Chapter 601

"Too much repetition isn't a good thing." Ves eventually concluded.

Though the mech industry predominantly divided mechs into two-dozen mainstream archetypes, this did not mean that Ves had to design that many mechs to advance. In particular, designing heavy mechs was out of reach to most mech designers, yet plenty of mech designers had reached Master Mech Designer or Star Designer without ever designing a heavy mech.

This told Ves that in order to advance smoothly, the process mattered rather than the outcome. Ves could design an absolute garbage mech and still gain some progress as long as he learned something.

"Technically speaking, all of those competition mechs I've designed in a hurry are crap mechs. Even my latest New Sentinel is a travesty compared to the Blackbeak and the Crystal Lord. Yet designing the New Sentinel was just as satisfying as designing the latter two."

Ves had absolutely gained a lot of insights from designing and constructing the frankenstein mech. The immense challenge in delivering a much-improved mech in just a couple of days forced him to exercise his imagination and seek solutions to problems he had never considered before.

"That's the key to advancement. As long as I'm working on something new, I can train my problem-solving skills."

The System didn't track those skills. Ves realized that every time he looked at his Skills page, he reinforced his bias that only the Skills defined by the System mattered. In actual fact, a mech designer was far more than a moving library of science and engineering.

"It's just like Spirituality. Before, the System couldn't quantify this phenomenon, so it had to observe my development on this matter."

In other words, Ves took the System as gospel and developed a tunnel vision concerning his Attributes and Skills. It was a good thing he became aware of this shortcoming early.

That said, the benefits provided by the System could not be replaced, but Ves had to remind himself that it was just a tool at his disposal. His own development mattered the most. Something which might benefit the System may not be beneficial to himself.

It turned out his separation from the System had inadvertently been a boon to him. If he continued to slavishly devote his life to the Pavlovian reward mechanisms of the System, he would have lost the ingenuity and flexibility of thought that defined a real mech designer.

Right now, Ves believed that even without the System, he could work on his own to advance to Journeyman!

In contrast, if he continued to become addicted to the System to the point he only thought in terms of Skills, Attributes and Design Points, he would have become a hollow mech designer at some point. The only way he would have been able to advance to Journeyman was through external assistance.

Perhaps the System offered Ves the option to advance without pain by exchanging a lot of Design Points, but such an easy method doubtlessly resulted in many repercussions!

Ves formulated another goal at this time. He wanted to advance to Journeyman Mech Designer before the Mech Corps discharged him!

"Every Bright-Vesia War lasts for five years, more or less. Within this time, if I work hard and develop new designs, I should be able to make it more or less."

With this decision, he directly rejected Morgan's theory that a mech designer who hoped to advance to Star Designer should spend decades on designing mechs.

There was a risk that Ves made the wrong decision, but he shouldn't believe every theory spouted by a random mech designer. In any case, he felt better about this decision than the alternatives.

"If pure volume is king, then all of those worked-to-death mech designers working like bots for design studios should have become Star Designers by now."

During his time on Harkensen I, he mentally constructed a plan for his future. His first objective should be to advance to Journeyman within five years. It didn't do him any harm if he failed, but becoming a Journeyman was enormously helpful to his subsequent goals.

Once he returned to civilian life, Ves planned to develop a reasonably rounded catalog of mech models. He didn't need to develop over two-dozen separate mech models. Making do with just enough to allow the Avatars of Myth to become a comprehensive fighting unit should be sufficient.

"By the time I'm finished with that, the next mech generation will arrive. I'll definitely have to reach Journeyman Mech Designer by then, or it will be hard to join the first wave of new generation mech model releases."

As long as he joined the race at the start, his company would doubtlessly grow like a rocket.

However, he shouldn't be complacent at that time. The extremely stiff competition meant that Ves had to design an exceptional mech that stood out from the market.

If Ves intended to sell a lot of mechs by relying solely on the new generation's wave of innovations, then the mech market would definitely tear him apart.

"Leeching off those innovations that are in the hands of every major mech manufacturer won't improve the competitive advantage of my designs. It merely allows me to start at the same level as the other premier mech companies."

Such behavior was akin to drifting downstream. If Ves wanted to dazzle the mech industry with a best-selling mech model, then he would certainly have to swim upstream. That would be the time when the Avatars of Myth provided a return on his investment.

Funding five mech companies was not a trivial matter. However, once he covered the start-up costs, Ves was confident he could maintain the running costs with the help of his earnings from the LMC.

Every mech designer was a money making machine as long as they possessed some ability. If Ves broke through to Journeyman as planned, money became more of a number than a scarce resource.

At that level, mech designers valued other assets over money, such as access to exclusive knowledge, gene elixirs, life-prolonging treatments or strategic exotics. Many of these assets couldn't be bought with money in the open market. Ves would inevitably have to deepen his engagement with the Clifford Society and Master Olsen's influence network in order to obtain access.

As their holiday on Harkensen I soon came to an end, his group longed at a bar. Ves had been absent-minded throughout the trip. Fortunately, the planet offered many sites for relaxation, so he simply pretended to take a nap while spending most of his attention on putting his plans together.

Just as Ves thought this day would end on a leisurely note, the group suddenly stopped their chatting as a number of strangers walked to their table. None of their group members recognized them. They were unlikely to be Vandals since only five people approached.

"Do we know you?" Nolsen asked with a wary look in his eyes.

"You ought not to." The lead woman spoke. "You might not have heard of us, but you people are famous across this entire star system. After all, haven't you pulled our reputation through the wringer recently?"

Every Vandal became tense at her words. Though she might have sounded restrained, the implications of her last sentence hinted that she definitely didn't come as a friend.

More than that, several of the Vandals recognized her accent. The people who spoke like her only came from one place in the Komodo StarSector.

"You're Vesians!" Tiss exclaimed.

The group of ten put up their guard and put their half-empty drinks on the table. All thoughts of relaxing and unwinding were gone from their heads.

"My name is Calabast Arnlend. As you've just declared, we are Vesians." The woman responded with a coy smirk. "Do you mind if we sit next to you?"

"Actually, we do mind." Nolsen said.

"Oh, come on, don't be a spoilsport. This is a neutral star system. Even if our brothers and sisters are locked in a harrowing war at the frontlines, in Reinald space we are all friends with each other!"

Nolsen pressed his lips into a thin line. "Whatever you say, Miss Arnlend."

"Call me Calabast, like you Brighters always do. It's not as if we are in uniform right now."

Ves quietly turned to Trian Earls. "Are they mech pilots?"

"Not sure." The Vandal mech pilot whispered back. "Some of them have the build for it, but I don't feel any sense of aggression in their eyes. They're more like Nolsen than me. They are definitely trained and aren't afraid to show it off."

If Trian was right, these Vesians underwent combat training. Ves probably guessed that Calabast and her ilk were deadly at the infantry level.

One question kept nagging Nolsen. "How did you recognize us?"

This was a very good question. The entire planet was under the control of the Reinaldans. Tracking the Vandals on this planet wasn't impossible, but it definitely wasn't something a random group of Vesians could do in a snap.

"The Harkensen System is a supremely important point of interest to my state. As their neighbor, how could we not keep an eye on what is going on here?"

This shouldn't have come as a surprise. The Vesia Kingdom possessed a very strained relationship with the Reinald Republic. Though the Harkensen System wasn't the most important star system in Reinald, it attracted the most foreigners by far. This was Reinald's main interface to the rest of the star sector.

Calabast and her ilk outright ignored Nolsen's declaration and rudely sat next to their table. Each of them ordered a drink from the list projected by the table. In a short instant, a floating bot arrived to deliver their drinks.

"Ah, that hits the spot!" The woman pepped up. "I have to hand it to the Reinaldans. If there's one thing they're good at, it's collecting an enormous amount of imported drinks."

"Why are you here, Miss Calabast?" Nolsen asked with a persistent tone.

The Vesians all grinned back. "We're just curious, that's all."

"Curious about what?"

"Why you bunch of losers managed to flounder your way out of the Kingdom without getting annihilated." Calabast spoke with the most poisonous grin of them all. "You're not the first collection of Vandals I've met. So far, I've seen nothing different. You Vandals are the louts and brutes of the Bright Republic. It's no wonder your mech regiment is treated so poorly by your own military."

Her words touched on a nerve of the Vandals. Everyone looked angry, but Nolsen quickly gestured them to calm. Starting trouble on Harkensen I was a sure trip to jail.

"We don't appreciate your provocative words. We have no interest in conversing with you. Would you kindly leave, please?"

"What's the hurry! Can't we get to know each other better?" The woman responded.

As Nolsen and Calabast verbally sparred with each other, the rest of the Vesians and Vandals watched on in silence.

Ves had the feeling some kind of hidden battle was taking place. By now, Ves surmised that Calabast was likely some kind of Vesian spy. Her gorgeous face might not even be her true facade. In fact, he was ninety percent sure it was wholly faked.

In any case, the Vandals had always been aware that some people followed them throughout their holiday. Knowing that they were being stared at by observers didn't impact their lives that much. It wasn't much different from being subjected by the omnipresent surveillance system keeping watch in the interior of every Vandal starship.

While the Vandals could tolerate someone staring at them at a distance, it was a very different matter when the watchers walked up to their face.

Ves tried to figure out the motives of Calabast and her goons. Why make their presence known to them? Why did they reveal their identity as Vesians? Was that faked as well? Were they talking to Reinaldan intelligence agents masquerading as Vesian intelligence agents?

It was too bad that Ves was not into spy games. Nolsen appeared to be more aware than the rest of them, which was no surprise since he served as a security officer. One of their major responsibilities in a mech regiment was thwarting spies.

Chapter 602

"If there is one person among you Vandals who looks brighter than the rest, it's you." Calabast suddenly gestured to Ves while holding a bubbling cocktail. "Mr. Larkinson. Ves. I've met several mech designers, and I do say you're a cut above the others."

"Thank you, Miss Calabast." Ves replied stoically. "I do wonder why I've caught your attention. I'm just a mech designer, you know."

Calabast smirked at him. "Don't put yourself down. Compared to those spineless nerds who will never amount to anything in their lives, you've got the air of a leader. I see that your current posting as temporary head designer has done you good."

"An outsider like you shouldn't know stuff like that." Ves replied with sharp eyes.

"You Vandals are lousy at keeping secrets, especially when you are all running around the Harkensen System. It's like you are telling Vesians like me to watch you all. Well, we're here now. If you have something to say to us, speak your words."

"We're at war. The only dialogue that matters is whose fist hits the hardest." He said. His fellow Vandals all agreed. "Outside of that, we don't welcome you."

"Don't be so harsh, Ves. We can't help but pay extra attention to the young head designer who is responsible for managing the thousand mechs of your task force. Ah, excuse me, that figure is already out of date. If I'm correct, your task force is only capable of fielding five-hundred mechs. Is that accurate?"

"Don't answer that, Ves." Nolsen said to him before turning to the Vesian. "Miss Calabast, it's no use trying to show off what you presume to know of us. While we aren't allowed to come to blows under Reinald's auspices, I doubt the Planetary Guard will be pleased when we call them over."

"There's no need for you to go that far, lieutenant." Calabast said. Her smirk dropped a bit after hearing that. "We are friends, are we not?"

"There's no friendship between Vesians and Brighters."

Calabast shook her head. "I very much doubt that. To me, we are peas from the same pod. Think about what the rest of the Komodo Star Sector thinks whenever the Bright Republic and the Vesia Kingdom are mentioned. Aren't we the dysfunctional twins of the star sector? Constantly at war, yet never winning. Some believe we love each other too much to destroy each other."

"What a joke!" Another Vandal erupted. "It's you Vesians who are constantly starting the war by invading our space! If you'd just leave us alone, billions of mech pilots wouldn't have met an early grave!"

Another Vandal joined in as well. "Yeah, don't pretend you Vesians have the high ground. We never asked to be your punching bags."

"If we never started our preemptive invasions, you Brighters would have come to us, I'm very sure of that. Our rivalry can't be melted with a single friendly gesture. Many innocent Vesians will suffer if we ever soften our stance against your state."

Some Vandals laughed at that. "What a hypocritical way of looking at the wars. You're like the butcher asking the pig why it wants to attack you. The entire wars are your fault! Bleating about suffering Vesians, what about our citizens?! I'm glad our mech regiment whalloped the Detemen System. You warmongers needed a reminder that the suffering can go both ways!"

"Calm down, everyone!" Nolsen barked in an authoritative tone. That shut down the belligerent tones. "I'm sorry, Calabast, but we aren't in a mood to discuss high politics with you. We're simple grunts, you see."

"As you say." The woman shook her head as if she found his response to be disappointing. "Despite our disagreements, we are very much alike. Don't forget our brotherhood in the coming days. Whatever we may think of each other, the rest of the galaxy is a very dangerous place."

With that, Calabast and her escorts slid from their chairs while bringing their drinks elsewhere. Once they walked out of sight, every Vandal sighed in relief.

Tiss rubbed her head. "That's weird. Why did that Vesian spook decide to approach us out of the blue?"

"Their motives are unfathomable." Nolsen said. "Don't read too much into their actions. That's exactly what they want. Just remember that nobody can do anything to us while we are out in public on Harkensen I."

Someone else agreed with the security officer. "Aren't we supposed to enjoy a holiday? They just tried to screw with our heads. I say don't let them win! Let's end our shore leave on a good note!"

Everyone tried to put the strange encounter on the backburner, but not everyone succeeded. When Nolsen contacted some other Vandal groups, they all mentioned an encounter with suspicious Vesian individuals. Their group was not the only one visited by spooks!

"How many Vesians are assigned to stare at us?" Ves asked with dismay in his voice.

No one knew the answer, but evidently their numbers was much higher than everyone had thought. It had to be mentioned that hundreds of groups split up in Harkensen I and Harkensen III. Any Vesian intelligence operation needed to invest in a lot of manpower to stare at them all, let alone approach them in person for some inscrutable reason.

Ves didn't have a good feeling about this. "You know, I think we should be more careful from now on. Let's not visit anywhere remote or isolated."

"I've always taken that into account in our planning." Nolsen said. "But I can see why we need to be more prudent. Even if this is exactly what the Vesians want, we shouldn't play with fire."

The group resolved to remain in highly trafficked places on Harkensen I from now on. Visiting an exobeast safari or renting a boat to sail out into the sea had to be crossed off their list.

"The night is stretching on. Let's go back to the hotel."

The group left the bar and took an aircar to the hotel on Harkensen I which the Vandals had rented out. Though the place was less secure than the temporary compound on Harkensen III, it saved them an unnecessary commute between planets. There were also a number of Vandal security officers on patrol, which reassured the Vandals who slept overnight.

"Good night, Ves!" Tiss waved as everyone returned to their suites.

As Ves entered his hotel room, he walked over to the wide open windows and stared out into the city they were in at night. Lots of lights flashed as many tourists still sought out entertainment in the night. Beyond, boats and ships sailed across the waters in an endless merry of partying.

It was easy to forget that a war was taking place. The Reinald Republic sat at the other side of the Vesia Kingdom, so any repercussions of the war only affected them indirectly.

Having spent some time in this star system, Ves envied the Reinald Republic. Despite being small enough for the Vesians to devour in a single bite, the Frozen Leaf Alliance was like a timely umbrella against the rain. Under the auspices of this ironclad defensive alliance, the Reinald Republic possessed much more security than it ought to. This was the blessing they enjoyed from their geopolitical situation.

Unlike the Reinald Republic, the Bright Republic doesn't have any good neighbors to ally with. One of their tragedies was that the Bright Republic was surrounded by belligerents or nutbags.

To their galactic east sat the Vesia Kingdom. It went without saying that their conflict was irreconcilable. Over three-hundred years of wars interspersed with temporary peace periods created an enormous amount of enmity between the two rivalling states.

To the galactic west of the Bright Republic sat the Ylvain Protectorate. The Bright Republic attempted to draw them into an alliance many times, but the Ylvainans repulsed every overture with the same isolationist stance.

The Protectorate didn't get along well with everyone because every Ylvainan was a religious fanatic. To a state like the Bright Republic whose only religion was rationality, such fervor clashed directly against their values.

Though the Brighters and the Ylvainans were like ice and fire to each other, neither side wanted to go to war against each other. The Bright Republic already had their hands full with the Vesians, and they weren't snobby enough to think they needed to impose their values on the Ylvainans.

The Protectorate on the other hand had their own concerns. To their galactic south existed a state called the Star Faith Collective. The Collective was made up of religious fanatics who believed in an entirely different faith.

Compared to the Protectorate dislike to faithless dogs like Brighters, their animosity against the Collective was much more extreme. Discussions on religious dogma was a surefire way to spark a fight between citizens of both states.

Strangely enough, the Ylvain Protectorate and the Star Faith Collective never came to blows for some reason. Unlike the many wars between the Vesians and the Brighters, the two religious states largely kept their conflict contained.

"In any case, the Ylvain Protectorate can't help us at all."

To the galactic north of the Bright Republic sat a state called the Coman Federation. If there was one thing that defined a Coman, it was their fervor for transhumanism. Their deviance on this matter bordered on heresy, though their beliefs wasn't strictly illegal in the eyes of the CFA and MTA.

Nevertheless, they attracted quite a lot of dirty looks. The Coman pursuit for transhumanism led them to blend their physical appearances with aliens or amputate their limbs and replace them with cybernetic equivalents. Their preoccupation with their fetishes practically repelled the entire Komodo Star Sector.

Detesting the outside galaxy became ingrained in every Coman. Every baseline human was a primitive in their eyes. Though they were known to field a strong mech military, they spent most of their efforts on holding back their regional rivals and exploring the frontier for more alien marvels. Comans were known to be the best treasure hunters in the Komodo Star Sector.

"It's too bad our differences can't make us into allies."

Brighter diplomats attempted to draw the Comans into an alliance many times, yet their conceit against baseline humans prevented them from taking their neighbors seriously. If not for being surrounded by rival states, their elitist attitude would have pushed them into a war against the Bright Republic.

As what lay at the galactic south of the Bright Republic, the Independent State of Pillis was an oddball of its own. Smaller than the Bright Republic, the Pillis was a state as crazy as the Coman Federation.

The best way to put it was that they were radical independents. They violently rejected any notions of alliances and other entanglements. If not for the overwhelming strength of the CFA and MTA, they would have rejected their rules as well. As it was, the Pillisers barely tolerated the Big Two, believing it was only a matter of time before those hegemonic organizations fell.

"Every Pilliser is a doomsday fanatic."

For some reason, the Pillisers believed that the human race had reached their peak in the galaxy. Their gains at the end of the Age of Conquest represented the apex of their achievements. Every Age that followed marked the decline and end of the human race in the epoch of galactic history.

Their beliefs essentially turned them into giant jerks whenever they interacted with foreigners. The relationship between the Bright Republic and the Independent State of Pillis was very poor as a result.

In truth, the Bright Republic could have conquered Pillis if they really wanted to. As long as the Vesians were held in check, the military strength of Pillis wasn't enough to hold back the Mech Corps.

"Pillis has a lot of big brothers though."

The Independent State was only a branch of a larger organization that spanned many star sectors in the galactic rim. Their doomsday predictions held them all together, and they were known to transfer their strength between star sectors whenever their branches faced a pinch.

The only reason why Pillis hadn't borrowed the strength of their big brothers was because the other enemies of the doomsday cultists wouldn't stand by.

North, south, east and west, the Bright Republic was surrounded by hostiles and crazies. This was because most entities that initially settled in the Komodo Star Sector consisted of exiles. In fact, the Bright Republic counted among the crazies as well in some people's eyes!

Chapter 603

Ves woke up all of a sudden. He'd never been a heavy sleeper after he returned from Groening IV. His physical body's need for sleep seemingly lessened, but to sleep was to be human, so Ves still adhered to a strictly human biorhythm.

"Why did I wake up?" He scratched his dark hair while garbed in pajamas.

An unsettling sensation came over him. Ves shrugged out of bed and wiped his hand towards the window, causing it to turn from solid black to fully transparent.

He blinked at the night scape and checked the time. At three o'clock local time, the city was doused in the depths of sleep. Only the most hardcore partiers and revelers still roamed the streets. Drunken tourists crawled from bar to bar while the nightclubs lit up their surroundings with light and noise.

Beyond the stretch of beaches, half-a-dozen yachts had congregated and formed a makeshift floating club where over a hundred privileged young men and women pretended to be nocturnal party beasts.

To all intents and purposes, the city appeared to be completely normal. Yet Ves couldn't dismiss the nagging feeling of something wrong.

His instincts might not be as good as an oracle, but Ves had learned to trust his gut feeling. Right now, Ves felt as apprehensive as standing in close proximity to a mech battle.

"There can't be any danger here, right?"

He currently resided on Harkensen I, the tourist paradise of the Reinald Republic. The Planetary Guard and the Honored Ones that kept the peace on this planet enjoyed a very good reputation here. They foiled thousands of plots every year and never failed to squash instances of violence before they spilled over to innocent bystanders.

After several minutes of staring out of the window, Ves decided it was best to be safe than sorry. He raised his comm which had never left his wrist and opened a channel to security.

His comm projected the bust of a bored-looking Vandal security officer. "Mr. Larkinson, what can I do for you?"

Ves couldn't straight up tell the security officer that his gut warned him of an approaching threat. Still, he could couch his words in a way that may bring the Vandals to a heightened level of alert. "I have reason to believe that there may be security threats on the horizon. Can you please scan my hotel room and double-check the perimeter and such?"

The security officer narrowed his eyes. "Mr. Larkinson, what evidence can you provide to support your statement?"

"I'm sorry, officer, but I can't tell you that right now. Just trust me. If I'm wrong, then no harm is done."

This argument appeared to be persuasive enough to buy over the security officer. "Very well head designer. We shall run a full check. Please stay in your room and don't make any suspicious movements."

The channel closed, leaving Ves alone in his quiet room. He decided he might as well skip the rest of his sleep. He turned on the lights and walked over to the closet which held a number of outfits.

Ves touched a chute-like tube, causing it to beep before attracting his pajamas from his body. The chute sucked the clothes through the tube that subsequently led to some laundry area.

He then touched a clothing rack which held a generic warm-weather outfit, causing the clothes to fly from the rack and surround his body, adjusting the fit for a few seconds.

He then rummaged through the closet but failed to find anything protective. "What kind of stupid hotel is this? There's over a dozen racks of smart clothes but not a single emergency suit!"

Emergency suits basically consisted of stripped-down hazard suits. Cheaper and less bulkier than the latter, emergency suits nonetheless provided limited amount of protection against heat, explosions and toxins in the air.

"Why is my gut urging me to get in an airtight suit?"

He sniffed the air, but didn't smell anything weird. Nonetheless, his heart beat a little faster, as if he was nervous something was seriously wrong.

The front door to his hotel room beeped and slid open. A pair of Vandal security officers outfitted with serious-looking combat armor stepped inside. The sergeant at the lead gripped a handheld scanner.

"Mr. Larkinson, we've received your notification. Please let us inspect your room."

"Go ahead, gentlemen."

The sergeant first scanned over his body with the scanner. The machine threw out a bunch of warning noises, causing the sergeant to slam his palm at the device. "Not again! Get to work, you buggy machine!"

"Has the device been loaded with my unique physique? I'm different than a baseline human. Doctor Cuscar should have loaded my parameters to the database." Ves frowned.

"Oh. Let me adjust the scanner then."

Ves worked with scanners himself, so he easily guessed why the sergeant's scanner tripped up. He really missed the Vulcaneye he bought from the System. With a scanner worth 100,000 DP, he would have already been able to detect any anomalies himself.

While the sergeant loaded in the right settings, the other security officer made a cursory inspection of the hotel suite. He wasn't very diligent about it. Ves figured the other guy thought they were wasting their time.

"Alright, the scanner is loaded with the right settings. Let's see what's happening here."

The sergeant pointed the scanner at Ves. This time, the device only released a single warning noise.

"What's wrong?"

"That's strange. According to the scanner, your body is doused with sedatives."

The two stared at each other in a single moment of belated realization.

Something suddenly exploded from the ceiling above, causing strong electromagnetic interfere to blast their heads with noise while at the same time frizzling the scanner into a smoking wreck.

A minute noise spewed out as invisible projectiles punctured the exposed face of the security officer nosing in the bathroom. Just an instant later, another volley of projectiles headed towards the sergeant.

"Enemy attack!" The sergeant screamed.

Unlike his partner, he had been much more alert, so his combat armor instantly went active. His half-open helmet quickly slid shut, causing the transparent needles to shatter against the armored mask portion of the helmet.

The needles worked wonders against open skin, but wasn't any good against any form of armor!

"Tch. We go loud." An electronic voice sounded out.

The room became instantly bright with the flash of a high-powered laser beam that tore through the sergeant's armor like it was made out of cloth! The Vandal's body slowly tumbled onto its back, as if the man couldn't fathom why he was killed so quickly.

The hot laser beam instantly set off alarms in the hotel. The noise practically forced every Vandal awake. Just as Ves thought the assailants would be scared away, he glimpsed something alarming through the window at the other end of the suite.

Out of the waters, a couple of mech-like shapes emerged from the depths. The nearby party fortress lit up the contours of the mechs that had hidden themselves underwater. Some of the mechs pointed their arms in the direction of the hotel.

Twin booms sounded out as a salvo of kinetic projectiles thundered towards the tall hotel. Just as the projectiles hit the building, an energy screen came to life. The projectiles managed to punch through the energy screen, but lost a lot of their force in the process. By the time they hit the hotel, the structure only shook lightly as a couple of hotel suites became flattened.

This caused the entire city to erupt in alarms. Warning noises penetrated everywhere, causing even the heaviest sleepers to shake off their dreams.

A few seconds later, massive EMP detonations wracked the area around the hotel, causing most of the nearby alarms to sputter out! Nightclubs went silent while bars went dark. Every electronic device with insufficient shielding became completely inert!

Worse, more explosions detonated underground and elsewhere, causing the camouflaged turrets and other security measures to freeze!

Ves couldn't pay attention to those matters though, because a trio of dark-suited infiltrators dropped from the ceiling. He noticed that their suits possessed active camouflage capabilities that allowed them to blend into the background.

They might have been staring at him at sleep for hours!

"Who are you guys?! Vesians? Reinaldans?" Ves barked, but he didn't wait for their reply. He quickly turned around and dove towards the exit, only to skid to a halt when another infiltrator barred his way. "

All of the infiltrators wore the same high-tech getup. Their suits stuck close to their bodies and seemed to be layered in thin but flexible armor. The suits allowed them to walk on the ceiling or walls as if they walked on the ground. The helmets showed off a faceless visage, save for two tiny crystals that served as the main sensors of the infiltration suit.

"You're coming with us." The electronic voice commanded to Ves.

He held up his arms while keeping his senses alert. He felt vibrations approaching him from the rear. Just as they closed in on him, Ves suddenly erupted into action! He kicked out to the rear, bumping the infiltrator behind him like a ball soaring through the air! The unfortunate enemy crashed against the unbreakable window and slid down in a crumple.

The rest of the infiltrators acted quickly. The rear two remaining infiltrators fired at his back with invisible glass-like projectiles. While they hurt a lot, the force behind them hadn't been sufficient to pierce deep into his flesh!

Ves endured the pain and ran forward like a bull with red in his eyes! These infiltrators hadn't expected his strength to be so formidable and his endurance to be so high!

Why would they? He was a mech designer, not a special forces operative!

The infiltrator in front blasted Ves with a wrist-mounted electric weapon. The current running through his body exacerbated his pain, but his sense of urgency propelled him forward despite his desire to cry out.

He slammed his forearm forward in a sloppy attack. The infiltrator hadn't expected Ves to remain functioning after enduring such a massive electric attack and slammed against the corridor wall with a painful slam!

Ves didn't waste his time on making sure the attacker was down and ran into the hallway. Red emergency lights illuminated the hall in an ominous light, which only deepened his sense of crisis.

The entire planet had gone crazy!

Muffled sounds of fighting could be heard from outside. After the mechs emerged from the waters, their approach to land caused the party boats to become unsettled. One of the mechs pointed its barrel at their direction and fired an explosive shell that obliterated all of the boats and party goers.

They showed no mercy to civilians!

Once the mechs approached the beach, their feet stepped out of the water. The machines turned out to be amphibian mechs! A cross between landbound mechs and aquatic mechs, they were capable of operating in both environments, though not as effectively as mechs dedicated to a single environment.

The amphibian mechs of unknown origin started to fight back against the defense installations that remained functioning after the initial round of sabotage. The collateral damage being thrown about by the merciless assailants hit a lot of nearby beachfront hotels and establishments, killing scores of innocent people by the second!

Meanwhile the alarms had thoroughly shaken the other Vandals awake. Some of the more alert ones emerged from the corridors with backup pistols in their hands.

"There are infiltrators inside the hotels! Be careful!" Ves screamed as loud as he could as he attempted to widen the distance between him and his hotel room.

"We need to evacuate!" A Vandal officer yelled while only clad in his underwear. "Cover each other's backs! Don't panic and don't wander off alone! We'll take the emergency exit!"

Though the sudden eruption of violence befuddled the Vandals, the officers quickly organized them into action! With mechs wreaking havoc from the beach, the Vandals were caught with their pants down!

Chapter 604

The Vandals all possessed spunk. Though they lacked training in infantry combat, many of them could throw a punch and most of them knew their way around with pistols.

However, Ves didn't place much hope on their fighting capacity. Separated from their mechs and ships, the Vandals were worse than a bunch of Planetary Guard recruits in an infantry-level engagement. Due to the restrictive weapon laws in the Harkensen System, none of them except for authorized security officers possessed anything heavier than handheld pistols.

"Where are the Honored Ones? Are the Planetary Guard asleep?!"

"Forget about them! They've turned lazy after decades of peace on this planet!"

"The Reinaldans rely too much on turrets and fixed defense installations." Ves quickly spoke. "The saboteurs took most of them out, and those amphibian mechs are wrecking everything that's left!"

He'd been worried about subsequent pursuit, but it appeared the infiltrators favored discretion over upfront fighting. Though the Vandals who turned up in the corridors didn't particularly look threatening, they numbered over fifty on this floor alone!

However, their only merit was that they had numbers on their side. If an enemy squad kitted out in full combat gear showed up, they would easily be able to mow everyone down!

Under the lead of the officers, the Vandals organized into their original groups of ten, many of which had slept on the same floor. Ves approached his group which Lieutenant Nolsen Feray served as their beacon.

"What happened to you?" The lieutenant asked.

"I felt something was wrong. I called security, who sent two men to check out my room. Just as scans showed that my body is doped with sedatives, several infiltrators dropped from the ceiling and killed the two without a sound!"

"How are you still walking about when you should have been sleeping like a light?" Nolsen probed with suspicion clouding his eyes. "Infiltrators never make mistakes when dosing someone with sedatives."

"I have my advantages." Ves replied simply. "In any case, I manage to run out of my suite and call for alarm. This is also just after those amphibian mechs emerged from the water and is currently bombarding every defensive fixture in sight!"

The fighting outside had never ceased, though the changing sounds indicated that the battle had entered another phase.

"The Planetary Guard finally showed up!" Someone who peeked out one of the windows yelled. "Damnit, an entire squad of amphibian mechs jumped out of the ocean! They're kicking the butts of the Planetary Guard!"

Ves risked a peek at one of the windows. He couldn't make out a lot of detail from this distance, but the overall trend became clear.

"These Planetary Guard mechs are first-response units. They're equipped for rescue and riot control! Their fluid projectors don't have the range to stop the amphibian mechs!"

The enemy mechs primarily consisted of amphibian machines armed with dual-purpose kinetic weapons. Kinetic projectiles worked great on land and decently in water, though only at very short ranges. They were accompanied by a couple of knights, who seemed like an afterthought more than anything.

Ves had seen many aquatic mechs before when he visited Moira's Paradise. He had a taste of their weapons, which had to be adapted to work in water and under pressure. This insight along with the large build of the amphibian mechs led him to believe they held missiles and torpedoes in reserve.

"Careful for missiles!" He warned the Vandals. "They're saving the best for last, I think!"

Nolsen cursed. "This hotel isn't safe at all. We need to go downstairs and go underground. If that's still not enough, we can evacuate through the emergency tunnels. Anything is better than remaining above ground where mechs can continue to take potshots at this structure!"

The Vandals fled downstairs in an organized fashion. Ves blamed his bad luck for being situated at the upper floor. This meant that they had to wait in line for the stairway and emergency tubes to clear out the clogging.

"Hurry up!"

"Don't press against me!"

"This tube has lost power! Don't enter!"

The stairway was the most reliable exit. A faster way to go down besides taking the elevator was to slide down the emergency tubes. People got down much faster through the tubes, though they formed a bit of a risky prospect if the antigrav modules failed to modulate their sliding speeds. Their bodies might go splat at the other end!

Due to the EMP attacks, many high-tech escape methods failed to work despite their heavy shielding. In fact, besides the emergency lights, the only other devices that still remained working was their military-issued comms!

The Vandals managed to connect to their brothers and sisters on Harkensen III, rousing them to the highest level of alertness. So far, the Vandals at Harkensen III hadn't encountered any attacks, but they managed to convince the Reinaldans to send some mechs to reinforce their compound.

"I've been thinking, Ves." Nolsen said as they slowly moved down the stairway. "The timing of the attack of the beach matches the moment when the infiltrators determined they were exposed."

"What are you getting at, lieutenant?"

"Our attackers are aiming at you. At the very least, the fact that they tried to sedate you at the start means you're more useful to them alive than dead. Yet they aren't hesitant about taking you down if they aren't able to smuggle you away."

"I don't know." He frowned. "This infiltration is a little too daring to be happening in Harkensen I. The Reinaldans must be furious right now. I think it's possible that I'm not the only target they are after."

"Even if you're not alone, you are definitely among the primary targets."

"That makes sense, considering what I know." Ves murmured. As the temporary head designer of the task force, he knew more about the Vandal mechs than any other mech designer or serviceman in this star system. "Who are our attackers anyway?"

"My money is on Calabast!" Tiss called from the side. "Don't you think it's creepy that she approached us in person right before this attack? It's definitely the Seven Stars who are responsible!"

The Vesians possessed a poor reputation in the field of intelligence. This was because each duchy pretty much maintained their own intelligence agencies. Many times, their spies and agents crossed each other's paths, to the point where lots of stories circulated where rival Vesian intelligence agents killed each other while technically being on the same side.

The only Vesian intelligence agency with a barely passable reputation was the Seven Stars Intelligence Agency, which was loyal to the Kingdom as a whole. Their funding was in regular contention since many dukes wanted to neuter them in a bid to weaken the power of the royals.

"The Seven Stars won't be stupid enough to implicate themselves in a terrorist attack on Harkesen I." Nolsen pushed back against that theory. "If anything, 'Calabast' is indicative of a false flag operation. Not that the Reinaldans will fall for this trick."

"If Calabast can't push the blame on the Vesians, why show up and suggest they're Vesians in the first place?"

"That's why we can't make any assumptions about our meeting with her group. There's an entire rabbit hole of mind games taking place in the background. For all I know, Calabast is truly a Seven Stars intelligence operative who is pretending to be a Reinaldan pirate acting as a fake Vesian spy in an attempt to deceive the Reinaldans in ruling out the Vesians as the primary suspects."

"Uhh... I don't follow." Trian said from the other side.

The mech pilot sorely missed his mech. He could have easily helped stomp out the terrorists if only he was piloting a multi-ton machine instead of controlling a weak human body.

"Don't think about it, Trian. Let the smart people do all the thinking." Nolsen said.

Even Ves couldn't figure out the depths of this conspiracy. All he knew was that this attack certainly didn't come without reason. His suspicion that the Vandals weren't resting and recuperating in the Harkensen System grew stronger. With all the shenanigans taking place behind the scenes, had the Vandals provoked a sleeping tiger?

The hotel shook from another impact, this time hitting the floors above!

"The energy screen is overloaded!"

Another volley of impacts followed suit, causing the upper floors to become dangerously unstable! The groans of overstressed alloys and sounds of falling debris made it clear the structure hadn't been built according to the strictest building standard!

The Reinaldan developers trusted so much in the competence of the Honored Ones and the Planetary Guard that they certainly cut a lot of corners when they constructed their properties!

Ves quietly cursed the greedy Reinaldans as their group finally made their way to the ground floor. Heavily-armed security officers guided every group of Vandals down the rear halls and towards an underground entrance.

"I'm sorry friends, but I have to gear up and join up with my mates." Nolsen gestured his head at the patrols of armed Vandals.

"Go ahead. We can survive without you."

They all understood Nolsen's need to help strengthen their guard presence. Once he adorned a suit of combat armor and equipped a heavy rifle, he would become a hundred times deadlier than his current state. Right now, he was still wearing his sleeping clothes while armed with only a pistol!

A string of Vandal guards guided the nearly-defenseless servicemen into an underground shelter. Dust and air revealed that the Reinaldan owners hadn't even bothered to send down some cleaning bots or maintain the ventilation system. Perhaps they had already forgotten the need for underground shelters!

Just as Ves and his group shuffled into the shelter, a couple of Vandals suddenly started dropping down the floor.

Nobody screamed or panicked. Instead, they called out for medical assistance while keeping their eyes peeled for any attacks.

More Vandals dropped. In fact, they fell onto the floor in an increasingly alarming frequency.

"There's something wrong in the air! We're being intoxicated!"

"Hurry inside the shelter! Masks should be available in the storage vaults!"

An increased sense of alarm overtook the Vandals as they all tried to press into the shelter while avoiding stepping on their unconscious comrades. Other Vandals turned around and attempted to open the gates that led into the underground tunnel complex that could take them elsewhere.

"The exit gates are locked! We can't get them to open! We're stuck here!"

"The storage vaults are sealed tight as well! We can't access the supplies stored inside!"

After a dozen seconds, half of the Vandals fell unconscious. Everyone was either wearing summer clothes or sleeping clothes. Even if they consisted of smart clothes, they were also designed to be permeable, which meant they couldn't be turned into an airtight suit!

Ves helplessly looked on as more and more Vandals collapsed on the floor or on top of each other. After thirty seconds, everyone fell unconscious except for him. Seeing thousands of Vandals in a state that was only a few steps away from death was mind boggling to him. How did the assailants manage to pervert the entire hotel to the extent they were able to intoxicate everyone?!

He took a few steps forward, trying to keep his footing away from any bodies. Ves slowly moved towards the exit to the ground floor. He could only lay his hopes on Nolsen and the other security officers garbed in airtight suits of combat armor.

Yet after he took a couple of steps, the vault-like door slammed shut on its own. Ves heard screaming from the other side. The security officers hadn't intended to shut the entrance!

Another gate creaked open at that moment. It was the exit to the underground complex! Ves turned around, expecting to meet the Planetary Guard, only to behold an entire squad of infiltrators garbed in the same black getup!

"That's quite enough, Mr. Larkinson." A monotone electronic voice sounded out from the lead infiltrator. "Follow us quietly, or else."

The man shot a couple of unconscious Vandals with his silent gun, spilling blood and killing several Vandals!

"Stop! I'll follow!" Ves raised his hands in a sign of surrender.

Chapter 605

Harkensen I, long known as a bastion of pleasure and relaxation, became anything other than a paradise. Several regions across the globe erupted in violence and war. Unknown assailants emerged from the air, water or beneath the ground and attacked inexplicable targets while dealing massive damage to the defensive infrastructure of the cities.

The Flagrant Vandals weren't the only ones targeted by the terrorists. Those with greater perspectives smelled a definite plot! One which involved multiple players and progressed at a level far above their heads.

In fact, the attackers may not even comprise of a single group, considering that every different unit utilized vastly different mechs and mech doctrines!

The deepest layer of the Harkensen System violently rose to the surface, to the horror of every vacationer on the unprepared paradise planet!

The strange thing about each of the attacking elements was that they all declared to fight under different flags! Each of their strange and never-seen-before mechs bore disturbingly familiar insignias that corresponded to the national symbols of several nearby states in the Komodo Star Sector!

"We are the Brightest Minds! You insufferable imbeciles have wallowed in ignorance for far too long! Let us liberate your minds and bring you into the fold of the Bright Republic!"

"Surrender to the Coman Vanguard and accept the inevitable! Leave behind your weak and pathetic forms and embrace the virtue of evolution!"

"Weak! You are too weak! Die in the name of Roppo! In this cruel galaxy of war and bloodshed, paradise planets such as Harkensen I should be razed to the ground! Kill them all!"

"The strength of the Reinald Republic is laid bare before all of yours eyes! Against our Kingdom, none of you can withstand our might! Pledge yourselves to the True Sons of Vesia, and ready your pathetic state for total subjugation!"

Ves grimaced as those words thundered from above. The volume of those broadcasts faintly penetrated the underground floor complex beneath the hotel.

Standing amidst a carpet of unconscious Vandal servicemen, Ves did not dare to make any sudden movements. The team of fifteen-or-so infiltrators all pointed their out of the tunnel gate. They left no angle uncovered.

As his hands remained above the air, he may have stated his surrender, but a significant amount of calculations and deliberations went on in his mind. Hundreds of thoughts flitted through his mind while only a single second passed.

He wasn't resigned to surrender to these ruthless murderers!

Whatever game they played, they undoubtedly didn't have his interests at heart. Separating himself from the protective embrace of the Vandals to accompany these merciless terrorists was the worst idea he could think of! With how professional they operated, Ves might never have the chance to escape from their clutches even with his secret weapon!

His eyes glinted in his light as he contemplated the best use of his most reliable weapon to date.

The reason why he still held some hope of turning this situation around was that he could summon his Amastendira from his Inventory at any time!

The only decision he agonized about was whether to summon it right now or wait until they took him into custody.

Ves figured the latter enabled him to spring his surprise on the infiltrators who let their guard down by then. Right now, fifteen infiltrators would immediately be able to point their weapons at him and shoot him into a sieve.

The downside to such a decision was that he had to make a leap of faith that they wouldn't restrain him in any way. If they tied his hands behind his back with some thick alloy cuffs or some other sophisticated restraints, it wouldn't matter if he could summon the Amastendira! He had no way to utilize his weapon effectively!

Choosing to spring his surprise right now was the better choice in his eyes. Not only was the situation simpler and wholly within his view, he also believed he could down the infiltrators with a single high-powered attack!

His eyes beheld the infiltrators as they stood at the mouth of the tunnel gate. None of them appeared to have stepped out as of yet, though Ves couldn't rule out any invisible enemies creeping around at other angles.

Still, the fifteen infiltrators currently stood rather close to each other due to the confines of the tunnel, which was wide enough to traverse for two or three wide aircars.

Ves made a decision in his mind and started acting on it. "Uhhhh.."

He pretended to be affected by the invisible intoxicating substance that had been released into the air. His body wobbled a bit and fell to its knees. The infiltrators tightened their grip on their weapons, but Ves had become somewhat accustomed to acting, so his performance wasn't too shabby.

As his upper body wobbled a bit, his eyes estimated the distance and the angle between him and his opponents. After a few seconds of pretending to be woozy, Ves finally stepped on the road to no return.

His hands slowly fell from above his head, with one hand blocking the view of the materialing Amastendira as much as possible. That didn't help much because the Amastendira was larger than a regular laser pistol and much more ornate besides. The master-crafted weapon was made to attract attention!

Therefore, Ves had to move quickly before the infiltrators recognized what was going on. For now, the only reason why they hadn't pulled the trigger was that they couldn't believe that someone in this remote part of the galaxy was able to materialize a weapon from out of nowhere!

He also whispered some words as quietly as possible. "Set power setting to ten. Switch firing mode to wide angle scatter mode. Set scatter angle to ten degrees. Switch laser frequency to ultraviolet."

Master gunsmith Pierre Femento's weapon could be controlled through various methods as long as the Amastendira was keyed to the user. Ves normally found it more efficient to change the settings by adjusting a couple of knobs through a control interface projected from the rear of the pistol, but the infiltrators wouldn't let him do that. The only way for him to configure the right settings at the moment was to issue verbal commands.

The pistol gently vibrated in his grip, indicating that it had read all of the instructions.

Ten was the highest power setting the Amastendira could reach. At this mode, Ves could fire only ten times before the weapon forcibly entered a lengthy cooldown cycle. This should be more than sufficient to penetrate the stealth suits of the infiltrators. Ves knew that their suits had to compromise a lot in terms of protection in order to retain their stealth capabilities.

Changing the firing mode from a standard straight beam to a wide angle scatter projection was like turning a precision weapon into a shotgun. Ten degrees was enough to cover the entire tunnel gate with plenty of margin to spare in case they jumped out all of a sudden.

As for the issue of frequency, Ves bounced around between infrared and ultraviolet, before deciding on the latter. Infrared lasers penetrated stronger armor better, but came with a massive wash of heat which might result in an enormous amount of collateral damage. With plenty of friendly bodies lying unconscious between him and his targets, Ves did not dare spill over any excess heat.

Laser weapon users considered ultraviolet lasers to be the more surgical option, though they still packed a lot of punch if pumped with sufficient power.

With time running out, Ves did not hesitate any longer. His body erupted into action, alarming the infiltrators.

The first thing he did was to reach down his free hand and grab the body of Trian Earls, who collapsed right in front of him. Ves mentally apologised to the Vandal mech pilot, but between choosing him or Ensign Tiss, the latter's body was too petite.

His arm hauled Trian's body from the ground and lifted it in front of his kneeling form. At the same time, he revealed the gleaming Amastendira in his hands and aimed it at the middle of the open tunnel entrance as best he could.

"Amastendira!"

Ves closed his eyes as a strong cone of largely invisible energy erupted from the barrel of his weapon at the speed of light! The silent glass-like projectiles shot from the guns of the infiltrators barely left their barrels before the dreadfully powerful ultraviolet wave crashed against the infiltrators and vaporized the front of their suits!

Screams escaped from all stricken infiltrators as their molten and vaporized suits blended into their scorched, vaporized and melted flesh in a single symphony of horror! Their screams quickly faded away as their lungs turned to ash and dust.

Those further away became exposed to much less energy, so even if they suffered a severe amount of damage, they still managed to cling to life! Their horrendous forms barely distinguished these men and women from undead ghouls!

Throughout it all, Ves still kept his eyes closed. A high-powered laser beam was no joke, especially when fired in scatter mode where reflections could bounce back the light back into his own eyes!

Though blindness from laser damage could easily be fixed in any clinic, Ves could not afford to go blind right now even if his Endurance was sky-high.

"Set power setting to seven. Set scatter angle to eight degrees."

As soon as the pistol vibrated in his grip yet again, Ves immediately pulled the trigger.

The second blast caused the distant groans of pains to cease!

Ves opened his eyes at that moment. He took a careful glance at the half-melted corpses smoldering quietly at the tunnel exit. The pile of burning synthetics and human flesh released a foul odor that Ves would rather do without. He counted eighteen corpses, which meant that three of them had remained invisible.

He looked down on Trian's body, and saw that it had been riddled with various projectiles. The mech pilot's back had been facing the enemy, and now became awash with blood pouring from the holes.

He was definitely dead.

"Sorry mate."

A couple more powerful kinetic projectiles managed to pierce through the makeshift meat shield and impacted against his body. Ves cursed a bit, but the holes in his body was much less severe. His inhuman level of endurance already worked to stall the bleeding.

Ves remained on guard against other infiltrators that might have already sneaked inside the underground hall. He had no good answer against them, though. The only thing he could do was to haul his bloody shield with him as he carefully stepped towards the exit that led back up to the ground floor of the hotel. Right now, he needed the help of the security officers!

"Set power mode to five. Switch firing mode to cutting beam, continuous. Set laser frequency to standard-infrared."

He pointed towards the locked gate that barred his way upstairs and began to hold down the trigger of the Amastendira. The laser beam that erupted began to cut away at the surface of the smooth alloy gate, burning its way through the thick material.

Ves worked neither too fast nor too slow, and he barely paid attention to his progress. Instead, his eyes kept raking over the entire hall. The moment an infiltrator made a move, Ves would immediately rake their position with his continuous beam.

Fortunately, it hadn't come to that. When Ves cut out a vague man-sized rectangle out of the gate, Ves released the trigger of his weapon and let it dematerialize back into his Inventory. He also hastily threw away Trian's corpse, which landed in a messy splat that undoubtedly looked suspicious, but Ves quietly shrugged at that.

As Ves was bending down trying to clean the blood from his hand, the Vandals on the other side finally kicked down the rectangle that Ves had made. Two squads of security officers entered the room in a tactical fashion, with half of them pointing their heavy assault rifles at Ves!

Unlike the light and stealthy needle guns of the infiltrators, these assault rifles would definitely be able to cut his body to ribbons despite his partially alien physique!

"Freeze!"

"Hands in the air!"

"Don't move!"

Ves threw his hands in the air for the second time this day. "It's about time you arrived!"

Chapter 606

Some time later, Ves sat with his arms crossed against his chest. The security officers worked to neutralize the chemicals that robbed the Vandals downstairs from their consciousness.

The infiltrators hadn't used anything lethal or sophisticated in order to circumvent detectors. The security officers sealed into airtight combat suits were easily able to inject the Vandals with a standard cure that woke them up over a couple of minutes.

Many of them reacted with horror and uncertainty after hearing what had happened. Looking at the aftermath of what Ves had unleashed, they all knew that they had brushed dangerously close to death. Who knew what the infiltrators had in store once they took Ves into custody.

As the hero of the hour, Ves stubbornly declined to explain how he repelled the attackers. With most systems down in the hotel, the security officers hadn't been able to retrieve any footage. This worked to his advantage. Ves simply stated that he possessed a secret weapon and that the higher-ups knew about it. This was probably close to the truth.

"You're not making my job more convenient." Nolsen said as he stood opposite to Ves. Like every other security officer, Nolsen wore a menacing-looking black-and-burgundy combat armor that was only inferior to a full-fledged exo-skeleton suit. "We've calculated the output of the directed energy weapon that is needed to vaporize eighteen enemy operatives at once, and it rivals the energy released by a mech-sized laser pistol! That kind of weapon in the hands of a mech designer untrained for combat is incredibly reckless!"

"If you want more answers, take it up with Major Verle or Professor Velten." Ves grunted. "I'm not the enemy here. Frankly, you should turn your attention to the enemy who dispatched those infiltrators and those amphibian mechs that are rampaging outside."

Ves was right and the lieutenant knew it. After a few more minutes of fruitless questioning, Nolsen walked away without any answers.

"Finally."

The main reason why Nolsen didn't push Ves any further was because in his eyes, he was a part of the higher ups. As the head designer of the task force, Ves possessed an unsurpassed amount of prestige among the Flagrant Vandals.

It should have come to no surprise that he possessed a couple of tricks to insure his safety.

A doctor had already come to remove the remains of the projectiles that passed into his body, so Ves was currently trying to recover.

"What a mess."

The noise outside had died down a bit. From what he gathered, the Planetary Guard and the Honored Ones finally got their act together and pushed the enemy amphibian mechs away from the city. Yet despite fighting on their homeground, the Reinaldan forces responded poorly to the crisis! All the sabotage that crippled their fixed defense installations hadn't helped their situation either!

The so-called True Sons of Vesia appeared to be outnumbered by the defenders, but their mechs possessed better armament and came prepared to fight a war!

This difference in preparation had been enough to turn the tables against the numerically superior defenders!

"The Reinaldans never fought a major war after they founded their state. They never faced an invasion by a major military force. They could plan for contingencies all they want, but without experiencing true hell, how can they know how important it is to be ready to fight at any time?"

The overall level of readiness among the Reinaldans was abysmal. Their membership in the Frozen Leaf Alliance gave them false confidence that no one dared to mess with them. Ordinarily, that would be true, but what if the Reinaldans couldn't figure out the identity of their attackers?

The complacency exhibited by the Reinaldans would never fly in the Bright Republic. Though their poorest planets couldn't muster much of a defense, their more strategic planets would definitely be able to respond promptly against any threats. The attacks from the Vesia Kingdom and the Bentheim Liberation Movement had honed their defense to a razor edge.

The only questionable point about this wave of attacks was how the attackers managed to smuggle so many mechs onto Harkensen I. Had they bribed the inspectors checking the cargo of each transport that descended from orbit? Or did they smuggle bits and pieces onto the surface and assemble them into complete mechs in their hidden bases?

"Both options are possible, and both are equally terrifying."

Whatever the case, the Reinaldans had been at sleep at the helm for far too long!

Ves believed that the attackers weren't targeting specific people like the Vandals. The damage was way too exaggerated. Considering the amount of resources and manpower invested into the attacks, their primary objective definitely concerned the Reinaldans!

"This is an attack against the interests of the Reinald Republic. The mass casualties inflicted by outsiders has broken the unspoken promises made to visitors of the Harkensen System. How can the Reinaldans retain their credibility after this destructive crisis?"

The entire Komodo Star Sector had already underwent a wave of unrest last year, but the Reinald Republic had largely escaped those repercussions. Their unique status as a friendly partner to shady outfits caused most bad actors to restrain themselves against one of the rare states that was sympathetic to their presence.

It was too bad that not everyone found the Reinald Republic to their liking. Making enemies was inevitable. No matter how much Reinald wished to maintain friendly or cordial relations with everyone, plenty of enemies still wished to tear them down!

The murky identities of the attackers only complicated the repercussions of the attacks. Even now, Ves could still hear the piercing broadcasts from the True Sons of Vesia. Even though every Reinaldan leader would probably scoff at this obvious false flag, their citizens and the tourists might not be so imaginative.

The troublesome part about these ear-wailing announcements was that plenty of people probably bought into these claims. Not everyone was capable of reading in between the lines, and regular people didn't normally think beyond their immediate status.

The dangerous games played among leaders of states and non-state powers was highly inscrutable among average folk. Ves definitely expected millions of survivors to develop an incurable animosity against the Vesia Kingdom after this attack.

With the true culprits in the shadow, where else could the aggrieved victims point their fingers at? "They're definitely going to demand compensation from the Vesians."

The attack by the True Sons of Vesia and all the other fake terrorist groups primarily served to sour the relations between the Reinald Republic and the other states. A diplomatic reputation in the toilet was a crippling blow to a state that depended heavily on tourism and trade!

After a short time had passed, Lieutenant Nolsen Feray returned to Ves. "Get up. We need you at our command center."

"So we're bunkering down after all?" Ves asked as he stood up and stretched his healing body.

They exited the small room and walked past the busy doctors, security officers and other Vandals assigned to various duties. Hundreds of Vandals piled up the whole foyer and front entrance with random furniture and anything they could grab. It wouldn't help against a determined attack from a mech, but it at least gave the trapped Vandals some sense of security.

"We've deliberated on the possibility to evacuate through the tunnels, but we eventually ruled it out." The lieutenant explained. "With all the widespread sabotage, we can't insure the tunnels won't collapse on our heads."

"Sounds logical." Ves nodded in approval. "Right now, the enemy appears to be in greater control over the city's emergency facilities than the Reinaldans."

"I don't have to explain why fleeing on open ground is a monumentally bad idea. With all the lasers, shells and missiles flying around, it only takes a single instance of bad luck to wipe half of us out. Besides, every vehicle trying to flee the city so far has been shot down."

"So the only choice that remains is to hunker down in the hotel. What's the condition of the energy screen generators?"

"Our engineers have managed to get them back online after they overloaded. They told us that the generators are outdated, so don't put too much stock in their defensive capabilities."

"As long as they work, we still have a chance to make it through the night with our lives intact. I doubt the attackers will stick long enough to local dawn."

The night made it easier for the attackers to come and go. Once night turned into day, the Reinaldans would have shrugged off their confusion by then and receive assistance from reinforcements sent from afar.

With most of the Vandals armed with nothing but pistols, it was a pipedream for them to involve themselves in a battle that involved scores of mechs on each side. Even if a thousand Vandals fired their pistols at a light mech at the same time, its armor would only some minor scratches at worst!

This was the tyranny of mechs! As kings of the battlefield, small arms posed no threat to them at all. If the Vandals had access to their mechs, they could have stomped their assailants in a head-on collision, but the distance between Harkensen I and Harkensen III spanned several light-hours!

Without access to any of their mechs, their battle strength was at its lowest point. Besides fighting off other infiltrators or infantrymen, they really couldn't defend against any other threats!

When Ves entered the makeshift command center, he quickly apprised himself of the situation. Since the Vandals possessed no mechs, the only assignment he received was to study the enemy mechs and figure out their motives and origins.

The live footage playing out in front of Ves didn't really give Ves a lot to go about. "Whoever the True Sons of Vesia are, they've definitely done their homework. The design of their amphibian mechs make use of Vesian design standards. They're likely designed by a genuine Vesian mech designer."

"What can you tell about the quality of their mechs, Mr. Larkinson?"

"Good. Very good. Quality work for a civilian standard. They're ideal for mercenary corps or other private outfits with money to spare. I don't think their performance reaches the level of military mech models. In short, when it comes to mechs, the defenders possess the advantage."

The quality of the amphibian mechs matched the quality of the mechs deployed by the Planetary Guard. The Honored Ones piloted better mechs, so in theory they should have gotten the upper hand.

The reality was that their readiness and training severely fell short against their hardened and prepared adversaries.

"The terrorist mechs are piloted by experienced mech pilots. Veterans, I should say, seeing how coordinated they act." A Vandal mech officer commented. "They're far better trained than my own boys."

Even though the Reinaldans possessed the advantage in both numbers and quality, they still gave ground again and against because their mech pilots fought like rusted bots!

This battle neatly showcased the importance of good training. Even if you threw a lot of money on acquiring lots of expensive mechs, without the right mech pilots in their cockpits, they could hardly deliver a performance commensurate to their cost!

The hotel rumbled once or twice as collateral damage spilled in their direction a couple of times. The only reason why the True Sons of Vesia hadn't destroyed their hotels was because incoming reinforcements kept their hands full. They couldn't spare a single second trying to overcome the energy barrier that protected the battered structure.

The Vandals kept their eye out for any other attackers, whether they came with mechs or just on foot. Security officers holding scanners kept scanning every corner of the hotel.

Fortunately, no other attack had come by the time dawn arrived. The sounds of fighting kept getting further away as the amphibian mechs slowly started to retreat into the waters. The landbound mechs of the Planetary Guard and the Honored Ones weren't able to follow suit.

Only their aquatic mechs were able to continue the hunt!

"We've survived." A Vandal sighed.

The rays of the local sun dawned upon a city of which half turned into ruins after a single battle!

The worst news was that the turmoil hadn't been confined to the surface. Up in orbit, an entirely separate battle had taken place!

Chapter 607

Every major star system that developed into a nexus of trade, services and tourism dealt with thousands of starships a day. From small pleasure yachts to massive fleet carriers, the amount and variety of ships that dropped into the Harkensen System far surpassed the patrol fleets of the Honored Ones.

A significant portion of the visitors dropping into this star system consisted of outfits looking to resupply their ships and mechs while sending their crew on shore leave. Ordinarily, the Reinaldan inspectors never really bothered to sweep the ships of the outfits very thoroughly. They primarily scanned for dangerous weapons. Everything else was free game.

How else would Harkensen's black and grey markets get their illicit merchandise? If the inspectors did too good of a job, all of the excitement in the underground markets would be gone!

Those who intended Reinald ill exploited the downside to this approach. The half-hearted inspections allowed cargo haulers filled with explosives to sneak into the inner system and position themselves close to other ships and space stations.

This operation had been done with great care. In order to avoid detection from remote scans, the payload consisted of a much less potent substance, but the cargo holds held many tons of the stuff. Once the signal had been given, all of the cargo haulers exploded with power that exceeded a tactical nuclear bomb!

Over two-dozen carefully placed cargo haulers erupted in unison in the orbit of both Harkensen I and Harkensen III! Only the restricted orbit of Harkensen II had been saved from the chaos!

In truth, the damage done by the explosions only hit a small number of ships, some of which perished instantly while many others survived due to their thick armor cladding. Many thousands burned up while many more suffered the fallout of secondary explosions and cascading faults!

The damage to the space stations had been a little more severe. Many compartments crumbled or depressurized in an instant, killing tens of thousands of people at once!

