The Mech Touch (Web Novel)

5812 Political Objectives

Ves had spent years dreaming about owning a shipyard.

He found it rather funny that despite founding a thriving mech company and becoming increasingly more competent in designing new mechs, he still yearned to build his own starships.

Ves did not even harbor that much of a passion for warships in the first place.

Sure, they formed a vital component in the lives of every human, but Ves mostly regarded them as tools, homes and combat platforms. Aside from the Spirit of Bentheim, Ves did not regard starships as anything more or less.

As far as he was concerned, he preferred to stick to his own lane by working on mechs and rely on other partners to supply him with the starships he and his clan needed. It was a lot more efficient to simply keep doing what he did best and rely on specialized shipbuilders to excel in their own areas of expertise.

Alas, this scheme was anything but perfect. In an ideal society filled with honest people, Ves could easily purchase reliable starships he needed at fair prices on the open market.

These conditions did not exist in the current climate. The market for starships had already become a lot less open after the opening of the Red Ocean. The Great Severing exacerbated the problem by at least an order of magnitude, making it so that only the groups that owned their own shipbuilding companies could satisfy their needs!

This was the biggest reason why he wanted to obtain an orbital shipyard so badly. The small class of ship producers effectively held the reins of power in the new frontier.

Without enough starships, mech forces lost their mobility and would not be able to advance or retreat as freely as they wanted.

This was a death sentence in a dangerous galaxy.

While it was somewhat possible for Ves to keep sticking to his old approach by begging other parties to sell their starships to his clan, it was not a viable long-term solution.

Ves could read the trends as well as anyone. There was no way that ship production could increase without limit. More shipyards were still getting built, but they had begun to outpace society's ability to keep them fed with quality materials.

The only way for humanity to obtain more starships was to skimp on quality and materials. Despite all of the technological advancements introduced by hyper technology, it was highly likely that an increasing proportion of hulls built in the coming decade would become a lot more fragile than the ones built during the previous mech generation.

This was unacceptable to Ves. He understood the value of having sturdy warships very well. A solid hull and powerful energy shield generators could mean the difference between incurring no damage to getting completely crushed when the aliens focused their fire on a vulnerable starship!

Ultimately, the best way for the Larkinsons to ensure that he could fulfill his requirements and exert enough quality control over ship production was to do it themselves.

This was why this moment was so significant to him. He initially thought it would have been a lot more difficult for him to persuade other parties to sell their strategically valuable shipyards to him. Ves was lucky that he had raised his reputation to the point where 5 percent ownership of his mech company could be exchanged for at least a controlling stake of a shipyard.

Every offer came with strings attached, but all three of them were pretty nice.

Ves glanced as Duke Von Reevus, the Adaptive Scale and Mr. Robin Terrier.

They were three completely different people who represented different interests.

Though Ves did not look forward to getting entangled in the affairs of other powers, he could not afford to isolate himself either.

One of the reasons why he became a lot more willing to sell portions of shares of his mech company was to forge new alliances with powerful players.

Just like with the Survivalist Faction, the Transhumanist Faction and the Destroyer of Worlds, having friends he could count upon could solve or mitigate a lot of problems in society.

From the perspective of forging new alliances that could provide greater cover for Ves and his clan, the choices were pretty clear as far as he was concerned.

The E-66 Experimental Yard did not yield as much improvement to him as the other two deals. It brought him closer to the Inferno Spear Prince, but that was not a massive difference.

Ves already built up a good relationship with the Destroyer of Worlds. The Inferno Spear Prince might not be her direct subordinate, but he was practically her chief cheerleader in all but name. Ves was pretty sure he could count on Prince Antonius to have his back and support his ventures just to make sure he remained in the good books of his favorite god pilot.

In contrast, the royal shipyard granted him an immediate entry into the aristocracy of the Octara Kingdom.

Even though it started out as an extremely expensive puppet show, the new reality forced the Octara Kingdom to turn into a real state. Its playful customs and traditions became a lot more serious as the Octarans desperately sought to strengthen their unity and their ability to withstand adversity.

Did Ves look forward to becoming a court official or landed noble or anything? Not really. He had no intentions of playing along with the increasingly more serious charade of the Octarans.

What he did care about is establishing friendly territory for his clan in an actual first-rate state.

By opening the Octara Kingdom up for the Larkinsons, his first-class clansmen would be able to operate more freely and even settle their roots within its territories.

Sure, the Octara Kingdom may be weak relative to other modest first-rate states, but that granted the Larkinson Clan a greater opportunity to become a bigshot within the local scene.

It would be a lot harder for Ves to build up the huge amount of soft power and influence he currently held in the Hex Federation in much wealthier and more powerful first-rate states.

Ves believed it would take a long time to have the Octara Kingdom eating from the palm of his hand.

This was despite the fact it would be easier for him to accomplish this due to the kingdom's weak foundation!

