Chapter 1701 Conspiracy

Reality froze around Ves as he took in Raymond's explosive news.

The 'reinforcements' turned out to be an entirely different beast!

All official communication between the LMC and the authorities only described the incoming fleet as reinforcements meant to bolster Cloudy Curtain's defenses.

There was nothing that hinted at taking Ves into custody and bringing him away to a different star system!

Ves thought that the Tovars had already solved this problem. How could the Mech Corps deceive them all by sending a capture fleet under the guise of reinforcements?!

Perhaps the most worrying aspect about the new arrivals was the presence of an expert pilot! Venerable Ghanso Larkinson himself accompanied the 'reinforcements', which was massively overkill for a lesser star system!

Each and every expert pilot was needed to defend the most strategic locations. Bentheim needed expert pilots more than Cloudy Curtain! It didn't make any sense to send Ghanso to Cloudy Curtain just to fend off some sandmen!

The only way it made sense was if Ghanso had been sent to oppose Ves and the Larkinsons on his side!

Ves always knew there were contradictions between him and the more patriotic faction of the family. He knew that Ghanso strongly sided with the Larkinsons who pursued duty to the Republic above anything else. Yet how could his illustrious cousin ever agree to be used as a sword pointed at a family member?

"This is outrageous!" He exploded. "Family doesn't fight against family! This has been the Larkinson rule for centuries, right!?"

The Larkinson elder looked grave. "There are exceptions to this rule, Ves."

"And those are..?"

"If.. a Larkinson has betrayed the family or betrayed the state, he or she does not deserve to be treated as family."

"..."

Ves fell silent. He vaguely recalled this exception when his father lectured him about it in his youth. Of course, back then he was just a little kid, so he couldn't really remember so many clauses.

"Does Venerable Ghanso and his fleet come with any orders?"

"See for yourself." Raymond replied and activated his comm to transfer some files.

The desk terminal lit up, allowing Ves to skim through the official looking documents. The format, letterhead and everything else looked completely identical to his prior correspondence with the Mech Corps!

"Are these orders fake?"

"No. I've already verified them." Raymond pointed at a corner of the current page. "Look at this virtual signature. As long as you are connected to the galactic net, the signature automatically links up to the servers of the Mech Corps. You can visit a site and immediately verify that this unique signature is a valid order."

Ves did so, and quickly found out that the Mech Corps indeed issued these orders!

They weren't fake!

This meant that Venerable Ghanso was acting on official orders!

"This.. why would the Mech Corps issue such orders?!"

The documents were very wordy and full of formal terms, but they all came down to a single priority.

Ves had to be taken into custody by the Mech Corps, no matter what he wanted.

"The Mech Corps isn't a unilateral entity, Ves. You should know this since you served with Vandals for some time." Raymond wearily told him. He seemed more old and frail than ever since he took up the position of COO. "While I'm not a veteran, I'm decently aware of the power struggles within the military. I strongly suspect that these orders don't represent the will of the entire institution. This is very likely someone in the hierarchy playing games with us! No average military official can arrange such elaborate deception surrounding the reinforcement fleet!"

This was something that befuddled Ves. He was no longer the kid who operated a mech workshop by himself. He was the head and the lead designer of a large mech manufacturer, a prominent elder of the Larkinson Family and a well-connected individual!

Why didn't the Tovars say anything? Why didn't Flashlight warn him ahead of time? How could Calabast possibly miss something so huge?

All of these partnerships and alliances had failed at this critical moment! With Ghanso Larkinson and three combat carriers worth of military mechs bearing down on Cloudy Curtain, Ves had been completely caught off guard!

He quickly contacted Captain Silvestra and briefly filled her in on the situation.

"Captain, can the Barracuda escape this star system?"

The projection of the captain shook her head. "My apologies, sir, but it's too late. According to the movements of the forces in orbit, the defense fleet has already spread out to envelop every approach. The combat carriers have split up as well to surround the entire planet from three angles. No matter which angle we attempt to follow, at least one of the combat carriers and accompanying mechs will be able to intercept our escape!"

Venerable Ghanso only transmitted his ultimatum when the capture fleet had come close enough to seal off any escape routes!

It was too late to run! Ves had been far too complacent against the so-called 'reinforcements'!

He cut off his call with Captain Silvestra and contacted someone else.

"Miles!" he shouted. "Are you aware of what is going on right now?!"

"I have just been informed, sir." Miles replied with panic. "The Mech Corps wasn't supposed to come with orders to take you away! I can guarantee that our Tovar Family had nothing to do with this! I'm trying to gain more information from my family right now, but from what I have heard so far, we were completely blindsided! It will take some time for Senator Tovar to uncover the truth!"

Ves grunted in frustration. "You better give me an answer, soon! I trusted you Tovars to cover my back!"

As he shut off the comm channel, he briefly contemplated the possibility that the Tovar Family stabbed him in the back.

Did Senator Tovar really tear up their existing agreement in order to achieve another objective?

"No."

It did not make much sense. The Tovars agreed to work with Ves because they thought he had a lot of promise as a mech designer. They also wanted to leverage his connection with the Hegemony to serve as a hedge in case the Hexadric Hegemony won the Komodo War.

Both of these motivations still applied, and Ves trusted that the Tovars would not do anything to endanger their benefits!

There was a possibility that the Tovars might have agreed to drop their support of Ves in exchange for other benefits, but he doubted it. The Tovars should not be shortsighted enough to stab the designer of the Desolate Soldier in the back!

This was not to say that Ves cleared them from suspicion, but for now he gave them the benefit of the doubt.

"Hmph. Let's see what my resident spy has to say."

He contacted Leland next, who didn't even wait for clarification to talk.

"I'm aware of what has transpired, Ves. I can emphatically say that I was in the dark as well. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has no involvement in this development at all!"

"I thought your 'ministry' was well-connected to the military." Ves responded with a glower.

Leland's cover identity was a liaison from MinFA. Since they were talking on a comm channel, they couldn't mention Flashlight directly.

Nonetheless, Flashlight was a military intelligence agency. Out of all of the Brighter spy organizations, it should have been the first to become aware of this ambush!

For his part, Leland pretended to look sheepish. "We are mainly concerned with staring at foreign militaries instead of our own. We can absolutely assure you that we are not involved in this matter. In fact, we are victims ourselves since another arm of the Bright Republic has dared to move against our interests! We value the shares we own in your company, and we are aware that they are only useful so long as you are placated!"

Ves didn't know what to think. While he often lied, he never really picked up the ability to sense if others tried to do the same. He knew that he especially couldn't trust his judgement towards trained spies like Leland and Calabast.

For now, he could only go by Leland's word that Flashlight did not intend anything nefarious towards him. Ves was inclined to believe the spy this time.

Just like with the Tovars, it didn't make much sense for Flashlight to burn their bridges. Through a shell company, they owned 21 percent of the LMC, which was an extremely lucrative share.

Ves had long wanted to do away with this, but refrained from doing so. He knew that as long as Flashlight had a significant stake in his company, they would do everything to safeguard their and by extension his interests!

This shouldn't have changed. Flashlight was probably just as much of a victim as Ves at the hands of the hidden conspirators!

"Find out as much as you can." Ves instructed Leland with gritted teeth. "Tell me who is responsible and what you guys can do to negate these orders! I swear that if the Mech Corps robs my freedom and takes me away from Cloudy Curtain, my relationship with your 'ministry' will irrevocably change!"

Leland discolored for a bit. This was not an idle threat!

Ves did not dare to specify what he would do, though. Instead, he left it to Leland's imagination.

This was because Ves didn't actually want to ruin his relationship with one of his allies in the government. Perhaps the situation could still be salvaged after Ghanso dragged him away!

"I understand." Leland bowed. "My superiors are already at work trying to uncover the truth. It is extremely strange that the ones who are targeting you managed to blind our eyes. I can only conclude that another 'ministry' has run interference on us. This means that more than the military has moved into action against you! Be careful and don't do anything rash!"

The call ended shortly afterwards. Ves collapsed in his seat and rubbed his face.

"Meow."

Lucky noticed his concern and worryingly swished his tail while he sat on his desk.

"It's been a bad day, Lucky. You might have to go into action."

"Meow!"

"At least you're still reliable."

Once he took in the new information, he turned back to Raymond, who had been quietly conferring with some other Larkinson elders.

"What is up with Ghanso?" Ves asked. "It's one thing to act against me if I threatened the Bright Republic, but I didn't! I did nothing but contribute to the state all this time! My insistence on staying at Cloudy Curtain shouldn't be enough to make him move!"

Raymond grimaced. "As you know, Young Ghanso has always been a part of the most conservative and most duty-oriented Larkinsons. The.. recent developments in the family has made them all worried. They fear that you and the prosperity that you bring is hollowing out our family's traditions. When Larkinson mech pilots started flocking to the Avatars or Sentinels instead of the Mech Corps, this faction has grown a lot more concerned!"

"If they have anything to say about it, they should bring it up when the steering committee convenes!"

"That's the problem, Ves. The steering committee can't convene during wartime. Too many Larkinsons are obliged to fight during this time. This is bad for the conservative faction because more and more Larkinsons continue to go over to our side. The longer this situation develops, the weaker Ghanso's faction becomes! For this reason, he should have a very strong desire to curb your growing influence in the family!"

"By becoming the lackey of my enemies?!"

"As far as he is concerned, he is following orders." Raymond sighed. "This is a very potent shield. If Ghanso is acting in private, we wouldn't hesitate to stand up against him. Yet because he is acting on official authority, our family cannot do a thing! In fact, even non-Larkinsons won't dare to oppose the Mech Corps!"

Ves froze at these words. This meant that the Avatars and Sentinels would never take up arms against Ghanso and the capture fleet! The mech forces he painstakingly cultivated in order to protect him were rendered useless if they had to square off against the Mech Corps!

Chapter 1702 Hidden Hands

There was still some time before the new arrivals reached low orbit. There, the combat carriers could maintain their blockade or make landfall to dispatch mechs and troops to capture Ves.

During this time, Ves had to do everything to stop this operation!

Right now, the Tovar Family and Flashlight both performed their own investigations and tried to come up with ways to put a stop to this action.

Raymond constantly talked to every influential Larkinson he could reach and ask for a way to convince the Mech Corps to reconsider!

Unfortunately, the Larkinson Family wouldn't be of much help.

"Many Larkinsons who have the most say in the family are currently in active service." The Larkinson elder explained. "You know what that means. They can't be contacted without a good reason."

"I.. understand." Ves sighed. "Soldiers aren't supposed to have access to the galactic net in order to maintain operational security and stuff."

Even though they fought against aliens who did not perform any intelligence gathering, the Mech Corps never let down its guard. It maintained the same tight communication restrictions as during the Bright-Vesia Wars! The military would never allow complacency to be the reason why the Bright Republic fell!

Therefore, Ves knew it was hopeless to gain the assistance of the most respected and influential Larkinsons!

While the retired veterans in the family had a lot of say as well, the biggest issue was that the status of an expert pilot like Ghanso ranked at the top in the family!

While that didn't mean he could dictate family policy, no one in the family would be inclined to oppose him if he wanted something!

The only one who could truly oppose him was another expert pilot!

Right now, the only other Larkinson expert pilot Ves could think up was Ark Larkinson! As his father's brother by blood, Ark would definitely stand up for his cousin!

"Uncle Ark will never stand for this!" He said. "Can you get a hold of him?! He'll surely smack some sense in Ghanso!"

"As far as I'm aware, Ark Larkinson hasn't taken a side in our family dispute. However, he is consumed by the Sand War at this time. We haven't been able to reach him in months."

Ves cursed in his heart. "My grandfather."

"Benjamin is likewise out of reach. During wartime, the Ministry of Defense can be just as strict as the Mech Corps. As long as he is involved with a sensitive operation or important strategic plan, you can forget about contacting him. He's likely unaware of this development!"

In essence, Ves could not count on any Larkinson to exert any influence on Ghanso or the Mech Corps!

What a useless family!

Of course, that was a bit unfair to the Larkinsons. They weren't powerful enough to contend against a state, especially one which they trusted and served from the bottom of their hearts.

The thought of opposing the Mech Corps never crossed the minds of many Larkinsons! Only a crooked member of the family like Ves had no qualms against resisting the military!

"Urgh!"

With all of his helpers, backers and allies rendered impotent due to the nature of his opposition, Ves was running out of people to turn for assistance.

He called Gloriana next and briefed her in on the situation.

"I'm aware." She spoke with concern. "I'm just as mad about this as you, Ves! I won't let anyone take you away if I have anything to say about it! I'm doing everything I can to stop this travesty!"

Ves thought of the detachment of the Glory Battalion assigned to protect her during her stay in the Bright Republic. While they didn't number very much, each second-class mech was a force to be reckoned with. While a third-class expert mech still possessed some advantages, a Hexer mech company could easily suppress Ghanso!

"Can you move the Glory Battalion?"

Her face suddenly turned glum. "I.. can't. I tried, but Melody and the Glory Battalion are abiding by my mother's orders before my own. Their only duty is to protect me. They won't lift a finger to help you. In fact, my guards won't even allow me to go near you in fear that you would drag me in this mess!"

Melody's face entered the projection range, crowding Gloriana aside.

"Mr. Larkinson, please exercise restraint. We are guests of the Bright Republic. We will not allow you to break our agreement of neutrality with your government. If we become involved in whatever infighting you are caught up in, a significant diplomatic crisis will ensue!"

Though Ves hated it, he had to admit that Melody was in the right. It was unfair for him to try and drag the Hexers in this mess of his own making.

He realized that he couldn't count on anyone else to solve this immediate crisis. He could only rely on himself and his closest, most loyal confidantes to resist the incoming capture fleet.

"I understand, Miss Melody." He replied in a defeated tone. "Rest assured that I will figure something out without involving Gloriana."

"Good." She spoke in her cultured accent while staring at Ves with interest. "We will be observing you. If you wish to be a worthy suitor, then you must prove you have the capacity to operate at this level. This difficulty of yours is very minor compared to the intrigues that take place in the Hegemony."

Gloriana finally managed to push Melody away. "Ves! I'm sorry for her! If it was up to me, I would have intervened, diplomacy be damned!"

"Don't do anything drastic, Gloriana. I'm more resourceful than you think. I'll find a way to thread the needle." He spoke confidently.

In truth, he was quaking in his boots. Without Gloriana, where else could he turn to for assistance?

After ending this latest call, Ves breathed deeply and pressed his fingers against his forehead. He turned towards Raymond, who remained in constant contact with fellow Larkinsons.

"Any progress?"

"The contradictions within our family have come out in the open, Ves. Ghanso's involvement in this ambush has forced everyone to make their stance clear. There are Larkinsons who are openly supporting Ghanso and agree with his agenda to make our family return to its roots."

"That's madness! Does Ghanso want to turn back the clock and throw away all of the rewards the family has gained?!"

"You're not alone, Ves. I've roughly gotten the measure of most of our available Larkinsons. At least a third are openly on your side. They believe in you and think you are the only Larkinson who can elevate our family to a greater height!"

"That.. leaves a lot of people who aren't on either side."

"Correct." Raymond sighed. "The majority of Larkinsons are on the fence. They value our heritage and traditions, but they also think the LMC has done a lot of good to the family. However, the main reason why they aren't taking any sides is because they don't believe this conflict is all that serious."

"What?! Don't they know what will happen to us all if Ghanso has his way!?"

"No one believes that anything bad will happen to you, Ves. You are a respected mech designer, war hero and celebrity. It is extremely doubtful the Mech Corps intends anything towards you. Their only goal is to move you from a less secure star system to a more secure star system. Even if you object, it won't really harm our interests."

"Is that what you think?" Ves eyed Raymond with suspicion.

"I am on your side, Ves. While it is difficult for me to agree with your suspicions, I have a duty to assist you in my current position."

At least Raymond remembered who he really worked for. This elder became more and more pleasing to Ves.

"Thank you for your support. For now, let's see how we can escape this crisis."

He estimated that it would take about an hour or so for the new arrivals to reach Ves and bring him away.

He continued to contact various people such as Marcella Bollinger and Professor Ventag. Neither of them could offer any assistance.

As Ves was running out of options, the door to his office opened. Both Leland Toll and Miles Tovar entered at the same time.

"We have made some progress on our respective ends." Leland spoke first after reaching the desk and sitting down on the opposite chair.

"Do tell."

Leland first activated a jammer to shield their conversation from any eavesdropping.

"After some extensive snooping, we managed to identify why our intelligence has failed in this instance." He spoke softly. "It turns out that Spotlight has assisted the unit that is tasked with bringing you way by camouflaging their mission with fake orders and other bureaucratic smokescreens."

"Spotlight is able to do that?"

"Even though Spotlight is responsible for domestic intelligence, there is a lot of rivalry and overlap between the spy agencies. Spotlight has invested a significant proportion of their limited resources in the Mech Corps to assist in the deception! We were completely caught off-guard!"

Ves grimaced. "What is it with Spotlight?"

"Spotlight hasn't decided to oppose you directly. We believe that they are acting on the instructions of a higher authority."

Miles Tovar took over from Leland. "We just happened to find out the person who signed Venerable Ghanso Larkinson's orders. After we have managed to pierce through the smokescreen, we have found out that Mech General Ulrich Cavendish is supporting this operation!"

"Who? Cavendish?" Ves frowned, before his eyes widened. "Is he a part of the Cavendish Family?!"

The Cavendish Family was one of the five founding families of the Bright Republic!

"Correct." Miles nodded. "General Cavendish is 173 years old and one of the mainstays of the Cavendish Family. Out of the founding families, the Cavendish Family are military hardliners. They have a very strong presence in the Mech Corps. For General Cavendish to issue these orders in a covert manner while keeping everyone else in high command in the dark can only be done with the full support of the Cavendish Family!"

"Why.. is the Cavendish Family targeting me?" Ves asked hollowly. "I never did anything to them. I don't even know Ulrich Cavendish!"

"This is our fault." Miles admitted. "Our Tovar Family is competing against the Cavendish Family for influence. Due to the difficulties caused by the Sand War, the Bright Republic is forced to make increasingly more desperate decisions. The contradictions between every faction has intensified because no side wants to pay an excessive price to keep our state aloft."

Ves banged his fist against his desk. "So the only reason General Cavendish has issued these orders is because they are targeting your family?!"

"We are attempting to remedy this problem as best we can!" Miles held up his hands. "However, our Tovar Family is mainly involved in administration. While our influence in the government is considerable, we don't have much say in the Mech Corps."

"Don't forget what time we are in right now. In times of war, the military has the most say. The Mech Corps is able act with near-impunity, especially when martial law has been declared throughout our entire state!" Leland reminded Ves.

"Goddammit!"

"It gets worse." Miles Tovar spoke. "From what we have gathered, the Cavendish Family hasn't acted alone in this. The hand of the Ramza Family is also evident! While they are mostly engaged in commerce, they possess a decent influence in the government and the military."

"Let me guess. The Ramzas have a beef with you Tovars as well, right?"

The Tovar mech designer reluctantly nodded. "The Ramzas are our biggest rivals. They may even be the instigators of this scheme. With their extensive influence in the mech industry, the Ramzas are likely responsible for the followup. When you are taken to Rittersberg or New Foundation, you will probably be pressured into working for the military or some other mech institution for the remainder of the Sand War!"

In other words, Ves may not be a captive of the state, but he would definitely be restricted and firmly under its control!

Chapter 1703 Illegal Move

"So both the Ramza and Cavendish Families are out to get me because I'm in your camp." Ves summed up while directing an acrimonious look towards Miles. "This is your fault. Fix it. NOW!"

"We are doing the best we can! Senator Tovar is personally contacting anyone who can countermand Ghanso's orders. However, it isn't proper for a legislator to influence the military. Not only do the Cavendishes have deep roots in the Mech Corps, there are only a few military officials outrank General Ulrich Cavendish!"

The wartime situation wasn't helping them either. The military possessed the most say right now. The civilian government could only cede ground in order to make sure the Mech Corps had what it needed to defend and save the Republic!

"Tell me what you can accomplish, then."

"Give us at least three to four hours." Miles spoke. "Senator Tovar informed me that he needs at least this much time to access the right officials and countermand the orders. As long as you can stay out of the clutches of the Mech Corps, we can probably deprive Venerable Ghanso of his authority!"

"Three hours? This is way too long! Don't you see how close the combat carriers are? They can be on top of us in less than an hour!"

"This is the best we can do, Mr. Larkinson."

While Ves appreciated the help, it wasn't enough to bail him out. Should he play hide and seek or something in order to stall out his capture?

With his stealth toys, this might actually be a viable plan. It was just that Ves was not very confident about it. His stealth and sensor shielding drained a lot of energy, so he could only hide himself from the Mech Corps for only so long.

The main difficulty was that it was too late to go into hiding. The Mech Nursery was isolated, but that also made any departure extremely obvious to enemy scans.

Right now, Cloudy Curtain's ever-present cloud cover was very helpful in obscuring most orbital scans. That did not mean the military possessed no solutions, however.

There were doubtlessly some assets in the vicinity that kept an eye on the Mech Nursery. Perhaps Spotlight placed a lot of watchers in and outside of the company to stare at him specifically.

When Ves shared this suspicion, Leland immediately concurred.

"This is likely the case. Spotlight and Searchlight has never given up on keeping you and the LMC under observation. Even if you've cleaned out their spies a few months ago, it isn't in their nature to give up after a single setback."

"Great. And I take it Flashlight can't help?"

"We are all on the same side, Ves. We never act directly against each other."

"Is there anything Flashlight can do that's actually helpful?"

"Our organization may be vast, but most of our resources and personnel are dispersed. Our headquarters might be able to make some small actions, but you are better off relying on the Tovars to solve your problems."

"I see." Ves flatly replied.

Whether Leland lied to him or not, clearly Ves could not rely on Flashlight in this situation, which was a massive disappointment.

Leland noticed Ves' disappointment. "Please keep the precariousness of our situation in mind. Two founding families have moved directly against an ally of another founding family. Two spy agencies are directly entangled in this confrontation. A detachment of the Mech Corps is acting under secret orders that can't be countermanded on a whim."

Different institutions and factions of the Bright Republic opposed each other at this time. It would be very bad if relations between each other deteriorated over this spat. Each side had to act with restraint and play by the rules in order to avoid any undesirable escalation.

This was why no one ever seriously thought about opposing Venerable Ghanso and his comrades with force!

Yet what most people considered taboo, Ves thought differently.

"We need to buy time." He concluded after understanding the complete picture so far. "I have only less than an hour of time to remain free. I might be able to extend this time if I go into hiding, but it's obvious our opponents have prepared for this operation for a while."

He strongly suspected that the Ramzi and Cavendish Families might have laid the groundwork for this operation a few months ago!

These clever and well-prepared opponents probably took most of his possible actions into account. They likely had a countermeasure ready for any decision he might make.

It was as if his opponents put him in checkmate before he even became aware that he was playing a game!

Their plan was almost airtight! Just an expert pilot of the Mech Corps alone was enough to suppress every open opposition!

Ves was not willing to accept defeat! There had to be a way to resolve this impossible situation!

The only way for him to outfox his opponents was to flip the board or make an illegal move.

Perhaps he wasn't strong enough to flip the board at his current state, but he happened to be an expert when it came to illegal moves!

He first thought about messing with Ghanso's spirituality. By himself or with the help of an F-stone, he could probably inflict considerable mental damage to his stuck-up cousin.

Ves experimentally concentrated his mind and cast a piece of himself in the imaginary realm.

He had a very strong impression of Ghanso Larkinson, and the expert pilot also happened to be pretty close to him. It did not take much effort to find his spiritual presence in the imaginary realm.

Unfortunately, Ves could immediately tell that attacking it was unlikely to succeed!

The spiritual presence was not only active and in its most guarded state, but its strength and resilience was also far stronger than anything he had seen before!

After exploring it from a distance, Ves understood why Ghanso looked so spiritually unassailable.

Ghanso was interfacing with his expert mech!

Ves had never succeeded in messing with a mech pilot's mind when they interfaced with a mech!

The man-machine connection was so strong that Ves had a much easier time attacking expert pilots in isolation rather than affecting the combined strength of a regular mech pilot paired with a regular much!

If the regular man-machine connection was already that bad, then the bond between an expert pilot and an expert mech was far more formidable!

Unless Ghanso stepped out of his cockpit, Ves could forget about messing with his mind and spirituality!

He pulled back his concentration and began to contemplate another solution.

"Is Ghanso leading this operation?"

"The commander of this unit is probably a confidante of General Cavendish. However, if you manage to affect the Venerable in some way, he might be able to hold back his comrades."

"Hmm.."

This was what Ves wanted to hear. He hardly had any options left. The only one he could turn to was to make full use of his Devil Tongue.

Of course, he wasn't stupid enough to think he could convince Ghanso to change his mind. Expert pilots were extremely strong-minded and rarely flinched from their decisions!

The only possible way that Ves could make him halt was to employ the one thing he cared the most aside from his duty!

Ves waved both Leland and Miles to silence.

"Be quiet. I need to address the family right now."

He first took care of his appearance. He sat up straight behind his desk and adopted the most serious expression he had ever formed. He mentally thanked himself for wearing his Pride of Dusk ensemble today. Of course, he had kept his cat ears in his pockets. He could not afford to paint himself as a fool this time!

In order to make himself more impressive, he activated his comm and activated a function before patting his palm against his chest.

A projection of all of his medals appeared in place. The Darkness Eater, the Plasma Spark, the Torchbearer, the Golden Mech and so on shone so realistically that no one would be able to tell if they were illusionary!

"Alright, it's showtime!"

He entered the communication section of his desk terminal and selected every Larkinson on his contact list. He initiated a one-sided broadcast to every Larkinson at once, no matter if they were on Cloudy Curtain, Bentheim, Rittersberg or anywhere else!

At least half of the connections failed to go through! The Larkinsons on the other end were either asleep, under communication blocks or simply didn't want to accept his call.

No matter what, Ves still managed to reach hundreds of Larkinsons, enough to sway the family!

As no new connections emerged, Ves centered himself and began to employ some tricks to boost his stature!

He concentrated his mind and began to envision the Desolate Soldier design!

He made contact with the Solemn Guardian, which had grown even stronger than Ves had last seen.

Yet no matter how much it had grown, it still remembered its creator. It didn't take much to convince the Solemn Guardian to allow Ves to borrow its strength!

Right now, Ves did not appear casual or selfish at all. His straight but empathic bearing highly resembled that of exceptional Larkinson veterans!

"Fellow family members. Let me begin by apologizing for you for bringing up this ugly incident to you. Today is a day where our Larkinson Family is beset by division. The conservative and tradition-minded members of our family have acted against me and our mech company without going through the rest of our family! Our latest source of prosperity is at risk because some people in our family don't want us to enjoy nice things!"

Ves could immediately sense a wave of disgust from the other end of his broadcast.

There was a reason why he addressed the Larkinsons first! Hopefully, Ghanso was in the dark about this little move of his. Since Ghanso was such a stickler for the rules, his communications were probably restricted!

Knowing this, Ves addressed his family with confidence!

"If you have not heard about what is going on, then let me fill you in. Two of the founding families, the Ramzas and the Cavendishes, are conspiring to take down the LMC and remove me from my home in order to stop me from enriching and empowering the Larkinsons! This is despite the backing I've secured from the Tovar Family!"

The mention of three of the founding families probably shocked many of the Larkinsons! Anything involving the three foremost groups of the Bright Republic was bound to be explosive!

"Make no mistake. Under my efforts, our Larkinson Family has started to rise from a middling military family with little influence into a prosperous power with enough money to make every Larkinson rich! However, the Ramzas and Cavendishes don't want us to rise! They want to keep us under their thumb and continue to volunteer our mech pilots to the Mech Corps as obedient dogs!"

He was probably touching a lot of nerves right now. In ordinary times, he would never disparage the family's noble mission, but Ves could not afford to mince any words! He needed to convey the gravity of the situation in the most dramatic way possible in order to make every Larkinson feel as if they were in a monumental crisis!

"A supposedly-respected mech general from the Cavendish Family has directly abused his authority, employed spies to confuse the headquarters of the military and issued fake orders to hoodwink me into surrendering everything I have done for the family!"

Ves painted a very big and dangerous vortex. While this might scare away some Larkinsons from getting involved, he wasn't finished!

"What is worse is Venerable Ghanso Larkinson willingly sided with these snobby elites and betrayed the interests of our Larkinson Family! Is this what our family stands for?! Is this what constitutes honor to us?! I fought and bled for the Mech Corps just as Venerable Ghanso has done!"

His medals appeared especially eye-catching right now!

"While I may just be a mech designer, I have done more for the Larkinson Family than Ghanso and his conservative faction has ever done! After four centuries of continued service, no expert pilot managed to elevate the wealth and status of our Larkinson Family! As for me, it took less than five years for me to enrich the Larkinson Family to the point where all of you can buy your own mechs with plenty of money to spare!"

Ves was right! Even the neutral Larkinsons agreed with his argument!

"Let me ask you this, my fellow Larkinsons. Do you believe that Ghanso's vision of our family is better, or mine? Is tradition worth giving up all of the wealth we are entitled to? Is service without reward for four more centuries worth our continued sacrifice?!"

Each of his questions landed like a bombshell among the Larkinsons he addressed!

Chapter 1704 The Family Address

The Larkinson Family numbered thousands of people. Though a large portion of them consisted of spouses, children and norms, the entire family developed an immense amount of pride and worship in its heritage.

The Larkinson Ancestor, who left the New Rubarth Empire for reasons lost in history, earned a lot of merits during the founding of the Bright Republic.

Ever since then, his descendents multiplied and adopted the noble mission of defending the state their ancestor fought and bled for. In time, this noble mission took on its own identity.

Constant dedication caused the Larkinson Family to develop a reputation of an upright, honorable military family.

Reputation was like a glow. Every Larkinson became someone more. The accomplishments of their predecessors surrounded them like a halo, causing everyone who was aware of the Larkinsons to see them in a much better light.

Yet reputation also served like a shackle that constrained their choices along a predetermined path.

Because their predecessors selflessly fought for the Mech Corps, their descendents automatically gained the expectation to perpetuate this duty.

Over time, so many Larkinson mech pilots volunteered for service that the family no longer questioned this pattern. It became a deep-seethed family tradition that every eligible Larkinson had to take part in because that was the price for maintaining the honor of their family.

To most Larkinsons, the reputation and honor they carried were sufficient rewards for their sacrifice.

Few Larkinsons developed ambitions to achieve anything more.

This was because they would have to play by different rules. To break into a higher orbit, they needed to make enemies. This went against their instincts as a family dedicated to the betterment of the state as a whole!

Of course, there were plenty of Larkinsons over the years who disliked this burden and wanted to carry on with their lives without the baggage of the past.

The Larkinson Family did not force the unwilling misfits, rebels and deviants to take part in its noble mission. It simply cast them out and made it very clear to the public that these exiles no longer had anything to do with the official family.

This was why there were a lot of Larkinsons who weren't on the family rolls. Raella Larkinson was one of the most recent ones. Even if she became a part of a vicious gang from Bentheim, her choices no longer affected the stellar reputation of the Larkinsons.

Due to the voluntary departure of dissenters, the Larkinsons who remained all believed in their family's noble mission. The most sincere, fanatical and dedicated Larkinsons continued to dominate the family and perpetuated its burden of duty!

Ves had thought long and hard about this situation. As a deviant Larkinson, he knew how pernicious this expectation of duty had become in his family.

From birth, this expectation of duty was hammered into the minds of their children through many subtle ways. The tales of their extended family and the teachings of the Larkinsons acting as mentors all served to indoctrinate every young Larkinson into serving the Bright Republic!

Even Ves was aware that he developed some codes within his mind which compelled him to defend his home state. Although his many changes and experiences caused this programming to glitch, he still couldn't get rid of his impulses to aid the state that shaped his life.

Yet now that Mech General Ulrich Cavendish unilaterally dispatched Ghanso and some troops to take him into custody, Ves finally felt as if his programming had crashed.

He no longer felt any goodwill towards the Bright Republic anymore.

While his home state was his cherished home, Ves felt he no longer owed it anything.

This was why he addressed the Larkinson Family with not a single shred of doubt or guilt!

While he was taking several liberties with the truth, he truly believed in the main points he tried to convey!

"Do you not think that the Larkinson Family has done enough to defend the Bright Republic?!" He addressed his audience of Larkinsons with complete conviction! "The Bright Republic at the time of the Larkinson Ancestor was a fragile entity that only amounted to several poorly-defended colonies. It's different now! Even with the sandmen testing our resolve, there are countless mech pilots and starfighter pilots fighting for the Republic! The few hundred mech pilots who bear our family name hardly makes any difference at this point!"

While he spoke the truth, this was not enough to introduce a sufficient amount of doubt in the minds of his audience.

He only said this to diminish the contributions of the Larkinsons of today. They needed to get off their high horse and recognize that they have become nothing more than cogs in a large and unfeeling machine!

Ves patted his chest, drawing attention to his prestigious projected medals. "While I respect the honorable service of the Larkinsons who served, I have done more for the Bright Republic as a mech designer than hundreds of Larkinson mech pilots!"

He could hear the outrage from the mech pilots now, but he wasn't finished!

"I do not mean any disrespect! I am simply telling the truth! With the wealth, knowledge and power that I have gathered through my own efforts, I have saved the Bright Republic from collapse by designing the Desolate Soldier and its variants! Tell me if I'm wrong!"

No Larkinson was ignorant of the Desolate Soldier. It single-handedly propped up the morale of many wavering mech pilots, not just in the Bright Republic but also in many other states!

Although the Dawnbreaker recently stole its thunder, it was definitely the most influential mech design of the Sand War!

The supreme contribution this single mech design earned had given the Larkinsons much more honor than any expert pilot had ever accumulated!

Not even Ark Larkinson, the most impressive living Larkinson at this time, could match what Ves had done to support the state in these trying times!

Ves momentarily paused his speech to allow the Larkinsons he addressed to form these conclusions on their own. It was not appropriate for him to brag too openly and stomp on the many sacrifices made by the Larkinsons risking their lives at the front.

Nonetheless, his noble posture as he sat behind his desk with his hands clasped in front of him conveyed a strong message in itself! An effect similar to the time he channeled Ylvaine's spiritual fragment occurred again!

This time, Ves dialed back the effect in order to extend the time he could empower his stature. While he wasn't short on spiritual energy these days, this was still a very draining action!

The expenditure was worth it though. In order to maximize his persuasion towards the Larkinsons, Ves had to occupy the high ground by painting himself as a bigger contributor than any other Larkinson!

"My fellow family members, what are we actually fighting for all these years? Is it for honor? Reputation? Heritage? If this is so, why are we still the same family as a hundred years ago? Have we grown wealthier? Did we gain more say in the running of the state? I don't see any changes. Even our family's honor and reputation seemed to hit a ceiling!"

Perhaps many Larkinsons already knew this, but no one wanted to mention this. They were too comfortable with the status quo!

"Look, I get it. Our Larkinson Family is a military family. We shouldn't bite off more than we can chew. We're not politicians or businessmen. We had no advantages in this area, but this has changed!"

He pointed his thumb at himself in a dramatic fashion. "You have me now! I am an illustrious, award-winning Journeyman Mech Designer who has designed many innovative mech designs! I have used my talents and abilities to better the Bright Republic during the latest Bright-Vesia War as well as the Sand War! While I have selflessly contributed to the state because it is my duty to do so, I have done even more to enhance the wealth and standing of our family! This is because I am different from you! I am the sole Larkinson who has benefited our family more than dozens of Ghansos put together!"

Ves grinned as he brought up his killer point. "Yes, while Ghanso Larkinson and his band of 'sefless' Larkinsons have served the Mech Corps with distinction, how have they actually benefited our family? Merely maintaining our current level of honor and reputation is not enough! Have you never considered that while our Larkinsons are constantly dying and bleeding to fulfill our noble mission, the state has never really rewarded us in a substantial fashion?"

A silence stretched among all of the Larkinsons listening in on his address.

"Do you know what I think?" He swept his arm in a half circle. "We have all become unwitting slaves for the state! If our Larkinson Family truly received the remuneration we deserve from all of the sacrifices our predecessors have made, we should have been equal to the Cavendish Family! Instead, this jealous founding family is deliberately trying to suppress me, the only Larkinson who can make our family rise to the top! What is worse is that Venerable Ghanso Larkinson has willingly become General Cavendish's tool!"

Attacking an expert pilot, especially a Larkinson expert pilot, was not something that anyone could do lightly within the family!

Yet Ves boldly targeted the latest and most prominent expert pilot of the younger generation! The sheer daring of this action astounded even the most experienced Larkinson veterans!

"It is one thing if Venerable Ghanso is acting for the betterment of the Larkinson Family. Yet how much has he contributed to our family compared to me? Why does he think his way of empowering the family is better than mine! We belong to the same generation! Our ages are identical! Yet as Ghanso Larkinson has become a willing attack dog for the state in exchange for some scraps, I have done much more for both the state and our family!"

Though it was not exactly a proper comparison, Ves made a very persuasive argument! If the Larkinsons compared Ves and Ghanso directly, most of them would definitely side with the Journeyman Mech Designers who introduced so many benefits to the family!

"Service is not an end. It is a means to an end. Following Ghanso's vision of the Larkinson Family is nothing less than perpetuating our slavery to the state! Yes, I did not misspoke. What do you call those who toil and suffer for someone else without receiving the remuneration we deserve? Slaves! No matter how much we have done to fulfill our noble mission, it is never enough to change our status! All of the work we have done over the centuries has not resulted in any gains! Do you think it's ridiculous to regard ourselves as slaves under these circumstances?!"

He was sure that a lot of Larkinsons were thrown into doubt. Very likely, a lot of veterans were doing some soul-searching right now! What had their suffering and sacrifice accomplished?

Ves figured it was ready to unveil his main goal. He calmed down and tried to look as authoritative as possible.

"In my opinion, we have sacrificed enough. We do not need to perpetuate our noble mission any longer. Whatever debt we owe to the Bright Republic has long been repaid! If you don't think that is enough, then add my contributions on top of that! I have saved our state from imminent defeat with my Desolate Soldier mech and I will save it yet again with my upcoming mech design!"

He boldly cast his arm towards his audience. "Allow me to free you! Allow me to release you from your burden of duty! As long as you appoint me as the patriarch of the family and invest me with power, I promise to improve your fortunes and lead you all to prosperity! This change is long overdue! If you believe our family deserves better, then do not follow Ghanso's hopeless trajectory! Instead, believe in me and my ability to elevate our family!"

Every Larkinson became stunned yet again! Ves wanted to become the sole leader of the family, depriving the expert pilots and the steering committee of their say!

The Larkinson Family never concentrated power in a single person in its entire history!

However, at this time, the broadcast suddenly took a different turn!

"VES LARKINSON!" Ghanso's angry voice interjected. "Do not spout your poisonous lies! You have no right to lecture our family!"

Before Ves could utter a reply, his broadcast suddenly shut off!

The Mech Corps forcibly interrupted and blocked his transmission!

Chapter 1705 Bound By Tradition

Ves stared at his empty desk terminal in astonishment.

He knew that what he was doing would not escape the Mech Corps or Spotlight. Eventually, they would find out about his attempt to address the Larkinson Family.

Even though it wasn't very obvious how he could extricate himself from this current situation, it was bound to be bad for the people targeting him! Overriding the broadcast through the backdoors in the planetary communication network was trivially easy to his enemies!

Unfortunately for them, Ves already anticipated this problem.

A vicious grin appeared on his face as he made a small internal call. At the very least, the internal network of the LMC was fully intact! Few spies or saboteurs were in place that could mess with this network because Ves had already cleaned most of them out during the mass firing spree a few months ago!

"Mr. Larkinson." Crindon greeted.

"Please assist me in maintaining my upcoming transmission. The forces targeting me have shut me out of the network, but we both know that's not enough."

"I will do my best to monitor our network for any attacks."

After he finished notifying Crindon, he turned to Lucky.

"Meow?"

"You know what to do. Let me use your CFA protocols to override the overrides of the Mech Corps. Heh, do they really think they control their own networks? No backdoor under their control can trump that of the Big Two!"

Ever since Lucky gobbled up his CFA officer comm, he somehow inherited some of its functions.

What was even better was that Lucky possessed the most up-to-date protocols, which was fully usable on any modern communication equipment, especially the quantum entanglement nodes regulated by the Comm Consortium!

He had already taken advantage of the CFA's backdoors before, and knew how pivotal it could be. Ves always refrained from using it again. He treated it as a trump card that should only be employed when he had no other choice, just like the Amastendira!

Ves was afraid that the CFA would get wind of his use of this backdoor. He was very certain that its uses had been logged in some CFA database.

However, the CFA performed countless actions every day. As long as Ves wasn't too blatant about his misuse of their protocols, he could probably avoid triggering some alarms.

After issuing some instructions to Lucky, his desk terminal lit up again. The interrupted broadcast suddenly resumed as if it only experienced a momentary glitch!

This time, his broadcast directed off-planet routed through the Barracuda's quantum entanglement node. Since his ship was fully under his control, there was no way his opponents could block his broadcast!

Different from last time, the projection of Ghanso Larkinson in his cockpit appeared at the side. Obviously, Ghanso hijacked the broadcast in an attempt to undo the damage that Ves had done!

"Are you surprised, Venerable Ghanso?" Ves spoke lightly. He had already wiped the unsightly grin off his face in order to leave a better impression on his audience. "If I was an ordinary person, you would have gotten away with your attempt to silence me. Don't you think it's rude to cut me off so you can hoodwink our family with your misguided beliefs?"

Anger and resentment simmered in Ghanso. Since he was an expert pilot, he always exposed his emotions. It was too easy for Ves to manipulate his opposing cousin's emotions.

In contrast, Ves maintained a calm facade that exuded dignity, superiority and confidence. His connection with Solemn Guardian constantly made him come across as righteous!

If Ghanso was aware of how bad he looked, he didn't show it. Expert pilots possessed too much confidence in themselves to engage in deception or duplicity unless their force of will was crooked from the start!

As a tradition-bound Larkinson, it was impossible for Ghanso to center his will around deception. His will exuded strength and aggression that was somewhat similar to that of Venerable Foster's will!

This only gave Ves more confidence in this confrontation. He knew how expert pilots like Venerable Foster worked. Dealing with the known was far better than dealing with the unknown!

"You are blowing this situation way out of proportion, Ves." Ghanso hissed. "I am acting under legal and valid orders to escort you to a safer location. In no way is there a conspiracy at foot that seeks to silence or imprison you! The higher ups merely want to keep you safe so that you can keep contributing to the war effort in complete safety!"

Ves shook his head. "What an awful lie. You are tarnishing the dignity of expert pilots by parroting the excuses of a political enemy of ours. First, those orders you are acting upon represent the will of a single general instead of high command! Just because General Cavendish managed to confuse the headquarters of the Mech Corps doesn't mean his orders are right! As long as the other generals have their say, I am confident that your orders will be rescinded!"

"If that is the case, you have nothing to fear! You have no right to resist authority! You should just allow us to do our jobs and wait for a resolution." Ghanso huffed. "Instead of doing that, you would rather resist the state! Not only do you refuse to surrender to authority, you are also trying to drag in innocent Larkinsons who have nothing to do with your misgivings towards the Republic!"

Ves wanted to laugh. "Did you not hear what I said earlier? I admit that I have misgivings towards at least some of the factions that are in power. I also admit that I want to involve every Larkinson. Is that wrong? I am merely doing what you have never done, which is stand up against the Republic's exploitation of our family! I think we deserve better than being treated as slaves! All that is wrong right now is that you have decided to stand in the way to perpetuate our thankless service!"

"Thankless? Absurd! We are a family of soldiers! Helping the Bright Republic exist and prosper by fighting its enemies should be enough of a reward! You say that we have never been properly remunerated for our services, but that is completely wrong! The personal glory that our mech pilots have earned is enough to give them opportunities after they have done their duty! Do you think your own grandfather Benjamin could have become an influential advisor at the Ministry of Defense if he was a nobody?! We Larkinsons are better off than 99 percent of Brighters!"

More and more Larkinsons heard about what was going on and started to tune in to the family broadcast. Over a thousand Larkinsons listened closely to what the two most prominent Larkinsons of the younger generation had to say about their future!

"We have fought and sacrificed far more than to lead slightly more comfortable lives than average Brighters." Ves retorted. "How many expert pilots did we provide to the Bright Republic? At least two in every generation! We have supplied so many expert pilots and so much more normal mech pilots that we have done more than enough duty to cross out any obligations we have towards our state!"

"You are talking about breaking off our Larkinson Family when our Republic is in the middle of a war! I can think of nothing more disgraceful than to cease supporting those in need when they need it the most! We are serving the Bright Republic in order to protect its citizens, not its higher ups! You have forgotten what it means to serve. Our duty is not to the powers of the state, but the people who depend on its institutions!"

"As I have already stated, I do not mean to pull our support for the Bright Republic during this war. I have already done more than enough to prop them up and I will surely be able to do it again in the coming weeks as long as I stay free and in control of my work! What you are trying to do is nothing less than sabotaging the introduction of my latest mech design, one that is definitely more decisive and impactful than my Desolate Soldiers!"

"Are you talking about that marksman mech your company has tested in orbit? That machine is too ordinary to be able to swing the war!" Ghanso sneered.

Ves found it interesting that Ghanso was aware of his Deliverer. Obviously, the information he received wasn't very complete. Either that or he simply didn't believe in the more outlandish claims surrounding the Deliverer.

"Venerable Ghanso. I have already done the impossible once by releasing the Desolate Soldier. I am definitely capable of doing it again! My upcoming mech design will single-handedly save the Bright Republic! You can bet on that!"

"Whatever the case, you can 'save the Republic' when you are safe in Rittersberg!"

"Again with the kidnapping! Why are you so eager to take me away? Don't think I am ignorant of what will happen once I fall into your hands. Your combat carriers will quickly shut off all communications in the name of operational security and travel straight to Rittersberg without any interruption! By the time you've arrived, it's too late for you to receive the revised instructions that countermand General Cavendish orders!"

"Do you think we are bandits, Ves? I am a soldier! Even if I think you are a cancer to the Larkinson Family, I am committed to following the rules and regulations of the Mech Corps! I can hardly believe you served in the Mech Corps as well if you think our men and women are allowed to pursue our personal interests over the military's interests! It doesn't surprise me that you are willing to upend centuries of tradition and seize absolute power over our family! Only a selfish, greedy and immoral individual will do something like that! You are not a true Larkinson!"

"If being a 'true Larkinson' means becoming a selfless drone who automatically enlists in the Mech Corps because that is what tradition is compelling them, then I would rather be different! Your vision of the family is absolutely thankless and will never benefit the family in any way! In order to change our direction, it is better to allow someone with the courage to buck the old ways to be in charge!"

"What you plan to do is no less than usurping power in order to corrupt our family! Our heritage built over four centuries of sacrifice will be tainted in your hands! All of the honor and reputation that we have painstakingly built through continued service will become a thing of the past! All future Larkinsons will lose what their predecessors have fought so hard to secure for their offspring!"

"Is it wrong to be a little selfish? If you had your way, our Larkinsons would continue to be selfless to the point of paying everything we have. I don't think this is the right way for our family anymore."

"What you are trying to do is nothing less than to destroy our family and replace it with a different one that is unworthy of the Larkinson name!"

Ves dramatically released a sigh. "We can argue this over and over, Ghanso, but you're only stalling for time so that your combat carrier can get close enough to kidnap me in order to suppress your own family! I won't let you have your way! Instead, I propose we allow our family members to decide who is right!"

"We are not in a steering committee meeting right now! You have no right to call a vote!"

"Unlike you, I value our family members over our harmful traditions! Let them have a voice! To any Larkinson who is listening in on us, please issue your votes in the upcoming prompt. Do you believe the Larkinson Family should continue to bow its head in service to the Mech Corps in perpetuity, or do you believe we can rise to greatness with the help of the prosperity that I am providing to you all? Vote for what is best for the family, not for a state that we don't owe anything anymore!"

Ghanso looked livid! "VES! Don't you dare do this! Your actions are too divisive! You'll tear our Larkinson Family apart!"

After Ves inputted some commands on his terminal, every Larkinson tuning into the broadcast was presented with a choice!

Would they agree to stick to tradition?

Were they willing to allow Ves to take charge and lead their family in a new direction?

This choice directly put the Larkinson Family at a crossroads!

Chapter 1706 A Pivotal Choice

Expert pilots were amazing individuals. They possessed strength beyond the reach of average humans, especially when paired with expert mechs!

They were a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield and could single-handedly turn a large battle around by their deterrence factor alone!

Although they were not as effective against the sandmen due to their inability to feel fear, expert pilots still served as the pillar of the military.

Every human worshipped or respected expert pilots. They were some of the foremost groups of modern society. Through the constant efforts of the MTA, expert pilots were deified as demigods! They transcended their mortality and grasped a portion of power that did not belong to normal humans!

Yet for all of their might, will and skill in battle, expert pilots all possessed some shortcomings.

Regular people might not know this, but a Larkinson like Ves who interacted with several different expert pilots long figured out their weaknesses.

The source of their strength was also their greatest weakness. Every expert pilot developed an obsession or pursued an ideal to the extreme. This was a consequence to developing a force of will!

A normal human was a lot more mixed when it came to their thoughts. Every human was a complex individual who possessed numerous different values and principles, many of which contradicted each other.

While this sounded messy and flawed, this was exactly why humanity managed to rise through various difficulties. By acting duplicity and deceptively, they managed to fool many stronger alien empires.

If every human was truthful, they wouldn't be human anymore!

A human society that adopted the same strong principles as expert pilots would be one which wouldn't be able to hide anything and could only fight its opponents honestly!

This was a very bad thing to Ves because humanity only came out on top by playing dirty!

Of course, this was his analysis on the official history of the rise of the human race during the Age of Space and Age of Conquest. Ves was not entirely sure how much of a role the Five Scrolls Compact played in humanity's rise and how much it affected his narrative.

In any case, expert pilots all lost a part of humanity when they broke through the extraordinary threshold.

It kind of made Ves feel relieved that his life did not follow this trajectory. Who knew what kind of simpleton he might become if he became a mech pilot and advanced to expert pilot on account of his strong Spirituality!

As an expert pilot, his mind and Spirituality developed in a completely different direction.

Whereas high-ranking pilots seemed to pursue strength through purity, high-ranking mech designers opted to pursue strength through complexity.

These directions were very suited for their chosen professions. Expert pilots did not need to think too much or develop their intelligence. Instead, they needed to harness their minds and spirits to handle the enormous load of interfacing with their powerful mechs!

In contrast, high-ranking mech designers had no need to go through such a burden. They had to master the sciences and polish their design ability in order to create new mech designs. To give them an edge in this aspect, they focused on developing new innovations that developed as a result of combining knowledge, inspiration, their own traits and some spiritual sauce!

As a result, high-ranking mech designers were much more capable of navigating the commercial sector and upper society than high-ranking mech pilots!

The latter was just too unsuited to play politics!

Right now, Ves engineered a verbal confrontation against Venerable Ghanso. Once Ghanso fell into his trap, he soon managed to turn their semi-public argument into a political contest by letting their audience decide who was right!

Ves refrained from grinning or showing any undue pleasure while he waited for the Larkinsons to issue their votes.

Throughout the entire debate, Ves had continued to do his best to cast himself in the best light. Meanwhile, he threw as much shade as possible at his opponent, not even caring if he lied or exaggerated some of his accusations.

Though Ghanso did a reasonable job at parrying the attacks, his nature as an expert pilot did not exactly make himself look good! He was extremely honest in showing his contempt and disdain, which worsened the impression he made!

While this wouldn't do much damage to expert pilots considering they enjoyed a very high regard, Ghanso hadn't refuted every argument either.

At the very least, the unwitting expert pilot was more concerned about his mission than winning a popularity contest!

In his opinion, as long as Ves was taken away, his influence in the family would eventually collapse, or at least diminish to the point where Ghanso could regain the upper hand.

How could he possibly guess that Ves outright ignored the rule that he could propose drastic changes when the steering committee convened!

Ves did not wait for such a useless, tradition-heavy meeting. He also didn't limit the vote to the elders of the Larkinson Family, and neither did he wait for the Larkinsons on active duty to come back from their deployments!

Instead, he gave each and every available Larkinson a choice to decide their own future. He even offered this choice to the minors of the family!

He made these choices deliberately to maximize his share of the votes.

It was no secret that most of the Larkinsons who sided with Ghanso and valued their duty were serving in the Mech Corps. The old and retired veterans who felt they still needed to offer their services to the Bright Republic due to the outbreak of the Sand War had left as well!

This meant that most of those who remained behind consisted of Larkinsons who were much more inclined to take his side! Each of them would probably agree that the Larkinsons deserved more, and that prioritizing duty to the state above everything else was not worth all of their sacrifice!

While the decision to give the minors a chance to vote was not entirely proper, Ves doubted that anyone cared at the moment.

While the older generation were more set in their ways, the younger generation had adapted to the recent changes in the family the fastest! While many young Larkinsons still dreamt of serving in the Mech Corps, even more were lured by the promises of working for Ves!

Though Ghanso sputtered with outrage, Ves continued to sit while projecting confidence as he waited for the Larkinsons to make their choices known.

After several minutes, most Larkinsons who wanted to make their choices known had issued their votes.

"Alright." Ves spoke. "Every available Larkinson has spoken. Let me announce the results."

Ghanso narrowed his eyes as he couldn't help but be curious how many Larkinsons took his side.

"I will only be mentioning the Larkinsons who took part in this vote today. 39 percent of you have abstained. No one from this group has offered any support to Venerable Ghanso or myself. That's alright. I understand if you don't really have a preference or simply wish to avoid taking sides."

Those who wanted to abstain simply didn't vote at all.

Perhaps if Ves was more scrupulous, he would offer the choice of abstaining as a third voting option.

The reason why he left that out was because he feared the abstainers would amount to 80 percent of the Larkinsons! After all, most Larkinsons probably disliked the infighting in their family.

The Larkinsons had to stick together! This was what they had always been taught! Strong disagreements were never allowed to fester to the point where they produced a schism!

Of course, Ves stomped on this rule like many other rules formed by his family. No one aside from Ghanso were there to rebuke his decisions at the moment, so he was free to trample on tradition whenever he liked!

"46 percent of the family has voted in favor of letting me assume command of the Larkinson Family!" Ves cracked a modest smile this time. "Each of you believe in my vision for our family, and for that I thank you all for your vote of confidence!"

"Hey! This vote is farce! It's not representative of the family at all! Only our wisest, oldest and most honorable Larkinsons should be making these decisions!" Ghanso objected. "Even if I let this go, you should at least include every Larkinson instead of excluding those like Colonel Ark Larkinson who is busy saving us against the sandmen!"

Though Ghanso had a point, Ves outright ignored his protests, thereby diminishing their weight!

"The remaining 15 percent of you have chosen to side with Ghanso, who wishes to perpetuate our current traditions. I think it is clear who has won this vote!"

Instead of shouting at him again, Ghanso suddenly retracted his outrage and looked at Ves with an anticipating grin.

"Do you believe you've won, Ves? This vote of yours has no basis in our family's rules. As far as I am concerned, the Larkinson Family is still the same! Just wait for my arrival to your little headquarters, Ves. I will be arriving soon to escort you to safety. As for our family, we should do everything properly and make a decision by convening the steering committee after the sandman invasion has passed."

Perhaps knowing that Ghanso would not be able to accomplish anything, he cut the connection, leaving Ves to face the Larkinsons alone.

While it appeared that Ves had gained an absolute advantage over Ghanso as a result, he knew that his victory would only be empty as long as Ghanso succeeded in taking him away!

Right now, Ves had to return to his primary goal and convert the gains he made into a way to extricate himself from this crisis!

To do that, he needed to make use of his newly gained authority and appeal to the Larkinsons once again!

"My fellow Larkinsons. You have heard Venerable Ghanso. His dislike towards me is evident. He hates me because I want to change the Larkinson Family for the better! While I do admit that this vote is not fully representative, I have won a majority of your support!"

Whether the Larkinson Family would truly acknowledge his victory remained to be seen. However, it was difficult for other Larkinsons to band together and argue against his decisions at the moment!

This gave Ves the opportunity to make use of the halo he gained from 'winning' the vote!

I hope that those of you who disagreed or abstained will respect the opinions of the majority of our family. As your temporarily-appointed leader, let me begin with a request! Those like Ghanso and the paltry 15 percent of our family do not wish to see me follow through with my promises! They wish to deprive you all of the wealth and fortune that only my mech company and I can provide!"

He clasped his hand and tried to look a little desperate.

"Let us stop Ghanso by showing how much we disapprove of him by standing in his way! To any Larkinson on Cloudy Curtain who is serving with the Avatars or Sentinels, please lend me your support today! I am granting every Larkinson permission to board any mech they like and deploy in front of my headquarters!"

He could sense the shock from his audience! Was he asking for them to fight against a fellow Larkinson and an expert pilot?! This was outrageous!

Ves quickly raised his hand. "I am not asking you to fight! I am not asking you to point your weapons at Ghanso's expert mech or push it back! I am just asking you to form a wall of mechs to make your stances clear! Family should never attack family! Let us stop this rule breaker from pursuing his personal vendetta! Stand with me, Larkinsons, and fight for a brighter future!"

He ended his broadcast at this point. His office descended into silence as he had finally made his gambit.

Were the Larkinsons brave enough to support him by standing in the way of an expert pilot of the family?

After a few minutes had passed, the first mechs piloted by the Larkinsons already started moving out of the bases of the Avatars and Sentinels.

Ves inadvertently smiled as the Larkinsons started to show their support.

Chapter 1707 Taking Sides

Hundreds of Larkinsons lived on Cloudy Curtain. Many of them left the Larkinson Estate on Rittersberg in order to take part in the new and promising ventures of Ves and LMC.

Most of them were at least partially inclined towards Ves and his bold new vision for their family.

Even so, most Larkinsons disliked turning against their own family members.

The Larkinson Family had never been good at politics and infighting. They never raised their children to scheme and to turn against each other to gain an advantage.

To be honest, they abhorred such conduct. They much preferred the entire family to get along with each other. Open conflict between family was very taboo because it disrupted the camaraderie between every member of the family!

This was also why the steering committee convened behind closed doors. Not even the Larkinson Family could escape division. The best way to control it was by allowing the most influential members of the family to hash out their differences of opinions in a formal gathering.

This was a tradition formed in the early days of the formation of the Larkinson Family.

Now, Ves outright ignored this tradition and deliberately aired his conflict in full view of every available Larkinson!

None of the Larkinsons had ever encountered a situation like this! Even though disagreements between Larkinsons were common, no family member ever dared to do anything in public for fear of disrupting the harmony among their own kind!

Most Larkinsons, even the oldest veterans who had survived multiple wars, reacted to this explosive incident with horror and confusion!

"What is this kid Ghanso doing?! Family never goes after family!"

"How can little Ves be so outrageous to trample on every rule that has allowed our family to remain strong?!"

"I don't want to see our family getting torn apart by these two knuckleheads! Can anyone contact Ark?! He should be able to sort this crisis out!"

"I've already asked my contacts, but to no avail! It seems that Ark and the 1st Havensworth Division is currently locked in a battle against a large sandman fleet! There is absolutely no way the Mech Corps will allow us to disturb his mood as he is leading his troops in battle!"

This was an extremely unfortunate coincidence. Ark Larkinson was not only a strong and respected expert pilot, but also a mech colonel who possessed a strong foundation in the Havensworth Mech Army!

It was not very rare for expert pilots to become qualified mech officers able to command a mech company or two, but very few of them became senior officers due to various reasons.

First, expert pilots were generally disinclined to meddle too much in the affairs of mortals. Most of them pursued greater strength and considered the heavy responsibilities of a senior officer to be a detriment to their growth!

Second, anyone who wanted to surpass the rank mech captain needed a certain degree of political skills or at least learned how to curry favor!

