The Mech Touch

Chapter 7555 Planning in a Fog

The meeting continued as multiple leaders and analysts tried to figure out the enemy disposition.

It became clear that Hypeh-Tekas II was absolutely prepared against enemy assaults.

The four major orbital fortresses might not provide as much coverage as a full orbital defense network, but they still possessed enough firepower and defenses to repel a small attack fleet.

In order to neutralize their threat, the humans either needed to invest a significant amount of time or employ overwhelming force.

"Without eliminating at least two of these orbital fortresses, any conventional force attempting to assault the central temple built on the surface of the planet will have endured a great deal of firepower." A mech officer remarked.

"Our adversaries will not let us do so with impunity." Another officer stated. "Their mobile forces will do everything in their power to block us or delay us from destroying those fortresses."

The initial scouting attempt did not manage to gather enough information to give them a full picture of the enemy's mobile assets.

They could vaguely perceive a long trail of transport vessels, yet few of them appeared to be fit for battle.

While that might suggest that the Red Cabal had not stationed any warships in the local area, nobody believed that this was the case.

The Red Cabal invested serious effort and resources into building up this secret stronghold. The fact that the alien overlords ordered the establishment of four massive orbital fortresses was a clear indication that they valued this place!

This meant that there was certainly a dedicated defense fleet lurking nearby. The enemy vessels could be hiding anywhere. The dark miasma still produced so much interference that it was difficult to detect enemy hulls if they lingered a bit further away than usual.

"We do not have time to scout the surroundings for the missing enemy ships." Saint Commander Casella Ingvar shot down a proposal to delay the assault in order to gather more intelligence. "Our movements cannot be hidden. Our enemies are most certainly aware that we have arrived, and they are probably enacting their own defense plans as we speak. The more we delay, the more initiative we give up. For better or worse, we must make our moves even if we are going in half-blind."

That statement put plenty of people in a bad mood, but it couldn't be helped. Even an ace commander could not conjure up an easy victory out of nowhere.

Everyone realized that they had to prepare for a confrontation without knowing the exact number and type of enemy phasefighters and warships. They could belong to any major race and be based on any kind of model.

However, the combined fleet was not that weak.

The projection of the Fiery Axe loudly snorted and crossed her huge arms. "Every piece of alien hardware is fragile in front of our giants. Let us lead the charge! With our superdimensional weapons and raiments, we can withstand any blows and cleave anything that belongs to the enemy into pieces!"

Andrea Vos of the Red Collective immediately shook her head. "Although the scouting data has not detected any active or inactive spell arrays, we already know that the deathborn race is proficient in their use. I believe it is almost certain that as soon as our forces cross a threshold, a large-scale death energy formation will affect us and attempt to debilitate us. The protection offered by our defensive spell array and the Saint Commander's domain has also proven to be fallible. We will most definitely be met with unconventional resistance that is difficult to guard against in full."

"Have you completed any research that can help us withstand the deathborn's strange methods?" Commodore Zonrad Reze asked with great concern.

The Red Fleet hated mysticism the most. It was no wonder why this was the case as warships depended heavily on relatively unremarkable mortal humans to crew their stations.

Even if many modern RF warships had begun to integrate increasingly more competent and powerful sentient AIs, humans had never forgotten the lesson that they should never lose control over their own war weapons.

If the fleeters were forced to leave all of the fighting to the AIs, then they had already lost the struggle for survival pretty much!

"My formation masters and I have been working to incorporate as much of our latest lessons and realizations into upgrading our initial defensive spell array." The Farseer calmly explained. "The new version is ready to become active at any time. The intensity of the protective field should be higher, and it will also become more difficult for our adversaries to take advantage of its loopholes. However, do not expect to see a qualitative improvement. This is still an early generation product."

The collies simply did not have the time to implement more substantial and noteworthy improvements.

At least they managed to make at least some progress. Any improvement was better than no improvement.

The Saint Commander clearly thought so as well. "My Command Field is ready to shield you all from the mental assaults of the deathborn, but it is reassuring to hear that you will not have to rely on my strength alone. As long as we make good and intelligent use of our energy fields, we should mitigate the threat posed by the enemy's energy fields, but only if they remain within a controllable range. This is not always the case."

"So what are the primary threats that we are facing?"

