Chapter 2669: Parting Mechs
Many of the expert pilots and expert candidates of the Larkinson Clan fought against the most challenging opponents they faced up to this point!
Unlike the pirates of the Nyxian Gap, the Friday Coalition fielded professional mech militaries that fought while drawing strength from every means within their reach!
None of their mech pilots were sloppy or complacent. Their elites were as tough as nails and their skill regularly overwhelmed the Larkinsons.
The Fridayman mechs fighting in this battle were all built better than normal military mech pilots due to the supreme status of their elite mech regiments.
Even after being subjected to numerous disadvantages, it became clear to Ves that wiping them all out would be slow, painful and costly.
This wasn't good. The attempt to demolish all of the Fridayman expert mechs didn't appear to be going as planned so Ves saw that his side needed to gain an advantage elsewhere.
The right side was also a persistent source of concern. The Vicious Mountain expert mechs clashed against each other with so much violence and animosity that Ves did not dare to predict the outcome.
If Patriarch Reginald Cross succeeded in taking revenge, then that would be great.
However, if the powerful Crosser expert pilots fumbled, then the entire expeditionary fleet would become horribly exposed against some of the most powerful enemy mechs on the battlefield!
Ves saw the need to accelerate the defeat of the Fridayman elites. After he instructed Venerable Joshua to make a move, he asked Major Verle to coordinate the upcoming action.
historical
As his most trusted military advisor and leader, Major Verle was already aware of the basic properties of battle formations.
He frowned. "It would indeed be great if Venerable Joshua and the Penitent Sisters can shock the enemies through this fashion, but as far as I know, the attack they are capable of launching will never be able to cover all of the enemies."
The major was right. Distances were magnified in space. Mechs fought further apart from each other than they would have if they were deployed on land. Every formation was stretched at least four to ten times in order to cover more distance and to leave plenty of gaps in between.
Every spaceborn mech force always adopted dispersed formations because it was too easy to bombard them if they clumped up their units. Every ranged mech loved to fire upon a tight formation of mechs because it would always hit something even if its shot missed its original target.
For this reason, the battle against the Holvein Grenadiers stretched across several kilometers in both a horizontal and vertical direction.
That latter part was also troublesome right now. There was no solid surface in open space and no gravity pulling every mech down. Mechs formations in space were fully three-dimensional in order to prevent enemies from gaining an easy advantage by attacking from above or below.
To be honest, Ves didn't understand all of the intricacies of mech formations in space. He could see that Major Verle and many of the tactical officers were constantly thinking, issuing orders and making other adjustments as the battle unfolded.
Just as the expeditionary forces were constantly tweaking their mech formations to better cope against the opposition, their enemies were doing the same. Both sides constantly had to stay on their toes in order to keep up with this high-stakes game.
What Ves sought right now was to break the game. He didn't want it to play out any further because the end result would almost certainly leave the surviving Larkinson, Glory Seeker and Crosser mechs devastated at the end.
What he wanted was to free up some mechs that retained enough battle strength to reinforce other parts of the battlefield!
In order to do that, the battle formation that the Penitent Sisters were about to adopt had to sweep as many enemy mechs as possible.
The more, the better!
Major Verle critically analyzed the targets of this upcoming attack. "We don't have to affect the majority of our opponents to tip this battle over. As long as we can debilitate or take out at least 10 to 15 percent of our opponents, we will be able to achieve a small but decisive numerical advantage. The rest of our forces can capitalize on the sudden shock the surviving Fridaymen must be going through."
Ves could see that happening. Battle formations should still be a mystery to their current opponents, so they should definitely be stunned when they became the latest victim of one of his more secretive innovations.
He pointed at a specific section of the battlefield. "Let's focus on the Bloody Herons. They are the strongest and most comprehensive elite mech troop that are currently fighting against our forces. Due to their penchant for coordinated attack and maneuvers, their formations are tighter and more condensed than usual."
"Hmmm." Major Verle evaluated the proposed target. "It's a good target. If we can manage to take them out at once, the center of the enemy line will be blown wide open. However, are you sure your trick can work? As far as I know, our upcoming move directly attacks the mind of mech pilots. This is good against normal opponents, but how will it fare against the Bloody Herons?"
"I've tracked the performance of the Bloody Herons. Their performance against prime mechs and a couple of other glow mechs has shown me that they are not immune to glows. While their famed neural network connects their minds together in a strange way, Ves did not perceive their mental defenses had become too strong.
Sure, the fact that they were able to borrow strength from other mech pilots was fantastic, but all of the mech pilots were mortals at the end of the day. Even a thousand mortal minds did not come close to matching the mental strength of a single expert pilot!
After Ves made his decision, the Larkinsons and the other friendly forces quietly made their preparations.
The mechs clashing against the Bloody Herons did their best to compress their neural-networked opponents in a smaller space. This was difficult to accomplish because the Bloody Herons refused to back down.
Fortunately, the Fridaymen didn't seem to have caught on to what was happening. In fact, not even the Glory Seekers and the Cross Clan knew what the Larkinson Clan had in mind. The Glory Seeker and Crosser mechs still fought the Fridaymen as usual, which helped a lot in keeping their opponents from noticing that a plot was boiling.
When Venerable Joshua and the Penitent Sisters received the orders they were waiting for, they all became stoked.
