The Mech Touch

Chapter 7591 Spoils Dilemma

"Hastily attaching pieces of superdimensional debris onto the exterior of the surviving starships will strain them. Their mass is not low. The more superdimensional goods we bolt onto their hulls, the more their acceleration profiles will become impaired. As a mech designer, you should be well aware of that. I do not think it is wise to be too greedy here. We are not talking about high-grade superdimensional matter. The vast majority of scrap consists of medium-grade variations, which are not as scarce. Our fleet has already suffered so much losses that we cannot withstand as much alien aggression as before. If we handicap ourselves even further by slowing down our navigation speed, the odds of failing to return home will increase drastically."

The Saint Commander did not ignore the value of superdimensional spoils, but she did not worship them either.

Given that the Larkinson Clan already controlled a means of acquiring more superdimensional matter, Casella looked down on picking up too much scrap from the battlefield.

Ves shook his head in disagreement. He had a different stance on the matter.

"We cannot leave these spoils to the aliens. They will end up building more Saint Piercers and Saint Armors, thereby causing many human defenders to suffer the wrath of well-equipped phase leaders. I think we can take the risk. The aliens in this region may be numerous, but they are so disorganized that they have failed to intercept us once while we were moving deeper behind enemy lines. Our journey home will not be as dangerous if we avoid all populated and fortified star systems along the way. We can also make a deal with the Terrans. In exchange for handing over a portion of the superdimensional debris, I am sure they are willing to send a relief force that can meet us when we are close to reaching the borders. That will drastically reduce the chance of suffering an unfortunate fate at the last and most vulnerable leg of the journey home."

He made a great suggestion. The state of the combined fleet was terrible in multiple ways.

Not only had they lost a lot of mechs and starships, they were already in the process of depleting a lot of essential supplies.

From energy cells to high-powered ammunition, all of the fighting so far had forced the humans to consume their supplies at a very prodigious rate!

It did not help that the loss of numerous combat carriers and other vessels also ruined much of the supplies they carried. The salvaging parties had already begun the process of retrieving any intact goods of value from those wrecks, but the yield was bound to be insufficient.

"What about collecting more unique and novel samples?" The Saint Commander asked instead. "The Farseer and the other members of the Red Collective have already boarded their shuttles in order to descend to the surface of the ruined alien temple complex. They did not even wait for our surviving mechs to sweep the site for any surviving defenders and hazards. From what I heard, they are particularly enthused about collecting a large amount of stone fragments that bear strange ritualistic markings. The more samples they can bring back, the greater the probability of deciphering and reverse-engineering an entirely new paradigm of energy manipulation."

Ah. That sounded important as well.

"You are not wrong about that, but… our transportation capacity is limited. Bringing back more superdimensional matter will help red humanity a lot more in the short term. Bringing back a larger proportion of black stone debris will only help the Red Collective attain a breakthrough in the far future.I think the collies should focus more on making scans and recordings. They can collect a number of samples if they want, but make sure to remind them to be… restrained. We canot be certain about the risks of transporting large amounts of unknown materials that may still carry residual power. Even if they can do nothing more than help the surviving deathborn track our fight across the stars, that is already an unacceptable result."

The ace commander who not only carried much of the leadership burden but also could not afford to take a single rest looked even more annoyed than before.

"Do we possess the capacity to study and declare the exotic alien spoils safe?"

Ves had to think about his answer very carefully. "To be honest… not really. The Moloch Squadron has an eclectic mix of specialist qi cultivators. That favors them slightly. However, their backgrounds are still too shallow, and none of them have studied alien E energy manipulation traditions as strange as this one. I think that many of them are betting that much of the debris is harmless now that they are broken and depowered."

The projection of the Saint Commander nodded after a short moment. "I suppose you are correct. As alien as the deathborn may be, certain architectural principles still remain universal. I am willing to assume that the risk of carrying deathborn spoils can be contained as long as we reinforce their shielding and move away from a star system that is filled with dark miasma."

