Chapter 701

Without a rudimentary understanding of how neural interfaces worked, a mech designer could still figure out a viable solution, though it would take them longer.

When Ves cut out the complicated jargon and unimportant variables, the basic situation with the mech looked clear. The filters and other measures the neural interface possessed to truncate and purify the data entering the brains of the mech pilot stopped working as normal.

They still worked, but not to a perfect extent. If they stopped working at all, a mech pilot's brains would probably fry within seconds, which was not what the Church of Haatumak wanted to see.

"They want to drag out the torture, make the mech pilots suffer, and witness a good show."

Another clue reinforced this notion. The Evaporating Spear was one of the crappiest third-hand mechs he had ever seen. Even the cheapest, most awful pieces of junk that Walter's Whalers employed in the Glowing Planet campaign were more reliable than the Evaporating Spear at its current state!

"Two days? This mech probably needs at least three weeks of around-the-clock servicing to reach a satisfactory level of performance!"

However, Ves knew that the cultists didn't want to see that. The Redemption Duel wasn't about the machines. To these crazies, it was all about torturing the mech pilots as long as possible and to see which one lasted the longest.

The crappier the mechs, the longer it took to deliver a lethal blow to each other, thereby insuring the Redemption Duel wouldn't end in the first minute.

"It's also cheaper that way. If they employed their proper mechs instead, they risk damaging tens of millions of worth of credits in mechs."

Losing the Evaporating Spear cost the Church of Haatumak nothing, considering they likely salvaged it off a debris field in space somewhere. Losing a more valuable mech like the Gun Whale or the Snapper Dolphin directly weakened their defense line while impacting their budget.

Fanatics or not, they could hardly operate the Temple of Haatumak on faith alone!

The first two problems Ves planned to address required little thought on his part to address. Ves possessed an abundant amount of experience in tweaking the internal architecture of mechs, and patching up the structure of the frame sounded no different to what he was already responsible for as head designer.

"It's the third problem that's really the crux. The neural interface is actively working against the mech pilot, and the only way for me to mitigate the damage is to manipulate the input of data from the rest of the mech."

A mech consisted of a complete system. The cockpit of a mech served as the control center that directed the actions of a mech by transmitting the commands of the mech pilot sitting within.

Mech. Cockpit. Mech pilot.

Ordinarily, a mech designer grouped up the former two or all three of them in a single group, essentially regarding them as one entity. A completely normal neural interface allowed the mech designer to blur the distinction between the mech and mech pilot and therefore consider their combination as the effective controlling force of the machine.

"Yet now the neural interface has stopped working as intended."

A complication occurred in the connection between the cockpit and the mech pilot. The chain had been broken and the cycle of input and output became rugged and uneven.

The input from a mech to its mech pilot became bloated with junk data, while the output from the mech pilot to its mech became shriveled due to the unimaginable pain he went through.

Both of these effects decreased the level of control of the mech to a point where the mech pilot effectively exhibited an F-grade neural aptitude.

This was catastrophic.

"I've got to bump up the effective neural aptitude to at least E or E+. Settling for E- is too insufficient. Acolyte Gien is no Leviticus, and a spaceborn mech requires substantially more exertion to pilot than a landbound mech."

If Ves centered his perspective around the mech pilot, then he had two ways of addressing the problem. He could either minimize the input of data or amplify the output of data transmitted out of the mech pilot's brains.

Despite the gruesome nature of this torture, Ves couldn't help but become intrigued at this unique problem. It was a novel situation that Ves had never encountered before in his career as a mech designer.

Ves enjoyed these challenges. They presented an interesting set of demands that Ves needed to pull all the stops to fulfill. Any passionate mech designer would feel the same as him. Fail or succeed, they always came away with another distinctive experience that enriched their mech design foundation.

However, this assignment came with one other major snag. The ethical dilemma constantly hung over his head like a Sword of Damocles ready to slice his head from his neck.

The issue stemmed from the fact that if Ves played along with the twisted game the Soulless Priest pushed him into, he'd be engaging in a gross violation of the mech designer's creed.

A creed was more than a simple statement of intent. It governed the spirit that guided his design work.

The wording differed from region to region, from school to school, from teacher to teacher, from generation to generation.

However, the essence of the creed broadly followed the same core thread.

"Mech designers are servants to the mech pilots they serve."

This simple, broad sentence laid down the ideal relationship between a mech designer and a mech pilot. A mech designer must not place their interests above the interests of the mech pilot, and should never produce a mech that harmed the mech pilot.

It was pretty safe to say that the Evaporating Spear with its messed up neural interface directly took a dump on the mech designer's creed.

If Ves was a scummy pirate designer who possessed no scruples for any rules or taboos, then he wouldn't let this little ethical violation stop him from advancing his goals.

Yet he was not. Ves may have played fast and loose with some of the rules, but when it came to mech design he had almost always embodied the spirit of a proper mech designer.

He may not look like it at times, but he agreed with and identified with the mech designer's creed.

It fulfilled the same role as the old Hippocratic Oath that had been much-maligned during the Age of Conquest and only recently regained its standing in the Age of Mechs.

Doctors and exobiologists used to treat their patients as test subjects for their latest genetic concoctions. The old rule that they should do no harm to those under their care was conveniently laid aside, to disastrous result as their unbridled experimentation led to horrors that humanity had only been able to suppress at ruinous cost.

No one wanted to reopen Pandora's Box in this age.

Humanity had learned the hard way that good ethics played a vital role in steering their civilization. From the start of any mech design class in a university or institution, the teachers stress the importance that they were brought up to become a mech pilot's most essential aid.

"The mechs we fashion out of our imagination brings mech pilots one step closer to victory."

Would Ves still be doing the mech pilot a service by developing a literal torture machine for him? No matter what mental gymnastics he came up with, Ves couldn't avoid the fact that his product was expressly designed to harm and torment its own mech pilot.

Even if Ves was brought up by the orthodox principles of the MTA, he could still accept this bad situation by convincing himself that enabling Acolyte Gien to win would benefit the poor sod more than any other alternative. The traitor to the Church had already been condemned to death. The Redemption Duel offered a minute opportunity to gain a second life, so technically Ves shouldn't make a big deal out of this situation.

The problem here was that the Evaporating Spear pretty much ran counter to his own design philosophy.

"And that makes my approach to this mech exceedingly important."

No matter what road he decided to take, once he stepped forward he could never go back. His decision at this point would impact his design philosophy for the rest of his mech design career.

His design philosophy centered around bringing life to mechs and ascribing a higher intrinsic value to their existence.

However, Ves did not forget about the human component either. A mech gained its fullest expression when they were paired up with a compatible mech pilot that shared the same traits and values.

Simply said, a good mech was one that mech pilots felt comfortable about. Ves had always aimed to maximize the compatibility and fit between the mech and mech pilot, if only because it was an easy method to increase the performance of his products without investing in better licenses or more expensive materials.

Becoming involved with the design of the Evaporating Spear threatened to chip away that the foundation that Ves had painstakingly built up for several years.

Ves was particularly accustomed to pushing problems that he couldn't solve to the back of his mind and forget about them, but he wouldn't be able to do so at this instance.

He couldn't avoid the ethical implications of his decision. He needed to tackle it head-on. No matter what he decided, incurring damage was inevitable.

..Or was it?

If Ves approached this situation with the mindset of an orthodox mech designer, he might have tortured himself about the consequences of what he might incur. And while he did so, did this mindset really apply to him as closely as he initially thought?

"Can I even call myself an orthodox mech designer?"

Several points about his career track put this assertion to doubt. Ever since he received the System, his development had taken an entirely different progression. Not only had it accelerated, it also broke numerous rules, many of them harmless, but one of them was extremely egregious.

He recalled the time he moved all the way to a lifeless star system in the middle of the Bright Republic and holed himself up in an asteroid to work on a gamma laser rifle. Back then, his nascent design philosophy was a lot more immature, and thereby had been flexible enough to remain intact despite his massive violation of one of the fundamental taboos of the MTA and CFA.

Even though the System instigated him into doing so, Ves fully accepted responsibility over his crime!

"I've already run roughshod over the rules governing mech designers!"

Even though he only crossed the line so severely for a single instant, that decision tainted his entire outlook on mech design.

He realized the effect even now. A normal mech designer should have been horrified and apprehensive at the thought of breaking one of the cardinal rules that the MTA held high! Yet while Ves agonized over the decision, he didn't exactly feel any fear at the thought of crossing the line!

The absence of fear perplexed him. Why didn't he feel scared at the thought of treating the MTA and its sacred cows with contempt?

Now, he realized that the incident with working with gamma ray technology affected him far more than he had ever thought. His design philosophy already followed a skewed path from the start, but choosing to work with forbidden tech derailed his path completely from the orthodox direction!

In essence, Ves had more in common with the pirate designers of the frontier than the orthodox mech designers from civilized space!

The principles he thought he respected so dearly turned out to be empty platitudes that Ves only adhered to when it suited him. The moment a rule became a hindrance to his interests, he wasn't afraid at all to push it aside!

"I am unbound from the MTA!"

This statement encompassed the state in which he found himself in. While he still valued certain principles, they didn't necessarily have to match the principles of the MTA! What was best for Ves may not be best for the MTA and vica versa. Becoming unbound from this powerful organization meant that Ves essentially freed himself from becoming one of their slaves!

He laughed, causing Acolyte Villis to stir from her robes. The old lady had been watching Ves quietly while he wasted his time in his own mind. To her, Ves should be making use of every spare second to improve the Evaporating Spear.

Yet none of that was as important as the realization that Ves no longer needed to concern himself with shackles that no longer existed.

No one cared about the rules in the frontier! Why should Ves be any different?

Perhaps he spent too much time immersing himself in frontier culture, or perhaps the mental contamination from the Skull Architect and the research papers had influenced him too much. Yet now that he thought about it, why should he hold any reverence to the sacred cows when Ves was in the mood for steak?

Chapter 702

Just because Ves could treat the rules as air, didn't mean he should degenerate into a lawless hoodlum of a mech designer. Rules were useful to keep him on the right track. Even he had to admit that the MTA largely got things right.

The mech industry would have looked a lot more ugly if the regulating influence of the MTA hadn't come and tamed the worst impulses of mech designers and mech pilots.

However, the realization that Ves had just made pointed out that he'd benefit more if he acted like a hypocrite. It benefited him if his competitors needed to adhere to the rules and principles espoused by the MTA while he retained the freedom to pick and choose when they suited him or not. As long as he didn't get caught, he could do anything he wanted!

"And that's the other pitfall I have to be careful of if I violate the rules."

Ves believed that the Skull Architect had come to a similar realization a long time ago. At some point, Reno Jimenez decided he was better off ignoring the rules that hindered his research.

The Senior's only mistake was to get caught while doing so.

"I have to learn from his example. If I'm doing something shady, I better not go overboard and become so unhinged that I'm unable to assess the risks of my actions."

Ves forcefully calmed himself down. He needed to get back to business. Now that he found out he could overcome his ethical objections to this job by ignoring some of his principles entirely, he had to make use of this opportunity.

He called up the design schematics of the Evaporating Spear and went to work. He started to draft some easy corrections that didn't take too much time or resources to apply. Ves found many inefficiencies, but it galled him a bit that he needed to leave most of them alone due to lack of time to address them in a timely manner.

It was as if an entire city erupted in fire, but Ves only had the time to put out the flames in a single district before the rest burned to a crisp.

Along the way, he also started to figure out ways to address the biggest issue plaguing the mech. This required a lot more thought and ingenuity on his part. With the neural interface purposely configured to kill its own mech pilot in a tortuous fashion, Ves needed to work around this handicap and lessen its impact on Acolyte Gien.

"It's all about the input and output of data to and from the mech pilot."

The easiest way to address this issue was to amplify the strained and garbled data transmitted by the mech pilot's overstressed brains. Due to the torture he would likely be going through, interpreting the data instructions from the mech pilot would be severely limited in detail and sophistication.

If someone dumped Ves into a vat filled with acidic solutions, Ves would probably be suffering from too much pain to design a mech at the same time. Perhaps he could manage to draw a few lines that composed a sketch of a design, but the end product wouldn't be too great.

The same applied to Acolyte Gien. With so few instructions transmitted from his brains, how could his spaceborn lancer mech act in a lifelike fashion?

Many frontline mech designs suffered from the same problems. Despite simplifying the design of the mech to only the most essential parts, their designers still grappled with the issue that many borderline cases with extremely deficient genetic aptitudes wouldn't be able to pilot their frontline mechs to a reasonable standard.

So the designers cheated in a way. They compensated for the lack of skill and expression by their crappy mech pilots through pre-programmed actions and AI-assisted movements!

For example, the act of walking a mech from point A to point B entailed billions of individual data transmissions. A neural interface that immersed a mech pilot deeply with their mech would directly lean on the mech pilot's brains to control the movements to a precise degree.

However, many frontline mechs came with a form of automation or cruise control, for a lack of a better word. Instead of relying on an untalented mech pilot to strain their minds into maintaining the movement of their mechs, they could instead send out a single command to a control AI which directed various subroutines or algorithms to move the mech forward in their stead.

The difference between a single command and a billion individual transmissions was huge!

Yet relying too much on automation came with very big caveats. A mech that offloaded more and more control to AIs began to resemble a bot rather than a mech!

"A mech that is governed more by its AIs rather than its mech pilot is as effective in battle as a bot!"

Implementing such routines shouldn't be very challenging to Ves. He had access to a library of pirates AIs and algorithms from the local database of the Church of Haatumak. Many of them seemed tailor-made for the situation at hand. This indicated to Ves that this was far from the only time they held a Redemption Duel with these limitations.

However, Ves disdained this particular solution. Watching two mechs that were essentially controlled by bots did not stoke anyone's blood. This put the considerable abilities of Acolyte Gien out of play, turning his mech into his prison both physically and mentally.

It would also disappoint the expectations of the Church. Ves figured the battle needed to be as exciting as a mech arena spectacle between two evenly-matched opponents.

Before he started though, he still needed to decide on an important matter. Should he leverage his Spirituality into reshaping the Evaporating Spear's X-Factor?

Currently, Ves sensed it was a complete mess, which wasn't unusual to mechs that passed through multiple incompetent hands.

The issue he mulled over was whether he could risk using his specialty in the midst of a hidden hand of the Five Scrolls Compact!

Ves stared at Acolyte Villis who had never once stopped staring at Ves while he sat behind the terminal.

Too dangerous!

With this strange old lady monitoring his every move, Ves feared the possibility that they might pick up a clue. The strange encounter with TekTak showed that the Church and its mother organization were one of the few entities that may be able to detect something funny.

As much as it pained Ves to keep an essential tool of his locked in his proverbial tool chest, he really did not wish to fall into the hands of these crazy cultists!

He shook his head. Instead of focusing on an advantage he couldn't put into play, he should instead focus on the issues he'd be able to form a response.

"Acolyte Villis."

"Yes, Mr. Larkinson?"

"Who are my opponents? Is their mech pilot as skilled as Acolyte Gien? Is the mech designer who's assigned to work on the opposition's mech from the frontier or from civilized space?"

The acolyte shook her head behind her darkened hood. "Where's the fun in this contest if you are able to anticipate your opponent? You will have to find out the answer to these questions on your own on the day of the Redemption Duel.

Ves figured Acolyte Villis would answer him with a non-answer. The lack of intelligence on the opposition's mech, mech pilot and mech designer left a huge question mark in his mind. Without a solid idea of the opposition the Evaporating Spear would face, Ves needed to utilize his own judgement and make his mech as adaptable as possible.

"I don't know if the Evaporating Spear will face a melee mech or a ranged mech." He said to himself. "It could be a light skirmisher, which is nimble and easy to miss for a slower lancer mech. It could be a cannoneer as well, something that hits hard and can disable the Evaporating Spear long before it can close the distance."

As Ves started to tweak the design further, he emphasized its flexibility rather than extending its performance parameters towards a specific direction.

These competing priorities affected mobility most of all! Ves tugged between strengthening the design's agility to increasing its acceleration. The former increased the Evaporating Spear's effectiveness against melee mechs while the latter helped the mech improve its odds against ranged mechs.

It didn't help that increasing one aspect largely came at the cost of the other aspect. Ves had to finagle a lot of creative solutions in order to minimize the negative impact of his adjustments.

Still, the sheer inefficiencies in the original design and its subsequent amateurish repairs gave Ves a lot of leeway in optimizing its internal architecture. By the end of his first design phase, the Evaporating Spear's mobility increased by at least twenty-five percent, which was a massive jump for so little work!

In the meantime, he also worked on tweaking the input of data to the cockpit. While it was far easier to amplify the output of data by outsourcing control over the mech to an AI or some algorithms, they were too rigid and limited in his eyes.

Ves did not want to design a bot!

So instead, he chose to walk the difficult path by trying to do something about all of the excess junk data that was being transmitted to the mech pilot.

First, he identified where the junk data came from. It didn't show up from nothing, after all.

"I see. A mech is a complicated machine with countless moving parts." He nodded in understanding. "Most of the time, their input isn't very relevant to the mech pilot, so they get filtered out by submodules built into the cockpit. These submodules and subroutines decide which packets of data gets to be passed on to the mech pilot and which packets of data needs to be thrown out."

Ves wanted to figure out a way to decrease the transmission of junk data even before it arrived at the cockpit.

It sounded easy to do for a layman. If some component, say a temperature meter installed in the arm to watch for overheating, sent a status update to the cockpit every millisecond, he could simply cut the frequency in half. So instead of reporting the temperature of that arm section by every second, it would do so every two seconds.

That wasn't the end. What if instead of reporting in every two seconds, Ves decreased the interval even further? Even if he decreased the frequency to a rate of once per minute, the performance of the mech would hardly be affected!

If Ves could apply this solution to something as small and inconsequential to a temperature meter, he could apply the same solution to millions of other tiny components, each of which constantly bombarded the cockpit with data sent at an interval measured in microseconds or nanoseconds in some cases!

A machine didn't care about how many times it received a data packet from the same source. One component or a million components, as long as the cockpit came with enough processing power, it could easily handle a thousand times the raw input of a mech!

But a human mind was different!

"A baseline human's brains can't match the sheer processing power of an artificial chip. Our evolution hasn't been able to keep up with the advancement in processing power!"

A well-tuned cockpit and neural interface treated incoming data in an intelligent fashion. It offloaded the inconsequential matters to the processors and transferred pertinent data to the mech pilot to their organic minds.

Right now, the dysfunction of this feature forced Ves to make his own decisions on what kind of data a mech pilot needed to know.

Suffice to say, Ves had to do a lot of cutting in order to lighten the mech pilot's burden.

The trouble was that while some components only played a marginal role, many others played a more vital one. For example, a temperature regulator that only transmitted its status once every minute might eventually result in catastrophe if the arm overheated without the mech pilot becoming aware of the danger.

With the sheer amount of interdependence between different components and subcomponents, Ves possessed a lot less leeway in this area than it appeared. If he went too far with the cutting, two possible outcomes might result.

The first result was that the components or even the entire mech stopped working entirely. This was because Ves interrupted a critical data loop between interconnected components.

The second result was that the mech became jerky. The increase in reporting interval caused the mech's feedback loop to lag. Increased delays between input and output effectively had the result of delaying a mech pilot's actions by several hundred milliseconds.

This was catastrophic, and could mean the difference between victory and defeat!

Therefore, Ves needed to be restrained in this fashion. In the end, he only managed to cut the total input of raw data by around sixty percent.

Chapter 703

Decreasing the transmission of raw data to the cockpit by sixty percent sounded impressive.

However, it did not measurably lessen the pain experienced by Acolyte Gien. Ves estimated that he needed to cut the data stream by at least ninety-eight percent for it to stop causing permanent harm to the mech pilot!

"Solving the problem completely isn't doable. Not only will the mech be almost uncontrollable to Acolyte Gien, it also spits in the face of the Church's intentions."

What Ves had effectively done was to make the torture device a little less lethal. The torture victim practically felt just as much pain, but he'd be able to endure the torture at least twice as long, prolonging his suffering!

Ves snorted at the morbid notion that popped up in his mind. "If I can't make it as a mech designer, I can always transition into designing torture machines."

Working on modifying the design of the Evaporating Spear had exposed the full horror of what a faulty neural interface could unleash! Ves always knew that mech pilots risked sustaining permanent brain damage in theory, but to contribute on a mech where this became a feature instead of a fault was something else!

To state that his design philosophy remained pure and unchanged was a lie. The pressure it endured had left some marks. In the future, his design philosophy would bend more easily under pressure. In exchange, it lost some of the backbone that made it pure.

Time would tell whether this change benefited him more than it cost, but Ves willingly embraced this shift.

Ves already witnessed the strengths and drawbacks of a rigid design philosophy. Single-minded in focus, as long as the mech designer kept following the proscribed paths, they advanced relatively quickly and improved quite fast.

However, once they fell into a completely different circumstance, they encountered many difficulties in trying to adjust their design philosophy to the changes they experienced.

The Skull Architect with his extremely narrow-minded research focus suffered from this fault.

Ves did not lack for confidence in his ability to advance his own path in mech design. He already did so since the start with his pioneering work on the X-Factor. With his various advantages, he did not require an additional boost in this department.

What he valued instead was adaptability! With a potential career that spanned for several hundred years at the very least, human society would doubtlessly experience many changes. Ves wanted to insure he retained the flexibility to keep up with the times.

If his design philosophy was flexible enough to bend to any storm, then Ves would be able to prosper regardless if he based himself in the Bright Republic, the Friday Coalition, the frontier or even the galactic heartland or the galactic center!

His paranoia urged him to be constantly prepared for danger no matter where he based himself. He needed to be ready to abandon all that he worked towards and flee to safer regions.

Ves came to the realization that one of the major reasons why mech designers in the galactic rim rarely chose to relocate closer to the center of the galaxy. Their design philosophy simply couldn't adapt to the changed environment. A different mech industry, a different mech market, mech designers were forced to discard too many habits and customs they took for granted.

Still, despite the fact that these highly focused mech designers likely fared poorly should they relocate to a different region of the galaxy, they excelled at the areas they were good at. Ves guessed that the most successful mech designers were those who put their entire heart and soul into their primary pursuits.

"The Star Designers form the best example of what an obsession can amount to when pursued to the extreme."

Of the hundred Star Designers in existence to this day and age, the majority spent the vast majority of their early careers in doggedly becoming the best in a specific field!

However, examples to the contrary existed as well. The Polymath served as the quintessential example of how a broad focus or a complete lack of focus did not stop a mech designer from reaching the pinnacle in mech design!

Though it made his future advancement a little more difficult, he felt liberated for making this choice. Unbound by rules, decoupled from the MTA and able to bend in any situation, his changing design philosophy experienced a fundamental paradigm shift.

If he had to summarize the most important change, then his new design philosophy cared less about the process and more about the end result.

He wouldn't care too much if he needed to break a few eggs to make an omelet.

"I suppose that also answers the question of whether I should care about the mech pilots I'm serving."

His new shift enabled him to remain callous and unfeeling even if he contributed to harming the mech pilots who used his mechs. Though this didn't forbid him from selectively caring for some of his favored clients and customers, his default state could be described as indifferent.

In other words, he didn't care!

Did this mean he let go of the mech designer's creed? Not entirely. He still recognized its exemplary value and an ideal to measure up to. Ves simply regarded it as a guideline instead of a hard rule to follow.

The loss of innocence may be a regretful matter to some, but Ves reaped the benefits of it as the strain of working on the Evaporating Spear faded into the background.

His design philosophy exhibited the flexibility of a tree in the middle of a storm. As long as the wind didn't blow too hard or too often, Ves would be able to retain much of his old values even as he did the opposite of what he was supposed to! He was basically having his cake and eating it too!

"Brilliant!" He uttered as the design came closer to exhibiting a satisfactory level of performance. Instead of being wracked with guilt, he reveled in the challenge and enjoyment of working on such an unusual project. "I should have figured this out sooner!"

Guided by a design philosophy that bent but never snapped, Ves finalized the entire design, rebirthing it from its humble and neglected origins and shaping it to become a mech fit for dueling!

As Ves studied the finished redesign, he frowned a bit when he picked up a trace of spirituality from its design.

"I failed." He said, causing Acolyte Villis to jerk confusedly at him. "I'm too strong for my own good."

The mech designers who worked on the Evaporating Spear before Ves got his hands on it were barely above amateur level. Both their technical ability and their design philosophies simply couldn't hold a candle to Ves.

Even unconsciously and unfocused, his passive Spirituality exerted so much strength that it had practically overridden much of the design's muddy vision with one of his own!

Ves carefully tasted the changes in the spiritual nature of the design. Its X-Factor gained definition, and while it may not be too strong, it was no longer a muddy swamp of noise as before.

His subconscious desires and intentions seemed to have imprinted the vague vision he constructed in his mind on the design.

The mech turned from a mech without a defined vision to one that carried the notion of sacrifice. The Evaporating Spear veered away from a mech that tormented its pilot for petty reasons.

Instead, the lancer mech became a furnace that harnessed its mech pilot's pain, stimulating them both to perform at their greatest potential!

"It's going to be hard to live up to that ideal."

Just because he created a lofty vision didn't mean his end product matched his intentions. Lack of time, lack of tools, lack of materials and lack of other resources hampered him from fulfilling his vision to the end.

He just had to settle for halfway or less. Though it rankled him a bit to surrender to practicality, virtually every mech designer suffered from the exact same problem, so learning how to deal with disappointment was part of their profession.

"Now that I'm ready to implement my design, there is one issue I need to address."

Ves stretched his back as best he could in his combat armor and rose up from the terminal. He looked around the assembly bay and spotted the Evaporating Spear's fated mech pilot slouching like a homeless bum off the streets. The sorry figure hadn't moved from the stack of crates that served as his makeshift seat.

"Tch." He almost spat. "This won't do."

The strength of the mech depended heavily on the strength of the mech pilot. If the mech pilot already gave up, the mech itself wouldn't be able to leverage its strength at all! Most of the work that Ves was about to perform on the Evaporating Spear would be wasted if Acolyte Gien continued to feel sorry for himself.

Ves marched over to the cultist pilot and loomed over the depressed-looking figure.

"Acolyte. Look up at me."

"Pff." Gien puffed through his lips. The man continued to stare at the deck. "..What is it, outsider?"

"Are you ready to fight?"

"What's the point? I'll be dead either way."

"According to your fellow acolyte, you still have an opportunity to make it out alive." Ves replied while pointing his thumb at Acolyte Villis, who silently kept pace with Ves. "I've just finished planning for the redesign for your dueling mech. Instead of brooding here like a loser, why don't you spend your time more productively? I can load the latest design into a simulator pod for you to become accustomed to its performance parameters. Considering the nature of the Redemption Duel, you don't want to go into the battle without knowing what your mech is capable of!"

"I'm dead either way!" Acolyte Gien yelled as he stood up and yelled right in front of Ves. "This duel is pointless! My life was forfeit as soon as the Priests caught me passing information to a fellow pirate!"

"What's done is done. Are you going to feel sorry for yourself all the way up to the Redemption Duel? Get your butt back into gear and fight, damnit! It's not the end for you!"

"You have no idea what's in store for me." Gien shook his head and crossed his arms. "Even if I win, the Priests will convert me into a Living Altar. An outsider like you will never be able to fathom the full extent of this ritual! They say that I will be reborn, but that is a lie! All that is me is gone, and in its place is a different me that wears my face but carries the soul of Haatumak!"

Acolyte Villis abruptly lunged forward. For an old crone, she moved remarkably nimbly, as if a twenty-year old woman in her prime hid beneath a bag of old and saggy skin! A gloved palm emerged from her robes and slapped the mech pilot in the cheek.

"Do not repeat your error, Gien!" She hissed in an awful serpentine tone. "The ways of Haatumak are not to be divulged to our guests!"

The mech pilot recoiled in fear at the old crone. Evidently, the woman inspired fear despite her low rank. "F-F-Forgive me, Villis!"

Ves witnessed the brief exchange. Gien hardly flinched when Ves confronted the traitor, yet immediately turned into a scaredy-cat after a single rebuke from Villis. Perhaps he could make use of this dynamic.

"Acolyte Villis, can I ask you a favor?"

The old crone turned her hooded head at Ves. "We are not in the business of providing favors without cost, Mr. Larkinson."

"I think this will benefit the both of us."

"Speak, then."

"Well, considering that you appear to have the power to keep this sad excuse of a mech pilot on his toes, can you motivate him to fight? He needs a good kick in the butt if he's to be prepared for his Redemption Duel."

Villis briefly paused, as if she hesitated over the suggestion. Eventually, she agreed. "Though it is outside the scope of my orders, this is Haatumak's will. Rest assured that Acolyte Villis will be fully prepared to fight when it is time."

"No!" Gien screamed and fell down in front of Ves. He crawled towards Ves until his arms clutched the legs. "Don't leave me alone with Acolyte Villis! Anything but that! She's one of the most fearsome acolytes aboard the temple!"

Ves rudely kicked away the arms enveloping his armored legs. "I don't care. Just do your duty and practice with the new design! I'm counting on you to win!"

So long as Acolyte Gien fought as hard as he could, Ves was reassured he'd be able to obtain his promised rewards. As for what happened next to the poor brain-damaged mech pilot, it was none of his business.

Chapter 704

Two days later, Ves sat at an observation chamber at the upper decks of the Temple. It was built out of one of the eye sockets of the leviathan remnant's skeleton, and so could easily accommodate a small crowd of guests.

Ves tiredly wiped his face. He worked for two days straight, neither sleeping nor ever lowering his guard against the potential antics the cultists might be up to. Sometimes, Ves heard awful noises and screams from the other side of the mech workshop. Other times, the chamber descended into a place of worship as every mech technician spontaneously put down their tools and kneeled down to pray to Haatumak.

Suffice to say, the sooner he got off the Temple, the easier he could breathe. The constant staring and the all-encompassing strangeness grated on his nerves, eating away his sanity every second he spent aboard this massive vessel.

The Temple of Haatumak represented one of the ugliest facets of the frontier. She was one of many starships in the Faris Star Region that played host to exiles too extreme to conform to the rules and customs of civilized space.

In the lawless environment of the untamed stars, the worshippers that ran the ship exhibited a complete lack of restraint. With no one to stop them, they did whatever they thought that Haatumak approved.

This cruel and sadistic Redemption Duel counted as one of them, and a milder one at that. The MTA would have a heart attack if they witnessed it, but Ves fortunately diverged his values from theirs long ago.

The observation chamber became host to a number of middle-ranked Living Altars and their Acolyte followers.

From what Ves picked up during his time aboard the Temple, the Living Altars each different substantially in their beliefs and their teaching. While they all venerated Haatumak above anything else, they expressed them in different ways.

The various Acolytes of the Church either chose a Living Altar to follow or were assigned to them by a Priest. Each Acolyte had the potential to become a Priest or Living Altar themselves, which represented an opportunity to escape their humble status at the bottom of the totem pole and become a figure of stature within the Church.

However, attrition among the Acolytes constantly took a toll on their numbers. Dangers roamed aplenty aboard the Temple, and those who met an unfortunate end from a ritual gone wrong happened quite a lot.

Still, some of this was pure speculation on his part. He hadn't been able to decipher why people felt drawn to the Church in the first place, and how the cultists selected their new entrants.

"Mr. Larkinson!"

Ves turned his head and saw to his surprise that Mayra had arrived. Her Acolyte minder guided the Swordmaiden mech designer towards the empty seat next to his own. Clad in savage, tribal-like armor, she looked as valiant as any other Swordmaiden.

She was everything Ketis tried to be. Sitting so close to her made him feel as if he sat next to a dormant exobeast. Yet Ves was well aware that Mayra's fighting prowess paled in comparison to her ability in mech design.

Perhaps the mech designers back in civilized space might scoff as a savage calling herself a Journeyman, but Ves considered her the real deal.

"Mayra! Why are you here?"

The middle-aged woman grinned at him. "My mech is about to take part in a duel. What about you?"

"It's the same for me! Wait a second.. How many duels are taking place today?"

"Only one Redemption Duel is on the agenda for today." Acolyte Villis helpfully informed him, causing Ves to look distressed.

"What?!" He sat up straight in his chair. "I've been matching my design against yours!? That doesn't make any sense! I'm still an Apprentice Mech Designer while you're a Journeyman Mech Designer!"

Acolyte Villis released a sadistic cackle. "Did you think this competition was fair? Hah! Naive! The frontier is never fair to its people, and neither is Haatumak! We must all deal with the hand we are dealt!"

Mayra placed her gauntleted hand on his own that rested on the seatrest. "Calm yourself, Mr. Larkinson. What's done is done. The worshippers of Haatumak delight in getting a rise out of their guests. It's one of the few sources of entertainment they are allowed to enjoy."

She was right. An outburst changed nothing, so Ves pushed down his alarm. Still, his bones cried out against the unfairness of matching up an Apprentice against a Journeyman!

No matter how highly he thought of his ability, he never considered himself to be superior to a genuine Journeyman. Their degree of utilization and their condensed design philosophies gave them a solid edge of Ves whose true strength still remained rather brittle and ephemeral.

In the mech industry, Apprentices were children and Journeymen were adults. The latter always won against the former in a direct battle.

Ves had no choice but to prepare himself for defeat this time.

As they waited for the spectators to catch up to the event, the two guests began to talk about Ketis.

"How is my protege fairing so far in your care?" Mayra asked.

Ves was struck as her bearing as a Swordmaiden and a mech designer. It contained the best parts of both, having discarded the uncontrolled wildness that was inherent in a Swordmaiden and the physical insecurity of a mech designer. Best of all, Mayra managed to do so without revealing a hint of instability.

He wondered what kind of excess Mayra hid beneath her composure. From what he knew about mech designers, Mayra's veneer of civility looked convincing, but he bet she had her own skeletons in the closet. No successful mech designer survived the frontier without some blemishes on their hands.

"Ketis is doing well enough under my instruction, I suppose. As she lacks the institutional upbringing that a mech designer internalizes from a university or institution, I've been focused on drilling her on that aspect. I've simultaneously pushed her to be more hands-on with her work. I understand she hasn't spent much time in the mech workshops."

Mayra raised her eyebrow at him. "You put her in a mech workshop? Do you know how she must hate the thought of working in close proximity to the mech technicians?"

"Look, I've heard that you treat your mech technicians like slaves, but that doesn't excuse washing your hands from the responsibilities outside the design phase. I've been brought up by the idea that a good mech designer is one that masters all the phases in the life cycle of a mech. It's not enough to become proficient at the design phase. Knowing how to fabricate and service them is a vital component of our duties, especially if we are employed in the service of an outfit."

"You're right, of course." She conceded. "Yet Ketis is different than us. Her drive isn't there. I didn't bring her down to the mech workshops because the work there is largely menial. Flooding her with too much menial work will only snuff out the embers that drive her forward."

Ves disagreed. The Swordmaidens had themselves to blame for treating their mech technicians like garbage, thereby poisoning Ketis' respect for their class. Solving this issue and showing her the value of a well-trained team of mech technicians was one of his biggest challenges.

"I'm not sure how long she's able to stay under my wing. She needs more than a few months to round out her shortcomings as a mech designer, at least in the classical sense."

"You don't need to go that far." Mayra smiled at Ves. "As long as she discovers her drive, the rest can be made up later. Right now, experiencing a radically different working environment will hopefully force her to question what she really wants out of her life."

The pirate designer had been part of the Swordmaidens since they were small and weak. Mayra went through many hardships when she fought and struggled alongside Commander Lydia. Ketis missed out on this difficult period, and therefore lacked perspective.

Her time under Ves aboard the Shield of Hispania already benefited her. Ves enjoyed the same fruits as his various adventures and his current tour of duty forced him to endure radically different mech design conditions.

At some point, the Soulless Priest who presided over the duel no longer delayed the matter. A whole ceremony must be taking place in the central hall or some other compartment, but guests like Ves and Mayra were prohibited from witnessing it. Thus, they'd been pushed to an observation chamber along with some other unimportant cultists.

Two mechs emerged from different hangar bays. At this distance, Ves had difficulty seeing them with the naked eye. Fortunately, high-fidelity projectors sprang to life. Two of them transmitted closeups for each dueling mech while a third one attempted to frame them both to provide an overview of the battle.

Surprisingly, the mechs hadn't activated yet. Instead, they were being towed out into open space by two other mechs that possessed robust flight systems. While it still took some time to tow out the competition mechs to a safe distance from the Temple of Haatumak and her escorts, ten minutes later the Soulless Priest must have been satisfied as he ordered the tow mechs to cut their connections and fly out of the way.

A silence ensued in the observation chamber as all the cultists halted their conversation. No one was interested in small talk while the duel was about to commence.

Two more projections sprang to life. They depicted the interior of the cockpits of the two mechs. One of them depicted Acolyte Gien, while the other depicted a female mech pilot.

"Who's the woman?" He asked.

"Acolyte Evie Simmons." Mayra answered. With the duel ready to start at any moment, she saw no point in withholding her accomplishments. "She's a striker mech pilot, actually, but the Redemption Rose the worshippers assigned to her is a medium space knight! Prepping the mech to work with someone who specializes in a different type of mechs has been challenging."

Hearing that caused Ves to become a little upset over the uneven matchup. Failing to provide a preferred mech type increased the odds for his side, but only a little.

That was because striker mechs had much in common with knight mechs. Both were comparatively hefty mech types that depended on brute force and ponderous moves to fight.

Knight mechs leaned more towards defense by limiting themselves to a sword and shield as their primary armament.

Striker mechs leaned towards offense with their short-ranged wide-area weaponry such as shotguns and flamethrowers.

In addition, every mech pilot's basic training forced them to become proficient with both knight mechs and rifleman mechs before they branched out to other mech types.

To someone like Acolyte Evie, piloting a knight mech was like picking up an old hobby. If she spent the last weeks practicing with knight mechs in the simulators, then she wouldn't be worse off.

Ves stared hard at the Redemption Rose's design. As someone who dabbled extensively in landbound knight mechs, he identified a lot of distinctive features about the Redemption Rose.

"Looks like you've modified the Redemption Rose from a defensive knight into an offensive knight!"

In his eyes, the Redemption Rose appeared as if it used to be overweight, but underwent surgery that removed a lot of excess fat. The sudden transition always left some marks behind, particularly when Mayra had been in a rush.

Besides slimming down the space knight, the Redemption Rose design sported many shared elements of the Misty Slasher. The space knight inherited both the increased arm strength and the placement of miniboosters from Mayra's exclusive swordsman mech design!

To call the Redemption Rose might not be accurate. Through Mayra's extensive intervention, the formerly defense-oriented space knight turned into one of the strangest hybrids between an offensive space knight and a swordsman mech that Ves had ever seen!

It was basically a swordsman mech with a shield!

Chapter 705

The Redemption Rose faced off against the Evaporating Spear. Both dueling mechs awaited activation, yet the duel didn't center around the mechs. Instead, they formed the backdrop to the impending struggles of Acolyte Evie and Acolyte Gien, both of whom would participate in one of the darkest mech duels that Ves had ever witnessed.

"Who do you think will win?" Mayra asked.

"I'm sure you have a better idea than I do." Ves responded with a grim expression. He did not rate his chances highly. "While I've done my best in fixing up the Evaporating Spear, I'm sure your mech is in a much better state."

"Don't count out your mech so soon, Mr. Larkinson. Neither you nor I received enough time to perform anything but the bare we had a week's time or more, our disparity will begin to show, but two days is not enough to widen the gap that much."

She had a point. They both fixed up the basic deficiencies of the mech before they added their own unique touches to their mechs, which shouldn't have amounted to much.

Still, Ves recognized that Mayra had the advantage here, as decades of experience as well as a greater utilization of her skills enabled her to work faster than any immature Apprentice. Even Ves had to admit defeat in front of her advantage in accumulation. The fact that the Redemption Rose sported visibly strengthened arms and miniboosters showed that she got a lot more work done in the same amount of time.

"The mechs are activating!"

The activation process from a cold start took as long as a minute for low-quality mechs. As the projections of the cockpits showed consoles and various displays coming to life, everyone waited patiently for the critical moment to arrive.

Some cultists in the observation room shook in anticipation, while others held themselves stock still as if the impending show was just another tuesday.

For Ves, this event became a pivotal moment in his life. This was the first time he designed a mech that expressly spit on the face of the MTA and its ethical principles. It made him feel both mischievous and naughty for partaking in such an evil project.

"Why don't I feel guilty?"

Ever since his loss of innocence, it became easy for Ves to switch off his guilt. However, reversing this switch did nothing to turn him back to the old Ves. The decision to shed his principles had left an indelible mark on his conscious.

"I've crossed the Rubicon. What's done is done."

Sadness crept up from the back of his mind. He silently lamented the high ideals he used to hold in high regard. Yet he did not regret his decision even as he mourned what he lost. What he gained should more than make up for what he paid.

Ves was a different mech designer now.

He snorted when he compared his evolution to the one he tried to instill in Ketis. Ves tried to instill the mindset of a civilized mech designer into her, while Ves voluntarily took on the traits of a frontier mech designer.

They were two completely different mech designers who moved into opposite directions in an attempt to improve themselves.

Whether it was a mistake to abandon the purity of their upbringing and open themselves up to new perspectives remained to be seen. At the very least, Ves considered it a net positive if he'd be able to retain all of the good influences while leaving behind some of the bad ones.

"It's starting!" Mayra uttered with an elevated breath. Even she felt some sympathy for what her mech pilot would be going through. "The neural interfaces are starting their transmissions into their central nervous system."

It was like stuffing someone's mouth with an entire cow. Their throats simply couldn't fit something so big!

Twin screams began to escape from their mouths! Ragged cries from both exposed the horror of how it felt to have your entire brains and spine burn from being overloaded with excessive amounts of input!

"C'mon! Push through the pain! Fight!" Ves whispered. Without a battle, the twisted ritual had no meaning in the eyes of the Priests. "Yes! That's it! Move!"

The screams subsided, though they never stopped. Sheer willpower forced Acolytes Gien and Evie to push through their agony and focus on the critical aspect of making sense of the glut of data their brains failed to process.

Through grit and steel, they managed to reach a fragile equilibrium. Ves couldn't imagine how they managed to do it, but every human being possessed the will to live.

Ves still couldn't believe what he witnessed in front of his eyes. Mech pilots were being brought to a slow and agonizing death by the very mechs they depended on to achieve victory. Such an abusive relationship shouldn't exist, but with the Soulless Priest's machinations and assistance from Mayra and himself, they successfully birthed a pair of abominations.

Conventional theory stated that mechs needed to be in sync with their own mech pilot to realize their full potential. However, this obviously wasn't possible in this case, causing both mech pilots to effectively experience a degradation in their effective aptitude.

Therefore, before the mech pilots could fight, they needed to master their new circumstances. Simulator sessions hadn't been enough to prepare them for the difficulties they experienced right now. They needed to become accustomed to this unique and painful circumstance as fast as possible.

"Acolyte Gien has made the first move!"

Surprisingly, Gien stopped screaming first. As soon as he cut off his uncontrollable impulses, he grit his teeth and directed his mech to begin moving. As the Evaporating Spear was a spaceborn lancer mech, Gien chose to initiate its principal form of attack.

The Evaporating Spear began to charge.

It helped that it didn't require too much output commands on his part to set the charge in motion. He only needed to dial the acceleration of his flight system to maximum and force his mech to brace its lance within its grasp. After that, Acolyte Gien's main concern would be to keep the parameters of his mech as stable as possible while making sure it flew straight towards its opponent.

It sounded simple, but the Evaporating Spear exhibited a number of uncontrollable movements! Sometimes, its flight system sputtered, while other times its spear almost jerked away from the center.

"Acolyte Gien isn't clear-headed enough to filter out sober commands." Mayra commented.

Ves looked up at her. He picked up on a hint of familiarity in her tone. "Did you witness something like this before?"

"Not from my own mechs, thankfully." She sighed in relief. "I've witnessed this phenomenon from some of our allies and opponents. You tend to encounter these sights from some of the poorer pirate gangs. They are often short on mech technicians, or don't have any who are very good at their job, so a lot of mistakes occur in the mech workshops. Since they're so poor and weak, they don't have a mech designer on retainer to solve these issues either."

That sounded like a tragedy in the making to Ves. Such a pirate outfit wouldn't be able to survive for more than a couple of years at most.

"Let me guess." He added. "They also buy the cheapest, crappiest mechs from the shadiest dealers. Ones that have a high chance of being tampered with as well for some reason or another."

Mayra nodded. "Caveat Emptor. Buyers must be wary and knowledgeable enough to know what they are purchasing. The sad thing is that pirate gangs without their own mech designers never last very long. The number one reason for their failure is that their very own mechs have led them to their deaths."

While they were chatting, in the meantime the duel picked up steam. As the Evaporating Spear was picking up steam, the Redemption Rose did not fall behind. Acolyte Evie gained control just in time to brace her mech for a charge.

In theory, a lancer mech handedly beat a knight mech. A lancer's offensive power relied primarily on their charging attack, and the one thing they hated most was fighting against a light and mobile mech that could easily dodge the telegraphed charge without breaking any sweat.

A space knight that relied on armor instead of mobility to fend off attacks should have been a sitting duck. However, due to Mayra's extensive modifications, the mech had shed much of its armor in exchange for increased mobility.

The Redemption Rose could not be called a proper knight anymore!

"The first collision is about to happen!"

As the Evaporating Spear charged forth like a jerky rocket that nonetheless managed to maintain its course, its lance was moments away from piercing through the Redemption Rose's weakened armor!

However, the Redemption Rose abruptly engaged its flight system along with some of its miniboosters! The sudden impulse shoved the slimmed-down space knight out of the path of the Evaporating Spear's charge, causing the lancer mech to miss its target by a wide margin!

"Acolyte Gien almost succeeded." Ves commented, though he looked a little disappointed. "He even predicted that Evie would dodge, but he chose to correct his course in the wrong direction."

The Redemption Rose dodged to the right at the last second, but the Evaporating Spear had already begun to bend its lance in the other direction! If Gien had won the guessing game, then chances were high his mech would have been able to leave a gouge in his opponent's mech!

The two mechs took some time to readjust from the first clash. The constant fire burning through their nerves caused them to take at least five times as long to turn around their mechs and ready them for the next collision.

While Acolyte Evie's Redemption Rose gained a lot of mobility, it was still a space knight at heart. The miniboosters attached to strategic points along its frame expended its fuel rather quickly, so Evie couldn't rely on them to chase after the lancer mech.

The Evaporating Spear possessed the initiative in this confrontation. It was up to the faster and more offensive-minded lancer mech to go on the attack!

And that it did. The lancer mech made an exaggerated curve until it once again ended up in a trajectory that lined up to the largely immobile space knight.

Its curving trajectory allowed the Evaporating Spear to retain the momentum it built up thus far. This was the beauty of spaceborn lancer mechs! Anytime they missed, the momentum they painstakingly built wasn't lost! They could simply arc around and try again, all the while their flight systems accelerated them to even greater relative velocities!

The greater the accumulation, the greater the kinetic energy at the moment of a successful collision! Though the lancer mech inevitably suffered just as much shock as its victim, its entire mech frame had been built to counteract the damage resulting from such impacts. Even if it suffered some damage, the mech at the other end of the lance inevitably suffered ten times worse!

Such an occurrence became increasingly more likely as Acolyte Gien tried and failed to impale the Redemption Rose for four straight times!

Some of the less well-adjusted cultists in the observation chamber began to disparage their former brother.

"Is he blind? Even if he's in pain, he shouldn't be so bad with his aim!"

"Gien is unworthy to receive Haatumak's favor. If he cannot endure the strain of piloting an uncooperative mech, he doesn't deserve to be ordained as a Living Altar."

The duel did proceed rather badly. For a lancer mech to miss so many charges at once beggared belief. However, Ves knew that this show would end soon enough, because the Evaporating Spear became more accurate after each failed attempt.

Its mech pilot was starting to get the hang of piloting under strain! Acolyte Gien began to channel his pain rather than endure it in a mindless fashion. The uncontrolled bursts of movement lessened as he began to take back more control.

As the Evaporating Spear curved back for another charge, this time it moved with purpose!

Chapter 706

The next charge had the potential to end the duel. The momentum the Evaporating Spear built up after successive failed charges had reached a dreadful level!

This made it harder for it to change course, but it also forced the Redemption Rose to start dodging sooner, lest it moved too late!

In essence, the battle turned into a game of prediction. Would Acolyte Gien and Acolyte Evie be able to outguess each other? So far, Evie managed to dodge her mech in a different direction than her opponent, but in games of chance a lucky streak always reached an end.

The decisive moment approached. Both Gien and Evie stimulated their will to live, allowing them to fight through the pain of overloaded nerves in order to exert control over their mechs.

Even as the Church subjected them to this punishment, they never lost their pride as mech pilots! No matter the circumstances, they never lost their drive to win!

"Fight! You can do, it Gien!" Ves softly cheered from the observation chamber. He became invested in the match. He wanted his mech to succeed against Mayra's work.

An invisible wake followed after the Evaporating Spear, which had sped up to an unimaginable level. The Redemption Rose that opposed it calmly braced its spear and readied its depleting miniboosters for one more dodge.

Seconds passed as the next collision became imminent. Hundreds of meters away from impact, the Redemption Rose abruptly dodged downwards!

However, this time the Evaporating Spear adjusted its course downwards as well!

It was too late to change for the Redemption Rose to change its trajectory! Realizing the danger, Acolyte Evie abruptly shut down the boosters while adjusting the angle of her shield.

BOOM!

A silent explosion occured as the lancer mech successfully hit a solid target ten minutes into the duel!

Acolyte Gien fought long and hard against his pain, and time was running out for him. If he missed this attempt, he might not be able to maintain control over his fast-moving mech for long.

He needed to secure a hit!

Shards of alloy and other kinds of debris spread from the point of impact. Two mechs spun away in different directions, each of them coming off worse than before.

"The Redemption Rose is worse off!"

Mayra's space knight sacrificed protection for mobility, but that didn't avail it much in this phase of the battle. The confrontation between a speeding lance and a weakened shield left the latter in dire straits!

Nothing was left of the shield! The immense kinetic impact pretty much shattered its top half and broke the grip section, causing the partially intact bottom half to fly away into space.

However, the lance surprisingly shattered as well. Its entire forward section snapped apart, causing the Evaporating Spear to impact the frame of the opposing mech with the stump of its shortened lance!

"Damn, I should have spent some time on strengthening that lance!" Ves cursed. "I never thought that Acolyte Gien would miss more than four times in a row."

Since the initial impact bled off a lot of kinetic energy, the stump of the lance hit one of the shoulders of the Redemption Rose with reduced force! The shoulder splintered from the impact with the stump, but the damage hadn't been enough to disable the arm!

As the passing Evaporating Spear tried to recover from the impact, the space knight recovered first and followed in pursuit! Acolyte Evie knew that if she wanted to win, she needed to take over the initiative!

Her space knight might be slower than a lancer mech, but Mayra's modifications had closed the gap. In addition, Evie saved a substantial amount of fuel for her miniboosters for exactly such a situation. As the boosters expended their last remaining reserves, the Redemption Rose rapidly caught up to the Evaporating Spear!

Ves could read the writing on the wall. "The Redemption Rose will catch up before the Evaporating Spear can accelerate away."

The lancer mech lost too much of its forward momentum upon collision. It also spun away in an uncontrollable fashion, forcing Acolyte Gien to perform complex and straining correction maneuvers in order to halt the spin. All of these detriments prevented the Evaporating Spear from speeding away.

That proved to be a pivotal moment in the duel.

The Redemption Duel burnt out the last reserves of its booster fuel, but all of that had been worth it because its temporary edge in speed allowed it to catch up to the lancer and entangle it with a flurry of sword strikes!

Forced to defend, the Evaporating Spear had no choice but to spin around and fend off the sword strikes with its backup spear.

The frantic, badly-executed sword strikes unleashed by Acolyte Evie weren't meant to succeed. Instead, the purpose of her offensive was to force her mech to stick to her enemy's mech as closely as possible so that the Evaporating Spear had no chance to build up to another charge.

You never let an enemy lancer mech accumulate momentum if you could help it! Evie was following established doctrine by trying to entangle the lancer with her shieldless space knight!

The battle devolved into a badly-choreographed exchange of blows. Seeing that Acolyte Evie had no intention of letting him get away, Acolyte Gien gave up trying to build up to a charge and entered the melee in earnest.

"The match is over! A lancer mech never fares as well as a space knight in close-quarters combat!"

"Don't count out Acolyte Gien yet! Do you see how he's managed to hold on up to now? He has the edge in control!"

Ves looked closer and saw that the movements of the Redemption Rose appeared energetic, but formulaic. The space knight also twitched at inopportune times, causing it to ruin its own attack routines and even landing it at risk of suffering a counter-attack at times!

He turned to Mayra. "Did you incorporate AIs in the Redemption Rose?"

"I did." Mayra admitted without hesitation. "Even if their imagination is lacking, they don't require too much effort to implement. That has left me with additional time to complete my other upgrades to the Redemption Rose."

He forgot that Mayra lacked the institutional disdain against incorporating AIs in her own mechs. Ves had long been brought up to hate the entire notion of relying on artificial minds to do the jobs of mech pilots and mech designers. AIs threatened both of their livelihoods if they became acceptable substitutes for both of their professions.

Therefore, the MTA along with nearly every mech pilot and mech designer strenuously rejected the use of AIs. Any mech designer caught with trying to popularize their use inevitably suffered an 'accident'.

Nonetheless, the other reason why AIs never saw popularity was that highly skilled mech pilots usually managed to outwit them. Their creativity possessed limits and they could emulate the spark of spontaneity that veteran mech pilots fostered into their piloting style.

Sadly for Ves and Acolyte Gien, this wasn't the case here. Both of them piloted low-quality mechs in fairly awful conditions. Despite getting a tune-up from Ves and Mayra, two days wasn't enough to repair all the damage and bad design choices their mechs had suffered from. One of the most important weaknesses of their cheap mechs was that they exhibited fairly low reaction speeds.

This resulted in a substantially slower exchange of blows. So slow in fact that the AIs and algorithms taking over some of execution of some of the Redemption Rose's moves exerted finer control than the mech pilots themselves!

The Evaporating Spear unleashed a flurry of stabs, trying to deter the Redemption Rose from moving into its range, but the swordsman mech wasn't deterred. It willingly absorbed damage to its half-crippled shield arm in order to get into range to deliver a telling slash against the Evaporating Spear's chest.

The slash managed to score deeply into its relatively weak armor. Though the sword slash hadn't bitten deep enough to affect the internals, the entire upper chest area experienced a comprehensive weakening that set it up for subsequent attacks.

"Acolyte Gien isn't going down without another fight!"

After suffering a heavy attack, Acolyte Gien became more desperate. He could die! His only chance at rebirth could be ruined! The man screamed and willingly accepted the pain. With great effort, he increased his control over his own mech and fought back with a greater semblance of his old piloting skill!

The Evaporating Spear went on the offensive, advancing boldly towards the Redemption Rose, stabbing outwards with its sword all the while. Acolyte Evie relied heavily on the AIs to parry the incoming blows, preventing the Redemption Rose from suffering even a single scratch.

Yet even with the swordsman mech's perfect defense, it took a lot of effort for a sword to block an incoming stab. The amount of energy and movement exerted by the Redemption Rose surpassed that of the Evaporating Spear. This stalemate benefited the spear-wielding mech more than the sword-wielding mech, especially because the latter wielded a single-handed sword.

Something catastrophically went wrong for the Redemption Rose at that time. The sword automatically moved to intercept an attack directed to its left side, but the incoming spear stab turned out to be a feint!

Acolyte Gien deliberately underutilized the use of feints just for moments like this! With great willpower, he directed the spear stab into a swipe that caused it to flick towards the Redemption Rose's unguarded right side!

However, while Acolyte Evie couldn't react fast enough to pull back the Redemption Rose's sword, the AIs didn't suffer from that problem and forcefully pushed through her hesitation.

However, Gien's control over his spear surpassed the imagination of his opponent. The spear abruptly shifted to a downwards trajectory!

A double feint!

The Evaporating Spear had held back during the previous two attempts! Only now did it truly push its strength into the attack, even overloading its flight system in an instant to obtain a greater forward push!

At this stage, the Redemption Rose started to hesitate! Its AI momentarily grew confused, but committed another shift despite having changed its mind once before. However, Evie was still stuck on the first shift! The flood of data entering her mind caused her reaction to be a tad bit slower.

For a single instant, her own reaction clashed against the solution adopted by the AIs! This caused the mech to lock up for a moment as two warring commands fought against each other to move the sword in one direction or another. The mech couldn't decide who to listen to!

Acolyte Gien's spear stabbed deeply past the ineffective sword and pierced through the chest armor of the Redemption Rose!

Due to the double-feint, the stab carried less kinetic energy than Gien preferred, but the tip of the spear still managed to penetrate the chest armor and deal a shallow amount of damage to the Redemption Rose's internals.

However, even though Mayra removed a lot of defensive power from the space knight, it still retained the robust internal structure of a defensive mech! Its redundancy level was considerate compared to offensive mechs, so despite damaging a few channels and subcomponents, the Redemption Rose hardly lost any power!

The successful attack might have succeeded in damaging the Redemption Rose, but the space knight still retained its ability to fight. On the other hand, Acolyte Gien had pushed his mind beyond its ordinarily limitations. The greater performance of his Evaporating Spear came at a fatal cost!

"Aagh.. I.. can't.. take.. it!" He uttered from his cockpit.

The Evaporating Spear never matched its earlier performance. Gien expended far too much mental energy when he tried and failed to charge down the Redemption Rose. When the duel turned into an exchange of blows, Gien constantly had to exert his mind to keep up.

In contrast, while Acolyte Evie suffered from a greater flood of junk data, she didn't have to think too hard to pilot her mech. The presence of the AIs in her mech allowed her to issue simple commands to hold the Evaporating Spear off. Clever commands at the right timing managed to save the Redemption Rose from complete destruction!

"It's over! Gien is at the end of his rope, while Evie is still strong enough to last a couple more minutes!"

The performance of the Evaporating Spear weakened by the second as the strain of controlling the mech manually became too much of a burden for his steadily degrading nerves.

Technically, Evie suffered from the same problem, but the difference was that the AIs cared little about nerve damage. They functioned just as well if Evie was completely healthy or had almost fried her brains to a crisp!

The battle turned from a battle of wills to a battle between a half-vegetable and a cold-hearted set of AIs.

The Redemption Duel came at an end when the Redemption Rose knocked off the spear from the grip of the sluggish Evaporating Spear. Defenseless, the lancer mech failed to push the space knight back as it mechanically thrust its sword through the cockpit section.

Chapter 707

Acolyte Evie won!

Ves turned towards Mayra and bowed his head. "Congratulations on your mech pilot's win. Your Redemption Rose has vanquished my Evaporating Spear."

"The duel was too close to call." She said graciously. Still, she couldn't help but smile at her victory. "The quality of our mechs are roughly at the same level. We chose to emphasize different aspects of our mechs, and the only reason why the Redemption Rose took the advantage is because we dealt with the neural interface issue in different ways."

"That's true." He nodded. "I've chosen to limit the amount of input, while you've opted to rely on AIs to maximize the output. I should have gone for this solution as well, but I guess I was too prideful in my own methods."

Besides his ingrained bias towards relying on artificial intelligences, Ves also opted against them because they didn't fit with his design philosophy.

Ves in fact contemplated whether his design philosophy had room for autonomous mechs. It seemed self-evident that if Ves would be able to bring mechs to 'life' one day, that they be able to gain the ability to move by themselves.

He opted against such a future. At the very least, he did not wish his mechs to gain autonomy from a mind based on data rather than spirituality.

A small intuitive feeling made him feel as if the best way for him to go forward was to continue to work around the unity of mech, mech designer and mech pilot. The entire X-Factor centered around an alignment of their strengths. If Ves started cutting out the mech pilot out of the equation, why wouldn't mech designers be made irrelevant as well one day?

Ves did not wish to become an archenemy of the MTA and virtually every mech designer in existence by pursuing autonomous mechs! He'd be dead so fast once a battleship dropped a bunch of anti-matter bombs over his head!

The MTA wouldn't hesitate to wipe out the planet he was residing at if that was what it took to eliminate the scourge of self-operating mechs!

Therefore, after a long moment of introspection, Ves still considered mech pilots to be a vital partner to the mechs he designed.

