The Mech Touch

"Papa?" Andraste asked as she gazed up at the strikingly colored mech with admiration and adoration. "Why aren't the Ferocious Piranhas in our fleet as pretty? They're so boring in comparison to this model!"

"There are multiple reasons for that." Ves patiently replied. "Marvaine, what do you think?"

The younger boy scrunched his face. "Is it because we don't want our light skirmishers to get shot more often?"

"That is part of the reason. You are indeed correct that mechs that look more ostentatious tend to attract more fire. Scientific studies have shown that mechs coated in plainer and more earthy tones tend to look psychologically less oppressive, which is why many serious light skirmisher models look like they really don't want to stand out in the crowd."

"If that is the case, then why sell a mech like this in the first place?" Andraste curiously asked.

Ves grinned. "Well, for a mech company like us, applying special coating and making a few cosmetic changes to the exterior to the mech doesn't cost that much. What it does do is turn the same mech into a 'limited edition' variant that can help us earn a lot more profit per unit sold. Look at the price tag for an individual unit of this particular version. What does it say?"

"It… it sells for 5.5 MTA credits!"

"And how much do we charge for a regular Ferocious Piranha?"

Andraste tried to jog her memories. "Ummm… I think it was 2.6 MTA credits last I saw."

"The LMC raised the list price to 2.7 MTA credits earlier this year." Ves corrected his daughter. "It all comes down to how much a customer is willing to pay for a mech. A standard commercial version of the Ferocious Piranha Mark III has become more popular as of late, especially now that war is on the horizon. This is why we were able to get a lot of customers to pay 0.1 MTA credits more than before. As for this special edition machine, a small proportion of customers want to feel more special than others. They don't mind paying more than double the price for what amounts to the same mech in terms of performance."

All three children looked confused.

Marvaine looked especially dumbfounded. "Can't they buy a cheaper Ferocious Piranha and paint them purple at home? They will be able to save 2.8 MTA credits if they do that."

"That is what I would do as well, but not every customer is as stingy." Ves answered. "Special edition and limited edition mechs are more valuable due to their scarcity and legitimacy. Sure, anyone with a decent workshop can modify a normally-priced mech to look exactly the same as this one, but what makes this particular model worth 5.5 MTA credits is because it is included in the official mech catalog of the LMC. To be honest, this isn't the most expensive special edition version of the Ferocious Piranha that is on sale. The Living Star Club offers more extreme cosmetic variants that are so exclusive that they get sold for 15 MTA credits or more!"

The wonders of modern marketing. The Living Mech Corporation made use of plenty of psychological tricks in the book to extract more profits from the same work.

The LMC wasn't even the worst offender in the mech market. There were plenty of unscrupulous businesses that resorted to more ethically dubious practices.

Examples of that ranged from bundling a bunch of worthless products with a mech to jack up the prices, to offering temporary 'discounts' that lasted so short that they pressured a lot of customers into making impulsive purchase decisions.

While these aggressive business practices certainly succeeded in encouraging customers to open up their wallets even further, the reputation and long-term brand value of the mech companies would inevitably suffer.

The LMC valued its long-term development far too much to risk its reputation on aggressive and deceptive sales practices.

As Ves continued to teach his children about the business side of mechs, he led them to another display model that was not as aggressive.

"This is a Buzzy Bee!" Marvaine quipped as he recognized the machine's distinctive ECM modules.

"That is correct, my dear." Gloriana replied and brushed her little boy's hair with her fingers. "I do not like the name that your father has given it, but his collaboration with an external ECM mech designer has proven to be a great success."

The sales of the Buzzy Bee model started off slow, and it took at least a year before it started to pick up steam.

As an auxiliary mech, the Buzzy Bee featured low offensive and defensive power, but made up for it with a good set of ECM systems.

The third party mech designer from Davute that Ves teamed up with specialized in developing active ECM systems that remained effective and reliable for several hours.

While this was not the most spectacular specialty that Ves had ever encountered, it was more than enough. The Buzzy Bee only needed to be competitive enough in its ECM capabilities.

What truly made this machine valuable was its communication capabilities!

"Do you know why I went against the opinion of your mother and called it the Buzzy Bee?" Ves asked his children.

"Uhm, it's because it is an annoying bee that is difficult to swat from the skies!" Andraste replied.

"Hahaha, that is a part of the story, but not all of it. What else?"

Aurelia offered another possible answer. "Is it because bees are part of a hive and are meant to work with other bees?"

Ves nodded. "That is also a part of the reason. You see, bees and many insects that are part of hives have developed surprisingly sophisticated communication methods to send signals to each other. Many of them are so strange or subtle that someone who knows little won't be able to recognize or block these signals. The Buzzy Bee's true value is its ability to communicate with each other across varying distances in an unconventional manner. They do not make use of electronic communication methods that can easily be blocked, intercepted and jammed."

