The battle was going well for the human coalition. Though the V'gahnt-Zezne was able to rely on her triple energy shield layers to stay in the fight, none of the other warships enjoyed the same degree of protection. The human pioneering groups quickly developed better methods to breach the segmented energy shields that many alien warships traditionally relied upon to stay alive. As the formidable ace mechs and expert mechs on the battlefield rapidly whittled down the amount of active cruisers, destroyers and frigates by leveraging their distinct advantages, the human mech forces no longer experienced as much pressure as before. The fight became easier and easier for the mechs to fight as the amount of powerful warship armaments firing in their direction continued to drop with the passage of time. Many mech pilots started to relax a bit as they no longer felt as if they were one step away from disaster. Too many of them had seen mechs getting struck by giant transphasic gamma laser beams that could fry the bodies of their pilots! There was hardly any way for mech pilots to survive when their mechs randomly got hit by a heavy cannon projectile that was half their size! Fortunately for most of them, most of the warships had directed their firepower to the small quantity of high-ranking mechs that could single-handedly tear them apart! The greatest concerns the regular mech forces had to deal with was the flood of starfighters that attempted to run them down. Though the mechs initially suffered a bit more casualties than necessary due to their unfamiliarity with starfighters, that rapidly changed once they learned their lessons. The differences in power between the two sides was too great. Out of the two different civilizations, the one belonging to humanity simply possessed better tech than the indigenous societies of the Red Ocean. This was despite the fact that all pioneers were restricted from making use of formidable human warships that could easily destroy their alien counterparts in a naval battle! To be fair, the aliens experienced a lot more restrictions than they thought whenever their starfighters or warships wanted to initiate warp travel. Whether they sought to outflank the human forces or quickly make their way out of the battlefield, none of the alien vessels succeeded in warping the fabric space around them into a bubble that could allow them to travel faster! The reason why these ships weren't able to escape was the use of warp inhibitor devices. The Larkinson Clan had already deployed its new but extremely effective Gravity Net that spread across much of the battlefield. The other pioneering groups didn't have anything that was as strong as this advanced and powerful product of phasewater engineering, but they still had their own ways of preventing their prey from warping away. With no feasible way to make a quick exit, the aliens were forced to fight at their best. Sadly, their strength simply didn't measure up, especially as their numbers fell at a rapid rate. A part of Ves felt cheated. Weren't the aliens supposed to be stronger than this? Shouldn't their warships be capable of exerting much greater pressure on expert mechs and ace mechs? "Don't get too cocky, Ves." General Verle's projection warned him. "Aside from the Unspoken flagship, none of the alien warships that we are fighting against are up to standard. We are fighting against the dregs of the alien civilizations that used to occupy this corner of space. The main alien warfleets that the Big Two are so concerned about have either been destroyed or fled to safer territories." Ves slowly nodded in agreement. "I guess you're right. These rotten pirates that have decided to stick to the Palace of Shame aren't comparable to a proper military fleet. I just find it odd that the locals are rolling over so easily. I know our ace mechs and expert mechs are not weak, but... I expected more from aliens that have decided to stand their ground. Have you noticed that few if any of the alien combatants have attempted to retreat! Everyone is fighting to the death. Is this normal?" The leader of the Larkinson Army might not be the most brilliant strategist alive, but his ability to read the ebbs and flows of the battlefield was not bad. General Verle scowled. "Our understanding of our enemies is far from sufficient. By agreeing to take part in the Gemini Family's joint operation, we began to follow someone else's rhythm. We did not prepare as much as we could and failed to account for many factors. Why are the pirates so brave? Why are they fighting as if they are willing to die for a cause? What sort of reinforcements are they relying upon to turn the tide of the battle? We don't have any answers to these questions, and that is unsettling. I have a strong suspicion that the Gemini Family is able to supply us with at least some of the answers, but it is highly doubtful that the Geminis are willing to give us any freebies." The specter of enemy reinforcements cast a dark shadow over the human coalition. The Larkinsons probably weren't the only ones who were cursing the Geminis for luring them into this rabbit hole. Perhaps the incoming reinforcements might not be as big of a deal as everyone feared, but there was also a chance that a powerful phase whale might appear on the battlefield in an instant! The uncertainty was gnawing at both Ves and many other leaders. They simply didn't know what to expect and that was stopping them from taking any pleasure at the progress that they had made up to this point. If the estimate of the Gemini Family was correct, it would only take a few more minutes before they would all find out what the alien pirates were relying upon to secure their grip onto the Palace of Shame. "The final struggle against the V'gahnt-Zezne is about to commence." General Verle reminded Ves. "The ace mechs have already taken care of the opposing light or heavy cruisers. Our expert mechs can easily finish off the few that are damaged but not completely out of the fight. What is more important is that our strongest mechs must neutralize the largest and