The Skinny Rattlers clearly earned a lot of success in the past by making use of the advantages of the chs sold by the LMC.
Yet their most valuable gains only beca prominent when they were facing a lot of headwinds.
It was in tis of adversity where people's true character ca to light!
The Skinny Rattlers transitioned from a successful rcenary outfit into defenders for hire.
Though its ch pilots were still soldiers of fortune, they no longer fought against other human forces, but made the determination to fight against the alien nace!
The strength, numbers, composition and tech of the alien raiding fleets were all over the place.
This was because many of them consisted of warships that belonged to all kinds of strange and exotic minor races.
Each of them were forced to obey the directives of the Red Cabal and send out their warships to attack human space one way or another.
While many of the alien raiding fleets were not as powerful and unbeatable as the defending side initially expected, the risks of fighting against them were still higher!
It was difficult to match the superior firepower of ship-mounted weapon batteries.
Odd alien starfighters also sward the human chs in considerable numbers.
While the quality and defenses of many starfighters were generally worse than chs in the sa class, there were still outliers.
The elite starfighters that relied on their own inbuilt transphasic energy shields to shrug off damage often tore apart entire squads of chs with relative ease!
Many people in the audience who had fought similar battles in the past year all felt as if they were reliving their nightmares.
The Skinny Rattlers incurred more losses in these dire months than they had in entire decades!
The main reason why the Skinny Rattlers managed to persevere despite suffering so much attrition was because the rewards for participating in the defense of vulnerable human colonies were much higher than anything they earned in the past.
Commander Powell remained grim in the face of all of the living chs that got destroyed in the battle footage.
"We never had any complaints about our earnings during the last year. We earned far more cash than what we needed to replace our lost chs. We also earned large amounts of MTA rits for the first ti. We upgraded our augntations, bought a few batches of transphasic weapons and increased the pensions for the relatives of those who sacrificed their lives."
The Skinny Rattlers did not perform exceptionally well in the first few months. Their living chs conveyed limited advantages due to their lack of strong firepower or other hard features.
While the rcenary company partially compensated for these weaknesses by purchasing more powerful chs sold by other ch companies, they never gave up on living chs.
"We lost a lot of good n during those difficult tis. The friends I knew for decades disappeared in the blink of an eye when warships annihilated their chs. We had to hire a lot of ch pilots, promising them much higher pay along with the glory of defending our race. More of them died, but we did our part to slow down the alien advance."
Just like many other outfits that volunteered for service, the Skinny Rattlers started to improve after each and every battle.
The aliens exposed all of their weaknesses and forced the rcenaries to squeeze out their potential.
The Skinny Rattlers started to purchase standalone luminar crystal rifles in bulk in order to arm all of their machines with guns that could fire disruptor beams.
These energy beams were more efficient at draining transphasic energy shields.
The more elite chs piloted by the veterans of the rcenary outfits all began to utilize transphasic weapons that enabled them to make a much greater impact on the battlefield.
The Skinny Rattlers also did not hoard their MTA rits, but exchanged them for valuable support in upgrading and modifying the designs of their living chs.
More powerful and customized versions of familiar models such as the Ferocious Piranha and the Crystal Lord started to demonstrate their power.
They pressured their alien targets much more effectively than in the past, allowing them to attain much better results than before.
Yet still the aliens pressed on. Their raiding fleets were so nurous and their warships were so difficult to take down that it seed as if a tide of enemy bulwarks were about to break through the frontlines!
It was during these pressing tis where the chs and ch pilots of the Skinny Rattlers started to show their true potential!
The projection systems depicted a chaotic battle in space.
Nurous defensive stations tried to hold back the incoming alien warships.
Thousands of chs deployed in the field. The Skinny Rattlers only contributed a few hundred of them, and over half of them were piloted by rookies whose genetic aptitudes previously limited their job prospects.
Nonetheless, under the glows of the Desolate Soldier and other chs, they fearlessly fought against the alien warships!
What was notable was that the Skinny Rattlers had altered the designs of their favorite chs so much that they had developed a style of their own.
The Desolate Soldiers, Doom Guards, Ferocious Piranhas and so on all put greater emphasis on speed rather than defenses.
This made them more elusive and difficult to strike, but it also made them vulnerable against the fast-firing weapon systems of alien starfighters and warships.
At one point, the chs belonging to the Skinny Rattlers suddenly beca assailed by a small formation of elite starfighters!
Though their numbers were much less, the elite starfighters took full advantage of their high acceleration and transphasic energy shields to shrug off most of the incoming attacks!
The attack passes made by the elite starfighters destroyed many chs without incurring a lot of damage in return.
Many observers could see that if nothing else happened, the elite starfighters would definitely be able to crush the chs of the Skinny Rattlers!
The forr rcenaries fought back as best as they could. The ch pilots maintained their composure and tried to increase their hit rates as best as possible, but there were limits to what they could do in this situation.
