The Mech Touch novel Chapter 2701

Chapter 2701: Lessons Learned

The long and extensive salvaging operation finally came to an end.

After ten continuous days of picking apart the battlefield, the cargo holds of the expedition vessels were all bursting with loot. _{freёwebnovel.com}

During this time, all kinds of scouts, spies, mercenary outfits and even entire salvaging fleets dropped into the star system.

While they all maintained a respectful distance from the expeditionary fleet, Ves felt the pressure to leave nonetheless.

The alliance worked faster in order to grab as many drifting treasures as possible!

All kinds of shuttles, mechs and other vehicles had frantically chased after an uncountable amount of debris and wrecks, each ranked according to their approximate value.

Despite their great size and mass, starship hull plating actually ranked pretty low on the priority list. While the hull of a complete fleet carrier could be worth trillions of hex credits, they took up way too much space.

On a volume basis, a cubic meter of mech materials was worth much more than a cubic meter of starship materials.

Mech designers and shipwrights adopted divergent approaches to their work.

A mech designer always attempted to maximize the value in the smallest possible package. A mech that was oversized and bloated was not only uncompetitive in the market, but also terribly slow and unwieldy.

To a mech designer, a cost-efficient product had to utilize the least materials possible to achieve the strongest possible effect.

It was easy to cook a good meal with excellent, fresh ingredients.

It was a lot harder to achieve the same level of satisfaction when the chef only had access to nutrient packs!

This was also one of the main strengths of Ves. His iconic glow mechs provided a considerable degree of value without raising the cost to produce them. If making mechs alive demanded the inclusion of expensive materials or components that raised their cost by 50 percent, then the LMC's sales and profit margin would only be a fraction of their current level!

Shipwrights abided by a different set of priorities.

While mech designers always had to abide by volume and mass constraints due to the difficulty of transporting mechs, shipwrights did not have to pay too much attention to these limitations as long as their budget and purpose could accommodate their visions.

Space was vast, so there was unlimited room for star-faring vessels. Whether a corvette was 80 meters long or 120 meters long didn't matter. There was a market for both. The Age of Mechs was a period of time where humanity spread across half the galaxy and beyond. Starships represented the dominant form of travel. The demand for ships was never sated!

Larger starships and especially capital ships always attempted to do as much as possible within the constraints of a given budget.

As long as a customer or client could afford a vessel, shipwrights possessed a wide latitude to configure them in a way that maximized their performance.

Oftentimes, that meant making the hull or key sections bigger. For example, hull plating was a typical area where shipwrights chose to pile up a lot of bulk materials instead of opting for higher-quality alloy formulas. The latter might be more effective, but they were too expensive when applied to the entire exterior of a starship.

As a result of all of these considerations, the expeditionary fleet prioritized mech salvage to a heavy degree.

In any case, most of the mechs fielded by both sides of the Battle of Reckoning consisted of premium or premier mechs.

The Larkinson Clan didn't even bother to pick up the pieces of its broken budget mechs. The Princess Jeckas, Vima Suns and Tamris Stellars were worth only an eighth or less than a typical Fridayman or a traitor clan mech!

It didn't matter to Ves if he filled his starships with mechs fielded by the enemy. There was no need for the Larkinsons to waste their time on trying to restore them for their own use.

The Golden Skull Alliance already contracted a mercenary organization to cover its security needs. This meant that his mech forces didn't need to worry too much about lacking enough strength to protect their fleet, at least for the duration of the contract.

In the next couple of months, Ves intended to address the greatest need of the Larkinson Clan by completing the crucial Giant Killer, Bright Warrior IB and Ferocious Piranha IB designs.

Once the new mech models entered service, the Larkinson Clan would finally gain the strength to fight against state-backed second-rate forces on a roughly equal basis!

Of course, mechs were hardly the only factor that made the previous opponents strong. The skill, teamwork and discipline exhibited by the Fridayman elite mech pilots was very impressive and brutally exposed the lack of accumulation on the part of the Larkinsons.

The harsh truth was that it took a lot more time and effort to nurture true second-class mech pilots!

So far, most of the Larkinson mech pilots just passed through the threshold. They weren't even that good at piloting the more powerful and complicated mechs at this performance level!

"This isn't an easy issue to address." Ves grimaced as he crossed his arms.

Fortunately, the Larkinsons received a lot of help on this aspect. The Penitent Sisters, Glory Seekers and Crossers generously dispatched trainers in order to instruct the eager Larkinson mech pilots.

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