A large parade took place on the main boulevard of a space station orbiting Crenas III in the Hertog Dominion. A mech regiment called the Caraban Fusiliers received orders to deploy to the other side of the state in order to defend against the encroaching sandmen.

Though the Hertog Dominion was a very centralized state, there was a lot of discontent among the masses. The rulers mainly relied on their strong grip on the military and other levers of authority to keep their people in line.

For this reason, the Dominion placed a huge emphasis on military parades.

Today, the Caraban Fusiliers would be walking down some of their mechs and men on foot through the central boulevard in the expansive space station. A huge crowd had gathered along the path under extremely heavy guard. No one was allowed to enter without undergoing inspection!

Though many people didn’t like the way the Hertog Dominion was ruled, there were still plenty of die hard supporters among the population. The most enthusiastic locals all drummed out to the parade to wave flags while cheering on their soldiers.

As their name suggested, the Caraban Fusiliers mainly fielded ranged mechs. One of the reasons why the military planners decided to deploy the Fusiliers so early despite the distance to the frontlines was because they were immediately effective against the sandmen.

Though a fair number of their mechs were mainly used on laser rifles, it wasn’t very difficult to swap out their weapons for ballistic versions.

Some of their mechs had already been modified to carry more ammunition by adding external harnesses to them. It was a quick and dirty stopgap solution that turned them into huge hazards when hit.

Perfect against sandmen, but not so much against human foes.

Ves visited the space station but did not attend the parade. Instead, he conducted an exchange with a random Journeyman elsewhere on the space station. They reserved a private conference room at an upscale hotel to exchange their insights.

The older man Ves met specialized in laser weapons, which happened to be completely useless during this time. Not only that, but the Hertoger withheld much of his valuable theories and only threw out scraps.

Having exchanged with many different mech designers, Ves knew when his counterpart tried to scam him. It didn’t matter to him though, because he only insisted on holding an exchange to give him an alibi.

He diverted a minute part of his concentration to appear attentive and engaged when the stingy Journeyman explained nonsense. He instead devoted the majority of his mind into reaching into the imaginary realm.

He already studied his target extensively. Though the Caraban Fusiliers were ordinarily stationed at an inaccessible military space station, the public parade was a rare opportunity for civilians and bystanders to meet them in the flesh!

Ves needed this proximity. Even with the information he gathered about the Caraban Fusiliers and their only expert pilot, he wouldn’t be able to identify Venerable Zoe Plinter’s presence in the imaginary realm until he came close.

He mentally resolved to find a way to improve his interactions with spiritually-powerful entities in the imaginary realm. The range limitations really started to grate at him. He needed to develop a better way to track and make contact with expert pilots so that he could borrow their spiritual fragments with much less hassle.

As the parade proceeded in full swing, a wave of enthusiasm followed as Venerable Zoe Plinter’s iconic Crax Shooter mech walked down the boulevard. The spaceborn expert mech walked with its wings folded up and its massive overengineered rifle cradled in its arms.

The reason why Ves targeted Venerable Plinter was that she was a devoted lackey of the state. Having risen through the ranks from a modest background, the Hertog Dominion invested heavily in her once she advanced to expert candidate by luck.

From everything he read about Venerable Plinter, she was as loyal to her state as Venerable Foster was to hers. The biggest difference between the two women was that Plinter was older and a lot less aggressive.

All in all, Venerable Plinter earned a lot of accolades from the Dominion for her loyalty and willingness to answer to authority.

Not every expert pilot wanted to remain humble after they became a demigod. Cases where expert pilots demanded extravagant treatment or outright went rogue still took place from time to time.

"Are you listening?" The old Journeyman probed.

Ves briefly drew back a part of himself. "Of course. I’m just a bit skeptical about your proposal to make multi-barrel laser rifles standard. It isn’t worth it to add so much extra complexity just to gain some extra redundancy."

historical

"Why are you so afraid of complexity?! Just because something consists of more parts doesn’t mean it’s worth less than a simpler weapon!"

As the man rambled on, Ves returned the bulk of his attention to his explorations of the imaginary realm.

Despite entering a densely-populated space station, Ves hardly encountered anything spiritual at all. The few people who possessed undeveloped spiritual potential barely registered to his senses at all.

Only a single presence shone like a beacon through the corrosive winds in this desolate realm.

There.

One reason why Venerable Zoe Plinter received so much attention from the government was that she had grown to be one of the stronger expert pilots in the Dominion. As soon as Ves’ spiritual projection approached, he immediately sensed that this rumor was true!

Strong! She was stronger than Venerable Foster by virtue of her age and experience!

Ves briefly grimaced. He knew this was going to be a bit costly. He patted the box resting on his lap and casually opened it to slip his hand inside. He briefly touched the F-stone stored inside the container and drew a slight charge, just five percent.

Five percent was a steep cost to impart his spiritual energy with an offensive attribute, but he considered it a necessary price to pay. There was no way he could ever make a dent in the defenses of a conscious and alert expert pilot of Zoe Plinter’s caliber!

He attempted to concentrate his newly-acquired charge onto a spiritual knife. He mostly failed as he couldn’t apply any influence onto the charge. He lacked the appropriate technique to alter his spiritual energy in such a fashion!

