Ves felt betrayed!
The expert pilots that he had painstakingly nurtured and showered with powerful expert chs no longer wanted to help him out on his expeditions.
Instead, they thought about joining the Davute Branch so that they could fight the Karlachs in order to increase the profits of major investors of Davute like the Clive Consortium!
"These ungrateful bastards." He grumbled under his breath. "What are they thinking? At least you won't abandon for another Larkinson, right Lucky?"
"ow~"
It turned out that after Lucky had swept the room clear of bugs, he had slowly drifted over to Venerable Ark.
Right now, the lazy gem cat was luxuriating in the ministrations perford by the expert pilot!
The man knew just how to scratch Lucky's head!
Ves pald his face.
"Your fleet has grown too big, Ves." Ark straightforwardly told his nephew. "Many ch pilots do not feel they can make a aningful difference. This is especially the case when they are fighting against extrely powerful alien battleships. On top of that, they often get overshadowed by the abundant amount of expert chs that are crowding the sa battlefield. In turn, your expert pilots possess increasingly less agency with the appearance of Saints. With the impending expansion of the Golden Skull Alliance, your expeditionary fleet will gain two ace chs at once."
"We will also be losing the Mars to this blasted war."
"That still leaves you with a net positive of two ace chs, Ves. Most pioneering fleets already make do with just one, you know. What matters is that expert chs matter less in your expeditionary fleet these days. Expert pilots can gain many more opportunities to test their ttle when they are fighting against their counterparts from Karlach."
Ves looked skeptical. "Won't the sa situation repeat itself? If they join the ch division held by you and Patriarch Reginald Cross, they will still get overshadowed by the Mars."
"Not necessarily." Ark shook his head. "You do not have a full understanding on how large wars are waged at this level. Once the war breaks out, multiple war theaters will open up where the fighting will take place at many points in space and on land. Ace chs such as the Mars cannot always babysit the ch division it is embedded in. ch regints and ch battalions may be separated by tens of kiloters or hundreds of kiloters on a planet with rough terrain. Isolated ch units and any expert chs attached to them will have to depend on their own. Reinforcents may take precious minutes to arrive."
Ves could imagine how these sorts of deploynts could give ch pilots more chances to excel. Low-level flashpoints and skirmishes often provided much better stages for weaker pilots to outfight their opponents and turn the tide.
"What about the ace chs? Are they just going to hover around?"
"Many tis, that is the case. They are trump cards and should not be thrown into a battle lightly. Ace chs are generally used to cover a wide region and keep enemy ace chs in check. They will only intervene when it is necessary and if there are assurances that they will not be thrown into a losing situation. As battle hungry as Reginald may be, even he should know the value of restraint. His father got baited into an ambush, so he should not be prone to making the sa mistake."
Ves seriously doubted that. Reginald seed a lot more likely to bull his way into an obvious trap! After all, President Yenas Clive had played him like fiddle!
Well, it was not as if Ves had to bother with this anymore.
Once Patriarch Reginald and his Mars left the expeditionary fleet, it was no longer up to Ves to clean up their sses. That would beco Ark's job from that point onwards.
After a bit more clarification, Ves understood why certain ch pilots and expert pilots in the Larkinson Army wanted to throw themselves into the upcoming war.
It all ca down to accelerating their growth and breaking past their bottlenecks. Davute promised to give them a higher frequency of actual battles, smaller and more engaging missions as well as familiar human opponents.
All of these factors were much more conducive to the growth of ch pilots that tended to thrive in tis of war.
Expert pilots ultimately sought to beco stronger. While they also valued loyalty and duty, they were not devoid of ego and selfishness.
In actuality, they could be more selfish than many ordinary people!
It was just that nobody could distinguish the truth when they were kept happy. It was only when they thought they could do better elsewhere that they started to beco troubleso!
Ves realized that for a long ti, he had done a good job at eting the needs of his growing expert pilots. He granted them opportunities to fight serious battles on occasion and he also fulfilled their desire to obtain powerful expert chs.
"Do you understand now, Ves?" Ark softly spoke up again. "If you truly care about your expert pilots, then you should give them the chance to contribute to the Larkinson Clan in a different manner. Let them choose their own way forward. Your main fleet already has enough expert chs as it is, especially when we consider that you are working on adding three new expert chs to your lineup. I think you can manage with four or five fewer expert chs."
"You are asking for too much, uncle! You're talking about taking away more than half of the currently active expert chs of the Larkinson Army!"
"Will your fleet be able to tell the difference when it is operating under the direct protection of the Jedda Sandivar and the Royal Jeem?"
"..."
"Thought so." Ark smiled as he scratched Lucky under the chin in just the way the cat preferred!
"ow ow~"
Though Ves still had to verify Ark's claims about his ch pilots, there was no way his uncle would lie about such a matter.
