Dark Cluster

Two days had passed since the piloting simulation, Ed got a clear understanding of each people's ability and piloting skill after they did a dozen simulations.

Each simulation was created in a different scenario and setting. They fought in space, terrestrial planet, underground, underwater, and many more. They not only need to beat each other, but they would need to team up with each other in another scenario.

From all the simulation they went through, Ed knew he got competent people under him, Arnold was the best in leadership and judgment, he could coordinate with the others to attain their goal, even though his piloting skill was not as good as Aya and Adam, he could still hold his own ground on a difficult situation.

Adam was the best at marksmanship and his observation ability was really monstrous, coupled with his calm demeanor, he was able to attain their goal in any condition, even if unexpected events occurred, he already had countermeasures prepared.

It was not rare that his mecha got destroyed in the simulation, but each time he would be able to escape with his cockpit intact and his sacrifice would allow the other to finish their mission.

Ed was very pleased with the young man, Adam was never in complete defeat, he would get something in return from every defeat. If they were to be scored by merit of their action, then he would surely be on the top of the ranking.

As for Aya, she favored light mecha, she could bring the best out of their fast mobility and evade any attack coming her way. Coupled with her ability to see opportunities, she destroyed the most mecha while having less destroyed mecha.

The only downside was she isn't as good at escaping from the mecha at the last moment as Adam, in the twelve simulations they have, her mecha got destroyed two times and she was not able to escape both, her light mecha's armor was too thin to allow her to escape in time.

Ed was having second thoughts about assigning her to the C-2 as his stand-in, but after some thought, it would be better if she used the high-quality alien tech than the Red Falcon.

For a medium mecha, the C-2 was among the fastest grade-C mecha, its endurance was also better than most mecha, with her piloting ability then she would not lose her life easier and it's not like he would let her die.

"Captain, we have repaired most of Alpha-Charlie's systems, we can depart any time," Altea reported to him.

"How about our camouflage? I sit finished?" he asked the AI.

"We have covered Alpha-Charlie with some armor plating, from outside, people would think of it as a light carrier that was made by pirates, they would not even know how strong our armor system actually is. It did decrease our stealth capability, but with our current technology in stealth, it was too far behind from this era's stealth tech that it is better to assume they could detect our ship," It replied.

"Good, gather any relevant crew to the cockpit, I need to talk to make an announcement before we depart," Ed instructed the AI.

"I have told everyone to gather in 30 minutes, Captain," the AI replied.

Ed looked at the repair report on his datapad, the ship already good enough to depart the Bola star system even though there was a lot of minor modification since their material was limited and did not really conform to the Alpha-Charlie's design, luckily the ship already come with repair plan for such condition so he did not need to wait for Leona to whip up some repair plan.

The only thing that troubled him was their security when they went into the Dark cluster. Other than pirates and aliens, there were also space creatures. They would meet with a lot of danger since they were going to an unfamiliar destination.

The Alpha-Charlie has its own weapon systems, and it increased their survival chance in the pirate's home ground as its particle beam and gauss rifle were stronger than Red Falcon's laser rifle.

Normally, a ship smaller than a light carrier was not armed with a weapon system as it would be better to arm it with mecha instead but they were about to go into a pirate's backyard and pirates always trick up their sleeves, even a passenger ship might have a laser weapon!

Of course, they did not need to fear every pirate they met, most pirates will only attack weaker opponents.

Attacking a strong opponent would not give them any profit, as they would lose as much from the exchange. In the end, piracy was some kind of business as well. They revolve around money and profit.

"As long as we can bluff our way and avoid provoking a big pirate group, then we would be safe," Ed thought to himself.

"But the problem is the space creature, they are driven by instinct, I can't bluff them with a paper tiger," he contemplated.

Luckily, most space creatures don't have a way to attack from afar, as long as the Alpha-Charlie spots them first, they could always kill them or scare them away before they get too close.

"Well, I can't make a concrete plan only with speculation, I will need to revisit this problem once we get into the dark cluster," he decided to think about it later.

Ed got up from his work chair and went toward the exit of his office. The hatch opened itself when he got close.

When he reached the cockpit, most of the relevant people that he called were already in there. It was either they were working in the cockpit or they were close to the cockpit when he told Altea to gather them.

They greeted him once he got into the room, Ed already gained some respect from his new subordinate in these few days.

He told them to continue what they were doing while waiting for the other. After five minutes of waiting, Aya and Dea arrived in the room hand in hand.

"Attention everyone, I gather all of you here to announce our departure from this star system, our destination will be Millenium Base in the Dark Cluster, we will depart in two hours," he announced.

"I would love to tell you guys that those who did not want to come can leave, but it was not an option since you all agreed to work for me, but fear not! No matter how dangerous our destination is, we are in this together and I will make sure we reach our destination!" he motivated them as he knew they dreaded the dark cluster.

"Yes, Sir!" they replied in unison.

"Good. Now, each of you gives me a report on our readiness for our upcoming journey," he commanded.

The deckhands reported that Alpha-Charly could depart anytime, and they have mapped out their route with Altea's help.

Once they finished their report, it was Leona's turn to report her work, "I almost finished designing a mecha from the parts we have in the Alpha Charlie, it will be finished by tomorrow and we could assemble them by tomorrow."

Leona still tried to act like a man. While other crews found it strange, Ed strictly forbade them to tell her that her guise could not fool anyone so she would continue her charade.

"How about their performance?" Ed asked with interest.

"Because of our limited time, the design that I made was not really refined that it more of a Frankenstein-mecha, it's could be optimized but we simply don't have time for that, luckily the components in Alpha-Charlie have quite high quality, According to our simulation, it should perform as well as the Red Falcon," he explained while showing her hastily made design from her datapad.

Since she did not have a lot of time, she made the simplest mecha; it was a medium knight mech; it did not look pretty as she needed to cannibalize a lot of components, but the tower shield it carried on both hands was big enough to cover its hideous appearance.

Other than the high defense and thick armor, the other unique feature it had was it did not carry any weapon nor being armed with a weapon system, all its energy was used to increase its movement speed that it could move with quite respectable speed even with all the weight it carried.

"With this mecha, we can block a space creature and protect our ranged mecha against enemy fire. Even though it doesn't have any attacking capability, it is fast enough to protect our other mecha in an emergency," she explained her design.

Ed looked at the new mecha design with interest. The mecha was an extreme mecha that was designed for the sole purpose of blocking energy attack, but in his eyes, he could employ a lot more tactics with the new mecha in his possession.

The only problem was who will pilot the mecha, "Aya prefers light offensive mecha, so she definitely is not a good match, Adam works best with all-rounders like the Red Falcon, I guess that only left Arnold,'' Ed decided.