The Mech Touch novel Chapter 5140

The Battle of Corellix came to a fairly satisfying conclusion.

Stingray 1 and Stingray 2 both fell into the hands of the Golden Skull Alliance while remaining mostly intact.

Around 2 yurzen battleships, 17 yurzen cruisers and 12 yurzen destroyers turned into prizes as well, though their conditions were so mixed that a few vessels were literally on the verge of falling apart!

Aside from that, the expeditionary fleet also gained access to a decent amount of additional wreckage, although it would be a lot more troublesome to extract value from these broken pieces.

The battleships burned by the Promethea particularly had to be discounted due to how much her domineering flames had burned so much tech and valuable materials!

Nonetheless, any salvage was worth money no matter how much its condition had degraded. There was always a market for large quantities of metals in a society that was chronically short on materials to further its vital military and industrial buildup.

One of the more pleasant bonuses of this operation was the unexpected discovery and capture of a damaged but still-operational archeship.

The Diligent Ovenbird had already scooped up the ship that Lucky single-handedly secured in one of her warm 'ovens'.

The biggest fly in the ointment was the fact that a lot of yurzen warships managed to escape the range of all of the mechs and warped away like no tomorrow!

The expeditionary fleet did not possess the capabilities to chase after all of these fleeing alien vessels, especially when they split in dozens of different directions as they made their way out of the Corellix System.

The Golden Skull Alliance could do little to these cowardly aliens aside from adopting a defensive posture to protect all of the captured prize ships and salvageable debris.

After all, the alien warships could easily regroup and turn around again as soon as the expeditionary fleet became vulnerable again! _{ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com}

Ves knew that the Battle of Corellix still produced far better results than typical engagements against alien fleets.

Most pioneering forces had to invest a huge amount of effort to even force an alien fleet into battle.

Even then, without implementing thorough means to limit the operation of enemy warp drives, the aliens always had the option of beating a quick retreat from the moment they started to enter into a losing position!

All of this highlighted the importance of adopting warp drives or superdrives. Without more ships like the Spirit of Bentheim that could at least keep up with some of the alien ships in warp, it would always be difficult for human forces to force their adversaries into standing battles!

He could worry about these issues later.

While the expeditionary fleet had already started to undertake search, rescue and capture operations, Ves continued to communicate with the Terrans that were situated far away from the battlefield.

His explosive inaugural lecture had finally come to an end.

Many eager, excited and inspired students steadily filed out of the auditorium and discussed what they witnessed during the battle.

Ves felt quite satisfied at the outcome of this highly publicized lecture. He had basically managed to meet all of the goals that he strived for when he dared to do this in the middle of a dangerous engagement.

Hardly any Terrans looked down on him as a second-rater anymore. While the class difference could not be erased, the first thoughts that came to mind when they thought about 'Professor Larkinson' was that he was a courageous warlord who dared to fight against alien warships at close range!

In a society that heavily revered heroes and successful leaders, Ves had ensured that he would always stand out among the other professors in a positive fashion!

He managed to win over the respect of most of his students. Even if he did not hold another lecture during a serious battle in the future, this memorable event would always form a part of his constantly expanding myth!

After the conclusion of his first question-and-answer session, the projection of Ves moved backstage where he met with a satisfied dean.

"Excellent job, Professor Larkinson. You have made a better impression than I anticipated." Master Laila Devos spoke with a smile. "I expected you to employ your typical evocative presentation approach that you have demonstrated in your prior public appearances, but your ability to connect with our Terran students is remarkable."

Ves mostly shrugged. "I am sure those young professionals are all capable of speaking just as well in public. I mainly relied on two factors to compensate for my shortcomings. First, I prepared for this occasion well in advance, taking special care to learn what my students are like and what subjects might hold their interest. Second, I exploited the battle on my end to turn this lecture into a unique and unheard of spectacle. If I did not go through such extremes to capture the respect and imagination of my students, I probably don't deserve to speak in front of most of your student body."

The Eden Institute wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice Ves if he put his foot in his mouth and stirred up too much trouble!

All of this sounded fair to him. He held no resentment towards the school for setting a limit to their tolerance. Professors were never supposed to act like egotistical problem children.

"I promise that I will be on my best behavior." Ves responded and bowed.

"Good. Let us move on to a more pleasant topic." The Master began to smile again. "The demand to attend your courses has skyrocketed after you have concluded your lecture. We are receiving thousands of requests to reopen the enrollment window for not just your Frontier Wisdom course, but also your other two ones. As the man in charge of all three of them, I will leave the decision up to you. Are you willing to make a late adjustment and expand the size of your classes?"

This was a difficult issue for Ves to decide upon. He would love to come into contact with more students in a semester. The more Terrans he taught, the more extensively he could build his network in the Terran Alliance!

However, Ves did not allow his initial success in his teaching career to give him any delusions about his actual teaching ability.

He had no idea how many students he could effectively handle in any of his classes.

His workload would also increase a lot if he had to become responsible for double, triple or quadruple the amount of brats who signed up for his courses!

"Let's keep the current numbers for now." Ves decided. "As you have already said before, rules are rules. Those students already had their chance and wasted it. The fact that they have missed the enrollment window is a consequence of their own lack of judgment and analytical ability. If they are still interested in my courses, they can always try to sign up for them before the start of the next semester."

"Well said, Professor Larkinson. You are already starting to apply a pedagogic approach to your decision-making. Everything we do in our institute is for the purpose of preparing the next generation of mech designers, businessmen and other professionals to adequately assume the burden of progressing our civilization. This has become an even more acute priority now that we have completely lost the ability to transfer fresh personnel from the Milky Way Galaxy."

Master Laila Devos expressed a consistent concern for the future of red humanity.

As an educator, she was very cognizant of how much of a difference she could make in the transformation of the naive young adults of today into the visionary leaders of human society of tomorrow!

Ves couldn't help but become affected by the Master Mech Designer's earnest goals and aspirations. Teaching was a noble profession. He felt honored for being given the opportunity to correctly shape the minds of so many young students!