Chapter 7408: The Hibiscus System 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 volume 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 commerce raiding activities. The border regions had become increasingly more permeable, enabling the enemy to dispatch small but annoyingly fast raiding flotillas that preyed on undefended or lightly defended transportation ships! This problem became 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 became 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 became 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 Mech 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 members of the mech industry had already begun to adjust their business practices. Many companies proved unable to pivot their business and development strategies to account for all of the changes. However, many one-man shops and companies led by very active mech designers had already begun to publish mech designs that imposed a much lighter burden on logistics. The performance of the newest batch of mech designs did not necessarily offer superior performance. In fact, many of them actually performed 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 mech designers successfully hardened their products against supply problems. Such mech designs became increasingly more favored because their producers could continue to reliably pump out products from their manufacturing complexes. The costs of these new mech models also did not grow as steeply as older designs due to their inherently greater resilience to trade disruptions. By reorienting mech designs so that their material requirements became increasingly more regional, the mech 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 time to update every product line. It also did not help that Ves had not come up with any major new releases for a while now. The release of the first Carmine mechs may have caused an epochal shock in the mech market, but he had failed to make the most of the boost in momentum. "It’s okay." He whispered to himself. Ves did not think he had wasted too much time on other affairs. Multiple mech 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 immediate future. Securing effective leadership over the Phase Lord Department 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 Mech 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 times 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 Mech 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 elemental Carmine mech 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 Promethea 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 mech designer! "The designs of the basic variants of Woodsap mechs 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 mechs 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 means. They will definitely be the best possible Carmine mechs that your norms can pilot once they become 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 came to controlling their costs. Ves and his Terran collaborators deliberately set out to prioritize quality over quantity. The Woodsap mechs had to represent the Terrans at their best, hence why it became taboo to develop a more ’affordable’ and ’practical’ variant during the design process! If consumers wanted to pilot a cheap and easy-to-obtain Carmine mech, 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 mechs in terms of performance! While this sounded impossible due to how difficult it was for new and inexperienced Carmine mech pilots to control a mech as well as multiple weapon systems at the same time, 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 name for the old human body surrogate control system. The Hibiscus System was the current name 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 mech pilots to control their machines as if they were moving a larger version of their own body acquired such an elegant name. 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 mechs 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 become the most intuitive means of controlling mechs by far. This invention alone is enough to shock the entire mech community almost just as much as when you initially unveiled the Carmine System." This was not an exaggeration. Many prospective Carmine mech 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 time 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 mechs. 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 mechs 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 become lesser phase lords instead of mech 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 mechs ready for use when paired with norms! The only way to make them ready for actual combat was to pair them with existing mech pilots. However, that defeated the purpose of employing Carmine mechs. 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 mechs that lacked the restrictions and additional complications imposed by Carmine mechs. Whatever the case, the Hibiscus System was so powerful that Ves even thought about applying it to other mech 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 development. He did not understand its core biotechnical principles. His only meaningful contribution was helping to integrate it into the design of his Woodsap mechs. 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.