The Mech Touch

By this time, the spatial fluctuations had already started to weaken as the spatial hole grew smaller. The fabric of space innately sought to correct irregularities, so it did not surprise Ves to see that this hole was slowly shrinking.

It made him feel even better about his decision to stay away from whatever crazy scheme the Cerebral King was trying to pull off in the Royal Tomb.

"Get out of here, Joshua! Try your best to preserve the Phase King\'s brain while you\'re at it. Don\'t squish it so hard. Let\'s not damage it more than necessary!"

This was easy to say but hard to execute. How could a mech possibly limit the damage done to an amputated brain that was exposed to a turbulent spatial environment?!

However, Venerable Joshua wasn\'t an average mech pilot and the Everchanger wasn\'t that normal either.

Compared to other combinations, the two possessed a number of advantages, one of which was their high affinity towards life!

Venerable Joshua didn\'t even need Ves\' instructions to experiment with its powers and channel a resonating energy onto the giant king fish brain to help with keeping it alive.

Together with the fact that fish-whale organs were much tougher and more resilient than human organs, the brain somehow managed to continue to retain its vitality by the time the expert mech reached the supply train.

Ves had already transmitted instructions beforehand, so a crew had already made the appropriate preparations.

The Everchanger carefully placed the amputated brain inside a hastily-sanitized container that soon closed up in order to do its utmost to preserve the biological matter.

Though the device was hardly up to the task of keeping an organ as complex as preserving a giant alien brain, Ves at least hoped that it would buy enough time for the package to be delivered to the Dragon\'s Den.

The Larkinson Biotech Institute should be able to do the rest!

"Evacuate now! Let\'s return straight back to the Gate Continent! We need to pull out as much of our assets as we can from this side of the spatial gate in case the Cerebral King is about to destroy everything!"

Although Ves had no idea whether the Cerebral King had any designs on Purgatory, he did not deem it wise to stick around any further!

His extensive experiences in living through various disasters had long suppressed his curiosity and desire to get to the bottom of whatever grand schemes the masterminds sought to realize.

Exploring new sights and coming across amazing new phenomena sounded like great ways to get inspired, but the premise of this was that he had to be able to survive the events in question.

Right now, his instincts were screaming danger!

The surviving elements of the task force eagerly retreated from the battlefield and made its way straight back to the Gate Continent.

They did not even bother to divert too much in order to keep their distance from the various asteroids occupied by the Swarmer fish-whales. That would take up too much time and Ves didn\'t think they had much left!

One of the difficulties they experienced during this tense journey was the need to drag along the various mechs whose mech pilots had recently broken through.

After the likes of Jessica Quentin, Vincent Ricklin, Isobel Kotin, Olivia Remis and Eona Ballentine broke through, much of the energy that they had accumulated burst out at once.

While this allowed them to temporarily wield the awesome power of forced resonance, the consequence was that the pilots became utterly drained to the point of becoming incomparably weak!

None of the lucky bastards were able to retain their consciousness after they had their moments of glory.

In a few cases, the mech pilots even overburdened their poor mechs to the point where they had practically collapsed!

These were actually easy to handle. Their bodies could easily be retrieved from their cockpits and be put inside shuttles where they received the care they needed.

As for those that were still stuck inside mechs that were somewhat intact, the mech forces needed to handle them a bit more delicately.

It was an enormous waste to leave the mechs behind, especially when they were alive.

The Quint, the B-Man, the Valkyrie Brunhilds and so on had all received an enormous amount of spiritual feedback from the overflowing energies released by their pilots as they underwent apotheosis!

Even the mechs that hosted the mech pilots turned expert candidates also siphoned a lot of benefits!

Each of these machines had either evolved into third order living mechs in a single step or came a lot closer to reaching this major threshold.

Given that the core of Ves\' design philosophy was related to the growth of any living mech, the opportunity to instantly double or triple the number of third-order living mechs within the expeditionary fleet was too tempting to resist!

Besides, Ves didn\'t think the Everchanger and the other living mechs of his clan would be happy with him if he ordered the task force to abandon all of those precious mechs.

At least the Everchanger didn\'t nag him about retrieving the remains of the more ordinary living mechs. That would simply be too much!

"C\'mon! We\'re almost back home again!"

In the end, Task Force Fisherman managed to make the journey back to Fort Fishblood without bumping into any Swarmer hordes or spatial anomalies.

In order to give the base occupants as much time to evacuate as possible, Commander Casella had already sent out the Dark Zephyr in advance to convey the news of the battle and what happened next.

Ves received a lot of angry and confused messages from various people as the Everchanger managed to gain a remote connection to Fort Fishblood\'s internal network.

Fortunately, the people stationed in Fort Fishblood weren\'t stupid. They had always assumed that they might have to pack up and leave as soon as possible in case an emergency happened.

Though no one knew what the Cerebral King was doing and how long it would take for it to finish its business, getting away as fast as possible was of paramount importance!

"Don\'t bother with packing up the goods that are strewn about! Just pick up the crates that are still full and go! If there are too many of them, then just leave behind the ones that are worth less! These material goods aren\'t as important as our own lives!"

