The Mech Touch novel Chapter 3834

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Chapter 3834 Foreign Landscape

When the Dark Zephyr finally flew all the way back to Fort Fishblood, the rich amount of scouting data and personal notations provided by Venerable Tusa ignited a bomb among the expeditionary forces!

"There are more groups of fish-whales in this pocket space!"

"Are the four 'kingdoms' hostile towards each other?"

"The Swarm Kingdom is much larger and stronger than the other three fish kingdoms. I bet that it has probably overrun a few other groups throughout the history of this pocket space!"

"How can we do anything in Purgatory with all of these scary fish-whales in place? Even if we conquer an asteroid at great cost, the other fish-whales can easily swoop in and push us away!"

The existence of multiple fish kingdoms, each of which were presumably hostile against each other as well as outside intruders, massively complicated the strategic considerations of the human invaders.

The strength of a couple of thousand mechs was wholly insufficient to take over the entire pocket space, let alone conquer one of the key landmasses of the different fish kingdoms!

The observations made by Venerable Tusa had indeed brought the clarity that everyone in the Golden Skull Alliance wished for, but they also painted a terrible picture of this phase whale enclave where different varieties of fish-whales had long run amok.

New plans had to be made and everyone needed to pursue clearer goals. Right now, none of the mech pilots stationed in Fort Fishblood knew what they were even doing in this dangerous place.

If the four kingdoms all combined their forces and attacked the human invaders all at once, then there was no hope of winning or maintaining control over the mysterious alien gate!

After a few hours, the leaders of the Golden Skull Alliance convened a virtual meeting in order to discuss the latest findings.

The people attending the meeting were located on different sides of the active spatial portal. Although the Larkinsons had tried to establish real-time data transmissions by extending a solid data cable through the gate, the attempt failed because electronic signals simply didn't get past the spatial portal for some reason.

They also tried establishing communications by shipping over a quantum entanglement node to Fort Fishblood.

However, by the time the sensitive device reached the other side, it promptly squealed an alarm.

It turned out that the entangled particles that enabled instant communications across vast distances had somehow lost their connection to their counterparts stored in a distant server operated by the Comm Consortium!

"How can this happen?" Ves frowned when he learned of the news. "Our quantum entanglement nodes didn't malfunction when we passed through the beyonder gates a year ago. It is as if this alien portal is doing its best to cut off any possible contact between the two spaces!"

The inconvenient circumstances left the expeditionary forces with little choice but to temporarily recall the key leaders in the field. Passing through the portal was quick and convenient and Fort Fishblood would be fine without them during this calm period.

Even if the Swarmers came to launch another attack, a messenger could easily convey the news and recall Commander Casella Ingvar and Patriarch Reginald Cross back to Purgatory.

As the different people arrived at the virtual meeting, Ves turned to Venerable Tusa who had done a good job at collecting all of the interesting data.

"Before we begin to discuss our upcoming plans, I would like to hear your personal thoughts on what you have witnessed. We have all watched the footage from your expert mech but only you got somewhat close to these different fish-whale groups. First, have you detected signs of sentience or coherent thoughts from each of the distinct groups that you have encountered?"

The light mech expert pilot looked thoughtful.

"I can tell you that the king fish that attempted to contact me through his mind is definitely an intelligent bastard. I only briefly touched the alien fish-whale's mind, but I did not get the impression that I had made contact with a primal beast that is driven by its instincts. I felt I made contact with a very powerful and purposeful sentient alien. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought I had contacted an actual phase whale!"

Given the size of the king fish, it was not a surprise that Tusa would develop this impression. The capabilities that this remarkably powerful creature had shown so far closely matched that of the phase whales described in the MTA's database!

"What of the other fish-whales of the 'Evolution Kingdom'?"

"I can't really confirm it since my expert mech kept its distance during the sole major battle that I've witnessed, but they all look smart in their own way. I never got the sense that they were driven by their instincts unlike with the Swarmers."

The Golden Skull Alliance pretty much accepted all of the names that Venerable Tusa had come up with to classify all of the different groups and fish he encountered.

Ves and the others were too lazy to come up with their own names. Though the labels invented by Tusa sounded a bit too simple and direct, they did their jobs and allowed everyone to be on the same page.

"Have you come across any fish-whales among the Swarmers that show signs of actual intelligence?"

"Not directly, Ves. The elite fish-whales commanding the grunt fishes are all smarter and more cunning, but they don't hesitate to fight to the death without thinking too much. I suspect that the Swarm Kingdom is set up like an insect hide. There has to be at least one queen among them that directs all of the Swarmers."_{freewebnσvel.cøm}