The Mech Touch novel Chapter 4580

Ves studied the schematic of the 'Tower of Babel' with an increasingly more complicated expression.

His specialists had only scratched the surface of this mysterious hybrid warship so far, but what they managed to uncover so far was already enough to create an uproar among the pioneering community of the new frontier!

From what he had learned from keeping up with the news, most of the major alien races were incredibly proud of their own technological advances and disliked making use of products developed by other species.

If they were forced to adopt a powerful technological innovation that had the potential to alter the balance of power, their respective scientists and engineers preferred to adapt the tech and develop their own products based on the same principles.

That was not the case here. The Tower of Babel nakedly made use of tech derived from several alien races that did not have a history of working together, at least to this degree.

The only alien race that explicitly incorporated technology derived from other alien races was the puelmers. The ball-like aliens possessed no shame and often rushed the implementation of alien technology into their latest vessels.

The next element only reinforced the suspicion that the puelmers might have built this ship.

"What of… the hull plating?"

"Given the alarming implications of our initial conclusions, we performed a careful investigation with many different specialists who have expertise in this area." Vivian Tsai stated. "After an exhausting search where we have made extensive comparisons between the sensor readings of the exterior plating and technical data available in many different databases, we have found a tentative match."

She waved her hand again, causing a new projection to appear that displayed a short product summary of a relatively recent starship hull plating formula.

"This… is a first-class commercial-grade product!" Ves gasped. "The materials used to produce all of this hull plating is unaffordable to us. Many of the key materials consist of first-class exotics that are only found in the upper zones."

"That is correct. Gugar Systems released the Arma-Lite DTT-F4 as a fairly premium option to clad a starship with decent protection without requiring too much mass. It is designed to be applied to fairly thin and light hull plating, though it can also be employed in thicker plating in order to add better protection to more critical ship sections. In any case, Arma-Lite DTT-F4 hull plating has proven to be a cost-effective solution. The fact that it does not incorporate phasewater is both a cost-saving measure and a significant weakness."

"Hmm. I understand."

If the warship was clad with transphasic hull plating, then the ship would truly be invincible. Her defensive performance would definitely be on par with the performance of MTA and CFA warships!

It was well-known that the Big Two had developed vastly superior hull plating that made their warships several times tougher than the starships of typical first-class states.

This was already the case well before phasewater became widespread. Ves could scarcely imagine how much tougher they would become once the MTA and CFA accumulated enough phasewater to fund the construction of a previously unheard-of superdreadnought!

"The defensive properties of DTT-F4 hull plating is good but not exceptional." Vivian continued her explanation. "However, that only applies in cases where the ship in question only has access to old school human energy shields. When DTT-F4 hull plating is working in tandem with orven energy shield generators, this 1.7 kilometer warship may just as difficult to destroy than the 3.2 kilometer long V'gahnt-Zezne."

Ves looked alarmed when he heard this conclusion. "The Tower of Babel's estimated mass and volume is several times smaller than the orven battleship that we had previously managed to take down. Are you sure about this claim?"

The chief shipwright did not show any doubt. "I know what I am talking about. Just as you are able to deduce the outcome of a duel between two different mechs, I can simulate the performance of a warship quite well in my mind. According to my judgment and that of others, the defensive strength of this warship is several times better than the outdated V'gahnt-Zezne that we managed to put out of her misery. It also helps that the Tower of Babel is much more modern. Since DTT-F4 has only been released to the public less than four years ago, it is highly probable that the battleship that we are examining is even younger."

A new alien battleship. Great. Combined with the fact that the operators of the Tower of Babel were so obviously familiar with humans that they already figured out how to fight against human mech forces, Ves would not want to confront this intimidating warship on an open battlefield!

He looked up at Vivian again. "Have you identified any other alien or human tech?"

"We did find a number of suspicious matches, but we cannot confirm our guesses due to the poor-quality observation data. It's probably not that important. The tech and design elements that I have previously mentioned are the most dominant factors that have shaped the exterior of the Tower of Babel."

"How effective is she in combat? Does our fleet stand a chance against this powerful vessel?"

"I do not think we stand a chance if we attack her by ourselves." Vivian said. "We don't have the firepower. We would need the Thunderer Mark II as well as the other ace mechs we fought alongside with not too long ago to make a dent in the Tower of Babel's powerful orven transphasic segmented energy shields and human hull plating. In the meantime, her puelmer weapon batteries will wipe our mechs, shatter our fleet and overwhelm the defenses of the Mars."

Ves frowned deeper. "The Mars truly doesn't stand a chance?"

"No. We are talking about a true first-class battleship. Even if she is on the smaller end of battleships, the scale and the estimated power of her armaments are so overwhelming that the Mars at least needs the support of a half-squad of ace mechs to put the Tower of Babel at a disadvantage."

The Golden Skull Alliance clearly did not have 6 additional ace mechs on call. The old temporary coalition had broken apart a few weeks ago. There was no way for Ves to call the gang back together as all of them had left the Boryon System in different directions.

The closest acquaintance that he could call upon was the Third Fleet of the Adelaide Mercenary Corps, but even then it would take at least two weeks or so for it to arrive in the Ramage Repulsor System.

Ves did not trust any of the other pioneering fleets that were lingering in the surrounding star systems. They were more likely to screw his fleet over than to cooperate honestly.

Verify captcha to read the contentVerify