The crew member aside from Adam turned out to have made a mistake!

Everyone who looked at the seemingly cold and derelict alien construct thought that it was a bioship that had encountered a deadly opponent.

It shouldn't have been a surprise that they all defaulted to the assumption that the Phase Whale was some sort of alien organic capital vessel.

Starships were humanity's frame of reference of anything floating in space. Aside from space stations and other fixed platforms that were clearly anchored in strategic positions, everything else of this size was always a star faring ship.

Many alien species in both the Milky Way and the Red Ocean utilized starships to move around. While the exact style, purpose and usage of starships may differ slightly among the species, their universal value all made them ubiquitous whether the aliens called them ships, homes, fortresses, or whatever unique word they made up in their incomprehensible languages.

Yet not all constructs in space were space stations or starships. There was a third category of deep space superstructures that showed up from time to time. Though this category of massive objects were rather rare in most parts of human space in the Milky Way due to massive overhunting, they were a bit more prevalent in the Red Ocean!

"Phase Whale!"

These were wondrous forms of life that varied in size but usually leaned on the larger size. Most of them were one form of space bug that had miraculously evolved in different star systems due to various circumstances. The overwhelming majority of them were local pests who never left their star systems because they simply couldn't survive the long, cold and dangerous trip to other places.

However, across millions if not billions of years of evolution, life found a way.

Whether it was through the absorption of phasewater, the mutation of a sophisticated organ or the reckless experimentation of an ancient alien empire, a small proportion of astral beasts managed to escape from the boundaries of their origin systems and succeeded in spreading across the stars!

Each of them were miraculous forms of life that could inherently develop the ability to travel at superluminal speeds through growth alone. They also tended to be on the larger size as scale was one of the best ways for these organisms to survive all of the different threats in space.

Most successful species of astral beasts tended to have emerged a long time ago. They were stable, powerful but did not tend to develop any sentience because there was never a need for them to grow any smarter or make use of tools.

Of course, exceptions always existed. The most prominent example of an 'astral beast' species gaining sentience in the Red Ocean was the phase whale!

which is currently in front of them!

the tension throughout the fleet is palpable, despite being severely injured nobody is sure whether they can take on a Phase Whale. understandably the crew's fear was mostly due to the fear of the unknown..... but not for Adam.

That did not mean it was weak. As the apparent astral beast continued to rouse itself from its hibernating slumber, the expeditionary fleet realized that the situation continued to deteriorate.

Not only was the the phase whale continuing to spit out dozens of large fleshy projectiles at the human fleet that had poked it awake, its entire organic body structure was continuing to morph in ways that no one understood!

"The phase whale is continuing to heat up! The amount of energy being generated across its form is continuing to rise over time!"

"The open arteries are being closed at a rapid pace. The Titania's biological tissue has displayed rapid healing and morphing capabilities. Some of its smaller surface cavities are already being plugged."

"The phase whale is showing greater adaptability towards our weapons. Her surface volume has shrunk by 2.7 percent and is continuing to contract even as her fleshy surface is growing denser and tougher. The astral beast's exterior has already become 6 percent more resistant to energy damage and 7 percent more resistant against physical damage!"

The phase whale was transforming before everyone's eyes, it showed through all of its actions that it was far from dead as it initially appeared!

As thousands of mechs opened fire against the distant alien and the approaching bio projectiles, Adam's clones in their Exodia hybrid mechs fired at the in coming projectiles in hopes to intercept some of them, it was soon followed not only by the other mechs but also the combat carriers immediately concentrated their fire on the injured phase whale.

That said, the flesh torpedoes that the phase whale had formed by rearranging parts of its own body did not look trivial. They continued to accelerate forward as their biological thrusters continued to burn some kind of organic juice. 

The torpedoes did not appear to be too maneuverable but they were distressingly large and considerably resistant against damage!

Hundreds of energy beams and projectiles slammed against the noses of these flesh torpedoes. Though they always managed to burn or blast away portions of organic tissue, the flesh torpedoes still possessed plenty of matter, allowing them to endure a lot more hits until their bodies eventually fell apart.

