Max's glowing eyes stared straight ahead as the last of his repressed memories flooded into his mind. He now knew what the secret to Gloriana was. A God Class Mecha couldn't be made, at least not in the conventional sense. They were not just mechanical constructs, they were infused with the essence of the Energy Beings, which allowed them to move freely between layers and regenerate themselves as long as there was energy available to regenerate with.
But as a mechanical construct, they weren't limited to just the life essence of other members of their species to quickly regenerate. They could absorb the energy from Warp Drives, Fusion Cores, and even incoming weapons fire.
That was why they were viewed as indestructible. The enemy had always tried to use energy weapons against them when the design fed on energy. Everything that you gave it, it could use to heal itself, then fire the remainder back at you without depleting its own reserves.
It was brilliant. Insidious, possibly insane, but brilliant.
The original God Class Mecha had been made when the Greater Energy Beings that sided with the humans had been crippled by the hostile Gods and had willingly entwined themselves with Mecha, creating a form of living machine that the greatest pilots in the human fleet would bond with.
Not physically bond, but mentally. The being in the machine would work with them, while the human guided the machine itself. The more in tune the two of them were on battle tactics, the stronger they were.
Whether there were any Greater Energy Beings willing to give up their lives as free beings at this point and modify their own bodies to accept all forms of energy in exchange for being permanently linked with a Mecha was a mystery. But there was a chance that there might still be some of them in existence, just hidden away in one of the other layers, waiting for the right person to find them.
He didn't know where to find any of them right now, but he had an excellent idea of where to start looking.
Among the memories that returned to him was one of sending away the survival ships, Humanity's failsafe plan in case the war against the Gods went predictably poorly, and they were annihilated. That should be where the humans and Alliance were living now.
At the time, it was called the Dead Zone, a spot where the energy beings couldn't live. The imbalance in the other layers was too strong, and it would absorb them completely without leaving a single trace.
From what Max recalled, it should be where the first Gods died during the conflict, with their energy sucked out by their peers. But their core essence couldn't be destroyed by those who were like them, so it was still there, trying to devour what energy it could in order to reform.
That was why there was nothing in the layers around the Alliance, and why the Great Enemy had to use regular Warp Drives and portals to attack. They couldn't risk bringing Greater Energy Beings too close, and there was nothing to use to travel through the other layers.
That gave him a wealth of new tactical knowledge to use to deal with the enemy forces as well. The "dead" Gods weren't really dead, just drained of energy and in stasis. Which meant that all along the humans had been failing in their goal of eliminating them, and the closest that they had gotten was to delay things indefinitely.
So, the goal shouldn't be to try to kill them. They should try to eliminate all their minions, and then drain the energy from the Energy Being Gods. With nothing to replenish themselves, they would remain in eternal stasis. "Killing" them and letting the energy dissipate wasn't actually a solution to the problem, it just decentralized it.
"Alright, Now that things have stabilized enough for us to get moving, let's get a battle plan worked out. I want to locate as many of the Greater Energy Beings as we can. I have a plan." Max announced, startling all the others, who were still staring at his changed body.
"What?" He asked when they kept staring at him.
"You should look in a mirror." Nico recommended.
Max stepped to the showers in the next room, beside the gym, and looked himself over. The glowing golden eyes were pretty freaky, but it was only after a few seconds when he realized the angle was wrong that he realized something major had changed.
He was quite a bit taller now, too tall to fit in his Mecha's cockpit without modification, but just as broad and heavily muscled, so similar in proportions that he hadn't noticed the change right away.
He was also brimming with power, and while he couldn't think of a way to use it, he could feel it under his skin. Maybe this was what the Lesser Energy Beings felt like when they were corporeal? Was that what he had become?
According to the data log, he had absorbed hundreds of times more energy than they released, so that probably wasn't the case, but there was no guideline for the changes, other than the System's assertion that he was now as optimal as it could make him without more energy.
"Well, this is inconvenient. I might be optimal, but my Mecha no longer is. I'm going to have to do a full cockpit redesign." Max sighed.
"Or I can upgrade us to a whole new pair of Mecha. It's been like a month since I made the last ones." Nico suggested.
Sylvie gave Max a confused look. "Is this part of the strategy? If the enemy doesn't know the spec of your new equipment, they can't optimize against it?"
"No, it's just a quirk of Nico's personality. But you did introduce her to new Mecha, so it only makes sense that she would want to upgrade everything.
Alright, Nico, I will give permission for a new pair of Titan Class Mecha, but only because I won't fit in my old seat. We can pass the old pair down to two of our Subcommanders the next time that we see them."
"Winning!"
