The enemy phase lord finally made an appearance! Of all of the possible enemy combatants that the rapid strike force could face, the mysterious entity that most certainly enjoyed a high status on the enemy battleship represented a wildcard. Humanity had yet to gain a good understanding of the abilities and combat power of these indigenous 'gods'. They rarely displayed their prowess on the battlefield, and if they did, they mostly fought against the well-prepared and overpowering units of the Big Two! From what Ves and other people could tell from the archival footage that the MTA had seen fit to release, many of these alien powerhouses mastered specific and unusual tricks. Just like mechs, a lot of phase lords spent their time, effort and resources to excel in one specific application of phasewater manipulation rather than spread themselves thin and become mediocre in the end. After studying the prior footage of the nunser phase lord in action, the Golden Skull Alliance learned that the alien that was rapidly advancing towards the Antonio Cross excelled in generating area of effect attacks. In addition to that, the phase lord also appeared to be extremely tough as he was able to generate powerful spatial barriers around his body. If the phase lord was tough enough to repel the attacks from an ace mechs, then the expert mechs of the Larkinson Clan had little chance to inflict real damage onto his actual body! This presented numerous difficulties to the rapid strike force. The phase lord had made an excellent tactical choice by opting to chase after the distant expert mechs. The aliens had yet to make any significant progress in taking down their latest human adversaries and urgently needed to produce any win in order to keep up their morale. "This bastard is trying to kill off the small fry first!" Ves called. If the phase lord hadn't been able to overcome the defenses of the Unrelenting in a short amount of time, he wouldn't have been able to overrun the Mars either. This was why he was most likely looking forward to engulfing the human expert mechs and accompanying fleet carrier with his devastating shockwaves! "We can't allow the phase lord to get close to the Antonio Cross! Our expert mechs must block him from producing spacequakes that can shatter the hull of our fleet carrier!" "Should we recall the Mars?!" "No. We still need Patriarch Reginald to pester and entangle the enemy battleship. Tell him to be ready to provide us with remote support if requested. Now that the phase lord is away, the Tower of Babel has become vulnerable at closer ranges. This is the perfect opportunity for the Mars to get close!" That was a good point! As soon as Reginald figured out that the ship's most powerful individual protector had left his original post, the ace pilot became a lot more excited and no longer felt as constrained as before! "You ship is mine now, hahahaha!" The Mars no longer circled around the Tower of Babel at medium range but flew closer with the certainty that the enemy vessel's ungainly gun batteries could not do anything to repel the incoming threat! When the distance between the ace mech and the half-ruined battleship shrunk, it became a lot easier for the Mars to circle around and outflank the vessel. No matter how fast the Tower of Babel's maneuvering thrusters tried to spin around her hull, there was no way to prevent the Mars from targeting the ruined and vulnerable front of half of the ship. Already, large parts of the abandoned sections of the hull had already caught fire, but when the Mars struck these damaged sections with the resonance-empowered positron beams of the ARCEUS System, a lot of weakened and vulnerable structural parts broke down at a rapid pace! Broken and molten debris constantly burst out from the damaged hull as the Reginald and the Mars eagerly engaged in destruction at a wide scale! However, before the Mars could rampage even further, the alien vessel made a desperate move. "The enemy battleship has activated her main thrusters! Her maneuvering thrusters are stabilizing her orientation. She… the enemy vessel has just set a course that leads straight back to the brown dwarf star!" "What?!" The condition of the alien battleship was not great to say the least. Even if Ves ignored the ruined and derelict front half of the hull, the rear half was not in a good condition either. There were clear cracks, deformations and other marks of damage. Not only that, her segmented energy shield coverage had mostly become a lot less effective. This was crucial because those very same transphasic energy shields were responsible for protecting the hull against the dangerous environmental effects of entering the outer atmosphere of the brown dwarf star! Ves could understand the decision made by the aliens. Given that the Mars was making better progress than ever in targeting the weak points of their battleship, it was a lot better to take their chances with the brown dwarf star. At least the damage inflicted by the failed star was relatively gentle and uniform. "Damnit, the ship wasn't supposed to retreat to this safe harbor so early!" Ves cursed. "The Penitent Sisters and the Glory Seekers need to hurry up and arrive sooner. Their Valkyrie mechs can't approach the Tower of Babel anymore of the ship has moved too close to the brown dwarf star!" The Mars might be powerful and robust enough to endure the pressures of the failed star at close range, but Ves knew quite well that most regular mechs simply weren't designed to operate within gas giants, especially one that was bigger than usual. "Our second element has received our message and has begun to accelerate in order to launch the battle formation attack in time. According to our calculations, it is not too late as the enemy battleship needs to traverse a considerable distance before she can take shelter in the brown dwarf star again." Speed was of the essence. It would be even better if the expert mech contingent could lend a hand as well, but