Once the ships assigned to the rapid strike force loaded up everything they needed, the fleet carriers and combat carriers quickly entered into FTL travel once again. Only little more than an hour had passed since they just exited from the higher dimensions! Even the fastest scout vessels of the Golden Skull Alliance needed around 3 hours to cycle their small-scale FTL drives! Though Ves and numerous other people felt slightly uncomfortable about skipping the opportunity to 'rest' their bodies in realspace, they were easily able to tough it out and keep going. Of course, Ves wouldn't be as confident if he and everyone continuously traveled around for several years. Certain people had been driven insane by this. 'FTL sickness' was a very real phenomenon, and was the biggest reason why most people preferred to rest in realspace for a period of time. As Ves and many other Larkinson guests settled into their new berths, they did not remain idle. The hastily organized blitz operation demanded a lot from the participants. The expert pilots incurred the greatest risks as they had to expose themselves to the fury of an enemy battleship while lacking the defenses to withstand a direct impact. Ves initially thought that the expert pilots of the clan would show more reluctance to this dubious operation, but it turned out that he was worrying about them in vain. "From what I have learned, we only need to maintain our distance, stay on the move and keep our mechs in front of the battleship as much as possible." Venerable Rosa Orfan said. "Besides, our melee expert mechs won't be able to play much of a role aside from applying pressure with borrowed mech rifles. We're not allowed to get close until we receive confirmation that the enemy ship has lost most of her guns." "That's correct." Ves confirmed. "The only other instance where we are willing to send your expert mechs in is when we have completely disabled the ship system that is responsible for generating a wide area warp interdiction field. We haven't completely figured out where it is located, whether it has any backups and how much strength it has retained. The existence of this feature is one of the key reasons behind the enormous losses suffered by Cenatus Prospecting." Pretty much every Larkinson expert mech possessed warp travel capabilities. As long as they had enough time to get up to speed, the expert mechs could easily keep themselves out of the firing angles of the most threatening guns of the alien battleship. However, if the Tower of Babel ever solidified the surrounding space, no machine aside from an ace mech was able to break through the blockade! "So we have to wait until Reginald, Stark and Isobel have dealt enough damage?" Venerable Orfan frowned. "In short, yes." "The Amaranto and the Promethea don't have the firepower to penetrate the battleship's energy shields. I'm not too sure whether the Mars can do any better, but if it isn't able to summon a lot of burst power like the Unrelenting, I don't think it will have a good time." Ves smirked. "That is one of the reasons why we are in a hurry. There is a giant vulnerability in the front of the alien battleship. Our ship experts have closely analyzed the state of the heavily damaged vessel and have tentatively confirmed that her energy shield coverage is much weaker at the front. We can see signs of this from the live feeds of the battleship by observing how the alien repair crews are hurrying to install additional energy shield generators at the undamaged sections in the middle of her hull. These emergency modifications are anything but simple. It takes a lot of wiring and other structural work in order to install the enormous shield generators and supply enough energy to keep them going. We need to strike before the aliens complete this crucial reinforcement plan." As far as the analysts could tell, the Tower of Babel possessed a lot of redundant energy shield generators. Though the ones installed at the front half of the hull were all trashed, it was easy enough to pull out a handful integrated in the rear and reposition them in a more forward position. All of this meant that until the aliens completed these essential repairs, the Tower of Babel was in her most vulnerable state yet! Her front side still represented a massive hole in her defenses while her rear was covered by significantly less transphasic segmented energy shields than before! However, that didn't mean that a large amount of regular mechs could take her down. The Mars had to play a leading role in this operation. Ves answered a few more questions and made sure that his expert pilots understood what he expected from his champions. "Never underestimate the Tower of Babel. She might not be the largest battleship fielded by the aliens, but she is absolutely special. The fact that she has incorporated tech from multiple different races shows that she is most definitely a product of an elite organization. There is no harm in maintaining your distance and stick to taking potshots at her hull. The more you stress her defenses, the better." The melee expert pilots all looked upset, but what could they do? The only way they could put an actual dent in a functional first-class battleship was to pilot a first-class expert mech themselves! Venerable Davia Stark raised her hand. "I have a question." "Ask." "Will my Instrument of Doom be able to penetrate the enemy ship's energy shields?" "I've already made a few calculations based on both solid data and a few guesses." Ves replied in a professional tone. "The Instrument of Doom has no hope of punching through a single layer. Its raw power is great when employed against mechs, but it is equivalent to the power of the main gun of a small warship. That is not enough to threaten a battleship that is expressly designed to fight against other battleship-grade opponents." "What if I have the blessing of the Phase King?" Venerable Stark asked. This was the key question and would directly determine how easily the strike force could take down the Tower of Babel. "I think..." Ves quickly recalled the numbers. "I think it will be possible for the Instrument of Doom at its full power to punch through one of the alien battleship's segmented energy shields. A single layer, in other words. This is normally