The Mech Touch

Ves studied the schematic of the 'Tower of Babel' with an increasingly more complicated expression.

His specialists had only scratched the surface of this mysterious hybrid warship so far, but what they managed to uncover so far was already enough to create an uproar among the pioneering community of the new frontier!

From what he had learned from keeping up with the news, most of the major alien races were incredibly proud of their own technological advances and disliked making use of products developed by other species.

If they were forced to adopt a powerful technological innovation that had the potential to alter the balance of power, their respective scientists and engineers preferred to adapt the tech and develop their own products based on the same principles.

That was not the case here. The Tower of Babel nakedly made use of tech derived from several alien races that did not have a history of working together, at least to this degree.

The only alien race that explicitly incorporated technology derived from other alien races was the puelmers. The ball-like aliens possessed no shame and often rushed the implementation of alien technology into their latest vessels.

The next element only reinforced the suspicion that the puelmers might have built this ship.

"What of… the hull plating?"

"Given the alarming implications of our initial conclusions, we performed a careful investigation with many different specialists who have expertise in this area." Vivian Tsai stated. "After an exhausting search where we have made extensive comparisons between the sensor readings of the exterior plating and technical data available in many different databases, we have found a tentative match."

She waved her hand again, causing a new projection to appear that displayed a short product summary of a relatively recent starship hull plating formula.

"This… is a first-class commercial-grade product!" Ves gasped. "The materials used to produce all of this hull plating is unaffordable to us. Many of the key materials consist of first-class exotics that are only found in the upper zones."

"That is correct. Gugar Systems released the Arma-Lite DTT-F4 as a fairly premium option to clad a starship with decent protection without requiring too much mass. It is designed to be applied to fairly thin and light hull plating, though it can also be employed in thicker plating in order to add better protection to more critical ship sections. In any case, Arma-Lite DTT-F4 hull plating has proven to be a cost-effective solution. The fact that it does not incorporate phasewater is both a cost-saving measure and a significant weakness."

"Hmm. I understand."

If the warship was clad with transphasic hull plating, then the ship would truly be invincible. Her defensive performance would definitely be on par with the performance of MTA and CFA warships!

It was well-known that the Big Two had developed vastly superior hull plating that made their warships several times tougher than the starships of typical first-class states.

This was already the case well before phasewater became widespread. Ves could scarcely imagine how much tougher they would become once the MTA and CFA accumulated enough phasewater to fund the construction of a previously unheard-of superdreadnought!

"The defensive properties of DTT-F4 hull plating is good but not exceptional." Vivian continued her explanation. "However, that only applies in cases where the ship in question only has access to old school human energy shields. When DTT-F4 hull plating is working in tandem with orven energy shield generators, this 1.7 kilometer warship may just as difficult to destroy than the 3.2 kilometer long V'gahnt-Zezne."

Ves looked alarmed when he heard this conclusion. "The Tower of Babel's estimated mass and volume is several times smaller than the orven battleship that we had previously managed to take down. Are you sure about this claim?"

The chief shipwright did not show any doubt. "I know what I am talking about. Just as you are able to deduce the outcome of a duel between two different mechs, I can simulate the performance of a warship quite well in my mind. According to my judgment and that of others, the defensive strength of this warship is several times better than the outdated V'gahnt-Zezne that we managed to put out of her misery. It also helps that the Tower of Babel is much more modern. Since DTT-F4 has only been released to the public less than four years ago, it is highly probable that the battleship that we are examining is even younger."

A new alien battleship. Great. Combined with the fact that the operators of the Tower of Babel were so obviously familiar with humans that they already figured out how to fight against human mech forces, Ves would not want to confront this intimidating warship on an open battlefield!

He looked up at Vivian again. "Have you identified any other alien or human tech?"

"We did find a number of suspicious matches, but we cannot confirm our guesses due to the poor-quality observation data. It's probably not that important. The tech and design elements that I have previously mentioned are the most dominant factors that have shaped the exterior of the Tower of Babel."

"How effective is she in combat? Does our fleet stand a chance against this powerful vessel?"

"I do not think we stand a chance if we attack her by ourselves." Vivian said. "We don't have the firepower. We would need the Thunderer Mark II as well as the other ace mechs we fought alongside with not too long ago to make a dent in the Tower of Babel's powerful orven transphasic segmented energy shields and human hull plating. In the meantime, her puelmer weapon batteries will wipe our mechs, shatter our fleet and overwhelm the defenses of the Mars."

Ves frowned deeper. "The Mars truly doesn't stand a chance?"

"No. We are talking about a true first-class battleship. Even if she is on the smaller end of battleships, the scale and the estimated power of her armaments are so overwhelming that the Mars at least needs the support of a half-squad of ace mechs to put the Tower of Babel at a disadvantage."

