From the mont the native alien defenders learned that their native gods had been slaughtered and the arche failed in their ambush, they completely lost all hope of victory.
The flow of the battle experienced a massive shift as the native alien soldiers all experienced a massive decline in morale!
If their side could no longer deploy any phase lords or other trump cards, then a total defeat beca inevitable.
The native aliens made the only decision that allowed them to mitigate their losses as much as possible.
They no longer stood their ground and comnced an all-out retreat!
"The aliens… they're running away!"
"Too soon! They still have tens of thousands of phasefighters and hundreds of intact warships!"
"The native alien commanders aren't stupid. They can see that our smaller fleet can nibble them all to pieces if they insist on fighting to the bitter end. That will not accomplish anything as there is almost no chance of killing any of us while we remain under the protection of the Minerva and the other ace chs."
When one side possessed an absolute advantage in high-level combatants, then the other side had little chance of accomplishing any further objectives.
Perhaps the huge disparity in numbers could still fend off a handful of ace chs by virtue of exhausting them, but the Saint Commander fared particularly well in these kinds of scenarios.
Even without an ace ch that specialized in mass destruction like the Prothea Mark II, Casella Ingvar possessed enough endurance to keep her Knights and Barons empowered until they managed to break the backs of the alien fleets!
Defeating these enemies was easy, but wiping them out demanded a lot more care and attention.
A force led by the Saint Commander could easily break a concentrated and nurically superior hostile group, but once the latter started to disintegrate and flee in all directions, it beca increasingly harder to maintain resonance empowernt on all of her scattered troops!
Although the range of her Command Field was enormous compared to the Saint Kingdoms of ordinary ace pilots, it was only enough to exert her influence across a moderately sized space battlefield.
Once the different enemies truly chose to go their separate ways, the pursuing chs and warships could not afford to distance themselves too much from the flagship of the combined fleet.
If they chose to exceed this invisible boundary, then all of the Knights would lose their precious resonance empowernt, causing them to beco a lot weaker in every dinsion!
The differences were so massive that the unenhanced chs and warships would definitely beco vulnerable to counterattacks.
"Damn, there are at least a few smart heads among the surviving alien commanders."
Though coordination and cohesion among nurous alien fleets had reached the bottom due to the strategic elimination of their native gods as well as their flagships, the remaining leaders still possessed enough awareness to know that their pursuers did not dare to split up too much.
They only needed to do a bit more thinking before they figured out one of the combined fleet's major weaknesses.
The human forces did not dare to splinter too much!
As such, after a bit of fleeing, most of the surviving alien assets began to slow down and take the ti to regroup.
Though the aliens still feared the human invaders, they could still afford to take a breath now that it appeared that pursuit beca unlikely.
"Disgusting. These aliens do not intend to flee any further now that we have shown that we cannot possibly catch them all. They do not appear to organize any offensives either. These enemies know that they stand no chance if they get caught in a fight on our terms."
This was annoying because the native aliens still managed to preserve a huge amount of phasefighters and hoships. They continued to pose a credible threat and could inflict serious damage to the humans if the Saint Commander was no longer available.
The human forces therefore needed to stay on guard. The ch pilots had to rein in their aggression but remain alert for any unexpected developnts of the battlefield.
Of course, the Larkinsons did not lack ans to chase after the scattered alien fleet elents.
The Dark Zephyr Mark III excelled in these kinds of pre-and-post battle skirmishes.
So long as an enemy force lacked the protection of both phase lords and overwhelming numbers, the ace light skirmisher could easily launch continuous hit-and-run attacks without incurring too much risk!
The powerful living ace ch could easily keep this up until his energy reserves bottod out or Saint Tusa's willpower had reached its limit.
The Riot Mark III received permission to go solo as well.
The ch did not even get close enough to sating its bloodlust during this relatively short engagent. The D-ch yearned to spill the blood of tens of thousands of alien soldiers and Saint Rosa Orfan was happy to oblige her recalcitrant 'partner' force once!
The ace spearman ch might not be able to match the acceleration of the Dark Zephyr Mark III, but the Riot Mark III could still fly fast enough to close the distance on individual alien fleets.
Saint Orfan did not fear their attacks. Her D-ch's high-grade superdinsional construction alone was enough to neutralize the vast majority of conventional attacks!
"You can run, but you can never hide!"
Alas, the alien forces that got chased by the seemingly invincible and indomitable Riot Mark III only chose to splinter their elents even further.
This prevented the Riot Mark III from eliminating her targets too quickly!
Still, these minor frustrations did not take away from the victory attained by the combined fleet.
As long as no reinforcents arrived, the Larkinsons and their allies managed to win enough effective control of the border system.
