The Red Ocean had become a much more dangerous place. It was already bad enough when the native aliens under the leadership of the Red Cabal sought to wipe out red humanity. The situation had become much more complicated with the insertion of the extremely hostile mutated voribugs! The good news was that this newly emerged threat made enemies out of every other life form in the Red Ocean. Even if people suspected that the voribugs were directed by an intelligent being, the insects had attacked so many alien star systems that it became clear that the insect menace could never live in peace with the current masters of the Red Ocean. There was no way the voribugs would be content with occupying a previously sleepy corner of the Red Ocean. The voribugs behaved unscrupulously. They invaded both human and alien star systems without making any attempt to hide their numbers or their ambition to devour the entire dwarf galaxy. They did not engage in anything but the simplest of strategies. They only exhibited just enough order to avoid cannibalization, ramp up their breeding activity and load their swarms into their special warp transporter bugs that could take them to the stars. Aside from that, the voribugs did not engage in any sophisticated moves because they frankly did not need to. Their reproduction rate was so astonishing that they could always attack with overwhelming numbers. Even if the strength of a single voribug was not that impressive, a mech would still succumb if it was being swarmed by hundreds if not thousands of voribugs at a time! Then there were the mutations. The voribugs had changed considerably. They completely broke away from their completely static and unchanging genetic makeup and began to show significant improvements. They were stronger, faster, tougher and gained more diverse capabilities. The aforementioned warp transporter bugs was one of the most advanced subspecies among the new voribugs. Other variants tended to make it a lot more difficult for enemies to rely on passive defensive strategies to endure the voribug invasion. For example, the large plasma lobber voribug was capable of sieging fortifications by launching destructive plasma bolts. The minihive voribug flew fairly quickly and could launch even faster minibugs that acted like living projectiles. They inflicted light damage against energy shields, but possessed the ability to chew through nearly all forms of armor, making them extremely deadly against unshielded small craft and larger vessels! Considering that both humans and aliens have come to rely heavily on energy defenses in order to keep enemies away, the voribugs had mutated at least one special counter. Early reports mentioned a so-called phase shaker voribug that proved to be the bane of shielded mechs and structures alike. The phase shaker bug apparently devoured enough phasewater to grow a special transphasic organ that roughly mimicked the performance of a space suppressor module! The amount of variations was astonishing, and there were many indications that the voribugs had the capacity to develop even more mutated subspecies! Ves could not believe that the voribugs spontaneously developed these mutations and adaptations — a few of which stole technological principles that had only been available in recent years — by themselves. The bugs were too stupid and devoid of logical thinking! Not even the known elder voribugs that had lived the longest had shown any capacity of developing rational thinking. Ves and many others suspected that something fishy had taken place. The entire Voribug Outbreak may not be an accidental circumstance. It may have been engineered. Whether the masterminds had lost control over their experimental subjects along the way remained unclear. Everyone remained in the dark about the origin of the mutated voribugs. A lot of people had already begun to swap conspiracy theories across the galactic net, but in the absence of solid proof, it was dangerous to make too many assumptions. Ves came up with a lot of possible theories himself, but he tried not to form premature conclusions. He was sure that all of the major powers were scrambling to gather as much information about the mutated voribugs as possible. He just needed to wait until one of his contacts came and brought him up to speed on the latest discoveries. This was the advantage of becoming a tier 3 galactic citizen. Human civilization automatically assumed that people like him would not stand by and be ready to lend his aid to address the latest crisis. As Ves continued to wait for further developments, he made sure not to neglect his own responsibilities. The Larkinson Clan's first election was scheduled to take place just two days after the Battle of Screed Tanner VI-F and all of the other big events. The timing happened to be quite sensitive, though the Larkinsons originally decided to hold the popular vote 2 weeks after Ves agreed to resign from his top position. This meant that all of the candidates had just 2 weeks to prove their mettle and earn the appreciation of the voting base. During the past two weeks, the Saint General did not manage to do anything special. Sure, he regularly fought against the native aliens that sought to overcome the resistance protecting the Davute System, but his most recent heroic displays did not differ too much from his older ones. A major shortcoming was his Lionheart. The Design Department had yet to come around and upgrade the post-living mech to modern standards. This made it difficult if not impossible for Ark Larkinson to perform past his current peak and grow his resonance strength further. The only ways he could improve his performance on the battlefield was to refine his techniques and become a better leader. His progress in these aspects were limited. His decision to tie himself to the Colonial Federation of Davute continued to weigh him down. Since the defense of the Davute System was so critical, he was unable to move to other locations to pick