The Mech Touch

Chapter 7476  The Lower Classes

The gathered individuals maintained a subdued demeanor.

Everyone who witnessed the duel between the Apocalypse Wardens and the archeshell mech could not help but feel sorry for the former.

They fought so hard to prove their strength, only to fail to achieve the objective they cared about the most.

The dream of gaining enough strength to defeat mechs as infantry still remained unrealized.

Even if the fight between the two sides was highly asymmetrical, the Apocalypse Wardens did not attempt to rationalize away their failure by resorting to excuses.

To these elite and proud cultivator soldiers, a failure was a failure.

The armored and suited forms of Ves and Gloriana slowly approached the surviving soldiers as they looked down at the forms of the deceased.

In order to preserve their dignity, the recovery personnel had covered all of the mangled and broken collections of armor and human flesh with gray sheets. Only a part of their contours still remained visible, which was best for everyone involved.

Behind her sealed helmet, Gloriana adopted a mixed expression.

"Was it worth it?" She softly asked.

"It is, Madame Gloriana." One of the surviving Apocalypse Wardens replied with a measure of faith in her tone. "We are soldiers. When we embarked on this life, we accepted the possibility that we may die at any day. Do not mourn for the death of our brethren. They fulfilled their duty and fought valiantly."

"Yet they died while fighting a needless battle." Gloriana couldn't help but insist. "Your deceased comrades could have lived for many more years and participated in many more fruitful battles. Your unit is constantly improving and evolving. Technology progresses so quickly that you will become twice or thrice as strong as now in a matter of years. Why do you still insist on taking excessive risks at the start of your extraordinary journey? Is it because of duty, or vainglory?"

Ves couldn't help but twitch his lips. He would never imagine that his wife would actually use the term 'vainglory' given her own inclinations.

Another surviving Apocalypse Warden spoke up. "It is because of duty that we proactively seek out strong opponents to test ourselves, madame. Our orders are not so explicit, but as a new and arguably experimental unit of the Red Collective, much of our doctrines, planning, cultivation and gear are largely theoretical. Who knows how much of our strength is built upon clouds? It is easy for us to seek out ordinary alien soldiers on the battlefield, but an adversary that somewhat resembles a phase lord but does not match a real one is a rare find. We may have paid a steep price, but our brothers and sisters did not die unjustly. The least we can do to honor their sacrifice is to study our encounter and learn from it so that we can do better next time."

The female Senior Mech Designer could somewhat understand this argument, but she still thought it was a considerable waste.

Did these soldiers value their lives so little that they readily threw them away just to obtain a bunch of empirical data?

Why couldn't they be more patient and test their new tactics and gear against more manageable opponents?

From her perspective, the balance between gains and sacrifice did not favor the Apocalypse Wardens in the slightest!

Ves adopted a more understanding perspective.

"Gloriana, these infantry troopers think differently from the traditional mech pilots that you are accustomed to. When it comes to the latter, each of them are part of the 3.5 percent of the population with a compatible genetic aptitude. In fact, only a fraction of them have actually graduated from respectable mech academies and received the essential suite of augmentations that makes them suitable for piloting mechs of varying capabilities. It is both expensive and time-consuming to produce them, so they are often told to refrain from taking reckless action and to reasonably preserve their lives. Then there is the value of the mechs themselves. When the new recruits finally begin their service, their superiors, mentors and veterans have already drilled into their heads that they must never willfully squander their machines that often cost a fortune that they can never earn in their lifetimes."

Several Apocalypse Wardens nodded their heads. "We are different from the high-and-mighty potentates. Even if we can choose to pilot Carmine mechs today, we are still aware that not every enemy can be fought with towering machines. Infantry combat is the oldest form of warfare that humans have engaged in. It will always remain relevant. It is faster and easier for a state or organization to train large batches of infantry, and they do have their uses even if many of us blend in the background."

This was an inherent difference that could not be erased in a short amount of time. Even if the distinction between a norm and a potentate was not as extreme as before, the latter still enjoyed greater status and opportunities up to this day.

"So you see yourselves as expendable due to the lower barrier of entry?" Gloriana asked.

"We used to think this way in the past." The Apocalypse Warden ruefully responded. "Today? Not so much. What gives us hope is that the Age of Mechs has passed. The Age of Dawn has begun. All of the new tech and magical powers has given us groundpounders hope that we too can matter in the new era. We, the Apocalypse Wardens, can accelerate or even transform the existing paradigms of infantry warfare. If we want to make a real difference, then we cannot afford to stay passive. We need to go on the offensive for only then will we be able to prove our worth in the most undeniable fashion possible. This is a cause worth dying for. Our hammers light the way so that our successors can improve without paying the same heavy price."

The Apocalypse Wardens embodied these words and sentiments. They did not solely fight for themselves, but also the entire class of infantrymen whose role in red humanity's society had become a lot more malleable due to the radical changes as of late.