Of all of the Valkyrie mechs on the battlefield, only the ones piloted by the Glory Seekers freely entered the fray. They hovered around the flanks while harassing their enemies with their pulse submachine guns. When they spotted an opportunity, they performed a high-risk charge that always set the Fridayman elites back, but not without suffering plenty of damage in return!
After performing several charges, of which the last ended in a near-disaster due to falling in a Silent Sword ambush, the Glory Seekers lost more than half of their Valkyrie Interceptors and Hurricanes.
They only retained a bit over 200 of their Valkyrie mechs. While that was still a force to be reckoned with after the Fridayman suffered a lot of losses, many of the surviving mechs sustained considerable damage as well, so they were far from their prime.
They had served their purpose. Without the disruption caused by their charging attacks, the elite Fridayman mech units would have been able to accumulate enough momentum to push through their opposition.
The Valkyrie Prime and the Valkyrie Redeemers piloted by the Penitent Sisters had not followed suit. From the beginning, they always hovered close but never fully committed to the battle.
They were ordered to preserve their strength until they were finally asked to employ their full strength.
Up until then, their unit mostly contributed to the battle by allowing the Valkyrie Prime to come within several kilometers of the entire enemy lineup.
Unknown to any Fridayman mech, the pupil of the third eye installed on the Valkyrie Prime's forehead quietly observed several layers deep into their mechs. The closer the mech, the more structural faults and other vulnerabilities the Odineye captured.
While Venerable Joshua felt very gratified to be able to give his comrades an edge against their opponents in this way, he was an expert pilot! He should be giving his all in this battle!
"I've been waiting for this moment for many minutes!" He grinned!
The Valkyrie mechs had already started to circle around in order to build up speed. They had already learned that their attack traversed faster as long as their mechs moved faster relative to their opponents.
"Don't give the Bloody Herons to evade our attack. We must catch as many of them as possible in a single blow!"
"Yes, sir!"
The Valkyrie Prime and its follower mechs followed a specific route that had been prepared for them by the tacticians stationed in the fleet. It was a rather clever route that kept the Valkyrie mechs behind friendly lines up until the final moments.
In fact, Joshua was briefly surprised at what he saw. "This is ingenious! It's dangerous as well."
He didn't care too much about the latter. Battle was fraught with risk and mech pilots like him were always trained to fulfill their mission regardless of the danger.
Time passed as the battle became more and more heated. Perhaps the Bloody Herons sensed something unusual from their opponents, but it was impossible for them to back off at this point. Their heated offensive was much of the reason why the elite Fridaymen mechs fought so well against their current opponents. Their crucial position at the center was like an immovable rock that supported the Holvein Grenadiers, the Silent Swords as well as the Corundian Giants that had slowly merged into the body!
At this time, the Valkyrie mechs had built up sufficient speed. They didn't necessarily have to reach blazing speeds. They also couldn't afford to spend too much time on accelerating their mechs forward because Ves wanted to make their move quickly.
When the Valkyrie Prime slowly curved the entire unit of around 180 surviving Valkyrie Redeemers onto the final approach.
They were well behind friendly lines at this point.
The Valkyrie Prime glowed bright green as Venerable Joshua prayed as sincerely as possible to the Superior Mother.
The Penitent Sisters also gave their all to connect to the Superior Mother!
Due to their rear position, they received few distractions, allowing them to connect to the Superior Mother's battle network without interruption.
As soon as they formed their desired connections, the Valkyrie mechs all changed their positions until they adopted a mysterious V formation with the prime mech at the very center.
The collective efforts of the mech pilots not only caused them to find their place in the new formation, but also called up a giant energy silhouette.
The Superior Mother had been waiting. The moment a giant apparition of the ancestral spirit manifested over the formation, not a lot of enemies captured it yet. The illusionary figure of the Supreme had shown up in the rear where it was only observable by the Fridayman staff officers who were on the lookout for anything strange.
It took time for these observers to relay their findings to their superiors and others.
While this was taking place, the projectors built into the Valkyrie mechs were already activated to fill in the details of the energy silhouette. The Superior Mother seemed to have truly descended at this moment!
This time, it attracted a lot more attention from the enemy, but it was already too late.
"Unleash death and give them the fate that they deserve!" Venerable Joshua roared as the prime resonance of his mech activately fed the energy silhouette.
The giant manifestation of the Superior Mother glowed with strength!
At this point, even the Bloody Herons noticed that something was wrong, but there wasn't enough time for them to disperse their formation.
Before their mech officers could issue any order, the opponents in front of them abruptly withdrew!
Every Glory Seeker, Crosser and Larkinson mech that had tangled with them suddenly withdrew a bit before abruptly parting to the sides.
It was as if a god had parted an ocean of mechs!
All of this took place in just a handful of seconds. Aside from broken wrecks and loose debris, not a single object blocked the Bloody Herons from advancing forward anymore!
However, the same corridor that allowed them pass unopposed also freed up enough space for over 180 Valkyrie mechs to launch their extraordinary attack!
The Bloody Heron mechs froze even further as the Valkyrie mechs all activated their Marked For Death abilities.
Beams of every white light shone on the elite Fridaymen mechs. They seemed to pierce straight into the souls of every neural-networked mech pilot.
While that wasn't enough to paralyze them completely, their reactions slowed down enough for the Valkyrie mechs to complete their attack run!
"FOR THE CLAN!"
The Superior Mother swept her hand forward at the same time the battle formation unleashed a powerful V-shaped wave of extraordinary energy!
The power of both life and death was infused in this powerful attack!