Venerable Orthox De Massie was by far the most threatening known quantity in the enemy ch force.
Any ch pilot who fought during the dwarven rebellion were truly battle-hardened. The conditions for the rebel soldiers back then were so difficult that they had to rely on grit, determination and a willingness to sacrifice a lot of lives in order to defeat the established human powers.
As a survivor of this at grinder, Venerable Orthox not only managed to survive the war, but thrive during the period of rapid growth and consolidation. Being able to strengthen his will during tis of peace was a clear indicator that this was a warrior who never gave up and always prepared for the next fight even if it was decades away!
Every ch pilot who managed to grow stronger did so because they thought it was necessary. This was easy to maintain in tis of war but a lot harder to sustain when there wasn't an obvious need to fight.
Even expert pilots were able to lose their edge after a long period of stagnation. Ti was one of their greatest threats. It was difficult to defend against the consequences of the passage of ti.
Perhaps Orthox may have grown past his physical peak, but his extraordinarily powerful will was more than threatening enough to compensate for that. In any case, expert pilots relied on their expert chs to fight so a weaker body was not that big of a deal.
Patriarch Reginald already looked forward to eting the dwarven high-tier expert pilot in single combat. Perhaps the Cross Patriarch thought that an earnest duel against an equally powerful opponent would be sufficient to push him past the final limit that held him back from becoming an ace pilot.
Though Ves and the others were glad that Patriarch Reginald volunteered to block Venerable Orthox and the Gatecrasher, there were nurous other notable expert pilots among the dwarves.
Every expert pilot the Ferrils showed off in public had to be good enough to impress their audience. There were no rookies or weaklings among their public heroes.
Calabast quickly went through the other four notable dwarven expert pilots.
"Venerable Leiva Hinder is the quintessential slug ranger. She is a mid-tier expert pilot who pilots an expert heavy artillery ch called the Gauss Baron."
Venerable Leiva's portrait showed off the visage of a ferocious, red-haired middle-aged dwarven woman. Her eyes radiated the bloodthirstiness of killers. She looked as if she was more than willing to shoot up an entire space station just to sate her need to kill!
Everyone focused on her expert ch next.
"As its na suggests, the Gauss Baron is built around its set of eight powerful gauss cannons. Each of them are built to so of the highest standards that the Vulcan Empire can develop at their size. While we haven't been able to find out if the Gauss Baron carries other weapon systems, it's best to assu it is hiding a couple of surprises."
The Gauss Baron looked incredibly formidable. It was already bad enough to face a powerful heavy artillery ch in a spaceborn battlefield with no natural cover on the battlefield. It was even worse when it ca in the form of an expert ch that looked like it could crush any standard ch with each shot it fired!
""Hmmm, according to this data, this expert ch's gauss cannons feature high impact, high penetration and high muzzle velocity. It excels at destroying large, relatively immobile targets such as starships but it can also suppress light skirmishers at range due to its abundant amount of cannons. The only real limitations that I can see are its low firing rate and the limited ammunition capacity of the Gauss Baron."
"Ammunition and other supplies are easy enough to replenish with enough support." Ves comnted. "If it functions as a bunker ch, then it can easily rely on the carrier to provide additional gauss rounds on demand. If it is deployed in space, then a retinue of support chs will be able to carry all of the gauss rounds it needs. For an organized ch army, lack of ammunition capacity is not a real detrint."
Venerable Brutus looked incredibly serious at this expert ch. Without a comparable machine that could compete against any expert ch, he was unable to do anything to stop its destructive firepower.
"This Gauss Baron is an even greater threat than the Gatecrasher in my opinion." The Hexer expert pilot said. "The Gatecrasher may be a high-tier expert ch, but it's effective range stretches up to a hundred ters or less. The Gauss Baron on the other hand can inflict crippling damage many kiloters away. In fact, it can effectively threaten our capital ships at distances far beyond conventional ranges as long as it has the rounds to spare. It's a one-ch sieging army."
Although that latter part was a bit of an exaggeration, his point was still valid. Brutus rightfully highlighted the possibility for the Gauss Baron to win this battle single-handedly by inflicting catastrophic damage before the proper battle even began!
Ves slapped his palm against the conference table. "We need to take it out straight away. We can't let such a huge source of firepower run amok throughout the entire engagent. Each minute it remains active it can kill another ship or damage one of our expert chs."
"During the Battle of Reckoning, we managed to overpower the enemy's strongest ranged assets." General Verle reminded everyone. "This was one of the key factors why we were able to achieve victory. Our ranged chs and our Transcendent Punishers in particular were able to continually suppress and whittle down the enemy chs without too much interference. If we don't stop Venerable Leiva soon enough, she will be able to do as much damage as all of our Transcendent Punishers put together!"
Everyone looked at each other for a mont.
"The dwarves will do their best to protect the Gauss Baron." Marshal Ariadne Wodin said with certainty. "It will either be deployed in a special bunker that is built especially for this expert ch, or it will be deployed in space but under heavy guard by the Molten Hamrs. No matter what, all of our attempts to attack the Gauss Baron must first go through multiple layers of defense."