The reason why Venerable Ark Larkinson managed to climb up the ranks was because he was very charismatic!

While most expert pilots were rather difficult to get close to, Ark Larkinson maintained both a friendly and dignified demeanor, which turned him into a very good leader!

Ark Larkinson became known as an expert pilot who was impeccably upright and moral. At the same time, he was also compassionate and inspirational.

By relying on these strengths, Ark easily became a mech colonel some years ago, but stalled ever since then. It was far more complicated to become a mech general.

Even so, Ark's ability to become a high-ranking officer brilliantly proved his ability to work with people.

If Ark was reachable, he would definitely be able to mediate this disastrous conflict between Ves and Ghanso!

The absence or inability to contact any Larkinson who could deescalate the situation forced every Larkinson to take a stance!

At this time, everyone who watched the broadcast and heard Ves' appeal began to make their own decisions.

Very few Larkinsons sided with Ghanso. This was not only because the most duty-minded Larkinsons were currently in the Mech Corps and therefore difficult to reach, but also because the young expert pilot did not appear very likable.

His abrasive attitude and his insistence on following unpalatable orders did not paint him in a good light!

Many retired Larkinson mech pilots ordinarily held much respect for the Mech Corps they served for many years. Yet they were not blind to the factionalism within the military.

The Larkinsons were never taught to navigate the political currents within the Mech Corps, so they ordinarily avoided them altogether.

When Ves accused Venerable Ghanso Larkinson of acting as the lapdog of Mech General Ulrich Cavendish, a lot of veterans unconsciously expressed disgust!

While it was not a problem in itself to obey a superior who belonged to a faction, it was a different matter if the orders aimed at their own family!

Whether Ves was truthful or not, Ghanso never refuted this accusation, which likely signified that it was true!

Therefore, despite the feelings of the Larkinsons towards the Mech Corps, they did not associate Ghanso's conduct with the service as a whole!

Instead, they recognized that Ghanso improperly involved himself in some kind of private scheme!

This has led to the indignation of many Larkinsons who would have otherwise remained neutral!

"I don't really agree with how Ves is handling things, but at least his heart is in the right place! Someone like him is worth protecting!"

"While Vessie here has broken a ton of rules, at least he believes he is doing what is best for our family! On the other hand, Ghanso has shown that he is willing to follow orders and adhere to rules no matter what harm they do to our Larkinson Family!"

"If I had to choose between the two, I would go for the one who actually cares a damn about our lives! The galaxy is inherently chaotic, and no rule lasts forever!"

Most of these crotchety Larkinson veterans were still able to interface with a mech, though only barely. Their bodies and their brains deteriorated significantly due to aging, causing them to be less responsive and less able to handle the flow of data from a mech.

However, this was still enough to activate a mech and move it to the headquarters of the LMC!

A lot of retired Larkinsons moved into action.

Those who were enjoying their retirement at the Cloud Estate entered into some of the mechs bequeathed by the patrolling Sentinels.

Those who were teaching at the Larkinson Basic Academy at Freslin hopped into mechs as well and headed to the Mech Nursery as fast as possible!

Though Ves hadn't explicitly appealed to the Larkinsons outside of the Avatars and Sentinels, they nonetheless offered their support on their own accord!

This was because they wanted to do what was best for the family, and believed that they could do so by showing up and stopping Ghanso from doing anything outrageous!

Though these old and wise Larkinsons were aware that they would be opposing the Mech Corps if they did so, right now the family mattered more!

Of course, this also led to a lot of inner turmoil among these older Larkinsons.

Director Clinton Larkinson who led Ves' charity was one of these conflicted veterans.

"I never thought I would be stepping into a cockpit again, let alone stand in the way of the service!" He muttered with turbid eyes.

The old Blackbeak he borrowed from the Sentinels had been stashed for many months as its assigned pilot shifted to a Desolate Soldier.

The knight mech only received a minimal amount of servicing during this time, making the mech a bit difficult to move.

It didn't help that Clinton was actually a disabled mech pilot. The damage he incurred in a past war had crippled his ability to pilot mech.

Such damage was actually fairly common among veterans.

In truth, the damage to a mech pilot's ability to pilot a mech varied a lot. Clinton happened to have suffered enough damage to reduce his battle effectiveness but not enough to prevent him from moving a mech entirely!

As it was, he could only slowly move his Blackbeak around, and had to take careful steps in order to avoid tripping his machine or crashing against other objects.

There was no way he could fight an expert mech in his state.

This was not the point. Clinton simply wanted to show his attitude and hope that Ghanso would refrain from doing anything worse.

"I only have to show up. This fight can't go on any further!" He believed!

Naturally, aside from these veterans who wanted to show their stance, stop Ghanso from doing anything radical or support Ves in leading the family to greatness, a lot of younger Larkinsons made their decisions as well!

Unlike the older generation of mech pilots who mostly experienced a lot of wind and rain, these inexperienced Larkinsons were much more straightforward.

"The Mech Corps should not be our only destination! Ves is right! We don't owe the state anything!"

"I think we can go much further in our careers if we stick with Ves! He's a Larkinson, and he'll definitely treat us better than a military that only ever cared about using us! We're nothing more than thugs to people like General Cavendish!"

"The way the Mech Corps is using Venerable Ghanso is not right! If this is what the military is truly like, then I made the right decision to join the Sentinels!"

Almost every Larkinson among the Avatars and Sentinels joined these forces because they believed in Ves. It didn't take much for them to hop into their mechs and gather at the headquarters of the company!

Commander Melkor Larkinson, who was supposed to be recuperating from his recent tour, hesitated a bit longer in front of his mech.

"Ves is going too far." He muttered.

Unlike most Larkinsons, Melkor had been with Ves for years. He had grown somewhat familiar with his cousin's unsavory methods.

Nonetheless, even if Melkor disliked how Ves was handling this situation, he couldn't do anything except to offer his support.

As the Avatar Commander, Melkor had already declared his allegiance to Ves! As a true Larkinson, he needed to show his dedication to his commitment regardless of what he thought in private!

"I am the leader of the Avatars! I should do my duty and protect Ves regardless of what kind of mess he made!"

The mech commander threw everything else aside and entered into the cockpit of his personal Crystal Lord. Though it had been months since he last piloted it, he easily got used to his mech again and left the Avatar base alongside other mechs!

Though Melkor deliberately refrained from issuing any orders aside from granting his men permission to pilot their mechs, every other Avatar had followed suit!

The battle-hardened survivors who served alongside Melkor had entered their mechs and moved out even earlier than Melkor!

With the example of these loyal mech pilots, every other Avatar followed their example!

Only a small portion of them consisted of Larkinsons! Even if these Avatars possessed no ties to the Larkinson Family, they still remembered their obligations to Ves!

The Avatars existed solely to protect their only employer, and to stand at the times at this difficult time was doubtlessly the wrong thing to do!

Even though many of them did not possess any confidence in stopping an expert pilot, they still needed to do their duty!

Perhaps the only notable mech pilot that remained behind was Silent William. He wasn't an Avatar or a Larkinson, so he wasn't obliged to meddle in this situation at all.

The mute mech pilot simply leaned against the wall of a mech workshop and looked out in the distance.

The departing mechs made for an awe-inspiring sight. The support personnel all stepped out and watched them leave.

Chapter 1708 True Suppor

Those who supported Ves or wanted to use this opportunity to cool everyone's tempers all brought their mechs to the headquarters of the LMC.

Almost eighty mechs showed up in the following half hour.

In the meantime, a single combat carrier of the Mech Corps descended from orbit. It did not take much guessing that this vessel carried Ghanso Larkinson and his expert mech. The vessel made a straight trajectory towards Freslin without obscuring it at all!

This was because the Mech Corps did not need to resort to caution within the territory controlled by the Bright Republic! Cloudy Curtain was still firmly in the hands of the state. No power residing on this planet should ever have the guts to oppose the military!

Yet Ves managed to accomplish something many Brighters considered impossible. He managed to persuade many Larkinsons in siding against the Mech Corps and one of their own family!

The local journalists smelled a scoop, and they eagerly flocked to the Mech Nursery in order to document this exceptional event!

"The Larkinsons have gone crazy! We have to let everyone else witness this historic clash!"

"Expert pilot versus Journeyman Mech Designer, which Larkinson is the prodigal son? Find out today!"

Unfortunately, with martial law in place, few of them managed to sneak out, and none of them could circumvent the lockdown of the local communications network!

Only a handful of resourceful reporters managed to solve these problems. Once they arrived at the Mech Nursery, the guards did not hinder their entry after searching them thoroughly.

Ves had already issued a command to the gate guards to let every journalist inside!

In addition, he also opened the Barracuda's quantum entanglement node to their equipment, allowing them to stream their footage live onto the galactic net!

Of course, with the Sand War raging hotter than ever, not a lot of people paid attention to this event at first.

Ves stepped away from his desk and moved over to the high windows to view the mechs that moved to him in support.

A mix of Blackbeaks, Crystal Lords, Desolate Soldiers, Dawnbreakers and even training mechs showed up to form a wall of mechs!

Even though the headquarters was taller than the mechs, their mech pilots mainly wished to make a statement.

Whether they sided with Ves or not, they possessed enough determination to block Ghanso from making things worse!

"You've did it, Ves." Raymond said as he stepped to his side. "You managed to turn Larkinson against Larkinson."

"As if I am at fault. Venerable Ghanso moved on me first. I'm just defending myself."

Raymond smiled sardonically. "You did it in the most disruptive way possible! You didn't hesitate to push our family to the brink by exacerbating our division! No matter what happens today, the Larkinson Family will never be able to turn back the clock."

"Is that a bad thing? Our views have continued to diverge. Neither of us want to change our minds. A confrontation is inevitable."

"It's just.. this could have been avoided. Your propensity to blow matters out of proportion has turned this conflict into a much bigger incident! If it was any other Larkinson, this would have been kept quiet in order to avoid disrupting the rest of the family!"

Ves crossed his arms across his chest. "That wouldn't have solved any of my problems. You can't avoid change forever, Raymond. Our family has become so reluctant to address its problems that it has missed many opportunities to reform itself!"

"Is that what you wish to do? You didn't have to hold an irregular vote to take charge of our family. Most Larkinsons won't recognize your authority."

"I don't need their recognition. Not at this point, at least." Ves mildly spoke. "I merely wanted to make it clear that I'm not alone in this. Many Larkinsons agree with me or side with me. Ghanso must respect them if he wishes to maintain his influence within our ranks."

There was more to it than this. During this crisis, Ves saw an opportunity to openly take over the Larkinson Family!

He had always harbored an ambition to liberate his family from the shackles of duty and lead it to a better future! It was just that Ves did not dare to do anything that risked tearing the family apart.

The main reason why he went ahead with his ambition this time was because Ghanso made the first move!

As long as Ves could pass off all of the blame of the schism to Ghanso, he would be able to escape most of the blame!

Of course, the smarter and wiser Larkinsons such as Raymond already saw through his plan, but so what? Ghanso was still guilty of disturbing the harmony of the Larkinson Family!

"Do you think this wall of mechs can stop Ghanso? He's an expert pilot, Ves. While he is young, he and his expert mech are impossible to overcome with the forces you have on hand!"

"I know." Ves sighed. "I only hope my supporters can stall him. At worst, I can still make use of their show of support. I'm grateful to all of them for answering my call. They didn't have to go out on a limb for me. That they did so despite the risks is.. brave."

"This is who we are, Ves. No Larkinson is a coward! Even the thought of standing up against an expert pilot from our own family isn't enough to shake our courage!"

Raymond was right. Ves had underestimated the resolve of the Larkinsons. In truth, he only expected twenty or thirty mechs to show up at most.

In addition, he didn't even consider that all of the Avatars, most of whom weren't related to the Larkinsons, would show up in total! Every Avatar who hadn't departed to the front spontaneously followed the Larkinsons in supporting their employer!

This was the first time Ves truly felt he could depend on his Avatars of Myth. After so much investment and time, his personal force had reached a satisfactory standard!

Unfortunately, the opposition was simply too strong for the Avatars to have any hope of victory! While Ves wanted to make his Avatars be able to fight against overwhelming odds, an expert mech was simply too much for them to handle at this point!

Under the direction of Melkor and the former mech officers among the Larkinsons, the eclectic mix of mechs formed into ranks and took positions according to their mech type.

The Desolate Soldiers and Dawnbreakers took up the rear. As spaceborn mech pilots, their maneuverability on land was not very great. Their mech engines and legs were too weak as they mostly depended on their flight system to move.

However, their flight within a gravity well was very cumbersome. Though it was still possible for them to fly in the air, they would be sitting ducks if they did so! Considering the risks of crashing, it was better if they remained firmly rooted on the ground!

As for the front ranks, various Blackbeaks and other melee mechs stood in front.

There was likely no way for them to do anything to Ghanso's expert mech. Regardless if he piloted his famous Glittering Combat or another expert mech, as a ranged specialist he didn't have to close into melee range to take out these melee meechs!

Though many of the mech pilots knew this, they still chose to go through with their seemingly futile action!

As time started to run out, none of the mech pilots who showed up had changed their mind. They resolutely kept their mechs in place, making Ves feel more and more appreciative of his family.

Leland and Miles hadn't left the office either. They remained in frequent contact with their organizations and occasionally kept Ves in the loop.

"Senator Tovar managed to convince one of the mech generals he's friendly with to convene an emergency meeting." Miles told Ves. "It's scheduled to begin in two hours. We don't expect the debate to last long since General Cavendish clearly crossed a line."

"Can't they hold this meeting sooner?"

"This is the best we can do, sir."

Bureaucracy. Even the Mech Corps was rife with it, especially in the upper ranks. With all of the responsibilities that high command had to deal with during the Sand War, it was already miraculous to convene an emergency meeting in two hours!

"Flashlight hasn't been sitting still either." Leland added. "We have been gathering evidence of misconduct and irregularities surrounding the strange orders. They're not exactly illegal since General Cavendish has the authority to initiate small-scale special operations. It's just that most of them are targeted at our enemies, so General Cavendish is only obliged to account for himself after the operations have finished. He's bending or outright misinterpreting a lot of rules by targeting a citizen of the Bright Republic."

"So he's not at fault?"

"He is, just not as worse than you think. This is not the first time a higher up from the Mech Corps has acted first or unilaterally. Sometimes, time is of the essence and decisions have to be made on the fly. Generals have some leeway in what they can do as long as they account for themselves afterwards."

"So he won't be arrested or removed from his position, is that what you mean?"

Leland nodded. "General Cavendish is one of the pillars of his family. Their influence in the Mech Corps is very substantial."

"I don't care about the general." Ves dismissively waved his hand. "I just want to be safe and in control of my own life. As long as Cavendishes back off, I'm not inclined to pursue this matter further!"

This caused both Leland and Miles to let go one of their worries. As one of the founding families of the Republic, their power and influence was too great! They were no less powerful than a noble house of a feudal state, and could never be toppled easily!

Ves recognized the futility in retaliating against the Cavendish Family. Instead of pursuing his grievances at ruinous cost, he would rather do something productive.

"He's here." Nitaa spoke as she stepped closer until she stood right behind Ves. "The combat carrier has landed some distance away and dropped off a single mech and some shuttles before flying away."

"They only need one expert mech to force my surrender, is that what they are saying?"

"Regardless, we are still keeping an eye on the carrier."

A sense of dread started to press onto Ves. A small shape appeared in the distance and slowly approached the Mech Nursery.

Soon, Ves managed to distinguish some smaller shapes following the central form.

"The Glittering Comet!" Ves gasped as he recognized the famed expert mech designed for Ghanso Larkinson. "What an exquisite mech."

Every expert mech was a sophisticated work of art to mech designers like Ves. Even if the Glittering Comet belonged to his enemy, he couldn't help but admire its fantastic design.

While it was clearly a machine optimized for space combat, it still managed to fly in the air without exhibiting any strain!

The flight system of an expert mech was much more powerful than the flight system of a standard mech! While the Glittering Comet definitely performed worse than an expert mech designed for atmospheric combat, it was still able to exert most of its strength in the air!

A couple of military shuttles followed the Glittering Comet. Ves was sure they held infantry troops tasked with capturing Ves and extracting him from the Mech Nursery.

"Let's step outside."

"What?! Are you crazy?!" Raymond objected.

"I highly advise against this course of action, sir!" Nitaa protested as well.

Ves shook his head. "It makes no difference if I'm inside or outside. I would rather face my enemy up close."

He turned around, picked up Lucky, and headed for the exit without another word. His followers had no choice but to follow him and keep persuading him to shelter somewhere else!

Chapter 1709 Wall of Mechs

By the time Ves passed the lobby with the stuffed body of Zeigra put on display, the Glittering Comet had entered the perimeter of the Mech Nursery.

Despite the considerable amount of turrets and patrols on guard, none of them did anything to stop the expert mech from advancing!

Even if an ordinary military mech took the Glittering Comet's place, the Living Sentinels still wouldn't have made a move. This was because it was illegal to attack a military mech!

For this reason, the Living Sentinels did not have the guts to turn their weapons towards the passing expert mech. Even if they were willing to break the law in order to express their loyalty, they still wouldn't be able to inflict any meaningful damage!

This was because the Glittering Comet was far too resilient!

Though Ves himself judged that Ghanso's expert mech was far from impervious to damage as Venerable Foster's Belisarius, it could still mop the floor of every mech of the Avatars and Sentinels!

This was the terror of opposing an expert mech. Even now, Ves felt a little shaky at the prospect of facing one that was hostile towards him. The impression that expert mechs such as the Beliarius had made on him had infused him with a very considerable amount of fear towards these extraordinary machines.

"Make room! Spread out! Don't crowd too close to the headquarters or put it in the firing line!"

Now that Ves stepped out of the headquarters, the wall of mechs shifted in response to his movements.

After a brief discussion with Melkor, they decided to move to the open garden area in the middle of the campus. The mechs formed into several ranks in front of Ves while facing the approaching expert mech.

"You should leave. I'll be fine here with Lucky." Ves spoke to his followers.

"Meow."

Lucky leisurely clung to his shoulders, ready to move into action if necessary.

As for Nitaa, Raymond, Leland and Miles, Ves doubted they would be useful in this instance.

"You don't have to face Ghanso alone, Ves." Raymond said. "I'm a Larkinson elder as well."

"I doubt he'll pay attention to you. You'll only be risking your life here for no reason. Don't think that I'm vulnerable here. I have enough gear on me to protect from attacks or flying debris."

After a brief argument, Ves managed to persuade the others in retreating. Ves did not fault them for leaving. This was his battle to fight, and he did not wish to put others at risk. Besides, they wouldn't be of any help in instance anyway.

The only exception was Nitaa. As his loyal Kinner bodyguard, she was compelled to obey, but also compelled to protect his life!

"Please don't convince me any further, sir." She spoke as her combat armor's helmet swept over her head. She brandished her heavy ballistic rifle. "I will not do anything to aggravate the situation unless you give the order."

"Hopefully, it won't come to that." Ves softly whispered, feeling very appreciative of Nitaa's loyalty.

Ever since this crisis erupted, Ves learned how much support he truly enjoyed.

Many partners and allies turned out to be ineffective, cowardly, out of reach or unreliable!

The Tovar Family which he relied upon to secure his place in the Republic directly caused General Cavendish to move against him. The Tovars hadn't been able to shield him from their troubles at all!

Calabast and her secret band of Swordmaidens were completely absent. Ves had no idea what they were doing and how their actions benefited him, but he trusted her intelligence network to warn him about these dangers in advance. How could she have possibly missed this threat?

Speaking of spies, Flashlight might not be as good as Calabast in spycraft, but it should have infiltrated the Mech Corps extensively! Yet because of Spotlight's interference, this military intelligence agency had been completely fooled!

Gloriana was not in control of her own organizations. Her mother and the Wodin Dynasty provided everything for her, but that meant that she was powerless when she acted outside of her dynasty's intentions!

The alliances and partnerships he formed in order to protect him from these kinds of threats all failed because a single enemy managed to outfox these powerful people!

Ves did not blame them for their inability to detect this scheme in advance. From what Ves had heard from Leland and Miles, General Cavendish masterfully manipulated his authority to spring this ambush!

What he was really disappointed about was their lack of ability to provide more help.

The Tovar Family arguably did the most as Senator Tovar personally applied his influence over several influential officials and generals.

Yet two hours was too long to save Ves! He could see the details of the Glittering Comet at this distance!

The others did much less. Flashlight might as well be sitting at the sides while Calabast or her subordinates didn't even bother making contact!

Only Gloriana expressed some concern by sending him messages on his comm. Ves idly replied to a couple of them before setting them aside.

Ghanso had arrived. The Glittering Comet hovered in the air just a few hundred meters away from the front ranks of the wall of mechs.

The eclectic mix of mechs did not cower in front of the expert mechs. They did not brandish their weapons either. They merely.. stood in place as if to block the Glittering Comet's approach.

Due to the potential risks to Ves, the wall of mechs had dispersed a bit, leaving plenty of gaps around the machines.

A very significant distance formed between Ves and the nearest mechs. None of the mechs stood in front of Ves directly, as if the mech pilots were afraid that a single mech could crush him if it toppled backwards!

To be honest, the wall of mechs resembled a honeycomb. The Glittering Comet could easily make use of its superior mobility to pass through the gaps of the formation and reach Ves' side before anyone else could react!

In fact, the Glittering Comet did not even have to race across the ground or hover just above the surface. It could outright fly over every mech's head and land behind the formation instead!

It was just that an expert mech did not need to resort to such theatrics.

"Step out of my way." Ghanso broadcasted to the mechs in the open. "You are impeding an officer of the Mech Corps from fulfilling his mission."

None of the mechs moved. They maintained formation in a silent protest against Ghanso!

Evidently, the stubbornness of the mech pilots rubbed him in the wrong way!

"You fools! Ves has been spouting lies all this time!" Ghanso blasted against the Larkinsons who chose to pilot a mech in opposition to him. "This is not the time to argue about the appropriateness of my orders! We can sort out these issues after I have completed my mission!"

"Nice try, Ghanso." Melkor sardonically replied on the open broadcast. "It doesn't change the fact that you should have never executed your orders in the first place!"

"Melkor Larkinson." Ghanso sneered. "How times have changed. I used to look up to you. You used to win against me in every marksmanship bout. Now look where you've ended up. Instead of serving in the Mech Corps with distinction, you instead became a young and clearly unqualified commander of a band of mechs barely better than a mercenary corps!"

"My career is not up for discussion today. While I acknowledge that you have surpassed me, at least I haven't done anything to harm the interests of our family. I can't say the same for you, since you seem determined to follow General Cavendish's orders!"

"Orders are orders!" Ghanso rebuked. "We have an obligation to obey our superiors! Any problems will be sorted out in time. The Mech Corps is an honorable institution! There are safeguards in place that prevent any commanding officer from pursuing any private vendettas!"

Ves decided to interject and patched into the communications channel.

"The system has already failed, Ghanso. If you weren't so caught up with the rules and regulations of the Mech Corps, you should have been the first to stand up to General Cavendish!"

"I don't know why you keep mentioning the general's name. I do not care a whit about the Cavendishes or the disputes of the founding families. Do you know what I think? You deserve to be targeted by them. What did you think when you tried to reach beyond your station? The primary reason why our Larkinson Family never pursued greater power is because we are not the opponents of the true rulers of our Republic!"

"That sounds like cowardice to me. We Larkinsons should never flinch from a little danger!"

"You fool! Our courage is all about overcoming our fear in battle! Outside of that, too much courage will only lead to disaster! Our Larkinson Family is not suited to enter politics or the business sector! Too many families have gone to ruin by competing against families and organizations that are much more able to navigate these spheres than us! The future that you are advocating for is nothing less but a dead end!"

Ves scowled. "If you had your way, our Larkinson Family would be performing its duty for thousands of more years for free! Just because you're a scaredy-cat doesn't mean you should spread your cowardice to the rest of the family! Unlike you, my supporters and I are brave enough to face the unknown!"

"VEEEESSSS! YOU HAVE GONE TOO FAR! I HAVE FOUGHT AGAINST TOO MANY VESIANS AND SANDMEN TO BE ACCUSED OF A COWARD! THIS FARCE ENDS HERE!"

The Glittering Combat flew forward, only to halt as a number of Desolate Soldiers and Dawnbringers flew up to block its way!

"Get out of the way! You are interfering in military affairs! I won't warn you again!"

"It's useless, Venerable Ghanso." An elder Larkinson replied. "We have made our choice. If you want to pass our mechs, you have to take us down!"

A brief pause ensued as both the Glittering Comet and its opposition faced off against each other in the air.

For a moment, Ves thought that Ghanso calmed down.

Then, the Glittering Comet brandished its custom ballistic rifle. It aimed the weapon straight at a Dawnbreaker!

Ghanso spoke a little gentler this time. "On account of your honorable service, I will give you the opportunity to step away. Don't make things worse."

The Dawnbreaker did not fly away or point its Sandbreaker rifle at the Glittering Comet. It simply hovered in place.

"So be it." He spoke again, this time with a touch of finality in his tone.

Before anyone could process his words, a loud boom cracked in the air!

Ves instantly lowered himself into a crouch while pressing his palms against his ears!

The Glittering Comet fired a shot!

Not only that, the expert mech fired a round at the left leg of the opposing Dawnbreaker, causing it to disappear entirely!

The immediate aftermath of this event was just as horrendous!

The leg detached from the, causing a small amount of debris to spray everywhere!

The heavy limb itself fell onto the ground in a heavy thud that caused Ves' footing to be destabilized!

The powerful round penetrated right through the Dawnbreaker's legs as if its compressed armor didn't mean anything! It flew onwards at a downwards angle until it impacted the campus a kilometer away, throwing lots of dirt in the air!

The Dawnbreaker itself wasn't doing so great either. Though it had only lost a leg, some of the force transmitted to the rest of the mech, causing some of its components to malfunction!

Its mech pilot had no choice but to fly away and make an emergency landing!

As the rattling sounds and thunderous vibrations subsided, every Larkinson and Avatar looked at the Glittering Comet in shock!

"You.." Melkor stammered. "You actually attacked a Larkinson! What have you done?!"

Chapter 1710 Shaken Will

Every Larkinson became stunned as Venerable Ghanso Larkinson did the unthinkable.

His mech attacked a mech piloted by another Larkinson!

Not only that, he attacked an honored veteran who served in the Mech Corps for many years, no less!

Though Ghanso employed great skill and careful aim to disable the Dawnbreaker without imperilling the life of its mech pilot, that did not change the fact that he violated one of the family's most fundamental rules!

By shooting another Larkinson, he implicitly conveyed that the laws of the Bright Republic trumped the rules of his own family!

While it sounded ridiculous, no Larkinson ever thought those two would ever come into conflict.

The Larkinsons were an upright, military family who served the Bright Republic with honor and distinction.

They possessed a lot of faith in the justness and properness of the state. The Larkinsons wouldn't have dedicated their lives so wholeheartedly if the Republic they served was corrupt!

Of course, to Ves, the Larkinsons were mostly treated as unwitting grunts by the true powers of the Bright Republic. The level his family operated never ascended to a height where they became exposed to the dirty dealings that took place at the top!

Perhaps Ghanso's mission was the first time the Larkinsons became exposed to the true face of the Bright Republic!

Ves held some blame for dragging the Larkinsons into the pit. If he hadn't become such a successful mech designer, the Larkinson Family wouldn't have been exposed to the sharks that operated at this greater stage!

Naturally, Ves did not feel guilty at all. In his perspective, he was doing his family a favor. The Larkinsons possessed so much power, but rarely used it to better themselves! They should thank him for opening their eyes!

"Ghanso!" An old female veteran shouted. "You have taken up arms against your own blood! Do you have no shame!? Even if you are on a mission, there are some lines that you should never cross!"

The Glittering Comet did not seem deterred at all! It pointed its rifle straight at the mech piloted by the woman in question.

"I admire you, Eisbeth Larkinson. I listened to your stories when I was young. Yet that does not mean that you are right! Don't blow this situation out of proportion! I just shot apart the leg of a mech that is in the way, nothing more! I have never threatened the life of any Larkinsons!"

"You fool!" Ves couldn't help but shout. "Even if you are an expert pilot, damaging mechs is an inherently dangerous action! What seems like minor damage can easily cascade into major damage elsewhere! With the firepower of your expert mech's rifle, you only have to make one misjudgement to damage the cockpit!"

In truth, as long as Ghanso was careful enough, he could probably avoid damaging the cockpit. Mechs these days were quite compartmentalized, and no part was more shielded and separated from the rest of the mech than the cockpit!

The degree of compartmentalization depended heavily on the mech type, design style and budget of the mech design. The Dawnbreaker, which had been explicitly designed to preserve the life of the mech pilot, was a lot safer to pilot than a Desolate Soldier!

This meant that out of all of the mechs that made up the wall of mechs, it was the cheaper and poorly-armored Desolate Soldiers that posed the most risk to their mech pilots!

Ves knew his own mech designs the best. When he estimated the immense firepower of the Glittering Comet, he knew that his Desolate Soldiers were as fragile as leaves!

Ghanso's expert mech already crippled a Dawnbreaker with a single shot! Even though its armor coverage mainly converged around its torso and its formula was mainly configured to resist energy damage, it was still an astounding sight!

The Glittering Comet began to fly forward again.

"Since you've explained the risks of standing in my way, please tell the rest to stand aside. Don't force me to fire again!"

Instead of quaking in front of the Glittering Comet, the mechs instead remained rooted in place!

They would not allow Ghanso to proceed further!

"Ghanso!" Clinton Larkinson shouted. "I originally sympathized with your views! Now that you have fired your weapon at one of our own, I've realized how far you have gone! Duty does not equal serfdom! The degree in which you dedicate yourself to the state has gone too far! When the Republic wants brothers to fight against brothers, perhaps it is time to question whether it is still worthy of our loyalty!"

Though Clinton's words weren't specifically meant to support Ves, he nonetheless encapsulated every Larkinson's grievance against Ghanso's stance!

"Go back, Ghanso! Don't turn yourself into a kinslayer!"

"You are no brother of mine, anymore!"

"I looked up to you! How could you have tarnished our Larkinson name today? Get lost!"

The Glittering Comet's shiny exterior shook as Ghanso momentarily lost control. The scolding by his fellow family members started to affect his mentality!

This was normally impossible! Expert pilots possessed a near-unshakable will! They never faltered against even the most awful odds! They would rather die than betray their principles!

However, the root of their strength was also their vulnerability.

From his understanding of expert pilots, so long as they began to doubt their principles, their will would probably exhibit flaws!

Though Ves wasn't sure what Ghanso's principles actually were, following the rules and valuing his family probably ranked very highly in his mentality!

Ves began to look up to the Glittering Comet. Would they be able to defeat Ghanso in this fashion? Was attacking other Larkinsons a step too far to someone who always admired his own family's heritage?

"I.." Ghanso spoke. "I am not at fault. If not me, then the hundred other mechs of the Mech Corps would have shot at you. They don't have the control that I have. The reason why I asked to confront you alone is because I am the only one capable and willing enough to exercise restraint!"

"You.. you still haven't given up?" Melkor asked in astonishment. "Isn't it enough that you shot at a Larkinson once?!"

"Shut up, Melkor! You are not qualified to look down on me, you dropout! Family or not, we are citizens of the Bright Republic! What you are doing is already intolerable to the Mech Corps! If I refuse to execute my orders, I will be condemned as well! This is why I have to fulfill my orders faithfully! As long as I am "

A wave of conviction emanated from the Glittering Comet, causing every Larkinson to feel a chill.

Even Ves became affected by the outpouring of will from the mech! His eyes widened as he recognized that Ghanso's managed to solidify his wavering will!

All of his hesitation was gone! Only his mission mattered!

Before the Larkinsons could scold Ghanso further, the Glittering Comet fired yet again!

A loud boom erupted from its rifle! The Desolate Soldier that Ghanso targeted practically tore in half as its lower half separated from its upper half!

The damage was so catastrophic that the cockpit automatically detected that the situation was untenable and ejected away!

Two huge crashes thundered the ground as both halves of the mechs crashed on the ground! Fires began to erupt from the wreckage, releasing toxic fumes in the air!

Just like before, Ghanso carefully aimed his shot downwards so that the round impacted the ground a few kilometers away, thereby harming no one else!

Even so, the debris flying away from the shattering was enough to kill a crowd of humans!

Ves, who almost lost his footing yet again due to the thundering shocks, couldn't help but grasp Lucky tighter and run backwards!

The power of a single human was incomparable to the power of mechs!

Even with his abundant protection, he had no confidence in protecting himself against the power of mechs! Merely the aftershocks was enough to overload his shield generators and turn him into mincemeat!

As Ves hurried away, the Glittering Comet no longer held back.

Venerable Ghanso methodically fired his rifle after taking only a second or so to aim! This was enough time for an expert pilot specializing in marksmanship to control his damage output to a very precise degree!

While he wasn't too proficient in figuring out the extent of his damage against different mech models, his intuitive understanding was very high!

His rifle continued release round after round! Ghanso had configured his rifle to the lightest setting, yet it was still enough to crush any mech opposing him with plenty of damage to spare!

A battle between an expert mech and more than a hundred regular mechs shouldn't have been so one-sided.

At the very least, if the Larkinsons and Avatars did anything else stand in place, then they might be able to overwhelm the Glittering Comet through sheer weight of numbers!

Unlike the Belisarius, the Glittering Comet was still a pure ranged mech! Its defensive prowess was fairly limited compared to other melee mechs, so its defense shouldn't be as perverse!

As the mechs piloted by the Larkinsons and Avatars continued to break apart and collapse on the debris-strewn ground, the Mech Nursery began to resemble a graveyard of mechs!

Ves inwardly bleeded at the sight of mechs getting downed! Most of them belonged to his Avatars and Sentinels! In the current stage of the Sand War, it was incredibly difficult to procure more mechs or the materials required to build them! Each Desolate Soldier and Dawnbreaker was precious to him and the LMC!

A part of him wanted to give up and tell his fellow Larkinsons to stop their futile actions.

He recognized that his plan to stall Ghanso had failed. Outside of his expectations, his stubborn cousin decisely attacked the mechs piloted by family in order to complete his mission!

"Well, at least I have made a point." He muttered. "Support for Ghanso's faction within the family will probably drop to rock bottom after today!"

Those who were neutral would probably be repelled by the depths that Ghanso was willing to go in the name of duty. Ghanso unwittingly validated every accusation that Ves had made!

Of course, the more savvier Larkinsons would probably recognize that Ves played Ghanso like a fiddle. If he hadn't provoked the irascible expert pilot so much, the situation wouldn't have deteriorated to this extent!

Therefore, Ves was sure that the hardliners in his family would not easily give up on tradition.

That was fine. As long as Ves won over the majority of the Larkinson Family, he would definitely be able to grasp it completely!

This was an extremely important goal for him due to one important reason: the family's 25 percent ownership of the LMC!

As long as Ves took over the family, he could essentially control the family's stake in the company, thereby regaining absolute control of his company!

If not for these shares, Ves wouldn't have bothered so much with the Larkinsons! As it was, he could never allow the conservative and traditional faction led by Ghanso to control a portion of his company!

He shook his head. All of this was up for the future. For now, he still had to make it through the current crisis!

An expert mech confronting numerous standard mechs almost always led to the same outcome. The latter had no chance.

Dozens of mechs crashed or collapsed to the ground as cockpits continued to eject into the air!

With the help of his supreme marksmanship, Ghanso precisely controlled his aim to the point that not a single mech pilot came close to losing their life!

As Ghanso continued to disable mech after mech, his understanding of their properties deepened. Less and less explosions and fires erupted and the amount of debris being flung had lessened as well!

Soon enough, not a single mech opposing Ghanso was left! All of them lay shattered and broken beneath its feet!

The hearts of every Larkinson who witnessed this sight or survived Ghanso's attacks had frozen!

Even the spectators tuning in on the broadcasts of the journalists in the field were shocked!

Chapter 1711 Hidden Bulge

Ves had run all the way back to the front entrance of the headquarters of his company. A fair distance away, piles of broken and ruined mech parts soiled the green and idyllic gardens of the Mech Nursery's campus!

In destroying every mech that stood in the Glittering Comet's way, Ghanso Larkinson exhibited complete disregard to the value of those machines!

Each of those mechs could have contributed to Cloudy Curtain's defense! The fall of so many Avatar and Sentinel mechs weakened Cloudy Curtain's security and risked the lives of millions of citizens and billions of settled refugees!

Ves partially blamed the stubbornness of his family members. Their misplaced courage caused them to stand their ground and let themselves get shot by Ghanso like they were target dummies!

The Larkinsons had already made their point! There was no further use in allowing their mechs to get wrecked!

Of course, the Larkinsons who showed up today did not see it that way. It was all about showing their attitude against Ghanso's conduct! They hoped that by showing how firmly they stuck to their principles, they could convince this young but rash expert pilot of the family to reconsider his stance!

Sadly, their hopes were bound to get dashed as expert pilots never wavered so easily!

It was twice as bad when it came to Larkinson expert pilots! After becoming demigods, the bravery and conviction instilled in their minds turned into the pillars of their will, causing them to become more determined than any mortal Larkinson!

There was no contest between the two. The hundred Larkinsons that piloted their mechs to form a wall thought that they already possessed sufficient determination.

Ghanso wouldn't shoot every Larkinson in the way, right? Shouldn't he feel guilty with each Larkinson mech he shot?

Yet the expert pilot gritted his teeth and steeled his heart to do what he thought was necessary!

As his Glittering Comet's sensor arrays scanned the debris field, Ghanso tried to make sure that none of the wrecks posed any threat to any lives.

While he had already justified his actions in his heart and mind, he still did not wish to have any actual blood on his hands. Harming a mech was just an issue of money to him. It still fell short of wounding or killing an actual human being!

After verifying that no cockpit or life was at risk, Ghanso cast his worries aside and focused on his target.

While Ves could have retreated in his headquarters or sneaked away by resorting to stealth, he didn't think it would buy him more than a few minutes time.

The military shuttles carrying infantry already started to approach once Ghanso dismantled the wall of mechs. The vehicles already pointed a number of high-powered, directional scanners in his direction!

The energy passing through his body was so strong that Ves doubted that he could evade pursuit for long!

He did not wish to put his headquarters and the people working inside at risk. The soldiers sent to hunt him down might not be as concerned with collateral damage as Ghanso, especially since they were just mortals!

"Looks like this is the end of the line for me." Ves muttered.

"Do you wish to..?" Nitaa, who had stuck with him, brandished her rifle.

"No. Don't think about it. I explicitly order you to attack my captors unless they actually intend to kill me or something."

Ves could never resist the might of an entire state. Perhaps the story might be different if he became a Master Mech Designer, but for now his power, influence, wealth and reputation were wholly insufficient to resist lawful authority!

This was also why he never considered activating the defenses of the Mech Nursery and ordering his supporters to open fire. He would just condemn himself and his fellow Larkinsons to persecuting them by their own state!

Fortunately, it was not as if he was surrendering his life. He would just be taking a forced vacation for some time.

Despite disparaging the state, Ves still had faith in its institutions. The Mech Corps should never mistreat him or arbitrarily sentence him to death.

The Glittering Comet slowly flew towards Ves, as if anticipating a further stunt.

When nothing else happened, the expert mech reached within twenty meters of Ves and landed on the ground with a strong enough impact to whip a lot of wind in Ves' face!

"Did you run out tricks, Ves?" The mech broadcasted Ghanso's exulting voice. He didn't show any remorse for what he did! "If you weren't family, I would have squashed you like a bug for setting my own relatives against me! You are way too poisonous to be a Larkinson!"

"My Larkinson blood is just as pure as yours." Ves retorted with forced calm. He showed neither fear nor regret. "Don't worry, Venerable Ghanso. I won't run any further. Tell your goons to come here and take me away. Do not put my employees in danger."

Ves had already exhausted his limited cards. While he failed to stall Ghanso, he at least managed to raise enough of a stink in the family and the Bright Republic!

The greater the outrage, the likelier he would be freed!

There was no way General Cavendish could ever hope to succeed in his scheme after blowing up this confrontation so massively!

The Glittering Comet loomed over Ves like an unfeeling statue. Ghanso no longer bothered to talk to Ves as they both waited for the shuttles to land.

While Ves awaited his eventual capture, he decided to make some additional preparations. He turned around and beckoned to Nitaa.

"I don't want the Mech Corps to confiscate my gear. Please keep them safe."

He withdrew his toolbelt and all of the gadgets and weapons it held, from the Peaceful Resolve to the Vulcaneye multiscanner.

He also slipped his hands under his shirt and withdrew both of his shield generators, including the one wrapped by a Synthra Umbra cover.

However, Ves did not relinquish everything on his person. After a bit of thought, he removed his slender comm from his wrist but slipped them into his underwear. While the thin bracelet pressed uncomfortably against his flesh, such a small object should be completely undetectable when shielded by the Synthra Umbra material!

While Ves never intended to use his special pair of underwear in this fashion, he had to admit it came in really handy under these circumstances!

Since he still possessed some room in his pants, Ves searched the tool belt held by Nitaa.

He withdrew a small cylindrical jamming device before stuffing it in the inside of his underwear as well!

Though his pants bulged similar to how the Adonis Colossus' codpiece protruded outwards, it was still within an acceptable range!

"I should make a flatter jamming device next time." He grumbled.

Ves did not dare smuggle anything else on his person. His underwear already fit him fairly tight because he never envisioned using it as a hidden pocket!

He shook his legs and took a few steps to make sure his smuggled goods did not give themselves away in any sense. The tightness of his underpants barely affected him, which was a big relief.

Hopefully, the Mech Corps wouldn't strip search him or replace his clothes entirely.

After hesitating for a few seconds, Ves removed his overcoat as well and folded it up before passing it to Nitaa.

"Keep that secure as well. It's the most valuable piece of my outfit."

Lastly, Ves rubbed Lucky's head and whispered a few words in his ears.

"Meow."

His cat ran past Nitaa and disappeared within the depths of the LMC's headquarters.

Time was up. The shuttles had landed. As soon as their hatches opened, intimidating soldiers clad in medium and heavy combat armor emerged.

Ves held up his arms to show that he was unarmed. In the meantime, Nitaa was already stepping back to the point of entering the lobby of the headquarters. She had already holstered her rifle behind her back in order to carry all of the gear that Ves bequeathed.

Unlike Ghanso, the silent, helmeted soldiers did not speak at all. Most of them spread out and vigilantly guarded every direction.

A pair of armored soldiers approached Ves. Their insignia and markings identified them as soldiers of the 1st Volari Starhawks.

They had probably survived the fall of Sydney Superior. They strode forward with no hesitation and thoroughly searched his entire body with suit-integrated scanners.

Ves was afraid that they would pat his body as well. Once they patted his waist area, they would probably be able to feel out his smuggled goods!

Fortunately, the guards possessed way too much faith in the effectiveness of their scanners!

Ves was no average person either. The Mech Corps issued orders to take him into custody. This was not an arrest as he was not an enemy!

As a loyal citizen and war hero, none of the soldiers seemed inclined to treat him roughly!

In fact, the way the soldiers held his arms and guided him forward showed that they firmly intended to treat him as an honored guest!

They belonged to the same side, after all. Though Ves had stopped projecting his combat awards on his chest after removing his comm from his wrist, his record still reflected his illustrious accomplishments!

"Please excuse our treatment, Mr. Larkinson." An unarmored, uniformed captain greeted Ves upon entering one of the shuttles. "You have certainly given us a lot of headaches with your theatrics. Will you continue to make things difficult?"

The guards surrounding him let go of his arms, allowing Ves to sit and let his seat buckle him in place with a smile.

"I am alone now. How can I possibly stir up any trouble? I am at your mercy."

"That only makes me more concerned." The officer replied suspiciously. "You are surprisingly accommodating right now, if I may say so. I expected you to continue your resistance. You already forced our Venerable to tarnish his reputation."

"Hey, that's not my fault. If you didn't want Ghanso to disgrace himself, then your superiors shouldn't have assigned him on this mission in the first place! Whoever thought it was a great idea to dispatch a Larkinson to capture a Larkinson?"

As the shuttle rumbled and lifted off the ground, the captain crossed his arms and sighed. "We never expected you to overreact to this extent. You are reacting as if we are Ylvainan Inquisitors plotting to execute you after holding a show trial. In case you don't know, we are not as badly run as the Ylvaine Protectorate! We obey the law rather than superstition."

Ves threw a skeptical glance towards the officer. "Uh huh. If you truly know the Bright Republic as well as I do, you wouldn't be so charitable to our state."

"Do not attempt to confuse me, Devil Tongue. My loyalty won't be shaken by your deceptive words!"

The officer regarded Ves with such caution that Ves quietly gave up his attempts to shake the other man's views.

There was no use even if he succeeded in befuddling the man. This was because there were plenty more soldiers where he was heading to! Unless he was an exceptional politician and orator, he could forget about changing everyone's minds!

About fifteen minutes passed before the shuttle slowed down and thudded onto a metal deck.

The hatch opened up, allowing the soldiers and Ves to exit the vehicle and step onto the shuttle bay.

Ves inspected the interior of the combat carrier and noted that it looked much more modern and well-equipped than the combat carriers of the Flagrant Vandals.

The technicians and other crew working here did not gawk at Ves or the soldiers. Instead, they continued their duties without any interruption, which showed that they were very disciplined.

These were tough customers. None of the soldiers he had seen so far exhibited any sloppiness. Everyone was too professional!

Chapter 1712 Larkinson To Larkinson

Outside of his expectations, his captors did not drag him to some sort of interrogation chamber or pump him for any information.

His escorts merely escorted him through the corridors of the combat carrier. Ves did not blank out during this time, but carefully observed his surroundings and tried to form a mental map of the interior.

While there was an endless variety of combat carrier classes in existence, the Mech Corps still applied the same standards to all of them. Their designs possessed many similarities which was meant to aid spacers in fitting in. The combat carriers of the Flagrant Vandals did not differ so much from this vessel.

Their current route allowed Ves to guess where his escorts were taking him. While they treated him gently, they did not go too far in treating him as an honored guest.

After a few minutes, they arrived at the security department of the ship. His escorts handed him off to the security officers, who subjected him to a more powerful scanning device that surrounded his entire body.

Ves could feel the energy rays passing through his entire body! It was extremely uncomfortable! Only his waist area escaped this uncomfortable sensation!

Fortunately, the special properties of Synthra Umbra did not outright block the scans in an obvious way. It could even camouflage its properties to a limited degree to avoid standing out too much! Synthra Umbra wouldn't be classified as a high-grade exotic if it wasn't so effective in deceiving scans!

Luckily, the security officer behind the monitor only watched out for alerts rather than inspecting the scanning data closely. If he was a bit more attentive, then Ves would surely be in trouble, but fortunately no other search took place!

Ves was a Brighter after all. Was he really going to whip out a gun from nowhere and shoot his fellow citizens?

"Please follow me to your temporary accommodations." The captain told him after the scanning had ended.

Ves quietly followed until he reached a cell in the brig.

"Wow. Can't you offer me some dignity here, captain? I used to be a head designer when I was in the Mech Corps. Major Verle of the 6th Flagrant Vandals treated me very well when I worked directly under him. He would never have the guts to treat me like a prisoner!"

The officer looked unsympathetic. He gestured to the cell, causing the armored soldiers behind Ves to gently push him inside!

An energy screen immediately emerged, blocking Ves from exiting the mostly-barren metallic cell.

"We have our orders, Mr. Larkinson. We initially planned to hold you somewhere comfortable, but your actions earlier have caused us to.. reconsider."

"Ghanso personally told you to throw me into a cell, right?"

The captain smiled sheepishly. "He harbors quite a grudge against you. We are holding him back from meeting you until he cools down."

"Well, thanks for that."

"We are not your enemy, Mr. Larkinson. We don't like this mission either."

"Venerable Ghanso did not seem so reluctant earlier. He turned my Mech Nursery into a graveyard of mechs by the time he was done!"

The captain remained unapologetic. "Our personal wants and needs are immaterial. When we take the oath and don the uniform, we cease to be individuals. Instead, we represent a great institution, one that is dedicated to protecting our state!"

"I know that. I'm a Larkinson, and I've been in your shoes. I'm just.. disappointed at being targeted by you guys."

"You have my sympathies, Mr. Larkinson, but orders are orders. I wish you an uneventful journey. You won't have to stay locked in this cell for long."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

The captain didn't reply. He nodded stiffly at Ves through the energy screen before leaving the brig, taking most of his men away.

Unfortunately, two guards remained in place. While they did not specifically stare at Ves, their presence made him feel as if he was completely exposed!

Their closed helmets made it impossible to judge whether they were paying attention to him or not. For all he knew, they were sleeping inside their combat armor.

Ves did not dare take out the gear he stuffed inside his underpants.

Even without the guards, he was very certain that his cell was stuffed with sensors that monitored his every move.

Not even the toilet section of the cell provided him with any relief!

The cell was extremely bare, offering nothing more than a bunk, a toilet and a wash bin.

Ves knew that cells like these could be configured to offer additional furniture and amenities. Sadly, his captors were too stingy to offer him comforts such as a chair, table or entertainment projector.

The guards left him with no opportunity to start a conversation either, which left him feeling bored.

As someone who always spent his time on something, remaining locked in a cell with nothing to do was already starting to grate at his nerves!

He was a man of action! He always tried to spend his time productively.

"I should be designing a mech, reading a report, questioning my subordinates or cuddling with Gloriana right now!"

No matter how much he complained about his treatment, the soldiers assigned to extract from Cloudy Curtain did not engage with him any further.

"How boring. The Vandals were much more fun than you guys."

The guards never deigned to answer him. Ves half-suspected that their combat armor filtered out his voice!

Sometimes, he really hated his Devil Tongue nickname. Why couldn't he have a proper nickname that highlighted his strengths in mech design?

An indeterminate amount of time went by as the muted sounds and vibrations of the combat carrier offered him various hints of what was taking place.

He had no other way of determining what was going on outside his cell. Only when his body started feeling queasy for a moment did he detect that the ship had entered FTL!

His hopes of getting released before the Mech Corps sorted out the situation at high command were dashed.

Perhaps Ves needed to wait until the captured fleet returned to realspace for the Mech Corps to release him from custody.

"With all of the trouble I've stirred up, there is no way General Cavendish can still have his way!"

What took place on Cloudy Curtain was the last thing the Bright Republic needed at this time! Anything that distracted from the struggle against the sandman was deeply disruptive!

What was worse was that there was no way his forced departure from Cloudy Curtain could be hidden! If the government thought they could take him away quietly, then the battle between the Larkinsons firmly ensured that many people would come to know what transpired!

This was the insurance plan that he plotted ever since he heard that Ghanso was coming to take him away. After seeing how all of his friends and allies failed to protect him at this critical moment, Ves no longer dared to place his hopes on their efforts.

He emphatically did not trust the Tovars to do what they promised. Who knew what kind of shady deals and compromises they might make with the Cavendish and Ramza Families!

Rather than placing his hopes on unreliable allies, he much preferred to rely on his own means to extricate himself from this crisis!

A series of footsteps interrupted his musings. He raised himself from his bare cot and spotted a familiar figure.

The man paused in front of the energy screen until it shut off. He strode inside and stopped in the center of the cell as if he was its master!

The strong will contained in his body was like compressed mist that was barely contained in his head! As it was, its strong presence could not be hidden as it radiated an aura that was reminiscent of the glows of LMC mechs!

"Ghanso. How lovely. Just the Larkinson I wanted to meet."

His cousin showed up in an impeccable back-and-white uniform of the 1st Volari Starhawks. His badges and insignia signified his status as an expert pilot and a mech captain of the Mech Corps.

The uniform showed off nothing else, as this was not a situation where Ghanso needed to show off his combat awards.

"So here you are." Ghanso spoke up. Different from before, he exhibited little emotion. "We would have brought you here regardless of what you did. Instead of accepting the inevitable, you launched a futile resistance and shook the foundations of our family!"

"I did not ask them to come and block your way. They came on their own accord." Ves lightly replied.

"That's a lie, Ves. You openly appealed to them to form a wall of mechs. Even if you phrased it as a request, you should have known how seriously our family members would take it! I have to admit that I even fell for your sophistry!"

Ves chuckled. "I said nothing that isn't true in some way! The reason why our aunts, uncles and cousins voluntarily piloted their mechs to block your Glittering Comet is because they agreed with what I said! The reason why you grew angry is because you don't want to accept that I'm right!"

Before he knew it, Ghanso swiftly swept forward and punched his face!

"Ah! That smarts! I'm just a mech designer, man! I'm a civilian!"

Ghanso sneered at Ves. "You're a Larkinson. You're better than this. Your physical augmentations are even more luxurious than mine!"

"That doesn't mean I'm trained for combat! I'm helpless in front of you and you know it!" Ves complained as he rubbed his bruised cheek.

"Dispense with the theatrics, Ves. I didn't come here to be entertained by a clown."

Seeing that Ghanso saw right through his act, Ves shook his head and straightened his back.

While he had left behind his overcoat, the remainder of his outfit still looked suitably formal. The dignity he carried was no less than that of Ghanso.

"That's better. I finally feel I'm facing an adult."

"That's because you're too serious, Ghanso. Lighten up. Relax. Stop beating up your fellow Larkinsons."

A surge of anger flowed from the expert pilot!

"Everything is your fault! Don't lay the blame of your actions on me! You are one of the most terrible Larkinsons that I have ever met! You don't belong in our family!"

"You don't control the family. I do. We held a vote!"

Ghanso directed a withering glare towards Ves. "A single popularity contest held at the spur of the moment does not give you the right to take over the Larkinson Family. While you are brought away, I'll be sure to sort of the mess you've made and undo all of the damage. Without your poisonous influence, I have faith that my fellow Larkinsons will return to sanity!"

"Hahaha! Keep dreaming! You crossed a line today! I exposed you and your faction for what you truly are! If the Mech Corps orders you to kill off our entire family, you would definitely jump to obey!"

Outside of his expectations, the expert pilot did not take the bait this time. Instead, Ghanso adopted a smug expression as he looked down on Ves as if he was an ant.

"Keep barking like a dog. It's all useless. Ever since you fell into our hands, you're finished. You'll no longer be around to pollute the values of our family after we reach our destination. Don't worry. You will still be safe. I am a Larkinson, after all. I would never agree to anything that harms your life."

Ghanso's ominous words inspired vigilance in Ves.

"What do the Cavendishes and Ramzas have in store for me? You sound as if you know something."

This time, it was Ghanso's turn to chuckle!

"You'll find out soon enough. Rest assured that you will be contributing to the Bright Republic in a much better way than leaving you on your own! Let me thank you in advance for your valiant service!"

With that, Ghanso turned around and left the cell.

Chapter 1713 Confinemen

Ghanso did not visit Ves again, and neither did anyone else for that matter. The crew of the combat carrier took their mission seriously and maintained a professional demeanor.

The sandmen had reached far and wide, and they could show up anywhere. While the ship was currently safe in FTL travel, who knew what they might encounter at the other end.

The carrier had to be ready to face an ambush. Venerable Ghanso needed to prepare himself for battle at any time. How could they possibly have the time to play with their prisoner?

Ves felt as if he was a piece of cargo thrown in the cargo hold of a transport. The crew were just responsible for bringing him from A to B without any superfluous steps!

He hated it. After spending a lot of time around people, this forced isolation was grating at him. He missed Gavin's dutiful reports, Raymond's advice, Nitaa's dedication, Gloriana's warmth and the energy of his design team.

It was only now that his captors deprived him from what he took for granted that Ves realized how much he depended on his friends and subordinates!

Loneliness swept through his mind and spirit, causing him to feel more and more depressed.

The bare cell didn't help any matters either. For some reason, security officers neglected to offer him any form of distraction or entertainment. They didn't even provide him with a single projector that allowed him to watch old dramas or something!

The lack of amenities forced Ves to depend on himself to pass the time.

He first attempted to develop some ideas for his next design project. Now that he completed the Deliverer design, Ves did not really have anything else on his plate.

It was difficult to figure out what mech he should design when he did not even know his future trajectory.

"I don't know where I'll stay next." He muttered.

With everything that happened today, his trust in the Bright Republic had dropped close to the bottom. While he identified himself as a Brighter, he no longer held the same amount of trust and loyalty in his home state.

Some of the words he spoke to the Larkinsons had come from the bottom of his heart. He truly meant it when he told them that they didn't owe the state anything anymore.

While he and the Larkinsons should be grateful to the Bright Republic for offering them a good environment to develop, it was difficult to go any further.

While Ves figured that the Bright Republic still offered more room for growth, the only way to do so was to grow under the tree of the Tovar Family.

"A shelter is also a cage. My family doesn't necessarily have to rely on others for protection."

Ves vastly preferred decoupling the Larkinsons from the Bright Republic and form a more independent existence. So long as his family could retain its most useful customs and traditions, it should have no problem sustaining a mercenary existence.

"That's not enough, though."

Becoming mercenaries was a step down for the Larkinsons! Most of them would certainly rebel if Ves pushed them into adopting an identity devoid of honor!

Only pirates and dark mercenaries ranked worse!

He scratched his head. "I'll have to consider this matter carefully."

Ideally, Ves wanted to make the Larkinsons work exclusively for him. The problem was that he couldn't expect every Larkinson to follow this mold. They were unlike him who did not really care about settling down somewhere else for the long term.

He needed to find some way that offered various options for his family while retaining a firm grasp on its core.

Since Ves had a lot of time on his hands, he methodically formed some ideas. Several hours went by as he explored every option he could think of. He eventually came up with a new vision for the family that entailed some radical changes!

His expression brightened as he looked forward to how he could change his family to his benefit!

Of course, plotting the future of his family only entertained him for so long. After he formed his ideas, he grew bored with pretending to be the architect of the new incarnation of his family.

He began to spend his time on something different. No matter how much his captors isolated him and deprived him with something to do, they could not prevent him from utilizing his Spirituality.

Ves turned his thoughts inwards and began to check on each active design spirit. He checked up on Qilanxo, Ylvaine's spiritual fragment, Zeigra, Bravo, the Solemn Guardian and so on. He made sure to keep track of their strength, maturity, personality as well as their spiritual dividend distribution.

Most of them reached a plateau in their growth. Pure quantity no longer provided them with measurable benefits.

Fortunately, none of them appeared to be dissatisfied with their current lot. Ves believed that other spiritual entities would never be able to grow as fast and effortlessly than his design spirits!

"Your jobs are pretty cushy if you think about it! There's no reason for you to be dissatisfied with your current progress!"

The main downside to this easy growth was that none of his design spirits appeared eager to cultivate their strengths by themselves. They had grown completely dependent on the spiritual feedback provided by mech pilots!

This kind of relationship reminded Ves of the relationship between the Blessed People and the Sacred Gods they used to worship.

As a former Sacred God herself, Qilanxo had adopted her new role with a lot of gusto. Ves clearly sensed that she was applying her spiritual abilities in a much more sophisticated manner than the rest of his design spirits!

Unfortunately, Ves did not have the guts to ask Qilanxo to teach his other design spirits how

Getting in touch with each of them alleviated his loneliness, though not very much.

None of his design spirits were comparable to human company. Even Ylvaine's spiritual fragment, which was the most human design spirit in his collection, was far too pure and cerebral to provide good company.

They couldn't really help him out of his current predicament either. As design spirits, the most they could do was to influence the minds of people to a limited degree.

"It's not like I can convert the crew of this ship by exposing them to the glory of Prophet Ylvaine." He figured.

A few days went by as the combat carrier apparently traveled to a more distant star system. There were too many possible destinations to count. Space was unimaginably vast, but also filled with countless stars, many of them uninhabited due to their poor resource endowments and unattractive satellites.

Though Ves lost track of the day-night cycle, he tried his best to estimate how much time had passed.

