The siege had barely begun. Over 50,000 mechs opened fire at the massive asteroid base that they enveloped from six different sides, but any hope of relying on quantity to wear down its defense was not realistic! Heavier firepower was needed to punch through the strong transphasic energy shielding that was rated to protect the Palace of Shame against powerful warship attacks. The first to appear among the seven ace mechs of the temporary coalition was the Mars! Patriarch Reginald Cross had always been spoiling for a fight and his impatience showed in how quickly he obeyed the command to make an appearance! Launching from the Hemmington Cross with an abundance of fighting spirit, the impressive and indomitable Mars finally revealed itself to both the Golden Skull Alliance and all of the other pioneering groups! "So that is the Mars? It looks even more impressive than in the battle footage recorded in the Pima Prime System." "What an extravagant ace mech. Patriarch Reginald Cross was merely a high-tier expert pilot at the time the Mars was initially made, but already the machine featured a lot of top-end components that were mainly suitable for ace mechs. The Cross Clan bet a huge amount of money, effort and resources that this mech would help him undergo his second apotheosis, and they happened to be lucky enough to hit the jackpot!" "That is not an indicator of luck. That is an indicator of foresight. The Cross Clan along with those Larkinson brats knew exactly what they were doing. The fact that a team that consists entirely of underqualified mech designers managed to produce a masterwork of all things is a strong reflection of their talent and potential." "Talent and potential alone cannot explain this unreasonable result! The quality and the performance of the Mars far exceeds what they should be able to design at their respective levels. There has to be an outside factor that provided them with secret help." "No. The Mars is completely reflective of the work of Master Benedict Cortez and his Larkinson helpers. Don't underestimate their capabilities. Look at how many masterworks the Golden Skull Alliance is able to field and imagine how many more they will be able to harness in the future. The Cross Clan and the Larkinson Clan will exceed all of our mech design efforts in a century or two. Their starting points may be lower, but their upper limits are much higher." Many different people studied or admired the Mars. Not only was it one of the rare masterworks among ace mechs, it had already exposed much of its prodigious might during the Battle of Pima Prime! As such, the Mars was the one ace mech that everyone in the temporary coalition was familiar with. Its proven combat prowess and powerful ranged damage output provided everyone a lot of reassurance. They knew that the Mars had the range and the punch necessary to stop many powerful threats! "Mars!" "So cool!" "That's mama's work!" Aurelia, Andraste and Marvaine all became excited when they saw the mech that their parents had helped to make. Though they had witnessed much more powerful mechs in action dramas and recorded footage, the powerful first-class mechs weren't as tangible or as real as an ace mech that was right next door! Though none of the children knew exactly how much their parents contributed to the design of the Mars, that did not stop them from imagining that their mother and their father played a pivotal role in its creation! Both Ves and Gloriana smiled with pride as they heard their kids express their childish admiration. Gloriana was practically beaming with pride while the smile on Ves' face was a little more bittersweet. "Is the Mars the strongest mech on our side, mama?" Andraste asked as she hugged Lucky against her suited body. Though Gloriana's first impulse was to boast shamelessly in front of her adoring offspring, her professionalism did not allow her to do so. She possessed enough professionalism and integrity to recognize that there were ace mechs that exceed the Mars in many aspects. "All ace mechs are strong, honey. They all have their own strengths and weaknesses. It is not so simple to rank them from strongest to weakest. All I can say is that the Mars is definitely one of the strongest ace mechs among the seven that will appear on the battlefield. It will not make our Golden Skull Alliance embarrassed." The Mars glowed with aggression while its Saint Kingdom already warped the space around it, making it so that many nearby Crossers developed the urge to follow Patriarch Reginald into hell! However, the Mars did not steal the show for long as a second ace mech appeared soon afterwards! A larger and even more massive mech surged from the center of the Santana Group's fleet. At first, the new ace mech vaguely looked like a heavier and larger version of the Mars. However, it soon became clear that the blue-and-black coated machine was not a medium hybrid mech, but a heavy artillery mech! Ordinary mechs of this type did not possess flight capabilities because the addition of a heavy flight system would detract from its primary purpose. This was not the case at the ace mech level. The heavy and imposing Thunderer Mark II surrounded by a dark blue corona might not be as fast and nimble as the Mars, but it was still able to maneuver around in space with the help of its advanced transphasic flight system! Despite the prodigious power of this flight system, the reason why the Thunderer Mark II did not possess a lot of mobility was because of its large mech frame, its incredibly thick armor layout and its generous number of heavy cannons. "Wow. It's so big." Marvaine admired with wide eyes. "That's right, my son. While the Mars is great at damaging enemies from a distance, the Thunderer Mark II is even better at this job." Ves explained. "Huh? Why is that, papa?" "It has to do with their designs. Look at the Mars. It is smaller but faster, which means it can easily run away when there is trouble. It is a humanoid design, which means it has