The appearance of the orven gunships proved that the puelmers were not the only one to realize the potential of this larger craft. The native aliens had made greater strides in their attempts to improve and refine their solutions against human mechs! "These gunships are going to be a bigger problem going forward." Ves remarked as he observed the battle by remote. There was no way he would miss out on this battle despite the fact that he resided all the way over at the New Constantinople System. Saint Stark’s breakthrough already strengthened the clan by an enormous degree. Right now, he was hoping that more promising high-expert pilots would be able to grasp their chance and trigger their own breakthroughs. While Ves initially did not think much of the native alien forces, it was clear that he had underestimated their ingenuity and the speed in which they were able to roll out their latest solutions. Gunships represented relatively unknown territory to mech designers because few if any of them ever designed a craft of this scale. They were bigger than heavy mechs. They traded all semblance of agility and speed for scale and capacity. Their hulls were shaped like angular ovals, allowing them to accommodate more weapon systems and other powerful systems. Even the most mediocre engineers could easily stuff a gunship hull with large armaments and thick armor plating without needing to worry about running out of space too soon. Stay updated through empire With the help of cosmopolitan mech designers, the orvens had whipped up a few gunship designs that were simple and fairly cost-effective given the size of the craft. They were certainly not cheap, but it should not be difficult for them to generate enough value to pay for their hefty production costs. "The gunships are more effective at repelling melee mechs than phasefighters." Ketis frowned in concern as she observed that even the Swordmaidens struggled to kill the hardy craft. "Phasefighters rely on mobility more than anything to avoid getting caught. If a pair of melee mechs have already come close enough, then their azure energy shields will only delay their inevitable demise. These gunships are different because their energy defenses are strong enough to fend off melee mechs much longer than usual. That gives them enough time to repel their attackers with their flechette guns or wait for backup from other alien small craft." The native aliens had begun to deviate even further from the pattern set by red humanity. Instead of rigidly sticking to phasefighters that approximated the size and mass of human mechs, the alien races had begun to adopt a different form of strike craft that played a lot better to their existing advantages! As Ves continued to study the performance of the new orven gunships as the battle unfolded, he could see that the aliens really made a wise decision to adopt these new craft. The gunships were no longer operated by a single alien pilot. He loosely estimated that they should be crewed by three to five low-caste orven operators. This worked out well because the orven gunship operators no longer had to split their limited training time in learning how to maneuver their craft, operate their weapon systems, keep up their defensive systems, and so much more. Now, the orvens could assign different personnel to different training courses that solely taught them how to perform one responsibility well. This approach towards specialized roles clearly caused the gunships to exhibit inferior coordination. The alien conscripts were not always of the same mind. The lack of experience and training made it so that the larger craft was unable to respond quickly and in a unified manner in the face of changing circumstances. However, it was still worth it for them to be controlled by multiple orven operators as the aliens were at least competent enough to perform their main jobs! The larger size, the lower mobility and the stronger defenses all played in its favor for this reason. Whereas phasefighter pilots needed to be able to make quick decisions while their craft flew at great speeds, gunship operators could take their time to do their jobs right due to the slower pace of operation. Ves bet that around half of the gunship operators used to serve on warships before they received a change in assignments. This was convenient as they were not only more disciplined and able to follow orders, but many of their skills also transferred over. "The gunships are large and slow enough that they are easier to hit by long-ranged artillery fire." He noted. "They are also a bit more prone to getting hit by warship gun batteries. There is no way these craft can defend against direct strike from a large enough warship cannon." "That is true, Ves, but all of our heavy guns are currently occupied with trying to repel the alien warships." That was unfortunate. The warships, the defensive platforms and the orbital fortresses were under heavy siege from alien warships. Although the native alien armada had lost numerous formidable warships due to Saint Stark’s breakthrough moment, it still had enough hulls left to be able to force their way forward in time! All of the big guns available to the human defenders had to train their firepower at the enemy warships for this reason. Ves frowned for a moment before he spotted another movement on the battlefield. His expression eased. He even began to smile. "Well, the orvens have certainly made a statement by unveiling their take on gunships, but it is too unfortunate for the aliens that their new strike craft are about to be confronted by one of their worst enemies in this particular battle. Just a few seconds passed before thousands of resonance-empowered energy beams lanced from the Larkinson Army contingent and accurately slammed into the azure energy shields that protected a score of the new alien craft! Thousands of Knights had opened fire at the gunships at once! It didn’t matter whether the small craft were not being affected by a space suppression field at the time they got hit. The luminar crystal weapons wielded by notable ranged mechs such as the Nullifiers of the Battle Crier Mech Legion and the Fey Fiannas adopted by several other mech