Though that sounded a lot, space was big. Even with thousands of ships orbiting the same planet, it was customary for ships to park in their own separate bands of space. With hundreds or thousands of kilometers of distance between each parked ship, the cargo haulers were only able to do their damage under special circumstances, such as docking at a space station or flagging a fueling ship to refill their fuel tanks.

Nevertheless, the initial detonations only formed the spark of the panic that ensued.

"I told you that those inspectors from Reinald were no good! Look at how many ships blew up! Ours could be next! We've gotta out of here!"

"We demand compensation! We lost more than two-hundred million marks worth of cargo! We're facing double that amount in penalty fees!"

"I went to Harksensen I to get away from the war, not jump right into it! This is the worst holiday destination ever! I'm leaving right now and I'm never going back again!"

"My children are dead! My wife is dead! My entire family is dead!"

The galactic net exploded with indignant remarks. Ves casually browsed the news portals and all of them painted a picture of doom and gloom. The arrival of dawn had chased away the attackers, but that did not put an end to the suffering.

Everyone wanted to leave the planet and the star system! However, the Reinaldans wouldn't allow them to leave willy-nilly. Reinforcements arrived to maintain order on the surface and in orbit, but they could barely hold back the masses that wanted to depart!

Blockades, traffic jams, curfews and more all hindered the stranded visitors from leaving. With the unknown assailants at large, the Reinaldans could not afford to let the guilty party slip away from Harkensen I by blending in with the crowd.

After taking such an enormous hit to their credibility, the only way to salvage the pieces was to catch the people responsible and put them all on trial!

Back at the hotel, the leading Vandals gathered for an emergency meeting. Various mech and ship officers entered a conference room meant to host business gatherings. They took their seats with grim faces and murmured to each other with subdued voices.

Ves attracted a lot of attention as he sat down. Practically every Vandal in the hotel had heard how he somehow wiped away the lives of eighteen infiltrators.

The fact that their seemingly weak mech designer was capable of such slaughter earned him a lot of respect from the men. Ves didn't care too much about the opinions of others, but he changed his mind once he found out his exploits strengthened his authority among the men!

The Vandals respected the strong!

Just as the meeting was about to start, the door slid open yet again to reveal a familiar form. The mech captain sauntered in like a queen about to hold court.

"Captain Orfan!"

"Welcome, ma'am!"

"You owe me a beer, Rosa!"

Every Vandal officer saluted or greeted her with evident respect. Though no one was in a mind to revisit the glory of the honor duel, her recent achievement had pushed her prestige to new heights!

The Vandals respected the strong!

"Alright Vandals, let's get down to business." Captain Orfan declared as the gravity of the conference room seemed to center around her position. "First up, what's the numbers?"

A logistical officer stood up. "Currently, our headcount amounts to over four-thousand servicemen. Due to our shore leave policy, almost every Vandal that is present on Harkensen I is accounted for. There are a small handful of stray Vandals that have absconded from our midst, however. They can be anywhere."

"Try and locate them and drag them back." The mech captain commanded, as if this matter didn't require any discussion.

"What if we can't?" Someone asked. "There are bound to be Vandals stuck on the other side of the planet."

Captain Orfan waved dismissively. "Then leave them behind. If they were stupid enough to wander off, then they have to pay the price. Right now, we have to fend for ourselves. What are our assets?"

"Precious little, I'm afraid." A security captain replied. "When we initially requested the Reinaldans to send down a security detail to secure this hotel, we had to fight to get this much armaments down. The strict anti-mech and anti-weapons policies have hampered our attempts to bring down heavy armaments."

Every Vandal received a spare pistol, but this weapon was only good for repelling petty thugs and rioters. Against a serious military or paramilitary force, the low caliber of their weapons wouldn't do them any good.

"How many fully-armored soldiers do we have?"

"If we use up all of our spare equipment, we can field just over a hundred security officers. I have to warn you that my men are trained for base and ship defense. They are not adept in any offensive actions."

In other words, the security officers acted more like guards or military police. Their primary duties entailed throwing drunken Vandals into the brig and repelling hostile boarders.

"Well, they better learn quickly, because I've got plans." Captain Orfan said as she adopted a confident grin. "Let's begin with the first issue. Are we safe here?"

The Vandal officers looked at each other and shook their heads. Ves spoke out his own opinion on the matter. "The Reinaldans have proven themselves to be incapable of guarding their heavily-populated cities. From what I've gathered, the True Sons of Vesia made an orderly retreat and shook off the pursuit from the Reinaldan aquatic mechs. With much of the defensive infrastructure in shambles, the shorthanded Reinaldan mechs are stretched too thin. When night falls again, who knows if the terrorists return?"

"We can't stay here." A spaceborn mech officer said. "We have mech pilots but no mechs. We have mech technicians but no supplies. We have ship crew but no ships. We're as helpless as unarmed babes in the woods. Our highest priority should be to obtain war material so we can put our training to use!"

"Hear hear!"

"First sane idea I've ever heard!"

Without someone like Major Verle to maintain order, the participants didn't restrain themselves too much. Captain Orfan listened on with a smile.

"Increasing our ability to protect ourselves is important, but I'd rather work to leave this planet." Ves interjected. "Right now, all of our assets are stuck on Harkensen III. In my opinion, we should work to rendez-vous with our brothers and sisters at the other planet and get the hell away from this star system."

"Agreed!"

"The sooner we're off, the better!"

Another ship officer shook her head. "How are we going to get off? The Reinaldans have set up a blockade and revoked every vehicle's permission to lift off into orbit. There's been reports of hundreds of shuttles and transports attempting to escape. All of them ignored warnings before being shot to pieces. The Reinaldan patrols in orbit really aren't messing around at this moment!"

This put the Vandals in a grim mood again.

"How long will the blockade last?"

"Until the Reinaldans caught all of the perpetrators or aren't able to hold back the tourists looking to leave. Say, a week or a month."

"We can't wait that long." Ves stated. "I don't know about you, but the terrorists targeted us as well. We've attracted their ire for some reason, and the presence of the infiltrators prove that we've landed on their list. The longer we stick around, the greater the risk of calamity."

"From what I heard, the sneaky bastards primarily targeted you. Why don't we split up so you won't bring us all down?" A shifty-looking Vandal proposed.

"Ridiculous! Mr. Larkinson is one of us! Without his assistance, we would have never succeeded so well in the Detemen Operation!"

"Are you stupid or something?" Captain Orfan slowly commanded with force. "It's one thing to leave behind the dimwits who skeeted off in the middle of the night. It's another thing to kick out one of our own! Besides, from what I've heard, those pretend-Vesians are targeting all of us, so there's no point in singling our mech designer."

"I agree with our captain. This is no time to point our guns at ourselves."

Ves sighed in relief. Captain Orfan's decisive words instantly solved this matter. Though he regarded her rather poorly, her simple thought patterns happened to benefit him this time.

For the next thirty minutes, the Vandals hashed out a plan. Their primary objective was to reach orbit. From there, they would wait and see whether their fellow Vandals back on Harkensen III had managed to reconstitute the fleet and was able to pick up the Vandals stranded on Harkensen I.

If this hadn't happened, then Captain Orfan vowed to reach Harkensen III by any means possible. "Even if we have to hijack a ship, we're getting back no matter what!"

The crazy Vandals cheered her bold plan, though a couple of people such as Ves didn't join in. Driven by a lack of patience, the Flagrant Vandals lived up to their name and planned out a bold series of actions!

If Ves had to summarize the plan, it could be described by a single phrase. "Steal or scavenge what they needed!"

They had no mechs to protect themselves against other mechs? Let's just salvage the wrecks strewn about on the beaches and hammer them back into working condition!

They possessed no tools to fix up those mechs? Fine then, let's raid the nearby tool stores and miscellaneous boutiques to get our salvage operation going!

They had no shuttles or transports to flee to orbit? There are thousands of them stranded at Harkensen I's spaceport! As long as we can incite the crowd, we can overwhelm the Reinaldan guards and lift off this wartorn planet in no time!

That last step was especially tenuous. Too many conditions needed to be met. During a time of crisis, who could tell if the Reinaldans wouldn't point their weapons at the rioters itching to board the stranded craft?

Naturally, the most eager proponent of this plan happened to be Captain Orfan! In her mind, it was better to do something than to do nothing at all! Hunkering down in the hotel and waiting for their deaths was not an attractive option to the aggressive mech captain.

Ves palmed his face when he saw that the Vandals took this suggested course of action seriously. "Am I surrounded by madmen?"

Chapter 608

The useless, overextended Reinaldan emergency services finally showed their presence on the streets. Countless wounded cried out for help. The True Sons of Vesia and other supposed terrorist groups exercised no trigger discipline at all. As long as something was in the way, it deserved to be shot! The more collateral damage they inflicted, the more they hurt Reinald's interests!

Foreign tourists and hardened outfit members on shore leave alike both suffered in equal measure. Over half of the city the Vandals resided in had suffered damage, and some of its long-standing structures had collapsed!

In this city alone, the latest casualty estimates had quickly surpassed five-hundred-thousand people! This was only a medium-sized city. Perhaps a million or more had already fallen in the other cities!

Allowing enemy mechs to enter within city limits was like unleashing a pack of wolves inside a henhouse! Even their most casual attacks was sufficient to reap millions of lives after only a couple of hours of combat!

Leaving the hotel and entering the broken streets filled with bodies, vehicles and debris brutally showcased the destructive force that made mechs so attractive.

The critically shorthanded Reinaldan emergency responders tackled the tragedies step by step. Their vehicles methodically swept the streets and performed triage on the most wounded souls that could still be saved. Bots hovered back and forth. They performed much of the actual rescue and treatment.

The Vandals emerging from the scarred hotel ignored the annoying bots as they asked whether they or their relatives needed treatment. Instead, they took up scavenged or appropriated tools and started breaking into the nearest aircars. All of the vehicles long stopped working after receiving an emergency lockdown command from the city's central hub. With all the deaths and chaos, a bunch of flying vehicles over everyone's heads wouldn't make the situation better.

Nobody cared about the abandoned vehicles at this time. The hackers among the Vandals nonchalantly intruded into their operating systems and granted full jurisdiction to their side.

An hour later, the Vandals gathered a score of vehicles and a bunch of light-duty tools. Ves grimaced as he looked at the piled-up bunch of equipment. These tools had been built to service boats or aircars. Repairing mechs with these skinny, underpowered tools was going to be very challenging.

It was too bad that Harkensen I was devoid of mech workshops or other forms of heavy industry. Its economy revolved entirely around tourism and services. They imported anything they needed except for mechs, which they disallowed entirely if not in the hands of the Reinaldan military.

So much for their ability to prohibit mechs. Hundreds of machines had rampaged in the previous night. Letting so many mechs slip through their checks pretty much damned all the trust in their competence.

"Well, it's not ideal, but it will do." Ves muttered. He turned to a mech officer. "Have you located any workshops or the like where we can fix up the salvaged mechs?"

"We have found one promising location, Mr. Larkinson. This city is home to a shipyard facility that services waterbound boats and ships. While it may not be the mech workshop you are hoping for, but it should offer adequate facilities for you and your men to do your magic."

"Does it have a 3D printer? What about an assembly system?"

The mech officer looked down on his data pad. "Our investigation reports that the shipyard is home to a 3D printer and assembly system, both configured for ship-based work.

Ves let out a sigh of relief. "Good. I can work with that. The key asset that I'm looking for is an industrial-grade 3D printer. It doesn't matter if it is ordinarily being used to fabricate ship parts, we can easily load in mech parts as well. As for the assembly system, we might not be able to make use of its mounted arms and suspension systems, but we can still borrow its heavy-duty lifter bots."

He also expected the shipyard to be supplied with a ready supply of materials and heavy-duty tools. With all of these factors present, their outrageous plan to salvage fallen mechs off the battlefield and restore them for their own use became a little more viable.

"What about the current owners or employees of the shipyard? I doubt they'll mind if we barge in and squander their supplies."

The mech officer spat into the ground. "Eh? Who cares about them. If they're stupid enough to lodge a complaint, just kick them back into the streets. We'll shoot them if they become a nuisance."

That was a typical Vandal response. Ves didn't bother arguing that harming a Reinaldan in a Reinaldan star system was a very bad idea.

The hackers appropriated an increasing amount of aircars, but they still needed some time to provide transportation for all four-thousand Vandals along with their assorted loot. In addition, they also needed a way to transport the mech wrecks from the battlefield to the shipyard.

The latter issue puzzled Ves the most right now. "Has there been any progress in finding a transport large enough to retrieve the wrecks?"

"None so far. Not even the parking space next to the shipyard hosts any transports at this moment." The officer regretfully informed him. "We would have found one by now if we had based ourselves in a major city. Sadly, our superiors opted to rent out this hotel because it agreed to our demands and offered an attractive price point."

"...What a cheap city."

Sounds of gunfire suddenly erupted a few blocks over. Ves almost ducked his head, but found out that the battle hadn't spilled over to their position.

"What's going on?" He asked.

"Let me call in for a second." The officer inputting something in his comm and waited for a reply. "It appears the rats have crawled out of their holes. Members of a Roppongan mercenary corps have gotten the same idea as us. Since there's only so many aircars to go around, they've started fighting over us for control over the vehicles."

"That shouldn't be enough to come to blows with each other!"

"Look, Mr. Larkinson, if we don't show these gutter rats who's the boss, they'll be up our necks in no time!"

The initial exchange of fire began to ripple across the half-ruined city. All over the city, groups of armed survivors started fighting over the limited amount of vehicles that could bring them away from this hell!

Though the combatants only comprised of a small part of the inhabitants of the city, their selfish actions deteriorated the balance of peace that had emerged at dawn!

"You impulsive trigger-happy fools, look what you've done now!" Ves yelled as he gestured his hand towards the vague direction of the city. "We'll definitely get the blame for this!"

Countless sounds of weapon fire filled the streets while the Reinaldan rescue services scrambled into the air. Many wounded men and women cried out for rescue, only to see the life-saving bots return to their mother craft in the air.

With the eruption of wide-spread fighting on the streets, the city began to deteriorate again! The Reinaldan patrols couldn't turn a blind eye to the chaos. The mechs of the Honored Ones possessed extremely lethal weaponry, so they weren't suitable for peacekeeping duties. Instead, the Planetary Guard mechs all made their moves.

Armed with fluid projectors, the muzzle of the flamethrower-looking contraption started to spew large amounts of foul-smelling brown smile. Those unfortunate to get caught in the slime couldn't fight any longer as their bodies and their weapons became enmeshed with slime that quickly hardened to a degree that even mechs may find difficult to break!

If not for their breathable and soluble properties, those who had been struck would have suffocated to death!

A single Planetary Guard mech could slime over a crowd of hundreds within the span of a single minute. With almost every mech equipped with a fluid projector on the move, more and more troublemakers lost the ability to kill.

None of the peacekeeping mechs had reached the Vandals as of yet, but Ves could already hear their thundering steps coming closer.

Ves became exasperated by what the Vandals had unleashed. "Now look what you guys have done. The Planetary Guard won't turn a blind eye to our shenanigans. We'll all get slimed and taken into custody soon enough!"

"Relax, Mr. Larkinson. We've already thought about this possibility and we've already prepared a response. Where do you think half of our men have gone? Go watch this feed."

Ves received the data pad, which the officer had switched to a live feed of a Vandal that had strayed very far away from the hotel. The Vandal in question was in the middle of a random crowd.

"Are you willing to get slimed just because you wanted to survive?" The Vandal shouted to the crowd.

"No!"

"Get lost, Reinaldans!"

"Why don't they let us get away?!"

"Then fight!" The Vandal said, and incited the crowd even further. "Where was the Planetary Guard when our shelter collapsed over our heads? What had the Reinaldans done so far to save our lives? They failed to fend off the terrorists and only came back crawling once the enemy has left! They're a bunch of greedy, cowardly, lazy sacks of dung who isn't worth a thousandth of what they are earning!"

The Vandal pumped up the crowd of survivors with a bunch of nonsense. Most of them had been pushed near their breaking points. They only needed a little bump to lose all their rationality. By the time the crowd had reached the peak of their hysteria, a Planetary Guard mech came into view.

"Shoot the mech!" The Vandal shouted, and the crowd pretty much responded instantly.

A large amount of low-caliber pistol fire clattered against the armored form of the peacekeeping mech. The mech pilot inside paid no mind to the small arms fire and methodically slimed the rioters until nobody was able to fire their weapons again.

The Vandal who originally primed the crowd had long slipped away.

Once the Planetary Guard mech walked over to the next street, it encountered the same situation. After that, it had to resort to sliming the people in the way yet again.

Someone managed to obtain a smuggled rocket launcher. For one instant, time seemed to stop as the rocket flew out and impacted the front armor of the mech.

Just a couple of scrapes of coating fell off from the impact site.

The mech pilot continued dosing every person in the way with slime, but over time their machines beeped in alarm. His mech had run out of slime!

The Planetary Guard mechs may have pacified tens of thousands of rioters, but over a million more fearlessly made trouble on the streets!

It was too much for them! Last night, their mechs suffered the most when they fought against the expertly-piloted amphibian mechs. Even at full strength, they lacked the strength to pacify an entire city in an instant, let alone now when their numbers had diminished to an awful extent.

They could only wrest back order in piecemeal as they returned to their base and refilled their tanks.

"That's bought us some time. The Reinaldans won't come looking for trouble with us." The Vandal officer stated with pride as he snatched back his data pad. "We've got the situation well at hand. I've been informed that you are needed at the shipyard."

"Okay.."

Ves had thought this particular brand of madness was only confined to a couple of Vandals such as Captain Orfan. It turned out he had underestimated its scope. Madness was practically part of their martial tradition! This kind of reckless behavior had practically been baked into their DNA!

It was as if the Vandals couldn't function normally if there wasn't a riot going on!

"The Vandals are way too proficient at stirring up chaos." He frowned to himself. "Is this an essential part of their modus operandi? Why would a raiding regiment be so good at kicking up a hornet's nest?"

Chapter 609

A lot of aircars had landed on the streets, but not enough to satisfy everyone's needs. The fighting for the remaining aircars became increasingly more intense. Though the combatants rarely risked their lives to obtain a vehicle, deaths became unavoidable, especially since the Planetary Guard made slow progress in pacifying the city.

The Vandals moved their men and supplies to the shipyard situated in the outskirts of the city. They hadn't manage to secure enough aircars to transport all of them in a single go, so they made several round trips to bring everyone over.

A couple of people on the streets fired potshots at the aircars. Whenever that happened, a number of Vandals opened up the window of their aircars and peppered the location with lasers and projectiles.

That quickly shut up most people looking to find trouble with the Vandals.

When the second fleet of aircars touched down, Ves stepped out of his vehicle and saw that the Vandals hadn't actually made their way inside the shipyard complex. They landed on a parking field just outside its walls.

"Why aren't we inside yet?" He frowned.

"Because it's occupied. Dunno who's inside, but they're not yielding the place to us." A waiting Vandal said as he carefully polished his hand cannon. "Captain Orfan wants to storm the place, but the other higher ups don't want collateral damage to ruin the shipyard."

Ves grimaced at that. "Everything else is expendable, but the shipyard's 3D printer can't receive a single scratch! In fact, it's fairly sensitive to concussive shocks, so even proximity to fighting can damage the more vulnerable components within."

Having assembled the Dortmund printer by hand, Ves had become very familiar with the internal makeup of this production machine. In one way, they possessed a fair amount of resilience, as they often had to handle multiton components. If the printer malfunctioned each time a heavy component dropped all of a sudden, then no one would buy its model.

However, having witnessed the destruction of half the city, Ves became especially paranoid when it came to collateral damage. Even if the Vandals possessed no mechs as of yet, several thousand of them could easily affect the integrity of the 3D printer.

Ves walked over to the command group where all the officers heatedly discussed options to take over the shipyard.

He ignored the mech and ship officers for now and tried to find his own crowd. The mech designers and mech technicians stood a little off from the rest. Nobody was interested in their input unless their expertise was required.

Everyone wore off-duty summer clothes right now, but he recognized Mercator and Vedette from the Finmoth Regal among the circle of mech designers. From the gathering of chief technicians, he recognized Chief Leo Keys, also from the Finmoth Regal, and Chief Keon Vasar, the most senior chief aboard the Linever Swan.

With this much mech designers and chief technicians, Ves felt very hopeful about what they could accomplish. Though borrowing the facilities of a shipyard to restore broken mechs wasn't very ideal, as long as they possessed enough enginuity, they could manage.

"Mercator, fill me in." Ves said.

The high-ranking mech designer eyes Ves with a gloomy expression. If Ves hadn't been present here, then Mercator would have been the mech designer with the most say.

"It's just a bunch of warmongers arguing the best way to slaughter they way in the shipyard. Right now, the shipyard is occupied by a coalition of gang members and mercenaries. None of them are armed with anything fancier than a pistol or a submachine gun, but they number more than a thousand among them. Combined with their defensive advantage, it won't be easy for the Vandals to overrun their position."

Ves closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Have there been any attempts at negotiating?"

"Nah. The stupid gang members just shoot at everyone who approaches. They're irreconcilable low lives, all of them. I don't think there's a single person among them who's in charge, really. You can see how they all group up by outfit."

He looked at the shipyard and did indeed observe different clumps of defenders. The gang members often appeared sloppier and didn't particularly seem diligent. The mercenaries on the other hand all walked with their back straight and eyed the growing congregation of Vandals with growing vigilance.

Once he understood the situation, Ves patted Mercator's back. "Keep the rest of our crowd at the rear. Mech designers and mech technicians have no place on the battlefield."

Each of them possessed valuable skills that had to be preserved at all costs, not just today but in the future as well. The scarcity of competent mech technicians and mech designers almost matched the scarcity of trained mech pilots. Losing a huge chunk of both of them couldn't easily be replenished on a whim.

When Ves approached the arguing officers, he found out that a decision had already been made.

"We're going to storm the place and get this done with!" Captain Orfan argued. "We'll concentrate our forces on the weaker members of the coalition and leave the tough customers for last. If they're smart enough, they'll take the escape route we've left out for them and squirrel away."

Ves became a little alarmed at this haphazard plan. "I don't think it's a good idea to make a frontal assault. We only have a small number of armored security officers, and unlike mech armor their combat suits can be overwhelmed. More importantly, if we push the defenders too hard, they might decide to destroy the 3D printer out of spite."

"Tough luck, then." Captain Orfan crossed her arms. "We need to make a move. I don't want to wait around until the rest of you summon up your courage."

He really didn't want to leave the safety of the 3D printer to fate. He swiveled his head at the shipyard and tried to come up with an idea that might help.

"What if we can sneak into the shipyard from the water? All of their attention is certainly pointed in our direction. Why not make use of that and try to slip in some men via water? Even if they posted some guards at the waterfront, it shouldn't be too much."

The shipyard complex encompassed a stretch of water as well that was connected to the ocean.

Some of the Vandals looked intrigued at the idea. "The idea has merit, but we don't have any specialized troops to send. Our armored security officers won't be able to function underwater, and our regular Vandals are armed with nothing but some flimsy clothes and a pistol. Even if we sneak in a hundred men through the water, they won't be able to accomplish much."

Ves shook his head. "It's not their role to defeat the coalition. The only objective they need to accomplish is to locate the 3D printer and set up a perimeter defense around it. As long as the defenders are too preoccupied with the attack from the outside, they won't easily divert their attention to the machine."

Such a move couldn't be performed so casually, especially for the Vandals. Without any special forces among their ranks, the Vandals had to ask for volunteers among the bravest and most water-adept Vandals. Most of them who stepped forward consisted of security officers that hadn't been lucky enough to receive a set of combat armor.

The Vandals quickly made their preparations. They raided a nearby diving store and robbed any equipment that seemed useful for humans diving under the water. Ves had made his way over to them as well in order to caution them how to recognize and how to handle the 3D printer.

Once the impromptu commandos finished their preparations, they lifted the commercial oxygen masks to their faces and pulled down the watertight visors over their eyes before jumping into the water.

"You know, if the coalition is scanning the water diligently, those men we just sent out will be shot into pieces before they can emerge from the water." Mercator said, as if Ves had made a grievous mistake in suggestion this course of action in the first place.

Ves pressed his lips into a line. "Successful or not, their presence will certainly alarm the coalition. When the defenders find out that the water is no safe having at all, the added pressure will tip over their courage."

They all waited until the commandos had given the signal. With their military issue comms, Ves put a lot of trust in the device. "We should be able to receive their signal from here without alarming our opponents."

Half an hour went by as the shipyard complex stayed quiet. The Vandals all hid behind the nearby structures, ready to charge forward as long as the signal was given.

Suddenly, their comms beeped. It signaled that the commandos had bypassed the underwater barriers and made it into the base through the water, but not without some noise! They had been discovered!

"Attack!"

The attack plan immediately went into motion. Security officers in combat armor took the lead and boldly advanced into range of the defenders. Regular Vandals garbed with shirts and other outlandishly bright clothes followed them at a distance.

Ves watched on from a distance as the armored security officers got bogged down by a multitude of fire erupting from the defensive positions of the coalition. Scores of lasers hit each armored individual, forcing them to dive behind the nearest piece of solid cover. Though the small arms fire hadn't managed to pierce through the suits of combat armor, it wouldn't take too long for them to be able to do so!

"Their firepower is higher than we thought."

The Vandals that followed from behind had to be very careful about their positioning. Just a single hit from a weapon could take them out. They remained at a distance and aimed vaguely at the sections pointed out to them by the planners.

Perhaps being shot at by a single pistol wasn't very intimidating, but when thousands of them struck the same spots, it turned into a terrifying storm. This instantly suppressed the gang members that had been targeted and gave the armored Vandals some breathing room.

Still, it was a bit too precarious for them to advance. The defenders made full use of their defensive position. Those that had been spared of the storm began to help their comrades from the sides.

Minutes past as the battle devolve into an unsteady stalemate. The defenders turned their firepower against the unarmored Vandals firing at them from a distance. They found out they had a much easier time trying to score a lucky hit on an unarmored opponent than to wear down the hunkering armored Vandals.

Ves stood behind a wall at the very rear of the Vandal position. As he feared, despite being outnumbered by at least four-to-one, the defenders possessed enough advantages to negate the disparity in numbers. The commandos who snuck inside didn't appear to be strong enough change tide.

"Do I have to show off once again?"

He really didn't like to intervene in person, but the stalemate might go on for an hour at this rate. The more time went past, the higher the chance something awful might happen to the 3D printer.

The Vandals needed to obtain a working shipyard, not a stretch of ruins with hardly a single machine left intact.

"I guess the cat is already out of the bag, pretty much."

Nobody paid much attention to him at the very rear, but he had no doubt that plenty of recorders were active at this moment. A trump card played too often ceased to be a trump card. Those with ill intentions would certainly catch wind of his weapon and plan around it next time.

"Well, it's not like there's no point in using it once it becomes known."

The Amastendira remained a powerful weapon whether nobody had heard of it or everyone had heard of it. Ves was confident that he could obtain more trump cards over time that could replace its position as a weapon of last resort.

Ves stretched out his arm and summoned the gracefully elegant weapon into being. With deft familiarity, he inputted the right settings before aiming the weapon at a stretch of walls.

As he pulled the trigger, a thick beam emerged from the muzzle of his weapon. The entire situation changed at that moment.

Chapter 610

The beam raked over the top of the wall where the defenders shot down at the Vandals. Their commanding position along with the thick slab of cover enabled them to hold back the disadvantaged Vandals without too much pressure.

In fact, the fight so far progressed fairly relaxed in their perspective. Both sides tried to preserve their lives first and foremost, so casualties among both sides piled up slowly. Still, the Vandals lost more than the defenders, so time was definitely against the attackers.

All of this consideration changed once the thick beam of energy lanced through the wall and vaporized the bodies of those who had been struck. All of this took just an instant of time! By the time the laser fired from a distance ended its fury, over fifty gang members had lost their lives!

This instantly weakened the defensive position where they had been stationed. The remnants of the gang all lost heart in the battle.

"Why are we fighting against this mob? There's no point in holding onto the shipyard!"

"Screw this, I'm going home! This place isn't worth dying for!"

When another fifty men abandoned their defensive positions at once, a critical gap had emerged. The coalition of gang members and mercenaries roiled with fear and uncertainty. The rank and file expressed an increasing amount of discontent.

Why were they defending this shipyard in the first place?

Outside of the leaders of the various outfits, nobody could answer this question. To them, there was no need to fight to the death when the Reinaldans would eventually get a grip and organize a proper rescue. They just needed to be patient and hunker down for some days. There was no reason to battle over the shipyard!

More and more defenders became swayed by this argument. The will of the coalition unceasingly weakened.

It came to no surprise that a second gang changed their minds. They quickly stopped fighting and turned around to exit the shipyard!

Once the third outfit gave in to their cowardice, the battle was set. The defenders could no longer cover every direction, and they still had to deal with the Vandals that had snuck inside the base from the water!

Ves found to his satisfaction that he didn't need to fire his weapon yet again. Its awesome power had been seared into the minds of both sides of the battle. As Ves fearlessly stepped forward, many Vandals of all stripes voluntarily made way for him. The stupendously powerful laser beam that erupted from his weapon had definitely surpassed the firepower of an infantry-sized laser cannon!

"What in tarnation was that?!" Captain Orfan yelled as she rose out of cover to take some potshots at the remnants who hadn't fled. "If we knew you had this laser gun from the start, we would have ordered you to carve the defensive perimeter apart!"

"Don't ask questions, please. It's something that's meant to safeguard my life."

Let the listeners make up their own stories about Ves in their minds. He didn't care what conclusions they arrived at, as long as they didn't ask him to relinquish his weapon.

Ves was pretty sure it wouldn't come to that. The Amastendira helped the Vandals out several times. The only reason why the Vandals would attempt to take it away from him was if they possessed hostile intentions against him. Considering the many secrets floating about the mech regiment, keeping one more secret to himself didn't hurt.

The most mystical thing about Ves' weapon was that it disappeared after firing once. Many Vandals that paid attention to Ves suspected that he was carrying a cloaked weapon that couldn't be detected until actually used.

Such weapons existed, but only assassins used them prominently. They could never in a million years imagine that Ves could still call upon his weapon if he was ever stripped and searched for hidden weapons.

"They're running! We won!"

"Advance! Don't let them linger inside the complex! Secure the production machines as fast as possible! Don't let them bring anything away!"

The Vandals breached the unguarded entrance and poured into the expansive complex. Though the shipyard could only be considered on the smaller end, due to the size of the craft it routinely serviced, there was more than enough space to accommodate an entire mech company's worth of mechs.

Hardly anyone had stuck around after the Vandals had made it through. The coalition had pretty much disintegrated after the first couple of gangs had abandoned their posts. Compared to the distant benefit of occupying the shipyard, they rather treasured their lives.

The Vandals refrained from attacking anyone who fled. Though it might have been satisfying to shoot the bastards in the back, the Vandals did not wish to push them into a corner. They already won, and that was what mattered the most.

As Ves stepped inside the complex along with the mech designers and mech technicians, they already started scrutinizing the state of the shipyard.

The previous occupants hadn't been in control long enough to mess too many things around. Some of the less disciplined gang members had vandalized some of the equipment while taking away the more valuable-looking stuff, but there was no way they could haul away the heavy machinery.

"Most of the bots are still intact. They're almost fully accounted for!"

"There are heavy cranes positioned over the drydocks. We can use them to lift up the frames of the mechs."

"This facility doesn't make use of an assembly system. This complex is more of a repair and servicing facility. I don't think it has ever fabricated a new ship from scratch."

"There's nothing good in the warehouses! The only thing we can find are standard composites and alloys. They're no good when it comes to taking damage!"

Ves took in the news as he walked over to the 3D printer. He met the original commandos who snuck inside the base through the water. "Mr. Larkinson, we've guarded the machine as best we could! Please inspect!"

The fighting hadn't been very intense here, but the 3D printer had definitely been exposed to some threats. He winced as he saw that the exterior of the massive machine had suffered a glancing blow from a ballistic pistol. Fortunately, its shell held up and the projectile hadn't punched into the delicate internals.

"Good job! I think it's in working condition!"

The praise flattered the commandos. Though Ves couldn't give them a ribbon or something, his words gave them one more story to brag about. Some mech designers and chief technicians approached the 3D printer.

Most of them probably didn't have a clue how the 3D printer worked. Many mech designers and mech technicians these days treated 3D printers as black boxes. They didn't need to know how it worked. They only needed to provide specific input and wait for the appropriate output to arrive.

"Something goes in, something else goes out."

Certainly, they also needed to be proficient at providing the right instructions to the machine. The more advanced operators possessed a good understanding of the limitations imposed by the 3D printer, and could get the most out of the production machine.

Ves turned to the only person besides him who probably understood 3D printers at a deeper level. "What do you think about this beast, Chief Vasar? Is it good enough to fabricate replacement parts for mechs?"

"It's an old model. Rather worn too. It's not suitable for jobs that require too much precision. The quality of processors and other microcomponents from this printer will be very questionable. I'd rather not put all my chips on this machine."

"Is it good enough to fabricate replacement armor plating?"

"Theoretically, there shouldn't be any issues with that. In practice, a printer as old as this won't work well with harder and tougher alloys. Not that we have access to those alloys anyhow. From what I've heard so far, this shipyard only stocks materials to patch up the hulls of waterbound boats and ships."

"I was afraid of that."

He listened to Chief Vasar as he enumerated a host of issues, some of which Ves had never considered. He respected the old chief's opinion because he possessed the most eminent qualifications among the chief technicians.

Vasar served as the senior chief aboard the Linever Swan. This massive logistics ship was a sister to the Beggar's Bounty, and contained a mix of industry. There was never a moment in time when all of its processing and production facilities had fallen idle. The variety of work that needed to be done was mind-boggling in itself. Only an experienced hand with rich knowledge would be able to maintain a grip on the industrious ship.

Ves had heard something about the man's background. Chief Vasar used to work his way up in the private sector. Back then, he didn't work with mechs. Instead, he became involved with heavy industry, and eventually made a detour into working with mechs.

Compared to the other chief technicians, Vasar's mastery of mechs was rather low. However, his competence in many complicated processes that did not directly involve mech components enabled him to command an undispotable position on the Linever Swan.

"Now that we are establishing control over this complex, what do we need to start fixing mechs?"

The chief scratched his cheek. "If we don't care about quality, we can get to work immediately. This shipyard is decently stocked for a site that isn't a mech workshop. The only problem is that we don't have access to the design specifications of the mechs that had gotten wrecked last night. Without any schematics or design specifications to go on, we'll have to do all the guesswork."

"There's no way we can obtain the right materials that matches those used in the wrecks." Ves responded with resignation in his eyes. "We'll have to resort to substitution to make do. This is the only option available to us that lets us get the most mechs up and running quickly."

By now, the fate of the trapped inhabitants, tourists and visitors became clear. The Reinaldans broadcasted that the terrorists would either launch another attack or escape from the planet as fast as possible.

If the former happened, the Vandals really needed mechs to establish a basic form of defense against the threat of hostile mechs. No matter how much small arms and other inconsequential weapons they made use of, a single mech could definitely squash thousands of them flat!

If the latter happened, the necessity of mechs became no less greater. The escape attempt might be the only time where people could leave Harkensen I. After the first attempt, the Reinaldan fleet assets in orbit would be bound to tighten their watch over the planet.

"Besides, I don't think the assailants will try to run the blockade alone. They are bound to solicit others."

The Reinaldans really didn't wish anyone to leave their ruined paradise planet without going through stringent inspections. This might last up to a month, which didn't sound very long.

For some reason, the higher-ups expressed some urgency in attempting to leave this star system. They couldn't afford to delay for an entire month!

Though nobody ever told Ves the reason for all of the hurry, he surmised it must have been related to the murkiness surrounding Lord Javier.

Ves threw those guesses to the back of his mind. Right now, he needed to fulfill his responsibilities as a head designer. The mech technicians already started to dawdle after they dumped all of their supplies in the complex.

"Alright, you folk! Break time is over! Let's start salvaging some mechs from the beaches!"

He flung some common-sense orders about. He divided the technical crew into separate portions. Some would find some vehicles capable of lifting mechs and use them to recover the fallen mechs from the battlefield. Others went on to prepare the bots, tools and production facilities to work with mechs instead of ships.

They only had a day or two at most to build up their war assets! Any longer than that, and they might miss the upcoming window of opportunity!

Chapter 611

Once the Flagrant Vandals occupied the shipyard and chased away the stragglers, the place began to come to life. After Ves delegated all of the essential tasks, he basically sat back and watched his underlings do all of the hard work.

"It's good to be the boss." He said with a satisfied smile.

The Vandals happened to have found a couple of heavy-duty transport shuttles in a forced-open hangar structure. While it couldn't match the lifting power and cargo capacity of a proper transport, they were better than nothing.

Unfortunately, the previous occupants of the shipyard broke into them and attempted to fiddle with their hardware and software in order to circumvent its locks. The broken parts and garbage strewn about made it clear that they hadn't been very proficient in their attempts.

"Can they even fly?" Ves asked with skepticism.

"Don't worry about it, Mr. Larkinson." Chief Vasar said. "While I'm not familiar with this transport shuttle model, they're not so different from each other. I can definitely fix up the broken parts. As for the operating system, our hackers should be able to subvert them quickly."

The small collection of transport shuttles became the most important asset of the Vandals stranded on Harkensen I. they were not only capable of conveying mechs over long distances, but they also possessed the ability to climb into space.

However, relying on these transport shuttles alone to bring the Vandals into space wouldn't work. Anyone who flew into orbit would summarily be blown apart by the spaceborn mechs patrolling in orbit. In addition, they would only be able to convey several hundred people per trip.

The Reinaldans didn't even dare to capture any escaping ships, for fear that they had been rigged to blow. They would never grant the Vandals the time to make several round-trips. For better or worse, the Vandals needed to obtain enough space-capable transport capacity to lift up into space in a single escape attempt.

Under the experienced eye of Chief Vasar, the mech technicians and hackers slowly fixed up the shuttles while bringing them under their control. The hackers didn't even have to sweat too much to subvert their programming because their civilian-grade security suite hadn't been updated for years.

"Good! Now that we've got some lifting capacity, it's time to bring in the mechs."

Other Vandals had already been sent out to scout the outskirts of the city for salvageable wrecks. They mostly aimed their sights at the remains of the amphibian mechs.

While the Vandals could have opted to salvage the wrecks of the mechs from the Planetary Guard or the Honored Ones, that would have pissed the Reinaldans off.

Right now, the Reinaldans already had their hands full trying to put up multiple fires. The devastating at the larger cities was especially damaging to their prestige. For now, they channeled most of their resources and attention at providing relief in those regions, leaving medium-sized cities like the one the Vandals resided in on their own.

This outcome suited the Vandals, and they did not wish to attract the attention of the Reinaldans. As long as nobody crossed the red line, the Vandals would remain below everyone's radar.

Still, that didn't mean the Vandals had free reign. Many different outfit members gathered together and fought over strategic resources. While the Planetary Guard dropped an abundant amount of nutrient packs and packaged water from the air, ensuring that nobody would starve, many visitors desired for more. Tools, weapons, vehicles and more became highly sought-after goods that incited some people to risk their lives to obtain.

The Vandals did not disappoint in this aspect. Their numbers made them one of the largest cohesive groups in the city, and their military training and coordination overwhelmed any opposition in their way. Gang members revelling in the chaos tended to become overconfident, but once they fought twice or thrice the number of Vandals, they quickly learned their lesson or landed in an early grave.

Ves did not have to concern himself with protecting the salvaging parties. The mech officers such as Captain Orfan had the issue well in hand.

A sudden cheer erupted from the edge of the complex.

"We've recovered our first wreck!"

A decently-intact wreck hovered into view from above. Several chains connected the wreck to a formation of shuttles flying in unison. Several heavy-duty lifter bots placed on strategic positions around the mech helped take up some of the burden.

Even then, the amphibian mech that weighed as much as a medium knight mech could barely be brought back to the shipyard complex.

"Well, let's see what big boy we have here."

As Ves and a number of mech designers and mech technicians gathered over to the wreck that had been dumped at a designated area, they got their first clear look at the machine that caused them terror last night.

"Its design is really good!" Ves said with evident admiration in his tone. "Has anyone identified its model yet?"

"It's an unregistered model. There's no record of this exact mech model in the MTA's database." Mercator answered. "However, I've snooped around and found a partial match for Gliesen Systems' Water Wraith WAWA-44AE model. The mech model is designed around the concept of bombarding shore positions from the water. The AE variant sacrifices all close-ranged combat options for stronger ranged abilities. Its dual-purpose cannons are highly effective on land, but not as good underwater."

The Water Wraith looked like a fat humanoid mech with extra bits. Its surface was coated in blue and green, and besides bearing the insignia of the True Sons of Vesia, it exhibited no other noticeable features.

Even without studying amphibian mechs in depth, Ves could tell the Water Wraith's design tried its best to balance out its performance over land and underwater. Its thick, streamlined armor had obviously been designed to keep it watertight and capable of withstanding a fair amount of pressure. Different from true aquatic mechs, the mech model hadn't been designed to withstand the crushing pressure of the deep. Depending on the characteristics of the ocean, diving three or four kilometers deep was probably their limit.

"Where is Gliesen Systems based at?"

"It's... not a company native to the Komodo Star Sector. According to the records, it's a mech manufacturer from the Vicious Mountain Star Sector."

That caused everyone to mutter in surprise. Humanity settled Vicious Mountain earlier than Komodo, so its overall level of development was significantly higher.

"Does Gliesen Systems maintain any branches in our star sector?"

"None as far as I'm aware of. They may have extended their presence here through hidden partnerships, but if there are any, you won't be able to find any proof on the galactic net."

This oddity sounded very strange to Ves. Why would the masterminds behind the terrorist attacks make use of a Vicious Mountain mech design? It was not as if the mech designers from Komodo lazed about. They developed more than enough amphibian mech designs to choose from. Could this be a hint that the scope of the conflict encompassed multiple star sector, or was this just another red herring meant to lead investigators on a false trail?

No matter the truth, the Vandals had to work with the mechs at hand. "Alright, there's no point in speculating. Let's start by fixing up this mech! Mr. Mercator! Since you're so good at investigating stuff on the galactic net, see if you can't dig up some schematics or specifications on the Water Wraith. Even a repair manual will do."

The other mech designer shook his head. "Mr. Larkinson, I'd like to remind you that the wrecks from the battlefield are not exact copies of the Water Wraith. What is the use of digging up those documents?"

"Even if these wrecks are variants, they should still use the same components. Restoring them will be a lot easier if we have something to base our work upon."

"But.. not everything will match. How are we going to deal with the discrepancies."

Ves sighed. "Leave that job to me. Jury rigging is something of a specialty of mine. If we can't make the right parts, we can always fudge something up until it resembles the original. We're not looking to produce a long-lasting mech! It's good as it holds up for a week or so!"

The reminder set their priorities straight. They did not need to work at the highest standard of quality. While that was important when it came for the main mechs of the Vandals, right now they only needed to borrow the strength of the Water Wraiths for a few days.

Once they transported the wreck to a workshop area converted for their use, Ves inspected the

wreck and drew up a preliminary restoration plan.

"The front armor looks trashed, but the internals don't require too much work to fix up." Ves stated his conclusions to the crowd. "Both the engine and the power reactor look like they can hold up, but we should double-check their integrity nonetheless. The cockpit is a total loss, though. Replacing it is going to be the biggest hassle to restoring this mech."

The Vandals opted to recover this particular mech first because it seemed the easiest to repair. Compared with fabricating an entirely new engine or power reactor, duplicating a cockpit was much simpler. The only complication was that they needed to replicate the software as well, which was a significant hassle but not a big one as long as they employed hackers.

"Alright, let's temporary designate this mech as WW-1. Mr. Vedette?"

Loke Vedette stepped forward. "Yes, sir?"

"You're in charge of restoring this mech."

"Me? But this is too big for me!"

"Oh, don't be such a worrywart. I'll take care of the design work. Your only job is to supervise the restoration process and to fix the small incompatibility issues that emerge."

Ves assigned Vedette to WW-1 because the mech was probably the easiest to bring back to life.

His judgement was proven right because in the next couple of hours, the transport shuttled dragged over several wrecks in increasingly more awful conditions. One lost both of its legs as well as a head, while another one exhibited a hole from front to back which swallowed half of its power reactor.

He assigned Mr. Mercator, Chief Keys and Chief Vasar to oversee the restoration of the other mechs. As for the wrecks the Vandals brought afterwards, Ves gave up on them after determining their exact state. The damage they suffered was so extensive that the Vandals likely needed materials they couldn't obtain from the city.

They were only useful for the spare parts that the Vandals could scavenge off their broken frames. In particular, armor plating was hard to come by, so having a ready source available helped speed up the restoration work.

Ves busied himself with solving all manner of technical problems. Despite the number of wrecks they recovered, some broken parts simply didn't have any spares to go around. He felt as if he became an emergency responder who constantly had to go back and forth in order to put out the fires started by his own underlings.

Time passed as the mechs slowly started to get back together. Since their lives and freedom depended on their efforts, the mech technicians required no further encouragement to work hard.

Ves had rarely seen them work at their full potential. It turned out that they became quite capable. The mech overseen by Vedette only needed a couple more hours to return to fighting condition. The other three Water Wraiths required further work to get back online, but would likely be back in working condition on the next day.

The Vandals became fully alert when night fell. They feared a repeat of what happened last night. Vandals on night shift vigilantly kept their eyes and scanners peeled for trouble.

Having learned their lessons this time, the Vandals procured a large batch of scanners from somewhere and pointed them in every direction, including the water.

Anyone approaching from stealth would regret it. Ves had become somewhat paranoid about this issue, so he also implemented some other tricks.

Chapter 612

Ves reflected on the difficulties he faced in the past, and the most recurring threat always seemed to come from nowhere. Use of stealth technology appeared to be much more ubiquitous than he thought.

"I've been screwed way too many times by attackers hiding under stealth."

He knew how powerful stealth technology could be under the right circumstances. He himself made use of the Full Stealth Augment from the System in the past. Its uses had saved his life at several critical moments.

If Ves could make good use of stealth, so could his enemies.

Before, Ves had the misconception that stealth was a rare breed in the galactic rim. Now he knew better.

"It's likely because the use of stealth technology isn't publicised."

No one wanted to draw attention to their successes when it didn't suit them. A stealth operation only succeeded when nobody knew what really happened.

When Ves thought about the applications of stealth technology, he realized that the benefits outweighed the costs. A stealthed commando shuttle at the right place at the right time could easily disable a large and expensive ship.

"The cost of research and development isn't cheap, but it shouldn't cost too much money to raise a spaceborn commando force or a squad of highly-trained infiltrators."

Training and equipping a squad of infiltrators probably cost around ten million bright credits under those conditions. As long as someone spend this much money, they obtained a versatile means of sabotaging a facility worth an entire fortune or kidnapping an important scientist who could earn back billions in credits.

Ves also didn't forget about Venidse's largely successful attempt at crippling the ships of the task force a few months earlier. Those stealthed commando shuttles only cost tens of millions of credits at most, and they had been capable of crippling large logistics ships worth several billion credits at the very least.

Plenty of methods existed to counteract stealth technology, but the problem was they came with greater costs. In the relatively poor and resource-barren places along the galactic rim, the standard of technology wasn't very high. Good anti-stealth technology required a significant investment in research and funding.

Presumably, the only reason why stealth and anti-stealth technology hadn't become more prevalent was because only the larger players had access to them. While some off-the-shelf stealth and anti-stealth technology could be procured from the open market, their specifications became somewhat of a known factor as a result.

When those products became popular enough to become widespread, developers could easily reverse engineer their inner workings and develop counters for their next product release.

"Perhaps only state-like entities are the only ones in the galaxy that can bear the cost of participating in this rat race."

The reality of the matter was that placing a large number of handheld scanners onto rods and pointed them in every direction likely didn't help that much. The scanner devices could easily be fooled and lacked the power to brute-force their way through the more sophisticated applications of stealth technology.

Fortunately, the Vandals didn't put all of their hopes on these scanners. Every Vandal on patrol carried around a sack or container of sand dug up from the nearby beach. Once in a while, they grabbed a handful of sand and threw it around.

Some of the hackers and mech technicians even reprogrammed some spare bots into doing the same.

Though these means didn't seem foolproof, it massively increased the difficulty of attempting to infiltrate the shipyard. Their true worth lay in their deterrence value. The Vandals basically made it so that it wasn't worth the trouble to intrude upon their domain.

Perhaps they had gotten their wish.

The night passed uneventfully. With the Reinaldan mechs on high alert, anyone who wanted to sow more death and destruction wouldn't be able to catch them off guard anymore. The True Sons of Vesia evidently hadn't showed up again.

Despite the lack of infiltrators showing up behind his back, Ves still didn't relax his vigilance against stealthed opponents. He developed a thorough loathing for this mode of attack.

As long as threats came openly to him, Ves could always form an appropriate response. The trouble with stealth attacks was that they never left him with sufficient time to respond. As soon as he found out about anything amiss, the worst had already happened.

The more he became entangled with the conflicts taking place at the upper rungs of power, the higher the odds of encountering applications of stealth technology. Ves resolved to guard against its use and develop his own solutions that counteracted any threats hiding under stealth.

"Once I have some free time, it's time to hit the books again."

In the meantime, Ves caught up on what had supposedly happened during the night. The stories circulating on the galactic net reported several suspected battles going on during the night. All of them occurred far away from any city limits and underwater, so most of the inhabitants hadn't seen any signs at night.

When Ves browsed the news articles, he figured that at least seventy-five percent of the reports contained pure fantasy. The events only existed in the imagination of the news portals that wanted to draw more traffic to their premium services.

The only threats the night shift took care off amounted to fending off random groups of rioters and other troublemakers.

Nonetheless, a large portion of the Honored Ones stationed around the city departed to reinforce other positions. This indicated that the fighting hadn't ended yet. For now, the unknown assailants still possessed the strength to contend against the Reinaldans stationed on this planet.

How long this could last, nobody knew.

"The Harkensen System is one of the Reinald Republic's major star systems." A logistics officer explained to Ves the next morning. "They have many mech units in reserve. While they don't dare to strip the defenses of Harkensen II and Harkensen III to reinforce Harkensen I, it's only a matter of time before reinforcements arrive."

"How long do we have?" Ves asked.

"According to the intelligence we've gathered, we need to complete our business within forty-eight hours. Any longer than that and our projections enter into a deeply pessimistic state."

Once the Reinaldans mobilized an overwhelming amount of mechs to dominate the planet and its orbit, the Vandals lost their chance to get away.

Even though many vacationers complained about the forced delays before they could finally depart from the planet, the Reinald Republic was not an affable state at this moment. No matter how much weight the tourists and outfit commanders threw around, they could not contend against the government's determination to sniff out the terrorists and exterminate them to the last man.

"I don't understand why the Reinaldans are so hung up about keeping everyone in their place. They're pissing off billions of tourists by keeping them imprisoned on the surface."

Though the initial outburst of violence had faded at the end of the day, the living conditions were far from ideal. Both native Reinaldans and wealthy foreigners alike suffered from the lack of order under equal measure. Their impressions of the Reinaldan Republic worsened by the hour.

The logistics officer thought about it for a moment. "The Reinald Republic is going for the long game here. To us, it might not seem worth it, but to the Republic, the only way they can really salvage their reputation is by hunting down the majority of the culprits. Finding a couple of scapegoats won't do."

Ves understood this argument, but he really didn't agree with it. The human suffering occuring on the surface could have been relieved to a large extent if many of the visitors left the planet.

"Maybe there's a greater motive involved." Ves put out another guess. "Redeeming their reputation is a basic goal, but the bigger issue is that certain influences have put Reinald in their crosshairs. So long as the Reinaldans can capture enough enemies, they'll eventually be able to find out the true source of their problems."

"That makes sense. However, the extreme reaction from the Reinaldans may also be for a more basic reason, Mr. Larkinson."

"What's that?"

"The enemy obtained something that the Reinaldans really don't want to let loose from their grasp."

When Ves heard this possibility, a small bomb exploded in his mind. This reason made a lot more sense than any notions about redeeming honor or trying to figure out the mastermind behind this plot.

He still remembered that a week earlier, Harkensen III became engulfed with a spike of violent incidents. Perhaps the things the secret combatants fought over was also present on Harkensen I.

"Well, you've given me a lot to think about, that's for sure."

Once everyone ate nutrient packs for breakfast, they resumed their work. Mech technicians crawled over the disassembled mechs like bees in a hive. Each of them contributed their own efforts into restoring the salvaged mechs to some form of functionality.

Vedette's WW-1 became the first salvaged mech to come to life. The test pilot who turned the mech online put the restored mech to its paces.

A lot of problems popped up due to the overly-hasty work, but Ves didn't mind them too much. The Vandals could deal with them for the time being.

"We've obtained our first mech!"

With a working example at hand, the remaining work crews became much more productive. The importance of WW-1 was that it provided a solid direction for the rest to work towards. They didn't have to come up with their own solutions to overcome difficult problems anymore.

In the afternoon, two more mechs came online. Dubbed WW-2 and WW-3, their overall integrity was worse than WW-1. In a pitched battle, their weak and patched-up armor coverage could easily lead to their downfall.

The Vandals didn't ask for much, luckily. Even a basic mech would do as long as it could move and pose a threat. The true worth of the mech lay in the ability to elevate their group over the heads of others that didn't possess any working mech!

On Harkensen I, almost no private outfit or group possessed a mech! Owning even a shambling mech meant that their battle capabilities instantly multiplied by a thousand. Even the Reinaldan peacekeepers would keep their distance from the Vandals now that their mechs could pick them off from a distance!

If the Vandals possessed a single Water Wraith when they initially approached the shipyard, they never would have bothered to fight the thugs who occupied it first. The shipyard would have already emptied out by the time the mech approached into firing range!

"Now we are talking." Captain Orfan grinned as she stopped by the workshop area. "With these beauties in hand, we can finally step up to the next phase of the plan."

"And what is that?" Ves asked.

"Why, taking them out for a spin! Now that we've become the top dog, it's time to take what is ours!"

Once the last Water Wraith became operational, the Vandals left WW-1 behind to guard the shipyard. They took WW-2, WW-3 and WW-4 and placed them at the head of three large expedition groups.

Their goal? Loot more ships and supplies!

The three mechs wandered off into the city, walking well ahead of a convoy of aircars and other vehicles bringing hundreds of Vandals along.

Whenever the local bullies attempted to repel the Water Wraiths, the Vandal mech pilots ruthlessly retaliated by firing back with their heavy cannons. Even a single kinetic projectile was sufficient to obliterate their strongholds!

Tyrannical! Flagrant! The instant the Vandals regained their power, they didn't hesitate to throw around their weight!

Once the Vandals demonstrated their willingness to use the weapons in their possession, the other outfits instantly became honest. The Vandals extorted their aircars and other supplies at gunpoint, and there was nothing the victims could do about it. Naturally, the Vandals didn't go too far with their robbing spree. Once they obtained sufficient aircars, they let off on the rest.

Chapter 613

"They call it The Big Breakout." Captain Orfan said to the crowd of high-ranking Vandals. "Everything is hush-hush for now, so don't spread it around. The only reason why the main players invited us is because we've salvaged some working mechs."

Everyone including Ves looked intrigued. Some of them might have been aware that some of the trapped foreigners attempted to organize a big escape. However, Ves did not expect they valued working mechs so much, but it made sense now that he thought about their scarcity.

Orfan smiled at the way the crowd looked at her. Another reason why they had been contacted was because she had recently shown her strength on Harkensen III. "Mechs are strategic resources on this planet. You all know how stingy the Reinaldans are with possession of mechs. If they aren't so busy chasing after the terrorists, they would have taken them away from our hands by now."

Right now, only the Planetary Guard remained to guard the cities affected by the attacks. The landbound mechs of the Honored Ones all pulled back to reinforce more strategic locations or assist with the ongoing counterattack.

Nobody was clear of the exact details. While Ves could always listen to rumors on the galactic net, the problem was that most of it was nonsense. The Honored Ones likely generated most of the rumors themselves in order to flood the net and make it impossible for anyone to figure out their true movements.

"When will The Big Breakout start?" Someone asked.

"They've only given us sixteen hours to reach the capital city. If we haven't reached Tecev City within sixteen hours, they're starting without us. Even if we join at a later stage, we might not be in time to obtain a transport or a ship by then."

The attendants of the meeting all showed ugly faces.

"Sixteen hours is too little time to bring everything with us!"

"It only takes an afternoon for us to fly everyone of us to the capital, but we don't possess a vehicle capable enough to bring along our mechs."

If Harkensen I's infrastructure had still been working properly, then it only took six hours to fly to Tecev City. However, under the collapse in order, safety couldn't be guaranteed. Who knew how many people would fire missiles at a fleet of aircars and other vehicles in the air?

The question on how to bring their mechs along became the most thorny issue. During their robbing spree, the Vandals prioritized the theft of heavy-duty shuttles. Even then, they barely gathered enough to lift two mechs and bring them to Tecev City at a decent speed.

"Do we really have to leave two mechs behind?" Chief Keys furrowed his brows. The man rarely spoke during the meetings. "I'm afraid we won't have much of a say if we only bring half our mechs."

A mech officer spoke up. "We have all these aircars. Can't we use them to lift up the mechs instead?"

"That's far too risky! Do you know how much a mech weighs? The Water Wraiths weigh more than a medium-sized office building! We need to connect a mech to more than a hundred aircars to generate the lifting power necessary to transport a mech. It only takes a single error for the entire arrangement to collapse. There is no way we can safely transport a mech to Tecev City in this way!"

Ves had thought about this problem ever since he suspected the Vandals intended to relocate to the capital city. With thousands of kilometers of land and ocean to traverse, bringing along the Water Wraiths was by far their greatest challenge.

"The Water Wraiths are amphibian mechs, right?" A logistics officer asked. "Why can't they get to Tecev City on their own power?"

"They're too slow." Ves immediately shook his head.

"But why? I thought that water mechs are supposed to be fast."

"It is indeed true that many aquatic mechs can traverse the waters quickly. They're larger and more powerful than landbound mechs and incorporate a special form of propulsion in their frame to achieve supercavitation. The shape of an amphibian mech of this price tier isn't compatible with this means of propulsion. In short, the Water Wraiths have given up their ability to move quickly over water in order to gain the ability to walk on land."

By definition, amphibian mechs were products of compromise. Their shapes, sizes, weapon loadout and means of propulsion all attempted to accommodate two wildly different environments. Torn between these two extremes, amphibian mechs could never match the performance of an equivalent landbound mech on land or an equivalent aquatic mech in water.

Everyone fell silent for a moment.

Out of all of those present, Captain Orfan appeared the gloomiest of all. "I already promised the big players that we'd show up with four mechs. If we only bring half of what they expect, we'll mess up all of their planning. Do we really have no way of bringing all of our working mechs to Tecev City?"

Since nobody provided any suggestions, Ves did not hesitate any longer. "I still have one suggestion. I'm not in favor of it because the Water Wraiths aren't in good shape, but it seems we have no choice but to consider the option. The problem right now is that it's too much of a burden to lift a couple of extremely hefty mechs. Why not cut them up? Let's disassemble the two Water Wraiths into several pieces. As long as we are careful, our aircars will have a much easier time in lifting a couple of parts."

The technically-inclined Vandals seriously considered the proposal. They did not show immediate enthusiasm for the solution because it came with several caveats.

"There are a number of issues that come with this proposal." Chief Vasar stated. "First, disassembling the mechs takes time. Assembling it back into a working mech takes even more time. Will we be able to do both as well as relocate to Tecev City within sixteen hours?"

"I'm not sure. But there's no harm in trying. It's better than leaving the mechs behind."

"Can the disassembled parts withstand the rigors of travel in this fashion?"

