The Mech Touch

These cannons fired at slow but momentous intervals as they propelled heavy projectiles directly towards a distant speck of color.

Each time the dense and metallic struck the surface, the mighty homeship\'s optical sensors detected a large explosion of dust and force!

The aged orven battleship had held back from firing her formidable arsenal in the first few hours.

This was because her firepower was no longer needed. After smashing the human defensive garrison and driving away the scattered mechs and starships that managed to flee out of range, the Khoraln-Lizh-Gharaer still needed to remain on guard In order to prevent those annoying human machines from coming back.

It was not as if those weak mechs could do anything to threaten the raiding fleet that was under her protection!

Riewna-Khalerin-Ortosu-Fugha-Celeron sneered as he sat atop his throne In the center of the command center of his homeship.

He disliked his current duty. The Khorain-Lizh-Gharaer may not have been able to incorporate all of the latest stolen human technologies introduced by the Red Cabal, but she was still a genuine battleship, if only a relatively smaller one of her kind!

However, Rlewna-Khalerin-Ortosu-Fugha-Celeron understood quite well that homeships like his own had no place In this new era.

The successful implementation of the Ancient Refuge Plan had given everyone a chance to drive out the hated humans!

Each homeship must contribute, and while the Khorain-Eizh-Gharaer could have become a part of the much more impressive main forces that were responsible for fighting the strongest humans war machines, her performance simply wasn\'t up to standard!

Instead, the homeship\'s relatively high traversal speed and expendability made her a lot more suitable for babysitting the raiding forces formed by the minor races.

When Riewna received his orders, he obeyed without question.

The gods were the ultimate rulers of the Red Ocean! Those without a drop of phasewater In their veins must never defy the authority of their betters!

That said, the orvan homeship captain already hated his latest mission.

Under normal times, Riewna would spare a second glance towards the disgusting race called the Wheednar.

These eight-limbed mammalians lacked noble fur like the orvens and crawled on the floor like beastly savages.

Although the Wheednar at least had the smarts to obey the directive of the gods, they never showed as much regard towards Riewna himself despite being descended from a god of his own race!

This raid was a typical example of the lack of obedience and discipline inherent in this filthy race.

The Wheednar spent 70 percent more time on the surface than the limit imposed by Riewna.

Too many of their starfighters got shot down by mechs and defensive turrets due to their persistent habit of racing ahead of the warships that could provide life-saving support.

The ground troops deployed by the Wheednar subsequently spent way too much time trying to hunt down the fleeing and hiding the humans for sport Instead of trying to gather all of the valuable human tech, materials and possibly godblood.

Though orvens such as Riewna hated the human Invaders like anyone else, even he could not deny the strength of human technology.

The Red Cabal had an incredibly high demand for human salvage!

Every alien homeship assigned to raid the human colonies had to fulfill a demanding quota of human salvage in order to complete the mission!

Riewna\'s only hope of ending his awful Wheednar babysitting tour was by turning over enough human salvage.

He could not do this effectively when these naked eight-limbed creatures kept fooling around!

"Do the Wheednar not understand that they will invite destruction if they keep squandering time!?"

"The Wheednar have never encountered humans before this mission." An orven officer supplied. "They have heard of the might of the invaders from others, but the actual humans they fought against were far from matching the tales from the front. They have only ever fought against the peasants among the humans. Their primitive brains cannot make them understand that the weak humans they have hunted so far are the least of what we have to fear!"

Though many of his fellow orvans spoke as if cutting off the humans from their home galaxy already meant they won the war, Riewna was sober enough to understand that the humans still had plenty of ways to retaliate before they died!

"The last Wheednar shuttles and homeships are about to lift off from the planet!"

"It is about time. Remind me to punish their council of leaders for failing to control their unruly minions."

"You have already replaced their leaders for the third time, my lord. Each cycle has caused the Wheednars to fight amongst themselves and neglect their other duties."

"I DO NOT CARE! THESE FILTHY CREATURES MUST BE TAUGHT TO OBEY!"

He could not wait long enough to get rid of this babysitting duty!

As Riewna-Khalerin-Ortosu-Fugha-Celeron continued to oversee his slow raiding fleet\'s steady withdrawal from the ruined human colony, the Khoraln-Lizh-Gharaer briefly shook.

"Report." The orven captain immediately called even as his four eyes scanned the information panels extended from his seat.

"We are receiving confusing reports from downstairs. Our engineers are screaming about... about being haunted by an evil demon! A human demon!"

"That is nonsense!" Riewna boomed! "Our homeship is under the protection of our gods. No evil can possibly invade our blessed walls!"

"Be that as it may, our engineers are continuing to issue the same warnings! Wait, we have Just received another notification that the evil demon has invaded our first warp drive. It... it is beginning to transmit errors! It cannot activate without conducting repairs!"

Riewna-Khalerin-Ortosu-Fugha-Celeron stood up from his seat in shock!

He immediately summoned a live feed of his homeship\'s primary engineering bay.

Half of the orven engineers were either screaming and running around.

Many of the remainder had attempted to flee from the cursed compartment.

None of the engineers made any attempt to protect or repair the damaged ship systems.

