Chapter 6688 Extreme Range Competition The battle had begun. The leading elements of the native alien forces had entered into extreme weapons range and began to test the defenses set up by the humans. Numerous distant alien warships utilized their laser cannon batteries to lightly rake the energy shields covering the orbital fortresses. At this range, it was hard to ensure that the weapons would hit their targets. Even if the orbits and trajectories of the large orbital fortresses remained completely the same, the extreme range amplified every mistake caused by dialing in the wrong angles. This was why the human defensive forces did not bother to fire back at the distant enemies. It would only waste energy, wear down components and provide more information to the aliens. The attackers had different ideas in mind. "Those aren't ordinary alien ships. They are puelmer heavy cruisers!" "Damn, almost all of their laser beam attacks are landing at our fortresses. Their titan shields are taking a more serious beating than expected!" Although the orbital fortresses were unlikely to go down due to the probing shots launched by the enemy warships, the fact that the puelmer vessels were able to maintain such a high hit rate at such an unreasonable range was already impressive! This instance fully validated the theory that the puelmer race had invested their latest and more up to date assets to this star system! The puelmers proved once again that they developed the most advanced sensors and targeting systems among the major races of the Red Ocean. It was hopeless for anyone to shoot down the vessels. The puelmer heavy cruisers were much more mobile than the orbital space fortresses. They utilized their superior mobility to frustrate humans who thought that they could return the favor. The puclmer warships continued to fire their laser cannon batteries at the defenses. The rest of the native alien forces took their time to cautiously move forward without risking any of them overextending. It took a lot of time and trouble to make multiple different fleet elements move in a coordinated fashion towards a target. Until the native aliens were ready to start the main battle, the puelmer heavy cruisers not only continued to fire their laser gun batteries without concern that they will overheat or miss to many shots. In fact, the nuelmer heavy cruisers slowly started to become more accurate. The native aliens were testing the field performance of their powerful transphasic laser cannon batteries and calibrating their settings in real-time! "This is a mind game." Saint Commander Casella warned the members of the Golden Skull Alliance over a communication channel. "The aliens are testing our patience by attacking us in a steady and irritating fashion. They are showing off their extreme range strike capabilities as well as the technological improvements of puelmer assets. They are exploiting a universal weakness of every sentient being, and that is our unwillingness to take a beating without dishing it back." No matter whether it was the laser cannon batteries mounted on the orbital fortresses or the handful of RF warships that remained in the Viola Magnifica System, none of them could guarantee that they could achieve a better result. The competition was rigged from the beginning. The human defenders relied on a lot of 'fixed' defenses to help them weather the storm. All of these were much easier to target at long range than moving objects such as phasefighters and warships at such exaggerated distances. "These arrogant bastards need to be taught a lesson!" "Don't we have long-ranged combatants of our own?" "There's the new Amaranto piloted by Venerable Davia Stark, Will she take action against the aliens? The new crystal rifle that comes paired with this upgraded mech looks incredibly wicked." The Saint Commander of the Larkinson Clan grew more and more concerned about the current trend. The advanced puelmer warships were definitely wearing themselves down by firing their laser cannon batteries so many times, but the aliens made sure to keep the firing rate low to give their advanced weapon systems plenty of time to cool and rest. If this continued to take place for half an hour to an hour, the one-sided laser beam attacks would definitely destroy the moods of most of her troops! Even if they had not yet sustained any physical damage to their mechs and bodies, the psychological effects generated by all of the sequential laser beam strikes was enough to disrupt the mental balance of all but the strongest of mech pilots! It was not easy to counter this clever tactic. Unless the human defenders did anything proactive that could raise their morale and give them hope that their side possessed advantages as well, the differences in morale between the two forces may prove decisive! No matter what, red humanity could not afford to remain passive. The Saint Commander decided to open up a private communication channel. "Venerable Stark." "Saint Commander." The older woman greeted with a mild degree of respect. "How are you and the Amaranto doing?" "We are operating at good to optimal conditions." Venerable Stark responded. "I believe my Amaranto Mark III has remained undetected while hiding at my current firing position. My new Instrument of Vengeance has already warmed up. I have yet to charge it at full power because my mech and weapon will produce a strong light show that anyone can notice. The mech designers have also warned that charging the weapon in advance and keeping it in a highly energized state for too long also stresses and damages the luminar crystals. My primary targets have yet to make an appearance, so I see no reason to prepare to fire my weapon right away" Casella nodded in understanding. The Amaranto Mark III was a specialized precision machine that should only save her firepower for the most crucial enemies. It was a huge waste to expend her formidable shots on phasefighters and enemy escort vessels. Even so, Casella wanted to learn whether Venerable Stark was amenable to opening fire in advance. "Are you able to land a hit if you charge up your weapon and target one of the enemy's larger warships? It would be ideal if you can hit one of the puelmer heavy cruisers." Davia nodded without hesitation. "I can guarantee a hit on one of the enemy capital ships. I am 80 percent certain that I can hit one of the puelmer heavy cruiser. That said, I do not see the purpose in taking a shot at this time. I am saving my firepower for our true enemies. The phase lords will decide whether we will be able to make an orderly retreat or collapse like a house of cards," Casella frowned. "Is the advantage of surprise that important to you, Stark?" "Yes. The enemy does not know about the full power of my Amaranto Mark III. In fact, almost no one from our side understands what my new and improved machine is capable of. I would like it to stay that way because I need every scrap of advantage that I can obtain to make my debut strike as memorable and effective as possible." "When and who?" "When the phase lords show up." Stark responded. "I will pick my target based on many different factors. I can't tell you who I intend to put under my sights because I don't know enough about them yet. Only