Ves crossed his arms as he adopted a skeptical expression. "So let me get this straight. Your highly measured and well-thought answer to a conspiracy that might lead to the deaths of hundreds of important figures is 'if you can't beat em, join em', is that right?" The woman who proposed their clan to employ this funny-sounding strategy stood by her response. "I am being serious about this, Ves. Besides, it is not a complete certainty that any violent incident will take place on that day. Even if the Karlachs have managed to execute a plan, it is still in question whether anyone on the side of Davute is responsible. The clues that we have gathered do not constitute a smoking gun. Few people will take our theories seriously when they are all based on a chain of indirect clues along with vague predictions made by a prophet who died several centuries ago. Even I am not fully convinced that this plot will take place. The chances are too great that this incident may spin out of control." Though Ves agreed with that sentiment, he felt increasingly more certain that the conspirators wanted Davute to take a painful hit. After all, no matter what disaster unfolded in Kotor City that day, the true masterminds should all be safely residing in their castles all the way back in the old galaxy! This was all a high-stakes game to them. It was easy to gamble with the lives of many people when none of the losses affected the conspirators on a personal basis. All that mattered was making the Davute Project succeed. As long as the damage was controlled, a wounded Davute would definitely be able to bounce back stronger and more united than ever! "Who can we inform?" Ves asked. "No one." Calabast immediately replied. "Oh, come on! We should at least inform the pilots who are taking part in the parade!" "It's too risky, Ves. The only people who can know are the individuals in this room, and that is already too much, in my opinion." The spymaster swept her arm across her office. Ves, herself, Lucky and the silent honor guard had all become exposed to this deadly secret! Oh, Ves should add Goldie and Ylvaine to that list as well. "It is hard to plan a proper response with just us. What do you expect us to do? Shall we whip out our guns in advance and fire them as soon as we spot a threat?" "No one else can know, Ves. I mean it. Informing Ark, our expert pilots or our allies will do more harm than good. This is because the more we spread this secret, the less it will remain that way. We cannot afford to expose this possible conspiracy for the reasons that I have explained to you earlier, so we must keep our mouths shut and prepare in our own ways." This made the situation incredibly difficult for Ves. He could not give overt warnings to the mech pilots that had received the privilege to take part in the parade that would bring them close enough to intervene in any possible outbreak of violence. Ves thought about circumventing this rule by giving advanced warning to the living mechs instead, but he doubted that the machines could hide this secret from the all-powerful ace pilots. What frustrated him the most was he couldn't even tell Uncle Ark about the duplicity of the Davutans. He and his followers would continue to make the Davute Branch more dependent on the colonial state, not knowing that the people at the top would not hesitate to discard their pawns if the benefits were attractive enough. The members of the Davute Branch needed to make this realization on their own. Perhaps Goldie might help them out with that, but as long as a powerful personality like Ark was in charge, the opposite viewpoint would likely remain dominant. Words would never sway the Larkinsons who still held an idealistic view towards states. The only way to convince them was to make them taste betrayal in person. There was a chance that this may never happen. Nobody engaged in treachery and backstabbing for the fun of it. As long as Ark did well enough and as long as the Davute Branch retained enough value to the colonial state, all would remain well. He could think about these implications later. Right now, Ves needed to concentrate on getting over the impending crisis. Ves waved his hand and called up the virtual brochure that briefly detailed the arrangements of the founding ceremony. He needed to gain an overview of the resources he had at his disposal during the event. "As a significant contributor to Davute, our clan has received and accepted an invitation to take part in the central parade which is one of the highlights of the ceremony." Ves explained. "Given our importance, we not only received the privilege of showing off 24 standard mechs, but we also received a special invitation to show off all of our masterwork expert mechs at once." Masterworks were already fairly special in the Golden Skull Alliance, but they were much rarer in the rest of Davute! In order to make more people admire the mech design prowess of the Larkinson Clan and attract more attention to Davute as a result, the masterwork expert mechs had to be shown for this important day! That was good news because it allowed the Larkinsons to deploy three powerful machines that each had their strong points. Ves smiled. "We weren't permitted to equip the Amaranto with the Instrument of Doom, but her Instrument of Vengeance should still pack a sufficient punch against most possible threats." "Venerable Stark and her expert mech can provide excellent ranged precision support." Calabast nodded in agreement. "Power is important, but the speed of reaction is also important. I predict that the first minute and the first ten seconds of an outbreak are crucial. Our melee mechs won't be able to respond quickly enough, and most of our ranged mechs are probably unable to arm and aim their weapons fast enough. Only a snapshot from an unnaturally skilled ranged mech specialist may be the only way for us to stave off a greater tragedy." The woman sitting on the opposite side of the desk agreed with his assessment. "That sounds nice, but none of the mechs on parade are