[401-600] THE MECH'S TOUCH

Chapter 437: Shifting Agendas

"On some days, I regret accepting Rofane into the fold." Melkor continued. "He's constantly pushing me to lift the restrictions on recruiting foreigners so he can hire more spaceborn spacers. I don't want to make the problem any worse than it is right now with him alone, so I've been fobbing him off."

"I'm not sure if Ves will mind too much if you recruit some people who come from another state. As long as they aren't Vesians and are willing to commit to the Avatars, they should be fine and dandy."

Melkor shook his head. "I can't take the risk, ma'am. Although Ves explicitly set up the Avatars of Myth to serve as his personal force, true loyalty can't be bought. We are much more like a mercenary corps in that regard. Nationality is the only thing we have in common. Once I throw that away, the Avatars would have nothing else to bind them all together."

As much as Melkor wanted to loosen the reins, he resisted the temptation. It was better to solve the problem over time rather than commit to an irreversible course of action.

"For now, we have no need for you to deploy the Avatars elsewhere, but that might change in the future."

For now, the Avatars of Myth had been tasked with defending the Mech Nursery. The lack of ships didn't affect their operations as long as they stuck to this mission.

Still, circumstances changed, and if a crisis ever happened in a different star system, the Avatars would be forced to rely on others to transport their mechs to their destination. This took way too much time and money, and transport services generally refused to convey a shipment of mechs into danger. This highlighted the eventual need to own a wholly-owned carrier fleet.

Now that he was here, Melkor might as well get some other things off his chest. "By the way, though I try to stay out of your business decisions, aren't you intertwining the LMC a little too deeply with Cloudy Curtain?"

Almost as soon as Ves entered the Mech Corps and dropped off the grid, Calsie implemented a fairly significant policy change within the company.

Under the reign of Ves, the LMC had always stood aloof from local politics and society. Besides settling on the planet, pushing some marketing and paying some taxes, the company didn't make itself felt.

Calsie changed all of that. She rejected the premise that the LMC benefited best if it took on a completely neutral stance. Instead, she firmly pushed the LMC into a path of greater integration and cooperation with local stakeholders.

This policy of engagement took on many forms. For example, as deep as the LMC was already in debt, it spared some cash to subsidize the underfunded mech academies of Freslin. The institutions all praised the LMC for the much-needed rain of funds.

On a higher level, the LMC also started to support some of the initiatives of the newly emboldened Pioneers, mostly by putting in a good word for the business-friendly activists. With the Greens and the White Doves suffering from an unprecedented amount of indignation, the Pioneers was at the cusp of taking over the thoroughly discredited Planetary Assembly.

To Melkor, the growing relationship between the LMC and the Pioneers started to reek.

"I don't have to justify my decisions to you, but if you must know, a company can't settle on a planet and pretend its a silo. The LMC is the most prominent company on Cloudy Curtain. How can it not give back to the community that has welcomed it with open arms?"

"I wouldn't exactly describe it in that way, ma'a'm."

"Then let me rephrase it in a blunter manner." Calsie spoke. "The politics are rather turbulent right now. While the Republic's investigators ultimately failed to find the culprits of the self-sabotage incident, everyone and their dogs know it's the White Doves who are at fault. While they can still rely on the support of hardcore pacifists, average people have left their side in droves. This is the time the Pioneers need to make their case. As long as we can help them overcome this hurdle, the LMC will be rewarded with countless of benefits!"