Published at 23rd of April 2026 6:24 am

Chapter 7467 Unproven Soldier

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One of the problems faced by Saint Commander Casella Ingvar was that her importance vastly exceeded her ability to defend herself against direct attacks.

As a command unit and one that acted as the most powerful force multiplier of the Larkinson Clan, the Minerva Mark II always ranked high on the enemy's priority elimination list.

What truly vexed the Larkinsons was that despite the recency of her upgrade, the Minerva Mark II had yet to become a superdimensional mech.

She still relied on a good old transphasic hyper armor system to fend off attacks when evasion and energy defenses failed to keep the living mech spotless.

Though the Minerva Mark II's sacrifice ended up benefiting the Riot Mark III in a massive way, that did not change the fact that the ace command mech had become extremely vulnerable to quick takedowns in the current day and age!

As the failed arche sneak attack just proved, the native aliens made increasingly greater use of superdimensional armaments.

From the increasingly more prevalent Saint Piercers to the newly unveiled munitions enriched by small amounts of superdimensional matter, any of these weapons could easily blow apart the Minerva Mark II's relatively weak resonance shield and tear through her thin layers of transphasic armor plating!

Due to lacking both a proper Saint Kingdom and a superdimensional armor system, the Minerva Mark II had turned into a highly inconvenient asset that needed to be treated like a fragile vase.

Casella found it… inconvenient.

She knew that even if the Minerva Mark II received her promised superdimensional upgrade in the future, the ace command mech would still have to avoid direct combat whenever possible. Her inability to project a traditional Saint Kingdom deprived her of a powerful means to protect herself against a wide variety of attacks.

Fortunately, all was not lost.

The addition of the Victrix granted her an alternative means of getting close to the action.

Ves may have labeled the Ultimate Module as a remote command fey, but to Casella, she was nothing less than an avatar of the Minerva Mark II and by extension herself!

The Saint Commander had already experimented with the Victrix during previous engagements. She developed quite a bit of uses for the large and powerful remote command fey.

Using the living Ultimate Module as an extension relay for her Command Field was her most fundamental purpose.

Though it did not sound particularly exciting, the applications were myriad.

What she truly appreciated about the Victrix was that it became a lot easier for Casella to channel her various resonating abilities and other powers from a distance by using the remote command fey as her surrogate.

The importance of this benefit could not be overstated.

The inclusion of Mindstorm Alloy as the key resonating material for the Minerva Mark II was supposed to compensate for her weakness by giving her the option of intervening directly from the rear.

While its potential was great, her resonance strength was not yet fully up to the task of producing powerful psionic storms on the other side of the battlefield.

Distance remained a persistent problem. She had relatively little issue with generating a psionic storm a few hundred meters away from her ace mech, but that was practically useless.

However, the story was different if she could accomplish a similar feat with her remote command fey.

From the moment the Victrix arrived before the mysterious archecruiser, Casella was able to exert much greater control over the alien vessel.

The intensity of her Command Field penetrated deeper into the hull, though the Saint Commander also noted that she still encountered far greater resistance than typical.

Different from conventional alien homeships, archeships were entirely made out of archemetal, which possessed very similar compositions to the iconic shells of the arche race.

This had many implications. First, archeships were generally a lot denser and more massive than a similarly-sized homeship belonging to a different native alien race.

All of these dense and electrically charged layers of archemetal happened to form more effective barriers that repulsed foreign or hostile influences.

They also generated a lot of interference that diminished the amount of details that she could glean from the interior of the vessel. The center of the immobilized archecruiser was especially fuzzy to Casella's senses!

Furthermore, while the archecruiser could not be regarded as a living warship, her full archemetal construction along with the fact that hundreds of arche spacers interfaced directly with her hull through their archeshells meant that she was not fully lifeless either.

The alien ship possessed more traits of life than any other alien vessel that Casella encountered up to this point.

This hindered her power expression even further. Even with the boosts provided by the Victrix, when she finally attempted to generate psionic storms in every compartment that contained relatively more powerful lifeforms, the output was just a fraction of what was possible in open space!

The deeper into the hull, the lower the intensity of her psionic storms.

This was bad news. Though Casella could still ascertain that she was causing at least some amount of disruption to the enemy crew, she could not guarantee that one of the alien officers could activate the self-destruction function.

The only way to truly preserve this strategic prize was to secure her the old fashioned way!

The boarding troops all received updated information packages. The internal maps of the archecruiser gained a lot more details while also pointing to the approximate quantities of alien crew members in every compartment.

The suspected officers all got highlighted in red, making it abundantly clear that their elimination had to be accomplished first!

"According to intelligence derived from various sources, the arche soldiers stationed on a more prestigious ship like this will generally be much better armed and armored. You are guaranteed to encounter stiff resistance, especially when the alien opposition is able to make ample use of internal defenses. The good news is that I have successfully disabled the arche crew stationed in the peripheral compartments. You can ignore them for the time being. The aliens stationed closer to the center of the hull will still be able to resist to varying degrees. It will take a substantial amount of time to overcome their defenses."

