The Mech Touch

The projection of a woman dressed in a black uniform stood in front of a gathering of leaders and military officers.

She confidently described a summary of the findings that the Black Cats along with other friendly departments had managed to uncover after processing the Intelligence gathered from the recently defeated wheednar raiding fleet.

"This Is the leading alien figure that is in charge of the alien raiding fleets that are currently assaulting much of the human colonies In the Torald Middle Zone."

A projected Image appeared that showed a furred humanoid mammalian individual.

Ves along with other leaders frowned at the appearance of the alien leader.

Unlike most images of high caste orvens, the projected figure looked like he belonged in a hospital rather than a throne!

The orven was over 4 meters tall and towered over his inferior orvens, but he could have become even taller if he did not hunch over his back so much.

The alien figure's fur was in an unhealthy shade of brown, and bore several patches that hinted at his less than healthy state.

One of the most common ways to judge the status of an orven was to look at how much Jewelry he or she adorned himself with. The one in the projected was definitely a notable bigshot due to all of the necklaces, rings, bracers attached to his diseased body!

Most impressive of all was his crown, though it did not look like any human creation. The headdress was made out of purple crystal that had been carved in a jagged and uneven shape.

Despite the poor visual appearance of the orven leader, the figure nonetheless possessed an aura and demeanor that radiated absolute strength and authority.

There was only one way that a high caste orven could possess such an unquestionably superior posture.

"He's a phase lord." Ves stated with great certainly.

After all, he was a phase lord as well of sorts. Organisms that managed to integrate phasewater into their bodies acquired special characteristics that were quite easy to notice because of that reason.

Phasewater was an inherently powerful exotic that constantly warped the fabric space around it, so the body tissue of any organic creature had to undergo special transformations in order to resist these lethal effects.

Due to adapting ritual derived from orven methods, his current state also shared a moderate resemblance to that of other orven phaselords.

The strangest part was that the orven phase lord presented by Calabast clearly looked a lot worse than the images of other high caste orvens.

The director of the Black Cats soon explained why this was the case.

"From the intelligence that we have gathered from interrogating surviving orven officers and decrypting the intact databases on the orven battleship, the alien's full name is Urenqin-YuJmain-Phuuzrin-lelina-Khalakos-Renzian-Maiya-Tus-Vilanwani-Kata. However, only the orvens themselves can fluently recite this name. Other species such as the wheednar have taken to calling him the 'Eminence of Torment' or similar in their own native languages."

"Let me guess." General Herman Foraine of the Adelaide Third Fleet spoke up. "The phase lord is called this way because he likes to torture others for fun."

Calabast slightly shook her head. "The status of the Eminence of Torment is fairly awkward in orven society. The reason for that is because his ascension to 'godhood' has only partially succeeded."

Partially succeeded? What did that mean?

"To all low caste orvens, the Eminence of Torment is a god who can wield the power of space with great power. His abnormally sized right arm is particularly notorious for being able to break through all defenses with great force. However, only a small group of higher orven officers are aware of the greater truth, and that is that the phase lord that they are obligated to work for is a failure of a phase lord. The native god may have survived the transformation through luck and preparation, but his severely injured state has broken his future. He cannot increase the concentration of phasewater in his blood because the amount he already has is constantly damaging his body from the inside."

That provoked a number of reactions from the audience. Many leaders saw an opportunity to take down a phase lord with relative ease.

A defective phase lord was still a phase lord! Even if he was of the lesser variety of a native god, the Red CFA was still obliged to honor the bounty and award the Golden Skull Alliance with a Warship Token after killing the Eminence of Torment!

Ves' eyes grew sharper as he tried to evaluate the combat effectiveness of this orven phase lord.

The Golden Skull Alliance only came across one phase lord so far. The Trampier of Stars was a fearsome nunser god whose trampling ability posed a huge threat to starships, cities and other large constructs.

However, Ves did not get the sense that the Trampier of Stars excelled at dueling relatively small but extremely tough opponents such as ace mechs.

He did not know whether Eminence of Torment possessed any abilities that allowed him to put up a better fight against ace mechs. His abnormally thick and misshapen right arm did not look like it was weak!

"How strong is he in combat?" Ves directly asked.

"We are not certain about that." The woman replied. "The natives have an annoying tendency to speak about the supposed divinity and sacredness of their gods. They rarely describe the combat prowess of their phase lords. It doesn't help that they rarely make any moves. They only show off their spatial manipulation abilities on occasion in order to increase the worship of the masses and ensure that they remain obedient."

This was the problem with faith and superstition. The captured aliens that had been interrogated to hell and back did not know any better because their entire cultures had been shaped by the common belief that phase whales and phase lords were all gods!

