The Mech Touch - Chapter 7344
Chapter 7344: A New Pandora’s Box
After Ves completed his inspection of the Riot Mark III, he entrusted all of the remaining matters concerning the D-mech to his wife.
Though Gloriana developed a strong interest in the captured Ixith Goliath, she could not contribute that much to the discussion and examinations at this stage.
She definitely intended to get involved when the research progressed to a stage where people tried to translate their gains into brand-new design applications.
Even then, her interest in the ability to generate stolen resonance was not as high as others.
After all, she became a mech designer to develop machines that fit their users perfectly.
Instead of designing mechs that already came pre-baked with borrowed willpower, she would rather design a mech that could draw out the potential of any mech pilot and allow them to undergo natural breakthroughs.
Only the strength that belonged to themselves was invincible.
Everything else was temporal.
That said, Gloriana did not discount the value of stolen resonance. The proportion of people who engaged in willpower cultivation was destined to remain small. Not everyone was cut out to become an exemplary soldier or warrior.
She would feel much safer if she ventured the stars on a warship that could generate her own form of resonance to protect herself against a wide spectrum of possible attacks.
Of course, she did not expect to see any results in the near future. This was why she reined in her expectations and managed to remain calm.
“Go have fun, Ves. Just make sure that you remind them all that the existence of our latest masterwork is the only reason why they managed to collect such a grand prize. Do not let them dismiss the contributions made by our clan. Saint Orfan deserves to be acknowledged for this historic accomplishment.”
Ves adopted a serious expression. “I haven’t forgotten, honey. I will make sure those guys won’t forget us anytime soon.”
As he left the workshop, he thought about how his forces fared in this battle.
The Ascended Giants definitely screwed up. He and the Dark Apostle already took the possibility of suffering losses into account, but when they actually occurred, he still felt caught off-guard.
He did not expect the human phase lords to perform so poorly against a single Level 8 Goliath.
While they had acquitted themselves decently well against Level 7 and lower Goliaths, that only meant that the giants were capable of bullying the weak and barely holding their ground against their equals.
It was very clear that the Ascended Giants was very much a work-in-progress. They lacked tempering and still struggled to find their niche in a fast-changing dwarf galaxy.
“They need to distinguish themselves and find a purpose that they can fulfill better than mechs.” Ves made a preliminary conclusion.
The ability to harness the power of stolen resonance may be an opportunity for his subordinates to close the gap with ace mechs.
Even if borrowed willpower was only a fraction as strong as the Saint Kingdom of genuine ace pilots, the former had a powerful advantage over the latter.
The distributed intelligence model debuted by the mutated voribugs was highly scaleable.
This was an incredible data point, and one that drove many people mad!
Ves could not contain his excitement either.
Now that the urgency of battle had subsided, Ves was able to relax and let his mind wander.
He leisurely boarded a shuttle that flew towards the Rubarthan research vessel in charge of conducting initial examinations on the captured research specimen.
Many other people flocked to the same research ship.
Although the pre-planned evacuation of non-essential personnel left the Philaster Crestia System with a dearth of senior R&D personnel, there were still a number of mid-and-lower level personnel left that could perform scans and initial observations.
Every major player paid close attention to the Ixith Goliath, so the research vessel welcomed dozens of different shuttles from multiple important organizations.
Naturally, security became an important concern. One of the Rubarthan ace mechs had forgone rest in order to stand guard and keep an eye on all of the scientists and engineers.
Warships and mechs hailing from the Rubarthan Pact, the Red Three and the Cybernetic Empire jointly maintained an expansive perimeter guard around the vessel and the Goliath in question.
The Rubarthans even salvaged a large amount of metal debris to quickly construct a makeshift isolation chamber around the crown prize.
The spherical tomb did not look makeshift in the slightest. The Rubarthans utilized their best military construction machines on hand to process and reshape the random alloys into a structurally strong and sound space laboratory.
They had already begun to install azure energy shield generators to upgrade its protection even further.
Nobody wanted to see anyone causing any accidents. Security remained high due to fears that others might want to ruin this opportunity to study the first known alien creature that possessed the capacity of extraordinary willpower.
Word had already spread far wide across human-occupied space.
The news could not be suppressed considering how many different linefighters from the Rubarthan Pact and beyond participated in the recent battle.
The reaction from mech pilots and mech designers was surprisingly mixed.
While there were plenty of people who welcomed this development and looked forward to gaining access to the power of stolen resonance, others felt that the very existence of the Ixith Goliath and everything related to it should be declared taboo!
Many news portals and publications have already started to give voice to the opposition!
“Haven’t you forgotten where its stolen resonance came from?! The Incubator that birthed this hellspawn devoured several expert pilots! The big Goliath must have absorbed their bodies and kept them captive. Is this how you want to treat our demigods in the future!? We cannot allow our greedy leaders to transform our heroes into willpower batteries!”
“Mere mortals do not deserve to wield the power of resonance. The naming of stolen resonance apt, because it does not belong to them in the first place. Stop this research and destroy this abomination immediately! Do not let its existence tempt us into transforming divinity into another commodity!”
