Chapter 4323 Orbital Supremacy
While Ves busied himself with coming up with a plan to restore the Shield of Samar, the rest of the Larkinson Clan was mostly preoccupied with stopping the Sundered Phalanx from threatening the main fleet.
Even though the most dangerous enemy threats such as the Skorpion Kommando, the Tensars and the Star of Liberation had left the battlefield, that didn't mean that the Larkinson expert mechs were in good shape either.
The Riot and the First Sword had been taken out of action and could no longer be deployed in battle.
Other notable expert mechs such as the Dark Zephyr, the Amaranto, the Minerva, the Blade Chaser Mark II and the C-Man could still put up a decent fight, but the machines and especially their pilots had exhausted themselves in their efforts to defeat or stall the enemy champions.
Fortunately, their combat power wasn't particularly needed to stop desperately advancing Sundered Phalanx mech units.
The ferocity of these brave and loyal Fridayman mech pilots was commendable, but that did not change the fundamental fact that they were outnumbered several times over!
Not only that, but their offensive wave quickly became surrounded on all sides, making it so that they had no way to retreat!
The only reason why the surrounding formations did not press the suicide mechs too hard was because the Hex Army and the Golden Skull Alliance did not want to exacerbate their losses.
In that sense, the sacrificial mechs succeeded in their aim of buying time to allow for the rest of the Sundered Phalanx to retreat in good order!
The current trend continued to persist until a single launch into space again.
From the moment the Mars made its way back onto the battlefield, almost every participant froze as they registered the return of the apex warrior that had proclaimed himself the king of the Battle of Pima Prime!
"It's… it's the ace mech! The enemy ace mech has reappeared!"
"Pima Prime's doom is at hand!"
"FOR THE CROSS!"
The retreating mechs became a lot more disordered as apprehension gripped the hearts of the Fridayman mech pilots and other personnel.
In contrast, the Hexers and the Golden Skullers became a lot more invigorated! Their mechs pressed their opponents harder as their morale practically doubled in an instant!
The Mars hadn't even done anything yet aside from exiting the Hemmington Cross, but already the sight of this partially-restored machine was single-handedly changing the trajectory of the battle.
To be honest, Patriarch Reginald did not really want to go out again. After winning the most thrilling and exciting mech duel in his life, he really didn't find it interesting to bully a bunch of weaklings.
None of the remaining mech units of the Sundered Phalanx could ever compare to the strength and majesty of Saint Jeremiah Gauge and his Neo Amadeus!
Even the enemy expert mechs such as the dangerous and relatively intact Star of Liberation and the Tensars had pulled back long before the Mars could ever take them out in an instant.
"Boring." Reginald wearily remarked as he simply couldn't bring himself to summon any energy or enthusiasm to this clean-up operation.
The only reason why he forced himself to bring out his Mars once again was because he recognized that his presence was an essential guarantee to his side.
Not only that, but the remaining firepower of the Mars was extremely useful in breaking apart any remaining threats and obstacles!
"Well, I guess I should get on with it. The longer this farce goes on, the more mechs my clan is losing."
In order to raise the effective firepower of the Crosser ace mech as best as possible, Master Benedict had taken advantage of the fact that the Mars could mount different modular weapon systems on its shoulders.
The Neo Amadeus might have managed to wreck the expensive pair of shoulder-mounted transphasic gauss cannons during the unforgettable duel, but the Cross Clan had produced multiple alternatives.
The gauss cannons packed the greatest punch against tough and powerful targets such as an enemy ace mech. Though they could also be useful in sieges, they weren't the most optimal choice now that all high-level threats had retreated from the battlefield.
Master Benedict therefore decided to remove whatever remained of the broken gauss cannons and put transphasic laser cannons in their place.
The addition of the pristine shoulder-mounted transphasic laser cannons partially compensated for the reduction of the ARCEUS System.
The additional energy weapons also gave the Mars a greater ability to stay in the fight as they did not use up any ammunition.
After completely replenishing its energy reserves, the Mars had plenty of juice to bombard enemy targets! Reginald did not even feel the need to fire the weapons at his disposal at full power.
Even at half power the various energy weapons of the Mars were more than enough to destroy a dozen mechs with ease if they all happened to line up in the right way!
As such, the Mars turned into a singularly destructive machine as soon as it took its place and opened fire on different targets!
Reginald did not even bother to manually aim the weapons of his ace mech. He simply opened up a connection to the command center of the Hemmington Cross and let the tactical officers of his clan program the priority targets on his behalf.
Despite the ace pilot's obvious lack of effort and enthusiasm, even a half-hearted version of the Mars was more than what the Sundered Phalanx could handle!
Rays of laser beams lanced across the formations of Fridayman mechs that had attempted to occupy the attention of the invading forces.
Though there was a considerable risk that the shots fired by the Mars might end up damaging a friendly unit by mistake, Patriarch Reginald was far too capable to make such a mistake.
