Chapter 7410: Native Alien Superdrives Ves actually knew that the Terrans secretly thought about solving the physicality problem of Woodsap mech pilots by turning to an unconventional source of help. However, the Terrans strangely kept this initiative out of their reports. He found that very peculiar. He felt tempted to address this matter, but he refrained from doing so at this time. Ves knew that the Terrans always put great care in their actions. If they kept out an important initiative from their reports, then they had good reasons to do so. They likely did not want to mention any of it over an unsecure communication channel. Perhaps the Terrans may decide to enlighten him when he arrived at his destination. As the Bluejay Fleet continued to traverse across the territories of the Terran Alliance, it frequently came across scenes of both prosperity and panic. The colonists and clans who originated from the Greater Terran United Confederation had been wealthy beyond reason. When they chose to pack up their bags and emigrate to the new frontier, they often brought more than they strictly needed to start up a new life. Many of them understood that they could make much better use of the boundless new opportunities if they possessed an abundant amount of capital and assets. Though it was true that the Great Severing had bankrupted many pioneers and organizations that had relied too heavily on support from the old galaxy, those that had truly committed to the Red Ocean mostly managed to find their footing in the new age. Now, many of them had become entrepreneurs and industrialists who rode the wave of militarism throughout human-occupied space. Civilian industries suffered a steep decline as the needs of the military outweighed ordinary comforts. A large amount of regional trade and shipping had been established around strategic port systems and industrial systems throughout the various zones. Of course, the closer to the frontlines, the greater the prevalence of armed convoys. The native aliens keenly understood how much their human foes depended on logistics to sustain their warmaking potential. Much of the resistance at the frontlines could be attributed to how well the humans could supply their flagging defenders with fresh troops and supplies! In fact, when the Bluejay Fleet exited FTL travel in a star system that was situated close to the frontlines, many long-ranged sensor systems immediately picked up the presence of alien raiders, most of which consisted of relatively common modest-sized nunser homeships. It was a relatively modest force comprising about a dozen sub-capital ships and a few companies of phasefighters. The Bluejay Fleet could easily crush this hostile force, but the problem was that they were separated by a distance of over 5 light-hours. "Can we catch up to them?" Ves asked from the moment he arrived at the command center of the Tarrasque. Admiral Gori Tensen maintained a tense expression. "It depends. The native aliens of today are not the same as the ones we fought at the start of the Red War. We know from prior intelligence that the Cosmopolitan Movement has leaked the designs of our superdrives to the major alien races of the Red Ocean years ago. The native aliens have been relatively slow to adopt our tech, mostly because they are unfamiliar with Milky Way-style FTL drives. However, they are too enamored by their speeds to hold themselves back for long. They have already begun to install them onto their core fleets as well as many of their commerce raiding flotillas." Depending on their ratings and other factors, FTL drives and by extension superdrives did not necessarily have to be expensive to produce. So long as the native aliens understood their technological principles, it should be easy enough to adapt the new drives to their existing homeships. However, most of the major alien races had a huge amount of vessels. They did not have the production capacity to upgrade all of their hulls throughout the entire dwarf galaxy. The enemy leaders could only set priorities and focus on upgrading the ships of greater importance and most in need. This was why most alien raiding fleets still relied on old and outdated warp drives. The various alien civilizations did not bother to upgrade these aging hulls with modern superdrives because they were bound to get destroyed shortly after assaulting human-occupied space! This actually gave many people the impression that the native aliens were terribly slow at adopting new technologies. While there was a kernel of truth in this assumption, it did not apply equally to every alien group. The raiding fleets surprisingly received priority on this particular upgrade. This was the only way for them to become effective at their jobs. Not only could they easily catch up to slow and bulky transportation vessels, they could also outrun most human retaliation forces! Given that this particular alien raiding force had penetrated relatively further into Terran space than was typical, there was a great chance that its vessels were all equipped with superdrives. Granted, the quality and performance of those superdrives were probably mediocre at best. The native aliens still treated their raiding ships as disposable, after all. The ships only had to inflict enough damage and disruption to human shipping before they inevitably got cornered and shot to pieces. The question now was whether the Bluejay Fleet should intervene. "It is not worth the effort for us to pursue this enemy force." Admiral Tensen ultimately judged. "We can easily clean them up by sending a handful of giants aboard a squadron of fast ships, but the pursuit will last for days if not weeks. I have no doubt that our fastest vessels will be able to catch up by virtue of their superior superdrives and technologies, but we will miss their presence when we have already started our incursion into hostile territory." Ves thought about it. Leaving this raiding flotilla alone might end up causing damage to nearby Terran convoys. Not all of them