Chapter 6263 Exploding Munitions. As interesting as Venerable Vincent's 'Tiny C' may be, the appearance of a miniature copy of the C-Man did not fundamentally ease the difficulty of getting past the enormous phasefighter screen. It served more of a distraction than anything else. It was not until the Tiny C moved in coordination with the C-Man that it started to produce more results. The two worked together to pincer their targets or make it more difficult for them to slip away. The miniature construct controlled by Vinny was also able to take advantage of the space suppressor mounted on the larger expert mech to quickly tear through the defenses of the same phasefighter. The expert mechs still had to struggle to eliminate and outpace the special phasefighters that were specifically designed to counter high-ranking mechs. Precious minutes went by as the powerful machines no longer held back as much. Everywhere they moved, they constantly came under attack from phasefighters flying in every direction! The resonance shields of the high-tier expert mechs depleted at a worrying rate. The delays generated by the special phasefighters had caused the machines to get stalled a bit longer than General Ark accounted for in most of his plans. However, even as the expert pilots felt as if they were trying to climb up a steep mountain, the nunser fighter pilots experienced their own difficulties. These pilots were better trained than most other phasefighter pilots, but their professionalism was still not up to par. They attacked the expert mechs so many times, yet most of their shots either missed or struck the resonance shields without producing any apparent results. No human or alien was able to remain upbeat after putting so much effort into trying to defeat enemies that were clearly gods rather than mortals. Although a lot of aliens were confused about why the human gods were so small, they were just as tough if not tougher than the much larger native gods! The phase lords and phase whales were at least a lot easier to attack due to their enormous true bodies. The expert mechs of red humanity were no larger than their ordinary counterparts, but were often a lot faster and maneuverable, all the while being able to resist a lot of damage with the help of their resonance shields! The combination of excellent defense, compact size and high mobility resulted in a package that was nearly impossible to damage, even when the native aliens badly outnumbered their adversaries! Their morale dropped the longer the battle dragged on. Even if they were successful in delaying the advance of the hostile expert mechs, that was cold comfort for them when the Lionheart blasted apart dozens of phasefighters with its powerful integrated luminar crystal cannons. The other expert mechs were also becoming more proficient in taking down phasefighter after phasefighter. The Blade Chaser struck hard enough with its twin blades to punch through an azure energy shield and destroy an alien craft with a single swing. The Riot simply charged forward and crashed through any enemy small craft in his way, not caring if he was first able to pierce the enemy fighters with his spear. The C-Man and the Tiny C worked together to punch a route through the swarms of phasefighters that reluctantly tried to utilize their own defenses as makeshift walls. The momentum of the expert mechs constantly rose while the nunsers grew more discouraged. The powerful glows from the expert mechs seemed to press down onto the alien fighter pilots even harder, causing them to be afflicted with greater doubt and apprehension. The alien commanders frantically issued all kinds of orders to their subordinates, but the alien fighter pilots were becoming less coordinated and attentive by the minute! The expert mechs were too strong! They were like gods that came in a smaller package than usual! How could mortal nunsers like themselves ever think about challenging these powerful deities? Even though many of the nunsers had been informed that human expert pilots were hardly the most powerful human champions, the indomitable performance of the advancing Larkinson expert mechs caused the aliens to lose hope of ever achieving a victory. The expert pilots clearly noticed the drop in resistance and pushed forth even harder as a response! "The aliens cannot sustain this intensity of losses. The fighter pilots have become too intimidated by us to press their attack. Let us not give them a reason to redouble their efforts. Push forward and do not look back!" It was not without reason why General Ark Larkinson repeatedly affirmed his decision to proceed with the operation despite encountering one setback after another. The high-tier expert pilot just knew that numbers alone would not be enough to stop his powerful team of expert mechs. The Larkinson expert pilots had fought and lived through many challenges in the past, and even the relatively inexperienced Kolak Glendale was able to weather the storm and keep up with his more powerful peers. Eventually, the expert mechs succeeded in reaching low orbit of the lifeless planet and finally began to descend towards the surface! The gravity of the planet was not high, which was one of the reasons why the native aliens utilized it as a staging ground. Many cargo vessels were safely able to descend from orbit and land on the surface. Now, many of the cargo vessels that had been in the midst of loading or unloading their cargo were frantically trying to lift off and flee to safety. Many of the smaller transports had already made a getaway, but the larger and more lumbering cargo vessels and civilian homeships were unable to do so as they took a lot more time to lift off the surface! "Hahaha! Those ships are sitting ducks! Let's destroy them all!" Venerable Vincent Ricklin suggested now that he and his expert mech were finally able to let loose! General Ark disagreed. "Forget about the smaller vessels, and only take down the larger ships if they are in your way. The native aliens have too many supply ships at their disposal. Destroying fifty or a hundred hulls won't make a dent in their ability to resupply their forces. Our primary objectives remain the same. Focus on destroying the munitions, spare materials and other supplies