According to his public profile, Frederico Navarro was a forty-odd years old Journeyman ch Designer.
To be more precise, he was both a biotech expert and a bioch designer. This reflected the fact that every bioch designer had to know the ins and outs of exobiology, genetics, molecular biology, biochanics and many other related fields.
How else could they design and 'grow' their biochs if they didn't know how a living organism worked?
Biochs may perform identical to classical chs on the battlefield, but their organic nature ant that the logistics around them were completely different.
ch companies didn't fabricate biochs. They grew them. Biochs literally started as tiny, juvenile masses of tissue. As long as they were kept in special cultivation pools, it usually took a couple of weeks or months for them to grow in size and mass.
This was a very long production ti. The weakest biochs took at least a week to reach maturity while the more powerful models might take years to gestate!
While this sounded incredibly backwards, this growth-based production thod had its own advantages.
The most important one was that once a producer set up the infrastructure, they just needed to feed materials, energy and nutrients in the cultivation pools in order to grow a lot of chs at once.
Hardly any ch technicians or other workers were required to perform any manual processes. Just a few overseers and biotech experts were enough to oversee the production of thousands of biochs!
Maintaining the biochs once they were finished was easy as well. The living machines were always capable of regenerating minor battle damage by themselves. If they suffered major damage such as losing an arm, they could still regrow a new one as long as they were fed with lots of materials and tended to by a single bioch technician!
The sa thod could also be employed to upgrade or modify the biochs.
Rather than treat them as machines, bioch designers and bioch technicians instead treated them as giant living organisms. Just like how humans could improve their capabilities by augnting themselves with implants and gene treatnts, biochs could also be augnted in the sa fashion!
While biochs possessed several advantages, they also ca with so distinct downsides.
The first major derit was the higher barrier to entry to design them. Every bioch designer had to be proficient in both biotechnology and traditional engineering. They could not skimp in either direction, or else their biochs would never be able to compete against classical chs.
The second significant downside was that biochs demanded a completely different infrastructure. The traditional ch industry had no clue how to produce, repair, maintain and recycle biochs.
As biological machines, a large proportion of their makeup had to be made with different materials. Bioch producers competed against both traditional ch companies and other biotech companies when it ca to sourcing the necessary materials.
All in all, biochs were generally very difficult to popularize in a region where classical chs already reigned supre. The lack of infrastructure hampered their utility as it demanded producers and consurs to make special accommodations. All of that cost extra money, effort and resources.
When Ves briefly looked at the states bordering the Life Research Association, he quickly found out that none of the neighbors adopted biochs on a widespread scale.
Aside from a couple of exceptions, the rest of Majestic Teal firmly stuck to using normal tallic chs!
While this forced the LRA's ch industry to stand alone, the bioch enthusiasts didn't appear to be having difficulties. Biotechnology was far more developed in the state than anywhere else in the local region, so local bioch designers such as Frederico Navarro could easily make a living by depending entirely on the dostic market.
"Why is Dr. Navarro so interested in challenging to a design duel?" Ves asked.
His assistant shrugged. "We aren't sure, but we think that he is driven by a combination of pride in the LRA's biochs and a perception that we are challenging the definition of 'living chs'. I'm not sure how his specialty plays into his motives. According to the MTA, Dr. Navarro excels at designing chs that can transform mid-battle or in a short amount of ti."
His exact specialty was rapid biochanical transformation. While it was a bit exaggerated to state that Dr. Navarro's products could transform in the middle of an engagent, so of his products were actually capable of doing so depending on the scale of changes.
Regardless whether his biochs took seconds or hours to change into a different form, Dr. Navarro was not the most successful Journeyman in his ho state. His products may be versatile, but they were also significantly more expensive than the industry standard. His biochs also possessed shorter lifespans. If they lived longer than they were designed to last, then they would rapidly degrade until they died a 'natural' death. Just like prolonging the lives of humans, it was very troubleso to extend the lifespan of a bioch.
However, what did all of this have to do with Ves? While he was intrigued by Dr. Navarro's work, he had no intention of delving further into the intricacies of biochs. He possessed no foundation in this weird category of chs. His own production facilities weren't capable of producing biochs and classical chs already offered plenty of diversity for him to explore.
"Is it possible that Dr. Navarro did not reach out to us on our own initiative?" Ves guessed. "What if soone else wants to test us through this fellow?"
"That is what Calabast suspects as well when we brought it up to her. She is still looking into this angle, but it is unlikely for us to determine whether that is the case." Gavin replied.
Just like regular ch designers, every bioch designer possessed a range of connections. Their teachers, business partners, friends and colleagues were part of the networks that people like Dr. Navarro relied upon to maintain their footing in a competitive ch industry.
No ch designer was able to stand alone. This was especially the case in a second-rate state.
Personally, Ves suspected that Dr. Navarro might be part of an organization or faction within the LRA. That wasn't necessarily a big deal as Ves would actually be surprised if the bioch designer was all on his loneso.
Was Dr. Navarro or the mastermind standing behind him trying to pull Ves and the Larkinson Clan into so kind of plot?
Who knew. Ves just wanted to shop at the LRA. He had no interest in getting pulled into the quagmire of local politics.
