Chapter 1751 Echo Spears
Ves cursed his luck. After numerous lucky breaks, Ves believed the chance of interception wasn't as big as he thought.
Throughout his entire journey through Ordent, none of his hunters or pursuers managed to get close enough to enter within effective combat range of his ship!
Yet as soon as his ship stepped into the Great Zona Republic, he immediately encountered a mercenary fleet at close proximity!
The good news was that the mercenary ships weren't in knife-fighting range. It took about forty minutes for the ships to fly within engagement range, upon which they would probably deploy their mechs.
The bad news was that the mercenaries had plenty of time to catch up with his fleeing ship!
While his mobile supply frigate possessed a clear edge in acceleration, the mercenary fleet just happened to be flying in relative motion in his direction!
Even without activating their thrusters, the light carriers were already drifting in his direction!
This head-start was an undeniably critical advantage!
If both the mercenary fleet and the Scarlet Rose started off stationary, then the latter ship's superior acceleration would quickly enable Ves to outpace his pursuers.
Yet all of that was not in consideration as soon as Ves confirmed the Scarlet Rose's calculations.
Her navigation systems hadn't made any errors. Within forty minutes, his ship would become vulnerable to long-ranged fire!
That didn't mean the mercenaries would fire at his ship. Ves believed it was extremely unlikely that the Friday Coalition issued a mission that called for blowing up one of their assets.
There was no way the mercenaries would ignore the temptation of capturing an intact second-class ship either!
Whether they wanted to abscond with the valuable mobile supply frigate or hand her over to the Coalition for a rich reward, Ves would fall into their hands regardless of what happened!
As time started ticking down, Ves rapidly contemplated his options.
"First, I can hop into one of the special escape pods and drift away."
This was a dead end. Even if he left the Scarlet Rose, where would he go? Ves purposefully traveled to a typical lifeless star system with nothing of value. There weren't any human settlements for him to shelter in, and neither would he be able to bump into another ship aside from the ones belonging to his captors.
"Second, I can sneak aboard one of their carriers with my escape pod."
As long as he maintained complete stealth, Ves was reasonably confident he could infiltrate a ship unnoticed. As long as the carrier's internal security wasn't too tight, he could probably find a hiding spot and remain hidden for weeks.
Yet what would this accomplish?
Even if he repeated his earlier feat and killed every crew member of the carrier, what could he do against the other four carriers?
The moment the rest of the fleet noticed anything wrong, they would doubtlessly disable and corner their compromised ship with their mechs!
At most, he would be able to keep himself hidden while the mercenaries took their prize ship all the way back to the hub system of some sorts.
There, they could process their new acquisition or make arrangements to hand it over to the Fridaymen.
The chance that Ves could reenter the Scarlet Rose and flee all of the presences at the hub system was comically small!
Ves had no choice but to rely on his personal capacities to navigate a foreign planet or space station and find some way to find passage away.
This was not an unacceptable outcome to him, but it entailed abandoning the Scarlet Rose.
"Is a second-class mobile supply frigate frigate really worth all of the risk?"
If Ves still remained in his rational state, then he would likely choose this option. It was one of the best ways to preserve his life and make it back to safety!
The truth was that the Scarlet Rose was way too valuable and high profile for Ves to succeed in bringing her all the way to the Ylvaine Protectorate!
Once Ves got rid of this eye-catching space jewel, he could probably rely on himself to blend in the crowd and board some sort of ship that traveled away from the Friday Coalition.
Yet Ves was no longer as listless as before. Enough time had passed for most of his spiritual energy reserves to recover to full! His Grand Dynamo had worked hard to return him to his normal state!
While it still took at least a day or two for him to get topped off, Ves pretty much regained most of his emotions.
Right now, Ves felt very possessive about his new acquisition. If it was possible, Ves did not wish to lose his new ship!
"It will take years for me to earn enough money to commission a comparable ship!" He lamented. "How can I miss this opportunity to surpass Gloriana by bringing in a ship that's superior to her Stellar Chaser?"
Ves often felt inadequate when he compared his piddling Barracuda with her larger ship!
Now that he captured the Scarlet Rose, Ves would be damned before he gave her up! There had to be a way for him to retain the vessel he so painstakingly killed off an entire crew to obtain!
He set aside the previous option and quickly moved on to his other options.
"There is no way to outrun or hide from this mercenary fleet."
If there was some kind of satellite or asteroid belt in the vicinity, then he could have tried to shake off pursuit by taking advantage of the complex stellar terrain.
Yet this red dwarf system was so pathetically empty that there weren't any asteroid belts within a couple light-hours of his current position!
Only empty space surrounded his ship in each direction, ruling out any possibility of breaking detection!
"Then.. maybe I can negotiate."
Though Ves did not feel very hopeful about this option, he might as well give it a try.
He hailed the approaching ships. It took a brief amount of time before someone on the other end accepted the transmission.
An elder man in a black mercenary uniform appeared in view. His short grey beard and his short-cropped hair reminded Ves of the military.
His mood instantly sunk as he took in the opposing mercenary commander. The leader's straight, ramrod posture and his well-honed air of authority suggested that he was a really tough bone!
"Mr. Ves Larkinson." The old commander began. "I am glad you have reached out to us. You have saved us the effort of figuring out whether we are chasing after the right ship."
"It appears you already know. Could you introduce yourselves?"
"Why certainly. I am Leonard Quint, commander of the Echo Spears. We are a rather notable mercenary corps of the Great Zona Republic. We specialize in bounty-hunting and punishing pirates."
"I see. Could you please go elsewhere? Your ships are getting uncomfortably close to mine."
"I'm sorry, Mr. Larkinson, but that ship isn't yours. We have accepted a mission to return the Scarlet Rose to her rightful owners. As for you, the Coalition has offered a rich bounty for your capture. You're all alone on that ship, correct?"
"Who knows."
"Don't lie. There is no one on the bridge except for you. If you want to prove otherwise, then feel free to expand your projection."
Ves tried his best not to grimace. This was a very clever way of confirming that Ves hadn't picked up a crew along the way.
Knowing that he wouldn't be able to disprove Commander Quint's guess, Ves simply moved on and tried to find some way to get himself out of this predicament.
"I highly advise you to reconsider your current actions, Commander Quint. If you have studied my record, then you'll know that I have a history of surviving or coming out on top of confrontations. No matter how many advantages you think you have, I'll never give up! Don't make me overload the power reactor of the Scarlet Rose! I can do it in an instant as long as any of your ships or mechs get close!"
The commander did not look deterred. He offered Ves a knowing smile.
"We prefer to take our chances. Let me give you our own warning. If you do anything to the Friday Coalition's properly, we'll be glad to show you why that is a monumentally bad idea! I believe the Fridaymen won't mind receiving you in a less-than-healthy state! With their medical technology, we can cripple every part of your body without repercussion!"
Ves idly waved his hand as if he brushed the threat of torture aside. "You'll only be signing your death warrants if you do so. If you haven't heard, Lady Aisling Curver of the Gauge Dynasty is smitten with me! While I am not very willing to be with her, I'm sure I can tell her how hospitable you've been!"
"Let's not talk about this unpleasant matter any further. Time is running out. Let me ask you one more time. Will you cease your flight and surrender the Scarlet Rose and yourself to us quietly, or do we have to do this the hard way?"
Ves sneered and leaned forward. "You'll regret approaching my ship. This is my final warning. Back off or suffer the consequences!"
Unfortunately for him, the old dog did not take his threat seriously. As far as Commander Quint was concerned, Ves was purely empty air at the moment!
If the Scarlet Rose still possessed a crew, then the Ech Spears would have thought twice before closing in. Yet with no living person aside from Ves crewing the ship, there was no reason for the mercenaries to think they would suffer any retribution!
The mercenary commander soon ended the call when he realized there was nothing more to gain from the conversation.
Neither Ves or the Echo Spears gave in to the other's demands! A confrontation was inevitable!
"Damnit!" Ves slammed his fist against the armrest of the captain's chair.
Would he really be forced to give up his shiny new ship and become a stowaway aboard one of the carriers of the Echo Spears?
"I'm not giving up! Not when I still have options!"
He began to explore some other possibilities.
One option was to overload the propulsion system and increase the Scarlet Rose's acceleration to a very dangerous degree.
Perhaps he might be able to boost the acceleration by thirty percent or more depending on how much strain he was willing to put on the propulsion system.
Yet such a margin was still too small to evade pursuit! According to some quick calculation, the most he could do was to delay the interception by half an hour or so. This would only delay the inevitable!
"What else can I do?"
Another option was to force the FTL drive to transition into the higher dimensions without completing its cycling.
This was an extremely hazardous choice. While it was technically possible to force an FTL drive to engage just minutes after finishing a trip, it was extremely difficult to perform a so-called double jump or continuous transition!
Only a very good chief engineer who was intimately familiar with the ship and FTL drive model would be able to set the right configuration for a double jump.
Even then, a double jump was wracked with danger and uncertainty. Depending on the quality, tolerance and soundness of the FTL drive, there was a very significant possibility that it would explode or malfunction midway!
If the ship that performed the double jump managed to reach her destination safely, then the FTL drive would be in a very bad shape! Not only had its lifespan decreased by at least a couple of decades, but all of the damage it suffered along the way might very well disable it entirely, preventing the ship from fleeing any further!
In other words, since Ves was not a chief engineer, he could forget about pulling off this insanely complex technical feat!
"I can't run away in this fashion!"
Ves had to resort to other options to escape this predicament!
Chapter 1752 Easy Reward
The Great Zona Republic offered fertile ground for many mercenary corps. The inherent instability in the outer regions of the state resulted in frequent battles.
Rebels fought against the authorities. The authorities fought against the rebels.
The people suffered while the chaos drew in other interested groups.
The closer to the border, the more public security deteriorated. All manner of pirates and other scum lingered in this region, aware that the military couldn't possibly handle every threat!
Ves expected he would encounter some lowlife gang or a bunch of bottom-feeder pirates.
Instead, his Scarlet Rose landed right next door to a fleet of disciplined mercenaries!
As the Scarlet Rose desperately tried to delay the inevitable interception, Ves took the time to connect to the galactic net and look up the Echo Spears.
It turns out that the Echo Spears was a force to be reckoned with in the Great Zona Republic.
Its leader was a former mech officer and still maintained ties to his former service. Over the course of several decades, Commander Leonard Quint managed to grow his mercenary corps from a small band of brothers into a formidable mercenary organization that fielded over ten light carriers!
That was a remarkable growth trajectory!
All of this sounded familiar to Ves. In the Bright Republic, many veterans tended to form or join a mercenary corps when they were discharged from the Mech Corps.
The veterans-turned-mercenaries were a cut above other mercenaries who never underwent military training. These veterans were much more reliable as they still adhered to a code of honor, and their extensive skill and experience insured that they achieved a lot of victories.
Some of these mercenary corps even maintained loose ties to the military or the government. With such solid backing, these mercenary corps gained an edge over the competition, thereby preventing other mercenary corps owned by less-desirable groups from dominating the local mercenary industry!
Though the record and the news articles on the Echo Spears did not mention anything about a military connection, Ves found many subtle clues. The mercenary corps developed far too quickly to have grown without backing.
"Ten light carriers and hundreds of mechs can't come from nowhere!" Ves muttered in a depreciating tone. "The mercenary business isn't that profitable!"
It cost a lot of money to acquire mechs and ships. It cost even more money to service and to replace them in the event of suffering losses.
It was actually very hard to make a profit in the mercenary business! Too many business-illiterate mech pilots ran their outfits to the ground while being mired in debt!
For an outfit like the Echo Spears to expand their forces so rapidly and consistently was a very good indicator of their competence in battle!
"These guys are tough." Ves concluded. "There's no way to defeat them easily!"
He wouldn't be able to resort to cheap tricks such as nagging them until they left like he did with the Blind Prophets.
With time running out and few viable options available to him, Ves felt as if a net was closing in on him. If he didn't do something, he might get caught!
"I have no choice!" Ves gritted his teeth.
He issued some commands to the ship before departing the bridge. He had some preparations to do, and he didn't have a crew to do it for him! If he wanted something done, he had to take care of it himself!
"Lucky! Where are you!? Get back to me! Are you going to help me or are you going to keep emptying my materials storeroom?!"
Half an hour passed by as the fleet of five light carriers indomitably caught up to the Scarlet Rose.
The latter ship accelerated faster than the mercenary ships.
There was no doubt as to why. The Scarlet Rose was significantly smaller than the carriers designed to accommodate up to forty mechs. She also incorporated much better tech and materials as a second-class vessel.
Ves constantly relied on these advantages to evade pursuit while his ship crossed through the territories of the Ordent Republic.
Yet now, no amount of acceleration that the Scarlet Rose could muster would allow her to evade pursuit long enough to transition back into FTL!
Contact was inevitable, and both sides knew it. Ves had already become resigned to the fact while the Echo Spears all anticipated the incredibly rich payout of capturing a stolen ship from the Friday Coalition!
As soon as the light carriers needed twenty more minutes to enter combat range, they cut back on their acceleration.
There was no reason to fly any closer.
This range was already close enough to deploy their mechs!
If Commander Quint thought that his target posed an actual threat to his forces, then he would have deployed his mechs earlier.
Yet since the Scarlet Rose posed no threat at all according to the intelligence provided by the Coalition Reserve Corps, the Echo Spears might as well save some fuel and energy.
It was pretty expensive to expend the energy of so many mechs! Even with financial backing, the Echo Spears still maintained the habit of saving costs whenever possible.
An intimidating sight bloomed as mech after mech launched from the mech hangars of the light carriers.
Since they were just commercial models, the large vessels didn't feature many main hatches. The mechs had to line up one by one and launch into space sequentially.
The Echo Spears only brought their spaceborn mechs this time. By the time the carriers finished deploying all of their assets, around 170 mechs formed up in three different elements!
The main element leisurely flew ahead, deliberately controlling its acceleration to provide time for the other two elements to swing around and surround the fleeing Scarlet Rose from the flanks!
Though this delayed their approach, the Echo Spears had more than enough time to capture their target!
The CRC had already passed on that the Scarlet Rose required at least five hours to cycle her FTL drive!
Without a crew or engineer, it was impossible to shorten this lengthy interval. Even if Ves possessed the abilities of a starship engineer, then he could only shave off an hour of the cycling time at most!
Since the Echo Spears had plenty of time at hand, they spread out their forces to envelop the Scarlet Rose and cut off all escape routes.
In truth, dispatching 170 mechs to capture a single, unprotected frigate was massive overkill. A single squad was sufficient to force the Scarlet Rose's surrender!
Commander Quint didn't want to damage the ship, though. The Coalition offered a much better reward if they managed to capture the ship intact!
For this reason, he chose to adopt an overwhelming approach and induce a surrender without firing a shot.
Anyone sane would never think to resist against so many mechs!
Unfortunately, the Echo Spears just happened to bump into someone who was less than sane!
As Commander Quint calmly instructed a squad of his more junior mech pilots to break from one of the main elements and close in on the fugitive ship, the command center suddenly sounded an alarm.
"Commander, the mech hangar hatch of the Scarlet is retracting!"
What?!
"Confirm that!"
"We have a direct optical view of the mech hangar retracting its hatch!"
The sensor operator activated a projection that showed the Scarlet Rose in all her splendor. Her thrusters burned bright as the ship vainly attempted to outrun her pursuers.
A hatch large enough to fit a medium mech with some room to spare slid open, giving Commander Quint and every other observer a clear view of the interior of the mobile supply frigate's mech hangar.
"What is Mr. Larkinson up to?" The mercenary commander wondered.
Soon enough, the answer became clear, as an agile spaceborn skirmisher launched into space with its radiant flight system glowing white!
"A mech?!" Commander Quint widened his eyes. "What is the meaning of this?! The ship was supposed to be minimally crewed, if crewed at all?! There is no indication that Mr. Larkinson managed to pick up a mech pilot!"
The intelligence was wrong!
The spaceborn skirmisher slowly took up position a few hundred meters away from the Scarlet Rose. Its flight system easily matched the pace of the stolen ship's active propulsion system.
The mech was obviously a part of Lady Curver's former mech compliment! Markings belonging to the Friday Coalition, the Gauge Dynasty and Clarion University still dominated its chest.
As a second-class mech, the skirmisher possessed a more varied loadout than the skirmishers fielded by the Echo Spears.
Aside from carrying a set of penetrating daggers, the Coalition skirmisher also wielded a compact pulse submachine gun!
Capable of firing rapid bursts of energetic pulsed particles, it was a deadly weapon at close range that inflicted a substantial amount of energy damage topped with a bit of physical damage!
Though a single skirmisher armed with short-ranged weapons was not enough to inspire fear in the Echo Spears, the Scarlet Rose was not done with disgorging appropriated mechs!
A dozen seconds later, a formidable-looking space knight emerged in space.
Compared to the space knights of the Echo Spears, this second-class mech not only excelled in defense and melee combat, but also possessed the ability to fight against ranged opponents!
Two retractable laser weapon mounts graced its shoulders, giving it the ability to punish any ranged mech that thought that they could kite and whittle down the space knight from a distance!
A third mech appeared soon after. The spaceborn rifleman mech looked bulkier than cheaper rifleman mechs, but still boasted a considerable amount of mobility!
Its large, dual-type laser-particle beam rifle was capable of outputting accurate fire at long range and devastating energy at closer ranges!
The final mech that emerged sent a shudder through the backs of the Echo Spears.
A spaceborn medium artillery mech emerged last. Larger than the preceding mechs, the mech barely fit through the open hatch!
Though large and heavy, its mobility was still good enough to match the acceleration of the space knight!
Unlike the defensive mech, the artillery mech packed a significant punch at longer ranges!
Its main armament consisted of a gauss cannon. Scaled up from a standard mech-sized gauss rifle, the cannon featured a slow firing rate. Its large projectiles also prevented the artillery mech from carrying too much ammunition.
Aside from its fearsome gauss cannon, the artillery mech also featured a pair of shoulder-mounted missile launchers.
Though the missile launcher pods looked no different from the ones mounted on third-class mechs, their true threat lay in the quality and payload of the missiles!
Once the four mechs of the Scarlet Rose exited her mech hanger, a brief delay ensued.
As if acting on command, the mechs abruptly moved!
The space knight and skirmisher mechs both hovered protectively alongside the artillery mech and rifleman mech.
The two ranged mechs slowly aimed their main weapons in the direction of the light carriers of the Echo Spears before opening fire!
"BRACE YOURSELVES!"
The flagship screamed in alarm as the rifleman mech's powerful dual-type rifle fired a powerful laser beam that was powerful enough to match the output of several third-class heavy mechs!
While this beam did not cause the light carrier to suffer any physical damage, the energy it packed was enough to vaporize multiple layers of armor plating, dumping a huge amount of heat in some of the bow compartments of the ship!
A combat carrier would have fared a lot better, but light carriers weren't supposed to be so vulnerable to laser fire!
This was the power of a second-class mech weapon! The disparity in power couldn't be more stark!
Just after the laser beam opened up a gap in the bow section of the carrier, a hyper-accelerated gauss cannon projectile quickly slammed into the cavity, causing the ship to suffer a substantial collision!
A large amount of debris sprayed into space as several compartments broke up in an instant, pulverizing plenty of bodies as the light carrier forcefully endured the sheer amount of kinetic energy crashing onto her hull!
Just two hits was enough to inflict major damage to one of the motherships of the Echo Spears!
Though this was far from enough to cripple the ship, the damage the second-class mechs inflicted was enough to shock the mercenaries who expected an easy reward!
Within the mech hangar of the Scarlet Rose, Ves erupted into laughter as he stood in front of a large, improvised control panel.
"Did you think I was lying!? Not this time!"
The control panel was split into multiple sections. Four of them just happened to project the control interfaces of four different mechs!
"Let's give them another lesson! Fire!"
As soon as Ves pressed a couple of buttons, the rifleman mech and artillery mech fired another salvo at the enemy flagship!
"HAHAHAHA! Do you regret chasing after me? It's too late!"
Chapter 1753 Firepower Disparity
In the time it took for the Scarlet Rose to pass through the territories of the Ordent Republic, Ves hadn't been spending his time in vain.
As someone who always indulged in paranoia, Ves never assumed the best case scenario happened all the time.
His temporary rational state did not diminish this aspect of his. Instead, he became just as paranoid as any casual probability analysis concluded that Ves would surely encounter a situation like this where the Scarlet Rose couldn't shake off her pursuers!
If not now, then later! Ves had to pass through too many star systems, giving his pursuers plenty of opportunities to prepare an ambush!
Aware that fleeing was not always a viable solution, Ves had to prepare another countermeasure!
If he was a qualified starship engineer with many different ship-related competences, then he would have decided to tinker with the Scarlet Rose.
Perhaps he might be able to boost the propulsion system of the ship to provide her with a temporary doubling in acceleration. If Ves happened to be very competent and in a gambling mood, then he would have taken his chances by performing a ruinous double jump!
Sadly, Ves only possessed a shallow understanding of starship engineering. While he could have spent some time by studying some of the textbooks in Aisling's comprehensive library, it would take months or years to become competent enough to manipulate the Scarlet Rose's complex engineering systems!
Trying to master the Scarlet Rose by himself was a waste of time!
Ves wasn't an engineer. He was a mech designer! Rather than attempt to mess with something outside of his expertise, he should rather be leveraging his strengths!
And what better could he apply his expertise to than the four dormant second-class mechs stored in the mech hangar of the Scarlet Rose?
When Ves first visited the mech hangar in person, the cleaning bots already took away the bodies left by Lucky's rampage.
A bit of scars signifying weapon discharges still marred some of the portions of the mech hangar, but by and large everything was fairly intact.
The mech hangar wasn't actually very big. The Scarlet Rose had to devote a significant amount of internal volume to provide enough space to accommodate four battle-ready mechs.
Each of the four mechs shared the same orange coating and markings of any mech affiliated with Clarion University.
Evidently, Aisling managed to replace the standard CRC mech compliment with four of her personal bodyguard mechs.
The design schematics and other files that Ves retrieved from her personal desk terminal proved to be extremely helpful in figuring out the mechs.
Without them, Ves would have wasted precious time and effort in deciphering the mechs!
Yet now that he possessed all of Aisling's notes about her own work, Ves rapidly understood the essence of the four mechs.
"These mechs are all reflections of her design philosophy!"
She designed and built these mechs for herself. This was different from designing mechs for external clients, who all possessed different demands.
Aisling's aim in designing these bodyguard mechs was to form a team of mechs that exerted as much strength as she could manage.
"The secret ingredient is neural interconnectivity!"
Grouping four random mechs together did not necessarily yield greater results. The challenge was to form four complementary mechs who each amplified each other's strength.
The goal was to achieve a level of performance that was stronger than the sum of its parts!
This happened to be something that Lady Curver excelled in! By employing a group of four, very close mech pilots and pairing them up with custom mechs that each connected to a neural network, the mech pilots were able to exert a level of coordination that was a level beyond what elite teams could manage!
While Aisling's application of neural interconnectivity was still immature to the more dramatic applications of Master Huron, it was enough for her four mechs to exert the effective strength of six or eight uncoordinated mechs!
Of course, all of that was rather moot to Ves. With no mech pilots on hand, particularly those who possessed the necessary training to pilot second-class mechs, Aisling's specialty couldn't be leveraged.
In fact, without any mech pilots, how could Ves even make use of these powerful machines?
Surprisingly, Calabast came to the rescue.
Part of the software and data packages she included in her transmission consisted of programs meant to take control over Coalition mechs!
Though it required a bit of hacking and hardware modifications, Ves and Lucky easily managed to follow the steps outlined by Calabast's instructions.
After modifying the neural interfaces and replacing its software with a Hexer-developed control program, they eventually managed to convert the mechs into bots!
Yes, bots!
"Well, perhaps I should call them drones."
Regardless of how he called them, after a lot of modifications spanning an entire week, Ves managed to turn the four second-class mechs into unmanned fighting machines!
Ordinarily, Aisling's bodyguard mechs did not come with any automation.
If Ves wanted to convert the mechs into bots without any assistance, then he would have taken at least a month. He would have been forced to spend most of the time on programming and configuring the AIs and control systems.
Calabast's timely gift provided him with a ready-made solution, allowing him to finish the conversion even before the Scarlet Rose left the Ordent Republic!
The end result made Ves excited. The four unique mechs that used to be piloted by humans now turned into a quartet of battle bots!
Of course, these battle bots only exerted a fraction of their original effective performance.
The automation of the mechs was fairly limited and lacked a lot of ingenuity. While it was no problem to command them to perform standard tasks, as long as they encountered formidable opposition, then the AIs controlling the mechs could easily be fooled!
This essentially meant that the four battle bots would certainly lose in a battle against four proper mechs if all else was equal!
In fact, the battle bots would still lose if they faced just two second-class mechs piloted by competent human mech pilots!
However.. the Echo Spears that managed to corner the Scarlet Rose did not come from the Friday Coalition.
The mercenary corps was a homegrown outfit from the Great Zona Republic!
Their economical light carriers and their large number budget mechs with a handful of midrange and premium mechs all indicated that they were not swimming in money.
The chance that the Echo Spears were capable of fielding second-class mechs was practically nil!
This gave Ves the confidence to deploy his new battle bots!
Even though it was rather ridiculous to think that four battle bots could defeat a force comprising of 170 mechs, the quality disparity was very significant!
Why did the Coalition Reserve Force dispatch monitors to foreign states without any escorts?
That was because they didn't need it in most cases!
Four second-class mechs was enough to deter every opportunistic attacker who drooled over capturing an expensive ship from the Coalition!
Though Ves was forced to make do without any mech pilots, the AIs and remote control system were enough to breathe new life in the pilotless mechs!
As the two ranged mechs fired their second salvo, Ves instructed them to sustain their fire on the light carrier that he identified as the flagship!
Both visual observation and tracking the source of the earlier transmission confirmed that the light carrier flying in the center was the flagship of the Echo Spears!
"Commander Quint must be feeling really uncomfortable right now!" Ves gloated as the two ranged mechs kept hammering the ship in question with an unrelenting staccato of laser beams and gauss cannon projectiles!
The former might not be too impressive, but the latter inflicted a devastating amount of damage to large but lightly-armored targets!
The Kravon, which was the name of the former artillery mech, was not very good at attacking mechs.
Its gauss cannon packed a huge punch, but it wasn't very good at tracing swift, mobile targets such as light skirmishers.
Instead, the Kravon was designed to take care of larger, more strategic targets such as space stations, fortified bases and starships!
The light carriers of the Echo Spears soon responded to the unexpected threat. They no longer flew mostly straight but adopted a very chaotic zig-zag pattern.
Their helmsmen each took direct control over the vessels and followed their training to evade in a way that frustrated most automated target prediction algorithms.
It might have worked if the ships were as small and nimble as light skirmishers.
Unfortunately, vessels designed to carry up to forty mechs in battles were pretty much the equivalent of whales in space!
Despite the extreme range, the Kravon already came with a very sophisticated targeting system!
Not only that, but the Kravon also possessed a powerful ECM and ECCM suite, allowing it to pierce through the pathetic attempt by the light carriers to frustrate its targeting!
In order to observe the movements of its targets closely enough to form an accurate targeting prediction, the Kravon exchanged a lot of sensor data with the Selzer.
The former spaceborn rifleman mech excelled in ranged combat against mechs. With its dual-type rifle switched to laser mode, the mech outputted a constant barrage of hot and energetic beams that was slowly softening up the flagship of the Echo Spears.
Powerful sensor arrays built into the frame of the mech constantly kept the flagship and the other assets of the Echo Spears in view.
If that wasn't enough, then the Selzer could also take advantage of the detailed sensor data provided by the Scarlet Rose!
With so much accurate sensor data at the Selzer's disposal, the mech never failed to hit its target!
Laser beam after laser beam continued to melt a hole at the exact section of the flagship! The Selzer's long-ranged accuracy was much higher than that of the Kravon!
Recognizing the threat, the flagship slowed down and turned her hull until the damaged portions no longer faced the battle bots!
"Hahaha! I was waiting for this!" Ves grinned.
He manipulated the interface to adjust the targeting priorities of the Kravon and the Selzer.
Instead of firing upon the solid exterior hull plating, the two mechs instead started firing on the exposed main thrusters of the light carrier!
When the enemy flagship rotated on her axis to turn her heavily-damaged bow away, she inevitably exposed her thrusters and vulnerable rear!
This decision made in desperation was a big mistake!
Soon, the Selzer fired first! A laser beam instantly impacted a section of the rear hull that squeezed just between the main thrusters of the light carrier!
Ves knew that there was little use in firing energy weapons directly in the thrusters. These components were built to be extremely resilient against heat.
Therefore, he instead opted to soften up the rear hull plating in preparing for the main attack!
Shortly afterwards, the Kravon finally fired its gauss rifle cannon. A projectile larger than the rounds fired by the Deliverer's Executor rifle traveled faster than anyone could conceive!
Ves had deliberately held back the power of the Kravon's main armament in order to increase its firing rate.
Now, the artillery mech fired a heavy round accelerated to greater speeds than before!
The gauss cannon round closed the distance so fast that the helmsman barely had the time to juke the ship.
Too late!
With the help of predictive targeting, the gauss rifle round managed to hit one of the main thrusters at an angle!
As a sensitive component, most forces did everything possible to avoid exposing the stern of their vessels to the enemy.
The reason why quickly became evident!
The Echo Spears underestimated the damage the Kravon could inflict! The round not only bore through the thrusters, but also penetrated deeper while transferring a cataclysmic amount of kinetic energy to one of the most sensitive sections of a ship, the engineering compartments!
A soundless explosion erupted from the stricken light carrier as her entire stern blew up!
The ship lost all propulsion and FTL capability as her entire engineering section became lost!
The mercenaries became stunned! How could their target, who was supposed to be alone and powerless, cripple one of their precious light carriers?
"This is impossible!"
"It's unfair!"
No matter how much the perplexed mech pilots complained, they couldn't deny the truth. Their seemingly-harmless target turned out to be a wolf in sheep's clothing!
Chapter 1754 Impervious
Though Kravon and the Selzer made a very powerful impression on the Echo Spears, Ves knew that his newly-converted battle bots weren't as invincible as they appeared.
Just like expert mechs, superior mechs could easily be overwhelmed by a mob of inferior mechs!
Quality only went so far in reducing the quantity disparity.
Fortunately, the mechs built by Aisling happened to be expensive custom mechs even by the wealthy standards of the Friday Coalition.
Not only did they feature numerous systems, their base performance parameters were also far superior to any third-class mech!
In terms of battle capability, all of the four machines performed better or on par to a third-class expert mech!
Of course, in an actual battle, the expert mech was liable to win any battle against a superior standard mech.
The difference in skill between an expert pilot and an ordinary mech pilot was too big!
Even when piloting lesser machines, any expert pilot from the Bright Republic could definitely run rings around a Coalition mech unless the mech type matchup was too unfavorable.
What all of this meant was that the four mechs of the Scarlet Rose were very much capable of defeating the 170 spaceborn mechs of the Echo Spears!
"It's too bad I can't field mechs." Ves regretfully muttered. "I can only make do with improvised battle bots."
As hard as he worked, his conversion efforts were still rather crude. Compared to battle bots designed to operate autonomously from the ground up, the four machines weren't capable of bringing out more than half of their potential.
Almost all of the strength currently exerted by the battle bots relied solely on its superior quality. The disparity in materials and tech resulted in an undeniable firepower advantage that Ves had to employ to the best effect.
When Ves initially observed the Echo Spears, he had to make a very important choice.
What should he target first?
He first considered directing the Kravon and Selzer against the 170 mechs deployed by the enemy mercenary corps.
The spaceborn mechs consisted of a balanced arrangement of rifleman mechs screened by a large number of melee mechs.
As suggested by their name, the Echo Spears appeared to have a preference of spear-wielding mechs. Ves spotted a powerful subformation of thirty-or-so lancer mechs that could definitely inflict a lot of damage when they managed to complete their charge.
Ves did not fear the ranged mechs. Regardless of whether they were armed with ballistic, kinetic or laser weapons, the budget mechs didn't bring enough firepower to take down the Scarlet Rose or his battle bots in a brief amount of time!
What Ves truly feared was the melee mechs. While the ranged mechs needed a lot of time to penetrate the armor of his assets, the melee mechs were much more variable in this regard.
As long as dozens of melee mechs mobbed the Kravon and Selzer from all sides, his ranged battle bots would definitely lose battle effectiveness!
He only had two melee battle bots to screen his ranged assets.
The Paravin, the space knight, featured exceptional defense, but was rather mediocre in fending off melee mechs, especially without a mech pilot skilled in swordsmanship in control.
The Fliskin, the light skirmisher, was in an even worse position! The high-speed melee combat that a light mech excelled in was heavily dependent on the judgement and battle sense of a skilled mech pilot.
His cousin Raella happened to be very deadly when piloting landbound light skirmishers! Even if she piloted lighter and cheaper mechs, she often came on top in her duels by relying on her excellent skills!
"A light mech scales even more with piloting skill."
The skill expression of this weight class was very high! This meant that while excellent mech pilots were capable of achieving astounding results, bad mech pilots were liable to trash their machines!
The problem that Ves faced right now was that the Fliskin didn't even have a bad mech pilot.
It didn't have any mech pilot at all!
The rudimentary AI controlling its basic operations wasn't customized for the Fliskin at all. Without customizing its programming to the parameters of the mech, the skirmisher mech would only perform as well as a typical bot.
Perhaps the Fliskin could still rely on its superior performance to crush three or four mechs at once, but once the Echo Spears threw over a dozen mechs at it, the pilotless light skirmisher would quickly expose its shortcomings!
"I can't let any of the Echo Spears get close!" Ves concluded.
As long as the Echo Spears were willing to absorb some losses and bull through the firepower that he brought to bear with his battle bots, they could definitely overwhelm his bots and ship!
This was why he directed the Kravon and the Selzer on the enemy ships rather than mechs.
He wanted to discourage the Echo Spears from pursuing him any further!
His goal wasn't to defeat the Echo Spears or kill Commander Quint. Ves could care less about these Zonan mercenaries.
What he truly wanted was to get away!
To achieve this goal, it was enough to force the Echo Spears into a retreat. As long as they gave up the chase, the Scarlet Rose's FTL drive would finish cycling and allow him to jump away from this star system!
"What better way than to distress a mercenary corps than by attacking their ships?" He grinned.
Every seasoned outfit was always prepared to lose some mechs over the course of an intensive battle.
While it was a bit more painful to lose their mech pilots, as long as they ejected fast enough, the loss of life would probably be bearable even if the Echo Spears lost half of their spaceborn mechs.
Were the mercenaries willing to sacrifice so many mechs to complete this mission?
Ordinarily, no, but this was different! The Coalition Reserve Corps issued this mission itself, and as a mighty arm of a powerful second-rate state, it was not short on money!
The CRC could definitely compensate all of the material losses suffered by the Echo Spears and issue a rich reward on top of this princely sum!
So attacking the mechs would not do much to force the mercenaries into abandoning their mission, especially when they were led by determined military veterans.
This left their ships!
As long as a company of mechs lost their motherships, the Echo Spears would suffer a devastating blow!
A light carrier was worth more than the cost to commission the vessel. While already worth a hefty investment of funds on their own, the mech technicians, ship ratings, officers and captains were all precious assets of the mercenary corps.
As long as they lost their lives, the Echo Spears would lose decades worth of trained and loyal subordinates, whose costs could be measured with money!
In addition to losing all of the men, the mercenary corps would also lose all of the expensive materials and supplies stored on the mechs. This would certainly worsen the outfit's financial position.
Aside from this, destroying the ships also affected the mechs they carried in a very significant fashion!
The 170 mechs in space wouldn't be able to last long in space on their own. In this lifeless star system, it would definitely take at least a couple of days to rescue the stranded mechs.
All the while, the mechs would have to conserve their energy while their mech pilots had to subside off the emergency stashes and life support systems built into the cockpits.
This was a very frightening prospect!
Who wanted to drift for days or weeks through space while locked inside a metal coffin?
Anyone could drop by and mess with mechs, whether they were friendly, neutral or hostile.
Heavens forbid if a pirate gang, which were quite common in the periphery of the Great Zona Rebpulic, happened to encounter over a hundred homeless mechs!
Ves did not give the Echo Spears too much time to consider their options calmly.
"Fire! Keep firing!" He shouted excitedly as he manually tweaked the targeting priorities of the Kravon and the Selzer.
While the battle bots would definitely fare poorly in a battle against actual second-class mechs, against a huge and lumbering ship, they never missed!
Light carriers might include the word light, but that was only relative to the carrier classes. Any ship that possessed enough capacity to carry dozens of mechs inevitably flew like a sluggish tub in space!
Distressed by the crippling of the flagship, the Echo Spears responded according to their training. Their melee mechs sped up faster while their ranged mechs started to fire at the distant battle bots and mobile supply frigate.
Unfortunately, they didn't have enough to close into the effective range of their weapons!
There was no single standard for the effective ranges of weapons. It depended heavily on their quality, tech, design, materials and other factors such as the effectiveness of the sensor and targeting systems.
One thing was for sure though. The effective range of second-class weapons often exceeded that of their third-class equivalents!
That meant that while the Kravon and Selzer continued to pound a second light carrier with unerring accuracy, the enemy laser beams and ballistic projectiles often flew wide without coming close to hitting their targets!
Ves briefly directed his attention away from controlling the battle bots to adjusting the navigation instructions of the Scarlet Rose.
The relatively nimble mobile supply frigate started to adopt a vigorous evasion pattern. Side thrusters frequently engaged at abrupt intervals as the ship appeared to roll or sidestep a significant amount of enemy fire!
Though plenty of ballistic and kinetic rounds missed the mark, a lot of lasers still managed to hit her exterior.
So what?
The weak laser rifles employed by the mechs of his opposition only inflicted shallow scorch marks on the hull plating of his ship!
While the Scarlet Rose was fairly light by the standards of the ships of the Friday Coalition, her exterior hull plating was actually tougher than the armor plating of a typical second-class mech!
"If you think that will hurt me at all, then think again! Hahahaha!"
Even the weak points of the ship was far more resilient than the Echo Spears could handle.
Seeing that it would take many hours to whittle down the exceptional armor of the Scarlet Rose, the mechs instead poured their firepower towards the battle bots!
In this, the mercenary mechs barely achieved better results.
The Selzer possessed decently high mobility. As long as its flight system flitted randomly in many different directions, it was able to evade a lot of firepower!
What little attacks impacted the Selzer might leave some marks, but without repeated attacks, the chance of penetration was too low!
The Kravon was a bit too big and did not possess the mobility to evade many attacks. Ves addressed this shortcoming by assigning the Paravin to shield it from most damage.
The Paravin's large kite shield withstood or absorbed countless attacks, many of them leaving just tiny marks on its surface!
Even if an errant laser beam or ballistic shell impacted the frame of the mech, the damage was likewise superficial!
However, Ves quickly noticed that the quantity of hits was a little distressing. A thousand pinpricks could still destroy the space knight!
He therefore decided to frustrate his attackers by repositioning the mechs to take cover behind the Scarlet Rose.
Most of the attacks started to impact the almost-impervious exterior of his ship, preventing his battle bots from enduring the attacks directly!
With the safety of his battle bots guaranteed, the Kravon and Selzer completely let go and pounded the second light carrier until all of her bow sections turned into scrap!
Though the Echo Spears hesitated to change the ship's orientation, they soon had no choice!
When the targeted ship rotated a little bit on her axis, Ves pounced on the tiny opening.
"Launch missiles!"
The Kravon finally employed its secondary weapon system. A salvo of twenty small and compact missiles flew from its shoulder launchers and rapidly accelerated towards the distant fleet!
The battlefield became the canvas of an unequal exchange of fire.
The full spaceborn mech contingent of the Echo Spears desperately poured their firepower at the Scarlet Rose in an attempt to stop the battle bots from threatening their ships!
Yet the bulk of the mobile supply frigate shielded the bots too well! The ship's though armored surface was designed to withstand a decent amount of firepower from Hexer mech units.
While the might of a hundred ranged mechs was a sight to behold, the Scarlet Rose danced around in space and evaded much of the incoming fire!
Whatever struck the ship harmlessly bounced away as her armor withstood virtually all of the impacts while suffering only a minimal amount of damage!
While it was possible for the Echo Spears to breach the armor of the Scarlet Rose if their mechs concentrated their fire, the range was too long to achieve pinpoint accuracy!
Even if the Echo Spears closed in and reduced the distance, the Scarlet Rose nimbly rotated like a drill, causing every volley of fire to spread across the entire circumference of her hull!
Like a torrent of rain, all of the laser beams and projectiles that struck the former Coalition ship failed to penetrate her surface!
The desperate mech pilots fired their weapons without regard for heat or ammunition concerns.
Their motherships were in danger!
As mechs depended heavily on carrier ships to travel through the void of space, losing them was a catastrophe!
How could they risk becoming homeless by allowing their target to blow up all of their ships?!
"Keep firing!" A mech captain ordered over the command channel. "No ship can resist so much damage forever! Even if we have to damage the mission target, don't stop firing! Bringing back half a ship is better than bringing back nothing at all! Keep flanking and circling around the target! Those mechs can't hide from every angle!"
The plan of the Echo Spears was sound. As long as their mechs caught up to the Scarlet Rose and surrounded her from every direction, there was no way the more vulnerable mechs could avoid their attacks.
Compared to a large and sturdy vessel like the Scarlet Rose, the four mechs were much more susceptible to their attacks!
There was no way the artillery mech and the rifleman mech would be able to last for long against a sustained bombardment!
While Ves was aware of this threat, he did not exhibit any panic at all. Instead, he grinned as the battle proceeded exactly according to plan.
While he wasn't a military officer, he had been through enough battles to develop a rudimentary understanding of contemporary warfare.
Combined with his keen understanding of mechs and all manner of technology, Ves gained enough confidence to navigate through this crisis!
"They key is to cripple their motherships! Without their light carriers, where can their mechs return after a battle?"
After spending a lot of time among the Flagrant Vandals and several other outfits, Ves understood how much a mothership weighed in the hearts of mech pilots.
If necessary, they were willing to accept the loss of their mechs. As long as they ejected, they could always return to their motherships and wait until their superiors assigned them a replacement!
By threatening or destroying this safety net, the morale of the mech pilots would certainly plummet!
If there was one thing he learned from the likes of Major Verle, it was that changes morale, confidence and conviction could affect the outcome of a battle just as much as taking out a large number of mechs!
The moment Kravon released an imposing missile volley, the Echo Spears panicked!
They knew the threat of the missiles as well as anyone!
The missile models employed by the Friday Coalition were much more powerful than those employed by the Great Zona Republic!
Each missile cost as much as a premium mech, if not more!
Though expensive for something that was meant to be a consumable, an anti-ship Coalition missile potentially packed enough punch to shatter the armor of the Scarlet Rose!
Against an inferior vessel such as a third-class light carrier, a handful of missiles might be enough to shatter their hulls in half!
Though the Echo Spears weren't able to guess the potency of the missiles launched by the artillery mech, there was no way the missiles were harmless!
"Intercept the missiles! Don't let them reach our ships!"
The Echo Spears all redirected their firepower from attacking the Scarlet Rose to intercepting the missiles.
Yet how could it be so easy to strike them down?
Ves programmed the missiles to spread out and disperse like a net, making it harder for them to be taken out simultaneously.
Not only that, but the missiles possessed an excellent ECM system that scrambled every targeting system, causing most of the attacks aimed at the missiles or their flight trajectory to miss!
Though a handful of shots managed to down a couple of missiles, that was more due to luck than skill!
On top of all of this, the missiles accelerated far faster than the missiles that the Echo Spears were accustomed to! Their insane acceleration caused the missiles to accumulate so much velocity that they reached the position of the vulnerable light carriers far too quickly!
Commander Quint and the other Echo Spears could barely react to the sudden onset of the missiles! Just as the missiles were about to strike the light carriers, they missed!
"What!? How come these missiles are passing us by? Is their programming faulty?"
"Maybe our ECM managed to fool them at the last second!"
"Idiot! How could our ECM systems ever beat Coalition tech?"
"Watch out! They're circling around!"
The missiles may have missed, but they continued flying along a tighter arc! After circling around the light carrier several times, they finally achieved an angle that allowed them to strike at the vulnerable rear of the fleet formation!
Just as the crews of the three undamaged light carriers received the order to brace themselves, the salvo of missiles each impacted their exposed stern, detonating numerous small explosions!
"Thank the president! They aren't ship-killer missiles!"
"Don't get complacent! They're still dealing a lot of damage!"
The missiles launched by the Kravon was a light missile type designed for intercepting heavy fire and hitting small but exceptionally agile targets.
They weren't designed to attack ships. Against a Hexer starship, the missiles would only inflict minor to superficial damage.
Against a light carrier from the Great Zona Republic, their payloads were much more threatening!
Explosions powerful enough to ruin some of the interior compartments of the Scarlet Rose ruined the propulsion systems of the affected vessels in an instant!
Every thruster and every related system turned into wreckage as the detonations swept through the nearby compartments and threatened the engineering section!
One light carrier suffered an unlucky explosion that affected a critical fuel line! A secondary explosion soon occurred that breached the engineering compartment, sweeping all of the engineers and the vulnerable ship components away!
The other two light carriers managed to avoid this unfortunate fate, but their conditions weren't much good either.
After losing their main propulsion systems, the light carriers could no longer accelerate and keep up with the Scarlet Rose's flight!
After crippling the flagship, heavily damaging a second light carrier and disabling the propulsion systems of the remaining three vessels with a single missile volley, the mobile bases of the Echo Spears all turned into sitting ducks!
Ves widened his eyes as he witnessed the results. The missiles performed much better than he anticipated! He only expected a small portion of the missiles to make it through, and he did not dare to dream that he would be able to cripple all three targeted ships!
"The disparity in ECM is too big!"
The countermeasures built into the missiles of the Coalition completely negated the targeting systems employed by the mercenary mechs. Their mech pilots had been forced to aim their weapons manually without benefiting from aim assist or accurate sensor data!
"It's too bad I don't have enough missiles." He sighed.
The Scarlet Rose was not on a combat mission, after all. She only carried a standard amount of ordnance, and none of them were impressive by Coalition standards.
While the Scarlet Rose possessed enough supplies to sustain a couple of more battles, eventually Ves would run out of missiles!
He could not afford to squander his limited assets!
Fortunately, the effect of this singular missile volley had been good. After continually shocking the Echo Spears, this final strike appeared to be the straw that broke the camel's back!
On board the crippled flagship, Commander Quint no longer maintained a controlled and confident demeanor.
The chaotic command center conveyed all kinds of awful news to him. Each and every light carrier sustained severe damage! Aside from a single ship, all of his other ships were no longer able to keep up the chase!
The Scarlet Rose continued to burn her thrusters, accelerating further and further away from the crippled mercenary fleet.
Commander Quint had to make a very difficult decision.
Should he recall the mechs deployed to intercept the Scarlet Rose?
If he let the mechs continue their mission, then they would only fly further and further away from the light carrier!
If they expended too much fuel or energy, then they might not have enough juice to return to their motherships!
If he recalled the mechs, he would essentially have to give up on the mission and miss a huge payout. Not only that, but he would also have to force the Echo Spears to go in the red in order to raise enough funds to repair the damaged light carriers.
This was very expensive!
The mercenary commander contemplated whether he could have it both ways, but the intimidating firepower from the ranged mechs of the Scarlet Rose instantly doused this option.
If he split up his forces, then the mechs of the Scarlet Rose would definitely be able to annihilate his weakened pursuit force!
In the end, Commander Quint possessed a responsibility to his crew. None of them were willing to undergo battles where they lost just as much as their opponent!
Most of his mech pilots and support personnel never received military training! They lacked the will and discipline to endure punishing battles!
Even if the mech pilots managed to eject their cockpits from their broken mechs, with the light carriers stranded in space, how long would they have to wait for rescue?
Thinking of all the damage his mercenary corps would suffer if he pushed through with the mission, Commander Quint finally issued the order that was best for the Echo Spears instead of his clients.
"Cease fire recalls our mechs. Stop the pursuit and let the Scarlet Rose go. Mr. Larkinson has won this battle."
Though his announcement cut deep, many of the Echo Spears inwardly sighed in relief.
Who knew what kind of other deadly surprises the Scarlet Rose and her mechs would show off next?
As soon as Ves observed the mechs breaking off their pursuit, his grin bloomed into a brilliant smile!
"Haha! I won! They finally gave up the chase!"
The Scarlet Rose happily flew away from the battle site as the mercenary mechs started to gather protectively around their crippled motherships.
Ves believed that word would definitely spread about this battle. With that, most outfits who aimed to intercept his ship would definitely think twice before trying to intercept her! Even a mercenary corps capable of fielding 170 mechs had been forced to abort the mission in the face of all of the firepower at his disposal!
"It's only going to be more difficult from here, though." He sighed.
Exposing his cards meant that the rabble should no longer block his way. However, those who were strong and powerful to cope with the threat would definitely be undeterred!
Out of all of the possible enemies that might pursue him, Ves never discounted the possibility that a force dispatched by the Friday Coalition would manage to intercept his ship!
In this case, Ves would no longer be able to crush his opposition by virtue of his tech disparity!
After giving up the chase, the Echo Spears no longer had any chance of completing their primary objective. The distance to their mission target constantly increased until it was far too late for the mechs to catch up no matter how much power they dumped into their flight systems!
The fleeing ship's FTL drive calmly continued its cycling process as if nothing special happened.
Without any engineers to optimize this process, Ves had no way to hurry up this highly-regulated process.
After a total of five agonizing hours had passed, the FTL drive finally became available.
Ves instantly instructed the ship to punch in the coordinates of his next step. The ship's navigation system took care of the rest, automatically calculating and forming the right configuration to reach his intended destination!
As soon as the Scarlet Rose transitioned into FTL, Ves could finally relax.
"Finally!"
He looked up at the four slightly-marred battle bots that had saved his skin a few hours ago.
Despite confronting an entire mercenary corps, the four former mechs exhibited no major battle damage!
Even their more vulnerable weapons made it through the battle largely unscathed!
"This is the might of true second-class mechs!"
Each of the mechs designed and built by Aisling Curver fell in the premier price category of the Coalition mech market.
Ves did not even dare to guess the exact market price of these mechs! He feared he would faint at the amount of cols it took to build or buy one of these custom mechs!
At the very least, Ves would have to fork over billions of coalition credits to obtain mechs of comparable quality and performance!
It felt nice having all of this might at his disposal. Though the lack of mech pilots meant that most of their potential remained dormant, what little he could bring to bear was already enough for him to fend off opportunistic outfits like the Echo Spears!
Now that he gained some self-preservation against weaker opponents, Ves believed his journey through the Great Zona Republic would not be as fraught with peril as he initially expected.
The performance of his battle bots exceeded his expectations!
"These are some really good machines!"
If possible, Ves wanted to retain them and bring them back to his new base and take the time to study them from top to bottom.
There was much that Ves could learn about the characteristics of second-class mechs. Each of the four machines incorporated many interesting design principles and standards.
Each of the mechs carried the character of Clarion University, a top mech design institution of the Gauge Dynasty. Lady Curver also inherited many design principles from Master Huron, a very distinguished mech designer who enjoyed a high position in the Friday Coalition.
Though studying the machines along with all of the related files risked contamination, Ves believed he was strong enough to endure any undesirable changes.
"If nothing else, I can just drain my spirit and temporarily turn myself into a rational mech designer." He muttered.
In the past week, Ves personally experienced some of the benefits that Patricia had alluded to. In his low period, his emotions might be muted, but they also became much less susceptible to outside influence!
It was as if his mind and Spirituality became out of phase with the rest of reality. Whenever Ves delved into the design of Aisling's mechs while he was converting them into battle bots, he noticed that his design philosophy didn't even come close to being threatened!
Ves realized the implications of this reaction. As long as his design seed and design philosophy no longer became affected by outside impulses, he could study or explore all kinds of knowledge regardless if they clashed with his original ideals!
"It's like working with fire and ice at the same time!"
Ordinarily, fire and ice always clashed. Neither could survive while the other was there! Yet upon forcing himself into a low period, the fire in his body suddenly became shielded from reality. Even if he placed a clump ice next to the fire, only a faint reaction would occur depending on his spiritual energy depletion rate!
Ves fully understood the value of rational mech designers at this point.
No wonder the MTA valued them so much!
Rational mech designers might not necessarily be good innovators, but they excelled at integrating all manner of existing inventions no matter how obtuse they were! As long as they obtained enough theory, they could definitely assimilate them in their own body of work to a certain extent!
Did Ves want to go this far? Not necessarily. He did not feel any desire to do what Aisling could do. Messing with neural interconnectivity sounded like a good way to piss off the MTA.
Since Ves sought to earn a lot of merits and redeem a beyonder ticket from the powerful organization, he could not afford to get caught with breaking one of their major rules!
"That doesn't mean there is nothing for me to learn."
Aside from learning the characteristics of second-class mechs, Ves also wanted to gain inspiration from Aisling's design philosophy.
Just like with exchanges between mech designers, careful exploration of another mech designer's work might yield new ideas and perspective that enriched his application of his own design philosophy.
In recent times, Ves became somewhat intrigued by the possibility of replicating the effects of a neural network on a spiritual level.
From his limited understanding of spirituality, Ves believed it was possible to facilitate a spiritual connection between two different mech pilots.
After all, his design spirits were already capable of maintaining connections with many different mechs.
Yet a human was different from a powerful spiritual entity.
How could any human mech pilot, particularly those who lacked spiritual potential, be capable of forming a spiritual connection with a fellow comrade-in-arms?
Ves lacked the answer to this question, hence why he became so interested in exploring Aisling's works in depth.
He hoped he might gain some inspiration that pointed him towards a possible solution.
"What would it be like to form a network between mech pilots that transcends the man-machine connection?"
He could scarcely imagine the results. By forming a spiritual web of connection between mech pilots, they would become capable of exchanging all manner of thoughts and information.
If the mech pilots took advantage of this exceptional state, they would be able fight and move as a single entity! Even better, the mech pilots might be able to achieve resonance between each other that amplified their effective piloting performance!
Of course, Ves did not believe that such a strong result would emerge on the first attempt.
Without the physical bond of a neural interface, the spiritual network would likely be weak. Perhaps only a trickle of data could be exchanged between mech pilots.
Yet that was already enough to make a difference in battle!
Ves shook his head. "Every unknown innovation is a double-edged sword. Leaving aside the question whether it is even possible for me to form such a network, the potential risks are exceptionally great!"
Just like how reckless experimentation with neural interface technology often led to fatal outcomes, messing with spirituality was also fraught with peril!
The crude form of spiritual surgery he performed on William Urbesh was already proof of how bad things it could get if he played with forces beyond his understanding!
"I'll have to limit my experimentation to test subjects rather than my customers."
Despite the risks, Ves seriously wanted to explore this avenue. Not only would he be able to add another application of his design philosophy to his arsenal, he also wanted to achieve something greater.
He already formed a tentative but ambitious plan to strengthen his fighting forces and grant them a unique edge!
While a spiritual network wasn't necessary, if he managed to pull it off, he could definitely achieve a lot of synergy by combining it with his next idea!
Just thinking about the mechs that incorporated these innovations practically sent him over the moon! As a mech designer, he loved nothing more than to turn the impossible into the possible!
"These will be my next research directions!"
He indulged himself for a few minutes longer before returning to reality. He could leave them for later once he passed the immediate crisis.
Now that his ship transitioned into FTL, he was safe for a couple.
"Before my Scarlet Rose emerges back to realspace, I have to make sure my assets are ready for battle."
Ves proceeded to inspect the battle bots and tally the damage they incurred. He also ran a diagnostic of the ship in order to find out if any of her systems sustained any damage.
Fortunately, the Scarlet Rose only suffered minor damage. Aside from some surface components such as sensor modules and other fragile devices, the mobile supply frigate managed to make it out of the battle unscathed.
Though she endured a lot of enemy firepower, her exterior armor was largely intact. Part of that was because the ship's constant rotations spread out the damage across her entire hull, thereby preventing any single exterior section from accumulating too much damage.
Even so, the minor cracks and chips represented a permanent reduction in armor integrity.
As long as the Scarlet Rose kept bumping into enemies, the damage would continue to accumulate until a breach finally occurred!
Given time, Ves might be able to patch up the holes. Yet Ves did not possess the expensive exotics required to fabricate replacement armor that was up to standard. He could only settle for the materials he had on hand to fabricate inferior replacements.
The same went for the mechs. Each of them only suffered light damage, but the dearth in materials made it difficult to repair any damage.
Lucky was partially to blame for his poor logistical circumstances!
The moment he stepped in the exotics storeroom, he found a near-insensate gem cat lying in a pile of half-eating minerals as if he was sleeping on a bed of money!
"Wake up, you thieving cat!"
Ves kicked the sleeping cat, causing Lucky to yelp and bounce against the bulkhead of the storeroom!
"MEOW!"
Lucky hissed indignantly at his owner!
"Oh don't be so dramatic! With all that you've managed to devour, a kick against your bottomless stomach is the least you deserve!"
When Ves gave permission for Lucky to eat the Scarlet Rose's exotics stash, he expected his cat to take a while to digest his food.
Yet as he approached some of the locked drawers and pulled them out, he encountered nothing but an empty cavity!
Every sample of a critical material was gone!
Ves inspected multiple drawers and found that some other valued materials had disappeared entirely!
As for the lower-grade exotics, Lucky only sampled occasionally.
"Lucky.." Ves gnashed his teeth. "While I didn't set any limits on what you could eat, I thought you'd be sensible enough to leave some to repair my stuff! If the Scarlet Rose goes down because you ate all of my repair materials, then you have only yourself to blame!"
"Meow meow meow!"
Lucky did not look contrite at all! As far as he was concerned, Ves would have never been able to capture the Scarlet Rose without his help! It was all him! Ves only contributed 5 percent to the capture of the ship at most!
Since Ves claimed the Scarlet Rose and her complement of mechs, then Lucky could only settle for the high and medium-grade exotics stored on the ship!
After a lot of arguing, Ves finally managed to convince Lucky to slow down his consumption!
"I don't care whether you've leveled up or grew stronger! A single cat won't get me back to friendly space! Only a ship can do that, so it is in both of our interests to keep the Scarlet Rose intact!"
"Meoow!" Lucky suggested while suggestively swishing his tail.
"That's ridiculous! I don't want to get stranded on a ship without an FTL drive!"
"Meow."
Lucky glowered resentfully at Ves as he enjoyed his breakfast after a good night of rest.
"I shouldn't have killed the chefs." Ves muttered. "The meals produced by the automated cooking machines always taste off."
In order to sate his hunger, Ves went back to his old staple and ate a nutrient pack directly from its packaging.
"Hmm.." Ves evaluated the taste of texture of the nutrient pack type he decided to sample for this morning. "Not bad, but not as good as the last one. It will probably taste a lot better with a few decades of aging."
He was quite surprised with the quality of nutrient packs in the possession of the Friday Coalition.
Unlike the cheaper ones that Ves was used to, the Coalition invested a lot more in quality.
Not only was their nutritional value higher, but their taste was actually palatable!
Ves wouldn't be surprised to find out that most people already replaced their regular meals with Coalition-standard nutrient packs!
Of course, the nutrient packs still weren't comparable to real food. He still missed the gourmet food prepared by Dr. Lupo and Gloriana's personal chefs.
"The sooner I get back, the sooner I can fill my stomach properly."
Perhaps Lucky didn't care that much, but Ves really wanted to return to his companions and get back to designing mechs.
All of this fleeing and fighting reminded him of the many perils he went through while he served with the Flagrant Vandals.
Unlike then, Ves wasn't surrounded by competent military servicemen! He could only depend on Lucky and himself to get out of this predicament!
The good news was that he already managed to get through the first half of his journey.
After overcoming the ambush of the Echo Spears, Ves did not encounter any other ambushes in his next couple of stops.
The most he encountered at these desolate star systems was a bunch of listening posts and a small number of corvettes assigned as scouts.
Instead of reassuring him, Ves only grew more concerned.
The battle against the Echo Spears probably achieved the intended effect of scaring away the weaker groups.
Yet that only made him feel as if his opposition was preparing a bigger surprise down the line!
"Well, I'll deal with it when it comes." He sighed in resignation.
He had a lot of confidence in his battle bots. After he repaired and serviced them as best he could on his own, he continued to study and tweak them in an attempt to draw out some of their buried potential.
In order to increase the automated fighting consciousness of his converted mechs, he explored the galactic net and downloaded a bunch of highly-regarded piloting AIs.
He carefully inspected their programming and selectively incorporated the safest and most relevant portions of them to the existing control systems.
All of this was complicated and delicate work. If Ves botched something, the battle bots might glitch during battle, exposing them to countless counterattacks as they became inert!
However, if his suspicions came true, then Ves had no choice but to assume this risk! The faults of his battle bots would definitely become evident to his enemies once they studied the battle footage!
