The Mech Touch

Even though Ves had good reasons to remain pissed with Davute, the massive improvements in remuneration increasingly affected his emotions. His excitement jumped again and again whenever he gazed upon another benefit that Davute showered on him and his clan!

The biggest concession was definitely the increased payment for fulfilling a major mech design commission for the Federal Military.

To Ves, designing a mech for a client was not a big deal.

To Davute, exchanging three medium-sized capital ships for a single mech design was absolutely crazy!

The government already received a lot of criticism for daring to trade two capital ships for a single mech design. Too many people simply did not have the confidence that a single work of Ves Larkinson and his colleagues could match the value of those starships.

Every fleet carrier added to the war represented another powerful asset that could be used to sway many battles in the favor of Davute.

A single fleet carrier accompanied by a collection of combat carriers could easily support the operations of an entire mech regiment.

According to the original deal, the presence or absence of 6 fleet carriers essentially removed an entire mech division off the board. The government essentially trusted that whatever mech design the Larkinsons delivered to the Federal Military more than compensated for this serious loss in combat power!

President Clive made it harder on himself by raising the maximum price to 9 fleet carriers. Numerous strategic shipyards would essentially be unable to contribute to the war effort as a result.

Not only would lots of important clients face even more delays, but the critical resources used to build these powerful and expensive hulls would also disappear!

This deal was different from the one that General Ark Larkinson signed with the colonial government. No matter how many fleet carriers his military mech division received from the state, at least he would make good use of them in the coming battles against the forces fighting on behalf of Karlach.

Ves did not hide his intention to get the hell away from this stupid war!

As far as the main branch of the Larkinson Clan was concerned, the upcoming conflict between Davute and Karlach only served regional interests. It did not have much relevance once the expeditionary fleet left the Krakatoa Middle Zone and started to explore the less traveled areas of the Torald Middle Zone.

This meant that Davute would most certainly be reducing a strong offensive or reinforcement option.

Its defensive outlook probably wouldn't change that much as long as the Federal Military shipped all of the necessary mechs and war materiel in place beforehand.

After Ves silently exchanged opinions with Minister Shederin, they concluded that this was an excellent concession. The Larkinsons had no reasons to deny this freebie even though it came with a couple of strings attached.

Ves needed to make sure that Davute did not use the additional conditions as a means to scam the Larkinson Clan.

"I need more details on the requirements that we need to meet in order to satisfy your appetite." He stated to the president of the colonial federation. "I don't want to put my heart and soul into designing an excellent living mech for your Federal Military only for your people to nitpick on so many details that you will be able to withhold the full remuneration I deserve. If I finish an original mech design to your satisfaction, then I expect to gain three capital ships out of it and nothing less."

The president already expected to hear such a concern. "Trust me that we have no intention of cooperating with you in bad faith. The Mech Trade Association will enforce our new contract, just as is the case with our previous agreement. I cannot present you with the detailed requirements that you have to meet because my legal team has drafted this revised contract on short notice, but we shall be able to clarify this issue once our technical consultants have completed their work."

This was as good as Ves could get for the time being.

He did not have any concerns about failing to meet the requirements of the major mech commissions. Ves was no longer an ordinary Journeyman Mech Designer for a long time and possessed a huge amount of confidence in his design skills.

Aside from that, he would be working in collaboration with Davute's other Master Mech Designers, each of which possessed an extremely high mastery of technical skills. Ves did not have to worry about this sort of stuff at all. He instead had to focus on the conceptual and more metaphysical aspects of his mech design projects.

It would probably be difficult for Ves to compel older and more accomplished Masters to follow his lead. He knew quite well that mech designers were highly confident and egoistic in their own craft. It took a lot of time and teamwork to establish genuine cooperation.

Raising the technical requirements of the mech designs meant that Ves needed to perform even better than his usual level. He might not be able to fulfill several demands given his level of technical proficiency, which ultimately meant he would have to rely on the very same Masters who did not really like the fact that they had been relegated to second fiddle to a much younger mech designer.

He inwardly groaned. This was going to be an even more troublesome set of mech design projects than usual.

Still, he did not reject this challenge. At worst, he would just have to surrender more initiative and allow the Masters to cover for his incompetence.

After Ves and the Federal President settled this matter, they soon moved on to an even greater change in the contract.

Ves paused when he read the dense and complicated legalese that dealt with this matter.

"Shederin." He said. "Is this saying what I am thinking it is saying…?"

