The Bluejay Fleet finally went underway.
It left the Yernstall Central Star Node without any issue and proceeded to journey to the Terran Alliance along a safe and busy trade route.
Though trade between the first-rate colonial empires and the Red Ocean Union had dropped significantly since the latter declared independence, goods still flowed across their borders.
It couldn't be helped. Trade was far too important to both sides. They all lacked certain resources while possessing others in abundance. Trade had to persist even if relations between the partners had soured.
Of course, the volu of trade between colonial alliances had dropped by over 50 percent.
Groups increasingly preferred to keep their goods in-house even if it incurred a greater burden on their balance sheets.
In addition, the native aliens increasingly refined their comrce raiding activities.
The border regions had beco increasingly more perable, enabling the enemy to dispatch small but annoyingly fast raiding flotillas that preyed on undefended or lightly defended transportation ships!
This problem beca especially more pronounced in the zones closest to the fighting. This made it exponentially more difficult and expensive to resupply the hungry defenders at the frontlines.
Regional trade beca increasingly more unbalanced as a consequence.
Trade in and around the Cybernetic Empire flourished due to being stationed furthest away from the active war zones.
Shipping beca a lot more congested in the rear of human space, so much so that premiums had risen by several hundred percent in just a single month!
All of these massive shifts caused severe trade disruptions as well as unbalance many enterprises.
Ves occasionally received reports that the Living ch Corporation and its many manufacturing partners had been forced to shut down production lines due to supply shocks and profitability issues.
Fortunately, almost every other company suffered from issues, so the LMC did not lose that much competitiveness compared to its peers.
That said, Ves noticed that the more agile and responsive mbers of the ch industry had already begun to adjust their business practices.
Many companies proved unable to pivot their business and developnt strategies to account for all of the changes.
However, many one-man shops and companies led by very active ch designers had already begun to publish ch designs that imposed a much lighter burden on logistics.
The performance of the newest batch of ch designs did not necessarily offer superior performance.
In fact, many of them actually perford 5 to 25 percent worse!
Yet what they gave up in performance, they made up for it with affordability and ease of production.
By reducing the amount of rare and strategic resources that could only be obtained by importing them from distant zones, the ch designers successfully hardened their products against supply problems.
Such ch designs beca increasingly more favored because their producers could continue to reliably pump out products from their manufacturing complexes.
The costs of these new ch models also did not grow as steeply as older designs due to their inherently greater resilience to trade disruptions.
By reorienting ch designs so that their material requirents beca increasingly more regional, the ch industry gradually adapted to the difficulties of the Age of Dawn.
Unfortunately, the LMC was falling behind on this aspect. Gloriana and Alexa did their best to assign design teams to update their current product offerings, but it still took ti to update every product line.
It also did not help that Ves had not co up with any major new releases for a while now. The release of the first Carmine chs may have caused an epochal shock in the ch market, but he had failed to make the most of the boost in montum.
"It's okay." He whispered to himself.
Ves did not think he had wasted too much ti on other affairs. Multiple ch design projects continued to make steady progress while he had achieved massive gains on other fronts.
Gaining privileged access to stolen resonance technology ensured that he and his clan would not miss out on the greatest trend in the imdiate future.
Securing effective leadership over the Phase Lord Departnt solved many of his growing safety concerns.
His recent actions and contributions to society all helped to raise his clout and influence. This soft power may sound nebulous and insubstantial, but Ves knew better than to underestimate its importance.
Yet soft power alone was not that useful.
Without becoming a Master ch Designer or Star Designer, Ves would always be denied a seat at the highest tables.
For example, he could have taken part in the high-level discussions on how red humanity should exploit stolen resonance technology, yet because he was still a tier 2 galactic citizen, he lacked the qualifications to have his voice heard.
Ves suddenly understood the Voice of Liberty's position a lot better. Without gaining enough hard power to pose a credible threat to other bigshots, he would always remain in a position where others could boss him around.
This was not acceptable.
He worked so hard and risked his life so many tis in order to get away from such control. The entire point of founding the Larkinson Clan and shaping it into an independent organization was because he wanted to gain sovereignty over his own life.
While he had made enormous strides in the past decade, Ves felt that he had hit the ceiling of what was currently possible for a Senior ch Designer.
Even if he doubled the amount of Ascended Giants under his command, it wouldn't make much of a difference because they were only good for bullying the weak for the most part.
Ves scratched the side of his head. "I need to make real progress."
Fortunately, he could look forward to the completion of the Arboreal Project.
While the testing phase would likely last for at least several months, Ves was already fairly happy with how fast his first elental Carmine ch design project had progressed.
He corresponded increasingly more with his Terran partners as the Bluejay Fleet approached its destination.