Ves already had an answer to this issue. "We don't need to lift the parts in the open. This shipyard stores many spare containers. We can disassemble the parts into pieces that can fit inside the containers to protect them from exposure and avoid attracting any attention."

A few more issues popped up, but either Ves or some of the other mech designers and mech technicians always managed to come up with a solution.

"Alright! It seems you fellows have this well in hand!" Captain Orfan finally clapped her hands. Many of the mech officers and ship officers looked bored at the discussion. "Since the clock is ticking, let's adjourn this meeting and get ready to move everyone out! We need to bring as many supplies as we need for the upcoming operation!"

The Vandals had already been ready to move out at any moment. With this much manpower, they tidied up the shipyard and packed up all of the supplies they thought they needed.

Preparing the mechs for transport took a lot more time, however. The Vandals spent two hours trying to speed up the partial disassembly of WW-3 and WW-4. Ves had decided upon cutting up the worst two mechs while leaving their better mechs intact in order to preserve their defensive ability.

Even if WW-1 and WW-2 were being towed in the air, they could still go online at any moment and fire at anything that attempted to threaten them. So long as they kept those mechs functional, the Vandals possessed sufficient deterrence to cross over to Tecev City without getting entangled along the way.

More than two hours later, the Flagrant Vandals collectively lifted off. Several hundred aircars moved into the air in waves. Sturdy alloy cables connected a dozen or so aircars to a container. Each group of aircar lifted off a separate container filled with Water Wraith parts along with other supplies.

The aircars formed into a giant but largely vulnerable fleet. In order to provide some measure of security, heavy-duty transport shuttles lifted up WW-1 and WW-2, both of which had entered standby mode. The shuttles positioned the mechs at the front and the rear of the fleet.

The massive swarm finally moved away from the city and started to make their way over to Tecev City. They made for a dramatic sight, and everyone that witnessed their migration became awed at their enterprise.

Seeing two functional mechs being towed in the air made for a profound sight to anyone who witnessed the movement. Every city or settlement in the way fell silent as the intimidating Vandals flew past their vicinity.

Word got out about their movements and the settlements along the way all turned out to witness their passing. Of course, not everyone was willing to see the Vandals make it out.

At another medium-sized city, a volley of missiles suddenly launched towards the fleet. With so many aircars in the sky, the missiles could have their pick of vehicles to blow up!

"Activate anti-missile systems!"

The Water Wraith at the front fired fragmented projectiles from their gun barrels, each aimed at a different incoming missile. Within a second, the deadly missiles had all been swept up, exploding harmlessly in the air.

"Backtrack the trajectory of the missiles and teach them a lesson!"

This time, WW-1 fired off all of its cannons. Instead of fragmented projectiles, the mech fired off solid kinetic slugs this time. Their high velocity quickly delivered them to the city block where the missiles had emerged.

Boom!

The heavy impacts flattened the entire area around the enemy stronghold and certainly wiped out every human in the vicinity!

"That will show them what will happen if they mess with the Vandals!"

WW-1 deliberately went overkill in order to demonstrate their willingness to hit back twice as hard. By killing the chicken to scare the monkeys, every other group along the way who wanted to mess with the Vandals finally lost heart.

The fleet of vehicles reached the outskirts of Tecev City almost half a day later.

Ves peered through the window of the transport shuttle he was riding with and evaluated the state of the city.

The sprawled-out metropolis prohibited high-rise structures, so the capital city featured a gigantic sprawl of different neighborhoods and districts, each of which served a different community. The adobe walls and tropical climate evoked a sense of paradise, and ordinarily average people could only dream of living in this prosperous city.

Now, the paradise had fallen. Just like many other cities affected by the attacks, most districts witnessed a partial or complete collapse of order. Though the Reinaldans sent out a large amount of Planetary Guard mechs to keep the piece, Tecev City was host to many millions citizens and foreigners. It was impossible to pacify the entire city within a week!

The Reinaldans concentrated most of their defenses around government buildings and military bases. This left many gaps which turned into a gigantic no man's land. Every street was under the control of a different thug, some of which possessed the strength to threaten the Vandals.

Flying high above their heads was bound to be regarded as a provocation, so the fleet of aircars quickly descended from the air and landed a fair distance away from Tecev City's spaceport.

As soon as the aircars landed on the ground, Ves and the others quickly left their vehicles. "We've only got less than two hours left to reassemble WW-3 and WW-4! We need to hurry up!"

While Captain Orfan and some of the cadre flew off to meet with the organizers of The Big Breakout, the Vandals who remained needed to get ready to take part in the operation.

Their first priority should be to put the disassembled pieces of the Water Wraiths back together!

Chapter 614

"Mr. Larkinson, what now?"

"We can't put the Water Wraiths back together out in the open." Ves sighed in an exasperated manner. "It's a good thing I've done some research. I've identified a shuttle workshop in the vicinity that reluctantly meets our needs. Go take a Water Wraith and kick out the occupants! I don't care how you manage to do so, just make sure you don't damage the production equipment!"

After spending so much time among the Vandals, Ves inevitably picked up some of their inclinations. Before, Ves would have never thought to outright plunder the possessions of others.

Before the Mech Corps called him up, Ves mainly adopted a commercial mindset. Everything desirable became something of value. Every person and every group provided different goods and services to others for a price. A transaction occurred when two different parties agreed on an exchange of different goods or services.

As a businessman who made his way up from scratch, his perspective became more and more tinged with lenses that only saw society in terms of transactions. A balance of demand and supply dictated his own responses.

The Vandals obviously didn't think that way. Certainly, they made transactions when it suited them. They relied on them to acquire their own funding. Outside of that, their default state was a little lawless. If anything could be taken for free, then they would certainly make a grab at it! Power dictated how far they could go!

"This isn't a normal way of looking at things, but it has its uses."

It allowed them to skip a lot of troublesome matters. As long as they possessed enough strength, they could take what they wanted without much repercussions. The Vandals didn't particularly care about pissing people off. As long as they were small fry, they didn't lose any sleep over their morally bankrupt behavior.

During times of peace, this pattern of thinking was problematic. In times of turmoil like now, the Vandals adapted to its rules like fish in water.

Upon his suggestion, the Vandals moved out with a single intact mech and a bunch of armored Vandals. Upon approaching the workshop, its occupants had already scrambled out of the structure. They did not wish to be present when the intimidating mech pointed its guns at them!

"Well, that was fast."

This saved the Vandals a lot of trouble. With a quick command, the aircar fleet returned to the air and made a short hop over to the workshop. Container after container entered the workshop premises. Scores of mech technicians guided lifter bots to open them up and place them at an assembly point. After adjusting the workshop's assembly system, the Vandals puzzled the Water Wraiths back together with rapid tempo.

"Too slow!" Chief Vasar exhorted his mech technicians. "Split up the work! I don't need five mech technicians to install the engine! Three will do! As for you two, go help out the fitting process of the legs!"

Assembling the mechs back together required lots of precision but little thought. Aside from some thorny issues arising from improper handling, Ves and the other mech designers did not need to intervene too much.

In truth, with the sheer amount of mech designers and mech technicians among them, working on only a single pair of mechs was overkill. They had more than enough manpower at their disposal to restore WW-3 and WW-4.

As soon as the mech pilots of both mechs successfully booted them up, everyone celebrated their success!

"Yes!"

"They work!"

Ves did not look as happy as the others. Due to the haste involved with this operation, disassembly and reassembly processes proceeded sloppier than normal. Some of the parts sustained minute amounts of damage, and the lack of proper tools meant that some of the parts hadn't been solidly fixed in place.

Considering that WW-3 and WW-4 already came in a very poor state, the extra damage compounded their performance hit.

"I wouldn't trust WW-3 and WW-4 to last in a fight." Ves said to the two chief technicians as they watched the celebration.

Both of the chiefs would have never let the mechs deploy at their current state. They looked tough on the outside but were brittle from within. Their cannons also exhibited a number of problems.

Chief Vasar crossed his hands. "We've got no choice. They're ugly, but we can't always marry the pretty ones."

Ves turned to Vedette and Mercator. "What do you two think? Do you believe it's proper to send these two mechs out for battle?"

"Our needs rank higher than some safety rules, sir." Mercator answered. "During a crisis, sometimes the best way to solve a problem is if you ignore the problem instead. As long as it's not too big, it won't affect you that much."

Vedette murmured some generic words of no import. For someone who Ves kept his eye out, Vedette's continued timidness became increasingly more intolerable. Still, Ves couldn't do anything about it. The low-ranking mech designer needed to grow his confidence on his own, and the only way for him to do that was to accumulate his strength over time.

Maybe a few years would ripen him up. Ves looked forward to the day he obtained a capable assistant that could assist him in his design work.

After making sure the two mechs wouldn't fall apart in the next couple of days, Ves met with Captain Orfan in private. She recently returned from an important meeting with the organizers of The Big Breakout.

"So what's the news?"

"We're in!" She grinned at Ves. "It's a good thing you fixed up those two mechs. Now that we've brought four intact mechs to the table, our right to speak has become stronger. We're part of the groups that have first dibs to any vessels parked in the spaceport."

"That's good news!"

Tecev City's spaceport saw a lot of traffic, and therefore offered parking space to a lot of vessels capable of reaching orbit. However, there was a division between the space worthiness of different vehicles.

Aircars and shuttles stood out as small, fragile craft that would not last a single second on the battlefield.

Aircars as a rule hadn't been designed with vacuum in mind. They also lacked the power to climb all the way out of the gravity well of a planet.

Shuttles on the other hand possessed a little more robustness, and they possessed enough propulsion to climb up to orbit on most terrestrial planets. They came in many shapes and sizes, but the general definition of a shuttle meant it was unlikely that they could lift more than a single container at a time.

The larger issue with shuttles was that they were lacking in speed and endurance when it came to deep space travel. They were sufficient enough to bring someone from the surface of a planet to its moon and back. Any further than that, people usually transferred to other vessels.

The truly valuable ships at the spaceport possessed genuine in-system travel capabilities. Transports and passenger ships both formed the staple ship classes in conveying people and goods from one planet to another.

Some even came installed with FTL drives, but in general their limited capacity made it uneconomical to turn them into ships capable of reaching other star systems.

Only true starships possessed the qualifications to enter interstellar space. Many of the larger starships were so big and heavy that they lost the capability to descend onto the surface of a planet. They couldn't handle the stress involved with fighting against the gravity of a planet.

According to some of the information circulating on the galactic net, a number of true starships was currently parked in the spaceport right now! If the Vandals managed to obtain a ship with a decent amount of cargo of passenger space, they would be set for life, even if they technically committed piracy.

"I know what you're thinking, Mr. Larkinson. I hate to spoil your hopes, but the other groups already divvied out the starships. We're left with taking a couple of transports. Enough to bring four-thousand Vandals into space with enough room to spare, but not enough to bring along our mechs."

"At least we've got something." Ves sighed. "A handful of transports is good. However, they're not meant to carry thousands of Vandals. Their life support systems will break before we can escape the atmosphere. We'll have to obtain some vacsuits or bring in additional oxygen and water."

"I know you can handle it. Just work that clever brain of yours." Orfan patted his shoulder. "I gotta go and brief the other officers. We'll be making our move at dawn. For that, we need to send the Water Wraiths ahead."

The Vandals promised to send the Water Wraiths in advance in order to fit them into the main group of mechs. Nobody was stupid. They only had one shot at The Big Breakout, and in order to maximize their chances of success, the different mechs needed some time to figure out how they could work together and coordinate their actions.

Keeping them separate and under the command of individual outfits was not the way to go. They needed to move as one and act as one.

In truth, this couldn't be done in a couple of hours. However, like anything about this operation, they never had enough time to do things properly. They just had to make do with a hasty effort. It was already good enough if every mech pilot understood the same commands.

Four mech pilots entered the Water Wraiths and disappeared into the streets. The Vandals all felt much less safe now that they lost their most effective protective talisman.

"I hope we don't have to wait long."

Right now, night had fallen, and the Vandals caught up with their sleep whenever possible. The Vandals never loosened up on their vigilance. Tecev City was not their home turf, and even if they possessed four working mechs, other factions and groups might possess more!

"We're not the only ones who have salvaged some mechs."

According to Captain Orfan, four mechs gave them some speaking rights, but not enough to gain the right to appropriate a starship. Ves deduced that other groups must be in the possession of even more mechs.

"The terrorists allocated most of their strengths in attacking the major cities. Tecev City is certainly their highest priority."

All of their strengths gathered together turned them into a force to be reckoned with. Though they would still fall short of contending against the Reinaldans, their goal had never been to come into conflict with them. If the Reinaldans hadn't issued a blockade, the tourists would have never been in opposition to the local authorities.

Everyone sharpened their swords and tidied up their possessions in preparation for The Big Breakout. The main organizers of this operation kept their cards close to their chest. The last thing everyone wanted to see was the Reinaldans receiving advance warning of what they intended to do. Secrecy became paramount at this time.

Ves received a comm call all of a sudden. He frowned at that. "Who's calling me at this hour?"

He normally received messages when someone wanted to get in touch with him. At this hour, most Vandals should be at sleep. He looked around and entered a quiet area in the workshop.

Once he accepted the call, an unexpected face showed up.

"Miss Calibast!" Ves hissed with alarm. "How in hell did you obtain my contact details?"

"That's not important, Ves." The woman smirked at him. "I haven't called you on a whim. Time is short, so let me get to the point. We require your assistance."

Ves looked at Calibast as if she was a dullard. "Why would I ever want to do that? Whoever you are, Vesian, Reinaldan, Roppongan, Lisvian or whatever, you're certainly involved with the initial attacks!"

Her smirk grew wider. "Can't you just take my word that I'm a Vesian?"

"Who would believe you?"

She shook her head. "Whatever floats your boat."

"If that's all, I'll hang up now."

"Don't be too hasty, Ves. If you do, you'll never find out how you can save The Big Breakout from disaster."

That attracted his attention. "You know about that?"

Chapter 615

It shouldn't have been possible for someone to obtain the contact details of a military-issued comm. By default, they blocked all incoming contacts from unknown sources. This prevented the comm from being influenced by malicious code and annoying ads.

Not even most of the Vandals possessed the privileges to send a message to his comm. The only ones who possessed the necessary qualifications would either have to be a chief technician, a mech designer or a senior officer. As for the rank-and-file, Ves wasn't interested in hearing them out.

For Calabast to obtain his contact details, she either retained the services of an extremely skilled hacker, or she accessed the comm of one of those people mentioned above.

Ves grimaced even further. Calabast not only had the ability to contact him willy-nilly, she also knew about their escape plan. "The thing is, even if there's an issue with The Big Breakout, why are you approaching me of all people?"

"Don't overvalue yourself. You're not the only one who we've approached." Calabast replied with a calm smirk. "Even without your assistance, my goals can still be met. Contacting you is just an afterthought."

Though it was hard to determine Calabast's intentions, his intuition told him she was mixing truth with lies. His business sense told him that Calabast attempted to gain the upper hand in an upcoming negotiation.

A negotiation meant a bargaining process. Each side wanted something from the other side, but neither side was aware of each other's limits. The best negotiations resulted in a win-win situation for both sides. However, if one side bargained too well while the other side let themselves get ripped off, a win-lose situation could easily occur.

An important weapon in any bargaining process was information. If one side possessed more information about the limits and intentions of the other side, they gained an inestimable advantage. They could use their superior information to extract the maximum amount of value out of the other side while minimizing the price they needed to pay in return.

Right now, Ves knew that he possessed a very distinct disadvantage in this area. Even as the temporary head designer of the Vandal task force, Major Verle had never initiated Ves into his inner circle.

The Vandals of the outer circle usually played fast and loose with the rules. However, it was a very different matter when it came to the inner circle. Each member of the inner circle kept their lips sealed on the secrets they learned. If not for being more perceptive than others, Ves would have never been aware of this undercurrent hiding underneath the mech regiment's facade.

"Miss Calabast, let's not be too obtuse here. You contacting me definitely means you're out to get something from me. I'm not too keen on interacting with a suspected terrorist such as you. The blood on your hands must be enough to fill Harkensen I's oceans."

The woman carefully maintained her expression. She did not exhibit a single micro-expression on her face, a sign of extremely diligent training. "There are no permanent enemies, only permanent interests. Whatever you think about me, it won't benefit you at all if you keep up your hostility to me. Let me remind you that The Big Breakout that your allies are brewing in the dark can only succeed in a single shot. Once you fail, the Reinaldans won't let those spacecraft linger at Tecev City's spaceport."

She had a good point. The most important requirement to the plan was to use misdirection to draw the attention of the Reinaldans away from the spaceport. Though they would never let up their patrols around the strategic location, for now they believed that the mechs they had already stationed there possessed enough strength to deter anyone with greedy intentions.

Ves already knew that at this moment, the masterminds incited other groups to stir up trouble at various points in Tecev City. For a short time, the garrison mechs stationed in the city would be drawn away from the spaceport.

"If you're so concerned about the viability of The Big Breakout, you should be talking to Captain Orfan, not me. I don't possess a lot of decision-making power among the Vandals."

Calabast snorted contemptuously at the mention of the mech captain. "I like to engage with someone rational. A neanderthal like Captain Orfan won't be able to get around my identity."

"That's because she's able to recognize you're a snake."

"Why, I take that as a compliment." Calabast grinned at Ves. "Blunt objects such as Captain Orfan are good if you want to employ a hammer at your problems. Yet they aren't so handy when it comes to complex issues. The Reinaldan blockade is absolutely not so simple. From my perspective, The Big Breakout at its current form is doomed from the start. Without our help, you will not be able to depart from this planet with your freedom intact."

Ves still maintained some skepticism. "The Reinald Republic isn't hostile to the Bright Republic. Even if they throw us in jail, we'll only be stuck for a couple of months at most. Maybe if I'm lucky, I can ride out the rest of the war in a comfortable cell."

"How shortsighted!" Calabast humphed. "You really don't know anything, do you? Perhaps you don't see the harm in being held back in Reinaldan custody, but let me tell you, everything the Flagrant Vandals have been working towards will be in vain! All those battles and all those sacrifices, and for what? To give the Vesians a bloody nose? Ask yourself if those casualties are worth the price for the gains the Vandals have accomplished so far."

Up to now, the Vandals won several battles and skirmishes over the Vesians. However, their impact in the greater war was much less significant. The biggest gain had been to pierce the Vesia Kingdom's belief in their own infallibility. The Vandals had shown them in a brutal fashion that their interior wasn't as safe as they thought.

The victories also affected the morale of both sides. The confidence of the Bright Republic had received a much-needed boost at the right time.

In many ways, determining whether the sacrifices had been worth it was very difficult to judge. To Ves, it seemed the Vandals had suffered a lot on behalf of the Bright Republic, but only obtained some scraps in return.

To the selfish Flagrant Vandals, they would never work to the death for the benefit of others.

"I'm still reserving my judgement, but I'm willing to hear you out." Ves cautiously said. "What is it that you want?"

Calabast paused for a moment. Instead the comm suddenly broke connection.

Ves scratched his head. Why did she cut off the comm call all of a sudden?

A familiar voice suddenly spoke from behind. "That is because I can only discuss this matter in person."

Ves immediately jumped and turned around. "Calabast! How did you manage to sneak all the way here?! We've set up an entire scanning perimeter!"

The smirking intelligence operative jerked her head at the handheld scanners placed on top of poles. "Those toys? We've long cracked their code. To them, we're completely invisible and inaudible. The same goes for your comm right now."

Looking carefully at Calabast, this time she wore a suit that looked very similar to the ones worn by the infiltrators that had infiltrated the hotel previously. While this did not connect her to those infiltrators directly, it was a strong sign that Ves was facing an enemy instead of an ally.

A strange device pulsed on her toolbelt. To Ves, his eyes and ears seemed to buzz as he concentrated on the little gadget. That must have been the device responsible for blocking every means of recording. The power coming out of the object very overbearing for such a small package.

Ves couldn't help but flex his fingers. If anything went wrong, he would instantly call up the Amastendira and blast this woman into ash.

"Don't be so nervous." She spoke. This time, her proximity to Ves made her voice sound much more lifelike than over the comm. "I am not here to hurt you. I come in good faith."

As if Ves believed those words.

"Get to the point. I don't feel comfortable meeting you like this. What is it that you really want?"

"Alright, I can see you don't require any more finessing." Calabast nodded as if she was satisfied with his performance. "We want some spots on your ship when make your escape."

"Absolutely not!"

The Flagrant Vandals would never tolerate any outsiders in their group. It was impossible for Ves to convince Captain Orfan and the rest to bring in a couple of random strangers. If the Vandals found out that the strangers Ves wished to bring along belonged to the terrorists that had engulfed Harkensen I in turmoil, then there would certainly be hell to pay.

"I don't suggest you take it up with the Vandals." Calabast shook her head after seeing his response. "You're a mech designer, are you not? There are many ways you can smuggle people along your group. You Vandals are intending to bring along some loot, are you not? My men can easily hide inside your containers. As long as your ships can break the blockade, my men can quietly leave the containers and step into space without alarming any Vandals."

This... Ves furrowed his brows. Accepting Calabast's trade wouldn't harm the Vandals any further at this point. However, he could not forget the Vandals killed by the infiltrators and the casualties they suffered when their hotel got shelled by the True Sons of Vesia.

Though it sounded contradictory, the Vandals valued brotherhood and loyalty. They hated their enemies and would never stoop to betray their principles in order to obtain more benefits.

This was one of their redeeming factors that distinguished them from pirates. No matter what awful stunt they performed, all the time they fought on behalf of the Bright Republic.

If Ves entertained Calabast's request, then he would be breaking one of the core tenets of the Vandals. It would tarnish his honor if his actions became known.

Still.. what was honor worth? Everything had a price, and while Ves had his bottom lines, he was not beyond taking some advantages as long as nobody got harmed.

He came to a decision. "If you wish me to facilitate this smuggling attempt, you need to show me some sincerity. Solving the disaster of that is facing The Big Breakout is not enough for me. That's basically helping yourself now that we are on the same ship."

Calabast crossed her arms. "We are already doing you a great favor. Let me remind you that you are not the only ones we've approached. If your demands are too outrageous, then I don't mind approaching someone else instead of you."

"I'm not asking for much. I mainly want information this time. That shouldn't cost you anything."

"Information is valuable, you know. I might not answer if you ask the wrong questions. If you want to know our background, then don't bother."

Ves fell silent as he formulated his question. Of all the things he wanted to know, one question constantly nagged him ever since the Vandals left the Detemen System.

"I'm tired of running in the dark. There's so much going on in the background that it's driving me crazy. All I want to know is what is actually going on. All this time, I've been reacting to danger without knowing why I'm involved. My patience has run out. I want to know what is driving all of you to this conflict. This shouldn't be a difficult question to answer."

There, he said it. He spoke his question, and therefore revealed what he wanted to Calabast. He could have traded this opportunity for other favors, but they would never be as valuable as finding out the truth. Considering that so many players were already aware of what was going on, this shouldn't have been a big request.

Chapter 616

From their conversation so far, Ves knew that Calabast was absolutely a tough customer. Negotiating with her from a disadvantage would never work out well for him if he pushed too far. This was why Ves had carefully sought a worthwhile question to ask.

His request shouldn't have touched Calabast's bottom line. The value of this piece of information was inestimable to Ves, considering that he had no hope of joining Major Verle's inner circle. After all, he was not a careerist mech designer who signed up to the Mech Corps for the long run.

In fact, this information shouldn't be particularly valuable to Calabast, because many players already knew what was going on. Leaking the truth to one more person hardly changed the board.

Considering what Calabast and her organization received in return, she would not lose out at all. Properly speaking, this transaction should have been a win-win opportunity. Though Calabast won a little more than Ves, as long as she spoke the truth, he didn't mind the small disparity.

Perhaps that was the only way for Ves to gain in this negotiation. Someone as sly as Calabast would never consent to a transaction in which she ate more losses compared to Ves.

As predicted, Calabast met his request with welcome surprise. "Looks like you're finally tired of being the frog in the well. You want to jump out, do you? I can help you with that, but be aware that there's no way out at this point. I'd like to receive some assurances that you will go through with what we ask of you."

Ten more invisible people emerged from stealth. They positioned themselves in a semicircle around Calabast. Though they wore the same modified stealth suits as Calabast, to Ves the differences to the infiltrator suits was cosmetic.

Still, enemy or not, at the moment they had more to gain from cooperating. Ves tried hard not to show any hostility to the new arrivals.

"If you asked me to sneak off five people or less, then it won't take too much effort for me. Ten is much more difficult. The Vandals may not possess the best means to detect stowaways, but they are very vigilant when it comes to guarding their own loot."

Ves sighed in aspiration. When the Vandals first received the working Water Wraiths, they went on a robbing spree in the coastal city. They primarily looted the other gangs and mercenaries of their weapons, armor suits, aircars and anything else that helped in a fight.

However, the Vandals stole much more than all of this boring stuff. They also smashed apart some luxury shops and robbed all kinds of valuables. From quality exotic jewelry to luxury goods, the Vandals sure took advantage of this rare opportunity to clean the city out.

"I am confident in your ability to get it done, Ves. Don't underestimate our stealth abilities. We can circumvent most scanning sweeps. You only need to make sure that the Vandals won't open up the containers and rummage around for no reason."

This sounded difficult, but not impossible. The main challenge was to find a reason to open up a couple of containers and let the invisible men sneak inside.

"I'll try my best, but if the Vandals have become active before I finished the job, I won't be able to help you any further." Ves simply said. "Since our agreement has come to this point, I think I deserve to know the truth."

Calabast looked closely at Ves and seemed to be satisfied at his sincerity. To his credit, Ves truly possessed the intention to go along with this transaction. This was because once Ves smuggled Calabast's men inside the containers, the interests of the Vandals and her organization truly aligned.

Considering the risky nature of The Big Breakout, now that they worked towards the same goal, they would definitely insure the Vandals succeeded in their attempts to depart the planet.

"Well, the secret behind all of the unrest is very profound. First, have you ever heard of the Starlight Megalodon?"

Ves repeated the name in his mind. The name did not ring a bell inside his head, but it sounded very profound. "That sounds like the name of a starship, and not a small one either."

Calabast's eyes grew heated. "How little you truly know. The Starlight Megalodon is not just any ship. If you dive into the galactic net, you can easily trace her origins. Far from the tiny ships we are riding on today, the Starlight Megalodon is one of the most destructive weapons in the hands of humanity. That is because she's not some kind of fleet carrier. She's a queen among capital ships, a battleship commissioned several hundred years ago by the CFA."

His eyes widened at that revelation. "A battleship of the Common Fleet Alliance!"

The CFA was the only human organization that had won the right to field humanity's warships. Countless warships traversed the stars and patrolled the huge stretch of space that humanity had conquered.

A destroyer or two already possessed sufficient firepower to demolish the Verle Task Force at its prime. The weapons mounted on their ships possessed a larger caliber and drew their power directly from the ship instead of from a mech. This increase in scale had no limits. The larger the ship, the more tyrannical their weapons became.

Warships defined the Age of Conquest that came before the Age of Mechs. Their dreadful power and majesty became had been seared in humanity's collective consciousness ever since they first toppled over the alien empires that used to human space.

"What is the Starlight Megalodon? What's the relevance of an old battleship?"

After a few seconds of thought, he grew confused. Just like mechs, warships aged as well. Their core technologies grew irrelevant with the passing of time while certain core components irreversibly wore out. At some point, the cost of upgrading the ship and repairing its inadequacies surpassed the cost of commissioning a brand-new ship.

The average lifecycle of a mech spanned from ten to twenty years with normal use. In comparison, the lifecycle of a ship mostly ranged from sixty years to a hundred years, though this was only a rough guideline.

An organization as powerful and wealthy as the CFA had no reason to hang onto a ship more than a hundred years old. The cost of battleships may be ruinous, but for a force at the helm of a civilization that spanned half the galaxy, obtaining a couple of new battleships was trivial.

"The Starlight Megalodon did not meet a normal end." Calabast said. "During an operation in the frontier beyond this star sector, the Megalodon encountered a freak accident during FTL travel. For a long time, the CFA and everyone else believed she was lost with all hands."

"I take it the Megalodon is not as lost as everyone has thought."

"Correct." She nodded. "A very small number of people obtained clues that the Starlight Megalodon definitely exists up to today. She hasn't been torn apart in the higher dimensions, nor had she been sucked into the gravity well of a black hole or a sun. She's intact, and maybe even alive!"

The repercussions of these revelations impacted Ves a lot. "Are you guys nuts!? Are you out to steal this battleship? The CFA won't tolerate other humans encroaching upon their monopoly on power. This is one of their biggest taboos!"

"Calm down. From what we have gathered, the Megalodon is in a bad state right now. Even if she's in a better shape, none of us dare to swallow the entire ship. We only want to strip her of some valuables that we know she's carrying in her vaults. The CFA stands at the apex of human society, and every single aspect of the Megalodon is made in the standard of a first-rate superstate!"

That alone sounded extremely attractive. In the aftermath of the Groening Mission, Ves had once received the opportunity to board a ship of the CFA. Though Ves had only been able to observe some superficial sights, what he witnessed that time had already impressed him of the height of humanity. A ship constructed according to the standards of the galactic center far surpassed the primitive starships of the galactic rim.

"If the Starlight Megalodon is in bad shape, how come you found out about her in the first place?"

"The short answer is that the Starlight Megalodon has crash-landed on an untamed planet. Over time, the original crew have all died off, but before they croaked, they followed their instincts and gave birth to descendents. Repeat this cycle a couple of times and you have a whole community of humans that have essentially gone native in the frontier. Recently, some of us have gotten into contact with some of their descendants. We even captured some of them, but keeping them alive proved more difficult than we thought."

This story grew wilder and wilder as Ves listened on. He would have treated the tale as fantasy if not for Calabast's serious retelling.

"These descendants. They just wandered off into the frontier for no reason?"

"No." She shook her head. "There is a reason for that. The Megalodon is in a very bad state, and it has grown worse due to the condition of the planet she has crash-landed upon. The planet she's landed on turns out to be a Super Earth. It's gravity is several times higher than the terran standard."

Now he knew that Calabast wasn't lying to him. This was because Ves recalled the time where he helped the Vandals purchase high-gravity equipment in bulk! The expense of this transaction was very significant, especially since the equipment had to be rated to withstand five g's!

"If you managed to capture a descendant, couldn't you have traced his route back to the Megalodon?"

Calabast grinned again. "Ah, that's the puzzle that we have all been trying to solve. The descendants of the crew might have degenerated a lot compared to their ancestors, but they still possess some common sense. Everyone sent out into the frontier travelled on modified FTL-capable shuttles. In particular, they tweaked their navigation system to wipe out the route they traversed. This isn't something that can be reversed by hacking. All of the logs were permanently scrubbed."

This explained why the Megalodon remained relevant. So long as the prize was still there, people would continue to kill for it. "So if the shuttles erase the route back to the Megalodon, how can the descendants even go back to their homes?"

As large and wondrous as the Megaladon might be, she didn't carry an unlimited fleet of shuttles. Ves didn't know why it took several hundred years for the descendants to show up in the frontier, but they never would have been allowed to take the shuttles if they didn't have any interest in coming back.

"Each descendant that we've met carries an encrypted data chip." Calabast simply explained. "The trouble is that we're not talking about a regular data chip. It's encryption is virtually unbreakable unless you have access to a Terran or Rubarthan supercomputer. Even after such a long time, the standard of technology of the CFA is still ahead of ours by many leagues. Still, for some reason, besides entering the right input, the data chips can also be unlocked in another way. That is to gather several of them and put them all together. The encryption will fade and the coordinates of the Starlight Megalodon will be revealed!"

This part sounded really fishy to Ves. "The descendants have gone through so much length to wipe out the logs and encrypt the data chips that contains the only way back to the Megalodon. How come they offer such a stupid alternative for unlocking the data chips? Isn't that asking for them to get robbed?"

Calabast shrugged her graceful shoulders. "Mind you, the offspring of the original crew are a far cry from modern humans. Their knowledge, values and beliefs are shaped by their environment. Under such extreme conditions, none of them have grown up entirely sane."

No matter the reason for this quirk, Ves finally became enlightened to the truth behind the conflict in the Harkensen System. For some reason, the small club of people who got wind of the Starlight Megalodon decided to gather in the Harkensen System and began to compete over the data chips.

Holding only a single one was useless. The only way to derive value out of them was to gather even more. Besides taking them directly from the descendants wandering in the frontier, the best way to obtain them was to snatch them from their competitors!

Chapter 617

The Starlight Megalodon represented more than just a tool for war. Though classified as capital ships, their majesty and power outshined all other capital ship classes.

The fleet carriers utilized by the militaries of human states paled in comparison to even a single warship. Whether it came to size, technology, materials, firepower, toughness, the combat prowess of a battleship surpassed the combined combat power of a fleet carrier and her full complement of mechs.

A single fleet carrier possessed enough strength to conquer an average medium-populated planet. A battleship possessed enough firepower to destroy the same planet.

Naturally, Ves also came in touch with rumors of even greater weapons of war. The Common Fleet Alliance supposedly developed dreadnoughts capable of snuffing out stars. Even wilder rumors hinted at the existence of gigantic planet-sized constructions capable of wiping out black holes.

That last bit sounded far too mindblowing to Ves. In any case, battleships already formed the culmination of humanity's peak strength. Their dreadful firepower had amply been proven during the Age of Conquest, having broken through countless alien fleets and paving the way for total conquest.

The legacy of that glorious age lived on until today. Much of the traces of alien occupation had been wiped out. Star systems that used to be marked by millennia of alien occupation had been utterly paved over by human terraforming in order to make the planets more favorable for human habitation.

Billions and trillions of planets that used to host diverse ecosystems and marvels of nature lost their unique brands under the vigorous efforts of human expansion. The ceaseless hunger for human-compatible living space turned the ecosystems of these diverse once-alien planets into carbon copies of Old Earth's ancient environment.

All of this was only possible due to humanity's ceaseless development of battleships. Even at the onset of the Age of Mechs, the constant evolution of battleships and other terrible warship classes had never ceased. The CFA had only put them out of sight of human society. Keeping to themselves, they continued to nurture their strength in the shadows in order to safeguard humanity's accomplishments over the aliens that survived until today.

The conquest of the galaxy by the human race had never ceased. It only entered an intermission period. Once the drums of war began to rumble, the power of battleships would definitely make a return to the battlefield.

Even if the Starlight Megalodon had fallen several hundred years ago, a battleship as large as a city would never degrade so easily. Much of her assets would have likely retained their value, even under the crushing influence of five times standard gravity.

"I've got one more question." Ves said. "The Starlight Megalodon is a treasure trove of advanced technology and high-grade exotics. However, she's so large that it's impossible for any single faction to swallow her whole. The CFA would definitely recognize the signs. What is it about the Megalodon that is driving all of you to such extremes that you're even willing to activate your hidden forces on Harkensen I?"

Ves vaguely guessed that the True Sons of Vesia and the other terrorist groups had taken an awful long time to plant on Harkensen I. It must have taken years or decades to accumulate such strength. The investment involved in building up this strength must have been imaginable, but for the potential wealth of the Megalodon, the hidden power responsible for planting these seeds decisively activated them prematurely.

This decision didn't make any sense if the gains from the Megalodon only amount to a few scraps of advanced technology!

"Hm, since you know this much, it won't do any harm of telling you the next part." Calabast amiably said. Now that Ves had agreed to cooperate with her organization, he became a little more pleasing to her eyes. "It's true that we don't dare to plunder the Megalodon wantonly on account of her former owner. No, the true prize we are after is something very different, and won't touch the bottom line of CFA. Can you guess what it is?"

What could those hidden players be after if not for advanced technology or high-grade exotics? Ves furrowed his brows. He couldn't figure out anything someone could gain from the Megalodon that wouldn't touch the nerves of the CFA somehow.

It was like a bunch of robbers invading the summer of a wealthy individual. Even if the robbers only stole something as trivial as a couple of spoons, the mere fact that the home had been intruded upon would definitely enrage the owner.

A few seconds passed as Ves flitted through countless possibilities.

"Let me save you the trouble. What we are truly after is life-prolonging treatment medicine. And not the basic kind, either. These ones will allow someone to extend their lifespan to three-hundred or four-hundred years!"

All of it made sense now! Ves became fully enlightened why the players didn't hesitate to expend all of their accumulation on obtaining the route to the Starlight Megalodon!

It was all about extending their lives!

In the galactic rim, prolonging a human's natural lifespan by a hundred years was expensive and out of reach to most people. Even by borrowing the power of a state, perhaps only a dozen people might benefit from this at most.

However, more advanced treatments had been developed as well. Extending a human's lives by two-hundred, three-hundred or four-hundred years was very much possible.

The only problem was that the cost was too ruinous to contemplate.

Even the Friday Coalition might not be able to bear the cost of prolonging the lives of all of its leaders.

As for Master Mech Designers, not everyone among their ranks earned enough wealth to fund an extension of their lives. Each gradation of life-prolonging treatments demanded an exponentially greater price!

This was why mech designers worked so hard to conquer the mech market. From their first mech design when they became a Novice, they had stepped in an unimaginably competitive race for income and market share. The winners earned enough wealth to extend their lives, while the losers eventually expired under the passing of years.

To third-rate states like the Bright Republic and the Vesia Kingdom, the most basic life-prolonging treatment was all they could afford. Extending a powerful person's life by more had always been a pipedream to these old coots.

Yet now they gained some hope! The discovery of the Starlight Megalodon shone a light at the end of their paths. As long as they worked hard enough, they would eventually be able to live a hundred or two-hundred years longer!

Of course, such a good thing would never be in much supply. Even the CFA themselves couldn't afford to expend the lives of their officers.

"Do you know how much of those medicines are left? Haven't they expired already over the years or due to the crash?" Ves frowned as more questions popped up in his mind. "Maybe the original crew has already used them up."

"That's impossible." Calabast shook her head. "The vault which stores the key medicines is locked even tighter than those encrypted data chips that we are hunting for. Even if the Starlight Megalodon is torn apart, the vault will definitely survive. This, we know. The CFA is never stingy when it comes to storing the containers of the medicines. You can be certain that the crew haven't been able to access it either. After all, these treatments are reserved for senior admirals and great statesman. None of the crew possesses the original access rights."

"If the vault is so hard to get into, how are you planning to break into it? Even if you borrow the power of a taboo weapon, you still won't be able to make a dent on such a formidable vault."

Calabast smirked at him. "I've been generous so far, but I'm afraid this question and answer session is over. Be careful with the information you've received. There are several influences in this star sector who can be very jealous about knowing these secrets. After all, the Megalodon only carries so many doses."

Ves understood what she meant. The pie was very small. It could only be sliced a couple of times, so the number of winners would certainly be no more than a handful.

"Are you aiming to claim a dose for yourself?" Ves probed.

She sighed at that. "That's impossible. Small fry like us will never be able to benefit from this privilege. Even if I get my hands on a treasured dose, it's useless if it isn't processed in the right way. The thing about life-prolonging treatments is that it is more involved than injecting or ingesting the dose. Your body needs to undergo an elaborate series of steps before the medicine comes into play. Only the most eminent doctors of a state are qualified to perform these treatments."

This was why people generally referred to this process as a treatment. The transformation of someone's life directly went against the natural limits of a human body. Perhaps the process was just as dramatic as breaking through the attribute limit.

All of this talk revealed that only a tiny portion of people would eventually benefit from this grand struggle. Underlings such as Ves or Calabast could only lament their powerlessness as the magnates and statesmen at the top worked them to the bone.

Ves tried to offer a consolation prize. "Miss Calabast, even if we leave out the life-prolonging medicines, there should still be lots of goodies for the taking. Those bosses of ours won't mind if we take some liberties, I guess. Compared to obtaining the chance to extend their lives, everything else is irrelevant."

"True. That is something to be considered for the future. For now, we should focus on our immediate concerns. It won't be easy to escape the Reinaldans. While the vast majority of them aren't aware of the existence of Starlight Megalodon, there's definitely a higher up that does."

"Earlier you mentioned that The Big Breakout is doomed to fail. Can you finally tell me why that is so?"

"It's very simple, Ves." She said. "While the masterminds behind this plot were very thorough in their planning, their understanding of what they face is incomplete."

"Did the Reinaldans got wind of our intentions?"

"Surprisingly, no. Naturally, if we hadn't smashed Tecev City's infrastructure so thoroughly, they might have been able to pick up the clues. For now, our agents among the Planetary Guard and the Honored Ones have detected no reactions against your plot."

"Then what else have we overlooked?"

"It's not very complicated. While the Reinaldans haven't thought to bring the vessels parked at the spaceport away, they didn't leave them lying around as they were. In secret, the Reinaldans drained all of their fuel supply. All of them are completely dry!"

"This!" Ves was shocked yet again.

"Hahaha!" Calabast laughed. "Can you imagine the sight! All of you have worked so hard to overcome the defenses of the spaceport. After accomplishing all of your checkpoints, once you Vandals step inside your ships, your ship officers suddenly realize that they're completely incapable of lifting off!"

Ves cursed the Reinaldans. They certainly had devious intentions in mind when they surreptitiously drained all of those fuel tanks. Just this single detail was enough to ruin their entire breakout attempt.

"Since you know about it but still want to be apart of this escape attempt, the problem doesn't seem to be insurmountable. Do you have a solution at hand?"

"Of course we do. We're on the same ship, after all. With all the things that are going on, the Reinaldans don't have the time to transfer the collected fuel. All of the fuels are stored right at the warehouses next to the spaceport." Calabast put her hands inside a pocket of her high-tech suit and removed a simple data chip. She tossed it over to Ves, who hastily caught it before it incurred any damage. "Take this chip to the Vandals. They'll know what to do once they've read what's inside."

The critical time soon came upon them. Ves had very little time to uphold his end of the deal to Calabast and introduce this new variable to the Vandals. He immediately started to move.

Chapter 618

It took a bit of effort, but Ves finished his chores in time. He first introduced the data chip to the Vandals in charge. While Ves couldn't explain where he got the chip, its explosive contents practically frightened the ghost out of Captain Orfan and the rest. They didn't dare to dismiss this revelation, and quickly informed the other participants.

The Big Breakout had to go through no matter the cost. Their window of escape grew smaller and smaller. With continuous Reinaldan reinforcements arriving at Harkensen I, the blockade became increasingly more perfect. Soon enough, it didn't matter what everyone did. They could never resist against the power of an entire state.

Naturally, not everyone forgot about the question why Ves came into possession of this bombshell. Captain Orfan sneaked a heated glance at Ves, but he ignored every probe sent in his way.

To the Vandals, Ves became increasingly inscrutable as they got to know him. As a head designer, he performed his duties as good as any Journeyman Mech Designer. Among the other mech designers, his competence stood out among the other mech designers like a crane among chickens. Even the revelation that he possessed a monstrously powerful hidden weapon added to his perceived strength.

In other words, Ves had developed his own form of prestige. Even though it was purely intangible, prestige basically allowed him to get away with stunts that ordinarily invited opposition.

"This is like the case with Vesian nobles who always get away when they do something awful."

Part of that was because they held the reigns of power. Another part was because getting away with stuff became something normal to their identities.

Ves simply turned away after that. He couldn't waste any time. In the next hour, he pretended to inspect the cargo containers the Vandals intended to bring along. He even insisted on making a visual inspection, forcing the guards to physically open them up.

Though Ves did not detect the presence of any invisible spooks, he was pretty sure the infiltrators had sneaked into some of the containers.

In any case, Calabast would call him up if anything went wrong.

Despite their initial agreement, Ves did not believe she suddenly became a friend of the Flagrant Vandals. Ultimately, the Vandals and her organization answered to a different player in the know. There was only so much life-prolonging medicines to go around. Each of their bosses aimed to monopolize the spoils for themselves.

"I wonder how many players are taking part in this elaborate game."

Ves guessed it shouldn't be more than ten. Any more, and the risk of exposure became unacceptably large. None of the people in the know wanted to leak the secret. However, the current competition for the Megalodon's encrypted data chips would eventually come to an end.

Once a faction became a winner, the incentive to keep the Megalodon a secret disappeared. If nobody took any precautions, the entire star sector might learn the truth!

He shook his head. "It probably won't come to that. Something explosive as this news is just too impactful to be revealed to the public. I don't believe those powerhouses at the top forgot to take precautions."

The annoying aspect about this situation was that people like Ves became unwitting pawns in this game. If Calabast hadn't approached him for a favor, he might have never gotten an opportunity to become aware of the stakes. The Vandals likely would have kept the secret to themselves until they physically arrived at the Super Earth where the Starlight Megalodon crashed all those years ago.

"I don't even know who I'm working for, really. Is it the president of the Bright Republic? Some marshal of the Mech Corps? A patriarch of an influential family?"

Those rich and powerful fellows hogged most of the meat to themselves without lifting a single finger. Sitting in their mansions at Rittersberg or Bentheim, the only thing they had to do is laze away while the Vandals sustained increasingly more losses.

The most awful fact of all was that this game wasn't even relevant to the ongoing Bright-Vesia War. The cyclical conflict between the two rivaling states was always fought with mechs and mech pilots. Extending the life of a single bigwig hardly impacted the trend of the war.

"It's like the war doesn't matter to them. In the face of extending a new lease on life, it doesn't matter how many Vesians or Brighters get killed."

Ves remained gloomy all the way until dawn soon broke in Tecev City.

Moments earlier, every sleeping Vandal woke up and entered their designated vehicles. As one, the vehicles discreetly lifted off and headed in the direction of the spaceport.

Ves sat inside a transport shuttle. Strapped into his seat, he held a data pad which contained some of the details of The Big Breakout.

The contents surprised him a bit. "This is going a bit too far. The casualties won't be light!"

Even so, nobody flinched from this plan. Compelled by the competition for the Megalodon's data chip, those stuck on Harkensen I needed to break free as soon as they could. Being left behind meant they might never get the opportunity to catch up!

"Are you scared?" Captain Orfan asked. Her expression revealed that she was looking forward to the upcoming battle. "We're going to show those Reinaldans how the rest of the star sector fights!"

"I don't doubt you'll prove yourselves to be the better warriors, captain." Ves quickly replied. "However, this proposal is too cruel. How can we sacrifice so many lives?"

The grin on the mech captain's face faltered a bit. "I won't admit we're saints, but this is something that the other groups have agreed upon. No matter what we think about it, this move is already set in stone."

Ves was relieved that Captain Orfan possessed a conscience, though she easily absolved herself of any guilt by pushing the responsibility to the other groups.

The aircars didn't have to travel very far to reach the meeting site. Once the Vandal aircar fleet arrived at a park, the vehicles halted in the air.

Their fleet wasn't alone. Five other fleets had already arrived. Once the Vandals joined up with them, all of the principal groups had finally been gathered.

Below, an eclectic collection of mechs stood by. Amphibian mechs, landbound mechs and aerial mechs of many shapes and sizes formed up into ranks. In just a couple of hours, the mechs of every participating group had been integrated in a unified chain of command.

All of this looked very impressive to Ves. He quickly counted the number of mechs. "Over seventy mechs... that's a lot, but is it enough to conquer the spaceport?"

As a strategic location and an important channel in and out of the planet, the Reinaldans stationed a fair amount of mechs from the Planetary Guard and the Honored Ones. Since Tecev City was the capital of Harksensen I, the Reinaldans never decreased the strength of its garrison.

"According to the intelligence we've obtained, the spaceport is guarded by at least three mech companies." Captain Orfan informed him. "One landbound regiment of the Planetary Guard and another landbound regiment of the Honored Ones are manning the walls and patrolling the interior. They're backed up by an aerial mech regiment of the Honored Ones that has always been stationed there."

"That's at least a hundred-and-twenty mechs!" Ves exclaimed. "Two-thirds of those will certainly be military-grade mechs, and all of those machines are likely to be in prime condition. There's no way our combined force of scavenged and salvaged mechs can beat those Reinaldan mechs."

The Reinaldan defenders didn't even need to take any risks. As long as they nailed themselves down and withstood the assault, they could easily buy time for reinforcements to arrive.

"It's even worse. The spaceport also hides a deep array of anti-air batteries. They're virtually impossible to reach in their retracted state. With how sneaky the Reinaldans have already showed themselves to be, they'll certainly pop them out once most of the ships are in the air."

The amount of obstacles they had to deal with almost overwhelmed him. Luckily, others have already thought about these issues.

Their transport shuttle departed from the hovering aircar fleet. Once they landed, Captain Orfan and a number of other Vandals exited the shuttle and walked over the grass towards a circle of people. Ves tagged along as well.

"Ah, Captain Orfan, how good of you Vandals to arrive." A friendly-looking mech officer said. "We were just about to finalize the details."

As Captain Orfan hobnobbed with the other commanders, Ves briefly glanced at the other groups.

The Masters of Combat, a mercenary corps from the Vesia Kingdom. Specifically, they hailed from Venidse.

Lydia's Swordmaidens, a pirate gang from the Reinald Republic.

Glorious Space Knights, a mercenary corps from the Council Stars of Lisv.

The Caged, a criminal gang from the Roppo Principality.

Bloodriven Sky, a mercenary corps from the Star Faith Collective of all places.

Along with the Flagrant Vandals, each of them represented a different state. This had been a deliberate choice, the necessity of which became evident soon enough.

Each of the outfits mentioned were strong and numerous. While their combat strength could never match a military mech regiment under regular circumstances, none of them had access to their own mechs right now.

"It doesn't matter how strong everyone is outside this planet."

Right now, the only strength that mattered was the mechs they possessed right now. In this, the disparity between the Vandals and the other groups became lopsided.

The city where the Vandals stayed hadn't been attacked by too many mechs. In contrast, the other outfits that had gathered here obtained their spoils in the major cities. The fighting had been much more intense there, so the outfits succeeded in scavenging much more wrecks.

This meant that despite their formidable outside strength, the Flagrant Vandals had to settle for being the junior partner in this venture.

That said, a mech was a mech. Four extra mechs increased the odds of success.

"Alright, now that we've come to an agreement, let's set off!"

The commanders of the different outfits returned to their shuttles and aircars. Meanwhile, their mechs began to move in the direction of the spaceport.

The mechs slowed down once they reached the other side of the park. Hidden in the trees, a large mob of tourists had gathered at this location. Ordinarily, they hid across the partially ruined city. However, they somehow managed to obtain news that they would be saved if they managed to gather at this point.

Once the strange mix of mechs came into view, the crowd of foreigners grew scared.

"That's not the Planetary Guard! The terrorist mechs have returned!"

"No wait, those mechs look strange! Each of them are different! They all looked patched up!"

A couple of mechs from each outfit stepped forward. "CALM DOWN! We are not terrorists, nor are we related to the Reinaldans. We're foreigners who are stuck on this planet just like you. Now, we haven't lied to you all. We indeed found a way to leave this planet immediately."

Each of the spokespersons engaged the citizens from their own country.

"Citizens of the Bright Republic, please gather in front of my mech!" A Vandal mech announced.

"Citizens of the Vesia Kingdom, step closer please!"

"Citizens of..."

It took some time for the mob to segregate into separate crowds. Perhaps Reinaldans or citizens from other states had mixed in the crowds as well, but the outfits didn't care. The most important fact was that each outfit effectively gained control over thousands of civilians.

The difference between an uncontrolled mob and a partially controlled group of civilians was extremely vital for the next step of the plan.

"If you want to get home, you have to take the opportunity yourselves! Are you resigned to remain stuck on Harkensen I? The Reinaldans have no right to keep us detained! We have families to get home to and work to return to! Don't you wish you can go back to your normal lives?!"

The spokespersons all engaged their own crowd of people. After several minutes of inciting the crowds, they finally got to the crux of their speech.

"Let's head to the spaceport and storm the premises! Our ships are waiting for us to get out of here! Go! The Reinaldans will never kill us all! They won't dare to provoke our states!"

The truth of the matter had finally come to light. The conspirators intended to drive these crowds to storm the spaceport and put the defenders on the spot!

Chapter 619

Mechs piloted by members from six different outfits moved in unison. Though they came in different shapes and sizes, their evident coordination made them appear as if they came from the same unit.

The mechs on land drove the crowds of people to the front of the spaceport, while the mechs in the air cautiously covered them from aerial threats. Though many in the crowd seemed to develop misgivings about this sudden venture, the more desperate foreigners eagerly bought into the nonsense spun by the representatives of the outfits.

It helped that each of the outfits present enjoyed some fame. The Flagrant Vandals earned several mentions in the news recently. Their valor and courage made them larger than life, and any citizen of the Bright Republic in the crowd regarded them as champions.

The other outfits enjoyed no less of a reputation.

For example, the Masters of Combat inherited Venidse's brutal style of attrition warfare and became kings of landbound warfare. Their open and above-board fighting style gave many enemy outfits headaches. Anyone who dared to fight the Masters of Combat on their terms would inevitably suffer a loss or a pyrrhic victory.

"Many veterans from Venidse's mech legions have signed up to the Masters of Combat. Their martial tradition is colored by their military roots."

Lydia's Swordmaidens was nominally a pirate gang, but it was pretty much a known fact that they possessed some ties to Reinald. This connection wasn't very tight, or else they wouldn't have been a part of the plan. As a rare all-female pirate outfit, the Swordmaidens acquired a reputation for ferocity and sisterhood.

"Those witches are far more cunning than they appear. Nobody truly knows where they came from and whether they are closely tied to Reinald."

The Council Stars of Lisv was a small third-rate state of the same caliber as the Reinald Republic. Their peculiar culture had breeded the formation of the Glorious Space Knights, a foolhardy mercenary corps largely made up of spoiled brats and wealthy potentate scions. Fortunately, they invested a lot of money into shoring up their ranks with highly competent professional mech pilots, so their overall strength was very overbearing.

"The Glorious Space Knights worship mech duels and always favor melee mechs for some reason. The notion of chivalry has gone through their heads."

The Caged was one of the weirdest criminal gangs from the Roppo Principality. In a culture obsessed with hierarchy and order, the Caged rose up in defiance against the established order. They called themselves the Caged because their members regarded themselves as prisoners of Roppo's social order. Many of them desired to escape from this invisible cage and elevate their social status to a higher rank.

"The Caged makes it seem like they're a bunch of lunatics in constraints. That's pretty much right. They're a bunch of savages camouflaging behind a civilized veneer."

The only outfit which didn't enjoy as much fame was Bloodriven Sky. The distance from the Harkensen System to the Star Faith Collective meant that not many tourists came to enjoy the sights. Like many Starrers, the members of Bloodriven Sky devoted themselves to their faith. The only problem was that nobody truly knew what they believed in. Understanding the byzantine religion of the Collective was already hard enough.

"Never ask a Starrer to explain their beliefs. That goes double for Bloodriven Sky. Mercenary work is their secondary occupation. Their true job is to export their incomprehensible beliefs."

Citizens who didn't share the same nationality of the other outfits had been pushed towards Bloodriven Sky. The fanatical mercenaries proved to be the best at motivating the crowd, so their mixed composition didn't impact their forward momentum.

Behind the crowds and behind the mechs exhorting them forward, a large fleet of aircars hovered from behind. There had been a lot of discussion about whether to remain in the aircars or let the men go on foot. They eventually decided to stay in their aircars as long as possible despite the risk of attracting anti-air fire because the advantage in mobility was too great.

The timely intelligence from Miss Calabast forced the outfits to divert some troops to the warehouses adjacent to the spaceport. The ships weren't going to refuel by themselves.

As customary, Ves was seated in the same transport shuttle as before. Compared to the flimsy civilian aircars, a transport shuttle was much more robust.

Ves turned to Captain Orfan. "If I may ask, captain, why aren't you piloting one of our Water Wraiths?"

"Just because I'm a mech captain doesn't mean I'm a multitool." She replied as she checked up and issued silent commands to the Vandals via her data pad. "I'm great with a spearman mech, decent with any other melee mech, but marksmanship is my one big failing. The other mech officers who won the right to pilot the Water Wraiths won't do them a disservice."

He nodded. Even if she was eager to pilot a mech, the amphibian artillery mechs truly didn't fit her style. She favored landbound spearman mechs with an emphasis on mobility. The sluggish Water Wraiths moved slowly on land and its immense bulk hindered its agility by a massive truncation.

After several minutes, they moved past the park and reached a major transit platform. Ordinarily, the platform hosted thousands of vehicles that conveyed countless tourists to the prime tourist locations of Harkensen I.

Now, it had largely been emptied ever since the blockade had commenced. Many of the vehicles had been recalled to their depots, leaving the spaceport with an unobstructed stretch of ground.

The mobs of men, women and children emerged from the park and moved towards the front entrance of the spaceport like an inexorable tide. The Reinaldan mechs on patrol had already sensed their presence minutes earlier, and had sounded the alarm.

A mech of the Planetary Guard stepped forward. "Halt! This spaceport is closed for business! Entry is forbidden! Turn back now and go back to your shelters."

Ranks of Planetary Guard mechs brandished their fluid projectors. Behind, another rank of mechs from the Honored Ones readied their lethal weapons. Already, aerial mechs started to appear in the air on the other side of the wall.

"Step forward at your own risk!" The Planetary Guard mech continued. "You'll be regarded as hostiles if you proceed within two-hundred meters of the spaceport!"

"Ignore those Reinaldan fools!" A decorated mech of the Glorious Space Knights commanded to the crowd composed of fellow Lisvians. "The Reinald Republic won't dare to massacre their guests. It's all a bluff! Keep running forward!"

When the vanguard of the crowd of civilians reach the two-hundred meter mark, the Planetary Guard mechs prepared to fire their fluid projectors.

Then they started spraying.

Disgusting slime spurted out of their projectors like waterspouts. Upon landing, thousands of desperate humans became engulfed with quickly-solidifying slime. It was as if their entire bodies became engulfed with glue!

If the Planetary Guard mechs continued to use up their fluid projectors, the terrain would certainly become impassable humans.

This was not the outcome the organizers of this operation had in mind.

"Sure enough." Captain Orfan nodded. "When it comes to line combat, the Planetary Guard can't catch up to the military. However, when it comes to subduing riots, their non-lethal weaponry has no equal."

The outfits deliberately let the fluid projectors douse the people on foot with the residue. In order to gain something, they needed to lose something as well. The crowds of civilians needed to learn that the Reinaldan mechs were not their friends!

Captain Orfan ignored the screams of stuck civilians encased in rapidly-hardening slime.. "Alright, this has gone on long enough. Open fire already!"

Several seconds later, most of their ranged landbound mechs opened fire directly towards the Reinaldans.

The guard mechs hadn't expected such an extreme response! Who would open fire above the heads of so civilians?!

The opening salvo disrupted the Planetary Guard mechs, though it hadn't been enough to inflict serious damage. Nevertheless, the combined mech force's subsequent salvos continuously hammered the peacekeeping mechs. Some of them even lost their fluid projectors!

The Honored Ones hesitated for a moment. None of them were eager to start a mech battle with so many civilians in the vicinity. The collateral damage that ensued from a battle of this scale could easily wipe out tens of thousands of lives in a single minute!

Compared to the hesitation exhibited by the Reinaldans, the mechs of the foreigners displayed no such care. The unending stream of laser beams, projectiles and missiles absolutely hammered the Planetary Guard mechs into retreat!

"How devious." Ves muttered as he witnessed the battle with his own two eyes.

According to the plan, the first priority of every mech taking part was to focus their fire on the Planetary Guard mechs. More specifically, they had to break their fluid projectors and other means of non-lethal weaponry!

This was driving the Reinaldans into a corner. Under the suppression and focused fire of the attackers, the Planetary Guard mechs were rendered completely impotent at this moment!

The civilians screamed and panicked underneath the one-sided exchange of fire. Shockwaves and thunderous projectiles along with thick bright laser beams bombarded their sensory organs! Underneath the might of mechs, humans were as fragile as ants!

The menacing firepower unleashed by the Vandals and the other outfits motivated the foreign tourists even harder! None of them ever contemplated turning around! With so many mechs following behind them, their only fate was to be trampled by multi-ton machines!

