The Mech Touch

"Before you meet with your old friend, I want you to gain a deeper understanding of the progress he has made and the success he has achieved."

When Tristan Wesseling initially arrived at Davute, he thought that the Friday Coalition's diplomatic mission would quickly urge him to arrange a meeting with Ves Larkinson.

Perhaps the 'diplomats' were indeed in the process of securing an appointment, but it appeared that meeting with someone as hot and important as the leader of the Larkinson Clan could not be accomplished in a single day!

Perla Monater had already formed an agreement with the warehouse director, so she was smoothly able to pass through the main entrance and security checkpoints together with her companion.

This was not the first time that Tristan had entered a logistical center. He had come across many different ones during his previous assignments where he took part in the reconstruction of war torn cities.

He became instantly impressed by the facilities around him. There were many tall structures before him, but they only represented the tip of the iceberg as the more valuable and delicate goods were all stored in one of the many underground layers.

All sorts of tech made sure that each and every good passing through the warehouse was carefully tracked, monitored and protected. The sheer variety of items, each with different storage requirements and environmental tolerance characteristics, made operating an industrial warehouse and distribution center a lot more complicated these days!

Tristan continually became impressed by all of the devices and bots that efficiently took care of all of the items. Perishable goods were stored and handled in ways that maximized their lifespans while more durable goods were stored in their own optimal conditions to preserve their quality as much as possible.

The differences between the operations of this warehouse and the ones he dealt with back in the Komodo Star Sector were too big!

The Red Ocean was truly a region that encapsulated some of the best of human civilization.

However, Perla Monater did not bring Tristan here to look at modern warehousing solutions. She continued to lead him through the warehouse until they reached a site where the heavier and more cumbersome goods were being handled.

Though it was possible to utilize heavy-duty lifter platforms and bots to move these items around, they consumed a lot of energy and also wore out pretty quickly with heavy use.

Industrial mechs were still useful in many situations where bots were not reliable or flexible enough to do the job. The ones before Tristan looked similar to the many industrial mechs utilized by the Friday Coalition back home.

Even if they were heartland-level machines, the industrial mechs employed by the warehouse were not that special. They were designed to be as cheap, affordable, efficient and reliable as possible. Since they were not expected to take part in any fight, their construction was far from tough and robust from their combat mech siblings.

Tristan dismissed the humanoid industrial mechs pretty quickly. The six-legged insectile ones were a bit more interesting. They were remarkably strong and stable despite their relatively light designs.

It was only when one of the ant mechs passed fairly close to his location that he widened his eyes.

The tell-tale sensation of a glow had briefly affected his mind before the ant mech scurried onwards!

"This… is this the Hymenoptera mech sold by the LMC?"

"Correct." Miss Monater nodded. "When you read the briefing about the Larkinson Patriarch and his work, you must have moved past the descriptions of his less remarkable mech designs, correct?"

Tristan awkwardly smiled. "Mech designers such as myself are mainly interested in the more pivotal and innovative works of each other. There are mech designs that push the boundaries of what is possible and have succeeded in breaking new ground. There are also mech designs that combine existing tech and solutions to produce new combinations that are commercially interesting but not that remarkable from an innovation standpoint."

"The Hymenoptera mech line indeed falls into the second category, but I am afraid that you have overlooked its disproportionate importance to Patriarch Ves and the Larkinson." Perla told him. "Though the profitability of this humble industrial mech model is not that high, especially since the Living Mech Corporation has completely outsourced its production, how many of them do you think are getting sold on a monthly basis?"

"Ten-thousand?"

"Try a hundred-thousand."

"What?!"

Miss Monater grinned. "You heard that correctly. The Hymenoptera and its many variants are by far the highest-selling products of the Living Mech Corporation. The only reason why it isn't celebrated as a cash cow is because its product margin is extremely thin. The base model can be purchased for only 0.25 MTA credits, which is relatively expensive for an industrial mech but is not that profitable for the LMC due to the inflated prices of industrial materials as well as the cut demanded by third-party manufacturers."

Tristan found that difficult to understand. "I did not pay attention to this before, but I can understand why it is a good idea to pair an industrial mech with a glow that can make workers more motivated and diligent. In the brief time that ant mech strayed close to us, I felt a moderately greater need to do my duty to my state than before. Such a glow is a godsent to any workplace where people are prone to slacking off! I am not too familiar with the price levels of different mechs in the Red Ocean, but a mech as useful as this Hymenoptera should absolutely be worth more than 0.25 MTA credits! Why doesn't the LMC charge a greater premium for this product?"

The diplomatic attaché smirked and turned to the bewildered Journeyman.

