Chapter 7123: Too Ominous Ves’ selection surprised the two fleeters. Neither Astrid nor Athena Jameson expected him to pick this unusual combination. "I can understand the reasoning behind your choices." The RF officer said while furrowing her brows. "If overlap is your greatest concern, then choosing dreadnoughts whose names and underlying approach towards combat are divergent from the Dominion of Man is an imperative. We do not have an issue with selecting the Guns of Armageddon. She is one of the favorite choices alongside the Doom of Xenus among most of my colleagues. However, the Heart of Darkness lacks far too much support. Even with your recommendation, I cannot imagine that will change." "Why not?" "Because the Heart of Darkness is the only dreadnought that is designed and built to play dirty." Astrid Jameson responded. "The psychic weaponry that she depends upon to drive enemies insane are highly classified, but you can easily guess that they are not based on clean human tech. The Heart of Darkness also possesses one of the least formidable offensive armaments of the different dreadnoughts, especially after the Cybers have refitted and upgraded the Dominion of Man." "If you want direct firepower, you can already obtain it from the Guns of Armageddon." Ves pointed out. "Instead of overcommitting to a single attack method, it is better to diversify in my opinion. The Heart of Darkness works completely differently. She seeks to destroy her enemies mentally and spiritually rather than physically. I think the Guns of Armageddon is the most optimal dreadnought to employ against the native aliens due to their reliance on big warships and bigger phase leaders. The Heart of Darkness should work especially well against the mutated voribugs, including the stronger variants that have shown resistance against many extraordinary effects." He made a good point. His selection might not be the most acceptable, but he believed that it was the most effective combination that the RF could choose from given the nature of the current external threats. It was useless to perpetually blast so many mutated voribugs. The amount of ammunition and energy wasted on annihilating these bug swarms was incalculable. The fleeters had to employ more efficient and cost-effective means to wipe them out en masse. Ves could think of no better solution than the mysterious psychic armaments that could literally drive native aliens insane! However, Astrid and the Red Fleet appeared much less eager to let this dark genie out of the bottle. "The Heart of Darkness is an awful first choice." Astrid insisted to Ves. "She is a weapon of terror that is more suited to sow chaos and misery behind enemy lines than to directly confront enemies on the frontlines. She is also a vessel of revenge. If red humanity falls, the Heart of Darkness will plunge into alien space and tear apart entire alien societies before she is taken down. The Heart of Darkness has her strengths, but she is also an option of last resort. We prefer to win our battles by relying on honorable means." Ves snorted when he heard that! "Hah! That is funny. That argument may work if we are talking about the native aliens, but not the mutated voribugs. The latter have no concept of honor or restraint. The insects do not respect treaties or any of the unwritten conventions that have mostly kept the use of weapons of mass destruction to a minimum. The bugs are driven by a single hive queen that is cruel and savage on a galactic level. You cannot stay on the high ground when fighting against this kind of adversary. The Heart of Darkness may have negative connotations, but this happens to be her strength. You do not need to treat the mutated voribugs with dignity because they are literally space vermin." He truly believed that there was a lot of potential to convert the Heart of Darkness into a living warship. Sure, the risks and dangers associated with her were greater, but her exotic means of attack also made her a lot more difficult and confounding to counter! Ves fell in love with her asymmetric warfare capabilities. She Heart of Darkness may have her problematic sides, but he was confident the fleeters could keep her in check. The converted Fire Elemental would also gain a domain that was drastically different from that of Furia. The probability that the two would overlap in any way was close to the bottom. Though both Astrid and Athena looked swayed by his arguments, that was not enough to change the RF’s stance on the matter. "There are other problems." Astrid said with difficulty. "Ethical problems. The birth of Furia has led to widespread consequences, though much of them are confined to the Cybernetic Empire. If we bring a new deity to life that is unequivocally a dark god, how much can we trust him or her to serve red humanity and treat us well? I cannot bring myself to believe that human faith is strong enough to keep this god honest. The deity’s entire nature is rooted in fire, evil and disorder." "Hm, fair enough. If you are not confident in your ability to control the Heart of Darkness and her activated Spark Reactor, then I suppose that this dreadnought may not be a good selection." Ves conceded. He personally disagreed, but the fleeters had the final word. "If we rule out the Heart of Darkness, which dreadnought will you choose instead?" Ves did not have to think too much to come up with an answer. "That is a much tougher decision. The Grail of Eternity is pretty much the fleeter embodiment of support link technology. I like her concept and think she has great potential, but only if she is working alongside a large fleet. The Reign of Frost comes across as a less objectionable version of the Heart of Darkness. Her potential for crowd control against the mutated voribugs is excellent. Even if these insects are highly resistant towards extreme temperature fluctuations, I doubt they can withstand getting frozen in an instant." This time, Ves’ suggestions sounded much more acceptable to the fleeters. "Either dreadnoughts are fine as far as I am