The Mech Touch

by welldarn

Just posting this here so I can listen to it while I'm at work. I obviously don't own this work. If you are looking for the previous 175 chapters look up the User: Srtyi.

49. Chapters 2601-2650

Chapter 2601: Gorgoneion

The Giant Killer was by far the strongest and most expensive mech design in development. None of the other five mech designs could match the extravagance that Ves wanted to lavish on the Penitent Sisters.

Despite the formidable firepower that Ves intended to integrate into the Giant Killer, he and Juliet had to make several compromises over the course of the design process.

This wasn't a big deal. With how much money Ves invested into the design, the Giant Killer still possessed enough armor and mobility to be useful in space.

There were two downsides that Ves and Juliet weren't effectively able to address.

undefinedThe Sarun rounds were so big and massive that the Giant Killer wasn't capable of carrying a lot of ammunition. It also cost a lot of energy to accelerate these rounds at very high speeds.

The other downside was its range constraints.

Kinetic weapons generally fared worse at longer ranges, and this was especially the case in space. Each additional millisecond it took for a round to travel from the barrel of a gun to its intended target lowered the chance that it would actually hit the mark.

When this interval increased to five seconds or longer, the chance of hitting any somewhat agile mechs in space was practically minimal!

This meant that the Giant Killer did not excel at long-range sniping. It might do okay against huge capital ships, but there was no way it could realistically hit an enemy mech that was aware of the threat.

"This mech isn't so stellar up close either."

As a cannoneer mech, it did not possess any inherent melee combat capabilities. While Ves could supply it with a backup sword and a modest buckler, its fighting capabilities at point-blank range simply couldn't match that of a melee mech that was five times cheaper!

Therefore, the Giant Killer had to be deployed in combination with other mechs in order to prevent enemies from getting too close.

In particular, cannoneer mechs such as the Giant Killer were known to perform exceptionally poorly against light skirmishers!

"The Giant Killer works best against resilient but relatively immobile targets." Juliet summed up. "It is also a capable siege mech against starships and space stations."

"The Transcendent Punisher is even better at performing this role."

"True, sir, but the Giant Killer can be deployed in flanks and far away from our fleet. It can also be deployed in atmospheric conditions, though don't expect too much of its aerial capabilities."

That was still better than the Transcendent Punisher which was basically a turret that could move at crawling speeds!

While atmospheric combat was not as important as spaceborn combat to the Larkinson Clan, Ves recognized the Giant Killer had a lot of potential if deployed on a planet.

While the mech's underpowered legs meant that it moved slowly on land, as long as the local gravity wasn't strong enough, it was capable of flying in the air!

Sure, the Giant Killer wouldn't win any races, but its powerful and expensive flight system was more than capable of lifting its heavy bulk for a decent amount of time!

This was quite a challenge to Ves, but Juliet excelled in implementing these kinds of features. Her mobility-oriented design philosophy allowed her to propose solutions that made sure the Giant Killer was able to fly as fast and nimbly as possible in space and under atmospheric conditions!

During one design session, Juliet revealed something important to Ves.

"I've been speaking with Commander Chancy and some other Penitent Sister mech pilots. They're not accustomed to piloting cannoneer mechs. Our ranged mech pilots will need to undergo additional training in order to pilot a mech like the Giant Killer. It will take months if not years to get used to its characteristics."

"Do you think this will be a problem?" Ves asked.

"Not necessarily. Our mech pilots are very skilled and cannoneer mechs are pretty similar to rifleman mechs. The Giant Killer is relatively easy to learn but difficult to master. It's just that it is too unwieldy to fit in the Penitent Sister combat doctrine. Our mech pilots prefer to pilot mobile, assault-oriented mechs in battle. We like to be aggressive and want to punch our enemy hard. If we can outflank our enemy, then that is even better."

"The Giant Killer is not supposed to be a burden." Ves replied. "I know its design is somewhat at odds with the mobile fighting style of the Penitent Sisters, but the firepower it possesses is more than worth it. As long as your mech pilots are able to gain the Superior Mother's help, then I can scarcely imagine the results!"

His body shook with anticipation. He couldn't wait to see the Giant Killer in action at its full strength. When the Penitent Sister battle network engaged with both the mech pilots along with their living mechs, the resulting amplification should not be as simple as 1 + 1.

"This will definitely produce a lot of synergy!"

In fact, Ves even believed that it would open an entirely new door with regards to empowering his mechs!

Though the requirements were strict, as long as his mech pilots were cohesive enough, they should each be able to employ fully-powered battle formations in battle.

His ultimate ambition was to provide a signature mech to every mech force aside from the Living Sentinels. The Giant Killer was just the first of its kind!

"Hopefully, Ketis will advance to Journeyman soon. As long as she solidifies her design philosophy, she's qualified to design a swordsman mech that will massively empower the Swordmaidens."

It was enough to design one signature mech for each mech force. While Ves could design additional mechs that synergized well with battle networks, he was a bit reluctant to do so. The biggest downside to employing battle formations was that they rapidly drained the mental endurance of mech pilots. Once the Penitent Sisters or the Swordmaidens unleashed their power, they became too weak to continue the fight.

This was why the Larkinson Clan had to make sure the battle formations were used at the right time. If the enemy wasn't finished off by the time the battle formations lost steam, then a lot of Larkinson mechs would turn into sitting ducks!

As Ves devoted much of his remaining time on his mech design projects, he also paid enough attention to some other developments.

One of the most important issues facing the Larkinson Clan was how it intended to expand its fleet.

For now, the Larkinsons were done with acquiring sub-capital ships. It possessed enough combat carriers to cross through multiple star clusters.

What truly mattered to Ves and his clansmen was acquiring additional capital ships. So far, the clan hadn't made any solid moves in this regard, but this was not the wisest decision.

As Ves entered a compartment that was claimed by the Larkinson Clan's new Naval Design Department, he entered a smaller office occupied by its department head.

Vivian Tsai had adjusted well to her new job. She had joined the Larkinson Clan without issue and had even hired a bunch of shipwrights and naval engineers to form a design team of her own.

Her desk lit up with various projections of design schematics. As Ves passed through the entrance and took his seat, the chief ship designer looked up from her schematics.

"Ah, welcome to the Naval Design Department, patriarch." She greeted. "We've been hard at work trying to come up with some viable ship design concepts in the past few months. We have explored enough ideas now that we could use your input on which of them we should flesh out. The sooner we complete a design, the sooner we can place an order at a shipyard that is along our route. Do take into account that it typically takes a year to build a decent-sized capital ship. You need to plan ahead in order to prevent our fleet from lingering in a star system because we are forced to wait until we have received our order."

Ves nodded in understanding. "I'm aware of that. This is also why it's important for us to obtain our capital ships as soon as possible. If we wait too long, we might have to delay our passage through the beyonder gate. I want to avoid this outcome. Anyway, let's proceed with the ship concepts. Introduce them to me. Start with what you think is the most essential capital ship we need to add to our fleet."

The former Majestic Tealer took a deep breath. Ever since she accepted the officer to become the highest-ranking shipwright of the Larkinson Clan, she assumed a lot of responsibility.

Her work would define the Larkinson fleet for decades and centuries to come! Each capital ship she realized would play a very important role. They determined how the Larkinsons lived, fought and moved in space.

She waved her hand, causing all of her incomplete schematics to disappear. Instead, a different and more presentable ship design appeared in view.

As Ves studied the schematics, he immediately realized that they depicted a large and bulky capital ship. The proposed vessel was clad with an abundant amount of armor, and also incorporated some very unusual elements that he had never seen in a starship design.

"What am I looking at, exactly?"

Vivian smiled. "I think that both of us agree that the first capital ship we should acquire is a fleet carrier. We need a solid combat-oriented capital ship that can not only carry mechs, but also offer solid cover in areas where there is no cover in sight. The Gorgoneion is designed to meet the Larkinson Clan's most acute combat needs."

"Hmmm.." Ves rubbed his smooth-shaven chin as he tried to glean more details from the Gorgoneion's draft design. "If I'm reading it correctly, this fleet carrier has a lot of mass."

"That's correct, sir." Vivian nodded. "The Gorgoneion is explicitly designed to resist damage. In her normal configuration, she boasts decent all-round damage resistance."

"She has another configuration?"

"Yes. See here." Vivian pointed at the strange sections that contained a lot of huge mechanical parts. "These parts allow the Gorgoneion to 'unfold' her exterior and form a solid, directional barrier in space. The simplest way to describe this function is that the Gorgoneion is able to transform from a moving ship into an immobile wall or fortification."

"This.. sounds quite intriguing. I can see how that can be useful, but what makes this wall configuration worth the trouble?"

"Right now, our fleet is fairly mobile, but we don't have a ship that can offer defenses comparable to the Gorgoneion. With this fleet carrier, we have an answer against enemies that are faster than us and determined to lock us in battle."

She tapped the projection. The depiction of the Gorgoneion shifted in form as her armor plating shifted in place.

In some areas, the heavy plating left their original positions. In other areas, nearby plating layered on top of each other in order to beef up their sections.

What was particularly notable to Ves was that all of the shifting resulted in a wall that was anything but simple.

Their transformed Gorgoneion not only featured a good amount of bunkers, but also featured small gaps that served as gun ports. These clever holes in the wall allowed a lot of ranged mechs to fire their weapons behind almost complete cover.

Ves was very impressed by the thoughtfulness of this configuration!

"This looks quite impressive. I can see that there are some downsides to this wall configuration. It offers some defense against attacks from the side, but it doesn't offer any protection against attacks from the rear."

"That is unfortunately the case. It is better not to engage the wall configuration if we are attacked from multiple sides. The Gorgoneion in this mode fares best if the enemy attacks from a single direction."

Ves grimaced a bit. "Once our enemies are aware of the characteristics of the Gorgoneion, they will make sure to attack us from multiple angles."

"That is possible, but the fact that the Gorgoneion is able to increase the difficulty of attacking our fleet is already valuable in itself."

"Hmm. You have a point. How many mechs does she carry?"

Chapter 2602: City Wall In Space

One of the most dangerous aspects about space battles was the lack of cover.

Unlike on the surface of a planet where hills, valleys, urban structures and man-made fortifications could easily provide combatants protection against attacks, in most parts of space there was nothing but vacuum.

These empty pockets of spacetime contained nothing aside from errant space dust and background radiation.

Suffice to say, it was impossible for mechs and ships to take cover behind infinitesimally small bits of matter and incorporeal light.

undefinedAside from battles that took place in the orbit of a satellite or in the middle of an asteroid belt, a lot of battles devolved into straightforward slugfests. With an extremely simple three-dimensional battlefield, there were only so many tactics that enemies could deploy.

One of the most problematic threats that a fleet could face was getting sieged by an onslaught of long-ranged attacks. While kinetic weapons and other physical weapons tended to be horribly inaccurate due to the enormous ranges involved, the same did not necessarily apply directed energy weapons.

Positron weapons fired destructive beams of antimatter particles at relativistic speeds, which was pretty fast. Laser weapons were even more ridiculous as their damage output traveled at the speed of light!

When a laser beam traversed 300,000,000 meters a second, it became viable to snipe at distant targets at such ranges!

In practice, the effective range of laser weapons and positron weapons was not that extreme. The inherent manufacturing and design flaws of laser weapons and the instability of mechs as a firing platform meant that accuracy at such ranges simply couldn't be guaranteed. Just a minute jerk or vibration could easily cause a laser beam to miss a target by several kilometers or even more.

The ever-present threat of getting attacked from extreme ranges also led to a vigorous development of ECM and interference technology. Perhaps they weren't very effective at fooling the sensors of attackers up close, but their effect was quite good at such extreme distances!

Therefore, the effective range of distant sieging attacks was a lot shorter than everyone initially thought. Yet even if all of these complicated factors basically made it impossible to snipe small and difficult-to-hit mechs from an extreme distance, ships were not as fortunate!

Ves thought about all of the non-combat sub-capital ships the Larkinson Clan had acquired. These ranged from cargo haulers, logistical support vessels and even a handful of civilian passenger vessels that provided some of the comforts of ark ships to the clan's civilian population.

While they were cheap and fairly mobile, they were much larger than mechs. That made them very easy targets to snipe from afar. No matter how fast they could accelerate in space, their lumbering forms and the difficulty for ships to overcome their own inertia in order to change direction meant that they were relatively easy targets!

How could the Larkinson Clan defend against this kind of threat?

This was what Vivian Tsai wanted to solve.

"When we look at our current fleet composition, it is very much split in two." She explained as she summoned the familiar projection of their ship roster. "As you can see, we boast a good amount of combat carriers that can take a hefty beating, especially if they rotate their hulls in order to disperse incoming attacks over a wider surface area. Our civilian ships are not as well-endowed. Their relatively thin hulls mean that they can easily be carved apart even if they employ the same trick."

Ves sat back as he silently summoned Bygul and stroked the electronic cat's back. The virtual avatar responded just like a real cat and squinted his eyes in pleasure.

[Mew~]

"I do admit that our civilian vessels are horribly vulnerable against sieging attacks." Ves remarked. "We'll probably try to obtain more robust vessels once we reach the Red Ocean, but that is years away."

"That is one of the reasons why my team and I came up with the Gorgoneion concept. Her wall configuration can form an oval-shaped curved wall that stretches at least three kilometers wide. While this defensive configuration cannot provide complete protection for over a hundred ships, it is still good enough to provide critical cover for our most vulnerable and crucial starships. In fact, you can even hide the Spirit of Bentheim behind the Gorgoneion!"

Ves chuckled as he tickled Bygul's chin. "That won't be necessary. Back when I ordered the ship, I specifically chose a ship class that possessed adequate defensive capabilities. With her resilient structure, adequate hull armor and powerful shield generators, she can take care of herself. It's best to let a ship like the Gorgoneion cover the more vulnerable ships of our fleet."

"My thoughts exactly." Vivian gleamed with pride. "Adding the Gorgoneion to our fleet presents us with additional options that we did not have before. While we can rely on the defenses of our combat carriers and the Spirit of Bentheim to withstand damage in battle, the value provided by the Gorgoneion in many battle situations is incomparable."

The Gorgoneion was but the first of many ship concepts she came up with that she had always dreamed of realizing. Now that she had joined the Larkinson Clan, she eagerly wished to shape its fleet according to her own vision!

Ves did not mind Vivian's ambition. As long as her ship designs were good enough, he had no qualms about adopting her work. They still needed to make sense, though.

"Setting up a giant wall in space is not enough, Miss Tsai. The enemies the Gorgoneion is designed to face will not cease their attacks just because they have to drill through a giant wall. We need to hit back at them. What kind of facilities can this ship provide to our mechs?"

"Well, just like the Spirit of Bentheim, the Gorgoneion boasts 80 bunkers when she is in her normal travel configuration. I know it doesn't sound very impressive, but that is the limit of what I can add to her exterior without compromising her transformation capabilities."

The complex hull and internal layout needed to make the Gorgoneion transformable took up a lot of space that could have been devoted to additional bunkers. To Ves, this was a shame because it meant that the Gorgoneion didn't possess as much teeth during ordinary travel.

The shipwright pointed at the projection of the wall configuration, causing over a hundred dots to light up in green.

"Don't worry, though. The story is different when she is in her wall configuration. Through some clever mechanical shifts, the Gorgoneion is able to deploy additional bunkers, thereby offering excellent protection to up to 160 artillery mechs!"

"That sounds better."

Ves could scarcely imagine the sight of 160 Transcendent Punishers hunkered inside protective bunkers scattered across the surface of the wall. The heavy artillery mechs outputted at least six times as much damage as a typical rifleman mech. In practice, the actual damage output was even higher as the high firing rates and heavy caliber of heavy artillery mechs led to a qualitative improvement, especially if they were deployed in larger numbers!

"That's not all." Vivian grinned and pointed at the openings or gun ports spread throughout the wall. "There are 400 gun ports where ranged mechs can fire their weapons while exposing just a fraction of their relatively fragile frames. If that is not enough, you can place more than a thousand mechs at the crenellations at the edge of the wall configuration. Due to the curved shape of the wall, these edge positions are best suited to deal against flanking attackers."

All in all, the Gorgoneion offered much better cover and firing positions to ranged mechs than the Spirit of Bentheim ever could. This made sense since the former was a ship built for combat while the latter was just a factory ship with some self-defense capabilities. Their roles were completely different.

The various benefits provided by the Gorgoneion already convinced Ves of the idea. There were just a couple of caveats that caused him to pause.

"How good is her mobility exactly?" He asked.

"The Gorgoneion is a fleet carrier with a distinct emphasis towards defense. In her travel configuration, her acceleration is a touch weaker than that of the Spirit of Bentheim. While she actually possesses more powerful thrusters and such, her mass is significantly greater due to her greater tonnage. However, I have made sure to keep her small enough to make sure her mobility is still adequate enough to keep up with the fleet."

While Ves was not entirely satisfied with that, he supposed there was little other choice for a ship of this kind. The Gorgoneion was very different from the Antonio Cross. The former was able to take a beating while the latter excelled at moving rapidly through space.

"And her FTL capabilities?"

"She has room for two FTL drives. I'm sorry to say that she cannot fit any third drive. At a total length of 2.5 kilometers in her travel configuration, much of her internal volume is already taken up by her hull armor, her transformation components, her mech bays and so on. Adding a third FTL drive into the mix will excessively reduce the other functions of the fleet carrier. I doubt you want to reduce her mech capacity any further."

"Yes. For a fleet carrier that is 2.5 kilometers long, a total capacity of just 500 mechs is on the lower end I think."

Vivian did not look ashamed at this. "To be fair, the Gorgoneion is not a pure fleet carrier like the Hemmington Cross. She also performs the role of a defensive bulwark, and I think that our fleet could use that more than carrying a couple of hundred extra mechs."

"You're right." Ves reluctantly nodded. "I'm just disappointed that we won't be able to bring as much of our existing mechs from the Milky Way to the Red Ocean. With fewer mechs at the start of our exploration in the dwarf galaxy, we will have to waste additional time, resources and effort to rebuild our mech lineup."

The shipwright tapped at the cargo holds of the Gorgoneion.

"It's not as bad as you think, sir. The mech capacity of the Gorgoneion is not exact. You can squeeze a couple of dozen more mechs if you are willing to sacrifice some space elsewhere. More importantly, mech capacity in this case refers to how many combat-ready machines the fleet carrier is able to carry. If you don't care about making sure her mechs are able to deploy in a short amount of time, you can pack up all of the mechs and fill her mech stables, hangar bays and even cargo bays with containers filled with disassembled and compacted mechs. If we do this, the Gorgoneion can hold up to double the amount of mechs!"

That sounded a lot better. Ves softened up a little. It didn't matter if the mechs needed to be reassembled first before they were ready for battle. He just wanted to bring as many mechs as possible to the Red Ocean.

Since the star systems that held the beyonder gates were heavily guarded by the Big Two, security was not an issue. Neither the MTA nor the CFA allowed any dangerous elements to threaten the incredibly expensive beyonder gates!

As a result, the Larkinson Clan could safely pack up all of their mechs in order to make room for more. This not only applied to the Gorgoneion, but also the Spirit of Bentheim and any other capital ship with cargo space!

"I approve of the Gorgoneion." Ves smiled as Bygul turned his body around to present his belly for a rub. "I'd like for you to flesh out this concept into a complete design. Make sure to regularly consult Major Verle and some of the other stakeholders in the clan. Adding a capital ship to our fleet is a big decision, so you need to make sure that you are able to sell the Gorgoneion to your fellow Larkinsons. The final decision rests with me, but it would be nice if you have obtained broad support from the Larkinson Assembly."

"Understood. I believe in the Gorgoneion design. I will make sure the others will believe in her as well."

"I have a suggestion for that. Right now, the sketches of the Gorgoneion look a little plain. You should spice up her appearance in order to increase her marketability. You can do a lot with the surface of the Gorgoneion when she is in her wall configuration."

Vivian looked thoughtful. "You may be onto something, sir."

"Oh, I almost forgot to ask. How much does the Gorgoneion cost?"

"It depends. If you want to equip her with 2 FTL drives at the start and equip her with adequate hull plating, then we will probably have to spend at least 3.2 trillion credits to commission a shipbuilding company to construct the Gorgoneion."

"What?!"

Chapter 2603: Diligent Ovenbird

"As a mech designer, I'm sure you are aware of the saying that you get what you paid for." Vivian explained while maintaining her confidence. "This rule applies for mechs as well as starships. Do not be alarmed at the high price of the Gorgoneion. She is more than worth her initial cost. Protective hull plating doesn't come cheap, but you will be grateful for having lots of it during battle."

While Vivian Tsai was much worse off than Ves in terms of reputation, prestige, wealth and accomplishments, she believed in her work. When it came to discussing her ship designs, she was able to speak to the clan patriarch with authority!

That was exactly what Ves wanted to see in the clan's new chief ship designer. If Vivian did not have the confidence to back up her own work, then what was the point of putting her in charge?

It was just that Ves was a bit shocked at the price of the Gorgoneion. "If I recall, I specified a considerably lower maximum price for a proposal."

undefined"I am aware of that, sir, but I think you don't want to go too cheap when it comes to one of your most important defensive assets of your expeditionary fleet. Back when you have set this limitation, the LMC was only just starting to put the Ferocious Piranha on sale. A couple of months have gone by now and it is very clear that your new product is enriching our clan. With such good conditions, there shouldn't be any problems with financing this order."

It was impossible for the Larkinson Clan to pay 3.2 trillion hex credits all at once to a shipbuilding company. The clan's growing expenditures and investments along with the need to build up a warchest reserved for other strategic purposes meant that it would take a while to accumulate that much money in the form of cash.

Nonetheless, as long as the Larkinson Clan was able to prove its earning prowess, it shouldn't be too difficult to obtain a loan. Shipbuilding companies could also be persuaded to receive payment in installments or after they finished constructing the ships in question.

"In general, most shipbuilding companies demand half or full payment up front before they are willing to accept a commission to build a ship that is not in their product catalog." Vivian explained. "Too many incidents took place in the past where the client cancelled the order or died all of sudden, leaving the shipyard with a very strange ship that can't be sold."

"Does that mean we have to have all of the financing in order before we place our order?" Ves asked.

"Not necessarily. As long as the client develops a good relationship with a shipbuilding company, they can obtain better deals. It takes decades and at least several major transactions to establish this kind of trust, though. Unless we are able to negotiate a good deal by offering other concessions, we won't have much of a chance of getting our order accepted. Don't forget that shipbuilding companies, especially those that are capable of making capital ships, are never short of clients and orders."

Even though capital ships were incredibly costly to obtain, demand still exceeded supply. The Larkinson Clan would be at a disadvantage no matter which shipbuilding company it approached. Only by showing willingness to pay a hefty premium upfront would a shipyard be willing to build a massive ship like the Gorgoneion.

Ves shrugged as he rubbed Bygul's belly. The electronic cat wasn't able to provide the tactile sensation of fur, but the sensation of touching him was still pleasantly soft.

[Mew mew.]

"We can leave the financing issue to the finance experts of our clan. I'm sure they can whip something together. You just focus on completing the ship design and making sure the Gorgoneion is viable and useful. We'll take care of the rest. Understood?"

She nodded. "I get it, sir. I am still getting accustomed to my new position."

"Alright. Now do you have any other ship designs that you are ready to present today?"

"There is one other proposal that I think you should consider at an early stage."

She waved her hand a few times, causing all of the projections related to the Gorgoneion to disappear. In their place came a new set of projections that depicted a different ship concept.

What immediately stood out to Ves was that the new vessel did not look as if she was remotely suited for combat. Her expansive shape offered a lot of targets for enemies to shoot at. What was worse was that her hull featured distressingly little armor.

This was definitely a support ship. No doubt about it. This was a vessel that was mostly useful outside of a combat situation. If she ever found herself in the middle of a crisis, then the Larkinson fleet would have to devote a lot of assets to keep her out of harm's way!

"What am I looking at, Vivian?"

"This is the Diligent Ovenbird. It's not a completely original design. In truth, I've adapted it from the Daedalus-class of fleet repair and upgrade vessels developed by the shipyard that my father is still working at. This Type-C variant is a special iteration that I have developed in order to meet the defensive requirements that you have set. While her hull armor is admittedly not very impressive, she is actually a lot more robust than the older Type-U, Type-K and Type-H variants."

Ves grimaced. "That is all relative. No matter what letter you use to describe this 'Diligent Ovenbird', there is no changing the fact that she is a burden in combat."

"You can say that about any non-combat vessel, sir. To be honest, part of the reason why I proposed the Gorgoneion first is to increase the viability of acquiring more fragile vessels such as this one. The Diligent Ovenbird provides an essential service that is of paramount importance to our growing fleet."

The chief ship designer flicked at one of the projections, causing it to highlight the fleet repair vessel's primary functional parts.

"As you can see, the Ovenbird is not as massive as she looks. Sixty percent of her internal volume is devoted to her internal drydock. This drydock not only offers enough space to service a sub-capital ship in drydock conditions, but also contains all of the heavy assembly machinery that is required to repair a vessel at a reasonable timeframe. The best part about this is that any ship that is parked within her drydock can be worked upon while the Ovenbird has entered FTL travel!"

The Ovenbird's features sounded very impressive. Obtaining a capital ship that was geared towards servicing starships was one of the most important acquisitions on his list.

After all, a spaceborn clan that relied heavily on its fleet must definitely have a way to repair and perform maintenance on its crucial starships!

It was not enough to rely on external shipyards owned by other companies. They were not available in many star systems and they were especially scarce in frontier environments such as the Red Ocean.

Besides, it wasn't his style to depend too much on the services of other parties. When it came to essential services such as keeping the Larkinson fleet afloat, it was vital that the Larkinson Clan could perform deep or urgent repairs in the field.

With a fleet repair ship like the Diligent Ovenbird, the Larkinsons would be able to maintain all of their sub-capital ships no matter where they traveled or how far they veered away from human space!

As Ves studied the Ovenbird's schematics, he noted that her internal drydock could easily fit any sub-capital ship as long as their hull structure wasn't too weird. The drydock section could even fit multiple smaller vessels such as corvettes and frigates!

"I see that the internal drydock is not the extent of the Ovenbird's functions."

"That's correct. I'm sure you have noticed the C-shaped hull section on the opposite side." Vivian pointed her finger at the odd hemisphere-shaped side of the ship. "This is the external dock, and it is configured in a way that allows it to service capital ships!"

That caught his attention! "Truly?!"

"Ah, don't get too excited." She quickly raised her palm. "Unlike the internal drydock, the external dock is only capable of performing moderate repairs on capital ships. Don't underestimate this capability. If you attempt to perform surface repairs with smaller fleet service vessels, you'll only be able to perform surface repairs at a much lower efficiency. Also, the Ovenbird cannot move under these conditions, and she will also expose some vulnerable internal parts. Still, the convenience provided by the external dock is incomparable. It is fully capable of repairing any battle damage inflicted on our capital ships as long as it doesn't go too deep. This makes the Ovenbird an excellent addition to long-duration campaigns."

He could easily imagine how useful that would be. One of the strongest aspects of capital ships was the benefits bestowed by their immense scale. They were more productive and offered more services due to their size.

However, that also made them at least ten times more troublesome to repair if they incurred damage. Performing repairs in open space simply couldn't be done without involving a lot of manpower, machinery and transportation.

The Diligent Ovenbird offered the Larkinson Clan an effective solution to this problem. While Ves found it a shame that it wasn't capable of replicating all of the features of a capital-class drydock, it was more than enough to perform surface repairs or handle the regular maintenance of capital ships!

As long as the Larkinson fleet obtained these capabilities, it could range a lot further away from civilized space. The fleet would not have to return to human-occupied space whenever the Gorgoneion or the Spirit of Bentheim incurred a few hull breaches after going through a battle.

Of course, Vivian had made it very clear that the Diligent Ovenbird was not capable of repairing serious battle damage that cut deep into the interior of capital ships. That was something of a missed opportunity, but she provided him with some hope.

"The Diligent Ovenbird is not an inflexible capital ship." She smiled. "As long as you are willing to invest more money and gain access to better tech, you can always choose to upgrade her capabilities. Capital ships are never static and unchanging. They always evolve over time depending on the whims of their owners."

"Tell me more about how you would possibly upgrade the Diligent Ovenbird."

"Broadly speaking, there are two potential upgrade paths, sir. If you want to accelerate the time it takes for the Ovenbird to service a capital ship, then you should upgrade her external dock. However, I recommend you upgrade the internal drydock instead. The benefits of doing so are much greater."

"How so?"

Vivian looked more eager. "With an improved drydock with better facilities that occupy less space, the Diligent Ovenbird will be capable of building starships from scratch! As long as we can obtain or fabricate the ship parts beforehand, we can assemble them together into a cohesive vessel that is not any weaker than a starship built by a regular drydock!"

This was a fantastic feature! The capability to build new starships from scratch was one of his most important desires!

"Is the Ovenbird capable of building capital ships?"

Vivian's enthusiasm dropped a bit. "It's possible, but difficult. We will have to invest in major upgrades that are very prohibitive in cost. Do keep in mind that even if the Ovenbird gains this capability, it's impossible for the vessel to move while she is occupied with such an immense project."

That was disappointing. While Ves still considered it worthwhile for the Larkinson Clan to gain the capability to build capital ships on its own, the entire process basically transformed the Diligent Ovenbird into a stationary dock for a very long time.

If that was the case, the Larkinson Clan might as well invest in a proper capital-class drydock instead!

Chapter 2604: False Sky

The difference between a closed drydock and an open spacedock was massive.

The former offered a completely closed environment. Shipbuilding crews gained access to a lot of conveniences. The entire point of building a ship in an enclosed space was to exert as much control as possible.

A drydock also offered plenty of privacy, which was important for building or assembling strategically-important vessels.

The Ovenbird's internal drydock was incredibly valuable to the Larkinson Clan. Being able to service starships at the start was already valuable enough, but that was not the extent of her capabilities. As long as she received some comprehensive upgrades to her drydock facilities, the Larkinson Clan gained the ability to build its own starships!

undefinedUnfortunately, the latter was only convenient when the Ovenbird was used to build a sub-capital ship. If the Larkinsons wanted to build a much larger capital ship, then the Larkinson Clan had no choice but to park the Ovenbird in a fixed position for many months until she completed her job.

This was not very practical! Ves wasn't sure if his expeditionary fleet would stay for an extended amount of time in any star system, but he wasn't really a fan of that. At this moment, Ves and many Larkinsons were already sick and tired of staying any further in the Cinach System.

Still, this was just a possible upgrade option. Vivian had already detailed how difficult it was to transform the Ovenbird to this extent. Ves and the Larkinson Clan did not need to consider this aspect in the short term.

Ves calmed himself down. He patted Bygul's head before dismissing the electronic cat.

"Let's return to the starting point. How much does it cost to procure the Diligent Ovenbird?"

The chief ship designer paused for a moment. "The starting configuration of the Diligent Ovenbird is relatively affordable as far as ships like these are concerned. We will probably have to spend at least 1.7 trillion hex credits to procure this fleet repair ship. There is not much point to implementing upgrades straight away as they are not readily available in this part of space. Wait until we reach the Red Ocean. The tech level there is significantly better due to all of the pioneers arriving from the more developed parts of human space."

"It's not going to be cheap."

"That's true." She shrugged. "I wouldn't be surprised that we would have to invest over 10 trillion hex credits in order to turn the Ovenbird into a vessel that is capable of building a capital ship!"

That was an excessively high sum, yet Ves knew that this was only the most basic condition!

There was no reason for Ves to consider something so extravagant in the early stages of his expedition. For now, Ves wanted to assemble his core of capital ships as soon as possible so that he filled the rest of his quota. He did not want to waste any of his ship slots.

Ves and Vivian discussed some other aspects about the Diligent Ovenbird. There were many distinct quirks and nuances to this ship concept.

For example, the Diligent Ovenbird may not be capable of withstanding a lot of hits, but as long as she was buttoned down, her ability to resist damage was almost as good as a typical combat carrier. It was only when Ves compared her to other capital ships that her defensive capabilities looked inadequate.

"If we have the Gorgoneion, we can place the Ovenbird behind the wall. That will ensure that our most essential vessel will not sustain crippling damage during a battle." The shipwright noted.

"That works, but the Ovenbird will not be the only non-combat capital ship that we will add to our fleet. In a couple of years, I hope to obtain seven capital ships in total. We can't hide all of them behind the Gorgoneion unless the enemy is stupid enough to attack from one direction."

The Gorgoneion was only effective if the enemy attacked from the front. If the attackers were smart enough to split up their offensive elements and order them to circle around, then it would become very difficult for the expeditionary fleet to block attacks coming from opposite directions.

Vivian did not look discouraged. "We'll just have to rely on other vessels to cover this shortcoming. We'll have plenty of combat carriers to form additional barriers. We can even acquire an additional fleet carrier or employ other capital ships with solid defenses."

She was right. While a single defense-orient fleet carrier was able to provide a lot of defensive help, a single ship was still a single ship. The Larkinson Clan needed to form a balanced and diverse roster of starships in order to cover as many aspects as possible.

After they completed their discussion, Ves was ready to leave.

"I'm very satisfied with your work this far." Ves complimented her. "I don't regret hiring you. While your ship design concepts have certain shortcomings, they are all viable and practical."

Vivian beamed. "I have been developing these ideas for years. I have many more ship concepts in my head, but our clan doesn't require them at the moment. I couldn't have progressed the Gorgoneion and the Diligent Ovenbird concepts so quickly without the help of my team, though. The staff I've put together will play a vital role in fleshing out the ship designs."

Ship design teams did not suffer from the same constraints as mech design teams.

Scientists, researchers and engineers from other disciplines were only able to play a marginal role in the development of a mech design. The real work had to be done by those who excelled at this work, which was other mech designers.

The process of designing a mech was also very different. The smaller size and limited amount of parts that made up a mech made it much easier for smaller teams to design them in a reasonable amount of time.

In contrast, ship designs were so huge and complex that not even Vivian dared to design one from the ground up by relying on her own capabilities.

Starships possessed so many more parts and systems that she had to rely on a lot of knowledgeable specialists to flesh out specific portions of a starship.

Fortunately, the process of ship design did not evolve any esoteric powers. To humanity, a starship was simply a very big puzzle that people could easily put together as long as they knew how the puzzle pieces worked.

Ves briefly wondered whether it was possible to design a ship in a similar fashion to designing a mech.

Perhaps only Star Designers were capable of doing so. That was too far away to Ves, though strictly speaking he was already capable of imparting spirituality to the other products he made.

There had to be more to Star Designers than Ves could currently guess. They weren't considered as one of the most impressive figures in human civilization if this was the extent of their capabilities!

Once Ves bid goodbye to the Naval Design Department, he strolled through the expansive hallways of the Spirit of Bentheim.

He wasn't in a hurry to return to the main design lab.

As he walked from deck to deck, he walked past many crew members who were preoccupied with their own tasks. Preparing the Spirit of Bentheim for her long journey to the Red Ocean was not something that could be done in a couple of days.

Ves made his way to the 12th deck, which was largely configured as a city within a ship. As he stepped onto the streets, he briefly looked up his head. The ceiling wasn't visible anymore. Instead, it simulated the appearance of an open sky.

Supposedly, the sky the 12th deck simulated was supposed to be a very accurate replica of the sky above Dorum, the former capital city of Bentheim.

At night, the sky even provided an augmented view of the stars and constellations from the once-prosperous planet.

Bentheim at night never displayed so many stars. There was way too much light pollution to make the dimmer stars visible.

It was daytime right now. Larkinsons had already begun to set up the shops, restaurants and other services. The city deck was already starting to come alive. In fact, the people around him were already starting to call the city 'Dorum'!

Ves wasn't sure whether that was the best choice. Dorum was a lot busier, denser and more congested that this false version. He would have chosen to call it Ansel instead, but it didn't really matter to him. If his clansmen insisted on naming this deck after the capital city of Bentheim, then that was their choice.

As Ves strolled through the avenues, receiving plenty of greetings and odd stares from the Larkinsons around him, he briefly paused as he stopped before the campus of a school that had just ended its classes.

"Hihihihi!"

"I'm free now!"

"Mommy. I want to go home!"

Hundreds of pre-teens poured out of the gates of the school. They either met their parents, walked 'home' by themselves or hung out with their friends.

Each of them were Larkinsons. Each of them were connected to the Larkinson Network.

Ves knew that his recruiters did not deliberately recruit them into the clan. The kids came after the recruiters reeled in their parents.

Despite this, Ves considered each and every juvenile Larkinson to be an asset. As the patriarch of the clan, he had to think about the long-term development of his clan.

Many of his thoughts stretched across decades or generations. Some of them wouldn't even come to fruition until at least a century later!

No matter what, he made sure that he did not neglect the offspring of his clansmen. As the future backbone and heroes of his clan, Ves wanted to make sure they were taken care of. The Larkinsons not only had to raise the younger generations, but also shape their perspectives so that they grew up into loyal clansmen who embodied the culture and traditions of the clan!

"What are you doing here, Ves?"

He turned around to see Venerable Jannzi of all people coming around the corner of a nearby street! As she approached, her vigilant and protective force of will swept over Ves, his bodyguards and everyone else in the vicinity.

"I'm just touring my own ship. Do you have a problem with that?"

"No. I'm just afraid you are harboring nefarious thoughts towards those cute kids. You aren't thinking about turning them into your soldiers, are you?"

Ves huffed. "So what if I do? Our clan cannot exist if we don't replace the soldiers who are protecting us in the present. We need mech pilots, infantry soldiers, starship crew members, mech technicians and more in order to ensure our clan remains strong in the future."

Though Jannzi disliked his attitude, he couldn't argue with her words.

The two awkwardly walked past the school and stiffly spoke with each other.

"We may have our disagreements, but we both want our clan to succeed. I'm trying my best to elevate our strength and prepare us for the challenges we will face in the Red Ocean. Why must you oppose my initiatives so much?"

Venerable Jannzi scowled. "I'm not opposed to your goal, but I don't agree with your methods. You are pushing our clansmen way too hard. The Nyxian Gap Campaign is already an indication of how far you are willing to go in order to gain power. You're far too greedy and selfish to be a responsible patriarch. Any other Larkinson would do a better job in your position."

"I doubt that." Ves smirked. "You'll probably want me back if Vincent Ricklin or Gloriana ever manages to succeed my position."

"Don't joke around. You know what I mean. You may have founded the clan and set it up for success, but your extreme agenda is simply too reckless. I don't know why the Larkinson Assembly tolerates you after all of the Larkinsons you have driven to their deaths."

Her criticism started to grate on Ves. "Well, it's a good thing that you have no say in the matter. No matter what you think, the rest of the clan thinks better of me. They are realists who fully recognize that we cannot afford to be weak in order to maintain our independence."

"They're wrong!"

"Just because they have different opinions doesn't necessarily mean they are wrong. Look, I'm not your enemy, Jannzi. We can still work together. As you have just stated earlier, both of us want to achieve the same goal. Can you just put down your grievances and be more cooperative? I'm sure Qilanxo doesn't want to see us at odds."

That made her angry! "Do not bring her into this conversation!"

Chapter 2605: True Protection

Two important Larkinsons sat down on a park bench.

The simulated sky projected on the ceiling of the 12th deck displayed a few puffy white clouds. Various cats with collars lazily lounged on tree branches while some birds twittered around while flying out of reach.

"Mrow! Mrow!"

"Maw-maw."

undefined"Twit twit twit."

"Chirrrrrrp!"

The introduction of pets in the Larkinson Clan had certainly livened up the Larkinson Clan. The Spirit of Bentheim was no exception as countless pets mingled together with their human owners.

Due to the high intelligence of each sentient pet, they didn't require strict supervision. The animals liked to run off on their own sometimes and hang out with their own kind in parks like these. The monitoring system of the Spirit of Bentheim continuously tracked the activities of each pet and made sure they did not hunt each other or touched something important.

Of course, nothing was perfect. The pets were still willful and their intelligence did not always override their instincts. They also made a lot of noise, demanded attention at the strangest times and got in the way of work sometimes.

The Larkinson Assembly had already passed a proposal that limited the presence of pets at work. Hence why 'New Dorum' was currently filled with pets. The animals were too bored to sit around in the quarters of their owners.

Ves smiled as he took in the liveliness of all of the pets hanging around in the park.

Giggling children approached a bunch of cats and began to pet the ones that allowed themselves to be touched.

Retired veterans took their dogs out for a walk and threw powered frisbees that soared far enough away that their companions would have a good workout.

Mothers proudly held their cute rabbits and tried to compete over which one was the cutest.

All of the happiness around Ves invigorated him. He felt a sense of peace and satisfaction that was difficult to describe. As the leader of the Larkinson Clan, it was he who largely pushed for the integration of pets in the daily lives of his fellow clansmen.

It was a whimsical decision that wasn't backed up by any solid reasoning, but now that he saw the results, he felt it was one of the best decisions he made.

As someone who possessed a strong interest in life, he never wanted to transform the Larkinson Clan into a rigid, military organization that no longer knew how to have fun. Where was the fun in being part of an organization that only lived to serve and obey?

Life revolved around more than service. If there was one trait that Ves admired the old Larkinsons, it was that they prized family and the importance of providing a good life for their relatives. They were not completely lost in their obsession to serve the Bright Republic.

Perhaps it was not just his mother alone that pushed him to develop a life domain.

While she possessed an abundance of power, his mother's spiritual attributes were strongly slanted towards predation and the crueler side of nature. Whenever Ves sensed her spirituality, he felt as if he was facing an apex predator that swallowed everything that did not kill her. Despite her affection towards Ves, her true nature was not as gentle and kind as she appeared back when he was a young child.

This was why he prized his Larkinson heritage even more. The Larkinson Family approached life from a civilized and more humble angle. His relatives never thought about becoming the top predator in the jungle. They thought of themselves as humans who defended the Bright Republic out of duty and to build a better life for their descendents.

Certainly, Ves thought that the Larkinsons back then were too naive and servile. They had become so tamed by the government that they no longer knew how to hunt and provide for themselves.

So what did that make Ves, who inherited the traits of both? Was he a ferocious, solitary tiger or a communal housecat?

As Ves mused about this question, the expert pilot sitting next to him flared her force of will as she became enthralled by her own thoughts.

"I won't let you ruin this happiness." She grunted.

Her remark threw Ves off-guard.

"I built this paradise in the first place, Jannzi. My work is pivotal to propelling the Larkinson Clan into prosperity. Do you think it's easy for us to get our hands on a factory ship worth 2 trillion hex credits by designing some average mechs? I worked harder and took more risks than many other mech designers to build our clan up to this point. While I admit that I have made some mistakes, that is the price to leap past our peers. I have never kept this truth from our fellow clansmen, though in hindsight I should have placed more emphasis on the dangers."

Venerable Jannzi sneered. "I hate it when you talk like that, Ves. You sound like you're admitting your mistakes, but I have been with you long enough to know that you are still the same person as before. You just think about your own interests and never pay much attention to the tragedies you've inflicted on the helpers who entrusted you with their lives."

"I'm not driving them to their deaths, Jannzi! From the founding of our clan, I have always said that we are swimming against the current! If living well is our only goal, then I would have taken it easy and developed like any normal Journeyman. That's not what I want and that's not what the Larkinson Clan is about either. Many of the people who joined our clan are the same as I. None of us are content with living an average life."

"That doesn't mean you had to push us deep into the Nyxian Gap!" Venerable Jannzi pushed back. "You don't have any credibility in my eyes, Ves. Ever since I advanced to expert pilot, I have become incredibly attuned to any potential threat to our fellow Larkinsons. Do you know what my senses are telling me now? You are still as bad as before. Throwing away the lives of thousands of Larkinsons who believed in your rotten plan wasn't enough to turn you around. I'm afraid you're about to pull us into another vortex."

Ves tried to remain calm. "The entire multiverse is filled with vortices. The Bright Republic we used to live in was just a smaller one. Now that we have jumped into a bigger vortex, we need to strengthen ourselves quickly or risk capsizing. Look, I don't expect you to understand the pressure we are all facing. I just don't like it when you judge my decisions without taking in the entire context."

"What is there to think about?" Jannzi frowned. "It's really simple to me. You are driving us way too hard. As a mech designer, you could have just quietly accumulated wealth and settled for training us steadily. Sure, training without actual combat is not as effective in raising the best soldiers, but we don't need that! As long as our methods are solid and our soldiers are disciplined enough, we will be more than capable of defending ourselves against threats! Whatever shortcomings you think our mech pilots have can easily be compensated by providing us with better mechs!"

"You still don't understand, Jannzi. The strength of a combat force does not entirely revolve around obtaining the best hardware. The strongest mech is a piece of scrap in the hands of a weak-minded mech pilot. I have been focusing a lot of effort into maturing our mech pilots because that is the right way to make us strong! Only when both our mechs and mech pilots are strong will we be able to match or exceed the likes of the Friday Coalition or the Cross Clan!"

Both of them held different stances. No matter how much they argued, they simply couldn't reconcile their views. Ves didn't even know why he was arguing against an expert pilot in the first place.

"Earlier, you became pissed because I brought up Qilanxo, right?" Ves spoke again after a moment of silence.

The expert pilot narrowed her eyes. "And I told you that you had no right to mention her. Qilanxo is far more noble than yours. She is a mother and cares for all of her family, unlike you. She's a far better than the Superior Mother because she doesn't care about gender. She lives to protect, while you live to destroy. Don't deny it. You make war machines that are solely designed to kill people and destroy objects. You founded the Larkinson Clan, but not to improve the lives of your fellow relatives, but to raise them up as your soldiers and lackeys. I don't like the direction you are heading into. It goes against everything that Qilanxo stands for. Preserving the lives of your relatives doesn't even rank in your top 10 priorities."

Her accusations went too far! Ves grew angry for a moment. Instead of yelling back at her, he did something else. He concentrated his mind and attempted to borrow some of Qilanxo's presence!

The powerful spiritual entity reacted with surprise, but she did not resist his move on account of their trust and friendship. She generously cooperated and allowed Ves to borrow some of her strength!

The change was immediate. Ves turned from a human into an avatar of a sacred god!

Jannzi's eyes widened and her force of will rippled as she detected the same welcoming presence that she constantly felt when she piloted the Shield of Samar!

Ves was expending some of his spiritual energy while he maintained this state. He did not dare to channel Qilanxo too much. He just borrowed enough of her presence to drive home his point.

As a protective glow radiated from his body, Ves stared straight into Jannzi's eyes.

"I don't think you know who Qilanxo truly is. She is a protector, but she is also a warrior. She is the matriarch of her kind and has fought alongside her brutal husband for centuries. As a mother, she is far more ruthless to her offspring than you think. From what I recall of her species, she probably had lots of children, but only a fraction of them lived to adulthood. The rest turned into rotten bones or ended up as meals to other beasts. Even when we killed her 'husband' and took her into captivity, she soon turned into our friend without feeling much guilt or remorse."

Venerable Jannzi looked shocked! She may have developed a close bond with Qilanxo, but she had never shared much of her past.

"E-Even if that's the case, aren't you going too far with this? We are humans, not animals!"

"Humans and exobeasts are more alike than you think." Ves smirked as he continued to channel Qilanxo without any problem. That signified that he was still in sync with the design spirit. "Both of us are struggling to survive amidst a cruel and savage environment. The savage ecosystem of Aeon Corona VII may be different from the galaxy, but the rules of the jungle still apply."

"You're wrong! We live in a society, Ves! The time where we need to fight against each other in order to feed our stomachs is long over. It's completely unnecessary to push your fellow Larkinsons to this extent!"

Ves shook his head. "I disagree. There are too many predators and not enough resources to keep them fed. The weak will not be able to feed themselves. In fact, they might end up as prey as well! Now that we are on our own and have to rely on ourselves, the last thing we want to do is to bury our heads in the sand! True safety and prosperity can only be attained by becoming stronger and more ferocious than our competitors. This is what it truly means to protect!"

He spoke with so much authority when he channeled the sacred god that Venerable Jannzi simply could not refute his arguments!

Every word he spoke resonated with Qilanxo's being. The truth was undeniable.

The expert pilot's image of her patron spirit had shattered. Jannzi looked empty for a moment as a storm raged in her mind.

Chapter 2606: Going Her Own Way

After Ves taught Venerable Jannzi his lesson, he soon retracted Qilanxo's presence.

It was too costly in terms of spiritual energy to channel her powerful might. Now that he lost the Grand Dynamo, he had to become much more careful about depleting his mind.

Fortunately, he didn't have to persuade an entire crowd this time. The loss he suffered was small enough to minimize the impact on his mentality.

He carefully watched Jannzi's expression to see whether his words hit home. He had become tired of Jannzi's constant accusations and attempts to tear him down. If he wanted to work together with her to protect the Larkinson Clan, then he needed to do something about her distorted views of reality.

undefinedWhat better way to correct her mindset than attempting to change those views?

Even though Ves knew that his attempt amounted to another distortion, he hoped his attempt might be able to nudge her towards normality.

As the tense silence stretched, Ves began to harbor some doubts. Had his attempt worked? Had his description of Qilanxo hit home?

Eventually, the expert pilot calmed down. She no longer looked as conflicted. Her force of will had shifted, but it still retained much of its original character. That was not an optimistic sign.

She let out a deep breath. "I don't know Qilanxo as well as I thought. Thank you for pointing that out to me. I'll be sure to commune with her and get to know her better. However, don't think that you've won. I respect Qilanxo and I am grateful for all of the help she has provided, but I am a Larkinson, not an Ylvainan. I do not worship gods, and I never viewed her as one. There is no rule that states I have to take over all of her values. I will hold to my own ideas. I believe that Qilanxo is open-minded enough to allow me to disagree with her. If it turns out that I am wrong, then I have no qualms about going it alone."

As she spoke, her force of will calmed down. She had ceased the turbulence that had swept over her mind.

In fact, Ves even suspected that he may have pushed her will forward!

"While I agree with you that Qilanxo isn't a god, she is the root of your strength. She has not only played an indispensable role in your breakthroughs, but has also helped with turning the Shield of Samar into the fantastic mech it is today. She made you just like I did. In fact, you should consider us your parents."

Jannzi indignantly crossed her arms. "Should I call you daddy, then?"

He coughed. "You don't have to go that far. My point is that we aren't your enemies, Jannzi. We might not be of one mind, but we don't have conflicting goals. All three of us want the Larkinson Clan to prosper. Sure, we also have our own agendas, but the best part about our clan is that it embraces ambition. There is room for Larkinsons and relatives who don't want to take too many risks. However, don't force everyone else to turn into herbivores. Some of us just want to eat more meat. Let me tell you that Qilanxo is a carnivore as well. For all of her yearning to protect her family, she's a meat eater like other predators."

The conversation ended soon after that. Jannzi still stuck to her stubborn stance that Ves was not suited to be the patriarch of the Larkinson Clan. She even voiced her willingness to turn her back to Qilanxo if the sacred god prevented her from pushing her own agenda!

What an obstinate expert pilot!

Ves had seen his fair share of stubborn demigods, but Venerable Jannzi willingness to burn everything in order to accomplish her goals!

Well, maybe Venerable Ghanso came close. The two expert pilots were so similar that Ves felt unnerved.

As he watched the expert pilot march away, he wondered whether Jannzi would follow in the footsteps of his hateful cousin.

Had his conversation with her pushed her further upon this path? Ves wasn't sure. He did not possess a sufficient understanding of expert pilots and how they progressed. He had too little exposure to older expert pilots to know what it took for them to ascend to the rank of ace pilot.

All he knew was that this road was long and difficult to traverse. Far too many expert pilots died or declined in strength before they came close to reaching the next rank.

Of every expert pilot that Ves had ever met, only Patriarch Reginald Cross gave him the feeling of someone that was very close to becoming a Saint.

Ves continued to wonder about expert pilots for the remainder of the day. When Ves finally returned to his grand stateroom, he laid down on one of his couches and idly hugged and cuddled with Bygul.

[Mew~] The electronic cat cutely purred.

"Hehe. You're so well-behaved. Lucky doesn't even come close to you. It's too bad you aren't alive."

Despite this shortcoming, Ves still came to like his new pet. It was just like embracing a new plushie animal. Even if it was nothing like a real animal, it still provided him with joy.

It was at this time a hatch slid open. Gloriana, Clixie and Lucky tiredly entered into the living room.

"I'm home, Ves!"

"Welcome back, Gloriana."

As ves was about to suggest they eat dinner, a certain cat became indigant.

"MEOW!"

Before Ves and Gloriana could blink, Lucky zipped forward and clawed Bygul's projected body!

The glowing blue cat instantly disappeared as the physical projectors were no longer capable of maintaining his form. The ASTERA AI core's avatar popped like a balloon!

"Meow!" Lucky exultingly cried as he managed to destroy his competitor!

The gem cat then proceeded to lick and rub all over Ves as if he wanted to mark his territory.

Ves belonged to him! No other cat was allowed to take his favorite meal dispenser away!

"Hihihi!" Gloriana giggled at the sight. "It looks like Lucky doesn't want you to cheat either."

"I'm not cheating! I was just playing with my new toy. It's not as if I'm getting rid of Lucky!"

"Meow!"

"I'm telling the truth!"

"Meow meow."

"Why don't you believe me?"

It took half an hour to placate his jealous and possessive cat.

Later that evening, Ves and Gloriana just finished their meals and cuddled against each other. They tuned into a news program while their cats rested atop their bodies.

Ves enjoyed embracing his wife. She was not only warm and lovely, but also smelled nice. He enjoyed her lavender scent.

As Ves talked about the capital ship designs that Vivian presented to him, Gloriana shared her own thoughts.

"Those ships do sound useful. While the Glory seekers already possess their own fleet carrier, there is no harm with getting more. However, I don't want you to turn us into another version of the Cross Clan. There is more to us than fighting. The Gorgoneion and this silly Ovenbird are both geared towards improving our combat strength. I'm not saying that you're wrong to pursue these ships, but we need to balance out our fleet with other capital ship types."

Ves raised his eyebrow. "What do you have in mind?"

"Think about the production side of our fleet. I happen to agree with your priority in making our clan self-sufficient to an extent. The Spirit of Bentheim allows us to produce mechs and other machines without needing to borrow someone else's production facilities. If we obtain this Ovenbird ship, then we can also lessen our dependence on shipbuilding companies. However, these two capital ships only address a portion of the supply chain. If we want to obtain greater independence, then we should go even further."

"What ships do you have in mind?"

She raised a finger.

"First, we need a mining ship. While it is too troublesome for us to mine every resource we need to fabricate our mechs, it is still useful to mine the most valuable deposits that we can find in a star system. Aren't we entering the Red Ocean in order to take advantage of all of the riches it contains? How can we not bring a powerful mining ship on our own? If we have a capital-grade mining vessel, we can excavate a lot of valuable exotics at an industrial pace! With a mining ship, we can also supply a lot of valuable materials to the production halls of our factory ship."

Ves hesitated for a moment. He had thought about obtaining a mining ship as well. He hesitated because it was a bit extravagant to go for a capital-class mining ship when a smaller mining vessel sufficed.

If the Larkinson Clan obtained a large-sized mining vessel, then it had to make good use of it. That meant that his expeditionary fleet would linger more in star systems with an abundant amount of mineral wealth. The focus of his clan would shift from pure production to a mix of resource extraction and production.

Nonetheless, Gloriana might have a good point. Right now, Ves and the LMC had grown far too used to purchasing readily-available materials from the open market. While that was fine in a relatively stable region within human space, he could not assume that the resource market was just as developed in the Red Ocean.

She was also right about the purpose of heading into the Red Ocean. Ves never thought about relying entirely on designing and producing unique mechs to develop the Larkinson Clan. Extracting unique and highly-valuable resources like phasewater was definitely on his agenda!

"Okay, Gloriana." He nodded. "You've convinced me. I'll tell Vivian that she should devote more attention on developing a mining ship concept."

"I'll take care of that for you. I've been on several mining ships in my early career. I know how they work. Just trust me. The mining ship of our clan will not disappoint!" Gloriana grinned.

"Do you have any more capital ships in mind?"

"Of course! A mining ship is not enough, you know. We need to process some of the minerals as well. Even though a fully-equipped mining ship is capable of processing ore into refined metals, that doesn't cover everything. We need to obtain a refinery ship in order to supplement our resource extraction and processing capabilities."

"A refinery ship? Do you want us to make our own fuel?"

"That's exactly what I am suggesting. Why not? You told me once that the Spirit of Bentheim makes use of very high-grade reactor fuel that is not that easy to obtain. If that's the case, why not make this fuel ourselves? With a refinery ship, we can harvest the substances of gas giants and process them along with other substances to form all sorts of refined materials!"

Refineries were able to make fuel along with all sorts of other gasses, liquids and even solids. Depending on their refinery equipment, refinery ships could single-handedly meet all of the fuel requirements of his expeditionary fleet and supply a considerable amount of input to his factory ship.

Ves hesitated a bit more on this suggestion. "I'll think about it. A refinery ship is useful, but it's a huge commitment to invest in a capital ship that is fully invested in this role. A part of me feels we could use an additional fleet carrier instead."

"You don't have to choose, you know. You can obtain both! Perhaps for now, we are limited by the amount of capital ships we can pass through the beyonder gate, but once we reach the Red Ocean, we no longer have to abide by any quota! As long as we reach the other side, we can invest in as many capital ships we wish!"

"It'll be expensive. There is too much demand and not enough supply on the other side of the beyonder gate. I don't want to pay ten times as much and wait at least five years before I'm able to obtain a new capital ship."

"Then why are you hesitating?" Gloriana tilted his head. "As long as we establish an independent supply chain, we can build our own ships, including capital ships! It's perfect!"

Chapter 2607: Hour of Departure

A month went by as the Larkinson Clan slowly completed its preparations.

The new crew members of the Spirit of Bentheim and the other second-class vessels supplied by the Hegemony had worked hard during this period. While they were far away from attaining mastery over their vessels, they gained a sufficient amount of control to embark on a normal journey.

A lot of supplies, mechs and goods had poured into the Cinach System. Not all of these goods ended up in the hands of the Larkinson Clan. The Glory Seekers and the Cross Clan were making their own preparations.

In just a single month, the Golden Skull Alliance had become more formidable.

undefinedThe Glory Seekers received more Valkyrie Interceptors. The former mech pilots of the Wodin Warriors had adjusted well to the Valkyrie mech that was optimized for space battles. The female mech pilots cherished the opportunity to get closer to the Superior Mother while their male counterparts made do with other Hexer mech models.

As for the Cross Clan, the activity that took place in their fleet almost rivaled that of the Larkinson Clan!

A lot of ships underwent emergency repairs. The Crossers also got rid of their damaged and broken mechs and obtained replacements from other sources.

Some of the mechs were commercial second-class mechs, but many more appeared to be derived from new designs.

When Ves studied the new mechs, he recognized the distinctive emphasis on efficiency. As someone who had worked directly on the Skull Architect's mech designs, he instantly concluded that the Cross Clan's new guest designer was hard at work.

Overall, Ves was happy to see the Cross Clan recover some of its might. As long as the Crossers were allies, their strength was crucial to fending off enemies.

After an entire month, the time had finally come. Even as the Design Department calmly progressed its six design projects, the other Larkinsons had finished their preparations in time.

Some Larkinsons grew more reluctant to leave. As the day of departure came closer, the natives of the Komodo Star Sector felt scared of abandoning everything they knew in favor of plunging straight into the unknown.

Ves did not tolerate any second-guessers. He had issued orders to monitor these problematic people. The clan had to do everything in their power to keep every Larkinson onboard with the upcoming journey.

As Ves greeted the morning of this historic day, he calmly went through his morning routine. After cleansing his body and shaving his stubble, he met with his wife in the dining room.

Both of them began to enjoy sumptuous breakfast while their cats partook in their own meal.

"Miaow~"

Clixie's tail joyfully wagged as her head dove into a bowl of highly nutritious fortified meat.

"Meow."

As for Lucky, his teeth effortlessly crunched the nuggets of medium-grade exotics that Ves had especially reserved for this day.

If not for the fact that Ves was too stingy, he would have pampered his gem cat with high-grade exotics instead!

"Damn, you're such a glutton, Lucky." Ves muttered as he gulped his coffee. "Have you forgotten your true job again? It's been months since you've last given me a surprise!"

"Meow!"

The complaints did not spoil Lucky's mood. The mechanical cat paid no regard to Ves and steadily enjoyed his rare delicacy.

A hesitant expression appeared on Gloriana's face. The exquisite croissant she bit hardly brought her any enjoyment.

"Ves…"

"Yes, honey?"

"Are we doing the right thing?"

He stopped and looked in her eyes. He sensed her ambivalent mood.

"We already talked about this. The grand expedition will happen no matter what. The gun is already loaded. We just have to pull the trigger. It's way too late to reconsider."

"I know that, Ves. It's just.. I feel guilty for leaving my dynasty and state behind. The Komodo War has deteriorated even further, you know. With the Fridaymen beating back the Hex Army, the enemy has almost reached the border!"

That worried Ves at well, but mostly because his mother's wellbeing was at stake.