He had witnessed the strength of the man-machine connection first-hand. It was not his goal to saw off one of the legs of that partnership. Instead, he wanted to strengthen the other leg so that the combination stood more firmly.

Such a stance benefited high-end mechs piloted by elite pilots the most. If Ves chose to go the other way, then he would be able to excel at designing low-end mechs meant for mass production.

"They're retrieving Acolyte Evie." Ves noted as he gestured his hand towards the projection that showed the two tow mechs grabbing hold of the immobilized Redemption Rose. "I wonder how much is left of her after this duel."

"Not much." Mayra shook her head. "Poor girl. She's rather young for an acolyte, and if she joined the Swordmaidens she would have enjoyed a brighter future. What the worshippers of Haatumak do to the winners of this Redemption Duel.. only they would consider it a redemption. To us, akin to damnation to become a Living Altar."

She obviously knew more than Ves, but with Acolytes Villis and her own minder standing close by, Mayra wouldn't reveal anything more.

The end of the Redemption Duel marked the end of their involvement and whatever emotional attachment they placed in their mech pilots. Mayra won while Ves fell short. He had nothing against the Swordmaiden mech designer for besting him. He even found it to be an honor to acquit himself well against a Journeyman.

He only wondered whether the Church thought the same. They initially told him that they Acolyte Gien didn't necessarily have to win for him to receive his rewards. If the duel excited their god, then both mech designers stood to gain their rewards.

As cultists started to depart from the observation chamber, Ves calmly continued chatting with Mayra while he waited for the final verdict.

The hatch suddenly slid open after some time. The Soulless Priest himself had come to greet the mech designers.

"Mayra of the Swordmaidens. Congratulations are in order."

She bowed to the Priest. "Acolyte Evie deserves all the praise. I merely provided the tools."

"As you say. Rewards are in order. I think you will find our offerings exceedingly satisfying."

The two older mech designers chatted a bit, though Ves found it difficult to follow their conversation as they only referred to important matters with euphemisms and code names.

Eventually, the Soulless Priest spared a single glance at Ves, not that he could read the man's expression as it was shrouded in shadow.

"Mr. Larkinson."

"Yes, sir?"

"Your mech has failed."

That was laying it thick. Ves instinctively felt his pride creeping up at him, but he pushed it down. It was never a good idea to act like Ketis in front of more experienced mech designers.

Ves had the feeling the Soulless Priest tested him once again. He needed to be careful of what he said. "The Evaporating Spear performed admirably in the hands of Acolyte Gien. Their combination closely matched the pairing of the Redemption Rose and the Acolyte Evie. Victory and defeat shifted back and forth but eventually Evie had the benefit of retaining her battle effectiveness longer."

"You made the wrong design choice." The Soulless Priest spoke. He did not need to specify which design choice Ves had gone wrong. "Your ingrained aversions to certain solutions is a shackle that will limit your capabilities."

"I do not agree." He responded. "You are right that limiting myself will restrict my choices, but that only means I can focus on improving the tools that are still in my grasp."

The conversation strayed in the age-old debate between specialisation and generalization. It was a debate neither mech designers wanted to stray into, because it was impossible to come to a consensus on the matter.

"I admire your convictions. At the very least, you are willing to stand up for your beliefs even if they are misguided." The Soulless Priest quickly activated his comm and flicked a virtual invitation card to Ves. "Here you go. I won't have you departing from the Temple of Haatumak empty-handed. As for the discount, your colleague Mayra has already won that in your alliance's stead."

"Thank you, sir!" Ves grinned. He constantly worried about whether he had earned the Soulless Priest's approval.

"Don't thank me. Praise Haatumak's generosity."

"Err.. okay."

Once the Soulless Priest departed from the observation chamber, their Acolyte escorts led Ves and Mayra to depart from the Temple of Haatumak. After meeting up with some familiar Swordmaidens and Vandals who looked as if they went through the wringer, they both split up and returned to their own ships.

Their visit to the Temple of Haatumak came to an end. The Flagrant Swordmaiden officers all partook in various rituals and ceremonies, and their collective performance largely pleased the cultists.

This was why on the way home, various Priests boarded Church-owned shuttles and flew towards the various ships of the Flagrant Swordmaiden fleet.

The Priests were on their way to uphold their end of the bargain, which was to bless the Vandal and Swordmaiden ships with some kind of sorcery that prevented the sandmen aliens from detecting them at long range!

"Was all of this worth it?" Ves asked to Chief Avanaeon, who sat next to him in the shuttle again. "A lot of weird stuff went on aboard the Temple. I'm not sure what we're getting in return is worth the emotional damage we've sustained."

"We'll just be suffering a couple of nightmares at most, and we have pills for that." Avanaeon remarked without concern. He held up a lot better than some of his colleagues, who looked as if they still saw ghosts. "The Swordmaidens told us what to expect. If we can save a large amount of K-coins by participating in their sick games, it's well worth the pain."

The Flagrant Vandals still couldn't shake off their money-grubbing instincts. If someone offered something for free in exchange for a few favors, they'd take the bait without any hesitation.

Once their shuttle returned to the Vandal flagship, every Vandal breathed easily once they returned to familiar ground. The abundant lighting, the clean, filtered smells, the bots that kept the deck and bulkheads clean and tidy, the lack of prayer sounds, the absence of idols and religious iconography, and above all else being surrounded by fellow Vandals who didn't creepily hide their bodies beneath voluminous robes reassured them all that they returned to familiar soil.

"Home sweet home." Someone uttered, and everyone who visited the Temple agreed to that sentiment.

Everyone needed a touch of normality after witnessing so many bizarre sights. Ves returned to the armory along with the other Vandals. He changed out of his extravagant suit of armor in favor of a standard underlayer vacsuit with his sober and boring green uniform on top. Although his piratized outfit looked incredibly dashing, the Vandals weren't pirates who judged each other by how formidable they appeared.

"This is one pirate habit that I'm eager to get rid off." He huffed as he stowed his custom set of armor in a secure locker.

Another day went by as Ves returned to his routine. While he caught up on his paperwork and issued some new revised designs to his subordinates, the Haatumak Priests each conducted an elaborate ceremony on every ship. This took some time as they needed to spread their blessings on both the combat carriers and all of the logistics ships and smaller transports whose only purpose was to carry their supplies.

When a robed Priest stepped aboard the Shield of Hispania and threw some incense smoke around, Ves paused from his backlog of work and entered the hangar bay where the worshipper performed his ceremony.

A gaggle of Vandal ratings and officers stood well out of the way, staring at the robed Priest as he muttered some incomprehensible words interspersed with praise for Haatumak.

"What is that fellow muttering about?"

"I don't know. The only word I recognize is Haatumak."

"Do you think Haatumak really exists?"

"Beats me. He might as well be an alien who hoodwinked these gullible idiots."

"Shhh! Don't insult those crazies while he's working his magic! Misguided or not, their 'blessing' is the real deal!"

Many Vandals found it difficult to process how the robed Priest accomplished this effect in the first place. The sandmen were a menace that posed an existential threat to all concentration of forces. The larger the force, the greater the odds of attracting the sandmen.

Still, many of them couldn't figure out what kind of secret the Church of Haatumak employed to circumvent this disaster. Ves himself spent a lot of minutes staring at the Priest. None of his senses including his sixth sense detected anything unusual.

He suspected that the Priest was merely speaking gobbledygook and waving around his incense holder in order to hoodwink their clients.

Ves stepped back from the front row and put some bodies between him and the Priest. He had an awful suspicion about what really went on.

He activated his recently-discovered spiritual vision for a single second. During that time, he swiveled around his head as if he sought a familiar friend.

His enhanced vision captured the presence of several invisible robed figures in the hangar bay!

Each of them stood behind an important figure to the Vandals! One of them followed behind Major Verle, while another trailed after Lieutenant Commander Soapstone like a haunted ghost. Chief Technician Haine's exuberant gestures while she chatted with her fellow mech technicians forced her personal stalker to weave and dodge.

For some reason, the invisible cultists preferred to stay in extremely close proximity to their subjects. It was creepy and unnatural and Ves couldn't tell whether they were invisible or intangible.

Worst of all, when Ves swept his view, he also caught a glimpse of a presence behind his back! He hadn't managed to catch the complete form of his stalker, but he recognized the form and shape of the dark robe.

Acolyte Villis!

There was no doubt about it! He recognized her hunched form and ratty dark robes anywhere! Just thinking about her presence right behind his back gave him the creeps!

This wasn't part of the deal!

Chapter 708

The invisible cultists stayed when the Priest finally finished his show. The Church-owned shuttle departed from the Shield of Hispania's hangar bay with a lot less passengers than they initially brought inside.

Every important Vandal was being haunted by their personal stalker. Ves was no different, as Acolyte Villis continued to follow him even after he left the hangar bay and returned to his office.

Having witnessed the negotiation between Major Verle, Commander Lydia and the Coinlord, he knew for certain that the Vandals and the Swordmaidens never agreed to host invisible ghosts from the Church of Haatumak!

For a moment, Ves began to doubt himself. Did his spiritual vision lie to him? Did it conjure up an illusion that only existed in his imagination, or had the cultists truly planted hidden agents amongst their fleet?

If his vision hadn't lied to him, then the presence of these uninvited guests might invite ruin to their fleet!

They could do a lot of damage to the Flagrant Vandals and Lydia's Swordmaidens if they kept up their spying act. Not only would they be able to read anything they read and hear anything they heard, but Ves suspected that these invisible presences could easily turn into assassins if necessary.

Hardly any Vandal with a follower kept up their guards against potential assassins! Why should they? This was their ship, and as far as they were aware of, no unauthorized guests had boarded the Shield.

The only person among them who didn't belong to the Vandals was Ketis, but the girl was practically the worst assassin imaginable. The little vixen couldn't stalk her way anywhere without making a racket due to the various tribal accessories adorning her regular outfit.

In essence, their invisible stalkers had the potential to cause an enormous amount of harm to their operations. They could either pass on the information they obtained by eavesdropping on their targets, or they could get their hands dirty and perform some sabotage while everyone else was blind to their presence.

The possibilities were limitless as long as they kept up their strange form of stealth!

"Damnit." He muttered softly to himself. He had to watch what he said aloud because Acolyte Villis was practically breathing behind his neck right now!

Right now, he hated his position. Being the head designer of the task force sounded great on his resume, but it also warranted a personal spy from the worshippers of Haatumak!

While Ves couldn't pin down why these crazies assigned their invisible acolytes to the Vandals, he suspected they were up to no good.

Soon enough, they would find out about the Starlight Megalodon. The cultists might even be following behind the heels of the Flagrant Swordmaidens. Once they inadvertently led the Temple of Haatumak to the Starlight Megalodon, the cultists could easily cripple the Flagrant Swordmaidens and take the prizes inside the Starlight Megalodon for themselves!

And the worst thing about it was that Ves couldn't warn Major Verle or anyone important about the potential threat that lingered behind their backs! Who knew what might happen if Ves tipped them off about the presence of their stalkers.

Before he composed a plan to deal with their uninvited guests, Ves tried to remain calm and show as little apprehension as possible. He wasn't supposed to feel frightened in the familiar confines of the Shield of Hispania. This was his home for several months, so he tried hard not to act too jumpy, lest Acolyte Villis suspected that he knew more.

Unfortunately, he hadn't quite succeeded at suppressing his nervous impulses. It got so bad that Ketis frowned at him from her desk.

"What's wrong, teacher? Ever since you got back from the Temple of Haatumak, you've been.. strange."

"It's nothing for you to concern yourself about." Ves quickly replied while leisurely waving his hand. "By the way, why are you here? Aren't you supposed to work on finishing your miniature?"

"Hah! I just finished it yesterday!" She boasted, and rummaged through a drawer in order to retrieve a fairly impressive-looking scale model of his Marc Antony Mark I design. "You can check the logs if you want, but I'm telling you I made this without blowing through my budget!"

"I'll take your word for it for now, but I'll be sure to check the logs as well as the security recordings."

As Ves received the hefty miniature that Ketis produced, he could tell it had come from her hand. The work looked fairly exquisite in some places, but he also spotted a lot of minute imperfections as Ketis assembled the tiny parts by hand. She obviously hadn't mastered the use of precision tools.

He didn't spare her from her mistakes. "The way you put these parts together is too forced. I can tell you made some mistakes that cascaded in a slew of misalignments. If you fabricated a full-scale mech, the entire end product will be skewed because you're not respecting its tolerances!"

The tolerances of a full-scale mech were relatively generous. Mech designers took into account that they often endured a lot of damage during the course of their life cycle. Battle damage along with routine wear and tear eventually knocked some parts out out of place. A mech had to be robust enough to keep functioning even if some parts moved by a couple of millimeters from their place.

However, the tolerances of a mech mostly scaled according to their size. A mech that shrunk by a hundred times featured tolerances that were also a hundred times tighter. This massively increased the difficulty of assembling the parts, and hence served as a useful to Ketis who probably never had to worry too much about the tolerances of her own designs.

Once he finished lecturing Ketis about her oversight, he soothed her bruised ego by handing out the praise she deserved. "At the very least, practicing with the 3D printer has improved your fabrication skills. I'm impressed by how fast you've become proficient in handling the machine, and I'm further impressed by how you tweaked the design of the Marc Antony Mark I to retain some of its functionality even if it's shrunk to this size."

Ves placed the miniature on his desk and pulled up his comm. He executed a remote control program that allowed him to connect to the control module built in place of the cockpit. Within a minute, he remotely piloted the miniature and had it walk back and forth over his desk.

"Getting this little toy to walk is quite an accomplishment. As long as you are capable of getting this far with a miniature, then fabricating a full-sized mech by hand is just a step away."

"Hey! I can already do that, you know! You just haven't given me a chance!"

He disagreed, but he didn't feel like arguing the point right now. The issue of their uninvited guests weighed heavily on his mind even now. With that old crone proverbially eyeing him like a hawk,

Acolyte Villis wouldn't follow him to the shower, would she?

What about the toilet?

The answer he came up with made him glower. He had somewhat accepted that he would never enjoy any privacy in the presence of the Flagrant Vandals, but at least they possessed some integrity.

It was impossible for the Vandal security officers to peep on each and every person in the fleet. They likely left much of the actual watching to AIs that were programmed to watch out for suspicious activities.

Ves couldn't come up with such a reassuring excuse when it came to his personal stalker.

As Ves handed out a new assignment to Ketis to keep her busy and resumed handling his regular mech-related affairs, he mulled over Villis' identity.

She was far from a simple worshipper. That he knew after several days of interacting with her and seeing her interact with others. Every other Acolyte flinched away from the old woman, though the Priests still treated her like air. What was her true status? Why was she still an Acolyte at her age?

Most of all, why was she assigned to Ves?

He couldn't come with solid answers to his questions, but he could make a guess. Back at the Temple, when Ves worked on the Evaporating Spear, he always had the sense that Acolyte Villis never became confounded at what he did. No matter how technical and complicated his work turned out to be, Villis kept staring intently at him.

It was as if she understood mechs as deeply as any other mech designer.

He couldn't help but frown even deeper. If Villis possessed a technical background, which was rare but not impossible in the frontier, then Ves wouldn't be able to hide anything from her sight.

The only reason why he hadn't erupted into a full-blown panic was because there was a minute chance that this was all a figment of his imagination. And even if they were not, he still managed to come up with a couple of plans to guard against any tricks the uninvited guests might pull off.

"I'll have to accelerate my side projects. I need to complete both of them to increase my odds of survival."

Mercifully, once the Priests of Haatumak finished 'blessing' all of their ships, the Flagrant Swordmaidens didn't stick around for long. They instantly moved towards the nearest Lagrange point and muscled every other independent pirate vessel aside in their haste to jump out of the Mortose System.

During this time, Ves struggled to pretend he was oblivious to the presence of outsiders aboard the ship. The best way for him to cope with the burden was to immerse himself into his research projects.

He spent the majority of his time combing over the study materials provided by the Skull Architect. The materials on stealth tech remained as threadbare as always while the research papers on ultracompact batteries always left him with a headache after an hour's worth of study.

"This isn't going to work. My progress is too slow. I'll never be able to digest this much knowledge within a single year, let alone a month or two!"

Ves needed to come up with a better way to internalize the knowledge locked within the extracts and research papers.

He already figured out that he processed the papers faster if he let his mentality become contaminated by the research philosophies locked within the pages.

This was basically akin to cracking open a vacuum-sealed hazard suit in order to let in more toxic air. Sampling a bit of unfiltered toxic air wouldn't damage his body by much, but if he went too far then he might have irreparably damaged his hazard suit to the point where he couldn't seal it up again!

Obviously, such an approach came with an exceeding amount of risks. The only reason why he got away with it with nothing but a couple of vague impulses was because he never dove very deeply into this research field before.

He might not be so lucky next time.

At some point, he paused his study session and leaned back against his chair while nursing his forehead. "What are the mechanics behind mental contamination?"

He decided to dive in deeper into this particular topic. The local database stored on the Shield might not be as extensive as the central database of the Mech Corps, but it stored a lot of basic documentation on the dangers surrounding this phenomenon.

"To teach is to impart knowledge or provide instruction to someone."

The definition sounded simple, but when it came to knowledge taught from the heart of a strong-willed instructor, that knowledge became tinged with that person's personal feelings and biases.

This possibility strayed into the definition of a related but more nefarious word.

"To indoctrinate is to teach a person or a group to accept a set of beliefs uncritically."

High-level researchers and mech designers always exhibited an extreme amount of passion and belief in their own work. Some of them disseminated their knowledge a little too enthusiastically, to the point where the line between fact and opinion started to blur. The more advanced and abstract the research topic, the more their own beliefs gained prominence.

Since researchers always felt biased in favor of their own research, almost every time they disseminated their research, they couldn't help but push their own points of view. It didn't matter that their audience might not be mature enough to reflect critically on the knowledge they absorbed!

Like sponges, the students absorbed the knowledge being force-fed to them by their teachers no matter if it was water or blood!

Chapter 709

"A word that's closely related to indoctrination is brainwashing."

The good thing about brainwashing was that it sounded so obviously nefarious that the people subjected to them knew to put on their guard. This was why brainwashing only worked these days when accompanied by force or sophisticated technology.

Indoctrination, which was brainwashing's marginally more acceptable cousin, worked more insidiously because few students were sober enough to put up their guard when it happened.

Teachers taught knowledge. Yet nobody said this knowledge consisted of pure, unbiased facts and widely-accepted beliefs.

Sometimes, even if the scientific community came to a consensus on those widely-accepted beliefs, a deviant thinker might have come up with an even better theory, but failed to gain acceptance due to existing inertia.

In fact, many researchers faced a lot of doubt and skepticism, especially when they came up with radically new or subversive beliefs!

"Once upon a time on Old Earth, people believed their world was flat. A visionary known as Galileo came up with the theory that it was round, yet did the people and the established institutions believe him? No! They called him crazy!"

An uncountable amount of visionaries, scientists and inventors faced the same storm of criticism whenever they advanced something new that was out of the scope of the public's imagination.

Even the initial emergence of mechs almost flopped due to the universal ridicule their inventors received. If not for the heroic efforts of the pioneers along with the emergence of the MTA, mechs would have never become humanity's principal war machines of the Age of Mechs.

The point was that almost every scrap of advanced knowledge was mired in some form of controversy or another. The advancement of cutting-edge knowledge at the forefront of the sciences resembled a chaotic battlefield where scientists ruthlessly fought to convince others of the validity of their beliefs!

If the researchers managed to convince enough of their peers that their beliefs had merit, it transformed into accepted theory. However, these success stories became exceedingly rare at this day and age. Researchers had to climb over millions of failures and thousands of rivals in order to gain acknowledgment from the scientific community.

"The lucky ones spend as much time in converting others to their beliefs than performing actual research." Ves observed. "Those with worse luck have to spend the majority of their time on gaining new converts."

Convincing intelligent, self-confident peers who held their own set of beliefs often turned out to be an up-hill battle. Researchers looking to gain support for their beliefs either had to come up with something decisively convincing, or they could start with defenseless children.

Young students attending universities and recent graduates looking to specialize even further became the favored suckers for these kinds of desperate researchers. They were smart enough to possess potential but lacked the accumulation to guard their minds and retain their original thoughts.

"People in my age group and life phase are prime targets for indoctrination!" He uttered as his eyes widened in realization. "Our foundation is deep enough but our minds are still too shallow, leaving us ripe for the picking to any researcher who wants to build up support!"

By necessity, these researchers became proficient in indoctrinating students and the like with their complex, multi-layered research publications. Anyone who hadn't sufficiently kept up their guards became slowly more sympathetic to the viewpoints espoused by the researcher.

They were being indoctrinated without knowing it because they forgot to think critically!

It wasn't as if the more unscrupulous research publications prodded their readers to cast doubt on the beliefs espoused from within. Research findings along with statistics could be presented in a myriad of deceptive ways.

"Almost every researcher is taking part in this race. Modesty will get them nowhere, not in a galaxy filled with rivals who can catch up to them at any time."

This pattern went on for thousands of years, spanning multiple Ages and continuing to thrive so long as researchers continued to convert more followers. At this stage, the scientists have become incredibly skilled in the art of indoctrination.

"You could say that teaching has become indistinguishable from indoctrination at this height."

Ves felt sad when he came to this conclusion. When Ves injected knowledge in his mind after purchasing various Skills and Sub-Skills from the System, he never truly encountered something controversial.

Now he realized that the System only dabbled in established theories and widely-supported models. This enabled him to assimilate the purest branches of a given field, but cut him off from the most cutting-edge of research. It also blocked him from immersing himself in more advanced applications of knowledge that had not yet gained acceptance.

"It's like I'm designing boring mechs. They're safe to pilot and come with rounded performance, but they're too bland for many people to like. Confining myself to established theories is as colorless as eating a nutrient pack each day. This is no way for me to excel."

Mech designers were often attracted to extreme pieces of knowledge. They willingly embraced unsupported beliefs as long as they could use it to design better mechs.

It all centered around their design philosophies. If they wanted it to bloom, then they were practically compelled to seek out unorthodox sources of knowledge. The reason why higher-ranking mech designers became eccentric was because their design philosophy was built on a foundation of beliefs!

"Every design philosophy is a house of cards! It only takes a single shock for all of it to collapse!"

Ves understood now what he was dealing with and how reckless he approached the issue. He toyed with knowledge beyond his ken, unaware of how insidious they wormed their way into his mind.

The main issue facing Ves right now was that he lacked sufficient depth and understanding in the fields of stealth tech and ultracompact energy storage tech. How could be maintain a critical mind if Ves lacked the prerequisite knowledge to base his judgement of what he read?

"It's like I've mastered parts one to three of a book series, but now I'm saddled with someone's version of part fifteen! I'm missing too much in between to provide me with a good foundation on what is going on in part fifteen!"

The result was that Ves had to take the latest author's word for what truly went on in part fifteen, because Ves lacked the content to call out potential inaccuracies or cast doubt on dubious passages.

This was what it was like for those below Journeyman Mech Designers to access knowledge way above their limitations.

For some reason, the mech industry treated Journeymen as if they possessed much greater resistance against mental contamination. Was it merely a matter of accumulation, or had their design philosophy gained enough strength to withstand the demonic whispers of foreign research philosophies?

"Both are probably the case. Journeymen are just better at everything in almost every aspect compared to Apprentices. I've got to find a way to advance as fast as possible."

Ves gained a lot of progress from his short period of study into this topic. He constructed a model of how mental contamination worked and became enlightened how much of the scientific community insidiously utilized indoctrination to gain now converts.

While these insights didn't help him process the research papers faster, he could still formulate some means to cope with his sluggish progress.

"If I lack the prerequisite foundation to think critically on what I'm currently trying to learn, then why not draw from the opinions of another researcher? It would be great if I can gather the research papers of two opposing scientists!"

The Skull Architect hadn't passed too many research papers to Ves, but a lot of them came from different experts in the field. Each author possessed their own opinions, and now that he thought about it, they spent much of their time arguing for or against the assertions made by other experts!

Ves slapped his palm against his face. "I should have figured this out! The research papers are interconnected!"

He turned his attention back to his console and summoned up a second projection alongside his primary one. He opened up a different research paper in both projections and laid them side-by-side. Just minutes after he scrolled through both documents, he leaned back and laughed.

"Hahahaha! So this is it! This is the right approach! It's a shortcut!"

He would have never come up with such an idea if he hadn't taken a step back from his intensive study session.

As someone who used to be a student, he was accustomed to reading a pile of literature by their order of publication. However, that was the wrong approach to take here, because another researcher's retort or follow-up to an older paper might be published several years or even decades later.

Once Ves sorted the research material by topic rather than date, and put together two contrasting papers written by bitter rivals in their field, his progress accelerated enormously.

Putting the two research papers side-by-side and reading them concurrently made him feel as if he gained a front-row seat to an academic brawl of epic proportions!

Subtle words as soft as silk addressed to other research turned out to be brutal kicks and punches.

The academics basically tried to beat each other up in the academic arena in order to prove whose beliefs held up the longest against a sustained barrage of attacks.

Deductions and extrapolations of empirical data became their weapons of choice, though they weren't above resorting to highly educated guesswork as dirty moves.

The point for Ves was that the battle between two diametrically-opposed researchers revealed which pieces of knowledge he could trust and which he needed to treat with a grain of salt!

He just needed to see what the researchers agreed on and which beliefs they criticised intensely.

Naturally, relying on the testimony of two different individuals didn't mean that the consensus was right. Ves still needed to corroborate the specific theories with as many research papers in his possession.

The more he cross-referenced a specific theory, the more he gained confidence in his ability to judge the amount of support each theory held.

That didn't mean that each theory that Ves encountered received corroboration from the other papers in his possession. A significant amount of them referenced papers that the Skull Architect hadn't seen fit to pass on to him. This slowed him down somewhat, but with the support of the other theories he had already deciphered, he started to get the hang of looking at them with a critical eye.

"My progress will be ten times faster with this method!"

Mental contamination still posed a significant threat to him. Putting two opposing beliefs side-by-side caused sparks that sometimes spilled over to Ves, much to his pain. His headaches intensified, but he grit his teeth and bore through them all because he gained the most insights when the battle reached its climax.

The feeling he got at the end of the day made all of his suffering worth the struggle. His understanding advanced by leaps and bounds, and the more he mastered the theories, the less strain he received from reading through the theories he hadn't touched as of yet.

Like a snowball rolling down a snow-capped mountain, his accumulation ceaselessly grew larger and larger.

The only detriment to his obsessive study sessions was that he began to neglect his other duties a little. Several times, Ketis had to shake him from his addictive preoccupation in order to receive a new assignment.

"You're not being a very good teacher, you know." She pouted as she rested her fists against her waist. "Lately you've turned into a zombie, seeing how you spend all your time staring at those documents all day."

"Sorry." Ves chuckled awkwardly as scratched his head and tried to shake the cobwebs from his mind. "I've been preoccupied with the academic arena. It's a lot more violent and engaging than I thought."

"Really? You aren't yanking my chain, are you?"

"You've only studied from widely-read and well-edited textbooks so far, which spoon feed you all of the knowledge in the most logical and reader-friendly fashion possible. At your level, the science is pretty much settled, so there's no controversy to be found. Once you become a Journeyman like Mayra, you'll have to learn that you can't trust any random theory off the street."

Ves proceeded to lecture how Ketis or any other mech designer ought to regard advanced knowledge, much to her consternation. She wasn't interested in becoming a bookworm!

Chapter 710

The Flagrant Swordmaiden fleet left the Mortose System behind and ventured deeper into the frontier. After completing a transaction with the Church of Haatumak, they held no more intentions of meeting any of the other local pirate factions in the frontier.

From now on, the combined allied fleet intended to avoid as many pirates as possible while they navigated towards the elusive Starlight Megalodon. They jumped from the quietest star systems possible in order to minimize the odds of encountering others, but while the Faris Star System was nearly desolate, individual pirate vessels holed up nearly everywhere.

A month flew by as the Flagrant Swordmaidens settled into an uneasy routine. For some reason, many of them felt as if they were being watched.

Most Vandals aboard the Shield of Hispania thought that one or both of the major pirate blocs placed pirate scouts along their route to keep an eye on their course.

Only Ves knew where the feeling really came from. Having spent a month under near-constant observation, he became extremely proficient in acting as if someone wasn't breathing behind his neck all this time.

What could he say? He apparently possessed a talent in acting considering how many times he behaved duplicitously.

The method he adopted worked best with the study materials related to ultracompact batteries and energy storage. That was why he focused his efforts on gaining a rudimentary understanding of this topic first before he turned his intellectual prowess towards stealth tech.

His progress with stealth tech proceeded slower because he possessed less diverse literature on it. His main gains came from his cooperative tinkering sessions with Chief Avanaeon.

The Chief Engineer exhibited an impressive grasp of applied sciences that synergized well with Ves.

If other duties hadn't claimed the bulk of their schedules, they would have been able to spend more time with the stealth shuttle fragments. For now, their primary duties took precedence over their research into deciphering the workings of stealth tech.

As Ves walked back to his office from another collaborative session, he glanced at the Vandal mech technicians and ship ratings go about their work. The mood among the rank-and-file started to become more depressed the further they flew from the Bright Republic and civilized space in general.

The isolation and the realization that they were cut off from all forms of help had truly set in at this point.

As Ves returned to his office, he nodded towards Ketis who was tinkering with another miniature mech at this moment. After a lot of hands-on practice, she shook off her disdain towards so-called physical labor.

It was too bad her relations with the mech technicians aboard the Shield of Hispania remained a bit too tense for them to work together.

Compared to every other person on the combat carrier, Ketis held up the best against the creeping realization that they traversed an unimaginable distance from their homes.

To Ketis, Lydia's Swordmaidens was her home, and their fleet was always a single shuttle ride away whenever they dropped out of FTL. No matter how deep the allied fleet ventured into uncharted space, the young woman always kept her spirits high.

Ves wished he could feel as unconcerned as her. Home was many light-years away and the awareness that uninvited guests made themselves at home in their fleet constantly burdened his mind.

"Fuel supply is sufficient for now, but a couple more months like this and we won't have enough to return to civilized space. Other supplies remain ample considering we haven't fought any battles. Crew morale is declining, but hasn't tipped over into negative territory yet. Few still remember that our original mission is to find the Starlight Megalodon."

Ves switched from his log to status readouts of the entire mech compliment of the Vandal fleet.

"The condition of our starships are improving as patchwork repairs on their damaged armor belts has been progressing. Our mech roster is looking healthier as the revised designs I've disseminated to the other combat carriers are being realized by the mech designers and mech technicians."

Then he cast his mind on the cooperation shown so far between the Flagrant Vandals and Lydia's Swordmaidens.

"Our two forces are growing closer and more comfortable to each other. A clear separation still exists, but the passage of time has fostered the growth of mutual trust between the Vandals and the Swordmaidens. At this stage in our journey, the Swordmaidens have taken over complete primacy over our route and our interaction with the pirate outfits we meet along the way. We are firmly operating in their backyard, and the border back to civilized space is so far away that the Flagrant Vandals are pretty much at their mercy."

That last point served as a point of anxiety in some of the more paranoid Vandals. They feared an inevitable betrayal from the Swordmaidens once they achieved their objective. It would be all too easy for the all-female pirate gang to stab them in the back and leave them stranded deep within the frontier.

Ves knew for certain that Major Verle and his inner circle made precautions against that eventuality.

The only problem was that they couldn't prepare for threats they hadn't foreseen. The continued presence of their uninvited guests from the Church of Haatumak continued to confound him over the last month.

He tried various means to tip off the Vandal officers, but they were too thickheaded to understand his hints. They all thought that Ves merely jumped at shadows. He wouldn't be the first one as the frontier affected all of their nerves.

For now, Ves kept his suspicions to himself and tried to lay low. Instead, he allocated some time in experimenting with his Spirituality.

He knew that this Attribute could be applied in versatile ways. The problem was finding the right means to unlock a new application. It turned out that his reckless experimentation with his eyes was a fluke.

Every attempt to direct his spiritual energy to his nose, ears, tongue and other body parts ended in failure. They simply didn't catch on and treated the rest of his body like air. Only his eyes reacted differently, but the exact reason why eluded him. His vision had never been anything special.

With no other choice, Ves experimented with injecting his eyes with his mental energy, alternating between each of them one at a time in case anything went wrong.

He learned much from his attempts.

While his entire vision from his enhanced eye became a little woozy, he became capable of seeing things that organic and electronic eyes could never see. He saw hints of lights within the minds of other people, though they resembled tiny, formless grey flames the size of a fingertip. If he wasn't watching closely for them, he would have never caught their presence.

Some people possessed larger flames. All of the mech officers as well as the mech designers such as Ketis burned a little brighter, but the difference was hardly dramatic.

Ves figured he'd only be able to see a larger difference when he met expert pilots or high-ranking mech designers.

One remarkable feature about his spiritual vision was that he could see the flames through flesh and blood as well as other solid objects. That meant within a certain range, he could detect any living people even through thick layers of bulkheads and hull structure!

The other feature was that he was able to spot the entire forms of the invisible guests as they stalked behind the various officers. This clued him in that their particular brand of invisibility was likely based on spirituality rather than technology.

He even suspected that his spiritual vision might not even work against conventional stealth technology at all if they weren't hiding any humans. This meant that bots covered in stealth plating would still be able to creep up to him despite his enhanced vision.

The final useful feature about his vision was that it exposed the aura present on each mech. For most mechs down in the mech stables and workshop assembly bays, their auras didn't look very impressive.

The blending of many different impressions and emotions caused them to take on a muddy quality that basically confirmed what he already perceived with his sixth sense.

Only the mechs whose designs Ves had personally worked on a little more appeared more coherent, but his imprint wore out over time as clumsy mech technicians polluted the spiritual identity of the mechs with their distracted thoughts.

In short, the main benefit to his spiritual vision ability was to act as a radar against living entities. No matter what kind of stealth they used or how many layers of materials they put between Ves and themselves, he could easily spot them if he looked out for their presence.

"That shouldn't be the end of it, though."

Ves suspected that there might be more applications to his spiritual vision that he hadn't figured out yet, especially with regards to mechs. It was vastly more interesting for him to leverage his alternate vision on mechs than on other human beings.

"That's something to consider for later. Right now, I'm almost done with my research."

He grinned as he turned his attention to his terminal. His studies had bourne fruit, and within a single month, he managed to digest enough of an understanding in the field of energy storage that he already made some strides towards designing an ultracompact battery.

Shaped like a fat medallion-like cylinder, it possessed the same dimensions as a slice of banana. In truth, an overwhelming portion of its structure consisted of compressed alloy. The actual energy storage parts took up a minute amount of space because they already featured an insane amount of energy density!

If Ves made them any larger, then he wouldn't be able to spend his one billion credits worth of rare exotics to fabricate three whole copies of the ultracompact batteries. These material limitations prevented him from designing anything larger.

"Still, getting this much energy out of a battery that I can carry in my hand is more than enough to satisfy my needs. Besides, it's not as if all the shielding materials serve no purpose. Without it, it takes only one hard bump for all of it to discharge."

Even if his design only produced the most rudimentary ultracompact battery possible, it contained as much if not more energy than an entire full-sized energy cell for mechs. If anything went wrong, all of that energy might erupt, causing more damage than a mech-sized laser cannon blast!

Therefore, it was safe to say the structure of an ultracompact battery actually consisted of a vault which attempted to contain an extremely dangerous concentration of energy. Carrying them around was like carrying nuclear reactors in his pockets. The only difference was that the latter posed less risk to his life!

However, even if he called them rudimentary, his batteries differed from any other ultracompact batteries in one important aspect.

They were rechargeable!

"I'm not going to get stuck with a wonderful gadget but with no way to recharge them like with my shield generator. Even if single-use batteries have a lot more capacity than rechargeable ones, it's not worth it in the long run."

The finite amount of power for his old shield generator that he left behind always caused him to sleep uneasy. He understood that most high-tech devices distributed in the Komodo Star Sector utilized single-use ultracompact batteries. This forced the users to come back to the sellers to purchase a replacement battery, earning the profiteers a lot more money than if they sold one that could be renewed for hundreds of times.

The advantage of mastering this advanced knowledge was that Ves could choose to work with single-use or rechargeable batteries himself. While the latter was a lot more expensive to produce than the former, Ves considered the expense to be well worth the effort.

The only problem with his primitive version of the ultracompact batteries could only be recharged for a limited amount of times before the exotic materials degraded and broke apart. He couldn't do anything about this phenomenon besides increasing his understanding of the underlying technology further and utilizing much higher quality exotics for his next attempts.

"Well, they can endure around twenty whole recharge cycles, so it's not like I've wasted the money. Let's see what devices I can power with these batteries."

Ves pulled up the designs of his revised gadgets at the sides. He redesigned his stealth detector and signal jammer into souped-up versions capable of running on at least a hundred times of power than before. This came at the cost of expending a small but expensive amount of exotics that Ves had to.. borrow from the Shield of Hispania's material reserves.

Stealing from his own employers aside, the increased capabilities enabled him to enhance the two devices with several high-powered functions that would have drained a normal battery within seconds.

With the help of these two devices, Ves gained some confidence in dealing with the uninvited guests when the time came for him to make his move.

Chapter 711

During his frequent study sessions, Ves noted something remarkable when he intermittently activated his spiritual vision.

Whenever he perused the headache-inducing research papers, his invisible eavesdropper always flinched and stepped away from Ves. Acolyte Villis proved to be incapable of tolerating the mental contamination that came with reading the highly abstruse texts!

The behavior his spy exhibited confirmed his guess that Acolyte Villis indeed possessed a technical background, and not at a low level at all. She needed to be at least a proper engineer or mech designer to be able to understand some of the profoundness in his reading material.

However, even if she possessed as much knowledge as an experienced Novice or an average Apprentice, she had no way of matching his unique set of advantages!

His high mental Attributes accelerated his learning speed to inhuman levels. His Intelligence score of 2.1 alone improved his memorization and mental calculation abilities to the point where the functioning of some of his brains resembled a computer!

Some old lady from a freaky cult in the frontier shouldn't be able to match his learning prowess! If she somehow possessed the capabilities to do so, then she wouldn't be sent out as a spy, but would instead work directly alongside the Soulless Priest!

Finding out this weakness of her gave Ves a lot more confidence in his plan to deal with her. Any designs, devices and notes that incorporated high-level knowledge became practically inaccessible to the uninvited guest. He felt at ease when he worked on the designs of his new gadgets and the battery that powered it all.

He even began to work out a third gadget that could make use of the abundance of power! The plans for his third gadget only remained sketches so far, and Ves doubted whether he had enough time to finish it before the critical moment arrived.

Still, this observation gave him hope of stopping whatever intentions the saboteurs from the Church of Haatumak had in mind.

Their presence among the fleet could have been benign, but if there was one lesson that Ves learned from the frontier, it was to expect the worst from strangers.

He looked up from his designs. "Ketis?"

"Yes, teacher?" She asked in an exasperated tone while looking up from her latest homework assignment.

The woman came far in shoring up her fabrication skills. After Ves became satisfied that she picked up enough habits to avoid becoming a disaster in a mech workshop, he switched her learning focus to passing on the proper principles of a mech designer.

It was fine if she wanted to stick her thumb at the MTA, but she at least needed to know what she opposed and why it would be a good idea in her case to stick to them or discard them. This was why he foisted her with a bunch of textbooks about the MTA, its history, its basic principles and what they offered to society.

Unfortunately, she hated reading through her assigned reading list. Ves only managed to force her to read through the literature after resorting to mild coercion.

In any case, Ves still had a question that needed answering. "Tell me about the friend structure of Lydia's Swordmaidens. How does it work, exactly? I take it that your gang's relationship with the Omen of Misfortune is close enough to come to each other's aid when one of you needs help, but what about other forces like the Churk of Haatumak?"

"Why do you ask?" She asked while looking at him with a confused expression. The question came out of the blue.

"Just answer it. I'd like to know who we can trust and who we can't if our combined fleet ever gets separated."

"Oh, we have lots of friends, but some of them will only help out reluctantly while others won't hesitate to bring their entire fleet to come to our aid. Mind you, most of the times help comes too late if you are already caught in a battle, but most of the time you call upon as many friends as you can while you're being chased by a hostile force. Once you rendez-vous at a particular star system, you can usually scare away your pursuers when you gather up an entire bunch of friends."

"So it rarely comes down to an actual fight?"

"Yup! That's what our friend network is actually for. It would have been too costly if every demand for help is followed by a costly battle. It's much less risky to just put up a scary front by outnumbering your enemies by at least three to one. And if they're stupid enough to pick a fight while outnumbered? Well, all of us will get away with a lot of slaves and salvage."

"So how do you determine which friends will answer your call or not? I've already mentioned the Omen of Misfortune and the Church of Haatumak as examples. How would they respond?"

"Hmm.." Ketis pushed her finger against her lips. "I'm not sure about the Omen of Misfortune, but they owe us big from last time. They're bound by honor to come to our help when we ask."

"Does honor even exist in the frontier?"

"Sure!" Ketis firmly asserted, though she noticed his skepticism. Pirates weren't known to possess integrity. "It's complicated. Pirate's honor exists, but they apply to very special cases. If we didn't have a code among ourselves, then independent pirates wouldn't be able to exist in the first place! Still, we only make friends with the one we can trust. Those Haatumak worshippers for example. I don't know anyone who trusts them. They're wealthy though, and they offer a valuable service to anyone that pays, so they trade a lot but mostly stay out of fights."

Ves nodded in understanding. "So the main way they interact with other pirates is through transactions. Do they have any allies at all?"

"They don't as far as we know. If they suddenly went broke and their anti-sandmen blessing stops working, their escorts would abandon them in a heartbeat. They're far too creepy to make any real friends."

This only underscored their possible threat to the Flagrant Swordmaidens. The problem was that Ves couldn't figure out a way to eliminate them completely from their entire fleet.

Part of what made them so threatening was that their unique means of stealth left them completely hidden from everyone's perception. Ves didn't have any other means of exposing them except for resorting to his spiritual vision.

At most, he'd be able to eliminate the parasites aboard the Shield of Hispania, but where did that leave them with the rest of the combined fleet? He knew for certain that there was a bunch of hidden Acolytes aboard the Jaded Sword, the flagship of the Swordmaidens, and possibly many other ships as well.

If worse came to worst, Ves would only have the opportunity to save himself and possibly the Shield of Hispania if he acted quickly enough. If the other hidden Acolytes had orders to be ruthless, then they could possibly massacre the entire crew of the ship they were hiding aboard!

The fear of this possibility constantly weighed on his mind, especially once the Acolytes found out what kind of treasures they could delve from the wreck of the Starlight Megalodon.

Instead of fretting over the issue, Ves channeled his fear into accelerating his work and studies. Fear was a powerful motivator in the right circumstances, but it took a formidable will and an intense amount of discipline in order to harness it without getting overwhelmed.

The last thing Ves could afford was to lose control!

Therefore, he diligently studied and performed his duties until he rushed through the design of his future gadgets.

At this stage, his design had reached the point where further improvements required diving into far more complicated theories that simply wasn't worth his time at this time.

He faced the perennial problem of diminishing returns where achieving his next goal was more trouble than it was worth.

If he wanted to increase the maximum capacity of his batteries by a single percent, he'd have to pour in thousands of hours in studying extremely dizzying research papers that only genuine experts in the field

"These designs are as good as they can get."

That meant he was ready to fabricate them and piece them together. A thrill of excitement ran through his spine at the thought of realizing these ambitious designs. The amount of tech poured into the ultracompact batteries and the accompanying signal jammer and stealth detector as well as the use of expensive exotics made them worth at least several billions of credits!

"I can earn a fortune in money just by selling them on the black market! It's even better if I can find a reliable supplier of sulomnium, beta-otricine and Flesha's Tears!"

Despite the awesome money-making potential in selling his batteries, Ves did not even think of setting up a clandestine production operation. Not only would it distract him from his main occupation of designing mechs, it also put him at an incredibly amount of risk!

"All of those powerful suppliers of single-use ultracompact batteries won't be happy if I crash into their exclusive market. With the amount of money they're earning from their current trade activities, they can easily stomp me out regardless of how careful I act."

Ves already learned a bit on how the black market operated. The suppliers mostly consisted of cartels and other powerful organizations that didn't hesitate to kill in order to preserve their market share. It was best for him to avoid rocking the boat.

Besides, he should already be glad of his gains. He became completely independent from those suppliers. And because he mastered the underlying theories and some of the well-supported beliefs instead of a single ready-made blueprint, Ves possessed the capability to design many different kinds of batteries that excelled in different applications.

As long as Ves gained enough exotics, he could even fabricate a monstrous energy cell that could power a mech for weeks or months by itself!

"Such mechs are probably prevalent in the galactic heartland, but extremely rare in the galactic rim."

That also made it troublesome for him to actually produce such an energy cell. Not only would he have to spend hundreds of billions of credits to pay for all of the raw materials, the finished product simply attracted too much attention to be used on the field.

Alll of these burdens and caveats restricted him from employing his unique and extremely valuable gains for commercial ends. It also explained why Senior and Master Mech Designers such as the Skull Architect might have access to this knowledge but didn't actually do anything public with them. They faced too much pressure and too many restrictions to commercialize this kind of knowledge!

"Still, just because they can't apply their knowledge to their sellable products doesn't mean they can't use it for themselves. I bet the Skull Architect is armed to the teeth with high-powered weapons and gadgets he crafted for his own ends."

Bursting with enthusiasm, Ves invited Ketis to go accompany him down to the workshop deck. The Swordmaiden mech designer followed him with a confused expression. What kind of torturous assignment did Ves cook up for her this time?

Once they reached a private workshop enclosure that Ves had cleared in the schedule before, he explained his intentions to Ketis.

"Today I'm not expecting you to do anything. You've seen me puzzling over a couple of extremely advanced gadget designs, right?"

"Yeah. What are you trying to make, teacher? I took a long look at them and don't understand anything at all no matter how much I stare."

Ves found that to be interesting. As a Novice Mech Designer who barely reached the threshold to call herself that, her knowledge base was far too shallow to touch upon the tech he worked on. She was no different from a cavewoman staring at a blueprint of a trebuchet. The technological gap was so wide that she wasn't at risk of suffering from mental contamination!

"Sometimes stupidity is a blessing."

"What did you say?!" Her eyes grew heated and her nostrils fumed. "Say that to my face if you dare!"

Chapter 712

After belatedly calming down his student after uttering his faux pas, Ves proceeded to prepare for one of the most advanced fabrication sessions he had ever started in his life.

The difficulty surrounding this fabrication run exceeded the time where he initially fabricated the first production copies of the Blackbeak and the Crystal Lord. It exceeded the frantic, time-constrained rush jobs of putting together functional competition mechs within a matter of hours or days.

If Ves had to quantify the difference, then he'd estimate the difficulty of fabricating his new gadgets at six times the difficulty of fabricating his first Crystal Lord!

It sounded ridiculous to say that a full-scale mech was much easier to make than a couple of tiny electronic doodads, but the scale made a big difference. Ves trained a lot with handling big machinery and huge components that weighed several tons. He hadn't trained as much with piecing together fine, miniscule components that all needed to be assembled into place with razor-thin precision.

He recently forced Ketis to become accustomed with working with small-scale machinery by hand to make up for her shortfall, but Ves suffered from the same problem.

Of course, Ketis only needed to craft together some cheap miniature mechs with no practical value.

Ves on the other hand planned to create batteries and gadgets with an estimated market value of at least several billion bright credits!

He could still botch the fabrication of his improved high-powered gadgets because he could always raid the Shield of Hispania's inventory for replacement materials. Even if he failed ten times in a row, all he would suffer was another rebuke from Major Verle or Lieutenant Commander Soapstone.

As for the ultracompact batteries? Ves killed his way out of the Mancroft Independent Harbor to secure up to a billion credits worth of exotics to secure the three key materials! Once he processed them, they became virtually impossible to recover without advanced lab equipment.

It was a good thing he obtained enough batches of materials to leave him with an extra opportunity.

He had three tries to fabricate an ultracompact battery. At a minimum, he needed to succeed at least two times, but his future plans would go a lot smoother if he had a spare.

"Ketis."

"Yes, teacher?"

"What I'm about to craft is some of the most advanced piece of tech in the entire combined fleet. I don't think there is anything on our vessels, including the FTL drives, that matches the complexity of what I'm about to make. The only exception to this rule is the Parallax Star, the custom lancer mech of our useless expert pilot.

"So that's why I can't understand those design schematics." Ketis muttered while looking at Ves like he was a god. "Is it alright for me to stay here? I'm not disturbing you, am I?"

"That's not the case. In fact, it's the opposite. I trust you to watch my back." And he meant that, literally. "I'd like to you unsheathe your sword and be ready to chop up any intruders. What I'm about to make is so delicate that I can't afford to be distracted by ANY disturbance. I want you to be the person who insures I can work uninterrupted for hours on end."

"How long do I have to stand guard?"

"Not too long, Ketis. Twelve hours, maybe."

"Sounds doable. I've been through worse training exercises."

She did as instructed. With both of her hands resting on her greatsword, she looked ready to snap to her feet and attack anything that intruded upon them. Nobody should enter. Ves already reserved the entire enclosure and warned Chief Haine to not let anybody pass through the solid barriers that Ves ordered the mech technicians to erect.

The fabrication job he was about to run was so sensitive and critical that Ves not only reserved the best 3D printer on the Shield of Hispania, he also fabricated a custom set of precision gear.

The standard-issue precision tools that Ketis used to put together her miniatures failed to satisfy him. They left too much room for error, and their vaunted precision only counted for so much.

That was why he pulled the blueprints from the ship's database and spent some time in the workshop to fabricate them one by one, making sure that each of them were perfect.

That he went through all of this effort just to prepare for the main fabrication run illustrated the immense challenge of what he intended to create.

He also timed the occasion right. The fleet had recently transitioned into FTL and several hours passed by without incident. If everything went as planned, it took at least two days to reach the destination star system.

Practically the only measure that Ves hadn't utilized was to make full use of his Spirituality.

He thought about it, but lacked the confidence to employ it correctly on a tiny gadget as opposed to a full-sized mech. The X-Factor worked by enhancing some kind of intangible quality of mechs whenever a mech pilot interfaced with them. Without this man-machine connection, what was the point of the X-Factor?

Therefore, Ves did not think it would be appropriate to instill an image in his gadgets. At best, it did nothing substantial, but at worst it screwed up its workings in unpredictable ways. He should have experimented with such outcomes beforehand, but he lacked the time to do so.

Still, while he considering employing his Spirituality in an active way to be too risky, there shouldn't be too many risks if he employed them passively. Merely affixing a faint notion of reliability or some other attribute that reinforced their workings might have a tiny influence in their effectiveness.

Ves presumed that this might be the way to go with employing his Spirituality on non-mech machines, but he needed to experiment with it later to be sure.

"I've already pushed so many priorities to 'later', so adding one more item on my to-do list won't hurt."

The more he saw the galaxy, the more he saw that mech designers needed protection. Besides hiring bodyguards, their best means of protecting themselves was to leverage their considerable engineering abilities to design and fabricate their own personal gear.

Why enter a gun store to purchase a shiny new weapon when mech designers possessed more than enough skills to make their own?

Why hire armorers to fashion custom sets of armor when mech designers could easily fabricate a suit of armor themselves?

Certainly, a mech designer wouldn't be able to match genuine gunsmiths and armorers in their degree of specialization and mastery in the craft.

If a mech designer wanted the best, they hired an expert.

Yet if they wanted something they could entrust their lives to, they crafted it themselves.

There was enough overlap between their professions that mech designers only needed to study some supplementary textbooks in order to become adequate enough in fashioning personal equipment for themselves and their closest confidants.

"Do you really think anyone will be stupid enough to interrupt you?" Ketis suddenly asked. "Back at the Jaded Sword, no one messes with Mayra when she's closing up to complete a sensitive project."

"It's just a precaution." He waved his hand in a casual manner, belying the amount of care he truly put on this issue. "After seeing how stupid pirates can be at Mancroft, I don't dare to underestimate anyone's lack of common sense. Even if my fellow Vandals are better than that, in a project like this it's prudent to pull out all the stops."

What he couldn't mention to Ketis was that he did not employ her to guard against his fellow Vandals. Chief Haine should have been smart enough to prevent anyone from coming close, let alone intrude in his workplace.

Ves suppressed the impulse to glance at his back. In truth, he wanted to guard against the entity stalking behind his back. According to his other senses, Ves vaguely estimated that Acolyte Villis had already taken a few steps back.

Since Ves was about to embark on realizing his gadget designs, it was too dangerous for her to observe his work directly. She possessed just enough knowledge to understand the profoundness hidden within.

He grinned.

"Stand closer to me. You can follow my actions more closely then. Just don't get in my way if I move."

Once everything fell into place exactly the way he wanted it, Ves began his fabrication run.

Because he intended to fashion a series of small, handheld devices and parts, he still needed to become accustomed to working at this scale. Rather than start with the batteries which he really couldn't afford to mess up, he instead began to fashion his revised versions of his stealth detector and the signal jammer.

The stealth detector came first. Ves derived the tech for this device from the central database some time ago, and since then he spent a few hours brushing up on the literature and blueprints.

In simple terms, the device transmitted a bunch of unusual waves and vibrations and hoped at least one of them echoed back, preferably something invisible. Regular stealth tech countered many different detection methods, but it was impossible for it to counteract every possible method.

Therefore, what Ves had built was just a fancy radar-like device. Most of the complexity involving the stealth detector came from the delicate sensor arrays that needed lots of shielding and the sheer amount of power running through its circuits. Besides that, the design really wasn't complicated at all.

Ves worked quickly. Within two hours, he worked briskly and with confidence. It didn't take too much time to piece the device together because it was small and made out of very few parts. The biggest issue he encountered was that he still needed to become accustomed to his new tools.

"Complete!"

The device hardly different from his old stealth detector. He deliberately kept its cheap, makeshift appearance the same in order to camouflage its actual worth.

Ves took out his old stealth detector and placed it side by side to his new one.

"They look exactly the same." Ketis pointed out the obvious.

"That's only their outward appearance. Their insides are completely different."

He took out the standard-issue battery from his old gadget and placed it into his new one. Ves still stuck to the same socket standard so that Ves could make use of both his ultracompact batteries or his regular batteries if needed.

Once he slotted in the battery, he turned on the device. The stealth detector booted up normally and its internal diagnostics found very few issues that he needed to take note of. It worked!

After carefully checking over its performance, Ves shut it off and returned the standard battery back to his old device. He placed them aside and began to work on his next gadget.

Fabricating the signal jammer turned out to be a lot more complicated than his previous gadget. He outright failed in fabricating some of the most delicate parts. Even then, he also botched the assembly a few times, breaking a couple of critical parts.

Fortunately, Ves brought some spare materials along so he fabricated some new parts to make up for his failures. He'd rather fail now than later when he finally tackled the ultracompact batteries.

Besides these potentially devastating snags, the signal jammer came out fairly well at the end. Though its quality hadn't exactly met his standards, once he activated it and ran through some tests, he became satisfied that every function at least performed somewhat according to his expectations.

The important point was that the gadget came out in working condition and that he made a fair number of mistakes that he definitely wouldn't be repeating for his next and most important job.

He took an hour-long break to regain his energy and his spirits. He spent the time productively by explaining some of the methods he made use of today.

Once an hour had passed, Ves retrieved a secure alloy cube. Contained within were his three key materials. All this time, he never once touched its contents, afraid that he would ruin them somehow.

No longer. This was the time he put one billion credits worth of exotics to good use.

"Watch closely, Ketis. I'm going to show you how to create a tiny component that's worth as much as a dozen mechs!"

Chapter 713

The jump in difficulty from fabricating a couple of gadgets to fabricating a handful of batteries was immense. These weren't regular batteries but ones that stuffed an incredible amount of energy in a package around the size of a couple of K-coins!

Ves respected the intricacy of the tech he only gained a rudimentary mastery from a fragmentary collection of research papers. He suspected that the Skull Architect who provided them to him likely never expected him to come so far after only a single month of intensive studying.

Everything the Senior handed over to Ves consisted of a treasure hiding behind a trap. It must have been some sick game to the Skull Architect to witness greedy mech designers become ruined after they sought to master knowledge beyond their ken.

However, once Ves succeeded in avoiding the many pitfalls hidden within the gifts, the merits became evident. His gains in the field related to ultracompact batteries and energy storage enabled him to design the most suitable battery of this nature that fit his exact circumstances.

Taking into account his relative lack of experience with working with this tech, he designed the battery with as much room for error as possible. Even if a single part went a little askew, it wouldn't ruin the entire component and send over three-hundred million credits worth of exotics out of the airlock.

Naturally, the increased tolerances came at a hefty cost. Its maximum capacity received a severe hit. This in turn lessened its overall longevity as the battery ran out faster, forcing Ves to recharge it more often.

Ves willingly accepted this tradeoff. He would rather increase his chance of succeeding with an inferior product than risk ending up with an expensive pile of scrap in a race for perfection.

Right now, he did not qualify for perfection. Getting them barely to work was the best he could hope for. In fact, if he wasn't in such a hurry, he would have wanted to spend an entire year before embarking on this project. Too bad time was one of a mech designer's scarcest resources.

There was always work to be done but so little time to complete any!

Fortunately, Ves already became accustomed to compromising on his standards and principles. Putting together an abomination of an ultracompact battery that barely deserved to be called as such offended his sensibilities but met his needs.

If Ves had to choose between pride and necessity, he'd always go for the latter.

His circumstances were far from ideal, yet what other choice did he have than to play with the cards he'd been dealt?

Powering his gadgets with anemic standard-issue batteries was as effective as stabbing someone with a fork. If he really wanted to kill someone, he needed to create the right tools and forge something like Ketis' greatsword.

A supercharged stealth detector enabled him to overpower weaker applications of stealth or enhance its effective detection range by up to a hundred meters! A supercharged signal jammer would be able to block nearly anything except quantum entanglement nodes within a similar effective range!

And if Ves succeeded in producing a spare battery, then he already had a very nasty gadget in mind to make use of its considerable power.

"Let's begin."

After crafting together two gadgets in a row, he recalibrated his precision gear, both to offset anything that went out of alignment, and to correct a faulty setting that he hadn't noticed beforehand until he made use of it. Thirty minutes later, he began to work.

The actual energy storage components were so tiny that they could easily rest on top of his fingernail. Even then, the actual subcomponents that held all of that energy was even smaller.

However, because it was so small, it needed to be reproduced in a near-perfect condition. Any single error might very well result into a catastrophic discharge that would unleash so much energy that it could easily fry him to a crisp, armor or not!

Therefore, the housing basically consisted of various safeguards that mitigated all the potential risks that such a disaster might occur. Many batteries and energy cells adopted similar structures due to the amount of energy they carried.

In order to warm himself up and to verify whether he calibrated his tools correctly, he fabricated and partially assembled the housing first. All of his progress so far enabled him to pick up a few more tiny faults that he subsequently corrected midway.

It didn't take too much time to finish the housing. He set the semi-assembled shell aside and began to work on the most critical portion of this job.

"Here goes."

Ves started with a couple of hundred grams of sulomnium. This was the main ingredient of of the chemical substance that stored all of the electrical energy. He treated the sulomnium and blended it with precisely-weighed samples of junk exotics and mundane elements, taking care to verify he performed each step correctly.

He ended up with something the size of his fingernail that could potentially store as much energy to power a mech for a minute or more.

However, in this state, if Ves started to charge it with electrical energy, it would instantly become volatile and blow up in his face, potentially melting everything in a radius of a couple of meters!

"I'm only a third of the way done."

This was where beta-otricine came in. Beta-otricine saw frequent use in all kinds of components that depended on large amounts of energy because it exhibited the rare and vital property of reducing its volatility. In the right circumstances, it could even tame a lightning bolt and turn it into a static entity!

Ves blended in the beta-otricine into his product, which reduced its restlessness when charged. An added benefit to introducing the beta-otricine was that it also reduced the scope of a catastrophic discharge if something went wrong!

However, rather than stabilizing the chemical substance, it grew increasingly more agitated. That was because sulomnium and beta-otricine did not get along with each other!

Ves had a limited window of opportunity to apply a stabilizing agent that forced these two incompatible exotics to accept each other's presence or at least pretend they didn't exist.

"Flesha's Tears."

