The Mech Touch

The ideas that Ves shared with Major Verle sounded deceptively simple, but could easily produce a cascade of unintended consequences.

The truth was that Ves didn't know what would happen if he did anything related to the two ideas. His unwillingness to cross a line by experimenting on his fellow Larkinsons had long constrained some of his wilder impulses.

While Ves was pretty confident that both of his ideas could make a difference in the upcoming battle, he could not guarantee the safety of his test subjects.

Both of them were crazy!

As all of the exploded heads that Ves had witnessed could attest, messing with spirituality was anything but safe.

Human minds could only handle so much spiritual input. Messing with people in this fashion was a very good way to kill or harm them. How could Ves do that to his own clansmen?

It was too bad that his excursion had become a lot more dangerous. The looming crisis cast a very large shadow on the fleet, and Ves immediately understood that his Larkinsons were not up to par against one of the most powerful pirate forces in the Nyxian Gap.

He couldn't hold back anymore!

The more he spoke to Major Verle, the more he became certain of what he had to do. Dangerous or not, time was short and enemies were closing in. Resorting to other measures such as fabricating some weapons of mass destruction was not good enough.

Warships were built to take a beating. This was especially so for the Gravada Knarlax which boasted thick and heavy hull plating that had been constantly upgraded over the years.

Even if the pirate heavy cruiser didn't show up, the remainder of the Allidus Alliance's punitive fleet was more than what the Larkinson Clan could handle.

Several smaller warships supported by a swarm of pirate mechs were already capable of running over Task Force Predator!

"If only we had warships of our own." Ves sighed.

"The galaxy would be a very different place if that were so." Major Verle responded. "Combat would revolve around ships for the most part. The common people will have to live their lives in fear due to the constant threat of mass destruction. Even if the various warfleets agree to restrain their firepower around planets, it's inevitable for collateral damage to increase. Just the broken pieces of warships falling from orbit are enough to wipe out entire cities!"

There were good reasons why the Big Two took away the right to field warships from the majority of humans. They simply couldn't be trusted with the immense potential of destruction that they enabled.

Of course, the pirates didn't care. Death? Destruction? They thrived in chaos! They played by different rules. If Ves failed to adapt to them, his entire fleet would surely get overrun by the tide of warships that were moving closer with each passing day!

After receiving some surprisingly helpful support from Major Verle, they ended their little meeting. Ves still needed to explore and flesh out his ideas while Verle had many other duties to attend to. With so much at stake, neither of them could afford to take any breaks.

As Ves left the conference room and returned to his stateroom, he thought over what he said and what he didn't say.

What Major Verle didn't know was that Ves had come up with a third proposal. He didn't mention it to his confidante because it sounded incredibly dangerous. He also lacked a way to make his idea happen.

The premise was simple. Ves wanted to borrow the huge and swirling forces that were constantly at work in the imaginary realm!

Ves had witnessed the power and might of the huge spiritual vortex spinning around in the higher dimensions. If the vortex wasn't constrained in a different realm, the Nyxian Gap would have looked completely differently! No one would be able to live in a spinning disk where asteroids constantly slammed against each other.

Sure, causing the imaginary realm to overlap with the material realm was dangerous. The Nova Krakow's sudden disappearance was proof that this dangerous event could easily engulf his fleet as well.

However, doing something was better than doing nothing at all. Ever since the Battle of Ulimo Citadel took place, Ves discovered that there were people in the Nyxian Gap who were capable of summoning artificial anomalies.

If some cultists could do it, why shouldn't Ves be able to do the same?

As long as Ves could turn the environment hostile against his enemies, then it didn't matter how many cannons the Gravada Knarlax possessed or how many nuclear explosions her hull was able to withstand.

Against the huge forces that affected an entire region of space, not a single human creation could withstand such might!

"Although it sounds great to subject my enemies to a natural disaster, how can I open up a breach and cause the two realms to overlap? How can I create an anomaly that won't subsequently devour my entire fleet?"

Ves had never done anything like this in his life!

"I'm a mech designer, not a deranged priest!"

However, he was also a dabbler in spiritual engineering. He had visited the shrine where Grey Watcher Xarnus presided over the ritual that called down the dark sphere and sustained it. Though the sight he had seen was disturbing, Ves still observed some useful clues.

"If I break it down into chunks, then maybe I can tackle the problems one by one."

He composed a new document in his Archimedes Rubal implant. He began to record his theories and guesses about how to invoke an artificial disaster.

"I already know it's possible to merge the two realms. I have lived through two separate incidents where this took place. The naturally-occuring temporal anomaly came about because turbulence in the imaginary realm caused it to spill over to the material realm to an extent."

This meant that if Ves could replicate some of the conditions, he might be able to spark a similar disaster!

