In a span of several hours, Adam impression of the Red Ocean had completely changed, just like many other humans, the group completely dismissed the threat of alien civilizations.

They thought that the indigenous alien races were weaker because the Big Two easily rolled them over and because they emerged from a smaller and weaker dwarf galaxy.

Perhaps this was true, but that didn't mean that the major alien races were pushovers!

There was one aspect about the phase whale race that had a profound influence on the alien civilizations of the Red Ocean.

The phase whales invented the most popular means of FTL travel in the dwarf galaxy. The warp drive as humanity has labeled it allowed them to travel to different star systems. After translating the biological tech into a mechanical form, the warp drive eventually spread and passed onto many of the other sentient alien races.

The Red Ocean warp drive was not the most powerful or effective means of FTL travel to the indigenous alien races, but it was the cheapest and least cumbersome way to get around.

Anytime a human encountered a native alien in the new frontier, there was a high chance the latter traversed the stars with the help of a warp drive.

[The Red Ocean warp drive achieves superluminar travel through different technological principles than the standard human FTl drive.] The AI tour guide explained to Adam and his group and many other museum visitors. [The warp drive is capable of compressing material space, allowing a ship to traverse a greater distance in the same time and at the same speed. Although humanity has independently developed technology that is able to achieve the same effect, it is not as efficient and effective as the Red Ocean version due to the absence of phasewater.]

"Warp… space?" 

"Have you forgotten your space travel lessons, already? Normal FTL drives work by dragging a starship into the higher dimensions where distances are apparently shorter. This alien warp drive tries to do something similar but by warping the existing dimensions that we all live in. Both try to achieve the same outcome through different means."

"Ah, I get it now. I think."

[The Red Ocean warp drive possesses several distinct advantages. The most notable is that it allows for fast and highly controllable intrasystem travel. It is not as vulnerable to gravitic interference as standard FTL drives, which means that a starship can traverse quickly to a planet with its help. Warp drives can also work in many different hazardous space regions where conventional FTL drives cannot function.]

"That's good to know. We can definitely use these new drives."

"They're probably expensive though. They're not only new, but they also need phasewater to function."

[That is correct. The performance of a warp drive is heavily dependent on its design, its underlying technology and the amount of phasewater incorporated in the system. The greater the amount of phasewater, the greater the degree of space warping. The most powerful warp drives can even allow multiple ships that do not necessarily possess their own warp drives to travel at superluminal speeds.]

"Can the warp drive be combined with an FTL drive?"

[It is not recommended to do so without integrating the two technologies into a single cohesive system. Many human vessels have been lost after their operators performed reckless experiments with combining two separate drives.] The AI tour guide warned. [In principle, it is possible. The latest and most advanced public FTL drives models already add space warping capabilities to familiar human technology. This is the safest and most recommended method of taking advantage of warp technology.]

The theory was simple, really. Ignoring all of the advanced scientific principles and calculations, the new warp-enhanced FTL drive initially worked the same as the normal version.

When a starship transitioned into the higher dimensions, they traversed the same distance as normal, but space happened to be compressed. As long as the vessel got out of the higher dimensions, they found themselves a lot further ahead than if they just soared forward in the material realm.

It was like taking a shortcut.

A warp drive had the effect of compressing space, and apparently humanity managed to get this effect to work in the higher dimensions as well! By activating the warping function in this special state, a starship could reach its distant destination a lot faster!

This was the same as a person taking a shortcut, but instead of traversing it on foot, the individual also rode an aircar!

"Do you understand now, brother? Taking a shortcut and riding an aircar are two separate ways to get to a destination faster. Instead of choosing one over another, it's a lot more effective to apply both at the same time!"

Although this was a massive oversimplification of how all of this tech worked, the analogy was quite good.

"How effective is the warp drive?"

[At the same cost and conditions, the Red Ocean warp drive is 3 to 8 times slower than an FTL drive. The performance of a warp drive is largely dependent on the amount of phasewater it incorporates and how much space it needs to warp. In general, most alien starships are substantially slower than their human equivalent. However, the warp drive is more stable and can operate in more challenging conditions such as anomalous space regions and in areas close to planets. This also allows alien forces to evade attacks and pursuit from human vessels that do not possess the means to hinder enemy warp drives.]

[How can this be done?]

[There are many different methods to hinder nearby alien starships from activating their warp drives. The Mech Trade Association and the Common Fleet Alliance has developed a range of products that are effective at different levels and different situations. It is recommended that each fleet carry at least one warp interdiction solution.]

 

The Big Two had started their invasion of the Red Ocean over five decades ago. That gave the MTA and CFA plenty of time to reverse-engineer the alien warp drive and apply its technological principles in many different applications.

The new warp-enhanced FTL drive or 'superdrive' as most pioneers and adventurers called it had already made a big splash in the new frontier.

Destinations that previously took months to traverse could now be shortened to a week or even less!

A modern superdrive did not necessarily have to employ both their warp and standard FTL functions at once. They could activate them separately depending on the occasion.

Many starships mounted with the new superdrives gained a lot more tactical flexibility for this reason. By utilizing their warping function in isolation, they were able to reposition themselves rapidly inside star systems where the influence of gravity blocked sensitive FTL drives from allowing any ship to transition into FTL travel.

