After a cautious journey, the Flagrant Vandal combat carrier that scouted the way ahead finally reached Garimel II.
The gas giant provided a rare oasis of calm in the Garimel System. Due to its solid core and humongous mass, it generated a magnetic shield that essentially acted like a sunscreen in space.
The magnetosphere did nothing to stop the passage of asteroids and other substantial objects, but it just happened to be effective at bouncing away harmful solar particles from the blue supergiant star and deadly rays from every direction.
Entering it would allow the expeditionary fleet to halt its slow and steady degradation!
Nonetheless, the protection they offered was not absolute. Particularly powerful solar flares generated by Garimel’s extremely powerful star occasionally burst through the magnetic shield and bombarded the gas giant and its many moons with deadly particles and energy.
No one figured out how frequently this occurred and when it would happen again. The astrophysicists and other scientists in the Larkinson Clan who engaged in these studies still lacked a lot of data to construct accurate models.
This was why the scout unit’s activities were so important. The combat carrier utilized the upgraded and hardened sensor arrays on her exterior to the fullest in order to obtain much more detailed readings of the gas giant and its sixteen moons.
In addition to that, twenty mechs deployed in quick succession. They split up into four different teams and cautiously approached the nearby moons in order to survey their mineral composition up close.
Numerous new Light Hunter models were among these teams, which delighted the Vandals. Their sensor systems were much more effective than the ones installed on the Ferocious Piranha.
As a Light Hunter escorted by a couple of Ferocious Piranha and a Stingripper approached a small moon, it immediately demonstrated its information gathering superiority in various different ways.
The new scout mech was not only able to gather richer data on the nearby moon terrain, but was also able to capture data at a significantly greater maximum range than its escorts!
Surveying the surface of the moon therefore became a much less cumbersome assignment as the mech teams needed to perform less sweeps in order to map out the entire surface.
Of course, the mech teams started surveying the smaller moons first, notwithstanding the tiny rocks that were basically asteroids that got caught in Garimel II’s orbits.
These smaller moons provided the Flagrant Vandals with a good opportunity to test the observation capabilities of the Light Hunter outside of combat conditions.
The mech technicians and mech designers assigned to the mech legion even modified the numerous sensor systems to perform more effectively in the Garimel System.
The workers hardened the more sensitive sensor parts while also installing additional components that excelled at gathering geological data.
One of the main objectives of the current expedition was to mine a lot of valuable exotic materials, after all. Searching for phasewater and other valuable exotics was indispensable!
The mech pilots assigned to pilot the scout mechs quickly became more proficient in handling the numerous sensor systems. Each of these components were dedicated to scout mechs and therefore provided a lot more advanced controls to their users.
These features weren’t necessarily desirable for mechs as ordinary mech pilots didn’t want to fumble around with their sensor systems in the middle of a pitched battle!
While the Light Hunter’s sensor and analysis modules still worked better than usual when left to their own devices, they truly shined when scout mech specialists selectively tweaked the settings.
One of the most effective ways for the Light Hunter to penetrate through thick surfaces and capture the richest details was to employ its most powerful active scanning module.
Juliet Stameros had carefully selected the Samasel Orb Directional Scanning Module for its excellent deep scanning performance.
Sure, its range was rather short and its energy consumption went through the roof, but both of these shortcomings were manageable outside of combat situations.
The Light Hunters descended closer to the surface of the modest-sized moons to reduce the burden on its sensor systems.
They did not activate their active scanners unless they discovered an area of interest. Even then, they only utilized their Samasel Orbs at half-power in order to extend their uptime.
Ves sat on the bridge of the Spirit of Bentheim as the Light Hunters performed their initial sweeps. He carefully studied the performance metrics of the new mech and paid considerable attention to the quality of data its sensors managed to gather from Garimel II’s moons.
He was quite satisfied with the differences in performance. While it was a shame the Light Hunters weren’t specialized in searching for minerals, they were at least better at this job than any other mech in the clan!
The only mech that could give them a run for their money was the new Signal Bearer of the Penitent Sisters Mech Legion, but its range and energy consumption was not as optimal to conduct lengthy exploration missions.
All in all, the Light Hunter performed its current task well enough to fulfill the Larkison Clan’s demand for scout mechs.
“We should still try and procure scout mechs that excel at searching for minerals and traces of civilizations, but that can wait for a few years.” Ves judged.
Once the Larkinson Clan grew older, bigger and more comprehensive, the demand for specialized capabilities would increase.
The Larkinsons needed to add all kinds of specialized mechs to their mech roster in order to run everything smoothly.
For example, the clan needed non-lethal law enforcement mechs in order to handle internal incidents.
The demand for different auxiliary mechs such as those that generated area shields and those that provided energy recharges in the field would also rise.
“We should also start with fielding landbound mechs when our clan has grown large enough.”
At that point in time, the Larkinson Clan would probably possess sufficient self-protection capabilities in space.
While Ves and his fellow designers had designed every spaceborn mech with the potential to operate in a planetary environment, their effective performance would never be as good as machines that were specially designed to operate in these environments.
