In six months to a year, the Ves planned to renew the Larkinson Clan's entire fleet.
He wanted to get rid of the third-class light carriers and other flimsy vessels that weren't robust enough to withstand the rigors of inter-sector space travel.
While his current fleet was already powerful enough to roam through the lesser states of the Komodo Star Sector, as soon as it bumped into a decently powerful Fridayman fleet, it would likely collapse at the first blow!
So long as this vulnerability remained, Ves had no confidence in crossing over to Vicious Mountain or Majestic Teal.
Right now, the Larkinson Clan managed to maintain its existence by sheltering under the formidable umbrella of the Hexadric Hegemony.
Though powerful, the influence of the Hexers rapidly declined outside of their ho star sectors. The second-rate states of other star sectors had no reason to pay attention to the deterrence of those man-haters.
Therefore, Ves was prepared to invest substantially in his fleet and build up its strength to the point where it could roam securely through neutral states regardless of their strength!
As long as the Larkinsons did not provoke a powerful second-rate rate, Ves believed his fleet should be strong enough to fend off any other aggressors.
The greater the price of attacking the Larkinson Fleet, the less challengers it would face!
Just acquiring a tough vessel wasn't enough. Aside from relying on spaceborn chs to fend off attackers, Ves also wanted to add so heavy firepower to the mix.
The Cat's Paw Project aid to design a new Larkinson-exclusive ch that would perfectly address this need for the upcoming decade.
The budget for the ch design was very generous. He wanted sothing that wouldn't beco outdated in a couple of years like the Bright Warriors, so he wanted to design a powerful premier second-class heavy ch.
The current market price of the Doom Guard was around 2 million hex credits. This was a typical price for an expensive third-class ch.
The estimated market price of the Blessed Squire was 200 million hex credits.
The price disparity between a third-class ch and a second-class ch was very considerable!
For a ch that Ves planned to utilize as the main defenses of his extrely important factory ship and combat carriers, he planned to grit his teeth and allocate most of the LMC's current profits towards their production.
Ves set an upper limit of 600 million hex credits as the production cost of his upcoming heavy artillery ch!
This was a hefty amount of money that Ves felt very helpless about. Just five second-class heavy artillery chs already cost as much as a single combat carrier! It sounded ridiculous, but neither he nor Gloriana wanted to settle for less!
First, heavy chs were already typically four tis more expensive on average than a dium ch. If they adhered to the sa budget as that of the Blessed Squire, then their efforts would just yield a very hollow and fragile ch design whose bark was stronger than its bite.
This was unacceptable. If Ves and Gloriana set out to design a heavy ch, then they wanted to do it properly, and that required a lot of money!
Second, it was not as if all of that money went to waste. When a ch absorbed so much funding, a qualitative transformation took place.
Premier ch designs perford significantly better than premium chs, especially if their expanded budgets concentrated on enhancing just a couple of aspects!
Though any heavy ch required at least a considerable amount of armor to keep them together, Ves already decided to spend the bulk of the budget on enhancing the offensive capabilities of the Cat's Paw design.
This did not apply to the weapon systems, which the ch design hosted a considerable amount of them, but also the support systems ant to keep them working at their best conditions.
The energy weapons needed a strong and stable supply of power. The heat generated from the weapons also had to be shunted from the ch to the ship. The standalone sensors and targeting systems had to be good enough to allow the ch to keep hitting its targets if the ship it was on suddenly stopped supplying the necessary targeting data.
All in all, the fact that the heavy chs were solely designed to be stationed in bunkers ant that Ves could readily forgo other priorities, such as the mobility of the ch!
Ves waved his hand, causing a fairly basic sketch of the design he had in mind to appear.
"This ch will be designed according to Hexer standards because the ships we are in the process of acquiring are also designed and built by Hexers. This ans that the ch will feature six legs that are designed to be anchored into the standardized slots built into the interior of the bunkers."
The hefty ch resembled a centaur ch of sorts. The lower body consisted of a fairly heavy base surrounded by six legs.
Individually, those legs were thick, but not very strong. At the very least, their chanical power was not up to par compared to proper landbound chs.
Since this heavy artillery ch spent most of its ti in a bunker, there was no need to allocate too much capacity in increasing its movent speed.
The legs were also specifically designed to maximize heat transfer. The last thing Ves wanted to see was the chs falling silent because they grew too hot to sustain their fire!
This was sothing allowed by the rules set by the Big Two.
Sadly, Ves couldn't apply the sa solution to the power supply. The MTA and CFA specifically forbid anyone from connecting the heavy ch directly to the power network of a ship!
Such a design choice would allow a heavy ch to output damage similar to the damage of a warship, and that was absolutely taboo!
