Ves followed after Alloc and stepped on board the shuttle. The Vandal fleet had finally arrived at the edge of the Deten System. Throughout the haste of making the final deploynts, Ves only caught a smattering of what went on.
Apparently, things sowhat went according to plan.
The rebels successfully struck the completely complacent defenders of Deten II and Deten IV. Supposedly loyal auxiliary regints fell within monts as the traitors within their ranks completely turned against their clueless loyalist comrades. Those that remained took stock of the remaining weapons and began to sow an enormous amount of chaos.
Right now, the Deten System hosted three different battle fronts.
First up was Deten II, which the rebels hadn’t been able to deal too much damage. House Jier held the second planet from the twin suns in a tight grip, and they never mistreated their inhabitants. This was why the rebels hadn’t been able to deploy too many of their assets at this planet.
Deten IV on the other hand fell into a different situation. The resentnt against Lord Javier had reached a boiling point, thus a large portion of the local inhabitants rose up as well and rioted on the streets. This completely disordered the planet and caused the defenders to button down in their bases and fight back against the traitor forces that took over the auxiliary regints.
The third front consisted of the battle in space. A garrison fleet placed in the Deten System by the Imodris Duchy normally handled all of the deep space patrols. Due to the relative security of the system as well as the pressing need for war assets at the front, the garrison had been left with a number of combat carriers and around three-hundred spaceborn chs.
Still, defeating three-hundred chs when they had the run of the entire system was extrely difficult. Keeping them alive and unhard would be very detrintal for the Vandal fleets, as they would certainly nip at their heels and harass them from the flanks.
Thus, a plan had been set in motion to pull them into a trap. The rebels employed an elaborate distraction with many cheap carriers converted into supposed pirate ships.
The garrison fleet successfully took the bait and pursued the pirates. This drew them away from their bases and towards the edge of the system, right into the jaws of the Vandals.
By the ti the garrison fleet realized that they had been duped, it was too late to redirect their montum away from the Vandal fleet. It took too much ti to change their course and shift their huge bulks back to the inner system.
"Strap yourself tight." Alloc said as he sat down on a crash seat and let the straps buckle him tight. "Even if battle is a couple of hours away, you might never know what the Vesians planted here."
"Understood, sir."
Ves sat next to Alloc and after bucking in, he looked at the handful of other servicen that transferred out of the Wolf Mother. The Vandal fleet had made a lot of reassignnts, but it wasn’t safe to send out a shuttle during FTL. They could only wait until they transitioned back into realspace before they could send out their transfers.
Now that they entered into a hostile star system, it was as if a switch had flipped in everyone’s minds. The Vandals stopped ssing around or display any signs of insubordination. They beca highly focused and professional, just as Ves had imagined them to be before he arrived in their midst.
The shuttle lifted off from the shuttle hangar of the Wolf Mother and traversed a short distance towards one of the combat carriers heading towards Deten IV.
"Ves."
He turned to Alloc. "Yes?"
"Your record states that you took part in the fight for the Glowing Planet. Is that true?"
"Pretty much. I was there from the start, and witnessed lots of fighting, sotis up close. It’s not sothing I’m eager to repeat."
"You’ve seen more action than . Besides a couple of ch duels in an arena, I’ve never seen a real battle between chs up close. I’ve always stayed aboard the ships looking at live or recorded footage."
"Recordings usually have very high fidelity, sir. There is no disadvantage in studying the way chs fight through a projector."
"I used to believe that’s the case, but after seeing you at work, I’m not so sure." Alloc sighed. "You’re a conundrum, you know that? You’re a decade younger than , but sotis you make feel as if I’m the Apprentice and you are the Journeyman. It’s not only your wealth of knowledge that astounds , but also the amount of consideration you have for ch pilots and their chs. Your advocacy for the Inheritor chs is like a gust of fresh air in our stale and stagnant design teams."
What was Ves supposed to say to that? "I appreciate your complints, sir. It’s not that hard to show a little more appreciation for the chs we work with on a daily basis."
"It’s not just your consideration that’s notable compared to the rest of us. You have a strange way with chs. It’s as if everything you touch turns into sothing exotic."
"I like to think of it as bringing chs to life." Ves boldly said on an impulse. Though it strayed a little close to the secret of the X-Factor, he had already beco well-known for this saying due to the rising profile of the Living ch Corporation. "My fundantal philosophy on chs is that they are more than machines, and deserve to be treated as such."
Alloc fell silent for a mont. "Interesting. I never looked at chs in that light. You look at chs and see life. You draw up a design and see the potential of life. It’s different for . My main focus lies in programming the software of my designs, so I have always considered chs to be blank slates. They start out as nothing, but as I fill in their programming, the details begin to fill in. Once I’m done, I’ve created a perfect whole design."
