5850 An Act of Madness
Ves was impressed by Dread Captain Volkert's speech.
The 281 year old commanding officer spoke so much, yet shared so little relevant information.
This made a lot of sense. The aim of Volkert Argile was not to be transparent and explain to his crew what was about to happen ahead of time.
The point was to put everyone in a supportive state of mind. What was about to happen next would definitely cause them to be confronted by an unprecedented situation.
While the fleeters were way too well-trained to stop and gape at what was unfolding around them, it would be significantly damaging if they all became distracted by their doubts.
It was the job of the captain of the dreadnought to give everyone a reason to stand fast and work towards a common goal.
Volkert Argile's speech soon came to an end.
"Remember what we are fighting for. If everything proceeds as planned, the Dominion of Man shall become more than a mere warship. No other dreadnought in the possession of the Red Fleet will be her equal anymore. It is not technology that shall prevail today, but the power of common men. As the vanguard of humanity's revival in the Red Ocean, we must shed our bled to begin the ritual that will change our flagship forever. This must be a voluntary act. The power of sacrifice must be sincere in order for our mighty ship to accept your tribute, however small it may be. Please make your decision and spill your blood onto any surface within a single minute. and spill your blood onto any surface within a single minute. The ritual shall commence with or without your contribution."
Though the dread captain sounded more like a cult leader than an officer of the Red Fleet, hundreds of millions of spacers obeyed without question.
Since every fleeter serving on the Dominion of Man was wearing a vacuum-sealed suit, they couldn't pick up a knife and cut their finger or whatever.
Instead, they all activated a command that caused their combat armor to insert a tiny needle into their bodies.
The drops of blood extracted by these needles soon squeezed out different ports and began to splatter the decks and bulkheads of whatever compartment they resided at the moment.
The drops of blood were so small that they could easily be missed by the naked eye.
Yet the gesture was still valid despite the unorthodox way the fleeters shed their blood.
The sacrifice of a single ordinary fleeter was not significant enough for anyone to notice.
The fact that the vast majority of the crew serving aboard the gigantic dreadnought obeyed the instruction of their commanding officer resulted in a much stronger reaction!
Just as Ves anticipated, the collective sacrifice and the strong intentions behind this gesture caused the Dominion of Man to become charged with extraordinary meaning!
That did not mean that the dreadnought was about to evolve.
Anyone could repeat this gesture in different locations. What made this different was that Ves intended to make active use of this ceremonial gesture.
Before the power of this blood sacrifice faded, Ves began to make his move.
"I am starting. Get ready."
"Ready!"
"Begin the blood extraction!"
Every brain in a vat was connected to a lot of different devices. One of them could easily draw out a small portion of blood that circulated through the brain cells.
Each of these drops of blood passed through numerous channels until they spurted into a small wooden bowl that floated in front of Ves' armored form.
It went without saying that this blood was a lot more special. Taken from over a thousand different brains with A-grade genetic aptitude, Ves could clearly feel that the precious liquid possessed a huge amount of untapped potential!
The researchers of the CFA had harvested a lot of brains from old and accomplished officers.
They all served as captains, commodores and admirals back when they were alive. Just because they neglected their exquisite talent in piloting mechs did not mean that they were mediocre in other aspects.
Each of them leveraged their natural gifts to varying degrees. From accelerating their learning speeds to processing data a lot faster than their colleagues, these gifted fleeters all demonstrated enough excellence for their brains to be donated to the Brain Trust.
If these decorated and accomplished naval officers were still alive, then their blood would have held a lot more potency.
Alas, they had already died. That already sapped a lot of power from their lifeblood. Preserving their brains helped to retain what little extraordinary essence was left, but it was a paltry amount compared to what they were when they were at their greatest.
Ves did not really mind.
What the blood donated by all of the brains lacked in potency, they made up for it in quantity.
As the simple bowl became filled with the blood harvested from all of the brains, Ves could clearly sense the fusion of different energies, each of which came from different sources.
Far from causing a giant mess, the fusion of energies actually proceeded a lot more harmoniously than it should.
This was because every blood donor was an officer of the proud and mighty Common Fleet Alliance.
Each of them had their differences, but they also had a lot in common. It was the latter that enabled their blood to get along for the time being.
"Blinky. It's your turn now."
"Mrow!"
The Star Cat emerged from his helmeted head and immediately started to manipulate the amalgamation of spiritual energies attached to all of the blood.
The goal was to homogenize the spiritual energies as much as possible. Blinky proceeded to do so by cutting off a lot of impurities that would only be detrimental to the outcome of this ritual.
There was no time for finesse. The companion spirit cut off parts as long as he harbored any doubts about the usefulness of retaining them. Though crude, the process quickly reduced the differences between all of the energies and caused them to become more and more identical to each other.
Blinky deliberately retained their spiritual imprints, not because it was too troublesome to remove them all, but because Ves intended to preserve this condition.
The spiritual energies each came from humans who used to be highly accomplished CFA officers. Disconnecting these ingredients from the humans they used to belong to was a considerable waste.
Ves also felt that retaining the markers that tied them to their original human identities fell in line with the spiritual product that he intended to make.
"Mrow."
Once Blinky was done with removing as many impurities as possible in such a short timeframe, he immediately commenced the next phase.
The Star Cat opened his maw and began to release a huge amount of life-attributed energy!
This was the spiritual energy that was almost unique to Ves. It was infused with the power to create life out of nearly anything.