The Sudfar strain of Goliaths already proved hard to kill and even harder to pin down.
However, it was probably a much better corruption target than the Ekstrom Goliaths.
The Sudfar Goliaths were small and possessed much more limited options for that
reason.
its mouth was smaller and its assimilation capabilities were not as overbearing.
The Sudfar Goliath's transphasic claws had to be guarded against, and their ability to
spray acid from their mouths posed a considerable threat at short range, but that was
the extent of their offensive power.
Ves could already envision a possible capture and corruption scenario.
He felt fortunate that the Divine Harpoon accompanied him on his trip to the Rubarthan
front.
The man was incredibly accurate at harpoon throwing. Even if the Sudfar Goliaths were
fad for their mobility, so long as one of them beca slightly constrained, the Divine
Harpoon should be able to sink one of his signature throwing weapons into the body of a
gavoribug.
That would be the mont where the Dark Apostle should spring into action.
The harpooned Goliath needed to be given enough leeway to free itself. Otherwise the
Goliath Hive would ruthlessly abandon the giant creature and order its body to
disintegrate into a puddle of loose matter.
During this crucial interval of ti, the Dark Apostle needed to get close and potentially
grapple with the Sudfar Goliath in order to expose it to the corrupting power of darkness
energy!
The relatively slender body of the Goliath should take this process faster than normal,
but the Dark Apostle also had to take care not to get clawed or sprayed with acid.
In order to be safe, Ves needed to complete his superdinsional raint in order to
withstand the creature's frantic counterattacks.
Perhaps it was best to make a move before he completed his superdinsional spear.
It would take precious ti for him to create a powerful D-arm for himself. The
superdinsional armor alone should suffice if he wanted to capture a target as
opposed to killing it directly.
The only other major concern was that he needed to target the right Sudfar Goliath.
Level 4, 5 and 6 Sudfar Goliaths tended to be fairly weak. They lacked the astounding
speed and the superior defenses and recovery power of a Level 7 Goliath.
Ves ideally wanted to capture a Level 7 Goliath because a gavoribug of this strength
definitely possessed the strongest connection to the Goliath Princess.
He was not certain whether capturing and corrupting weaker Goliaths would preserve
enough signal strength’ for him to determine the location of his mission target.
The problem was that the Goliath Hive had not sent too many Level 7 Sudfar Goliaths
thus far.
Ves could not afford to wait too long until the right strain at the appropriate level
appeared in the star system.
According to the records, the defenders of Philaster Crestia lil had yet to encounter a
Level 7 Sudfar Goliath, though it had showed up in several other Rubarthan star
systems.
The Goliath Hive probably intended to test the performance of a Level 7 Sudfar Goliath
against the defenders of the Philaster Crestia System very soon. This should especially
be the case now that the Ascended Giants had made an appearance.
He did not have much ti.
He needed to complete the design of his stopgap raint sooner rather than later.
He needed to get to work at the ch workshop as soon as the material shipnts
arrived.
Although Ves was not willing to sacrifice everything just to serve the Evolution Witch, as
long as he had a chance to earn a major favor from her, he would make a serious
attempt to fulfill her demand.
The biggest challenge was keeping everyone else in the dark. Ves could sorely use
more help, but he did not dare to inform anymore, including the Divine Harpoon whose
cooperation was crucial.
Ves just hoped that the strategy of the Faceless Giant Phalanx did not let his throwing
skills atrophy while they were in transit.
"Look at that Abedo Goliath." Gloriana interrupted his train of thought. "Out of all of the
Goliaths, the Abedo is described as the one that resembles erudite phase lords the
most."
The Abedo Goliaths differed from most other strains in that they were primarily
positioned as support units.
They sacrificed direct combat capabilities in favor of generating multiple energy fields
that suppressed transphasic units, interdicted warp travel, blocked guidance systems
and generated other forms of disruption.
While these support functions significantly hindered the performance of nearby chs
and other assets, the Abedo Goliath left itself open to attacks, especially at close range.
It was currently being assailed by a Rubarthan expert ch wielding a large plasma
halberd.
Each ti the expert ch struck with its resonance-empowered weapon, the Abedo
Goliath's spherical body recoiled and attempted to back away.
The expert ch did not let up on its aggression and continued to strike deeper, trying
to create more burns and inhibit the Level 4 Goliath's regeneration even further.
However, as if to compensate for the Abedo strain's lack of direct combat capabilities,
the Goliath Hive had beefed up its escort.
Compared to other Level 4 Goliaths, the Abedo Goliath was accompanied by at least 3
tis more cannon fodder bugs!
All of those insects constantly converged upon the machine, using their very lives to
wear down the resonance shield.
No matter how many bugs got squashed by the expert ch, more always arrived.
The suicidal swarming behavior forced the Rubarthan expert ch to circle around the
Abedo Goliath and avoid remaining stationary for longer than half a second.
This made it a lot harder for the expert ch to exploit the weaknesses created by its
earlier attacks.
While the Abedo Goliath was not as durable or fast-regenerating as an Ekstrom Goliath
of the sa Level, the forr was still able to endure a considerable amount of
punishnt.
This allowed it to persist long enough for its attendant voribugs to do their jobs and drag
down the expert ch as much as possible.