Calabast began to describe bits of scattered stories and rumors relating to the Eminence of Torment.

"He is feared as well as worshiped among the aliens who serve under him." She spoke. "Since the Eminence is constantly in pain due to the phasewater damaging his veins and his internal organs, his personality has warped to the point where he has become cruel, erratic and violent. He is known as a harsh and demanding taskmaster who does not hesitate to inflict agonizing punishment to those who fall to obey his instructions."

The central projection began to display stylized murals of the Eminence of Torment inflicting pain on other organisms.

A few people had to look away due to the incredible depravity shown by a few of these macabre alien artworks!

Ves began to look more thought as he studied these images. He suppressed his discomfort and mainly studied how the Eminence of Torment was depicted by the artists.

The god always looked larger than life. The artwork did a good job at emphasizing the phase lord's extraordinary status, but the use of dark and shadowy imagery made it seem as if the Eminence of Torment was a dark and unholy divinity!

"God or not, no one likes to work under a harsh and capricious boss." Ves shared his opinion. "I how many aliens or alien fleets does he have at his command? How well is he being protected?"

Calabast grimaced. "We do not have any solid intelligence regarding his security arrangements. The Red Two used to have a habit of conducting deep strikes in order to ambush and behead any known phase lord within their reach. As a response, other phase lords such as the Eminence of Torment have learned to be more elusive. They have either hidden themselves away inside highly secretive pocket spaces or boarded a fleet that is roaming the depths of interstellar space away from any star systems. Either way, finding them is challenging even for the mechers and the fleeters."

That caused the leaders of the Golden Skull Alliance to frown. The Red Two's enthusiasm in killing phase lords forced the natives to adapt in order to preserve their own gods.

"Have you managed to track the Eminence of Torment's whereabouts?" Matriarch Rezzie Boojay asked.

"We currently know that he is traveling the void between interstellar space just across the border of the Torald Middle Zone." Calabast calmly replied. "No one outside of this alien fleet is aware of its coordinates or route. That is all randomly determined by its navigators to ensure the warfleets of the Red Two cannot lay an ambush in advance."

"How is the Eminence of Torment able to communicate with his subordinates when he remains so elusive?" Ves asked.

"He is able to preside over his raiding operation through a combination of means. We know that his fleet is able to transmit messages to distant locations. We also know that his warships have a tendency to send small vessels to different staging areas in order to pick up supplies, exchange phasewater and transfer personnel."

There were several different staging areas where the alien raiding fleets arrived from afar or returned in order to dump their spoils.

"This is the location of the Ophidia System." Calabast said as the projection changed to show a star map. "The Ophidia System is the nearest alien staging area, but hardly the only one. It is currently frequented by dozens of fleets, though they are rarely present at the same time. In fact, it is quite empty most of the time. As long as we gather more intelligence and prepare specific counters to the various defenses set up by the aliens, it is possible to defeat the defending aliens and plunder whatever phasewater and other valuable goods that have piled out in their warehouses."

This triggered the Interest of the leaders as well. If it turned out that it was too difficult to hunt down the Eminence of Torment, it was not a bad idea to settle for raiding an alien staging area instead!

After all, the Ophidia System was completely static and unmoving. Even if the aliens stationed in this star system received advance warning of an impending human raid, they would never be able to evacuate all of their assets in time!

The people gathered in the virtual conference room briefly discussed the viability of raiding the Ophidia System. Its defenses were fairly powerful but not too elaborate. They could be solved as long as the Golden Skull Alliance took the right steps.

"This staging area doesn't look too Important." General Verle remarked. "Destroying it won't stop the raids on the colonies of the Torald Middle Zone. At most, the attacks will slow down as the alien raiding fleets have to travel further in order to repair and resupply their warships."

Marshal Ariadne Wodin nodded in agreement. "If we truly want to affect the strategic situation in this part of the Red Ocean, then we must find a way to track down the Eminence of Torment and take him down. From what we have learned, not all of the alien raiders are enthused about risking their lives to attack human space. They will likely grow scared and resist their orders with greater enthusiasm once they learn that their god has been slain."

This was one of the reasons why the Red Fleet was so willing to hand out Warship Tokens. The strategic value of killing a phase lord was massive!

The discussion continued after Calabast presented the information that they have learned so far. They argued whether they should raid the Ophidia System or wait for better opportunities.

"I believe it is better to set aside our unrealistic expectations of hunting down the Eminence Torment and settle for a more attainable goal of attacking the Ophidia System." Master Benedict Cortez shared his opinion. "We know that the aliens have gathered at least hundreds of kilograms of phasewater in this location. As long as we time our attacks correctly, we should be able to claim a sizable batch as our own if we strike before the aliens have managed to ship it away."