Ves held a fruitful discussion with Master Benedict Cortez. Even as the DIVA shuttles covertly picked up all of the freshly fabricated probes and went on their way to deliver them to the brown dwarf star, the two mech designers continued to talk shop with each other. They initially talked more intimately about the various challenges of the Ghost Project and the Geist Project. Both of them had a bit of time to think more about how to tackle them, though they were still short on empirical data to do much more. They talked about their ongoing collaborations on the other Larkinson expert mech design projects before Ves turned the conversation towards the Cross Clan. "I take it that the Conavis Mer isn't the only expert mech that your clan intends to overhaul." Master Benedict nodded. "That is correct. The Amphis Mark II along with our other expert mechs have shown their limitations in the last two battles. I am satisfied with their ability to keep up with the expert mechs of professional military mech organizations such as the Sundered Phalanx, but they are not specially designed to fight against alien warships. I do not mind if they are unable to threaten large and imposing battleships, but they should at least be able to defeat frigates and destroyers on their own with no significant effort." Some of the Larkinson expert mechs could reluctantly do this. The Amaranto when armed with the Instrument of Doom came to mind. "It will be difficult to turn them into ship-killing machines." Ves remarked. "Expert space knights and expert light skirmishers excel when fighting against opponents of the same caliber or smaller. Their mech types don't really take the raw power of warships into account at all. The Age of Mechs has caused us to forget about their threat." The opening of the Red Ocean had caused an increasingly greater portion of humanity to remember that there were more war weapons out there than mechs. The terror and the immense destructive potential of warships had led to the downfall of many unprepared pioneering fleets! Even the Larkinson Clan was still not ready to fight against warships on an equal playing field. This was why Ves intended to make good use of the hundreds of kilograms of phasewater that his clan recently obtained from Operation Lighthouse. It was high time for the Larkinsons to equip more ranged mechs with transphasic armaments! Master Benedict adjusted his expressive lab coat that hung loosely on his custom protective suit. "What we truly need are expert heavy artillery mechs. The Thunderer Mark II has given us a solid reminder that larger caliber guns are much more efficient in overcoming the defenses of warships. Just one of them is enough to enhance our ability to fight against powerful warships. We could use one of them right now I suppose." That was true. Ves glanced in the direction of the brown dwarf star that the Golden Skull Alliance was about to investigate. Who knew what kind of powerful supervessel might be hiding beneath the hot layers of gasses. "Do you think it is a good idea for us to persist in our investigation?" Ves asked. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺 Master Benedict smirked. "I never expected to hear that from you. Aren't you always in favor of pursuing these kinds of opportunities? You have never shown that much restraint in the face of great benefits." "That's not entirely correct! I can control myself quite well, you know. I advocated that we should kill the unclean whale that was buried within the Palace of Shame rather than attempt to keep him alive." "That was only because we did not possess the confidence to control a creature as powerful as a phase whale." "Can you answer my question, please?" "Fine. You want to know what I think? I am okay with it. We have clearly evaluated the risks and rewards and concluded that the latter outweighs the former. We are not going in half-cocked but with a clear and sober understanding of the dangers involved." Ves looked a bit surprised. "I didn't know your risk tolerance has become so high." "I am merely realistic about the fact that we cannot progress further without doing more." The older man shrugged. "If we happen to have provoked a disaster that we cannot escape from… then so be it. At least we tried to improve our station. That is much better than many of our colleagues who have become satisfied with their routines and have stagnated in their work." It was strange, but Ves felt a sort of kinship with Master Benedict. The man understood and embraced his viewpoint in a way that almost no one else could. Both of them were mech designers who possessed great dreams and ambitions, so that made it easier for them to understand each other. They recognized that they were the same kind of people. While they were separated by several generations, that did not stop them from sharing similar interests and passions. Both of them were mech designers. There were even times where they thought that their lives and their wellbeing simply weren't as important as their work. "I am glad to hear that I have your support in these endeavors." Ves smiled at the man who had provided a lot of help to him and the Larkinson Clan over the years. "Can I ask you what has caused you to adopt this stance?" "It is nothing complicated, Ves. I am on a time limit. I have a clear awareness of what I need to do to advance to the rank of Star Designer, but the hurdles that I must solve are so overwhelmingly difficult that I can never solve them all if I adopt a regular approach towards my work. The only way to break this pattern is to follow your example and proactively seek out new and promising opportunities as opposed to letting them come to me in a passive manner. Only in the front will