They exchanged a few more words about loot priority and other logistical issues.

Neither of them wanted to leave this star system empty-handed or close to it. They were still forced to make very difficult decisions about tradeoffs.

For example, Ves proactively made a suggestion for the combined fleet to dump less essential goods and supplies in favor of stuffing more valuable loot inside the hulls!

Not that there were many opportunities to do so. Too much stuff still remained essential. The best they could do in most cases was to throw away phasewater and other lower-value spoils taken from previous engagements.

"We should have brought more empty transport ships when we began our campaign." Blinky sighed. "If we did, we wouldn't have to abandon the opportunity to bring back so much valuable stuff."

"Ships of all kinds are in short supply in the Red Ocean. It would have taken too much time and effort to expand our fleet with cargo haulers. Their speed is also not the best. Their presence would have slowed us down, causing us to miss more opportunities and increase the risk of falling into an ambush. I think that keeping our fleet composition lean and swift is the right choice. It is better to survive and return with less spoils in our hands."

They had lost too much in this battle. They needed to justify the losses by bringing back more stuff that could make a profound difference in the ongoing wars. Ves felt the urge to expand their transportation capacity further.

Yet now that they had become the most wanted humans in the surrounding regions, the humans couldn't afford to waste too much time on this obsession!

The need to survive ultimately trumped his greed. He forcibly restrained his urges once again and tried to squeeze the next words out of his current form's feline maw.

"I am afraid that I cannot control myself if I have a say in this matter. I will leave the selection of spoils that we should attempt to bring back to you. There are many different groups that prioritize certain goods over others. Only you can be trusted to balance their interests. Use your judgment. Do not hesitate to ruthlessly deny other people's requests. They will listen to you as long as you do a proper job."

Though Casella felt a little irritated that Ves tried to fob off this troublesome responsibility onto her, she could at least insure that the people under her command would not weigh down the fleet too much.

"Very well. I accept this responsibility. For now, I believe you should return to the Armitage or the Tarrasque. Your giants need your encouragement. Your wife has also been complaining excessively about your injured state and your continued absence."

The Dark Apostle nodded. "Good idea. I have been bearing this pain for too long. I am more than willing to receive treatment for my injuries."

"You are just in a hurry to 'log off' and let me suffer through all of the pain instead." The Star Cat snorted.

"Hehe. There are at least some boons to sharing the same true body."

If both of them had a say about their current state, they would not remain this way for too long.

Although it was utterly unrealistic for them to split off into separate physical vessels for the time being, neither Ves nor the Dark Apostle had forgotten about their agreement.

The giant leader was willing to be patient and let Ves continue to work as a mech designer for the next few years.

If the latter failed to make enough progress, then the Dark Apostle would definitely express his ire at the delay!

In any case, once the Saint Commander closed the communication channel, the Dark Apostle turned away from the Riot Mark III and the devastation that she had wrought onto the alien temple complex and moved into higher orbit.

Ves actually wanted to go down to the surface and examine the temple complex in person, but his true body needed treatment first.

It took a while before the Dark Apostle returned to the Armitage.

Now that he flew closer, his expression darkened when he saw the gaping tear at the side of the giant carrier's hull.

Due to her cigar-like shape, this enormous gap looked quite bad since it practically ran from the bow all the way to the stern!

A lot of structural and functional parts had completely disappeared as a result. A lot of compartments became exposed to vacuum while plenty of systems operated at partial effectiveness.

Fortunately, all of this damage ultimately did not constitute a big deal to a capital ship like this. The giant carrier mainly served as a transport ship for human phase lords and their gigantic sets of equipment. The hull did not mount too many volatile and dangerous weapon systems or other high-tech modules.

Repair crews had already covered most of the gaps with temporary metallic covers to keep out the vacuum and radiation. More substantial fixes could be done later with more robust materials… such as spare superdimensional alloy plating.