This could easily change the course of many space battles! One of the most difficult aspects about space combat was the sheer distances involved. It could take days or even weeks for one fleet to catch up against another fleet.

In practice, it was actually fairly easy to outrun and escape enemy pursuit. Space combat only occurred in situations where one side was stuck close to a planet or when a fleet had just emerged out of FTL travel and still needed to cycle their FTL drives.

All of this would change forever once warp drives and superdrives became more ubiquitous throughout human civilization.

If not for the annoying fact that both these techs required phasewater in order to function, it would have already begun to spread among the pioneering fleets on a large scale!

"We should try and find a phasewater deposit so that we can mine it ourselves." one of the officers proposed

"Is mining the right word to use for phasewater? It's a liquid, not a rock."

"We'll try and harvest the phasewater, if its safe"

unbeknownst to everyone Adam already has several liters of phasewater and will only increase as the time goes by, to Adam technology is more of a priority for his list of acquisition and raw materials comes in second.

It was conceivable that a fleet equipped with superdrives could never be defeated by a fleet without this tech!

This was because the former completely possessed the initiative. If an enemy force was weaker, then the superior fleet could use its warping capabilities to quickly close the distance and force an engagement. This applied even if the confrontation took place in the inner half of a star system!

If the opposing fleet happened to be larger and stronger, then the warp-capable fleet could just run away at such a rapid pace that the enemy never had a chance of catching up unless something went very wrong!

And this was just the influence that warping technology accomplished. Phasewater was a much more versatile exotic substance. It enabled and enhanced the performance of other forms of superluminar travel, from portal jumping technology to beyonder gate technology.

All of these other means fell outside the scope of the museum tour, though. When Adam attempted to probe the AI for details on other FTL travel tech, he didn't get any satisfying answer.

The only solid answer he received was that the phase whale race mastered the greatest means of alien transluminal travel methods. Some of their more obscure forms of faster-than-light travel hadn't been leaked to other alien races!

All of this made Adam more excited. Though he did not consider himself to be a daredevil, he nonetheless developed the desire to obtain all of this powerful new tech for himself.

From what it sounded like, warping technology was not just a luxury. It was an essential means to increase the chances of survival for the entire fleet and his future empire.

While Adam immersed himself in his fantasies, one of the officers in his entourage asked the AI tour guide a different question.

"What about the minidrive? Are the drives that can be installed onto mechs the same as warp drives?"

[Minidrive technology is a derivative of warp technology. A minidrive is a warp drive that is miniaturized into a small form factor. They cannot currently enter into the higher dimensions due to numerous different limitations as both standard FTL drives and superdrives cannot be miniaturized to this extent. They are therefore slower at standalone space travel than other solutions.]

It was a lot safer to just park a mech inside a carrier and rely on the starship's capabilities alone to travel to another destination.

while amazing, still possessed many limitations. They cost a lot, they required a lot of energy, they were sensitive to damage, they required regular specialized engineers to maintain and took up valuable capacity that could be used to improve the other parameters of the machine.

Still, as mech pilots, Adam and the rest were attracted by the romance of piloting a mech that could independently travel from one star system to another. Carrier vessels no longer became a limiting factor. Mech pilots weren't necessarily screwed anymore if their motherships blew apart.

All of these exciting possibilities could not be achieved without collecting enough phasewater, though.

The endless uses of this exotic material fully explained why so many pioneers were crazy about finding and claiming phasewater deposits in the new frontier! The presence of phasewater on a planet or a star system was the main criteria for pioneers to decide whether they wished to start a colony!

 

 

Adam could already imagine how a destructive engine of doom might be useful to certain forces.

In situations where there were limitations to attacking ground settlements from space or from the air, a powerful ground force was needed to sweep them up. A tough and destructive doom crawler that excelled in laying waste to cities and strongholds sounded like an excellent addition to a ground force's arsenal!

The best part about this new product was there was definitely demand for this kind of machine.

The reason for that was that a lot of pioneering fleets tended to colonize planets that were previously occupied by alien races.

Even if these aliens preferred to live in different environments than human beings, they all had one thing in common.

Everyone needed resources in order to thrive.

Whether it was phasewater or other exotics, every sentient race in the Red Ocean sought to occupy the most resource-rich planets in order to fuel their own development.

Before humanity invaded the dwarf galaxy, the native alien races such as the nunsers and the puelmers already occupied all of the resource-rich planets.

Once the MTA and CFA entered the scene, their warfleets didn't just defeat all of the alien combat forces. They also passed through one alien-occupied star system after another, bombing a lot of places flat.

However, just because the Big Two cleaned up the interior of their newly-conquered territories didn't necessarily mean they were thorough.

The Big Two had to sweep through a huge amount of territory, which meant the warfleets and their commanders weren't always that attentive.

Sometimes they missed a few strongholds.

Sometimes the enemy aliens succeeded in slipping through the net.

Sometimes the MTA and CFA outright skipped the less important star systems with weaker alien presences.

Of course, what counted as 'weak' in the eyes of the Big Two was usually a lot stronger to the pioneers!

All of this meant that the pioneering organizations sometimes had to finish the job in order to claim an attractive planet, and that meant going on a destruction spree.

