In just a single brief engagement, the 76th Dominators Warfleet accomplished a feat that resembled the Larkinson Clan's victory at Screed Tanner VI-F. Of course, the numbers and circumstances were substantially different, but the parallels were pretty clear to Ves. At Screed Tanner, the Premier Fleet sortied into battle with far less numbers than the enemy. However, the Larkinsons managed to defeat several times their own number and kill half of the alien defenders by relying on the superior arms of a superdimensional ace mech and the amazing synergy between the Mienrva Mark II and the first-class multipurpose mechs under her command. In other words, the Larkinsons relied on the strength of their champions to turn a severely disadvantaged lineup into an unbeatable force! The Dominators belonging to the Cybernetic Empire did not take this approach at all, mostly because they did not have any high-ranking mech pilots to spare. Most of the existing expert pilots and ace pilots who found themselves trapped in Bridgehead One stayed loyal to their original states and organizations. Very few had been persuaded to pledge their loyalties to the Cybernetic Empire. This was detrimental to the nascent superpower as its long-term isolation had caused its homegrown mech pilots to experience far too little life pressure. Short of staging cannibalistic and extremely wasteful death matches, the Cybers had no way of pushing the willpower of its soldiers to the extreme. The Polymath therefore decided to seek her salvation in technology rather than people. If the latter proved unreliable, then the former might provide her with a solution. Her hard work paid off. With 53 years at her disposal, she was able to invent quite a few counters to the most common combat solutions employed by the native aliens. In this short-lasting encounter, the Dominators won against sizable force of native alien fleets led by over dozen phase lords. Even if none of them were particularly powerful or noteworthy, they were still difficult if not impossible to defeat by a fleet of mechs and warships that lacked its own champions. Yet the Cybers managed to do it. For the first time since the start of the Red War, the mundane cannons and missile launchers of dozens of warships effectively managed to easily dismantle enemy hulls and repel all of the phase lords! In fact, the enemy powerhouses might have been able to grit their teeth and forcibly get close enough to the Cyber warships to physically tear them apart, but the high-and-mighty native gods proved completely unwilling to bear this hardship. When faced with a completely new and different kind of human force, the native aliens grew fearful of what other surprises the Dominators had in store. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢 Combined with the large amount of pain and injury inflicted by the poisonous projectiles launched by the Cyber warships, the alien phase lords ultimately decided to cut their losses and withdraw! This was the most prudent decision they could have made. Ves and most people had already guessed that the Dominators likely held a much more deadly arsenal in reserve. It was impossible for the Polymath and her Cybers to spend half a century on developing just a handful of special munitions! In this way, the cowardice shown by the enemy phase lords happened to save them from even worse fates. The only real damage they suffered was the loss of face. As for the phasefighters and warships that got shot down by the humans? Those casualties meant little to the native gods who had access to almost an entire dwarf galaxy's worth of manpower and resources! The native aliens could easily replenish those losses given how much territory they still held. The phase lords were much more difficult to replace as it took a long time for new ones to emerge and even longer for them to grow in power. "Damn cowards." Ves cursed. "They already thought about retreating as soon as they experienced actual pain for the first time in many years. The Dominators could have shown off much better toys if these pathetic phase lords possessed an actual spine and possessed courage comparable to that of a valiant expert pilot." "That is not who they are." Gloriana mentioned. "Phase lords and especially those of the erudite persuasion are more often than not members of the politician, statesman and patriarch class of their respective societies. Even if they come from a military hierarchy, their actual combat experience is limited. Martial phase lords are better in this regard, but true warriors such as the Arena Lord of Ya'gwasa are the exception rather than the rule." This was the problem of making champions out of the top echelon of society rather than the bottom. The latter all experienced an uncountable amount of hardships before they managed to struggle their way to martial supremacy. High-ranking mech pilots understood the value of force and knew how to maximize every part of their strength. The former had lucked into their power due to the randomness of their birth. Once they were lucky enough to survive the most dangerous transformation event at the start, the alien phase lords no longer became susceptible to mortal weaknesses and constraints. "Be that as it may, leaders still have to hold themselves to a higher standard." Ves said with a frown. "It is really unacceptable for them to retreat at such an early stage. At least the Protector of Karnak and the Endless Stomach mustered up their courage and sought to challenge the first full superdimensional ace mech they had encountered on the battlefield. The two greater phase lords saw one of their own getting butchered by a superdimensional blade, but that did not stop them from doing their duty." "You cannot compare them to the greater phase lords that fought against the Dominators, Ves. The Protector of Karnak is a jureg who is a die-hard loyalist of the Red Cabal. He has also received an abundant amount of rewards for his loyal service, from superior phasewater organs to a full superdimensional armor that