After spending so much time studying captive voribugs and swapping theories with Lord Richard Brownstone, Ves finally felt he was ready to see action. In fact, he preferred to let the Dark Apostle out and have him tussle against the Goliaths in person, but his physical condition did not allow for that at the moment. His alter ego was aware of this as well. He did not foolishly insist on entering the field. Besides, the Bluejay Fleet had yet to receive a crucial shipment of superdimensional matter. Without the right materials, Ves was not yet able to fabricate the special raiment and weapons scaled to 3x. It would be foolish for any Ascended Giant to enter the field without a decent set of gear. As the Voribug War grew in scale, Ves felt increasingly smaller and inconsequential. Knowing that huge swarms of voribugs continually assaulted both human and alien star systems on a near-constant basis made it difficult to believe that individual heroism had a place on the battlefield. While the Goliath Hive was nice enough to invest in the development of Goliaths, the other hives largely relied on quantity over quality. Winning the Voribug War therefore required red humanity to improve in a systematic fashion. It required better tech, productive industries, stronger logistics, a huge supply of manpower and a strong fighting spirit. This was a challenge to be sure. Red humanity lacked the territory and population to go big. It needed to increase its productivity to an insane degree in order to make up for its many shortcomings. All of this was not helped by the divisions between different human powers. The Day of Insurrection had dealt a fatal blow towards unity. The Terrans and the Rubarthans were no longer willing to follow the lead of the mechers and the fleeters. This had caused many cooperative ventures and combined defense initiatives to falter, leading to more losses that could have been prevented if everyone just agreed to get along with each other. Ves could only sigh after he thought about the mixed state of red humanity. "At least internal competition will be sufficient to spur the growth of all of those players." It was because much of red humanity had lost respect for its former leaders that so numerous people pursued their ambitions without restraint. The Polymath was just the most obvious example of this phenomenon. She served as the trailblazer of a new era for red humanity. As Ves prepared to witness the next major confrontation between the defenders of Philaster Crestia III and the mutated voribugs, he received a surprising priority transmission request. Professor Vector Loban urgently sought out Ves. "I bring news." The Transhumanist liaison said. "First, I think you will be happy to learn that Jovy is on his way back to the Bluejay Fleet. He is accompanied by a small supply fleet that contains supplies, technical personnel, intelligence officers, newly developed lab and workshop instruments and more. Of particular note are cutting edge production machines that process superdimensional matter better and more precisely than before. We have also brought a team of medical and engineering professionals as well as their accompanying equipment in order to provide specialist care for Saint Rosa Orfan and the Riot Mark III. This wave of reinforcements should be sufficient to bring your escort force up to standard. We were unable to transfer the aforementioned goods and personnel to the Bluejay Fleet upon departure from the Yernstall Central Star Node." Ves furrowed his brows. He had not been informed about this. He thought that the Bluejay Fleet was already complete by the time it arrived in the Philaster Crestia System. The Red Three had never voiced any intentions about reinforcing it even further. He truly did not see the need for all of these extras. It only made sense to do this if the Red Three expected him to undertake a difficult assignment. That immediately put him on guard. He had a feeling that he wouldn't be able to enjoy these goodies for free. "Well, I am happy for all of the help. I am eager to know what Jovy has gained from his trip." Vector smiled. "Jovy has been rewarded for his service, but his responsibilities have grown. Both of us are tasked with assisting you in your new mission." "What mission?" "That is the second piece of news that I am tasked with bringing to you. The Evolution Witch wants to speak to you in person. We are already preparing our secure communication chamber to hold a virtual meeting with our esteemed god pilot." The mood in the compartment dropped upon learning that the Evolution Witch had issued a direct request to talk with Ves. In his experience, nothing good came from attracting the attention of a god pilot, especially one as unscrupulous as the Evolution Witch. Transcendent beings such as her never approached people for casual reasons. Their visions were so high and their ambitions were so great that they tended to see everyone below them as pawns to be used and discarded. If Ves had a choice, he would have preferred to maintain his distance from the leader of the RA Transhumanist Faction. He was even willing to give up her backing if that meant that he would no longer have to be subjected to her whims. While it was dangerous for him to operate without the explicit backing of a god pilot of Star Designer, Ves was not without options. A tier 2 galactic citizen like himself already possessed enough influence and clout to back other people for once. The allegiance of several hundred Ascended Giants was enough to deter numerous rivals and enemies. If that was not enough, then Ves could always approach the First of Defiance or the Destroyer of Worlds. He had a good amount of confidence that he would be able to gain their full backing, though either choice would come with serious political implications. However, it was probably better for the Evolution Witch to act as his patron for the time being. She was one of