Chapter 7306: The Core of the Battle Moon
Chapter 7306: The Core of the Battle Moon
After spending a bit of time and effort, the Dark Apostle gradually managed to placate his giants.
He reframed the events and painted the casualties in a different light.
"We are not the chosen ones in this galaxy or reality." He told the gathered giants. "We are the underdogs. Just as the human race had to struggle for survival throughout the Age of Conquest, we must constantly prove our right to exist now that we have entered the Age of Dawn. Courage. Strength. Persistence. These are the qualities we need to develop if we want to gain a sustainable foothold in this dwarf galaxy. Currently, we are unable to satisfy this minimum standard, which is why two of our brothers has failed to pass this test. We have failed to pass this test."
The giants all looked subdued and admonished. The Dark Apostle spoke in a judging tone because he truly felt that he and his people failed to do a good enough job of proving themselves during this ordeal.
They clearly could not go on like this. At the very least, the Dark Apostle wanted to wake his fellow giants up and remind them of certain truths.
"Power is not bestowed. It is seized. The recent mission shows what happens to giants who fail to do the latter. The qualities that you have demonstrated during the encounter with the battle moon is decent, but far from enough to survive the subsequent ordeals. Gear is not enough to establish your strength as Ascended Giants. Our race has other advantages, from phasewater organs to qi cultivation. Neglecting these means of strengthening is stupid. Since we are so weak that even the Goliath Hive can topple us over, we do not have the luxury to neglect these aspects."
The Dark Apostle continued to hammer the point that the Ascended Giants needed to work a lot harder to become strong enough to survive the Red Ocean.
Acting as if they had already become the favored sons of the Red Ocean just as they turned into human phase lords instilled the wrong mentality in their heads.
He knew that words alone could not fully shake off their acquired sense of arrogance, so he had to be more unscrupulous and take advantage of an awful incident like this to truly hammer home his point.
Fortunately, it worked. More and more Ascended Giants found it difficult to maintain their pride and conceit during this debriefing.
Even if it was not quite fair for him to blame the deaths of the two giants on these reasons, it was still a good way for the Dark Apostle to cast aside responsibility and divert the attention of his men.
"Make no mistake, giants." He said as he stared into everyone's eyes. "Tests like these will keep coming. Even if the new frontier is at peace for a time, I will not allow you to grow too comfortable. The Ascended Giants must continue to fight and struggle in order to definitively prove our right to exist. This is non-negotiable as far as I am concerned. In this respect, the weakest groups of our kind must fight the hardest. It is not a coincidence that a pair of Faceless Giants has perished today. They are challengers who have yet to earn a place in an elite phalanx. So long as this is the case, they will always be smaller and weaker than an Ur-Titan or a Flesh Chopper."
The Faceless Giants grimaced. The last incident had made the differences between them and the Ur-Titans a lot more pronounced.
The difference in scale, skills and judgment had become particularly obvious during the reconnaissance mission. Even the weakest Ur-Titan had still managed to prove a lot stronger and more resilient compared to the strongest Faceless Giant after the strategos.
It was as if the Faceless Giants were still children compared to the Ur-Titans!
This was how big the difference between the two groups had become!
The Dark Apostle grinned at the frustration and resentment shown by the Faceless Giants.
"That is it. Those are the looks I wanted to see from you all. Without ambition, how can you pursue strength? It is only right for you to acknowledge that you are weak. Only then will you fight with greater sincerity. As far as I am concerned, more and more Faceless Giants will perish as the Red War and the Voribug War progress. It cannot be helped. Your strength is weak while our opposition is strong. Only by confronting our enemies on a repeated basis will you learn how to cope with worthy foes and earn your place among the strong."
Ves and the Dark Apostle both agreed that this was necessary. Instead of cherishing the lives of every single Faceless Giant as if they were delicate treasures, was better to treat them as raw ores.
They all had the potential of greatness, but they were too immature at this time.
Only by tossing them into the crucible of war would the Faceless Giants be able to develop their strength and realize their potential in the shortest possible time.
This was an inherently harsh and cruel process. War was not kind to participants, and the Dark Apostle had no doubt that dozens more Faceless Giants would die or become crippled in the coming years.
He was already prepared to treat the standard phalanges as the proven grounds for the strong.
Even if there was no crisis taking place at the moment, he could always manufacture one in order to put the Faceless Giants through a dangerous ordeal.
A part of the Dark Apostle might feel guilty about this, but this was necessary step to nurturing the strength of
his kind.