allowed to arm their weapons due to well-founded safety considerations. How long will it take for the Amaranto to power up her primary weapon?" "...Too long." Ves furrowed his brows. "The Amaranto is a marksman mech by nature. She never excelled at speed. The Instrument of Vengeance will need at least a dozen seconds to power up to a useful charge when commencing from a cold start. I can cut this down by a few seconds with a few radical modifications, but I doubt that will make a difference." "Can you equip the Amaranto with another weapon that can fire faster?" "I can, but they will still take a couple of seconds too long. Let me think… wait! I got it! I can temporarily reassign the Gray Lotus to the Amaranto! It is a small and handy pistol. The power of this gun is not that strong from a quantitative perspective, but its special qualities can still make it extremely potent in specific situations." Calabast smiled. "Then equip the pistol to the Amaranto and make sure that Venerable Stark makes use of it as quickly as possible. That took care of the fast response. Now we need an asset that can suppress any potential enemy units if they are in the field." "The Everchanger can take care of that as long as the individual enemies aren't too strong." Ves threw out. "The expert hero mech has never tried it on an actual battlefield, but he can replicate the disorienting glow of Ferocious Piranha and use a resonance ability to extend its range so that it encompasses the entire incident area. Joshua and the Everchanger just have to make sure that they control this incredibly sickening glow well enough that it doesn't adversely affect any allies and innocent bystanders." It was too bad that the authorities denied the Larkinson Clan the permission to equip the Everchanger with a powerful mounted wargear loadout. "Sounds good. The Everchanger's greatest advantage has always been its ability to switch between different glows and amplify their effective range. It might be a good idea to prep the Everchanger to switch to Lufa's glow as well. That can be useful for deescalating a tense situation and tamping down the panic spreading through the crowds." "We also need a way to effectively take down several stronger threats or many weaker threats." Ves continued. "The Amaranto and the Everchanger can already help in that regard, and so will many other friendly mechs in the immediate area, but if there are too many enemies, then the Minerva can play a crucial role in Commandeering the 24 accompanying standard mechs. This way, all of the mechs we bring can fight with extra power and direction, making them much more effective than normal." "You need to put careful thought into the composition of those standard mechs, Ves. What restrictions did the authorities impose on your selection?" "Well, they have foisted a bunch of rules on our clan. One particular rule is that all of the mechs should look beautiful and pristine to the point where their exteriors are gleaming. Another rule is that we cannot bring in any heavy mechs, especially heavy artillery mechs." The Larkinsons still had a lot of choice, though. After putting careful thought on the matter, he decided to go for a mix of offensive and defensive machines. "I think I will settle for bringing in 12 Nullifiers as they are our most effective ranged mechs. I will take 4 Second Swords as they are our deadliest melee offensive mechs. For defense, I will bring 4 Rigid Walls to provide a lot of physical defense and 8 Bright Warrior Mark II's with modular loadouts that are geared towards utility and remote energy shielding functions." The latter could play a crucial role in saving a lot of lives, including that of Ves and his family. After the latest revision of the Bright Warrior line, the balanced and versatile modular mech platform gained even more modularity. This allowed Ves or any other reasonably competent mech designer to develop and equip the Bright Warrior mechs with damn near any modular and external equipment provided there was enough capacity! With regards to the Bright Warriors assigned to the parade, Ves intended to strip them completely of any offensive equipment so that they could carry the most powerful and effective remote energy shield modules that he could obtain on short notice! "Your uncle will be part of the ceremony as well, but he and his expert mech are grouped together with the other military volunteers." Calabast noted. Ves dismissively waved his hand. "Ark is a high-tier expert pilot, a highly experienced war veteran and a newly instated mech general. His ability to respond to a crisis should be excellent. I am not worried about him at all. His only major shortcomings are that he will get caught off-guard like almost everyone else and that his expert mech is a little weak. His Travone Exine is a fresh old galaxy import and has incorporated none of the advances of the Red Ocean, most prominently transphasic parts." Aside from that, Ves also couldn't really control his uncle, especially if the stubborn expert pilot remained oblivious to the truth. This was why Ves would rather focus on the variables he could control. He needed to work with what he had in order to navigate the upcoming crisis. "All of this sounds good, but I am afraid it will not be sufficient to save the representatives of the Cross Clan." Calabast told him. "What if they are taken out by a hidden bomb planted in advance? What if an energy beam strike from orbit precisely overwhelms their coordinates? Our ability to solve this problem is severely hampered by our inability to predict the nature of the threat. That is unless Ylvaine can give us another answer?" 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢 Ves shook his head and waved the totem in his hand that had gotten dull. "We've already strained Ylvaine above his capacity. It was too hard on him to foresee possible futures when there are so many powerful elements at play. We are not out of options, though. We still have a secret weapon." "And what is that?" He smirked. "We have our cats." "Meow…?"