The Mech Touch novel Chapter 7617

Chapter 7617: The Waiting Flame

Ves still felt ambivalent about leadership.

On the one hand, he liked control.

He wanted to be the one making decisions rather than the one who had to swallow them from others.

On the other hand, he disliked the responsibilities that came with being in charge.

He already experienced enough of that nonsense during his stint as the patriarch of the Larkinson Clan.

However, if there was one thing he had noticed, it was that other important figures had steadily moved to assume more direct control over human society.

The Polymath had taken over Bridgehead One and transformed it into an insanely productive center of human activity.

The Huntsman formed his own separate association and practically monopolized the exploitation of untamed planets and exobeasts.

The Evolution Witch subsumed the Transhumanist Faction of the RA and blatantly turned it into her personal fiefdom.

Ves would have to be blind to miss this emerging trend.

Given that everyone of importance had come to value such practices, Ves actually became uncertain whether he could afford to reject this game.

Such thoughts continued to linger in his mind as the remnants of the combined fleet gradually made its way back to friendly lines.

Every soldier remained on guard against any sudden ambushes, but as the distance to human-occupied space continued to shrink, no enemies had crossed their path.

The scouts that moved ahead and around the main fleet had done their jobs well. They continued to scout the way ahead and paid close attention to enemy movements.

The Terran Alliance and the Red Three also contributed considerably more detailed and up-to-date intelligence on their end as well.

Each of these major players had a vested interest in getting their hands on the invaluable deathborn artifacts that had been taken as spoils from the recent battle.

For this purpose, they uncharacteristically set aside their rivalries and cooperated sincerely with each other.

By coordinating their infiltration and intelligence gathering operations on this side of alien space, they were able to ascertain the movements of larger and more powerful alien fleets with much greater certainty!

All of this high-quality information gave the Saint Commander and her staff all of the advantages they needed to thread the needle and evade enemy interception.

Of course, it was impossible to avoid the aliens entirely. They were simply too numerous. Now that the Blackwater Summoner had put out a high-priority alert on the human fleet rampaging through alien space, the native aliens finally put their inherent strengths to good use!

Alas, there was nothing they could do as long as they lacked the required strength and numbers to challenge the combined fleet.

Even after losing half of their warships and mechs, the remaining combat-effective units of the Premier Fleet and the Bluejay Fleet still posed a considerable threat.

The addition of more than a dozen Ascended Giants as well as a handful of powerful ace mechs deterred plenty of alien phase lords from approaching!

Given these conditions, Ves put down most of his concerns about a possible last-minute interception.

The Red Cabal was simply unable to gather enough champions and fleets quickly enough to block their return route.

Still, no one dared to relax entirely. The native aliens and more specifically the phase whales still possessed rare but exceptional displacement capabilities.

As long as they possessed the right combination of resources, technology and methods, it was not implausible for them to teleport a powerful force across interstellar distances!