the founding members of the Oblivion Gate Consortium. The Oblivion Empress cooperated extensively with the god pilot. So long as this remained the case, Ves remained confident that the Evolution Witch would remain sincere about their cooperation. Ves was much more willing to rely on a relationship based on tangible interests. In any case, he waited for the personnel of the Tarrasque to complete their work. Once the time had come, he entered the extra secure version of a Hyper Chamber by himself and waited for the connection to come online. Ves immediately felt as if he had half-stepped into a somewhat familiar God Kingdom. The surroundings changed as physical projections changed into a very cold and sterile virtual environment. Having visited the laboratories on the surface of Philaster Crestia III a short time ago, Ves was able to recognize numerous similarities. What attracted most of his attention was not the robed lady that represented the human side of the Evolution Witch, but the captured voribug specimens that were roaming around in the lab facility. Ves looked shocked when he saw that the voribugs were readily able to move around without any form of restraint or restriction! The lab employed none of the strict and redundant safety measures needed to prevent the voribugs from chewing their way out of their cages and reproducing at an uncontrollable rate. He inwardly sighed. There was no need to restrain these captured voribugs because a God Kingdom already served as the greatest form of restraint. These insects could do nothing that went against the Evolution Witch's will. Ves suddenly remembered that it was not a good idea to ignore a god pilot. While he was only separated from the Evolution Witch by a single galactic citizenship tier, he still forced himself to greet her in a formal fashion. Updated first on lig‌ht‌no‌‌vel‌world‌.o‌rg He bowed in front of the physical projection of the individual whose resolve was partially able to stretch across many light-years and press onto his Spirituality like an elephant sitting on an ant. "My greetings to you, Your Holiness. Thank you for sending additional supplies to my Bluejay Fleet. I can use all of the help that I can get." "Ves." Her voice drilled into his head in a way no other True God could match. "You have done well for yourself. You have exceeded my expectations. You took a great risk, but succeeded in your venture. By doing so, you have ruined one of my plans for you and escaped the conditions that I have set. Your qualifications as a mech designer are still poor, but your takeover of the Phase Lord Department leaves me with no recourse but to accept your elevation. Congratulations. You are officially promoted to a tier 2 galactic citizen." Ves couldn't help but smile. He felt especially pleased that the Evolution Witch was the one to share this particular announcement. She had hindered him on this aspect so much that he derived a vindictive kind of pleasure from her apparent defeat. Of course, he wouldn't be able to remain happy for long. "Once Professor Jovy Armalon returns to your fleet, the intelligence officers that are accompanying him will begin to brief you on an extensive amount of confidential information. These are secrets that I have personally curated for you to expand your understanding of the stakes and become more informed about the skeletons that others have placed in their closets. There are more secrets that you are entitled to learn, but nobody will come and offer them to you proactively. If you truly want to know more, then you should travel back to the Yernstall Central Star Node and visit one of the headquarters of the Red Three." Ves slowly nodded. The amount of secrets held by red humanity was probably overwhelming. It was not necessarily a good idea to rock his entire perspective of human civilization and the universe by filling his mind with all kinds of messy information. Of course, limiting himself to learning about the secrets that the Evolution Witch picked out was not necessarily good either. There was a great chance that he would form a biased perspective on numerous matters. Still, any information was better than no information. "Thank you, Your Holiness. Is all of this necessary to prepare me for my next 'assignment'?" Divine Lucie Miyazaki smiled in a not-so-friendly-manner. "Becoming a tier 2 galactic citizen does not mean you can continue to act as a free agent that can leisurely travel around to study anything that has caught your interest. Since you have decided to get involved in the Voribug War, then you can make yourself useful to us. Everything we have learned about the mutated voribugs indicates that they are threats that must be addressed sooner rather than later. We cannot give them the time to expand at their current rate." While Ves most definitely agreed with her assessment, he did not understand why he should be involved. "I understand, Your Holiness, but... you are in charge of your own faction. I am sure your many subordinates would be happy to fulfill your orders." "They have their own missions. Besides, I have tasked some of them with similar assignments as the one as yours, but I am not confident in their success. A wildcard with a proven track record of success such as you may be able to fulfill my demands within a shorter timeframe." Did she expect for Ves to produce a miracle? "Err, it would be helpful to know what exactly I am supposed to do. What is my mission?" The Evolution Witch provided a direct answer. "Your mission is one of great importance to us. We need you to use whatever means are necessary to locate a Hive Princess. To be more precise, we are asking you to ascertain the location of a leading voribug that possesses the capability to control the forces of an entire voribug Hive. Once you share the location data to us, we can do the rest. We have a strong preference for the Goliath Princess, but other targets are also acceptable."