The Mech Touch

As much as Ves enjoyed his long and extensive discussion with Venerable Joshua and the Everchanger, they eventually had to set their personal matters aside.

After a fairly quiet and cautious journey, Task Force Fisherman had finally come within plain sight of the Evolution Kingdom.

Though the Swarmers had never shown much interest towards the distant mechs passing through their territory, that didn't necessarily mean the Evolvers were just as nearsighted.

As the mechs and shuttles halted well outside of the suspected engagement range of the Evolver fish-whales, everyone who took part in this mission grew serious again.

Ves had to cast aside all of his earlier thoughts and distractions and recall his own planning and preparation.

Together with Calabast, Shederin and other clever people, he had developed dozens of contingency plans.

Although that sounded like a lot, many of them consisted of branching paths that compelled Ves to make different choices based on the behavior and the attitude of the Evolver fish-whales.

Who knew how the events today would play out. If the fish-whales felt threatened and immediately opened fire on the strange metal objects, there wouldn't be any opportunity for Ves to speak!

This was why the initial plan did not state that Task Force Fisherman should approach the Lab Continent as a single whole.

The mechs first parked a distance away from the site of the Evolver fish-whales in order to announce their presence while showing no obvious sign of hostility.

Still, the presence of so many combat machines already conveyed a certain degree of threat.

While the task force could have parked well away from plain sight of the Lab Continent, Ves and the others eventually decided against this course of action.

Ves wanted to get on friendly terms with the Evolvers, but without showing enough strength, there was a large chance the fish-whales would look down on the foreign visitors.

Therefore, showing up with a considerable force of mechs but also maintaining a respectful distance was probably the right approach.

Then again, the humans knew too little about the fish-whales, particularly the ones who occupied the Lab Continent.

Ves manipulated the interface and accessed the sensor feeds of the Everchanger.

He zoomed in the projected view and took in the asteroid on display.

Just like the other landmasses, the Lab Continent was a brown-ish asteroid that was rich with certain resources. These resource points attracted plenty of fish-whales. Since these resource points were scattered across the surface of the landmass, the fish-whale population was wrapped around the entire ovoid continent.

That essentially meant that there were even more Evolver fish-whales on the asteroid! They were just roaming on the far side at the moment.

Just as Ves had observed from the footage brought back by Venerable Tusa, the Lab Continent was just as barren and devoid of any growth as the other continents. There wasn't any air in Purgatory so the environment wasn't friendly towards flora in the first place.

"Still, wouldn't it hurt to plant a bit of green in this dreary place?"

The alien creator of this pocket space did not think like humans at all. The same applied to the fish-whales. Ves had to be careful not to make too many assumptions based on human thought patterns.

Due to an enormous lack of useful and relevant data, much of the plan that Ves had in mind was built on assumptions and educated guesswork. This did not instill him with a lot of confidence, but what could he do? If he wanted to go forward with his plan, he needed to make contact with the Evolver fish-whales one way or another.

Ves waited for the light mechs of the task force to do their work.

Numerous Flagrant Vandal light mechs had spread out to keep watch over the immediate surroundings. Each of them were tasked with keeping their sensors peeled for any threats that approached under stealth. Though the fish-whales hadn't shown any stealth fish-whales, the expeditionary forces couldn't assume the other party was unable to master this capability.

He didn't forget that the miners of his clan dug out a deposit of Hulivaster. In the unlikely event that the phase whales and by extension the fish-whales were able to make effective use of resonating exotics, then there might be a secret group of threats in the vicinity!

After a while, the Flagrant Vandal mechs reported their findings to the officers of the task force. So far, the light mechs had not detected any signs of suspicious activity.

Everyone paid attention to both the Lab Continent and one of the expert mechs accompanying the task force.

Though the Living Sentinels weren't assigned to this mission, Commander Casella Ingvar and the Minerva were too useful to be left out of the lineup.

Given her abundant qualifications, no one had any objection to putting Commander Casella Ingvar in charge of the task force.

Although various people such as Ves knew that would make Commander Melkor bitter, no one cared about his feelings for a mission of this magnitude.

As long as Ves or Patriarch Reginald didn't say anything, the Sentinel Commander made all of the important decisions.

As Casella carefully parsed all of the transmitted data and reports, she judged that it was safe to proceed with the next step.

"Venerable Tusa, are you prepared to approach the Evolution Kingdom and greet the king fish again?"

"I am ready to move out, ma'am." Tusa seriously replied.

"Then proceed. Your job is critical. Please do your best not to convey any fear, hostility, disgust, greed or other negative emotions. You are our greeting card. How you present yourself to the native life forms will form their first impression of humans."

Venerable Tusa had already been briefed and prepped for this role, so the light mech specialist was not frazzled.

