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The same could not be said for many other pioneering organizations. Even if a pioneer was lucky enough to obtain a single kilogram of phasewater, much of that would definitely be used to upgrade an expert mech with more enduring transphasic parts!

Using so much phasewater on a consumable product was out of the question to these parties!

However, if the Cross Clan was willing to invest in them, so could the Larkinson Clan.

Now that Ves thought about it, acquiring a batch of Stormsurge Missiles was truly an excellent way to make up for the painful lack of shield breaking capabilities.

Though none of the Larkinson expert mechs currently made use of missile launchers, the modules were so easy to work with that he could mount them on pretty much any decent machine. The Everchanger was most readily able to accommodate them due to its stellar flexibility.

Still, Ves knew that the full potential of a Stormsurge Missile could only be attained when it was paired with an ace mech. The true resonance amplification at the ace mech level was much more substantial than at the expert mech level!

If the Mars was able to break an entire segmented energy shield with a single Stormsurge Missile, a typical expert mech might need several more to produce the same results!

Though Ves and the Larkinson Clan were willing to cover the cost of using them in a crucial life-and-death battle, it was unsustainable to employ them in every battle against an alien warship.

Ves much preferred to spend his time, money and resources on developing more cost-efficient weapon solutions such as the Instrument of Doom.

Even though that weapon also demanded a hefty amount of phasewater to fabricate, once it was finished it no longer demanded any further resources unless it sustained heavy damage!

This was why mech designers generally treated missile launchers as lazy weapons. They were relatively easy to design and easy to scale up their power, but they were also prohibitively more expensive to use in the long term.

Anyone who wanted to obtain more powerful missiles just had to stuff more expensive materials into their construction. Their users just had to be ready to open up their wallets and pay a hefty sum each time they were used.

As a mech designer, Ves vastly preferred to improve the rifles and cannons of the Larkinson Army so that his troops could defeat alien warships by relying on their own intrinsic power.

However, that was not a realistic option in the short term. It might be necessary to stock up on Stormsurge Missiles or similar products to tide over the clan in the next couple of years.

Ves already thought about asking Immace Energy Armaments if they could make a grenade version of their new product. The Dark Zephyr could make excellent use of them to force his way through energy shields and get close enough to prevent a warship's gun batteries from repelling the expert mech!

Time passed by. As Ves immersed himself by learning about the properties of the Stormsurge Missile, the rapid strike force did not take long before it reentered the star system that it had just left!

"We're back again!"

The Golden Skull Alliance hastily departed the star system not too long ago, but a huge number of changes had occurred since that time!

A destructive battle took place between another pioneering fleet and a hidden alien battleship.

The sensor systems of numerous ships such as the Antonio Cross easily registered the large and expansive debris field orbiting the brown dwarf star.

Once, much of that debris consisted of fully functional fleet carriers and combat carriers. The destruction of so many valuable human starships represented a painful loss to any pioneering organization.

It was not easy to compensate for such a great loss, particularly when the demand of starships still exceeded supply!

"To think that we managed to destroy almost an entire pioneering fleet through subterfuge and trickery." Master Benedict said as he stood next to Ves as they looked out of the observation windows of the Antonio Cross. "Not even the fact that Cenatus Prospecting has an ace mech at its disposal has saved its fleet and its founder from meeting an unfortunate end."

The Master Mech Designer had a lot of mixed feelings about what happened. The events reminded him of his own past circumstances.

"Do you regret what we have done?" Ves asked.

"Not really." Master Benedict shook his head. "I am realistic enough about our situation to acknowledge that we have attained a good outcome. We have weakened both of our potential adversaries at little cost to ourselves. What more can we ask for? I am merely lamenting that we live in a reality where we cannot stick to open and above board measures to solve our problems. If we are not willing to resort to dishonorable acts, someone else will apply them to us. We are all forced to treat so many groups as hostiles in this dwarf galaxy."

"Well, they should have known what to expect by coming here. The Red Ocean is a galaxy of opportunities. Greed can make a lot of people irrational to the point where they are willing to stab their own parents in the back. Otrus Magrin received the punishment he deserved. It was either us or them. That became obvious as soon as his vulture fleet started to stalk our own fleet."

Ves sympathized with Master Benedict's regrets, but that did not mean he was about to stop. Now that he had a taste of the power of subterfuge, he intended to turn it into a core strength of the Larkinson Clan.

If the Larkinson Clan wasn't willing to become a predator, then it would eventually fall prey to similar threats!

