"-tain... -Captain?"  asked repeatedly by the concerned looking staff. "are you ok sir?"

 

"huh? oh yes of course, go on. i was just lost in my thoughts for a moment" said Adam in a nonchalant manner as he waved his hand and gestured the staff to continue in his report.

 

the staff then continued *ehem* "as i was saying, we have nearly scoured this entire sector  of any Sandman race and harvested their cores  to the point that hunting them any more would be no longer be cost efficient, we have been doing this for almost over a year now and the crew members and the entire fleet are quite honestly craving for planetside vacation" with that said the staff member put down his tech pad and looked at Adam for further orders.

 

"alright, tell the fleet to pack up. we are going to comodo star sector bright republic, planet benetheim" Adam said it with a hint of excitement and a glint in his eyes followed up by "what of the things i asked to be investigated?"

 

the staff member momentarily scrolled through his tech pad and said "although war seems imminent between bright republic and vesia kingdom it still has not broken just yet, however we believe it will take 2 years at most before vesia kingdom initiates the war as always" he scrolled further down "as for someone called ves larkinson, he recently just graduated from a mech design college and has registered his own mech company called LMC or living mech corporation, he is currently the ceo mech designer and the only person in this company "

 

'FINALLY, canon has come! with my future knowledge all i need to do is literally invest in ves larkinson's company and get at least 10% shares, and from then on i can slowly ride along his success and i would not even accidentally  create butterfly effect' Adam said to himself  with great excitement full of hopes for the future.

 

 with just a few more hours of cleaning up  the entire fleet entered FTL and traveled towards the bright republic. during this time Adam reminisced on how he got here in this alternate universe inhabiting a new body...

 

he laid on the floor of a huge room, no discernable roof or walls just a place of pure white. yet he knew it was a room on instinct , he stood up slowly as he inspected the place.

 

"where am i, did i die?" he said in a low voice almost shaking.

 

and then out of nowhere a being of pure white that the only discernable thing is its outline which is shaped like a human "yes, you died magnitude 10 earthquake hit the area and the surgeon accidentally cut up your brain pretty badly, very unfortunate" he said with an almost amused voice.

 

"so is this the afterlife, am i going to be judged now?" he asked nervously, he knew he wasn't exactly a model citizen and committed a lot of crimes to claw his way up the top... or at least near the top.

 

  "no kid, i am not who you're thinking, i called your soul here for my own selfish reason... you see I've got a lot of bad karma recently i intend to mitigate that by doing something good, i give you a second chance at life as somebody else who is also supposed to die and you live as that guy, plus i give you an ability as a bonus... so are you in or out?" the entity said with a smile.

 

he was warily on guard against the entity, after hearing the entity speak he already  thought up some really nasty legends, myths and folklores from around the world. it's excuse for getting karma is weak at best at least that's what he personally thought to himself.

 

while he was in deep thought with a frown on his face the entity added "don't worry there are no strings attached, no promises, no agreements and definitely no contracts of any kind" it said as it held its hand as if surrendering.

 

as he was thinking to even continue this very suspicious circumstance... the entire area is being shaken followed by explosions on the distance, at first it was faint and barely even noticeable but overtime its becoming louder and louder.

 

"hmp, better make your decision quick, the entities of this galaxy has sensed me . it would be only a matter of time before they breach my defenses"

 

*tsk* he expressed in frustration "ok, i am in i want to live again. so what ability are you going to give me?" he said with a bit of apprehension as he looked at the cracks forming in the air.

 

the entity spoke quicker this time, "from the moment you wake up from this conversation you will have the ability to create a 90% clone of yourself, you will be able to do this each and every year you are alive from the moment you wake up in your new body from then on forwards good luck and have fun... goodbye" the entity spread its arms wide with a big smile.

 

"wait, i still have so many questions! waiiiii-" and everything blacked out , he could not feel anything except the feeling of falling from a very high altitude, like skydiving without any parachute and then falling down on a marshmallow felling like ground.

 

his eyes were closed, but he felt alive. unfortunately his entire body hurt from head to toe. he is also being flooded by memories and information of the identity of this new body he just got. he is now Adam Rothschild one of the ancient clans of old earth from the greater terran confederation. the Rothschilds were at one point in history was supposed to have become the richest family on earth.

 

but of course like everything else it did not last for long, eventually the age of stars came where humanity first developed it's very own FTL drives and became an interstellar civilization, followed by the age of conquest where humanity fought for its survival against the other alien races in the milkyway galaxy,  and then the age of mechs, and now the Rothchilds have become nothing in comparison to the other ancient clans who not only survived the test of time but also maintained their wealth and influence.

