The Mech Touch

The V'gahnt-Zezne was a monster in any way. She was a battleship that might not be as well-maintained and up to date as the more modern orven vessels that were in service these days, but the Unspoken had cared for her as best as they could over the centuries.

All fourteen of her gigantic plasma cannon batteries were still in good condition relative to the rest of the ship. It was clear that the orven pirates had invested much in their maintenance and maybe even upgraded some of their parts in order to make them more effective.

The secondary and tertiary armaments were much less consistent in comparison. There were hundreds of each of them, and their firepower was significantly reduced so they didn't merit as much importance from the owners of the alien battleship.

Still, even if several dozen guns had already shown signs of failing, there were still plenty more that were capable of firing in the direction of the ace mechs that were about to charge forward and hammer through the 'energy scale' of the third layer of energy shields!

So far, the seven Saints had already completed two-thirds of their plan to open up a gap that could lead their ace mechs to the hull of the orven battleship.

As long as one of them was able to get close enough to touch the hull of their main target, the V'gahnt-Zezne would probably be doomed!

Perhaps an ace mech could not match an armed capital ship in terms of unleashing absolute devastation and delivering a cataclysm to entire continents, but their absolute superiority at closer ranges was undeniable!

The orven crew members that were manning and controlling the V'gahnt-Zezne did everything possible to prevent the insanely powerful ace mechs from breaching past the potent layers of segmented transphasic energy shields.

As the main means of defense of starships for many of the warships in use in the Red Ocean, the highly sophisticated energy shield generators responsible for serving as the main line of defense of the alien battleship  could endure an incredible amount of firepower!

A battleship as large and powerful as the V'gahnt-Zezne was first and foremost designed to fight a standing battle against another vessel of her kind.

Brutal slugging matches between battleships were not that common, but once they took place, no side wanted their most powerful vessels to get overwhelmed by a flood of titanic plasma bolts or asteroid-destroying positron beams.

This was why energy shield technology was one of the few areas that had received constant attention from the indigenous alien races of the Red Ocean.

No matter whether they were orvens, nunsers, puelmers or any of the lesser races, each of them built up a huge dependence on the effectiveness of the energy shields they used to protect their warships, space stations, cities and other critical assets.

Without the means to effectively defend against the massive guns of warships like the V'gahnt-Zezne, none of the alien races would be able to win as many battles or hold on to as much territory.

The Battle of the Boryan Belt had given many humans a profound lesson on how much better the aliens were at developing energy shield technology. The difference between what the natives possessed and what the humans had mastered was like the difference between night and day!

The effectiveness of the most powerful energy shield generators such as those utilized by the V'gahnt-Zezne to the smallest energy shield generators carried by the elite starfighters proved that this technology was incredibly mature!

Powerful segmented transphasic energy shields were not treated as a highly inaccessible form of high technology that could only be harnessed by the best and most resourceful alien races.

If even the smallest and most ramshackle pirate warships belonging to a minor group was able to employ a more economical version of this tech, then the indigenous alien races of the Red Ocean might not be as backwards and inferior as Ves and everyone else assumed!

Even Gloriana expressed grudging respect towards the natives of the dwarf galaxy that humanity had invaded. The contempt in her expression had faded after she had witnessed how much damage every warship was able to tank.

"The Big Two have deliberately painted the indigenous alien races as sheltered and ignorant beings that cannot withstand the might and technology of a race that has emerged from a much larger and more dangerous galaxy." Gloriana spoke as she gently rooked a sleeping Marvaine in her suited arms. "For the most part, this message is true, but it also causes us to overlook a factor that has given the natives a great advantage."

Ves understood what she was referring to. "Phasewater."

"Exactly. The Milky Way may be a lot larger and more rich in valuable materials, but the Red Ocean is endowed with so much phasewater that pretty much every alien race has turned it into the foundation of their technology trees. Their starships are able to move faster in realspace with the help of phasewater-based warp drives. Their weapon systems hit harder and penetrate deeper than anything compatible with the help of transphasic design elements. Their energy shields and armor plating are able to resist much more damage than usual for the same reason."

"In other words, the widespread availability of phasewater in the Red Ocean has distorted the technological development of every indigenous alien race." Ves concluded. "As long as they are smart enough to harness technology, they will eventually have the bright idea of combining their existing inventions with phasewater."

"Can you blame them, Ves? Phasewater is a powerful exotic and can serve as an incredibly powerful enhancing agent that can make many things a lot better. Just look at the pirate warships that our mechs are fighting against. Although we all know that warships possess an inherent advantage against mechs due to being able to take advantage of their greater scales, attacks from powerful ranged mechs such as the Amaranto, the Minerva and the Promethea shouldn't have taken so long to destroy each vessel."

