?Chapter 6456 Commodore The day had finally come. During the founding ceremony of the Red Collective, the Evolution Witch promised to make a big announcement that was sure to shake red humanity. Everyone took her seriously. God pilots were not known to make bold lies. Many observers that tried to keep track of the Evolution Witch's movements and actions had also vaguely figured out that she had created an ambitious layout. She had done a good job at hiding her tracks. No one knew what she was up to. The most the intelligence agencies had gathered was that she had relocated a large amount of Transhumanist scientists and engineers to a secret location. The Transhumanist Faction also began to put more effort into obtaining rare and expensive materials. All of this indicated that the god pilot's plan was likely based on advanced technology! Nobody possessed any further clues than that. The location where the Transhumanists were preparing their solution for the Evolution Witch remained unknown, and nobody managed to obtain any information on what was taking place inside. Every worker was carefully vetted by the Evolution Witch, and none of them had any chance of leaving their secret hideout ahead of time. It was only until recently that observers managed to detect the arrival of an RA battlecarrier that had evidently been tasked with transporting goods on behalf of the god pilot. Many people hoped that the Evolution Witch hadn't brought back a biodisaster or whatever. Speculation ran rife by the time Ves woke up and readied himself for the day. His schedule had cleared up for the most part as he had managed to fulfill many of the goals he had set for this business trip. If the Evolution Witch's mysterious surprise did not demand that he stay behind in this central star node, then he intended to leave tomorrow and leave the hustle and bustle of Yernstall behind. As Ves perused the news publications for any clues on what the Evolution Witch was about to announce, Lucky yawned as he finished his bowl of high-grade exotics and hypers. The archemetal cat had grown tired of Yernstall as well. La Reine and other highly developed planets were filled with high technology and extremely valuable alloys, but The mechers and the fleeters monitored everything. They were so good at tracking everything that they somehow managed to track Lucky when he was phasing through solid matter! Seeing that Lucky could not get away with snacking on a mech or a metal wall without getting caught and bringing trouble to himself, the gem cat glumly awaited the day he returned to New Constantinople. Diandi Base was small, but at least the personnel over there did not mind if Lucky enjoyed a bite out of stuff every now and then, especially if he left behind a mark. "Meow... meow..." "I know, Lucky. It won't take much longer, hopefully. I am more than eager to get back to my wife and children. It is frustrating to communicate with them by remote." As Ves waved his hand and shut down all of the news publications that had done nothing but engage in baseless speculation, he turned to his personal assistant. "Have we received an invitation to attend the Evolution Witch's public announcement?" "We have not." Gavin responded. "No one has received an announcement. We just received confirmation from the Transhumanists that the Evolution Witch is not going to hold a speech in a stadium or other public venue. She intends to appear in space to address every red human during a live broadcast. We can all watch the show right here on the Tarrasque." "I see. That is convenient. If anything goes wrong, we should be far away enough to remain unaffected. It's a pity that we won't get to enjoy the show up close, but I value my safety more." "By the way, Ves, your friend from the Red Fleet has also returned. The Babylon Excavator has returned with minor technological upgrades. She also brought along two destroyers, the Geirne Fis and the Mennis Rebode." Ves knew what that meant. Sigrund had returned. Not only that., Admiral Mieli had come through and helped to facilitate his promotion! He decided to call the fleeter right away. A dozen seconds passed until the physical projection of Zonrad Reze appeared in the dining compartment. Compared to the last time Ves saw the disguised AI, Sigrund's human guise wore a slightly more elaborate uniform. The additional golden stripes and symbols made it clear that he had ascended beyond commanding a single warship. From the moment he got promoted, he finally received the privilege of commanding "Congratulations." "Thank you, professor, or should I say chief councilor." Ves casually waved his hands. "It doesn't matter. It is not as if my office at the Upper Council is my primary consideration. So what have you become, and what is with the additional ships?" "I have been promoted to a commodore. The complete administrative procedures are still taking place, but Admiral Chelsea Mieli has been generous enough to assign the two destroyers under my command in advance." The new commodore activated two projections that depicted the two relatively small warships. "Destroyers, huh?" Ves spoke. "I can tell that they are designed to fulfill two different and highly specialized roles. That is nice and all, but couldn't the RF have been less stingy and assign a few cruisers to you instead?" "The Red Fleet cannot spare such hardware, professor. Every warship counts. Light cruisers and heavy cruisers are still sub-capital ships, but they are large enough that they can undertake many responsibilities that smaller escort vessels cannot do. Destroyers may be small, but they can punch above their weight so long as they are fighting under favorable circumstances." Commodore Reze gestured towards the destroyer that was covered with small turrets. "The Geirne Fis is a destroyer of the Storm Shredder class. She is largely covered with secondary and tertiary