Chapter 2651: Mounting Pressure The battle between the Golden Skull Alliance and Task Force Umbra had formally commenced! The initial volley unleashed by the Charlemagne and its 44 follower mechs struck the prow of the Spirit of Bentheim in a taunted fashion. "He's mocking us! He's insulting our clan!" "Don't let this traitor go. Let us prove to everyone that the future of the Larkinsons lies with us instead of this kinslayer!" The Larkinsons were all in high spirits after Ves riled them up! Every crew member stood ready to respond to any emergency. Every mech pilot sat silently in their cockpits while awaiting their orders. Of course, the Larkinson fleet did not consist entirely of soldiers. There were many children and other dependents who weren't able to contribute in any way. They had all been moved to the Spirit of Bentheim as a precaution. The sub-capital ships of the expeditionary fleet weren't safe enough to protect them all. Ves also wanted to move civilians out of the smaller vessels in order to free up other uses for the half-evacuated vessels. Every combat carrier and every support ship was a potential asset on the battlefield. The survival of these relatively ordinary vessels was not a priority to the Larkinsons. As long as they won the battle, they could rebuild everything they had lost! To Ves, every ship aside from the Spirit of Bentheim was just a pile of credits. Even if he lost almost all of his entire fleet, it only took a bit of time and money to reform his fleet! As Ves sat down on his special seat at the rear, a large panorama of projections came to life. Lucky settled on his lap while the long-ranged sensors of the fleet began to glean more details from the closing opponents. The Larkinsons and its allies had already invested a lot of effort in determining the properties of the enemy carriers. Ves mentally issued a command that summoned a page that summarized the known and suspected attributes of the Fridayman deep strike fleet carriers. "They truly went big with this attack." He murmured. All five fleet carriers were important strategic assets to the respective institutions of the Friday Coalition. Losing any of them would definitely cause a lot of pain. However, if their loss came paired with the death of Ves, then the leaders of the Coalition would probably rejoice! A rueful smile appeared on his face. "I guess my head is worth more than all of these ships and mechs." He always liked it when others appreciated him, but he did not like it when the enemy gave him respect. He would rather be underestimated by his enemies, or better yet, not be recognized by them at all. It was incredibly stressful to be on guard against competent and powerful enemies all the time. In a way, Ves felt a bit relieved that the Friday Coalition had opted to pull the trigger at this time. Ves knew for sure that this was their last and final attempt to take him down. Once he surpassed this hurdle, he could completely leave the Komodo Star Sector behind. What was even better was that Venerable Ghanso had come as well. This was the best opportunity to get rid of the greatest tumor of the Larkinsons. Ves did not want to leave until he was absolutely certain that his least favorite cousin had met his end at the hands of his mechs! "Come, Ghanso. Let's see who of us shall shape the future of the Larkinsons!" The start of the battle did not erupt in an explosion. The range was still too far for that. The infamous Unit L had already ceased fire after unleashing just a single volley. The Larkinsons didn't expose any easy targets for the enemy ranged mechs. The defending mechs did not stupidly expose their frames in open space. Instead, the Larkinsons, Glory Seekers and Crossers all positioned their mechs behind the bulk of their armored vessels. The only mechs that exposed a portion of themselves to the approaching enemies were the various ranged mechs. They huddled behind purpose-built extensions that the vessels specifically erected to provide the ranged mechs with plenty of cover. While these ranged mechs weren't as well-protected as bunker mechs, they had gained a lot of defense against frontal attacks! The Fridaymen were no different. Most of their mechs were out of sight as their huge carriers and smaller sub-capital ships obscured their mechs as much as possible. They were actually clever enough to deploy their mechs out of sight from their opponents. Even now, the Larkinsons still didn't know which units they faced and how many enemy expert mechs lurked out of sight. As the range between the two fleets continued to narrow, the calm finally broke to an extent. "Detecting incoming fire!" Both sides started to test each other out by firing some modest volleys at each other. While Unit L conserved its firepower, the ranged mechs and the artillery mechs among the attacking force finally opened fire. Hundreds of energy beams struck one of the combat carriers of the Penitent Sisters! The beams raked across the hull of the second-class vessel, but none of them managed to pierce through the surface layers. In response, the vessel started to rotate. While this inconvenienced the rifleman mechs and bunker mechs that relied on her for protection, the rotation caused the subsequent volleys to spread out their damage across a much wider surface area! Ves and the Larkinsons all remained calm. This was more of a probe than anything else. The Fridaymen gathered valuable data as they tested the response of the Larkinson fleet. Their ranged mechs were also able to examine their own performance and determine whether their weapons required additional calibration. The defenders soon reciprocated. The ranged mechs and artillery mechs each fired their energy weapons at one of the combat carriers brought by the Praetor Clan. Colonel Ariadne Wodin ordered the ranged mechs to fire their weapons at half strength. There was no need to stress out their guns in the opening phase of the battle. "We won't win this battle by taking down the enemy carriers." The projection of Major Verle quietly stated to Ves. "Even if we manage to take down 75 percent of their fleet, their mechs will