"There are no mechs that are better at inflicting destruction than heavy artillery mechs and heavy doom crawlers."

Both of them possessed a huge amount of massed firepower. While heavy artillery mechs such as the mech designer after Gundam Dynames, a sniper class artillery mech that packed the biggest punch, they weren't designed to confront enemies directly.

Other mechs were supposed to do that in their stead. This was why artillery mechs usually became lambs to the slaughter if any melee mech unit managed to get through the escort mechs and hit these slow and cumbersome machines up close!

Doom crawlers didn't suffer from this weakness. Not as much, at least. They not only carried substantially more armor, but were also better at repelling enemy mechs that came close.

they weren't necessarily superior to artillery mechs or vice versa. They were just different mech types that excelled in different situations.

However, doom crawlers were a bit more suitable to deploy in most conditions in the new frontier due to their greater independence and self-reliance. They were much tougher and didn't require as much babying to handle.

This sounded perfect for the Red Ocean, where pioneering fleets were not only far away from friendly support, but also didn't have access to nearby markets or infrastructure.

Deploying artillery mechs in the field required a lot of thought, preparation and effort. They required constant protection and should never be caught in an enemy counterattack.

While the rewards from using them correctly were great, not everyone had the patience to go through all of this trouble!

It was a lot easier to just field as many doom crawlers as possible and have them advance towards an enemy fortification with unstoppable momentum!

Sure, it sounded like a brain dead strategy, but who cared as long as it worked.

 

 

 

The Red Ocean was a dwarf galaxy that emerged under different circumstances than the Milky Way. It was filled with brand new satellites that generated a wealth of different substances that each possessed properties that were rare or nonexistent back in humany's home galaxy.

Not only that, the Red Ocean was also filled with brand new alien civilizations!

Adam was curious to see whether any interesting alien races managed to develop any materials and technology that interacted with spirituality in any way.

So far, it sounded as if only the mysterious phase whales might have developed applications in this direction, but the problem was that they were way too elusive.

Adam and his small entourage of guards floated up to the top floor of the market building.

Not everyone was allowed to enter this special place, but he easily made it through due to his pioneer status.

He entered a small chamber where dozens of other pioneers were standing or floating around a transparent cage which contained a highly remarkable material sample.

when he stepped a little closer that his body began to react in a strange way.

His flesh and bones seemed to shake as if they were being massaged by a faint pressure wave.

"You must be feeling it now." A pioneer remarked as the older woman glanced at the newcomers. "What you're experiencing at the moment is a sign that you're in the presence of a good that can change humanity."

Humanity already sang so many praises about this wonder material that people even began to refer to it as the gate of heaven or the instrument of conquest!

"Your body isn't actually shaking. What is actually happening is that the material dimensions around you are warping due to the activity of the precious exotic captured within this cage."

There was only one natural material that could achieve this effect.

"Phasewater."

Adam couldn't help but smirk to himself, knowing that all humans here in the Red Ocean Galaxy are risking their lives for this resource.

to him on the other hand was just one year away from producing several liters of Phasewater.

A gravity cage suspended 10 mL of pure, unprocessed phasewater above a pedestal. If anything happened, a hard cage would instantly form around the floating drop to prevent it from threatening the lives of the people who visited this exhibit.

Phasewater was an extremely dangerous and toxic high-grade exotic that should never be handled without protection!

For this reason, no one was allowed to step within 20 meters of this tiny drop of phasewater.

Adam could already imagine that a lot of tech would malfunction when subjected to this dimensional turbulence. Moving parts would get misaligned while electronic signals might no longer convey their original messages.

The effect these strange dimensional fluctuations could have on technology reminded him of the hazardous conditions that Adam felt on the surface of Aeon Corona VII.

He did not forget that the planet-wide dimensional warping effect was originally created by a crashed CFA battleship!

The Starlight Megalodon's malfunctioning FTL drives created such a powerful spectacle that a completely different ecosystem appeared on that cursed planet.

With all of the knowledge and insights he acquired since that time, he began to develop a different understanding of this incident.

His eyes minutely narrowed.

Did the CFA already possess abundant access to phasewater long before the Big Two secretly invaded the Red Ocean?

The fleeters put enough phasewater into the FTL drives of the Starlight Megalodon that their partial ruptures completely changed the environment of a heavy gravity planet!

Adam doubted that this could be done with just a single drop of phasewater!

The Starlight Megalodon last operated over three centuries ago. Humanity had just climbed out of the Age of Conquest and the Age of Mechs was just getting into swing.

Did humanity already reach the Red Ocean back then? What did the MTA or CFA do over here? Why did it take several centuries for the Big Two to finally open up the dwarf galaxy to the public?

He quickly shook his head in order to clear his head of irrelevant thoughts. Though all of this speculation might have grave implications, he didn't have enough information to answer them. Whether the Big Two secretly came into contact with the Red Ocean centuries earlier was not even relevant to his interests.

All of the hype and claims surrounding phasewater caused him to develop certain expectations about this wondrous exotic.

A material that could make ships travel ten times faster through the stars than before should not be average.

He even speculated that its power might be derived from spiritual energy!

