The Mech Touch (Web Novel)-Chapter 6895 Red Collective Offers

Ves wanted to hear more details on what kind of forces the Phase Lord Department and the Enforcement Department were willing to contribute to the Bluejay Fleet.

Since both of them competed against each other, their offers should not be too bad, or else they would lose too easily to their rivals.

"Let's start with the offer of the Phase Lord Department. What can I expect?"

Eliza activated a projection that displayed a familiar troop of human phase lords clad in light blue and purple coated raiments.

"You should already be familiar with the Ur-Titan Phalanx. This is the first organized unit of human phase lords and serves as the model of all subsequent phalanxes. The Ur-Titans have come to develop a more defense-oriented approach towards combat. This is partially because they are assigned to guard duties more often than not, but it is also because they are equipped with heavier and more cumbersome raiments."

"Sounds expensive."

"It is." Eliza replied while switching the projection to display a different unit of human phase lords. "The Phase Lord Department has instead offered to send 12 soldiers of its more recent Flesh Chopper Phalanx. Different from the Ur-Titans, the Flesh Choppers are armed with lighter raiments and large battleaxes."

"So what are they good at?" Ves asked even though he could already make a good guess.

"The Flesh Choppers are considerably more suited for offensive operations and have focused most of their training in this aspect. They can fight as a standalone unit or in a combined arms force. They can even be used in ambushes as they can hide their folded bodies inside a stealth shuttle until it is time for them to go into action. Doing this will deprive them of much of their equipment, though. Their raiments and weapons cannot change in size, so if the Flesh Choppers are used in stealth assaults, they will have to fight without their best gear at their disposal."

That sounded interesting. Even without any hard weapons and armor, Ves could easily foresee this being useful in many different situations!

As long as a stealth shuttle managed to get close enough to an unsuspecting alien fleet or stronghold, 12 human phase lords could appear by surprise and unleash devastation by relying on their scale and their spatial abilities alone!

Even in direct combat, 12 human phase lords that were trained to fight as a single unit could make themselves very useful in a variety of situations.

While their phase lord cultivation was relatively low, their gear along with their teamwork should enable them to hold out pretty well against multiple lesser as well as greater phase lords!

This was especially the case when Ves saw that their gear was relatively special.

"Is their gear superdimensional?" He questioned.

"Sharp observation. You are correct, but it is not what you think. Unlike the better-equipped Ur-Titan Phalanx, the Flesh Chopper Phalanx are only entitled to receive hull-grade low-concentration superdimensional equipment. The superdimensional alloys are 'watered down' compared to the high-quality ones used in your latest ace mech. While their defensive performance is inferior, they still offer considerably superior protection compared to transphasic equipment."

That made sense. It was more economical to lower the proportion of superdimensional matter in alloys. Such measures were very necessary so long as the supply of these essential materials remained limited.

While Ves was a little disappointed by the lower-quality gear, they should still offer plenty of protection and attack power against most enemies.

They should even hold a considerable advantage against many phase lords as superdimensional gear performed extremely well against their kind.

The only enemies the Flesh Choppers needed to worry about were alien phase leaders equipped with Saint Piercer arms.

It was much more suitable to dispatch the First Sword Mark III against any phase lords that wielded such weapons. There was no good reason to put the Flesh Choppers at risk. They could do a lot more damage if they attacked other hostile units instead.

"Is there anything else I need to know about the Flesh Choppers?" Ves inquired.

"They will arrive with their own starship that is especially designed to carry their superdimensional raiments and battleaxes. We have yet to develop the methods to produce gear that can dynamically change in size according to the proportions of their users."

Ves frowned when he heard that. Resizable artifacts were a big deal. He knew that the ancient cultivation community had developed this method.

His Oceancaller was a prime example of an artifact that could remain as small as a handheld flute to an enormous rod that a phase lord could wield like a staff weapon!

It was difficult to reverse engineer such a complex operation. Ves did not think that red humanity possessed the capabilities to reproduce resizable gear in the next decade.

That meant that whenever the Flesh Choppers wanted to fight, they needed to unfold their true bodies and painstakingly equip themselves with their phase lord-sized gear.

If their cultivation improved in the future, then they wouldn't be able to take advantage of their gains as their non-resizable gear could only accommodate a user of the same size as before!

This was one of the reasons why Ves wanted to develop a Polymetal mech as his 'raiment'.

A suit of armor that was made out of living nanomachines had no obligation to maintain the same sizes. It could dynamically encompass bodies of different sizes.

The only issue was that if Ves shrunk down, he would end up getting stuck with a lot of excess nanomachines.

Ves could either store the excess smart metal into the Vault of Eternity, or he could use superdimensional matter to create a dimensional pocket where he could store all of the stuff he did not need at the moment.

Neither solution sounded ideal to him, but in the absence of anything better, he could stomach the idea of forming his own pocket space.

