"We're back! The air is so fresh!" "Yay! We can go to the beach again!" "Look look look! The sky is so blue and enormous. It's so much better than the fake sky in our ship." A vast fleet of shuttles and transports still descended from the sky and landed directly on the vast fields of the Cat Nest. The citizens and visitors of Kotor City must be wondering what the fuss was about. Security had always been tight and the city administration had recently tightened the traffic rules. Many private vehicles descending from orbit could no longer travel directly to the main spaceport in the city and had to divert to more remote spaceports in order to reduce the danger of terrorist attacks. However, the status of the Larkinson Clan in the Davutan community had always been considerable in the past few years. In addition, the explosive and dramatic successes of the Golden Skull Alliance during the Trailblazer Expedition had propelled its reputation and prestige to new heights! Combined with the fact that the Living Mech Corporation had become an increasingly greater player in the regional economy, traffic control readily acquiesced to the requests for exemptions from its rules. This was a clear sign of how much weight the Larkinson Clan carried in the Davute community. Outsiders who didn't know any better might assume that the Larkinsons were thoroughly waving the Davutan flag! Due to the permissions the clan received, the expeditionary fleet began to bring down massive amounts of personnel and valuable plunder. A portion of the sky looked as if an invasion was taking place! Over 500,000 clansmen resided aboard the hundreds of ships of the Larkinson Clan. Not all of them were scheduled to enjoy their shore leave on the surface at the same time, but there was no doubt that many of them would be occupying the empty but prepared houses and apartments in the expansive complex managed by the Davute Branch! As such, the Cat Nest which was located within the bustling Industrial District 2 became a lot busier than before as many different Larkinsons returned to the planet they called home for several years. It was as if they only went away for a lengthy vacation or business trip. Many of their old residential units hardly looked different, allowing them to make the transition from living in a completely artificial ship environment to living on a huge and expansive planet that offered much greater freedom of movement. The children certainly seemed to enjoy it. Ves and Gloriana smiled indulgently as their kids had already run off to the old and familiar playgrounds. Many other children, mostly under ten years old, broke away from their parents as well and eagerly began to play as if they had been living in prisons only recently! "Miaow miaow miaow!" "Woof woof!" "Squeak! Squeak!" It wasn't just the kids that reveled in the return to wide open spaces. The many pets of the Larkinson Clan also ran off into the animal-friendly parks and playgrounds. One of the reasons why the animals loved to return back to Davute VII was that they were no longer split up in many different isolated groups anymore. The biggest limitation to living on a fleet was that it became extremely inconvenient for people and pets to move between different ships. Inter-ship traffic could not be done whenever the fleet engaged in FTL travel, and even outside of it the need to take shuttles posed a massive inconvenience. It might be acceptable for humans to transit from one ship to another, but no one would specially reserve space for pets. All of this showed that neither the human race or their many pet species had adapted well to spaceborn life. Ves felt rather disappointed at how dramatically everyone reacted to making landfall again. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢 It was just a temporary stop on a planet. Did they have to make a big deal out of it? What was wrong with living on a safe and technologically advanced ship? "Look at how happy our children have become." Gloriana continued to smile as a proud mother. "We should buy an entire planet for them. That would definitely make them pleased." Ves immediately dropped his own smile. "No. Never. Don't mention this to me again. I am not changing my plans." After a short time of bickering, a small but significant processing of Larkinsons walked up to their site. "Patriarch Ves." "Nephew." "Cousin." Three different Larkinsons stepped forward at this time. Their familiarity and blood ties immediately caused Ves to fall silent. His wife thoughtfully ceased her nagging and stepped back to give the trueblood Larkinsons more space. Though Ves rarely paid attention to what went on at the Davute Branch, he did receive reports from time to time that summarized its major developments. One massive event stood out that made the expeditionary fleet's return to Davute a lot more significant. Ves first nodded towards the Raymond Billingsley-Larkinson, the first generation Branch Director of the Davute Branch. He still looked remarkably spry for his age. Ves did not regret spending a bunch of MTA merits to prolong his life and give him a lot more time to witness the meteoric rise of the Larkinson Clan. "How is the branch doing these days, Raymond?" "We are doing well." The happy and invigorated branch director responded. "Our numbers are growing, our businesses are thriving, we have improved our access to local goods and services and our finances are in the green. We still have our fair share of problems, though. A number of sensitive matters have piled up since the time you have left. I am not comfortable with handling them on my own as I do not have a good idea whether my decisions align with your goals, so I have scheduled a meeting with you so that we can go over them one at a time." Given all of the recent developments in the region, Ves could already make a few guesses on what those issues may entail. "I would love to go into detail with you, but I think we can address them on another day." He responded. "I understand. There are greater priorities at the moment." Two of them happened to be standing next to Raymond. Ves first nodded towards the woman he had long treated