At least he didn't have to worry about his hygiene. At irregular times, his cell would be blasted by an all-encompassing sonic blast that cleaned up his clothes and body.

This was a more convenient solution than offering him a shower, which Ves was very reluctant to take advantage of. He did not wish to expose his exceptional underwear and what he hid underneath!

"Thank goodness they went for the lazy option!"

The supply of food also came at irregular times. While Ves did not have access to a clock, his instinctive sense of time suggested that his meals arrived as little as two hours or as much as ten hours after he last had a bite!

"What is the point of this treatment?" He frowned.

From what he learned of the Vandals, these kinds of mind games were meant to disordient him and soften him up for further interrogation.

Could Ghanso have ordered the crew to mess with him as a form or revenge?

"Screw you, Ghanso!"

Fortunately, this unsettling period did not last forever.

By the time Ves felt his entire body experiencing some discomfort due to dropping out of FTL, he estimated that over three days had passed.

"I wonder how my people are doing at home. Hopefully, they haven't fallen apart in my absence."

The LMC and his other organizations should still be keeping everything together. He could also count on Gloriana to be on the lookout for anything that threatened his enterprises.

Roughly an hour or so passed before something broke the monotony of his confinement.

His ears picked up a strong and familiar stride. Ghanso Larkinson had returned. He gestured towards the guards on duty. They stepped forward and deactivated the energy screen.

"Did you finally receive orders to free me or something?" Ves asked.

"Not quite." Ghanso shook his head. "We've completely shut off contact. If you hoped for an early release, then keep dreaming. We are still following our original orders. In fact, we can only restore contact after we have transferred you out of our hands!"

Ves sneered. "Sounds like General Cavendish is very certain that his orders would be countermanded. Don't you think that your mission is improper in that case?"

"There's a reason why we are laying low. Luckily for you, Ves, you'll soon find out what we have in store."

Ghanso did not talk to him any further. He merely watched on as the guards picked him up from his cot and held him gently by the arms.

They slowly left the brig and entered the corridors. They walked passed various crew members, who did not react to Ves at all, which he found strange.

After ascending a couple of decks, they reached the starboard side of the combat carrier and halted in front of an exit hatch.

"Where are you taking me?" Ves asked with some concern.

"You'll see." Ghanso smiled coyly.

Eventually, Ves felt a minute thud from the hatch, signifying that some sort of object had formed a connection to the exit.

The hatch soon slid open, causing air from a different ship to briefly wash over their bodies!

The temperature and filtering of the air was distinctly different. Ves became more and more concerned what lay at the other end.

"Let's go, Ves." Ghanso prodded his back. "Only the two of us are allowed to proceed."

The pair of armored guards let go of his arms, allowing Ves to move on his own. Since there was nothing he could do to resist despite regaining his freedom of motion, he entered the walkway while Ghanso followed him from behind.

"Are you worried that I'm going to escape or something?" Ves frowned.

"Stop blabbering and keep walking!"

They silently crossed the distance and emerged onto an entirely different vessel.

Ves inspected the interior design and looked surprised.

"What a luxurious ship!"

The rich interior reminded him of a passenger liner in the way that it broke up the monotony by offering a lot of decoration. The warm colors, the artful projections, the tasteful plants, the gilded accents and the pleasant scent did not fit a military vessel at all! The Mech Corps would never waste so much resources on some useless luxuries!

What alarmed Ves even more was that the quality of the materials seemed unusually high! While he was not familiar with the specific formulas, he felt that even the smallest plant pot cost as much as a budget mech!

A single hatch opened up, revealing a single woman dressed in a very sophisticated business suit.

The woman walked forward with heels that clacked against the deck in a steady pattern. Once she reached the two Larkinsons, the blond woman smiled.

"Ves Larkinson. I'm very pleased to meet you. I have looked forward to our meeting for a while now!" She turned to his cousin. "Thank you, Venerable Larkinson, for bringing him to us. We will certainly repay this favor by dispatching our nearest mercenary corps to bolster your Bentheim System!"

"How many mechs?" Ghanso asked.

"Around three-hundred mechs. All second-class. All piloted by adequate mech pilots. They will assist in repelling the sandmen for the remainder of the Sand War!"

Ves grew suspicious of the woman's sophisticated accent. Her superior demeanor which did not show any hint of deference towards an expert pilot signified that her status was quite extraordinary!

After inspecting the woman some more, he realized why her attire seemed so familiar!

"You're a Fridayman!" He gasped.

"Correct!"

Ves turned to Ghanso in shock! "You traitor! It's not enough for you to shoot against your own family!"

What Ghanso did was nothing less than selling his own cousin to the Fridaymen!

Chapter 1714 Justified Transaction

Now that he ended up on another ship, Ves finally realized the horrible truth.

The plot aimed against him was a lot more complicated than he expected!

From what little Ghanso and the female Fridayman had said, Ves figured out the gist of what had taken place.

General Cavendish did not intend to bring him back to Rittersberg or New Foundation from the start!

When the depths of his actions became known, it would be very hard to keep Ves in custody!

This was especially so because the Tovars would never let their rivals mess with their allies!

Perhaps the Tovars might not care too much about a random individual, but Ves was different.

He forged a greater pact with Senator Tovar that intertwined their interests to a greater degree than usual!

If the Tovars failed to meet their obligations, then they would not only damage their credibility, but also earn the ire of Gloriana for no good reason!

It was extremely worrisome to be targeted by the darling of the Wodin Dynasty. While she was just a mech designer, she could easily pull a lot of strings to make life very difficult for the Tovar Family or the entire Bright Republic!

Therefore, the Tovars should be constantly lobbying on his behalf for his eventual release.

Someone as old as General Cavendish should surely be aware of how difficult it would be to take Ves off the board and deprive the Tovars of an exceptional ally.

Since the Cavendishes and the Ramzas couldn't find a way to keep Ves confined, why not hand him off to someone else?

It was no secret that the Bright Republic and its institutions developed some relationships with the citizens and organizations of the Friday Coalition.

The founding families should have definitely forged very close ties considering how long they had been in power!

While the Komodo War caused many states like the Bright Republic to adopt an openly neutral posture, their bonds to their greater patrons still existed!

From what Ves had guessed, General Cavendish formed a clandestine deal with some Fridaymen.

In exchange for handing over Ves to them, the Fridaymen promised to dispatch one of their powerful mercenary corps to relieve the pressure on Bentheim!

Three-hundred second-class mechs was incredibly powerful! While they weren't enough to fend off all of the sandmen that barged into the Bentheim System, they could easily fend off entire sandman fleets by themselves, thereby giving the local defenders some breathing room!

Ves underestimated General Cavendish! If the mech general's plot succeeded, then Cavendish would be able to harvest several gains while minimizing the damage he incurred by abusing his authority!

First, he could justify taking Ves away by pushing all of the blame on the Fridaymen.

If the general claimed that a powerful organization from the Friday Coalition really wanted to get their hands on Ves, how could he possibly refuse?

Second, he could rightfully justify his actions as contributing to the Bright Republic by securing the assistance of a powerful Fridayman mercenary corps!

So far, very few second-class outfits from the Friday Coalition and elsewhere deigned to fight the sandmen.

For General Cavendish to secure the aid of even one mercenary corps from a second-rate state was enough to mollify the rest of the Mech Corps!

This was because the Bright Republic truly needed all of the help it could get!

The best kind of help it could get consisted of immediate help that came in the form of mechs!

In contrast to the tangible help that a powerful outfit could provide, the benefits to keeping Ves was much more ambiguous!

Ves was just one of a thousand Journeyman hailing from the Bright Republic. He wasn't even a Senior who possessed a much greater pedigree in designing mechs!

While his small number of mech designs were all exceptional, few believed that Ves could design yet another mech that changed the overall war situation!

Most Brighters did not pin their hopes on a specific mech designer to come up with a killer mech design. This was because their success was very variable. One day, they might come up with a winning product. The next day, their product might flop!

Ves experienced both outcomes himself. His Desolate Soldier had been a smashing success while the Mech Corps produced only a couple of hundred copies of his Militant Soldier!

Rather than gambling on a low-probability event by pinning its hope on Ves, the state was much better off trading him to the Fridaymen to secure concrete benefits!

"Hehehe.. very well done!"

He couldn't help but chuckle uncontrollably when he realized how deep in trouble he was in right now!

Falling in the hands of the Fridayman was much worse than ending up as an unwilling guest of the Cavendish or Ramza Family!

At least the latter had to abide by the laws of the Bright Republic and the will of its people!

The trouble that Ves stirred up back in Cloudy Curtain was meant to exert pressure on his captors by exposing their sordid schemes to the Larkinsons and the public!

However, even if his entire family and the half of the citizens of the Bright Republic stood up in protest, what did that matter to the Fridaymen?

The Friday Coalition could effortlessly crush the Bright Republic without affecting their war against the Hexadric Hegemony!

Even Gloriana was rendered helpless as well! The Fridaymen were mortal enemies to the Hexers. It was impossible for them to come to an accord this time, especially during a decisive war!

Once Ves got over his dire realizations, he did his best to regain his composure. "Sorry for that. I couldn't help but become ABSOLUTELY CRAZY for a moment because of what you have done!"

"I am truly sorry for the unpleasantries surrounding your.. unusual transfer, Mr. Larkinson." The woman addressed him with respect. "We hope you will allow us to treat you as our guest. We have kept our eye on you ever since you released your Desolate Soldier. We hold immense respect for your accomplishments."

Ves sneered at the woman. While he usually preferred to be more diplomatic, especially towards someone who was in control over his life, he didn't give a damn at the moment!

The betrayal he just witnessed still made him mad beyond reason!

"I already cut ties with you Fridaymen! I want nothing to do with you! I have already committed myself to Gloriana!"

"You should forget about that vixen, Ves." Ghanso suggested with a smirk. "You know how Hexers are. They only acknowledge women as equals. Men like us are destined to be regarded as pets or toys! A star sector ruled by Hexers is the last thing our Bright Republic needs! You've been aligning with the wrong side all this time! What I've done is merely to correct your mistake and put you back on the right track!"

"Absurd! Don't pretend you are doing what is best for our state and myself! What if the Hexers win the war? Did you think about that, Ghanso?! You, the Larkinsons and our state will definitely face a reckoning if that happens!"

"Hahaha!" Ghanso erupted in laughter. "Unlike a weasel like you, I see no need to hedge my bets! I'm going all in on the Friday Coalition! Their values and their culture are highly compatible with our Bright Republic! It's madness to even consider adopting Hexer customs! I don't know what kind of fetish you have for mistresses, but leave the rest of us out! The men of our Larkinson Family would much prefer to keep their dignity in front of women!"

The blond woman lifted her hand. "That's enough, Venerable Ghanso. Let us not give Mr. Ves here an unpleasant farewell."

"You're right, miss." Ghanso retracted some of his smugness. He turned to Ves with a much more serious expression. "For what it's worth, you're right. I sold you to the Fridaymen. To be more exact, I participated in the action that resulted in this outcome."

"You don't sound remorseful."

"I won't apologise for what I've done. Everything I do is for the betterment of our family and the state I have made an oath to defend. The sandman race is not our greatest enemy. The Hexers that you've unilaterally sided with are much worse! The former just wants to kill us. The latter wants to destroy our identity!"

Though Ves wanted to argue back, he couldn't muster up a convincing response. He was too angry and unbalanced to think straight!

"Your intentions are good, but your means are dishonorable. Since when did the Larkinsons believe that the ends justify the means? Some actions are too reprehensible to be acceptable!"

"When my actions end up saving the lives of trillions of people and keep the Bright Republic in existence, I am more than willing to shoulder the guilt of my actions! While I acknowledge that I am wrong, I will sleep easily knowing that I have made the galaxy a better place!"

After patting Ves' shoulder in a patronizing manner, Ghanso exchanged a few words with the woman before returning back to the combat carrier!

The hatch closed after the expert pilot's departure. Presumably, the walkway was being retracted as well!

Ves turned to the woman and tried to estimate whether it would be a good idea to storm up to her and take her hostage.

He immediately crossed out this stupid idea.

Even though no guards were in sight, Ves did not delude himself into thinking he was in control.

He owned the Barracuda for many years, so he knew a bit about the security measures of such advanced vessels.

If Ves made any hostile move, the artificial gravity affecting his body might grow five times as strong, causing him to be pressed down to the deck!

A couple of turrets might emerge from the ceiling!

The surrounding bulkheads might shift until he was boxed in a makeshift compartment with no exit in sight!

Some kind of invisible, odorless paralytic gas might be pumped in the air, causing him to instantly lose his consciousness!

In short, there were at least a dozen ways for Ves to get taken out by the internal ship defenses alone!

So long as Ves did not grasp control over this unknown but very advanced vessel, he could forget about escaping!

"So.. isn't it about time you introduce yourself?"

"Please be patient, Mr. Larkinson. My lady wishes to introduce herself to you in person. For now, let us settle you in and allow you to freshen up. My lady desires to meet you at your best."

"I see."

That sounded bad for Ves. If he was forced to shower or change his clothes, he might expose his hidden goods!

The woman led the way while Ves obediently followed like he was marching to his execution. A sense of resignation suffused his body as he kept looking around.

The ship he was on was a lot larger than his Barracuda, that was for sure. The vessel might even outclass Gloriana's Stellar Chaser!

The more formidable his current captors, the more his confidence sinked. He already ruled out trying to escape from this unknown ship by himself. There were way too many systems and redundancies for him to sabotage the vessel with his limited means!

After going up a few decks, Ves got a sense that they reached the most premier passenger compartments. The woman guided him into a resplendent stateroom that was much more grand than his stateroom on the Barracuda!

"This shall be your accommodation for the remainder of our journey to the Friday Coalition. We hope you have a pleasant stay aboard our ship as our honored guest. Please forgive us for disabling or restricting many of the functions here. To ensure your good behavior, we have decided to limit what you can do. You have a reputation for trouble, after all. Isn't that right, Mr. Larkinson?"

Ves smiled grimly at the caution in her words. How much did these Fridaymen research his exploits? It sounded as if they were a lot more aware of what he could do than his usual enemies!

Chapter 1715 Freshening Up

After issuing some brief instructions, the woman granted Ves an hour to himself.

He was supposed to come to terms with his new situation. The Fridayman also told him to clean himself up and change his clothes to an outfit that his new hosts had already prepared for him. Apparently, his Pride of Dusk was too crude and wild to the sophisticated tastes of the 'lady' that owned this ship!

As the woman left his new quarters, Ves scratched his head while frowning at her back.

While it wasn't immediately apparent, the woman gave off the vibe of a Benny.

This was strange, since she clearly looked down on Ghanso when she talked to him. It was as if an expert pilot clearly did not matter in her eyes!

In contrast, the woman clearly treated Ves differently. Despite becoming their unwilling guest, the Fridaymen who nabbed him wanted to foster a cordial relationship with him! He felt as if he was being wooed for some reason!

After trying to figure out what the Fridaymen wanted from him, he eventually shrugged.

"Well, whatever. I certainly won't complain about my treatment. This stateroom is a thousand times better than my previous cell!"

Ves suspected that his earlier treatment aboard the combat carrier was meant to foster the gratitude he felt right now.

"What a nasty trick!" He gasped.

The worst part about this subtle move was that Ves genuinely appreciated his upgraded accommodations while he was fully aware that he had been manipulated!

Ves held much less control over his emotions than his thoughts. In fact, he doubted he possessed any ability to affect his emotions at all!

Though he tried his best to stay rational most of the time, he was far from mastering his own emotions.

His inability to find fault with his captors for providing him with a very comfortable room was grating at his mind!

He felt the urge to beat up his own head until he succeeded in sorting out his emotions!

"What am I thinking?!"

He vigorously shook his head to rid himself of his stupid thoughts. He decided to focus on something else, lest he fall back to his pointless internal turmoil.

He spent ten minutes going over the amenities of his stateroom.

The queen-sized bed placed in the center was incredibly soft and fluffy. Ves had a sense that he would immediately fall asleep if he laid down his body on its surface!

Various advanced features allowed him to change its configuration. He could raise the bed, narrow or widen its dimensions, form a concave in the center, activate some all-encompassing massage routine, make it roll over his body at certain preprogrammed times, and so on.

He had never seen a bed like this. He even recognized that everything about it, from its bed frame to the silky fabrics, consisted entirely of expensive composites that incorporated some special exotics!

Every other piece of furniture was just as extravagant! From the projector that depicted a lively vista of a bustling city from the Friday Coalition, to the solid wooden desk that appeared to have been made by wood cut from an extraordinary tree, everything about his stateroom exuded class that was fit for a prominent Fridayman!

"Gloriana would love this if there isn't such a heavy Coalition influence!"

Every piece of furniture and decoration alluded to the powerful state in one way or another.

From the flag of the starry arrow pointing upwards in front of a hopeful green background, to the symbol of the nine-headed hydra, everything around him carried the unmistakable marks of the Coalition!

The flag of the Friday Coalition represented the aspiration of the state. It signified the hope that the Coalition would be able to unite disparate stars into a single unified state with the strength to contend for more!

The nine-headed hydra symbolized the unity of the original Coalition which used to consist of nine different partners.

Over the centuries, three of the partners fell for various reasons. The surviving partners gobbled up their former territories, thereby leaving six who survived the test of time!

In the Komodo Star Sector, the fact that six partners of the Coalition still survived was kind of an ironic joke.

Of course, no one dared to repeat this joke in front of a Fridayman!

Ves hummed for a moment as he inspected some of the trinkets. "Something is missing."

His surroundings didn't show any markings that pointed to a specific partner. Had he been nabbed by the Konsu Clan. Was the Vermeer Group of dragging him back into its orbit?

"The latter makes no sense! There is no way Master Olson will want me back after cutting ties!"

He also believed that a highly principled mech designer like her would never go back on her word!

Though that did not discount the possibility that another faction within the Vermeer Group might have different ideas, but Master Olson's response would certainly be terrible once she found it! It wasn't worth it for one of her rivals within the Group to mess with one of her former Apprentices!

No. Whoever captured Ves should probably be powerful enough to endure Master Olson's protests!

While he toured his new accommodations, he also explored what he could do, which wasn't very much.

At least he had access to a projector that allowed him to access a very narrow selection of programs. The interface was extremely limited and did not give him any room for manipulation.

As he explored his options, he found out that most of the selection consisted of both entertainment and educational programs.

Naturally, all of their content was related to the Friday Coalition!

"Are these guys trying to indoctrinate me or something?" He frowned.

The way he was being treated gave him some clues of what his captors wanted to do. Obviously, they wanted to convert him to their side on a strictly voluntary basis. They restricted themselves to employing soft methods in order to preserve all of his strengths and qualities!

Ves was aware that the Fridaymen could have employed more forceful means such as coercion or outright brainwashing, but that would definitely cripple his ability to design mechs!

This meant that his captors highly prized his design capabilities, which was within his expectations.

When Ves moved over to the desk, he tried his best to find a switch or command that would activate its terminal.

Only to find out that it didn't offer him anything of the sort at all!

"So it's true. They're too scared to give me access to an actual interface!"

Who knew what kind of mischief he could do if he had access to the network of the ship!

The simplest way to minimize this trouble was to take away the terminal entirely!

"How am I supposed to do anything if I don't have a terminal?" He whined. "I can't design mechs or do anything productive if I don't have a terminal or a comm!"

He explored his stateroom once again and approached something that looked extremely anachronistic and out of place!

"Is this.. a genuine bookcase?"

He withdrew a book and tried to get used to the foreign sensation of holding something so archaic. He cracked it open to browse its contents, only to widen his eyes at the complex diagrams printed on its pages!

"This is a textbook! And an advanced one at that!"

He flipped the pages and surmised that the textbook was about energy transmission systems of high-value mechs.

More specifically, it taught its readers plenty of theory and applications on how to design the energy transmission system of an advanced second-class mech!

He abruptly chuckled and snapped the book shut before putting it back on its place.

"They sure know me well."

The lengthy bookcase held hundreds of hardcover books, each of them containing knowledge that second-class mech designers should master!

All of these physical textbooks were enough to keep him busy for a long time! He did not mind being deprived of a terminal as long as he could devour all of these books!

Ves glanced at a nearby clock and remembered his upcoming meeting. "Oh, I should really prepare for my upcoming meeting."

He headed into the bathroom and inspected the outfit that his captors had prepared for him. It was a very understated business outfit that exuded class without looking too gauche.

This was the kind of outfit that a long-established noble would want to wear. Ves could tell, because Gloriana already taught him some of this during her occasional lectures.

Naturally, the specific fashion of this outfit fully conformed with the current trend of the Friday Coalition! Ves would look no different from a Fridayman if he donned these clothes!

If Ves had a say, he would much rather stick to his current outfit. The Pride of Dusk was something that truly belonged to him. Its cut completely confirmed to the fashion of the Bright Republic.

"Well, that woman didn't leave me with any leeway." He grimaced.

He decided that it was best to play along despite knowing that it was a mental trap.

The only issue was his underwear. He did not wish to expose his contraband, which he would surely do if he removed his clothes!

"You better not be spying on me! I'm a very private person!" Ves angrily raised his fist in a random direction!

He came up with an unconventional solution. He stripped all of his clothes aside from his underwear and did his best to pretend the 'bulge' was something else aside from his cylindrical jamming device!

After carefully folding his clothes, he jumped into the shower and just let the water flow down his body while he was half-naked.

"If you think you can enjoy a show, think again! No peeking!"

By using his desire for privacy as an excuse, Ves hoped that his strange decision to shower with his underpants could be excused!

He did not worry about his hidden comm and jamming devices. Both of them were waterproof and would never malfunction after being submerged in water.

Ves pretended that there was nothing wrong and nonchalantly washed his before allowing the shower cabin to dry off his body and underpants.

After that, he stepped out and slowly began to don his new outfit. He had to admit that the suit fitted his dimensions perfectly. As he looked at himself in a three-dimensional mirror projection, he had to admit he looked very sharp!

He rummaged around the bathroom and found a small beauty bot. Once he activated it, the bot automatically floated to his head and began to style his hair in a neat comb over that was much slicker than his usual messy hair style.

After applying some subtle makeup to his face, he finally felt confident enough to meet the person responsible for taking him away from his home.

"Here goes nothing." He sighed.

Once he exited the bathroom, the blond female assistant was already waiting for him inside his stateroom!

"Follow me. My lady will see you now, Mr. Larkinson."

Unlike before, they didn't traverse the length of the ship this time. They merely crossed a fairly short distance before entering a lounge compartment.

As soon as Ves stepped inside, the assistant led him up to some couches where two women awaited his arrival.

"Mr Larkinson!" A very gorgeous blond greeted him with a very gleeful smile. She wore a sophisticated red dress that accentuated her figure while not showing anything off. "Welcome aboard the Scarlet Rose! I hope you are happy with your assigned room. I personally configured it for your needs."

As Ves seated himself on the opposite couch, he awkwardly smiled back at the woman who seemed to be around his age.

"I am.. appreciative of what you have made available to me. Can you introduce yourself?"

"Why certainly! I am Aisling Curver, a Journeyman Mech Designer from the Gauge Dynasty. I am also a junior monitor assigned to observe and manage some of the Friday Coalition's affairs in the Bright Republic!"

"I.. see. You're a spy, then."

"Oh, goodness, no!" Her voice tinkling like bells. "I am strictly a monitor! I merely accepted this duty to earn some merits. I wouldn't have stumbled upon a mech designer as fantastic as you if I turned down this boring assignment!"

"And your companion..? Is she the same?"

"She's my helper. She accepted a similar duty to earn merits as well. She's been very helpful to me since she's very familiar with the lay of the land."

Ves grimly nodded. "I'm aware. Hi, Patricia."

"Hello, Ves." Patricia Schneider greeted him back in a demure tone.

Chapter 1716 Lady Aisling Curver

Ever since he realized he fell in the hands of the Fridaymen, Ves tried to guess the identity of the ultimate beneficiary.

He half-expected to meet a familiar face, and he did in the form of an old classmate.

Of all the people he expected to meet, he never thought he would meet Patricia Scheider under these circumstances!

Oh, it should be Patricia Cain by now. She recently married a random Apprentice from the Carnegie Group.

Patricia should no longer be a Brighter now. She abandoned her former state and moved up to a better one!

Yet even if she had abandoned her roots and become a Fridayman by marriage, Ves never expected that she would stoop so low and be part of his kidnapping!

Being betrayed by Ghanso was already bad enough to Ves. Getting stabbed in the back by Patricia somehow sparked an irrational fury within his heart!

The mild glare he directed towards her only encompassed a small part of his desire to take revenge!

He tried his best to temper his fury. It had already been boiling for a while, but in this precarious circumstance losing control would not help matters further!

He forcibly suppressed his desire to kill Patricia. Looking at her demure posture and her deference towards Aisling Curver, she should be just as she said, a helper.

In order to hide his temper, Ves decided to distract himself by satisfying his curiosity. He restored his composure and tried to maintain a calm smile.

"Patricia.. why are you here?"

"Everyone must contribute to the war between the Friday Coalition and the Hexadric Hegemony." She replied with a calm voice. "As an Apprentice under Master Null, I must also do my part. Due to my limited foundation, I decided to leverage my familiarity with the Bright Republic and applied to be part of Lady Curver's monitoring team."

"Did you target me, Patricia?"

She shook her head. "It was never my intention to aim at you specifically."

"My assistant is right." Aisling Curver spoke, obviously intending to direct his attention away from Patricia. "In fact, we never acted proactively. I intended to abide by my mission and monitor your state's resistance against the sandmen without intervening. It was just a complete coincidence that General Ulrich Cavendish approached me with an interesting proposal."

"You are supposed to be a monitor, right?" Ves frowned. "Doesn't that mean you shouldn't interfere at all in our state's affairs?"

Lady Curver grinned. "That is ordinarily true, but General Cavendish approached me as a representative of his state. The Bright Republic is really desperate, you know? I should know since I have been monitoring your state for some time. Its infrastructure is falling apart and Bentheim is starting to crack under the pressure. While we Fridayman don't particularly care about your state, it is not that difficult to lift a finger and increase its chances of survival."

The Friday Coalition didn't care about the Bright Republic. However, if the latter fell, the Coalition would have to expend some effort and time to recultivate relations with the state that succeeded it. That cost the Coalition far more than dispatching a single mercenary corps to help ease the pressure!

Ves sighed. He couldn't really fault Lady Curver for being generous enough to lend a hand to his state. It was just that the deal was too sordid! The price for her assistance was by handing him over as if he was nothing more than a commodity!

Ves hated being treated as a commodity!

"While I admit that the help you offered is very helpful to our state, I object to the means you have employed. I had no say in this! No one asked me if I wanted to fall into your hands!"

He couldn't hold his anger this time.

Fortunately, Lady Curver did not blame him for showing his resentment. She merely smiled at him as if everything was okay!

"You're upset. You have a right to be. While I am not proud of what I have done, I think it is a very great opportunity for the both of us! I have always kept my eye on you, did you know? As the illustrious designer of the Desolate Soldier, I have tracked your accomplishments very closely! If that obsessive pig Gloriana hadn't stolen you first, I would have already introduced myself to you! Luckily, General Cavendish's scheme gave me an opening!"

"You're.. a fan?"

"Oh, yes!" The blonde woman gushed. "I just love your glows and the way you manage to influence your mech pilots in a strange but gentle manner! This is exactly what I need to branch out my design philosophy and pursue a different path from my Master!"

Ves looked up at that. "Who are you, exactly?"

"Let me introduce myself to you again. My name is Aisling Curver. I'm a Journeyman Mech Designer and a direct disciple of Master Toqueman Huron! Are you familiar with my master?"

A direct disciple! This meant that Lady Curver was similar to Tristan Wesseling! She inherited the design philosophy of a genuine Master Mech Designer!

"If I recall.. Master Huron is a professor at the Clarion University of Mech Design, which is one of the premier mech design institutions of the Gauge Dynasty!"

The Gauge Dynasty was considerably more powerful than the Carnegie Group! The prestige of Clarion University surpassed the Leemar Institute of Technology by a significant margin!

"Correct! You know your Masters. Are you aware of his specialty?"

Ves hesitated for a moment. "I only memorized that he specializes in neural interconnectivity. I'm afraid I am not aware of what that means."

"That's not surprising. Neural interconnectivity is one of the more esoteric specialties. It is a rather obscure field that is technically classified as a Class VIII design philosophy, but is actually as difficult to progress as a Class IX design philosophy!"

"Why is that so?"

Lady Curver relaxed her posture. She was relieved that Ves no longer addressed what had happened but instead asked about her passion!

"Neural interconnectivity is a wondrous field! Let me explain it to you this way. When you think about a mech, do they ever fight alone?"

Ves shook his head. "They're always deployed in squads or larger units. A group of mechs working together can get a lot more things done than a single expensive mech! Of course, the quality, design, cost and mech pilot all affect their relative strengths. It is not a sure thing that a single good mech can defeat a squad of mediocre mechs, but it is possible as long as the former is outrageous enough!"

For example, Ghanso's Glittering Comet annihilated his Avatars and Sentinels without encountering any significant resistance!

While a large part of that was because he was representing the Mech Corps, his expert mech already caused his opponents to give up any hope of restraining it! The Glittering Comet was simply too powerful!

"As an experienced marketer, you should be aware that the mechs in use today are mostly employed in groups." Curver noted. "If a mech model is too expensive, then our customers won't be able to equip all of their mech pilots with a machine. If a mech model is too cheap, then our customers will face a bottleneck in manpower! The ideal mech ought to be positioned somewhere in between. This means that there is a range of cost and quality that hits the sweet spot of the market."

"I know all of this. You don't have to explain the composition of market demand to me. Budget mechs and midrange mechs are the most prominent mechs on the market."

"Okay, since you know this, let's take a midrange mech design as a starting point. How can you strengthen this product?"

"There are many ways to do so. You incorporate more powerful exotics. You licence more advanced components. You expand your knowledge base and improve your application of it. You refine your design style and implement more ingenious solutions. You partner up with another mech designer who can compensate for your weaknesses."

Lady Curver nodded again and again. "Those are all valid solutions. The problem is that it's difficult to employ them. The budget of a midrange mech only goes so far. It's not viable to replace a medium-grade exotic with a high-grade exotic. That will certainly double or triple the cost of your mech model! As for the other solutions, each of them will either break the bank or exceed your capabilities! Only the last solution you've offered is different, but let's leave that for later."

"What is the point you are trying to make, milady?"

"Call me Aisling, please. I am not your enemy here. In fact, it's the opposite! I'm your benefactor! I intend to save you from the clutches of those witches who see you as nothing more than a boy toy! You should thank me for offering you an opportunity to regain your dignity as a man!"

Ves scowled and pounded his chest with his palm. "I never asked to be saved! Let me make one thing clear. I love Gloriana!"

While his relationship with Gloriana was very problematic on many levels, Ves had truly developed an affection for her! Hexer or not, female supremacist or not, the love they shared was completely genuine!

After encountering betrayal after betrayal in the past couple of days, Ves had grown very disillusioned with people.

He had come to hate the act of betrayal and anyone who resorted it! No matter how righteously they justified their betrayals, people like Ghanso and Patricia deserved to get their comeuppance!

It was due to being the victim of betrayal that Ves felt as if his mind had changed. He developed a new principle that stated that he should never engage in betrayal unless his victims truly deserved it! He refused to lower himself to their standards!

This was also why he adored Gloriana. She not only trusted him completely, she had also remained loyal to him throughout their relationship!

Even now, Ves was sure that Gloriana was trying her best to get him back! He could count on her to track him down and rescue him from his captors!

Of course, Lady Curver did not take well to his declaration. She frowned and flipped her lustrous blond hair.

"It seems like the Hexers have already begun to turn you into their slave. Has Ves always been so susceptible to women, Patricia?"

"I can't say. I did not pay much attention to him while we were studying at Rittersberg." His old classmate innocently replied.

Curver pressed a finger against her lips while staring at Ves in pity. "You poor, poor man. Who knows how much self-esteem you'll lose if you remain by Gloriana's side. Don't worry, Ves! You're free now! I'll do my best to restore you as a man!"

"Let's not talk about this." Ves waved his hand. "You still haven't explained what neural interconnectivity is all about."

"Oh, yes! Well, getting back to my explanation, neural interconnectivity is simply an alternative solution to the problem I've mentioned. Aside from employing those other solutions, some mech designers in the past decided to increase the performance of their mechs by relying on teamwork! As long as the mech pilots are all trained to coordinate and act in unison with each other, the strength they can bring to bear will absolutely be more than the sum of its parts!"

"This does not sound very odd to me, Aisling. All mech militaries, from my Bright Republic's Mech Corps to your Gauge Dynasty's Sundered Phalanx rely on teamwork to gain an edge over their opponents."

"Ah, but the teamwork I'm talking about goes beyond regular coordination." The woman tapped her head. "Have you ever wondered what would happen if you expand the man-machine connection to more than a single mech and mech pilot? What if you connect multiple mech pilots together? As long as they achieve a certain degree of synchronization, the coordination they can exert will make their unit fight like a single entity!"

What?!

"That.. sounds crazy!" Ves uttered in shock. "Messing with the man-machine connection is extremely dangerous! Any deviations can easily inflict permanent brain damage to the mech pilot!"

Chapter 1717 Neural Interconnectivity

Ves encountered plenty of design philosophies over his career. His recent tour throughout the star sector allowed him to come into contact with plenty of Journeymen who each developed their own ideas on how to design better mechs.

He admired the creativity of those Journeymen. The galactic mech industry was incredibly huge and countless competitors had already come up with their own solutions.

It was very difficult to develop an original design philosophy that still hadn't been explored!

Out of all of the design philosophies he learned, Master Huron's design philosophy was probably one of the most extreme ones he heard!

It sounded even crazier than Class IX design philosophies! Not only did Master Huron decide to dedicate himself in the very sensitive field of neural interfaces, he opted to explore one of its most extreme applications in the form of connecting neural interfaces together!

Lady Curver allowed Ves some time to get over his shock.

"Many mech designers like you react like this when they first learn what neural interconnectivity means. Before you attempt to lecture me, don't forget that my Master has managed to realize his design philosophy. Neural interconnectivity is a real thing, and he's not the only mech designer in the galaxy who succeeded in applying it in a safe and useful manner!"

She was right. While Ves was imagining all sorts of horror stories, a mech designer would never be able to reach Master with this specialization if he didn't find a way to apply it without excessive risk!

Ves grew curious how Master Huron managed to grapple with the risks of experimenting with neural interfaces.

"The premise is simple, though the application is much more complex." She replied. "Two peas in a pod are very similar to each other. One of the simplest ways to form a stable neural network that connections the mind of a mech pilot to the mind of another mech pilot is by finding and pairing identical twins. Since they are already identical in many ways, there isn't much incompatibility if we form a small connection between their minds."

"It can't be that simple, right? One mistake can instantly ruin both of their brains!"

"That is true. My Master and I have never dared to open the floodgates. We only open up a tiny slit so that only a limited amount of data can be transferred back and forth. The bandwidth of this connection can be expanded gradually to strengthen the coordination between the mech pilots as they get more familiar with operating in this fashion."

"Identical twins, especially naturally-born ones, should be rare. Are those the only customers your Master is catering towards?"

"That was just his starting point, Ves. As he developed his design philosophy, he focused on expanding the pool of eligible mech pilots. He developed a way to pair brother to sister, father to son, mentor and student, and so on. My Master also engaged in a lot of research to expand the size of what we call the neural network. While this was incredibly difficult, he managed to find a way to pair an entire squad with each other. Once he achieved this breakthrough, it became easier for him to expand the neural network to encompass an entire mech company and mech battalion!"

That sounded incredibly powerful! Ves knew the importance of coordination in battle.

If a mech battalion numbering 500 mechs all fought in perfect sync with each other, Ves could easily imagine it beating twice its numbers! Even when the quality of the mechs and the skill of the mech pilots were identical between the two forces, the side with the better coordination possessed an absolute advantage!

Ves understood why neural interconnectivity was such a worthy goal to pursue despite all of the inherent risks surrounding neural interface technology. If Master Huron truly managed to develop a safe application of connecting mech pilots together, then this was absolutely a way to circumvent the conventional limitations of increasing the battle performance of mechs!

Unlike adding more expensive exotics or incorporating high technology in a mech design, the cost to set up a neural network was not that significant!

The only requirement to form a stable network was to upgrade the neural interface and some other components in the cockpit. Nothing more was necessary!

While the underlying tech was very complicated and abstruse, this was not a significant problem as long as Master Huron specialized it to the point where he could design a specialized neural interface in his sleep!

Ves couldn't help but convey genuine admiration for Master Huron's success! However, he quickly grew suspicious. If neural networks were so fantastic, why hadn't he heard of it? Why hadn't this tech become more widely known?

"There has to be a catch, right?" He asked.

Aisling dropped her smile and sighed. "Sadly, my Master hasn't been able to develop a way to solve all of the issues surrounding neural interconnectivity. The risks you've mentioned still exist. It is just that one of the main solutions my Master has come up with has mitigated them to an extent."

"What is his solution?"

"It's very simple! He only designs mechs for elite, highly-trained outfits and military units! When a mech regiment has developed a strong martial tradition and identity, all of its mech pilots share the same values, mindsets, training and fighting spirit! The greater their commonalities, the easier it becomes to unify them in a neural network!"

"There should still be a lot of differences between the individual mech pilots, right?"

"Correct. The neural networks my Master has formed for mech companies and mech battalions are only the shallowest versions of what he can provide. We don't dare to expand the bandwidth of the connections for fear or unpleasant side effects. Only smaller units such as squads made up of close companions are safe to form a greater network."

"I see. That makes sense. It sounds like your Master still has a lot to go. This field is far from mature."

"That's where you come, Ves." Aisling directed an intrigued glance at him. The hunger in her eyes was not that different from how Gloriana stared at him sometimes! "Your specialty has a lot of potential. While I'm not sure what metaphysical man-machine symbiosis really means, it is obvious that it bears close relations with my field!"

"What.. what do you want to do?"

"Why, combine our specialties together! Just imagine it! What if we add one of my specialized neural interfaces to your Desolate Soldier? We'd create a revolutionary new mech! The biggest issue concerning neural interconnectivity is that it's hard to sustain a neural network if there is too much discondancy between the mech pilots. The further their thoughts and attitudes diverge, the greater the risk of adverse effects!"

Ves realized what she was after! "You.. you want to make use of my glows to increase the synchronization between connected mech pilots!"

"Exactly! I've performed a lot of research on your customers in my free time. It is not difficult to discover that every mech pilot of your Desolate Soldier and other mechs have each come under the influence of the glows of their machines! This essentially means that when they are put in battle together, they have already started to exhibit a rudimentary form of close coordination!"

This did not sound very strange to Ves. He knew that when a bunch of his mechs were put together, their mech pilots always exhibited greater coordination! The overlapping of glows created some mysterious effects that subtly enhanced the performance of the mechs in many ways.

Ves had always wanted to explore the potential of using glows to connect different mechs and mech pilots together to achieve better results, but he didn't have the time to explore this tangent!

Nonetheless, he couldn't help but imagine what it would be for him to collaborate with Aisling.

"You're a direct disciple of Master Huron, right? Does that mean you are already set in your way?"

"I see you aren't very familiar with what it means to inherit a Master's design philosophy." She said. "It merely means that my starting point and my early progression is entirely shaped by my Master. Once I reach Journeyman, I can diverge from my Master's research direction and explore a branching direction! Perhaps one of the best ways to describe it is that I'm specializing in a possibility that my Master has once considered but rejected in favor of another possibility!"

Ves understood this explanation. It was as if he decided to choose a different direction than the path of balance to progress his design philosophy. While the path of determinism, the path of balance and the path of life ultimately led to different outcomes, they still shared the same root!

"How is your research direction different from that of your Master?"

Aisling lifted her head in pride. "I chose to develop a dream that Master Huron has never achieved! I wish to widen the application of neural interconnectivity so that every outfit and every group can form a neural network without any cumbersome prerequisites!"

That sounded incredibly difficult! Ves couldn't help but admire the audacity of her ambition!

"If your own Master hasn't managed to achieve this, then you'll certainly have a difficult road ahead of you! However, if you succeed, you can absolutely revolutionize the mech industry with this innovation!"

One of the biggest shortcomings of her field had always been its limited applications! No mech designer who specialized in neural interconnectivity ever managed to make their tech safe and accessible to the wider public! Only very close family members or highly-trained elites possessed the ability to sustain a coherent neural network!

"I've long tried to explore a way to achieve this on my own. It wasn't until I found out about your design philosophy that I've realized that my ambition is too impossible for me to achieve by myself! I have a very strong hunch that if I combine my specialty with yours, we can absolutely invent a new application of mechs that will astound the MTA and immortalize our names! As a fellow mech designer, surely you can see the potential of our collaboration!"

Ves nodded in reflex. "I can imagine how it can work in theory, but that is just a guess. I can already tell that it is absolutely not simple to form a neural network between mech pilots who aren't very similar."

"We can explore the solutions of our problems in time." Aisling stated with confidence. "I have left you some primers on neural interface technology in your quarters. You should read them first to develop a basic understanding of my specialty. After all, how can we design a mech together if you can't follow my design choices?"

"Isn't that supposed to be restricted knowledge? The MTA never provided me with the authorization to study neural interface technology."

"It's fine." Aisling brushed the matter off. "I'm only giving you a basic introduction, which isn't enough for you to design your own neural interfaces. I just want you to understand its mechanisms and some of the basic underlying theories."

Ves would have studied the textbooks regardless of whether it was allowed, but it relieved him to hear that he wouldn't get in trouble with the MTA.

Seeing that Ves already had a lot to think about, Aisling decided that she had revealed enough for today.

"You have just arrived aboard my ship. Take a break and think about your new future. You don't have to pretend to like Gloriana anymore. Unlike her, I'm not a Hexer who looks down on men like you! As a Brighter, I'm sure you'll come to appreciate our Friday Coalition as you have done in the past!"

She flicked her fingers at Patricia.

"Please escort Ves back to his quarters."

"Yes, milady."

Patricia rose from her seat and looked at Ves with expectation.

When he stood up, he silently followed after his former classmate to the exit.

Chapter 1718 Scarlet Rose

An awkward silence formed between Ves and Patricia as they walked back to his quarters. Once they reached the entrance, Patricia unlocked it and led Ves inside.

As Lady Curver's 'guest', Ves did not have the authority to enter or exit his own room at will!

Despite his excellent treatment and warm welcome by his host, Ves did not forget that he was a prisoner!

Everyone aboard this ship was his enemy, including Patricia!

When Ves became aligned with the Hexadric Hegemony, he knew that he would never be able to maintain his friendship with Patricia! Her close entanglement with the Friday Coalition meant that they belonged to opposite sides!

Though he strongly opposed the beliefs espoused by Hexers, he didn't want to upset his girlfriend by rooting for the Fridaymen.

To be honest, he recognized that he was locked in an impossible dilemma.

As a Brighter and a man, he admired the Friday Coalition.

As Gloriana's boyfriend, he had an obligation to support the Hexadric Hegemony.

Ves had never managed to resolve this contradiction! He could never bring himself to cheer on the Hexers, but neither did he dare to express any sympathy for the Fridaymen!

It would have been so much easier if Gloriana belonged to the opposite side, but Ves had to make do with what he got. His current plan to resolve this tradition was to attempt to bring Gloriana far away from her toxic state!

So long as he managed to bring her to the Red Ocean, there would be a vast intergalactic void between them and her home state!

There was no way that Gloriana would be able to perpetuate her Hexer culture further! They could make an entirely new start in an entirely new frontier!

Of course, all of this was moot if he remained in Aisling Curver's company!

While Aisling was clearly saner and more wholesome than Gloriana, she was clearly after the same thing!

Ves felt very helpless about the fact that two different mech designers desperately sought to collaborate with him. His design philosophy was simply too attractive to their respective ambitions! Both women believed that they would be able to realize their ambitions with his help!

"Patricia."

"Yes?"

The two had fallen silent after entering his luxurious 'cell'. For some reason, Patricia hadn't left immediately, giving Ves an opportunity to ask some much-needed questions.

He had a lot of questions he wanted to ask, some of which he didn't dare to voice in front of Aisling.

Though Ves resented Patricia, he believed she wouldn't lie to him or mislead him in any way.

"Who is Aisling Curver? Why is she called a lady?"

"Lady Curver rose up from the common folk of the Gauge Dynasty." Patricia calmly answered. "She immediately stood out due to her intelligence and learning ability. She managed to enter Clarion University on a scholarship and soon attracted the notice of Master Huron. He became so impressed by her that he took her in as a direct disciple. As for becoming a lady, this is because she has gained the appreciation of the Gauge Dynasty. In the Friday Coalition, she deserves equal treatment to a trueblood descendent!"

It sounded as if Aisling was similar to Oleg. Both of them started off as average citizens in their respective locales.

He knew how frightening Oleg's intelligence and other cognitive traits had reached. If Aisling was the same, then she had earned everything she achieved!

In contrast, Gloriana was born with a silver spoon. Even if her intelligence and talent in mech design started off average, through constant augmentations and intensive tutoring, his girlfriend managed to achieve an enviable height at her age!

Both Gloriana and Aisling sounded like talented Journeymen, but if Ves had to make a choice, he would definitely respect the latter more!

Ves and Patricia were grossly inferior in comparison! Though Ves had the confidence to surpass them, for now these second-class mech designers held the upper ground.

"How does she intend to treat me? Will you guys allow me to leave?"

"I'm sorry, Ves. We can't allow you to leave. Lady Curver is determined to.. have you. Unless your collaboration with her doesn't work out, she will not let you go. I'm sure you can understand why. When it comes to her design philosophy, she won't miss this opportunity to overcome her hurdles."

Ves pressed his lips into a line. "I can't imagine how Aisling can think she can convert me while I remain as her unwilling captive."

"Are you serious, Ves?" Patricia scrunched her nose. "Do you truly want to become a Hexer?"

He hesitated for a moment. "Not exactly, but..."

"Then you should not look at a gift horse in the mouth! While it's unfair for us to treat you this way, think carefully whether you are better off with Miss Gloriana or with Lady Curver!"

If Ves did not refer to his feelings, then there was no contest. He would definitely wish to side with Lady Curver!

Yet.. his heart simply didn't allow him to betray his lover! It would be one thing if he broke up with Gloriana, but until they maintained their relationship, Ves was committed to stay loyal!

This was his principle as a man, a Larkinson and a mech designer!

The thought of betraying her trust and love invoked so much revulsion in him that he simply discarded the idea entirely!

"Let's not argue about this further." Ves shook his head in disgust. "Tell me what will happen to me. How does Lady Curver plan to keep me in her company?"

Patricia didn't hide Curver's plans. "After pulling some strings, she managed to apply for an early end to her assignment. With the help of Master Huron's powerful network, she managed to obtain an early release from her duty. She has already ordered the Scarlet Rose to leave the Bright Republic and return to the Warsaw Giant System, which is where Clarion is based."

"Where is the Warsaw Giant System located?"

"In the interior of the Gauge Dynasty's territories. For a mobile supply frigate like the Scarlet Rose, it will take about two months for her to reach the Warsaw Giant System."

Ves looked a little brighter when Patricia mentioned the Scarlet Rose. Right now, he really needed to know as much as possible about the ship he resided on! His old classmate just gave him an opening to satisfy his curiosity!

"What is a mobile supply frigate?"

"It's a frigate-sized ship class that is favored by mech designers. The Scarlet Rose is built for speed and independent operation. Many mobile supply frigates are specifically configured for mech designers. She features a full-scale mech workshop and enough cargo space to hold a decent amount of materials."

"What about defenses?"

"The Scarlet Rose possesses a small mech hangar that can deploy four mechs. As a non-combat vessel, her armor isn't the best though, and she mainly relies on speed to avoid dangerous situations."

Now that he thought about it, the Scarlet Rose sounded similar to Gloriana's Stellar Chaser, but he had the feeling that the latter fell a bit short.

"Why is the Scarlet Rose so empty? I haven't encountered a lot of people ever since I stepped aboard this ship."

"Trained spacers are precious, especially in wartime. The Scarlet Rose is designed to operate with a high degree of automation. She doesn't belong to Lady Curver. The Friday Coalition merely assigned the ship to her so she can discharge her duties as a monitor. She will have to relinquish the ship to the Coalition upon her return to Warsaw Giant."

Ves rubbed his smooth-shaven chin as he fell in thought.

If the ship belonged to the Friday Coalition, then the quality and capabilities of the Scarlet Rose was likely superior to the Stellar Chaser!

That also meant that it would be far harder for Ves to defeat or circumvent her security systems!

While he was tempted to ask more, Ves did not wish to give himself away. He reluctantly shifted his questioning.

"What do you think of all this?" He asked.

"Pardon?"

"Do you agree with Aisling's actions? Are you committed to the Friday Coalition?"

Patricia closed her eyes for a moment instead of answering immediately.

"I.. I never intended to oppose you. I had very little choice of assignments when the Komodo War broke out. Choosing to serve alongside a monitor sounded harmless since we are strictly ordered to observe the Bright Republic without intervening. I never thought that Lady Curver would directly contradict her orders and accept General Cavendish's offer!"

"Well, she did it anyway, and it seems the Friday Coalition doesn't really mind her transgression."

"She is an honored lady and retainer of the Gauge Dynasty." Patricia sheepishly smiled.

The Gauge Dynasty was the most powerful partner of the Friday Coalition and its most important pillar during the war. It was no big deal for Lady Curver to bend some rules, especially if her actions benefited the Coalition in some way!

From a diplomatic perspective, Lady Curver merely facilitated a mutual transaction between the Friday Coalition and the Bright Republic. The only one involved who didn't agree with this transaction happened to be himself!

Compared to the interests of entire states, his own wants and needs didn't matter the slightest!

Ves scowled in disgust. He truly hated being treated as a bargaining chip!

In fact, in everyone else's eyes, Ves shouldn't act as if he was disadvantaged in this transaction! Lady Curver ostensibly wanted to 'liberate' him from Gloriana's evil Hexer's clutches and 'restore' his manhood!

How could any normal man say no to such a deal? Instead of hating Aisling, he should instead see her as his knight in shining armor!

However, Ves was still unwilling to acknowledge this in his heart!

The betrayals he suffered stung him far too deeply to allow him to appreciate Lady Curver's goodwill!

As if sensing his boiling anger, Patricia turned to leave.

"I will leave you here for now. Though our assignment ended early, we had to compensate for it with some other tasks. Lady Curver and I won't have the time to entertain you often. I suggest you pass the time by taking advantage of the books that she has provided to you. Much of the textbooks consist of exclusive Clarion teaching material."

Ves offered the departing woman a brittle smile. "Please convey my thanks to Aisling for putting some of her library at my disposal."

Once Patricia left his quarters and locked the exit, Ves loosened his collar and slumped on his bed. He swept his gaze across his room and noted some new symbols had appeared on his furniture and decorations.

Symbols and emblems related to the Gauge Dynasty and Clarion University occupied a prominent place in his stateroom.

"How swell."

Ves ignored it all and slipped into his bed as if he wanted to sleep.

"Lights, off."

All of the lights dimmed until Ves was left in the dark.

Instead of falling asleep, Ves went over his options.

There was no way he was resigned with his current situation!

He idly lowered his arm to his pants and caressed his hidden bulge.

While he didn't have an opportunity to make use of his smuggled gadgets right now, he intended to bide his time.

"Two months. I have two months."

Should he attempt an escape or play along with Lady Curver?

Once he allowed her to bring him to the Warsaw Giant System, he was sure that it would be ten times as hard to escape his captivity!

Therefore, the following two months were crucial!

He needed to make a very important decision during this limited window.

Should he follow his conscience and do what was best for himself, Lady Curver, the Bright Republic and the Friday Coalition by accepting his current fate?

Or should he follow his heart and do his best to return to Gloriana and affirm his loyalty to his Hexer girlfriend?

As Ves silently grappled with his difficulties, Ves suddenly sensed a very familiar presence creeping up from beneath his bed!

He concentrated his mind towards the subtle presence.

"Lucky!"

A slight pressure formed beneath his other hand that rested on the mattress. Lucky had secretly snuck onto Ghanso's combat carrier and the Scarlet Rose without letting anyone else know!

This was because Lucky maintained a completely intangible state! With the help of his miniaturized stealth generator and his CFA-derived ECM, his cat managed to remain completely undetected!

As long as Ves had Lucky, he was confident he could subvert the Scarlet Rose's security systems within two months!

Chapter 1719 Unwilling Gues

Ves felt as if he was a bird trapped in a cage. While the Scarlet Rose offered him a lot of comfort and luxury, he had no freedom to speak of. He could only live on the ship according to the arrangement of his host.

Over the next few days, Ves met with Lady Aisling Curver during breakfast and dinner. Evidently, she had to make up for the early end of her monitoring mission by performing another assignment.

She always looked quite weary by the time they were ready to eat supper. Aisling could barely summon enough energy to speak, allowing Ves to observe her without attracting undue attention.

Aisling was beautiful, no doubt about it. She was a bit taller than Gloriana and seemed to appeal to him in a different way. If Ves had to make a comparison, then he would say that Gloriana appeared cuter while Aisling looked ravishing.

Of course, as a respected Journeymen, Aisling always dressed rather conservatively and tried to appeal to Ves through their shared passion in mech design.

Ves guessed that Aisling intended to play the long game. She aimed to wear down his resistance by constantly exposing him to her brilliance.

So long as Ves continued to be separated from Gloriana, his feelings for her would cool down. Only then would Aisling be able to capture his heart.

For now, Ves was still full of resentment. He felt indignant about the betrayals he suffered and his unwillingness to be stuck on a ship heading deep into the Friday Coalition.

Instead of aggravating his animosity, Aisling made the right decision to put some distance between them. By meeting twice a day, Ves became more and more used to her company.

Obviously, Aisling possessed a lot of confidence in her plan to win Ves over. She had the advantage of time. As long as Ves remained her 'guest', she could patiently erode his resistance!

Certainly, she could employ more coercive means to achieve faster results. Resorting to torture, injecting him with mind-altering substances or applying outright brainwashing on him would certainly convert him into becoming her loyal slave!

However, unless she could keep everything a secret, the MTA was bound to stand up for him! As a galactic citizen, he still possessed certain rights, and the MTA did not wish to turn the galaxy into a shark tank where mech designers continually devoured other mech designers!

Ves did not worry too much that Aisling would go too far. Even if she did not fear the wrath of the MTA, she still valued his design philosophy a lot!

A design philosophy was strongly connected to the mentality of its mech designer. If the mech designer changed too abruptly, the two no longer fit as well, resulting in a drastic loss of effectiveness!

In addition, anything that forcefully interfered with the mind and personality of a mech designer inevitably affected their creativity, ingenuity, passion and other difficult-to-quantify attributes.

Creators worked best when they expressed their earnest ideas!

How could Aisling possibly ruin the treasure she obtained? Just like Gloriana, she believed that collaborating with Ves was the key to solve the most insurmountable problem of her design philosophy!

In order to achieve the dream of making neural interconnectivity available to the masses, Aisling wanted him at his very best!

For this reason, she generously allowed him to peruse a portion of her library in the form of printed books.

Ves knew the value of their contents. Many of them weren't available for purchase in the open market. This was because some of the textbooks contained a lot of advanced knowledge that incorporated some of the ingenuity of other people's design philosophies!

Other books were valuable because they were written by the Seniors and Masters who taught at Clarion University. Though their textbooks did not delve into any advanced subjects, Ves constantly sighed in admiration at their marvellous explanations.

Most of these professors were over a century old! Clarion University only employed the best of what the Gauge Dynasty had to offer, so each of these old monsters accumulated a terrible amount of teaching experience!

"Sure enough, Clarion University is a mecca of mech design!"

From the quality and subject matter of the textbooks, Ves became convinced that Clarion University ranked higher than the Leemar Institute of Technology!

A part of it was because of the differences in strengths between the partners. Another part of it was due to their different recruitment policies.

Leemar adopted a policy that reflected the openness of the Carnegie Group. As one of the most commercial and trade-minded groups, the Carnegie Group was very open about recruiting foreign talents from all over the star sector and beyond.

While the loyalty of these foreigners was questionable, as long as the Carnegie Group provided them with enough benefits, it could definitely turn these strangers into its own strength!

The hiring of Master Null was a typical case. The man was on the run for some reason and needed somewhere to hole up. Leemar opened its doors and offered enough incentives to attract this Master!

In contrast, Clarion University did not bother too much with foreigners. The school instead focused completely on cultivating domestic talents!

Because of the unified education of the Gauge Dynasty, every student accepted into Clarion University all surpassed a certain standard. Not only that, but their prior education all fell in line with Clarion's teaching methods!

From what Ves could tell, the biggest downside to this strategy was that Clarion lacked diversity. Its students, professors and alumni all formed an insular group of elitists who thought they were better mech designers than anyone else in the entire star sector!

The pride exuded by Aisling whenever she talked about her alma mater constantly rubbed him the wrong way! Ves felt like talking to an Ansel graduate, but ten times worse!

"Clarion is by far the best mech design university in our star sector!" She boasted while sipping a glass of wine. "Our Masters are the most illustrious in the Friday Coalition! Not even their counterparts from the Hexadric Hegemony can hold a candle to our great Masters!"

"Did your Masters ever compete directly against Hexer Masters?" Ves pointedly asked.

"Uhm, no. It's difficult to hold any events between our two states. However, the mechs designed by our Masters are much more popular in other star sectors than the mechs designed by those old crones!"

While that was true, Ves knew that the real reason why Hexer mech designers did poorly abroad was because their culture rubbed everyone else the wrong way. Who wanted to pilot a mech designed by a man-hating Hexer?!

It did not surprise anyone that most foreign users consisted of female mech pilots!

Even if the quality of Hexer mech surpassed the quality of Fridayman mechs, most customers would still be reluctant to buy the former!

"From a business perspective, it's better if I retain a neutral, secular identity!" Ves concluded. "If I become known as an Ylvainan or Hexer mech designer, my market expansion will constantly encounter hindrances!"

His forced separation from Cloudy Curtain and his own organization gave Ves a lot of time to reflect on past decisions.

He achieved plenty of successes and made quite a few mistakes. Perhaps the one mistake he blamed himself for the most was that he had been too blatant in showcasing the potential of his design philosophy!

By using the Sand War as an opportunity to popularize his glows, he attracted the greed of people like Lady Curver! It was his bad luck that she did not shy away from resorting to unscrupulous means to obtain his collaboration!

"What's done is done." He sighed. "When I made the decision to expose my abilities, I knew I would put a target on my back."

He did not regret his choices. He originally planned to lay low, but the threat of the Five Scrolls Compact and the opportunity to emigrate to the Red Ocean prompted him to accelerate his progression!

He was still committed to his original plan! He wanted to evade the pursuit of the envoy dispatched by the Sunken Temple by becoming a galactic pioneer!

As long as he accumulated enough MTA merits, he could have anything he wanted to start anew in a smaller galaxy that was firmly in the grip of the Big Two!

Ves refused to believe the Five Scrolls Compact could act unscrupulously in a galaxy filled with phasewater!

From what he learned so far, the Five Scrolls Compact played a considerable role in humanity's rise during the Age of Space and Age of Conquest.

In other words, the Compact shaped human civilization in the Milky Way Galaxy! How could Ves ever rest easily as long as he remained in humanity's old domain?

"The Red Ocean! I have to reach the Red Ocean!"

By centering himself around this goal, Ves remained sober and clear-minded. He refused to fall for Aisling's traps. With a firm will, he resisted her subtle indoctrination attempts and continually reminded himself that she was an enemy!

He did not bother with any pretentiousness when he expressed his dislike for her. He wasn't a spy like Calabast and did not have the confidence to hoodwink her into believing that he became smitten by her charm.

This caused her to express some frustration at his lack of reciprocation at her entreaties.

"I don't know why you keep insisting on staying under Gloriana's spell." Aisling sighed as she summoned Ves to the lounge. "Don't you realize what's in store for you if you persist in your relationship with her? Let me show you what men are like in the Hegemony."

