Once the Golden Skull Alliance settled for launching a daring rapid assault on the alien battleship, the alliance partners quickly prepared for the journey back to the Ramage Repulsor System. Most of the ships of the expeditionary fleet weren't able to turn around and transition into FTL travel in an instant. They only possessed a single FTL drive which had to cool down and complete their mandatory cycling process before they were safe to activate again. Only a part of the vessels possessed redundant FTL drives. Fortunately, fleet carriers generally came with 2 FTL drives in their standard configurations as their military roles required them to move quickly if necessary. The more time they wasted in realspace, the longer it took to reach their destinations! Since the plan called for bringing in at least 3000 mechs, most of which consisted of the Valkyrie Redeemer Redeemer Mark II and its many variants, the Golden Skull Alliance needed to dispatch at least several fleet carriers, which included Wild Torch, the Feminine Grace, the Antonio Cross. The planners of the upcoming blitz operation purposefully decided against sending out the larger and more heavily armored fleet carriers such as the Gorgoneion, the Hemmington Cross, the Indigo Tremor and the brand-new Vengeance of the Hegemony. Instead, they intended to stuff the remaining Valkyrie mechs into the combat carriers that happened to be luxurious enough to be outfitted with a redundant FTL drive. "Our greatest priority is speed." Chief Minister Abigail Evern told Ves over a comm call. "If we want our rapid strike force to reach the Tower of Babel as soon as possible, we cannot afford to bring a single slow ship along. The pace of the strike force will be constrained by its slowest element, so adding a single elephant is enough to slow down a pack of cheetahs." Though she was mostly engaged with leading the clan as a whole these days, that didn't mean she lost her expertise in starships and naval combat. She could still help the Larkinson Clan a lot in naval affairs. "I understand that, but is it worth it to rush towards the battlefield with a bunch of flimsy carriers? Aside from the Wild Torch, all of the other vessels on the list weren't designed to endure a lot of attacks. Their hull plating is thin and they aren't equipped with a lot of shield generators." "Whether we send in a slim and fragile vessel such as the Antonio Cross or a large and heavy behemoth like the Vengeance of the Hegemony makes no difference against our current opposition." The former commodore of the Penitent Sister responded with a rueful smile. "It only takes two salvos from a single primary kinetic cannon battery to destroy the Seeker of Wealth. If even a higher end battle-oriented fleet carrier cannot withstand six heavy kinetic rounds from the Tower of Babel, no second-class fleet carrier can do any better." Ves sobered up when he recalled how easily the alien battleship destroyed fleet carrier after fleet carrier in the earlier battle. Cenatus Prospecting lost almost its entire complement of capital ships in so little time! "Okay. I understand why we shouldn't bring our bigger ships. What makes you think our smaller and faster carriers will do any better?" "The effective range of the Tower of Babel is not unlimited, especially now that she has incurred heavy damage." The chief minister smiled. "There are many practical constraints, sir. As long as our carriers remain far away enough, it becomes much harder to track and land accurate shots with the primary gun batteries of the Tower of Babel. We just need to deploy our mechs early and have them approach the alien battleship under their own power for the final leg of the journey." Ves understood what she was talking about. When ships were thousands of kilometers away, it became exponentially more difficult to nail a target with a gun. Just a minute shift in angle or position was enough to make an attack miss by hundreds of meters! 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦 The problem was much greater in the case of projectile weapons as it took precious time for their physical output to reach their intended targets. The small delay was enough for faster and more maneuverable units such as mechs and warships to evade any incoming attacks. Landing a successful hit often came down to luck rather than skill. "What about the Tower of Babel's secondary laser cannon batteries?" Ves critically asked. "Those primary gun batteries are obviously designed to achieve naval firepower superiority at short to medium ranges, so they're not as effective at longer ranges. In order to compensate for this shortcoming, the designers of this warship have cleverly paired her with smaller and nimbler laser cannons. These guns might not be able to destroy a fleet carrier in six shots, but they can still wear down our more fragile fleet carriers with highly accurate fire." The effective range of those warship-grade laser cannons was incredible. Even if many of the laser cannons incurred varying degrees of damage and misalignments that made it a lot more difficult for them to maintain a concentrated beam at extreme ranges, Ves did not dare to gamble on this matter! However, the planners already formulated a countermeasure. "Those laser cannons are accurate, alright, but can they land their shots on ships that are traveling at relativistic speeds?" Chief Minister Abigail grinned. "If we maneuver around the star system and slingshot our strike force around the brown dwarf star, we can approach the Tower of Babel at relative speeds that make it a lot harder for the enemy battleship to destroy any of our ships. This is the only way we can protect our fleet carriers and combat carriers from getting downed in open space." Relativity screwed up a lot of battles in space. When both sides traveled at wildly different speeds, it became a struggle to calculate where to aim a weapon so that its output