Chapter 5671 Red Mercenary Association 5671 Red Mercenary Association More than a month passed by as Yuri Enfame and 18 other lucky heavy artillery mech specialists acclimated to their Ultimatums. They practically spent every day on training and building up their relationships with their new machine partners. By swapping stories and tips with each other, the heavy artillery mech specialists all became proficient in the use of the newly purchased machines. None of them fell behind, as they did not want to give Commander Pellicky any reason to replace them with another mech pilot! It helped that the Ultimatums actually weren't as difficult to pilot as they thought. When it came down to it, they were heavy mechs with 5 big guns at their disposal. Four of them were identical to each other and worked like any other heavy artillery cannon. The biggest and most impressive Onyx Cannon needed a lot of care and attention in order to utilize its power to the best effect, but its slow firing rate gave the mech pilots plenty of time to monitor its readings and make adjustments. Even if the mech pilots overlooked a few considerations, their living mechs occasionally 'nudged' them into action. Pilots such as Yuri Enfame still hadn't become entirely accustomed to piloting a living mech. Compared to all of the other machines that they had piloted in the past, they noticed that they weren't 'alone' in their thinking anymore. The Ultimatums most definitely had a mind of their own, and even if it was only as intelligent as a pet, that was already enough to completely redefine their relationships with their living mechs! To be honest, Yuri did not have many opportunities to interact with the glows and the entities behind them in any way due to the limitations of practice sessions. It took a considerable effort to employ the Guided Aim and the Amplified Destruction abilities. The mech pilots had to put a lot of effort into adopting the right mindset to call upon these powerful embedded abilities. Trying to activate both at the same time forced them to enter into a highly demanding mindset! This was one of the reasons why the Pellicky Praetorians had hung back for an entire month. Commander Pellicky demanded that each of the assigned mech pilots could activate both embedded abilities on demand. After spending so much time on training and preparation, more and more mercenaries started to get antsy. Pellicky Praetorians was mostly made up of her old buddies from her former state back in the old galaxy. Many of them used to serve in various mech militaries, but there were also ex-mech athletes and other miscellaneous people among them. Each of them came together under the belief that Commander Pellicky would lead them to a better future. So far, she had not made a lot of progress in earning greater glory and riches for her mercenary outfit, but the Red War offered brand-new opportunities for rapid promotion. This was why many of them were eager to test their new capabilities against their alien foes! "Have you and the others reached the point where you can employ both abilities at once in combat?" Commander Pellicky asked. "Almost." Yuri Enfame responded. "It is tricky as the two 'design spirits' are different from each other. Ylvaine cares a lot about having faith in his foresight. The Destroyer of Worlds is a lot more tolerant, but you need to build up the strong desire to destroy your target in order to earn her grace. There are many among us who are good at doing the latter due to our prior training and experience, but the former is still giving us trouble." The mercenary commander frowned. "That is not what I want to hear. We are not rich enough to afford any transphasic rounds for your Onyx Cannons, but the non-transphasic ones that are especially designed to fire from them are already expensive enough. We can't keep wasting good ammunition that should be used to break open enemy warships rather than a collection of worthless asteroids." "Don't worry about us ma'am. You can go ahead and accept a new mission. My fellow Ultimatum pilots and I will get it together somehow. We are making steady progress in activating the embedded abilities of our new mechs." "...Very well, Yuri. I will proceed with the assumption that we can depend on you all. I think I will start off with a lighter assignment just to be certain." Yuri grew a bit more relieved. He knew what that meant. The Red Mercenary Association frequently issued group missions where multiple smaller mercenary outfits could join together and fulfill a common responsibility. While different mercenary groups typically didn't get along very well, the RMA usually penalized any mercenaries that inhibited the success of the mission. Weeks went by before the Pellicky Praetorians arrived in a star system that was located in the hinterland of a contested middle zone. The star system held a medium-sized colony that was in the process of getting fortified. It took forever to get the defenses in decent shape. The construction works proceeded at a slow pace since the location was not close to the border. The star system was not endowed with a lot of resources either, so many materials had to be imported at great expense. That normally shouldn't have been a problem since the star system had never suffered an attack. However, the Red Two somehow managed to get word that the Red Cabal had instructed many different alien raiding fleets to bypass the nearest border systems and penetrate even deeper into human space before raising hell. This imposed a much greater burden on red humanity as it needed to cover more star systems than ever. If too many colonies got razed, then it became increasingly more difficult to stabilize the border. The Red Mercenary Association therefore called upon mercenaries to fill in the gaps and make sure that the vulnerable star systems at least had a better chance at fending off enemy assaults. "Who are we fighting with this time, commander?" "Five other mercenary outfits have signed up for this defense mission. They are the Grimly Brothers, the Five Fingers Club, the Hullsi Wardogs, the Rutherford Family and the Desiccators." A few of the Praetorians frowned. There were way too