“Are you all stupid?! If those eggheads manage to reverse engineer the principles that the captured monster relies on to produce stolen resonance, how can we meet the demand for strong willpower? The only sources of that are exceptional human beings! Expert pilots are essential to defending our territories and keeping up morale with their powerful expert mechs. They cannot possibly be used for other purposes. As for swordmasters, each of them are model citizens who are infallibly honest and pure. Stealing their willpower will open up an ethical Pandora’s box that will stain our people and civilization forever!”
People voiced valid concerns and doubts about the latest discovered phenomenon.
Red humanity couldn’t possibly convert willpower cultivators into willpower batteries, right?
The mere idea of turning their honored heroes and champions into extraordinary batteries to empower warships and larger installations provoked a heated debate across human-occupied space!
The temptations were too strong!
For the first time since the start of the Age of Mechs, humans gained an opportunity to break the ‘true resonance monopoly’.
Expert pilots, ace pilots and most notably god pilots had long kept the power of changing reality with their powerful will in their grasp.
Few people ever faulted them for that because it was truly a power that could only be borne from the most exceptional of warriors.
True resonance was their well-deserved reward.
For centuries, hardly anyone thought to question their monopoly on this extraordinary force.
Many clandestine attempts had been made to ‘transplant’ this phenomenon to other devices, but none of them had yielded any reproducible successes.
That had changed on this day.
Not humans, but aliens managed to break the monopoly!
That was one of the most absurd aspects about this development.
Humans had familiarized themselves with extraordinary willpower and true resonance for more than 4 centuries, and possibly much longer considering the long heritage of traditional swordsmanship.
Yet despite their expansive expertise in these phenomena, it took the early breakthrough of an alien race and a swarm-based one at that to do what they had long considered to be impossible!
The mutated voribug race embarrassed red humanity.
The former basically proved that the latter had become complacent and close-minded towards the phenomenon of extraordinary willpower.
In other words, humans had lost the ability to innovate in this field of science!
Naturally, this damaged the pride of a large number of scientists and engineers. Many of them felt eager to redeem themselves by working hard on converting the latest research gains into solid new design applications!
It was too bad that the vast majority of them had no chance of getting their foot in the door, especially at this early stage.
Ves did not concern himself over the complaints of the unqualified.
As his shuttle landed in the congested hangar bay of the research ship, he exited the vehicle and went through a mandatory security examination before he was allowed to go through.
A short time later, he entered one of the laboratories where a small army of junior researchers conducted basic examinations and experiments on biological tissue samples.
While the Ixith Goliath remained confined in stasis, it was not impossible to carefully dig out pieces of flesh without disrupting the ongoing effect.
Now, these young and eager researchers gained the privilege of conducting the first physical studies on the valuable alien flesh!
Ves did not pay attention to all of these trivial activities and instead moved over to a small briefing room where several important representatives had already gathered.
“Hello, everyone.”
“Ves.”
Multiple familiar faces greeted the latest arrival.
Ves noticed that this was not necessarily a gathering of the highest-ranking officials in the Philaster Crestia System, but all of them possessed the qualifications to speak on behalf of their respective powers.
Lord Richard Brownstone of the Rubarthan Pact looked eager to make progress.
Professor Jovy Armalon of the Survivalist Faction showed the least amount of enthusiasm towards this development.
Professor Vector Loban of the Transhumanist Faction could hardly keep in his excitement at all of the amazing research that could flow out of their latest prize.
Commodore Zonrad Reze of the Red Fleet did not even hide the desperation of his entire superorganization towards this game-changing opportunity.
Formation Master Andrea Vos of the Red Collective looked more intrigued than anything.
Ves knew these people and their respective organizations well enough to deduce their interests and arguments.
Two more individuals had arrived as well. Ves had never met them before, but they quickly introduced themselves to the tier 2 galactic citizen.
A fierce-looking bearded man covered in exobeast trappings bumped his fist against his chest.
“Hail, mech designer and warrior! I am Eric Manot, the most senior Hunter in this star system. I have been invited to this meeting in order to speak on behalf of the Hunting Association. I do have to warn you that I cannot agree too much without consulting my superiors.”
That was understandable since the Hunting Association maintained a light presence in the Philaster Crestia System.
The absence of an untamed planet meant that the Hunters mainly busied themselves with controlling the much more tame artificial wilderness regions of Philaster Crestia III.
The other individual who displayed obvious metallic implants on her head and arms introduced herself as well.
“Dr. Gabriella Chamois of the Energy Weapon Tower of the Cybernetic Empire. I was temporarily attached to the detachment of the 24th Gamma Scorchers before my superiors assigned me to monitor and supervise this temporary research group. It is an honor to meet you, professor.”
Ves smiled back. “Welcome, everyone. I guess we have a lot to talk about. Since I have the highest galactic citizenship tier, I will take charge of this meeting. Any objections?”
It may have been a little presumptuous for him to do so, but this was how he should play the game.
There was no reason for him to concede the initiative this time!