The Mech Touch (Web Novel)

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Anyone who looked at the orbital scan of the mysterious dark drill-shaped hives would feel intimidated by their sight.

They were not only tall and wide, but clearly alien and savage in origin. Their appearance suggested that they were made by a large number of exobeasts who excreted a huge amount of black materials from their mouths or other orifices in an organized fashion.

There were just enough inconsistencies and imprecisions to suggest that these enormous structures were made by a hive of unknown organisms.

However, the fact that these large constructs all looked like fat drills scaled up to enormous proportions showed that the species responsible for making them was quite organized!

"What are we looking at, exactly?"

"We are looking at what may very well be the most dangerous native threat on this planet." The Vice Director of the Larkinson Biotech Institute said in a grave voice. "To be able to dominate this much territory, the species that inhabit this location must be extremely powerful. What is more troubling is that while we can see the hives with optical sensors easily enough, our more in-depth scans have failed to uncover more details. Despite the lack of Solus Gas in the environment, we suspect that the substance has been integrated in the materials used to construct the drill-shaped hives."

"That must have taken a lot of Solus Gas to build, but there are no deposits in the vicinity."

"We speculate that the dark hives have been built on top of the Solus Gas deposit. Whatever exobeast species managed to occupy this area, they have completely monopolized the output and clearly know how to use it to their advantage. This is most certainly an outcome of a deliberate, targeted and intelligent drive to claim this territory."

All of this speculation raised the threat level of this location even further!

Whoever or whatever managed to build all of these hives was most likely a calamity beast!

Not only that, but the creature likely commanded an entire hive of lesser exobeasts!

Ketis suddenly grew concerned about a possibility. "Do these hives pose a threat against us in orbit?"

"This is not apparent with the information that we have gathered so far." The former Terran geneticist answered. "It is best not to let down our guard. There are so many gaps in our understanding of Reticular Corein V that we cannot rule out this possibility. While the hives are visible to us because they have captured all of the Solus Gas that is released from the deposit on site, the same conditions also enable the organisms that inhabit the hive to detect us and maybe even target us with exotic attacks. I highly recommend our fleet to remain in geosynchronous orbit on the opposite side of the globe to be certain. In fact, it may be better to have our fleet distance itself from the planet even further. More powerful calamity beasts may be hiding in the areas covered by Solus Gas."

It was not unheard of for calamity beasts to escape the gravity well of a planet and destroy entire fleets and space stations in orbit!

Although these incidents were rare, the Hunting Association made sure to warn red humanity about the possible dangers of leaving local exobeasts alone for too long.

Naturally, the members of the Hunting Association were more than willing to set up shop and hunt down these persistent threats, but only if they could earn a profit from their activities.

Ketis made a decision.

"Your first suggestion is acceptable, but the second one is not. We should avoid the dark hives until we have scouted the location more thoroughly, but we cannot bring our fleet away from the planet. Any shipments and transfer to and from orbit will be enormously delayed if we do so. Our fleet is more than capable of defending itself against moderate threats. No matter whether we are beset by native alien warships or creatures from the surface, our recently upgraded Transcendent Punishers should be able to destroy them without suspense."

That did not sit well with Taon Melin, the former legion commander of the Eye of Ylvaine.

"I would not count on our bunker mechs for every possible threat." He said. "The general understanding of calamity beasts is that the weakest variety are at least as powerful as a second-class mid-grade expert mech. More concerning than that is that their abilities may enable them to circumvent our defensive layout. I highly recommend we keep at least one expert pilot on standby in our fleet."

Ketis nodded after she contemplated the suggestion for a few seconds.

"Good idea, Taon. That will leave less expert mechs for the surface, though. We need at least one to protect our main base and gas extraction site, and we need another one to lead possible attacks against calamity beasts that must be removed."

While it was still possible to defeat calamity beasts by relying on quantity as opposed to quality, the risk of excessive casualties was too high.

There was no way to tell how powerful the calamity beasts had become after they dominated their territories after a long time.

Even if the growth of calamity beasts rapidly slowed down due to lack of resources, continuous absorption of E energy radiation ensured they still grew stronger with each passing day!

Fortunately, Task Force Solus had brought along three high-

tier expert pilots. Even if their expert mechs had fallen behind the times, they had already been hyper mechs long before hyper technology became a phenomenon in the Red Ocean.

"Dise, you shall be the sword that cuts down the greatest threats to our gas harvesting operations."

Venerable Dise looked excited at the prospect. "My Decapitator hungers for the taste of calamity beast blood."

"If possible, keep the carcass as intact as possible." Maria Abselon requested. "As much as we are eager to examine these powerful beings, we do not have the facilities to contain living calamity beasts, so do not try to be merciful on our account."

The female expert pilot silently nodded in acknowledgement.