"We don't have to stay in this star sector in order to influence the Komodo War." He gently replied. "We are already doing the best we can by designing new Hexer mechs. Our three projects have smoothly entered into the later stages. Aside from handling a couple of thorny issues, the Hegemony will soon obtain a lot more tools. The Blinding Mech alone is enough to change the current trend."

"That is if it is able to do its job. We haven't proven its effectiveness yet. There is still a chance it will turn into a dud. I'm afraid we might ruin Hex Army because of our failure!"

Gloriana continued to twitter her worries. Her nerves seemed to be getting to her as she struggled to reconcile her departure with the setbacks suffered by the Hexers.

Unlike his wife, Ves was not as conflicted. If it truly came down to it, the death of the Hegemony did not necessarily spell the end of the Hexer people.

He had no doubt that the Wodin Dynasty and plenty of other wealthy Hexers would be able to flee from the Komodo Star Sector with their ships.

Just like the Cross Clan, these Hexer dynasties and organizations must have prepared some evacuation plans. They may have even dispatched some Hexers elsewhere beforehand as a precaution.

This meant that as long as enough Hexers lived, the Superior Mother would always be able to maintain her existence.

Some of his design spirits were doing fine despite receiving very little spiritual feedback. For example, up until now, Bravo was only being fed by Vincent Ricklin. Goldie also sustained herself with less than a thousand Larkinsons in the early days of the Larkinson Clan.

If the Hexadric Hegemony was ever on the verge of defeat, Ves could easily imagine millions of Hexers fleeing the state in droves. Many of them should definitely worship the Superior Mother. In fact, in desperate circumstances like these, the frightened Hexers should be pleading to the Supreme for protection even more!

Even if all of these fleeing Hexers abandoned the Superior Mother, then Ves could still rely on the Glory Seekers and the Penitent Sisters to keep the faith alive.

The biggest downside to this was that the Superior Mother would probably be forced to take on a starvation diet. Ves could not predict how much damage that would deal to a design spirit that previously enjoyed an abundance of spiritual feedback.

Therefore, Ves was still on the side of the Hegemony. As long as the Superior Mother could harvest the spiritual feedback of trillions of Hexers and a considerable amount of expert pilots and ace pilots, a significant portion of those benefits would eventually pass on to his real mother!

This was the key to keeping Cynthia Larkinson alive and well. Ves would not be able to leave the Komodo Star Sector in peace if his mother's life came under risk again!

He took a deep breath. "Look, a part of me is afraid as well. I'm not letting that stop me, though. There are too many reasons why we should step into the greater cosmos and venture into a new frontier. If you truly care about your mother and the Wodin Dynasty, you should embrace our new opportunities. Just think about it. Who can help your state more, a timid girl who stayed home all the time and steadily advance to Master before exhausting her potential, or a courageous woman who boldly explores new phenomena and advanced to Star Designer in record time?"

There was no way that Gloriana would be able to become a Star Designer in record time. The Polymath had already set such a ridiculously fast record that hardly every mech designer in human space gave up on surpassing her glorious achievement!

Even so, his flattery seemed to have an effect. Gloriana's eyes lit up as she became more caught up in her delusions. Ves had no doubt that she was imagining that she had become a Star Designer before celebrating her 100th birthday!

Her fantasies stoked her passion and her yearning for success had pushed away her doubts. "You're right, Ves. I'll just become another average Hexer Mech Designer if I stay in this region. There is nothing remarkable here that can propel me to the ultimate height. As far as I know, not a single Star Designer reached their rank through steady development. From the very start, they pushed their boundaries and pursued bolder dreams. If I want to surpass the Polymath, I cannot be inferior to her in any aspect!"

Though Ves wanted to temper her expectations, he knew it was useless. At the very least he managed to wipe away her doubts. That was what he was aiming for in the first place.

As they finished their breakfasts, they readied themselves for the busy day. Both of them wore fancier clothes than usual. Ves looked quite heroic in the formal version of his clan patriarch uniform. Gloriana meanwhile looked lovelier than usual due to the multi-layered blue dress she wore.

She looked like a blooming rose to Ves. She smelled like one as well. They approached each other and shared a loving kiss.

"Hmmm." She smiled as she leaned her head against his shoulder. "We are finally starting our journey. Once we depart, it might take centuries before we go back. Do you ever want to go back, Ves?"

Hell no! This rotten star sector had given Ves plenty of grief! Aside from helping his parents, there was no reason for him to return!

Of course, he couldn't be so blunt. He carefully composed his reply.

"We have outgrown the Komodo Star Sector. It's in one of the furthest reaches of the galactic rim. If we want to reach the apex of the mech industry, we need to move to the regions that are right at the heart of it. The galactic heartland, the galactic center and the Red Ocean are much more developed. We can design much more exciting mechs and reach a much greater market if we enter the more prosperous parts of human space. Who knows, we might even be able to uplift ourselves into first-raters!"

Gloriana shared his dream. She wouldn't have supported his grand expedition if she did not have ambitions of her own. Her desire to keep her relatives company did not exceed her desire to become a Star Designer!

"Let's head out, Ves."

"Very well."

The pair left their grand stateroom. Together with their cats and bodyguards, they steadily moved to the bridge of the Spirit of Bentheim.

They arrived early. The grand expedition wouldn't depart until noon, but the combined fleet had already moved to the nearest Lagrange point in the Cinach System.

As long as any ship wanted to depart, they could instantly slip into FTL travel.

Gloriana wandered off to a nearby communication station in order to check up on the Glory Seekers.

Ves approached the opulent chair at the rear of the bridge and took his place. His personal chair was located in the back in order to provide him with a clear overview of the bridge while preventing him from getting in the way.

Grand Captain Daria-Maria Vraken already noticed his arrival. She rose up from the throne-like captain's seat placed in the center of the bridge and marched over until she reached his side.

"How is the fleet, captain?"

"We are performing our final checks, though they are largely redundant. We have already double-checked our ships, mechs, cargo and other assets. While we have detected a number of inconsistencies, they are not serious enough to justify a delay. We have also counted all of our Larkinsons. All of our clansmen are accounted for. Anticipation is high but so is everyone's nerves."

"I know. I feel nervous and excited as well."

Both of them looked ahead.

A giant projection depicted the hundreds of ships that comprised the Larkinson fleet. With the Spirit of Bentheim at the center, the fleet resembled an army that was about to march off to the battlefield!

Chapter 2608: Home

The Larkinson fleet had assembled in full as Ves was about to hold his last speech in the Cinach System.

Everyone knew that this would be another historic moment in the short but growing history of the Larkinson Clan.

Though the clan had only existed for a short time, its historical record had already turned into a mythical saga to the tens of thousands of Larkinsons who joined later.

None of the newcomers felt as if they had joined an organization that was still in its infancy and was still in the process of setting up its foundation.

undefinedInstead, they felt as if they joined a flourishing castle that was still in the process of building taller walls and more majestic fortifications.

The founding of the Larkinson Clan, the Battle of Kesseling VIII, the flight from the Ylvaine Protectorate to the Sentinel Kingdom, the Nyxian Gap Campaign and the legendary marriage of the Miracle Couple all enriched the Larkinson Clan's heritage and elevated its history to a living myth!

Now, one of the most important chapters of the Larkinson Clan's history had come, and many more clansmen would be taking part for the very first time.

An energy built up among the clansmen as they assumed their stations or huddled together with their friends and family in the communal compartments of their ships.

The temporary base the Larkinsons had rented on the surface of Cinach VI had been completely emptied. Not a single Larkinson or anything of value remained.

The transfer was permanent. Not a single fully-fledged member of the clan was supposed to live on a planet after this day. If Ves had his way, every clansmen should consider their fleet their only home.

His dream was coming true. Unlike the Larkinson Family that had become bound to the Bright Republic, the Larkinson Clan would not be following its predecessor's footsteps!

Of course, he knew that not everyone shared his paranoia against betrayal and his dislike towards settling down on solid ground.

Humans were too accustomed to living in fixed locations. Much of human civilization still abided by a model of living that regarded planets as homes rather than resource production sites.

To Ves, this was an outmoded way of thinking. Now that humanity had gained the ability to live in space indefinitely on a very comfortable basis, why shouldn't people like him switch over?

Aside from certain problems such as higher costs and lack of living space that prevented everyone from following his footsteps, the advantages were too compelling!

All of the grumbling within the clan about missing the open air and being able to visit a diverse set of locales such as beaches, cities, snow mountains and so on did not move his heart at all. None of that was useful to him when his life, freedom and prosperity could all be taken away at any time if the state he was living in betrayed him yet again!

This was why he vigorously overruled all objections. He did not want anyone spoiling his plan when it was about to go into fruition.

In the final weeks, Ves even spent less time in the design lab in order to push, persuade, plead, coerce and lie to the stakeholders of the clan. He worked hard to make sure that every high-ranking Larkinson either supported the grand expedition or shut their mouths about it if their opinions differed!

It worked. Showing how much he cared about the grand expedition not only brought most of the leading figures of the clan in line, but also built up the hype among the rank-and-file members.

With role models and authoritative figures such as Ves, Venerable Joshua, Raymond Billingsley-Larkinson and Commander Casella Ingvar leading the way, the members at the middle and bottom of the pyramid all followed suit!

In any case, the vast majority of people who joined the Larkinson Clan already heard about the grand expedition. They signed up knowing that they would be leaving their old lives behind in order to venture into a completely new region of space.

The hesitation and pushback that Ves was afraid of never materialized. Certainly, thousands of clansmen must be having second thoughts, but without a leading figure rising up to unify their voice, the doubters were as weak as scattered sand.

Before the onset of noon, the clansmen were reflecting on the life they were about to leave behind. No matter what, the Komodo Star Sector used to be their home. While they wouldn't instantly cross over the border once the fleet transitioned into FTL, they knew that once the expeditionary fleet set off, it would not stop until it had reached another star sector!

At this time, Calabast entered the bridge and quietly approached Ves as he was making himself comfortable in his grand new seat.

As she approached, she picked up Lucky and scratched his chin. The cat squinted in pleasure and melted in her grasp.

"Meow~"

"Hehe. Good boy." She complimented as she dug out a lump of mineral from her uniform pocket and effortlessly slid it into Lucky's maw. "Who's a deadly little commando cat?"

"Meow!"

Ves turned his attention away from the status readouts of the fleet. "Are you enjoying yourself?"

"How can I not? Lucky has been an excellent sniffer under my command. We've already managed to clean up a couple of spy bugs and suspicious programming I've encountered with his help. I bet that DIVA must be quite upset."

"Are they serious?"

"No." She shook her head. "While our team has only combed through a couple of compartments, we did not find any critical threats to this ship. All we have detected so far are a number of incidental monitoring hacks and extra spying equipment. I don't expect this to change as our sweep continues. The Hegemony just wants to keep an eye on you and your clan. The intelligence agencies dare not go too far. Since I'm around, they should know that I am on guard against their usual repertoire of tricks."

"Well, thanks. Do you have something else to say, or did you just visit the bridge in order to pamper Lucky?"

The spymaster continued to pet and massage his cat as if Lucky was her personal squeeze toy!

"Hehe, can't I just drop by in order to see how you're faring?"

"You could have observed me through the monitoring system, Calabast."

"Monitoring systems are unreliable and not personal enough. It's better to see something with your own two eyes rather than rely on some impersonal projections. Do you know what I am looking at right now, Ves?"

"A proud leader who is about to kick off one of the grandest initiatives of his clan?"

"No." She shook her head. "To me, you resemble a kid who is eager to go on a holiday!"

"This is not a holiday!"

"Maybe you're right." She shrugged. "Don't count out the possibility that you'll be returning here someday. Nothing is impossible. We humans have a fuzzy and complex view of 'home'. What is home to people? Is it the house where your parents lived and where you were raised? Is it the apartment you moved to when you entered adulthood? Or is it the quaint little home that you and your spouse had bought in order to start a new family?"

Her words took him aback.

"Home is… a place of comfort." He slowly replied as he formulated his thought. "Home is where you feel safe and where you go back to after you have faced the perils of the galaxy. Home is the most solid sanctuary that you can think of. People must feel completely at home when they are in their dwelling. If for some reason they feel unsafe, then they are not living in a qualified home at all. Not everyone has the luxury of living in such a place, but I will make damn sure I will provide this sanctuary to our Larkinsons!"

Calabast offered him a brilliant smile. "Well said, Ves. The exact definition of home is not important. Whether your home is Cloudy Curtain or the Spirit of Bentheim, what matters the most is that it is able to make you feel safe and secure. However, not everyone abides by this view. There will be many Larkinsons who will have difficulty treating their starships as their new homes. These people will always view the planets of their births or where they had spent their best years before joining our clan as their true homes."

"We can't do much about that." He nonchalantly shrugged. "Their memories of home will probably fade once they spend a few decades in our fleet. I have hope that their nostalgia will just remain flights of fancy. After all, compared to the rest of human space, the Komodo Star Sector is really backward."

"Mr. Larkinson. Miss Arnlend." Another voice greeted the two. "It is good to see the two of you here."

Grand Captain Daria-Maria Vraken approached and stopped a short distance away from Calabast. Her ramrod straight back caused the captain of the Spirit of Bentheim to peer straight into the younger woman's eyes.

An invisible tension sparked between the two. Not just Ves, but also Lucky sensed some of the undercurrent taking place between the two women.

Both of them were Hexers. Both of them shared the same heritage. Though they belonged to two different branches and two different generations, that did not stop Ves from recognizing the similarities between the two Vrakens!

"Meow!"

Lucky, who was used to sensing danger, felt so uncomfortable that he squirmed out of Calabast's arms and dove into Ves!

Getting stuck between two forceful women was too frightening for the gem cat! Even Ves would give way in order to avoid getting caught in the crossfire!

"Calabast. Is that what you are calling yourself these days? That is quite a good choice. It's sophisticated, elegant and not too long. However, no matter how much you change your name, you cannot beat the name that your mother has bestowed to you. She still misses you, you know." The resplendently-uniformed older woman spoke to the other woman. "Anyway, how are you doing in the Larkinson Clan?"

"I am doing well, auntie! I am doing ten times better than before. I have no regrets with jumping ship." Calabast grinned in an obviously unauthentic fashion.

"That's amusing to hear. You just happen to end up on the same ship that I am captaining at this very moment."

"Heh, there is no need for you to play these word games, Daria. You know very well what I mean. I don't miss the Vraken Matriarchal Dynasty at all. I have cut my ties to the Hegemony without feeling any regret. To be honest, I can't wait to set off!"

"Your mother misses you, do you know that?" The grand captain suddenly brought up. "She tries to call you or pass on messages to you every week. You haven't replied to her despite leaving years ago. It has gotten so bad that I am receiving her complaints instead. Is this who you are, now? Even if you have joined the Larkinson Clan, your mother is still your mother. Why must you be so obstinate?"

Calabast burst out! "Don't you lecture me about mothers! My mother doesn't love me! Hardly any female Vraken truly loves their daughters! We are just investments to you! From the moment you design the genes of your babies, you put them through a meticulous training program from birth! Every single day of my life, I had to pass a test. My mother never showed me any unconditional love. Instead, she trained me to perform well in order to receive her affection. If I ever fail to meet her expectations, all the love in her eyes would drain away and I would gain nothing but disappointment from her! Is this the kind of life that I am supposed to be grateful for? I despise my mother! I despise the Vraken Dynasty for pushing us too hard!"

Her dramatic outburst did not spread throughout the entire bridge. The grand captain had instantly activated a privacy screen around Ves, Calabast and herself once Calabast got going.

Nonetheless, the bridge personnel tried their best to look as busy as possible. They all pretended to miss the unfolding drama!

Chapter 2609: Struggle For Excellence

Faced with Calabast's tirade, Captain Daria-Maria did not respond with heated emotion.

Instead, she remained as cool as a reptile and let a few seconds pass by in silence in order to cool the heated atmosphere.

Ves and Lucky were both completely floored. Man and cat both lowered their jaw in shock!

Neither of them knew much about Calabast's origins. While Ves knew that Calabast used to be a Vraken, he had not been able to extract any further details from her. When a spy did not want to reveal more information, it was impossible for Ves to get her to open her mouth.

undefinedYet in the span of a single heated outburst, Ves had a sense that he was learning about the true Calabast!

From what he heard, Calabast lived a pretty tough life. Even though she was born in one of the most powerful dynasties in the Komodo Star Sector, the Vrakens set insanely high standards to their descendents.

Due to the unwillingness of the Vrakens to retain any descendants that were less than excellent, every parent within the matriarchal dynasty hoped that their daughters would grow up into future leaders, heroes, researchers and other illustrious figures.

Yet how many Vrakens would succeed the tests set by their parents and other authority figures within their dynasty?

"Do you know how many sisters have failed the lifelong training programs set by the Vrakens?" Calabast turned to Ves. "I don't have access to the full figures. The higher-ups don't want us to know how many Vrakens drop out. Still, there are plenty of estimates. From what I have observed, the failure rate is likely around 70 percent! Only three out of ten descendants will retain the right to call themselves a Vraken! Everyone else will fail to keep up. Once the dynasty deems them failures, they'll be booted out, but not before shoving a lot of debt on their shoulders! Many failed Vrakens have to work for the rest of their lives in order to repay the millions or even billions of hex credits spent to train them and augment them into superwomen."

This was a shocking approach to raising the next generation of Vrakens!

Ves could not imagine what it would be like to live in a dynasty filled with taskmasters. It sounded as if every Vraken acted like Gloriana when it came to raising their daughters!

He turned his gaze to Captain Daria-Maria. As an unabashed member of the Vraken Matriarchal Dynasty, she had a duty to defend its policies.

"We Vrakens are more powerful, more influential and more prosperous than any other Hexer in our state. Do you think our supremacy can be sustained if we take it easy? It's impossible! The other matriarchal dynasties aren't vegetables. If we allow them to surpass us, our control over the Hegemony and the Hex Army will diminish. Who knows what kind of insane policies they will push. Only intelligence and rationality can save us against the Friday Coalition. In order to ensure that we are at our peak, we must be willing to sacrifice a portion of our happiness in order to preserve our state! Is this too much to ask?"

Calabast let out a sarcastic laugh. "Hahahaha! Do you hear that, Ves? She's vastly understating how much 'happiness' we Vrakens have to give up in order to rank at the top of our class. We not only have to compete against other Hexers, but also against our own sisters! No matter which Vraken wins the competition, many more Vrakens will lie broken beneath our feet. Even though my mother and other Vrakens forced us to 'spend time' with each other, we were never able to forge any actual friendships. From the moment we were smart enough to count numbers, our mothers taught us how to scheme against each other. In public, we were all smiles, but in private, we were so lonely!"

The more Ves heard about how the Vrakens raised their offspring, the more he felt repelled by their conduct. The practices sounded more and more inhumane by the second!

"Captain Vraken, I don't mean to pry, but if Calabast isn't lying, then growing up as a Vraken must be pretty miserable."

"It depends." Daria-Maria calmly replied. "Most Vrakens understand the need for excellence. We do our best to educate them once they are old enough to understand what is at stake. The other matriarchal dynasties may be deluded, but they aren't stupid. The Fridaymen are pretty formidable as well despite their many faults. If we want to continue our dominance, we must be better than anyone else. There is no other choice!"

"There is always a choice! You just don't want to give us one. None of us had any say in how we were being raised!" Calabast aggressively shot back.

"Calabast, why must you be so angry? Without spending so many hex credits in designing your genes, fortifying your growing body with customized nutrients, providing you with the best teachers of their craft and implanting you with the latest implants developed by our labs, how could you ever grow up in such an excellent intelligence operative? Our dynasty may be wealthy, but it is impossible to provide main branch or side branch descendants with our most luxurious treatment. Compared to the Fridaymen, we Vrakens are unquestionably superior!"

The resentful ex-Vraken gritted her teeth and clenched her fists. She was not happy at all with what she heard.

"You don't understand. You claim that every descendant receives the same care, but everyone knows that you main branch members get more benefits and privileges from your parents. How can side branch members such as myself possibly keep up with your standards while receiving only a fraction of the resources? It's insane! The rate of failure of main branch descendants is much lower than that of side branch descendants. The Vrakens treated you like a princess while treating the rest of us as your foot soldiers!"

Her grudge ran deep. So much so that Captain Daria-Maria saw that it was pointless to continue this argument.

"Let's not air any of our dirty laundry any further." She took a step back. "What is done is done. You seem to have found your own happiness in the Larkinson Clan. As long as you do not waste your training and avoid spilling our secrets to your new family, I have no problem with your decision. I do recommend you get in touch with your mother, however. No matter what you thought about her, she genuinely loves you. Otherwise, she wouldn't have worked so hard to raise you into a successful Vraken."

The captain nodded to Ves before she marched back to the captain's seat.

Ves continued to hug his frightened cat as Calabast slowly regained her composure.

He didn't know whether Calabast had shown her true self this time. When she ranted about her indignities, her emotions were riled up. Her grievances appeared to be genuine.

Should he believe her, though? What if it was all an act? He could never tell whether Calabast was truly genuine. He did not dare to trust his eyes, ears, judgement, instincts and spiritual perception. Calabast had already demonstrated several times that she could completely present a different image from herself.

This was why he still reserved a bit of judgement. Calabast was a grown woman who was incredibly astute and not a person who allowed her emotions to get the better of her. There was no way her grievances against the Vrakens would ever cause her to lose control so easily.

She was almost certainly pretending. To what extent did she amplify her resentment? What was her objective?

"Sorry about that, Ves." Calabast brushed her stylish black uniform. "I showed you my ugly side today. I doubt you want to be confronted by two arguing women on your big day."

"I don't mind. I like to see who you really are behind your mask. I just think it's a pity that it takes another Vrakenn to pry open your mouth about your past."

She gave him a rueful smile. "I'm not a Vraken anymore. Don't lump me in the same group as the good captain. One of the greatest failings of the Vraken Matriarchal Dynasty is that it treats every descendent the same. To put it in more familiar terms to you, we are investments. We either have value to them or not. This is not necessarily wrong, but the Vrakens set the bar way too high. Those who cannot meet their expectations are ruthlessly discarded. Not even their mothers will treat them with more than a passing regard once their daughters fail!"

"That is.."

"Heartless? Cruel? Inhumane? You'd be right if you mention any of those words! What is worse is that many Vrakens don't even question this practice. Not even I knew that the way we were raised is horribly wrong. It was only once I became an intelligence operative and went on assignment in other states that I have learned how the rest of the galaxy raises its children."

"I see. That must have been quite a revelation to you. The Hexer way of life is too strict."

"Exactly." Calabast sighed. "Well, now you know what I had to go through. I won't say anything more about it. I don't have any desire to revisit all of the tests that I had to pass. I just hope that you will never adopt this awful model in the Larkinson Clan. Our children deserve better."

"Hey, you don't need to persuade me. I fully agree with your stance. I would never want to treat the younger generation as investment vehicles. They're children. They should have fun and receive lots of love from their parents."

"I believe you, Ves, but that does not mean our clan will be as you say. Don't you realize that the incentive structure that you have erected is already inching towards the Vraken approach?"

"What? That's not true! Kinship and family is of utmost importance to us! I have personally witnessed some of the schools that our fellow clansmen have set up on the 12th deck. All of the children attending them are filled with happiness."

"Perhaps in the start, that is the case." She said. "What about the future? The Larkinson Clan is a meritocracy. There are many channels to obtain resources and promote up the ladder. I believe you have good intentions when you set up programs like the Larkinson Merit Exchange. However, have you ever thought about how much competition you will stoke among your clansmen? Once parents learn that if their children are able to obtain more resources if they perform better, the poor kids will certainly come under a lot of pressure!"

"I think you're exaggerating, Calabast. That won't happen, especially now that you have pointed out this possible outcome. I do not want our future clansmen to grow up into useless bums, so it is impossible for me to strip all of the incentive systems. All I can tell you is that we are open to your suggestions. If you want us to go down a different path from the Vraken Matriarchal Dynasty, then you should share your personal insights to the Larkinson Assembly. Let your personal struggles be a lesson to those who are responsible for shaping our policies. Are you willing to share your story?"

"..Maybe. I am a very private person by nature."

"I'm not asking you to spill all of your childhood secrets." He reassured her. "You're my intelligence chief. You hold a lot of weight in the clan. People will listen to you if you speak on this subject. If that's not enough, I will put my own weight behind your testimony. This is the best way to prevent your fears from coming true."

Calabast clearly looked reluctant. "I will share my warning to the others, but it is up to them to implement reforms. All I can tell you now is that if the clan continues its current trend, it is very doubtful if I can ever consider it my home!"

Chapter 2610: Safety Concerns

As noon came closer, plenty of other people were awaiting the pivotal moment.

Aboard the Hemmington Cross, the patriarch of the Cross Clan along with his new guest designer were holding a quick meeting before they addressed their own men. They gathered in a small conference room situated next to the bridge of the large fleet carrier.

"Professor Cortez, what do you think of the Larkinsons?"

"Hmm." The former Skull Architect hummed as he tapped his palm in a peculiar fashion. "They are young and tender, but bold and daring. Whether they will crash headlong in a wall is still a question. Their clan is too young and their leaders lack too much experience. They have no idea what the rest of human space is really like."

undefined"I don't want the Larkinsons to meet their doom. Their patriarch still has to help with designing my expert mech."

"A project as great as this can't be rushed, Reginald. I am aware of your burning impatience, but we still lack too much supplementary materials to build an expert mech that meets all of your standards. Mr. Ves Larkinson must also accrue some experience in designing expert mechs. You should not allow a first-timer to touch your ultimate expert mech. Just wait for a year before he has the necessary experience under his belt. I can promise you that the wait will be worth it, sir."

A strong force of will radiated from the Cross Patriarch's body! "It better be! Even if we cannot take revenge against the slayers of our Saint, I can spite our enemies by succeeding my father!"

"Your time will definitely come." Professor Benedict flattered his nominal superior. "With your resonance strength, it only takes a modest push to reach the next rank. It is of utmost importance for you to remain stable. Do not allow yourself to get swept up by your emotions. That will only delay your ascension even more."

"I can't calm down!" The Crosser leader growled. "Whenever I think of the defeat we have suffered at the hands of the Billard Tribe and the Chardon Tribe, I can only see the broken bodies of my fellow Crossers. When I think back on the betrayal of the other clans in our Becker Tribe, my fury rages as hot as the surface of a star! We were forced to flee our home while it was collapsing all around us while the Planat Clan and the Praetor Clan feasted on our remains!"

His desire to spoil their plans to destroy the Cross Clan had become his driving reason to advance! His attempt to advance to ace pilot had become inseparable from the great calamity the Crossers had barely survived!

As an experienced Senior, Professor Benedict did not get affected by Reginald's powerful will. He calmly evaluated the patriarch's mental state and made his own calculations.

Once the leader of the Cross Clan calmed down, his force of will no longer rampaged throughout the conference room.

"The revival of the Cross Clan rests on our shoulders and the shoulders of a Larkinson." He spoke. "While I am not prepared to sacrifice the remainder of our clan to defend Patriarch, we cannot allow him to die on our watch. Whether he is crucial to my ascension or not, we must make sure he lives to fulfill his promise."

The former Skull Architect concurred. "You are not the only person who feels that way. His design philosophy is very unorthodox but incredibly useful. I have made no secret of the fact that his specialty may be the missing key to realizing my design philosophy. As long as we collaborate on some products, I will be able to deliver even better mech designs than what I have already handed over to our clan!"

Both ambitious men were eagerly observing the projection that displayed the hundreds of ships that formed the massive fleet of the Golden Skull Alliance.

Elsewhere, Venerable Brutus Wodin spoke to his sister via his comm. He wore a dashing but relatively plain uniform while he sat on a crate in the hangar bay.

The Star Dancer, his expert mech, was ready to deploy at any time. Though none of the Glory Seekers expected to encounter any threats at this sensitive time, they could not rule out the possibility of foul play.

FTL transitions were very delicate! If any gravitic disturbance took place, certain ships might fail to enter the higher dimensions while the rest of the fleet had left.

This would be the perfect time to isolate a crucial ship like the Spirit of Bentheim in order to decapitate the Larkinson Clan!

"For this reason, the Indigo Tremor will be leaving this star system last." Brutus told the physical projection of his sister. "We will not leave until we have confirmed that every other ship in this fleet has safely departed."

"What if our enemies targeted your ship to begin with?" Gloriana asked.

"It is our job to shield you and stop your enemies in their tracks. That said, I don't expect any incidents to take place. We have swept the entire area around this Lagrange point and have found nothing suspicious. We have even taken the liberty of cleaning up all of the space junk around us to minimize every possible risk."

It took some time for him to soothe Gloriana's worries. For some reason, she was a bit more concerned than usual. Brutus had to approach his sister's projection and pull her into a hug in order to calm her down.

"Come now, sis. You're married now. You are on your way to live your perfect life. Will you let yourself get spooked by a little journey?"

She chuckled. "The grand expedition is more than a little journey. What worries me is that everyone knows we are departing today. What if the Fridaymen attempt to stop us from leaving? Have you detected any signs that the Fridaymen are targeting our fleet?"

"We have not received any indication that the Fridaymen are up to something. Then again, our intelligence sources aren't comprehensive. Do not put too much stock in what I have just said." Brutus shrugged. "The troublesome aspect about our journey is that our most direct routes to Majestic Teal are situated deep in the territory of the Friday Coalition. It is suicide to travel in a straight line. In order to remain in Hegemony-aligned space, we need to take a short detour through Vicious Mountain before crossing over into Majestic Teal."

"Will the Fridaymen dare to enter into Hegemony-aligned space?"

"It's not likely." Brutus shook his head. "Ever since the Komodo War commenced, the Hegemony has expanded its early-warning network. If the Fridaymen ever show up on our turf, we will be notified."

Gloriana gained more confidence in his reassurance. "What if the Fridaymen attempt to stop us in Vicious Mountain or Majestic Teal?"

"It's possible, but it's too difficult, sister. There are at least hundreds of thousands star systems in every star sector. We have an endless choice of routes. The Fridaymen will constantly have to spread their hunters across many different star systems in the hopes of catching our shadow. If they miss us once, it is highly unlikely they will ever catch up to our tail!"

She nodded. "That's right. Our combined fleet is highly mobile. The ships of our Glory Seekers are state-of-the-art. Most of the ships of the Larkinson Clan are not that well off, but my husband has deliberately prioritized the acquisition of vessels with shorter FTL drive cycling times. As for the Cross Clan, the only ships that survived their flight from Vicious Mountain are their best and fastest assets to begin with. Even their lumbering Hemmington Cross is not that bad as long as her two heavy-duty FTL drives remain functional."

The fleet composition of the Golden Skull Alliance was very suited for travel. Most second-class organizations wouldn't even be able to catch up to the combined fleet as long as it made the longest FTL hops possible.

The two Wodin siblings soon moved on to another topic.

"Are the Glory Seekers truly prepared to leave this star sector?" Gloriana asked. "We won't turn back even if the Hegemony is losing the Komodo War."

"We are doing okay, sis. Don't worry about our condition. Even if we turn around right now and fight on the frontlines, a few thousand mechs and mech pilots won't make much of a difference. The Wodin Warriors are already enough for our dynasty to make a contribution. In fact, if the Hegemony truly falls… we will need to keep our culture and customs alive."

The two looked grave for a time. The prospect of a Fridayman victory became more and more likely. Several months into their furious counteroffensive, the Hex Army still hadn't managed to come up with a solution against the disparity of expert pilots.

As long as the Friday Coalition deployed more expert pilots than the Hexadric Hegemony, the fundamental trend of the Komodo War was unlikely to shift!

Though the Design Department had achieved a lot of progress in the Blinding Mech Project, Gloriana did not dare to place her hopes on this auxiliary mech. It was too strange and unconventional for her to wrap her head around. Sometimes, Ves came up with the oddest mech concepts.

"How is your Star Dancer?" Gloriana asked.

"My expert mech still runs smoothly." Brutus confidently replied. "It will be difficult to keep her in shape as the years go by, though. I have been told that the Seniors who developed the Star Dancer have ceased further development. I'm sure you know what that means."

Gloriana looked sad. "I do. The honored mech designers must be busy with trying to come up with a mech that can turn the war around. They have no time to tinker with the Star Dancer."

Ceasing active development meant that Brutus' expert mech would not be able to keep up with the times.

There were very few possibilities for other mech designers to take over active development. Ves and Gloriana and the other mech designers of the Larkinson Clan were completely incapable of doing so. Perhaps Professor Benedict of the Cross Clan might be able to perform some surface modifications and upgrades, but even he would have difficulty improving the work of other highly-skilled mech designers.

Brutus smiled. "It's not a big deal. Didn't you want to replace my Star Dancer with an expert mech of your own design? I am confident that this opportunity will come."

"You're right! I already have the perfect expert mech in mind for you! As long as my husband and I have successfully designed some expert mech designs for his clan, we will definitely work with someone to provide you with a brand-new machine that is blessed by the Superior Mother! There are plenty of good boys who are piloting mechs under the auspices of the Supreme, but none of them are as good as you! I will tell Ves to make sure her mother recognizes you. If I have my way, the Superior Mother will recognize you as her second son!"

"I do not dare to dream of this, Gloriana! The Superior Mother is the parent to every Hexer son and daughter. We cannot ask her to play favorites. I will do fine as long as I receive as much support as any well-meaning Hexer mech pilot."

"Oh, Brutus. You don't have to worry about that. Ves is such a momma's boy that he has the ear of the Superior Mother. I won't let this opportunity pass!"

It would take a long time until Brutus gained a new expert mech, so this was not an acute issue.

Before Gloriana ended the call, she asked one more question. "How are the Glory Seekers adjusting to their new Valkyrie Interceptors."

"Our mech pilots are doing fantastic." Venerable Brutus replied with a smile. "Piloting a Valkyrie mech is a dream come true for them. Their glows are incomparable. Each of us, including me, have begun to pray in front of them in the mech stables and hangar bay. Even our commanding officer, Colonel Ariadne Wodin, has begun to lead the prayer sessions!"

As devout followers of hexism, how could the Wodin personnel not worship the Superior Mother?

Chapter 2611: Made To Overcome

Noon had almost come. According to the standard clock, this was the time when the patriarchs of the Larkinson Clan and the Cross Clan addressed their own people.

While Patriarch Reginald Cross already began to hold a domineering and impassioned speech in front of his subjects, Ves adopted a calmer approach at the beginning.

Every Larkinson in the fleet stopped what they were doing and tuned in to the broadcast.

The entire Spirit of Bentheim slowed down. Aside from allowing essential, automated processes to continue operating, everything else fell silent.

undefinedOn the 6th deck, Calabast stood in the center of the new Observation Department that was responsible for analyzing sensor readings and gathering intelligence.

The spymaster had completely shed the heated emotions that she showed before. Her body and expression did not show an inkling of fury or resentment.

She crossed her arms and smirked as she observed the projection of Ves standing generously on the bridge of his new flagship.

"I did not bet on the wrong horse." She whispered. "Let's see how much further I can ride you, Ves."

Aboard another ship called the Jason, the combat carrier that belonged exclusively to the Hall of Heroes became unprecedentedly calm as the expert pilots assigned to the vessel gathered their attendants. The Bright Companions, Lost Soldiers and the Radiant Hoplites made for a mixed bunch.

The Bright Companions stood rigidly behind Venerable Joshua Larkinson. The golden boy of the Larkinson Clan exuded a vivid sense of life that made everyone want to become his friend.

The members of the Bright Companions mostly consisted of Avatar mech pilots who showed promise. Each of them were disciplined and well-behaved.

"Our journey finally begins." Venerable Joshua excitingly spoke. "I will miss my home, but exploring the greater cosmos is too good to pass up! The patriarch will definitely be able to bring us to the Red Ocean!"

The Lost Soldiers presented a very different impression. Venerable Davia Stark, the guest expert pilot of the Larkinson Clan, applied different standards when selecting her own retainers.

The mech pilots who caught her attention all originated from the Living Sentinels. While their skill and discipline may be lacking, each rifleman mech pilot unquestionably respected the woman who brought them into her squad!

Venerable Davia glanced at the younger expert pilot with a vigilant expression. "That patriarch of yours isn't bringing us all to the Red Ocean out of the goodness of his heart. Let alone his motives, the dwarf galaxy itself is a place of peril. Have you even followed the news there? Fleets that are much stronger than ours vanish every day. Pioneers who have made much more preparation than us have died or fallen into ruin."

"We can't be afraid of taking chances!" Another female voice rang throughout the compartment! "We are fighters! We shoot, smash, cut and demolish any obstacle in our way. As long as we are strong enough, the Red Ocean will never take us down!"

Venerable Davia's strong but constrained force of will ceded ground as the third speaker's triumphant will expanded outward.

The Radiant Hoplites all raised their fists to echo their leading figure!

Venerable Rosa Orfan exuded plenty of confidence as she taunted Davia with her eyes.

"You're not a Larkinson, so you don't fully understand what we're capable of. Our clan is special. Ves has continually pulled out one rabbit after another from his hat. If you fought alongside us in the Nyxian Gap, you wouldn't say those words."

Davia contemptuously raised her eyebrow. "You mean the string of battles where only 20 percent of the Living Sentinel mech pilots made it back alive?"

"Not everyone is cut out to be a soldier!"

The thoughtless remark instantly riled up the Lost Soldiers!

Each of them were among the surviving Sentinel mech pilots who had managed to survive the Battle of Ulimo Citadel and the Battle against the Abyss. They may have been part of the worst-performing mech force in the campaign, but they could not tolerate this insult!

Before the Lost Soldiers and the Radiant Hoplites descended into a brawl, a single elderly voice called everyone out!

"STOP!"

The mech pilots each backed down as Commandant Cristoph Larkinson entered the compartment.

Though the man was just a retired mech officer of the Mech Corps, the presence and authority he exuded surpassed the wills of the three expert pilots.

In front of this old soldier, the younger and brasher mech pilots did not dare to stick their necks out anymore.

The commandant's eyes swept over everyone's face. He did not even spare the expert pilots from his judging gaze.

"Each of you are mech pilots. You have trained at least twelve years to become professionals that can be trusted to pilot immensely destructive war machines. I expect each of you to exercise better control over yourselves. You are not rambunctious children aymore. If you cannot rein in your impulses, then what gives you the right to pilot a mech?"

The head of the Hall of Heroes instantly shut everyone up. Even Venerable Orfan lost her momentum. As the old man calmly walked up to the center of the hall, he crossed his arms behind his back and faced the broadcast projection with a stoic face.

"We are Larkinsons." He said. "We are the successors of a line of honorable soldiers and mech pilots. Never forget where we came from. Even if we are leaving behind our ancestral home, we are still the same honorable warriors in our hearts. Direct your ire towards the enemies who wish to tear us down instead of your fellow comrades who may be saving your lives one day."

His words completely extinguished any animosity between the Lost Soldiers and the Radiant Hoplites. Though they were very different mech pilots who shared very different ideas, at the end of the day they were supposed to fight together.

Venerable Joshua looked particularly impressed at how the old commandant defused the tension between the mech pilots. As a young expert pilot, he never succeeded in commanding the respect of the older expert pilots.

"Can I do that one day?" He wondered.

Elsewhere, Commander Casella Ingvar stood proudly in the command center of the Steadfast Vigil. The Living Sentinels each stood up from their stations as well and silently faced the projection of the broadcast without any irregularities.

The expert candidate was very satisfied with what she saw. The Sentinels had cleaned themselves up under her command. She instilled more discipline and order among the ranks in order to instill more pride in their identity.

"Chirp. Chirp."

A yellow bird perched on her shoulder. Casella idly fed her pet with a seed.

"Hush, Mirrie. You can fly off later."

Elsewhere, aboard one of the civilian ships of the Larkinson fleet, a group of sloppy and undisciplined-looking mech pilots along with mech technicians and other personnel gathered in a crowd.

Director Raella Larkinson and 'Captain' Vincent Ricklin stood at the front.

"When is this speech supposed to start?" Vincent impatiently asked.

His girlfriend smacked his arm. "Shut up. It's starting right now!"

"Hey, don't hit me! I am the preseason finalist of the Larkinson Dueling League. Is this how you treat a champion?"

"You're not a champion. You got your butt whooped by a Swordmaiden." Raella sneered.

"I'm a gentleman, babe! I couldn't bring myself to hurt a girl."

"Excuses, excuses. Your Adonis Colossus simply can't handle an opposing mech that is more maneuverable and more ferocious than yours. I told you that it's not a proper dueling mech!"

"Hey, look! The big boss is finally speaking now!"

Back on the bridge of the Spirit of Bentheim, Ves looked at the projection that depicted hundreds of second-class ships. The power he had at his beck and call far surpassed what he controlled just half a year ago. The task force he brought into the Nyxian Gap would probably collapse after a single blow if it directly squared off against his current assets!

Anyone who made this realization would feel confident. Ves was no different. He had the illusion that he could defeat the entire galaxy as long as his forces kept growing stronger.

Though his mind told him that this growth could not be sustained, his imagination couldn't stop conjuring more ridiculous fantasies.

He took a deep breath. He gripped the Larkinson Mandate in his hand. Some of his delusions faded away as he drew strength from Goldie's warm and friendly presence.

"My fellow Larkinsons." He began as he took a few steps forward. "We are on the cusp of embarking on the journey of our lives. Only a couple of years after the founding of our clan, we are ready to fulfill our first great endeavor."

Lucky silently trailed after him as he paced, attracting attention from many people and pets.

"Each of you must be aware of how Task Force Predator fared in the Nyxian Gap. While the losses we have suffered are regrettable, the sacrifices we have made are not in vain. We have learned from some very valuable lessons from the battles we have fought. Our mechs and ships are stronger, more modern and more capable of withstanding the perils of intra-galactic travel!"

While it may not be the best decision to mention an old wound in the clan, Ves had a very good reason to bring up the recent tragedy.

"The Red Ocean is dangerous." He stated. "So is the Milky Way, in fact. No matter where we venture, we are constantly at risk of getting attacked for one reason or another. This is especially the case when our clan and alliance are independent. There is no state or huge organization backing us up. While this affords us the freedom to travel wherever we want, we also have to accept the possibility of being surrounded by enemies!"

His grave words dampened the enthusiasm among the Larkinsons. The clansmen did not expect to hear such a solemn speech today!

"Don't you think that sounds familiar?" Ves coyly smiled. "The Nyxian Gap is very similar to the Red Ocean. Think about it. Both regions are filled with dangerous elements. The authorities are largely absent and the humans who roam this region are opportunistic robbers who won't hesitate to attack you if you show any weakness. Do not think that I am exaggerating. Remnant aliens survivors are the least of our worries in the Red Ocean. The true danger comes from other humans!"

Too much publicity from the Red Ocean centered around the success stories. The news portals constantly gushed over lucky pioneers who managed to stumble upon a rich phasewater deposit or a cache of alien tech.

Hardly any journalist investigated the thousands of pioneers and fleets that had gone missing. Ves, who always regarded the Red Ocean with wariness, wanted to make sure his fellow clansmen didn't have the wrong idea!

"The Nyxian Gap has allowed us to witness the worst of humanity. Do not think that the Nyxian pirates are unique. I have seen the same kind of lawless bastards in the frontier beyond the border of human space. The dwarf galaxy we are heading towards is called another frontier, so do not think that the rules of civilized space apply to this uncontrollable region of space."

A strong desire flowed through his body.

Ves raised the book in his hands. "That does not mean we will shy away from this challenge! Where there is danger, there is riches. Each frontier offers an abundance of opportunities to those who are brave enough to venture in it. Even if nine out of ten explorers may die in pursuit of these opportunities, I am confident that our Larkinson Clan will be among the winners."

The Larkinson Mandate seemed to glow as Goldie resonated with his boundless confidence! Every clansman watching the broadcast felt a stirring in their hearts that could not be suppressed!

"Do you know why?! Because we are Larkinsons!" Ves exclaimed! "This is all the answer you need. If you believe in our clan, then you must believe in our strength! No matter what adversity we face, we are made to overcome challenges! For the clan!"

"FOR THE CLAN!" The clansmen roared throughout the fleet!

Chapter 2612: Goodbye Cinach

The Larkinson fleet adopted a standard formation as it rested in one of the Langrange points close to Cinach VI.

Mechs that used to be on patrol began to fly back to their respective carriers now that the fleet was about to depart.

The former Hexer combat carriers formed an oval formation around the fleet. Their relatively tough exteriors made them suitable for these positions. While the combat carriers weren't designed to serve as shields, they could play the role in an emergency.

This was necessary in order to protect the more fragile vessels clustered in the interior of the formation.

undefinedVarious logistical ships, cargo ships and civilian ships could not withstand as much damage as the combat carriers. Even though the second-class vessels were more than capable of withstanding attacks from third-class mechs, it was a different story if second-class enemies emerged.

The Spirit of Bentheim occupied the center of the huge formation. Even though her defenses were far more comprehensive than that of the combat carriers, she was the heart and soul of the expeditionary fleet. The clan did not wish to risk any of her precious crew and production equipment.

In the past month, the Spirit of Bentheim underwent a profound transformation.

From the inside, many temporary Hexer crew members traveled back to the Hexadric Hegemony. Thousands of Larkinson spacers took their place.

Since the Spirit of Bentheim was the most crucial ship in the Larkinson fleet, only the most talented, experienced and knowledgeable ship officers and ratings received the honor of serving aboard her. Fleet Coordinator Ophelia Kronon even transferred a number of experienced specialists from other vessels in order to make sure the ship would fall under the control of the Larkinsons.

From the outside, the capital ship underwent a more drastic transformation!

The port and starboard side of the vessel proudly displayed her name in huge, white letters. Anyone who observed the red-coated vessel would not be able to mistake her identity!

Yet this was not the most drastic addition.

The huge, six-sided capital ship used to feature a rather standard-looking prow. The Hexer shipyard that built the Spirit of Bentheim did not deviate from the customized ship design that the Larkinsons and Hexers had agreed upon.

The prow of the factory ship used to resemble a normal-looking wedge. It was as if the shipbuilders affixed a giant ram on the front of the vessel.

Of course, the ram was absolutely not supposed to crash into other vessels. Even if the Spirit of Bentheim speared through the hull of another vessel, her internal structure simply couldn't withstand the enormous stresses unleashed upon impact!

The only instance where ramming was a valid battle tactic was if the initiating side was prepared to sacrifice a ship!

For these reasons, the prows of starships did not have to be optimized for ramming.

Many sub-capital ships adopted an aerodynamic profile in order to facilitate atmospheric flight. Of course, the ships did not need to be perfectly streamlined as their immense propulsion and levitation power played a much greater role than any lift they could possibly generate.

This was why most starships eschewed wings.

In any case, the Spirit of Bentheim was not designed to land on a gravity well, so there was even less of a demand to make her aerodynamic.

This allowed the Larkinson Clan to spruce up the appearance of their first and only capital ship.

The Glory Seekers, Crossers and the other natives and observers in the Cinach System witnessed an astonishing sight.

A number of logistical vessels parked next to the Spirit of Bentheim and began to work on her prow.

Precious, pre-processed alloy appeared from the bellies of various cargo vessels. The installation crews took these giants blocks and support struts and carefully affixed them onto the front of the factory ship.

The true purpose of the V-shaped prow became evident now. The shape presented a very convenient platform for the alloys that the Larkinsons were piling up on the front of their flagship!

In the span of several weeks, more and more dazzling alloy surrounded the original prow. Not a hint of the red-shaped wedge was visible as the Larkinsons slowly formed a very distinct shape with the gold-coated alloy blocks.

It was only in the final days when the Spirit of Bentheim revealed her new prow!

Tons and tons of gold-coated Breyer alloy stood out starkly against the red-coated hull. Hardly anyone who observed the new vessel could believe that the Larkinsons were extravagant enough to employ so many tons of valuable alloy to decorate the front of their factory ship!

Breyer alloy was more resilient than the bulk plating that armored the rest of the capital ship's hull. The Larkinson Clan pretty much emptied its entire reserve of this valuable and precious alloy in order to complete this vanity project!

The effect was obvious.

Both Larkinsons and outsiders couldn't help but be impressed at the transformation. The Spirit of Bentheim gained a ferocious air as her prow displayed a magnificent representation of the Golden Cat's head!

"Is that a lion?"

"It's supposed to be a cat."

"What? A housecat? Are you sure?"

Most outside observers mistakenly thought they were looking at a lion. Only the Larkinsons and those who were familiar with them knew that it was actually a cat!

No one understood the Larkinson Clan's obsession with cats. Even its own allies considered it to be an eccentric quirk.

Only the Larkinsons themselves knew better. The Golden Cat was more than just their symbol and mascot. The ancestral spirit actually existed, and she was present in every Larkinson's heart!

As Ves had concluded his speech, he gazed at a projection that showed off the Spirit of Bentheim's gleaming golden prow. He felt inordinately pleased his flagship gained such a unique and eye-catching appearance!

"It's too bad it's not alive." He muttered.

If he had his way, he would have turned the immense cat head into a giant totem dedicated to Goldie. However, there was no way to accomplish this unless Ves manually fabricated all of the alloy blocks by hand.

As far as he was aware of, only he possessed the capability to make spiritual energy-infused objects or totems. Unlike mechs which drew strength from his mech designs, totems did not enjoy this convenience.

Due to lack of time, he only fabricated a couple of alloy blocks in person. Their faint spiritual foundation wasn't enough to support Goldie's presence across the entire prow, but Ves hoped that might change one day.

The sound of heels approaching broke him from his reverie. A pleasant scent began to tickle his nose. He did not even have to turn around to recognize who walked up to his side.

"Hmph." Gloriana adopted a skeptical expression. "I don't know where you got so much Breyer alloy. If I knew you could obtain such quantities with ease, I would have insisted on using them on our mechs! Do you realize how many Valkyrie mechs we could have upgraded with this stellar material?"

"The effect of this prow is at least ten times more shocking than fielding a hundred Breyer alloy-clad mechs." Ves retorted. "Don't worry, Gloriana. I've already reserved enough Breyer alloy to clad the mechs of our expert pilots and expert candidates. That is sufficient for our purposes. Also, it is not as if the Bentheim's upgraded prow is useless. Any mech who attacks our factory ship from the front will have a very hard time getting through all of that alloy!"

The two continued to argue a bit while their cats sat silently next to each other.

"Meow." Lucky licked Clixie's ear.

"Miaow." The organic cat patted away the gem cat.

After a short time, a new projection appeared in front of the Miracle Couple. Major Verle saluted to Ves before issuing his report.

"Every ship in our expeditionary fleet is prepared to transition into FTL. We have just received word that the Glory Seeker fleet and the Crosser fleet are also prepared. The Barracuda and a number of other scout ships have already ventured ahead of us in order to give us advance warning of any irregularities at our emergence point."

It was quite dangerous for a huge fleet to travel to other destinations in a huge gathering. In order to be safe, the Golden Skull Alliance already dispatched a number of fast and agile starships beforehand so that they could relay their observations back to the main fleet over the galactic net.

Of course, it was also dangerous for scout ships to travel too far ahead. As long as any enemies were watching out for a vessel like the Barracuda, then they could receive advance warning of where the main fleet of the Golden Skull Alliance would arrive next!

For this reason, the scout vessels only departed a few hours ahead of time. Right now, they were nowhere close to the first stop of the journey.

"Have we left anything important behind?" Ves asked.

The major shook his head. "All our clansmen are accounted for. We are ready to transition at your command."

"Very well. Please commence our FTL drives. Our grand expedition starts here!"

Hundreds of starships began to spool their FTL drives. After several moments, they disappeared from the material realm at a predetermined order.

Combat vessels went first. Non-combat vessels went next. When the powerful Spirit of Bentheim warmed up one of her three heavy-duty FTL drives, Ves felt as if a very strong vibration ran throughout his body.

From the slightly-discomfited expressions of the bridge operators, he wasn't the only person who felt this way.

A sensation that felt similar to a pop ran through everyone's body as the immense capital ship finally transitioned into FTL!

The projections that displayed different views of the Cinach System instantly disappeared. Nothing came in its place as the visual appearance of higher-dimensional space technically didn't make sense to human eyes.

A sense of hope and wonder swept over everyone aboard the Spirit of Bentheim. After so many months of preparation, they were finally setting off for the Red Ocean!

Ves and Gloriana left the bridge and returned to their grand stateroom. Both of them looked excited as they thought about what they might encounter.

"So." Gloriana began as she held her cat. "Our first destination is the Life Research Association, right?"

"Correct. We need to beef up our biotech capabilities. I hope to hire a lot of doctors, geneticists, implant surgeons and exobiologists. We still need to provide the survivors of the Nyxian Gap Campaign with a free set of augmentations."

"It's not going to be easy to hire the best biotech experts, Ves. The researchers of the LRA are very content with their state. Do you know how many organizations like ours are recruiting highly-skilled personnel over there?"

Ves momentarily winced. "I know it's going to be difficult to attract some of the more arrogant scientists, but our clan is not a regular organization. I am confident that our prestige and our recent accomplishments will attract some ambitious Lifers. There has to be plenty of them who are willing to explore the Red Ocean with us. There are adventurous souls in every state."

"You may be right, but my point still stands. We can probably convince a lot of average doctors, but the best the LRA has to offer will not be swayed by ordinary promises. These accomplished elites have already established themselves in the upper hierarchy of their states. We need to adopt a specific approach to poach some of these top-tier researchers. The sooner we prepare a plan, the higher our chances of getting a top expert."

Ves slowed down his steps. "Why are you so insistent on getting the best? These are exactly the kind of people I don't want to recruit. These people have too many ties to the LRA. They're also older and very set in their ways. With their strong intellect and mental development, it's impossible to guarantee their loyalty to our clan! I would rather recruit a bunch of younger talents and develop them step by step."

"That's not enough!" She retorted. "We need the best straight away! If you don't want to bother with this issue, then leave the planning to me. I will make sure we can enjoy the best of care once we leave Majestic Teal."

"Fine then!"

Chapter 2613: Chief Fabricator Ziva Victrix

The Golden Skull Alliance had finally departed from the Cinach System!

After the excitement surrounding the official start of the grand expedition had passed, the Larkinsons slowly went back to work.

In the preceding weeks, they had already moved into their respective berths. While there were plenty of people who were still unaccustomed to living on a starship, at the very least they already managed to get over the initial adjustment periods.

The Larkinsons stationed on the larger ships enjoyed more comfort compared to those stationed aboard the smaller vessels.

undefinedSub-capital ships such as combat carriers and logistical ships devoted most of their room towards essential functions. While they offered at least some comfort in the form of decently-sized crew quarters, they did not come close to the amenities offered by larger vessels.

The crew and dependents assigned to the Spirit of Bentheim all felt lucky for being assigned to this great factory ship! The 1st and 12th decks became the favorite destinations of many off-duty clansmen.

Those who sought peace and open space ventured into the gardens situated on the 1st deck. The Larkinsons who wanted to hang out and enjoy some fun visited the city within a ship on the 12th deck.

Of course, the Spirit of Bentheim did not center around these recreational facilities. They were merely added to the ship in order to increase the productivity of the crew.

The main purpose of a factory ship was to produce goods. Even though the Spirit of Bentheim spent most of her time in FTL travel, her production halls steadily churned out one mech after another.

Lately, Spirit of Bentheim produced less Valkyrie mechs and more Transcendent Punishers. In fact, the main reason why the ship's Production Department bothered to make the Valkyrie mechs at all was because they were relatively easier to make.

Once more and more production crews became used to operating the GAIA production lines, the production of Transcendent Punishers picked up speed.

By now, the Spirit of Bentheim already boasted a full complement of Transcendent Punishers. There was a heavy artillery mech for all 80 bunkers, but that only applied to the flagship of the Larkinson Clan.

There were many other vessels whose bunkers were still empty. The Hexer-built combat carriers each boasted 3 to 6 bunkers depending on their ship class model.

While this didn't sound very impressive, it was a very good way to increase the firepower of the Larkinson Clan. The LMC had already stocked up an abundant amount of raw materials beforehand, so there was absolutely no worry of running out anytime soon. Many of the cargo ships traveling with the fleet were stuffed with expensive exotics and bulk materials!

As Ves dropped by the production decks one day, he became impressed by the immense amount of activity taking place within the halls.

The GAIA production lines consisted of a cluster of huge mech-sized production machines. Each of them generated an immense amount of heat as they performed various energy-intensive processes!

Fortunately, the Spirit of Bentheim was a state-of-the-art Hexer factory ship. Some of the best Hexer shipwrights optimized the power supply and heat management systems of the capital ship. The highly-regulated temperature did not rise above the most optimal level for the human physique.

In the event of an accident, a large number of bots and automated disaster suppression systems would automatically kick in to contain any fires, lethal radiation and other threats.

Ves met with the person in charge of all of the production halls.

Just like Grand Captain Daria-Maria Vraken, there was no way an average person could possibly run such an immense operation!

Every GAIA production line cost billions of hex credits. Every production machine, from the 3D printer to the alloy compressor, was so insanely complex that some mech technicians would have to spend a lifetime to master all of their operations.

Aside from Ves and maybe Gloriana, there was no one else in the Larkinson Clan who was qualified to oversee so many production operations.

For this reason, the position was occupied by another Hexer trainer.

Interim Chief Fabricator Ziva Victrix looked like a normal middle-aged woman. Yet behind this 70-ish year old woman's facade was a former mech designer who improved her fabrication and assembly skills to a level that the Miracle Couple could not even match!

Despite being just an Apprentice Mech Designer who failed to advance to Journeyman, Ziva once accomplished the supreme honor of fabricating a masterwork mech!

Such cases were rare but not unheard of. Each fabricator who earned a masterwork certificate was practically a national treasure to every state. Ves had no idea why the council of matriarchs appointed such an accomplished fabricator as a humble trainer aboard the Spirit of Bentheim.

The only reason why he didn't question this mystery any further was because he was very happy with Ziva Victrix's results.

If not for her considerable expertise, the Spirit of Bentheim would have never been able to occupy all of her bunkers before the start of the grand expedition!

Even so, there were limits to her abilities.

"Theoretically, a full crew of mech technicians, engineers and low-ranking mech designers should be capable of outputting a Transcendent Punisher within 48 hours." The older woman calmly explained. "The GAIA production line is one of the fastest and most efficient sets of production equipment of its kind in the Hegemony. It is very good at putting together light mechs and heavy mechs alike. That said, the sequential production process that you insist on adopting means that it will take at least 72 hours to make a Transcendent Punisher."

In order to preserve as much spiritual foundation as possible, the production crews have to piece together the mechs one by one. The production halls were already set up for this approach, but the lack of intersection ruled out the use of more efficient approaches.

As the two toured the production halls, Ves remained nonchalant. "I already explained to you why we cannot switch to batch processing. Every LMC mech is alive. You can think of it as a child. The production crew are effectively its parents. If you want the mech to possess a strong and vigorous life, then the production crews must care for it like a true baby."

"I'm not arguing against your approach. I have felt the difference myself." Ziva responded. "You just have to be aware that we are wasting precious production capacity due to keeping most of our production machines idle. Right now, the average production times of the Transcendent Punisher model range from 4 to 5 days. There are some underperforming production crews that occasionally take even longer, but these are exceptions."

"How much time will it take to reduce that down to 3 days?" Ves asked.

"Months. Years. Probably the latter." Ziva answered. "I know you are impatient, but don't expect any quick results. Now that the production crews have gained some basic proficiency, it will take a lot more practice and study to achieve further gains. Every mech technician must devote a lot of time on self-study and constant repetition in order to develop a better feel for the production machines."

He knew that she was right. While he wanted to fill up the bunkers of his combat carriers with as many Transcendent Punishers as possible, the Spirit of Bentheim had to churn out at least 350 mechs!

This meant it would take about three months to complete this job!

Hopefully, the Larkinson fleet wouldn't bump into any troublemakers during this time. Ves did not entirely feel comfortable leaving so many bunkers empty.

Theoretically, the Larkinson Clan could fill up the bunkers with rifleman mechs or other ranged mechs instead. However, the effect was marginal compared to inserting a heavy artillery mech that was specifically designed to leverage this form of protection!

As Ves questioned Ziva about the various issues related to producing the Larkinson Clan's exclusive heavy artillery mech, she mentioned a strange phenomenon.

"As these mechs get put together, their glows become increasingly more evident." She mentioned.

"Is there a problem with that, chief? Our production crews should have received training on how to deal with glows. If any of the personnel cannot adjust to them, they are free to request reassignment."

"It's not that, sir. The truth is that some of the mech technicians… have become enamored with the glow of this mech model. They have converted to the Ylvainan Faith."

"...How much?"

"Only a couple of dozen so far." Ziva replied. "This is not a large amount considering that the Production Department consists of thousands of workers. I have examined the converted believers in question. They are all easily influenced and seek reassure, so it should not be surprising that they have embraced a new faith. Other Larkinsons should not be easily swayed."

Ves grimaced. "The effect is still there, though. If our production lines are preoccupied with putting together Transcendent Punishers for three months straight, then I can easily imagine hundreds of workers following suit!"