She waved her hand, causing a projection to emerge in the center of the lounge. Ves impassively watched the footage of how female Hexers treated their male counterparts.

On a random shopping street, the women walked confidently while their spouses followed after them in a manner that hammered home their inferiority.

The women talked to them in an imperious and dismissive manner. The men had no choice but to bow their heads and acquiesce to any requests by their women!

In another clip, a female Hexer mech designer led a design project at a very well-equipped design studio.

The lead designer treated her fellow female subordinates earnestly as if they were her own students. She corrected their mistakes, taught them something new and delegated important assignments to them. Clearly, women went along well with other women!

The conduct of the lead designer changed enormously whenever she addressed women. Even when she faced male mech designers who were just as competent as their female counterparts, the lead designer still treated them as nothing more than coolies!

The third clip depicted the treatment of Hexer mech pilots in the Hex Army.

Male mech pilots were relegated to piloting cheaper, less capable mechs. Female mech pilots almost always received the privilege of piloting better mechs.

It was easy for Ves to distinguish which mechs the Hexers valued more. Unlike most other states, the Hegemony distinctly favored mechs with feminine counters. Their mechs were slimmer and more concave than the larger and less mobile mechs piloted by males.

This did not mean that males gained no opportunities at all. They could still earn merits and increase their capabilities.

However, it was impossible for males to become officers!

One of the most central myths of the Hegemony was that males were unsuited to be leaders! How could the Hexers ever allow men to gain a leadership position? Every single officer in the Hex Army consisted of women!

A lot of talented men were trapped in low positions because the female Hexers never allowed them to climb further!

No woman wanted to take orders from a man!

The men themselves had grown up enduring constant attacks on their gender! Their self-esteem was so bad that their subservience towards women was rooted in their bones!

As Ves watched clip after clip, he knew that Aisling did not serve him with doctored footage.

She had no need to resort to falsehoods when the real Hegemony already provided her with a wealth of material!

Chapter 1720 Stubborn Boy

Ves already knew how Hexers treated men in their society.

It was actually a mistake to call them man-haters.

Hexers didn't hate men. They just considered them inferior.

It was not a contradiction for female Hexers to adore male gender but simultaneously treat them as lessers.

In fact, if Hexers treated men like slaves or abused them on a daily basis, the Big Two would not tolerate their conduct!

The basic rights of humans had to be respected. Just because the Hexers only treated half of its population like dirt did not mean it could get away with such rampant abuse!

The Hexers therefore propagated an alternate vision on how human civilization should be run. They ran the Hegemony like a model that other states should adopt.

Both men and women had a place in their society. Women deserved to be in charge and occupied all of the upper level positions.

Even if female Hexers weren't good at anything, they still had the right to boss around males in the workplace!

As for the boys, they were continually treated as juveniles at best or pets at worst.

They received much fewer opportunities than women and had to work a lot harder to get anywhere.

This strangely led to the phenomena where the rare male successes became incredibly successful in their chosen vocations!

Male expert pilots were one of the rare species of boys who earned genuine respect from female Hexers!

Male high-ranking mech designers also existed in the Hegemony's vast mech community. Each of them gained some appreciation and were treated better than other boys.

Of course, just because they were better than most women in their professions did not mean they deserved equal treatment.

Every male expert pilot had to answer to a female officer! This was because Hexers regarded them as powerful brutes that had to be controlled lest they run rabid!

Boys were still boys. As long as they were given free reign, the boys would surely give in to their worst impulses!

Male Journeymen and Seniors received similar treatment. While the Hegemony did not block boys from excelling in this career, they were not allowed to design and publish mechs on their own.

Each of them had to work with a female mech designer!

The best a male mech designer could hope for was to become a spouse of a female mech designer.

Those who weren't as lucky could only serve as a minor contributor or assistant to a bossy female mech designer.

This was the reality of being born a male in Hexer society.

"Don't you see the absurdity of devoting yourself to your Hexer girlfriend?" Aisling persistently prodded him. "Open your eyes and look beyond her pretty face! Behind her is an awful state that heavily discriminates on men like you! If Hexers like Gloriana have their way, they would strip you of your dignity and tear down your pride until you become nothing more than a human-shaped puppy!"

Ves did not attempt to debate her points. In order to resist her persuasion, he took a page out of Ghanso's playbook and defaulted to his Larkinson stubbornness.

"I am committed to Gloriana. I never break my commitments. To change my mind is to betray the promises I've made to her! I will never stab her in the back!"

Aisling threw a perplexed look at him. She didn't understand how someone so brilliant in mech design could be so stupid when it came to women!

"Do you enjoy being treated this way, Ves?"

"..."

"The Friday Coalition can offer you so much more! As long as you stick with me, I can give you a new status in our state! As Master Huron's direct disciple, no one will hinder me from settling you in the Warsaw Giant System and giving you an opportunity to participate in my design projects. So long as we achieve some success in our collaborations, my Master will definitely put his full weight behind our partnership!"

"I have already cut ties with the Friday Coalition." Ves flatly remarked.

"That's not entirely correct. You merely cut ties with Master Olson and the Leemar Institute of Technology. At most, you're blacklisted by the Vermeer Group and the Carnegie Group. Our Gauge Dynasty never pays attention to what they do. We are better!"

Ves shrugged. "That sounds nice, but I have no desire to restore my relations with the Friday Coalition. Gloriana will never tolerate me if I reconcile with your state!"

Aisling grew angry and momentarily lost control!

"Gloriana Gloriana Gloriana! Everything is about Gloriana to you! Don't you realize that she has got you wrapped around her fingers? The moment she met you at Centerpoint, she ceaselessly tried to trap you in her web! The two of you were never made to be together! A proud mech designer like you deserves better!"

Obviously, this conversation went nowhere. After enduring a long tirade, Aisling finally sent him back to his quarters.

During his time in captivity, only Patricia talked to him without an agenda.

Sadly, Patricia rarely appeared in his presence.

Ves suspected that Aisling was wary that he would fall for Patricia, and thereby kept her away!

However, Ves always became more mellow and receptive after talking to Patricia. This was something he deliberately did to encourage his host to keep giving him opportunities to talk to his old classmate.

Though Ves firmly regarded Patricia as an enemy, he did not hold any personal animosity against her. She was merely performing her duty to her new state. As a citizen of the Friday Coalition, it was impossible for her to remain a bystander in the war between the Coalition and the Hegemony!

The only doubt about Patricia's assignment was what the Fridaymen were doing in the Bright Republic in the first place.

Ves faintly suspected that the Scarlet Rose was sent to the Bright Republic for another, more clandestine mission. Why did the Coalition dispatch a young and talented Journeyman to perform a seemingly-routine monitoring mission when they could have easily dispatched a diplomat or a spy?

The fact that the Coalition explicitly sent mech designers to the Bright Republic meant that their mission probably had something to do with mechs!

Of course, Ves kept all of his guesses to himself. He didn't care about their prior missions.

Instead of worrying about irrelevant issues, he would much rather work on his escape attempt!

Ever since he confirmed that Lucky followed him aboard the Scarlet Rose while remaining completely hidden and intangible, Ves believed he had the capital to turn the tables on his host!

In order to reverse his current circumstances, Ves had to stay patient and make ample preparations. Taking over a mobile supply frigate by himself was not very simple!

Even if he had the help of a team of commandos, he would still fail in his attempt to wrest control of the Scarlet Rose!

To succeed, he had to mitigate or circumvent every security measure in place. Ves therefore dispatched Lucky on a scouting mission and secretly scan each and every compartment and component.

This was extremely tedious for Lucky. To keep his presence hidden, Ves ordered his pet to resort to passive scanners only. This meant that Lucky had to crawl through every single section of the ship, all the while remaining out of sight!

Ves trusted in Lucky's ability to remain hidden. The cat had become way too good at sneaking into places where he shouldn't be in. While the Scarlet Rose was much more advanced than all of the other places he had broken in, the cat possessed too many advantages in this regard!

For now, Ves did not dare to instruct Lucky to hack the Scarlet Rose's network or tap into its quantum entanglement node to send a message to Gloriana and his people.

The moment Aisling found out that Ves possessed the capability to communicate with the outside galaxy, she would surely strip him of his privileges and throw him straight into the brig!

Though Ves wanted to take it slow, he knew that delaying his hijacking attempt would only increase the difficulty of returning home!

Taking over the Scarlet Rose was just the first step! He still had to leave the Friday Coalition, so it would be best if he escaped before the ship crossed into its borders!

That meant that his actual time limit was much less! Ves estimated that the Scarlet Rose would probably enter into Coalition space in around two weeks!

If he failed to hijack the ship until then, then he would have a lot more problems on his hands!

He needed to do everything possible to hasten his preparations. Aside from waiting for Lucky, he also resorted to other means to increase his understanding of the Scarlet Rose.

One example of this was by taking advantage of the library in his quarters.

"These books are quite good." He murmured as he leaned back on his chair while flipping page after page.

He currently studied an advanced programming textbook. While its contents were most relevant to mechs, the programming language it taught just happened to be common enough to be used in many ships as well!

Learning how to hack or subvert the programming of the Scarlet Rose was essential to taking it over! Though it was impossible for him to access her systems on his own, so long as he had Lucky, he was confident he could circumvent most of the safeguards and tap into her core systems!

This wasn't enough to guarantee a successful takeover, though. He dabbled in other textbooks as well. For example, he deepened his understanding of power reactors in order to find some way to sabotage and disable the ship's central power reactor.

As Lucky occasionally came back and covertly displayed the data he gathered, Ves ascertained what he needed to do in order to subvert the ship.

He identified three core areas which he needed to control.

First, he needed to lock down the bridge and prevent the captain and the bridge crew from controlling the vessel.

Second, he needed to secure the engineering compartment in order to grasp the crucial power reactor and FTL drive.

Ves could not afford to allow anyone to damage these two critical ship components! As long as the engineers thrashed either of them, the Scarlet Rose would become stranded in space!

Therefore, Ves not only had to take control of engineering, but also neutralize the engineers before they could do any damage!

The third area that Ves needed to control was the security compartment, which also served as the armory. While the Scarlet Rose did not employ a lot of spacers, she still possessed a crew complement of fifty people, of which fifteen of them consisted of guards and security officers!

Ves not only had to grasp the entire security compartment, but also neutralize the armed personnel before they could take up arms and launch a counterattack!

Of course, that did not mean the rest of the crew were harmless. Each of them posed a risk to his takeover attempt. With their expertise and access to the systems of the ship, they could easily cut off his access by sabotaging crucial communication lines or something.

Aside from taking over these three areas, Ves also had to disable every independent safeguard. Lucky's surveys revealed that each compartment contained an independent security system that would automatically activate as soon as something went wrong!

Ves could not afford to ignore these small and isolated security systems! He had to sabotage or tamper with each and every one of them lest they blew up when he walked through a corridor or something!

"What a headache!"

Yet the more formidable the ship, the more Ves wanted to claim her for himself! The Scarlet Rose would serve as an excellent mobile workplace for him if he was on the move! She was pretty much a miniature version of a factory ship but in a much smaller and more convenient package!

Chapter 1721 Snark

"Are you proud to be a part of the Friday Coalition? You willingly married some loser in order to gain citizenship, after all. Now, you're an accessory to a kidnapping. You used to be a Brighter! How could you do something like this?! Don't you have any honor?!"

His provocative question did not fluctuate Patricia's mood at all! She directed a pointed gaze at Ves as if she saw through his attempt to rile her up. This wasn't the first time he poked her with his poisonous tongue.

"Pride is irrelevant. I am a mech designer. The boundaries between states and the machinations of its people are inconsequential. We are meant to fulfill a greater role than participating in the petty power plays of those who can not see the forest from the trees."

Ves blinked at Patricia.

"You sound like a sage from the MTA. I don't see how you can pretend to be lofty when you abandoned the state that nurtured you in order to become a gold digger in a more prosperous state!"

Patricia sighed and leaned back on the chair in his quarters. "I am forced to play by the rules as well. It was never my intention to be caught up in these matters."

"If you don't want to dirty your hands, you could have just stayed put. Instead, you chose to become a sellout!"

"I know you are angry, Ves. You have a right to be. I don't want you to get consumed by it. Regardless of what you think of me, I do not approve of human conflict. I would much rather be a part of the struggle against alien civilizations."

"Too bad you're not a part of the MTA. Did they reject your application?"

"The MTA is very strict when it comes to hiring mech designers." Patricia replied in an indirect answer to his question.

In fact, even the most talented and brilliant mech designers might not necessarily be able to become an internal of the MTA!

While the MTA maintained a rather open recruitment policy, their exact hiring criteria were very random! No one who applied knew for sure whether the MTA took a liking for what they had to offer!

Otherwise, how could a mech pilot such as Charlotte Hoffmeister enter the MTA while countless second-class mech pilots fail?

"Well, since the MTA hasn't deemed you worthy, I don't see why you should care about the Big Two's mission. You should let the big guys worry about defending humanity."

Patricia began to look annoyed at Ves. This was a rare occasion as she always controlled herself carefully.

Ever since he encountered her when he studied at Rittersberg, Patricia always gave off the sense that she existed on a different plane than everyone else. It was as if she was the only galactic citizen in a mob of space peasants!

Her refined conduct and reserved behavior drew a lot of admiration from everyone else.

That was all in the past. While Patricia still acted as if she was holier than thou, Ves had grown up from the naive little boy who had nothing to go on but his passion for mech design.

Her charm no longer impressed him. After falling for Gloriana, every other woman fell short in his eyes.

In fact, the more he interacted with Patricia, the more he started to grow suspicious about her origins.

Was she even a Brighter? Who were her parents? Why was she so smart? Why did she study at an average mech university like Rittersberg as opposed to Ansel? Why stay in the Bright Republic at all when she was clearly capable of studying at Leemar?

Patricia never elaborated about herself. Whenever he attempted to satisfy his curiosity, she flatly disregarded her inquiries.

Fortunately, she was more than willing to talk about other matters, which made her much more bearable.

The main reason why he insisted on talking to her was because she was a font of information about the Scarlet Rose!

While Ves did not have the courage to pump Aisling for information, he was not as apprehensive towards his old acquaintance.

For her part, Patricia did not put up her guard against his questioning. Like Aisling, she was completely assured of their security!

Ves was not only alone, but also under their control! There was no way he could do anything to change his fate!

Sadly, none of the Fridayman on the Scarlet Rose could ever anticipate that Ves wasn't alone! Not only did he have Lucky and his smuggled gadgets, he also had more potent trump cards in reserve!

Therefore, Ves took his questions a lot more seriously than Patricia, who apparently saw no harm in elaborating about the Scarlet Rose.

"The Scarlet Rose operates under the jurisdiction of the Coalition Reserve Corps. The CRC is one of the few organizations of our state that is allowed to operate throughout the Coalition."

"That's because the Friday Coalition is still a coalition of different groups." Ves sneered. "Even after four centuries, the coalition partners still haven't managed to unify! The only reason why the nine partners turned into six partners is because the weakest ones got devoured!"

"Regardless, the CRC is not involved in the rivalry between the partners. The Gauge Dynasty has no more say than the Puffer Clan. This is by design as the Friday Coalition cannot tilt the balance any further towards the powerhouses."

"Why does the CRC even need a ship like the Scarlet Rose?"

"The CRC is one of the main organizations which organizes the mech designers of the Coalition in the event of war or any state-wide mobilization events."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means that during the Komodo War, any mech designer who isn't exempted from service or working for one of the mech militaries must follow the arrangements of the CRC. As Lady Curver is not a part of the Sundered Phalanx, she is obliged to contribute to the war in a different fashion. Mobile supply frigates such as this ship exist to facilitate her work in many different circumstances."

"That sounds like overkill for a simple monitoring mission."

"You're not wrong. A simple corvette is sufficient, but don't forget that Lady Curver represents the Coalition when she's on assignment. A corvette is too small to make the locals take her seriously. A capital ship is too excessive, but a sophisticated frigate-sized vessel is just right."

That made sense, but that didn't explain why the Scarlet Rose featured a full-sized mech workshop. This was far from standard when it came to other frigate-sized vessels!

Ves pretended to buy into Patricia's explanation.

"What makes the Scarlet Rose so great for this purpose?"

"A monitor is supposed to be a non-threatening presence in the state they are permitted to stay in. In line with a diplomatic treaty that the Friday Coalition has signed with a collective of third-rate states, a monitor is only allowed to bring a limited escort. That is why the Scarlet Rose can only field four mechs at most."

"That sounds dangerous. What if some ambitious mercenary corps covet this ship?"

She snorted dismissively. "Just because the Scarlet Rose has limited protection doesn't mean it's vulnerable. The four mechs we carry are very high-quality mechs! While the treaty limits the quantity of mechs we can carry, it says nothing about the quality! The mech pilots themselves are highly-trained elites!"

"That.. sounds a bit strange to me. With the Komodo War raging like a firestorm, how come the CRC is able to get their hands on elites?"

While the Friday Coalition is a lot larger and more populous than the Bright Republic, the standard for second-class elite mech pilots was incredibly high! A second-rate state only had so much elites, and Ves figured that all of them were needed to battle the Hexers!

"The elites aren't as you imagine. They aren't military. Instead, they're drafted from the private sector."

"You mean they're mercenaries?" Ves raised his eyebrow.

"Some of them are. Others come from personal forces or security companies. A significant portion are even mech athletes! Most of these mech pilots won't fit in the military, so the CRC offers them an alternate way to contribute to the state."

"Are the mech pilots of the Scarlet Rose any good?"

She hesitated for a moment. "I'm not sure. I don't interact with them. They keep to themselves. They don't respect anyone on this ship except for Lady Curver."

Ves felt rather indignant that Patricia wasn't afforded the same treatment! How dare they!

"It sounds like they all need a good kick in the butt!"

"They are only here to deter opportunistic pirate raids. Everyone else doesn't dare to lay a hand on us. The Scarlet Rose represents the entire CRC, which in turn represents the Coalition as a whole. There have been a few times in the past where 'unknown forces' attacked our monitor ships, but each time the CRC moved in full force to investigate these incidents! The people or states responsible have never escaped the CRC! They paid a very heavy price for their transgressions!"

That.. sounded rather bad to Ves. He had to admit that the CRC intimidated him a bit. If he truly succeeded in his hijacking attempt, he would definitely provoke a counterattack from the CRC!

This meant that Ves had to make some very careful choices. He also had to form a followup plan. If he failed to prepare an escape route for himself, he would surely fall victim to the Coalition's revenge!

"It sounds like no one dares to provoke CRC. We should be safe, right?"

Patricia confidently nodded. "The Scarlet Rose is nearly as fast as the Barracuda. Your corvette is a purely civilian vessel. The CRC is a paramilitary organization, so our mobile supply carrier is built with slightly better tech and materials. Her FTL drive cycles nearly as fast as that of your corvette, so the Scarlet Rose is fully capable of escaping nearly any opponent that can threaten our safety!"

"What about pursuit by a Hexer force?"

"That's unlikely. The Bright Republic and the surrounding states are all aligned with the Friday Coalition. The CRC and Coalition organizations keep track of any Hexer elements in the region. If any of them tries to intercept our ship, we'll know well in advance. Besides, it will only take eleven days until we enter the Friday Coalition. We will be absolutely safe once we return to our territory!"

Eleven days! Ves felt some urgency when Patricia revealed how little time he had left!

In fact, his safety margin was even less considering that a ship would be travelling to a Coalition-owned star system a few days before this deadline!

While it was possible to interrupt the FTL drive and throw a ship back into realspace, this was extremely dangerous and sometimes led to disintegrating the entire vessel after suffering the equivalent of a dimensional crash!

"Is there any chance you could drop me off along the way?"

Patricia shook her head. "I don't know why you keep asking this question. Lady Curver is determined to have you. I suggest you accept your situation. It is not all that bad."

"Hehe." Ves chuckled. "I'm done with people telling me what is best for me. Even if I'm wrong, I keep my commitments!"

She looked at him as if he was an idiot.

"I truly don't know what is going on in your head these days. You are so much different from the classmate I used to know at Rittersberg."

"I got better."

"I doubt that. To me, you've regressed. The fact that a man like you still supports the Hegemony over the Coalition is proof of faulty judgement."

"Is that an insult?" Ves grinned. "I never thought you of any people would employ snark against someone."

"It's tiring to argue against someone like you. Every time I talk to you, I feel as if you are dragging me to your level."

"Why do you keep coming back, then?" He cheekily asked.

"I don't know." Patricia whispered, looking a bit lost for a moment.

Chapter 1722 Damaged Soul

When the Mech Corps took Ves away from Cloudy Curtain, Ghanso left a graveyard of mechs behind!

What started off as a simple retrieval mission ended up in an exaggerated public spectacle!

It was all the fault of Ves! If he hadn't overreacted to the admittedly strong-handed request from the capture fleet, this matter wouldn't have attracted so much attention!

Everything that ensued from his refusal to play along became known throughout the remainder of the Bright Republic and beyond!

The famed Larkinson Family, known for its honor, valor and uprightness in battle, erupted into a schism!

One one side was the young expert pilot who many people regarded as the next Ark Larkinson! Ever since he advanced to expert, Ghanso constantly distinguished himself in battle against the Vesians and the sandmen!

Baptized in two different wars, his proficiency in piloting his Glittering Comet constantly increased by leaps and bounds! His marksmanship constantly grew more and more precise to the point of reaching an uncanny level!

On the other side was the first and most impressive mech designer of the Larkinson Family! Almost every Brighter heard of Ves Larkinson by now, not just because of the awards he received during the war against the Vesians, but also because of the Soldier product line he conceived!

The influence of the Desolate Soldier and variants couldn't be overstated! Its glow was so useful that the Soldier mechs sold over a million times! Almost every mech pilot and a large chunk of civilians personally experienced the legendary glows, and each of them gained an unforgettable impression of duty!

Aside from the Bright Republic, the Soldier mechs had also played a pivotal role in other states such as the Ylvaine Protectorate and the Reinald Republic!

An uncountable amount of people were grateful to Ves Larkinson for delivering a mech that single-handedly saved them from catastrophe!

The fame, honor and prestige of Ves far surpassed that of Ghanso!

Therefore, when this matter initially blew up, by far the most sympathized with Ves!

Though most Brighters held a lot of respect for the Mech Corps and expert pilots, Venerable Ghanso Larkinson's conduct during the incident had been far too ugly!

Through his mule-headed actions and words, he practically disgraced himself and his beliefs! The public no longer recognized the dignity he possessed as an expert pilot, and instead hurled insults at his name for being such a stubborn tool!

The consequences of blowing up this matter was dire! Though the government acted quickly, none of them had been prepared to suppress this matter!

Many Larkinsons witnessed the events in person or through a live feed! Plenty of them had a bone to pick with Ghanso, so they readily spread the footage all over the galactic net!

Ghanso's betrayal and the mysterious capture of Ves became known throughout the Bright Republic and beyond!

The Mech Corps became furious! How could high command stab one of the heroes responsible for helping them fight off the sandmen in the back?!

Due to the weird and exaggerated events, no one believed that the mission to capture Ves was about relocating him to a safer location! If that were true, Ves wouldn't have resisted so strongly!

The Larkinson Family became angry as well! All of the Larkinsons serving in the Mech Corps heard about the incident one way or another. To say they were mad was an understatement!

Though the influence of the Larkinsons wasn't much, when they united around a single issue, their clout turned out to be quite formidable!

When Colonel Ark Larkinson himself paid attention to this matter, he started to investigate the matter behind the scenes! He and every other Larkinsons were beginning to stir the hierarchy of the Mech Corps! Plenty of servicemen were more than willing to support them due to their impeccable honor and the injustice they suffered!

For now, Ark and the other influential Larkinson mech pilots remained silent. Yet once they opened their mouth to the public, the Bright Republic would definitely listen!

The government of the Bright Republic could not afford this outcome!

"Give them what they want! Where is Ves Larkinson? Spit him out!"

The pressure on the government and the Mech Corps increased as nothing happened for a few days! Because of their inaction, the matter boiled over to such an extent that even the Ylvaine Protectorate began to knock on their doors!

The Bright Martyr enjoyed an exalted status within their state! His disappearance alarmed the entire Protectorate, causing every Ylvainan to detest the Bright Republic with a passion!

"Where is Ves Larkinson?!"

"Did the Mech Corps kill him?! Why would they do such a thing?!"

"He's not dead! If he was, the Soldier mechs would have lost their powers by now!"

The pressure on the government increased to such an extent that the slow-moving Mech Corps had no choice but to break its own rules and force General Cavendish to answer!

Even the full might of the Cavendish Family and the Ramza Family failed to resist the overwhelming pressure from the masses!

Yet General Cavendish remained mum! As a distinguished mech general, he knew that it would be very bad if he told his interrogators the truth!

At the same time, Venerable Ghanso Larkinson came under immense pressure himself!

Both Benjamin and Ark Larkinson used all of their power and influence to corner Ghanso!

Throughout this crisis that threatened to grow into a fatal distraction that might end the Bright Republic, the three Larkinsons faced each other in a three-way comm call.

In ordinary circumstances, it was impossible for two current expert pilots and a former expert pilot of the Larkinson Family to gather together during a war! Each of the three held a lot of responsibilities.

Both Benjamin and Ark stared at Ghanso's resigned expression with indignation.

While Benjamin hadn't talked to Ves very often, he already regarded Ves as his favorite grandson!

As for Ark, his close sentiments with his missing brother Ryncol made him feel guilty that he hadn't been able to protect Ves! Who could guess that the Mech Corps he unflinchingly served for decades would start with his own cousin!?

"Ghanso." Ark began. "I'm disappointed by you. It is one thing to do your duty. It is another thing to confuse right and wrong!"

"I won't excuse myself." Ghanso defended himself. "I followed my orders faithfully, not just because I am a Larkinson or took an oath to serve the Mech Corps, but also because it is for the good of our state and every life that depends on its protection! My actions have saved the Bright Republic!"

"Absurd!" Benjamin blew up! Though he was normally amiable, this time he lost control! "Look at what is happening in the news! You've tarnished the service! This is not an inconsequential matter! Every serviceman is questioning the honor of the Mech Corps! The performance of our soldiers have dropped by five percent throughout the war theater! Not just the Mech Corps, but also the Starfighter Corps and the irregular forces are fighting with less enthusiasm!"

Ark Larkinson looked at Ghanso with condemnation. "Do you realize what you've done? You've damaged the soul of our state! The Bright Republic is a state based on laws and rights. Every Brighter is not only fighting for their lives, but also for the ideals they grew up with! If it turns out that the Mech Corps has betrayed our ideals, then what are we all fighting for?! Why must we continue to lift up our arms and sacrifice our lives?!"

"These matters are not my concern, Colonel Ark." Ghanso defiantly crossed his arms. "I am a soldier. I am an instrument. It is not my job to set policy. I merely do what I'm told. Everything else is not my problem. The only thing I regret is that our Larkinson Family will never be the same. I share some blame for that, but if I had a choice, I would do the same thing again!"

"What are you talking about, Ghanso?! What does disappearing Ves have to do with saving the Bright Republic?!"

"I'm sorry, Colonel Ark. My lips are sealed. I'm under strict orders not to reveal any details about my mission. As far as I'm concerned, high command has not issued any orders to disclose what I know. Until that happens, I won't tell you anything!"

Both Benjamin and Ark exchanged a silent glance. Due to the entanglement between three different founding families, it was unlikely for high command to resolve this problem quickly!

The oldest Larkinson closed his eyes and spoke.

"If that is how you want to play this game, then so be it. Let me send you something, Ghanso."

A priority alert quickly sounded out from Ghanso's comm!

An unsettling feeling overcame his mood. His intuition warned him that something very bad might happen!

Even though Ghanso did his best to ignore his comm, the data package he received forcefully triggered its backdoors!

His comm automatically projected a very official-looking document in front of his face! He wouldn't be able to avoid it unless he destroyed his comm, but that was disallowed under the regulations of the Mech Corps!

The moment he saw the very prominent-looking seals, Ghanso instantly knew who issued these orders!

"This.. comes directly from the office of the bright president!" Ghanso uttered in shock. "How could you obtain an exception?!"

"Do you think I have been keeping my head down at the Ministry of Defense?" Benjamin smiled. "The bright president himself wants to resolve this matter as fast as possible! Now, will you spit out the truth, or choose to defy the lawful authority of our state? Choose carefully!"

Ghanso's face turned ugly as he read through the official document. He reluctantly took a minute to verify its authenticity.

Nothing was wrong. Everything was completely in order, which meant that the bright president truly signed these orders!

"The people run our state, not the generals." Benjamin reminded Ghanso. "While the emergency laws that have come into effect have empowered the military, don't forget the person who holds the title of commander-in-chief!"

Ghanso did not need a reminder. The commander-in-chief of all of the military branches of the Bright Republic was the head of state!

Because of the high trust in the military, the Mech Corps and the other branches usually ran their affairs by themselves. Very rarely did the bright president intervene directly.

Yet that did not change that this esteemed individual exercised supreme command over the military!

In many states, the military answered to the civilian government. This was the standard throughout human space as it was the most successful model that ensured long-term stability and prosperity!

"What are you waiting for, Ghanso?" Ark prodded the silent expert pilot. "You are an obedient expert pilot, are you not? Your mission has already been declassified! There are no more excuses for you to hide behind! Whatever backing you are relying on to support you won't be able to exceed the authority of the bright president!"

He was right! Seeing that the orders sent by Benjamin were completely valid and unambiguously clear, Ghanso had no choice but to obey them! Even though he really didn't want to, he had his principles!

"Ves Larkinson is not at Rittersberg or New Foundation. When we brought him out of the Cloudy Curtain System, we did not dump him at some secret military base or transferred him to another government branch."

"Where is he, Ghanso?! Where is my grandson!"

"Under General Cavendish's unders, we met up with a monitor from the Friday Coalition and handed him over to her ship. She's a famous mech designer and she appears to be very interested in working with Ves! If I am guessing correctly, the monitor has long brought Ves away!"

"What?! Why?!"

"Have you noticed the Fridayman mercenary corps that recently participated in the Battle for Bentheim? General Cavendish made a deal with the monitor. In exchange for trading away Ves, she would dispatch a second-class mercenary corps to defend the Bentheim System for the remainder of the Sand War!"

Both Ark and Benjamin Larkinson became shocked, before turning incredibly angry!

Such a trade was not only dishonorable, but also broke the bottom line of the Larkinson Family! There was no way both of them approved of this scheme! Even Ark, who felt very sympathetic about Ghanso's commitment to following orders, felt his trust for his state beginning to break apart!

Chapter 1723 Headless Chicken

After using the bright president's authority to pry the truth out of Venerable Ghanso's lips, Ark and Benjamin Larkinson passed what they learned to a select few people.

Some of the Larkinsons and many high officials slowly learned the truth of what had happened!

To say they were all angry was an understatement! They were furious! The Cavendish and Ramzas Families boldly plotted against a war hero!

If their plans had worked, not only would they gain the appreciation of the Friday Coalition, but also be able to take credit for securing the help of a powerful second-class mercenary corps!

As for sacrificing Ves, neither of these two founding families cared about him! As long as he was sent away, then the Tovar Family would lose a popular ally who would only grow more powerful in the future!

Once the relevant people learned the truth, the Cavendishes and the Ramzas had no choice but to bow down their heads! If not for the Sand War pushing the Bright Republic to the brink, perhaps the other factions would have torn them down already!

Right now, the state needed every help it could get! The founding families who hatched this scheme knew this as well, and quickly offered many current and future concessions to placate their opposition!

Now, all of these benefits were moot. With the exposure of their sordid dealings, the conspirators lost a huge amount of respect! Once the war was over and the Bright Republic still remained standing, the balance of power would definitely shift!

The Bright Republic quickly calmed down. Everyone in the know kept the explosive news to themselves. No one wanted to damage the soul of the Bright Republic any further!

With both Benjamin and Ark taking charge, the outrage within their family dimmed.

They soon published a statement that informed the public that Ves Larkinson was safe but in hiding.

While this didn't satisfy everyone, now that the Larkinsons appeared pleased, the crisis appeared to be resolved.

Only a handful of Larkinson elders knew the truth. They kept every other Larkinson in the dark because the chance that one of them would leak the truth was too great!

While all of this was taking place, the LMC and the other organizations founded by Ves were left to fend without their leader.

Ves was the LMC, and the LMC was Ves. His absence completely tore out the heart of his company! Without his design capabilities, the remaining mech designers could never come close to designing a mech that was even close to his illustrious products!

Fortunately, the people that Ves entrusted with running his organizations quickly managed to quell the unrest and stabilize the situation.

Both Calsie Doornbos and Raymond Billingsley-Larkinson worked together to prevent the chaos from damaging the LMC.

Commander Melkor took charge of both the Avatars and Myth and the Living Sentinels. Though Ghanso inflicted great losses on their mechs, he coordinated with the LMC to bring new life to the fallen mechs!

A huge operation commenced. The Mech Nursery resumed production as the workers tried their best to fix the more intact wrecks.

As for the more damaged components, the LMC dispatched them to a local recycling company to break them down and retrieve their base materials.

Through these efforts, the Avatars and Sentinels would definitely be able to restore about eighty percent of what they lost over a couple of months!

Surprisingly little opposition emerged. While there were plenty of opinions flying around, the current leaders were firmly in charge due to the contingency plans that Ves prepared beforehand!

As a paranoid individual, Ves had long considered what might happen in the event something might happen to him. He never took his safety and freedom for granted!

Therefore, upon his abrupt departure, every leader who Ves had delegated his responsibilities to received a set of instructions and a list of priorities they should fulfill.

In addition, they also received clear mandates to do what was necessary to follow his instructions!

Calsie officially became Ves' agent once again. She gained the right to exercise the power bestowed by his 49 percent ownership in the company!

Combined with Benjamin Larkinson, who took charge of the 25 percent stake in the company, they held absolute power to decide its future!

However, some of the contingency plans prepared by Ves were very controversial!

Neither Calsie nor Benjamin dared to enact them straight away!

For this reason, a gathering between every important stakeholder of the LMC commenced a week after Ves was taken away.

The conference room filled up as some people attended the pivotal meeting in person while others showed up in the form of projections.

All of the shareholders were present. Aside from Calsie and Benjamin, Marcella Bollinger with her 5 percent stake and Leland Toll on behalf of Flashlight's 21 percent ownership attended the gathering as well.

Commander Melkor Larkinson stood up for the Avatars of Myth. Commander Magdalena Larkinson gained permission from the Mech Corps to set aside some time to take part as well on behalf of the Living Sentinels.

Calsie tried to reach out to Commander Cinnabar of the Battle Criers, but none of them were accessible at this point of time. Who knew what kind of mission Ves had given them! The rest could only hope that the Battle Criers would not object to any decisions they made today.

While Director Clinton Larkinson only represented the Ves Larkinson Foundation for Wounded Veterans, his valor during the confrontation against Ghanso earned him a lot of respect!

Miles Tovar attended on behalf of both the design team and the Tovar Family.

Ketis appeared as well as a student and confidante of Ves, though she looked as if she would rather be elsewhere!

In truth, the only reason she agreed to attend the meeting was because Calabast reached out to her! It was not proper for Calabast to attend this meeting herself, so she passed some instructions to Ketis to make sure the meeting did not produce any unwelcome outcomes!

Dr. Lupo Guernica showed up as well, though like Ketis, he looked anything but comfortable. The Larkinson Exobiology Institute was by far the smallest organization under Ves, and many people attending this meeting hadn't even heard of its existence!

Colonel Ark Larkinson showed up via projection as well! His appearance surprised many people as most expected him to be occupied with the war. He represented a portion of the Larkinson Family, particularly the old guard who valued tradition.

There was no way that anyone present would allow Venerable Ghanso Larkinson to attend this meeting! He was currently the biggest black sheep of the family!

Of all of the people who showed up, none of them could ignore the presence of the only person who was qualified to be described as Ves Larkinson's equal!

While Gloriana Wodin owned no shares in the LMC, she absolutely deserved to have a say. Ves officially designated her as a lead designer of his mech company! When Ves was absent, she was the sole lead designer in charge!

As a contributing mech designer to the Desolate Soldier and every other recent mech released by the LMC, she deserved much of the credit for their design!

Of course, no one could possibly forget that she was Ves Larkinson's girlfriend and partner! It would be bad if she agreed with any of the decisions made during the meeting. As a prominent Hexer, she could exert a lot of influence if she wanted!

Everyone looked solemn as the conference room filled up.

No matter if they were present by remote or in the flesh, everyone felt the weight of this gathering!

"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for answering our call and attending this meeting." Calsie spoke. Though she felt slightly nervous, her years of experience as the caretaker of the LMC had long turned her into a capable speaker. "Everyone here is doubtlessly aware of the current state of the LMC and its affiliated organizations. We have done our best to prevent this crisis from impacting us any further. We've succeeded in that. Now, we must look to the future and decide where to go from here."

"Ves left behind some contingency plans in case anything happened to him." Raymond continued. "However, these plans do not fully fit the current circumstances. While he planned for the eventuality that the Bright Republic would turn on him for some reason, he never expected it to happen quite this way!"

Benjamin swept his gaze at everyone present. "At present, we have taken care of the LMC, the Avatars, the Sentinels and all of the assets owned by my grandson. Our overarching goal is to preserve everything that Ves has built! Not only him, but also our Larkinson Family depends on how much we can retain!"

"What's the matter?" Gloriana frowned. Though she was one of the most important people in the gathering, Ves hadn't included her in any of the contingency planning. "What has Ves decided?"

"Let me cut to the chase." Benjamin said. "In the event that the government has broken our trust, Ves has ordered us to relocate the LMC and everything else to a different state!"

Though some of the higher ups already knew about this instruction, it still came as a shock to most people!

Not everyone imagined that Ves would have prepared such an instruction! It said something about him that he foresaw a possible need to leave the Bright Republic!

Many people's faces grew pensive. The decision to abandon their foundation in the Bright Republic and move to another state was incredibly disruptive!

The Larkinsons like Clinton and Ark took it especially hard! They committed their lives to the Bright Republic! How could they possibly imagine leaving their home state?

Benjamin understood their consternation. "Mind you, these instructions only concern the LMC and his other organizations. He hadn't said anything about our family. The future of the Larkinson Family is not on the agenda."

"Isn't it?" Clinton retorted. "You are in control of a quarter of the LMC, Benjamin. That means our family will certainly be affected by the decision to relocate the LMC!"

"You know what I mean. Let's get back to the topic. Since Ves decided to relocate his organizations, we need to make a decision where they should settle next!"

"I can pull some strings to bring you to the Hegemony if you like." Gloriana chirped. "While the LMC is rather shabby by our standards, Ves will doubtlessly be pleased to establish a foundation in a second-rate state!"

"No!"

"NOO!"

"Absolutely not!"

"I don't agree!"

"NEVER!"

Despite her clout, almost no one agreed with Gloriana! The gathering immediately shot down the suggestion to relocate to the Hexadric Hegemony!

"Ves has already made a decision in this regard." Benjamin regained control over the discussion. "He offered us a list of suggestions. According to his criteria, only one destination stands out. No other alternative is as fitting as his first choice!"

Commander Melkor chuckled. "Let me guess. He wants to move his stuff to the Ylvaine Protectorate, is that right?"

This did not come as a big surprise. No other state was as favorable to Ves and the LMC than the Protectorate! In fact, the Ylvainans thought much more highly of Ves than the citizens of the Bright Republic!

Yet even if they knew that this decision was the clear favorite, very few felt comfortable with this choice!

Otherwise, Benjamin and Calsie wouldn't have convened this gathering!

A heated discussion soon ensued. Some of the people such as Clinton and Larkinson were deeply reluctant to see the LMC go. While they were indignant at what happened to Ves, they blamed the conspirators instead of the state as a whole.

Why should the Bright Republic be blamed for the actions of a couple of factions?

Others fully agreed with the decision to decouple the LMC from the Bright Republic! Ketis spoke up strongly in favor of this plan, as did Gloriana!

She detested the Bright Republic for tearing Ves away from her side! She regretted that she hadn't been able to protect her boyfriend during the previous incident!

Chapter 1724 Uncertain Future

To the organizers of the meeting, the outcome was already set in stone.

Ves left very clear instructions behind. While he was completely absent, everyone else still retained a huge amount of respect for him! Whether it was his ability to earn a lot of money, his contributions to the state or his embodiment of Larkinson values, no one wished to oppose his will!

It was just that the decision to relocate everything to the Ylvaine Protectorate sat very poorly with many people. Almost everyone attending the meeting consisted of Brighters.

While some were disappointed with their state, they still preferred to stick with the familiar instead of moving to foreign territory!

If they really had to leave the Bright Republic, then most of them would rather prefer it if they moved to a similar state!

The Sentinel Kingdom which Ves visited recently came up as a popular suggestion. While it was engulfed in some sort of unrest related to the Nyxian Gap, the state was still far enough away from the frontier to escape the Sand War!

It was also firmly in the sphere of influence of the Hexadric Hegemony. The Friday Coalition was on the opposite side of the star sector, so there was no way the Coalition would be able to threaten the LMC if he eventually returned!

Sadly, Ves firmly placed the Ylvaine Protectorate above the Sentinel Kingdom. To him, trust was much more important than anything else! Even if it was struggling for survival against the sandmen, Ves still had faith in the religious state!

"Moving to Sentinel is not realistic." Raymond concluded. "It's too far away from the Bright Republic. We'll have to cross through the territories of a dozen states in order to reach our destination! Even if we get there, our foundation there is very weak. In recent months, a lot of refugees have flooded into Sentinel! The state isn't able to support the influx of so many foreigners."

Calsie made her stance clear. "The Ylvaine Protectorate is the only state that will welcome us with open arms. Ves often referred to it as his second home state. With how much they worship the so-called 'Bright Martyr', they won't treat us poorly!"

Despite everyone's apprehensions towards the openly religious character of the Protectorate, that was not a good reason to reject this choice.

No other state could match its offer! Lieutenant Dominic Kronon had been in constant contact with his superiors and already conveyed the Protectorate's stance.

"I think the Protectorate is a fine choice." Gloriana declared.

While she still preferred to bring everything to the Hexadric Hegemony, the Protectorate wasn't too bad.

As an insular, religious state, the Ylvaine Protectorate never developed a good relationship with the Friday Coalition.

Instead, it welcomed the influence of the Hexers. While their beliefs clashed significantly, they still had enough in common to get along with each other.

While the Ylvainans only possessed a shallow relationship with the Hexers, this was enough to limit the influence of Fridaymen within the state!

Something as similar as what happened to Ves would never take place in the Protectorate! No monitor from the Friday Coalition ever set foot in its territory!

After a consensus had been reached, the LMC and the other organizations began to move.

It was not that easy to relocate everything from one state to another state.

Much of the value in the LMC couldn't be moved at all. The Mech Nursery and its other real estate had to be sold, traded or abandoned.

Even moving the large industrial equipment such as the production lines imposed considerable demands on the transport capacity of the LMC!

One of the shortcomings of the LMC was that it did not own its own transport ships!

The company always signed contracts with other logistical companies to take care of its shipping and distribution needs.

A small corvette like the Barracuda could only transport a few containers as most. The ships owned by the Avatars and Sentinels mainly consisted of light carriers meant to transport mechs wherever they were needed.

Fortunately, the carriers could easily be used as makeshift shipping vessels. Their owners only had to make a couple of adjustments in order to accommodate other types of cargo aside from mechs.

Raymond, Calsie, Benjamin and Melkor did not foresee too many problems with moving the physical assets of their respective organizations.

They didn't have to worry about the intangible assets either. The Bright Republic never treated Ves like a criminal.

Due to all of the controversy that ensued, the government really could not afford to affront Ves and anything related to him again!

Any perceived unfairness would not only piss off the LMC, but also the Larkinson Family!

As a pillar of the military, the Bright Republic still needed its support! The unrest that happened previously revealed that the Larkinson Family enjoyed such a high reputation that it could affect the morale of the people!

While Colonel Ark Larkinson returned to his duties, he still kept a constant eye on the situation. He already released some hints that he would definitely step in if something happened that he did not agree with! What happened to Ves must never happen again!

"It's quite sad that it has come to this." Calsie sighed as she sat behind Ves' desk. "I guess we'll all have to say goodbye to this fancy office."

Gloriana smirked. "Oh, this office is quite bare in my tastes. I'll definitely design a more impressive headquarters for the LMC when Ves returns!"

"Will he return?" Gavin question. "From what I have heard, the monitor dispatched by the Coalition turns out to be someone similar to you! Lady Aisling Curver is a mech designer who specializes in neural networks."

"DON'T MENTION HER TO ME!" Gloriana growled! "I want to wring her neck with fingers! She stole my boyfriend! Poor Ves! I can't imagine what kind of torture he is enduring! This vixen is probably attempting to seduce him even now!"

"Regardless of what is happening to Ves, we can't do anything to help him." Calsie stated. "The most we can do is take care of his enterprises and make sure that they are ready to further his interests once he returns. If he returns."

"He will return." Nitaa spoke from the side. "Ves is more resourceful than you think. Don't count him out yet. If any of you have any ideas on his properties, then..."

Gavin raised his hands. "Calm down. No one here can get away with any shenanigans. You should trust the people that Ves put in charge."

No one knew what the future had in store. While it wasn't secret to them that Lady Curver received Ves from the capture fleet, no one truly understood what this meant.

Only Gloriana possessed a greater understanding of Lady Curver's identity and possible actions.

While they never intersected with each other, Clarion University was quite famous even in the Hexadric Hegemony!

She was sure that Aisling would bring Ves back to Clarion University and take advantage of Master Huron's support to settle her captive.

Once that happened, it would be extremely hard to rescue Ves! The Warsaw Giant System was situated in the interior of the Gauge Dynasty!

The Hexers would have to gain a decisive edge in the Komodo War and thrust deep into the Coalition in order to reach this well-protected star system!

The Gauge Dynasty would have never invested so much in Clarion if the school was situated in the periphery!

"I hope your confidence isn't misplaced. Ves must get through this. If he's absent for more than a couple of years, it's doubtful whether we can keep the LMC together." Calsie looked concerned.

Gavin sighed. "If you ask me, our company is already falling apart in some ways. We can take away the production lines and such, but we can't take all of the people with us. Who wants to abandon the Bright Republic and move to a state that every Brighter has looked down upon? Our employees have already started to tender their resignations."

"How many people will drop out?" Melkor asked.

"According to our projections, we'll lose the majority of our workers, say seventy to eighty percent. Many people can't bear to leave their friends and family. Others don't want anything to do with the Ylvainan Faith."

Up to 80 percent of the workshop exhibited signs of quitting! That was a very drastic figure that cut deeply in the workforce of the LMC!

"Should we do something to retain them?" Gloriana questioned. "It will be difficult for Ves to pick up where he left off if our new headquarters is empty and if there aren't any mech technicians left to produce his mechs!"

"It's fine." Calsie reassured everyone. "We have already anticipated this outcome. In truth, letting go of these people won't necessarily affect our operations. At most, we'll be stifled a little until we hire enough replacements. We don't even have to fill up all of the vacated positions as the LMC will certainly downsize in the near future. It's highly unlikely for us to sell a mech as popular as the Desolate Soldier."

"We'll still be losing lots of valuable knowledge and know-how." Gavin warned. "Some of which are common to all professions, but some are very critical to the running of our company. Think of how much expertise and familiarity our top management team has accrued."

"We can't do anything about that." Gloriana adjusted her mindset. "In my opinion, this ordeal is actually quite good for us. I'm sure the Ylvainans are much more willing to commit to Ves and the LMC."

While not everyone was comfortable with this statement, they did not refute it. Ever since they communicated their intention to move the LMC to the Protectorate, the state had practically laid down the red carpet for them! The Curin Dynasty offered so many privileges, exemptions and sweetheart deals that Calsie and Raymond found the circumstances rather surreal!

"It's not as if we are abandoning the Bright Republic entirely. We are only shifting the headquarters and our main assets to the Protectorate. We'll still maintain a subsidiary here which will continue to facilitate our business activities within this state."

"Ves is still a Brighter. I don't think he's petty enough to exclude his home state as a market."

Gloriana sneered. "If it was up to me, I would forbid our mechs from being sold in this state! However, I won't make things awkward for the Larkinson Family."

"I'm not sure what is going on in the family right now." Melkor frowned. "Every available Larkinson elder has been discussing what they should do. Ghanso's outrageous actions and Ves' attempt to usurp the leadership of the Larkinson Family has damaged our cohesion beyond the point of repair."

"What do you think the old fogies will decide?"

The Avatar Commander shrugged. "Beats me. A lot of Larkinsons want us to stick together. We're family, after all. Few of us can bear the thought of splitting up due to a disagreement. However... I don't see how the two sides can reconcile their differences."

While Venerable Ghanso disgusted a lot of Larkinsons, there were still a lot of family members who still clung to their customs and traditions!

The conservative faction within the family merely disavowed Ghanso while holding on to their stances. As they mostly consisted of current and former mech pilots, they still commanded a lot of respect!

However, they were grossly outnumbered by the more forward-looking faction that sided with Ves! If he wasn't missing, this faction would have probably taken complete control over the family already!

As it was, both sides had no choice but to come together and negotiate a way to move forward. While both sides wanted to have their way, it was impossible to achieve a satisfactory outcome.

While all of this was taking place, the Ylvaine Protectorate began to experience some changes!

The Kronon Dynasty started to field an entirely new mech model, one which made the Ylvainans ecstatic!

Chapter 1725 Eye of Ylvaine

The Ylvaine Protectorate anticipated the arrival of the Deliverer for many days. Through the three Kronon mech pilots residing at Cloudy Curtain, the leaders of the Protectorate received prior notice of this wonder mech!

The higher ups learned the purpose and some of the specifications of the Deliverer. They also received some excerpts of the testing results of the first and second prototype!

They could scarcely believe what they learned! Yet the proof was undeniable! The Deliverer truly possessed the ability to guide the aim of the mech pilot!

While the Deliverer hadn't exhibited this strength too often, it was enough to form a statistical certainty!

If leaders other than Ylvainans received this information, then they might remain skeptical. In the mech industry, it was not that rare to encounter mech designers who exaggerated or outright lied about the capabilities of their works.

Of course, in many instances, the mech designers did not set out to deceive their customers. They merely believed too much in their own specialties to gauge the actual strength of their applications.

Too many mech designers were prone to overselling the strong points of their mech designs!

After all, those who did the opposite often failed to achieve commercial success! The mech market was too competitive to provide any space for low-key mech designers! Fame, prestige and brand recognition were all essential to stand out in the market!

In this regard, Ves acted rather conservatively. Though he consented to sharing some of the details of the Deliverer to the Protectorate, he did not dare to make any bold promises.

This was because the actual performance of the Deliverer depended on the whim of Ylvaine's spiritual fragment.

Without its assistance, the Deliverer was nothing more than an uneven marksman mech with an oversized gauss rifle!

The Ylvainans nonetheless put their faith in the Deliverer. The Transcendent Messenger and the Holy Soldier already burnished the Bright Martyr's credentials.

Even if they hadn't actually seen the Deliverer in action yet, most Ylvainans who became aware of this upcoming product already believed in its promise!

"The Deliverer will deliver us from death!"

"The Great Prophet acts through the Bright Martyr's mechs! No other vehicle is more appropriate to carry his will than through his mechs!"

"The Bright Martyr hasn't abandoned us! Our faith hasn't been in vain!"

While the Ylvainan people possessed the highest morale out of all of the states in the third line of defense, the constant losses and setbacks grinded away at their hope.

For this reason, the three leading dynasties decided that it wouldn't do any harm of publicizing the Deliverer!

The hype around this mech that promised to end the Sand War built up overnight! With reputation of the Bright Martyr backing up his upcoming product, hardly any Ylvainan doubted that the Deliverer would become a dud!

After reaching an easy consensus, the Protectorate immediately prepared to make use of the Deliverer as fast as possible!

The Curin Dynasty approached some of the best and most pious Seniors to ready their best production lines. Both the government and the mech industry pooled their efforts together to build up a stockpile of materials needed to build the Deliverers!

While some of the rarer exotics required to produce the Executor rifle were very hard to get, as long as the Ylvainans united together, none of these problems posed a hindrance!

The top generals of the Kronon Dynasty deliberated on the most appropriate use of the Deliverers.

Initially, they planned to attach them to their existing mech regiments, but after finding out that their glows were as exceptional as the Transcendent Messengers, they changed their mind!

Any mech that bore the Great Prophet's will must not be profaned!

While the Kronons did not intend to treat the Deliverers as special as the Transcendent Messengers, they still intended to form an elite mech troop based completely around the Deliverers!

After entertaining a few suggestions, they finally settled on calling it the Eye of Ylvaine!

This was due to the distinctive third eye featured prominently on the forehead of the Deliverer design!

"The Eye of Ylvaine will gaze upon the enemies of our faith and smite them from existence!"

Once the formation of the Eye of Ylvaine became known, practically every Kronon mech pilot wanted to become a part of this exclusive unit!

Not only did they wish to pilot the mech that promised to save the Protectorate, they also wanted to experience Prophet Ylvaine's grace in person!

While hundreds of thousands of mech pilots aimed to pilot a Deliverer, the selection requirements were extremely strict!

The Ylvaine Protectorate could only produce so many Deliverers at a time. Besides, it was impossible to field a force that consisted entirely of Deliverers! It wasn't economical, as the mechs were very vulnerable on their own!

The Deliverer mechs only promised to neutralize the sandman swarms quickly. There was no way the Deliverers could achieve much effect against the huge and formidable sandman monoliths.

No amount of excellent aim could make their Executor rifles bypass the all-encompassing layers of sand and other particles!

Only brute force worked against the monoliths, which meant that the Holy Soldiers with their cheap and economic Sandbreaker rifles achieved more sustainable results.

At the start, the Kronon Dynasty only intended to field five-hundred Deliverers and test them in action. This was already a very significant investment! If the Kronons weren't so confident in the Bright Martyr and if the war situation wasn't so dire, they would have taken their time!

Only the most deserving mech pilots gained the right to pilot the Deliverer!

The Kronons formed a list of candidates. Every mech pilot who excelled in marksmanship became eligible to pilot the new mech!

However, that wasn't enough! The Poxco Dynasty combed through the candidates and thoroughly inspected their devoutness in the Ylvainan Faith!

It didn't matter if their beliefs differed a little from the orthodox interpretation. As long as they were earnest, they were eligible to wield Ylvaine's might!

The Eye of Ylvaine officially came into being. Five hundred excellent mech pilots left their old positions to prepare for their upcoming duties!

The fate of the Ylvaine Protectorate rested on their shoulders!

The five-hundred chosen had to go through a lot of training. In order to avoid wasting the opportunities that the Deliverers provided to their mech pilots, their marksmanship had to be as good as possible!

It would be a shame for their mechs to single out a critical target, only for the mech pilots to botch their aim!

With how chaotic sandman swarms tended to be, it wasn't always possible to track a sandman drone once someone figured out that it contained a sandman admiral!

If the Deliverer missed, the exposed sandman admiral would certainly order a bunch of drones to meld together and split apart, thereby forcing the mech pilots to start from scratch!

This training regime only lasted for two weeks, give or take a few days. This was because the mech manufacturers contracted to produce the sacred mechs had delivered their first batches at this time!

Each and every Hunter of Ylvaine as the chosen mech pilots came to be called looked up at the Deliverer mechs with awe and devotion.

Even the guards and mech technicians were stunned into silence!

Some of them had already experienced the glows of the Transcendent Messengers! The glows emanating from the Deliverers felt exactly the same, but much more pure!

While none of the Deliverers emphasized any virtues such as zeal or sacrifice, their seemingly-empty purity brought peace to every Ylvainan!

Everyone bowed in front of the mechs. They completely became immersed by the holiness of these sacred mechs!

The fact that tens of Deliverers arrived together enhanced their holy appeal as their glows overlapped!

Only six Transcendent Messengers existed, and all of their glows were different!

In contrast, the Deliverers were all completely identical as many of the mechs shipped to the various bases that hosted the Eye of Ylvaine came from the same manufacturers!

With the high requirements imposed by the Curin Dynasty, the mech manufacturers did their utmost to achieve a high and consistent level of quality!

The right to produce the Deliverer was a supreme honor to every mech manufacturer! Even Senior Mech Designers did not look down on this design, because they knew they could never make their mechs as holy as the mechs designed by the Bright Martyr!

Each mech designer responsible for the production of the Deliverer took this privilege as a badge of honor! There was no way they wanted to suffer the indignity of losing this contract!

In fact, those who weren't lucky enough to supply Deliverers to the Eye of Ylvaine also produced some mechs for themselves. The LMC officially released the Deliverer as a commercial mech design, which meant that anyone with a licence could legally produce this mech!

Ves didn't want the Ylvainans to restrict the production of the Deliverer too much. Who knew what they would do if they gained the sole right to produce the mechs!

He didn't forget his earlier resentment towards the Kronon Dynasty. In his eyes, the Kronons didn't deserve to monopolize the Deliverer!

Of course, even if various private sector outfits already planned to field some Deliverers, the effect wouldn't be as good.

The Protectorate did not possess a very strong mercenary tradition! For so long, the state had closed its borders to the outside galaxy. There wasn't much to fight for within its borders, and the prestige of the Kronon Dynasty was very high!

A few days went by as the Hunters of Ylvaine got used to their sacred mechs.

While they were already well-prepared, they still needed some time to adjust to their mechs because they became intoxicated by the sacred glows!

Fortunately, it wasn't hard to find the sandmen once the Eye of Ylvaine was ready to bare its teeth!

Taon Melin, a chosen mech pilot of Zeal, was one of the mech pilots who tested the first Delivers in battle.

As a mech pilot specialized in piloting hero mechs, his marksmanship was almost as excellent as those committed to this specialization!

Ever since the Sand War came about, the Transcendent Messengers had mostly been used to lift the morale of the Ylvainan people instead of fighting the sandmen.

The Ylvainans couldn't help it. While the Transcendent Messengers were fantastic on land, they did not come with any flight systems!

Though it was possible to pair them with flight platforms that gave landbound mechs the capability to fly in space, it wasn't worth it because these platforms were too large and vulnerable to damage!

Taon Melin waited for this opportunity for a long time. He always bided his time throughout the Sand War as if he knew his time would come!

A familiar sensation overcame Taon as he entered the cockpit and interfaced with his mech.

As the chosen of Zeal, his ability to connect with the sacred mechs was better than any other Hunter of Ylvaine!

His Deliverer deployed from a combat carrier alongside three other Deliverers!

At this time, battle had already commenced. A large sandman fleet consisting of up to fifteen sandman admirals were bearing down on a major planet housing billions of people!

Thousands of Holy Soldiers and starfighters were desperately fighting to whittle down the swarms and monoliths before they reached their destination. Countless lasers and projectiles impacted sand and metal alike!

Amidst this intensive battle, a handful of mechs with glowing third eyes deployed in the rear of the human formation did not attract much attention.

The mech with the brightest glowing eye slowly aimed its massive rifle at the periphery of the humongous swarm.

A Deliverer fired a single shot.

Just seconds later, a tenth of the swarm abruptly became paralyzed!

The sandman admiral in charge of coordinating their movements had died!

Taon Melin only took seconds to fire his critical shot! Everyone monitoring the first deployment of the Deliverers became stunned by his stellar performance!

Something like this could never be a fluke! Ylvaine was truly on their side!

"We are saved!"

Chapter 1726 Inexplicable Mech

Not everyone achieved results as great as Taon Melin!

Most Hunters of Ylvaine required dozens of chances before they managed to score a hit on a drone carrying a sandman admiral!

This was still a great result! A typical Holy Soldier or other ranged mech might have to take down hundreds of not thousands of sandman drones in order to score a lucky hit against a hidden sandman admiral!