 

as the Rothchilds wealth and influence diminished, they stopped trying to compete for the top and focused on their own businesses and maintain what they have . but even then with what little they have left relative to the wealth of the other ancient clans they were still targeted, competition became tougher and tougher until they on have 2 planets and 5 moons to their name.

the first planet is a heavy gravity planet the size of Jupiter, instead of being a gaseous giant it was filled with rich and exotic 1st class minerals, the second planet is a habitable planet almost similar to earth located near the galactic center where the human civilization is thriving the most, the other 5 moons are also filled with 2nd class exotic and even some resonating minerals.

 

the Rothschild family has been dying one after another through a series of "accidents" but everyone can see who are really behind their deaths, until only Adam Rothschild is the only one left despite being 50 years old he looked like in his early twenties with a muscular athletic build, he is also graded as a C class mech pilot. 

 

"mhmm" with all the relevant information being digested by Adam he knew he is not in a good place, "the reason this guy died was because he's been assassinated by an obscure poison he never even heard of before inducing death by comatose. if i walk out of the mansion looking  healthy, i will just get another round of assassination attempts... what a fucking dilemma!" 

 

then he remembered he's got an ability! the ability to clone himself by 90% including everything on his person once every year from this day moving forward. he searched his memories for the most valuable stuff that he could carry on himself before he tries activating the cloning ability.

 

he contacted his staff according to his memory to prepare what he needs, of course he made himself look haggard and sickly. Adam knew there are spies lurking around this place. he needed to make his exit from this political landscape. with his 1st class body augmentations and upgrades he already thought of a plan in just a matter of 15 minutes. but first the cloning.

 

he equipped everything he can viably get his hands on from the most high quality  combat armor to the most powerful technological gadgets his family owns, and finally he wanted to know if he can clone even his own personal mech which is literally  made out of 1st class resonating exotic materials allowing a mere class C mech pilot like him to generate "fake laveres", even though he is not even an expert candidate mech pilot, despite being in dire straights he is still from one of the ancient clans.

• A new expert pilot would measure about 1 lavere
• A low-tier expert pilot’s resonance strength ranged between 1 to 20 laveres.
• A mid-tier expert pilot’s resonance strength ranged between 20 to 40 laveres.
• A high-tier expert pilot’s resonance strength ranged between 40 to 60 laveres.
• A peak-tier expert pilot’s resonance strength ranged between 60 to 67 laveres.
• A new ace pilot would exert at least 67 laveres of resonance.
• God pilots start out with 1545

currently Adam Rothschild could muster 0.01% laveres with his Exodia hybrid mech, with a height of 30 meters and weight of 500 tons this mech is indeed a force to be reckoned with, while it may have no specialties you can throw this mech in any battlefield and it would still have 80% survival rate even though its fighting against hyper specialized mechs.

 

with everything set, he closed his eyes and he instinctively knew how to activate his ability.... and nothing seems to have happened. when he opened his eyes Adam Rothschild had the BIGGEST grin probably in the whole milkyway galaxy right now!

 

"yes! motherfucking yes! it worked" he telepathically controlled his clone the cloned mech moved as he ordered it in his mid with no discernable lag in its movements. after a few more movement test he finally ordered the clone to come down and tally the other cloned materials that he had to snatched from his family's secret vault.

 

Adam's eyes are glowing like a child in a toy store for the first time. "look at this! even the 1 liter of phase water has been cloned hahahaha! this shit is worth millions of MTA credits!" for the moment he stashed the cloned high tech 1st class materials and technologies, containing his excitement phase water in this time period even during after the "great severing" this exotic material is still a highly sought after resource that you cannot even just randomly buy even you have money and now he's got almost 2 liters of it!

 

now he begins his next plan, a very daring plan. that he hoped would make the ancient clans of greater terran confederation back away from him and leave him alone as he is no longer a threat. the plan was quite simple, sell ALL of his properties that he could not take out with his fleet.

and to do all this he first needed to call the Mech Trade Association to oversee everything not only to ensure his own safety but also he intends to commission the MTA itself to build 2nd class starships for his fleet with the money he will get from the sales of his family's properties, then and only then his adventures can finally begin.

 

in jus a few days everything has been prepared and finalized. he used ALL the favors he could pull out, used each and every political capital his family has ever had to grease things up and make things moving. 

 

somewhere in an undisclosed location a small gathering of people from the ancient clans convened via holographic interface.

