So far, Ves visited two very different ch manufacturers. Vaun Industrial prioritized efficiency above all else while Vikaris chs possessed an abundance of heart. That said, neither seed like the right fit for the LMC.
Gavin partially echoed his findings. "I can understand your doubts about Vaun, but I thought you’d be sympathetic for Vikaris. They employ lots of people and they all seem to care for their work."
"Well, it all seems a bit too harmonious. The people there seem happy, but Frederick Yang is just a patsy. Soone else is pulling the strings in the company."
"Now that you think about it, Mr. Yang doesn’t seem very assertive for a CEO. You’ve got a bright eye for taking of that."
Combined with the overly generous contract terms, all of it seed suspicious. Ves refused to entertain any further thoughts of cooperation with Vikaris chs unless they beca more forthcoming on their background.
"Another thing that bugs is the apparent charity that’s going on." Ves continued. "It seems to be built on a fragile base. What if so of those workers harbor sympathies for the BLM? It’s incredibly easy for a single infiltrator to sabotage an entire production line, or worse, cover up any instances of defects."
"I didn’t think about that. You’re right. There’s too many people going in and out everyday. All of that security around their complex won’t be able to stop a determined saboteur who already has free access to everything from the start."
Ves ran a business, not a social project. The main goals of the LMC should be to advance his interests and make a profit. He couldn’t care less about the plight of the citizens of Haston. Bentheim’s governnt should be cleaning up their own sses.
"Let’s move onto the next destination. Who are we visiting last?"
Gavin turned to his data pad again. "We’ll be dropping by a company called Elental ch Engineering. E is actually a company founded by a reasonably successful ch designer called Andar Neverland. They currently only operate four production lines, but they’re fairly modern and capable."
This sounded like another distressed manufacturer. "Is Mr. Neverland still alive?"
"Oh, he’s alive and well. He even has a daughter who’s a bit younger than you who’s studying ch design at Ansel. From what we’ve gathered, E has been chugging along great until their licenses expired."
This happened fairly often to ch designers. They budgeted out their earnings and saved up money for a license renewal or a net set of licenses, but sothing happened along the way that caused a gap to occur. The key here was finding out why Neverland couldn’t acquire another set of licenses.
It didn’t take too much trouble for Gavin to look up the reasons. "Sales of Neverland’s designs have slumped in recent tis. A huge transgalactic ch manufacturer entered the market with a fantastic design that outperford Neverland’s own products on both price and performance. Now he’s facing a budget shortfall of several billion credits due to the fact he borrowed a lot of money to get his hands on quality fabrication equipnt."
"Sounds like E is Neverland’s private playground. Does his company have any experience with doing contract work?"
"Not really. They’re scrambling for work but their lack of pedigree in this field of business ans that not a lot of clients are tempted to work with them. It also doesn’t help that they’re asking a lot of compensation for their efforts."
Out of the three parties the LMC had their eyes on, E offered the least attractive terms. They only agreed to hand over 2.5 million credits per sale, half the offer of Vikaris chs. In exchange, E offered smaller concessions in other areas, such as letting the LMC keep a close eye on their activities.
The shuttle reached the industrial district of Ansel and landed at a cramped and densely built complex that bore the logo of E. As Ves and Gavin exited the shuttle, they t with the founder and lead designer inside a lobby.
A middle-aged man greeted them with much aplomp. "Mr. Larkinson! It’s a privilege to et you in the flesh! You’re a famous ch designer now. The industry is buzzing about your rise to fa."
"You flatter ." Ves casually laughed in return. "My accomplishnts pale in comparison to yours."
In his opinion, experts in the ch industry hardly took any notice of Ves. They considered his duel against Dumont to be as trivial as two ignorant toddlers fighting each other over a shiny toy.
ch designers like Neverland deserved a lot of respect for elevating his company to such a height from scratch. Even if he failed to hedge his bets in recent tis, he was still very much ahead of the ga compared to soone like Ves.
"I haven’t heard much about you. Please tell about your designs."
Neverland looked eager to talk about his own work. "The pride and joy of the E is the Klamson series. The Klamsons are a line of striker chs with varying loadouts, from flathrowers to shotguns. I’ve even supplied so of the remote Planetary Guard units with Klamsons ard with fluid projectors."
"Can I take a look at the design?"
"Oh sure! They’re archived in the MTA, so it doesn’t hurt for you to take a look."
Ves received a data pad that contained a couple of abridged design schematics. He skimd over the docunts and inspected the wirefra schematics with an eye for attention.
In his eyes, the Klamson design didn’t look very fancy, but neither did it attempt to overreach its capabilities. It was a simple, workable design that had matured over the course of a decade. The Klamson chs also benefited from fairly premium third-class components.
Still, despite their qualities, it wouldn’t be too hard for a competitor to co up with a better design. They’d have to take so risks and be more skilled, but it could be done without resorting to more expensive components.
In a way, the E treated the Klamson series like a cash cow. Neverland probably rested on his laurels thinking that a couple of minor updates every year would suffice to keep the design competitive.
He made a big mistake and fell behind as a result. It didn’t help that Neverland invested a lot of money into expanding the E’s production capacity just before his sales followed a downward trajectory.
