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"I'm finally home again!"

The Larkinsons were already aware that their patriarch had personally visited the big MTA battlecarrier for a time, so they did the best they could to handle the aftermath of the Purgatory Campaign.

A lot of hours had passed since he disappeared. Ves knew that a lot had changed, but right now he wasn't in the mood to preside over the situation.

"It's already night time." Ves tiredly sighed as he quickly referenced the time.

Task Force Fisherman's evacuation from Purgatory and the MTA's successful capture of Moby Dick marked the end of the crisis period.

Ves already noticed that the fleet had stood down from red alert to yellow alert. The only possible threat that could happen was if the remaining fish-whales from Purgatory suddenly managed to break out and chase after the expeditionary fleet.

The chances of that happening was so low that Ves practically dismissed the possibility.

"The MTA has already laid claim to Purgatory, so this is none of my business anymore."

The excitement had passed. Ves had already made the decisions that mattered. He was more than ready to return to his stateroom and take a long and deserved break.

Soon enough, his honor guard arrived and verified his identity before taking up their usual positions.

As Ves studied the equipment of his guards and wondered how he should upgrade them in the future, he headed back to his place of rest while contacting various people.

He first called General Verle to learn how his forces were faring.

"The mech pilots who were lucky enough to advance to expert candidate or expert pilots are all being monitored at the medical ward of the Dragon's Den." Verle answered. "We had to leave a large amount of non-essential hardware and assets behind in Purgatory when we departed in haste, but we did not abandon anything truly important aside from our damaged and destroyed mechs."

Ves furrowed his brows. He recalled that after his forces along with the Evolvers defeated the Phaser fish-whales, they left behind a lot of salvageable and repairable mech frames.

All of those living mechs could have been saved and returned into service, but the dire situation did not give the Larkinsons enough time to retrieve the fallen mechs.

This left a sour taste in his mouth. He wouldn't have felt so conflicted if they were ordinary mechs, but each of them were alive. They had already started to develop their unique characters and had the potential to become formidable legacy mechs in the future!

He inwardly shook his head. Casualties were unavoidable. Both mechs and mech pilots accepted the risk that they might never return once they stepped on the battlefield.

Rather than agonizing over the living mechs that his forces had cruelly left behind, he would rather focus on the ones that had gained a greater degree of importance than before.

"Have our troops preserved the mechs piloted by the clansmen who succeeded in breaking through during the last battle?"

"Our protocols already provide instructions on what we should do. I have made certain that the mechs in question are separated and put under special guard. The biggest issue is that many of the mechs have incurred substantial degrees of both external and internal damage. Our mech technicians have tried their best to prevent the damaged machines from deteriorating any further, but they have made sure not to make any unnecessary alterations."

This was an important instruction. If Ves' suspicions were true that many of the mechs involved in breakthroughs had either evolved into third order living mechs or at least come closer to it, the machines in question were all invaluable assets!

Ves could do a lot more with living mechs that had become a lot more powerful and developed than before!

"That is good to hear. Keep the mechs in place and don't allow too many to get close to them. If any of their mech pilots recover, you can allow them to approach their machines."

"Understood."

"What is our fleet doing at the moment?"

"We are currently resuming our journey to the edge of the Garimel System. We are already trying to determine whether it is safe to transition into FTL travel a few days later. The… destruction of the planet of Auralis has produced minor disturbances and disruptions in the orbital movements of the star system's satellites. This has produced gravitic ripples that have likely made any form of superluminal travel more turbulent than normal."

"Will we have to delay our departure?" Ves asked with a frown.

After going through a lot of events in this star system, he was eager to leave and return to civilization!

"From what I hear, it won't be necessary to do so. The gravitic ripples are already subsiding. By the time we are able to begin our departure, everything will return close to normal. We are merely investigating to make certain we have not overlooked any risk factors."

After asking a few more questions, Ves was satisfied with the state of his clan and fleet and closed the connection.

He called a few more important figures and received reassuring news. Nothing had exploded while he was gone.

Once he finally stopped before the entrance to his stateroom, he completed his final call and loosened his shoulders.

"I'm back."

He finally stepped inside and noticed that the lights were dimmed before his arrival. He smiled as he quietly moved to his daughter's bedroom.

Since Aurelia was in deep sleep, the lights stayed dark. He slowly moved towards the crib and gazed lovingly at his sleeping baby.

Clixie, who happened to be laying beside her body, stared up and lifted her paw.

"Miaow…"

"Shhh. I'm just here to check up on my baby girl."

Ves leaned down to plant a kiss on Aurelia's head before he softly caressed her head. The baby remained absolutely undisturbed. Her expression was so cute that he had to resist the urge to pick her up and give her a deep hug.

"I missed you so much, Aurelia."

He briefly petted Clixie's furry back before leaving the two to their own devices.