most important enemy warship that is currently on the battlefield." That was very much a wise decision. Already, the seven Saints were converging their attention on the alien vessel that they initially mistook for a battlecruiser before finding out that she was more comparable to a battleship. Saint Marissa Lewandoski and Saint Kalasandra Boojay had done an excellent job in constraining the threat of the V'gahnt-Zezne. Their ace mechs, the Jedda Sandivar and the Royal Jeem, even found opportunities to clean up the smaller and weaker orven destroyers that escorted the alien battleship! As such, the V'gahnt-Zezne had become utterly isolated from any assistance that could save her from getting slaughtered by a bunch of ace mechs! Almost every ace mech converged around the V'gahnt-Zezne. While the alien battleship furiously fired its formidable arsenal of primary, secondary and tertiary gun batteries at any ace mech that her sensors were able to track, the powerful machines easily evaded or blocked the attacks as if battleships were no big deal! The ace pilots had the capital to belittle the alien battleship. Their personal strength as well as the strength of their mechs were simply far beyond anything the Unspoken had ever confronted in battle! If the orven race invested just as much time, technology, materials and design work into building a battleship that was completely dedicated to wiping out small but incredibly powerful small craft, then the tables would have definitely been turned! Unfortunately, none of the indigenous alien races of the Red Ocean had ever made the adaptations that the CFA had made to its own warships. The primary plasma cannons of the V'gahnt-Zezne were admittedly powerful beyond belief, but they turned so slowly that it was trivially easy for the ace pilots to determine where they were aiming. The secondary kinetic cannons and the tertiary laser cannons were able to track smaller and fast-moving objects a lot better, but they lacked the punch to overpower an ace mech's characteristic Saint Kingdom! As far as the powerful Saints were concerned, the V'gahnt-Zezne was no different from a turtle that was on the chopping block! A turtle with three overlapping shells, but still one that did not have any hope of defeating an ace mech! The only question the ace pilots were contemplating was how they could crack through all of the turtle shells as quickly and efficiently as possible. The analysts of all of the pioneering groups had made a lot of calculations and simulated trillions of different battle scenarios. After a lot of arguing, the support personnel eventually presented the ace pilots with seventeen possible attack plans. No one knew which one they should go for. They were all viable but it was too difficult for them to judge which one worked out the best. Patriarch Reginald Cross snorted before he discarded all of the electronic documents. "Don't think too much. We are all Saints. Our will is endless and our power is unstoppable. No amount of mathematical modeling can encompass our might!" "I agree with Cross." Kalasandra Boojay spoke. "Each of us possesses the power to inflict heavy damage onto a segmented energy shield. The only area we need to pay attention to is to compress our attacks in the smallest possible time interval. If there is too much of a delay, the alien battleship will spin her segmented shields and render our efforts useless." The ace pilots only needed a few more seconds to quickly determine a basic but serviceable attack plan. "Let me go first." Saint Jelmer Osenring spoke. "My ace mech is the furthest away and also deals the greatest amount of collateral damage." "Go ahead. We will start once you have opened fire." The Thunderer Mark II was the only ace mech that had not gone forward, but this was an understandable decision as a heavy artillery mech firmly belonged to the rear! In order to prevent the V'gahnt-Zezne from bombarding the Thunderer Mark II's location, the Jedda Sandivar produced a lot of smoke and other interference that made it difficult to pin down the ace heavy artillery mech's location. Saint Osenring had also stopped launching any further attacks and tried his best to discreetly reposition his powerful ranged machine elsewhere. The ace pilot steadily resonated with the powerful heavy gauss cannons of the Thunderer Mark II. He had already loaded them with shield breaking rounds that were designed to inflict the greatest amount of damage on the first energy shield they struck. While the ace pilot had expended a lot of effort into destroying a lot of enemy cruisers, he still had plenty of willpower left to fully charge his next salvo. As the Thunderer Mark II glowed with power, its many guns boomed at once, unleashing ten resonance-empowered gauss rounds that punched through the side of the asteroid that the ace mech was hiding behind before striking one of the segmented energy shields! The combined force of all of the incredible kinetic impacts overwhelmed one of the 'energy scales' of the first layer! "Our turn now!" Patriarch Reginald Cross grinned. His Mars had already charged its ARCEUS System. The integrated energy weapon modules unleashed 9 resonance-empowered positron beams before the Thunderer Mark II's attacks had blown over. While the Mars alone did not have the firepower to destroy one of the alien battleship's powerful energy scales, another ace mech had joined the effort at this time! The Embodiment of Love not only borrowed the true resonance of Saint Sena Gemini, but also drew on the power of her brother and husband, Saint Kobal Gemini. The resulting positron beam was therefore blessed with twice as much love and more than four times as much power than normal! The ten positron beams struck at virtually the same time and quickly overloaded the energy scale on the second layer! "The third layer has become exposed! Go quickly!" The next batch of ace mechs had already moved into position at this time! Unlike the ones that had taken action just before, the next machines attempted to breach the third and final layer of energy shields by charging forward!