"Damn, each of these flesh torpedoes are as tough as an expert mech!"

The phase whale itself was also an immensely tough opponent. Even if every weapon was able to inflict noticeable damage to it, its immense size and volume meant that a couple of salvos did not affect its integrity at all! It took far more salvos or the use of weapons of much greater scale in order to inflict major structural damage to the creature.

In effect, the mechs of the expeditionary fleet were like bees poking a giant human body. While it was possible for a large swarm of bees to eventually kill a human, they were so small that they needed to employ an immense amount of effort to complete their goal!

"Concentrate our fire on intercepting the flesh torpedoes!" General Halcon ordered the mech legions. "Do not let them get within ten kilometers to any of our ships. The consequences of any of them impacting our hulls may very well spell their doom!"

The difference this made was considerable. The increased concentration of fire quickly began to neutralize the flesh torpedoes one by one. These odd biomissiles could take a lot of punishment, but as soon as certain important organs sustained damage, it could no longer propel itself forward or simply lost so much integrity that they broke apart in a messy fashion.

Out of all of the mechs that opened fire on the flesh torpedoes, the Gundam Dyames sniper/artilery mechs bunkered on the combat carriers  inflicted the most damage by far! The weight and volume of firepower of these mech model granted them a better advantage against large and touch constructs than other mechs!

"We don't have enough artillery!"

The skirmisher mechs such as the Gundam Kyrios in their ranged configuration tried their best to make up for the shortfall.

Even though their rifles were accurate and fairly powerful, their weight of fire was simply incomparable against the previous mech model.

While their advantages such as a decent firing rate and good accuracy worked well when employed against small and maneuverable mechs, the phase whale and its flesh torpedoes didn't care about that. Only brute force could fell hostile entities of this scale!

"Those 'flesh torpedoes' are not explosive in nature." 

"Any explosions that you see when successfully intercepting the organic objects are mostly generated by setting off their volatile propellants. The actual threat they pose is much different because they are full, living organisms just like the phase whale!"

"Are you sure about that?!"

Once again, the crew became shocked at what they heard.

"We're not shooting missiles. We're shooting down the alien's offspring."

"Whether they are its clones or its children, each of these incoming fleshy creatures will likely be able to destroy our ships by rampaging across their hulls as if they are actual beasts!"

This was a frightening prospect… What would happen if a few of the phase whale's 'children' landed on one of their ships? They could probably chew through the hull of his flagship before wreaking havoc inside!

 

 

The researchers on board the capital ships played a crucial role in helping everyone understand what they currently faced.

Before, they thought that the phase whale was a derelict bioship and that its flesh torpedoes were akin to conventional projectiles.

Now, they understood that both of them were actually complete living organisms that could think and act for themselves!

The phase whale clearly proved its living qualities by adapting to the current situation. Not only was it squeezing out more out more 'offspring' from its body in an attempt to overwhelm the expeditionary fleet, its contracting exterior was constantly being hardened in order to resist more and more damage!

The current state of the battle did not look that good at the moment. Even if an injured biocreature as enormous as the phase whale had almost perished after fighting against an unknown adversary, it still possessed so many resources that it could probably keep up its offensive actions for a long time!

Currently, the mech forces deployed by the expeditionary fleet found itself at a considerable disadvantage in this battle, this is despite the very fact that there are at least 10 1st class mechs at the front line fighting a severely injured phase whale.

There was no helping it. The expeditionary fleet had all formed their respective combat units with human opponents in mind. While they were all aware that they might have to fight against alien forces if they continued to roam in the Red Ocean, they did not expect that day to come so soon!

The fact of the matter was that the expeditionary fleet had been caught with its pants down. Almost half of its combat assets consisted of melee mechs based on the design of Gundam Exia, which were considered essential in fighting against other mech forces but were seriously inadequate in this situation!

No one thought about dispatching melee mechs to the phase whale in order to tear her enormous body apart up close. From what they could observe, the astral beast possessed a high degree of control over its own biological structure.

Any mech that dared to attack its flesh would probably get swallowed whole by many tons of flexible and responsive biomatter!

