The suggestion to scout useful mech designers and other notable helpers sounded intriguing to Ves.

Now that he thought about it, many of the refugees fled in haste. They came from all walks of life, but because of the crisis they had all devolved into confused and frightened humans.

The sandman did not discriminate by wealth, class, rank or profession. The tides of sand washed over everyone regardless of their human qualities!

He briefly checked his comm to research his options.

A problem quickly emerged. He found out that he couldn't just hop into a shuttle and fly to one of the many recently-built farming settlements to pick up a useful refugee or two or something.

Only approved vehicles were allowed to approach the settlements!

The government strictly wanted to cordon them off until they systematically processed the destitute foreigners!

"This is a policy from the central government, so it's not possible to gain access by bribing the local politicians." Ves noted. "I think they want first dibs on the talents and highly-skilled people."

Ketis tilted her head. "Can't we just sneak inside and smuggle out the people we want?"

"We'll get into legal trouble if we do that. The government hasn't sorted the refugees yet, but they did perform some basic registrations, which included taking names, images, blood samples and etc. We'll be in a fair amount of trouble if our actions get exposed."

"Why not ask for a favor from the central government?" Gloriana suggested. "Didn't you say that the Bright Republic sees you as an asset now? Something as small as claiming a number of refugees is trivial in their eyes. Out of the billions and maybe trillions of refugees your state received, I don't think they'll mind letting a handful of them go beforehand."

"Hmm.. I think you have a point. This might be a hidden opportunity for those with connections or favored by the Republic to obtain some benefits."

The state definitely wouldn't quibble since they already employed a lot of talents. What the government probably wanted to achieve was to reward the power players who made the courageous decision to support the Bright Republic in its time of need.

"I'll tell Benny to make the arrangements." Ves stated and composed a quick message to Gavin.

He saw no need to contact the relevant officials in person, though he suggested his assistant to approach Leland first. Flashlight alone could probably accomplish the job.

Gavin and Leland belonged to the same side anyway, so Ves did not expect any problems from that end.

"Damn spies." He muttered.

"What was that, Ves?"

"Ah, nothing. Anyway, let's leave the refugee recruitment aside for the moment. Regardless if we manage to recruit a couple of new mech designers, we still have to integrate them into our organization. That will take a month or so at least. So for now, let's just assume it's just the three of us working on the three variant projects."

That was a paltry amount of manpower for three different projects. Even if the Prideful Soldier required relatively little work, the other two variants could have been standalone mech designs due to all of the work they demanded.

Time management was a very important aspect of project management. Ves was very well aware that the sandman invasion imposed very harsh time constraints on any mech designer.

Mech pilots needed his new variants as soon as possible! The longer it took for him to complete their designs, the more opportunities he missed to expand his influence!

After an extensive discussion, Ves and the other two mech designers formed a basic plan.

First, they would allocate a single week to design and release the Prideful Soldier.

Second, they would work concurrently on the Militant Soldier and the Peaceful Soldier project. Although both of them were very different projects that required different approaches, Ves believed he could manage to juggle two of the projects at once.

"It will be a bit challenging for us to match our mental focus on the right project at the right times." Ves warned Ketis and Gloriana. "However, this is also a form of training for us. Maintaining concentration is one of the key demands of working on projects where I'm involved."

Both of them had worked with Ves long enough to realize this condition. The girls were also smart enough to infer some of the things that Ves only hinted at. Gloriana especially caught on fast due to her unwavering belief in his abilities.

"We'll have to alternate on the projects in unison." Gloriana remarked. "If Ves and I work separately, then we won't be able to achieve the synergy we want. Ketis here can make some checks and refinements on the other project in the meantime. What do the two of you think?"

Ves strongly agreed, though Ketis appeared more reluctant. She was pretty much being sidelined, but that was also because her design ability couldn't catch up to the two Journeymen.

Overall, he was fine with this approach. While juggling multiple projects at the same time imposed a mental burden on all of them, sometimes it was better to pause working on a project.

The extra time allowed them to reflect over their design choices even if they worked on something else.

There was no room for patient deliberation if they constantly rushed to complete a single project at a time. A lengthy pause would just extend the time of completion.

"Alright!" Ves clapped with a smile. "Now that we formed a plan, let's get to work! We should tackle the Prideful Soldier first!"

Ves reread the document sent by the Ministry of Defense.

"The goal of the Prideful Soldier is to develop an alternative to the Dutiful Soldier. Mindef has outlined some suggestions, but we don't have to follow all of them. The only basic requirements that we have to follow is to make it cheaper and less obnoxious than the base model."

"What does it mean to make a less obnoxious design?" Gloriana asked in confusion.

"Think of the target audience of this variant. It has to be made suitable for the thugs and lowlives of the mech community. Think of gangs, dark mercenaries, underground organizations and even pirates!"

