The Mech Touch

The portal eventually fizzled out after more than a day.

Fortunately, it clearly grew less stable in the last few hours of its existence. The Larkinsons had plenty of time to retrieve their bots, drones, probes and other equipment.

They only left a few key devices such as a positioning device and transceiver in the hopes that they could locate the ovoid space if it happened to be located elsewhere on the moon.

The search failed to turn up any results. The Larkinson Clan had deployed thousands of mechs in order to carpet search the entire surface of Iron Crusher.

Each of the mechs kept their sensors and communication equipment tuned for the powerful bursts of signals that the beacons left behind in the giant phase whale cave were transmitting on a non-stop basis.

"There are at least three possibilities why we have failed to detect the signals after sweeping across the entire surface of this moon." Calabast spoke to the group of people who had gathered in a conference room aboard a combat carrier that was hovering right beside Violet Ridge.

"The first possibility is that the signals are being blocked by the interference produced by the phase whale skeleton or highly energetic exotic materials."

"The second possibility is that the 'Royal Tomb' is situated so many kilometers underground that the power of the transmitters that we have left behind are unable to penetrate through so much soil."

The Larkinsons had already taken to calling the ovoid cave the Royal Tomb due to the presence of the giant phase whale skeleton. Just looking at it gave everyone a sense of the sheer amount of power and prestige the phase whale must have enjoyed back when it was alive.

Even though the cave was completely devoid of decorations or monuments that could provide hints about the identity of this remarkable phase whale, the immense size and hardness of its remarkably intact skeleton already conveyed a powerful message by itself.

Only a sovereign among phase whales could grow this big and strong!

"The third possibility is that we are dealing with a genuine phase whale enclave. In other words, an artificial three-dimensional pocket of space that the phase whales are known to 'carve' out of our main dimensions and set aside in a different part of reality. The exact science of it is so mind boggling that only the astrophysicists working for the Big Two should be able to understand this phenomenon."

Silence fell in the conference room as the gathered Larkinsons and other guests took in the words. The suited figures all looked as if they were out of their depth. None of them had ever expected to encounter a find as dramatic as a mysterious cave which housed a gigantic phase whale skeleton!

Ves, who sat at the head of the table, broke the silence.

"I think it is safe to say that the so-called Royal Tomb is situated in a real pocket space or space pocket. Regardless, there aren't many powerful whale species in the Red Ocean and the phase whales are the most ubiquitous among them. They are also known for messing with space. The biggest source of doubt is the sheer size and length of the skeleton, but just because humanity has never registered one this big does not mean the phase whale race is unable to grow so big. They are masters of biotechnology and it is not out of the realm of possibility that they can alter their bodies to expand their size, isn't that right, Director Ranya?"

The leader of the Larkinson Biotech Institute nodded.

"From what we know from various different sources, the phase whales are all individualistic as well as highly intelligent sentients. Combining these two traits means that they all tend to develop their own unique biological enhancements. One phase whale might choose to cover his body with armor. Another may decide to increase her stealth capability. There are others that have decided to transplant biological weapons across their bodies in order to turn themselves into giant killing machines. Perhaps the one in the Royal Tomb simply focused on size above every other consideration."

"A creature whose size is equivalent to that of humanity's largest battleships also comes with the downsides of a vessel of this scale." Ves said as he glanced at the projection of the pocket space and the parts of the skeletons that the probes managed to record. "Such a creature must be incredibly sluggish, incredibly heavy and incredibly difficult to feed and sustain."

The suited form of Ranya nodded in agreement. "The bioengineering challenges the phase whale had to solve must have been immense. There is a reason why bioships of this size and scale are extremely rare. Everything must be stable, interconnected and within balance in order for such an immense living creature to stay alive. The Titania took more than six millenia to reach a length of over 5 kilometers, and that was through natural growth. Though these two existences aren't comparable, you can imagine the difficulty of growing a vastly more immense body."

Creatures didn't grow huge without good reasons. While there were certainly advantages to expanding the scale of a body, the cost and effort required to keep everything in working condition grew exponentially greater.

Not even a race as advanced as the phase whales should have much reason to turn into an immensely slow and inflexible giant.

"All of this sounds nice, but what do you Larkinsons intend to do?" Marshal Ariadne Wodin asked as she sat at his immediate side.

Although this discovery belonged to the Larkinsons, their clan was currently traveling alongside their allies.

The Glory Seekers and the Cross Clan must have noticed the movements below the surface of Violent Ridge, so they had to be informed about this development sooner or later.

Even if they could not provide any substantial help in this exploration, they could at least provide additional security in case monsters emerged.

