The Mech Touch novel Chapter 3607

Chapter 3607 Commitment to Stay

It turned out that the MTA didn't make it easy for pioneers to earn merits by completing exploration missions in Krakatoa.

They either had to play the lottery by examining random places or use their mechs to wipe out lots of alien lives.

Granted, many pioneers had no qualms at all about the latter, but the Larkinsons were too 'honorable' to remain unbothered.

Ves fully understood why most of his clansmen would rather keep their hands clean. Even if it was hypocritical as others would most definitely complete the job anyway, the way people behaved largely influenced their ethos and vice versa.

If the Larkinsons engaged in reprehensible conduct regardless of who they targeted, then they would inevitably compromise their honorable spirit. The distance between massacring aliens and massacring humans became a lot smaller.

Although Ves was completely different from the more noble individuals of his clan, he did not want all of his clansmen to turn as rotten as him. Not only would it be more difficult to trust his own subordinates, the MTA and many other external parties might not treat the Larkinson Clan as generously as today.

It was difficult to build up a good and honest reputation. Performing lip service was not enough. The Larkinsons had to embody its best ideals everyday in order to maintain their positive image.

As long as the Larkinson Clan maintained a good name, it became easier to make different friends and close new deals.

In fact, part of the reason why the local branch of Zachren Bilitsa reached out to the Larkinson Clan was because the branch director became attracted to its good reputation.

After getting betrayed by its previous business partner, Zachren Bilitsa learned the hard way that credibility and goodwill were not negligible!

These were just one of the many benefits of attaining a good reputation. Without it, the clan would lose out on a lot of cooperative ventures in the long run!

Calabast's presentation did not present any obvious opportunities to the Larkinsons. None of the remaining mission types sounded particularly attractive, but that was to be expected. The MTA never suffered a loss in any of its transactions.

"Out of all of the possible options presented in this meeting, I think the resource mining and infrastructure-building missions are the most suitable ones for us." General Verle stated. "Our fleet does not consist entirely of carriers. One of our more notable advantages is our large fleet of non-combat capital ships. We have the means to quickly and efficiently complete numerous productive assignments with the help of capital ships such as the Andrenidae and the Spirit of Bentheim. The same cannot be said for other pioneering fleets."

Everyone's eyes lit up. The general was right. There were a lot of pioneering fleets that only excelled at fighting and plundering. What few non-combat vessels they brought along were usually employed to support the fighting forces.

Of course, there were plenty of other fleets that included a notable amount of mining ships, refinery ships and factory ships.

The main reason why ambitious pioneers acquired these expensive burdens was to facilitate their own colonial ambitions.

It was a lot easier to get a colony up and running if the colonists didn't have to build essential infrastructure in advance. If they could start mining resources and turning them into finished goods right away, then that would shave valuable months and years in the development time of their colony settlements!

Anything harvested or produced by other fleets were usually reserved for internal use. Compared to founding a successful new state, the attraction of earning a bunch of MTA merits was not as compelling.

Therefore, the competition for these boring infrastructure missions should not be great, especially since they were fairly antithetical to the romantic image of pioneers.

Founding new colonies, beating exotic alien fleets and making off with huge amounts of plunder were much more exciting!

Though Ves certainly wished to do the latter, he knew that his forces still needed time to get up to strength. Until then, he was willing to temper his appetite for risk and start off with a more modest assignment in order to acclimate to the Krakatoa Middle Zone.

Once the expeditionary fleet had a better handle of the lively region, Ves might decide to head somewhere more exciting.

Once Calabast concluded her presentation, the Larkinson leaders all shared their thoughts about what they should and should not do in the Krakatoa Middle Zone before they finally signed out of the virtual meeting.

Calabast and Ves lingered after the rest had left.

"I know you always hold back information from us all." Ves stated to his spymaster. "Come on. What did you find out that you're not telling us all? What am I missing from this picture that you have presented?"

He pointedly gazed at the star map of the Krakatoa Middle Zone. The region was so close to the frontlines of humanity's ongoing invasion that there had to be a lot more surprises in store.

"Hm. You're no fun." Calabast huffed as she crossed her arms. Her demeanor became a lot more whimsical now that she no longer needed to maintain as much professionalism. "Despite what you think, I don't withhold intelligence because I want to keep you in the dark or because I want to maintain my information advantage. There's a lot of disinformation out there. Pioneers seek to fool and mislead their rivals whenever possible. Information that is available in the public might be horribly outdated. Just because a star system remained quiet a few months ago is no guarantee it is still calm today."

Ves sighed in exasperation. "I'm aware of your difficulties, but right now I feel like we're going in blind."

"Anyone can piece together at least half of the information that you've shared with us today. I haven't heard anything that makes me think that you're earning your salary, which is extremely generous if I might add." _{freeweɓnovel.cѳm}

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