were large enough to be able to fend off a hostile force of this size. Nonetheless, the Bluejay Fleet had its own mission. It was not responsible for defending Terran space per se. The Terran Alliance was responsible for its own internal security. "You’re right, I suppose. Report it to the Terrans and let’s move on." Ves decided. "I really wish we had a much faster and more convenient means to strike this fleet, but we lack this capability. We do not have any means of teleporting across a distance of 5 light-hours." That might not be true in the future. Ves could easily foresee the development of short-ranged and medium-ranged teleportation tech in the coming decades. The existence of superdimensional matter could definitely facilitate this power, though he had very little clue how it could be done through scientific means. Although Ves possessed the capacity to teleport across short distances by relying on his identity as a phase lord, the maximum range was dismal in relation to the current situation. The Bluejay Fleet eventually moved on after reporting the sighting to the Terran authorities. Not that it mattered. The star system was most definitely littered with hidden Terran listening devices, and passing human vessels had probably transmitted their own sightings of the hostile force. Regardless, the encounter put every soldier on edge. They no longer maintained the relaxed demeanor of before and all gained an edge that clearly conveyed their readiness to fight at the drop of the hat. It had only been a relatively short time since they last fought the native aliens, but that did not mean that everything remained the same. Just as with the case of superdrives, the major alien races had steadily adopted other stolen technologies, some of which they generously applied to their disposable assault fleets. Just before the Bluejay Fleet was about to rendez-vous with the Larkinson Clan’s Premier Fleet, Ves and a handful of others paid a visit to the only Larkinson ace pilot within his reach. "The Riot Mark III is still in a relatively uncertain state." Gloriana reported to her husband with an expression that conveyed her mild frustration. "It can still be called a mech of sorts, but it occasionally behaves as if it is made out of organic materials. Repairing it has turned out to be a greater nightmare than I thought. Repairing the largest and most obvious forms of battle damage is easy enough. It is the smaller faults and deviations that have proven stubborn to our ministrations. There are many times when this living mech simply refused to give us access or allow our corrections to persist." Ves was not too surprised after hearing this. He had heard his wife complain about the idiosyncrasies of the powerful D-mech more than once. As he looked up at the mostly dormant machine, he knew that it was actually a lot more active and poised than it looked. A D-mech was never stable. Saint Orfan’s willpower constantly had to fight to suppress the powerful influence of its Middle Demon. It was precisely due to the mutual hatred between the ace pilot and her own machine that the Riot Mark III could never achieve total stability! Even now, its surface components subtly shifted and mutated before his eyes. This was just one of many signs that the ace spearman mech remained susceptible to the powerful influence of its own controllers. There was no single master to the Riot Mark III. "How is its current condition?" Ves inquired. "It is difficult to determine a precise figure, but my estimate is that its physical condition has only reached 92 percent of its theoretical peak condition." His wife responded. "It is close enough to undamaged that you will hardly notice any drop to its performance, but that does not mean its deterioration can be ignored. The Riot Mark III is more susceptible to crippling attacks than before. This will mostly be felt if it faces a powerful opponent again." In other words, the D-mech was not able to fulfill its primary purpose as effectively as before. Ves originally designed it to confront champions of similar or greater power, but that became a lot more precarious if the living mech still retained so many battle scars. Ves placed his hands on his hips. He did not see an easy means to remedy this situation aside from asking the Prophet’s Bane to cease its resistance. Giving its incredibly hostile and hateful personality, the chance of that happening was close to zero. "How is Saint Orfan?" "Her condition is not good." Gloriana straightforwardly answered. "She is still suffering from the sequelae of her last battle. The times where she is awake and lucid are depressingly rare. She is mostly in a state of dormancy. It is similar enough to being asleep I suppose." Sleep manifested much differently when it came to Saint Rosa Orfan. She had functionally lost her original human body, so she no longer rested from a physiological perspective. However, her mental state endured much greater pressure due to her constant warring against her own D-mech. No human could withstand so much pressure, not even a being that had become a saint. Saint Orfan therefore needed to rest much more frequently than other ace pilots. She could easily ’sleep’ for days or weeks at a time without needing to wake up as it simply was not necessary anymore. After all, there was no need for her to quench her thirst, void her bowels or keep her muscles in shape. She was no longer burdened by her human frailties. Though that initially sounded like an advantage, Ves did not think this way. Every human was afflicted by basic physiological needs. To lose them was to lose an essential part of one’s humanity. While god pilots had already evolved far enough that they could easily go without these mortal vestiges, Ves was not certain that the same applied to junior ace pilots. He constantly worried about whether Rosa Orfan would still remain as human as before each time she woke up again. How many years would she able to last before she bore a closer resemblance to a monster than a human?