The surprising firepower unleashed by the Rust Grinders fully showcased why the Big Two imposed so many limitations on ship bunkers and artillery chs.
With a little bit of jury-rigging and a dose of ingenuity, a crew of pirate technicians, engineers and perhaps a low-ranking ch designer or two were able to turn the flagship of the Rust Grinders into a warship!
Certainly, compared to affixing massive turrets and weapon mounts onto proper warships, mounting a ranged ch into a bunker didn't sound very impressive.
However, the crucial advantage of this thod was that it was very simple! The pirates didn't need to enlist the services of a high-ranking ch designer or a CFA engineer.
They could simply cobble the systems together with low-tech ans. Though it was a bit troubleso to hook up a ranged ch to the formidable power systems of a starships without anything overloading, once those problems had been dealt with, the ranged chs effectively never ran out of power!
If the enormous heat generated from continuous weapon discharges was handled as well, there was almost no functional difference between a bunker ch and a warship turret!
Right now, the Rust Grinders had beco so intimidated by the advancing force of Avatar chs that Commander Upander decisively revealed his trump card.
His ch along with five other ship-mounted cannoneer chs fired at the hostile chs without holding anything back!
Commander Upander personally selected the ch pilots with the best marksmanship scores to pilot the cannon chs. Even though most pirate ch pilots earned their awful reputations, there were at least so gems in every pirate group.
Now, Upander and his hand-chosen elites managed to down thirteen Avatar chs in a short amount of ti.
Though only six high-powered laser beams raked the Avatars with every volley, the next volley followed very quickly!
Normally, chs wielding laser weapons needed to control their firing rate. It was too easy to overheat their weapons and drain their energy cells if the ch pilots kept pressing their triggers.
No matter how fast they fired their cannons, their chs never ran out of power!
No matter how much heat their weapon discharges generated, they were never at risk of overheating!
The power of a ch was limited by its physical constraints. If the cannoneer chs tried to attack the Avatars while floating in space, they would have been forced to cease fire minutes ago. Instead, their fortified cannon muzzles kept spitting out beam after beam of energy without any reduction in power!
That wasn't all. Once the Avatar chs ca close enough, the other ranged chs of the Rust Grinders which had flown to the sides opened fire as well!
The pirates adopted a simple crossfire approach that allowed them to bombard their enemies from slightly different angles.
Every defensive ch that tried to guard against attacks in one direction was unable to block the crossfire from another direction!
For this reason, casualties continued to mount among the Larkinson chs. A handful of cockpits had already ejected from the critically-damaged chs.
Jannzi Larkinson and her Shieldbearers quickly left the reserved and advanced. Instead of futilely trying to catch up to the attack force, the Aurora Titans instead tried to cover for the escape pods as they quickly flew back to the main fleet.
Though the Avatars endured a continuous rain of fire, the ranged chs among them did not remain silent.
More laser beams began to light up the surrounding space! The Bright Warriors configured for ranged combat precisely targeted and took out the pirate rifleman chs.
At the sa ti, a couple of Avatars fired at the bunkers placed on the broadside of the flagship of the Rust Grinders.
Unfortunately, the bunkers held too well!
The pirates may not have access to the best materials and technology, but Commander Upander acquired or stole the toughest and most resilient materials and piled them all onto the broadside and the bunkers of his flagship!
It took far too long to chew through all of those layers!
Commander lkor already understood what he needed to do. "Focus fire on their rifleman chs! They're much easier to take out and removing them from the battle will considerably lighten our pressure."
"What about those illegal bunker chs?"
"Let the Bright Companions take care of them! Joshua and his n are already on their way!"
A chevron-shaped formation of Bright Warriors had already advanced ahead of the main group. Owing to their lancer ch configurations, the Bright Warriors possessed substantially greater forward acceleration, which they utilized to build up a very formidable charge!
At so point, the Bright Warriors no longer accelerated any further. Even so, the chs still coasted straight towards the Rust Grinders with a huge amount of montum on a straight, ballistic trajectory.
"Don't speed up any further!" Joshua warned his n. "Our Bright Warriors are tough, but not invincible. Charging the side of a starship is different from charging a floating ch. The forr is much more solid!"
What the Bright Warriors attempted to do was to charge straight into a solid wall! This was very dangerous and could easily crush their fras if their ch pilots weren't careful.
Even though Joshua risked flattening his ch, he only grew more and more excited. Lancer chs existed to punch through hardy targets!
His fellow ch pilots possessed similar inclinations. They all intensified their bonds with their chs as they began to embody the aggressive aspect of their machines.
The Rust Grinders did not let them approach with impunity.
Soon enough, Commander Upander recognized the danger. The bunker chs soon began to shift their fire towards the charging Bright Warriors, achieving solid hits with every volley.
Joshua and his fellow Bright Companions did not bother to juke or perform any evasive maneuvers. They simply kept on charging straight ahead, confident that the armor of their chs could hold against this degree of firepower!
The Rust Grinders observing the advancing lancer chs increasingly grew more incredulous.
How could a bunch of chs resist so much firepower?