The Larkinson Clan possessed greater familiarity with archetech than other human groups. That also meant that the Larkinsons had a much greater respect for the alien tech and the race that refined it over many ages.

The Saint Commander continued her briefing. "If our estimations are correct, then the only unit in the first wave that can break through the enemy defenses and enter the citadel in time is the detachment from the 2nd Apocalypse Wardens. Your mid-grade superdimensional gear will grant you an overwhelming advantage against the alien opposition. According to my senses, the arche has not managed to preserve any superdimensional matter, though I cannot be fully certain when it comes to the deepest compartments of the archecruiser. Your priority is clear. Let the other boarding troops take care of the riffraff. Your mission is to reach the center and either capture or kill the highest-ranking alien officers. You are permitted to destroy or disable any alien devices that you perceive to be a threat or hindrance."

The message was clear. Speed was of the essence. All 16 soldiers of the Apocalypse Wardens adopted grim or anticipatory expressions as they completed their final gear checks.

Their heavy and substantial superdimensional armor did not permit them to seat themselves. They lacked the flexibility for this motion.

None of them minded. Given the cramped and limited space inside the archecruiser, the Apocalypse Wardens chose to put their trust in their armor, hence why they chose the configuration with the heaviest proportion of frontal plating!

They also mounted a variety of powerful kinetic and energy armaments, many of which occupied the modular hardpoints of their heavy combat armor.

Yet the only weapons they held in their gauntlets were large superdimensional hammers.

Each of them looked as if they were massive and heavy enough to put a dent in the armor of a mech!

"I look forward to cracking the shells of those proud alien turtles with my hammer."

"Don't play any games. Our mobility is not high. If an enemy can be solved at range, then do so unless it takes too much time."

"Understood."

The Apocalypse Wardens was one of the more well-known elite infantry troops of the Red Collective.

Despite their relatively short existence, their names had already become distinguished due to a series of successful actions during the Red War.

While the squad assigned to serve as the bodyguards of Ves Larkinson had not yet witnessed much real action, that was about to change today.

Each of these prized and elite talents wanted to prove their mettle. This mission was right up their alley, and the possibility that the arche might succeed in blowing up their own ship did not faze them in the slightest!

The only variable that seemed out of place was the armed drone floating above their heads.

Compared to the robust superdimensional construction of all of the suits of combat armor, the drone looked a lot more frail and delicate.

It was a relatively generic product made out of transphasic hyper alloys. While it was relatively modern and well-equipped, the drone had no advantages aside from the fact that it was unmanned.

"Andraste, how is the connection?"

"It is stable for now." The voice of a young girl replied on the encrypted communication channel. "The interference produced by the Saint Commander and the surrounding warships shouldn't affect it too much as long as the signal amplifiers built into your suits remain active."

Every armored soldier served to extend the degree of control that the Saint Commander and other humans could exert in the vicinity. The more troops managed to gain a foothold inside the hull, the more they were able to wrestle control away from the alien crew!

Though not every human soldier chose to activate their communications systems or signal amplifiers, the Apocalypse Wardens did so without hesitation due to the confidence in their own strength and the power of their superdimensional gear.

They were not infiltrators who had to minimize their emission as much as possible in order to sneak past enemy defenses.

They were the hammer that brought the force of human supremacy down the heads of their alien foes!

Even if the alien defenders could see the Apocalypse Wardens coming, it shouldn't make much a difference given the enormous disparity in capabilities.

The only person who lacked this confidence was the intern that had recently begun to spend time with the elite soldiers.

"I could have fought alongside you all in person." She grumbled over the communication channel.

"Do not make impossible demands." A female Apocalypse Warden rebuked the precocious young Larkinson. "You know as well as anyone that you are too young to enter the field. It is already a stretch to let you participate through this drone. Your mission is to observe and provide information upon request. Do not go out of your way to move your drone out of cover. The firepower of this device is so anemic that it won't even scratch the shells of the enemy soldiers."

"I hate it." Andraste frustratingly said. "The least my papa and mama could do was keep their promise and build an awesome superdimensional drone. That way, I can kill my enemies just as well as the rest of you! But no, my parents are so busy that they have no time to give me proper combat gear. I have no choice but to make use of this toy!" Several Apocalypse Wardens made strange faces as they heard the preteen complain.

"Do you know how many people wish they could possess superdimensional weapons or armor? They are so rare that only the best of the best has earned the right to make use of them in advance. You may have a much easier time obtaining them than others, but until you have proven that you can make full use of their power, they will only be wasted in your hands. The first step to earning our acknowledgement is to show that you can operate an armed drone without any serious and preventable problems. Consider this a test. We will not waste any time to protect your toy from harm, so if the enemy manages to shoot it down, the fault lies with you. Do your best to keep it alive."

"Challenge accepted." Andraste simply responded.

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