Chapter 3968 Too Valuable To Lose
The Mercenary Hall was a major addition to the military side of the Larkinson Clan!
For the first time since the founding of the clan, individual groups of Larkinson soldiers could voluntarily go out to fulfill a mercenary contract!
This did not mean that the Larkinson Clan transitioned into a mercenary organization and that its powerful mech units suddenly turned into income sources.
To Ves, this was simply a side activity. He did not particularly care about the profits that the mercenary Larkinsons earned while they were working on behalf of other groups and companies.
He valued the growth and tempering that his troops could gain from these risky ventures. He was willing to accept the fact that his clan would suffer losses just like any force that entered the mercenary industry. freёweɓnovel.com
He even saw it as a good opportunity to purify the Larkinson Army of weaker soldiers. Those that managed to survive and thrive in these ordeals were the true elites of his clan. They could be entrusted with stronger mechs and greater responsibilities.
In any case, the existence of this institution meant that Ves no longer had to worry about his troops growing soft when the Larkinson fleet wasn't doing anything special.
Those with the drive and ambition to improve could volunteer for any available mission that met the Mercenary Hall's requirements.
Access to mercenary missions was not a problem. The clan merely had to sign a small agreement with the trans-galactic Mercenary Association to gain access to its vast network of missions and contacts.
While the civilian half of the Larkinson Clan was not particularly enthused about exposing a portion of their clansmen to the unpredictable dangers of the new frontiers, the military leaders all supported this initiative.
They all believed in the Rubarthan Societal Revival Theory in one way or another. All of the struggles the clan had gone through had made them stronger and more resilient. Many more people were able to draw out their full potential under the stimulation of battle.
Even if Ves had recently discovered the proper way to utilize the transcendence glow, he was far from reaching the point where he could produce expert candidates and expert pilots on demand!
The transcendence glow only provided the mech pilots with an extra push. They still needed to develop their willpower and temper their mentalities in order to get close to the extraordinary threshold in the first place, and that was a much more difficult journey.
Ves figured that the Mercenary Hall was the best and most sustainable way for the Larkinson Clan to produce high-ranking mech pilots over time.
While he had big plans for the clan's competitive circuit, he did not believe that non-lethal matches could stimulate mech pilots as well as actual battles.
For this reason, the Mercenary Hall would become an invaluable institution to the Larkinson Clan. This was especially the case in the far future when the main fleet became less vulnerable to external threats.
"What about us?" Venerable Rosa Orfan asked. "Can expert pilots such as me go on mercenary contracts as well?"
A lot of expressions changed.
It was one thing for a group of faceless grunts to go out on an adventure. It was another thing for a rare and precious expert pilot to leave and never return!
Commander Casella Ingvar shook her head. "The ratio between risk and reward is not as favorable. Expert pilots such as ourselves may grow faster in battle, but our loss and the loss of our expensive expert mechs will inflict great damage to our clan."
"If you go on a mercenary mission, you won't do our clan and the clansmen any favors, Orfan." Calabast chimed in. "The Larkinson Clan will always have enemies. They cannot do anything as long as we stay in our well-defended fleet and outposts, but we cannot extend the same degree of protection to any smaller detachments on a mission. The chances that our enemies will specifically seek out a detachment in order to crush it with overwhelming force become much higher if one of our expert pilots has come along!"
This was not the answer that Venerable Orfan wanted to hear. She was a woman who thrived on the battlefield and found meaning in combat. Her rate of improvement was not high during long periods of peace.
Though there were definite benefits to allowing expert pilots to develop their strength further in different situations, Ves firmly shook his head.
"From the moment you have advanced to the rank of expert pilot, your relationship to our clan has changed." He stated to Venerable Orfan and all of her peers. "You are the guardians and protectors of our core fleet. You are our strategic weapons against the most difficult enemy units that we may face on the battlefield. Your strength and potential makes it worthwhile for our clan to invest a large amount of funding and resources into you. We facilitate your training and we pair you up with precious, high-quality expert mechs. We do not go through all of this trouble only for you to recklessly endanger your life and your expert mech on a trivial mercenary job."
General Verle nodded in agreement. "As long as the loss of a single expert pilot or expert mech significantly weakens the defenses of our main fleet, we cannot risk any of them in non-essential missions. Perhaps we can reconsider this policy in the future when we have thousands of expert pilots in our ranks."
This future was extremely far away. At this time, every Larkinson expert pilot and expert mech was a valuable strategic asset. The loss of even a single one of them could mean the difference between victory and defeat.
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