This exotic easy turned into a liquid form when treated, which Ves subsequently added to the agitated substance. Instantly, the mixture ceased to stir around, becoming an ocean of calm where the three different key materials all got along with each other like three unfamiliar roommates sharing a single apartment.

As Ves carefully studied the finished substance under a powerful scanner, he observed that the roommates didn't entirely get along with each other, but they hadn't resorted to violence at least.

"Barely successful. I made a mistake in the design. The proportions are slightly off!"

He made a mistake, but not a major one. He already took note of it and figured out he needed to apply a little less sulomnium next time in order to increase the overall stability of the end product.

But first, he finished what he started. He housed the substance along with a number of other important subcomponents into a multi-layer housing tough enough to withstand a small number of rifle rounds!

The battery was so dense that it could easily cave in someone's skull when thrown!

A sense of accomplishment ran through his body once he realized he actually completed a battery that others would kill to obtain! The magnitude of this success couldn't be overstated. Just this invention alone propelled him over the heads of nearly every Apprentice and Journeyman Mech Designers in existence!

"Is that it?" Ketis asked once she noticed that Ves started to relax while staring at his finished product. "That's the fancy battery you've been obsessing over ever since we left Mancroft?"

"Yup. Don't underestimate this little puck. If I slot it into a laser pistol, I can shoot all day with it as long as it doesn't overheat. This is the real deal. If they weren't so expensive to make, I'd incorporate them in every mech I sell."

"You haven't tried it, right? Let's see if it works!"

"I was just about to do that."

Testing the battery took some time. First he needed to charge it. Ves hooked it up with a power source but charged it extremely slowly, monitoring the telemetry every second of the way. He slowly cranked up the charging rate, but never dared to surpass a certain rate. The longevity of the battery suffered if too much power transferred back and forth.

When Ves slotted the minutely-charged battery into a testing device, he stepped far away and proceeded to see whether the battery discharged its energy at a controlled rate.

The testing device set off a number of lights.

"It works!"

The battery behaved as he intended to. No significant problems popped up during its operation, and while that didn't mean that it was completely safe, Ves settled for the results. Further testing would likely prove redundant while taking up too much time that he still needed to spend on his other side project.

"Since I'm on a roll, I better finish the other two batteries.

The first time was always the most difficult attempt. That he succeeded on the first try should be a good sign for his subsequent success.

Still, he almost botched the job on his second try. As soon as Ves added the beta-otricine to the sulomnium-based substance, the entire mixture started to shake and bubble like a witch's brew gone berserk!

Ves hastily recovered by dumping in the Flesha's Tears after he hastily processed it, which barely managed to rescue over three-hundred million credits worth of exotics!

"Damn, what went wrong this time?"

He waved around his multiscanner in every direction and employed the larger scanner as well.

The answer turned out to be a phenomenon that he had never foreseen.

For some reason, the entire vicinity came under influence to some kind of energy field that had built up during the course of his first attempt at crafting the battery. The reaction that resulted from putting sulomnium and beta-otricine together evidently generated strange forms of energy that lingered in the surrounding air.

The energy field of remnant energies might not have affected his first try, but it definitely exacerbated the agitation that resulted from his second attempt!

Ves fumbled around a bit to get rid of the remnant energy field. He finally found a solution by waving a plain rod of metal back and forth. It somehow sucked up the unidentified energy in the air and turned his workspace back to normal. After chucking the rod into a chute that brought it to a junk pile, he resumed the assembly of his second battery and completed it without further incident.

Several hours later, he completed his third battery in its best state yet. He repeated none of the mistakes he made in the previous attempts, and nothing unforeseen popped up this time. After using up his entire stock of sulomnium, beta-otricine and Flesha's Tears, he finally succeeded in achieving his greatest goal!

Completing three completely functional ultracompact batteries!

"Wow!" Ketis admired the batteries from a distance. She didn't dare touch the objects or get close to them in fear of ruining them for some reason. "From the way you fussed over this project all this time, I would have expected you to fail at least once."

He chuckled a bit. Looking back on his behavior, he certainly went overboard in terms of his preparations. "You can never be too careful when you are working with components that have the potential to carve out a hole in the hull of our ship. Besides, I really don't want to waste my hard-earned cash."

Putting together the batteries demanded the utmost of his concentration and skill. However, because it was so small and simple, Ves only needed to focus on successfully completing a small number of critical steps.

If Ves attempted to craft something more complex like an expert mech, then he might have to accomplish a perfect result for over a thousand steps! Even he wouldn't be able to accomplish a perfect track record in such conditions!

"Well, this should be the end of it." He sighed, feeling incredibly drained now that he relaxed his mind. "Let's pack everything up and get something to eat. I hope you haven't been staring for nothing, because I'm going to quiz you on some of the methods I've demonstrated."

"Noo!"

Chapter 714

In the proceeding day, Ves carefully tested out his supercharged stealth detector and signal jammer. Well, he merely tried them out in combination with his new ultracompact batteries. Because he couldn't flood the ship with potentially damaging energy fields, Ves merely the output of his supercharged gadgets to a fraction of their potential.

For the stealth detector, Ves didn't have any working samples of stealth tech available to test its functioning. However, the readings all looked promising. The high-quality materials that Ves had utilized in its second iteration insured the entire device didn't blow up when subjected to so much power.

One outcome that Ves had predicted despite his hopes was that the stealth detector didn't work at all on his uninvited guests. He started testing the stealth detector well outside its effective range, but slowly moved within its area of effect, ostensibly to confirm that it posed no threat to human bodies, but what he really wanted to do was to drag in his persisted stalker.

No dice.

The invisible and perhaps intangible form of Acolyte Villis proved that his stealth detector didn't do squat against the Church of Haatumak's form of stealth.

Interestingly enough, when Ves activated his spiritual vision, he observed nothing visible emanating from his device. It didn't possess the capacity to affect anything on a spiritual level.

He needed to correct this deficiency in the future, though he had no clue where he could obtain the relevant knowledge to achieve such an exotic effect.

Testing out his signal jammer proved the same. It interfered with the working of every kind of sensor or transmission device in range, exactly like the device that Calabast once used on Harkensen I.

Ves predicted that this newly created gadget might even save his life if the current mission went awry! There was no better way to escape a hunt than to block every form of electronic observation in his vicinity. People tended to trust in their machines more than their own eyes when hunting for distant targets. This meant that as long as Ves ran far enough away, he'd be safe from pursuit.

"Hm, in fact, these effects are remarkably similar to something that I used to own and make use of quite frequently."

He recalled the times when he activated his System-bought Privacy Shield and Stealth Augment. It cost him a significant amount of DP to obtain the most preliminary versions of these functions, but they worked like a charm.

While the System-bought upgrades to his personal comm worked best, Ves enjoyed crafting his own versions that copied some of their functions.

Ves realized that this might be a better strategy going forward. Instead of purchasing expensive but powerful functions at rip-off prices from the System, he could instead spend his DP on purchasing the requisite Skills that were necessary to design and reproduce the functions on his own!

"Tch! I'd be ideal if I can make that work, but my mind is not an endless repository for knowledge."

Ves couldn't endlessly accumulate knowledge without end. Spreading himself too broadly into too many unrelated fields would strain his design philosophy and generally muddle up his cognitive functioning.

Besides the Polymath and her proteges who somehow made it work, no other mech designer dared to accumulate an endless amount of knowledge!

In any case, he now that he finished upgrading some of his gear, he felt a lot more secure against any surprises that might pop up one day.

As he strapped his deceptively simple-looking gadgets to his toolbelt, he glanced at the Mark I versions of his toys. He may not have a use for them anymore, but he might as well cheer up someone else. He shoved them towards Ketis.

"You can have these."

"Really?!"

"Yep. Just don't break them or throw them around. They're more fragile than you think."

Ketis had been watched with jealous eyes as Ves increased his personal capabilities. As a Swordmaiden, she cared a lot about increasing her personal prowess.

Ves must have been infected by her compulsion because he took over her habit wholesale.

The Swordmaiden eagerly gasped the two gadgets and toyed with them as if she was a kitten. She quickly passed over the stealth detector, figuring that her chances of encountering something under stealth was low, and directed most of her attention to the signal jammer. Despite its short range, it proved to be effective at blocking many kinds of signals and sensors.

Any woman yearned for moments of privacy in their lives.

"I finally get to block out all those nasty monitoring devices." She muttered with a grin.

"Alright, we're finished here. Let's go back to the office. I've got another lesson in store for you."

"Noooo!"

Now that he completed his first important side project, he directed his spare attention to his second side project, and arguably his most important. In his obsessive rush to design and fabricate his ultracompact batteries, he left his original goal of figuring out stealth tech in the corner like a neglected child.

Ves felt a little guilty for being unable to treat this important project with the respect it deserved, but now should be different!

Of course, he still needed to work away at the backlog of work that slowly piled up while he chased after his latest toys. Fortunately, he hadn't been too neglectful, so it didn't take too long for him to address the most pertinent issues.

He also needed to spend some necessary time to shape his student's perspective. Under his direction in the last month, Ketis not only gained a new respect for hands-on work, she also became accustomed to a more productive work ethic, though the latter was mostly due to his hounding and threats of handing her over to Chief Haine more than anything else.

After she familiarized herself with the principles of an orthodox mech designer, Ves considered his work to be half-done. He instilled her with the bare essentials of everything she needed to know as a mech designer besides actual science and engineering knowledge.

She could always increase her knowledge in her own time, but immersing her with some of the institutional customs of a classically educated mech designer was impossible by herself. Ves did her a huge favor that increased her overall qualities as a mech designer by a huge leap compared to other pirate designers native to the frontier!

However, subjecting her to an abundance of dry information left some gaps in her imagination. Ves tried his best to shore up her shortcomings that she missed due to being homeschooled, but she experienced a lot of difficulty in understanding the context of what she gained.

"Why does all of this matter?" She burst out one day. "All of this dry reading makes me want to pull out my horns! Why does all of this stupid stuff matter when I'm never going to settle down in civilized space?! Who cares about what the MTA wants! And what does it mean when I have to find my own way? This is too confusing!"

Ves turned to Ketis while crossing his arms. "Some of the reading material I gave you is a bit boring, but they are laying the foundation for you to formulate your own design philosophy and thereby define a goal for yourself to pursue for the rest of your life."

"You bandy about that phrase a lot. Design philosophy. Design philosophy! DESIGN PHILOSOPHY! What does that even mean?! Why are you so obsessed with it?! Mayra only mentioned it once or twice while I studied under her, but she never hit me over the head with those words!"

"What do you think the word means? Don't worry about trying to sound sophisticated. Just say what your heart is telling you."

That caused Ketis to pause. Her irritation melted away as she put serious thought on his question. Answering it wasn't easy because it encompassed many aspects. To a mech designer who hadn't even reached the threshold of formulating a design philosophy, they treated it as something alien.

Eventually, she ventured out a guess. "A design philosophy is.. a dream, I guess? The way Mayra and you talk about it is as if it's an ideal that you can never reach.. but chase after it anyway. Is that about right?"

"It's more than an unattainable dream." Ves answered seriously. "A design philosophy is a dream we'd like to come true, but the difference is that some mech designers have achieved that goal. Why do you think Master Mech Designers are so respected? They've been chasing after a dream that everyone else thinks is impossible to achieve, but they somehow made it possible through a combination of innovative research and a lot of hard work!"

"What's the point of holding such a dream when a nobody like me doesn't have a chance of reaching that height?"

"Never think like that!" Ves barked sharply. "I've seen so many mech designers who thought that way and simply gave up. Don't ever fall into the negative feedback loop where you lose confidence because your designs are disappointing which makes you lose more confidence which only further drags down your design work. Every mech designer has an opportunity to climb to fortune! You just have to keep working hard despite the obstacles in your way. I see a lot of potential in you, you know."

"Really? You're not just yanking my chain, are you?"

"I'm not the kind of person who's in the habit of lying." That was a big fat lie, but Ketis didn't need to know that. Ves continued without blinking his eyes. "Your learning ability is a lot better than half of my subordinates within the Vandal fleet. If you weren't splitting your attention all the time, you would have gone a lot farther, perhaps even matching my own prowess."

Ketis had the grounds to be somewhat proud to herself. She succeeded under Mayra's tutelage where many lesser sisters failed.

Still, perhaps due to how easy she became a Novice, she didn't quite appreciate the depth of her accomplishments. She took too many aspects about mech design for granted.

"Look, I'm glad you're telling me I'm awesome, but even my awesome self can't quite figure out the fuss about design philosophy. Then again, I never saw someone else's design philosophy except Mayra's. What's your design philosophy anyway?"

Ves guessed that she needed to hear an example, so he generously obliged. He made sure to keep the secret parts to himself, not just to protect against Ketis, but also against the uninvited guest that must be eavesdropping on them right behind his shoulder.

"My design philosophy is a little unusual, and it came about in unusual circumstances. You see, I'm pursuing a particular dream of mine, something that I'm fairly confident that no other mech designer shares in the entire galaxy!"

"Even I know there's a lot of mech designers in the galaxy. Do you really think you're special?"

"I know I am, because you want to know what I want to achieve? I want to bring mechs to life!"

The look Ketis threw at Ves showed that her entire mind had crashed. For a second, she just couldn't process the absurdity she just heard from someone she looked up to. Did she just hear something stupid?!

Ves chuckled. "I expected a reaction like that. It sounds crazy, but I'm not grasping at straws here. It's a design philosophy that's dear to my heart because it's rooted in my still-formulating beliefs on how reality works. This is why despite sounding so outlandish, I'm confident that I can achieve my dream some day."

"No wonder you have to become a Master to fulfill your design philosophy." She muttered. "You guys are absolutely bonkers!"

"I don't deny that. Call us crazy if you want. The more important fact is that we're ambitious! Chasing after an impossibility centers us to a goal and guides our design ability in a direction that may ultimately lead to some of the most innovative mechs in mech history! Even if we fall short to our eventual goal, for most of us the journey is more important than the destination. It's not too bad if we fall short halfway because you'll at least be a Journeyman or Senior by the time you've reached the end of your career."

She understood the underlying sentiment of what he tried to convey. "I see! So the design philosophy keeps you preoccupied with improving yourself. Even if you've reached a dead end, you're a lot better off than if you don't have a goal in mind at all."

"A design philosophy is more than a goal. That is merely one of its functions. It also has a measurable influence on the mechs that you design. At the higher end of the mech industry, your design philosophy distinguishes your work from your rivals. Now that you've heard me describe my own design philosophy, if a bit briefly, you should be capable of formulating your own one. Why don't you make an attempt right now?"

"Now?!"

Chapter 715

"I'm not ready yet!" Ketis strenuously objected.

"I don't think that's true." He firmly pushed back. "You reflexibly shy away from such a momentous decision, but you can't keep putting it off forever. At some point, that will turn into an ingrained instinct that will permanently stall your ambitions in your career. If you have any desire to achieve something greater, then you have to keep moving forward. You're not getting any nearer to your destination if you don't start working your metaphorical feet!"

He concluded this after a lot of thought about the circumstances of other mech designers. The flood of so many mech designers in the industry forced a lot of them out of the market, but the defining factor whether someone bowed out early or survived at the end depended on willpower!

Without the mental fortitude to work towards a goal, how would mech designers get anywhere? Ves figured out that if he hadn't obtained the System, he would still be able to make his career lift off as long as he worked hard enough.

Even if he went bankrupt after his first business venture failed, he could always study hard and try again with better designs and an improved business plan in mind. The main challenge in such a situation was trying to raise capital, but even that could be surmounted as long as he attracted someone stupid enough to invest in his business.

Even if a mech designer's situation seemed hopeless, there was always a way out!

Unfortunately, Ketis hadn't learned this lesson yet, so Ves had to guide her on the right track.

"I feel like you're asking the impossible out of me." She pouted at him. "I thought I knew everything about mech design, but then I met you. Your standards are so ridiculously high that I bet that even Master Mech Designers aren't so tough!"

"That's impossible." He laughed. "A genuine Master will drive me up the wall just like how I'm supposedly driving you crazy. You haven't seen anything of how a true talent is brought up!"

She turned to another question that had been weighing on her mind for a while. "Why are you working so hard to reach such an impossible goal?"

That was an important question, and one that made him pause. He understood that she didn't wish to hear an answer related to his aspirations about mechs. Instead, the question was more about his personal motivations. What drove him to pursue an impossible dream?"

"I think.. it's largely for myself. I want to make my life better. I want my life to have meaning. Leaving behind a legacy that will transform the entire fabric of the mech industry is one of the greatest accomplishments I can ever achieve. If I can't achieve immortality, then I want the next-best thing and be mentioned in every history book."

"That sounds really selfish, you know." She frowned. "What about your family?"

The Larkinsons? "I do care about them, but my extended family can take care of themselves. If there is anyone in my family that I want to help, it's my parents. Both of them.. they're not in a good spot, especially my father. As for my mother.. I don't know. In any case, I'm so weak and small right now that I can't even save my own father."

This issue continued to weigh on him in the back of his mind because it took far too long to become strong enough to gain enough power to help his father. Even though he had become an Apprentice Mech Designer who was at the cusp of advancing into Journeyman, he was still being jerked around like a pawn by hidden players in a sprawling game that already killed millions of people.

Taking stock at his progress so far, Ves became despondent at the thought that he'd still be a powerless nobody in the eyes of the true movers and shakers of the Komodo Star Sector. Even Masters dreaded at the thought of fighting back against a behemoth like the Five Scrolls Compact!

"It's that bad, huh?" Ketis asked, though she already knew the answer. "Hey, at least you still have decent parents to look forward to seeing again. Mine are total scumbags. Growing up in the settlements is not a good life for anyone. It's so backwards and dirty at the place where I grew up that I won't shed a tear if someone chucked a meteorite at it. The frontier is better off without that cesspool. As far as I'm concerned, the Swordmaidens are my family now."

The two commisserated a bit about family. They both felt strongly about their missing or adopted relatives.

Suddenly, Ketis adopted a mischievous grin and bumped him with her elbow. "Say, what about the missus? Do you have a girlfriend waiting back at home?"

His cheeks would have flushed if she asked that question a couple of years ago, but his rough experiences in the last couple of years had matured him a bit. He knew just how to answer that question.

"I don't have a girlfriend. I haven't met the right woman yet."

"Not even me?"

He laughed. "Don't think too highly of yourself. If nothing else, I respect the boundaries between a teacher and their students. I don't want to take advantage of my authority."

"Pfff! Since when do pirates care about the rules! Live a little! Have some fun!"

"This is exactly why I forced you to familiarize yourself with the MTA's rules and principles. You can't just say no to every rule just because. Some of them are genuinely good ideas that you should think about adopting for yourself. Establishing a proper teacher-student relationship is one of them. Besides, I don't think we're compatible people."

"Oh? I think we're getting along just fine." She said in a tone that Ves couldn't place. She sidled a little closer against his body. "You know what they say in the dramas? Opposites attract. Who's to say that you need to be 'compatible' to make a good couple? Look at us. We're made for each other! You're the brains while I can act as the muscle! That's a classic combination"

His brows began to furrow. Ketis took this joke a bit too far, and began to enter uncertain territory. He turned towards the clingy Swordmaiden and placed his hands around her, only to gently push her away.

"I'm flattered you say that about me, but you're still a bit young and you probably haven't hung around a lot of boys your age."

"Feh. Those pirate dweebs?" She sneered. "Their breaths stink and they're as smart as a piece of rock!"

"What I wanted to say is that I guess I'm attracted to a different kind of woman."

"Oh? What's your type?"

"Hmm. I don't know. Gentle? Refined?" He frowned. "I'd love to be someone who can be composed. She has to be intelligent as well. It would help a lot if she's a mech designer. That way she can keep up with me. There's nothing better in my life if I can share my dreams with someone else. They don't have to adopt the same design philosophy as mine, but it helps if they can understand my difficulties and cheer me on. Oh, and she has to be pretty as well, but since any woman can change her looks these days, that doesn't need to be said."

Ves felt kind of stupid saying that last bit, but he didn't want Ketis to think he had a fetish for weird stuff.

Luckily, she didn't focus on that part at all. Instead, her eyes grew a little cross when she took in his list of demands. "So.. if I understand this right, if I become a really good mech designer, like, just as good as you, I'm your ideal type?"

He chuckled again. "That's only one of my criteria. To be honest, I don't really know what to look for in a girlfriend. I guess I'm fine with whatever so long as they aren't completely illiterate. I'm not that good with women in the first place, and since advancing my career has already taken up my time, I never really have the time to chase after someone I like."

"Oh? Do you already have a girl in mind."

The shadow of a single woman came to mind. She mesmerized him ever since he glanced at her at a distance at the start of his studies at Rittersberg. Meeting her again in Leemar had been a pleasant surprise, though he always knew she was worthy enough to be selected by a Master.

Ves yearned to meet someone like her again, but they lived very different lives right now. At this stage in their lives, their careers mattered more than their love lives.

While Ves recalled a woman from his past that he never quite figured out, Ketis watched his expression carefully.

"So you do have a girl in your dreams! You dog!"

He shook his head. "We're so far apart that I don't think I'll ever have the opportunity to be in the same room as her. Besides her, no one else has intrigued me as much. And before you ask, I'm not interested in swinging the other way!"

They both laughed, and the strange tension in the air lifted away.

"Let's get back to the topic at hand." He said when they calmed down. "We both have family we want to help. Neither of us can do anything in our current state. We're basically the mech industry's equivalent to cannon fodder! If I ever want to get my parents out of a fix, I need to become someone comparable to the Skull Architect before he got exiled to the frontier. As for you, if you want to pick up where Mayra left off, you will have to find a way to advance to Journeyman within the next twenty years."

"Why twenty years? That's way too fast!"

"I don't think so." He shook his head. "Many promising mech designers have advanced to Journeyman within twenty years of graduating to become a Novice. Mayra actually looks like someone who managed to do so. If she can do it, so can you."

"But she studied under the Skull Architect!"

"So what, Ketis? That doesn't stop you from seeking out another teacher! I'm helping you right now, and so long as you can find another Senior to study under, there won't be any difference between you and your mentor! You have to believe in yourself. Trust me, I've seen a lot of pathetic mech designers who barely deserve the title, but you're not one of them. Mayra believes in you. The Swordmaidens believe in you. I believe in you."

That affected her more than Ves had anticipated. She looked genuinely touched by his encouragement.

"I.. I don't know what I can say. I never felt so confident about my mech design stuff. Maybe you're right. Maybe I am good at this stuff!"

After so many interactions, Ves finally felt vindicated. He succeeded in getting through her thick skull!

"That's the spirit!" He encouraged. "It's okay to feel good for yourself. As a mech designer, you should be proud of yourself, but more importantly, realize that you are capable of reaching greater heights as long as you work towards them! If you need a reminder why you should work so hard, think back on your family. Your sisters are relying on you. Twenty years. Set that as a goal. Try and advance to Journeyman within twenty years. Most talented mech designers that have eventually gone on to become Seniors and Masters usually reach Journeyman within the first two decades of their career."

He set a bold goalpost for Ketis, but he figured that a naturally competitive woman like her would relish the challenge rather than shy away from it. If there was one good trait about the Swordmaidens, it was that they were naturally accustomed to swimming against the current. Their harsh training regimes instilled a rare sense of discipline that pirates often lacked.

The problem with Ketis was that she needed to apply her discipline in a better way and set her priorities straight.

Eventually, she emerged from her internal deliberation with a spark in her eyes. Ves had been waiting for her passion to ignite.

She grinned at him. "You know what? I'm going to give that a try. If nothing else, becoming a Journeyman in less than two decades will make me your girlfriend!"

He flicked her in the head. "Some dreams are never meant to be fulfilled!"

"Didn't you say the exact opposite earlier? Nothing is impossible!"

Chapter 716

All jokes aside, she at least appeared fired up. Having lit a fire in her mind, Ves knew that he had just moved past the hardest part to guiding her on the right part.

She cared about her family! She would do anything for the Swordmaidens, and hammering home the assertion that she'd be a lot more helpful to them as a Journeyman rather than a Novice should be enough to set her on the right path.

As for her idle boast of becoming his girlfriend if she managed to advance to Journeyman within two decades, Ves simply treated it as nonsense.

After fobbing her off by throwing another assignment at her, Ves reflected on his progress with the excitable young woman. His trial to see if he made a good mech designer designer started to bear some promising results. Ketis finally started to shape up to become a proper mech designer and it only took near-constant hand holding to get to that point.

He frowned at that. "It's fine to spend so much time and effort on a single mech designer if I want to bring up a protege, but I can't keep repeating these one-on-one tutoring sessions all the time. It eats way too much of my time."

Then he thought back to Master Olson and how her assistant Horatio took care of the trivial matters in her stead.

"That's it! Why do I have to do everything myself? I can implement a hierarchy!"

Ves already intended to establish a design team for his company once the Mech Corps booted him back to civilian life. He'd be willing to guide, shape and design his first couple of mech designers, but at some point it became a waste of his precious time.

In such situations, he'd be better off if he designed a set of principles he expected his mech designers to adhere to. In the meantime, he could foist the actual responsibility of indoctrinating his new recruit to a capable second of his own.

He frowned again. "Indoctrination is such a nasty word, yet it has its uses. I always knew the line between teaching and indoctrination is blurred. To think I've become guilty of the very behavior I've condemned!"

Wrestling with the research papers written by self-important academics who believed they understood the ultimate truths of reality left him with a very foul taste to their pervasive manipulative tricks. Yet suddenly he realized that Ves had actually taken a page out of their books and applied some of those insidious tricks on his innocent student!

It turned out he learned much more than scientific knowledge from studying those research papers!

"Damnit!" He cursed to himself. "The mental contamination must have gotten to me. I've become just like them despite my confidence in my methods!"

He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster.

If you gaze into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.

He knew the risks. He always expected to be marked by what he experienced. Was it no surprise that Ves took note of the best practices among the lead authors of the research papers he read and applied them to his own needs?

What was wrong about borrowing some dirty tricks when he benefited from them? Besides, he harbored no harmful intentions to Ketis. He merely wanted to accelerate her learning process and skip over all of the boring stuff that would force her to lose her interest.

Okay, he admitted it. His teaching approach to Ketis basically consisted of indoctrinating her to his views on mech design. Not all of it, but enough to pull her into his camp.

At a proper university or institution, they could afford to let the students become familiar with the issues slowly enough for them to make their own judgement about their values and principles. Debates, self-reflection and witnessing many examples allowed every mech designer to shape their perspective on mech design on their own terms with only a varying amount of bias for the predominant viewpoint of their schools.

Yet Ves did not have the luxury to wait for Ketis to crawl forward one shuffle at a time. He basically picked her up and threw her into a path he had already chosen out for her without her say so. Of course, even if he received Mayra's implicit consent that he could shape Ketis' view of the profession, he did the young woman a major disservice by stripping her of the right to choose her own future.

Something like that rankled the MTA, who generally aimed to foster a diverse and eclectic community of mech designers, within limits of course.

Ves rationalized his actions as something that at least benefited Ketis compared to the old status quo. "If I didn't indoctrinate her, she would have continued to be a confused little girl who doesn't know a thing about what she wants to do in the future. At least I've lit up a fire in her drive. What path she treads shouldn't matter as long as she keeps going forward."

Teaching turned out to be harder than he thought. Being responsible for designing a mech designer meant that Ves could either take the time to allow his students to make up their own mind, or force them forward in his chosen direction to speed up their maturation process.

Again, it came down to time, and how valuable it was the less he had at his disposal.

"I guess that's why the MTA is so adamant about schools. A minimum of four years of dedicated study in an environment that's uniquely suitable to foster mech designers is the best environment to raise a rounded mech designer that can think for themselves."

However, the abundant freedom of thought at those institutions also led to a lot of indecision. Mech designers surrounded by different perspectives couldn't make up their minds on which paths they should follow. This left them stranded at the starting line for so long that inertia solidified them in place, ending their careers after an extensive period of stagnation.

If only they enjoyed more guidance. Even if it came in the form of indoctrination, it was better than nothing.

In short, the act of teaching left the student at the mercy to the teacher.

"This is why the student-teacher relationships are so strictly defined in the mech industry." He realized, and on this, Ves agreed with the MTA. "It's too easy to abuse this relationship. I can make or break a mech designer. I can turn them into a self-sufficient machine or an unknown slave who is highly dependent on me. It all depends on my approach and my methods."

Ketis should thank herself that Ves still possessed some principles on this matter. Not only did he aspire to become a serious teacher, he also made a deal with Mayra that he didn't intend to renege.

He understood now on a practical level why so many Seniors and Masters became teachers and professors at various institutions. It allowed them to come into touch with a large amount of rough gems that they could gently shape into their future supporters.

"It's an influence game. Even if the graduates don't come and work for you, they'll still be acting as an extension of your ideology!"

This might be one of the ways in which a teacher propagated an unpopular or controversial design philosophy.

He saw something similar in the research papers related to ultracompact energy storage. Former students and proteges to older authors published their own papers in support of their teachers. Ves recognized their connection because the former students came from the same institutions, or roped in their old teachers as contributors.

Ves even encountered a research paper that involved up to four generations of teachers and students! Some old geezer who was several hundred years old taught another geezer who was a couple hundred years old who taught a genius who just reached a hundred years old who taught another prodigy who recently became fifty years old!

"That old man at the starts sits at the head of his own school of thought!"

These apex figures played the long game! Even Master Olson, who was practically a newborn in the mech industry, already instituted a formal hierarchy of subordinate mech designers.

Though Masters already realized their ambitious design philosophies by themselves, Ves guessed that the next step would be to popularize it and add their methods to the galactic standard on mech design!

"I don't know what that has to do with advancing to become a Star Designer, though." He scratched his head. "From what I can tell, a Star Designer is someone who transcends every previous boundary. They are such capable designers that their expertise is no longer limited to mechs! They can design practically anything!"

A Star Designer excelled in designing mechs, but they could easily branch out to designing starships and space stations even if they bore no relation to their design philosophy!

"Hmm, that's still too far for me to consider. I need to look back on my own situation."

Everyone who heard his design philosophy plainly believed he talked nonsense. Ves didn't blame them. You had to be really stupid or delusional to think mechs possessed an intrinsic quality of life.

Due to his secretive methods, he held no attraction to taking part in the influence game. Building up supporters would help him, but keeping them too close risked exposing his secrets.

For better or worse, Ves needed to withhold a large amount of secrets related to his design philosophy to himself. Yet where did that leave him in the future?

"Hmm. I'll probably have a harder time than others when I become a Senior. Yet that should change once I become a Master and prove my supposed crackpot theories are viable."

Even before that point, Ves should already prove himself to be capable of strengthening mechs beyond what their design and material composition suggested!

If everything went according to plan, mech designers would beg to become his student or subordinate!

Ves briefly indulged in fantasy, but such a future took decades or centuries to accomplish. Right now, he needed to focus on his more immediate priorities.

"Since I have a lot of free time on my hands, I should get to work on finishing my research on stealth tech."

He turned his attention back to his own preoccupations and left Ketis to stew on her own. Ves didn't wish to rush her forward now that she finally developed an inkling of passion. Having ignited the tinder, it still needed time for her fire to grow bigger. Right now, a single gust of wind could easily snuff out the smouldering flames.

As Ves poured himself into his other side project, the Flagrant Swordmaiden fleet journeyed on through FTL. Once they emerged into an inconsequential star system far away from the border to civilized space, they immediately encountered a possible threat in the system!

An alarm rang throughout every ship in the fleet!

"YELLOW ALERT! MINOR SANDMEN FLEET DETECTED IN THE INNER SYSTEM!"

Ves and Ketis already donned their full ensemble of armor and sat at their stations in the combat carrier's command center. This deep into the frontier, not a single Vandal or Swordmaiden took an FTL emergence lightly. A crisis could hit them at any moment, and the presence of a sandmen fleet within the system only vindicated their caution despite its distance from the Flagrant Swordmaidens.

Their hearts raced when they heard about the sandmen presence. Their fears only started to subside once the announcement informed them that the aliens were far from the inner system.

Nevertheless, they maintained their vigilance and remained at their action stations.

The sensor officer quickly looked up from his console. "Sir! Our long-range sensors have detected a debris field in the vicinity of an asteroid belt! The sandmen fleet is scouring through the debris field right now! Two unknown human fleets are also present at the debris field, and one seems to be chasing the other!"

"Which outfits do they come from!?"

"Unknown, sir! Their transponders are silent!"

"Then find it out as soon as possible!"

Minutes passed by as the long-ranged sensors resolved more data. Soon, a tentative picture emerged.

A three-way battle had occurred! The two unknown human fleets first bumped into each other. A fierce battle erupted that downed multiple ships and several mech companies worth off spaceborn mechs. At some point, a sandmen fleet set upon the combatants, scaring them off and forcing them to flee the valuable debris field and its untouched salvage!

The big question that hung on everyone's minds right now was whether the Flagrant Swordmaidens intended to intervene.

Chapter 717

Ves saw no reason why the Flagrant Vandals should involve themselves into a dispute between two fairly strong outfits in the middle of nowhere. The sandmen presence further added to the danger.

While it appeared that none of the three forces possessed the strength to defeat the Flagrant Swordmaidens, they could still inflict a significant amount of damage if they fought to the death.

As far as Ves and most Vandals were concerned, they were merely bystanders on their way to another destination. The incidents that happened along their route shouldn't concern them at all.

Yet curiosity tickled at them. What made these two forces venture so far out into the frontier? They had long reached past the point where regular pirate outfits roamed. This was because pirates earned their living by robbing other ships or settlements, and those mostly popped up in civilized space or just beyond its borders.

The further someone ventured into the frontier, the fewer signs of human presence they encountered. How could pirates ever earn a living in such a desolate place?

Therefore, those who tended to venture this far out either sought out a specific treasure or attempted to flee from some pervasive threat.

The odds were high that the two warring outfits in the interior of the so-called Ermeghast System possessed peculiar backgrounds.

The possibility that the two outfits might be hunting for the same objective as the Flagrant Swordmaidens hadn't been lost on their commanding officers. Both Commander Lydia and Major Verle grew suspicious at encountering two strong forces on their route towards the Starlight Megalodon.

While the sensor operators busied themselves with figuring out the providence of the two separate outfits in the inner system, the tactical officer provided a preliminary report on the composition of the sandmen fleet.

The Flagrant Vandals didn't know much about the sandmen. To be honest, the tactical officer borrowed heavily from the intelligence provided by Lydia's Swordmaidens. As a pirate gang that roamed the frontier for decades, they had their fair share of encounters against the sentient sand-like race.

"Sir, our preliminary estimates suggest that the medium-sized sandmen fleet is led by an inexperienced sand admiral. The leading sandman doesn't show a lot of imagination in the deployment of its fleet elements."

"What is their concrete fleet strength?"

"If they aren't hiding any other assets, then we've pegged their fleet composition at one sandman mothership and twelve sandmen escort ships, sir. After analyzing their sizes and comparing them to historical data, we've also estimated the effective strengths of their 'ships'. The effective combat strength of the sandmen mothership is analogous to a combat carrier with a full complement of spaceborn mechs, while the strength of the escort ships is comparable to a converted carrier and its complement."

This sounded formidable to any medium-sized mech outfit, but the Flagrant Swordmaidens had little to fear from such a force.

Due to the decentralized leadership structure of the sandmen race, every sandman leader expressed themselves differently. However, almost all of the sandmen leaders who brought their forces into space tended to start from the same default template.

The template of a sandman fleet always consisted of a 'mothership' housing the sandman admiral and a number of uniform escort 'ships' in multiples of six.

Some exoanthropologists asserted that the sandmen operated on a base-six numeral system. Put simply, it was as if the sandmen counted with the help of a pair of hands with three fingers each.

A handful of conspiracy theorists even speculated whether the sandmen and the Hexadric Hegemony were one and the same! After all, they both worshipped the number six! Of course, the Hegemony always lashed out violently when somebody tied them to an alien race that just happened to share a love for the same number.

In any case, calling the clumps of sand-like agglomerations of semi-sentient materials a 'ship' was something of a human misnomer. The sandmen might not consider them ships at all. They could be their homes, their hives, their slave pens or whatever else. The point was that treating sandmen 'ships' as ships imposed human qualities on them that didn't exist.

Case in point, one of the favored ways a sandman ship employed against a human ship was the sandstorm attack. A sandman escort vessel broke apart into streams of sand and attempted to engulf or run through a vulnerable enemy ship in a cataclysmic flood of living particles!

The best way to fight against a sandmen fleet was to bombard it at long range, preferably with kinetic or explosive weapons. Energy weapons such as lasers hardly scratched them, and in certain cases even replenished their energy reserves!

Naturally, melee mechs only brought brought themselves to their deaths if they approached a sandman ship. The living sand would instantly turn into a huge mouth that engulfed these metallic morsels as soon as they got close!

Everyone in the command center had already been briefed in basic sandmen naval doctrine. They also knew that the sandmen tended to become smarter in larger groups.

A single fleet composed of a mothership and twelve escorts should be capable of some imagination, but more often than not made a couple of dumb decisions.

"Sir, the sandmen are currently prioritizing energy capture. They have chosen to sit on the debris field near the asteroid belt rather than to chase after the two human fleets. This indicates that they are rather starved and desperate to gain more energy."

Major Verle nodded in acknowledgement. "This far out in the frontier aren't very good hunting grounds for sandmen. All of the sandmen governors have already laid claim to promising colony sites, so they're forced to roam the stars in search of prey or to passively absorb heat from the local stars."

Sandmen didn't fare very well when exposed to the direct radiation of a star. While stars outputted an enormous amount of energy, it came in the form of extremely destructive radiation that posed a threat not only to humans, but also to sandmen. Therefore, they preferred to obtain their energy by other means, such as stealing them from humans or by absorbing them on certain planets that shielded them from the most harmful aspects of radiation.

More information poured in, but this time about the human presence in the Ermeghast System.

The Flagrant Swordmaidens didn't possess any direct quantum connection to the battle that took place in the inner system. The light that emanated from the battle took a long time to arrive at their emergence point.

Therefore, everything they saw right now was like a security recording of something that had already happened. The combatants might have already left the system at this point!

"Sir, the Swordmaidens have identified the identity of the two human forces. The ships being chased by the other human force are remnants of the Shining Stars Colonization Fleet, which is composed of exiles from the Dark Plasma Star Sector. At the time the light of this event has reached our location, they are actively pursued by the Fire Treaders, an aggressive pirate gang that hails from the Ravienne Alliance!"

The information provided by the Swordmaidens stunned the Vandals. Shining Stars Colonization fleet? Dark Plasma Star Sector? Fire Treaders? Ravienne Alliance?

None of those names sounded simple!

Just the mention of the Ravienne Alliance alone sent shivers through their back. Headed by Ravienne's Ravagers, this pirate bloc was one of the two most powerful pirate alliances in the Faris Star Region. Compared to the insidious Dragon Alliance, the adherents of Ravienne were all a bunch of violent anarchists that wanted to set the galaxy alight for their own amusement!

"What intelligence have they shared on this gang? No wait, let me connect to Commander Lydia directly. I want to hear from her own mouth how much of a threat these Ravienne Alliance pirates represent."

Commander Lydia's bust quickly popped up in a projection in front of Major Verle's command chair. "Verle."

"Commander, what can you tell me about the Fire Treaders?"

"The Fire Treaders are bad news. They're pyromaniacs and they love to set everything on fire. They employ both spaceborn and landbound mechs, but they're mostly known for the latter because ships in space don't tend to burn very well. As far as we know, they aren't after money and they don't fulfill any missions for their alliance. They're just a bunch of mad dogs who go on random burning sprees and keep themselves afloat by salvaging what's left among the ashes."

"If we happen to come into conflict with the Fire Treaders, will we land ourselves in trouble against the Ravienne Alliance?"

"It depends." The commander pressed her lips against each other as she contemplated the potential consequences. "Ravienne hardly cares about the cannon fodder that comprises the bottom of their organization. If we come to blows for some reason, we won't be welcome on their space stations, but they won't go sending hunting fleets after us."

"That sounds.. rather mild."

"The Ravienne Alliance are a bunch of crazies, but even they'll get tired if they constantly chase after small fry that provoked them for some reason. Also, you have to know that most gangs that make up the Ravienne Alliance are crazy themselves, so they constantly get into fights without a reason. Generally, as long as you kill only half of them and let the other half go, the Alliance won't make a big fuss. It only becomes an affront to Ravienne if you wipe them all out."

This sounded as if being a member of their Alliance provided almost no protection, which defeated the main point of joining such an organization in the first place!

"How can the Ravienne Alliance even work with a structure like this?"

"Oh, the Alliance is split up into several tiers." She explained. "There are a lot of peripheral outfits who are competing hard against each other to become a part of their core. Once an outfit reaches that point, they become part of the leadership structure. A peripheral outfit that's too weak and stupid to survive on their own isn't worthy to be part of the Alliance's core."

Ravienne sure knew her stuff when she instituted such a promotion structure. It sounded like a great way to weed out the idiotic, the suicidal and the overconfident among her organization.

Commander Lydia frowned through the projection. "Why do you ask?"

"There's something about the so-called Shining Stars Colonization Fleet that interests me." Major Verle replied. "Look at that debris field. The majority of the ship wrecks likely came from the colonists. Who knows why they came all the way to this remote section of the frontier from the Dark Plasma Star Sector, but if they're so desperate to flee this far, there is bound to be a story behind their desperation."

Both of them nodded at each other as they shared similar suspicions. A colony fleet of this size wouldn't randomly traverse so deep in the frontier for no reason. The chance of getting caught by the sandmen grew further and further the more they traveled into territory untouched by human civilization.

Still, the three-way battle also threatened to be a distraction from their main mission. Nothing that happened in the Ermeghast System should concern them. The Starlight Megalodon awaited further up ahead in their journey. Even if the Vandals harbored some sympathy for the colonists, they only had themselves to blame for their demise.

"We should hail the lead ship of the Shining Stars Colonization Fleet." Major Verle suggested. "Much of their fleet is in ruins and only remnants are left. It's safe to say their colonization effort has died in this star system."

"I don't oppose this course of action. If we can gain some advantages from this tragedy, then I don't mind a small detour!"

Both of their commanding officers had the same idea in mind. The ships who survived the destruction of their colonization fleet likely carried some of the most valuable goods and supplies! If the Flagrant Swordmaidens played their cards ripe, these goods and supplies would be ripe for the taking!

Chapter 718

To hail a vessel more than a light-hour away from the Flagrant Swordmaidens required the use of their quantum entanglement node. Among their entire combined fleet, only the Jaded Sword and the Shield of Hispania still possessed an intact node.

Contacting a stranger you met in a desolate star system in the middle of nowhere posed a risk. The transmission attempt alone exposed the combined fleet's whereabouts. However, emerging in the same system already exposed them considering the light of their arrival would arrive at the occupants more than an hour later anyway.

The Ermeghast System centered around an orange dwarf star, and a fairly small one at that.

An Orange dwarf was like the middle child between the bright and promising yellow dwarf and the total good-for-nothing waste of space of a red dwarf. Like all dwarf stars, they lived a long time, but they had the benefit of being a lot less volatile in pumping out masses of radiation in its own star system.

This made them prime spots for developing life-bearing planets. Human colonists favored them because they could easily convert an untamed planet to an ecosystem more favorable to humankind.

The sandmen favored them as well because the relatively gentle nature of an orange dwarf allowed them to absorb its energy without severely damaging their unique biology.

It was too bad that the Shining Stars Colonization Fleet hadn't respected the threat of sandmen and pirates. They were fools to begin with to believe they could colonize a star system outside the protective umbrella of the MTA and CFA.

Whoever conceived of this idea was a massive idiot who took the stewardship of the Big Two for granted. Ves had browsed the location of the Dark Plasma Star Sector a minute ago and saw that it was situated well within the coreward section of the galactic rim.

In other words, they were closer to the galactic heartland than the frontier! It didn't surprise anyone that someone who grew up in such a cozy little star sector to underestimate the naked threat that could come from every direction once they entered the frontier.

Still, only a couple of Vandals called them idiots out loud. Most people from the Komodo Star Sector descended from brave but foolhardy colonists themselves. The only difference was that they got into the colonization rush when the MTA and CFA officially opened up a new star sector for them to build their new homes.

"Obviously, these exiles haven't gotten the message." He muttered.

Ketis looked confused at him. "Hey, don't call them idiots. Without all those colonists pouring into the frontier, how are we able to obtain some easy salvage? Picking up treasures from fallen and destroyed colonization fleets is one of the most lucrative finds you can score!"

Looking at the sprawling debris field displayed on the local plot, Ves knew that the sandmen would be benefiting the most this time.

Some time passed until the communications officer managed to find the right hailing address for the lead ship of the colonization fleet from the galactic net. The Shield of Hispania sent a transmission request to the flagship and hoped whether she wasn't one of the broken wrecks that littered the Ermeghast System.

"Our hailing attempt is successful, major! We have established a channel with the Rovista Splendor, the flagship of the Shining Stars."

A bald man in his early thirties appeared in the main projector. Immediately, Ves got struck by how pretentiously highborn the man appeared. With his rich light green military-esque uniform encrusted with silver-white filigree, the man screamed attention in an even more obnoxious way than how pirates puffed themselves up.

"I am Major Quinlist Verle, commander of the Verle Task Force detached from the 6th Flagrant Vandals, 3rd Tarry Division, Southern Mech Army of the Bright Republic Mech Corps. On behalf of the Flagrant Vandals and Lydia's Swordmaidens, our local allies, we'd like to know who you are and what you are doing in this neck of the galactic woods. Our combined fleet has recently arrived at the outer star system and we've noticed your fleet's.. distress."

"Finally! I've finally met someone other than the uncouth yokels that litter this backwater!" The aristocratic figure cried out in relief. The man practically bent forward in and pressed his face closer to the projector, causing his head to balloon in an exaggerated manner. "I don't know who you Flagrant Vandals are, but if you are part of a formal military, then in the name of common civility, SAVE US!"

Major Verle tried hard not to frown. His face automatically jerked away from the projection of the man's amplified head. "Please answer the question, good sir."

"Ah, yes.. weeks and months of crawling around like a beggar on the streets has made me forget my manner. Ahum, you have the august privilege of greeting Hix-Klaaster. I am the Fourth Prince of the Royal House of Talk, which reigns over the Palast Kingdom in the Dark Plasma Star Sector."

"For a Prince of a Royal House, you are far away from home."

To his credit, Prince Hix-Klaaster pushed through his embarrassment and plainly admitted the facts which the Vandals could easily find out on the galactic net.

"A dynastic struggle broke out between my siblings and I. The Palast Kingdom required a new heir and I threw my hat into the ring. In the end, my siblings have proved the better of me, and they strongly urged me to take my ambitions elsewhere. I decided to raise a colonization fleet with my remaining resources and brought my closest supporters and loyalists out to the great beyond to start anew, as they say. The results.. is as you can see."

The Prince looked tired with his bloodshot eyes and his wrinkling skin. His uniform on the other hand remained gleaming and spotless, likely due to the sophisticated cleaning tech integrated within the smart clothing.

Beyond the man's huge head, Ves was faintly able to get an impression on the rest of the bridge or command center of the flagship.

The officers and operators manning the consoles all looked equally as tired, but unlike the bald prince they didn't benefit from self-cleaning clothes. Debris and broken sections indicated that the Rovista Splendor suffered serious battle damage.

"By all accounts, you've raised a sizable colonization fleet. One that would be sufficient to populate a decent terrestrial planet and accelerate its development by several decades." Major Verle praised, but then he hammered home the reality. "However, my analysts have poured over the light that has reached our location and informed me that you are left with only a single combat carrier, a heavily-damaged light carrier, two cargo haulers and one medium colony ship. That is only a fraction of what you started out with, is that right?"

"Your information is outdated." The prince sighed. "We have lost our light carrier and our colony ship to the Fire Treaders! Do you know how significant losing the latter means?! Two-hundred-thousand loyal men and women frozen in crysleep are fated to be their slaves!"

Some of the Vandals winced, including Ves. Strangely enough, Ketis merely rolled her eyes at the prince's melodramatic display.

"Look at the eyes of that ponce." She whispered to Ves. "He doesn't care a single bone about his own people. He just wants to save his own skin!"

Major Verle looked remorseful. "We are sorry for your loss. However, we can do nothing to save you from your predicament. We have our own mission to pursue. Once our FTL drives finish cycling, The Flagrant Vandals and Lydia's Swordmaidens will be departing this system post-haste."

"NO! YOU CAN'T GO! SAVE US! PLEASE SAVE US FROM THE PIRATES AND THE ALIENS!"

Verle coughed awkwardly into his fist. "Ahem, I sympathise with your plight, but as a loyal mech officer of the Mech Corps, I am bound to do my duties. I am sorry to inform you that I am compelled to leave you to your fate."

"NO NO NO!" The bald prince screamed as his eyes shook erratically. "I have money! I have ships! I have mech pilots! I have supplies! All of that can be yours!"

"Who do you think we are, your highness? We are not mercenaries to be bought off with coins and sheep. We are not lacking in any of the assets you've mentioned. I suggest you focus on getting the remainder of your forces out of this star system alive, though it seems that none of your ships are fast enough to outrun the Fire Treaders. In that case, I will light a candle for your inevitable passing or enslavement. I hear that pedigree royal princes are a favored type of slaves among the savages that make up the Ravienne Pirate Alliance. They love to strip princes naked, tie them up above a pit in a public space station, roast them over some flames and prepare some pointy rods to—"

"WAIT!" Hix-Klaaster shrieked. "I can still offer one more asset! I command the loyalty of an expert pilot! He is a good and loyal mech pilot that has served in my personal guard for decades! He is cross-trained in many different mech piloting disciplines and is specialized in piloting both landbound and spaceborn rifleman mechs!"

"—however, I have just been informed that we might still be able to come to your assistance if we move immediately." Verle smoothly changed his tack. "While we are glad to be of assistance to you, mind you that we are taking a considerable risk by deviating from our mission."

The Fourth Prince of some kingdom far away from the frontier looked defeated. "I.. understand. We shall be awaiting your timely rescue. I pledge to you now that I will recompense you more than generously should you ensure my continued survival. While my circumstances are dire, the Palast Kingdom has never revoked my royal title. I am still a legitimate prince of the Royal House of Talk. My word is gold and my promises are ironclad."

"That sounds good and all, but I am more interested in hearing the details of your talented personal guard. A dual-specialist in both landbound and spaceborn combat, you say? If you have such an expert at your disposal, how come your fleet is in such a poor condition?"

The prince hastily commanded one of his communications officers to send out an information packet on their expert pilot before turning back to the projector.

"Venerable Karol Xie is versatile and is trained to operate many types of ranged and melee mechs on land and in space. My elite personal guards are selected from the beginning to be versatile, as you never know when an emergency occurs. Venerable Xie has later specialized in piloting rifleman mechs. He excels with all forms of kinetic weaponry, particularly railguns."

A few moments later, Major Verle received the data packet, which he wordlessly shared with Ves. The shared files came with a note from the commanding officer calling him to evaluate the expert pilot.

He could do that.

As Ves dove into the brief and seemingly redacted record of Venerable Xie, he noted that the man appeared to be in his mid-50's, which left him with plenty of decades of active service, unlike the Vandals' own deadbeat expert pilot.

"Well, on age alone, he qualifies as a treasure."

Still, as Ves dove deeper into Karol Xie's profile, he encountered some disturbing details.

First, Xie's cross-training in so many different types of mechs had left the expert pilot without a strong focus! Even though he belatedly specialized in rifleman mechs armed with kinetic weapons, the man's radical versatility had done his overall piloting ability any favors. His resonance strength only measured eight laveres at most!

Reaching eight laveres at his age was pathetic! This meant that his growth in this area was virtually stagnant!

"The elite guard training pretty much ruined this expert pilot's future!"

It was such a waste!

Chapter 719

Venerable Rixt O'Callahan, the Flagrant Vandals' nominal expert pilot, last exhibited a resonance strength of 30 laveres. In his prime, his resonance strength peaked at 44 laveres.

The resonance strength of expert pilots ranged from 1 to 67 laveres.

Though the scale wasn't quite linear, you could roughly say that three Venerable Karol Xie's wouldn't be able to defeat a single Venerable O'Callahan, even if the latter was on his deathbed.

Resonance strength directly amplified several piloting parameters of a mech pilot and their mech. It strengthened their reaction speed and thinking speed. It increased their ability to resonate with the exotics incorporated in their custom mechs, thereby achieving stronger reality-bending feats. It strengthened the resonance shield that most mechs were able to emit from their frame. It added substance to their skills, so that they were far more than fancy-sounding names.

The higher they measured on the lavere scale, the stronger they performed on the battlefield!

If a mech regiment had to choose between a highly specialised but powerful expert pilot to a versatile but weaker expert pilot, they always went for the former.

Who cared about versatility when one single fist hit hard enough to overcome almost all obstacles? A mech regiment mainly fielded a rigid lineup of mechs, all geared towards a small set of strategies. A strong expert pilot who just happened to be a good fit to their strategy practically multiplied their strength by two or three times!

This could only happen with an expert pilot of Venerable O'Callahan's caliber. As for Venerable Xie with his piddling little resonance strength, the best he could hope for was to employ him as a butcher of cheap enemy mechs. While Xie could still call himself a powerhouse by himself, his lacking top strength meant he wouldn't be able to serve as a sufficient obstacle against enemy expert pilots.

What was the point of employing expert pilots if they couldn't even prevent enemy experts from making mince meat out of your rank-and-file?

Still, it wasn't as if the Flagrant Vandals or Lydia's Swordmaidens had a better choice. The latter never had the opportunity to hire an expert pilot at all, since virtually all experts could find more than adequate employment in civilized space.

As for the Flagrant Vandals, their poor and destitute status in the Mech Corps left them with an old and dying mummy who had already made his last gasp in an earlier battle against a detachment of the Frosty Meteors. The Vandals might be able to pull out the living corpse for one last hurrah, but that was it. The man would certainly die at the end or even midway into the battle!

"What do you think about Venerable Xie?" He asked Ketis.

The girl studied the profile of the man and made the same verdict as him. "He's spread himself too thin. Whoever trained him never thought in a million years that Xie could break through as an expert pilot!"

Ves found it amusing that Ketis judged someone else with the sin of spreading their attention thin while she was guilty of the same crime. Still, she had already been spending less and less in daily sword practice, so she was slowly correcting her course.

Ketis had to thank his constant indoctrination effort for that.

"An expert pilot is still an expert pilot. In our current situation, we don't have any effective response against enemy experts except to throw as many of our mech pilots at them as possible. Like mice biting an elephant to death, even if the expert is finally brought down, we will almost certainly be wiped out in the process. Venerable Xie can help us shore up our strategies against an enemy expert."

"You don't sound very confident, though."

"It's the best we can hope for." He shrugged. "Besides, I'm not sure whether Venerable Xie is willing to throw his lot with us. His record states that he's loyal to Prince Hixt-Klaaster to a fault, to the point of sticking with this hopeless fellow even when his siblings exiled him from civilized space. That kind of loyalty is admirable as well as troublesome. With the sensitive mission that we are on right now, an expert's assistance practically doubles our chances of survival, but if he's not trustworthy, it could doom us even faster."

Both Commander Lydia and Major Verle knew the stakes, so they carefully discussed this very issue with Prince Hixt-Klaaster within the private confines of their privacy screens. Ves and the rest could no longer eavesdrop on their conversation. He imagined they were trading many promises and assurances right now.

In the meantime, Ves and various other mech officers quietly passed on their analyses. Ves didn't have much to say about Venerable Xie as a mech pilot. The other Vandal mech officers likely provided a much more detailed dissection of the man's quality as an expert pilot.

What Ves did excel at was analyzing mechs. As Xie flaunted a dual specialty on both landbound and spaceborn mechs, he actually possessed two expert mechs!

"That must be an enormous drain on the prince's resources." He muttered.

The Flagrant Vandals already spent an unhealthy amount of money on maintaining the Parallax Star and its many, many spare parts. Yet that wasn't as exaggerated as building two fully functional expert mechs for a single mech pilot!

Unfortunately for the Shining Stars, Venerable Xie had fought and failed to defend the colonization fleet against the aggression of the Fire Treaders. The pirates aligned to Ravienne overwhelmed his customized spaceborn rifleman mech, the Meridian Echo, with sheer weight of numbers.

The Fire Treaders stomped the Meridian Echo into pieces by now, and its parts littered the expanding debris field flinging through space.

Fortunately, Venerable Xie managed to eject in time and steer his escaping cockpit back to the Rovista Splendor.

The expert pilot even continued to deploy into battle in a spare standard-issue rifleman mech. Predictably, his influence in the battle dropped to a fraction of his previous strength as his cheaper mech couldn't resonate with his rare ability.

The Venerable failed to save their light carrier and their colony ship from capture or destruction. To Ves, Venerable Xie's failure to accomplish anything in his standard-issue mech was like watching Venerable Foster's doomed struggle all over again.

The running battle took place in space, far from the vicinity of any planet. A landbound mech wouldn't be useful for anything except when employed as a makeshift turret in a bunker or leaning out of an open hangar bay.

The Pale Dancer, Venerable Xie's only remaining expert mech, consisted of a highly mobile rifleman mech that employed fast-firing kinetic rifles to devastating effects.

For an expert mech, it was light, fast but could withstand a decent amount of unaugmented attacks from non-elite mechs. It fired light to medium-hitting projectiles at a fairly fast rate of fire, making it ideal for mowing down entire mech companies of light mechs within a matter of seconds!

The Pale Dancer's relatively light caliber kinetic rifle didn't possess an overwhelming advantage against heavier opponents. Medium knight mechs and any kind of heavy mech would probably be able to shrug off the Pale Dancer's projectiles for maybe a dozen or more seconds.

Of course, Venerable Xie wasn't helpless against heavily-armored opponents.

The expert pilot developed a homebrow combat style called Deadmark Marksmanship. It featured resonating techniques such as the Deadmark Triple Burst and the Deadmark Continuous Burst, both of which excelled against extremely fast-moving targets at close to medium range.

No matter how fast a mech dodged within Venerable Xie's presence, they all died within seconds when put under his scope!

Against heavier armored opponents, Venerable Xie could employ techniques such as the Deadmark Repose, which drew upon a significant amount of mental energy to unleash a devastating charged projectile that pierced through almost every layer of armor!

"Too bad the Venerable can only employ the Deadmark Repose a single time in any battle."

In general, Xie's style slanted towards taking out fast, lightly-armored targets with maximum efficiency. Ves respected that because the opponents they likely faced in the future would likely field a lot of lighter mechs as well. They were simply much more efficient and cheaper to deploy in the frontier.

"What's your take on the Pale Dancer, Ketis?" Ves asked as he inputted his analysis of the landbound rifleman mech in another mini-report for Major Verle. "Do you think it's useful for us?"

"Hm, not really. Not for the Swordmaidens at least. Xie is a guy, so he doesn't fit with us in the first place. His Pale Dancer is a rifleman mech, which we can tolerate, but don't really respect. I don't think Mayra or I are even capable of maintaining this complicated mech. Looking at the samples of the design schematics makes my head hurt. What is up with that? It's like the designer of the Pale Dancer decided to use magic to make the custom mech as jumpy as possible."

"Don't look too close into the schematics. I should have warned you about that." Ves apologised for his own negligence. He thought that Ketis would be too stupid to understand the profoundness of what the Pale Dancer had achieved in terms of amplifying its mobility, but evidently he didn't give the little devil enough credit. "Instead, take a step back and try to judge its overall purpose. What is its purpose?"

Ketis had to think about her answer. She knew that Ves wouldn't be satisfied with a short and plain answer. She needed to dig deeper.

"I think.. The Pale Dancer kind of looks rather simple for a custom mech. Sure, its internals are really complex, and it is really amazing how the mech designer made this mech so fast and agile without turning it into a fragile stick. But.. there's this feel to it that kind of reminds me of cheaper mechs.."

Ves nodded in satisfaction. "You're on the right track. It's a matter of vision! Whoever designed this mech, probably a Senior considering how sophisticated its put together, didn't really put his full effort into designing the best mech possible for Venerable Xie. I think the Senior heard about Xie's limitations beforehand and therefore didn't think it was worth his effort to do his utmost. Instead, he designed a somewhat cookie-cutter rifleman mech that he probably recycled from another custom project."

"What's so bad about the Pale Dancer?"

