The Mech Touch (Web Novel)
chapter-6124

The operation to kill the Emperor Tree ended in an explosive and dramatic fashion!

First, the battle ended in a resounding victory to the Larkinson Clan. The Emperor Tree had been felled. Its ebony tree heart had been burnt until there was nothing but charred remains left in place.

In order to confirm that the Emperor Tree had truly perished, a large amount of mechs quickly arrived to secure both the major Solus Gas deposit as well as the remains of the gigantic calamity plant.

Multiple shuttles and transports descended from orbit. Each of them carried multiple teams of biotech researchers and a large amount of specialized field equipment.

Progress in studying the enormous remains of the Emperor Tree was bound to be slow. There was just too much biomass. The manpower of Task Force Solus was also woefully inadequate to complete the excavations and examinations in a short amount of time.

The biotechs didn't mind. Studying the remains of a powerful calamity beast was a dream come true for them. Every exobotanist from the Larkinson Biotech Institute practically scrambled to enter their shuttles in order to conduct their first studies and experiments on the unique and exceptionally interesting wood samples.

However, as much as the Larkinson Clan managed to secure a lot of strategic as well as material objectives during this short and expedient operation, many of these gains became overshadowed by the news of what happened to the star of the show.

"Venerable Isobel Kotin managed to break through! She has become the second Saint of our clan!"

"What?! Really?!"

"It's true! The clan has just announced the news! When Saint Isobel broke through, she produced so much fire around her Promethea that it looked as if a purple sun had descended onto the untamed planet. The Emperor Tree which was responsible for driving Venerable Taon and Venerable Lanie crazy stood no chance against her purple flames. Much of the tree got burned down!"

"Where is Saint Isobel? Why hasn't our clan published any footage of her debut as an ace pilot?"

"I heard there may be problems. Saint Isobel had to be picked up by a medical shuttle. There is no word of what happened to her ever since. Given that the clan has blocked all subsequent news about her state, I think it may take longer for her to recover. The Promethea also got trashed. I am not sure whether the expert mech is still alive, but it will take a long time to restore the damage."

All sorts of rumors and hearsay erupted throughout the fleet. The successful ascension of another ace pilot among the Larkinsons was definitely a cause for celebration!

Many clansmen already started to celebrate when they heard the news.

The more ace pilots, the better!

In an era that was defined by total war, the power of champions had an outsized influence on the morale and confidence of a population.

The Larkinsons already gained a huge boost in confidence after the ascension of Saint Tusa, but he was only a single case. What if he was the exception rather than the rule? What if his breakthrough could be credited to his own talent and determination as opposed to the institutions of the Larkinson Clan?

If the former was the case, then it may be extremely difficult for another ace pilot to emerge among the existing expert pilots of the Larkinson Clan.

If the latter was the case, then the clan was truly on the right track! The chance to produce a third and fourth ace pilot among the current batch of high-tier expert pilots would undoubtedly rise!

This was because the Larkinson Clan proved with actual results that its martial institutions had become mature and systematic enough to develop a working high-level talent development program.

In addition, ace pilots tended to promote more of their own kind. Saint Tusa had already provided limited but highly relevant advice to the existing Larkinson expert pilots.

Once Saint Isobel managed to stabilize her condition and come to terms with her increase in status, she would be able to provide guidance from a different perspective!

Of course, the primary benefit of Saint Isobel's successful breakthrough was that the Larkinson Clan gained another powerful combat asset!

In contrast to Saint Tusa, the female ace pilot possessed completely different talents and inclinations.

This was incredibly fortuitous to the clan the former possessed clear gaps and shortcomings that the latter was able to compensate for. Not only was Saint Isobel a ranged mech specialist, she also happened to excel in spreading damage on an extremely wide scale!

Once the Design Department elevated the Dark Zephyr and the Promethea into ace mechs, the two could easily become a fearsome combination if they fight alongside each other.

The Dark Zephyr was fast, agile and precise. The light mech had proven to be extremely deadly up close and turned into a very fierce duelist. With the help of his new Ultimate Module, the powerful light skirmisher no longer possessed a glaring shortcoming in offensive power!

Nobody knew what the Promethea would be capable of once she became an ace mech, but she was bound to be able to spread a lot more potent flames at a distance! What the rifleman mech lacked in surgical precision, the living mech more than made up for shoring up the Larkinson Army's lacking capabilities in attrition warfare!

While all of this sounded great, the premise was that Saint Isobel Kotin and the Promethea both managed to survive and recover from the battle!

The uncertainty surrounding Isobel's dire physical state was exactly why the Larkinson Clan did not dare to publish any further announcements related to the distressed ace pilot.

At this time, Swordmaster Ketis waited nervously outside of the hatch leading into a well-equipped high-tech operation room aboard the Dragon's Den. No noise managed to pass through the completely sealed entryway, so the woman had little idea whether the Isobel would be able to live past this eventful day.

"Relax." The physical projection of Ves spoke. "Ace pilots are more resilient than ordinary humans. As a swordmaster, your body is also a lot healthier than before. Isobel may have only become an ace pilot for a short time, but the forced resonance state has massively reinforced what remains of her physical state."

