The Mech Touch

To his credit, Master Dervidian did not pause or show any unusual behavior for long.

He was a Master who studied a lot of knowledge, collaborated with a lot of mech designers and knew how to play the political game. With his high standing within the ranks of the MTA, there was no way that he was socially inept!

"I can understand your confusion." The gray-haired man slowly replied. "Those with a shallow understanding of mechs do not comprehend how working on mechs allows us to progress humanity's evolution. While there are people who believe that the special traits of high-ranking mech pilots and mech designers can be spread to the general public, this is a nigh-impossibility in my opinion."

"Then… what do you Transhumanists actually do with mechs, then?" Ves asked with genuine confusion in his voice.

The pair slowly moved away from the mech hangar. The Master led Ves through a mostly empty corridor that evidently led to a different section of the massive battlecarrier.

"Let me begin by asking you an important question. Why do most mechs adopt the human form?"

That was a deep question. Ves could supply a thousand different opinions on this profound issue.

He decided to be truthful and explain his earnest thoughts.

"Shaping a war weapon in a humanoid form is not always the best choice, especially in environments where having a pair of legs doesn't necessarily make sense such as in space or in the air. Nonetheless, we are accustomed to designing humanoid mechs because that is what we humans are familiar with and know best. In my work, I have learned that the best choice is not always the one that is objectively the most optimal one. We work with mech pilots after all, and all of them are limited by their human perspectives and limitations. Allowing them to work with mechs that move and fight like humans will often lead to better results than if they pilot a mech with a weirder shape."

"You are not wrong, Mr. Larkinson. Although we hope that mech pilots can be better than that, many of them are not as comfortable and cannot fully adjust to piloting mechs that adopt forms that convey more advantages from an objective standpoint. Nonetheless, we Transhumanist do not pay as much attention to this argument. I believe it is better for me to show you a different example."

The Master fell silent as he continued to lead Ves to a different place.

After turning a few corridors and passing through a few hatches, they suddenly entered a gigantic hall that was far larger than any of the previous compartments of the Paracelsus Optimus!

In fact, a quick glance told him that the internal dimensions of this gigantic hall far exceeded that of the internal volume of the battlecarrier!

They had stepped out of the MTA capital ship and entered a completely different place, all without Ves noticing the differences!

This was a scary realization. He was no stranger to teleportation technology. The sensation was obvious and could not be mistaken for anything else. He always felt as if his body was erased in one place before being reformed in another place.

This time, he shifted over to a different location without any warning or obvious transitions! It was an application of teleportation that was probably a lot more advanced than ordinary teleportation.

It probably wasn't anything exotic for a specialist in superluminal travel like Master Dervidian. He might even be involved in this particular development!

This invisible show of force was yet another reminder that Ves was in the presence of great company!

It didn't take long for Ves to deduce where he had arrived. There was only one place in the Garimel System that warranted such an enormous space!

Ves walked towards the edge of the transparent panels and looked down on what lay below.

He sucked in his breath as he beheld the great monstrosity occupying the majority of this gigantic space!

The enormous hall was large enough to fit one of the biggest CFA battleship classes, but now it was dedicated to containing the greatest phase whale known to humanity!

Master Dervidian floated over to his side while directing a grin towards the giant captive beast.

"I must thank you for delivering us this unexpected but timely present. The phase whales are highly relevant towards my ongoing research projects. We have already captured numerous different specimens, but none are as large, powerful and atypical as Moby Dick."

"Moby Dick?"

The Master looked amused. "This specimen deserves its own name. I plan to conduct extensive research on its body, so it will be more convenient to refer to this creature by a name that is not a serial number."

The super whale might not be white, but it was more than deserving of this classical name!

Master Dervidian led Ves out of the protective compartment and down to the catwalks immediately surrounding the super whale's exposed bulk.

The main space was still in vacuum, so Ves' formal suit automatically activated a transparent helmet around his head. This along with other coverings made sure that he could breathe in this environment.

As Ves slowly approached the massive whale's body, he gained a clearer impression of its enormous strength.

From a physical point of view, the super whale or 'Moby Dick' absolutely surpassed the physical prowess of any mech, juggernaut or warship!

From a less tangible point of view, the captive monstrosity was also formidable in mind and spirit!

Ves focused mostly on the latter as he had not been able to study Moby Dick's spiritual prowess before. The footage of its battle against the MTA did not give him a good opportunity to evaluate the creature's strength in this aspect.

"It's so powerful." He gasped.

"That it is." Master Dervidian replied. "Biological creatures cannot grow endlessly without passing many different requirements. Resources are only the basic conditions to allow an organism to grow to this extent. Any life form that can grow to this extent is absolutely exceptional and has most certainly reached this scale through artificial means. Studying the methods that have allowed Moby Dick to grow and sustain a body of this size will yield many precious lessons for our research teams."

The enormous phase whale was clearly put under a coma. Its body was so still that it looked almost dead.

