The Mech Touch

Chapter 7528  Potential Prospect

Interviewing Saint Stark and studying the data logs extracted from the Amaranto Mark III yielded few usable results.

Neither Ves nor Gloriana obtained enough information to thoroughly understand or replicate the Death Seeker.

Far too much of it was tied into intangible concepts that could not be quantified into a neat set of numbers and equations.

Gloriana quickly lost interest for that reason.

"It is clear that all of this is tied to your so-called Ascension Runes." She told her husband. "In order to study them properly, we will need to treat the Amaranto Mark III as an artifact. This is tied to a discipline that I am not well-versed in. This should be your domain more than mine."

Ves nodded. "That is somewhat true. I do know a thing about artifacts and traditional craftsmanship with the help of one of my incarnations, but that does not mean I excel at the high-level stuff. I still lack access to deeper and more profound theories on rune studies. This is true strategic knowledge that has become extremely scarce. The few parties that have access to more than a few tattered pages will never let me gain access to them without paying a corresponding price that is bound to be exorbitant."

He did not mention the Mech Designer System, but added it to the list as well. He had not forgotten how many Ascension Points he had to cough up in order to exchange for a particularly pricey enlightenment fruit.

His wife furrowed her brows. "We will need to gain access to systematic knowledge sooner or later. I have a feeling that understanding runes will become increasingly more relevant as time goes on. According to my own understanding, runes are the transistors of E-technology. They are the fundamental building blocks that can manipulate the flow of E energy in a structured and deliberate manner. Using them on an individual basis can already make a small difference. Combining them together to form the E-technology equivalent of a circuit board is the true way of utilizing them. You have already seen how powerful the Death Seeker ability can become. If we can apply such rune patterns on a mech in advance, our clients can readily make use of their power without relying on growth."

That was the dream, yet realizing it was easier said than done!

Ves let out a tired breath. "You already told me that it is not that simple to realize these gains. The lack of help provided by Saint Stark and the Amaranto Mark III has effectively tied our hands. We can derive anything immediately useful. Without this gain, we can't apply runes onto other mechs and expect them to work as intended in the short term."

In other words, there was little point in spending more time on this new and interesting phenomenon. They could not even offer any substantial improvements to Saint Stark and the Amaranto Mark III. The latter two had to rely on their own efforts to reduce the consumption and increase the effectiveness of the Death Seeker.

"In my opinion, it is better if Saint Stark refrains from utilizing the latest ability synthesized by her ace mech." Gloriana said. "The power of 64 Ascension Runes in combination is clearly not small, and the consumption is far too great. This means that Saint Stark is not strong enough to rely on it, or there is still a large amount of room for optimization and refinement. I believe that both circumstances apply to this case."

"That may be true, but we may not have a choice in the upcoming encounter. The enemy leaders have already shown a penchant for stealth and concealment. We cannot kill what we cannot find. The Death Seeker gives us a costly but effective guarantee that we can always unveil our priority enemy no matter how much it is trying to hide in the darkness. In fact, just the fact that the enemy is aware of this capability may cause the enemy leader to stop bothering with these tricks."

In that sense, the Death Seeker already proved its worth. Casella must be happy about this boon.

"Let us complete our work here so that we can attend to our other duties."

The Amaranto Mark III had undergone a relatively significant sublimation. The mass and volume of her crystalline mech frame had grown and mutated in new and unexpected ways.

This gave the Miracle Couple a minor headache as the design of the current iteration of the ace marksman mech had deviated from their original design for the Mark III.

If they did not want to create complications and mistakes in the future, they needed to thoroughly scan and record the new state of the ace mech in order to establish an up-to-date baseline.

They actually wanted to do more than that. It would be best if they studied the changes in detail to understand exactly what the latest evolutionary process had improved.

After all, if the Amaranto Mark III chose to alter a specific component, then it probably had a shortcoming that Ves and Gloriana had overlooked during the Mark III's design process!

They had no time to study and appreciate the Amaranto's comprehensive evolution. This pained them, as they could clearly ascertain that the ace mech had evolved in a distinctly different fashion than a typical masterwork transformation.

Once Ves was done with his current task, he attended a meeting in order to discuss the next steps of the combined fleet.

Saint Commander Casella Ingvar looked calm as she stood at the head of the conference table. Her gaze locked onto the map of the Hypeh-Tekas System.

"We have managed to secure a slight advantage in our latest encounter against the opposing side." She began the meeting. "As far as intelligence is concerned, both the enemy and ourselves have exposed much of our capabilities first-hand. We have revealed some of the strength of our ace mechs and the properties of our energy fields. The deathborn has revealed their ability to deploy death energy formations, their command over the deathborn and the shadow of their presumed leader. In short, both sides gave away information that they would rather keep to themselves, but I am confident that we have managed to hide more of our secrets."