cannon batteries that excel at point defense and taking down enemy small craft. There is not much else that is noteworthy about her design. Her weapons are much less effective against warships and other large opponents, and should never have to face them upfront as far as I am concerned." "I agree." The commodore gestured to the projection of the other destroyer. "If you want to employ a siege weapon against a particularly large and relatively immobile target, then the Mennis Rebode can help you. She bears a large transphasic hyper laser cannon as a spinal-mounted weapon. The single-shot firepower of this spinal cannon exceeds the firepower of a single primary cannon mounted on the Babylon Excavator in certain cases." "That... sounds quite impressive. What else does this interesting ship have in store?" Ves loved the design and philosophy behind this exaggerated destroyer. The integration of a sizable spinal cannon on a ship class with little internal space to begin with was a dedication towards extreme specialization! The entire vessel strained so much to support this comparatively gigantic weapon that the ship sacrificed everything else in order to sustain the consumption of such a powerful armament! "Nothing else. The Mennis Rebode does not carry any other weapons aside from a modest complement of transphasic missiles and a small amount of point defenses. She is not designed to operate by herself. It is best to treat her like a siege machine and protect her well until it is necessary to borrow her power." "That sounds decent.The quality of the spacers among the fleeters have always been high, so I am expecting good performance from your unit going forward." Ves said. Sigrund made a seemingly sincere bow. "The Babylon Squadron shall not fail you, professor! In time, my unit may receive reinforcements from the RF over time. Do not reject them. Show them through your actions that you possess profound knowledge. We will continue to remain attached to the Bluejay Fleet, though we are not merging ourselves into the RF's chain of command." "That is good enough. I am happy to receive all of this help." The mechers and the fleeters did not always see eye-to-eye with each other. It was awkward for them to escort the same mech designer and bump into each other every day. Ves had no interest in meddling with their old rivalry. The lack of coordination and other measures made it harder to coordinate between the two groups. This might cause trouble in the future. Ves and Sigrund chatted a bit more about the latter's promotion. It had been difficult for Zonrad Reze to account for himself. His past performance was not too good, and he had broken multiple rules when he authorized the unlocking and deployment of several superweapons. However, the naval board that decided over Zonrad Reze's case had ultimately decided in favor of promoting him and preparing him for more important duties in the future. "Has your heavy cruiser replenished her stock of weapons of mass destruction as well?" Sigrund coughed. "It is not appropriate to discuss such topics in our current setting. I will inform you later in person to better secure our communications." "That is acceptable. There is no hurry on this matter since we are present in one of the most secure star systems within human-occupied space. By the way, I have an unrelated question." "Please ask." "Does the RF and your fleeter buddies know anything about what the Evolution Witch is about to announce?" "No." Commodore Reze shook his head. "We have far too little verified proof. My new promotion may have enabled me to command multiple ships, but I am not yet an admiral. I do not have the clearance to access the information the Fifth or Seventh Fleet might have." "It is nice if we obtain useful information, but it is not the end of the galaxy if I am just as ignorant as everyone else. I just find it challenging to wait for the Evolution Witch to start her show." This caused the fleeter officer to grow suspicious. "Her decision to maintain so much secrecy does not bode well for us. If she feels the need to hide her work until she is ready to present it, then her work is probably mired in controversy!" "I am not too worried about that. She must have everything under control, and if she has managed to gain the cooperation of at least one Star Designer, then the likelihood of accidents should be a lot less than before. There was nothing particularly noteworthy to talk about with Sigrund aside from his promotion, so the two quickly ended their short call. Sigrund was moving up. He had come one step closer to becoming an admiral and gaining enough power to take control over his own destiny. Many people around Ves had grown by leaps and bounds. Though he still missed a lot of familiar people who were still undergoing EdNet training at this time, they had already crossed the halfway point. Ves eagerly looked forward to welcoming the return to all of the heavily augmented and much more knowledgeable Larkinsons back to the clan. That should be the time where he could truly unleash the Larkinson Clan. As Ves continued to devise plans for the future, he eventually received a short notification. He headed up to a lounge where everyone he knew in person had gathered. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶 Jovy Armalon, Vector Loban, Lady Romanda Devos and so on had gathered in order to watch the live broadcast together. Ves was also accompanied by his 12 Apocalypse Warden guards. Their armor and presence made it impossible to ignore them, but they had done a good job acting in an unobtrusive manner, though only as far as their gear allowed. "Meow." Lucky came as well and automatically sought out Jovy's lap. The Survivalist smiled and stroked the gem cat's back. "You have grown even stronger since the last time I touched you. This archemetal alloy feels amazing" "Meow." "It's starting"