Ketis grimaced as she continued to pace back and forth. "I am aware of that, but there is a limit to how much the willpower of an ace pilot can do the impossible. I know enough about biology that the human brain will begin to suffer permanent damage once they have been cut off from blood and oxygen for multiple minutes. Then there is the damage produced by prolonged exposure to an excessive amount of heat. Even if her willpower and her companion spirit have done an admirable job at keeping the flames at bay, there are clear signs of thermal damage to the exterior brain tissue."

In other words, Saint Isobel's brain briefly got cooked!

This was an unavoidable consequence of the extreme stunt. This was already a fairly good result considering the awful state of the rest of her body!

"I think Isobel may be able to pull through." Ves optimistically said. "There will be consequences, but it is already pretty good if she can wake up and live for another day. The real question is whether she will become healthy enough to pilot a mech. There are ace pilots who have suffered much less damage yet still found themselves unable to continue their careers."

Nobody knew whether this nightmare scenario would come true for Isobel. This was why the two mech designers remained in suspense.

A few more minutes passed before the hatch slid open.

The vice-director of the Larkinson Biotech Institute stepped outside, not having bothered to change from her surgical suit.

The Terran biotech researcher exuded a strong sense of competence that belied her fairly young age. At little over 50 years old, she had managed to get banished from the Terran scientific community, only to find refuge at the much more tolerant and open-minded Larkinson Clan.

While Maria Abselon was not a specialist surgeon or medical professional, her top-notch Terran biotech education still allowed her to take the lead in treating Isobel's terrible condition!

The fact that she emerged from the operation room meant that she had completed her initial treatment of the brain and spine salvaged from the cockpit of the Promethea.

She turned around and faced the patriarch and the task force commander.

"Progress has been made." The vice director spoke in a neutral tone. "First, the rescue came in time. We cannot ascertain what Venerable Joshua's ad-hoc treatment has done for Saint Isobel after he attempted to render aid, but we estimate he has played a crucial role in keeping the surviving brain tissue alive. The first responders who arrived on a medical shuttle have adequately managed to retrieve Isobel's intact organs, though in their haste, they have caused a minor degree of damage to the spine. The medical equipment on the shuttle is woefully inadequate to preserve the retrieved biomass, though it has kept Isobel's brain alive long enough to deliver her to a treatment center in Chimera Base."

The medical shuttle had to speed up and return to base as quickly as possible.

"The doctors stationed at the treatment center did not possess adequate facilities to render the aid that Saint Isobel truly needed, but they have been able to restore many damaged cells before carefully placing her brain and spine into a much more helpful biomedical nutrient fluid tank. That has slowed down her deterioration long enough to ship her to this vessel. She is quite lucky that a ship that is equipped with the most advanced biotech and biomedical facilities has been transferred to Task Force Solus. It would have been much harder to prevent the further degradation of Saint Isobel's life and health with the facilities in Chimera Base alone."

It was times like these that Ves thanked himself for continually increasing the clan's investment into the Larkinson Biotech Institute.

Although the Dragon's Den was starting to show her age, much of the lab and medical equipment installed inside the bioresearch vessel had been updated a lot more recently than the actual hull.

The bioresearchers did not require a state-of-the-art starship to complete their projects, but they absolutely could not do without powerful and modern biolab and bioproduction equipment!

"Will she make it?" Ves straightforwardly asked.

"She is… stable." Maria Abselon answered. "We cannot guarantee that her physical condition will deteriorate in the next 48 hours, but there are enough indications that her brain and spine can be preserved in the short term. This is not a permanent solution, as any human that has found herself reduced to these organs will not be able to bear the psychological burden of losing a whole body. Perhaps the ace pilot's strong willpower may allow her to endure much greater hardships than other patients, but it is best if we provide her with a new body as soon as possible."

"She is… stable." Maria Abselon answered. "We cannot guarantee that her physical condition will deteriorate in the next 48 hours, but there are enough indications that her brain and spine can be preserved in the short term. This is not a permanent solution, as any human that has found herself reduced to these organs will not be able to bear the psychological burden of losing a whole body. Perhaps the ace pilot's strong willpower may allow her to endure much greater hardships than other patients, but it is best if we provide her with a new body as soon as possible."

"Will you be able to regenerate a new body for her?" Ketis quickly asked.

The former Terran bioresearcher did not directly answer this question. "We can discuss Saint Isobel's treatment options later. This subject is not simple. Before we go over it, I must mention an important complication that we have managed to ascertain in the process of providing initial treatment. As I have mentioned before, Saint Isobel has managed to do an admirable job at preserving the health and integrity of her brain. Venerable Joshua has also managed to render aid in his own unscientific way. Nonetheless, they have not been able to prevent all damage. Our scans of the brain have alerted us to a highly consequential possibility. The Saint… may not be able to interface with a mech ever again."

"...Oh." Ketis flatly responded.

"That… is a setback." Ves commented. "It's okay. Please continue. I need to hear the treatment options that are available to our latest Saint."