They also employed scientists and other specialists that were more than willing to lend their expertise to the Larkinson Clan.

The Glory Seekers and the Crossers all wanted this exploration to succeed and yield valuable results. The Larkinsons had already agreed to give them a modest share of any loot they could retrieve from the Royal Tomb.

Ves pointed at the projection of the Royal Tomb and its 'resident'.

The giant skeleton was notably incomplete as the front half was obscured by mist. None of the probes had managed to get a good look of what was in front.

"Now that we have found out that we can open a temporary space portal to this apparent pocket space, we intend to form another one that is larger and will hopefully last longer than the first one. Our goal is to form a gate that is large enough to haul away any of the giant phase whale bones inside this Royal Tomb. I don't think I need to explain to you how valuable these bones are. Their properties should definitely be exceptional enough to make powerful mechs or starships. Even if we do not make use of them ourselves, we can auction them off for an insane profit!"

A part of the probes and bots that entered the first space portal had tried to examine the accessible parts of the skeleton as much as possible.

While the investigation methods weren't powerful enough to decipher everything that Ves wanted to know, the initial details revealed that the bones were as hard and tough as first-class materials!

Just using them to form the internal frame and armor system of a mech was enough to construct a quasi-first-class mech!

With the size and quantity of all of the backbones in the Royal Tomb, the Larkinsons could build an entire mech regiment's worth of bone mechs if they managed to retrieve all of those valuable bones!

"Retrieving those bones will not be easy, sir." Director Ranya warned. "All of our bots have tried to pry away the smallest back bone at the end of the skeleton, to no avail. We have tried to cut, burn, freeze, pull and crush the whale bones, but none of our attempts has succeeded in leaving behind a mark. The skeleton is tougher and harder than we can handle. In addition to that, we believe it is protected by a subtle force field or other phenomenon that the phase whale may have set up before he perished."

Patriarch Reginald frowned. "These bones will make for excellent materials for my future expert mech and ace mech. We cannot leave them behind. If those bots do not have the power to bring the phase whale bones back, then we should bring in the big guns. Send in our mechs. If that isn't enough, then send in our expert mechs."

"And if that isn't enough…?" Ves asked.

"This creature is dead, Ves. No protective measure is invincible. We have so many powerful means of attack at our disposal that I will not accept an outcome where we will suffer a defeat against an inanimate alien corpse!"

"It's not exactly a corpse. At least, it isn't whole." Ranya pointed out. "Have you ever wondered where all of the tons of phase whale flesh has gone? If this creature died in this chamber, there should still be traces of all of its biomass. Assuming the interior has remained as calm, stable and in vacuum for all this time, the phase whale's fleshy body shouldn't have disappeared."

That was indeed an incongruity that Ves was wondering about all this time.

"What if other phase whales stripped away the fresh before deciding to bring their 'king' to this star system in order to entomb its skeleton?"

"Maybe the giant phase whale decided to burn his flesh."

"Could other phase whales have visited the Royal Tomb after the giant creature's death and tampered with its remains?"

There were way too many questions and far too few answers. There was simply too little data to provide them with reasonable explanations of what took place in the past.

It wasn't really important to them anyway. They weren't historians or archeologists who were hoping to expand humanity's insight into the history of the phase whale.

They just wanted to plunder as many gains from the Royal Tomb as possible!

None of the people present in the conference room held any respect or reverence towards the long-dead giant phase whale. Its skeleton was a gigantic treasure in their eyes and they would not rest until they managed to get all of the giant bones into their possession!

Retrieving even a portion of them would be difficult, though.

"Let's leave aside the question where all of the creature's flesh has gone." Ves said as he focused on his main priority. "We need to form and enact a plan to retrieve the bones. I agree with Patriarch Reginald that our previous hardware wasn't strong enough to separate the giant back bones. We need to send in our mechs in order to exert more power onto the skeleton, but to do that we will have to form a space portal that is large enough to accommodate not only our machines, but also the giant whale bones if we succeed in dislodging them from the greater whole."

Ves turned towards a scientist. "How many materials do we need to sacrifice in order to form a large-enough space portal?"

"We have made nonstop calculations based on the data of the first space portal, but we cannot give you any solid answers, sir. According to our estimates, you will need to use up at least 70 percent of the quantity of resonating exotics that you have mined from this site."

"Seventy percent?! That's too much!"

Those resonating exotics were precious as well! Ves could not bear the thought of throwing them all away on a venture that was not guaranteed to succeed.

The phase whale skeleton was so tough and immovable that maybe their strongest mechs could not budge its bones!