Though the ambitious and novel Valkyrie Redeer design occupied most of his attention at the mont, Ves did not wish to spend all of his ti on a single project.
This wasn't the past anymore where the LMC's Design Departnt only possessed enough design capacity to handle two major projects at most.
With the addition of fifty fresh and eager assistant ch designers, Ves believed he could adopt an entirely new structure.
He shared his thoughts with Gloriana many tis. Both of them harbored different opinions about how many projects their expanded Design Departnt was able to work on simultaneously.
Though Ves exhibited a lot of confidence and thought they could potentially assign a ch design project to every design team, Gloriana vehently disagreed.
Her only other experience with design teams outside of the LMC was when she contributed to other Hexer ch design projects. The established Seniors and Masters she worked for had all been in the business for at least many decades, and they commanded an army of hundreds, if not thousands of assistants!
This skewed her perspective a bit. Perhaps in ti, it was possible to reach this level, but for now the LMC was still a middle player in terms of the overall spectrum of ch companies.
Once they ca to a consensus, both of them decided to announce their decisions in their first full conference eting.
Twenty-five assistant ch designers along with Ketis filed into the conference room. They all took their seats at the long, oval table.
The newcors only occupied half of the table. Ves already stood head on one side. Lucky didn't show any interest in the upcoming eting at all and instead spent his ti teasing Goldie, who resided in the Larkinson Mandate placed on the surface of the table.
The Larkinson Clan's ancestral heirloom and its warm glow cald every assistant present. Even though they were excited at the thought of finally escaping the drills and starting on so projects, they all made sure to behave themselves.
The occasional glares thrown by Ketis suppressed any excessive behavior. Even the hotheads such as Rina Orion-Larkinson and Catherine Evenson-Larkinson had to bow their heads against the most barbaric ch designer in the LMC!
Soon enough, a chi sounded in the conference room. The Scarlet Rose established a remote connection to Cinach VI. The other side of the oval table suddenly shimred as the projection of the other assistant ch designers appeared in place.
The erudite ch designers had arrived, and each of them stared curiously at the sowhat bedraggled but excited states of the brave ch designers.
Gloriana herself stood proudly at the opposite side of the table with Miles sitting closely by. Seeing the latter made Ves a bit regretful that he couldn't bring the forr Tovar family mber with his mission.
Unlike Ketis who was born in the frontier, Miles had been born with a silver spoon. Even if he faced a lot of internal competition within the Tovar Family, he was still part of the Bright Republic's ruling elite.
It wasn't suitable to drag such a figure to the Nyxian Gap. His various skills and inclinations turned him into a much more useful asset if he stayed by Gloriana's side and managed the erudite ch designers on her behalf.
Ves thumped the table with his fist. "Alright, everyone is here, so lets start. First, to everyone who has joined us in the last month, you might have been wondering whether you will get to design a ch at all during your ti in the Larkinson Clan. Well, wonder no more, because today you will all be assigned to work on a ch design project!"
A lot of jubilation appeared on the faces of the assistants, especially the ones from his own camp!
The endless drills, the lack of sleep and the absence of any ch design had grated on all of their nerves. Even if they knew that it was necessary for them to learn how to cope with various shipboard ergencies, they still possessed the arrogance of an accomplished ch designer.
No other employer would dare to mistreat talents as if they were recruits who just joined bootcamp! If they wanted to live a reginted life, then they would have joined the military!
Gloriana, who stood on the other end of the table, took over from there. "My partner and I have deliberated on how many active projects we can sustain and how to allocate your work. In the end, we have decided to stick to a simple rule. We will work on one major design project for every Journeyman ch Designer within our Design Departnt. That currently ans we can tackle two major projects at most at this ti."
Soone raised a hand. "What is a major project?"
"Those are ch design projects which cannot be completed without the involvent of one of our principal ch designers, which is currently my partner and I." Ves answered.
His fiancé nodded. "Perhaps it is better to explain what minor projects are as well. These are the projects that are relatively lower in priority and difficulty to the LMC. We plan to hand over most of the responsibility of completing these projects to you, our assistants."
This was what many of the assistant ch designers had been waiting to hear! Each of them longed to design a ch. What was even better was the prospect of making aningful design choices. They all wanted their own contributions to be reflected in the end product!
Ves knew what they wanted, and he did not disappoint. "Gloriana and I plan to adopt a relatively hands-off approach towards these minor projects. While we will still be setting the frawork of the projects and supervise your progress along the way, you will largely work autonomously within the limits we have set. Basically, your supervisors will be responsible for the broad strokes, while you take care of the details."