"If only I can pilot the mechs myself!" He sighed.
He could still increase his control over the battle bots until he turned into their surrogate mech pilots. By assuming more direct control, he could use his own human judgement while still leaving the AIs to do all of the heavy lifting.
Such a semi-direct piloting method was the main way for non-potentates to pilot mechs.
While the lack of neural connection prevented the mech from reaching its full potential, it was better than nothing!
For this reason, Ves took the time to add the ability to manually override the piloting AIs and control the functions of the mechs more directly.
He tried out this added functionality in a couple of simulations.
It was like playing one of the mech games he used to play in the past. The simplified controls and lack of tedium allowed Ves to focus on what was truly important.
Though Ves had no confidence in beating an equivalent second-class mech, it should be enough to bully a huge mob of third-class mechs!
"The Paravin and Fliskin aren't pushovers anymore." He smiled with satisfaction as he observed the two melee battle bots with appreciation.
The space knight and light skirmisher both possessed some ranged armaments, but they were obviously not their focus.
Their true strengths lay in melee combat. The supplemental programming that Ves copied from the galactic net had come with a lot of adaptive fighting routines that adjusted well to the characteristics of the Paravin and Fliskin after a lot of optimization.
This allowed the mechs to fight off numerous third-class melee mechs without falling into disadvantage.
All of these efforts gave him a lot of confidence in confronting twice or thrice the number of mechs that the Echo Spears brought to bear last time.
"My next opponents won't be as complacent, though." He reminded himself.
Anyone ambitious enough to hunt down a stolen Coalition ship protected by a bunch of powerful battle bots should not be incompetent!
Ves already exposed his most important cards. This left him with precious little means to reverse any unfavorable outcome should his enemies come with greater strength than he could cope!
In addition, he also feared that he wouldn't be encountering an overwhelming number of third-class mechs, but something worse.
As long as a small interception force from the Friday Coalition managed to trap him, then his four pitiful battle bots would definitely be defeated by an equal or greater number of second-class mechs!
"They shouldn't be so common in this region of space." He muttered.
That was not to say that the Friday Coalition was absent in the Great Zona Republic. It was just that most Coalition assets in the third-rate states consisted of trade vessels and civilian ships.
There was little reason for the Coalition to station a heavy military presence in a trivial foreign state.
From the correspondence and other documents that Aisling left behind, Ves possessed a decent estimate on how many Coalition assets were available in the state.
It was not enough to ensure a guaranteed interception.
When the Scarlet Rose arrived at a star system, he could often choose his next stop among more than a hundred possible choices!
The range of the Scarlet Rose's FTL drive was quite formidable. Though it was limited when Ves limited himself to traveling to dimmer star systems, he still had plenty of desolate star systems to choose from in order to avoid a prepared ambush.
Though the listening posts and scout ships always tracked the Scarlet Rose's orientation as she transitioned into FTL, it took time to scramble enough assets to lay an ambush at her next destination!
Even if the ambushers arrived at the estimated destination in time, the emergence zone often encompassed a volume that stretched for at least a quarter light-hour or more!
That was a humongous amount of distance! A mech firing a laser weapon would have to wait fifteen minutes until it struck its target!
With that much time, the randomized pathing of a ship or mech would have definitely deviated from the projected trajectory!
In space, no one was stupid enough to travel in a straight line!
While traveling straight minimized waste and maximized efficiency, following a predictable trajectory allowed any hooligan to accelerate a small asteroid to relativistic speeds and collide with the unsuspecting vessel!
In any case, with such a large emergence zone, the chance that the Scarlet Rose would enter the range of prepared ambush fleet was not very large!
What complicated the matter even further was the relative positions and velocity between the two elements.
Nothing in space truly sat still. Everything was constantly on the move depending on which frame of reference someone adopted.
Even the emergence zones moved according to the relative motions of the star systems and the gravitic tides raging in the higher dimensions!
"It all depends on chance."
Whether he would be lucky enough to avoid a confrontation at his next destination was not set in stone.
Ves was forced to roll another dice after arriving at each subsequent stop.
As long as he suffered one unlucky roll, then all of his prior efforts were for nothing! Once he ended up in the hands of the Lady Curver and the Friday Coalition, he doubted they would treat him as well as they did before!
He not only proved himself to be dangerous, but also had a lot of Fridayman blood on his hands!
Killing the crew of another CRC was not a crime that could be brushed away!
And considering how much the Echo Spears already knew when they confronted Ves, he figured out that the Friday Coalition hadn't kept his exploits secret!
"My notoriety has probably shot through the roof after this news became known!"
Ves groaned and held his head. What of his reputation? What of the LMC's standing in Coalition-aligned states?
"The LMC should be safe for now. The Sand War still isn't over. My Desolate Soldiers and Deliverer mechs are still too essential to the survival of many states!"
That did not preclude the possibility of betrayal once his products no longer became vital. As soon as the Sand War ended, Ves and the LMC had to tread very carefully when doing business with Coalition-aligned space.
"I can't stay in the Ylvaine Protectorate." He concluded.
It was pretty much an island in an ocean of Coalition-aligned states. Staying there would only put a bigger target on the Protectorate. Ves did not wish to taunt the Fridaymen into overrunning his benefactors!
"The Protectorate isn't suitable for me and my organization anyway."
The Ylvainan culture didn't appeal to the members of the Larkinson Family who decided to follow him. He couldn't imagine Melkor, Raymond or Clinton turning into devout Ylvainan believers at all!
In order to escape the reach of the Friday Coalition and provide his relatives and subordinates with a more compatible living environment, Ves needed to settle in a different state.
The only state he could think of was the Sentinel Kingdom, which was very far away from the Friday Coalition.
With the entire Hegemony in the way, Ves didn't believe that Lady Curver and the CRC could dispatch forces to kidnap him again!
Yet just thinking about staying in a state that was in close proximity to the Nyxian Gap sent shivers through his spine.
He would only be exchanging a lesser threat for a greater threat!
Ves frowned and crossed his arms.
Escaping Coalition pursuit was not the end of his troubles. The hasty evacuation of the LMC from the Bright Republic had doubtlessly produced a lot of problems.
Yet even if he had to leave the Mech Nursery and all of his accumulations in the Bright Republic behind, he didn't regret his choice!
Ves no longer dared to trust any state, whether it was the Bright Republic or even the Ylvaine Protectorate.
As long as he made enemies with at least one faction, Ves would always be exposed to schemes!
While his Avatars of Myth ought to be capable of fending off all kinds of threats, it was still a stretch to resist the authorities!
This was a problem that couldn't be solved in a short amount of time!
At this time, his comm suddenly beeped.
The control module of the quantum entanglement node suddenly received an incoming comm call.
Due to his paranoid security precautions, he did not allow the control module to connect directly to the communication systems of the Scarlet Rose.
Ves had to walk all the way to the compartment of the ship which held the quantum entanglement node in order to accept the call.
"Well, whoever called me is very patient for ringing me for six minutes straight." He noted as he activated the interface and pressed the buttons that accepted the call.
The projection of a familiar figure appeared in front of Ves.
"Hello Ves."
"Hello Tristan."
An awkward silence ensued as Ves silently stared at Tristan Wesseling's projection.
Previously, Ves always treated Tristan as a friendly acquaintance. Though they hadn't talked many times, the Fridayman mech designer always took the initiative to show some goodwill to him. Their shared connection to the Rim Guardians meant that it was very likely they would cross paths in the future.
Yet it was different now. Tristan's status may not have changed, but Ves single-handedly deteriorated his relationship with the Friday Coalition in the most violent fashion!
Whereas before he might have only been an incidental mech designer who sided with the Hexers, now the Coalition almost certainly labeled him as an enemy!
He had Fridayman blood on his hands! No matter how he managed to do it, there was no question he was involved in wiping out the entire crew of the Scarlet Rose!
Technically, Ves and Tristan should be enemies.
Yet neither of them showed any willingness to abide by the expectations of their identities.
Without exchanging a word, both of them understood each other's measure.
They had no special feelings for the Komodo War and the conflict between the Friday Coalition and the Hexadric Hegemony.
While this rivalry still affected their lives, they already set their sights higher! Their ambitions stretched far beyond the Komodo Star Sector!
After implicitly understanding what he had in common with Tristan, Ves subtly relaxed his posture.
His counterpart followed likewise. He had been waiting for a friendly reaction.
Though both of them had managed to relieve the tension between them, that did not mean that everything was okay.
"So.. is it okay for you to take the initiative to talk to me?" Ves eventually broke the silence.
Tristan looked completely at ease. "Reality is never black and white. Do you think the Friday Coalition cares about an individual mech designer? While it's true that our evaluation of you has dropped, you're still a small fry in our eyes. Only Lady Curver and some of the people within the CRC are paying attention to you. As for the rest, the war against the Hexers is a big greater priority!"
That made a lot of sense. Compared to a trivial Journeyman who possessed an odd design philosophy, the Fridaymen had to exert their full effort into preventing the Hexers from annihilating their state!
One was just a stain on their dignity, while the other threatened their entire existence!
Ves felt pleased that he managed to stay under the radar of the Friday Coalition. Just thinking about their awe-inspiring might and vast resources at their disposal sent a chill through his spine.
If the Friday Coalition allocated just 0.1 percent of its total strength into annihilating him, Ves would certainly die without a doubt!
"Even so, I imagine it's not exactly proper for you to be contacting me. Why did you call? Did Aisling put you up to it or something?"
"I'm no friend of Lady Curver." Tristan immediately shook his head. "She's an alumni of Clarion University, which is one of the foremost mech design institutions of the Gauge Dynasty. I'm a graduate of the Leemar Institute of Technology, which hails from the Carnegie Group."
"And that matters because...?"
"To make the long story short, we're bitter rivals. The competition between Clarion and Leemar is very intense. We compete on everything from the amount of academic papers our professors publish to the degree of success enjoyed by our graduates. The competition for the comprehensive ranking of mech design institutions is particularly acrimonious!"
All of this had nothing to do with Ves. He adopted a bored expression.
"Does this rivalry even matter these days? A common enemy is bearing down on you both!"
Tristan sheepishly shrugged. "You'd be surprised by how far people would go to reinforce their cliques. War brings pressure. War limits resources. War imposes stricter control. All of this means that there is an intense competition to be in charge. Those who become leaders will inevitably benefit those who belong in the same camp!"
"I see."
It seems the Friday Coalition wasn't as unified as he initially thought. While Ves already caught a portion of this from Aisling's correspondence, he was distracted by all of the initiatives meant to foster cooperation.
"Don't get me wrong, Ves. We know the score. We are still capable of getting along when it truly matters. It is just that the Carnegie Group is situated directly in the path of the Hexers. My state is under a huge amount of pressure as Hexer raids and invasions frequently destroy or deprive us of our infrastructure."
This was the misfortune of being one of the partners of the Coalition that directly bordered Hegemony space.
Though the Carnegie Group prepared their defenses for centuries, the Hexers hadn't spent this time in vain!
Upon this realization, Ves studied Tristan's projection carefully and noted that he didn't seem very hopeful.
"What's up with you?"
"This will be the last time we can talk to each other in a while. Duty calls. I think you can understand."
"You don't sound willing."
"Whoever wins the Komodo War, the Carnegie Group likely won't be among them. Do you understand?"
"Is the war going that badly for you guys?"
"The Hexers are strong, that's for sure. Even if we manage to defeat them, they'll take down plenty of Fridaymen with them. We just happen to be the closest in their line of fire."
From the way Tristan talked, he must not be very optimistic about the Carnegie Group's future!
Yet regardless of what he believed, he still had to meet his obligations!
As a talented Journeyman mech Designer and a direct disciple to Master Katzenberg, Tristan enjoyed benefits from the Carnegie Group. It was only right for him to repay the debt he owed by contributing to the partner's secret design projects!
"Good luck with whatever you are doing."
"That sounds strange from someone on the opposite side." Tristan amusingly chuckled.
"As you've said it yourself, us Journeymen are small fries. The Coalition and Hegemony are too powerful to pay attention to the little guys. I think we have gone past treating our allegiances as the main determinants of our attitudes."
""What do you think about Lady Curver, then?"
"If she wasn't so decisive in running from the Scarlet Rose, I would have killed her myself!"
"That's not a good idea, Ves." Tristan shook his head. "One of the reasons why I called is to tell you that you need to be more careful with how far you pursue your vendettas. Direct disciplines like Aisling and I explicitly enjoy the backing of our Masters, do you understand?"
Ves scratched his head. "Not really."
"Direct disciples are considered to be extensions of a Master Mech Designer's research interests. Whatever progress we make on our branching design philosophies, our Master also benefits from the results we achieve. Do you think a Master will stand by when a promising student who is exploring another avenue of their core specialty is under threat? What do you think will happen if someone actually has the temerity to kill their disciples?"
If Ves was in that position, he would definitely be mad as hell! A direct disciple was pretty much a free research surrogate!
"What's about nominal disciples?" Ves asked.
"It's different for nominal disciples like you used to be. Unless someone wanted to target Master Olson, she isn't inclined to retaliate should anything happen to you. In the mech community, nominal disciples are mostly external helpers to Masters. They extend a Master's influence and network and can be useful in various ways. However, unless they advance to Master Mech Designers themselves, nominal disciples will always be regarded as helpers."
"Does this only apply to Friday Coalition or is it something universal?"
"We aren't that different from the rest of human space in this regard. Perhaps disciples are less valued in more prosperous star sectors as it is much easier to cultivate talents there. However, here in the galactic, every Journeyman is still a valued asset."
"So it's only because our star sector is so poor that every disciple is important."
Ves understood his point. Due to various reasons, many people with a talent in mech design never got to study it or make something out of their career. The mech industry simply wasn't prosperous enough to accommodate so many talents.
Those with gifts often had to give up their dreams and pursue a lesser career due to an inability to attract investment and fund their own ventures.
Ves imagined that the conditions were slightly better in the galactic heartland and galactic center
While the competition was much more intense, the barrier to entry was probably easier to overcome as long as mech designers had some money at their disposal.
"To get back to the point, you should really think twice before you threaten the life of someone like Lady Curver. She's one of the brightest graduates of Clarion University. Not only does her alma mater appreciate her a lot, but she has also become Master Huron's latest investment. If you happened to kill her, I can guarantee you that Master Huron will never let you go! He's a very sentimental mech designer and values his relationships very highly! Killing Lady Curver is not only an attack on himself, but also an attack on his sensibilities!"
He noted the difference between the two.
Officially, Lady Curver was Master Huron's direct disciple. According to Tristan's explanation, killing her would materially affect Master Huron's research interests!
Yet if Master Huron was someone who appreciated Lady Curver as a person, then he would definitely go mad with rage!
After a bit of thought, Ves recalled that Master Huron specialized in neural interconnectivity. This specialization probably warped his personality into valuing relationships to an extreme degree!
This meant that killing Aisling would definitely provoke an irreconcilable enmity with a powerful Master Mech Designer!
Sweat poured down his back. If Ves had been a little more reckless, then the Friday Coalition absolutely wouldn't be as lackadaisical towards him as now! As long as someone important enough pressured the Friday Coalition to take care of him, Ves would definitely be unable to make it so far in his escape as now!
Fortunately, Aisling and Patricia already fled the ship before Ves and Lucky approached the mech workshop.
After almost getting killed by a missile, he would have definitely urged Lucky to slaughter them both regardless of their identities!
"Should I be concerned by Master Huron?"
"I'm not sure." Tristan looked uncertain. "Since Curver managed to escape unscathed, you didn't cross his bottom line. Depending on his personality, he probably sees his disciple's misfortune as a teaching moment. As long as she learns from this ordeal, she will be much more formidable in the future. You practically did him a favor if he adopts this mindset."
"And if he doesn't think this way?"
"Then you're definitely in trouble. Who knows what he is thinking. Masters don't think like normal people. Especially when they lived for over two centuries." Tristan shrugged. "If you ask me, Master Huron is probably spending all of his time on the Komodo War. As one of the best mech designers of our state, his work is vital in increasing our odds of victory. How can he allow himself to get distracted? At the very least, my own Master is like this. Every important Fridaymen has become incredibly busy since the outbreak of the war."
The two chatted some more about the conditions in the Friday Coalition. The state had entered into a total war footing.
Life changed drastically for every Fridaymen as they couldn't afford to lose the war that decided the future of their state!
Compared to this pivotal conflict, the border struggle against the sandmen attracted no attention at all! Even as many beleaguered states called for help, the Fridaymen completely turned a deaf ear on them! At this stage, they only cared about themselves!
Tristan illuminated several facets of the Friday Coalition that Ves only only brushed upon when he read Aisling's correspondence.
Though both of them were direct disciples of famous Masters, they each belonged to different groups within their large and expansive state.
Lady Aisling Curver was part of the most powerful and self-assured partner of the Friday Coalition. She mostly communicated with people from the same side, so they all infected each other with the pride and confidence that was seared into their bones!
It was different for someone like Tristan who came from the Carnegie Group. As a partner who bore the brunt of Hexer aggression, he not only stood to lose the most, but also possessed a much greater understanding of the enemy.
The lack of confidence exhibited by Tristan sent a very depressing message in itself!
Not that Ves particularly cared. The Carnegie Group and the Vermeer Group which Master Olson hailed from could go to hell for all he cared. He long cut ties with both partners.
Instead of worrying about the Friday Coalition's precarious internal situation, Ves paid a lot more attention to their external moves.
Since he had a friendly Fridayman on the line, Ves might as well take advantage of him to answer some of his doubts!
"What is the deal with monitors like Lady Curver? If the Friday Coalition truly wanted to keep an eye on foreign states, why not send a diplomat or a spy?"
"There are several reasons for that." Tristan replied without hesitation. "First, diplomats and spies have already been dispatched. The former are high profile while the latter are low profile. Regardless of their responsibilities, they are doing most of the actual work in keeping tabs on a foreign state."
"Then what is the purpose of dispatching mech designers like Aisling?"
"The answer should be obvious." The Fridayman replied. "As mech designers, what do we do best?"
"Designing mechs."
"And building them. Have you taken a good look at the material stockpile aboard the Scarlet Rose?"
"It's not enough to build another second-class mech." Ves instantly replied. "There aren't enough high-grade exotics available."
In fact, Ves had even less at his disposal now that Lucky gobbled up the choicest exotics!
"That's because the so-called monitors aren't expected to do so. In a foreign third-rate state, which mechs are the most common?"
"Third-rate mechs."
"Exactly!"
"What is the purpose of this?" Ves puzzled.
"It's for allowing agents to blend in with the locals."
"If the Fridaymen want to blend in, why not buy a mech from the market?"
"That's because blending in is only one of their purposes. Oftentimes, a mission involving mech pilots often requires a mech that blends in with the locals while simultaneously possessing sufficient power to complete the mission. Such mechs have to be tailored to the circumstances, hence the need for a mech designer who is close to the situation."
Ves finally understood the role of Lady Curver. Even though none of the systems and logs alluded to it, a mech designer assigned as a monitor actually served as an equipment provider who facilitated the clandestine operations of her state!
"Does that mean that the Friday Coalition is secretly meddling in the affairs of the Bright Republic and other states?"
Tristan didn't answer his question. Instead, his mouth remained shut.
His silence was an answer in itself. Ves understood that Tristan had already been unusually generous with his information. There were some topics he couldn't afford to go into, though.
Ves felt his heart sinking as he went over the implications. The Friday Coalition might have compromised the Bright Republic already!
At the very least, Ves bet that the Cavendish and Ramza Families were already in their pocket!
"Will.. will the Friday Coalition extend the war to the third-rate states?"
Tristan sighed. "I'm no strategist, and I'm not privy to the plans of my state. All I can guess is that if we are losing trend, we'll definitely pull out all the stops! Dragging in the rest of the star sector in the war will add more variables to the mix. This will give our side more opportunities to reverse our decline!"
"How does that work?" Ves asked. "No third-rate state is stupid enough to attack a second-rate!"
"They don't have to. It's enough to change their stance and stop their formal and informal ties to their patrons. States like the Bright Republic serve as an important source and shipping conduit for several important materials. They encompass both bulk goods such as titanium and palladium to strategic materials such as high-grade exotics."
"Stopping this trade means weakening a second-rate state, is that right?"
"You got it, Ves. The idea that the Bright Republic and the other third-rate states are bystanders in the Komodo War is incorrect. While your weaker states all like to bury their heads in the sand and pretend that they are neutral, from our perspective you are already vessels to us or the Hexers."
The revelation came as a very disconcerting surprise to Ves. Though he already suspected as much on some level, Tristan's confirmation still discomfited him a lot!
If his words were true, then the Bright Republic and the Ylvaine Protectorate would definitely get dragged into the conflict in time!
"Does that mean that our states will soon be home to battles between Fridaymen and Hexers?"
Tristan pressed a lip against his finger. "I doubt it. All of our best fighting assets are still needed at the frontlines. What will most likely happen is that the third-rate states will be pressured to double down their commitments to their respective patrons and wage war against the states aligned with their enemies!"
"What!? Really?!"
"I'm not sure it will happen this time. In past conflicts, it only happened occasionally, because you can't predict how well the third-rate states aligned to you will fare against the opponent's vassals."
"How likely do you think the Friday Coalition will resort to this solution?"
"It's probably likely. It's no secret that the Friday Coalition enjoys a broader base of support in the star sector."
Ves smiled sardonically. The Hexers didn't exactly make for attractive allies! Their overbearing culture and well-known biases against men made it really hard for foreigners to form a good impression of the female supremacists!
The only lesser states that maintained friendly relations with the Hexadric Hegemony had no choice.
Religious states like the Ylvaine Protectorate simply didn't get along with the secular Friday Coalition!
Secular states like the Sentinel Kingdom were much more compatible with the Fridaymen, but because they were situated too far away from Coalition space, it was already foreordained that they would focus on building ties with the Hegemony!
In both cases, the third-rate states really wanted to pick another patron, but were forced to play nice with the Hexers.
The ties between the Hexers and their 'vassal states' were anything but warm!
Ves realized that the Friday Coalition would definitely be able to take advantage of this disparity and force its vessels into strangling the states that supported its archenemy!
"Does that mean the Bright Republic will attack the Ylvaine Protectorate?!"
"It's possible, but I really can't say for sure." Tristan slowly answered, reluctant to say anything more lest he come across as a traitor. "However, with the Sand War battering your states, I can imagine that your leaders will be very resistant to yet another war. The Friday Coalition must be seen as benevolent, so it can't be too heavy-handed in forcing its vassal states to act as its thugs."
All of this sounded way above their heads. Tristan was mostly speculating at this point, but what he said so far was enough to make Ves concerned!
Though Ves no longer held any affection for his home state, many of his relatives still pledged loyalty to the state.
As for the Ylvaine Protectorate, Ves strongly appreciated its support. The Transcendent Messenger, Holy Soldier and Deliverer designs cemented his friendship with the Ylvainan people!
If war ever broke out between the two states, Ves could not bring himself to support either side!
Because that would mean going against the other side!
"What a mess." He groaned.
"That's war for you. The Sand War has already done a number on your states. Our own war might engulf you all as well. You should take that into account, especially since you've become a person of interest to our state."
The two talked some more about the Friday Coalition's attitudes towards external states. Ves gained a few more insights on how people like Tristan regarded the lesser states.
Even without any treaties, the second-rate states truly regarded the lesser states they maintained relations with to be their vessels!
What was worse was that there was no way to fight back against such an arrogant disposition!
If the Friday Coalition declared the Bright Republic to be their little brother, then the latter state had no choice but to smile and bear with the pronouncement!
The power disparity between the two was similar to the differences in power between his battle bots and the Echo Spears!
"Thanks for telling me all of this." Ves spoke appreciatively. "You didn't have to reveal so much to me. I feel like I'm taking advantage of you. Do you need anything from me?"
As a mech designer, Ves was uncomfortable with unequal exchanges with his fellow peers, especially those he respected!
He had no problem with screwing Lady Curver over and stealing her assigned ship. She had it coming!
Yet for Tristan, Ves had truly taken too much advantage of him without paying anything back in return. The debt that weighed on his mind constantly rose with no sign of stopping!
Though Tristan wanted to dismiss the offer, he halted and fell into thought. This was the last time they would speak for some time.
"I have a question that has been bugging me for some time. Your design philosophy has always been a mystery to me and anyone who has paid any notice to it. I think I figured some of the gist of what you are doing. It has to do with.. the P-word, right?"
Tristan emphatically tapped the side of his head with his finger, thereby alluding to the phenomenon known as psionics.
His guess came awfully close to the truth. Ves really didn't want to confirm Tristan's guess, especially since he suspected that the call might be monitored by the spies of the Friday Coalition and all manner of other groups, including the MTA!
Yet.. was it still a secret? Anyone who studied his mech designs in detail such as Gloriana already guessed that Ves found some way of leveraging psionic power to form the sources of his glows!
Since the cat was already out of the bag, Ves might as well own up to it. The more he exposed, the more he could leverage his design philosophy in the open!
"It's very complicated, but your guess is very close to the truth." Ves carefully answered.
"I thought so! You must possess a very unique mindset to be able to do what you can do! Is there anything I should take note of when I perform my own work?"
Ves pressed his lips into a thin line. While he was more than willing to give Tristan some pointers, he didn't want to give his eavesdroppers any freebies!
He decided to issue some general advice that he didn't mind leaking out. It was not as if many people took him seriously.
"One of my central ideas has always been that mechs are alive. I think it's a mistake to see your mechs as dead and lifeless machines. You don't have to go as far as me, though. As long as you alter your mentality towards mechs and treat them with respect, I think you'll definitely be surprised when they pay you back!"
"Interesting." Tristan looked intrigued. With how sincere Ves sounded, he didn't dismiss this strange advice out of hand! "I'll think about it. My design philosophy doesn't really go into this direction at all, but I'll see whether I can benefit from your view. Thank you, and goodbye."
"Goodbye."
An empty field of stars suddenly became the backdrop to a massacre!
Hundreds of mechs, many of them bearing the colors and markings of several different mercenary outfits, swarmed towards a single point in space!
That point happened to be the position of the Scarlet Rose!
All manner of missiles, lasers and projectiles slammed against the surface of the mobile supply frigate like hail impacting the roof of a house!
Though the ship's exterior armor withstood the rain of attacks well enough, the outer layers slowly deteriorated, signifying that the ship couldn't remain impervious forever!
Opposing them were Kravon and the Selzer.
The artillery battle bot fired its gauss cannon at a far higher firing rate than before in order to damage as many opposing mechs as possible! Its missile launchers emptied its ammunition canisters without any notion of conserving them for later.
As for the Selzer, the rifleman mech desperately fired laser after laser at the vulnerable ranged mechs. With the power of its rifle, the mech only needed a couple of shots to down a mech! Some even succumbed after suffering just a single hit!
Neither of the two ranged mechs bothered to threaten the carriers that brought these mechs into battle.
The ambushers learned from the previous attempt! Knowing that the motherships were exceptionally vulnerable against their target, the mercenaries involved in this attack had deliberately kept their vessels at a distance, thereby keeping them well out of range of the Kravon and the Selzer's formidable weapon systems!
With no other alternative, the two battle bots could only resist the aggression by whittling down the opposing ranged mechs!
Not every mech stayed back and unloaded their firepower onto the Scarlet Rose.
A handful of mech companies bravely flew forward and attempted to close in on the fugitive ship in order to cripple her propulsion system!
As long as they could get close enough, they could probably sabotage the thrusters and engine systems in short order!
Standing in their way, the Paravin and Fliskin hovered around the Scarlet Rose protectively, fending off any melee mechs that flew too close!
The knight mech shielded the relatively immobile Kravon. Without the space knight providing cover, the former artillery mech would have gotten overwhelmed!
As for the Fliskin, the swift and agile light skirmisher covered the rear, preventing any mechs from attacking the stern of the Scarlet Rose!
Both melee battle bots exhibited superior strength, speed and defense! Compared to their third-rate counterparts, the second-class machines soundly crushed their opposition without any contest!
Although the bots did not fight in an imaginative and crushing manner, the superiority of their specs was enough to compensate for their shortcomings!
The Paravin and Fliskin did not succumb at all even when they were surrounded by dozens of mechs!
A single crushing sword chop bisected an attacking mech in an instant, prompting it to let go of its spear even as some of its components exploded, engulfing the exposed cockpit portions to the deathly aftermath!
The pilot didn't even have the opportunity to eject!
The Fliskin fought much more insidiously. Lacking the strength and reach to cut mechs in half with its superior specs, it instead took advantage of its superior mobility to dance around its opposition.
No matter how hard the mercenary mechs tried to surround the Fliskin with a sphere-like formation, the mech cleverly flew through the cracks before the net closed in on it! Not only that, but the mech swiftly turned around and attacked the clumsy formation from the rear by stabbing its sharp and nigh-unbreakable daggers straight through the thinly protected rear of the mechs!
Though it was a lot more efficient to attack the flight systems of the enemy mechs to end their participation in the battle, the Fliskin acted on much different instruction.
It unflinchingly stabbed its daggers in the positions that best ran the blade through the cockpit!
The Fliskin moved so fast and attacked so quickly that its targets hardly had the time to eject!
Even if they did so, the mech still reacted within milliseconds and made sure to stab the escaping cockpit cabins before they got away!
A shudder swept through the backs of the mech pilots assigned to attack the Scarlet Rose and her escorts.
The casualties suffered by the coalition of mercenaries exceeded everyone's imagination!
In their prior battles, the mercenaries rarely lost too many mech pilots. Most mechs were resilient enough to grant their mech pilots enough time to eject!
Mercenary mech pilots tended to value their lives very highly, so many of them already had their fingers on the ejection buttons or levers!
Yet even then, the two melee battle bots showed no regard for their attempts to preserve their lives! Instead, they harvested them one by one as they rapidly overwhelmed every mech foolish enough to challenge their might!
With so much blood being shed, the Zonan mercenaries quickly lost heart. The ambush wasn't supposed to proceed this way!
According to the plan their mercenary commanders had formed, they should have just swarmed and overwhelmed the four powerful machines by sheer weight of numbers.
Ideally, they would be able to defeat the four second-class mechs and gain possession of the Scarlet Rose.
If the mercenaries failed to do so, then they hadn't necessarily lost.
The Friday Coalition already offered them a rich reward for consuming the strength and resources of the Scarlet Rose!
The powerful state offered enough money to compensate the mercenaries of the losses they suffered and added even more money as an appreciation for their efforts!
With such rich remuneration, no mercenary corps lost out even if they were defeated in the end!
It was too bad that Ves already saw through their plan.
"I won't allow you to enjoy a lossless transaction!"
His instructions to his autonomous battle bots forced all of them to do their best in killing the mech pilots as opposed to their mechs!
Since material losses were meaningless in the eyes of the enemy mercenary corps, Ves instead targeted the one asset that money couldn't easily replace.
Mech pilots! In particular, loyal and skilled mech pilots!
Many of the mercenary corps participating in this ambush consisted of outfits operating for several decades.
Each of them were led by seasoned mercenary commanders who completed all kinds of difficult and bloody missions.
They might have experienced much, but Ves doubted that they encountered an enemy with the might of second-class mechs and the ruthlessness of an unscrupulous mech designer!
To prevent the mercenaries that heavily outnumbered him from overwhelming his meager forces, he had to hit them where it hurt!
Such ruthlessness was very rare on the battlefield. Most mech pilots were more concerned with defeating enemy mechs rather than aiming at the lives within.
Even if the mech pilots wanted to kill their counterparts, they didn't have the power and skill to accomplish such a difficult objective!
Therefore, after encountering the depraved battle bots that breached cockpit after cockpit, several mercenaries already exhibited cold feet.
"Halt! Let's not go in too fast! Let the other guys go first!"
"Those cowards want to drive us to our deaths! Don't fall for their trap!"
"Retreat! Our boys won't be a part of this anymore! We've already lost over thirty percent of our mech pilots! We've suffered enough!"
Too many mech pilots became deterred by the show of force from the Scarlet Rose.
Though the mech captains and the mercenary commanders knew that they brought enough mechs to overwhelm the four deadly machines, who wanted to send their brothers and sisters to the meat grinder?
Continuing the assault resulted in nothing but death until the mechs went down!
Seeing as how the four battle bots only suffered scratches and surface damage so far, they probably wouldn't go down until at least hundred mercenary mech pilots consumed their strength!
This was a very brutal calculus!
If the outfits in question were part of the military, then their mech pilots and commanders would definitely pay the price as long as the mission was important enough!
Yet even if the outfits shared some ties to the military, most of their mech pilots and support personnel consisted of civilians!
With no military training to speak of, their discipline and willingness to pay the ultimate price was very shaky!
After harvesting over a hundred-and-twenty lives, the mercenary mechs all backed up. Not a single mercenary mech pilot retained the courage to continue the costly assault!
Even as their mercenary commanders or other mech officers ordered them to resume the assault, not a single mech pilot dared to confront the seemingly godlike war machines!
Ves did not let the mercenaries linger in the vicinity of the Scarlet Rose.
"Redirect fire towards the melee mechs!"
The Kravon and Selzer stopped firing their weapons at the distant ranged mechs and instead brought their weapons to bear against the stagnant melee mechs!
Mechs exploded and entire parts vaporized as lasers and gauss cannon rounds impacted the exposed mechs!
"Retreat! Abort the assault!"
When the first mercenary corps decided to give up on the mission and recall their surviving forces, the ones who remained came under a lot more pressure!
This was especially when Ves instantly ordered his two ranged battle bots to cease firing at the fleeing mechs and instead direct their lethal firepower towards the mechs that didn't receive any orders to pull back.
The hesitating mercenary corps instantly suffered more casualties!
At this close range, it was impossible for the Kravon and Selzer to miss their shots! Each weapon discharge resulted in another shattered mech!
With so many precious mech pilots dying along with their fragile machines, the remaining mercenary corps that originally banded together to tackle the Scarlet Rose finally issued the necessary orders!
"Retreat!"
"Pull back!"
"Get away from the Scarlet Rose!"
"No more! Enough is enough!"
The diminished mech companies retreated step by step depending on how quickly their leaders issued the order to retreat.
The mechs still maintained a semi-random formation as they retreated, fearing pursuit from the Paravin and the Fliskin!
Ves smirked when he saw this result. He ordered the Kravon and the Selzer to cease firing their weapons.
What the mercenaries didn't know was that both battle bots had almost reached their limits. The Kravon didn't carry that much ammunition and the Fliskin's heat levels had been rising at a very worrisome rate.
If the battle went on for five more minutes, then the two battle bots would definitely stop firing, thereby exposing a crucial gap in his defenses!
Fortunately, the mercenaries did not take advantage at this temporary reprieve. They had long lost heart in this battle. Even if they guessed that the two battle bots had almost reached their limits, none of them wanted to be the ones to test this assumption!
After all, the melee mechs still appeared to be in good shape! It was no problem for them to fight a while longer and harvest at least a hundred more lives!
Though both sides fought vigorously against each other just moments ago, neither side attacked each other the moment the mercenaries called for a total retreat.
Ves did not wish to agitate the mercenaries. His actions so far presented a very clear message.
Attacking him resulted in losing their lives!
Leaving him alone meant that Ves would leave their lives intact!
With such a clear message, the frightened mercenaries all chose the second option! They retreated honestly and ran out of engagement range as fast as their mechs could carry them out!
Ves observed the retreating mechs quietly. He kept his battle bots on standby without attempting to resupply them. If he showed any weakness at this stage, the mercenaries might change their minds!
In the end, no one called his bluff. Ves relaxed as the mercenary mechs flew well out of range.
"Well, I hope these mercenaries truly stop bothering me now!"
This was the third ambush he encountered ever since he crossed into the borders of the Great Zona Republic!
While he always managed to crush his opposition, each battle resulted in a significant consumption of his battle strength.
If this went on, his Battle Bots would become nothing more than ornaments after a couple more battles!
"The consumption is too great!"
"Not now."
"Meow."
Lucky landed on his head and treated his hair like a mat.
"Are you getting fatter? You're heavier than last time!"
"Meow!"
Ves no longer bothered with his misbehaving cat and turned his attention back to the four battle bots he almost finished servicing.
A large number of workshop bots were installing the parts he disassembled and repaired. Ordinarily it would have taken at least a week to effect these repairs on his own, but the Scarlet Rose's well-equipped mech workshop came with many of the same advanced tools as those owned by Gloriana.
While the machines all came from Coalition manufacturers, their functions and operation methods closely abided by the standards set by the MTA.
Standardization made everything easier. If an equipment manufacturer refused to conform to standard, then hardly any customer would seek to purchase their products!
Taking advantage of his familiarity with the same type of equipment, Ves managed to get the hang of them pretty quickly, to the point where he operated them just as well as Aisling!
"Second-class mech designers sure have it good." He sighed with admiration.
Of course, elite Journeymen like her weren't very common even in a large state like the Friday Coalition. Ves just happened to meet two of the brightest young Journeymen from their respective states, which somewhat skewed his perspective.
Not every Journeyman was as freakish as these two young women!
His perceived disparity towards these mech designers lit a fire under his butt. With the replenishment of his spiritual energy, his passion and motivation returned, and with it an unrelenting drive to catch up to the likes of Aisling and Gloriana!
Ves could accept many circumstances, but he could not accept remaining inferior to his girlfriend and his would-be kidnapper!
Though they possessed vastly different backgrounds, their ages were similar. There was no excuse for Ves to be unable to design at the same level as them! With all of the advantages he possessed, becoming proficient in designing second-class mechs should be well within his capabilities!
For this reason, Ves decided to stop increasing his control over the Scarlet Rose and instead focus all of his efforts on deciphering and understanding Aisling's former bodyguard mechs.
The more he spent time with them, the more he grasped the paradigms related to this class of mechs.
The performance on these mechs were on another level compared to the toys he used to fiddle with. The results of the previous battles spoke for themselves. Against hundreds of enemy mechs, the pilot-less machines were still capable of crushing and disheartening entire mercenary corps with their awe-inspiring might!
Touching, servicing, repairing and witnessing the battle bots in battle rapidly accelerated his comprehension of second-class mechs and second-class technology.
As a mech designer who always liked to be hands-on, working with machines was a lot better than reading hundreds of textbooks!
This was not just because he could see the cause and effect in person, but also develop a natural feel towards this class of mechs!
Ves vaguely sensed that his design seed and his intuition both experienced some growth and changes as a result of his activities.
He believed that as long as he returned to safety, it would only take a couple more months of focused study and tinkering to gain a satisfactory proficiency in second-class mech design!
Though it sounded a lot, Ves knew that this process couldn't be rushed! He was already progressing at the limits of his learning capacity!
"As long as I get to keep these battle bots, I'll definitely be able to harvest more and more from Aisling's work!"
Of course, relying too much on studying the converted mechs had its downsides as well.
Ves had to be careful not to get swept up in Aisling's approach to her work.
By studying her design choices, Ves would doubtlessly copy some of them without making sure they conformed to his own design style.
However, Ves was very confident about his design capabilities. It wasn't easy for someone else's design style and design philosophy to contaminate his own approach.
"Study always involves adopting someone else's best practices." He muttered. "As long as it is better, there is hardly an excuse to ignore it in favor of an inferior solution."
Ves didn't have the time to take it slow and steady like Patricia. With Gloriana's mother expecting him to prove himself in less than three years, he rapidly needed to master a higher class of mech design!
Not only that, but Ves also had to earn a humongous amount of MTA merits to become a galactic pioneer and take part in the great phasewater rush.
He would definitely feel regret for the rest of his life if he missed the first waves of humanity's invasion of this new and exciting dwarf galaxy!
Ves had always been someone who worked better under pressure. With so much on the line, his passion burned hotter, stimulating his emotions and causing him to be utterly consumed by his determination to master this class of mechs!
What aided him a lot was that the four pilot-less second-class mechs each consisted of a different archetype.
Not only that, but they happened to be among the most fundamental and common mech types in the mech market!
The Paravin was the simplest mech of all. As a space knight, it featured a simple but very sturdy internal architecture. Even with more advanced tech, Aisling still abided by the same common principles that governed all defensive mechs.
Simplicity did not necessarily equate to inferiority. The Paravin's solid design and construction elevated its damage resistance and shock-absorbing capabilities to a level Ves had scarcely witnessed elsewhere!
The Selzer was the standard of ranged mechs. As a rifleman mech, it possessed a great balance between firepower, endurance, mobility and range. Aisling managed to find a great balance with all of the materials tech at her disposal. Her design brought out all of the strengths of her resources without exhibiting any excessive waste.
Its dual-type weapon was a great object of interest to Ves. The commonalities between laser weapons and particle beam weapons meant that it was not impossible to design a weapon that accommodated both weapon types.
As Ves was very familiar with laser weapons, he only studied this aspect for a brief period of time before he thoroughly comprehended how they could be scaled to second-class standards.
"Particle beam weapons are much more interesting." He muttered.
Particle beam weapons were basically weaponized particle accelerators. They electromagnetically propelled charged atomic or subatomic particles to relativistic speeds.
Though the mass of these particles were almost trivial, when their speeds approached the speed of light, the kinetic energy they carried was incredibly powerful!
Upon hitting a target, all kinds of detrimental effects occurred. The energies involved in a collision dealt both physical and energy damage that was extremely damaging against any manner of defense, but worked especially well against physical armor!
Of particular interest the type of particles the weapons accelerated. The Friday Coalition's particle beam weapons mostly accelerated ionized atoms, which was a lot easier to work with compared to subatomic particles.
"It seems the Friday Coalition can't easily make use of more sophisticated particle beam weapons." He observed.
The Selzer was already a fairly advanced mech in the standards of the Friday Coalition.
Yet its particle beam rifle simply didn't compare to the positron beam weapons utilized by the first-class multipurpose mechs that Ves witnessed during one of his Mastery experiences!
A positron was a subatomic antiparticle. In simple terms, it was the mirror version of an electron.
When a single electron and a positron met together, they annihilated each other, converting all of their matter into energy!
The release of energy was incredibly tremendous and surpassed that of a nuclear reaction of the same scale!
Compared to this awesome destruction, Ves felt a bit underwhelmed by the modest parameters of the weapon wielded by the Selzer.
"It probably doesn't help that the rifle also has to fire laser beams." He muttered.
Particle beams were incredibly destructive, but they differed from pure energy weapons by their dependence on particles. Incorporating a backup option that purely relied on energy extended the deployment time of the Selzer, as its heat and energy capacities were quite formidable for a machine of its size!
Ves already designed multiple rifleman mechs. The Crystal Lord was his first proper landbound rifleman mech, while the Desolate Soldier was his first ranged product for battles in space.
Developing the Deliverer increased his depth in ranged mechs. Yet when he compared his previous works to the Selzer, Ves realized that he had a lot more to go before matching its sophistication.
The Kravon was the big brother of the Selzer. Though not a heavy mech, its mass and properties closely approximated one. In exchange for increasing its capacity and armor, Aisling decisively sacrificed a lot of mobility.
Due to the limitations of its weight class, it only incorporated two weapon systems, both of which were burdened by the fact that they used up a lot of ammunition.
This turned the artillery mech into the opposite of the Selzer. Whereas the rifleman mech was capable to outputting continuous damage over the course of a long, drawn-out battle, the Kravon hit hard but expended its ammunition very quickly!
It was all worth it though as the Kravon's damage reached an astounding level. Leaving aside the missile launchers which could fire all kinds of specialized missiles with different payloads, its massive gauss cannon was a sight to behold.
Compared to the Executor that Ves had paired with the Deliverer, the Kravon's main armament was a weapon that could pose as the primary of secondary armament of a warship!
It was too bad that a weapon of its power and potency was too advanced for Ves to reproduce. Just the materials capable of handing the forces the weapon had to withstand were too difficult to obtain!
Compared to the size and bulk of the Kravon, the Fliskin was a lot slimmer and smaller.
As a spaceborn light skirmisher, its armor was the worst out of the four machines, but its insane mobility made it even harder to destroy than the Paravin!
As long as the Fliskin possessed enough energy, it could dance circles against almost any foe!
"It's too bad that energy is also its main limitation." He sighed.
As a small and compact mech, the Fliskin really didn't have much room for energy cells and other essential components.
Ves could practically sense Aisling's pain as she had to make many unsatisfying compromises in order to avoid making the Fliskin too uneven.
For all of the Friday Coalition's technologies, the light skirmisher only made use of a pair daggers and a submachine gun.
He always found that to be a bit disappointing. Couldn't a mighty second-rate state manage to achieve anything more?
Yet once he delved into the Fliskin's design, Ves realized that Aisling didn't want to bite off more than she could chew.
Just like with the Paravin, instead of stuffing too many systems and modules in an already-compact mech, she instead focused most of her efforts on elevating its fundamental specs!
For a light skirmisher, nothing was more important than its acceleration and agility! As long as its comprehensive mobility attributes were high, the mech fulfilled an indispensable role in the team of four mechs.
"What's not important is how these four mechs perform in isolation. Instead, what matters more is how well they work together!"
He couldn't help but be intrigued by Aisling's design philosophy. Her paradigms partially overlapped with his own, and he always exhibited an interest in increasing the coordination between the users of his products.
Any method which improved the performance of mechs without increasing their cost was of great value to mech designers.
Those who merely relied on expensive materials to improve the performance of their products were the laziest mech designers of all!
If Ves wanted to gain a foothold in the second-class mech market, then Ves had to refine his own specialty and design style to compete against mech designers who were just as good if not better than Aisling!
Though Ves missed designing mechs, he benefited from his forced respite.
By taking him away from his previous routine, Ves essentially returned back to basics. Crossing through the territories of the Ordent Republic and the Great Zona Republic in almost complete isolation put him in a calmer state of mind.
The days he spent in his low period temporarily suppressed his emotions and caused him to reflect on his prior decisions from a more rational perspective.
Though Ves eventually recovered, he felt he had become more self-aware of himself. He knew that many of his decisions were mainly driven by his urges rather than any rational considerations.
He could no longer believe in the lie that he was a rational and enlightened mech designer. Compared to a true rational mech designer like Patricia, Ves was pretty much a brat who was very prone to mood swings!
While that didn't sound very flattering, Ves believed this weakness also served as his strength!
"Only when my emotions are the strongest will I be able to design my best mechs!"
He believed in Patricia's description that passionate mech designers were able to achieve great feats as long as they were determined enough!
In his mind, no amount of logic and rationality could ever match the sheer motivation of a driven mech designer!
The lack of doubt and second-guessing often led to mistakes, but also resulted in unimaginable successes that no one could have ever predicted!
In order to become a great mech designer, Ves believed his current path was the most suitable one for him. After reflecting on himself over this period, he became more determined than ever to continue as usual.
Just looking back at his many accomplishments filled him with pride!
With mechs like the Aurora Titan and the Desolate Soldier, Ves fully found his groove!
Besides, whatever shortcomings he possessed, working alongside Gloriana mitigated many of them! With her presence, Ves felt free to continue to deepen his specialization, preventing him from getting bogged down by the need to spread his skillset too widely.
Ves felt more than ready to return to his organization, however. He missed Gloriana. He missed his double-dealing Benny. He missed his Avatars of Myth.
Above all, he missed designing mechs.
"At least I'm not lacking inspiration now." He chuckled.
Each adventure and each exciting experience always injected him with compelling ideas. Mech concepts and potential visions haunted his imagination.
His fingers itched to call up a design interface and draft a brilliant new draft design!
Yet he resisted the urge. Instead of expending his creative energies, he wanted to bottle it up in his mind and let it ferment for some time. Only when he was truly ready to design a new mech would he unleash it all and come up with a grand new mech design that surpassed the Desolate Soldier and Deliverer in impact!
"Besides, I don't even know whether I'll be in the position to design a third-class or second-class mech."
All of this depended on what he encountered when he returned to safety. If he returned to safety.
His return was anything but guaranteed. After overcoming the Echo Spears and two other ambushes prepared by greedy mercenaries, the Scarlet Rose and the four battle bots all suffered from attrition.
The Scarlet Rose endured a lot of weapon impacts. Though none of the arms the mercenaries brought to bear managed to breach her armor, much of her exterior still bore a lot of cracks and ugly marks!
This wasn't necessarily bad in ordinary circumstances. A competent crew could easily patch up the holes and replace some of the damaged plating.
Yet that was clearly impossible at the moment. Aside from lacking a crew, the ship couldn't rest in place long enough to affect meaningful repairs!
This essentially meant that whatever external damage the ship suffered, her durability permanently dropped, making it easier for his subsequent enemies to cripple the vessel!
As for the battle bots, Ves did his best to patch up the holes and minor battle damage, but the Scarlet Rose simply didn't carry enough materials to sustain a full campaign.
Ves threw a dirty look at Lucky, who was resting on a metal console as if there was nothing wrong in the galaxy!
Ever since he gorged himself stupid, his gluttonous cat had done nothing but napping all day! It was as if his cat needed entire months to digest all of his gains!
"Where is it even going, anyway? At least give me some gems!"
Evidently, Lucky focused all of his efforts on improving his capabilities rather than performing his primary function.
His changes became evident when his bone-white exterior began to exhibit tiger stripes. Though these black stripes were still rather faint, they grew more solid by the day.
Ves had no idea what these stripes even represented. All of Lucky's previous changes in appearance directly corresponded to the materials he ate.
He became curious what kind of abilities Lucky developed after he finished his evolution. So far, his System sight did not notice any new additions to his pet's skillset.
"You better make it worth it, though!"
The stronger Lucky grew, the safer Ves would be. This adventure already proved his cat's value as a protector who could accompany him where others could not! No matter how much he valued Nitaa, his Kinner bodyguard couldn't turn intangible like his cat!
"Maybe Lucky won't be my only intangible bodyguard in the future." Ves grinned with anticipation.
That was something to look forward to much later on. For now, he should focus on his current circumstances.
Right now, the Scarlet Rose already managed to traverse two-thirds of the Great Zona Republic.
While unflinchingly sticking to her obscure route sometimes landed her in trouble, the Scarlet Rose nonetheless managed to avoid more formidable ambushes, which was a great win in his book!
Yet even as as Ves and his stolen ship continued to foil the best efforts of the mercenaries hired to stop them, his enemies were doubtlessly learning.
The three battles he had been through had provided the Fridaymen with enough information to confirm the strengths and assets at his disposal!
Ves had a very awful hunch that his fourth and potentially last encounter would be the greatest of them all!
At this time, the Scarlet Rose had almost finished cycling her FTL drive.
To his dismay, the standard cycling time already began to last longer than the 5 hours it was rated for during standard operations.
Extending it by just ten minutes might make or break his escape attempt!
Yet what could he do? Though he dabbled somewhat in FTL drive technology, he was far from being able to service this complicated device.
What was worse was that if he wanted to effect meaningful repairs, he would certainly have to deactivate and disassemble some of its subcomponents, thereby extending his stay in the star system!
Ves did not dare to linger in a single location longer than he really had to! With so many listening posts and scouts tracking his movements, Ves was sure that a lot of hostiles were on their way to his location at this moment!
"I hope the FTL drive can last."
While it was unlikely that the FTL drive would suffer a malfunction, the longer this flight went on, the greater the chance of calamity.
Without an engineering crew, Ves could do nothing to mitigate its deterioration!
As Ves contemplated ways to decrease the load on the FTL drive, the bridge suddenly sounded a small alert.
The Scarlet Rose detected something unusual had intruded on the ship!
"What?" Ves looked confused. "How could anything sneak on my ship? All of her anti-stealth sensors are running at full blast!"
Though the load on those sensors was great, Ves did not hold anything back on that end! While their integrity had already started to decrease, they were capable of enduring the strain for now and shouldn't have any blind spots!
"Lucky!"
Ves grabbed Lucky's napping body and shook his cat until the lazy critter woke up.
"Meow meow!"
"This is no time for you to nap! There's an intruder aboard the ship!"
"Meow?"
Lucky became a lot more alert upon hearing that. Ves didn't have to encourage his pet any longer.
Anything or anyone that snuck aboard his ship was a threat!
"Let's see what we are dealing with." Ves muttered as he controlled the monitoring system to show him where the ship discovered something anomalous.
The compartment projected in front of him turned out to be the same one which held many of the escape pods.
Two prominent spaces should be empty, signifying Aisling and Partricia's escape.
At least that was how it should have been.
According to his memory, the Scarlet Rose was short of two escape pods.
"Then why is one of the spaces filled?" He questioned.
Were his eyes deceiving him? How could one of the spaces which he never filled up with anything else host an escape pod now?
Did some kind of rogue bot relocate an existing escape pod?
"That shouldn't be. All the other escape pods are still in place!"
Ves carefully counted each and everyone of them through the various monitoring feeds and found that none of them were out of place! The information transmitted from the compartment showed that all of those escape pods belonged to the Scarlet Rose and had never been moved!
The only exception was the mystery escape pod that showed up out of the blue!
"How did it enter this compartment?!"
The Scarlet Rose was fully sealed in normal circumstances. The only way the escape pods could enter and exit the compartment was if the connected hatches opened up, which they would never do under ordinary circumstances!
Ves pulled up the logs of the monitoring system and also rewinded the footage backwards on an accelerated rate.
He managed to pin down the exact the moment the strange escape pod showed up and registered on the Scarlet Rose's monitoring system.
Just after the ship sounded the initial alert, the empty cavity suddenly hosted a new escape pod!
It didn't slide into the space from the exterior of the ship, nor did some bot transport it from the mech workshop where some kind of production AI had automatically been programmed to produce a replacement.
Instead, the escape pod simply showed up in the slot like magic!
"Magic doesn't exist!" Ves firmly declared. "What the monitoring system captured is not necessarily representative of what has actually happened!"
The sudden appearance of the escape pod reminded Ves a lot of how it looked like when he abruptly shut off his Full Stealth augment.
It could be that this mystery escape pod snuck into the ship from space sometime earlier. It was just that its stealth and other detection avoidance abilities kept it hidden from him and the Scarlet Rose.
Ves began to sweat a bit. If a random escape pod managed to sneak aboard the Scarlet Rose, then what about something more dangerous?
What if the same vulnerabilities or backdoors that allowed the escape pod to sneak onto the Scarlet Rose allowed for the entry of shuttle carrying elite Fridaymen commandos?
"Dammit!" Ves slammed his fist against the armrest of the captain's chair. "How many backdoors have I missed?!"
His control over the ship was anything but complete! By spending much of his time on the battle bots, Ves neglected to continue his gradual conquest over the various systems of the Scarlet Rose.
Ves had a feeling this decision might have been a mistake now that the Scarlet Rose unknowingly allowed for the entry of a foreign escape pod!
He called up the logs and performed an expansive search. Had the outer escape hatches opened up anytime since he hijacked the ship?
The logs didn't note anything unusual, and none of the footage exhibited any abnormalities aside from some cleaning bots performing their routine duties.
"Can these logs even be trusted?!"
Ves became more and more alarmed. Had the Scarlet Rose been compromised without his knowledge?!
He quickly made up his mind. If he wanted to know the truth, then confronting the unwelcome escape pod was the first thing on his agenda!
Ves did not race down to the compartment in question without preparation.
Fearing a trap or a plot on his life, Ves resisted his immediate impulses to make some preparations.
He first put the Scarlet Rose on red alert and locked down all of the compartments and corridors. If some kind of infiltrator left the escape pod and skulked across his ship, then locking all of the spaces should pose a significant hindrance to the sneaky bastard!
Second, he withdrew all of the bots from the affected areas and ordered most of them to remain dormant and in place.
If any bots still moved during this time, then that was a very clear sign that someone managed to subvert a part of the Scarlet Rose!
Third, he withdrew to his quarters in order to don his second-hand combat armor. With a solid layer of armor protecting him from outside threats, Ves felt a lot more secure about confronting any potential intruders!
He armed himself with the triple-type heavy assault rifle while slotting the compact laser pistol in a dedicated holster.
Aside from that, he also checked his other gear, which encompassed various gadgets ranging from a jamming device to a multiscanner.
Only after he prepared his full loadout did Ves feel secure in investing the mysterious intrusion.
"Alright, let's go, Lucky."
"Meow."
With Lucky in tow, they descended from the upper decks and approached the suspicious compartment.
Before Ves reached the entrance to the escape compartment, he halted a fair distance away.
Having learned his previous lesson, Ves no longer dared to act as a vanguard.
Who knew if the escape pod was a missile in disguise? Wouldn't Ves be making the exact same mistake as last time if he entered a compartment which was filled with unknowns?
"Meow?"
"Stay on guard." Ves spoke and summoned up an interface from his combat armor's wrist. "We should scout the situation first."
He summoned a random scanning bot used for routine inspections from a nearby maintenance compartment. After it arrived in front of the entrance, Ves ordered the hatch to open long enough to allow the bot to enter.
Once inside, Ves switched his view to the sensor bot's optical vision.
After issuing an order, the bot did not immediately approach the strange escape pod. Instead, he instructed it to scan every corner of the compartment, from its escape pods to the sensors that made up the monitoring system.
He wanted to find out if the hardware had been tampered with. As long as Ves discovered anything suspicious, then he'd be able to confirm that someone hostile had been messing with his ship!
Surprisingly, Ves encountered nothing amiss.
It was as if the sensors and alert systems hadn't been touched at all!
Nothing else had been touched as well. The bot found no holes cut into the bulkheads, no breaches in the other escape pods, no radioactive particles or other traces that signified that something in space had intruded in the compartment.
This was actually the weirdest observation of all. How could all of the customary traces of space exposure be absent, especially when a foreign escape pod somehow managed to sneak into this compartment?
"What is going on?" Ves asked in puzzlement.
Many of his paranoid suspicions turned out to be a bust if the scanning bot's results could be trusted.
Had the scanning bot been fooled? Was his mystery opponent more formidable than anything he had imagined?
Whatever the case, Ves guessed that the answer lay in the peculiar escape pod.
When Ves directed the bot to approach the escape pod, the feed suddenly cut off.
"What..?"
?
He blinked at the interface as if he expected the feed to restore.
Yet as several seconds passed, the scanning bot didn't resume its transmission!
Had it gone on a strike or something?
Ves furrowed his brows and switched the feed. When Ves watched what took place from the footage recorded by the monitoring system, he observed the scanning bot had shut off and crashed against the deck.
This inexplicable malfunction instantly doubled his apprehension!
If the earlier signs had succeeded in stoking his suspicions, then this latest occurrence definitely proved that something was wrong!
Ves knew that all kinds of strange and inexplicable technology existed. Ves had witnessed all manner of technological wonders that could result in such a strange escape pod appearing out of nowhere.
He even experienced many strange sights related to spirituality. From surviving an encounter with an assassin with spiritual potential to dealing with all of the strangeness of the Temple of Haaatumak, Ves did not rule out that some spiritual shenanigans might be at work.
Yet Ves did not take these possibilities too seriously. If he set aside all of these unrealistic and low-probability scenarios, then the simplest explanation was that the escape pod simply managed to infiltrate the Scarlet Rose by exploiting her backdoors.
Though Ves had made a lot of progress in closing all of these backdoors, he was under no illusion that he addressed all of them. Even if Calabast sent him a lot of supplementary data that pointed out these vulnerabilities, was it truly complete?
"Evidently not." Ves grimaced. "This is getting more and more precarious."
While he was tempted to dispatch another bot, he began to run out of patience. What if he tipped the escape pod off? What if he triggered some kind trap?
Ves decided to throw some of his caution to the wind. He turned his attention to Lucky.
"Go in and investigate the escape pod in the center."
"Meow?"
"Go do something useful for once and scout the escape pod!"
"Meow meow meow!"
"Don't jerk me around! You've been eating so many exotics that your debt has only increased! The least you can do is to see what's wrong!"
After a bit of arguing, Ves managed to browbeat his pet into entering the escape compartment.
"Meow.."
"Get going!"
Lucky reluctantly flew towards the compartment and phased through the hatch. After entering the area in question, he did not let go of his intangible state.
With utmost care, Lucky floated closer and closer while exhibiting a lot of vigilance.
When the gem cat passed by the place the scanning bot malfunctioned, nothing strange occurred.
It seemed that Lucky appeared to be immune to the effect that downed the scanning bot.
"Good." Ves sighed.
Whether it was due to Lucky's intangible state or his extremely strong resistance against hacking, as long as he remained functional, he could probably get close to the escape pod.
"Lucky, transmit a feed of your vision to the ship."
His cat did as instructed and the view of his projection changed.
The moment Lucky came within touching distance of the escape pod, the cat paused for a moment.
"It looks kind of.. old."
The escape pod looked as if it had been floating in space for at least a couple of decades.
Its surface was worn and pitted by a combination of damaging radiation and micro impacts.
None of the damage breached the inner chamber of the escape pod. However, some of the scarring did appear to have affected some of the components responsible to keep the pod functioning.
What was clear though was that this pod was likely very old!
"The model is unfamiliar as well."
Ves tried to find a match of its model in the Scarlet Rose's internal database. Sadly, his search did not produce any matches despite the countless different models it stored in its archives.
This basically ruled out that the escape pod was built by the Friday Coalition.
Yet that only confused him even further.