they needed to address the more immediate threat first! By now, the expert mechs had all reorganized themselves to prepare for their upcoming fight against the powerful alien menace. Ves deeply hoped that this battle would not turn into a repeat of the Golden Skull Alliance's past encounter against Saint Yila Mayorka and the Olympus Mons. Back then, the disparity in absolute power was so great that no expert mech stood a chance of defeating a single, isolated ace mech! Everyone knew that it wouldn't be easy to defeat the enemy phase lord. Ves personally thought that their side might have to resort to special measures in order to gain an edge. What made the phase lord exceptionally difficult to deal with was his penchant for producing large shockwaves in space. This directly made it a lot more troublesome for the melee expert mechs to gang up on the phase lord. After a brief argument, the expert pilots eventually decided that it was best to confront the phase lord up close with two melee expert mechs at a time. The rest had to maintain their distance and do their best to contribute to the fight by firing their spare rifles at the phase lord. The most durable melee expert mechs stepped up first. "Venerable Linda Cross. Venerable Rosa Orfan." Ves transmitted to the two expert pilots who shouldered the greatest burden. "We are not asking much from you. Just hold on as long as possible while doing your best to drag the phase lord's heels. We will constantly monitor the condition of your expert mechs and warn you to pull back before it is too late. It is crucially important that you do not linger for too long." "Hey, my Riot is not a baby! Stop treating it like one. No stinking alien will get through my defenses." "We will see." The phase lord advanced quite quickly. If there was one thing the indigenous aliens were good at, it was exploiting the potential of phasewater. Their efficiency and mastery over the use of this crucial exotic was still leagues ahead of any human applications! As such, the expert pilots did not have too much time to prepare before the enemy powerhouse finally came close enough to initiate a confrontation! The first ones to attack were the ranged expert mechs. The Amaranto struck first by launching a resonance-empowered laser beam from her Instrument of Doom. Just as expected, the probing attack struck a powerful spatial shield and failed to make the phase lord flinch. The other ranged expert mechs attacked shortly afterwards as their expert pilots grew more confident in their ability to hit a small but fast-moving target. The Minerva's Irvan luminar crystal rifle induced much less strain on the phase lord's powerful spatial barrier. The Promethea's Ignitron luminar crystal rifle was just as ineffective with its initial shots. Venerable Isobel Kotin's true resonance was only capable of burning solid matter. Energy shields weren't substantial enough for her flames to catch on, so her expert mech was not able to leverage its specialty in the slightest. It wasn't until Venerable Isobel applied a special technique based on the Alfari Corps Detonation Code that the Promethea finally started to discomfort the phase lord a bit more! Each energy beam that struck the phase lord's spatial barrier produced a powerful localized explosion! Though the damage of these explosive strikes still didn't come close enough to matching the firepower of an ace mech, they always produced bright, blinding blasts that briefly impaired the vision of the phase lord. Though the powerful alien champion most certainly possessed other means of observation, it was still useful to impair his eyes! "Keep it up, Isobel! Try to time your attacks so that you can deprive the phase lord of his sight during a crucial move or attack!" "Understood, sir." Whether this would help depended on how well the phase lord was able to sense his surroundings with other senses. "He's coming!" As the phase lord was about to collide against the expert mechs that had been positioned forward, the Amphis Mark II braced its tower shield and prepared to meet an incoming charge. The expert mech glowed as Venerable Linda Cross tried to leverage her true resonance to increase the mass of her expert medium space knight and increase its resistance towards heavy blows. "Careful!" A powerful spatial shockwave expanded from the former coordinates of the Amphis Mark II as the defensive machine had become the first to endure the brunt of the phase lord's power! Venerable Linda did not dare to meet the charging phase lord head-on, and had instead opted to angle her tower shield at the last moment. While this decreased the blocking efficiency of the Amphis Mark II, it prevented the space knight from getting crumpled by the overwhelming momentum of the enemy powerhouse! As it was, the Amphis Mark II endured a heavy blow that deformed its tower shield and damaged the rest of its frame before causing it to bounce away while remaining reasonably intact. The phase lord on the other hand not only lost a lot of forward momentum, but his also deflected off the angled tower shield so that his trajectory no longer led straight to the Antonio Cross. Instead, the phase lord's abrupt course change caused the alien to soar right in the direction of the Riot, which had been waiting to launch a piercing blow with his spear! "Come on, old pal." Venerable Rosa Orfan encouraged her expert mech. "Let's show this nunser how we party!" Though the phase lord attempted to launch an attack against the riot, numerous ranged attacks including the blinding explosion produced by the Promethea interrupted his rhythm. This gave the Riot enough room to avoid getting struck by the phase lord's body while thrusting his spear forward to launch a piercing resonance-empowered strike! "PIERCE!" The glowing speartip struck the same spatial barrier that had blocked the previous attacks and proceeded no further. The Riot's attack had been foiled! "Ahhh! Damnit! What does it take to peel off your shell?!"