Insights translated into power. Though Saint Stark only talked with the Stewards Siamesia for hours on end, she had made a lot of gains. The twin saints parted the fog that covered many issues. Stark gained a lot of clarity, allowing her to put a lot of stuff into context. In the cases where she did not receive outright answers, Alo and Jeri still pointed Stark to the right direction, allowing her to form her own conclusions that were not tainted by the opinions of others. By the time the new ace pilot left the personal chambers of the Stewards Siamesia, her head contained so much new knowledge that she couldn’t sleep for the remainder of the day due to needing to process all of the new ideas she became exposed to. Her eyes continued to shine even as she sat in the lounge chair of her guest room. The next day, the Stewards Siamesia invited Saint Stark to bring her ace mech out for a spin. This would be an excellent opportunity for the guest pilot to put her new insights into practice under the supervision of not just one, but two experienced ace pilots! There was just one concern. "It will be impossible to hide the presence of my ace mech once we get serious." Stark seriously stated. "My Amaranto Mark III is difficult to detect when she remains dormant, but she will turn into a lighthouse in the dark as soon as she charges up her Instrument of Vengeance. It will be too easy for hidden alien observers to pick up the emissions and gather important intelligence. We will lose the element of surprise." "Then let it happen." Aloretzi Chevor stated without concern. "Pardon?" The male twin gave the guest pilot an important lesson. "The native aliens assigned to fight in the Upper Zones are not as poorly equipped and impulsive as the ones who are allocated to the Middle and Lower Zones. The latter are almost always treated as disposable. Their intelligence support is much lower, which often makes them prone to falling for ambushes and other surprises. That is not necessarily the case here. There is a far greater prevalence of archeships lurking in the shadows. If your intuition is powerful and sensitive enough, you may be able to sense their presence, though it will be difficult for you to pin-point their coordinates. I can guarantee you that this star system is currently hosting at least half a dozen archeships, each of them lingering in the vicinity of our strongholds and other strategic sites." "That… is not good." "Furthermore, the cosmopolitans are most certainly providing intelligence support." Jeri Chevor added. "We have done our best to root them out, but despite the measures we have taken to drive away their infiltrators and informers, they have resorted to more secretive forms of intelligence gathering. Their high familiarity with our technologies allows them to hack into our sensors and databases and covertly steal sensitive data." Alo subsequently crossed his arms. "The alien commanders in charge of conquering our Upper Zones are also much more serious and professional at their jobs. You will rarely see incompetent leaders among them who have only managed to obtain repeated promotions due to nepotism and corruption. Ever since the native aliens admitted that we are not as weak as they expected, they have followed instructions of their cosmopolitan advisors and focused on purging and rectifying their military hierarchy. Some alien races are slower to enact changes than others, but time has proven the value of reforms. The leaders who failed to clean house often end up suffering much heavier losses. If they remain stubborn about sticking to their old ways, they eventually end up dying or resigning in disgrace." Saint Stark froze. It sounded as if the native aliens had shed more of their complacency and had gotten just as serious as their human foes! If this was the case, then any competent enemy would have been able to gather the clues of the Amaranto Mark III’s arrival by this time. "Okay, I can see why it is futile to put in so much effort to hide my arrival." Saint Stark conceded. "We can still deny them information about the exact performance of my Amaranto Mark III. I can assure you that after the latest upgrades that have elevated my Amaranto to a proper first-class ace mech, the rate of fire of her mech rifle has drastically increased." "Let the aliens watch." Alo nonchalantly declared. "Look, Davia, I can understand your desire to hide your new capabilities and retain an information advantage, but you are thinking as a mortal rather than a god. As a saint that has taken two steps away from your human nature, your role and responsibilities have fundamentally changed. Do you remember what we told you yesterday? Your journey as an ace pilot is a rehearsal of your final struggle to ascend to godhood. You must cherish the following years as opportunities to learn how to fight and thrive as a war deity as opposed to a strong human." Stay connected via freewebnovel That was an exceedingly bold approach! Saint Stark felt incredibly conflicted by Alo’s advice. It was not in her nature to volunteer critical information to enemies that would certainly make use of it to mitigate their own losses. Back in the Larkinson Clan, the people around her were of the same mind. They were highly cognizant of information warfare and always tried to limit the amount of secrets they exposed to both allies and enemies. It was therefore quite a culture shock for Stark to hear the Stewards Siamesia advocate for the opposite approach! Jeri reached out and placed her hand on Stark’s shoulder. "Do not take my brother’s words too seriously. He is speaking from our perspective. You see, the two of us prioritize saving lives over killing enemies. One of the strategies we use to promote our cause is to discourage our adversaries from launching an attack in the first place. By showing off our strength, we can send a clear signal that anyone who attempts to launch an attack on