The formation adopted by the outfits also ensured the civilians couldn't run to the left or right. Additional mechs had been stationed at the flanks in order to ensure the crowds could only run straight ahead.

"Save us! Guard mechs, please get rid of these devil mechs on my heels!"

"No! My wife! My wife has been trampled!"

"Where is my son! I lost my baby son!"

"You cursed Vandals! I looked up to you! There's going to be hell to pay once I get back to Rittersberg!"

The awe and respect commanded by the outfits turned into fear once the civilians realized they'd been used. Driven to survive, the tourists and visitors of Harkensen I could only run forward and seek asylum with the Reinaldans!

The Honored Ones continued to warn the hysterical mob to halt. After all, once those civilians ran through their lines, it became impossible to maneuver their mechs without crushing innocent lives beneath their feet!

"This is your final warning! If you do not stop and turn around this instant, we will open fire!"

Bluff or not, the civilians predominantly preferred to face the Reinaldans at the front than the devils to the rear!

After several seconds of confusion, a couple of mechs of the Honored Ones appeared to find their resolve. "So be it! You only have yourselves to blame for meeting your deaths!"

The Honored Ones from the ground and in the air opened fire towards the salvaged mechs of the foreign outfits! Their superior firepower inflicted heavy damage among the attacking mechs because their armor coverage had never been fixed!

Nonetheless, the destructive exchange of fire led to plenty of accidents! One of the Vandal-appropriated Water Wraiths attempted to fire its cannons at the Honored Ones, but a heavy kinetic impact disrupted its balance, causing all of its guns to fire towards the ground!

BOOM!

Hundreds of Brighter tourists splashed away from the impact zones! Up until the moment their bodies broke, they never learned their own side was responsible for their deaths!

Thousands of civilians lost their lives to these kinds of accidents. While the scavenged mechs fell into an immediate disadvantage, they tenaciously held on and fought back with no restraints even as the collateral damage continued to pile up!

From the start, The Big Breakout had never been about achieving a victory through military means. The Vandals and the rest held no illusions about their chances of winning against the Honored Ones.

They only way the attackers could defeat the Reinaldans was to test their scruples!

Chapter 620

The attacking force had already been psychologically prepared to drive some of their fellow citizens to death. Each outfit not only selected among their best mech pilots to helm their limited number of salvaged mechs, they also chose their most ruthless ones.

None of the mech pilots firing back at the Reinaldans possessed any morals worth noting! Even if they felt someone should be held responsible, they would no doubt push the blame entirely on the Reinaldans!

It was their fault for fighting back!

Laser beams hummed and various projectiles thumped and screamed in the air above the heads of helpless civilians. None of them had any clue what to do other than to keep running towards the spaceport! Right now, they could only rely on the righteousness of the Reinaldans to save them from this hellish massacre!

Ves had seen a lot of cruelty from the hands of the Vandals. Their callous disregard for collateral damage and their willingness to leverage the lives of innocent civilians in this manner rankled Ves a lot. After all, one of those people running for their lives right now could be him or someone he knew!

"It's useless to sympathise for those civilians." Captain Orfan remarked as she glanced up from her data pad and noted his disturbed expression. "It's not like they were compelled to gather at the park earlier."

He shook his head, though he didn't go in on who was truly at fault here. "I'm afraid that all of these sacrifices might prove futile. How many people have already died due to collateral damage? Two-thousand? Five-thousand? Maybe the figure has already surpassed ten-thousand. I don't know. Yet even with so many dead, the Honored Ones aren't backing down."

They obviously hesitated for a lengthy period of time. Ves figured that they struggled to decide between repelling the attackers and protecting the lives of foreign visitors. Something must have pushed them into action despite the repercussions.

"Look at those Reinaldan mechs. Ignore the Planetary Guard mechs, they're pretty much useless now. Instead, look at each of the mechs from the Honored Ones."

Ves immediately picked up an important detail. Many of the mechs of the Honored Ones to utilize their weapons to their full potential. One rifleman mech wielded a laser rifle capable of firing once every two seconds. Instead of aiming to achieve the highest possible firing rate, the mech pilot dithered and only fired once every seven seconds or so.

This was far from the only mech that held back their killing potential. The aerial mechs of the Honored Ones basically danced in front of the aerial mechs of the attackers. Despite their overwhelming numerical superiority, they did not dare to engage their outnumbered opponent! As soon as one of them suffered fatal damage, their frames would drop from the air and splat all over the teeming waves of civilians!

A single drop had the potential to reap over five-hundred lives at once! If they fell on top of a particularly high concentration of people, perhaps thousands might get crushed from the enormous impact and the debris flinging in every direction.

Of course, to achieve this deterrence, the aerial mechs in the hands of the outfits deliberately hovered over the densest parts of the mob!

Some of the participants of this scheme earned a reputation for honorable and valorous behavior on the battlefield. None of that was on display right now. The Masters of Combat basically turned their core tenets upside down, while the Glorious Space Knights who fancied themselves as saviors became indirectly responsible for the deaths of thousands of fellow Lisvians!

If everything went as predicted, none of them would be able to retain an unblemished record. Their behavior was simply too despicable to remain clean!

Of course, to scum like the Flagrant Vandals or Lydia's Swordmaidens, the loss of reputation didn't bother them that much. It was nice to be so highly regarded, but it wasn't essential to their functioning.

They would rather pursue their own goals over listening to their conscience.

As for the Reinaldans, they highly favored the opposite!

Their orders compelled them to fight, but their heart wants to let the civilians go. Stuck between their duty and their moral fiber, many Reinaldan mech pilots endured the greatest dilemma in their lives.

Did they enjoy the feeling of blood dripping from their hands? Should they continue to follow the orders of a superior who was probably several light-hours away from the battlefield?

A ripple went through the mechs of the honored ones. By now, every mech of the Planetary Guard had either been disabled or retreated from the battlefield. As long as any meh of the Planetary Guard popped up, the attackers immediately shifted their firepower towards the unlocky mech!

This was all in the name of depriving the Reinaldans with the means to subdue the crowd with half-hearted warnings and idle threats!

"Whoever is ordering the Reinaldans to persist in the fight is an even greater heartless bastard than us." Captain Orfan noted with a smirk, as if the deaths of thousands of Brighters had nothing to do with her at all. "Yet the mech pilots aren't bots who follow orders without question. The Honored Ones are famous for thinking on their feet."

The Vesian Mech Legion trained their mech pilots to obey their orders and pursue their mission at all cost. While their rearguard units may not be very diligent, their frontline units rigidly adhered to the expectations of their superiors. In a society ruled by nobles, these privileged sons and daughters did not wish for their subordinates to develop any initiative.

It was different for the Reinaldan Honored Ones. Their name betrayed their past as a band of honored fighters. Codes of brotherhood as well as a martial tradition that venerated the ideal of a warrior allowed for a high degree of personalisation. While each mech pilot still received the same training in every mech regiment, they didn't necessarily have to follow the orders of their superiors if they were objectively bad.

In comparison, the Bright Republic's Mech Corps fell into the middle ground somewhat. It different from mech regiment to mech regiment, but overall bad orders didn't happen as much because the Mech Corps prized promoting officers for their competence. Very rarely did bad apples get to reach a higher rank.

"They've finally had enough!"

Around twenty percent of the defenders spontaneously ceased to fight. They rebelled against their orders and attempted to step back from the battle.

This was made more difficult due to the sheer amount of people running between their legs. The civilians had no choice in the matter because the people pressing behind their bodies didn't allow them to turn around or change their course!

Inevitably, dozens of people got crushed beneath the feet of the Reinaldan mechs as they attempted to move. This incited the crowd into a greater panic, yet the rush to storm the spaceport never abated.

"Hahahaha! Keep running!" Captain Orfan laughed. Whether she referred to the mechs or civilians, Ves didn't know. "The rest are following suit!"

The Honored Ones possessed a marked advantage against the opposition. Their numbers were greater, their units were uniform, the quality of their mechs was high and all of their machines were in tip-top shape.

In a frontal engagement, the attacking force would lose ninety-nine times out of a hundred! There was no way the Reinaldans could lose unless they made a massive blunder.

The Vandals knew this. The Masters of Combat knew this. Lydia's Swordmaidens knew this. Everyone else could perform the same arithmetic.

So in order to achieve victory despite facing such an overwhelming disparity, they lured these civilians over and basically took them hostage.

What could the Reinaldans do? Killing foreigners in a star system meant to attract tourists was extremely bad for business. The diplomatic repercussions of this fight might lead the Reinaldans to face heavy retaliation from almost every nearby state in the star sector!

In addition, the honor espoused by the Honored Ones rejected wanton massacre. Not every military mech regiment was as callous as the Flagrant Vandals. Though the Reinald Republic involved themselves in many shady affairs related to pirates, their military had been molded as a counterpoint to their activities in the dark.

The Honored Ones were supposed to be heroes, not butchers!

Ves believed an additional element was at play here. He believed some Reinaldan influence was definitely competing for the encrypted data chips that contained the route that led to the Starlight Megalodon. From the heavy-handed blockade that the Reinaldans had instituted so far, this influence must have been helmed by a very senior government or military official.

This influence had likely ordered the Reinaldan defenders to open fire despite the sheer amount of innocents at risk.

Too bad humans piloted the mechs of the Honored Ones. These people didn't follow orders without question, especially when they led to an enormous amount of blood being spilled.

Already, the collateral damage had taken its toll on the mob. Craters and molten puddles sprinkled the open field, each of them surrounded by broken bodies and enough blood to fill up a cargo hauler.

The frantic mob, the unrestrained attackers, the inappropriate orders from a distant superior, all of this pushed the Honored Ones in the field to their breaking point.

"The Honored Ones have given up! They're pulling back!"

The Reinaldan mechs simply had enough. Fed up and tired of spilling so much blood, they collectively pulled back, moving slowly enough to give the innocent people underneath their feet some time to avoid their footsteps.

For their part, the attacking force let them go. They never intended to drive the Reinaldans into a corner. Forcing them to continue the fight was detrimental to them for many reasons. As long as the Reinaldans ceded the spaceport and its immediate surroundings, the outfits were content to let them retreat.

While the Reinaldans decisively pulled back from the spaceport, the Vandals and the other outfits started to go forward to claim their own ships. Of course, they didn't forget to drive the hysterical mob to the field where thousands of parked vessels lay dormant. Without their presence, the outfits lost their protective talisman.

By now, the Reinaldans certainly hated their guts!

Naturally, the triumphant attackers didn't forget about the fuel supply. A third of the mechs diverted from the spaceport and moved to secure the nearby warehouses.

"The first step is over, thankfully." Ves sighed. "If this engagement went on any longer, then I can't even imagine how many people perished here."

The outfits did a very good job in gathering all of those foreigners to the spaceport. Attracting all of these people had been essential in pressuring the Reinaldans.

"All that's left is to lift off and run through the blockade in space." Orfan noted with a satisfied smile. "That's going to be trickier now that the Reinaldans know what to expect."

The crazed and frightened civilians had reached the dormant vessels by now. All of them attempted to break into the locked ships and get inside. Aircars landed near the vessels. Hackers went to work in breaking through their security systems.

On the other side of the spaceport, hovering fueling vehicles flew towards the ships in order to inject their empty fuel tanks with some juice. The fueling vehicles didn't need to fill the fuel tanks to the brim. The ships needed just enough to escape the planet's gravity well and fly in space for a couple of hours.

Through fear and authority, the outfits imposed some measure of order to the mob. Though many of them had quietly turned around and started to run from this hellscape, a sufficient number of mechs had forced the people to stay.

They still needed these hostages to act as their shield!

The Flagrant Vandals may not have been the main drivers of this plan, but they had definitely been complicit in its execution. "Our reputation will end up in the toilet by the time this day is over."

The worst thing about it was that his personal reputation might be tainted by association. Though he wasn't in the chain of command, the mere fact that he'd been attached to the Flagrant Vandals may be enough to affect his future business career.

Chapter 621

"Hahaha, the Reinaldans are taking a load of flack for the deaths!" Captain Orfan laughed as she patched into a news feed.

Throughout this entire ordeal, the planet had never lost connection to the galactic net. The neighboring states got to follow the chaos live as it happened!

In any case, the problem the outfits pushed onto the Reinaldans had already led to a firestorm of criticism and blame. Foreign diplomats went livid while Reinaldan politicians argued about the next course of action.

One political faction argued that since they already drew some blood, they might as well go all the way. Another political faction wanted to wash their hands of the incident entirely and ensure the deaths did not continue to pile up. Many Reinaldans scratched their head about the blockade. Why did they need to keep the foreign tourists prisoner on Harkensen I?

Ves only found it regretful that he couldn't identify the player among the Reinaldans. The aggressive faction counted too many Reinaldan bigwigs among their number. The player who pushed this cart along could be anyone of those figures.

If the player was smart enough, he or she would have kept themselves neutral instead, opting to achieve their goals by directing their pawns.

It seemed like every other player stuck to the rules of the game as well. Secrecy was paramount. No matter what, their identities could never be exposed in public.

"Right now, they're in the dark, and we're the chumps who they've pushed out in the light."

Naturally, the individual outfits who incited the butchery received plenty of accusations as well. The heroic halo cast upon the Flagrant Vandals had instantly been torn down. The Bright Republic went from worshipping their heroics to casting them aside like pieces of dirt.

"Feh. Typical." The mech captain spat. "There's no pleasing this crowd of soft-hearted cowards."

"We did go over the line, captain." Ves spoke. "This escalation of violence is too extreme. While it feels good to take the Reinaldans down a notch, we are still risking our lives by trying to challenge an entire state."

She waved her hand dismissively. "It won't go that far. Nobody wants to change the status quo, the Reinaldans least of all. They've got a good thing going right now, but the only way they can keep raking in the money is if they don't piss off too many states. If everyone is turning against them, their dreams of running a profitable trade hub will crash and burn."

That sounded surprisingly sophisticated coming from her mouth. Ves guessed that she merely parrotted the analysis of a logistics officer or something.

Ves looked around as he exited the shuttle. "Well, here we are. In possession of some transports."

These large interplanetary vessels formed the lifeblood of interplanetary trade. They possessed enough thrust to transport cargo between different planets without taking too much time.

Smaller than interstellar cargo haulers, they also lacked FTL drives as well as advanced life support. This increased the difficulty of their escape. They couldn't rely on these transport vessels to escape the Harkensen System.

He glanced at the serial number stamped on the hull of the transport. The vessel wasn't worthy of receiving a true ship name. Considering its paperthin armor and cheap construction, Ves could hardly blame this decision.

"This transport is two or three cannon impacts away from decompression."

"It's the best we got, Mr. Larkinson. The Masters of Combat and their ilk are hogging the best ships for themselves."

He turned around and noted the members of the other outfits crawling over the biggest ships. A large number of mechs stood on guard while fueling vehicles slowly filled up the tank.

The ships and vessels in possession of the outfits received the best treatment, but the other vessels received some attention as well. Smaller fueling bots paid a visit to each shuttle and spurted some fuel in their empty tanks.

In order for the next phase of the plan to work, the Vandals and their temporary partners still needed the civilians to act as their shield. That meant they needed to divert some effort into refueling all of those shuttles and other passenger craft.

Ves entered the transport along with a lot of other Vandals. The interior cargo holds lacked any form of seating or other comforts, but the Vandals already thought about that. Teams of mech technicians brought in foldable benches and crudely bolted them to the floor. They weren't crash seats, but the benches would be sufficient to keep the Vandals in place if the transport met some mishap along the way.

Half an hour passed as everyone raced to get their act together. Taking control over the ships and filling them up with passengers and cargo took a lot of time. If they hadn't planned all of their moves beforehand then it could have easily taken twice as long to get their act ready.

"Hurry up! Planetary Guard reinforcements are on the way. They're bringing out the big guns!"

The Big Breakout's success depended on whether the outfits moved fast enough. The moment they slowed down, the vengeful Reinaldans would certainly catch up!

Just as they finished loading in their cargo, something unexpected happened. The mechs piloted by the Masters of Combat suddenly turned on the Vandal-controlled Water Wraiths!

"Damnit, I knew those Vesians couldn't be trusted!"

The abrupt shelling heavily damaged the Water Wraiths. WW-4 outright malfunctioned and its pilot immediately ejected. WW-1, WW-2 and WW-3 immediately counterattacked in the vague direction of the Masters of Combat. The mechs controlled by the Masters of Combat immediately came under pressure. Though the Vesian mercenary corps managed to scavenge more mechs, they hadn't been able to restore their condition as well as the Water Wraiths!

Two of their mechs had fallen, and the rest immediately fell back. It became apparent that the Masters of Combat hadn't expected the Water Wraiths to hold up so well!

Ves looked around and saw a nearby mech officer hollering at his comm for the fighting to stop! They hadn't even completed their escape yet. There was no reason to turn against each other!

"What is the meaning of your hostility! The Big Breakout is still in progress! You are risking everything we have gained!"

The other outfits shied away from the spontaneous battle between the Masters of Combat and the Flagrant Vandals. Instead, they accelerated their preparations and hastened to lift off into the air.

Then, for some reason, they engaged hostilities against each other!

The mechs piloted by Lydia's Swordmaidens, the Caged and Bloodriven Sky all ganged up on the Glorious Space Knights for some reason!

Everything went to hell at the spaceport. Numerous shuttles filled with scared and frightened civilians exploded or vaporized as they got hit with errant shells or laser beams!

Many of the shuttlecraft piloted exclusively by civilians already made their way out. Having survived one active battlefield, they thoroughly became frightened at the thought of suffering the same helplessness all over again.

"Let's go let's go let's go! Forget about the mechs!"

Many of their transports started lifting off. Meanwhile, the mech pilots of the Water Wraiths steadily abandoned their mechs and attempting to board a nearby shuttle.

The Masters of Combat attempted to keep the Vandals in place by shooting at their vessels. However, the Vandals hadn't gone up into the air straight away. Instead, they attempted to mix with the other outfits, finally forcing the Masters of Combat to hit a couple of mechs controlled by the Caged.

The mechs of the Caged immediately pulled back from assaulting the Glorious Space Knights and turned against the Vesians!

"You crazies! Stop firing at us!" The lead mech of the Masters of Combat broadcasted. "We did not mean to hit your mechs!"

"We don't care! Nobody messes with the Caged and lives!"

The tangled conflict resulted in an enormous amount of collateral damage. The escape went ahead as thousands of small craft and larger craft flew into the air and sought to increase their distance from the spaceport. Most of them aimed to fly directly upwards until they escaped the planet's gravity well.

The fighting died down a bit on account of the evacuation. Out of every outfit, the Glorious Space Knights suffered the most. None of their mechs survived against the combined forces of three other outfits. The Masters of Combat joined up in the end as well.

WIth the mechs of the Glorious Space Knights down, the ships appropriated by the playboys and well-paid professionals attempted to make a getaway, only to get shot by the other mechs.

Ves immediately noted that the mechs tried to aim for the engines and other non-essential sections. The outfits didn't aim to destroy the spacecraft, but merely wanted to keep them in place!

Teams of armored infantrymen approached the vessels and broke into them without any compunction. This told him that the other outfits needed something from the Glorious Space Knights.

Could it be a Megalodon chip?

Ves shook his head. "Whatever they're up to, I'd rather get away!"

Compared to the Vesian animosity to the Vandals, attempting to obtain an encrypted data chip ranked much higher in their priorities. Though a few shuttles from the Vandals had been downed by their mechs, the larger transports still held up.

The craft boarded by the civilians and the Flagrant Vandals took the lead. Several other ships from the other outfits followed close at hand, though they left a part of their forces behind.

Every Vandal aboard the transport Ves was on had strapped themselves to their seats. For now, the transport's artificial gravity and inertial compensators prevented the passengers from getting squashed against the deck or some other surface. These vessels often carried various kinds of cargo, some of which must have been fragile. As long as the transports hadn't incurred any damage, the Vandals had nothing to worry about.

Ves activated his comm and patched into an internal feed that displayed their position. The vessels of the Vandals stuck close to each other as they finally departed from the surface of Harkensen I.

A large number of civilian shuttles followed in their wake. They had nowhere else to go and they instinctively flocked to the largest gathering of vessels. Of course, many other shuttles opted to get away from the outfits and immediately split up in order to get away from those recklessly dangerous outfits!

"Soon enough, we'll be bumping into the blockade."

The Reinaldan spaceborn assets hadn't sat idle while the surface of the planet descended into chaos. Many mechs of the Honored Ones had split up into squads and attempted to envelop the entire globe. With the sheer amount of Reinaldan mechs, there was no way the Vandals could sneak away through a gap in their patrols.

This wasn't even the most effective net. The blockade might have been able to stop a few small craft at a time, but facing hundreds of tiny vessels presented many of the same difficulties faced by the mechs at the spaceport. However, this time the Reinaldans hadn't been able to bring their planetary guard mechs.

Exacerbating the situation was that many starships showed up at a high orbit. Each of these ships was connected to an individual or a group on the ground. Keeping the foreign ships in place forced the Reinaldans to divert a lot of unnecessary strength to keep them out of their gates.

In essence, the spaceborn mechs of the Honored Ones were being stretched thin because they needed to keep an eye on ships coming from the surface and from deep space!

"We've established contact with the fleet!"

Captain Orfan's comm lit up as a projection of Major Verle appeared in front of her face! They had all missed his presence, and it was incredibly reassuring to see him once again!

"You've done the best you could, Vandals. We'll be reunited in time." He said, reassuring many Vandals that salvation was at hand!

Chapter 622

With thousands of transports, shuttlecraft and a couple of extravagant souped-up aircars rated for vacuum climbing up into space, the Reinaldans had another sticky situation on their hands. The mechs on patrol in orbit attempted to halt a handful of shuttles, only to have ten more pass them by. They simply didn't have the numbers to block the escaping craft.

On the other side of their blockade, the starships waiting for their associates on Harkensen I to arrive were coming closer and closer. Some of the ships that belonged to various outfits even deployed their mechs as an open threat against the Reinaldans!

The ships and mechs of the Flagrant Vandals happened to be among them as well. Every outfit stuck on the surface of Harkensen I had backup waiting for them at space. Blending in the masses of other ships, they impatiently waited for days for their employers, owners, outfit members and so on to arrive in space.

Ves accessed the galactic net from his comm as the transport he had boarded almost reached into low orbit. He browsed the news portal and saw that most publications had turned against the Reinaldans.

Looks like the Honored Ones aren't able to justify their actions anymore.

Certainly, the Reinaldans couldn't be blamed. Most of them merely acted upon orders, and they weren't even responsible for most of the violence. The blame lay squarely on the terrorists who launched a surprise attack on Harkensen I. Beyond that, the Flagrant Vandals and the outfits they partnered with deserved some condemnation as well for driving so many civilians to their deaths.

The worst thing about this course of events was that most people would never find out the truth behind the outburst of violence. Perhaps on the surface, most people believed this event was meant to harm the lifeblood of the Harkensen System. Only a handful of those involved knew that the fighting involved more than giving the Reinaldans a kick in the nuts.

"Tens of millions have died so far... and for what? Just so an old fart can postpone his death for a couple of hundred years?"

Humans never succeeded in cracking the secret to immortality. Yet they did manage to obtain the next-best solution. Even though the cost of life-prolonging treatments became prohibitively more expensive, so many power players still chased after this distant dream like ducks.

Hope. No matter how faint, one couldn't help but hold even as it burned their fingers.

If all of those old and powerful people believed that extending their lives wasn't humanly possible, then they would have aged gracefully and faded into the background to let the next generation bloom.

Yet the introduction of life-prolonging treatments changed the way humanity ruled forever. Ever since this medical treatment came into being, old farts kept risking their accumulated wealth, power and legacy for a faint hope of delaying their deaths. Everything they obtained turned into currency that they didn't hesitate to spend in order to succeed in fulfilling their greatest hope.

"What are you thinking about, Mr. Larkinson?" Captain Orfan looked suspiciously at Ves.

The two sat across from each other close to the bow of the transport vessel. The crude benches made for an uncomfortable seat, and Ves squirmed a bit as he tried to form an excuse. He couldn't blab about the secret behind the secret conflict.

"I'm worried about our fleet who's waiting on the other side of the blockade, captain. I imagine the Reinaldans won't let us go. We're one of the main groups responsible for the butchery at Tecev City's spaceport."

"We've already planned for that." She grinned back. "Even if the Masters of Combat stabbed us in the back in passing, they should still stick to what we've agreed to if they know what's best for them. Still, what's the deal with the Glorious Space Knights? Did one of their punks try to seduce a Swordmaiden or something?"

"I don't know. I'm thankful they didn't decide to gang up on us. I'm not sure why they attracted so much animosity, but it has nothing to do with us."

He lied, of course, but Captain Orfan didn't have to know that. From his judgement so far, Captain Orfan didn't appear to be an insider. She lacked the restraint and discretion necessary to keep such a big secret.

"I do say, the Water Wraiths held up better against the surprise attack than I thought. You did a really good job with fixing up those amphibian mechs."

Ves smiled at the compliment. "I'm just doing my job. It helped a lot to gain access to the facilities of the shipyard. From what I've seen, the other outfits hadn't been able to secure any workshops. The mechs from the Masters of Combat look so shabby that they likely fixed them up in field conditions."

Even though he ribbed the durability of the Water Wraiths, the amphibian mechs had partially been built to fight underwater. The extra mass they took on formed considerable obstacles that made it difficult for the mechs to be taken out very quickly.

Three of the Water Wraiths appeared to be able to slug it out for at least a minute of trading volleys. WW-4's quick end had been a fluke resulting from a rushed and inefficient restoration process.

"Hehe, if you hadn't made those Water Wraiths so tough, we would have been ganged up by the rest as well. Did you notice that we never targeted their transports, and vica versa? Both of us were afraid we'd shoot our main rides. As long as we showed any weaknesses, the Masters of Combat would have pounced on us. Since that never happened, both of us held guns against each other's heads."

"Nobody wants to pull the trigger in that case."

The Flagrant Vandals showed enough strength to deter the Masters of Combat from escalating the fight. Mutual self-destruction hadn't been an option to the Vesians.

A ping sounded out. It was a warning for imminent action.

"We're about to run the blockade! Get ready, this might get rough!"

The transport began to shake and heave as its thrusters suddenly received a dollop of power. The pilot at the helm decisively strained the poor vessel's propulsion to its limits!

The extra boost in speed and acceleration added pressure to the Reinaldans and cut short the time available to come up with a solution. On the other side of the blockade, the Vandal fleet and the other starships on the outside started to stir up trouble as well.

Through a mix of deception and incitement, several uninvolved starships began to move closer. The Reinaldan patrols attempted to halt the ships from nearing the planet, but their warnings seemed to lack sufficient force.

"Halt! This planet's orbit is restricted space!"

"Get lost, you greedy pigs! My corps commander is on his way up, and I won't let you shoot him down!"

If the Reinaldans stationed more mechs in orbit, they could have made a better effort. As it was, they still hadn't gotten over the confusion in their chain of command. Different commanders demanded different responses, and the rank-and-file had put up their own stance on the matter.

Thus, when ordered to halt the starships from closing in with the small craft coming up from the surface, the majority of the Honored Ones only blustered while keeping their fingers off the trigger.

Some of the Vandals aboard the transport blinked when nothing happened.

"We prepared a lot of fireworks." Captain Orfan said despondently. "A couple of ships and shuttles would have blown up if the Reinaldans wanted to play hardball."

She sounded genuinely disappointed that they didn't get the opportunity to sow more chaos. Many other Vandals shared her feelings. Ves simply sighed.

With the mechs in orbit standing aside, the shuttles eagerly sought out their starships and returned to the fold. The Vandal transports and shuttles effortlessly met up with the Shield of Hispania, the Finmoth Regal and all the other ships of the Vandals.

All of them had been fixed up at the commercial shipyards orbiting over Harkensen III. All of their scars had disappeared as the shipyards had done a thorough job in replacing the damaged armor plating.

The transports were too large to enter the hangar bays of the combat carriers. The vessels had to park alongside one of the hatches of the combat carriers and extent a docking bridge in order to let the Vandals in.

The cargo containers the Vandals brought along had to be ejected into space to allow other shuttles to bring them in the cargo bays of the starships.

Ves thought about the infiltrators that may have been hidden in the containers. Had they sneaked off into space at this time, or did they intend to hitch a ride with the Vandal fleet?

"I hope not. Those fellows aren't friends."

He gratefully stepped back aboard the Shield of Hispania. He missed this old ship. The familiar interior map of the combat carrier reappeared in his mind, and he immediately marched towards the command center. Upon entering, he sat at his customary observer's seat, only lamenting the absence of a capable assistant.

"Mr. Larkinson, good for you to join us again." Major Verle said. His expression appeared rather glum. "I need to have some words with you after we handle this crisis. You and the rest who goofed off in Harkensen I. For heaven's sake, we have made an oath to protect our citizens, not use them up as human shields!"

Nobody liked to be blamed for causing so many civilian casualties. Especially when it had been a deliberate act on their part.

Ves held up his hands as if Verle was from the Planetary Guard. "I don't like it either, sir, but the plan was going ahead whether we liked it or not. Something very fishy was going on down there, and it seems to have driven some people to extremes."

The major's eyes narrowed at him. That had been a veiled jab at the mech officer.

"I may have directed my ire to the wrong person." Verle conceded. "You are not the person in charge. I'll have to obtain some answers from someone else."

Likely, Captain Orfan was going to have a bad time in the coming days. As the principal decision maker on the ground, her decisive leadership had won her plenty of kudos from the other Vandals. However, her sheer callousness ruined the hard-earned reputation of the Vandals had gained in recent months.

Once the starships slowly picked up their passengers, they made their way out of the star system as fast as possible under the auspices of the Reinaldans. None of the mechs of the Honored Ones moved to stop them from taking off. Perhaps the conflicting orders in their chain of command had already been sorted out, because they didn't act in futility.

Each outfit involved in taking over Tecev City's spaceport split off and went their separate ways. Besides the ships of the Glorious Space Knights, every other outfit headed towards a different Lagrange point, all the while remaining alert for any sudden moves by the Reinaldans or everyone else.

Ves did not concern himself with these matters. He went back to his old job and started to catalog the mechs the repair businesses had painstakingly fixed in the last four weeks. A visual inspection of the projections of the repaired mechs already showed some inconsistencies.

"Damnit, they slacked off once I was gone!"

During the time he supervised the repair work, the bosses had been fairly diligent in meeting his expectations. All of that ended once he toured Harkensen III and Harkensen I. While the mechs didn't appear to be broken in any way, Ves would definitely have his hands full with fixing the quality issues.

After all, since the Vandals recently bought a batch of high-gravity mech equipment, their next destination was very likely going to be a Super Earth! One small problem inside a landbound mech might be magnified to a ruinous proportion once the local gravity multiplied by five!

"Seems like I've got a lot of work on my hands again."

Chapter 623

The events on Harkensen I revealed that not even the Reinald Republic could escape the rising tide of war. Trouble lurked in every corner. It could pop up at any planet at any time.

The debates on what truly happened at that planet turned the galactic net into a separate battlefield. Public opinion see-sawed between one extreme to the next. One day, the prevailing opinion regarded the Reinald Republic as victims. The next, they were painted as greedy merchants who were wildly out of touch with reality.

In any case, everyone smelled a purge. Conflicts within the upper ranks in the government and military revealed stark contradictions between their factions. Reconciling their differences could only be achieved when heads started to roll. Many officials readied themselves for war among themselves.

The mysterious terrorists who had built up a massive presence on Harkensen I elicited many questions as well. Where did they come from, and what were their motives? Why did they spring their attack at this specific time?

Once the Reinaldans imposed some measure of order on the surface of Harkensen I, they finally picked off all of the wrecks and started to trace their origins. Naturally, if the terrorists had been even mildly competent, the mechs shouldn't have revealed any clues.

Ves knew this for certain, because he already combed over the Water Wraith the Vandals recovered.

"Other than the fact that their design comes from Vicious Mountain, there's nothing else that stands out."

Potential meddling from neighboring star sectors aside, Ves kept wrangling his head around Miss Calabast. Though she spoke with a distinct Vesian accent, his gut kept telling him her facade was only skin deep throughout their interactions.

"Is she from the Seven Stars? Or is she an agent from another intelligence agency?"

He frowned a bit. It would have made a lot of sense if she had been stationed in the Harkensen System as an asset of the Vesians.

There was no love lost between the Vesia Kingdom and the Reinald Republic. Undermining the hive of scum and villainy that was the Harkensen System definitely benefited Vesia the most of all. In fact, the galactic net had been leaning on that theory the most, objections from Vesian diplomats be damned.

He truly missed the presence of someone like Iris. Right now, he could really use a sounding board.

As the newly invigorated Vandals headed towards another star system, Major Verle finally called for another meeting. As Ves entered the conference room, he could tell the ones who lived through the mess at Harkensen I from the others. Those who survived the ordeal on the paradise planet kept their guard up at all times.

"Good. Everyone is here." The major said to his subordinates. "Let me begin by explaining our next mission. I know that many of you are hoping to return to the Bright Republic. That isn't on the table at this moment."

A wave of dissatisfaction ran through the officers in the meeting. Those physically present on the Shield of Hispania and those attending through projections both appeared rather frayed.

The shore leave was supposed to recharge their batteries, not drain them even further. Nobody had anticipated that everything had spun out of control. The Vandals still had to deal with the aftermath.

"I get it. You're tired. We're far away from home. We are squatting in the territory of a state that doesn't look kindly on us. However, we are soldiers! The war is still being raged back home, and the Bright Republic needs us here."

Captain Orfan spoke out. "Sir, we're with you and the Vandals all the way."

Not everyone appeared supportive of her statement. Many of them felt tired in a way. What did the Reinald Republic have to do with the war?

Fortunately, the major had a ready answer for that. He grinned at everyone. "What if I say we're about to get some payback on our enemies? During the previous escape, some of you came under fire from your erstwhile allies, the Masters of Combat. Those mercs from Venidse tested our defenses, and felled a number of our brothers."

The Masters of Combat shot down a couple of shuttles carrying Vandals and supplies. Overall, the casualties didn't amount to much in the larger scheme of things, but that was already a significant price to pay.

"Before they transitioned into FTL, I've ordered our navigation officers to trace the most likely destination of their fleet. As soon as we determined their destination, we've aimed at the same star system and followed suit."

Ves had a bad feeling about this. They hadn't even left Reinaldan space yet!

"Are we going to pile up on the Masters of Combat?"

"Good! They deserve to be taken down a notch!"

"They're Vesians! As far as I know, we should wipe them off the face of the galaxy!"

The mere prospect of beating up the Masters of Combat put a smile on everyone's faces. Uttering those confident boasts had lifted everyone's moods. Ves had to hand it to Major Verle. He truly knew how to pull everyone's strings.

The commanding officer pressed a button and a projection of fleet belonging to the Masters of Combat emerged.

"Before their departure from the Harkensen System, we've scanned the makeup of their fleet. Captain Rakeshir?"

The projection of the senior ship captain of the Antecedent stood up. "While we've failed to hack into their database, our analysts have drawn accurate models of their combat capabilities through a mixture of external scans and historical research. Overall, the Masters of Combat is a large Venidse-style mercenary corps that puts much of their emphasis on landbound combat. That's not to say their spaceborn assets are weak, but the Masters of Combat treat space battles as a necessary evil to secure their landbound forces from above."

The central projection cycled through different combat carriers, light carriers and large transport craft.

"Their fleet complement is rather barebones, but sufficient for a mercenary corps of their scale. Their most prized starships are their only two combat carriers. These twin vessels are slow and fat, but are able to perform a combat drop on a terrestrial planet securely due to their prodigious amount of armor. These ships are built like rocks and fly like one. The Masters of Combat have a habit of using them as the vanguard of an orbital drop near hostile territory."

The projection changed to display a number of light carriers.

"Their light carriers form the mainstay of their fleet. Although they are technically classified as light, their capacity is just as high as their combat carriers, and their armor is at the upper range in their ship class. They're tough as nuts and can take a beating any day. The only reason why they aren't classified as combat carriers is because they aren't rated to land on terrestrial planets."

A mercenary corps had to be frugal and couldn't afford to splurge on expensive ships. A combat carrier was the premier carrier class in the mercenary scene. The cost to commission and maintain a combat carrier could easily match the expenses of several light carriers. If the Masters of Combat replaced their light carriers with combat carriers, then it was impossible for them to turn a profit!

"The Masters of Combat utilize their light carriers to carry their second-line landbound companies and spaceborn companies. Their overall value is less, but don't mistake them for being pushovers. Their mech doctrine is nearly identical to Venidse's attrition warfare doctrine. The only element they are missing out on is high-tech stealth technology."

That was a big relief to everyone, including Ves. They'd been screwed by stealth technology several times.

"The scale of their operation is considerable for a mercenary corps." Captain Rakeshir summed up. "Currently, they are able to field five landbound mech companies and two spaceborn mech companies at once. Mind you, these numbers may not be entirely accurate, as the mech and personnel rolls of a mercenary corps is much more fluid than a military mech regiment like ours."

Ves raised his hand like a schoolkid in class. "What is the timeframe of the impending battle?"

"We'll fight immediately upon arrival at the next star system, a small industrial system called the Remoss System." Captain Rakeshir announced. "While the Masters of Combat and our fleet have departed to the Remoss System from different Lagrange points, the divergence shouldn't be too big. The gravitic tides our fleets are facing should be nearly identical, so very likely we'll arrive several hours and light-minutes away from each other. That is tight enough for us to converge on their fleet and force a battle before their FTL drives finishes cycling."

FTL drives sold in the private sector demanded longer cycle times than military-grade drives. Depending on the quality and condition of the drives, the total cycle time could take up to six hours.

The news that the Vandals intended to force a battle in the next few days was a little unsettling to the other Vandals. They didn't have much time to prepare and prep their men. Nonetheless, the Vandals would deal with it. At least they had some warning this time. The time where the Vandals were caught with their pants down on Harkensen I was a thing of the past.

Ves asked another question. "What are our exact objectives? Do we want to beat them up, wipe them out completely or are we after something more?"

He wanted to clarify this matter first, because he suspected that the Vandals hadn't chosen to stare at the Masters of Combat on a whim.

Revenge? Pff. As if the profit-oriented Vandals willingly threw themselves into battle over hard feelings.

Captain Rakeshir threw a gaze at Major Verle, who pressed his lips into a line. "The Masters of Combat is an extension of Vesian power. They maintain close ties to Venidse. Crushing them completely is a good deed for the Bright Republic, as we can deprive the Vendisans from hiring them as garrison troops. That said, their flagship should be captured and kept intact if possible. Besides gathering valuable intelligence from the Glazed Omen's database, there are also other valuables that we'd like to obtain."

Some of the Vandals already dreamt of obtaining luxuries or other riches, but Ves knew better.

Still, the challenge of boarding the Glazed Omen was very considerable for the Flagrant Vandals. The main problem was that the Vandals had to stop and disable any self-destruct mechanisms before the Masters of Combat got wind of their intentions.

Ves knew the capabilities of the Vandals. Their security officers may be able to moonlight as boarders, but casualties would inevitably be high.

A security captain couldn't help but become discolored. "Sir, will our men be needed for an offensive action?"

Verle nodded. "I'm afraid so, but not as the main thrust. Your men will be needed to secure a beachhead upon entry and attract their attention. As long as your boarders can hold their ground and withstand their counterattacks, the Glazed Omen will inevitably fall into our hands."

"If my men aren't the ones responsible for taking control of the flagship, then who will?"

To capture a starship, a boarding force essentially needed to take over two or three critical sections buried deep within the vessel.

"Don't worry about that. We've allied with another force which specializes in boarding actions."

This sudden bombshell came as a huge surprise to the Vandal officers. "Sir, which outfit did we ally with? Can they be trusted?"

Ves hoped the Vandals hadn't gotten in bed with Calabast or her ilk. Fortunately, Major Verle did not mention anything about her. Instead, their ally turned out to be a completely different outfit!

"We've conducted some back channel talks since yesterday, and our goals happened to align. Let me announce to you that Lydia's Swordsmaidens will be our ally for the foreseeable future.

Lydia's Swordsmaidens! The all-female pirate gang with vague ties to the Reinald Republic!

"They're Reinaldans, are they not? Don't they hate our guts?"

"Not every Reinaldan is the same." Verle explained. "While it's true that we've drawn the ire of the aggressive faction, that has given us a basis for cooperation with their political opponents. The Reinaldan faction that is propping up the Swordmaidens have approached us in good faith. While I'm not at liberty to reveal why we agreed to partner up, you should be aware that this alliance is not a short-lived one. We'll be leaning on each other in an upcoming operation."

Ves predicted something like this. Considering everything that Calabast had revealed to him, the competition for the Starlight Megalodon's encrypted data chips did not rule out any collaborations. As long as the Megalodon's vault contained multiple treatments, a team could always split up the spoils.

Yet of all the possible outfits the Vandals could team up, they settled for a pirate gang of all choices!

Chapter 624

"Sir!" A mech captain called. "Is it wise to ally with Lydia's Swordmaidens? They're anything but innocent maidens. They're a bunch of bloodthirsty alpha females! They make their living by robbing and pillaging other ships!"

Any outfit labelled with the moniker of pirates inevitably carried a rotten reputation. Different from criminal gangs, they often went to further extremes, robbing and killing in the spacelanes without restraint.

In general, the most awful pirate gangs never dared to show up in civilized space, because the MTA routinely hunted them down whenever they revealed their presence.

"That's a valid concern." Major Verle responded calmly. "While the record of Lydia's Swordmaidens isn't spotless, it's not much worse than ours. The Swordmaidens prey upon treasure hunters and neutral starships in the frontier. While it is anything but an honest business, their victims mostly have themselves to blame for entering lawless space."

That mollified the Vandals a bit. There was a difference between pirates that attacked ships and outposts in civilized space and pirates that mixed up in frontier space. Though the line was often blurred between the two, the fact that the Swordmaidens had been allowed to berth in the Harkensen System meant they hadn't crossed the bottom line of the MTA or the Reinald Republic.

The captain remained stubborn, however. "I still think it's a bad idea, sir. People are already talking bad about us. Once we mix up with pirates, we'll be proving them right."

"Who cares about our rep?!" Captain Rosa Orfan retorted. "We've been painted as borderline pirates for decades. While pretending to be heroes for a month feels good, it should hardly matter to us. Deep down, we're scoundrels, and I'm proud of that!"

"Hear hear!"

"Agree!"

The majority of the Vandals happened to agree with her, if only because she commanded the most prestige among the mech captains. Though a lot of Vandals missed the benefits that came with being regarded as heroes, it wasn't as if their current low was anything different from before.

"The Flagrant Vandals have never taken reputation into account when we decide our actions." Major Verle finally settled the debate. "We follow orders and we fight for the Republic. What other people say about us is ineffectual noise. Talk won't win any wars. Only through battle can we affect a positive change."

Ves had to hand it to the major. The man sounded like a bona fide loyalist of the Republic. Whether he really meant it or not remained to be seen, but for now the Vandal officers didn't appear to be fostering any other thoughts.

"Now, regardless of how bad it may seem like, allying ourselves with Lydia's Swordmaidens will prove crucial in our next major operation, which will likely take place in the frontier. This is their home turf, and they possess some of the most detailed star charts among the local frontier outfits."

The men did not take the news that they would be heading further and further away from the Republic very well.

"What does the frontier have to do with our mission?"

"That's classified. Suffice to say, this will be our last major mission for the foreseeable time. As long as we complete this mission, headquarters has promised us we can take it easy for the remainder of the war."

That set off a storm of speculation. If the Mech Corps delivered their promises, that basically meant that the Flagrant Vandals would not be expected to complete arduous missions or fight any pitched battles. The Vandals loved it if they could spend the rest of the war on cushy missions such as patrolling the rear or garrisoning a sleepy little star system.

Of course, none of the Vandals were fools. The Mech Corps basically ignored them for decades. Why would they be so generous all of a sudden?

The most peculiar part about this briefing was that none of the Vandals showed too much curiosity of what lay ahead. Many of them were accustomed to living by the day. Long-term strategies was not their forte by any means. This happened to make it easier to keep upcoming operations secret.

The only thing the Vandals fixated on was returning home and the promise of being reassigned to the rear. The Vandals truly needed it as they had to replenish their ranks of mech pilots.

The meeting quickly ended after the Vandals got around to the notion of allying with Lydia's Swordmaidens. This would not be an incidental teamup, but a deeper cooperation where both sides fought alongside each other for months.

A few people got called to Major Verle's stateroom, including Ves. He waited patiently as Verle held individual talks with key Vandals such as Captain Orfan. Once Ves received his turn, he entered the stateroom.

The compartment hadn't received any new decorations since his last visit. It reflected their hectic schedule and their inability to rest.

"Mr. Larkinson, take a seat."

Once Ves sat, he waited for the man to speak. Inside, he hoped that the major would finally open up on what they were really aiming for, but realistically this was unlikely to happen.

"How long have you been with us?"

The question threw him off-guard. "More than half a year. It won't be long before I've been with this mech regiment for a year, sir."

"You've witnessed the high points and low points of our participation in this war. You came at exactly the right moment if you were looking for action. To many mech designers, what we've been through is a nightmare. What do you think, Mr. Larkinson?"

Ves thought his answer through. While he hadn't asked to be thrown into life-threatening situations, there was a part of him that revelled in the experience. Witnessing mechs in action and being responsible for servicing them was an unforgettable experience that would live with him for the rest of his mech design career.

"I feel blessed for being part of the Flagrant Vandals, sir. It's not what I expected when the Mech Corps called me up, but I never regretted it. As a mech designer, I may not be able to hop into a mech and fight on the battlefield, but this is the next best thing."

The major threw a rare smile at Ves. "Honest. I like it. No platitudes about honor. No half-hearted words about serving the Republic. It's all about you. That's okay, Mr. Larkinson. This is also what the Bright Republic aims to achieve when they push mech designers into the Mech Corps."

"So it's true, then? The Mech Corps really wants to cull their useless mech designers?"

"You make it sound cruder than necessary. This isn't any great secret, but the Bright Republic is not a wealthy state." The man waved his arms around him. "It can only support so many mech designers, whether you're talking about the private sector or the military. We're doing you mech designers a favor by squeezing out your potential. Only through the worst moments of your lives can you discover the greatness within yourselves. The Republic can't afford to support any silk pants mech designer who faints at the sight of blood."

This seemed to be a running theme among organizations that cultivated mech designers. The more Ves learned about how mech designers advanced, the more he agreed with this philosophy. Though their profession stereotypically consisted of nerds, in truth they did not make for great mech designers.

"I hope I've met the expectations the Mech Corps has set upon me, sir." Ves replied.

"That is what I wished to talk about. I've been keeping tabs on you, and so did Colonel Lowenfield and Professor Velten. All three of us are impressed with your contributions up to this date. Although there are some questionable points in your records, they are inconsequential compared to how pivotal you've been for our successes. The ability that you've displayed shouldn't be wasted."

"I hope to continue to be useful to the Vandals, sir."

Verle shook his head. "That's not in the cards for you. I wasn't lying earlier when I said the Vandals will be taken off the frontlines. We've attracted too much heat, and that's bad for a mech regiment like ours. If the frontlines don't collapse, we're likely never going to see much action again. Our next battles will consist of small skirmishes and raids that's beneath your attention."

Ves frowned a bit. The major was building up to something.

"Therefore, we thought it over, and decided it is best to transfer you to another assignment ahead of time. This is a great privilege for a conscripted mech designer such as you. Usually, it takes years of vetting before being sent to your next assignment."

The news of his impending transfer almost floored Ves. Just when he got acclimated to the rambunctious Vandals, the higher ups wanted to send him away.

The major made it sound like this was a reward, but he couldn't help but feel as if they wanted him out.

"As I said, the 6th Flagrant Vandals is thankful for your contributions. This is why we don't wish to bury your talent. There are other mech regiments that are fighting the good fight, and many more units besides that are awfully short on mech designers with your specific set of competences. While I can't reveal anything about your next assignment, I can assure you that many mech designers would kill to be in your place."

"Won't the Mech Corps intervene, sir? Back at the training camp, I performed better than any other Apprentice Mech Designer, but they still sent me to your mech regiment along with all the other untrustworthy folk."

Major Verle turned to his terminal and called up some records. "Hm, I can see why you formed such an impression, but not everything you cooked up in your mind is true. While you make a valid point, who says the Mech Corps isn't trying to kill two birds with a single stone? There is more to your placement with us than lack of trust. In any event, your performance up to date is more than enough to dispel any suspicions. No matter what you say, your reassignment is already set in stone. Understood?"

"Yes.. sir."

Ves truly felt ambivalent about this change. He had really grown on the Flagrant Vandals that he basically couldn't imagine working for a conventional mech regiment. Still, until he received concrete details about his next assignment, he shouldn't make too many assumptions.

"That said, it's not easy for you to obtain this great opportunity. Although you've already performed above our expectations, our mission is not yet at and end." The commanding officer leaned forward and crossed his fingers on his desk. "I'm not referring to our upcoming battle against the Masters of Combat. What I'm truly concerned about is the challenges we will face in our next operation in the frontier. Our mechs will be facing extreme conditions further away from Republic space than you can ever imagine. Your aid is indispensable to what we have in store."

Ah. He knew there was a catch. Major Verle never praised someone without an ulterior motive. The so-called great opportunity turned out to be a carrot that was meant to motivate Ves to perform his duties at his best.

"I will endeavor to keep our mechs in tip-top shape, major." He said. "Is this related to the batch of heavy-duty gravitic backpacks we recently procured?"

Right now, all of that heavy equipment took up valuable storage space in their starships. Ves was a little peeved at all of the deadweight.

"It is. I would prefer it if you prep our landbound mechs to deploy on Super Earth-like environments. I understand that normal mechs won't be able to endure the crushing gravity of such an environment without preparation."

Ves nodded. "That's correct, sir. It depends on the quality and design intentions of the mech designer, but most landbound mechs are optimized for standard gravity. Even the mechs that are advertised as tough may only be able to endure crushing force over very short intervals. They have no problem facing ten g's of force in a span of a couple of seconds, but withstanding five g's of gravity for a day will certainly degrade the most delicate components inside the machines."

He could already tell their current complement of landbound mechs wouldn't be able to last on a Super Earth even with the help of the gravitic backpacks. The mech technicians had a lot of work ahead of themselves to change this outcome, and this inevitably required his full attention.

No wonder the major treated Ves in such a friendly manner. Ves was the only mech designer in the Verle Task Force who could save them from their impending doom.

Chapter 625

Ves mulled over the implications of his recent meeting with Major Verle. The man never issued orders without purpose. His leadership style leaned towards motivating his subordinates to take a desired course of action out of their own free will.

The mech officer was so adept at saying the right things that Ves took a lot of notes. However, his observations also made him aware when he was on the receiving end of this method.

"The problem is that I don't even know if I want to pursue this great opportunity." He muttered.

Certainly, Ves had no reason to doubt Major Verle's credibility, but the mech officer's tendency to keep his secrets close to his chest was infuriating. Countless possibilities tantalized in front of Ves, yet couldn't it have hurt to receive a hint or two?!

The news that he might get separated from the Vandals put him in a depressed mood. Verle's arguments made sense, but Ves couldn't help but feel as if the Vandals didn't want him anymore.

"That's not true." He shook his head. His logic reasserted itself. "I've worked hard enough to earn everyone's appreciation. There's no way they'd willingly let me go. It might be due to another reason."

Verle reminded him that he had made some faulty assumptions based on incomplete information. Ves had a habit of overthinking his extrapolations of the future based on guesswork and scraps of information. He couldn't help it as his imagination went hyperactive sometimes.

"All of this comes down due to my inability to control myself."

He was far from the ideal of an enlightened man. Deep down, he was still being ruled by his emotions, desires and instincts. "This is what it means to be human."

Ves suspected that his physical and genetic changes exacerbated his moments of irrationality. He felt peeved whenever he lost control without realizing it. Just this moment where he preferred to stick with a dead-end mech regiment like the Flagrant Vandals had been another example of his emotions ruling over his logic.

The Flagrant Vandals was one of the saddest and most decrepit mech regiments of the Mech Corps. They could barely maintain the development of just three inhouse mech models. They employed only a single Senior Mech Designer and two Journeyman Mech Designers to helm their design teams. Compared to what Ves initially dreamt about, every aspect about the Vandals turned out to be a disappointment.

Yet sentiment had a way of sticking around despite his efforts to push it aside. He'd grown on the Vandals, and almost considered himself as one of their own.

Despite their deficiencies, Ves had grown to love the casual atmosphere and freewheeling internal culture. Nobody acted too stiff and the Vandals maintained just enough discipline without turning into massive jerks. He could act more freely here than in any other military setting. The lack of talented mech designers also provided Ves an opportunity to take on greater responsibilities.

He'll certainly miss that last part. Ves had grown to like being in charge. Though he still had to keep Professor Velten apprised of his decisions, the distant Senior Mech Designer generally refrained from meddling in the way he executed his authority.

After a while, he pushed his concerns from his mind and decided to focus on the immediate future. Any hopes and fears about his next assignment had to wait until he completed his current one with the Vandals.

Once he returned to his office, he discovered something new. The moment he logged into his terminal, he discovered that he inexplicably gained greater access to the central database. His security clearance received another bump, allowing him to access more detailed classified design schematics and giving him the right to study another batch of exclusive textbooks.

Perhaps any other mech designer might have become ecstatic about this level of access by now, but Ves hardly felt roused. After his recent insight on how much he obsessed over hoarding technical knowledge, Ves became aware that studying new theories without purpose wouldn't make him a better mech designer.

The increased access to the internal database had become a hollow reward for him. The only pieces of knowledge that Ves figured would be worthwhile for him to read up on was to learn how to harden mechs against heavy gravity and how to develop countermeasures against stealth.

"Right now, the Vandals are about to force a battle against a Venidsan mercenary corps. Even though they shouldn't have access to stealth technology, the records did mention that they are buddies with Venidse's mech legions. It's not out of the question that they are holding back their stealth capabilities as a trump card."

The more he thought about it, the more his paranoia surged. Perhaps his recent bad experiences with stealth left him with some trauma, but Ves simply couldn't shake off the fear that the Masters of Combat had the ability to turn the tide of the battle.

Ves recognized that this was another instance where his emotions dominated over his logic, but the two did not have to be in opposition this time.

"Encountering stealth technology is a low-probably event, but that doesn't mean it makes sense to discount the possibility."

One ought to hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

He decided to brush up on his knowledge in this field and make some preparations to counter any instances of stealth.

"First, I've got to draft another schedule."

Four weeks of rest and recuperation at the Harkensen System had done a lot of good to their ships and mechs. The Shield of Hispania looked much more robust than before, and even received some upgrades.

As for their compliment of mechs, both their spaceborn and landbound mechs regained their strength. Though the repair businesses tried to cut as many corners as possible, they looked a lot better than before.

Ves drew up a schedule for the coming weeks. He based his planning around two priorities. First, the Vandals needed to ready their spaceborn mechs for immediate combat against the Masters of Combat. The Vesian mercenary corps might not be able to match the Vandals in battle, but they were tough as hell and wouldn't succumb without a fight.

"We'll have to upgrade the sensors from a number of Inheritor mechs as well."

After that, the mech technicians needed to put most of their focus on strengthening the internals of their landbound mechs. Certain processors and other delicate components needed to be replaced by more robust variants that could withstand the continued abuse of high-gravity environments.

"We also need to configure the heavy-duty gravitic backpacks to the landbound mechs. Relying on the default settings won't be not enough."

A gravitic backpack basically exerted an oval-shaped antigrav field around the frame of the mech. It counteracted the crushing gravity at the cost of gobbling up lots of power.

"The power issue will be the biggest issue by far."

A Super Earth with an average gravity of five g's required at least three g's of antigrav force to restore a semblance of mobility to a mech. Anything less than that slowed the mech to a crawl.

Ves performed some quick and dirty calculations. The results didn't appear to be optimistic. "The landbound mechs at our disposal are battle-focused. If the mechs have been optimized for enduring extreme environments, then they don't require as much hand holding."

The internal batteries of the heavy-duty gravitic backpacks drained themselves within an hour at their highest settings!

"This backpack model isn't a cheap knockoff. It's a quality product!"

Yet even then, the batteries drained too fast. The only saving grace was that the backpacks could connect to a mech's internal power supply via the standardized power ports that conformed to the Vesian Modular Fitting Standard.

"No matter how many Vesian landbound mech models the Vandals make use of, every single one of them shares the same MFS. I don't need to wrack my heads over making the gravitic backpacks compatible to their mechs."

This saved him a lot of time and effort. The most he had to do was to tweak the output of the gravitic backpacks to match the dimensions of the mechs as closely as possible.

A provisional schedule came into being. While Ves had never received a timeframe of the next operation, it took a while to reach the frontier from Reinald space. He therefore worked around the assumption that it took two months to cross over to the frontier and travel deep enough to stumble upon the trail of the Starlight Megalodon.

"Two months will have to do."

Strengthening the internals of a mech was a tedious job at best. It involved disassembling every mech without damaging anything in order to reach the most delicate components that needed to be changed.

"Close to three-hundred landbound mechs will require these tweaks. That's too much."

Still, Ves had no choice but to set this schedule. He needed to lean on the mech designers and chief technicians to find ways of cutting down the time to treat each mech.

Once he double-checked the schedule, he sent the files to Major Verle for approval. He received it within an hour. The major approved his plans without any comment, which meant that Ves hadn't screwed up or overlooked anything important.

"It also means he trusts my judgement."

Ves didn't dwell on the fast response. He split up the schedule into different work assignments for every mech designer and every shift of mech technicians before sending them onwards. His deputies would ensure the recipients actually stuck to them. If not, Ves would gain an excuse to punish Mercator and Trozin.

"Hmph, those two are hardly worth my time, especially if I'm on my way out."

If the Vandals hadn't been flinging themselves from crisis to crisis, the two careerist mech designers might have been able to stir up more trouble. So far, they had no means of competing directly against Ves, and it looked as if they would never get the opportunity to gain the upper hand.

Now that Ves knew he was on his way out, his concerns over the two Apprentices seem trivial. Though Ves admitted that they possessed some competence, they still had years ahead of them before they could move to brighter pastures.

One of the more peculiar traits about the Flagrant Vandals was that it exhibited a high amount of transfers. While many would come to settle in this mech regiment for the rest of their careers, others only stuck around for a couple of years before being transferred elsewhere. Ves had attempted to look up where they went, but Ves did not possess the right privileges to access that data even after his security clearance improved.

Ves wondered whether the opportunity Verle hinted at had always been the original plan. Even if Ves hadn't stood out with his performance, his futureeeee was already set in stone. The most he accomplished was to bring his transfer date forward.

"I wonder though if my abilities are truly needed there."

Though Ves still longed for a plum assignment, he would certainly be working under more capable mech designers. This meant he would go back to doing grunt work with almost no autonomy to speak of. How could he flex his design ability and refine his mastery over his Skills if he needed to stick to a narrow set of instructions?

Another thing Ves was worried about was that he needed to start all over again when it came to building relationships. Though Ves hadn't cultivated any close friends among the Vandals, he formed many ties that might be useful after the war. Still, his work was only half-done. Ves had not reach the point where the Vandals would willingly come and work for the LMC or the Avatars of Myth if the Mech Corps let them go.

Compared to hiring random mercenaries from the job market, hiring known individuals with a shared history of struggle and survival appealed Ves the most. There was a sense of instinctive trust and brotherhood among the Vandals.

This bond had reached the point where Ves trusted them with his life.

Chapter 626

The Verle Task Force was about to reach the Remoss System in one more day. The Remoss System was a popular stopover point for treasure hunters and pirates traveling back and forth between the frontier and the Harkensen System.

The Remoss System offered nothing interesting to any visitors. With a big neighbor like the Harkensen System, it lacked the ability to offer anything worthwhile to tourists and outfits. Its domestic industries was rather anemic as they were forced to produce low-value bulk goods that sold for a pittance in Harkensen.

