The Mech Touch

Ves could not responsibly make the decision to spend more than 300 million MTA merits and 84 kilograms of phasewater on upgrading a single ship.

Of course, if he had a say in the matter, he would unequivocally approve of this upgrade proposal!

The Spirit of Bentheim was his first true ship that he truly regarded as his own home. After living and working aboard her for numerous pivotal and eventful years, her value to him transcended that of a regular second-class factory ship.

The upgrade plan did not uplift all of her functions to first-class standards. Not yet at any rate. There were still a lot of ship systems that would remain second-class for the time being.

Ves was not in a hurry to upgrade the remainder of the vessel. As far as he was concerned, upgrading her defenses, power generation and mobility already covered the most important priorities. Each of the relevant improvements directly increased the survival capabilities of the ship.

"The defenses of the newly refitted will become so high that she will be able to tank direct battleship attacks with her active and passive defenses." Vivian Tsai boasted. "Her mobility won't increase as much due to the vast increases in the mass and density of our flagship, but she will be much harder to corner in the future."

"Do you think that it is wise to upgrade the Spirit of Bentheim first as opposed to our more combat-oriented capital ships?" He asked the chief shipwright. "A part of me thinks that it may be better for our clan if we upgrade a fleet carrier like the Wild Torch or the Gorgoneion first. They are much more relevant in battle and they can make much better use of the massive boost in defenses."

The projection of Vivian Tsai shook her head. "I do not agree with that idea. From the perspective of the fleet and the Larkinsons as a whole, we cannot afford to lose our flagship and the people who reside in her. More specifically, we cannot lose the mech designers that not only provide strong mechs to the Larkinson Army, but also generate a lot of revenue by expanding and updating the product catalog of the Living Mech Corporation. We can lose the Gorgoneion, but we cannot afford to lose you, sir."

When she put it in these terms, then Ves felt a lot better about letting the Spirit of Bentheim have the first turn. A factory ship she may be, but the fact that a vessel of this type became the flagship of the Larkinson Clan said much about the outsized value of its mech designers!

"I have one more question before you can go, Miss Tsai. If our clan agrees with this proposal and everything else is in order, how long will it take for the MTA to upgrade our capital ship?"

"I have only received an estimate from the mecher ship designers that I have been working with. They told me that the productivity of their shipyards are much higher, so there is not that much of a waiting list. That said, the requested upgrades and modifications are incredibly drastic, and our request to keep the ship in one piece as much as possible while completing the refit will require the shipbuilding crew to employ more inefficient work methods. If no major unexpected complications occur, the entire process will likely take around half a year."

"Understood."

After Ves concluded his extensive call with Vivian Tsai, he contemplated the ship upgrade proposal once again.

He felt good about it. He looked forward to receiving the newly transformed Spirit of Bentheim after a short break.

The time it took to send the factory ship off to the MTA also coincided nicely with the expeditionary fleet's upcoming pitstop.

As Ves called a meeting with the other leaders of the Larkinson Clan to discuss the massive proposal, he received mixed feedback in return.

Chief Minister Novilon Purnesse expressed the most reluctance. "The opportunity cost of spending almost half of the MTA merits at our disposal on upgrading a single capital ship is... well, not entirely selfish, but not entirely prudent."

"How so?" Ves curiously asked.

"Investing so many resources into upgrading our factory ship may sound logical at first, but from what I can see, we will be making the same mistake as Mr. Otrus Magrin." The son of Shederin Purnesse answered. "No matter how much we increase the defenses of any single ship, there are always enemies that can destroy them no matter the price. I think that instead of trying to put all of our eggs in a single basket, we should spread them to multiple baskets. This way, we can not only hedge our bets, but also ensure that other vital capital ships such as the Diligent Ovenbird and the Vivacious Wal become much less at risk of collapsing from a single blow."

Ves turned to Chief Minister Abigail Evern. "You're the highest-ranking Larkinson with a naval background here. What is your opinion?"

The former commodore remained calm. "There are arguments in favor of both choices, but I am not inclined to support Novilon's suggestion. Spreading out upgrades across a large quantity of ships will not make a major difference in the operations or combat power of our expeditionary fleet."

This was an understandable perspective to many of the people in the meeting. It applied to mechs as well. There were cases where concentrating a lot of resources on a single elite mech unit might yield more results than spreading them out across many mech units at once.

Within the Larkinson Army, the Nullifier Battalion and the most revered veterans of the Swordmaidens happened to serve as exemplary examples of how this approach worked out well.