our position will encounter serious setbacks. In the worst case scenario, none of their attackers may return." Though the Stewards Siamesia vowed to never kill anymore, they had no objection to letting the expert pilots and other forces by their side do the killing in their stead. Of course, the two saints imposed strict criteria on the conduct and behavior of the soldiers who received the honor of fighting in their presence. Only those with honor and integrity in their hearts received the necessary approval to fight with the twins. Saint Stark could understand the reasoning behind their approach towards information control, but she could not agree with it herself. "If I expose everything I can do from the start, the aliens may delay their attack, but they will come sooner or later. By that time, they will have made plenty of preparations in advance, thereby limiting my effectiveness once the fight breaks out. Your suggestion may end up counterproductive. More human soldiers will end up dying as a result." The Chevor twins frowned, but did not take offense at Stark’s questioning. They must have confronted similar doubts in the past. "It is difficult to calculate the consequences of different choices." Alo said. "Our words are not entirely groundless, Stark. We have commissioned our staff to conduct a study. It has clearly revealed that the star systems watched over by other senior ace pilots tend to get attacked 16.5 percent more frequently than star systems that enjoy our protection. Our deterrence strategy is working, though it is admittedly not as effective as we wish. In the long run, the lower frequency of attacks results in many more lives being saved from the ravages of the battlefield." "I see. Well, I can see how this works out well for you, but I… need to fight in order to prove my own conviction." Saint Stark stated in a slightly guilty tone. "I may not be a good match for you after all. Back in the Larkinson Clan, I am surrounded by people who are eager to seek confrontation against the aliens." "We are not surprised." Jeri said in an understanding tone. "The alien forces assigned to fight in the Middle Zones are relatively tame from our perspectives. I can assure you that the alien phasefighters and warships that are tasked with conquering the Upper Zones are much more terrible. Once you survive your first encounter against them, you will understand why we wish to deter our enemies as much as possible." That actually caused Davia Stark to look even more forward to fighting the Upper Zone aliens. From everything she had heard, these aliens were better in every way. Their hardware was a lot more expensive and powerful. They all came from the main military organizations of the major races. Their fleets were not padded by the shabby and less disciplined troops from the lesser races. Their leadership was a lot more professional and competent, and they took intelligence gathering as seriously as the humans. Stark realized that she still maintained the same attitude she held whenever she was preparing to fight against the aliens invading the Middle Zones. That was a mistake. She needed to take her new enemies a lot more seriously than before. Perhaps it might be a lot harder to knock them down with her upgraded ace mech than she initially thought! The twins smiled when they saw that Stark realized her mistake. "Good." Alo said with a satisfying smile. "Ace pilot or not, underestimating the enemy is a sin even for halfgods such as ourselves. You can be confident in your abilities while respecting the strength of your enemies at the same time. No one who dares to fight against a saint is weak. The least we can do is to take them seriously." "Come. Let us go to our ace mechs, Davia." Jeri encouraged as she began to walk again. "At this stage of your development, you will need all of the practice that you can get. Hiding your capabilities is less important than learning how to leverage your Saint Kingdom more effectively. With the lessons you received yesterday, you must be eager to try out new ideas." She was right. Ultimately, Saint Stark valued the opportunity to flex her power and discover new ways to apply her strength. If she had to let the hidden archeship get a good glimpse of her performance, then so be it. The Stewards Siamesia were no pushovers. The Kayana System shouldn’t fall too easily due to their presence. As the Amaranto Mark III deployed into space, she immediately flew towards her next waypoint where she could fire her arms without worrying about hitting friendlies. The Lamia Kailamassu emerged from the fortified space station a bit later, but demonstrated much greater mobility and easily caught up to the ace marksman mech. Although the Amaranto Mark III’s new power reactor supplied a lot more power to her flight system, her nature as a mech with relatively poor mobility could not be changed! "Your mobility is… limited." Alo said. "This is not a surprise, but we will experience greater difficulties covering your escape should the aliens overrun our defenses faster than we can respond." "I can take care of myself." "You are underestimating your enemies again. It is not just the phase lords that can potentially catch up to you even if you flee with your transphasic flight system working at its highest setting. There are special alien strike craft or sub-capital warships that can jump ahead or warp travel much faster than any of our own units." Jeri also added a warning. "Do not forget about the archeships either. They are not limited to passive observation. One of their favored means of attack is to prepare an ambush alongside our escape routes. The arche are cunning and they know us well enough by now to correctly predict where our ships will flee. If we are not able to expose or drive away these stealthed alien vessels in advance, you may end up getting struck by dozens of transphasic missiles launched at relatively close ranges."