as his older sister. "Melinda. You… you've matured." "I could say the same for you, cousin." The softer and more matron-looking woman said. "When we separated from each other, I never imagined that we would be following you into the Red Ocean. Neither would I have imagined that our family would be reuniting with your clan. Still many of our family members are glad to gain a chance of reuniting with their relatives. Just look at them. No matter how many times they can talk to each other over the galactic net, there is just something special about being able to hug each other for real again." Many reunions took place. Though the vast majority of clansmen pretty much acted like bystanders, the trueblood Larkinsons had all gathered together in a giant crowd as mothers reunited with their grown children while grandparents met with all of the young and cute grandchildren that they never got to hold in their arms. The love and affection radiating from the original Larkinsons became such a heartwarming sight that Ves could feel the Golden Cat swirling with glee and joy! "I should introduce you to my children to you all." Ves proposed. "They are all different bundles of joy, and they have always grown curious and eager to meet the 'other' side of my family for a long time. The Larkinson Family has gained a mythical status in our clan nowadays." Melinda chortled in a good-natured manner. "We are the outdated model of the Larkinsons. We are the relics of the past. We are the bad example that the clan regularly compares itself to. You don't need to prop up our family. Our attempts to find a new life in the old galaxy have not worked out as well as we have hoped. Some of us don't want to admit it, but the fact of the matter is that we have failed. This is why we are here, I suppose." "No worries. I won't judge you. Family is family. I don't care whether you want to join our clan or follow another arrangement. I just want what is best for you all. We Larkinsons should stick together." In truth, Ves could care less about what the members of the Larkinson Family wanted. The majority of them were stubborn fools who clung to their stupid and self-sabotaging traditions for no good reason except their forefathers had done the same! The Larkinson Clan had completely surpassed the original Larkinson Family. Even when the latter was at its height and counted multiple active expert pilots within its ranks, there was no way the family could come close to the power, prosperity and numbers of his homegrown organization! There was only one reason why Ves hadn't thrown back the original rejection that he received from his family members when he founded his clan. He shifted his gaze towards the most powerful expert pilot that bore the Larkinson name. Compared to the likes of Venerable Davia Stark and Venerable Jannzi Larkinson, the strength and density of Venerable Ark Larkinson's force of will had reached an entirely different level! Ves was reminded of the times when he met with the old Reginald Cross back when he had yet to receive the Mars. A high-tier expert pilot essentially pressed up against the line between demigod and halfgod. Ark Larkinson's strength had already surpassed that of general expert pilots, but his current position was so awkward that any junior ace pilot could easily crush him in any battle circumstance. This was the infamous bottleneck that had ended the dreams and ambitions of many expert pilots throughout human space! Only a fraction of expert pilots met all of the stringent criteria to undergo apotheosis for a second round and completely transform their willpower into a force that was strong enough to distort reality at a greater scale! Most people who met high-tier expert pilots would become completely awestruck at the opportunity to meet a vastly superior human warrior. Other people such as Ves who recognized the uncomfortable truth about high-tier expert pilots looked at them with pity and regret. Ves could clearly sense from Ark's dense but highly solidified willpower that his uncle had worked hard to break past his bottleneck in the past few years, but made little meaningful progress. That was the painful part about the struggle to advance. No expert pilot was inherently weak or feeble, or else they wouldn't have undergone apotheosis for the first time. Unfortunately, the standards of becoming an ace pilot was so insanely high that many high-tier expert pilots who fell into stagnation couldn't accept the reality that they were one of the many 'average' demigods who ultimately did not pass muster. Such torment could damage the will of even the most powerful of expert pilots, and Ves could already sense the stresses in Ark's amazingly strong willpower. It was a testament to his faith in himself and his resilience in the face of adversity that his willpower had yet to show any obvious flaws. In any case, Venerable Ark Larkinson was still on the younger side as far as high-tier expert pilots were concerned. He roughly belonged to the same generation as Patriarch Reginald and also accrued a lot of combat experience over his career. Physically, Ark appeared to be in a healthy condition, showing that he had never suffered a critical battle injury that had forced his father to retire from the cockpit. That meant that Ark still had at least a decade or two where his current evolved and lightly augmented state would keep him in a prime fighting condition. After that, age would slowly take its toll, decreasing his odds of breaking through as his mind became less flexible and his body less vigorous. "Welcome to my clan, Uncle Ark." Ves eventually greeted his father's brother. Ark returned a smile that caused his force of will to spread and embraced every nearby Larkinson with a surprisingly gentle blanket of reassurance. "I am happy to see you again, nephew." "Come. Let us head to a more comfortable place so we can exchange stories with each other. I am sure our children would love to meet their cousins from the other side as well. They are all blood relatives, after all. Family is important." "Family is important." Both Melinda and Ark echoed as they agreed with this sentiment.