Chapter 6277 The Retelling Time continued to pass by as the latest offensive push against Arvest Lima V receded. This time, the native aliens clearly lost more than they gained. They knew that they couldn't topple the defenses of the fortified planet in a single massive assault, so they sought to launch periodic attacks in order to exhaust and deplete the human defenders over time. This time, the predominantly orven forces clearly suffered greater casualties than their human adversaries! Too many orven phasefighters got shredded by the souped-up Larkinsons and their allies! Even though the mass Commandeering of so many mechs of the expeditionary fleet only lasted for a limited time, the damage they inflicted on the regular and elite orven phasefighters was massive. This was because the native aliens couldn't field nearly enough strike craft in the field that could fight on roughly equal terms to any machine that had been temporarily elevated to quasi-expert mech standards! The 35 'Enfeoffed' Transcendent Punishers Mark III's also shifted the strategic balance through their amazing firepower! The native alien attackers never accounted for their devastating impact. Their assault fleets had to plug the gap of the early retreat of a cruiser and also had to make other sacrifices to compensate for the premature withdrawal of the Trampler of Stars. In the end, by the time the Saint Commander exhausted her breakthrough energies and gloriously returned to the Spirit of Bentheim, the outcome of the latest clash had already been decided! Plenty of harassment and secret maneuvering took place after that. Both sides sought to set themselves up for the next collision by planting stealth probes, listening devices, hidden bombs and other nasty surprises onto each other. Extremely fast and maneuverable ace mechs that could utilize their Saint Kingdoms to detect and mark any hostile devices were worth their weight in phasewater during these phases. The highest commander in the Arvest Lima System made heavy use of both the Dark Zephyr Mark III as well as the Jedda Sandivar piloted by Saint Marissa Lewandowski to sweep up as many alien 'gifts' as possible. Once the Dark Zephyr Mark III finally returned to the expeditionary fleet and entered one of the more private hangar bays of the Spirit of Bentheim, Saint Tusa Billingsley-Larkinson had become mentally fatigued. As hardy and persistent as ace pilots may be, even Tusa could become bone-tired after flexing his Saint Kingdom for hours on end. He wanted to do nothing more than to return to his opulent and well-protected suite and collapse onto his luxuriously soft and bouncy bed. Yet he could not do so yet. He still had a mission to complete, and it was one that he was especially keen to fulfill. His expression inside his cockpit remained firm as he gently instructed his machine to stride across the deck and enter one of the private workshops buried deep in the center of the factory ship. It was here where the Minerva had stowed herself after her return from the field. The private workshop where Ves and Gloriana had once birthed multiple masterwork mechs was the most secure location on the capital ship. The security level here surpassed that of the bridge, the main engineering bay and even the grand staterooms. As the two living expert mechs came face to face with each other, it became clear that the two machines had become a lot more equal than before. In past reunions, the Dark Zephyr clearly towered the other Larkinson expert mechs in terms of aura, prestige and inner strength. The distance between the two machines had become a lot more reduced now that both of them received the baptism of forced resonance and became the chosen steeds of two awe-inspiring ace pilots. The two living mechs had already begun to communicate in private through a hidden branch of the Larkinson Network. The Dark Zephyr had much to teach the Minerva about what she needed to pay attention to now that she became the fortunate carrier of a Saint. From the perspective of living mechs, the relatively quick ascension of the Saint Commander also provided a massive benefit to their group. The Minerva had been voted in as the first head of the hidden Anima Order. Though she was favored by other living mechs due to her intelligence and her policies, the strength and authority she gained from hosting a powerful ace pilot could do wonders in elevating her leading position and securing the obedience of every living machine! Neither of the two living mechs divulged any of their discussions to their respective pilots. The business of the Anima Order had to remain secret by necessity. Its exposure through any leaks would deal a huge blow against the interests of living mechs. The current political climate in human civilization was not yet ready to welcome the rise of self-thinking, semi-autonomous and politically active living mechs. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦 Even though the two ace pilots could definitely tell that their battle partners were conferring among themselves in secret through their Saint Kingdom, they dismissed it as the typical private chatter between living machines. They had much greater concerns in mind at the moment. Saint Tusa had retracted his Saint Kingdom to the point where it encompassed the boundaries of the private workshop and made sure that no spies or listening devices could leak anything to any third parties. "This place is as secure as I can make it." Tusa spoke after a few minutes. "This workshop is surrounded by a lot of complicated machinery. I don't have the faintest idea how they work, but I have made sure to isolate them from any conversations that happen inside the cockpit of the Minerva." The spiritual projection of Ves nodded in satisfaction. "I guess that is good enough. The mechers are present in this star system, and I have no doubt that they have extensively bugged the Spirit of Bentheim. It is in their nature to spy on other humans. You can't stop them any more than you can stop the native aliens from waging war against us. I don't think they can circumvent your Saint Kingdom unless