that the aliens have stashed on this planet. We can directly buy more time with our efforts." "Fine." The enemy phasefighters that were tasked with bringing the expert mechs down were no longer able to fight as unscrupulous as before. A lot of alien installations were in the way. If the phasefighters fired their weapons carelessly, they might end up destroying valuable property or killing the nunsers assigned to man the supply depots and other local bases. The gravity of the planet along with the unavoidable obstacle posed by the terrain severely constrained the movements of the phasefighters and deterred them from pursuing the expert mechs too aggressively. The human expert pilots readily took advantage of this shift and attacked the various base installations with even greater confidence than before. Many large-scale transphasic energy shields and defensive turrets came online, but none of them could stop the expert mechs for long. The powerful machines paired up and utilized their combined efforts to breach one transphasic energy shield after another. The Lionheart was readily able to bombard the exposed depots with its powerful integrated luminar crystal cannons. While the expert command mech's ranged arsenal was not as powerful or numerous as the ARCEUS System of the Mars, the luminar crystal armaments still packed enough of a punch to demolish the storage containers and carve through many different base facilities. Meanwhile, the expert melee mechs such as the Riot did not immediately make use of their melee armaments to destroy the depots. The efficiency of doing so was too low. The Riot, the C-Man, the Blade Chaser and the Greenaxe all pulled out the transphasic grenades that had been added to their loadouts beforehand and tossed them at various different locations designated by the Lionheart. The expert command mech's sophisticated processors had already conducted detailed scans of the up-to-date situation on the surface of Duqaste Xi. Combined with information gathered by intelligence units, the Lionheart was able to formulate an updated attack plan that should theoretically enable the mechs to inflict the greatest damage with the least amount of effort. The expert mechs proceeded to put that to the test by tossing their supplied transphasic grenades at the designated coordinates. Enormous explosions soon erupted after the transphasic grenades did their jobs! While the grenades were not capable of destroying such large installations by themselves, they were very much able to explode in the midst of lots of powerful munitions and cause the warheads and other volatile weapons to explode, causing powerful chain reactions that eventually engulfed most of the depots! "Wooohooo!" "Now that is what I'm talking about!" "The phasefighters don't dare to fire their weapons as frequently at our expert mechs than before. They're too afraid of hitting their own stuff!" "How many transphasic missiles and bombs did the Ghirard Fleet ship over? We need to wipe out all of them! The more they have left, the more our mechs and defensive fortifications will suffer. Tell us where we can find more!" The Lionheart designated additional depots that were located further away. Several expert mechs split away in order to take care of these outlying bases while their transphasic grenades lasted. "I think the aliens are about to learn one of the most important reasons why we don't make use of guided munitions as much anymore." Venerable Kolak Glendale said as his Greenaxe utilized its eponymous weapon to shatter a transphasic energy shield before skillfully tossing a transphasic grenade at a collection of anti-ship missiles. The explosions that ensued from this grenade toss were especially violent and satisfying! General Ark did not look too surprised. "This is why I insisted on launching an attack at this time. The Ghirard Fleet arrogantly assumed that they would not need this staging point for a long time. The nunsers only put up basic defenses and made sure their supplies could easily be retrieved once their leader ordered an all-out assault. I can already see from the state of this planetary site that the native aliens were getting close to doing so. We came just in time." Explosions continued to pepper the surface of the airless and lifeless planet. However, their frequency dropped pretty quickly once the expert mechs ran out of transphasic grenades. None of the machines possessed any pocket spaces that they could use as a convenient stash for extra explosives. Now that they had expended their most easy means of inflicting mass destruction, many expert mechs had to get close and resort to more physical means to wreck all of the alien goods! Fortunately, the human raiders had already destroyed the majority of fuel tanks and explosive munitions, so that allowed their expert mechs to attack the various goods and machines that were not as prone to blowing up when heavily damaged. Energy cells got split into pieces. Landbound artillery cannons got cut in half. Spare transphasic energy shields got stomped beneath the feet of numerous expert mechs. The expert mechs mostly focused on wrecking the more expensive pieces of the hardware. It would be a lot more painful for the nunsers to replace these lost goods than anything ordinary! In the meantime, the native aliens reluctantly began to adjust their tactics in an effort to stop the escalating raid. The phasefighters attacked the expert mechs on the same height as opposed from top to bottom. They also organized themselves a little better and formed up into wings that could combine their efforts without getting in each other's way. However, the mass of warships that were still lingering in high orbit for most part did not dare to open fire on the expert mechs! The intruding machines may have destroyed a lot of supplies already, but warship cannon fire from orbit would just make everything worse! Many goods could still be salvaged or secured so long as the human assault did not last too long. "That's enough!" General Ark urgently said. "We have overstayed our welcome. We need to pull and retreat!" "Aww! There's so much more for us to destroy! Can you wait a minute?" "We don't have a minute! I am already having a bad feeling about this planet. We need to leave!"