arms that can be used to hold a shotgun, an axe or a heavy saber. This makes the Mars good at dueling other ace mechs up close. The Thunderer Mark II doesn't have any of that. It has given up all of its chances to become good at mech duels so that it can function as the ultimate ranged powerhouse of the Santana Group. It is less of a mech and more of a warship cannon that just happens to move." Though that was a gross oversimplification of the Thunderer Mark II, the description was enough to give the children a quick idea of what it was about. Their parents knew a lot more about the ace heavy artillery mech. The Thunderer Mark II was a kinetic monster that perfectly complemented the strength of its ace pilot. Jelmer Osenring was far from an ordinary employee of the Santana Group. When he was young, he already stood out as an absolute talent. As soon as it became known that his genetic aptitude reached as high as A-, countless groups tried to absorb the young boy into their ranks! Lured by the highest package of remuneration and benefits, their parents eventually settled with a subsidiary of the powerful Santana Group. This completely changed young Jelmer's trajectory and put him into a small but privileged class of young elites whose talents were not any worse than his own! The entire Santana Group poured a lot of effort into raising these high potential mech pilots. Everyone received personalized training along with plenty of augmentations and other forms of support. Though most of the cohort ultimately failed to realize their potential for one reason or another, the heavy artillery specialist was one of the few who managed to meet all of the expectations set by his superiors! Not only did he advance to the rank of expert pilot with ease, he also managed to take a major step further and become an ace pilot, thereby exceeding his original role! Nowadays, Saint Jelmer Osenring had not only attained great power, but also maintained his strong loyalty towards the Santana Group! This was not a surprise as the Santanas did everything they could to indoctrinate all of the young and eager talents that entered their orbit. Of course, the Santana Group did not dare to mistreat an ace pilot, so Saint Osenring had also been promoted to an honorary executive and possessed the right to vote on major proposals. "What is Saint Osenring good at?" Andraste asked. As the most mech-obsessed child among the three children, Andraste already understood that the strength of a mech was not solely dependent on its design and specifications. The mech pilot also affected the performance, especially for the more advanced and higher-ranking mechs! "Saint Jelmer Osenring is an artillery mech specialist that is good at stunning and shaking his targets through generating shockwaves or concussive blasts." Ves explained. "The reason why his mech is called the Thunderer is because it is armed with a large amount of gauss cannons. Each of them fire heavy slugs that not only have good penetration, but also transfer a lot of kinetic energy at once, thereby producing powerful waves that can damage the components around the immediate impact site. What Saint Osenring does with his domain is to amplify and strengthen this secondary effect so that his ace mech can deal a huge amount of area damage." All three of his children looked confused, so he decided to give them a demonstration. He raised his armored fist and banged it gently against the chest plate of his Unending Regalia. Clang. "Do you hear that noise? That is what happens when a weak projectile hits a starship. Since the power is weak, it doesn't transfer a lot of kinetic energy, which means that the shockwaves produced by the impact aren't that impressive. Since sound is produced by pressure waves, a softer noise equates to lower damage." Ves repeated his earlier movement but this time he exerted a lot more force. CLANG! The difference was loud and clear! The ringing impact was so much stronger that Marvaine even let out a noise in surprise. "Did you hear how much louder it sounds? Stronger physical attacks involve more kinetic energy which means bigger booms and stronger shockwaves. Can you imagine what it would be like if an attack hits a million times harder than my fist? You probably can't, but you will soon get to see what it is like when the Thunderer Mark II begins to open fire. Not only does it have a lot of cannons that all punch extremely hard, but when Saint Osenring resonates with his ace mech, the projectiles fired by all of those gauss cannons will produce vastly stronger shockwaves, which is perfect for inflicting a lot of internal area damage!" Saint Osenring could already inflict a huge amount of damage when paired with a suitable heavy artillery mech, but the introduction of phasewater technology supercharged his combat power! Before, much of his damage output first had to shatter through lots of armor and other forms of protection. Now that all of the weapon systems of his impressive Thunderer Mark II gained transphasic functionality, it became a lot easier to bypass the layers of protection and inflict lots of damage directly to important components and personnel! In short, the combination between Saint Osenring and the Thunderer Mark II produced the ultimate siege weapon! Much of the reason why the Gemini Family was so eager to obtain the services of the Santana Xenoarcheology Division Fleet was to secure one of the best ace mechs equipped to break open the Palace of Shame! As Ves stared at the Thunderer Mark II, his mouth already started to salivate. He would love to have an ace artillery mech of his own, but his clan was too far away from realizing this dream! None of his existing expert pilots excelled at piloting this mech type. The greatest hopeful in the Larkinson Army was only an expert candidate so far, and his chances of breaking through were low due to various reasons. Ves frowned for a moment. "Should I give Taon a little boost during this battle?" That was a good question.