Compared to the hesitant and problematic Glory Seekers, Ves obtained a much better impression of the Cross Clan.

Though he decided to contact Professor Benedict as opposed to the Cross Patriarch, the mech designer was authoritative enough to speak on behalf of the clan.

The older man only paused for a brief moment before he nodded. "We will be ready to depart alongside your fleet when the time has come."

Ves blinked. He didn't think it would be that easy to gain a positive response from the Crossers.

"What does Patriarch Reginald think?"

The Senior scoffed and crossed his arms. "What do you think, Ves? There is no way he is going to miss out on all of the action that will be sure to haunt your tracks. Even if you did not decide to depart Davute in order to pursue greater opportunities, he would have taken his clan out for a different purpose. Patriarch Reginald… is incredibly eager to test his new strength against actual opponents."

It was hard to deny the powerful ace pilot's wishes. His authority and recognition was too great.

Ves already expected Reginald to be eager to flex his new muscles and that of his soon-to-be-upgraded Mars, but for the ace pilot to be so quick to disregard the safety of his fellow Crossers was concerning.

Oh well. Reginald's lust for glory and battle worked out well in this situation. With their leader in such a hurry to fight, the Crossers would definitely be willing to play along and become an enthusiastic participant of the Trailblazer Expedition.

"Do you guys have any special concerns or demands?" Ves asked.

"Hmm." Professor Benedict paused and thought for a moment. "We can take care of our own needs. We will be able to bring plenty of ships and mechs if that is what you are concerned about. The only pertinent issue that will bother us is what we should do for the people we are leaving behind in Davute."

"What are your clan's concerns, exactly?"

"We are both mech designers who have witnessed how low people can go when they think they can get away with their deeds." Benedict said in a lower tone. "Though the authorities and power blocs of Davute have made great strides in developing this planet and maintaining law and order, the society that they have built in this corner of space is like a house of cards. Any shock to the system can easily cause the cards to collapse, thereby exposing the people stationed in this star system to the coveting gazes of others."

"Hm, I see what you mean, professor."

"For now, everything is okay because we have concentrated our entire strength here. No one dares to do anything to our people because the bulk of our forces are close at hand. That will change once we depart. While we are still able to deter many parties from doing anything to our assets and people that we have left behind, what if something happens to us? What if we fall out of contact for an extended period of time? Both our Cross Production Center and your Cat Nest will become increasingly more attractive targets. You know how ruthless and cutthroat the people in the frontier have become."

Ves grimaced but nodded in agreement.

The rules of the game were different in the new frontier. Even a place as openly calm and peaceful as Davute was not as stable as it appeared on the surface.

It was like a masquerade. Due to every stakeholder's overarching need to present Davute as a safe and fair port system, no one wanted to cause chaos and trigger panic among the population.

However, that did not mean that all of the power plays and confrontations had disappeared.

The fighting merely took place in a different arena and form that was out of sight to the public.

The local news portals regularly reported about companies that suddenly went bankrupt and got taken over by other companies. They also reported on companies that suddenly reconciled with their former competitors and merged with them to form larger organizations.

These were the results of hidden struggles that might not be as violent as open battle but could be just as vicious as one. Whole lives were ruined every day in order to further the ambitions of more successful competitors.

Right now, the Larkinson Clan and the Cross Clan were in an overwhelmingly strong position, so much so that they were already moving to become one of the major power blocks of Davute.

However, their lack of eagerness to commit to Davute would probably come to haunt them sooner or later. Leaving for another major expedition essentially meant that they would have to leave their large and valuable landbound holdings behind.

Ves eventually shrugged. "We don't have any strong solutions that can guarantee that people won't mess around with our planetary branches. Aside from relying on deterrence, the only other viable way to guard them is through relying on mercenary contracts and allies. I think combining the two is the best way to go forward. As long as we befriend local mercenary organizations and pay them handsome rewards to guard our people and locations, I think the effect will not be much different from guarding these places with our own forces."

Though it sounded good, Professor Benedict still maintained a contemptuous expression.

"Mercenaries. No matter how reputable they become, the bottom line is that they only care about themselves. Hardly any mercs will fight and die in order to uphold a written contract. Every penalty is tolerable as long as they can run away from a powerful enemy with their lives intact. The only truly useful aspect about hiring mercenaries is that we can prevent them from acting against us and that they are still effective at scaring away weaker parties."

Ves let out a tired breath as he scratched his head. Professor Benedict was remarkably hard to please.

However, a part of Ves was glad that he was facing a skeptical and critical conversation partner as opposed to a dim-witted yes-man.

