The Mech Touch novel Chapter 3424

Chapter 3424: Bridgehead One

The Red Ocean. The distant collection of stars orbited the Milky Way Galaxy at a distance of approximately 350,000 light-years.

Crossing this distance was unimaginable to many people, but the Big Two managed to pull it off. Not only that, the MTA and CFA pooled their resources together to construct a pair of massive greater beyonder gates!

Utilizing a huge amount of phasewater as well as a dizzying array of high technology, these enormous gates formed a space tunnel between two extremely distant points of space that could temporarily connect them together!

The more astute scientists figured out that beyonder gate technology was likely derived from the more modest and limited portal jumping technology that the warships of the Big Two utilized on a regular basis.

The proliferation of the gate networks completely revolutionized interstellar travel. Wealthy travelers with enough credits or merits to spare could near-instantly move from one location in the Milky Way to another point. A journey that used to take decades effectively compressed into a trip that lasted just two weeks or so with all of the security measures taken into account!

The greater beyonder gates were even more amazing. For the first time in people's lives, they could easily hop from one galaxy to another galaxy in a more practical and convenient manner!

Of course, it wasn't as glamorous as it sounded.

Unlike the Andromeda, the Red Ocean was not actually a large, independent galaxy.

It was a dwarf galaxy, which was basically the equivalent of a moon but on a much larger scale. The Red Ocean was the Milky Way's lackey and literally orbited around its master like a perpetually eager puppy.

With a diameter of 25,000 light-years, it was roughly 64 times smaller than the Milky Way.

This was still a huge amount of territory, enough for the pioneers to plunder it for a couple of centuries, but it was quite limited in size and scope in the greater scheme of things.

This turned it into an ideal colonization target for an ascendant human civilization.

The indigeneous aliens of the Red Ocean were generally not as powerful as their counterparts in the Milky Way, but they presented plenty of challenges such as their clever and widespread use of phasewater to enable entirely new applications of dimensional technology that humanity never conceived of! The indigenous alien empires had taught the Big Two quite a few lessons on the frontlines!

Most of it wasn't relevant to the pioneers. To newcomers such as the Golden Skull Alliance, their focus lay on the hinterland of the Red Ocean.

These pacified zones had already been wrenched from the hands of the local sentient alien polities. When the CFA and MTA's overpowering warfleets left a wave of devastation behind, the ruined planets still held a lot of wealth!

The incoming pioneers sought to take advantage of the bounty and ultimately found new colonies in these rich territories.

"So this is the Red Ocean." Ves wondrously admired the new view as soon as he recovered from the brief moment of discomfort.

"Meow…" Lucky gazed at the faint red nebulas that faintly lit up the dwarf galaxy and gave it its characteristic name.

"Miaow…" Clixie didn't understand as much and pressed her body onto the gem cat's cool form for reassurance.

Both Ves and Gloriana looked increasingly more jubilant, though. After so many struggles, they finally made it through!

Ves activated a command that provided him with a view of the rear of his flagship.

Behind the hundreds of capital ships that originated from all over human space in the old galaxy, an enormous greater beyonder gate that measured 27 kilometers from end to end briefly maintained its shimmering dark blue energy portal.

Then, as the last fleet carrier belonging to the Rubarthans emerged out of the dimensional tunnel, the huge but extremely energy-intensive portal disappeared.

The gateway that led straight to the Milky Way Galaxy had been closed.

"So this is Bridgehead One."

This was a place of great historical significance. It was also a critical strategic stronghold.

When the Big Two launched their invasion over five decades ago, they started their operations at the edge of the Red Ocean dwarf galaxy.

Bridgehead One was the initial base of operations of the Big Two. Though the history of the early years of the invasion was classified, Ves could easily imagine how the MTA and CFA experienced great difficulties in transporting an initial invasion fleet so far away.

The initial batches must have suffered enormous difficulties to hold on to Bridgehead One while also trying to defeat the surrounding alien star nations.

Without a beyonder gate, it was extremely difficult for the Big Two to supply and reinforce the first group of invaders. The mechers and fleeters had to be resourceful and fend for themselves for an extended amount of time.

All of that changed as soon as they managed to plunder a huge amount of phasewater and used this critical exotic to establish better channels with the home galaxy!

These days, the significance of Bridgehead One as a defensive stronghold had lessened.

However, as the gateway of the pioneers of the Milky Way, this star system still functioned as a critical node. Many of the formidable, high-tech defensive systems were still intact and the Big Two still parked over a thousand warships in these extravagant star systems!

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