The Mech Touch

　　Everyone who could help tried their best to identify the race of the arriving aliens and estimate the approximate combat strength of the alien starships. Larkinsons, Crossers and Glory Seekers worked together to share their collected data and contact any external helpers that could provide them with expert opinions.

　　The Black Cats played the most prominent role at this time. While their contributions in actual battles was much more limited, they were always invaluable when the Larkinsons urgently needed to collect more intelligence!

　　The Blinding Banshee deployed her powerful sensor arrays and channeled lots of power to them. As a dedicated spying vessel, the observation readings she was able to gather were much more detailed and reliable than the readings made by other ships such as the various fleet carriers.

　　Her passive sensors played a particularly important role at this time. She was able to resolve a lot more visual details of the distant alien fleet despite the relatively distant range from the orange dwarf star that the star system centered around.

　　Even though the alien fleet was several light-hours away, the human defenders had to assume the worst and take into account that the alien threat might drop in the neighborhood at any moment.

　　This was because the alien warp drives were simply too effective at enabling sudden assaults.

　　They allowed for starships to literally outspeed light when traversing through realspace.

　　The biggest implication of this was that ships could arrive faster to a destination than the light of their passage!

　　Any fleet equipped with warp drives therefore possessed a lot more tactical flexibility in battle. As long as the drives could activate, the ships could sneak up to an unsuspecting fleet and drop out of warp travel only to open fire in an instant!

　　As warp drives were the most predominant method of superluminal travel in the Red Ocean, many intelligent alien races had adapted their warfare to the possibilities and constraints of this key tech.

　　Various strategists and officers came together in order to discuss countermeasures. Plans had been made in advance but no one truly knew whether their measures could keep their fleet safe.

　　The key problem was that the expeditionary fleet had been lingering in the star system called Orange Tulip for a while now. The light of its presence must have definitely reached the position of the alien fleet before the newcomers entered themselves.

　　In short, the aliens had advance warning that there was a large human pioneering fleet in the outer system!

　　This was a devastating difference and could easily provide the aliens with a great advantage as long as they struck while the expeditionary fleet was in the dark.

　　Though the aliens apparently hadn't struck during this critical window of time, no one knew whether the unknowns were already on their way. This was why it was important to deploy the mechs in space in advance.

　　It would have been too late to launch them afterwards if the alien fleet dropped on top of the Golden Skull Alliance!

　　Fortunately, the threat wasn't too acute. The expeditionary fleet came equipped with dimensional smoothers and other high-tech modules that created numerous highly abstruse effects which generally solidified the material dimensions when simplified to the extreme.

　　Since warp drives worked by distorting the space surrounding the starships, plunging into solidified space made it a lot harder for them to work.

　　Unless the power and tech disparity was too large, a typical warp drive would no longer be able to function properly when crossing a zone that was under a dimensional smoother field.

　　The expeditionary fleet was already spreading out its vessels in order to expand the envelope of this field and make it more difficult for ambushers to take them out all at once.

　　The alliance partners also did more than that. They deployed thousands of small, disposable observation drones that were meant to keep an eye on the outer perimeter.

　　With the help of larger drones that were equipped with quantum entanglement nodes, the fleet could effectively get a brief advance warning on the approach of any hostile fleet traveling through warp.

　　This advance warning might only give the Larkinsons and their allies thirty seconds to get ready for imminent battle, but that was better than nothing.

　　As Ves headed into the conference room, a cloud of concern and even fear hung over the gathered leaders and commanders.

　　Once the last attendees arrived via projection, the virtual meeting commenced.

　　"Director Calabast, tell us what the Black Cats found." Ves instructed.

　　The former Hexer did not smirk or waste any time. She called up a number of projected images that showed fairly detailed images of the distant alien fleet that had clearly been processed.

　　"We have detected around thirty clearly alien hulls at this time. We cannot rule out the possibility that the aliens have more vessels than that, either hiding behind their larger vessels or deployed elsewhere in the Orange Tulip System. If the aliens have done the latter, then we have not detected any of them as of yet. Our scanners are still combing through the star system as we speak in order to make sure we have not missed any that are relatively close to our position."

　　Thirty hulls. Each of them looked fairly large as well, though there were still variations in length and outward appearances. They all looked vaguely triangular in appearance with some of them looking fatter while others looked sharper.

　　"After consulting with both external experts and the MTA database, we have managed to identify the alien race that operates these vessels." Calabast continued. "With all of the data we collected and analyzed, we can say with certainty that the fleet belongs to the pakklaton race."

　　"Pakklaton… race?"

　　"Who is naming these alien races anyway?"

　　"That's not important at this moment."

　　Calabast knew that no one knew much if anything about this minor indigenous alien species, so she prepared a brief presentation.

