Chapter 6054 Without Guidance
While Ves got distracted by thinking about producing a masterwork robot avatar, the strike force sent to scope out the Emperor Tree was about to prepare for a serious confrontation.
At this time, core of the strike force had stopped beside a tall hill that offered at least the illusion of cover.
Nobody could say for certain whether the Emperor Tree had already noticed the intrusion into its territory. The tall calamity plant was able to dominate the minds of exobeasts at considerably greater distances, so it was clear that ordinary ranges no longer applied anymore.
Four prominent living mechs remained on standby next to the hill.
Compared to normal times, the Larkinson mechs appeared significantly more subdued, and that was not only because they were trying to lay low.
The machines had lost their glows. The nearby deposits constantly spewed out Solus Gas that lingered on the surface of the planet and blocked nearly every form of mundane and extraordinary signals.
The fact that this strange exotic gas was able to make every living mech feel alone and cut off from their reassuring design spirits was quite a disconcerting experience!
None of the third order living mechs wanted to stick around in this environment for long. The fact that Solus Gas also poisoned and killed most of the wildlife that remained under its influence also did not help.
The Larkinson mechs tried to remain brave even as they waited for the scouting mechs to return and report on the current state of the Emperor Tree.
The most prominent machine on standby was a green-coated hero mech. The Everchanger was the most representative high-end mech of the Larkinson Clan, and the living machine knew it. Even if the versatile expert hero mech tried his best to suppress his presence, he simply couldn't help but harmonize with the surrounding alien flora.
The Everchanger was the only large mechanical object on the surface of Reticula Corein V that did not look or feel like a hostile invader. If not for the fact that the Emperor Tree had gotten rid of most exobeasts within its vast territory, perhaps a small collection of alien critters would have approached the hero mech by now. The warmth and vitality exuded by the machine generated a unique attraction that no organism on the planet had ever encountered!
Even now, the green expert mech acted in accordance to his famous name by continuing to harmonize and adapt his spiritual foundation with the local environment.
This was a subtle ability that the Everchanger recently thought of without the input of his battle partner. It had actually been quite a long time since the expert mech last set foot on an untamed planet and lingered for a while.
The more time the Everchanger spent on the surface of Reticula Corain V, the more the living mech was able to blend in the local atmosphere. It was as if the highly adaptable machine possessed the outlandish ability to go native as long as he received enough exposure to the same environment!
Although neither Joshua nor the Everchanger figured out what sort of benefits they enjoyed if they managed to blend in with the natives, it didn't seem to do any harm.
However, if a fight broke out, then the Everchanger needed to fall back on his combat capabilities in order to survive.
Although the Everchanger received a modest upgrade during the Phasewater Generation, his technical specifications had fallen behind, just like all of the other early Larkinson expert mechs.
What allowed the hero mech to stay relevant was due to his ability to wield all kinds of handheld weapon systems.
The Everchanger possessed a good variety of armaments, so much so that the living machine looked as if he had brought too much equipment for this mission.
The hero mech's original Vitalus luminar crystal rifle and Heartsword served as his most dependable ranged and melee solutions. Although neither of these weapons received any upgrades over the years, their fundamental performance still held up pretty decently.
The Vitalus did not hit particularly hard, but it was able to cycle between three powerful attack phase crystals that were specially prepared for the weapon.
Ves might not have the time to upgrade the Everchanger as a whole, but he could still reserve a few days on producing a bunch of hyper attack phase crystals for the Vitalus rifle.
The Heartsword did not have this problem because it was too outdated to possess the properties of a blessed weapon. Designed and forged by Ketis, the unassuming Unending alloy sword was far from simple as it seemed.
The current loadout of upgraded crystals allowed the Vitalus to launch fire beams, copper beams and bright light beams.
Despite their fancy names, they were essentially enhanced versions of laser beams, positron beams and light beams that came with a few additional special effects.
Aside from all of these options, the Everchanger also possessed the ability to fire a fourth beam type with the help of the Gray Lotus.
Unfortunately, the thick fog of Solus Gas had temporarily caused the blessed weapon to lose contact with Helena, so much of its potency had been reduced.
The Heartsword did not have this problem because it was too outdated to possess the properties of a blessed weapon. Designed and forged by Ketis, the unassuming Unending alloy sword was far from simple as it seemed.
Not only was it much sharper than it should be, the Heartsword also carried a touch of Ketis' love and affection for Venerable Joshua.
In fact, if Ketis wanted to, she could have sent Sharpie to the Heartsword instead!
She did not prefer to do so because Venerable Joshua never developed the heart of a true swordsman. The expert pilot lacked the dedication and willingness to truly devote himself to mastering a single weapon or fighting style.
Even so, Joshua utilized the Heartsword enough years to learn the basics of the Annihilator Sword Style.
If that was not enough to give the Everchanger the destructive power he needed to cut through a difficult opponent, then the expert mech was able to draw upon his much more powerful Scarlet Ember.
