Chapter 5956 Emperor Tree

Chapter 5956 Emperor Tree

Hovering in orbit of Reticula Corein V, the Wild Torch occupied the center of a modest second-class fleet.

The fleet carrier was one of the prides of the Larkinson Clan. While the vessel had fallen behind the times, she performed well in relation to her circumstances.

The presence of the Wild Torch bestowed the Larkinsons assigned to Task Force Solus with a lot of confidence.

This was an effect that the Dragon's Den, the other capital ship in the task force, could never accomplish.

The reason for that was because the Wild Torch hosted one of the most important members of the Larkinson Clan.

Many outsiders assumed that the young clan was entirely propped up by its legendary founder and patriarch.

They were mostly correct about that. His contributions could not be denied by even the most skeptical observer.

However, those who spent years in the clan knew that they had plenty of other talents to count on. Ketis had already made a lot of strides in stepping out of the shadow of her patriarch!

Many clansmen saw her appointment as the leader in charge of Task Force Solus as vindication of their belief that she could be just as great as Ves one day!

The Swordmaster herself stood in her private design lab. The horned woman wore a white lab coat over an armored training suit. This produced an odd contradiction in style, but Ketis wore her outfit with confidence.

"Sharpie! Sharpie!" Foll0w current novÊls on nov/3lb((in).(co/m)

The Bloodsinger cheerfully floated up and down as the weapon soared through the air. The personal greatsword that accompanied Ketis for years had grown even more powerful than before.

The reformed CFA greatsword had grown sharper and stronger than ever. Constant exposure to Sharpie's growing willpower and exotic radiation caused it to shine with deadly glean that could make anyone fall into the illusion that the blade could easily sever the thread that kept them alive!

At this time, she spoke with a physical projection of Vice Director Maria Abselon of the Larkinson Biotech Institute.

Since Director Ranya Wodin still had a few years to go before she completed her EdNet training, Maria Abselon had been doing an excellent job at keeping all of the biotech researchers in check.

It helped that she was a fairly young but brilliant Terran biotech researcher herself!

What she lacked in age and experience, she made up with it with passion and an unusual zeal for studying exobeasts!

Everyone assigned to Task Force Solus knew that it was impossible for them to establish full or even partial control over a planet as wild and untamed as Reticula Corein V.

The effects of Solus Gas and the hegemony of multiple powerful calamity beasts had caused the planet's ecosystem to turn into a savage environment.

This led to a myriad of issues, not helped by the daring strategy chosen by Ketis.

It was already bad enough that these powerful creatures occupied the best Solus Gas deposits.

What was worse was that the minor Solus Gas deposits were all located in the surroundings of those major deposits!

This meant that if the Larkinsons wanted to harvest Solus Gas on an acceptable scale, they had to establish a harvesting operation in the territory of at least one powerful beast!

It would be much easier to decapitate one of the calamity beasts and claim one of the major deposits.

Ketis knew better than to initiate such a reckless action.

While it was possible for the mechs of Task Force Solus to defeat one of these calamity beasts, doing so was not that simple.

There were plenty of stories on the galactic net where other groups had tried to eliminate every calamity beast on a planet by defeating them in detail.

However, the movements were so big that all of the calamity beasts on the planets became alarmed. The powerful creatures spontaneously dropped all of their animosity towards each other and converged upon the battlefield.

Suffice to say, very few mech forces were able to survive after getting besieged by dozens of calamity beasts that wielded extraordinary power!

Incidents like this occurred so often that people learned the hard way that the calamity beasts instinctively possessed a common identity that was tied to their own planets.

They might wish to kill each other in order to stimulate their evolution and devour the nutrients of the defeated, but when they were confronted by a powerful external opponent, they were smart enough to understand that it was better for them to unite their forces!

This made the conquest of any untamed planet a lot trickier than normal.

A human force could either deploy so many mechs that they could roll over the calamity beasts through sheer quantity, or it could try to defeat the powerful beasts without making too much noise.

Task Force Solus did not have the numbers to pursue the former strategy, and it did not have enough intelligence to employ the latter strategy.

For now, the Larkinsons had little choice but to leave the calamity beasts alone. This was fine as their primary mission was to begin a Solus Gas extraction operation.

Yet just because the humans wanted to leave the powerful indigenous life forms alone did not mean that the opposite was true!

"Is there a chance we can reconcile with the Emperor Tree?"

Vice Director Absalon did not look supportive. "No. Calamity beasts have always been hostile to humans, especially since we are not native to any of their planets. They rightfully regard us as invaders who are trying to steal their home planet's resources. The beast waves will continue to assail us until we have begun to exhaust all of the adult beasts in a very large radius around the Emperor Tree. Once we have slain enough exobeasts to impact the population, the calamity plant will not be able to threaten us as much as before."

"That should be the best time for us to negotiate with the Emperor Tree." Ketis proposed.

"Just because the Emperor Tree is sapient does not mean it is willing to entreat with us. You should prepare to initiate an assault with the goal of eliminating it. Fielding too many mechs at a time or employing excessive firepower will draw the attention of every other calamity beast, but if you send a smaller force of elite mech units, you can challenge the Emperor Tree for control of the region. This is much less likely to provoke a collective response as the calamity beasts believe that their own will not fall in a fight against a weaker and more inferior force."

That had a lot of implications for Task Force Solus. Ketis already had a bunch of names in mind for a possible assault force.