The Mech Touch

The completion of the Lionheart and the Blood Star Mark II represented a turning point for Ves and Gloriana's stay on New Constantinople VIII.

Gloriana no longer had any heavy obligations left that held her back from going on a trip to replace her cranial implant.

The only reason why she decided to linger for a bit longer was to assist with the partial upgrade of the Macharia Excelsia.

It was a genuine ace mech after all, and the fact that it hailed from the Hex Federation made Gloriana even more enthusiastic about the machine!

Unfortunately, her inadequate qualifications prevented her from providing too much input. She was not even allowed to apply her god body solution as that would require a complete overhaul and rebuild of the ace mech.

The most she could do was to get into closer contact with the Macharia Excelsia and study the properties of an ace rifleman mech first-hand.

This was already valuable enough for a mech designer with her specialization. Combined with her modest involvement in the iterative upgrades of the Mars, her comprehension of machines that surpassed the existence of expert mechs had definitely improved by a lot. This would definitely serve her well once she was able to design her own ace mech in the future.

In any case, the minor delay also granted more time for the Survivalist-owned implant development company to optimize its augmentations for their VIP customer.

Gloriana also took the time to help Ves finalize the Fey Project. While she was not that passionate about mass production mechs, she deeply understood the importance of this new mech line.

The Fey Project had the potential to become one of the mainstays of the Larkinson Army as well as a bestseller on the second-class mech market!

"I think there is a good chance that we can persuade the Hex Army to adopt both public editions of the Fey Project." Gloriana remarked as she leaned against Ves as they studied the latest iteration of one of the fey models. "As long as the performance of the Standard Edition or the Elite Edition surpasses that of other mech models at the same price range, the Hexers will surely fall in love with its capabilities. It is just too versatile and useful."

As a new mech line that was targeted towards several different audiences, Ves had chosen to split up the development of the Fey Project into three broad variations.

The Standard Edition consisted of a cost-effective second-class non-transphasic hyper mech that was fairly expensive but still affordable for the most part.

The Design Department always had the option of designing additional variations in order to perform better under certain circumstances such as landbound combat.

The production cost fluctuated considerably due to geography and volatility in the resource markets, so it was not easy to figure out how much it cost to produce a single copy. Ves aimed to limit the cost to 2 MTA credits, though it was incredibly challenging for him to design an effective drone mech with so many limited means.

The Elite Edition was the much more powerful quasi-first-class transphasic hyper mech take on the Fey Project. Ves did not hold himself back as much and shopped around for lots of expensive tech and materials.

Its cost was much greater as a result, so much so that it was unaffordable to the vast majority of second-class forces!

With an estimated average production cost of 85 MTA credits, a lot of potential customers with enough starship capacity on their hands were better off spending that money on acquiring an entire mech company's worth of machines as opposed to a single boondoggle!

The Larkinson Edition largely resembled the Elite Edition, but it improved upon the version intended to be sold to well-heeled clients by upping the parameters that could still be raised!

Not only did the Larkinson Edition make use of significantly higher quantities of phasewater, it also incorporated the exclusive Energy Weaver Mech Ecosystem. This would give the Larkinson Army a massive edge and ensure its superiority in the middle zones!

Another factor that distinguished the three editions from each other was the use of hyper materials and hyper technology.

As more and more hyper materials continued to emerge from every part of the Red Ocean, the supply of low-grade and certain mid-grade variations had already started to become more adequate.

In order to keep the costs down, the Standard Edition predominantly made use of mid-grade hypers that were a bit more common.

The Elite Edition and Larkinson Edition utilized high-grade hypers that were not that easy to source.

It just so happened that the T Institute had already been working on expanding the production of many of the high-grade hypers that were needed to mass produce the more powerful editions of the Fey Project.

If not for the fact that internal demand of high-grade hypers was too high, Ves would have permitted the T Institute to sell a portion of its output!

The main factor that limited the supply at the moment was the difficulty of obtaining the 'precursor' materials that could transform into medium and high-grade hypers.

A lot of high-grade hypers originally came from relatively worthless materials, but that did not mean that there were trillions of tons of them lying around in a typical star system!

The current medium energy environment was not able to transform those precursor materials into hyper materials. The concentration of E energy radiation was not high enough, which meant that all of these hidden treasures had yet to show their true value!

An entirely new prospecting and mining industry had popped up that expressly hunted down these precursor materials.

The identification and mining of these crucial precursor materials was constantly progressing at a fast rate. Many companies smelled profit and eagerly roamed the stars in search of greater gains.

However, securing a supply of hyper materials was not helpful unless it could be converted into greater value.

It was not easy to develop powerful hyper technology based on ordinary hypers, but Ves possessed unique insights on hyper technology. He was also able to produce a lot of synergies by tying hyper technology with living mechs!

This was one of the reasons why Ves grew so confident in the sales potential of the Fey Project.

