The Mech Touch

When the Dark Zephyr finally flew all the way back to Fort Fishblood, the rich amount of scouting data and personal notations provided by Venerable Tusa ignited a bomb among the expeditionary forces!

"There are more groups of fish-whales in this pocket space!"

"Are the four 'kingdoms' hostile towards each other?"

"The Swarm Kingdom is much larger and stronger than the other three fish kingdoms. I bet that it has probably overrun a few other groups throughout the history of this pocket space!"

"How can we do anything in Purgatory with all of these scary fish-whales in place? Even if we conquer an asteroid at great cost, the other fish-whales can easily swoop in and push us away!"

The existence of multiple fish kingdoms, each of which were presumably hostile against each other as well as outside intruders, massively complicated the strategic considerations of the human invaders.

The strength of a couple of thousand mechs was wholly insufficient to take over the entire pocket space, let alone conquer one of the key landmasses of the different fish kingdoms!

The observations made by Venerable Tusa had indeed brought the clarity that everyone in the Golden Skull Alliance wished for, but they also painted a terrible picture of this phase whale enclave where different varieties of fish-whales had long run amok.

New plans had to be made and everyone needed to pursue clearer goals. Right now, none of the mech pilots stationed in Fort Fishblood knew what they were even doing in this dangerous place.

If the four kingdoms all combined their forces and attacked the human invaders all at once, then there was no hope of winning or maintaining control over the mysterious alien gate!

After a few hours, the leaders of the Golden Skull Alliance convened a virtual meeting in order to discuss the latest findings.

The people attending the meeting were located on different sides of the active spatial portal. Although the Larkinsons had tried to establish real-time data transmissions by extending a solid data cable through the gate, the attempt failed because electronic signals simply didn't get past the spatial portal for some reason.

They also tried establishing communications by shipping over a quantum entanglement node to Fort Fishblood.

However, by the time the sensitive device reached the other side, it promptly squealed an alarm.

It turned out that the entangled particles that enabled instant communications across vast distances had somehow lost their connection to their counterparts stored in a distant server operated by the Comm Consortium!

"How can this happen?" Ves frowned when he learned of the news. "Our quantum entanglement nodes didn't malfunction when we passed through the beyonder gates a year ago. It is as if this alien portal is doing its best to cut off any possible contact between the two spaces!"

The inconvenient circumstances left the expeditionary forces with little choice but to temporarily recall the key leaders in the field. Passing through the portal was quick and convenient and Fort Fishblood would be fine without them during this calm period.

Even if the Swarmers came to launch another attack, a messenger could easily convey the news and recall Commander Casella Ingvar and Patriarch Reginald Cross back to Purgatory.

As the different people arrived at the virtual meeting, Ves turned to Venerable Tusa who had done a good job at collecting all of the interesting data.

"Before we begin to discuss our upcoming plans, I would like to hear your personal thoughts on what you have witnessed. We have all watched the footage from your expert mech but only you got somewhat close to these different fish-whale groups. First, have you detected signs of sentience or coherent thoughts from each of the distinct groups that you have encountered?"

The light mech expert pilot looked thoughtful.

"I can tell you that the king fish that attempted to contact me through his mind is definitely an intelligent bastard. I only briefly touched the alien fish-whale's mind, but I did not get the impression that I had made contact with a primal beast that is driven by its instincts. I felt I made contact with a very powerful and purposeful sentient alien. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought I had contacted an actual phase whale!"

Given the size of the king fish, it was not a surprise that Tusa would develop this impression. The capabilities that this remarkably powerful creature had shown so far closely matched that of the phase whales described in the MTA's database!

"What of the other fish-whales of the 'Evolution Kingdom'?"

"I can't really confirm it since my expert mech kept its distance during the sole major battle that I've witnessed, but they all look smart in their own way. I never got the sense that they were driven by their instincts unlike with the Swarmers."

The Golden Skull Alliance pretty much accepted all of the names that Venerable Tusa had come up with to classify all of the different groups and fish he encountered.

Ves and the others were too lazy to come up with their own names. Though the labels invented by Tusa sounded a bit too simple and direct, they did their jobs and allowed everyone to be on the same page.

"Have you come across any fish-whales among the Swarmers that show signs of actual intelligence?"

"Not directly, Ves. The elite fish-whales commanding the grunt fishes are all smarter and more cunning, but they don't hesitate to fight to the death without thinking too much. I suspect that the Swarm Kingdom is set up like an insect hide. There has to be at least one queen among them that directs all of the Swarmers."

The threat posed by these extremely numerous fishes was already substantial. Now, Tusa indicated that there might be a mastermind that completely treats the Swarmers as its chess pieces, which massively boosted their danger factor!

"What of the fishes of the other two kingdoms?" Ves asked.

