The Mech Touch

Relying on the Diligent Ovenbird to pump out homegrown carrier ships was not a realistic solution.

Sure, the Larkinson Clan was awfully short of carriers and would settle for any rustbucket that could hold mechs and fly in space, but the Larkinsons had at least some standards!

In order for the Diligent Ovenbird to help increase the mech capacity of the Larkinson fleet as quickly as possible, Vivian Tsai and the Naval Design Department had already developed an extremely basic, barebones carrier that could hold just twenty mechs.

Ves and the others studied the projection of the vessel that was officially classified as a light carrier.

"…To summarize, the Jhamper-class light carrier is not built for defense, mobility, support, carrying capacity, self-sufficiency or longevity." Vivian Tsai finished her short presentation. "What our new ship design does excel at is saving costs, using up less materials and speeding up construction as much as possible. The ship design is a stopgap that can solve our most immediate needs, but don't expect anything more out of it. We should replace any Jhampers we add to our fleet with proper combat carriers at the first possible opportunity."

Compared to the second-class starships that the Larkinsons owned before, the Jhamper was a step back in almost every possible front. Some Larkinsons even looked disgusted at the thought of putting their precious mechs and crews inside these flimsy death traps.

Yet what else could they do? Without any additional carriers, a lot of Larkinson mech pilots had no choice but to stay back and cheer for the lucky ones that did get to pilot one of the few mechs that were available for deployment.

"The Jhamper is… a good ship design." Ves said, not wishing to disparage Vivian's work. "As a mech designer, I understand the constraints you are working under. A good design is one that fits the needs of the client, not one that performs better than older works. Given our many difficulties, a ship design that imposes the least burden possible on our supply and construction conditions is definitely the most appropriate choice."

Vivian looked a little more at ease after hearing this. "Thank you, sir. I am not proud of the Jhamper, but it is a decent carrier that can serve us well in the first years of our stay in the Red Ocean. Hopefully, we'll be able to work on obtaining proper carriers in the following months and years."

"I have a possible suggestion for us to obtain a batch of starships quickly." Director Raella Larkinson unexpectedly announced.

Everyone in the virtual meeting room directed their attention to the head of the Larkinson Clan's competitive mech circuit.

Her presence here was more of an afterthought so far. Compared to greater and more fundamental issues such as financing and carrier procurement, sports entertainment ranked quite low on everyone's list of priority!

It was therefore a complete surprise that Raella of all people had a potential solution.

Though Ves was skeptical, it wouldn't do to shoot her down right away.

"Let's hear it, then."

The woman grinned. "All of you fellows are thinking about obtaining ships the old-fashioned way by buying them, but that's not the only way to get a ship. Have you ever thought about participating in contests and winning them in order to receive ships as our rewards?"

The Larkinsons all looked surprised.

"You can earn carrier vessels by winning contests?"

"Definitely! Just look at these contests that I have looked up in the last few days."

Raella projected a montage of footage that depicted various different contests. There were massive competitive matches that pitted hundred mechs against each other. There were smaller duels between two different champions. There was even a clip that displayed a spectacular design duel.

What each of these competitions had in common was that the top finalists were entitled to receive starships, and carrier vessels nonetheless!

Ves sat up straighter as he saw that the top 3, top 5 or other groups of finalists received a varying amount of combat carriers for their efforts.

The higher their ranking, the greater their reward! A better result either allowed a contestant to obtain a higher-quality starship or a greater quantity of hulls!

The first-place winner of the massive mech battalion tournament even won a brand-new fleet carrier!

Seeing that every Larkinson in the virtual meeting became enthralled by the attractive prize pools, Raella continued to illuminate her fellow clansmen to the opportunities that she thought was worth exploring.

"What you all need to understand is that the Vulit Central Star Node is not just a collection of shops and tourist attractions. It's a gathering place of billions of second-raters, many of whom are bored and want to be entertained. Then there are all of the mech pilots who are chafing under the restrictive rules that prevent them from conducting any live practice sessions. Then you have all of the pioneers who are worried about whether their mech forces are strong enough to fight against their rivals. All of these factors combine in a perfect storm where there is a large demand for competitions."

Many of the Larkinsons present in the meeting didn't put much thought on this angle. What Raella just said made a lot of sense.

Competitions weren't solely about entertainment, especially in a complex location like Vulit. Clever entrepreneurs had analyzed the possibilities and seized their chance to build arenas and hold competitions that attracted enormous crowds of paying spectators!

Compared to the leagues and competitions that took place in the Milky Way, the ones held in the Red Ocean were much more interesting! Not only was the location a lot more exotic, but the convergence of so many different forces from so many regions of the old galaxy led to an unprecedented variety of participants!

