Venerable Brutus was safe for the mont.
The Bright Beam Pri expended a precious full-powered shot in order to preserve the life of an expert pilot that had already served his usefulness on the battlefield.
With the destruction of the Star Dancer, Venerable Brutus was no longer a valuable asset as far as Ves was concerned.
A part of him even felt it was a waste for the Bright Beam Pri to intervene in saving the Hexer expert pilot's life.
The intervening attack not only wasted one of the three powerful chances of the Bright Beam Pri, but also exposed its existence to the enemy!
However, when Ves glanced at Gloriana looking incredibly relieved after she thought that her brother was about to die, his discontent faded.
He did not want his wife to suffer the pain of losing a loved one. He had lost his mother early on in his life, so he knew how much it hurt to live through this kind of experience.
Besides, on a pragmatic level, Venerable Brutus was still a bona fide expert pilot who would continue to add to the strength of the expeditionary fleet for many years in the future.
Ves wouldn't care too much about Brutus if he was as old and feeble as Venerable O'Callahan, but he was barely older than Gloriana. This ant that he was able to provide a lot of value to Ves over many decades and perhaps even centuries.
There was no way that Ves wanted to lose such a long-lasting asset when it was still in the early stages of its product life cycle.
This was why he commanded the Transcendent Punishers to redirect their firepower to smash the Charlemagne and the Scarra to the point where they couldn't take anymore potshots at the escaping cockpit.
That, and it just felt good to smack Venerable Ghanso around.
A couple of other Fridayn chs attacked the cockpit as well, but its sturdy construction was no joke. The cockpit only suffered a bit after it was grazed by a gauss round, but nurous Glory Seeker chs quickly arrived and escorted it until it was safely able to reach the Indigo Tremor's hangar bay.
"I'm not sure you should have done that." Major Verle's projection quietly spoke to Ves. "Our artillery were doing a fine job of pressuring the elite Fridayman chs. Now that you have predicted our firepower away, the enemies they've previously suppressed are now unleashed."
Ves minutely shook his head. "If Venerable Brutus dies, the morale of the Glory Seekers will sink. Besides, now that the Star Dancer is no able to keep the Charlemagne and the Scarra occupied, my cousin Ghanso can reinforce the other expert pilots on his side. We can't allow him and his remaining Scarra ch to precipitate a collapse at his side of the battlefield."
The unfolding clashes were all locked in a very tenuous balance. If even one of them tipped over, a cascade of defeats might quickly ensue that would spell inevitable doom to Ves!
Major Verle quickly understood the logic. "You're right. While we have managed to eliminate a lot of Scarra chs, enough of them remain to pose a great threat to the remainder of our forces, especially when they are exhausted to this extent."
The Glory Seekers and the Crosser chs that had sward the Fridayman expert chs had achieved considerable results at this ti!
An expert space knight serving in the Oni Guard had succumbed from all of the attacks it attempted to block. It had done an admirable job in intercepting the flood of attacks directed to the more vulnerable expert chs, but the machine had eventually collapsed due to the incredible amount of punishnt it was forced to endure!
Another expert ch piloted by a foreigner hired by the Vanguard Group had succumbed as well. The expert striker ch was one of the most destructive chs against masses of standard chs.
The powerful striker ch had actually felled hundreds more Glory Seeker and Crosser chs than the other Fridayman expert chs!
Taking it down was a high priority to the expeditionary forces. After sacrificing a lot of chs, the Hexers and Crossers managed to destroy the expert striker ch's flight system, thereby impairing mobility to the point where a lot of concentrated attacks managed to breach its thick shell and take out the fla-spewing monstrosity for good!
The two aforentioned expert chs weren't the only ones that sustained significant damage. The other Fridayman expert chs aside from the Charlemagne and the Jeanne D'Arc also suffered a lot of damage from getting hit at least a thousand tis!
Although that sounded like an absurd amount of attacks, the armor systems of expert chs were much better than any standard chs. Combined with superior mobility and the uncanny skill and intuition of expert pilots, it was not a surprise the remaining expert chs managed to hang on. Teamwork also played a role in preserving their strength.
Though the surviving expert chs were unquestionably damaged and low on so of their reserves, it was too difficult to finish the job.
The Glory Seekers and Crossers had lost too many chs to make it to this point!
They ca in with over 4000 standard chs as well as the Star Dancer and the Leskin. Now, the Star Dancer was drifting into space in the form of a half-complete husk while the wreckage and debris of 3000 other machines kept it company!
The loss of so many chs significantly depleted the firepower and the morale of the remaining forces assigned to block the Fridayman expert chs.
In fact, the original battle plan called for the thousands of chs to crush the enemy expert chs. It was too bad that the powerful enemy machines were just too good at eliminating swarms of weaker chs!
The expert striker ch as well as occasional attacks from Venerable Ghanso had taken a huge toll on the brave Glory Seeker and Crosser ch pilots.