Even if that wouldn't happen, there was little point in dispatching them anyway. The damage they could do to the surface of the phase whale was as trivial as a bunch of ants trying to chew their way through a human body.

The best way they could perform their role was to drill past the surface and deal damage to the phase whale's internal organs. If the melee mechs could quickly work their way deeper and reach the areas where the ranged mechs couldn't damage, perhaps there was a way for them to cut off the phase whale's energy supply.

Yet who would possibly take the risk to order such a dubious action? The most likely consequence of sending melee mechs on this suicide mission was that the enormous astral beast's bulk would crush any of the annoying mechs that attempted to dig into its body!

Just like how human bodies possessed immune systems that destroy foreign germs, General Halcon and many other humans were afraid the phase whale would have a similar answer against intruding mechs!

Fortunately, the melee mechs did not have to sit out this battle entirely. The fleet had stockpiled a sufficient amount of basic energy rifles in case they confronted supermassive threats in this new galaxy!

The melee mechs all returned to their motherships and quickly returned to space with rifles in their hands.

This was the advantage of fielding humanoid mechs. Even if they weren't built with ranged combat in mind, they could still manipulate an ordinary rifle with decent effectiveness!

"The last time I fired a rifle was years ago" complained by one of the mech pilot on a melee mech

"It doesn't matter. Those squishy torpedoes aren't evading our fire at all. Just fire straight ahead. If your aim is so bad that you can't even hit these obvious targets, then fire at the Titania instead. That beast is much bigger but it hasn't moved at all. There are no excuses if your shots go wide!"

The weight of fire from the expeditionary fleet increased as a result of arming all of the melee mechs with ranged weapons.

However, the effectiveness of the additional fire was marginal. The marksmanship skill of the mech pilots were wildly inconsistent and they were unable to concentrate their fire on specific weak points. This led to a lot of dispersed shots that haphazardly hit different surfaces without achieving much.

It was better than nothing, though. As time went by, the melee mech pilots slowly became accustomed to handling ranged weapons and sharpened their aim, not that it was difficult to do so. The continued lack of lateral movements from their targets meant that they were hitting the equivalent of stationary targets.

"It's just like target practice, except there are real stakes in play this time!"

The difference they made was noticeable. The organic torpedo creatures were being blasted apart at a faster rate than before. None of them had ever come close enough to threaten the expeditionary fleet.

However, that did not make the humans happy. They were successful in intercepting the phase whale's flesh torpedoes, but the astral beast simply sent out additional waves!

The big creature possessed so much organic matter that it could keep this up for hours. At this point, the human mech forces couldn't divert a lot of firepower in order to damage and accelerate the collapse of the phase whale.

The torpedoes would just get closer if they stopped intercepting the incoming biomissiles as hard!

General Halcon and every leader realized that they had landed in a battle of attrition against their alien opponent. Many of their ranged weapons could not sustain their rate of fire forever. Heat buildup, energy depletion, increased wear and tear and other factors would slowly cause these weapons to fall silent in an extended battle.

Which side would be able to outlast the other?

This question weighed in the minds of many mech pilots.

Even the mechs that were much more effective in ranged combat than others were finding out that their advantages didn't mean much against an immense creature that could easily absorb a lot more damage.

the two of Adam's clone in their respective Exodia Hybrid mechs performed heroically to say the least as they are the ones that got in close quarters and hacked chunks of the whale's flesh before retreating in time as the surrounding flesh comes alive with a bloom of tentacles!

Large pieces of flesh burned to a crip if they hadn't been vaporized already. The heat and energy damage also affected the flesh surrounding the immediate impact area, thereby softening up this weak point for the subsequent strike!

Sadly, the phase whale still had many more layers in the way that could prevent the weapons fire from going any further. What Adam's clones was doing was the equivalent of drilling a tunnel through a mountain with only a single hand pick at their disposal!

"We need to do more! We can't keep sitting back like this!"

None of this was truly working, while the original injuries of the phase whale were not being repaired, their attacks on it on the other hand were almost instantaneously being regenerated at an alarming rate!

this is after all a genuine Phase Whale, these are the species on top of the galactic food chain.

but even then with great amount of luck the dreaded Phase Whale eventually succumbed to its injuries and stopped attacking, defeated but not dead.