The Golden Skull Alliance not only had to overco all of the external defenses, but also punch through the expert heavy artillery ch's own defenses! Its imnse size and bulk already suggested that both its resonance shield and armor system were almost just as tough as that of a heavy space knight!
General Verle turned to Ves. "Can the Amaranto take out the Gauss Baron by itself?"
"That's… highly unlikely." Ves reluctantly replied. "The Amaranto's fully-powered shot is incredibly powerful and can negate specific forms of defense, but if the Gauss Baron is hiding behind multiple layers of defense, then that can bleed a lot of energy even before a beam actually hits this artillery ch. Even if a shot manages to penetrate Venerable Leiva's expert ch, it is too large not to incorporate a high degree of redundancy and compartntalization. Even if half of its fra is shot to pieces, it can probably continue to fire most of its cannons."
The discussion continued for a little while until General Verle finally set aside this topic.
"We can't determine our response until we can finally get a good look at the enemy fleet and ch deploynt. The Gauss Baron is a singularly powerful threat, but it is not the only one we need to be worried about."
Calabast nodded. "The Hivar Roarers also have a champion of their own. Venerable rek Bulfuron is a relatively young expert pilot but possesses a great deal of talent. He has quickly risen up to beco a mid-tier expert pilot. He is also noted for his religious fervor. He is a strong adherent of the Dwarven God Cult, which in the past might have landed him in trouble but is now a strong point in his favor. The Paravad he pilots is an avian expert dium marauder ch that is fast, flexible and capable of fighting at different ranges depending on the circumstances."
The Paravad was basically a multipurpose expert ch that was shaped like a bird. Similar to other marauder chs such as the Valkyrie Redeer, the Paravad excelled at flanking, ranged harassnt and hit-and-run attacks.
The biggest difference was that Venerable rek was able to perform this function at the expert ch level, which was a lot more threatening and difficult to defend against.
Ves could already envision the Paravad operating independently or at the head of a dedicated mobile flanking force. This detached dwarven unit would probably function as one of the few independent elents that was free to sneak around the back of the expeditionary fleet and threaten the vulnerable civilian ships at the rear!
Perhaps the Paravad did not excel at frontal combat as other expert chs, but it didn't need to be. Its ability to maneuver around the Golden Skull Alliance's defenses and hit its weak points was an incredibly alarming prospect!
All in all, these three dwarven heroes exerted a huge amount of pressure onto Golden Skull Alliance. The different strengths of the three dwarven expert pilots and their respective expert chs were so formidable that the Larkinsons and so on had to prepare specific responses for each of them. If not, any of these powerful expert pilots could single-handedly overturn the entire battle and tilt the battle in the favor of the Ferrils!
Calabast wasn't able to na any further notable dwarven expert pilots even though they had to exist. It was likely that they were low-tier expert pilots and not really worth publicizing.
Though no expert pilot with an expert ch was a pushover, they should at least be a little more manageable in battle.
After discussing a few more preliminary battle plans, the eting ended. It was convened in haste and everyone barely made any preparations at this ti. Calabast also needed a lot more ti to gather relevant and reliable intelligence. Since many details had yet to be determined, it was better to save the detailed battle planning for later.
"How much ti do we have?" Ves asked.
Calabast shrugged. "That's difficult to determine, but we should have at least a couple of hours at our disposal. I suggest you prepare as much as possible. Don't hold anything back. If the Ferrils have done their howork, then they must have definitely taken both our numbers and our previous battle performances into account."
"Are they aware of the capabilities we have shown during the Battle of Reckoning?"
This was a dreadful possibility. If so of the trump cards that his clan had recently shown beca exposed, then that would heavily limit their effectiveness in the upcoming battle!
The spymaster offered Ves an encouraging smile. "I think the dwarves don't have any details. The Fridayn is probably more than willing to share its logs and battle footage of the Battle of Reckoning to anyone that is willing to attack us. The problem is that the Vulcanites hate humans. They will never ask the Fridayn for assistance."
"What if the Fridayn approach the Vulcanites on their own initiative and proactively share their data?"
"That is even more unlikely." Calabast chuckled. "Though we have already found out about the attack, don't forget that it is a secret operation. There is no word about it on the galactic net and the Ferril Province has not publicized or leaked out any obvious intention of turning against us. Besides, I doubt the Fridayn are paying attention to us these days. We have moved too far away from their sphere of influence."
This was good news if it was true. Though Ves was aware that a lot of rumors were floating around on the galactic net, it was difficult to distinguish truth from fiction. The Fridayn and the Garlener clans that participated in the battle weren't generous enough to broadcast their own humiliating defeat to the rest of the galaxy.
Ves smirked… All hope was not yet lost. As long as the dwarves didn't have a solid idea of what his clan's battle networks were capable of, then the Larkinson Army at least retained one powerful advantage over their foes!
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