they employ extremely exclusive tech or dispatch a god pilot. Neither of the two possibilities are realistic as the Spirit of Bentheim simply doesn't merit such a heavy investment. It is also a massive breach of trust for them to bring the big guns against our clan." "Enough." Saint Commander Casella Ingvar spoke up. "I have tolerated these hours for far too long. I have resisted the urge to rest so that I may learn the fate that has befallen my brother." Saint Tusa also expressed a lot of curiosity towards what had happened to the other Larkinson expert pilots. "I wish to know as well. As the first saint of the Larkinson Clan, I think I am entitled to know the truth." "Both of you will have it. I can promise you that." Ves frankly spoke. "I may have to… obfuscate certain facts that are inconvenient to share with the two of you, but I can guarantee you that anything solid is truthful." "We shall see." Casella reserved her judgment. Ves did not delay any further. The events in the Duqaste System had already concluded long enough for him to obtain a clear understanding of the timeline and the many consequences of the risky operation. "Well, let me begin at the start. As you are already aware of, the 77th Warborn Mech Division is assigned to guard the Duqaste System, which is located in the same middle zone as the Arvest Lima System…" In order to convey a complete accounting, Ves introduced the general circumstances and provided the necessary context to allow both ace pilots to understand General Ark's decision to embark on a risky operation. Both Tusa and Casella frowned when they understood the underlying motivations for this operation. They were both ace pilots, so they keenly understood that Ark deliberately set a pitfall for himself in the hopes that the challenge of escaping it would force him to push past his limits. "I do not necessarily disagree with the decision to raid Duqaste XI." Casella frowned. "General Ark's motivations are… sound. What I have a problem with is the haste and lack of preparations. Ark has neglected to properly scout and collect enough pertinent intelligence on the alien staging point. He has demonstrated that he would rather grasp opportunities that come with a great amount of uncertainty than to do his due diligence and incur the risk of returning empty handed." She clearly possessed a more cautious stance on this matter than General Ark. This reflected their fundamental differences on the matter. The spiritual projection of Ves sighed. "Ark gambled… and lost. Let me explain what happened up to the point where your brother got felled." Ves carefully retold the sequence of events. He even exercised his spiritual manipulation abilities to produce a simplistic map that displayed the movements of different elements. The Mars and the Tireless Engine had been dueling against each other a short distance away while the remaining expert mechs sought to punch through the blockade formed by the Ghirard Fleet and raid all of the depots and warehouses on the surface. Nothing happened during these preceding phases that alarmed Casella. That did not mean she was happy about the reckless decision to venture to the surface of Duqaste XI in the complete absence of the rest of the mechs of the 77th Warborn. Casella understood that bringing them alone would have merely generated mass casualties among the normal soldiers, but if this was the only other alternative, then it was beter to call this ill-conceived operation off. General Ark ignored far too many warning signs early on, from disregarding the setback of getting discovered before the start of the raid to struggling to overcome a large quantity of experimental phasefighters. Just as Casella anticipated, the operation immediately went pear-shaped as the Larkinson expert mechs attempted to make their way out and escape the clutches of the Ghirard Fleet. "How can any of us miss the impending arrival of a second phase lord?" Casella critically questioned. "Shouldn't the mechers be on top of monitoring the movements of such powerful enemies?" Ves let out a sigh. "I have no good explanation for this. It is true that it is a massive intelligence on the part of the Red Association as well as the 77th Warborn Mech Division to overlook the approach of a phase lord, even if he is among the weakest of his kind." "And what about Ylvaine? Why hasn't the Great Prophet done his job and given us advance warning that my brother would die in this operation?!" "Whoa, whoa, there. Calm down, Casella. Ylvaine may be able to predict the future, but his future sight is extremely limited. He cannot properly predict the future of powerful individuals such as Patriarch Reginald and the Tireless Engine because he is not strong enough to do so. He is also only able to see possible futures that may or may not come true. There is always a chance that Imon would die in every battle he takes part in. Sometimes, the probability is greater than usual, but the outcome is never truly certain until an event has already happened in reality. Our clan has participated in many battles in the past that could cause our future to diverge in radically different directions depending on who lived and died. Each time, Ylvaine is able to predict the possible fall of myself, Venerable Joshua or the Spirit of Bentheim, but he can only ever judge their probabilities, not the eventual outcomes." In other words, Ylvaine was of very limited use in these situations. The strength of his predictive capabilities was not strong enough to essentially issue a deterministic verdict of a future that was absolutely guaranteed to happen. Perhaps he might gain this power under limited circumstances when he grew strong in the future, but that was a very distant prospect! The Saint Commander was not entirely unreasonable about this. She understood Ylvaine's limitations quite well as she had Commandeered and more recently Enfeoffed plenty of Ylvainan mechs. "Please continue, sir. I can sense his moment of death is not far away from this point. What happened that caused him to be left vulnerable and without anyone coming to his rescue?" "Well…"