His assistant was right. While his Soldier product line may have lost their exclusivity, it had already made its mark in history!
"All of the history books about the Sand War will feature this sight! My Desolate Soldier model along with any derivatives will surely earn a place there!"
A very grand mood overcame Ves all of a sudden. As a mech designer, he always hoped he would be able to influence the development of states and the course of history through his products.
Before, Ves always got the sense that his mechs were just a few machines among many in the huge mech markets.
Now that his Desolate Soldier model achieved massive success, its influence reached a height that Ves could only dream about a few years ago!
"Is this what it feels to be immortalized?"
Every human wanted to be remembered. With an uncountable amount of humans living in the galaxy today, it was extraordinarily difficult to earn fame. It was even more difficult to be remembered after death.
While the Desolate Soldiers only affected a single star sector, Ves already knew that it would probably become known for years in the states that survived the Sand War.
To Ves and the LMC, that amounted to a massive publicity coup!
After Ves calmed down a bit, he checked up with the LMC and learned that they had already formed a plan to capitalize on this trend.
"Good. The people working in my company aren't good-for-nothings."
When Ves cuddled up with Gloriana sometime later at the Cloud Estate, they shared their thoughts on the matter.
"It's pretty remarkable how this idea of yours caught on so much." Gloriana said admiringly while she leaned against him. "Did you plan to spread this trend so widely?"
Ves chuckled. "I wish! All of my mechs feature a particle generator. I've always used these components to enhance the look of my mechs. I came up with the idea of leaving behind a lingering trail because I didn't want to add anything too ostentatious to what is supposed to be an affordable mech. It's only because my mechs are fielded in such large numbers all of a sudden that the Stripes of Humanity became a sector-wide phenomenon!"
The Stripes of Humanity rapidly dominated the news cycle. Many battles that ordinarily seemed depressing suddenly gained an inspirational quality due to the proliferation of so many colored trails!
"Perhaps this will be the first of many trends started by you." Gloriana said hopefully as she leaned her head over his chest. "You're such a creative mech designer that I'm sure you'll dazzle the galaxy once everyone gets to know you. Mechs like yours shouldn't be confined to a single star sector."
Ves softly leaned in to smell his girlfriend's lovely scent and kiss her head. "That's my hope, Gloriana."
As the two lovebirds continued to cuddle with each other, several kilometers away, a shimmering form crept up to the Cloud Estate through a picturesque forest.
Since the Cloud Estate was built atop a hill, it took a fair bit of climbing to reach the estate grounds. Mechs and other security measures constantly scoured the vicinity, thereby leaving no stone unturned.
Just as the invisible form took another step, it suddenly collapsed to the ground!
A smaller form shimmered into view. Lucky crawled up to the form it had just clawed and chewed on something invisible.
Soon, the cloaking field disappeared, revealing a man clad in a very sophisticated infiltrator suit. A backpack carrying the components of a gauss rifle was mounted on the dead man's back.
Once Lucky made sure the man was very much dead, the gem cat began to devour any hard metal objects on the body. He did not even let off the entire backpack!
"Meow~" Lucky squinted his eyes in delight.
"Miaow."
Clixie jumped out of a tree and landed on the ground in a graceful posture. With her tail raised in curiosity, she approached the corpse and licked the puddle of blood.
"Miaow!"
The Rubarthan Sentinel Cat spat out the blood and hissed in disgust. When Clixie gazed at Lucky, she arrogantly raised her head and padded away!
Unlike Lucky who was content with eating literal garbage, Clixie only ate the finest cat food from Gloriana!
"Meow?" Lucky opened his eyes to look at his departing companion.
"Miaow Miaow!"
"Meow."
Lucky simply returned to munching his spoils of war.
Only when he was done with his meal did the gem cat depart back to the Cloud Estate.
As soon as the cat went out of sight, a patrol of Living Sentinels who had already arrived beforehand approached the corpse.
"The cat could have left some evidence behind." A guard grumbled as he inspected the infiltrator's body.
A superior knocked the guard on the head. "Don't talk nonsense. You know these sneaky types don't leave any incriminating evidence on their bodies."
This was the sixth infiltrator that Lucky had caught. The Living Sentinels long stopped asking questions on how the cat was able to detect intruders far in advance of the Living Sentinels or the Glory Battalion!
The fact that these infiltrators were equipped well enough to evade the detection methods of the Glory Battalion meant that the culprit was very powerful! The infiltrator had likely been despatched by a power from a second-rate state!
"Okay, let's clean up this mess and file up a report. Commander Magdalena will have something else to report to our boss tomorrow."
The patrol expertly removed the body and cleaned up the traces. Soon, the site appeared as pristine as before.
Yet another attempt to infiltrate the Cloud Estate and assassinate Ves had failed.