"Do you wish to alter our production schedule? If we start producing Valkyrie mechs again, the production crews will not be exposed to a singular glow."

"Will that entail slowing down the production of Transcendent Punishers?"

"That will inevitably be the case."

Ves sighed. "Forget about it, then. The Transcendent Punishers come first. Aside from our custom mechs, the Transcendent Punishers are our most powerful mechs. I don't feel comfortable with slowing down their production. The more Punishers we have, the better."

As for converting more Larkinsons to the Ylvainan Faith, Ves didn't care too much about this problem. If these people were so gullible to fall for James' scam within 3 months of exposure, then they would have turned into a believer eventually. There was no saving these people.

He carefully glanced at Ziva's expression as he made his decision.

"Do you disapprove, chief?"

The Hexer fabricator did not reveal much emotion behind her professional mask. "It is not my place to judge."

"I thought you Victrix Hexers look down on boys the most in the Hegemony."

She coughed. "Properly speaking, I have never aligned myself with the Victrix Matriarchal Dynasty. I am disgusted at the conduct of my fellow sisters. I have no part in it. Only mechs and machines interest me. Whether they are male or female, it doesn't matter."

Ves blinked. "You're the first Hexer I've met that recognizes that mechs aren't divided by gender. Not even Gloriana is able to divorce herself from this assumption!"

"Did you expect something different from me because of my last name?"

"Well…"

"The matriarchs are wiser than you think, Mr. Larkinson. They wouldn't have put me in charge of the production halls of this ship if I was unable to accept taking orders from a.. 'man'."

The Victrix Matriarchal Dynasty was one of the most distasteful factions in the Hegemony. From what Ves heard about it, there were 7 women for every 3 boys among the Victrixes!

All-female couples were very common there. In fact, the family trees of a lot of Hexers living in the territories of the Victrix Dynasty did not mention a single boy over a stretch of several centuries!

The less a family tree was tainted by boys, the more purer it was in the eyes of the Victrix Dynasty.

However, the poorer and more average Hexers couldn't always afford the expensive medical procedures needed to develop a designer baby that inherited the genes of two female parents.

Boys still played a role in their society, though their lot was very cruel. They received some of the heaviest repression imaginable in the Hegemony.

One of the most ridiculous ones by far was the fact that they were universally castrated before they hit puberty!

Not a single boy living under the heel of the Victrixes was capable of reproducing naturally!

Fortunately, this process was still reversible. As long as a female Hexer submitted an application, the Victrix Dynasty was willing to restore the reproductive function of a boy for a limited amount of time.

It was too bad it never lasted!

Chapter 2614: Hotel Bentheim

As the reality of the grand expedition settled in, a lot of Larkinsons became annoyed at the inconveniences of space travel.

The time it took for the slowest FTL drive in the fleet to complete its cycle time determined how long the Golden Skull Alliance lingered in realspace.

Since none of the ships in the pioneering alliance was slow, that amounted to a wait time of just 6 hours.

Once this break time was over, the fleet transitioned into FTL travel yet again, isolating each and individual starship from each other.

undefinedAs far as humanity was concerned, there was no way to transfer energy and matter from one starship to another in FTL. Even if they shifted into FTL travel while flying right next to each other, the workings of the higher dimensions was still a mystery to most people in the galaxy.

There were rumors that the CFA and perhaps the MTA had managed to crack the secret to breaking this isolation phenomenon through the use of phasewater.

There were whispers of CFA warfleets forming some kind of bubble that allowed entire fleets to shelter under the protection of a battleship.

There were even claims that these CFA warfleets were able to fight against other starships in FTL travel!

Such possibilities were mind-boggling to space peasants. Ves did not believe he had any chance of accessing such incredible high technology.

Most humans had to make due with regular FTL travel and all of the constraints that came with it. Still, what if phasewater become more ubiquitous? What if this substance's amazing phasing properties lowered the barrier of waging warfare in other dimensions?

Warfare might change forever!

The Red Ocean might become more exciting — and dangerous — than Ves initially realized if this was the case.

For now, Ves and the Larkinson Clan did not concern themselves with these risks. They became much more occupied with dealing with the issues of extended isolation.

Every starship turned into a solitary prison the moment they transitioned into FTL travel. Aside from being able to transmit and receive data over the galactic net, no physical transfer was possible.

This annoyed a lot of Larkinsons at first. Many of the new recruits used to be planetbound citizens who were accustomed to being able to travel wherever they liked.

They may have signed up to the grand expedition, but they didn't actually expect the restrictions would be so bad.

"There is nothing fun to be had on this ship!"

"Am I supposed to lie down in my cabin and play virtual games in my free hours?"

"There's no room for sports on this cramped ship!"

The complaints rapidly flooded the clan administration. Those who served aboard smaller and more limited starships expressed much more dissatisfaction than those who were assigned to larger vessels.

"There are remarkably few crew members who are dissatisfied with serving aboard the Spirit of Bentheim." Gavin reported as he held his data pad. "The larger the ship, the more livable she is, though there are many other variables as well. The point is that most of our starships aside from the Bentheim aren't really geared for permanent residency. The Hexer-built vessels were meant to be crewed by professionals on a short to medium-term basis."

Ves held his daily briefing at his main office on the 2nd deck. He had fallen in love with it soon after settling in. The interior looked stately, dignified and classy without going overboard. Though the decorations were rather bare for now, he had plenty of time to personalize his office further.

For now, his main office did the job of making him feel powerful while impressive every guest he invited.

"We won't have these sub-capital ships for long, Benny. We won't be making this oversight again. After a couple of years, we'll reach the beyonder gate and get rid of the Hexer castoffs. we'll invest in more livable starships once we reach the Red Ocean."

Gavin looked a bit concerned. "That sounds great, boss, but that doesn't address our short-term problems. Let's face it. Over half of our 50,000 clansmen are way in over their heads. They went directly from living on a normal planet to being forced to live inside a metal box that is flinging through space. It's starting to make people crazy, and this is just the first week!"

That sounded quite concerning.

"I'm just a mech designer. How am I supposed to solve this complex sociological problem? Just throw the problem at the Larkinson Assembly or the relevant experts in our clan. I don't care what they do. Just make sure our clansmen are able to acclimatize to their new living conditions."

Gavin briefly looked at his data pad. "The Larkinson Assembly has already begun to debate on this issue. The assembly members came up with several proposals. One of them is to treat the Spirit of Bentheim as an ark ship, at least until we get the genuine article."

"What?"

"Ark ships are excellent living environments in space. That's why they are built. They are the best solution that people have come up with to solve the livability problems we are talking about. The issue is that ark ships aren't very productive in itself. You still need people crewing your combat carriers, logistical ships and so on. What usually happens is that the fleet sets up a rotation. A crew member must serve on a functional starship for 3 weeks straight before being allowed to relax on an ark ship for a single week. Something like that. If the crew member has a family, then the spouse and kids may be permanently living aboard the ark ship as well."

Ves was not unfamiliar with this rotating schedule. While it had its issues, it was a proven way to destress crew members serving aboard smaller vessels.

There was a problem, though.

"We don't have an ark ship. We may have New Dorum aboard the Spirit of Bentheim, but that is just a single deck."

The city erected on the 12th deck had become more and more popular. Even Ves liked to drop by every now and then due to its dynamic scene.

"A single deck on a capital ship is enough, boss." Gavin shook his head. "If you are willing to add more berths to the 39th and 40th decks, we can accommodate a lot more off-duty personnel. It would be like turning a small portion of our factory ship into a cruise ship or a secondary home. One of the problems we are facing is that the families of the crew members assigned to other ships don't have it easy over there. It's a lot better if we allow the kids to live on an ark ship or the closest alternative so they can socialize with each other and enjoy a more normal upbringing."

Ves did not like this suggestion. "This is a huge security risk. If tens of thousands of Larkinsons start rotating in and out of our very important and very strategic factory ship, the possibility that someone or something will sneak into our production halls or design labs becomes a lot higher. While I trust our clansmen not to do anything stupid, it's very hard to ensure compliance."

The monitoring system on the Spirit of Bentheim was comprehensive, but not infallible. Even Ves could pull off a couple of tricks to fool some of its sensors. Lucky could practically run rings around it if he wished!

Gavin insisted on this option, though. "I highly recommend you keep an open mind. Our fleet simply doesn't have another ship aside from the Bentheim that can fill this void. If you truly trust your clansmen, then please allow them to move over their families if they have any and let them rotate here on a monthly basis. This is the best option we have to maintain everyone's quality of living."

"...You care quite a lot about this issue, it seems. I haven't heard you advocate for something this strong in quite some time, Benny."

The assistant looked indignant. "Hey, just because I enjoy the privilege of working and living on the Bentheim doesn't mean I am blind to what is taking place on other ships. I get in touch with a lot of different people due to my job. I get told a lot of stuff. From what I am hearing, we truly need to address this issue."

Ves thought about it and felt that Gavin may have a point. "Let me just say that I am open to solutions. I don't want the Spirit of Bentheim into a hotel or a holiday retreat, though. I will allow rotations to take place as long as there aren't too many movements."

"I'll tell the Larkinson Assembly the good news!"

"You do that. Is there any other item on the agenda?"

"Yes, boss. Do you remember the female Larkinsons seeds you sent off to study in the Hegemony?"

"Oh, you mean Rennie and Maisie Ann Larkinson?"

"Yeah. The two young ladies were supposed to return to Cinach before we began our journey, but they met with some delays. The deteriorating war conditions along with some navigational issues caused them to arrive a bit too late. The courier vessel that has brought them to the Sentinel Kingdom will catch up with us at our destination."

"Oh. Okay, then."

Now that the Larkinson Clan was leaving for the Red Ocean, it didn't make much sense to leave Rennie and Maisie Ann behind. While Ves wanted them to enjoy an orthodox, systematic education, it was impossible for the pair of aspiring mech designers to return to the clan once the expeditionary fleet passed through a beyonder gate.

In addition, the latest developments of the Komodo War meant that the Hexers weren't so confident in winning anymore. In the event they lost, Hippolyta War College and every other Hexer university would lose their foundations!

The two female Larkinsons seeds might not be able to finish their studies and earn their diplomas if the Fridaymen achieved a breakthrough.

Ves simply couldn't let the two young women run for their lives like a pair of homeless dogs!

"It's a shame for them to interrupt their schooling." Gavin sympathised with the two women. "Even though I only studied at a rural university on Cloudy Curtain, I enjoyed my college days."

"In hindsight, I shouldn't have sent the girls out. I never expected the Nyxian Gap Campaign to deliver so many Larkinson merits in my pockets at once, allowing me to accelerate my schedule. Oh well. I'll just take them back and teach them just like Maikel and Zanthar."

He didn't expect too many problems with this. While he didn't spend a lot of time tutoring his male students, they didn't need any hand holding. They were smart and motivated enough to work towards the goals that Ves had set.

"Don't expect the returning pair of students to be the same." Gavin cautiously warned. "Rennie and Maisie Ann attended Hippolyta War College for two full semesters. From what I have heard, they had difficulties integrating in the strict Hexer school in the beginning, but that soon changed once you released the Blessed Squire and the Valkyrie Redeemer."

"Are you saying…"

"I don't know, boss, but you know how Hexers are. Just take into account that they might prefer to study under Gloriana instead."

"Great."

Well, the Larkinson seeds were no longer as important to Ves and the clan as before. Previously, the four represented the best and brightest mech students the old Larkinson Family could muster. Now, the Larkinson Clan could easily foist hundreds of mech design seeds on his lap!

Ves didn't want to work himself to death, though. He only wanted to mentor the most promising and worthwhile students.

For now, the Larkinson Clan was still in the process of sorting out its schooling system. With all of the kids and teenagers running around across the fleet, it was imperative to set up internal schools and mech academies.

It was also vital to set up a proper university of higher education in order to raise the clan's future engineers, mech designers, managers, and starship captains. This was an immense endeavor that could not be rushed!

Chapter 2615: Education Plan

The Larkinson Assembly was the primary legislative body of the Larkinson Clan. There was no way they neglected the issues of educating the next generations of Larkinsons.

Instead of reading through some boring acts and proposals that were filled with incomprehensible legalese, Ves decided to call the speaker of the assembly.

The physical projection of Ovrin Larkinson appeared in the clan patriarch's main office.

"Nice office. It looks quite imposing."

undefined"Thanks. It's supposed to have that effect."

They chatted a bit. Speaker Ovrin Larkinson didn't have it easy. His workload constantly increased as the clan continued to expand. He had to delegate more and more work to committees led by committee chairmen. While this meant that the latter gained a lot more power and influence, it was the only way to keep up with the expanding scope of the clan.

"The committee chairmen are all oldsters like myself. For now, we are all on the same page, so don't worry about any of them running wild." Ovrin reassured Ves. "I can't say this will remain the same over time. Once we are too old to exercise our duties, our successors may harbor some different ideas on how to run our affairs. As our clan continues to grow bigger, the interests get bigger as well. The Larkinson Assembly won't be as cordial and tranquil as before."

Ves briefly frowned. "Are you saying that the Assembly will be split up into factions?"

"That is already the case from day one, Ves. It just wasn't very obvious because we used to be too small to argue about anything important. Your influence was too great as well. Now…"

"The clan has grown a lot bigger."

Benjamin Larkinson's brother nodded. "Indeed. The direct control that you or any other Larkinson can exert over the clan has dropped as the clan kept growing. While you can still change the course of the clan, I doubt you are willing or able to sort out the growing number of dossiers."

"That's fine with me. There is no need for me to be in charge of everything. I just wanted to check up on the Assembly's plans with regards to schooling. We can't keep recruiting capable mech designers, engineers and other professions. We need to bring them up from within."

Ovrin immediately knew what Ves wanted to know.

"Let me send you some documents."

Ves quickly received some proposals. For now, the Larkinsons only managed to establish some primary schools. The clan was still in the process of setting up some secondary schools, the first of which would be founding in New Dorum.

"How are the teenagers in our clan getting by if we haven't set up a single high school?"

"The kids are not slacking off at home if that is what you're afraid of. For now, we have enrolled them into renowned virtual schools. While the boys and girls are getting quality second-class education, their curriculum is very neutral."

Virtual schooling was not any worse than physical schooling these days. Projection technology was so advanced that it was easy to give students the illusion of attending a physical school. Advanced testing, monitoring and progress trackers ensured that each student kept up their studies and achieved the expected results.

A lot of good virtual schools were especially geared to educating kids stuck on starships.

However, virtual schools weren't perfect.

"We need to set up the remaining educational institutions as soon as possible." Ves urged. "Socialization is important, so it is best to force the younger generation to gather at physical schools. We also need to exert greater control over the curriculum in order to shape their ideologies."

"That is what the proposals are for. Depending on the budget, we can set up a range of different institutions."

Ves took another look at the documents that Speaker Ovrin sent. The main proposal called for the formation of multiple primary and secondary schools on every capital ship. He had no problem with this. While the Larkinson Clan currently didn't have a lot of children, that would definitely change.

What was more noteworthy was the intention to set up multiple universities.

"Why do we need more universities?" Ves grew confused.

"It's not a priority in the beginning, but it will make sense in the future." Ovrin confidently replied. "In short, we want to set up universities on several different capital ships in order to establish superior work and learning environments. For example, the Larkinson University of Technology that is supposed to be based inside the Spirit of Bentheim should offer programmes related to technical professions."

Ves widened his eyes. "I see now! Our future engineers and mech designers can easily drop by the production halls in order to gain some practical experience. Once they graduate, they can immediately get going without requiring too much training. The Spirit of Bentheim offers so many different technical facilities that it is practically a dream to set up a technical university on this ship!"

"There is another benefit." Ovrin added. "The technical university can make use of the mech designers, engineers, chief technicians and other skilled personnel as part-time professors or lecturers. Since this is all taking place on the same ship, the barriers aren't significant."

This was a compelling idea. Ves could already imagine the Larkinson University of Technology once it got going. He could easily assign any assistant mech designer to teach some courses over there. Perhaps Ves might hold some classes himself in order to shape the next generation of mech designers in the clan. The students would also be able to gain plenty of practical experience by interning at the design labs or the production halls.

And this was just the case for mech designers! There were lots of other vital professions that would also benefit from these synergies!

The Speaker of the Larkinson Assembly continued speaking. "Once we obtain other capital ships, we can establish other specialized institutions. For example, a fleet carrier is a good site for a naval academy to supply more spacers to our fleet. We can also set up our mech academy here to provide more opportunities for our mech cadets to pilot physical mechs."

The proposal mentioned other possibilities.

For example, a research ship was the perfect location for a science and biotech university. Future doctors, exobiologists, physicists and so on would be able to learn from and work alongside the established researchers working on the research vessel.

An ark ship on the other hand was a good site for a humanities and arts-focused institution. The Larkinson Clan did not entirely consist of mech designers and spacers. Ves wanted his clan to become more rounded, so it was essential to raise a lot of managers, economists, musicians, artists and other miscellaneous personnel.

Naturally, setting up all of these universities couldn't be accomplished in a single month or year. The Larkinson Clan still needed to acquire the necessary capital ship. The universities also had to be staffed with professors, managers, councilors and other necessary personnel.

This wasn't something that Ves could handle. For someone who possessed no significant education background at all, all of these plans went right over his head. He believed the rest of the clan would be able to get this done.

"I support this initiative." Ves voiced his approval. "While it is a bit overboard to set up so many universities so quickly, it is best to prepare the infrastructure as soon as possible. Once we have five times as many clansmen in our fleet, we need to accommodate a lot of students."

He was very happy with this comprehensive plan. While the Larkinson Assembly still needed to hammer out the details, now that Ves offered his support, he was certain the assembly members would deliver something soon.

They continued to talk about other serious matters before the conversation turned personal.

The two were family. While they weren't particularly close, Ovrin was still Ves' great-uncle.

"You look older." Ves remarked.

"Heh. Everyone grows older, Ves. I'm not that young to begin with. You don't need to be concerned about my health. Even though I'm a former mech pilot, I still have enough years left to leave behind a good foundation for our clan. It's the least I can do. If I can't do it, then the other old fogies in the Assembly will pick up my work."

"What if there aren't any old fogies left?"

"Then the next generation takes over." Ovrin answered without any concern. "This is an inevitability. While we old fogies are largely in charge right now, the future rests in the hands of you younger folk."

Ves frowned. "I'm concerned the next generation won't be as restrained."

The original Larkinson elders adopted a restrained and cautious approach. They set up the necessary institutions and passed the necessary bills, but did not try to redefine the clan. The Larkinson elders weren't politicians by nature, so they did not pursue any extreme or controversial agendas.

Ovrin explained the overall objective of the oldsters in the Assembly.

"We try to maintain as much stability as possible. We are already growing very quickly. The last thing we need is to destabilize the clan even further by passing controversial initiatives that will please one half of the clan while completely riling up the other half of the clan. Instead of tearing the clan apart, we need to unify it even further. Some clansmen think that we aren't doing enough, but we don't think that is bad. By doing nothing, we aren't rocking the boat. We are trying to buy enough time to allow our institutions to grow up and turn into the supporting pillars of the clan. If we implement too many changes, those vital institutions won't be able to stand up for themselves."

The Larkinson Clan was turning more and more into a state. That meant that Ves and the other leaders had to make sure its institutions became strong enough to support the functions of a state.

This meant that once the next generation of assembly members came into power, they could pursue bolder agendas without tearing the clan apart.

Ves could also foresee the rise of factions. As long as any group of people gathered together, disagreements always followed. When one group of people with similar opinions gathered together, it was natural for them to gather around a leader and present a strong front in order to push their demands.

If one group could do so, others could do so as well.

For now, the political divisions within the Larkinson Clan were still too murky to determine what kind of factions might arise. Ves wasn't really interested in these squabbling tribes. He was only interested in pursuing his own agenda.

"How is the Larkinson Family?" Ves asked. "I've been too busy with clan affairs and mech design projects lately."

"They're doing well enough. It's a pity that they have traveled deeper into Vicious Mountain. Our detour through the star sector will only cause our fleet to pass through the periphery. There is no possibility of intersection between our two fleets."

"That's a shame. What is Uncle Ark up to these days?"

Ovrin shrugged. "I'm not sure. He has been in retreat as of late. For now, Benjamin and other Larkinson elders are handling the daily affairs of the family. We have heard that they are in the process of negotiating with a number of the tribes and clans of the Garlen Empire. The Garlaners appear to be very interested in sheltering or integrating the Larkinson Family. I believe the success of our clan has a lot to do with that. I hope we can continue to do well. Perhaps one day, the Larkinson Family will be the ones to support our clan."

"Hahaha! That's funny, grand-uncle, but that will never happen." Ves amusingly chuckled.

He had already written off the Larkinson Family. Though Ark was a good man and an inspirational leader, he didn't have much ambition. The family just wanted to serve another state like before.

Chapter 2616: Returning Girls

The Golden Skull Alliance had already left the Sentinel Kingdom. The combined fleet passed through a number of random star systems in other states as it slowly made its way to the Komodo-Vicious Mountain border.

At one of these stops, the ships of the Glory Seekers, Larkinson Clan and Cross Clan just transitioned out of FTL travel.

Thousands of mechs quickly emerged from the carriers in order to set up patrols. The starships all converged together in order to correct for the drift that occurred during their traversal.

A corvette that was already parked in the star system instantly approached the arriving fleet. The unknown vessel initially aroused a lot of vigilance from the fleet, but soon it became evident that the corvette belonged the Hexers.

undefinedAfter some quick communication, the Larkinson fleet invited the corvette to approach the Spirit of Bentheim.

The vessel was only a hundred meters long. Along with her narrow hull, practically every other starship in the Larkinson fleet looked like a giant in comparison to this tiny courier vessel!

The Hexer corvette was not allowed to dock with the Spirit of Bentheim. Who knew if the ship was secretly packed with explosives or something?

Instead, the factory ship dispatched a shuttle that briefly mated with the Hexer vessel's passenger hatch.

Soon enough, the shuttle returned to the Spirit of Bentheim. Once the vehicle docked in the hangar bay, a number of Larkinsons dropped by in order to meet some returning people.

"Meow."

Lucky curiously looked at the shuttle as Maikel held the cat in his arms.

"Are you looking forward to seeing Maisie Ann and Rennie again?" Maikel asked.

"Meow."

"I wonder if they have become smarter than us." Zanthar wondered. "We need to show them that our teacher has taught us well!"

As Maikel and Zanthar shared their guesses, Ves calmly waited for the other two Larkinson seeds to emerge from the shuttle.

Even though the Larkinson seeds weren't as important anymore, Ves had still accepted the responsibility of turning them into qualified mech designers.

Every mech designer had a responsibility to teach the next generation. This custom was so ingrained in the mech industry that not even Ves wanted to defy this tradition.

While teaching others took up precious time, he gained plenty of benefits along the way. In the future, he would definitely step up his teaching. He might even get involved in the Larkinson University of Technology in order to disseminate some of his ideas.

That was not going to happen anytime soon, though. For now, it was already sufficient to provide one-on-one teaching or just make use of virtual schools.

"They're coming!"

The hatch finally slid open. Two women floated out and landed on the deck of the hangar bay.

A strange silence swept in the area.

The two young men studied the women carefully. Due to the latter's strict learning environment, Maisie Ann and Rennie weren't able to correspond very often with their families.

All four Larkinson seeds had changed over the course of a year.

The men had grown taller, though they still hadn't shed all of the traces of their youth. The main change lay in their demeanor.

Ever since Ves guided Maikel into discovering his main passion, the young man had become more driven. Maikel spent a lot of time brushing up his knowledge on programming and artificial intelligences. While he hadn't accrued enough expertise to speak with authority on these subjects, he seemed less like a mech design student and more like an actual mech designer as of late.

Zanthar's transformation was not as drastic. His interest in heavy firepower was not as unique and exciting. Nonetheless, his studies had definitely kept apace. No matter if it was kinetic weapons, energy weapons or missiles, Zanthar had gained a lot of insight in heavy guns.

What particularly helped his progress was the release of the Transcendent Punishers!

The heavy artillery mech was practically perfect for Zanthar. The student frequently visited the mech stables where the Transcendent Punishers were stowed. Ves didn't actually know what he actually did over there, but it was fine as long as Zanthar kept up his progress.

"Hello boys." Maisie Ann greeted.

The two girls seemed to have enjoyed a growth spurt. They had grown significantly taller, so much so that Ves actually suspected they had undergone a Hexer procedure to raise their height!

That was not the extent of their physical changes. Though their sharp and militaristic Hippolyta uniforms did not show off their physique, Ves could tell that they were a lot more athletic than before.

It appeared the two girls also went through a lot of physical training, which was not typical for a mech design program.

Yet the biggest change was not how they looked, but how they acted. Even though Maisie Ann and Rennie hadn't spoken any other words, their stiff postures, confident body language and judging stares reminded Ves uncomfortably of his wife and other Hexers.

Was he greeting a pair of Larkinsons or a pair Hexers today?

As Maikel and Zanthar lost their voices, Ves stepped in to take over the greeting.

"Welcome back to the Larkinson Clan, girls. I wish you would have been able to attend Hippolyta longer, but…"

Both girls instantly loosened up a bit and bowed in front of Ves.

"It's okay, sir." Maisie Ann said. "Our professors recommended us to go back as well. If the Fridaymen ever manages to cross over into the Hegemony, our safety can't be guaranteed. Your mech models inflicted so much damage on our enemies that they might aim to kidnap us. It was better for us to leave."

"Have you made any plans or arrangements with regards to your future studies?"

Rennie nodded. "Hippolyta already placed us into a virtual class. Our professors also got in touch with Miss Gloriana. She promised to supplement our program with practical lessons and hands-on learning."

Ves did not expect to hear that. While he and his wife didn't discuss everything, she should have told him about this beforehand!

"Oh. I see." He replied. "I guess that is the best way to ensure continuity in your studies. It's too abrupt for the two of you to quit your orthodox education when you are already immersed in it for a year."

"We're happy to continue our studies with the professors at Hippolyta. Gloriana has also earned their approval to take over some of their lessons. We don't need any other arrangements."

"That's good to hear." Ves awkwardly replied.

His plan to take over their study programs died in his mind. It seemed that Ves didn't get to raise them into qualified mech designers anymore.

Well, it wasn't a big deal. If others already took care of Maise Ann and Rennie, Ves wouldn't have to split up his teaching time among too many students.

"Well, Zanthar and Maikel can bring you to your new quarters. Since you are still students, you have been assigned to the lower accommodation decks."

"It's enough." Rennie spoke.

Since it didn't appear that Ves would become their mentors, he figured that he wasn't needed here anymore.

"Well, I have to get back to the design lab. I hope you enjoy your stay aboard this ship."

As Ves turned around and left, the four Larkinson seeds awkwardly faced each other.

"Lead the way."

"Uhm, okay. This way, please."

A bot carrying luggage floated out of the shuttle and followed behind the two girls. After Maisie Ann and Rennie made sure they hadn't left anything behind, they prodded the boys to move.

As the foursome exited the hangar bay and slowly made their way down the lower accommodation decks, the boys began to ask some questions.

"How is Hippolyta?"

"It's strict, but fair. Our professors pushed us as hard as we could, but we never let them down."

"Was it hard being a foreigner over there?"

"It was, at first. As I've already said, it got easier once our clan patriarch helped the Hex Army. Our classmates had begun to admire us in our second semester. It didn't matter that we used to be third-raters."

Rennie strode closer to Maikel and patted his shoulder. "Hand him over."

"Huh?"

"Lucky. Hand him over."

It would have been one thing if Rennie asked politely, but Maikel was affronted by her commanding tone.

"I'm in charge of him right now!"

"Meow?" Lucky looked confused.

Instead of arguing with him further, Rennie swept forward and wrenched apart his arms!

As soon as Maikel's grip loosened, the female mech design student instantly swept Lucky's body and dragged him away!

"Hey! He's mine!"

"Not anymore." Rennie harrumphed as she cuddled the befuddled gem cat against her chest. "Lucky is too cute to leave in your brutish hands."

"Who are you calling brute!? Did those Hexers brainwash you or something?"

"Don't talk nonsense, Maikel. We're still Larkinsons. We just gained more confidence as women."

Attitudes quickly worsened. Maikel and Zanthar quickly learned that Maisie Ann and Rennie were very different women now. Hippolyta had taught them more than how to design mechs!

"Give Lucky back!"

"Haha! No way! You're too weak!"

The Larkinson seeds didn't even make it to the lower accommodation decks. They descended into a chaotic wrestling match. By the time the security officers responded to an alert, they had to pry Maisie Ann and Rennie from the beaten boys!

Throughout the tussle, Lucky phased out of Rennie's shoulders and floated to the side. His tail aimlessly flicked back and forth as he looked at the impromptu wrestle match in confusion.

"Meow?"

As this small incident took place, Ves did not return to the design lab immediately. Instead, he veered off to his personal workshop, otherwise known as his mancave.

When Ves entered his personal working space, he lamented the lack of personalisation. Due to his design work, he hadn't been able to spend much time in his workshop as he liked. He hadn't even touched his ELKINE 3D printer!

Hopefully, that was about to change. As Ves looked around, he already planned to bring in some additions.

For now, he had more immediate concerns to deal with. As he strode forward to the assembly system, he viewed the mech that had just been brought into place.

The Quint was one of his most spiritually-developed mechs. Only the Devil Tiger and the Shield of Samar topped it in terms of spiritual development.

Soon enough, Ves felt a very harmonious force of will approaching from the other side. Venerable Joshua Larkinson walked up to Ves and opened his arms for a friendly hug.

"Patriarch!"

"You've come. Good!"

As the two men shared a brief hug, they separated and directed their gaze to the Quint.

"Sir, if I may ask, why did you order us to transfer the Quint to this workshop?"

"I'd like to perform an experiment. Maybe several." Ves answered.

Venerable Joshua looked uncertain. "Is it necessary to experiment on the Quint? It's working fine so far. While it is not entirely a second-class mech, its upgrades have made it quite competitive. The armor is especially good!"

It had better be considering that it was made out of Unending alloy!

Ves sighed. "The Quint is one of the toughest mechs we have, but it's offensive strength is too weak. Unless we replace its entire internal architecture, it won't be able to keep up against other second-class mechs. I think it's time to repurpose the Quint. I intend to reassign this mech and hand it over to another expert candidate."

"Oh." Joshua's mood lowered. "That.. makes sense. I will miss piloting the Quint, but if it will help another clansmen, then I guess it's for the best."

"Cheer up, Joshua." Ves patted his shoulder. "I've designed several second-class mechs that you might be interested in piloting."

Joshua looked up in realization. "Will you allow me to pilot the Transcendent Punisher?!"

"That's not exactly what I have in mind. A mech pilot as talented as you will fare much better with a mobile mech. I'd like to perform another experiment. Tell me, are you interested in piloting a Hexer mech?"

Chapter 2617: Augmentation Contract

Aside from designing mechs, Ves could strengthen the Larkinson Clan in other ways.

While his recent priorities left him too busy to spend his time on other priorities, his mech design projects had finally reached an advanced stage.

Ves, Gloriana and Juliet had already settled all of the difficult design choices. All six mech designs currently under development became functionally complete to the point where it became viable to fabricate some prototypes.

At this stage, the role of Journeymen was not as crucial anymore. Ves could simply assign some design teams to borrow a production line to fabricate a prototype before testing it whenever the fleet transitioned out of FTL travel.

undefinedVes only needed to return to the design lab once the prototype testing sessions yielded the necessary hard data. That was when he needed to comb through all of the solid proof in order to derive solutions to the problems the simulations had overlooked.

If his assistants became more competent, then Ves didn't even need to spend much time on optimizing a mech design through this method. He could simply set an overall direction and let the design teams perform lots of calculations and simulate a lot of different outcomes to obtain a solution.

They weren't here yet, though, but Ves was hopeful his assistant mech designers would catch up once they obtained some augments.

The Braves who took part in the Nyxian Gap Campaign could technically redeem a set of free second-class augments straight away, but each of them chose to keep this option in reserve.

Not a single mech designer was stupid. They knew that the opportunity to upgrade their genes and to integrate their brains with cranial implants was an irreversible choice. While the gene mod templates and implant models offered by the Larkinson Biotech Institute were pretty decent, they were not considered high-end.

Those who upgraded earlier gained an immediate boost in capabilities. This would allow them to upgrade their productivity by several times, thereby allowing them to earn much more Larkinson merits.

However, in the future, their rash choice to settle for mediocre augments would likely bite them in the butt! Any colleague who waited patiently and obtained better augments would eventually overtake the early birds!

Of course, mech designers shouldn't delay their augmentation too long. Once they turned middle age or older, they already passed through the time where they could have developed rapidly. They also had less time to make use of their augmented capabilities.

What was even more important was that the Design Department wouldn't be able to squeeze as much work out of these slowpokes!

Therefore, every mech designer working for the Design Department had to make their own judgement about the right time to augment themselves.

Every assistant currently knew that the Golden Skull Alliance was heading for the Life Research Association to recruit some augmentation specialists. Therefore, choosing to augment themselves now was too premature.

"We should wait a couple of years until the new augmentation experts have settled down."

"A couple of years? We should wait at least a decade! Our clan will be much richer at that time. We'll also be in the Red Ocean where we have access to much better tech!"

"A decade is too long. We'll be in our forties and still be stuck as assistants."

"It's not as if extra genes and a brain chip can turn you into a Journeyman. There is much more to it than that."

The design team vigorously discussed this issue. More and more assistants became convinced they needed to wait until the Larkinson Clan found its footing in the Red Ocean before they chose to augment themselves. Some were even willing to wait 15 or 20 years in order to ensure they obtained the very best the clan had to offer at that time!

Suffice to say, this was a huge delay, not just to the mech designers in question, but also to the Design Department.

Ves did not want to see his assistants remain stuck at their baseline human levels for two whole decades!

He discussed the problem with Gloriana when they returned to their grand stateroom in the evening.

"Meow.."

Lucky, who had finished another shift as Calabast's sniffer, plopped tiredly on Gloriana's lap.

"Miaow!"

Clixie, who wanted to settle on Gloriana's lap as well, angrily pushed Lucky's body away before claiming the prized spot herself!

"Meow?"

Before Lucky could push Clixie out of the perch he claimed, a different cat squashed onto his back.

Nyaaaaa!

Goldie knew that it wasn't proper for her to materialize in the view of others, but she had less qualms about showing up in Ves and Gloriana's personal home. The monitoring system here was completely closed and the bodyguards such as Nitaa and the rest were all trustworthy.

In fact, Ves didn't have to obfuscate Goldie's existence anymore. It was easy to mistake her as a personal avatar.

Seeing that their cats were having fun, Ves summoned Bygul through his comm.

The electronic cat instantly appeared into existence.

[Mew.]

The other three cats instantly froze and stared.

"Miaow."

Nyaaaa?

"Meow!"

Before a jealous Lucky could swipe his claws at the latest cat, Ves issued a warning.

"Stop that! Bygul is here to stay. Get along with him, or else!"

Now that Lucky, Clixie and Goldie became preoccupied with Bygul, Ves turned back to his wife and continued to explain his concerns.

"The majority of our Braves and Erudites lack meaningful augmentations. Their productivity is too low as a result. I want to encourage them to augment themselves as soon as possible. Each year that passes while they remain pure is another year that passes where they can only perform a tenth of the work they can accomplish if they are brought up to a better standard."

Gloriana frowned a bit. "You can't force our assistants to make this choice sooner. To us, it's not a big deal if they settle for cheaper and lower-performing genes and implants. In a couple of decades, we can recruit another batch of assistants and foist higher-performing augments on them. Yet the obvious disparity in performance will upset many of our older mech designers. They aren't objects, Ves. They're people. If they have a choice, they don't want to ruin their future prospects for an immediate boost."

"We're not ruining their future." Ves retorted. "Newer gene mod templates and implants are released every day. Technology is constantly advancing forward. My Archimedes Rubal implant is in fact several centuries out of date compared to the implant models the CFA currently have access to. While I am upset about the fact that I missed out on those fancy toys, I simply don't have the qualifications to obtain them. I chose the lesser of two evils and improved my productivity to such a degree that I can design more mechs and progress my design philosophy much faster than before. This is a worthwhile result."

His words did not manage to convince his wife.

"That's easy for you to say. You don't need to put yourself down. Even I envy your Archimedes Rubal sometimes. The amount of data you can store in your mind is ridiculous! While my Erestal-015 is much more geared towards mech design, it's already out of date. The Erestal-016 implant model has already come out a few months ago. Do you know how that makes me feel?"

Technology was inherently in flux. People always wanted more. Better and better products came out all the time. Ves was not surprised to hear about the release of the Erestal-016.

If not for the fact that Tito Biosystems's current product catalog did not feature anything directly comparable to their ancient Archimedes Rubal model, even Ves would feel frustrated about the fact that a portion of him was becoming obsolete!

They turned back to the issue regarding their assistants.

After a bit of thinking, Gloriana came up with a suggestion.

"It's in our best interest if our assistants augment themselves quickly. While our Design Department will benefit if they obtain better augments, it's more important that they obtain them quickly."

This had to do with the law of diminishing returns. When the performance of an implant was already good, a model that was only 20 percent better might cost at least 10 times as much!

The ludicrous aspect about this phenomenon was that this pattern continued all the way to the top segment of the implant market. The implants utilized by the Big Two and the first-rate states were unimaginably huge, but their effective performance was not insanely better than second-class implants.

Therefore, from the perspective of a state or organization, it was much more worthwhile to buy affordable products in bulk.

Yet Gloriana recognized that individuals didn't see it that way.

"Our assistants don't care too much about achieving the best price-to-performance ratio. A good set of genes and implants directly affects their future accomplishments. To them, it is very much worth it to pay 100 times the price of a normal offering in order to obtain an augment that performs twice as good. As far as they are concerned, the benefits they receive as a result of their choice will definitely pay off in the later stages."

"That sounds good, but they can't afford it." Ves noted. "They'll have to work at least a couple of decades before they can obtain these high-end augments, and that brings us back to our problem."

"Isn't the solution obvious, then? If our assistants can't afford better augments, why don't we subsidize them? It will be expensive for us, but it will pay off in the end considering the assistants will pass on the benefits back to us. It's no different from investing in better hardware."

"Thiss…"

"If you are concerned about getting taken advantage of, then offer them a deal." She continued. "Back in the Hegemony, this is not an unusual practice among some of the mech companies and design studios that I have gotten in touch with. Regular Hexer mech designers can't afford an implant like my Erestal-015, but they can obtain something that is almost just as good by signing a contract with their employers."

That sounded interesting to Ves. "What do these contracts stipulate?"

"Oh, the usual. The employer promises to invest in the mech designer. In return, the mech designer gives up some rights and agrees to work for the employer on a long-term basis. The mech designer herself may not be valuable when they sign a contract, but once she has improved, she can continually deliver a lot of benefits to her employer. In the end, the latter will earn a lot of profit from this transaction, but it's okay, because the mech designer has benefited as well."

This was a win-win arrangement. While the employer was definitely taking advantage of the mech designer, it was not to the point where the weaker party would feel upset. After all, gaining a fantastic implant upfront simply wasn't possible without forking a lot of capital.

Ves developed a new augmentation contract as a result of this discussion.

The deal was simple. The Larkinson Clan would invest in some expensive genetic treatments and implants to improve the capabilities of a mech designer.

In exchange, the mech designer promised to work for the LMC for at least 50 years or longer depending on the prices of the augments.

The mech designer also gave up a bunch of rights and privileges. This meant that they gave up a proportion of their future earnings and could not refuse certain jobs or assignments.

What Ves cared about the most was that the contract also stipulated that any mech designer who advanced to Journeyman or higher would not be entitled to any shares in the LMC!

Fortunately for them, Ves hadn't made any changes to the Exemplar Plan. Regardless of whether they signed an augmentation contract, anyone who performed well enough would still have enough incentives to push themselves.

Once Ves unveiled this plan to the Design Department, it was if a bomb had detonated.

Pretty much every assistant mech designer, from Ketis to Dukan French, signed the contract shortly after they understood the terms!

Ves knew that as long as his clan reached the Red Ocean, his mech designers should quickly be able to augment themselves. At that time, the the design capabilities of the Design Department would skyrocket!

In fact, Major Verle and a number of other leaders took inspiration from the augmentation contract. They were already coming up with their own versions of it in order to upgrade their other personnel!

The biggest downside to this development was that the Larkinson Clan might not be able to afford all of these expensive augments!

Chapter 2618: Joshua's Next Steed

The sudden emergence of augmentation contracts excited the Larkinson Clan!

Not just mech designers, but also other professionals became interested in signing such a fantastic deal. Exobiologists, engineers, ship captains, mech pilots and other people were already applying to sign this new contract!

The storm that arose from this development was so disruptive that Ves was forced to cease his personal experiments and leave his mancave.

In order to avoid wasting too much time on pointless arguments, he decided to discuss this problem with his two closest confidantes.

undefined"Major Verle. Calabast. Come in and take a seat." Ves called as the two leaders entered his main office.

Once they arrived in front of Ves' desk, they took their seats.

"You cooked up quite a huge problem for us." Major Verle began.

"You moved too rashly, Ves." Calabast leaned back on her chair.

The woman patted her lap with her palm, causing Lucky to wake up from his perch on the desk.

"Meow."

The gem cat flew over. When Calabast stretched one of her legs, Lucky plopped his body over her sinuous shin.

Ves called up a document that estimated the total cost of augmentations if everyone requested a high-class implant.

"I never expected that word of this contract would spread beyond the Design Department. While it is incredibly expensive to sign this deal with a mech designer, our profession is very good at making money. That makes this agreement worthwhile. As long as the mech designer doesn't die in an accident or something, our Design Department will definitely earn a high return on investment. This isn't necessarily the case in other sectors."

Major Verle sighed. "You're right. Investing 100 billion hex credits to augment a mech designer is definitely worth it because there is the possibility of earning back multiple times this sum. The same cannot be said for a mech pilot. Perhaps in one battle, that pilot might die an ignominious death. That is 100 billion hex credits down the drain. Even if the mech pilot remains alive throughout his entire service, the actual benefit we get in return might not even be worth a billion credits. It makes a lot more sense to invest in a higher-performing mech. You'll get much more bang for your buck in this instance."

That was true. The fact of the matter was that the Larkison Clan simply couldn't provide so much welfare for every single clansman.

Calabast raised another object. "I don't like this contract, Ves. It has an element of exploitation in it. Have you forgotten what I said to you? What you've introduced will only bring the Larkinson Clan closer to the Vraken Dynasty. Treating your clansmen as investments and adopting a mentality that is largely centered around profit and loss will turn the entire clan into a hypercompetitive rat race. Larkinsons will be forced to outdo each other, or else they will be unable to pay off their debt in their lifetimes!"

She expressed a lot of ire. Ves realized that she had a point. While it wasn't wrong to improve the capabilities of his people, the wrong approach might do more harm than good.

"I don't want to sacrifice happiness for performance. That was never my intention." Ves quickly replied.

"Then figure something out."

The three of them swapped ideas with each other. They discussed several options and solutions. With the help of Calabast's personal insights, they came up with a new and more cohesive plan.

"Augmentation contracts can improve the performance of our key personnel, so we can't give them up." Ves summed up his thoughts. "However, there is no need to extend them to the general population. It's too excessive and puts too much strain on our finances. We will establish a very strict list of occupations that are eligible for this deal. For now, that includes mech designers, naval engineers, researchers, senior officers, expert candidates, expert pilots and a bunch of other people."

These professions all played an essential role to the clan. Boosting their capabilities either improved the profitability of the LMC or increased the survivability of the Larkinson fleet.

Even if augmenting certain people wouldn't actually deliver a profit to the Larkinson Clan, it was still worth it to do so for other reasons.

One of the most important principles added to the augmentation contract was that it did not impose a debt on the signee!

This was one of Calabast's main demands.

"If the Larkinson Clan begins to operate like a business, your clansmen will behave in a way that aligns with that. This is not conducive to the happiness of your people. A bit of competition is good, but too much of it will warp our culture."

"We can still lose a lot of money, though. The augmentation contracts are bound to become a burden to the balance sheet." Major Verle pointed out.

Calabast remained confident. "We can handle it. As long as Ves is around, we'll always be able to make more money."

It was very difficult to quantify the profits and losses with this new arrangement. Ves found it difficult to accept such a murky outcome.

Still, the price was not too big.

"As long as we limit the eligibility of this contract, our clan won't have to pay too much money upfront. Our finances will be able to bear it, though our spending on other assets will definitely be affected." Ves concluded.

This was the end of the matter. After Ves introduced the added rules, the excitement throughout the clan had died down. There simply weren't enough people who were important enough to apply for this deal.

Ves knew that in the future, the burden may even be less. As long as the clan grew more prosperous, the parents might be able to use their earnings to set their children up for success. Even regular clansmen might be able to earn enough Larkinson merits to obtain some decent augmentations early in their lives.

Since most augmentations were irreplaceable, this meant that augmentation contracts lost effect to those who already improved their capabilities.

All in all, the augmentation contract was tailored to poorer clansmen who managed to work their way up through a combination of hard work and talent. Augmenting their capabilities yielded the most drastic increase in benefits!

When Ves returned to his personal workshop, he resumed one of his personal projects.

Before he was ready to prepare the Quint for another mech pilot, he had to put together a new mech for Venerable Joshua.

While Ves could have assigned Joshua to one of the clan's many existing second-class mechs, this was a wasteful option.

An expert pilot was capable of unleashing much greater performance if he piloted a better mech.

It would have been best if Ves was able to deliver an expert mech to Venerable Joshua, but that was not an option in the short term.

He had no choice but to take a step back and give the expert pilot the best possible LMC mech that he had ever designed up to this point.

He actually had two mech models to choose from. The more unconventional one was fabricating another Devil Tiger to Joshua.

These days, ASMAS was no longer unaffordable to Ves. A basic batch of pure ASMAS cost as much as two to three Hexer combat carriers. Gloriana probably had to make a lot of sacrifices in order to deliver a batch to him, but that was in the past.

However, ASMAS at this price range was quite limited in performance. In fact, it couldn't even process Unending alloy! The only way to improve the capabilities of the initial batch of ASMAS was to upgrade it. This was insanely expensive, so much so that it was better for Ves to buy a more expensive brand of ASMAS right away.

Ves did not do so. No matter how much he paid, the nanomaterial he had access to simply wasn't capable of processing first-class alloys.

"Besides, the Devil Tiger is an outdated design. With my current design ability, I can design a second-class iteration that performs a lot better right out of the gate."

Even then, Ves rejected this option. The Devil Tiger was a one-off experiment in his mind. Ever since his mother snatched his first masterwork mech, it belonged solely to his father.

It wasn't safe to revisit his Devil Tiger design. The risk of someone associating the original with any derivative mechs was too great!

Ves had little choice but to switch his selection to one of the most powerful mobile mechs he designed.

The Valkyrie Redeemer and its variants immediately came to mind. He crossed out the base model and the regular variants. While each of them had their strong points, their overall performance was too average.

To be honest, he really wanted to build a Valkyrie Brunhild. Its production cost was around 1.6 billion credits. The Brunhild variant not only incorporated a shield generator, but also infused a modest quantity of Rorach's Bone in its frame!

The mech was incredibly suitable for Hexer expert candidates. The mech was powerful enough to protect the lives of future expert pilots, but not expensive enough to break the bank.

It was too bad that Ves lacked one of the most crucial requirements to fabricate a Valkyrie Brunhild. While it was not a problem for him to purchase the materials required to fabricate a second-class mech-grade shield generator, he didn't have any way of obtaining Rorach's Bone!

He knew that the Friday Coalition and the Hexadric Hegemony harvested a lot of Rorach's Bone during the Glowing Planet Campaign. However, both states treated it as a strategic material, so they were very careful about using it up. For now, only expert mechs and other high-end mechs incorporated this incredibly useful material.

Ves turned his eyes to the stepped-down version, the Valkyrie Avenger. The Avenger variant cost half as much as the Brunhild variant. It employed a cheaper and non-regenerating armor system while also leaving out the shield generator.

This was sufficient for most elite Hexer mech pilots, but Ves found it rather tasteless.

For an expert pilot like Joshua, the Valkyrie Avenger was too weak while the Valkyrie Brunhild was unattainable.

Since neither of these options were viable, Ves decided on a third solution.

He designed another variant.

In order to save time, Ves did not design a proper variant. Instead, he used the Valkyrie Brunhild as a base and stripped it of every element that Ves wasn't able to deliver. He replaced the entire armor system with one based entirely out of Unending alloy.

Even though Ves wanted to save up this precious material for Venerable Joshua's actual expert mech, it was not a big deal to make use of it straight away. He could always recycle the Unending alloy at a later date.

While Unending alloy possessed different properties than the mix of alloys employed by the armor system of the Brunhild, it was not very troublesome to perform a direct replacement.

"Bygul, please optimize the armor plating layout of the rear leg sections of this design." Ves commanded.

[Optimizing now. This process will take an estimated time of 5 minutes and 32 seconds.] The electronic cat dutifully said in his clipped voice.

Ves smirked. With the immense processing power of the ASTERA AI core at his disposal, this kind of work no longer took hours or days to complete.

If he wanted to, he could customize his new Valkyrie mech even further. While that was an attractive prospect, it took too much time to tailor the mech to Venerable Joshua.

Ves didn't want to spend weeks or months on what was supposed to be a temporary stopgap solution until Venerable Joshua obtained a proper expert mech.

There was another reason why he didn't want to design a custom mech. He wanted to pass on the mech to an expert candidate once Venerable Joshua moved on to an expert mech. The Valkyrie mech had to be universal enough to accommodate other mech pilots.

"Besides, if I want to customize the mech even further for a specific mech pilot, I'll have to bring in Gloriana."

That was not conducive to this little experiment!

Chapter 2619: Valkyrie Prime

Though Ves already decided to make his next Valkyrie mech universal, he still brought in Venerable Joshua in order to keep the latter in the loop. While the expert pilot didn't know a thing about the technical side of mech design, it was enough for him to gain a good impression of the overall idea behind the mech.

"The Valkyrie Prime has the potential to surpass the Valkyrie Brunhild." Ves explained as he operated a very sophisticated forging machine. "That said, it is not a certainty that it will deliver on its promise. It depends on whether my next experiment succeeds."

What he was doing right now was very amazing. The forging machine and other machines in the ELKINE production line were some of the most top-of-the-line workshop equipment the Hexers had ever made.

Ves had no confidence in manipulating a material as hard as Unending alloy with the GAIA production line. Yet now that Ves had access to extremely powerful gear, he gained a lot of new options!

undefinedProcessing Unending alloy was one of them. Even though the forging machine experienced a lot of difficulties right now, the fact that Ves was able to shape this wonder material without needing to borrow Lucky's teeth was already an incredible improvement.

He no longer had to pretend to be a caveman in order to make use of Unending alloy!

The only downside was that the entire process took much more time than Ves expected. He had to spend days to complete a job that would have taken hours if he chose another material.

That was not what he wanted. While he could have made the Valkyrie Prime out of Breyer alloy, Ves wanted to utilize something more interesting.

Unending alloy possessed two invaluable properties. Aside from being incredibly hard, it was also capable of storing spiritual energy.

He wanted to leverage both properties in order to elevate the Valkyrie Prime!

Ever since Ves salvaged a lot of Unending alloy from the Nyxian Gap, he frequently tried to figure out how to utilize it better. While it was very simple to employ Unending alloy as a regular first-class alloy, that wasn't good enough for him. A spiritually-reactive material should be able to bring much more to the table!

For this reason, Ves decided that the Valkyrie Prime Project was a good opportunity to test out one of his hypotheses. If it didn't work, then no harm was done.

"This Unending alloy of yours is very precious, right? Will you leave it behind in the Valkyrie Prime once I move on?" Venerable Joshua curiously asked.

Ves immediately laughed. "Hahaha! No way. An expert candidate isn't worthy enough to pilot a mech that is clad by this alloy. What if an enemy recognizes its value and goes all out to capture the Valkyrie Prime? I'd be losing a priceless treasure! It's only because I'm not capable of delivering an expert mech yet that I'm using it on a non-expert mech. Don't think that this will happen again once our clan gains its first proper expert mechs."

"So you'll eventually strip the Unending alloy from the Prime?"

"Yup. Your expert mechs needs it more than the Prime. I don't have enough of it to go around, you know. Don't worry. The Prime won't be scrapped once it loses its exterior. I'll just clad it with Breyer alloy instead so that it can continue to be passed on to other worthy mech pilots."

"Doesn't that sound cruel, sir?" Joshua looked upset. "Mechs are alive. What you plan to do sounds no different from skinning someone alive only to graft the skin of another person afterwards."

Ves shook his head, though he made sure to keep a close eye on his current procedure. "There are different forms of life, Joshua. Don't make the mistake of humanizing mechs. They are a different form of existence that operates by different rules. For one, mechs are made to serve a specific purpose. Second, their mechanical nature means that there is nothing wrong with handling them like they are composed of many building blocks. Swapping one block with another block doesn't change the essence of the mech. Their tolerance for change is quite high as long as the original character of the mech is preserved. This is why the mechs we have upgraded haven't lost their glows."

"I see.. I think."

"Every mech has a purpose, Joshua. Contrast that to humans like you and me. We are products of nature and random chance. Our purpose is actually very vague. We are biological organisms that evolved to our current form out of an instinctual and deeply-rooted desire to reproduce."

"So because mechs can't reproduce, they don't have as many rights as us?" Joshua asked in puzzlement.

Ves wanted to palm his face.

"No. That's not the point I'm trying to make. Look, all I am saying is that while I would like to treat a mech with as much respect as an actual human, it is not wrong to treat them as a machine whenever it is necessary. This is why they are built. You can rip off their arms and install a completely different one and they'll be fine."

Joshua finally comprehended what Ves was trying to say. His force of will fluctuated a bit as he internalized his latest lesson.

"Why do you call the mech you're making the Valkyrie Prime?"

"Because it will be the best Valkyrie mech that I will probably make, at least when it comes to the current generation. If the Valkyrie Redeemer is the starting point, the Valkyrie Prime will probably be the ending point of this generation of this product line. While I cannot say whether the experiment I have in mind will make the Valkyrie Prime successful, as long as my experiment is partially successful, it is not wrong to put it above the Valkyrie Brunhild!"

This was quite a bold claim! The Valkyrie Brunhild was the favorite mech of many Hexer expert candidates. Some of them had even managed to undergo apotheosis with the help of this premier mech!

As Ves slowly fabricated all of the armor plating for the Valkyrie Prime, he continued to chat with Venerable Joshua. He always wanted to exchange views with the remarkable expert pilot, but his heavy workload prevented him from doing so up until now. Both of them cherished the opportunity to learn from each other.

"Why are you working on the Valkyrie Prime by yourself?"

"I intend this to be a personal project." Ves answered. "While I collaborate with Gloriana all the time, I need to flex all of my muscles every once in a while. I'm also trying to do something different with Valkyrie Prime. My wife won't be able to provide any help. Besides, at least one of us should stay behind in the design lab in order to direct our design teams."

"Will the Valkyrie Prime be worse without your wife's involvement."

"I wouldn't necessarily say that. It will be.. different."

The Valkyrie Prime did not undergo too many changes. Sure, there was room for optimization. Sure, Gloriana might be able to fabricate higher-quality parts than Ves. Sure, she may be more precise when it came to assembling the parts. Yet bringing her in for what was supposed to be a relatively quick job.

If Ves was being really honest, he wanted to exert total control over this project. He wanted to make a Valkyrie mech that conformed to 'his' vision instead of 'their' vision.

The fabrication run continued. Once Ves finally processed all of the Unending alloy into armor plating and structural components, he quickly moved on to fabricating the remaining parts of the mech.

While the Valkyrie Prime utilized a lot of expensive exotics, it was no problem for Ves to obtain them as long as they were sold on the open market.

During the fabrication process, Ves quickly familiarized himself with the advanced production equipment of the workshop. While the top-end Hexer machines demanded a lot of skill and expertise to operate to their fullest, he was a quick learner. His experience with operating other Hexer production equipment already provided him with a good foundation.

He only had to slow down when it was time for him to fabricate the shield generator. While he had never built a mech-grade shield generator before, he knew the theory and principles behind them. He worked carefully in order to make sure the shield generator did not become misaligned and produce an unstable energy shield.

"Phew. It's finally done!"

"Will you assemble the mech now, sir?"

"Yup! This is not going to take as long."

Both Ves and Venerable Joshua approached the assembly system which soon became active. The powerful equipment lifted up and put the parts into place with so much ease and precision that it took a lot less time than expected to assemble the Valkyrie Prime!

Once Ves installed the final part, the medium marauder mech had finally taken shape!

"Uhm..." Venerable Joshua looked up at the tall and feminine-shaped mech. "I'm not sure whether I'm ready to pilot this mech."

"What's wrong?"

"Isn't it a Hexer mech? Now that it's complete, I feel it's disrespectful for me to pilot it. You should lend it to the Penitent Sisters or Glory Seekers instead."

Ves frowned and turned around. He stepped closer to Venerable Joshua and completely ignored the expert pilot's wavering force of will.

"You once claimed to me that it is your desire to pilot every mech that I have ever designed, is that correct?"

"I did have that aspiration, but this is different!" Joshua nervously claimed.

"How can that be? You have never paid exclusivity in mind before. You successfully managed to pilot my Ylvainan mechs. Even though you have only reluctantly bonded with the Holy Soldier, Deliverer and Transcendent Punisher mechs, that is by far the best result that I have ever seen from a non-Ylvainan."

"That's just because I respect the Ylvainan Faith!" Joshua retorted. "As a Brighter, I don't believe in any religion, but that doesn't stop me from keeping an open mind. It's different when it comes to hexism and Hexer traditions. We're both men. How can we possibly be okay with women oppressing our kind? That is just not okay. I've been tempted to pilot the Valkyrie Redeemer a few times, but whenever I get close, I feel uncomfortable."

Normally, Ves agreed with Venerable Joshua, but this was a special situation!

"Describe what you mean by 'uncomfortable'. Is the mech repelling you or are you just squeamish about piloting a mech that is designed to be piloted by a woman?"

"Uhm… the latter." Venerable Joshua honestly admitted.

"Come over here, then."

Ves held the expert pilot's arm and dragged him over to the foot of the Valkyrie Prime.

At this distance, the dormant glow of the mech was already very strong!

Since Ves personally designed and fabricated the mech, there was no way its glow and spiritual foundation was weak!

The strong and imposing death-oriented glow did not discomfort Ves very much due to his intimate relationship with the Superior Mother.

Joshua reacted differently. He didn't have much exposure to the Superior Mother's glow. While his powerful will allowed him to block the glow entirely, that was not conducive to bonding with the mech.

When the expert pilot reluctantly lowered his guard, the Valkyrie Prime seemed to stare at his soul! He quickly solidified his will again!

"I don't think I'll be able to get along with this mech, patriarch. It.. doesn't seem to like me. I don't think I can do anything about that."

"Nonsense. The two of you are strangers right now. It's not a surprise that the mech is not that friendly to you. I think I have a way of remedying this issue. This is also related to my next experiment."

"And what is that?"

Ves didn't answer the expert pilot directly. Instead, he turned back to the Valkyrie Prime and raised his arms.

"Mother! Are you there? Come meet my friend over here!"

Joshua looked confused. "Didn't you lose your mother when you were— WAIT, WHAT IS THAT?!"

A giant, translucent hand seemed to materialize in existence. It quickly patted against Ves' back, causing him to lose his balance!

"Oof! You're too rough, mom! You're way too strong. Can't you be gentler to your son?"

Chapter 2620: Revelation

The Superior Mother had descended!

Normally, the spiritual product that Ves had made through a bizarre ritual directed her attention elsewhere. With the rapid rise in Hexer worshippers, the Superior Mother seemed to be preoccupied with attending her new flock.

Ves also repeatedly admonished her for showing up out of the blue. He did not want to go about his day only for a giant ghostly hand to appear out of nowhere and smack his body down!

It was fine if only his core bodyguard detail observed the Superior Mother's moves, but he did not want word of her existence to spread!

undefinedFortunately, the Superior Mother must have inherited some of Cynthia's caution. The design spirit no longer manifested herself willy-nilly anymore, though Ves still noticed her peeking at him at times.

To be honest, Ves did not have a good understanding of the Superior Mother's personality. She seemed to embody his original vision of a Hexer ideal, but she might have inherited some of Cynthia's personality and abilities.

At the very least, the Superior Mother truly treated him like he was her son sometimes!

It made him feel quite exasperated. As her creator, Ves was supposed to be a father figure towards the ancestral spirit. Other spiritual products such as Goldie, Lufa, the Illustrious and so on all looked up to him despite possessing more spiritual strength than him. Only the Superior Mother deviated from this pattern!

It was unfortunate that Ves couldn't do anything about it. With trillions of Hexers providing her with spiritual feedback, she had rapidly grown to the point where Ves couldn't really do anything to deter her from doing anything. Despite her age, the Superior Mother already caught up and surpassed Qilanxo, who was previously his strongest design spirit!

If not for the fact that she bumped into a bottleneck, she would have been more insufferable!