Alloc’s perspective differed substantially in that he treated his designs as puppets to be pulled by his strings. His puppets were never ant to think or feel for themselves, and they did not deserve any special treatnt.
Ves couldn’t say which one was better. They both excelled in different circumstances. A programr like Alloc was used to exerting a high degree of control over his creations. Ves on the other hand left a lot of autonomy to the ch pilot and whatever image took root in his ch.
Their shuttle quickly arrived at its destination and docked inside the hangar of a combat carrier called the Stubby Growler.
The Growler was a hefty combat carrier that conveyed around fifty spaceborn chs and spares. Designed as a commander center, her class held fewer chs than the other classes of combat carriers in the Vandal fleet, but made up for it in the thickness of her armor and her powerful ans of communications.
"Major Verle would like to see you." A junior officer greeted them as the two ch designers stepped onto the deck of the crowded hangar bay. "Please follow."
They jostled their way through ch technicians performing last-minute repair jobs and chs slowly walking away from the repair bays and into a position where they could launch at a mont’s notice.
From the activity in this hangar bay, Ves got a good read on the attitude of the Vandals. Everyone radiated eagerness in a way that made him feel as if he was in the middle of a pack of wolves drooling at a juicy prey off in the distance. The ch pilots in particular displayed barely checked aggression. They couldn’t wait to dive into the Vesians and tear their chs apart.
They exited the hangar bay and climbed up a couple of decks. After traversing a couple of winded corridors and passing through a number of security checks, they entered what appeared to be a command center. Over two-dozen specialists sat behind a number of varied consoles, and they managed everything from sensors to ch deploynt.
Guided by the young officer, they approached the grey-haired officer looking down on the central plot from an elevated seat. The man obviously possessed the physique of a ch pilot and looked as if he could still fight on for a couple of decades more.
"Mr. Brandstad, good to see you again!"
"Major Verle, it’s a pleasure."
"And who is this young fellow?"
"This is Ves Larkinson, an Apprentice ch Designer under my wing."
"Larkinson, you say? Is he related to...?"
Here we go again, Ves sighed. "I am part of the famous Larkinson Family, sir."
Everyone he t so far treated the Larkinson na with respect. Not so for Major Verle. As soon as Ves confird his lineage, the Major’s face turned flat. "I suggest you take your cues from Mr. Brandstad and stay out of our way. We cannot afford any distractions during the heat of battle. Understood?"
"Understood, sir!"
Did the man got duped by a Larkinson or sothing? Or did he know the true story behind Colonel Lowenfield’s exile, and felt indignant on behalf of his superior?
Both Ves and Alloc sat down on a pair of basic seats ant for guests. They quietly observed the proceedings as the Vandal fleet closed in on the hapless garrison fleet that had strayed too far from its base to call for reinforcents.
"What’s our job here?" Ves whispered to Alloc.
"We’re here to serve as technical advisors. We assist Major Verle in identifying the weaknesses of enemy chs and answer any questions he might pose to us as long as it falls under our area of expertise. However, don’t mistake this assignnt as a way to command over chs. We are not here to usurp Major Verle’s authority."
"Does this an we stay shut most of the ti?"
"There’s definitely a lot of waiting involved. Unless it’s truly urgent, don’t speak up unless our advice is called for. I expect we won’t be needed during the upcoming battle against the garrison fleet. It’s when our detachnt enters into the orbit of Deten IV that we’ll be needed. In the anti, I suggest you while away your ti by studying up on the data that is made available to us. There’s a projector embedded inside the armrest. Squeeze this part here to turn it on."
Ves did as he was told and a small projected terminal appeared in front of his face. As he explored its interface, he found out that the terminal mainly presented sensor readings to him. The AIs in charge of interpreting the raw data already translated the observed chs in the distance into a number of familiar Vesian designs.
"First, study the sensor readings and double-check the designs. Many designs used by the Vesians are continually developing, just like our three designs, so there will always be minor and major variations between the iterations. Before the Vandals enter into battle, we have to make sure that we pinned down the exact versions and provide accurate estimates of their specs."
"Understood. I’m on it."
Ves hadn’t expected to do sothing like this, but he couldn’t complain. At least he wasn’t one of those poor bums who would soon be deployed to the surface of the moons and Deten IV.
Due to his extensive knowledge, Ves rapidly adjusted to his job of analyzing the chs identified by the AIs. The enemy fleet had finally found out that they had been lured into a trap. Their carriers frantically turned around to head back to the lunar fortress above Deten IV, but they couldn’t beat the aweso amount of inertia that slowly brought them to their inevitable doom.
At this mont of ti, the Vandal fleet hadn’t split up into two detachnts yet. Colonel Lowenfield wanted to keep her assets together and crush the Vesian garrison fleet in a single blow.
Unfortunately, the enemy did the smart thing.
"The garrison fleet is splitting up!"
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