The Mech Touch - Chapter 7605

Chapter 7605: How to Invade Another Galaxy

“How would you initiate an inter-galactic invasion?”

“Ehhh… what?”

“Let us assume you are tasked by the leaders of your race to build a foothold in a completely foreign galaxy that none of you have ever come into contact with in the past. Let us also assume that you are working with relatively limited resources. Let us further assume that you can only sneak in a relatively small amount of manpower and resources across the intergalactic void. What are your first steps? What are your priorities? What scenarios will you try to avoid at all cost?”

The Farseer posed a number of very interesting but incredibly complicated questions to Ves.

That was not how Ves expected to be greeted after he had just stepped aboard the increasingly more famous Moloch.

He was not the only notable individual to arrive at the quirky vessel crewed by the members of the Red Collective.

“I would find the weakest aliens around and kick their asses first to teach them who is boss.” A boisterous young female voice sounded from behind. “Of course, you shouldn’t pick on anything big like a planetary government. There are always pirates and outlaws in every galaxy. Nobody really cares about them, especially the weakest ones, so once you have taken over a disreputable outfit, nobody will be able to tell the difference. You can do a lot from there as long as you don’t do anything stupid. What do you think, Lucky?”

“Meow!” A hovering gem cat playfully floated around her head.

“Hihihi! Of course I am right!”

Both Ves and Andrea Vos smiled indulgently at the child.

“Your plan contains sound logic, but you have missed a number of steps.” The formation master gently responded. “What is praiseworthy about your plan is that you understand the importance of information warfare. Before two hostile races ever launch their first shots at each other, they always compete through the medium of information. If red humanity’s first step after reaching Messier 87 is to announce itself as a visitor from the Red Ocean, then many of the established alien civilizations will ruthlessly hunt us down to kill us, or worse, capture us and extract every piece of useful information that we possess. That sounds rather counterproductive, do you agree?”

The young red-headed girl nodded. “I suppose so, ma’am. That’s why I think it is best to make contact with the opposite of those big and powerful civilizations. Bottom-tier outlaws are so weak and messy that nobody ever keeps track of them. I bet there are many groups that consist of a mix of weird and exotic aliens. Even if ‘humans’ suddenly appear among them, none of the aliens in M87 will think too much about it. That galaxy is just so damn big that it probably has more intelligent species than all of the grains of sand on a planet.”

That was a remarkably insightful explanation. His daughter put real thought in her argument, though it still rested on a number of dangerous assumptions.

The Farseer still maintained her smile. “I agree with you, but my previous comment still stands. If you want to find suitable pirates to subsume, you will first need to understand the regional stellar environment, the alien polities that reside in it and the flow of traffic and forces. All of that requires intelligence gathering, and that is incredibly difficult to do at the start. As a new entrant, you have a responsibility to avoid tipping off the truth of your identity while simultaneously interacting with completely new aliens to learn what they know. Any contact is risky. The wrong words can set off a violent reaction. The wrong actions can betray your complete ignorance of regional customs and taboos. The wrong choices can turn an incredibly rare and precious attempt to invade a different galaxy into waste.”

“Oh…” Andraste thought herself clever, but she clearly hadn’t accounted for so much. She lowered her head while reaching out to hug Lucky against her chest. “Then… you will first have to send out spies. Good ones. People who can look and listen at other aliens without getting caught.”

The mature woman nodded. “Correct. This is a whole different subject that falls outside of the scope of this discussion. It is sufficient to note that if you keep your presence in a new galaxy as hidden as possible, you can make any low-key preparations as you want as long as they do not surpass a threshold where the buildup cannot be hidden anymore.”

“I have read some of the early records about the Big Two’s initial decades in the Red Ocean.” Ves couldn’t help but comment. “The documents strangely don’t explain how the mechers and the fleeters managed to cross the void between the Milky Way and the Red Ocean 70 or so years ago. Perhaps their pioneer ships set off a few centuries ago with a souped-up version of a conventional FTL drive or some other exotic faster-than-light travel technology. Whatever the case, once the first humans arrived in the new frontier, they behaved with a great amount of caution and discipline. They did not even dare to venture too much beyond Bridgehead One, as every movement could betray their true identities and origin.”

The Big Two demonstrated a lot of patience. Perhaps they could have kicked off the invasion of the Red Ocean within as little as a decade, but they instead kept their heads down for 4 more decades just to collect more intelligence and increase their preparations!

The MTA and the CFA clearly possessed an immense amount of might, enough to overrun the alien civilizations of the Red Ocean by relying on brute force alone, yet did not grow conceited enough to resort to this method!

The mechers and fleeters instead insisted on sticking to the most cautious and rational invasion plan. They avoided many mistakes and even opened up the Red Ocean to the public just so that they did not have to put too much of their own forces and resources at risk!

Their caution actually paid off as the Great Severing could have inflicted much more catastrophic losses to original humanity if the Big Two tried to do everything themselves!

However, this historical event also served as a very clear warning that no matter how much you tried to do everything correctly, new and unknown variables could always turn everything into a mess!