That would turn it into a similar substance to high-grade life-prolonging treatment serum. The implication of this was that phasewater might have a biological origin and that it was possible for alien organisms to produce it with their bodies.

One of the weirder ideas he came up with was that phasewater might actually be phase whale urine!

This was a rather ridiculous notion. What if the basis behind the functioning of the beyonder gates and the new superdrives that the Big Two and the first-rate superstates started to leverage to their advantage.

"Maybe I was thinking too much." He whispered.

The ultimate result turned out to be a letdown to him.

"Is phasewater truly so dangerous?" on of the officers asked asked as she looked at the tiny sample with concern. "What if we get exposed to a larger quantity of phasewater?"

"What you're seeing right now is purified phasewater." A female pioneer took the initiative to explain to the woman who was obviously an expert pilot. "Just like ordinary water, phasewater is almost always tainted by other substances when it is found in nature. Phasewater doesn't blend with water and many other materials, but there are certain forms of matter that it gets along with. Once phasewater is blended, its violent and dangerous effects often become more temperate."

"So they're not as dangerous when they are impure?"

"Phasewater is always dangerous." The pioneer warned. "Its potency decreases when it comes in a blended form. We have already encountered many different blends, each of which weaken and alter the effects of phasewater in different ways. Some are able to neutralize the passive dimensional warping effects entirely, thereby making phasewater safe for transportation. There are other blends that can transform phasewater into an extremely dangerous bomb that can literally tear a hole through the material dimensions."

"What?!" Adam almost jumped when he heard this claim! "I never heard any mention of this!"

The middle-aged woman smirked. "That's because such a weapon is too destructive to the environment. The Big Two has already classified it as a weapon of mass destruction and heavily limits the spread of any technical details about these purported phase bombs. This shouldn't be a surprise because they can be just as deadly as anti-matter bombs.

That was quite a powerful threat! The anti-matter bomb was one of humanity's best way to inflict massive destruction. The thought that people like Adam could gain access to the same level of power by grabbing a bunch of phasewater and treating it in a special way was horrifying!

It shouldn't be a surprise that the Big Two strictly restricted all forms of research related to this dangerous application.

While it wouldn't stop secret research groups from developing this forbidden tech in the darker corners of human civilization, it should at least minimize the prevalence of this powerful bomb in human hands.

"I bet the Big Two have already begun to stockpile a lot of phase bombs." Adam guessed.

The other pioneer nodded. "Most certainly. What is even more frightening is that we are not the only race to have mastered this dangerous application. The indigenous alien species have lived alongside phasewater for many ages. How could they not have discovered that phasewater can punch holes through dimensions when blended in a special way? If I were you, I would maintain maximum caution should you encounter any alien fleet during your travels."

'Damn, that made exploring the Red Ocean even more dangerous for the expeditionary fleet'

For all of its mech legions, and capital ships, Adam knew quite well that the expeditionary fleet could not withstand the power of an anti-matter bomb!

It should be just as vulnerable to a powerful phase bomb if that was the case!

Adam wasn't too afraid of getting into a tussle with an ordinary pioneering fleet. He could take comfort in the fact that his opponents were largely restricted to utilizing mechs and mech-grade armaments in order to fight.

The aliens didn't play humanity's rules, though!

There was no large interspecies governing body that artificially imposed treaties onto different alien civilizations!

"Phase bombs shouldn't be too prevalent… right?" Adam quietly asked.

"I think it is safe to assume that they are only present in larger and more organized alien fleets. This is dangerous and difficult tech even for the nunsers and puelmers. Just the amount of phasewater required to make a viable bomb is also cumbersome. If you study all of the incidents where human pioneers have made contact with alien groups, there are hardly any indications that our side has been met by ruinous bombs. It is much more probable to encounter an anti-matter bomb than a phase bomb in my opinion."

The pioneer had a point. Anti-matter explosives were difficult to make and store, but the science behind them wasn't as complex.

Adam realized an important detail. "If phasewater can be turned into bombs, it should be possible to leverage it in another way!"

"Phasewater blending has become a popular research field in the Red Ocean. You can generate entirely new effects if you are able to blend it with a new compatible substance, just as with ordinary water."

 

"We'll soon be leaving this central star node" Adam announced.

after 1 year  of acclimating with the local region he's got his 7th clone and are now preparing their journey towards the empty planets ready for colonization located near the borders of the 1st rate zone.

The colonization of the Red Ocean already produced a lot of successful results. Many new colonies backed by powerful forces had already reached a level of development where they started to open themselves up to trade and commerce.

hese places all sought to imitate places like Vulit. Unfortunately, they weren't run by the Big Two, so they simply didn't possess enough prestige and they weren't able to guarantee absolute safety.

Another problem with these emerging trade systems was that many of them were actually owned by the Terrans or Rubarthans!

The richest and most powerful pioneers all knew how to make the most out of the opportunities available in the Red Ocean. Compared to taking huge risks by exploring the depths of the Red Oceans, it was much safer and also far more lucrative to find a nice port system, take it over and earn a sustainable income through fostering lots of trade and industry!

The Red Ocean was all about phasewater and alien civilizations as far as he was concerned. The chance of bumping into the former was small, but the latter was much more ubiquitous!

he final days passed by. everyone that had previously been enjoying their time on the moon settlement known as Chance Bay reluctantly said goodbye to the arenas, the bars, nightclubs, the casinos, the shops and other entertainment establishments before they returned to the fleet in high orbit.