A flow of mechs and shuttles constantly poured through the active spatial gate with whatever goods that they could easily take away.

The expeditionary forces didn\'t even bother to dismantle the prefab structures and walls. These were all made of bulk materials that could easily be replaced at a later date.

As soon as the remnants of Task Force Fisherman returned, numerous mechs and shuttles received priority access to the spatial gate.

The Everchanger, the mechs that had undergone their own breakthrough events and the shuttles carrying all of the newly-advanced expert candidates and expert pilots went straight through.

Once they arrived back into normal space, they quickly exited the expanded underground mining site and ascended straight back towards the fleet orbiting Iron Crusher.

Ves didn\'t have time to address the matters concerning the evacuation or the disposition of all of the plundered loot.

As soon as the Everchanger landed inside the Spirit of Bentheim, he hopped out of the cockpit with Lucky and quickly headed over to the bridge.

During this time, he received constant updates from various people.

"We have detected faint spatial fluctuations from Garimel I, otherwise known as the planet of Auralis." General Verle reported.

"Huh? Where are you getting this information?" Ves asked as his armored form neared the blast doors leading to the bridge.

"We have been studying Auralis intermittently ever since we initially explored it. We have not detected any obvious curiosities or anomalies on the heavy metal planet, but the fact that it is rich with various materials has made it a point of interest. We have planted a string of communication relays between Auralis and Lemogo Distat that allows any scout ship stationed near the former to transmit real-time data without getting interrupted by the strong radiation from the blue supergiant star."

Ves frowned in concern. "Have we detected any unusual activity from the powerful star itself?"

"Thankfully, no. The star is still exhibiting normal activity. We do not expect it to eject a major wave of solar wind anytime soon."

"Alright. Let\'s continue with the evacuation. Don\'t waste any time on retrieving our hardware and other heavy goods. We just plundered a huge amount of phasewater and that alone can pay back everything we have lost and more!"

"We understand. We are already pulling out at the fastest possible pace. Our fleet will be ready to leave Iron Crusher\'s orbit in half an hour."

That was quite fast. Ves did not have any reason to complain about this pace. He knew it would still take a lot of time for all of the mechs and shuttles to return to their respective carriers.

When Ves finally managed to enter the bridge, he took up his usual seat while Lucky floated around.

"Meow."

"Not now. You can worry about having your meal after we have left this star system!"

"Meow meow!"

Once he settled down in his seat, he called up a large amount of projected information panels and accessed a lot of different information.

Soon enough, Ves learned that the evacuation was proceeding on schedule. The Dragon\'s Den received the Phase King\'s brain as well as all of the fish-whale organs plundered from the battlefield.

The exobiologists already generated enough experience in handling the previous batch of fish-whale organs to save and preserve the next batch that Task Force Fisherman had crudely pulled out of the bodies of slain fish-whales.

Though Ves worried a lot about the state of the Phase King\'s brain as well as the powerful spirit that was attached to it, this was no time for him to assess his gains.

As several minutes went by, it finally dawned on Ves that he needed to notify the MTA of the latest developments.

While he was certain that they already knew everything that had happened, Ves still had to go through the motions and follow the right procedures.

He took a deep breath and hailed Jovy Armalon directly.

In any case, talking to Jovy was much better than talking to a faceless mecher officer or bureaucrat.

When Jovy\'s projection appeared in front of Ves, the MTA Journeyman threw him an odd look.

"I read all of the reports and watched all of the archival footage we have of your various \'explorations\', but this is something else. I think you have outdone yourself, Ves. Few people in the Red Ocean could have colluded with an ancient but intelligent alien organism before subsequently helping it attain huge advantages that allowed it to trigger a pre-prepared evolutionary process that might possibly resurrect the most powerful alien tyrant that the Red Ocean has ever seen."

What could Ves say to this? He shrugged and smiled in the most innocent manner that he could manage.

"I admit that the situation did indeed spiral out of our control, but I\'m sure that this is not a problem for the mighty Mech Trade Association. Since you mechers are so eager to lay claim to the phase whale enclave that we have discovered, I am sure that you are eager to take responsibility over this site as soon as possible."

This was a rather lame-sounding point and both of them knew it. Ves was sweating inside his Unending Regalia as he nervously awaited the MTA\'s reaction to his antics. He did not exactly keep Purgatory and the Royal Tomb in good order when he and his forces left!

Jovy gave Ves a long and judging look before he minutely shook his head. "We will need to have a good discussion about what exactly you and your troops have done while you were inside the pocket space. There are numerous people above me who are highly interested in learning about how your small task force has managed to produce a higher than average rate of breakthroughs in a single battle. I trust that you will be ready to give us an extensive briefing."

"Ah. Yes. Of course. I am happy to share my insights." Ves hastily replied.

Before Jovy could say anything more, a small shock ran through the entire hull of the Spirit of Bentheim.

"What just happened?!"

"Sir! Auralis… the planet… it\'s cracking!"

"What!?"