Ves let out a deep breath. "Let us end this particular discussion. What is done is done. I will make sure that the Red Collective acknowledges your sacrifice and makes full use of the combat data that you have generated. My chief of staff has already corresponded with the Astral Octagon. The next supply run dispatched by the RC will include troop replenishments to bring your elite unit back to full strength. There will definitely be more chances to board enemy ships and invade enemy strongholds. Mechs are still too large and destructive."

That reminded Gloriana of the large hole that the First Sword Mark III had carved all the way to the center of the hull.

Even if the damage was not proportionately excessive due to the length and mass of the archecruiser, she still bled inside of her heart at the sight of this gaping wound.

So much priceless archetech got destroyed or cut into pieces!

Dise had not even bothered to go around more sensitive and higher-value blocks of archemetal. She cut everything up in an indiscriminate fashion for the sole reason that they were in her way!

"We need to move quickly, Ves." She told her husband. "My pet and I need to reach what constitutes the bridge of this archecruiser as quickly as possible in order to gain preliminary control over her control systems. There is no telling what sort of poison pills or other hidden traps the arche have left behind. An archeship of this caliber is a higher-value strategic asset. The arche would never make it easy for other races to hijack it. There is still a chance that the ship can blow up due to being left unattended for too long."

That was correct. Even though Ves had specifically consulted the seers of the Moloch Squadron and received word that they did not sense an immediate disaster, who knew whether their future predictions could be relied upon when it comes to completely alien technologies.

Their procession finally left the hangar bay and moved further inwards. They navigated one alien corridor after another, occasionally bypassing piles of dead arche soldiers, broken defensive installations and breached gates.

The air and temperature still remained inhospitable to the baseline human physique, so every human that stepped foot inside the hull had to wear hazard suits at minimum to be safe.

Multiple parties of technicians, engineers and other specialists had begun to crawl all over the length of the hull. Their work may be marginal due to lacking understanding of alien tech, but their presence still reassured everyone that the situation was under control.

After a lengthy walk, the core group finally entered the alien equivalent of the bridge.

The elite bodyguards, this time hailing from the Red Association and the Larkinson Clan, wordlessly entered first and swept the entire space to clear it from any immediate threats.

When the rest finally stepped inside, Gloriana and the arche engineer that followed from behind continued to move towards a few rows of man-sized depressions against a surface.

"Hekkel." The woman called.

The suited and lightly armored arche engineer made a servile bow, which seemed very unnatural given his alien physique, before moving towards one of the depressions.

He then proceeded to turn his back and slotted his archeshell into the 'slot', thereby achieving an imperfect fit.

No archeshell was completely identical to each other. They diverged by size, density, dimensions and more.

This was why a perfect fit was never necessary. The archeshell interfaces only needed to make rough contact in order to establish a stable enough connection.

Hekkel went still as he attempted to interface with the control system of a much grander and more powerful ship than he had ever touched!

Strange but disconcerting noises escaped from his alien mouth. His expression shifted frequently as if he was being constantly subjected to stressful events.

The servant alien finally moved away, causing the direct connection to break.

"What are the results?" Ves asked.

Gloriana softly communicated with Hekkel before she offered an answer.

"It is as we feared. The archecruiser is built with secrecy in mind. Preserving her hull and invaluable archetech is difficult if not impossible. Only the captain or other senior officers can stall the inevitable deterioration of her core systems. Hekkel cannot do anything. His status is low and he is not even registered to this vessel. Even if we manage to change this by using human hacking methods to exploit undiscovered vulnerabilities in arche software systems, it is still pointless. Hekkel's archeshell is too shabby and poor. The ship's core system will never accept the authority of such a low-class individual. It was not so obvious when it came to the archefrigates, but these societal rules are hardcoded into the entire archecruiser."

In other words, the alien caste system intentionality served as another protective measure!

"Can we solve this by converting the captured arche officers to our side?" Ves asked.

"That may be possible, but…" Gloriana hesitated. "It is far too difficult to ensure their loyalty in a short amount of time. You should be aware that they can feign compliance, but once their archeshell makes contact with an interface, they can secretly transmit the self-destruct command and cause us to lose this priceless alien vessel. Are you certain you wish to take this risk?"

"...I guess not." Ves sighed.

There were several conventional and extraordinary means to force an alien into compliance, yet most of them had only been proven reliable when applied to humans.

It was much less clear whether those same methods worked on the arche and whether they reached the same degree of effectiveness.

They could figure out all of this over time through methodical tests and examinations, but who could wait that long?

The archecruiser could very blow up in a matter of days!

As they tried to think of alternate solutions, Ves suddenly came up with a crazy idea.

"Wait, Gloriana. You just told me that possessing a high-quality archeshell essentially serves as an authentication method, correct?"

She nodded. "What are you trying to suggest this time, Ves?"

"Well, what if we take the intact archeshell of the highest-ranking arche officer that we can find and transplant that onto Hekkel? Wouldn't that be a way for us to circumvent the archecruiser's security systems?"

His wife blinked. She hadn't thought about it. She seriously considered this possibility.

"What you are describing is one of the most horrible taboos in arche society. It will never work. Arche are not mechs that can interchange parts with each other. Archeshells are the core of their identity."