"It's limited. Its performance parameters are tailored to Xie's historical limits. The mech performs at its best when the Venerable is exerting a resonance strength of eight laveres. Yet once he goes over that limit for some reason, the Pale Dancer will still exhibit the same strength! That's because its physical specs have already reached its cap!"

"I see!" Ketis jumped up from her chair. "You are saying that the mech has actually held Venerable Xie back! It prevented him from growing stronger because he didn't notice any increase in strength if his resonance strength spiked past his old limit!"

For an expert pilot to improve, they needed to experience a measurable increase in strength. To design a custom mech with deliberately low performance limits might have enabled Venerable Xie to obtain a fitting mech for a cost-effective price, but it did his growth no favors.

Ves could read the story from the vague hints emanating from the Pale Dancer's X-Factor. Custom mechs and especially expert mechs usually represented the best works of a highly-skilled mech designer. A Senior with a strong design philosophy and an intense amount of focus usually poured their heart into designing an expert mech.

Therefore, even if they weren't conscious of the mechanics behind the X-Factor, their custom mechs nonetheless gain a hint of a coherent spiritual identity. Though primitive and rudimentary compared to what Ves had accomplished long ago, it was still an impressive accomplishment that definitely gave the finished products a tiny but impactful advantage.

"This mech is corrupt from the moment of its conception." Ves grimly stated.

Chapter 720

The problems Ves had with the Pale Dancer came from its corrupted vision.

"If you analyze its specs, how it fits with Venerable Xie's abilities, and look at its intended vision, you can see a clear underlying thread running throughout its entire design. The vision for the Pale Dancer has been crooked from the start. The Senior Mech Designer who designed this insidious rifleman mech failed to adhere to the mech designer's creed. Do you still remember what that's about?"

"Uh, it's that phrase about how mech designers should cater to mech pilots as if we're their slavish servants."

"Something like that, but not so severe. The point is that mech designers have a responsibility to design a mech that benefits the mech pilots the most. This especially applies to one-on-one commissions to design a custom mech involving a single mech designer and a single mech pilot."

Whoever designed the Pale Dancer intended to deliver an improper product to the Fourth Prince and Venerable Xie at the initial stage of conception.

While Ves didn't have access to any other designs that Xie might have piloted, he would bet that those mechs consisted of flawed designs as well.

No, flawed would be the wrong word to apply to this case. They were outright malicious, meant to sabotage his future progress without being too obvious about it! How long had this been going on?

"Who is the mech designer of the Pale Dancer?" He asked.

Ketis already dug up the attribution, though there didn't appear to be much to go on. "It says here that it's designed by some Senior retained by the Royal House of Talk. It doesn't add much else."

He grunted. "That's to be expected. I doubt a Senior is willing enough to sign the design with their personal name. Has it gone through MTA validation and certification?"

"No. Didn't you say that expert mechs are never sent to the MTA, teacher?"

"I wanted to make sure. Have you figured out the story behind the Pale Dancer?"

Even if Ketis hadn't been exposed to politics in civilized space, she wasn't stupid. Besides, she watched drama broadcasts from the galactic net like anyone else in her youth. Dynastic struggles breaking out in feudal states were some of the most all-time popular shows in the galaxy.

Ketis ran a hand through the underside of her open helmet. "I bet this Fourth Prince was a loser from the start. The other princes and princesses in the Royal House of Talk likely wielded a lot more power than the Fourth Prince, because they managed to influence their resident Senior Mech Designer to bend his principles and design an awful expert mech for the Fourth Prince's personal champion."

"That's my thoughts as well." He nodded. "By all accounts, the Palast Kingdom is a third-rate state of the Dark Plasma Star Sector, so even if its a Royal House, they shouldn't be able to retain another Senior. With only one mech designer at the top, he can do virtually anything, but that also means securing his loyalty is one of the top priorities of the competing heirs. The Fourth Prince obviously lost at this game, and quite badly as well."

"Still, didn't you say that orthodox mech designers take their principles seriously? How come this Senior acted like a scumbag and handed over the Pale Dancer to one of his clients?"

Ves shook his head. "Politics in civilized space can be just as sleazy as in the frontier. Technically, the Senior retained by Talk fulfilled his end of the bargain. He designed a suitable expert mech for Venerable Xie that allows him to express his full strength. The Senior just didn't do anything extra, even though it is usually customary to do so. If you interpret the principles in a minimalistic way, you can still get away with it without appearing as a hypocrite."

"Wow. That's really dirty."

"That's why the Fourth Prince should have retained his own mech designer instead of relying someone from his Royal House. There are too many ways a mech designer can screw with their mech pilots if they don't take the mech designer's creed seriously."

This explained why the MTA constantly pushed their creed into every mech designer's face every chance they got. Recalling how many times he heard the phrase back in school, Ves realized that the MTA basically attempted to indoctrinate the values related to the mech designer's creed into every prospective mech designer's moral fiber.

The mech industry would truly be an awful sight if mech designers stopped working in the best interests of their clients. Something like that already took place in the frontier.

Ketis frowned. "Still, does this even matter right now? Limitations aside, the Pale Dancer does the job and its wholly intact. That's just what we need, right? Who cares about growth and future potential and such. I'd be happy enough if we have an expert pilot on our side with a ready-made expert mech for when we reach the Starlight Megalodon."

She had a point. Ves had subconsciously treated Venerable Xie as a long-term investment, but the fact of the matter was that the Flagrant Swordmaidens didn't have the luxury to think so far ahead.

"I suppose if the Vandals aren't looking for a long-term replacement for Venerable O'Callahan, then Venerable Xie will be a fine addition to our reserves." He muttered. "It's a shame he lost his Meridian Echo. Even if we put him in the cockpit of a spare spaceborn rifleman mech, he will only be able to show off a fraction of his full potential. Such a weak mech won't be able to keep up with his performance."

"It doesn't have to be a rifleman mech." She pointed out. "Doesn't his profile state that he's cross-trained in many different melee and ranged mechs? You can put him in one of your Akkara heavy cannoneers if you want to blast enemies apart from afar. You can also put him in one of your Hellcat hybrid knights if you want an absolute beast of a champion mech."

"Hm, that's right! In fact.." A very subversive idea started tickling in his mind. "If we modify the old Parallax Star, we can even make it suitable to be piloted by Venerable Xie!"

Ves only threw that idea out there. He didn't actually believe the Vandals would go for it, because such an action disrespected Venerable O'Callahan. Bastard and deadbeat he may be, the man had fought on behalf of the Vandals and sacrificed his diminishing lifespan to save his lives.

As long as he could deploy for one final time, the Parallax Star remained his personal steed.

Still, on a utilitarian level, it would have been much more beneficial to the Vandals if they simply dumped the useless old man out of the airlock and convert his wonderfully-built custom lancer mech to a new expert pilot. The only issue that Ves was worrying about was whether Venerable Xie could even make use of the Parallax Star in the first place. His low level of resonance strength meant that the lancer mech wouldn't be able to draw out its full potential.

"These kinds of issues are none of our concern." He shook his head. "However the Vandals intend to make use of Venerable Xie once they obtain his loyalty, that's something our superiors will have to figure out."

Ves sent out his final report to Major Verle and let the man take over from there.

As negotiations dragged on, the Flagrant Swordmaiden fleet accelerated towards the fleeing Rovista Splendor and her flagging supply ships. The Fire Treaders with their nimble ships and mechs easily overtook them in no time, leaving the Rovista Splendor as the only remaining vessel out of a decent-sized colonization fleet.

It was an ignoble end to the Shining Stars Colonization Fleet. The Flagrant Swordmaidens held all the chips in this negotiation. By the end of the talks, the Fourth Prince would hardly have anything left.

If not for the fact that an expert pilot couldn't be coerced into working for someone else, then the Vandals and the Swordmaidens would have straight up captured the Rovista Splendor and divided the spoils among themselves.

After some time, Major Verle opened up a private channel to Ves. He activated his station's privacy screen, cutting himself off from Ketis and the rest, and accepted the request.

"Mr. Larkinson, the negotiations have proceeded favorably on our end. It is likely that we will be able to command the loyalty of Venerable Karol Xie, not only just for the duration of our mission, but on a permanent basis. In order to welcome him to the Vandals and make him feel at home, I have assigned a liaison to induct him in our ranks. One of the issues I am considering is which ship should be his new berth. What is your view on the matter?"

"He won't be staying aboard the Rovista Splendor, sir?"

"No. We don't want him to continue to maintain his ties with the Fourth Prince. The Rovista Splendor along with her owner will in fact be sent elsewhere soon enough. We need to convert Venerable Xie to the Vandals as quickly as possible in order to prepare him for deployment when we finally reach the site of the Starlight Megalodon. Can the Venerable and his remaining expert mech be brought to the Shield of Hispania?"

In other words, Major Verle wanted to indoctrinate Venerable Xie in person if possible. It made sense as mech pilots trained as bodyguards and personal guards were pretty much indoctrinated to worship their patrons.

Reprogramming decades worth of indoctrination required an extremely intensive effort from the Vandals themselves.

It all depended on what Venerable Xie really thought about the Fourth Prince and how much of his oaths he still valued. A bot would still follow its master even if he turned out to be a loser too stupid to survive. An expert pilot might not be so unflinchingly loyal no matter how much indoctrination he went through in his early career.

Ves thought about the proposal seriously and quickly shook his head. "Perhaps stationing Venerable Xie aboard the Shield of Hispania will make it easier for us to welcome him to the Vandals, but it won't do his mechs any good. The Pale Dancer is a highly specialized mech with an extremely sophisticated design, sir. It requires a special touch to be able to keep it together."

"Can't Chief Haine and her men perform some basic upkeep? I'm not asking for you to update its design. The mech is sufficient for our needs at its current state." Verle raised his eyebrow.

Ves immediately shook his head. "Chief Haine and her mech technicians may be some of the best of their profession in the mech regiment, but they aren't trained to service custom mechs, sir. Any work that needs to be done on the Pale Dancer and any other customized mech you want to assign the Venerable can only be done by myself. And I'm warning you that the Pale Dancer urgently requires some modifications because as robust as it is, several of its components aren't rated to withstand a heavy gravity environment."

This news basically ruled out the possibility of stationing the Pale Dancer on the Shield of Hispania.

"Then.. the only choice of berth that remains is the Gorgon's Gaze." Major Verle surmised as he scratched his chin. "Do you think the crew of the ship is up to hosting the Pale Dancer?"

Ves grimaced a bit as he recalled the people assigned to service the Parallax Star. "I'll be honest with you, sir. I don't like Miss Lisbeth Eta-Denmerksen's spendthrift ways and the way Chief Leo Keys acts like a total doormat to her demands. However, they are perhaps the only mech designer and chief technician in our fleet that aren't occupied with any existing duties right now, and they also possess the right qualifications to service an expert mech such as the Pale Dancer."

"Hmm.. I understand." Major Verle nodded. "I will make the appropriate arrangements. However, I would feel reassured if you spend some time with the Pale Dancer yourself. If Miss Eta-Denmersken is as unreliable as you say, then you will need to take charge of the modification process."

"You want me to transfer to the Gorgon's Gaze, sir?" Ves asked with mild alarm.

"In fact, I am ordering you to. Pack up your bags and shuttle over to the Gorgon's Gaze. Prepare to receive Venerable Xie and the Pale Dancer, and work as fast as you can to harden his custom mech for high gravity environments. Are you clear of your assignment, Mr. Larkinson?"

"Understood, sir." Ves sighed. "I will transfer over immediately."

Chapter 721

The Gorgon's Gaze. The combat carrier of the Flagrant Vandals possessed the unique distinction of hosting an expert pilot and his exclusive custom mech. Even now, Venerable Rixt O'Callahan rested in peaceful stasis in a highly-secured compartment next to the Parallax Star's exclusive mech stables.

The Parallax Star itself laid dormant ever since its latest deployment against the Frosty Meteors. Miss Lisbeth and her ilk performed the necessary repairs, but hadn't worked on it since, which was a rarity for her crew.

In fact, if Ves was reading the status reports correctly, her entire department practically idled about these days. They achieved nothing productive and basically polished the same old pile of spare parts that would likely never see any use now that Venerable O'Callahan was lying in his deathbed.

As much as Ves wanted to exert his authority as head designer and allocate Miss Lisbeth and the mech technicians under her charge to servicing the other mechs of the Gorgon's Gaze, they were specialists who only excelled in servicing high-quality mechs. Putting them in charge of cheap, mass-produced mechs like the Inheritor or all the other random mech models the Vandals collected over the years would only lead to a disaster.

Still, despite his dislike for Miss Lisbeth and Chief Keys, no other mech designer or chief technician could match their capabilities when it came to servicing expert mechs. Anyone else who tried would probably botch something up or become affected by mental contamination.

Once he received his new assignment, Ves led Ketis out of the command center and ordered her to pack some of her luggage. With the arrival of Venerable Xie and the Pale Dancer, his presence would be sorely needed at the Gorgon's Gaze. He did not feel reassured at all if he left the expert mech alone in the hands of Miss Lisbeth.

"You really don't like this Lisbeth, do you, teacher?" Ketis asked as they boarded a shuttle reserved for their use.

The Flagrant Swordmaiden Fleet accelerated hard in order to reach the fleeing Rovista Splendor, but that did not prevent them from exchanging supplies and personnel between their ships.

The shuttle soon lifted off after they strapped themselves in. The vehicle exited the hangar bay and swiftly engaged its sublight propulsion.

"Miss Eta-Denmersken is a mech designer who bends too eagerly to the demands of our old expert pilot. If Venerable O'Callahan told her to graft eighteen arms on his mech, she would faithfully carry out his instructions even if it sounds completely ridiculous. I don't know whether she's incapable of standing up for herself or if she's crazy from the start. If the latter is the case, then I have to be there to sort her out."

Ketis turned to Ves, though their thick suits of armor hindered that motion somewhat. Because the Flagrant Swordmaidens were still on high alert, none of them dared to shed their armor. Even the shuttle pilot and the handful of security officers adorned themselves in combat armor as well.

In fact, the only person on the shuttle who didn't wear any visible suits of armor was the uninvited guest. The invisible and completely unnoticeable shape of Acolyte Villis stood quietly behind the crash seat that enveloped Ves.

"Didn't you emphasize over and over again that mech designers ought to serve mech pilots?" She asked. "Why is that suddenly such a bad thing?"

"Just because the mech designer's creed is phrased that way doesn't mean you need to interpret it as an absolute." He explained. "It expresses an ideal, and is not meant to be taken as a literal command. In a mech regiment like the Flagrant Vandals, an existing hierarchy already exists which describes the appropriate roles for every mech designer and every mech pilot. Even though we are part of a separate hierarchy and only loosely attached to the Vandals, we still obey our orders from the people upstairs."

"Uhhh.. what?"

Ves puffed out a tired breath. "Okay, let me put it in a simple way. Miss Lisbeth is supposed to report to me. I am supposed to report to Professor Velten. The professor in turn reports to Colonel Lowenfield. However, because we are detached from the main element of the Flagrant Vandals, our resident Senior is many light-years away from this fleet, so I am instead reporting to the nearest applicable authority figure, which happens to be Major Verle."

"Major Verle is your boss, then."

"He's also a mech officer, so he ticks the box as far as the mech designer's creed is concerned. If a head designer like me follows the orders of some rank-and-file mech pilot, then that is simply upside-down. Yet that is exactly what took place on board the Gorgon's Gaze. Miss Lisbeth acted improper by deferring to Venerable O'Callahan instead of me. Venerable O'Callahan didn't defer to anyone at all and instead acted like the sovereign of his own little fief that he carved out aboard the Gorgon's Gaze. The end result is that neither I or Major Verle exerted effective control over their unit."

"That sounds screwed up." She frowned, unable to reconcile the resolute and authoritative Ves to a wimp who let the dysfunctional situation aboard the Gorgon's Gaze fester under his watch. "Why didn't you do anything?"

"Because Venerable O'Callahan is a bastard of an expert pilot. He had us by the balls." Ves declared with some vehemence.

Ketis visibly leaned away from Ves when he uttered that statement. "Aren't expert pilots compared to demigods? Everyone treats them like they are made out of exotics!"

"Just because they are part of a rare club doesn't mean they have shed their inherent humanity. Demigods. Haven't you heard of the old pre-space tales about demigods? They are as fallable as any human, maybe even more so as their strength and authority allows them to get away with nearly any misdeeds!"

In fact, the gods related to them behaved even worse.

"Then.. how should we treat expert pilots, if not with reverence?"

"Treat them according to their official rank. Just as there are bad expert pilots, there are also good ones. You may not have heard of my family, but my lineage has spawned quite a number of expert pilots in our past. Those who have been brought up with the right principles are worth your respect."

Ketis fell silent. She couldn't process his advice. It went too far against the grain that every human learned.

Even sa daughter of the frontier who grew up in a region of space that hosted very few expert pilots, she still worshipped the mech pilots who were capable of performing superhuman feats with their mechs. They were the ultimate expressions of strength that the sons and daughters of the frontier worshipped so much!

Ves understood that the frontier partially internalized some of the values and principles the MTA and CFA. The pirates may have broken some small rules, but they haven't brandished any weapons of mass destruction or developed any warships armed with large-caliber weapons powerful enough to obliterate a planet.

The pirates generally refrained from engaging in such forbidden development because they feared the CFA would send out a warfleet and stomp them out.

Even if certain pirate factions developed taboo technology, they'd do so in a clandestine fashion and would never show off their dangerous toys in public.

On the other hand, the MTA's reverence towards expert pilots fit neatly in the perspective that strength should be the ultimate arbiter of power. In fact, Ves heard rumors that the reason why the Ravienne Alliance and the Dragon Alliance reigned supreme in the Faris Star Region was because both of them elevated expert pilots as their highest leaders!

"I don't want to dictate what you are supposed to think." Ves lied. He decided that Ketis needed a firmer push in the right direction as she still struggled to make up her mind even now. "I just want you to avoid Miss Lisbeth's example. You'll see what I mean when we're about to meet her once we arrive at the Gorgon's Gaze."

A few minutes later, the shuttle finally arrived at its destination. Once the craft touched down on the flight deck of the combat carrier, the hatch slid open, allowing the armored forms of Ves, Ketis and a pair of floating coffers to depart. As soon as they stepped clear, the shuttle closed its hatch and lifted off a few moments later.

A mech pilot garbed in a piloting suit with officer bars on her shoulder walked up to the pair. "Mr. Larkinson? I am Lieutenant Sara Koltov. I've been assigned to arrange your temporary stay on board our lovely combat carrier."

"Please allow us to drop off our luggage. Do you know how when the Venerable Xie and the Pale Dancer arrives at this ship?"

The lieutenant who looked to be in her thirties shook her head, disturbing her cropped raven hair. "Command has informed me that the Rovista Splendor's dwindling mech reserves are fully engaged in repelling the Fire Treaders from overtaking the flagship. Venerable Xie is still engaged in battle."

"He lost his Meridian Echo against the Fire Treaders. He's not piloting an expert right now, is he?"

"No. He's currently risking his life in a standard-issue rifleman mech."

That sounded bad to Ves and the Vandals, because Venerable Xie would never be able to perform much better than an extremely skilled advanced pilot. Limited by his hardware, the expert pilot wouldn't be able to save himself if the Fire Treaders overpowered him again through sheer numbers!

As the three headed towards the upper decks, Ves asked for another update on what went on outside the ship. For some reason, Lieutenant Kotlov was awfully well-informed for her rank. "How is the Rovista Splendor holding up?"

"She's heavily-damaged and practically falling apart. On top of that, the Fourth Prince ordered his crew to overload her sublight propulsion. Her engines and thrusters are pretty much burning themselves out in order to stay out of the clutches of the Fire Treader pursuit force. It works, because any mech heavier than a light mech isn't able to keep up the chase. The only threat the Rovista Splendor has to worry about are the light mechs that Venerable Xie is extremely good at shooting down."

The Fourth Prince certainly acted decisively. By overloading the Splendor's propulsion, his survival as well as the survival of his crew would be assured. Yet the fateful order also consigned the Splendor to ruin.

This completely cut off the Fourth Prince's autonomy. Without a ship of his own, he became completely dependent on the goodwill of the Flagrant Swordmaidens who agreed to host the fallen royal and his remaining loyalists.

"Monarchies are pretty dumb." Ves couldn't help but express his enlightened Brighter heritage to his student. "Ketis, if you ever find yourself in a state that has adopted a feudal system of governance, don't come close to anyone that stinks of royalty or nobility. The games they play can set you on a path to doom even if you don't do anything wrong."

"They're loaded with money, though. I hear they throw bags of money at any decent mech designer!"

He laughed. "That's because any decent mech designer can earn a lot more money by running their own business. Working for others is easy money, but the moment you accept a salary, you give up your right to determine your life and your career. Your employer is in total control over your life. That's not such a bad thing to most people, but mech designers shouldn't let others run their lives."

That gave Ketis a lot of food for thought. Ves sneakily implied that she shouldn't be so slavishly devoted to Lydia's Swordmaidens. Certainly, the gang was a paradise to her, but most pirate gangs never tended to last very long.

The constant fighting and deprivation they endured eventually wore away the best of them. Even the Dragons of the Void and Ravienne's Ravagers came into power after their formerly dominant predecessors kicked the bucket.

Gangs and outfits prospered and died every day, but a mech designer's legacy lasted forever.

Chapter 722

The embers of a previous struggle smouldered in the Ermeghast System. Normally empty and desolate save for an orange dwarf and a couple of anemic planets, it currently hosted five different forces!

The Shining Stars Colonization Fleet from the Dark Plasma Star Sector arrived in the greatest number of ships. Searching for hope and a new beginning, they fell victim to the twin threats of the frontier.

The Fire Treaders, wild beasts and dogs in human form, preyed upon the colonists and exiles with contemptuous ease. The defending mechs of the colonists, which mostly consisted of the former household guards loyal to the Fourth Prince of a far-away kingdom, fell by weight of sheer numbers from the pirates.

The Fire Treaders pillaged what they could and burned what they couldn't, revelling in the pleasure of spreading more chaos and anarchy with their short-sighted actions! They have incurred many enemies with their destructive habits, but they always found their way back into the territory of the Ravienne Alliance when targeted by a larger force.

The mid-sized sandmen fleet that popped up in the Ermeghast System had taken both by surprise. While the alien force failed to catch up to the two human fleets, they did manage to lay claim to the immobile debris field composed of the broken mechs and ships of the former colonization fleet.

Whatever valuable energy or materials they contained became the spoils of war from this scavenging alien fleet. Even the aggressive Fire Treaders lacked the courage to provoke the sandmen fleet. It was not because they thought they would lose, but because the 'ships' composed of sand-like material simply couldn't burn!

What was the fun of bullying such a boring race of aliens that largely resembled bots rather than true sentients? That aside, the Fire Treaders didn't possess an overwhelming advantage, so they would certainly become crippled after fighting a mutually destructive battle.

The Flagrant Swordmaiden fleet arrived late to the party. If they emerged out of FTL only a single day sooner, they might have been able to rescue the exiles from the Palast Kingdom for a hefty price.

Nonetheless, the Fourth Prince and his ragged band of survivors were still able to offer up their most valuable asset in the fleet. Even their colonization ship including their 'cargo' of two-hundred thousand colonists frozen in cryosleep paled in comparison to the most valuable asset of this fallen royal.

His expert pilot!

Any expert pilot was a treasure to an outfit. In fact, many pirate gangs, mercenary corps and other private sector outfits generally couldn't afford to employ an expert pilot! Merely funding the development and fabrication of a fully-customized cost as much as an entire combat carrier!

Though an expert pilot added to an outfit's strength, they also formed an enormous drain on their finances. The only way an outfit would be able to sustain the employment of an expert was to enter into lucrative but exceedingly risky contracts. Such jobs often turn out to be extremely lethal to the rank-and-file, with only the expert pilot able to guarantee their own life.

Therefore, to most self-sustained outfits, it made no financial sense to hire an expert pilot.

Only outfits sponsored by states or large organizations were able to carry the financial burden of doing so. The Flagrant Vandals may have acquired a foul taste when they paid a literal fortune to lure Venerable O'Callahan in their clutches, but the old man had reached the end of his expiration date.

The Vandals needed a new replacement if they wanted to stay in the exclusive club of military mech regiments that boasted at least one expert pilot among their ranks. Getting kicked out of this enviable club meant that the Vandals risked annihilation each time they engaged elements of an enemy mech regiment in battle.

In fact, the Vandals already tasted such a calamity when they captured Venerable Relia Foster in Vesian space!

Despite the facts that the young female expert pilot advanced in the middle of the battle and piloted bog-standard training mechs, she still managed to massacre scores of skilled Vandal mech pilots!

The Flagrant Vandals never quite recovered from the trauma they acquired from that pyrrhic victory.

Therefore, even if Venerable Xie was a second-hand bargain bin product among mech pilots, the desperate Flagrant Vandals still wanted to welcome him with open arms!

As for Lydia's Swordmaidens? As a pirate gang, they simply didn't have the money to support him in the first place. The fact that Xie was very obviously a man also repelled the Swordmaidens who only fielded female mech pilots as an ironclad rule.

That said, rescuing the Fourth Prince and his final retainers still benefited the Swordmaidens. While the Vandals got the expert pilot, the Swordmaidens received almost all of Prince Hixt-Klaaster's remaining liquid assets. The ponce hadn't been completely unprepared and stored a large amount of K-coins, K-bars and even K-slates in the Rovista Splendor's vault to fund a vigorous colonization effort.

The Prince promised to hand over nearly the entire contents of his vault to the Swordmaidens if they saved him! The Swordmaidens stood to gain enough Kavenite to double their effective strength if they spent it all!

The tragic flight of the Rovista Splendor illustrated the dire straits in which the once-great Shining Stars Colonization Fleet ended up in. The expensive combat carrier bore the scars and hull breaches that spoke of intensive combat, and currently attempted to burn its entire propulsion to accelerate a little bit faster.

The two cargo haulers that carried vital supplies for kick starting a new colony simply couldn't keep up. The relentless mechs of the Fire Treaders easily overtook the sluggish vessels and forced them to a stop. Their crews and their cargo both became the pirate gang's spoils of war.

Yet even after securing such precious cargo, the Fire Treaders still hungered for more. Light mechs nipped at the heels of the Rovista Splendor. Those armed with rifles harassed the desperately fleeing flagship with a constant barrage of long-ranged potshots.

Though they could have caught up with the combat carrier, the vanguard of the Fire Treaders restrained themselves from crossing an invisible line. Any light mech approached too close to the Rovista Splendor would be struck by unerringly accurate fire from the mech piloted by Venerable Xie.

If nothing else, Xie's unerring accuracy alone was worth his weight in monoexurite!

As the Rovista Splendor's desperate flight kept her out of the clutches of the Fire Treaders long enough to enter the protective envelope of the Flagrant Swordmaidens, the looming threat diminished.

The Fire Treaders may be daring, but they weren't suicidal. The vanguard mechs of the pirates stood no chance against the combined patrols of the Swordmaidens and the Vandals. The latter force especially possessed enough mechs and firepower to stomp their main fleet!

Therefore, at some point, the Fire Treaders meekly cancelled their pursuit and pulled their forces back.

With the sandmen fleet in the distance appropriating the spoils that should have been theirs, the sullen Fire Treaders began to navigate towards the nearest exit. Squeezed between the Flagrant Swordmaidens on one side and the sandmen fleet on the other side, a modest pirate gang like theirs wouldn't be able to obtain any profits in the Ermeghast System!

"The trash knows where it belongs." Ves muttered as he waited on the flight deck of an exclusive hangar bay formerly reserved for Venerable O'Callahan's use.

Standing next to him, Ketis fidgeted in her boots. Her attention span was never very long, and she longed to grab the floating scabbard hovering behind her back to perform some impromptu sword practice.

To the other side stood the dastardly duo that used to drove Ves mad to the point of tearing out his raven hair.

Ves had little to say about Chief Leo Keys. While a chief technician was supposed to defer to the mech designer in charge, his lack of initiative in the face of Lisbeth's force of will was straight up cowardice. Chief Haine would never let Lisbeth go so far into developing redundant spare parts that served no purpose but to stroke O'Callahan's sense of delusional self-worth.

Though the chief needed a good kick in the butt, it was his mech designer who bore the brunt of the blame for their department's dysfunction.

The bright and peppy appearance of Lisbeth Eta-Denmerksen betrayed her unbearably happy mood at welcoming the arrival of a new expert pilot.

Ever since O'Callahan sealed himself back into semi-perpetual sleep, the specialist Apprentice became half an orphan of sorts. Would she still be useful if the vaunted Parallax Star could no longer call upon an expert pilot to ride it into battle?

Now that a new expert pilot was about to arrive to replace O'Callahan's role, Lisbeth regained all of her drive. Not only would she be able to excuse her department's extravagant budget as Venerable Xie was rumored to be capable of piloting lancer mechs, but she would also have the privilege of caring for yet another expensive expert mech!

She couldn't wait to grope her hands all over this new landbound rifleman mech!

Perhaps the only presence that declined to attend this greeting party was Acolyte Villis! The uninvited guest assigned to tail Ves had bewilderingly made herself scarce at this moment.

He knew that she was still holing up somewhere aboard the Gorgon's Gaze. Ves explicitly confirmed her presence on the shuttle bringing Ketis and him to this ship.

Therefore, her abrupt absence said a lot about the method used to obscure the worshippers of Haatumak from detection.

Evidently, the enhanced senses of an expert pilot posed a considerable risk to them despite being able to fool everyone else!

Ves took a mental note of this observation. If nothing else, he knew he could perform some tasks without being snooped by the creepy old invisible lady as long as he stood next to the expert pilot.

He hoped that Venerable Xie wouldn't be as stuck up and inaccessible as Venerable O'Callahan.

That reminded him that he should take care of some other business while he was here.

"Miss Eta-Denmersken."

"Yes, Mr. Larkinson?" She responded with a smile.

"Our task force is currently cut off from civilization and safe harbor alike. Now that we are nearing the supposed location of the Starlight Megalodon, it is even more important to conserve our current resources. Now that we are phasing out our dependence on Venerable O'Callahan and phasing a brand-new expert pilot, it is time to implement some necessary reforms to your department."

The smile on Lisbeth's face grew a little stiff, as if she already possessed an inkling of what might come. "Come again, sir?"

Ves turned to match Lisbeth's sunny smile with a shark-like grin of his own. "Whatever demands Venerable O'Callahan may have imposed upon your department, that has ended the moment he dragged his exhausted body back into his long-term resting place. The extravagances that your department currently enjoys ends now."

Perhaps Lisbeth would have kicked up a fuss if Venerable O'Callahan was still around to back her up, but he could no longer do so. Maybe the woman intended to win over Venerable Xie quickly in order to use him to fend off Ves, but that was why he chose to rebuke Lisbeth now instead of later.

This window of opportunity where she lacked a powerful backer was the best time to put her into place!

"What changes do you wish to implement?" She shakily asked, though she still managed to maintain her smile.

"I'm cutting your budget and allocation of resources by fifty percent, effective immediately." He brutally announced. He might as well chop her face with an axe seeing how shocked she responded to his words. "I originally wanted to cut your budget by seventy-five percent, but then I remembered that your department will be responsible for servicing the Pale Dancer as well."

"Mr. Larkinson!" She cried! "You can't do that! Cutting our budget in half will ruin our precious expert mechs! You're asking us two maintain twice as many expert mechs with just half of our old share of funds and resources! Effectively, you're telling us to make due with a fourth of the budget for each expert mech! That's impossible!"

Chapter 723

"Impossible, you say?" Ves replied calmly. He turned his armored form fully to the Apprentice Mech Designer, who currently wore a lighter and smaller hazard suit. She looked very small right now. "Impossible? I used to keep hundreds of mechs with a budget the size of a nutrient pack! A mech is not supposed to be an endless abyss which gobbles up container loads of resources with nothing to show for the extravagant expenditure!"

"B-B-But Mr. Larkinson! With only a fourth of the budget left to maintain the Parallax Star, it's impossible for us to retain the expert mech at its full operational capacity!"

Ves stepped closer to Lisbeth, prompting her to almost draw back. "Don't spin a tale of nonsense to me. I know exactly what is going on under your leadership! The excessive spending and the pointless fabrication of spare parts that have never once been used will end immediately! In fact, I'm ordering those extra arms, legs and backpack modules to be transferred to the Beggar's Bounty and the Linever Swan for recycling. At least that way the base materials can be put to better use."

"This can't be allowed to happen!" Lisbeth shrieked, causing others to turn their attention to her. Her perpetual smile grew more demented and fragile by the second. "My apologies, sir, but our Venerables deserve better! How can they be expected to fight on our behalf if their mechs are are rotten and fragile as a bundle of sticks? You must reverse your decision immediately, or I will tell Venerable Xie about your tyrannical act of cruelty!"

"You can bleat all you want, you wasteful cow, but as long as I'm holding my posting, I'll be the one to dictate your budget. If you don't agree, you can take it up with Major Verle, but I think he won't be amused at your demands."

Lisbeth knew she couldn't make a good case in front of Major Verle, especially as Ves had already mentioned that the Vandals were far from a condition to sustain an excessive budget, yet she simply couldn't adjust her mentality!

She used to be one of the most valued mech designers among the Vandals due to her valuable relationship with Venerable O'Callahan. Although the expert pilot rarely roused himself from sleep even before his last battle, the supremely skilled mech pilot always backed her up in her disputes against other mech designers.

To be robbed of his patronage and left unshielded against the storms battering her unprotected self caused her mind to become stuck in a loop. She couldn't process this sudden deprivation of resources!

"YOU CAN'T! YOU CAN'T STRIP US OF RESOURCES! RECANT YOUR WORDS! IT'S NOT TOO LATE!"

Whatever Ves expected from the obsessive Apprentice Mech Designer, he never expected her to jump at him and grab his shoulder pauldrons with her gauntlets. She attempted to shake him back and forth, but the stiffness of the armor as well as his superior strength prevented her from jerking him around.

Though Ves could have shook her off with ease, he decided that Lisbeth required a firmer adjustment. He wanted to hit her with a lesson on authority that she wouldn't forget. Punching in her face might feel good to him, but that would only breed unnecessary resentment on her part.

"Ketis!"

"Yes, teacher?" Ketis responded as she approached with an inquisitive expression. Her hybrid alien appearance as well as her intimidating pirate armor with its tribal markings and bone accessories made it clear that she didn't belong to the Vandals. The looming greatsword behind the Swordmaiden's back further hit home her savage upbringing.

Lisbeth whimpered as the Swordmaiden stalked closer. A sheltered mech designer like her had never been exposed to the rough side of the frontier. Her smile grew brittle until there was barely a curve left in her mouth!

"Miss Lisbeth Eta-Denmersken has been rather lax in her fitness." Ves facetiously stated. "She's been too comfortable in her little kingdom here. I think she can use some toughening up, don't you agree?"

Fortunately, Ketis caught on to his game. She enthusiastically nodded. "Uh-huh. I'm always telling you that a mech designer who can't even chop through someone's neck with a sword isn't worth a single damn. Look at her arms! Even underneath her hazard suit, I can see they're practically like wooden sticks! I'm surprised she's strong enough to lift up a multitool. I'm sure her bones will break if she picks up anything heavier."

"Well, I've got good news for you, Lisbeth." He grinned and slapped Lisbeth on her shoulder pauldron, causing her to flinch. Ves firmly held her in his grasp and pushed her forward until she almost bumped into Ketis. "Our guest designer from Lydia's Swordmaidens is a veritable warrior! You won't find a stronger female mech designer among the Vandals. As someone who trained to be a vicious pirate since her adoption by the Swordmaidens, she's uniquely suited to shore up your fitness. Ketis!"

"What's your orders, sir?" The little devil replied with a grin and a mock salute.

"Give Miss Eta-Denmersksen a taste of the famous Swordmaiden training regime. Mind you, don't blast her with the complete set of exercises you insane women go through each day. However, I expect you to leave her tired and breathless at the end of the day."

"Sure thing, Mr. Larkinson! I've got lots of experience bringing my little sisters up to shape! Is this a one-time thing or..?"

"Keep training her during our stay aboard the Gorgon's Gaze. It is best if you can compress her training session a bit. Don't take all day. While I can't show you the inner workings of our expert mechs, I still have a lot of other stuff to show you around."

"Hah! I'll look forward to it!" Ketis replied before grabbing hold of Lisbeth's arm. The poor mech designer simply couldn't resist the Swordmaiden's forceful pull. "As for you, Lisbeth, we're going to have a great time together! It's been a while since I last put a new recruit through boot camp! Where's the nearest sparring ring?"

A bubbly Ketis dragged a panicked but smiling Lisbeth out of the hangar bay. The disparity between the two's strength couldn't be made more clear.

Ves chuckled a bit at the sight, causing Chief Keys, Lieutenant Koltov and the other members of the greeting party to take a very cautious glance at him. He met their curious stares with a confident grin.

"What is it? Do you have something to say about how I've exercised my authority?"

"N-No, sir!" Chief Keys quickly shook his head.

Koltov appeared as if she wanted to get in a word, but she eventually dropped what she wanted to say.

Even if they kicked up a fuss, Ves expected no repercussions. He knew that as long as he acted confidently and without remorse, his fellow Vandals would accept his actions no matter how far they crossed the line.

In any case, Miss Lisbeth fell under his supervision in the first place, so he had the authority to do as he pleased.

If there was one lesson he learned from the Vandals, it was that they didn't care about the means, only the result. They should applaud his attempt to curtail the overblown budget of Lisbeth's department!

In truth, Ves had ulterior motives when he sent Lisbeth off with Ketis. He wanted the Apprentice Mech Designer to be absent at the beginning stages of Venerable Xie's integration into the Flagrant Vandals.

If Venerable Xie granted Miss Lisbeth the backing she desperately craved, she could easily reverse the budget cuts. Ves couldn't allow such a travesty to happen, so he needed to set the situation up so that Ves became the principal mech designer in the expert pilot's eyes.

When Miss Lisbeth showed up ragged and tired from her brutal training session, she'd immediately make for a sorry sight that would burn into Venerable Xie's memory for the rest of his stay with the Vandals.

"A transport is approaching!" Lieutenant Koltov warned.

A moment later, a transport came into view on the other side of the open hangar bay hatch. The vessel's size prevented it from flying through the hatch like a transport.

It therefore came to a halt and spun around until its stern faced the hangar bay. Then its pilot slowly brought it closer until the stern almost touched the outer hull of the Gorgon's Gaze.

The energy screen separating the interior of the hangar bay from the vacuum of space rippled a bit as a walkway extended from the rear hatch of the transport ship. A mech stepped out of the transport and slowly traversed the fragile-looking walkway in a confident gait. The white mech slowly passed through the energy screen and touched down upon the flight deck.

"The Pale Dancer. It's so beautiful!"

Ves took in the aura emanating from the expert mech. Seeing it up close and in the flesh enabled him to take in the mech's spiritual qualities at their full strength.

Ves confirmed the makeup of its X-Factor. It was weak, very weak, but definitely present in some capacity. Ultimately, its X-Factor didn't matter all that much compared to its material performance parameters.

Swift. Agile. Accurate. Lethal. Those four words encompassed the qualities included in its vision. The Pale Dancer embodied many of the same concepts of his Crystal Lord design, and he definitely found several similarities that reminded him of his second original design.

Yet the Pale Dancer diverged a lot from his own design as well.

The Crystal Lord specialized heavily in the use of laser rifles, to the point of incorporating alien tech that enabled it to shoot crystals from its chest. While it could still wield other weapons in a pinch, its relatively light and fragile arms were never meant to compensate for the shock and recoil of a kinetic or ballistic rifle, even if they featured dampeners.

The Pale Dancer on the other hand featured thicker arms that could withstand the full force of its fast-firing kinetic rifle. The Senior retained by the Royal House of Talk designed the Pale Dancer to compliment Venerable Xie's excellent marksmanship and customized the entire mech to maximize its accuracy and consistency.

It was a masterpiece in its own right, and in his humble opinion beat the Parallax Star in overall design quality.

Then, the cockpit opened, and a mech pilot jumped out. The figure floated in the air in defiance of the artificial gravity active in the hangar bay. After a second of floating freely above everyone's heads, the mech pilot smoothly commanded his enhanced piloting suit to land before the greeting party.

The helmet retracted with a silent command, revealing a narrow, well-defined face which bore a quiet intensity that made the people around him feel.. safe for a lack of a better word.

With a tall, lean and fit body, Venerable Xie presented the epitome of a man who trained his entire life to perform his role as a guard, both in and out of the cockpit. An ornate pistol and knife hung from his belt, but Ves bet the man hid all kinds of backup weapons in his armored piloting suit.

"Karol Xie, former chief protection officer of Prince Hixt-Klaaster of the Royal House of Talk." The expert pilot saluted to the Vandals. "Reporting for duty."

The Vandals hadn't expected this kind of deference from an expert pilot. They usually possessed a lot more sense of self-importance. Though Venerable O'Callahan behaved a lot more conceited than his peers, it was undeniable that they assumed many rights.

The Fourth Prince evidently shaped his personality in an extremely servile manner for an expert pilot! Why else would an expert pilot still be loyal to a loser of a royal who lost badly when he struggled for control of his Royal House?

Lieutenant Koltov's eyes shone. This was the best opportunity to convert this brainwashed expert pilot into a lapdog of the Vandals!

"Welcome to the Flagrant Vandals, Venerable Xie." She returned the salute. "While it is regretful that a chapter of your life is at an end, we will endeavor to make your transition into your new life as comfortable as possible. No longer will you serve a single prince. Now, you fight for an entire state!"

Just at that time, the recently-cleared hangar bay hatch rippled again as a shuttle hastily dipped through the energy screen. The shuttle dove towards the flight deck with way too much forward momentum, and only through a hard brake did it barely manage to stall the crash into an extremely rough landing! The impact of the shuttle's landing thudded hard enough to destabilize everyone's footing!

The shuttle's hatch slid open even before the craft finished its shutdown procedure. A familiar mech officer in a piloting suit hopped out the hatch and instantly zeroed in on their new expert pilot.

"Venerable Xie! There you are! I hope I haven't arrived too late! Captain Rosa Orfan, at your service! I've been assigned to assist you in your adjustment to your new home!"

Chapter 724

Ves had to hand it to Major Verle. Who better than to convert a new expert pilot than the exhuberant Captain Orfan? The landbound mech officer possessed an ego the size of a battleship and possessed a force of will equivalent to elite pilots.

From what Ves had observed of her personality, Captain Orfan already acted like an expert pilot without having the skills to back it up.

Not that she ever took note of her deficiencies. She always pushed on and lived in the present. Despite her rather lackluster foresight, she was an adequate administrator and one of the best combat adepts among the Vandals.

As Captain Orfan grabbed hold of Venerable Xie and led the bewildered expert pilot out of the hangar bay, the rest of the greeting party was left in the dust.

"Okay." Lieutenant Koltov sighed and turned to Ves. "The Pale Dancer is in your care. Please carry out a thorough inspection and treat it appropriately. We will likely be depending on this machine when we make landfall at our destination."

Ves silently nodded, clear of his responsibilities.

Everyone split up to perform their other duties. Ves himself nodded to Chief Keys, who ordered his mech technicians to come and stow away the Pale Dancer.

He continued to admire the majestically white mech as it slowly slid into its new berth next to the Parallax Star. To make some room, Ves ordered the crates of spare parts to be dumped elsewhere.

It didn't matter because Ves already scheduled for the redundant parts to be taken to the logistics ships for immediate recycling. The sooner those pieces of junk got broken down, the faster Miss Lisbeth got over the fact that she wasted so much resources and time into producing a lot of useless modular components.

"The entire concept of a semi-modular expert mech is flawed. Too many of our engagements are thrust upon us without the time to switch out the wrong parts for the right parts. It just takes too much time to attach the modular limbs to the mech."

More egregiously, Miss Lisbeth actually concocted this scheme on her own, irrespective of Professor Velten's original vision for her custom-designed lancer mech. The Senior Mech Designer in charge of every design of the Vandals designed a base model along with more than a dozen different variants, each of them suitable to a particular budget and circumstance.

Miss Lisbeth looked at the variants and basically butchered them before picking out the best parts before spending an extravagant amount of resources to fabricate them separately.

Ves understood her logic, but the concept simply failed in practice because the Parallax Star had never truly been designed with a modular makeup in mind.

"It truly takes a lot of courage and self-delusion to think you can improve upon a Senior Mech Designer's vision."

He suspected that Miss Lisbeth's ability to work with highly complex expert mechs came from a careless encounter with knowledge beyond her means to understand. An excess of mental contamination must have messed up her mind to the point where she forcibly expressed the design principles of what she inadvertently absorbed in the past.

"I wouldn't be surprised if she used to work with a modular mech."

In any case, Ketis was currently running the delusional mech designer ragged in the gym compartment, so Ves was able to take charge of her department in her absence. He decided to ruthlessly take advantage of that fact and implement some long-overdue reforms to her flawed regime.

"Chief Keys!"

"Yes, Mr. Larkinson?"

"Once the Pale Dancer is secured, prepare the Parallax Star for partial disassembly."

"Sir?"

"Its design needs a few tweaks. Right now, it is way too big of a machine for Venerable Xie. Not only will he be unable to make full use of the Parallax Star's capabilities, but the burden of piloting it will actively slow him down. We've got to dial back some of its power and implement some limiters to scale back its prodigious power. Professor Velten already prepared a variant that does this as a contingency."

"B-But what about Venerable O'Callahan, sir? Theoretically, he is still able to wake from his artificial coma and deploy into battle one last time."

"The Venerable's days of soaring into space and wrecking mechs with his magnificent lance charges are over." Ves ruthlessly stomped the man's hopes. "Rather than keep this powerful reserved for an expert pilot who can collapse in his cockpit at any second, I'd rather take my chances with our new expert pilot who has a track record for reliability."

The callous way Ves referred to Venerable O'Callahan shocked Chief Keys and every mech technician in the vicinity into a numb silence. They never stopped believing in the demigod they worshipped and attended to for years! Years of dedicated service had indoctrinated these Vandal servicemen into full-blown worshippers of a conceited demigod!

The reaction of the mech technicians only spurred Ves on. "What are you looking at? Stop caring about that deadbeat of an expert! They may be called demigods, but they are as mortal and flawed as you and me! Face it, he's already at the edge of death! While it is admirable to appreciate his service to the Vandals, praying to an absent hero won't save us from the dangers that we will certainly encounter at the end of this journey. We have a new hero now!"

It took a metaphorical kick in the butt to get the stunned mech technicians to work. Even then, their productivity dipped way below what Ves found acceptable, so he had to admonish a few absent-minded mech technicians to get back to work.

Once he became satisfied at their apparent diligence, Ves found a nearby terminal and loaded in the design schematics of the Parallax Star. A lot of it the more intricate parts required special permission from Professor Velten to access.

Ves used to think the professor classified these portions in order to prevent their weaknesses from falling into the hands of enemies, but now he understood it was for their own protection. Besides someone like Miss Lisbeth and Chief Keys, anyone else would either understand nothing at all or be driven to madness.

"Well, it's not like Miss Lisbeth is too far-off from that point."

She would probably hate what he intended to do to the Parallax Star. That was why he waited until she was gone before he began to initiate the transformation. As the mech technicians performed the initial tweaks under his direction, Ves continued to pour over the modified design. Though he made a lot of headway into transforming it into a more restrained machine, he hadn't actually presented this mech to their new expert pilot yet.

"According to his record, he's supposed to be proficient in lancer mechs as well, but piloting a superpowered version of this mech type is a big jump."

Right now, the Flagrant Vandals mostly faced threats from space. The importance of securing their fleet remained a top priority before they arrived at the suspected crash site of the Starlight Megalodon.

Therefore, Ves only instructed the mech technicians to perform the shallowest adjustments. Once he became satisfied that they wouldn't screw things up, he turned around and left the hangar bay in search of their new expert pilot.

Lieutenant Koltov had already returned to her regular duties, so Ves had to ask a few ratings where he could find the expert.

"Last I heard, Captain Orfan organized a small welcoming party at the ship's bar!"

Ves almost had to palm his face when he heard that. Of course she would attempt to ply the expert pilot with booze.

Situated in the lower decks, the ship's bar was the local watering hole for Vandals with too much credits to spend and not enough places to spend it upon. Lately, more and more Vandals frequented the bars and lounges of their ships in order to distract themselves from the growing dread of traveling further and further away from the light of civilization.

Right now, a large congregation of off-duty Vandals gathered at the far side of the compartment. A synthetic, upbeat tune played in the background while the men and women all downed a glass of the local swill distilled out of nutrient packs.

Usually, every ship formulated a unique blend of alcohol from an eclectic combination of nutrient packs. Combining different flavors, ingredients, production dates and ages through a different homebrew distillation process cobbled together by mech technicians and engineers in their spare time resulted in wildly different varieties.

A popular saying in the galaxy was that humanity invented more flavors of alcoholic drinks than their total population.

Ves grabbed a glass of the drink and sniffed at it. When he took a sip, he found it to be dark and rich, though he wasn't a fan of the clingy layer of film that lingered in his mouth.

He navigated through the press of people and didn't hesitate to push people around to reach the center of everyone's attention. Captain Orfan already jousted about with a glass in one hand and Venerable Xie's shoulder with her other hand. The only detail that ruined the festive atmosphere was that everyone still wore their piloting suits and hazard suits.

Even though the Fire Treaders already pulled back and the sandmen showed no sign of moving in to attack, the Flagrant Swordmaidens remained at risk while they turned around and flew back to the outer portion of the star system.

However, suits aside, the Vandals tried their best to make Venerable Xie feel at home among the Vandals, though the man only barely sipped his drink until now.

"Ves! What are you doing here?!" Captain Orfan boorishly called when she saw his approach. "Aren't you supposed to play with your big toys?"

"I'm here for business, captain. I need to borrow our good expert pilot for a few minutes to get his input on the modifications that are in the works. Can I take him somewhere quiet? I'll return him to you as soon as possible."

"Sure thing! A mech is a mech pilot's lifeline!"

Once Ves brought Venerable Xie to a private booth of some sorts that came with a sound isolation screen, he activated his comm and projected the designs of the Pale Dancer and the Parallax Star.

"Mr.. Ves, is it? What is it you require of me?" The soft-spoken expert asked cautiously.

"You can call me Ves or Mr. Larkinson. Your choice, sir. I'm the temporary head designer of our task force. I called you aside so I can consult you on the changes I want to make to your mechs."

"Aren't you rather young for a head designer?"

"The guy who was supposed to take up this post is regretfully missing, sir." And very likely dead or imprisoned by now, but Ves didn't want to rehash those dark thoughts. "Anyway, I won't take up too much of your time. Right now, the Flagrant Vandals intend to make full use of your versatility by adapting the spaceborn lancer mech originally designed for our last expert pilot for your use. Here is the design of the Parallax Star as well as a summary of its specs after it has gone through an adjustment. Is there anything not to your liking?"

"While I am capable of piloting a lancer mech, I prefer to pilot a ranged mech.."

"I'm sorry. We don't have the time nor resources to design and fabricate a spaceborn rifleman mech tailored to your ability. You will probably have the opportunity to request one from my superior once our task force returns to civilized space and merges back into the main fleet. For now, we need to make do with our existing resources."

Venerable Xie did not look very pleased at the fact that the Vandals expected him to pilot what was essentially used goods. However, he was also a good soldier, so he barely barked an objection.

Both of them held a brief but fruitful discussion concerning the Parallax Star. The expert pilot requested a lot of minor tweaks and changes that bent the Parallax Star closer to his personal style of combat.

Though Ves couldn't fulfill every item in Venerable Xie's wishlist, he promised to do his best to implement the main changes the expert pilot insisted on having. If he was being pushed to pilot a spaceborn lancer mech, then it better reflect his own style rather than someone else's!

Chapter 725

The arrival of the Rovista Splendor in the bosom of the Flagrant Swordmaidens marked the formal end to Prince Hixt-Klaaster's ambitions to start up an independent colony in the Faris Star Region.

The haunted and traumatized prince had to say goodbye to his final mobile asset as his flagship burnt herself out trying to sprint to rescue.

Transports and shuttles brought men and supplies out of the doomed combat carrier. Even if the Flagrant Swordmaidens weren't able to salvage the valuable ship herself, the Rovista Splendor still carried a bountiful amount of cargo.

The Fourth Prince and his surviving retainers all relocated to the various vessels of their rescuers. The Vandals and the Swordmaidens deliberately split up the prince's crew to minimize any chance of staging a revolt or engage in some other scheme.

Due to the need to secure Venerable Karol Xie's loyalty, it was in the best interest for the Flagrant Swordmaidens to uphold their end of the bargain. Therefore, they did their best to treat the displaced survivors of the Shining Stars Colonization Fleet as guests instead of prisoners or slaves.

Nonetheless, hosting these refugees from the Dark Plasma Star Sector while on a mission to find the Starlight Megalodon entailed too many risks and inconveniences. Major Verle and Commander Lydia had no stomach of keeping these bedraggled refugees on their ships any longer than they had to. The sooner they got rid of the colonists, the sooner they could get back to their main mission.

Fortunately, Commander Lydia knew of an obscure space station situated roughly along their current route. If their combined fleet made a major detour, they could reach the space station and drop off the survivors, relieving them of their burden.

The only problem was that the Dragon Alliance administered the space station. While the Swordmaidens maintained a fairly neutral relationship with the largest pirate alliance in the Faris Star System, they never felt very safe when they entered their territory.

The Dragons of the Void who led the pirate bloc had an unfortunate habit of kidnapping and brainwashing pirates to serve as their cannon fodder.

Still, the Swordmaidens couldn't find another space station where they could dump the refugees without taking an even bigger detour.

"We are setting course to the Woolox Star System!"

With the sandmen fleet preoccupied with the debris field and the Fire Treaders meekly running away, the Flagrant Swordmaidens encountered no obstacles when they reached the edge of the star system and transitioned back into FTL.

It would take roughly a week to reach the Woolox System. Everyone shed their hazard suits and armor suits once the fleet found refuge in FTL.

In the meantime, Ves managed to right a lot of wrongs during his stint aboard the Gorgon's Gaze.

He reprimanded the mech technicians whenever they showed off a bad habit. He reprimanded Chief Keys for allowing the mech technicians to develop those bad habits in the first place. He quietly cursed Miss Lisbeth for turning Chief Keys into the most useless chief technician he had ever met.

If not for his familiarity with the Parallax Star's design and his resilience in the face of working with an extremely advanced mech, Ves would have suggested another chief technician to take his place. For now, necessity and lack of qualified personnel kept these unproductive bunch of mech technicians in place.

"It's not a good idea to switch them out in the middle of a mission anyway." He reminded himself. "I can't rock the boat too much at this stage. I'll have to make do with band-aid solutions."

Ves vigorously cleaned up the department's act and got them to work on a normal schedule like everyone else. The days of lazing about or performing useless repetitive actions to pretend they are at work was over.

If Ves had no more work on his plate, then that was called good delegation. If his subordinates weren't working, then that was called slacking on the job!

"Only the boss deserves to slack on the job!"

After addressing the consequences of years of Lisbeth's lackluster leadership, Ves finally achieved a satisfactory pace in his attempt to convert the Parallax Star into a mech that fit Venerable Xie's style.

The Parallax Star underwent a major makeover during his brief takeover of Miss Lisbeth's department.

"It's unfortunate that lancer mechs aren't very compatible with his best strengths."

Venerable Xie generally preferred to pilot fast but agile mechs, no matter if they were of the landbound or spaceborn variety. A lancer mech excelled at accelerating to ludicrous speeds quickly in a straight line, but they weren't exactly the most agile mechs of the bunch. They performed fairly poorly compared to other melee mechs in short-ranged duels and dogfights.

Professor Velten originally designed the Parallax Star to fit Venerable O'Callahan's daring charges. Much of the resonating materials incorporated in its frame only exhibited their maximum potential when the Parallax Star built up a straight-line charge.

However, Venerable Xie stated an intention to pilot the Parallax Star as a spearman mech rather than the lancer mech. The difference between the two mech types was that the former fought like an ancient infantryman while the latter fought like a cavalryman.

Though both mechs utilized long weapons with a sharp end at the tip, the actual differences in their design were rather drastic.

Ves plainly couldn't convert the Parallax Star from one mech type to another mech type with the snap of his fingers. The best he could promise their new expert pilot was to make some accommodations.

In other words, the new state of the Parallax Star effectively resulted in a hybrid between the two mech types.

"What a sloppy outcome."

Such a change wasn't easy at all and Ves had the feeling he was wasting the Parallax Star's potential by forcing a change against its nature. However, Venerable Xie wouldn't be able to pilot the lancer mech like its previous expert pilot anyway because his resonance strength couldn't keep up with the demands of the lancer mech.

As for the Pale Dancer, Ves deferred any modifications for later. It took some time for the Flagrant Swordmaidens to reach the Starlight Megalodon, so while Ves already had a small redesign in store to strengthen it against the crushing effects of extreme gravity environments, he needed to wait until the mech technicians completed the work on the Parallax Star.

The disgruntled mech technicians already called Ves a slave driver behind his back. If Ves could get away with whipping their backs, he would have already done so.

Compared to the rest of their colleagues who maintained their high spirits while working productively, these men and women developed a superiority complex solely due to the fact that they worked on the personal fighting steeds of expert mechs.

Shaving down their egos required a considerable effort on his part. Ves knew he couldn't change the department permanently as long as Miss Lisbreth and Chief Keys remained in charge. However, he hoped his intervention here stuck around long enough to help the Vandals survive through this mission.

What happened after they completed the mission and finally returned to the Bright Republic was someone else's problem.

"I'm already on my way out anyway."

During the exhaustive efforts to reshape the expert mechs, Venerable Xie dropped by occasionally with Captain Orfan in tow. As a responsible expert pilot, he cared a lot about the mechs he would be working with in the future.

Ves knew that every expert pilot developed some kind of inner strength related to spirituality. Whenever he drew near their new expert pilot, he sensed a muted aura that radiated a warm current of protectiveness.

Anyone standing close to Venerable Xie would unconsciously feel reassured that he would have their backs. Even if no one could put their feelings into words, nobody wanted to be separated from his presence.

"How is this lancer mech shaping up?" Xie asked in his second visit for the day.

"The Parallax Star is more than halfway through its transformation, sir. We've hit a few snags at the start, but the mech technicians have just completed the hardest parts about the conversion. As you've requested, the mech pilots less like a lancer mech and more like a spearman mech. It will be able to go head-to-head against enemy duelists with a bit more proficiency."

The expert pilot took in the Parallax Star with a critical eye. Obviously, he was never really taken in by the lancer mech. "Even with the changes, it will still be a difficult mech for me to pilot. I don't pretend I can match the skill its previous owner has demonstrated. I am amazed at O'Callahan's feats whenever I watch archival footage of his deployments. I have a big pair of shoes to fill."

Nobody knew how well the expert pilot might fare in the newly adjusted Parallax Star. There was no point stuffing Venerable Xie inside a simulator pod and have him play with a virtual version of the mech. The phenomena that expert pilots were capable of summoning translated poorly into a virtual environment.

Only a live test with the actual mech in use would prove whether Ves had succeeded in his minor redesign.

It excited him. Though he should have consulted Professor Velten to inspect his redesign plan, it would have been a huge hassle considering the current communications blackout instituted among the entire combined fleet.

"If the redesign is successful, are you prepared to defend the Flagrant Vandals and our allies from the threats we're expecting to face?" Ves asked.

"Of course he is!" Captain Orfan immediately intervened. She approached the expert pilot and slapped him on the back. "He's one of us now! A genuine Vandal! I heard that Major Verle even sent out an emergency citizenship application for our man here. From what I heard, the people back home approved the application within three minutes! You're looking at a new citizen of the Bright Republic here!"

Ves blinked. "That fast? Wow, the Mech Corps must be desperate for expert pilots. Don't they usually conduct a thorough background check before they approve of any foreign elite?"

"Don't ask me why the folks back home have made it so easy. But that means that Venerable Xie here is a true Brighter now!"

The expert pilot in question chose to ask an awkward question at this moment. "Does this mean that the supposed war you Brighters are embroiled in is going worse than expected?"

That shut Captain Orfan up.

"We don't know." Ves answered after a few seconds. "We're so far away from the war that we don't know how well it's going for our side. If it's like the last wars, then the Bright Republic ought to have unleashed their counterattack against a divided, overextended and exhausted Vesian invasion front. Whether that has already happened enough is still an open question. We'd be able to get some clues if we can access the galactic net, but these days it's so full of spam and misinformation that you can never get the full truth out of reading the news portals."