"If it's not from the Friday Coalition, then how can it access the backdoors of my ship?"
Did he guess wrong? Did the escape pod sneak onto his ship using other methods?
His doubts continued to grow along with the questions in his mind.
An inexplicable sense of fear grew within his heart as he began to contemplate various frightening possibilities.
"What is wrong with this escape pod?!"
After a bit of observation, Lucky finally gathered the courage to touch the surface of the escape pod. He reached out with a paw and materialized it long enough to bump the surface.
Nothing happened. No bomb exploded. No commando jumped out of the pod.
Lucky grew a little more courageous when he found out that no threat was forthcoming. After a bit of sniffing, he took advantage of his intangibility to dive into the escape pod.
The feed temporarily darkened before showing off a screaming face!
"AAAH!"
Ves practically jumped in his combat armor as Lucky panicked and floated out of the escape pod!
"What the hell?!"
"Meeooow!"
Lucky zipped out of the compartment and returned to Ves and clung on the surface of his armor!
"Meow meow meow!"
Ves ignored his panicked cat and his own distress in order to rewind the footage. The moment he locked the frame which displayed the screaming face, Lucky jumped again!
"Stop being a scaredy cat, Lucky! How can you even be afraid of this sight?!"
The moment Ves repressed his primordial instincts, he finally saw the truth of what was locked inside.
"It's just a dead body!"
The escape pod contained the body of a dead woman, one who was wearing nothing but a worn-out vacsuit whose markings and identifiers had faded due to some erosion that shouldn't be happening.
In fact, the wear and tear on the vacsuit contrasted remarkably with the condition of the body, which had completely dried up and turned dark! The mummified state of the body made it seem as if the escape pod had actually been used as a coffin!
Yet if this was true, why did this coffin sneak aboard his ship?
"If it's an honorable space burial, then it should have been hurled into a star. If it's a less-than-honorable burial, then it should have been flung into the nothingness of interstellar space."
Anything thrown into the void of space between star systems should have been floating for millions years before ending up in another star system!
The aging of the mummified corpse and the escape pod did not suggest that they spent entire eons in space!
Ves was no forensic scientist, but as someone who worked with mechs, he could glean several clues from the appearance of the escape pod.
First, while its model, manufacturer and origin was still in question, the standards governing escape pods mostly remained the same barring some minor updates.
Ves happened to know some of these changes. When Ves inspected the damaged and pitted surface of the escape pod, he found out some outdated implementations that had been phased out in modern escape pod models.
"Some of these modules stopped showing up around 150 years ago."
That meant that if this escape pod wasn't some kind of historical reproduction, it might be around this age!
Yet how could this be?! Any escape pod that lingered in space for some time should have been picked up by rescuers or flown off in the middle of nowhere!
Ves had never heard of instances where escape pods casually lingered in space for at least a century before automatically entering ship while its occupant was long dead!
"What is even going on?!"
A complication like this was the last thing Ves wanted to deal with! He had the feeling that the arrival of this escape pod heralded something very significant!
"This isn't the time for me to indulge in mysteries!"
The rational part of him wanted to minimize any unexpected incidents that did not facilitate his escape.
The chances that this mystery escape pod would aid him was extremely small. There was nothing about this strange occurrence that signified that it was meant to aid his escape!
Yet.. another part of him grew curious. What was the secret behind this escape pod? What was the story of the mummified corpse? Why did the escape pod choose to enter the Scarlet Rose? Did it even have a choice at all, or did some outside influence manipulate its entry onto his ship?
Ves needed answers, and it seemed that he had no choice but to investigate in person!
Ves did not race down to the compartment in question without preparation.
Fearing a trap or a plot on his life, Ves resisted his immediate impulses to make some preparations.
He first put the Scarlet Rose on red alert and locked down all of the compartments and corridors. If some kind of infiltrator left the escape pod and skulked across his ship, then locking all of the spaces should pose a significant hindrance to the sneaky bastard!
Second, he withdrew all of the bots from the affected areas and ordered most of them to remain dormant and in place.
If any bots still moved during this time, then that was a very clear sign that someone managed to subvert a part of the Scarlet Rose!
Third, he withdrew to his quarters in order to don his second-hand combat armor. With a solid layer of armor protecting him from outside threats, Ves felt a lot more secure about confronting any potential intruders!
He armed himself with the triple-type heavy assault rifle while slotting the compact laser pistol in a dedicated holster.
Aside from that, he also checked his other gear, which encompassed various gadgets ranging from a jamming device to a multiscanner.
Only after he prepared his full loadout did Ves feel secure in investing the mysterious intrusion.
"Alright, let's go, Lucky."
"Meow."
With Lucky in tow, they descended from the upper decks and approached the suspicious compartment.
Before Ves reached the entrance to the escape compartment, he halted a fair distance away.
Having learned his previous lesson, Ves no longer dared to act as a vanguard.
Who knew if the escape pod was a missile in disguise? Wouldn't Ves be making the exact same mistake as last time if he entered a compartment which was filled with unknowns?
"Meow?"
"Stay on guard." Ves spoke and summoned up an interface from his combat armor's wrist. "We should scout the situation first."
He summoned a random scanning bot used for routine inspections from a nearby maintenance compartment. After it arrived in front of the entrance, Ves ordered the hatch to open long enough to allow the bot to enter.
Once inside, Ves switched his view to the sensor bot's optical vision.
After issuing an order, the bot did not immediately approach the strange escape pod. Instead, he instructed it to scan every corner of the compartment, from its escape pods to the sensors that made up the monitoring system.
He wanted to find out if the hardware had been tampered with. As long as Ves discovered anything suspicious, then he'd be able to confirm that someone hostile had been messing with his ship!
Surprisingly, Ves encountered nothing amiss.
It was as if the sensors and alert systems hadn't been touched at all!
Nothing else had been touched as well. The bot found no holes cut into the bulkheads, no breaches in the other escape pods, no radioactive particles or other traces that signified that something in space had intruded in the compartment.
This was actually the weirdest observation of all. How could all of the customary traces of space exposure be absent, especially when a foreign escape pod somehow managed to sneak into this compartment?
"What is going on?" Ves asked in puzzlement.
Many of his paranoid suspicions turned out to be a bust if the scanning bot's results could be trusted.
Had the scanning bot been fooled? Was his mystery opponent more formidable than anything he had imagined?
Whatever the case, Ves guessed that the answer lay in the peculiar escape pod.
When Ves directed the bot to approach the escape pod, the feed suddenly cut off.
"What..?"
?
He blinked at the interface as if he expected the feed to restore.
Yet as several seconds passed, the scanning bot didn't resume its transmission!
Had it gone on a strike or something?
Ves furrowed his brows and switched the feed. When Ves watched what took place from the footage recorded by the monitoring system, he observed the scanning bot had shut off and crashed against the deck.
This inexplicable malfunction instantly doubled his apprehension!
If the earlier signs had succeeded in stoking his suspicions, then this latest occurrence definitely proved that something was wrong!
Ves knew that all kinds of strange and inexplicable technology existed. Ves had witnessed all manner of technological wonders that could result in such a strange escape pod appearing out of nowhere.
He even experienced many strange sights related to spirituality. From surviving an encounter with an assassin with spiritual potential to dealing with all of the strangeness of the Temple of Haaatumak, Ves did not rule out that some spiritual shenanigans might be at work.
Yet Ves did not take these possibilities too seriously. If he set aside all of these unrealistic and low-probability scenarios, then the simplest explanation was that the escape pod simply managed to infiltrate the Scarlet Rose by exploiting her backdoors.
Though Ves had made a lot of progress in closing all of these backdoors, he was under no illusion that he addressed all of them. Even if Calabast sent him a lot of supplementary data that pointed out these vulnerabilities, was it truly complete?
"Evidently not." Ves grimaced. "This is getting more and more precarious."
While he was tempted to dispatch another bot, he began to run out of patience. What if he tipped the escape pod off? What if he triggered some kind trap?
Ves decided to throw some of his caution to the wind. He turned his attention to Lucky.
"Go in and investigate the escape pod in the center."
"Meow?"
"Go do something useful for once and scout the escape pod!"
"Meow meow meow!"
"Don't jerk me around! You've been eating so many exotics that your debt has only increased! The least you can do is to see what's wrong!"
After a bit of arguing, Ves managed to browbeat his pet into entering the escape compartment.
"Meow.."
"Get going!"
Lucky reluctantly flew towards the compartment and phased through the hatch. After entering the area in question, he did not let go of his intangible state.
With utmost care, Lucky floated closer and closer while exhibiting a lot of vigilance.
When the gem cat passed by the place the scanning bot malfunctioned, nothing strange occurred.
It seemed that Lucky appeared to be immune to the effect that downed the scanning bot.
"Good." Ves sighed.
Whether it was due to Lucky's intangible state or his extremely strong resistance against hacking, as long as he remained functional, he could probably get close to the escape pod.
"Lucky, transmit a feed of your vision to the ship."
His cat did as instructed and the view of his projection changed.
The moment Lucky came within touching distance of the escape pod, the cat paused for a moment.
"It looks kind of.. old."
The escape pod looked as if it had been floating in space for at least a couple of decades.
Its surface was worn and pitted by a combination of damaging radiation and micro impacts.
None of the damage breached the inner chamber of the escape pod. However, some of the scarring did appear to have affected some of the components responsible to keep the pod functioning.
What was clear though was that this pod was likely very old!
"The model is unfamiliar as well."
Ves tried to find a match of its model in the Scarlet Rose's internal database. Sadly, his search did not produce any matches despite the countless different models it stored in its archives.
This basically ruled out that the escape pod was built by the Friday Coalition.
Yet that only confused him even further.
"If it's not from the Friday Coalition, then how can it access the backdoors of my ship?"
Did he guess wrong? Did the escape pod sneak onto his ship using other methods?
His doubts continued to grow along with the questions in his mind.
An inexplicable sense of fear grew within his heart as he began to contemplate various frightening possibilities.
"What is wrong with this escape pod?!"
After a bit of observation, Lucky finally gathered the courage to touch the surface of the escape pod. He reached out with a paw and materialized it long enough to bump the surface.
Nothing happened. No bomb exploded. No commando jumped out of the pod.
Lucky grew a little more courageous when he found out that no threat was forthcoming. After a bit of sniffing, he took advantage of his intangibility to dive into the escape pod.
The feed temporarily darkened before showing off a screaming face!
"AAAH!"
Ves practically jumped in his combat armor as Lucky panicked and floated out of the escape pod!
"What the hell?!"
"Meeooow!"
Lucky zipped out of the compartment and returned to Ves and clung on the surface of his armor!
"Meow meow meow!"
Ves ignored his panicked cat and his own distress in order to rewind the footage. The moment he locked the frame which displayed the screaming face, Lucky jumped again!
"Stop being a scaredy cat, Lucky! How can you even be afraid of this sight?!"
The moment Ves repressed his primordial instincts, he finally saw the truth of what was locked inside.
"It's just a dead body!"
The escape pod contained the body of a dead woman, one who was wearing nothing but a worn-out vacsuit whose markings and identifiers had faded due to some erosion that shouldn't be happening.
In fact, the wear and tear on the vacsuit contrasted remarkably with the condition of the body, which had completely dried up and turned dark! The mummified state of the body made it seem as if the escape pod had actually been used as a coffin!
Yet if this was true, why did this coffin sneak aboard his ship?
"If it's an honorable space burial, then it should have been hurled into a star. If it's a less-than-honorable burial, then it should have been flung into the nothingness of interstellar space."
Anything thrown into the void of space between star systems should have been floating for millions years before ending up in another star system!
The aging of the mummified corpse and the escape pod did not suggest that they spent entire eons in space!
Ves was no forensic scientist, but as someone who worked with mechs, he could glean several clues from the appearance of the escape pod.
First, while its model, manufacturer and origin was still in question, the standards governing escape pods mostly remained the same barring some minor updates.
Ves happened to know some of these changes. When Ves inspected the damaged and pitted surface of the escape pod, he found out some outdated implementations that had been phased out in modern escape pod models.
"Some of these modules stopped showing up around 150 years ago."
That meant that if this escape pod wasn't some kind of historical reproduction, it might be around this age!
Yet how could this be?! Any escape pod that lingered in space for some time should have been picked up by rescuers or flown off in the middle of nowhere!
Ves had never heard of instances where escape pods casually lingered in space for at least a century before automatically entering ship while its occupant was long dead!
"What is even going on?!"
A complication like this was the last thing Ves wanted to deal with! He had the feeling that the arrival of this escape pod heralded something very significant!
"This isn't the time for me to indulge in mysteries!"
The rational part of him wanted to minimize any unexpected incidents that did not facilitate his escape.
The chances that this mystery escape pod would aid him was extremely small. There was nothing about this strange occurrence that signified that it was meant to aid his escape!
Yet.. another part of him grew curious. What was the secret behind this escape pod? What was the story of the mummified corpse? Why did the escape pod choose to enter the Scarlet Rose? Did it even have a choice at all, or did some outside influence manipulate its entry onto his ship?
Ves needed answers, and it seemed that he had no choice but to investigate in person!
When Ves approached the compartment holding the escape pods, he slowed his pace while keeping his heavy assault rifle pointed forward.
With all of the weirdness surrounding the escape pod that inexplicably entered his ship, Ves couldn't afford to take anything for granted. What if this was just a ruse by some infiltrator with a sick sense of humor?
Though he felt tempted to dump the escape pod from the ship remotely, Ves nonetheless felt a little bit curious about the occupant of the derelict escape pod.
He could still remember the frightening face that Lucky transmitted. The screaming mouth, the dark, dried skin, the scared expression and the sense of age all signified that there was something very weird about the corpse!
"How long has this escape pod been drifting in space?"
Ves didn't know the answer to this question. He still hadn't managed to match the model of the escape pod yet, nor did he study any of its markings or properties that could explain its origin.
Whatever the case, Ves had a feeling that it didn't belong to the Friday Coalition or any of the nearby states.
When the hatch slid open and Ves tentatively entered the compartment, Lucky was still shivering while clinging on the shoulder of his combat armor.
Lucky, who never exhibited fear, now appeared completely afraid! This was something that Ves had never seen from his brave but fool-hardy cat!
"What is wrong with you, Lucky? It's just a body! You've killed plenty of people! Why should you be afraid of another corpse?"
"Meow meow meow!"
Ves ignored his cat and slowly shuffled over to the escape pod resting in one of the center spaces left open by the departure of another escape pod.
His rifle muzzle aimed straight at the center of the pod, ready to fire a deadly particle beam if a threat ever happened!
The moment he passed by the scanning bot that shut down for some reason, Ves felt as if he entered into a strange field.
He quickly checked his combat armor and rifle's telemetry and saw that they were still running at normal power.
Whatever affected the scanning bot didn't appear to affect his gear.
Strange.
Very strange.
His apprehension towards the mystery escape pod increased and his vigilance rose to a greater height.
There was definitely something suspicious about this escape pod!
The moment he came within reach of the escape pod, Ves paused and waited for something to happen.
Nothing.
Seeing that he failed to elicit a reaction, ves slowly put down his rifle and whipped out a multiscanner.
He carefully activated it and began to scan the escape pod via a number of different methods.
He quickly encountered an anomaly.
"No results?"
Aside from optical scans and some other scanning methods, his multiscanner failed to pick anything up! It was as if there was a chunk of indescribable matter in front of it that they simply failed to grasp!
Ves became a bit alarmed! Either the escape pod was wrapped in some kind of anomalous energy field that interfered with his scans, or its materials were naturally resistant to scanning methods!
Whatever the case, Ves knew that he wouldn't be able to obtain any usual data from his scanning efforts.
"It looks like I'll have to take a closer look."
He felt very leery about investigating the odd escape pod in person, but the corpse resting inside the escape pod was simply too strange to be left alone!
Once he put away his multiscanner, Ves held his rifle at the ready while slowly examining the surface of the escape pod for any control panels.
He eventually found a small and damaged cover which had become stuck to the surface. Ves had to leverage the strength of his combat armor to pry off the cover.
After he did so, Ves spotted a few buttons which no longer worked and a simple lever that served as a backup option to open the escape pod.
Ves slowly grasped the lever and pulled it with a forceful jerk!
The pod seemed to come alive for a bit. A few surface lights that hadn't been destroyed by all of the microimpacts began to light up in a strange pattern.
After a few seconds, the front surface of the escape pod abruptly slid open.
At least that mechanism still worked.
The front cavity exposed a tube-shaped interior that held enough room for a single person and some supplies.
"What the?!"
"MEOW!"
Ves expected to encounter a mummified woman locked in a frightening scream.
He did not expect to see a pristine body of a woman sleeping peacefully in the pod!
"Where did you come from?!"
Ves jerkily jumped back and brought his heavy assault rifle to bear on the body!
Had Lucky been pranking him?! No! His cat looked just as scared and confused at this unexpected turn of events!
The dried, mummified corpse turned out to be a living human body! Not only that, but the woman didn't appear to look dead at all! He carefully perceived her slim chest rising and falling at a very gradual pace, as if she was deep in hibernation!
Even as his heart started to beat faster, Ves study the woman's appearance as carefully as he could in order to figure out her identity.
She was a slim woman with a thin figure and a face that emanated classical beauty. There was an indescribable charm to her, as her pale-as-white skin made her out to be a ghost.
Was she a spaceborn clansman, or was she pale for some other reason?
The strange thing about her skin was that it appeared to be completely healthy and moisturized, as if the image that Lucky transmitted was completely false!
Her hair was lustrous brown that seemed to shine in an eerie fashion underneath the harsh light of the escape compartment. Her hair trailed down her face in curls so bouncy that it seemed as if her hair was as lively and vibrant as a living person!
Her vacsuit, which should have been aged and eroded to the point of becoming unidentifiable, now appeared to be factory new!
Ves could immediately tell that the quality of the vacsuit was something else. He failed to identify its materials, but he could tell they were all very high quality.
The grey vacsuit also came with all kinds of modules that assisted in various survival scenarios. Unfortunately, it didn't come with any markings, emblems or serial numbers that could help him identify its providence.
This was very strange!
The same went for the escape pod. The interior should have contained a bunch of information such as the manufacturer of the escape pod, the company who purchased it, the date when it was launched and so on. This was a widespread custom meant to identify escape pods in case they met with calamity.
Losing one's life in space was very depressing for those who have been left behind.
The fact that the completely-intact interior did not print out this information meant that there was definitely something wrong with the escape pod and its occupant!
As Ves began to get over his latest shock, he carefully investigated the sleeping body by poking it with the muzzle of his rifle.
It was like poking an actual human body. The woman's skin bent and springed like the skin of a living person as opposed to a mummified corpse!
Ves began to doubt whether Lucky observed a dried corpse at all. However, he refrained from dismissing Lucky's prior observation. He still trusted his cat to an extent!
"Take a sniff, Lucky. Is there anything dead about this corpse?"
"Meow.."
"No smell at all?"
"Meow!"
"How can that be?! Almost every body releases an odor!"
"Meow meow!"
This exploration just got odder and odder.
Acting out on a suspicion, Ves concentrated his mind and attempted to find out whether the dormant woman or the escape pod was affected by spirituality.
The moment he switched to his spiritual vision, he discovered to his horror that a lot of spiritual energy wrapped around the escape pod! Little of it affected the body, but Ves noted from the flows that it appeared to be the source of all of the spiritual energy!
Though Ves hadn't touched it directly, it became clear that the quality and strength of the spiritual energy was beyond his own level!
This sleeping woman was definitely capable of beating him on a spiritual level!
His discovery immediately prompted him to reevaluate the risks of dealing with this anomaly.
Despite his superiority in arms and equipment, he began to doubt whether he could gain the upper hand in the event the woman woke up and turned hostile for some reason.
Without sufficient leverage, Ves wouldn't be able to remain in control, and that was very bad!
Since he already fell victim from a loss of control, Ves did not relish the prospect of falling into the same trap!
Ves no longer wanted to delve into the secrets of the escape pod and its occupant. Whatever was behind its mysterious appearance on his ship was clearly above his ability to cope with the situation!
Though Ves often liked to gamble every now and then, even he realized what a loser's bet it was to continue his investigation!
Besides, he was already in a very precarious situation! With the Coalition Reserve Corps breathing down his neck, he had to do his utmost to evade pursuit!
He didn't have the time or desire to delve into this matter any further!
Since the risks vastly outweigh the potential gains, Ves made the only choice that minimized the risks.
He pulled the lever on the escape pod again to close its cover. Once he did so, he punched a button on a control panel on the side, activating an emergency measure that automatically flushed the cavity of the escape pod!
A suction occurred as the escape pod rapidly shot through a tube and emerged back in space!
"Good riddance!"
"Meow!"
Both Ves and Lucky became a lot more at ease once the weird escape pod left the ship. The relief was palpable.
Ves relaxed and holstered his rifle on a mount on his combat armor. Lucky stopped clinging onto him like a scaredy cat and began to float leisurely in the air as if he never shamed himself!
"Let's forget about this, Lucky. This is one anomaly that is best left forgotten!
Both of them exited the escape compartment and returned to the bridge.
There, Ves settled down and inspected the condition of the Scarlet Rose while she was slowly distancing herself from the ejection site of the escape pod.
Hours went by as her FTL drive finally finished cycling. As soon as the ship was ready to go, Ves instantly punched in the command to transition out of the star system.
With the ship entering the higher dimensions, Ves finally let down his guard.
No mercenary, Fridayman or mummy ought to be able to threaten or infiltrate his ship while she was traveling in FTL!
Ves often considered this period to be a form of respite, as no external threats should ever be able to affect the functioning of the ship.
Only threats from within should be able to endanger the ship, but Ves was pretty sure that no one managed to sneak aboard the ship.
Just to be sure, Ves performed an escape sweep. The ship and her monitoring system automatically began to search the entire interior of the Scarlet Rose for any anomalies and unanticipated presences.
What was out of his expectation was that the bridge immediately rang an alarm.
"An intruder?! Where?!"
After manipulating the interface, the projection displayed a very familiar compartment!
The room which held a lot of escape pods suddenly contained a very familiar presence!
He spotted the same damaged and outdated escape pod that he just ejected earlier!
"What?! How could it go back to my ship?!"
Ves quickly rewinded the footage and discovered it appeared just seconds earlier!
"That's impossible!"
The Scarlet Rose had just transitioned into FTL travel! Nothing should have been able to enter the ship in this state!
"Get rid of it! Now!"
Ves activated a remote command that forcibly flushed the weird escape pod from the ship yet again!
Even though it was highly inadvisable to eject an escape pod while in FTL travel, Ves did so anyway! Ves did not care whether the escape pod would disappear or get strung out over a thousand different dimensions. He just wanted to get rid of this eerie object!
Ves thought that was the end of it. Something flung from a ship while traveling in FTL space rarely if ever made it back to reality.
The higher dimensions bore only a loose connection to the material realm. Time, distance direction, mass and energy behaved very differently in these dimensions!
Many races including humanity took advantage of the properties of the higher dimensions to travel faster than light.
Technically, the ships weren't traveling faster than light in the higher dimensions. It was just that distance was getting more compressed the higher the dimensions went, which allowed for a slow-moving ship to reach an incredibly distant destination in a reasonable amount of time.
The key was the FTL drive. As long as this complex ship component worked as advertised, the vessel was able to enter and exit the higher dimensions without becoming affected by all of the reality-bending transformations that could turn entire bodies into a string of spaghetti spread across numerous dimensions!
As soon as the Scarlet Rose ejected an escape pod while traveling in FTL, the object should have disappeared.
Whether it drifted aimlessly in the confusing higher dimensions for eternity or got torn apart because one end stretched too far from the other end of the object, something ejected into the higher dimensions without protection almost never made it back!
Of the countless times this occurred, only a rare couple scraps ever made it back to the material dimensions, let alone bump into another ship traveling through FTL.
Ves was almost sure he got rid of the mystery escape pod. To see it return into the same space as before spooked him to no end!
"This is impossible! This can't be done!"
Barring perhaps the Big Two and the first-rate states, no one should ever be able to retrieve something lost in the higher dimensions!
Even if it was possible, then at the very least the object in question should have its own FTL drive!
Yet the escape pod contained nothing that suggested that it incorporated a means to travel through FTL! It was too small to carry a full-sized FTL drive, and even a minidrive that had recently been announced by the MTA was a little too big to fit the interior of a typical escape pod!
Ves suspected that he wasn't dealing with anything technological at all! Instead, he encountered an anomaly that was likely related to the spiraling spiritual energy empowering the escape pod in some unknown fashion!
Whatever the sleeping woman was doing, she had accomplished something that only high technology should be able to do! For her and her escape pod to literally cross through space and maybe time and emerge onto his ship again without passing through any barriers was incredibly freaky!
"What is going on!? Am I stuck in some kind of ghost incident?!"
The spacer community circulated a lot of ghost stories. Many people who traveled in space sometimes encountered some strange anomalies and other unexplainable phenomena.
Whether they were true or merely the figments of a drunk spacer's imagination, plenty of stories got passed around.
Some people treated them as entertainment. Others considered these tales to be superstition.
Only some spacers truly bought into the tales no matter how outlandish they sounded!
Ves refused to believe that he was caught up in a so-called ghost incident. He was merely the victim of some kind of spiritual stalker who chose to snuck aboard his ship for some reason! There shouldn't be any ghosts involved!
"Get out! I don't want you here! Go find some other to haunt!"
Ves activated the same commands as before and flushed the escape pod into the ravages of the higher dimensions without any hesitation!
An escape pod shouldn't be able to surface exposure to the higher dimensions without the support of an FTL drive!
He didn't leave the bridge during this time. He forgot about every other task on his agenda for the day and carefully observed the feed of the escape compartment like a hawk.
Nothing appeared out of the blue. The space which formerly held the escape pod remained completely empty as if nothing was about to sneak into it. Several hours passed by until hunger eventually affected his stomach.
"I should grab a bite."
Though he wasn't sure whether he and his ship was in the clear, he still had to take care of his needs.
He left the bridge and entered the mess hall where he cracked open a nutrient pack and dumped its contents in his mouth as quickly as possible.
With everything that happened, Ves wasn't in the mood to savor the unique tastes of Coalition-standard nutrient packs.
The moment he finished his meal, he reflexively activated an interface on his combat armor and called up the feed to the escape compartment again.
What he saw almost caused him to spit out a mouthful of nutrient mush!
"Why are you back?!"
The familiar old escape pod was alive and well! Even after ejecting it into the higher dimensions multiple times, this clingy space derelict kept returning to the Scarlet Rose over and over again!
Ves became incredibly angry. Who asked to be haunted by a ghost?!
"If I can't get rid of you, I'll just kill you first before I throw you out!"
Ves raced down the compartment in question in his full battle loadout. Once he entered the chamber, he approached the escape pod, ripped off the cover, pulled the lever and aimed his rifle at the sleeping beauty resting peacefully inside the pod.
Ordinary people couldn't bear to ruin such a pretty image. The hibernating woman possessed a charm that reminded him of some of his mechs. He knew that this was one of the side effects of strong spirituality.
Yet even without this indescribably quality, the woman was still beautiful enough to attract a lot of appreciation. Ves wasn't sure whether the woman was wearing makeup or not, but she hardly looked like she needed the help!
"Who cares if you're pretty or not! I'm telling you once! Leave my ship and never go back!"
The woman did not wake up. The flows of spirituality spiralling out of her body did not exhibit any changes either.
It was as if the woman was truly unconscious!
Yet from everything that happened, Ves seriously suspected whether the sleeping beauty was truly slumbering.
How could her escape pod return to his ship again and again despite throwing her out for three times straight?
Enough was enough! Ves was still determined to avoid the problems surrounding the escape pod as decisively as possible!
Seeing that Ves elicited no reaction at all, he steeled himself while Lucky carefully peeked from behind the shoulder of his combat armor.
His heavy assault rifle released a whine as Ves modulated the power and the frequency of its particle beam module.
In order to avoid damaging the rest of the compartment, he tuned down its power. Even when set at a lower setting, the power of the weapon was more than enough to kill an unprotected human body!
The moment he fired his rifle at the body, a bright glare flooded the optical sensors of his helmet.
The moment his vision returned, what Ves saw was different from his expectations.
He expected to see a bunch of broken, burned, scorched and vaporized remains. The sheer amount of power released by his rifle ought to be enough to shatter the sleeping woman's body while damaging the interior of the escape pod!
Though the latter did indeed took place, the body parts separated from the main body looked anything but fresh!
A dried, blackened head with an expression locked into a scream stared dully at Ves!
The rest of the remains that survived the brief weapon discharge all consisted of black, mummified body parts! Due to their lack of hydration, whatever heat and energy affected them quickly started to burn up, causing the remains to turn into ashes at a very rapid rate!
The moment the fire engulfed the upper torso, neck and head, the spirituality released from the body parts still circulated as usual!
It was as if Ves had never broken the mummufied body at all by firing a deathly weapon at it! He began to become more and more frightened as his intuition sensed something very huge was about to take inside the escape pod!
Before he became engulfed by panic, Ves quickly snapped himself out of his paralyzed state.
"Begone!"
He employed the same solution as last time. His armored palm slammed against an emergency button that caused the escape pod to forcibly shunt through a tube and launch from the ship!
This time, Ves did not bother to close the escape pod. He just wanted to get rid of everything in the tube without concern for exposing the interior to the lethal conditions of the higher dimensions!
Ves remained fully alert even after he ejected the escape pod. He lingered at the compartment for a couple of hours.
He had Lucky to keep him company during this time, but unfortunately his cat quickly lost interest and phased out of the compartment.
"Will this pod truly return?" He frowned.
It took several hours for it to come back. This was a very long interval, and Ves couldn't afford to remain on guard and neglect his other tasks for so long.
The Scarlet Rose still required his attention! Without a crew, many of the routine but very necessary maintenance tasks had languished. If Ves didn't address these minor issues, they would eventually grow up into major problems!
Rather than allow such misfortune to happen at the worst possible moments, Ves would rather perform some like maintenance and repairs to prevent the problems from snowballing.
Just as Ves let down his guard and turned towards the exit, his intuition briefly compelled him to turn around.
He did so.
"AAAHH!"
The escape pod not only reappeared, but returned in a pristine state!
The escape pod's front had already slid open, revealing the same mummified female body as before!
Though dead and dried, the body was completely intact, as if Ves had never fired at it with his rifle at all!
"THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE!"
His mental gymnastics was unable to keep up with the strange phenomena he witnessed from this darned escape pod!
"I don't believe you can keep this up forever, you witch!"
Ves mercilessly changed the firing mode of the heavy assault rifle and unleashed a steady laser beam that quickly burned the dried skin and flesh from the mummified body!
The woman's hair went up in smoke in an instant while the rest of the dried tissue followed suit in a matter of seconds!
Only blackened bones were left, but under the incredible heat of a sustained laser beam, even they broke down!
Yet as Ves carefully observed with his spiritual vision, an invisible human body shape continued to release spiritual energy as if the body was still intact!
Evidently, Ve s failed to kill the mysterious woman completely! Her flesh and bones may have been gone, but her spiritual presence still remained!
Out of an irrational burst of fury, Ves continued to fire his laser at the interior of the escape pod.
However, the power of his heavy assault rifle failed to inflict material damage to the escape pod!
After penetrating the softer surface layers, the laser beam bumped into an extremely hard layer that completely withstood the heat and energy!
This escape pod was anything but simple!
It was more resilient than he expected!
"No wonder it survived so long in space!"
Regardless, Ves still decided to dump it into higher-dimensional space.
After annihilating the physical body of the unknown woman, it should take a lot of effort to reconstruct it again!
Yet a very ominous hunch prevented him from lowering his guard. Having figured out some rules, Ves forcibly shifted his thoughts and looked away.
He only turned around for a second before instantly turning back.
"DAMNIT!"
The escape pod was back, this time exposing a pretty, sleeping woman with brown curly hair!
Nothing about this made any sense!
How could something he threw out return to his ship so quickly and so silently?
The moment he stopped thinking about the escape pod and its indeterminate occupant, it instantly returned into the same space as before!
Ves began to grow angrier and angrier at this anomalous object.
He really wanted to get rid of it in a permanent fashion!
A part of him feared that if he failed to solve this problem, he might be haunted by this semi-living mummy forever!
At best, the mummy would stick to the Scarlet Rose, allowing Ves to get rid of it by giving up the ship.
At worst, not even this solution would allow him to get rid of this ghost woman!
If she was homing in on him rather than the ship, then Ves would always be confronted by this escape pod until the woman stopped insisting on following him for some reason!
Ves feared that the only way to truly get rid of this half-dead witch was to wake her up while her body was in a healthy state.
Whatever she wanted would soon become clear once they talked.
Yet the strength and power of her seemingly unconscious spiritual manipulation frightened Ves to no end. He really didn't want to deal with the woman when she became conscious!
If Ves was really unlucky, then the woman might be aware that Ves attempted to throw out her escape pod and destroy her body several times!
No one would forgive such an affront!
Ves shuddered in his combat armor in fear. Despite gearing himself up with second-class equipment, he suspected that it was completely useless against an opponent who manipulated reality to such an extreme extent!
It didn't make any sense!
Against such a powerful and inscrutable entity, Ves would rather deal with her while she was dormant rather than awake!
The chance of an amicable conversation was too small in his eyes! This woman was definitely targeting him! Otherwise, she wouldn't be haunting him so persistently!
Though everything about the mummified woman and her escape pod confounded him to no end, Ves firmly stuck to his conviction that it couldn't be repeated forever!
There has to be a price! Whatever magic this witch had cast must expend some energy each time she restored and relocated her body and escape pod!
Ves would just have to find a way to consume this energy until he scared her off or drained her empty!
"Since getting rid of you isn't working, what about crushing you entirely?"
A devious idea entered his mind. He stepped back and activated his integrated comm. He called up a bunch of bots from the workshops and waited for them to arrive.
It didn't take too long as the escape pods were situated very close to the mech workshop compartment. Evidently, the mobile supply frigate put mech designers first!
This came in very handy right now as he only had to wait a couple of minutes before a number of lifter bots arrived.
He first allowed a conventional lifter bot to approach the escape pod.
Just like with the forgotten scanner bot, the lifter bot suddenly shut off after entering the strange energy field surrounding the escape pod.
Theheavy bot collapsed against the deck and just happened to crush the fragile scanner bot resting underneath!
Ves shrugged. He expected something like this. The energy field didn't seem to do anything but prevent bots from coming close.
Fortunately, he also called in a different bot.
A mech workshop always came with a variety of production equipment, production tools and production bots.
Because mechs were so big and heavy, many of the bots and equipment were rated to handle very heavy loads.
For a typical escape pod, just a regular magnetic or gravitic lifter bot was sufficient to elevate it from a distance!
The bot that Ves pinned his hopes on halted ten meters away from the mystery escape pod.
The air became more charged as the lifter bot activated its remote gravitic lifting system.
The gravity effecting the escape pod suddenly disappeared. Not only that, the gravity also started to shift further, allowing the lifter bot to retract the escape pod from the launcher tube and carry it out of the compartment while continuing to maintain a distance.
Ves followed after the bot and its cargo. The bot crossed the corridor and entered the mech workshop.
He approached a forging machine that was ordinarily used to process very difficult metals. He had already sent a remote command to activate it and warm up its chamber.
"Let's see.. 7000 degrees Celsius. Still not hot enough."
He patiently waited for the internal temperature to rise. While the maximum temperature limit of the forging device reached an astounding height, the amount of energy it expended and the amount of waste heat generated in the process made it very troublesome to sustain.
Ves also had to wait several hours for the temperature inside the forging machine to reach its limit, so he merely waited for fifteen minutes before making his move.
"This should be hot enough to process the metal of the escape pod."
Ves had already noticed that the core structure of the escape pod was made of extremely resilient compressed alloy. Such metals were often utilized as armor plating for mechs and ships.
Ordinary production equipment wouldn't be able to process this kind of material once it had been set.
Fortunately, the mech workshop was equipped to a very high standard. The Friday Coalition often handled comparable materials, so the forging machine they utilized should still be capable of handling this grade of materials.
"Here goes nothing!"
The gravitic lifter bot had placed the escape pod on a giant ramp. This ramp suddenly tilted, causing the escape pod to slide down a chute, which quickly closed in order to form an isolating seal.
Soon enough, an internal partition suddenly opened, exposing the escape pod to enough heat to melt most kinds of mech-grade armor plating!
Though the structure of the escape pod was a lot more resilient than he initially expected, it couldn't withstand the heat of the forging machine!
According to the internal sensors, the escape pod quickly melted and deformed. No matter whether the body inside was alive or dead, the awesome heat instantly burned and vaporized all of the organic tissue without any resistance!
The softer metals melted just seconds later, leaving just the internal structure which still held the vague shape of the original escape pod.
The heat continued to affect this extraordinarily resilient against heat, there were still limits to its endurance!
Slowly but surely, the internal structure melted until it formed a piping hot pool of metals.
Ves issued some follow-up instructions that caused the forging machine to stop generating heat. The internal temperature rapidly declined and the molten pool of metals, some of which had separated from the alloys, no longer grew hotter either.
As soon as the internal environment of the forging machine stabilized, a bunch of compressors began to press and shape the materials into a tight and compact cube.
"Since I have a bunch of materials at my disposal, I might as well make use of it!" He grinned.
He repurposed the materials he salvaged and fabricated a number of replacement armor plating.
In his previous battles, the four battle bots sustained a lot of hits, particularly the less agile ones like the Kravon and Paravin.
The escape pod wasn't very large, so Ves only had enough materials at his disposal to fabricate some smaller plates.
Once he finished making them, Ves inspected them carefully with his tools and spiritual vision and found out that it no longer contained anything suspicious.
The invisible spiritual entity was gone. The strange energy field that prevented bots functioning was gone, and Ves did not notice any spiritual energy circulating in the materials at all.
Had Ves truly managed to get rid of the ghost woman this time?
"Now that your escape pod and your ashes turned into replacement, there's no way you can replenish yourself so easily!"
Ves did not dare to make use of the spare armor plating he just produced. What if they disappeared when the mummy restored her body and her escape?
Even now, Ves did not rule out the possibility that this ghost woman managed defy time and space yet again! She had already done so too many times for Ves to remain confident!
"Let's see what happens."
He relaxed a bit and tried to think about something else rather than the escape pod.
Once he believed enough time had passed, he revisited the escape compartment. The closer he came, the more his apprehension grew.
The moment he opened the hatch, his heart suddenly sunk.
The escape pod and the woman had returned, just as he feared!
This time, the open front cover displayed a mummified corpse with a face locked in a scream.
Perhaps it was his illusion, but the empty eye sockets seemed to glare at him as if the woman despised his actions!
Ves shook his head inside his helmet. "You should be dead!"
Seeing that the escape pod and its occupant had returned despite what had happened, Ves quickly left the compartment and returned to the mech workshop.
To his astonishment, the replacement armor plating he made out of the materials of the escape still remained!
"THIS DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE!"
Ves knocked the knuckles of his gauntlet against the surface of the armor plating.
Ding!
The metal still remained completely real! As Ves inspected the newly-made components with a scanner, he discovered that absolutely nothing had changed!
The armor plating still retained the same mass, density, toughness and other parameters! It hadn't lost anything!
"Wait a minute.. does this mean I can produce an unlimited amount of high-quality alloys?"
The moment he considered this option, his mood suddenly turned.
What if he kept this up?
What if he could keep taking advantage of the ghost woman until she eventually ran out of energy?
As long as the ghost woman's reappearances didn't affect the materials he extracted from the continually-duplicating escape pods, he could probably produce enough supplies to supplement his fighting strength!
"I can fabricate enough armor plating to upgrade the defense of the Paravin and Kravon!"
"I can produce enough high-quality gauss cannon slugs that are tough enough to penetrate the thickest ship hulls!"
"I can even produce some hull plating that can reinforce the exterior defense of the Scarlet Rose!"
Though Ves still feared the seemingly-immortal ghost woman, the practical benefits began to outweigh his common sense!
Instead of fearing the escape pod's continuous renewals, why not treat it as a renewable materials source?
As long as this escape pod kept coming back, Ves could potentially sustain this extraction cycle forever!
A greedy grin appeared on his face.
"HahahahaI changed my mind! Keep haunting me! Don't ever stop!"
Ves returned to the workshop and inputted an elaborate set of instructions in the forging machine and a number of gravitic lifter bots.
Once he finished his preparations, he activated the routine, causing the lifter bot to leave the mech workshop and return minutes later with the mystery escape pod in tow.
The bot placed it in the forging machine, which soon began to melt it down and extract the valuable metallic exotics, this time segregated by material, allowing Ves to form alloys with different properties!
No matter what he repurposed the materials for, Ves bet that he could definitely profit immensely from this 'renewable source'!
As for the mummy woman.. Ves was completely uninterested in engaging with her. He didn't even bother to instruct his bots to remove her body from the escape pod before chucking it inside the forging machine!
At most, the forging machine just had to expend a bit more effort to separate the impurities from the rest of the metals.
Ves believed that as long as he wasn't stupid enough to wake her up, she would continue to robotically replenish herself and escape pod!
"Hahahaha! Keep renewing yourself! I'm going to build entire mechs out of your magic!"
Once the routine Ves established went to work, the forging machine spat out a steady amount of raw materials.
Like an assembly line, the gravitic lifter bot kept retrieving the mysterious escape pod from the escape compartment and brought it into the mech workshop. From there, the bot threw the object into the forging machine, which carefully melted it down and separated the various high-value exotics and metals left behind.
Wary of the power of the mummified woman, Ves remained alert and stayed awake for the entire night in case anything changed.
The moment the woman did something to escape this loop, he would immediately shoot her dried corpse down with his heavy assault rifle!
To his relief, no deviations occurred. Even if the escape pod and its half-dead occupant continually underwent a brutal transformation inside the forging machine, Ves saw no break in the pattern!
"It seems that I can really sustain this loop indefinitely!" Ves uttered with astonishment.
He really had no idea what was going on. Stuff did not materialize out of nowhere for free. Reality simply didn't work this way.
Yet what he witnessed all night seemed to defy what was possible!
Gloriana would probably call this miracle!
Of course, Ves did not let his ignorant and gullible side take over.
From a rational perspective, just because he didn't understand what was taking place didn't mean it was a miracle.
Just like how ancient humans looked up at the sky and witnessed a thunderstorm, many people had a tendency to believe such might and power came from gods rather than nature.
As soon as science advanced and the secret behind thunderstorms became known, humanity's fascination towards thunder and lightning subsided.
In fact, humanity even began to harness its understanding of electricity to great effect!
Ves was not at that level yet. He truly had no idea why the escape pod kept renewing and coming back to the Scarlet Rose. Even when he clearly exploited its perpetual reappearances to accumulate a stockpile of valuable exotics, the cycle showed no signs of stopping!
Observing the escape pod and its sometimes-living, sometimes-dead occupant was an exercise in futility.
No sensors or scanners aboard the Scarlet Rose noticed anything unusual about its appearance.
It simply materialized in place at an instant as long as the old escape pod disappeared or broke down.
Studying the pod and the body inside with his spiritual vision yielded a bit more results, but not as much as he expected.
Something was clearly going on at the spiritual level. Careful study revealed that the flows of spiritual energy followed along a large number of very mysterious patterns.
These patterns reminded him of the Grand Dynamo inside his mind, but of a different nature.
It was as if he was observing a form of spiritual circuitry! Many patterns showed up in different places, reinforcing his suspicion that the corpse or underlying spiritual entity actively maintained some sort of spiritual process!
Due to the potency of the spiritual energy emanating from the woman, Ves did not dare to investigate too carefully. He mainly relied on his spiritual vision and passive observation methods to avoid triggering a counterattack or disturbing the process.
He would feel endless regret if his spiritual prodding inadvertently interrupted the loop and ended his source of free exotics!
As long as this process continued, Ves could build all manner of fantastic machines out of these high-quality materials!
"It's really absurd!" Ves muttered in confusion. "Am I being delusional or can I really repeat this process ad infinitum?"
He really couldn't believe such a powerful witch whose spiritual strength rivaled or surpassed that of Qilanxo could fall victim to his trivial scheme.
Was she really dead?
Did her powerful spiritual remnant lack consciousness?
Or was she stuck in some sort of semi-dead coma?
Ves indulged in all kinds of speculation, but without any solid proof, he had no way to tell for sure.
He tried to identify the woman. In the moments before chucking the escape pod and the body in the forging machine, Ves took many samples and performed many scans.
When handling the corpse, Ves did not dare to touch it directly anymore in case of waking her up. He doubted the witch would be pleased to find out that Ves mistreated her and her powers for his own gain.
In fact, before he took an organic tissue sample from both the dead and living to the infirmary, he stopped and reconsidered his actions.
"Does it matter if I know her identity? Do I really find out who she is or where she comes from?"
The woman obviously carried a lot of mysteries, and as a curious mech designer, Ves felt compelled to figure out the answers.
Yet Ves also dreaded the woman. Why did she come in the form of both a dried husk and a living woman? Which was fake and which was real?
Why did she decide to haunt him? Was she calling for help or was she attempting to recover by siphoning his powers?
Whether she was friend or foe, Ves did not think he would benefit by finding out the answer!
If she turned out to be a malicious enemy who wanted to take advantage of him, then it was in his best interest to keep her suppressed!
It was a bit more complicated if the opposite turned out to be true. What if this woman was some sort or ally or friendly entity who could offer him all kinds of benefits in exchange for rescuing her? Perhaps he could trade all sorts of favors with her in order to learn some of her spiritual tricks!
Yet... regardless of whether she was friend or foe, the chance that she would overpower him when she woke was very significant!
The strong had no patience for the weak! Just comparing their respective spiritual strength and prowess was enough to make him understand that he would definitely be the disadvantaged party in any interaction!
"She's way too strong! Even in her supposedly dormant state, she's already strong enough to sustain this renewal process!"
Ves had no idea how her powers even worked. Whether she manipulated time, space, causality or other fundamental forces and concepts of nature, it appeared she wasn't running out of energy anytime soon!
Perhaps her spiritual powers had reached a more advanced level, allowing her to sustain this continuous renewal process by drawing her energy from some other source!
For a brief moment of time, Ves entertained a very dreadful possibility.
"What if... the body belongs to my mother?"
His mind almost blanked out. What would his mother think if she found out he treated a part of her as a renewable exotics mine?
"Let's stop here!"
Though he didn't consider this possibility to be likely, he nonetheless decided to cease all attempts at investigating the woman any further.
The risks were too great while the rewards were too uncertain! Rather than risk losing control and put himself at the mercy of a wrathful spiritual sorceress, Ves would rather maintain the status quo and secure his current arrangement!
Besides, someone who tried to deceive him by camouflaging her ugly, mummified corpse with the visage of an attractive, living body was bound to be untrustworthy!
Whether she was a helper or not, whether she came to assist him in some way, Ves did not wish to follow along someone else's arrangements!
Compared to the potentially wondrous opportunities he missed out on, he would rather follow his current trajectory and climb to power through his own efforts.
Only by relying on himself rather than others would he be able to maintain control over his own life! Neither the Bright Republic, the Ylvaine Protectorate, the Friday Coalition or the Hexadric Hegemony had the right to dictate his life!
For this reason, Ves resolutely threw out any desire to investigate the woman or wake her up. Even if he was making a colossal mistake, he trusted in his judgement and his belief that it was better to rely on himself!
"Sorry woman, but if you came with good intentions, then it was a mistake to come to me! I don't need your help!"
He disassembled the escape pod after annihilating the corpse in order to see if he could spot any serial numbers, manufacturer markings and the like. He also retrieved the advanced processors that were tasked with regulating the escape pod's many functions.
Since the escape pod was still somewhat functional, Ves finally managed to retrieve some useful information. After supplementing his investigation by referencing some information from the galactic net, he finally figured out its origin.
A company called the VZI Corporation used to produce the escape pod model over 170 years ago. What interested Ves the most was that the VZI Corporation exclusively operated in the galactic heartland.
There was a huge distance between the Komodo Star Sector and the area of operations of the VZI Corporation!
The escape pod model only sold for a couple decades, and according to the production date embedded in the operating system, the pod that fell into his hands had been manufactured roughly 150 years ago.
Curiously enough, Ves did not find any data about the ship that carried the pod or the people or organizations who bought it. He also didn't find any information regarding its occupant or any human for that matter.
"Someone scrubbed this data!"
Barring some marginal tidbits, the only data the escape pod's operating system retained were those related to its functioning.
Without this essential data, the escape pod would cease to function!
Still, Ves was happy with what he learned so far. The escape pod was a standard product from the galactic heartland instead of some mysterious creation that originated from some alternate universe.
Pinning down the concrete origin of the escape pod helped demystify it in his mind. Ves feared the escape pod and the unknown female corpse a lot less now that he could definitely conclude that their origins were less than magical!
After learning all he could know about the escape pod model, Ves directed his attention to the valuable materials he stood to gain.
The escape pod produced by the VZI Corporation had to meet all kinds of industry requirements.
The escape pod had to be tough enough to survive all kinds of anomalous hazards in space, including radiation, microimpacts, asteroid collisions, proximity to stars and other possible threats.
While an escape pod could never sufficiently protect against any hazard, they should at least be able to give their occupant a decent chance to survive.
The specifications of the VZI escape pod were much more superior than the special escape pods used by Aisling!
The bountiful resources available in the galactic heartland allowed the VZI Corporation to apply a high-quality alloy formula that incorporated various medium to high-grade exotics to form a very strong core structure.
Ves tested the samples in some of the analysis equipment in the mech workshop and correlated the results with the information he retrieved from the galactic net.
The name of the formula was officially registered as 235-C Breyer Alloy.
Breyer alloy actually stood for an entire family of alloy formulas, of which 235-C was one of the cheaper and more affordable ones in the galactic heartland.
Of course, its cheapness was only relative. Whereas the alloy was only useful for lesser products such as escape pods, in a barren place like the Komodo Star Sector, such a material could absolutely stand equal to many of the common armor systems in the Friday Coalition and the Hexadric Hegemony!
"Breyer alloy is absolutely valuable!"
And Ves just secured an endless, renewable source of this material!
As long as he retained the Scarlet Rose and perpetuated the loop, he could steadily produce enough Breyer alloy to produce a lot of powerful and expensive mechs at a much lower cost!
He could even save up a lot of Breyer alloy to build an extraordinarily resilient ship!
Since the mysterious woman functioned as a source of Breyer alloy, Ves decided to call her Cassandra Breyer.
Regardless of her true name, as Cassandra Breyer, producing Breyer alloy was her only use to him! Nothing else mattered!
Ves developed a very warped appreciation for 'Cassandra Breyer'. Not only did her appearance solve the Scarlet Rose's shortage of tough, metallic exotics, she also had the potential to empower his organization and fund many of his future endeavors!
He no longer questioned the absurdity surrounding her endless duplication.
How she gained the energy to produce so much valuable Breyer Alloy out of nowhere, Ves had no clue. The spiritual engineering centered around her body was as complex as any electronic circuitry.
Without a comprehensive foundation in spiritual engineering, Ves couldn't even begin to decipher all of the wondrous spiritual interactions and mechanisms!
He suppressed his greed to master this ability for his own. He was far too weak to perform such a reality-defying feat!
Rather than aim for the miniscule chance of winning the jackpot, Ves would rather keep his modest but guaranteed gains!
Adopting a risk-averse solution was very uncharacteristic for Ves. However, anything related to spirituality always succeeded in stimulating his greatest fears.
Ves was a mech designer. He understood technology. He excelled in many disciplines related to mechs.
For this reason, when it came to taking risks in mech design, Ves always possessed the confidence to succeed when failure was probable!
Yet when it came to this inexplicable ghost woman and her horribly frightening visage, Ves did not feel assured at all. His Larkinson blood completely cooled when he considered the prospect of waking a very angry and powerful woman.
"It's better to let sleeping dogs lie!"
"Meow!"
Lucky comfortably perched on a table while he munched a bar of solid colchis iron.
Aside from Ves, Lucky benefited from the current arrangement as well! The endless amount of exotics produced from the loop essentially meant that Lucky would never go hungry!
Ves did not forget about his current circumstances. He still had to run through the territories of the Great Zona Republic and the Crecia Republic in order to reach the Ylvaine Protectorate.
While the production loop resulted in a continuous supply of fairly dense Breyer alloy, accumulating too much of it increased the total mass of his ship.
Ves still had a lot of use for the materials in repairing and reinforcing the Scarlet Rose and her complement of battle bots. As long as he could make good of the Breyer alloy, he didn't mind paying a price.
However, Ves could not afford to go too far. Producing an excessive amount of Breyer alloy would definitely increase the mass of his ship over time, causing her acceleration to decrease.
The slower the acceleration, the greater the likelihood that pursuers would catch up to the Scarlet Rose!
If Ves had his way, then he would order the gravitic lifter bots to stop feeding the escape pod to the forging machine.
He did not dare to do so. Who knew what would happen if the escape pod remained intact for more than an hour.
Would Cassandra Breyer wake up? Would her body resuscitate and bring her back to life?
Fearing a complication, Ves insisted on destroying her body and her escape pod on a continuous basis for good measure!
Ejecting the escape pod out of the ship was not a good idea.
Who knew what happened if it was thrown in the higher dimensions or the material dimensions. Rather than risk the witch waking up in space, Ves would rather destroy her body and her accompanying escape pod entirely!
The question therefore moved on to determining what he should do with the excess materials. Throwing it in space after he processed it seemed wasteful.
It also risked exposing his 'renewable Breyer alloy mine'! After all, there was no native source for the constituent materials of Breyer alloy in the Komodo Star Sector!
While it was possible to import the materials, it was not economic to do so! If someone found a lot of Breyer alloy chucked into space, Ves might inadvertently attract a lot of unwelcome attention!
Therefore, aside from slowing the production process and dumping the materials from the ship while she was engaging in FTL, Ves found another outlet for his excess materials.
"Keep eating, Lucky!" Ves grinned. "There is enough colchis iron and lesser geonode to stuff yourself stupid!"
"Meow meow!"
Lucky blinked his eyes as if he was in bliss. His teeth effortlessly crunched a chunk of lesser geonode as if it was nothing but a crispy snack!
Although 235-C Breyer alloy blended over a dozen different materials, the forging machine aboard the Scarlet Rose could extract four of the most important materials.
As for the other exotics, they simply lost effect and broke down entirely due to the destructive recycling process.
While it was a shame to lose those valuable trace materials, what the forging machine managed to retrieve intact was enough to make Ves ecstatic!
The most abundant material was a medium-grade exotic called colchis iron. Making up 67 percent of the alloy, the iron-like material was responsible for most of its basic properties!
Without its hardness and toughness, Breyer alloy could never be as resilient!
The second-most abundant material was lesser geonode, which made up 29.4 percent of the alloy. Though this was a very large proportion, the medium-grade exotic did not actually strengthen the Breyer alloy.
Instead, it mostly served as a binding material that allowed the colchis iron to play nice with other potent exotics without provoking an undesirable reaction.
Lesser geonode worked wonderfully as an auxiliary material that stabilized many different exotics and was used in many other alloy formulas for this reason.
The third-most prevalent material was Tommen metal, which was a high-grade exotic that patched up the main weakness of colchis iron.
Though colchis iron was very hard and tough, thereby making it very resilient against physical damage, it did not fare very well against heat and energy damage!
For this reason, 3.58 percent of the Breyer alloy consisted of Tommen metal, which massively improved this shortcoming, though at great cost!
Tommen metal was not cheap in the slightest! The fact that 235-C Breyer alloy only incorporated so little of it was already a very generous proportion!
In fact, some of the better variants of Breyer alloy actually blended in a greater proportion of Tommen metal!
The last important material in the alloy formula was a high-grade exotic called Amris. Consisting of just 0.02 percent of the alloy that made up the main structure of the escape pod, just a little bit of it significantly improved the shock-absorbance attribute. Any shock exerted onto the Breyer alloy partially disappeared into nowhere due to the strange effects of Amris!
Aside from that, Amris also seemed to strengthen Breyer alloy in more subtle ways. Ves didn't have enough information to find out more. The sources he had at hand did not really explain the full potential of this trace exotic.
With his knowledge of metallurgy, Ves could slowly figure out its properties by performing some research. He could also scour the galactic net for information or seek detailed information from the MTA or an exclusive library in exchange for payment.
Right now, Ves did not have the time to figure out its properties and uses. He could only put Amris aside.
Due to its high value and small volume, Ves did not allow Lucky to eat it. With how little of it the forging machine produced, he did not fear weighing the Scarlet Rose down even if he recycled a million escape pods!
In total, these four exotics each had their own uses. Whether Ves alloyed them back together or blended them with different materials, he could produce an endless variety of alloys!
Of course, trying to preserve the original 235-C Breyer alloy was a little difficult. If Ves wanted to retain its properties, then he couldn't melt it down and destroy its original structure.
After spending some at the mech workshop, Ves discovered that Breyer alloy was still malleable enough to be reshaped as long as he applied enough force.
This was very difficult, especially when the Breyer alloy was still as thick as the layer applied to the escape pod!
For now, Ves did not have the equipment to reshape the Breyer alloy into armor plating or other end product. He would have to take care of this after he ended his flight.
"Regardless, just the four exotics is enough to form all kinds of resilient alloys!"
Perhaps the best use he found was producing a large batch of gauss cannon projectiles.
Such products often came in the form of solid slugs made out of very hard materials.
The rounds produced from this new supply of materials were absolutely better than the conventional ammunition!
Almost nobody could bear to waste high-grade exotics on a consumable product! Yet the effect of doing so often yielded greater results!
With his new batch of gauss cannon projectiles, the Kravon became a lot more deadly!
Against very tough targets, the rounds wouldn't shatter as easily. The armor-penetrating properties of the new batch was at least multiple times better!
If Ves had more time, he would have incorporated some of the materials in the missiles, but that was far too much work for him to accomplish on his own. The benefits were also a bit too marginal as missiles generally relied on their payloads to deal damage.
Time passed by. As Ves and Lucky became obsessed with Breyer alloy, the Scarlet Rose quietly made it through the Great Zona Republic without encountering another prepared ambush.
Whether his enemies gave up or failed to catch the ship at the right star system, the Scarlet Rose managed to escape trouble for two weeks!
By the time the mobile supply frigate left the Great Zona Republic, Ves had entered the final stretch of his flight.
As long as the Scarlet Rose managed to pass through the territories of the Crecia Republic, Ves would be safe!
The chance of encountering hostiles in the territory controlled by the Ylvaine Protectorate was minimal!
Just as Ves started to hope for a safe and quiet return, the Scarlet Rose finally bumped into a hostile force.
The alarm that rang from his comm and the mech workshop shocked him to no end! After realizing what was going on, he dropped his tools, pulled Lucky away from his perch and ran to the bridge!
Once he arrived, he seated himself on the captain's chair and called up the data gathered by the sensors.
The threat just arrived at the same emergence zone that the Scarlet Rose had entered a few hours ago!
With two hours to go until his ship finished cycling her FTL drive, Ves did not expect any dangers to occur once a sensor sweep revealed no starships in the vicinity.
For a new ship to arrive in the same emergence zone was very alarming! This was especially the case when the new arrival also happened to be close enough to intercept the Scarlet Rose within an hour!
The new arrival did not hide her identity. Her transponder not only broadcasted her ship identity, but also her allegiance!
The ship just happened to belong to the Coalition Reserve Corps!
"Damnit!" He cursed. "The Fridaymen finally caught up! I knew the good days wouldn't last!"
The CRC did not dispatch some harmless scout ship either. The ship that emerged happened to be a frigate that was somewhat similar to the Scarlet Rose!
This explained her speed and ability to catch up to his flight.
Unlike his own ship, the new CRC vessel did not appear to be a mobile supply frigate. She looked sleeker, faster and much more oriented towards combat action!
Her mech hangar compartment looked a bit larger as well, which hinted that the hostile ship probably carried more mechs as well!
Because of the lack of mech pilots, his battle bots weren't capable of fending off an equal number of mechs.
If his battle bots happened to be outnumbered by a bunch of second-class mechs, then defeat was almost assured!
The doom that hung over his head never went away.
Ves just forgot about it when he became obsessed with exploiting the production loop. He came up with a lot of ideas on how to make use of this seemingly-endless source of Breyer alloy.
After several weeks had passed, the loop showed no signs of stopping! Whatever technique Cassandra Breyer performed, its programming obviously did not account for the absurdity that Ves subjected her to! If she was conscious, there was no way she would approve of his exploitation!
Fortunately, she never showed any signs of waking up after the forging machine burned her body up over a thousand times!
Just like a cleaning bot that kept bumping into a wall after its programming glitched, Cassandra Breyer seemed incapable of changing her current fate! Perhaps she wasn't even aware of her current circumstances!
Ves was especially surprised when her spiritual energy levels remained constant despite the constant creation of Breyer alloy.
Matter didn't come out of nowhere. Ves believed that not even gods were capable of circumventing this fundamental truth!
Matter was energy and energy was matter.