Adam never expected to come across a severely injured cannibal Phase Whale.

"communications, contact the MTA immediately!" Adam shouted

"yes sir!" replied by the communications officer as he operated the machines with practiced hands

with such a big haul the MTA replied with record speed!

"maintain you position, we're warping a ship on your coordinates"  said by the MTA personnel on the line

 

the entire fleet only waited for 10 minutes before  a gigantic ship over 10 kilometers in length exited the warp portal and came close to the phase whale, with hundreds of 1st class multi purpose MTA mechs surrounding the perimeter of the warship.

The battle against the Phase Whale had tentatively come to an end. As time passed by, the giant astral beast that had woken up and attacked the expeditionary fleet could only be assumed to gone in a coma.

Its flesh was cooling. Its gray blood was spilling out into the vacuum and froze into crystals. Its heavily-damaged exterior was no longer consolidating but instead became more damaged as its vulnerable structure became exposed to the harsh conditions of space.

A few mechs rotated back to their respective motherships in order to quickly replenish their energy ammunition and energy cells. Aside from that, every other machine could go back to firing their weapons at the Phase Whale at any time.

Nothing happened for a while as the fleet investigated the phase whale's damaged and inactive body.

"While we managed to defeat this beast without suffering any losses, it was not in good shape to begin with. Who knows what would happen to us if we fought it when it was at its peak."

The battle was a giant wakeup call for everyone in the expeditionary fleet. to venture into the new frontier without worrying about attack from human forces, the Red Ocean was still home to countless alien species!

Whether they were intelligent or not, every non-human entity that was capable of traveling the stars were by no means weak! Some could even give the MTA and CFA's warfleets a run for their money.

It was always a gamble to see whether these unknown but undoubtedly hostile entities were strong or weak. Unlike back in the galactic rim, the power level of these aliens swung wildly depending on their race and origin. A poor encounter could easily lead into a clash against an alien ship whose power was comparable to that of a CFA cruiser!

"We need to make a lot of changes after this battle."

"We need bigger guns."

"We're lucky that we only encountered a single astral beast."

What if the phase whale wasn't alone? What if the expeditionary fleet had to fight against a small family of astral beasts?

The prospect of having to fight against several of these giant beasts with mech-grade weapons made him feel pained.

In warship terms, the armaments of a mech were the equivalent of secondary guns!

Secondary guns were only suitable for intercepting mechs, starfighters, missiles, drones and other 'light' targets. Warships came equipped with them in order to deal more efficiently against swarms and to avoid utilizing their main cannons against unworthy threats.

the Big Two's prohibition against warships and warship-grade weapons put early pioneers at a heavy disadvantage.

This was the price for getting first dibs on the Red Ocean. By moving earlier than other humans, the early arrivals also had to deal with lingering threats that could end their entire fleets in a single day.

 

"So this is an astral beast of the Red Ocean." A researcher of the MTA remarked as his suited form flew outside of the shuttle that had flown into the inner belly of the Phase Whale. "How… grand."

Hundreds more people equipped with hatard suits and scientific gear had already arrived in previous waves.

Bioresearch teams dispatched by the MTA warship took samples while trying to figure out the functions of different organs and groupings of flesh.

Salvage parties sent by the MTA had also begun to harvest any pieces of biomass that contained valuable exotics.

More people were performing other functions such as rigging explosives, installing shield generators, drilling tunnels in different directions and other engineering-related activities.

the Phase Whale while in a coma is still plenty dangerous, and the MTA is making sure that all avenues of problem are covered.

It was an inspiring sight to many. This giant beast was previously a threat, but now humanity had subjugated it. 

There is lots of work being done inside this phase whale. We have already suffered a number of near-accidents in the form of blood vessels bursting out, detritus being flung out at high speeds and tunnels squirting shut due to instinctual contractions. Although we are certain that this phase whale is no longer a threat, not every portion of its body has gotten the news as of yet. They are like parts of a broken ship. As long as they still have access to their own local backup power reserves, they can still act up when subjected to certain stimuli.