Many assistant ch designers understood his approach. It was a lot more generous than what other employers allowed, but it did not provide them with the power to decide everything. They had to work within the specifications and design choices that Ves and Gloriana already prepared.
This approach towards project managent served to make the most out of Ves and Gloriana's design expertise with the least amount of ti investnt.
Certainly, the pair would definitely be able to do a much better job than any of the assistants. The problem was that their ti was limited. Both of them believed that the two of them could only devote their full attention to two major projects at most.
This was why they decided to set up a structure where they only needed to spend a couple of minutes a day at minimum to make sure the minor design projects proceeded on schedule.
In many cases, the problems that erged in these projects might take a long ti to solve, but neither Ves nor Gloriana planned to do the heavy lifting. As long as they diagnosed the problem and explained how to solve it, they could leave the tedious crunch work to their assistants.
Ves did not need to explain this rationale, as many of the assistants already understood the point of this structure. This was one of the many benefits of employing young but successful assistants.
"I'm sure you have already guessed it, but our minor projects will mostly revolve around third-class ch designs." Gloriana said. "The two major projects that Ves and I are working on will predominantly be based on second-class ch designs. At this mont, none of you are qualified to work on sothing so advanced. Keep studying the books in our library and work your way towards mastering the knowledge that is necessary to reach this level. Second-class ch designs will soon beco the main focus of the LMC."
A fire lit in everyone's eyes. Every assistant that Ves and Gloriana had hired were ambitious in their own way. All of them were third-class ch designers, and all of them had long yearned to enter a higher circle of ch design!
"We have twelve design teams at the mont, with six assistants in each team." Ves stated. "After so deliberation, Gloriana and I have decided to allocate three design teams to each minor design project. This ans that our pipeline is wide enough to accommodate four minor design projects at the sa ti!"
The implications were obvious. The assistants not only needed to develop a close partnership with the ch designers in their own team, they also had to learn to get along with their rivals in the other teams.
Ves planned to shuffle the design teams assigned to minor projects on a regular basis in order to make sure that every assistant did not get overly familiar with the sa faces.
"Now that these organizational announcents are out of the way, let's get to the fun part. I'm sure you are all eager to hear what projects we will all be working on for the next couple of months."
He waved his hand, causing an empty list to appear over the table.
The list was split up in six sections. Only one of them contained any information.
"My partner and I have already begun work on the Valkyrie Redeer Project. This is a major project which we cannot reveal any details due to its classified nature. You will have to satisfy your curiosity later."
Every assistant had already gone through so lectures about confidentiality. In fact, they should have already been familiar with the rules during their student days, but it didn't hurt to remind them of the seriousness of leaking information.
Ves absolutely could not tolerate betrayal, and he wanted to make sure that every new hire knew the consequences of crossing him. Forget about being black-listed, Ves had even hinted that he would take care of them in a more permanent fashion if they stabbed him in the back!
None of the assistants showed any further curiosity towards the Valkyrie Redeer Project despite their burning curiosity.
Gloriana raised a finger, causing the slot of the second major design project to reveal so information.
"Our second major design project isn't as confidential, so we do not mind sharing what we will be working on. The project is codenad Cat's Paw, and it is centered around designing a heavy artillery ch exclusive to the Larkinson Clan!"
That caused a fair amount of assistants to be shocked!
Usually, only the military fielded heavy chs. They were large, expensive, cost-inefficient and unwieldy, which ant that they never sold very well on the market.
However, they did offer so advantages to wealthy custors and states. Aside from their abysmal mobility, their firepower and defensive paraters were often several tis greater than that of a dium ch. Though these boosts ca at a very high price, the space these chs took up was not that much more!
This ant that while heavy chs were very inefficient in terms of cost, they took up comparatively less space on a carrier than a bunch more dium chs.
This was the main rationale for employing heavy chs. If soone wanted to transfer a certain amount of firepower to a destination, they could dispatch a single carrier loaded with heavy chs rather than two carriers loaded with dium chs!
Ves explained why the Larkinson Clan was finally ready to field heavy chs. "While I cannot explain our full circumstances to you yet, our clan is in the process of acquiring a lot of lovely new ships. Many of them are built for war and feature many bunkers on their hulls. It would be a sha to fill these bunkers with regular chs, hence why we have decided to design our own heavy ch to add so teeth to our new vessels!"
The Cat's Paw Project was just as important as the Valkyrie Redeer Project! Ves wanted to design a ch that was vastly superior to the Bright Warrior in its rifleman ch configuration in terms of offensive power.
The new heavy artillery chs would not only be stationed on his upcoming second-class factory ship, but also lend their firepower to his second-class combat carriers.
This was a very major project that would have a very major influence on the defensive power of his future expeditionary fleet!
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