The human race had long invented ways to convert energy into matter and vica versa. It was just that this process was extremely inefficient. A humongous amount of energy was needed to generate a modest amount of matter. Tech constraints also made it impossible or impractical to create valuable exotics.
Otherwise, the Big Two wouldn't have needed to launch an invasion of the Red Ocean Dwarf Galaxy! It could simply sit on its Dyson spheres and transform an endless amount of solar radiation into phasewater!
This was why Ves continued to find the current situation absurd. What Cassandra Breyer casually managed to do in her strange undeath state ought to be impractical at best and impossible at worst!
Ves had the sense that he had inadvertently come in touch with a facet of human civilization which was very dangerous!
Could Cassandra Breyer be an associate of his mother? Was she an agent of the Five Scrolls Compact?
Whatever the case, if some random mummified corpse casually performed a feat that could only be replicated with extremely advanced technology, then there must doubtlessly be other people out there who wielded greater powers!
Ves had a feeling that he would definitely be able to bump into these spiritual adepts if he traveled to the galactic center. The chances of bumping into someone as powerful as Cassandra Breyer shouldn't be too large in the expansive galactic rim.
This was also why he suspected that the woman must be targeting him specifically rather than the Scarlet Rose.
"How troublesome." He muttered.
He couldn't wait to return and find out whether he could sustain the loop while stepping out of the ship. If it turned out that he could only keep up production while he was physically present on the Scarlet Rose, then he wouldn't be able to profit as much from this process!
Yet before he could return to safety, the Friday Coalition finally managed to catch up to his flight.
The Coalition Reserve Corps hadn't been sitting on its thumbs all this time. Aside from putting a bounty on his ship and encouraging masses of mercenaries to do its dirty work, the people in charge also redirected their own assets!
The hunter frigate that showed up just happened to be in a prime position to intercept the Scarlet Rose. Not only did she emerge a stone's throw away from his ship, but her relative motion to his ship even provided her with a head-start!
The Scarlet Rose's navigation systems went to work. By measuring the relative position, speed and acceleration of the new arrival, Ves quickly found out that he had only 66 minutes left until the hostile ship came close enough to start a battle!
"What awful timing!"
According to the transponders, the frigate bore the name of Terrinac. Ves tried to search up her name and ship class in the internal database of the Scarlet Rose as well as Aisling's personal terminal.
No match. The Terrinac was probably one of the CRC's more clandestine vessels. Her amazing acceleration made it clear that she probably excelled in pursuits!
This signified that the Terrinac would definitely catch up even if Ves managed to escape this star system!
If she was fully crewed, the Terrinac's comprehensive performance was leagues better than the Scarlet Rose.
Ves had to shake the Terrinac off right away if he wanted to complete the final leg of his journey!
Out of curiosity, Ves attempted to hail the Terrinac.
The other side did not accept his transmission request. It appeared that his hunters were very professional. There was no need to talk between each other.
As far as the crew of the Terrinac was concerned, the capture of the Scarlet Rose was inevitable!
Both sides knew the score. The CRC had slowly dug out many of the cards that Ves depended upon to escape from its clutches.
All of the earlier battles against the mercenaries gave the CRC plenty of footage to study his battle bots in-depth!
With Aisling Curver, their original designer, in their employ, the CRC probably figured out all of the weak points of her former mechs!
Ves briefly grinned. "Many of those weak points aren't as vulnerable as before."
With a steady supply of Breyer alloy, Ves did not hold back in strengthening the overall structure of the battle bots.
He not only supplied the Paravin with a brand-new tower shield that consisted entirely of Breyer alloy, but also modified the structure of all four battle bots to vary their existing structure!
By and large, Ves substantially added a lot of armor plating to strengthen their resilience. While their mobility dropped, the boost in defense was more than worth the tradeoff in his eyes!
Yet will this unexpected change be enough to hinder the Terrinac?
"Probably not." He sighed.
The Friday Coalition came prepared! As the Terrinac slowly closed the distance, Ves tried to figure out every possible way he could avoid a confrontation.
To his distress, Ves failed to come up with a way to forestall the inevitable.
He entertained options he already ruled out such as overloading the propulsion system.
He also considered some unconventional plans such as throwing the mysterious escape pod in the flight path of the Terrinac.
A part of him hoped that Cassandra Breyer, or at least a duplicate of her, would wake up when the Terrinac picked her up and wreak havoc inside the ship!
However, Ves quickly discarded this unrealistic option.
If Cassandra woke up, she was liable to turn her ire towards him rather than the Terrinac!
To pin his hopes on her was pure folly!
"I don't really have that many options." He helplessly observed.
His options hadn't changed since he first contemplated them. In fact, they probably diminished a bit as Ves did not believe he could abandon ship and sneak away unnoticed with the help of Aisling's special escape pod.
The CRC must surely be aware of the existence of this escape pod! The Terrinac could easily configure her sensors to detect the minute emissions the special escape pod couldn't cover up while in stealth!
Where could he go, anyway? This star system was just as barren and lifeless as his other stops.
The only possible ship that Ves could board in order to escape the star system was the Terrinac!
There was no way the CRC would make the same mistake twice! Ves bet that the internal security complement of the Terrinac had gone into high alert the moment the ship confirmed the presence of the Scarlet Rose!
Ves did not have weeks to tamper with the Terrinac's internal security systems. The entire frigate would definitely fight him every step of the way if he happened to board the ship!
It didn't matter if Ves obtained better gear. He salvaged much of his combat gear from the former crew of the Scarlet Rose.
It didn't matter if he extended the runtime of his Full Stealth augment. He exchanged 1 million DP for this gain, but the crew of the Terrinac wouldn't be stupid to allow an invisible infiltrator to kill them off one by one!
Perhaps Lucky stood a greater chance at wiping out the Terrinac's crew. His capabilities recently improved a lot by consuming so many expensive exotics.
With his intangibility and invisibility powers, it should be impossible for the crew to pin Lucky down!
Yet even if his cat somehow managed to succeed, where would that get him? Taking over the Terrinac was of no benefit at all as long as her mechs kept the ship at gunpoint!
Ves suspected that the enemy commander wouldn't be so stupid to keep all of his mechs close enough to be within reach of any nearby threats.
While Lucky was capable of flying in space, he merely moved and accelerated as a bird!
It was too impractical for him to cross the vast distances in space and attack all of the mechs!
As Ves ruled out option after option, he finally couldn't escape the unfortunate fact that only a frontal battle between his battle bots and the Terrinac's mechs would allow him to overcome this crisis!
"Looks like we're at the end of our rope, Lucky."
"Meow."
"Yeah. We might as well try."
Seeing that he could do nothing else, Ves left the bridge and entered the mech workshop. He methodically activated his battle bots and put them on standby while he inspected the machines.
All four machines exhibited a bit more armor plating. The Breyer alloy added to their frames ruined their aesthetic contours, turning them into machines that significantly diverged from Aisling's original vision for her bodyguard mechs.
Ves had no choice but to place his faith on these tainted machines.
Compared to facing hundreds of third-rate mercenary mechs, he held little confidence that his battle bots would succeed this time.
Yet, he did not give up. He had come too far to stop at this point!
"Even if I'm defeated, it's not the end."
As long as the Terrinac was out to capture him, Ves would still be able to bide his time and attempt another escape, especially if Lucky stayed hidden.
Of course, the Friday Coalition wouldn't be as complacent as last time. Now that he became known as an escape artist, they'll probably keep him confined until the Terrinac brought him all the way back to the Warsaw Giant System!
"Does Aisling even want me still?" He frowned.
If not, then Ves was in big trouble!
As time continued to pass, the time to deploy his battle bots had come.
He stepped behind a familiar control panel. Four separate projected interfaces came online as the battle bots launched into space one by one. Each of the machines lined up next to the Scarlet Rose in order to greet the appearance of the enemy mechs.
Soon enough, the Terrinac showed some activity. Ves directed the Scarlet Rose's optical sensors to observe the opposite ship carefully.
A second-class mech appeared into space. Ves instantly studied its visual design and figured its basic properties.
"One offensive space knight. Armed with a lance as well as a sword. Excels in charges. Secondary systems unknown as of now."
"Two light skirmishers. Their models are identical, with only small divergences to account for the preferences of their mech pilots. Armament unknown, but likely consists of daggers."
"Two rifleman mechs. Both armed with powerful gauss rifles. Good choice. Energy weapons take too much time to penetrate the armor of my battle bots. Too bad they didn't account for my Breyer alloy."
"One striker mech. Armed with some sort of energy projector rather than a shotgun. Extremely deadly in close range. Forms an extreme deterrent against my melee battle bots."
Six second-class mechs. Each of them also looked formidable. At the very least, their quality did not lose out from Aisling's bodyguard mechs too much!
One space knight, one striker mech, two rifleman mechs and two light skirmishers formed a fairly small but effective team.
As Ves studied their appearances, energy signatures and other data captured by the Scarlet Rose's sensors, he continually discovered new aspects and nuances that distinguished their designs.
"They're not civilian designs. They're built according to a higher standard. Not military, but reasonably close to it. Their designs also don't share anything in common."
Each design was the product of a different mech designer, or rather design teams. All of the mechs featured mature designs with hardly any pronounced weaknesses aside from the ones inherent to their mech types.
The degree of optimization in their technical makeup caused Ves to feel a lot of professional respect for their designers.
"These are some really great mechs!"
Their designs were definitely the work of Seniors, which only increased the disparity between the mechs and his battle bots.
Though Ves modified the Kravon, Seltzer, Paravin and Fliskin considerably, they still retained the characteristics of their original designs.
Lady Aisling Curver designed and built each of the mechs. Though she employed some of the best tech and materials a direct disciple had access to, her design style still showed many traces of immaturity. Her professional experience simply couldn't catch up to those Seniors who were predominantly over a century old!
To be honest, this was a problem that could hardly be solved aside from collaborating with an experienced mech designer.
Even the mechs designed by Ves and Gloriana still contained some quirks that weren't very ideal. Fortunately, Gloriana's specialty excelled at stamping out faults, which allowed each of their recent products to approach the quality and polish expected from a mech designed by a Senior!
Ves did not enjoy that advantage right now. In a serious battle, the shortcomings of the four former mechs designed by Aisling Curver would probably become critical vulnerabilities to his opponents.
"The CRC is definitely aware of the characteristics of Aisling's works!"
Right now, Ves faced a pretty severe information disparity.
His opponents knew almost everything about the original designs of his battle bots.
In contrast, Ves could only glean the properties of the six enemy mechs by observing their surface appearances.
If Ves had to analyze third-class mechs, then he would immediately feel at ease. Not only did he grew up with third-class mechs, their low tech base, cheap construction and large components didn't leave much room for complexity.
By looking at a third-class mech on the surface, Ves confidently believed he could glean at least 80 percent of their characteristics.
It was different this time. Watching the six approaching mechs gave him the feeling as if he was only perceiving the outermost layer of an onion.
His lack of fluency with regards to second-class mechs and their inherently higher complexity prevented him from making solid judgements about their internal characteristics.
He did not forget the lessons he learned from Gloriana, Tristan and the textbooks left behind by Aisling.
Second-class mechs rarely featured only one main system. Due to their higher tech and material base, many essential components had been miniaturized, thereby freeing up a considerable amount of internal volume that could be filled with all kinds of offensive and auxiliary systems.
His four battle bots each incorporated multiple weapon systems and auxiliary systems, so the mechs deployed from the Terrinac should be no different!
While Ves had to painstakingly tease out the secret capabilities of the enemy mechs, his opponents held no such burden!
The six mechs formed into a loose formation and steadily sped up to the vainly-fleeing Scarlet Rose as if the outcome was already set in stone!
Though Ves felt affronted by the arrogance radiating from the Fridayman mechs, he had no right to speak at the moment.
"I should focus on the battle instead of depressing my confidence."
He knew that if he continued to lament his inferiority, the Fridaymen didn't have to defeat him. He already defeated himself in his mind.
In order to remain stable, Ves concentrated his mind and started to cast out most of his unnecessary thoughts.
Only the battle mattered!
It was time to enact his plan!
"Deploy defensive fixtures." He commanded.
The mech hangar disgorged a pair of containers, which the battle bots quickly grabbed hold of. Under his direction, the machines placed the containers on the hull of the Scarlet Rose, upon which the magnetic nodes installed on their bottom surface anchored them against the surface of the ship.
The bots carefully opened the containers and began to pull out moderately thick metal sheets before pressing them against the hull.
The bots continued to place more and more metal sheets against the hull, each of them shaped in a way that allowed them to slot together like puzzle pieces!
Within minutes, a very clear shape came into existence.
The four battle bots pieced together a bunker!
The bunker stuck on the hull of the ship like an ugly pimple. The aesthetic of the Scarlet Rose was completely ruined by this crude metal bunker made out of modular sheets.
Ves tried to guess what his opponents thought about his actions. They must be scratching their heads right now!
He already guessed from the configuration of the team dispatched by the Terrinac that his opponents aimed to capture him and ship intact.
As long as they destroyed his battle bots, they could easily restrain the Scarlet Rose long enough to transfer over a team of commandos!
Since they wanted to avoid damaging the ship, Ves did not have to worry too much about the Scarlet Rose suffering an excessive amount of damage.
Only two out of six enemy mechs consisted of ranged mechs, and Ves already observed they wielded dual-type laser and particle beam rifles.
"It's similar to the rifle of the Selzer."
The two enemy ranged mechs clearly acted as fire support. The three melee mechs clearly played the main roles, while the striker mech with its devastating close-ranged firepower acted as a reserve if the opposition was more formidable than expected.
The key here was that the latter four mechs were only effective at close range!
While the battle bots under his control lost out badly in terms of close-ranged combat strength, at longer ranges his side actually held the upper hand!
"If I want to win this battle, I'll have to maximize my ranged advantage!"
In the last couple of days, Ves hadn't been wasting his time. The constant supply of Breyer alloy allowed Ves to come up with all kinds of preparations in the event of an arduous battle.
Aside from cladding his four battle bots with more armor, he also formed the moduled metal sheets to serve as the building blocks of an improvised bunker!
Though the sheets weren't very thick, his battle bots stacked another batch of sheets on top of the first one!
By the time the bots finished constructing the bunker, at least five separate layers sheltered the Kravon and the Selzer from outside damage!
Only small openings remained that were large enough to allow their weapons to fire outwards.
The bunker only barely accommodated the two ranged mechs, so the Paravin and the Fliskin were left out by the time they installed the final pieces of the puzzle. Ves instructed the two mechs to shelter behind the Scarlet Rose.
At this stage, they weren't needed! Their limited ranged armament was of no use at this moment!
The bunker didn't just contain the Kravon and the Selzer. The bots also retrieved various supplies such as energy cells and weirdly-shaped heatsinks from the two containers.
Right now, the Selzer picked up one of the heatsinks, which happened to consist of the same material as the bunker, and slotted it onto his dual-type rifle.
The Kravon held its gauss cannon upwards and slotted it through the hole directly above the bot.
The Selzer followed suit, the heatsink attached to the rifle sticking very prominently from the weapon.
"Fire!"
The range was a bit too far, but Ves didn't care about wasting ammunition and energy. This was the most difficult battle of his journey so far and he could not afford to hold anything back!
The gauss cannon fired first! The bunker and the rest of the ship shuddered as a considerable portion of its recoil transferred to the Scarlet Rose!
The projectile that the Kravon fired was not the conventional slug it fired previously!
Not only had Ves fabricated a large batch of gauss cannon rounds out of Breyer alloy, but he also modified them in a special way!
If Ves tried to hit the Terrinac or the six mechs with a single slug, the chance of hitting them was too small!
This was why the Kravon released something other than a normal slug. When the round reached medium range, its outer shell suddenly broke apart!
Several dozen shards slowly diverged and spread out as if fired by a shotgun!
Although their angles didn't diverge very much, their extremely high speed and the huge amount of distance they traversed quickly caused them to spread out across several hundred meters by the time they reached their targets!
One sharp shard dug into the shield of the space knight with considerable force, surprising the Fridaymen sent to recapture their property!
"Active countermeasure!"
The team of mechs quickly responded to this unexpected offensive! Ports built into the exterior of the two rifleman mechs abruptly opened and released several jets of particles!
These jets quickly bloomed around the loose formation, engulfing the mechs in a particle dust cloud that hindered many sensor types from distinguishing what was hiding within!
"Damnit!" Ves slammed his fist against the console.
The sensor arrays of the Scarlet Rose and the battle bots completely failed to penetrate this masking cloud! The particles deployed by the two ranged mechs just happened to be tailored against the configuration of his own hardware!
This was the advantage of going up against their own machines! The Coalition Reserve Corps used their information advantage to maximum effect!
Nonetheless, the particle cloud only encompassed a decently-sized area of space around the formation.
As the Selzer began to fire random laser beams, Ves had the sense that none of them hit their intended targets.
It was too difficult to land a hit in this obscuring cloud!
This happened to be very effective against the Selzer which mainly fired concentrated beams that absolutely had to hit in order to deal effective damage.
Ves grimaced, but quickly recovered. His fingers danced over the control panel.
"Defocus the laser beam!"
He minutely adjusted the Selzer's rifle to fire a laser beam that minutely expanded as it traveled through space!
Though the angle only expanded by a tiny fraction of a degree, at longer ranges the 'beam' quickly expanded into a 'cone' that stretched up to a hundred meters by the time it reached the cloud!
While Ves failed to see any results, his intuition told him that at least some of these laser blasts managed to hit the mechs!
"The problem is that the energy is too dispersed!"
Even if a portion of the expanded laser blast managed to clip a mech, the dispersal of energy meant that the affected target only suffered a small portion of damage!
The Selzer had to fire its weapon hundreds of times in order to damage a mech this way!
Ves briefly grinned. "Heat and energy are of no concern this time!"
Rather than letting the Selzer control its fire rate in order to avoid depleting its energy, Ves forcibly ordered it to fire its dual-type rifle as fast as possible!
Ordinarily, this would have heated up the rifle and the mech rapidly, but the heatsink made out of Breyer alloy just happened to absorb a decent amount of heat!
When the heatsink started to reach a limit, the Selzer detached the heatsink and just threw it out of the bunker before slotting in a new one!
Heat management was no problem this time!
As for energy, the Selzer had to worry even less! Ves already prepared plenty of spare energy cells. Even if the battle bot consumed much of their charges in earlier battles, Ves had already replenished them by tapping in the energy provided by the ship's power reactor.
Energy weapons were extremely convenient to use in extended battles and campaigns for this reason!
Now that Ves solved the heat problem, the Selzer could fire its rifle without any risk of overheating its weapon!
The enemy mechs already started to note the abnormalities. They never expected to meet such vigorous resistance at this range!
Hidden beneath the bunker installed on the surface of the Scarlet Rose, the Kravon and the Selzer unleashed a lot more firepower than their opponents anticipated!
The Kravon fired rounds that splintered off into deadly shards. The Terrinac did not expect to encounter this type of ammunition!
What surprised the six mech pilots from the Friday Coalition the most was that these shards were not as trivial as they thought!
The shield of the space knight and the exterior of the other mechs bore various scars. In the worst cases, the shards managed to dig deep enough to remain embedded in the material!
Suffice to say, the Terrinac quickly figured out that these shards actually consisted of high-quality materials!
"Where did this come from?! Did Lady Curver withhold any information?!"
The crew of the Terrinac formed all kinds of guesses.
Perhaps the Scarlet Rose picked up a shipping container during her flight.
Perhaps Ves managed to make a black market transaction back in the Great Zona Republic.
Perhaps Lady Curver secretly used her mission to smuggle a batch of high-value materials.
Whatever the case, the Kravon posed a lot more threat than before! Obscuring their formation in a particle cloud didn't help much at all, since the spread of the shards was already beyond the Kravon's control!
Though getting hit by a shard did not immediately spell disaster, the frequency of hits would soon take a toll on the mechs if they got hit!
The light skirmishers that ordinarily would have tried to avoid getting hit by taking advantage of their superior mobility had to take care the most!
Ves estimated that their defensive prowess was similar to that of the Fliskin. While this granted them superior mobility, there was no meaningful way to cheat the random spread pattern of continuous bursts of shards!
Therefore, hidden inside the particle cloud, the light skirmishers all converged behind the space knight. The mechs hid their slim profiles behind the larger and thicker space knight and its prominent shield!
Even though the shield featured numerous shards, it was resilient enough to hold out for a long time against this dispersed bombardment of shards!
However, the space knight and the other exposed mechs did not just have to contend against this rain of shards.
The Selzer also outputted a considerable amount of firepower! Though its expanding laser blasts only transferred a minute amount of damage to the stricken mechs, its large area of effect basically guaranteed that all of the mechs barring the hiding light skirmisher endured some heat and energy damage!
This was not that much of a problem at the start, but the continuous absorption of heat began to burden their own heat management systems while beginning to melt some of their surface layers!
The damage dealt by the Kravon and the Selzer was considerable when taken in isolation, but not enough to threaten the integrity of the Coalition mechs!
However, when the damage dealt by the two mechs overlapped, the enemy mech pilots started to feel some discomfort!
The constant heat and energy damage applied to the exterior of the mechs softened up the surface layers of their armor coverage.
This allowed the sporadic shards that hit the mechs to dig in deeper and deal more serious damage!
As Ves observed the approaching particle cloud while two of his battle bots bombarded it with their weapons with abandon, he became a little frustrated at the lack of information.
He could only guess what was going on inside this obscuring cloud! As long as the two rifleman mechs kept releasing particles, Ves had no way of confirming the results of his tactics.
Fighting against the forces of a second-rate state was much more challenging than he expected!
None of the people on the enemy's side was incompentent! Their mechs, mech pilots and commanders all represented the might of the Friday Coalition!
The mechs of the Terrinac didn't allow the ranged battle bots to beat them up with impunity.
As soon as the particle cloud entered within effective range, the ranged mechs finally started firing their weapons!
Unlike the Selzer, the rifleman mechs opted to fire particle beams!
Since the mechs had been designed to release the obscuring particle clouds, their sensors and targeting systems had been specifically tuned to overcome their interference.
The Coalition rifleman mechs accurately managed to hit the bunker atop the Scarlet Rose with their particle beams!
A pair of bright blue beams impacted the top of the bunker in an instant, causing its upper sheets to endure a considerable amount of physical and energy damage!
However, as the beams sputtered out, only a few surface layers exhibited some damage!
Breyer alloy was just as tough as the high-quality compressed armor plating of a second-class mech!
While the Friday Coalition used better alloys, they were incredibly expensive!
The advantage held by Ves was that he was not short on Breyer alloy! Even though the particle beams managed to penetrate some of the sheets after repeating, the bunker consisted of five layers of alloy sheets, which basically made the bunker as thick as a defensive mech shield!
Though it was not impossible for the bunker to get breached, it would take a long time before the two enemy rifleman mechs got through all of the layers!
Even then, his enemies still had to defeat the Kravon and the Selzer as well!
"It's all moot if those melee mechs manage to close the distance, though." Ves replaced his grin with a frown.
The enemy rifleman mechs were just meant to soften up his battle bots, which Ves managed to forestall by installing a bunker.
The true threat still lay in the space knight, striker mech and light skirmishers!
The interception continued. Because the Coalition mechs were chasing a fleeing target, it took quite some time for the former to catch up to latter.
Ves made the most out of this window of time by ordering the Kravon and the Selzer to fire their weapons with abandon!
The Kravon's gauss cannon came under an increasing amount of stress as Ves did not hold back in maximizing its firing rate!
He had studied the weapon carefully and already knew exactly how far he could push without breaking the weapon.
Each shot consumed a considerable amount of energy, causing the Kravon to go through a lot of energy cells in a short amount of time.
What was worse was that the Selzer turned into an energy hog as well! The huge buildup of heat and the frequent swapping of heatsinks was a very obvious indicator to how much energy the mech consumed!
The energy expenditure got so bad that the stash of energy cells rapidly ran out!
"It's a good thing I've already anticipated this outcome!"
A couple of lifter bots emerged from the mech hangar, sneaked through a hole built into the side of the bunker, and dropped the recharged energy cells they carried onto a magnetic plate.
The bots then picked up the energy cells that the Kravon and Selzer already expended and flew back into the mech hangar. From there, the bots hooked up the energy cells to a dedicated charging machine that rapidly replenished their reserves!
The power supply of a starship was a lot more formidable than that of a mech! It was no problem at all for the Scarlet Rose to recharge the energy cells a hundred times!
All of these arrangements that Ves improvised beforehand allowed his two battle bots to output a lot more damage than his enemies expected to meet!
Ves was sure his opponents were starting to get worried, especially as the enemy rifleman mechs still hadn't been able to breach the bunker!
He did not grow complacent though. As the enemy mechs continued to sustain more and more damage from the shards and dispersed laser blasts, they would surely be in a bad shape by the time they caught up to the Scarlet Rose.
How could his enemies ever allow that to happen?
Hidden within the particle cloud, the striker mech that ordinarily should have been effective at close range suddenly started to shift.
Several protruding modules built onto its back and shoulders started to open up, revealing several launcher tubes!
Forty missiles suddenly launched out of the striker mech! Several more salvos followed until the mech released 160 missiles in total!
The four salvos diverged from each other and arced towards the Scarlet Rose from four different directions!
Their acceleration varied minutely in order to ensure that all of the missile salvos impacted their targets at the same time!
Ves cursed when he noticed the missile launch.
"I knew their mechs weren't so simple!"
Missiles were some of the most thorniest weapon systems he could face. Almost every missile looked the same, but their payload and other properties varied enormously.
Ves had no idea how dangerous these missiles were! At best, the missiles were standard-issue and contained just enough power to fracture a single sheet of Breyer alloy.
At worst, their payloads actually consisted of a tiny amount of anti-matter, which was enough to crack the Scarlet Rose in half!
"The missiles shouldn't be so potent, though." He muttered.
Because the missiles had been launched from a secondary weapon system, it was unlikely for them to be too powerful. It was too uneconomical to supply extremely potent missiles to mechs that didn't specialize in missile weapon systems.
Ves also guessed that the Coalition Reserve Corps shouldn't enjoy a budget that was extravagant enough to supply their mechs with such excessive firepower.
While the missiles rapidly boosted towards the Scarlet Rose, Ves tried to glean their details by scanning them as best he could manage.
Unfortunately, the missiles came with a very sophisticated ECM system that just happened to be tuned against the Scarlet Rose's sensor array!
It was impossible for him to glean any details out of the missiles, let alone trying to intercept them before they struck their target!
"Since you like missiles so much, here's mine!"
The Kravon boasted missile launchers as well! After positioning them over some narrow slows in the bunker, the mech fired its own missile salvos!
A lesser amount of missiles closed in on the enemy mechs. Because they were continually closing in on the Scarlet Rose, the missiles released by the Kravon happened to reach them first!
Soon enough, the missiles reached into the particle cloud, where they soon disappeared!
The high amount of interference from the particle cloud also rendered the missiles blind and deaf once they got inside. The chance of any of the missiles hitting their targets was miniscule!
Ves regretted that he didn't have the time to modify the payloads of the missiles. If he could have just one or two weeks, he could convert several salvos of missiles into releasing shrapnel made out of Breyer alloy upon detonation!
As it was, the missiles launched by the Kravon could only act on their programming and explode randomly as soon as they entered the particle cloud.
"No damage?"
The enemy rifleman mechs still maintained the particle cloud, but its density suddenly dropped in half!
"Yes! At least some missiles managed to score a hit!"
One of the rifleman mechs definitely sustained some damage! Not only did it stop releasing particles, its rifle also fell silent!
Ves did not have long to study the effects of the Kravon's missile salvos, because the enemy missiles soon reached the Scarlet Rose!
The four separate salvos, which had dispersed in the first half of their journey, were all converging on a single point on the Scarlet Rose's hull!
Rather than hitting her propulsion system or any vulnerable areas, the missiles all impacted the bunker, causing it to become engulfed in a cascade of rapid explosions!
Ves held onto the control panel and braced himself as the Scarlet Rose shuddered from the repeated explosions!
While none of them were powerful enough to breach the ship, the large amount of missile detonations still posed a considerable threat!
As the aftermath of the missile detonations subsided, the Scarlet Rose stopped shaking from all of the shockwaves.
Ves opened his eyes and studied the exterior feed from the Scarlet Rose.
The bunker appeared to be in a very bad shape! The potency of the missiles fired by the mechs of the Coalition surpassed that of the missiles fired by the Kravon!
"That's unfair!"
The enemy not only came prepared, but also better equipped!
That had been clear through the initial appearance of the Terrinac. Unlike Aisling's bodyguard mechs which were mainly designed to repel opportunistic attacks, the mechs of the Terrinac were fully kitted out for battle.
This reflected in the increased amount of mechs the Terrinac was capable of deploying as well as the quality of their missiles!
Ves waited for another wave of missiles to appear, but none ever arrived. The small CRC strike force didn't seem to rely too much on missiles.
Of course, the effect of their initial salvos of misiles had been quite potent. After suffering from 160 different missile explosions, the bunker appeared to be a shell of its former self!
A jagged hole had formed at the top which negated virtually all of the frontal protection afforded the mechs inside!
The Kravon and the Selzer both suffered from their extremely close proximity to the detonations. Their surface layer and supplemental Breyer armor plating all featured a significant amount of cracks, indicating that they suffered considerably!
What worried Ves even more was that both mech sustained significant damage to their weapons.
While the gauss cannon and dual-type rifle were robust enough to withstand at least some damage, Ves noted that their telemetry conveyed various warning signals.
He couldn't afford to stress the weapons any further! Seeing that he had no choice, Ves altered the Kravon and the Selzer's instructions, causing them to leave the bunker and take up other positions while slowly firing at the approaching mechs.
At least they knew where to fire this time. Since one of the rifleman mechs stopped releasing particles, the other rifleman mech stopped as well.
Just one source of particles was not enough to block out the Scarlet Rose's sensor systems, especially as the distance between them had closed!
As enemy flew closer and closer, their counterattack intensified. With the Kravon and the Selzer firing their weapons at a much-reduced firing rate, the Coalition mechs came under much less suppression!
Though the shards fired by the Kravon and the laser blasts fired by the Selzer had inflicted a significant toll on the two rifleman mechs, the most threatening mechs still remained intact!
The space knight's shield happened to have been struck by a missile or two as well, causing most of the shards embedded onto its surface to be blown away.
What was left of the shield was not sufficient to cover the space knight anymore, but that was hardly a problem for the defensive mech! Its sheer bulk and armor was enough to endure the damage outputted by the two ranged mechs.
The striker mech, which had to withstand the sporadic attacks without any shield, all took the damage in stride. Its defensive prowess was just as good as the space knight, so the mech hadn't lost any functionality even as its surface layers looked awful!
The only mechs that suffered the most happened to be the pair of rifleman mechs. They weren't as strong in defense as the space knight, had they been able to avoid all of the spread attacks.
Though they were still firing particle beams at the Kravon, their cadence had dropped. Ves flicked his gaze to one of the sensor readouts and noted that the rifleman mechs had heated up considerably!
Though it appeared they came with an excellent heat management system, they had still reached their limit.
If the mechs fired their rifles any faster, they were bound to overheat!
"Still, the damage is done, more or less." Ves muttered.
The Kravon became a sitting duck due to its lack of mobility. Particle beam after particle beam continued to hit the mech even as it flew behind the Scarlet Rose in order to shelter behind her bulk!
At this distance, the accuracy of the ranged fire of both sides increased. Even if they didn't fire as frequently, the hits kept on coming!
Knowing that there was only a short time left before the enemy melee mechs reached the Scarlet Rose, Ves issued two commands.
First, the Paravin and the Fliskin stopped hiding behind the Scarlet Rose and started take position while firing their secondary armaments.
While neither mechs were very strong at ranged combat, at least they contributed a little bit in making the enemy ranged mechs a little uncomfortable!
Second, the Kravon and the Selzer concentrated all of their remaining firepower on the striker mech!
As a mech type designed to counter melee mechs, Ves dreaded it the most. If its energy projector released plasma or some other potent matter, the Fliskin wouldn't stand a chance!
For this reason, he did not hesitate to order his two ranged mechs to concentrate their fire on this mech as opposed to the other possible targets!
The enemy rifleman mechs had already expended much of their firepower while the space knight had already lost its shield.
The two light skirmishers remained the biggest threat, but Ves had no way of getting at them as they continued to shelter behind the space knight.
Though the Striker mech already endured a lot of damage, the defensive mech hardly incurred any damage to the internals.
This soon changed as the Kravon started to pound the mech with solid gauss cannon slugs!
Since the range between the two sides had decreased, Ves no longer bothered to chamber the Kravon's gauss cannon with fragmenting rounds.
Instead, the former artillery mech soon started to fire solid slugs at the striker mech!
As a defensive mech whose bulk rivaled that of the space knight, the striker mech was not very agile. Its evasion pattern wasn't too impressive, though its ECM system was enough to ensure that most of the slugs missed the mech!
However, even as only 10 percent of the shots hit their mark, the damage dealt was extremely considerable!
The full might of the gauss cannon not only shattered the damaged armor of the striker mech, but also damaged some of its internal components!
The slugs made out of Breyer alloy were just as tough as the armor of the striker mech, which meant that they wholly succeeded in transferring all of their kinetic energy onto the target without wasting any of it by shattering!
The high-quality ammunition made a huge difference at this time as each infrequent hit broke down the armor of the striker mech step by step!
As the mechs flew nearer and nearer, the accuracy of the Kravon continued to increase! The striker mech's ECM system started to have less and less of an effect as the Scarlet Rose's powerful sensor arrays forcibly overpowered it through brute force!
No matter how sophisticated a mech's ECM system worked, it could not compare against the power of an entire starship!
The decreasing effectiveness of the enemy's ECM systems also benefited the Selzer. Though it had already overheated by quite a bit, Ves did not hold back and finally commanded it to switch its dual-type rifle's firing mode to particle beams!
The bright blue beams kept hitting the striker mech with unerring accuracy! At this range, there was little challenge in hitting a relatively immobile target with a large energy signature.
Even a bot could reliably land a hit!
Under the sustained attacks, the striker mech finally incurred significant damage! Even without firing its short-ranged weapon even once, the mech plainly lost battle effectiveness as an awful tear in its abdomen area caused its internal power systems to be thrown into chaos!
"Yes! It's useless now!"
The mech pilot of the striker mech still managed to retain control, but that was only because the mech featured a lot of redundancy. Without all of these backup systems, the striker mech would have been inoperable by now!
While the mech was still capable of keeping up with the formation and participate in the battle, the commander of Terrinac evidently thought better.
There was no need to sacrifice an entire mech!
Soon enough, Ves noted that the half-crippled striker mech as well as the two spent rifleman mechs withdrew from the formation.
Ves managed to take out at least half of the Coalition mechs deployed against him! This was an incredible success, especially considering that none of his mechs had been paired with skilled human mech pilots!
"Yet.. is it enough?"
Though Ves managed to inflict much greater damage onto his enemy than either side expected, his advantage wouldn't last for long!
"They're getting close!"
Ves always possessed a decisive advantage in ranged combat. With the help of his preparations, he managed to make the most out of this advantage.
Yet the Terrinac still retained three mechs! The heavily-damaged space knight might have lost its shield, but it was still a considerable threat to the ship!
Even now, Ves directed the Kravon and the Selzer to direct their remaining firepower against this hardy mech, but there wasn't much time left to disable it completely!
"I'm out of time!"
The two light skirmishers that the enemy team had protected up to now finally reached the Scarlet Rose!
Ves hastily directed the Paravin to entangle the opposite space knight. There was no use in directing this cumbersome battle bot against the light mechs!
To deal with the two light skirmishers, Ves directed all three remaining battle bots against these agile target.
The Kravon and the Selzer both functioned as fire support. While the Kravon's gauss cannon was too cumbersome to hit the light skirmishers, at the very least it added to the pressure!
Ves placed a bit more hope on the Selzer. Though it was reaching its limits, Ves disabled all of its safety limits and forced it to fire its rifle regardless of all of the damage it sustained by overheating its systems!
He would rather wreck the Selzer than lose this battle!
Ves did the same for the Fliskin. Since it lacked a human mech pilot, the mech was able to perform maneuvers that surpassed the tolerance of its inertial dampeners, allowing it to accelerate more abruptly and perform more extreme maneuvers!
Yet as the Fliskin finally met one of the light skirmishers in battle, his battle bot instantly incurred a huge cut!
At the moment the two machines clashed, the Coalition mech cleverly evaded the Fliskin's predictable charge and swiped its side with one of its ultrasharp daggers!
Though the layer of Breyer alloy applied on the Fliskin managed to mitigate some of the damage, the battle bot still suffered significantly!
If not for the additional armor plating, the mech might have been disabled straight away!
As the two light machines circles around for another pass, the Fliskin lost the exchange yet again!
This time, it lost a third of its leg!
In the fourth pass, it lost one of its arms, causing its battle effectiveness to drop in half!
Finally, the enemy light skirmisher managed to circle behind the faltering Fliskin and damage critical parts of its flight system!
"NO!"
The Fliskin, which failed to land a single scratch on its opponent, lots all mobility in space as its flight system completely shut down!
Even though the Fliskin was still able to move its remaining limbs, without any solid surfaces to step on, the battle bot helplessly drifted away in space!
In the meantime, the other light skirmisher hadn't been idle either. It rapidly flew towards the Kravon and instantly circled around the cumbersome former artillery mech and stabbed out in various places.
As if knowing exactly where to strike, the mech pilot of the light skirmisher quickly managed to force the Kravon to lose power entirely!
The machine soon joined the Fliskin into drifting off from the battlefield!
The two light skirmishers, having disabled half of the battle bots, both approached their remaining targets!
Ves practically saw two daggers of doom each striking out at his remaining protectors! There was nothing he could do to stop these attacks!
The Paravin and Selzer were practically sitting ducks against these supremely agile mechs! Ves practically despaired as he expected his last two war machines to go down in quick order!
Yet before the light skirmishers closed the distance, two laser beams that appeared out of nowhere accurately struck their flight systems, causing them to veer off in their attack runs!
"What?! Who's there?!"
Due to the intensity of the running battle, Ves had tunnel-visioned into controlling and directing his battle bots as best as possible in order to fend off the Coalition mechs.
This caused him to neglect the Scarlet Rose's alerts when her sensors detected a couple of ships that emerged in the vicinity of the battlefield!
Though the distance between the new arrivals and the battlefield was fairly vast, a single mech managed to score two extremely accurate hits from an extremely long range!
Ves widened his eyes! Though laser beams traveled at the speed of light, in practice it was incredibly hard to land a shot on a target at such an extreme range!
Just a 0.0001 degree deviance in the aiming angle was enough for a laser beam to go wide!
Yet not only did the mech deployed by the new arrivals managed to strike the enemy light skirmishers, but also hit their flight systems in a way that crippled their mobility!
"What a supreme display of marksmanship!"
Only mech pilots and mech designers understood how challenging it was to achieve pin-point accuracy at such an extreme range! Not even second-class mech pilots ought to be able to accomplish this feat!
The distant ranged mech didn't stop after releasing those shots. As it continued to accelerate towards the battlefield, the mech rapidly released a series of powerful laser attacks that systematically dismantled the two hapless Coalition light skirmishers as if they were meat on the chopping block!
Just a dozen seconds later, the light skirmishers finally succumbed when the new mech struck their cockpits and instantly killed their mech pilots!
Ves stood frozen behind his control panel as he witnessed a single defeat the two mechs as easy as drinking water!
After finishing off the two swift targets, the approaching mech quickly directed its firepower at the enemy space knight.
Though the Coalition mech did a good job at beating up the Paravin, the moment the distant mech attacked it, the space knight fared no better than the light skirmishers!
The power of the laser beams increased, yet the firing rate hadn't declined! Powerful rays of lights continued to strike the various weak points of the space knight, causing it to lost a limb with every shot!
"This is incredible! How can a laser beam dismember a space knight so easily?!"
The power of those laser beams was beyond comprehension to Ves! A defensive mech should never succumb so easily! Even if his battle bots managed to destroy the space knight's shield and soften up its surface armor, it would still take dozens of concentrated attacks for his Selzer to separate a limb!
Yet this new mech easily destroyed the space knight with a handful of high-powered shots!
"The Selzer's rifle would quickly blow up if it attempted to fire such an overpowered laser attack!"
There was no sign the distant mech suffered from any overheating or other damage! In fact, the Scarlet Rose had a lot of difficulty trying to observe the distant mech.
"Even its ECM is powerful!" Ves gasped.
Once the new arrival wrecked the three mechs attacking the Scarlet Rose, the mech quickly redirected its flight and quickly struck down the retreating rifleman mech and striker mech that Ves had damaged earlier.
Due to their awful conditions, the remaining three mechs dispatched by the Fridaymen went down without a fight!
All six hostile mechs met their end within a single minute. Ves turned numb at the ease and speed in which these Fridaymen mechs fell like dominoes.
Even if Ves weakened them considerably, a single mech shouldn't have been able to topple them over so easily!
The battle situation changed at an instant due to the intervention of a third-party. The Terrinac, which lost all of her mechs, instantly turned around and overloaded her propulsion system!
The Fridaymen knew they faced a fearsome opponent!
Though the Terrinac fled a lot faster than Ves thought, her acceleration paled in comparison to the new mech!
Ves watched with astonishment as the Scarlet Rose tracked the movements of his savior with difficulty.
"What is this acceleration?! The mobility of this rifleman mech is insane!"
The blue-and-black mech sped up towards the fleeing Terrinac like a shark smelling blood. While its powerful ECM system prevented Ves from studying the mech in detail, he could still observe its acceleration and compare its mobility to other mechs.
Ves made an astonishing conclusion. "It's acceleration is multiple times greater than that of the Fliskin!"
The Fliskin was already a premier light skirmisher designed by Lady Curver. It was incredibly difficult to design a mech that accelerated just 20 percent faster, yet this new mech overpowered to such a degree that Ves suspected that it might be first-class mech!
Did the MTA's Compliance Department come and save him or something? Why would they ever intervene in this battle?
"No! It's not the MTA!"
Once he got over his shock, he stopped trying to observe the powerful new mech that would assuredly intercept the Terrinac.
Instead, he directed his attention towards the three ships that appeared some distance away from the Scarlet.
Unlike the sole mech they dispatched, the three ships did not hide their presence behind an ECM curtain. They openly announced their identities with their transponders as if they had nothing to hide.
Ves widened his eyes as he spotted a familiar name!
"The Stellar Chaser! Gloriana!"
Gloriana had finally come and rescued him! Not only that, she brought friends as well!
Ves briefly furrowed his brows. Shouldn't Gloriana be stuck in friendly space? The Glory Battalion would never allow her to stray too close to danger!
Yet the Stellar Chaser somehow entered the space claimed by Crecia Republic without her usual escorts.
He did not recognize the two ships flanking the Stellar Chaser. He could only go by the information transmitted by their transponders.
The smaller civilian corvette was called the Frozen Leaf, and didn't appear to be geared towards battle at all. Ves doubted the powerful mech came from this tiny vessel.
He scratched his head at her familiar name.
However, it was the other ship that truly caught his attention. The Serendipity was a sleek and aggressive-looking frigate that shared some common points with the Terrinac. While the former was smaller and possessed a smaller mech hangar, she was probably faster.
According to her transponders, the Serendipity was a ship that belonged to the Glory Battalion.
Ves understood why Gloriana left her usual escorts behind in favor of the Serendipity. The combat carriers that accompanied her to the Bright Republic were too large and cumbersome to sneak through unfriendly space.
All three ships that showed up in this star system were all fast and agile enough to evade most Fridaymen hunters.
Yet what if they met an ambush? What gave them the confidence to traverse the potentially dangerous territories of the Crecia Republic while possessing hardly any space to carry any mechs?
Ves knew that the Stellar Chaser could only carry a couple of mechs at best.
The Star Dancer probably resembled the Barracuda in that she could only bring along a single mech.
The Serendipity was a little better off since she was designed for combat like the Terrinac, but her mech hangar could only fit four mechs by his estimate.
This meant that the three ships could only bring eight or so mechs in total, which was an extremely precarious number!
Ves couldn't help but glance back towards the sole mech the Hexer fleet deployed. The obscured mech already started to bombard the fleeing Terrinac with powerful kinetic strikes!
"What a powerful gauss rifle!"
The mech seemed to have switched its weapon. The round fired by its gauss rifle impacted the Terrinac with a force that surpassed that of the gauss cannon rounds fired by the Kravon!
Glowing round after glowing round systematically damaged the propulsion system of the hapless Terrinac. Though the CRC frigate was virtually doomed without the protection of mechs, the crew still tried to do their utmost to escape this calamity!
Yet the hammering impacts from the powerful's gauss rifle put a stop to any attempt at escape!
The glowing rounds instantly reminded Ves of something. Ordinary gauss rifle rounds didn't glow when fired.
Only when imparted by some sort of energy would they leave bright streaks through empty space!
Ves belatedly moved his hand and expanded the data collected by the sensors of his ship.
"Resonance!"
One of the sensors designed to detect and measure resonance had become active!
The mech that saved him and went on to capture the Terrinac turned out to be an expert mech!
Gloriana somehow managed to gain the assistance of a Hexer expert pilot!
"How did she do it?! How much did she pay to enlist such powerful help?!"
Expert pilots ought to be precious even to the Hexadric Hegemony. With the Komodo War raging in the border regions of the two second-rate states, Ves could scarcely imagine why the Hexers allowed one of their expert pilots to travel so far away from the frontlines.
Yet no matter the circumstances, Ves felt incredibly relieved that his ordeal had finally come to an end. With Gloriana here, he could finally let down his guard.
With an expert mech under their wing, no Fridayman raiding force stood a chance against its might!
At this time, the Scarlet Rose finally received an incoming communication request from the Stellar Rose.
Ves instantly accepted the call.
"I'm here!" Gloriana's projection brilliantly smiled. "I'm so sorry I couldn't be in touch with you for so long! I had to work hard to convince my stubborn family to go out and meet you halfway. We also had to restrict our communications once we set off in order to avoid giving the Fridaymen too many clues."
"It's fine!" Ves held up his palm. "I managed to do fine on my own for so long. Don't underestimate me. I do appreciate your arrival. How did you manage to get an expert pilot, by the way?"
She sighed, though she still looked incredibly pleased. "It's a long story. Let's talk it over when you transfer to my ship. I have missed you so much! It was unbearable for me to be away from you for an entire month!"
Ves felt incredibly warm when he heard her words. He sensed no duplicity from her at all. She was truly sincere with her feelings.
The love they shared between them hadn't weakened at all. Their month-long separation reinforced how much they enjoyed each other's presence!
Though Ves wanted nothing more than to run up to her and pull her into his embrace, he considered what would happen to his spoils of war.
The Scarlet Rose was his possession! He didn't want to give her up to his rescuers!
Not only that, Ves wanted to keep the mysterious escape pod and Cassandra Breyer a secret! There was no way the Wodin Dynasty would ignore a renewable source of high-grade exotics!
"Ehm.. can you come to my ship instead? I don't want to let go of the Scarlet Rose. She's my prize, after all. I risked my life to capture this ship!"
Gloriana briefly looked sideways and quietly conferred with someone outside of the range of her projection. She soon turned her attention back to Ves with an apologetic expression. "The Glory Battalion won't allow me to step foot on your captured ship. She's not secure enough in their eyes. Just transfer to my ship. I'll tell the Glory Battalion to station a small prize crew on your capture in order to bring her back. Will that be okay?"
He knew that Gloriana would never allow him to stay put. She would probably go crazy if he refused to reunite with her when they were so close!
Knowing that his departure from the Scarlet Rose was set in stone, Ves at least wanted to receive some assurances.
"The Glory Battalion won't force me to give up the Scarlet Rose, right?"
Gloriana looked amused. "I'll make sure you get to keep your stolen ship, alright?"
Ves looked relieved. "Okay then. Can you give me some time? I have to wrap up some matters here."
"Fine, but don't take too long!"
It took some time for the small Hexer fleet to reach the Scarlet Rose. Ves took advantage of the delay to deal with the aftermath of the battle.
He first retrieved the wrecks floating in the vicinity of his ship. Before the Hexers arrived to the rescue, Ves lost two of his four battle bots.
The Paravin and the Selzer still remained functional, but the enemy light skirmishers made short work of the Kravon and the Fliskin.
Ves bled his heart out at the sight of the two broken machines. Fortunately, the light skirmishers disabled them by relying on finesse rather than overwhelming force.
The Kravon's frame was still in one piece. The enemy light skirmisher that attacked the artillery mech merely managed to cut all of its essential power lines with high precision.
Since Lady Curver designed the Kravon, she probably taught the CRC how to disable the mech as efficiently as possible.
The Fliskin was in worse shape. As a former light mech, its armor coverage was really too thin, and its limbs could easily be separated by an opposing mech!
Just as Ves predicted, a pilot-less light skirmisher stood no chance against an identical machine piloted by a skilled mech pilot!
"Battle bots are really too ineffective against piloted mechs." Ves helplessly observed.
Fortunately, Ves could still restore the Kravon and the Fliskin as long as he retrieved them. He could also convert the battle bots back into proper mechs, thereby adding four valuable second-class mechs to his arsenal.
Second-class mechs are very hard to come by to Ves. He especially valued the quality and comprehensive documentation on the four bodyguard mechs.
As long as he could retain possession of the machines, he could derive all sorts of benefits from tinkering with them! Due to the urgency of his flight, he hadn't studied them as much as he wanted. As long as he could examine their construction at his leisure, he would probably comprehend the essence of second-class mech design in a couple of months!
That wasn't all. Once Ves was done with them, he planned to pass on the four restored mechs to the Avatars of Myth so that they could gain some valuable experience in piloting second-class mechs!
"Simulation training is all well and good, but all of my Avatars should have the opportunity to train with the real deal!"
It was incredibly hard for third-class mech pilots to learn how to pilot second-class mechs. Without any practical experience in piloting the mechs, the Avatars wouldn't be able to tell whether they were truly qualified to pilot these powerful machines!
The four second-class mechs neatly solved this problem for his Avatars of Myth. Though Ves did not intend to rely on Lady Curver's products to outfit his Avatars of Myth for battle, they still served as excellent training mechs!
"I have to make sure I get everything I can salvage off this battlefield!"
He passed on instructions for the Paravin and the Selzer to salvage remains of the Kravon and the Fliskin. He also ordered them to salvage any pieces of the Fridaymen light skirmishers while they were at it. The mech hangar and the cargo bay still offered enough room for some extra spoils.
Once he did so, Ves turned away from the control panel and threw a glance as the stacks of Breyer alloy a short distance away.
Knowing that a prize crew would come and take command of the Scarlet Rose, Ves needed to clean up some of the traces.
There was no way Ves wanted to give up this endless source of Breyer alloy!
"Let's get to work."
He began a very hasty cleanup. First, he halted the loop and let the mysterious rest in the tube. To avoid attracting any attention, Ves ordered all of the tubes to seal themselves, thereby blocking access to the escape pods.
While this wasn't exactly standard, Ves hoped that the prize crew would pay attention to other aspects of the Scarlet Rose. There shouldn't be much of a reason for them to inspect the escape pods!
Afterwards, Ves accessed every bot and system in the vicinity and wiped out the logs and archival data related to the loop he formed.
To be absolutely safe, he even opened up the forging machine in order to pull out the data chips containing the logs and destroyed it entirely!
No hard proof should be left that this machine managed to process a large amount of identical escape pods in the last week!
Ves wasn't entirely satisfied, though. While he managed to clean up all of his traces, he wasn't sure what Cassandra Breyer would do if she was by herself for an extended amount of time.
Would her mummified body eventually resuscitate after being left alone for a few days?
Would her escape pod disappear from the Scarlet Rose and instead begin to the Stellar Chaser?
Would she somehow manage to find out what he had been doing towards her and take revenge?
He had no idea what would happen! He really didn't want to leave his ship for this reason!
If Ves had his way, he wanted to stay aboard the Scarlet Rose and keep the Glory Battalion away!
Yet that would not make any sense at this time. Ves may have taken over the Scarlet Rose, but he hadn't subverted all of her systems. Much of her running still depended on Fridayman programming.
Not only that, but the ship had been operating without a crew for almost a month. This inevitably caused some of the components of the mobile supply frigate to degrade.
The increased time required to cycle her FTL drive was just one of many indicators that the ship was deteriorating due to lack of maintenance!
The chance of malfunctions would drastically increase if Ves insisted on running the Scarlet Rose without a crew!
Since Gloriana was a mech designer, she should know the risks. She would never allow Ves to have his way!
While he didn't mind telling her about Cassandra Breyer if he had to, Ves did not trust the other Hexers. The chance of leaks was too great.
"I'll just have to keep my mouth shut and hope for the best!"
Perhaps the Hexers would find out about his secret anyway. Ves still wanted to do his best to secure his spoils!
Some time passed by for the three Hexer vessels to reach the Scarlet Rose.
Before they arrived, the Stellar Chaser already dispatched a shuttle that flew ahead and docked alongside the Scarlet Rose to transfer over a prize crew.
Ves held Lucky in his arms while the passenger hatch opened up to reveal a number of Hexers in the familiar gold-and-blue uniform of the Glory Battalion.
A female officer led the small procession of engineering and ratings. She immediately commanded them to secure the bridge and engineering section before turning to the person responsible for capturing the ship.
She looked at him with a mix of respect and disdain.
The former likely came from her admiration towards his seemingly-impossible feat.
The latter came from the ingrained female Hexer's attitude towards men.
"We'll take over from here, Mr. Larkinson. Miss Gloriana has ordered us to keep this Fridayman ship together while we shepherd her back to the Ylvaine Protectorate. You are instructed to board this shuttle and . Do you need to bring back any luggage?"
Ves shook his head. "That's not necessary. I left one of my tailored outfits behind in my cabin. I would appreciate it if you kept it safe."
With all of his last-minute cleanup activities, he didn't have the time to change his generic business outfit for the Pride of Dusk he originally wore when Ghanso transferred him to Lady Curver.
"We'll keep your possessions safe. Miss Gloriana specifically instructed us to that end." The officer nodded dismissively before turning away to head to the bridge.
The Hexer's imperious attitude rankled Ves a bit. He clearly sensed the woman looked down on him because he was a man. The only reason she talked to him at all was because he was Gloriana's lover!
Ves shook his head and obediently stepped into the shuttle.
Since the Hexers saved from the Terrinac, he could hardly act ungrateful. What did it matter if they hurt his feelings? As long as he didn't lose the Scarlet Rose and return to captivity, everything else was fine!
As Ves took his seat in the empty shuttle, the vehicle slowly detached from the Scarlet Rose and flew back to the Stellar Chaser.
Lucky leisurely squirmed out of his grasp and curiously explored the passenger compartment.
Much like any possession of Gloriana, the shuttle was a high-quality model. Its interior exuded luxury with its padded chairs, carpeted surface and various decorations.
Ves was already used to such displays from the Stellar Chaser and the Scarlet Rose. He considered much of it to be excessive.
While he appreciated art, there was a point where luxury stopped being useful. Ves would rather spend his money on a plainer but more functional shuttle model.
As Ves allowed his thoughts to wander, the shuttle finally returned to her berth.
When the hatch opened up, Ves and Lucky carefully stepped out onto the shuttle bay.
A missile immediately struck Ves against his chest!
"Ves!"
"Gloriana!"
Warmth bloomed between the two reunited lovers as they finally embraced each other after a long and sudden separation!
The two mech designers embraced each other tightly before locking their lips in a heartfelt kiss!
Neither of them held any coherent thoughts in their minds. Only pure emotion remained as they drank in each other's presence!
"Wow, Gloriana." A skeptical female voice interrupted their passionate kiss. "Is this the boy you set your sights upon?"
The unknown woman forcibly ruined the moment. Ves awkwardly straightened up while Gloriana angrily turned towards the offending woman!
"Ranya! We talked about this! It's my choice who I want to share my life with! I already made a deal with my mother, so don't think of spoiling my relationship with Ves! He's much more impressive when you get to know him. Just give him a chance!"
A very remarkable-looking woman accompanied Gloriana to the shuttle bay. She immediately caught his attention due to her very sophisticated white lab coat and odd green hair that seemed to wave in the air.
Ves already recognized her even without Gloriana calling her name.
This was Dr. Ranya Wodin, a young exobiologist and biotech expert that Gloriana invited to Cloudy Curtain some time ago. She was supposed to work together with Dr. Lupo to implant the Archimedes Rubal in his head!
He never expected her to show up at this time, and with powerful company as well!
While Ves studied Dr. Ranya, his girlfriend exchanged tepid words with her cousin.
Dr. Ranya didn't seem to have a good impression of Ves!
"You're really letting the Wodin Dynasty down by association yourself with a third-rater like Mr. Larkinson here." She shook her head in disappointed. "While I admit that his accomplishments are impressive for a boy of his background, he is a mutt compared to the purebreds of our state. Just look at what happened. He couldn't even take care of himself! He needed your brother to save his skin!"
"You're being unfair!" Gloriana shouted back while clutching Ves even tighter as if she was afraid he would disappear! "You can't expect a mech designer to defend himself like a mech pilot! Don't forget he managed to turn the tables against the crew of the Scarlet Rose by himself! That's something that neither you and I can do! For a brave third-rate citizen like Ves to overcome those odds, he at least deserves some appreciation!"
"We'll see." Ranya crossed her arms across her chest. "Bring him to the infirmary. Since you care about him so much, let me check up on him and make sure the Fridaymen haven't left any unpleasant surprises in his body."
She turned away and headed towards the exit without another word.
Ves and Gloriana looked at each other with a bit of helplessness in their expressions.
In the next hour, Dr. Ranya subjected Ves to a comprehensive examination at the Stellar Chaser's infirmary.
The compartment held a lot of sophisticated medical machines, many of which looked nearly identical to the ones aboard the Scarlet Rose.
Ranya demonstrated a high proficiency with the machines as she manipulated their settings with ease.
The machines went to work by scanning and injecting various chemicals in his body. Ves worried a bit about his impromptu treatment, but Gloriana was watching her cousin carefully.
"Your boyfriend's body is remarkably tough, but his internal organs still show signs of recent damage." Ranya commented while her fingers danced over a control interface. "It seems he suffered from a very severe blow when he fought the Fridaymen and took over their ship. What is really 'impressive' about your boyfriend is that while he is smart enough to subject himself to an automated treatment regime, he stupidly interrupted it and relied on his physique to heal his lingering wounds!"
"I couldn't afford to lay low. I had to wake myself up to direct the Scarlet Rose through hostile territory!" Ves meekly defended himself while he lay on a treatment table.
"Shut up! You'll only exacerbate your recovery if you talk while I'm in the process of remedying your lingering wounds! Many of them haven't healed properly! I'll have to examine you and treat you at least half-a-dozen times over the course of a month in order to undo the damage you've done to your own body! If you aren't Gloriana's latest boy toy, I would have passed you off to another doctor!"
"Don't forget who's paying you, Ranya." Gloriana sternly reminded her relative. "You'll have plenty of funding to support your research on exoplants as long as you take good care of Ves. Haven't you made some breakthroughs recently?"
"I did. If I'm fortunate enough, I'll attract some investment or receive the attention of a professor."
Gloriana scoffed. "Don't kid yourself. No one wants to play with plants while our state is locked in a war against the Friday Coalition! During the Komodo War and several years afterwards, only war-related research projects will receive funding."
Though Dr. Ranya resented Gloriana's remark, she couldn't exactly refute it. Unless her research projects were capable of affecting the Komodo War, the biotech industry didn't have any reason to pay attention to her work!
For a young exobiologist who harbored ambitions of her own, this was an extremely unfortunate outcome!
If she happened to graduate and launch her career at any other time, then she probably would have been able to achieve some success by now. Yet because the Komodo War just broke out, the Hexadric Hegemony entered into a full war footing, which meant that the Hexers had to pour all of their resources into the Hex Army, the mech industry and other war-related endeavors.
"I'm doing well enough on my own so far." Ranya defended herself. "Some of my products have caught on. You're not the only entrepreneurs among the Wodins."
"Don't think I don't know how you are earning a living these days. What will my mother say when I tell her that you've been supplying addicts with illicit stimulants?"
Ranya immediately looked distressed.
Cadence Wodin was the Minister of Security of Scimitar II. Part of her responsibilities encompassed policing duties, which meant that Ranya would definitely be at fault!
In fact, even if Gloriana's mother wasn't in charge of the police, Ranya would still be afraid of catching her attention!
"You wouldn't dare."
Gloriana smiled in victory. "I won't do anything to you as long as you treat Ves honestly. Don't try and harm him in order to sabotage our relationship. I promise you that you'll regret it if you lay a hand on my boyfriend!"
"Sheesh, Gloriana! Who do you think I am? I'm a professional! I have taken an oath! As long as Mr. Larkinson is my patient, I'll treat him to the best of my abilities!"
"I just want to make sure. Too many people disapprove of my relationship with him. You can't blame a girl for protecting what she wants."
