The Mech Touch

"There is so much phasewater in the king fish's body." Ves whispered even as he tried his best to suppress his greed.

Since he aimed to establish a friendship with the leader of the Evolution Kingdom, it was not wise to hold any malicious thoughts towards this powerful beast.

This was a problem because the more Ves looked at the king fish, the more he saw a floating pile of phasewater and MTA merits!

Not only that, but the biological makeup of the king fish was doubtlessly exceptional. The creature had obviously undergone the heaviest and most powerful sequence of biological augmentations among all of the Evolvers.

If the Larkinson Biotech Institute was able to get ahold of its unique carcass with at least half of the body parts intact, then Ves had the confidence of designing an absolutely exceptional biomech or cyborg mech that surpassed his previous passion projects!

"That's not all I can gain from this beast."

He could already sense that the king fish was absolutely strong in the spiritual sense. It was like looking at a version of Arnold that was a thousand times more powerful and not as docile!

Only the dark gods and the sacred gods of Aeon Corona VII could compare.

In other words, To Ves, the king fish was the equivalent of a juggernaut-sized loot piñata!

He constantly had to suppress the temptation to order a thunderous attack on the king fish in an attempt to crack it open in hopes of obtaining all kinds of riches.

The benefits didn't outweigh the costs this time. The creature had shown incredible battle power and Task Force Fisherman would suffer grievously if it tried to kill this powerful fish.

Even then, the assassination attempt was unlikely to succeed, not when there were hundreds of other Evolvers in the immediate area. They could immediately move to assist their sovereign fish and assault the task force with all kinds of powerful attacks.

If by any chance the expeditionary forces succeeded in defeating the Evolvers before reinforcements arrived, then what was next?

There were at least tens of thousands more Evolvers stationed elsewhere on the Lab Continent and another landmass!

Each of them would definitely converge on the hostile mechs that had attempted to kill their own kind! There was no way that Task Force Fisherman could stay long enough to reap any further profits.

After offending the Evolution Kingdom, the Golden Skull Alliance lost the easiest and most obvious opportunity to ally with a friendly native group.

Ves had no confidence in being able to develop an alliance with the Swarm Kingdom, Phase Kingdom or Hot Kingdom. They were either too hostile or too inhuman to befriend.

Therefore, if Ves wanted to attain all of the objectives that he had set for this brief campaign, he absolutely needed to succeed today!

"C'mon, Tusa. Don't screw this up. Say hi and remain as friendly as possible."

Although Ves preferred to send over the Everchanger with him riding tandem with Venerable Joshua as the first point of contact, the approach of a new and powerful-looking mech might spook the Evolvers.

The Dark Zephyr had appeared in the sights of the king fish once so it should not be a total surprise.

It also helped that it was small and light. Even though the Larkinsons, Glory Seekers and Crossers had seen it assassinate multiple prominent enemy expert mechs with speed and daring, to the uninitiated the expert light mech looked like a fancier scouting mech.

Ves had especially instructed Venerable Tusa to minimize his posture and minimize his willpower and resonance fluctuations.

The more harmless the Dark Zephyr looked, the better!

"C'mon, you big whale. Take the bait."

Minutes passed by as people wondered whether the king fish had already attempted to contact Venerable Tusa.

The longer time went by, the more it became apparent that nothing happened.

The king fish showed quite a lot of patience in the face of so many new unknowns. Ves gained a better appreciation of the big creature.

Despite its tyrannical power and despite the might of its group, the king fish did not take any risks, but instead opted to observe and learn more about the new visitors.

Ves would have taken the same approach if he was in the big creature's position.

"Go closer, Tusa." He eventually instructed.

"Are you sure about that, Ves?"

Even though the expert pilot expressed his doubt, the Dark Zephyr continued to move closer to the surface of the Lab Continent.

Venerable Tusa was quite aware that his expert mech entered the range of more and more dangerous Evolver fish!

If those dangerous fish attacked at once, not even his celebration evasion abilities could save his mech from getting damaged!

When the Dark Zephyr reached a distance of eight kilometers, the mech suddenly froze in place.

"What happened, Tusa?!"

It took a few seconds for the light mech specialist to transmit a response.

"The king fish… talked to me again. It used the same communication method that it used before. I can't understand its words, though. It's all gibberish to me. Can someone come up who can actually understand the fish-whale language?"

The mood among the people in the task force had lifted a bit. The fact that the fish-whales chose to communicate rather than to attack was already a hopeful first step.

Ves didn't grow complacent, though. A successful first step was not indicative of a smooth journey. He needed to make sure that they made as little mistakes as possible. For now, he wasn't in a hurry to step up and speak to the dangerous fish in person.

"Don't focus on interpreting the alien words." He told the expert pilot. "Focus instead on the emotions and feelings behind them. Can you sense any? If so, describe them to me please."