The Golden Skull Alliance clearly did not have 6 additional ace mechs on call. The old temporary coalition had broken apart a few weeks ago. There was no way for Ves to call the gang back together as all of them had left the Boryon System in different directions.

The closest acquaintance that he could call upon was the Third Fleet of the Adelaide Mercenary Corps, but even then it would take at least two weeks or so for it to arrive in the Ramage Repulsor System.

Ves did not trust any of the other pioneering fleets that were lingering in the surrounding star systems. They were more likely to screw his fleet over than to cooperate honestly.

The more Chief Shipwright Vivian Tsai outlined her estimation of the Tower of Babel's combat performance, the more Ves became discouraged about this entire situation.

The Golden Skull Alliance had not only managed to track down the whereabouts of Lord Pearian Yorul-Tavik, but also found a relatively unique battleship that was made up of a hodgepodge of different alien technology.

The value of either of them was incredible as long as the Golden Skull Alliance managed to capture either of them intact!

If the Tower of Babel was much weaker, then Ves wouldn't hesitate to go in guns blazing, but that wasn't the case.

The hybrid battleship was too powerful and her current location was too hostile to approach. Whoever was in charge of the Tower of Babel sure picked an excellent hiding place!

Ves needed more information about what he was dealing with. What he learned so far wasn't enough.

"You mentioned earlier that you did not have any good ideas on who built and crewed this vessel, but can you make an educated guess?"

"I do not wish to taint your perception of this formidable ship."

"Don't worry about that. I'm a mech designer. I understand the dangers of making decisions based on faulty and unreliable information, but we don't have much choice here. Just tell me your best guess. What does your gut tell you, Vivian?"

She paused for a few seconds. "The obvious conclusion we can make is that she is a puelmer creation. The narrow profile of the battleship is not that big of a hindrance to this race. The puelmers are also the most likely to rip off good tech from other races. It should not be a surprise to any of us that they have even resorted to stealing a human alloy formula. Our race's greater dependence on physical defenses has allowed us to outperform the indigenous alien races in this regard."

Ves looked carefully in her eyes. "I take it that you are not in favor of this potential answer."

"No. There are still elements that contradict this possibility. The puelmers usually don't build their home ships in this shape. Their vessels are predominantly shaped like eggs and feature an abundance of soft curves. The Tower of Babel is a bit too angular and boasts plenty of sharp angles. The puelmers really hate that, so I seriously doubt that they would stoop to crewing such an antithetical vessel."

The argument made sense. The puelmers tended to get angry about a lot of different issues. There was no way that a majority of them would willingly serve on a ship that was shaped so awful in their eyes.

"If it is not the puelmers, then what is next?"

"It could be a human warship." Vivian Tsai proposed. "She most definitely wasn't built by the Big Two, but we cannot rule out any nefarious parties from other parts of human space. The overall tech level of the Tower of Babel suggests that she may be built by first-raters. Gugar Systems, who developed the Arma-Lite DTT-F4, is a Rubarthan development company. The exotics needed to produce DTT-F4 are mostly widely available, but there are a few materials that have only been found in a couple of human-controlled upper zones."

Okay, that definitely sounded shady to Ves. For a moment, he imagined that the Tower of Babel might be a ship constructed by traitors or profiteers who wanted to obtain a battleship of their own without tying this illegal vessel to their identities.

That didn't make much sense, though. The human plotters wouldn't have included any obvious human tech if that was the case.

"If humans aren't responsible, then what is your next guess?" Ves asked.

"The answer that I think is most likely is that we are dealing with a multi-racial alliance." Vivian said. "Different groups from different alien races have pooled their resources together to build a ship that encapsulated the best of what they can offer. The Tower of Babel may be a joint project that serves to unite the squabbling indigenous alien species that have treated each other with hostility for many generations."

Ves tried to imagine what life aboard the Tower of Babel would be like with so many different aliens working together.

"My thoughts coincide with yours. I am glad to hear that you have the same idea."

Vivian did not look so pleased, though.

"We are in greater danger if a multi-racial alliance is responsible for the Tower of Babel. No average alien leaders are involved in this matter. We may be interfering with the operations of the Red Ocean equivalent of the Big Two."

That… was a good point.

Ves just happened to know of one alien alliance that fit that description.

"The Red Cabal."

"Pardon, sir?"

"Do you remember the Unspoken? This orven pirate group had secretly been tasked with guarding the Palace of Shame, and it has done so for over a millennium. We learned that the Unspoken took orders from a phase whale, and that both of them were members of this supposed Red Cabal."

"What is the purpose of the Red Cabal?"

"We are unclear about that, but…" Ves hesitated for a moment. "There are suggestions that they are concerned with the protection of the Red Ocean and its native inhabitants as a whole."