[1-200] THE MECH TOUCH

Chapter 146: Name

"No thanks, I'm here for business." He replied while seating himself across her desk. "I've got a couple of matters to talk about."

She passed him a handful of electronic documents that displayed various bits of performance data. None of his customers employed the Marc Antony Mark II's in an actual battle as of yet, but the results from the various live-fire training exercises spoke for themselves.

"That's some pretty decent performance." Ves contently noted. The mercs who bought his products possessed enough skill to make the most out of its capabilities. "What's their feedback?"

"Their technicians are having a hard time maintaining the internals, but they're making do. Overall, I haven't received any significant complaints. Your buyers are pretty satisfied so far. "

The lack of malfunctions bode well for the Mark II's future. "I'll be busy with a project, so I won't be able to fabricate any mechs for the time being. I plan to hand over the production of silver label mechs to a fabricator I've trained. While he's not as good as me, he work should be able to pass certification, if only barely."

Marcella looked a little sceptical. "I've always heard the Caesar Augustus and its variants are plagued by constant setbacks during the fabrication process. Are you sure you're ready?"

"My fabricator spent months to master my design. I'm pretty confident he's up to the task. Just to be sure, don't start swamping me with orders."

"That won't be a problem. We'll delay the public reveal of the Mark II for the time being. I can use these metrics along with the testimonies from your first batch of customers to drum up some sales."

Ves hammered out a tentative schedule with Marcella. He also allowed her to correspond with Carlos directly in order to handle these minor matters. So long as Marcella regularly provided his business with orders, he'd be able to earn a constant stream of revenue.

"I take it you're not here to talk about the Mark II, right?"

He nodded. "There's also the matter of my ship. How is the Barracuda holding up?"

"She's safely stowed away along with the rest of my inventory. Your pretty corvette is quite a sight, you know. Every time I bring in a customer to deliver their mechs, they always ask me if she's for sale."

They both knew that Ves would be a fool to sell such a remarkable spaceship. "Haha, they can dream. In any case, I'd like to repair and staff my ship."

"Are you going somewhere?"

"Not for the moment, but you never know." He carefully replied. "There may be times where my services are required elsewhere. The ability to move anywhere I want is bound to be useful once I increase my fame."

In fact, he'd been eyeing the missions offered by the Clifford Society for a while now. He never let go of his dream to design an original mech. In order to reach this milestone quickly, Ves planned to amass a lot of merits in order to exchange for a set of quality production machines.

As for the Larkinson family's seed money? Ves already put the 500 million credits aside. When the time came to work on an original design, he intended to spend the money on acquiring the necessary component licenses.

All of this haste was an effort to make himself more valuable once a war broke out. The Mech Corps treated their called-up mech designers differently according to their achievements.

Those who dwelled at the bottom like Carlos could expect to be regarded as disposable cannon fodder. They often assisted the short-handed and overworked mech technicians at major supply points.

Mech designers who possessed practical experience in designing and selling mechs were often assigned as mid-level supervisors.

Only designers who designed an original mech had the opportunity to employ their design talents. The Mech Corps always assigned such valuable minds to one of their many design teams.