The Mech Touch novel Chapter 7329

Chapter 7329: Helpless Giants

For a long time, the Incubator accumulated a lot of resources.

It did not indiscriminately devour every piece of trash it came across. In fact, the longer it existed, the more the Voribug Organic Battle Moon grew picky about the salvage it devoured.

The Goliath Hive clearly wanted to feed the best quality resources to the unknown entity gestating inside its core.

Throwing low-quality materials in the mix would force the Incubator to sort out the good from the bad and waste a lot of time and energy in the process.

It was due to the very deliberate discernment of the organic megaconstruct that the opposing humans so easily managed to deduce the Goliath Hive’s intentions.

Even if the Ascended Giants did not complete their costly reconnaissance mission, the Rubarthans would have put the clues together eventually.

However, it was exactly because of the advance warning given by the giants that the defenders had time to figure out a number of countermeasures.

Not all of them were acceptable. The Rubarthans still hesitated whether to employ the most powerful planet crackers available in the Philaster Crestia System.

Knowing that such superweapons existed yet deliberately denying their usage must have been an agonizing decision to the local commanders.

Due to the resilience of the VOBM, there was no option of employing lighter and more constrained weapon systems.

Conventional arms produced very little results so far. The proportion of mid to high-quality materials of the battle moon was high enough for it to be able to withstand the bombardment from the remaining Rubarthan assets all day.

Perhaps the story might have been a little different if the orbital defense networks and other defensive units had not gone through hours of grueling attrition warfare.

The heavy voribug assault at least managed to accomplish this much.

Combined with the sudden kidnapping of over a dozen expert pilots and expert mechs, the defenders possessed very few cards that they could use to destroy the Incubator!

At this moment, the emissions generated by the Voribug Organic Battle Moon had grown significantly compared to before. Heat and other energies constantly leaked from its structure.

Part of it was generated by the organic cannons that were spread across its surface. These guns expended a significant amount of energy and matter in order to fend off attackers and exert pressure onto the orbital defense network.

However, Rubarthan data analysis suggested that all of this surface activity only accounted for a third of the energy emissions of the Incubator.

This meant that the Incubator was doing a lot of other stuff!

Nobody knew how much effort it put into generating a more powerful Goliath than the hive had produced in the past, but the consumption had to be astronomical.

None of this reassured the remaining defenders.

As the Ascended Giants regrouped around the Dark Apostle and the Divine Harpoon, many of them looked clueless and directionless.

They had been raised into phase lords for the express purpose of beating the native aliens at their own game.

Entering into battle with the mutated voribugs already threw them off their game. The fact that red humanity possessed very little intelligence about the true depth of this new enemy caused them to feel even more lost.

The bizarre existence of the Incubator vastly exceeded their imagination. Let alone defeating it, they did not even know how to inflict damage onto its structure!

"We are not equipped to fight against a battle moon of this level." The Divine Harpoon plainly stated. "Up close, the battle moon will devour us. Our superdimensional armor may be able to delay this process, but the fleshy cage will be able to crush our protection sooner or later. From a distance, our firepower is nothing special. All of the cannons and other ranged weapons that we can employ are worse than the gun batteries of most warships. I do not take pleasure in telling you this, but if we cannot make any useful contributions, it is best to retreat in advance."

The strategos made a well-reasoned argument, one that most Ascended Giants would never think of making.

This was also exactly why Ves and the Dark Apostle appreciated the presence of the centuries-old military officer. They truly needed the expertise of a professional soldier.

"Retreating without making a serious attempt to defeat the Goliath Hive’s scheme disgusts me." The Dark Apostle scowled. "We are not going to slink away like ineffectual cowards. There are 29 of us here. I refuse to believe that so many giants cannot do anything to the Incubator... or the Goliath that is growing inside. Perhaps... we will have our chance once the latter has spawned."

The mention of that discomfited the giants even more.

"Whatever Goliath is brewing inside is obviously bad news." One of the Faceless Giants commented. "Do we have to stand by and let our enemy complete its scheme to fruition?"

The Divine Harpoon maintained a stoic demeanor. "The decision is not up to us. We have already tried and failed to damage the Incubator. Since none of our attacks so far has significantly hindered its activity in any way, we should be frank and admit that staying here will not lead to anything productive."

"Let us not be too hasty." The Dark Apostle said. "It is true that we cannot do much against the Incubator, but its primary purpose is to grow a powerful Goliath. Once it has fulfilled its mission, it will likely be discarded. Our only remaining enemy should be the Level 8 Goliath."

"The question is whether we are qualified to fight against such an opponent. I am not too optimistic, sir. The scale of the Incubator suggests that the new Goliath will be at least two orders of magnitude larger than us. The agglomeration of high-quality biomass alone will make it extremely difficult for us to inflict significant damage in a reasonable amount of time."

"You may have a point, Divine Harpoon, but we are not alone in our struggle. The remaining orbital defense network can still provide enough fire support, and there are enough ace mechs left to take the lead, chief among them the Riot Mark III."

"The Riot Mark III is undoubtedly the best and most appropriate combatant to take the lead against this possible Level 8 Goliath." Ves spoke through Blinky. "However, don’t count the rest of us out either. The Rubarthan ace mechs are not weak and should be powerful enough to pressure the Goliath. It is too bad that they are all piloted by junior ace mechs."

"We are the Ascended Giants. We should not grow reliant on letting others carry us to victory. We can excuse this behavior to an extent because we are still starting out, we must produce our own heroes among our ranks. If we do not possess the capability to defeat Level 8 and eventually Level 9 Goliaths without the assistance of human ace mechs, then what is the point of our existence? Our lack of preparation against the mutated voribugs is not a valid excuse. New enemies may appear at any moment, and none of them are friendly enough to give us time to study them and develop effective counters."

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