The Mech Touch

Chapter 7305: Bitter Truths

The mood among the Ascended Giants assigned to the Bluejay Fleet remained glum during the return journey.

As soon as the Dark Apostle reluctantly shrunk his true body and relinquished control back to Ves, the former also foisted this mess onto his other self.

"I am not good with this stuff. You deal with this problem."

Ves grimaced but did not reject this responsibility.

As a leading figure and a former patriarch, he was no stranger to sacrifice. He had driven the lives of many Larkinsons to their deaths due to his decisions and mistakes.

This time was no different except for the fact that this was the first time that two Ascended Giants fell as a consequence of his orders and decisions.

He could not escape culpability for the losses suffered during the reconnaissance mission.

Suffice to say, the surviving giants did not feel happy about this. They had been thrown into an adverse situation and had been forced to confront a completely unfamiliar alien super enemy.

If their luck was any worse, they could have easily suffered double or even triple losses!

Even so, the unfortunate demise of the Divine Wheel and the Divine Aporia was already far too much as far as most giants were concerned.

Ves also thought this way. He still felt that if he formed a more meticulous plan or let the Dark Apostle accompany his troops from the start, he may have been able to prevent the losses from occurring.

He shook his head.

Thinking too much about what-ifs was a dead end. Ves had led enough operations to overcome this kind of guilt.

If he wanted to atone for any perceived mistakes, then he needed to focus on doing better next time.

He already began to formulate a few ideas on how to prevent this outcome from happening again. He needed to have a good talk with the cadre of the Phase Lord Department in order to explore which ones they should pursue.

For now, he was more interested in learning whether the sacrifice had been worth it. Had they managed to retrieve enough data?

"We are still analyzing the data, Ves." The projection of Lord Richard Brownstone responded. "Your men have retrieved 21 out of 30 data modules. That is less than ideal. While the remaining 9 data spikes transmitted crucial data to the scout vessels, they only managed to do so for a short amount of time before the battle moon crushed them apart. Whether that is enough to understand the full scope of the battle moon remains to be seen. From what we are able to gather so far, the VOBM is anything but a simple collection of low-quality flesh. There are significant anomalies hidden beneath the surface that have taken all of us by surprise. We should have preliminary answers available to you by the time you return to Philaster Crestia III."

That sounded rather mysterious. The Rubarthan analysts may have gotten stumped by what the data had shown to them. That reinforced the theory that the enemy battle moon possessed a hidden secret.

If nobody took the initiative to probe the VOBM at an early stage, then it may have been able to catch the Rubarthan defenders off-guard during a critical moment!

"Tell me everything once I get back." Ves responded in a serious tone. "My troops have suffered. I at least need to know whether their sacrifice was not in vain. I hope you will also abide by the agreement of compensating my department for our losses."

"No problem." Richard said. "We have no intention of hiding the results of our analysis. We know who is responsible for helping us understand the depth of the enemy battle moon. You are entitled to know the full details. As for compensation, we have no intention of reneging on our promises. The Brownstone Principality is already arranging a shipment of phasewater and other precious materials to the headquarters of the Phase Lord Department. We estimate that this should be enough to nurture two human phase lords."

The compensation could not bring back the dead, but the resources should at least make it a lot easier to replace the losses. That was all Ves could ask for. He did not dare to issue any excessive demands.

"That is all I wanted to hear for the time being. We will talk more once I return."

The call ended.

Ves spent a few minutes on paying attention to enemy pursuit.

The voribugs originally assigned to guard the battle moon had become incensed after the phase lords damaged the exterior of the castle.

Although the VOMB maintained its position for the time being, hundreds of thousands of mutated voribugs still chased after the retreating vessels. The annoying bugs showed no sign of giving up. It would be problematic if other bugs appeared and blocked their passage.

The Rubarthan spacers were not blind. They could think up this possibility as well, which was why they took more precautions.

Strangely enough, no surprise ambushes took place during the return trip. The bug swarms chasing after the scout vessels never turned away. The Goliath Hive simply sent them on a chase without bothering to command them to stop for whatever reason.

The defenders of Philaster Crestia III eventually wiped them out as soon as the insects entered into weapon range. They all died without achieving anything important aside from deterring the scout vessels from attempting a second reconnaissance mission.

Maybe that was the point. More than a few people started to suspect that the mutated voribugs initiated a secret change.

Ves was not so sure about this theory. He was much more inclined to believe that the Goliath Hive simply issued a casual order to all of those bugs before forgetting about their existence.

In any case, they were not a problem anymore. He briefly accompanied the giants as they transferred back to the Armitage and remained in control over their emotions.

Most of the Ascended Giants definitely harbored varying degrees of discontent in their hearts. If Ves did not address them right away, their approval towards him would definitely suffer a significant blow.