After an explosive week where the infamous sandman swarms were systematically dismantled, the Ylvainans became completely convinced that the prophet rewarded their faith!

Almost every Hunter of Ylvaine managed to take out a sandman admiral before their swarms were close to being consumed!

It was immediately obvious when they achieved a fruitful result. The mechs only had to fire a certain amount of times before a portion of the sandman swarm abruptly fell apart and lost coordination!

Without a higher intelligence doing all of the thinking, the disconnected sandman drones were extremely lethargic as they floated around without aim!

The defense forces didn't even bother attacking these sitting ducks. This was because the drones no longer released any attacks! The defenders could easily mop them up after taking care of the remaining threats!

While the Ylvaine Protectorate was still in the same situation as before, the constant miracles produced by the Eye of Ylvaine practically transformed the state overnight!

This was because the Protectorate did everything to publicize this turning point! The news uplifted every Ylvainan, causing them to become more hopeful and optimistic about the survival of their state!

The wondrous performance of the Deliverer even caused the civilians to strengthen their faiths! Church attendance soared as many Ylvainans became inspired by the incredible results achieved by the Deliverer!

This news did not immediately attract the attention of the Bright Republic and other foreign states.

None of them took their claims seriously. How could a mech that ostensibly channeled the will of a deceased prophet be able to defeat the indomitable sandmen?

Ever since the Sand War took off, a lot of mech designers offered various fantasy solutions that supposedly promised to end the crisis.

Nothing worked! No matter what kind of belief supported their claims, the mechs never delivered upon their promises!

Therefore, hardly any foreigner believed in the claim that the Deliverer was able to succeed where every other mech had failed!

Even the fact that the designer of the fantastic Desolate Soldier was responsible did not change their preconceptions.

It was very common for mech designers to fail after achieving success! Ves hadn't been designing mechs long enough to inspire too much confidence. This was especially so when the claims of the Deliverer were too ludicrous!

How could a mech that did not incorporate any sophisticated sensor systems be able to identify a sandman drone hiding within a vast and confusing swarm?

No amount of conventional science could explain how the Deliverer would be able to succeed where thousands of mech models had failed!

"Are we supposed to rely on a god to achieve victory against the sandmen?!"

"I would rather die than convert to a different faith!"

"Gods are outdated! How can humans keep falling for superstition?"

The Bright Republic, which possessed a better understanding of the Ylvaine Protectorate than most, suspected other motives behind the promotion of the Deliverers!

"Is this some kind of ploy to boost the reputation of that kidnapped mech designer?"

"Ves Larkinson is a Brighter! How can he possibly design a religious mech?"

"Haven't you heard about the Transcendent Messenger and Holy Soldier? Ves already managed to seduce the Ylvainans! Doing it a third time shouldn't be any problem!"

"That's different! From what I've heard, those two mech models are mainly valuable because they are very effective in hypnotizing gullible believers. The Deliverer is different because the Ylvainans are claiming that it can impact a battle more directly than affecting their moods!"

While the Bright Republic was aware of the peculiarities of the Transcendent Messengers and Holy Soldiers, its agents never experienced anything special about the mechs.

Just like the Desolate Soldier, the value of these mechs lay in their ability to increase the morale of the mech pilots and inspire confidence in the bystanders affected by their glows.

It was a little far-fetched to state that these glows were capable of doing what their best sensors failed to accomplish!

"How come these Deliverers keep assassinating the sandman admirals?"

"Maybe the Ylvainans have implemented some secret new sensor technology! It must be something built into their ships instead of their mechs!"

As the Deliverers continued to produce excellent results, foreign agents kept investigating the forces involved in the battles.

No other mech or ship stood out! None of them released any powerful emissions that denoted some active scanning system at work!

"Can it be.. That their claims are true? Are the Deliverers truly guided by their prophet?"

"Don't speak any nonsense! Ylvaine died hundreds of years ago! His entire dynasty perished as well!"

Before accepting the claims of the Ylvainans, the agents and investigators dispatched by foreign states tried to exhaust every other possible explanation!

They refused to accept that the Ylvainan Faith had an actual basis in reality!

Yet no matter how much the Brighters, Vesians, Reinaldans and such tried to pierce the truth, all of their conclusions came down to the Deliverer mechs themselves!

Each Ylvainan defense force that fielded a Deliverer mech almost always achieved better results.

Without the sandman swarms tearing apart the cannon fodder, the starfighter pilots became immensely grateful to the Eye of Ylvaine!

The introduction of the Deliverers paired with the elite Hunters of Ylvaine drastically affected their chances of survival! Casualties dropped by as much as seventy percent!

Such an achievement was too great to be dismissed! The Bright Republic and other skeptical states had no choice but to take the claims of the Ylvainans more seriously after a couple of weeks!

"How can this be? Is the supposed 'Bright Martyr' truly so blessed?"

"The Deliverers are too miraculous! We need to try them for ourselves!"

Not even the MTA could explain how the Deliverers were able to defy the odds and consistently target the sandman admirals over and over again!

When their own evaluators validated the mech design, they did not have much good to say about its design! While its offensive ability was excellent, its mobility and armor dragged down its overall performance!

The Mech Corps, the Mech Legion, the Honored Ones and many other organizations started to experiment with the Deliverers.

Yet when they licensed the mech and produced some copies to verify their amazing abilities, the foreigners completely failed to elicit anything notable!

Because the Deliverers had been produced by non-believers, their glows weren't as strong and pure as those produced by Ylvainans.

The foreign mech pilots assigned to test the Deliverers all experienced varying degrees of rejection! None of the third eyes lit up as the glow of the machines intensely rejected the pilots who dismissed or looked down on the Ylvainan Faith!

"How can this be? Why doesn't the Deliverer work for us? Did we produce a counterfeit or something?"

"It can't be! Our Deliverers are exactly the same as the ones fielded by the Eye of Ylvaine!"

"Maybe the warning that comes with this mech is actually true. Only those who are sincere believers in the Ylvainan Faith can unlock the full capabilities of this model!"

The Deliverer was too enigmatic. Not even the Seniors assigned to study the mechs could figure out its secrets! They studied the schematics over and over again and failed to figure out what made them special aside from the faint glow they exuded!

Plenty of mech designers wanted to scratch their heads until they turned bald! Each mech design from Ves Larkinson was too inexplicable! Whatever mystery he imparted to the mech designs was not something that they could understand!

Whenever the befuddled mech designers questioned the Ylvainans, they only received answers in the form of religious dogma!

"The Great Prophet is watching over us from above! He loves us all and will never abandon his faithful!"

"The past, present and future is fully in Prophet Ylvaine's grasp! You cannot imagine the vision he possesses!"

"Do you have a moment to talk about our lord and savior, Prophet Ylvaine?"

Not even the most intellectual Ylvainan mech designer provided a straight answer! Each and every Ylvainan kept praising the Great Prophet as if they were competing to be the most devout believer!

"There's no way we can hold a normal conversation with these religious nuts! Let's approach the LMC instead! At least it's a sensible mech company!"

Yet the lead designer of the Deliverer recently fell victim to a conspiracy! Ves Larkinson just happened to be missing just before the Deliverers began to make their mark in Protectorate space!

Fortunately, Ves was not the only mech designer involved in the design project.

Another Journeyman Mech Designer contributed materially to the Deliverer design, while a small design team made up of Apprentices assisted on the side.

While Gloriana was busy with supervising the evacuation of Ves' property from Cloudy Curtain, her comm suddenly became engulfed with inquiries by various different parties!

"Huh? They finally took notice of our Deliverer? It's about time!"

Since she didn't have much to do right now, she replied to some of the inquiries.

[...The Deliverer is not just a mech, but also a god in the making! Every Deliverer is a vessel that carries the touch of a proto-god, which in this case is Prophet Ylvaine himself! By relying on the power and generosity of this male god, the believers of his faith will be able to receive some blessings that will aid them in performing some miracles!...]

The questioners all received answers like these from Gloriana, which drove all of the mech designers completely mad!

"This is complete nonsense! It turns out that Miss Gloriana Wodin is an even greater religious nut than the Ylvainans!"

"How can a Brighter possibly tolerate a girlfriend like her? He must be the greatest nut of them all!"

In desperation, the mech designers approached the Tovar mech designers with the LMC's permission.

While Miles Tovar and his cousins at least answered normally, they were just in the dark as everyone else! Ves Larkinson never shared his trade secrets to them! None of them figured out the mechanics behind Ves' characteristic glows or the secrets behind the Deliverer's extraordinary capabilities!

"Dammit! Where the hell is Ves Larkinson?! Only he should be able to give a reasonable explanation! All these other helpers of his are either useless or crazy!"

All of the professionals and officials with an interest in the Deliverer became frustrated by the answers they received.

It seemed that anyone other than a devout Ylvainan mech pilot could make full use of the Deliverer!

Any foreign mech pilot, even those who had been encouraged to convert to the Ylvainan Faith, were unable to tame the picky mechs!

It was as if they had a mind of their own!

After much experimentation, each mech designer and investigation team concluded that only sincere believers could make effective use of the Deliverer!

"Since we can't field the Deliverers on our own, what about borrowing them from the Ylvainans?"

Many governments started to approach the Ylvaine Protectorate. Could they borrow some Hunters of Ylvaine?

The Ylvainan government did not acquiesce immediately. As if aware of their bargaining power, the Ylvainans set forth some demands!

While the negotiations took place behind closed doors, some of the conditions soon became common knowledge!

The Ylvainans, despite not being able to field enough Hunters of Ylvaine to cover all of their territory, expressed some willingness to assist in the defense of other states.

However, the price for their assistance was considerable!

Aside from receiving hefty remuneration in the form of money and resources, the Ylvainans wanted to spread their faith in their respective states!

Wanted the right to proselytize among the foreigners without encountering any hindrances!

So long as a foreign state rejected this demand, the negotiations instantly stalled!

Chapter 1727 Dog Person

While the states engulfed by the Sand War seethed with excitement and astonishment due to the miraculous performance of the Deliverers, the man responsible for their design remained ignorant.

He only learned about the impact of his latest product when Aisling brought up the topic during dinner one day.

"Your Deliverer design is making quite an impression in the region." She remarked when a couple of floating bots brought away their empty dishes. "Everyone except the Ylvainans are perplexed how they are able to identify the sandman admirals within the huge sandman swarms."

Ves looked up with her and grinned. "It sounds like my Deliverer is delivering on its promises."

"The other states have failed to adopt your new mech. They're forced to knock on the Ylvaine Protectorate's doors in order to borrow the strength of the Eye of Ylvaine!"

"Eye of Ylvaine?"

"That's what the believers call their new branch dedicated to fielding Deliverer mechs. While other Ylvainan forces have begun to field the Deliverer mechs as well, only elite Kronon mech pilots are able to achieve the best results! Those who aren't skilled or devout enough won't be able to arouse or make use of the mystery of your machines."

None of this surprised Ves. He already anticipated this outcome. "I designed the Deliverer to cater exclusively to the Ylvainan people. Other people can forget about gaining the Deliverer's approval. No matter if they are Brighters, Fridaymen or Hexers, so long as the mech pilots don't have any sincerity towards the Ylvainan Faith, my mechs will never embrace them! Their attempts to take advantage of my latest product are doomed from the start!"

"You sound very confident." Aisling replied.

She was surprised by his confidence!

"I know my design the best!" Ves proudly stated.

"Why can't foreigners make full use of the Deliverers? Why are only genuine believers able to make use of their exceptional abilities?"

"Those are trade secrets."

"Miss Gloriana knows, right?"

Ves shrugged. "Maybe."

"Then why aren't you sharing this to me? I'm just as good as Gloriana, if not better!"

"You won't be able to accept my explanation."

"Says who?"

"Says me. Do you believe in anything? You shouldn't. You're a Fridayman. You're the same as a Brighter in this regard!"

"I don't see how that matters. From what I can tell, you don't believe in the Ylvainan Faith. You're not a follower of hexim either! You're just as secular as me, Ves. Clearly faith doesn't have anything to do with the power of the Deliverer design!"

Ves had to admit that Aisling made a reasonable deduction. She was truly right! While anything related to spirituality involved a lot of strange phenomena, none of them depended on any faith!

In his perspective, spirituality was just another part of reality, one which most of humanity had yet to explore.

Though Aisling was obsessed with Ves, she was different from Gloriana. The Fridayman mech designer respected his boundaries and remained fully in control.

Comparing Aisling to Gloriana was like comparing an angel to a hellcat! The two were quite different!

In ordinary cases, Ves much preferred to be in the company of the former. The more he interacted with Aisling, the more he appreciated her soberness and rationality.

The only problem he had with her was that she was too clever in other ways as well. All of her actions and decisions served to achieve a specific result. Ves had the sense that she was used to weaving elaborate webs.

In addition, her confidence bordered on the extreme sometimes. She was so assured that Ves was in the palm of her hand that she practically took his eventual defection for granted! There was no possible way that he could ever resist her charm!

"You'll tell me your secrets one way or another." She modestly grinned at him. "Once you forget about Gloriana, you'll find out that partnering up with me is a great decision! We are made for each other!"

Ves frowned. "I already told you that I'm not attracted to you. I am still committed to Gloriana!"

He spoke from his heart despite how unwise it was to pop Aisling's bubble!

Fortunately, she was way too confident in her plan to take his rejection seriously.

"Poor man." She shook her head in pity. "The Hexers have thoroughly succeeded in mesmerizing you. If you stayed with Gloriana any longer, you would have turned into her puppy!"

"I never asked to be 'rescued', Aisling."

She didn't take him seriously. In her opinion, spending so much time with Gloriana impaired his judgement! He couldn't be trusted to take care of himself! He needed someone sensible and wise to turn him back to normal!

Naturally, Aisling just happened to be the woman willing to rehabilitate him into a normal man!

"Did you have a good time perusing my library?" She asked, changing the subject.

"I have to admit that the textbooks are great. I've learned a lot while reading them, though I don't exactly enjoy handling actual paper books."

He was too used to scrolling seamlessly through text that he couldn't get used to discrete pages.

This was just a minor gripe, though.

"I think it's nice to have something solid in my hands. Projections and virtual reality are too fake for my tastes."

"My biggest complaint about the library is that it's obviously complete. There's a lot of subjects that I'm interested about that are missing."

Aisling shook her head at Ves. "I've already broken some rules by making those books available to you. If not for my Master, I wouldn't have the guts to expose you to core Clarion textbooks. Even then, I only granted you access to the literature accessible to any student at my university. The specialist knowledge that delves deeper in a subject are restricted to those who contribute to the school."

Though she didn't mention it, Ves figured that she was referring to a club similar to the Clifford Society.

Ves still regretted that he no longer had access to the Society or any other club that was comparable in nature. He missed the ability to exchange merits with exclusive goods, services and knowledge.

Fortunately, he still had the System, which offered similar benefits.

"Can I request some extra books?" He tentatively asked. "I'm getting bored with the existing selection."

"Why? I don't believe you've mastered the contents of my books! There is too much material for any Journeyman to comprehend at our age!"

"It's not that. I always learn at least something new whenever I crack open a book. It's just that I'm not very interested in their topics."

"What do you want to study, then?"

"FTL drives."

"Pardon?"

"You heard me. I want to learn more about FTL drives. I'm too bored to study anything else."

With his high Intelligence and prior knowledge, he easily supplemented some of the knowledge he needed to hijack the Scarlet Rose.

Unfortunately, all of the books pertained to either mechs or fundamental science.

"I don't see why you would possibly want to study the workings of a ship component." Aisling frowned. "As a mech designer, I thought you knew better. Studying FTL technology is notoriously difficult! Even to us, it probably takes decades to comprehend the theory as well as a chief engineer! It's not worth it to waste your time on this subject!"

"Ordinarily, you're right, but haven't you paid attention to the recent announcement by the MTA? Phasewater changes everything! With the Red Ocean supplying an abundant amount of exotics, FTL-capable mechs will become a staple in the future! It might take a century or two for this new mode of mechs to become viable in the galactic rim, but we should be ready to exploit it once that happens!"

Essentially, he stated that it wasn't a waste to start studying FTL technology early!

Aisling looked thoughtful at that. While it was far too soon to learn how FTL drives worked, perhaps every ambitious mech designer in the future had to master how they worked!

Otherwise, how could they have the confidence to add a minidrive to their mech designs?

"I'll think about it." She eventually replied. "I still don't think it's a good idea considering that our star sector will be one of the last ones to adopt the minidrive. We can focus on designing plenty of other mechs."

"It will be too late by then. At my age, I'm still mentally flexible enough to handle something that is radically new. I'm afraid I won't be able to switch gears after a few decades. I don't want to start studying FTL theory when I'm already set in my ways."

He didn't make up this phenomenon. It only happened to some mech designers, though. Most of them tended to be older and isolated. Their views hadn't been challenged for a very long time, causing them to solidify their mindsets!

Most mech designers knew that they had to exercise their minds and challenge their assumptions to prevent this outcome. As long as they were receptive to something new, they were capable of adapting to something different!

Eventually, Aisling nodded her head. "If you insist on it so much, I'll find some engineering textbooks and print them out for you. I won't allow you to get muddled by theory that is way too advanced for mech designers like us. I'll select some basic ones at first that are suitable for engineering students."

"That's okay. I've only touched the surface of how an FTL drive works. I'm mostly concerned with building up a good foundation."

He really didn't need anything more, as his goal wasn't to produce an FTL drive from scratch.

He just wanted to understand enough about FTL drives to identify which parts he should pull out to safely shut it off. A basic first-year textbook already sufficed in this role.

Whatever else he managed to learn was extra. He'd be glad if he gained a shallow but undeniable understanding of FTL drives over the next few days, but that was a bit unrealistic.

Once Ves secured this concession, he relaxed a bit as he got what he wanted.

For her part, Aisling became pleased as well for meeting one of his requests. She estimated that Ves would approach her again. Once it became a habit, Ves would slowly form a favorable impression of her. It would only be a matter of time before their relationship grew intimate!

Though Ves was aware of her intentions, he hoped she would never be able to succeed!

If Ves got his way, he could use the knowledge he learned to hijack the Scarlet Rose. Once he gained control over the ship, Aisling would cease to pose a threat to him! He could get rid of her any time he liked! Just the thought of killing her amused him to no end!

Aisling misinterpreted his happy smile. She approached him and lay a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't be afraid to ask if you need anything. While I can't promise anything, I'll do my best to make you comfortable."

Ves brushed off her hand and stood up from his chair. "Dinner is over. I should get back."

Once Aisling left, Patricia escorted him back to his stateroom.

"Lady Curver is very nice."

"So?"

"I don't understand why you keep rejecting her advances."

"I'm a cat person." He said. "Aisling is like a mutt. There's nothing wrong with dogs. I just don't like them. Does that answer your question?"

Patricia grew confused. "Brighters have much more in common with Fridaymen than Hexers. By all rights you should be a dog person."

"I'm not."

"That's because a cat got to you first and turned you into something you are not. You think you are a cat person, but you're really a dog person. You just forgot how dogs are better, that's all."

"Well, I've already spent a considerable amount of time in this doghouse, but I haven't come close to appreciating Aisling's species! Maybe it's time for you Fridaymen to admit that I'm not cut out to be a dog person!"

Chapter 1728 Fragile Shell

The Scarlet Rose traveled quietly back to Coalition space. Along the way, she sometimes made some stops in order to allow Aisling to meet with some officials and other people.

Ves shouldn't have noticed anything. Locked within his quarters, the only way he should have been able to ascertain what was going on was by tracking the intervals between FTL transitions.

No one figured out that he managed to tap into the ship's systems!

With Lucky's help, Ves managed to gain a complete overview of all of the parts and systems of the Scarlet Rose.

Though there were plenty of ship components which mystified him, after Lucky performed a thorough investigation, he ruled them out as obstacles to his ploy to take over the ship.

After finishing the survey, Ves carefully studied the diagram of the Scarlet Rose's layout and identified each and every critical part or system that he needed to subvert.

There was a lot he needed to grasp!

A mobile supply frigate might not be a particularly sizable ship class, but a ship like the Scarlet Rose was stuffed with tech!

As a ship commissioned by the Coalition Reserve Force, she was built to a very high standard! Only the military ships of the Friday Coalition contained more safeguards and backup systems!

Ves sighed and shook his head as he held Lucky while soaking in his bath.

He couldn't find any other reasonable opportunity to interact with Lucky aside from holing up in the bathroom.

To open this window of opportunity, Ves pretended to be extremely indignant about being spied upon while he was doing his bathroom business!

He acted like he was immensely shy about his body and thoroughly searched the entire bathroom compartment from top to bottom! He destroyed each and every optical sensor until he was sure there was nothing left!

He gambled that Aisling wouldn't intervene for fear of upsetting him. Luckily, she only admonished him a single time during mealtime before dropping the topic!

The monitoring system of a modern second-class vessel was very pervasive. Optical sensors only consisted of a portion of the monitoring in each compartment. There were heat sensors, sound sensors, gravitic sensors, radiation sensors, mass sensors and a multitude of other ways to track what went on inside a compartment!

Ves did not touch any of them. He only cared about disabling the only sensor type which could expose Lucky.

As for the other sensors, Lucky's ECM systems effortlessly fooled them into thinking that nothing was there!

Once he satisfied this condition, Ves interacted with Lucky without any issue. He could even summon his System comm and purchase some gadgets in order to assist him into taking over the ship.

However, with how easily Lucky could infiltrate and sabotage the various systems and subsystems of the Scarlet Rose, Ves would rather keep his Design Points in reserve.

Who knew what kind of surprise he might encounter during his hijacking attempt! Keeping over 1 million DP in reserve would definitely be able to save him in a pinch!

For now, Ves felt confident he could take over the ship by relying on his existing means.

The engineering section, the security compartment and the bridge all needed to be secured.

At the same time, Ves had to sabotage or subvert every backup system that activated in the event of some sort of failure!

As a ship built to a high standard, the Scarlet Rose featured a lot of backups and redundancies! Not even his Barracuda offered so many redundant systems!

"Every starship is just a fragile shell that protects the people inside from the ravages of space."

Radiation, vacuum, frost, space dust and other threats constantly bombarded space-faring vessels.

Unlike astral beasts, humanity never adapted to space. Fragile humans like Aisling and Patricia had to rely on external tools to master space.

Humanity's reliance on starships was the main reason why the race came to dominate the galaxy!

Though mechs had become ascendent in the Age of Mechs, no human dared to neglect their civilization's dependence on starships!

"Humans are rather helpless." He sighed and idly splashed some bathwater over his head. "Ships give us strength, but they are all potential deathtraps!"

A starship was not so easy to run. They consisted of many different interconnected compartments, components and systems. The complexity of a mobile supply frigate like the Scarlet Rose exceeded that of a mech by at least a hundred times!

This was not just due to her immensely larger size, but also due to all of the functions she was supposed to run on a continuous basis!

The more systems a ship possessed, the greater the chance that something might go wrong!

If the inertial dampeners of the ship suddenly shut off, all of her passengers might slam against the bulkheads the moment the vessel accelerated or decelerated!

If the life support systems failed, the oxygen and temperature levels might drop, causing every human to suffocate while shivering in the cold!

These were just a handful of the many essential components and systems that the crew and passengers of the Scarlet Rose relied upon to preserve their lives!

"If I wanted to, I could instantly kill each and every person aboard this vessel." Ves muttered darkly.

Due to the potential risks, expensive ships tended to offer several redundancies. For each primary system, there was at least a secondary system on standby that was ready to step up in the case of a crisis!

All of these systems were spread out. This was because a ship could easily be rendered impotent if some important compartments incurred catastrophic damage for some reason!

"When it comes to ship design, you can never put all of your eggs in a single basket!"

Fortunately, with Lucky's thorough scouting, Ves identified every relevant system. He only had to program some malicious code and pass on some instructions to his cat in order to subvert their functioning.

Ves did not dare to penetrate these systems too thoroughly. He only affected them as little as possible. The main goal of his sabotage was to make them unresponsive to any commands.

Everything had to run normally, or at the very least pose no hindrance to his plans!

Ves quietly made a lot of progress on this front. He believed it wouldn't take much longer to complete this step!

However, that only took care of the ship. Paralyzing all of the systems, especially the defensive ones, was not enough! He needed to mop up the people on the Scarlet Rose as well!

Thirty-five of them consisted of spacers. Each of them kept the ship running.

Ves decided to clean them all up!

While it was very problematic to operate the Scarlet Rose without a crew, Ves believed it wouldn't be a problem to operate her for just a week!

As a highly-automated vessel, the Scarlet Rose was designed to rely less on humans. Ves believed it was feasible to return to Cloudy Curtain without relying on the existing crew!

Each of these spacers posed a threat to him. Ves was far too paranoid to keep them alive and continue their duties under his command! They only had to perform one act of sabotage out of spite to massively screw him over!

The crew shouldn't be left alive, particularly the captain and the chief engineer!

"Only the captain and the chief engineer can mitigate my sabotage!"

The two possessed extremely high authority. As long as Ves gave them some time, they could easily reverse his sabotage and restore the systems to normal!

Ves had to take them out right away before he did anything else!

"The problem is that the bridge and engineering sections are located too far apart!"

Ves was confident he could sneak into either the bridge or engineering and take out the crew inside.

However, the moment he made a move, he would undoubtedly expose himself!

Even if he somehow took care of both, he still had to contend with the remainder of the crew as well as the security officers aboard the ship!

He wasn't too worried about the crew in the short term. As long as he moved quickly and took out his priority targets, the remaining spacers should be confused of what was going on. As long as Ves sabotaged the communications systems, he should be able to prevent them from coordinating their actions!

He had two more priorities to deal with after he took care of the bridge and engineering.

"First, I have to kill all of the guards and security officers. They're already pretty capable by themselves, but they are a lot more threatening once they make use of the internal defenses!"

Each compartment and corridor section possessed an isolated defense system that was completely cut off from any other system or network.

In the event some hostels boarded the ship, the guards could fortify themselves in each and every section by activating these independent defense systems.

"There are way too many of them for me to sabotage them all." He sighed.

If he had two months, then he could surely subdue all of these defenses. Yet Ves wanted to make his move before the Scarlet Rose crossed into Coalition space!

For this reason, he settled for sabotaging only the minimum amount of internal defenses. Ves planned his route and settled for tampering with the defensive systems located along the way.

This meant that he could not deviate from his route! As long as he stepped into a compartment he didn't control, he'd be vulnerable to the ship!

"Well, as long as I deal with all of my essential targets, the rest of the ship won't pose a threat."

Aside from the security department, Ves had to take care of one more potential threat.

The mechs.

The Scarlet Rose carried four spaceborn mechs. As long as even a single one deployed into space, it could easily apply a lot of leverage to Ves!

He did not wish to expend a huge amount of effort and succeed in taking over the entire ship only for a mech to threaten to blow her up shortly afterwards!

Therefore, he had to find some way to neutralize the mechs quickly enough.

He first thought of trying to kill the mech pilots, but that led back to the same problem of trying to kill the captain or the engineers.

Once someone died or got attacked, the entire ship would definitely be alerted!

"Instead of killing the mech pilots, why not sabotage the mechs?"

As a mech designer, his understanding of mechs is immensely great! Even though Ves did not entirely understand the second-class mechs, he could easily think up many different ways to sabotage the machines!

The challenge was to do so without letting anyone else get wiser. For now, the mechs were stowed in the mech hanger, and each of them were constantly being checked and maintained by a team of mech technicians.

Though mech technicians were normally easy to fool, Ves did not underestimate their capabilities. Unlike the mech technicians from the Bright Republic, these ones came from the Friday Coalition!

They were smarter, more educated and more component than the mech technicians he was used to! Ves had to approach this sabotage very carefully in order to keep them in the dark!

Time was beginning to run out on him. If he didn't launch his escape plan in the next few days, the Scarlet Rose would successfully cross over into Coalition space, which meant that Ves would have to escape hostile territory!

Ves did not relish his chances. The Vandals barely managed to cut through the territories of the Vesia Kingdom, and only managed to succeed due to various factors.

This time, Ves didn't think the Friday Coalition would be that incompetent!

In fact, even if Ves launched his hijacking attempt right away, the CRC would not let go of him so easily! The Fridaymen would certainly dispatch a pursuit force to retrieve their ship!

Chapter 1729 Recurring Problem

Ves missed the presence of Nitaa and the Avatars. If he had some helpers around, he could cover a lot more ground!

Even so, Ves still believed he could succeed on his own! Having gone through various crises, he did not flinch from the danger at all!

In fact, he became excited at the thought of moving into action! His Larkinson blood boiled in his veins, encouraging him to fight!

He missed this exhilarating sensation. After his military service, Ves was no longer surrounded by enemies. Long years of peace had dulled his edge and made him complacent.

Yet now that he ended up in this situation, Ves felt as his desperation reignited his battle instincts!

Even though he was not a trained soldier or mech pilot, he still longed for battle!

"Not yet!" He hissed to himself. "I have to hold it in! I'm not done yet!"

After thoroughly analyzing the scans of the four mechs carried by the Scarlet Rose, Ves dispatched Lucky to tamper with a single component within the machines.

This sabotage was extremely subtle and shouldn't be detected in a short amount of time!

"Hehehe." He grinned.

Taking care of the mechs was trivial. With Lucky's ability phase through solid matter, he could easily sneak up to the mechs by burrowing through the deck and phase through their legs! From there, the cat could easily affect any part of the mech!

When it came to infiltration, no one was better than Lucky! Ves believed that not even Calabast was as good as his cat!

Unfortunately, Ves had been working Lucky very hard these days. His pet expended a lot of energy and often had to rest and recuperate whatever energy he expended. If not for that, he could have finished his preparations days ago!

The time to launch his plan came close. After Lucky tampered with the mechs, Ves wanted him to take a long rest before making his final moves!

Ves left the riskiest tampering for last. When making a move on the primary and secondary systems of the bridge, security department and engineering, the chances of discovery was too high!

Ves had no choice but to opt for speed instead of stealth to paralyze all of these essential systems!

While the Scarlet Rose was big, it wasn't big enough to delay Lucky from visiting all of these compartments if he moved at full speed!

There was no turning back once Lucky embarked on this frenzied sabotage spree! Ves would have to move into action whether he liked it or not! Once Lucky and him became exposed, the Fridaymen would definitely spoil his plans!

Ves behaved very carefully during these finals days. He did not wish to arouse any suspicion while he was on the cusp of crossing the rubicon.

To distract himself, he poured a lot of attention to his studies. Aisling did as she promised and provided him with a basic engineering textbook.

It was quite a good one. In addition to providing some basic explanations on FTL drives, the contents also provided an overview of the power reactor, thrusters and other ship components!

As long as he absorbed some of the basic knowledge contained within the book, he'd be able to perform minor repairs and check for obvious tampering.

In order to succeed in the second half of the escape plan, it was essential for him to be able to take over some of the responsibilities of an engineer!

While the Scarlet Rose could technically operate without a crew, there was still a chance that something might malfunction! Without a competent human crew at hand, Ves could only rely on himself to resolve any problems!

Of course, it was easier said than done to digest the engineering textbook. While Ves already learned some basic aspects about FTL drives and other ship components, he never studied them systematically.

He never possessed much of a passion for shipbuilding and ship design. As Journeyman Mech Designer, he already solidified his passion by forming a design seed based around mechs.

His design seed not only amplified his Spirituality whenever he worked on mechs, but also restricted his interest in other fields!

While it was possible for him to work hard and become a competent ship designer, he would never be as inventive and imaginative as those who dedicated themselves to this profession!

From what he knew about mech designers, Ves believed this narrow focus would persist until he advanced to Star Designer!

For some reason, Star Designers no longer limited their design work to mechs! While they were still capable of performing their old work, they all started designing other works such as cities, space stations, Dyson spheres and even starships!

Of course, that was way too far away for Ves. He shouldn't even consider branching out to designing ships until he surpassed the rank of Master!

While Ves tried to lay low by reading books all day, Aisling and Patricia never left him alone for long.

He often talked with Aisling during mealtime. Each time they met, she constantly persuaded him to turn his back to the Hexers and side with her instead.

Ves found it rather tiresome to reject her advances every day. Aisling seemed to have no shame and always presented the same arguments next time.

"The Friday Coalition is much better for you! Only by settling down in our state will you be able to progress without any hindrance!"

"Gloriana is a mean and selfish witch! She'll never treat you like an equal! Like any Hexer, she'll definitely seek to turn you into something less than a man!"

"Why don't you look at me, Ves? I'm prettier than Gloriana! Should I dye my hair black for you? Do you have a thing against blondes?"

The approach adopted by Aisling slowly eroded his resistance. Her arguments were very sound, after all. His mind partially agreed with his captor. If not for his heart constantly rebelling against the indignity he suffered, he might have actually agreed to embrace the Friday Coalition once again!

If Aisling had more time, Ves feared that she might succeed in dousing the fire raging within his heart!

While it wasn't easy to affect his deepest emotions, as long as she persisted for a couple of months or years, she might actually succeed!

Even if she failed, Aisling probably had many other means to convert him to her side! With Master Huron and Clarion University ready to assist her, Ves would never be able to resist forever!

This made it all the more important to avoid the Friday Coalition!

"Why are you so fixated on me?" Ves asked in an exasperated tone while they hung out at the lounge after dinner. "Aren't there a lot of talented mech designers in the Friday Coalition?"

The Friday Coalition encompassed a huge amount of space! Its six partners colonized thousands of star systems. An enormous amount of second-class citizens resided in its territories.

With a huge population base, the amount of mech designers in the state had reached a terrible figure!

At least some of these mech designers should have been compatible with Aisling!

"You're right, Ves." She replied and placed her palm on top of his hand. "I do know some men who I've kept my eye on for some time."

Ves immediately yanked his hand away!

Though Aisling pouted at him, he remained impassive!

"Why aren't you chasing after those other men, then?"

"While their qualifications are all good, I don't feel their design philosophies can help me as much as yours."

"Most mech designers don't specialize in fields like ours. Too many mech designers focus on enhancing the aspects that directly strengthen a mech such as making them faster or more resilient. Specialties such as neural connectivity and 'metaphysical man-machine symbiosis' are too esoteric."

"What about those who are different?"

"They're interesting." She briefly smiled as she reminisced about the mech designers she met at Clarion and elsewhere. "I know one mech designer who is obsessed with designing multi-pilot mechs."

"I thought those types of mechs went out of vogue, at least in this part of the galaxy."

"That's not entirely correct. There is still demand for multi-pilot mechs, but mostly for specialized purposes."

A multi-pilot mech was simply a mech piloted by multiple mech pilots.

Ves still remembered long ago, he designed a virtual mech featuring a large cockpit that was designed to accommodate multiple mech pilots!

That was not his proudest design, that was for sure.

"I recall the reason why multi-pilot mechs went out of vogue is because it's too risky. Connecting two mech pilots to a single mech at the same time is bound to pose some risks!"

"Most of those problems have been addressed to some extent." Aisling answered. "There is still some merit to multi-pilot mechs. They're most often seen in heavy or superheavy mechs featuring many different weapon systems."

These kinds of multi-pilot mechs basically operated like tanks. One mech pilot was in charge of the weapons, while the other mech pilot took care of the rest!

This was just the most common application of multi-pilot mechs. By splitting responsibilities, the mech pilots operating the mech concurrently did not need to be in sync.

However, more advanced multi-pilot mechs existed where the mech pilots simultaneously controlled every aspect of a mech!

Of course, the costs far outweighed the gains. Ves had never encountered such a mech in person!

"While his specialty sounds weird, I think it fits well with yours. Why didn't you hook up with this guy?"

"There's no benefit to me. Just because we are compatible doesn't mean I should partner up with him! If we collaborate, he'll certainly be able to improve by leaps and bounds! As for me, how can I possibly realize my ambition by sticking with multi-pilot mechs?"

"Ah."

She was right. Her goal was to lower the barrier of neural interconnectivity. Limiting herself to designing multi-pilot mechs was a step backwards in that regard!

"Are there any other specialties that are more helpful to you?"

"There are. I know one former classmate from Clarion who has always been good at designing mass-produced mechs. He's sort of the opposite of Gloriana in that he is very good at making his mechs compatible to many different mech pilots."

Ves blinked at that. "That sounds useful."

"It is. Nowadays, his specialty is in constant demand! Even if he's a Journeyman, he has contributed to the designs of several popular mechs designed by Seniors!"

"Why are you seducing him, then?" He asked. "As long as you exchange with him, he could probably find some way of lowering the requirements of your specialty!"

Aisling shook her head. "I think so as well. I considered this option long and hard. He's just as capable as me, and we come from the same university. There's one reason why I rejected him in the end."

"Why?"

"He's a dwarf."

"...What?"

"He's a high gravity variant human!" Aisling shouted. "I can't stand spending the rest of my life with a dwarf! His head only comes up to my chest! Think of how embarrassing it would be for us to hang out with each other!"

Ves looked dully at Aisling. "Is that really a problem? Can't he grow longer for you or something?"

"Impossible! For some variants, their bodies are fairly malleable. However, the mech designer I'm talking about is different! He's proud to be a dwarf!"

"I see."

Since that was the case, Ves could see why Aisling gave up on this fellow as a potential partner.

He would do the same if he was in her shoes!

"This shouldn't be it, right?"

"There are more, but each of them have an issue. Either they are already taken, or there's something about them that's not very pleasing to me. It's very hard to find a mech designer that ticks all of the boxes, you know! While your design philosophy is rather odd, I believe that there are many mech designers like me who recognize your value! Gloriana and I shouldn't be the only ones who want to turn you into our partner!"

Ves grimaced at her words. He had a hunch that she might have pointed out a recurring problem!

Chapter 1730 Rational Mech Designer

With one more day to go before he launched his attempt, Ves quietly bided his time.

No one appeared to have discovered the clue. Even though Ves tampered with a lot of systems through Lucky's assistance, he had always been careful to keep his changes as limited as possible!

If he made just a single mistake, the crew of the Scarlet Rose might discover his manipulations, forcing him to make his move prematurely!

With so many essential steps in his plans, he couldn't afford to miss any detail! Ves had to do far too much in a very brief amount of time!

Ves estimated that he needed to complete all of his objectives within just ten minutes! As long as he finished his plan within ten minutes, the Scarlet Rose would definitely fall into his hands!

However, if he encountered some delays, he risked giving the crew an opportunity to regain control over the ship!

All of the specialists stationed on the mobile supply frigate were much more knowledgeable about the systems of the ship than Ves! As long as they had enough time, they would certainly be able to fix his sabotage and restore some functionality to the ship!

Once that happened, it would be too easy for the crew to make use of some sort of internal defense system to take him out!

In short, Ves had to be both fast and thorough. While he could rely on many different advantages, he never forgot that he would be fighting on someone else's turf!

Even though Ves believed he gained a very good grasp on the Scarlet Rose's layout and configuration, who knew if he overlooked some important function!

Since Ves had to move quickly, he didn't have the time to follow up on some of the unknown parts and machinery that made up the ship.

However, Ves did not expect too many unpleasant surprises. A mobile supply frigate was not built for battle. All of its safeguards and precautions were mainly geared towards addressing low-probability events.

It did not make much economic sense to invest too excessively in the internal security systems like the Scarlet Rose.

While Ves tried to calm his nerves, Patricia visited his quarters once again.

"You're back."

"Would you rather have me stay away?"

"Oh, not at all!" Ves quickly said. "You're much more pleasant to talk to than Aisling."

"She's not very pleased with that. Why do you keep closing yourself off to her? Lady Curver really isn't as bad as you think."

"You already know my answer to that. I haven't changed my mind. The only way I'll change my mind about her if she lets me go! As long as I'm free to go, I don't mind corresponding with Aisling on a more cordial basis."

Of course, Ves firmly decided to block Aisling from contacting him as soon as he got back to safety! There was no way he would ever forgive this scheming Fridayman mech designer for depriving him of his freedom!

Apparently, Ves hadn't hidden his thoughts well enough.

"You don't look very sincere."

"Can you blame me? I'm still mad as hell. No matter what kind of carrot Aisling dangles in front of my head, I would rather bite off her head!"

Both of them fell into silence after he made this remark.

Ves realized that he let his fury get the better of him. Ever since he became an unwilling guest, it became increasingly harder to suppress his temper!

Fortunately, his captors did not take his spiteful words to heart. Since he fell into their clutches, it was only a matter of time before they brought him back to the light!

"You are very irritable, Ves."

"I guess I'm an emotional person."

"There is more to it than that. You're not very stable. Your mood and temperament never sit still. I fear that if you continue like this, you'll eventually cross a line."

"What's it to you, Patricia?"

"I don't want to see a former classmate and a brilliant mech designer fall."

"What do you mean by that?"

She studied him carefully with her clear and tranquil eyes. "You advanced too quickly. You grew up too fast as a mech designer."

"What's wrong with that? The MTA values those who break through before they reach thirty!"

"It's a trap!"

"What are you talking about!?"

Ves genuinely looked puzzled. He always thought that it was a good thing to become a Journeyman quickly. Those who surpassed the extraordinary threshold always had a bright future ahead of them because their potential was always high!

"It's kind of a secret within the mech industry." Patricia spoke in a softer voice while looking at him in pity. "I'm not sure whether I should tell you. It won't help you as you can't turn back the clock and undo your mistake."

"Just tell me! Don't tease me with your hints!" Ves slammed his hand against his lap!

After a brief moment of hesitation, Patricia bowed her head. "If you insist. Let me ask you first. When you.. Advanced to Journeyman, did you do anything to regulate your mood?"

"Uhh..."

Ves remembered that he advanced shortly after introducing the Aurora Titan to the public. He just holed himself up in an empty room in the exhibition center and broke through just like that.

"I see." She said. "You didn't prepare for your breakthrough, nor did you attempt to regulate it, am I correct?"

"Is there something wrong with that?" He asked defensively.

Had he made some huge mistake? Had he unwittingly squandered his potential by using the wrong method to advance to Journeyman?

"It's.. complicated. There are different opinions on this matter. Do you know that I'm still an Apprentice?"

Ves nodded. It was very obvious in the way she conducted herself in front of Aisling and him. If she was a Journeyman, she would have behaved like an equal.

To mech designers, their backgrounds and origins didn't matter as much as their competence in mech design.

As long as Patricia was able to match their prowess in mech design, she should have been able to lift her head in front of Aisling!

"If I really wanted to, I could have worked harder in order to advance faster. I might have even been able to become a Journeyman a year ago if I drop everything else and concentrate solely on elevating my design capabilities!"

"Why would you slack off?"

As far as Ves was concerned, every Apprentice longed to be a Journeyman! He couldn't imagine how anyone would want to delay their advancement and waste so much precious time!

The older someone advanced, the less time they had to work on reaching the next rank!

"The reason why I slowed down is because I needed to restore my mentality." Patricia tapped the side of her head. "Think about it. When you design a mech, do you feel enthusiastic? When you succeed in creating what you want, do you feel euphoric?"

"Yes."

"Ordinarily, your passion, enthusiasm and sense of fulfillment can do wonders for your motivation. When you get caught up in designing mechs, your strong feelings can make you more inventive and improve the quality of your work!"

Ves was very familiar with this. If he wasn't so passionate in his work, he would have never achieved so much in his career!

"That doesn't sound so bad, Patricia."

"I'm not finished. Strong feelings can swing both ways. In other words, it's a double-edged sword. Passion can empower your work, but also detract from it when something goes wrong!"

Ves was shocked by her revelation. He had never thought badly of his passion! To hear that it could be a threat to him was not something he could accept!

"Why is that so?"

"Don't get me wrong. Passion and enthusiasm are very useful. Some of the most brilliant innovations in mech design have emerged because mech designers have done their utmost to fulfill their goals! However, it's exactly because they are willing to go through extremes that they can be a danger to themselves!"

Ves wasn't stupid. He started to understand the gist of her argument.

"You mean that mech designers who get caught up in their passion and advance in such a state are too prone to be led by their emotions?"

"Exactly." Patricia. "There is a strain within the mech industry that believes that mech designers ought to be rational. One of the most essential demands is to keep a very tight control over your emotions. A rational mech designer must be in control over their emotions instead of the other way around!"

"This.. I never heard about this!" Ves responded with astonishment. "Is this what you are trying to become?"

She nodded. "This is why I've delayed my advancement. It's not wrong for me to feel passionate about my work, but I don't want to be consumed by it. I want to design mechs with a clear mind and purpose! To do so, I have to temper my emotions and unconscious impulses by letting them fade over time!"

"Is it that easy?"

"Not exactly." She shook her head. "If I pause too long between every successful design project, I'd be delaying my career progression too much. There are certain methods that can regulate your mood. Letting some time pass is just one of the simplest options."

"I see. What exactly is the advantage of doing this? Can you point me to an example of a so-called rational mech designer."

"Master Olson is a very good example." She pointed out. "While I'm not too familiar with your former Master, she obviously exhibits some behavioral traits that suggest that she has employed some methods to maintain control over herself!"

Now that he thought about it, Ves had always admired Master Olson for being so calm and collected. He could never imagine his Master in an angry or enthusiastic state!

"How can she advance to Master so quickly when she's suppressing her passion?"

Patricia shrugged. "I don't know. It's not a rule that rational mech designers are supposed to be slow in progressing their careers. Master Olson is very brilliant for becoming a Master while simultaneously maintaining a clear mind."

"What is so bad about a mech designer who doesn't bother with all of this stuff?" He asked. "From what you told me, mech designers who care a lot about their work can make brilliant achievements!"

Ves had a very high interest in the answer to this question!

"I don't look down on you, if that's what you think. It's just that mech designers who are caught up by their emotions are too unstable. This is not reflected in their work, but in their overall judgement. Have you heard about mech designers who are so consumed by their work that they have gone too far?"

Ves thought about mech designers such as Gloriana and the Skull Architect.

As much as he felt uncomfortable about it, he put himself in the same category as them! After all, Ves couldn't deny that he often let his emotions and unconscious feelings override his rationality!

"I think I understand what you are getting at. However.. are rational mech designers really better?"

"There is no consensus on this subject." Patricia answered. "However, if you ever get in touch with certain organizations, you'll find out that rational mech designers often consider themselves superior. This is because they value control above anything else!"

"Certainly passionate mech designers like us must feel differently, right?"

She nodded. "As I've mentioned before, most brilliant mech designs and other pivotal innovations come from mech designers who don't abide by logic! As long as passionate mech designers are able to avoid indulging themselves in self-destructive behavior, their achievements can easily surpass those who are more steady and firm in mind!"

"So to sum it up, there are pros and cons to both types of mech designers, right?"

"Yes, so don't feel bad for yourself for choosing this road. I believe that you can absolutely go far in your current course. It's just that your current behavior is not helping you. The sooner you give in to Lady Curver, the better!"

"That remains to be seen." Ves smiled tensely at her. "To me, my feelings are inseparable to me! I could never imagine giving up my greatest strength!"

Chapter 1731 Tenant Farming

According to Patricia, it was a lot harder to follow the path of a rational mech designer!

Those like Ves who gave in to their emotions never needed to hold themselves back!

If they wanted to pursue something, they did it wholeheartedly without being deterred by the low odds of success!

"In the higher levels of mech design, you will eventually get in touch with rational mech designers." She spoke. "The ability to control yourself is one of the hidden conditions to join the Design Department of the Mech Trade Association. This is the reason why the MTA rejects the vast majority of applicants. They don't exhibit enough control!"

"What? I never heard about that! Why does the MTA value control so much? Are they better than passionate mech designers?"

"Not exactly. In fact, we're worse in many areas. Because we have to temper their emotions, we aren't particularly adventurous or innovative. The hurdle to advancing to Journeyman is much harder for us because we often treat mech design as a chore. There are even rational mech designers who actually hate designing mechs, but nonetheless advanced to Master they have worked hard to become good at it! This is the ideal of a rational mech designer!"

Ves became stunned yet again! He had never heard of such a thing! He couldn't imagine a mech designer who hated his profession yet reached a height that most passionate mech designers would kill to achieve!

Her words prompted him to recall the time when he and Gloriana entered into low periods after expending a considerable amount of their spiritual energy.

To an energetic, passionate and creative mech designer, these low periods felt like pure torture to them! While they eventually managed to get used to this condition, they never felt comfortable remaining in this state.

It was like living with constant hunger gnawing in their bellies!

"What is the point of going through all of this torture? Is self-control even necessary?"

Patricia turned around and activated a projection of the Milky Way Galaxy. The map delineated all of the territories occupied by humanity.

"Look at this map. Human civilization spans a lot of star sectors. Each of those star sectors are filled with states that often war against each other. These conflicts generate demand for mechs, particularly mechs with powerful advantages over the competition. Put yourself in the shoes of the MTA that governs all of these activities. What do you think they see?"

He paused and thought for a moment. He recalled his earlier speculation and combined them with the hints given by Patricia.

"The MTA.. regards human space as an incubation chamber! As long as humans keep quarrelling with each other, they'll constantly develop new toys to beat their opponents!"

"Exactly. Most of the innovation that the MTA values comes from passionate mech designers who have somehow been able to overcome every hurdle and realize their design philosophy. With how large and diverse this incubation chamber has grown, the MTA never has to worry about running out of new inventions."

"I guess that there will be a lot less innovation if every passionate mech designer tries to become rational." Ves discovered.

She nodded. "Mech designers like you play a vital role in the mech design ecosystem. While your mech designs often feature very distinct flaws, their strengths are always very pronounced as well. The MTA needs these kinds of innovations to elevate the overall level of mech design."

"Why doesn't the MTA take part in this then? What is the use of rational mech designers?"

"Rational mech designers like us may not be as good in pushing the boundaries, but we are much more capable of assimilating different specialties. We train ourselves to keep an open and objective mind. Our design philosophies aren't as exclusive as others. We evaluate ourselves by a different standard for your kind. Passionate mech designers are graded by the usefulness of their specialty. Rational mech designers are graded by their ability to imitate, assimilate and combine other design philosophies!"

This was the first time Ves heard something like this! If Patricia didn't appear so credible, Ves would have thought that she was spewing nonsense!

A very ugly image started to form in his mind.

"I see now." He spoke morosely. "It's like tenant farming. Passionate mech designers are the poor serfs who toil in the fields and occasionally harvest some crops in the form of innovations. The rational mech designers of the MTA are the landholders or farm managers who effortlessly claim all of the crops while doing almost none of the backbreaking work!"

"That's the reality of the mech industry in the era of the MTA." Patricia confirmed, not mincing any words this time. "To the MTA, a good mech designer is not necessarily someone who can design a very unique or innovative mech. A good mech designer is someone who can consistently design good mechs that meets demand. Do you comprehend the difference?"

He nodded after a few seconds of thought. "Passionate mech designers are more focused on the journey. They have to expend all their time on navigating the paths and making sure they chose the correct ones. Rational mech designers are more about the end result. Their mech designs have to meet the requirements. Nothing more. It doesn't matter if they steal or borrow from someone else's specialty."

"It's a fair trade, Ves. It is not as if passionate mech designers are forced to give up their trade secrets to the MTA."

That was true. Ves already found out that mech designers who pass on their trade secrets to the MTA could obtain a lot of merits in return. With that, they could exchange their merits for all kinds of rewards, the most important of which was life-prolonging treatment!

Still, Ves felt a little sour about being regarded as a poor and dirt-crusted peasant. The snobby noble mech designers from the MTA didn't have to go into the fields at all!

Patricia noticed the direction of his thoughts. "I already told you that you aren't necessarily worse than mech designers like us. We have our own challenges. We can only make full use of someone else's design philosophy if it has been realized. Even then, we have to adapt ourselves to assimilate these specialties, which is quite challenging. At the same time, we can't neglect our own design philosophies either. All of this is very hard to do while actively suppressing our strongest emotions and impulses."

Hearing all of this made him dizzy for a bit. He no longer felt as much envy towards these rational mech designers anymore. They climbed a very different road, one in which they needed to depend on their will instead of their passion!

He really didn't agree with this approach towards mech design.

Ves always designed with his heart. He also valued the meaning of each mech design. While he understood the logic behind this alternate approach, he did not regret sticking to his current ways!

He understood now why Patricia said that both rational and passionate mech designers had their own pros and cons. One wasn't better than the other, and just because the MTA mainly hired rational mech designers did not mean that they belonged to a superior class of mech designers.

"You told me that mech designers who depend on passion and emotion risk going too far." He said. "Are there ways to.. mitigate the downsides of my approach?"

Since Patricia knew a lot of information that ordinary mech designers never got in touch with, Ves might as well take advantage of her willingness to share some of these secrets!

He had no idea why she was being so open about them to him, but he shouldn't look at a gift horse in the mouth!

"There are many ways to exert more control over yourself." She replied with a smile. "In fact, when mech designers advance to Senior and Master, they generally learn about the importance of control. They adopt various means to restrain their passion and prevent themselves from being consumed by their strong emotions."

"So they're basically trying to become more rational?"

"It's not a dichotomy, Ves. A mech designer is never 100 percent emotional or 100 percent rational. You can view it as a spectrum. For example, I tend to view myself as 80 percent rational and 20 percent emotional. This means that I'm purposefully muting my emotions by more than half!"

Ves didn't dare to guess where he stood on the spectrum. One thing was for sure. He was definitely more emotional and rational when it came to mech design!

"I think I understand your point. When mech designers continue to pursue their passion, they are probably sliding further towards the emotional side of the spectrum. If they go too far, their judgement will get more and more skewed. In order to regain their common sense and restore some of their humanity, they have to force themselves to become more rational!"

Patricia looked impressed by his guess. "That is correct. I see that you have already thought a lot about this matter. I'm sure you're familiar with the phrase that mech design is an art as well as a science. We humans are emotional creatures, but one of the reasons why we rose up as a dominant species is because we are able to suppress our instincts and avoid giving in to our emotions in order to achieve a greater goal!"

"I'm guessing there is a downside to these control methods, right?"

"Yes. Rational mech designers are naturally less prone to mood swings. It's different in your case. Reducing your emotions directly affects your productivity as a mech designer. The key therefore lies in tempering your mood when you don't need it, but unleashing it when you are actively designing a mech!"

"I understand!" Ves became enlightened. "However, it's probably not as easy as I think, right?"

She nodded. "Emotions are an indispensable part of you. It is against your instinct to suppress them. Many mech designers who live with their emotions for decades have failed to suppress them because they simply can't function without them! It is very difficult to explain their pain!"

In truth, Ves already garnered a guess about it. Such a state sounded similar to his low periods!

"So is there anything concrete that you can suggest to me at the start?"

"Hmm.." She thought for a moment. "I'm not sure it's wise for you to adopt any of the strong and systematic control methods. I believe you're better off learning to adjust your mentality through natural means. Even though they won't have a strong effect because you've already become a Journeyman, they will still help in preventing you from going over the edge!"

"Tell me then." Ves looked at Patricia with earnest anticipation.

He no longer viewed her as an enemy! Privately, Ves thought that when he initiated his hijacking attempt, he should spare her life if she was at his mercy. It was the least he could do for her generous advice!

"There are three general methods which I think are useful to you." She spoke, and raised a single finger.

"I've already mentioned the first one. You should slow down between design projects. The passage of time will allow you to regain your center and reflect on yourself."

That sounded like a huge waste of time to Ves!

She raised a second finger.

"The second method to control yourself is to develop a set of principles! As long as you impose some limits to yourself, you'll recognize when you are about to go too far and can pull yourself back in time!"

This sounded very familiar to Ves! Though he hadn't always been honest with his principles, he felt very attracted by this method!

Patricia raised a third finger. "The last method I recommend is to find a hobby that you can direct your passion towards instead! Whether it's learning how to play an instrument or tinkering with gadgets, as long as you can vent your excess passion and emotion towards a harmless hobby, it's worth pursuing!"

This sounded familiar to Ves as well. The problem was that he already attempted this before! He had no other hobby aside from designing mechs!

Chapter 1732 Guiding Principles

Mech design was a very demanding profession.

Mech designers had to be rational. They had to be capable of absorbing and applying an enormous amount of scientific knowledge.

Mech designers also had to be passionate. Those without feeling were no better than auto-designers that were incapable of designing groundbreaking mechs!

As Patricia explained, mech designers had to straddle the line between these two extremes and find a position where they could maximize their success.

Patricia was very suited to become a rational mech designer due to her excellent ability to control herself. Ves never saw her exhibit any strong emotion.

He met quite a few mech designers who impressed him with their level of control. Now that he thought about it, Master Olson truly came across as someone who was in absolute control of herself!

He suspected that a handful of other mech designers he met in the past adopted the same approach as well. Professor Ventag and Mayra of the Swordmaidens stood out as two distinct suspects!

It wasn't easy to determine whether other mech designers fit this mold as well. The existence of a spectrum meant that every rational mech designer expressed at least some emotions, while every passionate mech designer exerted at least some control over their urges!

When Patricia left after she enlightened him, Ves threw all thoughts about his violent takeover plan to the back of his mind.

What he learned was simply too shocking for him to ignore!

He calmly went over what he learned. He adjusted his perspective on mech designers and tried to judge whether he should do something with what he learned.

"Am I satisfied with myself? Do I need to change my position on the spectrum?"

He knew he depended on his emotions to design his mechs. He didn't see anything wrong with that!

"I'm doing great so far. Obviously, that means my self-control is already sufficient!"

He felt very confident about his conclusion. In his opinion, Patricia thought too poorly about his ability to remain in control! He could be very rational when he wanted to be! Right?

As for the three methods Patricia suggested Ves to adopt, he promised to get back to them once he overcame his current predicament.

"I can't afford to take it slow." He muttered. "Pausing in order to regain my center and reflecting on my gains is a waste of time!"

He had to keep progressing as fast as possible! As long as he remained weak, he continued to remain vulnerable to people like Lady Curver!

In order to take control of his life and resist enemies such as the Five Scrolls Compact, he had to advance to Master as soon as possible! Once he reached this exalted rank, he believed he could finally make his voice heard!

The second method sounded much more interesting to him. Ves had already spent a lot of time on formulating a set of principles.

The only problem was that his own principles diverged substantially from the ones propagated by the MTA.

Ves felt no sincerity towards most of the principles adopted by orthodox mech designers. In truth, he only paid lip service to them and ignored them at his own convenience.

He only took some principles seriously, such as the responsibility of a teacher towards a student. He couldn't really explain why he valued this principle so highly.

He formed some other principles as well, such as offering fair treatment to his design spirits and valuing strong loyalty. While this wasn't that much of a problem right now, if he neglected this issue, he suspected that it would blow up in a huge problem down the line!

The rules that people abided by not only constrained their behavior, but also shaped their personality. When someone became used to adopting a certain attitude, they became much less likely to break the mold.

"This is actually useful to me." He concluded.

As for the last method Patricia mentioned, Ves chose to add it to his extremely lengthy to-do list.

He was already short on time. He had way too many things to do and too little time to address them all. Why should he expend his valuable design energy on some useless hobby?

To Ves, his passion and energy for mech design were essential resources! He depended on them to increase his motivation and commitment to his design projects!

Perhaps many mech designers who tried to pursue self-control had wasted most of their creative juices by wasting them on frivolous hobbies!

"There's never too much passion in my opinion!"

He believed that strong passion and emotion were not only keys to designing his best mechs, but also enabled the creation of masterwork mechs!

Ves recalled his first true passion project. The energy and enthusiasm he devoted to designing the Devil Tiger had reached unprecedented levels!

The euphoria he experienced upon fabricating the mech was unforgettable!

Ever since he made his first masterwork mech, he constantly tried to grasp this frenzy once more!

While Ves didn't know if a rational mech designer was incapable of crafting masterwork mechs, he guessed that this was extremely unlikely!

He couldn't imagine a passionless mech designer succeeding in fabricating a mech that surpassed the quality of the original design! A masterwork mech came about through an intense confluence of meaning, feelings and intuition along with a dash of serendipity!

None of those were something that rational mech designers depended upon to design their mechs!

From the impression given by Patricia, mech designers like her depended heavily on their heads instead of their hearts to design their mechs!

