Chapter 2040 Led AstrayThe striker mech project came one step closer to completion. After Ves and Gloriana temporarily halted their work on the Hexer mech project in order to hasten the progress of their commercial mech design, it finally reached the testing and iteration phase! As usual, Ves left the fabrication and testing of the prototypes over to his design teams. He was already fairly confident that the testing shouldn't generate many surprises. The mech was a fairly simple third-class mech whose primary armament was a relatively low-tech flamethrower. Perhaps some fiddly parameters might deviate such as the distribution of heat or the efficiency of the Enison Spreader, but those were minor issues that just needed some optimization to mitigate. The smooth progress of this project made Ves appreciate the value of his design teams. While they didn't consist of brilliant mech designers like Gloriana and himself, their competence was more than enough to design adequate mechs that had the potential to be a success on the market! As long as someone better provided direction and lent their distinctive specialties to a mech design, most of the hard work could easily be performed by Apprentices who knew what they were doing! He looked forward to expanding the LMC's Design Department. Once he had double or triple the amount of design teams, his productivity would doubtlessly soar despite not putting more hours in his work! Finishing his principal work in the primary design phase of the striker mech project gave Ves enough time to address some other priorities. For example, Ves scheduled a visit to the flagship of the Penitent Sisters. Calabast was insistent that he should involve himself more thoroughly in their affairs! This was why he was currently sitting in a shuttle that was ascending into orbit. The Penitent Sisters were parked in high orbit and well away from any other ships and space stations. No one wanted to stray too close to these powerful madwomen! Aside from Lucky and his bodyguards, Calabast was also present. "I'm here to make sure you don't do anything that causes the Penitent Sisters to break their oaths and chop off your head." Ves glared at his partner. "I'm not that bad!" "Tell that to the Friday Coalition." "It was their fault for kidnapping me and provoking me at every turn!" "While the Penitent Sisters have been told to behave themselves, I'm not sure they can hold themselves in. You don't take well to provocations sometimes." "I'm just a mech designer." Ves helplessly grumbled. As they snarkily bantered, the shuttle soon reached the hangar bay of the most central vessel in the Penitent Sister fleet. Aside from her name, the Surly Cockatrice looked impressive. She started off as a Hexer combat carrier built for mercenaries. After several decades of service, the mercenary corps in question put it on the second-hand market before the Temple of Hexism finally bought her to be used as the flagship of the Penitent Sisters.𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚 As a punishment unit, the Penitent Sisters didn't get to have the best. That said, there was no point in giving them cheap third-rate trash either. The six-hundred mech pilots and thousands of support personnel were all highly-trained soldiers and professionals! If not for their extreme ideology, they would have served as a powerful weapon for the Hegemony! While the matriarchs in charge of the Hegemony liked to be in control, they were fairly practical when it came to efficiency. Wasting valuable resources was not in their habit. Otherwise, they wouldn't have allowed boys to pilot mechs and serve in the Hex Army, if only in a diminished capacity. Eventually, they stepped out of the shuttle. The bodyguards accompanying them became a little more alert due to the obvious hostility their arrival attracted. The mech technicians and mech pilots lingering in the hangar bay glared at Ves with such animosity that he would have already been killed if their eyes held power! "What a cheerful greeting." Ves dryly remarked. "They haven't even prepared a greeting party for us. I can already tell I'll have a jolly time on this ship." The interior of the Surly Cockatrice was typically Hexer. In this star sector, only the Hegemony built ships with hexagon-shaped corridors and objects. In addition, it also became clear that the Temple of Hexism had a hand in renovating the combat carrier as there were several altars and religious iconography based on the orthodox interpretation of hexism. All in all, the interior of the Surly Cockatrice looked as if Gloriana would feel right at home if not for one major flaw. As Ves looked around, there was no way he could escape the ubiquitous ♂ symbol! Not a single Penitent Sister could avoid this iconic male symbol unless they closed their eyes! While the symbol didn't flood the ship, it was damn near everywhere! Calabast carefully observed Ves as he took in the extreme lengths the Temple of Hexism had gone to humiliate the Penitent Sisters! "The Penitent Sisters used to serve in a martial order to a cult." She explained. "They are both soldiers and devout worshippers, and that makes for a very strong combination. Matters of pride, belief and conviction are very important to the Sisters. The Temple of Hexism knows this and deliberately shaped their punishment in a way that crushes their dignity." "Is that why the women here are so angry all the time?" Ves asked while hugging Lucky. He needed some comfort to shield him from the near-universal hostility on this Hexer ship! "Even with the indignity of seeing the symbol of Mars on a daily basis, the Sisters still would have taken offence at your presence. While they have disavowed their extreme beliefs, old habits die hard." Without anyone to greet them, they eventually decided to stride forward. They passed a number of old but very powerful second-class mechs. Ves had already studied the models in detail in his free time. Most of the mechs consisted of last-gen castoffs that the Temple of Hexism probably snapped from the second-hand market with hardly any concern for coordination or logistical burdens. The sheer variety of models meant that