many mercenary outfits in the Red Ocean for everyone to know about all of them. The only names that managed to rise above anonymity and earn enough fame to become well-known within the mercenary community were all special in different ways. "I heard about the Desiccators." Yuri mentioned with a disgusted expression. "There are people who hate the aliens, and then there are weirdoes who want to torture them before cutting off their body parts to use as decorations. These guys are all sick. Just the stench of them is enough to pose as a biohazard!" Commander Pellicky crossed her arms. "We do not get to choose our partners. It is just our bad luck that the Desiccators accepted this mission as well. You know how it goes. If you don't like the other mercs, just stay out of their way and they will do likewise." "I've heard good stories about the Grimly Brothers. The two brothers in charge set a good example for their men and are good at talking to their employers. They have the best reputation out of our collective." "I haven't heard about the Five Fingers Club before, but they seem average if we go by their record. Their mechs and mech pilots are not the best, but they should be able to pull their weight." "The Hullsi Wardogs are the worst. I have worked alongside them back when I was working for another outfit. The Wardogs have low recruitment standards, and that tends to attract the wrong sort of people. I do have to say that they are ferocious fighters when they think the battle is in their favor. They also have numbers on their side." "Who are the Rutherfords?" "They're a fallen family according to the news reports. They have taken up a mercenary life in order to earn enough war merits and climb their way back to their previous society. From the few missions they have completed so far, their soldiers are all consummate professionals, and their mechs are also good. They are definitely sitting on a large cash reserve." The Pellicky Praetorians had learned that it was best to understand their temporary allies before they started their mission. So far, the mission group consisted of a mix of good and bad apples. This was not too remarkable as the Red Mercenary Association often employed this approach. "The good apples must keep the bad apples in line. You know how this goes. Do your job well, and we will all get our paydays." "How likely is it that our mission location will get attacked, commander?" "There is a small probability. There are so many occupied star systems in this middle zone that the alien raiding fleets can go anywhere. I wouldn't be surprised if we will spend the next months in total silence and boredom." "Silent and boring missions are the good ones." "Not for me! I need to earn a lot more war merits, and we can't do that without a fight." "Be careful what you wish for, Jonathan." As the Pellicky Praetorians and the other 5 mercenary outfits arrived in orbit of the planet they were supposed to protect, they all split their focus and became responsible for monitoring different sectors. At the same time, they landed a portion of their mechs onto the surface of the planet in order to guard against planetary raids and invasions. These assignments had never been too popular because the aliens might decide to engage in outright orbital bombardment with their powerful primary gun batteries! Yuri Enfame deeply hoped that he would not get selected for this assignment. Fortunately, his wish came true this time. "I want you right by my side in case the aliens are coming." Commander Pellicky told Yuri. "I am counting on you to keep the Hooligan Barke intact and in fighting condition." "You can count on me, ma'am!" Days went by as the mercenaries settled down. Defense missions tended to be incredibly boring and uneventful most of the time, so the hired guns quickly distracted themselves with various activities. The mercenaries were barely 10 days into their mission before a listening post placed in the other system detected the tell-tale warp bubbles that denoted the passage of alien warships! After confirming that no human starships were traversing along the same trajectory, all 6 mercenary outfits quickly started to prepare for battle. The star system was not that big, so the incoming fleet would probably arrive in a matter of hours. "That is not enough time!" The mercenaries scrambled their mechs and readied their other assets for an immediate engagement. Once the alien raiding fleet came close enough to the planet, the enemy warships drastically lowered the warp factor of their drives and scoped out the enemy resistance. Despite the clear and obvious presence of additional human reinforcements, the alien raiding fleet boosted forward anyway and showed no signs of wanting to avoid confrontation! "This is going to be tough." Commander Pellicky spoke over the command net. "Our sensors have detected 32 alien sub-capital warships and 6 alien battleships. I don't recognize the species who built these ships, but they obviously like to build them small and fast. That must be one of the reasons why this fleet managed to slip past the border." There was not much room for any maneuver in this battle. The enemy warships were clearly compelled to attack the colony settlement or die trying. The hired mercenaries had to stand their ground and do their best to defend that same settlement. They were only allowed to abandon their mission and flee if the battle had truly reached a terrible stage. As both sides waited for the confrontation to begin, a completely unexpected incident occurred. BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! "Ack! What are you doing, Grimlys?! Why have your mechs opened fire on our positions?!" "The troops brought by the Grimly Brothers have gone crazy! They have lost all of their reason and are launching an all-out attack on our mechs!" "The settlement is under heavy attack! The Grimlys care nothing about the collateral damage they are wreaking around them. Stop them now!" For an inexplicable reason, the heroic and well-regarded mech pilots of the Grimly Brothers had done the unthinkable. They betrayed their humanity and turned their weapons against their own kind! "Why?! How could this happen?!"