Ves never encountered an ace pilot and ace ch before in his entire life.
Back when he lived in the Bright Republic, these existences were too powerful and distant to the likes of him. They only showed up occasionally in second-rate states, but even then they were treated as the trump cards and the crown jewels of their respective people.
Whereas an average citizen still had the opportunity to get in touch with an expert pilot if they tried hard or if they were lucky, ace pilots were too grand and special for others to approach!
The descriptions that Ves had read about ace pilots was that they were much more closer to gods than humans. There was no way that anyone could mistake them as average and that they were noticeably less bound by human constraints and conventions than normal!
Their willpower was legendary, and it took an unimaginable amount of struggle and introspection for them to rise above the height of other expert pilots.
They were so driven to pursue their goals, ideals or convictions that not even reality could stop them from fulfilling what they perceived to be their duty!
They were living Saints, inhuman warriors and soldiers whose excellence put them close to the apex of human society no matter their origins or background!
Each of them possessed an incomparably honored status in the ch Trade Association. Should they ever feel disgusted or beco alienated with the states they originally owed their loyalty to, ace pilots always had the option to beco a part of one of the Big Two, which would completely propel them to entirely new heights!
It was because of the latter that cultivating and keeping ace pilots into service was incredibly challenging. Third-rate states simply couldn't afford the resources required to commission and maintain a powerful ace ch!
Even second-rate states were enormously burdened by the huge amount of requirents they had to fulfill in order to retain a small group of ace pilots.
Yet it was worth it. To those who could afford the enormous expense and trouble, the value of an ace pilot equipped with a fitting ace ch was imasurable, both on and off the battlefield!
In tis of peace, an ace pilot was a national symbol, a hero beyond compare and a model that every ch pilot in a state aspired to follow.
No one knew how to pilot chs and fight with them better than an ace pilot. Their piloting skills were so inhumanly powerful that they could even guide the training of expert pilots!
This ant that the expert pilots who managed to obtain the tutelage of a Saint faced fewer bottlenecks and could potentially save years of groping around in the dark. Ultimately, this led to a collective increase of strength in the high-level combat strength of an entire state.
It was not incorrect to say that a single ace pilot was the strongest contributing factor to enabling the rise of high-tier expert pilots!
This was also the main reason why Patriarch Reginald Cross was close to advancing to ace pilot himself. The tutelage and training provided by his father played an indispensable role in his relatively rapid advancent.
Yet no matter how close he was to becoming an ace pilot, the enormous wall in front of him couldn't be overco with just a casual push!
There was a vast difference in strength between high-tier expert pilots and the freshest ace pilot.
What was more horrible was that once an individual managed to succeed where thousands if not tens of thousands of expert pilots had failed, their impressive qualifications enabled them to enjoy a rapid period of developnt right afterwards, causing their effective combat strength to soar in a single decade!
Once they beca a halfgod, it would be a long ti before they encountered another bottleneck.
While junior ace pilots were noticeably weaker than senior ace pilots, properly speaking both of them still belonged to the sa broad tier.
Whereas Senior ch Designers had to struggle imnsely in order to realize their design philosophies, a junior ace pilot only needed a good ace ch and a good training environnt to slowly work to becoming a senior ace pilot.
Once they reached this point, a senior ace pilot had beco one of the foremost ch pilots of human civilization.
Since god pilots almost never showed their might in human-to-human conflicts, ace pilots were the pinnacle soldiers that states could deploy in their wars.
Even then, ace pilots rarely intervened and only fought the battles that truly mattered. The loss of each one was incomparably painful. Not only would their fall inflict a huge morale blow to friendly troops, but it would also deprive a state of a high-tier expert pilot training machine!
This led to a custom where ace pilots were treated in a similar fashion to weapons of mass destruction. They were too destructive and risky to deploy in battle, so they were most often used as a form of deterrence.
The existence of a sufficient number of ace pilots was often enough for a losing state to give its opposition so scruples.
"A state or organization with an ace pilot is a completely different beast."
There were many reasons for that, but just their amazing combat power was enough to upend the equation of many battles!
When the expeditionary fleet initially discovered that an unknown dwarven frigate and dwarven ace ch had erged from hiding and aggressively accelerated closer, every human panicked.
Even though an ace ch was just a single machine, no one dared to take it lightly!
The ergence of the dwarven frigate at this ti was obviously not a coincidence. The fact that this new group was heading directly towards the intruding human visitors did not bode well for the latter.
No one had forgotten that Ves had essentially triggered the collapse of the Vulcan Empire and the deaths of a huge number of dwarven citizens!
How could a Vulcanite ace pilot ever stand by when the culprit responsible for ruining his or own state happened to be so close?
Even from a distance of over 100,000 kiloters away, Ves could faintly feel an intense hostility directly pressing on his heart!
"We need to get out of here!"