concerned." Astrid said as her tone eased up. "The Admiralty will make the final decisions after weighing all of the strategic considerations. It is true that the Reign of Frost is likely more suited to be used against the mutated voribugs, but there is not a strong enough argument to convert her into a living dreadnought. So far, the swarming enemies have relied solely on quantity to overwhelm the Rubarthan defenders. They have yet to deploy any serious champion units that require much stronger measures to put down. That may change in the future, but if it does not, then the Grail of Eternity is a more sensible choice." "I agree." The Grail of Eternity functioned as a command vessel more than anything else. This made her very versatile as she could be accompanied by any manner of mechs and warships that possessed compatible support link arrays. The link-oriented dreadnought could be used to support a warfleet composed of vessels optimized to fight against the native aliens in one moment when fighting against the Red Cabal. If the mutated voribugs started to make serious progress, then the Grail of Eternity could easily transfer to another fleet that was already configured to fight against these biological opponents. In short, the dreadnought’s reliance on other units was not necessarily a weakness. She was the dreadnought equivalent to mech commander and functioned as an excellent force multiplier. "Are you willing to put yourself at our disposal when we call upon you to convert one of the aforementioned dreadnoughts into living godships?" Astrid finally asked. "I will help you guys out so long as my schedule is not too busy." Ves carefully said. "It is best to notify me in advance so that I can plan it out ahead of time. I am not doing this service for free, though. There is a lot of risk involved with the procedures, and it takes a lot more thinking and effort to produce superior results than what I have managed to accomplish with the Dominion of Man. More importantly than that, I am not doing this for free. I know how much of a difference these living dreadnoughts can make for you guys. They might be as domineering as god pilots, but they are not that far behind. I do not believe that the alternative plans you have mentioned can equal my work, at least in the short term." Nothing was impossible. So long as the Red Fleet and the Red Collective were desperate enough, they may just be able to develop a substitute that could produce similar results. However, Ves still believed that he was the best provider of what the fleeters wanted the most. That had to count for a lot. "We are ready to negotiate with your matriarch and the rest of your clan to provide comprehensive assistance and other perks." Astrid said. "We can grant additional RF Warship Tokens to you, allowing you to expand your Premier Fleet with additional warships or form a second fleet that is under your direct control. We can also transfer useful high technologies to you or supply you with special materials that should be of considerable interest to a mech designer. We will not give you all of these concessions without restriction. We have scored everything we are willing to offer with a numerical value. We are willing to give your clan a certain quota for the successful conversion of a single dreadnought." They talked a bit more about that. It essentially enabled the Larkinsons to pick and choose what they wanted to put into their wish list. The Red Fleet would only fulfill the requests on the list according to how much it thinks the clan deserved. This quota was highly dependent on the results of the conversion. A stronger and more explosive outcome than the initial Dominion of Man would earn the Larkinson Clan bonus points, but a partial failure would only make the fleeters fulfill a fraction of the original demands. Ves found this to be fair and convenient. He could go back to the clan and discuss with everyone what concessions they should prioritize and which ones they should place at the bottom of their wish list. "Now that we have initially taken care of our main business, let us move on to other matters." Lieutenant Commander Astrid Jameson said as he finally directed her attention back to Aurelia. "Since you have chosen to bring your daughter to this meeting, I believe that you have taken one of our earlier offers under serious consideration." That was not particularly difficult to guess. "Correct. My daughter is considering your offer to let her study at one of the RF’s naval academies. However, the information that you have shared with us is lacking in essential details. We know nothing about the academy in question, what the curriculum will be, what courses she is allowed or not allowed to study and what she will do upon graduation." Astrid smiled back. "I see. These are understandable concerns. The fact that you are troubled by them indicates that you are taking our offer seriously. That is good to know. We are happy to provide clarifications for most of your questions. It also depends on what you wish for your child. Do you want to enroll her to our naval academy purely to receive the best and most professional naval officer training that our civilization can provide, or are you willing to see her build a career within the Red Fleet?" Ves exchanges glances with his daughter. "We are still undecided on this matter. It is why we want more information from you. We do not know enough to make a solid decision. I want to hear how Aurelia will fare among you fleeters in either scenario. If she is permitted to serve within the Red Fleet on a temporary or permanent basis, will she be able to receive combat postings, and will she be able to choose her berths? Can we request her to transfer to one of the ships of the Bluejay Fleet, or is this decision completely out of our hands?" These were all serious questions from a concerned father. While he was willing to lend the Red Fleet a measure of trust, he still wanted to hear Astrid explain what kind of treatment the fleeters were willing to extend to Aurelia.