Ves nodded in agreement. "Massed firepower from other mechs such as our Transcendent Punishers also should have been able to destroy the smaller warships without much suspense, but instead they need to fire a lot of salvos to overcome the opposing energy shields before they can start inflicting serious structural damage."

His wife waved at the bridge around them. "Compare that to our own starships. I recall that our clan has recently upgraded the energy shield generators of the Spirit of Bentheim and our other capital ships, but are they as good as the ones employed by these dirty alien pirates?"

"...No." Ves painfully admitted. "Definitely not. The directional shield generators that we have recently mounted in our flagship are all fairly modern, but they don't have the ability to overlap or change the orientation of their output as well as the energy shields employed by the aliens. In addition, not all of our shield generators are transphasic. We would have to use up almost all of our reserves of phasewater in order to enhance their defenses to this level."

"That's bad, isn't it? For all of our confidence, the energy shield generators that we employ aren't even as good as the ones utilized by the dregs of an indigenous alien civilization. Rather than wasting our hard-earned money and phasewater on human products, we might as well capture the disabled alien warships in front of us and strip them of their shield generators. As long as we can adapt them to our own vessels, we will no longer be behind in terms of shielding capabilities."

Ves shook his head. "I was already thinking about that, but it is anything but to slot in alien technology into our most important starships. I would rather develop our own version of energy shield generators after reverse engineering the local versions. In fact, I'm pretty sure that is already taking place in all of the major development companies such as Morton Tech. It probably won't take more than a couple of years before we can close the gap."

"Ah, yes. Adapting alien technology. Humankind has a knack for that." Gloriana said in a tone that could not hide her contempt. "As humans like us come into contact with brand-new alien societies, we encounter new technologies that we can't help but covet. No matter whether it is luminar crystal technology or Red Ocean phasewater technology, we can't stand the thought of other races possessing better toys than us. If we can't make it ourselves, we would rather steal it from others. How… enlightened."

Her tone irked him. She made it sound like learning from the enemy was disgusting and dishonorable behavior.

"No one cares about rights or attribution." Ves retorted. "The struggle between humans and aliens is harsh and brutal. Victory means that our race can not only survive longer, but thrive over the corpses of the defeated. Defeat means that our race will scatter away or go extinct. We cannot afford to lose, so we have little choice but to seek our victories in any way possible. If we have to play dirty to safeguard humanity's survival, then what is the harm in stealing alien tech?"

"Spoken like a true Survivalist. You fit well in this camp."

"I don't think the need to assimilate alien technology is exclusive to the Survivalist Faction. Almost everyone is doing it. Anyone who doesn't will fall behind and become increasingly less eligible to compete for power. The Age of Stars and the Age of Conquest provides overwhelming proof why we must master as much tech as possible. Humanity would have never become the hegemon of the Milky Way if we weren't shameless about stealing and adapting a lot of alien tech."

Gloriana couldn't deny that fact, but she pointed out another disconcerting fact.

"Technological assimilation is not exclusive to the human race. If we can steal from the aliens, they should already be able to steal from us. In fact, this process is already taking place. We have all heard the stories about how the Big Two's warfleets are experiencing greater difficulties as of late. The rapid incorporation of technologies that the natives shouldn't have been able to develop on their own has taken all of humanity aback."

That was a good point! As Ves thought about it, he began to feel a bit more uneasy.

"Are you suggesting that the indigenous aliens are about to pull an 'Age of Conquest'-like resurgence against humanity?"

His wife grinned at him. "It is possible, don't you think so? As long as the natives can buy enough time to assimilate and integrate our technology into their own military assets, it is not out of the question for them to gain the upper hand and drive all of the pioneers back to where they came from. If they are truly bold, the vengeful aliens might follow us back to the old galaxy and complete their counterattack."

That was an absurd idea! Ves found it way too improbable that the indigenous alien races could take on human civilization as a whole!

"That won't happen." Ves decisively stated. "Those aliens will only get destroyed en masse if they ever step foot in our core territories. Besides, it won't come to that. As long as the Big Two get more serious and transfer more mechs and warships to the Red Ocean, the momentum will definitely be in our favor. Our advantage in numbers is too great. The MTA and CFA can always overwhelm the natives as long as they are willing to pay the price to transfer additional warfleets to the new frontier."

Both humans and aliens were constantly learning from each other while they both remained standing. The mutual exchange of technology and methods would continue to take place until one side completely vanquished over the other.

Gloriana suddenly came up with another interesting idea.

"Do you think it is possible that the native aliens will start to develop their own versions of mechs?"

Ves shook his head. "Unlikely. They will try, but they will completely botch the job. The indigenous alien races are too far behind. They should focus on improving their warships which is their main means of combat. Their starfighters already perform close enough to mechs that a few more upgrades and improvements can turn them into viable competitors."

As a mech designer, he understood incredibly well what made human mechs so good. He simply could not conceive of any scenario where the natives could not only imitate mechs, but exceed the current masters of this tech!