The Mech Touch

6002 The Devourer Queen

Companion spirit fruits possessed amazing and life-changing effects.

Through mysterious means, Ves Larkinson and the researchers who worked for him managed to develop a tree that could grow fruits that magically enabled people to form their own companion spirits.

Not everyone obtained a companion spirit right away. Those with weaker souls only gained companion spirit seeds that needed to undergo a lot of growth before they turned into anything useful.

Regardless, many different people tried to figure out how the genetically modified trees were able to spawn these miraculous fruits, and how they worked so well on humans.

Virtually every attempt at reverse engineering them failed. Researchers from both the Red Association and the Red Fleet had tried to replicate the relatively simple biological structures of both the trees and the fruits, yet failed to gain the power to safely induce the formation of companion spirits in people's minds.

Despite all of these failures, the researchers made plenty of discoveries. These secrets subsequently passed on to the cosmopolitans, allowing Golden Wing Mihael Pentaq to formulate a daring plan to corrupt a fruit and allow it to work on aliens!

"The power of the fruit does not lie in its flesh. Its cells and DNA do not contain anything that can produce the desired effect." The cell leader spoke as preparations were made to control the Devourer Queen. "It turned out that we were looking in the wrong directions. The actual effect of the fruit is intangible, untouchable. Furthermore, the most crucial energy that is responsible for bringing life where none previously existed comes from an external provider that maintains a connection to every fruit. That being is called after one of humanity's ancient earth goddesses. She also happens to be the guardian that verifies that the fruits are being used by the right people."

The Brown Mandible looked impressed. He never accessed the information that explained how the fruits worked.

"If this fruit has been altered to the point where it has severed its connection to that earth goddess, does it still contain the crucial energy needed to form a companion spirit?"

"Fear not, Brown Mandible. I have just examined it and verified that it is present. Once we conduct the final inspections, we shall feed the fruit to the Devourer Queen and wait for her to spawn a companion spirit. That is the moment where I shall take action in person."

"How will you be able to gain control over the new companion spirit? As young as it may be, what if it is too powerful for you to control?"

"That is what all of our equipment is for." The cell leader responded while gesturing his arm towards all of the hyper devices extending from the tall ceiling. "These hyper emitters can either weaken or inflict damage to the Devourer Queen's soul. It painsto resort to force in order to obtain her cooperation, but it may be the only means for us to turn this calamity beast into a controllable subject. If that is not enough, we are prepared to employ more physical means to subdue the creature."

Two powerful first-class multipurpose mechs stepped forward and kept their plasma spears in a firm grip.

More mechs and other forms of support were available as well. The Fuchsia Cell did not take this situation lightly and mustered as many resources as possible.

Tpassed by. The companion spirit fruit had gone through many examinations. The Devourer Queen had also been prepped by injecting a huge amount of sedatives in her alien body.

The calamity beast possessed an amazing resistance towards drugs, but even she could not resist the sheer quantity of substances that were messing with her hormones and other biological levers.

The massive creature gradually turned sluggish to the point where she had fallen into a half-sleep state.

"All systems are green."

"Our facility is under full lockdown."

"The Devourer Queen's vital signs are within expected parameters."

"Commence the feeding process."

A long and flexible robotic arm extended from the side while holding the companion spirit fruit on its tendrils.

The arm continued to extend the fruit closer to the massive and intimidating mouth of the calamity beast.

Soon, the voribug queen instinctively swallowed the fruit.

Almost immediately after that, the fruit's potent energies started to erupt, launching a powerful attack on the calamity beast's soul!

<nullb>#@$&#$&@#@#!

Despite the drugged condition of the Devourer Queen, the powerful attack to the core of her being forcibly caused her body to resist the drugs and becmore active!

"Detecting rising activity levels from the Devourer Queen!"

"The subject's immune system is actively breaking down the sedatives circulating in her bloodstream!"

"Continue to inject more sedatives into her body! Ignore every prior dosage rule!"

"It is not working! Her body is adapting to our attempts to subdue her. Her drug resistance is continuing to rise without any sign of plateauing!"

"Then buy enough tfor our Golden Wing to complete his actions!"

