The upcoming interception mission was of great importance to the Golden Skull Alliance. The previous victory against the wheednar raiding fleet demonstrated that the expanded pioneering alliance possessed the capacity to fight against alien forces and earn a considerable amount of profit in the process. While Ves and numerous other leaders yearned to hunt down a phase lord and get their hands on a Warship Token, there was no way for them to track down an elusive alien warlord like the Eminence of Torment for the time being. Targeting the yurzen raiding fleet was a step up as it was accompanied by a pair of puelmer heavy cruisers. Every major alien race of the Red Ocean possessed their own strong points. Even a relatively mediocre alien race like the orvens managed to climb on top of many others and carve a solid place in their own dwarf galaxy. The puelmers were perhaps the most secularist among the thirteen major races. These odd-looking ball-like aliens possessed drastically different mindsets and behavioral patterns than many other races. Their lack of culture, their high propensity towards resentment and their strong preference to rely on strong technology to overcome their physical weaknesses caused them to embrace pure technology a lot more than other races. The puelmers not only had a reputation for mastering the most advanced conventional technologies among the major alien races, but also took charge of assimilating stolen human tech! The Red Cabal and its growing coalition could never have resisted the MTA and CFA's warfleets so well if not for the abnormally high learning ability of the puelmer race! The high technological aptitude of the puelmers stood out so much that it did not really matter that few of them even showed deference to the native gods. Their relatively small, weak and unconventional physiques made it almost impossible for them to become phase lords. Their rejection and disdain towards biotechnology did not help matters either! In fact, red humanity could not even find out whether the puelmers had any phase lords among them. Perhaps a few hidden deviants might exist in a different corner of the dwarf galaxy, but the puelmers clearly did not like to publicize their existences. Almost every puelmer of decent status was a scientist or an engineer. Not many puelmers chose to become anything else, but it did not matter that much as they relied on a high degree of automation to take care of menial and repetitive work. A puelmer homeship was pretty much a warship, an engineering workshop and a scientific laboratory all rolled up in a single package! It reminded Ves of the multipurpose MTA research battlecarriers like the Antazella de Osiris. Each of these vessels accommodated so many different purposes that they did not excel in any single area. In most combat scenarios, this was a disadvantage. How could allocating space and resources to R&D activities help a warship out in battle? The puelmers were clever enough to understand the pros and cons, but proceeded to turn their homeships into mixed vessels anyway. This was because they made it work. Every crew of puelmers possessed a lot of R&D capabilities, so every puelmer homeship could not only serve as a warship, but also a testbed for new and experimental technologies! The puelmers built a lot of vessels like this. With so many homeships conducting their own research and development projects, it was logical for their race to master so many different technologies. Now, two of those puelmer 'science vessels' suddenly came within reach of the Golden Skull Alliance. Even if these alien ships did not contain any truly valuable research, its databases and successful research applications were bound to possess a lot of value! As long as the Phobos succeeded in his mission of immobilizing one or both puelmer heavy cruisers, Ves might potentially get his hands on exotic alien technologies or more advanced transphasic technological applications. Shortly before the Phobos was about to board a modern superdrive-equipped stealth frigate that was built and crewed by DIVA operatives, Ves prepared a series of extra measures in order to increase the success rate of this latest gamble. "Venerable Zimro." Ves greeted as he and Lucky approached the expert pilot. The Phobos looked as impressive as ever as he was undergoing a final inspection before being shipped over to the Hidden Smile. "Sir." The expert bowed his head and respectfully greeted the patriarch. Ves felt gratified at Zimro's display of deference. Expert pilots had a tendency to get a little too full of themselves as they grew stronger. It happened to lots of people such as Venerable Jannzi, Patriarch Reginald Cross and even his uncle Ark. This was a common human weakness. Expert pilots were known to be the most stubborn people around, so trying to restrain them was mostly an exercise in futility. Ves developed a greater appreciation for more obedient and deferential expert pilots for that reason. He knew that he could count on more mellow expert pilots such as Venerable Tusa, Venerable Joshua and Venerable Zimro to stick with him for the long haul. These pilots felt a lot of personal gratitude to him and appreciated the structure that their friend and patriarch had built. Zimro especially did not hesitate to show that he was willing to obey Ves above everyone else in the clan. "Your upcoming mission is important to me." Ves softly spoke. "In order to help you along, I've prepared a few additional measures to increase your success rate." He did not like the low odds given by General Verle and Director Calabast. If he wanted to get his hands on at least puelmer homeship, then he needed to manipulate odds and stack the deck in his favor as much as possible! "What have you prepared, sir?" The expert pilot asked in response. Ves smirked and held up a certain gem cat. "First, Lucky will be going on a trip with you. It has been