Even so, his body could not completely contain his apprehension. He had witnessed the might of the Evolvers first-hand during his previous scouting run. Now that he was tasked with knocking on the Evolution Kingdom's doors, he would have to come closer than ever to the large and dangerous fish-whales that had the potential to harm his expert mech.

"Sneaking up on mechs and stabbing them in the back is much more relaxing than approaching a group of alien powerhouses. At least I know how to anticipate human mech pilots." He quietly muttered under his breath.

Much of his training was spent on preparing to fight against other mechs. He was still new at figuring out how to fight against the various alien and inhuman threats he might encounter.

One of the biggest difficulties he faced was that his proud evasion and dueling capabilities were heavily reliant on anticipating the actions of his opponents.

He knew how mech pilots worked. He knew how they fought. He knew how they responded to his own moves.

The more he battled against mechs, the better he became at anticipating and predicting their actions!

While all of that effort bestowed Tusa with a lot of confidence, the reality of the expeditionary fleet's recent developments was that the chances of fighting against alien forces was much greater at this time!

Fighting against alien warships was still manageable as most of them had obvious weapon ports that showed where they were pointed at. His Dark Zephyr only had to avoid getting hit by their primary armament in order to avoid sustaining heavy damage.

Alien creatures were a different story. Fish-whales and other alien beasts worked so differently from the opponents he was familiar with that it was a lot more difficult to anticipate and avoid their attacks!

Crazy abilities such as manipulating the space around the Dark Zephyr or simply directing a massive energy spray in its direction were so difficult to defend against that Venerable Tusa had to be ready to retreat at any time.

Everyone got ready and paid attention as the Dark Zephyr cautiously flew out of the formation and moved over to the Lab Continent.

By now, the fish-whales definitely noticed the presence of all of the mechs. They did not make any overly aggressive or defensive moves, which Ves and the others took as a good sign.

The way the Evolver fish-whales had stopped in order to look up and stare at the new presences in the distance looked a bit silly.

They had never seen or heard any outsiders entering this space before. Purgatory had probably remained completely closed for all of these years. This had caused the fish-whales to grow into a highly insular race that didn't know anything about the wider cosmos!

From their perspective, the appearance of these bipedal metal machines were so far away from their own experiences that they might think that they were being approached by the whale equivalent of angels or demons!

"The king fish has emerged from its lab!"

Ves shifted the live feed. He focused intensely on the slow-moving king fish as it left one of the giant labs.

Now that he was physically closer to this titanic fish-whale than before, he felt a lot more intimidated by its size.

"It is at least as strong as a juggernaut or a warship."

This was what he felt, not just what he saw. The king fish projected power in a way that an ace mech displayed its absolute majesty over its surroundings. It was just so obvious to people who were sensitive towards these manifestations.

Although Ves wasn't close enough to get a sense of the powerful fish-whale's emotions, he could already pick up a few clues. The information he gained was incomparable to what he got when rewatching the Dark Zephyr's old footage.

Some elements could only be conveyed in real-time. Ves carefully studied each and every movement made by the king fish. Although he was not an exobiologist who possessed a deep understanding of the physiology and personality of fish-whales, he felt he was right to suspect the massive creature was the top dog in the Evolution Kingdom.

The creature conveyed so much power and authority that it would probably be able to make a good impression of the Iron Emperor if it had turned into a dwarf!

Few other Evolvers on the lab continent could come close to exuding so much authority. A few such as the bladed fish-whale came close, but it was like comparing a star to a planet. The magnitudes were too far apart!

Therefore, Ves made sure he was able to capture the most subtle nuances of the king fish. Fortunately, the Everchanger's sensor systems weren't shabby at all and its projectors were premium products, so the detail and clarity was quite good.

As the Dark Zephyr came close enough that it could get attacked by the fish-whales with long-ranged attack methods, the critical moment had come.

If the Evolvers held any suspicion towards the newcomers, this would be the time for them to repel the intruder and raise their defenses.

"The king fish is moving forward!"

For a time, the humongous fish-whale did nothing, but then it started moving. Its rippling azure scales glinted like shimmering pearls as its humongous body flew forward like a starship that was just about to exit a space dock.

The mass of the king fish was enormous and it took a huge amount of effort just to get it to move!

The king fish approached a more central position of its territory and stopped when it was surrounded by hundreds of other large and intelligent-looking Evolver fish-whales.

"It's like meeting a tribe of natives that have just encountered civilization for the first time." Venerable Joshua quietly remarked.

"Meow." Lucky voiced his own opinion as he adopted a more alert posture on top of Ves' seat.

Ves entertained various thoughts as he waited for Venerable Tusa to inform the task force whether he had made contact with the king fish.

"The Evolvers look like beasts but there are signs they can be reasoned with. Whether we can talk to them or not depends on whether the king fish is willing to hold a dialogue."