While Remoss didn't station any garrison forces in the outer system, they nonetheless maintained a small but capable defense fleet.

Since the upcoming battle would likely take place in the outer system, the local defenders likely wouldn't intervene. Though the relationship between the Reinald Republic and the Flagrant Vandals had soured, it shouldn't have come to the point of provoking them into action.

"Even if the local garrison is compelled to act, they're too weak to challenge the Vandals."

He focused most of his attention on preparing the Vandal spaceborn mechs for battle. He first read up on the Masters of Combat in order to see whether he missed something crucial.

The Masters of Combat turned out to be a few decades old, the same as the Flagrant Vandals. That was sufficient for them to develop their own unique culture and mech tradition, but not to the point where they had reached the ranks of the elites.

"Battling them won't result in a repeat of the battle against the Frosty Meteors."

Ves recalled the desperate circumstances of that fight. Though the Frosty Meteors only managed to intercept the Verle Task Force with three or four companies of spaceborn mechs, they practically halved the Vandal mech roster with their near-unyielding charge.

He scratched his chin while he processed the extra data. "The Masters of Combat excel on land, so we definitely have to catch them before their mechs make landfall. This is a rare opportunity to take out one of our competitors before they become ten times harder to dislodge."

He could already imagine the horror of trying to stem the tide of Vesian mechs on the surface of the Super Earth. In such an extreme environment where their power-hungry gravitic backpacks formed their only means of succor, the best asset was experience.

"It makes sense to force the Masters of Combat off the board. If they're one of the participants of the game, their prowess on land is too scary to contemplate."

This also explained why the Flagrant Vandals and Lydia's Swordmaidens went to bed with each other. Though the two had little in common, it also meant their interests didn't collide. Besides chasing after the same prize, they had little else to fight over.

"I wonder what Lydia's Swordmaidens are good at. They sound like they're a bunch of melee maniacs."

Diving into the records revealed sparse details. Because they operated entirely in the frontier, detailed records was hard to come by. Nonetheless, Ves stitched together various scraps of intelligence and formed a decent impression of their fighting style.

He snorted at the result. "They're a bunch of robbers!"

Just like any other pirate outfit, the Swordmaidens earned their living by robbing others. The main distinction with the Swordsmaidens was that rather than intercepting fleets in transit in space, they favored attacking ongoing expeditions on land!

This required a lot more effort than sitting in wait at the edge of a random star system. Pirates generally lay in ambush near popular transit points. In practice, the huge distances involved and the inherent lack of precision of FTL technology made ambushing fleets in space exceptionally hard.

If the incoming fleet of ships ended up several light-hours away from the ambushers, the pirates would never be able to close the distance in time. Even if the pirates predicted the route and vector of their targets, they still let too many victims slip from their grasp.

The pirates couldn't help it. Space was simply too big.

Compared to ambushing fleets in space, ambushing an expedition that was chained to the ground was a lot easier. The Swordmaidens knew where they could find their targets, and as long as they enjoyed orbital superiority, they could drop as much mechs as necessary to subdue the forces on the ground.

The only challenge with this method was that Lydia's Swordmaidens depended upon tip offs and their own intelligence gathering efforts to sniff out juicy treasure hunting expeditions.

"Still, it seems they've become quite good at it over the years."

This meant that the Swordmaidens had become very formidable in this aspect. They had fully taken root in the lawless society of frontier space.

Maybe the Flagrant Vandals could easily demolish the Swordmaidens in civilized space. Yet if the battle took place in the frontier, the Swordmaidens would easily be able to gain the upper hand through various means.

In general, their focus on robbing treasure hunters had turned them into formidable landbound combatants. As their name suggested, they highly favored swordsman mechs. This mech archetype offered a flexible balance between mobility and protection under challenging environments. The best part about swordsman mechs was that they offered a high amount of offensive power that enabled them to overwhelm guard mechs in the flashiest manner possible.

Most treasure hunting expeditions surrendered on the spot at that point.

As a gang of robbers, the conduct of the Swordmaidens turned out to be rather mild. They never killed the treasure hunters after they surrendered and never demolished their means of escape.

Crueler pirates either slaughtered or enslaved every single captive. If they were lazy enough to do so, they could still drive the expedition members to despair by stealing their mechs and ships. With no way out of the wild and untamed planet, they lost every hope of returning to civilized space!

In fact, the frontier wasn't made up a vast stretch of unpopulated or alien-occupied star systems. A small but critical portion of planets hosted humans that had gone native over the years. Either willingly or not, they managed to persevere where others had fallen and erected functional, self-sufficient settlements, some of which turned into fiefs for the brutal pirate gangs that held sway in those regions of space.

"Compared to those hardcore pirates, the conduct of Lydia's Swordmaidens is positively angelic."

The Swordmaidens only attacked targets they knew for certain they could overwhelm. They picked their targets wisely and backed off from any threats beyond their means to defeat. Over time, they steadily grew their numbers from a collection of women to a formidable outfit that became a mainstay in the frontier.

"Still, even if they're admirable for being able to survive in the frontier, they're similar to the Flagrant Vandals. They prey on the weak and run from the strong. They won't do well against a battle-oriented mech outfit."

When Ves compared their mech doctrines and battle records to those of the Masters of Combat, the Swordmaidens had no chance of winning. It couldn't be helped. The Masters of Combat always deployed a balanced force of defense-oriented mechs. Each mech model and mech type rounded out each other's weaknesses.

The Swordmaidens on the other hand deployed a disproportionate amount of swordsman mechs. Although a small number of Swordmaidens piloted knights or ranged mechs, this uneven mech roster basically forced them into a singular strategy.

"Attack! Attack! Attack!"

This also happened to be strategy the Masters of Combat excelled in dealing with. They loved to foil the advances of their opponents, blunting their offensives and tiring them out until the Masters of Combat could deliver the coup-de-grace.

In this perspective, taking the Masters of Combat out of play before they reached the Starlight Megalodon made more and more sense.

From a greater perspective, the alliance between the Flagrant Vandals and Lydia's Swordsmaidens reeked of desperation. Alone, they lacked the strength to compete against other outfits. Only after combining their forces did they gain the necessary footing to win the game.

Maybe the Vandals would be able to muscle out the other outfit if they brought their full numbers. However, the Verle Task Force alone was unable to deter their competitors, especially when they never had the opportunity to replenish their fallen mech pilots.

"It's unfortunate that they're both raiding outfits."

However, this had given both of them the grounds for cooperation. Neither of them were strong enough to succeed without each other's help. Only by marrying their strength would they be able to contend in this brutal game.

Relevant to the upcoming battle, just because the Swordmaidens didn't focus on spaceborn combat didn't mean they neglected it entirely. Without adequate spaceborn forces, they wouldn't have been able to wrestle orbital superiority from the expeditionary fleets.

Their spaceborn battle capabilities didn't seem exceptional, but different from the Vandals, the Swordmaidens cultivated a strong and formidable boarding force. Just because they didn't strangle the lifeline of their victims didn't mean they disregarded the value of starships. A capable boarding force was necessary to take over high-value starships without risking any shenanigans.

The Swordmaidens earned as much money from selling their prize ships to selling the expedition's spoils. The only ships they left behind were low-value rust buckets such as old cargo haulers or decrepit converted carriers.

It still seemed rather strange to Ves that Lydia's Swordmaidens expressly cultivated an elite boarding force while slightly neglecting their spaceborn mechs. It sounded incongruent to their strategy.

After all, it took a lot more effort to capture a ship intact than to blow it out of the skies.

Ves shrugged. "Oh well. We'll soon come into contact with each other, so I'll probably find out the truth behind the matter."

He couldn't forget that Lydia's Swordmaidens possessed a backer. Ves hadn't been able to dig up any accurate information about the power behind the scenes besides the fact that they were a part of a more moderate faction.

Reinaldan politics was rather polarizing. One faction sought to expand their influence in the Komodo Star Sector, and they weren't above using force. They wanted to push the Frozen Leaf Alliance from a defensive alliance into a greater union that would allow them to push their weight around.

The other faction advocated for maintaining the status quo. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. This was pretty much the essence of their motto. They liked the fact the Reinald Republic had grown into an unofficial trade hub that carved out its own niche.

Not everyone from the military fell into the aggressive camp. Neither did every merchant believe the Reinald Republic would be able to remain safe.

Lydia's Swordmaidens was a tool that extended the reach of the moderate faction to the frontier. If worst came to worst, the Swordmaidens could also lead their backers beyond the reach of their enemies if the Reinald Republic ever fell.

In this context, Lydia's Swordmaidens were less like pirates and more like intelligence assets that pretended to be pirates. Perhaps their budget was truly dependent on their spoils, but Ves figured that there was definitely more the Swordmaidens than what the shallow records had revealed.

Almost every outfit involved in this game had a backer propping them up. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been so desperate to obtain the life-prolonging doses.

If not for themselves, why compete for it in the first place? This property was far too hot to be sold to someone else.

From what Ves could gather up to now, there were at least four players in the game.

One had to be a senior official from the Bright Republic. That person wielded enough power to direct the Flagrant Vandals.

The player behind the Masters of Combat had to be a Vesian, though not necessarily a Venidsan.

The player depending on Lydia's Swordmaidens had to be a part of the moderate faction of the Reinald Republic.

The identity of the fourth player was the most mysterious. This individual had ties to the terrorists who turned Harkensen I into a hellhole. This was the most thorny player of all, because he displayed the least scruples of all.

Chapter 627

Chief Technician Haine, Chief Engineer Avanaeon and Lieutenant Commander Soapstone gathered at their usual haunt, though they hardly managed to squeeze the time. The impending call for battle meant that every Vandal had to needed to make the most out of the few hours that remained.

Ves was at the makeshift lounge as well. The foursome played their usual game of Pirate Empires. The semi-virtual board game spiced up the growth of their four chosen outfits with lifelike miniature graphics and a melodramatic music score.

Chief Haine directed her usual choice of pirates. Chief Engineer Avanaeon went with his familiar band of elite mercenaries, while Soapstone switched up her game by opting for pirates as well.

Unlike Haine, who relied on snowballing her pirate gang through making use of her charisma, Soapstone opted to make external alliances with rivaling pirate gangs. The logistics officer's strategy was novel, but worked out well enough because she mitigated the backstabbing nature of pirate gangs by entangling them with material benefits.

The contrast between their pirate gangs couldn't be more different. While Haine essentially developed a cult of personality around her pirate commander identity, Soapstone faded into the background and became the hidden shadow behind a coalition of pirate gangs.

The two players competed directly against each other, and the conflicts between them became so heated that Ves and Avanaeon farmed the rest of the map in peace.

As for Ves, he mixed it up as well. He tried out an outfit only available from an expansion.

"I hate to break it to you two gals, but the head designer is running out of control! In twenty turns, he's about to topple the rulers of an entire province!" Avanaeon warned.

Haine and Soapstone diverted their attention from their catfight. Ves had been laying low all this time, spending most of his time by raiding factories for mechs and gear while training up the volunteers who wanted to fight for the cause. All of it looked boring in comparison to the high-profile moves of his fellow players, but once he brought everything together with his most recent moves, his true strength couldn't be hidden any longer.

Haine sputtered as she swigged a drink. "Damnit, Ves, rebel movements are broken as hell in this game! I have to work my butt off to recruit new pirates, while you only need to sit back and rake in the suckers who bought into your stupid cause!"

Ves laughed as his plan came together. "I can't help it if the government is run by a bunch of nincompoops. They're not flexible enough to keep up with my changes."

Pirate Empires was a board game that modeled after the management of various outfits and groups in the frontier. It allowed average people to roleplay as someone with power at their fingertips. Though the gameplay was nothing like the real thing, Ves nonetheless found it useful to experience the mindset of different outfit commanders.

Playing as a rebel movement mostly meant Ves played on a different field than the other players. The goal of a rebel movement was to wrest control over the province. Achieving this difficult objective would put all of the province's military mechs at his disposal.

Even if the game limited the amount of mechs that could be reassigned from garrison duties, the forces would be enough to crush any player. Only the best players with endgame-level ships and mechs stood a chance of surviving such an onslaught.

"Getting there will be difficult, though."

Rebel movements started small and pathetic. With untrained fanatics as footsoldiers and only a single wad of cash as starting funds, rebel commanders needed to build up their movements step by step. Each raid not only had to inspire the local citizens, but also turn a profit.

During this endless struggle to acquire more funding and manpower, the provincial government wasn't sleeping. The larger the rebel movement grew, the more pushback it received from the government. Crack anti-terrorist units constantly sniffed out his cells and confiscated his supply caches. Trying to survive under this constant hounding meant that Ves had to learn to be adept at risk management.

He was going to lose men, equipment and funding regardless. What he needed to do was to keep the rebel movement growing so that it could easily sustain the losses.

Both the gains and losses was subject to chance.

Perhaps everything went perfect in one match. The anti-terrorist forces only managed to destroy some inconsequential cells while the rebel movement succeeded in taking down facility after facility.

His luck might turn out to be awful in the next match. His key cells were being hunted down one after another while his raids bumped into stiff opposition. Traitors emerged among his ranks and sold out the positions of his supply caches, or worse, split off into a splinter movement that competed directly against their parent movement!

The intervention of a rival player could easily tip the balance against his favor. For example, Avanaeon's elite mercenary corps built up a formidable force based around excellent carriers and a small but high-quality company of mechs. The mercenary corps could easily accept a contract to hunt down the spaceborn assets of the rebel movement.

Without ships, the rebel cells couldn't reinforce each other. Neither would Ves be able to trade his gains for additional funding and gear.

Too bad it was too late now. Ves had quietly overcome the weakest period of any rebel movement. His force now numbered hundreds of spaceborn and landbound mechs. Though currently his mechs were spread throughout more than a dozen different cells, once he gathered them into a cohesive force, he gained the ability to contend for the provincial capital!

"Tch!" Soapstone spat. "My pirate coalition has gained too much infamy. The border patrol will shoot my pirates down if I send them into civilized space."

Chief Haine's pirates suffered from the same problem. Neither of them had taken the route of Lydia's Swordmaidens. With not a single backer from civilized space to vouch for their good conduct, it was virtually certain that they would be hunted down by military mech regiments or several mercenary corps on contract.

Only Avaneon's mercenaries possessed the opportunity to halt Ves' momentum, but he was busy on a long-term contract himself. This was why he called Ves out. If Avaneon broke off his current mission, his mercenary corps would have received a black mark.

To any mercenary corps, a black mark on their record meant an end to lucrative missions. This would certainly stall the growth of Avaneon's forces, putting him out of contention by the time the match progressed to the endgame.

So in short, none of his rival players interfered as Ves called for his rebel movement to begin their uprising!

As everyone did their own thing, Ves began to ask a question, partially to distract the other players but also because this might be the only time he could get an answer.

"Does everyone know about what's in store for the Vandals after we complete our mission at the frontier?"

Everyone nodded. "According to the boss, we'll be sent to the rear. The days of pitched battles and high-risk operations will soon be over for us!"

"I wouldn't be so reassured if I were you, Haine." Soapstone cautioned. "If the stalemate at the frontline tips in Vesia's favor, headquarters won't hesitate to break their promise. They're going to need mechs at the front, and they won't care about their own guarantees."

The words of warning highlighted the unpredictable nature of war. Many times, the Vesians succeeded in punching through the defensive lines of the Bright Republic. This allowed them to advance to the interior of Republic space. Once they got into striking distance of Bentheim, the Mech Corps really started panicking and would pull out all the stops.

Ves followed up this thread with his real question. "Verle informed me that I might be reassigned at that point. Something about my talents being wasted in a rearguard unit. The only thing that's nagging me is that he's being too coy about it. He simply won't say where they'll station me next. Can any of you help me out?"

The logistics officer and the two chiefs looked at each other. The familiar behavior indicated to Ves that they weren't ignorant about the matter.

Eventually, the chief engineer spoke up. "I think we have a good idea where you are heading next. The problem is that they're rather prissy about confidentiality. They won't like it if they find out that we spilled the beans."

After that, they all shut their mouths like clamps. No matter how much Ves attempted to pry open their mouths, they took their duties seriously. This was too large of a secret for them to casually leak, even to a known friend like Ves.

"Alright, I get it." He sighed and gave up. He turned to another matter. "What do you think about hitting the Masters of Combat?"

"I don't like it." Chief Haine responded. "Sure, they're Vesians, but the major wants to hit them after we've taken only a single step away from the Harkensen System. That's practically taunting the Reinaldans in front of their doorstep!"

Chief Avanaeon agreed with the chief technician. "The Masters of Combat aren't pushovers. While it's true that we can crush them if we combine our forces with Lydia's Swordmaidens, can those witches be trusted? They're pirates, after all. Who's to say they aren't already in bed with the Masters of Combat, and are just waiting for us to walk into their trap?"

"Lydia's Swordmaidens don't have many betrayals on their record." Ves added. "While they aren't the most trustworthy bunch, I don't think they're willing to double-cross a military mech regiment."

He had read through their history, and while the records were very spotty, they had a history of cultivating long-term relationships. They couldn't have survived so long in the frontier without befriending some of the locals.

Lieutenant Commander Soapstone added in her own thoughts. "The Masters of Combat will get in our way sooner or later. They need to be wiped out regardless of what everybody thinks."

Out of everyone in the lounge, Ves knew for certain that Soapstone was a part of the inner circle. Only she knew for sure why her superior insisted on attacking the Venidsan mercenary corps.

"Even then, I can't imagine why Lydia's Swordmaidens are joining in." Chief Haine scratched her head. "As far as I know, they don't have any grudges with the Masters of Combat. While their gear is fairly expensive, they can earn more if they do their usual schtick of robbing treasure hunting expeditions."

Nobody could explain this questionable point. Nobody except Soapstone, the only insider among their gathering. "Lydia's Swordmaidens are serious about this alliance, and so are we. Our cooperation is quite extensive. They've already passed along critical information about the frontier to us. Without this intel, our task force could have easily blundered into a pirate stronghold or a sandman settlement.

The frontier was home to many dangers. While most pirates roamed the frontier independently, the most threatening ones reached a scale that wasn't any weaker than a small third-rate state like the Reinald Republic.

The alien sandmen formed another major threat to human intrusion. These silicate-based lifeforms were a pain to fight against. The worst part about them was that almost nobody earned a profit by fighting the sandmen. When their sand constructs blew apart, all they left were worthless sand particles.

"Have we secured any guarantees from the pirates that they won't betray us once we're out of civilized space?" Ves probed.

"No, but we don't need to. They need us just as much as we need them. All will be made clear in the future."

Ves heard what he wanted. He received another clue that matched with his guesses. He quietly sighed to himself and looked at the game projected by the table. The senior officials backing the outfits aiming to retrieve the life-prolonging medicines must have been playing their own version of Pirate Empires.

Instead of playing with virtual lives, they played with actual human lives.

Chapter 628

The Vandal fleet emerged at the edge of the Remoss System in a flash. FTL transitions couldn't be hidden because the entries rippled through gravitic space.

"Pulse the surrounding space." Major Verle ordered with force. "Launch patrol mechs and secure the perimeter. If there's anything hiding nearby, I want to find it out yesterday!"

"Yes, sir!"

The officer in charge of sensors implemented a pre-planned arrangement. As the starships of the task force recovered from their stint in FTL travel, a large number of Inheritors launched from their hangar bays.

Some of them hadn't been worked on since the Vandals got them back from the repair businesses. The mech technicians only had time to upgrade the sensor arrays of only a handful of Inheritors.

Still, this small change was more than enough to make a difference.

"We've detected a cold sensor pod several light-seconds in-system!"

"Shoot it down!"

"Sir, considering its position, the sensor pod likely belongs to the local garrison fleet."

"Shoot it down regardless." Major Verle repeated, throwing a menacing glare at the sensor officer for doubting him. "The Reinaldans are as dirty as anyone. I don't want anyone receiving up-to-date telemetry on our movements."

A precise laser took out the distant sensor pod. Though it was challenging to destroy something so far away when it moved, the sensor pod possessed no mobility at all. It was as immobile as a floating piece of rock orbiting around the sun, so its trajectory was a cinch to predict.

A few more seconds went by as the sensors of the ships and mechs started to resolve the vicinity in an expanding range.

"We've detected several unknown fleets! One has been identified as the Masters of Combat! The other is broadcasting their identity as Lydia's Swordmaidens. The third fleet claims to belong to the Caged!"

They expected the first two fleets. They did not expect the presence of the Caged!

"That Roppongan gang!" Verle shouted as he slammed his fist against his armrest. "Tactical, analyze their movements. Tell me why they are here!"

When the various outfits involved in assaulting the spaceport departed from the Harkensen System, they supposedly split in every direction. Now, four of the outfits involved had coincidentally ended up in the Remoss System!

Worse, because they all jumped from the same starting point and emerged at the same exit point, every fleet was a stone's throw away from each other. While that still amounted to countless kilometers in absolute terms, it only took a couple of hours to close the distance, and that was if one fleet tried their best to run away.

Ves watched on from his observation seat in the command center. The amount of aid he could offer at this point was limited, but the preparations he drafted beforehand had already shown their fruits. At this point, his analyses of the enemy mechs would be of limited use, since the Masters of Combat had a tendency to employ high-quality mechs with all-encompassing defenses.

Mech designers and mech technicians contributed as much to a battle as mech pilots. The former two made a difference before the battle even started. The latter contributed to victory once the fighting commenced.

Therefore, even if his presence wasn't entirely useful, Ves still earned the right to witness the battle from the command center.

Still, the presence of the Caged might change all of that. While the Vandals had done their homework on the Masters of Combat, they couldn't say the same for the Caged. Ves immediately pulled up every scrap of readily available intelligence on the gang.

The limited number of reports in the central database depicted them as a major criminal influence in the Roppo Principality. The governments of Roppo and Reinald maintained close ties to each other because they were both part of the Frozen Leaf Alliance. However, the same could not be said of their criminal elements.

In general, Reinald's gangs held a lot of sway in the surrounding region. The massive amount of commerce and trade in Reinald had empowered the gangs and pirates overseeing the underground markets. This turned them into bullies who weren't afraid to throw their weight around.

This little fact immediately explained why the Roppongan fleet adopted a defensive position against the Reinald-backed Swordmaidens. The pair's backers might have been allies in public, but their outfits were definitely rivals.

The communications officer spoke up. "Commander Lydia is hailing our ship! Do you wish to accept her comm request, sir?"

Major Verle sighed. "Accept her hail but put it on my console. I'll be taking this call in private."

A privacy screen emerged around the major's command chair. Nobody could eavesdrop on their conversation unless they brought a high-tech listening device.

Ves really wanted to hear what the two commanders had to say to each other. Obviously, they hadn't expected the Caged to tag along.

He dove back into the archives and tried to figure out what their mech doctrine looked like. As a gang that held a lot of territory in the Principality, they put more emphasis on their landbound mechs than their spaceborn mechs. However, they hadn't neglected the latter to a great extent.

Whereas the Masters of Combat went all-in on beefy armored mechs, the Roppongans opted to base their spaceborn mech doctrine around the concept of hit-and-run. They employed large numbers of long and medium-ranged mechs that might not be very tough, but could always be counted upon to move quickly in space.

"Looking at it another way, the Masters of Combat have imitated Venidse's mech doctrine, while the Caged have taken a page off Klein's mech doctrine."

The Klein Duchy's cowardly mech legions may have been a laughing stock in the Kingdom, they were still hell to fight against in certain situations. Lydia's Swordmaidens, the Flagrant Vandals' erstwhile allies, invested most of their resources into fielding melee mechs.

Even an idiot could tell that throwing melee mechs against a prepared force of ranged mechs was a bad idea. The Swordmaidens risked losing at least half their mechs before their first swordsman mechs managed to close in. Worst of all, the Caged had gained a lot of experience in kiting around their enemies in circles.

The fighting style refined by the Caged was an anathema to the honor-obsessed Roppongans. Many Roppongan elites dedicated their training to perfecting their ability to wield mech-sized melee weapons. Among these armaments, mastering the sword was the perennial favorite.

This meant that the Caged possessed a lot of experience in countering swordsman mechs. As a criminal gang with a lot of contradictions with rival Roppongans, it was practically mandatory for them to develop means to cope against melee mechs. As much of their members were made up of Roppongans who rebelled against the stifling society of their state, they took up ranged mechs without any hesitation.

Ves frowned a bit. "The Masters of Combat's mech doctrine counters the mech doctrine of the Flagrant Vandals. The usual fighting style of Lydia's Swordmaidens won't work against the methods of the Caged."

This was an awful situation to be in. Ves had experienced the consequences of a poor matchup several times. Just thinking about the battle against several mech companies of the Frosty Meteors had shown how costly such a battle could play out for the disadvantaged side.

"We can only count on other advantages if we want to win."

After a brief period of time, Major Verle finished his little talk with Commander Lydia. The projection of the female pirate commander swept her view throughout the Shield of Hispania's entire command center before winking out.

"Commander Lydia has informed me that the Caged are 'old friends' with her Swordmaidens." He informed the crew. "While neither of us have received any indication that the Caged have come an understanding with the Masters of Combat, we should assume the worst. Unless directed otherwise, we will treat the fleet from the Caged as hostiles."

On the central plot of the local space, the icons depicting the ships from the Caged took on an ominous red shade.

Right now, the random spread after emerging out of FTL had flung every fleet at least an hour away from each other. None of the fleets were close enough to each other to launch a surprise attack. If any fleet held any hostile intentions, they first needed to move closer to their targets. Anyone could see the attack with hours to spare.

"Sir, our sensors have detected movement from the Masters of Combat and the Caged! They are converging upon each other while widening the distance from us and the Swordsmaiden fleet!"

It would take hours to catch up to a fleeing opponents, but it took much less time for two fleets to meet each other! The Vandals and the Swordmaidens could never stop their enemies from teaming up in time!

Major Verle was already resigned to this outcome. "Please inform Captain Rakeshir to get our butts moving as well. Since the Masters of Combat and the Caged have decided to combine their forces, let us do the same with the Swordmaidens. We can make our next moves from there."

The Shield of Hispania and the other ships of the Vandals rumbled as their thrusters came to life. They made their best speed over to the ships of the Swordsmaidens. This wouldn't take too much time.

Right now, the balance of power had tipped towards their opponents. The Flagrant Vandals initially traveled to the Remoss System in order to catch up to the Masters of Combat. They dragged in Lydia's Swordmaidens to guarantee a victory, only to see their advantage evaporate now that the Masters of Combat had called up a buddy as well.

"Mr. Larkinson, I trust you have studied the force composition of the Caged. Tell me what we are facing and explain the odds of winning against the combined hostile force."

Ves took a moment to gather up his answer. He didn't spend nearly enough time on figuring out what made the Caged tick, but right now they weren't exactly swimming in time.

"The Caged fight like the Klein mech legions. They predominantly field swift and agile ranged mechs that can take out their opponents from a distance. This goes for both their spaceborn and landbound mech contingent, captain."

He quickly explained the background behind this development, making it clear that the Caged did not fight like an orthodox Roppongan mech outfit. Many Vandals needed to wrap their minds around this concept, because the mech pilots of the Roppo Principality had gained a stereotype of being obsessed with swords.

"I see." Verle frowned. He understood the disadvantages facing the Swordmaidens better than anyone among the Vandals. "Leaving out the Swordmaidens and the Masters of Combat, how do you judge our chances against the Caged?"

"The news isn't all that bad, sir." Ves released a rare smile. They all needed to hear some good news. "The mech pilots from the Caged possess a lot of enthusiasm, but they are hardly elites. Similar to the members of other gangs, the average skill level among the mech pilots of the Caged is lower than average. Even if they are a force to be reckoned with in their home state, skilled mech pilots can pursue better career opportunities. In short, most of their mechs consists of spaceborn frontline mechs."

In other words, the mech pilots of the Caged wage their battles in the most basic mech models imaginable. While frontline mechs could be deadly in the right circumstances, their fixed weaponry and cheap construction meant that they exhibited poor flexibility.

"The mechs of the Caged are fast. At their most optimal states, they can outrun our Hellcats and our other medium mech models." Ves continued. "Yet even their lightest mechs can't outrun our Inheritor mechs. Our skirmishers can close the distance at a fairly good pace, though they'll have to endure several minutes of accurate laser fire. As a force based around long and medium-ranged supremacy, they rely mostly on lasers, which isn't as effective in punching through the armor of an Inheritor mech as kinetic or ballistic rounds."

Some of the Vandals in the command center smiled. As long as the Vandals faced the Caged, they could use their inherent advantages to negate their threat against the Swordmaidens.

All they needed to do was to maneuver their elements to make this favorable matchup possible.

Chapter 629

The Flagrant Vandals calmed down after being flustered by the unexpected presence of the Caged. The infamous gang with a reputation as powerful as the Blood Claws on Bentheim was a force to be reckoned with. Their subtle opposition against Roppo's rigid and hierarchical culture had forged them into capable warriors.

If Ves listed out the combat strengths of all four fleets in the Remoss System, then the Flagrant Vandals still possessed an absolute advantage. At their root, the task force was detached from a military mech regiment, which utilized better technologies, higher quality mechs, disciplined mech pilots and brought more forces.

Even if they hadn't brought their entire mech regiment, even if they lost half their mech pilots due to attrition, their strength was simply incomparable to any private outfit.

The Vandals possessed another advantage. Unlike the other three outfits, they had been raised as a mixed combat force, but their emphasis lay on their spaceborn assets. They possessed abundant battle experience in space and didn't shy away from increasing their advantage in this area.

Their battle credentials had also been strengthened through their recent engagements. Though they lost a lot of mechs and mech pilots, the survivors gained valuable experience on how to tackle a tough defense-oriented mech force.

Lydia's Swordmaidens were robbers masquerading as pirates. Though they possessed some tricks when it came to spaceborn combat, most of their focus lay in their landbound assets. The Vandals valued the Swordmaidens for their landbound fighting capability, but placed modest expectations on their ability to fight in space.

Both the Masters of Combat and the Caged excelled in landbound battles as well. Naturally, they possessed enough spaceborn mechs to safeguard their fleets, but their bias in favor of landbound combat worked against them now that the nearest terrestrial planet or moon was at light-hours away.

"Now that we've linked up with the Swordmaiden fleet, we will be engaging the Masters of Combat and the Caged in combat. Ready yourselves for battle!" Major Verle announced.

The Vandals appeared ambivalent at this aggressive move. The higher ups who attended the briefing beforehand all supported ganging up on the Masters of Combat with the help of the Swordmaidens. With an overwhelming number of ships and mechs, they could easily defeat the Vesian mercenary corps without paying a bloody price.

That equation changed with the surprise appearance of the Caged. The gang from Roppo might not possess any advantages, but just the fact that they could throw a bunch of mechs on the battlefield posed a significant hindrance to the Vandals.

The Vandals expected to win a battle for free. Now that they faced the prospect of a slightly more even fight, some of the Vandals became discontented. Opportunism and exploiting weaknesses had been baked into their DNA. The upcoming battle threw them out of their element.

Yet Major Verle was not yet done. He had been holding a private discussion with Commander Lydia of the Swordmaidens for several minutes. Behind the privacy screen, they did more than hash out their strategies.

The mech major turned to his communications officer. "Hail the flagship of the Caged fleet. Make it a tightbeam and do your best to hide it from outside observers."

"Sir, the enemy ships are following a constant evasion pattern. At our current distance, the beam won't hold."

Verle waved the problem away. "Just make it clear to their sub-boss that we want to speak to him. He should listen to what we have to say."

The Shield of Hispania soon cast out an invisible tightbeam that resembled a laser. It traveled forth at lightspeed and briefly brushed against the hull of the Severed Tail, the flagship of the Caged fleet.

Ordinarily, if a ship was being pinged by a laser beam, the vessel in question would do everything possible to move away. Powerful laser weapons calibrated for extreme-range fire could stretch across light-seconds and inflict measurable damage, but the stupendous range also made it ridiculously easy to dodge the beams.

In general, it was considered a waste of time to pelt an enemy fleet with lasers at this distance. The crucial seconds of delay meant that the mechs who fired their laser weapons basically had to guess the evasion pattern of their targets.

The Severed Tail initially took the low-powered tightbeam as a laser strike, so she immediately intensified her evasion efforts. The surrounding ships of the Caged followed suit, afraid that they would be the next ones being targeted.

The ships of the Caged might not boast the best armor, but their mobility was better than average. Their agile ships gracefully weaved in every direction, making it impossible to hit them with an extreme-range beam for more than a fraction of a second.

The Shield of Hispania persisted nonetheless. The gunnery officer, normally in charge of managing the Akkara heavy mechs when slotted into the bunkers across the hulls of their ships, personally took over control over the tightbeam and used his best judgement to paint it against the Severed Tail.

After a minute of intermittent hits, the Severed Tail finally did something other than attempting to dodge the beam. The entire Caged fleet ceased their high-intensity maneuvers to conserve their fuel supply and prevent the build-up of excessive heat. While their ships still followed a dodging pattern, they at least wouldn't be running on fumes.

"Sir! We've received an unknown signal!" The communications officer spoke up again. "The Severed Tail has transmitted a burst of encrypted data to us!"

Major Verle smirked. He pressed a few buttons on his projected console. "I've just sent you the encryption key."

When the Vandals sent out a tightbeam to the Severed Tail, they demanded the utmost amount of prudence. Any reply had to come in the form of an encrypted burst. If anyone was listening in on their exchange, the encryption should at least delay their eavesdropping for a couple of hours.

That was enough time to get things done.

Once the communications officer unlocked the data, he recognized its contents. "Sir, the data describes an evasion pattern!"

The Caged transmitted the mathematical formula of their own evasion pattern! Normally, this was top secret information that was only shared among a single fleet to coordinate their movements. Leaking it to an outsider could potentially be disastrous.

Now that the gunnery officer received the data, he loaded it into the targeting system and activated the tightbeam transmission. This time, the beam unerringly landed upon the hull of the Severed Tail. The transceivers of the ship read the transmission and sent out their own tightbeam transmission.

A continuous connection formed between the two vessels. Though the Vandals and the Caged went through a lot of trouble to establish this channel, it was almost absolutely secure.

While it was easier to establish a channel through their quantum entanglement nodes, this form of communication was not entirely secure. The biggest problem was that it went through too many stops. If the subject of their conversation leaked at any stage, this opportunity would be wasted.

A lower-tech tightbeam limited to a couple of isolated systems aboard both flagships was much easier to control. A proper pair of tightbeams should be invisible to any other observers out the way.

A projection appeared in front of Major Verle's face. This time, he didn't bother erecting a privacy screen.

A weathered man's face looked straight at Major Verle's face. "Flagrant Vandals. I've heard much about you. I did not expect to see you again so soon."

"I am Major Quinlist Verle. Who am I speaking to?"

Ves almost spurted his breath. So his first name was Quinlist? No wonder nobody called him by his first name! Out of every Rubarthan-style name he had heard so far, Quinlist was at the top of the silly list!

Nevertheless, the commander of the Caged fleet did not display any amusement. Due to the distance involved, a delay of several seconds ensued as the tightbeam signals had to travel several seconds back and forth.

"My name is Alain Scornburned. I am the sub-boss of this fleet."

"Can you speak on behalf of the Caged?"

Scornburned growled. "My control over my forces is complete. There is nothing holding me back. Not even my boss will countermand my decisions on the field."

The command structure of the Caged was fairly loose compared to other Roppongan organizations. That didn't mean that anarchy reigned among their ranks, but the sub-bosses possessed enough autonomy to deviate from their directives.

The middle management of the Caged expected nothing less. If the higher ups kept a tight grip on power, then they would have proven themselves to be no better than the orthodox Roppongans.

"You know what I'm here for, Scornburned. Our goal is to annihilate the Masters of Combat. Hitching your battle wagons to a soon-to-be-deceased mercenary corps is a waste of time and resources. With or without you, we're not letting the Masters of Combat leave the Remoss System intact."

Those powerful words immediately set the tone in this negotiation, for that was what the Vandals had aimed for from the start. No matter what reasons the Caged may have to ally themselves with the Vesians, their current situation didn't seem wonderful.

Nonetheless, the sub-boss did not yield in front of the Vandals. "The Caged have made a pact with the Masters of Combat. We do not break our agreements lightly. Your efforts at dividing us is useless."

Both sides were basically posturing. An invisible war of words and implicit meanings was being waged between the two.

Verle eventually smirked after staring down the sub-boss for a few seconds. "Let me tell you what will happen if you won't buzz off. The Swordmaidens and us will catch up to the lumbering tubs of metals the Masters of Combat call their ships in an hour or two. We both know their acceleration is abysmal. Even if your fleet predominantly consists of swift and agile light carriers, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. The only way you can combine your strengths is to move as one, and that entails moving as slow as their heaviest ship."

"We can split off from the Masters of Combat and circle around the Masters of Combat."

"If you dare to do so, we'll send out our fastest mechs to chase down your forces first. Your mechs and ships lack the resilience of the Masters of Combat. Though you're not our primary target, I don't mind it if I have to clean you up first."

Scornburned did not appear pleased. It was true that the Caged was in an awful position. Facing a superior enemy force, the only way the Caged could get the better of their opponents was to leverage their mobility. Yet the necessity of partnering up with the Masters of Combat meant that their crucial advantage in this aspect couldn't be unleashed!

"In fact, if you don't accept my suggestion, I can promise you our forces will focus our firepower on your mechs over those of your already-doomed allies. It will take a while to crack the shells of their mechs, but the mechs of the Caged aren't as difficult to break."

"Don't underestimate our forces." Sub-boss Scornburned replied with a glowered face. "Anything can happen in a battle. Combining our long-ranged firepower with the defensive prowess of the Masters of Combat is a match made in heaven."

Their combination sounded good, but the problem was that it gained the most effect on land. In space, the huge distances and the three-dimensional nature of the battlefield meant that the fragile ranged mechs of the Caged wouldn't be hard to reach.

"You know that won't help you in the end. Our patience is wearing thin, sub-boss. This is our last offer. Step aside and make your way out of this star system. We didn't come here to stomp you, but we will if it's convenient."

Verle grinned at the sub-boss of the caged. For a moment, Scornburned weighed possibility of yielding in front of the Vandals and the Swordmaidens. Nobody knew what went on in his mind, including his fellow Caged.

Eventually, he came to a decision. "The Caged does not yield in front of a couple of words! We have never shied away from combat, and if we continued to yield in front of a superior force, how can we call ourselves Roppongans?! Say no more, major. We fight! See you on the battlefield!"

The feed cut off, leaving the command center with disappointed Vandals. Nobody doubted their eventual victory, but going through two outfits instead of one would lead to greater losses than anticipated.

Still, even though the sub-boss answered with a rejection, Verle didn't appear to be disappointed. If anything, his grin had widened. "Sub-boss Scornburned was playing to his own crowd. They'll fight. That can't be avoided. Yet whether they will stay is another matter."

Chapter 630

The Flagrant Vandals had multiple reasons to force a battle at this time. However, the rank-and-file had no clue. If anything, they would rather let the Masters of Combat go now that the mechs of he Caged backed them up.

Yet turning back now meant that the Vandals might be facing the full might of their formidable landbound forces in the future. To prevent such an awful outcome, the Vandals truly had no choice but to go through with their aggressive intentions.

Ves reflected on the conversation he just witnessed. Major Verle appeared to have failed in his attempt to intimidate the Caged. Yet Verle's reminder informed them that there was more to the conversation than what appeared on the surface.

First, Sub-boss Scornburned indirectly informed them of a couple of crucial points. They were under orders to cooperate, and couldn't simply place them aside in order to ensure their survival. Second, they were under the obligation to put up a fight. Running without unleashing a single shot would certainly lead to backlash. Scornburned couldn't afford to burn his bridges with his organization.

"Had the two made some sort of implicit agreement?"

Ves got the sense that the two came to a compromise. Would the Caged stab the Masters of Combat in the back? Would they simply exchange a couple of shots and split from their ally? Or did Ves just imagined something that wasn't there?

He found it difficult to make a confident prediction of what was about to ensue. If there was anything he had learned from watching the Vandals to go war, it was that something went wrong in every battle.

"The Masters of Combat aren't pushovers. They can do a lot of damage before they go down."

The Frosty Meteors traumatized the Flagrant Vandals a few months ago. The scars from that battle had never faded. Facing a mercenary corps from the same duchy and the same mech doctrine opened up all of those scars.

Ves realized that the Vandals needed to overcome this challenge. Their rest and recuperation in Harkensen had been interrupted. Many Vandals that had been stuck on Harkensen I were unenthusiastic about fighting another battle.

They lacked confidence in themselves.

Therefore, one of the reasons Verle prioritized this battle was because he saw it as a way to heal everyone's scars and restore their confident demeanor.

Over the next hour, Ves and the higher ups planned out their strategies and tactics according to the information they had on hand. Commander Lydia of the Swordmaidens brought in her own cadre to help with the planning.

Right now, they had plenty of time before the fleets came into battle range. The ships of the Masters of Combat and the Caged had engaged their sub-light propulsion and attempted to accelerate away from the Vandals and the Swordmaidens.

Of course, they were only delaying the inevitable. The best the lumbering Vesian ships could do was to buy more time for them to prepare their own plans.

The Swordmaiden officers all possessed a wild quality that couldn't be hidden through the projectors. While the Vandal officers reeked of professionalism, the strong and unsophisticated Swordmaiden officers didn't look out of place in the frontier.

"Lydia recruits most of her Swordmaidens from the frontier." A Vandal officer quietly informed his fellow Vandals. "She routinely visits the small and isolated settlements among the untamed stars and picks up stray young girls who aren't resigned to becoming breeding objects."

In civilized space, gender inequality was a thing of the past. The differences that separated men and women had been solved by technology. A female footsoldier was just as deadly in battle as a male footsoldier. When it came to mech pilots, their mental and physiological differences had a minimal effect on their combat effectiveness.

These rules didn't necessarily apply in the frontier. The primitive settlements were deficient in development. Setting up a facility that hosted artificial wombs was beyond their means, so women had to stay home and insure the continuation of the next generation, sometimes under duress.

"The frontier isn't a pleasant place to live, especially to women."

According to the intelligence Ves had accessed, Lydia's Swordmaidens offered a way out to the more rebellious and adventurous young girls. While Commander Lydia didn't have the means to force the settlements to halt their uncivilized practices, she could at least take advantage of the situation.

Every frontier girl that Lydia inducted into her gang became fanatically loyal to her. Ves recognized the similarities between Lydia's recruitment practices and Chief Haine's favorite strategy in Pirate Empires.

"They both build their organization around themselves. They demand absolute loyalty from their subordinates."

One of the most precious resources in the galaxy was loyalty. All the money in the world couldn't necessarily buy the dedication of another person. Humans were emotional and irrational, and did not necessarily behave as predicted.

Grooming those that sought salvation from young was one of the best ways to raise a completely loyal force. Though it took a lot of time, Ves had to hand it to Lydia. Her investment had definitely paid off, seeing that she grew her Swordmaidens into a formidable force in the frontier.

"All of these analyses are well and good, but at the end of the day we need to smash them into pieces!" The middle-aged woman spoke. Lydia may have aged past her prime, but her athletic body and striped grey-and-black hair conveyed a ferocious image. Her Amazon-like appearance alone deterred most people in the frontier from starting any trouble. "Since you Vandals are shaking in your boots whenever you think about the Masters of Combat, leave their thick mechs to us. My Swordmaidens will carve out their mech pilots from their protective shells."

"Commander Lydia, we don't wish to doubt your capabilities, but the Masters of Combat can inflict a ruinous amount of damage to us." Major Verle replied. "Their mechs are tough to fell without committing our mechs, but if we do so the ranged mechs of the Caged will box us in from the flanks."

"What're you suggesting, then?"

"Ignore the Masters of Combat for now and chase down the mechs of the Caged."

"That won't work. They'll turtle behind the Masters of Combat. We'll have to get through the Vesians in order to strike at the Roppongans, which puts us back to the beginning. We might as well aim at the Masters of Combat first."

The Vandals disagreed. If they didn't put any pressure on the Roppongans, they would be free to leverage their superior firepower. Getting pelted by an unending stream of lasers was not a pleasant experience.

It made no sense to throw their mechs to a force whose best aspect was defence. While they possessed a fair amount of firepower, their first emphasis meant they had made a lot of tradeoffs that had weakened their offensive firepower.

On the other hand, the ranged mechs of the Caged possessed a lot of offensive power but possessed few defenses. They mainly relied on their mobility to evade attacks, but that wouldn't help them very much if the enemy closed into knife-fighting range.

"There are ways to force them away from the Masters of Combat." Verle said. "We can play the long game. Though the mechs of the Caged are deadly at range, they haven't brought too many spaceborn mechs."

Major Verle proposed a battle plan that demanded patience. Though the Swordmaidens showed some dissatisfaction, Commander Lydia eventually agreed to the plan. If she had an opportunity to minimize her losses, she would take it over the objection of her Swordmaidens.

"My Swordmaidens will follow your lead this time." She nodded before the projections of the Swordmaidens winked out.

An hour later, the two combined fleets had caught up to each other. The servicemen aboard the Shield of Hispania already started referring to the combined Vandal-Swordmaiden force as the Flagrant Swordmaidens.

As for the opposing force, the Vandals all wracked their minds for a suitable moniker and eventually settled on calling them the Caged Masters.

Ves had a laugh when he heard those names. Some of the servicement must have been truly bored when they came up with those shorthands.

Still, the time for jokes was over as the mech forces came into fighting range. Though not all of the ships of the Flagrant Swordmaidens moved very fast, they had simply decided to split their ship assets in two.

The combat fleet would surge forward at their best acceleration in order to catch up to their prey.

The support fleet which consisted of all of their transport ships and logistics ships was left behind with a number of guard mechs to keep them safe.

It wasn't ideal, but cutting away their slowest vessels was the only way the Flagrant Swordmaidens could catch up to the Caged Masters without ruinously overloading their sublight propulsion.

The Masters of Combat weren't stupid. They could do the math like anyone else, and they quickly figured out that they couldn't avoid this battle if they ran away at normal acceleration. The First Master who headed the Masters of Combat knew his chances of victory was low at this moment, so he decisively chose to overload the engines and thrusters of his ships.

This ruinous decision would wreck the propulsion of his ships and force them into months of repair work if they ever made it out. Yet that was better than the prospect of total annihilation.

The First Master also made the cunning decision to split off his non-combat vessels in their own support fleet. The useless transports and logistics ships flew off in another direction, baiting the Flagrant Swordmaidens into diverting their forces.

Major Verle and Commander Lydia didn't take the bait. The key to destroying the Caged Masters was to wipe out their combat forces. Crushing their support ships might inconvenience them a lot, but they could easily acquire more supplies and support ships.

The combat fleet of the Flagrant Swordmaidens didn't bother to overload their own propulsion. Most of their ships were still able to keep up!

Now that they had entered effective combat range, the mechs of the Caged made their first move. Their laser cannons and rifles pelted the Flagrant Swordmaidens with surprisingly accurate aim!

They unleashed most of their firepower on the slower and heavier mechs of the Flagrant Swordmaidens. They ignored the ships because they possessed too much armor.

The medium mechs of the Vandals took the brunt of the offensive.

As for the Swordmaidens, their melee mechs remained in their hangar bays. They wouldn't be able to play any role in a long-ranged firefight. Their time would come when the fleets closed in on each other, but for now the Swordmaidens only deployed their limited number of space knights and rifleman mechs.

"Put our combat carriers to the front." Verle commanded. "Inform Captain Rakeshir to offer up our heaviest armored combat carriers as cover. Since we recently fixed them up, it should be no problem for them to take a beating."

Captain Rakeshir aboard the Antecedent quickly called back. His projected face looked angrily at the mech officer. "Major, I highly advise you to reconsider your last order! Our combat carriers are not slabs of alloys for your mechs to hide behind! We need our armor to remain in good condition for the challenges that lay ahead."

"I will take your suggestion under advisement, but my decision stands. We cannot afford to risk the lives of our mech pilots at this point. Right now, their lives are more precious than plates of armor. You can always patch up your ships afterwards with metals mined from asteroids."

The captain looked pissed, but he had no way to fight back. In the greater scheme of things, the major had a point. They needed to conserve their mechs and mech pilots more than the armor of their combat carriers.

"Very well, sir. I'll relay the orders and move our combat carriers into position."

This decision might bite them back in the future, but Verle gladly accepted this possibility if it meant closing in on the Caged Masters without losing a quarter of their mechs.

Chapter 631

The combat carriers of the Vandal fleet had taken a beating from the Vesians over the course of several battles. Sending them to the repair yards of Harkensen III had done them a lot of good. Though they hadn't returned to their original condition, there was no question that they could take a beating.

The ranged mechs of the Caged and soon after the Masters of Combat tried their best to whittle down the incoming force of Vandals and Swordmaidens. The ranged Vandals mechs deployed in space didn't particularly excel in long-ranged combat. They half-heartedly fired their laser rifles at the distant enemies, and hit perhaps about one out of fifteen shots.

Those armed with ballistic weapons didn't even bother firing yet. Anything other than a railgun or a weapon that fired rounds that traveled at relativistic speeds had a chance of hitting the targets. However, that would soon change as the range between the two forces decreased.

The ranged mechs of the Caged and the Masters of Combat predominantly relied on laser weapons. The Caged went for accuracy while the Masters of Combat emphasized staying power. While some of their mechs were capable of firing shells or kinetic projectiles, their influence in the battle could be ignored.

The Vandal ships getting raked by long-ranged fire absorbed the laser beams like champions. The combat carriers spun around like a drill as they followed evasive patterns. This made it difficult for laser beams to penetrate through the armor plating and reach inside the compartments.

By spreading the damage around in this manner, the combat carriers with the thickest armor lasted several minutes against a sustained barrage from the Caged Masters. The only reason why this interval was so short was because the enemy deployed over three companies of ranged mechs.

"Our ships can't sustain this beating for long!" Captain Rakeshir said over the comm channel. The senior ship captain never forgave Major Verle after he ordered the carriers to be used as shields. "By the end of this battle, the cost of replacing the damaged armor plating will reach more than several billion credits! And that's if we assume we can afford to send our ships back to repair yards!"

The mech commander dismissed the complaints. "The price is worth it if we can injure the Caged and take out the Masters of Combat. Don't forget what we are fighting for, captain. Resources are meant to be used."

That put an end to Rakeshir's objections. The captain turned his attention to micromanaging the formation of the combat fleet.

Though Ves was not a specialist in ship maneuvers, their current formation wasn't hard to understand. Lydia's Swordmaidens needed to be protected. Their only combat carrier was their flagship, and the vessel happened to be an aged, second-hand rustbucket. The remainder of their vessels consisted of a mix of light carriers and converted cargo haulers.

In other words, tin cans in space. It wouldn't take the rifleman mechs of the Caged a very long time to burn through the scrap that posed as their armor plating.

Only the combat carriers of the Flagrant Vandals possessed the bulk to absorb all of the laser fire. They flew in front, each combat carrier taking up the vanguard position for a couple of minutes before falling back. This was a very clever arrangement as it was meant to handle the heat transferred through the laser beams.

Therefore, even if the battle looked as if the Vandals took a beating for no reason, the actual damage amounted to using up a lot of expensive armor plates

"The same can't be said for the Caged Masters." Ves shook his head.

He felt pity for the enemy for getting caught up in a battle where they were outclassed in almost every aspect. The Vandals basically bullied their opponents, having caught them when they were unable to display their specialization. No matter how strong they performed on land, no matter how many landbound mechs they could field, the Vandals would never fight a battle at an environment of their choosing.

The Vandal spaceborn mechs consisted of a mixed bag of mech models centered around a trio of internally developed mech models.

Right now, the Vandals put the Akkara heavy mechs on reserve. The landbound mechs had already slotted themselves into the bunkers placed along the hulls of the combat carriers. While their firepower was prodigious, their impact was best at close range.

Their other ranged mechs steadily put pressure on the thickly-armored mechs of the Masters of Combat. The Vandals couldn't get at the fragile mechs of the Caged once they decided to hide behind their bulk. However, the well-armored Masters of Combat mechs couldn't never outmatch a combat carrier in armor.

"The Venidsan mechs are straining against our barrage! Half-a-dozen mechs have already sustained heavy damage! They're pulling back from their formation!"

Ves inspected the sensor readings of the damaged mechs. He had already pulled up the mech model from the central database.

The mainstay mech model of the Masters of Combat consisted of Nyven Skrat multipurpose space knights. In general, any mech type with the multipurpose prefix was just a way of saying that it carried a mixture of weapons.

Similar to hybrid mechs that sought to marry several weapon systems in a single frame, these multipurpose mechs attempted to offer a high degree of flexibility on the battlefield. They didn't pop up that much in the galactic rim because technological, material and financial limitations prevented them from reaching their full potential. A minimal degree of investment was necessary to make them viable against single-purpose mech types.

"Evidently, the Masters of Combat ignored this rule."

The elite mercenary corps fielded the Nyven Skrats in great numbers. They took advantage of scale to simplify their logistics and unify their training.

The Nyven Skrats featured four different weapon systems: a sword and shield, a laser rifle, a warpick great for piercing armor and a pair of missile launchers embedded in the torso.

All of these options turned the Nyven Skrats into a souped-up hybrid with plenty of options that could react to many different situations. Only extremely well-rounded mech pilots would be able to pilot them proficiently. This didn't hinder the Venidsan mercenary corps as they predominantly recruited veterans from the Vesian mech legions.

The Masters of Combat had a reason to adopt this arrogant name. Each of their mech pilots were combat obsessed and spent most of their time on polishing their piloting skills.

However, a jack of all trades was a master of none. Compared to the dedicated rifleman mechs of the Caged, the Masters of Combat fell short in both power and accuracy. The Nyven Skrats also needed to conserve their energy levels, so they didn't fire as frequently as they should.

"Entering medium range in thirty seconds!"

Once the fleets entered medium range, the mechs armed with kinetic or ballistic weaponry entered effective range. Thirty seconds flitted by and a significant amount of Vandal mechs lent their fire to the constant barrage.

The battle formation of the Caged Masters physically buckled! Shell after shell exploded against the durable armor plating of the mechs. Powerful kinetic rounds impacted the Nyven Skrats with force, cracking their resilient shells and crippling some of their more vulnerable components when hit!

"Mr. Larkinson, what is your judgement on the Nyven Skrats?" Major Verle suddenly asked. "I want to hear options on how to defeat them as economically as possible."

Ves had studied the multipurpose space knight model just enough to come up with an analysis backed by his professional judgement.

"Sir, the Nyven Skrats sound impressive if you list out their capabilities, but when you dig into their construction, they are riddled with holes. Multipurpose mechs aren't very popular for a very good reason. The sheer amount of compromises in their design choices has led to many internal flaws. The only reason why the Nyven Skrats are viable is because they carry enough armor to qualify as knights."

"So only their outer shells are tough?"

"Correct, sir. While that doesn't make it easy to get at their weak points, our job is mostly done once we can accomplish. The Nyven Skrats feature two major weak points. First, the integrated missile launchers are placed in their pectorals. One heavy hit is enough to demolish the launchers, opening up a gaping hole that's uncomfortably close to the cockpit and the power reactor. If the Masters of Combat are using low-quality missiles, then there's a high chance we can set off their warheads as well, causing a chain reaction that can blow up a Nyven Skrat from a single lucky hit."

Ves thought this was unlikely to happen, as the Masters of Combat was aware of this weakness as well. If they deliberately chose to rely on this mech model, then they would have invested in more expensive missiles with plenty of safeguards against unwanted detonations.

"That's one weakness. What is the other one?"

"Their rear." Ves replied with a grin. "Their flight system isn't all that powerful. It's only merit is that it's plated with armor, but they can't withstand a determined attack. The rear armor of the Nyven Skrats is also thinner compared to a regular knight. Volume management is a very huge issue with this multipurpose mech. It has stuffed too many systems in a single frame and there's only so much you can stretch it out without going through the upper bounds of what defines a medium mech."

Though the Masters of Combat focus on defensive tactics, their most complex tactics demanded enough mobility to react to various situations. Speed, acceleration and agility generally benefited skilled mech pilots more because they were able to leverage these advantages a lot better than lesser mech pilots.

Major Verle mulled on what Ves had passed on. "Very well. Attacking them from the front and rear is sufficient."

"Their armor is highly resilient against both laser weapons and ballistic weapons. Melee weapons can carve through the weak points of their armor, but multiple attacks may be needed to punch through, sir."

For now, the Vandals hadn't managed to wreck more than a handful of Nyven Skrats. Even at medium range, the mechs put forward their resilient tower shields and let them take the brunt of the incoming fire.

The shields didn't last very long against sustained volleys, but the most unnerving thing about the Masters of Combat was that they brought spares!

Verle grunted in annoyance. "The Nyven Skrats are impervious from the front. A flanking force is needed to pressure the Masters of Combat from the rear."

With the fleets coming ever closer, the firefight in space heated up. By now, he judged that the combat carriers had served their purpose. It wasn't worth it to risk greater damage than a couple of scorched and molten armor plates. The Vandal fleet pulled back a bit while they deployed their full complement of spaceborn mechs.

The Swordmaidens followed suit. With both fleets putting out their full might, they accelerated ahead and lessened the distance in rapid tempo!

Ves did not recognize the mech model utilized by the Swordmaidens. Neither the central database or the galactic net contained a record that mentioned anything similar to the spaceborn swordsman mechs racing towards the enemy!

"Do the Swordmaidens have a mech designer?"

Ves instantly recognized the homebrew quality of their swordsman mechs. Some of their parts looked crude, while their overall level performance indicated that the quality of their components was rather inconsistent.

Despite all these flaws, the Swordmaiden mechs did have one thing going for them. They were fast. Really fast. In fact, all of their swordsman mechs mounted powerful single-use boosters on their backs. Somehow the boosters managed to work in harmony with their flight systems, allowing the mechs to accelerate in space to the very limits of their inertial dampeners.

"Commander Lydia!" Major Verle composed a message to their partner. "We did not agree for the Swordmaidens to advance ahead of our mechs! We had a plan!"

The Swordmaidens ignored his plea and continued surging forward! Ves figured this wouldn't be the last time the Swordmaidens followed their instincts rather than their orders.

Chapter 632

Willful pirate mech pilots aside, the Swordmaiden mechs that had left the Vandal mechs in the dust accelerated extremely fast. The booster packs mounted to their rear must have put a heavy amount of pressure on the mech frame, yet they all somehow managed to hold together. That took skill. Not any mech designer could produce a mech that could withstand these forces.

"The Swordmaiden mech designers are pretty good." Ves softly muttered. His eyes penetrated through the design and recognized it as a collaboration work. "This spaceborn swordsman mech design combines multiple specialties in a single frame."

Though it fell short in many aspects, when it came to its strengths, it could truly compete against proper commercial mech models. This was not some amateur work from a bunch of inexperienced Novices.

He sent out a data request to the Swordmaiden flagship. A couple of seconds later, his control panel displayed a very brief spec sheet of what the Swordmaidens called the Misty Slasher.

"Fast and powerful!"

The spec sheet confirmed most of the guesses that Ves had made about the design. The Misty Slasher was designed as a peak performance mech. It was capable of delivering a powerful burst of performance, excelling in both mobility and offensive power. Their booster packs and oversized flight systems allowed them to maneuver fast in space while their huge broadswords allowed them to overpower most defenses through sheer brute force!

Though these mechs didn't have the staying power to last more than half an hour in a high-intensity battle, most spaceborn battles in the frontier never lasted that long. Only rarely would pirates become engulfed in a lengthy battle or a long campaign.

The Misty Slashers happened to excel in short skirmishes! While the battle taking place at this very moment went beyond a simple skirmish, for the moment they possessed a definite advantage!

The rifleman mechs of the Caged instantly split off from the mechs of the Masters of Combat and tried to widen the distance. The thin and agile mechs moved faster than the Misty Slashers if they hadn't activated their boosters. However, the latter still stood a chance of catching as long as they didn't run out of fuel for their boosters.

