Chapter 767. Squeezed Dimensions (1/2)

As the Flagrant Swordmaiden fleet made their way to Aeon Corona VII, it became clear that they were moving far slower than they ought to. After continuous calculations and estimations, they figured out that it might take thirty percent longer to reach orbit.

Worse, the time and space distortion only grew stronger the more they approached the deviant planet!

According to some calculations, time in the vicinity of the Super Earth-like planet may run several times slower than normal, perhaps by as much as ten times on the very surface of the planet.

Despite the alarming phenomena surrounding Aeon Corona VII, neither Major Verle nor Commander Lydia showed any hesitation. They expected the Flagrant Swordmaidens to charge straight ahead regardless of what the abnormal planet threw at them. They were finally about to commence their mission!

Due to the extra time needed to reach the Super Earth, Ves figured Ketis and him wouldn't be needed at the command center. The Vandals maintained a yellow alert condition, but other than that they didn't expect to bump into anyone. The odds of meeting a rival force during transit under these blinding conditions was almost nil.

The astral winds both hindered them as well as shielded them from encountering other forces.

Ves tallied their current conditions from the records he had access to and made a log. ”Fuel supply has been dipping, but we have a healthy reserve remaining. We have enough supplies to sustain a months-long campaign on the ground, though if our conditions are difficult we'll need to supplement them with supplies produced on site.”

The Vandals prepared plenty of production equipment that enabled them to produce ammunition and recharge energy cells from locally-sourced resources.

”Crew morale is somewhat shaken due to the strange phenomena caused by the spacetime anomaly originating from Aeon Corona VII. However, now that we are finally nearing our mission site, all of the Vandals are fired up and ready to fight. So long as the Vandals are focused on what is straight ahead of them, they won't think too hard on the myriad of dangers involved with approaching such a dangerous planet.”

The science officers issued various reports that indicated that the strange astral winds and all of the spacetime distortions wouldn't have any effect on their health other than to accelerate their aging relative the rest of the galaxy. Nonetheless, not everyone trusted their judgement.

It was hard to trust anyone when it came to this strange and mystical planet. What few details they gathered of the seventh planet already drove the exogeology specialists nuts.

”Some of our starships are still recovering from the sabotage attempts by the cultists, and the absence of the Finmoth Regal and the Goombal Chelsea isn't helping matters. Both of our spaceborn and landbound mechs are in their best state yet if the mech complement of the aforementioned ships are taken out of the equation. Even Venerable Xie has shown he feels more at ease when piloting the Parallax Star.”

Ves had no doubt that some of the addictive qualities started to make their mark on the expert pilot's psyche. Addiction played a key role in the cocktail of positive reinforcement mechanisms that slowly associated contentment, safety, fulfillment and other positive emotions to serving the Vandals.

The expert pilot regularly deployed into space in order to gain some valuable experience in piloting the actual Parallax Star.

Early indications already showed that the brainwashing tentatively started to shift the expert pilot's mentality. The Venerable still insisted on calling Prince Hixt-Klaaster, but paid less and less attention to the conversations. It became easier for the AI pretending to be the Fourth Prince to maintain the facade.

”As for the cooperation between the Vandals and the Swordmaidens, our relations have grown back to normal since before we've picked up the survivors of Chopra Interstellar Security. A healthy separation still exists to guard against contingencies, but it's hard not to grow on the women since they are rather adept at diplomacy.”

Every Vandal spoke positively when they organized joint patrols or collaborated in other matters. Ves was no exception to this phenomenon as he found Ketis quite adorable under her tough girl exterior.

All-in-all, after crossing through Vesian space, mucking about in Harkensen and Mancroft, crossing from one end of the Faris Star Region to the other end, most Vandals expressed relief at finally coming within a stone's throw of their mission.

Once they reached the Starlight Megalodon and looted it with whatever their bosses wanted to retrieve, they could make a straight shot towards home!

Ves snorted at the thought. How naive. ”Treasure attracts danger. Besides, I don't think Aeon Corona VII will relinquish its bounty without a fight.”

He could feel it in his restless gut. A deep sense of anxiety mixed with anticipation ran across his body whenever he studied the increasingly more detailed model of the seventh planet.

”One giant Super Earth. Five medium-sized moons. Extremely likely to possess a thin atmosphere with a sufficient amount of oxygen to allow baseline humans to breathe, though with great difficulty.”

In fact, besides estimating the planet's gravity at six times the gravity of Old Earth, the planet seemed suspiciously livable to humans.

The exobiologists all concluded that the planet likely used to be a lot more hostile to human life, but that centuries of faint but focused terraforming changed all of that. Due to the time acceleration on the surface of the planet, the change may have only taken a couple of decades in the perspective of the outside galaxy.

Aeon Corona VII tentatively hit all the boxes when it came to the requirements to sustain human life. Water, air and temperature all fell within a moderate range, while its strong magnetic field protected it against the harmful radiation against the combined output of three stars in the center of the system.

The biggest question of all was whether any humans actually lived down there. So far, clones piloting FTL-capable shuttles managed to escape the planet and star system and leak out word of the Starlight Megalodon's existence.