Chapter 7298: Phase Lord Advantage Ves looked at the projections showing the visual appearance as well as the data related to the 'Voribug Organic Battle Moon'. Though the name sounded a bit unwieldy, it accurately described the huge flesh ball that was strip-mining the outer planet of the Philaster Crestia System. The appearance of this odd and confounding battle moon triggered a new phase in the Voribug War. The enemy had undoubtedly chosen to escalate. The Goliath Hive was no longer content with trying to imitate alien phase lords. The mutated voribugs had begun to duplicate fortified planets! Just the thought of trying to destroy all of this biomass was giving Ves a headache. He was not too certain about the other forces in the star system, but the Bluejay Fleet was ill-equipped to fight against this confounding biomoon. The fleet lacked capital ships and possessed a shortage of big guns. Sure, the sub-capital warships could inflict a respectable amount of damage, but their sizes limited the scope of their firepower. At the very least, it would take them a long time to deplete the defenses of the huge battle moon. This was not good news, because time was of the essence. The longer the biomoon managed to hold on and stay alive, the greater the likelihood that it could approach Philaster Crestia III and crash onto its surface! Once that happened, the damage to all of the existing planetary defenses, infrastructure and more would completely fall into the hands of the voribugs! If the crash did not kill or destroy the people and assets on the surface, then the spread of the flesh carpet and the burrowing of all of the resource-collecting insects would definitely ruin the planet in a short amount of time. Even if the Rubarthans launched a counterattack and retook the Philaster Crestia System, the globe would definitely be ridden with holes! Ves raised his arm and rubbed his face. The moody atmosphere in the command center certainly did not help to inspire confidence. "What do you expect from me and my Ascended Giants and I? Look, just because we are human phase lords doesn't mean we can take on an organic megaconstruct of this scale. Most of us can't even match the size of a juggernaut. It takes time, phasewater and diligence for us to grow to the limit of a lesser phase lord. It has been less than a year since the Phase Lord Department had begun to raise human phase lords. Their current growth rates are already remarkable, but the lack of time means that they still have many years to go before they can become large enough to hack moons apart with their bodies." Whatever the Rubarthans had in mind, Ves did not have a lot of confidence that it would succeed. The Ascended Giants were simply too underdeveloped at this stage. Their lack of experience was almost crippling. Fighting as Ascended Giants was a whole other game. At least high-ranking mech pilots had enough years under their belt as standard mech pilots. They understood mech combat quite well and did not have to learn a completely different mode of combat once they broke through. The same could not be said for the Ascended Giants. Many of them consisted of elite infantry soldiers and so on. While they understood how to fight as infantrymen, human phase lords fought on a whole different level! Even if they could technically pose a threat against ace mechs and lesser phase lords, these were only theoretical possibilities. Ves did not dare to bet that they could reach anywhere close to 100 percent of their combat potential in the next fight. "One of the biggest problems we are facing is lack of intelligence." Lord Richard Brownstone said. "We are able to make plenty of long-ranged scans and observations of the Voribug Organic Battle Moon. However, that is far from enough for us to devise an effective means to destroy this giant organic siege construct. Our biotech scientists and other specialists have not yielded any significant data about what is hidden beneath the surface. We do not understand the internal structure at all. Is it solid? Is there a core in the middle? Is it hollow? All of these questions and more need to be answered before we can proceed." "Proceed with what?" Ves asked. "Proceed with understanding the nature and the structure of the VOBM, preferably before it can make landfall." Ves frowned as he tried to parse those words. "Are you talking about launching a scouting operation?" "Yes. Remote scouting attempts are not giving us the information we need. Roving patrols of voril bugs are also highly effective at intercepting our drones. Due to these setbacks, we have realized that the only effective means of understanding the VOBM is to conduct reconnaissance in force. We need to send a force that is small enough to evade detection as long as possible, but is also strong enough to get past the defenses and remain long enough to collect quality data before retreating." "Why us?" Ves asked. "Why can't you send a bunch of mechs or warships?" The Brownstone scion presented his arguments. "We have thought about resorting to other means, but none of them are ideal to us. Mechs are too fragile and cannot get close enough to survive. The VOBM is constantly being patrolled by at least a million individual voribugs at this point. That makes it far too likely for a machine to encounter one of them. Sending a small warship or two will not help either. They may be tough enough to withstand greater damage, but their larger hull sizes and stronger energy signatures means that the voribugs will detect them much sooner." "What about stealth mechs or stealth vessels?" "The mutated voribugs are aware of the existence of human stealth units." Richard replied. "We have tried to sneak our stealth units into their strongholds in the past. They achieved limited success until they got caught. Ever since then, the voribugs wised up and always surrounded their most important locations and assets with large amounts of voribug patrols. Their erratic flight patterns and abundant numbers make it impossible to get close without colliding against one of the many patrols." In short, the Rubarthans could forget about resorting to stealth options. The mutated