"Even pirates?!" She gasped.

She wasn't the only one who looked shocked. The four Larkinson seeds all became frightened at the mere mention of this dirty word!

As for Ketis, she controlled her reaction as well. Her interest had obviously been piqued, but she did her best to camouflage her true feelings on the matter.

"Even pirates." Ves slowly repeated, emphasizing the seriousness of the matter. "Right now, a lot of pirate gangs that used to prey on human trade vessels and settlements are no different from us, victims of the sandman invasion. While many of them have fled to the inner star sector, plenty of them have decided to stick around and fight the sandmen for whatever reason. The Bright Republic and many other states have offered amnesty to those who are willing to put their lives at risk to defeat the sandmen!"

Everyone gasped. It was unthinkable for all of them to forgive the heartless pirates. The MTA and CFA always demolished them on sight whenever they encountered the cruel and lawless scum!

"Are you surprised?" Ves raised his eyebrow. "You shouldn't be. The third and fourth line of defense are probably going to be pushed to the brink. If ten thousand pirate mechs are added to the frontlines, then that can make a crucial difference! Every mech counts!"

He knew almost as well as Ketis that pirates differed enormously from each other. Some were pure scum and filth. Others were noble but helpless in their lot in life. Ves did not mind if the latter redeemed themselves in the fight against the sandmen.

At this stage, the Bright Republic couldn't afford to quibble over the legal status of those who could assist!

Every mech counted!

"Do pirates even want to purchase our mech?" Ketis asked. "Usually, many pirate gangs are rather poor. They like to reuse older mechs because they don't have the funds to purchase new ones. Now that many of them have fled from the frontier or their home bases, It's very likely that they've been forced to abandon some of their wealth."

"The Prideful Soldier ought to be 25 percent cheaper than the base model. That amounts to 15 million bright credits at pre-inflation prices."

That would put it in the lower end of the budget price range. Such a price was still a short distance away from bargain bin territory, which was what pirates usually preferred.

Ketis immediately shook her head. "Too expensive."

"I'm not going to make the Prideful Soldier any cheaper, Ketis. That would mean a more extensive overhaul which we can't afford right now. Besides, the Prideful Soldier mainly targets established gangs and underground organizations. The government wants to mobilize as much of them as possible to assist in the defense."

That made the price a bit more reasonable.

Making the mech cheaper not only allowed more people to buy a product of the Soldier line, but also ensured they wouldn't get anything too good. A 25 percent reduction in cost meant that its performance would also sink.

When Prideful Soldiers were pitted against Desolate Soldiers, the latter would always win handedly. Considering that the latter was also favored by legitimate groups, this was exactly what the government wanted.

The Prideful Soldiers only had to be decent enough to fight against the sandmen! Anything else was not important!

The second major change that Ves had to implement was altering its obnoxiously pure aura. To do that, Ves would have to tinker with the X-Factor.

He already had a few ideas he wanted to implement immediately.

He first tasked Gloriana and Ketis with finding cheaper substitute components to license. The two women sat behind a terminal and browsed the MTA's virtual catalog, leaving Ves alone to perform his own assignment.

Ever since he first heard about MinDef's assignment, he already settled on his choice on how to tweak the X-Factor of the Prideful Soldier.

"It's pretty much in the name." He smirked and patted his overcoat.

He concentrated his mind and focused on the spiritual fragment residing in his clothing. Zeigra's perpetually-angry spiritual fragment still hated Ves to the bone.

"It's time to pay some rent, boy."

Ves effortlessly shaped a spiritual projection into a knife and cut a very delicate amount of spiritual energy from the fragment. The mote of spirituality he obtained from Zeigra was very small, but sufficient for his purposes.

He stored the mote in his mind and began to construct some extra images to influence what kind of flavors he wanted to add to the Prideful Soldier.

Pride. Aggression. Contempt.

Ves infused these abstract images with a hefty dose of spiritual energy, giving them a lot of weight. Once he was done, he wrapped them around Zeigra's spiritual mote so that they would all get used to each other.

"That was easy."

Ves only needed to take one final step before he was done arranging the design spirits of his variant. He decided to leave it to the end.

"This is the advantage of accumulation." Ves grinned. "I've already done most of the hard work beforehand."

The more design spirits he employed, the more he could mix and match them together in various ways.

He just had to build up his initial collection first. Once he formed thirty or so different design spirits, Ves no longer had to hunt for newer ones every time he wanted to design a new mech. He could just keep reusing his existing ones until he was faced with a situation where no spiritual entity, fragment or product fit the mech he wanted to design!

Of course, Ves was a long way from reaching that point. The only reason why he had it easier right now was that he was working on a variant instead of a completely new mech.