The Mech Touch - Chapter 7265: Korcho Strain

The Sudfar strain of Goliaths already proved hard to kill and even harder to pin down. However, it was probably a much better corruption target than the Ekstrom Goliaths.

The Sudfar Goliaths were small and possessed much more limited options for that reason.

its mouth was smaller and its assimilation capabilities were not as overbearing.

The Sudfar Goliath’s transphasic claws had to be guarded against, and their ability to spray acid from their mouths posed a considerable threat at short range, but that was the extent of their offensive power.

Ves could already envision a possible capture and corruption scenario.

He felt fortunate that the Divine Harpoon accompanied him on his trip to the Rubarthan front.

The man was incredibly accurate at harpoon throwing. Even if the Sudfar Goliaths were famed for their mobility, so long as one of them became slightly constrained, the Divine Harpoon should be able to sink one of his signature throwing weapons into the body of a megavoribug.

That would be the moment where the Dark Apostle should spring into action.

The harpooned Goliath needed to be given enough leeway to free itself. Otherwise the Goliath Hive would ruthlessly abandon the giant creature and order its body to disintegrate into a puddle of loose matter.

During this crucial interval of time, the Dark Apostle needed to get close and potentially grapple with the Sudfar Goliath in order to expose it to the corrupting power of darkness energy!

The relatively slender body of the Goliath should take this process faster than normal, but the Dark Apostle also had to take care not to get clawed or sprayed with acid.

In order to be safe, Ves needed to complete his superdimensional raiment in order to withstand the creature’s frantic counterattacks.

Perhaps it was best to make a move before he completed his superdimensional spear.

It would take precious time for him to create a powerful D-arm for himself. The superdimensional armor alone should suffice if he wanted to capture a target as opposed to killing it directly.

The only other major concern was that he needed to target the right Sudfar Goliath. Level 4, 5 and 6 Sudfar Goliaths tended to be fairly weak. They lacked the astounding speed and the superior defenses and recovery power of a Level 7 Goliath.

Ves ideally wanted to capture a Level 7 Goliath because a megavoribug of this strength definitely possessed the strongest connection to the Goliath Princess.

He was not certain whether capturing and corrupting weaker Goliaths would preserve enough signal strength’ for him to determine the location of his mission target.

The problem was that the Goliath Hive had not sent too many Level 7 Sudfar Goliaths thus far.

Ves could not afford to wait too long until the right strain at the appropriate level appeared in the star system.

According to the records, the defenders of Philaster Crestia lil had yet to encounter a Level 7 Sudfar Goliath, though it had showed up in several other Rubarthan star systems.

The Goliath Hive probably intended to test the performance of a Level 7 Sudfar Goliath against the defenders of the Philaster Crestia System very soon. This should especially be the case now that the Ascended Giants had made an appearance.

He did not have much time.

He needed to complete the design of his stopgap raiment sooner rather than later.

He needed to get to work at the mech workshop as soon as the material shipments arrived.

Although Ves was not willing to sacrifice everything just to serve the Evolution Witch, as long as he had a chance to earn a major favor from her, he would make a serious attempt to fulfill her demand.

The biggest challenge was keeping everyone else in the dark. Ves could sorely use more help, but he did not dare to inform anymore, including the Divine Harpoon whose cooperation was crucial.

Ves just hoped that the strategy of the Faceless Giant Phalanx did not let his throwing skills atrophy while they were in transit.

“Look at that Abedo Goliath.” Gloriana interrupted his train of thought. “Out of all of the Goliaths, the Abedo is described as the one that resembles erudite phase lords the most.”

The Abedo Goliaths differed from most other strains in that they were primarily positioned as support units.

They sacrificed direct combat capabilities in favor of generating multiple energy fields that suppressed transphasic units, interdicted warp travel, blocked guidance systems and generated other forms of disruption.

While these support functions significantly hindered the performance of nearby mechs and other assets, the Abedo Goliath left itself open to attacks, especially at close range. It was currently being assailed by a Rubarthan expert mech wielding a large plasma halberd.

Each time the expert mech struck with its resonance-empowered weapon, the Abedo Goliath’s spherical body recoiled and attempted to back away.

The expert mech did not let up on its aggression and continued to strike deeper, trying to create more burns and inhibit the Level 4 Goliath’s regeneration even further. However, as if to compensate for the Abedo strain’s lack of direct combat capabilities, the Goliath Hive had beefed up its escort.

Compared to other Level 4 Goliaths, the Abedo Goliath was accompanied by at least 3 times more cannon fodder bugs!

All of those insects constantly converged upon the machine, using their very lives to wear down the resonance shield.

No matter how many bugs got squashed by the expert mech, more always arrived.

The suicidal swarming behavior forced the Rubarthan expert mech to circle around the Abedo Goliath and avoid remaining stationary for longer than half a second.

This made it a lot harder for the expert mech to exploit the weaknesses created by its earlier attacks.

While the Abedo Goliath was not as durable or fast-regenerating as an Ekstrom Goliath of the same Level, the former was still able to endure a considerable amount of punishment.

This allowed it to persist long enough for its attendant voribugs to do their jobs and drag down the expert mech as much as possible.

