The ’majestic’ airfleet of the Larkinson Clan resembled a giant animal armada.
Almost every vehicle and ch was organic in nature. Their exterior either consisted of resilient flesh, skin or bone. Combined with the deliberate bestial aesthetic that the local designers adored, the airfleet might as well consist of hundreds of primal creatures!
Though the vehicles looked incredibly disturbing to humans who weren’t citizens of the Life Research Association, the local citizens were accustod to seeing them. The sight of the massive airfleet awed and reassured many people, especially as the Larkinsons started their peacekeeping operations.
Over the weeks, the newly-inducted clansn increased the cohesion of the fleet in various ways. Aside from unifying command and control, seasoned Larkinsons such as Commander Casella Ingvar paid close attention to the uniforms and color sches of the recent additions.
Issuing the sa uniforms to every new recruit was a great way to increase everyone’s belonging and identity to their new clan!
The Larkinsons also changed the color sche of every bioch and vehicle in order to match the standard red color sche of the Larkinson Clan. This caused the airfleet to look like a tide of red. The extra touches of white, black and golden motifs broke the monotony and made the biovehicles look more impressive.
In truth, the airfleet was just a giant caravan of random biochs and refugee vehicles. The only reason why it gained a reputation of strength was because it had never clashed against a strong adversary.
This beca very evident when chaos started to spread after the airfleet got shelled!
The biovehicles under fire quickly began to perform evasive maneuvers regardless of the fact that they were in the middle of a formation!
So of the fleet elents left the protective envelope and flew away from the crowd. Other vehicles paid so little attention to where they were moving that they almost collided against other vehicles! If not for the automated safety and anti-collision features of these advanced organic vessels, a lot of passengers would have lost their lives due to the mistakes of fellow clansn!
Ves witnessed all of this happening by looking at the projections in the command center. The proud and fad airfleet he managed to build up over the course of his forced stay on the surface of Prosperous Hill VI was already starting to fall apart at the seams!
The newly-recruited Larkinsons showed their lack of rigor at this ti. Unlike the Larkinsons in the expeditionary fleet who had been baptized in war, these forr Lifers did not undergo any training and experiences where they could toughen up their ntalities.
The original Larkinsons that Ves brought to the surface tried their best to reassert control.
Commander Casella urgently issued new instructions on the command net. "Spread out but don’t move on your own initiative! Follow your new track and await further orders!"
As shells continued to rain down the airfleet from afar, a couple vehicles that got hit multiple tis already started to crack, bleed or even fall apart!
Nurous smaller shuttles which were more fragile than other vessels even began to crash to the ground!
So clansn managed to evacuate their vessels in ti, but the initial volleys already harvested the lives of hundreds of Larkinsons.
"Knight chs! Shield the most vulnerable vessels!" Venerable Jannzi roared as her Bright Warrior flew in front of a damaged biotransport that carried dozens of families!
Under the rallying cry of an expert pilot, many ch pilots regained their composure and perford their duties.
The biochs with shields covered the beleaguered air vessels as they spread out and slowly lowered their altitude.
The chs with ranged weapons either fired back at the calculated origin point of the enemy shelling or tried to intercept the incoming ordnance.
Ves was not satisfied with the slow and sluggish reactions. The quality of the clansn at his disposal was worse than he thought. The irregular recruiting effort along with the lack of veteran Larkinsons in the ranks caused him to have an overinflated impression of their competence.
Their first true setback as a mber of the Larkinson Clan cruelly exposed their actual readiness!
While bombardnts were scary, the airfleet was not without the ans to resist. Ves and his leaders based their current strategy around the assumption that they would be able to deal with this kind of situation.
Unfortunately, the mostly-civilian ch pilots they employed in recent weeks rarely encountered this kind of situation.
Getting shelled by heavy chs only happened in wars, not small-scale skirmishes between private outfits!
The shock and surprise factor caused many of them to believe that they were being attacked by an entire ch army!
Though the Larkinsons in the airfleet slowly began to sort themselves out, the speed at which they did so left much to be desired. They were acting like headless chickens who only ford up because others were forcing them to move to the right spot.
Ves beca rightfully pissed, but this was not the ti for him to blow up at his own subordinates. Right now, they needed to resolve the imdiate crisis!
"Tusa!" He directly called his cousin.
"Your orders, sir?" Venerable Tusa Billingsley-Larkinson replied as he jumped inside the cockpit of his ch.
"Get out there and lead a bunch of fast-moving chs to annihilate the attackers!"
"Will do, sir, but let warn you that our other chs won’t be able to keep up with my machine."
"It doesn’t matter, just go ahead first! If my guess is correct, the ultralifers have deployed modest-sized detachnts of artillery chs and escort chs. You don’t have to touch the latter but you must absolutely neutralize the forr! The faster the shelling stops, the more lives you save. Speed is of the essence!"
Venerable Tusa welled with fury. "You’ve gone to the right person for that. I’ll take care of it pronto!"
When the Piranha Pri erged from a ch transport, it zipped forth at full speed, not even bothering to wait for backup to gather.
