"The original plasma sword is not the same as a semi-manned craft as the human head integrated into the body of the weapon did not gain any control over it. The semi-manned craft are different in that they are completely controlled by an alien head or other organic monstrosity. I believe that they should be specially cultivated for the job." "I see." Regardless of how the different alien species pulled it off, Ves still found the entire notion to be unnatural. It was a practice that stood against everything the mech industry and human society stood for. These 'semi-manned craft' needed to be destroyed! While Ves experienced an intense emotional rejection towards this type of craft, Gloriana expressed interest towards them. She realized for the first time how useful it could be to encounter radically different forms of alien technology. "I wonder how the aliens have managed to implement manned, semi-manned and unmanned craft. Manned craft should be the most reliable but also the most difficult and expensive option. Unmanned craft are most likely regarded as disposable units as it is difficult for them to perform well under heavy jamming. Semi-manned craft are probably seen as an improved version of the latter." Ves manipulated his interface and called up additional feeds that showed a handful of the alien combat drones and starfighters from different pirate fleets. They came in many different shapes and configurations. For example, there was a small craft model that came in the form of a large black brick. The strange craft employed a strange method of propulsion that did not rely on thrusters to push it forward. This allowed it to maintain full armor coverage in every direction. The only instant where it exposed its weak points was when it needed to open up the smallest holes possible so that its integrated energy weapons could open fire at its targets. The flying brick craft were completely unmanned and could easily be stacked on top and alongside each other by the hundreds if not thousands! Their completely geometric shapes meant that they took up a lot less hull space than any other small craft. When Ves took into account that they were all unmanned, their owners did not even have to reserve additional space, funding and other resources to support a large number of starfighter pilots! Ves let out a dismissive snort. "These brick craft may be an easy and efficient way to field a lot of combat drones, but they aren't fighting against the usual kind of small craft they are accustomed to. Our mechs are an entirely different beast!" Humanity's prohibition against the use of warships did not weaken its desire for greater strength and combat effectiveness. As soon as the Age of Mechs came to be, the human race took away much of the resources that previously went into improving warships and allocated all of it into supercharging research and development of mechs! Human civilization was still incredibly huge even after it had managed to limp out of the dark days of the Age of Conquest. Four centuries of uninterrupted development had allowed humanity to elevate a special variation of small craft at an astounding pace. Each subsequent mech generation introduced a constant slew of industry-wide improvements. All of these efforts enabled humanity to turn mechs into a much more mature weapon platform that came a lot closer to rivaling warships! Tens of thousands of strange brick drones were flooding in numerous directions, but most of them were flying straight towards the mechs of the Santana Group! Ves couldn't help but laugh when he saw that. "Good luck with that!" The Santana Third Fleet primarily fielded hybrid mechs and heavy artillery mechs. Each of them opened fire at the incoming swarm of black brick craft with the many different guns at their disposal! Immediately, the alien brick craft began to showcase their greatest merit, which was their strong all-round defense. Their relatively thick armor plating in combination with their special propulsion method allowed the bricks to absorb incoming fire from one side. Once the armor on this side had reached the end of its rope, the bricks simply flipped around and exposed an undamaged side towards the enemy. Doing this several times in a row allowed the bricks to resist up to 6 times as much damage than normal! While Ves found the design concept to be interesting, the combat drone had a lot of flaws! "The propulsion method is too slow." Ves criticized. "Who cares whether it can fly forwards, backwards, downwards, upwards or sideways at the exact same rate of acceleration when it is always lagging behind?" This was great for the ranged mechs of the Santana Group as they all felt free to fire their weapon systems as many times as possible! "This is a dream scenario to the Many Guns Doctrine." Ves remarked as he saw the approaching bricks falling apart by the dozens with each passing seconds. The Santanas have the greatest firepower out of all of the mech forces. The brick craft are way over their heads if they think that spinning around can stop them from getting shredded into pieces." His wife also directed her attention to this large swarm of unmanned craft. "The unusual looking drones aren't completely useless, Ves. They have successfully attracted much of the firepower of the Santana mechs. Look at the alien warships that are behind the drone swarm. The larger threats have yet to be engulfed by too many attacks." "The Santanas already have a solution for them. Warships are best left to more powerful mechs." The Santana Group's decent collection of expert ranged mechs had already begun to open fire at the smaller warships heading in its direction. Most of the alien warships, no matter whether they looked similar to human warships or radically different, seemed to rely more on transphasic energy shields than solid armor for protection. It made sense as it was much cheaper and more economical to rely on energy-based defenses. This appeared to be a universal technological application to the indigenous alien races as even the weirdest and most inhuman-looking warships boasted powerful energy shields. The strangest warship heading in the direction of