The Mech Touch

Chapter 7556 Excessive Energy Concentration Concerns

The lack of intelligence remained an unsolvable problem for the time being.

They could only formulate plans and contingencies based on well-reasoned guesswork at best. They all made a number of assumptions that placed a healthy amount of respect on the enemy.

For example, they assumed that the Red Cabal had stationed at least a dozen phase lords in this star system, of which at least two of them may be greater phase lords.

They also did not dare to underestimate the individual combat power of the highest-ranking deathborn leader.

The First Sword Mark III alone might not be able to cope with such a powerful and exotic opponent. The Riot Mark III needed to get involved as well in order to prevent any accidents.

With every allocation of key assets and forces, the reserves remaining in the hands of the Saint Commander dwindled.

This was not a good development, because nobody knew whether their adversaries had more cards up their sleeve.

A bigger reverse provided a greater safety margin. By thinning it out so soon, the Saint Commander had much fewer options at her disposal.

At worst, Casella may have to deprive some forces of their strength in order to prioritize more important goals!

Nobody wanted to end up in this situation, but they had little choice. The combined fleet was almost completely isolated in the Hypeh-Tekas System. It was only due to the critical threat of a cooperation between the Red Cabal and the deathborn race from Messier 87 that they refused to turn around without a fight.

After the less-than-productive final briefing came to an end, everyone proceeded to make their final preparations before commencing battle.

Ves hung back to exchange a few words to Casella and a couple of other important leaders.

"If… if you have to make a choice between ruining the plans of the aliens and the survival of our fleet, which would you prioritize?" He softly asked.

The Casella Ingvar's domain field became a little more volatile in response to his difficult question. Her eyes grew sharper as she pinned him with a judgmental stare.

"I do not believe in binary decisions. Reality is always more open and nuanced than what the best models describe. The difference between a mortal commander and an ace commander is that when they are both presented with a set of bad options, the former becomes all too easily resigned to choose between one of them, while the latter will use her will and determination to forcefully carve out a brand-new pathway towards victory. I do not lose. I must not lose. I will not lose. To contemplate loss outside of contingency planning is the first step to the road of defeat. You may question our odds, but I do not have the obligation to accept your math. Human will can transcend any limitations."

What an answer.

Ves shouldn't have expected anything less from the most formidable commander of the Larkinson Clan.

Though he felt concerned that her optimistic attitude may one day break against the unassailable wall of reality, he still found it encouraging to fight under her command.

In his opinion, a commander that would do anything to seek victory under the bleakest of circumstances was generally better than one who had already given up the fight before it had run its course.

Of course, there were always exceptions.

If the disparity of strength became too lopsided, then a forceful stand would only lead to total annihilation.

A commander needed to possess enough discernment to recognize such situations.

Ves could only hope that Casella and her extensive staff managed to make the correct read this time.

"Andrea." He turned to the leader of the Red Collective contingent. "I applaud your work in improving your defensive spell array, but we both know that staying on the defense will not win us this battle. If we want to beat our enemies, we need to find out their numbers and their weaknesses. We cannot do so without sufficient intelligence support. You are known for your scrying capabilities. Will you be able to help us figure out the details of their hidden forces and what is going on at their huge sacrificial temple?"

The Farseer mildly shook her head. "You are placing too many expectations on our shoulders. As I have mentioned before, the adverse environment is hindering all of our efforts to gather information. The dark miasma continues to flood the surrounding space with foul energies while the enormous quantities of deathborn generate their own forms of interference."

"I know, but these conditions may no longer persist if our gambit succeeds. If the Poison Willows successfully clears the entire field of those aforementioned factors, the conditions that have previously hindered your workings no longer apply, at least for a considerable amount of time. As long as this is the case, you should be able to restore a lot of your prior capabilities. Will you be able provide us with all of the necessary support?"

"I am sorry, Ves, but we cannot promise that." Andrea Vos regretfully said. "If the 'gambit' you are referring to works as you have described, then we will witness an extremely abrupt transition between negative energy saturation to positive energy saturation. I do not believe you have put enough thought into the implications of the latter. Excess has always proven to be adverse no matter what form it assumes. Perhaps in your cognition, an overabundance of life energy is an enormous advantage to you, but have you ever thought that it may poison humans and compromise the integrity of our technology just as much as death energy?"

That… actually sounded like a very legitimate concern.

"I do not think that a sudden explosion of life energy will lead to immediate harm in the short term." Ves said as he furrowed his brows in thought. "I do admit that continuous exposure to an excessively high level of life energy and other positive energies will lead to mutations that may or may not be desirable, but I think that we can cope with that a lot better than the alternative. At the very least, I think that many of your techniques will encounter considerably less obstacles than before. If the transition is powerful enough, we may even be able to restore our connection to the galactic net. You will be able to consult with the peak experts of the Astral Octagon. The researchers and cultivation scientists of the entire Red Collective will be at your disposal. I have no doubt that at least some of them are proficient in manipulating life energy."

That would be a very welcome development. Much of the reasons why the combined fleet was struggling was precisely because they could no longer request aid from remote consultants.

This was a huge setback to the members of large nations and superorganizations. The combined fleet encountered too many new phenomena, but lacked the manpower and processing power to make sense of it all.

If they could reestablish a connection to the galactic net and transmit the core data to the Red Three and the Terran Alliance, the eggheads on the other side would definitely produce a lot of useful insights that could help in the upcoming fight!

"I shall make the appropriate preparations in the event that we can regain our ability to correspond with our headquarters." The Farseer promised. "I do not expect that this window will remain open for long. The dark miasma is strong and concentrated enough to warp the material realm and make intersystem communication impossible. If a corresponding 'light miasma' exists, then similar disruptions may occur. This may adversely affect the forces fighting outside of a protective energy field."

She raised a good point. High concentrations of E energy absolutely altered the fabric of reality. Ordinary technology might not work as smoothly as before. Significant malfunctions may occur.

This had direct implications for the upcoming battle. Even if their gambit succeeded and they managed to get rid of most of the deathborn, the drastically altered environment may still make it dangerous to fight outside of Casella's Command Field.

"I am sure we will be able to cope with this situation." Ves spoke with slightly greater confidence. "I can do a lot with an abundance of life energy. It certainly beats the alternative. All of my living mechs will also fare a lot better in such an environment."

They exchanged a few more opinions before going their separate ways. Time was short and they needed to head over to their stations in time.

Ves only lingered for another minute to say goodbye to his wife and kids before he went down to the hangar bay in order to board his shuttle.

Once he arrived at the Armitage, he took a deep breath before he finally unfolded his true body.

He readily surrendered his control to his alter ego.

"Finally." The Dark Apostle spoke as he curled his arm with an anticipatory grin. "I have been waiting too long for this. Do you know how much I have endured your tedious planning and design work? All of that preparation and effort is nice and all, but what will truly win us this battle is grit and courage. You are lucky that I can still hold myself back. I would have turned crazy if you dragged this show on for any longer."

Ves' other personality clearly complained about the additional months spent inside the System Space.

The passage of time in realspace hadn't been affected by this act, but it had definitely prolonged their subjective passage of time!

"Don't worry." Blinky emerged from the Ascended Giant's head. "We have done everything we could. No more preparations. No more delays. We are ready to enter the field."

"I hope so." The Dark Apostle grumbled as he prepared to don his raiment.