The Mech Touch novel Chapter 7529

Chapter 7529: Hasty Preparations

The meeting dragged on for a considerable amount of time.

The gathered leaders discussed their findings and opinions on the recent engagement, with a particular focus on the properties of their new enemies.

The more they explored the capabilities of the deathborn, the greater their apprehension towards this unusual group of intangible beings.

"Whether they can be defined as a ’race’ is questionable." Jovy Armalon mused. "In my opinion, they are more akin to a natural phenomenon that just happens to possess some, but not all of the traits of life. For example, they do not appear to reproduce naturally, but can only spawn from the corpses of deceased sentient beings that haven’t been cleaned up by others."

"You can say that for all parasites, Jovy." Ves responded. "While the deathborn are composed entirely of negative energies, I don’t see anything wrong with that. They are the dark reflection of positive energy life forms such as ourselves. While I can sort of agree with the standpoint that the deathborn can play a counterweight to an overwhelming number of positive life forms in an energy-rich galaxy, their behavior and complexity still grants the right to be recognized as a complete race, especially when they are ruled by sentient and intelligent higher-ranked variants."

The Saint Commander did not care too much about this academic discussion. "Leave this debate to the exobiologists. We do not have the time to conduct a deep dive on the nature of existence of these deathborn. Our priority is to identify and apply the lessons that we have learned from the last encounter in the coming days. I want our forces to be better prepared and equipped to fight and resist the deathborn once we assault one of their main strongholds in this star system."

"You are asking for the impossible." Commander Zonrad Reze said as he crossed his arms. "We have gathered limited intelligence on the deathborn. What they have shown earlier is just the tip of the iceberg. What is also concerning is that we still do not possess a good understanding of the terrain. Due to the dark miasma and how well our opposition has leveraged it, we have not been able to send out any scouts to survey Hypeh-Tekas II in advance. We know virtually nothing about the defenses and the enemy forces stationed over there. We are assuming a very great risk by attacking this key location without conducting a substantial reconnaissance operation."

The RF officer raised a very good point.

As a secret hybrid AI, Sigrund valued data and information a lot more than typical commanders. The lack of intelligence must be grating on him, especially when his warships had performed relatively poorly ever since the combined fleet entered this mysterious star system.

If the Red Fleet was in charge, then Commodore Reze would probably have called for a retreat.

Warships were expensive to build, especially in this day and age.

The Red Fleet could not afford to squander so many hulls in high-risk operations, particularly when they lacked the capabilities to fight the deathborn effectively!

Unfortunately, the Saint Commander possessed a different perspective on the matter.

"We do not have time for that, commodore." Casella respectfully responded. "The fact that the enemy leader sought to ambush us indicates that we are dealing with an opponent that is both proactive and eager to target our weaknesses. Wasting time will only grant more opportunities to the deathborn. Aside from that, delaying our assault by days or weeks will also increase the likelihood that the reinforcements dispatched by the Red Cabal will arrive. Given these considerations, maintaining our original timeline is the least-bad option."

Saint Commander Casella Ingvar judged that they had stumbled upon a critical development in the Red War.

The native aliens may have sensed that they were losing their hold on the Red Ocean.

It was already bad enough that the red humans had come to take away their territories.

Now, the prospect of colonists arriving from Messier 87 most definitely raised pressure on the native alien leaders.

If the Red Cabal already struggled to defeat the humans from the Milky Way, then the phase whales and the other natives of the Red Ocean would definitely have an even harder time resisting the aliens from a much larger and more powerful supermassive galaxy!

This made the current arrangement so important.

If the Red Cabal could form an alliance with a powerful and capable alien civilization from Messier 87, then the former would no longer be met with universal hostility from the superior aliens.

Perhaps it was impossible to forge peaceful relations with every major power of Messier 87, but as long as they secured the protection and political affiliation of at least one significant extragalactic power, the Red Cabal may be able to survive during a time when the M87’ers had flooded the Red Ocean!

This was a far-reaching conspiracy that had immense influence on the course of future history!

How could the ambitious Larkinsons ever sit by and let all of this unfold without trying to meddle with it somehow?

The Larkinsons that had learned how to be bold under Ves’ leadership would never be so timid!

As such, Ves completely understood Casella’s risky decision. He supported her initiative. Even if the resulting action caused grievous casualties among his forces, it still would have been worthwhile.

Because he knew that red humanity needed this intervention.

At the very least, he could count on the other major human powers to compensate the Larkinsons for their losses.

Somewhat.

The loss of a critical asset such as an ace pilot would be devastating to his clan. It was difficult to make up for such an immense loss.

Yet Ves was not naive enough to believe that such an outcome could be avoided entirely. Even the best of preparations could not completely guarantee their survival in the face of new and unknown enemies.

The projection of the female giant grinned. "I like where this is going. Are you assigning that big owl to my unit?"

"Sir." The female giant turned to Ves. "Will the Dark Apostle lead us into battle? We could use your strength. This is an excellent opportunity to prove your valor."

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