Due to the incredible lethality and penetrative power of expert chs, much of the chs they took out also killed the pilots. A significant portion of the wrecks also carried traces of human remains!
This was an especially major loss to the Cross Clan. Every ch pilot in the clan was not only a trueblood mber of a much-diminished clan, but also a highly-trained veteran that had survived the calamitous flight from Vicious Mountain.
Such high-quality ch pilots were incredibly difficult to replace to the Cross Clan!
Unlike the abnormal Larkinson Clan that had opened its doors wide to any talented outsider, the Cross Clan wasn't able to rely on external recruitnt to replenish its depleted manpower.
It was practically unheard of for a long-standing clan to open its doors. That would affect internal cohesion far too much while also allowing a lot of people with ulterior motives to corrupt the clan from within.
This was why organizations like the Cross Clan only sparingly recruiting outsiders. Their main source of manpower always relied on internal replenishnt.
That took ti. A lot of ti. Far too much ti considering their precarious strength.
Of course, these were later concerns for the Crossers. For now, Ves saw that the artillery support provided by the Transcendent Punishers offered the remaining Glory Seekers and Crossers crucial help in constraining the surviving expert chs.
It beca more important than ever to seek a quick advantage sowhere.
Ves turned his attention to the confrontation against the elite Fridayn ch troops not too far away.
His greatest hope for victory lied here.
While a lot of chs had already fallen in this grueling slugfest, there were plenty of chs left on both sides to make it relatively even.
No. That wasn't quite true. Ves recognized that the Fridayn had started off with a slight advantage and were quickly in the process of expanding their lead.
The reason for this was because the Transcendent Punishers no longer forced their heads down!
"Gloriana!" Ves shouted from the rear of the bridge.
"What is it?" She asked as she slowly cald down after seeing her brother make it back.
"If you want to keep your brother and the rest of us alive, you must rein yourself in and focus on what you can do to help. Pay attention to the observation data provided by the Valkyrie Pri. I recently installed a very good sensor on it that can make detailed scans on any ch within its range. Take a look at it and take your revenge on the Fridayn in your own way!"
Tears stopped flowing from her eyes as determination welled from her heart. Her fear turned into anger as she thought of how close she was to losing the relative who had accompanied her throughout her life!
"These Fridayn will pay…"
Her purple-armored form sat back onto the chair. She accessed the data supplied by the Valkyrie Pri and beca surprised at the breadth and depth of information she received.
"This is ridiculous! No sensor is that good, especially in a battle!"
She quickly set aside her amazent as her fury took over again. She could not allow those who threatened her and her family to get away with their actions!
She soon imrsed herself in the detailed data. As a consummate ch designer who constantly strove for perfection, she was extrely familiar in all of the ways that made chs flawed.
The varied chs of the Holvein Grenadiers, the Bloody Herons, the Silent Swords and so other troops beca an open book to her determined gaze.
The designs themselves didn't contain any major flaws. The Fridayman ch Designers weren't that sloppy most of the ti. Even if she identified a number of design vulnerabilities, they weren't really weak enough to change the equation.
What truly stood out to her was the flaws that erged when the chs sustained battle damage. As long as the ch in question bore at least so holes, their fra gained at least a dozen additional weak points aside from the obvious holes!
Anyone could tell that a breach in the armor represented a major vulnerability. The ch pilot who piloted a damaged ch would always do their utmost to prevent their enemies from targeting those holes.
Yet what about the weak points that weren't visible? Sotis, the ch's operating system identified so of these vulnerabilities and helpfully conveyed them to their pilot.
They weren't perfect however. So weak points were not as obvious. It took a ch designer of Gloriana's caliber to determine how certain changes opened up new opportunities.
She analyzed the observation data of a single Holvein Grenadier ch that suffered a breach in the lower waist area. She did not even lift her finger to manipulate any projection. In the interest of efficiency, she utilized her implant to point out a dozen new vulnerabilities.
She identified that the armor plate on the side of the ch had loosened a bit. It could probably be dislodged if it was attacked with physical force coming from a specific direction.
Within a second, she rapidly conveyed a lot of other exploitable vulnerabilities to the Spirit of Bentheim. After the ship's systems inspected the data, they uploaded it to the communication network that constantly supplied relevant data to all friendly chs.
An Avatar ch pilot that confronted the Holvein Grenadier ch beca surprised as his view of the enemy ch had changed. The overlay highlighted the additional vulnerabilities.
In fact, ever since the Valkyrie Pri had entered the fray, the surrounding chs already received so additional information. The Odineye was already capable of interpreting and identifying the most obvious vulnerabilities by itself!
Now that its power was combined with a ch designer that could make much better use of the data, the battle gradually swung back in the favor of the expeditionary forces!
It wasn't just Gloriana who was supplying the chs at the frontline with crucial information. Ves and the rest of the Design Departnt were hard at work as well.
The more data they supplied, the faster the Fridayn lost their chs!
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