Chapter 7215: The Armitage His chief of staff promised to sort out how to reimburse the expenses of the phase lords assigned to the Bluejay Fleet. Of course, if that was not possible, then the Dark Apostle would simply shove the bill to Ves. The two had a very clear division of labor as far as they were concerned. Ves handled the tech, the human stuff and also paid the bills. The Dark Apostle maintained control over the Ascended Giants and did all of the actual fighting. Since this was the case, there was no need for the Dark Apostle to bother himself over how to pay the bills. The next question that came up after the polemarchos made his demand was which phalanx to draw the squads from. All three phalanxes had developed their own strengths and specializations. "I want to select 2 squads from 2 different phalanxes." The Dark Apostle imperiously stated. "Their composition should not be static. I am fine with swapping out individual giants or whole squads in order to gain more advantages in different combat scenarios. However, I can tell you that as soon as I am done here, I will be leaving for the Rubarthan Pact in order to understand the threat posed by the mutated voribugs first-hand. Which squads are suitable?" "You will need reliable protectors that can bail you out in desperate situations." The Grapple King quickly said. "We excel at protection. We might not be able to kill so many voribugs at once, but we can shield you long enough to get to safety. We can also offer protection to the starships of the Bluejay Fleet." All of this sounded attractive to Ves. The Ur-Titans might not excel when fighting against the mutated voribugs, but they did not need to. They were much suited to make breakthroughs and could persist for a long time after enduring a lot of attacks. "What about your Flesh Choppers, Fiery Axe?" "I am afraid that I will have to decline participation." The female strategos said. "I would love for my men and I to fight besides our polemarchos, but we are not set up to fight against massed monster swarms. We do not have as much in terms of defense, so our raiments will get chewed by the voribugs. As for offense, we excel at chopping down large champions. Clearing the chaff falls outside of our overriding goal. That makes the mutated voribugs the worst opponents for my phalanx as far as I am concerned." This indeed sounded like a bad matchup for the Flesh Chopper Phalanx. "Very well, Fiery Axe. Your Flesh Choppers can stay put until they are called. Do you intend to remedy your phalanx’s shortcomings against the mutated voribugs?" She frowned in response. "To be honest, I am struggling with this problem. We have already developed our own style that greatly emphasizes mobility and melee combat. I am confident that we can tear down greater phase lords so long as our numbers are high enough, but fighting against bug swarms demands different solutions. I am reluctant to embrace them because it will distract the Flesh Choppers. They will not be able to devote as much time and effort into strengthening their core competences." Her concerns sounded valid. The Dark Apostle did not want the Flesh Choppers to lose their greatest strengths. "You are right to hold back on this issue." He said in an encouraging tone. "We need the Flesh Chopper Phalanx to help us fulfill the fourth guiding principle. Once it becomes known that we seek to destroy and replace the alien phase leaders, we will definitely invite frequent confrontations by alien phase lords and phase whales. We need you and your men to continue to specialise in chopping our rivals into pieces." The female strategos smiled. She did not look upset at all. "Thank you, sir. I was hoping to hear this from you. We can still fight against the mutated voribugs if ordered, but our results will not be as good. Please keep this in mind." With that dealt with, the Dark Apostle turned to the Divine Harpoon. "It has come to my attention that the Faceless Giants are likely the most suitable phalanx to confront the mutated voribugs." He said. "Your phalanx is not elite, but that also means that it has the most troops to spare. Furthermore, your Faceless Giants are the most dependent on armaments that can typically be found in mechs. This includes both melee and ranged armaments. The right configuration of weapons and raiments can easily convert them into swarm-clearing monstrosities." Under the leadership of the Divine Harpoon, the Faceless Giants lacked the individual excellence and unbearable sense of pride of the Ur-Titans and the Flesh Choppers. However, the Faceless Giants pursued a more standardizable approach to combat. They were the least reluctant about imitating mechs, and they also possessed lower egos than the giants who served in the elite phalanxes. While their phasewater concentration, phasewater organs and martial skills were undeniably inferior, Ves and the Dark Apostle both saw a lot of potential in this group of giants. The Faceless Giants should be a lot more obedient and easier to mold. They could be trained to fight the way that Ves and the Dark Apostle preferred. They should also be more open-minded about adopting different wargear and learn how to fight in a different way. In fact, Ves and his alter ego most preferred to raise their own Larkinson Phalanx or whatever and exert total control over it, from candidate selection to raiment design. The problem was that setting up a new phalanx was an extremely expensive and time-consuming endeavor. The Red Collective’s cooperation was essential as Ves did not master a systematic means for mortal humans to transform into long-lived human phase lords. In fact, Dark Apostle was not even sure whether the Phase Lord Department could conduct this transformation independently without requiring the services of the rest of the RC! He could