"Our strike force will split up soon." Master Benedict changed the topic. "The following period will be dangerous for us. The Antonio Cross will have to rely on her own capabilities to evade the Tower of Babel's attacks."

"I know. I didn't opt to ride on this ship if I wasn't confident about her ability to stay alive. Hopefully, the Mars can do a good job at occupying the battleship's attention."

It didn't take much time before the Antonio Cross split away from the rest of the strike force.

The other ships such as the Wild Torch and the Feminine Grace had to follow a separate route that swung around the brown dwarf star.

Although it was not really possible to take advantage of a gravity assist on a stellar object that sat in the center of a star system, it was still useful to do this to prevent the alien battleship from getting a direct line of sight to the strike force.

Once the other fleet carriers and combat carriers swung into view of the Tower of Babel, they should be moving fast enough to make themselves difficult to hit!

Not only that, the ships would also be able to disgorge their Valkyrie mechs at the same speeds, allowing the Penitent Sisters and the Glory Seeker units to approach the Tower of Babel without taking an eternity to cross through open space!

The Golden Skull Alliance had precisely calculated all of the maneuvers needed to pull everything off at the right timing. The Valkyrie mechs couldn't approach too early or too late. They also had to move fast enough to survive the journey but not any faster lest they risked becoming irrelevant.

Ves had pulled up the technical reports multiple times, but he quickly put them away after a short moment.

Even his formidable capacity to process complex calculations struggled to keep up with all of the calculations!

It was quite exciting to see the forces move according to design. The star system was quite simple and did not contain any anomalies or too many stellar objects, so the ships did not have to take too many variables into account when they moved closer to the brown dwarf star.

The only downside was that the trajectories of the human vessels were so obvious that the aliens aboard the Tower of Babel should definitely notice what was taking place by this time!

"Has the battleship made any moves?"

"We have detected plenty of additional activity. Our preliminary judgment is that the alien repair crews are scrambling to prepare the ship for battle on short notice. We can observe many sections that have been opened up or partially disassembled in order to facilitate deeper and more extensive emergency repairs. Numerous damaged gun batteries are in this state as well, and it will take a significant amount of time to put them back together again."

"In other words, we caught them with their pants down."

"That is an apt description of the current state of the aliens. What is better is that it will take at least a couple of days for them to pull their pants up to their waists again."

"We need to hurry and commence before that happens!"

The increased vulnerability of the Tower of Babel was another big reason why the Golden Skull Alliance wanted to move so quickly.

The aliens had gambled on the possibility that no further attacks were forthcoming in the short term, so their crews initiated more deeper repairs in order to make their vessel more space worthy in a week or so. It would have worked out if the aliens could actually complete their jobs, but Ves and the others spoiled that plan!

According to the plan, the Antonio Cross would get closer first so that she could deploy the Mars and all of the expert mechs first.

All of the expert mechs stationed aboard the slender and fast fleet carrier briefly gathered together before they were about to deploy.

They shared drinks, made shameless boasts and egged each other on. Though not everyone looked forward to this upcoming engagement, they tried to make the best of it as it was necessary for all of them to learn how to cope with warships.

"I'm tired of playing second fiddle everytime we fight against warships." Venerable Vincent complained to Ves during this pre-launch party. "Can't you upgrade our mechs so that we can fight them on our own terms for once? My C-Man isn't designed to cower in the rear! We need to fight at the front!"

Ves tried to give his pilots a reassuring smile. "I am already thinking about that. Our clan won't have anything ready in the short term, but I predict our situation will be a lot better in a year."

"What will be different, then?"

"Think about what we are about to face. By most standards, the Tower of Babel is a first-class battleship. This means that her hull is loaded with tech and materials that only first-classers can afford. The entire vessel is a moving treasure mine!"

Everyone became a lot more impressed once they recalled this fact!

Ves grinned at his pilots. "Normally, attacking a first-class warship head-on is out of the question, but this is different. Now that a vulture fleet has softened her up, the Tower of Babel is weaker than she has ever been. She can no longer exert the combat power that is commensurate to a ship of her value! This means that we don't have to put in as much effort to take her down. Once we do, I can promise you that our clan will quickly salvage enough strong and powerful first-class materials from her hull to develop an entire suit of upgraded mech equipment for your expert mechs!"

Making use of better materials was the easiest and most straightforward way to boost the performance of mechs.

Ves thought that it would be even better if the Larkinson Clan was able to harvest many tons of high-quality materials without limit. This was a much cheaper alternative to spending millions of MTA credits to obtain small batches on the open market!

"It's practically free real estate as long as we eliminate her protectors!"