"The enemy champions and powerhouses." Casella replied. "The enemy's phase lords have all remained out of sight for the time being. This is clever on their part. Perhaps they already learned the hard lesson of recklessly exposing their intelligence to their adversaries."

This was bad news for the others because they had little to no clue about the enemy's high-level disposition.

This was a crucial matter because the amount of lesser and greater phase leaders lurking nearby directly affected whether the combined fleet possessed the qualifications to challenge this enemy stronghold!

Ves and many other people studied the data closely, but simply failed to detect any sign of a native alien phase lord or phase whale.

"If I was in the shoes of the enemy commander, I would order every phase lord to shrink their true bodies to normal proportions as much as possible and station them inside an orbital fortress or a warship." He mused. "I would also tell them to remain as small as possible until they have found a good opportunity to unfold their true bodies and launch a counterattack."

"That is a plausible situation." The Saint Commander acknowledged before turning to the resident envoy of the Red Collective. "Farseer, can you and your fellow scryers determine the quantity and the coordinates of any alien phase leaders with your own methods?"

Andrea Vos did not dare to issue a direct reply. She frowned and paused for a dozen seconds before she issued her response.

"We can try, but the outcome will be unpredictable. We have already tried to scry the enemy commander and other formidable alien leaders. None of our attempts have succeeded. The dark miasma's interference is still too strong for us to find the true answer. Even if we come closer, we may still not be able to deliver a satisfactory answer. It is better to rely on more conventional methods."

"..."

The qi cultivators of the Red Collective were not genies that could consistently figure out any problem.

They possessed their own limitations.

Besides, the deathborn must have probably developed their own countermeasures against remote observations. The act of scrying was dangerous and could easily be detected and blocked by practitioners of what they were doing.

In short, a shortcut did not exist.

The ability to study the enemy from afar sounded nice, but the collies still lacked too much knowledge and expertise to pull it off under adverse conditions.

This definitely had to improve!

Ves did not want to provide such good treatment to a bunch of random people if they failed to do their jobs.

The Saint Commander no longer bothered to inquire further about the possibility of scrying.

In any case, the combined fleet had already come close enough to conduct reconnaissance the old-fashioned way!

"Who will fight the enemy phase lords when they inevitably emerge from their hiding places?"

"Us!" The Fiery Axe raised her physical weapon! "We have plenty of giants to take care of both the enemy naval assets as well as their champions."

"Your numbers are generous relative to our fleet, but we cannot entrust every responsibility to you and your giants." Casella frowned in disapproval. "The enemy phase lords and phase whales take precedence over their more mundane assets. If you have to choose between the two, then block the enemy champions first. We cannot let these powerful enemies assault our fleet directly."

"Consider it done!"

The amount of Ascended Giants stationed in the combined fleet was considerable, but their strength was relatively mixed.

In terms of body cultivation, they were still barely competent lesser phase lords.

In terms of equipment, they were probably superior to almost any lesser and greater alien phase lord in the Red Ocean!

The general consensus was that the Ascended Giants could easily mop up enemy lesser phase lords, but may struggle to do the same to genuinely formidable greater phase lords.

Fortunately, the combined fleet still had other champions.

"I will chop up any greater phase lord no matter if he is wearing a full-body superdimensional raiment." Saint Dise vowed.

However, Casella had a different task in mind for the strongest ace pilot. "No. Leave the greater phase lords others. As long as they have not dabbled in any strange powers, then they are not worth your attention. Your mission is much more critical. You must seek out and confront the deathborn leader directly. We have already managed to obtain a glimpse of his existence. He shall certainly be present this time. You must brave its strange attacks and do your best to keep it occupied."

"I can do that." Saint Dise stated with absurd confidence. "What if this mysterious high-ranking deathborn leader refuses to show up at the start? What if he is lying in ambush?"

"Then you should remain on standby." Casella said. "Do not think of wandering off to challenge a greater phase lord. We absolutely cannot be caught off-guard by the greater threat. From what little I have gathered about this foreign alien powerhouse, he is most definitely a force to be reckoned with. I can only be reasonably certain that this leader cannot afford to remain inactive forever. Perhaps he will show up when we are able to launch a serious assault on the massive planetary temple."

This was clearly a facility of great importance to the deathborn! Casella and many others did not believe that the extragalactic aliens would be able to remain indifferent if such an important location fell into the hands of red humans!