This was because the few brave orvens that attempted to do so inexplicably collapsed and died!

"Demons! We are beset by demons!"

"The humans that we have slain have risen up to punisli us for our dishonorable actions!"I think you should take a look at

"STOP PANICKING! WF. ARE BEING ATTACKED BY HUMAN SABOTEURS, NOT DEMONS! SEND IN OUR GUARDS AND SHOOT THEM ALL DOWN!"

"My lord, the engineers assigned to our second warp drive are screaming about demons as well! Their superior who attempted to banish the evil human demon has died shortly after a demon dove inside his body!"

Alarms rang throughout the Khoraln-Lizh-Gharaer as the demons not only destroyed many delicate and difficult-to-repair components of both of her warp drives, but also started to appear in other places!

The entire bottom section of the old orven homeship fell under disarray as the crew reported dozens of sightings of \'evil human demons\'!

Though Riewna was convinced that the humans had secretly snuck invisible saboteurs aboard his homeship, the subsequent reports and security footage increasingly caused everyone to doubt this conclusion.

This was because the enemies simply would not die!

The guards that responded to the increasingly more panicked calls for help continually attempted to stop the evil demons, yet they found that their weapons were anything but effective!

"Die, human!" A tall and armored orven guard roared in his native language as his plasma shotgun sprayed the grinning and translucent human demon with hot matter!

Though the crippled power conduit in front of him melted into ruined slag, the guard shook in primal fear as he saw that the proud weapon that he had worked hard to obtain completely failed to harm the grinning demon!

An aura of evil and death spread from the demonic entity. The creature\'s grin showed that it was deliberately mocking the guard for his inability to succeed!

"This cannot be! My weapon cannot fall!"

The orvan guard roared again as his plasma shotgun fired again and again.

Nothing but the best transphasic shields should have been able to withstand this barrage of attacks!

However, the demon did not show any sign of damage or suffering from beginning to end. Its two human-like eyes curled in amusement as the advanced plasma shotgun finally stopped its fire due to excess heat buildup.

"No! I have more weapons!"

Sharp and wicked curved blades extended from the armored arms of the guards. These blades then started to buzz as current ran through the transphaslc material, which amplified their penetration power by at least an order of magnitude!

Tlie guard then put all of his training to good use by stabbing and slashing his blades in an uninterrupted flurry!

Any soldier from almost any race would have already been sliced to pieces if they got struck so many times.

Not even the large and formidable nunsers possessed the ability to shrug off so many attacks of this nature!

However, not a single blade blessed by godblood managed to leave more than a single scratch on the human demon\'s translucent body!

"It is working!"

The guard was convinced that his opponent\'s appearance meant that the demon\'s body had been phased to another dimension.

Any transphasic weapon that was powerful enough should have been capable of countering this effect and inflicting damage on the phased entity\'s true body!

Yet as attack after attack struck the demon, the enemy\'s translucent body only showed minor disturbances.

Tlie attacks were as futile as trying to slash a cloud of fog!

Though the demon stopped grinning now that it was suffering actual damage from the guard\'s transphaslc weapons, the evil human creature continued to hover in place.

The evil entity was clearly using the orven guard to test his own defenses!

In the end, the spiritual fiend concluded that transphaslc weapons did indeed pose a threat against his incorporeal existence, but they had to be powerful enough in order to do more than disturb his apparent form!

Tlie fiend eventually tired from this confrontation. He received firm instructions to stop playing with prey and continue his mission to wreck the orven battleship\'s power generators and energy transmission systems.

The \'evil human demon\' no longer remained passive and dove forward until his sharp claws swiped through the enclosed helmet of the taller orven guard!

"Ghuuurr!"

The orven guard\'s flurry of attacks instantly faltered as he felt enormous pain bursting from his brain.

His armor informed him that his brain was damaged and bleeding from the inside!

"That... that\'s impossible!"

His helmet hadn\'t been penetrated! It remained completely untouched! How could the evil demon phase straight through the slightly transphasic alloy without showing any effort?

It was a pity that the evil demon did not bother to answer the orven\'s doubts.

The evil human demon swiped his claws a few more times until the guard collapsed as his brain was sliced to ribbons!

The fiend sadistically grinned at the orven reinforcements that arrived a few seconds later before phasing right through the deck of the compartment!

As more and more fiends began to disable all sorts of essential systems aboard the Khoraln-Lizh-Gharaer, Riewna had been driven to fury and desperation!

"Activate our shields!"

Set all of our sensors and scanners at full power!"

"The humans must have smuggled these phased saboteurs with the help of a stealth shuttle. Find it immediately!"

It was not until the orven homeship activated all of the transphasic energy shields that were still intact and many starfighters started to comb the immediate surroundings that the evil demons disappeared!

Tliis strengthened Rlewna\'s suspicion that the humans must have employed a new means of sabotage that was apparently limited by range.

As the search effort continued, the homeship soon received an emergency notification from a Wheednar warship.

"My lord, the Wheednar fleet\'s flagship is asking for reinforcements! Their crew... their crew is reporting the same sightings! The fiends have struck the warp drive first before spreading out to disable the power generators."

Riewna roared with fury and frustration!

The humans continued to torment his fleet!