Chapter 7109: Cadet Athena Jameson Of course, not all of the guests who arrived at the Microplanet consisted of adults. The guests brought plenty of children as well, most ideally kids within the same age range as Aurelia. Everyone had a certain degree of expectations towards the oldest child of the Father of Carmine Mechs. Even if she did not show any inclination of following the footsteps of her parents, the advantages of her upbringing alone ensured that she would never end up as a forgettable figure in high society. No matter whether she stood to ’inherit’ the Larkinson Clan or took over leadership of another prominent organization, it was never too early to befriend her and build up good relations with her. Who knew whether this small investment would pay off big time in the future? One of the more notable children that arrived was a girl who wore the uniform of a cadet of one of the Red Fleet’s many officer academies. The young dark-haired fleeter officer maintained a straight posture that spoke of military training starting from a young age. She gazed at Aurelia with an undisguised mixture of interest, challenge and respect. It was as if she regarded Aurelia as an equal peer. Ves meanwhile greeted the adult who accompanied the young RF cadet. "Lieutenant-Commander Astrid Jameson. It is good to see you again. How is the RF doing these days?" "Likewise." The officer of the Fifth Enforcement Fleet responded with a curt nod. "The Red Fleet is undergoing a period of turbulence, as you may have surmised. We do not like to air our dirty laundry to the public, but so I shall not speak any more of it. You can trust us to solve our internal disputes without affecting our obligations to human society." Yeah right. The Red Fleet was such a mess at the moment due to losing its absolute hegemony over all of human civilization. The loss of the Dominion of Man alone was equivalent to a stab in the kidneys! "Our current problems do not affect our determination to strengthen our fleets and take the fight to our alien adversaries." Astrid Jameson continued. "We would like to enter into a more substantive discussion with you and the new matriarch of your clan. The time for contemplation and delays is over. Now is the time for action." The fleeters were afraid that if they procrastinated any longer, other rivals such as the Cybernetic Empire might completely overtake them like they had done to the Five Scrolls Compact during the previous age. History had a way of repeating, and the fleeters absolutely did not want to turn into losers who lost almost all of their power and had no choice but to hide in the dark and inaccessible places of the galaxy. "I have been approached by multiple parties today." Ves informed Astrid. "I expect to close many deals today, so take that into account. If I am not able to free up enough time in my schedule, one of our other Larkinsons may meet you in my stead." "That is not acceptable. The proposal that I am tasked with presenting to you is related to the future of our dreadnoughts. We also intend to reveal our latest measures against the mutated voribug threat. Mechs are actually not suited to fight against the overwhelming swarms of this alien race. The enemy has fully embraced a doctrine that focuses almost solely on overcoming obstacles by throwing excess quantities of cannon fodder to the enemy. Mechs are unable to cope with so many opponents, and even high-ranking mechs eventually suffer from exhaustion if they are active long enough." Ves raised his eyebrow. "And you believe warships can do better?" "Yes." The lieutenant-commander stated with confidence. "Warships are faster when traversing longer distances. They have much greater endurance in combat than small and capacity-limited mechs. With the right configurations and appropriate training, warships can fight day and night at low intensity. Personnel can rotate in shifts to make sure that the vessel is always adequately crewed at all times, unlike a mech that becomes dormant unless the mech force is able to bring along spare mech pilots. A warfleet can repel a swarm trying to devour a planet on a permanent basis, especially if there is an adequate supply depot present in the star system." Her arguments made sense. She was not wrong to claim that it was much easier for warships to remain active on the battlefield for much longer periods of time. Wear and tear also had much to do with it. Mechs were generally more fragile and more prone to suffering breakdowns and such if they were being rotated in and out of the battlefield too often without undergoing a deep maintenance cycle. Warships were much bigger and more robust in every way. They had a lot more capacity to spare on redundancies and more effective and long-lasting components. They were inherently designed with a huge amount of redundancy and compartmentalization in mind. No matter whether they incurred damage or not, any purpose-built warship was a metal beast! "Interesting." Ves said. "I look forward to learning what you fleeters have in store for the mutated voribugs. Anyway, who is the kid?" Astrid smiled and placed her palms onto the younger girl’s shoulders. "This is Athena Jameson, an RF cadet and one of my nieces within the Jameson Spaceborn Clan. She may be young, but she has already shown an exceptional aptitude towards the manipulation of E energy radiation. Our spaceborn clan is already in the process of expediting the issuance of a companion spirit fruit so that she can double her effectiveness in this aspect, but we have a considerable interest in contracting your bespoke service." "I don’t really offer that service all that much anymore." Ves said. "It is a bit of a hassle to create a custom companion spirit for a younger and less mature individual. You can attain much of the same results if you just make use of a standard companion spirit fruit. You may not be able