The Mech Touch

Several days passed before the coalition fleet finally arrived at their destination star system.

The sensor systems of many ships immediately became engulfed by a flood of chaotic energies!

Fortunately, every pioneering group already learned about the local conditions in advance and hardened the sensor systems accordingly.

Many of them had to be reinforced, recalibrated or even shut down entirely in order to avoid reducing their lifespans.

"We have dropped out of FTL travel at a greater distance from the center of the star system than usual. The cause of this is the excessive and unstable magnetic activity generated by one of the stars in this binary star system."

"Our effective observation range has dropped by at least 75 percent!"

"The excessive electromagnetic interference is preventing us from observing many areas of the Boryan System. A massive alien fleet could be hiding in our blind spots without our notice."

The Boryan System was anything but ordinary!

If the local alien pirate groups wanted to hide and escape pursuit, they couldn't take refuge in any ordinary star system.

There were many pockets of turbulent and abnormal space in the cosmos. One of the best sites for criminals to remain out of sight of their pursuers was to hide in regions with strange and abnormal environmental conditions such as the Nyxian Gap.

While the Boryan System wasn't as dangerous or extreme as the Nyxian Gap, it was still a difficult territory for anyone to maintain their footing!

The reason for that was because it was a special binary star system with an unusual pair of stars.

One of the stars was a relatively ordinary red giant star. It looked big but its mass and luminosity wasn't that impressive.

The other star was a lot more special, though. This was because it was a small, dense and heavy neutron star!

Consisting entirely out of neutrons rather than more complex atoms, these stars were known to be extremely active in generating electromagnetic activity.

Many of them spurted out powerful jets of energy in varying directions while others maintained such strong magnetic fields that the crust of the star itself would quake!

In other words, neutron stars were extremely unpleasant to be around, especially at closer ranges.

If any visitors wanted to do anything useful in a star system that contained such a powerful object, then they had to conduct their activities in the outer system.

Though the extreme magnetic fields and other electromagnetic activity were still fairly powerful at those ranges, they at least weakened to the extent that it was possible to build permanent bases as long as there was enough shielding.

The massive interference generated by the neutron star still played a useful role in disrupting the effectiveness of many sensors, so any pursuit force that wanted to chase after a fleeing pirate fleet would quickly lose the trail, especially if their target dove into an enormous asteroid belt.

"How are the conditions of our ships?" Ves asked as he observed the entry of the coalition fleet from the bridge of his flagship. "Do any of them report any malfunctions due to the hostile environment?"

"We have received no such reports, sir. All of our starships are in working condition. Our crews are monitoring every essential system non-stop. We estimate that we may start receiving reports about malfunctions once we travel closer to the center of the star system."

"Please keep me informed. We need to know how much abuse our starships can take. Not all of them are as hardened against environmental damage as I wish."

Once the starships of every fleet from every participating pioneering group had been accounted for, the Gemini Fleet led the way forward.

Even now, the Geminis did not extend complete trust towards its temporary allies. They still grasped the exact coordinates of the Palace of Shame.

From what the Golden Skull Alliance and all of the other helpers had learned about this site, the secret asteroid base was actually extremely well hidden.

Many generations of alien pirates had successively upgraded its anti-detection capabilities. Perhaps the variety of alien tech may have made the Palace of Shame's technological capabilities rather messy, but it was virtually impossible to find the right asteroid among countless other ones.

Combined with the serious electromagnetic interference generated by the neutron star in the center of the star system, a fleet could scan the asteroid belt for thousands of years and still miss their target!

The only way to track down the well-hidden pirate stronghold was to grab an insider or a memory device that possessed the coordinates.

The Geminis most likely found out about the Palace of Shame through one of these methods, so no one doubted their ability to lead them to the right place.

Of course, the Geminis did not make it easy for everyone. Their fleet followed a rather meandering route that made it a lot harder to pin down the destination by extrapolating the route of the leading fleet.

Ves understood why the Geminis made such a precaution.

They not only wanted to prevent their temporary coalition from becoming moving on without them, but they also wanted to limit those that hadn't signed any deals from deciphering the coordinates.

No one knew whether the temporary coalition was the only human force in the Boryan System.

The huge degree of electromagnetic interference meant that there was a possibility that other third parties might be hiding in the asteroid belt.

Perhaps these other human pioneers had gathered a few clues about the Palace of Shame but lacked the means to pin down its coordinates.

Maybe the pioneers had the same idea as the alien pirates and wanted to use the Boryan System as a secret base of operations.

Whatever the case, the Gemini Family, the Golden Skull Alliance, the Adelaide Mercenary Company, the Lehrer Foundation and Boojay Family may not be the only human powers in the star system!</>

When Ves thought about this possibility, he felt conflicted.

