Based on the experiences of the inaugural test of the Carmine Troopers, Ves and the Masters decided to tweak the settings of the next activation. They disabled and locked many mech systems that would have otherwise become active once a mech pilot engaged his machine for the first time. As Lieutenant Leon Di Maggio carefully descended onto his seat and allowed the piloting chair to tap into his vascular system, Ves performed another check of all of the settings and modifications. "Carmine mechs do not fall in our area of expertise, but I am concerned that we have not gone far enough in reducing the load for an untrained candidate pilot." Master Vayro Goldstein said with concern. "Although we have made sure to disable its movement systems, its sensors and much of its internals will still remain fully active once the candidate interfaces with his mech. There is a significant chance that Leon or his Blood Pact will get overwhelmed." "The Blood Pact cannot form if one or both sides are too weak." Ves retorted. "If the mech remains largely powered down, then it won't be able to muster the strength needed to reach out to a weak test subject like Leon Di Maggio and form a successful Blood Pact. If you don't believe my predictions, we can try it your way and see what happens." "Let us do just that." Master Xena Wintress decided. "We should start with the safer settings first and gradually move away from that should the results be as disappointing as you expect." "Fair enough." They quickly made the adjustments and locked even more parts and systems. At this rate, the Carmine Conscript wouldn't be able to do anything even if the interfacing attempt succeeded! "Are you prepared, Lieutenant Di Maggio?" The candidate and test subject took another deep breath. "I am ready to proceed." "Good. Stay calm and remember your instructions. We anticipate it will be hard to form the Blood Pact at our current settings, so do your best to reach out to your new battle partner." As soon as everything else looked okay, they commenced the test. The Carmine Conscript became active in a much more subdued fashion compared to its more conventional sibling. Only a few lights became active. The power reactor started to wake from dormancy, but produced so little activity that it was difficult for casual observers to notice the difference! The mech engine along with many other major components remained completely offline. Only a few optical sensors became active in order to provide at least some measure of awareness without overwhelming the pilot with data from other sources. Ves did not really pay too much attention to the mundane activity of the Carmine Conscript. He invested his full attention on studying what took place on a spiritual level. Just as he expected, the lethargic Carmine Conscript did not exhibit the proper strength needed to form a Blood Pact. The story might be different if the pilot was a swordmaster from the Heavensword Association. In that case, the swordmaster in question could pick up the slack and do most of the work needed to forge a successful Blood Pact. Lieutenant Leon Di Maggio was different. He was not only a norm, but also lacked spiritual potential, just like the vast majority of humans. All of this was bound to change in time as people continued to get affected by years worth of E energy radiation, but the problem was that it would likely take years before the vast majority of norms expanded their spiritual potential in this passive manner! It all came down to time. Red humanity simply did not have enough time to wait on lengthy developments. "Nothing meaningful is happening." The Mace of Retaliation frowned. "Lieutenant Di Maggio and the Carmine Conscripts are like two children who are only able to pretend that they can fight. Now that we are asking for them to step up, it becomes apparent that they lack the strength to undertake real action." Ves let out a sigh. "I told you that this would happen. If we want to attain a positive result, then there are several ways to do so. We can wait until both the Carmine Conscript and Leon Di Maggio get exposed to enough E energy radiation to gain the strength they need to complete the bond. I can shorten this period to an extent by granting Leon a companion spirit seed, though it will still take a while before it can make a significant difference." Master Vayro Goldstein shook his head in disapproval. "We require immediate results. The options that you have mentioned will take months if not years to bear fruit. That is unacceptable. We demand an immediate solution that can provide us with preliminary confirmation that your Carmine System can be used to pilot a mech without the use of a neural interface." The incessant demand for immediate results did not sit well with Ves. He liked to play fast and loose in experiments on occasion, but he restrained himself based on the expendability of his test subjects. Though Ves did not know Leon Di Maggio in person, the mecher was not an alien or an enemy that he could mistreat at will! He was a loyal and dedicated serviceman of the Red Association who did not deserve to get subjected to dangerous experiments! However, the mechers around him did not appear to care about that at all. They all thought that it was good enough that Leon had volunteered for this duty, likely without fully understanding the risks. "As 1 have said before... we need to ramp up the activity of the Carmine Conscript." Ves slowly said. "Based on the relative lack of response from the pilot and the mech, I think we can only make this happen if we bring the machine fully online. In other words, the mech needs to pull out all of the stops just to reach out to a candidate that is too weak to do all of the heavy lifting at present." The Carmine System did not have a good time so far. The results were much worse compared to when he introduced Venerable Jannzi and his grandfather to their custom-designed Carmine mechs for the first