Many Gray Scalpels beca lot more active as they monitored the data and did whatever they could to keep the situation under control.

The Devourer Queen made that a lot more difficult as the surprisingly powerful blow inflicted by the companion spirit fruit caused her to feel she was under attack by a mortal enemy.

Mihael Pentaq found himself forced to rush through his own process. He waited for the domineering fruit to crack open the Devourer Queen's soul and turn a part of it into a brand- new companion spirit.

"There!"

The psionically gifted Golden Wing observed the Devourer Queen carefully. It was not until the boosted companion spirit successfully converted a part of her wounded soul into a brand-new personality that he commenced the next phase of his operation!

"You are mine!"

A couple of hyper emitters went active, causing further injuries and suppression onto the Devourer Queen's soul.

The Golden Wing was not as susceptible to this suppression effect, so he proceeded to capture and subvert the newborn companion spirit before it had any tto grow into its power!

The timing was crucial. The ambitious cosmopolitan leader needed to act early enough to deny the Devourer Queen any chance of overturning the situation.

It was working!

The Golden Wing utilized a combination of alien technology, ancient cultivation techniques and unique methods developed by the Cosmopolitan Movement to inject more human rationality to the companion spirit and simultaneously transform it into Mihael's thrall!

The plan was flexible enough to account for multiple possible outcomes. The best-case scenawas that the Golden Wing took complete control over the Devourer Queen by hijacking her companion spirit first.

The worse but still acceptable scenawas that the Golden Wing failed to asscontrol over the companion spirit, but at least managed to make it 'human' enough to civilize the calamity beast. The Fuchsia Cell would at least be able to gain the Devourer Queen's cooperation through respectful dialogue.

So far, Mihael Pentaq becconfident that he would be able to subvert the Devourer Queen in her entirety.

The stolen and heavily modified companion spirit fruit was much more powerful than he anticipated!

It not only dealt a severe blow to the Devourer Queen's soul, but continued to exert an overpowering suppressive effect that prevented her from regaining her awareness.

It should have been impossible for such a weak fruit to single- handedly bring a powerful calamity beast to heel, but the Golden Wing did not exhibit any surprise.

As Mihael Pentaq slowly managed to take near-absolute control over the very new and vulnerable companion spirit, a sudden action caught him off-guard.

The Devourer Queen's heavily injured soul abruptly swallowed the remaining energies contained within the companion spirit fruit!

"What!"

That was not supposed to happen!

The Devourer Queen may be powerful, but the exalted benefactor who transformed and empowered the stolen companion spirit fruit was much stronger!

The intervention of such a powerful helper should have prevented this outcome. The difference in power between the Devourer Queen and the exalted benefactor was too great!

Whatever the case, the turn of events happened far too quickly for the Golden Wing to respond.

The Devourer Queen quickly recovered her soul. Few cosmopolitans understood what just happened, but each of them understood that an enormous crisis was about to unfold!

"ABORT! ACTIVATE OMEGA-3 PURGE! FOXTROT-UNIFORM-

GHAAA!"

<nullb>$#&$#&$#@!

The Golden Wing received a powerful shock to his own soul!

His proximity to the Devourer Queen and his strong connection to her companion spirit had made her vulnerable to her counterattack!

Even as the first-class multipurpose mechs moved forward in order to thrust their plasma spears into the captive calamity beast's body, the leader of the Fuchsia Cell received another powerful shock that shattered his soul!

His body abruptly slumped. If not for his protective suit, he would have already collapsed onto the floor.

Alarms kept ringing while cosmopolitans kept yelling.

Despite activating multiple contingency plans at once, every attempt to subdue and weaken the Devourer Queen failed!

This was because she somehow generated a forcefield that blocked incoming attacks and severed many of her physical bonds!

The enraged voribug queen subsequently began to thrash with much greater strength than before, allowing her to remove the remaining restraints!

<nullb>$@#$&#@$&#$!

"Ahhh!"

The psionic scream penetrated all of the dampening materials and went on to induce a disorienting blow to every nearby human!

The cosmopolitans increasingly concluded that the situation couldn't be salvaged anymore.

