The Mech Touch novel Chapter 5018

5018 Acute Starship Shortage

Ves had become enamored by his upgraded and modernized Spirit of Benthelm.

Everything had become faster, stronger or more diverse.

The MTA shipyard also removed a lot of Hexer influences from the original builders of the factory ship.

Though the vessel still vaguely possessed a six-sided hull on the outside, the corridors and many compartments no longer adopted similar shapes.

The ship architecture no longer annoyed Ves as much as it did in the past, though Gloriana held the opposite opinion.

The only true part about the Spirit of Benthelm's comprehensive upgrade that irritated Ves was that she never had a chance to show off the full capabilities of her three Identical superdrives!

It was fun to accelerate the factory ship to unreal speeds by warping the space around her hull, but it was not advisable for her to distance herself too far from the rest of the expeditionary fleet.

The Spirit of Bentheim could have easily entered the Torald Middle Zone by now, but she was forced to match the pace of the slowest starship in the fleet due to safety concerns.

"We can't go on like this." Ves complained to Chief Minister Abigail Evern. "I need you to prepare a few plans on adding a new fleet to the Larkinson Clan that consists entirely of starships equipped with superdrives. We don't have to establish it right away, but I want our clan to make preparations in advance so that we can form a highly mobile fleet."

"You want to form a new core fleet based entirely on superdrive-equipped starships?"

Ves nodded. "Yes. Let's assume we can form it entirely out of true first-class starships. It may take a while before we can realize this ambitious plan, but I want our clan to figure everything out in advance."

"We can do that, sir." The former Hexer naval officer spoke. "We do not have the capability to design and construct first-class starships by ourselves, and nobody that we are allied with can solve this need either. We will have to forge strong connections with a first-class power if you want to have any hope of commission first-class starships."

She was right. Ves already talked with Vivian about this problem. The requirements to design and produce first-class mechs were incredibly high. The requirements to get started with first-class starships were even greater!

Just the capital requirements alone was unbearable to the current state of the Larkinson Clan!

Ves briefly thought about the potential first-class contacts that he could obtain powerful starships from. His options weren't great at the moment.

The Red MTA remained his best hope at the moment, yet from what he heard through several channels, the mechers had become fully preoccupied with solving their own acute needs!

The war against the Indigenous aliens was in the process of heating up, which meant that the MTA needed to field more warships than ever! How could the mechers waste any of their existing shipbuilding capacity at this sensitive time?

Ves seriously doubted whether he could cash in all of the remaining favors and goodwill he had left from the Yorul-Tavik Clan.

The foundation of this first-class clan still remained rooted in the old galaxy.

After Lord Pearian Yorul-Tavik catastrophically failed in his amateurish expedition, the rest of his clan had become a lot less interested in expanding its holdings in the new frontier!

As for the Terrans...

"Forget it." He shook his head in dismissal. "I'm just a simple professor employed by an ordinary university. It will be hard to establish mutually beneficial ties with these arrogant Terrans."

The Devos Ancient Clan that founded and operated the Eden University of Business & Technology most certainly had the strength and capability to construct first-class starships, but what did that have to do with a second-rater like Ves?

Unless Ves was willing to reveal his most valuable trade secrets, there was no way this powerful clan would pay him any serious regard!

After all, the Terrans needed those first-class starships themselves!

In the end, it all came down to shipbuilding capability.

Those who possessed it closely held it to their chests.

Those that did not possess it effectively had to work like dogs in order to expand their fleets!

"We can expand our own shipbuilding operations if we alter our current development strategy." The female chief minister proposed. "If we Invest additional resources into Murphy & Sons, we can Increase our supply of second-class sub-capital starships. They may not sound as attractive to you anymore, but they are better than nothing."

"I know, but there should be a limit to how much we can do this." Ves said with a sigh. "The real bottleneck isn't the lack of shipyards. It is the shortage of raw materials that is ultimately limiting production everywhere. It will take a long time for all of the colonies to complete their initial developments and get their industries up and running. This is also why I don't think there is much point to leaving the Diligent Ovenbird behind in Davute."

Rather than keep the Diligent Ovenbird deployed in a fixed position so that she could function as a relatively functional shipyard, Ves would rather have her accompany his expeditionary fleet in order to properly maintain and repair his starships.

Ves ultimately accepted that there were no good solutions to expanding or upgrading his fleet in the foreseeable time.

Red humanity needed to go through an extensive period of development, and the Larkinson Clan needed to become a lot more powerful as well!

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