Chapter 2536: Design Department Changes (2/2)
Ves turned his head to his companion. ”Stiffen up. You're a soldier, aren't you? You're a Journeyman, just like her. The Penitent Sisters have fought against pirates mechs and warships without flinching. Will you shame your sisters by showing cowardice in front of another woman?”
The Penitent Sister's body froze. Ves was right. The Penitent Sisters had shown undaunted courage and valor throughout the Nyxian Gap Campaign. No matter how many sisters perished, none of the exiled Hexers ever broke!
Yet defying Gloriana was easier said than done. If there was one weakness the Penitent Sisters possessed, it was that they were never able to show strength towards other Hexers.
The Hexadric Hegemony held the power of life and death over them once. Though Gloriana wasn't an extension of the Hexer state, she was the closest thing to a proxy in this situation. She even had the Glory Seekers at her beck and call!
Right now, aside from the Cross Clan, the Glory Seekers possessed the greatest might in the Cinach System. On the other hand, the Larkinson Clan wasn't able to exert that much strength anymore as it was in the process of drawing down its third-class assets.
How could the Penitent Sisters hold their heads high in this situation? Despite their common origins, the Glory Seekers did not regard the Penitent Sisters as their own! In fact, it was the opposite!
Every Penitent Sister knew that if they made one wrong move, the Glory Seekers might take the initiative to wipe them out, their affiliation to the Larkinson Clan be damned!
Though Ves was vaguely aware of this dynamic as well, he didn't think the situation could deteriorate to this extent. Relations between the Wodin Dynasty and the Larkinson Clan would instantly sour and his marriage with Gloriana might fall apart as a result.
The Wodins would never let such a disaster come to pass!
Therefore, Ves bet that no matter how he interacted with the Penitent Sisters, Gloriana and her guard dogs wouldn't do anything.
The Penitent Sisters may possess a troubling history, but that was in the past. As far as he was concerned, the former Hexers were Larkinsons now. Since they were his clansmen now, Ves had an obligation to treat them as warmly as his own kind.
Once the pair of mech designers approached the front, Ves turned around to face the assistants.
He gestured to the woman he brought into the Design Lab.
”This is Miss Juliet Stameros, a Journeyman Mech Designer from the Hexadric Hegemony. She is a graduate of the Artemis Institute in her former state. That means that she is a real second-class mech designer. Her specialty is high-mobility flight systems. Given these qualifications, I have decided to appoint Miss Stameros as the third lead designer Design Department, effective from today.”
He really went through with his intentions! Despite Gloriana's darkening expression, Ves pretended as if his wife didn't exist at this time as he began to unveil some procedural and administrative changes as a result of the latest addition.
The sudden changes to the hierarchy of the Design Department necessitated a lot of new rules! No longer were Ves and Gloriana able to command their assistants as casually as before. They needed more structure in place so that the department would continue to run smoothly even if some irregularities took place.
”We will be adopting a different project schedule for this round.” He announced. ”Due to our growing need for second-class mech designs, we will temporarily stop working on minor design projects. For the next round, we will all be working on six major design projects. Since the workload is much greater for all of us, I've decided to raise the time limit from four months to six months. Within half a year, I expect us all to complete six different second-class mech design projects!”
Six second-class mech designs!
Just half a year of time!
Many assistants couldn't help but gasp when they heard the news. The challenges were much greater this time! None of the Braves or Erudites were truly up to the task of designing a second-class mech as of yet. Even if they were relegated to an assisting function, they needed to work much harder and draw on a much greater body of knowledge in order to perform even the most trivial of tasks!
Sure, the Design Department had two more months to complete the design projects, but the magnitude of work was much greater.
With just two Journeyman Mech Designers at the helm, it was extremely doubtful whether the mech designers of the LMC could complete so many projects at the same time.
This was when everyone began to shift their gazes to Juliet Stameros.
Only the addition of a third Journeyman would allow them to finish their projects within the time limit!
Ves smiled in satisfaction as the Braves and Erudites began to look at Juliet in a more positive light.
Through applying pressure, he easily manipulated his assistants into regarding Juliet as their savior and helper instead of an interloper. Whatever negative influence Gloriana exerted to them became a lot less effective.
One of the lessons that every Larkinson learned was that they should always aim to complete their assignments! If they were late or failed to performed their assigned tasks, they might miss out on earning precious Larkinson merits.
No one wanted this to happen!
The Larkinson Merit Exchange that Ves had set up added more and more valuable goods and services to its redemption list. There was definitely something for everyone!
Ves clapped. ”As you can imagine, designing six second-class mech designs at once is quite cumbersome. This is why Gloriana and I will share ultimate responsibility for the design projects with Miss Stameros. While she is still unaccustomed to working here, I have high expectations for her. Every lead designer will soon be in charge of leading two design projects each.”
This meant that Ves, Gloriana and Juliet would only have to pay attention to two projects instead of all six. Of course, this did not mean that they were supposed to isolate their projects from each other.
An LMC mech was not an LMC mech if it did not possess any life. Ves played an essential role in applying his design philosophy to all six upcoming mech designs.
In the same fashion, Gloriana was indispensable when it came to optimizing and elevating the performance of the mech designs.
As for Juliet, her role was a bit more specialized. It was her task to empower and maximize the performance of the flight systems of every mech design. In fact, her specialty actually encompassed some smaller mobility systems as well such as modular thrusters and boosters.
Since every second-class mech including the landbound kind possessed at least some form of extra propulsion, Juliet could still play a role in the design of mechs devoid of flight systems.
Even if that somehow wasn't possible, the fact that she was a Journeyman meant that she could already handle many other aspects of a mech. It was just that the areas that fell outside of her specialty wouldn't be as remarkable.
That was okay. The third lead designer wasn't supposed to excel in every area. What mattered more was how much value they could impart in a mech design when they pooled their respective specialties together.
Ves truly looked forward to how much faster and more agile his next products would be! With the addition of Juliet, it was the perfect time for the LMC to develop a lot of new light mechs!