The expeditionary fleet looked a lot different than before.

The capital ships all underwent minor refits. Although none of them received any comprehensive upgrades due to lack of drydock space, it was still possible to apply minor upgrades to their systems.

Their crews had been busy with installing new sensor systems and other easy-to-install modules.

Of particular note was local necessities such as anti-voribug countermeasures. The alien bugs were a menace in the Red Ocean and could chew through all kinds of hardened materials if left unchecked.

Even though it wasn't too cheap to install these modules throughout the hulls of large and voluminous capital ships, Adam would rather not wake up one day and find out that giant insects had turned his precious assets into swiss cheese!

The fleet was ready.

There was nothing preventing the fleet from departing the Vulit Central Star Node.

After undergoing a final round of inspections, the expeditionary fleet had already lined up in front of a Langrange point in order to make their way out of this busy and prosperous star system.

"I'll miss this place." Adam sighed as he looked at the projection of the highly-developed star system.

The biggest issue to him was how extensively the MTA controlled and monitored the entire place!

Perhaps an ordinary person wouldn't feel bothered by that, but the need to constrain his behavior was practically a nightmare for Adam

 

 

'Opportunities. It's about opportunities' Adam said to himself but also understood that anything that can disrupt the current order will produce a lot of ripple effects. Some of them can be quite disastrous to people.

 Adam understood that there were lots of undercurrents in the Red Ocean. As the new focal point of human civilization, a lot of powerful interests had descended on the dwarf galaxy.

Many of them sought power through conquering territory. Others wanted to harvest as much phasewater as possible in order to build the amazing devices. The more courageous among them wanted to explore everything that aliens had to offer before they became extinct.

Although these goals sounded simple, it was quite frightening what major powers could accomplish if they did well.

How much more powerful would the Terrans become if they conquered a third of the Red Ocean?

What would the New Rubarth Empire do if it managed to accumulate millions of liters of phasewater?

What kind of crazy contraptions would a rogue research institution develop after getting its hands on exotic alien technology?

'Everything will change!'

Adam understood the Big Two's overall purpose for engaging in the risky act of invading a dwarf galaxy that was already occupied by different alien races.

'It's a catalyst for change. It's a huge impetus that can push human civilization out of its rut and give us a reason to look outwards again'

He grew curious and used his comm to access the galactic net. He quickly found a database and searched for certain statististics.

It turned out that the amount of internal human conflicts that had erupted after the opening of the Red Ocean had already dropped by 30 percent!

Significantly less wars had erupted after humans found a better opportunity to realize their ambitions!

While it was still uncertain whether human states would keep their restraint after the hype surrounding the Red Ocean had calmed down, what had happened now was already a positive development to many people!

Adam could even see what the Big Two might wish to do next after the conquest of the Red Ocean had reached completion.

'A new frontier must open in order to keep humanity's attention outwards. If there is nothing more to conquer, then everyone will quickly turn their weapons back against each other!'

That was also one of the many lessons that the human race had learned during the Age of Conquest. When the explosive spree of conquests became more difficult to sustain, people began to turn their weapons towards their closer human neighbors rather than their increasingly distant alien prey.

If the Big Two was truly determined to avoid the mistakes of the past, then Adam could easily imagine the MTA and CFA dangling new goals in front of every human's face.

'It's all building up to something, but what?'

 he could make lots of guesses, but without any additional data, he could not come up with any solid conclusions.

the expeditionary fleet transitioned back into realspace as normal.

Though his body vaguely felt as if it was being squeezed through an invisible tube, he had felt this sensation so many times that he did not even interrupt his deliberations.

That was until he received an alert message.

"General Halcon!" one of his trustworthy staff from before he left the Terrans. although only a C class mech pilot he's already managed to become an expert pilot potente  after his breakthrough 20 years ago, he is currently 50 years old  but still looked like his early 30's due to 1st class augmentations.

Adam greeted as he accepted the emergency hail. "What's the matter? Did we bump into hostile fleets or anything?"

"We are not under threat, sir. Soon after entering this star system, we have detected an unknown artificial presence floating in the inner system. After turning our best long-ranged scanners in this direction, our analysts have tentatively concluded that the unknown object may be a starship, an alien starship!"

"What?! so soon!"

Adam immediately straightened his back as all kinds of thoughts flowed through his mind.

"How big is the vessel? Is the alien ship active? Which alien race built her? Is she alone?"

General Halcon took in all of the questions without any changes to his expression. The calm he exuded already signaled that he didn't think the expeditionary fleet had bumped into an acute threat.

"Barely a minute has passed since we have made our initial observations, so we are still gathering more data. From what we have inferred so far, the unknown vessel is not human. Her design and material composition is too different from what we are accustomed to seeing in human-built starships. In fact, the alien starship is biological in nature!"

"Are you sure about this conclusion?" He questioned. "What if you're looking at a human bioship?"

"We are fairly certain that the ship is not human, sir. I'll pass on the reports to you later so you can understand why we have made this determination. In any case, the biovessel is at least 5 kilometers long and is also thick and vaguely overal in shape. Despite her immense size, her sensor signature is fairly weak. We haven't detected any active energy sources inside her biological hull. Instead, we have detected many irregularities that suggest major damage. We believe that she is a derelict."

