Chapter 7487  Honoring Death

Gloriana did not seem to be worried about elaborate arche schemes.

Her greater understanding of the captured archecruiser made her much more aware of what red humanity had gained and the arche had lost.

The price the arche had paid was too great if they wanted to mislead the humans into following up on planted intelligence from the very beginning.

She would much rather consider the incident to be the failed outcome of a rogue archecruiser captain's selfish desire to attain godhood.

A single leader went rogue, and thereby created a disaster for his race.

That sounded much simpler and more plausible from her perspective.

"Thank you for your insights." He said as he seriously took her opinion into account. "Where is Lucky, by the way? Did he 'enjoy' his big meal?"

Gloriana curled her lips in amusement. "He has crawled back to Andraste I think. He has been avoiding me as of late. I do not blame him. He did not enjoy the experience of devouring an entire organic archeshell despite the fact that it is materially not that different from fully synthetic archemetal."

"Lucky is weird like that. Did it work, by the way?"

"No." Gloriana shook her head. "Lucky failed to produce a miracle. I have tried to connect him to the archecruiser in multiple different ways, but all of them failed. He has failed to inherit the correct traits from the archeshell. I wonder whether this happened because he found his meal to be unappetizing. Perhaps we should take his preferences more seriously. The more he desires to eat a metal object, the higher the probability of assimilating its traits."

Ves had never thought about that, but it sounded somewhat logical. Perhaps they had indeed paid too little attention to Lucky's own signals when it came to the selection of his diet.

"We should pay more attention to his desires." He said in thought. "Hopefully, we can put this theory to test once we encounter other samples of advanced alien tech over the course of this campaign."

They discussed a few other matters. Before Ves left to check up on his daughter, his wife gave him a reminder.

"By the way, Saint Isobel Kotin needs to provide her input on the selection of the key resonating material for the Promethea Mark II. Enough time has passed for her to make up her mind. I believe it is best if she discusses her final choice with you. This is a life-changing decision for her. I do not like to pressure her this way, but a Saint is expected to cut through her indecisions with her conviction. If she cannot resolve this singular matter, then she does not deserve to tread further on the path of godhood."

"I agree." Ves nodded. "Saint Isobel has remained idle for too long. She should begin to get ready to become acclimated to combat again. We can't finish her ace mech so soon, but she can still put an effort into raising her mental readiness."

As he left Gloriana's workplace, he sent a message to Isobel that informed her that he would be paying her a visit very soon.

Before he could handle this particular matter, he stopped by the barracks assigned to the Apocalypse Wardens.

The place had lost a lot of liveliness. The Apocalypse Wardens had lost half of their number all of a sudden.

Personnel had already brought out the personal effects of the deceased cultivator soldiers. This caused the place to lose a lot of personality and homeliness. The site became a lot more clinical as a result.

The surviving Apocalypse Wardens still put on a brave face, but it was impossible for them to remain completely unaffected.

This was why they had not been allowed to resume their bodyguard duties. Ves and his immediate family did not urgently need their protection when there were plenty of other soldiers on hand that could fulfill the same responsibilities.

Besides, the Apocalypse Wardens had yet to receive their reinforcements. The RC had already sent out a fast courier ship with replacement soldiers and supplies, but it would still take a while for the vessel to catch up to the combined fleet.

"Welcome to our abode. What brings you here, sir?" A surviving officer stood up and approached Ves.

"I want to check up on you guys as well as my daughter. How combat ready is your unit at the moment?"

"We are still willing and able to fight, sir." The Apocalypse Wardens all sat or stood a little straighter as if they were afraid of making a weak impression. "However, we appreciate that you have given us time to collect our thoughts. We have been reviewing our past action and identified many areas of improvement. Our duel against the archeshell mech has done exactly what we intended. I can tell you that the Apocalypse Wardens back in human space are all grateful for the data that we have transmitted back. Nothing can expose the effectiveness of our doctrines better against a singularly powerful alien opponent than we have done. Our brothers and sisters have not sacrificed their lives in vain."

Ves found it difficult to accept that the price had been worth it. He partially agreed with Gloriana that the Apocalypse Wardens could have been able to make similar gains if they had just been a little more cautious and patient.

Nonetheless, he respected their freedom of choice. He also acknowledged their urgency. If infantry wanted to remain relevant in this day and age, then it needed to develop faster to ensure that mechs did not once again marginalize them to the point where they became completely forgettable.

"So what kind of improvements will we be able to expect from your unit?" Ves asked.

