The Mech Touch

6926  Gradual Transformation

There were many possible ways to upgrade the Tortuous Scream, but the most significant ones demanded the use of a large orbital shipyard over long periods of time.

This was the trouble with starships and especially capital ships. For all of their power and scale, it took exponentially greater facilities to construct them and upgrade their hulls.

Ves much preferred to work with mechs. Their much more compact nature made it easy for a professional crew of mech technicians to repair, modify or upgrade the machines.

Even if the effort was a bit too expensive and cumbersome, the additional costs should still fall within a tolerable range.

Such a modest setup did not apply to an alien battleship as massive as the Tortuous Scream.

Even the E-66 Experimental Shipyard struggled to transform the Tortuous Scream. The facility was only rated to construct ships measuring up to 2.3 kilometers in length.

The shipbuilders and engineers over there had to perform a lot of work in open space where the lack of control over the environment resulted in greater hazards and mistakes.

All of this meant that the Tortuous Scream's conversion rate was not as great as Ves imagined.

"We have initially tamed and trained this battleship into an unruly but somewhat obedient mount." High Captain Gilbert de Raanvanchas informed Ves. "However, we have yet to fully decipher her alien programming or identify all of her hidden coding. Her orven operating system is akin to the instincts of a wild beast. Removing it entirely will result in death, which is not what we want. We have no choice but to install control implants, place physical restraints and rely on various verbal commands and physical signals to tell the beast to move and fight at our command."

Ves frowned when he heard that. This sounded distinctly more precarious than he expected.

"What are the risks that the Tortuous Scream will slip out of our control?"

"Unknown, sir. I truly cannot say. It depends on how many backdoors the orven race has planted in their ship and how well their soldiers can exploit these hidden dangers. Our battleship will probably remain safe when fighting against the other alien races. It is inconceivable for the orvens to share any details about their own backdoors to rivals such as the nunsers and the puelmers."

"So the true danger arises when we are fighting against a significant orven force, is that correct?"

The high captain's expression remained serious. "Yes, sir. I highly advise our flagship to maintain her distance from any significant orven fleet contingent. We should also employ stronger jamming and ideally envelop the entire hull or at least the core alien data centers with the Saint Kingdom of an ace mech. Otherwise, there will always be the possibility that the aliens can covertly or overtly steal our data and sabotage our battleship."

This was the price for hijacking and repurposing an alien warship. Ves knew that the risk that the aliens would take back control of their stolen hulls was not a theoretical possibility.

It had already occurred a number of times during the Red War.

Ves was not the only person to earn RF Warship Tokens.

Others who managed to earn them through close cooperation with the Red Fleet had the bright idea of capturing and converting ready-made alien warships instead of constructing their own hulls.

The shipbuilding industry faced too many constraints. There weren't enough orbital shipyards, but expanding them did not magically solve the problem as the supply of raw materials remained the same.

However, the aliens proved that they weren't completely stupid by not only installing backdoors and other hidden surprises onto their warships, but also making use of them to sabotage the stolen vessels during critical moments!

One of the reasons why the E-66 Experimental Yard took such a long time to refit the Tortuous Scream was to reduce her vulnerability to these exploits.

There was a good chance that all of the modifications to the Tortuous Scream successfully inoculated her against the exploits used by the orven race.

Yet that was not a reason to put this to the test. If it was possible to do so, it was better for the Premier Fleet to maintain its distance from orven-heavy fleets.

This was quite difficult to accomplish as the orvens were among the most common enemies that red humanity faced.

Even if the orvens had begun to falter due to suffering heavier-than-expected losses during the Red Tide Offensive, they always had more bodies to throw at the enemy.

The taller and furred humanoids had earned the respect of many red humans.

The orvens did not particularly stand out compared to the other alien races, but they did not let that stop them from demonstrating their courage, faith and duty on the battlefield.

It was impossible to evade the orvens entirely. The best the Premier Fleet could do was to scout ahead and make a detour if there were strong orven forces in the way.

As Ves wrapped up his first lengthy discussion with the captain of the Tortuous Scream, they briefly discussed one more subject.

"There is one more question that we have in mind." Gilbert said. "Is it possible for you to transform our flagship into an extraordinary vessel such as the Dominion of Man?"

Ves had already put a lot of thought on this possibility.

"It is impossible to replicate a god ship like the Dominion of Man without the special qualities that only genuine RF dreadnoughts possess." He responded after a bit more thinking. "While it is theoretically possible for me to devise a way to turn the Tortuous Scream into an artifact warship that may become alive, it takes too much work and preparation to make it happen. The benefits will also be rather meager. The benefits are not worth the cost."

"I see."

