What Ves had neglected to mention to his expert pilots was the situation was way more complicated than they thought. The Mech Trade Association maintained a rather strict separation between second-class mechs and first-class mechs, especially in the Red Ocean where everything could easily get mixed. Before pioneers gained their privileged status from the Big Two, they had to sign a set of agreements that subjected them to additional rules. One of the more troublesome ones to Ves was that pioneers were not allowed to employ mechs that exceeded their class. A third-class pioneer couldn't save a lot of money and invest in a squad of second-class mechs which they could use to bully their peers. The same applied to second-class pioneers who were not allowed to invest in a first-class mech that was powerful enough to demolish an entire second-class mech regiment! Of course, no one prohibited first-class pioneers from fielding inferior mechs against other first-class pioneers. They could do what they wanted as long as they didn't bully second-raters and third-raters. Though rules like these already existed in the old galaxy, they were more informal and relaxed over there. The Mech Trade Association likely tightened the reins in the new frontier because the region was much smaller and more compressed. Ves suspected that one of the more important intentions behind this rule was to prevent third-class and second-class expert pilots from getting killed with ease by ordinary mech pilots that piloted vastly superior mechs. The mechers consistently put a lot of effort into protecting high-ranking mech pilots against unreasonable challenges as much as possible. Skill was important, but once the differences in performance became too great, no amount of human power could bridge the enormous gap! Of course, while the Big Two could enforce this rule against any human pioneers, they held no jurisdiction over the indigenous aliens. It was solely the responsibility of the pioneers themselves if they entered into battle against a first-class alien warship! Fortunately for Ves, the Big Two was thoughtful enough to carve out small exceptions. Second-class pioneers such as Ves were allowed to field second-class mech that incorporated a relatively small proportion of first-class tech and materials. The latter was only limited to 10 percent of the total mass of the mech in question. Ves could do a lot with this allowance. It probably wasn't realistic to clad a second-class mech with expensive first-class armor plating, but it should be easy enough to equip it with a serviceable first-class weapon. Additionally, every pioneer was only allowed to equip up to 1 percent of their total mechs with overpowered equipment. This was enough. The additional power of a small amount of first-class weapons was what the Larkinson Army needed the most at this junction. As long as his troops gained the ability to overpower strong energy shields, they would be able to destroy a powerful warship the conventional way! "All we need is to take down the Tower of Babel." Right now, the strike force was about to initiate an action that many people would call mad. Even a damaged warship still had a lot of teeth! "Are you ready, Reginald?" "I was ready hours ago, Benedict." The ace pilot replied in an impatient tone. "Is it finally time for me to launch?" 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂 "Let us check the connection to the external energy pack. Alright. The module is firmly attached to the rear of the Mars. Remember the plan. Once you deploy into space, don't hesitate to accelerate and enter into warp travel and initiate combat at full power. I suggest you use up the spare energy reserves as fast as possible so that you can detach the pack when you are done. You will need all of the mobility that you can get once you get close." "You don't need to remind me. I'm not that stupid." Master Benedict knew that. Reginald's real problem was not that he was lacking in intelligence, but that he allowed his desires to override his good judgment far too many times! Once Reginald received the necessary reminders, he finally received permission to launch into space. The powerful dark red-coated ace mech entered into open space as if it was a champion about to perform in an arena! The ace mech made for a substantially more heroic sight than the Unrelenting. Its circle-patterned armor plating, its segmented shoulder plating, its human-masked face and the vertical crest on its head all made the machine look like an ancient warrior that had undergone an extreme round of modernization. If that wasn't enough, the ace mech also projected a cape that fluttered behind its back as if wind was blowing through space! Ves rolled his eyes. "Move already!" Once Reginald satisfied his vanity by posing his ace mech in front of his men, the Mars finally blasted forward and proceeded to warp towards the Tower of Babel. There was still a lot of distance between the Antonio Cross and the alien battleship. The reason why the plan called for deploying the Mars early was because they needed the ace mech to test and verify the combat effectiveness of the Tower of Babel. The ace mech probably didn't possess the firepower to overcome the defenses of the alien vessel. Perhaps its new Stormsurge Missiles might help, but it was better to save them until additional help arrived. What Ves and the others were confident in was that the Mars was likely capable of holding on for a long time. The ace mech's energy reserves were abundant despite its relatively high consumption and its Saint Kingdom along with its Abasis Armor provided a generous buffer against mistakes. The only wildcard as far as the Golden Skull Alliance was concerned was the alien phase lord that repelled the Unrelenting a few days ago, but the analysts speculated that this potent combatant was not good at ranged combat. It took quite a bit of time for the Mars to get close enough to start pestering the Tower of Babel. The Pulsvar V-1HE flight system was putting its enhancements to good use by helping the ace mech reach its destination faster. As the Mars used up the additional energy