The Sudfar strain of Goliaths already proved hard to kill and even harder to pin down.However, it was probably a much better corruption target than the Ekstrom Goliaths. The Sudfar Goliaths were small and possessed much more limited options for thatreason. its mouth was smaller and its assimilation capabilities were not as overbearing. The Sudfar Goliath's transphasic claws had to be guarded against, and their ability tospray acid from their mouths posed a considerable threat at short range, but that wasthe extent of their offensive power. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦 Ves could already envision a possible capture and corruption scenario. He felt fortunate that the Divine Harpoon accompanied him on his trip to the Rubarthanfront. The man was incredibly accurate at harpoon throwing. Even if the Sudfar Goliaths werefamed for their mobility, so long as one of them became slightly constrained, the DivineHarpoon should be able to sink one of his signature throwing weapons into the body of amegavoribug. That would be the moment where the Dark Apostle should spring into action. The harpooned Goliath needed to be given enough leeway to free itself. Otherwise theGoliath Hive would ruthlessly abandon the giant creature and order its body todisintegrate into a puddle of loose matter. During this crucial interval of time, the Dark Apostle needed to get close and potentiallygrapple with the Sudfar Goliath in order to expose it to the corrupting power of darknessenergy! The relatively slender body of the Goliath should take this process faster than normal,but the Dark Apostle also had to take care not to get clawed or sprayed with acid. In order to be safe, Ves needed to complete his superdimensional raiment in order towithstand the creature's frantic counterattacks. Perhaps it was best to make a move before he completed his superdimensional spear. It would take precious time for him to create a powerful D-arm for himself. Thesuperdimensional armor alone should suffice if he wanted to capture a target asopposed to killing it directly. The only other major concern was that he needed to target the right Sudfar Goliath.Level 4, 5 and 6 Sudfar Goliaths tended to be fairly weak. They lacked the astoundingspeed and the superior defenses and recovery power of a Level 7 Goliath. Ves ideally wanted to capture a Level 7 Goliath because a megavoribug of this strengthdefinitely possessed the strongest connection to the Goliath Princess. He was not certain whether capturing and corrupting weaker Goliaths would preserveenough signal strength’ for him to determine the location of his mission target. The problem was that the Goliath Hive had not sent too many Level 7 Sudfar Goliathsthus far. Ves could not afford to wait too long until the right strain at the appropriate levelappeared in the star system. According to the records, the defenders of Philaster Crestia lil had yet to encounter aLevel 7 Sudfar Goliath, though it had showed up in several other Rubarthan starsystems. The Goliath Hive probably intended to test the performance of a Level 7 Sudfar Goliathagainst the defenders of the Philaster Crestia System very soon. This should especiallybe the case now that the Ascended Giants had made an appearance. He did not have much time. He needed to complete the design of his stopgap raiment sooner rather than later. He needed to get to work at the mech workshop as soon as the material shipmentsarrived. Although Ves was not willing to sacrifice everything just to serve the Evolution Witch, aslong as he had a chance to earn a major favor from her, he would make a seriousattempt to fulfill her demand. The biggest challenge was keeping everyone else in the dark. Ves could sorely usemore help, but he did not dare to inform anymore, including the Divine Harpoon whosecooperation was crucial. Ves just hoped that the strategy of the Faceless Giant Phalanx did not let his throwingskills atrophy while they were in transit. "Look at that Abedo Goliath." Gloriana interrupted his train of thought. "Out of all of theGoliaths, the Abedo is described as the one that resembles erudite phase lords themost." The Abedo Goliaths differed from most other strains in that they were primarilypositioned as support units. They sacrificed direct combat capabilities in favor of generating multiple energy fieldsthat suppressed transphasic units, interdicted warp travel, blocked guidance systemsand generated other forms of disruption. While these support functions significantly hindered the performance of nearby mechsand other assets, the Abedo Goliath left itself open to attacks, especially at close range.It was currently being assailed by a Rubarthan expert mech wielding a large plasmahalberd. Each time the expert mech struck with its resonance-empowered weapon, the AbedoGoliath's spherical body recoiled and attempted to back away. The expert mech did not let up on its aggression and continued to strike deeper, tryingto create more burns and inhibit the Level 4 Goliath's regeneration even further.However, as if to compensate for the Abedo strain's lack of direct combat capabilities,the Goliath Hive had beefed up its escort. Compared to other Level 4 Goliaths, the Abedo Goliath was accompanied by at least 3times more cannon fodder bugs! All of those insects constantly converged upon the machine, using their very lives towear down the resonance shield. No matter how many bugs got squashed by the expert mech, more always arrived. The suicidal swarming behavior forced the Rubarthan expert mech to circle around theAbedo Goliath and avoid remaining stationary for longer than half a second. This made it a lot harder for the expert mech to exploit the weaknesses created by itsearlier attacks. While the Abedo Goliath was not as durable or fast-regenerating as an Ekstrom Goliathof the same Level, the former was still able to endure a considerable amount ofpunishment. This allowed it to persist long enough for its attendant