When Ves left Aurelia's bedroom and entered his shared chamber with Gloriana, his wife had already woken up after receiving a notification of his return.

She had raised herself up to a sitting position on her side of the bed and stared at Ves with a tired and expectant expression.

"You have finally returned."

"Yup."

"Well?"

"Let me freshen up and change my clothes. I had a long day and experienced a lot of events, many of which will change our lives forever."

"That makes it all the more important for you to brief me on what you have done."

"I'll give you the short story after I return."

Ves first headed over to the bathroom and emerged a short time later while wearing pajamas.

Once he slipped into his side of the bed, Gloriana turned her body around to stare squarely in his eyes.

"It doesn't take a genius to infer that the MTA is interested in Purgatory and your work. Now tell me what you have discussed with the fine mechers over at the Paracelsus Optimus."

"I signed a new agreement with the MTA's Transhumanist Faction. Let me give you a brief description on what this entails."

Ves quickly explained the context of this new partnership and outlined the various terms of the new contract.

One of the questions he asked to Master Dervidian earlier was how much he was allowed to share the truth to others.

Since Gloriana was not only his wife but also his closest work collaborator, it did not make sense to hide too many secrets from her. She would learn about much of what he was working as they went back to designing mechs.

Since that was the case, Ves might as well fill her in on the basics.

Gloriana became increasingly more incredulous as she learned what kind of arrangement that her husband had made with the Transhumanists.

"You didn't negotiate well enough, Ves! The Transhumanists haven't made enough concessions to obtain a method to induce breakthroughs. Do you know how much money and benefits others are willing to bestow to us in order to master this secret?! Imagine what would happen if we held an auction. Different MTA factions or even other powers such as the Terrans and Rubarthans would instantly uplift our Larkinson Clan into a first-class organization if they could gain access to what we have!"

Ves softly laughed. "We would be dead or in a hidden cell before that can happen. Don't you understand how many interest groups we'll disturb with what my Aspect of Transcendence can do?! The implications of my work are much greater than you can imagine. I would rather settle for less and maintain autonomy over my own life than to turn into a pawn of various peak human powers."

"Isn't that what Master Termaneo Dervidian has essentially done to you?" Gloriana skeptical retorted. "It sounds to me that you have succumbed to his layout without much resistance."

When Ves thought about Master Dervidian's impassioned speeches along with how many Terran and Rubarthan test subjects exploded during the experimental sessions, he truly could not imagine how he could have made a firmer stance.

Perhaps Dervidian deliberately acted up his more intimidating side in order to gain the upper hand during the subsequent negotiations, but Ves still would have been reluctant to adopt a more assertive attitude.

He shook his head. "You don't understand. The MTA had me over a barrel. If the mechers really wanted to, they could have taken fault with how we traded with a dangerous alien race or how we accidentally unleashed a 12-kilometer super phase whale into the Red Ocean. These crimes are enough to land me in jail, if not execute me right away. The only reason why Master Dervidian was willing to sweep these crimes under the rug was because he wanted me to share my work with his faction."

"That means you still had leverage over the mechers. Surely this Master Mech Designer could have given you additional MTA merits or a handful of extra fleet carriers."

"Hey, we should already be happy with getting the full MTA merit price for the majority of the phasewater we have harvested from the pocket space. I'm already about to receive an astronomical amount of MTA merits. I don't want to jeopardize this transaction by acting too greedy."

"You could have at least told the Master to split a portion of those MTA merits to me!" Gloriana insisted. "Aren't they supposed to be awarded to the Larkinson Clan as a whole? Why should you be the sole recipient of this windfall? Give me my merits!"

"I can't! MTA merits are non-transferable, remember?"

His wife leaned over and grabbed his neck in an attempt to shake him back and forth!

"THEN CALL MASTER DERVIDIAN AND TELL HIM TO SPLIT THE AWARD BETWEEN US! WE'RE PARTNERS, VES! I DESERVE AN EQUAL SHARE!"

"I can't!" Ves coughed! "It's already a done deal! I can't arbitrarily alter an agreement after I signed a formal, legally-binding contract!"

"YOU IDIOT! Have you taken any legal courses? Any contract can be altered after obtaining the consent of all of the involved parties! I don't think that any contract is forever set in stone!"

"This is the MTA you're talking about! People like us can't simply walk up to the mechers in order to make a frivolous request."

"FRIVOLOUS?! IS THAT WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT MY DEMAND?!"

It took several minutes for Ves to make it clear that he was not about to oblige his wife.

Gloriana grew incredibly glum after seeing that her attempts of persuasion had failed. She crossed her arms and sulked as she turned her body away from his direction.

"By the way, there is one more point I haven't mentioned yet." Ves spoke out.

"What is it, Ves?"

"The MTA will soon promote me into a tier 6 galactic citizen. Sounds impressive, right? I'm way ahead of you once this change goes through."

"WHAT?!"