The meeting dragged on for a considerable amount of time.

The gathered leaders discussed their findings and opinions on the recent engagement, with a particular focus on the properties of their new enemies.

The more they explored the capabilities of the deathborn, the greater their apprehension towards this unusual group of intangible beings.

"Whether they can be defined as a 'race' is questionable." Jovy Armalon mused. "In my opinion, they are more akin to a natural phenomenon that just happens to possess some, but not all of the traits of life. For example, they do not appear to reproduce naturally, but can only spawn from the corpses of deceased sentient beings that haven't been cleaned up by others."

"You can say that for all parasites, Jovy." Ves responded. "While the deathborn are composed entirely of negative energies, I don't see anything wrong with that. They are the dark reflection of positive energy life forms such as ourselves. While I can sort of agree with the standpoint that the deathborn can play a counterweight to an overwhelming number of positive life forms in an energy-rich galaxy, their behavior and complexity still grants the right to be recognized as a complete race, especially when they are ruled by sentient and intelligent higher-ranked variants."

The Saint Commander did not care too much about this academic discussion. "Leave this debate to the exobiologists. We do not have the time to conduct a deep dive on the nature of existence of these deathborn. Our priority is to identify and apply the lessons that we have learned from the last encounter in the coming days. I want our forces to be better prepared and equipped to fight and resist the deathborn once we assault one of their main strongholds in this star system."

"You are asking for the impossible." Commander Zonrad Reze said as he crossed his arms. "We have gathered limited intelligence on the deathborn. What they have shown earlier is just the tip of the iceberg. What is also concerning is that we still do not possess a good understanding of the terrain. Due to the dark miasma and how well our opposition has leveraged it, we have not been able to send out any scouts to survey Hypeh-Tekas II in advance. We know virtually nothing about the defenses and the enemy forces stationed over there. We are assuming a very great risk by attacking this key location without conducting a substantial reconnaissance operation."

The RF officer raised a very good point.

As a secret hybrid AI, Sigrund valued data and information a lot more than typical commanders. The lack of intelligence must be grating on him, especially when his warships had performed relatively poorly ever since the combined fleet entered this mysterious star system.

If the Red Fleet was in charge, then Commodore Reze would probably have called for a retreat.

Warships were expensive to build, especially in this day and age.

The Red Fleet could not afford to squander so many hulls in high-risk operations, particularly when they lacked the capabilities to fight the deathborn effectively!

Unfortunately, the Saint Commander possessed a different perspective on the matter.

"We do not have time for that, commodore." Casella respectfully responded. "The fact that the enemy leader sought to ambush us indicates that we are dealing with an opponent that is both proactive and eager to target our weaknesses. Wasting time will only grant more opportunities to the deathborn. Aside from that, delaying our assault by days or weeks will also increase the likelihood that the reinforcements dispatched by the Red Cabal will arrive. Given these considerations, maintaining our original timeline is the least-bad option."

Saint Commander Casella Ingvar judged that they had stumbled upon a critical development in the Red War.

The native aliens may have sensed that they were losing their hold on the Red Ocean.

It was already bad enough that the red humans had come to take away their territories.

Now, the prospect of colonists arriving from Messier 87 most definitely raised pressure on the native alien leaders.

If the Red Cabal already struggled to defeat the humans from the Milky Way, then the phase whales and the other natives of the Red Ocean would definitely have an even harder time resisting the aliens from a much larger and more powerful supermassive galaxy!

This made the current arrangement so important.

If the Red Cabal could form an alliance with a powerful and capable alien civilization from Messier 87, then the former would no longer be met with universal hostility from the superior aliens.

Perhaps it was impossible to forge peaceful relations with every major power of Messier 87, but as long as they secured the protection and political affiliation of at least one significant extragalactic power, the Red Cabal may be able to survive during a time when the M87'ers had flooded the Red Ocean!

This was a far-reaching conspiracy that had immense influence on the course of future history!

How could the ambitious Larkinsons ever sit by and let all of this unfold without trying to meddle with it somehow?

The Larkinsons that had learned how to be bold under Ves' leadership would never be so timid!

As such, Ves completely understood Casella's risky decision. He supported her initiative. Even if the resulting action caused grievous casualties among his forces, it still would have been worthwhile.

Because he knew that red humanity needed this intervention.

At the very least, he could count on the other major human powers to compensate the Larkinsons for their losses.

Somewhat.

The loss of a critical asset such as an ace pilot would be devastating to his clan. It was difficult to make up for such an immense loss.

Yet Ves was not naive enough to believe that such an outcome could be avoided entirely. Even the best of preparations could not completely guarantee their survival in the face of new and unknown enemies.