Ves did not mind this too much. He was willing to settle in for the long haul. The more powerful he became, the more the Young King and his court were inclined to defer to a foreign mech designer.

As for the third orbital shipyard, the Starfarer Berth would not allow him to subsume an entire faction. The Guidance Faction and the Red Association as a whole were simply too big and powerful for Ves to gain a lot of sway over them. Just the fact that he would have to compete against god pilots and Star Designers already turned this into a hopeless venture.

What Ves did expect to get out of selecting the Starfarer Berth was to build a relatively solid alliance with the Guidance Faction.

Even if Master Francesca Castillo kept the LMC shares to herself, it was impossible to treat her as a neutral and independent entity.

She represented the Guidance Faction, which was solely led by Kevar Arendstein, the Missile Messiah.

As far as Star Designers went, Kevlar Arendstein was a bit quirky but impressive nonetheless. He was really good at creating explosive superweapons and his missile weapon systems added a lot of punch to his mech designs.

He also happened to be friends with the Destroyer of Worlds, which made it easier for Ves to entertain cooperation with the Missile Messiah.

Even if Ves did not agree with most of the goals and principles of the Guidance Faction, he did not believe that would pose a serious obstacle as long as they maintained an appropriate degree of separation.

The rise of the Red Collective would inevitably weaken the Red Association, but that did not mean that the latter was on the verge of breaking apart.

Besides, there was a strong possibility that a lot of Guiders would go on to take important positions within the newly founded organization. The Red Collective's principal mandate was to regulate and supervise the practice of cultivation in human society. This was practically a dream job of many ardent members of this faction!

In short, Ves believed it was inevitable for him to cooperate more extensively with the Guiders going forward.

If that was the case, it might be better if he played nice with them and gave them the illusion of control over him. Once they obtained a minority stake in the Living Mech Corporation, they could become a permanent fixture in his orbit.

Ves already made similar arrangements with the Survivalists and the Transhumanists, but it was always better to have another set of friends and supporters on his side.

His only regret was that the Guidance Faction was weaker than the other two factions.

Not only were the Guiders strongly opposed by the Terrans and the Rubarthans, but they were also only led by a single Star Designer.

The lack of other powerful leaders had caused the faction to lose a lot of power and deference compared to what it enjoyed during the height of the Age of Mechs.

The biggest shortcoming was the lack of a supporting god pilot.

It would be difficult for the Missile Messiah to push through his own proposals when many other factions led by god pilots could easily dig in their heels and refuse cooperation.

However, that made the Guidance Faction a lot safer to befriend as a consequence.

Ves already had a taste of what the opposite was like when he conducted his first exchange with the Evolution Witch.

He doubted that the Missile Messiah could browbeat him in the same way.

While that discounted the help he could expect from the Guiders, that was not a big deal. So long as he had an additional RA faction on his side, it became a lot harder for the Mech Supremacists and other potential adversaries from messing with his affairs.

That settled his choices as far as politics went.

He shouldn't fixate entirely on his political objectives, though. Another major goal was to supply his clan with first-class starships. The survival of himself, his family and the rest of his clansmen were at stake.

Fortunately, the calculus was a lot more straightforward.

If he wanted to accrue a huge fleet of big starships, he should settle for the royal shipyard and the E-66 Experimental Yard.

Ves was not stupid enough to obsess over big starships. Not only were they incredibly expensive to build and burdensome to remain, but they could not fulfill many essential roles.

Subcapital ships performed many functions ranging from scouting, planetary drops, rapid transit, covert operations and more.

A proper fleet consisted of a solid core of capital ships and an extensive screen of flexible escort vessels.

While it was possible for larger shipyards to construct subcapital ships, it was a huge waste of capacity for them to do so. It would be a lot better to acquire the Starfarer Berth and utilize its excellent facilities to pump out strong and highly effective subcapital ships.

Sure, the Starfarer Berth mostly emphasized quality over quantity, but the Larkinson Clan's Premier Branch did not need a hundred first-class combat carriers right away.

If Ves solely wanted to meet the Larkinson Clan's evolving demand for first-class starships, then he would pick a smaller shipyard and a larger shipyard.

The Starfarer Berth had to be in his possession no matter what. The only difficult choice that remained was which capital-grade orbital shipyard he should add to his possession.

Ves furrowed his brows. He had already considered all of the arguments, but that still did not give him a clear direction for him to go forward.

The royal shipyard was capable of constructing capital ships that were up to 3 kilometers long.

While the maximum length was a bit excessive for most purposes, it was still nice to make this option available to him and his clan.

The E-66 Experimental Yard could only construct capital ships up to 2.3 kilometers in length.

That did not sound like a major difference, but it was actually incredibly consequential.

The upside was that E-66 was a lot better at incorporating new and unfamiliar advanced technologies into starships.

This also included alien technologies, which gave Ves the hope that it might be able to construct imitation archeships as long as he bought the right hardware modules.