Ves just took note of them all, especially the ones that he might encounter along his planned route. He adopted an opportunistic mindset towards these open missions. If he could fulfill them along the way, he didn't mind doing so, but the odds of that happening was rather slim.
"I need to set a solid goal for myself."
He browsed the list until he found the mission that he had been eying for a time.
[Rescue Mission
29 years ago, Solok Reyva, a talented Journeyman and a member of the Rim Guardian Fraternity, ventured into the Nyxian Gap with a small but powerful fleet. Ten months into the journey, the MTA has lost contact with the entire fleet.
Solok Reyva was presumed lost.
Several years later, small batches of high-quality mechs began to circulate among the Nyxian pirates. Rumors have emerged that the Krella Alliance, a minor but elusive pirate group in the Nyxian Gap, has captured a very capable mech designer and coerced him into working on commissions issued by various pirate clients.
The Rim Guardians have reason to suspect that the Krella Alliance has captured Solok Reyva and are exploiting him to this day. The design characteristics of the commissioned pirate mechs bear at least some resemblance to Solok Reyva's prior work at the MTA.
The Krella Alliance is a fleet-based pirate group that is often on the move. It is well-connected in the deeper portions of the periphery of the Nyxian Gap and is always able to evade pursuit.
Track down the Krella Alliance and retrieve the mech designer that is responsible for designing the commissioned pirate mechs. If the identity of the mech designer is Solok Reyva, then he must be brought back to MTA custody alive and as healthy as possible.
Due to prior failed rescue attempts, the Krella Alliance is on guard. Its fleet has become much more difficult to track, and the mechs its captive mech designers have designed no longer bear the design characteristics associated with Solok Reyva.
Reward: 2,500,000 MTA merits
Bonus: 2,500,000 MTA merits and 1 level associate status promotion if the rescued mech designer is Solok Reyva and alive]
This was the big one. Considering the composition and capabilities of his task force, Ves believed he had a decent shot at fulfilling this particular mission.
Rescuing Solok Reyva not only awarded him with a huge amount of MTA merits, but also elevated his associate status by an additional level!
The latter was pretty rare! It took a lot of effort to promote his associate status. While Ves had already gained one level due to receiving a masterwork certificate, that was just a one-time deal.
Each level after 1 granted him a 5 percent bonus in every good and service offered by the Rim Guardians. If Ves was able to rescue Solok Reyva, then he'd be able to gain a 10 percent discount in total!
Compared to his old situation, Ves effectively had to pay 5 million merits less for a second-class fleet beyonder ticket.
Therefore, while the rescue mission only awarded him with 5 million merits on the surface, he effectively gained double if he obtained the additional discount!
Putting him one-tenth closer to fulfilling his great ambition was well worth it in his eyes!
"Six months. I'll spend six months at most."
If Ves failed to track Solok down, then he was ready to cut his losses at that point.
One thing was for sure. It wasn't going to be easy for Ves to close in on Solok and the Krella Alliance.
The pirates covered their tracks so that Ves effectively had to trace them by following the breadcrumbs in the form of the commissioned mechs they sold.
Ves would have to access and inspect these mechs in person in order to ascertain whether they were Solok's handiwork. This was incredibly arduous and required a mech designer of high skill in order to make this determination.
The reason why it wasn't possible to determine whether any mech was designed by Solok was because he was actually a rational mech designer!
The man was able to emulate multiple specialties!