He just needed to learn how to do that first.

His expression grew intrigued as he stared at the projected soldiers of the Flesh Chopper Phalanx.

Now that he thought about it, Ves had never properly taken the time to develop his combat prowess as a phase lord. This was a huge wasted opportunity and one that he may have to remedy sooner rather than later.

If he accepted the offer from the Phase Lord Department, then he would be able to get into contact with highly trained human phase lords.

It shouldn't be too difficult to get to know them and beg them to teach him a few appropriate skills.

Aside from that, Ves could even fight alongside them if necessary. It was much more reassuring for Ves to fight as a phase lord when there were up to 12 additional Flesh Choppers by his side!

"The offer from the Phase Lord Department certainly sounds compelling." Ves said. "What does the Enforcement Department offer in comparison? I can't imagine that they can dispatch qi cultivators that can match the sheer amount of might of 12 human phase lords."

Eliza Mo Ragadan nodded. "That is true. The Enforcement Department is working closely with the Cultivation Method Department and other groups in order to present a serious counterweight to the Ur-Titan Phalanx and the Flesh Chopper Phalanx, but it will take much more time and resources to fulfill this goal. This is why the offer from the Enforcement Department does not compromise frontline combatants at all. Instead, it has formed a sizable gathering of qi cultivators that specialize in multiple forms of support and utility."

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The chief of staff's projection waved her arms, generating new projections that showed these qi cultivators in action.

Ves immediately recognized the familiar display of formation masters. These erudite robed figures predominantly consisted of math professors, theoretical physicists and other intellectuals that were good at abstract thinking.

After the start of the Age of Dawn, their existing intellectual attainments made them a natural fit for Formation Master Series of premium curated qi cultivation methods.

While the Larkinson Clan already had Commander Melkor Larkinson, he had chosen the path of a combat spell array master. With the help of his modified Fey Fianna, he was able to make use of specially designed formation anchor fey to quickly deploy spell arrays on the battlefield.

It was not suitable for formation masters to risk themselves in battle even if they had also formed Blood Pacts with Carmine mechs.

They were much more useful if they acted more like mech designers. They worked best if they remained in a protected location and continually devised new and more advanced battle formations and spell arrays.

The Larkinson Clan could always train more combat spell array masters to deploy the new qi formations in the field. The costs were considerable, but it was better than risking precious formation masters when it wasn't necessary.

Ves fully recognized the value of a group of formation masters. It would be difficult for the Larkinson Clan to raise them as the requirements to get started in a proper formation master qi cultivation method were too high.

Perhaps Aurelia and Marvaine possessed the qualifications to become formation masters, but Ves could scarcely think of anyone else that could succeed.

Ves also suspected that Gloriana and Alexa's companion spirits may be able to become formation masters if they applied themselves in this direction.

He did not think the two women were willing to do so, however. Alexandria and Maia both possessed very different inclinations.

"How many formation masters are included in this package?" Ves asked.

"Only 6, but do not underestimate them, sir. They are not the best of what the Red Collective have to offer, but they have all produced their own results. None of them are failures. What is important is that they possess humility and obedience to follow your directives. You only need to instruct them to develop battle formations or spell arrays that can produce a specific effect, and they will conduct their research as long as your requests are realistic enough."

Ves tried to think how useful this could be. "Does that mean I can 'order' spell arrays that can weaken transphasic energy shields, inhibit warp travel, interfere with sensor systems, divert the trajectory of ranged attacks or even dispel the hostility of enemy soldiers?"

Eliza smiled. "From my understanding of this field, qi formations can do all of this and more. Our formation masters have already developed a number of spell arrays that can produce the effects that you have described. Whether they are practical enough on a large-scale battlefield is not guaranteed, but the formation masters can continue to work on scaling them up until they satisfy your demands. In short, our formation masters can significantly expand the versatility and fault tolerance of your armed forces."

This was an almost irresistible offer.

Sure, the Flesh Choppers still sounded attractive to him, but if he wanted to get his hands on more combat power, he could field a greater quantity of first-class mechs or recall one of the Larkinson ace pilots on tour.

It was much harder to obtain the capability to employ mysterious effects on a wider scale. The sheer amount of utility that qi formations could produce when deployed correctly could make a much greater difference to the Larkinson Clan!

"What else is the Enforcement Department offering?"

"Aside from formation masters, it is offering to send over small teams of qi cultivators that specialize in infiltration, interrogation, divination, gardening, mental recovery and more. Your clan will gain access to a wide variety of services that are otherwise difficult to obtain. It takes special training and exclusive knowledge to train so many productive qi cultivators. Each of the individuals that the Enforcement Department is willing to assign to your fleet are already effective enough in their chosen craft. While they still have a large amount of room for improvement, none of them require training in order to make themselves useful."

"That sounds really useful. I can make use of all of their services right away."