The entire creature must have led a long and difficult life as it slowly grew up in the Red Ocean. As the both the expeditionary fleet and the MTA researchers kept investigating the phase whale's enormous body, they gathered more clues about its nature, its biological mechanisms, and its life trajectory.

This allowed them to construct a plausible story about the phase whale's life from birth to its demise at the hands of the fleet.

In human terms, the Titania is 6344 years old, In astral beast terms, this is also an impressive age. Most astral beasts eventually end up dying to space hazards, predation from other astral beasts, starvation due to an inability to find sufficient sustenance or getting hunted down by sentient alien races.

"If we are able to keep it whole and transport it back to the MTA, we can easily sell it for a fortune"

the projection of information floating in front of Adam.

"we'll let the MTA haul the stuff, before this is over I'm going to talk to the MTA representative about our compensation"

The Titania's corpse was as valuable as a good capital ship back in the old galaxy! This was an amazing prize for what amounted to a dangerously short and quick victory!

Payoffs like these were one of the greatest reasons why people flocked to the Red Ocean so much. It was much easier to stumble upon a lucky find and earn a huge fortune!

Of course, it was easy to forget that opportunities never fell into people's hands so easily. If the expeditionary fleet wasn't so strong and if it didn't possess so many trump cards, the phase whale may have been the ones to scour over the remains of the expeditionary fleet instead!

 

after the entire space surrounding the fleet was secured Adam's clone which was leading the fleet is teleported to the MTA warship that warped near the phase whale.

" Mr. Rothschild, an impressive achievement. not many could have survived their first encounter with a phase whale this large" said by the MTA representative.

for some reason this MTA warship didn't have any master mech designer or even an expert mech pilot, either they are too confident in their strength with this sector too deep within human control or they really are that powerful.

despite his inherited memories even back then in the Greater Terran Confederation the full strength of the MTA and CFA has yet to be fully shown outside of the old records which are several hundreds of years old, even more so now here in the Red Ocean Galaxy.

boring pleasantries and the common rituals for the elites took a while, after all Adam is still a genuine 1st rater even if he can only afford to field a 2nd class force.

" in exchange for this intact Phase Whale i want a favor from the MTA, i still don't know what i want but when the time comes i want the equivalent favor for this Phase Whale" Adam said seriously

the MTA representative thought for a few seconds.

not many could tell, but with Adam's 1st class implants and upgrades he could tell there was a lightning fast communications happening in this moment, between the representative and a higher superior.

'does that mean this deal is not just coming from this representative but also from a superior? but then why not just talk to me. it's not like communications are unavailable' he pondered 

"sure, we have no problem... however it must be within reason" the representative sternly said with even a hint of intimidation

"of course, it's just that we have only arrived in this Galaxy we don't really now what we want for now, I'd like to explore our options first before cashing in"

lies of course, Adam knew the great severing is going to happen in less than 50 years. and both the MTA and CFA would be allowing the pioneers to be able to field their own warships through achievements. achievements like killing or capturing a phase lord EXACTLY like this phase whale in coma!

"alright then, if you change your mind you know where to contact us" the representative said unemotionally before teleporting Adam back to his ship.

'whew, at least that's out of the way' he said a bit nervously

with that deal concluded the expeditionary fleet reformed their ranks and continued on their way to find new colonizable planets.

 

in 2 months straight nothing eventful happened, we have seen planets being colonized. most of them are bare bones, with only the space station being fully completed.

planet side are still being terra formed so that meant all infrastructure are close domed or underground. aside from stopping from supplies and getting information here and there we went straight ahead for the middle zone.

originally Adam wanted to establish a colony in the middle zone near the borders of the higher zone in preparation when he is ready to expand, but later changed his mind and opted for a more safer and steadier approach.

so right now the expeditionary fleet is around the lower middle zone several lightyears from the border of the lower zone where its 3rd raters "stomping ground"

the star system is in poor condition, by the looks of it there was not even an alien infrastructure before even the human invasion of the Red Ocean Galaxy.

the star itself was relatively young and stable, the problem is on the planets. there are 15 planets around this unknown star system!

its Kuiper belt is rather a sight to behold, from a distance it looks like a flat disc surrounding the solar system, but its made up of moon sized asteroids and frozen liquids of varying sizes.

