The Mech Touch

Once Ves had opened his big mouth, he immediately shifted the entire dynamic of this negotiation!

Ves did not want to scare Micky Tarukan away. The Rubarthan CEO displayed a decent amount of sincerity and truly sought to cooperate with the Larkinsons.

However, accepting the initial deal was an insult to Ves. It was only equitable if it applied to Ves in his current form.

What about the future? What if he advanced to the rank of Master Mech Designer? What if his products became even more popular?

Though the deal still remained lucrative to Ves if his mech models gained more popularity, he wasn't satisfied with getting a cut of all of the profits.

Through his years of operating in the frontier,, he had gradually learned that control and ownership was just as important as money.

A profitable venture that Ves did not control in one fashion or another was not a reliable source of income!

So long as every aspect of Isthmus Manufacturing remained under the control of other shareholders, then the company would always work towards satisfying the interests of other parties!

This looked like an exploitative relationship to Ves. He had no objections to such arrangements when he was still a small fry, but his status had changed a lot since his Apprentice and Journeyman days.

As far as he was concerned, Isthmus Manufacturing should feel lucky and honored to get in business with the LMC!

Ves refused to believe that the large and reputable Rubarthan company failed to make a proper calculus on his future value.

It was entirely reasonable for Ves to ask for a handful of shares in this situation.

Yet he did not want to obtain a token amount of shares. Owning 0.01, 0.1 or even 1 percent of the mech manufacturer mostly held a symbolic meaning.

If he wanted to enact any real change, then he had to work hard to persuade the other institutional investors to side with his plan, and that was an exponentially difficult ordeal that he would have to repeat all over again if he wanted to implement another measure.

Everything would change once the Larkinsons started to gain a 10 percent, 15 percent or 20 percent stake in the company.

Though it still fell far short of gaining a voting majority in the company, becoming a top 10 shareholder meant that the board of directors could no longer ignore the interests of the Larkinson Clan!

Ves would definitely face a lot less resistance if he wanted Isthmus to follow a new plan as the other big shareholders could not dismiss him as easily as before.

In short, there were many obvious reasons for Ves to be more assertive, but he had just taken an especially risky step!

He originally did not want to pull out the cat statue and boast about his ties to the Destroyer of Worlds.

While he could certainly see that his display had taken Tarukan aback, powerful leaders rarely responded well to intimidation.

Even if Ves was able to coerce a much more lopsided agreement out of the chief executive, what would other people think?

Micky Tarukan may be in charge of all of the operations of the large mech manufacturer, but he was ultimately just a lackey of the true owners and controllers of the company.

The people that Ves actually needed to win over were all of the parties that stood behind Isthmus Manufacturing.

He did not think that he could make this happen by showing off his totem. It was just a dormant object that only stored a lot of spiritual energy donated by Emma. That was hardly equivalent to a direct endorsement from the Destroyer of Worlds.

Even if the god pilot made a personal appearance and vouched for Ves, that did not necessarily mean that the shareholders would be willing to dilute their shares and reduce their ownership in a highly profitable company!

The New Rubarth Empire did not work like the Garlen Empire. The Rubarthan Pact might transition into a superstate run by warlords one day, but it had a strong tradition of imposing strict limits on god pilots.

It was unthinkable for a Rubarthan god pilot to swoop in and demand a company to issue trillions of MTA credits worth of stock only to pass them over for free!

Even if no one tried to stop such a massive transaction, Ves knew that as long as he resorted to this extreme measure, he would ruin most if not all of his good reputation and credibility in the business sector!

From that point onwards, he would incur losses and opportunity costs that eventually exceeded the relatively small gains he made in an earlier period!

If Ves wanted to make the deal more equitable and easier to stomach, he needed to offer Isthmus and its current shareholders a massive contribution that approximated the value of 20 percent ownership.

He just came up with the right idea.

He first stuffed the Novastella statue back into his System space as if he just wanted to show off a silly toy.

"Giving me a stake in your company will benefit us both." He said as he dialed back his aggressive tone. "This is because I am the best and only mech designer that can bring my customers - and by extension yours - a lot closer to one of your two most powerful guardians. Let me show you what I mean by that. I happen to have a completed mech design on hand that I was just using to fulfill a commission for another state. If you are able to buyout this commission, then I can easily adapt it to the extensive amount of second-class customers in your colonial alliance."

Ves proceeded to call up the latest iteration of the design of the Supremo Project.

In the hours after he concluded his impactful face-to-face meeting with the Destroyer of Worlds, he had already applied a relatively quick and simple upgrade and addition to his heavy artillery mech.

Since Ves only had to affix a new design spirit while making sure that her glow was put to good use in his commissioned mech design, he did not have to make any complicated technical changes.

