Chapter 6206 Thick or Thin

Chapter 6206 Thick or Thin

As the Red Tide Offensive began to cast a shadow over human-occupied space, a lot of pieces were moving to different places.

Ves had no doubt that human strategists and their alien counterparts were standing before giant projections displaying a map that contained many icons representing different forces along with their routes.

He wished he had access to a complete overview of the progression of the Red War as well, but he hadn't been invited to this very exclusive club.

It was not his turn to involve himself in the war planning of red humanity. His main responsibilities after the start of the Red Offensive were three-fold.

First, as the leader of the Larkinson Clan, he had to make sure his forces actively contributed to the war effort.

Second, as the newly appointed deputy chief council, he had to preside over the remaining sessions of the Interim Leadership Council without causing them to end up in disaster.

Third, as the inventor and chief developer of the Carmine System, he had to rush the ambitious and expansive Swarm Project to completion in just half a year.

On top of all of this, Ves also retained many of his old duties and responsibilities. His schedule still remained extremely busy as he found it hard to put down his obligations.

This was the inevitable fate of a successful individual. Those who managed to climb up to this height never did so by drifting along the current. Only by actively swimming upstream were they able to defy expectations and produce more dazzling results than their peers.

Ves felt as if he was at the top of his game. He had no desire to take a vacation anytime soon. Switching out his design schedule so that he could devote much of his work schedule towards the Swarm Project made him feel as if he was making a fresh start.

He decided to take advantage of his good mood and begin to work out the preliminary details of this mech design project. He immediately entered his design lab and started to draw up a few draft designs so that he could visualize the desired mechs.

"Meow~"

As Lucky laid on the desk, Ves continually flipped back and forth on the sketches that he had made.

The command mechs were relatively easy to design. They were meant to serve as simple and unpretentious machines that were decent in a fight but should mainly be used to supervise and direct swarms of subordinate mechs.

Since their ability to coordinate lots of Carmine mechs was more important than their direct combat abilities, Ves intended to design them with the mindset of working on an auxiliary mech.

That did not mean that he intended to neglect direct combat capabilities entirely, but he wouldn't obsess over it like he did when he designed the Ultimatum.

The subordinate mechs were much cheaper and more affordable than the command mech, but that required him to put extra attention and effort into their designs.

It was easy to design a relatively cheap mech, but it was a lot more difficult to make an affordable mech perform well enough on the battlefield.

Since Ves was not able to make up his mind between the two, he decided to bring it up with Jovy and Vector.

The two mechers teleported down to Ves' design lab and began to study the draft designs and accompanying notes.

"If you want to do a proper job, then I would argue that you design both versions of the subordinate mech at once." Jovy commented. "However, time is of the essence. We should not waste our time on luxuries that are ultimately dispensable. We can rely on third-party mech designers to design the corresponding variants after we have published the initial mech designs. We only need to present a good base model that can serve as the starting point for all of this exploration."

"I agree." Vector said. "This is not the stage where we should think about producing an entirely new mech ecosystem. It is enough to present a single Carmine mech for each class. If we have to choose between a lighter or a heavier version of the subordinate mech, I would choose the one that possesses the greatest amount of mass."

Ves raised his eyebrow. "Oh? Why do you prefer this version, Vector?"

"There are many possible reasons to favor the heavier version, but I will mention three of them in particular. First, there is much more room for modularity in a larger and heavier mech frame. There is more capacity to mount weapons and other systems onto the mech frame without needing to be concerned about overloading it. It is much more pleasant for third-party mech designers to develop variants of a Carmine mech that has plenty of room for customization."

"That is a valid argument."

"Second, it is easier to design a lighter variant of a rather hefty mech than the opposite. If there are customers who truly want to pilot a faster and more agile machine, they can go to a mech boutique who can selectively shave off the armor of an existing subordinate mech. Later on, third-party mech designers will most likely variants that benefit from optimized light armor layouts."

"That is also a valid argument."

"Third and most importantly, heavier mechs are less mobile. This is important because the Carmine mech pilots who make use of them are not able to abandon their positions and flee the battlefield so easily. You should not forget that amateurs with no actual combat experience are extremely brittle in terms of morale. As soon as they think their side is about to lose, they are likely to panic and flee on their own accord, thereby completely disrupting the arrangements of the field commanders and trigger a cascade that causes other friendly units to become affected as well."

That... was a darker and more serious argument than Ves expected from Vector.

It was also a very valid concern. There was no way that every Carmine pilot would possess the strong sense of duty and courage of most professional soldiers.

Carmine mechs were mainly designed to appeal to customers who were greedy for success.

They held the greatest attraction to people who wanted an easier path to power, but many of these folk were precisely the sort of individuals who prized their lives the most!

"You have presented very compelling arguments, Vector, but the downsides are also rather severe." Ves shared his thoughts. "The production costs will be considerable. A lot more resources will be spent on producing Carmine mechs when they could otherwise be used to produce normal mechs. All of these costs add up when hundreds of millions of Carmine mechs join the battlefield in the coming years."

"That is hundreds of millions of more war machines than before. The native aliens will have to expend much more effort to get past them all. Preserving our control over the border regions takes precedence over saving money. This is not the time to hoard our wealth."

That was a good opinion. Ves almost became convinced to go for the heavier version right away, but when he glanced towards Jovy, he saw that his old friend did not quite agree.

"What do you think, Jovy?"

"My colleague here is not wrong about the factors that make the heavier version into a useful addition to the mech market, but I personally favor the lighter version of the subordinate mech."

"Oh? That is interesting. Please share your thoughts. I am curious to hear what it is about the lighter Carmine mech that makes it more attractive than the heavier one."