Still, no matter how much the Superior Mother changed, she was still affectionate towards him. As long as she believed he was her 'son', Ves was confident he could ask for help.

After all, that was what a good mother should do for her child.

In order to perform his experiment and strengthen the defenses of his clan, Ves threw away his pride. It didn't matter if the Superior Mother treated him like her son instead of her father. Ves would even be willing to wear a dog collar and crawl on all fours if that was what it took for the Superior Mother to lend him her power!

Of course, just because Ves was accustomed to the Superior Mother didn't mean that others were accustomed to seeing a myth come to life!

"W-W-What is that, sir?!" Venerable Joshua reacted with shock!

Expert pilots were known to be fearless. Joshua showed nothing of that. As soon as the giant hand patted Ves to the deck of his personal workshop, the expert pilot jumped back and adopted a defensive posture. His force of will became agitated as well!

"Calm down, Joshua! She's friendly!"

"Are you sure?!"

"I am! There is no need to panic. Stay still and put down your guard. Let the Superior Mother get to know you know better. As long as you gain her approval, you'll be able to pilot the Valkyrie Prime and any other Hexer mech that I've designed with ease."

The prospect of being able to pilot a Hexer mech without feeling rejection aroused Joshua's obsession. His trust and belief in Ves overruled her vigilance against seeing a giant hand coming into existence.

"Really?"

Ves nodded. "Look, I can't explain who or what the Superior Mother truly is, but she is a friend, not an enemy. She is one of several entities who are responsible for helping us all. Have you ever wondered where glows truly come from? Now you know."

The revelation shocked Joshua! As the expert pilot realized the truth behind glows, he clarified some of the mysteries he had been grappling with. Comprehension dawned in his mind.

"No wonder your glow mechs are so remarkable. Ever since you released the Crystal Lord, your mech designs became a lot different. It turns out that you've been partnering up with these.. gods?"

"They are not gods!" Ves immediately insisted. "You can think of them as powerful, incorporeal entities. They are alive in a sense and they can die if they sustain too much damage. Do you remember the so-called 'dark gods' we defeated in the Nyxian Gap? They are a similar kind of existence."

"I see! So that alien woman that came at the end…"

Ves curtly nodded. "Reality is much more complicated than you think. What you see, hear, feel and smell is just the tip of the iceberg. Scientists and researchers have managed to expose more aspects of the multiverse, but they do not claim to have explored more than ten percent of all phenomena in existence. The existence of entities such as the Superior Mother is known to very few people. Now, you are one of them. Please don't disseminate what you have learned today. We can get into a lot of trouble if the Big Two becomes aware of some of the truths they want to keep hidden."

"This…" Venerable Joshua looked lost. "I don't know what to think about this. I never thought that your mechs would be hiding such a massive secret."

"You don't need to overthink this issue. Leave that to researchers such as myself. I will explain everything you need to know about the Superior Mother and my other 'design spirits', as I like to call my incorporeal friends. Let me introduce you to another one while I am at it. I am sure you are already very familiar with her considering she fought alongside you in the previous battle."

Ves took the Larkinson Mandate from Nitaa and waved it in front of him. "Goldie! Come join the Superior Mother in welcoming Joshua to the fold!"

Nyaaaaa.

The Golden Cat materialized her body just above the book. Joshua looked shocked yet again!

"She.. I can feel her… no, that's not right. I always felt her, but I didn't realize she existed like this. She's not just the source of the glow of the Quint and the other Bright Warriors, right?"

Ves nodded. "She's the invisible glue that binds us Larkinsons together. She's the reason why tens of thousands of adopted clansmen such as you immediately develop a belonging to our clan. She is our invisible guardian against enemies like the dark gods."

Upon his prompting, the Golden Cat and the Superior Mother both drew closer to the expert pilot.

Now that Joshua did not mistake the spiritual entities as possible threats, his force of will no longer closed up like a wall.

Instead, he cautiously opened himself up. As his force of will interacted with both design spirits, Joshua suddenly realized that he was already familiar with them. The design spirits corresponded almost exactly with the glows he came in touch with on a regular basis!

Suffice to say, Venerable Joshua didn't need to be close to the Larkinson Mandate to recognize Goldie's familiar warmth. As Goldie's glowing form floated in his arms, he automatically stroked her back and scratched her chin. The young cat radiated pure affection as she luxuriated in Joshua's comfortable force of will.

Nyaaa~

The Superior Mother's giant hand slowly hovered closer. Though its enormous size intimidated Joshua a bit, his courage as an expert pilot finally asserted itself again.

Since Ves vouched for the giant hand, it shouldn't be a threat.

Fortunately, the Superior Mother did not touch the expert pilot too much. The hand stretched out a finger and softly poked Joshua's body at different angles. With each poke, the ancestral spirit seemed to become more friendly towards him. His will also became more accustomed to the entity's distinct presence.

Ves stood quietly to the side as the powerful spiritual entity seemed to be growing more familiar with his favorite expert pilot. It was as if Ves brought his playmate home one day and introduced him to his mother!

Eventually, his mother satisfied her curiosity. Her change of attitude became very evident as Venerable Joshua experienced remarkable changes in the glow he felt from the giant hand and the Valkyrie Prime that was standing behind him. The Hexer glow no longer felt weird to him. Instead, it became friendlier and more welcoming somehow.

Together with Goldie's warmth, Joshua had the illusion that he was visiting Ves' home!

Unfortunately, being welcomed by the design spirits didn't mean that Venerable Joshua could communicate with them. Ves actually thought that Joshua's life domain bestowed him with the same ability to communicate with other forms of life as him, but it turned out that his talents lied elsewhere.

It wasn't a big deal. The Superior Mother and the Golden Cat both approved of Venerable Joshua, and that was all he needed to leverage their strength the next time he piloted the mechs they watched over.

The truths and insights that Venerable Joshua learned today should be enough to give him an advantage over his fellow peers. Ves was not above playing favorites. It was in his best interest to give Joshua a leg up, if only for his rare and very compatible domain.

Eventually, Goldie went back into the Larkinson Mandate while the Superior Mother's enormous hand faded away.

"Where are they going?"

"Existences like them aren't native to the material realm." Ves answered.

Joshua responded with a dull stare.

"They are like.. ghosts." Ves tried to dumb down his explanation. "They belong to another plane of existence, one exclusive to intangible ghosts like them. While Goldie and the Superior Mother are strong enough to cross over into our physical reality and show up in the way they did, it's quite strenuous to them. They're strong, but they can't exert all of their strength on the dimensions we live in. They need help in order to do so, and that is where my mechs come in. My products are interfaces which connect different entities together."

That was too much for the expert pilot.

Ves helplessly groped his hands in the air. "Let me give you an example. Whenever you pilot the Quint, you form an invisible cooperation that consists of three different living entities. First, there is the mech pilot. You control the machine. Then there is the mech. It not only serves as an interface, but is also alive in itself. In my early career, that was it. As you have already realized, I introduced a third element later on. Design spirits not only strengthen the mech, but also lend their glows to it. By combining your strengths whenever you pilot a mech, you are able to accomplish feats that you could never have accomplished by yourself. The Unity of Man and Machine that you've formed during the Battle against the Abyss is proof of that!"

This time, Venerable Joshua understood the gist of what Ves was trying to tell him. The continuous realizations enlightened him to such an extent that his willpower altered in character!

As Venerable Joshua turned around and looked up to the Valkyrie Prime, he no longer felt repelled by the Hexer mech. Instead, the dormant mech's glow seemed to embrace him. In turn, his force of will welcomed the glow with much less reserve.

"So a mech is actually like this…" He muttered in fascination.

Ves walked closer until he stood next to the expert pilot. "There is nothing hindering you from piloting the Valkyrie Prime now. The Superior Mother approves of you now that I told her that you are my protector."

"What about the mech itself?" Venerable Joshua cautiously asked.

"That shouldn't be a problem either. Ordinary, my Valkyrie mechs repel any mech pilots who aren't Hexers and who aren't women. However, I've altered that when I worked on the Valkyrie Prime. Since it is my work to begin with, it is easy for me to alter its character a bit. The mech might not completely open its doors to you, but it should at least tolerate your presence."

"Then can I try out this mech?"

"Not yet." Ves shook his head. "I need to perform one more procedure before the Valkyrie Prime is truly complete."

Chapter 2621: Alternate Empowerment

Ves considered the Valkyrie Prime to be the Valkyrie variant with the highest potential.

In fact, if he had more confidence in his latest creation, he would have gone a step further and declared it to be his strongest Valkyrie mech straight away!

The reason why he withheld this judgement was because he couldn't definitively state that the Valkyrie Brunhild performed worse than the Valkyrie Prime.

At worst, the Valkyrie Prime sat between the Valkyrie Avenger and the Valkyrie Brunhild. The lack of certain key strategic materials prevented Ves from replicating all of the advantages of the latter.

undefinedVes still felt sore about his inability to obtain Rorach's Bone. If he could add even a modest portion to the Valkyrie Prime, the mech would definitely be able to synergize well with Joshua's force of will!

As it was, Ves and Venerable Joshua had to make do with a mech without any inherent regenerating properties.

The Valkyrie Prime wasn't weak in other aspects. Aside from its excellent energy reserves, powerful flight system and upgraded sensor and communication systems, its defenses had reached an unprecedented level!

He couldn't have processed so much Unending alloy without his new personal workshop. Now that he finally obtained some proper production equipment, he could finally fabricate some proper armor plating for a mech.

Not just the Valkyrie Prime, but also its loadout was made out of Unending alloy! With a spear and shield made out of the same material, Ves believed that it could defeat nearly every standard second-class mech!

As for fending off expert mechs, Ves did not dare to state that the Valkyrie Prime could rely on its resilient structure and gear to get the better of them. Expert mechs possessed many comprehensive advantages that could completely trounce his custom mech.

What Ves strove for with the Valkyrie Prime was not to equal an expert mech, but to get as close to it as possible. That was what he aimed for with his upcoming experiment.

First, he explained his thoughts to Venerable Joshua.

"Do you know what resonance is?" He began.

As an expert pilot, how could he not know? "Resonance is what takes place when I synchronize with my mech. Or at least, that is what is supposed to happen. Outside of my breakthroughs, it's hard for me to accomplish resonance with the Quint. The mech just feels like a block to me. No matter how much I exert my mind, I simply can't get it to resonate."

Ves smiled in reassurance. "You don't have to feel disappointed by that. The Quint is ultimately just a standard mech. Without incorporating any compatible resonating materials in the mech, you can't arouse any resonance."

He wondered how the first expert pilots came into power. Did the first expert pilot coincidentally match up with a mech that just happened to have compatible resonating materials?

Perhaps the mech industry gradually built up an entire framework around expert pilots and expert mechs from this accident!

As Ves currently lacked the time, the knowledge and the resonating materials to develop a proper expert mech, he had to start from scratch.

He was not resigned to letting Joshua languish with the Quint, which he had completely outgrown as an expert pilot. Even if the Valkyrie Prime failed to catch up to an expert pilot, its superior performance should still allow Joshua to exert more strength on the battlefield.

"What does resonance have to do with this mech?" Joshua asked. He directed a suspicious gaze towards the tall and silent Hexer mech. "Are you saying…"

"That is what I am hoping to accomplish."

"How? Is it because of this strange material you are using?"

"Not completely." Ves shook his head. "Let me show you something."

He walked forward and placed his hand on the surface of the machine.

"MOTHER!" He called! "Please infuse this mech with your energy! Please lend your power to the Valkyrie Prime so that my friend here can leverage your strength in battle!"

Of course, he wasn't actually saying that to the Superior Mother. Ves was merely putting on a show to impress and allow Venerable Joshua to understand that the spiritual entity was responsive to those she favored.

While Ves behaved dramatically, he concentrated his mind and formed a connection to the Superior before he sent a more detailed request. He didn't want her to blindly dump her spiritual energy into the Valkyrie Prime.

Instead, he wanted her to channel her spiritual energy to two different destinations.

Much like his other spiritually-enhanced mechs, he wanted the Superior Mother to saturate the spiritual foundation of the Valkyrie Prime.

Since Ves had made this request numerous times, the Superior Mother knew what to do. She quickly began to channel a tiny portion of her abundant spiritual energy into the spiritual foundation of the newly-fabricated mech.

The change was obvious to Ves. His spiritual vision easily observed how the mech's spiritual foundation became thicker and more solid.

"Something is changing!" Joshua remarked. "It's becoming more and more like the Quint!"

The expert pilot might not be as perceptive as Ves, but he stood very close to the Valkyrie Prime. With the help of his life domain, he was able to tell that the custom mech rapidly bloomed to life.

The strengthening that the Valkyrie Prime went through was not comparable to the Valkyrie Redeemers that he had improved for the Wodin Dynasty. He had set a maximum enhancement level of just 25 Ves at the time.

As for the many Valkyrie mechs that the Hegemony produced and supplied to the Hex Army, even if they grew more powerful somehow, their enhancement was capped to the same degree.

Ever since Ves formulated his standard LMC mech template, all of his products aside from those used by his clan could go no higher than 25 Ves.

This did not mean his commercial and commissioned mechs could not grow further. Their spiritual foundation continually grew more unique when they were being used. The only shortcoming was that they wouldn't be able to help their mech pilots progress all that much.

It was different for his LMC mechs. Whenever possible, Ves wanted to saturate his mechs to at least 25 Ves when they were made. This already provided a substantial advantage to his mech pilots. An enhanced foundation developed a unique character faster and became more in tune with their mech pilots.

From the experiments he performed during the Nyxian Gap Campaign, Ves had also learned that higher levels of enhancement resulted in more dramatic effects. The only reason why he did not inflate every mech to at least 100 Ves was because it drained his design spirits and burdened his mech pilots.

In this case, these concerns didn't apply.

Due to the millions of Blessed Squire and Valkyrie mechs in use today, the Superior Mother was swimming in spiritual feedback. Not only that, but her nature as an ancestral spirit also allowed her to receive a tiny amount of spiritual feedback from every Hexer who 'worshipped' the Superior Mother.

Not even the Desolate Guardian was as rich as the Superior Mother!

Even though the overwhelming amount of spiritual feedback that she received was low in quality, the sheer quantity meant that the Superior Mother did not suffer any noticeable loss when she pumped the Valkyrie Prime all the way to 110 Ves!

Yes, 110 Ves!

Since Ves lavished quite a lot of care and attention to the Valkyrie Prime, it wasn't surprising that it started off with a stronger foundation.

Unfortunately, once the spiritual foundation became fully saturated at its current state, any additional spiritual energy that the Superior Mother donated simply spilled over. The Valkyrie Prime was like a bucket that had been filled with water. No matter how much additional water poured into it, the bucket simply couldn't accommodate more.

"Well… maybe that's not strictly true." He muttered.

He usually visualized spiritual energy as a cloud of energetic gas. What if he found a way to compress it into a liquid? What if he could compress it to the point where it turned solid?

Would he be able to strengthen his mech even further?

This was an interesting idea, but not one that Ves could explore at the moment. He shoved it to the back of his mind with the rest of his unexplored ideas. There were so much of them that they practically formed a mountain of neglected possibilities!

"Wow." Venerable Joshua said as he could sense the Valkyrie Prime approaching the strength of the Quint. "I'm not sure what has changed, but I can definitely feel it's more alive now. Is this what will help me perform better?"

"Not quite. If the Valkyrie Prime only approximated the Quint, it wouldn't be special enough for me to make it in person. Just wait for it. This mech is about to get a lot stronger!"

Once the Superior Mother noticed the spiritual foundation could not take any more strengthening, she directed her flow to another aspect of the mech.

This time, her spiritual energy poured into the Unending alloy that Ves had integrated into the Valkyrie Prime!

Ves watched with glee as the Unending alloy easily accepted the influx of spiritual energy. Just like P-stone, the mysterious material actively sucked in the energy as it came near.

The strength exuded by the Valkyrie Prime continued to increase. In fact, it quickly exceeded the strength of the Quint and kept growing further!

"Hahahaha! That's it! That's the spirit! Go on, mother!"

Venerable Joshua looked wide-eyed as he took a few steps back. While he didn't sense the mech becoming more 'alive', it somehow grew 'heavier' to his limited senses.

This was a related but different form of empowerment!

The Valkyrie Prime's capacity was huge. Ves incorporated many tons of Unending alloy into the mech. Not just its armor, but also its frame and much of its internal structure was made out of this extraordinary material.

If not for the fact that Ves had to add a lot of shock-absorbing material to the mech, he would have been able to stuff it with even more Unending alloy!

When the Superior Mother noticed that the Valkyrie Prime's physical frame wasn't even close to reaching saturation, she opened up her spiritual spigot even further. More and more of her spiritual energy gushed into the mech, which thickened its glow to such a degree that Ves and Joshua felt as if they were standing in front of several mech companies of Valkyrie mechs!

The spiritual energy capacity of Unending alloy was actually quite low. Ves had performed some tests beforehand and compared the capacity varying amounts of P-stone to identical amounts of Unending alloy.

After performing many tests, Ves concluded that P-stone was a true spiritual energy battery. In comparison, Unending alloy was mostly just a tough material that happened to store a bit of spiritual energy.

Unending alloy was only able to store around 4 percent of the spiritual energy of an equivalent amount of P-stone by mass.

Yet despite this astonishingly low efficiency, the Valkyrie Prime kept skyrocketing in strength without hitting its limit!

The Superior Mother was pumping so much spiritual energy into the mech that its presence was undergoing a metamorphosis!

Even Ves found himself taking a step back from the ludicrous intensity of the mech. A part of him was afraid of what he had initiated.

Had he gone overboard?

By the time the Valkyrie Prime's Unending alloy neared saturation, the mech was like a lighthouse in the dark! It stored so much spiritual energy that it was as if the mech's incredibly dense glow had materialized into a physical form!

Ves instinctively knew that there was no way for ordinary pilots to harness this monster. It was like a giant exobeast. If he had to express the empowerment of the Valkyrie Prime in numerical terms, then he estimated that the Unending alloy had absorbed spiritual energy equivalent to around 6300 Ves!

"This isn't even the true limit!"

Ves intuitively sensed that dumping spiritual energy in such a crude fashion might not be the best way to make use of Unending alloy. According to the information he gathered, the statues of the dark gods should have been able to store even more!

If he managed to figure out how to utilize Unending alloy properly, he might be able to store ten or even a hundred times more spiritual energy in this material!

He shuddered at the thought. 6300 Ves was already ridiculous compared to his other mechs. Though Ves was confident in Joshua's abilities as an expert pilot, he could not predict what might happen if the Valkyrie Prime became ten times more horrible!

Chapter 2622: Curious New Mech

Technically, the Valkyrie Prime had been enhanced to around 6400 Ves, give or take a few hundred Ves.

To be honest, the humongous strength exuded by the custom mech was so exaggerated that Ves couldn't even examine it properly. He could only make a vague estimate by observing the mech from a distance.

Precision didn't matter right now. What Ves truly cared about was that the Valkyrie Prime was a completely unprecedented mech. Not just its spiritual foundation, but also its physical form received the Superior Mother's bounty!

The two weren't equivalent, though. When the Superior Mother infused the Valkyrie Prime's spiritual foundation with energy, the intangible qualities of the mech directly grew stronger.

undefinedThe same wasn't necessarily the case when the design spirit dumped the equivalent of 6300 Ves of spiritual energy into the Unending alloy that made up large parts of the physical frame.

All he could say was that the Valkyrie Prime turned into a huge battery of spiritual energy. The vast quantities stuffed inside all of the Unending alloy did not do anything except radiate an exaggeratingly thick glow derived from the Superior Mother's attributes.

Ves already expected an outcome like this. It didn't make sense for the mech to come alive if all he needed to do was to incorporate a lot of Unending alloy or P-stone in a mech before filling it up with spiritual energy.

The true purpose of doing so was not to empower the mech, but to provide the mech pilot with greater leverage. As long as Joshua was able to interact with all of that spiritual energy, then something dramatic might take place!

Once the Superior Mother completed his request and withdrew, Ves tentatively approached the mech again. Though the Valkyrie Prime's glow was still identical in character to a normal Valkyrie mech, its density and solidity was insane!

Ves winced as he tried to step closer. He felt as if he was digging through a huge amount of snow. While his physical body didn't encounter any hindrances, his sensitive spiritual perception experienced something very different.

Venerable Joshua seemed to be better off in this regard. His lower perception and strong will allowed him to bear the pressure a lot better. Once he shook off his astonishment at the Valkyrie Prime's insane empowerment, he became fascinated by the thought of piloting it. He had never experienced a mech with such a powerful glow!

Though Venerable Joshua wanted to hop into its cockpit right away, Ves pulled back the eager expert pilot.

"Wait! Not so fast. I need to make some readings and inspect the mech for any changes. I can't tell whether the Valkyrie Prime's components have changed or malfunctioned during its transformation. With a mech this powerful, we need to put safety first. Be patient while I exame this machine from top to bottom."

"Awww…"

Ves forcibly shoved the expert pilot back and activated a number of scanning and inspection equipment.

The top-of-the-line Hexer scanning machines worked quickly and efficiently. Even when they were faced with a material as hard as Unending alloy, they proved capable of peering through the material as long as they remained in place and boosted their power to their limits.

After a couple of hours of careful examination, Ves tentatively concluded that the physical state of the Valkyrie Prime remained unchanged.

No matter how much spiritual energy it carried, it didn't scramble any electronics nor misalign any delicate parts. Ves felt very relieved once he made this determination.

"Can I pilot this new mech now?" Joshua whined like an impatient little kid.

He spent over two hours doing nothing else but sitting close to the Valkyrie Prime. Though he was intimidated by the powerful at the beginning, he slowly acclimatized to the mech's extraordinarily dense aura.

The fact that Ves introduced Venerable Joshua to the Superior Mother undoubtedly helped. He seriously doubted whether other non-Hexer mech pilots were able to approach this extraordinary mech. Its deterrence factor was actually a lot higher than the Doom Guard and the Ferocious Piranha!

Still, Ves couldn't allow Venerable Joshua to take the mech out for a spin without taking extra precautions. During the scanning process, he had added some additional instructions to the mech's operating system.

He took a deep breath. "Venerable Joshua. Before we proceed any further, I would like to ask if you consent to taking part in a potentially dangerous experiment. I'm sure you can feel how drastically the Valkyrie Prime has changed. I cannot in good conscience guarantee your safety if you test pilot this mech. Are you willing to pioneer this mech by becoming its first mech pilot?"

The expert pilot bloomed a smile in response. "Did you need to ask? Of course I want to pilot this mech! I don't think this mech will treat me wrong. I've already spent a lot of time trying to befriend the mech while I was waiting for you to finish whatever you were doing. I think the Valkyrie Prime knows me well enough to accept me. I think."

"Well, in case you are wrong or are unable to withstand the pressure of piloting this mech, you should shut it down immediately. If you aren't capable of doing so, then the mech will shut down on its own. The extra programming I have added to the operating system will continuously monitor all of your life signs. If any of them turn erratic or enters into dangerous territory, the mech will automatically become unresponsive. Take that into account."

"That.." Venerable Joshua frowned. No mech pilot liked to lose control this way. "Can you give me a chance to—"

"Don't be reckless! There is danger in the unknown. For now, I just want you to pilot it briefly. Just fly out into space and perform some basic maneuvers before returning back to this ship. You can attempt to resonate with the mech if you can. That's the main reason why I came up with the Valkyrie Prime. However, don't exert yourself too much. I don't want you to get hurt or suffer permanent damage."

The heads of regular mech pilots exploded when they attempted to interface with mechs at strengths ranging from 50 Ves to 100 Ves.

Expert candidates possessed a much greater tolerance for spiritually-enhanced mechs. They could handle a mech with 150 Ves such as the Quint while enduring only a moderate amount of pressure.

Expert pilots were much stronger. Even a relatively new expert pilot such as Joshua was very impressive in this regard!

Yet when it came to the Valkyrie Prime, Ves was a lot less confident about the expert pilot's chances.

"Well, all of this speculation is useless. I need to gather hard data in order to prove my assumptions."

Ves proceeded to command his ship to move the newly-empowered mech to the upper hangar bay of his factory ship. His personal workshop was actually not that far away.

As the gravity subjected to the Valkyrie Prime disappeared, a couple of heavy-duty bots clamped the inert machine and slowly pushed it forward.

Ves and Joshua steadily followed the mech as it entered the cargo channels and navigated through it. Other mechs and containers passing through the network of large and cavernous hallways had to halt and wait for the remarkable new mech to pass.

This was one of the perks of being in charge.

"Is that the clan patriarch?"

"Wait, what is that mech?"

"By Ylvaine! How powerful is its glow?! I've never felt anything this strong anymore."

"I want to convert to hexism right now!"

The powerful mech unavoidably sparked a commotion. While the range of the Valkyrie Prime's glow hadn't increased, its intensity had definitely gone through the roof!

Ves didn't mean to hide the mech, though he didn't go out of his way to announce it. Once the mech was finally moved to the hangar bay, he commanded everyone stationed there to move away and keep their distance.

It took an instant for Venerable Joshua to suit up. Ves approached a nearby workstation and took it over as the expert pilot floated upwards until he slipped into the cockpit of the experimental Hexer mech.

Once Ves set up the workstation to monitor the Valkyrie Prime's telemetry, he gave a thumbs up to the mech.

"Alright, Joshua! You can boot up the mech whenever you are ready! Take it slow and don't be in a hurry to move!"

As Venerable Joshua settled into the brand-new piloting chair, he did as he was instructed.

The mech slowly began its initial startup. This was a slower process than normal because the mech meticulously checked each and every system as they came online.

No problems took place. Several minutes went by as the mech became more active. Ves studied Joshua's heartbeat, blood pressure, perspiration and other signs for any indications that he was under pressure, but aside from some elevated activity, he remained remarkably stable.

"Okay, Joshua. The mech should have come online without issue now. How do you feel right now?"

"I feel fine." The expert pilot responded. "This Valkyrie mech isn't as scary as I thought. I can feel its strength, but it isn't fighting against me. A part of it is actively helping me while the rest is just doing nothing but sitting around."

Ves smiled. That was largely within his expectations.

"Remain steady. If you are confident enough, you can sortie into space. Just go out and fly ten kilometers away. Make sure that no other mech or ship is within this distance from you. I will command any nearby patrols to stay away."

The Valkyrie Prime moved. It slowly approached the end of the hangar bay before engaging its flight system.

The mech soon emerged out of the upper hangar bay.

Somehow, word of the strange new mech made by the clan patriarch had spread throughout the fleet. A lot of sensors pointed straight at the Valkyrie Prime as it flew away from the Spirit of Bentheim!

Once it reached a fair distance, Ves demanded Joshua to perform a standard routine of test movements.

This was quite a boring chore. Ves and the onlookers quickly grew bored as the Valkyrie Prime methodically stretched its arms, adjusted its flight system, made some basic thrusts with its spear and waved around its round shield.

None of the readings from the mechs seemed abnormal, but that was because Joshua did not do anything special.

Since the basic performance of the mech was good, Ves felt a little bit adventurous. He didn't want to recall the Valkyrie Prime before satisfying his curiosity.

"Joshua?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Do it. Try to resonate with your mech. See if you can sync up with the dormant strength locked inside the machine. Don't do anything drastic, though. We just need to confirm if resonance can be achieved. We can explore the rest later."

"Alright. I will try. I think I have an idea on how to resonate with my mech."

Venerable Joshua had been waiting to do this for hours. He instinctively expanded his force of will and tried to run it through the entire mech. With him as the center, he tried to harmonize with the machine!

His force of will began to interact with the saturated Unending alloy.

Faster than Ves expected, a weak but increasing glow formed around the Valkyrie Prime!

The other observers became astonished as they spotted something remarkable from the strange Valkyrie mech!

"What is that?"

"Is that resonance? Since when did the clan patriarch design an expert mech?!"

"Wait! It's not quite right! The resonance meters aren't moving a lot. There's something wrong here.."

As Venerable Joshua managed to arouse the hidden potential locked within the Valkyrie Prime, Ves paid very close attention to the resonate meter and other signs.

The smile on his face drooped a bit. The result he was hoping for didn't materialize. While the data told him that Venerable Joshua was definitely resonating with the mech, the efficiency was dreadfully low.

"This isn't true resonance. It's much weaker. It's merely a stronger version of fake resonance. Whatever the case, it's not comparable to the real deal!" He disappointingly concluded.

The goal of his current experiment was to see if he could substitute resonating materials.

He hypothesized that infusing a spiritually-reactive material with spiritual energy could allow an expert pilot to resonate with it. The answer turned out to be yes, but barely!

Perhaps there was a way to achieve a greater degree of resonance, but for now, the Valkyrie Prime was not as strong as he hoped!

Chapter 2623: New Discoveries

What was resonance?

What made resonance between expert pilots and expert mechs special?

What allowed expert mechs to exert greater power when they resonated?

Ves couldn't answer these questions right now. As a Journeyman, he invested most of his energies into becoming better at designing standard mechs, particularly medium humanoid mechs. His expertise in other areas of mech design was sorely lacking.

undefinedIt would have been great if someone actually explained the working principles of an expert mech. Sadly, neither the prim and proper Master Willix or the former desperado known as the Skull Architect was willing to share any details.

Only Senior Mech Designers and higher were qualified to learn the secrets behind expert mechs. There was no exception to this rule as far as the mech industry was concerned.

Perhaps a mech designer had to reach a minimum level of spiritual development in order to bear the burden of designing an expert mech. The higher the requirements, the more Ves hungered for the relevant knowledge. It had to be an amazing secret if every high-ranking mech designer treated it so seriously!

Yet the more he wanted it, the more the mech industry kept it out of his reach. Ves became more and more frustrated when he continually hit wall after wall. The only legitimate way for him to know the secret was to advance to Senior and pay a visit to the MTA.

That took way too long! While Ves had made brisk progress since he became a Journeyman, his design seed hardly became stronger than before. It was far from reaching any sort of fundamental transformation.

This meant it would take at least several decades for him to become a Senior.

He didn't believe that he needed to reach that point in order to design an expert mech. He possessed greater insights into willpower and spirituality than any other mech designer. As long as the secret encompassed these aspects, he was confident he could exploit his knowledge in a way to circumvent some of the requirements!

The Mech Designer System happened to offer him support. It charged 1 million Design Points to enable him to design expert mechs. This alone proved that Journeymen were capable of designing expert mechs somehow.

Why did it cost so much? One reason must certainly be supply and demand. Aside from the MTA, the System was the only other readily-available supplier. Since Ves wanted it badly, the System could easily jack up the price.

However, it would have been too ludicrous if profiteering was the sole reason. Ves also suspected that he might need some sort of rare resource or undergo some sort of profound transformation in order to design an expert mech. Providing him with the right qualifications must be a very costly procedure, so it should not be a surprise that both the MTA and the System charged onerous prices.

No matter whether Ves was willing to wait or not, the reality was that he wouldn't be able to gain the necessary knowledge and capabilities anytime soon. Since several Larkinson expert pilots were waiting to obtain their expert mechs, this was very bad, because it meant he would have to rely too much on a stronger mech designer's work in order to fulfill this need.

It was irresponsible to entrust the most crucial elements of an expert mech design to an external mech designer. Whether it was Master Moira Willix or Professor Benedict Cortez, they both pursued their own agendas. Who knew whether their goals conflicted with his own? What if they incorporated some hidden backdoor or vulnerability in a Larkinson expert mech design?

Ves had to take matters into his own hands!

While he did not believe he could single-handedly deduce all of the principles that made expert mechs work, knowing something was better than remaining completely ignorant. He wanted to perform some studies of his own in order to uncover at least a couple of insights.

The Valkyrie Prime was his first exploration in this direction. He combined his accumulation of expert pilots, spiritual foundation enhancement, spiritually-reactive materials and design spirits to come up with an experiment that hopefully produced a result related to resonance.

His main ambition was to develop a mech that was capable of generating true resonance.

As the Valkyrie Prime glowed in space, the readings that Ves observed from his workstation indicated that he had failed to reach this goal.

The state that Venerable Joshua and the Valkyrie Prime had managed to achieve was short of true resonance. It was actually similar to fake resonance in that there was hardly any substance behind the resonance.

The bright glow surrounding the Valkyrie Prime was incomparable to an actual resonance shield. While it offered extra protection like any barrier, it was not impressive enough to make it nigh-impervious against lots of regular attacks. Its ability to defend against attacks empowered by true resonance was also questionable.

According to theory, fake resonance was generated by the mech itself. Certain rare exotics possessed the capability to resonate with itself. Whether this was an accurate description or not, these peculiar materials basically provided regular mech pilots with a preview of what it was like to pilot an expert mech.

Fake was fake though. Because the self-resonating exotics lacked the support of a formidable demigod, their strength alone was not enough to elevate mechs with fake resonance to a different height.

At most, custom mechs such as Lord Javier Eneqqin's Loquacious Raphael gained an edge against standard mechs but did not come close to threatening actual expert mechs.

As Ves continued to observe the Valkyrie Prime's telemetry, his experiment produced a similar result.

The only consolation was that the phenomenon he created appeared to be a little stronger than ordinary fake resonance.

"It has to be." He whispered to himself as he flicked through the charts. "I'm using an actual expert pilot, after all. Even without the use of self-resonating exotics, I still managed to invent a new and unknown form of resonance!"

At the very least, the characteristics of resonance his instruments were capturing did not conform to any known patterns. Perhaps some other mech designer managed to produce this result before but withheld it from the public, but Ves had a hunch that he was the first to perform this kind of experiment!

If that was true, the significance of this experiment was very great, especially if he was willing to submit it to the MTA in order to earn a lot of merits.

Of course, Ves did not intend to do something so stupid and short-sighted. His experiment involved too many trade secrets, some of which he hadn't even revealed to Master Willix!

He didn't care about the historical significance of his experiment. What Ves truly wanted to accomplish was to develop a quick and convenient method to strengthen his defenses.

He had five expert pilots, six if he included Venerable Davia Stark. All of them were lacking expert mechs right now, so each of them were being heavily under-utilized.

If he managed to develop some sort of quasi-expert mech that allowed his expert pilots to exert at least a portion of their capabilities, then his expeditionary fleet would be much better prepared to fight against powerful opponents!

"I'm not there yet, though."

The disappointing results gave Ves a bit of a headache. While failure was something that every researcher encountered, he still felt crushed. He was so hopeful about pumping 6300 in a mech that he couldn't conceive why the actual outcome was so weak.

Ves spoke into the communication channel. "Okay, this session is over now. Please halt your attempts to resonate with the Valkyrie Prime and bring it back to the hangar bay."

"What? Now?" Venerable Joshua replied. "It's too soon! I can do better! Let me try something different!"

"We can do something different next time. It's too dangerous to perform tests on the fly. You need to get back and give me time to study the Valkyrie Prime and the data I've gathered. Once I've made some conclusions and developed some new hypotheses, we can perform targeted experiments that are backed by existing data. Now get back to the Bentheim before you try something dangerous!"

"Awww.."

No matter how much Venerable Joshua wanted to continue the session, Ves had the power to pull the plug of his mech. The expert pilot had no choice but to do what he was told.

Ves smirked as he collected and archived all of the data. This was why he preferred to work with Venerable Joshua. Every other expert pilot was temperamental and demanding. They possessed strong egos and were very willful.

In fact, Venerable Joshua could be just as assertive as his peers. It was just that his obsession for LMC mechs made him unusually deferential to Ves. His domain also made him a bit more approachable.

"He's the perfect test subject for me." Ves concluded.

While his guinea pig brought back the Valkyrie Prime, Ves attempted to contextualize his results.

Though the session only lasted for a short amount of time, the new form of resonance showed some distinct properties.

As long as he replicated the phenomenon a few times, Ves was confident enough to claim he discovered a new form of resonance.

"What should I call it?" He idly wondered. "Since it sits between fake resonance and true resonance, should it be called half-true resonance?"

That was an awful name. Ves immediately threw it away.

He tried to come up with alternatives.

"Half resonance. Demi resonance. Partial resonance. Incomplete resonance."

None of those suggestions satisfied him. Each of them signalled that the new form of resonance was stunted or crippled. He needed to come up with a more positive descriptor.

"Larkinson resonance. Emotional resonance. P-resonance."

None of them sounded appropriate for this form of resonance. They didn't encapsulate what he had managed to achieve.

There were two conditions to forming this new form of resonance.

First, it needed a high-ranking mech pilot. Anyone below expert pilot was unlikely to achieve what Venerable Joshua had accomplished earlier.

Second, it required a new form of mech that Ves needed to classify. The mech in question was no different from a standard mech aside from incorporating spiritual storage materials that was filled with spiritual energy.

"What should I call this mech?"

He needed to come up with a name that he could use in public but did not reveal any secrets.

"P-mech?"

This was the clearest option to him considering that P-mechs could also function as P-stones. Both of them were capable of storing spiritual energy.

However, as Ves looked at the projection of the Valkyrie Prime, he came up with a better name.

"Prime mech."

The name sounded a lot more elegant. It was simple, clean and totally undescriptive unless someone knew the truth. Ves had no qualms spreading this designation to the public considering that he intended to make prime mechs exclusive to the Larkinson Clan.

It was still too risky to allow others to get their hands on this new kind of mech!

"If prime mechs possessed a lot of untapped potential, which he suspected might be the case, then it was vital to explore its characteristic form of resonance further."

"Then the new form of resonance produced by this mech shall be called prime resonance!"

Whether prime resonance would live up to its name remained to be seen. All Ves knew right now was that he had opened up a brand new research direction that could yield several possible innovations!

As Ves fantasized about prime resonance, someone suddenly stormed in the hangar bay and flew straight towards his workstation!

"VES!" Gloriana angrily yelled. "What is the meaning of this?! Why did you keep me in the dark about this new Valkyrie variant?! And what have you done to create this odd version of fake resonance? TELL ME EVERYTHING!"

"Miaow!"

Her cat sprinted after her owner as well!

A sinking feeling overcame Ves. The reckoning had come. Hell hath no fury like a woman left out of an interesting experiment!

Chapter 2624: Hexer Mechs for Hexers

Before Ves could turn and and fend off his wife, she reached him and grabbed both sides of his collar.

Her face pressed right into his own! "Why did you make Venerable Joshua pilot this new Valkyrie mech?! A HEXER MECH SHOULD BE PILOTED BY A HEXER!"

She attempted to jerk his body back and forth, but her weak arms failed to do more than cause his head to shake a bit. He innocently raised his palms.

"Calm down, Gloriana! You can argue with me, but please don't do so here. Our entire clan is watching!"

undefinedHe waved his arm across the entire hangar bay.

There was no privacy to be found here. When Gloriana looked around, she spotted several mechs, mech pilots, mech technicians and other equipment.

That wasn't all. She knew that the monitoring system must be listening in as well.

She forcibly calmed herself down. "Fine. Let's bring your new Valkyrie mech back to my workshop and discuss what exactly you have done."

"Hey! This is my project! My mech should be brought back to MY workshop!"

The two argued for a bit until Gloriana reluctantly acknowledged his point.

She still glowered at him as a couple of cargo bots slowly dragged the Valkyrie Prime back to Ves' workshop.

"Miaow."

Even Clixie directed her ire at Ves!

"Good girl." Gloriana complimented as she picked Clixie up and held her pet against her chest. "Ves has been very naughty today. He went off to make a Hexer mech without involving a Hexer mech designer. What's even worse is that he asked a non-Hexer to pilot his homegrown creation. Don't you think that sounds ridiculous?"

"Miaow!"

"You hear that, Ves? She thinks you're wrong as well!"

"Uhm, Clixie is just copying you, you know." Ves pointed out.

"SHUT UP!"

When they eventually returned to the workshop, the bots placed the Valkyrie Prime back into the assembly system.

Ves activated a comprehensive diagnostic routine. Scanners and sensors quickly came to life and began to inspect the mech from top to bottom.

Venerable Joshua had emerged from the mech a while ago. He looked distracted as he kept thinking back on the unique sensation of resonating with the Valkyrie Prime.

While he had never piloted an actual expert mech before, Joshua guessed that there had to be some similarities.

At the same time, Gloriana dragged Ves to a private office space inside the workshop. She let Clixie go, allowing the cat to skulk around and stay on guard.

Gloriana placed her hands on her hips. "We're alone now. Can you tell me what you have been up to behind my back?"

"I was just conducting a small study."

"Liar! This is way more than a small experiment! Do you think I'm blind? You invested a lot of that 'Unending alloy' to make this mech. As far I know, you have been very stingy about using up this strange material you brought back from the Nyxian Gap. There is no way this Valkyrie variant is just an experimental platform!"

"Okay, I admit it." Ves sighed. "The Valkyrie Prime is supposed to be a replacement for Venerable Joshua's current mech. The Quint is a good machine for expert candidates, but it can't enable expert pilots to exert their full strength. Joshua needs a more powerful mech that possesses a higher skill ceiling and can tolerate more powerful maneuvers. While I can't develop a full expert mech, it is not that much of a problem to come up with a variant of the Valkyrie Brunhild. To be honest, I initially wanted to fabricate the Brunhild, but we don't have any Rorach's Bone."

"Hmmm…" His wife frowned. "From what it looks like, your Valkyrie Prime is more than that. Our strategic materials reserve doesn't contain any self-resonating exotics! How did you manage to accomplish resonance? Did you withhold crucial information?"

Ves vigorously shook his head!

"I didn't hide anything! It's just that I found a new way to empower Unending alloy. When I built my mech with this material, I filled it up with spiritual energy. That has caused the mech to become.. special. This is new to me as well, so don't ask me what it can do exactly. The test run you've witnessed earlier is the first time I put this idea into practice! I haven't even processed all of the data I've gathered!"

Gloriana placed her palm on her face.

"I can tolerate you performing an experiment by yourself. I don't have a problem with that. If you want to tinker around with a possible new application of your design philosophy, then you don't need to involve me. What I do have a problem with is your disrespect towards Hexers! I know you don't like them, but that doesn't give you the right to make your own Hexer mech and pass it on to someone who is completely unrelated to my home state!"

"This is not a mech that is meant to be utilized by the Hegemony!" Ves defended himself. "I've made it exclusively to increase the combat strength of our fleet. As I told you earlier, while our expert pilots are waiting to receive their expert mechs, I wanted to give them a second-class mech derived from our existing work that is adapted to some of their abilities. I don't have a lot of options at this time. Between the Blessed Squire, the Transcendent Punisher and the Valkyrie product line, and it's clear that the Valkyrie mech is the most suitable choice for our situation."

His wife pounded her fist against his chest.

"Don't you remember the fundamental rule of Hexer mechs?! Male mechs are meant to be piloted by boys and female mechs are meant to be piloted by females! Why didn't you choose Venerable Orfan or Venerable Dise? They might not be Hexers, but at least they're women!"

Ves held her wrist before she could pound him for the umpteenth time. "I did not choose to develop a mech for them. I chose to start with Venerable Joshua for some very good reasons. Not only is he eager to take part in my experiments, he is also our most adaptable expert pilot. He can pilot any LMC mech! As the initial test run has just proven, Joshua is fully capable of piloting a Valkyrie mech!"

"Just because he can doesn't mean he should! I won't dispute your claim that Venerable Joshua can pilot a Hexer mech, but it's not right! Back in the Hegemony, what you have just done is strictly prohibited. The authorities won't hesitate to confiscate your mech and put you and your friend into prison!"

Ves smirked. "It's a good thing we're not in the Hegemony, then. We are Larkinsons. Our clan is completely independent and not an extension of your home state. I don't have to abide by the Hegemony's arbitrary and discriminatory rules. In the rest of human space, it is not unusual to see women piloting masculine-looking mechs and men making use of feminine-shaped mechs."

"But—"

"—And don't attempt to bring up the issue of rights." Ves cut off his partner. "The Hegemony formally gave us permission to make use of the Hexer mech designs they've commissioned. Perhaps your home state assumed that we would follow all of its traditions and customs related to its mechs, but that isn't mentioned in any agreements!"

"You…"

"If you set aside the fact that the Valkyrie Prime is a Hexer mech, it is just a custom second-class mech. No one aside from Hexers cares about the gender of its mech pilot. This is why I felt free to make this mech for Venerable Joshua. This is also why I didn't want to involve you in this project either. I knew you would kick up a fuss and bring in invalid arguments to stop me from designing a suitable mech for one of our expert pilots."

"You could have chosen to develop a variant of the Transcendent Punisher instead! It's just as powerful if not more than the Valkyrie Redeemer! Venerable Joshua has already proven that he can pilot Ylvainan mechs."

Ves crossed his arms. "Are you being serious? The Transcendent Punisher doesn't even have a flight system! Sure, it's a solid mech and possesses lots of firepower, but it is a one-dimensional machine that doesn't give full play to Venerable Joshua's varied skills. He's much more useful if he pilots a mobile mech. He excels at piloting assault-oriented mechs, and the Valkyrie product line completely fits this category!"

"It still looks wrong to me! If you needed a test pilot for your Hexer mech, then why didn't you turn to Venerable Brutus? He would love to help you in your experiments as long as I ask nicely."

"Have you been listening to me, Gloriana?! The Valkyrie Prime is not a disposable experiment! It's a stopgap mech for Venerable Joshua! I'm killing two birds with one stone by developing this mech. That's efficiency for you. Besides, Venerable Brutus is primarily a ranged specialist, while the Valkyrie Prime possesses powerful melee capabilities. Not only is there a mismatch between mech and mech pilot, but your brother is already piloting the Star Dancer! It doesn't make sense to tailor the Valkyrie Prime to an expert pilot that already has a fine expert mech."

It took several more minutes to rebut and deconstruct Gloriana's objections. Even though her Hexer sensibilities still objected to his project, logic was on his side.

She didn't have a leg to stand on and she knew it. Once she realized that her husband wasn't going to appease her, she finally got off her high horse.

"Okay, I get it. You want to perform some experiments while developing a new mech for Venerable Joshua. While I don't agree with your decisions, I won't stop you from proceeding with your project."

Finally. Ves was about to head back to the main hall of his personal workshop, but Gloriana quickly stood in his way.

"You're not leaving me out of this! You should have brought me in the moment you chose to work on a Hexer mech. Juliet can keep watch over the design lab."

She pressed her body up against his own. Her scent wafted in his nose. She smelled like honey and flowers today.

He didn't have any energy left to fend her off. He slumped his shoulders in resignation. "Okay. However, I'm in charge of this project. While you can help me with analyzing the data that I've gathered and providing me with a second opinion, I will decide how to proceed."

"I'll do my best to help you succeed. I'm not your enemy, Ves."

Now that they have made up, they emerged out of the private office while discussing the details of what Ves had done.

He quickly summarized his goal, his theories, his decisions and the outcome of the initial test.

When he introduced the concepts of prime resonance and prime mechs, she finally looked impressed.

"That's quite a good naming scheme? I'm not sure if anyone has already used the term 'prime mechs', but I think it is quite appropriate in this case. You can even extend it further to the key materials that makes this possible. Unending alloy and any other exotic with similar properties should be classified as prime materials."

That was actually quite a good suggestion! Ves immediately embraced her idea.

"I actually have two different prime materials in stock. The P-stone that I have shown you before is another one. It's too bad that I only have a modest collection of lumps. While the storage capacity of P-stone is much higher, it is a soft and fragile exotic that is not available in larger quantities. Sourcing more P-stone has actually troubled me for several years. As for Unending alloy, you already know where I got it from. I don't think we'll be able to find it anywhere else!"

The limited supply of prime materials severely limited how many prime mechs they could make.

Chapter 2625: Do You Even Lift, Joshua?

Once Gloriana clung to Ves like an adoring wife, Clixie no longer hissed at him. Instead, the furry cat cutely crawled on his lap while he checked the data.

"Miaow~"

"According to these readings, the physical performance of the Valkyrie Prime did not receive any noticeable boosts." Gloriana pointed at her terminal. "Fake resonance has a much more limited scope of improvement. It's usually just the components that incorporate self-resonating materials that are boosted. True resonance is broader and can affect the entire frame of a mech."

There was no way to arouse true resonance without pairing an expert pilot with an expert mech.

undefinedThe only other method that could produce a comparable result was forced resonance, which only happened when mech pilots broke through. This was no different from winning the lottery, so no one ever pinned their hopes on banking on forced resonance despite not needing any expert mechs.

Ves had actually hoped his experiment produced either true resonance or forced resonance. The former was like winning the jackpot while the latter was like getting the second prize.

Reality on the other hand saw fit to hand him a consolation prize. While prime resonance appeared to be stronger than fake resonance, it wasn't very useful in this context.

Ves pointed his finger at the projected schematics of his mech. "The problem with what you've just described is that my mech's armor system and internal frame is almost entirely made out of Unending alloy. The prime material I've used is also top notch in terms of defense. Strengthening the defenses of this material even further is completely redundant."

He would have wanted the prime resonance to enhance other aspects of the Valkyrie Prime. Increasing the mobility and offensive power of his mech would have a measurable impact on its battle performance!

Gloriana hummed as she thought about this issue. "From what I can see, I don't think you can utilize Unending alloy in many other ways. Even though you have clad the flight system of this mech with this prime material, it didn't gain any additional thrust. We need to learn how to apply Unending alloy in other ways. Utilizing it as armor and internal support is only the most shallow application. One way I can think of to leverage Unending alloy further is to fire it as a projectile."

"Absolutely not!" Ves instantly replied. "Don't even think about that! Unending alloy is incredibly rare, strong and precious. Even if it's available on the market, I doubt we can afford any with our current means. Unless proven otherwise, I'll assume that this alloy is only available in the Nyxian Gap. While I am willing to keep an open mind, I highly doubt that Unending alloy or its component exotics can be found in the Red Ocean. That means we can't waste a single gram of Unending alloy."

"It's just a possibility, Ves. I didn't mean you should go through with it. My point is that you need to be more clever with how you utilize Unending alloy. If I was in your place, I would have started with just a fraction of Unending alloy. I wouldn't have used it all on armor plating, structural parts and armaments."

"This isn't just an experimental mech. It's also a mech that is meant to be deployed in battle. If you set aside prime resonance, the Valkyrie Prime is by far our toughest and most damage-resistant mechs. That alone is worth using up so much Unending alloy. It's not doing anything useful while it's collecting dust in our vault."

Gloriana still had a point, though. As both of them studied the effects of prime resonance, they concluded that it was effectively useless in its demonstrated form. Even if the Valkyrie Prime exhibited ten times stronger resonance, it only offered an extra layer of protection to a mech that already possessed excellent defenses!

Due to the many limitations they faced, Ves saw no way to improve his mech by focusing on this aspect.

He would rather focus on another, more mysterious angle.

"My goal is to achieve true resonance." He stated. "That hasn't changed. Even if it isn't possible to accomplish it with our current resources, I want to come as close to it as possible. I managed to create prime resonance by putting something together that is completely different from existing methods. My current idea is to expand upon the incorporeal and human side of my project. My specialty is man-machine symbiosis, so I must continue to explore the Valkyrie Prime concept from this angle."

His wife tentatively nodded. "I can't help you much on that aspect, but what I can do is optimize your mech. Even if you swapped out one material for another material doesn't mean the mech performs as optimally as before. The altered mass and density of the Valkyrie Prime has unbalanced the frame. I'll go ahead and correct that while I perform some other optimizations."

"Don't spend too much time on that. There are several other expert pilots who urgently need improved mechs as well. Our overall priority lies in boosting the strength of our expert pilots as quickly as possible rather than perfecting the mech of a lone individual."

Gloriana frowned. That did not sit well with her. "Why are you in such a hurry, Ves?"

He hesitated for a couple of seconds.

"It sounds silly, but… the Living Prophet made a prediction that we might be confronted with some enemies on our way out of the star sector."

"That's impossible. Our fleet is incredibly powerful and we are still inside Hegemony-aligned space. If the Fridaymen are targeting us, then they need to muster up thousands of mechs and lots of carriers. It's impossible to hide the movements of a massive fleet."

"I know. I agree with you. We're detouring through Vicious Mountain just to stay as far away from Coalition-aligned space as possible. We might encounter other enemies along the way, though. What if some Garlaners attempt to waylay us? What if we'll encounter trouble at the Life Research Association? We need to increase our strength as quickly as possible. Don't forget that it's not a secret that our expert pilots don't have access to any expert mechs. They are paper tigers who won't deter a formidable enemy."

"Hmmm. Maybe you're right." She agreed with his logic. "I don't like rush jobs, but I know this is important to you. We better do a proper job when we design our expert mechs. I don't want to rush any aspect of our best works."

"I get it, I get it. Let's get to work."

Ves finally managed to get away from his wife. While she proceeded to examine the armor layout of the Valkyrie Prime, Ves rose from his seat and approached Venerable Joshua.

"Hello again."

"Oh, hey." Venerable Joshua snapped out of his daze. "What do you want to know?"

"First, let me begin by telling you that we have not detected anything concerning the initial test run. Neither you nor your mech sustained any damage. We've also discovered a new form of resonance. Let me tell you what we know."

He briefly filled Joshua in about prime resonance. The problem was that the expert pilot never experienced fake or true resonance. He only ever experienced forced resonance twice.

"So in conclusion, it appears the Valkyrie Prime is not capable of imitating a genuine expert mech." Ves said at the end of his explanation. "What we currently have is prime resonance, which has potential but isn't a game changer."

"Sir.. I don't think prime resonance is as weak as you think." Venerable Joshua replied. "Back when I tried to resonate with the Valkyrie Prime, it felt as if I was trying to lift something heavy. A couch or something. I only managed to lift one side of the couch, and that was with the mech and.. the Superior Mother helping me out. I could have achieved more if I was able to lift the entire couch."

That was a rather poor analogy, but Joshua managed to convey his point.

"Does this mean that resonating with your mech is strenuous to you?" Ves asked.

He nodded. "It's a workout, for sure. I can't do that with other mechs because there is nothing for my mind to grapple on. The Valkyrie Prime is the first mech I've piloted that I feel useful as an expert pilot."

"Interesting. Tell me more about how you feel about the mech itself."

"The mech is quite friendly to me. I can actively feel the Superior Mother's influence now that I know what to look out for. I actively tried to get in touch with her and tell her what I want. I can feel she is helping in some way, but don't ask me for any details. The mech is very powerful to me, but it's frustrating that I can't fully channel it. There has to be a way!"

Ves nodded and smiled in encouragement. "I think so as well. We'll have to perform some subsequent test runs in order to gather more data and try out some different methods."

They began right away.

While Gloriana worked to optimize the armor layout of the Valkyrie Prime, Ves frequently commanded Venerable Joshua to pilot the Valkyrie Prime.

Since his expeditionary fleet was engaged in FTL travel most of the time, it wasn't possible to deploy the Valkyrie Prime in space.

Fortunately, it wasn't necessary to do so. After a few cautious attempts, Ves decided to keep the test runs in his personal workshop. It featured enough space for a mech to move around in a very tight circle and rise a bit in the air, but not much more.

In fact, Ves didn't even need the Valkyrie Prime to move. It was already sufficient to station the mech in the most open space in his workshop before ordering Joshua to keep the mech still.

It was already enough to gather data on the mech while Joshua was actively inducing prime resonance. The machine glowed brightly in the mech workshop, but none of the nearby production equipment suffered any damage.

The repeated tests fatigued Venerable Joshua. While he didn't feel much strain if he induced prime resonance for a couple of minutes, it quickly added up when a session stretched on for twenty minutes or longer.

To be fair, other forms of resonance aside from fake resonance were also strenuous to mech pilots. The power granted by resonance always came at a price. The greater the resonance, the greater the burden on the mech pilot.

Still, no matter how much Ves was asking from Venerable Joshua, the expert pilot diligently did what he was told. He did not ask for any reprieve.

"I can still go on, sir! I am nowhere near my limit!"

While Ves worried about overworking the expert pilot, he wanted to stress test the Valkyrie Prime and its mech pilot. He needed to know if some kind of limit existed if the combination continually engaged in prime resonance.

The frequent, lengthy test runs were very useful in other ways. Sustained use of the Valkyrie Prime soon exposed some details that took Ves by surprise!

"This…"

"What's the matter?"

Gloriana walked over as Ves looked shocked at the pattern he read from the data!

"Look at this graph."

"I see it. The squiggly line is slightly rising upwards. It's quite flat, though, so the change isn't drastic. What am I looking at, Ves?"

"Resonance strength. According to this chart, in a span of four days, Joshua's resonanc strength rose from 2.51 laveres to 2.55 laveres."

"What? That's impossible! Expert pilots are only capable of growing stronger when they are piloting actual expert mechs! Everyone knows that!"

"Well, apparently I came up with a new method. Prime resonance isn't the same as fake resonance. The latter is entirely produced by the mech, while the former is something that an expert pilot actively needs to induce. I think that our prime mech is somehow capable of allowing an expert pilot to 'exercise' the aspect that is responsible for resonating with a mech!"

This was a considerable discovery! If this was true, then the expert pilots of the Larkinson Clan didn't have to wait to receive their expert mechs in order to develop their new powers!

A few days later, Ves made another discovery.

The Valkyrie Prime had slightly grown weaker. As Ves carefully examined the mech, he discovered that it had lost at least 100 Ves!

"Where did it go?"

In the process of investigating whether prime resonance slowly consumed the spiritual energy stored inside the Unending alloy, he came up with another experiment.

Everytime spiritual energy was being consumed, something happened. What if Ves attempted something that consumed even more spiritual energy?

As soon as the fleet transitioned out of FTL, Ves immediately commenced his next test!

Chapter 2626: Realization of Energy

Energy by itself was powerful, but only if it was being used.

Reality consisted of energy and matter interchanging with each other. Order arose when lots of processes took place that converted one form of energy into another form of energy, allowing someone or something to take advantage of the process to accomplish something useful.

An ordinary human converted the energy absorbed by the food he absorbed to perform his job and go about his day.

A simple mech consumed the energy supplied by its energy cells and power reactor in order to move around or attack its opponents.

undefinedA star released energy at a massive scale due to the immense gravity pressing a huge amount of atoms together, fusing them into bigger atoms that also happened to release a lot of energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation.

The entire cosmos, from tiny specks of space dust to astronomically huge galaxies, operated along these lines. The conversion of matter to matter, matter to energy, energy to matter and energy to energy basically explained every single process that took place from the beginning of time.

As a mech designer, Ves possessed a deep appreciation of energy. It was the most essential pillar upon which human civilization rested. Without harnessing a sufficient amount of energy, how could humanity possibly fuel the enormous industries that produced the huge amount of weapons and war machines that kept humanity dominant?

Without developing and sustaining enormous power reactors, how could humanity's awesome battleships defeat the previously-dominant alien empires during the Age of Conquest?

Without powerful weapons of mass destruction, how could the human race almost make itself extinct in the span of less than a century despite spreading widely across the galaxy?

Energy could be used to create and destroy. No matter what form it took, energy was neither inherently good or evil. It was neither aggressive nor peaceful.

It just existed.

It was up to someone or something else to make use of energy.

After performing an extensive series of repetitive tests on the Valkyrie Prime, Ves had gained a slightly deeper understanding of all of the spiritual energy dumped into the mech.

First, the spiritual energy used to enhance the spiritual foundation of the mech did not vanish. The 'soul' of the mech appeared to be a self-sustaining entity that did not exhibit any changes in the short term. It did not need to be fed, though piloting the mech slowly caused it to grow and develop further.

While this largely ruled out many means of accelerating its growth, at the very least Ves didn't have to worry about its upkeep, unlike his expensive factory ship.

"This also explains why the triggered abilities of my recent mech designs aren't that powerful." He suddenly realized.

The Marked For Death ability of the Valkyrie Redeemer.

The Disorientation Pulse of the Doom Guard and the Ferocious Piranha

The Guided Aim ability of the Deliverer.

All of these triggered abilities were impactful in their own way, but that was mainly because they affected the human mind. In truth, none of the triggered abilities that Ves developed over the course of his career was ever able to affect reality itself.

It was only now that Ves explored other applications of spiritual energy that he understood the fundamental reason behind the limitations of glows and triggered abilities.

There wasn't enough energy!

Every LMC mech that was alive possessed spiritual energy in the form of spiritual foundation. Yet without any active enhancement, these freshly-made mechs measured at almost 0 Ves.

How could a mech with only a tiny amount of energy possibly be capable of affecting reality? It was already a miracle that it was able to influence people's minds!

Even if a mech's spiritual foundation absorbed a lot of spiritual energy, either through spiritual foundation enhancement or by collecting the spillover of the breakthrough of its expert pilot, it still did not change anything.

This was because a mech's spiritual foundation was not set up to consume its own energy to power energy-intensive processes!

It was like any normal living entity. When a normal human like Gavin Neumann ran laps throughout the Spirit of Bentheim, he would probably collapse in less than an hour.

Even if the personal assistant felt as if his entire body was sucked dry of energy, in fact his body still possessed more than enough energy to sustain its normal physiological activities. Otherwise, his muscles would no longer be able to move, his brain would no longer be capable of producing thoughts and his digestion system wouldn't be able to replenish the body's energy levels!