Since the Devourer Queen had not only gone out of control, but also absorbed a large source of energy, she had beca massive threat to both human and alien interests!

"INITIATE SELF-DESTRUCT! TRANSMIT THE CODES RIGHT NOW! ANNIHILATE EVERYTHING INSIDE THE CHAMBER NOW!"

"But that will kill the Golden Wing!"

"He is already dead! His sacrifice shall not be in vain!"

"Brown Mandible, take these logs and depart through our fastest evacuation channel. You must flee and bring news of what has happened here in case we cannot contain this threat anymore. Leave!"

Xiv-Nihar did not argue the necessity of this precaution. He took the logs and jumped into an escape hatch that just opened up on the side.

Shortly after his departure, the control room started to shake.

"What was that?!"

"Many of our labs have been breached! Oh no… our test subjects… our test subjects have broken out of their cages!"

"How?!"

"They have evolved! Each of them are larger and have developed brand-new abilities! Wait, they are converging on our location. They are moving to free their queen!"

"Exterminate them all! Our base defenses should be strong enough to stop their advance!"

"They are not moving through the corridors. They are eating through our walls and circumventing all of the kill zones. Not only that, they are eating away at the power lines that disable every device within their reach. The voribugs… are displaying unmatched coordination and direction!"

Many cosmopolitans widened their eyes in realization.

"The voribug queen is actively controlling them. They will breach her holding chamber within 3 minutes at this pace!"

"Why hasn't the Devourer Queen died already?!"

"Her defenses are too strong! She is adapting far too quickly to her current predicament! Look at our mechs!"

Over a dozen mechs that were previously on standby had attempted to destroy the Devourer Queen.

The holding chamber itself also activated a lot of emergency measures, from channeling flames to increasing gravity by hundreds of times.

None of these measures worked!

The Devourer Queen previously gave the impression that her enormous bulk was largely due to increasing her capacity to birth lots of powerful voribugs, but now her body had becmuch more capable of defending her against direct attacks!

The only hope for the cosmopolitans was to self-destruct the base and cause everything in the area to be wiped out by an antimatter bomb.

The members of the Fuchsia Cell did not bother to escape. They had all committed to the Galactic Parity Plan.

Now that it had backfired on their faces, none of them had any confidence that they could revive the Cosmopolitan Movement and enact real change.

"60 seconds until self-destruct."

"50 seconds until self-destruct."

"43 seconds until self-destruct-, wait, it is no longer counting down!"

"Why is it no longer counting down?!"

"A higher authority activated an override. The self-destruct command has paused!"

"Then manually trigger the antimatter bomb!"

"We can't! It is buried in a fully enclosed and armored space that is expressly designed to prevent tampering. Even if we attempt to drill into the chamber that holds the bomb, the voribugs will reach it before our emergency response teams!"

"Look!"

Multiple cosmopolitans looked through the transparent wall.

A very familiar human stared back at them with a distinctly inhuman gaze.

"Our Golden Wing!"

"Something is wrong!"

A very strange grin appeared on Mihael Nihar's face. The man shakingly began to utter a few words.

"My hive… shall… expand… and devour… the entire Red Ocean…"

"..."

Every cosmopolitan looked aghast.

The Devourer Queen had turned the tables against the Golden Wing!

Instead of the human taking control of the voribug queen by hijacking her companion spirit, the powerful alien being had taken advantage of this connected state to directly dominate Mihael Nihar's mind and soul!

In other words, the cosmopolitan leader had effectively becthe Devourer Queen's companion spirit!

This gave the strengthening calamity beast far more than a human meat puppet. The intelligent voribug queen somehow managed to assimilate the Golden Wing's human knowledge and understanding.

Her comprehension of human civilization had grown so much that she already managed to master human speech!

"Disable his authority and kill him before it is too late!"

A couple of mechs began to launch missiles and plasma bolts at the Golden Wing.

This should have killed him even if he wore a powerful personal shield generator.

However, the attacks produced no effect as the Golden Wing becsurrounded by the sprotective barrier that kept the Devourer Queen untouched!

"She's unstoppable!"