That said, Ves did not dismiss this suggestion entirely. He intuitively felt that hobbies weren't all that bad. Instead of guessing about it, he might as well try it seriously and see for himself if it was as beneficial as Patricia suggested!

He abruptly frowned and interrupted his train of thought.

"Why do I keep getting back to Patricia and her advice?"

He looked at the clock and found out to his consternation that three unsuspecting hours had already passed!

"Goddammit!"

As a mech designer, Ves couldn't help but be obsessed with anything related to his profession. If he hadn't reminded himself that he was about to engage in a very risky venture tomorrow, he might have spent entire days instead of a couple of hours in thought!

He narrowed his eyes in suspicion. Why did Patricia come and reveal so many inexplicable secrets and insights to him? Ves recognized that what she told him must not be common knowledge! Since the MTA was strongly involved, this must have been very high-level information!

"She knows me well enough that I'm very passionate about my work."P

Did she deliberately exploit his trait to manipulate him? If he seriously considered her words, then he might have tried to follow some of her suggestions, especially since he had nothing else to do in captivity!

Her ultimate goal must have been to encourage him to spend his time on trying out the three methods!

Since Aisling did not allow him to design any mechs, Ves really had little else to do. He would have surely spent a lot of time on the first method and perhaps the other two methods as well!

The outcome of engaging in these methods became clear to Ves! His captors wanted him to suppress his anger and to reduce his animosity towards them! As long as he suppressed his strongest emotions, he wouldn't be as hostile anymore!

In addition, as long as he became more rational, he also became more susceptible to Aisling's persuasions!

He always found Aisling's arguments to be compelling. If Ves wasn't so resentful at her, he might have become more friendlier with her by now!

"Hahaha! So this is your plan!"

Patricia visited him with a friendly smile and some very helpful advice. However, her underlying goal was nothing less than to reduce his resistance towards his captors!

If Ves started listening to his reason, he feared that he would lose his way!

He was a mech designer! He was a Larkinson! He was Gloriana's girlfriend!

He abided by all of those identities and more! The moment he began to abandon some of them was the moment he was no longer the same!

The fury in his heart spread to his eyes. He glowered at the space that Patricia used to occupy. He believed he saw through her malicious intentions!

"How poisonous! Gloriana would never resort to such tricks!"

Ves much preferred to deal with his girlfriend due to her strong and predictable personality!

As for people like Patricia, she was so rational that she was probably very adept in planning and scheming.

He consciously equated her to Calabast! Both of them were highly in control of themselves and both of them were capable of adjusting themselves when necessary!

"Maybe it's not a bad thing to be stubborn. At least I am staying true to myself!"

He suspected that rational mech designers like Patricia didn't have any principles at all! They needed to be flexible enough to assimilate many different design philosophies, after all. They were probably chameleons in this regard!

Aware that he had inadvertently wasted a lot of time on information that wouldn't help him tomorrow, Ves quickly cast out all of his existing thoughts.

Instead of wasting his time on philosophical matters, he should instead go over his current plan and make sure he memorized all of the steps!

A quiet night passed as Ves dreamt of violence.

The next day, Ves tried his best to hide his excitement. He wanted to do nothing more than materialize his Amastendira and blast every Fridayman in sight!

However, this wasn't the right time!

Ves needed to make his move while the Scarlet Rose emerged from FTL!

Trying to hijack the ship while she was travelling through the higher dimensions was very risky! As long as even a single thing went wrong in engineering, the ship might lose stability and tear apart, dooming everyone!

While Ves didn't care about the lives of the crew, he valued his own life very highly! He would never do something so stupid when he could minimize the risks by waiting a little.

As long as the Scarlet Rose transitioned back to the material dimensions, any accidents wouldn't immediately become fatal!

Through some surreptitious hacking by Lucky, Ves already learned of their upcoming destination. The Scarlet Rose was about to reach a medium-populated border system belonging to a third-rate state that neighbored the Friday Coalition.

If the Scarlet Rose sustained too much damage, then Ves could at least preserve his life by waiting for rescue from the local patrol forces!

Failure was not unacceptable to him. As long as he remained alive, he could always mount another comeback!

When Ves ate breakfast with Aisling at the dining room, he acted the same as usual.

"Patricia taught you the importance of rationality yesterday, right?"

Ves nodded. "What about it, Aisling?"

"I think it's very helpful for you if you take some time to reflect on yourself. You're so consumed by the present that you might have changed in ways you don't fully agree with. From what I've gathered, you were much different a couple years ago."

"If this is some oblique way of stating that Gloriana corrupted me, then you can save your words. My stance is still the same!"

Aisling sighed in an exasperated manner. "I'm concerned about your professional life, not just your personal life. Mech designers who are as emotional as you tend to self-destruct over time. Who knows whether you will do something unforgivable one day? Humans are different from exobeasts because we are capable of transcending our baser instincts. Don't be an animal, Ves. Be civilized."

"I would have you know that I am a very 'civilized' mech designer." Ves twitched his mouth. "If it makes you feel better, I promise you that I'll do my best to show how civilized I can be today!"

Chapter 1733 Loose Pants

Like any other day, Ves returned to his quarters after breakfast.

Ever since he stepped aboard the Scarlet Rose, he never visited any other part of the ship aside from his quarters, the dining room, the lounge and the corridors in between.

These compartments only constituted a small portion of the mobile supply frigate!

If he tried to launch his impending plan without scouting the other sections of the ship in advance, he was liable to encounter a lot of nasty surprises!

This wasn't that big of a problem if he tried to attack a cheap, third-class vessel.

Third-class ships tended to be very economical. As long as they could travel the stars and fulfill their primary functions, everything else was secondary!

It was different for more expensive ships. The CRC was not short on money and resources at all, and the Scarlet Rose cut no corners when it came to repelling hostile intruders.

Ves did not dare to underestimate the ship's security measures. Even when he gained an enormous advantage in information, initiative and preparation, he still believed that something might go out of control today!

"I've already made my preparations." He sighed. "There is nothing more I can do."

He tried his best to calm himself and continue to go over his steps again and again. He had to be as efficient as possible when he started to make his moves.

Even a single second of delay might give his opponents the opportunity to counterattack!

The key to succeeding in the first step was to launch his first attacks simultaneously. He needed to hit the bridge, security section and engineering section simultaneously with as little delay in between as possible!

It was very difficult to time his moves so precisely. He could only be in one place at a time, so he had no control over the timing of the attacks on the other two sections.

His stateroom was situated on the upper decks of the Scarlet Rose. The closest target was the bridge, which was located a bit below and towards the bow of the ship.

Ves had to break out of his quarters, cross the distance and barge into the bridge before someone closed the blast doors!

As long as the captain on the bridge received advanced warning and shut the blast doors, Ves would not be able to penetrate the bridge right away!

The bridge served as the nucleus of the Scarlet Rose. It contained some of the highest authority over the systems running the ship, and often held the most important passengers and crew in event of an emergency.

Perhaps the best way to look at the bridge was to equate it with the cockpit of a mech! The bridge was a self-contained compartment surrounded by extremely thick armor plating!

Some ships were even capable of ejecting this compartment in the event of a catastrophic event!

Fortunately, the Scarlet Rose was not as extravagant. Ves didn't have to worry about the bridge running away from the rest of the ship!

However, this also meant that he couldn't scare off the occupants of the bridge into running away. Ves had to take care of them right away, and time his approach as best as possible!

This was one of the riskiest steps of his plan. As long as anything went wrong at the start, the situation would rapidly spin out of control!

Ves nervously grabbed a book from the library and sat down behind his desk. He tried his best to pretend that he was immersed in his studies.

In truth, his eyes weren't even focused on the printed words and diagrams of the book.

Silently, Ves counted down the minutes. According to the information retrieved by Lucky, the ship would emerge out of FTL very soon, though Ves couldn't pin down the exact timing.

Due to the influence of gravitic tides and the inherent instability of FTL travel, a ship might arrive at a destination a day before or a day later than estimated!

However, Ves did not expect the Scarlet Rose to exhibit so much variance. Right now, she was travelling through low-energic space. The barren star systems were largely devoid of highly energetic exotics that increased the gravitic turbulence in the surrounding light-years.

Since the Scarlet Rose was designed to travel through Coalition space, her FTL drive was much more stable and solid than cheaper ones!

This was why Ves expected the Scarlet Rose to arrive at the next star system on time!

After several hours of waiting, the time had finally come.

Ves experienced the strange sensation of transitioning out of FTL. A bit of nausea crept up to him, but he was so used to it that he effortlessly suppressed this impulse.

He was on a time limit right now!

Ves raced towards the bathroom as if he desperately needed to use the toilet!

As soon as the bathroom door slid shut, he nodded towards an intangible form that had been standing by for a while.

Ves did not dare to speak out loud. Aside from the optical sensors, the monitoring was still intact!

After making sure that Lucky was still onboard with the plan, he raced towards a cupboard and retrieved the beauty bot that was responsible for grooming his hair and applying makeup on his face.

He pressed the emergency shutoff button and turned its spherical shape around until he faced the backplate.

Using a stripped-down sonic toothbrush, he applied a considerable amount of force to pry open the plate. Once he did so, he yanked out some of the useless internal components until he created enough space.

This should be enough!

Next, Ves slipped his hands under his pants and retrieved the bulge he'd been hiding underneath his Synthra Umbra underwear all this time.

The moment he took it out, his pants felt oddly loose to him. He wasn't used to this loose sensation!

He shook his head. This was not the time to think about stuffing his pants again!

He tried to make as little sound as possible while carefully slipping in the jamming device between the internals of the bot.

Once he stuffed it in, he restored the backplate so that the beauty bot looked as normal as possible!

After finishing this step, he took the beauty bot out of the bathroom while Lucky followed along while remaining intangible.

When he reached his desk, Ves slipped his hand under his pants once again to retrieve his personal comm.

He activated it, knowing that the monitoring system of his quarters would probably pick up its presence.

He used his comm to attempt a connection to the galactic net and send help messages Gloriana, the Larkinson Family and the Bright Republic!

After making sure his comm would keep spamming the internal network of the ship with its requests, Ves placed it down on his desk before immediately heading to the exit with the bot in tow!

Lucky already flew ahead and phased through the bulkhead in order to reach a hidden mechanism.

After destroying a single, crucial component, the armored hatch automatically slid open!

Ves shared one urgent look with Lucky before letting go of the beauty bot!

The bot acted on its tampered programming and started to fly down the corridor. The jamming device inside activated as well, causing an interference field to form around the bot!

If not for planning its route beforehand, the blinded bot would have crashed into the bulkhead or something by now!

In the meantime, Lucky already disappeared by phasing through the deck. He had his own mission to fulfill!

While he was still in the range of the jamming field, Ves mentally flicked towards his intangible Inventory and materialized his System comm!

He quickly booted it up and instantly activated its Full Stealth augment!

"Finally!" He sighed, knowing that the powerful field would block any sound!

At its current level, the Stealth Augment installed on his System comm would only make him invisible and undetectable for ten minutes.

"Ten minutes should be enough!"

Right now, the security officers overseeing the monitor system should be quite confused!

According to the data, Ves should have disappeared from their sensors! Instead, two new abnormal signatures emerged in their sights.

First was his personal comm which lay on his desk and kept transmitting help requests!

Second was the tampered beauty bot which carried his active jamming device!

As long as the security officers took notice of these two abnormalities, they would definitely suspect that Ves was trying escape!

The route taken by the beauty bot just happened to be flying away from the bridge. Ves had already programmed it to run towards the nearest escape pods!

While the guards presumably started to react to this strange occurrence, Ves turned towards the opposite direction and ran towards the bridge under the confidence that his true whereabouts were completely unknown!

"I have to run faster!"

When he formulated his plan, he gambled that his earlier actions did not arouse too much vigilance in the crew.

After all, Ves should have been completely alone and without any gear! Even if he somehow snatched a comm and circumvented the exit of his quarters, he still wouldn't be able to do much damage while the internal security systems of the ship were completely active!

However, when the security officers tried to amplify the artificial gravity in the corridor where the beauty bot was passing through, nothing happened!

Ves had already hacked them, making them completely unresponsive to any external commands!

While the security officers started to become alarmed, Ves had finally reached the bridge!

Since his quarters and the bridge were both located on the upper decks, Ves hadn't spent much time reaching the latter.

He wanted to thank Aisling for treating him like an honored guest! His stateroom wasn't very far from Aisling's quarters. The upper decks of a ship was where the captain and the most important passengers of a ship resided.

Usually, the distance between their quarters and the bridge had to be as short as possible!

After all, the captain shouldn't be forced to cross the entire length of a ship in the event of an emergency!

Aisling should have taken a page out of Ghanso's book and chuck him into the brig! As long as he was stuck in a cell, it would have been ten times for him to sneak away!

Only a brief amount of time had passed since the monitoring system picked up something abnormal. Ves was sure that security just started to dispatch some teams to intercept his decoys.

Fortunately, Ves gambled correctly, and the blast doors still hadn't slammed shut and blocked his way to the bridge!

Right now, a more normal hatch hindered his entry. Unless someone left or entered the bridge, it was unlikely that this hatch would open!

Ves looked around and did not see any crew running to the bridge.

That made sense. It was customary for a full shift to be present on the bridge whenever a ship transitioned out of FTL.

Ves hadn't dared to tamper with the control system governing this hatch. The bridge was one of the most sensitive compartments of a ship and its entry was probably very tightly monitored!

While he could have hacked its control system, he had already tampered enough with the bridge. Every additional tampering attempt increased the risk of discovery!

Instead of hacking this hatch, Ves opted to enter through a much more convenient manner.

"As expected!" He grinned as he heard some footsteps approaching!

He half-expected Aisling to approach. Instead, her executive assistant emerged from the corner. She looked concerned as her heels clacked against the surface of the deck.

Ves stood to the side of the hatch and watched the assistant go through a brief verification process.

The hatch slid open as soon as the ship recognized her identity!

As soon as she entered, Ves slipped behind her body as close as possible without touching her and neatly slipped into the bridge with no one else the wiser!

He couldn't help but form a grin on his face. Now that he managed to enter the bridge, he overcame his first major hurdle!

Chapter 1734 Simultaneous Action

The bridge of a starship functioned as the primary control nexus of a starship. The captain held supreme authority over the vessel by virtue of his position and extensive experience.

Not even Lady Aisling Curver had the right to override the commands of the captain!

This was because the captain worked for the Coalition Reserve Force!

The captain appeared to be a middle-aged looking man with greying hair and steady eyes. He seemed to have spent all of his time on ships due to his pale skin that bordered on unhealthy.

None of the other bridge crew looked as remarkable.

Ves, still invisible and undetectable, distanced himself from Aisling's blond assistant. Though he retracted the field of his stealth augment in a very small radius, he didn't want to risk enveloping her in its range.

That would have given him away!

He swept his gaze through the rest of the bridge.

Frigate ship classes weren't as cramped as corvette ship classes. The Scarlet Rose was also a lot larger and more complex, so the bridge had to be large enough to accommodate at least six bridge officers and operators at minimum and double this figure at maximum!

Right now, the bridge only housed ten people: one captain, six crew, one assistant and two armored guards.

The latter concerned Ves the most. Both of them wore heavy combat armor that turned them into tall, metal beasts.

Ves did not dare to underestimate them. Unlike the infantry armor in places like the Bright Republic, the guards wore very resilient second-class combat armor!

These suits of armor not only protected their wearer from damage, but incorporated a huge amount of functions! They were like mechs in miniature form in that regard!

Due to their extreme threat, Ves had to take them out first!

Fortunately, Ves already expected their presence. Despite their intimidating gear, he just regarded them as obstacles to overcome.

His primary target remained the captain. Taking him would deprive the Scarlet Rose of a crucial leader during a crisis!

He quietly materialized the Amastendira. After spending so many days in peace, his Supreme-quality laser pistol felt a bit unfamiliar in his grip.

Each time he took the Amastendira from his Inventory, he marveled at its craftsmanship.

Now that he had built a masterwork mech, Ves possessed a much greater sensitivity towards masterwork objects.

He could tell that the Amastendira had touched this realm as well!

Too bad it was just a copy. Ves often dreamt of the true Amastendira. The original version should have been an awe-inspiring piece of gunsmithing!

Oh well. The System-generated copy he owned still exhibited most of the power of the original.

He adjusted the settings of his weapon before holding it firmly in a two-handed grip.

If he wanted to forestall any unpleasant surprises, then he had to kill each and every person on the bridge within a second!

Ves had two ways to accomplish this goal.

First, he could fire a wide-angle scatter blast, diffusing the energy of his weapon over a large area!

Second, he could employ a powerful penetrating cutting beam and rake the muzzle of his weapon from one end to the other end of the compartment!

When Ves formed his plan, he was torn over which option he should choose.

The first one would definitely kill the captain and every other unarmored crew member in an instant!

However, depending on the energy and heat resistance of the terminals and control panels, Ves might render every interface useless, which would pose significant hindrances to his attempts to take over the ship!

The second option would certainly be deadly enough to cut through the armor of guards, but the brief amount of time needed to sweep over the rest of the crew might give them some time to activate some defense functions!

In addition, while the cutting beam wouldn't demolish the entire bridge at once, it would probably cut through a lot of delicate systems beneath the surface!

Between the two choices, Ves eventually settled on the first one.

He wanted his attack to encompass as many people as possible! In addition, so what if the scatter blast melted all of the surface equipment? As long as the internal electronic systems remained intact, he could easily tap in to them with some replacement interfaces!

Therefore, Ves crept up to a good position right in front of the hatch he just passed through.

At this position, the angle of his attack would definitely encompass the bridge crew sitting at the periphery!

He raised his pistol and waited for the appropriate time.

In the meantime, he listened to the dialogue between the assistant and the captain.

"Captain, please lock down the ship. Mr. Larkinson is on the loose."

"We are trying, but half of our signals aren't getting through." The captain gritted his teeth as he continually manipulated his projected interface. "There is something wrong with the primary and secondary command networks! According to the diagnostics, many systems aren't responding!"

The assistant looked alarmed. "What?! How?"

"Sabotage!"

As the two exchanged their worries, the bridge suddenly shook a bit!

At the security department, a couple of off-duty guards approached the armory in order to don their combat gear.

The monitoring system detected both the comm calling for help and the active jamming field heading for the escape pods. This immediately alerted the guards, prompting them to prepare for action!

As soon as the armored hatch slid open, the interior of the armory became exposed.

At this time, all kinds of equipment suddenly exploded! Their abrupt and simultaneous blasts damaged many other equipment such as grenades and explosive rounds, causing a portion of them to detonate almost instantly!

The entire armory became awash with fury! Not only that, but due to the opened hatch, the high energy explosions also poured into the main security compartment, causing many armored and unarmored guards to be swept up by a wave of white-hot heat and energy!

Back to the bridge, some of the consoles blared in alarm!

"Report!"

"Sir, an explosion occurred within the armory of the security department! Preliminary analysis suggests that every energy cell and every explosive ordnance has blown up! We have lost contact with over half of our security officers!"

Shortly after this, bad news came from another direction!

"Captain, engineering has been attacked!"

"What is the status of the chief engineer?!"

"He's dead, sir!"

When Ves decided who should attack engineering, he quickly settled for Lucky.

With his stealth, intangibility and energy claws, he was highly suited for assassination!

The most important reason why he left engineering to Lucky was because his attacking means were too destructive!

Discharging his Amastendira across the entire engineering compartment was bound to destroy or disable many delicate machinery! Ves could not bear damaging the crucial power reactor and FTL drive!

In a situation where collateral damage was unacceptable, Lucky was the better choice!

Having phased just below the surface of the deck, the cat had been biding his time.

He wasn't staying static either. Ever since he reached the engineering compartment, he sought out the chief engineer and positioned himself just underneath his feet!

Wherever the chief engineer moved, Lucky followed right along without anyone getting the wiser!

The meters-thick deck that was strong enough to contain most catastrophic explosions posed no hindrance at all!

At most, Lucky expended a lot more energy than usual due to the high-density matter he was phasing through.

The moment the armory exploded, Lucky moved into action as well!

He shot out from the deck and raked the chief engineer from belly to head with deadly energy claws!

The victim didn't even have the time to feel any pain before his head tore in half!

Just an instant after Lucky emerged, the cat rapidly shuttled over to a pair of junior engineers and clawed through their heads!

Not even a second had passed before Lucky killed some of the other crew members!

The pair of guards assigned to guard engineering only just became alerted and tried to lock on to the small but lethal attacker!

"Meow!"

Yet before they could bring their weapons to bear, Lucky had already killed every engineer and spacer in sight!

Though one of the guards managed to discharge a spherical electrical blast, Lucky simply turned intangible and dove into the deck!

Moments later, Lucky shot out from underneath the feet of a guard and materialized his claw for an instant of a second when it was just passing through the head!

The guard instantly died without suffering any external wounds!

His partner quickly followed suit as he possessed no effective countermeasures against an intangible opponent!

Now that he cleared engineering, Lucky materialized while looking a bit winded. His earlier actions consumed a lot of energy! If Gloriana hadn't constantly fed him with treats, he would have been a lot more exhausted by now!

As it was, Lucky still had enough energy left to take care of some of the remaining threats of the ship. His eyes grew sharper as his hunting programming resumed operation. He phased through the ceiling and headed straight towards the security department. Ves tasked him with cleaning up the survivors of the armory explosion!

Back at the bridge, the bridge received a deluge of alerts! The captain and everyone else became unprecedentedly serious!

They had the impression that an entire team of saboteurs somehow infiltrated the Scarlet Rose without alerting anyone!

Was it the Hexers? How many of them were wreaking havoc on the ship? No one knew!

At this time, no one bothered to pay attention to Ves! Compared to a measly Brighter mech designer, Lady Curver was a lot more important!

"Switch to red alert! Inform everyone that we have hostile boarders or saboteurs on the ship! Redirect the surviving guards to protect our VIPs and retake engineering! Be ready to escort them to the escape pods if the latter action fails!"

Too late!

Ves made his move without breaking stealth. He fired his Amastendira while pressing his elbow against his eyes!

A powerful blast of light and heat swept throughout the bridge in an instant! A huge amount of heat elevated the temperature in the compartment to lethal degrees, causing Ves to feel scorching hot!

If not for his Jutland organ absorbing all of the excess heat sweeping over his body, he would have suffered severe burns!

Discharging a wide-area energy attack in a closed compartment was very dangerous!

While Ves merely suffered from a wash of heat and reflected light, his targets suffered the brunt of the energy discharge!

Many crew members didn't even have time to scream before their uniforms vaporized and their flesh followed suit!

Some of the luckier ones died with a portion of their flesh charred beyond recognition!

Shortly afterwards, a lot of air sucked out as the air management system of the bridge rapidly siphoned away the hot air! A fresh, cool breeze encompassed the bridge as various other measures cooled down the piping hot deck and bridge consoles!

Ves withdrew his arm from his face and moved his position. He grimaced a bit as he found that the soles of his shoes had not entirely survived the heat exposure!

He ignored the damage he suffered and tried his best to move away from his earlier position!

This happened to be a wise decision as a particle beam just shot through the location where he just stood!

An instant later, a grenade exploded and encompassed a small radius with a powerful but contained explosions that rattled the ears!

Sweat poured down his brow as he gripped his Amastendira like a lifeline.

Though his offensive power was high, he was sorely lacking protection! Just one shot was enough to take him out!

As soon as he repositioned himself, he started to count the survivors.

His eyes widened as he saw that four of his targets survived!

The two guards who counterattacked just then had survived. While their armor looked half-molten, the energy discharge failed to overcome its protection!

Ves already expected this. Without focusing the power of his Amastendira, its full-powered scatter blast was not all that deadly to heavily-armored targets.

What he didn't expect was that the captain and Lady Curver's assistant both survived the sudden attack as well!

Even now, a shimmering sphere surrounded their forms, signifying that both of them wore shield generators!

Chapter 1735 Female Benny

Shield generators shouldn't be common. Ves happened to obtain one by chance after he managed to become Master Olson's apprentice.

To an esteemed Master, shield generators weren't difficult to obtain!

However, they were still expensive enough to put them out of reach of the general population of a second-rate state!

Perhaps shield generators may be more ubiquitous elsewhere, but the Komodo Star Sector did not produce many of the key materials needed to produce them en masse.

As far as Ves was aware of, the shield generators had to be imported, which massively increased their markup!

Those who had the privilege of kitting themselves out with shield generators fell into at least three categories.

The first category were those who possessed a lot of value. Mech designers like Ves or distinguished professionals were capable of earning huge sums of money in their lifetimes.

While not all of them could offer a quick return on investment, as long as they remained alive, they would definitely be able to pay back the cost of a shield generator!

The second category consisted of those who bought the shield generator out of their own pocket or had been gifted to them without expectation of repayment.

Rich and powerful people along with their loved ones fell under this category. As long as they possessed a good enough background, they probably enjoyed the protection of a shield generator!

The third category consisted of those who scavenged or stole a shield generator. These people didn't obtain them through proper means, but that did not stop them from making use of them to protect their lives!

When Ves launched his surprise attack, he killed almost every unprotected crew member in an instant. No one who wore a uniform and an underlayer vacsuit survived the Amastendira's full-powered scatter blast!

That the guards survived was within expectation.

Yet the survival of the captain and Aisling's assistant was outside of his expectation!

Even though ship captains generally held a high status, was it really worth it to equip them with a shield generator?

What was so special about this captain?!

As for the woman standing next to her, Ves realized he underestimated this female Benny.

Many Bennies were more than they appeared on the surface!

The original Benny acted as a steward and a body.

His own Benny both assisted him and spied on him until recently!

Aisling's Benny appeared to be sharp and combat trained, because her expression was devoid of panic!

While the captain sat paralyzed on his captain's seat, the blonde assistant quickly regained her composure!

She withdrew a small laser pistol from a hidden holster in her suit before activating a command that caused her clothes to form into an airtight, flexible survival suit!

"Hostiles present! They're invisible! Activate scanning!"

The captain, though frightened beyond his wits, soon regained his composure. His professionalism kicked in as he processed the assistant's instruction.

Though his projected interface had disappeared, that didn't stop him as he projected another interface from his comm!

"Activating anti-stealth measures!"

Powerful waves of energy encompassed the entire compartment, yet none of them managed to detect any invisible intruders!

The assistant growled in frustration. "Their stealth tech is too advanced. Switch to indiscriminate attacks! Attack every corner until there is no area left untouched!"

The internal defense systems aren't deploying! They're stuck!" The captain noted with alarm as his commands failed to get through!

"Guards! Open fire!"

The two surviving guards aimed their heavy assault rifles in different directions before firing energy blasts that dispersed over a wide area!

Ves cursed in his mind. His enemies were resorting to the same tricks!

Fortunately, Ves had already huddled behind a thick workstation to the side, which offered sufficient protection.

Though the weapon discharges also sapped the energy of the shield generators, their two wearers didn't show any concern!

Shield generators were meant to protect people against mechs! While they didn't last very long against a full-powered attack from a mech, it was enough to give them a chance to survive!

Against small arms fire, shield generators came under much less strain. Their effectiveness depended on the model and battery capacity.

Ves feared that the ones blocking him from killing his primary targets might be able to withstand more than one concentrated attack!

He was already wasting too much time. Even now, the captain was constantly tapping his fingers over the projected interface! Who knew what kind of emergency measures and executive overrides he was activating!

He aimed his Amastendira at the captain, but quickly shifted his aim towards the blind-firing guards.

He had to take out the heavy guns first!

The moment he made his choice, a narrow cutting beam instantly swept over the guards.

Unlike last time, the Amastendira fully concentrated its firepower in a narrow beam as wide as a finger!

Even though the guards managed to survive the first attack, this time was different! Their damaged combat armor already lost a lot of integrity. The highly-concentrated beam swiftly cut through the armor and went on to cut through a workstation!

"There!" The assistant called and somehow managed to pinpoint Ves' location!

Ves barely managed to avoid getting hit by awkwardly rolling back into cover!

Even though his Jutland organ shielded his heart and nearby organs against energy damage, the same could not be said for the rest of his body!

The small laser pistol wielded by the female Benny packed quite a punch! The pulsed beam fired by her pistol was powerful enough to scorch the surface of the deck.

If the beam hit his limb, he would probably lose it! Ves missed wearing actual armor!

Fortunately, now that he escaped the earlier attack, his opponents lost his position.

The assistant looked warily at her surroundings while firing her laser pistol in various random directions.

Against an invisible opponent, doing something was better than doing nothing!

In order to increase the probability of hitting her target, she switched the firing mode of her laser pistol to a wide-area blast.

While her pistol was a lot weaker than the heavy assault rifles, Ves still didn't couldn't afford to get hit!

Right now, he wondered how much energy the laser pistol possessed. From how recklessly the assistant was firing her weapon, Ves suspected that it was feeding off an ultracompact battery!

In addition, the pistol didn't seem to overheat either! Any ordinary laser pistol of its size would have glowed hot from all of the energy it released!

This meant that its wielder wouldn't be stopping anytime soon!

That was bad news for Ves. She could easily keep up her reckless weapon discharges for several minutes, buying the captain enough time to regain some control over the ship.

Ves couldn't afford to delay any longer!

He briefly peeked over the workstation he was huddling behind.

Though he wanted to take out the captain right away, the female Benny had to be taken out first!

Ves waited for the woman to fire a shot. The moment she did, there was a brief delay before she could fire again!

A full-powered cutting beam tore straight towards the assistant, only to encounter an invisible wall that stopped the energy from going any further!

The shimmering shield absorbed some of the energy while withstanding the rest!

When the Amastendira stopped firing, the assistant still remained alive!

Not only that, she stormed over to the workstation that Ves was hiding behind while firing constant wide-area pulses with her laser pistol!

Ves didn't expect her to approach his briefly-exposed position! He hesitated a bit before deciding to bite the bullet!

He refused to believe her shield generator can withstand another attack from his trump card!

While taking advantage of his stealth, he silently managed to circle around the workstation in time to face her back!

Before he fired, though, the assistant abruptly raised her weapon arm overhead and fired a blind shot behind her back!

What an uncanny instinct!

If Ves hadn't been so careful to keep most of his body behind the battered workstation, he would have gotten hit!

Even now, an uncomfortable wash of heat and energy swept over his head.

As soon as this wave had passed, Ves popped out of cover and fired straight at the woman!

Though her shield generator resisted the attack as best as possible, it rapidly started to dim as it was rapidly losing power! Eventually, the shield broke, exposing the woman to the remainder of the cutting beam!

Yet before the beam could manage to fry her to a crisp, she agilely cartwheeled to the side like an agile acrobat! Ves failed to adjust his aim, preventing him from scoring a direct hit!

"Ah!"

While the woman avoided a direct hit, she wasn't feeling but better as she dove into cover herself! The close proximity to a high-energy laser beam caused her armored suit to blacken and scorch! A portion of it even melted and fried some of her skin and flesh!

Ves felt incredibly frustrated. Where did they train female Bennies like her? He wanted one as well! She was much better than his own Benny in this regard!

Though Ves wanted to finish the job, he strongly suspected that the woman was preparing to ambush him. Even though he was completely invisible, her combat intuition was remarkable!

Ves felt as if he was a sandman admiral facing a Deliverer mech! No matter how well he kept himself hidden, this woman would definitely find a way to pinpoint his position!

"At least she's out the way now." He muttered.

He hadn't lost sight of his priorities. While he still wanted to take out this threat, he still hadn't killed the captain!

At least a dozen seconds had gone by, giving the captain plenty of time to activate all sorts of commands.

Ves became more concerned. His preparations weren't comprehensive or foolproof enough. The lack of time, manpower and expertise limited what he could do. He also held back on tampering the systems of the ships because he feared tripping off an alarm!

All of this meant that the captain would definitely be able to restore some functionality given time. Whether this meant activating some internal defenses or sealing the bridge by closing the blast doors, Ves couldn't afford to delay any longer!

He took a second to sneak behind another workstation before firing his weapon at the captain!

Despite being the target of a powerful attack, his target did not flinch away and resolutely kept controlling the interface. His shield generator withstood the entire attack, preserving his life for the moment!

The second attack finally managed to neutralize the shield and end his life.

Unlike Lady Curver's assistant, the captain possessed no combat training to speak of! Up to the very end, he kept trying to regain control over the ship!

Ves sighed in relief when he saw the captain die.

"Only one is left!"

He narrowed his eyes in vigilance as he changed his position yet again. Though he was covered in a powerful stealth field, he still watched out for the female Benny!

He shifted from cover to cover, moving carefully lest this blasted woman popped up and fired her pistol in his direction!

As Ves shifted his position for the fifth time, he suddenly glimpsed the woman trying to do the same!

He instinctively lifted his weapon and wanted to fire. However, his intuition prompted him to abort his actions and draw himself back behind cover!

He moved just in time!

Though her burn wounds hindered her movements, the assistant still retained her sharpness. The instant Ves was about to fire his weapon, she snapped her own laser pistol in her direction and unleashed a shot!

If Ves had decided to fire, his hand or his head would have gotten hit!

While Ves had given up an opportunity to kill the remaining survivor, he did not regret his choice.

"I know your position now!"

He did not bother stepping out of cover. Instead, he quickly adjusted the settings of his Amastendira and began to point his weapon at the workstation he was hiding behind.

He fired his weapon, releasing a sustained cutting beam that penetrated his cover and went on to cut through his opponent's cover!

A final scream uttered from the other side, signifying the death of his final opponent!

"Finally!"

Chapter 1736 Shock Attack

Ves wasn't completely sure he killed off the female Benny. Who knew if she faked her deathcry?

The air smelled like burned metal, composites and flesh. The bridge's air filtering system worked overtime in cleaning the air, yet more fumes kept being released by the damaged and broken workstations!

In an abundance of caution, Ves carefully circled around until he finally encountered her remains.

She was dead alright. For all her combat intuition and training, she hadn't moved fast enough after exposing her position!

In truth, Ves hadn't defeated her. His weapon did. His Amastendira was so powerful that it could easily tear through most materials!

Unfortunately, Ves also expended a considerable amount of full-powered shots!

He expended one shot to kill off all of the regular crew.

He used his second shot to kill off the guards.

He took two shots to overcome the shield generator of the female Benny.

He fired two additional shots at the captain to overcome his own shield generator before killing him entirely!

He used his last shot to surprise the assistant by firing at her through the workstations.

Ves fired all of those shots with full power without holding anything back in reserve. He feared the Fridaymen possessed some sort of additional protection that mitigated the damage.

Though Ves recognized that he wasted some of the energy he expended, he would rather be safe than sorry!

"Overkill is better than underkill! It's better to kill my enemies twice than leave them half alive!"

He briefly sought the woman's laser pistol and inspected it for a moment.

Though smaller and weaker than the Amastendira, Ves rarely encountered pistols as strong as this one! He fiddled with it for a few seconds before finding out that it was locked.

He didn't dare to keep the weapon any further for fear of triggering an anti-theft system. Perhaps the weapon might blow up if he held it any longer!

After putting down the peculiar weapon, Ves approached the half-burned captain's chair and tried his best to ignore the rancid smell emanating from the ashes and charred remains of the captains.

Nothing recognizable remained! Neither the spent shield generator nor any other equipment survived his attack.

The captain's chair was inoperable, denying Ves a way to patch into the ship's systems.

Though Ves had sabotaged a lot of peripheral systems, he didn't dare to touch any of the core systems for fear of giving himself away!

While he succeeded in keeping his hijacking attempt a secret due to his caution, he gave up the ability to usurp control in a very short amount of time.

"I need Lucky to complete the takeover!"

He gave up any thoughts of taking over control and considered the remaining steps of his plan.

"Right now, no one should be left alive at engineering. The security compartment should be in shambles right now, giving Lucky plenty of opportunities to clean up the stray security officers."

Along with his takeover of the bridge, three most important sections of the ship should have fallen under his attack!

Wiping out the captain and the bridge officers meant that the ship lost central control. Though it was still possible for the remainder of the crew to get up to mischief, Ves believed it was unlikely that they could organize anything substantial in a short amount of time!

At least, that was what he tried to achieve with his original plan.

The problem now was that he had given the captain a lot of time to respond to his attack. Without the ability to access the bridge systems, Ves was completely in the dark about the captain's final actions.

"This is going to be trouble." He muttered darkly.

Right now, Ves had no idea what took place at the remaining two critical sites.

The security department should be in a very bad shape. The armory stored a lot of gear, some of which contained a lot of energy.

While it had taken Ves and Lucky some time, they managed to rig a lot of ordinance to explode.

The calculations he performed gave him enough confidence that very few security officers stationed in this section managed to survive unscathed!

The only guards that should have escaped this attack were those stationed elsewhere. The guards stationed at the bridge and engineering accounted for at least four of them, which was quite a lot.

Ves doubted that any other security officers had slipped the net aside from those guarding Aisling.

As the most important individual on the ship, at least two guards accompanied the Clarion alumni at all times!

Now, the big question in his mind was what the survivors planned to do. His attacks on the three critical ship sections must have shocked the Fridaymen completely!

The captain and the female Benny even had the mistaken impression that the ship was under attack by a team of commandos!

None of the Fridaymen actually knew that the special forces actually amounted to just Ves and Lucky!

This was rather fortunate. If Aisling and the crew knew that their opposition only amounted to a human and a mechanical cat, then they would definitely mount some sort of counter-attack!

As it was, the surprise attacks he launched at the start were incredibly forceful! Who could have suspected that one of their prisoners was responsible?

When Ves failed to gain control over the ship, he gave up on trying to control it. He looked at his Comm and saw that he still had at least four minutes left to make use of his Full Stealth augment.

This was not enough to sweep every compartment of the ship, but he didn't have to. He merely wanted to intimidate the survivors into giving up any hope of retaking the Scarlet Rose!

The ship was already halfway in his hands!

He looked down at his Amastendira and winced. He only had three full-powered shots left, which didn't give him much leeway. Without the ability to overcome the locks of the weapons dropped by the crew, Ves couldn't afford to fight a protracted battle.

He dialed down Amastendira's power setting to conserve its remaining energy and heat absorbing capability. He didn't need much power to kill off the ordinary crew anyway.

Before he left the bridge, Ves made sure to break the surviving consoles and work stations. He also sabotaged dozens of wireless receivers to prevent anyone from patching the bridge systems with their comms.

This made the bridge inoperable for a brief amount of time, giving Ves the confidence to leave the bridge!

One of the shortcomings of his assault was that he could never cover enough ground. Killing everyone at the three critical sections did not give him complete control over the ship!

As long as at least one enemy remained behind, they could always mount a comeback! Perhaps they might take advantage of Lucky's departure from engineering and sabotage the FTL drive or something!

Ves decided he needed to be proactive and actively hunt down the remaining crew!

"It's time to hunt!"

Ves left the bridge and began to follow a predetermined route. He had already memorized where the crew were supposed to be stationed.

None of the hatches on his route barred his way. He already tampered with them beforehand.

Each time the hatches slid open, Ves activated his stealth module and surprised the alerted crew with attacks coming out of nowhere!

In fifteen minutes, he swept through the living areas, life support, the mess hall and other compartments at the upper decks.

At the same time, Ves had instructed Lucky to sweep past the manned compartments of the lower decks.

As long as both of them relied on their tricks, there was no way the regular crew could stand a chance!

None of the men and women Ves encountered posed a serious threat to him. The Coalition Reserve Corps only subjected its servicemen to a nominal amount of combat training.

Ves feared that he might encounter an enemy as formidable as Aisling's assistant.

Fortunately, none of the remaining officers and ratings carried any shield generators. They were completely vulnerable to his surprise attacks!

After Ves finally rendez-voused with Lucky at the middle decks, he looked at his comm in distress.

He had completely expended his stealth charge!

It seemed that he needed to rely on Lucky to complete their sweep through the ship.

"Are you okay, Lucky?"

"Meow." Lucky replied tiredly.

"How many guards did you kill?"

"Meow."

"Did you count the bodies at the security department?"

"Meow."

Ves briefly tallied the numbers. The CRC stationed fifteen armed security officers on the Scarlet Rose. He only killed three of them, one of which he stumbled in the corridors.

As for Lucky, aside from killing the two at engineering, he only managed to kill two more survivors who survived the brunt of the explosion because of advantageous positioning.

Though it was difficult for Lucky to count the number of guards who perished when the armory exploded, the cat guessed that four of them had perished!

"That makes thirteen." Ves smiled in relief. "We took care of every guard other than Aisling's escorts!"

"Meow!"

"I know you're tired, but hang on, please! We only have one compartment left to secure!"

Neither Ves nor Lucky bumped into Aisling, Patricia and their guards.

As long as they remained alive and aboard the ship, Ves did not feel assured he could complete his takeover!

No matter what, Ves needed to get rid of them one way or another!

After becoming assured that his plan remained intact, he moved towards one of the central compartments of the Scarlet Rose.

As a mobile supply frigate meant to accommodate a mech designer, her mech workshop took up a lot of space!

Ves and Lucky approached one of the entrances of the mech workshop. He nodded towards Lucky, who flew away in order to enter the compartment from another direction.

Neither of them were sure whether Aisling and Patricia remained in the mech workshop. For all he knew, they could have hopped into the escape pods and ejected from the ship by now!

No matter what, the mech workshop remained the only major compartment that hadn't been swept yet. Ves was almost sure he could find the two mech designers inside along with their guards and some mech technicians.

When Ves approached the entrance, he was about to activate the backdoor he inserted into the hatch's control system.

Yet just as he did so, his intuition screamed with alarm!

Ves did not doubt his instincts, especially when he had entered his most alert state in years!

He jumped aside and ran away as far as possible and turned around a corner just as a mech-grade missile shot through the opened hatch and slammed against the bulkhead!

Almost instantly, the missile exploded, inflicting massive damage to the corridor!

Fortunately, modern missiles concentrated most of their damage forwards! The payload blasted through the bulkheads and damaged the compartments behind them! The structural damage was significant!

Though Ves escaped the brunt of the attack due to his timely evasion! He also flattened himself on the deck and tried to minimize his profile as much as possible!

"Ahh!"

Powerful concussive shockwaves blasted over his body, making him feel as if his inside had turned to mush! His eardrums probably ruptured!

A lot of errant shrapnel ricochet through the corridors. Some of them managed to bounce around the corner he was hiding behind and landed on his body, turning him into a pincushion!

"AAAAHHHH!"

Though Ves distanced himself enough to preserve his life, his body was in an extremely bad shape!

Humans could never withstand the power of mechs!

Just staying within the vicinity of a small missile designed to harass enemy mechs or intercept incoming ordnance was enough to destroy his body beyond recognition!

Though his body was much more resilient compared to normal humans, he still lay helpless against the deck, vulnerable to anyone who wanted to finish the job!

Chapter 1737 Clinging to Life

Ves had been too complacent.

He underestimated the remaining survivors of his brutal slaughter.

Aisling was a bona-fide Journeyman Mech Designer while Patricia was rational enough to stay sober during emergencies. If both of them were holed up in a mech workshop during a crisis, then they could easily destroy the entire ship given enough time!

Disabling the many safeguards of a missile and rigging it to launch only took a couple of minutes for a competent mech designer.

Who knew what kind of tricks the two Fridaymen mech designers prepared when they became alerted of an attack!

"Ahh.. this hurts!"

Ves felt as if he wrong his body through the meat grinder!

His terrible body weakly jerked back and forth on the debris-strewn deck as he tried to overcome the pain wracking through his body!

"I can't afford to sit still still at this time! Aaghh!"

Knowing that he wouldn't be able to control the situation if he lost consciousness, Ves forcefully concentrated his Spirituality and did not hesitate to expend his spiritual energy to forcefully boost his consciousness!

Though his method wasted a lot of spiritual energy, his crude manipulation forcefully strengthened his mind relative to his body!

The pain emanating from his body was just a biological response! He could not afford to allow it to consume his attention!

Through the application of will and spiritual energy, Ves slowly managed to claw himself out of the pit of pain.

Soon enough, he became conscious enough to assess his current state.

Ruptured eardrums, concussed head, internal organs jarred by concussive shockwaves, entire body peppered by metal debris, the list went on and on. If his body wasn't so unnaturally resilient, he could have easily died if not for his intuition warning him of imminent danger!

Ves briefly puzzled about that. Ever since he became a mech designer, his intuition grew increasingly stronger.

Though Ves valued it most due to the instinctive assistance it provided him during a design session, it also proved its value in battle!

However, as a mech designer, why did he develop such a strong ability to detect danger? Did his mind and Spirituality develop due to all of the dangerous adventures he went through?

He suspected that other mech designers might not be as good as him in detecting imminent danger!

"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger! Haha-Agh!"

Other mech designers spent most of their time in a design lab or some other peaceful environment.

Having worked alongside Gloriana for quite some time, Ves became aware that her intuition was highly sensitive towards hidden faults and flaws. She spent most of her professional life on becoming good at it, so was it any surprise that she developed an uncanny sense for imperfections?

In contrast, Ves frequently chose to take risks, causing him to end up in precarious situations! Rather than developing towards something that substantially aided his design activities, his intuition instead evolved into something close to the extraordinary combat intuition exhibited by Aisling's female Benny!

He didn't know whether to laugh or cry right now!

"I'm a mech designer, not a commando!"

Yet wasn't he trying to be the latter when he hatched this insane plan to hijack an entire mobile supply frigate with only Lucky and himself?

The fact that he had almost succeeded made him wonder whether he was more cut out to be a mech pilot or a soldier rather than a mech designer.

Ves even suspected that developing an intuition for danger came from his Larkinson blood!

After all, how could the Larkinsons be so daring and courageous all of the time while still remaining alive?

On the other hand, the evolution direction of his intuition conformed to his domain of life. As a mech designer who constantly played with life, it made sense for him to value his own life as well!

Whatever the case, Ves felt very thankful that he developed this extraordinary sense for danger!

He was confident enough in his professional ability to rely on himself to design his mechs!

His life was much more valuable! As a mech designer with many secrets and unique abilities, Ves was destined to navigate through various crises!

Continuing to hone his intuition for danger would benefit him greatly!

This was because no matter how good of a mech designer he became, it would all be moot if he lost his life!

His happiness upon realizing this truth made his pain a lot more bearable.

With the passage of time, he already felt his body starting to cope with his injuries. While his wounds didn't disappear, his flesh seemed to mitigate them a bit by stemming the bleeding.

Though it wasn't enough for him to restore his mobility, he could at least move some of his limbs.

He threw a look at his System comm. In the end, did he really have to spend his precious DP?

With his life at risk, Ves did not dare to be stingy with his resources.

It was just that he felt rather unwilling to waste his DP especially now that the System curtailed his income.

He was no longer able to earn DP by selling his mechs!

Though he earned substantially more DP when he completed a mech design, he had lost far more after the System prevented him from profiting off the sales of his Soldier product line!

Ves recalled that the LMC easily managed to sell over a million mechs since the Sand War! All of those sales should have showered with tens of millions of DP, which was enough to turn him into a super soldier!

As it was.. the System he owned was too defective to reward him properly! He never made any progress on its Supply Missions, so he pretty much had it coming.

He weakly shook his head. "Whatever."

With what little control he had over his limbs, he activated the System and browsed the Shop.

Countless items dazzled his sight. Ves suppressed the urge to snap them up by looking at their price tags.

The gadgets offered by the System were too expensive for him to afford! With less than 2 million DP on hand, how could he think of buying something that cost 30,000,000 DP?

The Shop always offered the best, but their prices were commensurate to their quality!

"Ah, forget about it! I have to get rid of this pain first!"

Ves studied some of the goods offered by the Shop beforehand. He didn't want to waste time searching its catalog for something suitable in the middle of an emergency!

Under the consumables category, Ves pinpointed an emergency remedy.

[AE-S1 Combat Trauma Stabilizer]

Price: 100,000 DP

A fast-applying remedy meant to stabilize physical wounds and prevent them from deteriorating any further. The Combat Trauma Stabilizer is most effective on external injuries, but is very strenuous to the vitality of the affected body.

The Combat Trauma Stabilizer also functions as a stimulant which energizes the recipient. After a short amount of time, this effect is lost and a prolonged period of weakness will follow.

The Shop offered a handful of ways to heal his wounds. Most of them tended to be extremely expensive and come with huge downsides. Those that didn't burden his body instead burdened his wallet!

As someone who had always been frugal with his DP, Ves could not bear to use the more comprehensive remedies that cost at least 1,000,000 DP or more! Ves could not bear to allow the System to take advantage of him so much!

In his current circumstances, the AE-S1 Combat Trauma Stabilizer seemed suitable. Though Ves worried about the short duration of the stimulant effect, he could still bear with this price.

Regardless of what happened, Ves and Lucky had almost swept up all of his opponents throughout the ship! Only the survivors in the mech workshop compartment remained alive!

As long as Ves held on for a little while longer, he would definitely be able to finish the job!

Knowing how dangerous it was to allow mech designers more time to tinker with the weapons at the mech workshop, Ves redeemed the remedy without any further hesitation!

This was 100,000 DP! That was enough to elevate a Skill to Senior-level or go on another Mastery experience!

A medical injector materialized into his hand. Ves found its shape and model to be vaguely familiar, but he didn't waste any time on figuring out who originally designed this product.

He stared at the cartridge slotted into the injector. This cartridge contained the solution meant to stabilize his wounds and pepper him up! It was also the principal reason why the System charged 100,000 DP for this item!

"What a scam!"

Next time he ended up in a crisis, he had to make sure he prepared himself better! This time, he made plenty of mistakes and underestimated the difficulty of taking over a second-class ship!

If not for the lack of time and difficulty of obtaining a suit of combat armor, Ves wouldn't have ended up in such a sorry state!

After confirming that the injector looked exactly like the one in the catalog, Ves resolutely pressed its tip onto his chest and pulled the trigger!

Ahh!

A searing heat spread from his injection point and rapidly spread throughout his entire body! His wounds rapidly stopped bleeding entirely and his flesh started pushing out some of the shards that cut into his body!

Though Ves spent a distressing amount of DP, the benefits were undeniable!

While the remedy hadn't managed to restore his hearing, the painful sensations from his head had subsided by a substantial degree, clearing his head even further.

At the same time the stabilizer worked on some of his wounds, the heat also affected his brain, causing him to become a lot more energetic than usual!

The fire in his consciousness regained its vigor, causing him to feel as if he was ready to fight a mech with his bare hands!

"What a powerful stimulant! It's probably addictive as well!"

He became so caught up in the uplifting sensations of his remedy that he almost forgot his original purpose!

"Damnit, I can't lose my mind right now! I still have a mech workshop to clear!"

The medicine he took not only closed his wounds, but also restored more control over his body. This was enough for him to pick himself up and pull out the deeper shards that had managed to embed in his body.

He should have been paralyzed in pain. Instead, he only the warmth of the stabilizer dulling his wounds and working to stem the bleeding.

Once he pulled out all of the shards, he ignored his distressed and blood-soaked appearance and materialized the Amastendira in his hand once more.

His fury and the stimulant effect both made him bloodthirsty!

However, instead of going forward, Ves instead distanced himself from the mech workshop and waited patiently.

Lucky emerged by phasing through the deck. His cat looked a lot more tired than before, showing that he was at the limit of his endurance!

"Meow meow!"

With his ruptured eardrums, Ves couldn't hear a thing of what Lucky said, not that it mattered.

His ability to communicate with life transcended sound. He merely had to focus his mind a bit and extend some of his Spirituality to his pet.

Soon enough, Ves got the gist of Lucky's meows.

"You killed off the guards and mech technicians?"

"Meow!"

"What about Aisling and Patricia? Did you kill them yet?!"

"Meow..."

"What?! They're gone?!"

"Meow!"

"Did you search the mech workshop thoroughly!"

"Meow meow!"

"DAMNIT!"

Ves wanted to punch himself in the face! He thought he would have to fight a pair of entrenched mech designers with all the tools and equipment of a mech workshop at their disposal!

For this reason, he didn't hesitate to use up an overpriced remedy!

Yet now he discovered that his final opponents had somehow managed to slip away!

"Find them!" He ordered Lucky! "If they're not at the mech workshop, they might be heading somewhere else!"

"Meow.."

"I know you're exhausted, but bear with it! The Scarlet Rose is almost mine!"

Chapter 1738 Burning Spiri

While the Combat Trauma Stabilizer forcefully boosted his body, Ves did his best to make the most of his hyperactive state.

After Lucky confirmed that he cleaned up the mech workshop compartment, Ves only hesitated for a moment before entering it through another entrance.

The original one he approached had long been blasted apart by the missile detonation. The entire deck along with the surrounding compartments sustained substantial damage!

Ves winced when he saw the damage. The structure of the Scarlet Rose was very resilient, but it fell short of matching the resilience of mechs!

Only the CFA invested a huge amount of high-grade exotics to construct their warships!

While a state like the Friday Coalition was quite prosperous, it made no sense to allocate too many resources towards strengthening ships.

In its war against the Hexadric Hegemony, the quality and quantity of their mechs decided the outcome!

This was the reason why Ves became very apprehensive about the state of the mech workshop and the mechs or parts stored within.

What else had Aisling and Patricia done when they became aware that the ship was under attack?

Just like how Ves rigged some of the ordnance stored in the armory to explode, the two Fridayman mech designers could have done the same to mech-sized ammunition!

His first priority was to inspect the ammunition stores and make sure that none of them had been tampered with in any way!

For this reason, he hobbled into the mech nursery despite knowing the risks.

No attacks greeted his arrival. When Ves stepped into the large compartment, he looked around and saw a handful of corpses leaking blood on the deck.

Lucky managed to kill each of them without giving them a chance to counterattack. The bodies of two armored guards along with several mech technicians accounted for the remainder of the crew.

Ves was pretty sure that aside from Aisling and Patricia, no one else managed to survive!

"Where are they?" He frowned in puzzlement.

He felt oddly disappointed by the lack of opposition. When he formulated his plan, he expected to confront the mastermind of his kidnapping.

Instead, she ran away after preparing one last surprise!

"Well, not everyone is like me, I guess." He couldn't help but shrug.

He had forgotten that Aisling was just a civilian.

Mech designers weren't combatants by nature. There was no reason for her to hole herself up in the mech workshop and fight for the faint chance of defeating the 'team of commandos' that expertly cleansed the ship of opposition!

Even Ves would not hesitate to abandon everyone else and flee the ship as fast as possible!

"Well, she certainly made the wisest choice if she decided to abandon ship." He muttered.

Knowing that he couldn't sustain his active state for much longer, Ves hastily picked up a multiscanner and began to scan and inspect any equipment and ordnance that posed a potential threat.

Aisling hadn't been building any mechs recently. He encountered various supplies and parts that corresponded to the four mechs standing by in the mech hanger.

Evidently, the mech technicians used the mech workshop to service and maintain the stationed mechs.

One of them employed a missile launcher system, which was the reason why the Scarlet Rose carried a batch of missiles in her ammunition stores.

As Ves swept over the remaining missiles, he found to his relief that they hadn't been tampered with. It was actually quite hard to access them in person. Due to their potential threat to the ship, the Scarlet Rose stored them in shielded containers meant to expose them to as little external influences as possible!

After he finished sweeping over the missiles, he inspected some of the other parts and gear that could pose a very significant threat if Aisling and Patricia rigged them to blow.

Fortunately, second-class states generally did not make use of ballistic weapons. While it was possible to scale up their lethality by lacing their warheads with volatile exotics, most states prefer to invest in other weapon systems!

The limitations of ballistic weapons made them very unattractive to states that could afford better. Missile weapons scaled much better with increased investment.

This saved him the trouble of inspecting thousands of ballistic shells. The rest of the mechs stationed on the Scarlet Rose made use of other weapon systems such as laser weaponry and particle beam weaponry.

The mech workshop was directly connected to the mech hangar, so Ves easily limped over to the mechs and beheld them for a moment.

He only admired these machines from the scans that Lucky had made. Seeing them for real made him feel encouraged.

"Hahaha!"

All of the mechs looked ready to deploy. When Ves launched his attack, he knew for certain that the mech pilots attempted to activate their mechs and launch them into space!

Whether to defend the Scarlet Rose against stealthed enemies or put the ship at gunpoint in order to force the hijackers into a compromise, the mechs served as a vital source of strength for the crew!

Yet none of the four mechs succeeded in deploying!

Although he couldn't see anything from the outside, he knew for certain that each of their cockpits contained the bodies of dead or dying mech pilots!

Ves had taken advantage of Lucky's ability to phase into the mechs to sabotage one crucial component: the neural interface!

As an amateur in neural interfaces, Ves was not very good at modifying them to perform better or safer.

However, it was no problem for him to make things worse!

He employed some of the lessons he learned from leading the beast rider project back at Aeon Corona VII to turn the neural interfaces into killer weapons!

He already became curious whether his tampering resulted in exploded heads!

"Well, I can research that later!"

As he started feeling his body losing its stimulant effect, Ves quickly made use of the scanners and equipment at hand to inspect the permanent mechs. While he couldn't investigate them thoroughly, he found nothing else worth noting at this time.

"I should complete the takeover of the ship and get myself some treatment!"

Fatigue already started to creep up on him by the time Lucky returned.

"Meow."

"Are you sure?"

"Meow!"

Through their spiritual communication, Ves found out that Lucky had gone over the entire ship for signs of life.

Despite his best efforts, his cat failed to find the mech designers he was looking for. The trail that Lucky followed ended abruptly at one of the exterior compartments close to the mech workshop.

"Take me there."

Ves wearily followed Lucky to a compartment that held a number of cylindrical escape pods.

He was very familiar with escape pods as he made use of one in the Detemen System some years ago.

However, the escape pod model employed by the Flagrant Vandals was a lot more basic than the ones before him! Not only were they more advanced, a handful of them clearly didn't look standard issue!

"Did Aisling bring these escape pods to the ship?"

Two of the slots next to the special escape pods were empty. Ves had no doubt that Aisling and Patricia had already slipped away from here! Perhaps the captain's warnings had already caused them to flee far away!

The Scarlet Rose used to carry four special escape pods. They must have been prepared for Aisling, Patricia, the female Benny and Ves!

Ves approached one of the special escape pods and booted it up in order to call up their specs.

"These escape pods are almost as good as shuttles!"

Their speed, armor, endurance and other parameters were very good! They also contained a powerful communication array that was very useful in calling for help.

Even if help was slow in coming, the escape pods carried enough food, water and oxygen to last for at least a year by virtue of its excellent recycling system!

However, the feature that Ves feared the most was that the high-quality escape pods also came with a stealth system!

Although activating stealth consumed a lot of energy, it was no problem for the escape pods to remain hidden from most second-class sensors for a couple of weeks!

"Fine then! I'll let you go for now!"

Ves had precious little mercy left in his bones when the missile almost killed him! If Aisling hadn't made the right choice and fled before it was too late, he would have certainly killed her for taking him away from home!

If Ves was in a better shape, he might have tried to track her down one way or another.

As it was, his mounting headache and weariness prevented him from doing anything strenuous!

Right now, his own safety and security mattered more than his desire to take revenge!

He reluctantly gave up this impulse and tried to recall the latter steps of his plan.

After he finished removing all of the opposition, Ves had to take complete control over the ship by usurping her command authority!

If he didn't do so, the ship would continue to drift in a star system that was right next to the border of the Friday Coalition!

Ves was sure that the captain or Aisling already notified the Coalition Reserve Corps of what transpired!

"The Fridaymen will definitely be mad for losing one of their official ships!"

A monitor represented an entire state! Attacking one of their ships would definitely put a target on his back!

If not for the urgency of the situation and the Komodo War consuming most of the attention of the Friday Coalition, Ves wouldn't have been so bold to challenge the CRC's prestige!

"I can't waste anymore time!"

He headed back to the mech workshop and hastily fabricated some parts from a small 3D printer.

By now, his Combat Trauma Stabilizer already started wearing off. Mental and physical fatigue threatened to overwhelm his consciousness!

In order to stave off the inevitable crash, Ves decided to expend his spiritual energy!