"As long as this disaster is just a fraction as strong as the temporal anomaly, I can really turn the tables around!"

However, Ves immediately recognized that evoking such a calamity was a double-edged sword. How could he possibly protect himself and his fellow Larkinsons against his own actions?

This was a very problematic issue and one that Ves couldn't answer right now. His understanding of spirituality and how it related to the imaginary realm was too deficient.

"That hasn't stopped me before." He muttered with a ruthless expression. "Even if my own people are affected as well, at least it's better than the alternative!"

Disrupting the battlefield and suffering the consequences at least gave Task Force Predator an opportunity to survive. If the battlefield remained completely normal, then his mechs and ships would never be able to avoid getting battered by the formidable primary and secondary weapons of the pirate warships!

"Even so, it's important to limit the damage inflicted on my own forces."

How would he be able to do so?

Back at the shrine, the Grey Watcher conducted a ritual with a ritual circle and everything. Ves was rather skeptical the latter meant anything. Perhaps it was merely a way to communicate with the ancient entity known as the Unending One.

Ves was very reluctant to draw someone's blood in order to paint a weird circle and meaningless alien symbols on the floor. He disdained the superstition and preferred to skip all of the useless steps.

"The ritual was either a way to control the anomaly or a set of instructions that told the Unending One how to channel his powers. Either way, I doubt I can replicate this step. Oh well. I'll just go without and protect my forces some other way."

He couldn't help but recall the fact that the dark sphere wasn't as dangerous inside Ulimo Citadel. While the Larkinson mechs trapped outside had to fight against ghostly mechs, the people inside the pirate stronghold only had to fend off weaker ghosts on foot.

That something like this took place hinted to Ves that the Watchers of the Hallowed Abyss Temple may be capable of mitigating or even eliminating any anomaly that affected them. This might even be the reason why many large pirate bases almost never became engulfed by any anomalies. The Grey Watchers secretly guarded their locations against anomalies!

Considering that the Larkinson Clan had dealt a severe blow to the Hallowed Abyss Temple, Ves was sure that several of its Watchers to the Gravada Knarlax and possibly other ships.

"Those guys will definitely try to stop my efforts!"

How was he supposed to beat people who might possibly be decades ahead in developing their spiritual prowess?

"Power! I need power!"

If a small spiritual storm failed to engulf the pirate fleet, then Ves had to call up an even bigger storm!

He did not believe the cultists that would surely be travelling on the Gravada Knarlax could fight against the massive vortex.

"How can I channel all of that power? Where will I be able to get all of the energy required to sustain such a disaster?"

These were questions that Ves wasn't able to answer right now. He had some ideas, but he was very far away from developing a complete method.

He would have to perform a lot more experiments in the coming days. The earlier two ideas he shared with Major Verle sounded nice, but the power of humans was limited.

Ves would much rather borrow from the power of anomalous hazards to equal the odds!

"I'm not really sure how to protect my entire fleet from such a calamity, but maybe Venerable Jannzi might come useful."

None of the rumors about the pirates stated that they had their own expert pilot. Ves thought it was unlikely that they had someone like that in reserve. The conditions for a mech pilot to advance to expert pilot were strict, and most pirates lacked the qualities needed to advance.

That said, even if the Allidus Alliance produced a freak, it should only be one at most, and the expert mech probably won't be on par with those built in civilized space.

If Ves could induce multiple clansmen to break through at once, then the Larkinsons would definitely gain an advantage in this aspect!

Ves did not believe that evoking an artificial anomaly would wipe out the pirates. It was just a means to avoid imminent defeat as far as he was concerned.

What he truly counted on was the might of his current and future expert pilots. Their strong will were very suited to resist strange phenomena. Their strong domains were centered around their willpower. Ves already learned that expert pilots were easily capable of resisting harmful effects that entered their domain. How else did Jannzi manage to shield so many friendly mechs at the time?

Protecting his own fleet against spiritual shenanigans was an important priority to Ves. Even if Ves didn't do anything, the enemy might do so. Now that he was aware of the existence of the Hallowed Abyss Temple and the unusual powers of their cultists, Ves had to develop some defense mechanisms.

"Maybe I can make use of all of the B-stone I've accumulated."

The Unending alloy that Ves obtained might be too difficult for him to work with, but the same didn't apply to B-stone. The material wasn't very strong, which meant that Ves could manipulate it in any way he liked.

Perhaps he could use it for something that would help facilitate his goals. He recalled that B-stone seemed to work well with Lufa, and perhaps the ancient imprisoned entities that were locked inside the vortex.

"Hmmm…"

Several ideas flowed in his mind. Ordinarily, he would have pushed them away for being too crazy, but this time he was fully unrestrained in his thinking.

"No matter what, getting out alive is my greatest priority!"