"The spirit of a mech is akin to a normal human." Ves concluded. "It's not a power reactor that rapidly consumes fuel in order to release a huge amount of energy."

The spiritual energy required to affect reality was massive. Ves couldn't help but recall the instances where Ketis demonstrated her 'superpower'.

That was actually a very good example of how spiritual energy could be used to achieve something energy-intensive but meaningful.

It also illustrated how the price was very onerous. Ketis could only empower the edge of a blade for a single attack before she was done for the day!

This single case proved that spiritual energy could accomplish more if it was being expended in some fashion.

Ves himself also expended spiritual energy when he performed his more demanding techniques. Creating design spirits, channeling the strength of design spirits, donning a spiritual mask and performing remote domain sharing with Gloriana all drained a lot of his energy, but the results were always drastic!

"In order to get something, you have to pay something. The more you pay, the more you get."

Of course, it wasn't that simple. Every process and transformation generated waste. Not even spiritual energy was immune to the concept of efficiency.

In any case, the realization that consuming spiritual energy produced a lot of remarkable outcomes was a very important insight.

It explained many powerful phenomena that previously seemed like mysteries to Ves.

Even the power displayed by high-ranking mech pilots and supermechs was no longer inexplicable as far as he was concerned!

The successively greater power exhibited by expert mechs, ace mechs and god mechs in combination with their pilots also resulted from a combination of expending spiritual energy and willpower!

Ves looked intrigued. "Is this also a part of the secret that mech designers need to understand in order to design an expert mech?"

Regardless, the realization he made was such an important acknowledgement of how reality worked that Ves was actually experiencing another round of sublimation in his mind.

His design seed evolved!

Even though the shift wasn't very drastic, Ves could definitely feel his design seed had reached another stage of growth.

This was because this fundamental realization had the potential to unlock many powerful ways of applying his design philosophy. Enabling prime resonance was only a preview of what he could accomplish now that he understood a new truth about spiritual energy!

"I have taken one step closer to becoming a Senior!" Ves joyfully guessed.

It sounded so incredibly simple and obvious in hindsight, yet he was still limited by his imagination.

Now that he knew more than before, Ves became a lot more eager to explore the new methods he came up with to employ spiritual energy in a greater fashion.

Still, as exciting as these new possibilities sounding, his enthusiasm dampened when he recalled the price he had to pay.

"Everything has a price."

The greater the value, the greater the price.

Ves winced as he recalled he lost his Grand Dynamo. While this sacrifice produced an incredibly powerful result, the fact of the matter was that he had lost a very powerful source of renewable spiritual energy!

In the case of prime mechs, they continually needed to be supplemented with additional spiritual energy when put into use. While Ves welcomed the discovery that piloting the Valkyrie Prime exercised Venerable Joshua's force of will, it was by no means a cheap process!

As Ves thought about developing more prime mechs in order to give his other Larkinson expert mech pilots their own workout tools, he inevitably faced the problem of sustaining their energy consumption.

According to Venerable Joshua, he was only capable of arousing prime resonance with the assistance of his mech and its design spirit.

That essentially meant the expert pilot had to develop a good relationship with the source of the spiritual energy infused in a mech.

Venerable Jannzi, Venerable Orfan and Venerable Dise should be alright as long as they piloted a mech that was compatible with Qilanxo.

The problem was that aside from Jannzi, he didn't have a readily available mech to accommodate the latter two. They were offensive mech pilots who fit poorly with the Aurora Titan and were much less flexible than Venerable Joshua when it came to befriending an entity like the Superior Mother.

Venerable Tusa and Venerable Stark were even worse off. Ves lacked the second-class mech models to adapt suitable prime mechs for them. He needed to wait until his Design Department completed the Ferocious Piranha IB and the Bright Warrior IB Projects to even consider developing their prime mechs.

There were many other problems and complications surrounding this issue. All of these headaches caused him to appreciate a flexible and adaptable expert pilot like Venerable Joshua even more.

Whereas other expert pilots became more narrow and specific with regards to their demands, Venerable Joshua was just as tolerant to different mechs and circumstances than before. He didn't present much resistance when being asked to pilot an Ylvainan or Hexer mech.

With Venerable Joshua, Ves did not need to adapt a mech for his specific demands and inclination.

Instead, he could rely on the eager expert pilot to adapt himself to a mech instead!

Joshua was a real treasure to Ves for this reason!

After making all of these profound realizations, Ves tried to figure out how he could put it all into practice.

Much like energy, theory was only powerful if he put it to use.

After considering a number of options, he quickly set his sights on one of his most powerful innovations. He had used his invention to very good effect during the Battle against the Abyss.

It was a pity that it was very hard to replicate the effects at the magnitude shown during the fight. Ves essentially relied on the one-time outburst of forced resonance to achieve an outcome that ordinarily required true resonance to produce.

"Forced resonance is like winning the lottery. True resonance is like earning a regular paycheck. Fake resonance is like begging on the street. Prime resonance is like… working part-time because you can't get a real job."

This statement illustrated his views on the different forms of resonance. Forced resonance was more powerful than true resonance, but the latter was actually more desirable and sustainable.

However, as his expert pilots didn't have any means of generating true resonance, Ves had to settle for the discount version, which was prime resonance.

Still, discount or not, it was better than nothing!

It was because of this that Ves issued a special mission to a large number of Penitent Sister mechs and mech pilots.

When they realized what Ves wanted to do, the Penitent Sisters felt very mixed!

This was why they made a move when the fleet emerged out of FTL and the mechs were being prepared to sortie into space.

An angry group of Penitent Sisters led by their mech captain stormed up to Ves as he was setting up his workstation in the hangar bay!

"Patriarch Larkinson! What is the meaning of this?!" Captain Chelsea Vidovic indignantly demanded.

"What is the matter?" Ves frowned as he calmly turned to face the female mech pilots.

"While we Penitent Sisters are at your disposal, we cannot understand why you would put a male in charge of us!" She stated while waving her hand in the direction of Venerable Joshua and the Valkyrie Prime. "Why don't you give your new Valkyrie mech to us? It will be in much better hands when piloted by someone who is truly devoted to the Superior Mother!"

Chapter 2627: Boy In Charge

Captain Chelsea Vidovic and the Penitent Sisters temporarily transferred to the Spirit of Bentheim were not pleased.

They didn't have a problem with taking part in an experiment. No matter how dangerous it might be, they had pledged their allegiance to Ves and the Larkinson Clan. As damned and outcast Hexers, they were very grateful to their new benefactor for offering a path towards redemption.

Their loyalty to Ves was very high, especially since they were under the delusion that he was the son of the Superior Mother!

The Penitent Sisters also didn't have a problem with joining the Larkinson Clan. They knew they had lost the right to determine how they lived and choose which values and traditions they were allowed to keep.

undefinedIt was rather fortunate for the former Hexers that the Larkinson Clan offered plenty of room for diversity. The Penitent Sisters, but also other groups such as the Ylvainans and the Swordmaidens were allowed to keep many aspects of their unique identity.

For this reason, the Penitent Sisters still identified themselves as Hexers, if a bit softer than before due to the necessity to play nice with the Larkinsons and the altered values espoused by the Superior Mother.

Slowly but surely, the Penitent Sisters became more and more tolerable to Ves and other people who believed that gender didn't determine an individual's worth.

Unfortunately, Ves overlooked the fact that their transformation was still an ongoing process. The Penitent Sisters still retained many of their biases against 'boys'. Even if Venerable Joshua was an expert pilot, the former Hexers still couldn't look past his gender!

Ves really didn't want to deal with this, but if he wanted the Penitent Sisters to cooperate with his experiment, he had little choice but to play nanny again.

He peered impatiently at Captain Vidovic, who appeared to be their spokesperson today.

"You are Larkinsons, are you not?"

The mech captain nodded. "We are both Larkinsons and Penitent Sisters. There is no contradiction between our two identities."

"I beg to differ. When I took you into my clan, I clearly told you all that you need to abide by our rules. One of the rules we hold very dear is that every clansmen deserves to be treated as equally as possible. One Larkinson is not inherently superior to another Larkinson. I am not exempted from this rule either. Strictly speaking, I am just the first among equals."

This was a very important principle to the original Larkinsons. The original Larkinson family was not authoritarian by nature. While the Larkinsons respected expert pilots, they generally ruled by consensus.

It was unrealistic to make everyone truly equal in an organization, especially a larger one like the Larkinson Clan of today. Yet no matter how much power and influence the higher ups accrued, they were still required to abide by the same rules as the lower ranks.

Ves continued to stare in the eyes of the Penitent Sisters. Most Larkinsons gave way to him, but the Penitent Sisters were different. Their strong heritage as Hexers and radical cultists caused them to be a lot stiffer than other Larkinsons.

The Penitent Sisters were always decisive! They never waffled around.

It seemed that Ves would not be able to persuade them with his words alone. He needed to employ a more direct method to set them straight.

He sighed. "So you think that the Valkyrie Prime should be piloted by a woman?"

Captain Vidovic nodded again. "Yes, sir. The mech is clearly a Hexer mech. Why you would put an unrelated male mech pilot inside its cockpit is beyond me. We do not understand why you have passed us over."

"You're not the only ones." Ves chuckled. "Gloriana asked the same question as well. Let me show you why I have assigned the Valkyrie Prime to Venerable Joshua."

He moved forward and gestured for the Penitant Sister mech pilots to follow suit. The group approached the corner of the hangar bay where the Valkyrie Prime and Venerable Joshua stood by themselves.

"Do you know why the Valkyrie Prime isn't being serviced by mech technicians?" He suddenly asked.

"Um, no, sir."

"Look around you. Your mechs are being serviced and readied by the hangar bay crew. As for the Valkyrie Prime, it's only being tended to by a couple of bots."

"What are you trying to convey?"

"If you think you are strong enough to pilot my Valkyrie Prime, then you must first pass its test. Start by moving closer."

They had already moved close enough to get within the range of its glow. The Superior Mother's presence was already strong, but there was still a lot of distance left until they came close enough to touch the machine!

Ves proceeded forward as if he was taking a walk in the park.

The Penitent Sister mech pilots fearlessly followed suit.

As they came closer, they gradually slowed down. The Superior Mother's glow continued to grow thicker and thicker. It was as if they encountered more and more resistance.

This was not because the air became thicker. The actual reason why the female mech pilots struggled to advance further was because the Valkyrie Prime increasingly burdened their mind.

A mech that concentrated over 6000 Ves was not a machine that mortals could endure!

The faces of the Penitent Sisters increasingly reflected their inability to endure the growing mental strain. Each step forward took a greater amount of effort than the last one. Sweat began to drip from their heads!

"We.. can't.. go.. further." Captain Vidovic spoke with difficulty. "Back.. away… sisters…"

The Penitent Sisters soon stepped backwards. This was much easier than walking forward. The greater the distance from the Valkyrie Prime, the more and more relief they gained. At a certain distance, the glow had weakened to the point where the Penitent Sisters could tolerate the strain.

All of them felt ashamed. A pair of boys managed to succeed where a group of devoted female worshippers of the Superior Mother had failed! The Valkyrie Prime was obviously a Hexer mech. Why did the mech reject their approach? Were they.. not worthy enough?

In contrast to the downcast women, Ves casually strode forward until he reached Venerable Joshua's side. He patted the expert pilot's shoulder.

"Are you ready to work together with the Penitent Sisters?" He asked.

"I'm not sure about this, sir." He frowned. "I don't think they like me very much. I've tried to approach them multiple times, but they always huff and sneer at me. Is it fine for us to proceed?"

"There won't be any problem. I'll make sure the Penitent Sisters fall in line." Ves promised to Joshua. "You just focus on your own task. In order to make this experiment succeed, it's crucial for you to bond with the Superior Mother. It's not enough to rely on her to carry every burden. You need to meet her halfway, and to do that, you need to become more immersed in her interpretation of Hexer values. Have you read through the notes I've prepared?"

"Yes, sir. I can't say I am comfortable with embracing these ideas, but I will do my best to synchronize with the Superior Mother."

"That's good enough. We'll see what happens."

Once Ves made sure that his test subject knew what to do, he turned around and returned to the group of Hexer mech pilots.

Their confidence had been completely sapped by the demonstration. Their failure was so clear and evident that no amount of rationalization could excuse their failure.

"I hope you don't have any objections about assigning the Valkyrie Prime to Venerable Joshua."

"We don't understand." Captain Vidovic spoke in a hollowed voice. "Why him? Why not us? Is he the Superior Mother's son as well?"

Ves shook his head. "He may not be a Hexer, but he is still a friend. Not only that, he's an expert pilot, which is the most essential requirement to pilot my new line of prime mechs. As far as I recall, your Penitent Sisters have yet to produce an expert candidate, let alone an expert pilot."

"We are trying our best!" The female mech captain defended her fellow sisters. "We only had a chance to pilot one of your famed mech models after we have returned from the Nyxian Gap. With our new Valkyrie Redeemers, we will definitely catch up to the rest!"

The Larkinson Clan still revered expert pilots. The Penitent Sisters weren't blind to this reality. While they managed to gain some representation at the upper levels through Juliet Stameros, they recognized that this was not enough.

Ves did not discourage them in their current pursuit. Every Valkyrie Redeemer the Penitent Sisters received was enhanced. Most of them started off with 25 Ves while a couple of mechs were boosted to 50 Ves.

Once he made sure that the Penitent Sisters had no further issue Venerable Joshua, he commanded everyone to get into place.

A large number of Valkyrie mechs deployed into space.

Ves just wanted to prove something today. He didn't need to produce the strongest possible result.

Two mech companies of Valkyrie Redeemers formed up with the Valkyrie Prime.

Due to the latter's extremely dense glow, not a single Valkyrie Redeemer dared to move too close to the prime mech.

This was actually quite an interesting interaction to Ves. While the Valkyrie Prime was not meant to debilitate nearby enemies like the Doom Guard and the Ferocious Piranha, its glow effectively produced the same result.

This meant that the Valkyrie Prime enjoyed an overwhelming advantage against any enemies that attempted to fight the prime mech up close!

That was not the advantage that Ves was interested in right now, however.

Gloriana arrived as well and began to operate the workstation as well.

"Do you really think this will work?"

"Believe in me, Gloriana."

He commenced the experiment. He passed on some instructions to the 81 Valkyrie mechs that had flown out into a pocket of empty space.

At the same time, hundreds of Larkinson mechs approached the test site and formed a huge cage around the Valkyrie mechs. Each of them activated a special module held in their hands.

A large cube-shaped energy screen formed around the site. Static and interfering energies scrambled everyone's view of what was taking place inside.

Only Ves and a handful of other authorized Larkinsons had access to the observation data supplied by the mechs and sensor platforms placed inside the test site.

Since the experiment was related to one of the Larkinson Clan's trump cards, Ves did not want others to know what was going on. Not even the nearby Cross Clan was clued in to the test.

A familiar presence took shape among the Valkyrie Redeemers. As their mech pilots prayed to the Penitent Sisters, their battle network became active.

The mechs slowly adjusted their positions until they adopted a specific formation.

Yet even as the Penitent Sister mech pilots synced up to the Superior Mother, Venerable Joshua was still struggling to do the same.

"I can do this!" He gritted his teeth. "The clan patriarch expects me to succeed. I cannot let him down!"

Through sheer willpower, Joshua managed to overcome the resistance that formed as a result of his lack of alignment to the Superior Mother.

A brand new bond between Joshua and the Superior Mother became active as well! Ves had especially forged this bond with great difficulty in order for the expert pilot to lead the Penitent Sisters in this experiment!

The Valkyrie Prime finally joined the battle formation. While Venerable Joshua still retained awareness due to his powerful will, he felt a different influence affecting his judgement and decisions!

The 81 mechs adopted a V-shaped formation. This was the characteristic battle formation that embodied the death phase of existence!

The mechs slowly flew forward. A giant silhouette formed over the formation! The Valkyrie Prime glowed as Venerable Joshua induced as much prime resonance as possible.

What was remarkable was that the silhouette of the Superior Mother actively absorbed the prime resonance generated by the Valkyrie Prime!

The projectors embedded into each and every Valkyrie mechs automatically filled up the glowing silhouette with the lifelike appearance of the Superior Mother!

She appeared greater than how Captain Vidovic and her fellow Penitent Sisters remembered. The glow surrounding the silhouette caused her to appear more powerful and sacred than before! Even the nearby mechs that maintained the scrambling screen felt as if they were facing a true deity!

"Attack!" Venerable Joshua shouted! "Unleash death!"

Seconds later, an enormous V-shaped energy wave passed through the energy screen and launched away into deep space!

The mechs that were closed to this outburst of energy momentarily lost their minds!

The strange wave energy was so powerful that they instinctively felt their minds would collapse if they were hit directly by that broad wave!

Chapter 2628: Prime Power

The experiment succeeded!

Previously, the Penitent Sisters relied entirely on the Superior Mother to supply the energy needed to power their battle formations.

There were many limitations to this process. Normal mech pilots weren't able to endure the strain of channeling the Superior Mother's power for an extended amount of time. The conversion of energy was also very inefficient due to several other factors.

Now, Ves managed to slip in a prime mech that was piloted by an expert pilot. The extra addition added a second source of power. Even though this source mostly consisted of spiritual energy that originated from the Superior Mother to begin with, Venerable Joshua was able to convert it into prime resonance, which directly empowered the battle formation!

undefinedAll of this sounded fairly complicated, but the result was very clear!

Even Ves felt his hair raising as he observed the projection of the V-shaped wave of death passing through in space!

It was fortunate that Ves had specifically instructed the battle formation to unleash its manifested power away from the combined fleet!

Ves tried his best to ignore the incoming calls and messages that expressed alarm at the wave of death that had gradually dissipated in the distance.

Instead, he and Gloriana eagerly analyzed the data. While they did not capture the full majesty of the resonance-empowered battle formation, they still noted several remarkable clues!

During the time that Task Force Predator roamed the Nyxian Gap, Ves had ordered his mech pilots to engage their battle formations many times. He collected a sufficient amount of data relating to the Penitent Sister battle formations.

He roughly knew how much power a battle formation formed by 80 Penitent Sister mechs was supposed to exert.

The addition of the Valkyrie Prime to the battle network instantly increased the output off the battle formation by several times!

And this was Venerable Joshua's first attempt!

At this time, Joshua was barely trying to get accustomed to the Superior Mother. If he continued to develop his relationship with the Superior Mother, empathize with the Penitent Sisters and become more accustomed to piloting the Valkyrie Prime, it was very much possible for the battle formation to unleash even more power!

"And that is just with 81 mechs! What if there is double the amount of mechs?"

The power unleashed by the battle formation today was not indicative of the power it could unleash tomorrow. Ves was very confident that his mech pilots could achieve better results with practice!

Of course, there was definitely a price for this. As Ves rewatched the footage of the Valkyrie mechs surging forward while generating a powerful energy silhouette, he could easily imagine the abundance of power generated by the battle formation!

Soon enough, the mechs flew back to their motherships. The Valkyrie Prime along with a dozen Valkyrie Redeemers flew back to the Spirit of Bentheim and entered the hangar bay.

Once the mechs shut down, the mech pilots emerged out of the cockpits with dazed and wondrous looks.

Captain Vidovic and her fellow Penitent Sisters no longer looked skeptical or indignant at Venerable Joshua. Their eyes only conveyed their respect and astonishment towards the Larkinson expert pilot!

As Ves observed this unspoken interaction, he recalled that battle networks worked by tying the minds of every mech pilot together.

Just like the neural networks of Master Huron, the mech pilots that took part in them did not necessarily share all of their thoughts. However, they were not completely independent either.

Instead, the network caused them to form some kind of mental collective that allowed them to coordinate their actions and move in unison. At least that was what Ves surmised from Master Huron's work.

Battle networks were different from the original source. To be honest, Ves still did not understand the intricacies of this recent invention.

He was glad that one of his hopes came true. Though he needed to perform some follow-up tests to confirm today's result, he was already sure of the truth. Prime mechs were capable of supercharging battle formations.

By feeding prime resonance to the battle formation, the combination supercharged the manifestation! More energy produced more power, it was that simple!

Of course, Ves still needed to investigate how much energy the Valkyrie Prime expended to unleash its ominous attack. He was under no illusion that the earlier attack came for free.

Only fools believed in free energy.

So far, every phenomena related to spirituality and his design philosophy abided by the law of conservation of energy. It didn't matter how wondrous or magical the transformations appeared.

Unless proven otherwise, even gods had to abide by the fundamental laws of reality!

As Ves approached the Valkyrie Prime, he immediately noted that it was a lot easier for him to get close.

While his mental strength was more than capable of withstanding the pressure of the Valkyrie Prime at its height, its sudden weakening was very noticeable.

The decrease in glow intensity was too big. This means that a single outburst from the battle formation consumed a lot of prime resonance!

How much of the energy supplied by the Valkyrie Prime empowered the attack and how much of it went to waste?

While Ves couldn't judge the efficiency of the process due to lack of data and understanding, he guessed that the efficiency must be pretty low. Despite the impressive power of the battle formation, he did not forget that he had basically cobbled it together with poorly-understood means.

His battle networks were too rudimentary. Though he was determined to refine them over time, at this stage it was too difficult to pioneer this new invention.

He idly wished he could steal Master Huron's research. Though the Fridayman Master's specialty wasn't directly related to his own, Ves was sure he could steal more good ideas if he had access to the core trade secrets!

"How are you feeling, Joshua?" Ves asked as he reached the expert pilot's side.

"I'm tired." Venerable Joshua replied. "I'm excited as well. I can't explain what I just experienced. It was magical. For a couple of minutes, I felt as if I was at the center of a group of soldiers. Those Penitent Sisters.. they don't think like normal people. It was a bit difficult for me to get accustomed to their personalities. Still, once we managed to get along with each other, we succeeded in our mission! We all exerted our utmost to unleash that strange attack!"

Ves smiled and patted the younger man's back. "That's great to hear. Before you take a shower and freshen up, I'd like you to write down your feelings and personal experiences. I need to know everything that went through our mind while your memories of the moment are still fresh."

The expert pilot did not look forward to this chore. While he wasn't exhausted to the point of collapsing on the deck, his earlier exertion was not light!

"Very well…"

As Joshua moved to a nearby terminal, Ves stayed in place and took a deep look at the Valkyrie Prime.

Physically, the mech was fine. The short deployment into space hardly affected the integrity of the machine.

Spiritually, it was a different matter. When Ves concentrated his mind, he perceived more clearly that the Valkyrie Prime's Unending alloy had lost a significant chunk of spiritual energy.

Ves found it difficult to judge exactly how much strength it consumed. Making this observation by feel was as primitive as judging the length of a building by eye. Properly speaking, he needed to develop a spiritual measuring instrument.

"That's not something that I can make at this time." Ves shook his head.

He had no choice but to go by feel. Right now, he tentatively judged that the Valkyrie Prime had weakened to around 4000 Ves.

"That's a steep price!" Ves winced.

That was worse than he expected. It basically meant that the Valkyrie Prime was burning an immense amount of spiritual energy every time it amplified a battle formation!

Was it worth it? Ves wasn't sure.

In pitched battles where a loss threatened the existence of the Larkinson Clan, then it was definitely useful.

In practice sessions or skirmishes against riffraff? Expending so much energy was incredibly wasteful.

"In the end, it's still a trump card." He concluded with a sigh. "The strongest means should be reserved for the most desperate situations."

That was a lesson that Ves had learned in the Nyxian Gap Campaign. The pirates his task force confronted in the region all pulled out one card after another. His forces suffered far more losses than he anticipated at the start due to the inability to account for the hidden options the pirates had at their disposal.

After Ves stepped close and placed his palm on the foot of the Valkyrie Prime, he confirmed his earlier judgement. The Unending alloy had emptied considerably.

Unless the mech pilot was able to control the amount of energy being expended, Ves would have to get used to paying a significant price to achieve a strong effect on the battlefield.

Ves silently contacted the Superior Mother. He briefly felt her presence drawing close.

The Valkyrie Prime soon regained its strength. The Superior Mother effortly filled up its tank until it returned to the maximum level of more than 6000 Ves.

He wasn't too worried about the energy expenditure of the Superior Mother. With the entire Hexadric Hegemony backing her up, she was not going to run out of spiritual feedback anytime soon!

"Of course, it's only the lowest quality of energy." He muttered.

His concern lied instead to other prime mechs. Not every design spirit was as flush with spiritual energy as the Superior Mother.

Certain design spirits such as Lufa and the Golden Cat were still paupers in comparison. Telling them to fill up a prime mech comparable to the Valkyrie Prime would likely weaken them to a noticeable degree!

"There's another concern." He muttered.

The Superior Mother owed her luxurious position to the existence of the Hexadric Hegemony.

If the Hexers ever lost the Komodo War, then it was a given that the Superior Mother would lose a lot of spiritual feedback!

"That will be a disaster!"

Limited energy was one of the greatest limitations that held humanity and every other race from overpowering their rivals.

Ves once heard that the Big Two managed to steal the Fire Scroll from the Five Scrolls Compact.

If that was true, he had to admit that the CFA and MTA chose the most suitable Sacred Scroll!

As long as they unlocked the secrets to generating more energy, they could directly increase the strength of their warships, weapons and other means!

In fact, Ves was certain that this had happened at the end of the Age of Conquest. Otherwise, how could the Big Two possibly rise in power to the point where they were able to suppress the Terrans and Rubarthans?

As Ves finished inspecting the Valkyrie Prime, he turned around and left the range of its glow. He returned to Gloriana as she finished packaging the data.

"I think we're ready to develop some other prime mechs." Ves stated.

"Hm?" His wife turned around. "Isn't that premature? We still need to perform more tests on the Valkyrie Prime."

"Unless we do something drastically different, I don't expect the tests to produce different results. I've confirmed enough theories and know all I need to know to develop our other prime mechs."

"I do have to admit that the Valkyrie Prime is very powerful when used to this effect."

Ves suddenly had a new thought!

It was so astonishing that he froze for a few seconds!

"Gloriana?"

"Yes, honey?"

"Do you know whether different forms of resonance can stack?"

"Huh?"

"Think about it." He became more excited. "What if it is possible to make a prime version of an expert mech?! According to my theoretical framework, prime resonance does not necessarily conflict with other forms of resonance. Do you know what this means? It might be possible to design a prime expert mech that is capable of combining the strengths of two forms of resonance at the same time!"

This was a radical idea! Gloriana looked stunned as she tried to imagine what Ves had described. Was it possible for prime resonance to overlap with true resonance in the same mech?

She had no idea!

Chapter 2629: Developing Prime Mechs

Prime mechs had become the new obsession of the Miracle Couple.

This newly-invented category of mechs exhibited properties that no one in the fleet had ever heard of. In order to make sure that someone hadn't stolen his thunder, Ves even spent a few hours searching across the entire galactic net.

He even visited the MTA and Rim Guardian's virtual portals to look up whether other mech designers discovered different forms of resonance besides the ones that everyone knew about.

It turned out that Ves was not unique in this case. He looked fascinated as he read up on inventions that enabled resonance between two expert pilots in a single expert mech, resonance between two expert mechs with two expert mechs and more creative arrangements.

undefinedIn fact, a more immediate example was the infamous Unit L of the Coalition Reserve Corps! Venerable Ghanso Larkinson's Charlemagne exhibited the capability of extending its resonance to the Scarra, a group of accompanying quasi-expert mechs!

Therefore, inventing a new and unusual method to generate resonance was not unheard of in human space. The reason why they weren't popularized like other forms of resonance was because the conditions were too harsh.

Unless a skilled mech designer specifically invested in a specific solution, it was too difficult to meet all of the conditions. It simply wasn't worth it to popularize a different method because the market and the mech industry simply had better options at their disposal.

Better did not necessarily mean stronger. After all, Unit L had already paid off in spades by defeating more than a dozen expert mechs and killing off almost just as many expert pilots.

Better in this case meant that it was more economical, practical and cost-efficient to just rely on fielding expert pilots with traditional expert mechs. If a better and more affordable method of utilizing resonance became known, then it would have displaced the current paradigm!

In the context of the prevailing industry standard, prime mechs were not that impressive. They were merely souped-up standard mechs that failed to match the standard of genuine expert mechs.

The main reason why Ves bothered them at all was because he currently lacked the ability to field expert mechs. This was just a temporary problem, though. Once he completed the current round of mech design projects and tackled the next round, his clan would likely welcome its first batch of expert mechs in about a year.

Ves was looking forward to that time.

He just had to be patient. For now, Ves was attracted by the convenience and the various applications of his new invention. He had just confirmed that just like forced resonance, prime resonance could be used to supercharge battle formations, thereby allowing them to unleash much more powerful attacks than usual.

Now that he confirmed the utility of the Valkyrie Prime, it was no longer a priority to investigate it further. If he wanted to increase the comprehensive strength of his forces, it was much more efficient to develop additional prime mechs.

When Ves and Gloriana entered the former's personal workshop the next day, they planned out their next assignments.

"We have multiple expert pilots who are currently being underutilized due to the limitations of their mechs." Ves began as he projected a list of the Larkinson Clan's expert pilot roster. "Now, we have given Venerable Joshua something to sink his teeth into. While he still cannot express his full might with the Valkyrie Prime, he can at least begin to exercise his resonance strength. This alone is enough of a reason to continue building prime mechs. While they demand a very specific resource, they aren't as troublesome to design as expert mechs."

"How much Unending alloy do you have, still?"

"I just took stock of that earlier." Ves spoke. "To be honest, we don't have as much as I would like. We have enough Unending alloy to comprehensively armor three to four mechs depending on how frugal we are. The Valkyrie Prime admittedly uses more Unending alloy than is strictly needed. If we skip reinforcing the internal frame and reduce the thickness of the armor plating by at least 25 percent, we can probably make four additional prime mechs that will perform nearly as well."

Of course, both of them knew that this wasn't actually true. While the performance of the subsequent prime mechs was indistinguishable from the Valkyrie Prime against normal opponents, in tougher battles that extra armor and reinforced structure could make a substantial difference!

Though Gloriana frowned a bit, she was helpless to do anything about it. The only way to remedy this shortcoming was to supply more Unending alloy, but how could she possibly do that? She didn't even know how Ves got his hands on this extraordinary material!

"It's so fascinating to know that materials like Unending alloy exist." She sighed as she leaned against her husband's shoulder. "The Milky Way is home to a large variety of exotics. The Red Ocean will introduce even more materials with unusual effects. I wonder if we can find a substitute for Unending alloy?"

Ves shrugged. "I'm not so sure about that. Unending alloy itself is a manufactured product. I salvaged it out of some really old and creepy statues that must have been built by extinct alien civilizations. I've tried to analyze the alloy in order to figure out its composition, but it's too damn hard and incredible in other ways for me to do that. Not even the lab equipment on this ship is up to par. I think we need to get our hands on actual first-class scanning machines to identify the exotics and the proportion that make up this remarkable alloy."

That wasn't going to happen anytime soon. While Ves was tempted to ask Master Willix a favor, he didn't want her to look too closely at what he was doing with Unending alloy.

As Ves and Gloriana made some quick calculations on how far they could stretch their current reserves of Unending alloy, they ended up with an unsatisfactory conclusion.

"We can either build 4 good prime mechs or 5 barely passable prime mechs with the supply we have." Gloriana stated. "Barely passable in this case means very vulnerable when their weak points are targeted."

"The biggest issue by far is the Shield of Samar." Ves noted. "The mech is too damn big. It uses up more Unending alloy than a more normal medium mech. While Venerable Tusa's light mech is not as demanding, we can't be too stingy with his machine."

The two puzzled over their options and eventually decided to make some compromises.

Ves tapped the projected names of Venerable Dise, Venerable Orfan and Venerable Tusa. "We need to prioritize our resource allocation towards our offensive melee mechs. They are the ones who need the premium protection the most. Venerable Dise just happens to be the nexus of the Swordmaiden battle network, so her mech has the highest priority."

There was a good reason to focus on meeting the needs of their offensive melee specialists. Just like Venerable Joshua, the three aforementioned expert pilots were powerful duelists and possessed a lot of agency on the battlefield. They could single-handedly turn a battle around by taking advantage of their high threat and fantastic freedom of movement.

However, when it came to choosing which base model to develop the three prime mechs from, Gloriana developed some very serious misgivings.

"What?! You want to develop our prime mechs based on our unfinished designs? Are you crazy? They're not complete!"

"Calm down, Gloriana!" Ves quickly raised his palms. "It's not as absurd as it sounds! First, look at the current state of our projects. They are all in their early prototype testing phase. We have already performed extensive simulation testing to optimize our designs to an extent. Compared to the past, we have been able to accomplish much greater improvements at this stage due to the vastly-increased processing power at our disposal. So even if we are merely in the stage of testing the first iterations of our mech designs, they are already functionally sound!"

Naturally, the designs still had much to go before they reached a satisfactory standard of quality, but the difference it could make was only 5 to 10 percent at most.

This meant that if Ves really wanted to, he could immediately command the Spirit of Bentheim to churn out second-class Bright Warriors and Ferocious Piranhas that already performed nearly as well as the finished versions that would come out in a couple of months!

Of course, he wouldn't do so. His factory ship's production lines were still in the process of producing enough Transcendent Punishers to occupy all of the bunkers of his fleet.

In addition, Gloriana would get even more upset about using products before they were finished. Ves was already pushing her patience to the limit by suggestion they do so for their prime mechs!

"Look, it's not as bad as it sounds, honey. We might be moving quickly, but we can always correct the prime mechs afterwards once we complete the designs they were derived from. We're only talking about a handful of mechs, so the amount of work we need to do is not that onerous."

While Gloriana still didn't look pleased with his idea, she couldn't think up a better solution.

She sighed. "Fine. Have it your way then."

With her consent, she cooperated with Ves to determine the individual configurations of every prime mech.

Venerable Dise was paired up with the Bright Sword Prime, a prime version of the swordsman mech configuration of the Bright Warrior IB.

Venerable Rosa Orfan was paired up with the Bright Spear Prime, a prime version of the Bright Warrior IB that was hastily customized to wield spears.

Venerable Davia Stark was paired up with the Bright Beam Prime, a prime version of the rifleman mech configuration Bright Warrior IB.

"These names aren't very creative." Gloriana grimaced.

"They're descriptive enough, and that's enough."

Venerable Jannzi still retained the Shield of Samar. Instead of developing a new prime mech, Ves and his wife would instead convert the defensive expert pilot's beloved machine into a prime mech.

As for Venerable Tusa, he was slated to receive the Piranha Prime, a prime version of the Ferocious Piranha IB.

With this setup, Ves predicted that they could probably finish the development of all of the prime mechs.

As the couple determined what kind of mechs they needed to design and build over the span of a couple of weeks, they began to decide how much Unending alloy they should allocate to each mech. In order to gather even more Unending alloy, Ves even decided to take away the Unending mech weapons he previously built for his expert pilots during the Nyxian Gap Campaign!

Despite this extra addition, they still came up short, just as they expected.

"We have no choice but to skimp on the prime mechs assigned to Venerable Jannzi and Venerable Stark." He continued. "Stuffing their prime mechs with as much Unending alloy as we can cram into their frames will definitely strengthen their capabilities, but the value we gain out of it is marginal. After all, it's fine to keep them in the backline during a battle."

In order to make the best use out of the dwindling amount of Unending alloy they had left, Ves developed a fairly novel suggestion.

He did not allocate any Unending alloy to the Bright Beam Prime.

He instead diverted all of that extra material to the Shield of Samar, thereby supplying it with enough Unending alloy to armor up its entire forward exterior! If that wasn't enough, Ves also wanted to gift it with a thick tower shield that consisted of multiple layers of Unending alloy and Breyer alloy!

As long as the Shield of Samar wasn't attacked from the rear, it should be more than capable of withstanding a huge amount of damage!

"What about the Bright Beam Prime?" Gloriana asked. "You used up all of the Unending alloy we have left. I won't have any extra defenses, let alone the ability to induce prime resonance."

Ves smirked. "The mech doesn't need any defenses. The Bright Beam Prime can just huddle behind the prime version of the Shield of Samar. As for the other issue, we actually have another prime material on our hands. I have 51 P-stones in my collection, most of which are collecting dust. I'm willing to invest 40 of them to empower the Bright Beam Prime's laser rifle!"

Since Unending alloy could be used as a prime material, why not P-stone? Even though the latter did not possess any defensive properties, it could still be used to augment other components and systems!

Chapter 2630: Priming Mechs

The new prime mech projects brought a lot of excitement to Ves and Gloriana. While their current mech design projects were already interesting enough, much of their work blended into a routine at this point.

They already settled most of the surprises and interesting design choices of the current round of mech designs. Aside from some design spirit issues, Ves did not expect to make any drastic changes or revisions to the current iterations of mech designs. All of the prototype testing and number crunching that would take place in the remaining couple of months were solely devoted to refining and polishing their current work.

Therefore, the novelty of designing and fabricating five new prime mechs cast away a lot of boredom.

In order to deliver all of the prime mechs as soon as possible, Ves and Gloriana already decided to split up some of their responsibilities. One of the problems they faced was that the production equipment in their personal workshops needed a lot of time to process Unending alloy. They had to put both workshops into use in order to make the best use of their time.

undefinedUnfortunately, diverting so much time on developing their prime mechs would definitely affect the progress of their main design projects.

"It's okay." Ves spoke. "Even though I said that we should meet our deadlines, I don't want to wait a couple of months until we are finally capable of supplying our remaining expert pilots with prime mechs. Every day of practice counts."

Fortunately, they had Juliet. While it wasn't fair to burden her with supervising all six mech design projects, it wasn't as if Ves and Gloriana decided to isolate themselves.

The married couple could still drop by the Design Department every day and perform some essential guidance. Due to the nature of the current phase of the projects, they didn't need to perform all of the calculation and modelling work by hand.

Of course, it was still better if they were present all of the time, but it wasn't strictly necessary. Juliet was always at hand if a project ever hit a wall.

Once they agreed on a plan, the pair immediately went to work.

Gloriana happily stroked Clixie's back as she sat down behind a terminal. Her cat comfortably stretched across her lap and settled for a long petting session.

"Miaow~"

Since Lucky was working together with Calabast every day, Ves was starting to miss his gem cat.

Fortunately, he gained a new pet.

"Bygul, come out here!"

[Mew!]

The physical projectors in his workshop came to life. They projected a distinct electronic cat. Once Bygul appeared into view, the cat floated over to Ves and hung on his shoulder like a needy feline.

Ves scratched Bygul's chin.

"Hehehe. You're a good boy, aren't you? You're not as naughty as Lucky, that's for sure."

[Mew mew mew!]

Once Ves satisfied his cat addiction, he began to tackle his first prime mech.

Due to the need to apply considerable changes or modifications to the Shield of Samar and the Bright Spear Prime, Gloriana took it upon herself to figure out how to apply Unending alloy to their designs.

That left Ves with the relatively easier and more straightforward task of preparing the Bright Sword Prime, the Bright Beam Prime and the Piranha Prime.

The Bright Beam Prime was the most interesting and uncertain of the three of the three prime mechs. Whereas the Bright Sword Prime and the Piranha Prime were merely straightforward adaptations of their current mech design projects, the rifleman mech demanded greater attention.

How would Ves be able to integrate P-stone into Venerable Davia Stark's machine?

"Technically speaking, P-stone is also a prime material. It's actually much better at storing energy than Unending alloy."

The issue was that 40 P-stone didn't amount to a lot of material. It sounded impressive when Ves gathered them all together in front of his body, but compared to the scale of a mech, they were miniscule!

Therefore, any enhancement derived from adding P-stone to a mech needed to be implemented in a targeted manner.

When Ves pulled up the design of the rifleman mech configuration of the Bright Warrior IB, he directed his sights towards the rifle.

"Hmm. Since I'm already at it, I can upgrade the entire weapon while I'm at it. There's no need to make the prime mech as economic as possible."

While it took a lot of time to upgrade the Bright Warrior in a comprehensive fashion, it was not that difficult to perform some quick and easy upgrades to the weapon.

Ves replaced cheaper subcomponents with their more expensive counterparts. He reinforced and expanded the rifle in order to enhance its heat capacity, raise its energy throughput and strengthen its damage resistance.

Even though the rifle became twice as heavy, it became a lot more potent!

Since making the rifle larger meant it gained a lot of extra capacity, Ves filled up the extra spaces with P-stones and luminar crystals.

Ves wasn't sure about how the former would interact with the rifle when Venerable Stark attempted to resonate with the prime material. There was a significant chance that nothing would happen at all because he completely misused the P-stone.

He shrugged. "Oh well. I'll just get back to the drawing board and try again if that's the case."

His lack of understanding on how prime materials and prime resonance interacted with the systems of a mech limited his options. He had no choice but to resort to trial and error to figure out the correct use of P-stone.

Aside from the weapon, Ves also integrated a couple of P-stones to the frame of the mech. He wanted to see if these additions could enhance other aspects of the Bright Beam Prime when it was under the influence of prime resonance.

Once Ves applied some other quick upgrades to increase the performance of the Bright Beam Prime, he implemented a final change.

"Although I don't have any Unending alloy left to offer the best possible protection to this mech, I still have plenty of Breyer alloy to go around!"

Ves basically went old school with the Bright Beam Prime's design. The original Bright Warrior Version C used to be a bridge mech that relied on its Breyer alloy armor system to withstand powerful attacks.

While he had decided against implementing Breyer alloy in the Bright Warrior Mark I Version B due to his inability and the scarcity of the material, it was no problem to lavish as much of it as he could on a single mech!

He quickly revised the entire structure and armor system. With lots of Breyer alloy applied to the exterior and interior of the mech, the Bright Beam Prime became deceptively resilient!

Although it was not capable of confronting expert mechs and first-class mechs, the prime rifleman mech was more than capable of coming on top in a duel against any other second-class mech!

That was the extent of the changes made to the unfinished Bright Warrior IB design. He transferred his work to Gloriana so that she could work out some of the kinks before he turned to the other two prime mechs.

The Bright Sword Prime was supposed to be a straightforward prime conversion. However, Ves wanted to make sure that Venerable Dise adapted well to the mech.

In order to make sure she was happy with her prime mech, Ves decided to invite Ketis to his personal workshop.

"What do you need me to do, Ves?" She asked.

"Come over here. You've already worked on the swordsman mech variant of the Bright Warrior Version B design. I'd like you to help me customize this variant for Venerable Dise."

"I see. You're right to call on me." She replied as she sat next to Ves. Since she worked on the Bright Warrior IB Project, she was already familiar with its nuances. She immediately outlined some quick adjustments. "The Bright Warrior is designed to accommodate a general fighting style. Most of our Larkinson mech pilots haven't trained in any distinct swordsmanship styles. They're just utilizing a mix of standard techniques and some individual moves that are specific to a state, mech academy or mech instructor. As a result, the swordsman mech configuration is too rounded. It doesn't excel at anything aside from reliability."

This was typical to mass-produced mechs. With thousands of Larkinson mech pilots, it was too difficult to please everyone. The Design Department had no choice but to find the most optimal middle ground as possible in order to ensure that every mech pilot was at least somewhat compatible with the Bright Warrior.

Ketis crossed her arms. "To be honest, our Swordmaiden mech pilots won't like the Bright Warrior. It's too… average. I'm not talking about its quality or its glow or something like that. The Bright Warrior is actually a good design for what it is meant to do. It's just that our Swordmaidens excel in an offensive, momentum-based fighting style. We are used to swinging heavy greatswords, which the Bright Warrior doesn't exactly accommodate."

"Then let's change that." He said. "While we don't have the time to turn the Bright Sword Prime into the perfect Swordmaiden mech, it shouldn't be a problem to improve some of its parameters. We can even reuse the Unending greatsword assigned to her Sword Hunter."

The Sword Hunter was the custom mech that Venerable Dise piloted during the Nyxian Gap campaign. While the older mech was too weak to be of use in second-class battles, its greatsword was too good to pass up! Besides, Venerable Dise was already accustomed to wielding this specific weapon.

The two collaborated well on this project. Ves was pleasantly surprised at his first student's performance. Compared to half a year ago, Ketis demonstrated noticeably better judgement and applied her knowledge in a much more thoughtful fashion!

"You've improved." He complimented.

"Thanks." Ketis smiled back at him. "I worked hard to catch up to you. I've already completed a bunch of swordsman mech designs. Although I'm not proud of them, I've learned plenty of lessons along the way. I'm not as ignorant as before. I think I am getting closer and closer to advancing to Journeyman!"

Ves looked closely at her. Her spiritual potential had indeed grown stronger the last time he inspected her mind. Whether she was one step away from becoming a Journeyman was still in question, though. The gap between Apprentice and Journeyman could not be bridged through steady accumulation. An Apprentice needed to accomplish something significant and impactful in order to break past the final bottleneck.

At least that was what Ves concluded from his own breakthrough experience.

"When are you ready to design your much-anticipated Monster Slayer mech?"

"Not until I reach Journeyman." She raised her fist. Her eyes burned with determination. "My first real mech for the Swordmaidens should not be a graduation project. I want to make sure my Monster Slayer is a full Journeyman-level mech design. Anything weaker is not acceptable."

Ves looked worried at her. "Don't you think that your reluctance to begin a major design project might be holding you back from breaking through? If you keep assisting in other projects while designing some unimportant and inconsequential swordsman mechs in your free time, I'm afraid your breakthrough might be delayed for years."

He had a very strong interest in seeing her advance as soon as possible. The more Journeymen in the Design Department, the more time he could spend on other projects such as working on his prime mechs!

"I get what you're saying, Ves. I've been thinking about this problem as well. I think I might propose a commercial mech design to you. I want to take advantage of the LMC's sales and distribution network to propagate one of my personal works. Is that okay?"

Ves smiled and nodded. "You're welcome to do so, Ketis. As I have stated earlier, any mech designer working for the LMC can apply to let us sell their own products. The only caveat is that it won't be sold under the LMC brand."

"That won't be a problem. While I don't think my work will sell for millions, it's enough to satisfy a couple of thousands of customers!"

Chapter 2631: Approved Relationship

Ves was quite hopeful about Ketis. She was sober enough to recognize her limitations. Without a reputation in the mech market, it was very unlikely for an Apprentice to design a bestseller.

Frankly, she didn't need to sell so many mechs. As a member of the Larkinson Clan and a mech designer working for the LMC, much of her needs were already being taken care of. There was no need for her to assume the burden of running a mech company like Ves. Therefore, earning as much profit as possible was not a priority.

She just needed to validate her worth as a mech designer by earning the satisfaction of her customers. As long as she persuaded at least a couple of thousands of mech buyers to fork over their hard-earned money for her products, she would have all the proof she needed that her work had value!

This was quite a difficult test to any mech designer, let alone someone who worked under his shadow. The competition was stiff and Apprentices simply didn't offer enough benefits to break out of a particular niche.

undefined"What kind of commercial mech are you thinking of designing?" Ves curiously inquired.

"I haven't settled on the concept yet. For now, I've decided to design a premium spaceborn mech."

"Why premium and why spaceborn?"

"My mech has to be at least a premium mech because my main goal has always been to design the best swordsman mechs for my sisters. I'll never settle for something cheap and affordable. If I want to fulfill my goal, I need as much practice in designing expensive, high-performing mechs as possible. There is not much point for me to branch out into designing budget mechs."

Ves frowned when he heard that. "I don't agree with you. Tackling diverse mech design projects is a good way to broaden your perspective and gain a better understanding of your current direction. If you keep designing the same pattern of mechs over and over again, you'll become blind to the shortcomings of your narrow specialty."

"I can still branch out in other ways, Ves. There is an endless variety of swordsman mechs that I can design."

"I know that, but varying the budgets of your mech designs is also a good way to increase your proficiency. Don't neglect what I am saying. Even Gloriana has told me how much she improved after she started to design third-class mechs with me. If you want to design clean and efficient second-class mechs later on, you should get more practice in designing third-class mechs under the most demanding circumstances."

"I will think about it…" Ketis hesitantly promised.

As they quietly worked together on preparing the Bright Sword Prime design, Ves suddenly brought up something completely different.

"According to Calabast, you've been spending some time with Venerable Joshua lately. You used to hang out with him every day before the start of our grand expedition. Ever since then, you apply to visit his ship or hang around with him when he has moved over to the Spirit of Bentheim."

Ketis instantly reddened. "Uhmm.. we're friends.."

"You don't need to hide it from me." Ves indulgently smiled. "You're growing older, and so is Joshua. Both of you are adults. While I am your superior, I'm not your father. What you want to do is your business, not mine. I just want to tell you that I have no problem if you manage to work something out with him. The fact that both of you are involved with mechs is very convenient."

She was quite embarrassed! She had no idea that Ves would bring up her personal life at this time!

While she didn't exactly keep her ambitions secret, she still felt uncomfortable when her boss and teacher took interest in her love life.

"Do you love him?" Ves asked in a serious tone.

"I do." She immediately answered.

Even though her relationship with Joshua hadn't progressed too far, she was already willing to commit to him. If she wasn't afraid of spooking him off, she would have moved even faster!

"What do you like about him, exactly?"

Her lips curled into an impish smile. "Where do I begin? He's a sweet pilot. He doesn't have much experience, but he tries his best to take care of me. Unlike nearly every other Larkinson, he doesn't judge me for my appearance, my passion and my identity as a Swordmaiden. Too many Larkinsons think that Swordmaidens are brutes, thugs or simple-minded."

"To be fair, you Swordmaidens are just as unique and distinctive as the Penitent Sisters. Both of you abide by some very strange customs."

"I know that. Only a small number of people who know us personally are aware that we are individuals as well. It might be difficult to distinguish us when we are acting together, but we Swordmaidens come from many different backgrounds. The harsh and uniform training we go through is meant to smooth over our differences and make us as cohesive as possible."

"Hmm. I'm aware of that." Ves nodded. "Is there anything else that attracts you to him? What about your professions? Does he benefit from your expertise in mech design and do you receive some mech piloting insights in return?"

She nodded. "He's not that good in the technical side of mechs, so I can't explain anything too deeply to him. Regardless, I've taught him plenty of lessons about mechs. He should possess a greater understanding of how mechs are put together and how much he can push them. As for me, I'm already corresponding with Commander Dise, but that doesn't mean that Joshua's input is useless. He's a different expert pilot and takes a completely different approach. I think I have learned more about your specialty from him than ever before!"

Overall, Ves was content that Ketis and Joshua hooked up. He appreciated both of them and benefited a lot from them. If their relationship became permanent, then Ves was confident he could keep them in his grip for generations to come.

Perhaps he might even be able to make use of their offspring! There was no way that the kids of an expert pilot and a Journeyman would be average. No matter what, Venerable Joshua and Ketis would probably do everything in their power to raise their kids into powerful mech pilots or mech designers!

Of course, there was a good chance that one of their kids would decide to pursue a different career, but all Ves had to do was to encourage the pair to produce more kids. He did not believe that none of the kids would refuse to follow in the footsteps of their heroic parents!

Now that he thought about it, he should not limit his family planning to Joshua and Ketis. There were plenty of other talented and valuable clansmen in his employ. Every human came with an expiration date. While some people were able to extend that date, it was not realistic to provide multiple rounds of life-prolonging treatment to every single clansman.

If Ves wanted to be assured of receiving loyal and competent service, he might need to make additional long-term plans.

In any case, this was not the time to think about this. Ves had some prime mechs to prepare.

With the help of Ketis, the Bright Sword Prime morphed into a mech that was much more pleasing to the eye of a Swordmaiden. When Venerable Dise checked out the mockups of the prime mechs, she was moderately pleased with what she saw.

"The mech is not as strong as I want, but I suppose it will do." The former Swordmaiden Commander remarked. "I'm not a fan of the Bright Warrior model, and this mech reminds me far too much of it. I hope my future expert mech won't be as boring as this so-called prime mech."

"Don't worry." Ves tried to reassure the expert pilot. "This is only a stopgap mech, just like the other prime mechs. The Bright Sword Prime is not the best mech we can design for you, but it is the best we can offer in a short amount of time. If you have spoken to Venerable Joshua, you should be aware of the benefits of piloting a prime mech."

None of the expert pilots objected to piloting a prime mech. In the absence of expert mechs, they didn't have much choice in the first place. Even Venerable Jannzi agreed to hand over the Shield of Samar to Gloriana in order to overhaul her structure.

One of the most notable changes Gloriana wished to implement was to do away with the Shield of Samar's outdated and underpowered polarizing module.

"She agreed with your suggestion?" Ves astonishingly asked.

Gloriana grinned as she ruffled Clixie's belly. "Yup. She's not as rigid as you think, Ves. It has long been clear to her that the original polarizing module simply can't keep up with the times. I've decided to take out the polarizing module and install a proper second-class shield generator in its place instead. The good news is that the Shield of Samar offers enough space to accommodate a compact version of a heavy mech-grade shield generator. It's a more expensive but also more effective version of the shield generator added to the Valkyrie Brunhild and Valkyrie Prime."

Ves took a look at the specs of the shield generator. It indeed offered substantial defensive power against second-class attacks. Even though the prime version of the Shield of Samar already incorporated substantial amounts of Unending alloy, the ability to generate a shield would definitely be helpful in fending off attacks directed to its vulnerable rear!

"Make sure the shield generator orients its energy shield towards the rear." He suggested. "Normally, shields are strongest at their front, but that's exactly what the Shield of Samar doesn't need."

"I know. I've already taken that into account. Still, you can make an argument that it's better to strengthen its strong points than diminishing its weaknesses. I thought the entire idea behind this mech is to pursue the greatest possible extreme."

That was indeed what Ves originally pursued.

"You're not wrong, but the Shield of Samar is too vulnerable against mobile enemies that can reach the super-medium mech's rear. Even if Venerable Jannzi is good enough to cope with such a threatening situation, it's still a huge distraction."

They decided to go through with his suggestion.

Humanity invented multiple types of shield generators. The better ones offered equal omnidirectional protection. In fact, the good ones were capable of directing more protection in the direction of incoming attacks.

The model that Gloriana chose was incapable of doing this. Second-class shield generators were much more limited. By default, they could only offer greater protection in a single fixed direction.

In most cases, this was directed towards the front because that was what mech pilots were used to. A skilled mech pilot never exposed the rear of a mech to the enemy if it was possible. This was also why pincer attacks were so devastating in mech combat.

"The Shield of Samar will finally become a true defensive bulwark again after this round of upgrades." Ves noted with some satisfaction.

"It's still too slow, though. Although I have attempted to upgrade its flight system, here is only so much I can do in order to keep its existing internal architecture. This mech has gone through several rounds of revisions. It's kind of confusing how it mixes third-class elements with second-class elements."

"I'm aware of that. Once I have designed the second-class version Aurora Titan, I will be ready to streamline the Shield of Samar. For now, just focus on the low-hanging fruit."

It didn't matter if the Shield of Samar was a mess of a mech design. Its performance was very real!

When Ves finished checking up on Jannzi's mech, he turned his attention to the final remaining prime mech.

The Piranha Prime was the only light machine of the current set of prime mechs.

Chapter 2632: New Generation of Larkinson Mechs

As the Golden Skull Alliance neared the border between Komodo and Vicious Mountain, the Larkinson Clan started to field some brand-new mechs.

Some of them were relatively mundane, though remarkable in their own way. The LMC had begun to test some of their spaceborn mechs whenever the allied fleet emerged out of FTL and rested at least six hours in realspace.

Out of the six ongoing mech design projects of the Design Department, half of them were exclusive to the Larkinson Clan.

The three upcoming Larkinson mech designs were all multi-environmental machines with flexible deployment characteristics. They fared best in space, which was ideal for a spaceborn fleet, but they could also operate in the air under standard gravity conditions.

undefinedThe prototypes derived from the three designs each looked remarkable. The Glory Seekers and the Crossers observing from the side immediately recognized that two of them were derived from the LMC's existing mech designs.

The Bright Warrior IB and the Ferocious Piranha IB straightforwardly copied the mech concepts of their third-class counterparts. If the old and the newer versions flew side by side, then laymen would probably find more similarities than differences.

Of course, looks could be deceiving.

Despite their close resemblance, the Ferocious Piranha Version B was at least a hundred times more expensive than the Version C of the light skirmisher!

The comparison was a bit difficult to make for the two different Bright Warrior models. The new Bright Warrior Version B utilized regular second-class armor plating, which was actually worse than the Breyer alloy utilized in the original!

Regardless, the Larkinson Clan would definitely be able to exhibit greater strength once the Bright Warrior IB and the Ferocious Piranha IB entered service. This was especially because Ves and Gloriana decided to double their design budgets at some point!

By raising their respective budgets to 400 million hex credits, their quality became on par with the Valkyrie Redeemer, which had long conquered the hearts of many Hexer military mech pilots.

A single Bright Warrior IB was around 8 times more expensive than the commercial second-class mechs the Larkinson Clan were fielding at the moment!

Naturally, that didn't mean the new Bright Warriors and Ferocious Piranhas performed 8 times better than the Princess Jeckas and the Vima Suns. The actual performance improvement was 'only' 2 to 4 times better depending on the calculation method.

Despite making the new clan-exclusive mechs as expensive as a mainline military mech model, the Larkinson Clan could easily afford the expenditure.

With the explosive success of the new Ferocious Piranha Mark I Version C model, the LMC's earnings finally surpassed 1 trillion hex credits!

This was an astounding sum, and one the Larkinsons had long anticipated! Although the rapidly-growing Larkinson Clan immediately spent much of it on its growing expenses and a warchest reserved for the acquisition of capital ships, it shouldn't be a problem to splurge on a couple of thousand expensive mechs.

Ves knew that the Larkinson Clan would be relying heavily on the Bright Warrior IB and the Ferocious Piranha IB for the coming decade or so. It was better to invest more in the mech design upfront so that they wouldn't become obsolete by the time the clan reached the Red Ocean.

With the increase in budget, the two second-class mech designs incorporated better armor, higher capacity energy cells, higher-performing core components, hardened sensor and communication systems, more powerful flight systems and so on. They even incorporated much tougher cockpits so that the mech pilots had a higher chance of preserving their lives!

"Fielding thousands of these mechs will cost as much as a capital ship." Ves muttered as he observed the prototypes going through their paces in an observation room aboard the Spirit of Bentheim. "These mechs are great, no doubt about it, but our accounts will definitely cry when they see how much money they drain."

Expensive mechs not only cost more upfront, but also came with higher maintenance cost. The burden of maintaining thousands of second-class Bright Warriors and Ferocious Piranhas would bankrupt any normal organization!

This was why Ves and the LMC played such a crucial role in the Larkinson Clan. Greater strength did not come for free. Without earning more, Ves would have never dared to double the budgets of his mech design projects.

So far, the test sessions already proved the potency of the two upcoming mech designs.

The four different configurations of the Bright Warrior Version B were not eye-catching. Ves deliberately conceived of them as the new backbone fighting machines of the Larkinson Clan.

This meant that the rifleman mech, swordsman mech, lancer mech and space knight configurations fought like their normal equivalents. They did not possess any pronounced strengths and weaknesses and were quite boring aside from their Larkinson glows.

Though Ves normally thought ill of balanced mech designs, the Bright Warrior product line was not designed to be strongest. Instead, it had to be as universal and adaptable as possible in order to ensure that many different mech pilots would be able to harness at least one of its four configurations.

"Normally, I try to do the opposite in my mech designs." Gloriana noted as she stood by his side while she manipulated her workstation. "Working on the Bright Warrior has been an interesting exercise for me. I worked hard to figure out new ways to increase the compatibility of this mech platform. I dare say that at least 90 percent of our mech pilots will find what they like in our new Bright Warrior."

"That's a bold claim." Ves raised his eyebrow. "With the increase in performance, this mech has become more difficult to pilot. Don't forget that most of our mech pilots originally started off as third-raters. It will take more time before they are on par with genuine second-class mech pilots. Until then, they won't be able to draw out all of the potential of these mechs."

They essentially designed the Bright Warrior B and the Ferocious Piranha B with future proofing in mind. They aimed to achieve specifications with their mech designs than their pilots could currently handle. While that was bad and wasteful in the short term, it would definitely pay off in spades in the medium and long term.

This was especially important when Ves considered the higher strength levels of the new frontier. In a place where the best pioneers across the Milky Way concentrated in a smaller dwarf galaxy, a premium mech in the galactic rim would probably be considered a budget mech in the Red Ocean!

Therefore, even if both Ves and Gloriana were considerably impressed by the performance of the Bright Warrior B and the Ferocious Piranha B right now, they knew that their future rivals and competitors would likely look down on them a bit in a couple of years!

"Well, it's not important. Even if the Bright Warrior and the Ferocious Piranha are relegated to the background in the future, they will still remain useful." He muttered.

Ves especially appreciated the Ferocious Piranha B. Its Doom Guard-like glow already caused the prototype to be a terror in mock battles.

He directed his gaze towards a projection of one in action right now. The Ferocious Piranha did nothing except approach a squad of Living Sentinel mechs.

As soon as the Ferocious Piranha entered into close range, all of the surrounding Princess Jeckas, Vima Suns and Tamris Stellars pretty much went out of control!