Therefore, despite the inefficiency, Ves had no choice but to play by the rules and make his Cat's Paw ch self-sufficient in terms of power supply. At most, he could make it a little easier for the ch to replenish its spent energy cells.
A very young assistant raised a hand to ask a question. "Pardon , sir, but Cat's Paw is a weird na for a ch."
"It's just a temporary code na. I will co up with a more dignified na when we complete this project."
A powerful ch deserved a grand na. He did not want to embarrass the Larkinsons who were assigned to pilot the heaviest source of firepower to the Larkinson Fleet.
Soone else asked another question.
"Will this ch or a version of it be made available to the Hexers?"
That was a clever question. Ves had already basically admitted that the Cat's Paw design would be designed according to Hexer technical standards.
This coincidentally made them very similar to the heavy artillery chs employed by the Hex Army!
Gloriana paused for a mont before she offered a response.
"This is a matter that is still under consideration. Heavy artillery chs play a huge role in any ch military, and they are usually very advanced designs. We still need to prove to the Hegemony that we can design a heavy artillery ch that provides added value compared to what the Hex Army already fields."
In other words, Ves and Gloriana intended to design the Cat's Paw ch for the Larkinson Clan first. Once DIVA and the Hexers saw how well this ch perford, the Miracle Couple didn't mind designing a militarized variant for the Hex Army!
Of course, the premise of this rested on the ability for Ves and Gloriana to truly design a good heavy artillery ch. If the end product barely matched the performance levels of the Hex Army's existing heavy artillery chs, then there was no compelling reason for the Hexers to adopt another model!
Though Ves felt very confident he could co up with sothing ingenious enough, he needed to think hard on how to differentiate his heavy artillery ch. He still hadn't fully co up with a solid vision or ford an outline of its glow and triggered abilities.
These were all key to making his Cat's Paw design truly special.
Once he answered a few more questions about the heavy artillery ch he intended to design, the discussion moved on to the minor projects.
Surprisingly, Ves and Gloriana hadn't specified them at this point.
"There are more ch designers in the LMC than my partner and I." Ves smiled. "We think it might be interesting to let you have a voice this ti. Each of you have a couple of days to co up with a proposal for an interesting third-class ch for us to design. If your proposal is interesting enough, then Gloriana and I will adapt them and let you flesh it out into a design that is worthy of the LMC!"
This was an amazing opportunity for the assistants! Each of their eyes lit up as they realized that they could actually present so of the works they dread about!
"Don't disappoint us." Gloriana warned them all. "We are looking for practical, useful designs that either have great market appeal or can serve a useful purpose to the Larkinson Clan. Consider this a test as well as an opportunity. Those who have proposed excellent, workable ch designs will be rewarded with a handso amount of rits."
The assistants tempered their enthusiasm a bit after hearing that. The competition would doubtlessly be intense, and they also had to abide by many practical constraints.
Even so, they already felt grateful for their employers for giving their proposals a chance. This was not always the case in other companies.
Ves did this not to motivate his assistants or to earn their favor. He wanted to develop them and turn them into greater assets.
While most assistants would probably work in this capacity for a considerable amount of ti, he hoped that at least so of them would stand out in the coming years. Whether they advanced to Journeyman or not, Ves needed ch designers who could take charge of their projects!
Since every ch designer attending this conference pledged their loyalty to the Larkinson Clan, Ves did not need to be afraid that his assistants would leave the LMC once they believed they had 'outgrown' their roles. This was one of the biggest reasons why ch companies were reluctant to invest too much in ch designers.
They were simply too ambitious. Once they achieved a good asure of success and ability, many of them couldn't wait to start up their own ch company!
Though Ves hadn't actually figured out what to do in case an assistant ch designer wanted to leave the LMC but remain a Larkinson clansman, he truly hoped to keep everyone together as long as possible.
"Any further questions?"
The assistants looked at each other for a while.
Ketis raised her hand this ti. "How much ti do we spend on each project?"
"That's sothing we haven't fully decided upon yet. For now, let us set aside four months for each of them, whether they are minor or major projects."
With eighteen assistant ch designers working on every minor project, Ves refused to believe that they wouldn't be able to design a good ch in this span of ti!
Seeing that no one had any questions, Ves finally ended the eting.
"Alright, that's it for today. We will reconvene in a couple of days to discuss your ideas. Do your best to earn our approval!"
Ves smiled proudly as the assistants already started to buzz and swap ideas. Soon enough, the LMC's Design Departnt would be working on six design projects at the sa ti!
Even if only two of them centered around powerful second-class ch designs, that was still a considerable leap from before!
Once Ves beca accustod to designing six chs at a ti, he might expand the LMC's design capacity once again, especially once Ketis and a couple of other notable talents advanced to Journeyman!
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