The Mech Touch

White fishes, blue fishes, red fishes!

It didn't end!

A constant stream of fish-whales continuously poured out of the large space portal with no end in sight!

Although the quantity of variant fish-whales arriving in the mining site was a fraction of the numbers of the white fish-whales, each of them exhibited power that equaled or even surpassed that of an ordinary mech!

The sergeant fish not only rallied nearby grunt fishes, but also utilized its superior toughness to charge through shield walls!

The more deadly assassin fish did not even have to approach the human defensive lines in the first place.

By utilizing the power of phasewater, this special and more advanced fish-whale directly teleported behind the shield wall and wreaked havoc with its tough and larger body!

Although the surrounding mechs stationed behind the immediate front quickly made short work of the lone assassin fish, the damage was already done in most cases!

"The assassin fishes are not larger and tougher than the sergeant fish, but also smarter! We cannot say whether they are able to analyze our formations by themselves or rely on data fed by other fish-whales, but they always manage to teleport where they can do the most damage against our mechs!"

"Fifteen of our ranged mechs have already been taken out of action while over forty have sustained varying degrees of physical damage!"

"Disperse our rifleman mechs and make sure that melee mechs are closer on hand! Call in additional space knights from our reserves and make sure they are ready to block any assassin fish from destroying our ranged assets!"

The intensity of the sudden battle heated up as the proportion of sergeant fishes and assassin fishes steadily rose!

Although the number of red fish-whales passing through the portal was still relatively constrained, even three or four of them could inflict real damage onto the more vulnerable mechs of the expeditionary forces!

Their signature teleportation tactics were extremely difficult to deal with. They only needed a few seconds to lock onto their coordinates and teleport behind the main line in an instant!

Although the Minerva, the Everchanger and a few other mechs always prioritized the takedowns of the assassin fishes over other fish-whales, the elite fishes attacked too quickly before they could all be taken out in advance!

"These sergeant fishes are getting harder to handle now that so many of them are appearing at once!"

Now that the assassin fishes attracted much of the attention of the expert mechs, it was up to the regular mech forces to eliminate the hardy blue fish-whales.

Although the mech pilots and mech officers were constantly coming up with better solutions and tactics against the sergeant fishes, when more than thirty of them appeared in a wave at a time, a few of them succeeded in pulling off their charges, making it more difficult for the mech forces to hold the line.

"We need more fast responders!"

"These blue fishes aren't that tough! Their rear isn't as tough as their front!"

Hundreds of mechs had already approached their limits and had to be pulled out of the frontline in order to replenish their supplies and undergo emergency repairs.

Fortunately, the amount of 'elite' fishes emerging from the portal still remained relatively scarce.

The more the expeditionary forces fought against the fish tide, the more they became proficient at beating the artificial race's crude and rudimentary tactics.

One of the greatest shortcomings of the fish horde was its lack of strategy and coordination!

The absence of a top commander that could coordinate the movements and attack patterns of all of the alien fishes meant that the enemy beasts never came close to utilizing its full potential!

General Verle and many leaders could already make many inferences about the nature of their current opponent by observing how incompetently the fish-whales attempted to overrun the mechs in their way.

The fish-whales may have quantity on their side, but they evidently didn't value them a lot. There was either a lack of truly intelligent commanders on their side or the vanguard troops pouring out of the portal were simply not valued enough to bother coordinating their actions.

Whatever the case, as long as the fish-whales acted like beasts, handling them was much simpler!

If not for their sheer quantity and the continuous arrival of more body mass, the mechs would have been able to push forward by now! At this moment, it was already challenging for the expeditionary forces to hold their ground and prevent the tide of fishes from gaining more space and room for maneuver.

While the various mech units did their best to cope with the tide of fish-whales, the leaders of the Golden Skull Alliance constantly discussed what they should do in the face of this threat.

"The fish-whales have already shown three different variants, but it is likely that they have more abnormal fish types in store." Director Ranya stated. "There are clear traces of artificial design in these creatures. They are biological products made for warfare, but what they have shown so far is not enough to compete against the strongest alien races in the Red Ocean. It is conceivable that there are even stronger, smarter and more bizarre fish-whale variants in their current habitat!"

Marshal Ariadne Wodin grew concerned. "If that is the case, then we must end this farce. We cannot allow this portal to continue disgorging fish-whales without limit! We need to destroy the gateway before it is too late!"

"No!" Ves vigorously disagreed! "The enemy force is strong, but we can handle them. What we have deployed so far is only a fraction of our combat power. We can defeat many more fish-whales as long as we fight on more open ground and as long as we employ our various trump cards. We do not have to destroy the portal right away, not after we have sacrificed two-thirds of the valuable resonating exotics that we have harvested from this site!"