The unspoken message lingering in the back of their minds was that the Flagrant Vandals ought to be fighting in the thick of it. Instead, a confidential mission brought them far outside the theater of war that the Vandals had difficulty recalling the last time they fought against a Vesian force.

While they stomped and intimidated several pirate outfits lately, they found little meaning and even less satisfaction out of their hollow victories.

What was the point of venturing so far out into the most desolate parts of the galaxy?

"Tell me more about the Bright Republic." Venerable Xie diplomatically steered the topic away from the war. "If it is to be my newly adopted state, I'd like to know how to fit in. It is strange for me to serve a republic. Adjusting to a society where every citizen theoretically holds the same status is strange for me to comprehend. How are you able to determine who is fit to rule and who is fit to work?"

Oh boy. Ves inwardly cringed. To someone who grew up under the yoke of aristocrats who claimed their right to rule came from their birthright, it was difficult for them to open up their minds to alternatives.

"It's a long story..."

Chapter 726

Due to his lower-class upbringing along with the intense efforts of the Fourth Prince to keep him under his thumb, Venerable Xie never developed a strong sense of pride and self-worth.

By all accounts, the fact that he broke through to become an expert pilot was purely an unanticipated fluke. Though his elevation overjoyed the Fourth Prince, the fact that he possessed such a strong and reliable bodyguard must have alarmed his fellow claimants to the throne.

Venerable Xie's advancements in the ranks of experts likely accelerated Prince Hixt-Klaaster's downfall in the Royal House of Talk.

Ves only surmised this from the scraps of information the Venerable revealed about his old employer. Neither Ves nor Captain Orfan managed to pry open his mouth about the matters of the Royal House of Talk and the Palast Kingdom.

"I do miss them, though." He sighed as the three lounged in a corner of the mech workshop where the Parallax Star underwent its final adjustments. "Talk is a proud House and one that has established a firm but just rule over the Palast Kingdom. Our state is experiencing a golden age under the rule of this House!"

The two citizens of the Bright Republic rolled their eyes. They heard similar praises from Vesian citizens who didn't know any better. Still, it wasn't as if they could say anything to the contrary. They learned that criticizing the Fourth Prince, the Royal House of Talk and the Palast Kingdom was a sure way to trigger the expert pilot.

The Vandals had to remind themselves that Venerable Xie only grudgingly left the Fourth Prince's service. If Prince Hixt-Klaaster hadn't bargained away his loyal retainer, the Flagrant Swordmaidens would have never gone through the trouble of rescuing him and his remaining men.

While Captain Orfan did a decent job at making Xie feel at home among the Vandals, his remaining attachments still held him back from committing to his new home.

In a way, Ves felt sorry for the hapless expert pilot. The man never had the opportunity to develop a firm and independent personality. His unbreakable emotional dependence on the Fourth Prince became a huge hindrance to everyone.

Over time, the Vandals would probably encourage Xie to grow a spine. Right now, they still needed him to be as well-behaved and obedient as a puppy.

As the works on the Parallax Star started to wind down, the work on the Pale Dancer began to pick up. Since Ves placed most of his attention to supervising the conversion of the Parallax Star, he placed responsibility to ensure the Pale Dancer's adjustments went correctly to Miss Lisbeth, though with a few caveats.

She would only get to perform her duties after she survived an intensive training session conducted by Ketis. The Swordmaiden mech designer love for personal training drove Lisbeth to her wit's end. Her body almost broke down several times during the training sessions, causing Ves to chuckle.

Miss Lisbeth still managed to summon up a smile when she showed up at work in the late mornings. Wracked with muscle pains and fatigue, she listlessly performed her duties in a robotic fashion.

Her exhausted mind and body left her with very little energy to exercise her own initiative. She also made for a pathetic sight whenever she came into view of Venerable Xie. Though the expert pilot remained scrupulously respectable to everyone he met, he showed signs of discomfort whenever he came into the presence of someone with a sloppy and disheveled appearance.

To be honest, Ves felt rather disappointed by this expert pilot they obtained at a bargain price.

"You get what you paid for." He sighed when he met with Ketis after a quiet dinner. "Don't think that all expert pilots are like Venerable Xie. Most of them are aware of their rights and privileges, and don't hesitate to take advantage of it. As far as I'm aware of, even the experts in my own extended family aren't above taking liberties when it suits them. It helps that we maintain a fairly good reputation, though. It lets us get away with even more stuff than usual."

The two enjoyed some free time together in a quiet corner at the ship's bar. He took a modest swig of the filmy brew the crew of the Gorgon's Gaze liked to drink. While he didn't claim to love the nasty aftertaste, he started to get used to it at least.

Ketis preferred to knock over the stronger stuff the resident brewmasters had cooked up in their darkest lairs. Her extensive genetic modifications had hardened her against all manner of poisons, so she needed to imbibe a lot more alcohol to get a buzz.

Ves suffered from the same problem as well actually, but he didn't drink because he wanted to get smashed.

"What's it like to grow up in a family with expert pilots in your line?" She asked. "You guys must be royalty, right?!"

"Not really. You have to understand that while the Bright Republic treats expert pilots well, they don't get elevated into nobility like they do in the Vesia Kingdom. It's part of our belief that every human is the same."

That sounded alien to a daughter of the frontier like Ketis. "I can't imagine what that's like. Also, how do you get so many expert pilots in your line? Many people who have kids are struggling to get them to inherited the right genetic aptitude for piloting mechs, but your guys are swimming in experts!"

Ves laughed at that. "It's not as exceptional as its sounds. First we're part of a family line descended from an exile of the New Rubarth Empire. From some accounts, our ancestor is quite special, though our history records of the period back then are a little spotty. While his blood has run thin, we've kept our genetic aptitude high through spending a considerable amount of our earnings into funding our own private gene clinic. Through the help of tailored genetic treatments, we've been able to insure our family births a high proportion of potentates in each generation."

In fact, the old adage that only 3.5 percent of the population possessed the right aptitude to pilot mechs only applied in a global sense. Though even the best medical research had never managed to guarantee a hundred percent chance a child would be born with the right genetic aptitude, achieving a success rate of say twenty to thirty percent was still doable for any family descended from a genetically gifted individual.

"That only explains how you have a lot of mech pilots in your family." She frowned before taking another swig at her drink. She burped immediately after. "How come expert pilots pop up in your family in each generation? That's way too much!"

"We don't exactly understand the exact mechanics on how to create an expert pilot, but it helps if your family has a large amount of mech pilots entering the service every generation." He patiently explained. "Throwing sheer numbers at the problem increases the chance that we win the lottery at least once. Conflict is also the number one driver for an expert pilot to emerge, as danger and the threat of death draws out the full potential of any mech pilot."

Ketis frowned even more. "If that's the case, mech pilots would be throwing themselves into battle all the time. Hell, all of those crazy lunatics from the Ravienne Alliance would be filled with expert pilots by now if that's the case!"

"The Larkinsons believe that part of what makes a mech pilot an expert pilot is a strong will. Every expert pilot that I've met has a strong belief in a particular ideal or belief. None of them are weak-willed in any way and if you challenge them on their ethos, you're going to end up on the losing end."

Ves actually saw a lot of parallels in the development of mech pilots to the advancement of mech designers. He speculated that both of these professions hinged on the stimulation of their inborn spirituality.

In fact, when he extrapolated the implications of this hypothesis, he made another guess that each different human different in the strength of their inherent spirituality.

Just like each mech pilot could be rated by their genetic aptitude, each human in turn possessed a different magnitude of spirituality. Both of these traits might even be passed on through genetics, though probability and providence played a major role in their expression.

A potential explanation for the reason why the Larkinsons nurtured so many expert pilots was that their founding ancestor was supremely gifted in both genetic aptitude and inborn spirituality.

This gave every Larkinson who inherited the right genes and was subjected to the exclusive Larkinson pre-birth genetic tweaking a good starting point to break through the critical barrier that stopped many advanced pilots from becoming an expert pilot!

However, many families who were a lot more prosperous than the Larkinsons poured a lot of money and resources into acquiring the right genetics. Despite their extravagant investment in this area, their offspring often proved to be lackluster to the point of nurturing not a single expert pilot!

Ves believed that one of the causes of their high-profile failures was because they didn't take inborn spirituality into account. The other major cause was that they pampered their offspring too much! He had never encountered an expert pilot who used to be a spoiled brat!

Each and every one of them possessed a firm will and tempered themselves with unwavering discipline.

Still, he also knew that exceptions existed, particularly in the more prosperous parts of the galaxy. Strange, voodoo treatments and obscure methods occasionally managed to elevate a spoiled brat into the enviable ranks of expert pilots.

This just emphasized the fact that nobody truly knew how expert pilots came to be. Not even Ves claimed to hold a high degree of trust in his own speculations.

"You know, all of that talk about having a strong will reminds me of our Swordmaiden training." Ketis remarked. "Commander Lydia is really adamant about that. Every sister that we recruit has to go through our training regime. Heh, just look at how tired that Lisbeth woman is after I've forced her through a portion of our regular training routine."

"Disciplining her subordinates through training is a tried-and-true method for every outfit. I think that's one of the reasons why the Flagrant Vandals is comfortable with cooperating with your Swordmaidens despite the fact that you are pirates. Aside from your strange quirks, you are always in control of yourselves. At least you're a far cry from the undisciplined masses I've encountered at Mancroft."

"Yeah, but if your theory or whatever is right, why hasn't any of our sisters broken through expert pilot yet? We get into fights all the time! Sure, we don't fight as many pitched battles, but we are constantly risking our lives out here!"

"I can't explain that, Ketis. Your guess is as good as mine, which is as good as any random person off the street. I have a few guesses, actually, but even if you believe them, there is little what you Swordmaidens can actually do. In the end, it all comes down to chance. From the riches scions from the galactic center, to the poorest beggar from the frontier, I believe that an exceptional mech pilot can come from every corner of the galaxy. It's just that people from less developed areas don't have a high opportunity to come into touch with mechs in the first place, which is why the frontier seems so barren of experts."

"Well, the frontier won't stay poor forever." She boasted as she poured the rest of her drink down her throat. "Ahhh! I've heard rumors that the CFA is considering opening up the Faris Star Region for colonization within our lifetimes. When that happens, everyone's fortunes will change."

Ves doubted whether the indigenous and the pirate riffraff would actually benefit from such an expansion event. According to historical trends, outside colonists always manage to displace whoever settled the star systems beforehand.

Meanwhile, most pirates got wiped out.

Chapter 727

The Flagrant Swordmaidens almost reached the Woolox System after more than a week of travel. They encountered a couple of hitches along the way, but they weren't delayed for very long.

During one of their stop-overs, Venerable Xie carefully took the newly modified Parallax Star on a test run.

The initial deployment went a little rougher than everybody liked. Ves overlooked a couple of compatibility issues that he immediately patched up. When Xie deployed yet again, he reported that he felt a lot more comfortable in piloting the machine, though it still felt like riding a bucking horse according to the expert pilot.

"Riding a bucking horse is better than walking on foot, sir." Ves reported in a routine status update to Major Verle. "There's very little I can do to improve the compatibility between the Parallax Star and Venerable Xie. You can't just shift any customized expert mech designed to be piloted by a specific expert pilot to a completely different person. There is some.. friction between man and machine."

"Will it help if Professor Velten pitches in on the design?"

Ves shook his head over the comm. "Yes, but not as much as you are hoping, sir. Even the professor can't increase the compatibility between the Parallax Star and Venerable Xie if she isn't able to meet the expert pilot in the flesh. While it's possible for her to get to know Xie better through remote communication, it's not as good as just meeting the man up close. I've interacted personally with the Venerable, so my work is not that much off from what she doubtlessly wishes to implement as well."

While that was true, Ves also didn't want to stay aboard the Gorgon's Gaze any longer. He still had a side project with his name on it waiting back on the Shield of Hispania!

If Professor Velten pitched in with her own tweaks, then he'd certainly be stuck here a couple of weeks longer!

"Very well." Fortunately, Major Verle bought his excuse. "What are your estimates of its fighting strength in Venerable Xie's hands?"

"Sir, I'm sure your mech officers have made their own estimates based on his initial practice runs, but from a mech designer's perspective I don't think his resonance strength is up to the task of expressing more than thirty percent of its maximum strength. A lot of the expenses put into the fabrication of the Parallax Star is to enhance the effects of its energy shield and its piercing effects. It doesn't help that Venerable Xie doesn't favor utilizing charges in his fighting style. He can do it, but he's not very adept at pulling out the expert mech's strength."

"I am aware of this deficiency. It is a simple fact of life that we have to work with what we have at our disposal. The only role reserved for Venerable Xie in our mech regiment is to hinder the advance of enemy expert pilots. So long as he can be employed against ferocious tigers hell-bent on slaughtering our rank-and-file, we can save the lives of hundreds of fellow Vandal mech pilots."

Ves didn't mention that the Parallax Star made for a relatively poor guardian in its new state and its new mech pilot. The mech lost much of the magic that made it competitive among expert mechs, and a weaker expert pilot only exacerbated the drop in combat strength.

After finishing his report, Ves received one more surprise visitor the day before his return to the Shield of Hispania. Lieutenant Koltov caught him just after he exited the toilet.

"Mr. Larkinson! A moment of your time please."

"Certainly, lieutenant."

The two found an out-of-the-way compartment to conduct their private talk. Of course, it wouldn't be very private considering the Gorgon's Gaze monitoring system recorded everything while an uninvited guest constantly followed behind Ves whenever he wasn't in the same compartment as Venerable Xie.

Ves did take advantage of the caution shown by Acolyte Villis by implementing some measures out of her sight. He couldn't do much on his own, but he hoped the precautions he prepared out of the cultist's sight could save the Flagrant Swordmaidens from a potential disaster.

He still wondered what Koltov wanted from him. "Why have you called me out here?"

"It's about Venerable Karol Xie. Some of us are harboring some concerns about his.. Dedication, shall we say. Haven't you wondered why Xie is overly deferential and cooperative to a fault with us?"

"Hm. I thought that was part of his personality?" Ves threw out the obvious. "The Fourth Prince kept him on a leash since he was a puppy. Now that he has grown up to become a fierce guard dog, he still acts like he wants some treats to his master."

"We've thought of that, but there is just something that doesn't quite fit. The whole circumstance surrounding the foundering of the Shining Stars Colonization Fleet is rather dubious in the first place. Although we've verified that Prince Hixt-Klaaster is a genuine royal from the Palast Kingdom of the Dark Plasma Star Sector, it requires a successive chain of poor decisions to lead his colonization fleet to ruin in the Ermeghast Star System."

She basically suggested that there might have been a possibility that the Fourth Prince deliberately led his colonization fleet to their doom. Yet Ves found this entire possibility ridiculous.

"There's no apparent motive for this. What does the Fourth Prince and Venerable Xie gain from all of this? Sure, they get to ride on our fleet for a while, but we're almost about to drop off the prince at the Woolox System. In addition, there's no way the Fourth Prince can anticipate our arrival in the Ermaghast System at that date. This is way too convoluted. Occam's Razor suggests that the Fourth Prince is simply a poor decision maker and that all of his mistakes can be attributed to his lack of judgement."

The lieutenant held up a hand to placate Ves. "We don't necessarily disagree, but we must always remain vigilant against the alternatives. Right now, we are more than eager to get rid of the Fourth Prince and his surviving retainers. Yet even if we have made some arrangements so that the prince and his loyalists are taken care of, we still don't know if Venerable Xie has made some other arrangements. We believe there is a small but potentially devastating chance that Xie is already spoken for. In the worst-case scenario, he has already pledged his loyalty to one of our competitors in our hunt for the Starlight Megalodon."

He could see how that could turn very bad for the Flagrant Vandals. If Venerable Xie was some kind of sleeper agent, he could very well turn the might of the Parallax Star or the Pale Dancer against their own side! The potential damage this expert pilot could inflict when the Vandals least expected it could potentially demolish half of their effective strength!

"Okay.. that sounds like a very scary prospect." He said. "But what do you want me to do about it? Are you suggesting that I plant a kill switch or some kind of remote control on his expert mechs?"

"Is it possible?"

"It is, but just because I can do so doesn't mean it's a good idea!" He immediately replied. "What happens if the wrong person obtains the codes to initiate a remote shutdown? What if a talented hacker on the other side manages to intrude the remote connection responsible for receiving the command to activate the killswitch? It's going to be a straight-up catastrophe in that case! The chance of misuse is much higher than the chance of us ever needing to resort to this method!"

Ves particularly feared one of the uninvited guests getting their hands on the command codes. Even if Ves programmed and implemented the killswitch while Venerable Xie was in the vicinity of his mechs, the Acolytes following the other important officers would easily be able to copy the exact protocols that determined whether the expert mechs lived or died.

"I'm sorry you feel that way. Perhaps we are barking up the wrong tree here."

"Lieutenant, look, don't take this the wrong way, but even if you ask someone like Lisbeth to implement a killswitch, I can guarantee you something will go wrong when we can least afford to. If you have any misgivings about Venerable Xie, you can resort to other means to insure his loyalty. But don't mess with the mechs. Machines are a lot more susceptible to outside manipulation than humans if you open up a backdoor. Don't do it. Tell whoever is in charge of this investigation not to introduce such a vulnerability."

"I'll pass on your words, Mr. Larkinson. That is the extent of what I can promise. For what it's worth, I believe you."

Once he saw Koltov walk away, Ves furrowed his brows and thought about what he heard. While he didn't find it unusual for the Vandals to suspect Venerable Xie's loyalties, did they really have to go so far?

In the end, it all came down to the fact that Karol Xie was a foreigner. He hailed from the Palast Kingdom and grew up in a completely different culture. If Xie had been a Brighter, then this conversation would have never happened, because the Vandals had no cause to doubt the loyalty of a fellow native expert pilot.

"A foreign expert pilot that falls in your lap for some reason is just too suspicious to take for granted. They're not like cabbages that you can pick up from the roadside."

After a quiet day where Ves wrapped up the many changes he introduced in Lisbeth's department, the Flagrant Swordmaidens transitioned out of FTL in the edge of the Woolox System.

Every Vandal and Swordmaiden in the allied fleet adorned themselves in hazard suits, piloting suits or combat armor. This time, they wouldn't be emerging in some random unclaimed star system.

This time, they entered a distant outpost of the dreaded Dragon Alliance.

The Gorgon's Gaze lacked a command center where a commanding officer could talk charge of the entire fleet. Since Ves didn't receive an invitation to sit in on the bridge or the combat information center, Ves and Ketis decided to hole up in the hangar bay where the Parallax Star had been prepared to sortie in the event of an emergency.

Nobody knew what kind of reception they would get upon arrival in the Woolox Star System. While the Swordmaidens conducted occasional trades with the Dragon Alliance, their principal overlords clashed several times against the Bright Republic in earlier incidents.

Ves himself suffered several times at the hand of the Dragons of the Void. The premier pirate organization even dared to trespass the borders of the Bright Republic and contend for the spoils of the Glowing Planet more than a year ago!

Fortunately, the Flagrant Swordmaidens emerged far away from any pirate ships in the vicinity. After a frantic half hour of intensive scanning and patrols, they became reassured they hadn't encountered any threats.

Nobody was allowed to shed their suits, though. Considering who called the shots around here, the Flagrant Swordmaidens needed to be ready to deploy for combat at any time. Even the Swordmaidens never put down their guard when entering Dragon Alliance territory.

While the fleet cautiously approached the only space station in the Woolox System, Ves and Ketis quietly returned to the Shield of Hispania via shuttle ride.

During the shuttle ride, Ves studied the system plot. The Woolox System didn't appear to be a highly frequented star system. Only a handful of small and bedraggled outfits docked at or close to the space station at this time.

"The Woolox System is kind of like the last outpost before you enter into the true frontier." Ketis explained when he commented on the lack of pirates in this star system. "While the chances of digging up an undiscovered treasure is higher when you go past this line, few treasure hunters ever manage to return from their expeditions into the dark."

"Why the low survival rate?"

"It's because the sandmen race are really active past this line."

Chapter 728

The Woolox System centered around a bog-standard red dwarf ubiquitous in the galaxy. Due to its low mass and energy output, the sandmen tended to overlook it, which the Dragon Alliance capitalized upon by setting up a small space station in orbit of the third planet from the sun.

However, just because the red dwarf was a puny star in galactic terms didn't mean it packed a punch.

Though rare, Woolox I, the closest planet orbiting the sun, consisted of a Hot Jupiter that orbited around the sun like a frenetic wheel. The gas giant absorbed so much heat from the sun due to its proximity that its actual gas expanded by quite a bit. This made the Hot Jupiter take on a rather puffy appearance.

If the planet wasn't so volatile and orbiting so close to the red dwarf, a harvesting operation could slowly scoop up all of that loose gas.

Woolox II and Woolox III consisted of the normal lifeless terrestrial planets with nothing unusual. Woolox II orbited a bit too close to the sun, so the Dragon Alliance plopped a space station in the orbit of the much-cooler Woolox III.

The Dragon Alliance collectively administered the outpost at the precipice of the deep frontier because no pirate gang was stupid enough to assume sole responsibility of what was called the Sandcastle.

The Sandcastle received its name due to the star system's proximity to the core occupied space of the sandmen race. Many star systems beyond the Woolox System contained massive concentrations of sandmen.

Gathered into huge amalgamations of sentient sand on the surface of planets and moons, these massive concentrations posed an extremely deadly threat to any human that strayed close to these colonies.

The most dangerous part about these huge sandmen colonies was that they grew extremely smart when a huge number of them gathered on a single planet. Centered around a sandmen governor or mayor whose body was made out of sentient exotic material, their level of calculation and forethought sometimes resembled the thinking patterns of AIs!

Some people argue that the sandmen race was in fact a virtual race, a natural-born race of computers in other words. Equating them in the same box as organic races such as humans didn't accurately reflect their fundamental nature.

In any case, while the full might of the CFA could easily stomp the sandmen empire into the stone age, they were currently preoccupied with other matters.

That left the sandmen race as a perennial threat to the inhabitants of the Faris Star Region. Though the sandmen learned not to approach human space in larger numbers, some of their more simple-minded offshoots didn't get the message, causing a steady outpouring of weaker sandmen fleets to pour into the space nominally ruled over by the pirates.

"We pirates tend to look at the sandmen like processors and bots rolled into sand-like grains." Ketis explained to Ves. Her knowledge regarding sandmen was much more extensive than Ves, who only hear and read third-hand accounts about the silicone-based race. "They're crazily smart if they gather in large numbers, but an average fleet is as smart as one of those cleaning bots we bumped into at the Mancroft Independent Harbor last time. They're as murderous as those bots as well."

"The sandmen fleets are capable of self-learning, though, especially when led by a sandmen leader."

"Yeah, but even then, their learning process is really slow. Mayra once told me that much of their processing power is occupied with keeping their silicate-based forms animated. They don't have much spare capacity for thought. This is also how they grew to become dependent on gathering in large groups to grow smarter. An individual sandmen intelligence is rather tiny, but gather enough of them and pool them into a single special sandmen, and you practically have an AI with access to a lot of processing power. Even then, they're still as dumb as bots, so it takes decades for a sandman leader to develop enough smarts to rival a human."

All of this meant that the Woolox System stood at the precipice of some of the most dangerous forms of sandmen in the region. Scores of intelligent sandmen leaders lurked just beyond the invisible line that bisected the Faris Star Region in two.

The Sandcastle didn't look very impressive to Ves. A fraction the size of Mancroft Station, the Dragon Alliance obviously invested the bare minimum they could get away with to establish a permanent presence in this red dwarf star system.

With only a handful of shops, a small hold filled with meager amounts of food, water, fuel and other necessities, the Sandcastle stayed afloat by selling their products at ripoff prices. There was hardly any space station closer to the deep frontier than the Sandcastle, so visitors had no choice but to pay for the wildly inflated prices if they needed something.

"This place doesn't sound friendly at all." Ves spoke. "I'm kind of worried about what will happen to the Fourth Prince and his surviving retainers after we drop them off here. What will happen to them?"

Surprisingly, Ketis knew the answer. "Ah, I already heard word that Commander Lydia has commissioned the Omen of Misfortune to come here and pick them up. It'll take a while for the Omen of Misfortune to reach the Woolox System, but they owe us for saving their bacon back at Mancroft, so they have no choice but to fulfill this small favor."

Until then, the remnants of the Shining Stars needed to hole up in this desolate outpost of a space station.

Ves did not exactly feel very confident the Fourth Prince would be able to survive in this nearly-forgotten corner of the galaxy.

"How you you insure the local pirates won't mess with them in the meantime? The Fourth Prince is without a ship, mech and his trusted expert pilot. He's practically naked now, and we're just going to throw him to the wolves?"

"That's why we're hiring the local pirates instead. We're paying the pirates some of the K-coins we've appropriated from his own flagship and use that to bribe the station administrator and commission some of the local gangs to keep an eye on the Fourth Prince."

That sounded like a pirate thing to do. The question was whether the pirates who accepted money from the Flagrant Swordmaidens would actually fulfill their end of the bargain. This far away from civilized space, no one insured that business contracts would be followed to the letter.

As the fleet finally reached the outpost some time later, the Fourth Prince evidently had a change of heart.

Gossip rang throughout the fleet.

"Prince Hixt-whatever doesn't want to be dumped at the Sandcastle!"

"Hey, if I were him, I wouldn't be going to that garage box of a space station either! Just look at it! Even an apartment complex from Haston looks better than that!"

"Venerable Xie is backing up his former prince! I heard that once the Fourth Prince kicked up a fuss, the expert pilot put his foot down! Seems like his heart is still devoted towards his old boss!"

Prince Hixt-Klaaster's hissy fit threw the plans of the Flagrant Swordmaidens in disarray. With the sensitive nature of their mission, they couldn't afford to bring a complete stranger picked up from the frontier under rather dubious circumstances.

Though the same applied to Venerable Xie, the Vandals believed in his integrity. As for the Fourth Prince...

"This guy unilaterally wants to change the agreement."

"I hear that the prince is a gullible, short-sighted fool back in his own kingdom. It's no wonder the other princes kicked him out of the Dark Plasma Star Sector."

"Now that this guy wants to stick around, he turned into a real headache for the bigwigs. They can't kick him out, but they don't want to bring him along."

"We don't have a choice. Venerable Xie is only willing to fight for us if the prince is safe. If we dump him at the Sandcastle, the local scum could stab him in the back and rob his corpse blind at any time. The guy's worries are legitimate."

After some delay, the brass came to a compromise with Prince Hixt-Klaaster. The surviving crew of the Rovista Splendor and his remaining retainers would be dumped at the Sandcastle. The Omen of Misfortune would still come and pick them up and bring them to a safer star system where they could make use of their skills to start their new lives.

This left the Flagrant Swordmaidens with only two survivors of the Shining Stars Colonization Fleet. Keeping an eye on a single prince and expert pilot was a lot easier than keeping watch over hundreds of ship ratings, mech pilots, mech technicians, colony administrators, middle managers, and more.

As the refugees slowly boarded the shuttles that brought them to the last stop before entering sandmen territory, Ves wondered what the retainers thought at being separated from the prince they pledged their loyalty to. Monarchies took oaths of loyalty a lot more seriously than republics.

"Do you Swordmaidens really mean it when you are giving these refugees new lives?" Ves asked.

"Hey, even if we're pirates, we aren't that unreliable." Ketis immediately pushed back. "You already know that highly-educated and highly-skilled specialists are in high demand in the frontier. With the conditions we're providing them, they can easily get picked up by any band of pirates. Whether they'll remain free or be forced into slavery after they join their crews after that is none of our business."

He should have expected such an answer. "If the retainers know what's good for the, they'll stick together. Their mech pilots are of a high standard and they still have a decent number of intact mechs left among them to constitute a small pirate gang or mercenary corps. If they split up though, the non-combatants among them won't be able to survive the frontier."

For all he criticized the frontier's obsession over placing an undue importance on personal strength, it did make sense for people here to be able to protect themselves. Those who possessed highly desirable skills but lacked both escorts and the ability to protect themselves became juicy prices to any pirates who didn't have any scruples about enslaving new crewmembers.

These people from the Dark Plasma Star Sector were about to have a really hard time if they hadn't internalized the rules of the frontier.

Once the Flagrant Swordmaidens dropped off the refugees, they turned around and headed towards the nearest Lagrange point while in full view of the Sandcastle and its gaggle of local pirates.

Though the space station and the pirates who frequented it possessed a powerful background, they were very far away from the effective sphere of influence from the Dragon Alliance. The Flagrant Swordmaidens possessed enough firepower to inflict heavy damage on the outpost if provoked.

Only after the fleet transitioned back into FTL did everyone sighed in relief. The pirates at the Sandcastle got rid of the scary allied fleet, while the Flagrant Swordmaidens didn't have to worry about pirates starting anything stupid.

While the entire fleet stood down from yellow alert and everyone shed their hazard suits or armor suits, the entire crew suddenly woke up to the fact that they were crossing into the deep frontier!

"Damn! Aren't we intruding into the interior of the sandmen empire!?" Ves questioned.

"Hey, don't worry, teacher." Ketis reassured him. "We have that blessing from the Church of Haatumak to protect us. As long as we enjoy this blessing, we don't have a thing to worry about!"

"That blessing only stops the sandmen from tracking us with their long-ranged sensors, right? It doesn't work if the sandmen have a presence in the same star system as we are. Since we are entering the core space of the sandmen race, we're bound to bump into their colonies a lot!"

The dangers of the deep frontier surpassed the near frontier by an order of magnitude!

In the near frontier, they mostly needed to guard against pirates, many of whom wouldn't dare to provoke a large fleet like the Flagrant Swordmaidens.

The deep frontier on the other hand posed a very different threat! One that couldn't be intimidated or negotiated with like other humans!

Chapter 729

The fact that the Flagrant Swordmaidens entered the deep frontier hit home among the rank-and-file. The Vandals may be a lot less familiar with the frontier than the Swordmaidens, but once they heard the stories, they started developing nightmares about entire sandstorms engulfing their fleet.

Trespassing sandmen space was as perilous as their run through Vesian space! Danger lurked in every star system, and the main form of protection they relied on consisted of some inscrutable religious blessing by a bunch of whack jobs who worshipped some alien entity named Haatumak.

The lack of understanding and the difficulty of comprehending their circumstances led a lot of Vandals to grumble about their mission. Had the Starlight Megalodon really crash-landed in the middle of sandmen space? How come the CFA battleship hadn't been chewed into bits by the sandmen that reigned over this territory?

To the chief engineer, it made more sense that the Starlight Megalodon would be found in such an out-of-the-way location.

As Ves and Chief Avanaeon gathered together in the corner of the shuttle bay of the Shield of Hispania, they tinkered with the salvaged fragments of the stealth shuttles from the battle against the Masters of Combat.

So far, they hadn't achieved much progress, but Ves hadn't been able to put his full attention to this side project until now.

With a new pair of high-powered gadgets hanging from his toolbelt, he completed one of his necessary preparations to survive the oncoming storm.

Now, he just needed to figure out how stealth tech work and reconstruct a working stealth shuttle in order to finish the other vital component of his contingency plan.

As Ves and Avanaeon comfortably collaborated on figuring out the inner workings of the stealth shuttle, they chatted about many different topics.

"What do you think about the deep frontier and the fact that our objective might be there?" The chief engineer.

Currently, the pair performed some targeted scans on outer hull fragments with a specialized scanner they cobbled up just for this purpose. The previous scanners hadn't been able to pick up the special internal structure of the wondrously crafted stealth plating. Their quality exceeded anything the both of them had seen before, but the problem that came with it was that they needed better equipment to behold their full majesty.

Ves slid his fingers in his air as if he turned an invisible knob, causing the resolution of the scanner to adjust by a minute proportion. "I think that the Starlight Megalodon won't be easy to reach. You know the sandmen love to suck the juice out of high-energy objects. A batteship is one of the most pinnacle inventions of the human race. There's hardly a higher concentration of energy to be found among our massive works besides the dyson swarms that surround the suns of highly developed star systems."

The strength and development of the human race or any alien race rested on their ability to harvest and harness energy.

While humans needed to invent a lot of technology to interact with energy through the medium of machines, the sandmen interacted a lot more directly with energy.

The sandmen race never made any use of machines or any external objects for that matter. Their houses and colonies consisted of large agglomerations of their own race akin to sandcastles. Their ships consisted of their own bodies shaped in balls, ovals, cubes or any other geometric shape their slightly smarter sandmen leader preferred.

In other words, the sandmen didn't make use of technology. They embodied itt! As a strange race that resembles bots and whose bodies consisted of sand grain-like material, they animated themselves through extremely obscure means. Even if their entire race resembled something magical, they couldn't escape the fundamental requirement that all races hungered for: energy.

Both Ves and Chief Avanaeon knew this fundamental truth.

"I've developed a theory why the Starlight Megalodon somehow manages to stay intact after being stranded for several hundred years in sandmen space." The chief engineer began. "You heard about how the Starlight Megalodon originally led a starship into alien space for some subjugation mission or something, right?"

Ves nodded. "Now that I think about it, the CFA likely sent out the subjugation fleet to teach the sandmen race a lesson."

"Well, while the rest of the fleet emerged out of FTL intact, their flagship inexplicably went missing. Since they knew that the Megalodon transitioned into FTL but didn't come out, the CFA thought that it encountered some kind of freak accident related to the higher dimensions."

"I've already heard that theory. What's your point?"

"My point is that whatever anomaly gripped the the Starlight Megalodon out of place may still be active until today. The vagaries of spacetime and what happens in the higher dimensions are poorly understood even now. Take it from me. Even though I'm a chief engineer, I barely understand what goes on inside an FTL drive! And that's only the more basic models that is sufficient to propel a combat carrier. The FTL drive of a battleship is hundreds of times more powerful and complex! I've even heard that capital ships activate multiple FTL drives in conjunction! Think of the complexity involved with such a technical feat!"

Ves shuddered at the thought. He had come into touch with FTL drives several times, and while he didn't had the pleasure of tinkering with them or understanding how they worked, he knew that they worked on incredibly mind-boggling principles.

"So you think the Starlight Megalodon is still caught in some kind of.. multidimensional pothole? A spacetime ditch?"

"Something like that. I heard you took part in the Glowing Planet campaign on behalf of some private outfit. Did you experience what happened at the end?"

Avanaeon's words immediately made Ves recall the temporal anomaly that emerged as the Mech Corps and the Mech Legion slugged it out with each other. He remembered the moment when one of the transports carrying a dimensional smoother loaned by the MTA got blown up by a misdirected missile!

The bizarre time loop that centered around the impact site scared the wits out of the hardened Brighter and Vesian soldiers! The two forces immediately ended their battle without a clear winner or loser in their desperation to escape the strange phenomenon that resulted out of their negligent actions.

According to the rumors that occasionally swirled around the galactic net, the temporal anomaly still existed to this date, looping time in an unending cycle that saw the missile impact the transport which caused it and its crew to be blown up into bits, only for the entire event to play back in reverse!

Forward and reverse, destruction and rebirth, this endless cycle might very well persist until the end of reality itself! Some even say that the people aboard the transport would forever live through the agony of experiencing rebirth and death without any way to escape their cruel and undeserved fate!

"Damn." Ves said as his mind began to conjure up all kinds of awful possibilities. "Well, it offers an explanation why the Starlight Megalodon can still persist in sandmen space, but doesn't that mean we won't be able to reach the battleship as well?"

"Their shuttles made it out, right? It took the descendants of the original crew of the battleship several hundred years, but they managed to slip out some shuttles. If these craft can get out, I bet the same channel or means can be used to get in, don't you think?"

It likely wouldn't be so simple or straightforward as that. Any channel that could stop a sandmen wouldn't be easy for humans to traverse.

Ves worried about what they might find at the end of their search. He already had to take into account the threat from sandmen, rivals, errant pirates, their uninvited guests, the Fourth Prince and his still-loyal expert pilot and now the spacetime anomalies as well. It was as if the entire galaxy opposed their mission!

"Finally!" The chief engineer erupted. "This custom scanner is finally penetrating through the surface layer! Come look at this, Ves! It's beautiful!"

They both resumed their preoccupation with figuring out the inner workings of stealth tech.

Over a period of several days, Ves devoted the majority of his time in juggling between theoretical models and broken samples of applied stealth tech.

It helped that his workload mostly subsided now that the Vandals largely completed their latest modification run. More than two-hundred landbound mechs received an extensive round of modifications and upgrades that sacrificed a little bit of performance in exchange for increasing their ability to endure crushing gravity!

The modified mechs combined with the heavy-duty gravitic backpacks should ensure that each mech gained a short one-hour period in which they suffered minimally from the effects of extreme gravity.

The only downside to their preparations was that once the gravitic backpacks ran out of energy, the mechs could barely move at all! The only role the modifications played was to ensure the mechs didn't sustain too much damage when they weren't covered by the protective umbrellas of their gravitic backpacks.

With the resources and means at hand, the Vandals couldn't do anything about it. They had to settle for what they could achieve and hope that would be sufficient for them to contend for the Starlight Megalodon's treasures when they finally reached her location.

The entire fleet somehow knew they neared the rumored foundered battleship. Word got out that it might be a matter of days or weeks before they arrived at the coordinates of the legendary capital ship.

What would they find? A ship crash-landed on a Super Earth-like planet? The Starlight Megalodon torn to pieces and strewn about over several light-years?

Imagination ran wild. Whatever they might encounter, the battle would start in earnest at that time.

They needed to be ready for anything, because they might have the fight of their lives on their hands.

During these tense days of travel, apprehension, and waiting, Ves made decent progress into deciphering the workings of modern stealth tech, at least the most rudimentary version of it common in the galactic rim.

Ves figured out large portions of the underlying mechanics behind each means of fooling a specific type of sensors. Electromagnetic, gravitic, sonar and etcetera all needed to be counteracted at the same time in perfect ways without any mutual interference.

It was like playing a complete orchestra song by playing five different musical instruments at the same time. Not only did each instrument had to be tuned right and played correctly, they all needed to be played on the same beat and in complete coordination with each other.

All of that needed to be accomplished by a single source!

The amount of multidisciplinary tech that the developers stuffed in the stealth shuttles astounded Ves and Avanaeon. The two engineers gained a new appreciation of how many functions could be stuffed inside a single package!

While they barely got a grip at understanding all of the tech, reproducing it proved to be a more difficult challenge. Ves could immediately tell that the most sophisticated components of the stealth shuttle such as the stealth plating couldn't be reproduced with a standard 3D printer.

To produce the plating, Ves needed to reproduce a similar kind of machine. He had no idea on how to begin with such a project. It sounded as ridiculous as fabricating an entirely new model of 3D printer from scratch.

While Ves made extensive use of them and even reconstructed a broken Dortmund printer, it didn't mean he could whip out production machines on the fly!

"We can't fabricate any new plating, but we don't have to." Ves told Avanaeon while they puzzled over the problem. He picked up one of the scorched and scratched fragments that they salvaged from the debris field back then. "We have sufficient stealth plating fragments here to piece together a new set of plating! While they're in poor condition, I think it's possible that we can restore them somehow. Restoration is easier than creation!"

Ves laid out a viable if difficult solution to go forward from here. The chief engineer considered it for a moment and reluctantly accepted it for lack of a better solution.

"Many of these fragments have scratches and tears in them. We need to see if we have enough relatively-intact portions to construct a full-sized shuttle."

Chapter 730

Ves enjoyed trying to figure out the underlying workings of stealth tech. It different remarkably from his study in ultracompact energy storage systems in that his previous side project entailed a deep dive into extremely narrow scientific subjects.

To develop his ultracompact batteries, he needed to become proficient in extremely advanced science that was way over his head in ordinary circumstances.

This was also why he suffered from so many headaches. The deeper and more profound he dove into the science, the more facts and substantiated theories made way for bold assertions and insufficiently backed beliefs.

While Ves eventually found a way to cope with the threat of mental contamination, he still would have liked to do without it hanging over his head.

Understanding stealth technology required a different approach.

Instead of diving in deeply in one or two very specialised subjects, Ves instead needed to read through a broad selection of shallow topics.

'Shallow' being a relative term here, because better applications of stealth tech utilized more profound sciences not inferior to the level utilized to make ultracompact batteries work.

The best way to view stealth tech was to see it as a fusion of different functions, each of them geared towards nullifying a different detection method. To get the most basic form of stealth tech working, they didn't need to be sophisticated, but they absolutely had to be able to work together in unison without a single hitch!

After all, what was the point of using optical camouflage to hide a stealth shuttle from plain view when an observation platform could switch from optical sensors to heat sensors?

To counteract this easy means, the stealth shuttle needed to incorporate heat absorption technology, so that it didn't radiate its heat like a furnace when it activated its stealth.

Yet even if a shuttle managed to hide itself from both optical and heat sensors, an observation platform would still be able to detect it by using other means, from sound pressure to detecting its mass.

While Ves and Avanaeon slowly became familiar with the standard solutions to solve each means of detecting something under stealth, the true difficulty revolved around stuffing it all in one small package.

Tying them all together involved a lot of auxiliary technologies such as miniaturalization and even a bit of energy compression!

Ves possessed a big advantage over Avanaeon in that he had access to much of the relevant literature from the Skull Architect. The chief engineer had to make due with scouring the local textbooks and academic journals in the ship's local database.

Because stealth technology was a restricted tech in the galaxy, the local database didn't allow any random person access to all of the core technologies needed to reproduce an application of stealth tech. Avanaeon encountered many roadblocks in his own research that he simply gave up his research and dedicated most of his available time to analyzing the salvaged fragments.

In this, the chief engineer found more success. He managed to decipher the structure and layout of the individual components. Even if he didn't understand the underlying theories why they were built that way, Ves stepped in at that moment to provide the missing link.

Still, even if they eventually managed to build up their base of knowledge, they still needed to fix up the fragments into a working product.

They quickly met with another problem when they tallied the exact condition of all the stealth plating, which was the most important component of the stealth shuttle.

"We don't have enough salvaged plating to reconstruct the original shuttle." Chief Avanaeon declared with a grim expression. "Initially, I thought we gathered more than enough duplicates to build a complete shuttle and have some fragments to spare, but if you look at their condition, then some of them are far worse off than others. If we cut out all the unrecoverable portions, then the healthier fragment that remains isn't enough to constitute sixty percent of the original shuttle."

The two of them stared at each other in silence.

"Then why not build a smaller shuttle?" Ves posed. "The Masters of Combat employed the original stealth shuttle as an assault vehicle meant for hostile boarding attempts. It's bigger and sturdier in order to convey as much

The chief engineer shook his head. "I already thought about that, but it's far harder than it sounds. The stealth plating is just one of the core components of stealth tech. There's all these other components that are buried in the guts of the shuttle that are essential to the systems as well. We can use less plating, but we can't skimp out on all the other necessary components. They're already as small as they can be, and it's impossible for us to compress them into a smaller size."

"What does that mean for us?"

"Well, if we design a smaller shuttle, it's going to come out with the internal makeup of a typical aircar. There's barely enough seating space for a couple of people while the rest of the shuttle frame is taken up by the power reactor, the sublight propulsion, the fuel tanks, the energy cells, the stealth components and you name it! The more we shrink the design, the less and less cargo and people it can actually carry."

That did sound like a significant problem. What was the point of a stealth shuttle if in the end it only possessed enough passenger capacity to transport a single dog?

Both of them knew that the original stealth shuttle model already did their best to miniaturize its components. A massive research and development team would be required to squeeze them into even smaller packages.

"Let's design a mockup of how this shuttle will look like." Ves proposed. "Even if we have to cut back on the cargo and passenger space, it doesn't really matter because we aren't looking to replicate a fully functional assault vehicle."

Ves actually bent the truth there. One of the biggest reasons why he was researching stealth tech in the first place was to create a potential means of escape.

The Starlight Megalodon attracted multiple different forces and possibly the sandmen as well. Ves envisioned a possibility in the future where they might be surrounded by enemies from without and within.

If the Flagrant Vandals and Lydia's Swordmaidens buckled under the pressure, Ves wanted to have access to a good means of escape, and what better than to board a shuttle that normal sensors wouldn't be able to detect!

In fact, the only sensors that could reliably detect the stealth shuttles were the stealth detection arrays that the Vandals built into their combat carriers and some of their Inheritor mechs.

While technically this meant that they'd be able to track down the escaping shuttle if Ves made off with it, if the fleet was already doomed then it hardly mattered anyway.

However, as Chief Avanaeon worked alongside for Ves on the same project for a while now, he eventually figured out why Ves showed so much enthusiasm. As opposed to Ves who considered it a matter of life and death, the chief engineer only treated it as an amusing distraction.

"Are you ready to desert us or something?" Avanaeon abruptly asked one day.

"No! Of course not!"

"Then why are you putting so much effort into getting this stealth shuttle to work?"

Ves knew he had to come clean to a point. "Because I'm rather insecure. You know this confidential mission stinks. How many light-years have we traveled from the Bright Republic? It's doubtful that we can even encounter a single Vesian in the deep frontier! Instead, we're off on a wild goose chase while contending against many other known and unknown threats. If you think about what we're up against, you'd want to leave an escape route out for yourself as well."

Avanaeon fell silent at that. He already knew subconsciously that the Flagrant Vandals engaged in an exceedingly threatening endeavor, but as a bona fide Vandal, his commitment to his fellow servicemen prevented him from harboring any cowardly thoughts.

"I can't blame you for harboring such thoughts. I don't want to agree with you, but..."

"Look, if nothing goes wrong, then the shuttle will remain here unused and untouched." Ves quickly added. "It's like building an extra escape pod. Building it will increase our chances and gives us extra options to survive a potential catastrophe."

"Alright, Ves. You've convinced me somewhat. Not entirely, but enough to let you proceed with what you're doing. I have a condition, though."

"Let me hear it." Ves requested.

"If you intend to build a working stealth shuttle as an escape vehicle, then I want in on it. We can co-design the shuttle and implement enough security locks so that it will take the both of us to activate it. This will allow both of us to get off the Shield of Hispania if she's about to fonder, while preventing either of us from lifting off prematurely before the other has made it to the shuttle. What do you think about this proposal?"

What Avanaeon offered was partially blackmail and partially a compromise. Ves hated to depend on others, and to put in the requirement that the stealth shuttle would only be able to start of both of them were physically present presented a major limitation in any possible escape plan.

It meant that the stealth shuttle would only be able to work if both Ves and Avanaeon made it to the shuttle bay alive!

Yet while Ves wanted to reject the proposal, he really had no choice but to accept. If Ves refused, Avanaeon could easily kick up a fuss and bring their project to the attention to Major Verle.

In addition, while Ves knew how to design a mech in his sleep, designing a shuttle was a different matter entirely. Avanaeon possessed a much deeper understanding of the inner workings of a shuttle.

He not only possessed the ability to reconstruct the original stealth shuttle if he had access to a sufficient amount of fragments, he also possessed the ability to reconfigure the original design in a smaller version that used up less fragments!

Ves valued the latter capability, but it was exactly this that no one else but Chief Avanaeon could accomplish!

For better or worse, they were both dependent on each other to complete the stealth shuttle project.

"Alright then, chief. You've got yourself a deal."

They shook hands on their little agreement.

With a mutual understanding between them, some of the barriers between their collaboration disappeared. The chief engineer even reshuffled his schedule and spent more time on the project in order to complete it in time.

After determining that they really couldn't proceed with the original shuttle design, they both pooled their skills together to come up with a rough sketch of a smaller version.

Their unique strengths meshed well with each other. Ves possessed an abundant amount of design experience which he used to guide the design process. Creating a new shuttle design based off an existing design sounded easy, but turned out to be an intimidating process to anyone else.

Avanaeon understood what each component did and how to put them together. However, just because he could explain the workings of a shuttle didn't mean he could design a new one. The act of designing required a special touch that only practiced designers possessed.

Therefore, the design that flowed from their hands truly couldn't have been put together by either of them alone. The draft design showed off a small, stubby shuttle that dealt with the limited amount of intact stealth plating in the most logical fashion possible.

"It kind of looks like a squashy cube." Ves remarked as they both took a step back to evaluate their sketch. "It doesn't even have a proper conal shape. I doubt this thing will even survive atmospheric entry."

Avanaeon shrugged. "While I admit it doesn't look very cool, it's structure is the most efficient configuration the simulations has found in terms of maximizing the amount of cargo and passengers it can carry."

"...You're not very good at art, are you?"

Chapter 731

Ideally, a good design involved both science and art. Good craftsmanship combined both components into a beautiful product that did the job in the most elegant fashion possible.

Their cubular-shaped shuttle design was anything but elegant. It was as blunt as a brick and flew like one.

That didn't matter much in space because the vacuum environment didn't care for concepts such as aerodynamics.

However, once the shuttle plunged into a terrestrial planet with a breathable atmosphere, this ugly cube shape became an absolute detriment to the shuttle's airworthiness.

"The original stealth shuttle is a lot more capable than what we've drawn because it has the space to incorporate all the necessary elements that make it airworthy." Avanaeon defended himself for choosing the form of a cube for their vehicle. "We have to make do with about half the volume. Just stop and consider how much of a detriment that really is. We need to work with half as much space, but we're unable to shrink down the essential components, of which there are many. So what choice do we have?"

"And that reasoning has led you straight to a cube?" Ves raised his eyebrow. "Why not go for a sphere while you're at it? Our shuttle can hardly look more ridiculous from there."

"The cube is perfect for our purposes. Let me explain." The chief engineer said, and summoned a small side projection to illustrate his train of thought. "So we have a set amount of fragments, but we want to maximize our shuttle's volume, because more volume means more space, right? The shape of a sphere as opposed to the traditional triangular cone allows us to use as little fragments as possible but allows us to stuff the most cargo inside. However, the curvature of the sphere itself poses lots of problems by itself. You know what I'm talking about, right?"

Ves knew what the man was getting at. "Yeah. A curved surface is a lot harder to hide than a flat surface. Every countermeasure needs to be adjusted by angle, and that requires an extremely powerful processor as well as very sophisticated algorithms. Otherwise you get that phenomenon where you see light bending around an optically camouflaged object."

Such an effect resembled the distortion people experience when they look at a plant that stuck out from the surface of a lake. The angle of the plant abruptly turned crooked at the edge of the water.

While the effect wasn't exactly the same, such kinds of imperfections would take place across the entire surface of a ball-shaped shuttle. While the problem could be remedied with further development, it required far too much expertise, manpower and time to get something like that done.

Rather than wrack their heads over trying to get a stealth ball to work, Avanaeon simply chose to go for a stealth cube instead.

"It's a matter of efficiency." The engineer explained with gusto. "Theoretically, a sphere has close to an infinite amount of sides. Even if we simplify it to, say, a hundred sides or so, that still requires the shuttle to make hundreds of extremely strenuous calculations at a time. While the surface area of each of the sides are rather small, because there are so many sides, it wastes a huge amount of processing power. More processing power demands more space and more energy, both of which we really can't afford to waste."

Ves nodded as he understood the crux of the matter. "On the other hand, a cube has six sides at most. Up down left right forward and back. So in theory, you only need to perform six calculations to account for six larger surface areas."

"Right! While that is still a strenuous demand, it is only a fraction of the amount of calculations the original processors of the stealth shuttle performed. Those stealth shuttles carried enough processing power around to run a basic simulation of the weather of a terrestrial planet!"

That was quite a lot!

"I see. If we cut the shape of the shuttle down to a cube, the savings in processing power will allow us to squeeze in a much smaller processing bank, thereby freeing up valuable space for other cargo, am I right?"

"Yes! And don't forget about the savings in energy consumption as well. Less calculations means our energy cells last longer."

Every argument Avanaeon put forth made logical sense. Ves really couldn't put down any of the engineer's design choice when his rational mind fully agreed with all of their underlying reasoning.

He still found the cube ugly, though.

Ves sighed. "Well, this cube-shaped shuttle isn't going to win any design or beauty awards, that's for sure. I'm glad we're only designing this for ourselves, because if we dared to put this on the market, we'd be laughed out of business!"

Completing this draft design made Ves realize that the role of art played a larger role in designing products than he realized. If a designer stripped away every consideration for beauty and elegance, they would be left with a bot-like approach that aimed to maximize the physical parameters of their designs without a single spark of creativity.

This approach may be adequate to their current situation, but it wouldn't fly in a commercial setting. The market expected better than machines that might as well be designed by AIs.

In any case, Ves reluctantly accepted Avanaeon's chosen shape and worked from there.

Taking the draft design as a starting point, they both began to refine the design. They performed precise calculations on what should go where. They worked away the imprecisions and filled up gaps with something concrete.

Deciding for a cube as their basic shape led to a large divergence from the original stealth shuttle model. The main difference between their homebrew version and the one utilized by the Masters of Combat was that the latter possessed the capability to enter the atmosphere.

Their cube plainly couldn't do so, which severely limited their options in case they needed to take refuge on the surface of a planet as opposed to another starship in space.

However, the silver lining of this design choice was that they could throw out all of the parts out of their design that only saw use when the shuttle flew in an atmospheric environment.

In fact, maximizing space while minimizing waste became the running theme of this escape shuttle. They threw out as much redundant parts as they could get away with, all in an attempt to squeeze in other necessities.

"If this is to be an escape shuttle, it has to be able to last in space for an extended period of time." Avanaeon insisted. "That means it should be completely self-sufficient in terms of air, water, food, energy, heat, vision and propulsion. These are the Basic Seven necessities of independent spacecraft."

The Basic Seven applied to virtually all spacecraft except for machines dependent on a mothership.

This meant that spaceborn mechs actually fell outside the Basic Seven's purview, though in practice they followed the guidelines anyway. The most obvious outcome was that each cockpit contained a small stash that stored a bunch of water bottles, nutrient packs and maybe oxygen tanks.

"We should also reserve some space for tools, spare parts, medical kits, communication gear, hazard suits, weapons, K-coins and more." Ves couldn't help but add. "There's no point in being left alone without any means to pick ourselves up again."

"That wishlist of yours will take up an awful lot of space, you know."

"It's a good thing we didn't give in to our vanity and chose to go for a cube-shaped shuttle, then." Ves idly joked. "Say, can we fit in an FTL drive as well?"

"What?!" Avanaeon almost spat out blood. "Impossible! Just because the CFA managed to fit an FTL drive into a shuttle doesn't mean that we can do the same! FTL drives are monstrous objects and even the smallest and weakest ones are the size of a full-sized cargo shuttle! Aside from that, FTL drives are gluttons for energy! To power one up and to keep it running long enough to reach another star system requires energy cells that are at least half as large as the FTL drive itself to my estimation!"

Okay, that basically ruled out this possibility.

"Okay, chief. It was just an idle thought."

Several days of intensive design work eventually resulted in a crude, artless design that stripped away everything without purpose and maximized every available scrap of space.

Ves did not feel proud of this collaborative design, but as long as it worked, his feelings shouldn't matter.

As Avanaeon admired the finished design, Ves spoke up at that moment.

"The shuttle design needs a name."

"Hmm.. I haven't thought of that. Normally, manufacturers don't bother naming their shuttles, especially the cheaper and more utilitarian ones. They just come in a string of codes."

"I think this shuttle deserves a proper name. Even if we only ever produce one copy of it, the design and every aspect of its construction is deliberately put together using our best judgement."

They both paused for a moment as they thought of an appropriate name.

"The Cube? The Cubinator? The Cubester? The Failed Sphere? The Six-Sided Dice?"

Ves palmed his face. "What kind of naming sense is that?!"

"Well, I don't see the point in giving the shuttle a fancy name. Since its shape is already blunt, why not give it a straightforward name to reflect its nature?"

After some deliberation, they eventually decided on naming their shuttle the Six-Sided Dice. It sounded a bit more sophisticated than calling it the 'Cube' or something.

Construction of the Six-Sided Dice began immediately after, though properly speaking they skipped a lot of necessary steps. Ves felt bad about hurrying the project along, because they spent way too little time on optimizing the design and inspecting it for potentially fatal flaws.

However, Ves had a feeling that it wouldn't take the Flagrant Swordmaidens too long to reach the much-sought-after coordinates of the Starlight Megalodon. Everyone else in the crew felt it too. The long days of travel would finally end!

In the meantime, though, the Vandals and the Swordmaidens constantly put their guard up whenever they dropped out of FTL. Due to the fact that they intruded into sandmen space, the allied fleet proceeding along the slowest but most casual route forward.

They navigated to red dwarfs only if there wasn't any viable choice. In their core space, the sandmen mostly ignored these anemic stars, and even if the sandmen settled them, the colony governors usually consisted of the most pathetic examples of their race.

Even if the Flagrant Swordmaidens intruded into such a star system, they didn't suffer much repercussion, though the sandman governor doubtlessly passed on their observations of the human fleet to the other sandmen leaders in their network.

In most cases, though, the fleet preferred to jump to the dimmest or the most uninteresting stellar objects imaginable such as old neutron stars and even black holes if they detected any, though naturally the fleet never came anywhere near the event horizon.

Brown dwarfs, the physically handicapped cousins of red dwarfs, became their favored target destinations. These retarded versions of proper stars were the dwarf versions of dwarf stars, smaller and less physically adept than red dwarfs which at least sustained proper thermonuclear reactions.

If a family of different stars showed up at a wedding, they'd leave out the brown dwarfs out of the group recordings, because that was how much of an embarrassment these stars really were. Some astronomers even called them failed stars because the absence of hydrogen fusion reactions make them really dim.

In navigational terms, many brown dwarfs still live in their parents or sibling's basement despite being adult stars. They formed binary pairs with proper stars and stayed that way forever until the normal star eventually reached the end of its lifespan or something happened to crash them together.

This was the equivalent of a brown dwarf waiting for its parents or siblings to die and inherit the mass they left behind to transform into proper stars. The brown dwarfs never worked properly for their entire lives, and only managed to shape up after cannibalizing the remains of its family.

The ultimate expression of losers among stars were two binary dwarfs spinning together in a single binary star system. The only redeeming factor between such a system was that if the two dwarfs merged together, a normal star might result.

In any case, the traits that made them so unattractive also turned them into the safest locations in sandmen space.

The only problem was that because they massed so light, it became exceedingly difficult to navigate them unless the fleet was already very close to them. In practice, this meant that the Flagrant Swordmaidens crawled their way forward, one agonizingly short jump at a time.

However, they weren't the only ones who utilized this strategy.

Chapter 732

On their emergence into a nameless binary brown dwarf system, the long-ranged sensors of the fleet lit up!

"Sir, our sensors have detected artificial mass signatures half an AU from our position!"

"Identify the signatures!"

It took some time for the sensors to resolve what they picked up. The longer it took, the more the Vandals relaxed a bit, because active threats usually radiated more heat and signals and therefore showed up clearer on the sensors than dead objects.

"It's a debris field, sir! Around eight shipwrecks have been identified, of which at least half are light carriers or equivalent. An unknown number of mech wrecks surround the foundered ships."

While the Vandals and the Swordmaidens remained vigilant, they largely failed to pick up any active ships or mechs. Whoever left these wrecks might have already departed the binary star system.

More details poured in as the Flagrant Swordmaidens cautiously approached the debris field in order to investigate its circumstances.

The sensor officer passed on more and more pertinent information. "The residual heat and energy radiating from the shipwrecks indicate that they were set upon less than a week ago, no more than three days from our arrival!"

That was close!

Everyone thought the same thing. Nobody really had a reason to dive into the deep frontier. Those who dared to trespass sandmen space were either extremely daring treasure hunters or sought another goal entirely.

Even then, space was big, so big that treasure hunters could be anywhere. To coincidentally stumble upon a recently created debris field with signs that the victors made it out a couple of days earlier suggested that the Flagrant Swordmaidens stumbled upon their rivals!

"It's not a coincidence." Ketis quietly whispered to Ves through her open helmet. "Only a small number of crazy treasure hunters ever have a reason to explore the deep frontier. Even then, they always go by lone ships instead of a fleet with a train of cargo haulers or transports."

In other words, the true daredevils tried to keep their ventures into the deep frontier as swift as possible and avoided burdens whenever they could.

Bringing along a couple of slow, fat and happy cargo haulers did not make for a sneaky fleet composition that could escape at the drop of a hat. The cheap, inferior FTL drives typically built into the engineering bays of cargo haulers generally took an extremely long time to cycle.