"That is because the Hymenoptera is focused on earning a different kind of profit. You see, monetary profit is not the only way a mech designer and mech company can get rich. By lowering the price of a useful range of products to the point where it is barely above breaking even, the Larkinsons are able to achieve a desirable result, which is spreading as many Hymenoptera mechs as possible throughout the Red Ocean! The LMC has adopted an aggressive pricing strategy that has succeeded in making the 'Hyms' ubiquitous in an increasing number of colonies through the new frontier. The trend is still rising to this day."

That was remarkable! The sales figures might sound astonishing at first, but the sheer amount of settlements and workplaces that emerged in the new frontier was also astonishing.

"Why?" Tristan questioned. "Why try so hard in selling so many mechs at a price that doesn't yield any meaningful profit? The Larkinson Clan should be swimming in a lot more MTA credits right now if it raised the price of its Hymenoptera models by just 0.05 MTA credits per copy."

Tristan would have raised his prices by a considerably larger margin if he was in Ves' shoes. A mech with a value proposition as high as the Hymenoptera could still be widely sold even if it was twice as expensive!

"You are still too naive, Mr. Wesseling. You have never operated an independent mech company. You also never had to rely on your own reputation and network to obtain any favors. You have studied and worked under Master Katzenberg for your entire career as a mech designer. Each time you issued a request to a government institution, you borrowed the clout of your backer. This is a convenience that may seem invisible to you, but is unthinkable for the Larkinsons. Though they maintain some relations with certain MTA factions, they have to fend for themselves for the most part."

While Perla Monater may be right that Tristan had never experienced the difficulties of operating an independent business without backing, his intelligence and his ability to infer clues were not weak.

As soon as he received a couple of clues, Tristan was able to piece together the reason why the LMC deliberately underpriced its Hyms.

"The mech company is trying to turn itself into an indispensable component of colonial society. If so many different companies have grown accustomed to the strengths and features of this industrial mech line, then they cannot bear to go back to a state where the Hyms are no longer available."

"Exactly." Miss Monater affirmed. "The greatest profit earned by the Hymenoptera mech line is influence. This is only a single warehouse, but thousands of facilities like these have spread across the surface Davute VII throughout the past few years. Each of them employ at least a handful of Hyms each. There are many other settlements in Krakatoa that all have their own warehouses and factories, and each of them have become significantly more productive and less problematic as soon as they put the Hyms in operation. All of those companies and all of the leaders and groups have benefited from the improvements brought by this industrial mech line."

"Each of them is grateful to the LMC, no, to Patriarch Ves." Tristan uttered with amazement. "None of those customers want anything bad to befall him. He has turned himself into such a material benefit to so many people that he has become unassailable!"

"It is quite amazing, is it not? The LMC has four major product categories. It is most known for its humanoid combat mechs. This is the mech company's greatest source of profit. It is also earning more attention for its beast mech models, though it still has a long way to go. The Larkinsons have also been dabbling in biomechs as of late, but their offerings are still too meager thus far. Compared to all of these product groups, it is the Pacifier mech line as well as the Hymenoptera mech line that truly form the foundation of the Larkinson Clan in the Red Ocean."

"No one can get rid of Patriarch Ves because there are too many organizations that have a vested interest in his continued survival and success." Tristan concluded.

Perla Monater looked sour. "While we have never made any plans of this sort, our superiors have been arguing for years whether they should put effort into removing the source of our problems in a more direct fashion."

"You mean..?!"

Assassination was the most direct way to remove a problematic individual!

Though there was a lot of security in Davute, a large second-rate state that had just taken over an entire star sector was capable of bringing a huge amount of resources to bear on an assassination mission!

Tristan had little doubt that if the Fridaymen truly wanted to assassinate his old friend, they would have been able to do it one way or another. It was just a question of how much funding, manpower and resources they were willing to invest and how many negative repercussions they were willing to bear.

Unfortunately for the Fridaymen, Ves not only enjoyed MTA protection for a few critical years, but also raised his status to the point where he was being constantly watched by a variety of powerful parties!

"Those talks have fizzled out after the Pacifier mechs and Hymenoptera mechs have conquered the hearts of too many interest groups." Miss Monater stated without any surprise. "There are certain coalition partners that have insisted on going through with this foolish errand, but cooler heads have prevailed. Your mission is one of the more gentler alternatives we have decided to pursue in order to solve our problem with the Hexers."

Tristan twitched his lips. He tried his best not to smile. In the end, the principal reason why the victorious Friday Coalition was unable to get rid of the source of their biggest problem was because Ves designed and sold a lot of industrial mechs!

These cheap and humble ant mechs had accomplished a feat that the Larkinson Patriarch's deadlier and more impressive Valkyrie mechs failed to achieve.

The Hymenoptera design beat the Friday Coalition.