After the Golden Skull Alliance and the Gemini Family managed to hit it off to an extent, the former agreed to travel to the location of the latter. Fortunately, the distance was manageable and it would only take around a week to arrive in the same star system. Other groups that had expressed enough interest in working together with the Gemini Family were on their way as well. The representative of the Geminis had already informed the Larkinsons that at least four other pioneering fleets had answered the call. More may join the party as well, but it became increasingly less likely that the Geminis would accept any further invitations after enough time had passed. The family that started this initiative did not wish to stall for too long. The more time passed by, the greater the chances that third parties might come and interfere. The Geminis had already shown a lot of patience by waiting long enough for the invitees to rendez-vous at their position. When Gloriana received word that the expeditionary fleet was about to take part in another massive raid operation, she did not hold back her concerns. "Are you crazy, Ves?" She confronted him with a hiss while their children were sitting on the deck while playing with their new toys. "We already suffered substantial losses in a battle that we had concluded only a few months earlier. What makes you think we are ready to fight against even stronger opponents?!" Ves did not look concerned. He waved his hand as if to dismiss her fears. "The Gemini Family wouldn't have the guts to organize a coalition fleet if our chances of beating the alien defenses are too slim. Besides, we can always cut and run if the situation is beginning to look wrong. Our Black Cats are working hard to collect more intelligence and we will constantly keep our guard up. We should at least meet with the Geminis and sound them out before we make our final judgment." "The Gemini Family can't be trusted!" Gloriana exclaimed. Her raised voice attracted the attention of their children. "Their ideas about families and marriage are horrifying. Sisters should never be compelled to marry their brothers, especially when they are twins. For the Gemini Family to force this upon their offspring not once, but throughout its whole organization is a sign that it is completely rotten from top to bottom! I wouldn't trust a single promise from their inbred mouths!" Ves grew annoyed. "You are judging a book by its cover, honey. Have you ever met or talked to the Geminis yet? I do not want you to malign our potential allies for a potentially lucrative offensive operation before we have met them properly. You are letting your biases and prejudices get the better of your logic. There are solid benefits to cooperating with the Geminis and I do not want you to spoil this opportunity because you are too intolerant to accept their… exotic cultural practices." His wife let out a breath in exasperation. "Don't you know how disgusting that is? You are actually thinking about fighting alongside incestual perverts! Look, I don't care what they do in the bedroom, but I do not want any of the Geminis to get close to our clan and begin infecting our children with their unnatural views!" "What's wrong, mama?" Aurelia innocently asked. Gloriana quickly turned and directed a loving smile at her daughter. "Nothing is wrong, my dear. Your dum-dum of a father is just thinking about befriending the wrong crowd. There are many awful people in human space that you should never meet, and the Gemini Family is one of them. The people of this family are not like us at all. They aren't even human to be honest. They are all unnatural spawn that need to be fed into the incinerator wholesale." 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎 While Ves did not exactly feel comfortable with the Gemini Family either, he did not want his wife to spew poison into the minds of their children! "You are going too far, Gloriana! You may avoid the Geminis if you don't like their practices, but don't make enemies with them just because their culture offends your sensibilities. You don't hear me talking about how much I dislike the Hexers to the point where I want to kill off all of the women who think that men should be driven to extinction. In my eyes, Hexers and Geminis are not that different. They are both pariah groups that cling to their own separate cultures." "THE HEXERS ARE NOTHING LIKE THE GEMINIS! YOU ARE SLANDERING MY MOTHER AND ALL OF MY RELATIVES WITH YOUR UNWARRANTED COMPARISON!" "Calm down, Gloriana! What did I tell you about raising your voice in front of our children?!" As the couple continued to argue against each other, they seemed to have forgotten the fact that their son and daughters had long stopped paying attention to their toys. "Mama and papa are shouting again." Andraste whispered as she dropped her Dark Witch Prestige Edition mech figurine. "It will be fine." Aurelia said as she took on the role of the responsible big sister. "Mama and papa always argue against each other. They always make up with each other after they have nothing left to shout. They will stop sooner if we start to cry or ask fussy." "Let's do that then, sister!" Aurelia raised her arm to keep Andraste down. "No. Don't." "Why not?" Aurelia kept observing her parents with unusually insightful eyes. "Because sometimes our mother and father need to vent at each other. It is not good for them to bottle up their frustrations and defer their outbursts." Both of her younger siblings looked confused. "I don't want this." Marvaine whined. "My friends tell me that their mamas and papas never fight like this. Why are ours different?" "They are different because they are strong. If you want to become as strong as papa in the future, then you need to shout as loudly as him, little brother." "Ohhh…" The children eventually tired of the ongoing shouting match and decided to move to one of their bedrooms so that they could jump onto a