'without a question there's got to be some very valuable exotic to be harvested there!' 

10 of which are the size of earth but without any atmosphere. just rocky mountains and crevasses which could potentially yield generous exotic minerals most of which are common minerals in the periodic table, these are entire planets after all even if the resources are of poor quality then at least have planets worth of them.

the other 5 on the other hand are gas giants of varying size from the size of Saturn to Jupiter, all planets in the system have no moons. the gas giants literally solves all potential energy problems for Adams entire lifetime. inefficient as they may be they are still sources of energy.

none of the planets are in the goldilocks zone, all of them are further away meaning most of them are going to be cold planets.

"scan the most stable planet and prepare to disembark the engineers, i want  fully functional space station constructed in 1 month" he ordered

at Adams command the entire fleet became busy, the unnamed system has been registered as Rothschild System, and the 1st planet being colonized dubbed Rothschild 1. 'not really creative, lazy even... maybe i'll change t in the future' Adam thought

hundreds of thousand of 3rd raters being awaken from their stasis sleep are only giber 48 hours to recover and get their bearing before putting them all to work.

the materials and various heavy equipment that will be used for constructions are already transported on the planet.

in just one week underground dwellings are already complete while the surface infrastructure are still being built. the smaller satellite stations doing its rounds around the planet are all fully functional.

in the entire fleet no one is not busy, even Adam's clones in their respective mechs are always on the swivel in case some aliens managed to stumble in this region of the space.

 

in just a relatively short span of time of 1 year came Adam's 8th clone, this greatly emboldened Adam with his future plans all he needed was time.

the Rothschild system is now up and running with a fully functioning trade market with merchants coming in and out, 20 moon size space stations were constructed surrounding planet Rothschild 1. being the only planet terraformed and with fully constructed infrastructures it is obviously heavily defended.

while super weapons and warship grade weapons have been banned by the CFA and MTA there are several ways to circumvent these limitations, one of these are the "suicide ships", basically its just a super large rocket disguised as a spaceship 1 kilometer in length with thick armor, huge thrusters and pack with even more payload.

inside each of the moon sized space stations are hundreds of these "suicide ships" although back in the Milkyway Galaxy this would definitely raise some very serious scrutiny this would not happen here in the Red Ocean Galaxy due to the ongoing hostilities with the natives.

the business here with cheap exotics are so profitable the next batch of follow up fleets and its accompanying settlers are already on their way this time with 3 clones coming to lead them, although this left Adam without a clone to guard him by his side he already made appropriate preparations.

the 5 gas giants are also discovered with rich Helium-3, although higher levels of 2nd raters no longer use such energy source the grand majority of humanity which are 3rd raters still use them at every corner of their technology.

constructions on the second planet is already ongoing, preparing for the next surge of colonizers coming from the Varga system back in the milkyway galaxy.

in these past year most of the construction effort has been centered on defense, safety and survival. all D class mech pilots has been assigned to mechs based on Gundam Dynames sniper artillery, this desperate recruitment accounted to 50,000 additional mech pilots defending the Rothschild System. even as a 2nd rate technology 1st raters would still need to tread carefully from such prodigious firepower.

and seemingly just in time an alien fleet has been detected 5 lightyears away from the Rothschild System and there's no sign of them stopping.

as soo as the sighting has been confirmed a system wide alarm has been sounded and everyone has been walking with practiced maneuvers towards where they should be.

right now most of their mech pilots are unfortunately rushed in their training hoping to dissuade any attackers with their sheer numbers, but unfortunately the native aliens does not have the same customs or proper understanding of the humans. this alien fleet could be just sending themselves to a slaughter underestimating their humans. that or they knew exactly what they are doing!

"alright! time to use the CFA goodies we got from the starlight megalodon back then" Adam was eager to see how useful the 300 year old tech.