legions were all transphasic hyper weapons that could already inflict considerable damage onto the enemy energy shields! When empowered by a touch of the Saint Commander’s true resonance, the lethality of those attacks multiplied by several times, causing the gunships to enter into more precarious states! Saint Commander Casella was Commandeering thousands more mechs at this time. Many of them were assigned to attack much higher priority targets. As one of the few ace pilots that was present on the battlefield, she was responsible for holding back the enemy phase lords as much as possible! This was why she could not afford to allocate all of them to destroy the enemy gunships. It was only because Saint Stark managed to reduce the threat posed by the alien champions by assassinating one of them while tiring out the other that Casella was able to divert a portion of her Commandeered mechs address the threat posed by the enemy gunships. She recognized that it would not demand a major effort on her part to solve the gunship problem! As the Commandeered living mechs armed with powerful luminar crystal weapons repeatedly opened fire, the orven gunships had nowhere to hide aside from the larger pieces of debris that had begun to spread across the battlefield. The azure energy shields of the orven gunships were designed to withstand the siege of several mechs at the same time, but they were not equipped to deal with several thousand temporarily empowered Knights! Casella’s ability to multitask through her Command Field was insane. She was able to control the Knights so well that their ranged weapons attained a hit rate of over 95 percent! She probably could have raised this to 99 percent if not for the fact that she was Commandeering so many mechs at the same time. The inferior mobility of the gunships worked against them. In the face of this onslaught from afar, the craft had turned into sitting ducks who could only rely on their strong azure energy shields to resist the initial attacks. However, the luminar crystal weapons equipped by mech models such as the Fey Fianna and the Nullifier were able to fire their shots at a decent firing rate. Resonance-empowered energy beams continued to strike at the initial gunships. Soon enough, their energy defenses disappeared, causing them to expose their armor! The Commandeered mechs continued to open fire at the exposed gunships. Their transphasic hyper armor was actually of good quality, but they were ultimately not equipped to withstand so many powerful and accurate attacks. The orvens lost a hefty amount of gunships in a much shorter period of time than anticipated! This did not bode well for the remaining gunships. The human mechs that had previously been struggling to fight against these well-designed craft suddenly gained an advantage now that they enjoyed the fire support of one of the most powerful mech pilots taking part in this battle! "This is exactly what the Saint Commander excels at." Ketis said as she viewed the unfolding battle in the command center of the Spirit of Bentheim. "Her ability to Commandeer so many different mechs gives us an enormous advantage in any fight against enemy small craft. It doesn’t matter whether they come in the form of phasefighters or gunships, both are vulnerable to superiority of mechs controlled and empowered by Casella Ingvar." In other words, the Saint Commander was perfect for fighting against conventional enemy units! The small fry were too weak to withstand attacks that had been blessed by the extraordinary willpower of an ace pilot! The more valuable the enemy small craft, the more misery Saint Commander Casella could inflict upon it, as none of their defenses could equal that of a genuine warship! While the orven gunships desperately trained their transphasic hyper positron cannons at the Knights, the superior mobility of the latter along with the greater distance made it a lot more difficult to land their hits! The Saint Commander made sure to keep the Commandeered mechs moving in random patterns. If the gunships wanted to increase their hit rates, they needed to get closer, but this was clearly impossible because their mobility was vastly inferior even without taking the amplification from true resonance into account! There was only one reasonable choice that the gunship commanders could make. "They’re turning around! They’re fleeing!" "Don’t let them get away!" "Eliminate them all before they can come back and bite us when the Saint Commander isn’t available!" Many melee mechs went in pursuit of the fleeing gunships. While the mechs were still wary of getting blasted by flechette guns, they had learned enough to maintain a certain degree of distance from their targets. The flechette guns possessed wide dispersal rates. The further away the mech, the less projectiles that would eventually hit the machine! The mech pilots also learned to minimize their surface area towards the enemy gunships. By tilting their torsos to the side or by facing their foes with the head or feet first, they could drastically lower the amount of flechettes that would eventually rake through their armor and internals. The clever melee mech pilots engaged in all of this while the ranged mechs Commandeered by Casella Ingvar continually showed off their prowess by downing gunships by the dozens. "No escape!" Alien phasefighters tried their best to interfere with the pursuit, but they could do little to divert the attacks launched by the Commandeered mechs. Soon enough, only about 300 gunships managed to limp back to their respective carriers. This was less than a tenth of the proud gunships that the orvens originally sent into the fray! The Knights that previously hammered the orven gunships did not bother to attack the alien phasefighters. The other mechs could handle them. The firepower of the Commandeered mechs was exceptionally potent compared to their unempowered states. This turned them into a sharp weapon in Casella’s hand. The Saint Commander scanned the battlefield for any other adverse situations that she could save with her abilities. There were plenty of other precarious situations that she needed to defuse in order to lead this battle in the right direction!