Even though he still didn’t have access to a genuine expert ch, Tusa had gained an abundant amount of confidence in his ability to defeat regular ch units.
The cris and depravities he witnessed during his stay on this planet parsed through his mind. Recalling each of these incidents caused him to accumulate more and more indignation.
He had an especially strong dislike towards the ultralifers. What did Ves and the Larkinsons do to them? Why did they insist on launching unprovoked attacks over and over?
"These ultralifers need to be cleaned up!" He growled. "If these radicals think that the Larkinsons are willing to continue taking hits, then they have another thing coming!"
It took a lot to make Tusa truly angry. The more he stayed on Prosperous Hill VI, the more he questioned his ideals. The reality of the situation brutally crushed his overly-optimistic views on freedom and put him in a cycle of confusion and self-doubt.
Yet at this mont, the expert pilot pushed all of those difficult questions aside.
His clansn were under attack!
Though the refugees who recently joined the clan barely qualified as Larkinsons in his eyes, he still had an obligation to treat and defend them like any other clansman!
Seeing the newest batch of Larkinsons suffering and dying in front of his eyes sent him over the edge! As he urgently piloted his light ch to cut through the air and fly over hundreds of different tree structures, he gradually realized that his earlier dilemmas were distracting him from what truly mattered.
His doubts faded from his mind. While he still hadn’t resolved the questions in his mind, he recognized that so freedoms mattered more than other freedoms.
The freedom to live was one of the most essential rights of humans. Tusa strongly believed in his principle.
Yet his attempts to police this planet had taught him that there was only so much a single expert pilot could do. In addition, a lot of scum didn’t deserve the freedoms they enjoyed.
He was not an ally of justice or a beacon of righteousness. It was futile to try and make everything right in human space.
He recognized that he should focus on activities that were within his capacity to fulfill.
"I can’t fight for every innocent human in the galaxy, but I can definitely fight on behalf of my family and comrades!"
As a trueblood mber of the Larkinson Clan, it was his right and duty to stand up for the Larkinsons. He saw nothing wrong with showing favoritism. The freedoms he enjoyed such as the right to pilot the unique Piranha Pri ca from the clan to begin with. There was no future for him if he did not ensure the freedom of his fellow clansn!
Righteousness burned from his force of will as it flowed into his pri ch. Its receptive Unending alloy began to resonate with his burning fury.
"The ultralifers must be punished!"
Although the Piranha Pri did not excel in aerial combat, the ch that Tusa piloted was an upgraded variant. It contained a lot of high-end parts that forcibly elevated the performance of the pri ch!
It took less than five minutes for the Piranha Pri to reach the hostile artillery unit.
Venerable Tusa rapidly took in the numbers, ch composition and positions of the enemy force.
Just as predicted, the ultralifers fielded around three bioch companies. Only fifteen consisted of heavy artillery chs, though they barely fit this description.
The six-legged biochs looked similar to the Swarm Monarch that Doctor Navarro deployed in the design duel. The only difference was that the artillery chs in the hands of the ultralifers were smaller, slimr and apparently more mobile. The artillery cannons mounted on their backs were smaller in caliber but dangerous nonetheless.
Each of them were loosely surrounded by a plethora of light and dium humanoid and bestial biochs. The escort force consisted of many different ch models, but Tusa did not spot any signs of disorganization despite the sporadic counter-fire they received from the airfleet’s counterattack.
He knew that would change very soon.
"Catch if you can!"
His pri ch dove towards one of the artillery biochs, dodging nurous shells, positron beams and kinetic rounds along the way. Though so of the attacks hit the mark, the Unending alloy layer ensured that none of them dealt a lot of damage.
"DEATH!"
The Piranha Pri ca close enough for its heavy, disorienting glow to affect every nearby ch pilot in the vicinity.
Tusa noticed that the ultralifer ch pilots didn’t expect to get exposed to suppressive glows. He grinned wider as he saw that nurous chs montarily froze or lost control.
The daggers of his pri ch sunk into the artillery bioch without effort! The force of the Piranha Pri’s dive practically forced the poor insectile machine to its knees. The attacking ch kept stabbing the wounded ch at various points until it collapsed while bleeding a copious amount of blood.
"Next!"
The Piranha Pri jumped into the air and soared onto the next artillery ch, completely ignoring the futile counterattacks by the escorts.
Every lee ch that attempted to co close quickly collapsed as their ch pilots were unable to handle the duel pressure of a heavy and suppressive glow.
Every ranged ch that attempted to fire their weapons at the rampaging light ch either missed their shots, held their fire for fear of hitting friendly chs, or simply achieved no observable damage due to their target’s unreasonable defensive properties.
It took less than two minutes for the Piranha Pri to silence all of the heavy artillery units! Their limited mobility ensured that none of them were able to retreat before Tusa exacted his retribution!
By the ti the first wave of Larkinson reinforcents arrived, the nightmarish Piranha Pri was already in the process of slaughtering the escort chs.
Now that the ultralifers were finally aware that the single high-quality light ch was not sothing they could deal with, their commander decisively ordered the surviving biochs to scatter!
The attackers who ambushed the Larkinson airfleet were running like dogs!
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