Chapter 7307: Hungry Moon

The Rubarthans eventually made a number of important conclusions about the Voribug Organic Battle Moon.

First, it would take a lot of firepower to destroy it. The outer and middle layers of the battle moon were not particularly tough, but they were very thick. What was worse was that the megaconstruct could rapidly regrow its missing mass as long as the attack intensity was not too high.

Second, the defenders could not underestimate the offensive capabilities of the VOBM. Even if it did not concentrate enough high-quality materials on the surface to grow particularly large or powerful weapon systems, the surface area was still so great that it was able to cover its entire exterior with plasma cannons and other uncomplicated weapon systems.

The quality did not matter too much. So long as the numbers were great enough, the VOBM could easily overwhelm the defenses of any warship or orbital fortress, especially at closer ranges.

Third, this was just a prototype. The Goliath Hive would definitely grow more battle moons in the future due to how useful they may be. Using them to assault heavily-defended planets might yield exaggerated results depending on their properties.

The Rubarthans already theorized that the Goliath Hive might develop other variations of battle moons. They labeled the one that showed up in the Philaster Crestia System as an Incubator, or more formally a Class I Voribug Organic Battle Moon. Out of all of the races in the Red Ocean, only the voribugs possessed the capability to rapidly grow and nurture a Level 7, Level 8 or maybe even a Level 9 Goliath in the field!

"The Goliath Princess is going out of her way to differentiate her hive from the other ones." Lord Richard Brownstone passed on the conclusions of the Rubarthan experts. "In the nascent and rudimentary politics of the voribug race, every hive is in competition with each other. They must not only justify their existence, but also earn enough victories to divert more resources in their direction. We do not believe that a race as diverse and fast- growing as the mutated voribugs are content with limiting themselves to 6 hives."

That depended on the thoughts of the mysterious Devourer Queen. The Dark Apostle still knew way too little about the leader of the mutated voribugs. He only knew that she was extremely powerful given what Ves had felt during the moment the battle moon spawned all of those eyeballs. The moment of exposure started and ended so quickly that it was impossible to glean much details about the alien queen's personality.

As the Dark Apostle continued to stare at the projection of the so-called Incubator, he began to frown. "It shouldn't be so easy for the mutated voribugs to produce a Level 7 or Level 8 Goliath." The leader of the Ascended Giants remarked. "Power comes from sacrifice. The higher the rank, the more exaggerated the price. How can we prevent the voribugs from spawning a powerful Goliath during the next engagement?"

Richard's projection smiled. "We have already formed a number of theories related to this subject. It is absolutely true that the Goliath Hive is seeking to win a battle by relying on its unique rules and principles. Conquering this star system by flooding our defenses with cannon fodder bugs is a lazy approach that will not do much to grant the hive an advantage. Only by using large units as the fulcrum will the Goliath Hive prove its worthiness in front of the Devourer Queen."

This was an analysis that relied on a lot of spurious and unproven assumptions. Ves wondered whether the Rubarthans were projecting their own selves into the voribugs too much.

Just as the New Rubarth Empire was supposed to be a highly centralized group that acted upon the will of a single ruler, the mutated voribug race also happened to fit this description. Perhaps these similarities encouraged the Rubarthans to think that their latest enemies operated along identical political rules.

In their eyes, the hives practically served as a mirror to the principalities of the Rubarthan Pact. Just as how the Rubarthan princes still fought against each other to decide who among them deserved to ascend to the throne, the leaders of the hives sought to earn the status as the crown princess and the successor to the Devourer Queen.

The Dark Apostle inwardly shook his head. There was no need for him to point out this idea. The Rubarthans would probably take offense if they learned about this comparison. "Can you be more specific?"

Richard pointed at the core of the battle moon. "The birth of a high-leveled Goliath is highly dependent on the input. High-grade exotics and hypers of greater quantities are needed to form a very strong body that can withstand the attacks of ace mechs and greater phase lords. However, we do not believe that matter alone can make up the difference. The mind and soul becomes increasingly more important to high-level Goliaths. Even if they are not the focus of the mutated voribugs, they have no choice but to elevate them if the mutated voribugs want to support the emergence of ever more powerful Goliaths."

The Dark Apostle nodded in agreement. Ves had very strong ideas about this. The explanation fell in line with his theoretical framework. He soon began to connect the dots. "Wait. By input you do not necessarily mean materials, right? The reason for the Goliath Hive to create a costly battle moon and drive it to a heavily defended planet is to absorb our champions, is that correct?"

The scion of the Brownstone Principality grimly nodded. "In hindsight, we believe that the appearance of the Voribug Organic Battle Moon may have been a trap. The mutated voribugs have noticed the presence of a large amount of Ascended Giants in our sun system. If the sentient and intelligent members of the voribug race has paid close attention to this location, then they could have predicted that we would have sent the Ascended Giants to scout the battle moon in question."

