When Gloriana dutifully perford her job and identified the weak points of the opposing chs before inputting her findings in the fleet's network, she always kept an eye on her brother.
She knew that Brutus was in the fight of his life. She didn't want her brother to square off against the infamous Unit L, yet there was no other alternative.
The Charlemagne and its Scarra had proven their capacity for slaughter many tis over the course of the Komodo War.
Unless they were constrained by an enemy expert ch, the nurous ranged chs empowered by Venerable Ghanso could easily tear through entire formations of Hexer chs with ease!
Venerable Brutus did what was necessary to constrain the Friday Coalition's experintal unit. His Star Dancer, the ch and partner that had served him well over several years, turned into a wreck because of his sacrifice.
The loss of an expert ch was a traumatic loss to any expert pilot. If not for the acute threat he was subjected to, the Hexer expert pilot would have mourned for the loss by now. As it was, his life was anything but guaranteed at this ti!
Venerable Ghanso already had a history of shooting down enemy cockpits. The Fridayn put bounties on the heads of every Hexer expert pilot. The Coalition deliberately encouraged its ch pilots to shoot down the ejected cockpits whenever they could in order to weaken the power of the Hex Army.
An expert pilot that fled from the battlefield intact was one that would doubtlessly show up in a new ch at least half a year later!
Since Ghanso had dozens of powerful rifleman chs at his disposal, he had beco very proficient at shooting down cockpits, even the higher-performing ones that were utilized in Hexer chs.
The ejected cockpit of an expert ch was highly resilient. So of the sa high-quality armor that clad the exterior of an expert ch also encased the cockpit in order to preserve the life of the pilot as much as possible.
Expert pilots were just as valuable as their expert chs, if not more! They were scarce resources to a state, so they enjoyed the protection that was comnsurate to their degree of preciousness.
Since the Star Dancer was an expert ch commissioned by the Wodin Dynasty, the protective capabilities of the cockpit was a bit better than a machine of its tier was accustod to. It was no problem for the cockpit's armor to fend off a multitude of attacks from standard chs, especially with the help of a one-use shield generator!
Yet the attack that the Charlemagne snapped off with as little delay as possible was still powerful enough to crush the cockpit!
The power output of an expert ch was not comparable to that of a standard ch. Not even premier chs such as the Valkyrie Brunhild could co close to matching the power of just a casual attack from the Charlemagne.
They were basically two different species of chs!
The only upside was that Venerable Ghanso didn't bother to coordinate with his Scarra to launch this next attack.
First, it wasn't needed. The maneuverability and evasion ability of the cockpit was really incomparable to that of a true ch. While it was a lot smaller and more compact than a multi-ton ch, the cockpit's capacity was tiny as well. Its designers opted to load it with a one-use shield generator in order to protect it better against attacks from regular chs as opposed to adding more movent capabilities.
This ant that Venerable Ghanso hardly had to employ any effort to land a solid hit on the fleeing vehicle!
He did not grow complacent and assu that killing Venerable Brutus was already a done deal. He already spotted nearby Hexer chs changing their course to put their fras in the way of his shots.
While there were too few Glory Seeker chs left to be sacrificed like this, the remaining ones knew it was incredibly crucial to preserve the life of an expert pilot.
Even if Venerable Brutus was a boy, he was still a treasure to the Wodin Dynasty!
Every Glory Seeker was a diehard loyalist to the dynasty that nurtured them and still took care of their families. They were trained to accept death as long as it advanced the cause of the Wodins.
Besides, even if they used their own chs as shields, there was no guarantee that they would die for certain. As long as their cockpits were intact, they could make it out alive as well!
Yet even as the nearby Glory Seeker chs moved to support and cover for the Star Dancer's cockpit, Venerable Ghanso wasn't willing to give his opponents any ti to mount a rescue.
The snap shot the Charlemagne unleashed almost instantly reached the vulnerable cockpit. Its cockpit desperately activated its side boosters in order to get out of the way of the incoming attack, but the range was too short and the beam arrived too quickly for it to work!
As the occupant of the cockpit was already slling death, another beam struck the Charlemagne's attack!
A searing, hellfire-red laser beam fired from far away had intercepted Venerable Ghanso's latest attack!
What was surprising about the intercepting beam was that it managed to overpower the attack launched by an expert ch!
Venerable Ghanso looked shocked as his seemingly surefire kill was pulled out of his grasp.
Gloriana froze as she looked at the projection depicting the flight of her brother's cockpit.
Ves and many others who paid attention to this side of the battle were flabbergasted as well.
Who managed to rescue Brutus' cockpit?
"It's Venerable Davia Stark!" Ves quickly realized as he used his implant to access the relevant data in an instant. "My Bright Beam Pri managed to intercept the Charlemagne's attack!"
Far behind the main lines of the battle, a number of Larkinson chs stuck close to the expeditionary fleet. The chs stayed behind in order to act as both a reserve and a final line of defense against any attackers that were determined to reach the heart of the Golden Skull Alliance.
