One of the lessons that Ves learned about human society was that people who obtained a widely acknowledged nickname were special. There was an entire story around Master Charise Denton that led her to be called the Viper. It was not necessary for Ves to explain the female Master's colorful history, though. He merely wanted to make it clear that her work was absolutely poisonous to his own expert pilots! "In truth, the initial strike from the Skorpion Tail is just the first stage of an attack. What truly makes it deadly is that it can rapidly inject a concentrated stream of corrosive fluids that can quickly spread and eat through strong and tough metal alloys. If not for the fact that the Skorpion Tail itself is made out of a specific material that can resist the corrosive package, then it would have melted away entirely!" In order to make the power of this characteristic 'venom' clear to everyone, Ves ran a quick simulated battle where the Skorpion Kommando poked its deadly tail through the torsos of various other expert mechs. No matter whether it struck the Dark Zephyr, the C-Man or even the Shield of Samar, the Skorpion Tail never missed the mark and never got hindered by any solid obstacles! A flash of sickly green light shone as the stinger rapidly injected a scary quantity of corrosive fluid in the opening. Much of this dangerous liquid substance spread out in the interior of the targeted mech. A huge chunk of the internals of the victimized expert mech literally melted in a matter of seconds! So many crucial internal components became inoperable at once that the damaged machines either locked up for a time or shut down right away! Either way, the paralysis granted the Skorpion Kommando more than enough time to launch additional attacks that guaranteed its opponent's demise! "This is an expert mech that is made to overpower other expert mechs." Ves emphasized. "The Viper specializes in Hyper Corrosive Substances, which means that she is very good at concocting new formulas that can melt powerful mechs in many powerful ways. There are even rumors that she has taken to integrating phasewater in her latest formulas, but we aren't too sure about that. Even without the ridiculous boost provided by phasewater, the venom is already amply powerful enough to rot the insides of your expert mech no matter the situation!" Ves admired Master Mech Designers once again. There were plenty of them that dedicated their lives to furthering new and unusual technologies in an attempt to give mechs new ways to defeat their opponents. Equipping mechs with corrosive substances was not a popular method. The fluids were extremely dangerous to handle. Any accidents could easily inflict a lot of harm on friendlies! The more effective corrosive fluids were also expensive to produce. It was a lot more economical to resort to conventional weapon systems to defeat opponents. Ordinary mech designers would have never wasted their time on turning this attack method into a serious mech weapon system. Only someone as daring and eccentric as Master Denton would have been able to persist for so long! While she was actually one of the younger Masters of the Gauge Dynasty, she had succeeded in proving her vision and made her preferred attack method a bit more popular within the Sundered Phalanx. Being able to co-design a high-tier expert mech like the Skorpion Kommando was a powerful validation of her work and progress! As Ves continued to explain the other powerful parameters of this tailed expert space knight, the expressions of all of the Larkinson expert pilots did not look good. Venerable Jannzi looked disturbed most of all. Unlike her noble Shield of Samar, the Skorpion Kommando was clearly a space knight that was not altruistic. It was a selfish, egoistic expert mech that played to the aggressive tendencies of its expert pilot. The user of the Skorpion Kommando clearly did not pay a lot of respect towards the ideals of knighthood! "I have a question, Ves. Can my Shield of Samar block the attacks from the Skorpion Kommando?" "It can… for a time." Ves reluctantly answered. "There are many different variables at play, so I cannot give any solid answers. In my judgment, the Skorpion Kommando shouldn't be able to penetrate through the successive defensive layers of your expert mech so quickly. There are too many of them and each of them are strong. As long as you and your battle partners are fully prepared, you can probably withstand its attacks for a time. You should even be able to block a direct strike or two from the Skorpion Tail." Venerable Jannzi lightened up after she heard this judgment. "That is great to know." "I wouldn't celebrate just yet. The Skorpion Tail can strike multiple times. It can just chip away at your defenses until it finally breaches the interior of your Shield of Samar. While a heavy knight mech is able to take a lot more punishment than other machines, the injection of corrosive fluids will definitely weaken your machine by a significant margin, though it probably won't be able to finish the job entirely due to the high redundancy and compartmentalization factors." There were just too many internal components and systems inside a big machine like the Shield of Samar. Its internal architecture was basically armored from top to bottom in order to make it as resilient and long-lasting as possible. The Skorpion Kommando truly had to put in a lot of effort to take down the Shield of Samar! "I don't think the Skorpion Kommando will bother with your Shield of Samar, Jannzi." Venerable Joshua remarked. "It is mobile enough to outrun or circle around your expert mech. It can inflict a lot more damage if it stays away from an annoying defensive machine like yours. The only benefit to your presence is that you can deter the Skorpion Kommando from wasting its time on attacking a critical starship like the