It took less trouble for Venerable Irene to merge with 'Blinky' than expected. Part of it was because Ves had already passed through her defenses in the first place. The Time Gate enabled him to observe Irene's perspective from one of her most deepest and intimate parts of herself. There was hardly any better way for him to get any closer to her core! Aside from that, Venerable Irene was not a particularly distrustful or paranoid individual by nature. She may be an incredibly smart and experienced god pilot in the far future, but at this moment of time she was only a simple second-class expert pilot in her thirties. She also spent most of her time in the Quillim Mech Army. Blinky had been quite open and friendly so far. Ves was confident in his charm and he believed he had conveyed enough sincerity to earn Irene's trust. He also wasn't asking for much. He just wanted to take over just enough of her body to perform repairs. Besides, an expert pilot was never truly defenseless. Her force of will could always take action and repel anything that felt wrong with just a moment of her thought! "Do it before I change my mind." Venerable Irene spoke. There was no way that Ves could take control over an expert pilot by force at his current level of strength. It was already difficult for him to maneuver 'Blinky' into the right place. The nature of an expert pilot's willpower was highly exclusionary. Only deep and special family relations such as the ones cultivated by the Ingvar siblings and the Gemini Family could overcome this instinctual rejection phenomenon. In the end, Blinky barely managed to assume control over Irene's body. The expert pilot clearly had to strain herself into preventing her willpower from restoring the sanctity of her body. "Get on with it, cat." She gritted her teeth. Ves did not fool around. As soon as he was able to pilot her body, he jerkily induced her to leave the cockpit and move over to a control station where he could access the workshop facilities of the logistical center. There was no way for this facility to grant access to a random stranger, but that was not a hindrance to a mech designer who came from 200 years in the future. He borrowed Irene's cranial implant and the processing power of the Iron Hedgehog to exploit a vulnerability in the ancient programming of the facility's operating system. The hack might not be elegant, but Ves was happy as long as it worked. Once he got in, the workshop partially came to life. Numerous bots and mechanical arms started to get into action. They meticulously pulled apart a few broken and ruined parts and started to slot in replacement parts pulled out of a secure inventory that he also had to crack. Ves could not rely on these automated devices to perform all of the necessary repairs. They were good but their programming only encompassed standard operations. It would take days for the automated routine to come to an end! There was no way that they could wait that long, so at a certain point Ves manually stepped in and started to implement his own quick and dirty repair solution. There were times where he had to command Irene's body to pick up a number of handheld tools and approach the sections being worked upon. It looked extremely strange for an expert pilot in a high-quality piloting suit to work on a piece of machinery like a common mech technician! Irene remained fully conscious and aware as 'Blinky' proficiently handled all of the tools like an experienced professional. In fact, through her close connection with the purple cat that was possessing her body, she could gain a glimpse of the vast depth of knowledge held by this unexplainable existence. When Venerable Irene compared the workmanship demonstrated by Blinky to the handling of many different mech technicians, she immediately concluded that there was an enormous gap between the two! The cat truly worked as if he had graduated from an advanced technical university! "Alright, I am almost done, mrow." Ves communicated to Irene in the guise of Blinky. "This is a rather simple cargo transport vehicle that is built for long-term daily use. Its design is quite robust and incorporates many redundancies and failsafes. My improvised repairs takes advantage of these design traits "You speak like a mech designer." Irene stated. "Who says that cats can't design mechs?" He retorted. "As long as a feline is smart enough, he can master any human science! It's not as if we need opposable thumbs to learn a lot of theory." "..." Irene's body eventually retreated from the dubious-looking thrusters that looked as if they had only barely been put back together. After entering the cockpit of the transport, the expert pilot's body fiddled around with the control system until it finally managed to take over the cargo vessel. The main hatch finally started to slide open. "Alright, we are done!" Blinky said as the cat quickly withdrew from the expert pilot's body and floated back outside. "I have programmed the autopilot to lift off and fly to Dershin in a winding path that circumvents many of the cities on the way. We cannot guarantee that the Bontues have regained control over them. You do not need to leave the cockpit while the vessel is in flight. I have given your expert mech direct access to the transport's systems, so you can always adjust its route or command it to land whenever you wish." "That is… convenient." Irene admitted. "Thank you for doing that. Does that mean that I can remain in the cockpit of my expert mech?" "That is correct, mrow. The Bontues have already begun to launch their counterattacks. The airspace has become a lot more dangerous. I will need you to park your expert mech close to the open hatch and keep your cannons armed and ready to fire. "That…!" "I know it sounds dangerous, but it is our only choice." Blinky insisted. "Let us hope you will be able to find friendly units along the way. Your flight back to