"so the kid is still alive, how can our agent fail... he is literally just beside him" said by a shadowy  figure in a cold tone

another one chimed in that almost sounded like appeasing the other figures "well, well, well, don't have a heart attack over such a small matter. in the end we got what we want in the first place those planets and moons actually contain more rare material resources that what many people previously thought. in the end all is good, plus he is leaving the galactic center" he ended with a chuckle.

another figure said "hmmmm, he's even got the MTA to oversee everything, we cannot alert the MTA or the CFA anymore than it already has! since he wants to run away like a coward let him! we got what we need . there's literally no need to complicate things, besides he is downgrading himself to a mere 2nd rate fleet, used ALL of his family's accumulated favors and political capital... he no longer has any foothold in the greater terran confederation"

a bit more of a back and forth discussions followed weighing the pros and cons of still going after Adam Rothschild despite the MTA over watching the   whole event. eventually they have decided to let the kid go as he is no longer useful, and nothing more to gain, Adam Rothschild is not some defenseless individual in the first place, he managed to survive this long from their collective assault. though it was covert it was still deemed wise not to push him into a corner where he could lash out with his death throes especially if there is nothing more to gain.

 

with all this happening 6 months has passed, Adam earned a total of  1Billion MTA credits that is after buying ten 2nd rate ships that is fully armed with pseudo 1st rate technologies. his family's asset earned quite a huge sum, but for a former 1st rate citizen and descended from an ancient clan no less this is a pocket change, a shadow of his family's former glory.

 

it did not really bother Adam that much since he has no emotional connection to this place, in his mind the faster he can get away from this place the better and hopefully he can arrive at commodo star sector before canon starts.

 

the first of the capital ships he commissioned from the MTA has arrived fully furnished and equipped according to his requests, which are now peak 2nd class technology. Adam intentionally downgraded himself to get more value for his money in the short term, after all ves larkinson is still an apprentice mech designer from a 3rd class state technology level. his mothership is designed based on protoss mothership from his past life which has a diameter of 3kilometers and a height of 1kilometer.

 

its almost shaped like a giant saucer but with more protoss aesthetics, though its weapons loadout are appropriate for his 2nd class limitations this ship was not made for combat even though it can take a pounding from even 1st class battleship grade weapons. the mothership was designed specifically to be a multirole and center hub for his entire fleet, there are protrusions  throughout the entire circumference of the ship to allow for other ships to dock. this makes the mothership a smaller type of space station in emergencies.

 

Adam Rothschild has managed to filter out 30,000 personnel, crew, mech pilots and staff members for his entire fleet. though he is still sure there are still many spies who managed to slip by for now he can't really do anything to solve this problem for now all he can really do is to just make the best of what he has right now, and quite honestly it's not even that bad he was born from an ancient clan of a 1st rate super state he is doing a lot better than majority of the people in the milkyway galaxy.

 

while he's waiting for the rest of the ships to be delivered he is familiarizing himself and his clone with the hybrid mech Exodia despite it's name it does not look like the creature from yugioh from his past life.  the Exodia has two 100mm railgun mounted on each forearm, two 100mm shoulder mounted laser turret, one 40mm gatling canon  on its forehead, one round shield that can also project a barrier, one laser gun/lance.

 

he really wanted to make Gundam based mechs to replace his current one, but he needs to stabilize first and his first plan after he gets the rest of the ships is to go sandman hunting and collect their cores. sandman core are perfect to create super computers, to the point that MTA and CFA also uses them. i just need to make sure i don't end up repeating the mistake of the Common Fleet Alliance's huge mistake that ended up taking down their super battleship at the time the starlight megalodon. they created an artificial intelligence made out of the sandman emperor's core, which ended up being alive and sapient it slowly overridden the control of the starlight megalodon until it crashed on a heavy gravity planet without being able to even send a distress signal.

 

meanwhile in the training room Adam and his clone are sparring with each other  trying to get a feel of his body's potential at the same time familiarizing at his control over his clone. for warm up they did traditional boxing. Adam threw 10 consecutive jabs in 1 second without compromising the power behind the punches, the clone dodged using the dempsey roll while trying to counter attack.

 

Adam jumped back  as the clone dashed towards him preparing an uppercut, Adam then used a spinning back kick, the clone  crossed his arms and was thrown 6 feet back before stabilizing himself. as the clone was preparing another charge Adam received a call from an MTA officer.

 

"mr. Rothschild the rest of the ships has arrived they will be left near your mothership as instructed" the officer reported in a monotone voice.

 

"yes thank you officer, just forward the paper works to my staff and inform me if there's anything else. i'll just wash up and inspect the ships" Adam said as he wipes his sweat.

