<h4>Chapter 3779 - Master Parian Hao</h4>


    Given that Cbast had just sent Ves a series of proposals on how to upgrade the Blinding Banshee, he decided to go on a little tour.


    Cbast guided him to different departments and went into a bit more detail on the performance of the various systems.


    "The strongest aspect of the Blinding Banshee is not her observation capabilities, but her ECM capabilities." She exined to Ves. "That is what she is named for. Her ability to scramble and disrupt enemy sensor and targeting systems across a wider area is good. Our ECM systems can severely degrade the coordination and observation capabilities of inferior enemies, causing them to lose up to 30 percent of their battle effectiveness depending on the circumstances."


    That was quite a huge difference! It could easily double or triple the winning chances of the expeditionary fleet!


    "The effect shouldn''t be as exaggerated in most cases I imagine."


    "Most modern military ships and mechs are equipped with measures that can mitigate our efforts. Biological creatures are also less affected by our solutions." Cbast admitted. "Power, distance and tech disparity are the major factors that determine the effectiveness of our ECM capabilities. We cannot control for distance, but we can still upgrade the power supply and other tech in order to bridge the various gaps. As long as we are able to close the technological gap, we will be able to save hundreds if not thousands of lives in a future battle."


    This was not an empty boast. Ves recalled that the Blinding Banshee''s sudden hacking and ECM measures had yed a key role in tipping the bnce in the Golden Skull Alliance''s favor during the Battle of Fordi Zentra.


    The various dwarven capital ships and mech units lost contact with each other while their ability to keep track of developments across the battlefield diminished.


    Although the Blinding Banshee''s sabotage had be a lot more effective than usual due to smuggling Secret Agent Lucky aboard the enemy gship, the vessel still managed to prove her value in a battle!


    Thinking about how extensively the Blinding Banshee was able to toy with enemy forces at the time suddenly gave Ves a burst of inspiration.


    He halted as he thought about starting a substantially different mech design project than his previous works.


    ECM mechs were one of the moremon auxiliary mechs inrger battles. They could y a variety of useful roles such as cutting off themunications of nearby mech units and preventing ranged mechs from gaining urate targeting data.


    While the Blinding Banshee reduced the demand for such mechs, the former was just a single vessel. She was too fragile for the Larkinsons to bring her closer to the frontlines of any engagement.


    In these kinds of situations, a mech closer to thebat units could provide a lot of utility. It was the same kind of argument that justified the addition of the Light Hunter and Signal Bearer models to the Larkinson Army.


    "You''re thinking about designing a new mech, aren''t you? Learning about our ECM capabilities must have set you off." Cbast observantly remarked.


    He gave her a rueful smile in response. "You know me too well. Since you''re the expert in this field, let me ask you this. What is a good ECM mech?"


    "That depends." She replied as she crossed her arms. "There is no single ECM mech configuration that excels in any situation. There are models that perform decently well in a variety of functions. There are models that specialize in blockingmunication signals. There are models that can scramble many short-ranged sensor systems. There are even mechs that are best suited to negate the enemy''s ECM measures. Before you decide what your ECM mech design should excel at, you should first define its purpose and role on the battlefield."


    Ves had been rather sudden about his intentions to design an ECM mech. Starting a new mech design project was a process in itself. Before the Design Department seriouslymitted to starting a new project, the mech designers had to make sure they did all of their homework!


    Trying toe up with a new mech concept rted to a specialty that Ves hadn''t seriously yed around with was quite premature!


    "I may know about mechs, but I haven''t studied this specialized mech type in depth." He inly admitted to Cbast. "Help me out here. Give me suggestions. Since our uing design round revolves aroundmercial mech designs, I want toe up with a good ECM mech concept that can achieve a high sales volume."


    "That is going to be a challenge." The spymaster said as she led Ves to one of her offices aboard the espionage ship.


    Once they entered a privatepartment where they could discuss matters behind closed doors, Cbast activated her desk terminal and projected a few examples of existing ECM mech models.


    "This is a selection of second-ss mech models that aremonly sold in Davute and other markets. As far as I know, each of them are popr because they offer the highest performance at eptable prices. They''re not the most-efficient mech models, but customers can count on them to do their jobs without fail. Specific models alsoe with highly desirable advantages granted by their mech designers, who are often teams of Masters."


    Cbast presented a handful of mainstream mech models that had recently been released in the Red Ocean. Not only were they designed with local materials and production limitations in mind, they also benefited from the specialties of two to five coboration Master Mech Designers!


    Such amazing mechsprise the dominant products in any mech market, not just the one for ECM mechs.


    Under ordinary circumstances, Ves didn''t need to think aboutpeting with these huge sellers directly. Master Mech Designers neverpletely crowded out the mech market. They often priced their mechs higher in order to reflect their value and effectiveness, so mechs that offered inferior performance still had a ce as long as they weren''t overpriced.