For this reason, competitions in Vulit and in order central star nodes were currently booming. No matter how much it cost to hold these extravagant tournaments in places as expensive as Chance Bay, the virtual ticket sales alone were enough to compensate for all of the costs!

"How is it possible that these tournament organizers are able to offer carrier ships as prizes?" Commander Melkor asked in confusion.

"They're well-connected, that's why." Raella answered. "They're either bigshots or working on behalf of them. Anyway, that's none of your business. What matters is that these tournament organizers know that there is no better way to attract a pioneering organization to take part in their games than to offer carriers as one of the main prizes! You can't imagine how many different people like us have agreed to perform in front of a crowd just to get a chance to expand their fleets."

This sounded like a win-win arrangement to Ves. The tournament organizers were able to attract huge crowds with their exciting competitions while the pioneers were able to exercise their mech pilots, see where they stood compared to other peers and potentially win a combat carrier or two if they performed well enough.

Still, Ves did not make it all the way to the Red Ocean by looking at only a single side of an equation.

"All of this sounds great, Raella, but what are the downsides to taking part in these spectacles?" He asked.

The woman expected this to come up. She took a quick breath.

"There are many participants, but only a few of them can be winners. These tournaments are hard. Many elite mech pilots and many talented mech designers take part in every competition that offers a carrier ship or other big prize. If we want to participate, we have to be prepared to face extremely stiff competition from other pioneers. If we become one of the many losers, we will not only waste our time, but also incur other costs."

"What costs are you talking about?"

"For example, in order for us to participate in a mech tournament, we either need to buy the mechs that the organizers have prepared for us or bring our own mechs. If we win the matches and preserve our combat machines, then that is great, but if we lose, chances are that most if not all of our machines are broken. If we keep this up, we will run out of our own mechs."

That was indeed a serious danger. Ves could see how bad this could work out if the Larkinsons failed to win enough tournaments.

However, the Larkinson Clan had a lot of leeway at the moment.

"We brought a surplus of thousands of mechs when we entered the Red Ocean." He said. "Many of these mechs remained packed and are unusable since we cannot deploy them in any battle in a short amount of time. Since we can't obtain a lot of ships anytime soon, we might as well throw our spare mechs in these tournaments and gamble on victories. We've got around 20,000 mech pilots, right?"

"That's correct, sir." General Verle confirmed.

Ves smirked. "Then pick out the better ones and have them take part in these potentially lucrative mech tournaments. Who knows, we might even win a few. There is no risk of death, right?"

"The Big Two has employed state-of-the-art technology to prevent any accidents in even the largest group matches. The tournaments are all regulated. There's no way that anyone is able to hold any underground duels in this place."

That was a welcome piece of news, but not everyone looked comfortable with the idea of parading their mechs in a public arena. They also lacked confidence in their own chances.

"Sir, we're stronger than we look, but we might not be able to measure up against the more powerful second-class mech forces that pioneers brought into the Red Ocean." Commander Casella cautiously said. "If we want to maximize our chances, we'll have to display our real capabilities, and that means revealing our trump cards."

"Even if we show our trump cards, we might not win anyway. Some of the mechs and mech pilots in the arena are just that strong." Raella admitted.

Ves frowned a bit. "I understand, but we cannot miss this opportunity. It's better to try and fail than to do nothing at all. At least we have a chance of improving our fleet strength if we take the initiative. Besides, all of those surplus mechs are just taking up valuable space on our ships. I always intended to get rid of them or store them in some warehouse or something. This way, they can at least be more useful."

With his support, the clan decided to embrace this opportunity. The good thing about Chance Bay was that a lot of tournaments and competitions took place every day. It was a booming business and there was already a huge amount of arenas that could accommodate many different types of matches.

Of course, many of them imposed different requirements that the Larkinson Clan might not be able to meet. Even if the clan was able to participate, it might not choose to do so because the competition format favored stronger and wealthier participants.

Even Ves thought about taking part in a couple of mech design competitions. It had been a long time since he flexed his abilities in this way. Compared to where he stood in the past, he was a lot more confident about his abilities.

Not only did he possess solid basics, plenty of design experience and a vastly improved mech affinity, he also enjoyed distinct advantages in fabricating mechs, which had always been an important element in proper design duels.

By borrowing the assistance of Vulcan, Ves was certain he could build better quality mechs than pretty much any other Journeymen!

Still, he was not arrogant to assume he would be able to claim the top prizes in every design tournament he took part in. Other Journeymen might lack his unique advantages, but they made up for them by possessing much more refined knowledge and greater familiarity with useful high technology.

Ves was not afraid of competing against them. In fact, he looked forward to the prospect of comparing his abilities to other strong mech designers at his level!

His competitive drive, which had long remained dormant in his heart, began to burn again. Perhaps his stay in the Vulit Central Star Node would become a lot more exciting than he thought!