In this dormant state, the phase whale hardly released any emissions and its body had also grown extremely cold.

However, none of its flesh looked frozen and its wounds were still leaking liquid blood.

Ves confirmed that the super whale was dormant by observing its extremely powerful but incredibly still spirituality.

There truly was no comparison. Compared to the Phase King that Ves had rescued at the end of the Purgatory Campaign, the super whale was on an entirely different level!

Its spiritual strength far exceeded that of his design spirits, so much so that Ves was almost ready to liken it to a god!

Yet it was this god-like creature that managed to suffer a quick and ignoble defeat against a single battlecarrier and her mech contingent.

Even if the Paracelsus Optimus had the good fortune to hit Moby Dick when it only recently grew to this state, it still did not change the fact that a supposedly superior monster got beat up by just a single independent military detachment of the Mech Trade Association!

"Gods can only be this strong." He murmured.

Master Dervidian adopted an amused grin. "Moby Dick should indeed be able to masquerade as a god in living form among the short-sighted aliens of the Red Ocean, but in front of our mechs, it can only be reduced to an object of research. I cannot wait to cut into its enormous flesh and study how its body can function under all of that mass and bulk."

Ves raised his eyebrows in surprise. "You are involved in studying this large beast?"

"Yes. Does that sound strange to you, Mr. Larkinson?"

"You're a mech designer. Shouldn't this job be left to more relevant experts such as exobiologists? Besides, I don't understand why a creature as enormous as Moby Dick has anything to do with miniaturizing superluminal travel devices. This big whale is pretty much pursuing the opposite of what you try to achieve!"

"Hahaha!" Master Dervidian couldn't help but utter a laugh. "Your logic is sound, but you do not possess all of the information. To you, it may seem that Moby Dick and other phase whales for that matter have little in common with more core research goals, but you would be absolutely wrong. They have everything to do with my ambitions!"

"How?"

The man waved at the giant blue-scaled body. "What is the most defining feature of the phase whale race?"

"They… have an incredible affinity with phasewater." Ves answered after he contemplated a few possible answers.

He had a feeling that this one was the most crucial to the MTA Master.

He was right!

"Correct, Mr. Larkinson! Phasewater is a powerful research that has incredible depth. It is not for nothing that we had led humanity into the Red Ocean. We have captured many alien prisoners and raided many alien databases. We have found that many of them claim that phase whales have a deep relationship with phasewater. Some claim that the race is the original source of phasewater. Others claim that phasewater literally runs through their veins."

Ves became incredibly interested in this topic. He leaned closer as if he wanted to pry out everything that Master Dervidian knew about phasewater!

"Are those claims…true, Master?"

Dervidian smirked. "Aliens hold many superstitious beliefs on phasewater. It is more than a resource that enables superluminal travel to them. The phase whale race is not that exaggeratingly powerful or exceptional. Nonetheless, the claim that phasewater is a part of their blood makeup is not entirely false. They are not born in this way, but their intensive contact with this substance along with their focused biological modifications allows the more accomplished individuals of their species to change their physiology."

Ves looked back at the super whale in shock! "You mean this giant whale's blood is actually made up of phasewater instead of regular water?!"

"Yes! Your guess is right! Astounding, is it not? Phasewater is highly toxic and dangerous to other forms of life. They can literally tear bodies apart due to the unstable spatial fluctuations they provide. Even if phasewater is stabilized by mixing them with other substances, their toxic nature means that they pose a lethal threat to many organic systems. It is simply an insane idea to use phasewater as the principal material for blood."

"Why do they do this? What is the reason for them to go such extremes? Can't they perform warp travel by containing phasewater into specialized organs?"

"The reason the phase whales make this modification is obvious. They wish to attain more power. While we do not possess a full understanding of all of the changes of this remarkable blood transformation procedure, we do know that the deadliest and most formidable phase whales have taken this step. Their warp speeds are much faster and their spatial manipulation abilities are also vastly stronger. This is an essential step in their progression. Without spreading phasewater through their entire bodies, they will never be able to unlock the next stage of their growth."

"This…"

Ves gained a completely new perspective and appreciation for a phase whale like Moby Dick. If the super whale had truly integrated phasewater in all of its flesh and blood, then it must have attained impressive biological qualities!

He started to understand why Master Dervidian was so interested in Moby Dick.

"Then.. your research… are you studying the phase whales so that humans can have phasewater running through their veins one day?"

This was a crazy idea! It was as if someone was trying to use uranium to replace the principal material of someone's skull! Only a lunatic would come up with such an impossible notion!

Master Dervidian's smile grew wider. "My most hopeful research direction indeed centers around replacing human blood with a derivative based upon phasewater. Just imagine it. If our bodies become closer to that of a phase whale, doesn't that mean we are closer to achieving warp travel without external tools?"

The premise sounded logical, but Ves doubted it was this simple!