Aside from a few exceptions, their mech pilots became so disoriented by the alternating glows of Zeigra and Lufa that they could no longer maintain enough concentration to pilot their mechs!

Ves sighed at the sight. "What a shameful showing."

"To be fair, we picked out the newest and freshest recruits to perform this test." Gloriana added. "In our earlier tests, the more experienced veteran mech pilots fared better. They maintain enough control to launch counter attacks against the Ferocious Piranha. Also, suppressive glows are less effective against other mechs with glows."

Even without the Sanctuary, mech pilots were still better off with piloting an LMC mech when they encountered a harmful glow.

The Larkinson Clan didn't have to worry about the threat of hostile glows, though. Every LMC mech came with a safeguard that rendered them ineffective against the Larkinsons by default. Ves just disabled the safety measure for the prototypes in order to test their performance under realistic conditions.

From what he could see so far, the Ferocious Piranha B would definitely be able to exert much greater strength against every kind of opponent. Even the Penitent Sisters and Swordmaidens felt disturbed when they confronted the mech, preventing them from exerting all of their skill.

The Ferocious Piranha B was already labeled the mech that the Larkinson mech pilots least wanted to fight against!

After verifying the effectiveness of the second-class Bright Warriors and Ferocious Piranhas, Ves directed his attention to the third Larkinson mech under development.

The mech codenamed Giant Killer was even more impressive than the other two. With a budget of 800 million credits, the Giant Killer was definitely a sight to behold!

As a cannoneer mech that wielded a rather large and formidable-looking gauss cannon, the mech initially appeared to be a lighter and more mobile adaptation of the Transcendent Punisher.

However, the Giant Killer was actually very different from the heavy artillery mech that had become more ubiquitous throughout the fleet.

While the Transcendent Punisher's total firepower surpassed that of the Giant Killer, the latter's formidable Samheim gauss cannon loaded with the proprietary Sarun rounds actually boasted higher single-shot damage!

Combined with satisfactory mobility, the cannoneer mech was able to maneuver to optimal firing positions in order to launch devastating armor-piercing attacks at the flanks of their targets.

Each time the Giant Killer fired its Samheim cannon, the mech visibly flew backwards due to the inability to fully compensate for the recoil.

As much as Ves admired the Giant Killer whenever it smashed a space rock or a bunch of scrap metal the Larkinsons launched into space to serve as practice targets, the prototypes did exhibit two major shortcomings.

"The accuracy exhibited by the Giant Killer isn't all that high." Gloriana seriously noted as she tapped a specific graph. "Look at these numbers. Starting from medium range, accuracy rapidly drops as the distance lengthens. At long range, the Giant Killer is no longer able to hit medium mechs on a reliable basis. Your Penitent Sister mech will only be effective in sieging roles."

"It can at least be used to siege heavy mechs, starships, space stations and other fortifications."

"That's true, but you better bring some kind of shuttle or auxiliary mech with the Giant Killers, because their ammo and energy reserves aren't all that high!"

That was the other shortcoming of the Giant Killer. In order to maintain a certain degree of compactness and mobility, the Giant Killer couldn't carry too much goodies. Its massive Samheim gauss cannon was already a hefty weapon, so it was a given that their Sarun rounds were large and heavy. The weapon also demanded a lot of energy to fire each round, so the mech also had to accommodate enough energy cells.

All told, the base loadout of the Giant Killer only allowed for 25 full-powered shots in total before the mech expended its ammunition!

This was actually relatively decent for cannoneer mechs, but Ves wasn't satisfied with this result. The Transcendent Punisher could fire much more rounds without requiring replenishment!

This was why Ves and Gloriana designed a modified rear ammo carrier that allowed the Giant Killer to carry additional rounds and energy cells. Although the extended loadout made the mch more sluggish, it enabled the cannoneer mech to fire 45 full-powered shots before running dry!

"That's better, I suppose."

While it was more convenient to attach a small supply train to a Giant Killer unit, that was not always ideal. It took time and effort for the Giant Killers to replenish their spent reserves in mid-battle, and a clever enemy always targeted the supply mechs or vehicles first if they had brain cells!

"It's okay." Ves reassured himself. "The Giant Killer is not a mech that is designed for attrition warfare. It's all about taking the most threatening enemy elements into battle as fast as possible. As long as the tough ones are taken off the board, our other mechs can clean up the remaining enemies."

Chapter 2633: Bright Primes

Aside from testing the initial prototypes of the clan-exclusive mechs, the Larkinson Clan also began to field its new and unusual prime mechs.

Every time the prime mechs deployed into space, the clan made sure to hide its performance by erecting enormous sensor-blocking screens around their practice zones.

It took hundreds of mechs to erect these cumbersome energy screens. They drained a lot of energy and forced many mech pilots to spend at least an hour of doing nothing while maintaining a constant position.

A lot of Larkinsons actually asked whether it was worth it to go through all of that effort to perform tests on individual custom mechs.

undefinedHowever, once the clansmen heard that the so-called prime mechs were meant to be piloted by the expert pilots of the clan, most of the complaints disappeared.

The expert pilots enjoyed a high status among the Larkinsons. Now that they had received better mechs, it was a given that they were entitled to practice with their new machines!

Along with the Valkyrie Prime, the expeditionary fleet quickly expanded its lineup of prime mechs with the Bright Sword Prime, the Bright Spear Prime, the Bright Beam Prime, the Piranha Prime and the newly-overhauled Shield of Samar!

Each of the mechs barring the Bright Beam Prime boasted considerable amounts of Unending alloy. While this incredibly tough material did not attract much attention at the start, seeing them withstand the full blows of Transcendent Punishers and Giant Killers with ease astonished the Larkinsons who were permitted to witness the capabilities of the new prime mechs!

"Not even expert mechs can withstand as much damage as your new prime mechs!" Major Verle noted with surprise.

"That's not exactly true." Ves shook his head. "While Unending alloy is practically indestructible in second-class battles, the prime mechs aren't necessarily impervious. For example, their shock-absorbing properties are relatively mundane, which means that the prime mechs cannot negate heavy impacts."

He called up the footage of an earlier test. It featured the Bright Sword Prime being bombarded by a handful of Transcendent Punishers.

The gauss rounds impacting the mechs continually pushed it back. The positron beams scorching across the chest plating of the mech slowly heated up the entire machine. The staccato of energy pulses continually degraded the sensors and other vulnerable surface modules of Venerable Dise's new machine.

"As you can see, Unending alloy is not a panacea." Ves explained. "Our prime mechs can still be beaten by overloading them with heat, mobbing it with lots of mechs, physically pushing them away from the battlefield or disabling all of their surface components. Enemies can even launch a single, overpowering physical attack that can kill the mech pilot through lethal concussion!"

All of these limitations dampened the hype surrounding the prime mechs. Their indestructible armor hardly ensured they could guarantee victory in every battle, especially when the enemy fielded lots of mechs with powerful attacks.

Major Verle was clever enough to realize the implications.

"It's not possible for expert mechs to defeat hundreds or thousands of mechs by themselves. The best way to maximize the value of exceptional mechs is to field them alongside other elements. Expert mechs are best able to show their value when there are friendly units keeping the enemy occupied. We'll have to adopt a similar approach for our new prime mechs."

"That's what I think as well. Two of our expert pilots, namely Venerable Joshua and Venerable Dise, can be integrated into battle formations."

The earlier tests had already proven that this was the case. The Penitent Sister and Swordmaiden battle formations performed so well with the Valkyrie Prime and the Bright Sword Prime that Ves did not even dare to repeat the tests any longer.

The battle formations were too cumbersome!

Anytime they expended a huge amount of energy, the mech pilots that took part in the tests were basically done for the day. The intensity of repeated, daily attempts was so high that the mech pilots risked suffering chronic problems if this went on. Out of concern of their safety, it was best not to employ them too often.

Perhaps the story might be different if the mech pilots trained their mental resilience and could bear a greater burden, but that was not going to happen anytime soon.

The Larkinson Clan had long recognized the importance of training the mental resilience of its mech pilots. Every mech pilot regularly had to exercise their minds by subjecting them to the glow of the Doom Guard.

Ves already knew from his time on Aeon Corona VII that such training programs provided a lot of benefits. Being able to bear the burden of a battle formation was just one of them. A more vital benefit was that mentally-strong mech pilots always persisted in battle. They never lost heart or gave up when they faced a powerful opponent!

As Ves briefly reviewed the performance of the Valkyrie Prime and the Bright Sword Prime, he regretted the fact that his other expert pilots weren't able to exhibit this kind of strength.

The Larkinson Clan only had three battle networks to begin with. Absolute strength did not determine whether a mech pilot was eligible to take part in a battle formation.

This meant that the Bright Spear Prime, the Bright Beam Prime, the Piranha Prime and the Shield of Samar had to rely on their individual strengths in order to impact the battlefield.

Fortunately, none of the remaining prime mechs were weak. The Bright Spear Prime was a relatively normal spearman mech. If not for its Unending alloy armor system and its ability to induce prime resonance, it was easy to overlook its presence among other second-class mechs!

The Piranha Prime was a bit more notable. Venerable Tusa did not like its glow. When Ves initially introduced him to his prime mech, the expert pilot immediately grimaced.

"I don't need to rely on any gimmicks to overpower my enemies. This glow is just a distraction."

Ves placed his palm on his cousin's shoulder. "Don't be that way. Expert pilot or not, you're still vulnerable without an expert mech. This prime mech is meant to tide you over. Compared to a regular Ferocious Piranha, this prime version boasts much better armor and allows you to negate even more attacks by inducing prime resonance. We've also upgraded a number of its other components so that it flies even faster and hits even harder than the standard equivalent."

Venerable Tusa looked a little more pleased when he heard that. "It's.. fine, I suppose. I'll take it, not that I have much choice in the first place."

"Don't underestimate its glow. Just because it's not effective against expert pilots such as you doesn't mean it is pointless against other enemies. The Ferocious Piranha's glow will ensure that you will always have a defense against getting mobbed."

"Buddy, a light mech never gets surrounded. As long as the mech pilot is good enough, it's impossible to end up in the situation that you've described!"

Well, at least Venerable Tusa did not lack confidence.

With the Piranha Prime in good hands, Ves directed his attention to the Bright Beam Prime and the Shield of Samar.

The two prime mechs were the odd ones out. Due to a shortage of Unending alloy, Ves and Gloriana simply couldn't afford to lavish them with Unending alloy.

That was a bit difficult to stomach for Venerable Jannzi and Venerable Stark. When Ves invited both of them to meet their new machines, they immediately expressed their doubts.

"Are you punishing me or something?" Venerable Jannzi confronted Ves. "The others get to fight with mechs that are fully protected by this new superalloy of yours. Joshua's Valkyrie Prime even boasts a strengthened internal frame! Why is my Shield of Samar only reinforced at the front?"

"We didn't have enough Unending alloy left, that's why! If you want to grab more, then we should enter the Nyxian Gap. That's where I got it from in the first place."

"Tch." Jannzi scowled. "So this new material is essentially tainted with the blood of our clansmen. No wonder you were so eager to fight all of those powerful pirate groups!"

"Hey! Don't misjudge me! I never knew that something like Unending alloy existed until recently. I just stumbled upon it after we defeated our opponents. Look, if you don't like this material, I can always strip it from the Shield of Samar and reprocess it so that I can put it onto the Bright Beam Prime."

The mention of the rifleman mech prompted Venerable Davia Stark to voice her own objections.

"When I pledge to serve you for a century, I clearly demanded to be treated as equals to your Larkinson mech pilots. Why is my mech the only one that is devoid of better protection?"

Ves awkwardly coughed. "As I have stated earlier, we don't have enough Unending alloy to go around. We have to employ this material as rationally as possible. Logically speaking, our melee offensive mechs need the protection the most considering they will be in the thick of battle. Your rifleman mech won't be doing all of that. It's more practical for your mech to hide behind cover. That is why we have focused on upgrading the offensive capabilities of the Bright Beam Prime. It's damage output is the only factor that matters."

"That does not conform to my fighting style." Venerable Stark frowned. "I prefer to be more active in battle."

"You can still do that, but just take into account that your mech is clad with Breyer alloy. While it is a good material, it doesn't make you invincible. I still recommend you to keep the Bright Beam Prime behind solid cover. If you don't mind sticking close to our starships, you can place your mech in a bunker or just stick it behind a starship. If you want to gain better firing angles, then I suggest you cooperate with Venerable Jannzi. In fact, Gloriana and I pretty much designed the Bright Beam Prime and the latest revision of the Shield of Samar on the assumption that they will be fighting as a cohesive unit."

Both female expert pilots eyed each other. Neither of them were familiar with each other. They were just passing acquaintances as far as they were concerned. This was not enough for them to judge whether they would work well together.

Still, as expert pilots, they had their own confidence. Their professionalism did not allow them to make any judgements before they even attempted to cooperate.

"Just try it out." Ves waved his hand.

They did so. The Bright Beam Prime huddled closely behind the Shield of Samar as the oversized space knight flew into space.

After performing a few routine maneuvers, the two prime mechs began to exhibit their strengths.

The Shield of Samar immediately tested its powerful new shield generator. A spherical energy shield formed around the mech. While the bubble wasn't large enough to encompass other mechs, its defensive capabilities were quite formidable!

What was even better was that the energy shield did not interfere with the prime resonance shield. Just like the Valkyrie Prime, the Shield of Samar was able to rely on multiple layers of protection to fend off attacks!

However, Ves didn't really pay attention to Jannzi's mech. The upgrades to the Shield of Samar were relatively simple and boring. Aside from increasing its defensive capabilities, it didn't gain any exceptional traits.

The Bright Beam Prime was different.

When Ves prepared this mech, he realized early on that its original design spirit wasn't suitable. Every other prime mech was piloted by a Larkinson. The Bright Beam Prime was the only exception!

Since this prime mech was originally derived from the rifleman mech configuration of the Bright Warrior Version B, the Golden Cat should have been its design spirit.

Obviously, that needed to be changed!

Ves had never switched out a design spirit of a mech that was practically designed to conform to it. He did not have a good idea of whether it was viable to pull out the Golden Cat and put another design spirit in its place. Would the Bright Beam Prime still be able to function normally?

Chapter 2634: Bright Beam Prime

What would happen if Ves swapped out the design spirit of one of his mech models?

The answer wasn't obvious to him. Would the altered mech remain as effective as before? Would it suffer from an identity crisis? Ves wasn't sure.

He tried to imagine the outcome of a couple of scenarios.

For instance, what if he pulled out the Solemn Guardian from the Desolate Soldier and put the Superior Mother in its place?

undefinedVery clearly, millions of LMC customers would immediately be confronted by a mech that had become a radically different product!

The Desolate Soldier practically lost its only selling point, its powerful and widely-applicable duty-oriented glow.

In its stead was a different glow that was anything but encouraging! Unless the customers were Hexers, which was extremely unlikely considering that the Desolate Soldier was just a third-class mech, a lot of mech pilots wouldn't be able to do their jobs anymore because their own mechs hated them suddenly!

"If I was crazy enough to make this swap, then the LMC will instantly lose its reputation!" Ves shuddered in fear!

It was a very frightening thought that Ves could ruin his entire business empire by performing a single reckless move.

In fact, the LMC barely averted disaster in a similar scenario recently.

When Nyxie perished during the Battle of the Abyss, the Doom Guard suddenly lost the support of one of its two design spirits.

Ves had acted quickly by putting Lufa in Nyxie's place. While that irrevocably changed the Doom Guard's glow, his quick measure succeeded in preserving most of the value of the product.

This was the only real instance where Ves had actually swapped a design spirit.

While this case was a bit complicated due to the fact that the Doom Guard had multiple design spirits, it still provided Ves with a lot of insights.

An unanticipated swap may not necessarily lead to a severe decline in performance. However, even if Lufa managed to rescue the Doom Guard, he did not fit in perfectly with the new mech.

Lufa possessed very different attributes and characteristics from Nyxie. This meant that certain design choices were no longer optimal. Even the name of the mech was no longer accurate!

When Ves was ready to design a successor of the Doom Guard, he intended to apply some extensive corrections and adjustments in order to conform it to this profound change.

That was something that he should consider for later.

For now, Ves had to determine what would happen if Ves hastily swapped out the Golden Cat for another design spirit for the Bright Beam Prime.

This change was needed because Venerable Davia Stark adamantly insisted on maintaining her distance from the Larkinson Clan. While she was willing to fight alongside the Larkinsons against worthy enemies, she did not agree to abandon her heritage and change her loyalties.

This meant that it wasn't appropriate to pair her up with the Golden Cat.

Which design spirit should he choose?

He didn't have many options. He doubted that Venerable Stark would play nice with Lufa, Bravo or the Superior Mother.

Pairing her up with Zeigra also sounded like a poor idea? The deceased Crown Cat's rage and fury would only egg Venerable Stark on, causing her to become even more unstable than before!

"Why am I even considering these options? The answer is actually rather obvious."

Out of all of his design spirits, only two complimented ranged mechs.

Prophet Ylvaine provided an obvious benefit to a ranged mech. The design spirit was able to lend limited predictive abilities to a devout Ylvainan mech pilot. The Deliverer and the Transcendent Punisher had already proven the effectiveness of this mystical enhancement!

Of course, the limitations were also clear. Ylvainan mechs weren't as ubiquitous as before. Ever since the Ylvaine Protectorate defected to the Friday Coalition, it got rid of all of its Holy Soldiers and Deliverers.

This effectively starved Ylvaine of a huge amount of spiritual feedback. Even if a lot of Ylvainan citizens still prayed to it, the revived spiritual entity was not as capable of absorbing all of this worship as the Superior Mother.

In fact, for a prophet, Ylvaine was actually quite incompetent in this regard!

"They're two different entities." Ves muttered. "The Superior Mother inherited Cynthia's energy devouring talents. She's also made with a spiritual network in mind. Ylvaine on the other hand focuses all of his capabilities into prophecy."

If Ves hadn't designed the Transcendent Punisher, Ylvaine would have probably been pushed to the brink of starvation. A handful of outdated Holy Soldiers and Deliverers were far from enough to feed a grown and matured spiritual entity!

In any case, Ves did not need to consider Ylvaine any further. The religious design spirit was very partial towards Ylvainans. Despite the friendly face of the Ylvainan Faith, it was actually quite closed towards nonbelievers.

There was no chance that Venerable Stark would be able to pilot the Bright Beam Prime if Ylvaine took over the mech!

"Then that leaves me with the Illustrious One."

Ves still did not understand the full depth of the luminar design spirit. Part of it was because he knew too little about luminars, whether it was their race, their history or their tech.

Another part of it was because the Illustrious One absorbed the strength of the Blinding One.

Though Ves managed to learn more about the Illustrious One by studying the performance of the Crystal Lord Mark II and working on the Blinding Mech Project, he still did not feel he had plumbed the depths of this strange design spirit.

"Well, whatever. It is an excellent complement to laser rifleman mechs."

What Ves liked about the Illustrious One was that he was a neutral design spirit. Despite his alien nature, he possessed a relatively unbiased attitude against humans.

Ves studied the customer base of the Crystal Lord Mark I and Mark II carefully. It's mech pilots reflected a wide variety of different people. There were male mech pilots, female mech pilots, religious mech pilots, secularists mech pilots and so on who managed to utilize the landbound rifleman mechs well.

This meant that the Illustrious One should neither favor nor disfavor Venerable Stark. In fact, the luminar design spirit cared more about the luminar crystals integrated in the Bright Beam Prime than its mech pilot!

In order to make the Illustrious One feel more at home in a machine that was originally designed with the Golden Cat in mind, Ves had implemented some extensive changes.

Aside from implementing some easy upgrades, he tried to add as many luminar crystals alongside P-stones as possible. Both materials played a key role in the Bright Beam Prime. The former complemented the design spirit and the latter complemented the mech pilot.

When Venerable Stark initially piloted the Bright Beam Prime, the mech did not exhibit any remarkable strengths.

In fact, one of the uncertainties to Ves was whether the 40 P-stones he integrated in the mech and its upgraded rifle would do anything.

Due to the relative fragility of P-stones, Ves had to put them into protective shells, which isolated the prime material from the mech to an extent.

Even so, Ves managed to place them close enough to luminar crystals to be confident that an interaction might take place between the two materials.

This was especially because Ves forced the Illustrious One to fill up the P-stones with spiritual energy!

Unfortunately, the 40 P-stones weren't very large. Even if the material was capable of storing much more spiritual energy than Unending alloy, in the end Ves was only able to fill them up to a fraction of the level of the Valkyrie Prime and the other prime mechs.

If Ves had to make an estimate, the Bright Beam Prime only amounted to around 460 Ves when filled at maximum capacity. That was all the 40 P-stones could bear in the form of raw spiritual energy.

This time, Ves knew for sure that this was not the limit. His P-stones previously bore spiritual fragments and design spirits that should have been very powerful.

The difference was that spiritual entities and spiritual fragments consisted of concentrated spiritual energy. In contrast, free spiritual energy floated in the form of gas particles, which was far from efficient.

Even though that sounded rather bad, one of the advantages of keeping spiritual energy in this looser form was that it could easily be put into use. The Bright Beam Prime hardly exhibited any delay when Venerable Stark attempted to resonate with her mech!

Unlike the Larkinson expert pilots, Venerable Stark possessed much greater resonance strength. Her difficult journey and the hurdles she had to overcome had caused her to develop a strong and aggressive will!

Joshua's resonance strength measured at less than 3 laveres. Davia's resonance strength almost hit 20 laveres!

This did not mean that Venerable Davia was six times stronger than Venerable Joshua. The lavere scale did not work that way.

However, there was no doubt that Venerable Davia was capable of exhibiting much greater resonance than the demigods who had recently broken through!

"Oh my! Look at that! The Bright Beam Prime is practically glowing like an actual expert mech!" Gloriana alarmingly observed from her work station.

The entire observation room became enthralled when Venerable Davia resonated with the Bright Beam Prime. Despite lacking Unending alloy, the resonance shield surrounding the mech was just as bright if not brighter than the resonance shields of the other prime mechs!

This indirectly proved that stronger expert pilots were capable of drawing out a lot more strength out of prime mechs!

"To be fair, this applies to expert mechs as well, so this shouldn't be a surprising result." Ves remarked as he checked the pilot telemetry. "The extraordinary power an expert mech is able to display not only based on the resonating materials it incorporates, but also the strength of the expert pilot. If one of them is weak, they basically act as a limitation that constrains the performance of the combination."

In other words, the other five prime mechs actually possessed a lot more potential than they had shown. It was just that their expert pilots were simply too bad to draw out more than a fraction of their potential!

This was what made the Bright Beam Prime so special. Its expert pilot was so different that Ves managed to gain several important insights by comparing Davia's performance to that of his other expert pilots!

"The contrast is very clear! Venerable Davia is the only expert pilot at our disposal who is much more developed in terms of resonance strength. The Bright Beam Prime should have actually been one of our weakest prime mechs because it doesn't incorporate as much prime material. Yet due to the human factor, it's actually the opposite!"

The Bright Beam Prime soon prepared to fire.

The mech had already fired its custom laser rifle under normal circumstances.

Now, it was attempting to fire while Venerable Stark tried her best to focus the prime resonance on empowering the weapon.

The laser rifle glowed brighter. While the weapon did not expose any of its P-stones and luminar crystals, Ves could practically imagine them interacting together in a mysterious fashion.

"Fire!"

The prime mech unleashed a glowing bright beam that instantly hit a floating piece of scrap and burned straight through over ten meters of different metals compacted together!

Once the beam pierced through the other end, it continued to zap forward at the speed of light until it disappeared in deep space!

The observation room fell silent. Ves and Gloriana froze as they studied the meters that detected how much power the attack held.

"This.. I think the Bright Beam Prime can threaten an expert mech." Gloriana guessed. "It's definitely better than the Giant Killer in this role!"

Ves did not remain fascinated by the power of the prime resonance-empowered attack for long.

"Please fire again, Venerable Stark."

Under his instructions, the Bright Beam Prime unleashed several more full-powered attacks.

The mech was unable to maintain its resonance state any longer after firing its rifle for a third time.

The P-stones had run out of spiritual energy!

Chapter 2635: Lifers

Ves contently stretches his arms and opened his eyes.

He lay on a soft, luxurious bed. A quilt as soft as a cloud and patterned with purple hexagons rested comfortably on top of his body.

He turned his head to his side. The pale bronze tiger-striped form of his cat yawned and gazed at him with a relaxed expression.

"Did you have a good rest?"

undefined"Meow~"

"Oh yeah, it's sunday. It's your day off."

His cat turned his body and softly smacked his face with a solid tail.

"Hey!"

"Mhmmm…" A female voice hummed from the other side.

Ves turned his body around to gaze upon his wife.

Gloriana clutched her own cat against her face as she rubbed her cheek against Clixie's fur. She looked a bit plainer without makeup applied to her face, but her modified genes and targeted cosmetic surgery still caused her to look pretty in a different way.

She wore pink pajamas decorated with multi-layered six-leafed lotuses. Though Ves did not believe in perfection, at this moment, he felt as if his life couldn't be any better.

"Hmmm.. what are you thinking about, Ves?"

"Oh, I just feel like kissing you right now."

"Then what are you waiting for?" She smiled invitingly at him. "I happen to feel the same way."

"Miaow?"

She set Clixie aside and began to cuddle and kiss with him. Every morning, before work and other matters complicated their lives, they made sure to spend a moment where they had nothing but each other in their eyes.

No mech design project, management issues, clan administration problems or anything else interfered with their love for each other.

While they argued about something at least several times a week, that did not take away their pure and simply love for each other.

It was not easy to keep their love alive. Both of them were opinionated mech designers who resisted compromise on any issue they held dear. The problem was that their interests intersected quite often, which caused them to conflict quite easily.

However, their disagreements did not exceed their desire to maintain their relationship. Beyond emotions such as love, they both held some very pragmatic reasons why they wanted to stay together.

Their marriage was not just a union of love, but also the realization of an alliance, both on a personal level and an organizational level.

Ves used Gloriana while she used him. He was never under an illusion that their relationship was based on irrational and illogical emotions alone.

Perhaps normal people might scoff at that, but Ves felt more secure in his relationship due to these factors. In a society where trust was a scarce resource, he did not have much faith in contracts and verbal promises.

Contracts could be ripped while promises could be forgotten.

Only active interests mattered. As long as there were good reasons to cooperate with him, Ves knew he could rely on his partners to work together in good faith.

This described his relationships with many people and groups. The Larkinson Clan, the Ylvainains, the Penitent Sisters, the Cross Clan, the Wodin Dynasty and even wife had an interest in maintaining a good relationship with him. As long as he could offer them something, they would continue to play nice.

Their greed and yearning was not a sin in his eyes. It did not matter if they were using him. He was doing the same thing and never held any illusions about it. The only difference was that he wouldn't be so crass to betray his allies if doing so was in his best interests.

He might lie, cheat, break taboos and murder people, but he would never betray someone else's trust. That was a line he never wanted to cross.

As the married couple finished their little makeout session, they readied themselves for the day. Both emerged from their beds and went to their separate bathrooms.

Ves freshened himself up and dressed himself in his patriarch uniform. His trusty grooming bot effortlessly shaved the stubble on his face and applied some additional treatments until his skin became as smooth as a baby's bottom.

As Ves admired himself in the mirror, he trailed his finger across his cheek. "Maybe I should switch up my look. Should I grow out a beard?"

He was beginning to ask this question to himself more often. Now that he had become a married man, he felt as if he had entered into a new phase of life. His face had slowly matured as well, though his altered and optimized genes slowed down the process quite well.

"I'm not young anymore."

When Ves emerged out of the bathroom and went down to the dining room of the grand stateroom, the chefs had already prepared their usual breakfast.

As Ves and Gloriana dined on noodles, toast, steamed fish and freshly-grown fruits, they chatted about their projects and other matters.

Naturally, their cats filled their stomachs as well. While Clixie dug into a bowl filled with high-density meat and other fortified ingredients, Lucky eagerly dug into a mixture of Breyer alloy and exotic scraps taken from the production halls.

One of the advantages of living aboard a factory ship was that Lucky never lacked for food!

Ves even suspected that Lucky secretly snuck into the cargo holds to take a little bite here and there. As long as his gluttonous cat was clever enough, he could gnaw off only a couple of grams from a solid block of material or ingest just a handful of pellets from a container filled with metal balls.

It didn't matter. The Larkinson Clan was so wealthy that these modest losses didn't affect production. Lucky might be naughty, after he ate all of the CFA equipment that Ves retrieved from Aeon Corona VII, he behaved with a lot more restraint.

Ves idly stroked Lucky's ribbed and metallic back.

"Meow."

"How many months has it been since your butt got to work?"

"Meow!"

Lucky did not like that line of questioning! He moved his bowl further away until his body was out of reach.

"Hey, I don't know how much you've eaten, but you definitely haven't been putting on any extra weight. Where is all of that food going, exactly?"

Either Lucky was preparing to 'produce' the most powerful gem up to date, or he was converting all of that food into something else! The gem cat's touchy behavior whenever Ves brought this topic up was a telling sign that Lucky was hiding something.

Well, whatever. Ves was in a generous mood right now, so he was willing to indulge Lucky for a time.

"Don't get too lazy." He warned his cat. "If I don't see something in three months, I won't be so patient with you anymore."

"Meow meow!"

Once they finished breakfast, the couple went their separate ways. Gloriana left for the design lab in order to check up on the results of the latest round of prototype tests. Ves went to his main office in order to receive Gavin's daily briefing and do some routine paperwork.

"We have completed some additional preparations for our journey to the Life Research Association." Gavin reported to Ves. "While the LRA is an open state that welcomes tourists and business visitors, the Golden Skull Alliance is equivalent to a mech division in strength. No state will feel at ease with a fleet as strong as ours roaming within their borders. It's okay As long as our starships remain parked at the edge of the outer systems whenever we transition out of FTL travel, we won't pose a threat."

Ves nodded in understanding. "It's when our powerful fleet approaches a settled planet that the local authorities start to worry. It's the same for us, Benny. We don't like it either if some random ship or fleet strays close to our vessels."

"Well, we have been trying to obtain permission to bring our fleet closer to the destinations you wish to visit, but… we have been encountering some resistance."

"Why?" Ves frowned. "The locations I selected are all commercial planets that do a lot of business with foreigners. There shouldn't be a problem even if our strength is rather high."

"That's only part of the problem as far as we can surmise. There are two additional factors at play that have made the lifers lukewarm towards us. Are you aware of the contentious relationship between Vicious and Majestic Teal?"

"I am aware. Are you saying…"

"You guessed it right. While Majestic Tealers won't fight Vicious Mountainers at the drop of a hat, it is indisputable that they consider each other as rivals. We're not just travel buddies with the Cross Clan. We have also allied with them. That means that the lifers and the other natives of Majestic Teal already consider us to be in their rival star sector's camp."

"Don't they know that the Cross Clan are a bunch of beaten dogs? The Crossers don't have any foundation left in Vicious Mountain!"

"Tell that to the lifers." Gavin sardonically said. "If that's not enough, there's also a second reason why the state is not welcoming us in. They have a beef with you. The local mech designers don't like your products."

"We aren't selling any second-class mechs as far as I know. I haven't encroached on their market share. Why are they upset with me, Benny?" Ves looked confused.

"It's not about business. Their problem with you is.. philosophical in nature. Think about it. The Life Research Association is obsessed with biotechnology. Their researchers have made high attainments in the field of exobiology, genetics, biomachines and other life sciences. Even their mech industry is dominated by biomechs. Now how do you think they will react when they hear about you and your 'living mechs'?"

It did not take long for Ves to understand the problem.

"Oh. The lifers must have a different idea on what a living mech means, right?"

Gavin nodded. "That's correct, boss. The local mech community over there is heavily biased towards biomechs. Up to 80 percent of the mechs in use in that state are biological instead of mechanical. The groups and organizations that utilize ordinary mechs are usually foreign-owned companies or outfits. The locals are very proud of their grown mechs."

Biomechs were truly grown rather than assembled. The intricate biotech needed to produce a mech by cultivating them from flesh and bone was incredible. What amazed Ves even more was that the proponents of biomechs had managed to develop their tech to the point where biomechs were competitive against classic mechs!

As Ves briefly looked up the mech industry of the LRA, he observed an extra detail. The lifers adopted both humanoid and bestial biomechs in equal measure.

This was not that difficult to figure out to Ves. The bestial mechs seemed to be based on giant exobeasts. It had become something of a competition for bestial biomech designers to find the strongest exobeasts before using their biological tissue to cultivate or graft a new biomachine.

To be honest, most people would probably consider biomechs to be actual living mechs. When they were placed side by side with LMC mechs, it was very hard for people to consider living!

Ves wasn't really interested in competing with the lifers over this issue. What he did care about was gaining entry into the state.

"Have you solved the problem?"

"We have, though we aren't sure whether it will work out." Gavin replied. "In order to gain entry and avoid as much friction with our hosts as possible, we have tried to seek out a local partner to vouch for us and guide us around. When we reached out to some associates, we came in touch with a local biomech designer who is willing to open some doors for us. If we accept his cooperation, we will definitely enjoy a smoother journey throughout the state."

That sounded intriguing to Ves, but he didn't think it was that simple.

"It would be nice if we can rely on a local guide, but what does this fellow want from us? There's no way a local will work with someone as controversial as us without an agenda."

Gavin hesitated for a moment. "You're right, boss. The biomech designer.. wants to challenge you to a design duel. He wants to know which kind of living mech is stronger."

"Oh."

Chapter 2636: Dr. Frederico Navarro

According to his public profile, Frederico Navarro was a forty-odd years old Journeyman Mech Designer.

To be more precise, he was both a biotech expert and a biomech designer. This reflected the fact that every biomech designer had to know the ins and outs of exobiology, genetics, molecular biology, biomechanics and many other related fields.

How else could they design and 'grow' their biomechs if they didn't know how a living organism worked?

Biomechs may perform identical to classical mechs on the battlefield, but their organic nature meant that the logistics around them were completely different.

undefinedMech companies didn't fabricate biomechs. They grew them. Biomechs literally started as tiny, juvenile masses of tissue. As long as they were kept in special cultivation pools, it usually took a couple of weeks or months for them to grow in size and mass.

This was a very long production time. The weakest biomechs took at least a week to reach maturity while the more powerful models might take years to gestate!

While this sounded incredibly backwards, this growth-based production method had its own advantages.

The most important one was that once a producer set up the infrastructure, they just needed to feed materials, energy and nutrients in the cultivation pools in order to grow a lot of mechs at once.

Hardly any mech technicians or other workers were required to perform any manual processes. Just a few overseers and biotech experts were enough to oversee the production of thousands of biomechs!

Maintaining the biomechs once they were finished was easy as well. The living machines were always capable of regenerating minor battle damage by themselves. If they suffered major damage such as losing an arm, they could still regrow a new one as long as they were fed with lots of materials and tended to by a single biomech technician!

The same method could also be employed to upgrade or modify the biomechs.

Rather than treat them as machines, biomech designers and biomech technicians instead treated them as giant living organisms. Just like how humans could improve their capabilities by augmenting themselves with implants and gene treatments, biomechs could also be augmented in the same fashion!

While biomechs possessed several advantages, they also came with some distinct downsides.

The first major demerit was the higher barrier to entry to design them. Every biomech designer had to be proficient in both biotechnology and traditional engineering. They could not skimp in either direction, or else their biomechs would never be able to compete against classical mechs.

The second significant downside was that biomechs demanded a completely different infrastructure. The traditional mech industry had no clue how to produce, repair, maintain and recycle biomechs.

As biological machines, a large proportion of their makeup had to be made with different materials. Biomech producers competed against both traditional mech companies and other biotech companies when it came to sourcing the necessary materials.

All in all, biomechs were generally very difficult to popularize in a region where classical mechs already reigned supreme. The lack of infrastructure hampered their utility as it demanded producers and consumers to make special accommodations. All of that cost extra money, effort and resources.

When Ves briefly looked at the states bordering the Life Research Association, he quickly found out that none of the neighbors adopted biomechs on a widespread scale.

Aside from a couple of exceptions, the rest of Majestic Teal firmly stuck to using normal metallic mechs!

While this forced the LRA's mech industry to stand alone, the biomech enthusiasts didn't appear to be having difficulties. Biotechnology was far more developed in the state than anywhere else in the local region, so local biomech designers such as Frederico Navarro could easily make a living by depending entirely on the domestic market.

"Why is Dr. Navarro so interested in challenging me to a design duel?" Ves asked.

His assistant shrugged. "We aren't sure, but we think that he is driven by a combination of pride in the LRA's biomechs and a perception that we are challenging the definition of 'living mechs'. I'm not sure how his specialty plays into his motives. According to the MTA, Dr. Navarro excels at designing mechs that can transform mid-battle or in a short amount of time."

His exact specialty was rapid biomechanical transformation. While it was a bit exaggerated to state that Dr. Navarro's products could transform in the middle of an engagement, some of his products were actually capable of doing so depending on the scale of changes.

Regardless whether his biomechs took seconds or hours to change into a different form, Dr. Navarro was not the most successful Journeyman in his home state. His products may be versatile, but they were also significantly more expensive than the industry standard. His biomechs also possessed shorter lifespans. If they lived longer than they were designed to last, then they would rapidly degrade until they died a 'natural' death. Just like prolonging the lives of humans, it was very troublesome to extend the lifespan of a biomech.

However, what did all of this have to do with Ves? While he was intrigued by Dr. Navarro's work, he had no intention of delving further into the intricacies of biomechs. He possessed no foundation in this weird category of mechs. His own production facilities weren't capable of producing biomechs and classical mechs already offered plenty of diversity for him to explore.

"Is it possible that Dr. Navarro did not reach out to us on our own initiative?" Ves guessed. "What if someone else wants to test us through this fellow?"

"That is what Calabast suspects as well when we brought it up to her. She is still looking into this angle, but it is unlikely for us to determine whether that is the case." Gavin replied.

Just like regular mech designers, every biomech designer possessed a range of connections. Their teachers, business partners, friends and colleagues were part of the networks that people like Dr. Navarro relied upon to maintain their footing in a competitive mech industry.

No mech designer was able to stand alone. This was especially the case in a second-rate state.

Personally, Ves suspected that Dr. Navarro might be part of an organization or faction within the LRA. That wasn't necessarily a big deal as Ves would actually be surprised if the biomech designer was all on his lonesome.

Was Dr. Navarro or the mastermind standing behind him trying to pull Ves and the Larkinson Clan into some kind of plot?

Who knew. Ves just wanted to shop at the LRA. He had no interest in getting pulled into the quagmire of local politics.

"As long as you don't find anything alarming about Dr. Navarro, go ahead and tell him that I accept his challenge." He decided after a moment of thought. "Make sure to remind him of our conditions. We will only be travelling to open, commercial star systems and we will not stay too long in any destination."

"Will do, boss."

Ves put the issue out of his mind and moved on to other matters.

Later in the day, Ves entered the bridge. He looked around and approached Captain Daria-Maria Vraken as she looked closely at a timer.

Once the timer counted down to 0, the ship shuddered for a moment. A brief nauseating sensation swept over Ves before his body quickly stabilized.

The fleet had returned to realspace!

The grand captain spent a few minutes issuing orders in order to make sure the Spirit of Bentheim was still in order.

Hundreds of mechs deployed into space. They immediately patrolled the surrounding space and remained on guard against any unusual signs.

The mech pilots were a bit more jumpy than usual this time. A nervous mood swept across the entire fleet as this seemingly-unordinary star system was actually different from the other stops.

Ves stood still for a moment as he took in the significance of this destination.

While Ves had traveled beyond the Komodo Star Sector a few years ago, this was the first time in his life that he had entered a different star sector!

"Welcome to Vicious Mountain, Patriarch Larkinson." Captain Vraken announced. "While we will only be here for a week, we have entered into a different region from before. Unlike our home star sector, Vicious Mountain is dominated by a single second-rate state. The Garlen Empire imposes its own rules in this star sector. There is no reason to be concerned, though. As long as we stay in the periphery, the Garlen Empire won't bother with us. We are just passing through."

As Ves studied the projection of the local plot, the star system did not look any different from a star system in Komodo.

Doubt crossed his face. "I thought the crossover would be more noticeable. We did pass through a gravitic barrier, right?"

"Do you think that our Hexer FTL drives are inadequate? They are easily capable of bridging this gap. If you actually felt any turbulence along the way, then that is a sign that the FTL drive is malfunctioning."

Every star sector aside from frontier ones was surrounded by barriers that inhibited FTL travel. Whether these were natural formations or created by aliens in the past, humanity had mastered the ability to strengthen these higher-dimensional walls.

According to the Big Two, separating star sectors by erecting these barriers was a form of defense against invaders. Any alien empire that declared war against humanity would be forced to chew through one star sector after another. It was impossible to bypass them and reach the core of human civilization right away!

The fact that these same measures also made it harder for humanity to travel across the galaxy did not seem to bother the MTA and CFA. Ves personally thought that the powers that be actually wanted to keep space peasants in their place.

Those who were capable of crossing into other star sectors should either be galactic citizens or those connected to them. Ves and the Larkinson Clan easily met the qualifications to travel across the galaxy.

In fact, the Larkinson Family also managed to cross over in this star sector. He knew that Uncle Ark and the rest of the old family had somehow managed to enter the Garlen Empire in search of protection and employment.

Though Ves felt a little worried about his relatives, Ark was not a reckless leader. If the Larkinson Family thought it was safe to enter a second-rate state, then they should not be exposed to danger.

It was just a bit difficult for Ves to shake his worries. He did not have a lot of positive experiences interacting with powerful organizations and factions. The Garlen Empire might be a powerful monolithic state on paper, but it was actually divided into many squabbling tribes and clans. The Cross Clan was just one of thousands of organizations that struggled for power.

As Ves slowly got over the wonder of entering into a different star sector, he occupied himself with ship-related matters.

Running the Spirit of Bentheim was a heavy responsibility. So many people and parts were moving around at the same time that he admired Captain Vraken for her ability to stay on top of everything.

As they talked about the lackluster training progress of the Larkinsons who were supposed to replace the Hexer trainers, an alarm suddenly sounded.

"What is the matter?!" Captain Vraken questioned the sensor officer.

"We're reading a massive incoming FTL translation signal! An unknown fleet is arriving within the vicinity of our position!"

Ves briefly paused. An unsettling feeling swept over him. Was it a coincidence, or…?

Another alarm sounded.

Major Verle had immediately raised the alert level to yellow, which meant that the Larkinsons had to be prepared to meet any dangerous situation!

Thousands of mechs preemptively deployed into space In the span of a couple of minutes. The Glory Seekers and the Cross Clan automatically followed suit.

As Ves tried to figure out whether he should be worried or not, the unknown fleet had finally transitioned into the star system!

"Alert! We have identified eight capital ships and an unknown number of sub-capital ships, but no less than fifty!"

The arriving fleet arrived a fair distance away from the expeditionary fleet. It would take at least a couple of hours for the two fleets to enter into engagement range.

"According to our calculations, the unknown fleet can reach us in less than 4 hours, which is less than the maximum time it takes for all of our starships to cycle their FTL drives." Captain Vraken informed Ves. "In my judgement, this is not a coincidence."

As the sensors finally resolved more details from the arriving ships, the sensor officer cried out in fright!

"WE HAVE IDENTIFIED FIVE OF THE EIGHT CAPITAL SHIPS! THEY ARE ALL FRIDAYMAN FLEET CARRIERS!"

Shock immediately swept across the bridge.

Chapter 2637: Reviving the Larkinson Family

The Friday Coalition had come to attack the Larkinson Clan. There was no doubt about that.

The sudden Fridayman fleet did not hide its identity. The fleet carriers proudly announced their identity through their IFFs!

Just to be sure, the sensor officers attempted to match the emissions, silhouettes and other observed details to the Hexer database of known Fridayman capital ships.

All of the data matched! There was a very high chance that the IFFs announced the truth.

undefined"These fleet carriers are special." Grand Captain Vraken told Ves. "The Eager Condemnation, the Auralis, the Amagi, the Forward Momentum and the Orca Tyrant are all built to perform raids in enemy territory. They are incredibly valuable deep strike carriers!"

"What?! All five of them!?" Ves reacted with alarm!

"It's true. With their extended-range FTL drives, if they didn't manage to intercept us here, they would have caught up to us eventually. In fact, there is a significant chance that this strike force has already attempted to intercept us while we were still travelling through the Komodo Star Sector."

A weight pressed upon his heart. Ves did not need any clarification to realize that the Friday Coalition's deep strike fleet carriers did not venture all of the way out here to have a picnic with the Larkinson Clan.

The Fridayman were out for blood!

"Wait.. only five out of eight of the capital ships are identified as Fridaymen ships, correct?" Ves frowned. "What about the other three? Where do the sub-capital ships accompanying these huge vessels hail from?"

"I think the Cross Clan can explain that better than us." Captain Vraken replied.

Sure enough, the Hemmington Cross hailed the Spirit of Bentheim. The grand captain instantly accepted the request.

The projection of Patriarch Reginald Cross appeared into view. The man looked as if he was only a few steps away from bursting out in anger!

"Larkinsons!" The Vicious Mountainer shouted. "Our blood enemies have come to finish the job! The foul Planat Clan and the craven Praetor Clan will do everything in their power to complete their betrayal on us. Will you stand with me and fight against the foes that are arrayed against us? Let me warn you that this will not be an easy fight!"

This was not a simple courtesy call. On the surface, Patriarch Reginald was merely stating the obvious. The three fleet carriers and the fifty-odd combat carriers had all been dispatched by the old enemies of the Cross Clan.

With the enemies capable of catching up to the Golden Skull Alliance, there shouldn't be any question whether battle was inevitable.

However, this was not the only option. If Ves absolutely wanted to avoid battle, he could command his clan to evacuate from the starships that needed longer than 3 or 4 hours to cycle their FTL drives.

That effectively meant abandoning every sub-capital ship aside from the lightest vessels!

While the Larkinson Clan would have to abandon a lot of valuable ships and mechs, by transferring all of the personnel to the Spirit of Bentheim, Ves could easily take the factory ship away on account of her multiple FTL drives.

Even if it took a whopping 18 hours for the Spirit of Bentheim to cycle an FTL drive, she had two additional ones that were more than capable of bringing the factory ship away right this instant!

Still, was this what Ves wanted to do?

No.

As Ves studied the data on the enemy fleet, he roughly estimated that it shouldn't have brought too many mechs. In fact, he was pretty sure that the Golden Skull Alliance was able to muster at least several thousand more mechs!

Of course, there was always a chance that enemy reinforcements might drop in the vicinity at any moment. Vicious Mountain was the home star sector of both the Praetor Clan and the Planat Clan. The implication here was that the two archenemies of the Cross Clan may have invested way more ships and mechs than had currently appeared!

Ves inwardly shook his head. He could not let his imagination go wild during a crisis moment. He needed to address the immediate problems right away!

He straightened his back and faced the Cross Patriarch with the dignity of a clan leader!

"My brother. We are honored to fight by your side. Let us band together and baptize our alliance in the blood of our enemies! From this day onward, your enemies are my enemies!"

"Well said, Patriarch Ves!" The older man released a bloodthirsty grin. "I care nothing for the Komodo War, but if the Fridaymen are conspiring with the Praetors and Planats, our Cross Clan shall not let them go! We have run away from our enemies for too long. Now that my surviving clansmen have rested and replenished their strength, we shall no longer scurry away like frightened mice. If we do not make the two traitor clans bleed at least once before we depart, we are not Crossers!"

The transmission closed, leaving Ves to stew over the implications.

There was a chance the Cross Patriarch might have put up an act in front of Ves. If the Crossers made a deal with the enemy, they were in a prime position to screw the Larkinsons over.

Ves didn't think this was the case, though. For one, the Praetor Clan and the Planat Clan used to be part of the same tribe as the Cross Clan. When Saint Hemmington Cross led the Becker Tribe, the Praetors and Planats meekly followed the lead of the aggressive ace pilot.

However, once Hemmington Cross died and the Becker Tribe was pushed back by rivalling neighbors, the former subordinate clans viciously stabbed the Cross Clan in the back!

There was no way the Cross Clan would ever forgive the despicable clans! Even if Patriarch Reginald wanted to collude with the Praetors and Planats, his subordinates would not let this come to pass!

In fact, it was much more likely for the rank-and-file Crossers to have second thoughts. Patriarch Reginald was not just a clan leader, but also a high-tier expert pilot!

Expert pilots were incredibly principled. Unless they possessed a shady background, they were always upright and honest. From his brief talk with Patriarch Reginald, Ves did not sense a single sign that the Cross Patriarch was being dishonest!

Ves turned to Captain Vraken, who nodded.

"My impression is that Patriarch Reginald Cross is determined to fight the enemy fleet. Don't take me at my word, though. Your clan needs to perform an extensive analysis. In fact, we all need to make extensive preparations. Let us take care of the most time-sensitive priorities first."

"Very well. Please do whatever is necessary to stabilize this ship and prepare us for battle!"

When Major Verle shifted the fleet to yellow condition, the Larkinson fleet had already begun to orient away from the arriving enemy fleet and accelerate forward. The Glory Seekers and the Cross Clan had both followed suit.

The Golden Skull Alliance was trying to distance itself from the incoming fleet.

Unfortunately, the enemy fleet arrived in a favorable position. They were already fairly close. Combined with their other advantages, the leading elements of the enemy fleet ought to be able to catch up to the Golden Skull Alliance in 4 or so hours.

If the expeditionary fleet did not attempt to fly away, then it would take a lot less time for hostilities to commence.

In fact, if the Larkinsons and Crossers were really spoiling for a fight, they would have turned their ships in the opposite direction and fly straight at the incoming enemies!

That was a stupid course of action. The intercepting party had clearly made more preparations for the battle. In contrast, the Golden Skull Alliance had only been moderately alert to the possibility of encountering enemies.

They were not running away. They were buying time to prepare whatever was necessary to increase their chances of winning the upcoming confrontation!

Every single Larkinson, Glory Seeker and Crosser became fully roused.

Mech technicians and mech designers were in the process of tuning up mechs.

Mech pilots were undergoing preliminary briefings where they learned about how the Fridaymen, Praetors and Planats fought and how to counter their fighting styles.

Sensor operators and intelligence analysts worked together to observe the enemy fleet as much as possible in order to gather vital clues about the enemy battle strength.

The senior officers were either in the process of calming down and organizing the men or planned out the impending battle.

Ves did not immediately interfere aside from ordering his subordinate mech designers to make themselves useful. There was little point in keeping them inside the design lab during this crisis. He wanted them to join the maintenance crews and do their best to figure out how to tune up or strengthen the mechs that the Larkinson Clan would soon be putting on the field!

Four hours was not a lot of time, but it presented the defenders with enough of a buffer to increase their battle readiness by at least 10 percent!

As Ves was about to start an emergency meeting with Major Verle and the other senior military officers of the clan, he received an unknown call.

He had a feeling who it was. He diverted to a private office and accepted the call.

Venerable Ghanso Larkinson projected into existence. A smug and confident expression appeared on the treacherous expert pilot's face.

"Ghanso." Ves growled.

"Hahaha! You didn't expect us to drop by, did you, Ves?"

"You have shown your true colors at least. You finally can't resist. It's not enough for you to sell out your fellow family members. The Fridaymen have finally succeeded in corrupting you. Only the most depraved people in the galaxy would ever turn their weapons against their own family! You're a kinslayer, Ghanso!"

"YOU'RE WRONG!" The expert pilot burst out! Satisfaction quickly made way for anger as Ves had precisely targeted his sore point! "Your clan is a farce! Not a single member is a Larkinson! You and the traitors who have turned your backs against the family. What gives you the right to claim our heritage? As for the tens of thousands of deluded foreigners who have joined your clan, they are only Larkinsons in name! Not a single drop of Larkinson blood flows in their veins. They have never been brought up in our ways. You are all pretenders!"

Ves looked shocked. It was one thing to reject the adopted members as actual Larkinsons. It was another thing to consider the trueblood members as fake Larkinsons as well!

Ghanso's mentality had become so warped that he did not identify himself with any Larkinson anymore.

Even though the expert pilot claimed to be the purest Larkinson alive, every other Larkinson considered him to be a whackjob!

Ves turned around and stretched out his hand. Nitaa passed over the Larkinson Mandate.

Once he held the book, he briefly concentrated his mind and tried to focus on Venerable Ghanso.

As expected. The Larkinson Network failed to connect with his treacherous cousin. Ghanso hated the clan so much that Goldie simply couldn't find anything common enough to form a bond!

The realization put Ves in a strange mood. He shook his head. "You poor fellow. You don't know how far you have fallen. It's not us who are wrong. It's you who has gone astray!"

"Your lies will not sway me from my noble cause!" Ghanso spat. "The True Larkinson Family will rise again, and the first step to doing so will begin today! Once I wipe out your clan, I will confront Uncle Ark and the remaining Larkinsons. If my misguided relatives recognize their faults, I will generously lead them back into the light. If they have fallen to darkness, then I will wipe them out just like I will erase you from existence! Even if I am the last Larkinson alive, I shall assume the role of the second Larkinson Ancestor. Our heritage and our bloodline shall not die out as long as I survive!"

Ghanso was utterly determined to revive the original Larkinson Family no matter the cost!

"You…" Ves was momentarily rendered speechless. "You're utterly mad!"

Chapter 2638: Fight or Flight

An important meeting began in one of the smaller conference rooms aboard the Spirit of Bentheim.

Due to the lack of time, everyone invited to the meeting showed up via projection. None of the senior leaders of the Larkinson Clan could afford to waste precious minutes walking back and forth.

An incredibly heavy mood swept across the entire expeditionary fleet. No one smiled or joked around.

The projected figures that appeared into view looked much larger and more dangerous than before. Shortly after the alert level had been raised, every Larkinson changed out their service uniforms for more protective gear.

undefinedMost ship ratings and officers donned hazard suits and carried sidearms. Security officers and infantry soldiers set off to guard the most critical sections of their ships in full combat gear.

Even if the enemy fleet needed at least a couple of hours to close in on the Larkinsons, no one loosened their vigilance. The Friday Coalition fielded a professional military that was highly developed and highly trained in many aspects. The Fridaymen could easily be sneaking infiltrators and saboteurs at this very moment!

It was better to be safe than sorry. The slight inconvenience that came from wearing bulky suits was nothing compared to the protection they offered against explosions and surprise attacks.

Ves showed up in projection form as well. He had descended down to his personal workshop shortly after listening to Venerable Ghanso's unhinged tirade.

He appeared while wearing his improved and streamlined Unending Regalia. Ever since he gained access to the ELKINE production line, he had rebuilt the roughest parts of his personal armor and corrected all of the irregularities due to relying on Lucky's teeth to cut Unending alloy.

With a cape draped over his armor's shoulders, he had fully transitioned his look from a clan leader and mech designer to a war leader and survivor of many battles.

"Meow."

Lucky appeared as well, because why not. His appearance briefly attracted a lot of eyes due to his darker body. Ves had put the latest version of the Misfortune Harness onto his cat.

Just like he did with his personal gear, had fully redesigned and streamlined the Misfortune Harness so that its combination of B-stone, Unending alloy and stealth materials covered nearly every surface!

If Lucky kept his mouth closed and retracted his claws, the cat should not be able to release any energy emissions that gave his presence away!

Still, despite feeling proud of his craftsmanship, Ves was not deluded enough that this upcoming battle would be decided by personal combat.

If Ghanso's Charlemagne fired its rifle directly at Ves, the Unending Regalia may survive, but its wearer would be unable to withstand the immense transfer of heat and energy!

Jutland organ or not, there was no way the energy of an attack that was capable of piercing through mech armor could be resisted by a half-alien body!

The difference in scale was too big. Ves pointedly recalled how Dr. Jutland foolishly challenged a mech with his body.

The power of a single human was nothing in a battle between mechs.

Ves knew he would have to rely on the forces he established and nurtured over the years to make it past this crisis.

He looked around the conference room. Though the other projected Larkinson looked as grave as him, they did not lose their fighting spirit. Even if they knew that they had fallen into an ambush of sorts, their battle intent hadn't been doused.

Instead, the looming threat intensified their determination. Their eyes burned with indignation. The Larkinson Clan was already leaving the Komodo Star Sector. Why must the Fridaymen come and start a fight? No matter who won or lost today, a lot of Larkinsons were bound to lose their lives at the end of the day!

This was an unavoidable tragedy, and that made every Larkinson even angrier.

"I know that time is short, so let's make this quick." Ves announced as he swept his gaze to the other projections. "That said, we can't skip over any critical issues. Against a foe like the Friday Coalition, we must come up with a comprehensive plan that leverages our advantages as much as possible. We cannot underestimate our foes."

The Larkinsons and Hexers nodded their heads.

Aside from inviting Major Verle, his staff and the mech commanders of the Larkinson Clan, Ves also roped in the Glory Seekers and some other Hexers.

Mech Colonel Ariadne Wodin led the Glory Seekers. Grand Captain Ancilla Wodin commanded the Indigo Tremor. Both of them looked very formidable and exuded much more fighting spirit than the Larkinsons.

Their archenemies had come.

Aside from Ves, the Larkinsons didn't harbor a strong vendetta against the Friday Coalition. It was different for the Hexers. With the Friday Coalition gaining the upper hand against the Hexadric Hegemony as of late, the Glory Seekers did not wish to hand another victory over to their enemies.

Every Wodin knew full well what was at stake! Even though their nominal mission was to safeguard Gloriana's life, the Glory Seekers could not stand by and let Ves be killed or taken away. Their failure might irrevocably cause the Hegemony to lose the Komodo War!

Major Verle silently nodded to Colonel Ariadne Wodin. In this critical situation, he did not dare to bet that he was capable of directing this battle.

The two had briefly corresponded before the meeting.

Colonel Ariadne was more than twice as old as Major Verle and possessed at least four times as much knowledge of second-class mech warfare. She knew the Friday Coalition battle methods by heart and always kept up to date on how the Fridayman fought in the Komodo War.

The only shortcoming was that she did not understand the strength of the Larkinson Clan, but Major Verle and the other Larkinsons already covered that aspect.

"If no one objects to my appointment, I shall assume overall responsibility over the Glory Seekers and the Larkinson Clan for this active engagement."

It was important to establish a clear chain of command and put the best people possible in charge. Neither Ves nor any of his Larkinsons quibbled over letting Hexers interfere in their business this time.

They knew their limits. The Larkinson Clan was too new at this scale and class of warfare.

That said, it was not as if Colonel Ariadne could command the Larkinsons willy-nilly. She was doubtlessly aware that she needed the buy-in of the Larkinson Clan in order to keep her command. Therefore, she could not afford to act like any arrogant Hexer and ignore the input of others.

"Let me begin by making sure we are on the same page." The older woman who belonged to the same generation as Constance Wodin spoke. "Our highest priority for this engagement is to keep Miss Gloriana Wodin and Patriarch Ves Larkinson alive and out of the hands of the enemy. Everything else is secondary. If necessary, we must be ready to discard all of our mechs and sub-capital ships. We can still avoid a total defeat by evacuating every Larkinson and Hexer to the Indigo Tremor and the Spirit of Bentheim before relying on their multiple FTL drives to flee from the enemy."

"How are we supposed to run?!" Commander Cinnabar of the Battle Criers questioned. "According to your own sources, we're facing at least five deep strike carriers! Once they have gotten onto our tail, we'll never be able to shake them off! The Fridaymen just need to calculate our destination from our transition orientation and emissions before heading there first to set up an interdiction field. No matter if our capital ships have two FTL drives or three FTL drives, none of them will have any chance of activating as long as there is too much gravitic turbulence at our emergence site!"

Everyone's hearts sank as they realized that fleeing prematurely did not necessarily guarantee their safety.

One of the advantages of extended-range FTL drives was that they reached the same destination faster as a regular FTL drive.

Any of the 5 deep strike carriers was capable of overtaking the Spirit of Bentheim and the Indigo Tremor even if they departed an hour later!

"This is not an absolute certainty." Grand Captain Daria-Maria Vraken noted. "The enemy must make detailed and extensive observations of the FTL transitions at close range. As long as we place our other ships in the way and generate as much interference as possible, it is likely that the enemy fleet will not be able to figure out our route. However, if we choose to give up this confrontation and run, we must do so quickly."

Major Verle looked grim. "We'll have to give up on the grand expedition if that is the case. The involvement of the Praetor Clan and the Planat Clan suggests that we might encounter hostile Vicious Mountainers if we insist on our original route. The safest option is to turn back and return to Hexer-aligned space. While the Fridaymen may have been sneaky enough to slip 5 deep strike carriers all of the way out here, I doubt they sent any other forces."

Ves shook his head. As long as there was a chance they could win this battle, he did not want to turn back. He had spent so much time, money, resources and effort to organize his grand expedition. How could his expeditionary fleet shirk back at the first sign of difficulties?

The Larkinsons had run away too often. Even if these were cases where discretion was the better part of valor, Ves did not want to make running away the default strategy of his clan!

