The Mech Touch novel Chapter 4426

The fleet slowed down after a time.

There were several reasons why the ships needed to move slower.

First, navigating through an asteroid belt was quite perilous to say the least. The Gemini Family and the rest of the coalition did not dare to send too many of their starships through the densest areas of the belt.

Perhaps the scouting vessels and the smaller combat carriers possessed the agility to maneuver around the floating rocks, but the biggest and slowest capital ships were not as endowed!

The journey presented an especially serious danger to the fleets with a significant number of civilian vessels. The Larkinson Clan and the Boojay Family were especially reluctant to dive into the middle of the belt for this reason.

Fortunately, the periphery of the belt was not as difficult to navigate through. Combined with the fact that the asteroids mostly followed static trajectories that could easily be mapped out in advance, none of the starships came close to colliding against anything dangerous.

Mechs were still needed to break apart or push away smaller floating rocks, but these were trivial issues.

The bigger reason why it was best for the coalition fleet to slow down was to minimize the risk of discovery as much as possible.

Though none of the coalition troops expected to be able to maintain the element of surprise, the less time they gave for their opponents to respond, the better!

"We have already detected and tampered with hundreds of listening devices in advance." Calabast reported to Ves. "The good news is that they are all rather old and simple. Machines get worn down all the time due to constant exposure to the heavy and turbulent magnetic fields and other activity generated by that big neutron star. The Gemini Family already prepared countermeasures against these devices, so our Black Cats as well as the covert operations units of the other groups have dealt with them in the best way possible. If nothing has gone wrong, these devices will continue to think that there is nothing wrong despite the fact that over a thousand human starships are flying right past their sensors."

That sounded nice, but Ves did not believe the aliens that had occupied the Palace of Shame for centuries if not longer could be fooled that easily.

They wouldn't have been able to survive for so long if their detection network could be subverted with so much ease!

"This star system is too unfriendly towards technology." Calabast stated. "The aliens do not have the wealth to invest in expensive, shielded listening devices that are much harder to deal with. It is much more economic in the long term to rely on inherently disposable detection machines. No matter whether they are based on alien programming or circuitry, their simplistic nature means that it is easy for our scientists and engineers to crack, especially if the MTA has already deciphered the relevant alien race's tech base."

"What if we're dealing with biotechnology instead?"

Calabast smirked. "We have already dealt with a number of bioconstructs. The exobiologists at the Larkinson Biotech Institute along with the biotech experts working for the other pioneering groups have already taken care of the biomachines that we have detected so far. The Santana Group owns numerous biotech companies that employ far more senior researchers than anyone else, and the Gemini Family also happens to be competent in this field due to its interest in genetics."

This was the advantage of banding together with different pioneering organizations. Their diverse competences and activities granted them advantages that provided a lot of value in the right situations.

Ves had little doubt that the Larkinson Biotech Institute would play an especially crucial role in every interaction with alien races or native exobeasts.

The Palace of Shame probably contained a lot of weirdness. It would be handy to have the relevant experts on hand to judge the value of strange alien goods.

"Do you really think the aliens haven't noticed our approach as of yet?" Ves remained skeptical. "According to the briefing given by the Geminis, the orven race has maintained a foothold in the Palace of Shame for a long time. The orvens have definitely become a part of its core power structure due to their strength and technological might. Have our scouts detected any devices that are derived from orven technology?"

Calabast's smile dropped a bit. "No. We haven't. We admit that there is a chance that the orvens have already detected our approach through the use of extremely well-hidden sensor systems, but there is nothing we can do about it. This is also why the Gemini Family doesn't want to delay too much. We need to strike before the alien pirates can prepare a more organized welcoming party for our troops."

"Then why are we slowing down?"

"Isn't the answer obvious? We should already be close to our destination. The Geminis have probably dispatched covert scouting units in advance in order to determine the current state of the Palace of Shame. Once they have received the most up-to-date information about the disposition of the alien pirate forces, we can tweak our attack plan one last time before we begin to take action."

Everything was happening a bit too fast for his liking. Ves did not feel entirely comfortable with how the initiative was being grasped by someone other than himself.

Still, that didn't entirely explain his unease. During Operation Saturday Market, he had little to no problem with letting the Hex Army take charge.

Though he didn't particularly like General Alisky Victrix, he trusted the Hexers not to screw him over.

He did not possess the same confidence in the Gemini Family. The other pioneering groups were all strangers who only cared about their own interests. They had very little reason to show any extra regard to their allies.

This made it difficult for them to maximize their collective strengths, but it also prevented the pioneering groups from getting into each other's way. _{frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓}

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