"Paying for a major upgrade to our most important ship is definitely worth it for the reasons that have been mentioned before." The older woman continued. "I can see many uses for a ship with such an unreasonable amount of defenses. It will become much harder for both second-class pioneers and weaker alien warships to inflict serious harm to our flagship and our most important figures. She can also serve as a highly secure refugee for our civilians during a particularly dangerous crisis."

That last part alone was enough to win over a lot of neutral clansmen. The Spirit of Bentheim possessed more than enough space to accommodate hundreds of thousands of people in an emergency.

Sure, space would become so cramped that they would probably have to dump a lot of cargo, but a capital ship was nothing if not a lot of flat cities stacked on top of each other!

"I think Abigail makes a good point." Chief Minister Magdalena Larkinson voiced her own opinion. "One of our worst habits is that we repeatedly bring our entire fleet, civilian ships and all, to the battlefield. I understand the reasons why we must do so, but we are nevertheless risking the destruction of a relatively fragile ship and all of the innocent civilians aboard her at any time. If there are circumstances where we can transfer all civilians and non-essential personnel to a near-impervious floating fortress, then it would lift a massive burden to our mech pilots in the field."

Currently, many mech pilots felt that their backs were pressed against the wall. Though it massively increased their motivation to fight well, it was not good for their stress levels to engage their enemies with the knowledge that a single mistake might cause thousands of vulnerable clansmen to perish!

In the end, most of the Larkinsons rejected Novilon's proposal to spread the wealth for this reason. His idea was not that bad, but upgrading the Spirit of Bentheim first brought a lot more benefits to the table.

"There is also another point I would like to warn you about." Director Calabast spoke up. "If we send our flagship and the vessel where much of our design and production-related activities take place to the Mech Trade Association, I will bet everything that I have that the mechers will bug every single cubic meter of her hull. No corner will be left untouched. By the time we welcome the 'improved' Spirit of Bentheim back into our fold, anyone who gets back in will essentially become the new characters of a massive, constantly-running reality show. Observers assigned by the Association will constantly observe and track your every move."

A lot of expressions changed. The people who were already living and working aboard the Spirit of Bentheim especially felt uncomfortable by this realization.

Ves did not show as much concern, though. "I have already taken this possibility into account. When I discussed ways to spend my MTA merits with Master Goldstein, I mentioned my concerns to him. The Master personally reassured me that the refit work will be done by a crew and shipyard that is completely in the camp of the Survivalist Faction. The wrong people won't be able to access those feeds."

The spymaster snorted. "The fact that those hidden bugs will be placed in the hull of your factory ship will mean that at least some people will make use of them. Instead of the MTA as a whole, it will just be your Survivalist 'friends' who will keep an eye on you and the rest of the people aboard the Spirit of Bentheim. Are you sure you can live with that, Ves?"

"We are not defenseless against them." He retorted. "Lucky is particularly good at sniffing them out. He will just have to spend a lot of time on carpet searching her entire hull like he did once before to catch most of those hidden bugs. I'm sure the MTA will try to plant those sneaky devices onto our ship once again at a later date, but I am sure we can figure out a more effective solution to ward away these stubborn listening devices. If nothing else, we can always ask Patriarch Reginald to hop into his Mars and scrub our factory ship clean of bugs by enveloping her with his handy Saint Kingdom."

This was one of the many reasons why pioneers with ace pilots on retainer became a lot more formidable. Nothing could escape the attention of an ace pilot when his Saint Kingdom swept through the hull of a ship.

Ace pilots could easily detect the malice and ill intent from the likes of suspicious spies, treacherous informers and the tiniest listening devices imaginable.

This was a phenomenon that went beyond science, and that made it extremely difficult for other parties to form a countermeasure against this metaphysical method of surveillance!

Still, just because it was hard did not mean it was impossible!

Calabast crossed her arms. "No one knows more about ace pilots and the properties of Saint Kingdoms than the Mech Trade Association. They have plenty of god pilots at their disposal whose might and mastery of willpower far exceed that of ace pilots. I am convinced that the MTA has developed multiple solutions that can circumvent this method of detection."

Ves shrugged. "If that is the case, it is futile to guard against the MTA. I mean, the mechers will bug my ship regardless if we bring her to the MTA or not. At least this way we can better ensure that it will be our friends within the Association that will do all of the monitoring."

"Aren't you afraid that the increased monitoring will negatively impact your work?"

"Why should I be afraid?" Ves shot back. "I'm just a mech designer. I am not engaged in any shady or illegal work. Nothing happens aboard the Spirit of Bentheim that I am ashamed about. If the MTA wants to watch me work, then they are free to do so. I don't think they will learn much from seeing me at work, but that is their business."

"...Uh huh."

The look Calabast gave him showed that she did not find his statement credible in the slightest!