Unlike the Shield of Samar, the Prothea did not possess the ability to resist sustained enemy attacks, especially once it expended its resonance shield.
Though its transphasic armor system gave it a moderate advantage against opponents that did not possess any transphasic capabilities themselves, it was unfortunate that the Gauge Dynasty happened to be one of the parties that invested a lot into them since its agents first stepped foot into the Red Ocean!
The research and developnt they allocated to phasewater and its many applications far exceeded that of the Larkinson Clan or any other private organization. As the Gauge Dynasty was as large as a dium-sized state by itself, it had no lack of senior scientists and capable research institutions.
The Gauger ch designers were the most enthused about phasewater technology out of almost anyone else. The Masters among them eagerly experinted with all of the new possibilities that phasewater opened up. Their superior transhuman capabilities also allowed them to learn and master the uses of this complex substance a lot faster than other researchers!
Combined with the fact that the Gauge Dynasty managed to lay claim to nurous colonies that possessed phasewater deposits of varying sizes, the Sundered Phalanx managed to modernize all of its expert chs with remarkable speed.
The Skorpion Kommando was stronger than anyone expected. The main reason for that had to do with the Skorpion Tail and the 'venom' it was able to inject into its victims.
According to the intelligence leaks that the Larkinsons based their battle plans upon, the Skorpion Kommando was able to deal heavy damage to exposed expert chs, but none of the planners ever imagined that its venom could turn the Prothea into a burden with just a surface attack!
If the Shield of Samar hadn't activated its Primal Aegis ability with the help of its design spirit, the stinger would have been able to pierce into the Prothea's armor and inject much of that venom into the expert rifleman ch's crucial internals, thereby disabling it outright!
"This shouldn't be possible!" Ves exclaid. "The Prothea's transphasic armor system is not a piece of cabbage. Its resistance against corrosion-based attacks should have been much greater!"
The Fridayman expert chs that the Viper designed in the past did feature highly effective corrosive fluid formulas that had managed to dissolve the armor of many powerful Hexer expert chs, but these incidents took place in a ti where phasewater technology had not spread to the galactic rim of the old galaxy.
It did not take long until the Larkinson researchers found out why the Skorpion Kommando possessed such abnormally high effectiveness against modern expert chs.
"The new corrosive fluid formulas employed by the Skorpion Kommando are laced with phasewater!"
"What?!" Ves looked surprised when he heard this report. "Even if that is the case, they still shouldn't have been able to eat through both Unending alloy plating and transphasic armor plating so quickly!"
"That is normally the case, but according to an intelligent report from a handful of our Black Cats on the ground, a departnt of the Sundered Phalanx transferred over a kilogram's worth of phasewater to the space station where the Skorpion Kommando was stationed. We believe that the Gaugers augnted the Skorpion Kommando's stock of venom with as much phasewater they are able to carry in a short amount of ti!"
"Damnit!"
This was a brilliant move from the enemy! A huge trading hub like Pima Pri most certainly accumulated a lot of kilograms of phasewater.
The Gauge Dynasty probably prioritized the evacuation of most of it because of their value and because of the difficulty of converting them into anything useful.
Though it would have been great if the locals were able to fabricate stronger and more extravagant transphasic parts for their expert chs, the invading forces arrived too quickly for the Sundered Phalanx to upgrade all of their expert chs.
However, it was still possible for the high-end laboratories on Pima Pri V to produce enhanced corrosive fluids in a hurry, especially if the Viper had already developed the higher-end formulas in advance!
Ves already gained a fairly deep cognition of how the introduction of phasewater would change battles between human ch forces forever. The Skorpion Kommando was nominally an expert space knight, which was supposed to be the least threatening ch type among this category of high-end machines.
Yet by sticking the Skorpion Tail on its back and reserving enough room to contain a reservoir of phasewater-laced corrosive substances, the expert space knight beca even more dangerous than the Shockshell at close range!
"Combat between transphasic chs is largely a competition between who is willing to squander more money. The side with the biggest wallet will often gain the upper hand!"
This was the most painful part about ch combat in the phasewater era. The Larkinson Clan and the rest of the Golden Skull Alliance managed to luck out because they managed to plunder huge amounts of phasewater during the Purgatory Campaign.
If Ves hadn't pushed to go on a small mission to a star system that just happened to contain a hidden phase whale enclave, the Larkinson Clan would have never been able to invest in so many powerful transphasic expert chs.
This would have put the level of its expert chs at the sa height as that of other dium-sized private organizations.
In an alternate reality where the Golden Skull Alliance never comnced the Purgatory Campaign, its ch forces would have never been able to compete against state-backed military forces such as the Sundered Phalanx. The disparity in resources would have been too great!
When Ves figured this out, he felt vindicated for pushing his clan and its allies to not hole up in Davute all of the ti.
Sure, the Larkinson Clan would have definitely been able to develop at a steady trajectory by relying on the growing comrcial success of the Living ch Corporation, but how could the Larkinsons ever catch up to the likes of the Fridayn and other larger players that had access to a lot more population, territory, resources and funding?
If Ves did not want his clan to remain vulnerable to the predation of these larger players, he needed to accelerate the growth of his own ch legions.