The performance gap could be as wide as 20 percent or more depending on the environment!
The greater the gravity, the greater the disparity!
One of the general rules in the cosmos was that heavier satellites generally had a higher chance of possessing valuable resource deposits.
This was why fielding landbound mechs could make a significant impact on the outcome of various surface-related missions.
A lot of skirmishes related to taking possession of phasewater deposits were fought with landbound mechs!
“Sir, we have just completed our initial sweeps of one of the moons. Our Light Hunters have not detected any valuable or noteworthy materials on the surface. The scouts will perform additional sweeps at closer range to the more hopeful areas, but we do not expect any surprises. The moon is too small and ordinary to hold anything good.”
“Understood. Stick to the plan and be on the lookout for potential danger or signs of previous visitors.”
The initial exploration of Garimel II’s orbital region did not yield any explosive surprises, but this was just the start.
Five decent-sized moons orbited the gas giant. Each of their diameters surpassed 1000 kilometers.
While that didn’t make them impressive at all, their relatively larger sizes caused them to resemble actual planets instead of oversized asteroids.
What interested the Larkinsons the most was that their size also made them more susceptible to ‘catching’ a portion of the solar emissions from the blue supergiant.
If any powerful solar flare ejected a stream of heavy metals for any reason, there was a faint chance that some of those rare materials might land on those larger moons!
This also made the surfaces of those larger moons a bit more difficult to investigate from afar.
Unless the Blinding Banshee came close or unless the Larkinsons dispatched more survey teams, it was still unclear what goodies they contained.
“Would you like to go on a field trip in order to help search for valuable exotics, Lucky?” Ves asked the cat that was lounging on the side.
“Meow? Meow!”
“I wasn’t asking. There has to be something interesting on one of those moons and I’m not sure whether our new scout mechs can make any useful discoveries. None of my mechs can beat you when it comes to searching for valuable metals!”
“Meow meow!”
“Don’t tell me that you have grown full as of late.” Ves narrowed his eyes on his cat. “I’ve noticed that you haven’t visited the toilet for a long time. The last time you did your business was before we passed through the beyonder gate! What have you been doing all this time?”
“Meow meow meow!”
The intervals between gem deliveries became longer and longer. Ves was already accustomed to that, but the continued absence in any bowel movements from his cat became increasingly more concerning.
Was this related to the System’s extended absence? Ves could not help but correlate its ‘vacation’ to Lucky’s nonexistent output.
The gem cat still maintained the same eating pattern as before. He gobbled up one valuable mineral after another, yet nothing seemed to happen after Lucky swallowed all of these valuable materials.
In order to make sure that Lucky produced quality gems, Ves purchased a good reserve of medium-grade exotics in order to serve as cat food for the rest of the year!
The cost of all of those materials exceeded the price of Gloriana’s handbag!
Ves narrowed his eyes at Lucky. He didn’t know whether his cat was accumulating all of the materials it ingested in order to generate better gems in his body.
Lucky could easily divert the input to upgrade his body and various systems.
While that made the gem cat stronger in many ways, the gems he produced wouldn’t be as dazzling!
“You better present me with an excellent ‘gift’ once your systems are active again.” Ves warned his cat. “Until then, you can earn back the money that I have spent on your diet plan by joining the survey teams. You have to work for your privileges!”
“Meeeeoooow!”
Though Lucky put up a rebellious act, Ves didn’t get fooled. As soon as the Flagrant Vandals discovered traces of more valuable minerals on one of the moons, Lucky would be first to board a shuttle!
As Ves returned to studying the sensor readings, he received an interesting report from the Flagrant Vandals.
The combat carrier had performed distance scans on Garimel II-F, the second-largest moon orbiting the gas giant.
With a diameter of roughly 4000 kilometers, its gravity was fairly heavier than was typical to its size.
The reason for that was because it contained a lot more metals than usual!
Another interesting feature about Garimel II-F was its volcanic activity. The heat generated by the distant blue supergiant star along with the tidal forces generated by the movements of the planet and the moons all caused it to act like a giant squeeze toy.
All of these activities meant that a lot of heavy materials that were ordinarily locked underneath came up to the surface due to volcanic eruptions.
The initial scans were fairly promising. The combat carrier hadn’t confirmed whether there were any valuable metallic exotics in the cooled volcanic matter, but their sensors detected enough energetic reactions to warrant closer study!
If nothing better came by, this would probably be the moon where the Andrenidae would set up shop. The gravity of this satellite was low enough that mining mechs and mining vehicles could easily head up and down in space without expending a lot of effort.
“There is something else you should know, patriarch.”
“What is it?” Ves asked.
“Since no human has ever surveyed this star system before, we have the right to name the satellites. If you wish, you can name this moon yourself. Would you like to do so, sir?”
Ah, Ves forgot about that. Naming different stuff was one of the perks of exploring new star systems!
“Let’s call it Gatecrasher, then. This moon reminds me of the dwarven expert mech piloted by Venerable Orthox de Massie. Hopefully it also contains enough minerals to make a dwarf salivate!”
