Three live streams started at the same time. A huge amount of people tuned into at least one of the broadcasts. Those who grew obsessed with the Cybernetic Empire's strength and technological lead even tried to view all three broadcasts at the same time! Nobody could talk about anything else on that day. Everyone who did not have urgent work duties to attend to all gathered around and began to exchange their views on how extensively the three CE warfleets would dominate the battlefield. Betting platforms pounced on the opportunity. They allowed their customers to place many wagers on the outcomes of the upcoming battles. "I think the warfleets will crush the native aliens. They are 50 years ahead. That has to count for a lot. I don't think the Cybers will do that well when fighting against the mutated voribugs. They are too different from other enemies. The bugs don't even make use of energy shields as far as I know." 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦 "Oh, come on. The voribugs only know how to throw endless bodies at their enemies. This is not the first time our race has fought against those kinds of enemies. We crushed dozens of these swarm-based races back in the Milky Way during the Age of Conquest. We developed specialized methods to exterminate them at the time. The Cybernetic Empire should easily be able to dig up the old manuals and make the appropriate preparations." "The mutated voribugs are different from other swarm races. There is not only proof that they are directed by a greater intelligence, but they are continuing to evolve. What works today might not necessarily work tomorrow." "Pff, they are just bugs. No matter how much they adapt, they can catch up to the Polymath's powerful war weapons." Debates continued to rage across human-occupied space. Many people grew fascinated by the mystique of the Cybernetic Empire. In the days since the return of Bridgehead One, the Cybers had constantly been teasing everyone about the strength of their warfleets. Today, it was finally time for them to prove that their strength matched their boasts. As the warfleets approached their respective adversaries, Ves had reunited with his wife and his children back in their grand stateroom on the Tortuous Scream. They all settled down on the couches and decided to observe one engagement at a time. If Ves wanted to, he could watch all three live feeds at the same time and still remain fairly confident that he would be able to keep track of significant developments. However, not everyone was comfortable with collecting information in this matter. They wanted to enjoy the battles in the simplest and most straightforward way possible. This was why Ves decided to view the battles in sequence. He did not put too much value in the live viewing experience. It was not as if he could change anything considering the battles took place many light-years away. "Which live feed do you want to watch first?" Ves asked his family. "According to the information provided by the Cybernetic Empire, the forces on display consist of the 24th 'Gamma Scorchers' Warfleet, the 27th 'Assimilators' Warfleet and the 76th 'Dominators' Warfleet." "Their nicknames are not chosen at random." Gloriana noted and gestured towards the three live feeds that were currently projected in the center of the main living room. "The Gamma Scorchers are clearly completely reliant on energy weapons as their damage source. The mechs and warships of the Assimilators are all made out of smart metal. The Dominators on the other hand look more conventional, though they clearly have a strong preference towards big guns." Due to the high detail and availability of multiple different recording angles, it was easy for mech designers such as Ves and Gloriana to incorporate their work into the overall setting. They only needed to study the individual feeds one by one to gain an overall understanding of the strong points of every fleet. Compared to most red humans, Ves possessed additional information that could explain why these warfleets possessed such radically different technological paradigms. The 24th Gamma Scorchers clearly enjoyed the backing of the Energy Weapon Tower. The 27th Assimilators could not have grown up to this point without the aid of the Smart Metal Tower. The 76th Dominators obtained all of their advanced big guns from the Heavy Ordnance Tower. Ves was unable to determine whether one of the other Thirteen Towers had intervened in the formation of these specific fleets. It didn't matter too much. The names reflected their essence. "I want to watch the Dominators!" Andraste already voiced her preference. "With a name like that, these mechs must be able to kick the alien butts and teach them a lesson that they will never forget!" "The 76th fleet doesn't appear too impressive." Gloriana gently pushed back. "The only notable traits is that their gun ports and gun batteries are bigger. I do not expect them to introduce any revolutionary new tech." "Perhaps that makes the Dominators a good choice to start with." Ves voiced his own opinion. "I don't want to end this viewing session on a disappointing note. By picking the least interesting looking one in front, we can get it over with and simultaneously move on to watching the other battles." His wife pressed her lips. She contemplated his argument and decided it had enough merit. "Fine. The other two warfleets will hopefully delight us with revolutionary new tech that only the Polymath can invent." As Ves and Gloriana continued to analyze the tech utilized by the 76th Warfleet and tried to estimate the firepower of every mech and warship in view. Soon enough, the mechs on reconnaissance were about to collide with the enemy fighter screen. The Dominators did not hide their approach. Their warfleet possessed a greater proportion of capital ships than the other ones. "Interesting." Gloriana spoke as she paid close attention to the types of mechs fielded by this warfleet. "The warships and most notably the capital ships are clearly the golden boys of this fleet. The mechs are only present as screening elements. Their configurations are largely focused on scouting, ECM and intercepting enemy small craft." "That sounds… boring." Andraste complained. "I changed my mind. I hate the Dominators. Mechs can do more than fight the enemy small fry." "Let's not dismiss the Dominators too soon." Ves warned his daughter. "The mechs are about to engage the phasefighters." The Cybers prepared for this moment. They clearly did not want to reveal too many details, so they only fielded a single mech model, a first-class multipurpose mech that wielded a distinctly large shotgun. On the surface, these mechs exhibited good performance. Their armor looked thick enough to resist