Realization soon dawned upon them. "Those aren't third-class chs… they're second-class chs!"
"What the hell?! Are they Hexers?!"
"No! Those chs all look male, so they're not Hexers."
The identities of the attackers didn't matter. All that mattered was that the rapidly-approaching hostile chs couldn't be taken down so easily!
Commander Upander grew increasingly more panicked even if all of his shots landed on the lead ch.
"I don't believe a second-class ch can withstand this much firepower! Look! The frontal armor is already starting to lt!"
In truth, the extrely powerful energy beams did inflict so damage to the surface of the Bright Warriors. Though they managed to withstand the first volleys, all of the impacts rapidly heated up their surface.
If this pattern continued, then the Breyer alloy would soon be subjected to enough heat to lt Cassandra Breyer's escape pod!
Even so, Joshua and his fellow Bright Companions refused to abort their attack run. The armor of their chs may not last forever, but their charge had already reached their final stage!
Due to all of the high-powered laser beams hitting the Bright Warriors, the machines all appeared to glow. Like shooting stars, the rapidly-advancing lancer chs seed to co down on the Rust Grinders like divine punishnt.
After Commander Upander issued a few hasty commands, a large number of chs began to form just in front of the bunkers. The pirate chs almost strayed in the path of the constant volleys of powerful laser beams as they used their own mass as a shield against the incoming lancer chs!
"Hahaha! It's no use!" Joshua laughed as the adrenaline fully rushed through his body! "Accelerate a bit more! Don't let any obstacle slow us down!"
With a final speed-up, the seven Bright Warriors finally made contact with the Rust Grinders.
The knight chs that cleverly angled their shields against the charging lancer chs were instantly crushed aside!
Their thick tower shields ford no effective protection against the imnse montum of the Bright Warriors!
The shooting stars only minutely lost so speed as they crashed through the layer of chs, which lasted no longer than the first pirate chs.
A rapid succession of crashes took place within a blink of an eye as none of the lancer chs hit anything solid enough to bleed their speed by a significant amount.
It was as if a human ran through a succession of paper walls. No matter how many sheets of papers blocked their path, they were simply too weak to hold back the power of a human body!
Right now, the shabby pirate chs of the Rust Grinders played the role of paper walls. Even though they consisted of stronger materials, the disparity between their toughness and the toughness of the charging Bright Warriors was simply too great!
Commander Upander didn't even have the ti to register this fact before the Bright Warriors finally collided against the bunkers!
A sharp lance and a formidable ch punched through all of the armor placed on top of the bunkers and instantly crushed the cannoneer chs sheltering inside.
The simultaneous impacts unleashed so much violence that the flagship of the Rust Grinders had been minutely displaced to the side!
The broadside of the vessel spat out several different rains of debris as the broken pieces of chs and bunker plating flung in every direction!
As the dust and debris parted from the craters, everyone could see the damage the lancer chs inflicted.
Only complete devastation remained of the bunkers! Hardly any cannoneer ch was left intact. The lances not only punched straight through the solid fras of the illegally-modified machines, but also endured an even greater impact from the rest of the ch, causing them to suffer the sa fate as the previous chs that stood in the way of the Bright Warriors!
Horror began to dawn upon the rest of the Rust Grinders. Nothing was left of Commander Upander and his cannoneer ch!
The Quint, which inflicted thirty percent more impact damage than a regular Bright Warrior, had completely disintegrated its target!
The ship began to groan and spin in an uncontrollable manner.
Aside from demolishing the bunkers and the cannoneer chs, a seventh Bright Warrior had charged the aft section of the flagship. Its lance managed to inflict crippling damage on the propulsion system.
Even though it wasn't really necessary to cripple mobility of such a large and sluggish vessel, the morale among the pirates sunk even further after seeing such a powerful display of might.
"Damnit! Don't get distracted! The rest of those golden boys are coming!"
A huge and ssy battle ensued. Bright Warriors and other Avatar chs eagerly entered the fray. After suffering several unnecessary casualties, the Avatars were in no mood to play with their food. They wanted to exact vengeance and wash away their sha in the most brutal manner possible!
Joshua and the rest of his Bright Companions did not sit idle after they completed their charge. They focused on attacking the starships of the Rust Grinders, making sure to cripple their mobility and force their power reactors to shut down.
After witnessing the devastating charge of the Quint and the Bright Warriors, the morale among the Rust Grinders had already sunk to a low point. They only fought back because they knew they wouldn't escape death.
This was the fate reserved for every pirate! When they no bothered to abide by any laws, they lost the right to be protected by them! Pirates were so universally hated by civilized space that hardly anyone bothered to bring them to court.
Death was the main form of punishnt for piracy!
In the end, the Avatars vented all of their bloodthirst upon the hapless Rust Grinders.
Jannzi Larkinson, who had rejoined the reserves floating in the back, frowned minutely at the savage sight.
Though she understood that pirates did not deserve to earn her pity, she nonetheless expressed distaste at the brief, one-sided massacre.
Who were the barbarians in this battle?
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