Among the chs that hung back were the Shield of Samar and the Bright Beam Pri.
Although the chs weren't designed to mate together in a combination ch like the specially-designed machines of the Corundian Giants, the two chs had already adopted a similar approach.
The Bright Beam Pri stuck behind the Shield of Samar as best as possible. This was not that difficult due to the relative differences in their sizes.
The Shield of Samar was considerably bigger than a typical dium space knight. Even if it wasn't able to cover the pri rifleman ch fully, it was still capable of projecting both a resonance shield and an energy shield to cover any gaps in its coverage.
From the start of the battle, the Shield of Samar did nothing but hold position and block the handful of incidental attacks that were aid in its direction.
While Venerable Jannzi Larkinson wanted to advance her ch forward, her ch was too slow to keep up with all of the maneuvers.
The only way she could contribute to the battle at this point was to lend as much cover to the Bright Beam Pri as possible. This way, Venerable Davia Stark would be able to launch her attacks without any other concerns.
The older woman never did anything, though.
The Bright Beam Pri remained still as its ch pilot constantly kept a vigilant eye on the battle.
"Why aren't you doing anything?" Jannzi eventually lost her patience with her current partner.
"I am biding my ti." Venerable Davia calmly replied. "My pri ch can only fire three full-powered attacks according to its maker. I cannot waste these opportunities."
"That.. sounds ridiculous. Who would cobble together a rifleman ch that can only fire three tis in total?"
"Hehehe.. don't underestimate the Bright Beam Pri, young woman." Davia smirked even as she kept observing both the left and right sides of the unfolding engagent. "To be honest, my new ch can also fire regular laser beams, but they're not that powerful and wont make that much of a difference. I would rather lay low and avoid drawing attention to us. A battle of this scale never ends quickly, so don't be concerned."
Her ti had eventually co. She had kept track of the Star Dancer all this ti. Even though she harbored no good thoughts for the Hexers, Venerable Brutus had sincerely taken care of her for many months.
Even though she despised his pathetic Hexer personality and pathological deference towards won, he was not an awful human being.
The ti she spent under his care and attention may not have changed her awful impression towards the Hexer people, but it at least caused her to develop a soft spot for the young and horribly misguided Hexer expert pilot.
Davia briefly shook her head. "You're a brainwashed fool of an expert pilot, Brutus, but you're probably one of the better humans in the galaxy. I will try and save you this one to repay all you have done for . Decency must always be rewarded."
Once she realized that Venerable Brutus was in trouble, Venerable Davia beca serious and resonated with her new ch.
The P-stones embedded in the ch reacted to her aggressive force of will. The entire ch beca surrounded by a dark red glow that stood in stark contrast to the Shield of Samar's gold-coated fra.
The rifle of the pri ch began to glow brighter than the rest of the ch when Venerable Davia pooled as much power as possible into her weapon.
She held her fire when Venerable Ghanso unleashed a salvo that resulted in the elimination of the Star Dancer!
Davia intuitively judged that the Bright Beam Pri was too weak to affect Venerable Ghanso's fully-charged attack.
Besides, as a bystander and a rifleman ch specialist herself, she already guessed that Brutus was able to save himself.
He did not disappoint her expectations. His cockpit managed to escape intact.
It was unfortunate that Venerable Ghanso did not leave it at that! As soon as the Charlemagne adjusted its aim, Venerable Davia already deduced what the enemy expert pilot had in mind!
A lot of calculations went through her mind and her ch as her fully-charged rifle minutely turned.
The Bright Beam Pri unleashed its beam just before the Charlemagne executed Venerable Ghanso's command.
A powerful dark red beam that made anyone who observed its passage feel threatened down to their souls traversed all the way from the rear of the expeditionary forces to the front!
The pri ch's attack was just powerful enough to do its job. Venerable Davia and her new ch managed to precisely cancel out an attack that was incredibly challenging to intercept by any normal human ch pilot!
Venerable Davia had done her utmost to accomplish this nigh-impossible feat!
If her aim was even a centiter off, then a part of the Charlemagne's attack might still go on to strike the vulnerable cockpit!
If her timing was off by a second, then much of the power of her attack would go to waste, thereby giving the Charlemagne's strike enough uninterrupted ti to end Venerable Brutus' life!
"He's safe now." Venerable Davia wearily said as she tried to recover from her arduous exertion.
On the other side of the battlefield, Venerable Ghanso was furious! His attempt to finish off the opponent who annoyed him so much had been ruined by so random marksman ch who fired an odd attack!
His Charlemagne was about to fire again, only for him to widen his eyes before attempting to dodge his ch to the side!
A rain of beams and explosions impacted the Charlemagne's resonance shield!
Ves had personally commanded the surviving Transcendent Punishers to set aside their current actions and hinder Venerable Ghanso's ch as best as possible!
Even though none of the attacks launched by the artillery chs posed a serious threat to the Charlemagne in the short term, they still caused Venerable Ghanso enough trouble to force him to abandon his earlier intentions.
The Scarra chs also ca under bombardnt!
"Blast you, Ves!"
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