The turbulent life experiences of the man that used to go by the Skull Architect was particularly rich and varied compared to many other Seniors.

Though Ves always had to remind himself that Professor Benedict used to be a vicious and unhinged mech designer who deliberately murdered an expert pilot in order to experiment with the demigod's skull, for now the former criminal was on his side.

If Benedict was concerned about something, then it was always prudent to listen to his warnings.

"What do you suggest, then?" Ves asked. "If mercenaries are out and if other allies can't be relied upon in a crisis, then what else can we do to safeguard our assets?"

It was all well and good to criticize potential solutions, but if they couldn't come up with any better alternatives, then they wouldn't be getting anywhere.

"There are no ideal solutions to this situation." Professor Benedict frankly admitted. "There is only an array of least-bad options within our reach. I have two different suggestions."

"Explain."

The older man gestured with one hand. "First, accept that our people and holdings in Davute are always expendable. There is no absolute defense. It is impossible for our main fleets to remain in this star system forever when the rest of the Red Ocean has so much more to offer. Do not forget that while Krakatoa is an exciting zone at the moment that has plenty of novelties to offer, it is only the equivalent of a star sector in the galactic rim of the old galaxy. As soon as the invasion progresses, every zone in the vicinity will turn into backwater regions, especially if the Big Two decides to open a new greater beyonder gate in a more central location."

He was right. The MTA and CFA chose to invade the Red Ocean from the edge of the galaxy where the density of stars was the lowest and the amount of resources available were also lackluster.

This ensured that there were relatively few concentrations of strong alien fleets and strongholds that could seriously stall and hinder the Big Two's initial blitzkrieg.

In the long term, economic factors outweighed these temporary strategic factors, making the Davute Branch less relevant in the next century.

Of course, the branch played a critical role to the Larkinson Clan's business operations for the time being.

"I suppose you're right." Ves sighed. "While we will definitely get set back if we lose our stuff in Davute, the rest of us will still be okay for the most part."

"We should still seek to minimize the risks at all costs. This is why I suggest that you beef up your local presence with an abundance of personnel. You do not necessarily need to invest too much funding and resources into their development. As long as you can afford it, just go ahead and hire a lot of average but easy-to-please mech pilots and other useful personnel. Equip them with cost-effective mechs that can be powerful when grouped up in large numbers and you have gained ownership of a permanent garrison force that is decently strong, much more loyal than any third-party force and not that costly to maintain."

"That… is actually a pretty good approach."

Ves looked thoughtful as he seriously considered the merits of this approach. While he felt a bit repulsed by the thought of bringing in a lot of 'cannon fodder' into a clan that centered around family and loyalty, the pragmatic side of him won out this time.

He knew that as soon as he kicked off his Trailblazer Expedition, the Cat Nest and the other clan facilities on the surface would become a lot emptier. Some workplaces might even be understaffed entirely!

Instead of emptying out these places and turning them into attractive targets, Ves would rather fill them up with bodies that could at least be counted upon to do their duty.

Building up an extensive amount of rear echelon personnel did not sound so bad now that he recognized their greater value to his organization.

The increasingly growing reputation of the Larkinson Clan played a large role in making this feasible. Huge numbers of random people constantly approached the recruiters and begged to be let into the clan that was famed for treating its members extremely well!

Even if the new entrants found out that branch members weren't treated as well as the core members, it hardly mattered as Ves did not intend to mistreat or shortchange the former.

Besides, he had already instituted several promotion channels to give branch members the opportunity to promote to the core of the clan after earning a large amount of Larkinson merits.

As long as Ves and his fellow leaders spent more effort into fleshing out the branch system, the Davute Branch would likely remain fairly solid once the Trailblazer Expedition finally commenced!

Originally, the Larkinson Clan planned to leave 10,000 to 20,000 branch members behind once the main fleet made its way out. This was a respectable number that could fully keep the production facilities running, but the amount of troops that could defend the Cat Nest would be slightly insufficient.

If Ves hired tens of thousands more personnel with most of them focused on defense and local field operations, then the Cat Nest would still be able to function as a formidable fortress!

Not only that, but expanding the Davute Branch to a massive degree also helped with building up a large reserve of readily-available mech pilots. If the main fleet ever suffered heavy losses, Ves could call up thousands if not tens of thousands of branch members to fill up an immediate shortage in manpower.

All in all, there were no obvious downsides to Professor Benedict's proposal other than that it demanded a huge amount of monetary investment and upkeep.

Still, Ves believed that as long as he was clever enough in setting up an economical mech roster for the Davute Branch, the local business operations should be able to generate enough revenue to maintain a sizable standing force.

"Quantity over quality has its virtues at times."

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