Spirit of Bentheim by parking your fat mech in the vicinity." This was the most logical course of action that the expert pilot could make, but Venerable Jannzi developed a strange intensity in her eyes as she looked at the mockup of the Skorpion Kommando. "I have a feeling that the Skorpion Kommando won't avoid me. This mech is designed to break the unbreakable and torment any heavily-armored mech. The enemy expert pilot will probably see my Shield of Samar as a challenge to be defeated. Taking out a key defensive mech such as mine will also make the rest of our fleet more vulnerable, so there is a good excuse to attack the Shield of Samar instead of another mech." There was no way the Shield of Samar posed a threat to the Skorpion Kommando. The former was not only controlled by a younger and weaker expert pilot, but was also a lot more deficient in terms of offensive power. Even if the Shield of Samar was backed up by an offensive mech such as the Amaranto, the Skorpion Kommando would still be able to handle the situation by virtue of its high defensive properties! Venerable Stark did not know if her Amaranto was up to the task even after it had been upgraded recently. "Ideally, we should take down the Skorpion Kommando from a distance before it can get close enough to threaten any of our expert mechs, but I'm not certain that this is doable." Ves nodded in agreement. "It is built to withstand a lot of punishment during the time it takes to approach its target. It is similar to the Dark Zephyr in this way, but instead of relying on evasion, it relies on pure hard defenses to weather the storm. I am afraid that the only way to stop this expert mech from rampaging through our lines is to block it with an melee expert mech that is capable of keeping up with it at close range." That put a lot of pressure on the gathered expert pilots. None of them felt confident that they were able to lock the Skorpion Kommando in place without getting torn apart! "The last time we fought against a high-tier expert mech, Patriarch Reginald Cross and the Bolvos Rage successfully blocked Venerable Orthox De Massie and the Gatecrasher." Venerable Tusa stated. "This time, Reginald is not available for this job anymore. Someone else needs to step up…" "We shouldn't be alone in this." Venerable Orfan complained. "Aren't we trying to help the Hexers out this time? Why don't they take care of this problem? They should definitely have a few high-tier expert pilots on hand." Ves sighed. "They do, but it is difficult to assign them to this operation. We are still in talks with the Hexers in charge. They will probably send at least one or two high-tier expert pilots in order to make Operation Saturday Market viable, but don't forget that the Sundered Phalanx have multiple of them at their disposal as well. It is better to assume that we will have to fight at least one of these powerful machines. That way, we'll come in prepared." A heavy atmosphere descended upon the Larkinson expert pilots. Fighting against a difficult opponent like the Skorpion Kommando was already bad enough. At least it had a relatively simple design concept. The other enemy high-expert mechs were substantially trickier! "Let me try to degrade the Skorpion Kommando's defenses if it is necessary." Venerable Isobel Kotin spoke up. "Are you sure, Isobel?" Commander Casella frowned. "Your fire attacks work well against ordinary enemies, but a high-tier expert pilot is easily capable of suppressing them through sheer force of will. You are much more effective in burning down weaker expert mechs." "That's not entirely true anymore. I have learned a few new tricks as of late." Isobel smiled as she threw a grateful look towards Ves. "My ability to deliver instant and explosive damage has improved a lot recently. I will test it out against the simulated version of Skorpion Kommando and see how well my detonated strikes can wear down its defenses." The discussion continued. Ves proceeded to introduce more tricky expert mechs and also mentioned the key Master Mech Designers responsible for making them so good. The Larkinson expert pilots all developed a deep and profound appreciation of the enemies that they would likely face. None of the stronger champions were easy to deal with. Each of them were veterans of the Komodo War and had fought against their fair share of Hexer expert mechs throughout the years. When Ves repeatedly mentioned the possibility that these mechs might have incorporated phasewater technology, then their threat against the Larkinson Clan's own champions was very real! Ves gave his audience a bit of good news. "If there is one upside to the Gauge Dynasty's implementation of transphasic mech systems, it is that they are quite frugal and sparing in their usage of phasewater. They are nowhere near as exaggerated as the Abasis Armor of the Mars or the TESMAS of the C-Man. You have to understand that there are a lot of parties who want a lot of phasewater in the Gauge Dynasty. It is extremely costly to spend them on powering up a handful of expert mechs, so the transphasic mech systems developed for them are slimmed down to achieve maximum efficiency. They're not as wasteful but overpowering like the ones that we have utilized." The Larkinson Clan was much smaller and simpler. It didn't have that many applications of phasewater to begin with, so Ves could easily allocate tens of kilograms of phasewater to upgrade the few crucial expert mechs that were crucial to the survival of the Larkinsons. Ves did not look down on the enemy expert mechs, though. The Sundered Phalanx received a huge amount of support from many different sectors. Their components were more specialized, optimized and powerful in a few ways. Whatever shortcomings they had, they surely made it up in other areas. The reputation of the Gauge Dynasty's military was not built on falsehoods.