He felt as if he was burning his mind as he kept his mind in a highly active state! He would definitely pay the price by entering a lengthy low period afterwards, but right now he didn't care about the consequences!

It didn't take long for Ves to produce his desired parts. He placed them on a floater platform and sat down on it while instructing it to move to the bridge.

The floater platform took a few minutes to exit the mech workshop, navigate the corridors and ascend a few decks.

As soon as the floater platform reached the bridge, Ves hopped off and began to install some of the parts.

Once he did so, he activated his comm and managed to connect to the bridge system!

"Yes! Lucky! Help me take control!"

It took fifteen minutes of fiddling with the software and hardware to gain rudimentary control over the ship.

Not only did he have to hack the bridge systems, he also had to undo some of his tampering! Otherwise, the bridge systems wouldn't be able to control the rest of the ship!

Since Ves already prepared these steps beforehand, he soon managed to achieve some results with the help of Lucky's fantastic hacking capabilities.

While he failed to gain as much authority over the ship as her captain, he acquired enough control to access the navigation and communication systems!

The first thing he did was to lock down the ship's quantum entanglement node.

Ves did not want the Scarlet Rose to broadcast her location and route to the Friday Coalition! With all of that information, the Fridaymen could easily prepare an ambush at his next destination!

Due to the security risk posed by an active quantum entanglement node, every ship came with the capability to isolate them completely!

After Ves verified that the ship network disconnected entirely from the quantum entanglement node, he turned to the navigation system and started to activate the autopilot.

He instructed it to follow a route that brought the Scarlet Rose away from the Friday Coalition!

As long as the FTL drive finished cycling, the ship would immediately transition back into FTL, giving Ves some much-needed reprieve!

"Finally!" He sighed.

He practically collapsed on the floater platform. He instructed it to take him to the infirmary. Right now, he desperately needed treatment!

Chapter 1739 Muted Emotions

Much of the sophisticated medical equipment at the Scarlet's Rose infirmary depended on medical experts to perform their most advanced treatments.

However, the machines had also been designed to offer more basic treatment in the event that doctors weren't on hand.

There were many possible perils in space travels. Incidents where all of the doctors lost their lives happened often enough for medical equipment makers to add some automation to their products.

Most states prohibited medical equipment from replacing human doctors entirely. While it was possible for machines to take care of treatments entirely, this was not a good development!

Doctors not only kept the machines in check, but also took responsibility for the choices they made when confronted with ethical dilemmas!

AIs should never decide the life or death of a human life!

Of course, Ves didn't care about all of these ethical and practical considerations. He only paid attention to the fact that the machines were capable of healing his wounds!

When the floater platform brought him to the infirmary, he used his remaining consciousness to make sure he gained control over the medical equipment.

With Lucky on hand, he did his best to verify that the machines did not come with any nasty backdoors.

In truth, Ves was being very paranoid for doing so. Most medical equipment were hardwired to preserve human life.

While it was possible to corrupt them into killing their patients, it took a lot of time and expertise to do so! With how fast Ves and Lucky killed off the crew, the medical officer stationed at the infirmary had no time to adulterate the equipment!

After Ves eased some of his worries, he threw himself into the embrace of one of the machines. Its manipulators already started stripping off his clothes and spraying some kind of fluid on his most serious-looking wounds.

Before he lost consciousness, Ves turned to Lucky.

"Make sure.. to stay alert. Don't let anything.. go wrong. Okay?"

"Meow."

Ves finally couldn't hold on any longer. He overdrafted his mind, body and spirit to such an extent that he slept for two days straight!

The quality of the medical equipment was beyond compare. Even when limited to performing basic treatments, the injuries suffered by Ves weren't very perplexing.

Explosions on ships happened often in space. Whether they happened due to ships suffering from malfunctions or being shot at by mechs, plenty of people suffered similar injuries.

For this reason, ship-based medical equipment became very good at treating them. Otherwise, they wouldn't sell as well as the competition would definitely fill in the void!

Technically, his treatment was supposed to last for at least a couple more days. However, he configured the machines to release him and wake him up after forty-eight hours regardless of his state!

As long as stopping the treatments and forcing him to wake didn't kill him or aggravate his injuries too much, he had to regain consciousness no matter what!

This was because the ship would be transitioning out FTL just hours later!

While Ves programmed the Scarlet Rose to re-enter FTL as soon as she finished cycling her FTL drive, he still worried about encountering other ships in the vicinity.

While he made sure to chart an obscure route that passed through various uninhabited star systems, the population density was significantly higher in regions closer to the second-rate states!

Higher populations led to higher traffic. The chance of encountering ships in more obscure star systems was quite significant!

Therefore, Ves needed to be on hand to navigate any crisis that might ensue!

Hijacking the Scarlet Rose was just the first half of his plan! Getting back to safety was his ultimate goal! So long the mobile supply frigate lingered in the periphery of Coalition space, the CRC could easily take back their possession!

"Gugh... I'd rather fall back to sleep..." He muttered as a stimulant forced him to wake.

He felt like a worn, third-hand mech that had barely been restored to functionality.

His muscles and his skin ached all over his body. His ears conveyed muted sounds as if he doused his head underwater. His internal organs felt as if someone rearranged them a couple of times before hastily shoving them back in their original places!

"My head.. it's empty!"

The void in his head was so much worse! As someone who always kept his spiritual energy reserves at 100 percent or close it, Ves felt as if he set off a firestorm to the forest in his mind!

He briefly estimated that he retained just 20 percent of his total reserves!

And this included the spiritual energy replenished by his Grand Dynamo over the past two days!

Back then, Ves must have burned so much spiritual energy that he probably risked bottoming out entirely!

His body shuddered in fear as he thought of the possible consequences for emptying his spiritual tank.

Would he be fine and just lose consciousness for some time? Or would he be depriving himself of spiritual sustenance and kill his consciousness?

He really didn't not want to find out, especially when his intuition vibrated whenever his thoughts strayed in this direction!

After he inspected his mind and Spirituality thoroughly, he became relieved that he did not seem to incur any major wounds. What damage he spotted could easily be healed over time.

While Ves estimated that he would be able to restore his spiritual energy reserves in eleven days or so, until then he had to cope with the consequences of burning so much spiritual energy.

"I'm in another low period." He moaned while holding his palm against his head.

The void in his mind made him feel listless and unmotivated. The energy of life was largely absent from him, making him feel as if he was alive because his biological body was geared this way.

His permanent passion for mechs no longer raged like a bonfire in his heart. Ves could not summon any particular enthusiasm for his profession!

Even knowing that there were four, intact second-class mechs in the Scarlet Rose's mech hangar, Ves exhibited no interest at all in studying their designs!

This was clearly unnatural to Ves! Ever since he started studying second-class mech design, he always wanted to get in touch with these impressive machines! Merely reading about them and observing their projections failed to satisfy his desire to work with something tangible!

Ves had always been a mech designer who liked to get his hands dirty every now and then! The satisfaction he gained from fabricating them and tinkering with them was irreplaceable!

For this desire to be absent from him jarred him quite a lot!

If he was in a healthier mental state, then he would have panicked by now! His identity as a mech designer mattered a lot to him, so anything that affected his passion and motivation for mech design was a catastrophe!

"My emotions are muted..."

He never emptied out his spiritual energy as much as now! Not did his condition impact his passion, but also his other feelings and emotions!

It was as if he started viewing reality in black and white instead of color. Everything seemed more lifeless and pointless in his consciousness.

Why did he enjoy designing mechs?

Why was he in a relationship with a Hexer?

Why did he reject the olive branch offered by the Friday Coalition?

Why did he recklessly attempt to hijack the Scarlet Rose?

If he was the Ves of before, then he would have just bulled through his doubts with his passion and conviction!

Yet now, he couldn't help but doubt his decisions. His lack of feelings skewed his judgement, causing him to lean away from his empty heart!

He couldn't help but be reminded of Patricia's description of rational mech designers.

Had Ves inadvertently turned himself into a rational mech designer?

"The description fits.."

Rational mech designers did not necessarily like designing mechs. They had to find conscious reasons to engage in their profession!

They also suppressed their feelings and emotions in order to stay as rational as possible!

Right now, that seemed to describe his current condition!

"I have to get a handle on this strange state! Regardless of what I think, I have to see my decisions through the end!"

Instead of doubting his prior decisions, Ves decided that he should stick to his original will and ignore his doubts.

Regardless whether he made the right decisions or not, quitting halfway would not lead to good results!

"This is just a temporary state." He reassured himself. "In less than two weeks, I'll be back to normal. I'll thank myself for staying true to myself in this low period."

After he finished inspecting his mental condition, he turned his attention elsewhere. He blinked his eyes and viewed his surroundings.

The infirmary looked the same as always. No one moved him while he was out like a light.

It was impossible for someone to sneak onto the Scarlet Rose when she was still in FTL.

While there was a chance that some crew member survived the massacre, with Lucky on patrol they wouldn't be able to stay alive for long!

"Lucky. Where are you?"

His cat was absent, which concerned him a bit. Due to his muted emotions, his paranoia and perpetual worries weren't as strong as they used to. Ves felt.. much more inclined to trust in his probability analysis.

The chance that Lucky encountered a setback or that some survivor managed to regain control of the ship was very small!

"Well, before my new ship exits FTL, I have to make sure I complete the takeover of her systems!"

It took several minutes for him to crawl out of the machine. Because his treatment lasted too short, his body was still too weak!

Even now, he didn't even possess the ability to walk!

The only way for him to move around the ship was by relying on a floating chair. The infirmary had plenty of them on hand. As soon as Ves activated one of them, he was able to rest his worn-out muscles and command the chair to move by gesturing with his fingers.

The chair actually provided him with an option to control it with his thoughts, but with his mind ajar, Ves did not dare to resort to this option!

Once he left the infirmary, his first priority was finding Lucky.

In order to call him back, Ves explored the settings of his floating chair and found a transmitter.

[LUCKY! MEET ME AT THE BRIDGE!]

After broadcasting this message through the loudspeakers and a short-ranged transmission, Ves commanded the chair to move him to the bridge.

Once he reached his destination, Lucky playfully phased through the ceiling and landed on his lap.

"Meow meow."

Ves narrowed his eyes at his cat in suspicion. Unlike him, Lucky looked anything but weary!

"Did you sneak into the material stores and eat the exotics reserved for repairing the mechs?"

"Meow~"

Lucky innocently looked up at him while swishing his tail with supreme contentment.

Due to his muted emotions, Ves did not feel very angry about Lucky's actions. The ship didn't belong to him in the first place.

From a logical perspective, he hadn't lost anything. He just gained less than he expected.

In any case, as long as Lucky grew stronger, Ves did not mind if his cat gorged his stomach to bursting!

"Whatever. Help me gain complete authority over the ship."

His goal was to usurp the position of captain of the ship. This was not something that could be done with an automated hack!

Ves had to make full use of Lucky's CFA-derived hacking suite to navigate the Scarlet Rose's core command systems.

However, with no virtual security expert opposing his blatant actions, he slowly made progress until he finally made the Scarlet Rose acknowledge him as captain!

"Finally."

Unfortunately, his earlier sabotage worked against him. Unless he undid some of his tampering, he wouldn't be able to exert full control over the ship!

Even then, there was always the chance that the security systems would recognize that he wasn't actually the captain! He needed to make sure that the operating system did not contain any hidden safeguards or backup functions that forcibly robbed him of his command authority!

"This is going to take a lot of time."

Chapter 1740 Decentralized

The Scarlet Rose entered a lifeless star system centered around a listless red dwarf.

Due to the absence of terrestrial planets, there was no desire to found a settlement in the star system. The couple of gas giants and their tiny moons offered very little resources to pay back the investment.

Nonetheless, the star system's close proximity to the border of the Friday Coalition demanded at least some presence.

As soon as the Scarlet Rose entered the star system, her sensors detected numerous listening posts and sensor outposts.

As Ves gained a greater mastery over the Scarlet Rose's bridge systems and other core command systems, he made numerous discoveries about his new ship.

One of the more welcome surprises was that the mobile supply frigate possessed more powerful external sensors than he expected?

As a ship purposed for monitoring duties, how could her sensor arrays be weak?

Unfortunately, he found out too late!

If he grasped better control over the Scarlet Rose back when he just hijacked the ship, he could have used the upgraded sensors to track down the stealthed escape pods carrying Aisling and Patricia!

Even if he didn't kill them, he could have at least held them hostage!

If Ves still possessed normal emotions, then he would have gloated at the irony of subjecting them to the indignity he suffered at their hands.

No one kidnapped Ves and got away with it! At least that was what he would think if his spiritual energy wasn't in a sorely depleted state.

As it was, from a rational point of view, he should be thankful that he managed to succeed in his hijacking attempt.

His first priority should be getting back to safety. While taking revenge sounded nice, he wouldn't actually gain much aside from satisfying his vindictiveness.

In any case, he wasn't sure whether the Scarlet Rose's sensors were good enough to overcome the stealth employed by the special escape pods. If Aisling was smart, then she would have configured their stealth systems to defeat the Scarlet Rose's detection methods.

The key was that he was still too close in the sphere of the Friday Coalition's influence! Even this small red dwarf system his ship just entered was littered with listening posts!

Ves knew that these unmanned outposts would soon transmit the whereabouts of the stolen ship to the Coalition!

Fortunately, the star system was a bit too obscure. The sensors failed to detect the presence of any ships in the system.

Of course, that didn't mean that Ves trusted the results. Stealthed ships might still be lurking somewhere in deep space. Even without such capabilities, as long as a ship minimized emissions or hid within an asteroid belt, it was too easy to escape the detection of long-ranged sensors.

A more complicating factor was that most of the sensor systems employed by the Scarlet Rose were limited by the speed of light.

Only a couple of long-ranged sensor types escaped this limitation, but all of them tended to return fussy results.

"Only the CFA excels in sensor technology." He muttered.

As an organization devoted to space warfare, the ability to see everything across light-hours was indispensable!

"Well, as long as nothing is close by, it's fine."

Ves did not dare to be complacent. He instructed the Scarlet Rose to keep her sensor arrays working at full power.

Knowing that the ship's location was not a secret, Ves did not hesitate to resort to full active scanning, focusing completely on observing the immediate vicinity!

No ship or stealthed vehicle should be able to escape the Scarlet Rose's detection!

While his actions meant that he was putting a lot of strain on the sensor arrays, thereby accelerating their wear and tear, Ves didn't even consider holding back.

As long as he returned to safety, he could always replace the worn-out components!

Around five hours passed as Ves quietly waited for the Scarlet Rose to cycle her FTL drive.

If the ship still received the care of a chief engineer, then her FTL drive could have finished its cycling routine in just four hours!

While this was slower than the Barracuda, the Scarlet Rose was several times bigger!

Ves already started regarding his new prize as his flagship. He faintly smiled as he caressed his hand over the temporary workstation that Ves installed in the half-ruined bridge.

A muted sense of pride emanated from his restrained heart. With the Scarlet Rose, Ves finally possessed a ship that could stand equal to Gloriana's Stellar Chaser!

Of course, right now his grasp on the ship was only tentative. During the tense five-hour period of exposure, Ves constantly delved into the internal network and deepened his control.

This was not an easy task! Just because he managed to fool the ship into thinking he was the captain didn't mean he grasped every other system and subsystem!

Mechs were much less troublesome. Though their complexity had no limits, most mech designers tended to make them as simple as possible.

The core concept of a mech was that it should be at the beck and call of a single mech pilot.

Even the rare multi-pilot mechs only featured two or three mech pilots at most.

There was never a case where fifty or a hundred people simultaneously controlled a single mech!

Ships were different. Despite not offering the ability for someone to interface with the vessel, hundreds or thousands of crew members worked in unison to control every aspect of the ship!

While the agency of a single officer or ship rating was limited, when hundreds of them pooled their capabilities together, a qualitative transformation occurred!

Under the collective power and will of a crew, the ship would run as a well-oiled machine!

The problem was that this mode of operation became a drag to Ves. Unlike mechs, the operation mode of a starship was very decentralized.

A mech always ran as a single whole. With just a single mech pilot in control, there was no need to split its control systems!

Ships abided by a different paradigm. They were run much like a government, where the captain served as the 'president'. The different officers in charge of engineering, security, life support, maintenance and so on acted as the 'ministers'.

Grasping the office of the president did not immediately mean that Ves also gained control of the ministries!

The only way to secure more control over the ship was to take over these ministries one-by-one!

All of this took time and expertise, both of which Ves was short of. Even with Lucky's hacking capabilities on hand, Ves had the impression that he had to siege dozens of castles, each of which boasted many layers of defenses.

The officers in charge of the different departments each tailored the defenses of their castles to their own quirks and preferences!

While not all of them were very diligent or paranoid, Ves encountered enough hindrances to give up on converting the entire ship!

Even when the Scarlet Rose finally transitioned back into FTL, he barely made any progress!

"I don't have to take over every system." Ves shook his head. "There is far too much work for me to do."

His priorities shifted to gaining solid control over the most essential systems. As for the others, Ves either isolated them or shut them off if they weren't necessary for the functioning of the ship.

"Looks like we're in this for the long haul, Lucky."

"Meow!"

His cat glowered at him. Lucky had an entire storeroom's worth of exotics to consume! Spending hours on the bridge was pure torture for the cat with a bottomless stomach!

Under his cat's repeated complaints, Ves finally let him go after a while.

He was getting rather tired as well. With his injured body and his exhausted mind and spirit, his mental and physical endurance had reached a low point.

Ves reluctantly pulled away from his work and decided to eat a quick meal before turning in for the night.

Once he shut down the interface, he looked around and saw that the cleaning bots had already scrubbed or cleared away the dead remains.

As he commanded his floating chair to exit the bridge, he passed through various corridors and compartments.

A large number of bots zipped back and forth, diligently closing holes and cleaning up the bodies and debris.

Due to employing the Amastendira, the collateral damage at the upper decks was very significant. Ves encountered numerous scorched and melted traces along the way.

The situation was different at the lower decks. Starting from engineering, hardly any collateral damage occurred.

Lucky's close-strike capabilities were unparalleled!

The only damage the ship sustained at the lower decks came from the futile counterattacks of the armed guards and crew members.

None of their weapons came close to hitting their fast-moving, elusive attacker!

While Lucky's mode of attack resulted in much less collateral damage, the bodies he left behind looked much worse.

If his victims were lucky, his scorching hot energy claws cauterized the wounds.

If they were not as lucky, then their torn bodies had emptied their entire reserves of blood over the deck!

It took hours for the overburdened cleaning bots to scrub all of the traces!

What was worse was that Ves only issued the order to clean up the mess after he was out for two days!

This was enough time for most of the bodies to decompose.

Since the Scarlet Rose became his possession, Ves lamented the ugly messes at the lower decks.

Even if the cleaning bots managed to wipe away all of the dirty biological traces, Ves still couldn't forget his initial impressions.

He took over a tainted ship! The Scarlet Rose was unclean!

While Ves felt a little bothered by that, his rational mind prevented him from caring too much.

Under his current condition, a ship was a ship!

Regardless of her sordid history, the Scarlet Rose was just a very huge machine. She possessed no life or spirit to speak of! Why should he regard her in the same way as a mech?

As Ves reached the mess hall and tore open a nutrient pack to have a quick, nutritious meal, he examined his strange state further.

He used to think that there were only downsides associated with the so-called low period.

Only after Patricia revealed the existence of rational mech designers to him did he look at this state in a different way.

The suppression of his emotions and the muting of his passion meant his mind wasn't subject to their whims as much.

It was as if he stopped polluting himself.

Ves never considered the influence of his passion and emotions to be a detriment to himself. Yet now that he guessed that rational mech designers entered the same state as him, his perspective on the matter had shifted.

There were always two sides of a coin. What Ves regarded as downsides, others saw them as upsides!

It was just that Ves had been so focused on his mental exhaustion that he hadn't thoroughly examined his other changes.

Now that Patricia pointed out the benefits, Ves became a lot more clear about the advantages of rational mech designers!

"Even if I'm tired, as long as I'm used to it, I can take full advantage of my clear-minded state!"

It was easy for him to enter a pure state of mind. The weakening of emotions, biases and instincts made him feel as if he was sophisticated AI in human skin.

If not for his plummeting creativity and ingenuity, Ves would have considered staying in this state permanently!

"I'm not suited to be a rational mech designer." He reminded himself.

He lost too many advantages after losing most of his passions, feelings and emotions. The benefits of attaining a clear and open-minded mentality were not very much.

Mech designers like Patricia who aimed to become rational mech designers from the start probably derived much better benefits from this state.

As for Ves, he should forget about it! Stripping himself of his passion was the same as tearing out his heart for mech design!

Chapter 1741 Careful Communication

In the following days, Ves raced to take direct control over the most essential systems.

He focused mostly on navigation, engineering, security and communications. As long as he overcame the defenses of these systems and cleaned up all of the hidden traps, Ves became more confident about his chances of escape.

Even though he took over the Scarlet Rose, Ves still treated as if it was a terrible exobeast who could break out of her shackles as soon as he let down his guard!

As his Grand Dynamo rapidly replenished his spiritual energy reserves, Ves regained more and more of his emotions.

This was not necessarily a good thing. Regaining his emotions meant his frustrations about his new ship began to drag down his mood.

Compared to mechs, ships were incredibly troublesome to work with! Ves personally experienced why shipwrights always worked in teams!

"Starships are too big and complex to be grasped by a single person!"

While it was common for mech designers to work together on a mech design, if Ves really wanted to, he could design and build a mech by himself!

His most recent solo project, the Devil Tiger, served as one of his proudest accomplishments!

When a mech came into existence, it only took a single mech pilot to exert its potential.

In his years of working with mechs, Ves always took these customs for granted.

Now that he started to chew a starship that was bigger than the Barracuda, Ves fully experienced the uphill struggle of mastering a starship by himself!

While it was theoretically possible for a single person to design, build and crew a starship by himself, in practice the amount of labor and expertise required was too much to bear for any single individual!

"I am no Atlas holding up the heavens." Ves helplessly admitted.

The more he dove into the Scarlet Rose, the more he understood the unfathomable depths of ship design.

As a mech designer, Ves only possessed some technical understanding of ship systems and ship components.

The Scarlet Rose possessed over a hundred core systems, with countless lesser ones regulating every minor function!

This was too much for Ves to bear alone!

If he wasn't in a low period, then he would have felt a lot more repelled by his current activities!

Fortunately, Ves took advantage of his rational state. No matter how much he disliked his current work, as long as his dislike was suppressed, he could still persevere and slog through the swamp!

All of this work eventually paid off. Not only did he gain more control over the most essential core systems, he also gained a deeper understanding of the Scarlet Rose.

Her capabilities continued to impress him. She was a bona-fide second-class frigate whose acceleration, FTL cycling time, sensors and fabrication capabilities presented an attractive package to mech designers like Ves!

Although her armor and cargo capacity weren't great, these downsides hardly bothered Ves too much.

What Ves currently valued the most was her elusiveness. Her ability to outrun most pursuers along with her quick FTL cycling time and decent FTL range meant that most powerful pursuers wouldn't be able to keep up with her pace.

This gave Ves the confidence of outrunning the hunters of the Friday Coalition!

Of course, Ves still dreaded them. He only had to make one wrong move to fall into their hands!

While the light carriers and combat carriers of the Coalition wouldn't be able to keep up, it was a different story for smaller and more agile ship classes!

Even another corvette or mobile supply frigate would be able to catch up to the Scarlet Rose!

Normally, Ves did not have any reason to fear these smaller ships. A mobile supply frigate only carried a handful of mechs while a corvette only deployed a single mech at most.

Yet Ves did not forget that his new ship was running entirely on automation right now! The absence of a human crew meant that the Scarlet Rose performed worse than usual!

Not only was the Scarlet Rose unable to outrun comparable ships, she also possessed little ability to resist attackers!

Though his ship currently carried four second-class mechs, without any mech pilots on hand, how could he ever enjoy their protection?

Even if the Coalition didn't send any mechs, Ves would still be hard pressed to hold on to his Scarlet Rose!

Ves still didn't trust her internal defense systems. He feared that any boarding party that managed to step foot on his ship could only be resisted by relying solely on himself and Lucky!

"I can't allow any enemy to board my ship!"

Though Ves and Lucky succeeded in killing the former crew of the ship, that was only by virtue of launching a surprise attack.

Against a large, prepared and determined group of commandos, Ves did not rate his chances highly!

All of these pressing concerns continued to weigh on his mind. While his temporary rational state prevented him from sinking in despair, he still felt a little pessimistic when he estimated his odds.

In the end, he was just a single person! Away from his friends and subordinates, he could only rely on Lucky to assist his efforts!

Ves already realized how unlikely it was to escape Coalition pursuit if this remained true.

He recognized that he needed help! A lot of help!

For this reason, Ves tried to gain control over the external communication systems before the ship reached her next stop.

He shut off and isolated most communication methods and focused completely on the controller attached to the quantum entanglement node.

He knew that the entire controller was very suspect. The reason why he locked down the quantum entanglement node right at the start was because the ship would continue to feed back information to the Friday Coalition if left alone!

While Ves deeply wanted to contact Gloriana and his organization for help, he didn't dare to do so before he replaced the controller.

It took some time to fabricate a rudimentary control module that was completely standalone.

Ves did not want the rest of the Scarlet Rose to connect with this replacement control module. Who knew what kind of hidden programming would spring into action and covertly transmit some information back to the Coalition Reserve Corps!

The best way to prevent this from happening was by tearing down the bridge!

Of course, Ves didn't know whether the quantum entanglement node itself was connected to the Friday Coalition.

Technically, it should have been under the sole purview of the Comm Consortium, but what if the Friday Coalition gained the right to tap into its transmissions?

The device originally belonged to the Coalition, after all.

This was why he did not dare to be too open in his upcoming communication attempts. He had to act as if the Coalition was listening in on his transmissions.

He smiled. "Thankfully, I've already taken this into account."

As a paranoid bastard, Ves had already made some preparations beforehand. The moment he finished installing the replacement control module on the quantum entanglement node, he connected to the galactic net for the first time since Ghanso took him away!

The control module currently served as a bridge that connected to his comm through a solid wire.

Ves wasn't stupid enough to add wireless capabilities to his control module. Only a fixed connection ensured adequate security!

After checking that nothing was amiss, he first attempted to call Gloriana through an encryption method that Ves had already prepared beforehand.

Gloriana instantly accepted the call!

"Ves!" Her projection appeared in front him, causing his muted heart to stir! "I missed you! How are you? My sources tell me that something has happened to the Scarlet Rose! Are you still a prisoner?"

"Woah, there! Calm down, Gloriana. Let me start at the beginning."

In his current state, Ves did not wish to waste his time. He quickly explained his experiences on the Scarlet Rose. The moment he finished explaining his successful hijacking attempt, his girlfriend gazed at him in admiration!

"I never expected you to be so daring to take over a ship by yourself! How did you manage to do it? I don't see any way for you to kill the entire crew!"

"Ah, I have my ways." Ves modestly said.

"From what little intelligence we've gathered, the Coalition seemed to have the impression that we dispatched one of our special forces teams to liberate the Scarlet Rose!"

"Regardless of what happened, I succeeded in taking control over the ship." Ves moved on, neither confirming or denying her guess.

If the eavesdroppers managed to crack the encryption, they would still be guessing whether a commando team truly captured the ship!

Gloriana understood the gravity of the situation. "I really regret not being able to help you, Ves. I promise to make it up you! While there aren't many Hexer assets in this region of space, I can still convince them to come to your assistance! I can also convince your Avatars to rendez-vous with you!"

"I'll transmit my position, route and plans through the agreed-upon method. You should know what I'm talking about."

She nodded. "I'll be keeping my eye out."

"I'll also transmit the schematics and the current configuration of the Scarlet Rose. I've done my best to subvert control over some of her core systems, but I'm not confident whether I've missed something."

"I already looked up on the Scarlet Rose." She said. "She's a fairly modern ship, and I'm not sure whether the Hegemony has grasped her design. We can only offer limited assistance on this front."

"Well, do the best you can. Even some advice is useful. You Hexers must surely be familiar with the tricks the Fridaymen employ."

"I'll see what I can do. Your friend C should be able to offer what you need, I think. She's been trying just as hard as me to get you back!"

Ves narrowed his eyes. "I could have used C's help earlier."

Gloriana's projection scowled. "You're not the only one who's disappointed in her! While she promised to make it up for her absence, don't put your hopes in her! She doesn't love you like I do! Only I can save my boy!"

"Uhm.."

"Don't worry, Ves! You just do your best and evade the Fridaymen! As soon as I obtain your data, I'll pass them on to the Hegemony to figure out the best way to circumvent their pursuers!"

"How much effort are they investing in recapturing this ship?"

The Coalition doesn't have many assets in place to hunt you down. However, the states in this region are all aligned with our enemies! We have already seen signs that these states have dispatched a lot of outfits and forces to intercept the Scarlet Rose! Don't trust anyone you encounter!"

He already anticipated this possibility. If the Fridaymen managed to work together with Ghanso and General Cavendish, then they should surely be able to leverage the help of states closer to Coalition space!

After discussing his precarious situation, Ves wanted to know what had happened to the organizations he left behind.

"Has the LMC imploded?"

She smiled. "Don't worry, Ves. Your company and your other organizations are still holding up. The people you put in charge are still firmly in control. Right now, they're busy executing one of your contingency plans. While they aren't able to move as many assets as they want to, the authorities haven't posed any hindrance. They can't afford to antagonize us after this scandal blew up in their faces!"

He became relieved at hearing this. He feared the Bright Republic decided to commit to the Friday Coalition and make the LMC and the Larkinson Family miserable.

"What about.. the Deliverer?"

"Our new model is performing as we expected." She smiled brilliantly. "The Deliverers has succeeded in making an impact in the Ylvaine Protectorate! There are already talks about assisting other states, but the negotiations aren't always smooth. You can't imagine how remorseful the Bright Republic is right now! The Ylvainans are driving a very hard bargain against your state right now!"

Ves had mixed feelings about this. If the Deliverers showed their value earlier, the Bright Republic would have never screwed him over!

Chapter 1742 Slalom

After hearing about how much leverage the Ylvaine Protectorate gained after they managed to master the use of his Deliverers, Ves felt a bit proud.

He even considered whether he should make use of his influence on the state to dictate their decisions.

If Ves wasn't so rational, then he would have followed his angry impulses and told the Ylvainans to bleed his former state dry!

A darker part of him even wanted to take a step further and withhold assistance entirely!

However, Ves quickly ruled out these impulsive decisions.

From a logical point of view, the fall of the Bright Republic would expose the flanks of the Ylvaine Protectorate and Vesia Kingdom against the sandmen.

There was no way the Ylvainans and Vesians would be able to stretch their overstretched defense forces any further!

Since its own safety was at stake, the Ylvainans would never break relations with the Brighters entirely! They still depended on each other to protect each other's flanks!

Aside from that, Ves maintained a principle that he should not be too picky about his customers and how they utilized them. The moment the mechs ended up in the hands of his customers, he no longer possessed any say in their use.

If the Ylvainans wanted to use his mechs to help the people who stabbed his back, then Ves shouldn't interfere.

This was what a mech designer ought to do! They only provided the tools. It was up to the recipients to use them for their desired ends!

Of course, the situation was a little special right now. It was not that easy to remain hands-off when the Deliverer had the potential to wipe out most sandman fleets before they inflicted any substantial damage!

He managed to move on, though. This was not the time to indulge in improper influencing, especially when the lives of trillions of Brighters and Ylvainans were at stake!

The three leading dynasties were the rightful rulers of the Ylvaine Dynasty. Ves did not possess the mandate, experience or training to be a qualified leader of an entire state!

After reminding himself of this, Ves loosened his shoulders.

"Let's end this call before the Fridaymen find out anymore. Each communication attempt is risky, so we shouldn't talk too often."

Though Gloriana looked regretful, she reluctantly accepted his argument.

Tears began to well in her eyes as she gazed at her boyfriend.

Ves clearly wasn't in a good state right now since he was still relying on a floating chair to move around!

"Don't give up, Ves! I'll do everything I can to bring you to safety! Once you're in the clear, we should have a good talk about our future!"

That sounded rather ominous to Ves. He immediately suspected that Gloriana wanted to encourage him to move to Hegemony space in order to avoid Coalition pursuit!

Ves quickly ended the comm call before he said something he might regret! In his rational state, who knew what kind of insane decision he might make!

He felt as if he was in Axelar's shoes right now! His sane self was a lot more suspect than his ordinary self!

Because it wasn't him! Only when he regained his emotions would he trust his own judgement!

Right now, he acted as if his judgement was impaired.

"It's like I'm drunk right now! I can't assume I'll make the right decisions!"

Perhaps someone like Patricia would disagree, but Ves had always been someone who stuck to his choices even if his logic disagreed.

One benefit about his recent changes was that he gained the opportunity to make a comparison between his rational self and emotional self.

With the help of Patricia's explanations, Ves gained a much greater awareness of himself.

It was as if he was on the outside looking in on how he acted.

While his judgement wasn't always good, he longed to return to normal.

This was because Ves never doubted his decisions! Whenever he made a choice, he usually committed to them with unflinching conviction!

His decision to commit to Gloriana despite the dubiousness of the relationship was a typical example.

As long as he was happy, who cared about whether he made the wrong decision?!

This certainty was missing in him right now, which troubled him quite a bit. He continually doubted some of his decisions.

If he wasn't used to sticking to his choices, then he would have changed his mind already!

"My mental state is not very good right." He concluded. "I should distract myself."

Before he did anything else, he first prepared the data package for Gloriana.

Ves did not assume he could hide his encrypted data package from the Coalition. To assume otherwise was to insult their intelligence capabilities.

However, there were ways to frustrate them. It just took a bit of time to set up the preparations.

Ves spent a few hours in programming a software program that performed some very simple tasks.

First, it received some data input. This input could be as little as a single document or an entire data chip worth of files!

Once it received the input, the program encrypted it with a randomized encryption method.

This consumed most of his attention because he configured the software with a lot of encryption methods. Each of them relied on a lot of randomized elements that made them very hard to crack by relying on quantum rotation and all kinds of other techniques!

No matter the method, Ves believed it would definitely take some time and computing power to decrypt the data!

Once his software program finished encrypting the data, it uploaded its output on a random address on the galactic net.

Each time it uploaded something on the galactic net, it uploaded the encrypted file on another address!

While the principle of his software program sounded trivially simple, the annoying part about it was the sheer volume of encrypted output it disgorged onto the galactic net!

In the first minute since he activated it, it started to upload more random encrypted files at a million different addresses!

Each of these files were encrypted in different ways! No single method solved all of them easily!

Even if the Friday Coalition managed to decrypt the files, most of them only contained gibberish data!

The vast majority of files his program uploaded on the galactic net consisted of decoys!

Ves intended to run this spamming program for an entire day. After uploading an uncountable amount of files on the galactic net, he believed the Friday Coalition would definitely be frustrating themselves if they attempted to crack each and every one of them in the hopes of gaining any useful data!

Out of all of those decoys, only a hundred files contained the data that Ves wanted to convey to Gloriana. Ves had split up his package in a hundred parts as another precaution.

Only Crindon knew the right addresses and decryption methods of those files. As a Kinner, Crindon was absolutely loyal, so Ves did not worry about any leaks on his end!

Of course, while this method was very consuming, Ves did not rule out the possibility that the Friday Coalition found a way to recover the sensitive data.

"Well, it's not like I can do anything better." He shrugged.

If he relied on the Scarlet Rose's communication system, he could employ much more sophisticated solutions.

It was too bad that he didn't trust it at all. The reason why he wasted valuable time in programming an encryption solution was because he could only trust what he made himself!

After making sure that his software program and his control module worked as expected, he left them alone and returned to the bridge.

He became a little tense as his floater chair entered the bridge.

The ship was just about to reach her second stop. Ves wasn't sure whether it was as lifeless as the first stop.

It took less than two weeks for the Scarlet Rose to travel from the Bright Republic to the border of the Friday Coalition.

However, this was the most direct route. The ship travelled along a popular shipping route. Many ships frequented this route, which was very bad news to a fugitive like Ves!

While most of this traffic consisted of neutrals, as long as one mercenary corps or escort force decided to do the Friday Coalition a favor, Ves would definitely be in trouble!

Therefore, he had no choice but to take an inefficient, circuitous route to safety.

His current route resembled a slalom that meandered its way to the Ylvaine Protectorate.

Not only did he have to make a lot of detours, he also had to travel to the most lifeless star systems imaginable!

Most of these consisted of red dwarf systems. Their weak mass and energy made it very hard for FTL drives to reach these destinations.

This wasn't a problem when the jump was short, but as long as the distance lengthened, it was too risky for ships to travel to them! As long as they missed the mark, it was a complete mystery where they ultimately stopped!

All of these measures doubled or tripled his return time. He might have to wander the stars for more than a month before the Scarlet Rose reached her destination!

This wasn't the first time he traveled in this fashion. The Flagrant Vandals successfully used these methods to avoid getting cornered by the Vesians as they boldly cut through their space!

Ves did not forget that one of the reasons the Vandals succeeded was because they had the help of the Vesian Revolution Front.

If Ves wanted to replicate the feat of the Vandals, he needed some intelligence assistance as well.

He had no choice but to rely on Gloriana and Calabast to provide him with this valuable information.

Even with all of these advantages, he was not very optimistic about his chances. The Friday Coalition's influence in this region of space was simply too heavy!

All of this was proven right as soon as the Scarlet Rose finally emerged out of FTL.

Despite ending up in another empty star system that didn't even contain a single manned space station, the Scarlet Rose still detected the presence of fifteen ships in the system!

Three of them even appeared within several light-minutes of his emergence point!

If the variance of the Scarlet Rose's FTL emergence hadn't nudged the ship away, the Scarlet Rose might have ended up in the middle of their triangular formation!

A few minutes after entering the star system, Ves received a transmission from one of the unknown ships.

[VES LARKINSON. ON BEHALF OF THE COALITION RESERVE CORPS, WE ORDER YOU TO CEASE YOUR FLIGHT AND SURRENDER THE SCARLET ROSE.]

"How friendly." Ves snorted.

He didn't panic.

Ves immediately commanded his ship to engage her thrusters and run as far away from the closest ships as possible.

Immediately, her powerful propulsion systems accelerated the Scarlet Rose away from the nearest ship.

At the same time, he activated the scanners and allocated a lot of energy into scanning the properties of the three pursuing ships.

The results quickly came in. It turned out that the three vessels belonged to a third-class mercenary corps that had doubtlessly been hired to squat at one of the likely emergence zones the Scarlet Rose might end up next.

The three ships were all light carriers. Due to their low relative velocity, none of the carriers enjoyed a head start on the Scarlet Rose.

More importantly, the pursuing ships consisted entirely of bog-standard third-class light carriers!

Compared to a second-class mobile supply frigate, their acceleration was too inferior! The mercenary corps would never be able to catch up to the Scarlet Rose before she transitioned back into FTL!

Ves put down his worries. Though the light carriers appeared to be distressingly close, in truth the distance would only grow larger instead of smaller!

"There's no reason for me to worry about them! At this distance, not even laser weapons can hit my ship!"

While Ves put down his concerns, he was still displeased.

This was just the start. Ves bet that he would definitely encounter this situation several more times!

Chapter 1743 Three Republics

After exchanging encrypted messages with Gloriana, Ves received a bunch of useful information.

First, he received an analysis of the Dyer Broslev Class. The Scarlet Rose just happened to be an upgraded version of the Dyer Broslev Class, so the information he received was very useful in increasing his understanding of his new ship.

The Hexers not only analyzed the Dyer Broslev Class in detail, but also documented all of the traps, safeguards and backup measures slipped into the various systems of the ship.

Though Ves managed to disarm many of them, he still missed a couple of hidden dangers, especially the ones embedded in the minor systems.

A sour expression faintly marred his face.

"Starships are way too complex."

If Ves was working with a mech, then he would have grasped it to a much greater degree! Even if it wasn't possible for him to master 100 of the ship, then he would have at least managed to understand 50 or 60 percent of its mechanisms!

In comparison, Ves felt he had only gained a selective understanding of the ship. He barely grasped 10 to 20 percent of the Scarlet Rose, but actually understood less than 5 percent of her workings!

The only reason why Ves managed to gain control of the mobile supply frigate was because no one else was left to contest his coup.

As long as the captain or a senior officer of the ship remained alive, they could have instantly taken back control over the core command systems!

The information provided by the Hexers specifically pointed out this well-hidden security risk. Though it only posed a threat when someone accessed the bridge, Ves still poured all of his efforts into closing this backdoor!

Aside from this useful information, Gloriana also passed on a modified route for him to navigate back to safety.

When Ves inspected the route, he found out that it actually consisted of several branches. If one destination wasn't safe for any reason, he could opt to travel to another star system instead.

Ves had to admit that this plan was very comprehensive. He wouldn't end up without direction when circumstances forced him to diverge from his primary route!

He could definitely tell that Calabast was responsible for forming this plan. Aside from suggesting various routes, the plan also highlighted opportunities to upgrade the ship or shake off pursuit.

Unfortunately, the plan did not mention anything about enlisting additional help along the way.

The Scarlet Rose was an empty castle without a competent crew. She was also defenseless as there weren't any ships and mechs to protect her against any possible threats!

Ves sorely missed the Avatars of Myth and the Battle Criers at this time! As long as he enjoyed their protection, he had much more confidence in sneaking back to safety!

Fortunately, the one saving grace was the Scarlet Rose's exceptional mobility.

As long as Ves disregarded the longevity of her propulsion system, his ship could easily outrun nearly any pursuers!

The fast cycling time of her FTL drive made it difficult for carriers and lower-quality vessels to keep up with her flight!

The original crew of the Scarlet Rose deserved a lot of credit for keeping the ship in excellent shape. Her FTL drive and her propulsion system were both in tip-top shape.

Though it was risky to overburden them, Ves didn't have to worry about wearing them out in a short amount of time.

Ships were built to endure, especially the more expensive ones like the Scarlet Rose. In ordinary cases, she should easily be able to maintain optimum performance for 50 years!

Overburdening the ship in any way would shorten this optimum state. The deterioration became even worse when there weren't any engineers on hand to mitigate the damage and perform immediate maintenance and repairs!

However, Ves didn't care about this at the moment. Though he already considered the ship as his possession, he clearly knew his priorities!

He should secure his own life and freedom first before chasing after other goals!

"If it's necessary to abandon the Scarlet Rose, I'll do it! I won't be able to cling to her anyway if my enemies manage to corner the ship!"

The plan already took these eventualities into account. Some of the star systems on his route were lightly populated.

The sparse settlements didn't attract a lot of traffic, thereby giving Ves plenty of opportunities to slip in and blend in the towns and cities.

As long as he waited for rescue or obtained passage on another ship, Ves could definitely resume his escape!

Of course, Ves did not wish to resort to this contingency plan. He was not a spy and did not feel confident in his ability to hijack another ship, especially when his opponents blockaded the planet!

According to his current plan, the Scarlet Rose had to pass through three different states in order to reach the Ylvaine Protectorate.

Right now, he resided in the Ordent Republic, a weak third-rate state that bordered the Friday Coalition.

Due to its small size and strong dependence on the Friday Coalition, the state did not possess a strong military heritage. The private sector outfits weren't very powerful either. None of them fought in any intensive battles or wars. Most of the fighting in this star system consisted of ritualized duels and restricted battles.

However, the annoying part about Ordent was that it maintained close ties with the Gauge Dynasty and Konsu Clan. The intelligence provided by Gloriana warned him that the Ordenters wouldn't hesitate to move in large numbers to hunt him down!

Once he passed through the Ordent Republic, Ves would cross into the Great Zona Republic.

Though its name sounded impressive, it wasn't actually stronger than the Bright Republic.

Different from Ordent, Zona experienced numerous wars, all of which ended in victory!

The reason why it adopted its current name was because the smaller Zona Republic managed to annex various neighboring states!

Though each of these states were small and weak, for Zona to become the ultimate victor of this territorial struggle spoke volumes about its military might!

In recent times, Zona abandoned its aggressive posture. While its militarists wanted to continue its string of victories, the internal stability of the state dropped significantly as it failed to digest its earlier conquests!

The Zonars were good at winning territories, but that didn't mean that they were good at keeping them! Their arrogant, tyrannical rule over their conquered territories evoked a lot of dissatisfaction, providing fertile ground to many hostile rebel groups!

Ves already knew how hard it was to fight against rebels. The Bentheim Liberation Movement and the Vesia Revolutionary Front managed to last for centuries despite enduring continuous persecution!

While it was almost impossible for these rebel groups to topple an entire state, they nonetheless turned into persistent dogs that continued to gnaw at the legs of the Great Zona Republic!

None of these rebel organizations should possess any special affection for the Friday Coalition.

Yet that did not mean that the enemy of his enemy was a friend!

The Scarlet Rose was an extremely valuable second-class ship! Any rebel group that managed to get their hands on her would be able to expand their spaceborn operations or sell her for a huge windfall!

The rebels couldn't be trusted! At best, Ves could take advantage of the pressure they exerted on the Zonars to slip between the cracks!

After crossing the Great Zona Republic, Ves would enter the Crecia Republic.

Bordering both the Star Faith Collective and the Ylvaine Protectorate, the Crecia Republic strongly resisted these religious influences by adopting a strong secular tradition.

This reminded him a lot of the Bright Republic.

Different from his home state, Crecia was a lot more centralized. The president held most of the power as there weren't any founding families or other legacy influences to divide power among themselves.

As a result, Crecia boasted very strong stability, which was bad news to Ves. The more chaotic the state, the easier it was to slip through its territories. A stable state like Crecia meant that it could easily muster up a lot of assets to cut off his escape routes!

"Well, whatever. I'll deal with this problem when I get to it." He shrugged. "I can only solve my problems step by step."

In total, Ves needed to cross through the territories of three republics, making him feel as if he was embarking on another odyssey!

The odds were against them. Ves was all alone with no one else but Lucky to keep him company.

He couldn't obtain any further help along the way. None of the mercenary corps and other possible sources of help could be trusted. They were much more liable to capture the Scarlet Rose and offer her back to the Friday Coalition in order to obtain rich rewards!

Ves grimaced. "The states in this region are all aligned with their big neighbor."

A second-rate state ordinarily didn't bother with taking over the poorer territories of third-rate states. That did not mean a more powerful state could ignore the riffraff entirely!

The former undeniably expanded their tentacles to the latter in order to prevent its enemies from doing the same!

As long as all of the third-rate states in the vicinity came under the influence of the Coalition, the Hexers wouldn't be able to infiltrate them and use them as a springboard to mess with their rivals!

The Ylvaine Protectorate happened to avoid getting swept up in the Coalition's influence due to several reasons.

First, throughout its history, the Protectorate isolated itself from the outside galaxy. It rejected any outside influences and continued to bury its head in the sand regardless of what went on outside its borders!

Second, the partners of the Coalition all consisted of secular powers. None of them possessed much enthusiasm in building ties with a religious culture they regarded as superstition.

Third, the Friday Coalition already built up influences in many other third-rate states. It was not a big deal to leave behind some gaps.

Even if the Hexadric Hegemony tentatively built some relationships with the Ylvaine Protectorate, the isolated state would never pose a threat to the Coalition's territorial supremacy!

This neglect gave Ves an opportunity to evade pursuit. As long as he crossed the border into the Ylvaine Protectorate, all of his other pursuers should think twice!

Perhaps in ordinary times, there was no reason to respect Ylvaine Protectorate's sovereignty.

However, the Komodo War made everything more sensitive!

Most states didn't actually want to forge a life-and-death bond with the Friday Coalition! If they betted on the wrong horse, the Hexers would surely make them pay for their hasty judgement!

Another complicating factor was the dazzling role played by the Deliverers.

While Ves didn't have the time to keep up with the news, what little he read suggested that the so-called Eye of Ylvaine became the latest sensation of the Sand War!

The Deliverers all performed well when piloted by Ylvainans. However, they seemed to perform the best in the hands of the Hunters of Ylvaine!

It was as if the Great Prophet started to concentrate his blessings on these chosen elites!

With the Ylvaine Protectorate expressing willingness to dispatch their Hunters of Ylvaine to foreign states, the Ylvainans gained a lot of appreciation!

If at this time some states conspired to attack the Ylvaine Protectorate, what would happen to its military assistance?

"Since I'm the designer of the Deliverer, other people should better harbor some scruples in pursuing me!" He reasoned.

Only the most committed lackeys of the Coalitions should pursue him wholeheartedly. As for others, his entanglement with the Ylvaine Protectorate and Hexadric Hegemony should definitely deter them from trying too hard in pissing him off!

"In these troubled times, it's best to stay neutral and let the big boys fight it out!"

After making this realization, Ves regained some hope. While his actual deterrence wasn't that great, as long as he leaned on his backers, he might be able to worm his way out of trouble!

Chapter 1744 Empty Quarters

"Calabast. I haven't seen you for a while."

Her projection looked around to observe the ruined bridge. Though the cleaning bots had done their best to clean up the bodies and debris, the melted surfaces and the torn holes still told a vivid story.

"I'll keep this short, Ves." She said. "It took a lot of effort to establish this encrypted channel, and it is only effective for a couple of minutes."

Ves frowned. "How?"

"It's complicated. Suffice to say, you need a way to obtain an inside connection to the Comm Consortium."

Comm Consortium! Even with his muted emotions, Ves couldn't help but feel shocked!

This was an organization that governed every quantum communication node! It oversaw pretty much the entire galactic communication network with its vast web of instantaneous communication channels!

How Calabast managed to make an arrangement with someone inside the Comm Consortium was a mystery.

"Why go through this trouble?"

"To explain myself, and to transmit some helpful data to you. As we speak, I'm transferring some software that you can install in the Scarlet Rose's operating system. You will need this to close some of the more difficult backdoors and loopholes. I've also included some helpful programs that will help you in masking the identity of the Scarlet Rose and falsify her transponders. It won't fool determined bounty hunters, but it will help you in attracting less attention from incidental bystanders."

That sounded very welcome to Ves. His disappointment towards her subsided a little, but it wasn't enough!

"Can I get some actual help?" He pushed. "I could use some actual crew to run this ship! I could also use some escorts to bring me to safety."

"We're working on that, Ves. Gloriana and I have been exploring our options, but we can't give you anything concrete. You'll have to fend for yourself for the time being."

Her vague reply did not satisfy Ves at all. He grimaced even further.

"Why didn't you warn me about General Cavendish's plot?"

"I've already said that my intelligence network hasn't penetrated the state level." Calabast answered in an exasperated tone. "I admit that I've underestimated the conspiracy some of these state actors have hatched. I've already adjusted my organization to detect these plots faster, but don't expect too much from us. My operation can never match the effort of a state."

"What were you even doing during this time?"

"I was preparing an opportunity for you, Ves. Didn't you want to break into a second-rate mech market? Among other actions, I've approached various entities and managed to obtain a positive response from a group that is interested in your mechs."

"Let me guess. They're Hexers, right?"

She grinned. "Naturally. Did you think I would offer you to design a mech for the Fridaymen?"

Though Ves absolutely refused to do any favors for the Friday Coalition after everything that Aisling Curver had done, that didn't mean he was open to designing mechs for the Hexadric Hegemony!

"I didn't ask for this, Calabast."

"I know you had plans to offer your services to the second-rate states from Vicious Mountain, but you don't have a foundation there. It's better to start closer home. Gloriana fully supports our initiative."

"Didn't you forget that I'm a man? How could I ever break into the Hegemony's mech market? All designs have to be vetted by the Hexers!"

"This is why you need the cooperation of Gloriana. As long as she takes responsibility for your work, most Hexers won't pay too much attention that a boy is the actual lead designer. The downside is that you won't earn as much credit as you deserve."

Ves hadn't even considered designing a Hexer mech at this point. However, due to the need to earn Constance Wodin's approval, he really needed this opportunity, so he did not reject Calabast's assistance.

"Can you give me more details?"

She shook her head. "It will only distract you from your current priorities. Let's wait until you are safe before considering your future options."

After discussing a few more important matters, Calabast ended the encrypted call.

Ves fell silent as he leaned his back against the captain's chair he replaced. The old one got wrecked when he bombarded the prior captain of the ship with an excess of energy damage.

Though Ves agreed that it was too premature to think about designing a mech for the Hexers, he couldn't help but question what exactly Calabast arranged for him and Gloriana.

The Hegemony's mech market was not as free and unbridled as most other economies. The Hexers deferred to their matriarchs to decide whether a mech design was a good addition to the market.

While this vastly reduced the amount of products for sale in the Hegemony, the quality of them tended to be very high!

Of course, one of the downsides of this was that Novices and Apprentices barely had room to breathe in their domestic mech industry. While the Hexers implemented various policies to avoid starving them to death, it was undeniable that the Friday Coalition offered much more fertile ground to the younger generation of mech designers.

Ves knew that Gloriana managed to beat the odds by specializing in a very small niche. There was always demand for custom mechs. Even if she didn't manage to attract any customers, she could always gain more experience by designing mechs for the Wodin Dynasty!

While Gloriana already developed a presence in the Hegemony's mech industry, she didn't actually possess that much commercial experience.

Ves expected that it would take some years for him to offer his products to the Hexers. Right now, he still had much to learn before he came close to reaching an adequate degree of familiarity with second-class mechs.

"What kind of mech do I even want to design?" He asked.

This question had been plaguing him for a while. Ever since he completed the Deliverer, he no longer saw any need to intervene in the Sand War again.

Outside of this destructive conflict, the states in the region shouldn't be eager to fight on a massive scale. Wars and skirmishes would certainly diminish as the survivors poured most of their energy into rebuilding what they lost and taking over the territories scoured by the sandmen.

This was why Ves already considered stepping up to a second-class mech market. All of the low-level friction that took place in the third-rate states did not interest him at all, especially after he experienced the Sand War.

Taking part in the Komodo War sounded much more interesting, though this conflict was fought at a much higher level than Ves was used to! Without a compelling and technically-sound mech design, he would never be able to break into the market!

Right now, Ves still needed to supplement his knowledge and hurry up in gaining all of the competences necessary to design a second-class mech!

"And not just an ordinary second-class mech, but a premium one!"

That reminded him that Aisling and Patricia's quarters were ripe for the picking. Since both of them were at the mech workshop by the time that Ves launched his hijacking attempt, the women shouldn't have gotten any opportunity to retrieve their personal possessions!

While Ves wasn't interested in their personal effects, he hoped they left something useful behind, such as a full copy of their library!

The printed books in his stateroom only encompassed a shallow layer of the knowledge that Clarion University had to offer! As long as Ves got his hands on Aisling's restricted knowledge, Ves would definitely be able grasp second-class mech design faster!

He first processed the information and software sent by Calabast. It took one day to install the new software, become familiar with its functions, and increase his control over the Scarlet Rose.

Only after he finished these necessary chores did he choose to investigate former quarters of his least favorite Fridaymen mech designers.

In case of any traps, Ves decided to take some precautions before entering.

"Meow meow!"

"Hey, I haven't complained at all about the fact that you're treating millions or billions worth of cols of exotics as your food! The least you can do is to scout ahead and dig out any secret stashes!"

"Meow."

Though Lucky looked a bit grumpy, Ves thought it was best to pull Lucky away from the material stores. He still needed at least some supplies to perform critical repairs when needed!

Aside from this precaution, he also donned a suit of combat armor he managed to retrieve from one of Lucky's unfortunate victims.

Many of the guards that met an unfortunate end at his claws had died from internal wounds. That left their combat armor intact. As long as he hacked its systems and adjusted their biometric locks, the combat armor he salvaged fully recognized him as its native user!

The main issue with his protection was that it consisted of medium combat armor. This was larger and bulkier than Ves was used to. Along with the fact that second-class combat armor came with many complex functions, he was unable to adapt to it in a short amount of time!

This was why he made for a very strange sight right now. A large, armored form coated with the colors and emblems of the Coalition Reserve Corps approached the entrance to Patricia's quarters.

Lucky playfully swished in the air as he followed after his owner.

Once they reached the hatch, Ves used his authority over the ship to override the personal lock.

Though the hatch slid open, he did not step in. Instead, he turned his armored head to Lucky, who quickly got the hint.

"Meow."

Lucky flew inside and began to sniff and scan every corner of the roomy compartment.

"Meow!"

Only after Lucky finished his pass did Ves step inside.

The layout of Patricia's stateroom was identical to his own. The furnishings were just as luxurious, and all of the furniture aside from his bookcase were exactly the same.

There were some very noticeable differences, though. For one, Patricia's desk came with a standard terminal.

Another difference was that the furnishings only featured the symbols and markings of the CRC and the Friday Coalition. This was probably how his quarters should have originally looked like before Aisling rearranged the interior to indoctrinate him into defecting to the Gauge Dynasty.

Once Ves got over the differences, he slowly began to inspect Patricia's abandoned possessions.

To his disappointment, his former classmate did not bring much. Her wardrobe carried most of her personal effects.

He picked up a bra with his armored hand and stared at it listlessly.

What use did he have for this useless article for clothing?

He threw aside the bra and began to scour through the neatly-folded clothes for any hidden treasures.

No luck.

Lucky already inspected the wardrobe beforehand, but Ves hadn't given up hope.

"Did she even bring anything useful?" He frowned.

He searched elsewhere, but only found trivial objects such as a collection of shoes and some exclusive designer perfume that was worth hundreds of thousands of cols.

Ves sniffed the fragrance but didn't experience much stimulation due to his low period.

"Useless."

He threw the bottle of perfume away, which bounced against the deck before rolling to a stop.

No matter how much he searched, he failed to find anything useful!

He faintly hoped to encounter a spare shield generator or an important cache of intelligence!

Yet after two hours of searching, Ves encountered nothing worth valuing!

Not even the files she stored in her desk terminal contained anything of use!

"She's really careful." He sighed.

He didn't think she anticipated that he would take over the ship. This was probably an ingrained habit she developed to minimize any possible leaks.

The way she arranged her quarters conformed closely to her claim that she was trying to advance as a rational mech designer.

As someone who purposefully suppressed her emotions, she had no need to bring much stuff!

Chapter 1745 Competitive Mechs

Searching Patricia's quarters turned out to be a fruitless venture.

She brought nothing useful to Ves. What personal effects she left behind largely consisted of clothes and cosmetics.

Of course, she didn't need to bring anything else. She was just supposed to be serving alongside a monitor on behalf of the Coalition Reserve Corps.

This was a fairly boring duty that demanded little of her. Aside from providing Aisling with her insights on the Bright Republic, Patricia did not need to do anything else.

The only meaningful gain he secured was getting a better insight on Patricia.

For some reason, Ves believed that there was a good chance that he would encounter her again in the future.

Though they both came from the same state, they somehow ended up on opposite sides.

While she was just an Apprentice for the time being, the confidence she exuded when she stated that she was steadily working towards Journeyman impressed him a lot!

"She'll definitely be worth watching once she advances to Journeyman!"

He left her abandoned quarters in disappointment. Getting an impression of her personality was not worth wasting two hours of his limited time.

"Hopefully, Aisling left something better behind!"

He followed the same routine on Lady Aisling's quarters.

Unlike the rooms assigned to Ves and Patricia, Aisling clearly enjoyed better digs!

Her stateroom was twice as large as his own, and much of the space was taken up by larger furniture and wasteful decorations.

Unlike Patricia, Aisling clearly brought more stuff!

Her wardrobe alone contained four times as much clothes! She even brought along more shoes!

Of course, just because her quarters were filled with her personal effects didn't mean that Ves could make use of them. In truth, many of her possessions consisted of trinkets such as miniatures of her previous mech designs.

While there was some value to studying her handmade miniatures, there was little value in doing so during his current predicament.

He could study her work later when he had the luxury to return to mech design!

Unfortunately, as Ves searched her quarters further, he only found more objects that either satisfied her vanity or were related to her profession.

It took half an hour before he encountered his first useful find.