provided by its detachable energy pack, the distant alien battleship had yet to take any offensive actions. That would change soon enough. Both sides were waiting until they got close enough to launch attacks that had a reasonable chance of actually hitting their intended targets! Ves joined Master Benedict in the command center of the Antonio Cross and sat behind a spare workstation. He pulled up the telemetry of the Mars and saw that it was running cooler than it should considering how much energy it was expending. He hadn't heard anything about upgrades to the ace mech's heat management system, so he chalked up this anomaly to Patriarch Reginald's willpower baptism. The Mars already bathed in his glory long enough to apply a fair amount of unreasonable and unexplainable upgrades to the machine. Ves had learned early on to accept these changes without kicking a fuss. Trying to find explanations how mechs performed a lot better was a gigantic waste of time. He was much more interested in the condition of the alien battleship at this moment. Once he pulled up the data on the damaged vessel, he could see that a number of powerful gun turrets had already swung in the direction of the incoming threat. "Has her hull moved in any way?" "Not yet, sir. We expect the aliens to alter her orientation so that most of her gun batteries can angle their muzzles towards the Mars." "Will they?" Ves looked curious. "If the aliens do this, then they will be exposing the main thrusters to the Mars." "It is only a vulnerability if our ace mech can overcome the energy shields protecting the rear half of the vessel." In other words, if the Tower of Babel turned around so that she presented her rear to the greatest threat, then that was an indication that her front still presented an enormous gap in her defenses! It did not take long before everyone had an answer. "The enemy battleship is turning!" This was good news! What Ves and everyone else was afraid of was that the Tower of Babel had restored enough of her defenses to make her almost impervious to damage in every direction. If any imbalance had occurred, then that suggested that a hole in the defenses truly existed! This was the greatest benefit that Saint Neville Magrin and the Unrelenting had provided to the Golden Skull Alliance. Of course, Neville not only lost most of his starships and personnel, but also the father he looked up to and idolized the most, but what did that have to do with Ves? He was glad that Cenatus Prospecting had put in enough effort to prevent the Golden Skull Alliance from returning to this star system in vain. Once a bit of time had passed, the Mars finally came close enough where it could begin to open fire on the enemy vessel. The same could not be said for the Tower of Babel. Most of her intact gun batteries were so large, slow and unwieldy that they were unlikely to strike a small and fast-moving target like an ace mech that was still in warp travel. Reginald was at least cognizant enough to begin to vary and angle the direction of the Mars. He studied his target carefully before he decided to pull the trigger. "I am opening fire!" The ARCEUS System's integrated energy weapon modules launched the opening strike of this battle! Although it was considerably more difficult to land a shot with positron beams as opposed to laser beams, that rule didn't apply under the current circumstances because the Tower of Babel remained mostly stationary! As such, 9 potent resonance-empowered positron beams rapidly crossed the distance and struck the 'rear' of the enemy battleship in a relatively tight grouping! None of the beams fired at an extreme range missed the mark, though Reginald hadn't been able to ensure that they concentrated their power onto the same segmented energy shield. Much to Reginald's disappointment, the opening strike of the Mars failed to bypass or break a single transphasic energy shield. "The alien shielding technology is too annoying!" Patriarch Reginald growled in frustration. That did not stop the Mars from launching repeated attacks. The ace mech had enough energy to spare, so it might as well begin with wearing down the Tower of Babel's first line of defense. As the Mars continued to propel forward, it began to circle around as if it wanted to strike the most vulnerable side of the alien battleship. The aliens weren't about to let that happen and continued to change the orientation of the hull so that the ship always presented her strongest side to the enemy. The battleship did not let herself get beat up for nothing. After a moderate delay, she finally opened fire with all of her formidable guns that she could bring to bear! The Mars rapidly evaded to the side moments before a large net of enormous kinetic projectiles and hot laser beams could strike its position! Though the aliens had been rather clever about weaving a net of attacks to reduce the effectiveness of evasive maneuvers, the distance was still far too great to make the net 'tight' enough. "How are you holding up, Reginald?!" "Hahahaha!" The ace pilot laughed as he started to enjoy this fight. "The guns of this battleship have no chance at all of striking my ace mech at this range!" "If that is the case, then try to maintain your distance and keep peppering the Tower of Babel with long-range attacks. Please wait until our expert mechs have entered into combat range before doing anything else." "I can do that, though I make no promises." Reginald said. The first phase of the battle had begun! Both the Mars and the Tower of Babel continued to attack each other without attaining any meaningful results. The Mars under the excellent control of Patriarch Reginald relied on evasion while the alien battleship relied on her excellent defenses to avoid damage. While it made for a visually stunning sight, it had little meaning so long as neither side made any progress. That probably wouldn't last. Once the Mars was done with testing the capabilities of the Tower of Babel, the next phase would definitely produce more intense results! Ves observed the damaged alien battleship closely. "Come on. Show me your secrets so that we can take down faster."