A hidden and unseen enemy force was launching missiles towards the escaping combat carriers!
The two volleys that had struck the already-damaged combat carriers had felled two of the heaviest-damaged starships and dealt considerable damage to the remaining three. Though the missiles weren’t too powerful, the integrity of the vessels weren’t too great.
It wasn’t necessarily to break the fleeing combat carriers in half! Just damaging their propulsion systems was enough to take them down. Once they crashed into the ocean, there was no going back!
The opponents who fired the missiles from the depths were hidden and the Larkinson Clan didn’t possess the capability to attack any hostiles too far below the surface.
Commander Melkor and the other Larkinsons in the field felt more frustrated than ever at their limited loadouts. While their Bright Warriors and Ferocious Piranhas performed well enough against spaceborn, aerial and landbound opponents, it was a real mistake for them to think that they could effectively fight against an aquatic force.
Water might not sound impressive, but when a lot of it gathered together, it acted as a natural shield and fortification to those who felt at home in the water. A lot of attacks simply became invalid or drastically lost effectiveness once they hit the waterline and many mechs optimized for other environments turned into flailing rocks the moment they were submerged.
“Maybe I should design some aquatic mechs once I have an opportunity to do so..” Ves muttered. “Situations like these might be rare, but we’ll get confronted by aquatic opponents again in the future.”
Calabast nodded. “This is especially the case if you intend to join the hunt for phasewater. The exotic is particularly prevalent in lakes, seas and other wet environments. The word ‘water’ is there for a reason.”
That was true, but those who didn’t want to bother with aquatic or amphibian mechs were not helpless. Phasewater was so prevalent in the Red Ocean that it even showed in asteroids, deserts and other dry and waterless environments.
Those who prepared an aquatic force possessed an undeniable advantage though. Water-based deposits were usually larger and yielded a lot more phasewater on average. In contrast, the phasewater deposits that had ended up in a dry environment were usually located there because of accidents or natural geological movements.
This was a concern for later, though. For now, the Larkinson Clan had to address the immediate crisis. He analyzed the missile attacks and made a professional judgement based on what he had witnessed.
“Our mechs need to do their best to intercept the remaining missiles at all costs.” Ves stated. “The third volley will likely cripple the two surviving escort vessels. The fourth volley has a high chance of destroying the flight capabilities of the last and most crucial escort vessel.”
“Our second wave of combat carriers are already descending through the atmosphere.” General Verle pointed out. “They will arrive soon enough. Once they do, the vessels and the mechs they carry can immediately relieve the first wave. However…”
“They are still a couple of minutes away. The first wave won’t be able to hang on for so long.” Ves grimly concluded.
The battle progressed far too quickly. The Larkinsons were still in the process of bringing in their second wave while the reinforcements of the black mechs had already arrived!
“We’re detecting a third incoming volley of missiles!”
“Damn! Block or shoot them down at all costs!”
Commander Melkor had already issued the necessary orders. The Bright Warriors that previously suppressed the black mechs left their remaining opponents behind and flew black to the surviving combat carriers at their best speeds.
Knight mechs took positions around the weak points of the ragged starships and braced their shields.
Other melee mechs without any defensive equipment grabbed any solid piece of debris they could pick up or pull out from the less important sections of the ships and used that as makeshift barriers. Though this was not exactly the most elegant solution, the broken hull plating they carried along with the formidable defensive power of their frames should be enough to block a missile!
“They’re coming!”
As for the remaining Bright Warriors armed with rifles, they took on the crucial task of intercepting the missiles!
The missiles didn’t possess any good ECM systems so they were quite easy to target, especially with lightspeed laser beams.
However, the missiles turned out to be quite tough!
“What the heck? They’re like torpedoes!”
A single shot wasn’t enough to blow them up. It took multiple repeated strikes in order to penetrate the surprisingly tough exteriors and take out the payload or propulsion mechanism.
Commander Melkor suddenly started to sweat as his own rifle took out a missile. Even his upgraded rifle required at least two or three shots to take down an incoming missile.
This was a problem because the missiles rapidly accelerated towards the fleeing carriers as soon as they jumped into the air. At least half of the volley would probably go through and deal considerable damage to the vulnerable vessels!
Just as he thought that he and his men wouldn’t be able to complete their mission, a very bright and powerful energy beam split into multiple smaller beams before threading through the Avatar mech formation. These split beams all hit their marks, causing six deadly missiles to fall short of their target!
Another split beam shot out from behind soon after. Each of the constituent energy beams hit a missile without fail.
By the time the remnants of the volley reached their targets, the defending Avatar mechs easily blocked the few that got through!
A mech that resembled the Bright Warrior model but performed drastically differently had emerged from one of the surviving combat carriers. It was armed with a larger and much more formidable looking rifle.
What was remarkable about this mech was that is exuded a form of resonance that was similar to true resonance but ultimately fell short.
Yet even if it was not strong as an actual expert mech, its capabilities were still leagues better than a regular mech!
“Thank you for the assistance, Venerable Stark.” Commander Melkor thanked in a sincere tone.
“Don’t waste your time on pleasantries, commander.” The older woman replied. “Our opponents aren’t done yet and you still have to command your men. Watch out for the next volley.”