Seeing comrade after comrade getting torn apart by the rapid-fire laser beams of the elite starfighters, several Crystal Lords that were mounted onto floater platforms couldn't take it any longer.
They took decisive action!
The machines turned their weapons against each other and disabled the safety chanisms that inhibited friendly fire.
They fired laser beams at the crystals mounted onto their exteriors.
As the Crystal Lords started to glow brighter and brighter, they unleashed all of the accumulated energies in the form of large concentrated energy beams that struck a number of the elite starfighters and broke through their defenses at once!
The sudden turn of events took the alien pilots by surprise and completely disrupted their rhythm.
Other ranged chs ard with luminar crystal weapons pounced on the opportunity and proceeded to whittle down the remaining elite starfighters until the beleaguered aliens chose to retreat.
"Our ch pilots did not choose to fire their guns at each other. The living chs made that decision themselves." Commander Powell made an admission that shocked a few people. "Our pilots could have superseded the decisions of their machines, but they chose to trust their battle partners instead. We are all glad they did, because those Crystal Lords were able to channel all of that rampant energy into powerful but accurate beams."
This was just one of many instances where the living chs started to do more than take the lead of their ch pilots.
In another battle, a troop of Ferocious Piranhas that had been seeking to close in on an alien warship while carrying powerful explosives ca under heavy fire!
A handful of tertiary gun batteries sought to intercept the light skirmishers with continuous streams of kinetic shards.
The Ferocious Piranhas did everything possible to evade the storm of tal shards, but they only had to make a few mistakes before they started to malfunction.
Once their mobility beca compromised, it beca easy for the alien gun turrets to finish off the fragile machines!
As the ch pilots of the light chs struggled to maintain their composure when they were being targeted by such a powerful threat, the surviving Ferocious Piranhas suddenly started to evade a little better than before!
The difference was rather subtle, but less of the chs got struck than before.
"As our n continued to pilot their living chs, they began to experience changes in their relationships with their machines. The LMC chs suddenly beca alive on a whole other level. They beca smarter and more talkative. Whenever that happened, they were able to cooperate more effectively with their ch pilots. The ch beca a body controlled by two complentary minds. Each of our pilots were able to concentrate more on what was important, trusting that their machine partners will take care of the rest."
The approaching Ferocious Piranhas eventually managed to get close enough to launch their prepared bombs at the enemy warship at close range.
The bombs that were all laced with small amounts of phasewater exploded in a violent fashion.
Once the alien warship lost its relatively unsophisticated transphasic energy shield, the ranged chs of the Skinny Rattlers imdiately took advantage of the opening and punched through the inadequate armor of the enemy vessel.
Commander Ikeon Powell moved on from this battle and highlighted several more where the Skinny Rattlers managed to overco difficult odds.
In one battle, A relatively untalented pilot of the Desolate Soldier broke through, much to many people's surprise!
When the Desolate Soldier beca flooded by the power of forced resonance, the ch utilized its supercharged luminar crystal rifle to shoot down elite starfighters and save friendly chs from destruction.
In another battle, the sa ch pilot who was utilizing an upgraded version of the sa machine managed to break through yet again!
The successive breakthroughs fueled the evolution of what was originally just a basic Desolate Soldier!
During the second and most important breakthrough, the Desolate Soldier seed to co to life in a way that was difficult to describe.
"He was not the only one." The ch commander spoke. "More of us broke through. They not only managed to fulfill their dreams and beco expert candidates or expert pilots, but also transford their living chs in the process. It is as if the chs of the LMC can break through as well. No words can describe how amazing that is. If we had more ti, then we would have been able to show you one of the expert chs that we have upgraded from one of our living chs."
Breaking through was the dream of many ch pilots.
However, they still found the concept that chs could undergo breakthroughs difficult to accept.
Were living chs that amazing?
The expansive projection systems slowly retracted their illusions now that they had run through the highlights of the Skinny Rattlers.
Commander Ikeon Powell began to wrap up his story.
"Dozens of rcenary outfits that I know of have collapsed after suffering heavy defeats in the Red War. Our Skinny Rattlers could have been one of them, but we managed to hold ourselves together and survived the worst that the aliens have thrown at us. We have proven our ttle many tis. Our living chs backed us up when we needed their strength the most. After we proved our courage and our effectiveness in battle, we finally earned the recognition that we deserved."
Projections of the Skinny Rattler chs ca to life. Each of them looked considerably better and received a lot of upgrades.
They had also been marked by a prominent new emblem that showed that they belonged to a different organization than before!
"More than a month ago, I agreed to a buyout offer that transferred my rcenary outfit to a new owner. My n and I gladly accepted this offer because Duke Rigel Armaus appreciated our performance. In exchange for becoming his loyal retainers and subjects, the nobleman awarded us with control over a modest planet called Hark Sotho VI. I have been appointed as the governor of this agricultural planet. So long as I continue my service, it is only a matter of ti before my rights to rule over my dominion becos fixed. I can beco a hereditary baron who is permitted to establish my own noble house!"
This inspired many ordinary people among the audience!
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