when I can observe them clearly will I be able to gain a feel which one makes for a good target." The Saint Commander paused in thought. Perhaps the situation that they were currently in was not as dire as she thought. Sure, the harassment from the puelmer heavy cruisers was wearing people down, but this downward trend could easily be reversed with one powerful counterattack! www 1 1 The Amphis Extremis lacked long-ranged striking capabilities. As powerful as Saint Linda Cross and her new machine had become, that did not change the fact that the latter was solely suited to close to mid-range assaults! Out of all of the expert mechs in the Golden Skull Alliance, none of them could come close to matching the previous or current iterations of the Amaranto in long-ranged striking capabilities. Casella may have become the Saint Commander, but her Minerva Mark I was not only limiting her performance, but also never really possessed notably strong ranged combat capabilities from the start. The Everchanger suffered from a similar problem. The expert hero mech may have received a massive upgrade in melee combat power, but his ranged striking capabilities had fallen behind. Venerable Joshua was no marksman either. He did not have the skills to strike targets at such an extreme range! Perhaps Venerable Brutus Wodin of the Glory Seekers may be closest to matching Venerable Stark in marksmanship, but both expert pilots approached combat differently. Brutus was much better than Stark in terms of evasion and maintaining steady aim while his machine was maneuvering and evading wildly. He was much more comfortable when fighting at mid-range. All of these expert pilots and associated expert mechs would begin to shine when the two sides had come closer to each other. Right now, there was only the Amaranto Mark III. Time passed by. 20 minutes came and went as the native aliens continued their slow advance. The appearance of so many warships and phasefighters generated even further psychological oppression on the human defenders. At the same time, the strong show of force by the attacking side boosted the morale of every alien soldier, thereby increasing the chance that they would perform at their best in the coming fight! The disparity in morale could easily cause hundreds of thousands of additional human casualties! The native aliens decided to amp up the pressure by finally unveiling their gods. "They've come!" Two massive bodies and four less massive bodies appeared behind the main fleet elements. Just no the intelligence unnected the native alians danloured 2 grantor nhasa lorda and 4 lesser phase lords to the Viola Magnifica System. Nobody who was able to observe the powerful alien leaders could shift their eyes away from the two greater phase lords. Their bodies were so much bigger than that of their lesser counterparts that they could already approximate the size of large battleships if not larger! The biggest one was definitely the Herald of the Void, a jureg martial greater phase lord with a penchant for brawling and wrecking. That did not mean the Lower Herdmaster was much worse. The nunser martial greater phase lord made up for his relative lack of stature by wielding one of the notorious Saint Piercer spears. While the appearance of these phase lords indeed caused a lot of humans to lose a bit of fighting spirit, this did not apply to Venerable Davia Stark. Her eyes practically lit on fire as she observed her primary targets. She set her sights on each of the 6 phase lords and tried to decide which one she should grace with the first proper strike of her Amaranto Mark III! Her Amaranto Mark III had already begun to charge up. Davia's fighting spirit continued to grow, causing her to resonate stronger and stronger with her recently upgraded machine. The Solus Gas integration that was responsible for keeping her machine relatively unnoticeable was struggling to hide the rapidly growing energy emissions of the powerful marksman mech. Her nearly full hyper archemetal mech frame caused a lot of light from the surroundings to dim, only to amplify her own light emissions! The greater the accumulation of energy, the brighter the mech shone! The sixth generation living mech also began to pull energy from other sources. The modern Endex System Version 3.0 supplied both electrical energy and E energy to the machine, allowing the Amaranto to charge up faster without generating a greater energy vortex in the surrounding area. Venerable Stark also struggled hard to resonate with both HeatMate and ChargeMate. It was an uphill battle for her to resonate with the two ace mech-grade resonating exotics. She felt as if she was struggling to lift a shuttle with her mind and willpower alone. She had to fight hard for each measure of progress and constantly keep up her efforts for fear of losing all of her gains! Though her efforts took a toll on her, the results were worth it as both the mech frame and the oversized Instrument of Vengeance began to glow like miniature stars! The Amaranto Mark III had almost reached her strongest state! "Activate Ultimate Module." The Two-Step Execution Crystal integrated in the new Instrument of Vengeance was primed and ready to show off its capabilities. Though Venerable Stark did not think it was necessary for her to rely on this Ultimate Module at this range, there were other reasons to use it aside from helping her calibrate her shots at extreme ranges. Stark only needed to add one final enhancement to her charged attack. "Phase King, bless me with your power and teach these phase lords who have truly mastered the power of phasewater." The design spirit readily answered her call. The Instrument of Vengeance had been turned into a blessed weapon, just like the Instrument of Doom. This meant that the Phase King was readily able to descend onto the luminar crystal weapon and amplify its transphasic capabilities to a massive degree! At this point, both the Amaranto Mark III and the Instrument of Vengeance had reached and maybe exceeded their upper boundaries! If the living machine remained in this state for too long, she was liable to explode! Many outside observers grew confused or concerned when one of the eye sockets of the Spirit of Bentheim's cat head prow began to shine like it contained a dazzling star. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂 Venerable Stark did not intend to give them enough time to deduce the truth. She cycled her aim to all six phase lords before she ultimately chose a target. "It's you!" The Instrument of Vengeance instantly shot out an bright white resonance-empowered light beam whose passage briefly lit up the entire battlefield! "Wow!" "How powerful!" "Wait... she missed?!" The Amaranto Mark III missed her initial shot! As impressive as the transphasic hyper light beam looked, all of that energy went to waste if it ended up hitting nothing until it dispersed into harmless heat and photons. "How could Venerable Stark fail to hit her mark?!" The enemy phase lords already began to express their contempt and amusement. The one that was targeted looked especially smug at the fact that he did not even have to test his defenses against this powerful strike! "The phase lords... they're laughing at us! They think we are weak!"