Besides, if Ves ran back to the Komodo Star Sector, he would become even more dependent on the Hexers than before! If he returned to the Hegemony's doorstep like a beaten dog, he predicted that his clan would become more Hexer than Larkinson over time!

All of these reasons and more caused Ves to reject the option of running away before the battle even started.

"We will not consider fleeing until we have no other choice." Ves announced, silencing the ongoing discussion. "The Fridaymen have come with fewer ships, which means their strength is likely within the range that we can handle. When the enemy planned this operation, I doubt their planners possessed a full grasp of our strength. We can still take them by surprise with the methods and solutions we have developed in the last year."

Every Larkinson accepted his decision. The Glory Seekers agreed as well.

Colonel Ariadne nodded. "If that is the case, then we will not avoid a confrontation at all costs. However, in the event the enemy gains the upper hand, our most vital ships must be prepared to evacuate at any time. I suggest we prepare the Indigo Tremor and the Spirit of Bentheim for emergency transitions. In order to minimize our losses, we should also order all civilians and non-essential personnel aboard our smaller vessels to transfer to our capital ships."

Everyone quickly agreed. This was a logical course of action. Every sub-capital ship in the expeditionary fleet only possessed a single FTL drive, which severely hampered their ability to escape enemy pursuit. It shouldn't be too much of a problem to accommodate tens of thousands of extra passengers aboard the Indigo Tremor and Spirit of Bentheim.

Of course, there was no guarantee that their escape plan would succeed. The Fridaymen went through all of this trouble to target Ves. They would never let him get away like this so easily!

After quickly discussing all of the ways they could flee and minimize their losses in the event of a loss, the discussion finally turned to how they planned to prevent that from happening.

Colonel Ariadne projected a list that outlined the suspected assets of the enemy fleet. "Our observers and analysts have been working hard to estimate the combat strength of the strike force. We have combined the data we have gathered with our understanding of how the Fridaymen fight and organize themselves. We have also tried to get into the heads of the enemy commander in order to figure out how they plan to gain the upper hand in this battle. After doing all of this, we believe their strategy is simple. They plan to beat us with quality instead of quantity."

When Ves took a glance at the estimated assets and battle strength of the enemy, he grew a bit less confident.

The Golden Skull Alliance was probably able to field thousands more mechs, but the quality of the enemy forces was uniformly high!

Chapter 2639: Quantity and Quality

"Before we begin to study the enemy combat strength, it is useful to take stock of our own fighting capabilities first." Colonel Ariadne Wodin of the Glory Seekers stated.

She called up another projection that outlined the numbers of the Larkinson Clan, Glory Seekers and the Cross Clan.

While the Crossers weren't invited to this meeting, they still sent a basic summary of their strength. Whether it was accurate or not, it at least gave the others a good idea of what their allies were capable of in battle.

"The Larkinson Clan possesses 94 second-class Hexer-built combat carriers." Major Verle began. "While our combat carriers are not up to military standards, they come fairly close to them. While the tech is at least fifty years out of date, their defensive capabilities are mostly sound. Each combat carrier boasts at least 3 to 6 bunkers. We also have the Spirit of Bentheim."

undefinedCaptain Vraken took over from here. "The Spirit of Bentheim is a ruggedized factory ship with enhanced defenses. She can play a key role in the upcoming battle. With her 80 bunkers, her powerful shield generators, her resilient hull plating and her armored prow, she can partially function as our defensive bulwark."

They had little choice but to make use of the Spirit of Bentheim in the upcoming battle. Ideally, the Larkinsons did not want to expose their precious factory ship to enemy attacks, but without any other capital ships at their disposal, they did not have the luxury to set such a powerful ship aside.

Major Verle moved on to summarizing their mechs. "After accounting for the recent additions to our mech roster, we are capable of deploying up to 4300 mechs at once. However, before you get excited, please note that around 3550 consist of second-class budget mechs. The only second-class mechs that are able to achieve parity against the Fridaymen mechs are 350 Transcendent Punishers and 200 Valkyrie Redeemers."

Ves felt a huge amount of regret right now. Due to his cheapskate tendencies, he refused to invest in higher quality second-class mechs during the reconstruction of his mech forces.

His logic back then was that an attack against his expeditionary fleet was too unlikely due to its size and numbers. Ves wanted to avoid wasting too much money by investing into cheaper mechs that didn't require a high upfront cost and wouldn't lose too much value when selling them off in the second-hand market.

In any case, once he completed the Bright Warrior IB and Ferocious Piranha IB designs, his clan would easily be able to solve this temporary weakness.

Unfortunately, The blasted Fridaymen refused to play along!

"Damn Ghanso and damn these persistent bastards!"

Ves mentally beat himself up for not splurging on more powerful mechs while he still could! While he wouldn't have been able to equip his mech pilots with second-class LMC mechs, he could have issued them mechs with comparable performance!

He knew quite well how much the disparity in quality put the Larkinson mech forces at a disadvantage.

In the past, it was usually Ves and his men who bullied their weaker and less organized opponents. The pirates of the Nyxian Gap largely fielded weaker and shabbier mechs that easily fell apart after getting attacked by a mech that cost at least thrice as much to produce.

The Nyxian pirates who piloted inferior machines had to expend a lot more effort in order to scratch a mech that belonged to the Larkinsons!

The only reason why the Nyxian scum came close to defeating Task Force Predator at times was because they were quite aware of their own shortcomings. The pirate lords knew that their infrastructure couldn't support higher-quality mechs and mech pilots, so they sought to increase their strength in other ways.

Arming themselves with weapons of mass destruction, building powerful warships and consorting with the dark gods were just some of the ways the pirates leveled the playing field!

Now that Ves ended up in the same position as the Nyxian pirates back then, he knew his forces had to adopt the same approach.

The only way to increase their combat strength was to cheat!

As Ves desperately listed out the possible ways he could give his side an edge, Colonel Ariadne briefly outlined the combat readiness of the Glory Seekers.

"We possess more mechs than a typical Hexer mech regiment." The old woman explained. "At the onset, we were already able to field around 2000 mechs. The recent addition of the Indigo Tremor has added 600 more mechs to our lineup. Right now, we are capable of fielding 500 Valkyrie mechs and 2100 mechs that are not any worse on average. Our other mech models are either military mech models or premium civilian models that are close to the former in performance."

That sounded quite strong! The Glory Seekers would definitely be able to fight a Fridayman military unit to a standstill if that was the case.

However, Ves remembered a very caveat about the mechs of the Glory Seekers.

"Colonel Ariadne, how many of the mechs of the Glory Seekers are optimized for space combat and how many of them are more suited for combat on land?"

The moods of many Larkinsons had lifted when Colonel Ariadne outlined the mechs of the Glory Seekers, but now that trend had reversed!

"Only half our mechs are truly spaceborn." She replied without hiding anything. "We are able to field 250 Valkyrie Interceptors and 1100 other spaceborn mechs. That doesn't mean our other mechs are incapable of contributing to the battle. Patriarch Ves, you know better than I that while our 250 Valkyrie Hurricanes are optimized to fight under atmospheric conditions, they can still put up a good fight in space."

That was true. The aerial variant of the Valkyrie Redeemer possessed more powerful flight systems in order to fight against gravity and resistance. The problem was that while the Valkyrie Hurricanes were still sealed against vacuum, they lacked some of the accommodations for space warfare.

Most noticeably, the Valkyrie Hurricanes were designed to disperse their heat in the air. Space largely consisted of vacuum so the only way the mechs could get rid of heat was through relying on thermal radiation.

Every other mech designed to fight under atmospheric conditions possessed the same shortcomings. This was why Colonel Ariadna suggested that they should deploy their landbound and aerial mechs close to the fleet.

Ves still wanted to palm his face, though. He disagreed with the Glory Seeker mech doctrine from the start. The Larkinsons would be spending most of their time in space. It was of great importance to make sure they could adequately defend themselves in space before considering anything else!

The Wodins did not think about that. Instead, they blindly copied some of the Hex Army's mech doctrines. One of them advocated that it was better and more efficient to field mechs that were dedicated to combat in a single environment.

While that worked on the scale of a mech army, it did not work as well in this case!

"Our aerial and landbound mechs will still be able to display most of their capabilities as long as the enemy comes to us." Colonel Ariadna confidently claimed. "Our aerial mechs possess good maneuverability, but their endurance is not as good. Our landbound mechs come with inbuilt boosters that grants them limited mobility in space. If that is not sufficient, we can issue floaters to our most immobile assets in order to make them useful."

Overall, the Glory Seekers were still strong despite these issues.

"What of the Cross Clan?"

Calabast spoke up. "According to the information they have supplied along with the intelligence we have gathered on them, the Crossers are stronger than the Glory Seekers. Due to their flight, the Cross Clan has gotten rid of almost all of their useless landbound assets. Our allies may have lost many other assets during the flight from the Becker Tribe, but they have replenished most of their battle losses during the time they resided in the Cinach System. The Crossers can field around 3200 mechs, all of which consist of military mech models or equivalents."

Just like the Glory Seekers, the Crossers were highly-trained soldiers. In fact, the Crosser mech pilots were comparable to elites. They made it through the decline and fall of the Cross Clan in the Garlen Empire and survived the long and ardous flight from the Vicious Mountain Star Sector.

Commander Casella Ingvar of the Living Sentinels gestured to the list that listed out the possible enemy assets.

"While our Larkinson forces are rather mixed in quality, the Glory Seekers and the Cross Clan should be able to match the mechs deployed by our enemies."

That was technically true.

"The five Fridayman deep strike fleet carriers are able to carry up to 2300 mechs in total." Calabast nodded. "The carriers of the Praetor Clan are able to carry around 2000 mechs while the ships of the Planat Clan should have brought up to 1800 mechs. Mind you, these numbers are either estimates or derived from external intelligence sources. You should take them with a grain of salt."

Ves rubbed his smooth-shaven chin. "Those figures shouldn't be too far from the truth. I have already taken a good look at their starships. I highly doubt that they can stuff 50 percent more mechs aboard their ships."

"The bad news is that both the Fridaymen and the Garlaners appear to have dispatched their elite mech units." Calabast cautioned. "We have tried our best to analyze our long-range sensor data. Based on the mechs that are patrolling around the enemy fleet, we are facing the crack troops of both states. This means that each of their mechs are at minimum comparable to the Valkyrie Redeemer in quality."

She may have overestimated the strength of the enemy, but neither Ves nor anyone else believed that was the case!

Without some form of advantage, the enemy strike force wouldn't have been so eager to launch an attack. Considering the nature of their operation, the Fridaymen alone should have definitely sent some of their best troops!

Colonel Ariadne brought up her greatest concern. "There is one more variable that we have yet to address. Expert mechs can completely change the course of a battle."

The Larkinsons all looked depressed. This just happened to be one of the areas that they were lacking in! While they possessed an abundance of expert pilots, they did not have a single expert mech in their possession!

"How many expert mechs are the Glory Seekers able to field?" Ves cautiously asked.

"...One. Just one." She replied in a subdued tone. "Venerable Brutus Wodin stands ready to resist the Fridaymen with the Star Dancer."

"..."

To be fair, against regular opponents, that was already enough. Private sector outfits normally didn't retain any expert pilots at all. A typical military mech regiment usually retained just a single expert pilot. It was already considered luxurious for a mech regiment to be watched over by two or three expert pilots!

"As for our allies, the Cross Clan has informed us that they are able to deploy 4 expert mechs. This also includes the expert mech of Patriarch Reginald Cross."

In total, the Golden Skull Alliance was only able to muster up 5 genuine expert mechs. Somehow, none of the people gathered here today believed the enemy strike force brought less than that!

Ves leaned forward. "The important question here is how many expert pilots the enemy has brought. Do we have any clues?"

Calabast shook her head. "It is not possible to ascertain how many expert mechs the enemy is hiding. We can't rely on old Hexer intelligence data because this is clearly a task force put together out of different elements from different Coalition partners. We can't determine what you want to know through long-ranged observations either because our enemies aren't stupid enough to show their hand early."

This brought a lot of consternation to Ves and the others! They needed to know exactly how many expert mechs they faced in order to prepare the right measures to resist so many extraordinary opponents.

Letting an enemy expert mech move around unopposed was one of the worst outcomes that could happen!

Seeing that no one attending the meeting was able to propose a means to determine the amount of enemy expert mechs they faced, Ves knew he had to resort to a desperate solution.

"Please wait." He told the others before activating his comm.

"You called, Bright Martyr?"

"You should know why I called." Ves spoke to the Living Prophet. "Tell me how much."

James frowned. "I told you over and over again. I am not your personal search machine. Do you know the difficulty of determining what you wish to know? If it is so easy to read the fate of our enemies, I would have been invincible during my first lifetime."

"Just cut the crap and tell me how much!"

"You will not be able to ask any other questions if you insist upon this request."

"I am sure! Now cough up the answer!"

A few minutes later, Ves learned what they faced.

The Friday Coalition trotted out 8 expert pilots.

The Praetor Clan brought 2 expert pilots.

The Planat Clan reluctantly contributed 1 expert pilot.

That amounted to 11 expert pilots and expert mechs in total.

Of those expert mechs, 1 of them was bound to be the Charlemagne, which was always accompanied by a mech company of quasi-expert mechs!

The destruction they could inflict on the enemy when they fought together was far more than what they could accomplish on their own!

"We're screwed."

Chapter 2640: Two Unpalatable Battle Plans

In summary, Golden Skull Alliance was able to field around 10,000 mechs.

The enemy strike force should have brought around 6000 mechs.

That was a substantial disparity in numbers, but Ves did not take pleasure in enjoying a numbers advantage. He knew quite well that around 3500 mechs that belonged to his clan were basically cannon fodder!

The disparity in quality was too big. The Valkyrie Redeemer was valued at around 400 million hex credits, while a typical Princess Jecka sold for 59 million credits.

undefinedThe old adage of 'you got what you paid for' applied here. The feeble second-class commercial mech models in the hands of the Larkinsons might be sufficient to fend off space pirates and ordinary riffraff, but they were quite inadequate against the crack troops of the Friday Coalition!

What was even worse was that the Golden Skull Alliance was badly behind in terms of expert mechs.

"Where did you get these numbers?" Calabast looked skeptical as Ves announced the numbers. "Don't tell me you…"

Ves loudly coughed. "AHEM. I cannot provide assurances that the enemy fleet has truly brought 11 expert mechs. However, I don't believe we can rely on other sources, so you can either believe what I said or make an unsubstantiated guess."

The choice was simple. Even though the source of this information was sketchy, the Larkinsons and the Glory Seekers instinctively felt this number should be close to the truth.

"It makes sense for the enemy to have brought so many expert pilots." Colonel Ariadne judged. "Ever since the Friday Coalition enlisted many foreign expert pilots, our enemies have been more liberal when it came to deploying them on dangerous missions. In fact, there is a good chance that most if not all of the expert pilots in the enemy strike force consist of foreigners. The Coalition can't risk its heroes. Its native expert pilots are not just combat assets, but also propaganda material."

While there weren't any Crossers in the meeting, Calabast had already studied up on the Praetor Clan and Planat Clans.

"It's impossible for the two Garlaner clans to bring too many expert pilots this time. Their Becker Tribe is practically a shadow of its former self. The Praetors and Planats have lost several expert pilots in previous conflicts, so they should prize their surviving ones more. Besides, they still need to keep most of their high-ranking mech pilots at home in order to avoid showing any further weakness than they have already done."

"Do you have more evidence to support your assumptions or are you just pulling facts out of thin air?" Commander Melkor of the Avatars of Myth expressed his skepticism.

He did not fully trust Ves' uncertain source nor put too much stock in Calabast's spurious guesses.

Calabast smirked at Melkor. "It just so happens that I have reasonable proof to back up my assessment. In the Garlen Empire, expert pilots are rulers and warlords. They do not hide in a carrier or military base for months on end. Garlaner expert pilots are greedy for power and eagerly exercise their authority. I have tasked my Black Cats to scour the news from the Becker Tribe. It turns out that least several expert pilots of the Praetor Clan and Planat Clan have not appeared in public for more than a month."

"The Garlaners could be playing a trick on us." Captain Vraken warned. "It is impossible for them to be ignorant of the fact that it is easy to track the whereabouts of their expert pilots through the news. If I was in their place, I would have employed some body doubles or just fabricate a number of false news articles outright."

The galactic net and the news couldn't be trusted. Not completely. As long as they fell into the hands of humans, they were always susceptible to human interests.

That said, these unreliable news sources still served useful indicators.

Ves crossed his arms. "It is very plausible for the Fridaymen to commit 7 to 8 expert mechs and the Preators and Planats to commit 3 to 4 expert mechs. That totals 11 expert mechs, which matches the number I gave earlier."

The Glory Seekers and Larkinsons became more convinced that they would truly be facing this many expert mechs.

It was difficult to maintain confidence when faced with such an awful disparity in numbers. Expert mechs may be different in quality and expert pilots always performed at different levels, there was no way the enemies brought any weaklings.

With just 5 expert mechs on the side of the Golden Skull Alliance, that meant that 6 enemy mech mechs could effectively terrorize the battlefield!

If the Fridaymen and hostile Vicious Mountainers abused their numbers advantage to gang up on Venerable Brutus and the Crosser expert pilots, then the chances of the latter surviving wasn't good!

Once the defending expert mechs fell in rapid succession due to being outnumbered, the enemy expert mechs would then be free to coordinate with the regular units to massacre the remaining opposition!

How could the Larkinsons and Glory Seekers possibly prevent this devastating outcome?

Colonel Ariadne Wodin did not lose her composure. She quickly came up with an overall gameplan.

"Ladies and gentlemen. Our opponents are powerful. If the enemy strike force managed to emerge right on top of us, then it is very likely they would have won. However, they have transitioned a bit further away, buying us precious time to prepare and plan ahead. We must utilize this opportunity to the utmost to thread the needle."

"If the number of estimated expert mechs is accurate, then we possess a powerful advantage." Calabast stated with a bit of confidence. "The enemy doesn't know that we know, so they should not be on guard against any special measures that specifically targets their expert mechs. Perhaps they think we are wracked with uncertainty right now because of our inability to determine how many exceptional machines they can bring to the field."

While that was true, the intelligence advantage did not offset the absolute disparity in strength. The expert mechs should not be easy pickings!

"To achieve victory, we can pursue two possible battle plans." Colonel Ariadne projected a drawing board where she quickly drew two different scenarios.

"First, we can allocate all of our expert mechs and as many standard mechs as we think can keep the enemy expert mechs busy. Their goal is not to defeat the Fridayman and Vicious Mountainer expert mechs. Their only purpose is to stall the enemy machines as long as possible. This leaves us with roughly an equal amount of mechs that we must employ to defeat the remainder of the enemy elite mech units as soon as possible."

In the example that she sketched, she basically squared off the standard mechs of the Glory Seekers and the Cross Clan against the standard mechs of the enemy strike force.

This should be an even battle at best, so there was no guarantee the Glory Seekers and Crossers could be relied upon to win this bloody clash.

A bit further away, the 5 expert mechs of the Golden Skull Alliance and all of the mobile mechs of the Larkinson Clan chased after the 11 enemy expert mechs!

It didn't take long for the Larkinsons to realize the ruinous outcome of this approach.

"Most of our war machines consist of budget mechs." Commander Casella Ingvar reminded everyone. "Their speed, armor, firepower and other parameters are grossly underpowered. Even if we throw thousands of them at a couple of enemy expert mechs, the latter enjoy absolute superiority. They merely have to rely on their superior mobility to prevent the weaker mechs from mobbing them while launching attacks at a distance with impunity!"

Ves added another reminded. "Don't forget about Venerable Ghanso Larkinson! One of those 11 expert mechs can't be judged according to normal standards! On the surface, the Charlemagne and the Scarra is just a single expert mech accompanied by a mech company of lesser mechs. In reality, Unit L can unleash massive firepower at long ranges with high precision. If we don't do something about those empowered quasi-expert mechs, they can easily wipe out all of the Larkinson mechs allocated to this mission by themselves!"

He was not exaggerating. There were several instances in the Komodo War where Unit L succeeded in wiping out thousands of enemy mechs when the Hexers failed to respond with expert mechs of their own!

"We don't have many options, Patriarch Ves." Colonel Ariadne carefully spoke. "While the mechs of your clan are grossly outmatched, the outcome will hardly be different if the Glory Seekers or the Crossers are tasked with keeping the enemy expert mechs instead. Their mechs are just slightly tougher cannon fodder when they face the unrestricted attacks of expert mechs. If we instead deploy your weaker commercial mechs against the elite mech units of the Fridaymen and Garlaners, then there is no hope for victory in either fronts."

The mech colonel's first strategy may seem callous, but it was the most rational way to allocate their troops.

The sound logic of this plan made Ves hate it even more. It basically justified the decision to use the vast majority of his Avatars, Sentinels, Battle Criers, Vandals, Penitent Sisters and Swordmaidens as cannon fodder against the expert mechs of the enemy!

No matter if the Larkinsons won or lost, they were bound to lose thousands of mechs and mech pilots at the end!

The Larkinson Clan could not afford to suffer another major loss after barely limping back from the Nyxian Gap! Ves could already imagine the Larkinson Assembly booting him out of office!

"What is the second battle plan?" He asked.

"It is essentially the reverse." The colonel replied and began to draw another diagram. "Instead of focusing most of our resources on the standard mechs of the enemy, we concentrate most of our resources on taking out the enemy expert mechs. The Glory Seekers and the Cross Clan will concentrate several thousand of our strongest mechs and mech pilots to annihilate them as quickly as possible or at least end their ability to affect the battle."

"What about the enemy standard mechs?"

Colonel Ariadne looked grim. "We cannot hope for victory on that front. We must rely on the mechs of your Larkinson Clan as well as any remaining Glory Seeker and Crosser mechs that we can spare for this task. Just as before, your job is not to achieve victory, but to pin the enemy elite mech units down so that they cannot inflict too much destruction elsewhere."

Her second battle plan was just as unpalatable as the first one. In both scenarios, the Larkinson Clan's mech forces would assuredly suffer horrendous casualties!

It couldn't be helped. The commercial mechs they fielded performed too poorly and the Larkinson mech pilots were nowhere near as skilled as genuine second-class mech pilots.

The cold hard truth was that the Larkinson Clan simply wasn't ready to fight a battle at this level!

As frustration welled up inside his mind, the rest of the Larkinson officers expressed their indignation at Colonel Ariadne's bloody strategies!

"This is absurd!" Commander Sendra of the Swordmaidens expressed her outrage. "We know what it is like to face expert mechs with ordinary machines. We will fall like flies while failing to inflict any dent on their spotless machines!"

Commander Casella Ingvar concurred. "Our Living Sentinels are not as courageous and disciplined as the rest. We cannot depend upon them to sacrifice their lives for the greater good of the clan. They will break and run sooner or later as the primal fear of death overrides their cognition."

"Our Penitent Sisters stand ready to fight no matter the cost." Commander Valerie Chancy declared in a fatalistic tone. "The Superior Mother shall lead us to victory, one way or another."

"Victory is everything." Captain Daria Maria Vraken emphasized. "No matter how many mech pilots your Larkinson Clan loses, as long as you win, the lives of tens of thousands of clansmen will be safeguarded. With the resources at your disposal, it should be easy to replenish the losses you have suffered from this engagement. Do not let your unwillingness to spend the lives of your soldiers hinder you from adopting a battle plan that gives us the best chance of winning this engagement."

"This is not a numbers game, aunt!" Calabast hit back! "We are talking about real lives, here! You can't treat our mech pilots like most Hexers treat their boys!"

Chapter 2641: Confidence of a Larkinson

The meeting descended into a shouting match.

It was a disgraceful sight.

Ves watched on as the projections of different commanders and military leaders exaggerated each other's positions and resorted to ad hominem attacks to drive their poin home.

"We are not cannon fodder! We are not cattle bred for the slaughter! Our meat is not tastier than yours!"

undefined"We will not agree to this disadvantageous arrangement that solely serves to preserve the lives of as many Hexers as possible!"

"Why do you deny the truth? Our mechs are better than yours? We have been second-raters for centuries and our mech pilots are far more able to fight against our Fridayman counterparts than yours. I don't care how many pirate warships you've demolished, but if we were in your place, we would have defeated those pathetic Nyxian pirates without suffering any losses!"

"YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT, WITCH!"

The dispute boiled down to determining the role of the 'weakest' force of the expeditionary fleet.

Aside from the prime mechs, Valkyrie Redeemers and the Transcendent Punishers, the remainder of the Larkinson Clan's war machines lacked the strength to compete with the other participants of the battle on an equal level.

It would have been fine if the attackers consisted of pirates, mercenaries or some other private organization. The Princess Jeckas, Vima Suns and Tamris Stellars were serviceable second-class mechs that not only possessed crushing power against third-class machines, but could also give mechs that cost twice as much a run for their money.

Unfortunately, reality wasn't fair. There was no rule that stated that every opponent the Larkinson Clan bumped into had to be on the same level.

The Fridaymen who must have plotted this ambush weren't stupid! If they could only afford to dispatch 5 deep strike fleet carriers, then they would definitely stuff them with the most powerful elite mech units they could afford to assign. They must have certainly made the best use of the limited capacities of the capital ships.

The Praetor Clan and the Planat Clan should be less committed. Both of them were in decline after the events that led to the fall of the Cross Clan. Yet they should still have brought enough strength to give them confidence in beating their former allies.

"Meow."

"Yeah, I know."

Both Lucky and Ves seemed to have been relegated to bystanders as Colonel Ariadne Wodin tried and failed to maintain her authority. She underestimated the independent and proud nature of the Larkinsons!

Letting her take the lead had been a mistake in hindsight. Ves had put too much stock in Colonel Ariadne's official qualifications and overlooked her Hexer tendencies.

The Hexers put a lot of stock in their hierarchy. The matriarchs at the top had to be obeyed and respected at all costs while the Hexers at the bottom had no choice but to obey.

It was different for the Larkinsons. Everyone was a valued individual. None of the senior leaders could unilaterally force an ordinary clansman to sacrifice their lives or anything. Such an order had to be conveyed in the form of a request.

These differences caused Colonel Ariadne to slam her head into a wall. As competent as she might be among Hexers, her exposure to foreign cultures was probably very slim. If she actually took the trouble to understand the Larkinsons, she wouldn't have presented her intentions in such a commanding manner.

Ves loudly clapped his hands. At the same time, he transmitted a command through his implant that muted everyone's voices.

"Peace!"

The Larkinsons and Glory Seekers all drew back and slowly regained their composure.

Both sides had shouted at each other with real emotion. Even though they were all adults who knew how to behave, the stakes were too high. There were many lives on the line.

The Larkinson Clan did not wish to lose all of its mech pilots. Even if their mechs were weaker than the rest, they could still contribute to the battle in other ways.

The Glory Seekers tried their best to seek the most optimal path to victory. Their overarching priority was to avoid an outcome that might trigger the defeat of the Hexadric Hegemony. Everything else was dispensable in their eyes!

Ves did not see any way of reconciling the two. One way or another, something had to give. He just needed to adopt an approach that did not rub either of them the wrong way. It was vital for him to maintain the trust and support of both if he wished to see this battle through.

"Time is short." He reiterated. "We cannot afford to squander precious minutes on childish squabbles. Let us consider the overall situation first. The two approaches presented by Colonel Ariadne are merely starting premises. The actual battle does not take into account the differences in mechs, the role of starships and bunker mechs, the effect of glows and the impact of prime mechs. The scenarios also assume that the enemy expert mechs will all detach from the main enemy body and operate separately."

Colonel Ariadne raised her hand. Ves allowed her to speak.

"Expert mechs usually tend to avoid fighting too close to their regular comrades. Fights between multiple expert mechs produce considerable amounts of collateral damage."

"Do the Fridaymen care about collateral damage this time?"

That was a good question. This was less of a concern in space due to the greater distances involved. In addition, depending on their overall goals, they might decide that suffering through some friendly fire was an acceptable price to increase their chances of victory.

"Colonel, it is not my intention to cast doubt on your plans." Ves reassured the Hexers. "Whether the enemy expert pilots will act separately or not, they still need to be constrained as much as possible. Our Larkinson Clan possesses no practical experience in fighting against expert pilots. I am sure that your Glory Seekers and our allied Crossers are much better versed in anti-expert mech tactics."

While it was theoretically possible for a lot of standard mechs to overwhelm an expert mech, the former had to adopt specific tactics in order to do so. This took training, discipline and a special kind of courage that allowed mech pilots to remain committed even as their friends and comrades dropped like flies!

If Ves looked at his own forces, then only the Penitent Sisters, Battle Criers and maybe the Swordmaidens met this standard.

This didn't mean he looked down on the courage and favor of the Avatars of Myth or Living Sentinels. He merely thought they weren't ready yet. Their martial traditions were too short and their mech pilots still had a long way to go until they reached the standard of true veteran mech pilots.

"Let's face it." He continued as he swept his gaze over his own Larkinsons. "The result of throwing our mechs and mech pilots against the enemy expert mechs is too unpredictable. Rather than assuming a responsibility that we have never prepared for, it is better to direct our attention on more familiar territory. Focusing our efforts on stalling the elite mech units of the Fridaymen and Vicious Mountainers will not be easy, but we Larkinsons are much better suited to take on this burden."

In effect, Ves threw in his support for Colonel Ariadne's second battle plan. In the event the Glory Seekers and Crossers managed to isolate the enemy expert mechs, the Larkinsons along with some limited support must do their best to pin down 6000 enemy elites!

"On the surface, we are not a match against the enemy mech units. However, we have a lot of tricks up our sleeve. We have glows while they do not. We have prime mechs that can unleash greater power than any other standard mech. We possess even more advantages that we can utilize to level the playing field! I sincerely believe that we do not have to settle for stalling the enemy mechs. Since Fridaymen, Praetors and Planats shouldn't be aware of our trump cards, I sincerely believe that we can defeat them! Do you agree?"

He unmuted everyone, allowing them to speak freely again.

Yet despite regaining the opportunity to speak, everyone kept silent. They did not entirely agree with him, but they did not want to oppose him either. His authority among the Larkinsons was still high. The hope he presented may sound far-fetched, but Ves had a track record of performing miracles in battle!

Even if it was irrational to pin their hopes on Ves, the Larkinsons had become accustomed to looking up to him to see them through a difficult battle.

The Glory Seekers looked bewildered as Ves managed to tame his own people. Why did he succeed where Colonel Ariadne failed?

Ves did not bother to explain. He briefly turned to their side.

"Colonel, please coordinate with Major Verle and whoever is in charge of leading the Crossers into battle. Let us take your second approach as the blueprint of our strategy and flesh it out into a more structured approach."

"Are you sure, Patriarch Ves?" She carefully asked.

"Our Larkinsons are up to the challenge. We are not as pathetic as we were back in the Nyxian Gap. We have evolved."

The rest of the meeting no longer held any suspense. Ves had decided on behalf of his clan in a way that expressed his confidence in his men. His mech commanders could hardly belittle their troops in this situation.

Though Ves adopted a confident demeanor, inwardly he was sweating bullets.

While he believed he had made the right choice, he knew that the disparity in quality of both mechs and mech pilots could not be bridged so easily.

His clansmen would definitely bleed this time! How much losses the Larkinsons suffered depended on how well he was able to stack the deck in their favor.

He did not participate in the subsequent discussions. He was still a layman, after all. He merely requested the Glory Seekers to put their 500 Valkyrie mechs at his disposal. He could make significantly better use of them than anyone else. He already had special plans for the Valkyrie Interceptors and Hurricanes piloted by the Hexers.

"The glows of the Valkyrie mechs are ineffective against expert pilots. Their wills are strong to let someone like the Superior Mother shake their resolve." Ves reasoned to Colonel Ariadna. "The mechs are designed to debilitate ordinary mech pilots. While the effectiveness of the Valkyrie mechs is reduced against elites, this is already a good result."

The old woman quickly acquiesced. "Very well. I will temporarily transfer command over them to you. Please take good care of their mech pilots. No matter what you think of Hexers, the women who pilot our Valkyrie mechs are earnest Wodins who are devoted to the Superior Mother and loyal to their mission."

That was all he needed from the Glory Seekers. He just needed to gain the support of a thousand or so mechs from Cross Clan in order to gain enough confidence in his own approach.

He did not contact Patriarch Reginald Cross directly. Instead, he made a quick call to Professor Benedict Cortez.

"Mr. Larkinson. What is it you want?" The former Skull Architect asked in an impatient tone.

Ves did not dare to say too much on this channel. "We have a plan to handle the enemy troops. We can't do this alone, though. We need the cooperation of the Cross Clan. Pretty soon, my staff will contact your side on a secure channel. Please do your best to encourage Patriarch Reginald to assign as many of his mechs to us as possible. We cannot assume our responsibilities alone."

"...I'll see." The Senior Mech Designer replied. "I will judge your plan for myself. If there is any merit to it, I won't mind giving you some help."

"Thanks."

"Do your best to strengthen your forces. Don't hold anything back. I don't want to see you fall because you are unwilling to expose your secrets."

"You don't need to tell me that." Ves frowned. "Watch carefully. I am certain my forces will astound you in the coming battle!"

Chapter 2642: Blessing Ceremony

The plan was set.

The Larkinsons, Glory Seekers and Crossers quickly came to a consensus. The greatest priority was to contain and eliminate the enemy expert mechs.

It didn't matter if the Fridaymen, Praetors and Planats adopted a different strategy.

With 5 expert mechs and around 4100 standard mechs, the Glory Seekers and Crossers would definitely succeed in forcing all 11 enemy expert mechs away from the main body!

undefinedVes actually didn't expect the Glory Seekers and Crossers to resolve the enemy expert mechs quickly.

Expert mechs were truly monsters on the battlefield, and their battle effectiveness couldn't be judged according to normal standards. Their vastly superior performance granted them a lot of agency in any battle.

Whenever expert mechs enjoyed an absolute advantage, then they would leverage their destructive firepower to the fullest in order to defeat as many enemies as possible!

When a swarm of standard mechs besieged the expert mechs, the latter could switch to adopting hit-and-run tactics. As long as the expert mechs tried their best not to get hit, they could easily whittle down their pursuers over time.

The general saying that 1 expert mech was capable of defeating 100 standard mechs was an oversimplification. The common saying only truly applied if both sides fought each other head-on! In practice, expert pilots rarely exposed their expert mechs to needless danger.

Therefore, even if the Glory Seekers and the Crossers vastly outnumbered and outgunned all 11 enemy expert mechs, there was still a possibility that the latter might come out on top!

"Such cases have happened in the past." Major Verle spoke to Ves after the meeting. "Ordinarily, we shouldn't worry too much, but there is one variable that puts everything in a different light."

"Unit L." Ves mentioned.

"Exactly, sir. The Charlemagne and the Scarra can either be utilized to eliminate opposing expert mechs quickly or be used to massacre hundreds of standard mechs in a short amount of time. The task of confronting the enemy expert mechs is not a light one. The only chance our allies can come out on top is to direct as much incoming firepower at their standard mechs as possible."

In the end, the Glory Seekers and Crossers could not avoid the fate of becoming cannon fodder either.

While Ves idly cradled Lucky's black-clad form, he put his mind away from this side of the upcoming battle. It was not his responsibility to worry about the enemy expert mechs. He and his Larkinsons assumed primary responsibility of blocking the way of 6000 enemy mechs.

The good news was that the 4300 mechs of the Larkinsons gained the support of 700 mechs of the Glory Seekers and 1000 mechs of the Cross Clan.

That amounted to 6000 mechs in total, which ensured they maintained numerical parity, at least at the start.

What was interesting was that some of the Glory Seeker and Crosser mechs consisted of heavy artillery mechs. The two allies basically loaned all of their bunker mechs to the Larkinsons. They also promised to coordinate the movements of their combat vessels to facilitate a defensive strategy.

This made a fair amount of sense. It was too dangerous to expose their starships against the enemy expert mechs. As long as just one extraordinary mech got close, they only needed less than a minute to take down a sub-capital starship!

It was much better to square off the defenses of the combat carriers against the standard mechs of the enemy. As long as they were being rotated, none of them should suffer any crippling damage, at least for a time.

Ves left the remainder of the battle planning to the professionals. Instead, he continued to tinker around a bit in his personal workshop. At the same time, he formulated the methods he could employ to give his forces an edge.

He first dismissed all of the illegal options. While it was possible for him and his production crews to fabricate some nukes or other controversial weapons, he did not wish to fall out with the Big Two.

He had to strengthen his forces in other ways. Fortunately, he still had plenty of options.

"Right now, the Valkyrie Redeemers, Transcendent Punishers and prime mechs are already enhanced to at least 25 Ves, which is a good starting point but not the limit."

By default, every LMC mech in the Larkinson Clan was spiritually enhanced right after they were fabricated. This was something that he personally arranged. Some mechs featured 50 Ves or more, but not enough.

"The Superior Mother has plenty of energy to spare." He muttered. "I should abuse that fact and fill up the mechs as much as their mech pilots can withstand."

Once he made up his mind, he instructed the Penitent Sisters to deploy their mechs in space in order to prepare for something special.

If possible, Ves wanted to bring all 200 or so Valkyrie Redeemers in the hands of the Penitent Sisters to the Spirit of Bentheim, but there wasn't space to accommodate so many machines at once.

"I can treat the Valkyrie Interceptors and Hurricanes of the Glory Seekers while I'm at it." He muttered.

He hadn't enhanced their mechs because he did not wish to give them any advantages over the Larkinson Clan. Due to the current crisis, he couldn't be so petty anymore. He had to grasp every opportunity to strengthen his odds as possible.

There was another reason why he wanted to bring all of the Valkyrie mechs in the expeditionary fleet together. Ves transmitted an order to Venerable Joshua to bring out his Valkyrie Prime too in order to complete the assembly.

After a bit of thought, Ves figured he might as well go all-out. He ordered a crew to bring out the statue of the Superior Mother from the Hexer shrine aboard the Spirit of Bentheim and drag it into space.

Once he boarded a shuttle that brought out of his flagship and stopped a couple of kilometers away, Ves checked the seals of Unending Regalia and looked at Lucky.

The cat's Misfortune Harness Mark III incorporated many upgrades from the previous version. It also possessed a smoother and more streamlined profile.

"You look quite good, but I feel like you're missing something."

"Meow?" Lucky tilted his head.

"Ah, I get it now! You need a cape!"

"Meow!"

"Oh come on, they're nice! They'll not only increase your stature, but also make you cuter!"

"Meow meow meow!"

"Okay, okay!"

Ves temporarily shelved his plan to affix a cape on the Misfortune Harness and stepped outside the shuttle.

He emerged out into open space. After a brief moment of disorientation, he quickly regained his bearings. His Unending Regalia was fully vacuum-sealed and possessed plenty of oxygen to keep him breathing.

He mounted a standard flight backpack module to the slot on the back of his custom-built suit. While he wasn't very proficient at controlling his flight, he managed to achieve a stable course towards the hundreds of Valkyrie mechs that answered his summons.

Every single Valkyrie mech formed a giant wall with plenty room in between. They respectfully maintained their position in front of the statue of the Superior Mother that a couple of shuttles had brought.

The Penitent Sisters and Glory Seekers were both Hexer in origin. They both worshipped the Superior Mother. Now that they assembled in front of the origin of the Supreme, every mech pilot fell silent.

The statue was just too special. After inexplicably being struck by lightning, it gained a special charm that Ves couldn't quite figure out. It happened to have an especially strong attraction to those who held the Superior Mother in their hearts.

While Ves floated forward until he stopped in front of the statue he made, Lucky used his own flight abilities to float around in a circle.

"Glory Seekers. Penitent Sisters. Venerable Joshua. Let me be frank. Each of you bears a heavy responsibility in the upcoming battle. While planning is still ongoing, your mechs shall constitute our main strike force against the elite mech units of our enemies. Do you know why? Because you are our sharpest spears on the battlefield!"

Every Hexer and ex-Hexer who listened to Ves over the communication channel felt proud at this. The Valkyrie Redeemer and its variants achieved considerable success in the Komodo War, so the mech pilots had faith their role would not be small in the coming battle!

"As part of our most powerful offensive unit against the soldiers of the Friday Coalition and the Vicious Mountainers, it is your responsibility to strike lethal blows against them. Every other mech and starship at our disposal will act as the anvil to your hammer. This is a glorious task, but also a heavy one. The enemy is well aware of the disruption that Valkyrie mechs can induce. They will be on guard against your attack runs and prioritize their counterattacks on your machines."

"We are not afraid!" Venerable Joshua responded. His Valkyrie Prime proudly raised its spear. "We will attack until there is no enemy left standing!"

"For the Superior Mother!"

The other Valkyrie mechs raised their spears as well!

Ves was surprised at how many of them followed suit. While Venerable Joshua managed to earn the respect of all of the Penitent Sister mech pilots, the Glory Seekers should have been more reticent.

However, it seemed they received orders beforehand. It could also be that the mech pilots assigned to the Valkyrie Interceptors and Hurricanes had already received extensive influencing from their machines.

In any case, their obedience made things easier for Ves.

"Your confidence inspires me, but confidence alone is not enough to vanquish our foes." Ves gestured to the statue. "In order to give you the advantages you need to defend our fleet, I will beseech the Superior Mother to grant you and your mechs an additional blessing!"

The Hexer mech pilots reacted ecstatically at his announcement! Even if they had no idea what form this blessing would take, they all believed that the Superior Mother's 'son' had the ability to channel her power!

Ves did not delay any further. He still needed to prepare a lot of other special measures.

He concentrated his mind and began to connect to the Superior Mother. He began to issue some instructions to the ancestral spirit.

It was much easier for her to extend her presence around the statue that birthed her. With so many Valkyrie mechs gathered together, there was no way for her to miss them all. The Hexer mech pilots all held their breath as they felt the statue come to life.

With the help of Ves, the Superior Mother started to channel her spiritual power to every Valkyrie mech barring the Valkyrie Prime.

The mech pilots felt as if their machines were changing before their eyes as some part of them became greater than before. This must be the blessing that Ves had promised!

This was the first time that Ves employed spiritual foundation enhancement on so many mechs at a time. He unilaterally commanded the Superior Mother to saturate every Valkyrie mech up to 75 Ves.

While he could have taken a more fine-grained approach, he didn't have the time to do so. 75 Ves was the most that ordinary mech pilots could bear as long as the mech wasn't hostile to them. If a couple of mech pilots happened to become disabled due to incompatibility, then that was a risk that Ves was willing to accept.

Fortunately, none of the mech pilots showed any alarming signs. While he became aware that many Glory Seekers began to feel some discomfort, this was merely because the transition from 0 Ves to 75 Ves was too abrupt.

This was why he performed this blessing ceremony first. He had to give the Glory Seekers enough time to adjust to their enhanced mechs.

Ves wasn't sure whether any of the mech pilots gathered here would break through during the battle. Enhancing their mechs increased the odds of this happening, but he did not hold out his hopes.

The Superior Mother channeled an enormous amount of spiritual energy at a time. Ves was quite impressed at her generosity.

"Are you happy with your blessing?" Ves smiled. "Well, don't leave yet, because there's more!"

Chapter 2643: Ves the Giver of Blessings

LMC mechs played a vital role in the defense of the Larkinson Clan.

Compared to other second-class mechs, Ves could do more with them than others.

If he had enough time to rework the Larkinson Clan's entire mech roster, then he would have been able to rely on more than Valkyries and Transcendent Punishers!

Unfortunately, the timing wasn't right and the enemy had come sooner than he anticipated. He had no choice but to pile up as many 'blessings' as he could conceivably think of in order to maximize the potential of the LMC mechs at his disposal!

undefinedAfter the initial mass blessing, the Glory Seeker and Penitent Sister mech pilots were curious at what Ves would do next.

They already felt stronger than before! The Glory Seekers especially became caught up in the illusions brought by the abrupt strengthening of their mechs!

However, Ves knew that the actual difference was not all that much. The mechs hadn't actually grown stronger on a technical level. The blessing only made their mechs a lot more alive, which would hopefully improve the performance of the mech pilots and give them a greater chance of breaking through.

While the latter was already a benefit that other mech pilots would kill for, the odds of this happening was too low. There were only a bunch of mech pilots with spiritual potential, so the chance of any breakthroughs was slim due to the low quantity of eligible individuals.

What Ves was really banking on was something else. He spread his arms and pushed them aside as if he was making a swimming motion.

"Alright, for the next blessings, I need the two of you to move aside."

Once the Glory Seeker machines flew away from the Penitent Sister mechs, Ves first turned to the latter group.

The Valkyrie Prime happened to be a part of this group as well.

"Hold still while the Superior Mother blesses your mechs once more." Ves commanded. "Please keep in mind that we are trying something new and unprecedented here. If you experience any discomfort, shut down your mechs. Do not take any risks. Not everyone is capable of bearing the burden of greater power."

He knew this was a useless warning. There was no way the Penitent Sisters would miss out on another 'blessing'!

He originally didn't plan to perform this experiment so soon. He still wanted to gather more data and perform more analyses before taking this step.

"Crises have a way of accelerating my experimental schedule." Ves sighed to himself.

The reason why he was reluctant to perform his next experiment was because it represented a pretty major shift in how he viewed and made use of mechs.

Up until now, the core principle of his design philosophy was largely invisible and unnoticeable. Hardly anyone really paid much mind to it. Even Ves unconsciously adopted the mentality of a normal mech designer sometimes.

That was going to be a lot harder to do once he made this move. Ves instinctively felt as if he could never turn back once he stepped on this path.

He gritted his teeth. "I don't have any choice! I can't hold back any longer when the enemy is almost at my doorstep!"

After firming up his resolve, he concentrated his mind yet again and began to perform a different procedure. He called upon the Superior Mother and beseeched her to open up her battle network.

Her crown shone. The ancestral spirit's battle network began to form 200 new connections at once!

Once the open-ended connections had formed, Ves carefully guided them forward and caused them to reach into the Valkyrie Prime and the Valkyrie Redeemers piloted by the Penitent Sisters.

One by one, Ves meticulously attached the newly-forged bonds to the spiritual foundations of every respective mech.

He only established a single connection at the start. The Valkyrie Redeemer in question seemed to undergo some fluctuations that made its mech pilot uncomfortable, but the activity soon subsided.

"It worked.. I think."

He felt half-relieved.

While the Superior Mother was already connected to the mech by virtue of her position as the design spirit of the Valkyrie Redeemer design, this was not as impressive as it sounded.

What Ves was attempting to do was to form a stronger bond between the two. The Superior Mother's crown was a spiritual network that was especially designed to provide assistance in battle. It was his spin on Master Huron's neural network and originally sought to bind Larkinson mech pilots together.

When he created his battle networks, he worked on the premise that they were solely meant to unify humans in battle.

Yet… why limit his selection to mech pilots? Why not pull in their mechs as well?

This sounded absurd at first. Ves very much doubted that Master Huron extended his neural networks to mechs as well! The Fridayman Master probably treated the mechs that support neural networks as vehicles for his inventions.

Ves adopted a different perspective. He believed that mechs were alive. If that was the case, it should be possible to add them to the same battle network their pilots were connected to! Even though the mechs were completely different entities from their mech pilots, Ves theorized that the man-machine connection should have smoothed over these differences.

When a mech pilot interfaced with a mech, the person essentially became the mech and vice versa!

Another way of describing this situation was that his battle networks were currently being underutilized. He only connected half of the entities who were supposed to fight.

It was like fielding a bunch of calvarymen without horses! How could these mounted warriors ever put their training and battle prowess to good use when they were deprived of their steeds?

Ves faintly suspected that adding the mechs to the same battle network would result in a comprehensive increase in power of battle formations!

It was too bad that this was not the time to see the results. It was very costly to activate a battle network. Ves could not afford to tire out his mech pilots when they needed to perform at their best a couple of hours later.

Since the first bond took shape without any head explosions or other unfortunate accidents, Ves quickly bonded the rest of the mechs. When he connected the final spiritual bond to the Valkyrie Prime, Ves took stock of the machines.

From now on, the Valkyrie Prime and the 200 Valkyrie Redeemers were truly blessed! In fact, in theory, the mechs should be able to form a battle formation even if their mech pilots weren't connected to the network.

Ves didn't dare to try it out, though. There were way too many uncertainties.

"Alright, you're dismissed." He conveyed to Venerable Joshua and the Penitent Sisters. "Please return to standby and make sure your mechs are in peak condition at the start of the battle."

Once the mechs flew away, Ves flew over to the Glory Seeker side.

The Glory Seekers acquired more Valkyrie mechs than the Penitent Sisters due to their greater numbers. They fielded around 500 of Valkyrie Interceptors and Hurricanes, which was quite a big commitment.

Naturally, it was unrealistic to expect the Glory Seekers to abandon their other mech models. They still needed knight mechs, rifleman mechs, light skirmishers and other mech types to perform different roles.

"Hexers." He addressed the Glory Seeker mech pilots. "What I am about to do is extend two different 'blessings' to you. To be more precise, the Superior Mother and I will be blessing both you and your Valkyrie mechs. Please be aware that up until now, we have never extended this much generosity outside of the Larkinson Clan. We grant you this power in the hopes that you will use it to defend me and my clan. As long as you succeed, you and your mechs may keep these blessings. If you fail… well, there is no need for us to take them back."

While he couldn't see the faces of the Glory Seeker mech pilots, Ves believed they all looked solemn.

He didn't quibble over the fact that he sounded like a cult leader right now. He needed to ensure maximum cooperation from the Hexers. If he had to package his spiritual techniques as 'blessings' in order to get his point across, then so be it! He would even call himself a god if that was what it took to beat his hateful cousin Ghanso!

His approach was wildly successful, of course. The Glory Seekers had already invested their faith into the Superior Mother, the mech pilots of the Valkyries most of all. The sudden enhancement of their mechs only reinforced their beliefs even more!

Under their cooperation, Ves calmly coordinated with the Superior Mother to forge a thousand bonds at once.

For a moment, he worried whether the Superior Mother's crown could endure the strain of sustaining so many new connections.

It turned out his worries were unfounded. He might be justified in his concerns if the Superior Mother was weaker, but that was not the case. With so many Hexers presenting their spiritual tribute to her, the ancestral spirit had grown incredibly powerful. As a spiritual construct, her crown grew as well, allowing it to sustain many more active connections at once.

The process was tedious and exhausting more than anything else. Ves had to be fairly precise in directing the ends of the spiritual bonds to the right destination.

Once all 500 mechs Valkyrie mechs and mech pilots gained a connection to the Superior Mother's battle network, Ves floated back a bit. The Glory Seeker mechs hardly looked different than before, but he knew that every Glory Seeker possessed a more intimate connection to the Superior Mother.

"The power that you have gained will enable you to borrow the Superior Mother's strength in battle." Ves kept his explanation vague. "Be aware that there is a price to calling upon her power. I will not tell you how to activate this new ability beyond telling you that you must all clear your mind of distracting thoughts as much as possible and pray to the Superior Mother while battling the enemy. If you and your fellow mech pilots are devout enough, then you may be fortunate enough to unleash her wrath on our enemies!"

"We will not let the Superior Mother down!"

He dismissed the Glory Seekers and flew back to his shuttle. Once he and the precious statue of the Superior Mother returned to the Spirit of Bentheim, he exited his vehicle.

Instead of leaving the hangar bay, he moved to the side where all of his current prime mechs had been gathered.

The Valkyrie Prime just lined up next to the Bright Sword Prime, Bright Spear Prime, Bright Sword Prime, Piranha Prime and the Shield of Samar.

The expert pilots waited right in front of their respective machines. Each of them wondered why Ves had gathered them here. Shouldn't they be preparing for the upcoming battle in their own way?

As Ves approached the prime mechs, he silently lamented his lack of expert mechs.

Properly speaking, his expert pilots deserved to pilot true expert mechs. It was only due to lack of time and resources they ended up with prime mechs instead.

He did not dare to field the prime mechs against the expert mechs of the enemy. The strength disparity was too great! The shiny Larkinson mechs would just be obvious targets that Venerable Ghanso would probably be able to snipe with ease.

Instead of putting his expert pilots and his prime mechs in a disadvantageous situation, Ves thought it was better to deploy them against the regular elites of the enemy strike force.

"What did you call us here for, sir?" Venerable Orfan impatiently asked.

"I'm doing you all a favor by making your mechs more powerful. This won't take much time, but I need to perform a secret procedure in person. Just stay here while I visit the cockpits of your mechs one by one."

Ves did not waste any further time on satisfying their curiosity. He proceeded to activate the antigrav function of his Unending Regalia and floated inside the cockpit of the Valkyrie Prime.

Lucky had followed suit. His black-clad head curiously looked around the cockpit and the decorative reliefs that had been carved on the walls and ceiling.

Each relief inside an LMC mech told a fantastical story that was meant to put the mech pilots into a more compatible mood with their mechs.

"Well, let's get this over with." He muttered.

He first closed the cockpit before activating the jammer built into his Unending Regalia.

After making sure that the Valkyrie Prime was completely offline, he opened a secret storage compartment inside his personal armor.

His armored fingers carefully fished out a very familiar-looking pouch.

"Meow?"

"You guessed it right. I wanted to save them up, but…"

It was foolish to keep Lucky's gems in reserve because he wanted to save them for a future opportunity. If Ves didn't use them now, he might not have a future anymore!

"Now which gem should I use first?"

Chapter 2644: Recognizing Value

Lucky's gems always tempted Ves. They strengthened mechs through inexplicable and seemingly magical means.

The System's vague descriptions and names for them only furthered their sense of mystique. Ves could hardly fathom the principles behind these tiny but incredibly influential objects. He couldn't even begin to figure out how a gem cat, a sentient mechanical creation, could possibly convert a lot of minerals into these extraordinary objects.

Ves was determined to crack their secrets some day. He knew that now was not the time, though. He already tried to utilize many different scanners on them, but none of them had ever produced any useful clues. The 'tech' behind these gems was too advanced. A simple Journeyman like him wouldn't even be able to get his foot in the door.

"I'll probably have to wait until I reach Master before I can begin my studies." He muttered.

undefinedEven then, it was doubtful if he could make any significant progress at that level of strength. His specialty did not lie in gems. While he felt that they might be related to spirituality in some way, the gems worked too well in isolating that aspect from his perception.

Before Ves pulled out his gems from his pocket, he suddenly paused and turned to Lucky.

The black-clad gem cat idly floated inside the cockpit. Lucky sniffed the controls and curiously eyed the alloyed surfaces.

"Lucky."

The cat turned around his head. "Meow?"

"We're in a difficult situation right now. Don't you think it's time you contributed to our defense?"

"Meow?"

"Don't act stupid! You know what I'm talking about!"

"Meow meow meow!"

No matter how much Ves cajoled or threatened Lucky, the darned gem cat simply wouldn't spit out a gem. What was taking him so long?!

"If you're suffering from constipation or something, then Dr. Ves here has a solution for you…"

As soon as Ves brought out a spare chunk of B-stone from another hidden pocket, Lucky's black-plated tail went ramrod straight!

"MEOW!"

Unfortunately, the bluff didn't work. Even the threat of suffering an awful belly ache did not prompt Lucky to go to the bathroom. Ves disappointingly put his B-stone chunk that he had prepared for this occasion away.

While he felt tempted to ram a piece of B-stone down Lucky's throat, that would only render his powerful commando cat useless in the coming battle. The timing wasn't good.

He had no choice but to turn his attention to his existing collection of gems. He grimaced as he thought of the options available to him. None of the gems he retained were as good as the ones he used before.

[Maiden's Affection]

The desire of an ancient maiden is locked within this gem. Increases the attraction of a mech by 40 percent to females.

[Bastet's Whisper]

The echoing whisper of a feline patron can be found within this gem. Enhances the acceleration of a tiger mech by 30 percent.

[Whipping Boy]

The fear of a boy towards women is encapsulated within this cursed gem. Increases the dread of a mech by 50 percent to males.

These three gems were supposed to be Lucky's ordinary products. Aside from the Bastet's Whisper which he couldn't utilize right now, the other two gems brought abnormal benefits.

For a long time, he considered them to be trash. They did not increase a mech's technical performance but instead changed the way that people regarded them.

Ves merely relegated them to masterwork mech tokens in his mind because of his low opinion of them. They held no other value pushing a high-quality mech over the threshold of masterwork mech.

This time was different. The current crisis forced Ves to reevaluate all of his assets. He realized what a fool he had been to look down on the Maiden's Affection and the Whipping Boy.

After designing the Doom Guard, the Valkyrie Redeemer and Ferocious Piranha, he discovered how effective suppressive glows could impact the battlefield. As long as the enemy mech pilots were susceptible to the negative influence of a glow, then it was truly worth it to invest in a mech that specialized in this aspect!

The existence of the three aforementioned mechs caused Ves to view gems that influenced human emotions in a different light.

An important question came to mind. "Do the effects of the gems overlap with the glows of my mechs?"

He wasn't too sure about that, but the implications were huge. If the Valkyrie Prime, which also possessed the iconic Marked For Death ability, frightened an enemy mech pilot to an extent, amplifying this effect by 50 percent could very well render the target completely frozen in fear!

If the gem and glow did not directly interact with each other, then it was still fine. The double effects would still produce a better result than normal due to their complementary effects.

Whatever the case, the Whipping Boy had suddenly turned into a hot commodity in his eyes. He actually resented Lucky for not producing more useful gems like these!

"I only have one to go around." He muttered. "Should I really use it up on the Valkyrie Prime?"

As much as Ves relished the sight of the Valkyrie Prime taking out the enemy champions one-by-one by reducing their mental balance, there was another prime mech that also possessed a suppressive effect.

If the Piranha Prime assigned to Venerable Tusa possessed the original glow of the Doom Guard, then he would have installed the Whipping Boy into its frame within a heartbeat.

However, ever since Nyxie died, the Doom Guard and Ferocious Piranha designs lost their primordial fear effect they were originally centered around. Now, the mechs produced an alternating disorientating glow that was based on different principles.

"What a shame." He shook his head. "If the Piranha Prime still possessed its old glow, the Whipping Boy would have turned it into a terror that could disrupt the enemy battle formation."

As a result, the Whipping Boy gem appeared to be the most suitable for the Valkyrie Prime. Ves briefly thought what Venerable Joshua would think about piloting a mech that was blessed by a gem with such a denigrating name.

"It doesn't matter! I'm not going to tell him anything!"

Just as he unfolded the small tools embedded into his Unending Regalia in order to install the Whipping Boy, he briefly paused. His pouch held much more than three gems. It was just that their origins and descriptions were too vague.

[Minor Chaos Remnant]

An infinitesimally small remnant of chaos is captured within this gem. Increases the penetration of any sharp melee weapon wielded by a mech by 40 percent.

[Unstable Chaos Essence]

A terrible essence of chaos is locked within this gem. The essence is stolen from a great and ancient horror that would dearly wish to regain it. Carry this gem at your own risk.

[Antithesis Essence]

?

The Minor Chaos Remnant at least sounded useful, but the other two gems left Ves completely speechless!

He could only guess at their effects, but the good news was that he wasn't completely left in the dark. He once utilized a pair of Unstable Chaos Essence gems in his wedding rings. He also transformed a bunch of Highly Unstable Chaos Essence gems into spiritual bombs which produced potent blasts during the Battle against the Abyss.

These so-called chaos gems were filled with volatile but powerful energy. Ves believed they could be harnessed, but so far he lacked the courage to embed them in any of his mechs.

"They should be safe enough." He guessed. "Every gem that Lucky produced so far is geared towards empowering mechs. These chaos gems should not be any different. It's just that I can't predict what effects they will bring. What if they bring harm to the mech pilot as well as the opponent? What if they have a corrupting effect?"

Lucky produced a substantial amount of chaos gems while travelling through the Nyxian Gap. The dark and twisted environment somehow affected the gem cat's output, which meant that the gems definitely contained a lot of ominous energy!

Together with other clues, this interaction also proved that Lucky's products were heavily influenced by the environment he was in, but Ves wasn't paying attention to that at the moment.

"I don't have enough gems to go around." He muttered. "I have 6 prime mechs and only 3 usable gems with defined effects. While I'm afraid how the chaos gems will affect the mentality of my expert pilots, I shouldn't underestimate their mental fortitude."

Expert pilots were famed for their abnormally strong wills. Ves was actually quite hopeful that the corrupting influence of the chaos gems might bring about a stimulating effect instead. It was similar to how inducing prime resonance and true resonance allowed expert pilots to exercise their resonance strength.

Of course, that was just wishful thinking.

Ves made the decision to utilize the chaos gems despite the risks. Whatever happened to his expert pilots in the future, right now he needed to add an immediate boost of power to as many mechs as possible!

"Let's get this over with first."

He installed the Whipping Boy gem into the Valkyrie Prime. The mech did not appear to be much different aside from gaining a small but invisible boost in quality.

As Ves eventually emerged from the cockpit, he turned around to take another look at the mech.

The machine did not look more intimidating to him. Joshua needed to activate its Marked For Death ability in order for the Whipping Boy to exert its true value.

Ves looked forward to witnessing that moment.

He proceeded to install the other gems.

The choice of gem for the Bright Sword Prime was very obvious. The Minor Chaos Remnant possessed an incredibly valuable effect of increasing penetration.