"Commander Lydia! Your mechs are focusing on the wrong target! We agreed to take out the rifleman mechs first!"

"My apologies, major. Commander Lydia has just deployed in the field."

Major Verle growled. Though the Vandals treated the Swordmaidens as an equal partner in this teamup, the truth was that they were very different mech outfits. Both of them maintained very different standards of discipline!

A more resplendent spaceborn swordsman mech emerged from the bowels of the Swordmaiden flagship! Commander Lydia herself had entered the battlefield! Ves quickly figured out that Lydia's mech was a custom job. It carried over the same principles of the Misty Slasher, but performed much better as it made use of much more expensive exotics.

"That's basically throwing money at the mech to forcefully uplift its performance!"

This was considered to be a wasteful exercise. Design choices that made sense with cheaper materials might not be the most efficient solutions when replaced with higher quality materials. Support beams didn't need to be as thick, and armor plating can be thinner as well. The weight distribution of the mech had shifted its balance and other properties.

Basically, Ves thought it was better if Commander Lydia piloted a mech that was designed to be expensive from the start.

Nonetheless, these gripes did not detract from the custom Misty Slasher's excellent performance. Its supercharged boosters closed the distance to the enemy mechs more than twice as fast as the regular Misty Slashers! It descended on the ranks from the Masters of Combat and stabbed forward with the full force of its momentum behind the blow!

The Nyven Skrat in the way sensed the threat and opened its launcher ports. A small volley of rockets whipped from the chest launchers and impacted the custom mech as it charged with indomitable courage!

"Too weak!" Lydia howled. The madness that made her such a force to be reckoned with in the frontier came to the fore. "Come! Baptise my mech!"

The rockets impacted her mech, causing its frontal armor to crack. Nonetheless, only the uppermost layer had been affected. Her mech continued to boost forward without any sign of stopping!

A huge soundless impact scarred the Nyven Skrat in the way! Lydia's broadsword ran straight through the heavy chest armor of the Masters of Combat mech. With a hefty jerk, the sword sliced its way out of the chest, conveniently gouging the broken mech until it became unrecoverable.

The initial stab had been precise enough to pierce through the cockpit. The mech didn't have the time to offer any resistance before its mech pilot bought the farm.

The other Swordmaiden mechs weren't able to replicate Lydia's feat, but their heavy broadswords posed a very real threat to the Nyven Skrats. The multipurpose mechs weren't able to utilize laser rifles at this range, and they had already emptied out their missile launchers at the initial stage. Though the missiles and rockets took out a handful of unlucky Swordmaidens, the rest of them weathered the barrange and began to engage the Masters of Combat in melee!

Both the Swordmaidens and the Masters of Combat were proficient in melee. The mechs belonging to the latter outfit predominantly utilized their swords and shields, recognizing that they needed to depend on their tower shields to withstand the heavy sword blows of the pirate mechs.

Lacking in both mobility and reach, the Nyven Skrats did not fare well against the Misty Slashers. In general, swordsman mechs predominantly countered knight-type mechs because their advantages allowed them to strike at the weak points of the sluggish knights.

Numerous Swordmaidens grouped up and focused their offensive on a designated Nyven Skrat. The multipurpose knight was able to fend off the Misty Slasher hacking mindlessly from the front, but that left its rear without any defense! Two Misty Slashers dove in to take out its vulnerable rear, only for another Nyven Skrat to position itself in front of its vulnerable counterpart.

The twin sword chops dug a deep groove in the tower shield of the rescuing Nyven Skrat, but it managed to hold! The Masters of Combat mech even took advantage of the recovery period of the Misty Slashers and inflicted a deep blow in the sides of one of the Swordmaiden mechs!

"The Swordmaidens have the advantage in mechs, but the Masters of Combat are much more skilled!"

This difference played out just as the Vandals had feared. No matter how well Lydia's Swordmaidens trained her mech pilots, it was a well-known fact that they did not particularly excel in spaceborn combat. They showed more enthusiasm than skill in this battle.

The Masters of Combat was different. Their highly-trained and versatile mech pilots were able to pull out the full strength of their multipurpose mechs. Even when they faced a bad matchup, they still managed to halt the deadly momentum of the Swordmaidens.

Their current disadvantage wasn't a function of their skill, but rather their insufficient numbers. They invested too much in their landbound mechs and didn't acquire enough spaceborn mechs to defend their fleet from threats in space!

"Bunch of ill-trained pirates!" Major Verle cursed. "They've fallen into the trap of the Venidsans!"

Right now, the Masters of Combat managed to turn around their disadvantage by adopting a defensive posture. They rarely went for the kill, instead opting to focus at least ninety percent of their efforts on defense.

This was the appropriate strategy to adopt because the feral Swordmaiden mech pilots became engulfed in their bloodlust. Presented with an attractive punching bag, they threw all their considerations of strategy out of their minds! The only priority in their minds was to vent their fury on the stoic Masters of Combat.

"Sisters! Victory is within sight!"

"Carve them apart!"

"Their shells will crack!"

"Pah! Those smelly Vandal brutes are no help at all!"

The only mech pilot worth a damn was Commander Lydia herself. None of the others accomplished anything other than battering the tower shields of the Nyven Skrats. Their efficiency was exceptionally poor as their powerful sword strikes wasted a lot of energy, draining their energy cells in rapid tempo!

Ves and most of the Vandals recognized what the Masters of Combat were up to. Their larger, heavier Nyven Skrats ran on fuel cells. Though this didn't enable the Nyven Skrats to deliver any powerful blows, the multipurpose mech became quite frugal in their energy expenditure when it defaulted to defense.

After all, the Misty Slashers needed to build up their momentum and exert maximum force in delivering their heavy blows. The Nyven Skrats on the other hand merely had to brace their shields against incoming attacks. They also had to engage their flight system to stabilize their posture and prevent them from spinning once the blow connected.

"What a huge mess." Ves shook his head.

From what he understood, Major Verle initially came up with a battle plan to take the Caged out of the equation as fast as possible. Their hit-and-run style attacks worked best over time. If the Flagrant Swordmaidens became preoccupied with cracking the tough mechs of the Masters of Combat, then the flanking Caged mechs would have plenty of time to rain down their laser beams on the Vandals and the Swordmaidens.

"Vandals, stick to the plan. If the Swordmaidens want to entertain the Masters of Combat, then that's their business."

The offensive might of the Caged needed to be taken care of regardless of this unanticipated change. In the original plan, the mobile mechs of the Vandals and the Swordmaidens should have overwhelmed the ranged mechs right at the point of contact.

After the Caged lost dozens of mechs at once, Sub-Boss Scornburned would be able to seize upon the shock inflicted upon his subordinates and call for a hasty retreat. This effectively put an entire outfit out of play within the span of a single minute!

This was a plan straight out of Major Verle's playbook! The mech officer constantly sought to boost the morale of his allies while attempting to break the morale of his opponents.

Ves sighed from his observation seat. "Too bad that doesn't work now. The Swordmaidens aimed their powerful offensive power at the wrong mechs."

Many Vandals in the command center gritted their teeth that the braindead behavior of Lydia's Swordmaidens. They had never expected these savvy pirates that have managed to survive in the frontier for decades to be this impulsive on the battlefield.

Then again, their usual opponents weren't much better.

Waves of Vandal Inheritor mechs descended upon the rifleman mechs of the Caged. The cunning Roppongan mech pilots saw the skirmisher mechs coming and most managed to dodge the twin dagger strikes at the last moment.

It turned out that the ranged mechs incorporated miniature boosters along its frame that easily allowed it to evade incoming attacks. Though Ves predicted that these miniboosters wouldn't be able to displace the rifleman mechs more than half-a-dozen times. Yet their impact on the battle was profound. The mech pilots of the Caged utilized this initial boost to accelerate out of the reach of the confounded Inheritors.

The confusion among the Vandal mech pilots didn't last very long. Now that they knew what they were dealing with, they adjusted their strategies and formed groups that attempted to gang up on the Caged mechs from multiple directions.

Still, all of this cost time, during which the Roppongan mechs steadily chipped away at the lightly-armored Inheritor mechs. At close range, it wasn't easy for the Caged mech pilots to track the swift and complex movements of the skirmisher mechs, but they did manage to score some fatal hits, disabling more and more Vandal mechs.

Fortunately, the inherently inferior penetration power of a laser weapon granted the Inheritor mech pilots enough leeway to eject their cockpits in time. Tens of them had ejected in the first minute. Their cockpits soared towards the Vandal combat carriers without interruption as their opponents didn't wish to drive the Vandals over the edge.

"Come on! This is taking too long! Those rifleman mechs need to be taken down this instant!"

The longer the battle went on, the more the Swordmaiden mechs exhausted themselves. While the Vandals still believed they held the upper hand, the losses became increasingly more severe. They could not afford to incur heavy damage at this point.

Chapter 633

Space became littered with mechs and debris. Over a stretch of tens to hundreds of thousands of kilometers, the trail of wrecks unceasingly grew as the battle raged on. The death toll grew as well, particularly on the side of the Caged Masters.

The lethality of melee weapons surpassed the deadliness of rifle weapons. Laser weapons especially harvested the least lives as mech pilots were usually able to eject in time.

When faced with swords or daggers, a single well-placed hit could easily pierce through mech armor meant to withstand hardy kinetic rounds. The Vandal Inheritor mech pilots might not be the best representatives of their mech regiment, but their rigorous training and discipline quickly pulled them through.

While the rifleman mechs of the Caged managed to survive up to now with the help of their miniboosters, their less sophisticated cousins didn't fare so well. The genetic aptitude of many mech pilots of the Caged was rather poor. Putting them in humanoid mechs was a waste, so they piloted frontline mechs instead.

These cheap, disposable machines incorporated miniboosters as well, but their mech pilots weren't skilled enough to evade the determined Inheritor mechs. The Vandal skirmishers soon figured out the evasion pattern of the frontline mechs, and teamed up to place another teammate in the direction of the automatic activation of the miniboosters.

The frontline mechs fell in quick succession. The rifleman mechs of the Caged moved to rescue their brethren, but before they could move to help, the rest of the Vandal spaceborn mechs arrived.

"Hellcats! Get right up in their face!"

The Inheritor mechs weren't meant to destroy the mechs of the Caged on their own. Their primary goal was to entangle the enemy ranged mechs and force them to slow down in their flight. This granted the Vandal medium mechs the opportunity to catch up to the battle.

The Hellcat hybrid space knights made their presence known, leading a formation of many different Vesian mech models into the fray!

"Commence Chosen Shock Charge!"

Missiles darted out from their shoulder launchers, each of them forcing the Caged mechs into a defensive posture.

Once the Hellcats neared the rifleman mechs, they fired their wrist-mounted nail drivers instead. The agile Caged mechs mostly managed to dodge the short-ranged projectiles, but the ones that got hit suffered a severe piercing blow that punched right through their fragile armor.

The Caged mechs only had a couple of seconds left before the Hellcat mechs all slammed their shields into their disoriented frames! Though the Vandals wasn't able to field the Hellcat mechs in great numbers, their courageous charge had a disproportionate impact on their targets! Each mech they slammed into suffered an enormous amount of concussive damage.

With their frontal armor crunched and their mech pilots jarred from the shock, the vulnerable rifleman mechs couldn't do anything as the Hellcat mechs delivered the coup-de-grace with their swords.

Now that they caught up, the main force of the Flagrant Vandals finally unleashed their full might!

With the arrival of the Vandal prestige mechs, the battle instantly took a turn for the worse to the Caged. The predominantly ranged force had no hope of fending off the melee mechs of the Vandals. With the swift and agile Inheritors cutting off their escape routes, the Hellcats and the other Vandal medium mechs formed into pre-arranged formations and came at the disheveled gang mechs with unstoppable force.

"Double Chevron Assault!"

Mech squads formed into double-ranked chevrons and slammed into the Caged mechs. If the first impact didn't finish them off, the follow-up attacks guaranteed the kills. With the use of this formation, the disparity between the two forces widened! The Caged could never match the coordination of the Flagrant Vandals!

"Retreat!" Sub-boss Scornburned finally ordered. "The Flagrant Vandals can't be overcome! Let us depart!"

Ordinarily, the mech pilots of the Caged would never retreat so easily. Roppongans took their honor very seriously. Yet they had already started sliding into defeat ever since the Inheritor mechs caught up to them. The sudden shock attacks by the Hellcat mechs had tipped over their courage, causing them to waver just enough for the sub-boss to recognize the moment.

They had to retreat! As ignoble as it sounded, it was better than to perish against a foe they could never hope to defeat!

The mech pilots of the Caged had lost their nerve and flew their mechs back to their carriers as swiftly as possible. The Inheritors followed them but kept their distance. Their presence was meant to pressure the Caged and prevent them from regaining their courage.

The Hellcats and the other medium mechs turned to the mechs of the Masters of Combat. The Misty Slasher mechs started to run out of steam. While their berserk fighting methods might have been a recipe for success in the frontier, the Masters of Combat was made up entirely of seasoned veterans and elite mercenaries.

The Vandals needed to save the Swordmaidens from their own blunder!

"The battle is over now." Ves declared to himself. Even though they hit a couple of snags, they still managed to achieve the expected result. "It feels good to be on the superior side for once."

Still, the Vandals didin't let down their guards. They expected the Caged to crumble early, but they expected more from the Masters of Combat. Even now, their Nyven Skrats still managed to withstand the offensive. Now that the Vandal medium mechs had entered the fray, their situation became increasingly dire. If they still held back a trump card, then now would be the final time to put it into play.

Major Verle turned to Ves. "Those enhanced sensor arrays you produced. How much do you trust them?"

"With my life, sir. They might not be able to pick up anything fancy from the Friday Coalition of the Hexadric Hegemony, but at our level it's more than enough."

"Good. Initiate full active scanning! I want those sensors and detectors pumped up to the highest power!"

Not every Inheritor had raced ahead to tackle the Caged mechs. The Vandals held at least a company of Inheritors, half of which bore the crucial sensor upgrades. They formed the main line of defense against any threats that attempted to sneak up to their ships.

Upon the major's command, a series of scanning arrays popped up from the heads of the light mechs. A powerful pulse of energy surged from the arrays. Within a range of thousands of kilometers, the entire space around the Flagrant Swordmaiden fleet rippled with invisible waves.

Nothing became visible, but that didn't mean nothing was there!

"We've detected several anomalous signals to the rear of our ship! Range, two-hundred kilometers!"

"Akkara mechs, open fire at the suspect coordinates!"

The heavy mechs entrenched in the bunkers of the Shield of Hispania and the other Vandals ships all erupted their heavy cannons in the direction of the anomalous readings. Hundreds of laser beams and physical rounds saturated the region.

Within a spread of tens of kilometers, one explosive shell hit something other than empty space. A stealthed objected immediately lost its transparent visage and became visible to the naked eye!

"It's a stealthed boarding shuttle!"

The explosive shell had ripped through the thinly-armored shuttle, blasting apart its entire frontal section! The continuous volleys of the Akkara mechs soon hit other stealthed shuttles.

By the time the heavy artillery mechs fired ten volleys in quick succession, the entire area around the first shuttle became riddled with pieces of shuttle wreckage!

"What is the result?"

"Sir, our Akkara mechs have taken out seven stealthed shuttles in total! There are no survivors!"

The Vandals in the command center grinned when they heard how many precious stealth shuttles they destroyed. These high-tech toys cost a pretty penny to produce. Ever since the Flagrant Vandals aimed at the Masters of Combat, they did not believe a word about their inability to acquire stealth tech on their own.

"The Masters of Combat are made out of elite veteran Venidsan mech pilots. If any mercenary company has access to stealth tech, then they should be at the front of the list!"

Ever since Ves returned to the fleet, his trauma against stealth technology had compelled him to hit the books. He crammed through several books on anti-stealth tech. He still retained his position as head designer, so much of the knowledge library of the Mech Corps was open to him. Though the central database prohibited the dissemination of knowledge on stealth tech, books on how to counter them was readily available.

"Though I only had a day to read through a couple of books, that is more than enough to install some upgraded sensors on a handful of light mechs."

His paranoia paid off. The Venidsan mercenary corps had indeed planned to perform a fatal strike from stealth! Ves couldn't even imagine the damage the invisible shuttles could unleash to the unsuspecting Vandals.

Catching them off-guard and shooting them down before they could run or close the distance was the best outcome possible!

Ves softly laughed as nothing remained of the expensive shuttle and their well-trained boarding parties. The sensor readings could barely pick up the minute pieces of rubble. He enjoyed getting the better out of sneaky bastards attempting to ruin his life.

"It feels good to catch these Venidsan mice. I should make these sensor upgrades more prevalent among the Inheritor mechs."

The only reason why he couldn't upgrade all of the light skirmishers was because it was a fairly expensive upgrade. Ves had made a conscious decision as head designer to deviate from Professor Velten's standard design templates. Though he could justify his decision if it only affected a small portion of the Vandal mechs, if he insisted on making it a standard feature, then he would violate a bunch of rules, the most important of which was budget stipulations.

"If five million extra credits per mech allows me to sleep better at night, what does it matter?"

This didn't sound like a lot, but it increased the costs associated with the Inheritor mechs by twenty-five percent. The powerful sensor arrays were also very delicate, requiring frequent servicing in order to keep them functioning at their optimum states.

"It's not economical to arm a hundred Inheritors with this upgrade."

The Inheritors were meant to be cheap and disposable. Turning them all into expensive detection platforms was a step too far to the Vandals.

"Keep sweeping our perimeter with active scans. I don't want any space rock left unturned!"

Though a follow-up attack seemed unlikely, the Vandals did not mind wasting their energy on continuous scans.

The mech battle up ahead entered into the final stage. The Masters of Combat had been holding out hope that their stealth shuttles were able to turn the tide of the battle. Now that the Vandals wiped them all out before they could complete their missions, the Venidsan mercenaries had nothing left to throw at the Vandals!

Nonetheless, the Vesians stoically kept fighting even as the Vandal mechs took over from the exhausted Misty Slashers. While the Swordmaidens recalled their mechs, the Masters of Combat began to buckle.

Their multipurpose space knights endured a lot of hits, but their lack of mobility became their downfall. In front of the coordinated might of the Vandals, they were unable to move and had to force themselves into a spherical formation with every mech facing outwards. While this prevented the Vandals from striking at their rear, the relatively rigid formation fared very poorly against ranged bombardments.

The Vandal ships soon entered into firing range. The Akkara mechs unleashed volley after volley of heavy firepower. The Nyven Skrats didn't last. The continuous outpouring of laser cannon beams and high-explosive shells shredded their thick tower shields and pounded their frames until they broke up into pieces.

The Vandals didn't ask for surrender, and to their credit the Vesian mech pilots didn't ask for any. There could be no reconciliation between Brighters and Vesians, especially when the stakes were so high. They did not fight on behalf of their states right now. All of their decisions were being influenced by the players in the shadow.

"Sweep the battlefield and prepare to catch up to their ships." Major Verle commanded. "Tell Commander Lydia to pursue their combat fleet. Their escort mechs shouldn't be a hindrance to them. Make sure she understands to take the flagship intact. Inform Captain Rakeshir to separate from the Swordmaiden fleet in order to pursue the support ships. If we hurry up now, we might be able to catch up to them before they transition into FTL."

The Flagrant Swordmaidens managed to secure their first victory ever since they joined forces! Though everyone was already salivating about the spoils, not everyone seemed pleased by the outcome.

Chapter 634

The rest of the battle progressed with no suspense. After overwhelming and dismantling the Nyven Skrats, the Masters of Combat lost their principal force of mechs. Their slow and hefty frontline mechs and ranged mechs crumbled in quick succession.

"They really counted on their stealth attack to turn this battle around." Ves recognized.

That had given the Vesian mercenaries enough hope to put up a heroic last stand against a superior force. However, once the Vandals caught and demolished the stealth shuttles in an instant, the Masters of Combat folded within seconds!

The Flagrant Swordmaidens encountered no significant resistance upon mopping up the rest. While they allowed the remnants of the Caged to flee from the star system without any further harassment, the ships of the Masters of Combat needed to fall in their hands.

"Contact the Masters of Combat. Issue a surrender demand." Major Verle spoke as soon as the Masters of Combat lost every remaining spaceborn mech in the field. "They've lost enough lives as it is. There is no need for further bloodshed."

While the Vandals didn't mind exterminating every last Master of Combat, driving their defeated opponents to the brink might provoke them to self-destruct their defenseless ships. The comba carriers and light carriers all possessed a lot of resale value. It wasn't a bad idea for the Vandals to attempt to recoup their losses by selling their spoils.

The communications officer quickly received a reply. "Sir, the First Master has declined the officer. He intends to resist until the very end."

Major Verle was afraid of that, but he already expected their recalcitrance. It was one thing to let the Caged scurry back to their homes. While the gang was formidable in the right circumstances, in the end their main force consisted of untalented mech pilots and lower-end civilian-grade mechs. The threat they posed to the Flagrant Swordmaidens was minimal, especially now that they received an abject lesson on how outmatched they were against a military force.

The Vandals coordinated with the Swordmaidens in disabling and boarding the fleeing starships of the Masters of Combat. Vandal marksmen surgically struck the thrusters and engineering bays of the vulnerable ships, leaving them wide open to the Swordmaiden boarding parties entering the crippled vessels.

This turned out to be a tedious affair as the Masters of Combat split up all of their remaining assets. This wasn't enough to stop the ferocious Swordmaidens clad in exoskeleton armor. Though they encountered stiff resistance in the interior of the vessels, this was just the last gasp of a dying mercenary corps.

The Masters of Combat ceased to exist after this day. Though they left behind a lot of assets as well as a base back at Venidse, the core of their fighting strength was completely gone. The remains consist of a hollow shell that would never be able to bring back their past glory.

The Vandal mech pilots returned to their motherships with pride. Casualties remained limited throughout the engagement. Besides a few unlucky pilots, most returned without a scratch. This was one of their best battles in recent times, and a good start for what was about to come.

As Ves walked up to Chief Haine as the Shield of Hispania greeted the returning victors. Mech technicians whooped and laughed as the smiling mech pilots emerged from the their mostly-intact mechs.

If there was one thing Ves was glad for, it was that the battle hadn't been too strenuous on their side. With an advantage in numbers, training, discipline, coordination and more, the only way the alliance between the Caged and the Masters of Combat could eke out a victory was if their stealth shuttles succeeded in their surprise attack.

Though the desperate move ultimately failed, the attempt reminded Ves that he should never underestimate any opponents. Even though the Vandals retained the upper hand throughout the battle, it only took a single mistake to turn the tide.

"There are too many risks involved with battles."

If he hadn't taken the time to upgrade the detection capabilities of the fleet, it might have been the Vandals who would be running with their tails between their legs.

Ves felt apprehensive about the fickle nature of combat. His overactive imagination revisited the key moments of the battle and modeled alternative outcomes. In hindsight, many things could have gone wrong.

He had overlooked so many aspects that he admired the mech officers for keeping a cool head throughout the engagement. The measured leadership of Major Verle and the other mech officers had been crucial in responding to changes in the battlefield.

"I'm not cut out to lead men into battle." He shook his head. Ves wouldn't be able to see the forest from the trees. "I'll have to leave the strategizing to others."

Once Ves reached Chief Haine, he watched on as she hollered at some celebrating mech technicians to pick up their tools and go back to work. This was no time to take a day off!

"Vandals will be Vandals." Ves commented to the chief. "Let the lads have their fun. They deserve to celebrate their first clean battle."

The chief scowled. "You can't let off on these lazy bums. As long as I'm their supervisor, they're destined to be my slaves. Mech technicians are amazingly productive as long as you whip their backs now and then."

Ves was aware that the chief was only speaking in hyperbole. She didn't literally treat her mech technicians like slaves. However, out of every chief that Ves had met, Haine was the most serious about maximizing productivity.

They both observed the returning mechs in silence. Ves mainly wanted to observe the condition of the mechs. From what he saw so far, the Vandal mechs mostly incurred surface damage to their exterior and armor plating. Each mech pilot had been skilled enough to prevent the incoming long-ranged laser fire from focusing on a single section of their mechs.

"Looks like we'll mostly be fixing surface damage in the next couple of weeks."

Chief Haine nodded. "The only mechs that need disassembling are the Inheritor mechs. Those fragile light mechs sure break easily. The upside is that fixing their internals is much easier than trying to fix a Hellcat that suffered a breach."

The internals of their hybrid space knight was at least an order of magnitude more complex than the elegant internal architecture of their light skirmisher. The latter was devoid of complicated components with punishing material requirements.

They talked shop for a while. Ves drew up the outline of a repair schedule, to which the chief had few objections. "Major Verle wants us to prioritize the task of preparing our landbound mechs for high-g conditions. It's extremely important we optimize all our landbound mechs for crushing gravities within two months."

"That's only doable if your mech technicians provide some guidance for my boys and girls. We don't have a single clue on how to strengthen the internals of our landbound mechs."

"Don't worry, I'll take care of it. You just focus on making sure that our work proceeds on schedule. We can't afford to delay the plans our superiors have in mind."

At this moment, Chief Haine should not be aware of their true mission. Ves couldn't say anything more on this topic. He had a feeling that the time of disclosure would come by the time the Flagrant Swordmaidens crossed into the frontier. The Vandals deserved to know why they were leaving the war behind in order to chase after a fairy tale in the frontier.

"I really don't know what we're supposed to do with high-g compensation gear in the first place." Chief Haine scratched her head. "If the Mech Corps want to send us off to a Super Earth, then they could have sent out a mech regiment that's better prepared."

"Maybe the other mech regiments are already committed, and we're the only mech regiment around that's available."

"You mean we're the only ones around who the Mech Corps won't lose sleep over if they cut us off."

It also helped that the Flagrant Vandals were largely disposable. It wouldn't affect the Bright Republic at all if they got ambushed and ceased to exist the next day. Just like how the Masters of Combat was destined to disappear in the annals of history, so would the passing of the Vandals effect very little change.

"What is your perspective on this last battle?" Ves abruptly asked.

Chief Haine pointed back to him with a meaty finger. "You first."

"I thought ladies are supposed to go first."

"Hah! I'm hardly a lady! And don't distract me, I really want to hear what your big head has to say about this battle."

Ves thought about his answer. The truth was that he didn't really know what to think about it either, so he wanted to borrow the opinion of the chief to form the right perspective.

"Well, it's clear that the higher ups hadn't decided to annihilate the Masters of Combat just because they were conveniently close. There's a definite intention to do more than inflict a military defeat. I just hope our gains have paid off."

"Whatever the reason, I'm glad we fought right out of the gate." Haine remarked. "Ever since you folks returned from Harkensen I, you guys acted all stoic and depressed. No offense, but you needed to be loosened up. Now that everyone has returned to normal, I'm ready to dive head-first into the frontier!"

Everyone pretty much knew that their next destination was somewhere deep in the frontier. The gravity compensation gear took up too much space and couldn't be hidden under the observant eyes of the mech technicians.

This first battle was just an appetizer to the challenges that lay ahead of the Flagrant Swordmaidens. They would likely compete against other rivals along the way. Not all of them were despicable or had too much blood on their hands. Perhaps they might even bump into a mech outfit from their home state!

The thought of running down Brighter citizens just because they competed over the same prizes left a sour taste in his mouth. Ves had fully figured out why he felt so discomforted by the recent battle.

"Something fishy is afoot. If our opponents weren't Vesians, then there would have been a lot more discontent. Can we even say that we are still involved in the war?"

This issue had been bugging him ever since Miss Calabast shed open the veil of secrecy that shrouded this game from prying eyes. The thought of working his butt off for some elderly official who should have left his job for the younger generation rankled his mind. Was the hunt for the Starlight Megalodon really about the life-prolonging doses?

Ves blinked and shoved away those thoughts. Thinking about these doubts only increased his discontent. Right now, this did not fit with the celebratory mood of running through the entire fleet. Perhaps the Vandals would mistake him for a Vesian who mourned for the loss of the Masters of Combat!

"Pirates are your favorite outfits in Pirate Empires, right?"

"Uh huh. Why did you bring that up?"

"Oh, I figured you know how pirate outfits are run. Do you know why Lydia's Swordmaidens ignored our battle plans?"

Chief Haine smirked and crossed her arms. "That's easy. It's all about showing who's boss. From what I know about pirates, they don't like to play second fiddle. From what I've gathered, Commander Lydia probably didn't expect us to be so powerful or field so many mechs. We're the senior partner of this alliance. That's got to do a lot of harm to their self-esteem."

"So the Swordmaidens threw out a completely sound plan that was almost guaranteed to minimize our losses just because we hurt their egos?"

The reason sounded preposterous to Ves. His logical mind simply couldn't parse this excuse. Certainly, the deviation hadn't resulted into a cascade of failures, but if the Swordmaidens deviated once, they could certainly do it again. Resolving this issue should be a top priority to the Vandals.

Chapter 635

The Flagrant Vandals and Lydia's Swordmaidens divided the spoils among themselves, with the former claiming the biggest share. This was what they deserved, as they fought harder and accomplished more.

The cost had been significant as well. The Vandals tallied the damage, and it became clear that while they hadn't lost a lot of men or mechs, some of their assets gained a lot of deep scars.

"It's frigging awful." Chief Engineer Avanaeon spat as Ves paid a visit to him down at the engineering bay. The chief read through scores of damage reports. The Shield of Hispania alone looked as if a gigantic tiger had ripped its molten claws throughout her entire hull. "We just fixed up the Shield's armor belt at Harkensen III. Now we're halfway back to square one. Damn the major, a combat carrier isn't a tower shield to be flaunted around whenever someone shoots at us!"

The other engineers and nodded in agreement. While the mech pilots and mech technicians celebrated the clean victory, the ship crewmembers all seemed disgruntled at the decision to put the combat carriers at risk. Just because they had been designed to take a beating didn't mean they needed to be deployed as supersized knight mechs.

A carrier was a mothership. A hive for mechs to come home to roost. Conventional doctrine called for carriers to stay as far away from the fighting as possible. Heavily-armored combat carriers provided some exceptions to the rule, but they only applied in special situations.

"Well, it's better to lose some armor plating than some lives." Ves replied. Though he sympathised with the enormous workload the ship caretakers had to go through, he was on the side of Major Verle for once. "Lives are much more precious than inanimate objects. The combat carriers will live."

"I don't disagree with you." Avanaeon waved his hands in emphasis. "It's just that fixing this battle damage is going to take another stint in a drydock. Will the higher ups agree to that?"

"According to what I know, that's extremely unlikely. We are bound for the frontier and we won't let anything hinder us. You'll have to fix up the Shield while we're on the move, most likely."

The only times they could go out and fix the armor plating was to go out in space while the fleet transitioned out of FTL and entered a cooldown cycle. Perhaps their ships would linger in the material dimensions for a while longer in order to mine some asteroids, but other than that they needed to hurry through the frontier as fast as possible.

Ves understood their pain, because he had to live with the same logistical constraints. There would be no respite after they departed the Harkensen System. They would navigate towards the frontier and cross the invisible dividing line that marked the end of civilized space.

They would find no succor in the untamed stars that lay beyond. Pirates, sandmen and other threats made their home there. What space stations existed there were ramshackle constructions that provided inferior services to the worst examples of mankind. The Swordmaidens may be welcome in such pirate ports, but the Vandals would be greeted as enemies.

No matter how many people referred to them as pirates, the truth was that they were firmly fighting on behalf of a state. They did so openly and took up the mantle of responsibility, however threadbare it appeared.

This mantle was an anathema to pirates and every other kind of scum in the frontier. No matter where they traveled, every frontiersmen would regard them at interlopers as best, and mortal enemies as worst.

This was also why the alliance with Lydia's Swordmaidens was so crucial to the Vandals. They were intrinsically part of the frontier and knew all of the major players. Their connections with the pirates and other organizations that made themselves home at this chaotic region of space would save them a lot of grief.

"They say that a delegation of Lydia's Swordmaidens are on their way to our ship soon." Avanaeon remarked. "Half of my men are drooling at the sight. The recordings some of us managed to obtain from the galactic net sure makes them out as.. Exotic."

Ves had glanced at the same images. "They look tribal. As if humanity has regressed by a dozen ages. They sure like to show off their martial prowess."

Their clothing revealed much about their culture. It was undeniably based around personal strength. Commander Lydia stood at the top, while the ranks further down were based on which Swordmaiden had the biggest fist.

Such a crude method of determining their hierarchy worked up to a point. If the Swordmaidens consisted more than several thousand women, then the limitations of this method became increasingly apparent.

Not that it mattered. The Swordmaidens seem content at their current numbers.

"By the way, Larkinson, I appreciate the social call, but you didn't drop by just to chat, right? I know you. If you aren't working, you're doing something that's related to your work. You have to learn to ease up, man."

Ves chuckled a bit. This wasn't the first time someone accused him of being a workaholic. "I'm hardly the mech designer you are making me out for. Don't I join your little game sessions every once in a while?"

"That doesn't count. We all know you're only present because you can squeeze some secrets out of us. We don't mind, of course. We do the same to you."

"Hey, it's not all about that. I'm having fun as well with the game. Pirate Empires has taught me a lot."

Even though it was just a silly game, it had given him a taste of what every kind of outfit had to struggle with.

Pirate groups needed to keep themselves afloat at the edge of civilization.

Treasure hunters dug up at least nine duds before they came across something good enough to pay off their debts.

Mercenary corps had to deal with the fickleness of the battlefield, sometimes choosing to abandon the mission despite receiving a black mark on their record.

Rebel movements only grew when a state was in discord. If the government was too competent in ruling over their territory, then the rebels had no choice but to inflict their own brand of terror.

"A game is just a game. It's not an accurate reflection of reality." Avanaeon stated. "Look at Lydia's Swordmaidens for example. Even though they look like a bunch of pirates gone native, it takes a lot of talent to grow them to their current heights. Commander Lydia is not a simple person."

Ves nodded in agreement. Someone who survived and thrived in the frontier for decades had to be exceptionally savvy. "That reminds me, I need your assistance in a number of side projects of mine. Have you heard about the upgraded sensor arrays I've installed in some of the Inheritor mechs?"

"Yup. Impressive work, from what I heard. It's amazing that you managed to design this module that's completely compatible with the Inheritor model. Others need at least a week to come up with a viable prototype."

"I'm used to working in a hurry, and the sensor arrays aren't exactly my best work. I'll have to tweak their design and optimize them so they'll be able to last longer than a couple of weeks. However, that's something I'll take care of myself. What I want you to do is to install similar sensor arrays across the hull of our ships. The more, the better."

"That isn't something I can decide on my own." Avanaeon frowned. "I heard they're fragile and cost a lot. They only work against some categories of stealth technology and they're practically sending out a beacon in space when they are active."

Ves dismissively waved his hand. "Those drawbacks are trivial compared to what we get in return. Sure, the sensor arrays can't counteract every application of stealth, but we are at the furthest reaches of the galactic rim. We're one step away from the frontier. I doubt we'll encounter anything beyond the rudimentary level."

"Even so, installing even one of them on the hulls of our combat carriers will require Captain Rakeshir's agreement. The issue can't be brought up likely."

"Well, just remember the time we got screwed by the Frosty Meteors, and think of what the Masters of Combat might have pulled off as well. Stealth technology is much more ubiquitous than we think, and I can't rest easily unless our ships gain some new eyes."

"I'll do my best on this matter, but Captain Rakeshir and Major Verle have the final word."

"I understand."

The reason why Ves was adamant about this issue was because he ran through the logs of the sensor arrays after the battle was over. While they managed to pick up the stealth shuttles from a couple of hundred kilometers away, the sensor arrays also picked up another, fainter presence.

This one was hundreds of thousands of kilometers away. While this distance was far enough to pose no threat to him, the fact that something else was hiding near the battlefield deeply unsettled him. Was it something from the Masters of Combat? A scouting craft dispatched by the Reinaldans? Or maybe something connected to Calabast?

Whatever the case, the presence had only been there for a moment before it started to move out of range of active sensors. Ves had the feeling they might be stalked by this hidden craft even now.

"What other projects do you want to collaborate with?" Avanaeon pressed when he noticed Ves trailing off.

"Ah, this one's more difficult. I heard the salvage teams managed to recover reasonably intact fragments of the remains of the stealth shuttles."

"That's true. We've dumped them into a pile down in the cargo hold for now. Slagged or not, there are some people who will pay a lot of money for scrap like those. You can use them to calibrate your stealth detection systems. Do you need some?"

"I need more than a couple of scraps. I've been down there and I think we've collected enough fragments to reconstruct a functional stealth shuttle."

"What?!" The engineer became surprised. "You want to cobble together a working stealth shuttle? Are you out of your mind?! Do you understand the technical challenges of doing so? It's one thing to assemble a shuttle out of a stack of pristine parts. It's another matter entirely when you think we only managed to recover a pile of broken parts, many of which are only good for recycling."

"Come on. Think about what we can do with a working stealth shuttle. The frontier is a dangerous place. The option to sneak past a well-guarded perimeter instead of attacking it head-on should be a boon that can save a lot of lives. While I have confidence in my skills, I'm not a specialist in shuttle designs. I need someone who knows their way around this craft."

"It's a pipe dream, Larkinson. The fragments are too sporadic. Even if our boys managed to crumple seven shuttles at once, there's really too few pieces left."

"We don't need to reconstruct the original shuttle. The internal structure can be whatever we want. The key is to figure out the principles behind its stealth system and to replicate a passable imitation of its stealth plating. In other words, I'm not aiming to rebuild a stealth shuttle, but rather create a new one entirely."

The project intrigued the chief engineer. He started to get around to the idea. "I don't have the time to help you out. I'm already swamped with overseeing the repairs to the armor belt of the Shield. Still, I'll drop by when my shift is over."

"That's good enough. I hope we can complete our shuttle in time."

Ves left the engineering bay with a smile. With the chief engineer in his pocket, he had no doubt this project would succeed. While it was true that he wanted to create a stealth shuttle in order to strengthen the Vandals, the true reason for this sudden drive was to develop his own understanding of modern stealth technology.

"If the central database won't let me study stealth technology, then I'll just have to perform my own research."

Chapter 636

Ves had the tendency to be driven by obsession whenever he put his mind on a major project. This mostly manifested whenever he began to design a virtual or a physical mech design. He ignored every other matter in favor of solving the puzzle pieces brought in front of him. He loved these moments, because he felt as if he performed his calling.

Right now, his latest obsession concerned stealth technology. His fears about their use by his enemies and the thought of mastering this technology for his own ends drove him on a path to no return. He could halt his progress, set it aside for a time, but he would never be truly content until he reached the promised end.

As Ves stepped back inside his office, he sat down behind his desk and unlocked the top drawer. Two crude hand-sized gadgets rested inside. Ves retrieved both of them and placed them on top of his desk.

Ves smirked at his handiwork for the last couple of days.

He had gone through a lot of trouble to construct these two gadgets. He spent hours on adapting their capabilities into a slim and portable form factor for both devices.

He flicked the activation button for the first device. A horrible feeling of static washed over his body, and his terminal projection turned unstable before winking out entirely. When Ves tried to activate his comm, the wrist device acted as if it had gone completely dead.

"It still works." He muttered and flicked another button that shut it down.

The gadget was an inspired creation of Ves. Inspired by Calabast's jamming device, Ves wanted to obtain something similar. He was amazed at the original device's effectiveness despite its compact package.

That led to the creation of his first homebrew jamming device. Ves skimmed over several technical documents from the central database for inspiration. While he only had access to technical specifications of jamming modules sized for mechs, he still managed to derive their principles with the help of his existing base knowledge.

Once he understood the principles, it wasn't hard for him to design an imitation scaled for humans. The result was a working jamming device that was smaller but much less powerful than the real deal. It could effectively block all manner of signals within a range of a couple of meters.

It was a passable first attempt. While it hardly matched Calabast's more refined jamming device, it still did the job. Ves had no doubt that he could refine his initial attempt into something smaller and better if he spent enough time on this project.

"Still, this isn't the only project on my mind."

The jamming device was useful, but the utility of his next creation was much more valuable to him. He carefully placed the jamming device back in the draw and shoved the second device to the center of his desk. He pressed its activation button, causing its surface components to unfold into an array of antennas.

Another wave washed over his body. Compared to the jarring sensation of being shocked by static electricity, this one was more subtle. The output of his second gadget wasn't meant to disrupt signals and transmissions.

Instead, it was meant to detect invisible presences.

Ves stood up from his desk and pulled out his multiscanner from his toolbelt. He activated his scanner and held it out towards his second gadget. He started off pointing his multiscanner right in front of the active device, and slowly stepped backwards until his back bumped against the bulkhead of the compartment.

"Damn. It's worse than last time."

This meant his second device had degraded due to its shoddy construction. After studying the readings from his multiscanner, he figured out its effective was no more than five meters.

"Five meters of effective stealth detection. While it's better than nothing, that won't help me if an infiltrator is aiming a gun at me from a distance."

The second device was his attempt at creating a compact human-sized stealth detector. The original mech-sized sensor array was already delicate and finicky. Shrinking it by at least two orders of magnitude introduced many complications. Its effective range dwindled from thousands of kilometers to only a handful of meters.

The main problem with these gadgets was that their power supply was woefully insufficient. The larger mech-sized modules could tap into the mech's central power supply at any time. These handheld objects wouldn't be able to do so because Ves wasn't in the habit of carrying a portable power reactor everywhere he went. He had to fashion some batteries for the devices, and what power they eked out was woefully insufficient to the task at hand.

Without access to better batteries, Ves wouldn't be able to upgrade the capabilities of his two latest gadgets.

"It's fine, though. After some refinement, they'll be good enough to earn a permanent place on my toolbelt."

He pursued these pet projects while he thought about his approach to reconstructing a stealth shuttle. Compared to the challenge of creating a jamming device and a stealth detector, figuring out the principles of stealth technology was a much larger challenge.

The chief engineer was right to doubt the viability of this project. Both of them were burdened with a huge workload, and sinking so many free hours into this pipedream may not be the best use of their time.

Ves didn't care.

"The mech designers and mech technicians don't need any hand holding by this point."

While it was true that he could always solve the problems the others had difficulty with, they needed to stand on their own. Ves increased his dependence on delegation to take care of mundane matters. He became proficient at figuring out which issued needed his personal attention and which problems could be left to his subordinates.

If Ves delegated hard enough, he could easily create some holes in his schedules that he could devote to his pet projects.

"I'll certainly need a lot of time to figure out how to build a stealth shuttle."

It helped that Ves had worked with a primitive iteration of stealth technology. Some of his old virtual mech designs incorporated very real instances of stealth plating. Back then, the principles behind this technology was crude but understandable to any Apprentice Mech Designer.

Hundreds of years of ceaseless progress and refinement had left these crude applications of stealth tech in the dust. The difference between old and modern stealth tech was as vast as comparing a horse-drawn carriage to a modern flight-capable aircar.

"The leap is too big."

If the evolution had been smaller or more gradual, then Ves could still leverage his old knowledge to construct a new framework in his mind. That was out of the question now. The differences between the generations was so vast that it might as well be a new development field.

Modern stealth technology accomplished more than fooling the eyes and ears. It could suppress a much wider range of signals in the electromagnetic spectrum. It could block sound and vibrations. It could counteract gravitic sensors, basically fooling even gravity itself in a limited fashion.

"Hiding a multi-ton mech or shuttle from powerful sensors and scanners can't be done by snapping your fingers. It takes a huge amount of ingenuity and cross-discipline collaboration to come up with something that actually works on mechs."

The technical challenges to develop a working example of stealth technology was enough to fill the storage of a data chip.

It was a good thing that the salvaging parties recovered some debris of the stealth shuttles. Even if not a single component was complete, Ves could still scan their composition and derive the underlying principles from what remained.

It was like possessing an encrypted textbook on stealth technology. Cracking the code required a lot of work, but that was infinitely easier than trying to reinvent one of the most complex wheels that Ves had ever encountered.

Pulling in Chief Avanaeon as his unwitting assistant allowed Ves to draw strength from the chief engineer's considerable knowledge base. With more minds at work, the decryption process would go a lot faster.

His ultimate goal wasn't to create a working stealth shuttle. His ambitions was much more encompassing than that. Even though stealth technology was restricted knowledge, who could blame him if he figured it out without anyone else's assistance?

Once the Mech Corps released him from his service, Ves would truly be able to leverage his gains.

There was only a single snag in his plan.

"Stealth tech is prohibited by almost every state. Only state actors are permitted to wear stealth suits or pilot stealth craft."

This basically meant that he couldn't flaunt his stealth creations or put them on the market.

"No matter. I can still fabricate some mechs and hand them over to the Avatars of Myth."

Expanding, strengthening and increasing the Avatars of Myth would be one of his highest priorities once he returned to civilian life. Ves had to admit that he had become charmed to the strength of the Flagrant Vandals. The mech regiment was able to avoid many problems that could hamper a normal mech outfit just by virtue of its status and actual strength.

Ves recently aspired to possess the same kind of strength! With hundreds of landbound and spaceborn mechs at his disposal, hardly anyone in the Bright Republic could pose a threat to him! Cultivating a hidden force of assassin mechs would also allow him to take the offensive without incurring greater repercussions.

"It feels good to hit back for a change."

Now that he thought about it, it might be better to allocate his stealth mechs to another force. The Avatars of Myth were meant to attract publicity, showing the galaxy what his products were capable of when utilized at their full potential.

Stealth mechs worked best if they worked in the shadows. Connecting them to a public outfit like the Avatars of Myth was detrimental to their effectiveness. All of his enemies would see them coming.

"I'll have to establish another outfit. It's best if nobody can connect it to my identity. Maybe they can even pretend to be pirates or something."

Ves would be able to wield this shady outfit to do his dirty work. Anyone who reached the annals of power inevitably accrued enemies. He hadn't forgotten his old friends such as Michael Dumont, Vincent Ricklin and the rest of his scornful family.

Before, he had been fearful of their power and influence. Lacking connections and unable to leverage as much wealth, Ves had no choice but to become their punching bags.

All of this would change once he developed his own force of assassins and saboteurs. While recruiting capable and trustworthy mech pilots was still a huge issue, having the mechs in place at least opened up the door.

"It would have been perfect if I can recruit veterans from the Flagrant Vandals."

This was one hope that would remain unfulfilled.

"I'll have to recruit loyal mech pilots through another channel."

Others had managed to do so, so what stopped Ves from accomplishing the same? He would probably have to turn to someone else for help, or rely on the System to figure out a solution on his own.

All of these plans might have sounded fanciful, but Ves worked towards another end when he crafted these intentions. Having been exposed to some of the underground that ruled society from the shadows, Ves no longer saw it as a scary and incomprehensible abyss.

He began to develop an ambition to enter the Nyxian Gap. He wanted to address an issue that had long laid dormant in his mind.

He wanted to find his persecuted father and obtain some answers from him. Ves hungered for answers. About the System. About what happened to his mother. About the conspiracy his father became entangled with. More than anything, Ves wanted to dispel his ignorance and help out his parents.

"My father wants me to forget about him and live for myself, but how can I do so?"

Chapter 637

Establishing his own shadow force enabled Ves to punch above his weight. It also allowed him entry into the darker part of the galaxy. He could accomplish both without tarnishing his reputation.

In the light, Ves was talented and promising mech designer. He ran his own company that had grown to the point of selling his mechs all over the Komodo Star Sector. In his free time, he dabbled with treasure hunting expedition, but all in all he was only as shady as the average businessman.

In the dark, Ves or whatever pseudonym he decided to adopt would become a hidden player in a game that few people were aware of in the first place. His shadow force granted him the right to participate in such games and thereby enable him to achieve goals that would have been impossible for his public identity to accomplish.

"Most people think society is ruled by those in the light. I would argue that the real power brokers are the players who prefer to lurk in the dark."

Ves couldn't offer any solid proof to his assertions. However, the events he witnessed so far had been so impactful that his perspective of human society couldn't be divorced from this dualistic perspective.

"At the heart of it all, the power brokers are all competing in pursuit of longevity."

Nothing else mattered compared to living a couple of hundred years longer. Doubtlessly many people went through untold extremes in order to obtain such a chance.

"Well, enough dreaming about my ambitions. While it's important to know what I'm aiming for in my life, I still need to get back to work."

The engineers had it worse this time. Fixing the combat carriers of their surface damage was a monumental endeavor that could never be competed in a month or two. This made their journey into the frontier more precarious, but Ves would rather ride with a damaged ship than to have less mechs at his disposal.

As Ves returned to his work, he tallied the damaged mechs and drafted individual repair plans for those that needed them. He delegated responsibility for fixing up the lightly-damaged mechs to his deputies.

"Patching up the spaceborn mechs is only a secondary priority at this point. Our first priority remains readying our landbound mech for high-g deployments."

Ves faced a lot of issues with this responsibility. The Vandals utilized so many different mech models with their own unique customizations that Ves practically had to draft an individual modification scheme for over two-hundred-and-fifty landbound mechs.

Every single attempt was like designing a variant. Even if he was a pretty good mech designer, designing that many variants in the span of a month was inhuman!

Still, just because the problem sounded daunting didn't mean Ves had no way of solving it. The first solution was to simplify the matter and categorize similar mechs into their own sub-categories. Ves would only have to put his full efforts on developing a modification scheme for only one of the mechs.

He would then dump the scheme in the laps of his deputies and order them to adjust them to the other mechs that shared the same base model. "I've been hogging so many duties that Mercator and Trozin are having it easy. It's about time for them to sweat on my behalf."

This wasn't an easy decision to make. Ves held the utmost confidence in his own skills, and he was never truly satisfied with the work of his lessers. Their current capabilities simply didn't garner any respect from him. Yet if Ves wanted to complete his work in time, he had no choice but to lower his standards and spread the workload to his lessers.

"Maybe they won't be able to produce the best work, but it should be good enough for the Vandals."

That was what mattered the most right now. Necessity and lack of time forced Ves to loosen up from his constant refrain of delivering the highest quality possible.

The approach went against his instincts. Ves would never tolerate such sloppiness in his own company. Unfortunately, reality wasn't so kind to grant him the time to slowly work his way through his problems.

"Speaking of problems, the Swordmaiden delegation is about to arrive."

Ves didn't know what to think about Lydia's Swordmaidens. Were they pirates or intelligence operatives masquerading as pirates?

"They certainly acted the part during the last battle."

According to Chief Haine, much of their actions could be chalked to posturing. They didn't really put their mind on this battle, but instead acted to improve their standing in front of the Vandals. Pirates thrived on reputation to a much greater degree because they couldn't depend on the law to protect them on their behalf.

Frightening or intimidating their peers was a survival mechanism to them. Just like how Ves relied on building up a reputation for quality to survive in the market, Lydia's Swordmaidens relied on their reputation for ferocity to fend off any bottom feeders with ill intentions.

Ves couldn't lie to himself. He was curious about the Swordmaidens. For all intents and purposes, they were probably the most amiable pirates he would ever encounter.

He arrived at the shuttle hangar bay at the appointed time. The majority of the servicemen aboard the Shield of Hispania already arrived early and stood at ranks. The Vandals decided not to roll out the dress uniforms because other threats could always pop up in the Remoss System.

"This is just an attempt to get a feel for each other." Chief Haine commented as Ves found his way to her side. "It's no secret that some bigwigs forced us to work together with the Swordmaidens. We don't have anything in common, so everyone is in a hurry to get to know each other."

Ves nodded. "This marriage is a little too forced. What happened in the last battle can't happen again."

A shuttle coated in the outfit colors of light green and blue slipped through the energy screen covering the open hangar entrance. The craft looked beaten but robust, and Ves instantly spotted the marks of frequent patchwork repairs.

The side of the craft carried a faded emblem of the Swordmaidens. It depicted a screaming woman in knight's armor holding a two-handed sword aloft against a backdrop of stars. The image it conveyed was as simple as a rock. Nobody would be able to mistake their identity or ideals.

When the shuttle touched down on the deck, the hatch slowly opened up.

First to leave were four serious-looking Swordmaidens in semi-powered heavy combat armor. Though not as strong as exoskeleton armor, these suits performed much better in confined spaces. They all looked like hey had plenty of experience in boarding enemy craft or invading enemy bases.

The second wave of women consisted of what appeared to be their officers. Every woman looked tall and strong, unnaturally so but not unusual in this day and age. Body modification was so ubiquitous in this day and age that even pirates had access to these kinds of services. Plenty of hack-job doctors made themselves home in various pirate stations.

These ones looked like they went the extra mile though. Some replaced their eyes with those of a cat, while others exhibited subtle scales over their skin.

Many Vandals held their breath in shock.

"Hybrids."

Ves would have mistaken them for citizens of the Coman Federation with their embrace of alien genes. While genetic modification was something to be frowned upon, he had long shed his naivete about the matter. Those in power needed to be better than the common man, and mixing your own genome with superior alien traits was the most expedient way of stretching or breaking the human limit.

Even so, most people in the upper class had the decency to hide their modifications and retain their baseline human appearances. The rare exceptions such as the transhuman crazies from the Coman Federation would be kept at a healthy distance in order to avoid polluting the minds of average people.

It was a good thing the Vandals had already been warned. Besides the shock of encountering alien features in the flesh, the excitement quickly subsided. It helped that the Swordmaiden officers hadn't resorted to more extreme deviations.

"They're women, after all." Chief Haine commented.

The Swordmaiden officers formed a line of their own and eyed the Vandals with challenging expressions. Compared to the functional burgundy-and-black uniforms of the Vandals, the Swordmaidens adorned themselves with barbaric-looking garments made out of exobeast pelts.

Reptilian, mammalian, covered with fur or scales and accompanied by a riot of colors, the Vandals struggled to find the meaning behind the clothes.

Ves saw what many others couldn't. His sixth sense rippled when he focused on the clothes. Each Swordmaiden invested a significant amount of emotion in those garments. Their shapes and colors didn't matter as much as what wearing them represented.

"Do you know what's going on with those clothes, chief?"

"From what I heard, the Swordmaidens consider it a rite of passage to hunt an exobeast on an untamed planet." Chief Haine replied. "They skin the pelts by themselves and fashion them into clothes. That's why some of them look cruder than others."

He understood the sentiment that came from this tradition. He felt much the same whenever he handcrafted a mech of his own design. Those women put their heart in this ritual. The fiercer the animal, the prouder the women wore the pelts fashioned from their kills.

The last person who emerged from the shuttle was the only woman who didn't wear any armor or outlandishly barbaric animal skins. Commander Lydia herself walked down, her greyish-black hair swaying in the air.

Despite her generic military-style suit, she looked as formidable as any other mech commander. Ves detected the same air of command he often sensed from Major Verle. This was a woman used to leadership. Different from Verle's professional restraint, the Swordmaiden leader wasn't shy about flaunting her strength.

Pirates and servicemen. The two groups couldn't be any more different.

"Daughters of the frontier, present arms!"

The Swordmaidens all drew the giant swords from their backs and held them pointed upwards in front of their faces.

"Reverse grip!"

Before any Vandal could figure out what was going on, the Swordmaiden officers swung their blades around until their faces faced the pommel of their weapons.

"Baptise this deck!"

Each of the women uttered a warcry as they thrust their swords into the hangar bay deck!

Some of the Vandals attempted to warn them. The deck of the hangar bay was rated to withstand crash landings from shuttles and mechs. An ordinary sword would never be able to pierce the thick alloy surface!

Yet the Swordmaidens managed to accomplish the impossible. Their valiant swords hit some resistance, but their physical strength combined with the unparalleled sharpness of their blades allowed them to thrust in their weapons until they had reached a finger's length through the deck!

The incomprehensible act had stolen the breath of every Vandal! Could the Swordmaidens still be considered human? What was this inhuman level of strength?

Ves, Chief Haine and a couple of others recognized the crux lay in the material composition of the swords. Though they looked like plain steel greatswords, their actual worth was probably measured in millions of credits. Each sword was a treasure of forging and craftsmanship.

Major Verle tried hard not to look displeased at the unexpected act of vandalizing the deck. Fixing the damage was no small matter. "Commander Lydia. It would behoove your ladies if they keep their swords in their scabbards. We don't want any misunderstandings to occur."

"My Swordmaidens know what to do." Commander Lydia gruffly answered as she stared at the major like a lioness eyeing her prey. When she briefly shifted her gaze to the other Vandals, her expression became discontented. "Your men needed a reminder of what we are capable of. We have found that many incidents can be avoided as long as we demonstrate a taste of how we fight."

Commander Lydia practically insinuated that the Vandals, or at least the male portion of them, were a bunch of lustful beasts. Tensions increased as many Vandals felt mildly offended, but Major Verle quickly waved his men to calm.

"We have prepared a sumptuous banquet for your arrival. Please follow me to the dining room."

The daughters of the frontier wordlessly advanced, sparing very little glances at the other Vandals. It was as if none of them earned any respect in their eyes.

Chapter 638

Lydia's Swordmaidens appeared horribly out of place with the elegant, wood-paneled dining room. The earthen, classy interior clashed violently against their colorful exobeast garments.

Nonetheless, the Swordmaidens remained relatively composed. They showed no signs of unfamiliarity with formal settings. Though the Flagrant Vandals wasn't the strictest mech regiment of the Mech Corps, they could be very traditional when they were serious.

The dining room hosted several large square dining tables. For clarity, the Swordmaidens were invited to sit on one side of the table, while the Vandals claimed the other side.

When the Swordmaidens were about to take their seats, they first detached the scabbards from their backs. Each scabbard incorporated a small antigrav module that allowed them to float in the air. The Swordmaidens placed them behind the backrest of their chairs, keeping them in easy reach and allowing them to draw their blades in an instant if necessary.

Not a single Vandal had the guts to request them to leave behind their swords. Many servicemen regretted leaving their backup pistols in the armory.

Commander Lydia and Major Verle took their places at the head of the main table. As soon as everyone took their places, the major stood up.

"Ladies and gentlemen. Vandals and Swordmaidens. We appear very different at first glance. Ordinarily, we should be facing each other on the battlefield. Yet circumstances have made us strange bedfellows. While I am aware that many of you have doubts, answers will soon be forthcoming. Suffice to say, I can think of very few combinations that are both flexible and formidable in battle! Together, we have wiped out the Masters of Combat from history!"

That gave both of them a lot of pride. If there was anything that lifted up the Vandals, it was a clean victory against a formidable opponent. Even the Swordmaidens felt pleased at this achievement.

"Despite our successes, many of you harbor questions. Questions about our mission. Questions on why we are heading to the frontier. Questions why the Swordmaidens and the Vandals need to combine our strength in the first place. Answers to all of these questions will soon be forthcoming. Due to the extremely confidential nature of our mission, the briefing will have to wait until we cross into the frontier and disable all of our quantum entanglement nodes aboard our ships, with the exception of our flagships. These extreme measures should already underscore the importance of our mission."

A lot of Vandals looked mildly alarmed when their commanding officer informed them that they would disable most of their quantum entanglement nodes. This was because the process of shutting them off was irreversible! Pulling the plug on the hardware would turn the machinery into an extremely expensive piece of scrap! These nodes communicated instantly across countless light-years through the interaction of matched pairs of particles.

Creating these matches pairs could only be done in a lab or a specialized production facility. Not a single mech regiment possessed the capability of producing new pairs of entangled particles to replace the ones that fizzled out.

Basically, the Vandals and the Swordmaidens willingly cut themselves off from the galactic net. Though they left two lifelines intact, Ves imagined that the remaining nodes would be put under heavy guard, to the extent of denying routine use of the nodes.

The impact of this announcement to the Vandals was profound. The idea of heading into the frontier with only a tenuous connection to civilized space was as frightening as crossing a cable over an endless chasm on foot. Only a single misstep was required to throw them into a fall they might never recover from! What kind of mission required such an extreme level of discretion?

Verle did not let his subordinates stew over this declaration too much. He silently clapped, causing numerous bots to float into the dining room and drop off the dishes to the hungry Vandals and Swordmaidens.

"Hmm!" Ves sniffed with a smile. "Finally, some real food! I'm sick and tired of those meals synthesized from nutrient packs."

