The battle against the Titania had tentatively come to an end. As time passed by, the giant astral beast that had woken up and attacked the expeditionary fleet showed no apparent signs of life.
Its flesh was cooling. Its gray blood was spilling out into the vacuum and froze into crystals. Its heavily-damaged exterior was no longer consolidating but instead became more damaged as its vulnerable structure became exposed to the harsh conditions of space.
Every indication showed that the Titania was finally dead.
Yet was this really the case? The Golden Skull Alliance got fooled once and did not want to get fooled again. To that end, the Larkinsons, Glory Seekers and Crossers did not command their mechs to continue fire, but still kept them at full readiness.
A few mechs rotated back to their respective motherships in order to quickly replenish their energy ammunition and energy cells. Aside from that, every other machine could go back to firing their weapons at the Titania at any time.
Nothing happened for a while as the Larkinsons investigated the Titania’s damaged and inactive body.
First, the Everchanger flew inside the hole that the other expert mechs had passed through earlier. Though Venerable Joshua had exhausted much of his mental condition in order to unleash the most powerful battle formation attack to date, he was still able to perform fairly simple maneuvers.
The young expert pilot rubbed his eyes as exhaustion set upon his mind. It truly took a lot of energy in order to direct the Superior Mother’s immense death formation attack earlier.
“I shouldn’t do that again unless I’m sure I can end the battle with my actions.”
YOUR WILL IS WEAK.
“Geee, thanks for saying the obvious, Everchanger.”
GROWTH IS OUR GREATEST STRENGTH. WHAT IS WEAK WILL GROW STRONG.
“All of that takes time. What is the point of waiting years or decades for us to get up to strength when we are already encountering enemies like the Titania? While we managed to defeat this beast without suffering any losses, it didn’t look like it was in good shape to begin with. Who knows what would happen to us if we fought it when it was at its peak.”
The battle was a giant wakeup call for everyone in the expeditionary fleet. While their 2-year MTA protection period enabled them to venture into the new frontier without worrying about attack from human forces, the Red Ocean was still home to countless alien species!
Whether they were intelligent or not, every non-human entity that was capable of traveling the stars were by no means weak! Some could even give the MTA and CFA’s warfleets a run for their money, so how could a second-class organization like the Larkinson Clan stand a chance against these threats?
Many people in the fleet began to feel more depressed once they realized how much worse this battle could have proceeded. Even if the zones swept by the Big Two had been cleared of all major threats, plenty of alien stragglers managed to slip through the cracks.
It was always a gamble to see whether these unknown but undoubtedly hostile entities were strong or weak. Unlike back in the galactic rim, the power level of these aliens swung wildly depending on their race and origin. A poor encounter could easily lead into a clash against an alien ship whose power was comparable to that of a CFA cruiser!
“We need to make a lot of changes after this battle.” Joshua predicted.
Firepower was the main shortcoming of the expeditionary fleet. There was nothing wrong with the Larkinson Clan’s ranged capabilities as long as it fought against typical human forces. The Larkinson Army had enough guns to wipe out entire mech regiments before they came close!
However, from a galactic perspective, all the Larkinson mech legions possessed was quantity. Even the artillery cannons of the Transcendent Punishers had proven to be too light and meager to deal substantial damage against massive beasts or alien warships.
Though Joshua wasn’t a mech designer, even he could clearly tell what the Larkinsons needed to do in order to stand a better chance against supermassive threats.
“We need bigger guns.”
Just the journey through the flesh tunnel gave him a deeper understanding how desperately the Larkinsons needed more firepower. There was no way the clan could continue to rely on its trump cards such as its battle formations to drill through all of this thick and resilient biomatter.
“We’re lucky that we only encountered a single astral beast.”
What if the Titania wasn’t alone? What if the expeditionary fleet had to fight against a small family of astral beasts?
It took several battle formations to neutralize just a single giant astral beast. After that, the Eye of Ylvaine, the Swordmaidens and the Penitent Sisters would no longer be able to repeat their feats!
The prospect of having to fight against several of these giant beasts with mech-grade weapons made him feel pained.
In warship terms, the armaments of a mech were the equivalent of secondary guns!
Secondary guns were only suitable for intercepting mechs, starfighters, missiles, drones and other ‘light’ targets. Warships came equipped with them in order to deal more efficiently against swarms and to avoid utilizing their main cannons against unworthy threats.
Though Joshua didn’t quite think about it, he vaguely understood that the Big Two’s prohibition against warships and warship-grade weapons put early pioneers at a heavy disadvantage.
This was the price for getting first dibs on the Red Ocean. By moving earlier than other humans, the early arrivals also had to deal with lingering threats that could end their entire fleets in a single day.
All of this made Joshua more urgent to improve than ever. The fire in his heart burned hotter as all of his earlier complacency disappeared. He finally recognized that the Red Ocean was just as dangerous as the Nyxian Gap, if not more!
