The Mech Touch novel Chapter 7549

Chapter 7549: Poison Willow Variant

"I see why you saw the need to present this work in person."

After Ves and Alexa finally exited the System Space, the former wasted no time in seeking out Saint Commander Casella Ingvar.

Despite the immense burden of responsibility resting on her shoulders, the ace commander maintained a calm and controlled bearing.

It was as if she held no concern at all for the lives of everyone in the combined fleet and the entire war effort on this side of the new frontier!

Of course, that could not possibly be true. Even saints experienced moments of doubt and fear. They were simply a lot better at pretending that they could surmount the difficulties ahead of them. Many of them literally hypnotized themselves into believing that they could accomplish victory under the direst of straits!

Though this approach sounded crazy and delusional, it actually produced more successes than it should.

Ves had eventually come to learn that high-ranking mech pilots were the literal embodiment of self-fulfilling prophecies.

As long as they maintained confidence in themselves and their strength, they could literally warp reality to make their optimism come true!

He figured that Casella leaned particularly heavily in this effect. It did not matter whether she was conscious of the facade taking place. Truth or falsehood became irrelevant as long as she produced actual results.

Nonetheless, just because she put up a brave front did not mean she no longer needed any help.

Anything that could increase the success rate of their upcoming operation would definitely be met with open arms!

Her initial reaction did not betray much emotion, but Ves could definitely tell that the ace commander had become intrigued.

She did not give voice to her impatience by rattling off questions left and right.

She instead chose to study the projected design of what Ves had eventually come to call the Poison Willow variant of his original Woodsap mech design.

The biomech truly looked like it deserved its moniker. Its dark ebony exterior looked cracked, old and dry. It featured many branches due to the need to offer as many poisoned fruits as possible, which also caused them to droop. The eerie leaves adorning them amplified their terrifying visage.

As for the fruits themselves, nobody could tell from the outside that they contained lethal payloads. They looked like the freshest and most carefully selected bounties of nature that had been specifically grown to be sold at a ridiculous markup to a pampered first-rater.

Casella spent more seconds than she should on examining these paradoxical fruits. Her intuition failed to recognize their potential harm.

If not even she could detect the trap inherent in the fruit, then it did not seem likely that the deathborn could defeat her on this aspect!

Unless this mysterious extra-galactic species had encountered too many traps like this to develop a mature set of countermeasures, the plan devised by the Larkinson mech designers had a considerable chance of working!

Unfortunately, a chance was still far from absolute certainty.

"This is a gamble." Casella plainly stated.

"It is." Ves directly admitted. "It is a worthwhile gamble. We have put a lot of thought into this scheme. Even if it does not work entirely, we still believe it will at least cause large-scale disruption among the deathborn. This will make the subsequent engagement at least several times easier."

She could not argue against that so long as it actually worked.

Yet was it truly so easy to eradicate all of the deathborn?

She asked a number of critical questions, many of which Ves and his fellow mech designers already considered in the past.

"Sadly, no." Ves shook his head again. "We already thought about it, but it is impossible for various complicated reasons. Our work is too crude. The poisoned fruit can only work if they remain attached to the branches. It is vital that they are still connected to their mechs. This reminds me of the other complication."

"What is it, Ves?"

"I will need to manually go over every Woodsap mech at our disposal and modify them one by one. Neither Alexa nor any other personnel can do this work. They can only assist me in small and unimportant matters. I am the only one who can complete the core conversion processes."

The Saint Commander understood the underlying problem. "How much time?"

"I don’t know. It will be slow at first. An hour. Maybe two hours. Once I have gotten the method down, I can accelerate my efforts, but that still does not mean I can breeze past so many changes in a short amount of time. The only consolation is that modifying a biomech is different from modifying a metallic mech. I only have to shape the mutation of an organic machine long enough to confirm that its growth direction is set. I can move on to modifying another individual Woodsap mech."

That still sounded relatively cumbersome.

"How many mechs do you think you will be able to convert by the time they are needed on the battlefield?"

"At least half of the remaining Woodsap mechs." Ves loosely estimated. "If there are any delays or anything, you can expect a lot more."

"I see." Casella frowned in thought. "We are short on time. Delays are undesirable. The upcoming battle may not necessarily reach a high intensity from the start. It may turn out to be a drawn-out affair instead. If that is the case, we may need you to continue to modify our Woodsap mechs even after we have approached the orbit of Hypeh-Tekas II."

"No problem. I want to see this plan succeed as much as possible. If I can do so by working overtime, then that is but a small price to pay."

"Will the Dark Apostle be able to accept your decision?"

Ves crossed his arms. "Wiping out the deathborn is the highest priority as far as I am concerned. I do not think he finds it pleasant to fight on a battlefield while surrounded by millions of ravenous deathborn."