The Mech Touch novel Chapter 3445

Chapter 3445: Small Fry

After a few days of unwinding on the surface of Chance Bay, the leaders of the Larkinson Clan were ready to get back to work.

They couldn't afford to take extended vacations. The clan needed to accomplish so many different tasks that it needed a lot of direction from the top.

For this reason, the relevant clansmen all attended a meeting in the morning according to standard time.

Since a lot of Larkinsons were stationed on different ships or at different hotels and venues on the surface of Vulit XIV-B, they decided to hold the meeting in a virtual space.

There were downsides to doing this. The Big Two watched everything and they most assuredly eavesdropped on any signals being transmitted back and forth.

However, there were no better alternatives that could offer the Larkinsons a more secure way to discuss their affairs.

"Just give up, Ves." Calabast told him a few minutes before the start of the meeting. "Even if we all stuff ourselves in the most isolated and secure conference room aboard the Blinding Banshee, the MTA has a wealth of high technology at its disposal that could easily penetrate our crude security methods."

That just made the Larkinsons throw up their hands and just work on the assumption that a silent representative of the MTA was sitting right next to the conference table. There was no point in fussing about this issue any further.

Once everyone's virtual avatar arrived in the virtual conference room, Ves stood up to commence the meeting.

"Arlight, folks. I hope you've managed to recharge and get your bearings in the Red Ocean, because our true work starts now. Anyone who has stepped foot on Chance Bay should have been able to get a good glimpse of what this part of the cosmos is like. As the new focus of human civilization and the melting pot of some of the best humans from the old galaxy, we're in a much bigger pond right now. It's a drastic difference from what natives from the most underdeveloped parts of the galactic rim like us are accustomed to. There's no other way to describe our situation except to state that we are small fry."

This was a considerable step back from their status back in the old galaxy. Even though the Golden Skull Alliance still wasn't able to contend against entire states, their strength and prestige had reached a level where not a single pirate or private organization wished to provoke their strong mech force.

Sadly, the expeditionary fleet had lost most of its advantages after entering the Red Ocean. The lack of mechs and combat carrier and the difficulty in procuring both significantly put them all at a disadvantage.

"It's not all bad, though." He smiled at the virtual avatars. "We have two distinct advantages that we can count upon to get ahead. First, we have the 10-year free trade writ. Not only does it allow us to pay less money for tickets in every central star node, we can also save a lot of money purchasing a lot of bulk goods. Although we are already well-stocked with many different goods and supplies, we should make sure to purchase plenty of items that we previously didn't have access to before we depart."

There were a lot of items on their shopping list that they couldn't obtain back in the galactic rim. The Red Ocean offered a much greater diversity of products due to the MTA's greater efforts and the rising entrepreneurship of incoming pioneers.

Sure, supply was low and prices were exorbitant, but at least the Larkinsons had the option of stocking up on technological marvels such as anti-teleportation technology and other sophisticated systems with money rather than with merits!

The discussion on what necessities they should spend their money on dominated the first half of the meeting. Plenty of people made useful suggestions on what their fleet lacked and what they needed to do in order to improve their chances of surviving the myriad of threats that were lurking in the new frontier.

"There's these powerful sentient aliens called the phase whales that are rumored to be lurking in hidden pockets of space all across the Red Ocean." Commander Casella Ingvar stated. "Their methods of combat are very hard to deal with, but if we acquire anti-phasing or dimensional reinforcement technology, we at least have a chance of killing one of these powerful whales."

When Ves discovered the existence of phase whales and heard what they could do, he thought back on a couple of past encounters and incidents.

He wasn't the only one in the meeting who recalled certain matters.

Ves briefly pulled his attention away from the virtual space and threw a glance at Lucky, who was casually basking in the filtered sun rays pouring through the window of his hotel.

"You better be careful, Lucky. Your days of phasing through every deck and bulkhead might be over soon." He grinned.

"…Meow?"

Back in the meeting, the various leaders weren't short of suggestions. The clan's incredibly long shopping list grew even more cumbersome when people kept mentioning more 'necessities' that they all had to obtain in order to make their stay in the Red Ocean a little easier.

Chief Minister Raymond Billingsley-Larkinson grew increasingly more despondent as people kept bringing up additional must-buy items.

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