“The Abedo Goliath will go down sooner or later.” Lord Richard Brownstone spoke in a confident tone. “Ordinary voribugs cannot inflict too much damage to a resonance shield. It is only due to their quantity that the expert mech is facing a struggle. The Abedo strain itself does not pose a significant threat.”

Ves did not look down on this strain. “That only applies as long as the Abedo Goliaths fight in isolation. It is very clear that it is like a fish out of water in these duel-like conditions. Once the Goliath Hive gets serious and pairs the Abedo Goliaths with megavoribugs of other strains, the value of the former will skyrocket. Support assets excel in larger battles involving more units. The interference generated by the Abedo strain will significantly weaken our standard units while also affecting the power of our high-ranking mechs. You may have to prioritize its takedown over other Goliaths in future battles.”

The Rubarthan liaison did not respond, but his grim expression expressed his tacit agreement.

Ves thought about what it would be like to capture and corrupt an Abedo Goliath.

its inability to defend itself would make the effort a lot easier, but its body was still fairly massive, so the process would take longer.

What was really troubling was that the Goliath Hive always assigned a lot more voribugs to escort this strain. Ves would have to figure out a way to keep them off his back or trust that his superdimensional raiment could blunt their claws and fangs.

The high priority of the Abedo Goliath could also prompt the voribugs to call over their other Goliaths.

That was highly problematic!

Ves did not believe he could fend off multiple Goliaths at once, especially if they were Level 6 or Level 7.

He turned his attention to another Goliath.

“Impressive firepower.” He noted. “It is rather alarming that the mutated voribugs have already mastered energy weapon biotech.”

“It would have happened sooner or later. We have fielded plenty of biomechs capable of firing laser beams and plasma bolts. The tech is not new to us. The voribugs only have to capture a single first-class or second-class biomech to master its secrets.” Gloriana said.

“Using biomechs to fight the mutated voribugs is probably a terrible idea.”

Lord Richard Brownstone had a strong reaction to this. He scowled when he looked at the Goliath that was making use of awfully familiar ranged bioweapons!

“We learned this lesson too late. The Rubarthan Pact has a small community of biomech and biotech enthusiasts, same as anywhere else. We have found that they are more eager and willing to volunteer for frontline service. Before the Day of Pestilence has arrived, they have fought well and proven themselves to be worthy linefighters in the war against the native aliens. When the mutated voribugs made their debut, the biomech units bravely pivoted to fight against the new threat, only for them to fall into the hands of a new race that is eager to assimilate our biotech solutions. That has produced many consequences. The Korcho Goliath is but one of many results.”

“We had to issue a prohibition against the use of biomechs or any biotechnology on this front after that. Anyone who knowingly or unknowingly fields advanced biotechnology against the mutated voribugs is aiding and abetting the enemy.”

“Does that also apply to our Ascended Giants?” The projection of the Divine Harpoon tersely asked.

“No. At least not yet” The Rubarthan Senior diplomatically replied. “The mutated voribugs have devoured plenty of phase lords in alien space. There is not much harm in letting them capture an intact lesser phase lord. That said, we have prepared a fast reaction force that is solely tasked with preventing you or any of your men from falling into the hands of the Goliath Hive.”

That should hopefully not be necessary.

The only scenario where such a power might be needed was if the Goliath Hive no longer played around and launched a serious offensive against Philaster Crestia lil While Ves thought about the likelihood of that happening in the next few weeks, the Korcho Goliath continued to show off its impressive firepower.

As a dedicated ranged strain, the Korcho Goliath was clearly modeled after a heavy artillery mech or similar.

It was large, massive and possessed a hard exoskeleton structure that was covered by thick scales.

All sorts of biological cannons extended from their scaly body structure. These cannons fired a random mix of kinetic projectiles, laser beams, plasma bolts and even acid bolts. What was interesting was that their attack output was high, but their reserves were fairly low.

There were instances where the Korcho Goliath had to cease fire or lower its attack ratio in order to recover its reserves.

The Korcho Goliath proved to be a hungry eater. It devoured hundreds of thousands of voribugs at a time just to replenish its energy reserves and form more biorounds to feed its cannons.

While its firepower proved to be formidable, the opposing expert mech was able to endure the attacks quite well.

Venerable Emorah James Brownstone was a grandson of the Brownstone Prince and also happened to be one of Lord Richard Brownstone’s many cousins.

The expert pilot made use of a tech-heavy mid-tier expert multipurpose mech. The Sandy Ranger Mark Ill carried many different miniaturized weapon hardpoints, each of which launched resonance-empowered attacks that proved strong enough to penetrate the scales and snap the organic cannons of the Korcho Goliath!

In contrast, most of the Korcho Goliath’s attacks either ended up missing the agile Sandy Ranger Mark lll or splashed harmlessly against its resonance shield.

If not for the cannon fodder bugs trying to get in its way, Venerable Emorah Brownstone would have been able to inflict much more crippling damage against the Korcho Goliath! As it was, the Sandy Ranger Mark ll had to remain patient and keep up its offensive rhythm in order to wear down its opponent.