5028 Increased Alien Incursions As Ves continued to harvest a lot of interesting data and insights from the operation of the Blood Star, he formed a lot of important conclusions. For example, he confirmed that his grandfather's ability to control the Blood Star was not quite up to standard. "I am still learning how to do this myself." Benjamin told him as he wore his piloting suit. He had just completed another testing session. "The Blood Pact is much different from the man-machine connection that mech pilots are familiar with. You need to take a different approach to controlling a machine. I can transfer many of my old piloting skills to this new interfacing method, but I have to learn a lot of new skills from scratch as well. I can do this faster because I have regained my old strength as an expert pilot, but I believe it will be much harder for normal pilots to build up the same proficiencies." Ves nodded in understanding. "Interesting. Do you think that normal blood-bonded mech pilots will be able to control their machines as effectively as you? Their willpower and mental strength cannot match yours. How much do you rely on these qualities to effectively pilot your Blood Star?" "I... do not know. I feel that you should not expect much from mech pilots who have yet to grow to my extent. It depends on whether their Blood Pact can develop as extensively as mine. Do not use me as a representative example for other cases. I think that weaker mech pilots will struggle to control a mech through a tenuous bond." The only way to find out was to design a Carmine mech for ordinary individuals. Ves was far from ready to do so. He had so many different priorities on his hand. The new demand of developing the Blood Star into a proper high-tier expert mech added yet any heavy burden to his busy schedule! Ves inwardly shook his head and focused his attention on his grandfather's physical condition. His hair was still gray and his skin did not lose its wrinkles. Though Benjamin's body had filled up a bit as of late, it did not look as if the old man was ready to run a marathon anytime soon! "How is your health, grandfather? I can sense that your restored willpower along with your regular piloting sessions with the Blood Star has done your body a lot of good, but I do not have a clear idea of how extensively you have pushed back your expiration date. Expert pilots normally aren't able to prolong their lifespans due to various limitations. Your previous physical condition was also exceptionally poor. It should be a miracle that you can stand like this with a straight back!" Ves still had a lot of concerns about Venerable Benjamin Larkinson's longevity. It should have been impossible for his grandfather to recover to this extent so quickly back in the Milky Way. Yet now that red humanity lived under the golden dawn of Messier 87, every person received a substantial boost! Although it was not quite certain whether most humans would benefit from getting exposed to exotic radiation, the story was different to those who were strong in will or spirit! Benjamin had become a genuine demigod again, and that granted him the capability to absorb E energy radiation and use it to empower him in various different ways! From strengthening his domain to boosting the transformation of his physical body, Benjamin already started to exhibit the traits of an ace pilot! What was even better was that this was just the beginning. As long as the old expert pilot continued to acclimate to his new state and received a proper expert mech, his health would continue to improve! Ves already concluded that his grandfather's continued existence was highly reliant on his resonance strength. The stronger his force of will, the more he would be able to reverse the effects of aging! Advancing to ace pilot was the greatest priority at the moment. Ves even considered that it was more important to ensure that his Benjamin advanced to ace pilot first before helping Ark attain his own breakthrough! After all, Ark was still at the prime of his life. He still had plenty of years of life ahead of him. He might even be able to experience his second apotheosis by relying on the more favorable conditions produced by exotic radiation. Of course, he and his wife would probably design both of their expert mechs at the same time. Gloriana had enough time on her hands after she completed the Greenaxe Project and the Bloodripper Project, although... "If breakthroughs occur at greater rates, then even she will become overwhelmed." Ves frowned. He needed to expand the Design Department even further if that was the case. It needed a lot more lead designers in order to keep up with the expanding workload! "Mech designers should be able to break through with greater ease as well." That gave him hope that many of the assistants who had been working for the Larkinson Clan for a number of years would rise up and form their own design seeds. Although the overall quality of every new mech designed by the Design Department would obviously drop because of this, it was fine as long as the Larkinson Clan was able to issue an expert mech to every new expert pilot in a timely manner! "Not every new expert mech has to be as exaggerated as the Bastion or the Phobos." He reminded himself. He was used to treating his expert pilot like scarce treasures. It was fine for him to invest a huge amount of resources in the development of every expert mech because he could not afford to lose any of his high-ranking mech pilots. He might have to rethink this approach in the Age of Dawn. Perhaps it was better to deprioritize expert mech projects unless they were aimed towards people he cared about. While he would still endeavor to design the strongest possible machine for close friends and relatives such as Venerable Benjamin and General Ark, he felt no need to put in the same