time. Spirituality was key. The Blood Pact turned out to be a relatively high-quality spiritual connection. Its effects were powerful, but so were its demands. Ves was not even sure whether spiritually weak people had any chance of forging a successful bond with a Carmine mech. He would have liked to see another candidate in the cockpit of the Carmine Conscript. A norm with spiritual potential had a much greater chance of successfully forming a Blood Pact, especially if that very same individual happened to possess a companion spirit! "We must press on." The Mace of Retaliation said. "Whether this attempt succeeds or fails, we will know more than we did before. Important decisions are being made and great developments are taking place during this very hour. We cannot allow our reluctance to hold us back. Lieutenant Leon Di Maggio understands the risks. He will do his duty. Let him fight for his chance." Master Xena Wintress nodded in agreement. "We have encountered many accidents whenever we test new experimental products derived from alien technology. Innovation has a price, and it is often measured in blood. Failure is not glorious, but it is a necessary stepping stone to ultimate success." Seeing that everyone wanted to push the limits of this experimental session, Ves ultimately acquiesced and proceeded to adjust the settings despite his misgivings. He had a bad feeling about this. If the earlier instance with the Carmine Trooper was any indication, then Leon was bound to incur a lot of damage even if he succeeded in forging the Blood Pact! Once the adjustments had been made, the activation began anew. This time, the Carmine Conscript no longer made a lethargic and sleepy impression. Its power reactor began to heat up a lot more and produce a lot more energy to sate the hunger of the other waking mech parts. The limbs, the sensor systems and many more aspects of the machine began to reach their normal activity levels and began to exchange a lot of data with each other. As mechs had always been designed as machines controlled by humans as opposed to completely autonomous battle bots, there was no way to avoid the need to transmit a lot of data to the pilot. Leon immediately began to scream in pain as he felt as if a metaphorical laser beam had suddenly struck his head! "Ahhh! It is too much!" Back in the fortified bunker, Ves and all of the other mech designers observed the various data readings with greater and greater concern. The telemetry of Leon Di Maggio's brain and body started to look increasingly more distressing! The Carmine Conscript continued its attempt to forge a stable and working Blood Pact with a difficult-to-reach candidate pilot, bqt it was not yet fully aware of how much its clumsy attempts were harming its intended battle partner! When Leon's brain started to heat up to a distressing level, Ves wanted to pull back, but the others overruled his suggestion. "We must collect more data. We need to present real results in a high-level meeting that is scheduled to begin in the near future." Xena Wintress insisted as her razor-sharp eyes continued to observe a lot of different readings. "Failure is not a true setback for us. We have studied your design of the Carmine Conscript and the implementation of the Carmine System. We are confident that we can develop slight variations of your special mech designs that are at least superficially compatible with other candidates. We are not lacking in test subjects either. Many individuals who learn about what we are attempting to accomplish with our experiments will gladly place themselves at our disposal." With those callous words, the Masters did nothing as the life signs off the test pilot continued to reach more and more alarming levels. Although the man's many augmentations helped a lot with enduring much of the pressure that he was enduring, they could not solve the fundamental problem that he was not yet qualified to form a Blood Pact! "AHHHH!" A drastic turn of events took place at one point! The foreign blood cells that had flooded into his veins should have ordinarily gotten along with Leon. Their DNAs and structure were close to identical to that of his natural blood cells. However, as the Carmine Conscript continued its attempts to forge a Blood Pact with Leon, an adverse reaction occurred that produced multiple severe ripple effects! Not only did Leon suffer the headache in his life, but the foreign blood cells that originated from the Carmine System suddenly became incompatible with their current host! This along with many other consequences finally caused the poor fellow to reach a limit! "FOR HUMANITY AND-" A loud explosion interrupted his final words! In just an instant of a second, the body encapsulated in a highly protective piloting suit burst apart in a far greater explosion than was physically possible! Empowered by mysterious forces, the explosion not only shattered the candidate's flesh and bones, but also ruptured his piloting suit and caused the entire cockpit to be splattered with the remains of a first-rater and once-hopeful dreamer. Silence followed as the Carmine Conscript automatically powered down according to its programmed instructions. Since its intended partner had unfortunately lost his life, there was no reason for the Carmine mech to remain active anymore. Jovy had shown the greatest reaction when the accident occurred. The man did not experience as much as the others and could not bear to look at the dreadful visuals of the interior of the cockpit. Ves twitched when the fatal accident took place, but not necessarily because he could not tolerate the sight. He had witnessed much worse throughout his career. His real regret was that this was a predictable outcome. What sort of data did the mechers require to push through this preventable accident? Only the three envoys remained unaffected. Neither the two Master Mech Designers nor the ace pilot showed too much surprise or remorse at this result.