Ves sighed and decided to work with what he had. In any case, his spiritual knife was already strong enough to harm an expert pilot’s spirituality in his eyes.

As he lamely tried to keep the exchange going, deep within the imaginary realm he shot his spiritual knife forward in the direction of a strong spiritual fortification.

Ves sensed that the spiritual fortification in the shape of a spiked shell detected his approached. It quickly firmed up and readied its defenses. Spikes already started to shoot out in the direction of his spiritual knife!

The knife, empowered with a potent offensive charge, cut through all of the spikes in its way without any effort! Its razor-sharp edge couldn’t be stopped with such a feeble defensive measure!

Before the spiritual fortification could employ a better defense, Ves’ knife had closed the distance and instantly pierced through the surface of the outer shell.

In the middle of the parade taking place kilometers away, the Crax Shooter suddenly stumbled and halted in place. As the crowd wondered why the prized expert mech of the Caraban Fusiliers halted, the soldiers and station guards quickly received an alert.

Something went wrong! They had to evacuate the crowd!

As a mild warning tone rang throughout the space station, the station guards quickly began to usher the confused well wishers away. In the meantime, the soldiers in the parade began to help push away the crowd while forming a defensive perimeter around the inactive Crax Shooter.

The warning tone even reached the hotel where Ves and the Hertoger Journeyman conducted their exchange.

Ves pretended to be perplexed at the sudden change in events. "Is there something wrong?"

"I’m not sure." The other man frowned. "Let me get in touch with my contacts. Something might have happened during the parade."

As the Hertoger checked his comm, Ves used the reprieve to devote his full attention towards his attack.

His spiritual knife had already started to cut relentlessly into the fortification like it was butter. Ves discovered that the enhancement he received from the F-stone was more potent than he thought!

Something capable of allowing him to inflict damage on a powerful ancient alien entity such as Nyxie would definitely be effective against an expert pilot no matter their strength!

As a louder alarm began to ring throughout the space station, Ves hurried up his efforts. He cut a crude and jagged circle into Venerable Plinter’s spiritual presence. He felt a bit greedy at the start so tried to cut a larger spiritual fragment than he strictly planned to obtain.

The damage he inflicted to the expert pilot was probably great, but he couldn’t care less about that at the moment!

"We need to evacuate, Mr. Larkinson." The Journeyman suddenly stood up. "The space station will go under lockdown soon. I can get you out if you follow me. I’m friends with one of the station administers."

"Please lead the way." Ves smiled and stood up as well. "Do you know what’s going on?"

"My contacts aren’t sure. All they know is that an unknown assailant attempted to attack the Caraban Fusiliers."

As their bodyguards began to usher them out of the hotel suite, Ves quickly finished his efforts. Though his spiritual knife endured continuous counterattacks that bled his spiritual energy, he finally managed to cut out a fragment!

Having accomplished this, Ves morphed his spiritual knife into a hand and grabbed hold of the loosened fragment before dragging it away from its original owner!

He drew back his newly-gained fragment into his mind but didn’t let it rest. Instead, he pushed fragment out of his mind and deposited it in the P-stone stored in a container attached to Nitaa’s backpack module.

Success!

Ves tried his best not to smile in satisfaction. He did his best to look concerned and afraid as he followed his host.

Hours later, a shuttle reached the Barracuda and deposited its passengers. Once he entered his ship, he immediately took his spoils to the lab. All the way, only Lucky and Nitaa accompanied him throughout the trip.

The cat floated on top of a lab machine and perched himself there. As for Nitaa, she keenly observes Ves as he grinned at his newly-occupied P-stone.

While Ves hadn’t explained anything to her, Nitaa "Were you responsible for what had just occurred?"

The lab compartment was already isolated, so Ves decided to be charitable for once and nodded. "Yes."

A brief pause followed as Ves continued to study the spiritual fragment he obtained. His smile widened as its spiritual attributes strongly aligned with what he wanted to obtain! Not only did it mesh well with ballistic rifleman mechs, but it also possessed a strong attribute related to duty!

The only issue was that the spiritual fragment likely contained some attributes that he couldn’t identify and likely weren’t relevant for his project.

He expected to obtain something like this. Like an unprocessed mineral, Ves deliberately carved out a larger-than-usual fragment because he anticipated that he needed to refine it into a purer form.

"What did you do, exactly?"

Ves briefly looked up from his inspection. "You’re oddly curious."

"My apologies. It’s difficult for me to anticipate threats if I am not aware of what you are doing."

Though Ves was loath to explain what he was doing, he figured he should at least extend some trust to one of his most loyal employees. Ves never sensed any duplicity from her. If he wanted to build up his inner circle, then he needed to cultivate true trust among his closest people.

"Let’s just say that I borrowed something valuable from the expert pilot of the Caraban Fusiliers. I’ll be in trouble if they find out, so we’re departing the Crenas System immediately."

His explanation barely satisfied Nitaa’s curiosity, but Ves believed he was already being forthright enough by revealing this much information!

"I.. see, sir." She spoke, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to get anything more out of the man she served. "Could you warn me the next time you undertake such a risky operation?"

Ves sighed. "I should have warned you from the start. I’ll make sure to notify you the next time I do something like that. You deserve that much, at least."

"Thank you, sir."