effort to a random clansman like Venerable Kolak Glendale. He let out a sigh. "I kind of understand now why large mech militaries invest so little in the initial expert mechs for their new expert pilots. It is hard to care for them when there is already a lot of existing stock." This was a good development all-considered. No one said no to additional expert pilots, and the transition that he was thinking about was a sign that the Larkinson Army continued to mature into a proper military organization. As Ves and many other Larkinsons continued to focus on their respective work, the expeditionary fleet smoothly crossed the border between the Krakatoa Middle Zone and the Torald Middle Zone. Many people initially did not notice any differences. The security situation on this side of Torald was not any different from the previous middle zone. The story was different once the expeditionary fleet moved closer to the other side of the middle zone. The security situation at the coreward side of the Torald Middle Zone had become increasingly more tenuous! "The indigenous aliens have made the most logical course of action after they initiated the Great Severing." Calabast's projection to Ves. "The Red Cabal and the aliens aligned to this alliance has tried their best to encourage a galaxy-wide uprising against red humanity. They are proactively throwing their forces against the Big Two's warfleets and strongholds. The escalating offensive has kept the Red Two's main forces so busy that a lot of smaller alien warships and fleets can slip through the cracks. These alien raiders have apparently been tasked with wreaking as much destruction to humanity's infrastructure as possible. This basically means that they are mainly trying to destroy human colonies." As the spymaster reported the state of the ongoing war, Ves studied the projected map closely. The Black Cats had done an excellent job of collecting a huge amount of information and using that to map out the estimated risks of each region of space. There were certain regions in Torald that were much more dangerous than other areas! These places reported the most numerous instances of alien incursions! "How strong are these raiding forces?" "Not that strong, to be honest." Cabalast smoothly answered. "Many of the raiding fleets belong to relatively minor races that are functionally vassals to the major races. They straddle the line between second-class and first-class for the most part. Their numbers vary a lot, but their tech level is not that impressive. The greatest variable that determines their combat strength is the amount and tonnage of warships. The more big warships in a fleet, the harder it is to defeat them in battle." A typical pioneering organization should be able to fend off the riff raff, but would probably suffer exponentially more casualties once a bunch of alien heavy cruisers or an alien battleship joined the fray! Ves started to grin. "I originally wanted to focus on finding phasewater deposits for this expedition, but this is a golden opportunity to harvest a lot of valuable salvage with ease! As long as we choose our targets well enough, we should be able to get our hands on a lot of valuable wreckage. Is the Red Two offering any rewards for destroying these raiding fleets?" "They are." Calabast confirmed. "You cannot earn any Warship Tokens from defeating them unless they are accompanied by a phase whale or a phase lord, but we should still be able to earn enough MTA merits to cover our expenditures. The premise is that we do not suffer too many severe casualties during our hunts." "It is your job to ensure that this will never happen. Your scouts and spies are essential to giving us accurate assessments of the combat power of every alien fleet." "We will do our best, but we cannot guarantee that we can get it right every time. If the aliens make use of stealth technology or other measures to prepare an ambush, our forces are in for a tough fight." Ves nodded in understanding. "I know. We should remain cautious once we start to approach any of these dangerous regions. Still... given the quantity of raiding fleets and the difficulty of intercepting them, it may be a better idea to split up our fleet. We have over thirty-thousand mechs and numerous ace mechs at our disposal. That much combat power is overkill against these alien rabble." The alien raiding fleets were never meant to fight against the red human's main forces. They were purely cannon fodder meant to chip away at the territorial foundation of the extragalactic invaders! It was a clever strategy all-considered. The native aliens still controlled the majority of the Red Ocean and had a vast amount of population and combat assets at their disposal. Even if they suffered a lot of losses in the following years, their abundant territories would ensure they could replenish their troops with ease! In contrast, red humanity could not possibly keep up with this attrition rate. Its technology and its combat power may be better, it had lost its effective numbers advantage ever since the greater beyonder gate had fallen silent! A good way to limit red humanity's chances of catching up to the indigenous aliens was to raid a lot of colonies! Each loss of population and infrastructure directly reduced red humanity's ability to persist in the long-term! This was pure attrition warfare, and the indigenous aliens enjoyed a huge advantage in this aspect! In any case, that meant that the Red Two was quite eager to foil all of these raids. They were willing to issue plenty of MTA merits or CFA merits to clean up the alien raiding forces. "We will have to be careful, but I think we can use this as a good warm-up exercise." Ves remarked. "We need to win a string of victories in order to integrate the Adelaides and the Boojays into our alliance. Find us a couple of good targets, please."