"Which is exactly what the Goliath Hive wants. Damn. We put our giants right at the doorstep of a battle moon that is hungry for transcendents!" In order for the Incubator to spawn a Level 8 or Level 9 Goliath, it not only needed to absorb the phasewater of captured Ascended Giants, but also devour their powerful spiritualities!

While the spirits of body cultivators were not particularly excellent, they were not too weak, or else they were unable to support their oversized physiques. What made this situation worse was that the spiritualities of the Ascended Giants were noticeably stronger than alien phase lords of equivalent progress. This was because every Ascended Giant had swallowed a companion spirit fruit and developed their own companion spirits!

As elites meant to fight on humanity's side, this benefit came as a standard package to them. While that made the Ascended Giants stronger and more perceptive, it also turned them into juicier targets to the Goliath Hive!

Lord Richard Brownstone's expression turned grim. "The Goliath Hive has demonstrated a certain degree of cunning and unpredictability. It is a mistake to think that our new enemies are primitive and incapable of complex strategy. Of course, there is a chance that we are attributing intent among the voribugs where there happens to be none, but it is better to err on the side of caution. What matters is that your two captured Ascended Giants have significantly contributed to the growth and maturation of the Goliath being incubated."

The battle moon turned out to be a hungry soul-devouring maw. It yearned to absorb as many high-ranking mech pilots and phase leaders as possible. Their physical bodies would feed the corpus of the Goliath while their powerful spiritualities would end up strengthening the intangible elements of the megabug.

Realizing this put the upcoming battle in a very different context. "I understand now." The Dark Apostle said. "In the decisive battle, the Goliath Hive will try its best to defeat our champions. Not only that, the mutated voribugs will do their best to capture the remains and throw them into the battle moon. Expert pilots, ace pilots, Ascended Giants and even qi cultivators are all attractive food in the eyes of the mutated voribugs. The more we lose, the more the Goliath Hive will gain. Once the Incubator has absorbed enough high-quality food..."

An entirely new monster would emerge on the center of the battlefield! A Level 7 Goliath already proved difficult to resist. The Dark Apostle could not imagine how much worse a Level 8 or even a Level 9 Goliath would be. The ridiculous regeneration capabilities alone would make it impossible to defeat such a giant alien in a short amount of time!

This was especially the case if the battle moon remained intact for the most part. Its very existence alone would boost the performance of all Goliaths solely due to the fact that it could serve as an immense biomass reserve! Anytime a Goliath suffered severe injuries, it only needed to approach the VOBM and transfer enough biomass to heal the damage.

It would take a long time to exhaust all of the biomass of the battle moon! Even if it ended up sacrificing all of its remaining organic matter, the Goliath Hive could simply resort to sacrificing lots of regular voribugs in order to make up for any shortfalls.

In short, the adversary would be going into the next major battle with fantastic advantages if the engagement turned into an hours-long slog. The more the fight devolved into a battle of attrition, the more the balance would tilt in the favor of the Goliath Hive!

"The Incubator is a hungry moon." Richard concluded his analysis. "Feeding it will favor the enemy. All we need to do is to prevent that from happening."

"That... sounds difficult given that we have posted a lot of high-quality food around this planet. I suppose I can order my Ascended Giants to withdraw, but that will leave Philaster Crestia III with a huge shortfall in protectors. I imagine that your armed forces are suffering from the same dilemma. Sending away your expert pilots and ace pilots will deprive the battle moon of the opportunity of swallowing high-quality food, but it will leave the remaining defenders vulnerable to getting overwhelmed."

The Goliaths were too strong. No matter what substrain they came in, every megavoribug possessed the capacity to break human defenses and cause huge amounts of disruption! If the Goliath Hive employed enough strategy and specifically utilized the Goliaths in this manner, then there was virtually no chance to hold this star system.

For better or worse, the Rubarthans needed the strength of its champions to hold this location. The fall of this sun system would deprive the Rubarthan Pact of a relatively important link in its defensive lines.

Richard's projection stared into the Dark Apostle's eyes and nodded. "I see you have made the same conclusions. The Goliath Hive may have developed the Incubator in order to use our strength against us, but we will not let its existence intimidate us into withdrawing our own champions. The loss in morale alone will condemn us to defeat. No matter what, we must hold the line and instill our confidence in our own assets. We can devise more effective countermeasures later once we have observed everyone's performance."

In other words, the Rubarthans regarded the decisive battle as a test. They wanted to see whether their current defensive measures could hold up against the Goliath Hive's latest measures. At the same time, they wanted to see whether the mutated voribugs proved clever enough to develop an effective counter against red humanity's high- ranked assets.

"I am not sure about whether it is a good idea to let my Ascended Giants participate in this battle." The Dark Apostle said. "If there is an elevated risk that they will be captured and tossed into the hungry moon, then it may be better for them to keep their distance." 

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