The best he and the others could do was to formulate plans that covered them as best as possible.

Ves would rather sacrifice the lives of all of the Ascended Giants he brought on this excursion rather than lose a single Larkinson ace pilot!

Casella was apparently of the same mind on this issue.

"Fiery Axe." The Saint Commander turned to the strategos of the Flesh Chopper Phalanx. "The time for hiding our trump cards is over. We must raze whatever the deathborn has built on Hypeh-Tekas II, and to do so we must break the defenses that stand in our way. Your giants may be vulnerable to attacks that target your minds, but so long as you operate within a friendly energy field, we can negate much of this shortcoming. You and your giants shall act as our vanguard and battering ram. This will allow you to give full play to your superdimensional raiments and armaments. The deathborn and whatever native aliens are helping them cannot afford to ignore your sheer destructive potential."

The projection of the female giant grinned. "I like where this is going. Are you assigning that big owl to my unit?"

Casella nodded. "Correct. While my Minerva and I shall continue to provide cover to the bulk of our fleet, your giants can contribute the most if you operate in a much more offensive capacity. The Victrix can grant you the protection of my Command Field no matter the distance. There is no better unit at our disposal that deserves this treatment more than your giants."

The Fiery Axe felt very honored by this statement. She had lost much of the frustration at being held back during the previous engagement. The strategos became determined to become the stars of the upcoming show! Only then would the Ascended Giants be able to prove their worth!

"Sir." The female giant turned to Ves. "Will the Dark Apostle lead us into battle? We could use your strength. This is an excellent opportunity to prove your valor."

Everyone turned to Ves. Nobody tried to tell the mech designer that he had no business on the battlefield, because he had long surpassed the typical limitations of his profession!

Nonetheless, there was no obvious response to this question.

Ves himself had not been prepared to make up his mind on this issue at this instance.

He could feel his other self clamoring to show up and make a powerful showing of himself!

The Dark Apostle felt neglected.

He wanted to burst out and show every red human that he was not an existence that everyone could afford to overlook!

"I… am not entirely certain." Ves hesitantly spoke up. "The deathborn present interesting new problems, some of which that I happen to be able to address a lot better than others. I already have a particularly powerful solution in mind that I am eager to test on them. I can also learn a lot more about this new race if I am interacting with them up close. They have already given me a considerable amount of inspiration. I look forward to learning more about them in this decisive battle."

Though his answer sounded a bit ambiguous, it was clear that he was leaning in favor of intervening in person!

Casella did not dismiss this choice out of hand. She knew pretty well how powerful Ves had become. He had not managed to win the leadership of the Ascended Giants by being a pushover!

Nonetheless, the significance of having the important mech designer of the Larkinson Clan risk his life on a very dangerous battlefield imposed a huge burden on her strategic considerations.

She could not afford to let him brave the worst dangers without providing him with sufficient backup!

The need to prepare additional contingency plans constrained her options and forced her to be a little more restrained when formulating their upcoming offensive.

"We have noted your eagerness, Ves." Casella said in a neutral voice. "We hope that you keep your status in mind and let your giants go first. As one of our leaders, it is not necessary for you to act as the tip of the spear."

"I know, Casella. I am not stupid."

"I doubt your other personality can say the same."

Ves felt insulted somehow, though not that much. He already dreaded the necessity of reining in the Dark Apostle's enthusiasm once the big moment had arrived.

The discussion continued. There was much that the red humans could do to tip the scales a little bit more in their favor.

Many people placed a lot of expectations on the collies within their ranks.

Formation Master Andrea Vos bore the expectant looks without crumbling under their weight.

"We have learned much from the previous ambush." She said with a particularly sharp expression. "Our personnel have their hands full with studying the enemy's methods and techniques at this very moment. We may not have the time to develop a truly effective counter against the enemy's methods, but in the sparse time that we have left, we can still deploy incremental improvements and other small solutions. For example, I am personally involved in upgrading our defensive spell array in order to increase the difficulty of breaching it. What happened before will not occur so easily next time."

The initial breach had been responsible for the loss of several starships! There was little the rest of them could do to prevent this from happening. It therefore became imperative to address this weakness as much as possible before the next encounter!

"Are you and your men working to provide additional protection against mental attacks?" Commodore Zonrad Reze asked with purpose. "We cannot fight at our full strength when we must constantly guard against the unconventional methods of the deathborn."

The Farseer looked less than certain. "I cannot give you any guarantees on this, commodore. I can assure you that we agree with you that this vulnerability must absolutely be addressed. We do not have any convenient solutions on hand. We must develop them from the ground up, but there are limits to what we can do in a handful of days."