the Santana mechs was a biomechanical starfish-like ship that was shaped like a flexible starfish! Ves even had the illusion that the half-organic, half-metallic vessel was actually a living being that the aliens had transformed into a 'living warship'! Yet despite the unique advantages conveyed by this biomechanical monstrosity, the Thunderer Mark II only needed to launch a couple of powerful volleys to strip away half of the alien vessel's powerful energy shields! The Santana Group's powerful heavy artillery mech couldn't afford to finish the job, though. The Palace of Shame had unveiled numerous powerful heavy gun batteries that were almost just as powerful as the primary armaments of the V'gahnt-Zezne! Each time they fired, they either stressed out the defenses of an ace mech or wiped out dozens of mechs that were unlucky enough to be in the way of a gigantic energy beam! Fortunately, the Thunderer Mark II was well-suited to destroy these powerful base modules. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶 No matter how much shielding and armor the aliens had employed to protect their critical base guns, Saint Osenring's unreasonable ability to make his gauss projectiles produce exaggeratingly powerful shockwaves upon impact easily ruptured many of the components necessary to make these powerful gun batteries work! While the Thunderer Mark II already shifted its attention to other high priority threats, the Santana Group's expert mechs proceeded to finish the jobs by firing many of their shots at the partially unshielded biomechanical warship! Though the giant starfish vessel seemed to suffer a lot of pain to the point of firing powerful retaliatory gamma laser beams from some of the pointy limbs, the Santana Group's expert mechs easily withstood the incoming attacks by evading them or resisting them with the help of their resonance shields. Ves could see that the Santana Group would be fine even if it took a while to whittle down all of the alien brick craft and warships. He turned his attention back to the situation of the Larkinson Clan and its allies. Every major pirate fleet banded together with their own cliques or factions who they trusted a little more than their other rivals. There was still plenty of animosity between the pirate factions and it did not look as if they trusted each other to cover their backs. As such, every major pirate alliance went their own way and attacked a different human mech force. The ones arrayed against the Golden Skull Alliance was an armada led by the 1854210 pirate fleet. "Great." Ves grimaced. "We get to confront the major pirate fleet that just happens to field the most light cruisers." Light cruisers might not sound like an impressive classification, but they were still considerably larger and more threatening than frigates and destroyers! The smaller warships were actually more suited to fight against mech forces as their hulls were covered with a lot of anti-fighter gun batteries. However, the seven light cruisers of the 1854210 pirate fleet still posed a huge threat to the Golden Skullers. Their larger and more powerful armaments easily shattered asteroids that human mechs used for cover and they could even damage and cripple any nearby combat carriers that had been brought forward to offer resupply and rescue services. Then there was the chaotic swarm of starfighters and combat drones. None of them appeared to come from a single predominant source, so their models and their formations widely diverged from each other. There were thousands of what he considered to be traditional starfighters. Their aerodynamic shapes and wings made it clear that they were designed to fight under atmospheric conditions if necessary. The fully armored cockpits did not expose any alien pilots, but Ves knew they were definitely present and in control. Some of the starfighters apparently belonged to an elite squadron or force as they were not only as fast as light mechs, but were also controlled by highly skilled alien pilots who utilized their craft quite well! Then there were the more disposable drones that were a lot easier to shoot down. It was pretty clear that most of them were thrown in to serve as cannon fodder and attract a lot of firepower, but the Golden Skullers had little choice but to eliminate them first. Every mech pilot aside from the ones who were piloting the Transcendent Punishers would down a lot fewer craft if they targeted the more elite units first. This was especially the case for the melee mechs that had temporarily set aside their usual weapons in order to wield spare rifles. Their performance against the elite alien starfighters was exceptionally poor! Since it was much easier for them to take down a large amount of drones at longer ranges, General Verle and the other military leaders tasked most of their ranged units to mow down the cannon fodder first. Thousands of drones and occasionally starfighters either exploded or became crippled in space. The mechs that were responsible for doing this also began to suffer damage. They coped much better with the situation as they were used to enduring much more severe attacks from enemy mech forces. The 1854210's and the other alien pirate forces didn't really put much emphasis on their small craft, though. Their true reliance was their warships! "Heh. We have our own answer for their armed starships." The Mars had already opened fire on one of the seven light cruisers! The ace hybrid mech's ARCEUS System unleashed a fully charged salvo that not only struck the energy shields of the alien warship, but partially managed to phase through and strike at the thick hull plating underneath! In the meantime, multiple light cruisers attempted to strike a return blow by bombarding the Mars and the space around it with a mixture of physical projectiles and energy beams, only for the relatively small, fast and nimble ace mech to evade most of the attacks and block the remainder with its Saint Kingdom. "Hahahaha! Is that the best you can do, aliens? The power of technology is nothing compared to the power of a human Saint! Let me show you why humanity will reign supreme over the Red Ocean one day!"