A small piece of lizard-like leg had been served in front of him. The meat was topped with grey sauce and was surrounding with purple garnish that smelled like fresh ocean. Ves didn't recognize any of the ingredients, but it didn't matter too much. Every exomeat and exoplant safe for human consumption tended to taste the same after sampling enough of them. Human taste buds could be surprisingly lazy in some ways.

"Tastes like chicken." Chief Avanaeon muttered as he chewed his lizard leg like a piece of gum. "Correction, it tastes like a chewy piece of chicken."

Everyone from the technical branch of the Vandals sat around their own table. Ves, Chief Avanaeon, Chief Haine and a couple of other familiar figures faced a smaller number of unknown women.

Disconcertingly, the Swordmaidens sitting across the table looked no different from the Swordmaiden mech officers. Even their support personnel possessed the ability to chop someone up with their swords.

As the most sociable among the Vandals, Chief Haine broke the ice. "How's the food?"

"Adequate. Not as good as the meat we have harvested from our own kills."

Okay.

"So did all of you grow up in the frontier?"

The Swordmaidens nodded. The oldest woman among them who looked as if she came from the same generation as Lydia spoke up. "We know you civilized folk think the frontier is a wasteland of alien and environmental threats. You are right to think so. None of our planets have been subjected to the fancy terraforming you take for granted. The frontier isn't referred to as the untamed stars for nothing."

"How do you manage to live on those planets in the first place?"

"By the thread, mostly. By relying on our filtration systems, our hydroponic farms and our oxygen recyclers. Nearly every settlement is based around a life support system. Breathing air and drinking water is thousands of times more valuable there. We have all grown up to respect and fear the planet we call home. To many of us, leaving them is a dream."

Her eyes grew fervent and she threw a glance at Commander Lydia in the distance. Obviously many of the Swordmaidens owed everything to the woman who founded her own pirate gang.

They soon introduced each other. The oldest Swordmaiden turned out to be their head designer!

"You can call me Mayra." She spoke calmly. "We don't tend to use last names. They have no meaning among us. Every Swordmaiden is a sister."

Ves looked interested upon learning she was a mech designer. He quickly introduced himself before asking something that burned in his mind. "Are you the designer of the Misty Slasher?"

"It is one of my designs."

"I see. Your design is very capable. The implementation of miniboosters has doubled its effectiveness in spaceborn combat."

"Many of our Swordmaiden mech pilots don't like to wield a rifle. They're fussy and demand a lot more maintenance. Many times, our mechs are stranded on a planet for weeks. Running out of ammunition or batteries happens far too often during those times. The reliability of a plain alloy sword is what allows us to endure."

"That's on land. What about in space? Melee weapons are far less popular in spaceborn combat."

Mayra snorted. "Maybe in civilized space, that is so, but in the frontier it makes no difference. Navigating in the frontier is fraught with peril. If we are being chased by the sandmen, we could be driven far away from the stars we are familiar with. Without knowing the lay of the stars, we might not be able to encounter a port or trading settlement for months on end. Those fancy rifles we brought will break or run out of ammunition soon enough."

The Swordmaiden mech designer described a harsh life. Each sentence painted a bleak picture of living on the edge. Perhaps their ships were one oxygen recycling system away from suffocating in space. Mayra's design philosophy bore the scars of living in a region where safe harbor was nonexistent and where sandmen and other pirate scum was constantly out to get them. Ves widened his eyes at the woman once he realized an important fact.

"Please excuse me if I'm rude, but could I ask how far you've advanced?"

"I'm a Journeyman Mech Designer. I advanced more than a decade ago."

Not only Ves, but the chiefs sitting next to him all looked impressed. There were lots of mech designers struggling to make Apprentice or Journeyman back in civilized space. So many men and women have failed despite growing up in the most prosperous human Age, yet one single frontierswoman who probably never attended a school in her life managed to reach Journeyman anyway.

Was there any justice in life?!

"I-I-I see." Ves stuttered, having lost control for a bit. His respect for Mayra shot up tremendously. "No wonder the Misty Slasher is such a stable mech model. I've studied the battle footage several times and I'm amazed at how the miniboosters have never malfunctioned even once! How did you come to be such a good mech designer when you.."

"Grew up in the frontier?" Mayra smirked sardonically at Ves. "Kid, there's more than one way to become a mech designer than attend one of your elitist mech universities. Haven't you heard about mentorships and apprenticeships? You'd be surprised at how many mech designers are driven from civilized space. Commander Lydia happened to sponsor my apprenticeship to one of these exiles when I showed a lot of promise in tinkering with machines. Meeting my mentor was the best day of my life. I can't thank Lydia enough for introducing me to the old pervert."

As Mayra chuckled to herself, Ves grew curious about who could have mentored her into becoming a Journeyman. From her wording, he ruled out the possibility of her teacher being Master Mech Designer.

That possibility would have been ridiculous regardless. Each Master was a treasure of humanity. Even Master Null of the Leemar Institute of Technology stopped his flight once he reached the Komodo Star Sector.

"My mentor is one of the greatest mech designers in our region of the frontier. His talents might not be the equal of your impressive Masters, but there is hardly any better mech designer that can design a great mech with so little means. Among the pirates and the outcasts of the frontier, his name ranks among the top of their community."

"Who is he?" Ves asked with bated breath.

"He is Skull Architect Jimenez."

This caused another ripple of shock among the Vandals at the table. Skull Architect Jimenez! While his name inspired awe and respect in the frontier, the Komodo Star Sector mainly associated his name with fear!

"Isn't he the.. eccentric who incorporates human bones in his mechs?"

Ves almost called the Skull Architect a madman, but thought better of it at the last second. After all, Mayra hadn't grown up hearing horror stories about the promising mech designer turned serial killer! Skull Architect Jimenez earned his moniker by his crazy beliefs that mechs inherited a shadow of the soul that lingered in human remains.

Supposedly, Jimenez was one of those mech designers that had been driven mad in his relentless pursuit to uncover the secrets behind the X-Factor!

What would Jimenez think if he got wind of what Ves had accomplished? Perhaps his skull would decorate the Skull Architect's latest mech!

Mayra recognized the expression of fear on his face. She boldly laughed. "Don't be a scaredy-cat, kid. The only thing you need to be afraid of old pervert is his grabby hands. It took me years to unlearn my instinct of drawing my sword upon feeling his wrinkled hands brushing against my body. His days of killing people and embedding their bones in his mechs are long past."

Ves took those words with a grain of salt. Of course his protege would defend him. It wasn't as if she was one of the many thousands who ended up missing to fuel his mad experiments!

Up to this date, the MTA still maintained the bounty issued upon the Skull Architect's head!

Chapter 639

If Ves ignored her giant sword and her exobeast clothes, Mayra looked and spoke no different from a genuine Journeyman Mech Designer. However, Ves simply couldn't ignore what her veneer of civility covered up. She was not only a daughter of the frontier, she also learned her craft from a mech designer that earned the rare privilege of earning a bounty on his head from the MTA!

A Senior Mech Designer ordinarily wouldn't be kicked from their membership rolls even if they had some blood on their hands. They were mostly content to leave law enforcement in the hands of the states.

Only a couple of exceptions roused them into action. One of them would be to break one of the taboos. Another one would be to violate the tenets of mech design.

Skull Architect Jimenez was guilty of the latter.

Whatever depraved theory he came up with in his fruitless search for the X-Factor compelled him to make use of human remains.

It would have been one thing if he killed random thugs or slaves from the frontier. The Skull Architect detested lowlives. The personality of a mech was defined by its soul. Embedding the soul of a thug in his mechs would merely drag them down.

Jimenez only wanted the best for his mechs. In that sense, his pursuit for perfection was disturbingly similar to Ves' insistence for quality.

To the Skull Architect, only the bones of mech pilots qualified as valid raw materials. The better the mech pilot, the better his mechs performed, at least according to his fantasy. His bone-infused products never performed any different to his regular mechs.

He initially began his experiments with utilizing the bones of dead mech pilots that scavengers picked up from long-abandoned battlefields. These bones usually had little value, so it didn't take much effort for someone like Jimenez to get their hands on them. Sadly, the Skull Architect concluded that rotten bones did not make for good materials.

Only the freshest bones satisfied his cravings!

Mech pilots in the Vermeer Group in the Friday Coalition started to disappear. No one knew where they had wandered off to. However, the kidnappers had been capable enough to clean up their tracks, so the truth behind their disappearances had long been an unsolved mystery.

All of this changed once he crossed the line. Unsatisfied with the results of his experiments up to date, he came to the conclusion that his raw ingredients weren't good enough.

The souls of basic mech pilots and advanced mech pilots weren't strong enough to provide any measurable boosts to his mechs. Only expert pilots would do.

One day, a famous expert pilot ended up missing.

The entire Vermeer Group panicked and sprung into action. The disappearance of thousands mech pilots didn't matter to a behemoth that was one of the principal partners of the Friday Coalition. Yet the disappearance of a single expert pilot was completely different!

With the full investigative might of the Vermeer Group brought to bear, it only took half a day to track down the kidnappers, work their way up to the ones who issued the contract, and from there beat out the name of their client from their mouths.

To their horror, the one who was responsible for kidnapping and ultimately killing their prized demigod was none other than a respected Senior Mech Designer.

It was a wonder he managed to flee the Coalition and stay out of reach from the vengeful hunters of the Mech Trade Association. His depraved experiments defiled the honor of expert pilots and cast a stain upon the profession of mech designers!

The scandal remained a hot topic for weeks in the entire star sector!

To her credit, Mayra didn't seem offended at the reactions of Ves and the chiefs. If anything, she took it as a badge of honor. "My mentor is extremely dangerous. He has to be in order to survive in the frontier."

"What kind of status does he enjoy in the frontier?" Ves asked.

The Skull Architect had dropped out of the news ever since he fled from civilized space. Heck, many people thought he was dead!

"My mentor is one of the main shareholders of Malligan's Pitstop, a medium-sized independent pirate station. His mech industry is based there. Mechs sold from the station carries his personal guarantee. His word is as good as certification from the MTA."

"Ah." Ves understood. "There's no oversight from the MTA beyond civilized space."

In civilized space, mech designers and purchasers of mechs relied on the MTA's long-standing system of validating mech designs and certifying every mech that rolled off the production lines. Ves had taken this reliable system for granted. He had never thought of a time where he wouldn't be able to rely on those services.

The scams taking place in the underground markets of Harkensen III had already given him a taste of how difficult it was to do business without a neutral arbiter. The only way a layman could purchase a reliable product that performed as advertised was to hire a mech appraiser.

The problem that came with this choice was that there was little anyone could do if a mech appraiser was biased. During his previous strolls in the grey and black markets, Ves witnessed the appraisers discretely favoring one stall owner's products of another. Who could say if the mech appraiser hadn't already been bought by the stall owners?

"I gather you play a very important role with the Swordmaidens. It's different here. Many smaller mercenary corps and other outfits can do just fine without a mech designer on retainer. They can largely trust what they buy from the market."

Mayra snorted as she took a few sips of the soup that arrived next. "Trust is impossible to achieve from where we come from. The only loyalty comes from our family, and the Swordmaidens do a good job in binding us together. Unless you know and fought alongside someone for years, you can't trust anyone you meet. This is even more vital when it comes to mechs. It's our main weapon and the only way we can defend ourselves. A group without a mech designer will always remain a lackey to others."

They continued to talk about the differences mech designers faced in their different environments. In civilized space, mech designers flooded the industry. Millions of them graduated from the Komodo Star Sector alone. The market couldn't possibly accommodate all of them, therefore leading to a situation where competition had reached an increasingly brutal degree.

"There aren't that much mech designers in the frontier." Mayra explained the floating bots picked up her half-empty plate and replaced it with some kind of gelatinous substance. "The education system in the frontier isn't very developed. Most people learn from automatic teaching programs or through browsing free lessons on the galactic. Genuine teachers are worth their weight in exotics. It's exceptionally difficult to raise engineers and technicians when there's hardly any place to learn."

"Let alone a higher institution, many places don't even offer high school or elementary school-level classes." Ves added. "To raise a qualified ship engineer or mech technician, you need to educate the students from the very start."

The age of ten was widely used as the starting point of a child's future development. Before the state tested their aptitude, their future was in flux. Anyone could become a mech pilot, and lots of children held out hope even if their odds were small.

Once they reached this magical age, the truth would finally emerge. Many received a negative result, which meant their aspirations to become a mech pilot had been dashed. From then on, the children needed to find another calling, and take classes that would bring them closer to their future careers.

"Children are some of the most precious resources in our region. It is ten times harder for them to grow up there than in your safe and structured space. When we say that every Swordmaiden in our group is a daughter of the frontier, it carries a special meaning to us."

Mayra gazed at a younger Swordmaiden sitting next to her. Ves did not spot any family resemblance. While Mayra's genetic modification tinted her skin in a subtle shade of purple, the other girl's modifications had changed given her a pair of horns that looked strong enough to impale someone in the way.

She looked like a little demoness in a way. There was no telling what other modifications she hid underneath her clothes that consisted of a dragon scale-like pelt that glittered in orange and red.

Despite the lack of resemble, the Journeyman Mech Designer obviously cared a lot about the girl. She introduced the young girl to Ves. "This Ketis, my oldest student."

"I'm your first student!" Ketis growled. The girl looked ready to stare her teacher to death.

"Don't mind her. Ketis hasn't been exposed to the greater galaxy yet. She's barely earned her battle clothes."

"I slayed a Wistra Dragon with my own sword!"

Mayra laughed. "Hunting a single exobeast does not mean you are ready to spread your wings. Mech designers like us are valued in the frontier, but that also means that many pirates want to obtain us, and they don't care how. This cocky attitude of yours will land you in trouble eventually."

The pair of Swordmaidens bickered for a while. Ves had the feeling that Mayra regarded Ketis as her adopted daughter. However, while Mayra was tempered by age and experience, Ketis was flush with the excitement of her youth and aggressive upbringing. The Swordmaidens raised their maidens to be warriors, regardless of their ultimate vocation.

"You spend too much time on combat practice and not enough on your studies. You've already fallen behind on your mechanics classes! How are you supposed to design your own swordsman mech if you keep insisting on sparring against other Swordmaidens!"

"Don't tell me what to do! I'm a full-fledged Swordmaiden now! What I want to do with my time is none of your business!"

The family drama sounded surprisingly mundane if it didn't involve lethal weapons that could cut through the hangar bay deck. Ves found the idea of a sword-wielding mech designer absurd, but evidently Ketis tried her best to excel in both.

"Mech designers don't have to be combat marines or special forces operatives." He chipped in, wanting to provide his own perspective on the matter. "While it's true that relying on your own strength is foolproof, the problem is that you can only split your time to a certain extent. Many mech designers have never reached their full potential because they never made a plan or indulge themselves in too many distractions."

"How am I supposed to defend myself, huh?" Ketis retorted.

"By relying on others. That's the ultimate lot for mech designers. You never hear stories as mech designers that are excellent soldiers. It simply can't be done. It takes a lifetime to study the art of designing mechs. If you only spend half of your time on designing mechs and the other half on becoming a better warrior, you'll only end up average in both at best."

The young girl violently shook her head. "I don't believe that! It doesn't take too much time to keep up with my sword practice."

This must have been an old argument for the couple. Ketis' attitude would have never been tolerated in civilized space. Mech designers who lazed about or got distracted by other activities quickly became redundant in the industry. Employers could easily replace the slackers with more motivated mech designers.

As the dishes floated in and out of the dining room, the Vandals became a bit more accustomed to the hybrid-looking Swordmaidens. They were still human, in a way.

Mayra began to probe Ves on his background and accomplishments. She became mildly impressed when she found out that Ves had founded his own company and managed to become a nominal disciple to a Master Mech Designer.

"It's not so impressive." Ves said, not wishing to make a mountain out of a molehill. "I'm merely a part of the periphery in Master Olson's organization. I'm in no way comparable to her direct disciples."

The pirate mech designer eyed him with an appraising look. "You seem like you have a good head on your shoulders. Your grasp on mech design is more encompassing than the usual collection of fugitives that arrive in our region of space. I'd like you to tutor Ketis for a time."

"What?!" Ketis erupted. "That's absurd! I've got nothing to learn from this fellow!"

Even Ves was shocked. Though he understood Mayra's intentions, an unwilling student was the worst kind of student!

Chapter 640

"The Skull Architect taught me more than theory or how to design a mech." Mayra spoke, brushing aside her bright purple hair. Whether her hair turned purple because she dyed it or because her genes had compelled it to, Ves couldn't guess. "He conveyed the attitude of a proper mech designer to me. Not a crafter of machines, neither a merchant of death, but a servant for mech pilots."

Ketis scoffed at that. "That's a stupid attitude to take. Without us, mech pilots would still be piloting primitive machines that's half as good as what they are using now."

"Do you see?" The older Swordmaiden shrugged her shoulders at her young charge. "Confidence is vital to our shared profession, but arrogance is a deadly poison. When I grew up, the Swordmaidens was just an embryo of what we have accomplished today. I'm afraid that Ketis has taken too much of our comforts for granted. Back then, I had to compete against other mech designers, and work hard to earn the recognition of the Skull Architect."

Madman or not, a Senior Mech Designer usually possessed enough self-respect to adhere to the traditional customs surrounding mentorships. The pupil had to be worthy and compatible to the design philosophy he adhered to. Raising an unworthy mech designer beyond their level of competence reflected badly on the mentor.

"What about the Skull Architect? Won't he adopt your protege?"

"I've tried. He's a much more prestigious mech designer now. His standards aren't as low as they used to be. He only accepts the most promising pupils, or ones that will gain him favor among the pirate factions that rule over the Faris Star Region."

The Faris Star Region was the chunk of space adjacent to the Komodo Star Sector. For now, the classification purely existed on paper, but if the CFA ever decided to expand the borders of human space, the Faris Star Region would likely transform into the Faris Star Sector.

"I see. That's unfortunate for you. The opportunity to study under the wing of a formal Senior is very precious. Still, I'm not the equal of a Senior by any means. What is it you are asking me to teach, exactly?" Ves frowned.

He did not look forward to teaching what appeared to be the frontier equivalent of a spoiled brat. The attitude to mech design shown by Ketis meshed fairly poorly against Ves, who had always labored hard to the point that many people called him a workaholic.

"You see what I have to work with?" Mayra said as she threw an exasperated look at Ketis, who studiously ignored the two in favor of gobbling up a tart. "The way we Swordmaidens raise our kin is geared towards turning them into warriors and survivors. This is fitting for mech pilots, but not for mech designers. By the time I realized this difference, it's already too late."

"Weakness is never a mistake!" Ketis exclaimed. "You know what the untamed stars are like. There's danger every step of the way. The moment we let our guard down is the moment we're at someone else's mercy."

Ves tried to be patient. "This sounds fine and all, but there's a thing called specialization. An outfit where mech pilots moonlight as mech technicians and mech designers try to become soldiers is a messed up group that won't survive in the long run. One good mech designer is as valuable as thousands of average mech designers, and I'm not joking about this! Quantity means nothing in our field. The quality of your Swordmaiden mechs is directly proportional to the skill level of your best mech designer. What will happen to your group when Mayra is taken away from you all? Who will be left to pick up the pieces?"

In his perspective, Lydia's Swordmaidens lucked out when they managed to nurture a Journeyman Mech Designers. Countless mercenary corps in the Komodo Star Sector would envy them if they heard some lowly pirate gang managed to gain a mech designer that could easily found their own companies and earn billions in revenue within the span of a single year.

In fact, it wouldn't be difficult for Mayra and Ketis to change their identities, They only needed to clean up their hybrid appearances, and pretend to come from a secluded planet in a forgotten corner of the star sector, and fake some credentials by bribing some struggling schools and institutions.

Ves knew this happened a lot, because he'd seen a couple of vendors advertising these kinds of services from Harkensen's black markets.

Of course, Lydia had done a good job in binding her Swordmaidens together. Their bond of sisterhood was of a slightly higher degree than the comradeship of the Vandals. Recruiting them when they were at a young and impressionable age and indoctrinating them to be completely loyal to the organization had turned them into completely loyal pawns.

When he looked at it, Commander Lydia had done everything possible to bind the Swordmaidens to her cause. The ties of sisterhood, the strange and unique customs, the proliferation of genetic modification, all of these measures isolated them further and further from the general norm and turned them into a separate and distinct tribe of humanity.

It was no wonder the Swordmaidens regarded other people as filth, while those very same people dismissed the Swordmaidens as barbaric amazons. Breeding the feelings of isolation and contempt for others was a surefire way of keeping your underlings under control.

This realization had upped his regard for Commander Lydia by another notch. Ves could learn a lot from her methods. He was already taking mental notes of her methodology. Once he returned to civilian life, he could apply the best practices on the Avatars of Myth and his yet-as-unnamed shadow force.

"So what do you think, Larkinson?" Mayra prodded him. "I think you have a good point regarding specialization. This is even more dire in the frontier where there is a large shortage in skilled technical personnel and reliable fabrication equipment. When something becomes scarce, it becomes valued. Ketis, the best form of protection is to remain valuable to your sisters. Knowing how to swing a sword may earn their respect, but you will lose your place among them. The Swordmaidens don't have the room to accommodate a useless sister."

This argument shut Ketis up. The girl might have been brash, but the crux of the matter was that she tried hard to fit in. Her participation in all of these martial rituals allowed her to connect with her fellow sisters, but the more she spent time away from advancing her mech design ability, the worse off she would be at the end.

"Are you a Novice or an Apprentice?" Ves asked.

"She's a Novice." Mayra answered for Ketis when she looked peeved. "While she doesn't have the diplomas or MTA certificates to prove it, she's at a comparable level in every way you look at it. It is no problem for her to design a variant of the Misty Slasher or our other melee mechs. She can design variants of other melee mechs if she puts in more effort into her studies, but she's a long distance away from designing her first original mech."

Basically, the horned young woman with short green hair and an athletic stature was at the start of her formal mech design career. The status of a Novice wasn't very high, but at least it was better than someone who hadn't graduated at all. Ketis was a couple of years younger than him, so her current achievement was comparable to Ves at the start of his own career.

"Hmph." Ves considered the pros and cons. "I'm not sure my superiors will agree to this. I can't teach her very well over the galactic net. She has to intern on the Shield of Hispania."

Mayra waved her hand dismissively. "No problem. I'll tell Lydia to convince your boss to let Ketis be your guest designer. You don't need to hand over any classified materials to her. Just show her what you are allowed to show off. My main concern with Ketis' upbringing is that she hasn't been exposed to the essence of a mech designer's role. She's too familiar with the Swordmaidens and I, so she isn't able to divorce her feelings from business. I hope that you can bring her in a different environment and open her eyes in a way that can allow her to become independent when she comes back."

"That's a tall order, you know. Forget about mech designers from the frontier, even a huge chunk of classically-trained mech designers in civilized space aren't able to stand on their own two feet. For every success story, there are thousands of outright failures. I can't guarantee that Ketis can climb over this cliff."

He hadn't closed the door to this proposal entirely, which pleased Mayra a bit. She leaned back against her seat and crossed her arms. "I can make it worth your while."

"What can you offer? Mind you, I'm burdened by many responsibilities right now. I won't abuse my authority."

"Oh?" She raised an eyebrow. "I've kept an eye on your salvage parties. Many of them scoured over the debris field strewn with broken stealth shuttle pieces. Ordinarily, these pieces of debris shouldn't garner that much interest, as they're far too disintegrated to piece together a working machine."

His eyes grew sharp at the mention. He wanted to keep his interest in stealth technology quiet, but Mayra had been too perceptive for that. He might as well spill the beans, then.

"Investigating stealth technology is something of an interest of mine, primarily because I've been the victim of it several times. Who doesn't want to beat these cloaked bastards at their own game?"

The Journeyman smiled. "Stealth tech is unfathomable to most mech designers. Only the major factions have a grasp on this field, and they are very jealous about who gets to master it. Building an understanding of stealth tech from tiny pieces of shuttle debris is as futile as attempting to learn an alien language with only ten minutes of recordings. There are too many gaps that no amount of imagination can fill."

She wouldn't bring this topic up without a good reason.

"What is your offer, then? It's rather a stretch for me to believe you have access to stealth tech."

"You are correct." She laughed. "In the frontier, stealth tech is even more valuable, because it allows you to avoid pirates, sandmen and countless other threats. The few people who have access to this tech hoard it like a precious resource. It won't be easy to get in touch with someone who has an understanding of this tech, but I happen to know a very good mech designer who does."

Ves didn't have to think long and hard to come up with a name. "You're not talking about Skull Architect Jimenez, are you?"

"Correct! Before the Friday Coalition chased him away, he enjoyed a very high status in the Vermeer Group. He worked for many clients over the years, and as he advanced to Senior, the Vermeer Group drew him closer by inviting him to participate in several classified collaborative projects. In one such instance, he became involved with improving the design of a stealth mech. While he wasn't the specialist in charge of working with the stealth tech, he observed many details and is able to recall almost everything. Among the mech designers in the frontier, he is one of the great authorities on stealth tech for that reason."

She wasn't exaggerating. The Skull Architect worked on a second-class mech built to the standards of a second-rate state. The stealth capabilities of their stealth mechs far surpassed the capabilities of the stealth shuttles from the Masters of Combat.

Despite his recent resolutions, Ves couldn't help but salivate for that knowledge. His obsession with stealth technology sparked to life within his body, and were it not for the formal banquet occasion, he might have already bent down to his knees to beg the pirate mech designer for access!

Chapter 641

Ves understood that he had entered into a negotiation with Mayra. The pirate mech designer wanted something from Ves.

While she could have put Ketis under the tutelage of any other pirate mech designer, hardly any of them possessed the foundation and experience of a legitimate mech designer, let alone an aberration like him!

Before the conversation turned into this direction, Ves hadn't obscured his own background. Though he attempted to understate his accomplishments for fear of sparking any suspicions, his meteoric rise nonetheless marked him out as a mech designer with a bright future ahead of himself. It was no wonder that Mayra thought favorable to him to the point of wanting to put Ketis under his wing.

As long as Major Verle and Professor Velten cleared the decision, he wasn't opposed to the decision. In fact, he even figured the exchange of favors might tie the Swordmaidens closer to the Vandals.

The two had almost nothing in common, so accepting a guest designer might help ease the friction between their forceful marriage.

In addition, the main prize was a grand one. Even a casual glimpse in the principles of modern stealth tech would be enough to form a beacon in the dark. As long as Ves became familiar with the overarching concepts, he could figure out the exact science behind their applications on his own. Naturally, he preferred it if he could get his hands on more than just a taste. The more details he obtained, the less gaps he needed to fill.

He realized that he had the upper hand in this negotiation. A successful mech designer like Ves was hard to come by, and while he was too young to be a proper mentor, Mayra didn't expect him to teach Ketis everything. Teaching her the essence of their profession was something he could do in his sleep, and if Ketis showed a little more enthusiasm that would have been perfect.

Therefore, Ves wasn't in a hurry to agree. He also identified a very big caveat in Mayra's offer.

"All you've told me so far is that the Skull Architect possesses knowledge that is useful to me. But what about you?"

Mayra awkwardly shrugged. "My mentor hasn't seen fit to impart me with an understanding in stealth tech. He does not spread his teachings lightly, let alone on a sensitive matter such as this. However, as a former student of his, I can introduce you to him and beg him for a favor. As long as you make a persuasive case, he won't object to showing you a trick or two."

Ves looked at Mayra as if she had lost her mind. "So you only promise to get me in touch with the Skull Architect, and that's it? Let's not mind the fact that you want me to talk with someone who earned the ire of the MTA, I don't see why a Senior Mech Designer would want to waste his time with me. I doubt that either of us can offer anything meaningful in exchange."

"I admit, it's not the guarantee you are hoping for, but this is the extent of my reach. Do you know how valuable it is to receive a lesson from the Skull Architect? Many pirate mech designers knock on his door each day to be taken in as his student! With my help, you'll at least have a foot in the door!"

"Yeah, only for the door to slam into it as it closes. The opportunity you're dangling over my head doesn't interest me. I already have a teacher, and I have access to many channels of knowledge. I'm not particularly eager to get in touch with a fugitive, and if it becomes publicly known that I did so, my reputation in civilized space will go down the drain."

That last point concerned him quite a bit, though unless someone possessed solid proof, Ves could still fight back to an extent. The effort would be too much, though, and some people would always harbor suspicions.

"Mr. Larkinson." She said seriously. "You'll be doing the Swordmaidens a favor if you accept. You may call us pirates, but we aren't ungrateful. Besides that, you don't have to accept my request if you fail to get anything out of my old mentor."

That sounded more reasonable, but Ves wasn't satisfied with just a single added condition. "What if I only partially succeed in prying something valuable out of the Skull Architect's grasp?"

"I can make it up to you. We have much to offer, from connections to other pirate organizations to entry in various black markets. You'll be able to obtain resources there that you won't be able to find in civilized space."

The pair discussed the details in hushed tones. While the Swordmaidens had access to various exotics and other resources that was in short supply in any other place, Ves had no need for these unique materials. Most of them would only be useful in special applications such as building high-spec components for expert mechs.

In contrast, Ves was much more interested in her offer to introduce him to various black markets. These were unlike the sanitized versions that did business in the Harkensen System. Gaining entry in these markets represented that Ves would be able to obtain much of the bounty from the Faris Star Region as long as he paid a sufficient price.

The banquet ended before they could go in on this topic. Ves sighed and stood up along with the rest. While Major Verle led Commander Lydia and their inner circle to a confidential meeting, Ves shook Mayra's hand.

"It's a pleasure meeting you. I'll think about your offer." He said, hardly straining at the Journeyman's surprisingly powerful grip.

"LIkewise. If there is an opportunity, I will explain the matter to Commander Lydia and your superiors. If they assent to my proposal, we shall proceed from there."

Mayra left the dining room along with half of the Swordmaiden. The junior sisters among them such as Ketis had been left behind.

A mech officer stepped up. "Do you want to go get a drink? Have a spar or two? Or maybe both at the same time?"

"Bring us to what passes for your sparring ring!" A Swordmaiden spoke with a grin. Many of her sisters looked eager to test the mettle of the Vandals. She abruptly reached for her giant sword and unsheathed it from its floating scabbard. "If you have weapons that can match our swords, then that's great! If not, I suppose we can spar like our children!"

The more macho fellows among the Vandals took offense at her boast. For hours they tried to remain polite while the Swordmaidens challenged their masculinity at every step. The men wanted to show to these dangerous, exotic women that they weren't pushovers!

As for Ves, he shook his head and ignored the coming fiasco. The Flagrant Vandals was a military mech regiment. It's entire purpose revolved around fielding mechs. If the contest involved a spar between mechs, then Ves would put his money on the Vandals. Yet when it came to physical prowess, then he would put every credit on the Swordmaidens.

Their genetic modification was no joke! Subtle ones allowed humans to retain their appearances, but the tradeoff was that the effects were weak. More drastic changes inevitably introduced a change in phenotypes. In other words, the alien traits became more dominant to the point where the weaker human traits started to lose ground.

The more alien a hybrid looked like, the more their strength and attributes resembled the alien they borrowed their genes from! Naturally, the risks became greater at this point, as hybridization often proved to be irreversible. A poor match of genes could have unpredictable and extreme results!

It was the number one source of insanity among the upper class!

"Lydia's Swordmaidens are playing with fire. They should take care to learn from the lessons of the Age of Conquest."

Hybridization became increasingly prevalent among those who could afford to undergo such treatments. Back then, the enthusiasm for shedding the limited human form had led to a race among exobiologists. They developed radical new patterns without taking the time to understand the repercussions of what they offered.

Many of them might grant powerful physical or mental enhancements, but they also introduced radical changes in behavior. These changes required decades of formal trials to identify, but the freewheeling market of genetic modification couldn't afford to wait that long for a new product to be released!

"What happened next was a disaster."

Entire swathes of statesmen and admirals became power hungry and belligerent! A president of a third-rate state might abruptly declare war against a powerful second-rate state. An admiral might order the annihilation of a highly-populated planet because of a perceived insult from its rulers.

"The Age of Conquest is a time in human history when mankind conquered the aliens. It is also a time where aliens have conquered man."

The unsurpassed achievement of conquering half the galaxy, only to suffer genocide of their own making when alien genes turned the ruling class insane represented the duality of this past era.

From the brink of success, to the brink of annihilation, many humans who lived today often sighed about this complex time in history. What would have happened if regulators reined in the exobiologists and geneticists? Would humanity end up as the only space-faring species in the galaxy if they hadn't turned their genocidal instincts inwards?

As Ves exited the dining room and walked back to his office compartment, he wondered whether this proposal was a good idea in the first place.

"Associating with someone who's called the Skull Architect isn't exactly the most prudent career decision."

He already had the System, the Clifford Society and Master Olson to assist him with mech design-related issues. Though it appeared he was spoiled for choice, all three channels came with caveats, and access to them could be taken away from him at any time.

"A crafty rabbit has at least three burrows."

Anything could happen in the future. If Ves ever suffered a similar fate to the Skull Architect, then at least two of his burrows would collapse while the third one likely couldn't help at all. If nothing else, even if the entire galaxy hated his guts, he could always find shelter in the lawless frontier.

"Preparing a fourth burrow won't take too much effort. If I can take advantage of the circumstances and establish ties with one of the power brokers of the Faris Star Region, then I'll have a firm footing in the underground."

Ves received a lot of warnings about dealing with the underground when he studied mech design. Many of his colleagues fell to easy temptations put out by seemingly generous pirates. Once the mech designers found themselves in their clutches, it turning out the sweet offers had been nothing more than a lure. Those unfortunate mech designers became permanent 'employees' of those pirate gangs, and were generally never heard from again.

These unsavory stories illustrated the double-edged nature of becoming involved in the underground. Everyone was out for themselves, and the rule of law and the sanctity of contracts held no sway here. Without sufficient strength and cunning, one would always be a victim of one of the sharks that trawled the frontier regions.

This was also why he didn't immediately agree to Mayra's proposal. Even if he was a mech designer, Skull Architect Jimenez was one of the biggest sharks in the sea of stars! A careless gesture might earn his ire, or worse, trigger his obsession!

"This fugitive killed thousands of mech pilots, and went as far as butchering an expert pilots and pull out his bones to incorporate them in one of his mechs!"

That particular blend of madness spoke of extreme irrationality that was the bane to any mech designer! Basically, any interaction with the Skull Architect would be fraught with peril! Who knew if he turned some kind of switch in the Senior's addled mind!

The risks would surely quadruple in his case because of his hidden specialty! What could Ves do if the Skull Architect somehow managed to discover the truth behind his work!

Ves therefore felt leery about contacting the Skull Architect in the first place. If the X-Factor hadn't been so difficult to define and understand, Ves would have never entertained the offer in the first place.

Chapter 642

"Still.. With great risk comes great reward. What If I turn this equation around?"

Another way of looking at this risky opportunity was that Ves held the key to the Skull Architect's lifelong obsession!

If Ves wielded his absolute advantage in this poorly understood field with finesse, then he might be able to extract a lot of concessions from the Skull Architect!

As an influential mech designer in a region of space where Masters didn't exist and capable mech designers were in short supply, the Skull Architect should be one of the region's peak characters.

Gaining access to this channel should be a boon to him. It added another contingency option to him should his other channels prove to be useless. Forming a relationship, however faint, to the Skull Architect would enable him to establish a foothold in the frontier.

He needed to be exceptionally cautious, of course, and it wasn't a given that he could arouse the Skull Architect's interest. Ves had to balance between offering something of interest while keeping suspicions to a minimum.

While Ves contemplated his this thorny issue, elsewhere various people gathered.

In the secured conference room aboard the Shield of Hispania, a small gathering of Vandals and Swordmaidens held their breaths as their leaders brought out a number of hand-sized encrypted data chips from a locked container.

For some reason, Lord Javier of House Eneqqin was there as well. The lone Vesian noble's presence should have been a cause for alarm, but right now it appeared he had shed his shackles entirely.

"Hurry up and place them together." He impatiently urged. "I want to see what all the fuss is about!"

Major Verle and Commander Lydia placed each of them onto the table in a certain way. Each data chip was shaped like a pie slice with a truncated tip. A magnetic force slotted them next to each other, forming a bagel-like circle that hummed as if hidden mechanisms roused themselves from sleep.

The Flagrant Vandals contributed five encrypted data chips, while Lydia's Swordmaidens surprisingly brought out six of them! The Vandals labored so long to gather this much data chips, yet the Swordmaidens seem to get their hands on them without too much issue!

Certain goods were much easier to obtain in the frontier than in civilized space!

"Something is happening."

Glowing purple lines emanated from the circle of data chips. Strange digital sounds beeped from the amalgamation, and suddenly the seams between the stupendously resilient housing of the data chips started to melt and fuse together!

They had tested the durability of the external housing, and according to their estimations, it was strong enough to survive a supernova! Yet now it easily gave way to each other!

It was as if this device had once been whole. The appearance of the fused circular object radiated a sense of completion, enchanting everyone present in this meeting. After a couple of seconds of internal adjustments, a projection sprang into being from the circular object.

"What is this?" Mayra asked with furrowed brows.

Lieutenant Commander Soapstone gestured for calm. "Be patient. The projection may be in a transition state. We have no way of knowing what advanced technology is at work here."

"Whatever is going on, that sure as hell doesn't look like a star chart." Lord Javier said with a sardonic smile. "Maybe it's a giant middle finger from the Starlight Megalodon."

Major Verle furrowed. After all their efforts into gathering eleven encrypted data chips, they did not appreciate any pranks.

The projection cycled through incomprehensible geometric shapes. Perhaps they formed lines of codes, perhaps they could only be interpreted through math, but whatever the case, nobody present understood a single piece of what was being projected.

Finally, the stream of shapes and symbols disappeared. What emerged out of the fused object was a single shape whose meaning was clear to everyone.

"It's an arrow." Lord Javier stated the obvious. "Where is it pointed at?"

"It's pointed towards the frontier." Commander Lydia stated. "This isn't a star chart. It's a star compass!"

The Vesian noble snorted. "For a compass, it's rather wobbly. Did you bump the data chips around or something?"

"The only other answers are that the location is in flux, or that the shaking is intentional." Captain Rakeshir said.

Everyone took in the implications of these possibilities. The crashed battleship didn't make their hunt any easier!

Eventually, Major Verle sighed. "The purpose of this star compass is clear. We need to bring to follow its direction and bring it closer to the coordinates of the Starlight Megalodon."

At this point, if the people present recorded the wobbly arrow and extrapolated the direction it pointed at, it would have included an expanding cone of space that was roughly two degrees wide!

A cone of two degrees didn't sound very much if the compass pointed at something a couple of meters away. It was sufficient to pick out a single person out of a small crowd of people.

Yet it was a different matter in stellar navigation! The two degree cone encompassed an increasingly wider area of space, to the point of enveloping billions of stars as it ceaselessly expanded towards the edge of the galaxy!

The limitations of the star compass forced the Flagrant Swordmaidens to wield it as a dowsing rod. Like looking for a source of water in ancient times, they needed to bring it closer and closer to the point of origin. The smaller the distance, the more stars they ruled out. Eventually, they could come close enough to narrow down the exact star the device directed them to go.

Nobody questioned the convoluted hoops they had to go through. Neither did they voice the doubts they might harbor about the authenticity of the encrypted data chips. The Vandals and the Swordmaidens had no say in the matter.

All they needed to do was to follow orders. Even if they thought they were chasing after a unicorn, they would do so wholeheartedly because that was what their bosses expected them to do. Out of all of them, the only free agent might be Lord Javier.

The cocky young noble smirked at the complex looks of the people attending this meeting. "Not what you expected, huh? Just face it! Whoever is in charge of the Starlight Megalodon is playing us like puppets on a string!"

"Enough." Verle spoke calmly. "Let us chart our next course. If nothing else, we are no longer blind to where we must travel."

As the Vandal and Swordmaiden officers hashed out a route, elsewhere other factions were making their moves.

In the Hafner Duchy of the Vesia Kingdom, a recently elevated baroness awaited the arrival of an august guest. The person she was meeting stirred up a lot of controversy from her arrival. She disappeared from the radar soon after, and only a handful of people knew who she wanted to meet.

Captain Relia Foster wore her Hostland Warriors uniform as she sat in a secure meeting room several kilometers underneath her mansion. Countless passive and active jamming devices worked their magic, making sure that not a single sensor would be able to resolve anything useful.

The heavy door opened, letting in two very different figures. The brown-haired girl who sat at the head of the table stood up. She ignored the major accompanying the meeting and addressed the resplendently-dressed blond noble. "Welcome to Becham III, milady. I apologise for the drab interior, but there is no other room in my estate that can accommodate your demands."

Lady Amalia smiled politely. "Nonsense, Baroness Foster. I am aware that my arrival came too sudden for you to prepare. It is no matter. I am not here on a social call."

Lady Amalia took one of the two prepared seats. Both the room and the furniture consisted of simple alloy furniture, which looked in stark contrast to the luxurious furnishings of the mansion proper.

The simpler the furnishings, the harder it was to hide any spying bugs.

Major Jameson pulled out a handheld multiscanner and scoured the entire room, not sparing the noble baroness either. The device tested the effectiveness of the jammers and sought out any anomalous signals.

"This room is secure." He concluded after a few minutes, and shut down the device before standing behind his superior. "We may begin."

"Very well." Lady Amalia said. "Let us get down to business. My time is short and the Hafners are trying to track me down. It won't do either of us good if we are caught together, baroness. May I call you that, or would you prefer to be called Venerable or Captain?"

Relia Foster wrinkled her brow. "Please call me Captain Foster. I see myself as a mech pilot first and foremost."

"Not just any mech pilot. An expert pilot, and a young one at that. Everyone in Hafner believes your future is boundless."

The expert pilot shook her head. "I lost. There is no glory to be found in my bone."

"There is no need for you to be so depressed. If it wasn't for the freak chance of those marauding Vandals dropping into the Nova Migolatus System, then your debut battle as an expert would have been in a mech tailored to your ability. I believe the Hostland Warriors have recently completed your custom mech, am I correct?"

"My Belisarius has recently finished its trials." Captain Foster replied without qualms. "The mech designers require one more week of final adjustments before the Belisarius is declared safe to deploy in limited engagements. It will take months or years before my hybrid swordsman mech is able to match another expert mech."

Due to Venerable Foster's ignoble defeat and ransoming at the hands of the vile Brighter hooligans, the Hafner Duchy made a big show out of publicizing the formation of her first custom mech. They invested a generous amount of funding, research and even allocated a team of three Senior Mech Designers to head the project.

The extravagant amount of resources and attention put into the design and fabrication of the Belisarius raised everyone's hopes about Venerable Foster's future performance. Her talent had been stymied due to piloting a generic training mech back on Nova Migolatus I. With the Belisarius at her disposal, she would never be limited by her equipment ever again.

"I find it interesting that your custom mech is named the Belisarius." Lady Amalia prompted. "Does it refer to what you wish to attain? I'm afraid your hopes may never be fulfilled. The Hafner mech legions have never been deployed to war against the Bright Republic. The Reinald Republic is much closer at hand, and due to the recent instability in their territory, we must be more prudent than ever against those short-sighted profiteers."

"Lady Amalia, please be more succinct. As you have said, others are on the lookout for a direct descendant of the Duchess of Imodris. The sooner you leave my premises, the better off we shall be. I have no desire for my loyalty to Hafner to be put into doubt."

"Very well." The Imodrissian noble held out her hand. Major Jameson retrieved a secure data pad from his uniform coat and handed it over to his superior. Lady Amalia passed the data pad over to her host. "I have a mission offer for you. The details are sparse, but the importance of this mission is paramount. Please take a look at its contents."

Captain Foster quickly perused the contents of the data pad. It only contained a single encrypted document, and it amounted to only a couple of pages of mission parameters.

She immediately spotted an alarming detail. "This mission is issued by the royal family!"

"This matter goes beyond the interests of Imodris and Hafner." Lady Amalia smiled. "While we cannot reveal too much to you at this point, know that our perilous journey to the frontier will not be in vain. If nothing else, the odds of encountering your hated foe is very high. We are competing after the same objectives, after all. We have already confirmed that half of the 6th Flagrant Vandals of the 3rd Tarry Mech Division of the Mech Corps is on their way towards the frontier. What's even more salient is that this Vandal task force has teamed up with a frontier pirate gang called Lydia's Swordmaidens."

The instant Lady Amalia mentioned the magic word, Venerable Foster grew heated. She gritted her teeth and gripped the data pad in a crushing grip. "Pirates!"

"We are forming our own task force. It will be comprised of elements of my 2nd Calico Dancer Bats and my 1st Meandering Monkeys mech regiments. Due to prior commitments and obligations, we are unable to bring our expert pilots. My task force has room for an exceptional expert pilot such as you. Are you interested in taking part in our mission?"

Venerable Foster offered a grim smile to the highborn lady. "Do you even need to ask?"

Chapter 643

The day after the banquet, the Flagrant Vandals and Lydia's Swordmaidens hadn't killed each other yet. Though the Vandals still smarted from their abject defeat against the Swordmaidens in the sparring arena, neither side went over the line.

Mostly, the Swordmaidens succeeded in cowing the Vandals into keeping their hands to themselves. If they intended to frighten the wits out of them, the women had definitely succeeded.

The top leaders of both forces held confidential talks up until the late night shift. Besides their inner circles, the rank-and-file remained wholly ignorant of the substance of their talks.

The Flagrant Vandals were already accustomed to secrecy, while the Swordmaidens generally let others do the thinking.

In any case, both the leaders and their subordinates seem to mesh adequately with each other. Though tensions would doubtlessly flare if they remained confined in a single room, there was no issue with remaining polite to each other. As long as neither side felt the urge to shook or chop the other side in half, then sufficient progress had been made.

Neither Commander Lydia nor Major Verle expected their subordinates to become friends with each other. The differences in background, culture and goals prevented them from growing too close.

They hadn't solved their problems concerning coordination either. The two adopted completely different command styles. While the Vandals expected orders to be carried out with a measure of interpretation, the Swordmaidens mostly didn't bother with complicated maneuvers at all!

Instead, the Swordmaidens generally followed those they trusted. Relationships were tight between the sisters, and the officers among them enjoyed sufficient prestige to command the women.

Following the orders of others was out of the question. Even if the Flagrant Vandals knew what they were doing, the Swordmaidens never placed their trust in others. People from the frontier learned early on to never place their trust in others.

When the Swordmaidens departed from the Shield of Hispania, they left a couple of liaisons behind. Mayra somehow managed to convince his bosses to leave Ketis under his care. She promised to get in touch with the Skull Architect as soon as possible, but he was a difficult man to get ahold of, so arranging a meeting took some time.

"What will I do with you?" He sighed as he greeted Ketis in the morning. Major Verle acted entirely too nonchalant about the liaisons. Besides preventing the Swordmaiden mech designer to get in touch with classified Vandal secrets, Ves received broad discretion over how he treated her. "Well, at least you're not the first guest designer that I've brought under my wings."

He still missed the company of Iris Jupiter. The Vesian rebel was smart and tactful to the point where Ves regarded her as his equal. Her insights into neural interface technology granted him a crucial inside look in a sensitive field among mech designers.

The difference this time was that Ketis likely didn't know anything useful to him, at least in the area of mech design. As a recently graduated Novice, she was at the stage where learned the basics but lacked practical experience.

"Tell me about your studies." He began. "Mayra explained to me that you've been tutored by her, right?"

Ketis nodded. "I didn't go to any fancy school. They don't exist in the frontier. Mayra made me go through virtual classes from the galactic net. According to her, I've passed enough classes that would make me graduate from respectable mech university."

"I see." Ves did not put much stock in that achievement.

The quality of virtual classes tend to approach the lowest common denomination. That wasn't to say that it was impossible to become a mech designer through these classes, but studies from the MTA had shown that people who depended entirely on virtual learning never advanced beyond the Apprentice rank.

Anyone could cram the basic fundamental sciences required to become a mech designer. However, without practical experience and the imparting of the more esoteric aspects of the profession, knowledge alone couldn't elevate a bookworm into a designer of mechs. It just made the recent graduate smart in some of the sciences.

This was why there was such a drastic difference between the higher institutions. The Rittersberg University of Technology where Ves had graduated from was almost as worthless as the virtual classes that Ketis took.

The key lay in the fact that mech design was a craft. In other words, it involved art as well as science. Many people bandied about this expression without realizing what it actually meant, but this crucial statement expressed the duality of learning how to design a mech.

It wasn't enough to memorize a lot of books!

This complexity distinguished the good schools from the bad ones. Rittersberg may be the capital of the Bright Republic, but it couldn't hold a candle against the Ansel University of Mech Design on Bentheim when it came to raising successful mech designers. And this was also why many mech designers dreamt of attending the Leemar Institution of Technology in the Friday Coalition.

Therefore, Ves had good reason to doubt Ketis' qualifications. Still, she might possess a redeeming factor. Enjoying the personal tutelage of a Journeyman Mech Designer was an advantage that many would fight over. Depending on how well Mayra had taught the craft to her protege.

Ves briefly developed a plan on what to do with Ketis. First, he needed to take stock of her abilities. "I'm sure you know the basic sciences. What I don't know is if you have what it takes to design a mech."

"I'm not a kid anymore, you know!" She barked, brandishing her fists. Ves unconsciously stepped backwards, afraid she would abruptly release her sword from her scabbard. "I've passed all my classes! I've serviced hundreds of mechs! I watched Mayra design and tweak the Misty Slasher and her other designs for years! Let me do some real work for a change!"

"Calm down. If you think you have what it takes, prove it then. Let me put you to the test."

He guided her over to the empty desk in his office that used to be manned by Iris. Ves activated the terminal, registered it to Ketis, and opened up a mech design suite. After a brief moment of thought, he decided to load in an old and familiar mech design. He couldn't expose the detailed design schematics of the core Vandal mechs to a guest, after all.

"What design is this? It doesn't look like anything the Vandals use."

The gaudy and heroic-looking Caesar Augustus appeared on the projection. The majesty of the mech stood in stark contrast to the more down-to-earth and practical designs of the Vandals. Naturally, the coating had a lot to do with it as well. The Caesar Augustus gleamed in angelic white while the Vandal mechs all looked as if they reveled in chaos with their black and red color scheme.

"This is the Caesar Augustus, a lastgen landbound medium hybrid knight." He said. A mech designer like Ketis should instantly be aware of what this word soup meant. "It is one of the first mech designs I've worked with in my career. Even though it's a severely dated mech, it still uses the same modern design principles of today. Like all hybrid mechs, its internals are exceedingly complex."

"What do you want me to do with this shiny mech?"

"For now, I'd like you to design a cheaper variant of the Caesar Augustus. I'll supply you with the HRF armor system. I want you to utilize it in place of the base model's original compressed armor. You have one week to try and do your best to improve upon the attributes of the original design. I'll be able to get a good impression on where you stand after you finish your variant."

"Hmph. This is a waste of time. You're just trying to fob me off!"

"Look, Ketis, without knowing what you are capable of, it's irresponsible for me to let you loose on the shop floor. Prove to me that you're capable, and I will skip the kiddie stuff and involve you with real design work."

Once he dangled that carrot in front of her face, Ketis became a little more amenable to the test. She still held little respect for Ves, but he wasn't out for her approval anyway.

The horned young woman began to manipulate the projection of the wireframe model of the Caesar Augustus with her fingers. Ves nodded with satisfaction. He wouldn't have to worry about Ketis for a week.

Ves returned to his own work. He hadn't forgotten about his main responsibilities, and he also had to free up some of his free time on his side projects.

First, he held a conference call with his deputies and the other high-ranking mech designers. Besides getting apprised of routine matters, the larger concern of preparing the mechs for high-g operations dominated the meeting.

"It's too difficult to optimize all of our mechs to withstand five or six g's without protection." Mercator said. "We all tried our best but some of the mech models the Vandals have stolen from the Vesians are simply just that bad."

Ves was not amused with such an excuse. "I'm familiar with every mech model in our stables, and none of them are as ramshackle as you think. It's more likely that sloppy maintenance and deviances from the base model is to blame here. I'm not going to wipe your own buttocks because you're too lazy to do it yourself."

He briefly called up the mech models his deputies found problematic and quickly marked out some red flags. "The components I've marked out all look like questionable modifications to me. I don't know who came up with them, and I don't care. But right now they act as the first points of failure to these mechs. Instead of trying to preserve this sloppy work, why not revert it so you the mechs can actually withstand heavy gravity for more than a few hours? Working away these weak points will strengthen the mechs outside heavy gravity as well, so it should have been done yesterday as far I'm concerned!"

Modifying mechs depended heavily on the skills and experience of the mech designer in question. Just as in the case of designing a variant, modifications involved many tradeoffs. The key was to pay as little as possible while gaining more in return. Not every mech designer was as adept at juggling this equation.

"Let me make myself clear to you." He emphasized. "Stability is more important than pushing the limits of the mech frames. In an extreme-g environment, damage from wear and tear is magnified. It's as if you are carrying five times your own body weight for days or weeks on end. This isn't possible for humans, and the only way we manage to do so with mechs is because they are mechanical. As mech designers, we have the luxury of changing its properties. However, the changes we make are situational. What works best in standard gravity might instantly collapse in extreme gravity conditions. If something like this happens, it's okay to revert to an older state."

Ves felt kind of peeved that he even needed to explain this custom. Some mech designers thought that any improvement in the specs should be enshrined in their own temples. Their improvements to the mechs served as a way to validate their importance to the mech regiment. They didn't have access to any other means of comparing notes to each other, since none of them were allowed to design their own mechs.

Unlike these snowflakes, Ves cared little for their inventive solutions. The Vandal mech pilots deserved better.

Someone raised his hand. "I have a question, Mr. Larkinson."

"Go ahead."

"Why are we moving away from the war? The Vesian offensive against our borders has almost run out of steam by now. The perfect time to make a counterattack is close!"

This question again. Ves shook his head. He entertained numerous questions like this all the time. "The answer is the same as always. That's need to know and you definitely don't need to know."

Morale had already started to slide among the crew. The doubts didn't linger solely among the mech designers. Every other Vandal grew more skeptical about their mission. For now, there wasn't any way to placate the men. Ves could only hope that the Vandals wouldn't be pushed to the brink of mutiny.

"That's all for today. Now get to work!"

Chapter 644

Time passed by as the Flagrant Swordmaidens made their way out of Reinald space. Along the way, they ditched the loot they obtained from the Masters of Combat at a Reinald stopping point.

Commander Lydia's connections with the Reinald Republic proved useful here. She enabled the Vandals to cut through the red tape and complete their transactions within a matter of days.

The Vandals used up their extra funds to load up additional supplies. Ves prioritized the stockpiling of rare materials, as it would almost be impossible to obtain them in the frontier. The fleet also stockpiled entire tanks of ship-grade fuel, perhaps anticipating that the journey up ahead would be a long one.

In between her design assignment, Ketis proved to be a useful source of information on the frontier. "Fuel is one of the most precious resources in the Faris Star Region. There's no shortage of gas giants and planets where we can extract the ingredients to synthesize the fuels, but the problem is that we can't defend most of them. If pirates pass by the harvesting facilities for some reason, the sandmen will come across them sooner or later."

"How do you get anything running in the frontier then? Every starship runs on fuel. Every shuttle requires fuel as well. Even mechs run on fuel, though not always directly. Direct energy cells are charged by reactors that run on fuel. So in short, how can anything be run if there's no fuel production?"

Ketis blinked a bit, as if Ves asked about something that was common sense. "The major pirate factions all operate well-defended fuel refining operations. That said, most of our fuel is imported from civilized space. We pay at least five times as much as you do for fuel out there!"

The price of lower-grade fuel was never a big consideration in civilized space, but if Ves suddenly had to five times as much for the same amount of fuel, he'd go crazy.

It initially sounded like a ripoff, but Ves knew that the forces of supply and demand was at work. Exporting bulk materials like fuel required massive tanker ships that were awfully slow and easy to attack. Providing a sufficient amount of escorts to keep them safe in the lawless frontier was costly in itself. The massive distance involved also increased the risks of encountering a mishap. If anything went wrong, the nearest help would definitely be many light-years away.

So upon second thought, it wasn't such a big surprise that the price of fuel reached so high. The only issue that Ves couldn't wrap his head around was how the pirate gangs in the frontier managed to operate with that much upkeep.

"Since fuel is so expensive, how are you able to keep running?"

"We pay favors. We make friends with the factions that own their own refineries. We loot something from the treasure hunters that you civilized folk always pay a lot of money for. There's lots of ways to make money if you don't have to abide by any artificial rules."

That was true. The untamed stars largely remained unexploited. Exploration of the Faris Star Region alone had only reached the tip of the iceberg so far. Treasure hunters who managed to hit the motherload tended to hoard the coordinates of their cash cows. The secrecy surrounding their exploitation of these treasure stars meant they needed decades or centuries to deplete the natural bounty of those prized locations.

Once something happened to the treasure hunters, those hidden stars might fall into obscurity again, only to be uncovered again when the next batch of explorers encountered it. In short, opportunity could be found in any corner of the frontier. The problem was that anyone could take away your assets and your gains.

Without the protective umbrella of a state, stealing became the norm rather than the exception. Weaker outfits constantly endured bullying from the bigger players. The only way to escape this fate was to befriend the major factions on your own initiative.

"When the Swordmaidens started off, Commander Lydia faced a lot of difficulties due to this." Ketis explained. "It was worse for her because she insisted on recruiting women."

"So she tried to make friends, I gather."

"Receiving the backing of a major faction is the way to go. As long as you aren't too useless, you can earn their recognition which allows us to wave their name around whenever we come across a rival."

"Does that recognition cost anything?"

"A lot. We have to pay a lot of tribute and give them a hefty cut of our earnings. It's not even worth it as some of our enemies don't pay any heed to our backers. That's where our strength comes in. The best way to protect ourselves is to be scary enough on your own. We've become quite good at that over the years."

This also explained their posturing at their first formal meeting. The dramatic show of strength and aggressive attitude served to deter others whenever they met a new outfit. Over decades of performing the same song and dance, it became an ingrained habit to them. The line between theater and reality became blurred.

"What is the end goal of the Swordmaidens?" Ves asked, genuinely curious why the Swordmaidens risked their lives every day to make a living in the frontier.

Ketis eyed him with a sour expression. "That's none of your business. If you really want to know, then ask Mayra or Commander Lydia. It's not for me to tell."

That ended this particular line of questioning. While Ves expressed curiosity on the reason that drived the Swordmaidens to such devotion, he figured he would stumble upon it sooner or later.

Later that day, Mayra finally contacted him. The Swordmaiden mech designer called him up from Jaded Sword, the flagship of the Swordmaidens. The Jaded Sword was an angular combat carrier that specialized in quick orbital insertions through hostile territory.

"There's good news, Larkinson." Mayra began as soon as they established a communications channel. "I've managed to get in touch with the Skull Architect."

"What did he say?"

She sheepishly shrugged. "Well, he's not pleased with me for attempting to introduce a random Apprentice Mech Designer to him. He's a very busy man, and he's involved in the middle of a major project. He's not even willing to chat with an old student like me. His attitude can be impatient and prickly at the best of times."

"That doesn't sound like good news." He frowned.

"Oh, you should see him when he's mad or when he's immersed in an important project. He can shut himself off in his labs for months on end. No amount of pleading can drag him away from his preoccupation. I'm lucky that I caught him at a good time."

"So what is his response?"

"Well unfortunately, he's not willing to spend even a single minute of his time to talk to you. You have to realize that many Novices and Apprentices in the frontier dream of obtaining his favor. Even with my recommendation, he refuses to take the time to give you a chance to make an impression."

Ves didn't expect the Skull Architect to be so abrasive, but perhaps that came with the territory of being one of the few prominent mech designers in the Faris Star Region.

He wouldn't like it either if hundreds of Novice Mech Designers knocked on his door every day to obtain some advice or begged to be taken in as his student. The higher one's position, the more people wanted to hug their thighs.