The unseen enemy below the surface did something different this time. The fourth volley of missiles did not come at the expected time.
Had their opponents run out of missiles? That sounded extremely unlikely.
Were the enemies of the Purnesse Family reevaluating their offensive after being continually stymied by the Larkinson Clan? That didn’t seem likely either due to the commitment that they had already shown.
Ves’ face turned ugly. “They’re stacking their volleys!”
The best way to increase the amount of missiles going through a determined defense was to launch multiple volleys but adjust their forward trajectories so that the later ones were able to catch up with the earlier ones.
If timed and programmed correctly, this was a good way to overwhelm the point defenses of any target!
“They have to hurry up, though, because our second wave is almost close enough to bail out our first wave!”
The unknown enemies were aware of this dynamic as well, because they only stacked their missiles once.
Soon enough, twice as many armored missiles shot from the water and soared towards the escaping vessels!
This time, the enemy also made sure to spread the missiles out a lot more in order to prevent the Larkinsons from intercepting the missiles too easily.
The Larkinson ranged mechs along with the Bright Beam Prime put their all in destroying the incoming wave!
Venerable Stark even chose to employ her costliest resonance ability once again. When she resonated with the spiritual energy and the luminar crystals locked inside the rifle of her mech, her weapon spat out a split beam that harvested a dozen spread-out missiles at once without any misses!
Her instant shot relieved a lot of the pressure. Isobel Larkinson and Mavelon were also pitching in. Even though their lives weren’t at risk, the high stakes of this mission along with their strong desire to avoid a humiliating defeat drove them to perform at a higher level.
While their accuracy was already high, the time they needed to lock on to their targets and adjust their aim had shortened a bit. This allowed them to take down the missiles at a higher rate than anyone else. Their weapons were even starting to overheat due to their rapid discharges. The expert candidate and the MTA mech pilot were harvesting missiles left and right.
As for Melkor… he couldn’t do two jobs at once. Ves wasn’t able to juggle his multiple responsibilities properly, and he possessed a lot more augments. How was the Avatar Commander supposed to do any better?
To his credit, Melkor was fairly good at recognizing when he was needed. The various mech captains had their units well in hand. His input wasn’t particularly needed at the moment so he partially let go of his situational awareness in order to channel the utmost of his marksmanship skill.
“I’m too rusty.” He cursed as he saw one of his shots miss a missile by several meters.
It had been too long since he fought a serious fight! Due to being stuck behind a desk during every work shift, Melkor spent precious little time on improving his shooting ability. The most he could do was to prevent them from sliding back too much.
Fortunately, his other men were doing more than enough to compensate for rustiness. The double volley of missiles eventually dwindled down to around fifty warheads.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Explosions rippled through the fleet and in front of the mechs that tried to block them with their shields and frames.
Several mechs that already withstood previous attacks incurred so much damage that they began to lose altitude. Their cockpits hastily ejected from the damaged frames.
The mechs failed to block all of the missiles from hitting the ships. One of them even started to list before drifting away! More escape pods spread from the doomed vessel as it was clear that she was not going to play any further role in this battle.
While Melkor was glad that most of his men were able to preserve their lives, it became harder and harder to withstand the pressure.
“We made it through!” He sighed in relief.
It didn’t matter if the enemy fired another volley. Even though the defenses of the first wave had reached a low point, an important change occurred.
“We’ve arrived, commander!”
Distant combat carriers that were still radiating lots of heat were rapidly descending from above!
Hundreds of mechs launched from the vessels with great haste. The melee mechs surged forward as quickly as possible in order to bolster the defensive line. The ranged mechs on the other hand readied their rifles in preparation to shoot down any missiles that shot out from the water.
The battlefield quieted down. The amphibian black mechs that were stuck in the water were no longer relevant.
Now that a force of 400 fresh and fully-stocked Avatar and Vandal mechs had reinforced the ones that came first, the Purnesse Family appeared to be saved!
Yet Melkor and many other Larkinsons did not lower their guard. They continued to monitor the ocean below for any major movements.
Their sensors soon detected a huge form ascending from the depths.
“There’s no way that this is a missile. It’s too big!”
“What the hell is coming up?”
Much to the astonishment of the Larkinsons, several long stretches of water were soon displaced as a number of large, cylindrical submerged ocean vessels revealed their presence.
The size of these vessels exceeded that of any combat carrier!
Before the clansmen could admire the new arrival, huge doors slid open from the upper sides of the newly arrived ships. A large amount of flight-capable mechs surged into the air and formed into loose but organized formations!
The mechs weren’t coated in black this time. The enemy had finally thrown away all pretense and brought out their full strength in order to end the Purnesse Family!
Shederin Purnesse almost turned red when he recognized the colors and markings of the newly-emerged machines.
“They’re from the Diyast Family.”
“That’s impossible!” Novilon Purnesse reacted with shock. “They’re supposed to be dead.”
“It appears we have missed some key members. Our rivals must have sheltered and provided a lot of assistance to their remnants.”
Neither Shederin nor Novilon looked pleased at this discovery. The truth was that the Purnesse Family had been the primary drivers behind the downfall of their rival Diyast Family!