bed and play with their other toys. Just as the oldest daughter predicted, Ves and Gloriana eventually ran out of words to say. Neither of them were demented enough to repeat their earlier arguments. They were mech designers after all. They were too smart to waste their time on such an unproductive activity. They would rather spend their time working on their mech design projects. "Okay, Ves." Gloriana placed her hands on her hips. "Since I can't dissuade you and the rest from reconsidering your decision to work with the Gemini Family, then I at least want you to limit our cooperation with this group as much as possible. We have better things to do than to hold a cultural exchange with people who marry their own siblings and have children who they have already decided to form family units of their own. I will not accept any attempt to import their detestable views on family to our clan!" Ves held her shoulders and looked into her eyes. "That won't happen. I can promise you that. None of our clansmen are crazy enough to think that the Geminis are worth imitating, and I have no desire to replicate their customs. We have our own principles. You should have more confidence in our own way of life. Our clan might not be as old as the Gemini Family, but our values are just as strong, isn't that right, Goldie?" Nyaaaa! The Golden Cat materialized in the air and exuded a warm glow that was quintessentially Larkinson. Ves plucked the adorable ancestral spirit from the air and massaged her chin and cheeks. "Goldie is the guardian of our culture and our way of life." He explained to his wife. "She plays an extensive role in our clan and can do more than you think. Our glowing kitty over here is our best guardian against any influences that desire to corrupt our clansmen. I don't think the Geminis will proactively attempt to convert us to their ways, but even if they do, it will never work." Showing off Goldie was the right move. His wife calmed down and became a lot more reassured as she felt the power and the reassuring nature of the heart of the Larkinson Network. When Ves originally came up with the Golden Cat, he infused it with all of his ideals related to family in her spiritual makeup. The implications of this move were far-reaching. The rate of people in the Larkinson Clan that got married and started having kids was considerably higher than average. Goldie could therefore be regarded as an instrument that encouraged the Larkinsons to follow the way of life that Ves had originally proscribed. This was not entirely fixed, though. Goldie, like other spiritual entities, possessed the capacity to grow and change over time. Though she still looked as slender and adorable as ever, she had not only grown stronger since her birth, but she had also become a lot smarter and wiser! Even Ves didn't know how clever she was or what kind of ambitions she had developed during this time. However, Ves always believed that Goldie would continue to do what was best for him and the Larkinsons. After Goldie received enough pets, she flipped her tail and removed her manifestation. What could Gloriana say against all of this? It was impossible for her to argue against the spirit that not only represented the Larkinsons, but also bound them all together. "I will be keeping my eye on the Geminis, Ves. I will be there the moment they step out of line." "That won't happen, honey." The expeditionary fleet continued on its journey until they finally arrived in another obscure star system that didn't even have a proper name. The local red dwarf star was so weak and unimpressive that there was only a single terrestrial planet in orbit. Three different fleets were already present in the star system. The biggest one in the center most definitely belonged to the Gemini Family. Their iconic purple and blue color scheme echoed the duality of many of their couples. Two other fleets had arrived earlier from different directions and were already making their way to the orbit of the sole planet in the star system. The Larkinsons already managed to identify them. One of the fleets belonged to the Adelaide Mercenary Company. The Adelaides initially made their fortune in the mercenary sector, but had long outgrown their humble beginnings as soldiers of fortune. They still kept their original name and continued to engage in the mercenary business to a limited degree, but with an ace pilot in their ranks they had also become involved in other activities. From what Ves had learned, the Adelaide Mercenary Company was alright, he supposed. Mercenaries were never completely clean, but this particular group was considerably more upright than usual. If they weren't, it would have been a lot less likely for them to produce an ace pilot from their own ranks! The other fleet belonged to a formidable research institution called the Lehrer Institution. The Lehrer Foundation was a behemoth. Its primary focus laid in research and development, with a particular emphasis on robotics, automation and heavy-duty industrial machinery. While the Lehrer Foundation was strong to build up multiple powerful mech forces, most of them were assigned to protect the powerful group's many assets. The Lehrer Expeditionary Fleet was the exception. It was tasked with exploring the Red Ocean to collect interesting samples and data that could further the main foundation's extensive research activities. In other words, the Lehrer fleet that accepted the Gemini Family's invitation only represented a fraction of the parent group's total strength! "These guys are a bit of a mixed bag." Ves ultimately judged. Mercenaries and 'research assistants' did not sound like the kind of warriors that Ves would like to fight by his side, but beggars couldn't be choosers. Since both pioneering groups were good enough to produce ace pilots within their ranks, then their combat approaches shouldn't be too bad. "Let's see how trustworthy they are when I can meet them in reality."