Adam calmed down a bit after he heard that. "She's dead?"

The general shook his head. "We cannot be certain of that, especially when we are looking at unfamiliar alien technology. For now, we can tentatively assume that she has lost operation, but we should never put down our guard. Our fleet will remain on yellow alert and our active mech pilots will all be ready to sortie with their machines should the situation deteriorate."

with several 1st class mechs Adam wasn't really worried on bumping alien warships as long as the scale isn't too big they could take them rather easily, with this single derelict alien bioship he was even more confident in going for a head on confrontation!

not to mention there's his two clones along with their 1st class mech in addition, there should be 10 1st class mechs in total for the entire fleet. each 1st class mech has almost the same power output as a 2nd class ACE Mech.

despite his confidence this entire scenario still caused him to think about how suspicious it was to stumble upon a random derelict alien capital ship.

Although the expeditionary fleet had already traveled far away from Vulit, its current location was still quite close to humanity's sphere of influence. There were lots of colonies being developed in the star systems around this location. None of them were particularly big or prosperous at the moment, but the surrounding region was definitely filled with local human powers!

How could a single alien vessel appear so deep inside human-claimed territory?

Although the apparent ruined state of the alien starship suggested that she had fought and lost against an unknown enemy, why did no one come and scavenge the wreck?

A biocapital ship that was at least 5 kilometers should be a major creation of any alien race! There were bound to be a lot of interesting alien technology and exotic materials locked within her broken hull.

With all of the resource scarcity that many organizations were suffering from, a human fleet would have never left such a bounty behind without stripping the entire vessel for everything that held value!

Either the alien starship got defeated by a human fleet that wasn't interested in the salvage, or maybe another alien force did the deed.

Whatever the case, Adam felt that General Halcon was right to act so cautiously.

"We need to gather more data. The more we know, the better we can react to this situation. Try to detect other ships and dangers in this star system. I want to know whether there is an ambush force lurking in an asteroid belt or if another alien bioship is hiding underneath the cloud cover of a gas giant."

"Our men are already looking into those possibilities, sir. So far, we have detected no additional threats in the star system, but I will keep you posted on any new developments"

 "we have already activated her full array of sensors to detect any stealthed ships or mines. The chance that this scenario might be a trap is not small. I have read reports of such schemes many times in the Red Ocean Digest"

crew members told a stream of information in the bridge.

The Red Ocean Digest was the most popular and authoritative news portal in the new frontier. Although it was a relatively bland and neutral publication, it had developed a reputation for trustworthy and reliable reporting. Its staff and journalists always verified their own news.

Reports about all of the battles that had taken place in the dwarf galaxy were always popular reading material. Those who kept track of them would soon develop a good understanding of how battles were being fought in the Red Ocean and which zones had turned into hotspots.

Even Adam had read about the reports of ignorant pioneers making valuable discoveries only to find out that it was just a means to lure them into well-prepared ambushes!

he thought over the situation. The fact that the alien derelict vessel happened to be floating in the inner system was a particularly troubling variable.

"Please observe and analyze the situation as best you can." He instructed. For now, our FTL drives are still cycling, so it's not as if most of our ships can jump away in an instant. We have plenty of time to investigate the shipwreck and the rest of the star system to determine whether there is anything wrong."

"Do you wish to explore the alien wreck?"

Adam responded with a chuckle. "Of course! Why not? As long as it's safe enough, I would love to explore and salvage this big vessel. Discoveries like these are exactly why I wanted to travel to the Red Ocean! It's much harder to stumble upon such an alien creation in the old galaxy. I'm not certain whether it will be of any use, but make sure to prepare boarding teams… I want our men to take a look inside if possible."

The presence of a large derelict alien capital ship in what should have been a quiet stopover point completely took the expeditionary fleet by surprise!

The distant alien bioship was massive in human terms. She was roughly 5 kilometers long and around 3 kilometers thick at her widest section.

Her overall shape was comparable to a rather slender beehive with flat ends. Her surface was either scarred with heavy battle damage or featured numerous strange cavities whose purpose remained unclear.

The bioship looked as if she had been drifting for at least a week based on the small trail of bio tissue leaking from her hull. The vessel was already dead, but she continued to bleed as her orbit kept spiraling around the local yellow dwarf as if she was a satellite.

More details kept pouring in as the alien starship received more and more scrutiny. Although most forms of observation remained passive as it took hours for active scanning signals to travel back and forth across such immense distances, the analysts still figured out plenty of new information.

The mass of the alien derelict, the probable material composition of her enormous exterior and the likely weapons that had been used to disable her all became known as the minutes passed.

based on the general outline of the bio ship Adam had a gruesome feeling as to what they just encountered. if it weren't for the obvious battle damage their sensors could detect he would have ordered the entire fleet to run away.

'its a heavily damaged Phase Whale, to be more precise its one of those cannibal Phase Whales' Adam immediately contemplated his options and his plans. he hid the knowledge of what he knew in fear that he might late be questioned how did he know about cannibal Phase Wales, newbies like him who only recently arrived in Red Ocean Galaxy should have much knowledge about the inner workings and native culture of the aliens here on Red Ocean.