A part of Ves had already acknowledged that the clan and expeditionary fleet had grown too large to stay together all of the ti.
It simply wasn't practical or advantageous anymore to put every egg in a single moving basket.
The rapid rise of the Davute Branch reflected the unstoppable tendency for the clan to splinter over ti.
That didn't necessarily an that the Larkinsons were completely separating from each other. Ark had already made it clear that he had no intention of leaving the clan unless it was truly necessary.
The clan just beca too big to keep everyone happy by keeping them in a single place. Life inside a fleet was much different from life on a planet.
The larger the population of the clan, the more people erged who developed a rejection of the life of a nomad.
In that sense, the local branch served its intended purpose. Uncle Ark rely ca in and sought to elevate its status and weight in Davute.
Once it beca clear that Ves would have to let go of a bunch of ch pilots unless he took extre asures, he let go of his frustration and made peace with this developnt.
"I always expected the pivotal figures of our clan to diverge in the future." He sighed. "I just didn't expect it to happen so soon and that a stupid grudge match between two colonial states would be the catalyst to this event."
They talked more frankly after that. Ves could sense and respect the determination of his uncle. If fighting for Davute made him happy, then so be it. The Larkinson Clan still stood to gain a lot of benefits from the colonial state by taking a more active part in the war.
"Can you tell the expert pilots who are thinking about ditching the Trailblazer Expedition so that they can play soldier?"
"I can't tell you that, Ves. The expert pilots themselves haven't made up their minds as this is still a recent developnt. They still need more ti and information to make an inford decision that has major implications on their future career. While I have a decent idea on which Larkinson expert pilot will ultimately go over, I owe it to them to respect their privacy."
"I see. I hope you at least don't pull away anyone crucial to my expeditionary fleet, Ark. I would like to keep Venerable Davia Stark, Venerable Joshua Larkinson, Legion Commander Casella Ingvar and Venerable Isobel Kotin. They can all play useful roles in battles against formidable alien warfleets even if there are already ace chs on our side."
"I think you will be satisfied for the most part." Ark reassured his nephew with a smile. "From what I have gathered in the brief monts I was able to chat with them, Davia isn't interested in fighting ordinary opponents. She longs to challenge the strong. Joshua is an earnest kid who is fanatically loyal to you. Casella is best employed by your main fleet to ensure that both of our groups both enjoy the services of a command expert pilot. I do not know much about Isobel, but her specialization is much more effective when fighting against vulnerable alien warships."
The other expert pilots such as Venerable Rosa Orfan and Venerable Vincent Ricklin would probably feel much more at ho in a battle against normal human ch forces.
Ves could already see that by recalling how much the expert pilots enjoyed themselves when they sparred against their counterparts during the Battle of Pima Pri.
The Sundered Phalanx units in that important Fridayman port system served as an excellent benchmark and growth engine for the Larkinson Army.
Though Ves still felt sowhat peeved at the thought of depriving the expeditionary fleet of lots of ch pilots, expert pilots and an ace pilot as well as their associated chs, the ones he had left should be more than sufficient to defeat most threats that he might encounter in the frontier.
"Your clan has long maintained a policy of maintaining a surplus of ch pilots anyway." Ark pointed out. "Even if I take a couple of thousands pilots from your main ranks, your ch legions still have enough reservists on call to fill up the vacancies. At most, your Spirit of Bentheim and your Hamrworks Manufacturing Complex will have to get busy producing replacent chs."
That hardly sounded like a problem considering that ch production was the Larkinson Clan's strong suit!
As Ves and Ark relaxed in each other's presence, the latter continued to pamper Lucky while the forr asked a more personal question.
"Do you intend to use Davute as a way to fill the gap created by our forced departure from the Bright Republic?"
"...That is a good question, Ves." The expert pilot slowly replied. "I honestly cannot give you an answer yet. I need to see more of Davute and what its governnt is trying to build. I need to fight alongside its soldiers and observe how much they believe in the colonial state that they are risking their lives for. I need to wait and see whether the citizens develop a love and attachnt to their new hos. It is anything but certain whether Davute can pass all of my tests."
"And what if it does?"
"Then I shall do my best to follow, no, exceed the example set by the Larkinson Ancestor."
Ves threw a dubious look at his uncle. "I hope that you will learn from his many mistakes. The man was strong in his own right at the ti, but he and his descendents ultimately ended up getting used as glorified cannon fodder over many generations."
"I am not blind, and I know our family's history better than you do. I am not so naive, and there are enough people around us to warn us of any impropriety."
"You don't very concerned."
Venerable Ark grinned. "One of the lessons that I have learned over the years is that strength is the ultimate variable that determines the treatnt that you receive. If I am able to fight hard enough and receive the powerful expert ch that you have promised, I am convinced that I will be able to undergo my second apotheosis. Once I beco an ace pilot, Davute shall never misuse us. This I can guarantee!"
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