covers his entire exoskeleton. In contrast, both the lesser and greater phase lords that fought against the Dominators were clearly inferior." That was a fair point. The Dominators clearly did their research and picked an opponent that was unlikely to produce too many complications. It was clear that new weapons shown today were very effective against the phase lords like the ones that showed up in past battles. However, the Red War was evolving and so were its participants. Red humanity had slowly begun to roll out superdimensional mechs, while the native aliens did likewise by cladding their own phase lords in increasingly better and more comprehensive superdimensional armor. Without an abundant supply of superdimensional matter of their own, the Cybernetic Empire needed to scramble to develop effective counters against superdimensional weapons and armaments. Even so, that did not take away the stellar performance of the special munitions on display. Both Ves and Gloriana rewound the footage and observed the 'Dynapulse Disruptor Missile' and the 'Polybite Phase Corrupter Round' in action. Since the Cybers were responsible for broadcasting the live feeds, they helpfully provided annotations that contained a large amount of descriptions and technical data. While the information was not even close enough for people to produce their own versions of the two munition types, it still provided them with plenty of details to determine whether they were good fits for their own armed forces. "What do you think, Gloriana?" "This live feed is clearly a sales pitch." Gloriana responded. "It does not seem like it on the surface, but it is abundantly clear to those in power that the Cybernetic Empress is trying to sell them her solutions. If my suspicions are correct, the Cybernetic Empire will not license out its Dynapulse and Polybite. It is much more profitable and advantageous for the Cybers to produce their special munitions in-house and sell them to all of the major powers at a high profit margin." "That… sounds incredibly plausible. The Polymath can even expand on this grift. She can sell outdated versions of the Dynapulse and Polybite for slightly more competitive prices, but jack up the costs for the more modern and effective versions. This solves several problems at once. First, every human power will become dependent on the continued existence of the Cybernetic Empire. No one will dare to attack it openly because their supply of anti-phase lord munitions might get cut off as a response. Second, the Cybernetic Empire can quickly solve its resource deficit by accepting payment in the form of raw materials." This scheme possessed clear colonial overtones. The Cybernetic Empire played the role of an old and established industrial power while the other states that held vast territories had little choice but to mine and ship a large proportion of their resources to Bridgehead One instead of using them to fuel their own factories. If this pattern persisted long enough, then the Cybernetic Empire would eventually grow powerful enough to reduce all of the other human powers to its vassals! It did not matter whether they pledged their allegiance to the Cybernetic Empress or not. The de facto reality was that the other states and organizations remained heavily dependent on superior Cyber tech and manufactured goods. How typical. Ves always suspected that the Polymath was up to no good. He felt relieved now that he understood the scheme that she had concocted. It was not really underhanded when the Cybernetic Empire published so much information in the open. This was clearly an open conspiracy where the Polymath invited everyone to play her game because there was no better option availble. "The Cybernetic Empire's monopoly on Dynapulses and Polybites will not last forever." Gloriana told her husband. "Once these munitions fall into other people's hands, there will be plenty of researchers and developers looking to reverse engineer them and develop their own versions of the same tech." "Hm, you're right Gloriana, but the Cybernetic Empire still enjoys a massive head start in this field. It will take at least a year or longer for others to be able to come out with their own versions. By that time, the Cybernetic Empire has already made a killing from its monopoly. The differences in quality and performance will also remain substantial for a time." "The rest of us can solve these challenges faster if we put a Star Designer or better yet multiple Star Designers in charge of these operations." His wife asserted. Ves did not agree with her, though. "That may be true, but it will never happen. We are talking about the works of a highly respected Star Designer. I am quite sure that people of this status are personal friends and maybe even colleagues with each other. They will try to avoid stepping on each other's toes because they might need to ask others to collaborate with them in the future." There were very few Star Designers in existence, and each of them had risen up to become the ultimate masters in their specialization. The Polymath happened to be a lot more special than others because she did not possess a particularly profound specialization. Yet what she lacked in specialization, she made up for it in generalization. Her knowledge base was so broad that she was practically the most comprehensive repository of knowledge in the Red Ocean. The Polymath therefore played a vital role in the post-Great Severing society of red humanity because she could adequately substitute for the many specialized Star Designers left behind in the Milky Way! It was for this reason and more that the Star Designers were inclined to treat the Polymath leniently despite her acts of treason, rebellion and subversion. Ves inwardly sighed. He needed to hurry up and become a Star Designer as well! So long as he became a True God in his current profession, everyone else would be willing to overlook his many transgressions. People would do everything in their power to please him in order to benefit from his creations!