"That does not mean it is impossible for this battleship to still come to life, Gilbert. The increasing integration of hyper materials along with the day-and-night work of a united crew of humans may slowly affect the growth and evolution of the hull. We can accelerate and direct this evolution to produce the outcome we want by implementing special measures such as placing totems of the Golden Cat in many compartments. Even if this does not outright bring the starship to life, it will at least lay the groundwork for a future transformation. This is what we are currently doing with the Spirit of Bentheim."

In fact, Ves was already pretty certain that the factory ship was ready to be transformed into a genuine artifact starship.

He knew that the Red Collective already produced a few initial successes in cooperation with the Red Fleet. It was a pity that they were keeping their artifact warships a secret from both human and alien observers. They had yet to show up on the battlefield in large numbers.

The high captain looked slightly optimistic. "So a direct transformation is out of our reach, but a gradual and delayed transformation is within our capabilities. If we keep making use of the Tortuous Scream for a decade or longer, then it is essential for us to seek every possible advantage. Please lend us your expertise."

"Don't worry. I will work with the T Institute to formulate a plan. It should be ready within a week."

Ves was not sure how long the Premier Fleet would continue to make use of the Tortuous Scream. It may very well be the case that the alien battleship would get beat up to the point that she had to be scuttled over the course of the upcoming campaign.

However, if red humanity deteriorated to the point where building new warships became extremely difficult, then the Larkinson Clan needed to preserve as many starships as possible.

Ves really hoped that this would not be the case, but he needed to plan for the worst outcome.

He already entertained a few ideas on how the Tortuous Scream could possibly become a living starship that exceeded her original scope and specifications.

He was not in a hurry to implement it, though. Not only would it take a lot of time, effort and resources, he also did not have much passion for it. He would rather invest his time on designing stronger mechs and solve his problems that way.

As far as Ves was concerned, the greatest significance of the Tortuous Scream was to serve as a siege platform and an excuse to link powerful mechs directly to the support systems of the battleship!

Ves and the high captain briefly spoke about the goals for their upcoming campaign.

Aside from pushing the native aliens back from intruding into the crucial upper zones, Ves also wanted the Premier Fleet to gather powerful tech and strategic resources.

"The Larkinson Clan has accrued a great amount of wealth recently." High Captain Gilbert noted. "Even if your recent investments have significantly reduced your warchest, your finances should still be healthy. It should not be too difficult for you to procure additional resources even if you have to pay enormous premiums."

"What I am looking for is not just mundane resources, captain. We still need a large amount of phasewater. Nobody is willing to sell or trade away this resource these days, so we need to gather it ourselves. Since we have not colonized any planets that produce phasewater, we can only plunder it from our enemies. Aside from that, we need to acquire more superdimensional matter."

"Our clan already possesses the unique capability to open up a gateway into the Blue Dimension, sir. That alone ensures that we will always have access to a safe and stable supply of superdimensional matter. There is no need for us to take risks and confront enemies that are armed with lethal Saint Piercer arms."

15:19

"I don't see it that way." Ves shook his head. "It is exactly because we are able to equip our mechs with superdimensional weapons and armor that we must take the fight to the phase lords equipped with Saint Piercer weapons. The First Sword Mark III has become one of the few superdimensional ace mechs that can confidently confront enemies armed with these threatening weapons and easily gain the upper hand. By hunting and killing these phase lords, we are not only making greater contributions by depriving the Red Cabal of a powerful asset, but we can also capture the Saint Piercer arms and repurpose the bounty of superdimensional alloy."

There was also another reason that Ves did not mention. The Red Cabal only awarded Saint Piercer arms to the better and more proven greater phase lords.

That meant that their phasewater organs were likely superior!

Ves had become quite greedy for high-quality phasewater organs. Even if it took a long time for the Larkinson Biotech Institute to convert them into more useful products, Ves still wanted to accumulate as many good choices as possible.

Gilbert de Raanvanchas thought about what he had read in previous reports.

"The risks are greater, but… the rewards are also admittedly great. The Red Cabal has already begun to distribute more and more Saint Piercer arms to their trusted phase lords. That indicates that the native aliens have strengthened their supply of superdimensional matter. It will become more and more important to defeat the phase lords armed with Saint Piercer weapons. If we do not cull them frequently enough, they will continue to become more prevalent until nothing else but other superdimensional mechs can hold them back."

How the hell did the native aliens manage to get their superdimensional matter?!

Had a bunch of ancient phase whales managed to develop their own way of intruding into the Blue Dimension?

That sounded too outlandish to Ves. He was more inclined to believe the native aliens may have mastered the method of converting normal matter into superdimensional matter!

If this was the case, then stealing this trade secret was crucial to red humanity!

Only when humans mastered this process themselves would they be able to keep up with alien technological development!

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