Time continued to pass as Ves felt more and more uncomfortable. Various machines continued to prod and poke his body. He could practically feel his body changing from the inside as various sophisticated medicines and tools messed around with his insides.
Fortunately, none of the treatments brought him any pain. He only felt frustrated because he had no clue what was going. Ranya didn't appear to be in the mood to explain her work, and Gloriana didn't seem curious either.
Instead, Ves was forced to lie down and remain still while listening to the banter between the two Wodins.
Neither Gloriana nor Ranya bothered to shield their conversation from his ears. Both of them fell into the typical Hexer habit of neglecting the presence of boys.
Ves wasn't complaining. He gathered a wealth of information about the second Wodin he came into contact with. As the doctor responsible for installing his implant in his head, it would be prudent to know her better!
"If you think my reaction to your odd choice of lover is bad, you should see the responses from the folks back at home."
"I don't care about them." Gloriana dismissively said. "As long as I can convince my mother that Ves is meant for me, she'll stand up for me. Not even Matriarch Xiaphna will rule against her!"
"You seem very sure of that."
"Once you realize what Ves is capable of, our Wodin Dynasty will definitely appreciate him! Just wait. In two years, both of us will blow your minds!"
"I'm not sure if any of us have the time to pay attention to your boyfriend at that time. The Komodo War will be in full swing by that time!"
"What do you mean, Ranya? Hasn't the war already started?"
"The war is still ramping up. Even though we struck the first blow, our state couldn't make too many preparations for fear of revealing too many clues. Even now, our Hegemony is still in the process of mobilizing all of its reserves. According to our matriarchs, it will probably take a lot of months before the Coalition and the Hegemony are both ready to launch any major offensives. If not for this delay, your brother wouldn't have been able to accompany me to this appallingly underdeveloped region of space. I still regret agreeing to your request even now!"
"What is the current state of the frontlines?"
"It's mostly skirmishes I've heard. There's a lot of fighting, but not a lot of border systems are changing hands at the moment. That's all I know. It's not as if I have any relations to the military. You should ask your brother if you want to know the details. He promised to visit your ship as soon as he cleaned up the Fridaymen. I think he's quite pleased with capturing their ship. It's nothing impressive, but at least he earned some merits to offset this diversion."
"How long will he be staying?"
"Again, you should ask him, Gloriana. I think he'll only stick around for a couple months before he has to go back. I think he's hoping to bring you away from this squalid region before that, though. He thinks the same way about your latest fling as I. You deserve better than this low-class specimen of humanity. Just look at his body scans! There's nothing normal about his abnormal half-alien physique!"
"It doesn't matter." Gloriana released a loving sigh while she stared at the scans. "Ves is great the way he is right now. At least he won't die so easily!"
Ranya let out a frustrated grunt. "Expect to face a lot of flack once you get home. Your decision to enter in a relationship with Mr. Larkinson resulted in a minor scandal back home. A lot of Wodins don't think well of you at this moment! Not only did you abandon your responsibilities at home, you also snubbed all of the dynasties who lined up potential suitors for you. Some of those boys are pretty yummy, you know!"
"Bleh." Gloriana exaggeratingly gagged. "I know what you're talking about. Even if they are cuter, Ves is already handsome enough! While I like a tasty snack as much as any other Hexer, those good-looking boys at home are too useless! When it comes to mech design, I would take Ves over any supposedly-talented mech designer!"
The conversation between the two female Wodins quickly devolved into a comparison between Ves and the boys from the Hegemony.
Ves really didn't need to know all of this information! He mentally closed his ears and impatiently waited for the first round of treatment to end.
Eventually, Ranya finished her treatment regime. After injecting one last fluid in his bloodstream, she allowed Ves to leave.
"This is it for now, Mr. Larkinson." Dr. Ranya glanced at him with a disinterested expression while she wrote up some notes. "Don't perform any exercise or make any strenuous movements until you go through my follow-up sessions. You still have a lot to go before your body is fully restored. If your physique and genes aren't so warped, I would have been able to finish your treatment sooner. As it is, you'll just have to be careful for a month."
"Do I need to watch out for anything else?" Ves asked with some respect.
Though Dr. Ranya did not show any respect to him at all, Ves still found it prudent to treat her as a benefactor.
If not for requesting her help all those months ago, perhaps this rescue would have never happened!
"You should watch your diet and avoid eating too much junk. I'll send a note over to you and Gloriana's chefs so they can adjust your meals."
After that, Gloriana practically dragged him out of the infirmary.
As Ves had spent some on the Stellar Chaser already, he recognized that Gloriana was bringing him straight to the lounge compartment.
Once there, she deposited him onto the loveseat before sitting next to him with a loving gaze.
"We're finally alone!"
Ves briefly glanced at the bodyguards that followed her and took up position at the sides. "Not really."
"Oh, just ignore them!" She giggled before turning to a floating cat bed that hovered in the corner. "Clixie! Come over here! Bring Lucky with you as well!"
So that was where his cat went, Ves noted.
Lucky and Clixie curled up together on a circular cat bed and licked each other's necks for some reason. As soon as Gloriana called them up, they jumped from the bed and padded over and hopped onto their laps.
"Meow!"
"Miaow!"
"Oh, look! Clixie missed you so much!" Gloriana grinned while stroking her hand over Lucky's smooth back. She soon noticed his tiger stripes. "Lucky looks different. Did you upgrade him, Ves?"
"In a way." Ves vaguely replied. "He's been very helpful to me. He's one of the main reasons why I was able to escape captivity."
Gloriana immediately glowered. "Those Fridaymen went too far! That Curver cow had no right to take you away from me! Tell me you didn't fall for her, Ves."
Knowing how touchy she was on these matters, Ves answered her question seriously while looking straight into her eyes.
"I love you, Gloriana. I never wavered in my commitment to you. If I didn't love you anymore, I wouldn't have taken a huge risk and killed off all of the crew of the Scarlet Rose. I didn't hesitate in burning my bridges with the Friday Coalition to declare my devotion to you! I'll kill millions of Fridaymen for you if that is what it takes to prove my love to you!"
"Oh Ves.."
Gloriana practically melted against him while she reciprocated his gaze. All of the tension in her body faded away as she finally realized that Ves was back and here to stay!
For his part, Ves felt happier than ever to be reunited with his girlfriend. The trust they shared between each other was something he sorely missed!
Two minds intertwined with each other as Ves and Gloriana blissfully enjoyed each other's company.
After so many weeks of separation, the joy they felt when they finally got back together was indescribable!
Both of them put down all of their concerns and simply basked in each other's presence.
Touching each other, kissing each other and cuddling with each other cured the sickness that gnawed at their hearts.
All of these weeks of spending their time alone taught them both a very serious lesson.
It was a curse to remain alone, and a blessing to enjoy the company of their earnest lover!
The love they held for each other hadn't diminished in the slightest. Neither of them had 'woken up' or found any reason to reconsider their relationship.
Instead, like junkies, they yearned for each other's company even more!
Now that Gloriana returned to his side, she dropped all of her airs and turned into a happy girl who did not hold back in her delight!
"I missed you, Ves." She sighed as she pressed her head on his chest. "I missed you too as well, Lucky!"
"Meow..."
Lucky contently purred while he rested on her lap. Staying stuck with Ves all the time was not his idea of fun!
At least Gloriana didn't kick him around or threw him in the air for no reason!
For her part, Clixie purred while basking in Ves' warmth. As someone who made her owner happy, Ves had long earned her approval!
The fact that he understood her at a deeper level also helped. Sometimes, it was hard being a cat!
"How has it been back home?" Ves idly asked, his finger rolling one of Gloriana's locks of hair.
"The LMC and your other organizations are doing fine. The Bright Republic hasn't touched the Mech Nursery or any of your property. Both the LMC's tangible and intangible assets are still intact. In fact, with how much you matter these days, your home state has an even greater reason to make sure your rights are respected."
"Hahaha!" Ves released a cynical laugh. "That's rich, coming from the government that allowed one of their generals to trade me away like I'm nothing more than livestock!"
"If we didn't design such a pivotal mech like the Deliverer, the Bright Republic probably wouldn't have reversed its stance so quickly." Gloriana shared his opinion.
"How is the Deliverer faring?"
"It's doing as well as you expected. The Eye of Ylvaine that the Protectorate has formed some time ago is making a name for itself throughout the region. Every Hunter of Ylvaine has become a welcome presence on the battlefield due to their ability to channel the will of Ylvaine. While every Ylvainan piloting a Deliverer is able to do so to an extent, their prophet is slowly concentrating his power onto the Eye of Ylvaine."
This development came as a surprise to Ves. He hadn't given Ylvaine's spiritual fragment any instructions to restrict his powers to this small, elite group of Kronon mech pilots.
It made sense for the sentient fragment to restrict the bestowal of its favor. If the Deliverer kept excelling with its supernatural abilities, soon millions of Ylvainans would adopt the mech!
What happened if all of those millions of devout Ylvainan mech pilots requested supernatural aid?
The fragment would quickly exhaust itself!
In order to keep the Deliverer relevant without running a spiritual energy deficit, Ylvaine's spiritual fragment evidently decided to make its blessing exclusive to this small group of chosen Kronon mech pilots.
"How many mech pilots have joined Eye of Ylvaine?"
"There are about five-thousand Hunters of Ylvaine at the moment. It's quite a rapid expansion for the Ylvainans, as they don't have many Kronons who specialize in piloting spaceborn marksman mechs. It's not that easy to recruit more because those who aren't as good in marksmanship will largely waste Ylvaine's blessing."
Ves already understood this. Though five-thousand chosen mech pilots didn't sound like a great figure, it was enough to cover many important star systems in the region!
"The Ylvainans should have lent their Hunters of Ylvaine to other states by now, right?"
Gloriana nodded. "That's right. Every other state has tried to make use of the Deliverer model, to no avail. Only true Ylvainans are able to make adequate use of our mech model, which is exactly what you intended! The Protectorate knows this as well, and has made great use of this advantage. Over the last month, they have been both smart and generous about their terms for assistance."
"Tell me what they have done."
"The Protectorate negotiated deals with the Bright Republic, Vesia Kingdom, Reinald Republic and every other state pressed by the sandmen. The contents of the deals are secret, but the press has done a decent job at guessing the concessions the latter states have made to the Protectorate."
"Did they bleed themselves?"
"Almost certainly, but not as much as you expect. The Protectorate is being farsighted by all accounts. They aren't demanding the Brighters and Vesians to give up their territories or empty their entire treasury. Aside from some direct transfers of wealth and resources, the Ylvainans mainly want to improve diplomatic ties, open up trade, and receive a guaranteed right to proselytize their faith abroad without any hindrance."
"I take it the states that are knocking on the doors of the Protectorate aren't entirely pleased about those concessions." Ves guessed.
"They're not very happy." She nodded. "They acquitted, though. With the sandmen constantly deepening their attrition, they have no choice to but to beg the Eye of Ylvaine for help!"
"It sounds like the Protectorate could have taken more advantage of the distressed states."
"It's true that the leaders of the Protectorate have held back. Since the Deliverers have relieved a lot of pressure in their state, the three leading dynasties aren't fixated solely on the Sand War anymore. Instead, it's the Komodo War that is increasingly weighing on their minds."
Both of them paused for a moment. Ves and Gloriana had always directed their efforts towards the Sand War because this conflict happened to be closer to where they stayed. It was also the conflict where their products would be best appreciated.
The Komodo War was an entirely different beast. While Gloriana possessed the qualification to design second-class mechs, Ves was not at that level yet. He still had much to go before he became confident his products would be on par with the mechs designed by Hexer or Fridaymen mech designers.
Now that the Sand War reached its turning point, there was even less of a reason for them to design a mech for this market.
The later stages of a war and the recovery period that happened afterwards always resulted in a drop in demand.
Both the military and the private sector exhausted all of their reserves, and even went deep into debt. With the cessation of most fights, there were no good reasons to buy any mechs at this time!
In fact, many organizations would attempt to downsize at this time in order to cut costs and gain some liquidity. A lot of second-hand mechs would flood the market after every war, making it even harder to sell pristine mechs at their list prices!
Therefore, the Bright Republic's mech market would enter into a very big depression period. Ves had no doubt that a number of struggling mech companies would either shutter their doors or get bought out by better-performing competitors.
With all of this upheaval taking place, there wouldn't be many opportunities for the LMC to do business in those hard-hit states.
"The states that survived the sandman onslaught won't be in any shape to participate in the Komodo War." Ves remarked. "If the Protectorate helps them win the war, they'll probably earn a lot of gratitude from those states, most of whom happen to maintain friendly ties to the Friday Coalition."
Gloriana smiled. "That's why the Ylvainans are doing their best to make those Coalition-aligned states grateful to them. When the Protectorate has literally rescued billions or trillions of citizens from complete annihilation, it would be very difficult for those states to turn around and attack their savior. That is if they have any forces left to threaten the Protectorate. The Brighters and the Vesians have pretty much exhausted almost every resource."
"Even the states that aren't affected by the Sand War will be reluctant to gang up on the Ylvaine Protectorate." He cleverly noted. "The Protectorate has acted very morally in extending their aid when they could have just let those states fall. The entire Komodo Star Sector aside from the second-rate states will honor them for their contribution! Even the MTA will extend their appreciation to the Ylvainans for striking the critical blow against the aliens."
While gaining the appreciation of many people was not a guarantee, it would be very hard for the Friday Coalition to persuade its vassal states to attack the Ylvaine Protectorate.
At the very least, doing so would inevitably tarnish their reputation and cause them to appear more tyrannical in the eyes of every third-rate state.
Such an act might hand the Hegemony an advantage in the longer term!
"For this reason, I think the Protectorate will be fine when the Komodo War heats up." She told him, as if to reassure him about the safety of his now-favorite state.
Ves wasn't sure whether he appreciated the Ylvaine Protectorate or the Bright Republic the most. He still wanted both states to do well, though.
He still cared for the Bright Republic because it was the state that the Larkinson Family called home. Many of his family members still stubbornly stuck to the state despite the recent upheavals.
For the good of his relatives, Ves could not wish his home state any ill.
He felt a bit mixed about the Ylvaine Protectorate as well. The Ylvainans had been very helpful to him, but that was predicated on the popularity of his work.
The moment he stopped delivering the goods, he would stop gaining as much appreciation from them! Certainly, Ves could still coast along for some time by depending on his legacy, but that would probably fade in time.
In truth, Ves did not wish to repeat his mistake by leaning too much on a single state. A faction in the Bright Republic had already screwed him over, so who could say that the same wouldn't happen again in the Ylvaine Protectorate?
For this and several other reasons, Ves did not plan to settle permanently in the Ylvaine Protectorate.
Of course, for now Ves had nowhere else to go, so he would probably stay in the Protectorate for as long as it took to reorganize the LMC. Moving his headquarters and main operations away from Cloudy Curtain was a very disruptive move that did not do his company any favors!
"What about the Larkinsons?"
"They're still arguing about how to split themselves up. Now that you're back, you should get in touch with your relatives. Your lack of input is one of the biggest reasons why the talks within your family has stalled."
Ves sighed and rubbed his hand against her thin arm. "So the Larkinson Family as we know it will come to an end. I almost feel guilty for precipitating this event."
"If you ask me, not every Larkinson deserves your patronage. I think it's good if you separate the chaff from the wheat."
"Your words have merit, but.. I doubt it will be that easy. The majority of Larkinsons have opted to stay with the old guard, right?"
"That just makes it even better." She smiled. "This means that only the Larkinsons who are truly committed to you will be left. All of those Larkinsons who have doubts or aren't willing to let go of their old ways are gone. You can do whatever you want with the family who are truly willing to follow you to the ends of reality!"
The way she framed the split sounded very compelling to Ves. He no longer felt as remorseful for splitting up the family.
"As long as I have some loyalists, it's not impossible for my branch of the family to surpass the one led by the guard!"
As much as Gloriana wanted to turn herself into a barnacle, she couldn't stick with Ves forever.
She still had some responsibilities to attend to, though she didn't elaborate very much to Ves. It was for his own good, she claimed.
"Just because I've left the Hegemony doesn't mean the Hegemony has left me." Gloriana gently patted his head as if he was a puppy. "Sometimes, a girl's gotta work. I still have many obligations to the Wodins, and the customers of my old products are still entitled to support."
He smiled and briefly pulled her into an embrace. "Alright. Go do your thing, then. I have plenty of tasks to do as well. After separating from my company for so long, I'm worried whether it will fall apart if I remain absent for much longer."
"Your subordinates are doing a good job in keeping the LMC together. You don't have to worry on that end. They don't depend on your leadership as much as you think."
That was probably because Ves delegated so many duties, he conceded. He had never been a hands-on leader when the LMC ceased to be a one-man operation.
"Regardless, I'm sure they'll welcome my presence. I'm pretty much the only mech designer aside from you who can perpetuate its success."
Before they separated, Gloriana made one more remark.
"There's one more thing, Ves. My older brother wanted to meet you, but subduing the Terrinac and putting it under our control has taken longer than we thought. While our Glory Battalion has managed to take control of the ship, our fleet must soon leave this star system before any rescuers from the Friday Coalition arrive to block our escape."
They were still in the middle of unfriendly territory. While the Crecia Republic was by no means an enemy of the Hexadric Hegemony, it still hosted several known and unknown Coalition assets.
Ves didn't look very concerned, however.
"Don't you have an expert pilot protecting you? Even if the Fridaymen somehow manage to scrounge two mech companies on short notice, your fleet won't come under serious threat."
"We can't underestimate the Fridaymen." Gloriana shrugged. "Now that I have you back, I won't risk losing you again!"
Well, she had a good point.
"By the way, who is your brother and what is he like?"
Gloriana grinned. "My brother is the one who saved you earlier today. He's the pilot of the Star Dancer!"
"The expert pilot?!" Ves widened his eyes.
"Exactly! Didn't I tell you that there is an expert pilot within my family? If I didn't beg him to save you from the clutches of the Fridaymen, you would have become their prisoner again. He wants to meet you when we reach our next stop. Be nice to him, okay?"
Ves recalled the earlier conversation between Gloriana and Ranya.
"Doesn't your brother think poorly of me?" He pointed out.
She waved her hand in dismissal. "I'm sure the two of you will get along with each other! You're a mech designer and he's a mech pilot! I know you don't like to stay in the company of female Hexers, so you should definitely be more comfortable with a Hexer who shares something in common with you, hihihi!"
He wasn't so sure about that. Ves recalled the time he inadvertently participated in the trials held by the Rim Guardians. He met his first Hexer back then. The male Journeyman was just as stuck up and dismissive towards Ves as the female Hexers!
"What if we don't get along?"
Gloriana swiftly stepped up to him and held him tightly on both arms. Her face almost pressed up to him with an intense expression!
"YOU HAVE TO BEFRIEND MY BROTHER, VES! IF YOU CAN'T EVEN GET ALONG MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS, HOW CAN YOU EVER GAIN THE APPROVAL OF MY MOTHER?! OUR VERY RELATIONSHIP IS AT STAKE! BE SERIOUS AND DON'T MESS THIS UP! I'LL PUNISH YOU IF YOU MAKE THINGS DIFFICULT!"
"I-I-I'll do my best!" Ves hastily responded in shock.
Gloriana had turned twice as frightening as the mummy that haunted him back on the Scarlet Rose!
If he had a choice, he would rather deal with a centuries-old undead witch than an angry Gloriana!
When she received the response she wanted to hear, Gloriana quickly regained her composure and gently kissed his cheek.
"It's for a good cause, Ves. We can't move our relationship forward until my family and my mother are okay with it. What I'm doing is already at the limit of their tolerance. If not for all of the promises I've made and the turmoil back home, my mother would have recalled me by now."
"I understand. We always knew it won't be easy to get the Wodins to like me. If my contribution to the Sand War hasn't changed their minds, then it will probably take a huge effort for us to change their minds."
"It's not as difficult as you think. You know what we need to do to change their perception of you." She reminded him. "As long as we make one good masterwork mech, everything will change!"
Ves hadn't spent all of his time aboard the Scarlet Rose for nothing. He already formed some ideas to improve his odds of fabricating a masterwork mech. He couldn't wait to put some of his ideas into action!
They finally separated from each other. While Gloriana approached the bridge, a guard escorted him to his quarters, which was right next to Gloriana's stateroom. Their cats followed their owners as well.
"You are free to move around, but we suggest you stay in place until you are called." The female guard perfunctory said. "Our fleet will continue to remain on yellow alert throughout our journey back to the Ylvaine Protectorate."
"I understand. I'll stay put."
The guard left him alone in his quarters once he got the message.
Not that he enjoyed any actual privacy. This was Gloriana's personal starship, and Ves bet that every corner of his quarters was bugged to an insane degree!
He smirked and patted his lower waist. "It's a good thing I'm still wearing the right pair of underwear!"
While it disconcerted him somewhat that he was still wearing the same article of clothing for more than a month, with the existence of advanced washing options, he was still able to maintain a satisfactory hygiene standard!
"It's not like my Synthra Umbra underwear has turned smelly." Ves sniffed the air just to be sure.
"Meow."
"Thank you."
"Meow meow."
"Are you happy that you reunited with Clixie?"
"Meow!"
"Hahaha, don't delude yourself. The two of you are completely different beasts!"
"Meow meow!"
Ves ignored Lucky's complaints and sat himself down behind a desk. He activated its terminal and saw that Gloriana thoughtfully loaded it with his favorite software and settings.
In fact, the configuration of the desk terminal was virtually identical to that of his old office at the Mech Nursery!
"Did she copy my files?" Ves frowned.
He shrugged. He didn't really store anything too important at the company. Ves always stashed the truly important data in his System comm, which he already placed back in his intangible Inventory.
The comm he was wearing now was just a generic device he fabricated on the fly.
"I should ask Gloriana for a replacement comm. No. That's a bad idea. I should get one from another source!"
His girlfriend already possessed an uncomfortable degree of access to his life. There was no reason to make things easier!
He shook his head and focused on his priorities. He should really get in touch with his subordinates.
He first decided to call Calsie. It only took a moment for her to accept the call.
"Ves! We've heard that the Hexers managed to rescue you! I can't tell you how much of a relief it is to see you again!"
Ves chuckled. "I'm glad to be free as well. How much do you know?"
"Ah, not much. Gloriana only sent a brief message to us. She estimates that it will probably take a week or so to bring you back to the Ylvaine Protectorate."
"Do you know where exactly they are bringing me?" Ves asked. "Where are you residing, by the way?"
"We're currently based in the Kesseling System. While it's not exactly our first choice, the Protectorate heavily encouraged us to found our second headquarters at Kesseling VIII."
Wasn't that the star system where he designed the Transcendent Messenger? Wasn't it also the place where the Ylvainan Inquisition put him on trial and almost sentenced him to death on spurious charges?
"The Kesseling System.. is not my first choice."
"There are good reasons to settle on Kesseling VIII." Calsie calmly replied. "First, it's an industrial planet that has managed to fare well in the Sand War so far. While it's not the biggest production center in the Protectorate, its significance has increased due to all of the events that took place in the past. It's becoming a real pilgrimage site, you know. Local support for the Bright Martyr is the highest here! You won't get a better reception elsewhere."
"That's not enough."
"Some of the companies there have also been contracted by the Curin Dynasty to produce the Deliverers for the Eye of Ylvaine. This makes it easier for us to partner up with or potentially acquire these mech companies in the future."
That sounded viable to Ves, though he preferred to raise his own facilities rather than taking over someone else's company.
"What else?"
"We already formed a branch office here. Do you remember the LMYC? The subsidiary you've formed between the LMC and Madame Cecily Curin has grown significantly, to the point where it is able to materially assist our integration in the Ylvainan mech industry. Without their assistance, it would have been multiple times harder for us to root our company in a foreign state!"
Ah, he forgot about that. With Calabast pulling the strings through her holding company and her influence within the Ministry of Trade and Industry, she could provide a lot of assistance.
"So how is the current state of the LMC?"
"We're building a second manufacturing complex in the outskirts of Krent, the capital city. It will be just as impressive as the Mech Nursery. There was some discussion within the company whether we should invest more or less in this complex, but we decided to stick to the same and wait for your input."
Ves paused for a moment to consider his plans for the future. "Try and make the second complex more secure, but don't invest too much in its production facilities. It's fine if you leave a lot of room for future growth, but don't sink too much money in too many production lines. How is the company holding up financially?"
"We're doing very well, even if most of our cash reserves have dwindled in value due to inflation. Whether it's bright credits of Reinaldan marks, we've only earned a fraction from the sales of the Desolate Soldier and other mechs. They're still worth something, though. It's more than enough to rebuild the LMC."
She provided him with some figures and explained all of the foreign cash reserves the LMC accumulated during its peak.
Even now, the LMC continued to make at least some business in selling its existing lineup of models. Plenty of states outside of the ones affected by the Sand War discovered the usefulness of the Desolate Soldier and its glow.
While the Soldier product line wasn't optimized to fight against mechs, their glows made them very useful for various purposes!
Its enduring popularity along with the modest sales of the other models of the LMC ensured that it earned plenty of money to sustain its operations!
Best of all, the revenue earned from the more stable states came in currencies that weren't affected by hyperinflation!
"This will be the foundation for our second rise." Ves declared after he got the gist of Calsie's explanation. "Transmit all of the documents you think I'll need to read in order to get back up to speed. I've already formed some plans while I was away, but I want to study our exact circumstances before I make up my mind."
"Will do, sir."
He ended the call shortly after she transferred the relevant documents. Ves still had several people to talk to before the day was over.
"After I call Benny and Raymond, I suppose it's time to talk to my grandfather." He mused.
Before Ves called his grandfather, he first sent him a message to see if he was available to talk. He also wanted to give his grandfather some time to prepare for their conversation.
Fortunately, his grandfather wasn't asleep or restricted from talking to him. After setting a quick appointment, Ves soon moved on to call his other helpers.
"Benny!" Ves smiled. "How's my favorite assistant?"
Gavin's projection awkwardly smiled. "Do you have any other assistants?"
"Well, I've met several of them, but all of them seem more capable than you. How come you're the only Benny I know that can't fight?"
"That's not my job description."
"That's the main reason you're my favorite assistant. I don't have to be on guard against you. You're the most incompetent Benny out of all of the ones I know. You deserve a prize for that!"
"Excuse me?"
"On second thought, it's kind of embarrassing that my Benny isn't up to standard. I should drop you off at an elite commando training camp or something. You should really pick up some of the necessary skills that is expected of someone in your position. If you can hijack a second-class starship with minimal assistance like me, you're qualified to call yourself a Benny!"
"My name is Gavin, boss." The perplexed assistant reminded his employer with gritted teeth.
"I know, Benny. Your name is one of the most important parts about your identity. Cherish it well!"
For the next ten minutes, Ves let go of everything and continued to ramble to Gavin like a demented teenager. He hardly asked any questions about the LMC other than to gain his assistant's perspective on the LMC's market position.
Of course, what Gavin told him did not differ much from what Calsie already mentioned.
Ves truly felt he was back in the saddle now that he got in touch with Gavin again. It was too bad that Gloriana hadn't taken him aboard her ship when she mounted her rescue.
After he finished getting back in touch with Gavin, he regained his composure and called Raymond Billingsley-Larkinson.
As the most senior executive of the LMC who actually ran the company, Raymond possessed a much more comprehensive understanding of its current condition.
Ves first quizzed the COO about the areas which Calsie already explained. He received both a confirmation and some elaboration on what he already learned.
"The LMC is running on autopilot pretty much." The business-minded Larkinson elder remarked. "Even if you are absent for half a decade, our company will still be able to turn a profit. While our mech catalog is still small, the Soldier product line is such an enduring success that it will continue to function as our cash cow for many years to come."
"So there is not a lot of financial pressure on the LMC, is that right?"
Raymond nodded. "Part of that is also because we don't have that many expenses. While we are investing a significant amount of money in building our second base at Kesseling VIII, our warchest is still replenishing. It's enough to expand our reach in every third-rate state that is open to using our products!"
"Ves pressed his lips with his finger. "That sounds nice, but I take it we don't have enough money to compete in a second-rate state, right?"
"Is that what you plan to do? Expand the LMC to a second-rate state?"
"It's.. in consideration." Ves vaguely said. "I already told you that I intend to become proficient in second-class mech design. I'm still committed to this. In fact, if there is one benefit to my impromptu vacation, it's that I've made a lot of progress on this front!"
"Who will you sell your mechs to, Ves? The Fridaymen? Ordinarily, they should be quite receptive to your products once they discover the benefits of your glows, but..."
Ves chuckled. "Slaughtering an entire crew of Fridaymen is a good way to block my access to their mech market."
"Quite. As for entering the Hegemony mech market, will the Hexers even approve of your designs? From what I've learned, a panel of matriarchs must approve every design, and I doubt they will take you seriously!"
"That's only in the cases where men are the lead designers." Ves added, showing little concern. "Even if my involvement is problematic, one of my.. partners is already working on this issue. I'll let you know if we have made a breakthrough on this matter."
If Calabast and Gloriana's arrangements somehow fell through, then Ves would just have to find another market to push his products.
Vicious Mountain had always been known as a hotbed for low-level conflicts. Its odd culture of putting mech pilots in charge often led to spats between rivaling states and groups.
While the warmongering states of Vicious Mountain generally didn't fight each other to the death like what was happening in his home star sector, the wars occasionally escalated into major conflicts that only ended when one side gained a significant advantage!
This pattern persisted for centuries, which meant that its sector-wide mech market had grown very vigorous!
Aside from mech pilots, mech designers also enjoyed a lot of respect there. Ves would probably be able to find a very willing audience if he decided to enter this market!
Of course, Ves hadn't made his choice yet. He still had to find a way to get into the good graces of Madame Constance Wodin and the other Wodins in order to advance his relationship with Gloriana.
This was why he still wanted to enter the Hegemony's mech market despite all of the difficulties he faced.
Ves continued to discuss some other matters about the LMC with Raymond until he became satisfied with what he learned.
"Before you go, I'd like to hear from you what you think about what is happening within our family." He said. "What is your opinion on the impending split?"
"The tension between the factions is irreconcilable." Raymond stated with absolute certainty. "While your words managed to wake a lot of Larkinsons up, how they responded to your rant is different from individual to individual. Some have reaffirmed their old values and commitments. Others decided that following you is worth giving up outdated vows."
"Why have most Larkinsons decided to remain in the Bright Republic?"
"Taking part in your ventures is considered a risk, Ves. Not everyone is willing to take a major gamble that will decide how they will live out the rest of their lives. It's mostly the younger and more restless Larkinsons who have decided to follow you to the Ylvaine Protectorate. The Larkinsons who decided to remain in the Bright Republic are mostly those who are already content with their lives and station. They're not ambitious for anything greater and they're not in the mood for an adventure."
"Understandable. I take it many of them decided to stay for the sole reason they are already tied down by their families, right?"
Raymond nodded. "When you are a husband with numerous young kids to take care of, uprooting your entire life in order to pursue an uncertain future is the last thing you want. This is actually the main reason why many Larkinsons who are neutral in the dispute within our family have decided to decline our invitation."
"How many trueblood Larkinsons have followed us? Those who share our blood, I mean?"
"I'd say about ten percent so far. Almost none have reconsidered, though. A steady number of Larkinsons in the Bright Republic who haven't joined us at the start are still signing up with us. I think this situation will persist over the next years as more and more younger Larkinsons grow up and want to take part in a more exciting venture."
"There's also the Larkinsons who are still serving their tours in the Mech Corps." Ves recalled. "I imagine that some of them will likely defect to us once they finished their commitments."
"That's why I suggest that you keep our doors open to the 'other' Larkinsons for the foreseeable time. None of the Larkinsons who approach us come with bad intentions. It behooves us to accept their applications as they come."
Ves thought about it for a moment before nodding in agreement. "That sounds fine. I'm about to talk to my grandfather Benjamin about the future of the Larkinson Family. Do I need to know anything before I call him? What we'll decide will very likely affect our direction!"
"Benjamin will tell you all you need to know. Just keep in mind that Ark and him are in the neutral camp who decided to stay where they are. Both of them have lived a full life in the Bright Republic, and they both feel they have a responsibility to lead the rest of the family."
That was something Ves had already expected. Though disappointing, he agreed with their stance.
Where Ves was taking his side of the Larkinson Family was anything but stable and conventional!
In this regard, he was more than happy to pick up the Larkinsons who were still young and retained their ambitions.
At least Ves wouldn't feel guilty if he led them to disaster!
He cut off his call with Raymond shortly afterwards. After a brief moment to collect his thoughts, he pulled the trigger and called his grandfather.
Since he had already been notified beforehand, Benjamin Larkinson picked up his call in an instant.
His grandfather looked much more fatigued than before. His projection practically oozed exhaustion! His grey-white hair and wrinkles had grown even more intense, making him appear as if he was one step closer to the end of his life!
Fortunately, seeing his grandson's projection lifted some of his weariness.
"Ves. I can't tell you how happy you're free again."
"You look.. overworked. Are you still hanging on, grandpa?"
"Don't worry about me. I still have plenty of years in my bones. I won't drop down tomorrow because of what has taken place. The Larkinsons still need a steady hand at the top to guide them through our current.. difficulties."
Ves looked steadily at his grandfather's projection. Despite his age, his customary formal attire still conveyed a lot of strength.
He was still the bedrock of the Larkinson Family!
"What's your take on the split?"
"I have already discussed this issue extensively with Raymond. We're on opposite sides of the negotiating table, after all. Both of us agree that a split is inevitable. The problem is that the 'old family' and the 'new family' both disagree on who gets what."
"What are the most important points of contention?"
"It all boils down to two broad categories." Benjamin raised his finger. "First is the issue of identity and heritage. Our Larkinson Family is a very successful military family with a very stellar reputation in the Bright Republic. The old family wants to retain sole possession of the Larkinson name. They're afraid that the new family under your lead will do something that will tarnish the honor of the Larkinson name in the Bright Republic and abroad."
Ves wanted to rub his ears. "What? Those selfish conservatives want to strip us of our very own family names?! Are they serious?!"
"It's a very major sticking point to them, Ves. Honor is everything to them! You've already proven yourself to be a Larkinson who doesn't shy away from upending tradition."
"We're never going back to the Bright Republic!" Ves angrily exclaimed. "We'll be going far away from the Bright Republic in the future! Whatever we do won't affect the old family at all!"
"Plans can change."
"Let's not go into this right now." Ves forced himself to calm. It wouldn't do to yell at his grandfather, especially since it wouldn't do any good to his health. "What is the second point of contention?"
"The distribution of assets. I think it's pretty clear that the old family will retain possession of the Larkinson Compound and most of its existing assets."
"I'm not interested in the real estate portfolio of the Larkinson Estate." Ves confirmed.
"The only asset that the old and new family are arguing about is how to split up the shares of the LMC. Currently, our family owns 25 percent of the LMC. The old family wants at least 20 percent of it. They claim that you owe much of your success to your Larkinson heritage, so they are entitled to some of the fruits of your labor."
"THAT'S ABSURD!"
Ves went through several negotiations throughout his career. He learned how to give and how to take. He learned how to understand the needs of his counterparts and match them against his own to seek out a harmonious agreement.
The most ideal outcome for both parties involved would be to reach a win-win arrangement.
When both sides obtained the concessions they wanted while giving up something they didn't value as much, both of them would do their best to uphold the deal.
Yet how easy was it to reach an amicable deal like that? The very need to hold a negotiation implied that a straightforward agreement was out of reach.
This meant that in order to reach a deal, both sides had to give up some advantages they would rather retain. The more a side conceded, the more they felt pained about the deal.
Compromises were never clean. Both sides had to give up so many significant concessions that the end of a negotiation always left a sour taste in their mouths.
When he heard the demands from the conservative faction that led the old family, Ves forcibly paused and forced himself to think.
He saw beneath the surface of the old family's outrageous demands.
The faction that counted Venerable Ghanso Larkinson among its supporters certainly asked for much.
First, the old family wanted the new family to lose the right to call themselves Larkinsons.
This was nothing else than robbing Ves and the other Larkinsons who followed him of their heritage!
Second, the old family wanted to claim most of the shares the formerly-united family held in the LMC!
For the old family to covet 20 percent ownership in the LMC while leaving the new family with the remaining 5 percent was nothing more than pure greed!
Ves couldn't help but chuckle. "Aren't the traditionalists being hypocritical? On one hand, Ghanso and his ilk detest the so-called 'corrupting' influence of money. Yet now they are shameless asking for twenty percent ownership of an unimaginably wealthy mech company!"
"There isn't a contradiction as long as the wealth is put to good use." Benjamin answered in the stead of the conservative faction. "The purpose of claiming ownership is not to enrich individual Larkinsons. It's to secure the prosperity and continuation of the old family. The dividends would flow into the family's coffers, which will mainly be used to fund our mech academies, upgrade the training of our mech pilots and ensure a generous pension for our retirees and any families our deceased family members have left behind."
All of that sounded noble, but that was hardly different from what Ves already intended! He was just a bit more direct about how he could benefit the Larkinsons!
"What a dumb excuse." Ves did not hesitate to tear down the veil in front of his grandfather. "The conservative faction is being hypocritical, and you know it. Why are you even speaking on their behalf? I thought you didn't pick a side."
"Someone has to speak on their behalf in front of you." He said. "Being neutral doesn't mean we lack sympathy for the conservative faction. Even though I dislike Ghanso as much as any decent Larkinson, the values he is standing for are still worth fighting for. While I'm your grandfather, I'm also a Larkinson. Since you are more than capable of standing up for yourself, it falls on me to represent the Larkinsons who have decided to stay in the Bright Republic."
Though Ves resented these circumstances, he knew that his grandfather was doing the right thing. As one of the oldest and most respected Larkinsons in the family, Benjamin took his responsibilities seriously. That was just the kind of man he was. Ves did not expect his grandfather to be anything less!
Though facing a family member who was dear to his heart made Ves inclined to soften his stand, this was too important for him to give any ground!
The Larkinson Family owned a fourth of the LMC! One of his goals in usurping the leadership of his family had always been to reclaim this ownership stake!
Of course, if Ves really wanted to, he could turn his back to the first company he founded and start anew with an entirely new venture.
While it would hurt him a lot to give up the tangible and intangible assets of the LMC, as a Journeyman he could still rely on his personal reputation to accelerate his second attempt!
The only issue was that Ves really didn't want to part with the constant revenue earned from the continued sale of the Soldier product line. He also didn't want to lose the rights of all of his designs, which had all been put under the umbrella of the LMC for administrative reasons.
Ves always contemplated refreshing the Blackbeak, Crystal Lord and other legacy designs. Losing the right to continue to work on pivotal designs like the Aurora Titan would be an exceptionally painful loss!
More than losing all of the assets as well as the formidable reputation of the LMC, Ves would also break some of his principles by abandoning the venture he started.
In the mech industry, it was considered to be dishonorable for a mech designer to abandon a company over something as banal as disputes over stock.
Mech designers always needed cash in their earlier years. When they were at their weakest, money was often difficult to come by. For investors to take a leap of faith and invest in the company of a mech designer was a very essential step in the rise of many successful mech designers.
For these mech designers to profit from the risks their investors had taken, only for the now-successful entrepreneurs to stop developing mechs for the company in order to start another company was very dishonorable behavior.
Of course, what use was honor in the face of concrete benefits?
With the power and personal wealth of a mech designer of their station, Journeymen no longer had to beg for scraps from wealthy industrialists and greedy investors. They could own a company completely, or as much as the state where they incorporated their new business allowed!
Yet as Ves already discovered, honor, fame and reputation played a very outsized role in the interactions that took place in the upper echelons of power.
When trust was hard to come by and laws too weak to be enforced, only trust and mutual benefit ensured that an agreement would continue to be upheld.
Ves knew he would have to pay an invisible but very severe price if he abandoned the LMC when it still held much promise.
The stain on his record would be one he could never wipe out. The stain on his principles would also be something that would haunt his mind for centuries to come.
For all of these reasons, Ves deeply preferred to avoid this outcome. The price was much more unbearable compared to the petty material gains of starting anew.
He turned his attention back to his conversation, no, negotiation with his grandfather. Though he ruled out the possibility of abandoning the LMC, that did not mean he had to take the opposite side's opening bid seriously.
What he should ordinarily do was to raise his temper, vent his thoughts on the conservative faction's unreasonably high demands, and offer a ridiculously low counter offer.
From there, the conservative faction would do its best to raise a stink and take the moral high ground demanding a little less, say a 19 percent stake in the LMC, as a show of giving ground.
Ves slowly shook his head as he realized the pointlessness of this dance.
He had been through several negotiations to make a very important realization. He wasn't compelled to play a game of chess just because someone shoved a chess board in front of his face.
If Ves was strong enough to flip the chessboard and make the entire game invalid, then he might as well do so! Why should he pay any mind to family sentiment and fall into the conservative faction's insidious trap?
A grin appeared on his face as he leaned back on his luxurious desk chair. He wrapped his fingers in front of his chest.
He did not look like someone who contemplated a painful concession.
Instead, he exuded the vibe of a conqueror!
"Grandfather, I think you are very mistaken about some facts. While I respect the values the old family continues to uphold, the whole point of breaking our traditions and embracing new ways is to expand our prosperity and leverage the power it conveys! The new family that is led by me is very different from the old family that you have stuck with! Unlike you old fogeys, I'm more than willing to throw my weight around!"
Benjamin started to have a bad feeling about this conversation. "What are you on about, Ves?"
"Why should I even pay attention to the conservative faction in our family? The old family has nothing except for its honor and its storied legacy! While I admit that these are very valuable accumulations, they don't convey any concrete power! It's one of the main reasons why I wanted to change the Larkinson Family, after all! Since people like Ghanso reject any changes, let me teach them why it is a mistake to discount my ways!"
"What is it you are intending to do, Ves?!" His grandfather grew alarmed.
Ves grinned. "The old family is not qualified to negotiate with me. You and the conservatives you shelter are too weak to decide your own fate. Since you continue to subject yourselves to the laws of the Bright Republic, I'll just switch to negotiating those who master these laws! Unfortunately, unlike you, the government doesn't necessarily have the old family's interests at heart!"
"Wait! Don't be so hasty, Ves! I'm just conveying the initial stances of the most stubborn members in the family! Let me talk to them so that—"
"—Too late!" Ves cut his grandfather off. "I'll proceed to negotiate with someone who isn't as stodgy and hypocritical as Ghanso's ilk!"
He cut the comm connection before Benjamin could put in another word.
Though he found it hard to treat his grandfather this way, Ves was acting as the leader of an entire faction of Larkinsons right now.
To mistake this negotiation as a grandson talking to his grandfather was a very irresponsible mistake. In order to maximize the benefits of his Larkinsons and prevent the old family from gaining concessions that they didn't deserve, Ves had to act like a leader.
Though his heart bled a bit, his vindictiveness against Venerable Ghanso and his like-minded idiots quickly pushed out the sympathy he held for his grandfather and all the other neutral Larkinsons.
While the neutrals weren't his enemy, their stance essentially coincided with that of the conservatives.
They were two sides of the same coin. They were joined at the hip. Even if Benjamin and Ark Larkinson were more respectable than the likes of Venerable Ghanso, Ves would be a fool to grant them any favors!
After he regained his composure, he decided to call someone who could represent or at least liaise on behalf of the Bright Republic.
He called Leland.
As if expecting the call, the Flashlight operative quickly picked up the call.
"Ves. It is good to see you again." The slimebag's projection smiled at Ves. "I've heard of some of your exploits. For some reason, it doesn't surprise me at all that you managed to outwit and outfight the Fridaymen. I have always judged that you are one of the most remarkable mech designers our state has ever produced!"
"Spare the meaningless flattery. We need to talk."
"Ah, for whatever reason?" Leland innocently asked while adjusting the tie of his formal suit.
"Let's talk about the future of my relationship with the Bright Republic. Are you able to represent the will of the state?"
"Not exactly, but give me some time to contact my superiors. I'll make myself available so that you can convey your wishes to the officials who can make the decisions you seek. Senator Tovar will definitely be interested once he hears what you have to say."
Ves nodded in satisfaction. "That sounds great. It's nice to talk with someone who understands the true score."
The true negotiation soon commenced.
Over the span of his short career, Ves rapidly rose in prominence.
His grand accomplishments as well as his success raised his stature to a height that put him above the level of commoners.
While Ves still took his humble roots to heart, it was undeniable that he had gained enough power, wealth and influence to negotiate with entire states!
Even a great statesman like Senator Tovar had to take him seriously!
With such a status, why should he continue to entertain his grandfather who attempted to mediate on behalf of the old family and the conservative faction?
They were barely different from the common citizens of the Bright Citizens! Despite all of their accomplishments, the traditionalists in the family still abided by the laws and customs of their home state!
Though this was a very righteous and honorable stance to uphold, the true beneficiary of this tradition was the Bright Republic rather than the Larkinson Family!
Ves literally pointed out this truth on the day that Venerable Ghanso took him away, but it seemed his grandfather and the rest were still too accustomed to the old status quo to realize their
The old family possessed no bargaining power to speak of!
Without real power, how could they ever think to push their demands onto a Journeyman, a galactic citizen, a war hero, and most recently a savior of many states?
He was the Bright Martyr! He enjoyed the worship of almost every Ylvainan!
He was a Journeyman! His mechs were celebrated throughout the star sector!
He was a Larkinson! Unlike his more indoctrinated relatives, he was actually willing to wield his power for his own ends!
The difference was too vast. Not even the former and current expert pilots in the family were capable of dragging him to the negotiating table. Like feeble slaves trying to push a statue, their paltry arms would just break if they attempted to drag his vast might from his place!
The Larkinsons who were used to their old ways didn't understand. Why should they? None of the older Larkinsons ever thought to use and abuse their power to enrich themselves or pursue greater benefits!
It went against their principles! The Larkinsons ought to be humble servants of the Bright Republic. The family always kicked out the relatives who disagreed with their ways like Raella, thereby ensuring that the long-standing consensus was never threatened!
The continuous lack of challenge to the tenets the Larkinsons abided by would prove to be the downfall of the old family.
Ves was in no mood to be generous to them, not after Venerable Ghanso sold him to the Fridaymen like livestock!
If Ghanso was heartless enough to sell out his own family, then the faction he belonged to shouldn't complain if Ves paid them back!
Once he contacted Leland, he patiently waited as the spy got in touch with his superiors, who in turn contacted the relevant higher ups.
It took some time to set up this daisy chain, especially when Ves requested to talk to Leland only.
He wasn't in the mood to talk to a shrewd official like Senator Tovar. His tolerance towards these high-minded power players was very poor after they allowed General Cavendish to
Knowing that Ves would react poorly if he faced a senior representative of the government, the state was okay with allowing Leland to be their spokesperson.
The fact that the government readily made this concession to Ves was very telling.
The Bright Republic still wanted to maintain relations with him. Perhaps it even wanted to repair the damage it had done in the last month.
Certainly, Ves did not feel very inclined to treat his home state earnestly, but for the good of the Larkinsons, he would not tear the veil of civility between them unless he had cause to do so. If the government knew what was best for them, they ought to play along.
"My apologies, Ves. This took a bit longer than we thought due to the suddenness of your request." Leland interrupted his musing.
"So can we actually talk frankly, now?"
"Certainly."
Leland's projection exuded more certainty now that he was tasked with representing the will of the state.
For his part, Ves did not only represent himself, but also the LMC as well the new family.
An unspoken understanding had formed between the two. The agreements they made today would have far-reaching consequences.
"Before we begin, let me inform you of some developments that pertain to the ownership structure of the LMC. In the weeks you were gone, some of the shares have exchanged hands."
"Oh?"
"Two major transfers have occurred. First, Sibilant Asset Management managed to buy out Marcella Bollinger's stake in the company. That increased the holding company's ownership in the LMC to 26 percent."
Sibilant Asset Management was a front for Flashlight, which in turn represented the government.
All of this basically meant that the Bright Republic's stake in the company had grown.
Ves couldn't help but smile suspiciously at Leland. "Mrs. Bollinger is a shrewd businesswoman. Her entire career is built on her business acumen. I can't imagine why she would ever relinquish her 5 percent ownership in a mech company that has already earned an astronomical amount of money and is on track to enrich her even more."
"Everything can be negotiated." Leland replied with a coy expression. "After much persuasion, we have managed to convince Mrs. Bollinger to sell her stake in exchange for a rich reward. We made sure that she hasn't suffered a loss."
That was pure nonsense. Ves did not have to think too hard to guess that the government essentially did the same to his old backer as he did to his grandfather!
This was yet another lesson in why it was best to pursue greater power.
If Ves was as powerless as the likes of Mrs. Bollinger, he would have never been able to drag the state to the negotiating table! They would merely take advantage of their power and dictate the terms as they did to other powerless people!
"So does that mean the state owns more of the LMC than the Larkinson Family?"
That sounded very concerning. It essentially signified that the Bright Republic could potentially team up with the Larkinson Family and gain total of the company! Ves, who owned 49 percent of the shares, could not legally go against the wishes of the holders of 51 percent of the shares in his company!
The only caveat was that such an outrageous takeover would definitely burn the few bridges between them that still remained.
Despite the damage to his reputation, Ves would rather turn his back to the LMC than subject himself to the control of a majority that did not deserve to profit from the fruits of his labor!
Leland, Flashlight and the government knew that as well, Ves could tell. Their reaction wasn't as pushy as it could have been.
"The Larkinson Family is not affiliated with Sibilant Asset Management. The two are two separate shareholders. I can't imagine that both will march in lockstep." Leland described.
Openly, Leland didn't lie. Yet Ves did not believe the government was above co-opting the Larkinson Family in order to influence their votes whenever a decision was brought up to the company board!
Ves did his best to remain reserved and crossed his arms. "What else has happened?"
"The Bright Republic has recently signed a treaty with the Ylvaine Protectorate. I'm sure you have heard of it, right?"
How could he not? He couldn't help but smirk. "If General Cavendish hasn't driven me away, I would have facilitated this agreement myself."
Leland looked a bit ugly. "It's a pity that such a shameful event has taken place. In any case, the Ylvaine Protectorate agreed to lend us their Hunters of Ylvaine and their remarkable Deliverers in exchange for a number of concessions. One of them happens to pertain to the shares owned by Sibilant Asset Management."
Ves widened his eyes! "Don't tell me.."
"Your guess is on the spot. We have sold a portion of the shares to the Ylvainans. They've driven a hard bargain, from what I'm told. I won't tell you how these secret negotiations proceeded. I don't know the details myself. The result of these talks is that our government has agreed to relinquish 19 percent of our shares to the Transcendent Investment Authority, an Ylvainan sovereign wealth fund."
That much?! Ves didn't hide his surprise. The Ylvainans truly made good use of their superior bargaining position! With the power of the Deliverer mechs under their control, the Ylvainans succeeded in fleecing the Brighters!
Ves clapped. "Bravo! It turns out the Ylvainan people are good at something other than praying to their prophet!"
"Is that the tone that a Bright Martyr should adopt to the people who hold him in high regard?" Leland asked with an intrigued look in his eyes.
"Oh, I have nothing but respect for them. Anyway, does this mean that the Ylvainans own 19 percent of the LMC while you are left with 7 percent?"
"Not exactly. You're correct about our ownership stake, but from what I've been told, the Protectorate has already let us know that it intends to transfer a 10 percent stake to you at some point in the future."
"What? Why?"
Ves never heard of this! Neither Calsie, Gavin or Raymond informed him of this development!
"The Ylvainans are waiting for you to arrive at the Protectorate before approaching you with this matter. We believe that they are partially willing to offer you to buyback some shares out of gratitude for what you have done to their people. Another reason for doing so is to secure your continued support for the Ylvainan Faith and its people."
That.. made a lot of sense, Ves considered. As the Bright Martyr, his products stimulated their faith like nothing else! The Transcendent Messenger, Holy Soldier and Deliverer mechs all proved that Ves possessed an exceptional connection to one of the objects of their worship!
Almost no one was able to channel the Great Prophet as him, let alone allow others to experience the notable figure's majesty through his mech designs!
"I guess another important talk is in store." Ves muttered with anticipation.
"In any case, are you content with our diminished amount of shares in your company?" Leland pressed. "It was very difficult for us to come to this decision. We gave up much in order to accommodate the Ylvainans and you. Many people within our government strongly opposed this sacrifice."
The deliberate use of the word 'sacrifice' was meant to make Ves believe that the government attempted to make amends for his kidnapping.
Though Ves still did not forgive the Bright Republic for allowing this scheme to happen, Ves had to look past his private grievances this time.
It would not behoof him to blow up at Leland. He wouldn't be able to get anything out of it other than to worsen his already-tense relationship with the Bright Republic.
He had to admit that allowing the state to retain just 7 percent ownership in the company was a palatable outcome.
It was a bit too much than he was comfortable with, but not enough to surpass his tolerance.
Ves had already decided beforehand that he would never allow the state to retain possession of 21 percent of the outstanding shares of the LMC, let alone 26 percent!
The Bright Republic, which was led by many smart and wise officials, likely predicted his stance and moved to forestall his response.
Allowing them to keep 7 percent despite everything that happened was barely acceptable to Ves! At the very least, he didn't feel like quibbling over this matter.
Let the state hang on to these shares. As long as the Bright Republic possessed a meaningful stake in his company, it would still be in their best interest to protect the Larkinson Family and treat them right.
For the sake of Benjamin, Ark, Melinda and Raella Larkinson, Ves did not wish to break this protection.
This was especially important if the Komodo War ever spread to this region! He could not allow the Friday Coalition to pressure the Bright Republic in mistreating the Larkinsons who still stuck to the old ways!
Compared to the significance of the transfer in shares to the Ylvaine Protectorate and Ves, the matter of shares in the hands of the Larkinson Family was much more trivial to solve.
"The Larkinson Family owns 25 percent of the outstanding shares in the LMC." Ves summarized. "As you know, the inner turmoil in our family has led to an imminent split. A minority of Larkinsons are willing to follow me. The rest of the Larkinsons like my uncle and grandfather still have too many attachments to your state to start anew."
Leland looked amused. "I understand the nature of the problem. There is no agreement on how to split the shares between your side of the family and the other side of the family, is that it? There isn't any rule or existing framework that describes what must be done because your family never imagined that it would split."
The spy hit the nail on the head.
"Well, I just had a talk with my grandfather. It was not a good talk. The old family, as I call them, is being very presumptuous."
"I can imagine. They are Larkinsons. For all of their bravery and confidence in battle, they are not as adept in the delicate art of business and politics."
Of course, whether Ves shared this common flaw was still in question. While Ves was not as good as the likes of those born of higher station, he at least considered himself to be better in this regard than his mule-headed relatives!
"The point is that rather than dealing with them further, I might as well bring my requests to the government. I hope you can facilitate our family's impending separation and manage the transfer of assets in our stead."
Leland paused for a moment and looked at him in the eyes.
"You wish to go over the heads of your relatives who aren't inclined to follow you? That is.. not a proper course of action, if I may say so. No matter what you think about them, they are still your family. We know that matters a lot to Larkinsons like you. I advise you to reconsider and seek a more amicable settlement with your relatives."
Ves shook his head. He refused the advice out of hand.
"Our relations have deteriorated too far for us to have any amiability left between us. I don't have any patience left to deal with their obstinance and presumptiveness. Now, is the state willing to enforce a settlement or not? Tell me now so that I know I shouldn't waste my time any further."
"Oh, I am sure we can manage something as long as it is in the purview of our state." Leland immediately replied, though he showed a bit of hesitation. "Both the LMC and the Larkinson Family are within our jurisdiction, though our effective control only extends to the borders of our state. A matter like this is well within our means. However, just because we can, doesn't mean we should. Do you really want to deal with the other side of your family in this fashion?"
"I'm sure." Ves curtly affirmed.
"What is it you wish to impose on the family?"
Ves took a deep breath.
"Our Larkinson Family will split up. This is inevitable and I don't object to this in principle. There are two important points of contention. First is the right to draw on our heritage and continue to call ourselves Larkinsons. The old family wants to deprive the new family of this right. Suffice to say, I heavily disagree."
"This won't be a problem, Ves. I don't think the Larkinsons in the Bright Republic can even enforce such a demand. Our laws certainly won't, and the Ylvaine Protectorate is likewise unsympathetic."
"I know the conservative faction of the family." Ves spoke, recalling Ghanso's self-righteous words. "They'll kick and scream about this issue if they don't get their way. They are so stuck-up about their honor and the supposed risks we pose to their reputation that they'll never be willing to give any ground. Rather than deal with their whining, I just want your government to dictate once and for all that my side of the family is just as tied to the Larkinson heritage as their side!"
If the government itself put down its foot, how could the old family resist?
The very identity of the old family made them incapable of resisting the commands of the state!
Ves essentially took advantage of this weakness of the traditionalists. The only way to push back against this tyrannical imposition was to break the very tenets they swore to uphold!
He resisted the urge to laugh about how easy it was to outmaneuver his own family.
This just showed how badly the Larkinsons needed to move on and change with the times!
"What else do you require our assistance with, Ves?"
"The second point of contention is how to split up the shares in the LMC that the formerly-united Larkinson Family once held. The old family wants the lion's share of the stock, which is wholly unacceptable for me. Their reasons are contradictory and their motives are hypocritical. Since they're incapable of negotiating in good faith, I'll do it for them. Though their tone is presumptuous, I'm not unsympathetic to their reasoning. I can be generous if I want to be. I'll leave them with.. 1 percent ownership for old times' sake."
"That.. sounds rather small." Leland commented. "This means your side of the family will take 24 percent of the outstanding shares. Doesn't this sound a bit too lopsided to you?"
Ves grinned. "The Larkinsons never invested in my company until it was already up and running! I only agreed to bestow them with a fourth of the company because they offered to stand up to me! Even though I knew it was a bad deal, I still accepted it because they were family! Well, you know what happened next."
Since Venerable Ghanso Larkinson himself stabbed him in the back, Ves already possessed the right to tear his covenant with the family!
"I won't comment on the contentions within your family. If you truly wish to proceed with this distribution, then we will do our best to facilitate this outcome." Leland carefully responded.
"Good. I expect nothing less from the state who has the old family at their mercy."
"Please don't misrepresent our state due to the actions of the few. No matter what you believe, our state still acts according to our laws. We would never engage in arbitrary meddling."
Ves couldn't help but chuckle. The cynicism within him infused his laughter with resignation.
"What happened to me must have happened to countless Brighters over the years. My respect for my home state is completely gone now, and it's all your fault. You made me like this. If you guys haven't acted duplicitous to me and simply uphold your end of our deals, I wouldn't have been forced to relocate to the Protectorate!"
"You are making a mistake. The Bright Republic is not a single entity, and our government is not a monolithic whole. Our state would be a tyranny if we do not allow for a diversity of interests, opinions and representation to have a say in its running! It is unfortunate that our commitment to sharing and delegating power has led to an instance of abuse. We promise you that we will make sure this will never happen again!"
"Oh, you'll meet your promise alright, because I'll never be in the position for the Bright Republic to take advantage of me again!" He shouted before abruptly calming himself. "I should thank you, actually. Your state has opened my eyes to the true nature of people and power. If I hadn't learned this very painful lesson, then I might have continued to be blind to threats from this direction!"
Leland truly looked perplexed this time, though Ves was certain the spy was still meticulously controlling his expressions.
"Ves.. we are not your enemy."
"Not now, and only because you guys are remorseful for what you've done."
"Again, General Cavendish does not represent the rest of the government."
Ves dismissively waved his hand. "Bla bla bla. Whatever. I've already conveyed my main requests. I don't have any further demands. The old family can keep the rest for all I care. Now, will the government meet my request or not? I want it done quickly if possible."
"I.." Leland paused as he seemed to listen to instructions passed through another channel. "I can assure you that the Bright Republic will meet your requests as fast as possible. We will get in touch with the representatives of both sides of the Larkinson Family and facilitate an accelerated settlement along the lines of your requests. There will be no problem in making the 'old family' accept our terms."
It was as if this was already a done deal!
This was exactly the reason why Ves skipped negotiation with his grandfather in favor of approaching the government.
Sure enough, as long as it was worth its time, the state was more than willing to intervene!
Performing this favor would do much to lesson Ves' animosity towards his home state. This in turn allowed the Bright Republic to feel more confident that it could maintain hold of the 7 percent ownership in the LMC.
The politicians and bureaucrats weren't stupid. They studied Ves and his possible growth trajectories in great detail and knew that he was definitely meant for greater things!
Even if he failed to advance to Master in his timeline, as a Senior he would already be one of the most impressive mech designers of his rank!
If the insanely wild success of the Desolate Soldier and the immense impact of the Deliverer were any indications, the LMC in a decade might grow to become a behemoth that spanned several star sectors!
With such bright prospects on the horizon, how could the Bright Republic ever allow itself to miss out on the party?
For this reason, the state should be just as eager as the Ylvaine Protectorate to maintain hold of some of the shares in his mech company!
