While Ves dealt with the aftermath of the Elegant Rage's exposure on New Constantinople VIII, the expeditionary fleet of the Golden Skull Alliance continued to wait and prepare for the tough times ahead.
All of the soldiers of the expeditionary fleet had set aside their pride and satisfaction for taking down the Torment Fleet as the atmosphere in the border regions became increasingly more tense.
Every Larkinson, Glory Seeker and so on frantically exchanged their money and war merits for tangible benefits that could give them a better chance to survive the storm to come.
Nobody dared to underestimate the native aliens that were about to bear down on the border regions. The more time passed by, the more intelligence trickled down from above.
Both the quantity and quality of alien fleets had increased by a huge margin compared to before.
The Red Cabal was no longer content with sending out rabble in an attempt to exhaust red humanity's resources.
Perhaps the high-and-mighty phase whales finally noticed that this strategy was starting to become counterproductive.
Simply sending in a steady stream of shabby alien raiding fleets could no longer shake the defenses of red humanity.
Many human forces were madly upgrading their combat assets, and the Red Two had also built up a lot of fortifications in the most vulnerable regions.
Faced with such a stiff set of metaphorical walls, it made a lot more sense for the native aliens to concentrate their forces and send them all out at once.
The momentum of this imminent alien assault was bound to shake the entire dwarf galaxy!
In the face of all of these threats, no one could guarantee they could live their way past all of the battles that would break out in the next few years.
However, many people also saw this as a great opportunity to temper themselves and attain greatness.
Heroes were born in wars!
Many veteran mech pilots wished that they had been born a decade or a couple of decades sooner. They had fought and toiled during the Age of Mechs where human space used to be a lot calmer and more stagnant.
The wars that took place during those years amounted to little more than human infighting.
Under the suppression of the MTA and the CFA, the fighting between different states often led to a lot of misery, but rarely resulted in the kind of mass slaughters that used to take place during the most terrible days of the Age of Conquest.
It was a lot harder for mech pilots to stand out, break past their limits and ascend the path of godhood under those controlled circumstances.
Now that red humanity had not only lost the backing of original humanity, but also entered into a war against aliens who never agreed to play by the rules of their adversaries, many mech pilots felt more pressured than ever.
While it was true that a lot of mech pilots who had grown up during times of peace failed to adapt to the changing times, the ones that fought in the border regions and went on to become linefighters benefited the most from the Red War!
These rising elites and heroes not only tempered their fighting spirits while confronting warships that could disintegrate their fragile mechs with a single salvo of their powerful batteries, but also earned precious war merits!
The importance of these war merits could not be overstated. The Red Association, the Red Fleet, the Terran Alliance and the Rubarthan Pact generously set up exclusive exchanges for the New Elites to reward them for fulfilling the collective duty of red humanity.
The Red Two and the first-rate colonial superstates behaved quite sincerely and opened up access to plenty of goods and services that used to be exclusive to their own people!
The War Exchange had quickly become the favorite destination for every blooded linefighter.
Not only did it offer attractive rewards at every price point, but the providers also discounted a lot of goods!
Everything they did was for the purpose of incentivizing as many soldiers to fight on the frontlines as possible. The powers that be also wanted to speed up the development of the New Elites and allow them to rise up faster.
One of the beneficiaries of the new policies was Saint Tusa Billingsley-Larkinson.
Although the first ace pilot of the Larkinson Clan did not manage to achieve a dramatic breakthrough on the battlefield like most of his peers, Tusa had already proven his strength before and after his breakthrough.
He managed to earn a lot of war merits recently for his key role in defeating the Torment Fleet!
His quick takedown of the powerful Eminence of Torment especially earned him a high bonus, as it was in red humanity's best interest to kill as many phase leaders as possible!
At this time, the value of a war merit was roughly equal to that of an MTA merit.
This alone made war merits more desirable as MTA merits were usually a lot more valuable than the same sum in MTA credits!
Many third-raters and second-raters never dared to imagine that they would be able to earn rewards equivalent to the salaries and bonuses that first-raters took for granted!
Even so, compared to the total proportion of combatants in the new frontier, only a modest proportion of mech pilots and other soldiers earned the status of linefighters so far.
It couldn't be helped. Many people rationally figured out that there was no way for them to enjoy their rich rewards when there was a large chance that they would die after getting targeted by a scary warship!
Modern humans had developed such an acquired fear towards the threat posed by warships that many mech pilots chose to stay in the rear.
They were not necessarily cowards. There were plenty of veterans among them that had fought against a multitude of mech forces.
It was just that the anti-warship propaganda of the MTA and the CFA worked too well.
It was difficult for so many adults to unlearn their extreme apprehensions at the thought of fighting not just one warship, but an entire fleet of armed vessels!
The casualty figures were horrendous. So many hopeful mech pilots died or got crippled after just one or two encounters against the aliens.
Whatever war merits they managed to earn all became lost as they were neither transferable or inheritable.
Only the strong and the living deserved to cash in their rewards!
This was why the War Exchange became so lucrative to the few soldiers who were courageous enough to fight the aliens, but also lucky enough to survive the successive battles.
Those who were in a position to take advantage of the War Exchange had survived the harshest crucible and came out stronger in every way!
These were the true New Elites that the Fist of Defiance wanted to nurture from a human population that had long grown complacent in their past superiority.
As a participant of many battles against the native aliens, Saint Tusa already managed to build up a generous stash of war merits.
The additional rewards for contributing to the defeat of the Torment Fleet had practically doubled the amount of war merits in his possession. Tusa felt like a rich man after accumulating so much wealth!
Despite all of this, Tusa never felt the urge to spend them on anything expensive.
As far as he was concerned, the Larkinson Clan already took care of all of his essential needs.
From providing and upgrading the Dark Zephyr to bestowing him with a companion spirit, Tusa did not feel like he was lacking anything.