Ves found it unbearable to put a stop to this venture even if it opened up a gate to an entirely different space!

It was one thing to turn away from the Garimel System without attempting to enter the Royal Tomb.

However, now that they committed to a gamble, Ves did not want to turn away from the game unless he could gain a prize at the end. Anything less amounted to a serious waste and a massive loss of opportunity!

"You are thinking about invading the territory of the fish-whales on the other side of the portal, am I correct?" Professor Benedict guessed. "I knew you might. Ever since we detected a hint of phasewater from the bodies of the assassin fish, your mind must have begun to turn. The existence of the red fish-whales proves that there is definitely a source of phasewater within their reach, and it must be significant if so many of them can teleport."

Ves smirked. "That's right. The numbers of the fish-whales may be greater than we can handle, but as long as they fight like beasts, it is unlikely that they will be able to utilize their numbers to their full potential. We can invade their territory like we are pacifying a wild, untamed planet. In any case, we don't need to stick around long enough to defeat every single fish-whale and colonize whatever territory is on the other end. We can just make do with plundering their source of phasewater and whatever other treasures the phase whales have left behind!"

The Glory Seeker leader looked shocked at Ves' projection. "Do you know what you're talking about?! We do not know how numerous they are, but what we are facing at the moment is just a fraction of their numbers! In addition, there must be stronger and wiser fish-whales in wait that are not in a hurry to confront us. If I was in their place, I would wait and allow the cannon fodder to exhaust the opposition. If we recklessly push forward and fight our way through the portal, we will be forced to confront these apex fish-whales in advance and in an environment of their choosing!"

As the discussion continued, Professor Benedict made another important announcement.

"We have completed a preliminary study on the nature and the behavior of the space portal. According to our scientists and the external experts that we have consulted, the spatial phenomenon that we have activated is different from the one before."

"How different is it?" Ves critically asked.

"If our analysis is correct… the space portal is stable and permanent! Through unknown means that we cannot fully explain, the space portal shows no sign of instability that characterized the smaller one that we have initially generated. The most likely answer to this is that the fish-whales or another source has employed special tech that forcefully anchors the spatial phenomenon and keeps it active as long as this 'portal device' remains active."

"What?!"

A lot of people attending the virtual meeting reacted with shock!

"Everything should have a limit." Marshal Ariadne frowned. "Can we destroy the portal on our end?"

"It is theoretically possible, but…" Professor Benedict consulted a few numbers. "Conventional attack methods will not affect the portal in the slightest. The only means we can utilize are weapons or devices that can directly affect the stability of spacetime."

"Don't we have dimensional smoothers and other anti-teleportation solutions in our possession?"

"There is no point in trying. They're too weak, marshal. The dimensional smoothers are strong enough to prevent warping ships from coming too close, but don't forget that the phase whales are the masters of space warping! Their understanding and application of phasewater and spatial technology can rival that of first-rate states!"

Ves studied the calculations shared by the Cross Clan. Although he didn't understand much about this specific field, he could clearly tell that the space portal was unprecedentedly strong and stable!

Unless the MTA made a move, it was impossible for the expeditionary forces to destroy the portal from this side!

"We need to make a decision." Ves said. "If we assume this fish tide is endless, we only have two options. We can either pull back from this moon and retreat from this star system while being hounded by a continuous stream of fish-whales, or we can push forward, enter the portal and take over whatever alien device is responsible for stabilizing the portal! By then, we can decide to pull the plug if the threat is too great or we can stay a little longer and loot whatever the fish-whales depend upon to grow so strong and numerous."

Nobody missed the fact that the Larkinson Patriarch favored the second option. It was a massive gamble but it also made sense if the portal couldn't be destroyed so easily.

"We do not know anything about the strength of the opposition on their home ground." Marshal Ariadne reasoned." Entering the portal is an excessive risk. There is no guarantee that we will gain anything valuable if we push forward. We should cut our losses while they are still limited and beat a steady retreat. Profit may be important, but lives are even more important. We are not fighting for the survival of our fleet here. This cause is not worth the price we need to pay."

The Larkinsons wanted to push forward while the Glory Seekers wanted to retreat.

Both Ves and Ariadne turned to Benedict who spoke on behalf of the Cross Clan.

The Senior Mech Designer paused for a moment before he spoke.

"I have just talked to our patriarch. He is against retreating. He wishes for us to advance and challenge these fish-whales on their own turf!"

The consensus was pretty clear, then. The Larkinsons and Crossers both wanted to invade the portal. Whether they wanted to satisfy their greed or battlelust, neither of them wanted to stop just because they stumbled upon danger!

At this point, it didn't matter if the Glory Seekers had cold feet. They could only play along and make sure the expeditionary forces succeeded in their counterattack!