Shortly after the Saint Commander's announcement, the Larkinsons serving on the Tortuous Scream looked visibly more nervous and excited. They all understood that they had not picked an easy first target. Yet they all believed that the Saint Commander would lead them to victory. Of course, not everyone reacted to the news with enthusiasm. Many of the mech designers of the Design Department did not look forward to remaining stuck on a warship that was certain to play an active role in the upcoming operation. Perhaps they could transfer to a different starship, but that was not that much of an improvement. The Tarrasque and the Babylon Excavator were faster and more technologically advanced vessels belonging to the Red Association and the Red Fleet respectively. However, there were merely cruisers that were considerably smaller and weaker than a genuine capital ship. Perhaps these advanced human warships possessed superior mobility and escape capabilities, but if the native aliens managed to catch up to them, their defenses likely wouldn't last that long. The Vulcan's Glory was a decent alternative. Unfortunately, the dwarves like to build their starships slow and sturdy. The recently built fleet carrier benefited from plenty of advanced human tech, but much of it was geared towards making her more resistant against damage. Transferring to the Vulcan's Glory therefore did not represent much of an improvement. The only advantage of staying on this vessel was that she would likely be stationed in the rear of the battlefield. The same could not be said for the Tortuous Scream. She was an orven battleship. In order to make effective use of her formidable collection of primary gun batteries as well as her 155 artillery bunkers, she needed to occupy a more forward position so that she could effectively pummel the enemy with the help of her empowered bunker mechs. Ves knew that Casella and the other senior military officers of the two fleets had entered into strategy sessions. He tactfully declined to attend them. There was little point in participating in them as his expertise in this field was nothing impressive. He would only embarrass himself if he rashly tried to impose his own views on the upcoming operation. Attacking a native alien stronghold was no joke. This was especially the case when it likely played host to multiple fleets that were strong enough to engage in commerce raiding in the periphery of the Caesarion Upper Zone. The caliber of enemies was considerably stronger compared to the less well-equipped enemies assigned to attack the Middle Zones. This meant that the margin of error was not as generous as before. Mistakes could lead to much more devastating consequences. The more superior alien warships and starfighters could easily shred mech units that had been caught out of position. Much relied on the two ace pilots. The Saint Commander was supposed to be the answer to the vast disparity in numbers. Saint Dise was meant to be a killer weapon against all of the alien phase lords that the Larkinsons and their allies expected to encounter. If anything went wrong with the two ace pilots or their ace mechs, the two fleets immediately fell into a crisis! Everyone was aware of this fact. They all hoped that Casella and Dise knew their business and that they had spent enough time with their new machines to be able to use them to good effect in the coming battle. Ves grew curious whether Saint Dise had gained enough proficiency in the usage of her sword fey to be able to utilize them effectively in the upcoming operation. He decided to call her up in case she needed assistance. As the main developer of her sword fey, he may be able to offer helpful advice. "I have spent the last weeks doing little else but practice with my sword fey." Dise said over the comm. "I have learned the formal methods and techniques used by drone mech specialists, but I find that some of them are not too useful in my case. The sword fey that you have are all alive and intelligent. They can move where I want them to be by themselves. Instead of relying on traditional control methods, I have decided to give them more freedom and autonomy. Not only am I willing to let them decide their own movements, I am also experimenting with letting them decide which targets to attack." That was a surprising answer. "I thought that you would choose the opposite." Ves said with a hint of perplexity in his voice. "You are one of the high-ranking mech pilots that prizes skill, precision and control. It is not typical for you to surrender control over an essential aspect of your ace mech. Those sword fey are all superdimensional. If they ever turn their blades on the wrong targets, the consequences will be devastating." The ace swordsman mech pilot looked completely unconcerned. She pinned Ves with a knowing glance. "Somehow, I think that you would prefer my current arrangement. You granted life and autonomy to these sword fey for good reasons. It would not have made much sense to grant them the ability to act autonomously only to limit them to obeying my absolute instructions. Doing so is contrary to their existence and a waste of their potential. Do you not agree?" Ves adopted a complex expression. "What you say is correct, but it is not the complete story. I envisioned this outcome to be the end of a long journey. I expected you to learn how to control the sword fey as if they were ordinary spurs at first. After several months or years of using them according to your intentions, you slowly begin to give the fey more autonomy, not because you think that controlling them is a burden, but because they have learned so much of your style and techniques that they can execute parts of it on an independent basis. Eventually, they have become so good that they can fight alongside you as if they are loyal Swordmaidens." Saint Dise smiled. "That is a thoughtful approach, but I think it is unnecessary. When it comes down to it, the sword