do us in. We have to wait until our opponents begin their main assault before we can concentrate our firepower on their mechs." Ves nodded in understanding. "It's a bit frustrating to allow the enemy to close in without beating them back." The tension in the fleet increased as the defenders nervously awaited the next move of their opponents. The initiative was firmly in the hands of the enemy strike force. The Fridaymen and their allies had many options at their disposal. The most important question was whether they would opt to bull through in a straight line or attempt to split up their fleet in order to catch their prey in a pincer attack. It turned out the enemy leader chose the latter approach! "Detecting course changes among the enemy fleet! They're splitting up in two diverging elements!" The Fridaymen opted to separate themselves from the Praetors and Planats. The factions all gave up the advantages brought by concentrating all of their strength and decided they would rather catch their targets in flanking fire. It took a lot of confidence to make this decision! By splitting up their forces in two, one of the branches risked getting focused upon. However, the advantages were equally as great. The Golden Skull Alliance already showed their intention of making as much use of their starships as hard cover as possible. This meant that frontal attacks would not lead to any decisive results! The enemy commanding officer evidently wanted to achieve more decisive results. By attacking their targets from two different directions, it became a lot more difficult for the defending mechs to guard against incoming fire from multiple directions! "I was afraid of this." Major Verle sighed. "This will be an intense and decisive engagement. While their flanking maneuvers will cause them to take additional time to close in, our losses will rapidly mount if they succeed in enfilading us. Only our bunker mechs are protected from attacks coming from multiple directions." "What will we do?" Ves asked. "Will we split up our fleet as well, or will we focus on one of the two pincers?" "It's not that simple, sir. For now, we will wait and see. We first need to determine whether the Fridaymen distributed their forces unequally. If we barrel down on the pincer that holds the bulk of the enemy mech troops, then we won't be able to free up enough forces to fend off the other pincer!" The situation was actually a lot more complicated than that, but Major Verle did not have the time to expound upon all of the tactical moves that both sides could make. To Ves, the enemy maneuvers complicated the battlefield to an extent. The Larkinsons had no choice but to split up their mech forces in two as well in order to respond to both pincers. Additional maneuvers might force his mech forces to split up even further. This was not good news to Ves as he believed that his mech pilots performed at their best when they fought shoulder to shoulder with as many comrades as possible. The false peace did not last long. The pincers didn't take any major detours. They parted from each other just enough to support each other in the event their targets wanted to gang up on one of them. While that meant that attackers didn't gain the best angles against their targets, they didn't waste too much time! "Their ranged mechs are opening fire!" The Fridaymen and its allies attacked for real this time! After collecting a lot of data, their fire became a lot more precise! They targeted the engines of starships, the bunkers where artillery mechs were huddling behind and struck many other targets of opportunity. At the same time, the mechs that were still out of sight launched tens of thousands of missiles in quick succession! The missiles initially flew to the sides before slowly arcing in the direction of the expeditionary fleet! "Intercept those missiles!" Long-ranged sensors and scanners immediately analyzed the incoming missiles. It quickly became clear that the missiles were very powerful! The defenders had no choice but to take them down lest the potent payloads inflicted considerable damage to their starships! Fortunately, the Larkinsons, Glory Seekers and Crossers were not weak when it came to this aspect. Ves keenly paid attention to the performance of his Transcendent Punishers and Valkyrie mechs. The former employed its positron beam cannons at low power in order to fire them at a rapid frequency. When any of the missiles came close, the heavy artillery mechs activated their rapid-fire secondary pulse cannons. Though the Larkinson fleet only hosted 350 Transcendent Punishers, their firing rate and accuracy was disproportionately high! The Valkyrie Redeemers and other Valkyrie mechs performed much worse in this aspect. Their pulse submachine guns were not famed for their range or accuracy. They only made meaningful contributions when the swarm of missiles came close. Due to the flood of incoming missiles, a number of them managed to reach their targets! They impacted several starships, cracking a considerable amount of hull plating and taking out various surface modules. While the missiles didn't inflict too much damage in the end, they were a huge distraction which allowed the enemy ranged mechs to attack their targets with impunity! "How many missiles do they have?" "They shouldn't have too much left I think! Their fleet lacks a support train, so it's impossible for them to bring too many supplies!" While the missile swarms slowly petered off, hundreds of powerful shots suddenly hit one of the damaged Penitent Sister carriers! "The Listener of Athena has lost a portion of her power! She's drifting out of formation!" "Damn!" The sudden salvo struck one of his combat carriers with much more strength and precision than he thought! This was absolutely a calculated attack that could only be accomplished by a specialized troop! "Who launched that critical attack?!" Soon enough, one of the sensor operators supplied the answer. "It's a detachment from the 125th Destiny Hammers, one of the famed artillery regiments of the Vanguard Group!" The first Fridaymen elites had announced their entry into the battle!