Ves cursed his luck. After numerous lucky breaks, Ves believed the chance of interception wasn't as big as he thought.

Throughout his entire journey through Ordent, none of his hunters or pursuers managed to get close enough to enter within effective combat range of his s.h.i.+p!

Yet as soon as his s.h.i.+p stepped into the Great Zona Republic, he immediately encountered a mercenary fleet at close proximity!

The good news was that the mercenary s.h.i.+ps weren't in knife-fighting range. It took about forty minutes for the s.h.i.+ps to fly within engagement range, upon which they would probably deploy their mechs.

The bad news was that the mercenaries had plenty of time to catch up with his fleeing s.h.i.+p!

While his mobile supply frigate possessed a clear edge in acceleration, the mercenary fleet just happened to be flying in relative motion in his direction!

Even without activating their thrusters, the light carriers were already drifting in his direction!

This head-start was an undeniably critical advantage!

If both the mercenary fleet and the Scarlet Rose started off stationary, then the latter s.h.i.+p's superior acceleration would quickly enable Ves to outpace his pursuers.

Yet all of that was not in consideration as soon as Ves confirmed the Scarlet Rose's calculations.

Her navigation systems hadn't made any errors. Within forty minutes, his s.h.i.+p would become vulnerable to long-ranged fire!

That didn't mean the mercenaries would fire at his s.h.i.+p. Ves believed it was extremely unlikely that the Friday Coalition issued a mission that called for blowing up one of their a.s.sets.

There was no way the mercenaries would ignore the temptation of capturing an intact second-cla.s.s s.h.i.+p either!

Whether they wanted to abscond with the valuable mobile supply frigate or hand her over to the Coalition for a rich reward, Ves would fall into their hands regardless of what happened!

As time started ticking down, Ves rapidly contemplated his options.

"First, I can hop into one of the special escape pods and drift away."

This was a dead end. Even if he left the Scarlet Rose, where would he go? Ves purposefully traveled to a typical lifeless star system with nothing of value. There weren't any human settlements for him to shelter in, and neither would he be able to b.u.mp into another s.h.i.+p aside from the ones belonging to his captors.

"Second, I can sneak aboard one of their carriers with my escape pod."

As long as he maintained complete stealth, Ves was reasonably confident he could infiltrate a s.h.i.+p unnoticed. As long as the carrier's internal security wasn't too tight, he could probably find a hiding spot and remain hidden for weeks.

Yet what would this accomplish?

Even if he repeated his earlier feat and killed every crew member of the carrier, what could he do against the other four carriers?

The moment the rest of the fleet noticed anything wrong, they would doubtlessly disable and corner their compromised s.h.i.+p with their mechs!

At most, he would be able to keep himself hidden while the mercenaries took their prize s.h.i.+p all the way back to the hub system of some sorts.

There, they could process their new acquisition or make arrangements to hand it over to the Fridaymen.

The chance that Ves could reenter the Scarlet Rose and flee all of the presences at the hub system was comically small!

Ves had no choice but to rely on his personal capacities to navigate a foreign planet or s.p.a.ce station and find some way to find pa.s.sage away.

This was not an unacceptable outcome to him, but it entailed abandoning the Scarlet Rose.

"Is a second-cla.s.s mobile supply frigate frigate really worth all of the risk?"

If Ves still remained in his rational state, then he would likely choose this option. It was one of the best ways to preserve his life and make it back to safety!

The truth was that the Scarlet Rose was way too valuable and high profile for Ves to succeed in bringing her all the way to the Ylvaine Protectorate!

Once Ves got rid of this eye-catching s.p.a.ce jewel, he could probably rely on himself to blend in the crowd and board some sort of s.h.i.+p that traveled away from the Friday Coalition.

Yet Ves was no longer as listless as before. Enough time had pa.s.sed for most of his spiritual energy reserves to recover to full! His Grand Dynamo had worked hard to return him to his normal state!

While it still took at least a day or two for him to get topped off, Ves pretty much regained most of his emotions.

Right now, Ves felt very possessive about his new acquisition. If it was possible, Ves did not wish to lose his new s.h.i.+p!

"It will take years for me to earn enough money to commission a comparable s.h.i.+p!" He lamented. "How can I miss this opportunity to surpa.s.s Gloriana by bringing in a s.h.i.+p that's superior to her Stellar Chaser?"

Ves often felt inadequate when he compared his piddling Barracuda with her larger s.h.i.+p!

Now that he captured the Scarlet Rose, Ves would be d.a.m.ned before he gave her up! There had to be a way for him to retain the vessel he so painstakingly killed off an entire crew to obtain!

He set aside the previous option and quickly moved on to his other options.

"There is no way to outrun or hide from this mercenary fleet."

If there was some kind of satellite or asteroid belt in the vicinity, then he could have tried to shake off pursuit by taking advantage of the complex stellar terrain.

Yet this red dwarf system was so pathetically empty that there weren't any asteroid belts within a couple light-hours of his current position!

Only empty s.p.a.ce surrounded his s.h.i.+p in each direction, ruling out any possibility of breaking detection!

"Then.. maybe I can negotiate."

