Chapter 7508 Initial Relief

The master control disk did not look all that impressive.

It looked like an ordinary medallic disk at first. The only sign that distinguished it from ordinary objects were the hyper gems embedded onto its upper surface.

These gems possessed a subtle glow. E energies circulated between them in a simple but somewhat profound pattern.

Though Ves possessed a slight understanding of qi formations, he found himself unable to decipher any of the elements of the control artifact.

He could only tell that it had been made with a very different approach from his own.

In the eyes of an artisan, the formation disk lacked any sense of personal style or craftsmanship. The designers adopted a no-frills approach and cut down every possible unnecessary element.

Ves was not a fan of the utilitarian approach, but he understood the rationale behind this design choice.

The formation masters had been forced to work in haste. They could not afford to spend any thought on artistry and symbolism. Adding more complications to a rushed work came with very considerable risks.

This was why the formation masters under the Farseer ended up producing a set of formation tools that relied almost entirely on calculated lines and simple geometric shapes to do the required job and nothing more.

It became clear to Ves that the formation masters did not even bother to empower or activate their qi formation with the help of a ritual.

None of the ritualists of the Moloch Squadron had been invited to take part in the activation process.

This made sense as rituals often behaved like double-edged swords. They introduced a lot of new variables, many of which could never be completely controlled.

On a good day, a successful ritual had the potential to supercharge a qi formation!

On a bad day, the same ritual could end up sparking an accident that could cause the spell array to fizzle out in an instant!

While the Red Collective did not ignore the power of rituals, it was clear that this was a situation where the formation masters did not think the added uncertainty was worth the potential payoff.

"All of the necessary conditions are met." Andrea Vos said as she methodically pressed her fingers on the gems embedded into the formation artifact. Some of them lit up while others stayed dim. "I have received confirmation that each formation anchor has reached the right coordinates. Deviations in positioning are within tolerance. Checks have confirmed the presence of pre-resonance reactions. All formation anchors have passed all of the tests, particularly the ones related to their adaptation to the adverse environment. The only point of concern at this point is their longevity. We do not know how precisely long they will last before they wear out due to the harsh circumstances and their less-than-meticulous construction."

Her words weighed heavily on the others. They were all about to entrust much of their safety and wellbeing to the functioning of the newly developed spell array.

It was not exactly comforting to hear that even the makers of this qi formation did not possess a good grasp on their own work.

Nonetheless, they had to take a chance because they did not have the luxury to proceed without the protection of this essential solution.

"Proceed with the activation." Ves spoke as he continued to direct his senses towards the flow of energies around his position.

Many people had been waiting for this moment. They had all endured varying degrees of stress as the combined fleet continued to make its way deeper into the star system.

Casella had an especially rough time. She had to stretch out her Command Field for sessions that stretched on for half a day before crashing into bed. Then, when she woke up, she had to go right back to it again in order to provide a strong measure of safety and stability to the rest of her forces.

The ace commander certainly put her endurance to the test. Though she had worn out her willpower quite badly in the past few days, she also grew from this spontaneous exercise.

"Activating now."

The Farseer pressed her finger against the surface of the largest and most central gem and began to inject her spiritual energy in distinct patterns and intensities.

Ves had the illusion that she was transmitting a complicated line of programming code into the spiritual version of a handheld computer.

The gems all began to blink or light up in rapid succession. Many of them glowed brighter, as if indicating that they had truly come online at this time.

Ves and a few other sensitive individuals felt it first.

The air had changed.

An invisible layer of pressure receded as the fleet-scale spell array gradually came into effect.

The dark miasma that constantly sought to engulf the human invaders with the power of death failed to find purchase in the combined fleet.

Seconds passed as many humans finally felt a true sense of normalcy.

Though the Saint Commander had done her best to coddle them whenever she was able to project her Command Field, not everyone felt comfortable with enduring her constant presence.