voribugs to do their jobs and dragdown the expert mech as much as possible. "The Abedo Goliath will go down sooner or later." Lord Richard Brownstone spoke in aconfident tone. "Ordinary voribugs cannot inflict too much damage to a resonanceshield. It is only due to their quantity that the expert mech is facing a struggle. TheAbedo strain itself does not pose a significant threat." Ves did not look down on this strain. "That only applies as long as the Abedo Goliathsfight in isolation. It is very clear that it is like a fish out of water in these duel-likeconditions. Once the Goliath Hive gets serious and pairs the Abedo Goliaths withmegavoribugs of other strains, the value of the former will skyrocket. Support assetsexcel in larger battles involving more units. The interference generated by the Abedostrain will significantly weaken our standard units while also affecting the power of ourhigh-ranking mechs. You may have to prioritize its takedown over other Goliaths infuture battles." The Rubarthan liaison did not respond, but his grim expression expressed his tacitagreement. Ves thought about what it would be like to capture and corrupt an Abedo Goliath. its inability to defend itself would make the effort a lot easier, but its body was still fairlymassive, so the process would take longer. What was really troubling was that the Goliath Hive always assigned a lot more voribugsto escort this strain. Ves would have to figure out a way to keep them off his back ortrust that his superdimensional raiment could blunt their claws and fangs. The high priority of the Abedo Goliath could also prompt the voribugs to call over theirother Goliaths. That was highly problematic! Ves did not believe he could fend off multiple Goliaths at once, especially if they wereLevel 6 or Level 7. He turned his attention to another Goliath. "Impressive firepower." He noted. "It is rather alarming that the mutated voribugs havealready mastered energy weapon biotech." "It would have happened sooner or later. We have fielded plenty of biomechs capable offiring laser beams and plasma bolts. The tech is not new to us. The voribugs only haveto capture a single first-class or second-class biomech to master its secrets." Glorianasaid. "Using biomechs to fight the mutated voribugs is probably a terrible idea." Lord Richard Brownstone had a strong reaction to this. He scowled when he looked atthe Goliath that was making use of awfully familiar ranged bioweapons! "We learned this lesson too late. The Rubarthan Pact has a small community of biomechand biotech enthusiasts, same as anywhere else. We have found that they are moreeager and willing to volunteer for frontline service. Before the Day of Pestilence hasarrived, they have fought well and proven themselves to be worthy linefighters in thewar against the native aliens. When the mutated voribugs made their debut, the biomechunits bravely pivoted to fight against the new threat, only for them to fall into the handsof a new race that is eager to assimilate our biotech solutions. That has produced manyconsequences. The Korcho Goliath is but one of many results." "We had to issue a prohibition against the use of biomechs or any biotechnology on thisfront after that. Anyone who knowingly or unknowingly fields advanced biotechnologyagainst the mutated voribugs is aiding and abetting the enemy." "Does that also apply to our Ascended Giants?" The projection of the Divine Harpoontersely asked. "No. At least not yet" The Rubarthan Senior diplomatically replied. "The mutatedvoribugs have devoured plenty of phase lords in alien space. There is not much harm inletting them capture an intact lesser phase lord. That said, we have prepared a fastreaction force that is solely tasked with preventing you or any of your men from fallinginto the hands of the Goliath Hive." That should hopefully not be necessary. The only scenario where such a power might be needed was if the Goliath Hive nolonger played around and launched a serious offensive against Philaster Crestia lilWhile Ves thought about the likelihood of that happening in the next few weeks, theKorcho Goliath continued to show off its impressive firepower. As a dedicated ranged strain, the Korcho Goliath was clearly modeled after a heavyartillery mech or similar. It was large, massive and possessed a hard exoskeleton structure that was covered bythick scales. All sorts of biological cannons extended from their scaly body structure. These cannonsfired a random mix of kinetic projectiles, laser beams, plasma bolts and even acid bolts.What was interesting was that their attack output was high, but their reserves were fairlylow. There were instances where the Korcho Goliath had to cease fire or lower its attack ratioin order to recover its reserves. The Korcho Goliath proved to be a hungry eater. It devoured hundreds of thousands ofvoribugs at a time just to replenish its energy reserves and form more biorounds to feedits cannons. While its firepower proved to be formidable, the opposing expert mech was able toendure the attacks quite well. Venerable Emorah James Brownstone was a grandson of the Brownstone Prince andalso happened to be one of Lord Richard Brownstone's many cousins. The expert pilot made use of a tech-heavy mid-tier expert multipurpose mech. TheSandy Ranger Mark Ill carried many different miniaturized weapon hardpoints, each ofwhich launched resonance-empowered attacks that proved strong enough to penetratethe scales and snap the organic cannons of the Korcho Goliath! In contrast, most of the Korcho Goliath's attacks either ended up missing the agileSandy Ranger Mark lll or splashed harmlessly against its resonance shield. If not for the cannon fodder bugs trying to get in its way, Venerable Emorah Brownstonewould have been able to inflict much more crippling damage against the Korcho Goliath!As it was, the Sandy Ranger Mark ll had to remain patient and keep up its offensiverhythm in order to wear down its opponent.