Fortunately, the return trip gave Ves enough ideas on how to resolve this problem. He did not let the Ascended Giants rest, but instead called them over to a large assembly hall in order to hold an important discussion.

As they all filed into the cavernous chamber, the entrance closed. No mortal human was allowed to listen in to this conversation.

All of the Ascended Giants had restored their true bodies to the size of a mech by this time.

Ves naturally did not insist on addressing them in his human form. He took a deep breath before he began to unfold his true body.

The Dark Apostle took over again. Though he possessed a different mind, he could still reference the thoughts and plans of his weaker self.

Ves knew the Dark Apostle too well, for his plans just so happened to align with his goals and ideology.

The polemarchos of the Ascended Giants twitched his lips. The giant leader did not appreciate the blatant manipulation, but he truly saw no better way to address this problem.

He stared into the gazes of his subordinates. The Divine Harpoon and a couple of other giants still maintained their trust in their leader. The rest showed signs that they were upset with their new leader.

The Dark Apostle intended to address the latter. He did not necessarily need to conquer all of them. Even a partial success could already stabilize his position among the powerful troops.

"Giants." He began. "Today is not a good day. Two of our comrades have left our side. The Divine Wheel and the Divine Aporia will be remembered as the first giant casualties of the Voribug War. I will not pretend that we could have avoided this outcome if we approached this mission differently or refused it outright. I bear responsibility for this. You can blame me all you want for ordering you to approach an biological battle moon with completely unknown capabilities. However, rather than blaming me or obsessing over the details, it is best if I clarify a few truths."

"What truths may that be, sir?" The Divine Harpoon asked in genuine curiosity.

"First, you all need to shed whatever arrogance lingers in your mind." The Dark Apostle firmly stated. "Ever since I took over, I told you guys that dreaming about independence is a fool's errand at this stage. Most of you have only just ascended to your current forms in less than a year. You are practically babies compared to more seasoned alien phase leaders. Whatever delusions of grandeur that you have gone through in the process is an illusion. If you cannot match the strength of just a single hastily grown Voribug Organic Battle Moon, what makes you think you can challenge the human race or other alien races of the Red Ocean?"

Nobody could refute this logic. The Dark Apostle could observe from the changing expressions that the giants reluctantly swallowed this bitter pill.

Good.

Their critical thinking ability had not completely atrophied. That made this situation a bit better.

The Dark Apostle was not afraid of dealing with stupid giants. What he truly could not tolerate were giants who refused to learn and do better.

"This is just the first truth that you must acknowledge. Without sufficient strength, it is useless to think about greater ambitions. Wait until one of you has become an Ancient Phase Lord before thinking about setting up your own independent group. Follow the example of the Huntsman and the Polymath. Do not make a move before you have gained the power of a True God."

Whether the giants would abide by this recommendation remained to be seen. Subsequent rounds of indoctrination from the Red Ocean would lead them astray again.

"Another truth that I wish to impart to you all is that we truly cannot do without human support. You may dislike the humans all you want, but they are highly accomplished in science, engineering and most recently cultivation science. Now that you have completed an operation without the use of human-designed and human-produced wargear, do you think you can develop this all by yourselves?"

The Dark Apostle sardonically smirked. "Thought so. I have told you this before, but I will repeat my words again. Technology is an incredibly powerful asset. It can give weaklings the power to destroy the strong. This is why we must do our best to take advantage of human innovations. You have witnessed first-hand how weak you are without your raiments and your giant-sized armaments. I believe that this will not be the last time that you will be forced into a fight without the right equipment at hand."

Several giants scowled. They hated the reminder of their recent helplessness.

"How can we become stronger, sir?"

The young polemarchos grinned. "I am glad you asked. In my opinion, we need to rethink our approach towards combat. We have obsessed too much over drawing our strength from rigid wargear that we have neglected other sources of power. Phasewater organs can grant us strength and allow us to manipulate the fabric of space. Our equipment also needs to fit us better. If we can develop scalable gear or find a way to carry pocket spaces with us, we will be able to fight our enemies at our full strength at any time."

This was clearly a big subject that required a lot of debate and exploration. The Dark Apostle needed to sit down with the cadre of the Ascended Giants and have a good talk about fleshing out the combat system of their kind.

One of the most important lessons that Ves and the Dark Apostle had learned on this day was that trying to imitate mechs was not a good idea.

The Ascended Giants possessed their own distinctive traits. Their mentalities also differed from alien phase lords and phase whales, which meant that they were open to embracing new ideas.

As far as the Dark Apostle was concerned, the Ascended Giants were still young enough that they could be

molded like clay!

They could turn into anything so long as the giants were still in a transitionary period. More chapters tAllNovelF(ull).Com/+z7ieNjQSLFMzMmY6