While Ves briefly contemplated using it on the Bright Spear Prime instead, he eventually opted to augment Venerable Dise's mech.

The Swordmaiden fighting style depended heavily on cutting through mechs. Ketis also specialized in sharpness and tried to turn that into a key advantage when she assisted him in developing the Bright Sword Prime.

With Venerable Dise's indomitable battle performance and aggressive fighting style, she could easily bring distress to her opponents!

Of course, defense wasn't her strong suit. If the enemy prepared to meet her attacks and employed containment tactics, then the Bright Sword Prime could easily become entangled before being attacked on all sides. It was up to Major Verle and the other commanders to prevent that from happening.

"Well, even if she gets surrounded, with an indestructible Unending alloy greatsword that is 40 percent sharper than before, she can probably cut her way out of an encirclement!"

After augmenting Venerable Dise's prime mech, Ves contemplated whether he should use up the Maiden's Affection. Compared to the Whipping Boy, the Maiden's Affection appeared to be mostly useful in boosting the morale of friendly Hexers.

"The Valkyrie Prime and the Bright Sword Prime were already the best opportunities to utilize this gem."

In his opinion, the third-best mech to use this gem upon was the Shield of Samar, but it already possessed a gem long before he turned it into a prime mech.

The other three prime mechs did not look like a good fit for the Maiden's Affection.

"Hmmm, maybe I should save it up for the Glory Seekers."

He decided to put away the Maiden's Affection and begin using his other chaos gems instead.

He entered the cockpit of the Piranha Prime and decided to embed it with one of his Unstable Chaos Essence gems.

"Since this mech possesses a suppressive glow, then adding a bit of chaos to the mix will definitely produce a surprising result!"

He could hardly imagine changes to the Piranha Prime's glow. If it worked out the way he hoped, Venerable Tusa would probably gain an even greater advantage at close-ranged combat!

The mere thought of this happening delighted Ves!

"Hahahaha! More chaos! More death! More destruction! Don't let any of those blasted Fridaymen get away with their sanity intact!"

Chapter 2645: Expiration Date

After augmenting the Valkyrie Prime, the Bright Sword Prime and the Piranha Prime with some remarkable gems, only two more prime mechs awaited their prizes.

As Ves entered the cockpit of the Bright Beam Prime, he brought out another Unstable Chaos Essence gem.

Yet before he installed it into the mech, he paused and directed his gaze back to his pouch.

The contents of his pouch had dwindled. Aside from the Maiden's Affection and a small amount of Unstable Chaos Essence gems, it also contained Lucky's latest products.

undefinedVes slowly put back the gem he had originally brought out and pulled out a different gem instead.

It immediately stood out for its round shape with sharp spikes sticking out from the surface. Ves happened to possess two of these unusual gems.

"Meow!" Lucky hissed as he flew back at the sight of a spiky gem!

Ves chuckled. "Your guts must have gotten quite a workout to produce these abnormal gems!"

"Meeeeeow!"

He recalled that Lucky originally 'produced' a couple of Antithesis Essence gems after he attempted to cure his pet's indigestion problem.

The Nyxian Gap, Unending alloy and B-stone all combined to generate a pair of spiky gems with an ambiguous description.

[Antithesis Essence]

?

If not even the System was capable of deciphering their effects, then they must definitely be on a higher tier than his other gems!

The problem was that all of this potency was shrouded behind a veil. What if they brought harm to the mech pilot? What if their effects were conditional to specific circumstances?

At the very least, the Unstable Chaos Essence gems appeared to be a little more straightforward.

The few clues he had hinted to Ves that the Antithesis gems might have a surprising effect against spiritual entities and maybe expert mechs.

"The Nyxian Gap. Unending Alloy. B-stone. Antithesis. All of these put together will definitely not result in something weak!"

His first thought was that he should employ these gems into mechs that could be used to repel expert mechs.

"The Fridaymen, Praetors and Planats brought 11 expert mechs. Even if the Glory Seekers and Crossers do their best, they can't guarantee they'll be able to contain every enemy expert mech."

If just one of them managed to break through the blockade, the Larkinson mech forces would definitely experience much greater pressure!

Therefore, the Larkinson Clan needed to prepare a response against expert mechs.

While expert mechs could not be beaten so easily, it was still possible to hinder them by bombarding them from a distance.

"This Bright Beam Prime is already very suited for this purpose. I'm not sure whether its firepower is truly capable of inflicting damage to an expert mech, but it doesn't hurt to strengthen this capability."

The only downside was that the Bright Beam Prime was only capable of firing a total of three prime resonance-empowered shots in a single go. Ves essentially had to gamble whether an Antithesis gem brought enough power to make it worthwhile to expend such a precious but mysterious resource.

"Ahh, let's just do it!" He shouted in the cockpit! "I have a good feeling about this, and that is enough!"

When faced with inexplicable and uncertain circumstances, Ves usually defaulted to his intuition. Even though it did not send any positive or negative signals at the moment, it did not suppress his bold streak.

As soon as he installed one of his two Antithesis gems into the Bright Beam Prime, the mech seemed to experience a profound change. Ves carefully observed the mech with his regular and spiritual vision, but he failed to glean any clues.

"I'll just have to wait until the battle starts to see the results of my decisions." He muttered.

For the final mech, Ves briefly contemplated using his second Antithesis gem before shaking his head.

The Bright Spear Prime stood no chance against an expert mech at close range. He could make much better use of the Antithesis gem by embedding it into another ranged mech.

"I guess I'll use one of my remaining Unstable Chaos Essence gems, then. I hope Venerable Orfan is able to cope with this addition."

Every prime mech possessed a gem now. In order to prevent Venerable Jannzi from feeling left out, Ves entered the Shield of Samar's cockpit and pretended to do something. Once he emerged from the final mech, Ves told the expert pilots that he was done with the prime mechs.

"I can't tell you how your mechs have changed. While they have definitely become more potent in battle, I cannot determine the exact outcomes. What's worse, my actions may have introduced some side effects to your machines. Just bear with them. The power bestowed to your mechs is very much worth it. Our overarching priority is to defeat the enemies that intend to crush our clan and kill all of our comrades."

"We can bear any pain so long as we gain greater power." Venerable Dise stated in an indomitable tone. "We appreciate all of the help that you have given to us. The Fridaymen will taste our wrath on the battlefield!"

Ves smiled. "Well said!"

Now that he handled the prime mechs, Ves quickly moved to another section of the Spirit of Bentheim. In order to waste as little time as possible, he utilized the flight system of his Unending Regalia and rapidly flew through the hallways.

He eventually reached the mech stables where a number of Transcender Punishers were being readied for the upcoming engagement.

Ves happened to meet two familiar Ylvainans next to the Prophet's Fist.

"Bright Martyr. I knew you would come to visit." James Ylvaine greeted him with an exhausted tone.

"You look.. older."

The Living Prophet didn't seem so lively today. His pure white robe drooped over his listless body as if it was a funeral shroud. Wrinkles marred his previously youthful face and a portion of his slick brown hair had turned white.

This was a drastic change! Ves had met with James not too long ago. He looked around 10 to 20 years younger back then. How could the cult leader look so much closer to the traditional depiction of the Great Prophet as an old and wiser man?

"Power always comes at a price." James sardonically smiled at Ves. "Isn't that what you always said? Even transcendents cannot escape the law of conservation of energy."

Ves did not pay attention to how James managed to decipher some of his inner thoughts. He sensed a heavy weight had settled in the air. His spiritual advisor looked much worse off than before!

"Is it because of my request?" He asked.

"I told you, Ves. The fates of the strong are harder to read than the fates of the weak."

In other words, James Ylvaine sacrificed a lot in order to provide Ves with the intelligence he demanded!

"Is your condition permanent?"

The prophet nodded and patted his chest. "My sight is strong, but my body is weak. This vessel is too flawed. I am not the first to suffer from premature aging. So do not feel guilty for seeing me in this form. The body is just a channel for me to interact with our flock. If it expires, it expires. I have faced death many times before. It gets old after the first few times."

This was incredibly troubling talk! Ves gained so much information that he could hardly determine how much of it consisted of shameless boasting!

Ves was always aware that James, for all of his humanness, was actually a clone. Perhaps his interaction with Ylvaine's resurrected spirit may have given him more life, but that did not mean he suddenly turned into a normal human. At the very least, his physiological shortcomings still remained.

Due to overdrafting his power, James had brought his time of death a lot closer!

Ves didn't know what to think about that. It was partially his fault that James lost a significant amount of years of his life.

Even so, his forces truly needed to know in advance how many expert mechs they were about to face. The Golden Skull Alliance was able to prepare much more thorough countermeasures now that they knew what to expect.

For this reason, Ves did not regret his choice. It was absolutely worth it to sacrifice a single person's lifespan to obtain crucial information that significantly increased their odds of winning.

Besides, he knew that James was wise and clear-minded enough to know the implications of what he had done. If the Living Prophet valued his life more, then he would have refused to make the prediction.

"How long do you have left?" Ves softly asked.

"I cannot say. It might sound strange to you, but looking into my own fate is the most costliest prediction I can make. Before I can even get an answer, my body will definitely expire."

"I see."

Ves didn't understand anything. He hated prophecies. Not only were they rooted in superstition, they also implied that the future was fixed or that fate actually existed.

He did not believe in this nonsense. He was an adherent of free choice and the future was inherently chaotic. At each moment of time, there was an infinite amount of possible futures. While some futures had a much higher chance of coming true than others, the rules of probability taught him that the most likely outcomes were never guaranteed to happen.

James sighed and turned to gaze up at the Prophet's Fist. "It is okay, Bright Martyr. You do not need to entangle yourself with my future. Whether my body can persist or not, our flock does not need me anymore. They have you to turn to after I am gone."

"Prophet!" Taon Melin couldn't remain silent any longer. "What are you saying?! We still need your guidance!"

"You misunderstand, Taon." James gently shook his head. "I will never be gone. Life and death is just a cycle to me. Besides, it is high time that the faithful must learn to stand up for themselves. The galaxy will not remain tranquil forever."

"Prophet…"

"No more, Taon. You need to think about solving our current predicament before you should consider anything else. Bright Martyr, please proceed with your plan."

Ves nodded. He originally planned to ask James whether he could determine the effects of the Antithesis gem, but he decided to drop it. He did not want to waste the remaining charges of his human-shaped prediction engine.

He turned to the Ylvainan mech pilot. "Taon, your mech along with every other Transcendent Punisher will play a vital role in the coming battle. The firepower at your disposal is massive. Aside from our prime mechs and our Valkyrie Redeemers, our other second-class mechs simply don't have the firepower to efficiently chew through the armor of the enemy mechs we expect to face. Our general battle approach is to provide our heavy artillery mechs with as many opportunities to fire upon enemy elements as possible."

"We understand, Bright Martyr. We will do our best to shoot down each and every enemy mech even if they are expert mechs!"

"Good man." Ves lightly patted Taon's shoulder. "I'll be going ahead with adding something extra to the Prophet's Fist."

He issued the same warning to Taon as he did his expert pilots. The Ylvainan mech pilot had to be on guard against any possible negative side effects.

It did not take long for Ves to install the Antithesis Essence gem in the first production copy of the Transcendent Punisher. He was faintly afraid that the ominous Nyxian gem might have corrupted the previously pure Ylvainan mech.

However, just like with his other decisions, he didn't have the luxury of worrying about any potential sequelae. As long as the gems brought additional power, any price was acceptable!

As Ves was about to leave, he briefly considered doing something extra for the Ylvainans.

Should he establish a battle network for them? Ves briefly checked up on Ylvaine the design spirit.

He silently shook his head.

The design spirit of the Transcendent Punisher was too weak. There were too few Ylvainans providing him with spiritual feedback.

What happened to Ylvaine might also happen to the Superior Mother if the Hexers lost their foundation. Ves became more resolved to beat the enemy strike enemy force today.

He could not allow the Friday Coalition to succeed!

Chapter 2646: Not A Pauper Anymore

The visit to the Ylvainans put Ves in a heavy mood. Thoughts of mortality, losing and other heavy subjects filled his mind.

Lucky floated over to the shoulder of the Unending Regalia and perched upon it. "Meow."

"You don't need to worry about me." Ves responded. "I'm not letting myself get distracted for long."

Plenty of time had already passed. He did not have to wait much longer before the battle commenced.

undefinedIn fact, both sides were already capable of firing on each other's starships.

The capital ships of both sides were massive targets and it was not impossible to land hits on the larger sub-capital ships.

Even if it was difficult to maintain accuracy at stupendous ranges, sustained attacks from laser weapons could definitely inflict a lot of damage over time!

In fact, there was a very real possibility that Venerable Ghanso and his Scarra would start to siege the expeditionary fleet. Every single starship was on full alert during this time. They did not fly a straight course but weaved from side to side in random patterns. Yet no matter how much the starships tried to turn themselves into difficult targets, it did not change the fundamental truth that they were far too sluggish to dodge attacks that arrived almost instantly!

It was quite telling that the Fridaymen did not do anything during this time.

As a mech designer, Ves understood the reason why the incoming strike force withheld their fire. At longer ranges, the effectiveness of sieging an enemy fleet was questionable.

Too much energy would be wasted on missed attacks. Even if they hit, energy weapons were not famed for their penetration capabilities.

The combined fleet had already put its vulnerable support ships and civilian ships behind the bulk of better-armored vessels. The Spirit of Bentheim, the Indigo Tremor, the Antonio Cross and the Hemmington Cross were all incredibly beefy, and the sub-capital combat carriers were also tough in their own right!

What would happen if a few hundred energy beams struck any of those heavily-armored vessels?

It was virtually impossible for them to converge on a single point on a single ship! What would likely happen was that many beams would go wide. Those that managed to strike a ship would just sear different lines across the hull.

It was too difficult to keep any beam on a single point, especially when the starship that got struck was rotating along her axis!

Simply spinning around the hull was one of the best ways to mitigate incoming firepower. Such a response basically made it impossible for distant enemies to pile up their attacks on a single weak point and succeed in punching through several meters of thick hull plating!

While the starships in question would definitely suffer damage, the most important point was that it didn't result in any effective advantages to the attacking side.

What happened instead was that the sieging mechs would heat up considerably while expending lots of energy and other supplies. The conditions of the mechs would also degrade slightly while in use, preventing them from fighting in the main battle at their peak condition.

This was also why the Larkinson Clan did not order its Transcendent Punishers to open fire against the incoming enemy strike force. The rugged heavy artillery mechs were designed to cope with the stresses of extended engagements, but that did not mean they could maintain their peak condition over several hours!

Even if the difference amounted to just 2 to 5 percent, this might still be enough to tilt the outcome of a battle!

Besides, if the Larkinsons or the incoming enemies succeeded in taking down a starship, so what?

It was the mechs that decided the battle, not the vessels responsible for supporting them and bringing them to the right location!

The effort only paid off if the attacks managed to down a capital ship, but the chances of that happening was far too low. None of the capital ships in the Golden Skull Alliance were fragile and thinly armored.

Ves was actually grateful that he hadn't acquired a refinery ship or ark ship yet. He also patted himself on the back for his insistence on beefing up the defensive capabilities of his factory ship.

In fact, even if the Larkinsons already acquired a non-combat capital ship, they would just put other ships in the way.

"This quiet will not last forever, though." He grumbled.

Once the two fleets came close enough, he had no doubt that the space in between would become filled with deadly beams!

Ves eventually returned to his personal workshop. After clearing his mind of distracting thoughts, he checked his list for any measures he could still implement to gain an edge in the upcoming battle.

"I don't have many choices left." Ves glumly concluded.

While he had empowered a lot of mechs and mech pilots, he couldn't help but feel his preparations weren't enough. While his actions definitely improved his odds of winning, the battle could still go either way!

"I haven't exhausted all of my resources yet. I need to do more to give myself more certainty. It seems I can't avoid it any longer."

He looked around his personal workshop and entered an isolated compartment. He specifically ordered it built in order to provide him with a better venue than his bathroom to do his shady business.

"Lucky, please check if there are any bugs or anything."

"Meow."

"Nitaa, guard the entrance. Don't let anyone in no matter what."

His tall and silent bodyguard moved into place.

Once Lucky swept the small compartment, Ves relaxed and activated a mental command.

A shimmering comm materialized into existence. The comm briefly floated in the air before morphing into an opening in one of the vambraces of his Unending Regalia.

Once the comm integrated with his personal armor, Ves activated the Mech Designer System for the first time in many months.

The System instantly booted up. A flood of announcements scrolled past the projected interface. Ves ignored most of the information and only paid attention to how many Design Points he earned since he completed the design of the Blessed Squire.

[Design Evaluation: Transcendent Punisher TP-A-01-B]

…

[You have received 50,000 Design Points for completing an adequate original design that has no other equivalent.]

[You have received 50,000 Design Points for designing a mech with a high presence of X-Factor.]

[Valkyrie Redeemer Valkyrie Redeemer VR-A-01-B]

…

[You have received 50,000 Design Points for completing an adequate original design that has no other equivalent.]

[You have received 50,000 Design Points for designing a mech with a high presence of X-Factor.]

[Design Evaluation: Chiron CH-A-01-C]

…

[You have received 50,000 Design Points for completing an adequate original design that has no other equivalent.]

[You have received 50,000 Design Points for designing a mech with a high presence of X-Factor.]

[Your project involvement is lower than 50 percent. Your rewards for completing this design are halved.]

[Design Evaluation: Sanctuary SA-A-01-C]

…

[You have received 50,000 Design Points for completing an adequate original design that has no other equivalent.]

[You have received 50,000 Design Points for designing a mech with a high presence of X-Factor.]

[Your project involvement is lower than 50 percent. Your rewards for completing this design are halved.]

[Design Evaluation: Crystal Lord Mark II CL-A-02-C]

…

[You have received 50,000 Design Points for completing an adequate original design that has no other equivalent.]

[You have received 50,000 Design Points for designing a mech with a high presence of X-Factor.]

[Your project involvement is lower than 50 percent. Your rewards for completing this design are halved.]

[Design Evaluation: Ferocious Piranha FP-A-01-C]

…

[You have received 50,000 Design Points for completing an adequate original design that has no other equivalent.]

[You have received 50,000 Design Points for designing a mech with a high presence of X-Factor.]

[Your project involvement is lower than 50 percent. Your rewards for completing this design are halved.]

[Design Evaluation: Valkyrie Avenger VR-AA-01-B]

…

[You have received 10,000 Design Points for completing an adequate variant of an existing design.]

[Design Evaluation: Valkyrie Brunhild VR-AB-01-B]

…

[You have received 10,000 Design Points for completing an adequate variant of an existing design.]

[Design Evaluation: Valkyrie Interceptor VR-AI-01-B]

…

[You have received 10,000 Design Points for completing an adequate variant of an existing design.]

[Design Evaluation: Valkyrie Huntress VR-AH-01-B]

…

[You have received 10,000 Design Points for completing an adequate variant of an existing design.]

[Design Evaluation: Valkyrie Hurricane VR-AC-01-B]

…

[You have received 10,000 Design Points for completing an adequate variant of an existing design.]

As expected, The System awarded a hefty amount of DP for his major design projects. He received half as much Design Points for his minor design projects, but he did not have anything to complain about.

Ever since he learned how the System adjusted its rewarded based on involvement, Ves made sure he contributed at least more than 20 percent to any project. This ensured that the System wouldn't shrink his cut any further.

Compared to the DP he earned from designing his original mechs, the rewards for designing a bunch of variants really didn't amount to much!

"It makes sense, though. I spent much less time designing these variants."

He quickly checked whether he received any awards for developing his prime mechs, but the System wasn't so gullible. Despite discovering a new form of resonance, his stingy partner never paid attention to his innovations.

Only mech designs earned its appreciation, and they had to pass several thresholds before the System took notice of them. The Valkyrie Prime and the other prime mechs were too low effort to earn him any DP.

"Well, let's see how much progress I've made."

[Status]

Name: Ves Larkinson

Profession: Journeyman Mech Designer

Specializations: Spiritual Man-Machine Symbiosis

Design Points: 457,342

Attributes

Strength: 1.6

Dexterity: 1.6

Endurance: 2.0

Intelligence: 2.4

Creativity: 2.1

Concentration: 2.2

Spirituality: 2.1

Neural Aptitude: F

Skills

[Assembly]: Journeyman - [3D Printer Proficiency V] - [Assembler Proficiency V] - [Masterwork Mech Assembly III]

[Battle Mechatronics]: Journeyman - [Knight Mech Mastery I] - [Rifleman Mech Mastery I] - [Space Knight Mastery I] - [Hero Mech Mastery I] - [Light Skirmisher Mastery I] [Custom Mech Design III]

[Business]: Apprentice

[Computer Science]: Journeyman - [Mech Hacking III] - [Programming IV]

[Electrical Engineering]: Senior - [Structural Pathway Configuration V] - [Energy Storage V] - [Conductors IV] - [Ultracompact Energy Storage I] - [Power Reactors II] - [Dense Energy Transmissions I]

[Materials Science]: Journeyman - [Crystallography IV] - [Crystal Laser Propagation IV] - [Lithic Materials I] - [Heat-Resistant Materials I] - [Luminar Crystals III]

[Mathematics]: Journeyman - [Simulations V]

[Mechanics]: Senior - [Jury Rigging IV] - [Speed Tuning IV] - [Mechanical Fault Detection II] - [Fine Motion Control I] - [Heavy Mech Design III]

[Metallurgy]: Senior - [Alloy Compression IV] - [Fixed Armor Specialization IV] - [Flexible Armor Specialization I] - [Smart Metal IV] - [ASMAS III] - [Internal Structure Specialization II]

[Metaphysics]: Apprentice - [X-Factor V] - [Spiritual Senses II] - [Spiritual Exploration I] - [Spiritual Manipulation III] - [Spiritual Engineering III]

[Interfacing]: Novice - [Neural Interface Optimization I]

[Physics]: Senior - [Directed Energy Weapon Optimization IV] - [Gamma Laser Weapons II] [Lightweight Armor Optimization II] - [Mediumweight Armor Optimization IV] - [Melee Weapon Optimization IV] - [Polarizing Shielding II] - [Rapid-Fire Laser Weapon Operation IV] - [Optics IV] - [Ballistic Weapon Optimization IV]

[Propulsion]: Journeyman - [Flight Systems IV]

[Salvaging]: Apprentice - [Field Repairs III]

[Signals and Communications]: Journeyman - [Anti-Stealth Detection III] - [Active ECM Systems II] - [Passive ECM Systems II]

[Stealth and Cloaking]: Journeyman

Abilities

[Superpublish]: Available. Can be activated once a year.

[Inventorize]: Unavailable.

Evaluation: A competent Journeyman Mech Designer who has made progress in the mysteries of life, mechs and synergy.

Ves briefly smiled as he noted a lot of small improvements.

His Spirituality had grown to 2.1, which was slightly out of his expectation. He thought he might bump into a bottleneck or something, but if there was any, he easily surpassed this barrier.

Various Sub-Skills scored higher than before, reflecting his ongoing studies. He often referenced various textbooks while he was working on a design project. Gloriana always insisted that he should come up with better solutions whenever he bumped into challenging design problems.

He even gained a couple of new additions to his Skill List without redeeming them from the System.

"I can admire my mech design capabilities later." He reminded himself.

The only piece of data that was truly relevant to his circumstances was how much resources he could spend.

Ever since he completed the first round of mech designs, he earned several hundred Design Points at once!

This clearly reflected the benefits to expanding his Design Department. With more and more helpers at his side, he was able to output a lot more mech designs than before, thereby skyrocketing his DP earnings!

"I have over 450,000 DP at my disposal!"

He was no longer a pauper anymore!

Chapter 2647: Who Is The Test Subject?

His decision to expand his Design Department paid off. Now that Ves transitioned over to working on several mech design projects at a time, his productivity had skyrocketed. By letting his assistants perform the work that required the least brainpower, he freed up a lot of time which he could spend on solving the most critical design problems.

Certainly, there were downsides to this approach. His sense of ownership in his products had dropped. His lack of control resulted in suboptimal outcomes that he would have never produced on his own. He wore out his mind a lot faster due to the need to juggle many different mech designs at once.

Yet the benefits were worth it. Not only was he able to deliver many more mech designs to the people that needed them, he also gained the approval of the System in the form of Design Points.

Ves was well aware that the System's new incentive mechanisms encouraged him to design more mechs. It was set up in a way that silently told him that it was better to design a lot of mech designs in haste than to design a single extremely high quality mech design at a time.

undefinedTo put it simpler, the System valued the process and the experience of designing mechs more than the end product.

Ves directed a knowing look at the vambrace of the Unending Regalia that had integrated the System comm.

"You value me more than my mech designs, is that right? What is your purpose?"

Naturally, the System did not deign to answer him. He was already used to its attitude. Even if Ves insulted it, the System was way too stuck-up to pay any mind to his feelings.

As Ves experienced more of the galaxy, his perspective was not as limited as before. Beyond discovering the System's entanglement with his mother and the Five Scrolls Compact, he was becoming more aware of the interests that drove people forward.

Now that he looked back on the behavior of the System, Ves had become much more certain about his suspicions. He had become so dazzled by its incredibly advanced capabilities that he failed to think critically about its complete state.

It may actually be the Metal Scroll or a remnant of the long-lost Sacred Scroll, but it was definitely far from its prime. The Mech Designer System was very much flawed and rough to Ves. It was as if the Scroll had just cobbled it up together in order to present a different image. The fact that its mechanisms changed over time meant that the System was experimenting!

Just like how Ves experimented on his mech pilots, the System likely treated him the same way!

As a seasoned researcher, he knew quite well how dangerous it was to be someone's test subject. Sometimes, he felt as if he was beta testing a product for the Metal Scroll. A moment of carelessness could easily result in a head explosion!

Sweat poured out of his brow. His Unending Regalia automatically absorbed the moisture, but that did not lessen his fears about realizing that he was caught in another entity's experiment!

He slowly calmed down. He recognized he couldn't do anything about his suspected status. Experimenters always did their utmost to control every possible variable. They never let test subjects go out of control.

Besides, he didn't think the System intended to dispose of him after expending so many resources on facilitating his growth. That was an enormous waste and unnecessary to boot. Its ambiguous relationship with his mother gave him some guarantees as well. She would have done something if she believed the System was harmful.

Ves pushed these distracting thoughts to the back of his mind. While it was useful gain more awareness, he had to solve his immediate problems first before addressing other concerns.

"With over 450,000 DP under my belt, I've gained a lot more spending power."

He could have spent it on so many new Skills and Sub-Skills. Ever since he integrated his Archimedes Rubal implant, he expanded his brain capacity. While he still needed to pay attention to the compatibility of the knowledge he absorbed, as long as his design philosophy was okay with it, he could easily imagine boosting the quality of his mech designs even further by spending all of that DP!

"In fact, according to my original plan, I should be conserving these points until I accumulate 1 million DP."

He still yearned to unlock the mystery behind expert mech design. If the System kept its old reward structure, then he would have been able to afford it many times over by now. He wasn't too hung up over the changes because it was only a matter of time before he reached his target.

"I probably won't be able to earn 550,000 DP after completing the current round of mech designs, but I'll definitely get it done after completing the next round!"

Unfortunately, the enemy fleet forced his hand. Rather than sitting on his pile of accumulated Design Points like a hoarding dragon, he felt pressured to convert them into anything that would help him tide over this crisis.

His resentment against his cousin Ghanso and the Fridaymen rose even higher!

"Goddamn you bastards. You've effectively delayed my plans for a year. I'll never forgive you for setting back my masterplan!"

He navigated the interface of the System. As much as he wanted to delve into the Skill Tree, he resisted his urges and ventured into the Store.

He browsed through the catalog and tried to look for any useful categories.

He used to think that the Store charged exorbitant prices for its goods. Everytime he purchased something from it, he felt as if the Store was ripping him off. He wasted so much of his hard-earn DP on items which he could have used to improve his design capabilities instead.

He knew better now. The System was actually filled with a broad selection of advanced and incredibly expensive first-rate products that he couldn't obtain through normal means. A large proportion of the products it sold were exclusive to certain human factions and never saw the light of day.

It was natural for the Store to set its prices so high for these reasons. The Store essentially served to close the gap between him and eminent sons such as Jovie Armalon who enjoyed the best opportunities a mech designer could get from their organizations.

In fact, Ves even felt that the Store was subsidizing him by undercharging many of its products. There was no way that its Attribute Candies were actually worth a few hundred to a few thousand DP. The fact that he could obtain Candies tailored to other people basically implied that the System wanted him to develop a network of helpers, just like other high-ranking mech designers.

"Well, Store, do you have anything that can help me beat up a few thousand second-class mechs?"

He impatiently browsed through the projected storefront. He observed many products that offered a lot of personal conveniences to him when he was at work or when he was under threat.

He scrolled past mech designer equipment such as scanners, miniature fabrication modules, precision tools, anti-tampering gadgets, auto-designers and other equipment that would not look out of place in Master Willix's personal workshop.

Of course, none of these amazing tools were cheap. Anything worthwhile enough for him to acquire cost millions of DP. Ves had to forgo upgrading a lot of Skills in order to afford any of them. In the early stages of his mech design career, this was a stupid choice.

"I don't need the System to obtain these products." He muttered. "As long as I keep climbing up, I can obtain equipment that is just as good from the MTA or some other powerful organization."

Aside from professional gear, the System also offered a range of self-protection options. They ranged from medicine, infantry weapons, combat armor modules, stealth gadgets, communication equipment and optional upgrades to some of the aforementioned goods.

Ves spent several minutes exploring this broad category of weapons, armor and auxiliary products.

His eyes lit up as he spotted many incredibly useful modules that he could add to his Unending Regalia. Even if he wasn't a professional-trained soldier, he could turn himself into a deadly commando by stuffing his armor with all of these fancy additions!

"Yet…" His voice fell. "Why is there nothing here that will help me fight against mechs?!"

The scale of the products on offer was purely limited in scale and scope! Even the most expensive laser pistols that reminded him of the Amastendira were only incidentally able to threaten mechs.

The Store offered no wondrous weapons that he could directly mount onto one of his mechs!

Most crucially, it also declined to put any mechs or any other large war machines for sale!

As for ships, the Store only sold a relatively modest variety of ship components.

Its catalog of raw materials was also rather lackluster. The MTA offered a much greater selection.

The underlying message became clear to him. The System didn't want him to rely on its Store to resolve mech-based threats. A true mech designer was supposed to design, produce and field his own mechs!

If he couldn't even do that, he didn't deserve to keep the System.

"Then.. what am I supposed to do?" He frowned. "Should I splurge it all on lottery tickets instead?"

He felt tempted to do so. As long as he bought enough lottery tickets, he was bound to obtain something good.

However, the lack of control along with all of the randomness scared him off. Even if he gained something fantastic, his prize probably wouldn't be relevant to his current situation!

"Besides, they're way too expensive."

The System charged 20,000 DP for a silver lottery ticket and 100,000 DP for a golden lottery ticket. That was way too much considering that there was a significant chance that they didn't award any prize!

In the end, Ves disappointedly stuck to the Store and browsed the section on auxiliary modules.

Mechs and weapons were out of his consideration. He only hoped to redeem some augments that were primarily designed to improve his personal safety but could also be employed in mechs.

"If you think about it, equipment that is meant to be carried by a person can also be used as a miniaturized mech module!"

It didn't matter if he intended to use a machine beyond what it was designed for. A tool was a tool. As long as it worked, who cared whether he was breaking its warranty?

Which of his mechs should he upgrade? And what should he choose to upgrade?

"Unlike gems, these modules aren't installed permanently. I don't have to feel sorry about using them up. As long as they remain intact, I can always move them over to a better mech in the future."

After narrowing down his specifications, he still had a fair number of options to choose from. He struggled to select a suitable module that was useful enough while still fitting within his budget.

[Odineye - Long-ranged Omni-Sensor - Level 3]

Price: 400,000 DP

This compact sensor module is specialized in detecting and uncovering the data of any object, person or mech up to an extended range. It is compatible with targeting systems, analytical machines and many other devices that accept sensor input.

The level 3 Odineye is most effective within a range of 500 meters in unobstructed spaces, but gradually loses most of its effectiveness at 5 kilometers.

While he could have chosen a lot of other helpful gadgets, Ves eventually settled his mind on the Odineye.

"It's not the known threats I should necessarily worry about. It's the unknown threats that I truly need to be worried about!"

The Odineye's range might be short in the context of space battles, but its capabilities were undeniable. Not only was it able to detect all manner of stealth mechs and stealth vehicles, it was also capable of looking deep into the structure of mechs.

This effectively meant that Ves could employ the Odineye to expose all of the weak points of any mech! As long as the machine was incapable of blocking the Odineye's sight, then much of its vulnerabilities became visible.

This was invaluable information to a mech designer like Ves!

Chapter 2648: A New Eye

As its name suggested, the Odineye shared a lot of relations with the Vulcaneye.

Ves was very satisfied with the advanced handheld scanner that he had purchased from the System's Store a long time ago. Even though his larger workshop scanners performed much better, the Vulcaneye was unmatched in portability.

If he was willing to spend more DP to level it up, the Vulcaneye would definitely be able to scan and glean more useful data from the materials he possessed. He might be able to decipher better ways to utilize unusual materials such as Unending alloy, P-stone and B-stone with the help of an upgraded scanner.

"There are much better ways to spend my DP, though." He sighed.

undefinedUpgrading his Skills and Sub-Skills remained his primary focus. The Skill Tree not only allowed him to access knowledge beyond his reach, but also provided him with enormous time savings. Many mech designers would be willing to kill expert pilots or add taboo weapons to their mechs if that was what it took to gain more time!

"Time is the scarcest resource to every mech designer. It is constantly being spent, but it can hardly be supplemented. Even Star Designers wish they can buy more time for themselves."

The ability to exchange an imaginary currency for time was definitely the most useful and cost-effective benefit offered by the System. In a perfect reality, Ves wouldn't need to spend any DP in the Store.

Sadly, it was not to be. The cosmos was filled with danger. While danger brought many opportunities, such as thriving demand for mechs, it also inconvenienced the lives of many ambitious mech designers.

The Store essentially served as a vendor of last resort. He could obtain various useful goodies that he could use to get past an obstacle.

Of course, the premise was whether he earned enough Design Points to use the Store for its intended purpose. Ves continually needed to design a lot of mechs in order to be able to afford anything the System offered.

"What a slave driver." He muttered.

It was not as if he was doing anything different. The Larkinson Merit Exchange he set up within his clan was doing the exact same thing to his clansmen.

The most insidious aspect about these reward systems was that they didn't force anymore to play by the rules. They just aroused people's greed, causing them to voluntarily submit to exploitation on their accord!

The main reason why these unfair and unequal exchanges remained viable was because the alternatives were worse. Most people didn't have access to anything better, Ves included.

Ves shook his head. He was being way too paranoid and suspicious of the System lately. While he felt it was a good idea to remain skeptical, he lacked the power to actually do anything about his concerns.

He turned his attention back to the Odineye. For a sensor that was capable of providing very detailed observation data within a range of 5 kilometers, it was surprisingly small. The entire module was about the size of his palm if he left his fingers out of consideration.

He could easily free up some room on his Unending Regalia to integrate this 400,000 DP sensor system.

"Perhaps I'll do so after this battle. No stealthy bugger will be able to sneak up to me as long as it is working at full power!"

As Ves explored his curious new module, he quickly gained access to its control interface. He skimmed over the specifications of the expensive device.

He discovered various useful insights about the Odineye.

It turned out that its stated maximum range of 5 kilometers only applied to its main sensor capabilities. It was able to detect objects further ahead, but the resolution and amount of useful data was very limited. That meant that the Odineye might easily be able to detect an active mech, but it wouldn't be able to spit out a lot of useful details.

The second useful property of the Odineye was that it was very resistant against damage. While the sensor module wasn't as ridiculously tough as the Darkbreak module, it was still capable of withstanding a couple of direct second-class attacks!

"It's still breakable though." He frowned.

He would probably cry if a sensor module that was worth 400,000 DP broke in the upcoming battle!

The third property that Ves took notice of was that the Odineye was quite capable of detecting stealthed people and objects. Its performance against first-class stealth technology was actually rather bad, but it was probably capable of thwarting nearly every form of conventional second-class stealth system!

The reason why he added the word 'conventional' to that description was that there were bound to be a lot of alien and unorthodox stealth tech that might be able to sneak past the Odineye!

This was not a big deal to Ves. "No piece of tech is devoid of loopholes. It's already good enough that the Odineye is capable of doing so much at this level."

He didn't believe the Friday Coalition, the Preator Clan and the Planat Clan possessed anything advanced enough to fool the Odineye. This was probably a much greater concern once he reached the Red Ocean.

"Even then, I can just upgrade the Odineye to higher level to mitigate this vulnerability."

As much as the Odineye astounded Ves, not everything was great.

The biggest shortcoming was that the Odineye did not supply its own power!

The Vulcaneye scanner was a self-contained product. It was meant to be used on its own.

The Odineye was designed to be slotted into a suit of combat armor and draw power from a central source.

Normally, this wasn't a big deal. His Unending Regalia supplied plenty of power to its various modules and other systems.

This time was different!

"What a power hog!"

At its current state, the internal power supply of his Unending Regalia wasn't even capable of supporting the Odineye when it was at full strength!

Fortunately, the power consumption was only excessive relative to the human scale. The load was much more reasonable when utilized by one of his better mechs. Certainly, any machine that attempted to make use of the Odineye would have to take the increased power draw into account, but that was not a big deal in most battles.

"Besides, it doesn't have to be dialed up to maximum all the time."

If he just wanted to utilize the Odineye on his own, then he could just set a regular interval where it was active for only a couple of milliseconds or so. That was enough time for the sensor module to sweep the surroundings and detect any possible hidden threats.

In the remainder of the time, Ves could put it on a lower standby setting where its range and effectiveness was vastly reduced in order to minimize its power consumption.

"I have a lot of options here. This is a very versatile module."

He got what he paid for. He did not regret splurging 400,000 DP on this useful tool!

After gaining a good understanding of the basic capabilities of his new purchase, he began to delve a bit deeper into its configuration. He needed to know to what extent he could integrate it into other systems and devices.

Just as he expected, the Odineye was a very high-end product that was primarily designed to mate with other first-class gear. That said, it was designed to be widely compatible with both standard and proprietary connection standards, so Ves didn't have to worry about this problem.

"I can proceed with my plan." He grinned.

He immediately left his personal workshop and raced back to the hangar bay with Lucky following right behind.

During the journey, he briefly considered which mech he should integrate the Odineye.

The Prophet's Fist wasn't a suitable choice. As a bunker mech, it was fixed in place and was only able to make detailed observations up to 5 kilometers from the Spirit of Bentheim.

"This is completely redundant considering that heavy artillery mechs mostly rely on sensor data supplied by other mechs and ships."

What about the Bright Beam Prime? Venerable Stark's rifleman mech was one of his killer weapons. Once it came under the effect of prime resonance, the mech was able to fire incredibly powerful energy beams, but only a few times!

With three attacks before the mech ran out of juice, every shot counted. While Venerable Stark possessed superhuman marksmanship, she was limited by her mech. Adding the Odineye to her machine would grant her much greater accuracy.

Yet Ves still hesitated!

"It's not worth it to commit this precious resource on a mech that can fire just three shots at full power."

Besides, the battle plan called for deploying the Bright Beam Prime at the rear, where the Odineye was too far away from the front to resolve anything useful.

He rapidly went through his remaining options.

The Piranha Prime would definitely be a good choice. It would enhance its role as a scout and be able to transmit detailed observation and targeting data to other friendly forces. The ability to detect weak points would also be of great help in increasing its killing efficiency.

The Bright Sword Prime already possessed enhanced cutting power after Ves augmented it with a gem. Combining it with the Odineye would allow Venerable Dise to pierce through even the toughest mechs!

While both of these choices sounded good, emotionally he had already made a choice.

He stopped in front of the Valkyrie Prime.

Like any human with feelings, Ves was susceptible to favoritism. Out of all of the mech pilots in his fleet, he liked Venerable Joshua the most.

"Well, that's enough of a reason, I guess." He shrugged.

The other two prime mechs already possessed sufficient advantages. In his heart, Ves believed that the Valkyrie Prime was the most powerful prime mech. Temporarily lending it the Odineye was also a good choice.

He already had the perfect place in mind to affix the Odineye. He called over a few bots and tools and floated up to the forehead of the mech.

Just like every LMC mech, the Valkyrie Prime proudly boasted a third eye surrounded by a hexagon.

In the next twenty minutes, Ves installed the Odineye in the 'pupil' of the third eye. He covered it with a transparent protective material to give it a bit of a buffer against incidental damage. He also integrated the Odineye in the operating system of the mech.

He also provided brief instructions to Venerable Joshua.

The expert pilot looked puzzled. "If this new sensor system is able to detect stealthed opponents, shouldn't you be putting it onto a mech that is assigned to the rear? I'll likely be fighting in one of the hotspots of the battlefield. Stealth mechs have no place there because it's far too easy for them to get hit by random shots and debris."

"I'm aware of that, but I mainly want you to use the Odineye to help us expose the weak points of every enemy mech in range. The military mechs we're about to confront are just too tough. It's too difficult to take them down the conventional way. We need to cheat as much as possible, and informing our mech pilots where they should concentrate their attacks will definitely even the playing field!"

Joshua quickly understood the importance of his additional role. He not only had to lead the Penitent Sisters in battle, but also act as a forward scout that relayed critical sensor readings back to the fleet!

"So my mech must stay up as long as possible in order to supply all of this data, right?"

"Correct." Ves nodded. "The Odineye is an extremely rare and expensive component. Try your best to prevent the enemy from targeting it. Even if you can't prevent your mech from getting trashed, at least make sure we'll be able to salvage this sensor module intact!"

He did not want to flush 400,000 DP down the drain!

Chapter 2649: Duty Calls

Once Ves finished handling the new Odineye, he essentially completed all of his personal preparations.

He could do more, of course, but there simply wasn't enough time to accomplish anything meaningful.

Rather than tiring himself out, Ves decided to relax and spend the final hour before the start of the battle on checking up on key personnel.

"How do you feel about the upcoming battle?" He asked his favorite expert pilot.

undefined"We're not prepared for this fight." Joshua replied. "I can see, hear and feel it from the personnel around us. Our clansmen are worried. They aren't as confident as before. For a long time, the Friday Coalition has been a giant in everyone's minds. We're not so far removed from our third-rater roots. A few years ago, none of us ever imagined we would be able to match up against the Fridaymen. They're just too powerful."

"Ah."

Ves overlooked this detail. His vision was set so high these days that he essentially put himself at the same height as the Fridaymen. That didn't mean the rest of his clansmen had followed suit. It appeared he needed to do his best to pep them up just before the battle commenced.

"Thank you for telling me that, Joshua. While it is true that we are not the equals to the enemy Fridaymen and Vicious Mountainers, the fight isn't hopeless for us. We have glows, battle formations and plenty of other tricks up our sleeve."

These were unconventional advantages that granted the Larkinsons a chance of overturning the upcoming engagement. However, if his mech pilots failed to leverage them well enough, the superior base capabilities of the enemy could easily run them all down!

Every mech pilot knew the score. Aside from the prime mechs, the Transcendent Punishers and Valkyrie Redeemers, the Larkinson Clan was far behind when it came to powerful mechs. A victory would definitely be bittersweet once the casualty figures become known!

As Ves chatted with Venerable Joshua, elsewhere a different pair of people was preparing for the upcoming fight.

"I don't want to go out! I've already retired from the battlefield! I'm a mech athlete, not a soldier!"

Raella jabbed her elbow against her boyfriend's suited form. "You've already been at it for hours. We're not letting you off the hook again! I'm even stepping onto the battlefield!"

Desperate times called for desperate measures. The Larkinson Clan truly couldn't afford to let any of its mech pilots sit back and relax. Major Verle had called upon the reserves to step forward and pilot any spare machine the Larkinson Clan had left.

In truth, there weren't many mechs that were still lacking mech pilots. The spare mechs mostly consisted of obsolete third-class mechs such as the Adonis Colossus or the various prototypes of the ongoing mech design projects at the Design Design Department.

As a pair of young mech pilots at their prime, both Raella Larkinson and Vincent Ricklin were at the top of the list of reserves. It was unconscionable for them to sit out the battle that threatened the continuation of the entire clan!

"Nyeow!" A white Persian cat angrily swiped her claws on Vincent's leg. "Nyeow!"

"Hey, be careful, Minxie!"

If not for the tough material of his piloting suit, he would have bled at this moment!

Raella snorted and crossed her arms across her own piloting suit. "That's what happens to cowards. If you don't want to turn every Larkinson against you, then you better take part in the battle."

"I can't do anything!" Vincent complained. "My mech is too weak! It might be good enough to fight in the Sand War, but any second-class mech can easily chop my hybrid mech in half. I don't see why my shabby old Adonis Colossus can possibly make a difference. I'm not as lucky as you. I bet you don't have to worry about a single attack drilling straight through the cockpit of your new mech!"

As a skilled skirmisher specialist, the Larkinson Clan offered Raella the opportunity to pilot one of the prototypes of the Ferocious Piranha Mark I Version B.

To be honest, Raella wasn't sure if she was up to the task of piloting the powerful premium light skirmisher. She still honed her piloting skills, but she was mostly engaged in her desk job these days. She didn't even have enough time to learn all of the aspects required to pilot a second-class mech.

Despite these shortcomings, Raella was still one of the most suitable mech pilots left to pilot the spare prototype. She did not even think of shirking this responsibility. Just because she didn't like to fight and kill on the battlefield did not mean she was ignorant.

"You just need to sit back and provide covering fire for us." Raella softened her tone. "I've heard that the mech technicians will supply your mech with a powerful rifle. Just do the best you can from the rear. If any enemies get past our lines, just do your best to distract them from their goals. I don't think you'll have any trouble with that. Your mech is quite eye-catching."

Vincent groaned. "I regret piloting the Adonis Colossus. Can I request a swap?"

"Stop joking and get moving!"

"Nyeow!"

Elsewhere, Captain Vraken paid a surprise visit to the Black Cats. When Calabast saw the grand captain enter her territory, she immediately grew upset.

"What are you doing here, aunt?" She hissed in a low tone.

"Can we talk in private?"

"Tch. Fine."

Both women entered one of the isolated compartments that were specifically built to prevent any leaks.

Calabast strode inside while wearing a thick, black infiltrator suit with many modules and gadgets attached to the surface.

When Captain Daria-Maria curiously scanned all of the gear, she raised her eyebrow. Compared to her high-quality but relatively standard officer-grade hazard suit, the spymaster of the Larkinson Clan looked ready to sow chaos in a Fridayman base!

"Where did you get all of this gear?"

"Wouldn't you like to know." Calabast smirked. "There is an entire galaxy beyond the Hexadric Hegemony, you know. As long as you have money and connection, you can obtain damn near anything."

"Mhmm."

The compartment briefly fell silent as Calabast eyed her distant aunt with a hostile expression.

"Why must you be like this? No matter your current allegiances, we are still family. It doesn't matter what our dynasty says. You grew up as one of us. You are still a Vraken to me. Can't I show some concern for you as your good aunt?"

"FAMILY DOESN'T EXIST IN THE VRAKEN DYNASTY!" The spymaster burst out. "Don't think I'm unaware of what you are plotting! You're trying to exploit this crisis to establish a friendly connection with me. I have no interest in letting you get your way."

Daria-Maria sighed. "I won't deny that I have this goal in mind, but my motives aren't as nefarious as you think. The further we distance ourselves from our home star sector, the harder it is to connect with like-minded people. There are only so many Hexers in the expeditionary fleet and there are scant few Vrakens at our level."

"The fact that you feel you are missing companionship does not interest me in the slightest. I don't feel alone at all here. There are tens of thousands of Larkinsons that I can befriend. I've already become acquainted with hundreds of them. They may not be as.. clever as a Vraken, but they aren't hiding any daggers behind their backs."

"I'm disappointed in you, Calabast. Consorting with all of these random Larkinsons will only lower you to their level. You should know better!"

"Hahaha!" Calabast abruptly laughed. "The fact that you look down on my clansmen says everything about you and the dynasty that I have divorced myself from. Mark my words, captain. You'll be eating your words in a decade or so. These Larkinsons you are dismissing will become much greater than any Hexer once we achieve success in the Red Ocean!"

The older woman at least had the decency to smile. "I'll be happy to be proven wrong, but don't get your hopes up yet. We'll first have to survive this battle, and that is still very much in doubt."

Both of them lost some of their cheer. They were much more aware of the threat posed by the Fridaymen. The elite mech units that the deep strike fleet carriers must be bringing into range was capable of fighting the best soldiers of the Hex Army to a standstill.

No matter what, they still had to take part in this battle regardless.

"Why did you come?" Calabast repeated her earlier question.

"I wish to prepare some contingency plans with you. No matter what, we cannot allow the Friday Coalition to accomplish their primary objective."

As a Vraken, Calabast knew what Daria-Maria was talking about. She did not disagree in principle.

"Let's talk."

In a different location, Taon Melin was about to board his Prophet's Fist. He was well aware of the pivotal role that he and his fellow Ylvainan mech pilots were about to play.

As the main source of firepower of the Larkinson Clan, the Transcendent Punishers were vital in crushing the enemy mechs.

Each miss, each delay and each misstep could easily result in the deaths of more Larkinsons!

Fortunately, the Living Prophet was with them. James Ylvaine had brought them all a lot of peace.

"Taon." The aged form of the Living Prophet approached the former chosen of Zeal. "If this battle is about to tip over.. we may need to make some sacrifices."

The Ylvainan mech pilot looked troubled. "I don't understand, sir."

James smiled. "You don't need to play stupid. You have spent enough time with me to know what I am alluding to. As the Bright Martyr often likes to say, there is a price for everything. I still have a bit of wealth left in my bones. My only regret is that I can't spend more."

"Your Holiness, is there…"

"Believe in yourself, Taon." The Living Prophet patted the mech pilot's suited shoulder. "While I welcome your devotion, this has always been your flaw. True faith transcends any individual. Even I am not indispensable to your beliefs. When you exact your punishment on the enemy, do it for yourself. You are your own god, Taon. The sooner you recognize this, the sooner you understand the essence of my tenets."

After a brief and unusually intimate talk, the Living Prophet bid farewell to the Ylvainan mech pilots and left the mech stables.

No one knew where he was going.

Taon clenched his fist before turning around to board the Prophet's Fist.

"I will never allow the enemy to push us to the brink!"

Aboard an entirely different capital ship, two expert pilots were waiting for the mech technicians to make their final checks.

The Charlemagne and the Jeanne D'Arc stood ready to launch an assault.

Venerable Ghanso Larkinson and Venerable Relia Foster both looked ready to fulfill their respective goals.

"Don't hold back." The female expert pilot warns. "If I see you sandbagging during this battle, I will cut down your mech myself!"

"Don't bother with your threats, Vesian." Ghanso growled back. "I don't recognize any 'Larkinson' in the enemy fleet as my kin. You should be afraid of the opposite. I might slay so many false Larkinsons that there aren't any left for you to kill!"

"Hmph. If I wasn't assigned to guard you and your follower mechs, I could give you a run for your money. My Jeanne D'Arc is wasted as a bodyguard."

An alert finally sounded throughout the hangar bay. Both expert pilots ceased their little game and flew into the cockpits of their respective mechs.

Soon enough, the two expert mechs smoothly slipped through the hangar bay hatch. The mechs joined many other Fridaymen mechs and entered into a formation.

The Scarra had joined up as well. The quasi-expert mechs gently moved to their assigned positions, their deadly rifles already warming up for the battle to come!

Chapter 2650: Hard Head

The time had come. Almost four hours had gone by. At this time, the two opposing fleets had drawn very close to each other.

The smaller Umbra Task Force doggedly chased after the considerably larger fleet of the Golden Skull Alliance with the help of its faster and purpose-built carriers. Even though the Fridaymen, Praetor and Planat engineers pushed their respective vessels beyond their recommended parameters, none of them showed any restraint.

The condition of the engines, thrusters and many other propulsion systems degraded rapidly as the attackers sought to catch up to their targets as fast as possible!

The Larkinsons and their allies did not choose to shirk this battle. They still held hope for victory despite knowing that their overall strength fell short compared to the enemy.

undefinedIn their eyes, it was not yet time to cut off the rest of the fleet and take their capital ships away. While it sounded tempting to flee and preserve as many lives as possible, the expeditionary fleet would have to leave behind much of its assets, thereby putting it into an even weaker position if the enemy strike force ever caught up again!

The Larkinsons, Glory Seekers and Crossers knew quite well that this was the best shot they had of overturning the enemy. They had to fight right away if they did not wish to resign themselves to months of desperate flight!

Ves and Lucky briefly reunited with Gloriana and Clixie on the bridge of the Spirit of Bentheim.

Everyone wore protective suits or armor without exception. Safety was paramount and even the extensive protective measures on the bridge could not guarantee anyone's life if a direct attack pierced all the way through the factory ship.

While Ves looked valiant in his Unending Regalia, his wife wore fashionable protective armor that was covered with hundreds of purple hexagons.

"Meow." Lucky poked at Clixie's suited form.

"Miaow."

Even pets were not exempted! Clixie along with every other critter in the fleet wore some kind of suit that was able to supply them with air and protected them from various hazards.

While the cats were exploring each other's suits, Ves opened his faceplate and leaned in to kiss Gloriana's uncovered lips.

"We'll make it through this battle." He softly whispered.

"I believe you." She said although her eyes betrayed her fear.

Ves gently held her by her armored hips. "Be brave, honey. You're not just a mech designer now. You're my wife, a lead designer and a symbol to our clansmen. It's normal to be afraid, but in times like these, you need to step up and lead by example."

"I'll try my best, but I'm not used to being so close to danger. This is only the second time in my life that I am looking down the barrel of someone's gun!"

Her nerves were shaking. She wasn't coping too well with the current situation. Hardly any of her Hexer determination was on display this time.

At the eve of battle, Gloriana had been reduced to a civilian, someone who had never been forged in the fires of battle!

Ves did not look down on her because of that. She enjoyed a different upbringing than him and followed a very different career trajectory. In fact, she was much more reflective of how a mech designer was expected to behave.

Still, his earlier words also rang true. If Gloriana wanted to become a leading figure in the clan, she needed to walk the walk. How could she earn any respect from the Larkinsons if she continued to act as a negative example?

His eyes hardened a little. "You can't show any doubt in a combat situation. Information must be conveyed and orders must be implemented as quickly and precisely as possible. Any chaos or interference can lead to deadly results. Fear is infectious. If you cannot present a brave front, the surrounding Larkinsons might become affected, thereby causing them to respond slower than normal. What if your actions lead to the death of your brother?"

That final part caused Gloriana to widen her eyes. She might not care too much about the life of a random Larkinson, but she would never forgive herself if she dragged the heels of her closest relative!

"I understand." She spoke, this time with much more conviction than before. "I will do my best to lead our assistant mech designers in analyzing the weak points of the enemy mechs."

"We will all be counting on you." Ves smiled.

This was the most suitable role for Gloriana. As someone who was extremely sensitive to flaws in mech designs, she was much more efficient at discovering the shortcomings of any mech.

"Do note that our effectiveness is heavily dependent on the quantity, quality and depth of data we receive." She reminded him. "We can't make any detailed studies on the structural flaws of a mech if all we get is snapshots and garbled noise."

"That won't be a concern. You'll get your data, one way or another. Don't forget to coordinate with Professor Cortez. He's a very experienced Senior who probably knows a thing or two about Fridayman mechs."

One of the more obscure advantages of the expeditionary fleet was the large number of mech designers riding along.

The low low-ranking mech designers in the Design Department and assigned to maintenance crews were all capable of performing a lot of labor-intensive analyses.

The high-ranking mech designers in the form of Ves, Gloriana, Juliet and the former Skull Architect could utilize their profound insights to detect tiny flaws and weak points that others might miss.

As long as all of these mech designers could be put to use, the defenders would be able to gain another edge in the coming battle!

Ves bet that the enemy fleet did not enjoy the same advantage. It was incredibly stupid to assign so many precious mech designers to a strike force tasked with performing a high-risk mission.

Of course, it was not as if the enemy necessarily needed this edge. The base performance of all of their mechs was already high enough to achieve victory by relying on brute force.

Once Gloriana took her place behind one of the bridge consoles, Ves took the Larkinson Mandate from Nitaa and approached a central position on the bridge.

He quietly waited until the time had come to rouse his men.

Every Larkinson fell silent and paid attention to their leader. Those on the bridge turned their chairs around to face him, while the Larkinsons stationed elsewhere all tuned in to the broadcast spread throughout the ships and mechs of the Larkinson Clan.

At this time, Colonel Ariadne Wodin and Lord Reginald Cross must be holding speeches in front of their troops.

"My fellow Larkinsons." Ves began as he faced the front, knowing that his visage would be transmitted to tens of thousands of Larkinsons at a time. "We stand in front of a deadly precipice. The enmity between our clan and the Friday Coalition has come to head. Our old enemies are not content to let us go. They mustered up their precious deep strike fleet carriers and filled them up with some of their elites to achieve a single purpose. Destroy the Larkinson Clan."

This was a rather questionable claim. Ves knew very well that the primary reason the Fridaymen went through all of this trouble was to target him specifically. However, he wasn't about to point that out. He didn't want to give his clan any ideas.

His face grew grim. "We face a hard battle. The enemy mechs are powerful and their mech pilots are highly-trained. The firepower they are about to bring to bear will shake our vessels and shatter our mechs. You can bet that the Fridaymen and their Garlaner allies will do their utmost to shake our reserve and overwhelm us with their aggressive momentum."

He suddenly raised the Larkinson Mandate above his head! The eye-catching medallion of the Golden Cat glinted in the light!

"They have chosen the wrong target! Inferior our mechs may be, our hearts and courage are far greater than what our scheming ambushers can ever comprehend!"

Under the watchful eyes of the Golden Cat, the Larkinsons found their courage and pushed away their doubts!

"We have fought several formidable enemies in the past." Ves reminded everyone as he lowered the ancestral heirloom. He tapped its front cover with one of his armored fingers. "The Friday Coalition attempted to bring us down before. Successive pirate groups attempted to stand in our way. None have succeeded! Neither second-class mechs nor a fully-functional heavy cruiser managed to bring us down. Even gods have failed to shake our foundation!"

Only the veterans of the Nyxian Gap Campaign understood the last point. Everyone else just treated it as hyperbole.

Exaggeration or not, the boastful claim drew out the pride that had been carved in the bones of every Larkinson. Their clan had already been forged in the fires of battle. They just needed a little reminder for them to recall their own capital for success!

"With our glows, expert pilots and other secret weapons, we can teach the Fridaymen and the rest of human space a new way of waging battle! As innovators, we have developed brand-new methods and products that no other mech force has ever seen. Our mech pilots have the latest and greatest tools and weapons that we have been able to supply them with. With the advantages that only we possess, we can overwhelm our unsuspecting opponents through guile and strategy!"

Ves conveyed a message of hope and victory with his words. He did not deny the strength of the enemy, but he painted them as ignorant brutes. As long as the Larkinsons outwitted and outmaneuvered them, they had a very good chance of coming out on top in the coming engagement!

Ves smiled at his audience. "Life is precious to us. As Larkinsons, we do not like to harvest the lives of others. That does not mean we are herbivores. If anyone approaches us with ill intent, we will defend ourselves and our fellow clansmen because that is who we are. As long as we pass this test, our clan will have truly earned the right to roam the stars. Are you scared?"

"NO!"

"Are you willing to let the enemy ruin your dreams?"

"NO!"

"Are you willing to let your families get slain?"

"NO!"

"Are you willing to let the Fridaymen defeat us in battle!"

"NOOOO!"

"Then what are you waiting for? Take up your arms and prepare to welcome our approaching foes. Let us split their bodies until the space lanes run red with rivers of blood! FOR THE CLAN!"

"FOR THE CLAN!" His Larkinsons universally echoed!

"Meow!" "Miaow!" "Nyeow!" "Woof!" "Chirp!"

Even their pets chimed in! If not for their inability to reach the enemy, they would have been eager to tear into the enemies that sought to kill their human companions!

Upon a certain command, the expeditionary fleet no longer oriented their starships away from the pursuing enemies.

It was a bad idea to expose their vulnerable rear to enemy firepower. Every single ship turned around until their bows faced the direction of the incoming threat.

Due to Newton's first law of motion, the ships didn't suddenly travel in a different direction. They continued to coast along their original trajectory. In other words, the vessels were flying in reverse, at least until they accelerated in a different direction.

The bow of the Spirit of Bentheim was the most prominent of all of the ships in the combined fleet. The majestic golden cat head that adorned the front of the ship seemed to taunt the distant enemies.

Immediately, a score of glowing positron beams struck the prow! The Breyer alloy on the surface wasn't able to cope with the destructive firepower.

Yet once the volley subsided, the prow of the capital ship only exhibited some modest surface damage.

The injury only emboldened the Larkinsons!