The unique synergies raised the value proposition of all three editions of this mech line, thereby ensuring that each of them would be worth considerably more than their production costs!

At this time, the three editions were close to completion. Ves and Gloriana had recently upgraded the designs to incorporate the latest insights from the Lionheart and the Blood Star Mark II.

They only needed to test a bunch of prototypes before they were ready to end this project.

Now that the Fey Project had reached this point, Ves needed to make up his mind on how he wanted to market his latest product.

"It has been too long since the LMC has released a high-profile commercial mech, boss." Gavin reported to Ves. "Unlike the other commercial mechs that we have put on sale in the previous generation, 1 think we can boost the interest in your new product by holding a product reveal. We can take advantage of your rising celebrity and esteemed status to attract a lot more attention to the Fey Project. The effect will be at least an order of magnitude greater than if we attempted to hold a regular marketing campaign!"

A product announcement under these circumstances was also a lot cheaper. Sure, the Larkinsons needed to spend significant sums to rent an appropriate venue and pay for the services of all kinds of partners in order to ensure the event would go smoothly, but that was much cheaper than funding an entire marketing campaign!

Ves knew that his current reputation and prestige had already risen to the point where thousands of news publications would flock to him whenever he wanted to make a public announcement.

All of this was free publicity!

It would be criminal if Ves did not take advantage of such favorable circumstances!

He nodded to his assistant. "It has been years since I have presided over an old-fashioned product reveal. Let's do it, Gavin. The Living Mech Corporation needs a marketing boost in the new mech generation. Starting off our commercial revival by announcing the Fey Project to the public is an excellent way to reignite our brand and secure our place in the mech market."

"Those are my thoughts as well. Where would you like to hold the product reveal?"

"Can't we do it here?"

"Oh, no! That would not do!" Gavin immediately protested. "Perhaps you might have forgotten about it, but the Terrans do not have a good reputation among the second-raters. The people who live in the middle zones both hate and envy the arrogant, stuck-up first-raters who regularly look down on everyone who is unable to enjoy an exceedingly high standard of living. While you are technically not a first-rater, your choice to relocate to the Terran Alliance sends an ugly message. This will turn into a powerful point of criticism if you dare to hold a product reveal on New Constantinople VIII."

Though Ves did not agree with the sentiment, he could understand how this course of action might piss a lot of people off. He had indeed lost sight of how associating too closely with the Terrans would send all of the wrong messages.

"So we need to hold the product reveal in a middle zone?"

"That would be our recommendation." Gavin responded. "I have taken the liberty to explore three potential locations where you can present your work to the public. You can choose to unveil the Fey Project within the Hex Federation of the Magair Middle Zone. This would be an excellent choice for you to appeal to the large number of Hexer dynasties that you can personally woo into placing large orders for our new products."

That surprised Ves. "Really, Gavin? The Hex Federation?"

"It makes complete sense, boss! The Hexers are among our most loyal and fanatic customers, so if you want to build up more hype and cause our early sales to skyrocket, then starting here is an excellent strategic choice. However, 1 also have to mention that there is also the risk that our new product will become so closely associated with the Hexers that it will be known as one of their exclusive mech models, even if that is not actually the case."

Ves did not want to hear anything further. "Pass. I do not want to create any misunderstandings. Our relationship with the Hex Federation is already close enough. Besides, we have already captured it as a solid market for our products. The Hexers will buy my Fey Project in larger quantities regardless of whether I unveil my work in their state."

"My next suggestion is to hold your product reveal in the Colonial Federation of Davute. This would be a good opportunity for you to check up on the Larkinson Branch, negotiate any deals with President Yenames Clive and possibly collaborate with Master Decimus Horst on the Supremo Project in person."

All of that sounded compelling to Ves, but he did not have a good impression of Davute these days. He was always afraid that he would get sucked into its vortex again as soon as he came close.

He left Davute for good reasons.

"Not good enough. Do you have any other suggestions that aren't as loaded?"

"Well... if you want to present your work to the customers who need the Fey Project the most, you can hold your product reveal in one of the booming markets in the Torald Middle Zone. The Bortele System has become one of the strongholds and the economic centers of the war against the aliens. Almost every second-class mech force will pass through the port system whenever they venture to the border regions and back. It is a popular destination to dump a lot of salvage and purchase new mechs to replace the losses sustained in combat."

"The Bortele System again, hmm?"

Ves thought about it for a moment. Gavin presented an excellent argument for this choice. It was certainly a lot more palatable than the previous two options.

"Alright. Let us settle on holding our product reveal in the Bortele System. Please make the arrangements. Oh, contact the expeditionary fleet and ask whether it will make it back to this port system on the date of my presentation. It would be good for us to get in touch with each other again and see how everyone is doing these days."

"I shall do my best to make that happen." Gavin promised.