Though Ves did not feel very hopeful about this option, he might as well give it a try.

He hailed the approaching s.h.i.+ps. It took a brief amount of time before someone on the other end accepted the transmission.

An elder man in a black mercenary uniform appeared in view. His short grey beard and his short-cropped hair reminded Ves of the military.

His mood instantly sunk as he took in the opposing mercenary commander. The leader's straight, ramrod posture and his well-honed air of authority suggested that he was a really tough bone!

"Mr. Ves Larkinson." The old commander began. "I am glad you have reached out to us. You have saved us the effort of figuring out whether we are chasing after the right s.h.i.+p."

"It appears you already know. Could you introduce yourselves?"

"Why certainly. I am Leonard Quint, commander of the Echo Spears. We are a rather notable mercenary corps of the Great Zona Republic. We specialize in bounty-hunting and punis.h.i.+ng pirates."

"I see. Could you please go elsewhere? Your s.h.i.+ps are getting uncomfortably close to mine."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Larkinson, but that s.h.i.+p isn't yours. We have accepted a mission to return the Scarlet Rose to her rightful owners. As for you, the Coalition has offered a rich bounty for your capture. You're all alone on that s.h.i.+p, correct?"

"Who knows."

"Don't lie. There is no one on the bridge except for you. If you want to prove otherwise, then feel free to expand your projection."

Ves tried his best not to grimace. This was a very clever way of confirming that Ves hadn't picked up a crew along the way.

Knowing that he wouldn't be able to disprove Commander Quint's guess, Ves simply moved on and tried to find some way to get himself out of this predicament.

"I highly advise you to reconsider your current actions, Commander Quint. If you have studied my record, then you'll know that I have a history of surviving or coming out on top of confrontations. No matter how many advantages you think you have, I'll never give up! Don't make me overload the power reactor of the Scarlet Rose! I can do it in an instant as long as any of your s.h.i.+ps or mechs get close!"

The commander did not look deterred. He offered Ves a knowing smile.

"We prefer to take our chances. Let me give you our own warning. If you do anything to the Friday Coalition's properly, we'll be glad to show you why that is a monumentally bad idea! I believe the Fridaymen won't mind receiving you in a less-than-healthy state! With their medical technology, we can cripple every part of your body without repercussion!"

Ves idly waved his hand as if he brushed the threat of torture aside. "You'll only be signing your death warrants if you do so. If you haven't heard, Lady Aisling Curver of the Gauge Dynasty is smitten with me! While I am not very willing to be with her, I'm sure I can tell her how hospitable you've been!"

"Let's not talk about this unpleasant matter any further. Time is running out. Let me ask you one more time. Will you cease your flight and surrender the Scarlet Rose and yourself to us quietly, or do we have to do this the hard way?"

Ves sneered and leaned forward. "You'll regret approaching my s.h.i.+p. This is my final warning. Back off or suffer the consequences!"

Unfortunately for him, the old dog did not take his threat seriously. As far as Commander Quint was concerned, Ves was purely empty air at the moment!

If the Scarlet Rose still possessed a crew, then the Ech Spears would have thought twice before closing in. Yet with no living person aside from Ves crewing the s.h.i.+p, there was no reason for the mercenaries to think they would suffer any retribution!

The mercenary commander soon ended the call when he realized there was nothing more to gain from the conversation.

Neither Ves or the Echo Spears gave in to the other's demands! A confrontation was inevitable!

"d.a.m.nit!" Ves slammed his fist against the armrest of the captain's chair.

Would he really be forced to give up his s.h.i.+ny new s.h.i.+p and become a stowaway aboard one of the carriers of the Echo Spears?

"I'm not giving up! Not when I still have options!"

He began to explore some other possibilities.

One option was to overload the propulsion system and increase the Scarlet Rose's acceleration to a very dangerous degree.

Perhaps he might be able to boost the acceleration by thirty percent or more depending on how much strain he was willing to put on the propulsion system.

Yet such a margin was still too small to evade pursuit! According to some quick calculation, the most he could do was to delay the interception by half an hour or so. This would only delay the inevitable!

"What else can I do?"

Another option was to force the FTL drive to transition into the higher dimensions without completing its cycling.

This was an extremely hazardous choice. While it was technically possible to force an FTL drive to engage just minutes after finis.h.i.+ng a trip, it was extremely difficult to perform a so-called double jump or continuous transition!

Only a very good chief engineer who was intimately familiar with the s.h.i.+p and FTL drive model would be able to set the right configuration for a double jump.

Even then, a double jump was wracked with danger and uncertainty. Depending on the quality, tolerance and soundness of the FTL drive, there was a very significant possibility that it would explode or malfunction midway!

If the s.h.i.+p that performed the double jump managed to reach her destination safely, then the FTL drive would be in a very bad shape! Not only had its lifespan decreased by at least a couple of decades, but all of the damage it suffered along the way might very well disable it entirely, preventing the s.h.i.+p from fleeing any further!

In other words, since Ves was not a chief engineer, he could forget about pulling off this insanely complex technical feat!

"I can't run away in this fas.h.i.+on!"

Ves had to resort to other options to escape this predicament!