Humans liked safety, but they also valued their privacy. They could never endure the feeling of being monitored by a judgmental ace commander. What if they did something that she did not approve of? Would she punish them directly, or note down their transgressions and exact retribution later?

While Ves felt that the Saint Commander could never become so bored as to micromanage the affairs of rank-and-file soldiers, the latter could never shake off the fear and suspicion associated with close surveillance.

Therefore, the successful activation of the defensive spell array truly made the soldiers relax for the first time in several days.

"Finally!"

"I feel great again."

"I hope this new defensive measure can stay online for the rest of our stay in this star system."

Many people already started to celebrate despite the fact that nobody knew whether the new spell array was able to run stably.

Several formation masters and engineers crowded around the Farseer in order to share their observations and opinions. Their expressions signified that they did not dare to take this initial success for granted.

Ves slowly walked up to the crowd. "What are the results? Can we count on your work to keep us protected?"

One of the formation masters serving under Andrea Vos responded first. "The experimental spell array is operating slightly below expected parameters. Our calculations are largely sound, but there are discrepancies in the data. The intensity of the dark miasma at this distance from the red dwarf star is higher than what our model initially suggested. The boundary of the spell array is therefore weaker than it should. We believe that problems at the edge have already begun to occur. Any mech or starship that is located close to the divide between protected and unprotected space is exposed to greater danger."

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One of the formation masters serving under Andrea Vos responded first. "The experimental spell array is operating slightly below expected parameters. Our calculations are largely sound, but there are discrepancies in the data. The intensity of the dark miasma at this distance from the red dwarf star is higher than what our model initially suggested. The boundary of the spell array is therefore weaker than it should. We believe that problems at the edge have already begun to occur. Any mech or starship that is located close to the divide between protected and unprotected space is exposed to greater danger."

"Are you saying that the spell array was not designed to endure this kind of pressure and has already begun to leak?"

"The defensive qi formation's condition is still good." The Farseer said as she finally looked up from her glowing formation disk. "It could have been much worse. It may have begun to flicker at this time. Since there are no signs of that happening in the short or medium term, we can provisionally trust that it will continue to provide protection going forward. As we have mentioned earlier, the greatest limitation is the poor durability of the formation anchors. Even if they have disappeared from sight, they still exist, just not in a place that we can see with the naked eyes. While they remain hidden, they are still processing large amounts of E energy radiation."

"What sort of E energy?" Ves curiously asked.

Formation Master Andrea Vos smiled back at him. "Death energy of course. This far into the star system has already thinned the concentration of normal E energy radiation to a minimum. Much of the radiance from Messier 87 simply cannot move through a large and increasingly more dense field of death energy. The negative energies that comprise the dark miasma are constantly absorbing, corrupting or displacing E energy of opposing attributes. This means we cannot count on conventional qi formations to activate and power a qi formation. We are also precluded from drawing upon any other external source of energy such as Gaia. Death energy is the only choice."

Ves had managed to deduce this as well, but that did not automatically mean that playing with death energy was the only viable option.

He had several misgivings about this design choice!

"Are you not afraid of the possibility that all of this death energy has an owner?" Ves asked the leading formation master. "What if the deathborn leader yanks all of this death energy away, thereby causing your qi formation to run out of juice?"

Andrea Vos smirked in response. "Then that will relieve us in another way. We can shut down our defensive spell array before it runs out of fuel with little burden as we do not have to rely on it anymore. If the dark miasma presses in on our fleet once again, we can activate it once again."

"That does not sound healthy for the formation anchors. Can they endure several cycles of activation and deactivation?"

"To be honest, we do not have any solid expectations, sir. According to my own judgment, our formation anchors should be able to endure at least half-a-dozen cycles. After that, the wear and tear may have eroded the constructs to the point where minor glitches and faults may occur."

None of that sounded comforting.

"So if we want to maximize the longevity of this defensive spell array, we should try to keep it online as long as possible, is that correct?"

"Yes, sir. This spell array was made for constant operation."

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