"We're evacuating towards the nearest Lagrange point, but our larger and slower vessels can't exceed the acceleration of an ace ch and a frigate-class vessel! According to our current estimates, the unknown enemies will enter our defensive envelope 40 minutes before our main vessels can jump out of this star system! Only our faster and smaller sub-capital ships can evacuate safely!"
"Then transfer our civilians as well as any non-essential personnel we can spare to these swift boats and get them out of here first!"
"We'll strain their life support systems if we do that, sir. They can't take on too many passengers without performing ti-consuming modifications."
"Then put them into vacsuits and transfer additional supplies over to them! Be creative. This is an ergency right now and we can't risk our civilians!"
The entire expeditionary fleet was scrambling due to the appearance of a single ch. It sounded absolutely ridiculous for the Golden Skull Alliance to beco so spooked by a single machine, but this was no joke. Even if the enemy ace ch wouldn't be able to beat tens of thousands of chs, it could certainly wipe out a huge chunk of the fleet in the process!
When a shuttle speedily returned to the Spirit of Bentheim, Ves and Lucky raced to the bridge.
Every ship in the fleet had entered red alert. Alarms were ringing through the corridors and red lights flashed as if to emphasize the urgency of the mont.
For now, the expeditionary fleet considered the current threat to be no weaker than the Ferril punitive fleet they fought off earlier!
"How strong is an ace ch?!"
"I have no idea."
"I heard they can fight against a thousand chs at once."
"Pff. Just a thousand? Try at least ten tis as much!"
"I've heard stories where they wiped out entire ch armies by themselves!"
"That's only under ideal circumstances where the ace ch is able to force the enemy to fight on its terms."
Not many Larkinsons possessed a clear idea on the actual combat performance of ace chs. This was a deficiency in knowledge that couldn't be helped.
Though ace pilots and ace chs were fad and admired throughout human space, much of the public information about them was too general. Even the footage of ace chs in action hardly clarified anything. They just existed to propagandize the Saints and make them look cool.
Ves wasn't any better off. The ch design universities didn't teach anything about ace chs because the chance that any graduate would ever get to work with them was too miniscule!
This kind of high-end knowledge simply wasn't accessible to Ves and everyone else in the Larkinson Clan.
This was a potentially fatal flaw. knowing your enemy was extrely crucial in finding a way to beat it. Without knowing the properties of an ace ch, Ves couldn't be sure what asures he needed to take to defeat such a monstrous opponent.
Fortunately, the Larkinson Clan wasn't alone.
"Marshal Ariadne Wodin! Patriarch Reginald Cross! We need to talk on an ergency channel!" Ves shouted in a priority channel as he continued on his way to the bridge.
The current crisis situation did not provide him with the luxury to calmly talk about the current issue. Every minute counted as the enemy at the rear continued to close in at a steady rate!
Once Ves reached the bridge and sat on his observer's seat, he set up a privacy screen and accepted an impromptu conference call between the other leaders of the Golden Skull Alliance.
He quickly noted that Patriarch Reginald had brought along Professor Benedict as well. He didn't mind the added presence as a Senior ch Designer most certainly possessed a greater insight on ace chs. Together with Patriarch Reginald's second-hand information on ace pilots, the duo from the Cross Clan definitely knew more about their current opponent than anyone else in the fleet!
"You did it again, Ves. You provoked another powerful enemy." Professor Benedict tiredly sighed.
Ves felt quite miserable about that. How could he know that a frigate carrying an invaluable ace ch had been hiding in this asteroid belt for months if not years just to see whether soone would co and sniff around?
There was definitely sothing fishy about this, but the imdiate crisis was too acue for him to get distracted about these superfluous topics!
"We don't have much ti, so let's put the non-essential matters aside." Ves said with a touch of urgency in his voice. "What can you tell about the enemy closing in on our heels?"
"You don't want to fight against a proper ace ch." Reginald said with a grave expression. His eyes turned gloomy as he thought about the distant enemy. "Even I don't want to fight against this dwarven machine. The gap in strength is too big."
Ves looked a bit shocked. He always saw the Cross Patriarch as a gloryhound obsessed with challenging strong opponents to stimulate a breakthrough. Another powerful enemy had co to his doorstep now, but instead of accepting the challenge like usual, Reginald resolutely refused to contemplate the idea of fighting an ace ch!
"Are ace chs truly that strong?"
The three older people in the conference call shared deep glances with each other.
"You have no idea, Patriarch Ves." Marshal Ariadne shook her head and broke the silence. "In the Komodo War, the ace chs of the Friday Coalition or the Hexadric Hegemony only took action a handful of tis so far. Each ti they acted on their opponents, an ocean of chs fell without inflicting any harm. Not even a whole ch division has a chance of victory against such powerful machines. This is no longer an opponent where overwhelming numbers can ensure victory."
The pressure on Ves grew heavier now that he beca a little more aware how dreadful it was to be targeted by an ace ch!
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