Tusa shrugged. "I can't say for certain whether the fishes from the Phase Kingdom or the Hot Kingdom are intelligent or not. If I have to guess, I would say that the fishes from the two kingdoms probably aren't that bright. I never saw anything that showed that they were as individualistic or willful as the Evolvers. They don't look as mindless as mindless as the Swarmers, though. It could be that there are smarter fishes in the two kingdoms that I haven't found. I only got to see the king fish in the Evolver Kingdom because it had to use its power to wipe out the attacking fish-whales."

"Could there be an equivalent of the king fish among the other three kingdoms?" Commander Casella wondered. "I have seen how the king fish commands the respect and obedience of its fellow Evolvers. It may be a unique creature, but we have already speculated that the Swarm Kingdom is likely ruled by a powerful hive queen figure. Maybe the Phase Kingdom and Hot Kingdom are ruled by similarly powerful figures. It would explain why the Phaser fish and the Heater fish stay put in their territories without causing any chaos."

There was no hard proof of her assertions, but Ves and several other people were inclined to favor this theory. It made sense given that the fish-whales were inherently hierarchical. The bigger and stronger fish-whales always called the shots!

Ves turned to Director Ranya Wodin.

"You and your exobiologists have studied the fish-whales recorded in the footage as well, right? What is your professional opinion?"

"We know too little about the fish-whales, sir. I would caution you about making too many assumptions based on shallow observations and assumptions about living organisms that do not always apply. Do not forget that the fish-whales are not a natural species to begin with. My geneticists and other specialists have already studied the DNA of the different Swarmer subspecies that we have defeated. We have detected clear signs of artificial splicing and tampering in their genetic codes, though many of them have already mutated after many years of natural selection. The point that I am trying to make is that the fish-whales may behave completely differently due to deliberate tampering."

Though Ves understood the point that Ranya was trying to make, he did not think his instinctive judgment was wrong in this case.

Besides, it was best to assume that each kingdom was led by an intelligent super figure, because that was the worst-case scenario to the expeditionary forces.

Dealing with a stupid enemy like a horde of uncontrolled Swarmers was much easier than fighting against a small group of observant and thoughtful Evolvers!

"Now that we have the lay of the land, what is next?" Marshal Ariadne Wodin impatiently asked. "None of these kingdoms are easy to deal with. No matter how big they are or how many fish-whales they have, each of them have shown much more combat strength than we handle even if we commit all of our mech forces. They are all the equivalent of miniature states and cannot be defeated by a couple of mech divisions."

"There are asteroids that are less populated than others. We can try to conquer them first."

"What would be the point in that? There isn't any phasewater or other valuable resources in those places. The good stuff should all be located in the hearts of the fish kingdoms. They also happened to be the most well-defended landmasses."

  There was no chance of getting a bargain in Purgatory. The expeditionary forces had to make difficult choices if they wanted to obtain better plunder from this space pocket!

Ves drew everyone's attention again.

"There are at least three major objectives worth pursuing in Purgatory. First, we should study, decipher the mechanisms and try our best to gain control of the relic space gate. The good news is that it has already fallen into our hands without provoking the Swarmers any further. The bad news is that this alien tech is extremely advanced and abstruse. Our science teams will require a lot of time to make any gains from their examinations, and even then it is unlikely that their harvest will be great."

It was better than nothing, though. The Golden Skull Alliance's continued access to the organic alien space gate at least gave everyone a reason to stick around.

"Second, the Dark Zephyr has detected a gigantic amount of phasewater in the asteroid that we are calling the Lake Continent for convenience. There are many pools of liquid water on this asteroid and each of them contain varying quantities of phasewater at the bottom that the Phaser fish-whales can casually harvest at their leisure!"

His eyes and those of several others turned red at the thought. All of that phasewater was completely wasted on the fish-whales! They could be put to much better uses if they fell into the hands of the Golden Skull Alliance!

Ves swept his gaze around the virtual conference room. "We cannot pass up this opportunity to plunder barrels worth of phasewater. An opportunity like this is extremely rare in the Red Ocean. This is the clearest and most certain way we can massively accelerate the growth of our organizations!"

The Larkinson Clan could easily transition from a small organization into a mid-sized player in the Red Ocean if they managed to retrieve this much phasewater!

However, he wasn't satisfied with this prize. He was greedy for more.

"As for our third objective, those abandoned labs occupied by the Evolution Kingdom should contain a lot of remnant phase whale technology. No matter whether we can use the alien devices and knowledge or not, we can definitely profit from them in various ways as long as we can gain access to those giant labs!"

Venerable Tusa grew more disconcerted as he listened to his superior. He couldn't hold his opinions back any longer.

"I'm sorry, Ves, but aren't you being too delusional right now? I just visited those places and they are all defended by lots of powerful fish-whales! There is no way we can defeat any of the groups alone, let alone several of them in a single campaign!"

Ves grinned and chuckled. "I knew that one of you would voice your doubt. I understand your concerns, but who said anything about fighting these fish-whales ourselves? I invited my good friend Calabast to this meeting to formulate a strategy on how we can achieve our objectives while paying the least amount of cost."

Calabast stood up and asked a simple question to the attendees.

"Have you ever heard of a strategy called divide and conquer?"