The Mech Touch - Chapter 7617
Chapter 7617: The Waiting Flame
Ves still felt ambivalent about leadership.
On the one hand, he liked control.
He wanted to be the one making decisions rather than the one who had to swallow them from others.
On the other hand, he disliked the responsibilities that came with being in charge.
He already experienced enough of that nonsense during his stint as the patriarch of the Larkinson Clan.
However, if there was one thing he had noticed, it was that other important figures had steadily moved to assume more direct control over human society.
The Polymath had taken over Bridgehead One and transformed it into an insanely productive center of human activity.
The Huntsman formed his own separate association and practically monopolized the exploitation of untamed planets and exobeasts.
The Evolution Witch subsumed the Transhumanist Faction of the RA and blatantly turned it into her personal fiefdom.
Ves would have to be blind to miss this emerging trend.
Given that everyone of importance had come to value such practices, Ves actually became uncertain whether he could afford to reject this game.
Such thoughts continued to linger in his mind as the remnants of the combined fleet gradually made its way back to friendly lines.
Every soldier remained on guard against any sudden ambushes, but as the distance to human-occupied space continued to shrink, no enemies had crossed their path.
The scouts that moved ahead and around the main fleet had done their jobs well. They continued to scout the way ahead and paid close attention to enemy movements.
The Terran Alliance and the Red Three also contributed considerably more detailed and up-to-date intelligence on their end as well.
Each of these major players had a vested interest in getting their hands on the invaluable deathborn artifacts that had been taken as spoils from the recent battle.
For this purpose, they uncharacteristically set aside their rivalries and cooperated sincerely with each other.
By coordinating their infiltration and intelligence gathering operations on this side of alien space, they were able to ascertain the movements of larger and more powerful alien fleets with much greater certainty!
All of this high-quality information gave the Saint Commander and her staff all of the advantages they needed to thread the needle and evade enemy interception.
Of course, it was impossible to avoid the aliens entirely. They were simply too numerous. Now that the Blackwater Summoner had put out a high-priority alert on the human fleet rampaging through alien space, the native aliens finally put their inherent strengths to good use!
Alas, there was nothing they could do as long as they lacked the required strength and numbers to challenge the combined fleet.
Even after losing half of their warships and mechs, the remaining combat-effective units of the Premier Fleet and the Bluejay Fleet still posed a considerable threat.
The addition of more than a dozen Ascended Giants as well as a handful of powerful ace mechs deterred plenty of alien phase lords from approaching!
Given these conditions, Ves put down most of his concerns about a possible last-minute interception.
The Red Cabal was simply unable to gather enough champions and fleets quickly enough to block their return route.
Still, no one dared to relax entirely. The native aliens and more specifically the phase whales still possessed rare but exceptional displacement capabilities.
As long as they possessed the right combination of resources, technology and methods, it was not implausible for them to teleport a powerful force across interstellar distances!
However, it was one thing to possess this capability, but it was another thing to actually make use of it in this situation.
So far, the combined fleet may have raided a number of alien star systems, but the damage inflicted by the Larkinsons and their allies was not too severe across the entire war theater.
The only native alien leader that truly developed a grudge against Ves and his friends was the Blackwater Summoner, but his influence was clearly limited.
Ves seriously doubted that a single greater phase whale could upend the crucial war plans of the Red Cabal just to satisfy his desire for revenge!
This granted him and his wife enough security to proceed with one last important initiative before they returned to Terran space.
“It is time.” He informed the full cybernetic human shortly after he entered her personal cabin. “My wife may have kept you waiting a few weeks longer, but it should all be worth it. We have made good use of all of that extra time to incorporate some of the valuable gains from our recent endeavors.”
Saint Isobel Kotin sat calmly in a meditative posture in the middle of her serene stateroom.
As a recovering ace pilot, she had chosen to redesign her personal space so that it resembled a high-tech temple.
Though it lacked any overt religious iconography, it still gave Ves the vibe of a place of worship.
The smell of incense emanated from the floating metal braziers while the bulkheads portrayed a number of geometric patterns with unclear meanings.
He had no idea what Isobel had in mind when she chose to surround herself with this decor, but whatever she was doing, it was obviously helping to stabilize her mental state.
The saint calmly opened her cybernetic eyes and directed them straight towards Ves. “The Promethea Mark II is ready to be born anew?”
“Yep. Compared to the earlier design iteration, the latest version has been fully redone to incorporate alien-grade superdimensional alloys. We have salvaged so much of these excellent materials after the Battle of Hypeh-Tekas II that it would be a waste not to take advantage of them. The workshops of the Tarrasque and the Tortuous Scream have already done the hard and strenuous work of breaking apart the Saint Armors so that we can readily make use of the processed materials.”
Although this was not new to Isobel Kotin, she still felt pleased that the Miracle Couple truly chose to go ahead with this plan.
After all, superdimensional materials still remained in very high demand. There were many other possible uses for them, and it was not a certainty that a ranged ace mech like her Promethea Mark II got to benefit from the recent bounty.
“I would have preferred it if my mech got clad in armor-grade superdimensional alloy, but I will take what I can get.” She softly said with her voice which deliberately retained an artificial edge.
Ves could only offer her a rueful smile. “We still do not have enough high-grade superdimensional matter to go around. The Bastion Mark II has a much greater need for it than your Promethea Mark II ever will. That is simply a fact. We are only choosing to grant you a superdimensional mech right now because stars happened to align. Otherwise, we would have started with converting the Dark Zephyr Mark III into a superdimensional mech first. Saint Tusa most definitely earned this boon.”
Melee mechs endured much greater dangers than ranged mechs. The Dark Zephyr Mark III in particular had a habit of dancing on the edge of the blade in every major engagement. He stood to benefit much more from a stronger defensive buffer than another living machine that was designed to hang back and maintain her distance.
Saint Isobel Kotin most definitely understood this logic, but that did not prompt her to persuade Ves and Gloriana to change their priorities.
She was sick of waiting around!
It had been agony for her to stand aside and do nothing during the last battle!
An ace pilot was only as powerful as her corresponding mech.
Without a suitable machine, there was no real way for her to leverage her formidable Saint Kingdom on the battlefield!
She never wanted to feel as helpless and useless again.
Even if there was no impending need for her to sortie into battle in the coming weeks, she still wanted to regain the option to participate in battle.
She needed to regain her agency and her purpose.
“Did you manage to incorporate other improvements to my mech?” She asked next. “I have heard that you have attempted to apply some of the stuff that you have learned from the deathborn into my new machine.”
Ves shook his head. “The keyword here is attempt. The truth is that studies into deciphering and understanding deathborn technology and other related phenomena are still stuck at a very early stage. While we have made a number of useful discoveries, not many of them are readily usable by us. My wife and I have only made very small and limited attempts to augment the Promethea Mark II Project with the lessons that we have learned. You won’t notice too much of a difference to be honest. Compared to earlier iterations, your Promethea Mark II is not only a bit more resistant to deathborn attacks, but can also spread your flames to their incorporeal bodies a bit faster. That is basically the extent of the improvements. You will have to wait a few years if you truly want to obtain any qualitative improvements derived from deathborn technology and materials.”
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