The plasma sword that the Larkinsons had looted from the Neo Amadeus and converted it into a more restrained weapon had turned into one of the Everchanger's trump cards.
It was very difficult for the Everchanger to keep the Scarlet Ember in an active state for long, especially since his power reactor hadn't been upgraded for many years.
Nonetheless, Venerable Joshua was confident that if all of the other armaments of the strike force failed to cut off any important samples from the Emperor Tree, his Scarlet Ember would still be able to burn through a branch or root!
It was best not to resort to this option, though. The Everchanger's power reactor and energy transmission systems always endured serious strain whenever he needed to feed the voraciously hungry Scarlet Ember.
The Everchanger deeply wished that Joshua would break through as quickly as possible so that the living mech would finally be upgraded with a luxurious first-class power reactor.
Once the hero mech integrated an energy source that could not only match the power generation of the Neo Amadeus, but exceed it by at least an order of magnitude, the Scarlet Ember would no longer be able to make the Everchanger feel drained anymore!
The varied armaments gave the Everchanger both power and versatility, but anyone who thought that was all the hero mech was capable of would be sorely mistaken.
It was the aspects about the Everchanger that wasn't visible on the surface that made him so unique and valued by the Larkinson Clan.
Joshua personally wished that there would be no need for him to resort to additional tricks, but he did not want to take anything related to the Emperor Tree for granted.
The sensitive expert pilot was already able to perceive a huge well of vitality in the direction of the calamity plant's known location.
Descriptions could not do it justice. The Emperor Tree might not be as powerful as a phase whale, but Joshua had the illusion that the incredibly tall exoplant could moonlight as a god if it wanted!
Several complicated thoughts went through his mind as he contemplated the difficulty of getting close, collecting a few samples and getting out without losing any of his men and mechs.
That was not the extent of his mission. Ketis also tasked him with pushing the two expert candidates over the edge.
"Taon, is your Zeal in good condition?" Joshua asked over a short-ranged communication channel. "The presence of Solus Gas affects your living mech the most. You won't have Ylvaine's guidance on hand anymore. The fog is so thick that your heavy artillery mech can't hang back anymore. You will need to get very close to the Emperor Tree in order to provide us with effective fire support."
"I know." Taon said with clear strain in his voice. "I have prepared for this mission for several weeks now. That has given me enough time to prepare for this challenge. My Zeal will not hold you back or slow you down in any way. I can promise you that. It is not as if I have urgent need of Ylvaine's prophetic guidance anymore when my living mech advanced well into visual range of the enormous tree."
Though Taon did his best to sound confident, it was abundantly clear to Joshua that the Ylvainan mech pilot was feeling anything but assured.
This showed that Taon still treated the Great Prophet as an ever-present crutch to an extent.
Taon's reaction to the current circ*mstances only strengthened the theory that Taon needed to participate in this kind of mission.
Only by forcing the expert candidate to confront a dangerous enemy up close without Ylvaine giving him warnings or targeting guidance would he truly feel desperate enough to force out his hidden potential!
Taon understood this reasoning as well, so he did not object to his participation despite how stupid it seemed to add a heavy artillery mech to an otherwise mobile strike force.
"Is the custom transphasic lifter platform fast and powerful enough for your Zeal?" Joshua asked next.
"It is… acceptable. I am decently satisfied with its traversal speed. What I am not satisfied with is how long it takes to gain altitude."
"It can't be helped. My wife told me that she had tried to do her best with the materials that Task Force Solus had on hand. She put in as much phasewater as she could to make it tougher, but she doesn't know how to use it to increase the effectiveness of its antigrav modules. We will just have to keep in mind to go around hills and other obstacles instead of trying to fly over them. Make sure to memorize the terrain map if you haven't done so already."
Though Ketis and a team of engineers had done their best to put together a thick and massive lifter platform that could levitate an entire heavy artillery mech, Joshua still regarded it as the weakest link of his entire mech unit.
The Transcendent Punisher Mark III that the Zeal was based upon had never been designed with rapid repositioning in mind!
Joshua knew enough about how mech designers worked to figure out that Ves piled up as much mass into the design of the Transcendent Punisher Mark III that he could get away with! Just the gigantic Devora super-heavy high-velocity transphasic hyper gauss cannon alone probably weighed as much as a light mech if not more!
Slotting in the Devora Cannon into 4 of the 8 weapon hardpoints of the Zeal not only weighed the masterwork heavy mech down by a considerable extent, but also caused his center of mass to shift forward!
In comparison, the 4 heavy artillery cannons that had been set in the remaining semi-modular weapon hardpoints hardly looked as if they could pose a serious threat against the Emperor Tree.
They were mainly present in case the strike force needed to clear out a large swarm of exobeasts.
Aside from that, the Zeal had nothing else to defend himself against the hostile alien exoflora and exofauna.