Ves knew what the Bright Republic was thinking. He could accept their desire to cling to the LMC. As long as they didn't mess with the Larkinsons who continued to support the state out of misguided loyalty, then Ves could fully put down his worries and set his sights higher.
After discussing some lesser matters such as the future of the LMC's presence in the Bright Republic, Ves and the government of the Bright Republic finally forged a new understanding.
Through Leland, Ves conveyed all of his wishes, and the government almost bent over backwards in order to meet his needs!
It felt good to hold upper hand in a negotiation this time. Ves couldn't help but crack a smile as he considered the absurdity of imposing his demands on a powerful state!
An ordinary Journeyman would have never been able to make the government sit down and talk like this! Perhaps not even a Senior commanded as much respect!
The major difference between him and his fellow colleagues was the strength he possessed and the successes he accomplished.
Reality-defying mechs like the Desolate Soldier and the Deliverer served as the basis for his power!
As long as he remained an exceptional mech designer whose products were enormously influential, Ves would continue to be treated with care and respect!
Naturally, this also served a warning that he should never slack off and grow complacent. A continuous decline or an abrupt fall from grace would topple everything he built and strip him of the power he wielded with relish today!
Ves was not a politician. He was not a head or state, nor was he adept at leadership.
He was a mech designer. Everything he earned and everything he deserved rested on the basis of his ability to design fantastic mechs.
He had to continue to progress! Spending too much time on these distracting matters would only weaken him over time!
To a mech designer, designing mechs always came first!
The Stellar Chaser, Serendipity, Frozen Leaf, Scarlet Rose and Terrinac silently cut through the higher dimensions with utmost stability.
As second-class ships, their FTL drives were rated to withstand much greater gravitic instability.
Even the Scarlet Rose's unaddressed battle damage and recent lack of maintenance did not hinder the operation of her FTL drive too much. The prize crew dispatched by the Wodins expertly performed spot repairs and temporarily addressed many of the faults that had started to appear.
During these days, Ves spent a lot of time communicating with his allies, partners and subordinates.
Now that he was with the Hexers, he no longer held any scruples towards accessing the galactic net!
He had been out of touch for a long time. Too much had changed, forcing him to devote all of his time to getting up to speed and arranging some urgent decisions.
In the meantime Bright Republic approached the two sides of the Larkinson Family, which fell outside most people's expectations.
The Larkinsons became even more shocked when the Bright Republic essentially imposed Ves' demands. The state did not even bother to appear impartial this time!
The government's actions chilled many people, especially the Venerable Ghanso and the traditionalists within the family.
They did not expect the state they served for all these centuries to favor their side. However, the conservative faction at least assumed the government would stay out of their internal dispute or at least advocate for a middle ground.
For the Bright Republic to disregard centuries of loyal service by countless Larkinsons in order to favor an upstart was a big blow to their beliefs!
Benjamin Larkinson and Colonel Ark Larkinson all stood helpless as the executive and legislative branches of the government both colluded to push forward Ves Larkinson's will.
The bright senate even passed a law overnight to enforce the terms originally proposed by Ves! From this, every Larkinson gained a very shocking understanding how much power the only mech designer in the family really wielded!
To be able to convince the state to move on his behalf was a terrible ability!
Though the conservative faction regretted some of its actions enormously, most ordinary Larkinsons among the neutrals did not really think they paid a price.
What did it matter if Ves and his followers got to keep the Larkinson name? Soon enough, the division between the old family and the new family would become very clear.
The old family's insistence on monopolizing the family name was nothing more than a matter of honor. They wanted to preserve their heritage and be able to call themselves the most authentic line of Larkinsons descended from the Larkinson Ancestor.
Losing this monopoly did not really impact the material interests of the old family.
As for losing 24 percent of their stake in the Living Mech Corporation, why should the old family complain? They originally railed against Ves and his emphasis on increasing their prosperity. Why should the true Larkinsons be greedy for money they never depended upon?
The Larkinson Family survived and thrived without relying on excessive for over four centuries! The old family would just return to the old status quo after losing most of its shares in the LMC.
In fact, they were still better off than before because Ves at least left them with 1 percent of outstanding shares!
Compared to the 24 percent bestowed to the new family, this was an extremely paltry prize.
Only a handful of shrewd or business-minded Larkinsons comprehended the true value of these remaining shares. Their value was already formidable, but they would continue to grow in value as long as Ves did not meet with calamity!
This last kindness from Ves was enough to placate Benjamin and Ark Larkinson. Under their lead, the neutral faction did not show any objection to the Bright Republic's intervention.
The lack of support from the rest of the family robbed the conservative faction of any chance to resist the changes.
As the state's intervention forcefully ended the turmoil within the Larkinson Family, Ves already took the next steps and busied himself by organizing his kingdom.
The LMC, the Ves Larkinson Foundation for Wounded Veterans, the Larkinson Exobiology Institute, The Avatars of Myth and the Living Sentinels all exhibited some disarray after their hasty relocation from Cloudy Curtain. Each of them lacked direction because Ves neglected to flesh out the next steps in his contingency plan!
Though Ves tired of the tedious discussions and arduous decision-making, he slowly reintegrated into his old place in the center of his expansive network!
Even the Battle Criers finally returned from their months-long excursion to parts unknown! Ves' eyes lit up when he heard from Commander Cinnabar!
He issued a lot of errands to his band of former Kinner mercenaries. Now that they returned, Ves looked forward to harvesting their gains!
"Good job, Commander Cinnabar. Did you lose any men along the way?"
"We went through a few scrapes and lost a couple of men." The bearded Kinner grimly responded. "We avoided battle whenever possible, but the Sand War has destabilized the surrounding regions. Many pirates, criminals and other trouble makers have taken advantage of the lack of patrols to threaten trade convoys and refugee fleets. Some of them were even crazy enough to attack my mercenaries!"
"Oh. Those are good Kinner men we lost. Let's talk about how to replenish your ranks later when I arrive at Kesseling VIII, okay?"
This was a fairly delicate issue as the Battle Criers predominantly consisted of loyal Kinner bondsmen. While Ves was not averse to adding a few non-Kinners to their ranks like Dietrich Krotz, he wanted to maintain absolute trust in his second-most important mech troop.
To maintain his confidence, Ves seriously contemplated buying additional bondsmen from the Kinner Tribe.
With his reputation and prestige, there was no need for him to venture back to the Kinner Tribe to pick up his new human products. He could just leave the matter to Gavin and have him contact one of the Tribe's agents to arrange a shipment or something.
Aside from reconnecting with the Battle Criers, Ves received another surprise when he finally talked with a representative of the Ylvaine Protectorate.
What Leland told him turned out to be true. The Protectorate's attitude towards him was filled with gratitude and worship!
In return for all he had done for the Ylvainans as their blessed Bright Martyr, the Ylvainan government gifted him with 10 percent of the shares in the LMC! The paperwork was already done and the shares all came under his name!
Ves was inordinately pleased that the Ylvainans bestowed these shares to him without any strings attached. They truly treated him with sincerity this time!
Now that he essentially controlled 59 percent of the LMC, Ves finally felt he was truly in control of his own destiny.
The arrangements imposed by the Bright Republic's Ministry of Economy Development had finally been undone!
Now that Ves almost completely cut himself off from his home state, this artificial solution to restrict the power he wielded in his company had become completely meaningless!
As the Bright Martyr who contributed immensely to the Ylvainan people, the three leading dynasties did not dare to push for a similar arrangement!
Ves felt pretty good about this outcome. After all of the recent stock transfers, the new ownership structure of his company had been set.
The Bright Republic and the Ylvaine Protectorate owned 7 percent and 9 percent respectively.
This turned them into minority shareholders with virtually no say in the running of the company. Ves did not have to pay attention to their opinions at all!
The second-largest shareholder after Ves was the new family. With a whopping 24 percent stake in the LMC, they became a shareholder who Ves could not easily dismiss!
"Luckily, the new family is completely in my grasp! Those shares are as good as mine!" Ves exulted.
Yes! Ves essentially controlled the branch of the Larkinsons that left the Bright Republic, which meant that he could do anything with the shares, including transferring them back in his own possession!
He did not wish to do so, though. Those shares served as a foundation for the new family's commitment to the LMC and himself. If Ves selfishly took away those shares, what assets did the new family have left? They would have to directly depend on his charity to survive!
"I can't hog all of the benefits for myself." He judged. "Not if I want to continue to borrow from the strength of my relatives."
Though Ves felt tempted to buy back at least half or more of the shares in the possession of the new family, he restrained himself.
While a 24 percent stake sounded way too extravagant in relation to its current and future value, Ves knew he couldn't do everything alone.
He needed to follow the ways of other power players and cultivate his own power base.
Of all of the choices available to him, relying on his own family was the best choice. Many other influences made the same decision because sharing the same blood offered an extra way to tie people together!
The Larkinson Family, the Tovar Family, the Kronon Dynasty, the Gauge Dynasty, the Wodin Dynasty and so on were all examples of powerful groups who managed to maintain high cohesion. This allowed them to withstand the test of time and thrive for centuries where many other groups had fallen!
Of course, that was not to say that relying on family was without flaws. Nepotism and decadence often infected the families that forgot the drive that propelled them to success.
If Ves wanted to keep the new family useful, he needed to govern it with a firm hand! He could not afford the Larkinsons under his lead to grow fat and lazy!
He needed to employ both the carrot and stick to motivate the Larkinsons. Those shares formed a very attractive carrot. As long as he dangled it in front of their faces, they would do anything to earn their reward!
He contemplated various changes to the new family in order to hone their drive and compel them into dedicating their lives to him. All of this was very complicated and would likely provoke an intense reaction from his relatives.
"I should discuss this carefully with the elders of the new family."
In order to restructure the new family, Ves needed the involvement of other respectable Larkinsons such as Clinton Larkinson and Raymond Billingsley-Larkinson.
If he just imposed his new structure onto the Larkinsons without bothering to listen to anyone else, then Ves would quickly lose support!
Just because he appointed himself as the leader of the new family didn't mean he could rule it with impunity!
Ves understood that he still needed to keep his approval levels high and avoid crossing the bottom line of his relatives.
He scowled for a moment. "The larger the organization, the harder it is to retain control. I can't run everything by myself."
This made it all the more important to reimagine the new family and guide them towards a new identity.
The new family was no longer the Larkinson Family of before! It had already diverged from its original direction. Now Ves had to finish the realignment and point the forward for his splinter group!
He smiled. He already formed some promising ideas during his time aboard the Scarlet Rose. All of the time he spent in thought culminated in a blueprint for his interpretation of the Larkinson Family.
In other words, Ves had formed a grand design of the new family!
"Within five to ten years, the new family will chart its own course! Aside from some shared values, its trajectory will no longer intersect with the old family!"
Brothers and sisters must eventually leave the shelter of their own parents and find their own path in life!
If Ves had his way, the new family would turn into an entity that could fully keep up with his development, including his transition towards adopting second-class mechs!
It took less time than he thought to get his organizations back in order.
The people he put in charge such as Raymond and Melkor weren't incomptent. Even if they failed to get a handle on the situation, they still had each other to call for help.
In addition, most of the uncertainties plaguing the LMC and other organizations came from an inability to set a new direction. None of Ves' deputies wanted to commit to far-reaching decisions without his input.
What if Ves never intended to settle on Kesseling VIII? Investing in an extravagant headquarters on the Ylvainan planet would be an expensive mistake!
Therefore, Ves only had to spend enough time to settle these major issues. After that, he could leave the rest to his capable subordinates.
Calsie and Gavin proved to be very helpful in supervising his men. They acted as his agents and made sure that everyone followed his will.
Since everything started running smoothly, Ves took a step back and put his trust in his subordinates. Now that they received some direction, he didn't need to step in any longer.
During his stay on the Stellar Chaser, Ves occasionally met with Gloriana during mealtime and in the evening. His girlfriend was very occupied these days, forcing her to work by herself.
She never really explained her burdens to him in detail. She just brushed the matter off as makework and chores, but Ves didn't think it was so simple.
Unfortunately, Gloriana was too strong-minded to let him help.
"You should take care of your own business, Ves." She said while they were relaxing in the lounge compartment. "I'm a big girl, you know. I can take care of myself. It's just a bit of work. I won't be able to accompany you in designing another mech for some time."
Her rosy scent wafted over his nose like poison, lulling him in a state of fascination. He dearly missed her presence during his time of captivity and couldn't get enough of Gloriana's company!
"How long will you be preoccupied?" Ves asked.
If Gloriana became indisposed, Ves would lose the advantage that their collaboration brought. Not only would he lose out on her specialty, but he would also lack the synergy that gave his designs an extra edge!
"It depends. Don't worry. There aren't any urgent design projects on the agenda, right? The Ylvaine Protectorate is in a decent shape these days. The Deliverer is already doing great work in repelling the sandmen."
"That will only last until the sandman race evolves their fleets yet again." Ves cautioned. "They've already changed their methods several times over the course of the Sand War. What if they stop forming sandman swarms and instead rely completely on monolith configurations?"
This was a very valid worry that weighed on everyone's minds. The sandmen may not be particularly smart or quick in their thinking, but they weren't averse to change!
Once the sandmen switch gears and render the Deliverer's Ylvaine-blessed abilities irrelevant, how could his latest mech design play a meaningful role?
There was no need for accuracy or guidance to land a hit on a humongous, capital ship-sized monolith! Even the worst mech pilot could hit the broad side of a barn!
"The possibility does exist." Gloriana conceded. "Yet the Sandman Emperor is dead now. Without their highest direction, are they still as capable?"
"Who knows if they will appoint a new sandman leader to the position."
In truth, Ves knew that Sigrund was the true mastermind behind the suicidal sandman invasion. The Sand War had raged long enough and plenty of changes had occurred.
There was no way Sigrund seriously banked on the sandmen to wipe out every human in the Komodo Star Sector.
Even if this highly unlikely outcome took place, there was no way the CFA and MTA would ignore this supposedly weak alien race any longer!
No alien race massacred trillions of humans and got away with it! The dignity of the human race must still be maintained!
His intuition told him that whatever Sigrund was up to, he might have gotten what he wanted at this time. There was no need for the hybrid AI to strengthen the sandmen any further, especially because his actions had already started to touch Ves' bottom line!
Ves sighed and leaned against Gloriana's body. "We'll just see what happens. I'm not the only mech designer who contributed to the war effort, and the states under siege aren't princesses who only need saving. Our existing designs are more than adequate to handle any further challenges."
The Soldier product line still served a very prominent role in bolstering the states engulfed in the Sand War.
The handful of news articles he browsed when he wanted to catch up with current affairs even attributed the continued survival of several states to the spread of the Desolate Soldier!
One of the most prominent examples was the Reinald Republic, which has lost over half of its territory and population to the sandmen!
Though the state suffered enormously, many Reinaldans still managed to live with the help of his products!
Ves felt rather mixed about this outcome. He had no love for the Reinald Republic and would not shed a tear if it fell. For him to contribute materially to the survival of this half-rotten did not make him proud at all! Even now, they were probably attempting to pirate his designs!
Still, as much as he resented Reinald, the state had to survive, or else the other beleaguered states would fall.
"It's a shame you don't have the time to work on a project with me." He sighed. "I was planning on embarking on a new and revolutionary design project, but I guess I'll have to wait until you are free."
"Oh?" Gloriana raised her eyebrow. "What strange idea do you have now?"
"I was partially inspired by Aisling Curver's design philosophy. When I read some of the books and notes she left behind, I gained some inspiration from her research direction. Studying the four bodyguard mechs I've adapted into battle bots has given me even more ideas on how I should make use of this idea. It's quite radical, and I don't think there is anything like it in the existing mech industry!"
While Ves revealed some of his intentions, he didn't notice Gloriana dropping her smile and glowering when he mentioned Lady Curver's name.
The fact that his latest inspiration came from the woman who attempted to steal her precious boyfriend was a huge affront!
She clutched his shirt with an iron grip. "Enough! Is your kidnapper your only source of inspiration?!"
"You'll love it when I'm ready to explain it. Even I can't imagine I would ever come up with such a revolutionary new idea if not for this turn of events! I have to thank Aisling for pointing out this direction for me. If not for all of the help she inadvertently provided to me, my next mech design would never be as innovative!"
"VES! SHUT UP!"
Gloriana grabbed him by the collar and attempted to shake his upper body back and forth!
Unfortunately, his augmented physique turned him into a solid brick! There was no way her feeble arms could shake his body!
It was at this time that Ves finally realized the mistake he made. He got so caught up in his fantastic new design concept that he overlooked the impact of his words to his girlfriend!
"Stop, please. Calm down!"
After grabbing hold of Gloriana's arms and forcing her to stillness, Ves pressed his forehead against her own while looking intimately in her eyes.
"Inspiration can come from many sources. I know you don't like Aisling. I hate her as well. Yet that does not hinder me from taking advantage of my exposure to her and her specialty. We're mech designers. We should grab any chance to progress our design philosophies further, whether it comes from friends or foes. Understand?"
As a mech designer herself, she knew that Ves had a point. She subsided a bit. "Sorry, Ves. You're right. I don't want you to give up a way to improve just because I don't like the source of your inspiration."
"It's the same as if I held an exchange with a peer. By exchanging our views and learning from each other's methods, we can always crystallize radical new design possibilities."
Though the tension between them hadn't entirely dissipated, both of them missed each other too much to allow a minor spat to get in the way of their reunion.
It was as if they entered a honeymoon period. Each time they met each other, they ignored everything else and blissfully enjoyed each other's company.
Not everyone was happy with their silly moments together.
Dr. Ranya Wodin, who opted to stay aboard the Stellar Chaser in order to supervise Ves' recovery, faked a gag when she saw the lovebirds embrace each other for a kiss.
"Can't I enjoy my breakfast in peace?!" She slammed her fork against the table. "The two of you have been acting like love drunk idiots all morning now! Mr. Larkinson, don't you think you are being presumptuous against a Hexer? And Gloriana, have you forgotten your station?!"
Though Ves quickly withdrew as if chastened, Gloriana dragged him back and leaned on his arm and shoulder.
"Don't be so serious, Ranya." Gloriana smiled teasingly at her cousin. "Ves isn't like the other boys. Besides, this is my ship. I get to do anything I want here! You're not my mother!"
"I think your mother would be disgusted by how you are fawning over a mixed breed."
"As long as my doggy can bite, who cares about his breed? The other puppies from the Hegemony are more known for their bark than bite!"
"Not every dog from the Hegemony is useless, Gloriana. Your older brother is a prime example of that! There are more boys like him out there! I can introduce you to some if you want!"
"No thanks. Ves is perfect enough as it is. You just don't know it yet!"
Ves raised his hand. "Uhm, I'm a cat person."
"I know." Gloriana giggled. "It's just a figure of speech, Ves."
"It seems I will need to accelerate your treatment schedule." Ranya muttered and turned her attention away from the two divergent lovers.
They were too different! In Ranya's eyes, there was hardly any for them to be together! Gloriana was way out of this Brighter's league as far as she was concerned.
In fact, the Wodin Dynasty shouldn't have tolerated their relationship in the first place! How Gloriana managed to convince her famously strict mother to remain with Ves was a mystery.
After this small incident, Ranya promptly dragged Ves to the ship's infirmary and forced him to undergo numerous examinations and treatments.
Even if not enough time had passed for the next round to begin, Ranya still wanted to make Ves suffer!
"Ahh!" He screamed as an awfully long needle poked his buttocks! "Didn't you swear some kind of oath!?"
"I'm merely doing what is best for you." Ranya grinned as she brushed aside her odd green hair from her face. "Besides, didn't you originally invite me to perform an implantation surgery? I need to study the properties of your physical body in great detail to ensure it goes smoothly! With the sheer number of abnormalities in your body and genes, installing a cranial implant is anything but simple! The further you are from a baseline human, the harder it is to perform operations on you. Didn't anyone teach you this lesson?"
Ves was already aware of this to some extent, but he didn't know it added to the difficulty of installing implants.
"You know about the Archimedes Rubal implant, right?"
"Gloriana informed me. One of the exobiologists in your employ sent me the relevant data." Ranya notified. "It's a very sophisticated implant. Even if it's outdated, it is still very useful! I'm surprised you managed to stumble upon this relic."
"You'd be surprised what kind of treasures you can pick up from the frontier."
Ranya scoffed. "From the looks of it, you belong there."
Though Dr. Ranya hadn't warmed up to Ves at all, he wasn't concerned.
Gloriana was insanely protective of him. Now that she got him back, she turned into a veritable mother hen!
Though Ves was touched by her concern, he knew he needed to stand up for himself! How could he continue to rely on her girlfriend for protection?
The Glory Battalion wasn't under her control. Madame Constance Wodin was the true individual in charge.
Ves felt as if he had inadvertently been caught in the web of this woman's own design. The only problem was that he didn't know what Gloriana's mother thought about him. Was she disdainful towards him like other Hexers? Was she just allowing Gloriana to indulge in her latest fancy in order to mature her personality?
Whatever the case, he doubted that Madame Constance was sympathetic towards him. In the words of the Hexers, he was a mixed breed, a mangy mutt whose filthy paws muddied Gloriana's shoes.
His stay aboard the Stellar Chaser fully allowed him to experience the treatment he could expect if he traveled to the Hexadric Hegemony.
Every woman, even the lowliest ship rating, plainly looked down on him because of his gender!
Ves did not consider himself to be a vain person. He did not insist on earning everyone's respect. What did it matter if some strangers despised him for some inane reason?
Yet this was different. The constant denigration and casual dismissal towards the male gender did not reach the level of abuse, but came very close to it! Ves truly started to chafe at the prejudices expressed by Gloriana's crew!
These experiences made him even more determined to avoid the Hexadric Hegemony like the plague! There was no way he would ever be able to hold himself together if he visited Gloriana's state!
"I'll kill myself if I have to endure this nonsense on a daily basis!"
From his occasional interactions with Hexers who weren't Gloriana, Ves gained a very visceral understanding on their perspective on boys.
The very fact they refused to call any human of the opposite gender a man spoke for itself.
For their entire lives, the Hexers had been taught to look at males as inferiors!
Boys were immature. Boys were incapable of controlling themselves. Boys became naughty if left to their own devices.
All of these underlying assumptions had been baked so thoroughly in Hexer culture that none of the Hexers questioned their beliefs!
Even the male ship ratings did not show any dissatisfaction at being treated in such a poor fashion!
For them, the worst thing that could happen is to be seen as incapable!
Ves noted that every Hexer male yearned for validation. Nothing made them happier than when their female superiors complimented them for 'being a good boy'!
As Ves wasn't a prisoner, he casually strolled the sections of the Stellar Chaser. Everywhere there were people, he continually witnessed this degrading treatment towards the hapless Hexer males.
Even older males who developed numerous skills and competences over their careers were regarded as boys by female officers who were young enough to be their grandchildren!
Witnessing all of these travesties made Ves sick. He dreaded the infamous Hegemony even more.
He swore to himself that even if Madame Constance Wodin summoned him directly, he would do everything to run away!
Not even Gloriana's pleadings would deter him from avoiding her home state! Ves instinctively knew that if he ever dropped into the murky pool of the Hegemony, he would definitely drown!
At this time, Ves finally encountered a male Hexer who was a little different from the spineless males who served as low-level crew members on Gloriana's ship.
As soon as the small fleet of Hexer vessels emerged from FTL, the Hexers carefully scanned their surroundings as their FTL drives started cycling.
The expert pilot who rescued him from the Fridaymen finally gained the opportunity to visit the Stellar Dancer.
Gloriana practically snatched his collar and dragged him all the way down to the shuttle bay in order to meet his savior.
In addition, Dr. Ranya dropped by as well, but she didn't appear as ecstatic.
Obviously, Gloriana possessed a lot of affection for her brother! Ves half-expected that the stiff and powerful Wodins exhibited frequent internal competition.
Perhaps he wasn't wrong, but it didn't appear to apply in this case.
His girlfriend happily bounced on her feet as she waited for the arrival of the shuttle.
"What's your brother like?"
"Brutus is my closest brother." She replied. "He's the closest to my age in my family. My other brothers and sisters are a lot older than us, so I never played with them a lot. They were so busy with school or work that they weren't home very often."
"Is he like the other 'boys' in your state?"
"Of course not, Ves!" She slapped his arm. "Not every boy is the same. There are differences between females. Why can't there be differences between males?"
"What makes your brother different?"
"He's of higher birth, for once." She answered. "While our Wodin Dynasty isn't as powerful as the six matriarchal dynasties, anyone born in our family is destined to become remarkable! Just because Brutus is a boy doesn't mean he's allowed to shame our bloodline."
"Seeing that he's not only a mech pilot, but also an expert pilot, I'd say he's pretty successful in that. The Wodins must be proud of him.. right?"
Gloriana smiled with pride. "Every expert pilot is useful, regardless if they are boys or women. We don't look down on male expert pilots if that's what you are thinking. Brutus has proven himself. He even took upon himself to be my protector!"
The amused twinkle in her eyes signified that she didn't take Brutus seriously in that regard!
Anyone would be glad to obtain the protection of an expert pilot, but Gloriana still considered Brutus to be her childhood playmate!
Ves mentally shook his head. He heard enough. He still didn't entirely understand how males were treated by female Hexers. A male expert pilot evidently enjoyed some actual respect, but it wasn't enough to turn them into equals.
The shuttle finally arrived. Ves studied the shuttle carefully and noted that it was a vastly superior model from other second-class shuttles. Though its acceleration and maneuverability was not much better, its armor and protective measures were on a different level!
Once the craft landed on the deck, the hatch opened up, revealing a single man in the blue-and-gold uniform of Glory Battalion.
Compared to the other mech pilots of the Glory Battalion, the newcomer's uniform was decked with various decorations. Some of them immediately made it clear that he was an expert pilot!
In truth, Ves did not need to read these markings to realize that the man was an expert pilot.
A strong, protective will radiated from the male Hexer's mind like a bonfire in the night. The entire shuttle hangar became charged in a faint, invisible embrace.
This was Venerable Brutus Wodin, the famous fifth offspring of Constance Wodin!
He was several years older than Gloriana, but already exuded the spiritual strength of a seasoned expert pilot!
His tall body and balanced physique immediately made it clear that he was a professional soldier. His strong, measured strides conveyed both strength and control.
Ves was very familiar with this kind of cadence. He had heard it from enough Larkinsons to get a better sense of Glorian's brother.
As soon as Brutus came near, Gloriana instantly left her boyfriend's side and threw himself onto her brother!
"Brutus! Welcome back!"
The expert pilot's serious face cracked into a smile. "I was only gone for a few days, sister."
"Hehe, I know. It's not about us this time. Let me introduce you to Ves!"
Gloriana cheerfully grasped her brother's arm and dragged him over to Ves. Even though her strength paled in comparison to her much bigger brother, Brutus never showed a hint of resistance!
"Ves. Meet Venerable Brutus Wodin. Brutus, meet Ves Larkinson."
For Gloriana's sake, Ves pushed down his skepticism and offered to shake Brutus' hand.
"I'm pleased to meet you, Venerable Brutus. Thank you for coming to the rescue a few days ago. I appreciate your aid."
Brutus stopped smiling as he turned away from his sister. His lips curled into a faint sneer. He stared at the offered hand as if it was covered in mud.
Before this moment grew more tense, Gloriana forcefully intervened. She used her continued hold on her brother's sleeve to force his hand to accept the handshake.
She clasped both hands and vigorously shook them up and down.
"Brutus! Be serious!"
Her brother was less than enthused about this meeting, that was clear to Ves. Just like Ranya, Brutus looked down on him. Changing his opinion would be an uphill battle.
"Eh, let's head up for a drink!" Gloriana suggested.
Under her lead, the two males followed her up to the lounge. Ranya followed them as well and casually chatted with Gloriana.
In the meantime, Ves walked alongside Brutus. He became unnerved when the expert pilot scrutinized him like a potential threat.
This became clear when Brutus unconsciously applied pressure on Ves with his force of will!
Ves was no vegetable. While he did not actively push back, he nonetheless showed no discomfort.
He had seen his fair share of expert pilots, and Brutus was still too young to match the stronger ones!
As excellent as he appeared, he wasn't necessarily better than his uncle Ark or Venerable Relia Foster.
This silent game served as an excellent opportunity for Ves to get a sense of Brutus' personality and core conviction.
Every expert pilot developed a single dominant emotion or ideal to dedicate their lives towards. Ves experienced enough varieties to identify the direction of an expert pilot's focus.
He immediately noticed some differences from the likes of Venerable Foster. The Vesian expert pilot possessed an aggressive and domineering force of will. This turned her into an awful opponent against her enemies!
Ves expected Brutus to adopt a similar force of will, but it turned out that the Hexer expert pilot followed the opposite direction!
The force of will emanating from Brutus possessed a very protective component. Ves found it similar to Qilanxo and Jannzi Larkinson's flavors.
While their overall directions were similar, each of these protective individuals interpreted protectiveness in a slightly difficult fashion. These small differences often resulted in drastic differences in their personalities and approach towards conflicts!
Qilanxo's protectiveness was tinged with motherly love. As an ancient Sacred God who lived for multiple centuries, she spawned many offspring, some of which grew up into formidable giant exobeasts! Her protectiveness towards her children had honed her spiritual character down to her very soul!
Jannzi on the other hand was not as old. She didn't possess the life experiences of her patron, nor did she have the experience of a mother.
However, she had the blood of a Larkinson flowing in her veins. As a Larkinson mech pilot, the call of duty was carved in her bones!
When the broke through to expert candidate, Jannzi inherited Qilanxo's protectiveness, but also put her own spin on it. She began to see herself as a guardian and a protector to those who were vulnerable!
From what he heard, Jannzi improved by leaps and bounds when she participated in the Sand War. There was hardly a higher calling than protecting entire planets worth of civilians from heartless alien threats!
What Ves sensed from Brutus was very similar to Jannzi. It was almost identical in that Brutus saw himself as a guardian.
There was a crucial difference, however. Whereas Jannzi dedicated herself to protecting people regardless if they were strangers, Brutus dedicated himself solely to protecting his family or loved ones!
Ves could tell because he noticed something remarkable! Brutus' force of will seemed to flow towards Gloriana and wrap her up into a protective blanket or shield!
Even Ranya received a spiritual blanket, though it was a bit weaker than the one around Gloriana!
Three Wodins and one Larkinson settled down at the lounge.
To the consternation of the Hexers, Gloriana chose to sit besides Ves and compel him to wrap his arm around her. Though they often sat together like this, how could her brother and cousin feel at ease when a grubby third-rater put his paw on an exalted Hexer?
Though Ves noticed their dissatisfaction, most of his attention was placed on the strange activity exhibited by Brutus' force of will.
He encountered several expert pilots over his lifetime. The most recent one besides Brutus was Venerable Ghanso, who possessed a very offense-oriented force of will.
Both Ghanso and Brutus appeared to be ranged mech specialists, but they adopted different convictions.
Ghanso's force of will mostly centered around himself. His offense-oriented force of will was an expression of his belief that defeating his enemies was the best way to do his duty!
His force of will mostly honed his aggression and strengthened his commitment to duty. Part of the reason why he obsessed so much about obeying authority and completing his mission was because these values formed the spiritual foundation of his force of will!
In contrast, despite specializing in an offensive mech, Brutus piloted mechs for a very different purpose.
His main priority was to protect his family or the people he cared about. As Ves carefully sampled the 'protective blanket' that Brutus unconsciously formed around Gloriana, he knew that the brotherly love the expert pilot held for his sister was incredibly strong!
Ves quickly realized that this kind of love and devotion surpassed most instances of affection between brothers and sisters!
When any expert pilot to dedicate the essence of his will towards a cause, they formed a lifelong obsession around it. Their spirituality, their personality, their thoughts and their emotions had all gathered together to birth this force of will, and in turn the incredible might of an empowered will fed back to its originators and warped them further into its image!
In essence, when expert candidates and expert pilots formed their empowered wills, the latter essentially began to hypnotize the former!
When a force of will further contaminated the rest of the mind of an expert pilot, their mentality became more and more compatible with the force of will.
This was a mutually-reinforcing cycle and one of the ways for expert pilots to advance and grow in strength.
As long as an expert pilot dedicated himself further towards the pursuit he had chosen, he would be rewarded by increasing the foundation of his strength!
Just like Pavlov's dog, the positive feedback stimulated the expert pilot into dedicating himself further towards his conviction!
What did all of this mean? Expert pilots placed a very high emphasis on sticking to their values and acting according to their principles!
This made them incredibly stubborn whenever these core values and principles were involved. It was virtually impossible to change their minds on the matters that touched their hearts and wills the most!
So when Ves witnessed Venerable Brutus caring so much for Gloriana that his force of will freely enveloped her like a shield, he knew that he had no choice but to overcome this hurdle!
An overprotective brother was bad enough, but when this person also happened to be an expert pilot, Ves could not brush him aside like he planned to do with every other Hexer!
No matter what, Ves could not avoid this test!
Once Brutus opposed his relationship with Gloriana in earnest, how could Ves rest easy?
Even if Brutus was just a 'boy', he was still a Wodin and an expert pilot! His ill impression towards Ves would definitely affect the stance of the rest of the Wodin Dynasty!
On the other hand, if Ves managed to gain Brutus' approval, he would get a very powerful helper.
While winning Brutus over was not as good as winning over a female Hexer, at the very least his protectiveness towards his sister could be exploited for many ends!
Once Ves made these silent calculations in his mind, he suppressed any dissatisfaction towards Brutus. When his interests were at stake, what did it matter if Gloriana's brother was less than enthused?
The only complication was that Brutus' dislike towards Ves actually affected the operation of the protective blanket.
Even as Ves kept trying to make small talk, as long as Gloriana's body continued to press against his own, her protective blanket continued to prickle him! It was as if a thousand spiritual needles were pressing against his skin!
A normal human would have felt incredibly uncomfortable or even pained if they faced this manifestation of Venerable Brutus' force of will.
Fortunately, Ves was very experienced in spiritual matters and possessed a certain degree of strength in this aspect. The protective blanket may be threatening, but it mainly attacked the minds of those Brutus regarded with hostility.
Ves was very confident in his mental strength. Compared to spiritual attacks he experienced in the past, this kind of pressure was not enough to shake his intentions!
His continued proximity to Gloriana began to annoy Brutus further. Perhaps he wasn't used to seeing that the pressure he exerted had failed to make a difference.
"Gloriana." He spoke up, directing his attention towards his loving sister. His previous frown turned into a gentle smile now that he faced his sister. "When will you return to the Hegemony? We have all been waiting for you to go back. There is no point in continuing to meddle in the Sand War when the Komodo War will soon reach its peak. Our home state needs you! Continuing to play in this impoverished region and remaining vulnerable to Fridayman predation is highly inadvisable!"
"I already told you, brother. I'm staying with Ves until we are ready to return! Right now, we are still in the middle of exploring our synergies and finding ways to strengthen our specialties! You're not a mech designer, Brutus! You don't know what it's like to finally find a mech designer who can enable my passion! Let me show you what we have done in the last year."
Gloriana enthusiastically activated a central projector and began to highlight all of their successful design projects, starting with the Desolate Soldier!
"Don't underestimate this work just because it's a third-class design. Underneath its plain exterior, this mech hides a lot of strengths! Let me explain it all to you..."
To his credit, Brutus sat calmly and listened to his sister in earnest. He showed faint surprise when Gloriana mentioned the Desolate Soldier's glow, but he quickly grew disinterested.
As an expert pilot of a powerful second-rate state, he had encountered plenty of mechs with strange and powerful features. The only notable part about the glows was that they seemed entirely unique!
Perhaps mundane mech pilots might be more appreciative towards glows, especially if they experienced their effects in person, but expert pilots were not so easily shaken.
Their strong conviction and their iron wills made them even less appreciative towards external means of influencing other people's emotions!
Gloriana did not take notice of Brutus' dismissal towards glows. She continued to ramble on about her many collaborations with Ves. From the Adonis Colossus to the Deliverer, she poured out her passion for her recent works with no reserve!
Against her boundless enthusiasm, Brutus slowly shifted his expression. As someone who loved his sister dearly, he could never dismiss all of her words.
By the time her rambling finally subsided, Brutus took a deep breath and looked at her sister in the eyes.
"Are you happy with this boy?"
"You already know the answer to this, brother!"
She emphasized her words by pressing on to Ves even deeper! The happiness that overflowed from her could not be faked!
"Why him? Why not a proper Hexer?"
"You know the answer to this as well. You know what I think about those other boys. Even if they're pretty, even if their breeding is impeccable, they're all useless to me! In fact, some of them are even hindrances if I pair up with them! I have searched half the Hegemony and failed to find a single boy who pleases me! Why did you think I visited Centerpoint in the first place?!"
"And Ves here is your answer?"
"Brother. Please understand that I'm not only a Hexer, but also a mech designer. I will do anything to pursue my goals in mech design! Of all of the mech designers I've met, none of them can possibly help me fulfill my ambitions more than Ves! Without him, my chances of attaining my goals are poor. Now that I found a compatible partner, my chances have doubled or even tripled! I am absolutely certain that the two of us can achieve the wonders I've already dreamt about! I won't let alone, including you, spoil my opportunities!"
Brutus looked discomfited, and so did Ranya.
"Cousin.. aren't you moving too fast?" The exobiologist questioned. "How long has it been since you met with him? A year's time is not enough to make up your mind!"
The lovesick Hexer stubbornly shook her head. "It doesn't matter! My love for Ves is real, and so is my desire to collaborate with him! The two of us are made for each other! What does it matter if his breeding is poor? As a mech designer with as much potential as me, Ves can easily match or surpass all of the mech designers from the Hegemony! This is why I've already made a promise to my mother for him to prove himself. Just wait, in about two years time, he'll blow your minds with what he can accomplish with me at his side!"
Both Ranya and Brutus were already aware that Gloriana's desire to be with Ves was more than a casual attachment, but now that Ves was back, she expressed her obsession in full!
Her ferocity astounded her brother and her cousin!
In the face of such a strong attachment, Brutus could no longer dismiss his sister's fascination towards Ves as a momentary crush. He knew his sister well enough that she was always serious when she became this committed.
He decided to change his tack.
"Sister, cousin, could you please leave me alone with Ves? I want to have a private talk with him. Please give us a moment to ourselves."
Gloriana glanced suspiciously at her brother. "You aren't going to scare him away from me, are you?"
"I only intend to talk."
"Okay." She said simply. "Come on, Ranya. Let's give the boys some space."
She quickly left with Ranya but not before pecking Ves on the cheek.
"Brutus can be kind of scary on the outside, but he's a big softie inside!" She whispered in his ear! "Do your best to make nice with him! It would break my heart if the two of you can't get along!"
With that, the two women left the lounge, leaving Ves to face the expert pilot alone.
Of course, just because they were the only ones left did not mean their talks were private. The monitoring system doubtlessly kept a very close on them while recording all of their words.
Both of them knew that. THe reason why Brutus insisted on talking to Ves alone was because he wanted to speak frankly without encountering an instant pushback from her sister.
"So.." Ves trailed. "What is it you want to talk to me about?"
Brutus crossed his arms. "I don't know how you managed to do it, but you completely put my sister under your spell."
"I think you are mischaracterization her affection towards me. I didn't seduce her! She seduced me!" Ves retorted. "I never actively pursued a relationship with her from the start. Gloriana insisted on staying together with me, and eventually we learned we got along very well. We are made for each other!"
This only caused the expert pilot to narrow his eyes. "Just because my sister fancies you does not mean the two of you are soulmates!"
It was clear that Brutus still disapproved of Ves!
When Ranya and Gloriana left the compartment, the manifestation of Brutus' will no longer became constrained.
The protective blankets that his force of will draped around his family turned into a formless field that suffused the entire lounge with his pressure!
His intense protectiveness changed the very nature of the air around them, turning it into a domain where his will prevailed!
Of course, these tricks did not affect Ves the slightest. As a Journeyman, his mind was not as defenseless as other humans, and the oppression radiating from Brutus hardly affected his stability.
Though Ves did not actively fight back against the pressure, the fact that he managed to stay solid earned a rare bout of respect from the expert pilot.
This was enough for Brutus to look at Ves in a different manner.
He decided to be direct. "Let me ask you plainly, Larkinson. Do you love my sister?"
"I do." Ves replied. In order to express his sincerity, he opened his mind and focused towards all of the moments he shared with his girlfriend. "I love Gloriana. I love her company, her enthusiasm, her passion and her smile. I love her so much that I'm willing to become an enemy to the Friday Coalition! I did not hesitate in resisting Lady Curver's unsolicited advances! In order to return to Gloriana, I killed dozens of the Fridaymen and stole one of their ships! Don't forget that I did this all by myself! Can you imagine the depths a mech designer like me will go to remain faithful to the love of my life?"
His argument appeared to sway Brutus a bit.
While he took some liberties with the truth, Ves was truly being sincere in his love towards Gloriana! His entire mind and body radiated the earnest feelings he cherished in his heart.
This outward expression made contact with Brutus' force of will, allowing him to vaguely sense that Ves was being entirely truthful.
Ves truly loved Gloriana! This was not in doubt!
From this, Brutus understood that Ves was not trying to take advantage of Gloriana. Plenty of third-raters tried to marry second-raters in order to improve their station in life. It was such a common occurrence that Brutus had already put Ves in this category beforehand.
Yet now that he met Ves in person, Brutus found out that his sister's relationship was much more intertwined than he thought.
He cared about his sister. It would have been easy if Ves was just scheming to take advantage of Gloriana and the Wodins. Yet if both Ves and Gloriana were sincere towards each other, then trying to break them apart would harm the later enormously!
Brutus knew his sister pretty well! How could he not know she was absolutely committed to this relationship?!
"I respect what you have accomplished." He conceded towards Ves. "For a third-rater, and a civilian no less, you managed to resist the Fridaymen, and did not show any hesitation in doing so. For that, you are a friend to our state."
Ves proudly straightened his back and patted his chest! "I'm a Larkinson. While our family is not as powerful as the Wodins, there is fire in my blood and honor in my bones! I will do anything to protect Gloriana!"
Surprisingly, this answer did not have the effect that Ves intended. Rather than earn Brutus' respect, the expert pilot became more grave.
Ves immediately sensed the change became the oppression from Brutus' force of will increased!
"I worry about your influence on my sister." Brutus said while boring his eyes at Ves. "You aren't born a Hexer. You are a stranger to our beliefs and our customs. The number six is meaningless to you. You don't respect women as much as genuine Hexers. Above all, you have never been tamed!"
If proper Hexer boys could be likened to well-behaved dogs, then Ves was a feral mutt who was liable to hit any hand that attempted to feed him! Such a rabid dog ought to be wiped out before he could do more damage!
Ves realized his mistake. Hexers respected ferocity, but only from women!
This was because the Hexers believed in the myth that women were smarter, wiser and more in control of themselves!
A ferocious woman was a good thing, because she could be trusted to channel her energy productively.
A ferocious boy was a bad thing, because boys were too impulsive and immature to take the greater picture into account!
The more Ves portrayed himself as a strong and assertive man, the more Hexers believed he was a deadly beast who could lose control at any time!
Still, now that he had uttered his words, he could hardly take them back. Ves had been largely sincere up to now, so if he became less honest, Brutus would definitely be able to tell the difference somehow!
"Gloriana is a great mech designer, but she can't design the mechs she wants alone." Ves changed the subject.
"I don't believe that." Brutus crossed his arms and rejected his assertion. "There are so many mech designers that there are doubtlessly more mech designers who can benefit her as well. Even if it turns out you are the only mech designer in the Komodo Star Sector who compliments her well, she can always find someone better from another star sector! There are a myriad of star sectors to choose from, and I don't believe there is no one in the entire galaxy who can fit her better than you! Even if there is no one suitable in the Milky Way Galaxy, then I will not hesitate to find a way to bring her to the Red Ocean to continue our search!"
"You Hexers aren't exactly popular outside your own state. No offense, Venerable Brutus, but many capable male mech designers who come close to meeting her standards will likely turn away once they learn about the Hexadric Hegemony!"
That caused Brutus to scrutinize Ves even more. "It sounds like you are sympathetic to them rather than to us. What is your stance on Hexers?"
Uh oh. Ves dreaded this question. This was a very thorny issue for him, and if he gave out his unvarnished opinion, Brutus would definitely not let this contradiction go! As a true Hexer, the expert pilot fully bought into all of the poisonous beliefs of his culture!
Fortunately, Ves did not come unprepared. He already prepared a countermeasure beforehand.
He quickly concentrated his mind and donned a mask he prepared beforehand.
It was nothing but a hastily-imagined impression of Hexer attitudes empowered with a decent dollop of spiritual energy.
His demeanor shifted a little. He hunched his shoulders a bit and became a little more deferential.
The demeanor he adopted was identical to the demeanor exhibited by the male crew members of the Stellar Chaser!
One of the reasons why Ves walked around and studied the submissive male Hexers was to prepare for this meeting!
The shift was quite subtle, because Ves knew that his audience would definitely question a more exaggerated performance!
A more restrained performance was much more believe. Ves wanted to make himself appear as if he became swayed by Hexers without adopting their beliefs entirely.
Only then would he be able to pass this hurdle!
Now that he put on his mask, it was time to stage a show.
"While I'm not a Hexer, I have a lot of respect for women." Ves told Brutus while displaying his deference towards the superior gender! "In my relationship with Gloriana, I feel at ease by letting her take the lead. She is so much more capable than me, and her judgement is far better than mine! One of the reasons I love her so much is because she is the woman that truly matches my tastes! I love a woman who can take charge! I'm helpless if I don't have someone like Gloriana to direct my life!"
His seemingly-sincere performance threw the audience off-balance!
For a moment, Brutus doubted his judgement and observation skills. Was Ves truly deferential to women and Gloriana, or was he only trying to say what Hexers wanted to hear?
Even Ves didn't know how much he said was true or fake! He just wanted to win over Gloriana's brother by any means possible!
"Is your so-called respect for women only limited to my sister?" Brutus asked skeptically.
"Goodness no!" Ves vigorously shook his head. "Women have their strengths! From my birth, I was taught to respect women and follow their lead whenever possible! My mother, who I love dearly, has been a huge influence to me! While she died early, I still respect her strength and the behavior she instilled in me! If every woman is like my mother, then the galaxy would truly be a better place!"
Somehow, Ves managed to connect with Brutus. The expert pilot's eyes sparkled a bit as he fully bought into the performance!
Ves sounded so sincere that even he became unsure whether he was lying!
His mask was too effective! Not only did he empower it with a hefty dose of spiritual energy, it also fit him like a glove!
Regardless, Ves finally found a way to connect with Brutus!
"Mothers are very precious." Brutus smiled. "My own mother has shaped my entire life. If not for her love, guidance and strictness, I doubt I could have become as useful as I am today! It was my greatest dream to become Gloriana's shield and protector! With my mother's help, I managed to break through to expert pilot and gain the capital to protect my sister and family!"
Ves nervously smiled in return. That was some serious dedication, and it all happened to be true! The fact that Brutus' force of will reacted so strongly towards Gloriana was proof that the male Hexer's ambition truly centered around protecting his sister!
It made sense. The force of will of an expert pilot reflected their values and beliefs.
Since Hexers always pressed down the pride of boys among their ranks, their male mech pilots all turned towards altruistic desires to form the basis of their force of will!
It was a pretty good way for male expert pilots to gain acceptance from their female overseers.
Hexers did not forbid men from developing skills or growing stronger.
In the same vein, they did not stop male mech pilots from advancing to expert.
From a practical perspective, the Hexers couldn't afford to reject their strength!
While male mech officers were practically nonexistent in the Hex Army, there were a lot of boys serving in the lower ranks.
The chance to surpass the extraordinary threshold did not differ between men and women. Even the lowliest male mech pilot could break through under the right circumstances!
Since the Hexers needed as many expert pilots as possible to contend against the Fridaymen, they did not suppress the existence of male expert pilots.
Instead, the Hexers made sure to channel their strength to the proper ends!
Personal ambition was taboo among boys! Male mech pilots were only allowed to grow stronger as long as they dedicated their efforts towards protecting and advancing the interests of their betters!
After Ves made this realization, he became a bit more assured in his approach.
"We have more in common than you think." Ves smiled. "Our mothers are similar, and they both raised us to respect women. We both love Gloriana, and we want nothing more than to keep her safe and allow her to fulfill her dreams."
"You.. have a point, but.."
"I'm not your enemy, Brutus, nor do I wish your sister any ill." Ves quickly said. "Please believe me. Look at how content Gloriana has become these days. Was she always this happy before she hooked up with me? Has any other boy complimented her design style as well as mine?"
His argument sounded very compelling! As Brutus compared the Gloriana in the past to the Gloriana who was bubbling with happiness, he could not deny he preferred the latter!
Even though Ves managed to charm Brutus by finding something they supposedly shared in common, that did not mean that Brutus reversed his stance in an instant.
Expert pilots were never easily swayed. Regardless if Ves provided all of the right answers, he could never completely assuage the male Hexer's worries!
While Ves noted that his altered personality managed to connect with Brutus, it was difficult to go any further.
If Brutus ever asked him what he thought about Hexers rather than his mother, Ves would be placed in a difficult position!
He truly didn't like the Hexers! Even if his mask allowed him to massage the truth, his contradictory thoughts would definitely weaken his performance.
At worst, he might expose his falsehood, which was the last thing he wanted!
Ves drew back on his act after expressing his admiration towards women in a vague sense.
The conservation sound wound down as Brutus gained what he wanted. He developed enough of an impression of Ves to determine whether he was worthy of Gloriana.
Brutus was still on the fence.
To someone as precious as his sister, the male Wodin did not wish to gamble!
The reason why Brutus and the other Wodins vastly preferred Hexer suitors over Ves was because they knew exactly what the former brought to the table.
In contrast, Ves was a wildcard.
Perhaps Ves was more suitable than the Hexers boys the Wodin Dynasty set their sights upon. Maybe it was true that Ves empowered Gloriana's design philosophy. If he respected his mother and loved Gloriana as much as Brutus, then how could the latter spoil her sister's opportunity for happiness?
While Ves failed to win Brutus over, at the very least the male Hexer exhibited some uncertainty.
Even his force of will reduced its hostility towards Ves!
"I admit that you are different from what I expected." Brutus eventually said. "You've impressed me, and I'm starting to believe my sister isn't misguided when she set her sights on you. That does not mean I agree with her. No matter your qualifications, you are not one of us. That alone is a major problem."
"Your mother is willing to give me a chance." Ves stated.
This was a very simple but a very powerful argument! Male Hexers, even expert pilots like Brutus, did not have the right to make impactful decisions!
Only women were qualified to do so! And no one was more qualified to make decisions for Gloriana than her own mother!
Even though Gloriana was already an adult, she was still a member of the Wodin Dynasty. It was not that rare for women of her age and station to follow the arrangements of her parents or dynasty.
In addition, it wasn't rare for marriages to be arranged for people who were in their thirties, forties or even fifties!
The lives of those who were well-off lasted very long. The expected lifespan of a second-rate human almost certainly surpassed a century!
It was even more exaggerated for talented individuals like Gloriana. As a galactic citizen and a Journeyman, it was already assured that she would be able to live for at least two centuries!
As long as no one aimed at her life, Gloriana possessed plenty of time to find a suitable partner.
Of course, just because Gloriana could afford to take her time did not mean it was a good idea to wait too long.
The fact that Madame Constance Wodin extended three years to explore this pairing was already a very concession towards her favored daughter.
Ves was not a Hexer. This was a problem that continued to hinder his attempts to gain acceptance.
Not only was he a foreigner, he also came from a third-rate state. This was a very significant handicap that made it incredibly difficult for Ves to distinguish himself from the masses.
It wasn't enough to match the capabilities of a Hexer mech designer. He had to surpass his peers from the Hegemony in such a decisive fashion that he left no more room for arguing!
Gloriana was right. The best way for Ves to prove himself was to exhibit the capability to make a masterwork mech. Showing this ability while collaborating with Gloriana at their young age would certainly raise a storm in the mech community!
The Hexers and the Wodins in particular should definitely push aside their concerns about his identity once he astonished them with such an accomplishment!
The only problem was that fabricating a masterwork mech was easier said than done. Ves and Gloriana attempted it several times, to no avail. Either their passion wasn't enough, the moment wasn't right or the chance simply wasn't there.
Ves and Gloriana only had a bit more than 2 years left to overcome this challenge. If they still failed to produce their desired result, Gloriana's mother would definitely lose patience with their relationship!
"I'm aware that my mother has given you the benefit of the doubt." Brutus said and stood up. "It seems she saw something in you as well. I'm willing to give you a chance as well. As long as you treat my sister right and keep her happy, I won't object to my mother's arrangement."
Ves inwardly felt relieved. He managed to convince Gloriana's overprotective brother to give him a chance!
Of course, it was just a chance.
A curious detail was that Constance Wodin not only looked out for her daughter's wellbeing, but also sought what was best for the Wodin Dynasty.
Brutus did not exhibit the same priorities. While he doubtlessly cared about the Wodins, he clearly loved Gloriana above anything else!
This was a very important difference! Ves realized that it might be possible to win Brutus over without committing to his state.
Even if Ves rejected the Hegemony, it would still be possible to gain Brutus' support! After all, the expert pilot wanted Gloriana to be happy, and that mattered more than anything else!
Of course, male Hexers did not have much say in their society. Even if Brutus supported Ves, his opinion hardly influenced the rest of the Wodins!
Naturally, Ves did not look down on this accomplishment. While Brutus might not be of help due to his gender, he would be an awful enemy if he became hostile to the relationship!
If Brutus thought that Gloriana was better off elsewhere, then he could probably take Gloriana away!
He was an expert pilot after all! If he believed that Gloriana was under threat or something, he would definitely act according to his force of will!
A few minutes later, Ves and Brutus emerged from the lounge.
Gloriana and Ranya waited right outside. Both women didn't seem to have listened in on the boys.
"What do you think, Brutus?" Gloriana asked.
"Let's just say that I'll reserve my judgement. I'm willing to let our mother decide whether Ves is the right person for you."
Gloriana grinned and clapped her hands. "Ves will definitely surprise you! Thank you for giving him a chance."
"I won't stop you from pursuing this relationship, but that doesn't mean our other brothers and sisters will follow suit."
"Heh, if Ves managed to impress you, then it's only a matter of time before our entire dynasty embraces him! Just you wait!"
While Gloriana and her brother discussed her relationship, Ranya turned to Ves and studied him with a curious expression.
"Huh. I didn't expect you to make Brutus give you a chance. I was really sure he would object to you. When it comes to Gloriana, Brutus is willing to do anything to ensure she's safe! There is no way a third-rater like you can protect her as well as a Hexer suitor who enjoys the support of an entire dynasty!"
"Gloriana won't be better off if you keep her in a cage." Ves spoke with conviction. "While I admit that I don't have the capital to protect my girlfriend as well as a Hexer, I still managed to kill a lot of Fridaymen! Since I have the courage to hijack a ship from captivity, I'll definitely protect Gloriana to the best of my ability! Don't look at my current strength and influence. I'm still in the early stages of my career. Once I develop for another decade or so, I'll definitely grow to the point where I can protect Gloriana against any second-class threat!"
Those were some very big words! Dr. Ranya clearly doubted his assertions.
"You don't sound very reassuring. If I had to choose between keeping Gloriana safe or keeping her happy, I would rather pick the former than the latter!"
"Let's leave the decision up to Gloriana." Ves replied. "To her, separating from me will definitely ruin her career! I'm not lying about this. Since Gloriana is very passionate about mech design, robbing her of the opportunity to fulfill her ambition will definitely break her as a person!"
"Absurd!"
"It's the truth." Ves stated. "It's a mech designer thing. Just ask her if you don't believe her. She'll give you the same answer. At this point, our collaboration has grown so close that we're practically inseparable! Neither of us will be able to make any accomplishments in our fields if we no longer enjoy each other's support!"
He was exaggerating a bit. The consequences to him weren't very serious. While it would be a shame to lose Gloriana's design philosophy and the synergies she enabled, Ves would live.
His design philosophy still followed a direction that Ves could develop through his own efforts.
Even with a collaboration partner like Gloriana or Aisling, Ves still possessed the confidence to advance to Master by himself!
It was a different case for Gloriana. After Ves contaminated her with his insights, she decisively shifted her design philosophy to accommodate spiritual components, or divine components in her words!
Since Gloriana lacked the spiritual perception that Ves took for granted, it was extremely difficult for her to make any accomplishments in this area!
There was no way she could replicate his feats and obtain a design spirit, let alone instilling it into a design!
Now that Gloriana received this revelation, she could never go back.
Ordinarily, the only way to recover from a possible breakup was to correct the direction of her design philosophy.
The only thing she needed to do was to discard the use of spiritual components in her mech designs.
Yet.. could she even do that?
As a mech designer who wanted to design the perfect vessel, it was crucially important for her to leverage every possible method to reach perfection!
Now that she became aware to the value that spiritual components added to her mech designs, how could he deprive her perfect vessels of this powerful component?
From a logical perspective, Gloriana would never be able to justice the absence of this component!
For this reason, Ves did not fear Gloriana's betrayal. Knowing that his specialty was essential to her own development, Gloriana should be doing her best to stay by his side!
Ranya didn't know this, and she obviously didn't believe that Ves was being truthful. To her, Ves was simply blowing his horn.
Typical boy.
"Don't think you've won. Brutus is just her youngest brother. You need to convince two more brothers and three more sisters to win over my cousin's siblings. Then you need to overcome their mother. Let me tell you that my aunt is one of the strictest Hexers that I have ever met! She's harsh on herself and harsher on her children! Every Hexer must meet her ludicrously high expectations, or she will make her wrath known!"
This sounded very worrisome. Ves truly feared Gloriana's mother. He heard so much about her to know what Ves shouldn't even be able to come within her sight if not for his excellence.
He had to grow stronger! This was the only way to resolve his issues with Gloriana's mother and the Wodin Dynasty!
His urge to design a second-class mech and fabricate a masterwork mech grew even stronger!
He couldn't afford to fail!
After Ves and Venerable Brutus had their private moment, they moved the mech workshop along with Gloriana and Ranya.
It turned out that Gloriana tweaked and updated the Star Dancer's design in the last couple of weeks. Because of her limited involvement in the design of her brother's expert mech, she could only propose some minor improvements.
Gloriana brought her brother to a projection of the Star Dancer's design and enthusiastically showed off some of her latest efforts. She improved considerably when she worked alongside Ves, so it wasn't a surprise for her to be able to correct some of her shortcomings in her existing products.
Normally, a mech designer did not bother to update a mech design. Any revisions they wanted to do could wait until they comprehensively combined all of the corrections as well as tech upgrades in another revision.
Ves himself wanted to wait until he became more proficient in next generation mech design before he designed the Aurora Titan Mark II for example.
Of course, if a mech designer really cared about a design or customer, there was nothing stopping them from publishing minor updates.
Expert mechs were some of the most important machines to the mech community. With the insanely high skill of expert pilots, even minor differences might result in drastic swings in battles!
With so much at stake, mech designers involved in these prestigious design projects often continued to iterate on them despite finishing the job!
In this instance, Gloriana had an extra reason to pour more effort into updating the Star Dancer.
Her brother's life depended on it! Since she possessed the capability to work on its design, she would do her best to draw out as much strength out of it as possible!
Ves made sure to keep a distance from the siblings. He held back his curiosity and tried his best not to listen in or study the projected design.
An expert mech always incorporated numerous advanced technologies and design applications. The Star Dancer almost certainly incorporated many innovations exclusive to the Hexers or the Wodins.
Since Ves wasn't formally involved in the project, he had no right to be exposed to the Star Dancer's design!
"Miaow."
While Gloriana outlined her improvements, Clixie somehow ended up in Brutus' arms. The severe-looking brother finally softened his grave expression and played with the cat in his arms.
"Huh. Turns out being a cat person runs in the blood." Ves remarked.
"Meow."
Ves turned to the cat biting at his shoes and kicked his naughty pet away.
"I know you're anxious to return to the Scarlet Rose, but we can't leave yet! Be patient and make do with Gloriana's snacks!"
"Meow meow!"
Lucky angrily swung his tail at Ves before skulking off.
Ever since they were rescued by the Glory Battalion, they hadn't been given an opportunity to return to the ship they hijacked from the Fridaymen.
Neither Lucky nor Ves were pleased!
With all of the Breyer alloy the mysterious escape pod could produce, Lucky felt wrong to be deprived of what he considered to be his rightful prize! After all, it was mostly due to his abilities that they managed to conquer the Scarlet Rose!
As for Ves, he formed a lot of ambitions for this valuable material. It wasn't any day that Ves randomly found a seemingly endless source of Breyer alloy! As long as the loop he discovered continued to supply him with materials, he could use it to build a lot of powerful assets!
He formed a lot of ambitious plans. Depending on the maximum sustainable output of Breyer alloy, he could completely transform his life in a couple of years of time!
Yet now that Gloriana not only dragged him away from the Scarlet Rose, but also placed a prize crew onto his newly-conquered ship, Ves couldn't help but be worried.