 

"nothing, that will be all. we will be taking our leave goodbye mr. Rothschild" once again the officer reported in a monotone voice, Adam began to suspect if this officer is even a real human or just an android, this is still within the territories of the greater terran confederation after all, or maybe that's just how the guy talked.

 

after his training, he finally inspected the newly built ships based on his designs.... the ships themselves are nothing special, they were built after the image of terran battle cruisers from his old life. though these ships are labeled as combat carriers their weapons systems are nothing to scoff at, the former location for the yamato canon was replaced with an opening for mechs and other smaller starships for entry to the hangar.

 

these combat carriers are 3 kilometers long 500 meters wide and 500 meters tall, it is already quite large for a combat  carrier. quite  dangerous too if the ships are of low quality, good thing the technologies inside are peak 2nd class these ships will accompany me to the red ocean galaxy when it finally opens to the public "alright guys, tell all the crew to move in the ships and they have only 7 days to familiarize themselves with this ship before we move on our way" Adam said enthusiastically to the 30,000 members of the fleet

 

with that said 7 days have passed, and  in this days Adam and his clone has finally mastered their bodies, the mech, the technology, the political landscape of the galaxy and points of interests that Adam intended to visit.  sitting on his captains chair on the mothership "set course to this coordinates, where there are loads of sandmen floating around"

"aye, captain" with that, the whole fleet dashed forward faster than the speed of light and entered hyperspace where they would stay for several hours each jump until they arrive at their target location. 

 

it took another 6 months travelling to the yeina star sector neighboring the comodo star sector, the entire ordeal was quite boring that Adam expected from his imagination. he expected more aliens, exobeasts, hostile forces thinking they are easy picking or even pirates but nothing for 6 months it was going FTL, exiting FTL, cycling FTL drives, training, and just waiting until they arrived at the location.

 

the only exciting thing that happened was this is Adam's 1st year anniversary arriving in this universe, he has a huge private hangar for him and his clone to store his belongings and remain private even amongst the fleet's crew members. when designing the mothership he  completely had in mind was to eventually fill this entire ship with his clones..... eventually, after all being able to live up to 200 years old is quite normal for even 2class citizens. as if a memorized drill he again picked up the rarest and the most expensive objects he can get his hands on and climbed on the cockpit. he closed his eyes and after a few seconds he opened them and he is now greeted with his second clone.

 

'as long as i can go on like this without getting in trouble or messing up canon, i would be a powerhouse to be reckoned with by the time the great severing happened' Adam thought to him self with a childlike giddy eagerness.

 

eventually the rare materials and technologies that he has will eventually become abundant, in the future he would be able to construct a super high quality mech not only for him but for several of his clones as his retinue. especially now he's got his hands on almost 3 liters of phase water 'truly unbelievable, all i have to do is wait and i will have one of the most sought after exotic material with great abundance in the entire galaxy!'

 

"captain a fleet of sandman 5 times our size has been sighted 2 lightyears ahead, what are your orders?" reported one of the comms officer

 

to which Adam replied "prepare for battle, remember ballistic weapons only no energy weapons"

 

after giving his orders the fleet prepared for battle, although his fleet can accommodate around 5,000 mechs currently he can only field roughly 1,000mechs due to the lack of mech pilots. he just didn't enough time to run around hiring pilots or wait for them to come to him, the political climate of the greater terran confederation was too hostile for him to even squander 1 second not trying to get away from it.

 

with a short jump the fleet was just shy of 500 kilometers, the mechs wasted no time to deploy a defensive perimeter to defend the ships  "that's cutting a little too close" Adam said

 

"sorry captain, there's just not enough time to practice short jumps using 2nd class technologies. we have been too used at 1st class sir" said one of the helmsman

 

Adam was already sortied out at the front line shooting at the distant sandmen's fleet along with his 2 other clones. and it was glorious. he never felt any like this before even with his sparring against his clone. the Exodia mechs are all genuine 1st class mech, which just cut a swath in the oncoming sandman fleet.

 

the geometric shapes of the sandman fleet would sometimes explode only to reassemble itself into another geometric shape, but the Exodias firepower is just too much for the aliens, the other mechs and even the combat carriers followed suit and picked their targets. in an anti climatic manner the entire sandman fleet 5 times their size was completely eradicated, in fact they took more time scouring the space for sandman cores than the actual fight itself.

