Chapter 3851 Hometown Boys
A harmonious atmosphere descended upon the cockpit of the Everchanger. As Task Force Fisherman had just exited the immediate sphere of influence of the Swarm Kingdom, everyone in the group relaxed.
With their lineup and with a distance advantage, none of the mech pilots were afraid of tussling with a horde that consisted of tens of thousands Swarmer fish-whales.
However, no one wanted to waste needless time, effort and resources on wiping out lots of forgettable cannon fodder that the Swarm Kingdom could quickly regenerate in a matter of days!
This was why the mechs of the task force were able to move fairly quickly when needed. Most fish-whales actually didn't excel at speed.
After all, qualified cannon fodder did not need to excel at fleeing or chasing. Since most battles in Purgatory centered around conquering territory, the grunt fish-whales just had to be as tough and resilient as possible in order to make the enemy consume more strength to get rid of them all. Speed was a secondary priority!
The only concern was whether the Swarmers possessed more powerful and elite fish-whale troops. Although the powerful Swarm Kingdom had only shown relatively weak and beatable fish-whales so far, who knew whether it hid an elite force that it could unveil at critical times.
This was why the mech pilots did not dare to relax too much. The Flagrant Vandals dispatched their light mechs ahead of the main force in order to make sure they were not heading into a trap.
As the time of arrival came closer, Ves and Joshua had grown a bit closer than before.
Though Venerable Joshua was an expert pilot who possessed far more confidence and strength than the average mech pilot, he had always looked up to Ves. Advancing to a demigod had not reduced that tendency in the slightest. Instead, it had become a part of his persona!
It took several hours in the same cockpit for Venerable Joshua to put down his apprehension and talk to Ves on a more familiar level.
The Everchanger's cockpit was quite cozy if a bit cramped due to the addition of an extra seat. Ves had invested quite a bit of effort into designing the original interior and he had not touched that at all when he remodeled the cockpit.
When Ves looked at the sculpted metal surfaces and the other little artworks that he had applied in order to make the cockpit a bit more special, he felt as if he had withdrawn to a log cabin together with his good friend and most loyal mech pilot.
Inside this cockpit, it was just the two of them. There was no need for them to put on any airs. The hierarchy didn't matter in this private space.
"Both of us grew up in Cloudy Curtain." Ves smiled as he cast his mind back to the past. "Do you recall the old days? Back then, both of us looked up to the Bright Republic and the Mech Corps. How naive we were back then. Do you know how our home planet is doing these days?"
Joshua nodded. "I heard that it has changed a lot from before. I haven't checked up on it in years, but Cloudy Curtain's population has ballooned after absorbing all of the refugees from the Sand War. Still… it's a pity that Bentheim eventually got sandblasted in the end."
Ves nodded. That was indeed a massive and largely preventable loss of life. At least the Big Two had paid a price for their consistent complacency and underestimation of the threat posed by the sandman race.
He sighed. "The Bright Republic is trying to rebuild the ruined planet in order to put the strategic port system back to use, but it will never be able to return to its former glory in at least a century. The dynamic in the region has changed and Cloudy Curtain has turned into a booming planet because of its proximity to the Bentheim System."
The port system still functioned as an important navigational hub. The problem was that much of its stellar and planetary infrastructure had been wrecked. Rebuilding all of that took a lot of time, especially when the Brighters had to start from scratch.
Faced with all of these delays, it was more convenient and economical to build up nearby star systems such as Cloudy Curtain as stopgap solutions!
Together with settling billions of third-class refugees from a lot of ruined planets, this had led to the odd situation where Ves and Joshua's shared homeplanet had undergone a metamorphosis in a single generation!
Venerable Joshua looked wistful. "If we ever have the opportunity to return to the planet of our birth one day, how much of the city of Orinoco will we recognize?"
"Probably little. The explosive rise of Cloudy Curtain demands an explosive rise of urban development. Back when our home planet only had a population of 15 million people, it didn't matter if the place was a bit shabby. Nowadays… there should be a lot more high-rise structures in order to accommodate all of the economic activity taking place in the star system."
Cloudy Curtain had ultimately done well for itself. Ves, Joshua and the rest of the original gang from this once-quiet rural planet had also done well for themselves.
As Ves thought about their drastic growth, he grew a bit more sentimental.
He had spent so much time moving forward and working towards the future that he hadn't stopped and looked back on how much he and his fellow companions had changed.
It was quite odd to compare his old self who lived in a much simpler time to his current self.
"Oh? Are you willing to share them to me, sir?" Joshua grew interested. fгeewebnovёl.com
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