The Mech Touch novel Chapter 2293

Chapter 2293: Unnatural Darkness

The Battle of Ulimo Citadel took an unexpected turn!

Somehow, the Nyxian pirates caused the besieged stronghold and a wide area around it to become engulfed in an anomalous hazard!

While Ves, the Black Cats and the other analysts of the Larkinson Clan guessed that the pirates might resort to drastic measures, this was something else. Who knew that the Dry Snakes were crazy enough to call upon the most fearsome phenomenon of the Nyxian Gap.

Ves and the Larkinson Clan had never encountered such a drastic means of flipping the board!

For a few seconds on the bridge of the Scarlet Rose, everyone looked shocked as the main visuals depicted an ominous, shadowy sphere enveloping the entire battlefield.

It was as if some incomprehensible monster took a bite out of space!

Horror and confusion began to spread throughout the ships and the few hundred mechs that the Larkinson Clan kept in reserve.

"What is going on?!"

"Are.. are they gone? Just like this?"

"We have lost all communications with the units engulfed in the unknown anomaly!"

"We need to rescue our brothers right away!"

"Don't panic! Everything can be explained!"

Throughout the fleet, the hundreds of scientists and engineers attempted to interpret the confusing sensor data. The sensor readings made little sense, as most of the sensors had never been designed to observed such an abnormal phenomenon to begin with! What had happened exceeded the Larkinson Clan's comprehension by a huge margin!

Ves joined the frenzy as well. Even though he did not specialize in astrophysics or any other field related to spatial phenomena, he tried his best to decipher what was going on. It was too bad that he failed to spot a discernable pattern that he could use to figure out this anomaly!

For several minutes, Task Force Predator attempted various moves. Several ships dispatched small, disposable drones and sent them through the sphere.

They were never heard from again. The connection to the drones cut off. Even when these devices received instructions to leave the sphere immediately afterwards, somehow each of them failed to emerge from the anomaly.

"What about sending a ship? Maybe we can still maintain contact through the quantum entanglement node."

"Are you stupid?!" A chief engineer spat. "Many anomalies in the Nyxian Gap completely garble the connection between quantum entangled particles!"

Though more clansmen began to suggest they should enter the anomalous region in order to rescue their trapped compatriots, the risks were far too great to make such a reckless move. Sending in the entire fleet might potentially doom Task Force Predator entirely!

What puzzled Ves was how the pirates could possibly have such a trump card in reserve. After several weeks of probing and infiltration, the Black Cats should have figured most if not all of the strengths of Ulimo Citadel.

How could they have missed something as dramatic as this move!?

He decided to call the leader of the Black Cats.

Her projection depicted a spymaster who was out of her comfort zone. She looked devoid of her usual poise, and her customary smirk was nowhere to be seen.

"Calabast! What is going on!?"

"We are investigating the circumstances. Prior to our attack, we truly haven't found any indications that the Dry Snakes or their subordinate forces are capable of evoking an anomalous hazard on command. We have even researched every independent pirate outfit for abnormal capabilities, but as far as we know, they are all ordinary."

"Have you investigated any other unusual people or organizations at Ulimo?" Ves pressed.

"We have, but none of them appear capable of evoking such a huge movement."

Her answer didn't satisfy him at all. Frustration welled in him as he was lacking a huge amount of answers. The longer this anomaly stayed active, the greater the chance that he would lose most if not every mech deployed into battle.

If it came down to it, losing thousands of mechs was an acceptable price. Though Ves valued mechs a lot as a principle, they were built for a purpose. He could always build new machines as long as he gained access to some production facilities in the Nyxian Gap.

What truly pained him was the prospect losing the lives of the mech pilots who were trapped inside the anomaly!

Such a huge loss not only meant that Task Force Predator would permanently lose a lot of battle strength. This would make it very difficult for the fleet to defend itself against vengeful pirates.

In addition, Ves would have huge pressure in the clan if he returned to civilized space with just a fraction of his fighting forces. His young and fragile clan would not be able to stomach such a heavy blow!

As he kept staring at the boiling sphere of darkness and shadows, Ves suddenly made a small realization.

How did the pirates manage to evoke such a big anomaly in the first place?

Through technology? Unlikely!

Not even the Big Two could make heads or tails of them. Otherwise, they would have swept the entire Nyxian Gap clean of pirates by now! Their warfleets wouldn't have chosen to avoid this dangerous region like the plague!

Ever since the previous incident, Ves hypothesized that anomalies in the material realm might be tied to activity in the imaginary realm.

This meant that this anomaly might have been evoked through spiritual means!

Ves briefly ignored Calabast and everything else and concentrated his mind. He projected a part of his consciousness in the imaginary realm.

"Ah!"

As expected, something new had appeared in the imaginary realm! An identical dark sphere had appeared. The corrosive winds that spun in the motion of the huge vortex seemed to crash against the sphere before parting aside. The nature of this anomaly was different than the one that appeared in the previous incident!

Unfortunately, this didn't really help him that much. He cautiously attempted to probe the sphere in the imaginary realm, only to feel that he had completely lost contact with the tiny spiritual projection he sent inside.

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