"I see why you saw the need to present this work in person."
After Ves and Alexa finally exited the System Space, the former wasted no time in seeking out Saint mander Casella Ingvar.
Despite the immense burden of responsibility resting on her shoulders, the ace mander maintained a calm and controlled bearing.
It was as if she held no concern at all for the lives of everyone in the bined fleet and the entire war effort on this side of the new frontier!
Of course, that could not possibly be true. Even saints experienced moments of doubt and fear. They were simply a lot better at pretending that they could surmount the difficulties ahead of them. Many of them literally hypnotized themselves into believing that they could acplish victory under the direst of straits!
Though this approach sounded crazy and delusional, it actually produced more successes than it should.
Ves had eventually e to learn that high-ranking mech pilots were the literal embodiment of self-fulfilling prophecies.
As long as they maintained confidence in themselves and their strength, they could literally warp reality to make their optimism e true!
He figured that Casella leaned particularly heavily in this effect. It did not matter whether she was conscious of the facade taking place. Truth or falsehood became irrelevant as long as she produced actual results.
Nonetheless, just because she put up a brave front did not mean she no longer needed any help.
Anything that could increase the success rate of their uping operation would definitely be met with open arms!
Her initial reaction did not betray much emotion, but Ves could definitely tell that the ace mander had bee intrigued.
She did not give voice to her impatience by rattling off questions left and right.
She instead chose to study the projected design of what Ves had eventually e to call the Poison Willow variant of his original Woodsap mech design.
The biomech truly looked like it deserved its moniker. Its dark ebony exterior looked cracked, old and dry. It featured many branches due to the need to offer as many poisoned fruits as possible, which also caused them to droop. The eerie leaves adorning them amplified their terrifying visage.
As for the fruits themselves, nobody could tell from the outside that they contained lethal payloads. They looked like the freshest and most carefully selected bounties of nature that had been specifically grown to be sold at a ridiculous markup to a pampered first-rater.
Casella spent more seconds than she should on examining these paradoxical fruits. Her intuition failed to recognize their potential harm.
If not even she could detect the trap inherent in the fruit, then it did not seem likely that the deathborn could defeat her on this aspect!
Unless this mysterious extra-galactic species had encountered too many traps like this to develop a mature set of countermeasures, the plan devised by the Larkinson mech designers had a considerable chance of working!
Unfortunately, a chance was still far from absolute certainty.
"This is a gamble." Casella plainly stated.
"It is." Ves directly admitted. "It is a worthwhile gamble. We have put a lot of thought into this scheme. Even if it does not work entirely, we still believe it will at least cause large-scale disruption among the deathborn. This will make the subsequent engagement at least several times easier."
She could not argue against that so long as it actually worked.
Yet was it truly so easy to eradicate all of the deathborn?
She asked a number of critical questions, many of which Ves and his fellow mech designers already considered in the past.
The answers she received in return did not satisfy her entirely, but it kept her skepticism below an important threshold.
"Will the modified Woodsap mechs retain their bat effectiveness after they have lost their fruit?"
Ves shrugged his shoulders. "That is a plicated question to answer. The initial modifications will make them weak on multiple levels. They will deploy on the battlefield in a brittle and exhausted state. I do not advise them to fight at all so long as they remain in this condition. The only way they can return to a proper bat state is to absorb all of the excess life energy that is produced by the infected deathborn. They can also regain a portion of their former bat effectiveness by allowing them to absorb Gaia Trees or other sources of organic life, but there is not that much left in our fleet."
"In other words, every Woodsap mech converted into a Poison Willow mech means the loss of a useful bat asset."
"Unfortunately, that should be the case. It is a tradeoff."
"Then do you suggest that we should limit this conversion to a handful of Woodsap mechs?"
Ves shook his head. "No. The success rate of this plan is uncertain. The deathborn may not necessarily fall into a pandemic after absorbing a single fruit or even a couple of dozen fruits. Then there is also the control imposed by higher-ranking deathborn. These leader entities possess enough rationality to force the feral deathborn to resist their instincts. We may have to deploy multiple Poison Willow mechs in multiple locations if we want to escape their meddling. The best way to do this is to convert as many Woodsap mechs as possible."
It was like playing the lottery. The probability of winning the jackpot with a single ticket was low, but if you bought a hundred of them, then the probability of getting lucky at least once rose by a considerable margin!
Of course, this was assuming that the chance of winning the jackpot was not too miniscule.
Casella understood this logic, so she did not object to it too much. She simply felt it was a shame to lose so much reliable bat power.
The bined fleet did not field too many first-class multipurpose mechs to begin with. The Woodsap mechs could have served as reliable Knights or Barons due to their excellent patibility with her mand Field.
"Do the Poison Willow mechs need my empowerment?"
"I am not sure about that." He responded. "They should be able to take care of themselves without relying on your domain field, but they can definitely use additional protection. It may actually be counterproductive to actively mandeer or Enfeoff them in their entirety. The deathborn will not be able to bite into the poisoned fruit due to the barrier formed by your willpower. Have you ever tried to empower mechs in part rather than as a whole?"
The Saint mander adopted a strange expression. "I never had the need to undertake such an action. I do not believe I can do so at this point. I will have to modify my techniques and strengthen my control over my mand Field. I may be able to develop this capability, but not immediately. It will take weeks of experimentation to figure it out, and I cannot guarantee that I can produce results after that. Can your Poison Willow mechs detach their fruits instead? The physical separation will make it much easier to protect your biomechs without affecting the purpose of their payloads."
"Sadly, no." Ves shook his head again. "We already thought about it, but it is impossible for various plicated reasons. Our work is too crude. The poisoned fruit can only work if they remain attached to the branches. It is vital that they are still connected to their mechs. This reminds me of the other plication."
"What is it, Ves?"
"I will need to manually go over every Woodsap mech at our disposal and modify them one by one. Neither Alexa nor any other personnel can do this work. They can only assist me in small and unimportant matters. I am the only one who can plete the core conversion processes."
The Saint mander understood the underlying problem. "How much time?"
"I don't know. It will be slow at first. An hour. Maybe two hours. Once I have gotten the method down, I can accelerate my efforts, but that still does not mean I can breeze past so many changes in a short amount of time. The only consolation is that modifying a biomech is different from modifying a metallic mech. I only have to shape the mutation of an organic machine long enough to confirm that its growth direction is set. I can move on to modifying another individual Woodsap mech."
That still sounded relatively cumbersome.
"How many mechs do you think you will be able to convert by the time they are needed on the battlefield?"
"At least half of the remaining Woodsap mechs." Ves loosely estimated. "If there are any delays or anything, you can expect a lot more."
"I see." Casella frowned in thought. "We are short on time. Delays are undesirable. The uping battle may not necessarily reach a high intensity from the start. It may turn out to be a drawn-out affair instead. If that is the case, we may need you to continue to modify our Woodsap mechs even after we have approached the orbit of Hypeh-Tekas II."
"No problem. I want to see this plan succeed as much as possible. If I can do so by working overtime, then that is but a small price to pay."
"Will the Dark Apostle be able to accept your decision?"
Ves crossed his arms. "Wiping out the deathborn is the highest priority as far as I am concerned. I do not think he finds it pleasant to fight on a battlefield while surrounded by millions of ravenous deathborn."
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