Salamander looked at the status panel of his dreadnought. The indicators indicated dozens of red and yellow lines, meaning that there were many broken parts.
"I cannot use this thing anymore." Salamander opened the hatch and exited the machine.
Soon after he exited, the dreadnought became imbalance and fell on its back with a loud thud.
"Too bad. It was a great machine." Salamander sighed.
Aldred patted him on the back. "We'll use the money to get you something close to that."
Salamander chuckled. "Dreadnought could cost up to 1 million Galactic Credits. I don't think that is currently a wise investment."
"Investing on firepower wouldn't be bad," Shinari said. "The dreadnought really helped us fighting against the orc, especially against that Big Mek. Without the dreadnought we would probably need to put more effort."
"That's true," Aldred said in agreement. "But, let's leave this place before we discuss anything further."
They all agreed and soon arrived at the Orc's garages where they stole an aircraft and left the atmosphere.
In the distance, they saw their Galactic Rover.
"That's your spaceship?" Cellaeth almost could not hold her disgust. Her expression was so ugly that one would think she was looking at a piece of shit."
"What a piece of shit."
"Hey, don't underestimate that thing," Aldred said, slightly offended that someone insulted his spacecraft. "If you must know, that thing has defeated a destroyer-class spacecraft. It did not look like much, but it get the job done."
Cellaeth closed her mouth. "I need to go to the restroom. I cannot stand the sight of it."
Aldred was speechless when he saw her sprinting to the restroom.
"Is my Galactic Rover really that bad?"
Salamander scratched his cheek. "The rumor was true after all. Elves put aesthetic and elegance above all. They really cannot stand ugly things."
"Is that really the case? So that means my Galactic Rover is ugly?"
"I hate to break it to you, but your Galactic Rover is a minimum-budget spacecraft. The fact that we're alive during the cosmic battle was a miracle already."
The Elven races in this galaxy were a creature of beauty and elegance. Not only their appearance and clothings, but their technologies and architectures were the stuff of amazement as well. If a human entered the elven territory, they would be amazed at how beautiful every structures and tech was.
This philosophy of elegance did not mean that they put functionality in second place. Their tech and weapons were extremely powerful as well. They did not only want elegance in their infrastructures, but they also want elegance in destroying their enemies.
The orcs on the other hand was the exact opposite. The orcs were crude and brute. They would scrap any salvaged metals and put them together with bolts and screw. They had zero regards in look. If it worked, then they would use it.
Humans were balanced in appearance and functionality. Sometimes they would enhance its appearance when they could, but they put more thought into the functionality of the machine.
Meanwhile, Aldred let out a sigh of sadness. "Sooner or later I have to replace the Galactic Rover."
The aircraft stopped near the spacecraft then they all entered one after another.
Cellaeth was shocked when she saw the crimson interior.
"Its exterior might be terrible," Salamander started. "But its interior is personally designed by me. I am sure your Elven standards should be tickled by this."
"HUEKK!" Cellaeth could not hold it and puked on the floor.
Salamander became dejected after that.
Aldred gave him a pat on the back. "It's fine. Don't let it get to you."
"You think the interior is cool, right?"
"Nah, I think it's shit."
A few minutes later, they returned to the space station where Salamander gave them the reports.
The officer of the space station was shocked. "You guys defeated a Big Mek and destroyed a crude superweapon created by the orcs?"
Salamander nodded. "This is the data of the superweapon. Based on my analysis the weapon could threatened the entire NovaSphere stellar clusters."
The officers browsed through the data. "Indeed, this could be very catastrophic. The seer failed to get this information. If we know about this weapon, the reward for the mission should be much higher."
Salamander's eyes lit up as there was hope that they could get a bonus. He then proceed to give the officers more data about the orcs they killed and more details about the facilities and also further information of possible hideouts in NovaSphere.
"I will need time to process this information. In the meantime, all of you can use the rooms in this station."
"Take your time," Salamander said.
They then entered a room where Cellaeth and Elralya took of their space helmet, revealing their Elven ears.
"We need something better to hide your ears in the future," Salamander said.
"That won't be necessary." Elralya easily swept her hands in the air, then their ears transformed into human ears."
Elralya smiled. "We won't be a burden in this team. We will help carry it."
After the short conversation, the group decided to rest after the intense infiltration.
The group waited for 3 days before the officers gave them an answer.
"I have analyzed the reports with my assistants and confirmed the information. It is true that you guys destroyed a threatening superweapon. So the reward will be increased from 50k Galactic Credits, to 300k Galactic Credits. The balance has been sent to your accounts. Congratulations. You may leave whenever you want."
The call ended.
The group looked at each other and the room burst into an uproar of cheers. Salamander squeezed Aldred while Shinari and Cleome hugged each other.
Only Elralya and Cellaeth were calm in this situation.
"What a bunch of brutes," Cellaeth commented. "A small victory like this doesn't deserve a celebration yet. We got work to do."
"Hey, don't insult us like that," Aldred said with a smile. He understood that he need to be patient with these elves. "It's important to celebrate every small victory to keep morale high."
"And do you get depressed after each defeat? Did you mourn for every death? This is useless. A warrior must know how to rise his own morale."
Aldred sighed. "That is correct. We mourn whenever we lost those we hold dear. We get depressed whenever we face a major defeat. Guess what, that's what makes us humans. But after every setback, we wouldn't give up. We keep fighting. I am sure we are, because humans wouldn't be around if we stopped."
Cellaeth could not deny that. Currently, the humans held the largest territory in the galaxy. The major contributor to that was the humans were able to reproduce second only to the orcs and almost matched the Elven in technology.
The Elves had a hard time reproducing, but each elf was much smarter and stronger than the average human or orcs.
The humans advantages enable it to throw thousands of souls into their death in battle without a problem, and they also had powerful tech in their arsenals.
In the past, it was the Elven race who dominated the galaxy.
Aldred clapped, pulling the attention to him. "Okay, now that we got all this money. What can we do with it to increase our firepower?"
"We can buy better equipments," Salamander advised.
"But most of our fighters are supers. Will equipments help them with anything?"
"Ckckck." Salamander shook his head in disappointment. "The equipment I am talking about are capable of enhancing super abilities. Shinari and Cleome would become more powerful.
"We can also get a Patrol-Class spacecraft. It's slightly larger than our Galactic Rover. Of course, faster, stronger, and better too. It cost around 120K Galactic Credits."
Aldred considered. "We don't really need spacecraft as of yet."
"Then what about the Frigate-Class? It's a medium-sized vessels with moderate firepower. It's often used for escort duties and light combat. You've seen one of those things during the NovaGuardia cosmic battle. With that, we shouldn't face any problem when traversing the stars."
Salamander continued: "As of now, we are at the mercy of lady luck. If a powerful demon squad met us in space, we would be destroyed in an instant."
"Can't we warp away?"
"Warp away during battle? That's like suicide. Especially with the Galactic Rover. The technology is simply too weak for that. Also, it is possible that we can meet an enemy squadron after the warp. You know we need to wait for an hour before activating the warp again."
Aldred scratched his chin. "Haish, it seems like the more money we got, the more money we need. How much is this Frigate Class cost?"
"The minimum would be 360K Galactic Credits."
"We currently have how much?"
"320K Galactic Credits."
"We need 40K more?"
"You are correct. But, with our current team, getting 50k Should be easy peasy. Look at what we've done. Destroying a superweapon, defeating a Big Mek orc, and collapsing an entire secret base. We even make elven friends along the way, but I wouldn't count that."
"Let's get one more high-risk mission," Cleome said.
Aldred thought about it for a moment before nodding. "Alright."