Ketis turned to her husband next. "Joshua, your affinity with life is exceptional. So long as Dise holds down the fort, I want you to accompany our recon team and observe the native exobeasts. If you have discovered any useful observations, please be sure to share them with us all. The more we know about the native organisms, the better."

The high-tier expert pilot confidently smiled. "I can probably talk to them if they are not super aggressive."

"That would be useful. We do not have the numbers or firepower to control the entire planet. If we want to maintain a stable gas harvesting operation over the span of several years, then it is more preferable to coexist with the exobeasts in the region than to continually slaughter them in order to contain their populations."

Few people had any hopes that they would be able to establish any peace, though. Wild exobeasts that had developed enough sapience were not necessarily civilized. Their savage instincts and rough lives all turned them into even more dangerous monstrosities! It was too difficult to convince these savage exobeasts to any agreement unless they had no choice, such as when they were taken captive.

"Isobel, you will have to remain up in space for the time being." Ketis told the other female expert pilot assigned to this mission. "Much of the land surface of Reticula Corein V is covered in forests. Not only do all of the trees block your line of sight, your Promethea may also be too prone to producing wildfires."

"I can control them." Venerable Isobel retorted in a calm tone. "No flame of mine will go rampant as long as my companion spirit and I are paying attention."

"You have the best capacity for mass destruction among us, so we will call you in if we need to wipe out entire populations of dangerous exobeasts. For now, you should remain in orbit and intercept any dangerous calamity beasts that dare to attack our fleet."

"Very well."

Ketis continued to issue a range of orders. They needed to establish an initial foothold on the surface and begin examining the surrounding areas in depth. All of this required a lot of movement and activity that was sure to keep the mech forces busy for a few weeks.

Once everyone knew what they needed to do, the meeting broke up as everyone split up to perform their respective duties.

Ketis and Joshua enjoyed a bit of free time.

There was no need for the Everchanger to accompany a fleet of scout drones that would be sent to the surface first.

The leader of the task force had already issued the necessary orders. She trusted the other Larkinson commanders to handle any issues that emerged in the following days.

That left the married couple free to return to their stateroom in the bowels of the Wild Torch.

Kirian and Mayra were still attending the school that was located in another section of the second-class fleet carrier, so the living space was fairly calm and quiet.

"The public inquiry on living mechs has already started according to the schedule." Joshua noted.

"I know. The first day is only dedicated to exploring the nature of living mechs. I am sure we did not miss anything important. Ves likely gave the public an introductory lecture of his works. We haven't missed anything important if that is the case."

The two sat down and began to view the broadcast together.

Just as expected, Ves tried to teach the public about the basic properties of living mechs in an attempt to demystify them. Though he did not do a good job in every aspect, he most definitely generated more interest in his works.

Then, the opposition dropped a few bombshells!

First, Lieutenant-Commander Astrid Jameson exposed cultivation to the masses!

As shocking as this revelation may be to ordinary people, the Larkinsons had less reasons to be surprised.

"Is the patriarch's mother really that powerful?" Joshua wondered.

"She should be. She is the Superior Mother. You should be able to tell how much she has grown over the years." Ketis responded.

"There is definitely a connection between Ves and the Superior Mother, but I have a hard time imagining that the latter is his actual mother."

"There are probably cultivation shenanigans involved. It is up to Ves to share his stories to us. He never explained any of this secret past to our clan, and it is not necessary as far as I am concerned. I am more concerned about what will happen to our society once everyone starts to practice cultivation techniques."

"I think that extraordinary swordsmanship will explode in popularity." Joshua guessed. "Didn't you tell me that the mechers previously suppressed it because they didn't want too many people to wield extraordinary powers? I think it is safe to say that this has become moot after today. A lot of extraordinary sword styles demand discipline and control, so they are unlikely to produce madmen. Their strong willpower also makes them more resistant against these cultivators that the fleeters are warning about."

Ketis agreed with her husband's points. Enforcement was a major problem. Short of squashing power-hungry madmen with mechs, it was better to employ swordsmasters as enforcers. Not only were they highly resistant against any unusual abilities that other cultivators might employ, they were smaller and much less prone to producing massive amounts of collateral damage when they fought.

There was finally a legitimate reason for swordmasters to exist.

The happy mother continued to think about how she should step up her organization's effort to train more traditional swordsmen.

However, the next major revelation forced her to pay attention to the broadcast again.

"What?!" Ketis reacted with a lot more shock than before! "What are true mechs?! Why did the mechers hide the fact that neural interfaces were incomplete all this time?!"

Ketis the mech designer felt that the Association had deceived her and every other professional in the mech industry!

She took offense to the apparent fact that the mechers kept this secret tech under wraps for such a long time, and she was not the only mech designer who felt this way!

"How dare the mechers keep this from us all?! What is so dangerous about true mechs that people like us do not deserve to work with them? Why can't the mechers give us the choice on how to handle this tech? This is outrageous!"