mech designers such as ourselves be able to discover and exploit rare and useful opportunities first." "And you think that whatever we find inside the brown dwarf star is another such opportunity?" "I can feel it." Master Benedict grinned again. "I am not an ordinary mech designer, as you well know. I have experienced my fair share of danger and adventure. This side of me has only grown stronger after the Trailblazer Expedition commenced." "I feel the same way, though I am not as certain as you. Still, if both of us are able to sense something unusual in the brown dwarf star, then the likelihood that the hidden vessel is alien in nature is probably great." A part of Ves preferred to stumble upon a human starship, but the gains he could make from that simply wouldn't be as good. The two talked a bit more about their expectations of what they might find inside the brown dwarf star before they ended their discussion. As much as Ves wanted to stick around longer, he still had to be back on his own ship to preside over the clan when the probes finally returned a positive result. Once his shuttle brought him back to the Spirit of Bentheim, he spent his time as usual as he waited for another development. Hours went by as the cylindrical probes all drifted inside the brown dwarf star. The stealth shuttles predictably incurred a fair amount of damage for coming so close to a large stellar object, but they at least managed to maintain their active stealth until they safely returned to the Glory Seekers fleet. Ves was on edge and so were many other Larkinsons. They were all afraid that the probes might become exposed and trigger a violent response from the vessel that was trying her best to remain incognito. He tried his best to distract himself from his concerns. He worked on his mech designs and played with his children. When he finally received a notification, it turned out that a different development took place this time. "The probes haven't shown us anything yet." Calabast spoke to Ves. "The brown dwarf star might not be as big as a real star, but it is still larger than a typical gas giant. You need to give the devices more time." "The news that you have just shared to me will make that more difficult! Are you really sure the Cenatus Prospecting fleet is on their way to this star system?!" Calabast nodded with a serious expression. "The stealth vessel and listening devices that we have left behind in the previous star system have all made the same observation. All but a handful of Otrus Magrin's starships have oriented their bows towards the Ramage Repulsor System before transitioning into FTL travel. The Cenatus personnel have shown their determination to follow our footsteps." Ves almost wanted to curse. He and his expeditionary fleet really didn't need the attention of a vulture fleet, especially in this sensitive period of time! "I thought it would have taken longer for the Cenatus Prospecting fleet to get back into shape again." "Normally, that is the case, but the circumstances are different this time. According to the intelligence that we have gathered, Otrus Magrin has forced his men to rush the preparations for departure. He has correctly surmised that our sabotage action was meant to hold him back as long as possible. As such, he has tried his best to counter that by departing as quickly as possible. He has even opted to give up on trying to rush the repairs on his 9 heavily damaged combat carriers." That was a decision that Ves would never casually make. It was one thing to lose a bunch of combat carriers in combat. It was another thing to abandon them and throw them to the wolves just because he was in a hurry! "What about the fleet carrier that DIVA managed to impair?" "Apparently, Mr. Magrin has allocated a large amount of personnel to the Roaring Berann in the hopes of making her travel-worthy again. Pressured by their employer, the engineers pooled all of their abilities and cut as many corners as they could to shorten the repair of the damaged FTL drives by a couple of days." Ves raised his eyebrow. "That sounds dangerous, Calabast. Those capital ship-grade FTL drives still need to be tested. To make immediate use of one of them without undergoing any serious debugging, calibration and testing is reckless to the extreme!" "Tell that to Mr. Magrin." The spymaster scoffed. "At least he had the wisdom to mitigate the damage if anything goes wrong. Cenatus Prospecting has relocated much of the non-essential personnel assigned to the Roaring Berann. If it turns out that the fleet carrier fails to enter this star system with the rest of her compatriots, then I suppose it is an acceptable loss to the other side." "Ugh. Filthy vultures. It is no wonder that DIVA managed to bribe its personnel so easily. An organization like Cenatus Prospect lacks a noble purpose." The confirmation that Cenatus Prospecting would likely be crashing the party in the Ramage Repulsor System in the near future had massive implications. While it was unlikely for the vulture fleet to attack the expeditionary fleet outright considering the disparity in numbers, who knew what Otrus Magrin might do to disrupt the exceedingly delicate and dangerous attempt to find the captors of Lord Pearian Yorul-Tavik. "We need to have a plan in place to deal with whatever Cenatus Prospecting may do once its fleet arrives." Calabast remained confident. "We have already formulated a number of contingency plans, Ves. You don't need to worry about this. We can do the planning ourselves without your assistance. Just let us take care of this. We have so many tools and manpower at our disposal that there may be more ways for us to neutralize the threat of the vulture fleet." "I will be counting on you, then."