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! 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖 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.