Chapter 5765 Initial Reactions

Chapter 5765 Initial Reactions

5765 Initial Reactions

Anyone who looked at the orbital scan of the mysterious dark drill-shaped hives would feel intimidated by their sight.

They were not only tall and wide, but clearly alien and savage in origin. Their appearance suggested that they were made by a large number of exobeasts who excreted a huge amount of black materials from their mouths or other orifices in an organized fashion.

There were just enough inconsistencies and imprecisions to suggest that these enormous structures were made by a hive of unknown organisms.

However, the fact that these large constructs all looked like fat drills scaled up to enormous proportions showed that the species responsible for making them was quite organized!

"What are we looking at, exactly?"

"We are looking at what may very well be the most dangerous native threat on this planet." The Vice Director of the Larkinson Biotech Institute said in a grave voice. "To be able to dominate this much territory, the species that inhabit this location must be extremely powerful. What is more troubling is that while we can see the hives with optical sensors easily enough, our more in-depth scans have failed to uncover more details. Despite the lack of Solus Gas in the environment, we suspect that the substance has been integrated in the materials used to construct the drill-shaped hives."

"That must have taken a lot of Solus Gas to build, but there are no deposits in the vicinity."

"We speculate that the dark hives have been built on top of the Solus Gas deposit. Whatever exobeast species managed to occupy this area, they have completely monopolized the output and clearly know how to use it to their advantage. This is most certainly an outcome of a deliberate, targeted and intelligent drive to claim this territory."

All of this speculation raised the threat level of this location even further!

Whoever or whatever managed to build all of these hives was most likely a calamity beast!

Not only that, but the creature likely commanded an entire hive of lesser exobeasts!

Ketis suddenly grew concerned about a possibility. "Do these hives pose a threat against us in orbit?"

"This is not apparent with the information that we have gathered so far." The former Terran geneticist answered. "It is best not to let down our guard. There are so many gaps in our understanding of Reticular Corein V that we cannot rule out this possibility. While the hives are visible to us because they have captured all of the Solus Gas that is released from the deposit on site, the same conditions also enable the organisms that inhabit the hive to detect us and maybe even target us with exotic attacks. I highly recommend our fleet to remain in geosynchronous orbit on the opposite side of the globe to be certain. In fact, it may be better to have our fleet distance itself from the planet even further. More powerful calamity beasts may be hiding in the areas covered by Solus Gas."

It was not unheard of for calamity beasts to escape the gravity well of a planet and destroy entire fleets and space stations in orbit!

Although these incidents were rare, the Hunting Association made sure to warn red humanity about the possible dangers of leaving local exobeasts alone for too long.

Naturally, the members of the Hunting Association were more than willing to set up shop and hunt down these persistent threats, but only if they could earn a profit from their activities.

Ketis made a decision.

"Your first suggestion is acceptable, but the second one is not. We should avoid the dark hives until we have scouted the location more thoroughly, but we cannot bring our fleet away from the planet. Any shipments and transfer to and from orbit will be enormously delayed if we do so. Our fleet is more than capable of defending itself against moderate threats. No matter whether we are beset by native alien warships or creatures from the surface, our recently upgraded Transcendent Punishers should be able to destroy them without suspense."

That did not sit well with Taon Melin, the former legion commander of the Eye of Ylvaine.

"I would not count on our bunker mechs for every possible threat." He said. "The general understanding of calamity beasts is that the weakest variety are at least as powerful as a second-class mid-grade expert mech. More concerning than that is that their abilities may enable them to circumvent our defensive layout. I highly recommend we keep at least one expert pilot on standby in our fleet."

Ketis nodded after she contemplated the suggestion for a few seconds.

That left the married couple free to return to their stateroom in the bowels of the Wild Torch.

Kirian and Mayra were still attending the school that was located in another section of the second-class fleet carrier, so the living space was fairly calm and quiet.

"The public inquiry on living mechs has already started according to the schedule." Joshua noted.

"I know. The first day is only dedicated to exploring the nature of living mechs. I am sure we did not miss anything important. Ves likely gave the public an introductory lecture of his works. We haven't missed anything important if that is the case."

The two sat down and began to view the broadcast together.

Just as expected, Ves tried to teach the public about the basic properties of living mechs in an attempt to demystify them. Though he did not do a good job in every aspect, he most definitely generated more interest in his works.

Then, the opposition dropped a few bombshells!

First, Lieutenant-Commander Astrid Jameson exposed cultivation to the masses!

As shocking as this revelation may be to ordinary people, the Larkinsons had less reasons to be surprised.

"Is the patriarch's mother really that powerful?" Joshua wondered.

"She should be. She is the Superior Mother. You should be able to tell how much she has grown over the years." Ketis responded.

"There is definitely a connection between Ves and the Superior Mother, but I have a hard time imagining that the latter is his actual mother."

"There are probably cultivation shenanigans involved. It is up to Ves to share his stories to us. He never explained any of this secret past to our clan, and it is not necessary as far as I am concerned. I am more concerned about what will happen to our society once everyone starts to practice cultivation techniques."

"I think that extraordinary swordsmanship will explode in popularity." Joshua guessed. "Didn't you tell me that the mechers previously suppressed it because they didn't want too many people to wield extraordinary powers? I think it is safe to say that this has become moot after today. A lot of extraordinary sword styles demand discipline and control, so they are unlikely to produce madmen. Their strong willpower also makes them more resistant against these cultivators that the fleeters are warning about."

Ketis agreed with her husband's points. Enforcement was a major problem. Short of squashing power-hungry madmen with mechs, it was better to employ swordsmasters as enforcers. Not only were they highly resistant against any unusual abilities that other cultivators might employ, they were smaller and much less prone to producing massive amounts of collateral damage when they fought.

There was finally a legitimate reason for swordmasters to exist.

The happy mother continued to think about how she should step up her organization's effort to train more traditional swordsmen.

However, the next major revelation forced her to pay attention to the broadcast again.

"What?!" Ketis reacted with a lot more shock than before! "What are true mechs?! Why did the mechers hide the fact that neural interfaces were incomplete all this time?!"

Ketis the mech designer felt that the Association had deceived her and every other professional in the mech industry!

She took offense to the apparent fact that the mechers kept this secret tech under wraps for such a long time, and she was not the only mech designer who felt this way!

"How dare the mechers keep this from us all?! What is so dangerous about true mechs that people like us do not deserve to work with them? Why can't the mechers give us the choice on how to handle this tech? This is outrageous!"