    However, the Red Ocean''s mech market was anything but normal right now. The concentration of elite mech designers, the difficulty in procuring resources and theck of stability in most regions led to abnormal conditions that made it much more difficult for younger mech designers to start their own businesses in the new frontier!


    Just the fact that most independent mech designers simply weren''t able to buy the majority of resources needed to produce mechs had stifled the ecosystem at the bottom of the mech industry!


    Ambitious Apprentices and Journeymen had little choice but to join arger organization in order to practice their craft. Without any connections and backing, it was far too difficult for them to get started!


    Ves had already taken these challenges into ount when he nned out hismercial mech design projects. He was confident that his design philosophy and the promise of actively fostering the growth of mech pilots might be enough to get his foot in the door.


    However, the market for ECM mechs was not as easy to enterpared to the market for ordinarybat mechs.


    For one, Ves wasn''t specialized in this field. None of the lead designers in the Design Department excelled in ECM systems either!


    While Ves recalled that a few assistant mech designers had chosen to excel in this area, he wasn''t sure about involving them to a significant degree.


    At the very least, he and his fellow Journeymen needed to do the heavy lifting.


    Ves and Cbast spent a bit of time on swapping their opinions on the mainstream mech models that were popr in the Red Ocean.


    Cbast brought a particr line of ECM mechs to his attention.


    "The Xaxu Specter line sold by Tiamon Dynamics is often used as the reference that all ECM mechs should be measured against in Krakatoa. It''s a collection of highly simr mechs sold by arge mechpany called Tiamon Dynamics."


    Ves already utilized his imnt to call up basic information on the mechpany and its lead designer.


    Tiamon Dynamics was led by a single Master Mech Designer called Parian Hao.


    Interestingly enough, Parian Hao was not a man or a woman anymore. Their exact gender was unclear, but that did not change the fact that they excelled at designing certain types of mechs!


    Though Ves had never heard of them, Master Hao had already developed a notable reputation in the old gxy and was quickly making a name for themselves in the new frontier.


    Having sold off all of their assets in the old gxy, Master Hao decisively moved their entire mechpany and as many willing personnel as they could gather over to the Kach System in the Red Ocean.


    The Kach System was a port system that was located in a different part of the Krakatoa Middle Zone. It was founded by a different group of pioneering organizations and directlypeted against the Davute System.


    ording to their record, Master Parian Hao specialty was Signal Fidelity Amplification.


    Ves wasn''t sure what that exactly meant. From the brief description he read, he found out that Master Hao''s best products were theirmunication mechs.


    Themunication mechs sold by Tiamon Dynamics were so good atmunication that they were able to keep their channels online even if they were deployed on highly active and confusings!


    They were essential products for any mech force that sought to explore dangerouss and hazardous star fields.


    While there were starships that could do better in this regard, it was quite impressive for small andpactmunication mechs to be able to keep talking to each other under a variety of difficult circumstances.


    Cbast did not highlight these particr offerings of Tiamon Dynamics, though.


    She instead directed his attention to the Xaxu Specter line of ECM mechs.


    The reading material on these mechs was surprisinglyrge.


    "The Xaxu Specter models designed in coboration with Master Parian Hao and Master Rievan Millere in over fifty different current variants." Cbast revealed. "They all revolve around the same idea of an ECM mech that is good at maintaining friendlymunications while simultaneously interfering with enemymunications. The variants just appeal to customers with slightly different needs."


    That was an understatement. Ves waspletely dazzled by the sheer amount of variants that Master Hao and Master Miller published around a single base model!


    There were variants that specialized in different functions. One excelled in jamming at short range. Another excelled breaking enemy stealth systems.


    There were also variants that differed by the environment they were meant to operate. There were Xaxu Specter variants that were optimized for spaceborn, aerial andndbound deployment. The pair of Masters had even released variants that operated best on heavy gravitys and in amphibian environments!


    If that wasn''t enough, each of these specialized variants were further differentiated by their price categories. There were models that were priced for the mid-ranged market, the premium market and the super-luxury premier market!


    Thetter category was special as customers could directly approach Tiamon Dynamics to design customized variants of their ultra luxury purchases!


    Stars practically spun in front of his eyes as Ves briefly became overwhelmed by Tiamon Dynamic''s expansive market approach.


    The mechpany did not care at all about the fact that it sold fifty different versions of the same base model!


    Its manufacturingplexes could easily switch from producing one variant to another variant. The different Xaxu Specter variants were mostly the same anyway. The Masters had taken great care in keeping as manyponents identical as possible.


    The way that Tiamon Dynamics conducted business was a noteworthy example to Ves. While he wasn''t sure if he wanted his Living Mech Corporation to adopt a simr business model, he could certainly recognize the merits to offering so many choices to a customer base.


    Once Ves got over the sheer amount of variants developed by Hao, Miller and their humongous design teams, he studied the most normal and bnced Xaxu Specter variant in greater detail.