and choose his own battles. He could only stay put and wait for the native aliens to dispatch an attack force that had already made numerous preparations against known threats such as the Lionheart! In contrast, the Saint Commander had it much better. The Premier Fleet may consist of a large number of recent hires, but it was still a much more powerful mech force than the Larkinson Clan had ever owned in the past. It also did not matter much if the Dracoloids, the Omega Threshers and the E-MULES shared no resemblance to the familiar living mechs that made the Larkinson Army so iconic. Their power and their relatively biased configurations evoked a lot of familiarity among the members of the expeditionary fleet. If the Design Department ever came around to designing the first proper first-class multipurpose mechs for the Premier Fleet, many people expected them to share a close resemblance to the aforementioned RA mech models! Above all else, the Saint Commander proved that she could continue the fine Larkinson tradition of winning extremely lopsided battles. No one expected the Premier Fleet led by the Saint Commander and Saint Dise to trounce the defenders of the Screed Tanner System in such a decisive and heavy-handed manner. Even if the Larkinsons could not have routed the vastly more numerous alien defenders without the assistance of the Bluejay Fleet, most clansmen overlooked the existence of the latter because they were much less remarkable. Their mechs and warships were all good in their own right, but the forces of the mechers and fleeters did not attempt to steal the limelight from beginning to end. They just did their jobs and allowed the Larkinsons to take center stage, thereby further highlighting the amazing capabilities of Casella's Command Field. The Battle of Screed Tanner VI-F could have ended in a very different way. If Casella's Command Field was not strong enough, if the first-class multipurpose mechs procured by the Premier Branch weren't strong or numerous enough, if the enemy fought harder and did not give up as quickly and if the First Sword Mark III was not so damn good at fighting against several greater phase lords, the Premier Fleet could have suffered a humiliating defeat! That would have ended the Saint Commander's political ambitions. Fortunately for Ves and the ardent supporters of Casella Ingvar, she had made a bet and won in the finest tradition of the Larkinson Clan. She deserved to be rewarded for her initiative. The Battle of Screed Tanner VI-F yielded extremely rich gains for the Larkinson Clan, so much so that the Larkinsons had already made the risky and unconventional decision to make use of captured alien transport ships! There was much to plunder from the depots on the surface of the moon. Mindful of their limited transportation capacity, the Larkinsons that descended from orbit had no choice but to be extremely picky about what sort of goods they chose to load into their cargo holds. There was even more treasure to be found in space. The massive debris field was mixed with a lot of broken hardware, but the search parties that took the time to sift through them could always find high-value parts and materials. The carcass of the Fifth Lord of Bis'qet alone was a treasure trove of valuables. The First Sword Mark III had not been kind to his Saint Piercer arm. It was a pity that the weapon had become too damaged to be used, not that it was easy for a mech to wield a polearm that was several times longer than a typical mech-grade polearm. The Fifth Lord's raiment was in slightly better condition, not that it mattered because the Larkinsons did not have any mech or phase lord that could wear this massive alien armor. "So what will the clan do with all of this damaged equipment?" Ves asked Gloriana as she assisted with the salvaging and recovery process. "We will first examine it for any secrets related to their origin and production methods." His wife answered. "It has become known to us that the native aliens likely do not obtain their superdimensional matter through mining the Blue Dimension like us. They instead developed the means to produce this matter through artificial means. It is vitally important for us to examine the alien equipment thoroughly, though I do not expect us to be able to learn anything useful. The mechers and the fleeters have managed to obtain Saint Piercer arms in the past, yet they have yet to decipher anything significant as far as I know. Either they are keeping secrets, or they are just as clueless as everyone else." It may be possible that the RA and the RF was playing dumb, but Ves did not think that was a probable outcome. It was in their best interest to reveal that they had discovered a way to either produce raw superdimensional matter, or figure out a sophisticated method that resulted in superior superdimensional alloys. This way, they could negotiate better terms with Swordmaster Ketis and the Larkinson Clan about the distribution of materials mined from the Blue Dimensions. "Is there any way for us to repair the broken Saint Piercer?" Ves curiously asked. Gloriana shook her head. "I have already observed the damage in person. Saint Dise showed no mercy to the weapon. It needs to be remade entirely in order to restore its old functionality, but there is no demand for it. The only possible Larkinson that can use a Saint Piercer that is scaled for a phase lord is you, or to be more precise, Sev. Nobody in the clan is eager to let your alter ego come out to play while armed with a weapon that is specifically designed to counter ace mechs." "Ah, you're right. I just feel it is a shame to melt it all down." "We cannot allow these spoils to go to waste, Ves. The alien version of superdimensional alloy is not as good as the high-grade alloys that we have made, but the former is much more economical and widely available. We can fully convert several expert mechs or ace mechs into their superdimensional variants with the salvaged alien materials."