'anyway, since it is already injured i can feel safe that this fleet can take down a severely injured Phase Whale' with what he knows in canon in the near future after the great severing killing or capture of Phase Lords will earn him a warship token!

with that in mind Adam ordered all mechs to sortie and investigate the Phase Whale, to capture it alive if possible.

all 12 1st class mech also sortied and prepared for battle, even a Phase Whale of this size will be relatively easy to subjugate just by looking at its grievous injuries.

the huge fleet approached the inner system at a brisk but relatively cautious pace as they slowly accelerated forward under the protection of just over a hundred combat carriers.

some of the combat carriers ahead of the main fleet and spread out in different directions in order to guard against approaches from different angles.

The expeditionary fleet also deployed lots of listening devices that spread throughout the entire star system. Some of them were larger and contained cheap quantum communication nodes that could instantly transfer timely warnings back to the main fleet if they detected anything amiss.

This was an essential precaution to guard against hostile ships in warp travel. They were so damn fast that the light of their passage arrived far too late in many cases!

They reinforced the surrounding space around them, making it much harder for warp drives to curve space.

The only downside to the commercialized dimensional smoother modules was that they were subject to the inverse-square law just like any other field generator devices. This meant that their effective range was fairly limited.

"Well, at least they can stop alien warships from closing in and unleashing their fire at point-blank range."

In fact, that wasn't the greatest danger to warp drive-capable starships.

The greatest nightmare that everyone in the Red Ocean worried about was what would happen if the incoming ships in warp did not slow down. What if they barreled into a hull at relativistic or superluminal speeds?

The results were not pretty, to say the least!

In fact, it was not that simple for ships to conducts suicide attacks with ease. It was hard for warp drives to curve space that contained a lot of matter and energy. Warp drive tech also hindered starships from crashing into obstacles such as random space rocks.

Even so, that did not prevent starships from warping forward only to shut down their drives moments before their trajectories intersected with other vessels!

There were many more dangers that pioneering fleets had to take into account. Adam would probably drive himself crazy if he had to address all of these risk factors!

"Well, that's what my underlings are for. I'm sure they have covered every angle."

As the distance between the expeditionary fleet and the injured Phase Whale slowly shrank, their mech units that weren't already out on patrol all geared up for deployment.

"Spread out." A mech captain emphasized as she pointed at a projected battle scenario between a human mech company and a generic alien vessel. "If you encounter any alien vessel of any size, chances are that she is armed. Since these ships come in far larger dimensions than any mech, they can easily accommodate weapons that can crush not just one, but multiple mechs at the same time. Therefore, it is crucial for you to start off with dispersed formations and be ready to separate even further depending on the opposition that we face."

If the mech pilots didn't understand the mech captain's message, then the projected simulation battle made her point abundantly clear.

he first simulation run showed the mech company flying forward in a typical defensive formation. This granted it excellent defenses against melee assaults, but it also allowed the alien warship to blast all of the mechs to pieces with a single salvo of her main cannons!

"Defense doesn't matter. No matter how tough your space knights are, none of them are designed to cope against firepower of this scale. If you get hit, then I hope you ejected your cockpit from your doomed machines a second before. If I were you, I would keep your hand on the ejection lever at all times. We can afford to replace a mech, but we cannot bring back human lives. Even if you made a mistake and ejected prematurely, it's okay. We can just put the cockpit back into the mech afterwards."

It was too intimidating for any mech pilot to fight against warships head-on.

The rules of battle were much different. Not only did mechs have to contend with the risk of getting annihilated in an instant, the ships of the expeditionary fleet also had to prepare against direct attacks that were much more threatening than anything a mech could unleash!

The expeditionary fleet had finally come close enough to the Phase Whale to get into action.

Naturally, the fleet wasn't stupid enough to park all of its valuable capital ships right next to the  alien. What if she was rigged to explode? What if the space and her were mined?

There were so many possible dangers that it was best if the main fleet maintained a healthy distance. The ship still needed to be investigated, though.

The good news was that the relative proximity gave the expeditionary fleet's sensor systems a much more detailed look at the motionless biovessel.

A lot of additional data and information emerged, but very few of it actually changed the considerations and approach of the fleet.

They still expressed an interest in exploring and plundering the silent vessel.

There was one major question that had wide-ranging effects on what might happen in this star system.

Should the fleet adopt a cautious or speedy approach?

Alien warp drives were substantially slower than human FTL drives, so they might not arrive anytime soon if they were on the pursuit. Yet their ability to speed up and whizz about much closer to gravity wells such as planets and stars gave them a great advantage in most combat situations!

In short, the expeditionary fleet truly had to gamble on how to proceed.

Should they act with haste and risk suffering damage when the Phase Whale or the surrounding environment suddenly exploded?

Was it better to speed up their exploration and get out before any possible follow-up parties arrived?

These questions and more constantly plagued Adam and the other leaders. They could make lots of guesses but simply didn't have enough clues to know for certain which answer was right.

Perhaps the best answer of all was to just turn around and leave this potential danger zone as soon as possible!