His foreign minister's expression looked extremely serious at the moment. His ability to interpret this kind of language was much greater than Ves, so he instantly grasped the gist of what Davute was offering.

"You are right. Davute is giving us clear guarantees on bestowing territories to our clan."

President Yenames Clive was smiling at this time. He knew what he was doing and counted on it to impress the clan.

"The exact terms will take much time to explain, but the overall intent is easy enough to understand." The statesman said. "As long as the Colonial Federation of Davute wins the war against Karlach, your Larkinson Clan will gain priority rights to claim territory taken from our opponents."

"You only mentioned winning. What about losing?" Ves suspiciously asked.

The president shrugged. "It is likely that we will have nothing left to give to your clan. Wording the contract in this manner is meant to serve as an incentive that encourages you and every other stakeholder to do their utmost to win the war. There will be no gains if your commitment is not sufficient."

"Understandable."

Ves did not argue this point as it would be too difficult to change the rules too much.

"To summarize the terms, your priority rights will allow you to stand in the front of line for any group that is eligible to receive territory." Yenames Clive continued. "There are a handful of parties that have greater priority than you, so if our gains are limited to a couple of star systems at best, then we will have to disappoint your clan. This is unlikely to happen as neither our state or Karlach will be content with ending the war in a stalemate."

That was also understandable. As long as Davute gained the upper hand, there should be plenty of star systems to choose from! Dozens if not hundreds of locations would be ripe for the picking!

Minister Shederin also recognized another benefit to having priority rights.

"If our turn to choose our territories comes first of almost everyone else, then we can pick from many lucrative star systems that have yet to be claimed. We can select a star system that has greater mineral deposits, more terraformable planets, ancient alien ruins and possibly untapped sources of phasewater."

Ves widened his eyes!

While he did not hold any personal interest in claiming a planet or a star system, that did not mean he denied its benefits to his clan.

The Davute Branch would probably become ecstatic at the thought of claiming a highly promising star system!

The Wodin Dynasty originally relied on the power base it built in the Scimitar System back in the Hexadric Hegemony. The Davute Branch could easily rise up to become a comparable power if it managed to lay claim to an industrial star system.

"That is not the extent of the rewards that we are willing to bestow to your clan." Yenames Clive said with a smile. "If your clan has contributed greatly to the war effort in the form of providing us with battlefield-changing mechs and enabling General Ark Larkinson breakthrough to ace pilot, it is not out of the question to allow your clan to gain the right to administer an entire province. Our colonial state would have to conquer a substantial amount of territory in order for that to be possible, however."

Governing a single planet or a star system was entirely different from governing an entire province!

While provinces came in all shapes or sizes, the ability to develop many different star systems at once would be an absolute gamechanger for the Larkinson Clan!

The Davute Branch would be able to specialize the development of many different colonial sites and build up a prosperous regional economy that could produce an astounding amount of revenue!

Even if the Larkinsons would have to pass on much of those earnings to the central government, the clan would definitely retain a high degree of control!

Davute had adopted a federal governance structure, after all. Federations were characterized by granting higher degrees of autonomy to provinces.

President Yenames Clive lifted a finger. "There is a final territorial reward that we are prepared to bestow to your clan. It is admittedly a low-probability event, but I find it important to make this promise to you in order to demonstrate our appreciation for you. If by any chance your clan has contributed so much to the war effort that you are being credited with serving as the decisive factor in a total victory against our adversary, Davute is more than willing to allow you to govern the Karlach System."

"What?! Are you serious?!"

"We are not exaggerating or giving you false hope." The new president affirmed. "The criteria that you have to meet to be eligible to earn this great reward will all be defined in clear and concrete terms that will come into effect as soon as we sign a revised MTA-enforced contract. No one within our administration or among our stakeholders will be able to deprive your clan the reward it deserves if you have managed to fulfill our greatest hopes."

"That… is quite generous of you, president." Ves said as he still remained in shock.

This was the Karlach System that they were talking about! It was a fully fledged port system that possessed nearly the same commercial potential as the Davute System!

While President Yenames Clive would undoubtedly make sure that his own port system would become the premier trade hub of the Krakatoa Middle Zone if their side won the war, that did not mean that the Karlach System would turn into a backwater all of a sudden!

Even a secondary port system would still be able to earn revenue far in excess of a normal province!

Kalrach had the potential to become an incredibly valuable power base for the Larkinson Clan!