to program the result in advance, but the organic growth and adaptation process will ensure that the fit between Athena and her companion spirit will remain high at all times." "We are aware of the pros and cons of either approach, but we would still like to make use of your services, Larkinson. Please do not reject our request before we have revealed our compensation if you choose to accept our commission." Ves looked deeply at Astrid. He found it rather strange that a descendant of the famously stodgy Fleet Admiral Amelie Jameson had completely reversed her earlier rejection towards extraordinary phenomena and actively embraced concepts such as qi cultivation and companion spirits. He could easily tell that both Astrid and Athena Jameson had made a lot of attainments in qi cultivation. Given that they were members of one of the strongest lineages of the fleeters, they had access to far greater knowledge and cultivation resources than the masses. It would be surprising if they did not managed to experience much growth in the years that systematic cultivation became available. Ves still found it hard to separate the current Jamesons from the old-school fleeters who used to reject the supernatural so much that they even opposed the existence of high-ranking mech pilots and mech designers. Alas, even the more reticent and suspicious of fleeters could not resist the overwhelming trends of the Age of Dawn. So long as E energy radiation remained at its current level, everyone was forced to leverage this ubiquitous new energy source, because their rivals and opponents certainly would not hold back! Ves wondered how these changes affected the factional strife between Fleet Admiral Stanley Argile and Fleet Admiral Amelie Jameson. Common sense dictated that the two should have grown closer to each other after their differences on this subject had shrunk, but they still had other reasons to be at loggerheads against each other. At this time, the two young ladies started to exchange words with each other. "You are about ready to attend a more serious school, correct? Would you like to enroll into my academy and become my classmate?" Athena boldly offered. Aurelia reacted with mild surprise. "Pardon?" "You would love it there. From what I have read about you, you aspire to be a leader, but your interest in mechs is not that great. That leaves you with two options. You can try to gain leadership through civilian means, but this is difficult to accomplish unless you become a noteworthy mech designer like your father. A much better choice in the current age is to become a military officer." "That is... not an option that I have considered." "Warlords are the future rulers of red humanity, Aurelia. If you do not wish to become a mech commander, then become a naval commander instead. Aside from learning the same leadership and management classes that are part of a civilian curriculum, you will also be able to attend classes on military history, warship operations, the science and engineering behind warships and other relevant subjects. I am sure you will graduate with excellent marks. Once you do, you will most definitely be able to earn a combat posting on a good vessel. Do well enough, and you will be able to earn consistent good evaluations from ARCHIE and promote up the ranks. You may even end up commanding the Red Fleet one day." That sounded theoretically possible, but it was much more complicated in practice! Aurelia should know better than to believe it would be straightforward for her to enter the Red Fleet and become its latest fleet admiral within a generation or two. The other RF officers are no pushovers! Still, the option to join a naval academy and pursue a career in the Red Fleet was indeed a viable alternative to remaining a civilian and starting out as a politician or administrator. Such vocations used to attract considerable respect in the previous ages, but now that red humanity had entered into a full war footing in order to fight for its own survival, civilian leaders rapidly begun to lose respect and authority. Outside of cases like the Polymath, it was pretty hard for leaders without any obvious military background to retain the support of the soldiers who were fighting on their behalf. As long as a leader lost the trust of the troops that were fighting and dying in droves, it became untenable for the former to remain in power! Perhaps this was one of the many reasons why Ves had to make way for the Saint Commander. It was certainly not the main reason, but Ves was not blind to the fact that the new matriarch’s approval rating surpassed his own among many of the mech pilots and other servicemen of the Larkinson Clan! This was despite the fact that Ves could put up a mean fight if he wanted to. He was a phase lord, after all. He could beat most mechs into scrap with his fists! Though Ves disapproved of the trend of favoring military leaders over civilian ones, he knew that it would be difficult to counteract this trend. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶 The more setbacks red humanity suffered, the more people favored security over other privileges such as a prosperous economy, a rich and vibrant cultural sector and affordable housing for everyone. "I think you should take Athena’s proposal seriously." "Truly?" "Yes, Aurelia." He told his daughter. "Knowing how to contribute in a fight will do you a lot of good going forward. Serving as an officer as part of a serious naval service is an honorable calling. We need naval officers just as much as we need mech pilots and so on. That does not mean you automatically have to join the RF after you graduate. I am sure that the fleeters and us can come to an arrangement that will allow you to come back to our clan and begin to lead our own warships and naval units." His daughter looked thoughtful. She did not immediately reject the possibility.