Fortunately, all of the scans made so far pretty much ruled out a lot of possible threats. As far as the fleet were concerned, the chance of encountering hidden mines and other weapons were fairly low.

If the Phase Whale ever mounted any warship-grade weapons, then the attackers must have blasted them off the organic hull. The biotech researchers over at one of the capital ships had already concluded that the bioship did not contain any dormant weapon systems.

"Sir, we're about to dispatch our first probes." General Halcon's projection informed Adam.

"Understood. Don't be in a hurry to proceed with the next steps. Let's see how the ship will respond when we poke her hull with our drones."

Hundreds of little unarmed drones launched from the capital ships and whizzed forward at rapid speed.

These drones were cheap, lightly-armored and disposable, but they were packed with sensors and scanners that could examine a fair amount of details up close.

It took a bit of time for them to approach the distant alien vessel. This was a result of the safe distance the main fleet adhered to. Ves and everyone else had to wait impatiently for the drones to traverse many kilometers until they finally began to reach the Phase Whale's silent hull.

"The drones are beginning to examine the wreckage, sir!"

"Don't focus too much on her exterior. Get those drones through the holes in the hull and record what's inside. Our long-ranged scans never delivered any clear answers on what's inside."

Adam carefully studied the footage transmitted from the drones. The signals coming back remained mostly clear as the dead biocapital ship did not throw up a lot of interference.

All he saw from the projections were walls and bulbs of strange, grayish flesh interspersed with massive structural components in the form of bones.

"What a macabre image."

The alien societies in the Red Ocean were all undergoing an existential crisis after the Big Two accelerated their invasion.

The alien civilizations that were in humanity's way didn't sit around and do nothing as the MTA and CFA blazed through their star systems and wiped out their populations.

The alien races all diverted an immense amount of resources in building evacuation ships that could safely bring as much of their population out of their doomed star systems as possible.

All of them pretty much fled in the direction away from the Big Two's advance, but a few starships tended to get lost or suffer major damage that somehow caused them to go in the wrong direction!

This might explain why the Phase Whale ventured this deep in human occupied territory, but the damage she suffered did not seem to be made by human weapons.

There were few apparent signs of heat and burning, so she obviously hadn't been struck by laser beams or positron beams. Adam was also sure the Phase Whale hadn't been struck by missiles or explosive weapons for that matter.

She hadn't been struck with solid kinetic projectiles either. Even if he did not play around with biomechs, he had seen enough bodies getting struck by kinetic weapons to know how flesh and bone reacted to getting impacted by large and heavy rounds.

The wounds seemed too… clean, for a lack of a better word. Perhaps the unknown assailants used a form of high technology to literally void oval-looking portions of her hull.

It was as good of an explanation as any, but the staff lacked enough proof to feel any confidence in his conclusion.

Several minutes passed by as the drones continued to transmit bewildering footage that featured a lot of unfamiliar and indecipherable alien biotechnology.

Fortunately, none of the drones encountered any active threats. The fleet became more and more certain that the Phase Whale was safe to explore.

That was until the bio researchers began to recognize what they were seeing!

"WAIT!"

"According to one of our experts, this alien vessel is too natural to be a bioship. There are too few signs of logical and artificial structures for us to state with certainty that she is a purpose-grown asset."

"What are you saying?"

'this...... is not a bioship at all. She… it… may be the carcass of an immense astral beast!"

"What?!"

everyone else who was listening to the report to reacted with great shock at this revelation!

the others were trying to wrap their heads around this bold but increasingly more likely guess, a mutation had occurred!

Alarms began to ring throughout the ships as many sensors detected abrupt spikes in activity deep inside the vessel's hull!

"Our most inward probes have been destroyed!"

"The alien vessel's entire structure is convulsing!"

"Our sensor arrays are detecting multiple spikes of heat and energy generation throughout the alien ship. The energy and heat is quickly spreading throughout her structure!"

Half a minute later, many of the open 'corridors' began to spray out large spurts of strange and hot gray liquid!

 "That's blood! The alien ship is reviving by resuming the circulation of blood throughout its body!"

"That's it." General Halcon stated. "We cannot let this alien 'creature' wake up. Even if there is a chance that this living is friendly, we can't take the risk."

Fortunately for him and everyone, the alien vessel soon made it clear what it thought about the humans.

Some of the holes that looked more natural than the others began to pinch and squeeze as if they were giant mouths.

While everyone was wondering about the purpose of these motions, the mouths soon spat fleshy bullets that were at least twice the size and mass of a typical medium mech!

it quickly spat out over 80 of these grayish 'flesh bullets'. They all looked alive because of all of their squirming and because the sensors detected that they each contained a high amount of energy.

"The unknown bioprojectiles are adjusting course! They're heading straight towards our fleet!"

"We're under attack!"

Much of the ambiguity had disappeared. The Phase Whale may look awful, but the apparent astral beast was still alive and possessed plenty of hostility towards the human fleet that sought to pick apart its corpse!

All of the mechs that had already been deployed as a precaution were all prepared for battle.

While the melee mechs didn't have much to do at the moment, the ranged mechs all opened fire at the Phase Whale and the fleshy projectiles were rapidly soaring towards the expeditionary fleet!

"Intercept those bioprojectiles! Don't let any of them hit our ships!"