The Mech Touch

sted on designing failures could have been used to design successful mech designs that earned them lots of money or pushed their advancement forward!

After a hearty and honest discussion, Ves dismissed the gathering, satisfied with the feedback he received.
None of his confidants held back in expressing their honest thoughts.
To them, Ves was still Ves instead of some mythical figure as he was sometimes portrayed in the news.

”That’s still a flaw of mine.” Ves shook his head.

With his advancement to Journeyman near, he needed to get used to adopting the demeanor of a leader and someone of importance.
He was not a young mech designer anymore who just took his first steps in the mech industry.

The problem was that his advancement was so rapid that Ves simply did not have the time to get rid of his folksy, middle-class demeanor.

Although his Larkinson background offered him a lot more privileges in his upbringing compared to other people of his generation, there were so many Larkinsons that he never felt he was special in any way.

”Besides, it’s not in the nature of the Larkinsons to pamper any of their offspring with an abundant amount of wealth and luxury.”

At least, that used to be the custom.
The holdings of the Larkinson Estate only earned the family enough money to provide a comfortable retirement to its elders, orphans, widows and widowers.

Now that they had tasted the benefits of receiving billions of credits in dividends, who knew if their attitude towards raising future Larkinsons remained as restrained and sober as before.
The introduction of a mech designer like Ves to the family may have forever caused future generations of Larkinsons to become spoiled and pampered brats!

”My grandfather and the other elders know better than that.” Ves shook his head, unwilling to believe the principle Larkinsons would be corrupted so easily by money.
”Good mech pilots don’t come about by flooding them with money and abundance.
Not according to the own lessons our family has learned in raising mech pilots.”

The Larkinson Family enjoyed a four-hundred year track record of consistently raising lots of very skilled mech pilots.
The expert pilots that constantly emerged from their ranks in every generation enshrined their current practices!

The only concern that Ves still harbored was whether his influence along with the influence of the LMC would begin to displace the original focus of the Larkinson Family.
For four centuries, they dedicated themselves to military service.
What if the younger generations of Larkinsons instead preferred to work for the Avatars of Myth instead of the Mech Corps?

Would the family lose its military identity one day?

”Everything will change one day.” He whispered to himself.
”Whether this particular change will be better for the family or not, I don’t see any way to stop this trend.”

The LMC at its current scale hadn’t grown to the point where the Larkinson Family needed to place too much importance to it.
But what about the future? What if his company became as large, wealthy and influential as the KNG? What if the LMC began to match a huge company like NORA Consolidated?

Would the family still be able to remain composed when they realized that they owned a 25 percent stake in such a massive cash cow?

”Well, that won’t happen for quite a few years.”

Ves picked up Lucky lounging on the couch and moved over to his desk.
As he petted Lucky’s back, he decided to bite the bullet and contact Professor Ventag.

His comm call came through a few minutes later after going through his secretary.

”Ves.
Looks like you have been acclimatizing well upon your return.” The professor said.
”How far are you on your design work?”

”I’ve recently finished a complete draft design.
Let me show it to you and explain my thought processes.”

Ves held nothing back as he showcased the Aurora Titan.
He explained the theory and considerations behind each of his design choices, some of which earned some modest praise from the professor.

After twenty minutes of outlining the reasoning behind the draft design, Professor Ventag sat back on his chair somewhere in Bentheim.

”Hmmm.
Interesting.
All of your reasoning is sound.
Although I don’t fully agree with all of your design choices, it’s good that you’ve stuck to the same logic behind most of your decisions.
That kind of consistency is often lacking among younger mech designers who simply want to achieve the ’coolest’ mech designs.”

”The Aurora Titan is anything but ’cool’.” Ves smiled sardonically.
”It doesn’t even follow any of the current trends aside from designing a mech that is specialized against resisting laser weapons.”

”The value of mech design is rather ambiguous in the current generation.
However, once the next generation rolls in, the Aurora Titan will doubtlessly be able to shine more brightly with all the laser weapons being used.”

Ves intended to design a mech that straddled multiple generations.
It was fine if it didn’t sell well in the first few years.
As long as the MTA finally decided to announce the next mech generation, the Aurora Titan would certainly gain a lot of prominence!

The only problem was that Ves would have to cut its price by at least 10 million credits or more due to its lastgen nature.

”Do you think that 80 million credits is a good price to ask for the base model?” Ves asked.

The question put Professor Ventag on the spot.
”That’s a difficult question to answer even for a Senior, Ves.
We are not omnipotent, and trying to gauge an acceptable price for a mech model that is as controversial and complex as yours is incredibly challenging.
Nonetheless, I think you are being too restrained in your asking price.”

”What price would you suggest for the Aurora Titan, professor?”

”100 million credits.
Go for broke.”

Ves truly didn’t know how to respond to that suggestion.
Would it really be acceptable to charge so much? For 100 million credits, Ves could buy at least three medium space knights that could do a much better job collectively than one single Aurora Titan!