Dershin should become much safer once you have a proper escort." The transport was bound to bump into a Quillim aerial patrol sooner or later. Ves just hoped that this happened quickly enough to save them from enemy interception. Several minutes later, a civilian cargo transport shakily rose into the air and began to fly in a southward direction. The aerial transport's flight was anything but smooth. From the hasty and incomplete repairs to the unbalanced weight distribution, there were many different problems! Nonetheless, the vehicle did its job and that was enough. Irene had little choice but to suppress her discomfort and make sure that her Iron Hedgehog could maintain its accuracy under these difficult and unusual circumstances. At first, nothing too unusual happened. The entire planet had undergone a lot of upheaval in a short amount of time. The Bontues were more preoccupied with recapturing the cities it had lost. Even if many of the cities were ruined, the defenders of the planet still had to sweep away any of the invading forces that remained. Nonetheless, the Bontues eventually noticed the anomaly that was flying through their airspace. The transport may have been trying to avoid the busier parts of the planet, but it wasn't very good at hiding itself from sensors. A pair of aerial mechs had diverted from their previous route and moved to intercept the transport! "Be careful. Don't let them get too close." Blinky advised. "The Bontue mechs may choose to launch missiles or use other means to destroy our transport. You need to intercept them as soon as possible. Now would be a good time." "Do you know how difficult it is to accurately strike a fast-moving target in the air from this elevation and distance?! What is worse is that this transport is wobbling and shaking from all of the turbulence. My chances of hitting not one but two aerial mechs are awful. If I cannot succeed right away, then the difficulty of hitting the Bontue mechs will drop massively as they will fully adopt an evasive flight pattern." Blinky flew close and pretended to rub his face against her head. "You can do it, Irene. I believe in you. Expert pilots such as yourself are capable of doing the impossible as long as you put your heart and soul into it. Don't think about your chances. Think about what you must do to survive and see your goals come into fruition." Irene seriously contemplated his advice and did not reject his words. There was no point in giving up anyway. She needed to shoot down those distant mechs before it was too late. The cat urged the expert pilot to make her move. "Hurry up. The Bontue mech pilots are probably in doubt because you are riding in a registered native vehicle, but once they discover that there is an enemy expert mech on board, they will open fire without hesitation." "Please do not distract me, Blinky. I am trying my best to calculate my firing solutions." Venerable Irene entered into familiar territory again. She had done this countless times, but never in such arduous conditions! She leveraged all of the intact weapons of her expert mechs. 5 gauss cannons and 4 howitzers granted her 9 opportunities to strike down two fast aerial mechs. This might sound like a lot, but it was impossible for a normal mech or mech pilot to land a hit under these circumstances! It would have been a different story if the Iron Hedgehog was equipped with a missile system, but it had gone all-out on cannons as its only weapon systems. With the pressure mounting on her shoulders, Irene became more focused than ever. All of the extra variables that massively complicated her effort to find a good firing solution no longer bothered her that much. Even if she was unable to compensate for them, she tried her best to put her faith in her own abilities. After studying the motions of the aerial mechs on approach, her willpower surged as she instinctively deviated from her firing solutions. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Soon enough, her expert mech opened fire! The incredible recoil caused the transport to jerk and groan as it struggled to maintain control over its flight. Nine different projectiles moving at two distinct speeds rapidly traveled in the air and quickly reached their target destinations! One aerial mech instantly exploded as one of several gauss projectiles struck its left side with incredible force! The resonance-empowered gauss round not only obliterated this entire side, but also disabled the other half that looked as if it was just about to collapse! Its mech pilot had already died in an instant. Irene had less luck in shooting down the second aerial mech as it had been a little more diligent in maintaining an uneven flight pattern. Several heavy gauss projectiles whizzed by the machine, which completely spooked its pilot! The Bontue soldier performed the right move under these alarming circumstances and abruptly commanded his mech to deviate from its previous flight direction. This allowed the aerial mech to miss and evade the explosive shells that arced over shortly afterwards! However, these shells didn't need to impact anything in order to pose a threat. Once they reached their programmed coordinates, they exploded with resonance-empowered fury! Venerable Irene had deliberately loaded the most bombastic shells in the howitzers of her expert mech, so the explosions in the air engulfed so much volume that the second enemy aerial mech could not completely avoid all of the damage! "The surviving mech is impaired!" Blinky enthusiastically spoke. "Good job!" Although the second aerial mech still remained in one piece more or less, it had suffered so much damage that its flight had been heavily affected. The Iron Hedgehog easily finished it off after firing a second salvo. Venerable Irene not only managed to save herself, but also felt incredibly accomplished by pulling off this improbable feat. "Thank you… Blinky."