While a combat carrier could finish cycling their FTL drives in four hours or so if their engineers were good, a cargo hauler mostly took at least two hours more. The older and more aged the vessel, the more worn out its FTL drive became and the longer it took to finish a cycling process after transitioning back to realspace.

Even corvettes, generally regarded as the fastest proper starship class available on the market, brushed up against a hard limit of around three hours to complete its cycling process.

Therefore, bringing along a supply train of logistics and cargo ships was like shackling a fleet with a ball and chain. It slowed their entire progress down to a ponderous walk forward.

Nonetheless, larger fleets couldn't do without a supply train. Combat-oriented vessels such as combat carriers, light carriers and converted carriers devoted most of their internal volume to stashing mechs. On top of that, they needed to devote more space to essentials such as workshops, tools, spare parts and spare materials. Even then, the carriers couldn't carry a sufficient amount of supplies to keep the mechs in good condition for more than a month or two under normal use.

Therefore, a big force almost always carried along a necessary train of ships dedicated to resource processing, fabrication and storage.

In the worst case scenario, a combat fleet could always cut off their tail and run away by abandoning the slow and useless logistics ships.

However, the peculiar part about the debris field they detected was that it consisted of an even mix of combat and non-combat vessels. If all of the wrecked ships belong to the losing side, this meant that they never had the opportunity to flee.

The attackers ambushed the losing side when they least expected it! The battle occurred far too suddenly for the weaker side to split up!

Eventually, the fleet came close enough to pick up weak signals.

"We're detecting hundreds of faint signals, sir." The sensor officer said. "They are all spread out over the debris field. Many of them have drifted further and further from the center of the field."

"Have you identified the nature of the signals?" Major Verle asked, though from his tone he already suspected what they might be.

"The stronger signals predominately come from escape pods or ejected cockpits, while the weaker ones are likely broadcasted from vacuum-sealed hazard suits, vacsuits or suits of combat armor."

"The emergency broadcast signals always include whether the occupant of their vehicle or suit is dead or alive." Major Verle noted. "How many of those signals still claim that their occupants are alive?"

"No more than a dozen, sir."

"That's not a lot."

"Sir, I cannot explain why that is so. We need to employ our near-range sensors to obtain the necessary amount of resolution to resolve what has happened to the suits and escape pods. Right now, our primary optical sensors are being massively hindered by the fact the binary dwarf stars in this star system are some of the faintest we've ever encountered."

Optical sensors worked best at resolving detail at great distances, but they depended heavily on the amount of light being shone on the objects they observed. In weaker star systems, the effectiveness of their optical sensors degraded to the extent that they were pretty much flying blind in space!

"Have we received any transponder signals? Have we already deduced the identity of this fallen fleet?"

"According to the signals transmitted by the transceivers or transponders from the surviving craft or suits... they claim to be part of Chopra Interstellar Security, a large mercenary corps based out of Bentheim!"

That caused a huge wave of shock among the officers and operators in the command center. Bentheim! If the emergency transmissions weren't lying in order to obtain their sympathy, then they may have stumbled upon foundered citizens from their own state!

"How can there be Brighters all the way out here?!" Someone couldn't help but hiss nearby.

"Idiot! What else is there? These guys have also been tasked with finding the Starlight Megalodon!"

"Then how did they got intercepted right before they reached their goal?"

"Beats me. We'll find out later if there are any survivors left to interrogate."

Once the surprise died down, Major Verle remained silent and pensive as a number of considerations flitted through his mind. Eventually, he came to a decision.

"Please make haste towards the debris field. We Vandals have a duty to safeguard the lives of every citizen of the Bright Republic, no matter where we may appear! Let it not be said that we are callous towards our fellow enlightened brothers and sisters!"

That caused everyone to feel relieved. For a minute, some of them believed that Major Verle would instead choose to prioritize the mission.

Ves knew why Major Verle decided to direct the Vandals to go out of the way to rescue their fellow Brighters. Besides lifting the morale of his own subordinates, he likely wanted to hear the stories of the Choprans in person.

No mercenary corps randomly stumbled all the way out to the deep frontier for a pirate hunting mission or something.

Even with two stars in the same star system, the dim light emitted from both brown dwarfs simply made it hard for everyone to do their jobs. Ves in particular had nothing to work with because with the optical sensors down, he needed to rely on alternative sensors to identify the mech wrecks strewn about along the debris field.

The sharpest sensors he had access to told him nothing more than the approximate mass of each object. That only enabled him to classify the wrecks by weight class, nothing else.

"This is really pointless." He sighed when he stared at his projected control panel and how little details it displayed. "I could have spent hours tinkering on my side project, but because the alert is still active we're forced to stay at our posts."

Ketis on the other hand entertained herself when Ves assigned her to read up the limited amount of intelligence the local database contained about the mercenaries.

"Hey teacher! These Choprans are really good at their job. They started just thirty years ago when a band of discharged veterans from your Mech Corps pooled their savings together to lease a couple of cheap mechs and a ramshackle converted carrier. They immediately started taking small-time contracts, completing them one after another until they slowly spent their earnings back into expanding their mechs and their roster. This went on for three straight decades until they grew to the point where they fielded a hundred-and-twenty mechs!"

It sounded like a typical rags-to-riches story to Ves, though Mech Corps veterans had a tendency to be successful in their transition to a private sector career as long as they remained physically fit.

"There's two details that stand out from that summary." He said. "First, inspect their mission records. Have they ever failed a contracted?"

Ketis peered through the abbreviated record. "This record isn't very detailed, but it doesn't state anything about outright failures. It did say that the Choprans fell short of fulfilling the terms of their contract, though. The partial failures weren't enough to earn them any red marks from the Mercenary Association."

"That's impossible! There's no way a mercenary corps that has operated longer than I've been alive can maintain a near-perfect mission record! Look at the issuers of the missions. Are the Choprans working for the same employers?"

"Uhmm... I don't see anything except a whole bunch of boring corporate names. There's rarely any duplicates either. They always accept a contract from a different company after they are done with the last one."

"Hmm.." Ves tapped his lips with his finger. "The fact that they have traveled all the way up to this star system in the deep frontier practically screams to me that they owe their success to their backers. Hmm, does it state which bank or financial institution facilitated their initial loans and leases?"

"According to the record, it's some bank based in Bentheim called the Yellow Fox Bank."

"That's probably the arm of their backers, but I'm not too sure. Take note of it anyway."

Yellow Fox Bank. He'd remember that.

It was too bad the local database didn't offer anything more than a stub when he searched for it. He needed to access the galactic net to obtain more information, but in this exceedingly sensitive time with the entire fleet at high alert, Ves would never be able to obtain permission from Major Verle to establish an outside connection for information gathering purposes.

As the Flagrant Swordmaidens drew closer, the lack of any open threats pushed them into a more vigilant stance. What if enemy mechs hid amid the debris? What if they coasted towards them on a ballistic trajectory, pretending to be loosely-spinning chunks of slag? What if some mechs under stealth attempted to creep up to them at this very moment?

Therefore, the Vandals intensified their patrols, not even hesitating to put up half of their available spaceborn assets into orbit around their ships. Inheritors augmented with stealth detection arrays continuously scanned each possible angle of approach.

Nothing turned up. The battlefield seemed eerily quiet and absent of any activate threat. Not even mines or boobytraps made a surprise appearance.

They found nothing but broken ships, broken mechs and maybe broken dreams. The frontier had a way of chewing out everyone who entered it like an endless abyss.

As much as roaming the frontier sounded like a risky prospect where catastrophe lurked in every corner, Ves began to enjoy it actually.

While most of the Vandals aboard the Shield of Hispania started to behave jumpy and apprehensive, Ves acted more like Ketis, who treated this foray into the deep frontier as nothing more than an interesting vacation.

The frontier was exceedingly dangerous. Ves couldn't deny this fact. Yet he felt liberated by the absence of structure and law. He could do almost anything he wanted without repercussions. The only requirement one needed to possess in order to survive out here was to be strong.

Ves couldn't help but be attracted to such a harsh but self-sufficient philosophy.

Chapter 733

Whoever attacked Chopra Interstellar Security fleet did a fairly hasty job at cleaning up the battlefield. As the Flagrant Swordmaidens finally reached close enough to resolve some actual details from the debris field, they quickly obtained more details.

The first observation was that the winner of the battle looted all the easily-accessible valuables. Intact containers, stores of spare materials, semi-complete mechs and more were in very short supply.

In addition, the winners executed every Chopran survivor within easy reach or detection. A large amount of broken escape pods, scraps of frozen biological material free floating in space and more strongly indicated that an indiscriminate massacre took place.

However, the continued existence of more than a hundred escape pods, many of which boosted far away from their ships, indicated that the victors of the battle hadn't been too thorough. They only picked the low-hanging fruit before they decided to move on. Ultimately, finding the Starlight Megalodon was more important than processing the entire debris field.

"There's nothing worth salvaging in the debris field." Ketis opined. As a member of a pirate gang, she had a keen eye for salvage. Picking up free goods from floating debris field was every pirate's specialty. "The easy stuff that's easy to recover and turn into something valuable has already been taken away. I can immediately tell an old hand in the business is responsible by the way the debris field is cleaned up. Pirates are involved."

Ves trusted her judgement. "We'll know for certain once the rescue teams have picked up the survivors. Really though. Of all the possible outfits we could meet in our journey into the deep frontier, why did we encounter a mercenary corps from my own state? How many possible outfits and influences are actually involved in the search for the Starlight Megalodon?"

The possible answers he came up with unsettled him. He really did not like the implications of their encounter with the remnants of Chopra Interstellar Security.

At the very least, their previous encounter with the remnant survivors of a doomed fleet could be chalked to coincidence. Only the most suspicious Vandals believed the Fourth Prince and Venerable Xie schemed against the Vandals from the start.

They couldn't dismiss the presence of the Choprans with the same excuse, though.

Search and rescue teams deployed from the Swordmaidens and the Vandals.

The Swordmaidens mostly spent their efforts on 'searching' and 'rescuing' any loot and valuables the previous looters hadn't been able to retrieve. All Ves could say about their behavior was that they sure had their priorities straight.

The Vandals on the other hand were in no mood to raid the rotting corpse of what used to be an upstanding Brighter mercenary corps. The personnel rolls of Chopra Interstellar Security numbered in the hundreds, and the overwhelming majority of its people hailed from the Bright Republic.

The fact that Chopra, like many mercenary corps, began as a private venture between a band of veterans from the Mech Corps hit the Vandals fairly hard. Which Vandal didn't dream of starting a second career in the private sector?

Because the tragic fate of Chopra was so relatable, the Vandals all put their full efforts into spreading out their mechs and shuttles towards rescuing as many escape pods and free floating Choprans they could find.

Most could easily be tracked down by their active transponders, but some became so terrified by the thought of being hunted down by whoever defeated them that they disabled the transponders and any other emergency signallers.

The Vandals managed to locate a portion of these paranoid folk, but they probably missed tens of Choprans who hid their signature behind pieces of debris or the like. Their own efforts at minimizing their chances of detection inexplicably doomed them from any chance of rescue, as the Vandals couldn't afford to stick around forever.

The Starlight Megalodon beckoned.

As survivors and frozen corpses trickled in, security officers trained in interrogation and investigation questioned the first coherent Choprans they managed to get their hands on. Through these preliminary talks, they finally found out which outfit was responsible for dooming the mercenary corps to dust and ruin!

"They got shanked by an independent pirate gang called the NIN."

"NIN? What kind of name is that? What does it stand for?"

"Beats me, but get this, the Choprans originally banded up with the NIN!"

"Then how come they came to blows in this star system? Aren't they allies?"

"Well obviously the NIN had a change of heart, because they ambushed the Chopran patrol mechs with precision attacks planned beforehand!"

The gossiping Vandals quickly fell silent after hearing the latest rumors. The gravity of the situation didn't escape the servicemen. If the so-called NIN could turn their coats and turn their weapons against Chopra, then what if history repeated itself?

A few days ago, the NIN backstabbed the Choprans. Today, Lydia's Swordmaidens may as well turn their swords against the Flagrant Vandals!

Ketis scrunched up her nose when she saw how the Vandals all became vigilant in her presence. She pressed her fists against her hips. "Really now! Do you think we're really the same as the NIN? I've heard of those bunch of losers. They're a bunch of frontier scum! They don't have a single honorable bone in their bodies!"

"For what it's worth, I believe in the Swordmaidens." Ves backed her up, though whether he actually believed in his own words was another matter. He cared more about keeping himself in her good books right now. "From the early accounts we've received, the NIN predominantly took the Choprans by surprise by a massed ranged attack. The Swordmaidens won't be able to take us by surprise that way because most of their spaceborn mechs are sword wielders! If they ever have any evil intentions, we'd at least see them coming."

Ketis frantically nodded her head. "Yeah! Even though we have a couple of ranged mechs in our lineup, what can we do with them? They're not even enough to take down a single combat carrier! You Vandals already outnumber and outgun us from the start. There's no way we can win against you even if we launch a surprise attack."

This still didn't preclude other forms of betrayal, such as leaving the side of the Vandals just as they engaged against a formidable opponent. However, Ves didn't mention all of those possibilities because this line of questioning only led to excessive paranoia.

He already had enough potential threats on his plate. He didn't need to add one more. For some reason, the Swordmaidens gave Ves a good feeling. They were remarkably plain and honest about their intentions. None of them except Commander Lydia seemed to be the type who looked capable of performing subterfuge.

The Vandals picked up two notable Chopran cadres from the debris field. They found one ejected cockpit that preserved the life of Captain Fez Murtadon, one of the senior leaders of Chopra Interstellar Security!

His rescue presented Chopra with the hope for rebirth, because Captain Murtadon could take charge over all of the remaining assets of the mercenary corps left behind in the Bright Republic.

The search and rescue teams found another notable survivor from an escape pod ejected early in the battle, and therefore strayed a lot further away from the debris field than the other pods.

This didn't say anything good about the occupant, but when the Vandals interrogated the flighty Chopran, they found out that he was a mech designer!

The man didn't know much about the actual attack, though he had been a helpful source about the military might of the NIN. After several hours of interrogation, Ves had been invited to have a chat with the fellow.

"Why me?"

"Because you're a mech designer." A security officer garbed in heavy combat armor gruffly replied. "You mech designers are a species in itself. Sometimes we miss stuff that other mech designers find important. Just talk with the fellow and see if you can fish for any information. It doesn't matter if all we hear is duplicate of what he has already told us, but keep his mouth moving so that we can get a more precise read on his bearing. That will help us figure out which parts he's been a bit hazy with the truth."

"Alright. What will happen with the mech designer after we finish the interrogations?"

The security officer sighed. "He'll have to stay in custody with the rest of the Choprans. Even with our shared background, the Mech Corps has already taken them off their rolls. Brighter or not, they'll have to remain in the brig for the foreseeable future."

Ves couldn't blame the Vandals for doing so despite the disservice it represented to the surviving Choprans. The Vandals had their own mission to pursue, and it was probably very likely that the Choprans and the Vandals possessed different backers. Of course the Vandals would never allow the Choprans to succeed in whatever they came out here to accomplish.

After entering into a small, plain compartment configured into an interrogation room, Ves sat himself down on the only available seat. On the other side of the table sat the surviving mech designer of the Choprans.

He was older than Ves expected. The mech designer appeared a little haggard in his Chopran brown uniform, as if the Vandals hadn't bothered to clean him up after pulling him out of his escape pod. The man looked to be someone in his mid-fifties and his face betrayed a tinge of Asiatic heritage.

The mech designer completely ignored Ves when he entered. Instead, he desperately munched on the raw semi-solid contents of a nutrient pack. The man occasionally stopped his frantic eating by sipping his glass of water.

Ves looked at the man in bemusement. He had never seen someone so eager to eat the contents of a stale, decades-old nutrient pack.

He decided to push this conversation along.

"My name is Ves Larkinson. I am the temporary head designer of this task force. Would you like to introduce yourself?"

The man wearily diverted his attention from his meal. "Eric Kichiro, Novice Mech Designer. I used to serve in the Mech Corps as well, you know. I survived the last Bright-Vesia War against all accounts. Horrible time. Horrible. Horrible."

"Okay, Eric." Ves respect for the man had gone up a bit. Any low-level mech designer who survived the war possessed a decent head on their shoulders at the very least. "Before we begin, can I ask why you're so eager to eat right now? Shouldn't you have access to enough nutrient packs in your escape pod?"

Eric violently shook his head. "No! I mean Yes! My pod did have a stash, but I never expected to be rescued so soon. This binary brown dwarf star system is so far away from any human presence that the odds of being rescued by another human force is small! I tallied the available supplies and drew up a rationing scheme that stretches them out for a month! Unfortunately.. The Choprans never invested much in their escape pods. It lacks the ability to recycle oxygen and water. I run out of oxygen first before I run out of food and water."

It sounded like Eric suffered from a severe case of cabin fever. The poor mech designer must have obsessed about his supplies for hours on end ever since his pod ejected from its doomed ship.

"Look, you're safe now. You're among the Flagrant Vandals, and while we might not be the famed Volari Starhawks or the Infernal Hellhounds, we're not pushovers either. Tell me, what was your position at Chopra Interstellar Security?"

"Hng.. I needed a job and the Choprans offered to hire me. Even though they paid less than some of the other gigs I used to hold, they don't expect me to do much either. The Choprans all rely on commercial mechs bought from reputable sellers on the market. As the only real mech designer in the mercenary corps, I've been tasked with ensuring their quality and designing minor tweaks and modifications at the mech pilot's requests. The most involved I've ever been in my job is when we needed to repair a heavily-damaged mech."

In other words, it didn't sound any different from what low-ranking mech designers already did in the Mech Corps.

"You're the most senior mech designer in the mercenary corps?"

"Yes. The Choprans can't afford anyone better, and they don't really need one either. It's not economical for them to develop their own mechs when a lot of good mech models are already available on the market."

"I see."

Ves found it rather regretful that Eric decided to coast along in the latter part of his career. If he showed some more drive and initiative, he could have leveraged his previous service into applying for a more challenging job that allowed him to develop his mech design skills.

As it was, the man would likely remain a Novice for the rest of his life.

"Alright, enough about yourself. Tell me about the NIN. How did they overwhelm you Choprans so fast?"

Chapter 734

Eric Kichiro's eyes visibly contracted when Ves mentioned the NIN.

A haunted man always became frightened when their ghosts came back to torment them. While Ves didn't wish to open up old wounds, he needed to hear the whole story from the mech designer.

"The NIN, Mr. Larkinson?"

"Call me Ves."

"You are kind of young, now that I think about it. How come you're the head designer? Did the other guy lost his head or something?"

"...Something like that." Ves grimaced. "Please answer the question. This isn't about me right now."

"Ah, my apologies Ves.." Eric looked a little uncertain towards Ves. A head designer should at least be a Journeyman, but the older man sensed the vibe of an Apprentice instead. It confused him a bit. "Well, you'd probably hear this from every Chopran you pick up from the battlefield, but the NIN are extremely unpleasant to be around."

"How so?"

"The NIN.. well.. they fulfill almost every stereotype of a pirate you can imagine. They're almost universally poorly educated and exhibit bad hygiene, no forethought and a violent disposition. Chopra should have never gone to bed with these ill-kempt brutes and thugs!"

"Then why did you Choprans ally yourself with these pirates in the first place?"

"..I don't know." Eric shrugged. "The bosses of the corps all announced their decision one day. It's not like the rank-and-file or someone from support like me have a say in the decision making."

"There must have been rumors. Suspicions. Whispers. Did someone else put the Choprans up to this marriage?"

Eric's eyes suddenly grew sharper. He kept his mouth shut, as if he was aware that he faced an interrogation.

After Ves stared back for a while, he understood that Eric didn't wish to snitch on his employers. Ves would leave this line of questioning to professionals, though they likely already pulled the answers from someone else's mouth.

"Okay, let me ask something different, then. From what I've gathered, the NIN is an independent pirate gang. Are you sure they aren't a part of one of the two major pirate blocs in this region?"

"I don't think so." Eric shook his head. "I don't hear a lot of things, but I never heard of the NIN cooperating with anybody. If you see them for yourselves, you'll know why. I think they're the cockroaches of among the pirates. They're numerous but filthy and individually weak."

"Does the Dragon Alliance or the Ravienne Alliance ring a bell to you?"

"No."

"Tell me about the attack itself. How have the NIN been able to jump on your forces?"

"We were careless." Eric let out a deep breath. "When we initially banded together with the NIN, we didn't get along at all. They're thugs more than anything. We Choprans pride ourselves on our professionalism, so a lot of the rank-and-file immediately began to protest to the brass. We hated the NIN and didn't want to do anything with them. I think many of us had their fingers on the triggers."

"And then?" Ves prodded.

"Well, nothing happened. The brass insisted that we give the NIN a chance. We did. The friction hadn't gone down at all. Fights would break out whenever we gathered in the same place. Their joyriding mech pilots aggressively plunge their mechs close to ours when we are on patrols. All these incidents hammered home the fact that the NIN are a bunch of highly impulsive hooligans. Perhaps the only merit to them is that they know the lay of the land of the frontier really well. We never jumped to any dangerous star systems until we arrived here."

"If you Choprans continued to get along poorly with the NIN, how come you managed to restrain yourselves?"

"The mercenary corps is owned by the bosses." Eric declared. "They tell us what to do and we have no choice but to follow orders. They're not exactly keen on fostering initiative from the lower ranks. We had all been accustomed to gritting our teeth and following orders we don't like. Trying to make peace with the NIN is just another bad order to add to the pile."

"Seems like this bad order should have received a lot more scrutiny."

"Oh, many of us did in fact continue to put up our guard against the NIN. We've traveled together for months without a major incident blowing up in our faces, and while some of us started to let them their guard, a large minority never really became convinced of their docility."

"If a large part of you Choprans remained suspicious, how come you lost the battle so totally and completely?"

"The NIN outnumber us. It's as simple as that. None of their mechs and ships are worth a damn. The best of their machines are at least second-hand castoffs, and the worst are third-hand junk scavengers have salvaged, patched up and sold to the NIN for a pittance. The only advantage that they have is that they outnumbered us more than three-to-one. None of us thought that was a huge issue, though. They may have the numbers, but we have the quality. I should know since I inspected each and every mech in our lineup."

Ves requested some of the details on the mechs. According to Eric, the Choprans mostly fielded mechs in the 20 million bright credit range, while the NIN overwhelmingly fielded mechs in the 4 million credit range.

Therefore, the total worth of the Chopra fleet should have surpassed the total worth of the NIN fleet.

Yet the force that fielded vastly more mechs won the battle in a landslide.

"A large reason why we fell so early is because the NIN ambushed us out of the blue. While we kept our fleets separated at what we thought was a healthy distance, the NIN mostly fielded spaceborn frontline mechs armed with laser barrels. Laser weapons are a lot more forgiving at longer ranges than weapons that employ physical projectiles. Even though our mechs followed a routine evasion pattern when on patrol, the NIN must have spent hours deciphering their movements and predicting where they should aim. Halfway through the cycling processes of our FTL drives, the pirates struck."

The initial volley hit over half of the Chopran mechs on the field. Most of them got hit so many times by laser beams that they all suffered some debilitating damage. Subsequent hits quickly finished them off.

Upon this sudden ambush, the Choprans failed to respond fast enough to defend themselves. With half of their patrol mechs going down in quick succession, the other half belatedly tried to organize themselves.

It didn't help that the NIN deliberately aimed most of their laser weapons at the officers of the mercenary corps!

"Mechs in reserve on our carriers sortied out as fast as they could, but the NIN mechs quickly turned their firepower towards our ships. They're light carriers. They're large and purpose-built to transport mechs, but they were never meant to withstand the combined firepower of over a hundred frontline mechs! Our ships succumbed one by one before we could push out the rest of our reserves from the hangar bays!"

Ves sympathized with their fate. Despite the vigilance of their rank-and-file, much of the Choprans simply became used to the antics of the NIN. They became used to traveling alongside the ill-behaved pirates and therefore became less psychologically prepared to respond to a possible betrayal.

None of the lower ranks deserved any blame. Whether they eyed the NIN with caution or not, they had to follow the instructions from the top. The only thing Ves couldn't figure out was why the leaders were so blind to the possible dangers.

"Who leads Chopra?"

"The mech officers, mostly." Eric replied. "Chopra is run by a council of them that included descendants of the original founders as well. The council takes a long time to agree on anything, and what they do decide is usually the most careful decision out of their range of choices."

Basically, while the top officers wielded a lot of power, their subordinates had no say in the running of the mercenary corps. Such a top-down management style echoed the way the military liked to run their units.

The difference was that each military unit was part of a larger unit. They also benefited from a range of advisory and support services.

A private sector outfit on the other hand mostly had to make do with their own strength and capabilities. Perhaps they deserved to be proud of their military strength, but what about vital services such as intelligence gathering or technical support?

It was obvious that Chopra Interstellar Security devoted insufficient resources into a proper intelligence gathering network that could have sniffed out the NIN's impending betrayal.

Ves knew that a mercenary corps often compensated for the lack of these services by relying on the varied talents of their lower ranks. Each of them were intelligent beings in their own right. Granting them a bit of autonomy and say in the mercenary corps allowed them to contribute their other talents to their cause.

Though running a mercenary corps with a bottom-up or grassroots approach risked a lot of chaos or indecision, most independent corps actually ran in this matter. Every upstanding mercenary felt appreciated because their opinions mattered.

It sounded like Chopra could have dearly benefited from listening to their lower ranks instead of the higher officers who isolated themselves in their ivory towers.

"Have the NIN ever hinted or revealed why they might set upon you Choprans?" Ves asked. "It's rather incomprehensible for your erstwhile allies to turn against you before you reached your destination. I mean, the only reason for a mercenary corps and a pirate gang to band together would be to pool your strengths."

In the case of the Flagrant Swordmaidens, the Vandals provided the muscle while the Swordmaidens lent their familiarity to the frontier. Both of them couldn't do without the other, so they had a comfortable basis of cooperation that neither side wanted to ruin.

Ves surmised that the partnership between Chopra and the NIN lacked such a mutual recognition. Obviously, the NIN decided they wouldn't be much worse off if they dumped the Choprans.

"The NIN never really liked us. Each time we gather together, they make their disdain for us very clear. They all think we're too stuck-up and rigid for their tastes." Eric answered, thereby confirming some of what Ves had come up with. "Our bosses kept insisting to give the NIN a break, that they can't help their own boorishness. We.. never managed to do so. As mercenaries, we've gone on a lot of missions that compel us to fight against pirates. None of us have ever met a decent pirate in our lives, so you can imagine how awful it was for us to try to get along with some of the worst examples of pirates in the galaxy."

The two chatted a bit more about the pirates. Eric helpfully supplied Ves with an analysis of the frontline mechs utilized by the NIN in their devastating surprise attack.

The information wasn't very helpful, though. The mechs the NIN employed were so cheap and simple that they contained no depth at all. Their designs possessed little ingenuity and even less imagination, and they carried no other special features than the bare minimum of what a mech ought to possess.

"That's frontline mechs for you." Eric muttered with the sage of a mech designer who managed to survive the previous war. "The NIN may be bastards, but they're very cunning and effective when it matters. They unleashed their ambush in almost perfect coordination with no inherent confusion or hesitation at all. That tells me that they're being led by a strong leader. It takes a lot of leadership ability to wrangle this horde of wild animals."

Besides this detail, Eric didn't have a lot to say about the NIN. At some point, Ves decided he heard enough. Even as a mech designer, his status with the mercenary corps was equivalent to a chief technician. The real decision makers at Chopra never pulled him into any of their discussions.

As Ves was about to leave, he asked one more question. "Do you wish to pass along anything else to us?"

The Chopran mech designer sat up straighter in his chair. Yeah. I've got some advice for you, Ves. Take it as a friendly tip from one fellow mech designer to another."

"Let me hear it, then."

"If you ever find yourself in a situation like mine, don't trust anybody. Just run. The earlier you bail out, the greater the chance you escape the net that is closing in on your allies. It is a mech pilot's duty to fight to the death, but it is a mech designer's duty to save their own hide! Cowardice is a virtue for our profession! As non-combatants, we have no role on the battlefield!"

Ves almost gaped. He didn't know what to say about that.

"Okay. I'll take that into account. Good day, sir."

Chapter 735

Once the Flagrant Swordmaidens finished sweeping the debris field of survivors and incidental loot, they traveled to the outer edge of the system and immediately transitioned into FTL.

The longer they stayed in realspace, the more they became susceptible to attacks.

Even though FTL travel introduced a slight, unsettling feeling in the back of everyone's minds, they vastly preferred it to being out in open space for anyone and anything to jump at their fleet.

As more stories from the bedraggled and recovering survivors of Chopra Interstellar Security proliferated among the crew, everyone grew more conscious of the dangers that could befall them. Who knew if the Swordmaidens suddenly changed their mind? The idea that they might turn their coats rarely crossed their minds after a few weeks of perfect cooperation, but now the Vandals received an awful shock that woke them up.

What stopped their allies from turning into their enemies?

Paranoia rang rife throughout the ship, and it only subsided after the shock wore off. Still, the Vandals never regained their prior confidence.

Seeing the effects on the crew made Ves think that Major Verle deliberately leaked the contents of the discussions. The Vandals had indeed been a little too comfortable in their skin lately. While they exhibited the right amount of caution against outside threats, they developed a blind spot against the Swordmaidens, who didn't really act like the stereotypical pirates.

Properly speaking, Ves would rather call the Swordmaidens outlaws. While they engaged in piracy here and there, they weren't as feral and undisciplined as the NIN. In fact, they were actually the opposite.

The MTA and CFA mainly drove the use and popularization of the word 'pirates' in order to paint every deviant force not under their purview under a single brush. 'Pirates' became a lot scarier to normal folk whether they raided and pillaged every second day or only wandered in uncontrolled space because they hid from powerful enemies.

"Everyone learns that it's a bad idea to engage in any business with pirates. Hell, it's even dangerous to be in the same room as them! All of this demonization is artificially creating a division between lawful and unlawful people."

Ves found it funny because outlaws existed in civilized space as well. Gangs, rebel movements, dark mercenaries and more ruled the underbelly of civilized space. Some of them committed many more crimes than pirates, but they usually escaped the notice of the authorities.

Instead, only pirates specifically received the distinction of becoming everyone's bogeymen.

"Granted, it's probably a good idea to remain prudent against anyone calling themselves pirates. They're still capable of killing you or robbing you blind."

Perhaps the most fault that could be laid at the feet of the Swordmaidens was that they practiced slavery to an extent. They had no qualms in kidnapping technically adept men and send them off to a processing facility to brainwash them into permanent obedience.

The CFA used to send out warfleets to squash these egregious violations of one of humanity's core values. The spread and normalization of slavery among humans shouldn't be tolerated because aliens might pick up the habit as well.

In any case, the Vandals quickly turned to normal after a few days. As Ketis had mentioned earlier in her outburst, the Swordmaidens primarily utilized sword-wielding mechs. In addition, their spaceborn mech contingent paled in comparison to their landbound roster. The power disparity between the two forces tilted heavily towards the Vandals, at least when it came to spaceborn combat.

The Vandals realized they possessed sufficient strength to disregard many threats. This was the benefit of fielding a strong force!

"Besides, Commander Lydia would never double-cross you all." Ketis explained in the office after Ves conducted another lecture on designing mechs for the market. "We built up a reputation for making friends and sticking to our deals. We'd ruin our reputation if we turn against you all of a sudden. All of our friends will no longer be friends and no one will dare to do business with us. We'll be grouped in the same category of scum as the NIN!"

"Keeping up a good diplomatic front must be exhausting for your Swordmaidens. I would have thought there is a lot of infighting among pirates." Ves remarked as he leaned back in his chair.

"There is! We get into fights all the time! But there's a difference between annihilating a rival gang and having a tussle or two. A lot of fights between pirates begin with a lot of smack talk and boasting. Then we come to blows and someone gets knocked out or some mechs become crippled. After that the losers acknowledge that the others are better and get to leave."

Ves furrowed his brows. "That doesn't really sound like a battle. That's more akin to posturing. The only thing at stake is reputation, right?"

"Reputation is our lifeline. Crowds part when we approach. Random pirates will choose to go elsewhere rather than provoke us. We've built quite a rep among the independent pirates! It's not very helpful when we go against pirates from the pirate blocs, but that's the frontier for you!"

Ves eagerly listened to her tales on how Lydia's Swordmaidens managed to survive and thrive in the dangerous frontier. The more he heard about their conduct, the more he realized that Commander Lydia may be one of the shrewdest leaders in the Faris Star Region.

Her decisions and her strategies became food for his thoughts as Ves contemplated his own future plans.

The more he became familiar with the frontier, the more he became enamored by it. If he ever came back home, he wanted to set up his Shadow Force as an element that swam in the currents of the frontier like a shark that belonged.

He wasn't content with setting up the Shadow Force as a hidden knife only to be employed when Ves needed to get rid of someone. He wanted them to be a force to be reckoned with, and become so rooted in the web of connections of the frontier that no one would tie their existence back to him. Going for the diplomatic route beat acting like a hooligan in his books.

Once he finished his usual routine of rushing through his duties and spending some time to guide Ketis on formulating her design philosophy, he devoted most of his efforts to completing the abomination that was the Six-Sided Dice.

Chief Avanaeon knew ships like the back of his hand, so he did most of the hard lifting in terms of fabricating and assembling the internal ship components.

The cube-shaped shuttle called for custom designs of every essential shuttle part such as the power reactor or sub-light propulsion. Avanaeon took standard shuttle designs but heavily tweaked them in order to take up the least amount of space even if it cost them in terms of performance.

The chief engineer also became responsible for reproducing some of the internal stealth components that blocked indirect means of detection such as detecting their mass.

Ves on the other hand became responsible for only one important task, by far the most important one. His duty was to take the salvaged stealth plating fragments, cut off the non-working bits and restore the portions that did work but only partially.

It was difficult, tedious and incredibly time-consuming work. The job needed to be done by someone with a good grip on precision machinery and so couldn't be done by anyone else but Ves.

The first day of performing this task made Ves wanted to tear his hair out!

"This is so frustratingly finicky!" He shouted. "It's like trying to find a needle in a haystack, but once I found one, I have to find ninety-nine more needles before I'm done for the day!"

Restoring the functioning of the stealth plating pretty much entailed restoring the functioning of the alloys and systems integrated within and between the individual layers. Stealth plating differed from regular alloy plating in that the latter usually consisted of sandwiches of solid alloy while the former consisted of a mosaic of geometric materials.

Kind of like a chameleon's skin, but shrunken down to an extremely small scale.

Nonetheless, while Ves felt bored to tears at performing such repetitive work, doing the same thing over and over enabled him to learn some tricks to speed up his progress. He became increasingly proficient in the procedure to the point he completed one 'side' of the cube in two days.

It took a bit less time to complete the second side. Even less for the third side. By the time he completed the last side, he managed to become so productive he only needed a little more than a single day to complete the last side.

After restoring and reshaping the long-neglected fragments six vaguely-uniform sheets stealth plating in the form of nearly identical squares, Ves began to test and adjust their workings while he waited for Avanaeon to finish his part of the construction.

"Why are you taking so long, chief?"

"Hah! You don't know anything, Ves! A regular shuttle might be as simple to make as a chair to us, but when it comes to our Six-Sided Dice, almost every aspect of it is custom-designed! We're practically building the equivalent of a custom mech!"

Ves understood the analogy. "You have a point. I keep thinking that this is a rather simple shuttle aside from the inclusion of the stealth systems, but it's really more than that. The Six-Sided Dice is a unique creation!"

It was something lesser than an assault shuttle but greater than an aircar. Its spec sheet looked rather dismal, but the fact that it stuffed enough systems to activate a pretty good form of stealth immediately redeemed all of its inadequacies.

As the Flagrant Swordmaidens slowly progressed deeper into sandmen space, Ves and Avanaeon rushed to complete the Six-Sided Cube. The project had become something of a labor of love for them, as this unique creation definitely boggled the mind in a fashion.

If they possessed the proper licenses for all the parts they utilized, then they could have made a fortune by selling it! Yet the design was destined to remain obscure. Ves didn't even dare to sell the design or an actual copy of the cube-shaped stealth shuttle because of how many feathers it ruffled.

As Ves assisted Avanaeon in the fabrication and assembly of the less complicated shuttle parts, they quickly managed to complete the rest of the fabrication jobs within a few days. After inspecting each part for their soundness, they carefully assembled them together. Starting with the basic frame, they filled up the skeleton with parts such as the power reactor, the processing bank, the control modules and more.

Then came the time where they needed to affix the stealth plating on their naked shuttle. This demanded a bit more delicacy on their part because misaligning the plates by even a tiny bit could result in opening up a gap from which emissions could escape!

They could not afford such a mistake! A stealth effect was only as strong as its weakest link. Even if ninety-nine percent of a stealthed object's surface enjoyed total coverage, a small gap which leaked tiny amounts of heat or reflected a little bit of light became an instant curiosity in the eyes of electronic sensors.

They might as well be lighthouses in the dark!

Fortunately, neither Ves nor Avanaeon were rookies in their craft. Their steady experience and expert handling of the tools enabled them to affix the stealth plating in a calm, steady and stable fashion.

Before they knew it, the ugly cube-shaped stealth shuttle came into being.

"It's assembled!"

Though it still required a lot of testing and debugging in order to verify they hadn't screwed anything up, the pair had had finished the culmination of their work!

The Six-Sided Dice rested on the flight deck like a stubby container someone left strewn around. A system of retractable plates that Ves had adapted to the shuttle's use covered up the sensors, the hatch and the thruster nacelles. In its fully retracted form, nothing about its appearance hinted at a shuttle.

Two questions lingered in Ves and Avanaeon's minds.

"Will it fly?"

"Does its stealth system work?"

Chapter 736

The Six-Sided Dice's stealth plating gave the cubular shuttle a pitch-black surface that hardly reflected any light even in its unpowered state. After all, if the stealth systems suffered a malfunction of some sort, it wouldn't do to reveal a bright pink cube in space that anyone could pick up with their naked eyes.

Though coating the Dice with black didn't actually help too much since most detection systems didn't solely rely on optical sensors, you never knew if it might save the lives of its occupants some day.

Besides, it became a custom in every industry to coat every stealth vehicle with black. Consumers expected it due to all of the action dramas they've seen.

While neither Ves nor Avanaeon ever intended to put the Six-Sided Dice up for sale, it beat coating it in any other color or pattern.

"All that work, just to build a shuttle that only has enough room to squeeze in four passengers. That's the same capacity as a small aircar!"

"If you hadn't insisted on including the air cycler module, then we could have added enough room for two more passengers." Avanaeon said. He never really agreed with that decision.

"Look, we've already gone over this discussion. The air cycler allows us to recycle the oxygen in the air which will not only work as long as we can power it, but it will also spare us from filling up our shuttle with oxygen tanks."

"That only benefits us if we are lingering in space for more than a month, Ves. I don't think we'd be able to survive if we are still roaming around in space for that long. Most statistics on rescue incidents point out that ninety-five percent of the time, someone that is stranded will be rescued within the week."

"That study is outdated and no entirely applicable to our situation." Ves immediately replied. "A newer study refuted that result. The sample of rescue incidents the researchers took applies to all of human-occupied space. Everyone knows that there are a lot more ships and a lot less space the closer you get to the center of the galaxy. Out here on the galactic rim, it can take months or years before a human vessel drops by at a desolate star system. That doesn't even count in the complication that we're currently knee-deep inside the deep frontier. Therefore, expecting us to be rescued within the week is extremely optimistic."

"If someone picks us up, it may not be for rescue, you know that?" Avanaeon pointed out. "With all the pirates roaming around here, it's much more likely that they'll capture us."

"I'll take my chances with the pirates rather than accept death by suffocation or starvation."

The conversation turned a bit too morbid to his tastes. Ves quickly changed the topic.

"Even if this shuttle looks complete, it's not finished yet by far. Everything we've designed is pure theory so far. We still need to see whether its stealth will hold up in reality."

The two eager engineers eagerly put the cube into action. They first moved it down to a special section of the mech workshop. Vandals eyed the bizarre black cube with a mixture of doubt and confusion.

"What's this machine? Is it a new 3D printer?"

"Maybe it's one of those battle drones that fold up in a cube when inactive."

"Why is it black?"

Ves had no doubt that a couple of people among the Vandals knew exactly what they built, but as long as Ves didn't neglect his duties too much they probably turned a blind eye to it. In any case, adding a stealth shuttle to their arsenal added a bit of extra versatility to the Vandals, not that Ves actually planned to let anyone else use his creation.

This was one machine that he intended to reserve for his own use.

He felt rather strange about that. He felt the same way when he crafted his high-powered gadgets. He spent so much time and effort into becoming good at designing products for others that he hardly thought about using his abilities for his own needs.

He designed mechs for a living. He felt passionate about his craft. Yet despite his love for mechs, he would never have the opportunity to pilot them in person. Such a tragedy was as horrible as a musician who composed a song he would never be able to hear.

Ves hadn't realized it, but he constantly bore the suffering of this unfulfilled need. He wanted so badly to make use of his products, to be able to play with his own creations, yet his insufficient aptitude prevented him from satisfying one of his greatest desires.

"I thought I got over this." He shook his head.

He did, actually. He found a way to cope with his loss. The career of a mech pilot didn't necessarily outshine the career of a mech designer. After several years of study, progress and experience, advancing to Journeyman came within his sight!

Journeyman Mech Designers emerged as infrequently as expert pilots, and enjoyed roughly the same status. Even the worst Journeymen enjoyed better careers than the most hard-working Apprentices.

Ves looked forward at the moment where his design philosophy became something substantial instead of ephemeral. While the process was irreversible, Ves held an untold amount of confidence in the correctness of his path!

"We're here. Let's put the Dice in its place."

They hitched the cube on a specialized cradle that allowed them to rotate the cube and subject it under a variety of signals while under the full observation of scanners and sensors. It served as the perfect testbed to perform live testing on their new invention without sending it out into space.

As they prepared to test its optical stealth capabilities, Ves suddenly received an alert from his comm.

"Ah, sorry chief, I have to answer this call."

"Go ahead, Ves. I can manage the testing process without you."

"Be sure to save some bugs for me!"

Ves walked over to a quiet corner of the workshop and activated the comm. The device immediately projected the familiar visage of Major Verle.

"Mr. Larkinson, a serious incident has occurred. Meet me at the brig."

The projection winked out before Ves could even acknowledge the order. "What the?"

Whatever happened down the brig must have been extremely serious if the commanding officer couldn't even maintain his veneer of civility.

"Did something happen to our guests?"

He did not refer to their uninvited guests, of which one of them continued to stalk behind his back. Ves hadn't forgotten about the invisible presence of Acolyte Villis, but he couldn't do anything to her without tipping off her fellow cultists.

The Vandals picked up two different groups of guests.

The prince and expert pilot hailing from the Royal House of Talk became major boons and headaches for the Vandals.

As for the handful of survivors from Chopra Interstellar Security, they didn't have anywhere to stash them except for the brig.

The latter group should have been safe and secure. Who could sneak into the brig and stir up trouble?

A few minutes later, Ves arrived at the bridge. Four security officers garbed in combat armor of the heavier variety stood guard next to the reinforced hatch with their rifles in easy reach.

"Good afternoon, gentlemen." He nodded at the security officers. "Major Verle is expecting me. Can I enter?"

"Please allow us to search you."

Ves went through a fairly thorough search. To his dismay, he had to leave behind his comm as well as his entire toolbelt and his gadgets.

"Hey, treat them carefully! They're expensive! I better get them back when I come out!"

After he finished his grumbling, Ves stepped inside the brig. The white paneling and the bright interior made his eyes feel as if someone directly pointed a laser at them. Ves blearily adjusted his eyes before he walked over to some kind of desk where a bunch of security officers stood behind a console. They appeared to be reviewing footage.

"Mr. Larkinson." One of them turned around. "Major Verle is expecting you at the cell down the corridor to the left. Go straight ahead."

Ves walked down the corridor. Cells surrounded him from both sides. Most of them appeared empty, with the bed, toilet and other furniture completely retracted into the bulkheads. A couple of other cells held occupants. Besides a few drunkard Vandals, they mostly held Choprans who have settled into their accommodations.

When he arrived at the end of the corridor, he finally met up with Major Verle along with a security officer.

"Major Verle. You called?"

"It's about time you showed up." The mech officer replied with a clipped tone. "Even if you are content with spending your time and effort on toys, I still expect you to show up promptly when called."

"Ah, my sincere apologies, sir. I shall endeavor to respond more promptly."

"Can it. Go look inside that cell. Tell me what you see."

Ves finally turned around and looked through the clear composite material that separated the cell from the corridor.

What he saw was very gruesome.

Splotches of blood adorned the pristine white surfaces of the cell. A pool of it gathered in the center where a gap automatically closed up in order to prevent the evidence from going down the drain.

The source of all the blood came from a body lying dead against the thin bed construction. The man lay across it with his blasted, cratered head hanging in the open like a macabre flower about to wilt.

Ves immediately recognized the individual from his uniform, body structure and whatever intact facial features he could still observe. "This.. isn't this the mech designer that I had a talk with more than a week ago?!"

Major Verle stepped forward until he reached Ves' side. "This is indeed Eric Kichiro, the only mech designer employed by the Choprans. It's curious, is it not? This individual died in his cell from what our security officers can gather is a ballistic round."

"Have you caught the culprit?"

"You wouldn't be here if we managed to snag the bastard that did this." Major Verle scowled. "This cell is supposed to be capable of withstanding an entire mob. However, according to the logs, no one has entered or exited this cell in the last eight hours, when we let him out for socialization. The monitoring system hadn't been able to catch anything either. All the footage is doctored to show nothing has happened. The culprit.. the murderer, whoever he is, managed to hack our best security system and made a fool out of mastery of our own ship!"

The Major sounded really furious, and he had a right to be. If anyone could hack the monitoring system of the brig, who could say if more sensitive compartments wouldn't be next?

If someone decides to sabotage the engineering bay, the command center or the bridge, the consequences for everyone aboard the Shield of Hispania became extremely dire!

"Have we found any clues who might be responsible for this?"

"No." Verle shook his head. "According to our monitoring system, all of our crew is accounted for, and so are the prisoners. Of course, we just learned we can't trust our monitoring system, so we're forced to do things the old fashioned way. I've called you here to see if you have anything to do with it and get your insight on what has happened here if you're not."

"Am I a possible suspect to you?" Ves frowned. "I've been down at the workshop all day! All the mech technicians have seen me at work there, and I've been working side-by-side with Avanaeon on an extremely technical project."

"We know. And from what we've observed from you so far, we're fairly certain you're not involved." Major Verle softened up his expression. "Look, we have a murderer on our ship and they might not even be alone. We have no idea who they are or what their motives might be. Can you tell us anything about who or why someone might kill Mr. Kichiro?"

Ves recalled the end of his little talk with the mech designer. For some reason, that moment always returned at the forefront of his mind, particularly when he was thinking about the possible uses involving his stealth shuttle.

"I think I have an idea or two, yeah." He slowly said as he tried hard not to channel his spirituality into his eyes. He knew that the most likely culprits were standing right behind their backs!

Chapter 737

Ves immediately suspected their uninvited guests as the ones responsible, but ruled them out just as quickly.

Though the worshippers of Haatumak exhibited freaky abilities, they had kept themselves quiet over the weeks, never making any moves that suggested that something invisible lurked amid the Vandals.

Going out of their way to kill a random mech designer that the Vandals picked up along the way didn't benefit them at all. Not only would they alert the Vandals that a presence had boarded the ship that could elude every means of detection, they also plainly lacked a motive to kill this specific individual.

Why kill someone as irrelevant as Mr. Kichiro when they could easily assassinate Major Verle or even Ves?

Of course, cultists being what they were, they hardly adhered to logic in the first place. They might have decided to kill Kichiro on a whim because they could or because they wanted to frighten the Vandals.

Still, Ves might be reaching there with this theory. He much preferred to consider the murder a deliberate act, because the killer risked an awful lot to do the deed.

"Why kill Mr. Kichiro?" He asked out loud. "This chump doesn't know anything. He's only useful as a source of intelligence on the technical specifications of the mechs used by Chopra, but that's no use as most of their machines are dead and broken."

Ves turned back to what Eric Kichiro said to him back then. Those controversial words.

"Cowardice is a virtue."

"What did you just say?" Major Verle said from the side.

"Cowardice is a virtue. That's what Mr. Kichiro said to me at the end of the interview. You can pull up the footage of my interview with the man if you want to verify it, sir. In any case, did you know what I felt when he said this phrase?"

"No. Tell me, then."

"I felt like I wanted to punch his face, sir." Ves revealed without compunction. "Sure, a mech designer is a no combatant, but you can say the same thing about the ship ratings and the mech technicians and the doctors. Just because we aren't the ones who are armed with guns or sitting in a cockpit piloting a multi-ton machine into killing our opponents, doesn't mean we are any less of a soldier. Mech designers.. even in the middle of a conflict, we can still be useful in many ways, if only to hurry along emergency repairs."

In fact, Ves felt torn between two different impulses. The Larkinson blood within him screamed for him to reject this cowardly principle, to prove that mech designers ought to be brave in the face of danger.

Yet his rational mind warred against his hot-blooded impulses and cautioned him that no matter how eager he might be to contribute to a battle, he really had no place in the thick of the battle.

His contributions and influence outside of any battle was enormous, but once the rifles started barking and the cannons began to boom, his immediate ability to influence the battle became incredibly minimal.

A large reason why a mech designer became irrelevant was because anything he could do to affect the ongoing battle took far too much time to effect. It wasn't as if a mech designer could instantly whip up fifty spare mechs over the course of a few hours. Most battles didn't even last that long.

So the phrase uttered by Eric Kichiro was in fact an expression of common sense. A mech designer was an important part of any outfit's support services, and thus required a lot of protection. Killing them crippled an outfit's ability to recover after a battle and to maintain and tweak their mechs.

It was in everyone's best interests to safeguard the lives of the mech designers if they had any in their outfit.

Yet this logical consideration clashed with the cultural norm that fellow comrades in arms had to stick together. It would be the height of selfishness to bail out of a ship in the middle of a battle when the outcome was still in doubt.

"I remember that the rescue teams picked up Mr. Kichiro from the periphery of the debris field, sir." Ves added as he recalled this detail. "His escape pod actually strayed the farthest from every other pod. Do you know what that means? He ejected not long after the NIN initiated their ambush!"

This did not mean that Kichiro had anything to do with the ambush, but it definitely didn't do him any favors by abandoning his comrades so soon.

Verle caught on to the implications. "Hm. I see. He's not the most courageous or loyal member of the Choprans, then. His early escape might have even incited other Choprans into bailing out as well. What was his position in the mercenary corps?"

"From what I gather, the Choprans treated Mr. Kichiro as a glorified chief technician. He's not particularly skilled as a mech designer and he's been out of practice for so long that he's only capable of performing minor tweaks and modifications to commercial designs."

Overall, the mech designer earned no appreciation from his employer. He didn't enjoy a leadership position like Mayra at the Swordmaidens either. All in all, Ves pegged Kichiro as the typical unambitous mech designers who only cared about themselves and predominantly followed the path of least resistance.

"I think I have this pretty much figure out, major." Ves said after he combined all of his observations and made a few predictions. "I think one of the Choprans here shot Mr. Kichiro in the head. Not a single incident like this has happened in our fleet for months, but the moment we pick up the survivors, Mr. Kichiro is suddenly dead. Nobody among the Vandals really knew him, but his fellow survivors must have all known him for a pretty long time. They're the prime suspects."

"And the suggested motive that you put forward is Mr. Kichiro's early escape?"

"That, or any other offense the mech designer is responsible for. It would help if we can reconstruct the NIN's ambush on the Chopran fleet. If we can determine if Kichiro's early escape triggered some sort of panic, sir, then we have established a pretty clear motive of doing him in. The Choprans might have already been doomed from the start, but Mr. Kichiro's cowardly actions hastened their defeat!"

Even though Ves spun out this tale from a small number of observations and a lot of conjecture, he felt pretty confident about his prediction. Spending months harboring all sorts of suspicions did that to a person.

"While your claims are merely guesswork so far, you make for a compelling case, Mr. Larkinson. I'll task some security officers into studying the archival footage that we've pulled out of the data banks of the Choprans."

Ves felt a bit embarrassed that Major Verle actually supported his wild conjecture to this extent. Then he realized that the mech officer faced an enormous amount of pressure to catch the culprit before they could do anymore damage.

Since they lacked any clues to begin with, the line of reasoning provided by Ves provided a clear direction to investigate.

Moments later, they joined the crowd of security officers running through some old footage they dug out of a backup data bank of a shipwreck.

"Mark this timestamp. According to the logs of his escape pod, this is the moment where Mr. Kichiro's escape pod emerged into space."

The ambush barely started three minutes ago. While the NIN performed a devastating alpha strike that took out a lot of Chopran mechs, the mercenary corps still fought as hard as they could still do so, though their lack of coordination hindered their response.

Major Verle immediately tutted in disapproval.

"You can see and hear from the logs in this data bank that most mech pilots are calling for orders from their mech lieutenants. The mech lieutenants have no clue what to do, so they defer to their mech captains. The mech captains don't have time to deliberate with each other and give out the first orders that come to their mind. One order their men to close in to melee range. Another captain orders them to pull back to their ships and consolidate their defensive perimeter. It's an awful mess that only further divided the Chopran mechs on the field."

"It's like they have the worst of both worlds in terms of management style." Ves remarked. "Their mech captains and other leaders concentrate all of the decision-making power among themselves, but when they finally need to exercise decisive leadership, they are never unified enough to be in sync. If they decided to go for a top-down approach to running their mercenary corps, they should have gone all the way and appoint a single commander among their leadership committee."

Something that looked so irrelevant at first glance in fact became the nail in the coffin that doomed the Choprans from reserving this ambush. Though the NIN vastly outnumbered them with a swarm of spaceborn frontline mechs, the Choprans could have leveraged their superior mechs if they all chose to go on the attack.

Sure, the rush might have failed, but it gave the Choprans a viable chance to turn the battle around. Every Chopran mech pilot trying to survive the battlefield out there still held out hope.

That was until that lone escape pod emerged on everyone's sensors.

Ves counted the number of escape pods that followed suit after a minute. "One becomes two. Two becomes four. Four becomes eight. Eight becomes sixteen. The more escape pods in the air, the less essential crew that's left behind. That doesn't immediately affect the fighting strength of the mechs in the air, but it will definitely slow down the deployment of the reserves."

"The abundance of escape pods launching into space does in fact affect the mechs that are fighting for Chopra's survival." Major Verle corrected Ves. "How would the mech pilots who are piloting those mechs feel if your side begins to launch escape pods en masse? They'll think their own comrades have no faith in their ability to fight and win the battle!"

The overall picture became clear. Kichiro may have been the first of many who decided they needed to be elsewhere while their ship and mechs came down, or he may have triggered an irreversible stampede to the escape pods.

No matter how culpable he may be in kicking the Choprans while they were already down on their luck, his conduct reflected extremely poorly on him. The man perpetuated every stereotype of mech designers as cowardly wimps who gladly push mech pilots to fight to the death while they themselves ran at the first sign of trouble!

Even if Ves quietly applauded Kichiro on his decisiveness to save his own hide, the man shouldn't have been so brazen about his flight!

Ves mentally took notes of his fellow mech designer's example. If he ever befell in a similar situation in the future, he would wait until others bailed out first before he followed suit! Ideally, he'd be in the middle of the pack, inconspicuous and unexceptional in terms of courage!

Kichiro's murder also taught him that he needed to think beyond the immediate escape. If Ves ever met up with his comrades, he needed to make sure that his conduct didn't give them any reasons to shank him. There was nothing worse than to meet the victims of your bad conduct in the flesh!

"What I don't understand is why Kichiro needed to die this instant." Ves mused. "I mean, whoever did it has to know this has riled us up. Why can't the killer wait until this mission is over and everyone is released?"

A security captain offered a suggestion. "It may be that the murderer doesn't believe we will make it out alive. If they're all doomed to die, he might want to kill Kichiro with his own two hands as a form of catharsis."

That sounded rather bad.

Chapter 738

Now that they established a possible motive to whack Eric Kishiro, they could turn their attention to the possible culprits.

"How many survivors do we have in custody?" Verle asked a security officer.

"Twenty-five, sir. Twenty-four now that the mech designer is dead."

That left them with a manageable amount of suspects, though the true murderer might not be among them. Still, Ves had a feeling this investigation might be over soon.

"Ready your men, captain. Since someone among them has likely managed to fool our monitoring system and our searches, we will need to be more thorough in our inspections. Our priority is to find the device that has fooled our monitoring system and to secure the weapon that killed Mr. Kichiro!"

"Hold up, major!"

"What is it, Mr. Larkinson?"

"If you're about to inspect the Chopran survivors, I doubt you'll find anything. The security officers already performed a thorough search, right?"

The security captain nodded beneath his thick helmet. "Correct. We've stripped them of all their gear and clothes and issued them a blank outfit with no further accessories. We even took away their comms."

"I'm guessing that at least one of the Choprans have a trick up their sleeve."

"We are aware of that possibility."

"Then let me help you out. I haven't been spending my free time on nothing."

It took a bit of convincing on his part, but Ves managed to get his proposal a serious try. One of the security officers exited the brig and reentered a moment later with a toolbelt in hand. Ves nabbed it off the armored security officer's gauntlet and picked out two of his most precious inventions to date.

He flicked one of the cylindrical gadgets online. "One of these devices is a miniaturized stealth detector that I've adapted from the central database. The internal sensor array is very fragile and susceptible to shock, but I've built in some dampeners so as long as you don't shake it around it will function well enough."

"How effective are its stealth detection capabilities?" The security captain asked.

"Very. Extremely." Ves emphasized. "It's like having the full-sized thing but with a lot less range. The power is still considerate, though, so even if it can't circumvent a particular stealth system, it can still overload them through brute force."

He passed the device over to a lighter-armored security officer. This one looked much less threatening in a suit of medium combat armor. This was the regular service equipment for the Vandals who interacted with the Chopran survivors.

"Do I need to input the right settings?"

"No, I already did that for you. Its effective range is set at ten meters. Anymore than that and the signals might unduly affect the functioning of every nearby section of the ship."

"And the other device?"

"That's a more interesting one." Ves grinned. He picked it up, turned it on and began to configure the settings in the same way he did with the other gadget. "This is a jamming device. It's very strong and will likely be potent enough to interfere with any device that relies on sensors or communications. Turn this beast on, and no sensor or communication device within a given range will work! Unfortunately, its effects encompass everything within range, including your suit systems and the monitoring system built within the cells."

He never developed an answer against his jamming device's friendly fire. The only way to truly counteract its effects was if he made use of hardened gear, which was a pain in the butt to create. Either he had to increase the volume of his gear by twenty to fifty percent, or he needed to make use of expensive exotics that naturally resisted jamming effects.

Everything came with a price. Ves couldn't afford some of them yet.

After explaining the nature of his high-powered devices and emphasizing the advantages and danger behind the phrase 'high-powered', the security officer grabbed them and affixed them to his own armor before grabbing an electrorod pistol from a secure locker.

"Alright, let's see if the Choprans have brought any surprises along."

As Ves waited for the security officers to prepare their inspection, he ruminated over how easy it was to circumvent monitoring and tracking. It seemed that even as monitoring networks became more ubiquitous in daily life, the methods to fool them grew incessantly due to a need for privacy.

It seemed like any Dick, Joe and Margaret had the opportunity to obtain a means to fool even high-quality monitoring systems like the ones utilized by the Flagrant Vandals.

Even though the Vandals cheaped out on many procurements, they emphatically did not skimp out when it came to maintaining internal security.

The thought that a bunch of random survivors of a fallen mercenary corps from the Bright Republic possessed the means to fool such fantastic systems indicated something rotten might be going on. Perhaps it may even be something that posed an actual threat to the Vandals!

Certainly, it showed that these Choprans hadn't been entirely forthcoming when they surrendered themselves to the care of the Vandals!

It didn't matter that Ves would do the very same thing if he was in their place. He understood the need to hold back some capabilities if he came under the custody of another force. Even if they came from the same state, currently they competed against each other for the same objectives.

As rivals, their missions trumped their shared origins. Ves half-thought that Major Verle would have sought a means to dispose of the Choprans, but that may have been a delusion of his ruthless pragmatism.