"As long as you don't find anything alarming about Dr. Navarro, go ahead and tell him that I accept his challenge." He decided after a mont of thought. "Make sure to remind him of our conditions. We will only be travelling to open, comrcial star systems and we will not stay too long in any destination."
"Will do, boss."
Ves put the issue out of his mind and moved on to other matters.
Later in the day, Ves entered the bridge. He looked around and approached Captain Daria-Maria Vraken as she looked closely at a tir.
Once the tir counted down to 0, the ship shuddered for a mont. A brief nauseating sensation swept over Ves before his body quickly stabilized.
The fleet had returned to realspace!
The grand captain spent a few minutes issuing orders in order to make sure the Spirit of Bentheim was still in order.
Hundreds of chs deployed into space. They imdiately patrolled the surrounding space and remained on guard against any unusual signs.
The ch pilots were a bit more jumpy than usual this ti. A nervous mood swept across the entire fleet as this seemingly-unordinary star system was actually different from the other stops.
Ves stood still for a mont as he took in the significance of this destination.
While Ves had traveled beyond the Komodo Star Sector a few years ago, this was the first ti in his life that he had entered a different star sector!
"Welco to Vicious Mountain, Patriarch Larkinson." Captain Vraken announced. "While we will only be here for a week, we have entered into a different region from before. Unlike our ho star sector, Vicious Mountain is dominated by a single second-rate state. The Garlen Empire imposes its own rules in this star sector. There is no reason to be concerned, though. As long as we stay in the periphery, the Garlen Empire won't bother with us. We are just passing through."
As Ves studied the projection of the local plot, the star system did not look any different from a star system in Komodo.
Doubt crossed his face. "I thought the crossover would be more noticeable. We did pass through a gravitic barrier, right?"
"Do you think that our Hexer FTL drives are inadequate? They are easily capable of bridging this gap. If you actually felt any turbulence along the way, then that is a sign that the FTL drive is malfunctioning."
Every star sector aside from frontier ones was surrounded by barriers that inhibited FTL travel. Whether these were natural formations or created by aliens in the past, humanity had mastered the ability to strengthen these higher-dinsional walls.
According to the Big Two, separating star sectors by erecting these barriers was a form of defense against invaders. Any alien empire that declared war against humanity would be forced to chew through one star sector after another. It was impossible to bypass them and reach the core of human civilization right away!
The fact that these sa asures also made it harder for humanity to travel across the galaxy did not seem to bother the MTA and CFA. Ves personally thought that the powers that be actually wanted to keep space peasants in their place.
Those who were capable of crossing into other star sectors should either be galactic citizens or those connected to them. Ves and the Larkinson Clan easily t the qualifications to travel across the galaxy.
In fact, the Larkinson Family also managed to cross over in this star sector. He knew that Uncle Ark and the rest of the old family had sohow managed to enter the Garlen Empire in search of protection and employnt.
Though Ves felt a little worried about his relatives, Ark was not a reckless leader. If the Larkinson Family thought it was safe to enter a second-rate state, then they should not be exposed to danger.
It was just a bit difficult for Ves to shake his worries. He did not have a lot of positive experiences interacting with powerful organizations and factions. The Garlen Empire might be a powerful monolithic state on paper, but it was actually divided into many squabbling tribes and clans. The Cross Clan was just one of thousands of organizations that struggled for power.
As Ves slowly got over the wonder of entering into a different star sector, he occupied himself with ship-related matters.
Running the Spirit of Bentheim was a heavy responsibility. So many people and parts were moving around at the sa ti that he admired Captain Vraken for her ability to stay on top of everything.
As they talked about the lackluster training progress of the Larkinsons who were supposed to replace the Hexer trainers, an alarm suddenly sounded.
"What is the matter?!" Captain Vraken questioned the sensor officer.
"We're reading a massive incoming FTL translation signal! An unknown fleet is arriving within the vicinity of our position!"
Ves briefly paused. An unsettling feeling swept over him. Was it a coincidence, or…?
Another alarm sounded.
Major Verle had imdiately raised the alert level to yellow, which ant that the Larkinsons had to be prepared to et any dangerous situation!
Thousands of chs preemptively deployed into space In the span of a couple of minutes. The Glory Seekers and the Cross Clan automatically followed suit.
As Ves tried to figure out whether he should be worried or not, the unknown fleet had finally transitioned into the star system!
"Alert! We have identified eight capital ships and an unknown number of sub-capital ships, but no less than fifty!"
The arriving fleet arrived a fair distance away from the expeditionary fleet. It would take at least a couple of hours for the two fleets to enter into engagent range.
"According to our calculations, the unknown fleet can reach us in less than 4 hours, which is less than the maximum ti it takes for all of our starships to cycle their FTL drives." Captain Vraken inford Ves. "In my judgent, this is not a coincidence."
As the sensors finally resolved more details from the arriving ships, the sensor officer cried out in fright!
"WE HAVE IDENTIFIED FIVE OF THE EIGHT CAPITAL SHIPS! THEY ARE ALL FRIDAYMAN FLEET CARRIERS!"
Shock imdiately swept across the bridge.
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