The Societal Revival Theory did not apply to the human race alone. It was universal enough to apply to the giants as well.
The lecture continued. After the Dark Apostle conveyed his main points to his subordinates, he began to cast his vision to the future.
"We will all do better in the future. The latest incident has exposed very glaring shortcomings that we must address in one way or another. It will become necessary for all of you to embrace methods that you ordinarily do not approve of. You will learn the details in time once we have managed to flesh out the details."
The Dark Apostle was not yet willing to discuss the specifics because he had not yet set them all in stone.
His vision for the ideal version of an Ascended Giants had to be multifaceted and comprehensive.
However, Ves understood that it was not realistic for his men to develop in multiple different fields at once.
All of this demanded a lot of consideration from himself as well as others. He did not dare to make decisions by himself in this important matter.
Once the session came to an end, the Dark Apostle dismissed the giants.
While they grew curious about the results of the deep scanning attempt, the polemarchos did not have the answers.
"I shall share the details later once I have finished my next appointment. The Rubarthans will give us answers soon enough."
When the giants reluctantly exited the assembly chamber, the Dark Apostle waited for a few more minutes until the projection of the Rubarthan liaison came online.
"Thank you for your patience, Ves... or is it the Dark Apostle?" Lord Richard Brownstone sounded a little uncertain.
"The latter." The Dark Apostle calmly answered. "You promised answers. Now give them, human."
The Rubarthan mech designer did not look pleased when addressed in this manner, but he knew better than to cause an incident.
He instead activated a projection that showed a simplified model of a cross section of the Voribug Organic Battle Moon.
"This is what the VOBM looks like on the inside. As you can see, the level of detail is not entirely sufficient. There are gaps and areas of uncertainty where greater clarity remains absent. Nonetheless, with the complete data of 21 units and the incomplete data of 9 units, we have been able to gain a detailed enough overview to make a number of crucial deductions."
The projection of Richard lifted his finger and pointed at the very center of the cross-section.
"Does this shape look familiar?"
The Dark Apostle frowned as he took a closer look at the strange shape at the center. It initially looked like an irregular spherical core, but now that he studied the contours a little more, it did not appear to be a uncomplicated gathering of higher-density matter.
It took half a minute for the Dark Apostle to make a gradual realization.
The cross-section image did not make it too obvious, but he was sure he could connect dots a lot sooner if he obtained a three-dimensional image of the scan data.
"Is this... an embryo?"
Richard nodded. "We are 90 percent of this. Our initial assumptions were inaccurate. We believed that the VOBM was large but not particularly outstanding. Although it has absorbed modest quantities of higher-grade materials during its short existence, we thought that the battle moon would disperse them across its entire structure. The scans disproved this theory. The battle moon deliberately concentrates more precious materials to the core. All of the flesh around the center can be regarded as a colossal shell."
"It looks as if the Goliath Hive has created a giant incubation chamber." The Dark Apostle concluded.
"We believe so as well. While we are still convinced that the VOBM is meant to function as a massive siege engine, this is not its sole purpose. We have modeled different scenarios of how the decisive battle might unfold. This will undoubtedly become a difficult struggle where our side will suffer considerable losses. That is already bad enough, but when we take into account that the mutated voribugs can scavenge our defeated assets, the scenarios become much darker. Think about what happens if the bugs can retrieve our defeated mechs, warships and orbital defense platforms."
The Dark Apostle widened his eyes. "They will probably throw it all into the battle moon!"
"Exactly! We believe that the battle moon will be able to process the wrecks at a very fast pace. Low-grade materials will get broken down quickly and be used in the production of cannon fodder bugs. Higher-grade materials will be transferred to the core where they will contribute to the growth and development of a formidable Goliath. At the very least, the VOBM acts as an incubator for a Level 7 Goliath. The more pessimistic scenario is that the battle moon serves to incubate a Level 8 Goliath."
Level 8 Goliath!
That roughly corresponded to the strength of a greater phase lord or a senior ace pilot!
If this was true, then the birth of such a powerful Goliath would spell the end of the Battle of Philaster Crestia!
Even with 28 Ascended Giants in the star system, the Dark Apostle found it difficult to believe that his troops would be able to rely on numbers to overcome the absolute gap in strength!
Maybe their situation would become a lot more optimistic once they acquired better gear and gained more experience, but they were not ready to confront enemies of this magnitude at this time.
As the Dark Apostle continued to stare at the diagrams and images, he had a feeling that the VOBM truly meant business in this star system. More chapters in t.me/+z7ieNjQSLFMzMmY6