If Ves was in charge, he would have quietly spaced them out of the airlock during FTL travel by now!

Kicking people out of a ship during FTL travel slightly destabilized the ship, but it was one of the cleanest ways to get rid of inconvenient individuals. Who knew what would happen to their material bodies if they became exposed to the raw higher dimensions. Most theorized that their bodies broke down as their atoms and fundamental particles stretched out and transformed from matter to energy, which quickly dispersed into the seas and oceans of energy.

In short, it was not a very pleasant way to die, but it conveniently removed all traces of someone's existence.

"Preparations are done. They are about to start."

The security officer in medium armor entered the cell of the one most likely to have committed the crime. Mech captain Fez Murtadon looked up from a projection of some old drama show that used to be popular a few years ago.

"If I recall, it's not time yet for our daily airing."

"Captain Murtadon, please stay in place."

The security officer first pressed a button on the stealth detector gadget. The device had been put on standby for a while now, so when it became active it instantly emitted an invisible but energetic wave that even the captain could feel, even if he didn't know what it had done.

Nothing invisible scrambled into the open.

That wasn't how the stealth detector worked. It detected and exposed objects hiding through certain technological means, but it did not deactivate the stealth systems at all.

However, it did appear the stealth detector picked up something untowards.

Through the visor of the security officer and the security feed of the monitoring system, they hadn't picked up any invisible weapons or bots or anything like that. What they did find was that certain shielding mechanisms inside the mech captain's body became ineffective. Certain parts of his brains, his torso and his arms lit up as the stealth detector exposed anomalous systems integrated in Murtadon's body!

"Implants! Captain Murtadon carries hidden implants within his body!"

Evidently, the Chopran mech captain knew that he'd just been exposed, because his face adopted a very ugly expression. "You aren't supposed to see that."

Then, before the security officer replied, Captain Murtadon immediately pointed his arm at the Vandal. A section of the forearm abruptly parted like a hinge, revealing a bone-like gun barrel integrated in the flesh!

BANG!

The bone barrel fired a powerful shot that caused the security officer to jerk backwards a bit as the round exploded!

Yet while the explosive round released a powerful impact, it only managed to dent the armor a little bit!

The well-trained security officer snapped up his electrorod pistol even before he completely recovered and zapped Captain Murtadon with a powerful shock!

"AAhh!"

The current running through the Chorpan's modified body paralyzed the man for a little bit, but then he slowly jerked his arm-gun up again.

The cell didn't wait for him to finish his move. Some of the panels in the bulkheads retracted, revealing net launchers that launched a composite net on top of his body. The ends of the nets connected to the launchers, causing them to grow taut when pulled.

This hindered the good captain long enough for him to be restrained by a team of heavy-armored security officers that served as backup.

Just as everyone thought the captain was secured, he uttered out a strange cry.

"You'll... never.. survive.. You.. are.. all.. marked for death!"

The captain's body abruptly shook and ceased to move. Smoke began to pour out of the body's ear sockets.

"He's fried himself! Get the doctors here! We need to preserve his body and his implants!"

They botched the entire encounter. They never expected the man to be crazy enough to implant his body with organic machinery! That was something the citizens of the Comen Federation or other deviant states did, but never someone from the Bright Republic!

As the Vandal security officers and incoming doctors tried to preserve as much as they could out of Murtadon's ruined body, Major Verle, Ves, and a couple of others began to analyze what they saw.

Ves inspected the brief scans of Captain Murtadon's corpse. "I don't know exactly what this alloy shell consists of, but it's remarkably effective at shielding the organic implants from detection. I'm rather interested in this material. Can I have a sample, sir?"

"No." Major Verle denied his request. "His corpse isn't a toy for you to salvage for parts. We need to determine who Murtadon is, why he is jacked up with implants, and what possible intentions he harbored."

"He may not be the only one who bears the implants, major." A security captain warned. "We've isolated the other cells from what has happened at Murtadon's cell, but we don't know what effects his death may cause. For all we know, one of his implants has transmitted a secret signal that can go through our isolating bulkheads."

"Search them thoroughly, and be prepared to halt any attempts at halting their suicides." Verle commanded. "From Murtadon's behavior, he may have activated a suicide trigger implanted in his body, but it could have also activated by itself in response to detection."

"We can put them to sleep before inspecting them discreetly. Any automated suicide triggers can be fooled as long as we avoid making any moves that ticks the boxes."

The cells came equipped with many means of subduing their occupants. The security officers decided upon graduately introducing an airborne intoxicating agent in the air circulation system. This invisible, odor-less and slow-working gas gradually increased the sleepiness of the affected Choprans.

One by one, they turned off their projections depicting some kind of show or drama and started to take a nap in their beds.

Thus, without any fuss, every Chopran fell to sleep.

Security officers remained outside the cell but activated the gadgets loaned by Ves at a slightly more powerful setting. The frontal cell cover that used to be transparent but now turned opaque only partially blocked their effects, allowing them to affect the occupants without being too close or in visual range.

The inspections turned up nothing. After inspections from afar hadn't revealed anything amiss, doctors and security officers entered the cells and thoroughly investigated their bodies. None of the Choprans carried a hint of machinery or strange organs in their bodies.

"Looks like Captain Murtadon is the only person here who's fishy." Ves noted as he finally received his toolbelt precious gadgets from the security captain.

He was half afraid the Vandals would appropriate them for their own uses, but it seemed they didn't particularly care, or maybe Major Verle threw him a bone.

A mech regiment had to adhere to regulations on the kind of weapons and equipment they were allowed to use. For example, they weren't allowed to utilize any stealth devices in the first place, nor would it be a good idea for them to make use of gamma laser rifles or nuclear weapons!

Thus, Ves got the sense that Major Verle tolerated his side projects by pretending that they had nothing to do with the Vandals. In any case, if the Vandals had need of them, Ves could only let them borrow his inventions like now, and return them to him when finished.

"Let's see what the autopsy has discovered."

Chapter 739

The autopsy of Captain Murtadon revealed fairly little of importance. The man carried an extensive amount of organic implants capable of many different functions in his body. A special alloy shell surrounded the implants, hiding them from regular scans and making it appear that only normal organs took their place.

Ves wanted the alloy material. He had a strong suspicion that they were another application of stealth technology, one that worked with almost minimal power consumption. Despite his begging, the Vandals removed the alloy shells and chucked them into the vault. Ves felt like a little kid whose parents just locked his favorite toy in the closet!

He wanted to cry!

In any case, the doctors found out that Murtadon made use of several clever implants. Some boosted his physical performance. Others enhanced his piloting ability, if only slightly. The implants on his arms consisted of guns which utilized projectiles metabolized from the mech captain's own body!

However, by far the most important implant consisted of the biocomputer integrated within Murtadon's mind. It was like a comm, processor, hacking device, transceiver and scanner all rolled up in a dense piece of flesh the size of a chicken egg. What impressed everyone even more was that the doctors found that its growth had been induced from outside manipulation.

In other words, Murtadon's body grew the biocomputer like a tumor inside his brains! This was by far the most effective way of installing an implant in one's body because it minimized the risk of rejection and complications.

It took a while for the implant to grow to its current size and capabilities. Captain Murtadon constantly had to ingest or be injected with trace amounts of exotics that eventually made up the core components of the biocomputer.

Once the biocomputer grew to its mature state, Murtadon underwent an operation that covered up the biocomputer in the alloy shell that hid it from every means of detection.

"This is an expensive procedure." Ves remarked as he picked up a data pad and read through its contents. "I'm no expert in implants, but even I know how risky it is to hook up your brains to a processor. No matter if its biological, electronic or mechanical in nature, any processor or computer and be hacked. Their programming can easily be subverted once you know it's there."

This was also one of the major reasons why hooking people up with processors, biocomputers, AI chips and the like fell out of vogue.

At some points during the Age of Space and Age of Conquest, implants rose into popularity as their functions substantially augmented a baseline human's capability.

Implanted weapons integrated in an assassin's body allowed them to take out their targets despite being searched for weapons.

A cyborg body thrown out into space due to an accident could survive in hard vacuum for hours as their entire body subsided on energy cells instead of oxygen.

AI chips integrated in the brains of children enabled them to learn faster and store the entire contents of a library for their perusal. Their processing power grew monstrous enough to the point where they could mentally plot an FTL transition by themselves!

Yet as quickly as these products rose, they quickly crashed and burned in a matter of years or months. No matter how ingenious their security measures safeguarded the integrity of the programming of the implants, hackers always manage to circumvent these means and gain malicious control over the integrated systems.

That assassin with implanted weapons? His body tore itself apart when its weapons discharged without prompting from the user itself!

The cyborg taking a casual spacewalk out in space? His artificial body's energy cells abruptly discharged itself at once, frying the entire body and its protected organic organs!

The children implanted with AI chips? Their AIs experienced a gradual change in personality and guided the children into immoral psychopaths who utilized their substantial advantages over their unaugmented peers to attain positions of leadership before abusing them sow death and destruction on a sector-wide scale!

These days, everyone knew that installing an implant in someone's body was like building a door into a stone wall. Made from wood, stone or metal, no matter how sturdy the door turned out to be, someone with the right key or lockpicking ability would eventually be able to open it and enter into the area behind the wall.

"That's why the late captain's implants are coated with this stealth alloy." The security captain pointed out. "I doubt he's aware of the vulnerabilities they pose to his implants and his own mind, so the stealth shielding is necessary to prevent hackers from making their intrusion attempts in the first place."

This was like covering up the door with a fake layer of stone in order to camouflage it against the rest of the wall. It didn't close the vulnerability, but it prevented others from detecting it through regular observations and scans.

"Are the implants retrievable? Can we pull out data from its organic data banks?"

The security captain shook his head. "Sadly not, major. The suicide trigger melted and burned the implants from top to bottom. The implants were designed from the start with the capability to wipe out every piece of data."

"Then what does that mean?" Ves grew confused."Is Captain Murtadon some kind of spy working for the Coman Federation?"

"Unlikely. Even the Coman know better than to dabble with biocomputers and implants. If they dare to utilize it to a wide degree, their entire society becomes vulnerable to an organized hacking effort. They'd be conquered without being able to fire a single shot."

"Then who else might do this?"

"It doesn't appear to be the style of any of the states and influences from the Komodo Star Sector." Major Verle declared. "I'm much more inclined to believe that Captain Murtadon may have been employed by an influence foreign to the Komodo Star Sector."

That left them with a dead end. Without a way to retrieve any data from the fried biocomputer, the Vandals were left with nothing but reasonable guesses and an open-ended suspicion towards foreign interference.

This wasn't actually the first time Ves or the Vandals saw hints of foreign interference in the affairs of the Komodo Star Sector. A strange undercurrent ran under their local area of space for several years now.

Ves couldn't figure out Captain Murtadon's role. His position as a captain of a large mercenary corps afforded him considerable power, but not enough to penetrate the true annals of power within the Bright Republic. So obviously the mech captain likely served some sort of other purpose than spying on their state.

With no further leads to follow up, the matter came to an end. The security officers would continue their digging, but nobody expected to find any clues.

As Ves exited the brig along with Major Verle, he spoke up to ask a question.

"What will happen to the rest of the Chopran survivors, sir?"

"They're clean, but there's no telling if they are involved with Captain Murtadon's secrets. We'll have to interrogate them more thoroughly and try to find out the reason why Kichiro had to die. It may be that your guess is right and Murtadon killed the mech designer out of an emotional need for revenge. Yet this decision sounds too impulsive. The fact that we managed to uncover the mech captain's implants only underlines how poor of a decision it was to take action."

As Ves walked back to the workshop, he felt considerably less secure. He didn't feel safe aboard the Shield of Hispania. Not only did he have to worry about his stalker and the uninvited guests, he also had to take into account that anyone, including the Vandals, might be sleeper agents working for a foreign influence.

This style of operating vaguely reminded him of Calabast. Ostensibly, she posed as an agent of the Vesian intelligence agency. Yet Ves never believed that. The tragedies that happened on Harkensen I may have seemed like an attack intended to weaken the Reinald Republic, but Ves developed an alternate motivation.

The attack and all the other shenanigans may have been designed to destabilize the entire Komodo Star Sector!

Could the neighboring star sectors be staring at the Komodo Star Sector? The Vicious Mountain and Majestic Teal Star Sectors directly neighbored them and controlled their flow of shipping and access.

At first glance, it looked as if the two neighboring star sectors enjoyed a good position. However, the Komodo Star Sector in fact blocked their states and influences from expanding their tentacles to the frontier.

If the established states of the older star sectors possessed any ambitions of external expansion, they couldn't turn their firepower towards the center of the galaxy. Each star sector away from the rim and closer to the center became older and more powerful. They were bones that Vicious Mountain and Majestic Teal couldn't chew through.

So instead of eyeing the older star sectors as their prey, it made more sense to turn their gaze outwards. The Komodo Star Sector came into being during the last CFA and MTA-mandated colonial expansion wave, and so were considered backwards in nearly every criteria, from institutional age to military strength.

The old bullied the young. This adage applied throughout the entire galaxy. When humanity initially rose to the stars during the Age of Space, much older and powerful alien races bullied the humans relentlessly, treating them like uplifted insects intruding upon a playground that they had long carved out for themselves.

Still, through luck, grit and ingenuity, humanity eventually managed to outwit and overpower all of those stuffy alien races in the latter half of the Age of Space and the first half of the Age of Conquest.

Still, as great as this lurking threat may be, what could a small mech designer like Ves even do? He should be focusing on doing his job and trying to stay alive. The geopolitical ambitions of foreign star sectors hardly mattered to a true mech designer, because they regarded them as markets instead of political entities.

Ves still had a way to go in that regard.

"What happened?" Chief Avanaeon grunted as Ves returned to the workshop area where their Six-Sided Cube currently rested at. The shuttle's surface shimmered as Avanaeon tested out its optical camouflage abilities.

Ves knew that Avanaeon possessed a higher security clearance than Ves, so he'd be hearing about the incident soon enough. He figured the details would leak to the rest of the Vandals anyway since it didn't do much harm like the last leaks.

"The mech designer employed by Chopra got his head blown up by a mech captain from the same outfit."

"How did the mech captain managed to do that?"

"He possessed hidden implants in his body. His biocomputer was good enough to fool our monitoring system and the lock to his cell, while a gun made out of flesh and bone hid inside his forearm. We never detected any of them because some special stealth coating blocked all of our regular scans."

"..Impressive. People still make use of implants? How stupid can they be?"

Ves shrugged. "The mech captain is probably a patsy for another influence. We don't know who he works for, but he's been made in a sacrificial pawn from the start."

That was the extent of their conversation about what happened at the brig. The chief engineer showed a complete lack of interest in the background of the mech captain or the story behind the killing. Instead, they both turned their attention back to finishing the configuration of their cube-shaped shuttle.

"It doesn't matter how many hidden agents or shady allies are walking among us." Avanaeon said. "As long as we have this baby here, we can get out any time we want."

"Yeah. You're right. But if we decide to make it out, we better wait until others have gone first. We don't want to lead the pack."

The chief engineer paused his work and turned to Ves. "How would anyone know we got out first if we put our shuttle under stealth before we split?"

"..That's a good question."

Chapter 740

Avanaeon's attitude and active participation in this side project suggested something unsettling to Ves. The chief engineer never said anything concrete, but his actions betrayed a considerable lack of confidence in their survival odds.

What kind of swamp did the Starlight Megalodon lead them all into? Ves got the sense that it drew in moths to the flame. Any bug that approached only risked getting burnt to a crisp.

"It won't be long now before we arrive."

The Vandals all made preparations. Drills intensified while the Vandals started shedding their uniforms for hazard suits and combat suits for an increasing amount of time. Though the bulky outfits hindered their work, nobody wanted to get caught flat footed without protection!

The longer they wore the suits, the more they got used to moving and working with them. Once the critical moment arrived, they'd be able to stay on the ball without encountering any hindrance in their work.

Each Vandal kept themselves busy to an extent. The mech pilots all poured into the simulator pods while the mech technicians all put the finishing touches on the recently-modified mechs. Some crews who already finished their essential tasks early began to tune up some of the mechs, temporarily allowing them to run smoother and better for a couple of deployments.

Due to these final preparations, Chief Avanaeon needed to spend more time in his own department at the engineering bay. Ves pretty much took over the end phase of his side project. After meticulously testing and tweaking the different stealth mechanisms, Ves finally declared the shuttle to be cleared for use, at least without putting it to a live test.

Ves put a hand on the surface of the shuttle. His skin brushed over the fine patterned surface of the stealth plating in appreciation. "Ugly brick you may be, you're still the best invention I've ever made to date."

The value of the stealth shuttle surpassed his high-powered gadgets. Certainly, from a technological perspective, his ultracompact batteries won the prize in terms of sophistication. However, the utility of the stealth shuttle far surpassed a handheld gadget for its ability to hide its occupant from regular scanners and sensors.

Certainly, it lacked the power reserves to maintain its active stealth for a very long time, but that was plenty enough to slowly make a getaway and find somewhere safe and quiet to turn off the energy-hungry systems.

"It doesn't even have to be exclusively employed as a means of escape. I can also use it to infiltrate an enemy ship or space station, or to get close to a restricted area."

The only regret he had was that the Six-Sided Dice lacked the capability to enter a terrestrial planet's atmosphere. Its underpowered antigrav modules and sublight propulsion lacked the power to keep the shuttle aloft under standard gravity conditions for longer than a minute.

Even landing or lifting off from a shuttle bay subjected under standard artificial gravity became problematic for that reason!

To lift off under those circumstances either required dialing down the artificial gravity or a willingness to overload the antigrav modules embedded into the cube.

Naturally, each time they overloaded the antigrav modules, their effective lifespan decreased. They couldn't keep that up for very long.

It might still be able to land safely on a moon with a weak gravity, but it definitely couldn't land on a massive terrestrial planet with up to five times the gravity of Old Earth!

"For better or worse, this shuttle is a space hopper."

That severely limited its utility, but what choice did he have?

Now that the project came to an end and delivered a result, Ves moved the Six-Sided Dice out of the workshop and back to the shuttle bay. He made sure to secure it in an out-of-the-way spot where the mech technicians and flight technicians wouldn't be able to stumble upon it and mess around with the cube.

As he returned to his office, he greeted Ketis as she stood behind her terminal with her eyes narrowed in thought. Ves had never seen her think so deep as now. It showed that she took her last and most difficult assignment with unprecedented gravity.

"How are you so far with formulating your design philosophy?" He asked as he approached her seated form and patted her shoulder pauldron.

Both of them wore their suits of combat armor right now. The contrast between light and heavy combat armor made him appear a little shorter and leaner than Ketis.

"I can't make up my mind. I've pretty made up my mind on devoting my attention to swordsman mechs, but that's not narrow enough for me to specialize in. I still feel as if I'm missing something unique, something that's exclusively mine. Do you understand?"

Ves nodded. "I do. My own design philosophy and specialty are like that. It's so rare and outlandish that nobody has ever thought of treading my path. That's exactly the way I like it, because retreading other people's paths won't contribute to the industry at all. Our design philosophies represent our legacies, Ketis. What we are working towards may not be achievable to anyone, but they will leave behind a record that will be part of your fundamental design makeup for the rest of your life."

To his knowledge, a design philosophy could change over time. Sometimes, a mech designer gained an epiphany or breakthrough in their work that allowed them to shape and direct their design philosophy to a different direction.

A mech designer could also become unduly affected by outside influences. To an Apprentice, a strong exposure to mental contamination almost always ruined their originality. To Journeymen and higher, their design philosophies possessed enough strength to withstand outside coercion. The only way they changed their form was if a mech designer allowed themselves to be affected by external stimuli.

As a design philosophy stood for a mech designer's belief in pursuing an ideal or turning something impossible into reality, they needed to be broad enough to clear a way to the top but narrow enough to keep them focused on a single path.

From what Ves had gathered from Ketis, she already set out a broad direction for her design philosophy. She wanted to work with swordsman mechs. Yet merely wishing that she could design the best swordsman mechs wasn't precise enough to serve as her goal.

What made a mech good or bad?

The best performance? What would be the criteria for the 'best' mechs? Best armor? Mechs with the best armor always turned out to be the slowest. That didn't sound like the best mechs at all. Mechs that focused on offense mostly sacrificed defense or speed, but balancing between all three of them meant that the mech excelled in none of those areas.

Mech designers who aimed to design the 'best' mechs almost never achieved anything substantial in their careers. The problem originated from a broad and inexact definition of what constituted the best mechs.

What may possibly be the best mechs in the galactic center may not fit the needs of those in the galactic rim. Even if someone designed the most high-performing mech in history, cost and resource considerations may make it impossible for such a machine to be built at all!

What was the use of a fantasy design if nobody in the galaxy could gather the resources necessary to produce a single copy of it? If mech designers could advance to the rank of Master by designing fantasy designs that had no basis in reality, then there would have been a lot more of them around by now.

Anyone who set their design philosophy to design the 'best' mechs always fell flat from the start. Ves specifically instructed Ketis not to go for this route.

"Ambition needs to be tempered by a small consideration of practicality." He said. "When mech designers initially compose their design philosophy, there's a tendency for them to become greedy and aim to design the best mechs, ones that are perfect in terms of offense, defense, speed and more. Yet such an ambition is impossibly large. It would be like trying to eat an elephant in a single bite. Rather than take on the whole animal, it's best you narrow down your ambitions and cut out a specific piece of flesh from the animal before you begin to eat."

"I already know that, teacher. It's just.. I can't decide what I want to pursue. I'm not as crazy enough as you for wanting to make my mechs come alive or whatever it is you're after. Yet I don't really feel for trying to pursue a single extreme such as designing the most agile or the most resilient swordsman mechs."

Creativity played a huge role in the formulation of a design philosophy. Ves actually didn't have enough experience in this aspect since his design philosophy gradually came into being after he became fascinated by the X-Factor due to the System's interference.

If Ves really wanted to, he could do the same thing to Ketis as the System did to him. He could manipulate her research interest and encourage her to aim for a specific ideal of his own choosing.

Yet as he looked at this dangerous, armored, hybrid human Swordmaiden, he couldn't bring himself to do so. Even if he compromised his morals to his personal advantage every now and then, he wasn't as rotten as to ruin this deeply personal choice to his very first successful student.

He may not be the most responsible teacher in the galaxy, but he still wished to discharge his responsibilities in good faith when it concerned a student he cared about.

He also wanted to see whether he had the chops to be a legitimate teacher. As his first student, Ves wanted to see whether his instruction put Ketis on the right track to a bright future in her mech design career.

Cheating at this stage only invalidated this experiment and ruined a potentially useful observation. It would be like participating in a foot race, only to hop inside an aircar at the final stretch and race through the finish line with the power of his vehicle instead of his own two feet.

As Ves waited for Ketis to come up with a personal ambition that uniquely suited her interests, a lot of minutes passed by without any results. She hadn't even managed to narrow down her range of interests to a specific field!

He started to get the idea that Ketis may not be suited to this kind of method of formulating her design philosophy. She was never particularly a deep thinker.

"Okay, let's try something different." He declared as he clapped his gauntlets.

Ketis jumped out of her fugue and stared at Ves with an expression of doubt. "What do you mean?"

"Each person and each mech designer is different. Some have very active imaginations, others think in logical patterns. Those kinds of mech designers are most suited to formulate their design philosophies into words from their desk. You're very different from those bookworm types."

"Are you calling me stupid?" She growled.

"No. Not at all. You can study and you can think if you really have to, but it's obvious you are forcing yourself. When it comes to finding a design philosophy that uniquely suits your upbringing, your skills and your interests, it's better to rely on your feelings rather than your thoughts."

"How do I do that?"

"Listen to your heart instead of your mind."

That caused her to pause. She contemplated the suggestion, but couldn't easily get into the right mood. Still, this method felt more promising to her than the last one.

"I think I need to have a mech in front of me to come up with a good feeling." She declared.

"Alright. Let me bring you down to the mech stables. I suppose we have a few swordsman mechs stashed aboard our ship, though they're predominantly spaceborn machines."

The pair exited the office and headed down to the mech stables at the lower decks. Once they finally arrived in front of a dormant swordsman mech, drawing the attention and curiosity of the mech technicians around them, Ketis entered into a peculiar mental state without warning.

Chapter 741

Ves immediately noticed her special state. Her eyes became dilated as she stared at the generic Vesian-style spaceborn swordsman mech secured in front of her. Her short green hair ruffled a bit as her head tilted upwards and beheld the mech's proud and unyielding head.

To Ves, the swordsman mech didn't seem very special to him. It was a cheap model that the Vandals looted in one of their many past raids into Vesian space. Yet despite its relative age and lack of distinguishing strengths, Ves found it to be a basic, dependable mech that survived battles where more extravagant mech models failed.

Frontier outfits generally prefer designs known for being dependable. Mech pilots wanted a trusty battle brother that lasted for years through frequent abuse and lack of adequate maintenance.

Naturally, the Vandals possessed different priority than the pirate gangs who often found themselves short of mech technicians. Yet this mech model exemplified the frontier style the most out of all of the other mechs in the Vandal mech roster.

Ves still remembered the Redemption Duel he took part in back when he stepped foot on the Temple of Haatumak. His hastily-upgraded Evaporating Spear competed directly against Mayra's Redemption Rose.

Though the conditions of the duel warped the comparison value between their designs, and his mech ultimately lost against her Redemption Rose, he ultimately gained a few lessons out of that battle.

One of them was that he'd been able to sense of Mayra's design philosophy. While Ves couldn't be completely certain what that might look like, Mayra definitely incorporated an emphasis on reliability and perhaps a combination of mobility and offensive power.

He had a feeling he only scratched the surface of her principles, but whatever they may ultimately be, her design style reflected the prevailing customs of the frontier.

Yet for some reason, Mayra did not wish for Ketis to follow in her footsteps. While she hadn't said anything concrete to Ves, she subtly implied that she wanted Ketis to develop a design philosophy that diverged from the classic frontier style.

Ves couldn't figure out why Mayra wanted that for Ketis, considering the young woman would make for a great mech designer based in the Faris Star Region if she applied herself to her career instead of her training.

While he filled up the gaps in his student's comprehension of the orthodox mech industry's institutional norms, he did not expect her to become a bona-fide classical mech designer. Ketis could never compete in the areas the graduates of the Leemar Institute of Technology or Ansel University of Mech Design excelled at due to their fantastic teaching environments.

With teaching facilities worth as much as a large mech manufacturer and Senior Mech Designers as their professors, these highly prestigious schools had been designed from the start to pump out mature mech designers capable of entering the mech industry in their own right.

How could someone homeschooled by a Journeyman with an inconsistent upbringing herself beat those who survived the brutal curriculum of those institutions?

Ves adopted the same strategy for Ketis as he did with the Blackbeak. Instead of competing directly against the established players of a particular market category, he instead turned to a less popular market category or segment.

In his opinion, Mayra didn't want Ketis to be a pure frontier pirate designer with all the faults that came with it. Ves did not see any hope for her to become an orthodox mech designer either without actually going through a decent school, which was impossible due to her age and her origin.

So why not combine the two? Ideally, Ketis would take the best traits from both approaches to mech design and mix-and-match them to form a hybrid style that became her hallmark. If she combined the meticulousness and the emphasis on consistency in quality with the freewheeling, unrestrained design impulses of the lawless frontier, then something truly great may come out of this combination!

Of course, anything complex that could result in a benefit might also go the other way. A combination of the worst traits.. Ves could hardly imagine what such a result would look like.

The complete immorality of the frontier combined with the intense greed and hunger for market share?

Now that he thought about it, that did sound a bit familiar... a few weeks ago, didn't he worry about the Skull Architect doing the exact same thing?

...Yeah.

ANYWAY, under his stellar and faultless instruction, his cute little student surely wouldn't end up as a devil among pirate designers.

She never displayed any ambitions of starting her own business either. While Ves showed her the ropes of what a mech designer needed to take into account when starting their own businesses, he merely wanted to give her a proper grasp on the economics and the cost and resource constraints of building mechs.

From her own mouth, she once described the two most prevalent ways that pirate designers got into trouble.

The first way was to pay too little attention to their own protection. Anyone weak in the frontier never survived very long by themselves.

The second way they got into trouble was to get ripped off or unknowingly incur a huge amount of debt. Many mech designers who emerge from the frontier usually possessed a poor grasp on the business fundamentals of their own profession. It was easy for them to get carried away and before they knew it a black market organization owned their souls!

Ves made sure to instill some basic business sense into her thick horned skull in order to make sure she wouldn't bankrupt the Swordmaidens or any other future ventures she might pursue.

"Ah!" The woman suddenly cried. "I almost had it! That feeling!"

"Did you get to discover your own design philosophy?"

"Not quite.." She shook her head in regret. "I kind of let my mind spaz out a bit. I was thinking about my sisters, my warrior training, and my Swordmaiden graduation ceremony."

"Your graduation ceremony? Isn't that the time when you set off to an untamed world and hunted down a big beast on foot armed with nothing but your sword?"

"Yeah." The girl patted the bones adorned on her suit of heavy combat armor. "These bones here and the reddish lizard skin I wear for my regular uniform prove that I've personal killed a Wistra dragon! They're one of the apex predators of a little exoplanet in the frontier. These bones are only a fraction the size of the real thing, you know!"

"And your design philosophy is related to the Wistra dragon?"

"More like my hunt for the beast. I roamed through the jungle there for more than a week, using every survival skill at my disposal to track one down and stalk it I found an opportunity to best it alone in open combat!"

Ves looked impressed at her. While he had no idea how formidable a Wistra dragon might be, the Swordmaidens always picked a worthy exobeast to demonstrate their feats of strength. "Why not employ an ambush?"

"Pff! Ambushes are for the weak!" She contemptuously dismissed the option. "The Swordmaidens aren't like the other slimy pirate gangs that won't hesitate to resort to dirty tricks. A trick may work once or twice but never all the time! It's our belief that as long as we are strong enough to beat our opponents in a straight fight, we'll never show any weakness!"

Ves found that to be a rather crude philosophy, but the Swordmaidens made it work so far. He tried to shift the topic back to her struggle to form her design philosophy.

"Okay, so there's the hunt and challenge you completed that excites you. What about it specifically makes your heart pump faster?"

Ketis closed her eyes and tried to find that special feeling where everything just fit together.

"It's not the hunt. While I enjoyed it, it's also stressful and uncomfortable and I don't feel like designing a tracking mech."

"It's not the one-on-one duel. While my matchup with the Wistra dragon has definitely given me an opportunity to prove that I can stand on my own, I don't feel like insisting on a duel when it's easier to throw multiple mechs at your enemy."

"Then what is it? What portion of your graduation ceremony has continued to stick with you and define you as a person and a mech designer?"

"I think.. It's the ferocity of the battle! I felt so alive at that time when I faced the Wistra dragon! All of my thoughts blended together and I let my instincts and my training take over. I completely trusted myself to win and survive! It's.. I can't explain it, but that rush of exhilaration and those brushes of death really made me feel that becoming a Swordmaiden was the best thing that could have happened to me! And that moment when I whittled the Wistra dragon down until it made a mistake! That chop! One running jump and one heavy blow to the neck and its head is parted from its body! Nothing in my life can top that moment!"

Ves crossed his arms. "You're recounting the best moment of your life so far, but how do you translate that into your design philosophy?"

"Uhh.. good question."

"Now we're back to square one. Well not quite. You've pinned down a powerful experience in the past that has influenced the rest of your life and that you can use to fit your design philosophy into. Right now, you said that fighting the Wistra dragon is the best moment of your life. Can you imagine anything related to mech design that might top that magnificence?"

She looked at him as if her gears had become stuck. "Uhhh.."

"Use some imagination! Try and think what will happen a hundred years from now. Let's say you've had a lot of lucky breaks and advanced to a Senior Mech Designer after a lot of luck. Now you are about to complete the culmination of all of your research and efforts. What kind of mech will you design that will push you to threshold of Master? What kind of impossible and wildly ambitious swordsman mech design have you brought into being that can astound the entire galaxy?"

"I don't think I'll ever become a Senior.."

"Don't ever say never. Didn't I taught you to always look ahead? There's no harm in harboring great ambitions! As long as you are moving forward, then even if you eventually halt half-way, it's better than never moving from your starting line. So stop thinking that you never have the chance to become a Senior and just imagine it already!"

It took some more guidance from Ves, but Ketis eventually closed her eyes again and sank into a deep enough mood to be able to imagine such a fantasy.

"I think I see.. I've become a Senior now.. I'm really rich.. the Swordmaidens are one of the biggest gangs in the frontier now.. I have a fluffy bed the size of a corvette to bounce around and sleep in.. I've picked up three tamed and genetically modified Wistra dragons as my personal pets.."

Ves gently tapped her armor. "Let's stay focused on your mechs rather than your material possessions."

"Ah, okay. Mechs.. mechs.. well, I designed a lot of swordsman mechs. Fat ones. Skinny ones. Fast ones. Strong ones. They're all different, because I like to see how each of them perform. Landbound. Aerial. Spaceborn. It doesn't matter to me. A swordsman mech is a swordsman mech. I would even design an aquatic mech if it isn't so different from the rest."

"Okay, so you dream of designing a diverse mix of swordsman mechs. That's a good ambition to have." He said encouragingly. "You're getting close. Now, try to put your designs in a row. Fat, skinny, expensive, cheap, landbound, spaceborn, it doesn't matter. Just try to visualize all of them at a distance. Now, what do they have in common? What ties them all together?"

Ketis let herself be influenced by his voice and fell even deeper into the illusion. Right now, it seemed like their environment fell away. The mech stables, the swordsman mech in front of them, even Ves himself faded from her sight.

All she saw was what her imagination projected into her mind's eye!

As the fuzzy outlines of her design became more clear, the eclectic collection of designs started to shine.

What did they share in common?

What tied them together?

What aspect about their designs carried a distinctive mark that could have only been designed by her?

"It's.. I can see it.. my design philosophy.. centers around sharpness! It centers around heaving your arms and bringing down your sword in a single blow! It centers around chopping the toughest things apart no matter how impressive it is! My mechs are all armor breakers!"

Ketis had finally found her design philosophy!

Chapter 742

After she finished uttering her design philosophy, she closed her eyes and basked in the aftermath of her mental enlightenment. She had dug into the deepest core of her being and discovered the very essence of what she subconsciously pursuit in her designs!

Ves let her process her newly gained feelings and thoughts. With regards to design philosophy, many mech designers didn't have too much trouble formulating one that suited their interest. Some even found their groove before they even graduated from school.

Such mech designers possessed absolute confidence in their mission and their beliefs. These gifted, strong-willed mech designers had a bright future ahead if they didn't screw anything else up. Ves always envied such figures, which included the enigmatic classmate who always seemed to be a step ahead of the rest.

"She was always better than us from the start. It was obvious that she had already found her design philosophy and focus long before the rest of us finished our fundamental courses."

Still, when it came to discovering one's design philosophy, speed may not always be to their favor. What did a mech designer really know if all they designed so far consisted of a few practice assignments?

Truly focused individuals who knew right from the start what kind of mechs they wanted to design only popped up once every cohort of students at a large institution as most.

To most mech designers including Ves, their philosophies became shaped by their experiences and their design work after they graduated. Only after jumping off the cliff and spreading their wings would they truly be able to tell which direction they wanted to fly towards. What paradise lay at the end of their flight journey? Every bird preferred to reach a different island!

As Ves looked back to Ketis as she gradually recovered her wits, he thought she should feel lucky to find a direction in her life and career so soon. She picked a good one as well, one that resonated with her very being!

He knew that some mech designers never found the right philosophy, or only manage to discover it a decade after they began their careers.

Yet the real danger came from picking the wrong design philosophy! Some made their choices in haste. Others formulated their philosophies without exploring the full range of possibilities that they might be able to design.

The classic example came from mech designers who only possessed practical experience with landbound mechs and formed a design philosophy related to them. Later in their careers, they came in touch with spaceborn mechs and found to their surprise that they worked better with space-capable mechs than machines bound to the land!

Yet it was too late for them to change their minds!

While they could bend their original design philosophy out of shape in order to accomodate spaceborn mechs, that was not how the growth and adjustment of design philosophies worked.

The progression of design philosophies revolved around a refinement of methods and approaches.

In most cases, the design philosophy grew more narrow and specific as a mech designer advanced. Sometimes, their philosophies made a leftward or rightward turn, but they unceasingly progressed forward.

A turn too drastic might turn their progress backwards. That would be an absolute disaster for mech designers because a regression inflicted enormous damage to a design philosophy.

Once it bent too much, it broke, causing the mech designers to lose everything that distinguished their designs from the competition!

To be honest, Ves had never met someone who foolishly broke their own design philosophies, but by all accounts they lived miserable life as no one wanted to purchase their listless mechs whose designs were completely devoid of inspiration.

"Ah, sorry for spazzing out again teacher." Ketis apologized to him after she pulled herself out of her afterglow. "I.. I kind of lost my mind there.. but this design philosophy! It sings to me in a way that nothing else can! It's been there all along but I was too blind to see it up to now! I've been fascinated with sharpness ever since I received my first practice sword!"

Ketis abruptly reached behind her back and grabbed her floating scabbard. With one smooth, practiced movement, she unsheathed her greatsword and held its blade in front of her face. Her powerful servo-enhanced maneuver whipped up the air and added substance to her move.

"Do you know that upon completing their graduation ceremony, every new Swordmmaiden gets to receive a full-fledged greatsword by the commander herself? She commissions them from a renowned swordsmith who set up shop in Malligan's Pitstop. These aren't regular swords, as you can see. They're integrated with several systems and are forged with both exotics and metals. Did you know what I love the most about the sword that marks me as a Swordmaiden?"

"They're sharp?"

"That's exactly what impressed me! They're sharp! Sharper than the sword I wielded in my hunt, sharper than any practice sword I've ever gripped! Look at what I can do!" She grinned, and abruptly turned her blade until its tip pointed down and drove it straight through the deck!

Not again!

"Ketis! Don't poke the deck whenever you feel like it! Repairing that slit is a big pain in the butt for the crew!"

She looked rather unrepentant for her impulsive action. Ves didn't know how the Swordmaidens kept their ships together if they kept stabbing their swords everywhere like they pleased!

Obviously, she remained enamoured by her recent enlightenment. It was like she shot herself up with a half-dozen stimulants. Nothing could shake her happiness right now!

A few minutes passed as she slowly digested the influx of feelings that burst out from her heart. Various emotions roiled through her body while her mind gained an unprecedented amount of clarity. It was as if a persistent fog suddenly cleared up from her mind!

At some point, she managed to regain her composure. She jerked her sword out of the abused deck plating and happily returned it into its floating sheath where it belonged. After she chucked it behind her back, she turned her gaze at the swordsman mech resting silently in front of them. After taking one last look, she turned around and moved towards the exit.

"I'm done here."

They slowly returned to the office. As they walked through the corridors of the ship, Ves noticed she walked with a bit more confidence and purpose than before. While Ves doubted she would ever shed her absent-minded thoughts, she had definitely gained more direction now.

Compared to her old self, the difference was both subtle and profound. Finding her design philosophy laid the foundation for greatness. While she still had a way to go, at least she got off to a good start, which had been the entire reason why Mayra sent her protege to Ves.

He finally fulfilled his debt to Mayra!

Ves felt as if a weight lifted off his mind. Each debt and obligation weighed him down, and accruing more and more of them without being able to diminish them ate at him like a rotting disease.

Once they reached the office, Ves sat on his reinforced chair and leaned back as best his seat allowed. His student's accomplishments made him happy as well. Even if he hadn't completely defined a narrow vision, overall he considered his first attempt at designing a mech designer to be a success!

"How does it feel?" He asked as she started staring off into nothing. His voice pulled her back into the present. "Don't get distracted now. You've had your eureka moment. Now you need to reflect on it properly so you know what you are getting into. I know that articulation isn't your best suit, but it's necessary for you to translate the feelings your design philosophy gives you into words."

"What?" She gave him a puzzled look.

Ves sighed. Did she deliberately act so simple or was she truly so dense? "Just talk about whatever is on your mind when you think about your design philosophy."

"Hmm.." She trailed off a bit as she thought hard on her new feelings. "I feel like I want to take my greatsword, multiply its size by at least thirty times, and give it to a swordsman mech that moves just like me! I want to design a mech just like that!"

"That sounds like a good project to pursue, but perhaps not as your very first project." He carefully advised her. "Don't limit your imagination to your own physique and sword style. I bet that some of your sisters in the Swordmaiden favor different styles, is that right?"

"Yeah. Not every sister wants to wield a greatsword, though most of us do. Maybe I can copy their body structure and their sword style and adapt them to my other designs."

"You only have so many Swordmaidens to copy. Gaining some inspiration from the fighting styles of your fellow is a good way to get into the spirit of designing a mech, but this method may become a crutch if you depend on it too much. I suggest you do this a couple of times but try to divorce yourself from a specific style or body structure and expand your imagination."

"How can I do that, teacher?"

"Two ways. First, study battle mechatronics and become an expert in the way the internal frame and the artificial musculature affects the movement of a mech! Second, use your imagination! Design a sketch in your mind before you draw the actual lines!"

Ketis frowned a bit. "I get the first part. I've heard of battle mechatronics before. Mayra has some books about it stashed in her library. As for the other thing.. You always tell me to use my imagination, but I don't understand!"

"Imagination is the canvas of our creativity." Ves explained succinctly. "It's an imaginary plane in your mind where you can conjure up any symbol, any shape and even entire designs in your mind. Just think about the following. How come good mech designers are able to design fantastic designs of rifleman mechs while being abysmal marksmen in their real lives?"

"Uhhh.."

"Just look at me. Up to this moment, I designed two original designs, both of which are commercial successes in their market segments. My first original design is a landbound medium knight optimized for offense while my second original design is a premium landbound rifleman mech that can do interesting things with lasers. Now, I never underwent close to the grueling training that you went through. So how come my mechs are so desirable?"

"Uhhhh... I guess it has to do with expertise?"

"Expertise combined with imagination!" Ves corrected her. "Imagination is the starting point to every design project. We construct a vision of our desired end product in our minds. While this is just the first step in any proper project, it is in fact the most crucial phase of all, because a good start can facilitate the other phases of the design process while a bad start can plunge the entire project into a dead end!"

"What does that have to do with designing a mech when you have no clue how to fight like that mech?"

"Imagination liberates you from the constraints of the human physique. Remember that while a humanoid mech is often based around the performances of peak human bodies, a mech is a machine, not a body of flesh and blood! Can a mech turn around its head by a full turn without snapping its neck? Many sure do! The same goes for rotating the torso. Most frontline mechs feature this freely rotatable torso in order to facilitate firing on the move."

Ketis started to get it. "So your point is that a mech can be so much more than a copy of the human body if I exercise my imagination?"

"Yes! Remember you are not limited to a faithful human form. A mech frame allows for so much more, and it is your imagination that provides the room for your creativity to come up with a new and radical vision. Plenty of mech designers who have never wielded a sword have been able to design successful swordsman mechs before. Then there are the mech designers who design bestial mechs. It's not like they ever transformed themselves into a tiger or a centaur, right? It's all in their minds!"

"I understand now. If I ever want to go far with designing my mechs, I've got to transcend the human form and stop regarding my mechs as giant humans. They're machines that I can shape in every way I want."

Ves clapped his gauntlets. "That's the spirit of a true mech designer! Even if we aren't personally adept in fighting, we can still create the most impressive fighting machines in the galaxy, and it's all thanks to our imagination. Never forget this lesson."

He had given his final lesson to Ketis. While he had many more words of wisdom to share if he really wanted to, he deemed her to be ready enough to set out on her own.

Chapter 743

After Ketis graduated from the University of Ves, nothing much changed for the pair. Technically, Ves should have shooed her out of his nest and cart her back to the Jaded Sword.

Yet neither of them brought up the topic of leaving. At her current state, Ketis wouldn't be of much help to Mayra back at Lydia's Swordmaidens. She played no substantial role at the Flagrant Vandals either, but she continued to pick up little lessons here and there simply from osmosis by staying in his presence.

Ves found that he liked the companionship of another mech designer regardless of their skill level. While he benefited quite a lot from bouncing off the ideas of someone more skilled like Iris Jupiter from the Vesian Revolutionary Front, he also gained a surprising amount by rehashing basic concepts to his student.

Besides, designing mechs could be rather lonely, and without someone poking him every now and then he had a tendency to get caught up in a particular design project.

He should really have a mech designer by his side all the time when he returned home.

In any case, even if Ketis finished all of her courses, she still had a lot to learn.

"Have you ever thought about designing your first original mech?" He asked out of the blue.

"What?! I haven't even designed too many variants yet! I still need more practice!"

"Ah, that's right." He smiled. Having already transitioned to designing original mechs, he forgot how hard this hurdle could be. "Designing original mechs is the true path of a mech designer. As a new mech designer, you should aim to reach that point as fast as possible. It's easier to design variants because the designers of the base model already took care of the difficult stuff, but there's not a lot of skill involved with shifting a component a few millimeters to the left or right and such. Develop variants for practice and for money, but don't look at it as an end in itself."

"So it's just a transition thing to you."

"Yup. However, many Novices and Apprentices get stuck at this phase. The gap is intimidating and the more you put it off, the harder it is to take that leap. I myself only designed two or three variants as my production models and perhaps half-a-dozen or so virtual variants for Iron Spirit before I made the jump. This is a bit too little practice for someone like you, though, so I suggest you hold off designing an original mech until you have at least twenty fully-fledged variants under our belt."

"Twenty? That will take me years!"

Ves tutted at her. "Do you think those years are wasted? They are anything but! Those precious formative years will be spent in applying your skills and becoming more familiar with the structures of different swordsman mechs. Right now, you know nothing about swordsman mechs."

"That's not true!" She burst out, indignant at his insult. Steam practically ran out of her ears!

"I mean it. Even if you like them, that doesn't mean you know how they are built and what makes them tick. Have you studied the underlying structure and layout of swordsman mechs? Have you interviewed mech pilots that favor this type of mech? Have you immersed yourself in a couple of designs and learned how they maximized their performance in certain criteria? Right now, I bet that an enthusiastic fan of swordsman mech athletes from the dueling scene know more about this type of mechs than you!"

Those fans and supporters sometimes reached hardcore levels of fanaticsm. Though they didn't understand a thing about the underlying science behind mechs, they possessed an extremely sharp and intuitive grasp of the holistic performance of their favorite types of mechs.

In other words, they grasped the essence and soul of certain types of mechs.

Naturally, this phenomenon also had a tendency to turn them into armchair critics that loudly berate any perceived mistake by the mech pilot or mech designers.

While Ketis grew up alongside mechs for much of her life, her exposure to different kinds of mechs left a lot to be desired. The frontier didn't offer too many opportunities to approach other mechs without pissing off their owners.

She calmed down a bit after some thought. By now, she knew better than to argue with Ves when he criticised her. That was also because Ves had indoctrinated her to believe everything he said no matter how much it hurt.

As her teacher, he could do no wrong and everything he said was the absolute truth!

"What do you suggest, then?" She sighed. "I don't have access to the galactic net here."

"I think you should start by talking with the mech pilot of that spaceborn swordsman mech you visited earlier. You gained inspiration from it and managed to find your design philosophy, right? Maybe you should start digging into that mech and get to know it better. It's not a particularly excellent model, but among spaceborn mechs it's a good first design for anyone to really sink their teeth into if they want to design a variant."

"I can do that?"

"Sure. It's just a copy of an old Vesian mech model. Unlike our core mech models such as the Inheritors and the Hellcats, there's nothing classified about it. I'll even pass you the design schematics and some of my notes for you to play around with on your own time."

Once Ves sent her the details as well as the name of the mech pilot he plucked out from the personnel rolls, Ketis went off to explore her newly invigorated passion for swordsman mechs.

He smiled as she skipped off like a little kid visiting a candy store.

The difference between the old Ketis and the new Ketis was like the difference between night and day.

The key lay in their passion. The old Ketis followed no direction in her life and it showed. She became easily distracted and lacked focus in her studies and pursuit for mech design.

The new Ketis on the other hand acted like she had been lit on fire. Passion suffused her very body and Ves only needed to give her a minor encouragement for her to set off in pursuit of advancing her craft.

He predicted that she would take her studies more seriously from now on and press through the boring parts about mech design in hopes of a payoff in the future. Everything became easier to an artist or a designer once they found their passion. Having an ideal to strive for always got them moving forward without too much conscious thought.

Ves considered her recent evolution and reflected back on his own abnormal progression. Certainly, the System allowed him to skip ahead of some of the more tedious parts such as years-worth of studies compressed in a single moment of time.

Now that he spent some time away from the addictive properties of the System, he felt as if his time with the Vandals had cleansed some of the repercussions of his overly hasty progress. Interacting with Iris and teaching Ketis especially helped him rehash some of his previously learned concepts and internalize them properly rather than having them all dumped to the back of his mind.

"Mech design is eventually a craft." He summed up to himself. He didn't care if his hidden stalker listened in. Perhaps she might learn a thing or two. "The meaning of a craft is to make something out of it. Too much passive learning only increases my theoretical knowledge without advancing my own distinct style of designing mechs."

He felt like doing something with his hands right now, but he had nothing on his plate. Since the Flagrant Swordmaidens estimated that they came very close to reaching the Starlight Megalodon, all of the heavy work had long come to an end. Each active mech in the Vandal mech roster received extensive upgrades and tweaks to prepare them up for a rough slog in space or on the surface of a heavy gravity planet.

Right now, most mech technicians whittled away their time by tuning up some of the mechs, which only provided small and temporary boost to their performance. Ves considered it a waste of his time to engage in such a marginal activity.

Having finished his two side projects, Ves was left with a gaping hole in his schedule. With the fleet immersed in FTL travel, Ves didn't have a way to check up on the work of his subordinates either. He had no concerns at all about the mechs aboard the Shield of Hispania, as all the mech technicians knew better than to slack off under Ves and Chief Haine.

"The only problem case are the specialists at the Gorgon's Gaze."

Thinking about the reports that emerged from that combat carrier informed him that Lisbeth Eta-Denmersken attempted to return to her old tricks. She tried to halt the shipping of the Parallax Star's spare parts to the logistics ships for recycling and attempted to influence Venerable Xie to back up her demands.

Strangely enough, while Xie behaved rather deferentially for an expert pilot, he showed no hesitation when he rejected the bulk of her suggestions.

An abundance of spare parts opened up new options, but that only benefited a mech pilot that really mastered their own mechs. Xie barely had weeks to practice with the Parallax Star, a powerful beast of an expert mech originally tailored for a much stronger pilot.

In spite of his intensive practice sessions, so far Venerable Xie only managed to express thirty percent of the old Parallax Star's performance. Both the charges and the energy shield looked anemic compared to what Venerable O'Callahan managed to conjure up. Truly, the fabled lancer mech had fallen to a new low.

Ves sighed when he recalled all the modifications he made at the former bodyguard's request. "It's really a waste of a good machine to turn it from a pure lancer mech into a hybrid lancer/spearman mech."

It reminded him again that the fit between a mech pilot and a mech mattered more than the absolute performance of a mech on a spec sheet.

"The fit doesn't exactly come into play when it comes to basic and advanced mech pilots. Once they become an expert, the mech becomes a key component of their strength. Their skills, their piloting style as well as their resonance profiles are too distinctive to ever fully come into play with a standard mech."

It was like upgrading from eating nutrient packs to eating meals made out of natural and organic ingredients. A poor eater who couldn't afford fancy meals would be satisfied with whatever nutrient pack he managed to obtain. Two decades old, five decades old, chicken flavor, vegetable pizza flavor, it mattered little as long as they filled up the stomach and provided the essential nutrients to keep on living.

When a mech pilot became an expert, they transformed from a normal eater to a picky eater. They'd vomit if they got served with a nutrient pack. They could only eat their meals if a good chef listened to their taste preferences and cooked them up with quality ingredients.

As the chef in this analogy, Ves did not have any quality meals in his repertoire as of yet. Still, it would only be a matter of time before he designed his first expert mech. As soon as he advanced to Journeyman, he became qualified to design expert mechs customized for one specific expert pilot.

"How will my expert designs look like?" He idly mused. "It's too much for me to create an entirely new design from scratch. I'll probably design a highly-upgraded variant of my existing mech models. That's how most lower-end custom designers work."

Though experts usually turned to Senior Mech Designers to obtain a mech that fit them like a glove, Journeymen still had a chance of entering this highly exclusive market by offering budget options for alternate uses.

Experts treated their primary mechs as their trade secrets. If they showed off their main mechs too often, their enemies would be able to decipher their strengths and weaknesses.

This opened up the opportunity for Journeymen to offer cheaper expert mechs designed for practice, parade or other purposes.

Even though it wasn't quite the real thing, designing expert mechs for this purpose appealed to him in a way. He had a new itch to scratch.

Chapter 744

Idle dreams aside, thinking about designing expert mechs at this stage was like putting the cart before the horse. First, he needed to advance to Journeyman before he could contemplate his expanded options.

Ves exited the conference room, following after the armored and suited forms of the other Vandal officers. They had just survived another briefing about what they might face at the end of their destination.

Nobody knew what to expect when they finally came within reach of the Starlight Megalodon, but that did not stop Major Verle and the planners. They held several briefings now within the past several days, each of them meant to clarify their mission and their priorities.

Contingency plans heavily came to prominence during the briefings. Everyone needed to know their roles during different events, such as if they fleet immediately encountered an ambush upon emergence, if the ships got separated from each other, if the flagship of one of the allied forces got taken out of action, if the disparate pirate gangs banded together in order to eliminate them first, and so on.

They even discussed the rather unlikely but potentially catastrophic possibility of Lydia's Swordmaidens turning against the Flagrant Vandals in the middle of a battle against other forces!

With Chopra Interstellar Security's tragic betrayal serving as a cautionary tale, the Vandals needed little psychological preparation to contemplate such a possibility.

Still, the Vandals expressed confidence that they could respond to any unexpected outcomes so long as they did not face a qualitatively better force. Even in their diminished numbers, the Verle Task Force numbered far more mechs than most pirate gangs typically fielded.

Combined with their training and formation tactics, the Flagrant Vandals should be the most powerful cohesive force at the site.

At least they would be so long if detachments from other mech regiments didn't join the party as well. As much as the Vandals didn't like to think about it, the Vandals needed to plan around the worst case scenarios, and facing a strong and powerful detachment from a legitimate military mech force instantly changed the entire equation.

Chief Haine stopped by his side. "Wanna grab a drink with me?"

"Oh. Sure."

The two went down to the lower decks and entered the ship's bar. They ignored the off-duty servicemen trying to still their nerves. Many Vandals feared what they might encounter at the end of the ride. They vastly preferred the current pattern of hopping from mostly-empty star system to star system to reaching the end of their journey.

A change marked the end of a largely peaceful pattern and the start of frequent conflict and grueling battles. Nobody expected to complete their mission without a hitch.

This wasn't their first rodeo to Ves and Chief Haine. They each dealt with the uncertainty and anticipation of what might come in the future with stoic acceptance. Why should they let their nerves destroy their moods when they had no way of influencing what might come?

As they sat down next to a quiet table and passed on their orders, a bot hovered over thirty seconds later and dropped off their drinks.

"So." Chief Haine started after she took a sip of the Shield of Hispania's signature brew. "You've been rather occupied with other matters lately. Both you and Avanaeon looked so obsessed with working on that strange black cube shuttle of yours that you even stopped attending our Pirate Empires sessions."

Ves shrugged, unapologetic about mission those meetings. "There's a time for fun and games, and that time isn't now. It hasn't been for the entire month. We all have duties to attend to and preparations to make. I'm a busy man and I can only be in one place at a time."

"If you say so."

They quietly sipped their identical drinks. Compared to the signature brew of the Gorgon's Gaze, the Shield of Hispania tasted a bit less intense, but it at least lacked the filmy aftertaste.

"So what did you call me here for? I doubt it's to catch up on old times." He said.

The chief technician took her time in answering his question. "Actually, I don't really know. I wanted to be in the company with someone who isn't a real Vandal, I guess. You're different from the others on this ship."

"I'm not a real Vandal? I would think by now that I've at least become an honorary member of your club!"

She laughed. "Nice try, but you're not quite there yet. To be a Vandal is to be our brother or sister. Have you seen how close the Swordmaidens are to each other? Of course you have, you have that little devil following you around half of the time. Well, to me, my fellow Vandals are like family. I care for them and stick with them through thick and thin. As for you... well, you don't really fit in. None of you mech designers really do, for that matter, but some at least try their best. You on the other hand..."

"Perhaps I've been a little too stand-off in my approach, but you can't fault me for that." Ves shrugged. "I'm wearing the hat of a head designer right now, so there's a limit to the extent I can mingle with the rank-and-file. Besides, the brass already told me that I'm heading out after this mission."

"Even if that is so, that is no excuse to pretend you live in a different orbit than us. Maybe the other mech regiments are stricter in that regard, but the Vandals are a bunch of exiles from wildly different backgrounds and origins. Everyone of us has screwed up at some point that caused the Mech Corps to punt us to this mech regiment. Without a shared identity to keep us together and trust in each other, how can we stay strong and united against our external foes?"

Ves took a deeper gulp of his drink. "I don't disagree with what you are saying. You Vandals have adopted an admirably casual and tolerant culture. It's different from what my relatives have told me about the Mech Corps. If nothing else, I enjoyed my time here and have learned a lot from you guys."

"Heh. You're one of the strangest Larkinsons I've ever met. A mech designer from your family! And not only that, but one who's willing to play fast and loose. The Larkinsons I've served with in my previous postings would have wrung your neck out if they heard some of what you've been up to during your time with us!"

That caused him to turn his attention to her. "You've served with one of my uncles or aunts?"

"Sure! It's not as if I became a Vandal since the start. I used to roll with a landbound mech regiment called the 9th Colocis Grand Rollers during the previous war. They're the trump card regiment of the 3rd Bentheim Division. They've got lots of high-quality medium and heavy knight mechs and cannoneers. Their mechs, mech pilots, mech technicians and mech designers are some of the best of the Mech Corps."

Ves nodded. "I've heard some impressive stories about the Grand Rollers, but not a lot."

"That's because their mechs are so expensive and polished that the generals are reluctant to throw them into the meat grinder." She said contemptuously. "The Grand Rollers have trained for years and decades for the sole purpose of breaking the lines of the Vesians, but because they have become so good at it, no commanding officer wants to be the one responsible for a defeat that results in losing tens of billions of credits worth of mechs."

"Well, if they're a trump card regiment, then it goes without saying that they should only be employed in the battles that matter."

"The Grand Rollers all understand that, but the lack of action grates on them. Do you know what it does to a mech pilot when they are sitting safely behind the frontlines repeating the same simulation sessions over and over while their fellow soldiers are fighting and dying at the very forefront of the war?"

"Shouldn't their leaders be aware of their frustration?"

"Of course they do! Yet do they care? They have bigger concerns than placating some bored and overly restricted mech pilots! Part of what I hate about my time with the Grand Rollers is that they're so bound by rules and discipline that they can't vent their frustrations on anything!"

"Is that how you got in trouble?" Ves asked.

She snorted at him. "Nice try. My story is rather private, thank you very much. All you need to know is that I didn't get along well with the poisonous culture and the shortsighted officers whose only response to the mounting frustrations is to whip the men with punishments and pointless assignments."

Her reticence increased his curiosity. Ves became really curious how a good chief technician like Carletta Haine got exiled to a mech regiment like the Flagrant Vandals. He admired her competence and leadership ability, and she could have made for a good chief in any mech regiment.

The Vandals should be lucky she led the mech technicians aboard the Shield of Hispania.

"What were the other Larkinsons like? I don't recall any of my relatives serving with the Grand Rollers, but there are too many of us to count."

"I didn't serve with the Grand Rollers from the start. I learned the roped in various other mech regiments, bouncing around from unit to unit until I received an enviable promotion to the elite Colocis Grand Rollers. Feh. Don't believe the hype when it comes to elite mech regiments. The more the Mech Corps invests in them, the more the mech regiment gets treated like a trophy instead of the tool."

"It sounds as if you prefer to be with a mech regiment that gets treated like disposable tools."

"Hah! Guilty as charged!" She laughed. "I think there's something refreshing how disdainful headquarters treat the Flagrant Vandals. The brass doesn't bother to ply us with fake niceties because we're not worth the effort to them. Everyone Vandal knows the score. That allows us to grow closer to each other due to our shared contempt at the officers who consider our existence to be a stain. Tools we may be, but at least we are doing something useful instead of looking pretty!"