voribugs solved this problem in one of the most least efficient manner possible, which was to rely on their huge numbers to weave a giant physical net around critical locations and locations such as the VOBM! Ves grunted in frustration. Although the solution employed by the voribugs was incredibly wasteful, it just happened to suit their characteristics perfectly. So long as it worked, there was nothing much for them to complain about. "So what makes the Ascended Giants better than all of the other solutions?" "Let me explain, Ves." A projection came to life. It showed a small number of scout vessels splitting up before trying to approach the Voribug Organic Battle Moon from different angles. "We have devised a plan that begins with dispatching several scout vessels to the VOBM. The mutated voribugs are already familiar with such vessels. They recognize that these ships are too small and weak to pose a credible threat. That means that the native aliens will not be on guard against them and will only attempt to destroy them if they get too close. This is why they will stop their advance before they provoke the mutated voribugs. The scout vessels must do their utmost to lull the enemy into complacency." Ves narrowed his eyes in thought. "The reason why you want these scout vessels to appear as unthreatening as possible is because you want them to smuggle our Ascended Giants as close to the VOBM as possible, am I correct?" Lord Richard grinned. "Exactly! I am not sure whether this idea has crossed your mind, but you and your Ascended Giants possess a distinctive advantage, one that your alien counterparts disdain to exploit. They can shrink to the size of humans when their prodigious strength is not needed, and reveal their giant physiques when it is finally time for them to take action." Ves widened his eyes. "If we send combat carriers or larger vessels to the VOBM, the mutated voribugs will prioritize their removal. They understand the threat posed by mechs and human phase lords. Just the size alone makes it clear that there is a threat. However, if a small ship carrying a bunch of humans approaches the battle moon, the voribugs will not assume that there is a threat so long as the intelligence hasn't leaked." "Exactly. This plan takes full advantage of your ability to change your sizes." It was only when the small ships had come close enough that the Ascended Giants could reveal themselves! "Wait." Ves suddenly made an important realization. "There is a big problem. While human phase lords are able to switch between human and giant forms, the same cannot be said for our equipment. Our raiments currently consist of solid alloy plating. Even if they can be disassembled, their combined volumes are far greater than what you can stuff inside the tiny cargo holds of those scouting vessels. Maybe the only equipment that they can use are smart metal undersuits!" Lord Richard Brownstone nodded. "We are well aware of that. This is why your Ascended Giants must perform their mission without their usual combat gear. If everything goes according to plan, then their spatial barriers should provide them with enough protection. There is no need for them to rely on additional gear. Their mission is not to destroy the Voribug Organic Battle Moon. Their only task is to carry specialized one-use scanning spikes and plunge them into the surface of the bioconstruct at equidistributed points." More projections came to life. One projection showed the initial approach of several scout vessels. All of a sudden, 30 Ascended Giants appeared outside their hulls! These giants only wore flimsy smart metal suits and carried no armaments at all. The only equipment they carried were scanning spikes that the Rubarthans had barely managed to fit into the cargo holds. When these giants emerged, the VOBM and the roving voribug patrols instantly became alarmed. Before the voribugs could ramp up their attacks and swarm the giants with an endless amount of bugs, the giants flew forward and spread out so that they surrounded the VOBM at perfectly even distances from each other. The giants then proceeded to throw the scanning spikes into the fleshy surface of the moon. Once the spikes landed in place, they released an incredibly powerful scanning pulse. "This is... quite a daring plan." Ves muttered as he studied the details further. "Will this actually work?" They displayed the so-called scanning spikes, which appeared to be nothing more than spears scaled up for giants that were filled with high-tech, high-powered scanning devices. The projection even revealed the design details of the scanning spikes. Ves could see that they were clearly designed in a hurry, but that made it simpler and easier for him to understand. The scanning spike possessed multiple functions. A part of them was meant to increase its endurance and allow it to last as long as possible. It even came with a single-use azure shield generator. Another part of its functions were dedicated to their primary mission, which was to conduct high-powered directional scans deep inside a large organic mass. In order to gather as much data as possible, their power levels had been cranked up to the point where their components would definitely burn out after a single use! Their final function was to transmit a huge amount of data back to the Rubarthans. There was no use in scanning the entire VOBM from 30 different points along its surface if the scanning spikes could not successfully send back their precious bounty! The voribugs initially knew nothing about ECM, but had become increasingly proficient as time went by. Even if their interference methods were still rudimentary for the time being, who knew how much better the VOBM was able to scramble any data transmissions. In order to ensure that the scanning spikes successfully delivered their data back to Rubarthan hands, their tops were designed to separate and blast away from the battle moon! The Ascended Giants needed to linger above the spikes they had just thrown in order to capture the ejected data storage modules! As long as they managed to capture them, they should withdraw immediately! (More chapters in Buyers club for TMT)