struck a ship that would be at that specific coordinate in an indeterminate time in the future! There were so many extreme variables at play that not even the best processors could ensure a single hit. While Ves understood how his strike force could take advantage of this phenomenon to prevent themselves from getting demolished in an instant, there was one enormous downside to this maneuver. "If we do this, any mechs that launch from those carriers will also travel at relativistic speeds. They will essentially launch an extremely fast flyby past the Tower of Babel. Their contact time will be measured in milliseconds!" "That is what we are going for, sir. We do not intend to swing our ships and mechs past the alien battleship at blinding speeds. We only need to build up sufficient speed to preserve our carriers and give our Valkyrie mechs a chance to close in on the Tower of Babel without exposing them in open space for long. Have you noticed that each time a group of mechs launch a battle formation attack, their powerful energy attacks propagate forward at speeds relative to the mechs in question? If our Pentinent Sister and Glory Seeker mechs travel forward at significant fractions of the speed of light, it will be impossible for their targets to evade the incredibly fast death wave attacks!" "That won't be as effective as you wish." Ves shook his head. "The death energy will just sweep through the hull of the Tower of Babel without giving it any time to exert its effects. This means that our mechs can't move too fast if they want to launch an effective death energy battle formation attack." Abigail Evern's expression turned a little more serious. "We already suspected that and have taken this possibility into account. We will need to perform a lot of complex maneuvers in space in order to plan out the right speeds, trajectories and acceleration profiles given all of the constraints we are working with. We are still in the process of calculating our solutions, but we will have it done by the time our strike force returns to the Ramage Repulsor System. Even though Ves was able to process a lot more calculations than before, even he didn't look forward to this cumbersome task! "Well, at least we are in a position to plan all of these complicated maneuvers in advance." Ves remarked. "It is always better to be fully prepared when entering into battle. We probably won't be able to take the Tower of Babel by surprise this time, but the aliens should know little about our performance while we know more about their battleship." There was still enough information asymmetry for the Golden Skull Alliance to exploit. Ves would have been a lot more reluctant to commence this assault if the aliens knew exactly what was coming! They continued to discuss a few more details about the blitz operation. One of the most crucial aspects of the plan was that if they wanted the Valkyrie mechs to do their jobs, the Mars along with support from ranged expert mechs needed to distract the Tower of Babel as much as possible. "We speculate that the Tower of Babel's mobility systems are at least partially intact and in working condition." Abigail explained. "It will become a lot harder for us to complete our mission if the alien battleship will not remain in place. Our high-ranking mechs must do their best to cripple the mobility of the Tower of Babel and ideally knock out as many gun batteries as possible. This will help our Valkyrie mechs get in range and successfully launch their battle formation attacks without getting destroyed or being left behind." Ves looked troubled. "They will have a hard fight on their hands if that is the case. No matter what kind of opposition they will face, they must tackle the situation mostly by themselves." "That is yet another reason why we need to move quickly. The longer we delay, the more the Tower of Babel has restored her combat effectiveness. We already know that the ship can repel or defeat an ace mech when she is in her prime. The addition of a powerful alien protector makes it even more difficult to inflict serious damage." All of this required a lot of planning and forethought. Fortunately, Saint Neville Magrin had already breached the Tower of Babel before, so the Golden Skull Alliance only had to take advantage of this vulnerability to deal material damage to the partially crippled vessel. Still, this was the best the Golden Skull Alliance could come up with on short notice. When Ves became satisfied with what he heard, he ended the call and talked to numerous other leaders and advisors. He had many different questions about the operation, and he wasn't fully reassured by the answers. "We highly advise against sending the Spirit of Bentheim with our elite strike force." General Verle told Ves. "A factory ship might be useful to have around in the aftermath of a successful battle, but she is not that useful in the upcoming engagement. Her value is too great for us to expose her to needless danger. I highly suggest you keep your flagship in our main fleet so that we do not have to worry about protecting her over every other priority." "Fine…" As the plan rapidly came into shape, the expeditionary fleet finally arrived in the neighboring star system! A huge amount of mechs, supplies and personnel needed to be shuffled in hurry in order to get everything in the right place. Thousands of mech technicians and other support personnel were already preparing to pack and move a lot of supplies at a record pace. It would probably take at least an hour to complete this incredibly complicated logistical nightmare. There was too little time to make optimal use of every available space, but time was of the essence. As soon as the expeditionary fleet transitioned back into realspace, the hastily planned organizational frenzy commenced! "Move move move!" "Get those mechs out as quickly as possible!" "There is a shuttle congestion at the Antonio Cross!"