good news, but orven-style energy shields are often deployed in multiple layers. It won't really help if you invest a lot of effort to overcome one layer only to get stopped by the next layer." Venerable Stark frowned. "Is there any way to increase the power of my expert mech and cannon any further?" "Not in the short term." Ves shook his head. "The only way I can comprehensively improve the power of your expert mech is to incorporate first-class materials and technology in your mech. That is prohibitively expensive to say the least, and might also get us in trouble if I go too far." Everyone looked disappointed when they heard this. Though they could rely on the Mars to do the heavy lifting, none of them were the kind of warriors who were willing to be marginalized in a battle. "I suppose I will need to coordinate with Patriarch Reginald Cross." Venerable Stark thoughtfully said. "If the Mars can break a layer, my Amaranto will have a better chance at overcoming the defenses of our main target." "What about my Promethea?" Venerable Isobel Kotin looked a bit lost and out of place. "My expert mech lacks the penetration power of the Amaranto. My damage output is primarily effective when I am able to land my attacks onto the structure of a target. Energy shields are my nemesis. If not for my recently mastered explosion technique I doubt I am able to deal any significant damage to an energy shield." Ves turned to the other ranged expert mech pilot. "I am confident that the Tower of Babel will present a vulnerability sooner or later. You just need to be patient enough. As long as you have gained a window of opportunity, you will be able to play a huge role in weakening the battleship. I need you to concentrate your damage output on the turrets and gun batteries as much as possible. One of the advantages of your specialty is that you only need to strike a warship module a single time to burn down a significant chunk of mass. If the enemy vessel is able to rapidly restore or reposition her existing energy shields as we suspect, then the window of opportunity will last for an exceedingly short time. The material damage that you can deal on the enemy vessel will therefore exceed that of the Mars." The Promethea was essentially built for this job. Though it was possible to equip the Mars with advanced weapon modules that could produce a similar effect, it would detract from ace hybrid mech's absolute firepower. After he settled down the two crucial ranged expert mech pilots, he turned to Venerable Imon Ingvar. "I will be counting on you as well. The Gray Lotus is one of the few weapons in our arsenal that can mostly bypass energy shields. As long as the Tower of Babel isn't protected by too many layers, your little pistol should be able to kill a fair amount of alien crew members." Casella's brother blinked. "Uhm, about that sir, shouldn't a weapon as important as the Gray Lotus be wielded by a more important expert mech? Don't get me wrong. I like the gun and what it can do, but my Blade Chaser Mark II is a melee expert mech. I always feel it is better to pass it on to the Everchanger or a real ranged expert mech." Ves could understand why Imon felt he didn't deserve to wield the weapon. "I don't intend to assign this relic weapon to your expert mech forever." He told Imon. "However, it is in the right place right now. Our real ranged expert mechs can already count on their current armaments. It is better to pair the Gray Lotus with a melee expert mech like your Blade Chaser Mark II. You're a pretty decent shot among melee specialists and you have already trained with it for several months. It is the height of foolishness to reassign the gun to another expert mech on the eve of another operation." "Can you at least make it bigger so that it can do more against a battleship?" "That's impossible. I am lacking a key material. For now, it is best if the Gray Lotus retains its current size." The expert pilots no longer had any questions. They all gained a decent idea on what they should do. While the operation itself was quite convoluted, there was no need for the pilots to understand the complicated maneuvers. They just needed to help the Mars take down the Tower of Babel. "With everything that we are throwing at the alien battleship, will Lord Pearian be able to make it out of the upcoming battle alive?" Venerable Vincent Ricklin skeptically asked. "Because it sounds to me that we are throwing so much firepower at the ship that nothing is able to come out unscathed. If the Mars doesn't demolish anything outright, the Amaranto will drill a hole into it. If the Amaranto hasn't destroyed anything, the Promethea will burn it all down. If there is anything left intact, then when the Penitent Sisters and the Glory Seekers unleash their deadly battle formation attacks, the entire hull will turn into a ghost ship!" The other expert pilots also shared Vincent's doubts. The Tower of Babel was certainly strong, but the upcoming operation could easily inflict so much damage that nothing recognizable would be left by the time the attack was over! "This is why everyone needs to obey the instructions of central command." Ves told them all. "We have a large number of analysts and other smart people at our disposal that will constantly be studying every important aspect about the enemy vessel. Their highest responsibility is to identify the location of the cell where Lord Pearian is held. We think he is stowed somewhere in their lower decks, so don't worry that a surface attack will accidentally kill him. You should primarily focus your firepower on destroying the enemy battleship's external weapon modules. The Tower of Babel will be completely at our mercy if we have neutralized the majority of her guns." In short, there were multiple ways to complete their objective. Ves did not entirely want to put all of his hopes on the high-ranking mechs or the battle formation attacks to finish off the Tower of Babel by themselves. It was much safer and more prudent to spread his bets and prepare a few contingency plans! He even thought about stuffing Lucky into a DIVA stealth shuttle and having him infiltrate the alien battleship when she was distracted by all of the mechs. Perhaps it was time for his cat to don his Misfortune Harness once again!