a long time since his last excursion. Since we're dealing with two fairly powerful alien vessels this time, I think it is a good idea to let Lucky infiltrate one of them and wreak havoc over there while you terrorize the other one. That way, if the puelmers happen to respond quickly and quickly activate their transphasic shields, the two of you should still be able to disable the warp drives of both vessels." One of the key variables that affected the success rate and the complications of the upcoming operation was whether they could immobilize both puelmer warships. If one of them managed to retain the ability to travel in warp, then that vessel would become several times harder to defeat! The possibility of this happening was not small. It depended on how quickly they were being attacked by the special human stealth mech that previously managed to defeat the wheednar raiding fleet. As Ves and Zimro talked about how to incorporate Lucky in the stealth operation, the gem cat in question looked confused. "Meow?" Ves shoved the cat into Zimro's arms. "No complaints, Lucky. You haven't visited the bathroom in a long time. I think a live deployment might serve as a great way to exercise your body and increase the efficiency of your digestion system." "Meow meow? MEOW!" Ves shook his head. "Oh no you're not. You need to earn your keep, buddy. If you can't do that by doing the job you are supposed to perform, then you can only fall back on your side gig as our secret agent." "Meeeeeeeoooooow!" The lazy cat clearly did not enjoy the prospect of getting dumped onto a hostile warship that was filled with enemies! What was worse was that Lucky could not count on any nearby friendlies in an infiltration mission like this. He would have to fend for himself aboard an enemy starship for an extended period of time, or eject himself into open space and drift in the dark for many days unless he managed to get picked up by the Phobos or the Hidden Smile. Ves frowned. "Don't complain. I have even prepared a gift for you in order to increase your odds of remaining hidden." He turned around and grabbed a floating container before opening it up to reveal an updated version of a cat-shaped infiltrator suit! "Looks familiar, doesn't it? I've taken the liberty of upgrading your Misfortune Harness. The Mark VI edition retains its miniature stealth generator, but I've upgraded its second-class stealth materials with first-class equivalents. I have also upgraded all of the electronic systems, so its communications, scanning, data storage, hacking and decryption systems have undergone massive improvements while occupying less space. I have already spoken to the DIVA virtual security experts to prepare a hacking suite that is specifically programmed to hack into puelmer computer systems." "Meow meow meow!" Lucky squirmed in Zirmo's arms as if he had little faith in the latest version of the Misfortune Harness. Even a gem cat like himself had heard many rumors of the advanced technological prowess of the puelmer race! Their most advanced warships were rumored to be able to give the CFA's battleships a run for their money. A race that mastered technology to such an extent definitely developed a lot of powerful detection methods as well! "Hey, don't underestimate my work, Lucky. I've taken advantage of the Unending alloy layer of your equipment to increase its stealth capabilities in a more metaphysical fashion. Look." Ves triggered a spiritual switch in the Misfortune Harness that caused him and others to find it a lot harder to take notice of its existence and presence! This was rather odd as the Misfortune Harness was definitely a piece of equipment that people would not be able to miss. Its appearance was just too odd and exotic. "Meow?" "That... feels familiar." Venerable Zimro said as he tried to feel out the cat suit with his force of will. Ves smirked. "I have studied how the Path of the Hidden Stalker causes your Phobos to become a lot less noticeable through metaphysical means. While I have no way of copying the Ascension Runes responsible for making it work, I have learned a lot about spiritual engineering and especially how to take advantage of E energy radiation. I worked together with Kalo to replicate simplified versions of some of its more obvious mechanisms. The result is that this Misfortune Harness has obtained a part of the power of the Hidden Stalker. It can maintain this state for quite a while by slowly using up the shadow energy that it has already drawn from the environment." "Hisssss." A ghostly chameleon slowly morphed into view. No one knew whether the design spirit had showed earlier because his camouflaging ability was so good that he could perfectly blend into the environment! Venerable Zimro smiled and reached out to caress the spiritual manifestation of the spiritual chameleon. "Both of us will depend on you to keep hidden from the puelmers." "Hissss hissss..." It was essential for Larkinson mech pilots to develop good relationships with the design spirits they cooperated with. Venerable Zimro clearly managed to develop an accord with Kalo. The Ghost Chameleon soon retreated and blended into the background. "I am not sure how long the Misfortune Harness can keep up its Hidden Stalker state." Ves warned his cat. "The amount of shadow energy that the Unending alloy can hold is not too much. I advise you to make use of this feature in order to evade imminent detection." "Meow meow meow?" "Theoretically, that is possible, but think about what will happen. As soon as your Misfortune Harness starts to absorb ambient shadow energy from the environment, it will form an energy vortex around it. What if the puelmers are somehow sensitive to that? What if they possess advanced tech that can detect such fluctuations? It's too risky. I will try to develop a solution for this in the future, but for now its full stealth capacity is limited." "Meow..."