His wife nodded in agreement. "We have only discovered a handful of reliable measures to block the alternate communication method of the Buzzy Bee. The easiest solution is to destroy them. That is one of the reasons why the ECM systems are so badly needed. Adversaries who are aware of its strategic value will prioritize its takedown as much as possible. Another effective solution is to cut off the communication channel with the help of a high-ranking mech. Expert mechs and especially ace mechs have a way of disrupting or outright blocking these invisible channels, but they are few and far in between."

The manager of the flagship store had reached their side in the meantime. This provided Ves with a handy source of information, especially with regards to customer trends!

"How are the sales of the Buzzy Bee model?"

The manager immediately gave an answer. "Sales of all of our mech models have increased, but the Buzzy Bee model especially stands out to us. The amount of units that our customers have ordered in the last three months have quintupled. More and more customers have become aware of the unique benefits of our jointly developed ECM and communication mech. Positive word of mouth has helped much to prove its effectiveness. Now that every serious mech force is preparing to conduct long campaigns on wartorn planets that are saturated with jamming, our Buzzy Bee line should provide the Davutans with a massive advantage in coordination."

Ves smiled. That was just as he predicted. "Do you think that sales levels will rise even further in the future?"

"It depends on how well they perform on different battlefields." The manager replied. "From the user feedback that I have received, our Buzzy Bees should be able to maintain stable communications where many other mechs are cut off. This includes auxiliary mechs with powerful antennas and transceivers. I have been told that the LMC's Production Department is already anticipating the need to set up additional production lines to increase this model's production volume. Even then, there is a good chance that we will be unable to increase our rate of production even further due to material supply limitations."

"Don't overlook the effect of a war on the supply lines that we are dependent on." Gloriana insightfully warned. "If the Karlachs manage to disrupt many of Davute's supply lines, then our ability to produce this relatively complicated mech will be curtailed even further. These ECM modules are certainly effective enough, but they require dozens of specialized exotics that need to be sourced from many different locations in order to build. This is a potential weakness that any enemies of Davute will most definitely be able to deduce."

That caused Ves to frown. This was not a vulnerability that was exclusive to the Buzzy Bee. Many advanced mech models that rely on sophisticated technical solutions to perform well derived much of their effectiveness on the special properties of powerful but relatively scarce exotics.

This was normally not a problem in a region that was at peace. It was rare for a state to experience massive supply disruptions during peacetime.

The story was different once a full-blown war broke out between different states. It was difficult to outright block the supply of specific materials, but it should still be possible to raid enough trade convoys to heavily limit the supply of certain strategic materials!

If Karlach really wanted to hinder the production of the Buzzy Bee model, then it could do so as long as it was willing to forgo the opportunity to curtail the supply of other exotics.

Ves and his family continued their tour through the flagship store. They observed several other mechs on display that were on sale.

All of them consisted of familiar models that sold extremely well such as the highly useful Pacifier law enforcement mech and the humble Hymenoptera industrial mech.

The store manager relayed an important development about both bestselling mech lines.

"What is notable about our Pacifiers and Hymenopteras is that the colonial administration have already ordered tens of thousands of customized units."

That caused Ves to look surprised. "Are you saying that the colonial government itself wants these mechs?"

"Yes, and this may be the start. Both of these products can play an immensely useful role in war. The Pacifier mech can utilize its calming glow to help a conquering mech force suppress the population of an occupied planet, thereby preventing many terrorist acts from occurring. The Hymenoptera on the other hand encourages a lot of diligence, and is suitable to be piloted by reluctant industrial mech pilots."

Gloriana frowned. "That doesn't make much sense. The Hymenoptera can be useful if the work is monotonous and if the pilots are of low-quality stock, but any government should be able to hire better workers. There are other industrial mechs that are cheaper, more efficient or strong in another useful capacity."

"It will be difficult to persuade or compel many of these workers to engage in construction or reconstruction work on volatile planets." Ves said. "I think… the government may want to stock up on the Hymenoptera because the machines may be reserved for prisoners of war."

"What?!"

It was a risky and daring scheme that could potentially free up a lot of precious manpower under the right circumstances!

There was no doubt that construction work would play a strategic role in the coming conflict.

"Have government institutions also placed orders on our other mech models?" Ves asked.

"Plenty. The Crystal Lord has proven itself as an excellent ranged mech model on land. Its luminar crystal rifles may not be as good as the ones employed by our mech legions, but they are relatively affordable, compact, efficient and reliable while still retaining a good amount of attack power. Of course, the government wants to order specialized variants that are more rugged and resistant to damage."

"I see."

It appeared that the Living Mech Corporation had already turned into one of Davute's many military contractors!