On one hand, it was best to rush to the Palace of Shame as fast as possible!

This way, the temporary coalition would be able to take action and complete the mission objectives long before any third parties could come and get in his way!

On the other hand, Ves wanted the coalition fleet to slow down and thoroughly scout the surroundings to rule out the possibility that there were opportunists waiting in the dark.

He shook his head. "We can't delay too much. It is impossible to hide the fact that so many different starships from several major pioneering organizations traveled to the Boryan System. If other pioneers become curious enough, they will soon come en masse and get in our way!"

Besides, the alien pirates rooted in the Palace of Shame shouldn't be blind and deaf. They must have established at least several extensive early warning networks throughout the Boryan System in order to warn against incoming enemies.

If Ves had to choose between speed or caution, he would choose the former in this particular situation.

Acting quickly was better than acting late in a situation like this! With seven ace mechs at their disposal, The Geminis and their teammates possessed ample firepower!

It was a pity that Ves wasn't in charge of this operation. One of the terms of the contract was that the Gemini Family dictated the route and pacing.

Since the Geminis set a moderate pace, Ves could barely tolerate the additional days it would take for them to reach their final destination.

"I suppose that at least gives us a bit more time to prep our mechs and starships for combat." Ves muttered.

He decided to make good use of his time by checking all of the important mechs in person.

The expert mechs were all in good condition more or less. Many of the ones that incurred a lot of damage in the previous battle had been restored to the best of the Larkinson Clan's abilities.

One of the more serious problems was that multiple Larkinson expert mechs had lost pieces of Unending alloy during the battle.

Though the clan had done its best to retrieve all of the bits of metal that had gone flying, it was impossible to regain all of it in a limited amount of time.

The only way to restore these older Larkinson expert mechs to their proper conditions was to draw from another source of Unending alloy.

This was why Ves personally authorized the cannibalization of much of the Shield of Samar to repair battered mechs such as the Riot and to a lesser extent the Everchanger.

"Just treat it like an organ transplant."

Ves planned to phase out the use of Unending alloy in time. It became increasingly more difficult to maintain the expert mechs that relied heavily on these non-replenishable materials.

He hoped to be able to find a proper substitute for this powerful material. He had already begun to explore a few ideas, but he was far from being able to produce his own alloy that was both tough and spiritually reactive!

Ves briefly thought about the Palace of Shame. The Geminis had already told him that the messy pirate groups collected a lot of different materials over the years.

There was a good possibility that he might encounter a material in their collections that might offer what he needed!

"In fact, I don't care if the new material is not as tough as Unending alloy. As long as I can stuff spiritual energy inside of it, I can easily use it as a replacement for my P-stones!"

He was running out of patience. His inability to acquire more spiritually-reactive materials such as P-stones, B-stones, F-stones and Unending alloy was seriously hampering his work.

"Maybe I need to look at organic substances instead." Ves wondered. "I have always gotten along better with biomatter. Too well, sometimes."

He actually gained an opportunity to obtain a valuable piece of bone that might have what he needed, but he became so busy with other projects that he neglected this option.

Though this particular offer was no longer available, there should still be ways for Ves to obtain similar bones through other channels. He just needed to approach the right parties!

One of the more important people he visited during this time was Legion Commander Taon Melin.

The Eye of Ylvaine would play an important role in this battle. Though the ace mechs were the main units responsible for felling the enemy warships, they could only focus on the biggest ones most of the time.

The responsibility for bombarding the smaller but much more numerous pirate vessels rested on artillery mech units such as the Eye of Ylvaine!

"Will your Transcendent Punishers perform up to expectation?"

"They will, sir." The Ylvainan mech commander replied. "The firepower of the Transcendent Punisher model isn't light and they can always switch to the right damage type depending on how the alien warships are built. It may be tricky to overcome their more exotic forms of protection, but we do not think that any of the pirate ships can move fast and agile enough to evade most of our attacks."

They talked a bit more about the Eye of Ylvaine's battle readiness. Though the Ylvainans had not changed anything significant since the conclusion of the Battle of Pima Prime, it was not necessary for them to do too much.

The job of the Eye of Ylvaine was quite simple. They merely had to pound the enemy warships that came out of the Palace of Shame.

The tricky part was controlling the damage.

"I don't want those ships to blow up." Ves stated to Commander Taon. "Any of them could carry several kilograms of phasewater. It's impossible for our retrieval teams to pick up every drop of phasewater that has spilled into space. Don't hesitate to allow your men to borrow Ylvaine's power to help them cripple the alien vessels without causing them to collapse any further."

"You can count on us, sir."