 

*tsk* "only one core?" Adam said 'how rare are these things? that was actually a sizable fleet'

 

"unfortunately yes sir, only one. which is actually quite lucky for us" said one of the mech commanders

 

"lucky!?  lucky how? there was so many of them" he said reigning his frustration

 

the mech commander ignored this and replied "this must have been a sandman splinter fleet for at least 100 years, otherwise it would be too young to even form its core. also the MTA,CFA and other 1st class states and even some 2nd class states are routinely cleaning up sandman fleets to harvest their cores. it 's only these past few decades that MTA and CFA stopped hunting sandman from the outer rim of the galaxy"

 

*sigh* "forget it then, on to the next sandmen fleet"

 

"aye captain" 

 

Adam was careful not to accidentally end up in aeon corona planets where the former CFA super battleship starlight megalodon lies in wait, at least he intends to for canon to catch up before he jumps in during the chaos.

 

in less than 48 hours his fleet encountered another sandman fleet albeit smaller than the last one it was still twice larger than his own, but this time he has ordered his own mech force to be in defensive and to only shoot those who has gone too close. Adam intends to fight this sandman fleet with only him and his 2 other clones.

 

although Adam has told his mech force to stand back, his mech force still were close enough to assist. but such assistance would have been unnecessary. after all the Exodia hybrid mech was a genuine 1st rate mech and there are two others of it. Adam and his clones left their laser lance at the hangar since it would be of little use against the sandmen. sandmen eats, absorbs and  throws energy weapons.

 

in fact he would have also left the round shield but decided to keep it for insurance, after all outside of sparring with his clones the fight against the sandman was the only legitimate fight he has been in after taking over this body. and as expected it was a one sided slaughter, the sandman couldn't even get close to the enemy ships, they were just obliterated by the 3 Exodia mechs  firing ballistic rounds.

 

another yeas has passed and his 4th clone has come and with almost 4 liters of phase water 'if this keeps up i wouldn't be able to explain where i got all these phase water from, i could not always use the excuse of getting THIS much phase water from my family vault. at some point having this much phase water in a galaxy that almost had none is extremely suspicious'

'finally canon has come, i have to go to the bright republic and at least invest in Ves' company and at lest get 10% worth of stock shares. from then all i have to do is shadow him and maybe clean up his mess. with my yearly cloning ability i only need time, i can't make too many moves to be on the spotlight i need to work extra hard to fund this fleet without touching my savings '

 

the fleet then has exited the FTL jump and has finally arrived at the comodo star sector near the borders of the bright republic "captain, we have arrived . the local government has hailed our fleet, we have been told that we can only send 1 ship to enter their borders the rest of the fleet will have to be parked outside the their territory" reported by the comms officer.

 

there are obvious dissatisfaction from the entire fleet, after all they were from a 1st rate state, and even after their downgrade they are still 2nd rate... the bright republic is only a mere 3rd rate state *tsk* " these space peasants, how dare they!" said by one of the general staff

 

but before anything can continue Adam firmly put a stop to in "ENOUGH! just agree with their arrangements get things done we are not here to cause problems, i want to cycle our forces here for rest and recreation 1 week per cycle. we could be staying here for at least a year so better behave yourselves!" he said with a firm and loud voice

"yes sir!" the crew were forced to swallow their pride and just obeyed their captain.

 

in a few moments the entire fleet became alive buzzing with people entering the mothership for their long awaited vacation, 2 of the clones were left with the rest of the fleet to ensure no bullshittery happens while he's away, Adam brought 1 clone with him for back up even though he can almost guarantee that nothing in this 3rd rate state could threaten him.

 

the mothership parked outside of planet benetheim, the foremost industrial hub of the bright republic. then the shuttles went on their way to send the crew members planet side, an average sized skyscraper was directly bought overpriced just to make things quick. the rest of the local staff was hired instead of being fired. their jobs were to scout F and D class mech pilots, the Rothschild investment company Adam has created is basically going to be used to gather as many mech pilots as much as he can and he intends to hire tens of thousands of these bottom feeder mech pilots who are so low priority they can only touch industrial class mechs in their entire lives.

 

'with the paranoia of ves larkinson i also need to make sure i have a legit working business with the bright republic, although ves was not a patriot he still cared enough for the bright republic for it to matter' Adam contemplated

 

the entire expenditure did not even cost him 100 MTA credits, and that's including the fleets year long planned vacation here.  Adam took out his tech pad and looked at what ves larkinson is doing right now, preparing his timing for the investment.

 

he sent over a proxy for investment to not reveal his identity and have successfully acquired 12% of the shares of the company. at this early stage of the company that was quite overpriced said by one of his general staff, but Adam ignored them.

 

'phase 1 of the plan has been achieved all i need now is to wait for the bright-vesia war to start and just sneak in first inside the starlight megalodon, snatch some things which were left behind in canon and get out of the planet before anyone noticed, to avoid too big of a butterfly effects'