look into that later. He had more pressing issues to deal with at the moment. The Divine Harpoon reluctantly nodded. "Your description is accurate. I have done my best to mold the Faceless Giants into a very different phalanx than the other ones. I am confident that they can adapt to any new mode of combat so long as it does not require extreme levels of proficiency." "What’s the catch?" "The issue is that we have yet to develop strong loadouts that can effectively clear large amounts of voribugs. Endurance and supply are our main bottlenecks. The giants will eventually succumb to exhaustion if they fight for too long. Their technological weapon systems will also sputter and fail when pushed to their breaking points. Supplies are also needed to replenish any spent energy cells or ammunition canisters. The mutated voribugs can amass so many numbers that they can engulf anyone or anything in a tide of alien insects." These were indeed troublesome constraints. It was difficult to figure out a way to extend the staying power of giants in the field. It was even more difficult to figure out how they could continuously wipe out lots of hostile bugs without running out of resources too soon. "Talk to Ves about it when it is his turn to control our true body." The Dark Apostle suggested. "You are asking technical questions that he is much better able to answer. I think that it is within his ability to design a set of arms and armor that can turn your phalanx into highly effective bug exterminators. He would not be so eager to visit the frontlines of the Rubarthan Pact if he has little hope of remedying this crisis." This caused multiple humans and giants to direct hopeful glances at the Dark Apostle. It would be great if Ves could devise new mechs or other tech that could help them wipe out huge amounts of voribugs. The stories from the frontlines all indicate that the main reason why the Rubarthans lost ground and had to abandon their border systems was because they ran out of supplies! This was such a banal reason to withdraw from the battlefield, but it was depressingly true. Not even ace mechs could go on wiping out bugs left and right, especially when they had proliferated across an entire star system. Though Ves did not have a ready-made answer at hand, he did come up with a few unconventional ideas on how to make it easier to remove the bug infestations. "So we are in agreement then about the deployment of the Ascended Giants?" Eliza Mo Ragadan asked. "At least 15 Ascended Giants will be stationed in our headquarters at all times. 30 Ascended Giants, half of them hailing from the Ur-Titans and the other half hailing from the Faceless Giants, will be assigned to the Moloch Naval Squadron to serve directly under the Dark Apostle. In order to properly accommodate these giants and their massive wargear, the Moloch Squadron will be reinforced with the experimental giant carrier, namely the Armitage." A projection came to life. Everyone looked fascinated as they watched a fleet carrier that had somehow been reshaped to accommodate giants instead of mechs. The main decks were much taller. This enabled the capital ship to store a lot of gear and fit multiple Ascended Giants when they unfolded their true bodies to a greater extent. While the Ascended Giants were easily able to shrink to human size if necessary, they almost never did so because they enjoyed the advantages of size. This was why much of the interior had to accommodate giants that usually preferred to match the height of a typical mech. While the design of the experimental giant carrier would hardly win any efficiency rewards, the Dark Apostle could vaguely judge that it did what it was supposed to without any higher expectations. "Just as is the case with the Moloch, the Armitage is an artifact warship produced by the Artifact Warship Department." Eliza continued to explain. "With a length of 3 kilometers, she was meant to be able to serve as a mobile and resilient delivery platform for a single elite phalanx or 60 lesser phase lords. Her own armaments are fairly minimal. The giants are meant to fight on her behalf. Additional weapon systems will only reduce her performance in other aspects." All of it made sense more or less. To the Dark Apostle, the Armitage was merely a giant version of a combat carrier. Everything was just bigger in order to accommodate the greater proportions of Ascended Giants. "We welcome this new addition to the Moloch Squadron and the Bluejay Fleet." Formation Master Andrea Vos said. "I am slightly concerned about who will be able to keep all of these large and maybe restless giants in check. The Dark Apostle will not be present and available during most of the hours of the week. We need a strong enough leader to ride herd on them. This leader must be well-respected enough to be able to command obedience without resorting to violence." This effectively meant that one of the three interim strategoi had to join the Moloch Squadron on a temporary basis. All three of them looked at each other. They communicated silently in order to discreetly determine who should accompany Ves and the Dark Apostle during the first year of their term. "I shall go." The Divine Harpoon eventually won this silent contest. "Grapple King, Fiery Axe, both of you can command our troops, but your strengths are almost irrelevant to the mutated voribugs." "True. I do not think I will enjoy chopping one worthless bug after another." The Fiery Axe scowled. "Should not the same apply to you, Divine Harpoon?" The Grapple King asked. "I may still be able to kill a command bug or other important creature with the help of my harpoons." The strategoi formed a consensus. They presented their oldest giant, hoping that his accumulated wisdom and steady personality would temper the Dark Apostle’s excesses.