The Mech Touch novel Chapter 7298

Chapter 7298: Phase Lord Advantage

Ves looked at the projections showing the visual appearance as well as the data related to the 'Voribug Organic Battle Moon'.

Though the name sounded a bit unwieldy, it accurately described the huge flesh ball that was strip-mining the outer planet of the Philaster Crestia System.

The appearance of this odd and confounding battle moon triggered a new phase in the Voribug War.

The enemy had undoubtedly chosen to escalate.

The Goliath Hive was no longer content with trying to imitate alien phase lords.

The mutated voribugs had begun to duplicate fortified planets!

Just the thought of trying to destroy all of this biomass was giving Ves a headache.

He was not too certain about the other forces in the star system, but the Bluejay Fleet was ill-equipped to fight against this confounding biomoon.

The fleet lacked capital ships and possessed a shortage of big guns.

Sure, the sub-capital warships could inflict a respectable amount of damage, but their sizes limited the scope of their firepower.

At the very least, it would take them a long time to deplete the defenses of the huge battle moon.

This was not good news, because time was of the essence. The longer the biomoon managed to hold on and stay alive, the greater the likelihood that it could approach Philaster Crestia III and crash onto its surface!

Once that happened, the damage to all of the existing planetary defenses, infrastructure and more would completely fall into the hands of the voribugs!

If the crash did not kill or destroy the people and assets on the surface, then the spread of the flesh carpet and the burrowing of all of the resource-collecting insects would definitely ruin the planet in a short amount of time.

Even if the Rubarthans launched a counterattack and retook the Philaster Crestia System, the globe would definitely be ridden with holes!

Ves raised his arm and rubbed his face. The moody atmosphere in the command center certainly did not help to inspire confidence.

"What do you expect from me and my Ascended Giants and I? Look, just because we are human phase lords doesn't mean we can take on an organic megaconstruct of this scale. Most of us can't even match the size of a juggernaut. It takes time, phasewater and diligence for us to grow to the limit of a lesser phase lord. It has been less than a year since the Phase Lord Department had begun to raise human phase lords. Their current growth rates are already remarkable, but the lack of time means that they still have many years to go before they can become large enough to hack moons apart with their bodies."

Whatever the Rubarthans had in mind, Ves did not have a lot of confidence that it would succeed.

The Ascended Giants were simply too underdeveloped at this stage. Their lack of experience was almost crippling. Fighting as Ascended Giants was a whole other game.

At least high-ranking mech pilots had enough years under their belt as standard mech pilots. They understood mech combat quite well and did not have to learn a completely different mode of combat once they broke through.

The same could not be said for the Ascended Giants. Many of them consisted of elite infantry soldiers and so on. While they understood how to fight as infantrymen, human phase lords fought on a whole different level!

Even if they could technically pose a threat against ace mechs and lesser phase lords, these were only theoretical possibilities. Ves did not dare to bet that they could reach anywhere close to 100 percent of their combat potential in the next fight.

"One of the biggest problems we are facing is lack of intelligence." Lord Richard Brownstone said. "We are able to make plenty of long-ranged scans and observations of the Voribug Organic Battle Moon. However, that is far from enough for us to devise an effective means to destroy this giant organic siege construct. Our biotech scientists and other specialists have not yielded any significant data about what is hidden beneath the surface. We do not understand the internal structure at all. Is it solid? Is there a core in the middle? Is it hollow? All of these questions and more need to be answered before we can proceed."

"Proceed with what?" Ves asked.

"Proceed with understanding the nature and the structure of the VOBM, preferably before it can make landfall."

Ves frowned as he tried to parse those words. "Are you talking about launching a scouting operation?"

"Yes. Remote scouting attempts are not giving us the information we need. Roving patrols of voril bugs are also highly effective at intercepting our drones. Due to these setbacks, we have realized that the only effective means of understanding the VOBM is to conduct reconnaissance in force. We need to send a force that is small enough to evade detection as long as possible, but is also strong enough to get past the defenses and remain long enough to collect quality data before retreating."

"Why us?" Ves asked. "Why can't you send a bunch of mechs or warships?"

The Brownstone scion presented his arguments. "We have thought about resorting to other means, but none of them are ideal to us. Mechs are too fragile and cannot get close enough to survive. The VOBM is constantly being patrolled by at least a million individual voribugs at this point. That makes it far too likely for a machine to encounter one of them. Sending a small warship or two will not help either. They may be tough enough to withstand greater damage, but their larger hull sizes and stronger energy signatures means that the voribugs will detect them much sooner."

"What about stealth mechs or stealth vessels?"

"The mutated voribugs are aware of the existence of human stealth units." Richard replied. "We have tried to sneak our stealth units into their strongholds in the past. They achieved limited success until they got caught. Ever since then, the voribugs wised up and always surrounded their most important locations and assets with large amounts of voribug patrols. Their erratic flight patterns and abundant numbers make it impossible to get close without colliding against one of the many patrols."

In short, the Rubarthans could forget about resorting to stealth options. The mutated voribugs solved this problem in one of the most least efficient manner possible, which was to rely on their huge numbers to weave a giant physical net around critical locations and locations such as the VOBM!

Ves grunted in frustration. Although the solution employed by the voribugs was incredibly wasteful, it just happened to suit their characteristics perfectly. So long as it worked, there was nothing much for them to complain about.

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