THE MORE YOU RECOGNIZE YOUR INADEQUACIES, THE MORE YOU WILL GROW. NEVER FORGET THIS FEELING.
“How the hell do you know how to use words like ‘inadequacies’?” Joshua asked. “Do mechs like you get born with a high school education or something? How does this even work?”
…
Soon enough, Joshua had to set aside his current thoughts and get back to the matter at hand.
The lights shining from his mech illuminated the dark and fleshy cavern that comprised the astral beast’s interior.
Much of it had already been damaged or destroyed. Joshua could easily recognize which mechs went to work. The giant sliced and diced pieces of flesh must have been the handiwork of Venerable Dise while the large portions of charred and burned flesh must have been the handiwork of Patriarch Reginald.
The Everchanger stopped in place as Joshua closed his eyes and carefully attuned his will to his surroundings.
It was a lot harder for him to do this after he had led a battle formation earlier, but it was no problem for him to sense signs of life.
“Have you discovered anything, Mr. Joshua?” Patriarch Reginald Cross asked as his Bolvos Rage flew to a stop next to the Everchanger. “According to my instincts, the Titania should be dead. At the very least, I believe it is no longer a threat.”
Joshua didn’t answer immediately. He tried his best to use his sensitivity to his advantage, but did not sense much of anything.
However, the longer he searched, the more he began to sense… echoes for a lack of a better word.
It was as if a massive living presence used to be here but had left not too long ago, leaving some sort of imprint of its existence behind.
Was this death, or something else?
“I… can’t say anything with certainty.” Joshua respectfully answered the patriarch of an allied clan. “My guess is that the Titania is truly dead, but… who knows how these astral beasts work.”
He spent ten minutes scouring through the internal cavity. Though he encountered more and more echoes, they all started to fade over time. It was as if the Titania had already departed from this plane of existence.
The more Joshua observed the devastation around him, the more he became certain that the creature was dead.
Though he did not feel qualified at all to issue any judgments on the Titania’s current state, the Larkinsons needed an answer. He transmitted his findings and made sure to convey his doubts as well.
In the end, the Golden Skull Alliance decided the Titania was dead enough to begin plundering its spoils!
“Keep our mechs on standby but maintain a greater rotation. Our mech pilots deserve longer breaks, particularly the ones that have just formed battle formations. Begin probing the carcass with bots but hold off on sending any manned exploration parties. Don’t forget about the ruined flesh torpedoes and other pieces of biomatter that are floating away from us. Tell the geeks over at the Dragon’s Den to examine as much data on the Titania as possible. We need solid confirmation about the actual state of the astral beast before I will allow them to head inside the giant corpse.”
The Golden Skull Alliance switched from battle mode to examination mode. The mechs were no longer the main protagonists. That honor went to the biotech researchers that were predominantly based on the Dragon’s Den.
The half-biological research vessel had already flown a bit closer in order to improve the effectiveness of her bio-oriented sensors and scanners.
At the same time, many of the scientists inside were gleefully interpreting everything they saw. Many different theories circulated throughout the research labs and it was difficult to determine which ones were accurate.
At least the Larkinson Clan had enough skilled and knowledgeable personnel to examine the Titania. Neither the Glory Seekers nor the Crossers possessed enough exobiologists to perform a comprehensive examination of a giant astral beast!
“What have you found out so far?” Ves asked Director Ranya’s projection.
“The Titania should indeed be dead.” She answered with greater certainty than before. “We have tentatively managed to decipher the meaning and purpose of the strange organs our expert mechs have destroyed. Based on many different clues, we think that a number of them regulated important functions such as energy production, energy transfer and blood circulation. As long as the subject is no longer able to conduct these functions, I can hardly imagine the beast can properly function anymore. Energy is vital to any life form, and a creature of this size requires vastly more of it than we can ever expend in a decade.”
The bigger the organism, the greater their power consumption. This was an easy concept to understand to Ves. It pretty much worked the same way for mechs, starships, cities and so on. The lack of heat and energy was a pretty obvious signal that the Titania wouldn’t be waking up anytime soon.
“Let’s take it slow.” Ves decided. “While there is a risk that other aliens might drop into this star system, I don’t want to act too carelessly around the carcass. Please continue to examine it from a distance until your drones have found out what they can. Be sure to prioritize any rare and valuable exotics the beast might possess. There has to be phasewater somewhere inside. We recently purchased a lot of sensors that can sniff this material out. Make good use of them as nothing is more important than getting our hands on our first batch of phasewater.”
As Ves gazed at the distant corpse that had gone completely cold, he was already looking forward to stepping inside the beast himself.
He was not content with staying aboard the Spirit of Bentheim. Ves had never encountered a single life form that was this big and massive in his life. Just the thought of stepping inside its huge body made his blood race!
“Meow?” Lucky gazed suspiciously at Ves.
“Hehehehe.” Ves deviously chuckled as he grabbed his cat. “If nothing goes wrong, we’re about to go on a little excursion!”
“Meow!”