It had already been several days. Before he departed, Ves made sure to halt the loop and keep the anomalous escape pod shut in its launch tube.
Would the escape pod and its frightening occupant remain in place?
Ves didn't know the answer to this question. As time continued to pass, he couldn't help but dread what might happen.
It would be awful if the Hexers discovered this secret! Any day now, the mummified woman might wake up, or her escape pod might start appearing on the Stellar Chaser!
Any change was detrimental to his interests. Ves was not among his Avatars, Battle Criers or Sentinels right now. Every single ship in the fleet belonged to the Wodins! There was nowhere he could hide this anomaly.
Once the Hexers discovered the potential worth of the self-replicating escape pod, they would probably claim it for themselves!
Fortunately, nothing happened so far. The Hexers didn't appear to have discovered the unusual escape pod. The undermanned prize crew tasked with running the Scarlet Rose were too busy repairing all of the damage and neglect she accumulated over the past month.
While Ves chatted with Ranya, Lucky decided to take solace in Gloriana's company.
At least she never kicked his body for no reason!
"Meow."
"Oh Lucky! Are you hungry, little buddy?"
"Meow!"
"Hihihi! You're so cute. I've got plenty of shiny minerals stashed in my workshop. I'll go grab some."
While Gloriana left for the storehouses, Lucky jumped up to the work table and called for Clixie.
"Meow."
"Miaow."
The furry cat squirmed out of Brutus' grasp and landed next to Lucky. The two cats pressed against each other and conserved in their cat language.
In the meantime, Brutus stared at Lucky in fascination.
Gloriana returned soon afterwards and fed Lucky a chunk of medium-grade exotic, much to the cat's delight!
While Lucky crunched the hard mineral with his teeth, Brutus glanced at his sister.
"I thought you only had one cat."
She casually stroked her hand on Lucky's back while he was occupied with his latest snack.
"Oh, Lucky here isn't mine. He belongs to Ves!"
"Truly? While I'm not as good at understanding technology as you, this cat looks extraordinary! Even I know that any creature that is capable of eating exotics is just as valuable as Clixie, if not more!"
"Don't bother asking me where you can find a cat like Lucky. I've already tried to search where I can buy one myself, but not even the Terrans and Rubarthans are offering a mechanical creature that is anywhere close to him. He's unique as far as I know, and Ves upgraded him several times. His tiger stripes weren't there before!"
Brutus spent some time twinkling his eyes at the fascinating cat, but in the end he got back to listening to Gloriana's work.
An hour went by until he finally returned to the Serendipity. The fleet was still in unfriendly space. The Crecia Republic was no friend of the Hexadric Hegemony. While unlikely, the chance the Fridaymen might launch an ambush on their fleet was still a possibility!
With the departure of Brutus, Ves felt a lot less tense. Even when he was far away from Brutus, he still experienced the expert pilot's influence in the form of his force of will.
Expert pilots always influenced their surroundings with their expanding spiritual manifestations!
Even when Brutus decided to give Ves a chance, he still felt as if he was being scrutinized all the time! With such an expansive force of will, Ves had to go to the opposite side of the Stellar Chaser in order to escape its reach!
"What an overprotective brother!" Ves muttered and shook his head.
He found it curious that all of the other expert pilots he met before did not interact with their surroundings as much as Brutus. Why did the latter's force of will react more actively to the presence of people? Was it due to the nature of his force of will, or did the Hexers utilize some methods to grant their expert pilots more strength?
"Maybe the second-rate states truly grasped a method to enhance the strength of expert pilots!"
Even if that was the case, it wasn't anything Ves could access for now. His identity and power was wholly insufficient to access such secrets.
Besides, Ves didn't really have to worry about expert pilots for the moment. For now, he should focus on strengthening the mundane mech pilots under his employ. The foundation must be built up first before he could think about adding upper-level strength to his forces!
As the ships finished cycling their FTL drives and transitioned into the higher dimensions, they would soon be arriving back to the Ylvaine Protectorate.
Unlike before where Ves had to avoid enemy pursuit, the Wodins clearly weren't as concerned about any possible attacks. They directly charted a fairly direct route back to the Ylvaine Protectorate in order to leave the Crecia Republic as soon as possible.
Ves looked forward to reuniting with his family and subordinates. He still had a lot to do when he reached the Kesseling System. Both the LMC and the new family needed to find some new directions to focus upon for the upcoming years.
Already, a lot of time had passed since he made the decision to leave the Komodo Star Sector. With the Five Scrolls Compact's shadow starting to loom over this star sector, Ves felt more and more compelled to get away as fast as possible!
At the very least he had a very clear goal to work towards now. With the opening of the Red Ocean Dwarf Galaxy, he could couch his decision as something other than a cowardly decision to avoid danger!
"I still have a long way to go before I'm qualified to enter the Red Ocean."
Thinking about all of the MTA merits required to earn passage through a beyonder gate continued to be a thorny problem.
Even many mech designers from the first-rate states weren't capable of earning so many merits! Ves had to find ways to make extraordinary contributions to the MTA in order to accumulate so many merits in a short amount of time!
More and more, the thought of partnering up with others capable of earning MTA merits came to mind. As long as he and Gloriana found eight more partners, they could split up the burden amongst each other!
Trying to earn with 10 million MTA merits sounded a lot more doable than trying to earn 100 million MTA merits!
Yet whenever he thought about sharing power and resources, Ves quickly rejected the option.
There was no way Ves was willing to put his trust in others! Only Gloriana deserved his trust! As for others, forget it! After Ghanso and the Bright Republic screwed him over, Ves vowed to never put his life in someone else's hands again!
"With my abilities and advantages, I can definitely find ways to earn lots of merits!"
He needed to start with completing missions for the Rim Guardians right away. The sooner he began to earn some merits, the sooner he was done!
"I'll have to put all of my efforts on promoting William Urbesh to expert candidate as fast as possible!"
While there was still plenty of time left to complete this task for the Rim Guardians, Ves believed he already took far too much time. If not for his kidnapping, he probably would have been able to move on already!
Ves gained a lot of inspiration and enjoyed a lot of time to think over his plans in recent times. Along the way, he didn't neglect what he should do with Silent William.
As long as he succeeded with his experiment, then not only should he be able to elevate William to expert candidate, but also any other mech pilot with spiritual potential!
Of course, Ves couldn't make much use of this experimental method lest he draw the MTA's attention to himself. Besides, Ves only formed some assumptions in his mind. He still needed to test them thoroughly, and to do that he needed lots of test subjects!
Ves woke up in his cabin aboard the Stellar Rose. He stretched his arms and tried to rise from his bed, only to find his leg was being shackled by a six-sided manacle.
"Lucky!"
"Meow?"
Lucky stopped eating his messy black hair and jumped from his head in order to chew apart the metal manacle. Its material was just as hard as Breyer alloy, but which just happened to serve as breakfast for his cat.
Once his pet freed his leg, Ves yawned and entered the bathroom. He took a quick shower while making sure to leave his Synthra Umbra underwear on. He made sure to wave his hand at the blinking eyeballs that made up the bulkheads, deck and ceiling.
Certainly, stepping onto all of the eyeballs was an extremely unpleasant experience, and Ves hurried to clothe himself as fast as possible!
Just like every day, Gloriana already prepared his outfit for the day for him. Her tastes grew odder and odder by the day. Ves really didn't want to wear the puppy costume she picked this time, but it wasn't as if he had any choice.
His cabin didn't contain any other clothes! The closet was completely devoid of any fabric and he sure as hell wasn't going to beg a Hexer for some scraps!
After he put on his dog collar on his neck, he exited the bathroom, only to meet Lucky's ridicule.
"Meow meow."
"It's not as if you are wearing a collar as well!"
"Meow."
"Don't make fun of me any further or I'll exchange our collars! At least yours has a stealth module!"
"Meow meow meow!"
"What do you mean its radius is not enough to hide my body!? There is plenty of room as long as I compress myself into a ball! I'll show you how it's done!"
Before Lucky could skedaddle, Ves concentrated his mind and tried his best to wrap his scaredy cat up with his spiritual projection!
Shortly afterwards, they exchanged collars. While Lucky tried to scratch the dog collar from his neck, Ves affixed the miniaturized stealth generator onto his neck.
Once he activated it, a stealth field with a diameter of one meter partially enveloped his body.
This led to a very weird sight where his legs and parts of his waist still remained visible.
Though Ves thought about crouching and rolling his way to the dining hall, there was no reason for him to hide his presence.
He shrugged and decided to walk upright.
This resulted in the strange sight of a pair legs exiting the cabin and heading towards the dining hall.
In contrast, a cat wearing a dog collar was nothing special!
Once they reached their destination, Queen Gloriana had already seated herself on the throne.
His queen wore a regal outfit that consisted of a multilayered dress. The finest fabrics of the galaxy as well as sparkling exotic jewels all enhanced her majesty to an incredibly majestic sight!
"% $*%."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Ves did not approach the dining table in the center of the compartment. Instead, he moved to the side where a brightly-colored doghouse had been placed and squirmed his half-invisible body inside.
"#$#%^#$* ."
A number of bots carrying various breakfast dishes entered the compartments. While most of them carried exquisite gourmet foods, only a single bot arrived to serve Ves breakfast.
The bot carelessly dumped the six-sided dog bowl in front of the doghouse. Ves looked pleased as the bowl contained the exact same nutrient pack mixture he tasted more than a thousand times already!
"Bon appetit!" He said to himself with a smile.
Ves lowered his face to the bowl and began to eat the dry mixture without any hesitation. He gorged himself so fast that it only took a couple of minutes to finish his morning meal!
Since nutrient packs didn't contain any moisture, Ves had to quench his thirst with the second bowl delivered by a bot. He lapped up with water with his tongue, which was a very inefficient way to hydrate himself.
It couldn't be helped. Ves was a dog after all.
Once he waited for Queen Gloriana to finish her breakfast, she rose from her throne and slowly brought her highly-decorate robe to the doghouse.
At this time, the stealth generator's charge had run out, thereby revealing Ves in all his glory. His silly puppy costume made him look like a pug. His fuzzy pale yellow coat and his curled tail looked extraordinarily cute on him! Ves could probably win some prizes if he appeared at a dog show!
At this time, Queen Gloriana extended a leash towards his neck. Even though his miniaturized stealth generator didn't come with a hook, the end of the leash unfolded and clutched the 'collar' like a claw.
"##%## , !#^%\u0026."
"No." Ves answered.
Queen Gloriana scrunched her face. " #\u0026% \u0026%?"
Even though Ves was still hunched over in his doghouse, he still grinned at his girlfriend like a shark.
"Your Majesty, if you are truly the Gloriana I know, you would have kissed me six times by now. Also, dressing me up as a puppy and making me eat from a pair of dog bowls is an excellent act. I don't know where you got the idea from, but you obviously don't know my girlfriend well enough! As soon as I laid my eyes on a dog bowl, I realized the flaw in this dream."
Queen Gloriana's face turned ugly. " $\\u0026\u0026% ?"
"The true Gloriana is a cat person, not a dog person! She would have dressed me up like a kitty!"
Just because most Hexers had a tendency to refer to the boys in their state as puppies didn't mean they were all inclined to see them this way.
At the very least, if Gloriana was truly in charge of this charade, she would definitely dress him up like a cat!
"I admit that you managed to hoodwink me for a time, but apparently you don't know Gloriana well enough! Now that I've spotted the flaw in your illusion, there's no way I'm letting this farce run its course! Break!"
Ves leveraged his entire Spirituality and pushed it out, breaking some sort of shackle that had taken hold over his mind!
A dreadful scream emanated from Queen Gloriana as the illusion broke apart! Instantly, her radiant skin and her regal dress disappeared, revealing the true culprit behind this trap!
"I knew it! It's you!"
A mummified female body wearing an outdated vacsuit uttered an unnatural scream at Ves! Her raging voice overlapped like a thousand screaming hags!
" Y#\u0026*##*%^ #\u0026$*#$#$^#\u0026%^*!"
Unfortunately for them both, Ves didn't understand Cassandra Breyer's words at all. This was incredibly odd as Ves could talk with cats and exobeasts with no problem. How come he failed to understand the mummified woman's voice?
If he was unprepared, then the woman's unintelligible screams would have damaged his mind. However, it was too late now that he actively shielded his mind!
The spiritually-charged words washed against his mind without gaining entry. Ves became as firm as a rock as he let the attack pass him by!
"BEGONE!"
The remnants of the illusion tore apart entirely after another outburst! Ves managed to free himself from his hijacked dream!
As Ves woke up for a second time, Ves immediately leveraged his Spirituality and inspected every part of himself and his surroundings.
Lucky woke up from his place at the foot of the bed and looked at Ves with curiosity.
"Meow?"
"Looks like you're real." Ves sighed in relief.
Now that he was alert to the possible threat, Ves scrutinized everything in far greater detail. Nothing seemed amiss, both visually and spiritually.
Though the illusion that had trapped him somehow managed to bypass his defenses and contaminate his mind, it wasn't perfect.
Ves inspected his own mental space over and over again but found no hidden threats or other abnormalities.
"What a frightening attack!" Ves whispered and touched his face as if to confirm it was still real!
The illusion that engulfed him seemed to be completely nonsensical, yet Ves behaved as if it was all completely normal!
Being shackled to his bed, surrounded by eyeballs while he showered, putting up a dog costume and eating his breakfast like he was a puppy should have alarmed him right away!
The fact that he didn't question it until he spotted an obvious flaw was very concerning to Ves! This mental attack was far more sophisticated than anything he experienced before, and the frightening part about it was that it could very well happen again!
"This witch!" Ves cursed.
He had no doubt that the undead woman was behind this insidious attack. Whether she wanted to kill him or take over his mind, there was no doubt in his mind that she had bad intentions!
Of course, it was partially his fault for inviting such an attack. He knew that Cassandra Breyer was clearly an extraordinary spiritual sorceress, yet he greedily exploited her self-replication ability anyway!
If Cassandra didn't counterattack in some way, then she wouldn't have lived up to his expectation of her strength.
"It seems I'm truly in trouble now!"
One of his fears came true. Now that he stopped the production loop, the mysterious escape pod was left intact, giving the corpse inside plenty of time to perform some tricks!
Ves had a lot of questions right now. For one, how could she launch an attack on him while the fleet entered FTL travel?
"Can she ignore the obstacles isolating the Scarlet Rose and the Stellar Chaser?"
Perhaps Cassandra possessed the capability to launch an attack on him no matter the distance!
A more important question came to mind.
"Can I resist this attack again?"
While the illusion that gripped his mind was extremely sophisticated, it didn't actually carry much strength! Ves was able to break it after two spiritual outbursts.
Either Cassandra held back, or her condition limited her strength.
Ves guessed that the latter was the case. Cassandra was already dead and there was plenty of weirdness going on with regards to her circumstances.
His best guess was that spiritual sorcesses like Cassandra and his mother both employed techniques that preserved their lives after death.
However, everything had a price. His mother had to live like a ghost, while most of Cassandra's spiritual strength was occupied with maintaining the existence of her corpse and escape pod.
If Ves assumed that most of Cassandra's strength was locked in maintaining her own state, then she didn't actually have that much strength left to mess with his mind.
He relaxed after coming up with this theory. While he wasn't sure if this guess was correct, he intuitively felt that he wasn't far from the truth.
In any case, the automatic operation that allowed her body and escape pod to replenish over and over again must place an incredible burden on Cassandra Breyer! Even if she was one of the strongest spiritual sorceresses in the galaxy, continually converting energy to matter was an enormous burden!
Ves grew confused as he recalled some of his experiences while he fell under the illusion.
Even though he treated it as an attack, was that truly the case?
"It could have been a nightmare."
Maybe he was overthinking the matter. It might be that he had just been subjected to a dream created by his own unconscious mind!
Ves shuddered.
"That's certainly not the case! This is definitely a deliberate attack! It doesn't have anything to do with me! I would never enjoy such an odd dream!"
After making up his mind, he grew somber as he began to consider how to guard himself against a similar attack.
Cassandra Breyer could pull him into an illusion once. What stopped her from doing it again?
If Ves was awake and alert, then he had plenty of confidence in foiling such an attempt.
Now that he was aware of the possibility, he could easily detect if his mind was being influenced!
Yet the problem was that Ves wasn't always awake and alert!
Even when he was awake, he couldn't concentrate his mind every single second of the day!
As for the times when he fell asleep, there was no question that his mind would fall into its most vulnerable state!
"This is a calamity!"
After surviving a suspected mental attack, Ves grew incredibly grave.
Since he woke up a few hours before his usual waking time, he didn't hurry to get out of his bed. Instead, he scratched Lucky's chin while he contemplated ways to guard himself against this insidious attack.
The most frightening part about this attack was that it could sneak up to him without alerting him! Before he knew it, the illusion warped his cognition until he completely took its absurdities for granted!
"I need to find a way to guard my mind!"
Before, Ves always thought that his mind was a fortress. As a mech designer, his design seed guarded the core of his mind. Anything that encroached on its territory would invite a terrible counterattack!
Not even Ves' attempt to investigate Gloriana's mind yielded much result after her design seed detected the intrusion!
Even though his spiritual projection turned into a dormant spiritual fragment in her mind, it only maintained its existence because Gloriana adored his presence.
Ves thought that his design seed would be just as alert and guarded. Yet when Cassandra Breyer tampered with his mind, his design seed completely dropped the ball!
Was there a difference between their functions? Was Gloriana's design seed much more sensitive to abnormalities due to her specialization? Was his design seed defective?
"No. It's because my adversary is too strong!"
Even if he suspected that most of her strength was locked away, she still possessed all of the knowledge and advanced techniques she accumulated over her shrouded lifetime!
How old was she? One century? Two centuries? Seven centuries?
Whatever the case, Cassandra was definitely strong enough to outmatch him on these fronts!
Ves could only take consolation in his defensive advantage and his edge in the amount of spiritual strength he could leverage.
"This is problematic."
If Ves had to make a choice, he would always prefer finesse over power. This applied both to mechs and spirituality.
What was the use of maximizing power if it couldn't be controlled?
Right now, Ves felt as if he was a child in front of Cassandra Breyer. He only received a minor lesson on how to employ his Spirituality. He learnt the rest of his spiritual repertoire on his own!
"Without a teacher, without a textbook, how can I possibly match against a master in this art?"
Ves believed that Cassandra was definitely connected to the Five Scrolls Compact.
The Compact appeared to be the highest or even only organization in human space that developed a systematic understanding of this phenomenon.
Even though the MTA seemed to be aware of spirituality or 'psionic power' as they called it, Ves suspected that they weren't even close to matching the cultists!
He was quite jealous of those who had been taught their arts. Instead of groping in the dark like Ves, these Compact members all received teachings accumulated over centuries or even millenia!
Comparing Ves against Cassandra was like comparing a caveman to Nitaa in full battle gear.
There was no contest!
"Is it even possible to block every attack?"
Ves couldn't assume that his defenses were infallible. As long as he slipped up even once, he would definitely be vulnerable to hallucinations!
"I have to resolve this problem as fast as possible." He whispered.
Fortunately, it only took half a week for the fleet to arrive at Kesseling VIII. Once they reached the LMC's new headquarters, Ves would probably be able to gain possession of the Scarlet Rose.
"Hopefully."
He wasn't sure yet. What if the Hexers tried to make a claim at the ship? That would be a disaster to Ves! Not only would he lose a valuable second-class vessel, he would also lose the mysterious escape pod or provide it with opportunities to plague him with spiritual attacks!
"I need to get some clarification from Gloriana." He muttered.
Until he regained control over the Scarlet Rose, Ves needed to employ a stopgap solution. He needed to find at least some way to repel or mitigate follow-up attacks.
He didn't have a lot of good ideas except for the obvious. After a lot of thought, Ves simply shrugged and formed an empowered spiritual shield over his mind. He invested just enough spiritual energy in it that it would take an entire day to replenish.
His mental space instantly felt more secure now that he invested in its defense. He estimated that he was a lot more resilient against external pressure now!
Whether it was a spiritual attack from a suspected Compact associate or an aggressive force of will from a hostile expert pilot, as long as he maintained a shield of this strength, he would definitely be better off than if he relied on his natural defenses!
Ves made an important realization. "I should have done this before."
Anytime he didn't need to accumulate his excess spiritual energy into a P-stone, he should use up his spiritual energy instead of letting it go to waste!
Even if the chance of suffering a spiritual attack was almost zero, it was better to be safe than sorry.
Just like a shield generator, Ves didn't need the protection most of the time, but when he came under attack, he would be infinitely grateful for his decision!
As the shield settled down and wrapped around his mind, Ves tried to judge its defensive capabilities.
It would definitely work against most attacks of a spiritual nature, but would it work against a master in the arts like Cassandra Breyer?
"She's way too fearsome." He shuddered.
It could be that Cassandra could easily pierce or bypass his attempt at shielding his mind.
Compared to other other products of spiritual engineering such as the Grand Dynamo and Cassandra's insidious illusion attack, his shield was completely devoid of sophistication.
It wasn't as if Ves wanted to strengthen his spiritual shield, but he didn't know how.
When Ves inspected his spiritual toolbox, he discovered to his dismay that most of them pertained to mechs and design spirits.
As a mech designer, Ves devoted most of his research on spirituality to developing his design philosophy and enhancing his ability to empower his mechs.
There was very little reason for him to develop other applications of spirituality.
Perhaps he unconsciously repelled other applications of spirituality because he didn't want to follow the footsteps of the Five Scrolls Compact.
Just thinking about its insane cultists and researchers shook his very soul! There was no way he wanted to descend into madness!
"Mechs are familiar. Mechs are safe. Mechs are normal!"
Ves believed that as long as he anchored his spiritual gift towards his passion for mech design, he'd be able to avoid the madness that seemed to afflict the entire Five Scrolls Compact.
If this assumption held true, wouldn't he be sabotaging himself by letting go of his restraint?
"I have no choice." He sighed. "If I don't do anything, I'll continue to be susceptible to these kinds of attacks."
It was as if he was designing a knight mech that was impervious against physical damage but extraordinarily vulnerable against energy damage.
As long as his knight mech fought against opponents wielding ballistic rifles, it could probably last for hours! Yet as soon as a single laser rifleman mech showed up, his work would quickly fall!
Only under certain conditions was it acceptable to design a mech with such clear vulnerabilities.
For example, his Desolate Soldier and Deliverer designs ordinarily fared poorly against enemy mechs, but that was okay because they were only meant to fight against the sandmen.
Ves had fallen into the trap of assuming that he would only have to fend against 'normal' attacks.
This was why he placed a lot of importance on his shield generators.
Yet now that Cassandra Breyer exploited one of his vulnerabilities, he had no choice but to divert some time into patching it up. Even if he didn't intend to follow the path of his mother, he should at least develop some self-protection capabilities.
When Ves studied his simple shield made out of pure, solid spiritual energy, he became increasingly more dissatisfied.
"I'm a mech designer and an engineer. How can I possibly be satisfied with such a simple product!?"
Could he apply his professional expertise in spiritual sorcery?
His eyes lit up. Though it would be difficult to translate his expertise in mech design towards spiritual applications, at least some principles should be the same!
Could he design and 'fabricate' a spiritual version of a mech in his mind?
It was easy for him to construct an image of a draft design. Yet drawing out a complete and viable mech was incredibly difficult, especially at his current cognitive capabilities!
In order to construct a spiritual mech in his mind, he needed to be extremely accurate about its sizes, dimensions and material composition.
This was practically impossible! Not even Seniors or Masters might be able to keep track of so many technical details!
In fact, not even Ves was capable of tracking more than a hundred components at a time! His mental multitasking simply wasn't that good!
As long as he made even one mistake, the mech was liable to fall apart or become inoperable!
Naturally, Ves did not necessarily have to replicate a spiritual version of one of his full-fledged mech designs from scratch.
Anything involving spirituality was partially based on intent rather than reality.
In other words, it was fine if he was a little fuzzy on the details. As long as he possessed a clear intent about the outcome, his spiritual products would still come online somehow.
Yet.. was he willing to dumb down his mech design and adopt a different approach to construct his spiritual mechs?
It was the easier path, and one that would definitely push him towards developing completely new paradigms in mech design!
Yet Ves did not wish to pursue this path. Relying on intent to make up the shortcomings of his spiritual mechs was a lazy approach. It would also make him dependent on the more mysterious aspects of spirituality, which might push him even stronger towards the Five Scrolls Compact!
Ves much preferred to stick to his roots as a mech designer. He specialized in designing mechs. The core of his spiritual strength, his design seed, solely existed to amplify his primary profession!
If he tried to abide as closely as possible to conventional mech design, he could focus on translating as much of his existing mech design capabilities into the spiritual domain as possible.
While this would prevent him from broadening his spiritual applications, it was the more efficient option.
Ves was a mech designer. He should be pouring all of his time and efforts into making a masterwork mech and finding ways to earn 100 million MTA merits!
The only reason why he was willing to divert some time into creating mechs out of pure spirituality at all was because he needed to address a shortcoming.
As long as he was creating something that did the job, there was little reason for Ves to invest more time in this field!
Now that he made his choice, Ves had to find some way of realizing this method.
"I don't have to design a new mech. I can just reconstruct one of my existing mech designs in my mind." He muttered.
He knew his own designs the best. He could recall a lot of aspects of the Blackbeak, Crystal Lord, Aurora Titan, Desolate Soldier, Deliverer and his custom mechs.
Yet while his Intelligence Attribute was high, Ves did not think it was capable of tracking hundreds of thousands or millions of components that made up a modern mech!
"How can I possibly memorize and keep track of the properties of so many components and subcomponents?" Ves scratched his head.
A solution came to mind. Wasn't his Archimedes Rubal implant dedicated to expanding a human's memory and data storage capacity?
As long as he successfully integrated this CFA implant, he could definitely employ this unprecedented approach to empower his personal spiritual capabilities!
Chapter 1791 Imaginary Mechs
How should he call this new kind of mechs?
Spiritual mechs?
Technically accurate, but too revealing. If there was any instance where he had to reveal the existence of spiritual mechs, then he shouldn't call it by this name.
Though Ves did not assume he would ever reveal the existence of something so thought-defying, he used to adopt the same thought towards the X-Factor and its manifestations.
Since he had a tendency to reveal some of his capabilities over time, he might as well prepare ahead and have a good name in place to explain his concept.
He weighed several possible suggestions, from false mechs to psionic mechs.
Eventually, he settled for a suitably vague but accurate phrase.
"Imaginary mechs." Ves snapped his fingers. "It fits!"
The reason why he settled on this name was because it described the essence of his latest idea. The work he tried to create would be formed of pure spiritual energy or matter. It did not exist and left no trace in the material dimensions.
Ves created these mechs completely in the realm of mind and spirit, hence why he called them imaginary.
As he silently explored this idea throughout the day, Ves steadily expanded the concept and tried to find a way to translate this innovative idea into a practical creation!
"It's all well and good to come up with great ideas, but if I can't turn them into reality, then what is the point of wasting time on them? Before I develop this idea any further, I have to determine whether it's even feasible!"
After all, Ves had ever heard of creating intangible mechs! The idea was so inconceivable that Ves guessed that he was the only mech designer in the galaxy to even consider it seriously!
The main reason why Ves wanted to turn this idea into fruition at all was because it completely matched his professional inclinations.
Perhaps other spiritual sorcerers developed techniques that allowed them to create spiritual swords and shields, but why should Ves reinvent the wheel?
He was a mech designer! Designing and fabricating mechs was what he did best! Even if creating a complete and functional mech from reality was a thousand times more complicated than forming a primitive spiritual weapon or tool, Ves possessed a clear advantage in this aspect!
The existence of the Grand Dynamo hinted to Ves that spiritual engineering was a flourishing discipline. Plenty of spiritual sorcerers managed to apply advanced techniques to create incredibly wondrous spiritual applications.
Ves yearned to explore spiritual engineering and develop it into one of his strengths, yet he could not devote his entire life to it like other spiritual sorcerers.
"I am NOT my mother." He emphasized to himself.
He was incapable of performing all of the tricks displayed by the likes of his mother and Cassandra Breyer, and he didn't feel any passion in following their ways.
Rather than following in the footsteps of the Five Scrolls Compact, why not leverage his existing strengths and treat spiritual engineering as a minor?
Ves had a hunch that as long as he succeeded in coming up with a method to create an imaginary mech, he might be able to translate his gains in this field back to his main profession!
Whether he could use his imaginary mechs to enhance his design spirits or infuse a mech with an imaginary equivalent, the potential to empower his physical mechs was boundless!
Perhaps this direction was a possible way for him to design and create a true living mech that he had always dreamt about! As long as he combined a physical and an imaginary mech into a single entity, he might be able to create a combination that posed a threat to every possible enemy, whether they were real or spiritual!
He became more excited when he fantasized about these possibilities! This was not only a way to broaden his specialty, but also completely integrate spiritual engineering into his core profession!
Once he developed this field, no mech designer in the galaxy ought to be able to match him! Unless another mech designer existed who specialized in spirituality and possessed his spiritual competences, then Ves would definitely be able to hold a monopoly over spiritually-empowered mechs!
"This is the key to earning lots of MTA merits."
Whenever he thought about the astronomical amount of MTA merits he needed to earn, Ves always felt pained at the burden.
The quantity was too huge!
With his capabilities and growth trajectory, he figured it wasn't a big deal to accumulate 100 million MTA merits in 50 years.
Yet if he waited that long, Ves would miss far too many opportunities! Already, stories about all of the gains the first-movers had gained were spreading all over the galactic net. The Red Ocean Dwarf Galaxy was ripe for the picking, but if he came too late, much of the harvest would already be gone!
Therefore, Ves really needed to fulfill this requirement within a decade in order to keep his hopes alive. He did not wish to explore a Red Ocean that was already filled with established states!
"I also can't forget the time it takes to travel to the nearest beyonder gate." He muttered.
Shortly after the Big Two revealed the existence of beyonder gate technology, they immediately formed an ambitious plan to revolutionize space travel in the old galaxy!
As humanity plundered an increasing amount of phasewater from the Red Ocean, the Big Two rapidly started to erect beyonder gates throughout the Milky Way.
Just like with the Comm Consortium, the two most powerful human organizations in the galaxy formed a subsidiary organization to operate and manage these smaller beyonder gates.
So far, the Gate Consortium was only in its infancy, but already its existence shook up human civilization!
The dozen so-called lesser beyonder gates already started to provide an enormous amount of convenience! Space travelers who urgently needed to travel from one end of the galaxy to the other end no longer had to waste decades of their lives to reach their destination!
Unlike the greater beyonder gates which enabled inter-galactic travel between the Milky Way and the Red Ocean, the lesser beyonder gates were not as costly to operate.
In order to access the Milky Way Galactic Gate Network, a passenger could still pay for their trip in MTA or CFA merits.
No one with a shred of sanity in their minds would ever accept this price! Merits were too precious and difficult to earn! Not only did the payer have to earn the merits themselves, they weren't transferable!
This meant that there was no possibility of inheriting them. It was impossible for a group to accumulate them without putting in some actual effort!
The other major issue with merits was that they were essential in redeeming goods and services exclusive to the Big Two, of which life-prolonging treatment was their biggest prize!
If someone had to choose between extending their lifespan for a century or instant travel from the edge of the galaxy to the center of the galaxy, most would choose the former!
Since many people had been conditioned to hoard their merits until they could redeem something truly valuable, the Gate Consortium reluctantly opened up their Galactic Gate Network to passengers who paid in money rather than merits.
Even though the price in fleet or mech credits was rather exorbitant, at the very least it was a lot easier to earn them! Ves himself did not worry as much about this issue as he had a thousand ways to accumulate funds.
For example, aside from earning money by selling mechs, he could also collect fees from rich people eager to reach the Red Ocean or attract investment from a wealthy patron.
As long as the Gate Consortium built a lesser beyonder gate close to the Komodo Star Sector, then Ves would only have to spend a few years to access the network. From there, he could pay for passage to a hub destination which contained a greater beyonder gate.
Only greater beyonder gates were capable of facilitating inter-galactic galactic travel!
In any case, the formation of the Galactic Gate Network already solved one of his most urgent problems. His expeditionary fleet didn't have to waste too much time to reach a greater beyonder gate.
"That's something to consider for the future." He muttered.
For now, he still needed to form a list of issues he needed to solve in order to pave the way for the creation of imaginary mechs.
As the fleet silently entered the territories occupied by the Ylvaine Protectorate, Ves obsessively ignored everything and devoted his complete thoughts to realizing this fantastic concept!
After a lot of consideration and experimentation, he finally ended up with a succinct list of points he needed to address.
Ves activated his spiritual vision and inspected the miniature mech he made out of his own Spirituality.
He wasn't proud of his first attempt.
Outwardly, his very first imaginary mech was an identical copy of the Desolate Soldier, scaled down to the size of his hand.
Yet it was simply a toy in his view. The mech was actually just a spiritual projection that Ves carved into the shape of a mech. He hadn't been able to tinker what lay underneath as his spiritual control wasn't that precise.
This meant that the mech didn't possess any internal components at all! It was just a solid collection of spiritual energy!
Even though his first attempt was an abject failure, Ves learned a lot from this attempt. At the very least, he found out what he had to do to turn this failed product into a working product.
The first step was to find a way to turn spiritual energy into permanent spiritual matter.
To be honest, spiritual energy was not an entirely accurate name for the clouds of energy that powered most spiritual applications.
It actually possessed the properties of both energy and matter.
Not only that, but its state between the two extremes existed on a spectrum! As long as Ves willed it, he could shift the state from one end to the other end, or just settle it in between!
"The problem is that energy is its default state!"
For some reason, it took active effort to sustain the matter state. The more spiritual energy slid towards matter, the more Ves had to work to keep its burdensome state!
As long as Ves withdrew his concentration, his spiritual matter would quickly decay into energy!
This was a frustrating problem, and one that hampered him enormously!
He wanted to create a true imaginary mech. How could he painstakingly reproduce millions of components and put them all together, only for it to devolve into a cloud of spiritual energy the moment Gloriana distracted him? Such a shortcoming was intolerable!
For this reason, Ves thought long and hard to address this perplexing issue. Unless he found a way to form spiritual matter that was able to maintain its state without active support, the whole notion of creating imaginary mechs was moot! He would never waste time on something so inefficient!
He gained some inspiration after watching Lucky munch an exotic for lunch.
"Wait a moment.."
Spiritual matter couldn't sustain its state because there was nothing fixing it in place. It was like trying to build a sandcastle with liquid water. How could water obediently defy the laws of reality and behave like a solid object when its nature compelled it to behave like a fluid?
What if Ves could fix spiritual matter into shape by feeding it or blending it with materials?
While he wasn't sure whether this was doable, he thought this was a viable solution. Certain exotics reacted to spirituality. What if he could take advantage of this property to process spiritual matter?
"I'll have to wait until I get back to explore this idea!"
Ves developed other theories to form permanent spiritual matter, but only this idea gave him the hope of solving this problem!
Chapter 1792 Viability
Discovering a way to create permanent spiritual matter that was able to sustain its state indefinitely was only the starting point.
In order to turn spiritual matter into the building blocks of his imaginary mechs, he needed to develop a means to change its properties.
After all, a real mech consisted of many different materials! From the incredibly hard armor plating to the energy-resistant materials that made up the power reactor, each component needed to take advantage of the properties of different materials to reach a satisfactory level of performance!
If Ves failed to transform the properties of spiritual matter to match with the properties of the materials that made up his real mechs, then his imaginary creations would only have the form of a mech. Like a mech made out of paper, an imaginary mech made out of uniform spiritual matter would not possess any strength!
What Ves sought was a way to turn 'paper' into other materials such as palladium or Breyer alloy!
For now, Ves didn't have a clue how he could accomplish this. He hadn't even been able to form permanent spiritual matter yet. Nonetheless, he was confident he could develop a solution to this problem in time!
A particularly thorny issue related to this problem was how he could translate energy and data transmission to imaginary mechs.
It wasn't as if an imaginary mech would behave exactly like a physical mech. Ves would probably have to make at least some adjustments and develop a spiritual variant to a physical mech design.
Assuming that he found a way to overcome this issue and successfully created an imaginary mech, what then? An imaginary mech was just a spiritual equivalent of a physical mech.
On their own, mechs didn't do anything. They only became operable when a mech pilot entered its cockpit and interfaced with the machine.
This left Ves with a conundrum. Should he operate his imaginary mechs directly, grant them the means to operate autonomously, or find a way to make them ever closer to mechs by providing them with 'spiritual pilots'?
The first option basically meant turning himself into the mech pilots of his own imaginary mechs.
Though the temptation was great, Ves believed it was a very bad idea to pursue this direction.
If his guess was true that genetic aptitude was no longer a hindrance in piloting imaginary mechs, Ves shouldn't immediately hurry up and hop into an imaginary cockpit!
Ves had already committed to the path of a mech designer. He did not possess the training or expertise to become proficient in piloting mechs.
In addition, it was impossible for him to improve himself beyond his mortal limit. Once he advanced to Journeyman, he already committed his spiritual evolution towards developing his design seed.
While he could imitate a force of will due to his extraordinary control over his Spirituality, he could never replicate the strength of a true expert pilot!
"The whole point of doing this is to save time and transfer my existing competences in a new field. Learning how to pilot mechs is a lifelong endeavor! I don't have the time and energy to branch out to such an extent!"
The second option was to bring an imaginary mech pilot to life in order to pilot an imaginary mech.
This was not as impractical as the first option. Ves believed he was already capable of creating an imaginary mech pilot! He already developed a method to create a spiritual product!
As long as he created a spiritual product in the shape of a human and instilled it with fragments taken from expert pilots, then he could possibly create the first imaginary expert pilot in the history of mech design!
"Crazy! This is crazy!"
Ves had no idea whether it was possible to create an artificial expert pilot that consisted of pure spirituality.
Even if he managed to shape such an abomination to life, what could such a miraculous entity even do? Was it capable of piloting one of his imaginary mechs? What if it could do more?
What if he could take it a step further and make it pilot a real expert mech?
Ves shuddered in place. Such a blasphemous idea shouldn't be possible, yet he did not immediately rule it out! Something within him made him think it was possible!
"This is way too crazy even for me! It shouldn't be possible!"
Though Ves heaved with excitement, he eventually reined in this wild ambition. It sounded a bit too far-fetched for him to be able to mass-produce imaginary expert pilots and have them pilot entire regiments of expert mechs!
Ves could practically conquer the entire galaxy if he gained this ability!
Compared to the second option, the third option was a bit more restrained. Rather than creating his own mech pilots, he might be able to find a way to make other mech pilots pilot his imaginary works.
Of course, this was a bit more complicated than it sounded. First, he didn't even know it was possible.
Should he harvest a spiritual fragment from a mech pilot and deposit it inside the cockpit of an imaginary mech? Would the mech pilot in question still be able to control the imaginary mech through his connection with the fragment, or would the fragment start to behave in an autonomous fashion?
Assuming that it was possible, would he really wish to expose imaginary mechs to his Avatars of Myth and other mech pilots under his employ?
Regardless which one was right, the issue of trust and control still hung over his head!
Though Ves was filled with uncertainties, these questions also made him excited. He couldn't wait to explore the possibilities! Even if the result fell short of his expectation, the entire concept of imaginary mechs was already unprecedented enough to spark a revolution in mech design!
"These ideas are so astounding that Gloriana will probably explode when she hears about them! I wonder what she will think?"
She would probably think he was creating divine soldiers or something. Every god needed a heavenly army after all. Right?
For now, Ves intended to keep these ideas to himself. Gloriana wouldn't be of much help at this premature stage, and he still doubted whether she could contribute at all to the creation of an imaginary mech.
This was something that closely matched his specialty, but the same could not be said for Gloriana.
"This is something I have to explore alone, at least for now." He concluded.
Though all of these fantasies sounded great, Ves still turned his thoughts back to the original reason why he wanted to create an imaginary mech.
"Regardless of its other applications, it at least has to be able to fight!"
Ves needed to protect his mind from external attacks and influencing attempts. He did not have a lot of confidence in the simple spiritual shield he wrapped around his mind.
Such a primitive means of defense was not only inflexible, but also simple to defeat due to its obvious strengths and weaknesses!
Though an imaginary mech did not wrap around his mind like a spiritual shield, it was capable of performing both defensive and offensive actions!
That meant that aside from guarding his mind, he could also actively send it out in order to attack another spiritual entity!
Naturally, Ves had to make a lot of considerations concerning its strength before he became reassured that the imaginary mech stayed alive.
If it turned out that even his best imaginary mechs were too weak to resist the strength of his weaker design spirits, then Ves was better off sticking with a spiritual shield!
As Ves continued to speculate, the Wodin fleet almost reached the Kesseling System.
If Gloriana didn't remind him of their impending arrival, Ves would have remained consumed in his unending calculations for a couple more weeks!
He entered into such a creative daze that he practically ran his life on autopilot during these past few days!
He was lucky his girlfriend understood the preciousness of this state. With all of the enthusiasm and passion bursting out of Ves, this was the best time to formulate his ideas!
"I'm sorry, Gloriana." He spoke when his girlfriend finally decided to shake him out of his fugue. "I guess I got too absorbed into my new ideas."
"Are you willing to tell?" She asked as she cuddled with Clixie while she sat down at a couch placed in his stateroom. "It seems like you've come across something truly exciting this time."
Ves couldn't help but grin. "Oh, if anyone hears what's in my mind, they'll probably think I'm crazy!"
"You're already crazy, Ves." Gloriana stated.
"Jokes aside, I'm truly afraid of the possibilities! I can't help but think my latest notions will cause a huge storm in the mech community once they become known!"
Though Gloriana seemed happy, she did not immediately join in his glee.
Instead, she asked a question that many mech designers asked whenever they came up with a possible new innovation.
"Is it practical?"
"...Maybe." Ves hesitated. "I only have ideas to go on. I still need to perform a lot of research and experimentation before I can determine whether this possible creation is viable. Even if I can get it to work, I'll likely have to invest a lot of resources in order to make use of this new invention!"
Everything had a price! Ves did not believe that something as fantastical as an imaginary mech could be formed out of pure spiritual energy. At the very least, the creation of a permanent imaginary mech likely consumed a huge amount of energy!
This was fine. As long as the benefits outweighed the costs, it was still worthwhile for Ves to exploit this innovation!
A few minutes passed by as Gloriana tried to pry some secrets out of Ves. Even though he found her adorable when she started to beg, Ves held up his hand and stopped her pitiful act.
"This is something I have to do on my own. I'll let you in once I develop a solid framework."
"How long will that take?"
Ves shrugged. "I don't know. Months? Years? Decades? As long as there is a chance I might succeed, I'll continue to explore this direction regardless of the lack of results!"
He wasn't certain whether his current strength and ability was enough to succeed in realizing this idea. Perhaps he needed to advance to Senior before he could create an imaginary mech.
After Ves made it clear that he would keep his mouth shut, Gloriana pouted at him but didn't pursue the topic any longer.
It wasn't as if he was the only one keeping secrets.
"Since we're almost at our destination, I thought it was time to tell you what will happen to the Scarlet Rose." Gloriana moved on. "Originally, our dynasty wanted to claim the Scarlet Rose for its own purposes, but I fought hard to keep it in your possession on your behalf!"
"Did the Wodins agree?"
"Not immediately."
"Was there a problem?"
"Don't worry." She placed her hand on her arm to reassure him. "I succeeded in persuading my mother and my relatives to leave the ship in your care. The fact that you conquered the Scarlet Rose through your own efforts is undeniable! It wouldn't be in good taste to deprive you of your prize after risking so much."
"I take it that not everyone agrees with this decision?"
She sighed. "There are many Wodins who believe that a boy like you shouldn't even be playing around with such an expensive ship. While we are not short on ships or the resources to build our own ships, a mobile supply frigate is not something we would pass over."
"Are there any complications?"
"There shouldn't be. The Scarlet Rose should be yours after we arrive at Kesseling VIII. We won't be able to help you repair or overhaul the ship, nor will we be able to supply her with a competent crew."
That was no big deal for Ves. "Even if you offered, I won't accept. I already planned to take care of these matters myself!"
There was no way he would make himself more dependent on the Hexers! Only by employing his own men would he be able to maintain control!
Chapter 1793 Premature Celebration
The fleet of Wodin ships and captured Fridayman ships entered the Kesseling System, only to encounter a grand celebration!
Even though the Ylvaine Protectorate was still entangled in the later stages of the Sand War, the arrival of the Bright Martyr changed everything!
This was not the Ylvaine Protectorate of the past where the leaders of the three leading dynasties treated Ves with skepticism.
This time, almost every higher up believed in the Bright Martyr! The evidence in the form of the Transcendent Messengers, Holy Soldiers and Deliverers overwhelmingly proved that Ves had definitely been blessed by the Great Prophet!
Only the most bone-headed traditionalists still argued against recognizing Ves as the Bright Martyr. Everyone else, even the staunchest inquisitors of the Poxco Dynasty, fully bought into the myth that Prophet Ylvaine watched out over his flock through the medium of mechs!
Many churches and cathedrals even started adopting his mechs as altars! Compared to cold, unfeeling statues made in the Great Prophet's likeness, a Deliverer mech was fully capable of strengthening the faith of the believers by its ambient glow alone!
In these past several years, the Protectorate had already been inching towards accepting Ves. Yet the outbreak of the Sand War and the pressure exerted towards the state made many Ylvainans yearning for salvation.
While the Kronon Dynasty fought bravely against the sandmen, not a single hero in the war managed to eclipse the Bright Martyr!
While individual heroes won entire battles through their earnest efforts, only Ves managed to swing the war decisively in the Protectorate's favor!
That he managed to do so by releasing a couple of Ylvainan mech designs was incredible!
In less than a year, the lukewarm attitude towards Ves turned into full-throated support! Many Ylvainans, from the grassroots to the very top, believed that Ves was definitely a boon to the faith!
As for minor details such as his foreign origins and his apparent lack of faith, what did it matter? The mechs he designed were so clearly blessed by the Great Prophet himself that he deserved to be recorded into the annals of the Ylvainan Faith!
With such a massive and all-encompassing turnaround, the Ylvainans couldn't possibly treat Ves like a regular foreign guest.
They already prepared a grand parade for his entry!
The moment the Hexer fleet transitioned into the Kesseling System, numerous combat carriers flanked the new arrivals and deployed some of their mechs.
For a moment, the Glory Battalion became perplexed. Had the Hexers succumbed to the pressure exerted by the Fridaymen and switched their support?
"Calm down!" Ves urgently tried to tell the crew. "They're not hostile!"
He didn't need to speak out. The Kronon Dynasty already contacted the commanding officer of the fleet and told them of their upcoming arrangements.
The Hexers soon relaxed, though they still maintained some vigilance. While it was unlikely for the Ylvainans to turn hostile against them, the Glory Battalion still had a duty to uphold! It could never allow third parties to take over its primary mission!
For this reason, the eager Ylvainan honor guard had to escort the fleet to Kesseling VIII from a very healthy distance. In no way were they allowed to get close enough to threaten the Stellar Chaser!
While all of this was going on, celebrations already started to take place on the surface of their destination planet!
Both Ves and Gloriana watched the local news feed with astonishment.
"The sandman invasion hasn't subsided yet." Ves uttered. "Many star systems are still being flooded by sandman fleets. It's too soon to run the victory lap!"
"While the Ylvainans are definitely happy to receive the Bright Martyr, it's partially political theater." Gloriana opined. "The Ylvaine Protectorate is ascendant right now due to the deals it made with other states. However, the gains it made from the Sand War can all go up in smoke once the Komodo War spills over this region."
"I'm already aware of the threat the Protectorate faces from the Coalition and Coalition-aligned states. What does that have to do with this overblown spectacle, though?"
"The Ylvainans are trying to appeal to their prophet by using you as medium."
"What?"
Gloriana spread her arms. "The Protectorate's geopolitical landscape is highly unfavorable, as you already know. While the states closer to the frontier have all been wiped out, the sandmen are still a threat. In almost every other direction, the Protectorate is surrounded by states that all lean towards the Coalition. What if they are encouraged to attack the only state that is friendly towards the Hexers?"
Though Ves already dismissed this possibility as an act that would do more harm than good for the Friday Coalition, what if it grew desperate? What if the Fridaymen made an impulsive decision?
As long as the Friday Coalition put heavy pressure on the Bright Republic and other nearby states, it might be possible for half-a-dozen nearby states to gang up on the Ylvaine Protectorate!
That would certainly spell the end for the religious state! Though the Kronon Dynasty demonstrated its valiance during the Sand War, it was impossible for them to resist the might of several hostile states!
While Ves understood all of this, he was perplexed by the actions of the Ylvainans.
"The Great Prophet isn't omnipotent. Even if I design some fantastic new Ylvainan mech, I doubt it can defeat entire mech divisions."
"That's why it's not only about appealing to Ylvaine." Gloriana added. "It's partially an appeal to us. The Ylvainans are calling for attention and trying to impress our Hegemony that they are worth investing in. As long as our state becomes impressed with their accomplishments, we might move to guarantee its independence."
"Will the Hegemony do so?"
Gloriana chuckled and shook her head. "How can our state spare any effort to a state that is too far away to reinforce easily? Any forces we send have to pass through the territories of numerous states aligned with the Friday Coalition. While that's not a major problem for now, it will definitely be an issue later on when the Komodo War is in full swing!"
"Then.. your people will just leave the Ylvainans to their own devices?" Ves frowned.
While he was not an Ylvainan, he possessed a definite affection for the Protectorate! He became a lot more grateful to the religious state after the Bright Republic profoundly disappointed him. At least the Ylvainans still offered his shelter in these troubling times!
"Don't be naive, Ves. Hexers don't care about what is going on in third-rate states. The only reason they pay attention to them at all is because of the exotics they supply to us and the trade that flows through their territories. In general, our matriachs look at the overall situation instead of focusing on any specific state. Compared to states that are actually contributing resources to our state, the Ylvaine Protectorate is a useless addition. It doesn't offer the Hegemony anything!"
Certainly, there was still some value in gaining the support of the Protectorate.
The state could act as an advanced Hexer outpost in the Fridayman's sphere of influence.
It could form a potential base where a Hexer raiding force could harass the Friday Coalition from a lightly-guarded flank.
The Protectorate could even serve as a nucleus for a possible wave of defections by the surrounding states!
Yet all of these benefits required substantial investment on the part of the Hexadric Hegemony.
While Ves wasn't entirely clear about the proceedings of the Komodo War, he knew that the Hegemony was truly devoting all of its efforts in the war theaters closer to home.
The Hexadric Hegemony was a rather insular state by nature. Only a few branches of the state devoted any energy towards the rest of the star sector. Their leaders didn't have much say in the decision-making of the government.
All in all, the likelihood that the Hegemony would spare any thought towards the Protectorate was virtually zero!
Once Ves realized this, his expression turned grave. He watched the celebrations taking place at Kesseling VIII and couldn't help but think that they were partying before an impending crash!
"Is there any way the Protectorate can avoid this fate?"
"It's up to the Friday Coalition, I think." Gloriana said.
That did not leave Ves with a lot of confidence. Neither Ves nor the Ylvainans had any way of influencing the decision-making of the Coalition.
Perhaps the people in charge might respect the Protectorate's contribution towards repelling the sandmen. Yet their leaders might also be shameless enough to ignore this merit and wipe out the state because it was an ugly stain on their maps!
Time passed and the fleet slowly reached orbit. The Ylvainan patrols didn't even bother approaching the Wodin ships for inspection.
Only a single ship out of five made landfall. The Stellar Chaser soon landed at a spaceport at the capital city of Krent.
As soon as Ves stepped out, he became buffeted by a wave of cheers and religious fervor!
An entire crowd of Ylvainans gathered at the spaceport! The press was fully present while the Kronons carefully guarded the crowd with their imposing mechs!
Ves was not in the mood to bask in the moment. Knowing that the Ylvainans still had to survive another calamity, he dearly wished to temper their moods.
However, the Ylvainans needed something to celebrate about. Ves also wanted the Ylvainans to continue to hold him in high regard. The chance of betrayal was much less if the entire state continued to adore the Bright Martyr!
For this reason, he eventually decided to play along with all of the pomp and ceremony. He met a number of senior Ylvainans and shook hands with them, he participated in a brief parade and he 'blessed' a number of Deliverers produced by a couple of local mech manufacturers.
Seeing so many Deliverers and Holy Soldiers warmed his heart. Not only that, their glows gave him a deeper impression of their source. Ylvaine's spiritual fragment almost seemed to come alive as its presence touched his mind!
Perhaps the Ylvainans were right on one thing. Their prophet had truly blessed the Bright Martyr!
Ves and Gloriana soon pulled away from the celebration. The Ylvainans did not wish to burden the Bright Martyr and the Hexers too much, and an excessively long victory parade was rather inappropriate since the Kronons still lost many mech pilots to the sandmen every day.
A true victory celebration would only commence when the Sand War finally came to an end!
"Phew. I'm glad that's done." Ves said as he and Gloriana along with their cats arrived at their new if temporary abode.
After riding a shuttle operated by the Glory Battalion, they reached a highly-guarded estate that his subordinates had already bought and renovated on his behalf.
Not a lot of people greeted him during this time. The local star had already dipped below the horizon and no one was in the mood to discuss serious business.
That could wait until tomorrow.
Only a handful of his trusted subordinates met him this time. Gavin, Melkor and Nitaa all welcomed him back.
"I knew you'd find a way to spoil Ghanso's plan." Melkor smirked.
"What if I didn't?"
"Then the LMC would just have to find another lead designer."
"Bastard."
Nitaa approached him next. She looked incredibly remorseful. "Sir.. I'm sorry that—"
"—We'll be having none of that, Nitaa." Ves patted her strong arm. "You couldn't have done anything against an expert mech, let alone the entire Bright Republic. Your only responsibility is to guard me against hostile people. Only the Avatars are meant to fight against other mechs, but even they are limited in what they can do. Ultimately, the fault lies in me. If I was a bit more sensitive towards the scheming of my political opponents, I wouldn't have made myself so vulnerable to official authority."
Now that he experienced it once, Ves would never let down his guard against these kinds of threats! He did not dare to entrust his safety onto any state, including the Ylvaine Protectorate!
Chapter 1794 Petty Kingdom
No ghost haunted Ves on the first night since arriving at Kesseling VIII.
He started off the day with a lot of meetings on the agenda. Immediately after breakfast, he said goodbye to Gloriana and departed to the LMC's headquarters situated in downtown Krent.
Ves looked back at his new residence while holding Lucky. Compared to the Cloud Estate, the Austen Estate was a bit smaller and a lot more quiet.
Aside from that, the architecture of the mansion and the other buildings on the grounds of the estate all bore the touch of Ylvainan architecture.
This was nothing unusual. What irked Ves a lot was that the former owner of the Austen Estate appeared to be an extremely devout believer! In almost every wall or room, Ves encountered numerous statues and miniature altars devoted to the Great Prophet, the Grey Martyr, the Battle Martyr, the Dark Martyr and even himself!
Yes, himself!
Just standing in front of a marble-esque statue of his own likeness but appearing exceptionally heroic was both flattering and disconcerting.
"Are the Ylvainans already worshipping me like I'm a god?" He shivered.
Ves did not believe in gods! At best, they were just supremely powerful spiritual entities who defied the laws of reality to mess with people!
Cassandra Breyer was a typical example of a degenerate ghost who could be mistaken as a god!
"If she's a god, then I'm a devil!"
He decided to take no more note of the religious imaginary of himself. He found the entire practice to be a farce. There was nothing divine about himself!
"I'm just a mech designer."
"Meow."
"Oh shut up, Lucky."
No Larkinsons resided in the solemn estate. His subordinates evidently bought the estate from the state and renovated its security systems in preparation for his arrival.
With reinforced walls, turrets and underground bays for mechs, the Austen Estate was even more secure than the Cloud Estate!
The Avatars of Myth already secured a presence in the underground base. Not only that, the Kronon Dynasty stationed a sizable garrison to protect his home.
That was something that Ves really didn't like. His Avatars ought to be sufficient to protect him, but the Ylvainans were horridly overprotective about his life.
They did not wish the Bright Martyr to suffer the same fate as the Great Prophet when he was still alive!
Rather than appreciating his constant escort of elite Kronon mech guards, Ves continually regarded their presence with caution.
A portion of the Mech Corps with Venerable Ghanso Larkinson at its head had already blindsided him once.
Ves did not rule out that some nutcases within the Kronon Dynasty might be plotting for his life!
After all, even if he managed to gain widespread appreciation and worship from the Ylvainans, they were not a monolithic entity.
There were always crazies, weirdos and radicalists among any population, and when the latter reached hundreds of billions, that amounted to at least millions of mentally unstable threats!
For this reason, no matter how popular he became in the Protectorate, Ves did not allow himself to get caught up in his own hype. He needed to remain as vigilant as possible and he already warned Melkor to keep his Avatars alert.
Not only did his Avatars need to guard against unknown threats, they also had to keep an eye on their Kronon watchers!
Though Ves handed Melkor a burdensome command, the Avatars ought to be up to the task. Otherwise, he might as well discard the Avatars entirely despite all of the effort he put into cultivating them into an elite force!
After reaching downtown Krent, his shuttle along with his guard mechs arrived at the LMC's new headquarters, at least for the moment.
Much to his relief, his company's headquarters was just a modern office building. While its architecture still contained traces of Ylvainan religious iconography, it didn't dominate the workplace.
Perhaps the most welcome discovery was that the headquarters lacked the ridiculous statues and paintings of the Bright Martyr. This was good because Ves did not wish for his own employees to worship the ground he walked upon!
Once he settled down at his new office in the upper level of the headquarters, he began his workday by holding an informal meeting.
Raymond, Gavin and Calsie all gathered at the office to discuss the new trajectory of the LMC.
"From what I've heard so far, you've all done a good job at managing the LMC's sudden departure from the Bright Republic." He spoke to his three closest confidants within his company. "I'm already aware of broad strokes and I have no objections for the decisions you've made so far. It's fine to invest in another manufacturing complex on this planet, but that will be the extent of the LMC's expansion into this state."
He was glad that Raymond as well as the two native Cloudy Curtainers decided to leave their homes and join him at the start of this new chapter in his life.
He half-expected Gavin and Calsie to remain in the Bright Republic. Now that they decided to continue to work for him no matter where he went, he felt he could lean on them more.
"Why limit our presence in the Ylvaine Protectorate?" Calsie asked.
She appeared genuinely confused, but Raymond didn't look so surprised.
"Ves has probably considered the precarious situation of our current host state." The Chief Operating Officer answered her question. "The Sand War may have ceased to be an existential threat for the time being, but the Komodo War is still ramping up. Whether this enormous conflict will spill in this direction remains to be seen, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared."
"Raymond is right." Ves clasped his hands over his desk. "The entire star sector is in flames. Several wars have erupted, of which two of them have the potential to upend every state. Under these circumstances, sinking more money and resources in real estate that might get wiped out the next day is highly unwise."
In truth, Ves eagerly adopted this argument because it also supported his greater agenda. His future plans rested on his grand expedition, not his petty kingdom in the Komodo Star Sector.
While the four Brighters held their discussion, Lucky explored and sniffed every corner of his office, destroying microscopic spy bugs and listening bugs along the way.
The cat already found quite a lot of suspect devices!
"What exactly is your plan for the medium term?" Gavin couldn't help but ask. "Are we going to expand in other third-rate states? Right now, your reputation and the LMC's brand awareness has reached a new height in this region. Even though many states are economically devastated, we can still take our gains to other parts of the star sector and resume our company's rapid growth."
"That's too risky, Benny."
"You don't seem to let that stop you, boss."
"This is different. I only take risks when the rewards are great enough. This is not an instance where I think we'll have much gain."
"Have you forgotten that we sold over a million mechs ever since the Sand War erupted?! Even now we are still selling a lot of Soldier mechs in many foreign states! As long as we use our successful product line as a springboard, we can establish a strong presence in each of their mech markets!"
Ves shook his head. "I'm not chasing after market dominance anymore. I'm not interested in increasing our revenue. We have plenty of money, and the Soldier product line will ensure our economic prosperity for at least a couple more years. This gives us the luxury to do something different."
"Which is what?"
"Reimagining the Living Mech Corporation."
He outlined his plans and some of his visions for the future. Before he left for the Red Ocean, Ves felt obliged to leave his mark on the Komodo Star Sector. This was something he emotionally desired in order to leave this star sector with no regrets!
While Gavin and Calsie didn't understand his motivation, Raymond was older and wiser. His eyes sparkled as he nodded thoughtfully.
"Ves wants to leave a legacy behind." Raymond explained to the two younger Brighters. "Now that the LMC has secured a solid and stable cash flow, Ves is looking to use the LMC to develop himself in other ways, is that right?"
Ves smiled. At least one of them understood his thoughts. "As a mech designer, my personal development is more important than the concerns of the LMC. My company is always meant to serve my purposes, not the other way around. Now that I've regained some shares and own 59 percent of the company, I can do anything I please!"