"The Abedo Goliath will go down sooner or later." Lord Richard Brownstone spoke in a
confident tone. "Ordinary voribugs cannot inflict too much damage to a resonance
shield. It is only due to their quantity that the expert ch is facing a struggle. The
Abedo strain itself does not pose a significant threat."
Ves did not look down on this strain. "That only applies as long as the Abedo Goliaths
fight in isolation. It is very clear that it is like a fish out of water in these duel-like
conditions. Once the Goliath Hive gets serious and pairs the Abedo Goliaths with
gavoribugs of other strains, the value of the forr will skyrocket. Support assets
excel in larger battles involving more units. The interference generated by the Abedo
strain will significantly weaken our standard units while also affecting the power of our
high-ranking chs. You may have to prioritize its takedown over other Goliaths in
future battles."
The Rubarthan liaison did not respond, but his grim expression expressed his tacit
agreent.
Ves thought about what it would be like to capture and corrupt an Abedo Goliath.
its inability to defend itself would make the effort a lot easier, but its body was still fairly
massive, so the process would take longer.
What was really troubling was that the Goliath Hive always assigned a lot more voribugs
to escort this strain. Ves would have to figure out a way to keep them off his back or
trust that his superdinsional raint could blunt their claws and fangs.
The high priority of the Abedo Goliath could also prompt the voribugs to call over their
other Goliaths.
That was highly problematic!
Ves did not believe he could fend off multiple Goliaths at once, especially if they were
Level 6 or Level 7.
He turned his attention to another Goliath.
"Impressive firepower." He noted. "It is rather alarming that the mutated voribugs have
already mastered energy weapon biotech."
"It would have happened sooner or later. We have fielded plenty of biochs capable of
firing laser beams and plasma bolts. The tech is not new to us. The voribugs only have
to capture a single first-class or second-class bioch to master its secrets." Gloriana
said.
"Using biochs to fight the mutated voribugs is probably a terrible idea."
Lord Richard Brownstone had a strong reaction to this. He scowled when he looked at
the Goliath that was making use of awfully familiar ranged bioweapons!
"We learned this lesson too late. The Rubarthan Pact has a small community of bioch
and biotech enthusiasts, sa as anywhere else. We have found that they are more
eager and willing to volunteer for frontline service. Before the Day of Pestilence has
arrived, they have fought well and proven themselves to be worthy linefighters in the
war against the native aliens. When the mutated voribugs made their debut, the bioch
units bravely pivoted to fight against the new threat, only for them to fall into the hands
of a new race that is eager to assimilate our biotech solutions. That has produced many
consequences. The Korcho Goliath is but one of many results."
"We had to issue a prohibition against the use of biochs or any biotechnology on this
front after that. Anyone who knowingly or unknowingly fields advanced biotechnology
against the mutated voribugs is aiding and abetting the enemy."
"Does that also apply to our Ascended Giants?" The projection of the Divine Harpoon
tersely asked.
"No. At least not yet" The Rubarthan Senior diplomatically replied. "The mutated
voribugs have devoured plenty of phase lords in alien space. There is not much harm in
letting them capture an intact lesser phase lord. That said, we have prepared a fast
reaction force that is solely tasked with preventing you or any of your n from falling
into the hands of the Goliath Hive."
That should hopefully not be necessary.
The only scenario where such a power might be needed was if the Goliath Hive no
longer played around and launched a serious offensive against Philaster Crestia lil
While Ves thought about the likelihood of that happening in the next few weeks, the
Korcho Goliath continued to show off its impressive firepower.
As a dedicated ranged strain, the Korcho Goliath was clearly modeled after a heavy
artillery ch or similar.
It was large, massive and possessed a hard exoskeleton structure that was covered by
thick scales.
All sorts of biological cannons extended from their scaly body structure. These cannons
fired a random mix of kinetic projectiles, laser beams, plasma bolts and even acid bolts.
What was interesting was that their attack output was high, but their reserves were fairly
low.
There were instances where the Korcho Goliath had to cease fire or lower its attack ratio
in order to recover its reserves.
The Korcho Goliath proved to be a hungry eater. It devoured hundreds of thousands of
voribugs at a ti just to replenish its energy reserves and form more biorounds to feed
its cannons.
While its firepower proved to be formidable, the opposing expert ch was able to
endure the attacks quite well.
Venerable Emorah Jas Brownstone was a grandson of the Brownstone Prince and
also happened to be one of Lord Richard Brownstone's many cousins.
The expert pilot made use of a tech-heavy mid-tier expert multipurpose ch. The
Sandy Ranger Mark Ill carried many different miniaturized weapon hardpoints, each of
which launched resonance-empowered attacks that proved strong enough to penetrate
the scales and snap the organic cannons of the Korcho Goliath!
In contrast, most of the Korcho Goliath's attacks either ended up missing the agile
Sandy Ranger Mark lll or splashed harmlessly against its resonance shield.
If not for the cannon fodder bugs trying to get in its way, Venerable Emorah Brownstone
would have been able to inflict much more crippling damage against the Korcho Goliath!
As it was, the Sandy Ranger Mark ll had to remain patient and keep up its offensive
rhythm in order to wear down its opponent.
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