[1-200] THE MECH TOUCH

Chapter 35: Main Stage

The fact that it was one of the few truths he tried to convey helped sway Hans over. The man rubbed his blond stubble. "You're an interesting fellow. I'll keep my eye on you."

Hans stepped past Ves and exited the building. Ves felt as if his tricks were seen through somehow, but then he shrugged. Whether Hans committed to looking up the Marc Antony in the game was more important.

"Gee, at least give me a solid answer instead of letting me hang."

He left the building and joined Carlos for dinner at one of the many eating venues available. As Ves took a bite out of a meat pie, Carlos enviously gazed at his friend who seemed to be reborn ever since they graduated.

"I feel like you took everyone's luck except Patricia for attracting such a ridiculous grant. C'mon, how many billions of credits does the Caesar Augustus license sell these days?"

Ves shrugged again and again as he denied any wrongdoing. "I really don't have a sugar mommy, let alone a daddy. You know I don't swing that way."

"Pff. Give me a couple of million credits and I'll gladly go down on my knees no matter how old and smelly."

"Ugh, thank you for that image. I still haven't finished my lunch."

When Ves described his difficulties getting his first sale, Carlos shook his head.

"You haven't grown up here in Dorum, so you don't have a good picture of the people who buy mechs. You're expecting too much out of the Mech Corps and the mercenary corps. Forget about selling a private mech to a government mech. They have no decision making power in the spending of their units. They pilot whatever mechs the brass shoves at them. As for their private lives, no serviceman has enough credits hanging around to buy a mech for off-duty use, at least not before they are retired."

"And the mercenaries?" Ves asked, feeling rather grateful Carlos was willing to lay it all down for him. He wasn't a local of Bentheim so his knowledge about the business mainly came from textbooks.

"Their finances are tightly regulated. A good contract can set them up with a couple of millions, but a bad luck streak might wipe out tens or even hundreds of millions of credits off their balance sheet. Sure, they have a large stash of credits in the bank, but that's their plan B, or in the worst case their retirement fund."

From Carlos' words, there was still a small a chance Ves could push his product on them, but it had to be worth spilling their savings. "So I have the best chance if I approached retirees or those close to retirement?"

"That's a decent angle to take. The old guys who retire from active duty can't scratch their itches unless they hop into a real cockpit. The popular simulations such as Iron Spirit is too casual and fake to satisfy their needs. Don't underestimate the pensions they earned in their years of service."

Mech pilots were hard to come by, and their services were important in securing locations and projecting power. They earned a nice share of wealth of whatever it was they were defending of attacking as 'taxes' or 'protection fee'. It was an accepted reality in human space that the fist trumped over laws. Only the fact that the Bright Republic was just a poor, third-rate state kept it from being embroiled in constant wars over territory.

A lot of money exchanged hands whenever mechs took to the field. However, most of it got spent on maintaining the mechs and paying off other expenses.

"I do have an idea." Carlos said as he finished his burrito. "You should try to approach the rich guys, in particular the collectors. They love collecting unusual mechs and admire them for hours in their private mech stables. Some of them aren't even potentates. They just love the feel of owning unique mechs."