"We shall remain in this area until we have collected our spoils." The Saint Commander decided. "We need to be quick about it. We should proceed to the planetary depot in the inner system and destroy as much orbital and planetary infrastructure as possible. The alien fleets may be able to stay out of our reach, but the sa cannot be said for their fixed assets."
Many salvage teams subsequently deployed from various warships as well as the logistical vessels attached to the combined fleet.
While the latter did not possess a lot of capacity due to the need to remain swift and agile, they had been specifically configured to conduct high-value salvage and repair operations.
Right now, nurous broken archeships as well as phase lord carcasses presented a lot of choice salvage opportunities.
Of particular importance were the carcasses of the 3 lesser phase lords equipped with cutting-edge short-ranged teleportation technology.
No matter whether these well-equipped native gods managed to delay their demise by relying on innovative cybernetics, phasewater organs or both, red humanity needed to get to the bottom of this mystery!
Another attractive salvage target was the archecruiser.
However, unless the boarding parties managed to secure the interior, it was extrely risky for noncombatants to approach the vessel in advance.
When the first wave of boarding shuttles had just managed to stop alongside the partially damaged hull of the immobilized vessel, Gloriana suddenly transmitted another ergency ssage.
"Casella!" She shouted. "My pet arche engineer and I have studied the scans of the archecruiser in great detail. Both of us have noticed over two-dozen critical sections that we must secure as soon as possible! The arche race is extrely protective of its technologies. Not only have they deliberately made it as difficult to adapt to other races as possible, they also have the habit of installing many self-destruction triggers in their own vessels. The arche officers are trained to activate these triggers as soon as their situation becos hopeless. I fear that ti may co very soon!"
"I am aware of the possible risks, though I did not know that there are far more ways for the aliens to blow up their own ship." The Saint Commander replied. "I have already prepared a speedy counterasure. Even if I cannot stop the arche from scuttling their own ship entirely, I should still be able to buy enough ti for our boarding parties to usurp control over the hull. I need two answers from you. First, can every arche crew mber trigger the self-destruct function? Second, will we be able to keep the archecruiser stable once our n have swept the interior?"
It took a few seconds for Gloriana to answer.
"Arche society is very stratified based on the quality and exquisiteness of their archeshells. They are easy to recognize by our troops. Tell them to pay attention to arche that carry shinier, fluorescent or majestic shells on their backs. They are often equipped with more elaborate equipnt as well. Only the officers among these aliens can command their ships to self-destruct. The lower ranks are often conscripts who harbor a asure of envy, jealousy and resentnt towards their 'better-shelled' superiors. Granting them the right to activate the self-destruct function is equivalent to playing with fire."
That was good news. It would be a lot easier for the boarding troops to quickly get the archecruiser under control if they only had to kill or restrain the shiny-shelled officers first.
"As for making sure the archecruiser will not go out of control once the alien crew cannot operate her anymore… I will take care of that in person."
"Pardon?"
Gloriana took a deep breath. "You heard , Casella. As soon as it is safe to do so, I shall board a shuttle and transfer to the archecruiser in person. I am the only person in our combined fleet that possesses the specialized expertise, equipnt and assistants necessary to operate the opaque systems of this major archeship. If I cannot do it, then I can guarantee you that no one else will be able to do better, and that includes my husband."
The notion of a ch designer as 'soft' as Gloriana stepping aboard a dangerous alien ship when they could not fully guarantee that it would blow up the next second sounded exceedingly stupid!
Yet if the Larkinsons wanted to make a huge contribution to the war effort in the very first battle of this campaign, then Gloriana bravely accepted the risks!
She did not want to prioritize her safety over glory when so many Larkinsons around her routinely took far greater risks on the battlefield.
The young Senior ch Designer wanted to remind everyone that she was a Larkinson as well.
Casella could easily discern these motivations without needing to ask any questions.
She only had one response to this dangerous request.
"I will let you go as long as Ves approves of your initiative."
"He will." Gloriana sounded certain of this. "An action like this fully aligns with his ideology. It would be hypocritical for him to deny a chance of earning glory and rit through my own effort."
"Then get ready. I shall do my best to pave the way, but only you can traverse it to the end."
The Saint Commander put the capture of the archecruiser high on her priority list, but now she had no choice but to drag it all the way to the top!
Nothing could go catastrophically wrong. The bunker chs of the Tortuous Scream charged up their resonance-empowered energy cannons in advance. She would need their focused firepower in case she urgently needed to destroy a dangerous section or critical system of the captured vessel.
Casella did not care about destroying priceless advanced archetech. Keeping Gloriana alive mattered the most!
Her greater urgency prompted her to channel additional power to a certain Ultimate Module that had already arrived by the side of the immobilized archecruiser.
Floating just a short distance away from the damaged hull, an ostentatious green tallic owl proudly spread her wings before she began to summon an arcane storm!
The Victrix was ready to serve as a relay of the Minerva Mark II's formidable resonating abilities!
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