Tusa recalled what he had just experienced and tried to explain them as best as possible.

"I haven't picked up any strong emotions from the king fish as it communicated with me, but if I concentrate closely enough, I think I can make a few guesses."

"Tell me. What kind of emotions is the king fish projecting to you at the moment?"

The expert pilot struggled to find his words. "I sense… curiosity, caution, vigilance and more. I can't really describe the other feelings. Maybe… concern for others of its kind?"

Ves grinned. "That is exactly what we needed to hear, Tusa. Thank you. What you have told us already provides us with a lot of clarification."

He and the analysts accompanying the task force were starved of data!

The greatest fear they held was towards the unknown!

By lifting the veil that obscured the king fish, Venerable Tusa's tentative contact with the large creature opened the way towards mutual understanding.

"Can you talk back to the king fish in any way?" Ves asked.

"I think I can, but I would prefer not to. I am not good in these situations and I don't have diplomatic training."

"It's fine." Ves quickly said. "You can't understand the fish-whale language and the king fish probably doesn't understand human speech either. Just speak about basic niceties and stuff so that the other side can know that there are communication barriers between us. What is important is that you convey as much respect and goodwill as possible. Given the emotions that it had conveyed to you, the king fish should understand what you are trying to convey in return."

"Roger that. I will try my best."

Though Venerable Tusa was right that he wasn't the best choice to speak to the king fish, he was most definitely one of the safer options.

Compared to the other expert pilots in the clan, Venerable Tusa possessed a relatively simple and unpretentious personality. He did not harbor any darker thoughts nor held any wild or uncontrollable personality traits.

This turned him into one of the safer points of contact with the king fish. He possessed enough willpower and mental strength to communicate on a more equal level to the powerful creature.

As several minutes passed by, Venerable Tusa regularly passed on his impressions of the confusing talks.

"I think the king fish is warming up to me." He cautiously said, though his optimism couldn't be hidden. "Maybe I managed to convince it of my sincerity, but I don't feel as if it holds as much caution towards us as before. We still have a long way to go before we become bosom buddies, but the king fish is talking faster and more frequently to me than before. I still don't understand a single word this fish is saying, though."

The signs were getting better and better. Whether the king fish was able to understand Venerable Tusa's words or not, the creature was showing basic and easily believable signs that it was getting further and further away from treating the new arrivals as hostile threats.

Ves frequently consulted with the exobiologists, psychologists, diplomats and other specialists that were embedded in the task force. The scientists and professionals discussed their findings and opinions aboard numerous shuttles before succinctly presenting their thoughts and recommendations up the hierarchy.

Although he heard a lot of conflicting and divided narratives, Ves never put too much stock in the judgment of others.

He had met and spoken with enough powerful humans and aliens to develop his own cognition towards creatures like the king fish. He trusted his intuition and his gut feeling more than the opinions of so-called experts who derived all of their knowledge from book learning.

Right now, he felt rather good about the situation. The worst-case scenario had not occurred and the Evolver fish-whales were all staying put so far, with only a few showing obvious signs of aggression.

Either the Evolvers were more like-minded and understanding than he thought, or the king fish's control over its own minions was better than expected.

"Uhm, sir?" Tusa eventually spoke to Ves. "The conversation is stalling. The king fish isn't satisfied with this state of affairs anymore. Neither of us can do anything but signal our feelings to each other, but that is starting to get stale. We are not making any progress in understanding what we are saying."

Ves expected that, but he was not in a hurry to move to the next step as of yet. "Keep talking with the king fish. Even if you think it is futile, don't show any frustration or weariness."

They needed to test the patience and self-control of the king fish. If it produced a violet outburst due to getting frustrated, then it might be better for the task force to keep its distance to the Evolution Kingdom!

As more minutes went by, there were few signs of that occurring. Ves studied the king fish's appearance and movements carefully and did not see any overt signs that indicated a lack of control.

To Ves, this signified a high degree of sentience, rationality and self-control. These were uncommon traits among feral and vicious beasts, which meant that the king fish was likely easier to get along with than he feared!

Roughly 40 minutes after Venerable Tusa and the king fish started talking, the conversation finally came to an end.

The king fish seemed to conclude that they couldn't hold any meaningful exchange without a common language and suspended the talks.

The creature's frustration and dissatisfaction were obvious to see, which indicated that it was not a creature that was inclined to deception.

Although the contact between the two sides had taken a turn for the worse, Ves did not intend to end this important meeting in this fashion.

"Joshua."

"Yes, sir?"

"Move the Everchanger forward until you reach the Dark Zephyr's side, but slowly. Make sure you maintain a low state of resonance. We don't want to spook the Evolvers."

"Understood. Moving now. Be careful. If I detect any incoming attack, I won't hesitate to move the Everchanger without waiting for instructions."

"That's okay." Ves dismissively waved his arm. "I trust in your judgment."