4249 Progressing Too Fast As the fight began to get hotter and hotter, the amount of casualties suffered by both sides increased at a faster rate. Surprisingly, the amount of lives lost by both sides were fairly tame. Many of the combat carriers of the Hex Army and the Golden Skull Alliance were already being run by skeleton crews. If the starships suffered so much damage that they no longer became operable, then a small number of crew members could still evacuate with ease. Even the artillery mechs stationed inside the bunkers still had a way out. As long as they managed to flee in space, they could rely on standalone floater modules or other auxiliary flight equipment to continue their participation in battle. Of course, these exposed artillery mechs attracted a lot of enemy fire as well. Their large size along with their awful flight characteristics in space meant that it became easy for mech units such as the Blackened Reapers to demolish their frames! As a result, hundreds of cockpits ejected out into space with each passing second. While the enemy would love to shoot them down as well, any firepower spent on killing a bunch of mech pilots that did not pose any threat by themselves meant that far more threatening enemies would be able to continue to do their jobs! As a result, the ejected cockpits, escape pods and evacuation vehicles launched by both sides were mostly left alone. The Fridaymen and Hexers had fought against each other during the Komodo War so many times that they had already developed an unspoken understanding about this matter. It was not too late to round up the surviving enemies after winning the main battle! "How are we doing so far, general?" Ves asked as his expression grew a lot more serious as the fight had reached a much hotter state. "We're losing a fair amount of valuable combat carriers As this artillery duel proceeds. Soon enough, we won't have enough ships left to proceed with our Trailblazer Expedition!" Ves had already ordered his guards to send his children back to their mother. Though he would have loved to keep Marvaine and the others around to teach them the reality of warfare, it was too tiresome for him to supervise three energetic toddlers. The little devils distracted him so much that he felt it was best to foist them onto Gloriana! Now that the bridge of the Spirit of Bentheim had become a lot calmer, Ves could finally focus on what was important. "The problem is not as severe as it looks, Ves." The projection of General Verle replied as he continued to monitor the unfolding battle. "We have made sure to instruct the crews of our combat carriers to fall out of the battle line before they have lost total maneuverability. The ships are still operational to a degree, and whatever holes have formed in their hulls can quickly be patched up during emergency repairs. As long as they are still FTL-capable, we can restore them at our leisure." "That won't help us if we lose this battle." Ves grimaced. "We will have to abandon a lot of hulls if we have to flee this star system. In fact, even if we win, we still have to leave behind a lot of derelict starships and mechs." There simply wasn't enough time and capacity to salvage the enormous debris that would undoubtedly litter the orbit of Pima Prime V! The huge amount of broken matter would serve as a consolation prize for the Gaugers regardless if they won or lost the battle. Of course, as long as the Hexers demolished most if not all of Pima Prime's industries and infrastructure, then the Gauge Dynasty would not be able to do anything useful with the salvage for a long time. This was the ultimate goal that the Hex Federation set out to accomplish! General Verle soon supplied Ves with an update. "The Sundered Phalanx have increasingly redirected their fire against the mechs on our side. It has become a lot more viable to shoot at our mechs and the mechs of the Hex Army at this range. The Gaugers know that destroying the opposing starships is not conducive to securing a victory." "Damn." "The damage we are taking is still manageable, sir. While our Transcendent Punisher Mark II's are more powerful than the equivalent models utilized by the Hex Army, they are much tougher and better protected. Rather than expending a lot of effort to destroy our relatively limited number of bunker mechs, the Fridaymen mech units are mostly focusing their firepower on the more abundant Hexer bunker mechs." Ves looked at the large projected map and studied the lines and arrows that represented where different mech units directed their fire towards. Since the Golden Skull Alliance's starships were partially taking shelter behind an enormous screen of Hexer vessels, it was already fairly difficult to target his Transcendent Punishers. This gave Ves a bit of relief. The Hexers were upholding their end of agreement. After all, the Hex Federation possessed a lot of shipbuilding capacity and could replace their lost combat carriers a lot easier than the Golden Skull Alliance! "When will we start the next phase of our deployment?" Ves asked. "It won't be long now, sir. We will wait for General Alisky Victrix to dispatch the mechs under her command first before we follow suit. Our mid-range mechs and our melee mechs are fully prepared to fly out in the open and meet the enemy on the open battlefield. Our pilots have all trained for this. The difference this has made is not that obvious at this stage of the battle, but once our melee mech units collide against that of the enemy, it is highly likely that we will be able to gain an immediate advantage." Ves silently agreed with this assessment. The actual performance of the Sundered Phalanx mech units did not veer too far outside of his expectations. The intelligence they gathered on the enemy was accurate so far and it truly did not seem that the mechs fielded by the Gaugers were unreasonably powerful. However, there were still a lot of variables that could throw a wrench in all of their plans! "How about the ace mechs?" He asked.𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂 "We have not managed to detect any sign of the Neo Amadeus so far. Until the Gauge Dynasty releases it onto the battlefield, we are not in a hurry to present our Mars either." Ves frowned in thought. "The Mars should be powerful enough to knock out several intact orbital space fortifications in quick succession. No matter how fast the Neo Amadeus can respond, Patriarch Reginald can easily inflict a lot of mass destruction on the Sundered Phalanx and the Kosic Ring in a short amount of time." "Trust me, we are constantly thinking about this move as well. The reason why we haven't allowed the Mars to let loose is because we do not have a total guarantee that our ace mech is able to defeat the enemy ace mech in battle. Every detail counts. If the Mars expends a significant amount of combat resources against weaker targets, then that might eventually cause Saint Reginald to lose his long-awaited duel. We cannot afford to let this possibility come to pass." Right now, the Hex Army and the Golden Skull Alliance were enduring a lot of pain, but not to the point of demanding a change in plans. General Alisky Victrix and General Verle still believed that they were on track to win this battle without the intervention of ace mechs! "We have also been withholding a surprise." General Verle mentioned. "So far, all of the ranged mechs armed with luminar crystal weapons have limited their damage output to laser beam and positron beam attacks. While they do a good amount of damage to material targets, their efficiency against energy shields and titan shields are not that great. We will soon change that by ordering all of them to switch to disruptor beams." The armored form of Ves sat up a little straighter in his seat. "Won't that attract a lot more heat towards our mechs?" General Verle slowly nodded. "We will, but it is not exactly a big secret that we possess this capability. The only reason why we have yet to employ our disruptor beams is because we did not want to attract more fire towards our starships. Now that the Sundered Phalanx are increasingly directing their fire towards opposing mechs, we are not as concerned anymore. The shock value will also be greatest." The Sundered Phalanx put a lot of faith in the Kosic Ring. If the value of the orbital defensive works plummeted in a short amount of time, the Fridayman mech units would have to make a lot of hasty decisions. This would be the moment when Task Force Fury and the Golden Skull Alliance would launch their main offensive! Ves grew hotter as he anticipated this crucial moment. He continued to observe the main plot but also directed his attention to the current states of all of his key mechs and mech pilots. When the crucial moment arrived, General Verle finally issued the key command! "Begin firing disruptor beams! Focus your fire on the remaining titan shields! Once they are down, leave it up to the Hexer mechs to finish the job!" Thousands of ranged mechs hailing from the Larkinson Clan and the Glory Seekers did as instructed. It only took a brief delay for their weapons to switch to another attack phase pattern crystal. Once the ones responsible for converting electrical energy into powerful disruptor beams had been set, the beams the ranged mechs unleashed onto their targets immediately stood out from the ubiquitous laser and positron beams flying across space! "Our titan shield has lost 6 percent integrity all of a sudden!" A frightened Fridayman engineer warned. "What?! Confirm that!" "It's true! Wait, we've lost 3 percent integrity just now! The enemy's energy attacks are taking an enormous toll on our titan shield! We won't last more than 2 minutes at this rate!" "Damn, we already received a briefing about the effectiveness of the Larkinson Clan's unique disruptor beam technology, but the higher-ups never told us that they would hit this hard!" Technology constantly progressed. The efficiency and effectiveness of disruptor beams was no longer at the same level anymore. Seeing how much his mech legions depended on luminar crystal technology, Ves had invested a lot of effort into improving and optimizing every attack phase crystal. By applying a part of the high-level knowledge that he had obtained from the MTA, Ves had been able to update the designs of every attack phase crystal, making a number of them considerably more effective than before. The Friday Coalition did not fully account for the effect of these improvements! The Larkinson Clan had made considerably more progress in upgrading its tech than most analysts could foresee! The previous exchange of fire had already broken open a fair number of orbital fortresses, but the remaining strongholds of the Kosic Ring still offered a fair amount of defensive advantages to the Sundered Phalanx. The sudden switch to disruptor beams made the remaining fortifications a lot more vulnerable. The titan shields formed such an integral part of their defenses that losing this layer of protection at an accelerated pace rendered the Kosic Ring irrelevant a lot sooner than the Fridaymen wished! At the same time the ranged mechs started to fire disruptor beams, many melee mech units finally ceased to hide behind their starships and surged forward at great speed! The mechs of the Hex Army moved first. Roughly half of Task Force Fury's mech units played no role in this battle so far, which frustrated their mech pilots to no end. Now that they received permission to let loose, the predominantly female mech pilots whooped and cheered as they charged forth without any fear! "Slaughter the Fridaymen!" A Hexer mech officer roared as her Valkyrie Redeemer Mark II raised its spear in encouragement! "Death to the enemy!" "DEATH TO THE ENEMY!" The heavier and more solid Hexer mechs advanced straight ahead while the lighter and more maneuverable mechs swung around the flanks in order to look for opportunities at oblique angles. The massive wave of Hexer mechs surging ahead of their motherships presented an intimidating sight! "The real battle is about to start!"