the Penitent Sisters had to buy a lot of different materials and spare parts to keep their mechs running, and all of that cost money which Ves was responsible for paying! He grimaced even further as he counted the sheer variety of mechs in this single hangar bay. If the Penitent Sisters used just six or less mech models throughout their entire mech roster, then Ves would probably be able to slash their annual upkeep by half! "What are you thinking about?" Calabast asked. "I'm thinking that I need to push forward my plans to replace the mechs of the Penitent Sisters with my own design as soon as possible. I think I'll design the mechs with an eye towards uniformity and ease of maintenance. While I'm grateful to have the power of the Penitent Sisters at my disposal, I'm less enthused about the burden to my bank accounts." The spy smirked. "Power doesn't come cheap. I'm glad you realize this lesson, kid." "Couldn't you ask DIVA or the Hegemony to take the burden of their upkeep off my hands?" Ves whined. "The cost of maintaining the Penitent Sisters is probably a drop in the bucket for the likes of them! Why do I need to pay for all of this stuff?!" "You're asking for too much. You're already lucky you get to enjoy the services of the Penitent Sisters in the first place. You need to show that you deserve this privilege. If you can't even pay their bills, then you're too useless!" "Don't Hexers believe all boys are useless?" Calabast glanced at Ves with a dour expression. "Your stereotyping Hexers too much. We are not caricatures, Ves. We still recognize the complexity of life and reality." He doubted that statement, but there was no need to poke Calabast further. They briefly halted when they neared a group of Penitent Sisters kneeling devotedly to a six-sided altar installed in an alcove built in the bulkheads. The altar rotated slowly along its axis in order to give the Sisters an opportunity to worship all six phases of existence in a single prayer sesion. "While the Sisters deviated from orthodoxy, they are still devoted to hexism." Calabast whispered. "From their youth, they lived a life of training and religious worship. They didn't get to enjoy a normal life like regular Hexers. Their entire lives are centered around their professions and their beliefs." This pattern reminded Ves of the Kronons of the Ylvaine Dynasty. Their elites too eschewed mundane pleasures in order to increase their dedication to their service. Ves found it rather distasteful. Duty and devotion both compliment each other, but demanded a lot of sacrifices. Holy Warriors completely dedicated themselves to their faith, leaving precious little room to live a well-rounded life. That was something that the original Larkinson Family always eschewed. They put a lot of emphasis on living a balanced life and starting your own families. While devotion was a good way to resist the cruelty and horror of war, the Larkinsons believed it was better to rely on the joys of life! Ves inspected the kneeling Sisters carefully. They didn't stir or interrupt their prayer session in order to scowl at Ves. Their sincerity and devotion was so apparent that he didn't even need to employ his spiritual senses to glean more clues! "Their faith is strong." Calabast whispered. "It is unfortunate their cult leaders led them astray. They could have become well-meaning Hexers, but…" "Now your state pretty much treats them like damaged goods." Ves concluded. "Yes." She didn't shy away from the truth. "Do you know what the cult they belonged to used to do to boys?" "I take it I won't like the answer." "I'll spare you most of the gruesome details, but you shouldn't think that the Penitent Sisters are innocent either. Their cult leaders came up with many rituals to reinforce the evils of boys. They used to sacrifice their lives in order to bathe altars like this in their blood!" "What?!" Ves was so startled that he disturbed quite a few Sisters from their prayers. Their fury was hot enough to scorn him if they held any power, but too bad they were under strict orders to do nothing towards their new 'master'! "It's only the priests and cult leaders who engaged in these sordid crimes." Calabast pulled him away. "The Penitent Sisters are largely followers. It is not completely their fault they came to believe in a warped interpretation of hexism. If you lead them well enough, they can become something more than damaged goods to us. This is why it's important for you to visit the Sisters and show that you care." He coughed. "It's hard to care about the fate about those who like to murder innocent boys." While he didn't know why Calabast wanted him to value these Sisters, he stuck by his decision to make his own judgement. So far, Ves didn't see anything that was particularly to his liking. To him, the Sisters were only useful as a stopgap until the Larkinson Clan transitioned into a proper second-class entity. Once the Avatars and Sentinels fully transitioned their mech rosters to higher-classed machines, the Larkinson Clan no longer required the protection of the Sisters. If they were still around, Ves would find some way to make them extinct. There was no need for him to entertain the presence of dangerous, supposedly-reformed cultists! "Mr. Larkinson." An acid female tone sounded from the other side of the corridor. "Miss Juliet Stameros." Ves greeted back with an impassive face. "Where is Commander Chancy?" The young-ish head designer of the Penitent Sisters shook her head. "She's indisposed. I've been sent to accompany you in her stead. I hope you can understand our difficulties." Calabast snorted. "Commander Chancy is provoking you, Ves. Show the Sisters who's in charge. Whatever the Penitent Commander is doing shouldn't be as important as meeting their new master!" Ves raised his hand to stop Calabast's grandstanding. "Enough of that. These power plays are stupid and immature. I won't forget Commander Chanchy's slight, but I won't bother with making a fuss out of something so unimportant either. I prefer to talk to mech designers anyway. At least we can speak the same language." "You are no kin of mine, boy." Juliet hissed. What a pleasant mech designer.