That was right. Even though Ves would still retain effective control over the company if the Ylvainans hadn't gifted him with some of their shares, he wouldn't be able to act as unscrupulously as now.
Owning 49 percent was a massive difference from owning 59 percent of the LMC! The former forced him to take at least some of his shareholders into consideration. The latter allowed him to run his company as he pleased without anyone able to hinder his moves!
Of course, the reality was not that absolute. If he was determined to run his company to the ground, the local jurisdictions would certainly move to counteract his ruinous actions!
Therefore, as long as his decisions didn't cross a line, Ves had no reason to pay the other stakeholders any mind.
"So what's in store for us, boss? Will you dedicate yourself completely to designing second-class mechs? Who are we even selling our mechs to? The Friday Coalition hates our guts and the Hexadric Hegemony is a notoriously difficult market to enter."
"The former is off the table." Ves immediately answered. "The latter is.. a possible prospect. I'm not sure yet myself. I need to discuss the matter in further detail with Gloriana and.. a partner. For now, there's no reason to be concerned about this issue. I'm confident enough in my mech design abilities that my second-class mechs will find a market somehow."
This was the confidence he gained as a successful mech designer. He possessed an undeniable advantage with his monopoly on spiritual components.
Adding glows to third-class mechs already turned them into valuable machines! Doing the same to second-class mechs would definitely become a sensation!
"What about our third-class mech operations?" Raymond asked. "They are the root of our company. All of our workers and all of our current operations are geared towards the design, production and sale of third-class mechs. Many of them can't be transferred to second-class mech operations."
Mech technicians who were qualified to work on third-class mechs needed to learn all kinds of advanced skills and knowledge to participate in the production of second-class mechs.
Marketing managers who knew the Brighter mech market like the back of their hand would be as blind as a bat if they were tasked with researching the Hegemony's mech market.
The accountants in the employ of the LMC were intimately familiar with the finance-related laws and customs of the Bright Republic and surrounding states, but they would have to start from scratch if they were dumped in a completely foreign state!
And this only accounted for the people who pledged to work for the LMC even as the company left the Bright Republic!
Ves could not abandon them, and he didn't plan to do so! His foundation still lay in third-class mechs, and he never intended to turn his back on them. It was just that his current priorities lay in mastering second-class mechs as fast possible!
He explained this to his confidantes, and they understood his intentions, though they didn't entirely agree.
"Don't worry, guys." He reassured them. "As long as we expand the company's Design Department and add some more design teams, we can maintain several different design projects at once."
Expanding his design teams was his most immediate priority for the LMC! If he wanted his company to expand its mech catalog as fast as possible, Ves urgently needed to address this chronic shortcoming!
Chapter 1795 Second Design Team
He spent two whole hours discussing his short to medium-term goals with his confidantes.
Though Raymond, Gavin and Calsie questioned most of his decisions, Ves did not change his mind. His recent 'vacation' gave him plenty of time to sort out his priorities.
For now, his overarching goals were to keep himself alive and free while doing his best to gain the approval of both Madame Constance Wodin and the Rim Guardian Fraternity.
Both of them formed the keys to enable his grand expedition, especially the latter!
After making sure that his confidantes knew what they had to do, Ves left his office and descended to the underground and highly-secure design labs.
Two design teams as well as a group of Larkinson students greeted his arrival.
Ves noted with surprise that all five Tovar mech designers chose to follow him to the Ylvaine Protectorate rather than stay in the Bright Republic.
"The Tovar Family still wishes to maintain relations with you." Miles Tovar humbly explained. "If you will accept our continued presence, then Senator Tovar and the rest of our Family will keep looking out for your interests in the Bright Republic."
Miles spoke plainly, perhaps aware that Ves had no patience for duplicity.
Though Ves did not really want to tangle with the Tovar Family any further, it wasn't wise to cut off this relationship.
While he no longer depended on the founding family's support, the LMC still possessed a hefty presence in the Bright Republic. Many workers refused the offer to move to the Ylvaine Protectorate, which meant that the Mech Nursery at Cloudy Curtain and the offices and manufacturing complexes at Bentheim were still viable.
As long as the crisis of the Sand War subsided, those facilities could get back in operation and resume the production of silver label LMC mechs.
Since the LMC no longer focused on the Bright Republic, it became even more important to secure backing that could watch over these sites.
Another consideration was the old family. The majority of the Larkinsons declined to join the new family. Most of them were already happy with their current trajectories and had no desire to upend their lives.
In order to protect them against the plots and schemes of the power players in the Bright Republic, Ves wanted the Tovar Family to continue to watch over his ignorant relatives.
Naive and unambitious they might be, they were still family to him. Despite their recent disagreements and separation, he always considered both branches of the family to be tied.
Even if Ves was determined to lead his side of the family in a new direction, he could never shed his affection for his grandfather and the other Larkinsons he was close with or befriended over the years.
He also continued to respect the noble calling that the stubborn traditionalists continued to abide by. Idiots they may be sometimes, Ves could not fault them for their unflinching loyalty and dedication to the state.
It was a shame that some of the Larkinsons he liked such as Melinda and Raella Larkinson decided to stick to their current careers in the Bright Republic.
Perhaps Ves would never see them again once he truly left the Komodo Star Sector.
He turned his attention back to his design teams. After affirming his willingness to continue hosting and guiding Miles and the other Tovar mech designers, Ves moved on to his second design team.
Ketis was absent, which disappointed Ves a bit. His recent preoccupation with Gloriana and other matters left him with too little time to spend on his first student.
He forgot that he was supposed to bring a pet to her. Ves had genuinely been too busy to find a suitable pet.
He swore to make it up to Ketis.
While he missed her company, Ves also felt proud that Ketis was confident enough to branch out and blaze her own trail. He sporadically received reports on her recent activities and he was glad she grew close to Raella Larkinson.
His feisty cousin was definitely a good fit for Ketis! Ves did not have to worry about his student getting into trouble with no one to bail her out.
So why was there a second design team at all? Ves had already instructed the LMC to employ a couple of new mech designers.
Ves inspected each of the newcomers. From the worship and respect in the eyes of four of them, he immediately identified them as Ylvainans.
Considering his popularity in the Ylvaine Protectorate, thousands of mech designers fanatically knocked on the LMC's doors to apply to join its design teams!
Yet Ves had already issued a very firm command back when he was still escaping from the Friday Coalition. The LMC did not need any talented or ambitious mech designers. What the company needed the most were those who were willing to remain loyal to Ves and the LMC regardless if they stayed or left the Ylvaine Protectorate!
For this reason, the LMC slowed down its recruitment and meticulously sorted the applications until they settled for four Ylvainan mech designers who were willing to sign extremely restrictive employment contracts to work under Ves!
While the LMC could have hired hundreds of eager Ylvainan mech designers at once, it would be impossible for Ves to control them all! It was better to adopt a measured pace and integrate the newcomers in batches.
Another reason to restrict the LMC's recruitment pace was to limit the amount of Ylvainan mech designers in its design team. Ves refused to turn his mech company into an Ylvainan organization. If he did not set this limitation, then everyone around him would soon sing the Great Prophet's praises! That was not what Ves wanted to see!
"Please introduce yourselves." Ves curtly instructed. "Start with your names and specialization. I need to know what you are capable of. Since you managed to pass the LMC's recruitment process, I trust that all of you are competent in your own fields. I don't employ useless mech designers."
Despite the ominous warning, the Ylvainan mech designers only had respect in their eyes!
"Oscar DiMartin, Apprentice Mech Designer. Specialized in efficient musculature design, Your Excellency."
The first person who spoke was the oldest of the bunch by far. Ves estimated Oscar's age to be in the mid-forties. He already appeared to be in charge of the second design team, which was a very convenient surprise.
That last bit made Ves frown. Being referred to as 'Your Excellency' sounded awfully close to being called 'Your Holiness', which was the proper way to address a Holy Son of the Five Scrolls Compact!
"We'll be having none of that 'Your Excellency' nonsense here." Ves firmly commanded.
The four Ylvainans looked confused.
"Your Excellency, you are a saint of the Ylvainan Faith! The Poxco Dynasty has already declared—"
"—The Poxco Dynasty doesn't speak on my behalf! Just call me as if I'm a regular mech designer or citizen."
"Then.. Mr. Larkinson?" Oscar apprehensively ventured.
Ves nodded in satisfaction. "That sounds better."
The introductions resumed after this minor interruption.
"Renee Zelin, Apprentice Mech Designer. I excel in programming mech operating systems."
A software specialist! Ves immediately lit up! He recalled the missing and presumably dead Alloc Brandtstad of the 6th Flagrant Vandals. Ves learned first-hand how much value a software specialist could add to a design team.
"I'll be counting on you to optimize the operating systems of our upcoming mech designs."
"I will endeavor to meet your expectations, sir!"
The next woman introduced herself.
"Erica Sprint, Apprentice Mech Designer. I specialize in light mechs."
"That's not specific enough. What exactly about light mechs fascinates you? What value do you bring to my design team?"
"I am good in maximizing mobility." Erica described. "Light mechs embody speed, acceleration and agility. Balancing these aspects while making sure the design doesn't become too fragile is a very interesting challenge to me. My works have always boasted superior mobility compared to some of my peers."
That sounded very interesting to Ves.. if designing light mechs was all he did. This was not the case, however.
"Are you aware that the LMC isn't limited to designing light mechs? Are you still able to contribute to projects centered around more massive mechs?"
"That won't be a problem, sir. I can still leverage my expertise on mobility onto heavy mechs if necessary."
She sounded confident to pass his test, so Ves did not concern himself with her specialty any longer. Since the LMC decided to hire her in the first wave, then she was definitely capable!
The fourth Ylvainan mech designer finally had his turn.
"Pascal Curin. Apprentice Mech Designer. I specialize in heavy armor systems."
Ves wanted to scratch his head. Was it a coincidence that he got both a light mech and a heavy mech specialist?
"Does that mean you work exclusively on heavy mechs?"
"Not exactly, sir." Pascal respectfully replied. "I am capable of working with any armor system of any thickness, but the heavier they are, the more I can do. I am very comfortable with optimizing the armor systems of medium defensive mechs such as your Blackbeak design."
"I see. That sounds satisfactory."
After hearing out the four Ylvainan mech designers, he finally turned to the fifth and only non-Ylvainan in the second design team.
"Mayer Torto. Novice Mech Designer. I intend to specialize in communication and control systems, but I still require more study to flesh out my specialization."
"What a welcome surprise to see you here. It's a long distance away from your home. Did you finally graduate from Rawlings University, or did you drop or something?"
The mild-looking mech designer nodded. "I studied extra hard to finish my semester early. I am still committed to working for you. Even in the Sentinel Kingdom, my former classmates and I have heard of your accomplishments!"
Ves was a pretty famous mech designer in the star sector, now. His Desolate Soldier and Deliverer designs both affected the Sand War to such an extent that it was impossible to leave him out the conversation!
This explained by Mayer Torto decided to take the risk to travel al lthe way to the Ylvaine Protectorate immediately after he graduated early.
He was shrewd enough to determine that he might be able to ride on Ves' coattails!
Ves respected such determination, though it also indicated that Mayer possessed a strong ambition.
After all, with two wars raging throughout the star sector, it took a lot of courage for an elite Rawlings graduate to leave the safety and comfort of the Sentinel Kingdom for a state that was still under active attack by the sandman race!
"As long as you do your part, I'll take good care of you." Ves spoke gently to Mayer.
Mayer Torto ranked higher than all of the Ylvainan mech designers in his heart. This was because Mayer was the only mech designer in the second design that possessed spiritual potential!
Though Ves found it to be a shame that Oscar and his fellow Ylvainans in the designed lacked the potential to advance to Journeyman and higher, he didn't really require them to grow too much.
The primary responsibility of a design team was to assist the lead designer in completing his design projects. They addressed all of the lesser design issues and solved all of the trivial problems that didn't require the expertise of a high-ranking mech designer.
From this perspective, it made little difference whether a design team contained a Journeyman or not. In fact, Ves deliberately commanded the LMC to reject any applications from Journeymen and Seniors!
If Ves wanted to, he could probably hire at least Senior to join the LMC, but that was not what he wanted to see!
Not only would he not be able to exert enough control on them, but it was an industry standard for high-ranking mech designers to be remunerated with equity!
The last thing Ves wanted to do was to dilute his stock or pass some off to other mech designers!
Even if a devout Ylvainan Senior went on his knees and begged the Bright Martyr to take him on for free, Ves would steadfastly refuse!
To him, maintaining control mattered the most!
Chapter 1796 Training Opportunities
His second design team all consisted of relatively young and junior mech designers. None of them made any exceptional achievements, but all of them bar one were experienced in working in a team environment.
This was exactly what Ves wanted. For a design team tasked with assisting his design activities, he did not need any strong personalities or talented prodigies.
Ves also declined to add any older and more competent mech designers to his design team because he wanted to train his assistant mech designers. It was much easier to indoctrinate and adjust the mentalities of younger mech designers.
If Ves employed a bunch of highly-competent but older Journeymen or Seniors, it would be virtually impossible for him to shape them into his desired forms!
Even if every Ylvainan mech designer worshipped him as the Bright Martyr, they were still mech designers, and it was genuinely hard for older and better mech designers to follow the instructions of a younger upstart!
By keeping his design teams young, Ves might not get as much immediate value out of them, but they would slowly grow over time and become more suitable for his needs!
Not only that, but the mech designers here would predominantly stick with him for many decades!
Younger employees possessed a much longer lifespan than older ones. As long as Ves kept investing in them, they would continue to provide him with value over a very lengthy period of time until they finally neared their expiration dates!
It was safe to say that Ves opted for a strategy that pursued long-term prosperity over short-term benefits. The two design teams the LMC employed so far were just the beginnings of a formidable design operation that solely worked for Ves and Gloriana!
After getting to know the new mech designers some more, Ves handed over a couple of assignments and routine work to them. Just because he hadn't started any design projects didn't mean that his design teams could slack off!
Aside from keeping his bees busy, he also wanted to take their measure. Ves would be able to make much better use of his new mech designers when he learned what they were actually capable of in a new design environment.
If they failed to meet his standards, then Ves would not hesitate to kick them out! There were thousands of mech designers eager to take their place!
Of course, Mayer Torto required special consideration. As a freshly-graduate Novice, Mayer might possess an excellent foundation due to his elite education, but just because he possessed spiritual potential didn't mean he had what it took to become a Journeyman!
While Ves treated the other mech designers as disposable assistants, he wanted to cultivate at least a couple of talents to handle the more important design responsibilities in the future.
Whether they eventually set off on their own or continued to remain in his employ, Ves needed to develop a network of loyal and aligned mech designers eventually. Every Senior and Master appeared to do the same, and for good reasons.
Once Ves settled his design teams, he returned to his office to meet with the commanders of his three mech forces.
Commander Melkor Larkinson, Commander Magdalena Larkinson and Commander Cinnabar all gathered together in the same room.
While Melkor and Magdalena were already familiar with each other, they hadn't interacted at all with Commander Hugin Cinnabar.
Fortunately, the mood between them wasn't as awkward as Ves feared. Commander Magdalena was an old dog while Commander Cinnabar was an experienced mercenary commander. Both of them soon got along like comrades.
Ves took his seat while Lucky started dozing on his desk.
"Well, commanders. We're all finally here. Welcome back, Commander Cinnabar. I've heard you've made fruitful gains in your last excursion."
"We completed your assignments as best as possible, Mr. Larkinson, though I'm sorry to say we failed to track down some of the people you wanted to find."
"That's okay. It's unrealistic to obtain everything on my wishlist. Let's discuss this matter later in private. For now, we have to discuss the future of all of your troops."
He met the gazes of each of his mech commanders until he finally settled on Magdalena.
"We haven't been able to discuss this issue over the comm, but now that I'm here, I'd like for you to speak frankly. Are you willing to commit to me and take part in my grand expedition?"
Commander Magdalena shrugged. "Why not, sir? While I still have family, my children are all grown up now. They can take care of themselves. While I'm not as young as the more eager Larkinsons in the new family, I think you need a steady hand like me to keep them in line."
"Thank you." Ves sincerely said. "I am truly grateful for your continued support."
He turned to the youngest commander next. "How are you, Melkor?"
"I'm.. okay." He said as he shifted the visor over his face. "I have been having some.. doubts, lately."
"Is it anything serious?"
"It shouldn't affect my ability to do my job, sir. Magdalena and the other veteran Larkinsons have already offered me plenty of advice."
Since Melkor seemed reluctant to voice his doubts, Ves dropped the matter. If the commander said his issues didn't impact his productivity, then it wasn't worth pursuing.
Now that Ves became responsible for hundreds of Larkinsons and thousands of employees, he was too busy to manage the lives of his subordinates.
"The reason I've called you here is to make it clear what I am seeking from each of your three forces in the future."
He turned to Melkor again. "I've already made it clear that my Avatars of Myth are supposed to be my elites. I've also said that I intend to turn every Avatar in a second-class mech pilot."
"That.. is very difficult."
"I know, but I believe it's doable as long as I supply enough funding and resources. It helps that none of the Avatars are average mech pilots. Each of them should not only be skilled or elite, but also battle hardened. With their excellent foundation, my Avatars ought to be able pass this challenge."
Though Melkor didn't appear as confident, Ves revealed a welcome piece of news.
"One of the biggest hurdles in this kind of training is the lack of real mech piloting experience. Let me tell you that your men will each be able to pilot a real second-class mech and accrue valuable experience!"
"Do you mean..?"
"It's exactly what you think! The Scarlet Rose I've captured from the Fridaymen also come with a quartet of four premier second-class mechs! If footage of my battles in the Great Zona Republic have leaked, then you should know how powerful they are. The fact that they can already crush hundreds of third-class mechs despite lacking mech pilots should give my Avatars a very exhilarating piloting moment!"
"Will these 'practice' mechs be exclusive to the Avatars, sir?" Magdalena asked.
"The Avatars deserved this privilege." Ves emphatically stated. "As far as I know, the Living Sentinels all declined to meet the demands I've imposed on the Avatars. Since your men are unwilling to step up or commit to my grand expedition, then they should accept the circumstances."
"I've been discussing and considering the security needs of your grand expedition with Commander Melkor." The veteran mech officer pressed on. "Since you are planning to cultivate the Avatars of Myth into an elite mech troop, then they are not suitable to perform every security need. For ordinary guard duty, it is more suitable to deploy a large amount of mechs that can stall any potential hostile while your Avatars launch a counterattack."
Her argument had merit, but Ves did not immediately bought into it. "Will they even take part in my grand expedition?"
"Many will. I have already sounded out my Sentinels and many of them have started to change their minds. Give them some time, and they will definitely choose to join your expedition rather than stay behind."
"That still doesn't address the strength disparity between the Sentinels and all of the threats we might possibly face in the Red Ocean. One of the reasons I'm so insistent on upgrading every mech pilot I bring is because we'll be facing forces from the entire galaxy. While there are rules in place to prevent bullying from superior forces, it's best to rely on our strength! As a second-class fleet, our grand expedition will at least be able to explore most of the zones in the Red Ocean!"
Not only that, but second-class fleets were also considerably faster than third-class fleets. Ves did not wish to waste too much time in accessing the Galactic Gate Network or remain in the outskirts of the Red Ocean for several decades.
"How will you take care of the need for guards for your grand expedition, sir? If you truly intend to form a fleet numbering 20 valuable ships, then you will need at least several hundred mechs to guard such valuable assets!"
This was a conundrum that Ves admittedly hadn't considered very much. He initially passed on this responsibility to the Avatars, but due to their arduous standards and customs, Ves did not expect to be able to expand them quickly enough in the next couple of years.
Apparently, Magdalena already had an answer.
"What is your proposal?" Ves asked directly.
"Let some of the Living Sentinels who are willing to join your expedition join the second-class training program. As long as you don't hold them to the highest standards, they won't fail. Remember that many of the Larkinsons in the new family have opted to join the Living Sentinels over the Avatars. They will definitely be able to pass this hurdle."
"Then what?"
"You supply my Living Sentinels with enough second-class mechs to allow them to perform their duties. Because of their lower training standards, you don't have to supply them with top second-class mech models. Just a midrange or budget equivalent of the mechs we are already familiar with are fine. Not only does this allow you to expand the number of mechs that can guard your valuable fleet, but also avoid burdening your finances."
He had to admit that Commander Magdalena offered him a sensible proposal. Ves weighed it in his mind and decided to take a small step in this direction.
"I'm not fully onboard with this plan, but I'm willing to see how well your Sentinels can transition to second-class mech designers. Mind you, the Avatars of Myth have priority access to the four second-class training mechs. As long as they aren't currently using the training mechs, then your Sentinels are allowed to make use of them. Of course, every training session will be supervised and I'll make sure to install some control systems in the mechs to prevent abuse. The last thing I want to see is someone trying to drive these expensive machines to ruin!"
Both Melkor and Magdalena nodded in understanding.
Ordinarily, they would have objected to such an insulting proposal. Installing kill switches or backdoors in mechs was a considerable taboo in the mech community!
This was because any killswitch could always be taken over by adversaries!
However, this was not that big of a deal when it came to training mechs. They weren't meant to participate in actual battles, so they were never at risk of destruction as soon as the mech lost power or something.
In this case, the matter was ten times more sensitive due to the insane value of the Kravon, Selzer, Paravin and Fliskin! Each of Aisling's former bodyguard mechs was worth a fortune even in a second-rate state!
Theft prevention should be a top priority to the Avatars and Sentinels tasked with keeping them safe!
Ves continued to outline his plans for his mech troops. All three had to serve a distinctive purpose, and none of them were redundant!
After a good talk with the three commanders, he eventually dismissed Melkor and Magdalena.
Only Commander Cinnabar was left. The bearded Kinner was finally ready to report on his activities while he was on assignment during the Sand War!
Chapter 1797 Trusted Customer
A virtual member card hovered in front of Ves just after he activated a jamming field. The card looked almost identical to the invitation card that Ves won from the Church of Haatumak years ago. He remembered the competition where he competed against Mayra, Ketis' mentor. Even though he lost, he still proved himself worthy to receive the card.
Of course, Ves had no good feelings for the weird and abnormal cult. Their strange powers and ability to make themselves undetectable through spiritual means almost caused the downfall of Lydia's Swordmaidens and the Flagrant Vandals!
Afterwards, he always intended to make use of the invitation card to get initiated in the so-called Angel's Wing Foundation, yet he never found the time to make an excursion.
The virtual invitation card not only acted as a means of entry, but also transmitted the moving coordinates where the powerful black market organization gathered.
According to several sources, the Angel's Wing Foundation was one of the biggest and most expansive black market organizations in the galactic rim.
In order to avoid stepping too much on the toes of other competitors, the AWF almost exclusively dealt in biotech-related goods and services.
It might not be the best place to obtain the best illicit mechs or hire the best assassins, but when it came to purchasing extremely valuable exobeasts and bioimplants, there was no other underground marketplace that could compare!
"It took us a long time to reach the site where the Angel's Wing Foundation opened for business." Commander Cinnabar calmly explained. "The organization set its gathering point in the frontier, which forced us to cross into unregulated space."
"What?! Did you enter sandman territory?!"
"Rest assured, we didn't encounter too many sandmen. The AWF set up shop well outside the sphere of influence of the sandmen. Aside from some sporadic sandman fleets that went astray, the space we traveled through was fairly safe."
Since nothing went wrong during the round trip, Ves put down his worries and instead focused on the gains.
"What did you accomplish while you were at their place?"
"We encountered a large fleet, including a capital ship that served as their main trading hub. The experience was.. Incredible. The Angel's Wing Foundation is truly powerful enough to be able extend their reach throughout the entire galactic rim."
Commander Cinnabar explained the procedures he went through. The invitation card wasn't locked to Ves' identity, so the mercenary commander managed to become a registered member without any problem.
Rather than risking his own life and reputation, Ves was fine with allowing his Kinner cash in the invitation card. If he needed anything from the AWF, then he could just dispatch Commander Cinnabar in his stead!
"So what's it like to be a member?"
"It's not that special, sir. Inside the massive trading ship are countless rare and lucrative trading opportunities. Every member who enters dons a cloak or employs other means of obscuring their identities, so no one knows anyone there. It would have taken too much time for us to explore them all, so we placed all of our efforts into obtaining the items on your list."
Ves leaned forward. "Did you..?"
"I'm sorry to say we only obtained some samples of just one item on your list. The trading vessel only offers scattered trading opportunities for exotics. They're mostly offered by members and clients who are in urgent need to raise hard currency to purchase or bid on the biotech goods they want."
Just like any other true black market organization, the AWF did not accept or deal with regular currencies such as bright credits or coalition credits. Instead, the use of Kavenit coins and other forms of bartering governed most transactions.
When Commander Cinnabar passed on the list to Ves, he erupted into a smile!
This was because the Battle Criers obtained one of the materials he needed the most!
"Thirteen P-Stones!"
Though the P-stone was one of the most basic spiritually-reactive materials he discovered, its uses were myriad! He could use them as spiritual energy batteries to capture his excess output or he could use them as makeshift containers for spiritual entities.
Yet that only scratched the surface of their possible uses! He suspected that he could employ the P-stones to other ends. If one of his hypotheses were correct, then perhaps the P-stone was an essential component in making permanent spiritual matter!
With thirteen chunks of minerals that Commander Cinnabar tentatively identified as P-stones, Ves did not have to be so stingy with their use! Though Ves still planned to stash most of them in his vault, he could afford to experiment with a handful of them without feeling pained over their loss!
"Make sure to move all of the P-stones in my vault. They're very precious and I don't want anyone else to touch them, including my own girlfriend." Ves commanded.
"We'll take care of it, sir."
"Now what are your other gains?"
"After we departed from the AWF, we attempted to search the people on your bounty list. It was.. difficult. While the Sand War allowed us to move anywhere without attracting too much attention by blending in with the refugee ships, the lack of tracking makes it almost impossible to locate specific people!"
"How did you solve this problem?"
The red-haired mercenary commander smiled. "We employed the use of an underground intelligence broker. We had to go through a significant amount of our remaining budget to obtain the coordinates of some of your targets."
"Who did you get?"
Cinnabar passed him another data pad.
The pad only contained a single list, which Ves silently read.
'Ronnie Blast'
'Merril Truman'
'The Alloy Sculptor'
'The Hand of Sin'
'Timothy Moriarty'
The moment his eyes spotted the first name, they grew red.
Of all the people on the list, Ves hated the first one the most!
After all of those years, this pirate designer finally fell into his hands!
"Hahahaha!" Ves erupted into laughter. "I bet you never expected me to nab you! I can finally repay the indignity you've subjected to me! I can't stand almost getting killed by my own design!"
His fury became especially heated when he recalled he'd been threatened by a plagiarized version of his own work!
If someone wanted to kill him using his own designs, then they better use his authentic works! This was what his professionalism demanded!
"Good! Keep the prisoners secured somewhere secret. Don't let anyone else find out!"
"We have the prisoners secured in the brig of the Ion Tracker for the time being, sir. Since we've parked our ship in orbit of Kesseling VIII, no one ought to be able to enter our ship without permission."
"Make sure to guard against infiltrators and other hidden troublemakers. I'm way too high profile these days. My reputation with the Ylvainans has reached an insane height, but that also means that lots of people will desperately want to investigate me. We can't rule out the possibility that someone will want to sneak onto your ships since you work directly for me. Remain alert and stay cautious. Don't let the friendly attitude of the Ylvainans fool you into letting down your guard."
As a Kinner bondsman, Commander Cinnabar was programmed to obey any instruction. He took Ves' orders seriously.
The Battle Criers made some other gains during their time away, but Ves didn't care about them anymore. After discussing everything else the Kinners encountered during their travels, Ves issued some new orders.
"For now, I want your Battle Criers to remain close and act in coordination with the Avatars and Sentinels to guard my life and property. Since we are in unfamiliar territory, we can't take anything for granted, and the sandmen are still a threat."
"Understood."
"Aside from that, I'd also like you to take over control of the Scarlet Rose. This is an extremely important second-class ship for multiple reasons. I want you to pick out your most trustworthy ship crew and take control of the vessel. After that, I want you to coordinate with Michael Crindon in overhauling the ship. There is probably an orbital drydock in the Kesseling System that we can hire to perform the necessary repairs and renovations. I'll tell Crindon to cordon off the mech workshop and some other compartments. I have something special in mind for those sections."
"Crewing your new ship will be a problem." Commander Cinnabar warned. "I'm not a naval expert, but second-class vessels are a lot more difficult to operate."
"You can seek help from the crew of the Barracuda. Captain Silvestra and her subordinates have extensive experience in operating a Fridayman vessel. I believe their insights will be exceptionally useful. The only reason why I didn't reassign them to the Scarlet Rose is because I don't want anyone but Kinner bondsmen on my new personal ship."
The mercenary commander studied the projection of the Scarlet Rose and shook his head. "We can do that, but that means pulling essential crew away from our existing vessels. If the Scarlet Rose is as complex as she appears to be, then I can only draw from my best and most senior spacers. That will leave my Ion Tracker and other vessels shorthanded of competent officers and crew."
"Bear with it for now." Ves commanded. "If possible, I'd like you to expand the Battle Criers by supplementing it with more Kinner bondsmen. Is there a way to buy more Kinners without traveling all the way to the Kinner Tribe?"
If he had to travel to the Kinner Tribe, then he would have to cross through the entire length of the Friday Coalition! That was not only a massive waste of time, but also an extremely perilous journey!
Of course, he could always take a lengthy detour, but such a trip would probably take at least half a year!
Fortunately, the Kinners weren't as unreasonable as he feared.
"Ordinary customers of the Kinner Tribe aren't allowed to buyout our Kinners remotely." Cinnabar explained. "This is because the parties buying our Kinners may not be as trustworthy as they advertised, or withheld crucial information. This is one of the main reasons our Kinner Tribe highly values face-to-face meetings. Any Kinner bondsmen bought remotely will be facing a difficult dilemma if their new owners turn out to be different from that they expected."
Ves understood the nature of this problem. He had no doubt that the Kinner Tribe had been burned many times in the past. Even if the Kinner bondsmen were allowed to break away from a partner who transacted with their tribe in bad faith, the reputation of the Kinners would still take a substantial hit!
In order to avoid such regrettable reversals, the Kinners paid careful attention to the people who wanted to buy a permanent Kinner bondsman. Either a client or a trusted representative had to visit the tribe in person in order to buy the coveted human products offered by the tribe!
However, once some level of trust had been established, the Kinners were much more accommodating to existing clients.
"Normally, you aren't eligible for this service, but you're a special case." Cinnabar pointed out. "As the famous Ves Larkinson who designed the two greatest mechs of the Sand War, your reputation and fame has skyrocketed. Our Kinner Tribe is always interested in maintaining relationships with notable people. I'll have to contact the tribe to be sure, but I can virtually guarantee you that it's no problem to order more Kinners."
"Good." Ves nodded as if he half-expected this response. "I'll inform Benny to release the needed funds to expand the Battle Criers and secure more crew. Is it possible to triple your numbers?"
The mercenary commander grimaced. "I would not advise that, sir. Even though we share much in common with other Kinners, the Battle Criers are still distinct. Expanding too quickly will dilute our martial tradition. I suggest doubling our number of mech pilots and other crew at most. While this expansion will still put us under strain, I'm confident we can integrate the new Kinners in our outfit over time."
"Acceptable. Make sure you hire the best you can obtain. I'm not lacking for funds these days."
After discussing some of the details, both of them came to an agreement on how to expand the Battle Criers. This small former mercenary corps needed to expand and grow in strength in order to keep up with Ves' growing ambitions!
Chapter 1798 Great Preparation
After a lengthy and confidential chat with Commander Cinnabar, the Kinner left his office, leaving Ves alone for a time.
He leaned back against his office chair and noted with pleasure that it was even more comfortable than the one in his office at the Mech Nursery.
Automatic settings came online and firmly massaged his back. His entire body vibrated in a peculiar rhythm that almost lulled him to sleep.
"Meow?"
"Heh, don't even think about it! This is my chair! It's not suitable for cats!"
"Meow!"
Ves picked Lucky up and inspected his pet from every angle.
"Meow meow meow!"
"You've been eating really well lately. Where have you been putting all of it?! You haven't given me any crystals lately, and besides these tiger stripes, you don't look any stronger!"
"Meow~!"
"If you want to continue to enjoy your share Breyer alloy, then you better start working! Stop pumping everything into upgrades and start working your rear end!"
"Meow meow.."
Ves placed his deflated-looking cat down on his lap and stared at the ceiling for a time.
He had plenty of meetings to go through before he could go back to his core activities.
He longed to go back to his studies or begin his research on imaginary mechs.
He deeply desired to start a new ambitious design project with massive implications for his future design direction.
Yet Ves was long past the time he was all alone. He carried too many responsibilities. As a leader, he needed to set directions and move his pieces in order to advance his goals.
Right now, he was far from ready to set off for the Red Ocean! A huge gap remained, and it would take a monumental effort for Ves to overcome it! Ordinary Journeymen couldn't even dream of making so much progress, but he never doubted his ability to overcome the odds!
"I have to get back to making progress as soon as possible!"
For the rest of the day, Ves met with various people such as Crindon, the Ylvainans and so on. Each of the meetings proceeded briskly as he was not in the mood to waste any time.
One of the more notable meetings he held was with Dr. Lupo. Ves tasked the exobiologist to work together with Dr. Ranya Wodin to prepare for the upcoming implantation surgery.
"The Archimedes Rubal is essential to some of my upcoming plans." He spoke to his pet exobiologist. "Drop every unnecessary assignment for now and spend most of your efforts on preparing the implant as best as possible. How is the cranial implant, by the way?"
"I've studied and carefully formed a patch to update the firmware of the implant." The doctor confidently said. "I'll hand you a report later so you can view my suggestions. I've been very conservative and made sure to draw from the most trustworthy-looking source code. There shouldn't be any hidden exploits or backdoors according to Mr. Crindon. Please keep in mind that it is only possible to alter the source code when the bioimplant is inactive. Once it is integrated into your brain, it is incredibly difficult to change its bioprogramming!"
That sounded concerning. An installed bioimplant often grew into such an indispensable part of the human body that altering or changing its programming essentially changed the person it was attached to! This was why they needed to do everything possible before the implantation procedure!
"I'll review your suggestions later. If you want, you can work together with Dr. Ranya to improve the firmware and possibly the cell structure of the Archimedes Rubal. I don't want any hidden dangers in the bioimplant, but seeing that it will form an essential component to my improvement, it needs to be as powerful as possible. CFA implant or not, it's undeniable that it is 300 years out of date."
Though it was true that a product like the Archimedes Rubal would only evoke disdain from the fleeters who were used to enjoying the best, to someone like Ves it was still a great treasure that surpassed anything the Fridaymen and the Hexers could possibly offer!
None of their bioimplants matched the sheer data storage capacity of this three-hundred year old implant that Ves scavenged from an old wreck!
Since the Archimedes Rubal represented a powerful upgrade to his cognitive abilities and couldn't easily be changed or removed after it settled in his head, Ves needed to give Lupo and Ranya plenty of time!
"I understand, sir." Dr. Lupo said, though he didn't seem pleased at being pulled away from his more interesting assignments. "I will endeavor to complete the preparation within two months."
"Good."
After talking to Dr. Lupo, Ves held another important meeting.
Calabast had come.
This time, she chose to adopt the guise of Madame Cecily Curin yet again. When she entered his office, Ves instantly recognized that the new entrant wasn't the decoy that Calabast put in place.
Oh, her act was perfect. The Cecily who appeared in his office just as noble, dignified and reserved as one could expect of a Curin.
However, Ves became more sensitive to identifying people through their spiritual signature. Though Calabast did not possess spiritual potential, Ves nonetheless made sure to memorize her tiny spirituality as best as possible in order to avoid getting hoodwinked by her again!
The existence of Calabast proved that humans didn't necessarily have to possess spiritual potential to be an extremely fearsome existence! There were plenty of ways to stand out and be capable without relying on extraordinary means!
Once a jamming field came online again, Ves addressed her directly.
"Let's cut the games and speak plainly. I'm in no mood to waste any time."
Lady Cecily's expression turned ugly as Calabast straightforwardly dropped her act. "You're no fun."
"You know I'm not very pleased with you right now."
"You're expecting too much from me. Intelligence gathering is inherently difficult and unreliable. I've already told you how difficult it is to infiltrate the state apparatus. Though I admit that I have not been on guard against the machinations of the Mech Corps, it takes an immense amount of effort to infiltrate its headquarters."
Though it sounded like an excuse, Ves knew he couldn't fault her too much. "It is still a very significant failure."
"I made it up to you, didn't I?" Calabast leaned on the chair opposite of the desk and grinned. "You would have never been able to astound your attackers with your remote-controlled mechs if it wasn't for me supplying you with all of the essential software and instruction guides. In any case, I've expanded my network and made sure to insert more eyes in the local states. While I haven't penetrated the entire Ylvaine Protectorate, my agents are currently keeping tabs on all three leading dynasties. If any of them are about to move against you, I'll be able to warn you in advance this time."
Hearing that relieved Ves a bit. Both of them had learned from the previous incident. They'd be stupid if they got caught with their pants down!
They spent some time to discuss some security and spying arrangements before moving on to the next topic on the agenda.
"When we communicated a month ago, you said that there would be an opportunity for me to design a second-class mechs for the Hexers."
"That's correct." Calabast said. "I worked together with Gloriana to make the arrangements. You can view it as a commission, one that is rather sensitive and.. controversial."
Uh oh. Ves smelled trouble. When Calabast said that something was fishy, then she was definitely not exaggerating!
His eyes narrowed at her. "What is going on?"
"Let me begin by explaining the Hex Army. What is your impression of the Hegemony's main military branch?"
She smiled coyly at Ves while she waited for his answer.
"I've heard that the Hex Army is the most powerful force of the Hegemony. It's led collectively by the six matriarchal dynasties and is an expression of their might. Unlike the Fridaymen whose partners each operate their own mech militaries as their own entities, the Hex Army fights on behalf of the Hegemony as a whole, and is highly centralized and uniform."
"That's a good textbook answer." Calabast nodded in satisfaction as if she was a teacher who was pleased with a juvenile pupil. "The Hex Army is capable of fighting the collective might of the Friday Coalition. None of the six matriarchal dynasties have held back in investing in its strength. However, do you think that the Hex Army is the only military branch that is participating in the Komodo War on our side?"
Ves shook his head. "It shouldn't be. That would be too simple. At the very least, there are many intelligence agencies fighting in the dark, including DIVA that you used to be a part of. Am I correct?"
"You're right again. The Hexadric Hegemony is arguably the biggest state in the Komodo Star Sector. While the Hex Army is capable of fending off the main forces of the Friday Coalition doesn't mean it is universally good at anything. We are well aware that its high degree of uniformity and the lack of diversity and versatility means that its strengths can be countered and its weaknesses can be exploited."
"Then how do you solve this problem?"
"Mostly, we just trust in our strength. We know our strengths and we have trained all of our lives to become good at what we do best!" Calabast confidently grinned.
"That's all?"
"Of course not. Though we don't advertise it, we also employ auxiliary forces and irregular forces from time to time. Don't look down on the latter. Hexer mercenary corps are Hexers first and mercenaries second. They're not as cowardly and craven as the mercenaries you are accustomed to. None of the outfits in our state are incompetent!"
"So the commision you are referring to is related to one of these private sector outfits?"
She nodded. "That's true, but it would be a mistake to think that every outfit is truly private. The Hegemony abhors chaos and unregulated freedom. We don't allow any outfit that operates in our space to be independent. Behind each mercenary corps is at least one Hexer in good standing. This keeps them under control, because the backer must always pay for the misdeeds of the offending outfit."
Ves had to admit that this was a viable way to contain the damage these outfits could do when they fought. However, only a state as strong and unified as the Hexadric Hegemony could impose such restrictive conditions.
There was no way the Bright Republic could enforce such rules, especially when its space hosted a significant amount of foreign outfits!
"So tell me about the commission."
"It's not the time yet to discuss the nature of the commission. We're still fine-tuning the details. It will take some time for us to finalize the contract."
"What can you tell me then?"
"I am free to tell you about our client. First, do you think Hexers are all the same?"
"Of course not." Ves immediately shook his head. "Even if you Hexers have a strong culture, none of you are the same. There is still a lot of diversity between Hexers. Even the Wodins such as Gloriana, Brutus and Ranya are far apart from each other. In addition, the larger the state, the greater the differences between subpopulations. I can imagine that the Vrakens such as you are distinctly different from the Everns."
"Since you understand this, then you should understand that there are always outcasts within a population. The Hegemony is no different. Due to the.. complications regarding your identity, it's not possible to offer your mechs to conventional Hexer organizations. It's also difficult to enter our market."
"Because I'm a 'boy'."
"Quite." Calabast sniggered. "So the only Hexers that are willing to make use of your products are those who are desperate and under special restrictions. After a lot of searching, Gloriana and I managed to find a Hexer outfit that is willing to pilot a mech designed by a male, foreign mech designer."
When she described him in this manner, Ves did not feel appreciated at all. Which Hexer outfit was desperate enough to resort to him for mechs?!
"What are they called?"
"The Penitent Sisters."
Chapter 1799 Religious Doctrine
Calabast gave Ves the time to process the name of his future client.
The name of an outfit often revealed their essence. It described their values, their history or their aspirations.
Ves suspected there was a remarkable story behind the formation of the Penitent Sisters. If their names accurately reflected their history, then it was impossible for it to be an ordinary mercenary corps from the Hegemony!
"The word sister sounds ordinary in most contexts, but when combined with a word like penitent, it sounds like there is a religious connotation." Ves threw out his guess.
Calabast nodded. "You're on the right track. Go on. What else can you figure out?"
"Penitent is a word that is related to feeling remorseful and seeking forgiveness. Someone who is penitent wishes to repent for their sins, whatever they may be. This makes it distinct from general guilt. All of this leads me to conclude that the Penitent Sisters have something to do with religion. Are they related to hexism?"
"The Temple of Hexism founded the Penitent Sisters, but to say they are backing them is not entirely accurate."
"Because the Sisters are guilty of something, right?"
"Right. The Penitent Sisters are basically made up of devout followers of hexism who went astray. All of them consist of Hexers who believed in deviant interpretations of hexism. They're extremists, basically. Not only that, but every Sister believed in the same radical doctrine that made them run afoul with the Temple of Hexism!"
This sounded rather thorny to Ves. He really didn't want to participate in another religious dispute!
"What is so serious that caused these Sisters to run afoul with what passes for your state's religion?"
"Did Goriana tell you about the six phases of existence?"
"She did, though it makes no sense to me. It sounds too much like a fabrication!"
Ves couldn't determine from Calabast's vague expression whether she bought into this nonsense or not. He believed her to be a secularist like him, but who could tell with women and Hexers.
"Well, to many Hexers, the six phases of existence is an inviolable truth. I highly advise you to never mention your true feelings about it to Gloriana or other Hexers. I can assure you they will go absolutely mad if they hear you disparage their beliefs."
"I know." Ves sighed. "I'm not so cautious in your company because I know you aren't like the other Hexers."
He never dared to question Gloriana's beliefs. She would probably turn into a terrifying monster if he pushed her buttons!
"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not." Calabast chuckled and tapped her finger against her forearm. "The point is that the concept of the six phases of existence is so accepted within our state that it is a very touchy subject to suggest any changes to any one of the phases! This is important because the Penitent Sisters all belonged to a cult that once dared to suggest a 'correction'!"
"What's the controversy?"
"List out the six phases of existence."
Calabast adopted a school teacher tone again.
Ves recalled the so-called phases from the back of his mind.
"The six phases are life, death, godhood, damnation, dust and.. woman, right?"
His school teacher nodded in satisfaction. "Good boy! At least your memory is better than your apparent age. Now what Gloriana probably didn't tell you is that the order of the phases is important. It describes the cycle of life, death and transcendence, with women as the penultimate phase that is the reward of all living entities. To become a woman is to become a top existence in life, death and the beyond!"
How could Ves accept such a self-serving explanation? Only Hexers could come up with this stupid belief!
He predictably grew sour. "Hexism didn't even bother including males."
"That's right, and there are several different interpretations why that is so. The orthodox belief is that the initial phase, meaning life, is essentially a euphemism for boy. Accepting this interpretation means that every human life starts off as a boy. Only after they pass through some of the other phases will they shed their inadequacies and become a woman!"
"This.."
"The reason why this is the most widely-accepted interpretation is because it explains why boys deserve to be treated the way they are in the Hegemony. They are newborns who have not experienced any waves or winds in their short existences. Boys are too immature and incapable because they haven't grown up, as it were. A woman has gone through at least several lifetimes that has slowly sublimated their existence to the peak form. Compared to the majesty of the superior gender, a boy will always be a juvenile no matter how old they grow in their initial lifetimes!"
What a creative story! Ves widened his eyes as he took in some of the implications of this interpretation.
Believing in it basically excused all of the derogatory behavior of female Hexers towards their male counterparts!
Men were boys, and each of them were toddlers compared to the wise and mature women who had already gone through several different evolutions!
This twisted logic gave no room for boys to gain any measure of equality in Hexer society!
Since Gloriana was a devout follower of hexism, Ves finally learned why she could never stop regarding him as a boy no matter how impressed she was at him! Even if he did his best to prove he was a man, he was still a couple of eons too young to match her status!
A strange thought flitted through his mind. Didn't this mean that Gloriana was a pedophile?
Despair struck his eyes for a moment before he quickly shook himself out of it. No matter what Gloriana believed, she genuinely respected him and always treated him more than just a 'boy'.
Perhaps in the future, Ves could slowly wean her away from the more extreme beliefs of hexism. As long as he kept her out of the Hegemony and away from other Hexers, Ves was confident he could temper some of her more undesirable Hexer traits!
His inner thoughts didn't escape the keen perception of Calabast. A twinkle appeared in her eyes. It was as if she looked forward to a show in the future!
She quickly recovered. "Regarding the phase of life as the initial form of existence that every human has to go through at the start is a very fitting narrative that neatly explains why boys are boys. They are young because they never grew up. They are irresponsible because they haven't been tempered. They are incapable because what could you expect from a bunch of brats? They are in need of care, guidance and protection because we women are older and wiser."
"That explains your attitude to me." Ves snorted.
"I don't need to resort to hexism to justify my treatment towards you." Calabast snarked back. "Let's get back on track. Now, since it's possible to infer that one of the six phases stands for boys, what if you apply it to the other phases?"
This threw Ves for a loop. "I take it there are a lot of implications and symbolism involved with equating or substituting the other phases with boys. If boys stand for death… doesn't that mean that every male must die?"
"There are indeed Hexers who believe in this deviant strain of thought. Even then, it's not necessarily the case that all boys must die. It's complicated and involves a lot of scripture, so I won't bore you with the details."
"Get to the point, then. What phase did the Penitent Sisters mess around with that caused them to be punished this way?"
"It's the fourth phase." Calabast finally answered. "The Penitent Sisters believed that the phase of damnation is equivalent to boys. The basic premise of this train of thought is that boys aren't young, innocent and deserving of care and protection. Instead, boys are a malignant existence, a cancer to life and a threat to society! Boys aren't dangerous and prone to brutality because they weren't raised right. They're outright evil and corrupted! The Penitent Sisters essentially regard every boy as an irredeemably evil demon who needs to be strangled in the cradle before they grow powerful enough to cause untold suffering! The latter half of the Age of Conquest is the clearest example of what could happen if boys are allowed to grow in strength!"
How brutal! From the way Calabast described these deviant Hexers, he had no doubt that they would truly kill babies just because of their extra appendages!
"Is this really an unorthodox belief?"
Calabast glanced at Ves as if he affronted her personally.
"We Hexers don't exactly have the best reputation, but we aren't mass murderers. Not only does that lower us to the same level as boys, we're quite aware our beliefs will never be tolerated by the male-dominant power structure of human civilization."
Ves already understood this argument. The Hexers aren't totally insane. At least they knew how to moderate their values and beliefs to avoid getting squashed by the Big Two.
"Then.. what is the matter with the Penitent Sisters? If their beliefs are so dangerous when spread, then why doesn't the Hexer equivalent of an inquisition lock them away or put them to death?"
"These punishments are too straightforward." She replied and crossed her legs, showing off her smooth, bare legs that shone like glass. "While death or imprisonment are heavy punishments, the Temple of Hexism is not satisfied with letting the cultists off. No. They deserve a harsher punishment. They must undergo the cruelest punishment for their temerity for challenging established doctrine!"
Ves grew confused. "Gloriana said that belief in hexism is rather relaxed."
"Oh, it's fine for Hexers to be relaxed or outright dismissive of hexism. The Temple of Hexism never bothers too much with them. It's when strong believers think they know better that touches their bottom line!"
"Okay.."
"Now, the members that now make up the Penitent Sisters riled up the Temple of Hexism so much that they have been issued with one of the cruelest punishments that they have come up with! It is so abhorrent that the very idea is incredibly repulsive to any Hexer!"
"What is the punishment?"
"The Penitent Sisters.. are forced to form a mercenary corps and wash their sins in battle. Only until they have made sufficient accomplishments in the Komodo War are they considered absolved!"
"That doesn't sound so bad." Ves blinked.
Wasn't this basically conscription? The mech pilots among the Penitent Sisters would have fought in the war regardless of what had happened.
Of course, it was never as simple as that. Calabast grinned.
"That is not the extent of their punishment. You see, the Temple of Hexism has imposed a cruel restriction for the Pentinent Sisters. They are only allowed to pilot mechs designed by boys!"
"What!?" Ves practically jumped in surprise. "That's considered to be a punishment?!"
"Oh, to a Hexer mech pilot, it is a great shame to pilot a mech designed by a boy, because how competent can they be compared to august women? Mechs designed by boys are considered shoddy, cursed or inferior compared to mechs designed by the superior gender!"
Ves continually felt more and more insulted. This was ridiculous!
"I suppose it's especially 'cruel' for the Penitent Sisters, right?"
Calabast chuckled. "This is the brilliance of the Temple of Hexism! The Penitent Sisters, who used to believe that boys are unredeemable, are forced to pilot mechs that are designed by those very same demons!"
Sure enough, if the Hexers truly believed in this nonsense, then they genuinely preferred to die rather than to work with a mech designed by a boy!
"Where do I fit in? Why come to me instead of some random male Hexer mech designer?"
"Well, when the Temple of Hexism came up with this punishment, it didn't take the laws, customs and traditions of the Hegemony's mech industry into account. Boys are forbidden by law to design their own mechs. They're not even allowed to be the lead designer! In addition, the only mechs that Hexers are allowed to pilot are those approved by a panel of matriarchs! However, it is a great shame for any panel to approve the use of a mech designed by a boy!"
"I see."
That really sounded like a messy situation! Though the Temple of Hexism could have revised its punishment for the Penitent Sisters, it would only humiliate itself in the process!
"Then what makes me eligible?"
"If the Temple of Hexism wants to solve this conundrum, some rules need to be bent." She said. "You just happen to fit in the picture!"
Chapter 1800 Female Supremacy
Women reigned supreme in the Hexadric Hegemony. Founded by an extremist group exiled from the more prosperous parts of the galaxy, the Hegemony stood strong as a testament to the indomitable will of its citizens!
Each woman in the state lifted their heads with pride, believing themselves to be the superior gender and the most supreme form of life!
Unlike the rest of the galaxy, the Hexers believed that their state was the only one that was governed properly! With only the wisest matriarchs at the helm, the Hegemony was infinitely greater than the states where 'equality' reigned.
True equality didn't exist! Males and females were undeniably different, and of the two, the latter were clearly better suited to rule the galaxy!
What happened when boys gained power without restraint?
They abused their might like children shooting a gun for fun! Boys were too young, stupid and inexperienced to know what was best!
In the long history of the human race, males always played an indispensable role.
Though human civilization had reached a new apex in the Age of Mechs, the Hexers believed that their race would have swept the entire galaxy were it not for all of the idiotic decisions made by boys!
If humanity were to ascend and reach its true potential, then something must change!
The Hexers had been raised and taught to believe that only women were suited to guide their race to its maximum potential!
"It's a wonder how humanity hasn't gone extinct yet with all of the blunders made by the boys in charge. No more! We must stand up and stop these irresponsible children from leading us to ruin!"
The Hexers dreamt of ruling the galaxy. Their ambitions ran deep as they each believed that women were destined to take over the galaxy!
"We shall thrust our boots against the necks of the MTA and CFA and force them to step aside!"
"We will smash the alien empires and turn all of their territories over to our race!"
"We must bring the boys to heel and put them in their proper place!"
Such slogans invigorated the Hexers and drove them to aspire for more!
The Komodo Star Sector was one of the most trivial star sectors in the Milky Way Galaxy. The density of stars close to the edge of the galaxy was very low, and many of these stars possessed so little energy and matter that humans disdained occupying them. This was not the stage where Hexers should embark on their ambitious takeover of human civilization!
Defeating the Friday Coalition and taking full control of the star sector was a necessary test!
If the Hexers couldn't even defeat the weak and divided Fridaymen, then what capital did they possess to conquer the rest of the galaxy?
If Ves heard what many Hexers dreamt of, he would have labeled them all as hopping mad!
How could these women ever think of taking over human civilization? The countless states in their way would never agree to adopt their warped ideology!
The first-rate superstates could squash the Hegemony a million times over without putting any strain on their war-making potential!
The Big Two were so mighty that their leaders wouldn't even be aware of the existence of Hegemony from beginning to end!
Clearly that didn't bother the Hexers. They were so confident and assured of their eventual victory that they did not hesitate to bring forth the war that had the potential to shatter their entire state!
"We must not falter, sisters! We are Hexers! We are superior!"
"The Fridaymen are weak, divided and cruel. Through espousing false notions such as gender equality and respect for diversity, their boys keep their women shackled! Do not be fooled by their utopian facade! Once we break into the Coalition, we must liberate their women and teach our freed sisters their true birthright!"
The Komodo War began with Operation K as a declaration of Hexer resolve! The female supremacists did not hesitate to start the conflict with a strong punch in order to unbalance the Fridaymen and widen the cracks between their partners!
Unfortunately, reality did not proceed as they envisioned. The Friday Coalition showed some surprising resolve and banded together more rapidly than the Hexers initially predicted.
By all accounts, the Komodo War that was ramping up was about to turn into a giant slugfest!
In this backdrop, the Penitent Sisters came into being. Rounded up by the Temple of Hexism and other authorities, the militants among the cultists who believed that boys were irredeemably damned were sentenced to a crime that they considered to be worse than death!
The cruel followers of hexism damned the deviants into participating in the war while fielding mechs designed by a boy!
It was said that when the cultists received this verdict, the distressed women all kneeled and cried out in anguish!
It was said that when the Penitent Sisters came into being, each of their members slit their palms and let the blood drop onto the deck of their flagship, a century-old relic mothballed by the Hex Army, and swore to wash the shame of piloting a mech made by boys by seeking death on the battlefield!
None of the Penitent Sisters wanted to survive the war! All they wished for was to kill as many Fridaymen as possible until they died!
When Calabast described the character of the Penitent Sisters to her partner, Ves frowned in confusion.
"This doesn't sound like a mercenary corps at all. It's a religious death corps!"
"That's an apt way to describe them." The former spy nodded. "The combatants of the Penitent Sisters all consist of radical followers of hexism. Think Gloriana, but much more fierce and trained for combat."
"And they're all willing to accept this 'punishment'?" Ves asked skeptically.
"It's a matter of honor and belief, Ves. Their names, their legacy and their pride are at stake! It might surprise you, but there are some things worth dying for! I thought you of all would understand since you are a Larkinson."
Ves twitched his mouth. "There's a difference between fighting for a cause and dying for a cause. I would rather stay alive, thank you very much. Can you get back to the topic? How many mechs do I need to design? Must they be landbound, spaceborn or both? How many copies of my designs will the Penitent Sisters field? How will my designs be able to pass the panel of matriarchs who are allergic to mechs designed by males?"
"You only need to design one second-class spaceborn mech with Gloriana. It must be fairly versatile, capable of attacking up close and from afar, and be useful in multiple different combat scenarios."
"That.."
"Second-class mechs and second-class mech pilots are different from the inferior mechs and mech pilots you are used to. Don't mistake the mech pilots of the Penitent Sisters as the dregs of the Hegemony. Each of them are highly trained and possess at least basic competences in both melee combat and ranged combat!"
That made things a lot easier for Ves. It sounded as if the mech pilots of the Penitent Sisters were close to meeting the elite standard in their state.
Still, her requirements sounded a bit thorny, and suspicious as well.
"Why must I design a single mech? An outfit must field at least several different mech models to form a balanced makeup."
Calabast shook her head. "The Penitent Sisters is a punishment outfit. Its purpose is to grant their members a shot of redemption. That doesn't mean that absolution should come easily. From what I can gather, the Penitent Sisters will be thrown in a variety of high-intensity battles and be made to perform dangerous and vital tasks."
"Those are some very steep demands! What is my budget?"
"The mechs can't be too expensive, so you can assume your mech must cost around the same as a midrange mech."
He winced.
If they were talking about third-class mechs, then Ves would have rejected this commission without hearing Calabast out.
The demands issued by the client were too much!
Not only did the client expect the mech to be able to fight at various ranges, but also wanted the mech to be versatile enough to fight in many different settings. In addition, since the Penitent Sisters were expected to be employed in many desperate situations, the mech had to be robust as well!
Ves might have found this commission to be tolerable if he was given a generous budget, but he seriously doubted if he could check all of the boxes if he could only design a midrange mech!
"You're misunderstanding something, Ves." Calabast smirked and tapped her cheek with her finger. "The Hegemony doesn't expect you to design a good mech. Both the Temple of Hexism and the Penitent Sisters expect little from a male mech designer! In their eyes, it's impossible for a boy like you to understand the essence of proper Hexer mech design!"
In other words, the client didn't even want him to succeed!
Ves became indignant. How could his professionalism be tarnished by such low expectations? He couldn't stand the thought of Hexers ridiculing his mech design and disparaging it as a failed product!
It should never be a punishment to pilot his mechs!
Each and every mech pilot fortunate enough to experience his mechs all submitted positive feedback. His mechs were a joy to pilot and trustworthy enough to depend on their performance.
Throughout his entire career, Ves never encountered a situation where the majority of his customers became dissatisfied with his products!
He clenched his fists. This entire commission insulted him and he hadn't even heard the final details!
"What is the point of designing such a mech? What do I get out of it, exactly?"
"Ah, you will gain some favor from the Wodin Dynasty, who will take some credit for the success of this commission. This will help offset some of the debts and favors that Gloriana accrued to assist you." Calabast smiled. "You don't want her to owe too much to the Wodins, do you?"
Ves sighed. Calabast knew him too well. "I see. So I won't be able to gain market access to the Hegemony?"
"I advise you to dispense with such fantasies. Even if you designed the best mech in the star sector, the Hegemony will still reject your work because you are a boy! Not every Hexer deserves to be punished as harshly as the Penitent Sisters."
"Since you Hexers are so repelled towards mechs designed by males, then how will my mech even be approved?"
"A lot of lawyers in the employ of the Temple of Hexism poured over this problem. They finally found a way to pass your work. First, the commission must be designed as a classified design project. Second, the initial lead designer must be a female Hexer in good standing. Third, the project must have an opening for a contributing mech designer that is potentially open to foreigners under strict conditions. This last point is a bit difficult to work with, as Hexer mech designers generally don't collaborate with foreigners on classified design projects."
"How will the Hexers overcome this rule?"
"We'll be taking advantage of an obscure substitution rule. The lead designer will initially appoint Gloriana as a contributing designer of the project. The agreement she must sign will include a rare benefit as one of its clauses. It grants her the privilege to bring on any partner, student or apprentice to the project as an assistant designer. That will be you, if you can't tell."
Ves frowned. "Will it be a problem to bring me aboard when I'm a man?"
"It's not a big deal if you are just supposed to work as an inconsequential assistant designer. Plenty of female mech designers employ male mech designers to perform all of the grunt work."
"What about my status as a foreigner?"
Calabast grinned. "This is one of the brilliant parts about this plan. The privilege that Gloriana will receive just happens to be devoid of any mention about the origin of the assistant mech designer! This is a tiny oversight due to the addition of new rules over the years. It's never been a problem because no lead designer will carelly allow foreigners to take part in a classified design project."
"And it's okay this time?"
She nodded. "Once you come onboard as an assistant, the lead designer will find some way to be elsewhere and indisposed. If she is absent for too long, Gloriana will automatically be promoted to lead designer. Since her old position is empty, the project urgently needs a new contributing mech designer. This will certainly be you as long as you are the only assisting mech designer on hand!"
"And that's allowed as well?!"
"What can I say? The Hexers who wrote and amended the rules never took such an abnormality into account. They simply assumed that any meaningful mech designer involved in a project will only consist of female Hexers."
"So how will I get all the way up to lead designer, then?"
"That's another interesting part…"