Perhaps the performance of the Larkinson Army was quite good during this battle, but that was only because the Hex Army locked down the bulk of the Sundered Phalanx ch divisions.
As groups like the Gauge Dynasty began to adopt phasewater technology on a wider scale, an even greater separation would take place between the bigger players and the smaller players.
Ordinary rcenary outfits and security companies did not have enough access to phasewater!
A lot of phasewater harvested from places like the Friday Colonies were internally consud, which ant that they rarely got sold on the open market.
The market price for phasewater beca ridiculously high for this reason as only an overwhelming premium would convince parties to sell a portion of their reserves to their rivals and competitors.
All of this ant that the importance of gaining a stable supply of phasewater beca more important than ever.
Ves underestimated the value of concluding a business transaction with the Hex Federation. He was lucky that the Hexers valued his ntal Simulation Training System so highly that they were willing to pay 5 kilograms of phasewater to gain access to this revolutionary training thod!
"I need to expand the market for my MSTS." Ves imdiately concluded. "There is no better way for my clan to earn a steady supply of phasewater. I need to play to my advantages."
As Ves continued to think about the importance of obtaining more phasewater to strengthen his forces, Venerable Jannzi and Venerable Isobel were enduring a lot more pressure than before!
When the Prothea got splattered with the Skorpion Kommando's phasewater-rich corrosive fluid, a third of its front and a noticeable amount of internals got dissolved.
This not only opened up a serious weak point in its armor coverage, but also degraded its overall performance paraters by a third!
This drop in performance was extrely serious, and turned the Prothea into a notable liability when fighting against a powerful high-expert ch.
The Prothea was no longer as fast as before due to the damage it sustained, so it beca a lot more difficult for Venerable Isobel's expert ch to maintain its distance from the Skorpion Kommando!
Venerable Isobel endured life-threatening pressure as she piloted her damaged machine to the best of her abilities. More and more of her potential beca unleashed as she tried to squeeze as much power as she could from the Prothea.
Her application of the mysterious thods derived from the Alfari Corps Detonation Code abruptly reached a higher level as she gained inspiration during this battle!
"There is still more I can do!"
She even deepened her cooperation with Zeiga and the Illustrious One, both of whom did not want to see an expert ch that they oversaw as its design spirits fall in its first proper battle!
It was a pity that none of their asures were enough. The Prothea hit harder and inflicted almost just as much damage as before to the exterior of the Skorpion Kommando despite the noticeable drop in power.
Yet the Skorpion Kommando easily endured all of the attacks. Even if its thick frontal armor was beginning to chip away due to getting stuck by repeated explosive energy beam attacks, there were still plenty of layers of hardy transphasic armor left!
Though Venerable Isobel tried her best to concentrate the Ignitron rifle's resonance-empowered attacks onto key targets such as the hands, or the infamous Skorpion Tail, Venerable Oskar always managed to mitigate them by moving his expert ch just a tiny bit out of the way.
"You are 50 years too young to cripple my ch!"
In contrast to Venerable Isobel's relatively unimpressive results, Venerable Jannzi was able to achieve much more results.
The Shield of Samar received a lot more abuse due to receiving the brunt of the Skorpion Kommando's attacks, but the Larkinson expert ch's thick frontal armor and abundant amount of mass made it so that any Skorpion Tail attack only ended up dissolving buffer material rather than more important internal components.
As long as the Shield of Samar was able to retain full power and functionality, it possessed the capital to slow down the Skorpion Kommando, especially now that Venerable Jannzi had fully woken up and exceeded her previous limitations!
The stakes of the battle along with the need to protect Venerable Isobel and her weakened Prothea drove Venerable Jannzi's willpower to new heights.
Alongside that, the Shield of Samar and Qilanxo both deepened their cooperation with their long-standing partner, allowing the trio to develop a more extensive degree of cooperation!
The most drastic benefits of their greater synergies was that the Shield of Samar's true resonance had beco stronger and more condensed.
Jannzi's stronger willpower amplified every performance parater of her expert ch to a greater degree, allowing the Shield of Samar to move faster and exert a stronger gravitic attraction force on the Skorpion Kommando!
"Let go, you stupid woman!"
Despite Venerable Oskar's best attempts to break the Fatal Attraction resonating ability that was preventing the Skorpion Kommando from chasing after the Prothea, his breakout trick no longer worked as effectively as before.
Part of that was because his previous outburst had tired out his strong but still finite willpower.
Another part of it was because Jannzi and Qilanxo had amplified the power of Fatal Attraction!
This was not sustainable though as the amount of exertion required to restrict the movent of a high-tier expert ch was too great for Venerable Jannzi!
"I can't hold the Skorpion Kommando for long." She gritted her teeth. "We need to take it down quickly."
Venerable Isobel quickly made an estimate but shook her head. "My firepower isn't high enough. The Skorpion Kommando's armor is just too strong."
Just as the two Larkinson expert pilots were trying to co up with desperate asures, over a hundred slicer beams struck the Skorpion Kommando and the area around the enemy expert ch!
"WHO DARES?!" Venerable Oskar shouted as the narrow energy beams managed to bite deeper into the armor of his expert ch than they should!
"It's… it's the Battle Criers!" Venerable Isobel's expression lifted up. "Our reinforcents have arrived!"
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