While Ves also had to help Gloriana complete the Prothea Mark II Project and the Lionheart Mark II Project, he did his best to put the Arboreal Project front and center.
Only this design project was tied to the essence of his evolving design philosophy.
Completing it would effectively bring him 20 percent closer to his much-anticipated breakthrough as a ch designer!
"The designs of the basic variants of Woodsap chs are functionally complete." The physical projection of Master Laila Rebecca Devos explained to Ves. "We have solved most significant technical problems that can be detected in our trial grounds. Personally, I do not expect that their designs still retain any major faults and shortcomings. If we want to optimize them even further, we need to subject them to more realistic conditions."
Ves and the Terrans already agreed to do so by bringing a large batch of Woodsap chs along their upcoming incursion into native alien space.
"I am glad to hear that the basic variants perform well enough so far." He said. "However, we both know that the basic variants can only provide a certain amount of value to the Terran Alliance. They are not bad by any ans. They will definitely be the best possible Carmine chs that your norms can pilot once they beco available. However, their production costs and other burdens heavily limit your ability to pump them out en masse."
The Arboreal Project had never been too restrained when it ca to controlling their costs.
Ves and his Terran collaborators deliberately set out to prioritize quality over quantity.
The Woodsap chs had to represent the Terrans at their best, hence why it beca taboo to develop a more 'affordable' and 'practical' variant during the design process!
If consurs wanted to pilot a cheap and easy-to-obtain Carmine ch, they could already purchase the Yellow Jackets.
As a prestige project, the Arboreal Project had to be as far removed from the Yellow Jacket line as possible.
This was why even the 'basic' variants could achieve parity with first-class multipurpose chs in terms of performance!
While this sounded impossible due to how difficult it was for new and inexperienced Carmine ch pilots to control a ch as well as multiple weapon systems at the sa ti, the Arboreal Project just happened to sidestep many of the complications.
"How has the testing gone for the Hibiscus System?" Ves inquired.
The Hibiscus System was the current na for the old human body surrogate control system.
The Hibiscus System was the current na for the old human body surrogate control system.
People initially called it the HBSCS, but the Terrans detested it so much that they insisted on a more beautiful alternative.
That was why the system responsible for allowing Woodsap ch pilots to control their machines as if they were moving a larger version of their own body acquired such an elegant na.
Master Laila Rebecca Devos responded with a proud expression. "Better than expected. We have allocated a large amount of researchers and developers into expanding it and improving it. When we discovered that your living chs can actually optimize the operation of the Hibiscus System on their own accord, their progress skyrocketed. I can state with certainty that it has now beco the most intuitive ans of controlling chs by far. This invention alone is enough to shock the entire ch community almost just as much as when you initially unveiled the Carmine System."
This was not an exaggeration.
Many prospective Carmine ch pilots were still stuck in training because it took years for them to control their Yellow Jackets at a reasonable degree of effectiveness.
While it was already considered fast for them to be able to participate in serious combat within a span of just 5 years, red humanity couldn't afford to wait so long!
The Hibiscus System offered to cut this training ti by at least 80 percent when paired with trained and experienced infantry troopers!
The Terrans had already put many of its elite infantry soldiers into accelerated learning programs.
There, the most brilliant among them had already learned most of the theory related to operating spaceborn chs.
So long as the Arboreal Project proved to be a massive success, the Terrans would most definitely seek to expand its manpower pool by putting more infantry soldiers through retraining!
Initial testing with the prototype Woodsap chs showed that the Hibiscus System could already achieve enough equivalency that most soldiers could translate their existing combat skills in their larger forms.
From their descriptions, the test pilots all made it sound as if they had beco lesser phase lords instead of ch pilots!
Though this analogy was not accurate, it was a quick and easy way to understand how much the Hibiscus System changed the equation.
Without this incredible control system, there was no way to make the Woodsap chs ready for use when paired with norms!
The only way to make them ready for actual combat was to pair them with existing ch pilots.
However, that defeated the purpose of employing Carmine chs.
Potentates did not have to tie their entire careers to a single machine.
In many cases, it was much better for them to stick to regular chs that lacked the restrictions and additional complications imposed by Carmine chs.
Whatever the case, the Hibiscus System was so powerful that Ves even thought about applying it to other ch design projects.
Unfortunately, Ves did not have the right to do as he wished.
The Hibiscus System was an exclusive Terran invention. He barely involved himself in its developnt. He did not understand its core biotechnical principles.
His only aningful contribution was helping to integrate it into the design of his Woodsap chs.
Perhaps he might be able to make a separate deal with the Terrans, but that depended on how grateful they felt towards him. Even then, they may still decide to keep the Hibiscus System to themselves due to its undeniable strategic value.
A pity.
Ves forced himself to suppress his greed towards the Hibiscus System. He needed to focus on what was attainable.
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