Ves didn’t ntion anything unflattering and kept his comnts positive. "I like what you did with the weapon holsters. Even an unskilled pilot would easily be able to stow his ch’s weapons without a fuss."
"That’s been a persistent problem in the earliest versions of the Klemsons." Neverland explained. "So of my early custors used the Klemsons as training chs, and a lot of inexperienced ch pilots broke their holsters trying to stow away their shotguns. They’re not as slim and delicate like laser rifles, so mistakes happened often enough for to figure out a better solution."
"What made you decide to commit to striker chs? They’re not the most popular archetypes around."
The older ch designer shrugged. "It’s all I inherited from my ntor. He’s a fanatic about strikers and I took over much of his enthusiasm. There’s a lot of charm in striker chs. They combine so of the best parts about knights and dium-ranged chs into a single, durable package."
Ves could see so of the appeal. "Still, it must be hard to design a striker."
"Oh, not at all, actually. People who approach the archetype with the mindset of designing a knight or rifleman in a different form will co away disappointed. Strikers demand an entirely new approach. Outsiders always place too much emphasis on accuracy and precision. They weaken the fra too much in order to chase after a dream."
"Don’t they require a minimum amount of accuracy?" Ves raised his eyebrow.
If the Blackbeak picked up a laser rifle and decided to use it, it would be liable to hit its own squad mbers. Such was the danger of neglecting accuracy.
"Mr. Larkinson, the reason why strikers are ard with wide area weapons is because poor aiming is built into the archetype. What they lack in accuracy, they make up for it in strength. Standard doctrine says that strikers should avoid lee combat whenever possible, but in practice they often resort to their bayonets or backup swords to fend off an opponent up close."
Their conversation halted when they reached the fabrication floor. It didn’t look as clean as the floor from Vaun, but neither did it look grimy like the floor from Vikaris. The look and feel of E’s floor resembled an upscaled workshop, much like the one owned by Ves.
Recent expansion has left the floor a little cramped. An abundance of shiny new production equipnt sat idle. With the lack of demand for the Klemsons and no other contracts to fulfill, the expensive machinery sat dormant.
As for the workers, most of the ch technicians walked back and forth in a daze. They counted their inventory for the umpteenth ti or simply sat back and played so gas over their comms.
"As you can see, our state-of-the-art production equipnt will be able to handle anything you can throw at it, including your wonderful Blackbeak design." Neverland bragged, who willfully ignored all of his idle personnel. "Don’t think we are worse than others for maintaining only four production lines, the production speed of these machines will surely be a feast for your eyes!"
Ves didn’t recognize the individual production models, but all of the printers, compressors, CTMs and assembly systems looked impressive enough to back his boasts. The E should be able to produce enough bronze label Blackbeaks to et demand, if only just.
As Neverland kept boasting about his production capabilities, Ves ford his own judgent on the man and his company. The E must have landed in fairly dire straits. The fact that his negotiators insisted on retaining as much money as possible should be because the E’s creditors must be knocking on their doors.
If Ves looked closely, the personnel looked like they had already given up. They expected the E to fold in a month or two, upon which they’d be free to work for soone else. They only stuck around because it would look bad on their records if they quit on their own accord.
"Thank you for allowing a visit. You’ve been very candid to . I appreciate that." Ves said to Neverland when they ca to the end of their tour.
Neverland wiped so sweat from his brow. "I figured I wouldn’t be able to hide anything from you. The E is down on its luck, but we only need to shore over this difficult ti before we can pick ourselves up. I hope you entrust the mass production of your Blackbeak design to us. Striker chs and knight chs have a lot in common, so we can instantly start production."
"I’ll consider it carefully!"
Ves and Gavin returned to their shuttle. Now that they finished their field trips, the shuttle turned around to Dorum so that they could return to the hotel near Marcella’s brokerage.
"Mr. Neverland is a desperate man." Gavin remarked after a mont of silence. "He’s extrely eager to enter into a contract with us, more so than Mr. Yang of Vikaris chs."
At least Vikaris had been able to stay afloat by accepting a bunch of tiny short-term contracts. E’s vacant track record in this business segnt made it much more difficult for it to do the sa.
Still, that might change once people find out about their modern production equipnt. E just had to get past their acute dearth of liquidity.
"Mr. Neverland cos off rather fishy as well, but in a different way from Mr. Yang." Ves stated after thinking back on his visit. "He’s a little too sincere, if you know what I an."
"Do you think it’s a calculated ploy to arouse your sympathy?"
"No, nothing like that. It’s just that he genuinely loves the craft. His eyes light up whenever he talks about the Klemson or the Blackbeak."
"Then what are you apprehensive about?"
"I feel like Mr. Neverland wants to steal the secrets to the Blackbeak design." Ves concluded. "He’ll co up with sothing identical or apply what he’s learned from to his own design once the E is done with the contract."
"Oh. That sounds plausible. We probably shouldn’t give them the opportunity to steal your hard work, then."
Ves shook his head. "If it’s a choice between Vaun, Vikaris and E, I’d pick the last one any ti. Even if they’re greedy, they’re well worth the effort."
He already made his choice, and not just because he had a bad impression of Vaun and Vikaris. Gavin missed out on a couple of reasons which made E the most suitable manufacturer for the LMC to collaborate.
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