis called for him before he left. "Wait a moment! Dise, tell him about the backup we arranged."

For a moment, Commander Dise glared at her. "You’re not supposed to know that."

"Heh. I can’t help it if I overhear some things using the sensors of my fancy new armor." Ketis grinned and knocked her gauntlet on her piratized CFA combat armor. "I know Ves has a way of blocking electronic devices from listening in. We just made a deal with him, maybe we should ask him for one."

Ves raised his palm. "Ah, I only have a single signal jammer for now. With the resource shortages we’re suffering through right now, I don’t think I can make a signal jammer that’s effective enough to block out the sensors of her CFA combat armor. By the way, what’s this about a backup plan?"

Even though Commander Dise glowered at them both, somehow Ketis’ puppy eyes softened her up a bit. The new leader of the Swordmaidens sighed.

"You aren’t supposed to know this, but Commander Lydia left a lot of plans behind. One of them involves calling in favors to gather a large number of friendly pirate outfits to meet us halfway. Once we enter their embrace, there are hardly any enemies that can muster the numbers to defeat us all. It’s how we deter most enemies when they pursue us, actually."

Ves widened his eyebrows. He knew how significant such a plan would be, especially to the Flagrant Vandals who didn’t owe anything to the pirates. "What would have happened to the Vandals if we jumped into a system with half-a-dozen or more of your ’friends’?"

"Well, who can say?" Dise smiled coyly at him. "It’s very hard to control our friends, you know?"

This meant that the possibility of stabbing the Flagrant Vandals in the back definitely entered her mind!

Right now, the remnants ships and mechs of the Vandals and Swordmaidens roughly matched in strength. Once the balance of power tilted decisively to one or another, it would be hard to say if either of them remained staunch allies.

After all, each of them retrieved a lockbox from the Starlight Megalodon. The temptation to snatch the other lockbox away from their erstwhile ’allies’ should have crossed their minds all the time.

If not for taking the initiate to propose a deal to Major Verle, thereby allowing him to visit the Jaded Sword to negotiate several deals in person, Ves would not have been aware of this looming disaster to the Flagrant Vandals!