No plan could ever completely survive contact with the enemy!

“The reason why I posed my question to you is because I wanted both of you to enter the appropriate mindset to understand the actions of the deathborn civilization.” The Farseer said as their group ventured deeper into the Moloch. “The invasion strategy of this race is naturally different from ours. The deathborn does not have our method of crossing the intergalactic void, but they arguably possess a better method. Due to some quirk of M87 exotic energy configuration, deathborn spontaneously spawn in sites where a large amount of sentients have died. Even if the Red Ocean has not descended into a galactic war, it is impossible to stop this spawning process.”

Ves nodded and frowned at the same time. “You’re right about that, but there is a big difference in intelligence between the stupid lowest-rank deathborn and the formidable deathborn lords that we have encountered at Hypeh-Tekas II. The combat logs and after action reports all make it clear that the latter are projections rather than actual ‘bodies’. Their true controllers still reside inside M87.”

“That is true.” The formation master responded with a despondent breath. “We have done our best to investigate how the latter have been able to project their consciousness across hundreds of thousands of light-years, but none of the records that we have been able to recover from the native alien ships and planetary temple ruins have provided any answers. We can only speculate that the deathborn civilization has developed such a strong transcendent hierarchy that their higher ranks have gained the ability to ‘possess’ or ‘direct’ the lower ranks beyond conventional boundaries.”

“I doubt this capability is easy to pull off, especially at stupendously large distances. Nothing comes for free. It must have cost those deathborn lords an exorbitant amount of resources and effort just to project their presence into the Red Ocean. Defeating them on the battlefield will likely force them back to their starting point. This is why many of those deathborn lords did their best to flee rather than fight to the bitter end. They cannot easily afford the cost of failure.”

Though Ves believed that his theory made sense, he lacked the proof to back up his assumptions.

“If we step back and evaluate the strategy that the deathborn have employed, it is clear that their unique racial characteristics have encouraged them to exchange stealth for speed. They have not tried too hard to hide their early entry into the Red Ocean. The emergence of weak and low-intelligence deathborn is one thing. Projecting their ‘lords’ directly to another galaxy and having them make contact with a native alien leader is another matter entirely. Luckily enough for them, they actually managed to form an alliance of convenience with a desperate local powerhouse.”

Ves narrowed his eyes. “I actually think that sounds fishy. Think about it. The Blackwater Summoner is one of their most ideal initial partners. He is powerful enough to gather a lot of resources for them, yet he is not strong to the point that he can resist their highly proficient mental techniques. As you already know, phase whales tend to be strong in body but a lot weaker in soul. I think the deathborn leader may have managed to enthrall or at least influenced the decisions of the Blackwater Summoner upon contact.”

“That is a plausible theory, sir. Many of us believe this to be the case. Nonetheless, there is still a distinct possibility that the Blackwater Summoner agreed to work with these extragalactic newcomers on a completely voluntary basis. From his perspective, the short-term threat posed by red humanity and the mutated voribugs is far greater than the initially unimpressive deathborn. His racial bias may have also caused him to underestimate the strength of a race that completely lacks a physical form and can only settle for possessing dead bodies. Whatever the case, both of them have managed to obtain what they needed from each other. No deception or coercion is necessary.”

That made this situation worse. Despite the huge setback this initial alliance had suffered in the Hypeh-Tekas System, Ves doubted that his forces had managed to end this cooperation entirely.

The deathborn still had enough of a foundation left to continue to work together with the Blackwater Summoner!

“So how does this topic have to do with the deathborn relics that we are about to observe today?” Ves asked in his eagerness to return his attention to more relevant matters.

“I wanted you to understand the reasoning behind the extensive construction efforts in the Hypeh-Tekas System.” The female cultivator said. “The temple complex is an especially important functional node to the enemy’s invasion plan. Our studies in the past week have gradually revealed clues that it possesses far more functions than converting dying sentients into newborn deathborn. It is not only a large source of manpower, but also a headquarters, research institution, megaworkshop, holy site, intergalactic transceiver and more. Perhaps an easy way to understand it is to regard it as a more multifunctional version of our Astral Octagon.”

“Ah. I see. A facility as important as this is most definitely a huge investment. If the Blackwater Summoner was responsible for mobilizing all of the resources necessary to construct it, then he most definitely feels pissed that it lasted so short. Rebuilding a similar temple complex may not be possible if he has already squandered the wealth that he formerly possessed.”

Of course, all of that no longer mattered if the deathborn chose to expand their cooperation with other phase whales!

“If we knew that the temple complex was so important, then I would have argued more firmly to extend our stay in the Hypeh-Tekas System.” The Farseer said with a regretful voice. “It should have been well worth the additional risks just to spend a few more days to dig more valuable artifacts from the enormous planetary facility. Its size is so immense that we have only managed to search through a fraction of a percentage of all of the land.”

Ves silently disagreed with her. No matter the value of the broken temple complex, none of it would have been worth it if they got cornered by an immense retaliatory force!

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