"However, you're in luck." She quickly said. "My mentor put forth an alternative. Mech designers like us can communicate with words or with mech designs. It takes hours or days for us to explain the specifications of a design, but it only takes a couple of seconds for my mentor to interpret a design from its design schematics. Do you get it?"

"I understand. Your mentor wants to judge from my work whether I'm worthy enough for him to take his time out for me. However, I'm not looking to be his student or anything. If he can just share some of his research on stealth tech, I'll be more than happy with my gains."

Mayra shook her purple head. "I've already tried. Stealth tech is too sensitive for him to give away. Not even I'm worthy enough in his eyes to receive this knowledge, so it's nothing strange for him to withhold it from you. According to him, he'll draw many formidable enemies if he disseminates this knowledge too widely. The handful of people who are in possession of stealth tech like to keep it to themselves."

"So the only other option is to earn his recognition." He sighed. "This is not what I expected. I wanted a way in. Instead, you brought me to the door and left me there to fend for myself. This exchange of favors really doesn't benefit me at all."

"Look, my recommendation at least got you a foot in the door. That has to account for something! That he has agreed to take a look at your design at all is a major concession on his part. Otherwise, he wouldn't waste his time on a junior of the profession. Even if the frontier is barren of talent, he attracts many mech designers that are even more impressive than you."

Ves closed his eyes. "Very well. I understand what a supposed amazing opportunity this is to prove myself. Let's get on to business then. How does he intend to test me?"

Mayra looked down at her comm and transferred some files to his account. "I've just sent you a couple of design schematics. They are some of my mentor's old designs."

"Let me see." He opened up the files and saw they consisted of various mech types. He quickly identified a major deficiency to the schematics. "They're full of holes. They're incomplete!"

"That's going to be your test. Pick a design you're comfortable with and fill in the blanks with the best of your ability."

Ves felt as if this entire situation was a little surreal. A few days ago, he served a similar test to Ketis. Now, the Skull Architect utilized a similar method to scope out his mech design ability.

This also highlighted the usefulness of this method. Mech designers truly communicated better to each other through their designs than any flowery words.

"Am I allowed to modify the parts of the design that are already in place?"

"No." She shook her head. "The existing parts of the design is there to serve as your guide and your shackles. Working around the limitations and making use of the possibilities embedded in the designs is the main component of this test. The design choices you make and the design philosophy you impart in your solutions will say much about you. Do you understand?"

"I do. It's quite a convenient way to test a mech designer's ability."

Ves actually found this test to be ingenious in its focus. He should have subjected Ketis to the same kind of test instead of dropping a random mech design on her lap. Not only did it take a lot of time to design a good variant, the total lack of structure and guidance meant that Ketis might focus too much on areas that Ves didn't really care about.

He would definitely steal this method and use it for his own ends.

The two discussed some of the parameters of the test. The work he handed over needed to be a reflection of his own work. He wasn't allowed to involve anyone else.

"He'll know if you attempt to cheat." That was all she said about the matter, and Ves believer her. The truly skilled mech designers possessed an extremely high level of discernment.

"Is there a deadline?"

"Not exactly. He hasn't mentioned anything about time limits, but he was probably too distracted or something. Taking too long will reflect badly on you, though, and you shouldn't forget about the communications blackout once our combined fleet crosses into the frontier."

That meant Ves had less than ten days to submit his attempt to impress the Senior Mech Designer. According to the planning, Major Verle and Commander Lydia intended to stop by at Mancroft Independent Harbor for a day or two. Once they loaded up their final supplies, they would formally cross over into the frontier.

At that point, access to the galactic net became a thing of the past.

Chapter 645

"A test, huh?"

After his conversation with Mayra, Ves wasted little time. He dove into the design documents and identified five different mech designs. All of them appeared to come from the Skull Architect's hand.

"Compared to the test I've given to Ketis, this one is a lot harder."

Because Ves only needed to fill in the gaps, he didn't have to spend too much time on this test. Yet the missing areas all happened to represent the key structures in the design schematic. Filling them in directly tested his understanding and his style on the functioning of key components such as the engine, the power reactor, the internal architecture and more.

Every mech designer formed their own brand of solutions to the problems. Even though the exact parameters of their proposals might vary a little depending on what time they took the test or what their mood was like, in essence any single attempt would serve as a decent snapshot of their ability. The details might vary, but the broad strokes would always be the same.

Even if a pair of mech designers attended the exact same classes and studied the same textbooks, their design outcomes definitely differed drastically due to differences in their background, attitude and preferences.

"A mech designer's imagination isn't limitless. But it's enough to design billions of mechs, if not trillions."

To design a mech was to make a choice out of those nearly limitless possibilities. Knowledge expanded the range of possible design outcomes, but it took skill and experience to pick the better ones from a crowd of bad ones.

Before he tackled the test, he considered the nature of the test. Ves didn't forget about his primary objective. "I need to impress the Skull Architect in order to gain his favor. I can't go too far, otherwise he'll develop an unhealthy interest in my specialty. However, if I want to pry off his research on stealth tech from his grasp, I have to stand out from the crowd."

He grew a headache at the thought of balancing these opposing concerns. If he held too much back, then the Skull Architect wouldn't waste his time with Ves. If he revealed too much, then the next thing his brains might be cut from his body and be put in a jar for the Skull Architect to interrogate at his leisure!

It sounded like hyperbole, but Ves knew that the Skull Architect was truly capable and willing to resort to such extremes!

"This is the problem with obsessive researchers. You can't predict when they'll tip over from obsession into madness."

Ves regarded himself as a minor authority on this matter. Not only did he escape from Doctor Jutland's care, he also developed an early onset of obsessive behavior. So far, it was harmless to Ves, but it might grow to a serious compulsion in the future.

He had a theory that all the mental attribute changes was to blame.

In any case, his familiarity with this issue gave him a good insight on the Skull Architect's perspective.

"The Skull Architect cares more about his projects than his relationships with others. He's even impatient to one of his former students."

This spoke of a personality that emphasized efficiency and utility. This wasn't unusual among mech designers. They needed to be fast and meticulous in their work.

Usually, balancing the two was impossible. One could either be fast but sloppy, or slow but meticulous. It took pure skill and dedication to elevate both at the same time. Someone who reached the rank of Senior was definitely a hard worker.

"Still, it sounds like the Skull Architect is severely affected by this condition. He sounds much more unreasonable than some of the others Seniors that I know of. Not that I met many of them, but the contrast is stark."

Two Senior Mech Designers stood out in his recent memory. The first one he had a conversation with was Horatio. The man should have enjoyed a lot of renown with his rank and ability, but for some reason he was content to play butler to Master Olson. Unlike the Skull Architect, Horatio always acted friendly and patient.

The second Senior he came into touch with was the old and faded Professor Velten. As the only Senior Mech Designer of the Flagrant Vandals, she was long past her prime and she had no business of leading the mech designers of an entire mech regiment by herself. Still, she was better than nothing, as hardly any Seniors wanted to work with the Vandals.

While Professor Velten treated her time as if it was a precious commodity, she wasn't too stingy about spending it. Ves frequently got in touch with her to report on routine matters and to obtain some assistance on how to service certain complicated mechs.

Comparing their personalities to the Skull Architect only accentuated his eccentricities. This was a man who cared a lot about efficiency. If Ves incorporated anything unnecessary flashy, costly or time-consuming, he would likely fail the test.

"I've got to be efficient and economical in my design choices."

He moved on to the incomplete designs at his disposal. All of them seemed to be lastgen designs, and represented the Skull Architect's older works that have lost relevance in this day and age. Exposing them to those he wished to test wouldn't harm his current business activities.

Nonetheless, back then he was still a Senior, so the complexity and abstruse concepts that suffused the designs exceeded the upper bounds that Ves could cope. Strangely though, he didn't feel too pained when he studied the designs.

It wasn't due to the gaps.

"These designs are derivatives of more sophisticated versions. They're dumbed down to Journeyman-level!"

The changes the Skull Architect made for these test designs shouldn't have been dramatic. It was hard to achieve perfection, but easy to mess it up. The deliberate disorder broke up the inexplicable harmony of the designs, causing them to fall within the range of understanding to Apprentices and Journeymen.

This thoroughness spoke of the Skull Architect's dedication to detail. He already took every detail into account, and probably expected the same from those who wished to approach him. This wasn't anything radical, but it told Ves that it wasn't enough to make a good attempt. He had to do it right without falling flat.

"Hmm, if I want to impress the Skull Architect, I shouldn't be messing about with things I don't understand."

Before he became known as the Skull Architect, he was known as Reno Jimenez, a versatile mech designer with a broad range of mech designs in his catalog. His specialty lay in the field of energy transmission.

What did this mean? It basically meant he cast his gaze on every aspect related to energy and how to convert it into actual power with as little waste as possible. Machines designed by mech designers who specialized in this field lasted longer on the same charge of energy cells and generated less waste heat.

This made them exceptionally suitable to design a variety of mechs that interacted heavily with energy and heat. The obvious mech archetypes that fell into this category were laser rifleman mechs and laser cannoneers.

However, a mech designer with a broad repertoire could easily put their strengths to use in other types of mechs. For example, aerial and spaceborn mechs generated drained a lot more energy and dealt with heat a lot more poorly than landbound mechs by virtue of their flight systems.

A specialist in energy transmission had a dramatic impact on the energy efficiency and heat management of a mech that utilized a flight system. What impressed Ves the most about Reno Jimenez was that he wasn't afraid of expanding his range. His specialty afforded him the luxury of choice, but many of his colleagues opted to remain within their comfort zones.

There wasn't anything wrong with sticking to the familiar. The competitive market environment forced mech designers to become really good at one type of mechs. Some barely held on to their core competences while others branched out without suffering any consequences.

"Mr. Jimenez is one of the latter, it seems."

Ves considered his options.

"A landbound light skirmisher, a landbound heavy cannoneer, an aerial medium knight mech, a spaceborn light frontline mech, a spaceborn medium striker mech."

This range encompassed a wide variety of mechs without offering too many options. It wasn't a disaster to him if none of the options matched his earlier work. "The Skull Architect probably appreciates mech designers that can be flexible in terms of mech types."

The man's own mech catalog showed that he embodied this notion. If Ves ruled out his virtual mechs and his competition mechs, then his catalog of designs was woefully small. "So far, I've only designed four mechs, of which only two of them are original designs."

Though his recent ride with the Flagrant Vandals exposed him to an extensive amount of mechs, that was completely different as Ves was never involved in their initial design.

This was why he ruled out aerial and spaceborn mechs from his consideration. Out of five options, Ves was only left with two.

"It's a painful choice, but a necessary one. Even if I've studied up and received some tutoring on flight systems, that doesn't mean I'm an authority on this field."

Out of the two landbound designs remaining, Ves could either pick between a light skirmisher or a heavy cannoneer. The first choice appeared deceptively simple while the latter one inspired dread in its sheer internal complexity. In fact, out of every design that the Skull Architect dumbed down, the heavy cannoneer had practically been butchered into a pale shadow of its former self. It looked kind of sad in its current state.

That also meant it was easier to correct. Ves already formulated a dozen possible solutions to fill up the gaps.

"Still.. Is it wise for me to touch upon a heavy mech?"

Heavy mechs formed a different class on their own in the mech industry. On average, they massed at least four times as much as a medium mech, and ran through so much energy that they could melt through an entire city district.

Such might and devastation exceeded the range which Ves could control. His virtual and realspace experience with heavy mechs was practically nil.

"Let's run with a landbound light skirmisher then. What are you called? The Leiner Grey."

Ves had never designed this exact mech type in reality before, but Ves could draw on many related experiences. From designing a virtual light skirmisher, to his extensive work on attempting to improve Inheritor spaceborn light skirmisher, to his broad range of experience in designing his original mechs, Ves could sample all of them and keep the ones that were relevant to this challenge.

He closed his eyes, letting his memories and prior experiences flit past his mind at the speed of thought. Picking out the useful portions and piecing them together provided him with an overarching framework that could guide his design work.

He happened to find the most similarities between Professor Velten's Inheritor design and the Leiner Grey. Though they operated in very different environments, they both shared the same level of internal complexity.

"The Leiner Grey's lack of flight system frees up a lot of internal space, but that is partially counterbalanced by the fact that its engine needs to be stronger. Overall, they aren't much different in that both mechs constantly struggle to squeeze out more performance out of a very limited budget of parts."

The higher the performance, the greater the mass and performance. This rule applied to almost every aspect of mech design. The Leiner Grey that was shaped from the hands of Reno Jimenez attempted to subvert this rule as much as possible.

"He was chasing after a paradox when he designed this light skirmisher."

Jimenez wanted to have his cake and eat it too. He attempted to create a powerful light skirmisher while keeping cost, weight and power draw to a minimum. Naturally, the design never lived up to his hopes, but the partial failure performed well enough to be a good seller in the Coalition market.

"The Skull Architect's standards are absurdly high. If this is what he considers a partial failure, what does success look like in his eyes?"

The man demanded perfection to an unrealistic degree, and worked hard to achieve this dream.

The more Ves became exposed to the Skull Architect's track record, the more he found himself echoing the Senior's past development path. It was as if the Skull Architect was what Ves might turn into if he followed the same steps.

A chill went down his spine. Was Ves destined to become a lunatic in the future as well?

Chapter 646

Ves awkwardly laughed. "That will never happen to me."

Those who stepped on the road to lunacy often denied that they were doing something wrong. As long as Ves remained self-conscious of himself, he would always be able to halt before he went off into the deep end.

Insanity and irrationality among mech designers occasionally popped up. Some say only a thin line stood between genius and madness. Those who advanced into Senior and higher often exhibited signs along that nature.

A couple of theories Ves had heard back in school state that mech designers attempted to perform the impossible. They wanted to break past the laws of physics and reality and pioneer new paths where none existed before.

If a Journeyman could be said to have finished his orientation and make his first steps on a chosen path, a Senior attempted to tread outside the boundaries of an existing path. Each mech designer started off by studying existing knowledge. However, to continue their studies at this height only locked them into a well-trodden path.

There was no novelty in imitation. One would only remain an inferior copy of a predecessor.

Senior Mech Designers mostly preoccupied themselves with stepping out of the familiar and exploring the vast unknown that was shrouded in fog. Almost every direction led to peril or a dead end. Some Seniors labored for four-hundred years and never managed to find their path to salvation.

The fog buried their bones and half-completed goals.

Only a small handful managed to explore the fog and successfully found a way out. They carved a brand new path for themselves that never existed before and lit a beacon so that others could follow.

There was something metaphysical about this whole description that mystified almost every mech designer who stumbled upon it. Many of his peers regarded it as gobbledygook, but as Ves became more exposed to the higher applications of mech design, he couldn't help but think back on this story.

"It is said that each mech designer that has forged a new path is capable of doing more than any others that follow in their footsteps. What they can design is sometimes described as magic."

Naturally, magic was simply a shorthand for scientific phenomena that humanity hadn't figured out yet. Over the years, researchers figured out the rules behind such feats and disseminated the newly discovered technology in the form of standardized theories.

Nonetheless, a Master gained a head-start over everybody, and always continued to be the leading expert in their specialty. With all the myths and psuedo-science being bandied about by younger mech designers, it was hard for Ves to discern the facts from hyperbole.

"According to this metaphor, the conflict hidden within the Leiner Grey design goes to the heart of the Skull Architect's struggle to find a way out of the fog."

Just as the Skull Architect sought to take a measure of Ves by observing his test results, so was Ves able to interpret the dreaded Senior's design philosophy. Best of all, the man did not obscure his research direction. In fact, he cut off the more abstruse and metaphysical parts of his design philosophy to make it easier to understand.

This told him another facet about the Skull Architect. "Awful reputation aside, he still possesses the heart of a scientist."

Each Senior was a scientist in a way. A scientist explored reality and advanced a scientific field. They created hypotheses, crafted a theoretical model and tested them through research. Fail or succeed, their results added to the collective body of knowledge of the human race.

Of course, scientists were only human. The tendency to hoard their knowledge and keep their advantages to themselves was very strong. Ves was a typical example of this case. Even as he already trod new ground in a way by dipping his toes into the X-Factor and spirituality, he never thought about disseminating his discoveries to the wider universe, even if it would have earned him eternal recognition.

"For one thing, it'll paint a huge target on my back. For another, there's no reason why someone can't steal my work and take all the credit for themselves."

Too many things could go wrong, and Ves hid too many secrets. In some way, he was the polar opposite to the Skull Architect on this matter.

It relieved him a bit to recognize this difference.

In any case, finding out that the Skull Architect hadn't lost his roots as a scientist informed him of another way of catching his attention.

"A scientist is impartial. He is highly interested in his own areas of interest, not the least because results from another source can help him beat back the fog that obscures the possible exits."

Why did the Skull Architect become a criminal and a fugitive? It was because his inquisitive nature overruled his sense of propriety and his common sense.

He formulated a hypothesis, one which stated that incorporating human remains into the frame of a mech would improve its performance, and acted upon this inquiry by performing experiments. The Skull Architect completely disregarded the gruesome nature of the experiment in pursuit of the ultimate goal, which was to find a way to thread an impossible needle and create another miracle.

As for the human cost? That was the cost of progress!

"It's kind of scary to see how far one can go. I haven't even spoken to this infamous mech designer, and already I'm starting to have second thoughts about this venture."

Still, as long as Ves paid attention to his work, he shouldn't run afoul of anything nasty.

"A mech designer knows his own designs the best. Any anomaly, however minute, will instantly be picked up by him. I have to be really subtle about the secrets at my disposal."

His main concern on this matter was the X-Factor. Knowing that the Skull Architect willfully killed an expert pilot in order to test out an outlandish hypothesis related to this phenomenon, Ves shouldn't reveal too much.

"It's one thing if I enhance this quality in my own designs. It's unobservable to most people, so outsiders probably can't make out anything substantial. However, the moment I touch the Skull Architect's own design, not a single change will escape his notice."

Ves concluded that he needed to weaken his natural tendency to imbue his imprint onto the designs he worked with. Ordinarily, he did anything to strengthen it, coming up with the convoluted Triple Division Technique to focus his Spirituality to create a multifaceted spiritual entity.

Even if he didn't utilize this advanced technique, his singular concentration was sufficient to impart a simpler imprint upon his designs.

"Both methods are too strong. The complexity won't matter to the Skull Architect. It's the strength of the X-Factor that is the key. As long as it's strong enough for him to pick up its existence, it will instantly attract his full attention on me, which isn't good."

He needed to shape a certain magnitude of X-Factor just below the point where it would be noticed by his target audience. As long as the truth remained in the shadows, Ves would succeed in rousing the Skull Architect's unconscious desires just enough to elicit a follow up reaction.

To put it simply, Ves needed to hit the Skull Architect's face with a gust of wind instead of a sledgehammer.

Finding the right strength was a judgement call. Ves mentally went over to the spiritual strengths of his past designs.

He recalled that the System registered both of his Marc Antony variants with at least C+ grade X-Factor strength. That was too much in his eyes. Even the first Caesar Augustus variant he developed after the System introduced this secret carried a C- grade.

That had already been sufficient to kick virtual mech pilots in the butt.

"It has to be weaker."

Eventually, he decided to err on the side of caution and aim for a D or D- grade. Anything lower transformed the X-Factor into a ghost. At that point, Ves might as well give up entirely.

"Now that I've decided upon that, let's get my hands dirty."

He focused his attention on the incomplete Leiner Grey and tried to keep his mind at a state of levity. He needed to avoid narrowing down his focus to prevent a spike in spirituality, but he also couldn't be too disordered either, or the X-Factor would turn into a muddy soup.

The main defining features of the Leiner Grey was that it attempted to be fast, strong and well-armored for a light skirmisher. Even a beginner mech designer knew how impossible it was to achieve such a result. At best, most light skirmishers tend to prioritize speed above the other two major attributes. They could afford to sacrifice mechanical strength and armor in favor of being as fleet as wind.

"Light skirmishers are fast by necessity and because speed is all they need. Moving fast increases their evasion, allows them to outrun melee mechs and reduces the probability of getting hit by ranged mechs. As for strength, a skirmisher usually takes advantage of their superior mobility to hit mechs from their rear where the armor is weakest. If that doesn't work, they can always build up a lot of momentum and empower their charge with the weight of their entire mech behind their attack."

The logic behind light skirmishers basically stated that an absolute superiority in speed allowed the mechs to leverage this advantage in overcoming its traditional weaknesses.

"When you come down to it, this sounds like a moderately acceptable excuse to cover up the fact that light skirmishers have big holes in their designs."

A mech that was fast but was clad with paperthin armor only needed to suffer one critical hit to take it out of the fight. And having to go through all of that trouble to gain the opportunity to land a telling blow onto an opposing mech took too much time and effort.

"In comparison, a straightforward medium melee mech is better in any way except for mobility. Yet it is this deficiency that is the defining difference between the two mech types. They fulfill different roles and perform completely different on the battlefield."

The original vision behind the Leiner Grey unveiled in front of Ves. To put it simply, Reno Jimenez attempted to create a light version of a medium melee mech. The Leiner Grey was supposed to acquire all of the advantages of a medium mech while somehow retaining its overarching superiority in mobility.

Ves had one response to that. "Arrogant!"

He read the Leiner Grey's development path. The Skull Architect started off with a basic light skirmisher frame, and started adding in some extra bulk. The added mass slowed the mech down, so the designer compensated by increasing its energy consumption and magnifying the amount of power it could exert.

This couldn't go on endlessly. Soon enough, the Skull Architect hit a wall where climbing over it cost a lot more than he gained. To gain one percent in power, he needed to bulk up his mech by at least ten percent or more. That tradeoff simply sucked.

"If Mr. Jimenez can make it so that a single percent boost in power will only weigh down his mech by one percent, then he has definitely advanced to Master."

Such an amazing light skirmisher design was an impossibility. It's existence was as absurd as stating that 1 + 1 = 2.01 or something like that.

Yet Ves couldn't help but be impressed by the man's audacity. Almost everyone ruled out that a mech designer could reach this result, but the ambitious Skull Architect boldly forged ahead where none dared to tread.

"Seniors constantly attempt to turn lies into truth, fantasy into reality, the impossible into the possible. To many, it is a road that leads to madness, death or a dead end."

The danger stood in stark contrast with the prestige and renown these Senior Mech Designers usually enjoyed. Any of them held high positions, and even the least of them could easily find teaching jobs at a prestigious university. Society valued them for their esteemed abilities, but they could never fathom the risks they took to make further progress.

"What a scary mech design." He uttered as he mentally took a step back. "Just a single design is already able to tell me so much. This isn't such a simple test after all."

Chapter 647

Even if Ves hadn't even made a single move yet, he already saw through another layer of the test.

It challenged his mental fortitude.

By showing him a glimpse of the ambitious impossibility the Skull Architect attempted to reach, Ves should have been scared off or dismiss the Senior as a nutjob.

"Is he, though?"

The Leiner Grey incorporated many aspects that Ves couldn't help but consider pure genius. Certainly, the temptation to learn from them and copy the tricks for himself grew stronger the more he dove into the Skull Architect's work. His progress in increasing the efficiency of his mechs had reached a height that Ves had never seen in any other mech.

"Damn, what am I thinking?" He shook his head. "This design is a temptation! If I didn't catch myself, I would have been converted to the Skull Architect's design philosophy!"

An authentic design from a Senior usually put pressure on the minds of junior mech designers, warning them to go no further unless they willingly threw away their paths to follow someone else's. The high accessibility of the Leiner Grey design somehow circumvented this defensive measure, causing those who become too eager to study this design to become full converts to the school of efficiency.

It was a naked temptation, and Ves couldn't help but question the Skull Architect's motivation for disseminating this design. "If I give in to the temptation, I would get a quick boost in my mech design ability at the cost of losing all of my previous progress. If I resist, I will still be contaminated, but it should be in a controllable range."

The latter sounded negative, but what really went on was that the Skull Architect passed on some lessons to Ves. It was simply up to himself to ensure he didn't get lost in the abundance of what he learned.

He needed to remain clear-headed throughout his design work, but the problem with that would strengthen his concentration. If he muddled his head a bit, he could prevent the X-Factor from becoming stronger, but then the contamination gained the opportunity to spread.

Ves faced an implacable dilemma at this junction.

"At this stage, I can't afford to harm my nascent design philosophy. It is the core of my being and something that is wholly unique to me. The best path for me is the one that I forged on my own."

After some contemplation, he decided to maintain a slightly higher focus at the risk of leaving a stronger imprint on the test design.

Ves encountered no more surprises as he worked on the Leiner Grey. Perhaps it hid other secrets underneath its clean lines and dry specifications, but it there were any, Ves lacked the perception to pick up on them. The aspects he picked up already put enough concerns on his plate.

Compared to the freeform test he issued to Ketis, the test with the Leiner Grey narrowed down the problems into highly specific instances. The missing gaps in the design could only be filled in a limited amount of ways. The only materials and component licenses that Ves could draw upon were those included with the design files.

One of the issues that initially tripped him up was the fact that the Leiner Grey was a second-class mech design. It utilized a higher standard of materials and technology from third-class mechs which Ves had always worked with in his main designs.

To put it simply, Ves worked with pauper designs where cost was the major restraint. Exotics were used sparingly and many mechs he came into touch sold for prices ranging from three million bright credits to several hundred million bright credits at most.

The Leiner Grey, despite being a light skirmisher that didn't use up a lot of materials, already came with a floor cost of one billion credits!

If Ves tried to convince the Vandals to upgrade their landbound light skirmishers with an estimated cost of just 20 million bright credits to a Leiner Grey, they'd punch out his teeth before dumping him out of the airlock!

One billion bright credits was an extravagant price for a mech that only performed a couple of times better than a third-class equivalent!

"The cost is multiplied by a factor of at least a hundred, but the performance boost is only multiplied by five to eight times at most."

This was a horribly poor exchange rate, but a wealthy state like the Friday Coalition could afford to be extravagant. They possessed vastly more wealth relative to their manpower. Each of their mech pilots got to enjoy luxurious mechs compared to their pauper neighbors.

The result of all of this was that Ves needed to adjust to the higher standards. The amount of power and might at his fingertips tempted him to be liberal about their implementations. Ves realized that this was yet another trap.

"It's a temptation for me to swing all that power around. However, if I do so, my solutions become sloppy and I"ll lose sight of my original standards."

Ves had never been wasteful about the resources at his disposal. Making the most out of a limited set of resources had always been a lesson that each mech designer from a third-rate state carved in their hearts. In the face of sudden wealth, the last thing they needed to do was to take it for granted and spend it all without a care in the galaxy.

He narrowed his focus yet again, preventing him from getting caught up in the rush of power. Once he got a grip on his mind, he resumed solving the problems of this test.

Days passed by in quiet contemplation interspersed with continual insights. Deconstructing, analyzing and providing solutions to the gaps within the design became a form of catharsis to him. He slowly forgot all of his responsibilities and become entranced at the challenge of solving the puzzles the Leiner Grey presented to him. Ves felt compelled to engage in them like a mouse going after a trail of cheese.

The puzzles he solved dealt with problems that seemed trivial but might prove fatal to the design if Ves offered the wrong solutions. Larger problems on the other hand granted him more leeway into solving them, yet he needed to do so in his own way rather than the way the Skull Architect preferred to do so.

As the Flagrant Swordmaiden fleet almost reached Mancroft Independent Harbor, Ves finally completed his design work after investing six entire days into filling up the gaps. The holes in its engines, power reactor, sensors, internal architecture, legs, arms, and many more had all been filled with parts that seamlessly merged into the existing design.

When Ves finally took a step back and evaluated the finished design, he rubbed his tired, bloodshot eyes and sighed. "Well that didn't go according to plan."

The Leiner Grey compelled him to invest increasingly more attention into solving it. Ves tried many times to restrain himself in order to remain at a healthy distance, but his obsession got the better of him a few times. Rarely did he get to touch, feel and work with such an advanced mech design that unabashedly exposed all of its secrets!

"This design is like a succubus. It's constantly tempting me into abandoning my own principles."

The Skull Architect deserves his infamy. Even if he stopped chopping up mech pilots to advance his research, he still found a way to screw over others. Though whether the victims became worse off or not was still in question.

"The less talented mech designers with no hope of forging their own paths will benefit from following in the Skull Architect's footsteps."

Ves had no such intentions, however. He aimed for the top, and that required him to learn from others without becoming subsumed by their attraction. In order for students to surpass their teacher, they needed to step outside the rails their teachers meticulously constructed for them. Even if staying inside the rails was the path to least resistance, it always led into a solid wall at the end.

"What a profound design. I've learned so many lessons in these days."

Pure satisfaction ran through his tired body and exhausted mind. As he basked in the joy of completing this perilous but fulfilling challenge, he reflected on his results.

If Ves followed the original intentions of the Leiner Grey, then he would have pushed its limits in terms of energy transmission and other factors. This allowed it to achieve a greater level of performance at the cost of eating away at its tolerances.

Basically, it turned the Leiner Grey from a dull but stable mech platform into an exciting but inwardly brittle piece. The gains the original design had achieved in adding extra power and armor were partially negated by the awfully tight state of its internal architecture.

It also made the mech a lot harder to control. The Leiner Grey gained a boost in performance that went past its stable limits. The mech basically strained against its own frame with every vigorous action it performed.

If Ves compared it to the exertions of a human athlete, then he could easily develop muscle sprain, culminating to severe injuries if he kept pushing his body past its limits.

A human body was flexible and had the ability to grow in order to cope with the added strain. A mech frame on the other hand was a static, mechanical construction that was essentially static. It wore down and broke when it faced continuous abuse.

"This is one of the weaknesses of the Leiner Grey. It's performance is high, but its life cycle is too short. It can already be written off after five years of intensive battles."

That made the Leiner Grey a mech with a poor benefit-to-cost ratio. Customers paid the equivalent of about one billion bright credits and lasted five years with the mech.

For the same amount of money, mech purchasers could instead buy a similarly priced mech that could easily last at least ten years or more. The only downside to these alternatives was that their performance was slightly inferior to the Leiner Grey.

Still, faced with this calculus, the most rational option to most customers was to buy a mech that lasted at least a decade.

"The only reason the Leiner Grey isn't an outright failure is because there is a market demand for high-performing mechs."

The mech markets of second-rate states was completely different from the lesser markets of the Bright Republic. People had more money to spend, and they didn't mind splurging lots of money for a momentary advantage. Acquiring a new mech was like changing a set of clothes. A poor benefit-to-cost ratio was no issue to these wealthy customers as long as the performance was high.

The only problem with the Leiner Grey was that the original configuration increased the difficulty of piloting such a machine. It was like manually driving an aircar that was perpetually moving at its top speed. The uncontrollable performance of the aircar could easily lead to a crash if handled improperly for just an instant.

The barrier to pilot the Leiner Grey was so high that only advanced pilots with excellent training and above-average neural aptitude were qualified to pilot this beast. Even then, nobody liked to pilot this berserk mech. The strain on their control abilities made piloting this high-powered mech a chore at beast, and torture at worst.

It simply wasn't pleasant to pilot this mech model, and that proved to be its ultimate downfall.

"No wonder the Skull Architect pursued the X-Factor. In order to accommodate the extremes he's willing to push his designs, he sought a way to compensate for this deficiency by trying to find a way for the mech to strain their mech pilots less."

The Leiner Grey design marked a point in time where Reno Jimenez was at the cusp of giving in to his darker urges. His designs all shared the same problems. They strained against their limits and were barely controllable by their mech pilots.

This problem must have gnawed at the Senior Mech Designer's mind for years. After being tortured by the same issue over and over without a solution in sight, was it any wonder that he grew desperate?

Either he could find some way to solve the control issue, or he could abandon the design philosophy he painstakingly built up over many decades.

The latter was too painful to contemplate, while the former involved chasing after a unicorn called the X-Factor.

"No wonder he went crazy."

Chapter 648

Reno Jimenez developed a style of designing mechs where he attempted to extract the maximum level of performance at the cost of stability, control and longevity. This increased the parameters of his design's spec sheet, but customers weren't fooled. They knew his latest designs came with poor value for money. Many of his mechs broke down in five years or less.

"This is the attitude of a scientist and a pioneer. He pursues his own interests over that of the market and his customers. It's not that his designs are bad, but they are outright ignoring the trends of the market."

Different from the Senior, Ves had always adopted a market-based approach to his design work. Every time he designed a mech, he looked at the actual situation of the market and moved on from there. Essentially, he let his market research dictate the basic parameters of his next design.

He rested his finger on his chin. The contrast between their priorities formed an interesting comparison. "The Skull Architect already knows from the start what kind of mech he wants to design. As for me, the exact shape and form doesn't matter to me. All I want is to design a mech that sells well. Everything is a means to an end."

That didn't mean Ves cared nothing about his own advancements. His hoarding for knowledge and his experimentation with the X-Factor all proved that he possessed an inquisitive mind. It was just that an Apprentice Mech Designer operated under far less pressure than a Senior Mech Designer.

One was a youth in the mech design profession. They weren't expected to come up with anything radical. The other represented an elder in the craft. The mech industry and mech market expected more from their results. Their designs had to push against the envelope.

If their newer designs didn't one-up their older designs by a fair margin, then they were considered stagnant!

"Mech designers that are stagnant don't have a bright future anymore. They've given up on blazing a trail and are instead content with ending their journey halfway."

Ves pegged Professor Velten as a person who had already given up on her life and the opportunity to advance. Instead of working at some prestigious institution, she instead took up an upscore posting with the Flagrant Vandals.

"It's different with Jimenez. His designs are burning with ambition. I don't think getting exiled to the frontier is going to stop him from his research."

Certainly, getting kicked off the membership rolls of the MTA and being exiled to the frontier hampered him a lot. After receiving the fear-inducing moniker of Skull Architect, the man probably wasn't in the best situation right now.

His story served as a strong warning to Ves of what could happen if he breached ethical lines.

"At least my own spin on the Leiner Grey won't let me to that point."

In contrast to the original design, the Leiner Grey completed by Ves went into a completely different direction. While Ves valued performance just like any other mech designer, he really didn't wish to sacrifice stability for a small boost in power and other attributes.

"A mech is the steed and armor of the mech pilot. Mech designers like us owe it to the mech pilots to fashion a war machine that can lead them through a battle without any sign of faltering. A mech that is so unstable that it will fall apart at the slightest misstep is a greater enemy to the mech pilot than his opponents on the battlefield."

This was his conviction. Certainly, prioritizing stability never led to exciting mechs on their own, but Ves had no doubt he could solve this problem in another way, such as resorting to the X-Factor or various technological gimmicks. If nothing else, Ves could always lower his price standards in order to provide better value for money to his customers.

He did recognize that his approach may not be a daring one, at least when it came to stability. Innovation demanded a daring approach to exploring the unknown. Taking risks came with the job.

"In that sense, I've disappointed the Skull Architect's expectations."

The Leiner Grey design came with an unspoken challenge. It challenged Ves to match its wild extremes, to push its performance to its limits, stability be damned. Doing so would mean that Ves agreed with the Skull Architect's standpoint.

That was unacceptable to him. Philosophically, he believed that mechs had to fit the mech pilots, not the other way around.

Some mech designers pursued their calling by pushing the limits of the technology and materials at hand to deliver a superior mech. To be fair, most of the innovation and advancement in the field of mech design came from their many contributions.

Yet a mech was inexplicably connected with their mech pilots. Mech designers had complete control over the design and construction of a mech, but possessed no influence at all on the mech pilots who actually used them. This lack of control over the latter led to a tendency for mech designers to forget about mech pilots, treating them as an outside variable in the background.

A different school of mech designers adopted a very different perspective. Usually by necessity, they needed to design mechs that pilots were comfortable with piloting, otherwise they wouldn't be able to sell any mechs.

Faced with a choice between higher performance and more comfort, many mech pilots actually chose the latter.

"It's not that they enjoy missing out on that extra margin of power, speed or defense, but if the mech becomes too difficult to pilot, those hardware gains are entirely wasted."

A mech that performed ten percent better but became twice as hard to control for a specific mech pilot might eventually perform twenty percent worse. So the net performance change was actually a reduction of ten percent!

Naturally, this consideration varied wildly depending on which mech pilot got to pilot the mech. A skilled mech pilot possessed a much larger tolerance for difficult mechs, while average mech pilots with more modest genetic aptitudes could only settle for simpler mechs.

Some might scoff at lesser-skilled mech pilots and dismiss them as ants. Yet they also happened to comprise the majority active mech pilots, with a much greater number of untalented potentates in reserve. This was a huge market for mechs, one which Ves had guiltily ignored when he grew his mech business, but intended to fix that in the future.

"Designing elite mechs all the time will unnecessarily narrow my reach. There are only so many elites to market my mechs."

Ves didn't have much experience with designing a mass-market mech, but his duties as a head designer for the Flagrant Vandals taught him much. He became intimately familiar with the traits of cheaper mechs, and knew what to look out for when designing these kinds of machines.

Out of the three internally-developed designs, the Hellcat and the Akkara mechs catered to the cadre of the Vandals. Powerful, expensive and difficult to master, they served as the mainstay of the Vandal mech roster.

In this sense, his Blackbeak and Crystal Lord designs shared the same DNA. Elite mechs only came up to their full potential when matched with an experienced, talented mech pilot.

"It should be different for a light skirmisher like the Leiner Grey or the Inheritor models."

Though one operated on land and the other in space, they served the same role. They served as the scouts, flankers and ambushers of a mech force. They worked best in battle when deployed in packs or in greater numbers, so they should ideally be accessible to mech pilots.

"If there's one thing I've learned from toiling over the Inheritor mechs, it's that there's only so much performance you can squeeze out of a skinny mech frame."

The lightweight class tended to be a poor platform for elite mechs. There simply wasn't enough room to stuff in enough goodies. Anything that mech designers wanted to add to the frame needed to be lighter and take up much less space than an equivalent component to a medium mech.

This instantly magnified the costs and reduced the benefits of those expensive additions.

So in short, it wasn't cost-effective to elevate a light mech to the performance standard of an elite. For better or worse, they felt most at home when they served as expendable mechs.

"Expendable mechs are easy to lose, so the mech pilots that bring them into battle shouldn't be too valuable. Limiting the skill range of a light skirmisher model to elites is a tone-deaf response to the demands of the market."

That didn't mean a market didn't exist for premium light mechs. Many veterans and talented mech pilots grew up with light mechs and had come to favor this weight class over the others. These mech pilots needed light mechs that could keep up with their skills. In that sense, the difficult but promising Leiner Grey fit their needs.

This was where his take on the Leiner Grey came in. "If I have to describe my own work, I'd call it the Leiner Grey Simplified Edition."

Of course, he would never publish his design with this unflattering name, but it aptly described what he'd done to the puzzle presented by the Skull Architect. Though Ves was only limited to filling up the gaps in the design schematic, it provided him with enough leeway to steer it away from its original configuration as a powerful but barely controllable mech.

He pretty much did so by dialing back the energy being provided to the different parts and to program hard limits on the amount of power they exerted. Perhaps one or two changes in this vein wouldn't affect the design by a drastic amount, but when Ves performed the same tweaks over and over again, it all added up.

The changes he implemented throughout the design flattened the performance curve, smoothing out its peaks and valleys. This had the effect of tempering a wild, bucking horse into a calm and docile mount.

Unfortunately, this also resulted in a comprehensive loss in performance. The Leiner Grey turned from an exciting, high-performance mech into a boring but reliable workhorse.

It still maintained some of the strengths and of the original version, but became extremely accessible. Ves in fact slanted towards the other extreme when he put his own stamp on the mech.

"Comfort and pilot accommodation has always been a priority to me. A mech functions best when the mech pilot is at ease with his own machine."

A key factor that helped him turn the Leiner Grey into an accessible mech was that Ves borrowed the insights from his Masteries. Though the System only threw him into the cockpit of a knight mech and a rifleman mech, Ves easily applied the common lessons learned from those valuable first-hand experiences to the light skirmisher design.

From his detailed studies of the Leiner Grey design, Ves keenly realized that the Skull Architect lacked the special touch that came with acquiring a Mastery. As far as he was aware of, the Senior Mech Designer based all of his design work on second and third-hand experiences.

In some way, that was a huge shame, since the Skull Architect's designs would never mesh completely with his customers. On the other hand, his callous attitude towards the mech pilots that were supposed to depend on his products also led him to his current path of pursuing an extreme in performance through maximizing energy transmission.

"If the Skull Architect experienced at least a single Mastery, he would have felt a lot more empathy to mech pilots. He'd be a different man right now."

Ves stayed true to himself when he solved the puzzle in his own way. Now he had to submit his work to the man he sought to earn his approval.

"Will he be pleased to find out that I've taken the opposite approach?" Ves grew nervous all of a sudden. "I don't have any other choice. There's no way for me to hide my principles when I design a mech."

Just as Ves learned a wealth of information about the Skull Architect from the Leiner Grey, so would the Senior be able to read through Ves.

Chapter 649

"Larkinson." The exotic purple-skinned and purple-haired visage of Mayra appeared on the projection. "I've received your submission. I've already passed it on to my mentor's account. It should take some time for him to go over his mail."

"I understand." Ves nodded. "Did you look at my take on the Leiner Grey?"

Mayra smiled ruefully at him. "I did, and I have to say you are very courageous for sticking up for your principles. I'm sorry that I couldn't warn you that my mentor doesn't have the best intentions in mind when he threw this test at you. Many mech designers who approached him have never been the same after undergoing this test..."

Ves waved away her concerns. "I'm not like the others. You can already see from my work that I haven't lost myself in temptation. I have always been aware that there are some risks involved with approaching a man with such a notorious moniker. I don't bear any grudge for his tricks."

If Ves was any weaker or less firm in his will, then he would have been pissed. Since he came out of this ordeal without any damage, he simply laughed the whole matter off. It was pointless to develop any animosity over a mech designer who wielded a vast amount of power in the Faris Star Region.

"I can't say how my mentor will respond to your design, but I think it speaks in your favor that you stood up for yourself. Too many mech designers who are new to the frontier think the only way to worm themselves into his circle is to act like sycophants. That's never the frontier way. Nothing disgusts my mentor more than a mech designer that bends too easily when it comes to their own work."

"I see. Is that how you gained his approval?"

"I didn't know anything back then when Lydia led me to my mentor." She shook her head. "So I stuck up for myself like always. I was rather stubborn back then, but that has served me well. He would have been disappointed in you if you copied his work without adding anything original. My mentor believes the only mech designers worth their salt are those pursue their own questions over any other obstacle in their way. "

That sounded swell until Ves realized that this was the same reason why the Skull Architect had been driven to the frontier. Reno Jimenez outright ignored the law and issued orders that led to the deaths of thousands of mech pilots and one irreplaceable expert pilot.

Sometimes, bending before a greater authority was a good idea.

"What was it like to study under him? Did he treat you well?"

"He was always more absorbed in his own research. I think he only took in students because he needed a firmer footing in the Faris Star Region." She replied. "That said, he treated us well enough, letting us read through his books and help him with the production of his mechs. He's the smartest mech designer I've ever met, and he seems to know every field related to mech design."

"How did he guide your development?"

"Well, I made it clear that I'm only interested in designing swordsman mechs, and he accepted that. He assigned an entire catalog of books as reading materials and reviewed the practice designs I came up with. He's not the sort of person who holds your hands. He expected me to work for my gains through my own hard work. Back then, I disappointed him a lot. I wasn't as diligent in my studies and wasted the opportunity to ask for his advice."

"Was it dangerous to be in proximity to him?"

"Oh, he's dangerous. Make no mistake about that." She immediately stated. "He's decent towards his friends but ruthless towards his enemies. I don't think he started off this way, but it's the only kind of language that the people in the frontier understand. In your case, you don't have to be too careful. My mentor doesn't see any threat in a young mech designer like you. From what I saw from your submission, it possesses enough quality to meet his minimum sensibilities."

"He sounds like a decent teacher."

"It comes with the job." The Swordmaiden mech designer smiled. "While he doesn't have the best reputation, he's very passionate about mech design. His conviction gives him strength. He misses his old life back in the Vermeer Group. He likes to collaborate and exchange information with his peers. Ever since he was driven out of civilized space, he doesn't have anyone who he can talk to on an equal level. Every other Senior Mech Designer in the frontier is a rival."

It sounded like the mech design industry in the frontier, if Ves could even call it that, was a lot more cutthroat than in civilized space. The market was smaller, infrastructure was poor but a lot of profit could still be made.

The natural tendency for mech designers would be to monopolize the markets from themselves. Without the MTA watching over their heads, they possessed plenty of incentives and none of the deterrents to resort to foul play.

"By the way, how is it going with Ketis? Has she been up to mischief yet?"

"Ehm, I'll have to get back to that." He nervously laughed. "I handed over a similar test to Ketis in order to get an impression of her design style."

"Well, I did promise you to get what you wanted from the Skull Architect." Mayra scratched her purple cheek. "But don't neglect her. Give her something to do. I would prefer it if you begin to educate her. Do you have a lesson plan in mind?"

"As you said, it depends on what I get in return. If I'm satisfied with what I've received, I don't mind guiding Ketis more intensely. I'll have to see her work before I can say what she needs to work on, but from what you said she needs to firm up her fundamentals and adopt the right mentality. The former can be done through cramming and tutoring, but the latter is something that can't easily be changed."

Having an excessively high opinion of yourself was one of the biggest mistakes a mech designer could ever make. Too many mech designers grew self-centered to the point of becoming a narcissist. Though Ketis may not have reached this point, Ves figured she was close to crossing the line.

"Don't be afraid to knock her on the head if she misbehaves." Mayra said, closing that particular topic.

The two discussed some routine business. Now that the Flagrant Vandals and Lydia's Swordmaidens moved together, they needed to coordinate their supply situation. One topic that Mayra emphasized was the fact that resupplying in the frontier was at least a hundred times more difficult.

"Most star systems in the Faris Star Region are wild and empty. Industry is almost nonexistent and trade in the supplies we need can only be done at the few pirate stations that manage to stay aloft."

The Faris Star Region was like a desert in that sense. Vast stretches of empty sand hid some buried treasures underneath the surface. The pirates and treasure hunters that made the frontier their home usually passed through the few oases in the sands. Sometimes, those stuck in the desert needed to travel for months before they could reach the nearest oasis.

After Ves hung up with Mayra, he turned his attention to other matters. He neglected his other duties during the time he worked on the Leiner Grey.

Fortunately, nothing serious happened that required his intervention. By now, the system of delegation did its work. If the lower-ranking mech designers needed any help, they reported to the higher-ranking mech designers. If they couldn't solve the problem, they kicked it up to the deputies. Only if the deputies failed to cope with the problem would Ves step in and save their bacon.

"It's a good thing that Mercator and Trozin have managed to solve the issues that cropped up. That leaves more time for me." He uttered with satisfaction.

Ves fired off a quick set of mails to his deputies and the other mech designers that performed well. There wasn't much substance to the message besides complimenting them for their diligence and reminding them to continue to follow the schedule.

He also noticed that a couple of mech designers requested one-hour tutoring sessions with him. He almost forgot about that, but he was glad people like Vedette recognized the benefit of receiving his instructions.

"I should clear some hours in my schedule to make time for their sessions."

Once he processed his backlog of paperwork, he turned his attention to Ketis. The girl had been quietly working on the assignment he gave out. It should be about time to evaluate her work.

"Alright Ketis, that's enough. You can stop your design work now."

"I haven't finished yet!" The horned lady squawked. "I just need a couple more days to complete my variant! This design you chose is awful to work with! I barely made any progress in the first day!"

Ves shook his head. "I only need a snapshot of what you are already capable of. I can do that just as well with an incomplete design. Completing your variant isn't important."

He forcibly transferred the latest version of her variant into his terminal over her protestations. As her boss, he possessed full administrative privileges over her guest account, so he could do anything he wanted with it. Once he opened the design schematics of the rushed variant of the Caesar Augustus, he studied it with a critical eye.

"Sloppy." He said after a few seconds. "Your work is too rushed."

"That's because you only gave me a week's time! What am I supposed to do in a week? This stupid Caesar Augustus is one of the most complicated designs I've ever worked with! It's such a travesty that I feel like strangling whoever came up with this hybrid knight!"

Ves ignored her words and continued to dive into her work. Even though he hadn't been fair to her when he only gave her a week to deliver something presentable, the lack of care she showed went behind necessity. As Ves sampled her principles and the nucleus of her design philosophy, he sensed that this lack of diligence went deeper than he thought.

Every mech designer needed to be meticulous in their measurements and their judgement. Ketis seemed to pursue what she found the most exciting, which was the Caesar Augustus' sword and shield.

She focused most of her attention on strengthening her variant's melee capabilities, but completely neglected the wrist-mounted laser cannons and the shoulder-mounted missile launchers. The performance of those two weapon systems practically cratered to the bottom.

More than that, she also got some key measurements wrong, leading to several instances of bad fits between the various components. The errors slowly piled up until the variant underperformed by at least twenty percent, which was a very serious margin for this kind of mech!

In summary, Ves caught out two major flaws in Ketis' disposition. First, she only worked seriously when she came into touch with what she loved. Second, her foundational skills was filled with holes. She lacked systematic learning that every Novice Mech Designer should have memorized.

He briefly explained his observations to Ketis, who looked understandably displeased at being criticized in such fashion. "Excuuuuse me, you little boss! I didn't get the opportunity to grow up in a quiet, safe planet and go to school like everyone else."

"Look, I'm not trying to knock you down for that." Ves quickly said while holding up his arms in a harmless gesture. "I just wanted to get that out there so we can do something about it. Our first priority is to bring you up to the same level of your civilized peers. A good foundation is essential if you want to move up the ranks."

Ketis grumbled a bit but she wasn't an airhead. She knew was well as any other mech designer how far she fell behind. Whether she could sum up the motivation to close the gap was another matter.

The girl looked as if she was torturing herself when she attempted to design a variant of the Caesar Augustus. Her displeasure stood in stark contrast to Ves' enjoyment when he puzzled over the Skull Architect's test.

Ves believed the key to unlocking the guest designer's potential was to ignite her passion.

Chapter 650

"Ketis, do you love to design mechs?"

"Uh, yeah. I do." She answered rather lamely as she flipped her hair over her shoulder. "I was always smarter than my fellow sisters. The Swordmaidens rewarded me whenever I performed well on a test. Eventually, Lydia herself called me up to her office and told me that I was smart enough to become an engineer. She gave me the choice of studying to become a ship engineer or a mech designer. You can probably guess what I chose."

"If you chose to become a ship engineer, we wouldn't be talking to each other right now." Ves siad. "Tell me why you insisted on studying to become a mech designer. It's one of the hardest careers you can pursue. To make it this far, there must be a reason that is driving you forward."

Ketis looked reluctant to share her thoughts. However, she eventually relented after being stared at by Ves. Somehow, his unusually sharp gaze evoked a measure of fear from her instincts.

"We Swordmaidens fight with our mechs. We depend on them to guard our sisters from attack. We use their strength to force others into surrender in order to rob them of their stuff. Without mechs, we are nothing. I'm afraid of what will happen if Mayra isn't there anymore. She tried to raise some other sisters to inherit her work, but they never panned out. Right now, I'm the only one in the Swordmaidens who can back her up."

"So you entered the profession because you want to help your sisters?"

"That's exactly what I said! They need me to take on this job and be ready of Mayra ever croaks or goes missing. A lot can happen in the frontier. One day, nothing is happening. Another day, an entire war gathering of sandmen jumps on our ships. We've experienced so many accidents like this in the frontier that it's a miracle we managed to stay standing. I hope that with my help my sisters will continue to fight under our banner in the future."

Though her motivation sounded a little bland to Ves, he sensed the sincerity in her voice. She truly cared for the Swordmaidens and wished to do her part in helping them survive.

Yet this reason alone wasn't adequate to drive her to take her work seriously. In his eyes, it could only be a half-reason, something to say when you couldn't figure out a better excuse.

"It's admirable for you to care so much to your fellow sisters." He replied gently, but his tone grew firmer. "But if you continue to hold on to this reason alone, you'll eventually lose heart in the craft and remain stuck at the beginner phase."

"I'm not lazy! I work hard! Each and every day, I hit the books, I experiment with Mayra's designs, I doodle up my own designs! There's not a single day that goes by where I'm not doing something about mechs!"

Ves stood up from his desk and took measured steps. Each step forward added to his momentum and increased his stature in front of Ketis.

Though the girl made herself out to be strong and tough, in the end her life experience was too brief. Against his intimidating approach, she instinctively shied backwards.

"W-W-What are you doing?!"

Ves halted within one step of Ketis. Even though she could have unsheathed her giant sword and use that to threaten Ves, somehow the thought never crossed her mind. This was not a contest of arms. It was a contest of wills.

And she lost badly.

"Let me ask you again." Ves spoke and jabbed his finger against her collar. "Are you passionate about mech design?"

A few seconds passed as Ketis looked both angry and defeated. "..I guess not as much as people expect of me. It's just.. it's hard work, and boring work at that. Just because I studied better in my youth doesn't mean I'm cut out to be a geek. Just look at me!"

She brandished her biceps and her muscular figure.

"I'm a warrior! I'm a Swordmaiden!"

Ves audibly sighed in front of him. His breath brushed against her angry face.

"You are a Swordmaiden, but you are neither a warrior or a mech designer."

"What did you say?" She whispered.

"I get it that you're interested in your martial training. But you are taking it way too far. How good are you compared to your sisters?"

"Pretty good, actually. I'm not as good as the best in my age group, but I'm well above average. I train my body every day and I spar with my sisters whenever I can."

"Okay, let's say that Mayra drops dead one day. It's a big tragedy. Now what?"

The silence stretched on. Ketis realized that she had put herself in a bad spot. It didn't help that Ves loomed inside her personal space and put continual pressure on her psyche.

In fact, Ves was resorting to a trick he recently picked up. He was blasting his Spirituality in the direction of Ketis. Though he didn't expect his trick to be very effective due to a lack of understanding in this area, he figured it could at least add to his stature.

"Well?" He prodded her again. "Answer me! You talked about this exact same scenario a few minutes earlier! Shouldn't you be prepared for this eventuality? What will you do when Mayra won't be available anymore?"

Ketis adopted a defeated expression. "I can't be in charge of all of the mechs in the Swordmaidens. It's too much to me. I can't even design a successful variant of a single frigging hybrid knight. What business do I have with Mayra's precious machines? I won't be able to give them the care they need."

"It's good you recognize your shortcomings." Ves said, stepping backwards and relenting on the pressure he put on the girl. "You are not young anymore. The time for playing and frolicking with your fellow sisters is over. As an adult, you need to take your responsibilities seriously. Does spending half of your day on warrior training sound wise to you?"

Of course it didn't, yet Ketis stubbornly held on to the beliefs she acquired since she was young. It wouldn't be so easy to shake off her compulsion for warrior training. Still, as long as Ves pried open a gap in her armor, time would eventually do the rest.

"You're a jerk, you know that?" She gritted her teeth at him as she couldn't think of an appropriate response.

Ves patted her shoulder in a gentle fashion. "Let's take a step back for now. Let me tell you about an observation I have made. I've encountered many mech designers. Some are Masters, others are Novices like you. They vary from their twenties to their five-hundreds. Some designed hundreds of mechs, other haven't even completed a single original design."

"What are you getting at, mister?"

"What I'm trying to convey is that I've encountered so many mech designers that I can tell what separates the good ones from the bad ones. And you know what strikes me as the one major element that every good mech designer possesses? Passion. Love. Ambition. Desire."

"I count four words, not one."

"Doesn't matter." Ves shook his head. "They all convey similar meanings. The point is that the mech designers who have all achieved some success are driven individuals. They don't look at the present and find themselves content with their lot. They are always casting their gaze into the distance. They hope to reach a greater height in the future, but they know they won't get there by inertia alone. They have to work for it. Fight for it. Struggle for it! Good things don't come by themselves!"

Ketis was taken aback by his fervor.

A fire lit in his eyes as he waved his arm as if he conjured up a magnificent vision. "Don't you have dreams? Your vision has always been limited to the Swordmaidens. That shouldn't be endpoint of your ambition. Aim higher! Don't you wish your designs be piloted by more than a few hundred Swordmaidens? What about thousands? Millions? Billions? As long as you work hard for it, your designs may proliferate throughout the Faris Star Region one day! You'd be as famous as the Skull Architect! Think about it! Is that a dream come true to you?"

"I.. I don't know.." A hunger definitely burned in her mind as she got caught up with the fantasy Ves spouted, but it didn't quite fit with her heart. "I never thought about how my work will affect others besides the Swordmaidens. This.. this is too big for me. I'm sorry, I never held such dreams before."

"It's not too late to start." Ves spoke and patted her shoulder yet again. "Look, it's fine to stay attached to the Swordmaidens. It's just that you are wasting your talents and limiting how much you can help them if you keep on spending your time like always. Develop a goal. A real goal, one that doesn't involve the Swordmaidens. You don't have to separate from your sisters. In fact, it's best if the goal is complementary to the interests of your sorority. The key is that a mech designer can only truly better themselves if they design mechs for a wider audience."

She blinked at him. "Won't I be leaving the Swordmaidens behind?"

"Not at all. The stronger you become, the more you can help the Swordmaidens get even stronger. Every good mech designer is a money-making machine, you know. Tell me, does Mayra have any side businesses?"

"Ah, she designs mechs for some of the smaller pirate gangs that we've acquainted with." She said as she stroked the floating scabbard that held her greatsword as if it was a purring cat. "Many of them don't have their own Journeyman Mech Designer, so Mayra's help is very welcome to them. They exchange favors or valuable goods in favor of her expertise."

"You see? Mayra is capitalizing on her advantages. Everything she gains in exchange is helping the Swordmaidens in obtaining new goods and securing new allies. What do you think will happen if Mayra advances to become a Senior like her former mentor?"

Ketis widened her eyes. "She would become one of the hottest names in the Faris Star Region! She could lift us all up into a big influence! No one would dare to touch us then! Our enemies will be too scared of how many allies we can draw upon!"

Ves let the Novice indulge in the fantasy of before making it all come crashing down. "So let me repeat an earlier scenario, one that you brought up yourself I might add. What do you think will happen if the opposite occurs? Sometime in the immediate future, Mayra turns up dead or missing. The only mech designer who can fill her shoes is you. What will happen to the Swordmaiden's strength and their relationships?"

"Not good! Not good at all!" Ketis finally became aware of the gravity of the situation. "Those so-called allies of ours are all scumbags. If Mayra is no longer with us, I'm not sure they're willing to back us up anymore. The only reason they're giving us the time of day is because we have a Journeyman at our disposal. This.. this is a disaster!"

"Mayra has helped build the Swordmaidens up, but she can easily tear you down as well. Your outfit is too dependent on a single talented mech designer. So long as this concentration of ability persists, your group will never be secure. The only way out of this precarious hole you've dug for yourselves is if you step up and treat your profession seriously. Let me ask you this, what is the meaning of a mech designer?"

"Uhhhmm.." Ketis had to scratch her head again. "To design mechs?"

"Correct. A mech designer designs mechs just as mech pilots pilot mechs. It sounds obvious, but look at it from another perspective. Does a mech designer need to be able to fight? Does a mech designer need to learn how to fight with a sword? Does a mech designer even need a strong body?"

The answer to all of those questions was no. Ves had been driving towards this conclusion all this time, but Ketis appeared to be unwilling to admit the truth.

Ves landed the killer blow. He stepped closer and placed both of his arms on her muscular shoulders. "Disregard your own ego for a moment and ask yourself this. Will the Swordmaidens benefit more from having an extra warrior or an extra Journeyman Mech Designer?"

"But.." She stammered. "I'm not as talented as Mayra. I'll never be able to advance to Journeyman?"

"Will you? Nothing is impossible. Mayra managed to do it. You're her student, her protege. As long as you are motivated and possess the right work ethic, there's no reason you can't follow in her footsteps. Don't underestimate your own potential. A daughter of the frontier can be just as talented in designing mechs. It starts with a dream."