Ves understood the underlying frustrations of what she described with the Grand Rollers.

Ever since the genetic aptitude of potentates became clear to them at the age of ten, they trained all their lives to become mech pilots. Aftering attending several mech academies for twelve to fifteen years, they became eager to prove their worth!

What a shock it would be for these talented mech pilots who ended up in a prestigious mech regiment to be put on the sidelines for most of the war. From what Ves had learned of the previous war, it had been one of the more deadlier and serious wars between the Bright Republic and the Vesia Kingdom.

Under such dire circumstances, the power and determination of the Colocis Grand Rollers may have helped stemmed the bloodshed and slaughter on the side of the Bright Republic. The conflict grew so heated during the previous generation that many veterans who rose up during that war were regarded with a bit more reverence in the Bright Republic today.

It had also scarred an entire generation of freshly-graduated young mech pilots who experienced war for the first time. His father had been one of them, and ever since then he tried to seek peace and tranquility whenever he could on Cloudy Curtain.

"Besides," Chief Haine added as she finished her drink. "There's one more benefit to rolling with the Vandals."

"And what's that?"

"We get to rob and pillage the Vesians to our heart's content, even outside of wartime." She chuckled maliciously. "It may not seem like it right now, but we spent most of our time planning and conducting raids on Vesian trade convoys and border systems. It's always a blast to pay them back for the suffering they inflicted on the Bright Republic!"

Chapter 745

The Flagrant Swordmaiden fleet transitioned out of FTL in the star system suspected to be one jump away from the suspected coordinates of the Starlight Megalodon.

How did they know that?

Under the dim light of the brown dwarf in the center of this forgettable star system, the carcasses of both mechs and starships drifted in every direction. Several debris fields filled with hundreds of mechs and dozens of ships bore the marks of intensive battle.

The Vandals identified the distinctive profiles of several ships they previously observed. For example, a converted carrier from the NIN mixed up in one debris field, while in another debris field several starships from the Caged and the Red Tongs kept the other wrecks company.

All of these wrecks indicated that every participating force started to converge to a single point in space. It made a lot of sense for other outfits to choose this star system as a stopping point.

The second clue came from the incidental starships that have sustained severe battle damage and drifted so far away to the point where their fellow comrades abandoned them. Certainly, it would have made more sense to save them or at least recover their crew and cargo.

Yet if it came to some cheap converted carrier that was already falling apart anyway, then the pirate gangs who snapped them up on the cheap really didn't care about recovering anything from them. They would rather save the extra hours and make the fateful jump to the Starlight Megalodon!

This not only applied to entire ships, but also from mech pilots who ejected their cockpits or crew members who boarded their escape pods!

Stranded, helpless and left behind, the survivors did everything to save their lives. The ship crews utilized whatever mechs or shuttles they had to stop their uncontrolled coasting in space and tow their ships towards anyone that could help.

The people stuck in their cockpits enjoyed no such luck. They broadcasted the facts and their calls for help in open space for anyone to listen.

Sometimes, a surviving pirate gang picked them up, only to enslave them or torture them for fun. Others simply fired their weapons at them or smashed them into pieces by driving their ships straight through the free-floating escape pods.

The final clue that told the Flagrant Swordmaidens that they had almost reached their target was the ambush that fell upon them seconds after emergence.

"CONTACT! Sir, our near-range sensors are detecting incoming space mines!"

"Hostile signatures detected within one light-second of our fleet! The signatures match the profiles of both ships and mechs in three different formations! An estimated number of four-hundred spaceborn mechs are inbound!"

Four-hundred mechs! Those numbers were enough to threaten the Flagrant Vandals even if most of them consisted of bargain bin mechs!

"Sensors have detected a large swarm of fast-moving signatures! They've just been identified as missiles! At their current acceleration profile, they will impact our fleet in three minutes and forty seconds!"

A mass of reports and alerts sounded out as the Flagrant Swordmaidens immediately entered hot water. Due to the recent transition, the sensors and several sensitive systems of their ships and mechs still needed time to recover and adjust to the material dimensions.

During this limited window of time where the fleet was at its weakest and most vulnerable, the helmsmen of the combat carriers all tried to orient their vessels so that the strongest side faced the incoming attacks. The combat carriers also contracted their formation so that their armored bulk could cover for their flimsier logistics ships.

A series of rumbles shuddered throughout the Shield of Hispania! The mines previously laying dormant in the minefield began to pelt the combat carriers with their payloads!

"Damage report!"

"Our armor belt is holding up, sir! The payload of the mines are weak! They've never been designed to take out a decently armored ship!"

Ves nodded in agreement. Light mines like these would have wreaked carnage among a fleet of light carriers or converted carriers along with their accompanying transports. Basically, that sounded like the average pirate or mercenary fleet.

Too bad their ambushers attacked the wrong force. While the Swordmaidens endured the bombardment a lot worse than the Vandals due to their smaller numbers and lack of combat carriers, Major Verle only hesitated for a moment before commanding Captain Rakeshir to move the fleet to partially cover the beleaguered Swordmaidens.

This also had the effect of putting the Vandal ships at the mercy of the Swordmaidens.

In the middle of an attack, neither of them couldn't afford any hesitation in making their decisions! When it came down to it, the Vandals were willing to extend their trust to the Swordmaidens!

The Swordmaidens for their part didn't initiate any shenanigans. They deployed their meager lineup of spaceborn ranged mechs first in order to intercept the mines. Fortunately, while most of their starships couldn't be called combat carriers, they heavily modified their cheaper vessels by piling up a lot of thick plating around their hulls. This provided them with enough of a buffer to form a response!

After a few minutes had passed, the sensors and systems of the Flagrant Swordmaidens fully recovered by now. Akkara mechs that had been stationed beforehand in their bunkers started unleashing their prodigious firepower at the incoming mines with a high degree of accuracy.

The missile volley proved a bit more difficult to intercept! Unlike the large and lumbering mines, the missiles all entered into an agile evasion pattern at the final phase of their flight!

"Prioritize the interception of the incoming missile volley!"

Over half of the Akkara cannoneers shifted their firepower from the mines to the closing missile swarm. Their counterfire largely consisted of dialed down laser beam bursts in an attempt to intercept as many missiles as possible without excessively overheating their laser cannon mounts.

An interesting detail was that the Akkara mechs actually cheated a little when it came to managing their overall heat. As they hunkered down in the bunkers built into the sides of the combat carriers, a lot of their surface area touched the hull structure of the vessels. This direct connection siphoned away a huge amount of heat from the smaller mech to the humongous ship.

In effect, if the Akkara mech pilots maintain control over their fire rate, then they could essentially continue to fire without any concern for reaching their maximum heat capacity. The ship they connected to essentially acted as an enormous heat sink!

This was a huge advantage in spaceborn combat because venting heat was one of the biggest technical challenges in spaceborn mech combat!

Along with an abundant amount of energy and ammunition at hand, these Akkara mechs exemplified their role as turrets as they threw a prodigious storm of firepower against the incoming missile swarm.

Even though hundreds of them attempted to assail the ambushed Flagrant Swordmaiden fleet, none of them managed to survive at the halfway point!

"I need the identities of the parties attacking us! Who are we dealing with?!"

"Sir, we are having difficulty parsing the variety of pirate mechs and ships! Even the Swordmaiden database doesn't have entries for every ship we've managed to observe. From what we can tentatively gather, we are facing at least thirteen different small-scale pirate gangs, of which half only owns one carrier vessel!"

"Bottom feeders." Major Verle growl. "These vermin have messed with the wrong fleet. Prepare for a counter-attack as soon as the mines are cleared out!"

During the time the other officers and operators handled the immediate crisis, Ves and Ketis calmly performed their own duties in the background. The two tasked themselves with identifying the origin, providence and attributes of the mechs arrayed against them.

While Ketis managed to identify a couple of mechs from the top of her head, most of the motley mechs arrayed against the Flagrant Swordmaidens consisted of cheap salvaged junk. They were so inconsistent that Ves had no way of determining their original mech models through all of the sloppy 'accessories' and other junk the pirates tacked on!

Ves had to make a brief visual inspection in five seconds and quickly list out the most pertinent strengths and weaknesses that came to mind within the next five seconds.

Observe a new mech for five seconds.

List out its traits for five seconds.

Observe another ugly pirate mech for five seconds.

List out the new mech's traits for five seconds.

His quick, bot-like manner of analysing the mechs would be sent into the local database, which would corroborate his analyses with the ones performed by AIs and other experts. As Ves was a bona-fide mech designer who also happened to be the head designer, his analyses usually trumped the others, though the AIs usually managed to pick up something new due to their radically different thought processes.

All of this information became available to the mech pilots when they deployed into the field and faced off against one of the identified mechs. The wondrous part about the man-machine connection between a mech and their mech pilot was that they shared the best of both worlds. They combined a human's ingenuity and spark of imagination with the raw analytical and calculative ability of a machine.

In essence, the effect enhanced a mech pilot's judgement and responsiveness to that of a human implanted with an AI chip or a biocomputer. The difference was that the machine half of this union transcended a mere chip or computer.

Nonetheless, despite these fundamental differences, the fact remained that they became partially capable of reading and internalizing a large amount of data than a normal human possibly could withstand.

This advantage or mutation to be more precise could bear the load of so much data that some people even believe that potentates were destined to be the next evolutionary step of humanity!

In short, this amazing capacity to internalize a large amount of sensory, mechanical and external data inputs and process them in an extremely efficient way became the signature ability of modern mech pilots. How else could they exert fine control over a massive multi-ton mech the size of a structure that ran millions of different processes at the same time?

Ves recently gained a new appreciation of their information processing ability after witnessing the sick Redemption Duel held by the Church of Haatumak. Even as their nerves withstood tens if not hundreds of times the routine input of a mech, Acolytes Gien and Evie still managed to persevere and exert a limited amount of control.

Compared to the flood of data that poured into those poor acolytes, the minute amount of data that consisted of his analysis was nothing to be concerned about. The mech pilots would easily be able to process his analyses and subconsciously adjust their fighting methods to take advantage of their opponent's weak points while avoiding their strong points.

"The mine field is almost expended, sir! Only fifteen percent of the original mine field remains!"

"Redirect all Akkaras to target our opponent's motherships! Put pressure on the vessels even if they are out of optimal range of our cannons! I don't believe these cowardly pirates are so united that they are willing to ignore the threat to their own rides home."

Major Verle's orders caused the heavy mechs to turn their firepower towards the distant carriers that hovered at the periphery of the battle. While the kinetic and ballistic rounds from the Akkara mechs had a hard time hitting the moving vessels, the laser cannons proved to be more accurate as they seared long rents into the cheap junk-grade armor of the ramshackle carriers fielded by the pirates.

The combat carriers of the Vandals actually sustained quite a large amount of accumulated damage, but their thick and superior armor plating prevented them from affecting the hull structure. Mostly. A few errant compartments blew out due to successive impacts at the same armor section.

"Sir! The enemy mech swarms are faltering in their charge! A number of them are pulling back to their sieged carriers!"

The Akkara mechs barely bombarded the pirate carriers for more than a minute, but already the damage began to tell. The fact that the pirates already started splitting up due the resilience shown by the Flagrant Swordmaidens signified that they weren't under a strong unified command!

The Vandals had grasped their weakest aspect! Four-hundred incoming mechs quickly became three-hundred attacking mechs as at least a hundred of them had second thoughts.

"Let's split these pirates even further." Major Verle grinned.

Chapter 746

Three distinct grouping of miscellaneous pirate vessels made up from many different gangs all decided to ambush the fleet that came out of the transition entry zone from the nearest dimmest star.

They even pulled out all the stops somehow by planting a minefield in the vague area around the entry zone!

This was a luxurious amount of treatment to any random pirate gang that blundered into this small brown dwarf star system, yet this time the pirates had definitely kicked an iron sheet!

The seasoned Vandals depended on two distinctive advantage to weather the storm.

First, their combat carriers may not be able to match up against the vessels of an elite mech regiment, but they certainly withstood anything the pirates could throw at them for a couple of minutes!

Second, their absolutely devastating heavy mechs projected an enormous amount of concentrated firepower at a fairly long range and passable accuracy. The storm of firepower harassed the motherships of the incoming waves of pirate mechs and had already caused a fourth of them to change their mind and turn tail!

"Send the following units to attack the smallest group of bogeys approaching from our starboard side." Major Verle ordered as he drafted the movement orders in the air with his armored fingers.

The plot projected in front of his command chair responded to his intentions by coloring the affected formations and depicting a bold arrow that thrust right at the heart of one of the three loose swarms of pirate mechs.

"The mech captains have acknowledged their orders. They are moving into action. Our other mechs are holding position."

"Inform the Swordmaidens of our latest maneuvers and invite them to join our assault. We need to make the strongest impact as we can in order to achieve the greatest effect."

The Vandals didn't even ask and the Swordmaidens already followed suit. At least two-thirds of their Misty Slashers already trailed after the Vandal offensive.

Both sides sent out their melee mechs to charge straight towards the heart of the smallest group of mechs, which consisted of sixty or so pirate mechs of dubious quality. Since the incoming response from the Flagrant Swordmaidens outnumbered them by more than two-to-one, the pirates immediately lost heart in their offensive and tried to turn tail.

Too late!

The ultrafast Inheritors zipped through their swarm which had built up too much forward momentum to turn back in time. The Inheritors avoided any risky moves but spent most of their efforts on hindering the pirates from escaping and corraling them from the flanks so they wouldn't split up.

The Misty Slashers arrived next as their miniboosters gave them a considerable push in acceleration. This allowed them to arrive just after the Inheritors and wail into the panicking and disintegrating pirate mech swarm. Their group had never shown much coordination beyond charging forward in the same direction, and it showed how every pirate mech fended for themselves against the enormous threat of the Misty Slasher's sharp and heavy swords!

More than ten pirate frontline mechs instantly fell as they possessed no means of defending themselves against melee attacks. The knight mechs and the other pirate mechs that ought to have defended them were busy worrying about themselves!

"Amateurs." Ketis shook her head. "I know exactly what's going on. These pirates here are the leftovers of all the other outfits that have reached up to this point. Who knows how they got here in the first place. They probably followed after the trails of one of the bigger outfits. I'm guessing that the stronger gangs must have had enough of the freeloaders and intimidating them into staying put here."

"So the pirates that are too scared to jump forward lingered in this star system for a while and eventually decided to band together?"

"Yeah. They formed a temporary alliance solely for the purpose of combining their strength against a prey they are reasonably sure are coming at a specific entry zone. I bet there's no real leader or someone with enough fame to command their attention. They're as loose as a pack of rats!"

Like rats, they fell apart easily when the cats came out to hunt. The smallest group of pirate mechs already started to disintegrate after coming under the attack of the Inheritors and the Misty Slashers.

The arrival of the Hellcats smashed them into pieces. The Hellcat hybrid knights didn't even waste their missiles against these trash. They merely fired a single volley of their nail drivers to unbalance their targets before smashing into them with their shields!

Sixty pirate mechs quickly got wiped out with only negligible losses for the Flagrant Swordmaidens!

The reckless fighting style actually caused some overreaching Misty Slashers to sustain heavy damage to the point where two of their pilots had to eject, but that was the extent of their downed mechs.

The other two pirate mech groupings faltered as one of their own got wiped out so fast. They had reached the perimeter of the Flagrant Swordmaiden fleet but couldn't go any further as the defensive lineup of the Vandals and the Swordmaidens resolutely barred their way towards the valuable ships of the allied fleet!

As the Inheritors, Misty Slashers and Hellcats turned around and left behind a debris field of broken pirate mechs, the stoppered pirates started losing more and more heart in this ill-conceived assault.

They already threw a bunch of mines and missiles at the Flagrant Swordmaidens, but their supposed prey sustained no substantial damage. Their fighting capabilities were just as awful as the pirates made no headway at all into threatening the combat carriers before the Vandal Inheritors raced into their midst!

The pirates already saw what happened to their last colleagues. The remaining pirate mechs that stuck around all lost heart and attempted to run away!

This time, their determination to flee was so great that the Inheritors couldn't possibly hinder the escape of hundreds of pirate mechs. They managed to entangle some of the unlucky pirate mechs, which subsequently got sliced into pieces by the Misty Slashers that approached them from the flanks.

Around fifty more pirate mechs met their end within ten minutes of chaotic fighting and fleeing!

Though hundreds of pirate mechs successfully managed to disengage, the Flagrant Swordmaidens managed to smash their spirits so thoroughly that they only thought about running.

They picked the wrong force to ambush!

"Our mech captains wishes to pursue. The Misty Slashers are already racing to run down the stragglers. What are your orders, sir?"

"Halt pursuit. Rein in our melee mechs and have our Akkaras and our other ranged mechs focus down the pirate carriers. Inform the Swordmaidens of our intentions and advise them to pull back their swordsman mechs before they overreach. Eliminating these pirates won't benefit us as much as our possible rivals. Let these bottom feeders scurry back to their holes. We have bigger fish to fry."

Slowly, some order emerged out of the chaotic outburst of combat that began right at the start of their emergence in this star system. Small debris fields already drifted away from the victorious Flagrant Swordmaidens.

Once the remnant pirate alliances dissolved into individual outfits and vessels and split away from each other, the battle finally came to an end.

A couple of search and rescue teams emerged from the ships and started to police the battlefield, prioritizing haste over thoroughness. There wasn't much to salvage from the debris fields anyway, considering most mechs consisted of junk to begin with. The mechs needed to be at least ten times more valuable to start becoming interesting to the discerning salvage connoisseurs of the Vandals.

"The bottom feeders have left, but different insects are about to descend upon the carcasses." Ves remarked.

"What do you expect?" Ketis snorted. "You're letting hundreds of thousands of K-coins worth of salvage drift away. Which pirate would be crazy enough to let them drift off into deep space?"

Of course, one man's trash was another man's treasure. The uninvolved pirates that hung around the periphery already to approach the direction where the debris field drifted to. Since the Flagrant Swordmaidens showed little interest in the junk, the neutral pirates already started feeling bold and approached the furthest reaches of the debris field to begin picking up some bargains.

While the pirates gave in to their scavenging instincts, the search and rescue teams focused on retrieving the ejected cockpits of any of their allies, of which there was mercifully few. They actually spent most of their efforts on capturing the mech pilots stranded inside ejected cockpits of pirate mechs.

The complete rout by the pirate forces left them with very little opportunity to rescue their stranded comrades, which the Vandals ruthlessly took advantage of by capturing scores of prisoners!

In the meantime, the Swordmaidens and the Vandals each took stock of the local situation. This dim star system that was situated so far into the deep frontier hosted a surprising amount of uninvolved people.

It signified a serious breach in the confidentiality of the race to salvage the treasures of the Starlight Megalodon! The CFA might be informed even now and prepared to send out a warfleet possibly!

"Who brought all of these dummies here?" Major Verle grumbled before he barked at his subordinates to hasten the interrogation of their captives. They needed to know as soon as possible where these riff raff came from and what they were after. "And throw the pirates out of the airlock once you're done with them! These scum deserve nothing less and I don't want crowd our brig with useless lowlives!"

Early interrogations already started from the moment the surviving mech pilots got dragged into the shuttles of the Vandals. Through a mixture of coercion and intoxication, an incoherent set of intelligence poured in. They told them less than they liked.

"Most of these pirates have indeed followed the trail of larger fleets, but they don't know what lays ahead. Furthermore, they lack the navigational key that will allow them to jump towards where the other major fleets have gone ahead."

Interrogating the prisoners further about which forces they saw painted a small list of all stars the Flagrant Swordmaidens needed to pay attention to. None of the forces mentioned possessed a simple background.

A small list of outfits and alliances spread among the crew.

"Well, we already know about the Caged and their recent team up with the red Tongs." Ves said as he perused the list. Most of the outfits mentioned in the list held no meaning to Ves. He never heard of these outlandishly named groups before. "Fortunately, there aren't any military units among the listed groups. We can beat the pirates as long as they don't unite."

Due to the navigational restriction required to dial-in the coordinates of the Starlight Megalodon, only five different outfits or alliances actually made the jump. That didn't preclude latecomers from joining in at the party at a later date, but for now these five groupings became the focal point of the Flagrant Swordmaidens.

Major Verle summoned the officers for another conference meeting in an hour. It should be the final one before they made the jump themselves, because the longer they lingered at the gates, the longer they remained vulnerable to another bottom feeder assault.

It took a few more hours for the FTL drives of their supply train to finish cycling. Those slow transports and cargo haulers that carried all of their essential supplies had pretty much slowed them down from the start, allowing the other participants of the game to overtake their progress.

Still, the Vandals remained unconcerned as the extra supplies gave them a lot more depth and lasting power in a long campaign, which the Vandals possessed a lot of familiarity with. Most pirates on the other hand had a tendency to neglect logistics, with the excuse that they could always raid the supplies of another force if they ran out of stuff.

This also happened to make the supply train a juicy target to pirates.

Chapter 747

An hour before the final briefing, Ves dug through the logs of the previous battle. The pirate ambush may have been repelled, but the space mines inflicted serious damage to the armor belts of their combat carriers. Just because their ships could take them didn't mean they liked to get hurt.

Various engineers formed up work crews composed of ship technicians and other ratings in order to assist with the emergency patchups of the worst armor breaches. They pulled out various pre-prepared alloys from the cargo holds that molded easy into shape and possessed enough resilience to act as stopgap armor.

"Huh." He said. "That's interesting."

"What is it?" Ketis looked over at his console.

"Venerable Xie deployed into action. He took the Parallax Star for a spin."

Footage of the Parallax Star in action showed the Parallax Star inconspicuously trying to blend in with the Hellcats, though it mostly failed at that because the expert mech appeared too flashy to be mistaken for anything else

Still, Venerable Xie avoided utilizing any flashy resonance abilities so the modified lancer mech only showed an elevated level of performance compared to veteran mech pilots.

"The Venerable likely wanted to test his actual performance with the Parallax Star." Ketis pointed out. "Since the simulators are so poor in modeling his piloting ability, only a real battle can show whether he has the chops to pilot the lancer mech."

Ves also surmised this was the case, as the Parallax Star moved rather jerkily in some instances, as if Venerable Xie tried and failed to perform a complicated move. Overall, the Parallax Star appeared to be a poor fit for the expert pilot. He was like a kid trying to make an adult-sized suit of exoskeleton armor to work. The expert mech simply demanded too much out of the weaker expert.

"We've already anticipated this outcome, but the results are worse than I feared." Ves spoke. While Venerable Xie increased his mastery over the difficult lancer mech, it never quite ran smoothly. "Expert mechs are always intricate machines that are designed to be piloted by one specific individual. The higher the degree of fit, the less the mech is compatible with other mech pilots, particularly ones that don't resemble the original pilot at all. Specialization is a strength as well as a weakness when it comes to expert mechs."

He pulled up some of the telemetry of the mech in combat, though it didn't tell him much because he hadn't dove into designing expert mechs yet. The telemetry of an expert mech diverged so drastically from normal mechs that they should be considered as two separate species.

He wrote a quick report about the Parallax Star's performance and added on the advice that the mech would continue to perform poorly unless Venerable Xie suddenly grew stronger, which wouldn't be happening anytime soon.

He expected the expert pilot's performance with the Pale Dancer to be a lot better than his attempt to make the Parallax Star work for him. After all, unlike the spaceborn lancer mech, the landbound rifleman mech at least had the benefit of fitting to Venerable Xie like a glove.

Of course, once the Vandals finally got out of this mess, they should scrap and replace the Pale Dancer as soon as possible with a new machine designed in-house. As much as the Pale Dancer seemed like a convenient gift, who knew how much the Senior retained by the Royal House of Talk tampered with some of its functions.

Almost an hour later, a bunch of armored men and women entered the conference room. The mood among the Vandal officers and chiefs appeared grim.

While they feared what lay ahead, they all accepted the importance of their duties. The Starlight Megalodon beckoned, and if they couldn't secure its bounty, then the pirates would do so instead, allowing them to gain a massive boost of strength!

Even if this mission had nothing to do with the war between the Bright Republic and the Vesia Kingdom, they still intended to do their duty.

Ves sat next to Chief Avanaeon and Chief Haine. All of the people from the technical and support department sat on one side of the compartment while the mech officers and security officers stood on the other side.

Once the hatch to the conference room became locked, Major Verle stepped to the center and drew everyone's attention.

"Good work on repelling the pirate ambush, everyone. None of us panicked or faltered when we transitioned out of FTL in the middle of a minefield, and everyone kept their eyes focused on their tasks. We all need to be level-headed and focused on the job when we emerge at the suspected coordinates of the Starlight Megalodon."

Everyone felt good at the major's praise. Their commanding officer rarely offered them so openly, so the praise lifted up the moods of Ves and the others. Some even broke out into a rare smile.

After a brief pause, the major turned on the projection and switched it to a localized star map of the deep frontier. A thin blue line zigged-zagged from star system to star system, each of them notable for their relative dimness compared to the neighboring sandmen-occupied star systems.

The line halted at their current location. Up ahead lay a cloud of whirling uncertainty.

"This star system, whatever it is, has never been charted before. The CFA exploration charts does not depict the presence of any star system, rogue planet or any other kind of stellar object at these coordinates. This is extremely odd, as it is a bright trinary star system that centers around two yellow dwarfs and one red dwarf. With three suns in a single star system, it is impossible to overlook such an energetic location."

Chief Haine raised her hand. "How up to date are those exploration charts, sir?"

"The latest ones are half-a-century old. Not very current, I know, but stars don't have a tendency to pop up or wink out in such a short time-frame. In galactic terms, fifty years is as inconsequential as the blink of an eye."

Nobody could figure out where this star system came from and how it ended up in the middle of what should have been completely empty except for some errant dust, comets or gas clouds.

"Our gravitic detectors have detected anomalous readings from the star system temporary designated as the Aeon Corona System. The reason why we have given this star system this designation is because spacetime itself is rippling around these coordinates!"

That caused the crew to burst into concern.

"Now, our science officers along with our specialists in FTL travel have indicated that it is impossible for normal FTL drives to reach the Aeon Corona System. The spacetime phenomenon that surrounds the trinary star system effectively surrounds it in a permanent gravitic storm. Any ship that attempts to drive through the turbulence will be swept off course and will likely end up lost or reach an entirely different star system many light-years away from the intended destination!"

"Then how do we reach this freaky star system, sir?" A security captain asked with a pensive face. All of this science stuff flew right over his head.

"We have a key." Chief Avanaeon spoke out after Verle gestured to him. "The spacetime storm looks random and uncontrolled, but the ebbs and waves actually follow and extremely complex set of mathematical patterns. It's frankly impossible for us to model the undulations and crack the code in less than a century, but we don't have to because we have already obtained the solutions. Using this data as our key, we can program in our FTL drives with a highly-customized configuration that will allow us to slip through the cracks of the spacetime storm and reach the Aeon Corona System without our ships getting battered aside."

All of this sounded discomforting to the rest of the Vandals. While Avanaeon tried his best to dumb down the explanation so that normal people understood the overall principles behind the science, his analogy painted a hazardous journey where one misstep might lead their ship to oblivion!

A bridge officer raised her hand. "Chief, does that mean without this key, no one else will be able to tool their FTL drives in the right way?"

"Yes. The key is safe in our hands. As soon as the FTL drives of our supply train has finished cycling, we can immediately use the key to input the right settings for our upcoming FTL transition. Once we do that, we will be committed to entering the heart of the storm. Do note that it is highly likely that we also need this key to exit the Aeon Corona System. Those same gravitic waves can easily batter us back into the system if we attempt to make it out without going through the same cracks as we initially entered."

A worrying silence fell over the conference room. As they began to contemplate the implications of this key, Ves slowly began to grow more alarmed.

How long would it be until the FTL drives of their slower ships finished cycling?

How many of these keys still existed outside of the Aeon Corona System?

An ominous possibility flitted in his mind, and his paranoia screamed at him that the uninvited guests might make their play soon!

After all, if the objective of the Church of Haatumak was to piggy-back off the Flagrant Swordmaidens all the way to the Starlight Megalodon, then they needed to take the key for themselves before it went out of their reach!

His heart pumped faster as his fingers started itching. He had programmed a series of preplanned actions into his suit of combat armor. He also made some preparations during his time at the Gorgon's Gaze when Acolyte Villis didn't dare to be present in the same compartment as Venerable Xie.

Now would be the time to see if the Vandals believed his warnings. He didn't wish to pull the trigger at this moment, but time waited for no one!

He forcibly tried to present a calm facade which belied the fear and excitement that sprung up from his heart. He slowly raised his hand, moving far too slow for his like. After Major Verle answered someone else's question, the man turned his attention to Ves.

"Yes, Mr. Larkinson?"

"I'd like to declare a code 835."

Half of the occupants in the room jerked up at the mention of this strange number. The other half looked confused at the ones who recognized this code.

"Are you certain?" Major Verle's eyes suddenly bore into Ves. "The damage will be severe if you are proven wrong. So far, we failed to observe any evidence to support your declaration."

Despite the Major's skeptical words, Ves knew that the covert warning he sent from the Gorgon's Gaze had convinced the Vandals!

"I'll take full responsibility if I'm wrong."

"Very well." Major Verle nodded, then switched his projection to display the combat footage of the Parallax Star in action. "Let us discuss the the battle performance of our new expert pilot. Some of you were right to doubt him, as the Parallax Star failed to live up to its promises in his hands. Commence countermeasures to a code 835 situation."

Verle spoke those last words in a measured cadence that did not fall out of place from his previous sentences. Yet what happened next made it obvious that those words were anything but normal!

All of the oxygen immediately sucked out of the conference room. The sudden loss of air caused everyone's hazard or combat suits to fold out their helmets and enclose their wearers in an airtight seal to protect them against the sudden vacuum!

Only half a second after the air began sucking out, the artificial gravity started reversing so that the ceiling became the deck and the deck became the ceiling!

Fortunately, the suits worn by the Vandals automatically responded to this next emergency by activating their emergency magnetic modules built into the soles of their boots and greaves. This caused them to hang upside-down, disorienting those who hadn't anticipated such an action while only briefly inconveniencing those who already knew this would happen!

Half the Vandals who expected this to happen drew out their pistols from their holsters. Ves drew out his ballistic handgun as well, though he much preferred to materialize the Amastendira.

Code 835 had been declared!

Chapter 748

At the same time the strange proceedings happened, Ves channeled a large amount of spiritual energy that he reserved in his mind to his eyesight.

A fog swept up the confusing confines of the conference room. Throughout the haze that resembled a mist, the clear forms of seven acolytes from the Church of Haatumak lay crunched against the ceiling-turned-deck!

Even if their forms seemed intangible and untouchable, they still had to be bound by the rules of physics! If gravity didn't affect their forms, they would find it a lot harder to move around the ship! They hadn't expected gravity to reverse and the air to be sucked away!

Regretfully, the acolytes all wore vacsuits that automatically enveloped their heads in an airtight seal, protecting them from the sudden deprivation of air.

Ves couldn't afford to stare all day. He activated his jamming device, causing the entire airless compartment to buzz and become charged with energy.

This blocked any form of electronic communication and many other devices, preventing the recovering acolytes from sending out a message through these means!

Due to the lack of air in the conference room, nobody would be able to hear each other in the open air. All of the occupants automatically joined a local communications channel, which but to their consternation, the jamming device filled the channel with static!

Ves knew that with the acolytes maintaining their invisible state despite their sudden crash, those who prepared for the code 835 would begin to grow skeptical. He needed to make his move now!

He raised his arm and allowed his spiritually-charged eyes to track his gun to Acolyte Villis, who rested on the ceiling right above his head.

Bloodmist splattered over his combat armor as his ballistic round hit the old woman straight in her center mass!

Not only did the others became alarmed at the sight of evaporating bloodmist, but the ceiling suddenly became host to a robed figure garbed in a vacsuit clutching the gaping wound in her stomach! The vacsuit automatically closed the gaps from the round that bore through the formerly invisible lady's stomach, but Ves fired again, this time managing to bore another round through the old lady's head!

Dead!

That wasn't all. Though a lot of the Vandals expressed skepticism to the decision to declare a code 835, the acolyte's suddenly-visible corpse finally managed to make them come around to the fact that hidden infiltrators lived in their midst!

Even though the jamming device scrambled all communication channels, the Vandals still possessed other means of communication. Major Verle stretched out an arm and shaped his armored fingers in a specific shape.

This silent hand gesture immediately caused the Vandals armed with energy weapons to fire them indiscriminately at the ceiling-turned-deck at low power settings. The sustained laser beams emanating from their pistols raked across the ceiling eventually hitting some of the acolytes and causing them to pop to visibility.

Those armed with ballistic weapons immediately peppered them with a torrent of projectiles!

However, not every acolyte went down without a fight. Those who became aware that they had been exposed began to fight back!

They did not appear to employ any weapons for some reason, but instead they stretched out their hands towards the upside-down Vandals who stuck themselves in place with their magnetic boots and greaves and pushed out a strange purple energy wave that caused the Vandals in the way to lose their consciousness and fall!

What was that?! That energy wave passed straight through everyone's armor as if they didn't exist!

The counterattack merely spurred the armed Vandals on! They directed their full firepower into taking out the acolytes in short order. The locked compartment left no room for them to run!

Ves kept his high-powered jamming device active even after the last acolyte succumbed to the lasers and bullets that turned his body into a smoking sieve. The robes and vacsuits may have facilitated their ability to stay out of sight, but it offered them little protection against attacks!

Major Verle performed a series of hand gestures that Ves unfortunately couldn't interpret. The mech officer noticed that and projected a small text from his helmet into the air.

[TURN OFF THE JAMMER.]

That was risky. If Ves turned off his gadget, the acolytes hiding elsewhere might get wind of the deaths of their colleagues. They would know the game was up!

Yet Ves had no power to decide how to respond to this outcome. He could only place his hopes on the Vandals and pray they responded quickly enough to neutralize the other uninvited guests.

As Ves reluctantly deactivated his jamming device, Major Verle performed a quick series of actions.

First, he turned gravity back to normal and let air return to the conference room. Second, he issued a fleet-wide command at the highest priority, announcing that a code 835 was in effect. Third, he fired off a quick message to the Swordmaidens to warn them of the same threats, though whether they listened or not Ves wasn't sure.

"Sweep the fleet of these infiltrators! Get to your stations and prepare for retaliation!"

The entire Vandal fleet entered the highest level of alertness. Alarms rang like crazy and red lights flashed ominously over everyone's heads. The code 835 declaration caused the ship captains and mech officers to use similar tricks to catch any possible infiltrators.

Yet somehow the acolytes stationed on the other vessels received a separate signal at the exact same time! Just as the Vandal officers aboard the other ships began to employ a response against the code 835, the acolytes moved faster! Each of them employed their strange energy attacks that struck the commanding officers of the other ships!

Reports of ambush attacks and assassinations already started pouring in! The only upside was that the other combat carriers only hosted two or three uninvited guests at most. The Shield of Hispania warranted a lot more acolytes due to her role as the flagship of the fleet. If the cultists managed to take out the staff officers, then the coordination and cohesion of the fleet would suffer a massive hit!

As Ves raced towards the command center and plopped himself to his seat, security officers drummed in every direction and started inspecting each corridor and compartment with handheld scanners, dust sprayers and other methods of stealth detection.

Personally, Ves figured they already took out all of the acolytes assigned to the Shield of Hispania. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the rest of the Vandals and Swordmaiden vessels!

Casualties mounted when the alerted acolytes struck the first blow on the other vessels!

"Casualties are mounting, sir! We have confirmed the deaths of six ship captains, twelve mech officers, two security captains, four chief technicians and five chief engineers!"

"Damn!" Major Verle slammed his fist against his armrest. "They hesitated too much!"

For some reason, the worshippers of Haatumak skipped over mech designers entirely, prioritizing the deaths of chief technicians over any mech designer but Ves.

He felt rather insulted for his profession. Did the cultists regard mech designers as useless?!

"Wounded?"

"Over sixty wounded officers and chiefs are being tended to, sir. All of them have suffered various degrees of neurological damage, but the docs estimate they can make a full recovery within two weeks of intensive treatment."

"That's still too much!"

Too many Vandal officers hadn't been diligent in memorizing the contingency codes. Code 835 was one of many possible emergency situations listed out in a disaster manual of the Mech Corps. The military truly thought about almost anything, considering that the unclassified portion of the disaster manual already exceeded over a thousand different codes!

While the rank-and-file weren't expected to memorize the codes by heart as they would simply be informed of their meaning when the commanding officer declared an emergency, the officers and chiefs should have known better!

Now that the acolytes succeeded in assassinating their primary targets, they attempted to avoid retaliation as best as they could in order to sow more chaos!

"Sir, severe cases of sabotage has been detected on the Ascendant, the Finmoth Regal and the Linever Swan! Their FTL drives blew apart and their power reactor's containment has been damaged! The surviving engineers have immediately initiated emergency shutdowns for their sips. All three ships are dead in space!"

More bad news! Two important combat carriers and one extremely vital logistics ship turned from functional starships into vulnerable metal prisons!

"Assign three combat carriers to cover one ship each! Inform the rest to standby and deploy their spaceborn mechs to cover against a possible pirate attack!"

"Sir, Captain Rakeshir informs us that the Antecedent's power reactor is reaching critical levels! Their chief engineer is dead and their remaining engineers all suffered severe wounds in their attempts to put down the chief engineer's assassin! He intends to give the order to abandon ship!"

Major Verle grimaced even more. Even if their most senior ship captain managed to survive, the crisis had reached such a dire level at the Antecedent that they were about to write off a precious combat carrier!

"Reply with an acknowledgement and tell him that he has full discretion over the matter!"

While the Vandals buckled and heaved due to this crisis, the Swordmaidens suffered comparably worse! Three of their vessels already started sputtering and faltering as large heat signatures emanated from their engineering bays. Escape pods and hastily launched mechs escaped the doomed carriers as fast as they could. If not for the abundant amount of safety mechanisms built into even the cheaper models of power reactors, the Swordmaidens would never have enough time to complete their evacuation!

Even then, the predominant evacuees consisted of the female Swordmaidens. As for their male enslaved technical personnel, they weren't allowed to flee before every other Swordmaiden made it out!

By the time the three precious Swordmaiden carriers blew up, hundreds of slaves and scores of Swordmaidens failed to make it out in time!

Perhaps the only consolation was that their pirate allies actually lost less officers and chiefs than the Vandals. Not only had the Church of Haatumak assigned fewer acolytes to stalk the Swordmaidens, but Commander Lydia and most of their senior officers possessed extremely good battle reflexes! Their robust, genetically modified bodies also managed to withstand the energy wave attacks, causing them to fall into a temporary coma instead of becoming permanently brain dead!

Ves started to harbor some suspicions about the strange mode of attack. He understood why the acolytes didn't carry any weapons. Their light garments and lack of equipment facilitated their stealth. Yet where did the energy wave attacks come from?

After he listened to the reports that poured in from the other ships, he suddenly found that the others hadn't detected any purple waves. Those struck by the attacks never saw them coming, and witnesses stated that they all saw the officers and chiefs collapse like a puppet whose strings were cut!

"Is it my vision?"

Ves realized that he had only been able to see the energy waves due to his spiritual vision!

The implications dawned on him. The Church of Haatumak and by extension the Five Scrolls Compact managed to find a way to weaponize spirituality!

The only good news was that once the acolytes unleashed their energy wave attacks, they lost all of their accumulation. They couldn't attack again and possessed no other weapons. Even if they picked up the pistols of the fallen officers, the weapons were biometrically locked to their owners.

The only way the acolytes could do more damage was to activate their hidden bombs and lead the Flagrant Vandals in a merry chase.

"Keep hunting down the rats! Scour our ships from top to bottom at least thrice! Don't let any of these infiltrators alive!"

Still, the loss of the Antecedent, the crippling of two more vital starships and the death of so many leaders among the Flagrant Vandals definitely set them back a lot!

As for Lydia's Swordmaidens, while they mostly managed to chop or shoot the acolytes apart before they could inflict too many casualties, the loss of three entire carriers impacted them hugely as they experienced an acute shortage of ships!

While both sides had been able to launch their spaceborn mechs or threw out their landbound mechs into space in a hurry, all of those mechs lost their motherships and became homeless!

Without a ship to berth in, The Vandals and Swordmaidens wouldn't be able to bring these homeless mechs to the Aeon Corona System. They urgently needed to obtain more ships!

Major Verle already started studying the local plot. While all of the pirate vessels drawn to the debris field noted the strange setbacks suffered by the Vandals and the Swordmaidens, they mostly returned to looting the debris field without a care.

"Time to grab some new ships." He muttered.

Chapter 749

Through a heroic effort by the engineers on hand, they managed to save both the Linever Swan and the Finmoth Regal. The logistics ship and combat carrier respectfully both played vital roles that couldn't easily be replaced if lost.

Unfortunately, the engineers at the Antecedent hadn't been able to pull back the venerable combat carrier from her doom. The acolytes of Haatumak demolished their ranks so severely that the ones who survived and managed to stay conscious lacked a deep understanding of power reactors.

Remote assistance or transferring chief engineers from other ships to the flailing Antecedent only resulted in delaying her inevitable violent death. If the chief engineer of the Antecedent had reacted immediately to mitigate the sabotage, then the ship could have been saved like the Finmoth Regal and the Linever Swan. Unfortunately, the chief engineer died right at the start of the crisis.

The displacement of so many crew, mechs and whatever supplies they managed to evacuate in time needed to be stashed somewhere else. For now, the other ships temporarily took in the excess, but they had to sacrifice precious space reserved for securing the spaceborn mechs currently deployed in great numbers around the fleet.

They needed to throw as much mechs in space not just to deter the neutral pirates from taking advantage of their temporary disarray, but also to clear up more space!

This couldn't go on. The Swordmaidens had it worse because they lost three whole carriers due to sabotage. While the acolytes who ambushed the Swordmaidens mostly got chopped apart before they could kill too many of their officers, their engineers were obviously less adept, as they mostly failed to fix the sabotage done to the power reactors of their starships.

The Swordmaidens either employed enslaved men as engineers or female combat fanatics that mostly earned their engineering chops by following free lessons on the galactic net. The difference between a pirate engineer and a military-trained engineer was like night and day!

If the Church of Haatumak stationed more acolytes on the Swordmaiden vessels, then they could have probably crippled their entire fleet!

Sadly, they rightfully regarded the Flagrant Vandals as the greater threat, and prioritized eliminating their key officers and chiefs at a critical moment. The esoteric stealth methods of their acolytes likely gave the cultists boundless confidence in their ability to defeat the Flagrant Swordmaidens in a single blow before they departed for the Aeon Corona System with the all-important key in tow.

Of course, the other Vandals also began to figure out that the acolytes had been placed aboard their ships as a supplementary attack to the main threat!

"The Temple of Haatumak and her swarm of pirate escorts must be on their way right now." Major Verle concluded with a grim face. Everyone felt the pressure. "We need to move fast! Capture the marked-out pirate vessels and load in our mechs and supplies. Start using the key and configure our FTL drives for the jump to the Aeon Corona System."

"Yes, sir!"

"Major, our Swordmaiden allies report that some of their ships have lost their FTL drives! They will need at least half a day to rig up their spares!"

"That's too slow! One of our chief engineers to each ship that requires a replacement drive."

"Sir, we lost five chief engineers during the ambush! Almost all of our surviving and unwounded chief engineers are occupied with replacing the FTL drives for the Finmoth Regal and the Linever Swan!"

"Spare what we can. It matters little if we get our FTL drives up faster if the Swordmaidens can't keep up. We have traveled too far to abandon our comrades now."

The sensor officer spoke up then. "The pirate ships have ceased their salvage attempts, sir. They are attempting to flee from our approach!"

The pirate scavengers always remained skittish as they attempted to loot the spoils of the Flagrant Swordmaidens. According to custom, the salvage belonged to the victors, so the neutral pirates always maintained a wary posture in case the winners changed their mind.

Besides, the pirates constantly observed the movements of the Flagrant Swordmaiden fleet. The sudden evacuation and collapse of four whole starships caught their attention instantly.

They knew the implications of floating in the vicinity of a force with too many mechs and too little ships. Such a force would immediately seek to steal someone else's ships!

So they made the logical decision and ran!

"Hehe. Look at these fat tubs run! They'll never be able to get anywhere!"

The independent pirate vessels mostly consisted of cheap and dubiously shipworthy converted carriers. The Vandals and the Swordmaidens each possessed more discerning tastes, so they outright ignored these ramshackle ships that began their lives as cargo haulers and moved on to the slightly more upscale light carriers.

Despite being called light, this quality only referred to their relative place among the carrier classes. Compared to the beefier combat carriers or the capital ship-sized fleet carriers, the light carriers formed one of the favorite mech carrying starships for the serious mercenary or pirate commander.

Although the pirates as a rule never took great care of their ships, the Flagrant Swordmaidens weren't spoiled for choice. While the light carriers out-accelerated converted carriers by a wide margin, they couldn't outrun the Inheritors and the Misty Slashers! Ships may have the advantage in terms of reach, but in shorter distances the superior acceleration of mechs trumped the sluggish vessels which needed a long time to get going.

Neither Ves nor Verle nor any other Vandal or Swordmaiden expressed any concern about the success of their mechs. The pirate scavengers all spread out and claimed their own little territory across the debris field. They also didn't trust each other, so they would never united and face a common threat.

Their low-quality mechs, their low-skilled mech pilots, their inferior numbers, their low morale and complete lack of coordination all resulted in a complete collapse within minutes of contact.

The Inheritor light skirmishers developed an intuitive cooperation with the Misty Slasher swordsman mechs. While the Inheritors distracted the pirate mechs and hemmed them in, the Misty Slashers collapsed on the bewildered pirates and cut them into ribbons!

In most cases, the Hellcat hybrid knights arrived too late to contribute to the battle.

With the pirate mechs taken care of, the crew of the vulnerable light carriers mostly began to evacuate their doomed ship or tried to sabotage as much as they could. Boarding shuttles sent by the Swordmaidens arrived quickly enough to secure the engineering bay and the bridge, preventing the pirates from destroying the precious light carriers.

Due to the haste behind their actions, the Swordmaiden boarding parties suffered slight casualties due to carelessness, but they had no choice. They needed to secure the light carriers as fast as possible!

Due to the bloody battles, the Swordmaidens weren't feeling very generous. They killed every pirate who lingered aboard the ships, not even sparing the slaves that surrendered instantly. Even if they could use more crew to man their ships, the Swordmaidens couldn't afford to trust these dubious prisoners.

Blood flowed like rivers aboard the captured light carriers!

"Major, incoming message from Commander Lydia! The Swordmaidens report they've secured four pirate light carriers from their former owners. They have presented one of them for our use!"

"Did they gift us the best or worst light carrier?"

The worst, as she turned out. The Swordmaidens kept the best-maintained and least undamaged ships for their own uses. No matter. As long as their new carrier flew and didn't leak too much air, they could work with that. While her sublight propulsion and FTL drive sustained some damage during her capture, the Vandal overstretched engineers would make her work somehow.

As Ves witnessed the Vandals putting out a number of fires, it became clear to everyone that their well-oiled machine started creaking. The temporary or permanent absences of more than eighty officers, chiefs and other vital personnel gummed up their response times.

Too many mech lieutenants filled the shoes of their fallen mech captains, while the same applied to ship captains, chief technicians and chief engineers. The loss of just five chief engineers hurt the Vandals incredibly badly right now because their expertise was sorely needed to resolve the damage to their ships.

While the loss of leaders seriously affected the smooth running of the task force, Ves worried about the longer-term issues as well. "The loss of an veteran mech captain hurts as much as losing an entire mech company, while the loss of a chief engineer is equivalent to losing several hundred ship ratings. Our overall efficiency will be seriously affected from this moment out."

Due to their special recruitment conditions, the Flagrant Vandals had an abundance of bad apples but very few true talents. Cases like Chief Haine who had been exiled to the Vandals despite her strong ability proved to be the exception rather than the rule.

Most Vandals in fact resembled types like Captain Orfan, who should have never been promoted in a position of leadership were it not for the overall lack of qualified alternatives.

All the field promotions and temporary elevation of positions resulted in a lot of garbage being shoved up the hierarchy!

"Ketis, how are the Swordmaidens doing?"

"Bad." She replied, mourning the losses her fellow sisters suffered. "Those bastard backstabbing cultists blew up three of our ships!"

The Swordmaidens suffered hugely from losing so many ships at once. Even if they appropriated three new light carriers, it took a lot of time to repair the battle damage, remove all the boobytraps and make sure no survivors made it past their sweeps.

The Flagrant Swordmaidens had reached their weakest point since the start of their journey into the frontier!

In the meantime, Ves became interested in the autopsies of the acolytes and how they managed to kill or incapacitate their targets with nothing but a wave of their hand.

They had definitely mastered a way of employing spirituality offensively! Having experienced its lethal effects up close, he'd be lying if he said he held no interest in copying their methods.

The trouble was that while Ves had been credited with exposing the acolytes, the autopsies and the footage of the attacks remained strictly in the hands of the security department. When he begged Major Verle for access, the irate and overstressed commanding officer curtly shot him down.

"Mr. Larkinson, while I may have given you certain liberties, that does not mean you are in charge of the Flagrant Vandals. Colonel Lowenfield you are not. Return to your duties and leave the investigation up to the experts."

Ves inwardly snorted. The security officers had completely dropped the ball with regard to the cultist infiltrators. The freaky invisible acolytes hid among their very own for well over a month without at risk of detection!

If he hadn't tipped the Vandals off by looking up the code 835 and discreetly sending out a warning to Major Verle from the Gorgon's Gaze, then the Vandals would have lost more than one ship!

Still, Verle had a point. Due to all of the shuffling and confusion, Ves had a lot of work on his plate. "Yes, sir. I'll return to my duties."

Ves had a headache when it came to managing the aftermath of the partially successful ambush. The sudden loss of a number of critical chief technicians that kept their department together had left a lot of mech technicians listless and without effective leadership!

The average caliber of mech technicians among these leaderless Vandals did not instill Ves with much confidence. The Vandal officers aboard the affected ships may have field-promoted the most senior mech technicians among their bunch, but these fellows mostly consisted of cynical old salts. They resembled the old grandpas and grandmas who held a very dim view of authority, and only became competent with working with mechs due to sheer repetition.

In terms of leadership and technical ability, these so-called acting chief technicians couldn't match even a fourth of the capabilities of their predecessors!

All of this showed as the overall productivity of the maintenance departments instantly plunged. Mechs that needed servicing didn't get serviced while mechs that cried out for repairs received the wrong mech technicians who didn't specialize in repairing the specific damaged components.

"It's time for my mech designers to get off their lazy butts. Useless, eh? Not worth assassinating, eh? I'll show those acolytes that mech designers are worth something!"

Chapter 750

As everyone in the command center of the Shield of Hispania constantly put out the fires as they came, Major Verle suddenly received a priority message. The commanding officer took one look at it before he instantly discolored.

He quietly cursed and jumped out of his command seat.

"Maintain your duties and keep the fleet from falling apart."

The latest crisis must be a really huge one if the big man himself had to depart from his command seat. The Flagrant Vandals could still manage without him, but his constant presence and his measured confidence had done much to disperse the confusion and stabilize their flagging morale.

Right now, the Swordmaidens and the Vandals each focused a large amount of their efforts into breaking in their newly-captured light carriers they liberated from their previous owners.

Of course, pirates being what they were, practically all four carriers were cesspools of filth, junk and other unpleasant goods. Cleaning up the compartments and throwing away the junk into space took much longer than they thought. This was in addition to the expansive inspection of all of their systems.

The Boiled Duck, the unflattering name for the light carrier handed over to them by the Swordmaidens after they killed the original crew, hid a large number of boobytraps. They already caused some of the Swordmaidens some grief when they took over the ship, and they became an enduring headache for the security officers slowly sweeping them up and defusing their deadly mechanisms.

Ketis didn't look surprised. "Every decent pirate captain boobytraps their own ships to hell and back. It's standard procedure out here where every large pirate gang won't hesitate to take over your ship if you're alone. Filling up your ship with traps will at least make others hesitate in trying to take over your baby."

"How come you Swordmaidens easily managed to board and take over the light carriers?"

"We're very good in boarding combat." She grinned. "Our swords are sharp enough to bore through the thinner bulkhead sections that allows us to circumvent choke points entirely. Besides, those pirates aren't very well geared in the first place. At least half of them likely aren't wearing anything heavier than a hazard suit. The captains don't want their underlings to be too well-armed, you see. They might think they're strong enough to demand a greater share, or force a change in leadership."

Ves scoffed at that. "I don't envy pirate captains. Even their own crew are constantly suspect in their eyes. It's a wonder they can remain afloat under those conditions."

Half an hour went by as they returned to their individual duties. He tasked Ketis with cataloguing and profiling the pirate mechs still in space in case they ever launched an attack, while he himself started to manage the other mech designers. They needed to be more proactive in order to avoid the mech technicians from sinking into an abyss due to the elevation of incompetent mech technicians to chiefs.

He encountered a lot of obstacles while doing so, as most mech designers simply didn't have what it took to take on a leadership role.

Still, if they didn't step up, then who would be able to serve as a check against some of the idiotic decisions the new chiefs had already started issuing?

Almost every ship and every department dealt with the consequences of losing so many experienced Vandal leaders. Their only consolation was that many of the wounded would see a full recovery in the next couple of weeks.

Yet even this absence hurt the Vandals a lot as the mission had reached a critical moment. It was like showing up to a mech arena match with three out of five star athletes taken out of commission because they boarded a shuttle while drunk and crashed it into an ocean.

The reserve athletes who replaced the incapacitated mech pilots couldn't measure up to the original lineup. It would be good enough if they exhibited half the skill of the original star athletes!

"This is going to result in a lot of screwups down the line." He muttered.

Just as Ves went back to riding herd over his mech designers who appeared unable to show any initiative during a crisis, he received a high-priority alert on his comm.

"What? Major Verle wants me to come down to the infirmary?"

Did he change his mind about granting Ves permission to inspect the corpses of the acolytes? Probably not, since the security officers likely inspected them at their own department. The message also explicitly summoned him with urgency, so he doubted it had anything to do with an autopsy.

"Stay put." He instructed Ketis. "I'm being called elsewhere. If I'm delayed for any reason, I'll tell you what to do."

"Okay, teacher."

"You don't have to call me teacher anymore. You've graduated from my instruction. You can call me Ves if you like." He smiled.

"Really? That seems rather disrespectful.. Mayra always told me you civilized folk like to keep it stiff and formal."

"That's with strangers. We're long past that stage. Besides, Brighters aren't as stiff as the Vesians and many other states. None of the Vandals will turn up their noses if you call me by my first name."

"Okay then, Ves!" She chirped.

As Ves navigated through the corridors of the Shield of Hispania, he walked past many busy work crews in full gear. Security officers in bulky exoskeleton armor swept the corridors with a variety of means, forcing Ves and the other Vandals to press themselves against the bulkheads to go past their ranks.

A strong undercurrent of concern spread among the crew. The Vandals all anticipated the imminent arrival of either the Temple of Haatumak and her many pirate escorts or some other force that worked on their behalf.

The Flagrant Swordmaiden fleet herefore tried to boost as far away from the emergence zone as possible. Any force that followed their exact same route would likely transition out of FTL within that zone and be in easy engagement range to the allied fleet if nothing changed.

Even then, the recently conquered light carriers and the sabotaged Finmoth Regal and the Linever Swan slowed them all down. A chain was only as strong as its weakest link, and the crippled combat carrier and logistics ship needed to be towed by other vessels in order to get a move on.

Everyone thought their flight was too slow. Towing the big, fat Linever Swan especially strained the Vandals as three whole combat carriers lent their propulsion power to get her going.

As Ves finally reached the infirmary, he nodded to the doctors and nurses taking care of the wounded who managed to survive the strange attack method of the acolytes and walked over to an isolated ward of some sorts.

The heavily-armed security officers standing guard outside the entrance was new. Unlike the other Vandals in armor, these fellows kept their helmets folded over their heads to shield their entire bodies from harm.

They must be guarding something critically important inside.

"Mr. Larkinson? Major Verle is expecting you inside. Please relinquish every device and weapon in your possession. They will be returned to you when you exit."

Ves acquiesced to the demand. It wasn't as if the security officers looked like they accepted any excuses from him. Though he felt reluctant to part with his two expensive gadgets again, he trusted the guards to keep them safe.

He didn't feel so bad about handing over his military-issued comm and his ballistic handgun. They were just tools that Ves used for convenience. Unlike his personal gadgets, he never designed or crafted them by hand, so he lacked an emotional connection to these devices.

Surprisingly, the security officer handed him back his signal jammer after performing a cursory inspection. "You're allowed to carry this inside."

Once the security officers swept him one more time, the hatch finally opened up and allowed him entry. Stepping inside, he appeared to have entered some kind of long-term recovery ward for senior officers or very important people.

The dominantly white compartment and sparse but tasteful furniture made out of high-quality materials provided the best environment for someone to recover from a severe affliction.

Ves stepped over to Major Verle, who looked down upon a frail-looking figure resting inside a sophisticated medical pod. Its semi-transparent upper surface showed the patient to be in a bad condition, as discolorations and bindings covered half of the poor man's body. They even removed his hair!

"I've received your summons, sir. Where am I needed?"

The mech officer idly gestured at Ves. "Come closer and look down on this patient. Do you recognize him?"

Ves did so and peered through the transparent cover. He frowned. "He looks familiar, but the discolorations and bandages make it hard for me to recall. Who is he, sir?"

"You should have recognized him. This man is the current Fourth Prince of the Royal House of Talk, the ruling dynasty of the Palast Kingdom which is a third-rate state of the Dark Plasma Star Sector. He is also the former leader of the ill-fated Shining Stars Colonization Fleet and the former patron and employer of Venerable Karol Xie."

"What, sir?! This is Prince Hixt-Klaaster!? How did he end up like this?!"

The exiled prince previously appeared a little haggard, but very must healthy and in the prime of his life. To see him reduced to a skinny state with visible and invisible wounds marring over half of his body, Ves wondered how he ended up like this! Shouldn't he be under strict guard?!

"The Acolytes may have failed to take out our command staff aboard the Shield of Hispania, but they have succeeded in a range of smaller sabotage attempts." Major Verle stoically explained. "One of their attempts targeted the hidden and highly-guarded compartment where we stowed away the Fourth Prince."

"Why do his wounds look so strange, sir?"

"As far as we are aware of, he has been struck by the same type of attack employed by all the other Acolytes."

"That.." Ves frowned even deeper. "Doesn't that mean we didn't kill all of the cultists aboard the Shield at the conference meeting, sir? Have the security officers guarding the Fourth Prince at least taken out that Acolyte?"

"Unfortunately, they hadn't been able to act fast enough. By the time we sent out the alert for a code 835 situation, the Acolyte already struck the prince and fled immediately. So far, we have not caught a single trace of this remaining infiltrator. We have quietly suspended all shuttle transfers and limited our mech deployments to keep him bottled up on our ship, but I do not have much faith in our chances to capture this invisible interloper."

When Ves heard about the remaining Acolyte at large, a chill ran down through his spine. They still hadn't swept up all of the uninvited guests! Even one single survivor could do a lot of damage at a critical moment!

"What are our countermeasures, sir?"

"Every important officer or chief needs to wear the heaviest suit of combat armor at all times. While armor has proven to be largely ineffective at preventing their silent and invisible attack method, they do not appear to be able to repeat the same feat in quick succession, so it will at least guard our officers against mundane weaponry. I will assign two security officers to tail each of our officers and chiefs, you included. We cannot afford to lose any of our cadre."

Hopefully, the remaining Acolyte would be cornered in time, though Ves doubted it. Someone invisible could go anywhere and the checkpoints the security officers setup may not be sufficient for the task.

Ves knew that the best way for the Acolyte to escape a combat carrier was to infiltrate one of the hangar bays and stow away aboard a mech with a roomier cockpit. Though that left the Acolyte with the problem of getting somewhere offboard, at least they only had to deal with a single mech pilot instead of the full complement of the Shield of Hispania.

"If I may make a suggestion, sir, I'd advise you to double or triple check the cockpits of each mechs that is about to deploy."

"We have already taken that possibility into account. No one is allowed to smuggle themselves out by hitchhiking on a deploying mech."