He just had to refine the spiritual design a bit more while also adding new round types to the standard loadout. Compared to the previous set of kinetic and explosive projectiles, the updated ones contained a significant proportion of destruction hyper materials.

Though Ves had not tested or simulated the effects of all of these changes, he was convinced that the Supremo Project had become a lot more powerful and destructive than before!

The heavy artillery mech had been designed with ultimate firepower and devastation in mind.

Ves just lacked an offensive design spirit to enhance its firepower further. That no longer became an issue now that he dragged Emma into the mix.

Of course, Ves did not ditch its original design spirit. The fundamental premise of the Supremo Project still centered around its key gimmick, which happened to be especially useful in landbound combat.

As the large projection of the proud six-legged, beetle-shaped heavy artillery mech filled up the enormous entrance hall, the CEO fell silent as he examined the latest sight.

Micky Tarukan was a businessman by nature, but he studied enough technical subjects as well as the basics of mech design in order to earn the qualifications to run a major mech manufacturing company.

His eyesight was pretty good. He immediately estimated the size, mass, cost, performance, material composition and market appeal of the new machine.

"This is a landbound heavy artillery mech that is primarily designed for field operations." Tarukan expertly noted with a discerning expression. "The original commission that resulted in its development must have predated the Great Severing as it is most suitable for shelling hostile units and positions on land. After the Age of Dawn has begun, you have made adaptations that allow it to become more effective when employed against alien forces. It can serve as a bunker mech, but its all-heavy armament is optimized for sieges. Its interception ability is poor due to the lack of energy or rapid-fire armaments."

Micky Tarukan did not dismiss the new mech design just because it started out as a product of the previous generation.

He started to circle around the design and stopped a small distance away from the front of the machine.

Due to the large and imposing rhinoceros beetle-inspired design, the Supremo Project boasted a large and heavy cannon that extended straight from the front of the mech frame!

It looked as if the entire heavy artillery mech was built around an exaggeratingly large and powerful gauss cannon. The machine had to be supported by six heavy legs that extended quite far from the torso in order to produce a stable firing platform.

The 4 heavy artillery cannons that extended from the shell-like back of the Supremo Project looked like afterthoughts in comparison.

It was not because they were weak. They packed quite a punch and would have appeared a lot more dangerous on a more reasonable heavy artillery mech design. Depending on the shells they loaded, the 4 heavy artillery cannons could demolish entire city blocks.

They just did not have any extreme properties that allowed them to catch up to the lethality of the main cannon.

The 4 explosive cannons were the Supremo Project's equivalent of secondary armament!

"Wait." Tarukan began to pick up other clues. "Your heavy artillery mech design is clearly your work. Your design style is too distinctive for me to miss. However, the selection and application of components and modules is much different than your clan's usual approach. It is much cleaner and more standardized. The degree of optimization of this mech design is noticeably greater than what I have observed from your Fey Fianna. You collaborated with a Master Mech Designer on this project. Combined with the information that you have supplied before, Master Decimus Horst of Davute must be the second lead designer of this mech design project."

Ves looked mildly impressed. It was not exactly difficult for other mech designers to figure this out, but the fact that a business executive managed to piece this together so quickly was quite remarkable.

"You are correct. The Supremo Project is originally a commissioned work that I was about ready to submit to the original client. I recently updated it after I had a meeting with the Destroyer of Worlds. I requested and received explicit permission from Her Divinity to apply an aspect of her great power onto any suitable mech designs. The Supremo Project is the first but certainly not the last that will benefit from her generosity."

The chief executive clearly gained a lot more interest in the Supremo Project after hearing this revelation.

"This mech design..."

Ves manipulated the projection to create a better view on its imposing cannons. "I can promise you that whenever the Supremo Project opens fire with its armament, the mech will unleash an attack that is magnified by a minute amount of power bestowed by the Destroyer of Worlds. Do not underestimate this minor contribution. Her involvement can substantially amplify the firepower of any attack, most particularly the explosive shells."

Even though the mech only had four heavy artillery cannons, they should easily be able to inflict as much damage as six cannons or more with the help of Emma!

"For what purpose did you present this mech design to me?" Tarukan asked. "This is a private commission. You are likely breaching your contract by revealing it to an uninvolved party."

Ves smirked as he did not take this warning seriously in the slightest.

"Who says you will remain uninvolved? If I am being honest, the original set of commissions that I have agreed to fulfill with a certain state has become outdated. Too much has changed since I signed the original agreement. I have long been thinking about renegotiating this annoying contract, but now that you are here, I have a better idea. I want you to make a deal with Davute related to my commissions. If you can persuade Davute to transfer them to Isthmus Manufacturing with my permission, you will gain the right to fabricate and sell the Supremo Project to many eager citizens of the Rubarthan Pact. Are you interested, Mr. Tarukan?"

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