The Fiery Axe, who attended the meeting in a projected form, looked as if she had been holding in her patience for a long time.

"I hope that keeping us out of the battlefield this time was worth it, woman! My giants do not appreciate all of this cloak and dagger nonsense. Either give us the orders to deploy in the next battle, or we will step out on our own accord!"

Ves frowned after hearing this. He could already feel his other self growing peeved at the disobedience expressed by his subordinates.

The Fiery Axe committed a definite taboo if she was still part of a professional human military organization.

However, few people believed that the 'Human' Phase Lord Department was still completely human in essence.

That did not excuse her presumptive remark in his opinion.

The Saint Commander did not show any displeasure when she addressed the female strategos.

"You and your giants shall have what you want. Once we arrive in orbit of Hypeh-Tekas II, we will likely encounter the stronghold of the hostile aliens in this star system. The probability that their leader will choose to withdraw will be lower because of the cost of doing so. Unless the deathborn are willing to discard almost all of their prior efforts in this star system, they have little choice but to stand their ground and fight."

That sounded like music to the Fiery Axe's ears! She grinned!

"Great! Leave the biggest and most massive targets to us! We are more than happy to chop apart fortresses and phase whales with our superdimensional weapons!"

The Saint Commander nodded in acknowledgement before she lifted her hand.

The projection zoomed in on an image capture of the shadowy alien leader.

"Before we discuss more specific arrangements, I would first like to gather our thoughts on the special enemy that we have just encountered. The reconnaissance conducted by the Terran Woodsap mechs have already exposed the fact that the deathborn race maintains a strong hierarchy based on strength or evolution stage. They have managed to identify officers of sorts that are able to command at least hundreds of ordinary deathborn. It is not a stretch to believe that there is an even higher rank that is able to command these officers and any lesser members of their race. The entity uncovered by the Death Seeker is likely the most important leader of their task force, and possibly their 'army' in this star system."

Commodore Zonrad Reze looked skeptical. "I have little reason to doubt the theory that this entity commanded the deathborn task force assigned to intercept us, but I am not as certain that it is the highest-ranking leader in this star system. In hindsight, the enemy task force was not particularly large or strong. It could never defeat our collective forces in a direct engagement. I believe that the enemy merely chose to dispatch a modest task force in order to harass us or delay us. It is not appropriate for the most senior leader to participate in these kinds of missions in person. This is just the appetizer as far as they are concerned. Defeating us entirely was never the goal of the enemy. The most they could have hoped for was to take out one of our key assets and deter us from proceeding with our exploratory mission."

"The deathborn have failed." Ves remarked. "We have managed to avoid the loss of the Tortuous Scream or one of our ace mechs. We also managed to learn more about the enemy than vice versa."

"Hence why I have stated that we have gained the upper hand." Casella briefly smiled before turning to the RF officer. "You may be correct, commodore, but I still hold to my own opinion. The deathborn are complete newcomers to this dwarf galaxy. It is difficult for their stronger leaders to project themselves here, or else we would have been confronted by additional entities of the same caliber. From my perspective, the entire operation in the Hypeh-Tekas System appears to be a risky initiative by an ambitious member of the patrician or senior officer class of the deathborn race."

"...So you think we are dealing with the alien version of Ves?" Admiral Gori Tensen of the RA asked while raising his eyebrow.

The Saint Commander reluctantly nodded. "I can never be certain about this. When the enemy became exposed, my Command Field managed to gain… a brief impression. The enemy leader put in a great effort to keep his details hidden, but do not underestimate the intuition of an ace commander. It would have been better if the enemy leader entered the range of my Command Field, but it had chosen to cut its losses and flee instead."

More than a few people looked at Ves.

The notion of stumbling on an alien version of him made them both amused and concerned!

They knew how tricky it could be to fight an ambitious and highly inventive leader like the former patriarch of the Larkinson Clan!

Despite his relative youth and lack of experience, his resourcefulness often exceeded the expectations of his enemies, allowing him to overcome one challenge after another!

Previously, the Larkinsons and their allies often benefited from fighting alongside Ves.

Now, the potential prospect of fighting against the deathborn version of himself raised everyone's guard!

"There is also another factor that many of you have overlooked." Casella continued. "Have you forgotten about the native aliens? It is the Red Cabal that has ordered a lockdown of this star system in the first place. We can be certain that the native aliens are colluding with the deathborn on a limited basis at the very least. The deathborn presence here may be limited by many factors, but the same does not apply to the native aliens. As long as they are protected against this hostile environment, they can deploy all of the forces they want in this star system. We will most likely be confronted by them once we have reached Hypeh-Tekas II."