　　Another projection appeared that displayed large, intelligent birds that operated advanced equipment with their articulating claws.

　　"The pakklaton race consists of large avians that are 66 percent taller than the typical human on average. They originally evolved on a planet with a gravity of 0.76 g. One of the implications of that is that their bodies are relatively soft. They are not dependent on exotics for their growth so they are not constrained by them either."

　　"What are they like compared to humans?" Ves asked. "What can you tell me about their culture?"

　　"The pakklatons may look fearsome, but they tend to be non-aggressive in nature. They are highly communal and care a lot about their fellow pakklatons. Their unity is high and they are usually led by the oldest pakklaton that is also respected. We do not have any information on how the pakklaton leaders are elevated to office, but we do know that the pakklatons will always obey the commands of their superiors."

　　"I see. What of their territory?"

　　"They managed to build up a decent empire for themselves in the Red Ocean that was located in the Torald Middle Zone, which is closer to the center of this galaxy."

　　"The Torald Middle Zone?"

　　Calabast nodded. "Correct. The Big Two have recently swept through this zone, so all of the wounds are still fresh. The pakklatons have essentially lost all of their territory as recently as a year ago, so you can imagine the state this fleet is in. After we have distinguished that 21 of their ships are civilian in nature, we believe we are looking at a refugee fleet at the moment. It may have been on the run for a year as the state of many of its alien ships are not optimal."

　　A lot of tension drained out of the virtual meeting chamber as Calabast announced her conclusions.

　　Though her analysis could be wrong, there was a large chance that the threat wasn't as imminent as they thought.

　　"Wait. This doesn't quite make sense." Commander Melkor stated. "If the pakklatons are refugees that are trying to survive, why would they flee from the Torald Middle Zone to the Krakatoa Middle Zone? They are heading deeper into human-occupied space!"

　　Calabast acknowledged this observation. "You are correct in pointing that out, commander. Most pakklaton fleets have indeed fled away from newly-conquered human space, but there are always exceptions, not just for this race, but others as well. They either fled too late, did not want to get anywhere near the frontlines, are led by irrational leaders, are on a holy mission or are seeking sanctuary in places of extreme danger. Any of these reasons and more can explain why this particular pakklaton refugee fleet is traveling in what we consider the 'wrong' direction."

　　It was impossible to ascertain the motives behind the alien refugee fleet's decision to head this way, so the Larkinson Clan's director of intelligence quickly moved on with her presentation.

　　"Let me briefly explain what we know of their combat capabilities. First, like nearly every other civilized race in the Red Ocean, the pakklatons mainly rely on warships and orbital defense platforms for space warfare. We don't have to worry about the latter so let us concentrate on the former."

　　She activated a projection that displayed clips and still footage of many of the Pakklaton starships that humanity had encountered in previous contact incidents.

　　Understandably, much of the archival footage and images came directly from the Big Two. The alien vessels rarely met a good end as they quickly got skewered by human warships or mechs, but they provided everyone with a decent impression of how the Pakklatons built their ships.

　　"General, would you do the honors?" Calabast nodded towards their highest military official.

　　"Certainly." General Verle said as he began his own presentation. "I've studied the material on how the aliens fight their battles, and I can say that the pakklaton combat doctrine is fairly simple."

　　He summoned a projection that showed a number of pakklaton warships in combat. They utilized their powerful thrusters and relatively light frames to gain superior positioning and choose their fights carefully.

　　What impressed Ves a lot about the triangular bird-shaped warships was that they mounted a lot of laser weapons.

　　"As you can see, the pakklatons make almost no use of projectile or missile armaments. Instead, they have specialized in developing and utilizing laser weapons. Though their weapons are worse than that of any of the major alien races, the pakklatons still enjoy substantial advantages compared to their regional alien peers."

　　"How good are these laser weapons against our own fleet?"

　　"We cannot say for certain, but the alien warships pose a definite threat to any of our starships if they are fully operational." General Verle replied. "Make no mistake. Confronting even a single alien warship will lead to painful losses because the pakklatons always arm their combat-oriented vessels with a full array of primary laser cannons. Unlike our race who favors the use of turrets, the pakklatons have mounted all of their main cannons in forward-facing positions. This means that if these ships ever orient in our direction, they can unleash their full power towards any targets in front."

　　The firepower that even a single alien warship could unleash in front was devastating to say the least. The primary laser cannons were so powerful that they could probably skewer through the hulls of large civilian vessels in relatively quick order!

　　Even heavy-armored vessels such as the Graveyard and the Gorgoneion would not last long if the alien warships were able to concentrate their fire!

　　"And this pakklaton fleet has nine of these warships?!"

　　"Not… exactly."