"It is too soon to give you a complete overview, sir. One of the changes that we are strongly considering is the inclusion of combat support personnel. Having a small group of elite soldiers in the field is too constraining. We could have advanced faster or prevented a couple more deaths from happening if we had been accompanied by combat engineers and field medics that could keep up with us. There are those among us who think their inclusion will only slow us down and make everything more complicated, but there are also advocates who think that it is essential for us to have more force multipliers. It would fundamentally change the way we organize and operate."

Being able to maintain a smaller footprint sounded nice, but elite cultivator soldiers were far too precious to lose to attrition.

"I think it is a good idea if you ask me." Ves voiced his own opinion. "The forces that employ your services can surely afford to pay the extra costs. Mechs no go unaccompanied. They are all always dependent on the support of mech technicians, carrier vessels and so on. The same should apply to your unit as well. The more powerful you are, the greater the dependency on a full support structure."

"I shall relay your feedback to our superiors."

The survivors actually expressed a bit of cautious optimism. They believed that they had taken the correct actions. In fact, they had to. Any other thoughts would have made the deaths unnecessary and forced them into an undesirable realization.

Though Ves had his own opinions on the matter, it was not his place to meddle too much with the affairs of the Apocalypse Wardens. He only had the right to do so within his own Phase Lord Department of the Red Collective.

He knew from the reports he occasionally received about the developments of the RC that it hired many people that took their responsibilities a bit more seriously.

The RC had done a good job of forming a cadre of selfless individuals who accepted the calling to serve red humanity as a whole.

Yet it was precisely these kinds of people that tended to sacrifice their lives a bit too eagerly in exchange for abstract gains.

The RC did nothing to discourage this. In fact, it was the opposite. The collies actively promoted this sentiment.

A grand cause helped to unite a large number of people who came from every corner of red humanity. It was not a perfect solution by any means, but so long as the leadership was sincere enough, the lower ranks would follow suit.

The RC was not short of eager recruits that possessed the right propensity for sacrifice. Though its prestige had not yet reached the level of the RA and the RF, the collies still managed to become one of the most desirable employers in the new frontier.

After all, the ongoing wars had disrupted a lot of economies and put a lot of people out of their regular jobs. Many existing sectors based in the hinterland of human space couldn't expand fast enough to absorb all of these excess refugees.

Though Ves found it a little distasteful that the Red Collective preyed on the desperation of all of these displaced people, the latter still had a choice whether to accept the offers.

Many people did so, and subsequently went on to become soldiers, pioneers and possibly even test subjects!

Ves felt a greater urgency to win the Red War.

As long as he managed to drive away the threat of extinction, red humanity could finally breathe easy and postpone the implementation of further desperation measures.

"By the way, how has my daughter reacted to the losses suffered by your unit?"

"She is holding herself quite well for a girl of her age." The officer replied. "Andraste is a child who already understands the meaning and weight of death. I believe that she has accepted our own attitude towards the loss of our brothers and sisters."

"I shall see for myself, then."

When Ves moved on to check up on his daughter in person, the description appeared to be accurate.

Though she did not look as energetic as before, she did not spiral into a depression either.

She simply kept Lucky company while she worked to polish a scuffed piece of superdimensional armor plating.

"Papa! Why are you here?"

"Meow!"

While Andraste looked pleased to see her father coming in, the gem cat reacted very differently!

He jumped into the air before promptly escaping from the compartment, even going as far as to phase straight through the bulkhead!

"Lucky! Come back!"

"It's no use." Ves could only chuckle at his silly cat's frightful reaction. "He must have been afraid that I would forcibly stuff another whole archeshell in his tummy."

His daughter looked upset. "Lucky doesn't want to eat anything that comes from anything that is alive. It was mean for mama to force him to eat that stuff."

"You're right." Ves sighed. "After this incident, we concluded that Lucky's taste preferences exist for a reason. I do not rule out the possibility that he can still gain something useful from organic matter, but it is best if he sticks to his preferred diet."

He moved closer and began to sit down next to his daughter. He took a closer look at what appeared to be a separated knee pad from one of the superdimensional armors used by the Apocalypse Wardens.

"You don't need to clean stuff like this by hand." He noted. "We have machines for that, even if they have not been designed to handle superdimensional objects."

Andraste shook her head in response. "I know, but the soldiers like to do it themselves. They don't know how all of their advanced tech works or how to fix it, but they think they can still understand it better if they give it a bit of care. There are some people from within the RC that believe that everything is alive, and that you can nurture them by treating them well just like mech pilots are doing with your living mechs."

"Do you think this piece of armor contains life?" Ves curiously asked.

The little girl shrugged. "I like to think so. You're the expert, papa. Do you think I am right?"

"That is up to you, Andraste."

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