fey are just companion spirits of the First Sword, am I correct?" "That is… an accurate enough statement." "Then I am actually cooperating with multiple copies of the First Sword. That makes this so much easier. The sword fey already understands my habits, my sword style, my combat philosophy and my target priority. What they do not know is how to fight as sword fey, and it just so happens that I do not have much expertise either. We are both learning this as we go. We have barely scratched the surface of sword formations. This is much more complicated than I thought. It greatly helps if my living mech helps me figure them out. I cannot simply will them into existence. I have to pay attention to math, geometry and all sorts of mystical rules." In other words, harnessing the power of sword formation required the use of brainpower, and not a small amount of it. This presented an interesting challenge to an ace pilot who never had a strong need to leverage her intelligence in previous battles. First-class mech pilots needed to be proficient in math in order to properly wield all of the advanced guns mounted on their mechs. They also needed to be proficient in numbers when utilizing the more advanced auxiliary systems related to sensor systems, remote shield generators, field repair systems and more. Of course, these mech pilots usually did not perform all of the calculations in their head. They just needed to understand the math and theory just enough to be able to direct the mech to perform the number crunching. They also had to be knowledgeable enough to understand what the figures actually meant. Dise was far removed from a data-driven mech pilot. She started off as a third-class mech pilot who operated beyond the Komodo Star Sector. Back then, Lydia's Swordmaidens did not just specialize in piloting swordsman mechs because they looked cool, but because they were among the simplest mechs that basic third-class mech pilots could learn under a challenging training environment. All of this meant that Dise actually possessed a rather poor inclination towards more complicated mechs and features. There were good reasons why Dise and many other Swordmaidens preferred to stick to piloting 'simple' swordsman mechs that lacked the bloat that was typical of more advanced second-class and first-class mechs. Ves and Ketis already took this tendency into account when they designed the First Sword Mark III. As much as Dise was comfortable with wielding a single blade as her only weapon for the rest of her fighting career, it was actually detrimental to her development to become so fixated and overdependent on wielding a single greatsword. Perhaps she may still be able to make great accomplishments while continuing to wield a single blade, but there was a large risk that she would hit an impossible bottleneck that she could not overcome because she lacked the ability to think outside of her very small and narrow box. By branching out into controlling sword fey and giving her the option to play with sword formations, Saint Dise already became confronted with a lot of novelty. She lost her comfort zone and was forced to go back to being an unskilled beginner again. The ace pilot had to learn a lot of basic lessons and explore the vast possibilities made available by the sword fey on an incremental basis. That was the brilliance of the sword fey. There was so much depth and mystery behind them that Saint Dise would never be able to master their usage anytime soon. She would have to spend decades if not centuries of her life in trying to utilize the sword fey at their greater potential. So what if Dise had to learn a lot of math and other new skills? As an ace pilot, her learning ability was not weak! Even if she was not as predisposed to purely intellectual pursuits like a formation master or a mech designer, she was still very capable of mastering the basics with the help of a mind that had surpassed the human limit. When Ves took a careful look at the ace pilot's expression, he could spot a sense of wonder and interest. That was a good sign. "Have you managed to figure out a useful sword formation?" He asked. "I have managed to come up with a number of tricks." The ace pilot confirmed. "It is easy enough to form rudimentary sword formations with just three or so sword fey, but the demands are much greater if you try to incorporate more. It was a challenge for me to learn how to form a larger sword formation, but I think I have managed. I have a strong interest in testing them out on the battlefield. It may not end so well if I try them out against a phase lord, but it should still do excellent damage against ordinary opponents." "What if they do not work out as well as you hoped?" "Then I will stop my experiments and fall back on using simpler sword formations." She replied. "I am not fussy about this. I have only recently begun to pilot the First Sword Mark III. I do not expect to master it instantly. That would be a disappointment because that means that both my mech and myself have exhausted our potential." It was good that she recognized this truth. Only by continuing to make meaningful progress would she be able to increase her qualifications to become a god pilot. Ves suddenly thought about a request that he intended to make. "By the way, if my guess about the upcoming battle plan is correct, your First Sword Mark III will be launching straight to the enemy with the help of the gravitic catapult of the Vulcan's Glory, am I correct?" Dise raised her eyebrow. "That insertion idea is being considered. I cannot say whether it is certain that this is how I will launch into the field." "It's pretty much certain in my opinion. After all, the gravitic catapult is new. We just can't resist the urge to give it a try." "Why did you bring this up, Ves?" "If you can, please do me a favor. I would like you to carry a piece of special cargo with you as your First Sword Mark III arrives at the enemy's doorstep…"