a couple of mean hits. Their azure energy shields looked unusual and a lot more refined than what everyone else was making use of. Their mobility was considerably greater as well. This alone should give these striker mechs a good advantage against the opposing phasefighters. The only downside was that the enemy phasefighters outnumbered the first-class multipurpose mechs by more than 3 to 1! Even though the Larkinsons had recently faced worse odds, the difference was that the Larkinsons enjoyed the protection of two ace mechs, but the 76th Dominators had none! In fact, Ves did not spot any expert mech or ace mech at all. Perhaps the Cybers were holding them back for later, but he had a good feeling that the Cybernetic Empire was unable to produce them for reasons that Ves could not fathom. The forward elements of both forces began to clash. The phasefighters struck the first blow by launching transphasic missiles at long range. Each of them carried a notable amount of missiles, and their pilots or their field commander evidently chose to launch them right away! Whether this was the right decision or not became pretty clear when the CE mechs responded in unison. First, they formed active shield links with each other. Ves could not tell whether the Cybers had improved shield link tech, but it appeared they did not introduce anything groundbreaking. That, or they were deliberately limiting the performance of their shield links in order to appear weaker on this front. Whatever the case, the active shield links provided plenty of assurance to the outnumbered first-class multipurpose mechs. As the potent transphiasic missiles were able to strike their targets, the mechs quickly responded by lifting their shotguns and firing them in the right direction! Thousands of explosions lit up the darkness of space! The power and penetration of those small missiles were so good that even first-class mechs would get worse off if they came close enough. Yet the shotguns launched small pellets that spread out just enough to intercept every enemyt missile. The phasefighter pilots must have felt surprised at how easily the humans repelled this attack, but they still committed to launching attack runs. Yet when the alien strike craft attempted to grind the mechs to death, the CE mechs simply tried to keep up with the phasefighters before using their shotguns to spray flechettes in their general directions. The mechs shouldn't have been able to land every shot. The enemy phasefighter pilots had grown accustomed to fighting against human mechs and learned how to evade attacks more effectively than before. However, all of this became useless when the flechettes actually homed in on the dancing phasefighters and struck their azure energy shields! "What?! Are those missiles?!" Ves gasped. Gloriana activated another projection and froze the instance those flechettes were in flight. When the female mech designer zoomed in far enough, she noted that the flechettes did not contain any propulsion or other systems that could explain why they homed in as soon as they flew somewhat close to energy strike craft. "These flechettes are special." She said with a puzzled frown on her face. "The data from the live feeds is not complete enough in my opinion, but from what I can observe, the flechettes are attracted by the phasefighters or more specifically their azure energy shields. When the flechettes are launched towards phasefighters that have lost their shielding, the homing effect disappears." "Interesting." Fortunately for every human viewer, the Cybernetic Empire started to display a portion of technical data during the live feed. "Phase Attracter Rounds are shotgun rounds that are specialized in taking down enemy phasefighters." Ves read the description. "Phase Attracter Rounds come in both transphasic and non-transphasic versions, but the former is very rare as the latter can already do the job. Your theory is right, Gloriana. The shotgun projectiles can indeed home in on energy shields without needing to resort to finicky tech. Due to these attraction characteristics, way more flechettes ended up hitting their targets than usual. Enemy phasefighters lost their most potent form of protection. Once their airframes got exposed, it was trivial for the first-class multipurpose mechs to take them down! In this way, the first-class multipurpose mechs of the Cybernetic Empire just showed that it relied on non-transphasic weapons to completely roll over the enemy's phasefighters! This small victory enabled the mechs to conduct more thorough and aggressive anomalies. The Dominator warships could freely advance towards the enemy mech and troop concentrations. The native aliens must probably be wondering how to counter the absurdly effective shotguns wielded by the mechs, but these were hardly the trump cards of this warship-oriented fleet! After reaching a certain distance, the Dominator warships brought their massive cannons to bear against the distant enemy warships. The range was still a bit too far for most cannons, but with the help of the scouting data from the forward mechs, the human warships were able to calculate their firing solutions a lot more confidently than normal. "The warships are attacking! Wait, they're launching missiles?" Instead of opening fire with their big guns, they chose to launch missiles instead. The data showed that they were all transphasic missiles, which meant that the Cybers had just expended a serious amount of phasewater! Was it worth it? Ves and the other soon received their answers when they saw the effects of their warheads The native aliens made a valiant attempt at shooting down the incoming missiles, but the CE munitions were fast and also agile enough to evade lots of intercepting fire! When multiple missiles converged on different targets, strange explosions took place that shocked Ves and other viewers! This was because the azure energy shields that should have been able to resist explosive attacks of this magnitude briefly became inactive. "The enemy energy shields have been disrupted! The aliens are likely trying their best to reset their shield generators, but there is still a delay. This delay was crucial as the CE warships simultaneously opened fire with their predominantly kinetic cannons! Each of them launched explosive shells that flew as fast as gauss rounds and slipped through the temporary gaps in the enemy defenses. As soon as they impacted the exposed hulls, the shells detonated! Hull plating got ruptured! Turrets became damaged or got blown away! Multiple compartments became exposed to the vacuum of space! This was just the opening salvo of the warships of the 76th Dominator Warfleet, but already its tech had put the enemy forces at a severe disadvantage!