"What's this, Lucky?"

"Meow!"

While Ves had been going through Aisling's effects, Lucky had been phasing through the deck and bulkheads in an attempt to uncover hidden pockets.

Ves half expected to find nothing. There was no reason for Aisling to bring anything too sensitive or valuable for her assignment. Just like Patricia, she shouldn't be bringing anything superfluous to her duties.

Instead, Lucky managed to dig out a strange vial containing some sort of glowing blue fluid.

Ves had no clue what he was holding. Yet he intuitively sensed that it was very valuable.

"Is there something else in the stash where you found this vial?"

"Meow."

"Nothing at all? Not even a data chip or something?"

"Meow!"

Without any documents or other objects, Ves did not know the value of this vial.

He could make some guesses, though. The contents of the vial reminded him a lot of a gene boost elixir.

The ones he was familiar with acted as primers that increased a person's tolerance towards genetic modification.

Ves obtained an entry-level boost from Master Olson. He gained a follow-up boost after undergoing an operation at the Starlight Megalodon.

The value between these boosts differed substantially.

While an entry-level boost was already valuable, a second phase priming agent could be worth as much as the Scarlet Rose!

Though his vision grew hot for a moment, his rationality quickly reasserted itself.

How could Aisling be so careless as to bring along a second phase priming agent to this mission?

She should never be carrying something so valuable without more protection!

"Unless.. It's not for her. Perhaps it might have been prepared for an upcoming trade!"

Ves recalled that Aisling ended her monitoring assignment early. In exchange, the CRC passed some other assignments to her in order to make up for her premature return.

"Is this a part of her makeup assignments?"

He couldn't really tell. There was something special about the vial that prompted Aisling to store it away in a hidden stash in her quarters.

Whether it was a gene boost elixir or some other valuable substance, Ves couldn't immediately make use of it, let alone identify it right away.

"Maybe her terminal contains some information."

He left aside the unmarked vial and sat down behind her desk. With Lucky's assistance, he managed to gain entry into her files.

"Well, well, well, it's not as empty as I thought!"

Unlike Patricia who maintained a very light footprint, Aisling clearly didn't possess the same concerns. She dumped all sorts of files and documents in the storage space of her personal terminal.

While her files were locked behind numerous passwords and encryptions, Lucky easily solved them all, revealing all of their contents to Ves without any further hindrance!

He combed over Aisling's haphazard file structure. Many of the files were related to her former and current design projects.

He not only encountered Aisling's design schematics, but also her notes, logs and explanations!

The former only provided him with some reference value. The former combined with the latter allowed him to imitate her mech design!

While Ves didn't feel any desire to engage in such a shameless action, he could still gain a deeper insight into her specialty!

"Wait a second.. these design schematics are very familiar!"

Four of the folders contained the full design documentation of the mechs stored in the mech hangar!

Each of those dormant mechs were actually her own work! She designed and built all four mechs to serve as her honor guard of some sorts.

If Ves hadn't sabotaged their neural interfaces, then he would have definitely failed in his hijacking attempt!

As it was, without any mech pilots, the mechs basically turned into metal statues. There was no way that Ves could take advantage of their strength.

Nonetheless, that did not mean that Ves discounted them entirely. At the very least, if he didn't have anything else to do, he might as well study Aisling's work in order to deepen his understanding of second-class mechs!

If he combined personal inspections of the mechs with studying Aisling's design files, Ves would definitely be able to grasp the essence of their designs!

This was considerably valuable to Ves as he didn't really have many opportunities to inspect a second-class mech up close!

Out of curiosity, Ves delved into the documentation related to her specialty. He immediately encountered pages of pages filled with calculations, projections and incomprehensive jargon.

Ves only possessed a shallow understanding of neural interface technology! His scattered learning on this subject only encompassed the tip of the iceberg!

If Ves wanted to gain a technical understanding of neural interconnectivity, then Ves had to develop an actual foundation in this field!

"Did she leave any useful learning material behind?" He wondered.

He immediately stopped exploring her design files and turned his attention to her other folders.

Ves encountered various irrelevant documents related to Clarion University and Master Huron. They encompassed subjects such as offering to tutor some important students and becoming a consultant to the Sundered Phalanx.

According to the correspondence logs, Aisling refused the offer to join a clandestine mech design team related to the Gauge Dynasty's mech military.

Ordinary individuals would never be given the opportunity to say no, but Aisling was different!

As a direct disciple to a Master, she enjoyed a more privileged status in society!

Ves idly browsed her correspondence further

While she didn't deliberately obfuscate her information, she still exhibited some care in avoiding anything too sensitive.

The most he gained out of reading the messages she sent to her friends, colleagues and her Master was that she was a very wanted partner for collaboration, especially when it came to mechs designed for small scale military units and mech athlete teams of all things!

The former made a lot of sense. Neural networks worked best when they tied a small number of mech pilots together who shared a lot in common.

Outside of close relatives, the only people who qualified were those who underwent the exact same rigorous training that shaped their attitudes and personality traits in the same direction!

Ves did not expect Aisling to be involved in the design of mechs proposed for group sport competitions!

"The mech games circuit of the Friday Coalition is much more popular than the scene in the Bright Republic!"

The mechs, mech pilots and diversity of competition formats were on an entirely different level! A lot of money passed around in this industry due to the sheer number of fans they attracted!

Not only the Fridaymen, but many other fans from the Bright Republic and other third-rate states watched the matches!

Ves personally didn't waste any time in watching them since second-class mechs were too far away from him. He regretted this decision now as he would have gained a much better feel for these types of mechs if he witnessed thousands of battles.

He turned his attention back to the correspondence. It turned out that neural interconnectivity was a high risk, high reward addition to group sports mechs.

Competitive teams who wanted to gain an edge in teamwork were all interested in leveraging the power of neural networks!

Though neural networks increased the chance of incurring brain injuries and other neural problems, to mech athletes who wanted to win at all costs, even a 5 percent increase in effective performance was worth the risks!

Reading through all of this correspondence not only enlightened him to the demand for neural interconnectivity, but also expanded his horizons of the mech games circuit.

He couldn't help but consider what it would be like to follow Aisling's footsteps and design some mechs for a professional mech athlete team.

Depending on the league and team tiers, mech designers stood to gain a lot of money!

As mechs served as one of the main victory factors, their designs were very crucial!

In the team correspondence, Aisling received offers that rewarded her with 2 to 5 percent shares of a mech athlete team's seasonal profit! As long as her mechs continued to be used, the cols would keep rolling in her bank accounts!

However, to a mech designer like Aisling, she had little interest in the monetary remuneration.

What interested her more was exposing her work to an incredibly huge audience base!

Though the offers she received only came from teams competing in the lesser leagues, this was still a very great opportunity to build up a reputation and expose her work to many future customers!

Unfortunately, the offers vastly reduced when the Komodo War erupted. Most mech games leagues suspended their matches while the rest reduced their scope.

It couldn't be helped! In the long-awaited war against their hated rivals, the Fridaymen couldn't afford to indulge in too much entertainment!

"What a shame."

Ves developed a slight yearning to participate in group competitions.

What would it be like to introduce mechs with powerful glows to the mech arenas?

The crowd would definitely go wild when they experienced the glows in person!

He became more and more interested in this idea. It was a very good idea for him to gain a reputation in a new and unfamiliar market!

Sadly, the Komodo War ruled out any attempts to gain exposure through this method. If not for this massive conflict, Ves would gain the confidence to elevate a smaller team to prominence!

"Oh well." He shrugged. "Maybe I can find some opportunities elsewhere."

After a bit of thinking, he found that Gloriana and him were very well suited to design a suite of mechs tailored to a competitive team!

"This idea has a lot of promise! I should get back to it when I have the chance!"

For now, he needed to resume his inspection of Aisling's personal files.

Chapter 1746 Mysterious Eye

For the first time since the outbreak of the Sand War, hope began to spread.

It originated from a surprising source.

Across numerous battlefields in the Protectorate, the Kronon defense fleets deployed as usual.

The sandman race continued its mindless assaults on human territories long after the sandman emperor perished.

They showed no signs of stopping! Many analysts already became resigned to the fact that the sandmen would continue to engage in their suicidal attacks until not a single living grain of sand was left!

The only variable was how many humans they killed while their race collided against the might of human civilization!

Without the assistance of the Big Two or the two dominant second-rate states, the Ylvainans, Brighters, Vesians, Reinaldans and many other people had to depend on themselves to save their lives!

After many months of fighting and countless human deaths, salvation finally graced the fatigued combatants.

It came in the form that no one expected, even the Ylvainans themselves!

The Deliverers, especially in the hands of the Eye of Ylvaine, turned battles around whenever they were deployed!

Each time these mechs made an appearance on the battlefield, their distinctive profiles with their huge gauss rifles lifted every Kronon mech pilot's morale as much as the glows of the Holy Soldiers!

"Ylvaine is with us!"

"The eye of judgement will punish the wicked!"

Despite the many mysteries surrounding the mechanisms of the Deliverer model, the Ylvainans weren't inclined to remain skeptical.

Experiencing the fantastic glows of the Deliverers was enough to make any Ylvainan into a rapturous believer in the mechs!

Each time these mechs engaged the sandmen, every other mech pilot and starfighter pilot tried to see how bright their luminescent third eyes shined into space.

The brighter the shine, the greater the mech pilot's devotion to the Ylvainan Faith!

The brighter the shine, the more responsive the Deliverer's blessings acted on the mech pilot's aim!

Of all the mech pilots, the Hunters of Ylvaine often achieved the best results!

Their intense devotion, which was constantly being reinforced by their exposure to the Deliverer's sacred glows, turned them into vessels of the Great Prophet's will!

Prophet Ylvaine had not forsaken his flock! He lived, and lent his assistance to the descendants of his original believers!

Tears welled in the eyes of both the Hunters of Ylvaine and the Kronon mech pilots that were willing to sacrifice their lives to shield these precious mechs.

Their faith had been rewarded! The legacy they preserved was real!

In one major star system, several mech regiments resisted a large sandman fleet that consisted of up to twenty sandman admirals!

Millions of drones buzzed around three humongous monoliths.

The monoliths each fired heavy laser beams at distant starships, pressuring the Ylvainans into concluding the battle quickly.

Without their motherships, the mechs had nowhere else to go! The Ylvainans couldn't afford to lose their ships, especially when the losses far outpaced their replenishment rate!

However, the starfighter screen that protected the vital Holy Soldiers and other vulnerable mechs were dropping like flies!

Just like the Brighters, the Ylvainans introduced a second generation of starfighter models that featured much more substantial armor.

Yet against the collective might of more than a million drones, these starfighters became flooded with light lasers!

The Eye of Ylvaine did not sit still for long. Three of the Deliverer mechs deployed right at once. They split up in order to encompass three sections of the approaching sandman fleet, determined to strip it down as fast as possible!

"The Hunters of Ylvaine are here!"

"Keep fighting! Don't let the sandmen threaten the Deliverer mechs!"

As soon as the Deliverer mechs arrived in position, they prepared their gauss rifles but held their fire.

The Hunters of Ylvaine had to bide their time.

No matter how many starfighters fell, no matter how desperately their pilots screamed for help, the Hunters of Ylvaine needed to commune with the Great Prophet in order to receive his blessing.

All three Hunters of Ylvaine closed their eyes and immersed themselves in their mechs.

Through trial and error, the Hunters of Ylvaine formed a ritual of some sorts that hastened the onset of the blessing.

The more they immersed in the mech, the greater the blessing!

The more they prayed to Prophet Ylvaine, the faster he responded their earnest pleas!

"Oh prophet, please bless us with your sight and save the lives of your devoted followers!"

"I pledge my life to you! I beg you, expose the wicked sandman admirals and help us exact judgement for their crimes!"

Whenever they arrived on the battlefield, each Hunter of Ylvaine prayed in their mechs as if they were kneeling before an altar.

Though this exposed the mechs to enemy fire, their distance from the sandman fleet made it extremely unlikely that they would get fired upon.

Even if the sandman did attempt to destroy the distant targets, the attending mechs would never allow the Deliverers to be profaned!

A squad of space knights escorted each Deliverer and surrounded it from each cardinal direction.

No enemy was allowed to interrupt this sacred ritual!

With the cover of these valiant space knights, the third eyes of all three Deliverer mechs shone brighter and brighter!

Though they had already shone as soon as they came online, the moment the Hunters of Ylvaine finished their prayers, the glows of their Deliverers connected to their minds at a degree that could scarcely be measured!

In fact, many mech designers tried to figure out which variable caused the third eyes increased or decreased their luminosity.

No one managed to find an answer as of yet! The input that controlled the intensity of their shining crystal orbs seemed to be connected to nothing!

This application went beyond established science. Only a deep understanding of Ves Larkinson's design philosophy would allow other mech designers to replicate this mysterious feat.

Many have tried, but none have succeeded!

The copycats who faked the shining third eyes were easily exposed as counterfeits!

This was because these mechs were devoid of glows or only contained traces of one. The third eyes glowed according to concrete input such as pilot immersion or the quality of the man-machine connection, which was not exactly what an authentic Deliverer conveyed!

What the brightness of the third eyes actually represented was the alignment between the mech pilot and the mech!

Only by resonating with the design spirit of the Deliverer would the mech pilot be able to make the third eye shine a light in the dark!

Right now, the three Deliverer mechs shone like torches in the night, repelling the darkness that threatened to engulf the vulnerable Ylvainans!

"DEATH!"

All three Deliverer mechs fired in unison in very specific directions. Each Hunter of Ylvaine observed the outcome of their shots with unnatural intensity!

As soon as the hyperaccelerated projectiles slammed against three random sandman drones, every mech pilot and starfighter pilot briefly paused.

Just seconds later, a third of the humongous sandman swarm suddenly lost coordination!

Hundreds of thousands of deadly sandman drones seemed to lost their signals and began to drift apart, having received no instructions to turn around and keep up with the swarm!

A collective roar erupted from the throats of the rapturous Kronon mech pilots and Ylvainan starfighter pilots!

"YLVAINE IS WITH US!"

The miracle wasn't over yet! Shortly after their gauss rifles chambered another round, they barked out yet again!

Three more random sandman drones shattered apart after suffering devastating kinetic impacts!

Hundreds of thousands of surrounding sandman drones all lost cohesion! They no longer fired their lasers and simply drifted off as if their souls had left their bodies!

"YLVAINE! YLVAINE! YLVAINE!"

The Deliverers unleashed a couple more volleys, hitting a sandman admiral almost every time!

Though one of the Deliverers happened to miss his target due to extreme distance, the Hunter of Ylvaine quickly made up for it by succeeding upon his second try!

The swarm had ceased to become a threat!

By slaying less than a dozen specific sandman drones, the three Deliverers achieved a result that required at least several mech regiments to succeed!

Just three long-ranged mechs managed to defeat a sandman swarm encompassing millions of drones, each of which were capable of outputting lasers that could overwhelm an entire defensive fleet and scour entire planets of life!

If that wasn't a miracle, then what even qualified as a miracle?!

The foreign observers monitoring this miraculously lopsided result all witnessed this miracle in the flesh.

They had turned numb at seeing miracle after miracle taking place before their eyes.

Most of the foreign observers were secularists who came from supposedly enlightened states.

To see the ignorant and superstitious Ylvainans succeed where everyone else had failed put a very sour taste in their mouths.

Had human science failed them?! Why couldn't the Brighters and Vesians, both of which experienced numerous wars, develop a solution as effective as the Deliverers?

Why had Ves Larkinson, a Brighter and a member of a prominent military family, developed the Deliverers for the Ylvainans instead of his own people?

Too many inexplicable questions surrounded the Deliverers. Many foreigners desperately wanted to unlock the secrets of their design, but none managed to make any breakthroughs!

The only person who could offer a satisfactory explanation happened to be the victim of a strange conspiracy!

A lot of criticism had been directed at the Bright Republic, the Cavendish Family, the Ramza Family and even the Friday Coalition! If not for this extremely ill-timed plot, the other states might have been able to persuade the Bright Martyr in sharing some of his secrets!

Even if Ves Larkinson stayed mum, then at least they could have persuaded him to design their own variants of the Deliverer!

As it was, the Ylvaine Protectorate's willingness to lend the Eye of Ylvaine to the other states offered them an alternate solution!

With such powerful mechs defending their vulnerable star systems, the foreign states would certainly be able to lessen the pressure!

Without the swarms, the mechs and starfighters perished much less quickly!

This was because the monoliths that remained behind were more suited to attack larger targets than small craft!

Without the protection of the swarm, these monoliths inevitably turned into punching bags destined to die by a thousand cuts!

Negotiations, which initially proceeded slowly, gained rapid momentum as the demand for the Hunters of Ylvaine increased!

The Ylvaine Protectorate made a large number of deals with foreign states. Alongside alliances, trade deals, generous payments and the right to proselytize their faith in the foreign states, the Ylvainans rapidly gained influence in the local region!

As long as the Protectorate lived up to its end of the deal, its post-war circumstances would definitely herald a golden age for the Ylvainan people!

As the Ylvaine Protectorate finally signed an agreement with the Bright Republic, the first Deliverers soon arrived at Bentheim.

Hard-pressed by the sandmen, the port system became a graveyard of many starfighter pilots and mech pilots!

The great industrial machine of Bentheim could no longer keep up with the attrition suffered by the Mech Corps and Starfighter Corps!

Even the irregular forces started to bleed valuable mechs and mech pilots! Outfits such as Ricklin's Rollers and the Blood Claws became less and less hopeful about their ability to defend Bentheim.

Only a rare number of notable Brighters lifted up the flag.

"Don't give up!" Vincent Ricklin shouted as his scorched and worn-out Adonis Colossus withstood numerous laser attacks as his mech boldly flew to the front. "Bentheim must never fall! Our brothers and sisters are counting on us! For Bentheim!"

"For Bentheim!"

After living through scores of battles, Vincent Ricklin was no longer the bumbling fool of before.

While his earlier performances were more comedic than heroic, the sheer defensive prowess of his Adonis Colossus always made sure he lived to fight another day!

Though his Sandbreaker rifle often missed and his missile salvos never achieved any critical results, his familiar presence always dispelled some of the darkness threatening to collapse everyone's morale!

Yet sheer charisma alone was not enough to reserve the losses suffered by the defenders of Bentheim!

Under these circumstances, three Kronon mech pilots and their Deliverers finally transferred from Cloudy Curtain to Bentheim.

Chapter 1747 Light of the Prophe

Lieutenant Dominic Kronon and his two subordinates received a kingly reception upon their arrival to the war-stricken star system.

They came not as individuals, but representatives of their people and state. They wore their best dress uniforms as they attended a grand banquet in the presence of ministers, generals and other dignified officials.

As mere soldiers, they should have received the least attention out of the people present, but the circumstances were anything but unusual!

The Kronon mech pilots had already joined the Hunters of Ylvaine by virtue of their skill and record.

Not only that, but Dominic, Edward and Jezel all became one of the foremost representatives of the Eye of Ylvaine.

Not only did they test pilot the prototypes of the Deliverers, they also piloted the only three gold label Deliverers in existence!

Technically, the precious mechs still belonged to the LMC. However, Raymond Billingsley-Larkinson graciously lent the mechs to the Eye of Ylvaine as long as they were used to defend the Bright Republic.

With these great mechs about to show their magic, every Brighter in the Bentheim System anticipated a miracle!

Some of them even began to show some desire to convert to the Ylvainan Faith!

In their darkest moments, all of the enlightened ideals of the Bright Republic failed to give them solace!

Only the light of the Ylvainan Faith gave them warmth!

The second-class mercenary corps that recently lent their assistance at Bentheim failed to stir the people's hearts.

Not only did the Fridaymen mercenaries look down on the Brighters, they could only cover one direction at most!

Their role was extremely marginal in relation to the overall war theater. Even though they always smashed every sandman fleet that they met, the powerful mercenaries refused to split up and dilute their battle strength!

All of the goodwill that the Brighters held towards the Fridaymen mercenaries quickly evaporated. Though they still appreciated the help, their arrogant and dismissive attitudes did not win any hearts!

The three Kronons became the focus of many expectations.

To their credit, the three veteran Kronons endured the attention with stoic professionalism. They parroted the formal pleasantries that had been drilled in their heads and constantly smiled politely in public.

No matter how much they resented the Brighters for harming the Bright Martyr, they had to follow the arrangements of their superiors!

At this time, the Ylvaine Protectorate wanted to develop friendly relations with the Bright Republic!

"The Brighters really don't deserve to be saved." Jezebel Kronon whispered as they sat down at the seats of honor. "If I had my way, I would have stepped aside until they finally cough up the Bright Martyr."

"It's useless." Lieutenant Dominic admonished her. "Mr. Larkinson is long gone from the Bright Republic according to our sources. As much as we want to save him, we have an obligation to our people. The Protectorate needs us to play our roles."

Edward Klesser put his hand on Jezebel's shoulder. "The Great Prophet is watching over all of his believers. The Bright Martyr is no exception. Believe in Mr. Larkinson. He shall return. I am sure of it. His journey has not come to an end!"

The Kronons had little choice but to cling to faith.

As the dishes started arriving, several officials awkwardly approached the Hunters of Ylvaine, but failed to engage them in conversation.

They had too little in common. Though the Kronon mech pilots were decent in speaking prepared remarks, they possessed no diplomatic training to speak of. Their expressions of faith completely fell flat and their lingering animosity towards the Bright Republic made any attempts to forge a friendship a fruitless endeavor.

Fortunately, at least some higher ups anticipated such an outcome.

Ordinarily, soldiers understood other soldiers the best.

However, any officers of the Mech Corps received cold shoulders from the stoic Hunters of Ylvaine.

None of the three could forget how Venerable Ghanso Larkinson shot down over a hundred mechs while taking refuge behind his position in the Mech Corps!

Even though Ghanso was only one mech pilot among many, the entire service had been tarnished in the eyes of the Kronon Dynasty!

As far as they were concerned, the entire Mech Corps carried the sin of betraying the Bright Martyr!

It was already a miracle in itself that Jezebel Kronon resisted the urge to punch the mech captain who tried to engage her in conversation!

"Calm down, sergeant." Dominic softly rebuked her. "You are visibly losing control. Don't disgrace our dynasty!"

"I'm sorry, sir."

The hosts eventually changed gears seeing that all of their previous entreaties failed.

It became clear that these Kronons harbored an intense grudge towards the Mech Corps!

This was bad news, as the Bright Republic depended heavily on the willingness and sincerity of these three Kronon mech pilots to relieve the pressure at Bentheim!

This was why instead of sending more officials, the hosts instead dispatched someone that was bound to evoke more sympathy.

"Hello."

The three Kronons looked up from their discussion and encountered a captain of the Bentheim Planetary Guard!

"You are..?" Jezebel frowned.

"Captain Melinda Larkinson of the local Planetary Guard. I'm pleased to meet you."

A Larkinson! The Kronons instantly dropped their disdain. Out of all of the Brighters they met, only the Larkinsons impressed them! The valor and dedication shown by many Larkinsons when they attempted to stand in the way of Ghanso made an unforgettable impression in their minds!

If not for the severe diplomatic consequences for attacking a foreign expert pilot, the three Kronons wouldn't have stood aside that day!

Even if there was no chance that three standard mechs could beat the Glittering Comet, the Kronons still wanted to put their faith to the test!

The fact that their superiors forbid them for involving themselves in this event haunted them to this day!

For this reason, the three Kronons regarded Melinda with much more fondness than any other Brighter.

Of course, they weren't exactly sure whether Melinda stood on the side of Ghanso or Ves' side of the family.

"What is your relation to the Bright Martyr?"

"I'm his elder cousin and friend. I frequently spent time with him in the past and I continued to stay in touch with him as he began his mech design career."

"I see. You're a friend of ours if you're a friend of the Bright Martyr." Lieutenant Dominic nodded to her in approval. "Come take a seat."

Melinda sat down and carefully engaged in conversation with the Ylvainans.

"Just for full disclosure, it wasn't my idea to attend this reception and approach you in this way. I would have wanted to meet you in more informal circumstances, but duty demands otherwise."

"You Larkinsons are so dedicated to your duties." Jezebel sneered.

"Aren't you Kronons the same? I believe Ves had a word to say about your rigid dedication to your mission. What I often find lacking from Ves is that he's too obsessed with his work and career to remember what our lives are really all about. Our work shouldn't define our lives. Our friends and family define our lives."

All three Kronons looked at her with incomprehension.

"Well said, but.. our mission must always come first. Our Protectorate wouldn't have lasted so long against the sandmen if not for our valiant dedication. We are the Protectors of the Flock. It is our duty to fight for our people!"

Melinda smiled ruefully at them. "You don't seem to understand my point."

"We do." Dominic replied. "We just choose to give up the many pleasures and delights that life can bring. Every Kronon born in the dynasty or adopted into it is willing to sacrifice everything for the betterment of our people! This is what our faith compels us! Don't think we are giving up everything for nothing. We will definitely be rewarded in the afterlife!"

All three Kronons shared looks of conviction with each other. No matter how devout they were in their faith, every member of the Kronon Dynasty had been instilled with the values of their lineage.

The Kronon Dynasty sacrificed an enormous amount of members in escorting the fugitive believers to the edge of human space! Through the selfless sacrifice of their predecessors, the Ylvainan Faith finally managed to take root in the territories that encompassed their current state!

Their zealotry and unflinching devotion threw Melinda off balance.

She had the sense she was talking to a member of the conservative faction of the Larkinson Family!

"That sounds.. nice." She eventually remarked. "In any case, you'll soon be deployed to different fleets in order to assist them in resisting the tide of sandmen. Are you willing to lend a hand to our people?"

"We are professionals." Dominic declared. "We follow the instructions of our superiors. As long as Ylvaine wills it, we shall defend you Brighters as if you are part of our flock!"

"What if.. there is a conflict between the two? What if your superiors and 'Ylvaine' disagrees?"

Jezebel grinned. "The Great Prophet's will is absolute! As our greatest leader and founder of our faith, his orders take precedence!"

"He's dead, though!" Melinda blurted out. "How can you possibly take orders from someone in the grave?"

"The Great Prophet isn't dead." Edward responded. "He's alive. We know because his heart beats with ours each time. If you are a devout Ylvainan believer, you will know this as well once you step in the cockpit of a Holy Soldier or Deliverer mech. Aren't you one of the Bright Martyr's friends? You must have piloted one of his mechs, then."

"I participated in the Battle for Bentheim from the beginning by piloting a Desolate Soldier into battle."

"Then you must surely know that your mech is alive! Every mech made by the Bright Martyr is alive!"

"The Living Mech Corporation isn't called this way for nothing." Melinda agreed. "I've always felt that there is more to the glows of the Desolate Soldiers. I imagine it's the same for your Ylvainan mechs. However, I find it hard to accept that this is the same as your prophet coming back from the dead to help your people tide over this crisis!"

"This is what we believe." Jezebel spoke with conviction. "The Bright Martyr is the true blessed of our Great Prophet! Your cousin's unique talent with mechs is the vehicle in which Prophet Ylvaine has bestowed his light onto us once again! We are eminently grateful to Mr. Larkinson for saving us and reigniting our people's faith!"

Melinda couldn't help but remain skeptical. If this prophet of theirs was so great, then why did he need to communicate with his followers through the medium of a mech? Why couldn't the prophet pass on his revelations to his followers directly? Weren't gods supposed to be able to bless their believers directly?

However, it wouldn't be very polite nor diplomatic to express her Brighter skepticism.

She still remembered her mission. She needed to forge a friendly relationship with these weird and zealous Kronons.

Dominic asked his own question to Melinda.

"It is no secret that many Larkinsons have applied to move to our sacred state. The LMC, Avatars and other organizations that belong to the Bright Martyr have all lost faith in the Bright Republic. With their departure, some of the members of your esteemed family are following suit. Will you be accompanying your enlightened relatives as well?"

Melinda shook her head. "I'm not part of this silly fight between Ves and Ghanso. I am committed to my duty, but not in the bone-headed way of my aggressive cousin. I plan to continue my service to the Planetary Guard. Bentheim and the Bright Republic still needs us Larkinsons."

"Ah. Your stance is the same as that of your honorable uncle."

"Uncle Ark is a true Larkinson as far as I'm concerned. He's the only expert pilot in the family who isn't trying to tear us apart." Melinda sighed.

"While it is disappointing that Colonel Ark Larkinson is still committed to his corrupt Mech Corps, we respect his loyalty and dedication."

Melinda only grimaced further when she heard that. No matter how hard her uncle tried to play peacekeeper, even he couldn't stave off the inevitable outcome!

Just thinking about the inevitable split-up of the family depressed her to no end! She never imagined that the Larkinson Family would ever break into two due to ideological differences!

Chapter 1748 Three Bentheimers

Not a lot of Larkinsons wished to divest themselves from the Bright Republic.

Despite all of the recent drama, many Larkinsons still valued their commitment to the Mech Corps and the state they vowed to protect.

More importantly, almost every Larkinson couldn't bear to part with the friends and family who lived in the Bright Republic.

It simply wasn't possible to move their entire social circle to an entirely different state!

What complicated the matter even further was that the Ylvaine Protectorate held very little appeal to the Larkinsons.

The Ylvaine Protectorate pretty much mandated belief in their state religion. How could the Larkinsons, who all grew up in the Brighter tradition, put down all of their skepticism and engage in superstition?

It was impossible! While the Ylvainan Faith was fairly mild, some of its tenets were very controversial, particularly the one that stated that humans and aliens were all brothers and sisters!

Nonetheless, some Larkinsons, especially the younger ones who weren't tied down by their spouses and children, decided to take the plunge.

They believed that a bright new adventure awaited them if they followed Ves Larkinson in quest to make the Larkinsons greater than ever before!

Those who were still obliged to serve the remainder of their tours of service were still stuck in the Bright Republic. However, as soon as they got free, they would definitely leave and join wherever Ves wanted to go!

Some Larkinsons had already become convinced that Ves would find some way to bring them all to the Red Ocean Dwarf Galaxy!

Once they arrived at an entirely new galaxy, their future prospects were bound to be bright!

Of course, only the earliest enthusiasts and loyalists of Ves had already made the plunge. Many others who were tempted still remained undecided.

After all, the leader they put all of their hopes in had gone missing. How could the Larkinsons ever dream of surpassing their current height when the main person responsible for carrying them upwards was nowhere to be found?

Raella Larkinson crossed her arms as she oversaw a crew of mech technicians servicing the Prideful Soldiers and other mechs of the Blood Claws.

She made for a slightly unusual sight. Not only was she wearing a caste, but much of her body and face was covered by a special medical fabric.

A woman wearing overalls and a poofy beret soon approached her side.

"How goes the repair?"

"Not very good." Ketis responded and wiped some metal dust from her firm hands. "I've taken a good luck of your Prideful Soldier, what is left of it anyway. How did you even survive a direct series of hits on your mech?"

"It takes more than a random barrage of lasers to take down a Larkinson!" She grinned.

"Aren't you supposed to be exiled from your family?"

"That's just to shut the old coots up. Their nagging drove me crazy. Even if my name is not in the family rolls anymore, my blood still flows true."

"Maybe you have an opportunity to go back. I've heard the Larkinsons are splitting up. I'm sure that Ves will welcome you to his half of your family!"

Raella looked uncertain, which was highly uncharacteristic of the ferocious Blood Captain. "I've already built a new life here. I left the Larkinsons in order to accomplish something by myself. So far, I've succeeded."

As Ketis had been working alongside Raella for some time, she knew that the rebellious Larkinson truly valued her independence.

However, working all alone meant that she had no one to lean on when she needed some help!

Even the Swordmaidens depended on their fellow sisters! No one can survive on their own!

"You just brushed past death a few days ago." Ketis gestured to Raella's limp arm. "When we pulled you out of the ejected cockpit, your left side was marred with third-degree burns. If your cockpit had been hit again, nothing but ashes would have been left of your body!"

"Well, I got better. These kinds of flesh wounds are trivial. I'll be ready to thrash the sandman as soon as I become accustomed to my regenerated tissue!"

Her Larkinson identity came in very handy this time. The Blood Claws did not hesitate to offer her the best treatment they could provide.

"Sometimes, you behave just like the Ves I know. The two of you aren't as different as you think." Ketis pointed out.

"Ah, shut up!" Raella weakly punched the mech designer's arm. "I hate being compared with my cousins!"

"I don't mean to make you feel bad. I just think that this lone wolf routine of yours is not going to last you forever."

"I'm perfectly fine on my own!"

Both women held this argument many times. For now, Raella was determined to continue on her own. She didn't need Ves to achieve greatness!

Elsewhere in Bentheim, Vincent patted the leg of his battered Adonis Colossus with satisfaction. "Keep on fighting, old soldier."

"Your popularity has reached a new record, Vince!" His PR manager manager said ecstatically. "Over ten million people viewed your stream, and many of them have donated to your fund!"

Vincent scoffed. "That's not good enough! That figure isn't concurrent! I have no use of people who drop by my stream for a couple of seconds before switching to another one! And bright credits are pretty much worthless these days! It's already worth half as much as a month ago!"

Every member of his crew looked rather helpless at that. Hyperinflation evaporated most of their savings!

At these dire times, only their mechs and ships retained their value!

"This is just the start, Vincent. With the Mech Corps refusing to live stream their soldiers, the rest of the competition is manageable. As long as you continue to show up in battle, you'll definitely reach the top!"

His way with people and his unusual mech turned him into a popular figure. Though his battle performance still hadn't reached an impressive level, his increasingly more proficient showmanship was enough to make a memorable impression!

Vincent would have never been able to succeed so well if not for his Adonis Colossus! Not only did the mech inject him with a massive boost of confidence, its codpiece and masculine appearance also attracted the attention of a lot of ladies!

"The good times won't last. The Ylvainans showed up, and they brought their latest superwomans."

"Only three have arrived so far. It still takes time for more Hunters of Ylvaine to arrive."

"It doesn't matter. Those Deliverer mechs will steal all of my thunder soon enough."

"You sound awfully confident."

Vincent chuckled. "I know Ves. His mechs never fail to live up to their promises. The Deliverer is exactly what it says on the tin. It's going to save us all. So as far as I'm concerned, the good times are about to end."

The PR manager looked stunned. "We'll have to adjust our plan if that's the case. I don't think we can meet our targets if we can't showcase you in battle."

"I'll just find something else to excel in." Vincent smiled and looked up at his mech. "It's too bad my Adonis Colossus is a spaceborn mech. If it was a landbound machine, then I could have brought it to the dueling circuit."

Throughout his participation in the war, Vincent experienced many battles. Taking part in these encounters and witnessing the deaths of many soldiers forced him to polish his skills. THis gave him the confidence to succeed in duels!

However, that was not enough to sustain his popularity. There were many idols in the dueling circuit, so a newcomer like Vincent wouldn't be able to gain any traction at first.

He needed to do something bigger to attract attention.

A few ideas ran through his mind.

"What do you think about taking part in the Komodo War?"

"Are you crazy, Vince?! Your fancy mechs will get crushed by a single hit! The level of destruction of that far exceeds what any of us can handle!"

"I thought it would be interesting to teach the Hexers what a true man is like!" Vincent idly grinned.

"Whose side would you even want to fight for? The Friday Coalition?"

"Of course not! Those bastards kidnapped the designer of my mech! Where will I ever get my Adonis Colossus Mark II if my buddy Ves is gone?!"

The PR manager couldn't believe it. "Are you actually thinking about fighting for the Hexers?"

"Why not?" Vincent grinned, showing off his gleaming white teeth. "Those repressed women can't get any satisfaction from their emasculated boys. I'm sure I can change their minds about men once I show how great I am! Whether it's on or off the battlefield, those sizzling hot chicks will fall before my knees!"

Lunatic! The Hexers would rather kick his codpiece than submit to a man!

While Vincent indulged himself in unrealistic ideas, elsewhere in the star system a certain woman met with a certain spy.

Leland Toll slowly placed a data pad on the desk. The woman took it up and read through the contract.

"I don't recall saying anything about divesting my stake in the LMC. I earned those shares far and square when I placed a bet on Ves!"

"Ordinarily, you're right, Mrs. Bollinger. However, the founder and principal shareholder of the LMC is very discontent with you. In the interests of maintaining friendly relations, we have decided it is best for you to relinquish your shares to Sibilant Asset Management. Please don't be concerned. Before you ask, we are more than willing to pay what they are worth in the form of exotics instead of bright credits."

Marcella's fist slammed against her desk. "Do you think I'm stupid, you little spook! All the exotics in Bentheim can't compensate for the loss of a 5 percent stake in the LMC! It was your idea to approach Ves and convey Senator Tovar's suggestions to him! I was just a mouthpiece! How can he possibly blame me for following the instructions of a founding family?!"

"Regardless of what you think, after today, your 5 percent will no longer be in your hands."

"Is that a threat?"

"It's a statement of truth." Leland confidently smiled. "Even if we don't step in, your future as a minority shareholder of the LMC has already become a relic of the past. Right now, we need to do as much as possible to repair our relations with Mr. Larkinson. As the Devil Tongue, he is never kind to his enemies."

Though Leland didn't adopt a threatening posture, the pressure he exuded was substantial.

Though Marcella wasn't exactly sure which spy agency Leland worked for, she was definitely sharp enough to know that she wouldn't be able to resist a branch of the government.

As a consummate Bentheim insider, Marcella knew more than most locals.

She took the data pad and reread the contract several times. Despite the lengthy passage of time, Leland waited leisurely for the businesswoman to come to terms with reality.

Eventually, she let out a deep breath. "What will you do with my shares?"

"We'll simply hold it unless the situation changes."

"Do you really think Ves will accept the government maintaining 26 percent ownership in his company? That's 1 percent more than the shares owned by the Larkinson Estate!"

"You don't have to be concerned about that. We will make our own arrangements with Mr. Larkinson. We merely expect you to sign the contract."

Though Marcella wanted to resist, she simply couldn't summon up any resistance.

Even if she refused today, the government would find some other way to get what they want. This was something she clearly understood as a mech broker in the busiest star system of the Bright Republic.

The moment she signed the contract and added her virtual authorizations to it, Leland happily took back the data pad.

"We'll take care of the paperwork. We will transfer your payment by the end of the day."

As Leland bid the woman goodbye, Marcella couldn't help but leave a parting shot!

"Ves won't let you go! He might not trust me anymore, but he probably hates your guts! There is no way he ever holds any affection for our state anymore!"

The intelligence operative did not bother responding to her words. He completed his mission. That was all that mattered.

Chapter 1749 Painful Choice

After Ves finished searching Aisling's quarters for goods and information, he made a modest haul.

Though Aisling brought along a lot of personal effects, he had no use for most of them. The only gains worth his notice was the unidentified vial he suspected to be a gene boost elixir and the information she left behind on her terminal.

Aside from being able to glean many insights and insider knowledge from Aisling's correspondence, Ves also gained other useful data from her terminal.

First was her detailed logs, design schematics and technical documents of her own designs. As long as Ves studied them in detail, he would definitely advance his proficiency in second-class mechs, particularly those designed to work in close coordination!

Second was her library of exclusive knowledge. Ves not only encountered the virtual versions of the textbooks that Lady Curver printed out, but also found many other Clarion University textbooks that covered other fields and more advanced subjects!

While most of their contents already overlapped with his prodigious knowledge, they were all specifically tailored for second-class mech designs. This made them very worthwhile to skim through.

As far as Ves was concerned, all of this knowledge that was exclusive to Clarion University students and graduates was his most worthwhile gain.

He believed that even without receiving lessons and tutoring from others, he would still be able to become a qualified second-class mech designer after half a year of focused study!

"Aisling is pretty sloppy for leaving all of these textbooks behind."

If the Scarlet Rose's internal network connected to the galactic net, then her terminal would probably receive an instruction that would wipe its databanks.

Fortunately, Ves already isolated the ship's quantum communication node, preventing anything but an isolated control module to connect to the rest of the galaxy!

After verifying that the files did not contain any hidden viruses or other nasty surprises, he transferred them over to his System comm.

"Hehehe. All of this is mine now!"

Though Ves was disappointed that he didn't find anything of immediate use such as a high-quality suit of armor, beggars couldn't be choosers.

At least Aisling wasn't as cautious and reserved as Patricia. He still blamed his old classmate for being too prudent for her own good. The least she could bring was a spare shield generator or something!

Though Ves managed to take over the Scarlet Rose and everything the former crew and passengers had left behind, none of them enhanced his ability to return to safety.

This was a distressing outcome, especially when he had to evade capture for at least a month!

He took some time to consider his chances and found that there were too many things that could go wrong. The likelihood of the Friday Coalition or one of their helpers catching up to his fleeing ship was very substantial!

If Ves wanted to overcome this crisis, then he needed to increase his immediate combat and evasion capabilities!

"If I want to increase my chances of success, I'll have to increase my capabilities in another fashion."

He directed his attention to something he long neglected: the Mech Designer System.

When he activated the System, he first reviewed the DP he recently earned.

[Design Evaluation: Deliverer DL-A-01]

Model name: Deliverer DL-A-01

Original Manufacturer: Ves Larkinson, Gloriana Wodin

Weight Classification: Medium

Recommended Role: Marksman Mech

Armor: E-

Carrying Capacity: D

Aesthetics: B-

Endurance: C

Energy Efficiency: D

Flexibility: E

Firepower: A

Integrity: B-

Mobility: D+

Spotting: B

X-Factor: A-

Cost efficiency: C+

Project involvement: 86%

Original component composition: 14%

Overall evaluation: The Deliverer is a marksman mech that only excels at offense. Its powerful Executor gauss rifle model grants the Deliverer extended range when dealing physical damage. The Deliverer's shortcomings in defense and mobility makes it highly depended on other mechs for protection. The Deliverer is able to achieve unprecedented performance when certain mech pilots are able to excite its Guided Aim and Prescient Movement abilities.

[You have received 50,000 Design Points for completing an original design that has no other equivalent.]

[You have received 50,000 Design Points for designing a mech with a high presence of X-Factor.]

[Design Evaluation: Adonis Colossus AC-A-01]

Model name: Deliverer AC-A-01

Original Manufacturer: Ves Larkinson, Gloriana Wodin

Weight Classification: Medium-Heavy

Recommended Role: Custom Spaceborn Hybrid Mech

Armor: A-

Carrying Capacity: C

Aesthetics: A+

Endurance: C

Energy Efficiency: C+

Flexibility: E-

Firepower: B

Integrity: B

Mobility: C

Spotting: C

X-Factor: A-

Cost efficiency: D-

Project involvement: 56%

Original component composition: 21%

Overall evaluation: The Adonis Colossus is a custom spaceborn hybrid mech designed for Vincent Ricklin. The mech is notable for featuring a prominent masculine appearance and a stylish codpiece. The Adonis Colossus is able to output substantial ranged firepower with its Sandbreaker rifle, shoulder-mounted missile launchers and nail drivers. Though it is also issued with a backup sword, the mech is not optimized for melee combat.

[You have received 50,000 Design Points for completing an adequate original design that has no other equivalent.]

[You have received 50,000 Design Points for designing a mech with a high presence of X-Factor.]

[Design Evaluation: Holy Soldier DS-H-01]

...

[You have received 10,000 Design Points for completing an adequate variant of an existing design.]

[Design Evaluation: Resentful Soldier DS-R-01]

...

[You have received 10,000 Design Points for completing an adequate variant of an existing design.]

[Design Evaluation: Prideful Soldier DS-P-01]

...

[You have received 10,000 Design Points for completing an adequate variant of an existing design.].

...

Ever since the System renewed the rules for earning Design Points, designing mechs was the only way for him to earn DP.

The sales potential of a mech no longer affected his DP outcome. Only the quality and usefulness of a mech design determined how much DP he earned.

The advantage of this new remuneration scheme was that he would be able to get all of the DP upfront. The downside was that he couldn't milk any more DP out of the system once he finished a design!

What distressed Ves the most was that the System heavily reduced the rewards for designing a variant.

While Ves could easily earn 100,000 DP for designing an adequate original mech design, he could only scrape 10,000 DP for a variant of the same quality!

Clearly, the System did not wish for him to waste too much time with designing different versions of his existing work!

Even though it took almost as much time to design the Militant Soldier and Peaceful Soldier as their base model, Ves only earned a tenth as much in the same amount of time!

Earning 10,000 DP for one or two months of intensive design labor was incredibly inefficient. He'd have to waste an entire decade to accumulate 1 million DP, which was ludicrously slow compared to his previous earning rate!

"Status."

[Status]

Name: Ves Larkinson

Profession: Journeyman Mech Designer

Specializations: Spiritual Man-Machine Symbiosis

Design Points: 1,333,622

Attributes

Strength: 1.6

Dexterity: 1.6

Endurance: 2.0

Intelligence: 2.2

Creativity: 2.1

Concentration: 2.1

Spirituality: 1.8

Neural Aptitude: F

Skills

[Assembly]: Journeyman - [3D Printer Proficiency IV] - [Assembler Proficiency IV] - [Masterwork Mech Assembly I]

[Battle Mechatronics]: Apprentice - [Knight Mech Mastery I] - [Rifleman Mech Mastery I] - [Space Knight Mastery I] - [Hero Mech Mastery I] - [Custom Mech Design III] -

[Business]: Apprentice

[Computer Science]: Journeyman - [Mech Hacking III] - [Programming III]

[Electrical Engineering]: Journeyman - [Structural Pathway Configuration IV] - [Energy Storage IV] - [Conductors III] - [Ultracompact Energy Storage I] - [Power Reactors I]

[Materials Science]: Journeyman - [Crystallography III] - [Crystal Laser Propagation II] - [Lithic Materials I]

[Mathematics]: Journeyman - [Simulations IV]

[Mechanics]: Senior - [Jury Rigging IV] - [Speed Tuning IV] - [Mechanical Fault Detection I] - [Fine Motion Control I]

[Metallurgy]: Senior - [Alloy Compression III] - [Fixed Armor Specialization III] - [Flexible Armor Specialization I] - [Smart Metal IV] - [ASMAS III] - [Internal Structure Specialization I]

[Metaphysics]: Apprentice - [X-Factor IV] - [Spiritual Senses II] - [Spiritual Exploration I] - [Spiritual Manipulation II] - [Spiritual Engineering II]

[Interfacing]: Novice - [Neural Interface Optimization I]

[Physics]: Senior - [Directed Energy Weapon Optimization III] - [Gamma Laser Weapons I] [Lightweight Armor Optimization II] - [Mediumweight Armor Optimization IV] - [Melee Weapon Optimization IV] - [Polarizing Shielding II] - [Rapid-Fire Laser Weapon Operation II] - [Optics III] - [Ballistic Weapon Optimization IV]

[Propulsion]: Journeyman - [Flight Systems IV]

[Salvaging]: Apprentice - [Field Repairs III]

[Signals and Communications]: Journeyman - [Anti-Stealth Detection II]

[Stealth and Cloaking]: Novice

Abilities

[Superpublish]: Available. Can be activated once a year.

[Inventorize]: Unavailable.

Evaluation: A qualified Journeyman Mech Designer whose products gained prominence for their unique and distinctive glows.

His prior self-study paid off as his Status added several new Sub-Skills to the list. He particularly took note of Neural Interface Optimization I, which signified his ability to tweak neural interfaces to achieve greater performance.

Of course, this wasn't anything impressive compared to neural interface specialists such as Aisling Curver. Ves could only turn a few knobs at most while the Clarion graduate could pretty much design a neural interface from scratch!

Ves was a little bit undecided whether he should expand his expertise in this field. With the help of all of the textbooks that he gained from Aisling's terminal, Ves obtained enough material to do more with neural interfaces.

The downside was that he hadn't actually gained any authorization from the MTA to employ this knowledge in his mech designs.

The only way he could make use of his expanded capabilities was by designing another underground mech such as the Devil Tiger!

"It's not worth it." He shook his head.

He was only interested in Aisling's research in unifying the minds of different mech pilots. What if he could use some of her methods to increase the cooperation of the mech pilots of his mechs?

Whereas Aisling relied on neural interfaces to form a connection between mech pilots, Ves believed that it might be possible to form a more intangible bond through the use of a design spirit!

Ves already formed some ideas on how to make this work, but this wasn't the time to delve into something so distant.

"I need to focus on my immediate needs."

Right now, escaping mattered more than increasing his design capabilities!

With over 1,300,000 DP in reserve, Ves gained a lot of choice in how he could strengthen himself!

If he wanted to, he could try his luck and squander it all on lottery tickets.

Considering the precariousness of his current situation, Ves did not dare to gamble with his life and freedom!

Even if he won something, chances were his prize wouldn't actually be useful at this time!

Ves ruled out spending his DP on Skills and Sub-Skills. He already possessed more than enough knowledge to control the Scarlet Rose. The System didn't offer him any Skills related to starships, which was another reason he dismissed this option.

Perhaps the only field that was useful to him was to expand his expertise in hacking.

Ever since he evolved his design philosophy in a certain direction, he no longer objected too much at becoming more proficient in hacking.

However, Lucky already covered all of his hacking needs. What Lucky couldn't hack, Ves wouldn't be able to accomplish anything.

That left the Store. Only by purchasing and upgrading his items would he be able to increase his immediate survival capabilities!

Ves dove into the Shop and sought out an upgrade that he had long been eying.

[Comm Upgrade - Privacy Shield - Level 2 - Full Stealth]

Price: 1,000,000 DP

Duration: 30 Minutes

Temporarily upgrades a level 2 Privacy Shield to emit an overpowering field that disrupts any means of observation. It is capable of obfuscating every possible means of observation that is known to the Mech Designer System.

Compared to his current Full Stealth augment, the level 2 upgrade extended its charge by 20 minutes!

With 30 minutes of complete and total stealth, Ves could probably assassinate the entire crew of a moderately-sized ship!

"Still, 30 minutes is not enough for 1,000,000 DP!"

Ves would have bought this upgrade immediately if it extended his use up to 60 minutes! With an entire hour of stealth, Ves could not only empty entire ships of their crews, but also infiltrate all manner of high-security facilities!

As it was, 30 minutes was barely enough for him to consider spending so much DP. The System was such a greedy profiteer that Ves would have to give up other possible goodies if he purchased this upgrade!

While this option significantly enhanced his personal security, it was no use at all in enhancing the Scarlet Rose's ability to evade pursuit!

After a long moment of consideration, Ves ultimately decided to upgrade his Full Stealth augment.

"If I have to, I'll give up the Scarlet Rose. She's just a ship. My own life is much more important!"

Chapter 1750 Converting Gear

The moment he spent 1,000,000 DP to upgrade his Full Stealth augment, a heavy weight lifted off his shoulders.

Losing so much DP meant that he wasn't plagued by choice anymore.

The System's Shop offered a lot of overpriced personal equipment that only truly started to become useful at 100,000 DP or more.

At the 1,000,000 DP price level, the System did offer various useful equipment. However, Ves no longer had to think about purchasing any of them now that his DP reserves dwindled to around 300,000 DP.

Ves decided to keep the rest in reserve. Just like last time, he could redeem a number of useful medicine or some other gadget to overcome a crisis.

Of course, the downside of this was that Ves wouldn't be as strong as he could if he spent the DP beforehand.

This was his mistake last time. If he had redeemed some better gear, he might have been able to avoid sustaining so many injuries!

"Well, I'm not as helpless now."

He managed to salvage an intact suit of medium combat armor. While he was anything but proficient in its use, he could still move around while enjoying the protection of second-class infantry armor plating.

This was enough to resist nearly every form of third-class small arms fire!

As for firepower, Ves not only possessed the Amastendira, but also the quaint but powerful laser pistol dropped by Aisling's female Benny.

The laser pistol aroused a lot of interest from him. As soon as he finished spending his DP, he decided to get the rest of his gear in order.

"It's too bad I blew up the armory." He muttered with regret.

He had already inspected it early and nothing useful was left! Every piece of useful gear had been destroyed by the cascade of explosions that demolished the entire compartment and turned the security compartment into a total mess!

The only weapons and gadgets he managed to scavenge came from the bodies of the former crew and guards. Aside from some multiscanners, none of them were useful to his situation.

He decided to rely on the compact laser pistol as his new primary armament. It packed more than enough firepower to handle most threats, and it was remarkably compact, easily allowing him to hide it underneath his clothes.

While he experimented with a heavy assault rifle, Ves quickly found out that they were very bulky and difficult to handle without training.

This was because the rifles were designed to work in unison with combat armor. This meant that unless Ves mattered the latter, he could forget about making full use of the former.

Though Ves wasn't really proficient in their use, he decided to mount one in his armor holster anyway.

In any case, the rifle came with many interesting firing modes and other useful functions. As long as he didn't have to aim too much, the rifle could definitely unleash a lot of devastation!

The heavy assault rifle incorporated three different damage types. Aside from lasers, the rifle was also capable of firing particle beams and kinetic rounds.

The variety of damage types was the main reason why the rifle was so comically bulky.

While the Scarlet Rose traveled quietly in FTL, Ves took the time to inspect and tinker with his new gear.

With Lucky's help, Ves delved deep in their programming and made sure to neutralize every single backdoor and precaution against unauthorized use. Second-class gear was very powerful, and therefore very dangerous in the wrong hands!

Only the compact laser pistol that belonged to Aisling's assistant gave him some difficulties.

Its security precautions were on an entirely different level. Not only did it contain various hardwired security measures and identity locks, they were also interconnected with each other!

As long as he tampered with one security precaution, the other security precautions would automatically trip, rendering the weapon completely useless!

Fortunately, Ves was a very capable engineer. By utilizing Lucky's hacking capabilities to unravel the software precautions while using his technical abilities to resolve the hardware precautions, he could slowly convert the weapon for his own use.

"It's like a puzzle. I can solve it as long as I plan out my steps."

The excessive security precautions did not seem characteristic of the Coalition Reserve Corps. Aisling's assistant was probably a spy or something.

Though it took longer than he thought, he finally managed to defeat every security precaution!

Afterwards, he reengaged some of the identity locks, but with himself as the sole authorized user!

Only after this did he feel confident in using the gear he scavenged from the Scarlet Rose.

The only gadget that Ves sorely missed was a working shield generator.

He did not regret leaving his two shield generators behind when the Mech Corps took him into custody.

There was no guarantee that Ghanso would pass them along to the Fridaymen during the handover!

"Oh well. As long as I take advantage of my stealth and my new combat armor, I shouldn't have to depend on a shield generator."

Of course, all of these preparations only enhanced his personal safety.

With regards to improving the capabilities of the ship, Ves had to make do with the Scarlet Rose's current capabilities and the supplements provided by Calabast.

"This isn't enough." He judged.

The Scarlet Rose was just a mobile supply frigate. While she was designed to outrun or evade all kinds of threats, she wasn't expressly designed to facilitate extended escapes.

As the ship was about to translate back to realspace in a couple of hours, Ves became a bit more apprehensive about what he would encounter upon emergence.

He rubbed his smooth-shaven chin in thought. "The Coalition should definitely be aware of my last-known position and my likely flight directions."

Just like last time, Ves expected to encounter an outfit or two who had been hired to intercept the Scarlet Rose.

There was a small but real chance that his ship would emerge within interception range of these hunters after exiting FTL.

If this ever occurred, Ves would have very little means of resisting.

"I'll just have to bite the bullet when it comes to that."

As the hours ticked down, the ship entered yet another lifeless star system. The weak glow of the red dwarf star illuminated a handful of rocky satellites that barely qualified as planets.

The Ordent Republic, which had become quite dependent on the Friday Coalition, did not possess a large and powerful mech military.

Its private sector outfits weren't anything impressive either. Just like the decadent Kamon Republic, Ordent mainly focused on developing its economy and culture.

"Seems like there aren't many formidable mercenary corps in Ordent." He commented from the bridge as he observed the ships skulking in the star system.

The Scarlet Rose detected seven light carriers spread out in three different groups across the star system.

None of them happened to be within a light-hour of the Scarlet Rose, which meant that Ves did not have to worry about interception.

Though one pair of light carriers actually possessed a head-start on the Scarlet Rose due to their relative motion, Ves did not worry too much.

He called up an interface and performed some quick calculations.

As long as the Scarlet Rose immediately started flying away, it would take far more than the time required to cycle of her FTL drive for the mercenaries to catch up with his ship.

In short, unless the FTL drive or propulsion system malfunctioned, he was safe.

"Well, I shouldn't be too complacent." He shook his head. "I can't forget about hidden threats."

Just like before, he engaged the active sensors and dialed them up to full power.

The Scarlet Rose would definitely be able to detect stealthed mines and vehicles in advance!

Once he issued the necessary commands, he sat back and observed the local situation for a time.

"If nothing unexpected happens, I won't face any threats."

Ves found it notable that he hadn't encountered any pursuers from the Friday Coalition yet. After reading Aisling's correspondence, he wasn't surprised by their absence.

Right now, the Komodo War forced the Coalition to retract most of its peripheral assets.

After Operation K, the partners of the Coalition became so alarmed that its leader reflexively recalled at least half of the assets stationed abroad!

Unless the Hexers invested more assets in a foreign state for some reason, the Fridaymen weren't inclined to waste their own assets.

Reading the messages and documents stored in Aisling's archive gave Ves a sporadic understanding of the war situation, particularly in the perspective of the Gauge Dynasty.

As the most powerful partner of the Coalition, the Gauge Dynasty became known for its domineering posture. It always aimed to be the best in anything and often competed against the other partners in many different competitions.

Yet as soon as the Komodo War broke out, the Gauge Dynasty quickly abandoned this posture and instead adopted a more diplomatic and conciliatory stance!

Though the other partners such as the Konsu Clan and the Vermeer Group knew that the Gauge Dynasty was only lowering its head due to the greater threat, they cooperated anyway.

They had no other choice! As long as the Gauge Dynasty offered an abundant amount of help, the state that was famous for its internal division would shed its biggest weakness!

It was pure fantasy to think that the partners of the Friday Coalition would continue to squabble amongst themselves while threatened by the Hexers!

While Ves mused about the Komodo War, the Scarlet Rose quietly remained out of reach of her pursuers long enough until her FTL drive finished cycling.

The moment the ship transitioned back to FTL, Ves finally relaxed.

In the next week or so, the Scarlet Rose repeated this routine. Each time, the ship emerged in a star system patrolled by at least two or more outfits.

In none of those cases did the stolen ship come anywhere close to to these hostile bounty hunters.

Though the mercenaries transmitted all kinds of threats and offers to the Scarlet Rose, Ves did not even bother going through them. As long as his ship left the star system, it was unlikely that any of his pursuers could keep up with his ship!

The tech and quality disparity between their ships was simply too big!

Even the swift, third-class corvettes were unable to match the speed of the Scarlet Rose, let alone the Barracuda!

By the time the Scarlet Rose left the territory of the Ordent Republic and crossed into the space claimed by the Great Zona Republic, Ves made it through a fourth of his journey without encountering any threats.

Ves did not expect the good times to last.

"Great Zona is very different from Ordent." He observed. "While it's close to the Friday Coalition, this aggressive state has always pushed the boundaries and conquered a lot of neighboring states on flimsy excuses."

If not for the rebel groups stirring up trouble in its conquered territories, Great Zona would have continued its conquest spree until it rivalled the Sentinel Kingdom in might and territorial acquisitions!

As it was, Great Zona's instability provided fertile ground for many pirates, mercenaries and other scum.

Ves immediately experienced the difference between Ordent and Great Zona as his ship immediately sounded the alarm upon transitioning back to real space!

He expected to encounter the same scattered presences as before.

Instead, the Scarlet Rose emerged at a point in space that was very close to a formidable-looking mercenary corps!

"Five light carriers, all part of the same fleet!" Ves gasped! "And they're all close!"

The local plot quickly updated with more information as the sensors captured more data.

All five light carriers had instantly started to close in on the Scarlet Rose!

According to the Scarlet Rose's estimates, the fleet would come into combat range within 40 minutes, which was far too soon for the Scarlet Rose to escape back into FTL!

Ves was in true trouble this time!