The Mech Touch (Web Novel) -
Chapter 7511: Energy Field Warfare
"We're saved!"
Though more than a few people privately grumbled about the delay, each of them still felt grateful that their powerful Saint Commander finally came to the rescue!
Even without moving away from her central position, the Minerva Mark II was able to assert a fairly strong claim on the space occupied by the combined fleet.
Within her expansive domain field, it became a lot more difficult for hostile presences to have their way inside the defensive perimeter!
The local space immediately grew less oppressive. Casella's presence and willpower never felt as reassuring as this moment. Amplified by the true resonance generated with her ace command mech, her domain field brought back the light in a pocket that was being threatened by darkness!
The warships of the combined fleet showed greater coordination and less panic. The mechs fought more boldly and did not relent in their efforts to rescue the missing assets.
Yet just as the Command Field was about to press back the dark miasma even further and create more space for the combined fleet, the adversary quickly responded to this development.
Ves and other sensitive individuals noticed it first. They felt a huge buildup of negative energies just beyond the barrier!
The dark miasma churned and roiled as if multiple invisible spoons tried to stir it all up. The strong rotational forces that appeared in four cardinal directions significantly changed the impact of the environment on Casella's Saint Kingdom as well as the strained defensive spell array.
The expansion of the Minerva Mark II's Command Field slowed down. Though it was still strong enough to push outwards, it had clearly encountered greater resistance than before!
Yet that was clearly not the extent of the enemy's response. The 4 separate 'cyclones' somehow resonated with each other in a mysterious way. Ves widened his eyes as his companion spirit vaguely sensed that they were not separate actions, but multiple components tied together in a greater whole!
All of the quantitative changes ultimately began to produce a qualitative change!
The surrounding dark miasma that had been caught up in the cyclones no longer exhibited as much lethargy and passivity as before.
As they got caught up in the rotational forces, the death energy seemed to become more active. Whatever the unseen aliens were doing caused the negative energies to become imbued with unknown properties!
Once empowered by this strange and indecipherable process, the activated energies crashed into the defensive barriers with unnatural power!
This time, they managed to push back the expanding Command Field!
"What?!"
"How can an ace commander's domain field be repelled by low-grade death energy?!"
Although their unseen opponents had utilized special means to increase the concentration and directionality of the dark miasma, that still did not explain how it had suddenly become a lot more effective at suppressing Casella's willpower!
Ves quickly narrowed his eyes as he let Blinky observe the gargantuant flow of energies. He quickly noticed a few important patterns.
He reported his findings over the command channel.
"Those energy vortices are not natural. They are actively being generated by the enemy! Not only that, but they are perfectly synced together! I think… that the enemy has deployed a qi formation that happens to be effective in suppressing our Command Field! We are caught up in a clash between energy fields."
This was a mode of warfare that Ves and the other humans had barely touched upon in previous battles.
As the changes brought by exotic radiation continued to change the rules, competition between energy fields would likely become more and more common over time.
The Red Collective had already proven the effectiveness of qi formations at the start of the Age of Dawn.
It was unreasonable to believe that the deathborn, who originated from a much larger and more powerful galaxy, did not know how to manipulate E energy in the same way!
Ves already expected for the mysterious deathborn leader to employ spell arrays of their own. If the Moloch Squadron under the farseer could find a way to develop a spell array that utilized death energy as its fuel, then the ones who have mastered the power of the death attribute to a much greater degree most definitely had a much more sophisticated arsenal at their disposal!
Yet even if he accounted for this possibility, he did not dare to imagine that the enemy's response was strong enough to suppress an ace commander's domain field to this degree!
"The enemy is not ignorant of our capabilities." Casella Ingvar immediately concluded. "I cannot sense the invisible hand that is directing this play, but I can feel the effects. I have to expend a lot more willpower and effort to prevent my Command Field from collapsing further. The quantity of death energy crashing into our direction has increased, and the harm they cause has grown stronger as well. I cannot Commandeer or Enfeoff as many mechs either. So long as the energy vortices remain in place, I need to direct most of my power and energy into holding the line. If I withdraw my strength, the defensive spell array alone will not be able to maintain our bubble of safety."
"The Saint Commander is most likely correct." The Farseer shared her own expert opinion. "We have not been able to sample the activated energies in person, but our remote observations and methods have revealed that they have gained a remarkably powerful 'erosion effect'. The enemy's qi formation is exquisite. It is able to amplify and direct the dark miasma to such a great extent that it is clearly not a quick and easy endeavor. The enemy invested a large amount of resources into developing this partial counter."
Ves frowned deeper. He hated it when the enemy was intelligent for once.
The Red Cabal and their new deathborn collaborators both possessed at least a superficial understanding of the Premier Fleet and the Bluejay Fleet.
The hostile aliens knew about Saint Commander Casella Ingvar and the game-changing properties of her signature Command Field.
How could they not? The Larkinsons never kept it secret, nor did they had any intention of using it sparingly as if it was a precious trump card.
The Larkinsons had harvested many benefits through their liberal use of Casella's Command Field.
However, they had used it so often in front of enemies that hardly any of its parameters remained hidden to this day!
Previously, the Larkinsons never showed too much concern about this exposure because it was not as if the enemy could do anything to counter it directly.
The Red Cabal and the major alien races possessed extensive mastery in phasewater technology, but their accumulation in the more ethereal branches of technology was too shallow!
Yet this weakness did not apply to the deathborn.
Even if Ves speculated that the natives of Messier 87 did not have any experience with dealing with the power of an ace pilot and an ace mech, they still understood how to manipulate extraordinary energies a lot better than the louts of the Red Ocean!
Therefore, when faced with a Command Field, the deathborn skillfully cobbled together a qi formation in a completely distant and alien dwarf galaxy.
"We have gotten caught up in a new form of warfare." Ves made a realization. "Energy field warfare is centered around the competition between opposing energy fields. The side that is able to achieve dominance in this arena will be able to control the battlefield much more effectively. This is devastating for the losing side. Casella's Command Field strengthened all of our forces to the extent where we can fight against 10 times our number without suffering serious casualties. Now, the enemy is trying to turn the tables. If their death energy formation can completely collapse our own energy fields, then we will all be driven to the brink of collapse!"
Energy field warfare!
This was a new concept that previously had little relevance to humans aside from the occasional clashes between high-ranking mech pilots.
Only ace pilots used to have a lot of experience with this as their Saint Kingdoms often tried to gain ground over each other.
Yet now that both humans as well as aliens began to explore and master the power of qi formations, Saint Kingdoms no longer held a monopoly on this aspect of warfare anymore!
Ves and other leaders already realized the many implications behind this inevitable development.
Unfortunately, while many people based in the rear had the luxury of theorizing on this emerging trend, the soldiers on the ground could not afford to wait so long!
They needed to take action immediately!
"Farseer!" Ves barked. "We need to disable or dismantle the enemy death energy formation as quickly as possible! What are your suggestions?!"
Andrea Vos felt flustered after being put on the spot. "We have too little information. We need to scout the enemy's arrangement. We… we need to send out a unit and approach one of the energy vortices."
They needed to take a look up close!
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