Chapter 7501 Unfriendly Miasma
Chapter 7501 Unfriendly Miasma
The Hypeh-Tekas System was hell.
No.
That was not the right description for it. An unknown party had somehow pulled the underworld into the material realm at this particular location.
The dead roamed among the living.
Not only that, but the former unceasingly sought to attack the latter!
Their ravenous hunger for life and their unceasing aggression towards those not of their own kind caused them to assault the human interlopers with no regard for their own survival!
Over half an hour passed with no discernable change in pattern.
The deathborn continued to converge from every direction and attack the first human life form that got in their way.
They phased right through transphasic hull plating and thick meters-long alloy structures as if they did not even exist.
Active azure energy shields seemed to be a little more effective in hindering their advance, but that was only because the relatively weak hyper technology component was the only reason why it worked in the first place.
They were only able to slow down and block the advance of a fraction of the deathborn arriving from afar.
"This cannot go on." Admiral Gori Tensen concluded. "We have already tested dozens of different attempts to block the deathborn and push back this miasma. None of our existing technologies at our disposal has proven effective and cost-efficient enough to protect our mechs and naval assets in a stable, reliable and sustainable manner."
There were a small number of solutions that proved partially effective, but they were either so unstable or so prohibitively costly in resource consumption that they could not be relied upon for the entire duration of their stay in this befouled star system.
"Our warships are operating at reduced effectiveness due to the constant harassment of the deathborn and the oppressive nature of the surrounding 'miasma'." Commodore Zonrad Reze said. "Our most important stations are still reliably manned, but reducing or outright removing the staffing at the outer stations of our vessels will impair the performance of our weapon systems, external defensive systems, sensor systems, damage control systems and so much more."
"I thought your RA warships are highly automated."
"That is true, but what you may not be aware of is that our more extreme automation levels must only be used in the direst of emergencies. There are too many safeguards and restrictions applied to our core systems to prevent any chance of our AIs going out of control and abusing our technology against the human race. The same measures that are protecting us from getting betrayed by our own tech is stifling our ability to properly harness our automation. Our specialists and I are in the process of temporarily deactivating some of these restraints, but that will take valuable time. Until then, we will not be adequately able to defend ourselves against more direct threats."
"The Tortuous Scream doesn't suffer from those problems. The orvens who originally designed and built her did not incorporate so much excessive safety restrictions. We have also applied our own custom software and hardware on top of the original alien systems, so we can still fire her primary gun batteries without too many problems. What is even better is that all of her bunker mechs also remain nearly fully operational. The deathborn and the dark miasma do not pose as much of a threat to a piloted mech."
Right now, the combined fleet was in a relatively precarious condition.
The carriers and warships of the Larkinson Clan, the Red Three and the Terrans were all operating at reduced effectiveness due to the hostile environment.
The mechs on the other hand seemed to be able to tolerate the current circumstances much better.
While the mech pilots proved very vulnerable to the hostile environment outside of their cockpits, once they interfaced with their machines, they were completely different.
Even if the protection was not as ideal as they would like, they still enjoyed enough protection and even counterattack potential to form an effective barrier against the unfriendly elements in the surrounding area!
"Saint Commander." Admiral Gori Tensen turned his attention to the leader of the combined fleet. "We have let this situation drag on long enough. We have made enough observations and collected enough data to know what we are working with. Our men and women are still bravely resisting the deathborn and the miasma they have spawned from, but their struggle shall falter within another hour. We can wait until most of our soldiers have reached their limits, but that will cut down our safety margin to an undesirable level. Please intervene before that happens."
The Saint Commander had not spoken much since they first entered the star system.
She had been content in allowing the officers under her to utilize their own judgment and take individual action.
Everyone knew why she refrained from taking action. If the officers and soldiers encountered any problems and chose to call on her assistance as the first resort, then they had gone horribly astray.
The rank-and-file soldiers and other personnel should never place their hopes on a higher authority. They needed to solve their problems by themselves.
Only when they failed to make any progress could they justifiably seek assistance from above.
Right now, the combined fleet may still have a bit of time before reaching its limit, but as long as no other solution was in sight, then it may be a better idea for the ace commander to take action now rather than leave it all at the last possible minute.
"Formation Master Andrea Vos." Casella addressed the representative of the Red Collective. "Please explain your results. What have you learned?"
"We have learned much, Saint Commander, but we still need time to sift through all of the noise and analyze the patterns." The Farseer responded. "We should be ready to provide you with a proper briefing in 3 to 6 hours. We will be able to work on applying our new insights and findings into our incomplete defensive spell array. If nothing unexpected occurs, we should be able to complete it within 2 or 3 days. Once we deploy the newly fabricated formation anchors, the resulting qi formation can provide us with moderate protection against the hostile variables of our current environment."
The waiting period sounded a bit long, but Casella knew that the collies had already done their best to speed up their timeline. They were suffering just as much as the rest!
"Will this spell array remain stable? Can it endure a stronger load? What resources does it consume in order to maintain its activity?"
The female formation master's expression grew more severe. "The basic framework and underlying theories of our spell array are not completely verified, so we cannot guarantee that it will work according to our expectations. Even if it does work without any apparent complications, the stability of a hastily designed and built qi formation can never be too high. I do not expect to encounter too many problems within a week of continuous operation. After that, we must be ready to repair or replace the formation anchors at any moment. We have enough hyper materials and other high-grade resources at our disposal to construct multiple redundant formation anchors, but there is still a limit. If the environment has not reverted to normal parameters, then I advise you to limit our stay in this unfriendly star system to just 2 weeks."
That sounded like a generous period, but multiple officers suspected that they might have to stick around longer in order to complete their objectives in this strategic location!
"If this defensive spell array can only shield us against the most direct attacks of the local space, then we will still be subjected to numerous handicaps." The RA commodore said in a less than pleased tone. "The miasma is not a purely ethereal phenomenon. It is still interfering with the operation of our long-range sensor and scanning systems. While we are not completely blind anymore as before, the amount of noise generated by the miasma is so great that we can barely observe the star at the center of this system. What is even more concerning is that the miasma is also affecting the spatial environment in a way that makes it impossible for our warships to engage in warp travel."
"Your superdrives are too weak." The Fiery Axe scoffed. "This 'miasma' indeed makes it more troublesome to form a warp bubble, but my Ascended Giants are not troubled! We can still warp through space, though we will probably travel slower than usual."
Starships equipped with warp drives and lesser phase lords both possessed the ability to engage in warp travel, but they did so through slightly different means.
Warp drives and super drives were both purely technological creations that had been designed and programmed to operate under a range of known spatial environments.
When faced with risk factors such as a warp interdiction field or simply an unstable spacetime environment, the drives simply refused to work because they could not properly control for all of the risks.
The story was different for phase leaders!
Their ability to engage in warp travel was biological in nature. It was also a core part of their essence, which meant that they were able to control this capability in a much more flexible and controlled manner.