Each strike from his ace mech accurately picked off the strongest and toughest mechs of the Sundered Phalanx.
Often times, the Mars angled its attacks to ensure that the resonance-empowered laser beams struck multiple enemy machines at a time!
It only took two minutes for the advancing enemy mech units to disintegrate. The Mars had essentially broke its back and taken out so many key targets that the remaining Fridayman mechs were unable to organize any effective of resistance anymore!
Patriarch Reginald turned his attention to the more distant enemies.
Each of them turned into targets in his eyes. The vast quantities of intact enemy mechs could no longer threaten his Mars in the slightest.
In fact, the Sundered Phalanx still wouldn't have stood a chance if it had gathered all of its surviving expert mechs!
"It's too bad they haven't even made the attempt. They are too timid." Patriarch Reginald spoke in a disappointed tone.
At least the Golden Skull Alliance still mustered up the courage to attack the Olympus Mons piloted by Saint Yila Mayorka in the past.
The Cross Patriarch's disappointment did not affect his determination to do what was necessary to increase the advantages of the Cross Clan.
The Mars shifted its shoulder-mounted laser cannons as well as the intact integrated weapon modules of the ARCEUS System to numerous different targets within its line of sight.
Many shots landed on the somewhat intact orbital space stations. The Hexers and the Golden Skullers may have already managed to break their titan shields and destroyed all of their exposed turrets, but they could still pose a threat in other ways.
The easiest way to ensure that they were truly rendered harmless was to attack them to the point where the Mars was able to break open their interiors and destroy whatever was inside!
"Don't leave anything intact!"
Aside from that, the Mars also utilized its firepower to strike at any Sundered Phalanx mechs that hadn't been able to retreat in time.
The efficiency of these attacks were fairly low, though. The enemy mech pilots weren't stupid enough to gather together so that they could be taken out all at once with a single overpowering attack.
Each Fridayman mech received instructions to scatter and move to their evacuation points by relying on their own efforts.
Seeing how few fleeing mechs that Patriarch Reginald and his ace mech were able to take down from a distance, the Cross Clan soon decided to shift their targeting priority.
"Concentrate on crippling their starships! Many of them have already left or swung around the other side of the planet, but there are still hundreds of combat carriers and other support vessels within sight. If we can take out their thrusters or knock out their power without damaging them too heavily, we can capture the hulls and use them to replace the starships we have lost in this battle!"
The Hex Army was more interested in wiping out the remaining enemy mechs. The loss of many of their combat carriers did not affect the Hexers too much as their colonial state possessed plenty of shipbuilding capability.
The Golden Skull Alliance was different in that it was a lot harder for the Larkinsons and their allies to place large orders at third-party shipbuilding companies.
Perhaps their dramatic victory today might cause the leaders of these companies to reevaluate their relationship with the Golden Skull Alliance, but even then it might take years for the expeditionary fleet to return to its former size.
Patriarch Reginald became a bit more attentive when his Mars was tasked with immobilizing the fleeing enemy starships.
Though many vessels sought to escape doom by hiding on the opposite side of Pima Prime V, the mechs of the Larkinson Clan, the Glory Seekers and the Cross Clan were already on their way to capture the ships one way or another.
As the Mars struck the sub-light propulsion systems of the different starships with measured attacks, the crew of the affected vessels turned stubborn.
"Don't let our ship fall into their hands!"
The loyal Fridaymen crew members overwhelmingly decided to self-destruct their vessels before abandoning ship.
Thousands of escape pods launched into space just before the power reactors and any other volatile elements blew up from within!
There was little the Hexers and Golden Skullers could do to prevent the Fridaymen from destroying their own ships once it became clear that they could no longer escape the port system.
Even threats of shooting down the escape pods did not have any effect. The hatred that the Fridaymen had accumulated towards the Hexers had grown so much that neither side wanted to grant any advantages towards their archenemies!
Though many mech pilots had grown tired, they still performed their duties for many hours as they definitely drove away any remaining elements of the Sundered Phalanx while taking over control of the orbit of the planet including whatever was left of the Kosic Ring.
The fall of the orbital defensive network marked the definite end of the battle in orbit.
Task Force Fury and the Golden Skull Alliance obtained full control of the space above Pima Prime V, which meant that they could soon land their mech troops on the ground and commence their planetary assault!
There was no way for the Gaugers on the ground to fend off the incoming invasion entirely, but they could still do much to slow down enemy progress.
"Tens of thousands of mechs of the Sundered Phalanx have managed to reach the surface." General Verle spoke with concern. "I'm afraid that they have already linked up with their counterparts stationed on the planet. Pima Prime still has many fortified bases on the planet. It will be very difficult to root them up unless we bring overwhelming firepower."
Calabast chuckled. "You overestimate the opposition that we will encounter. The Fridaymen won't be able to fight back as well as you think. While our agents weren't able to play a significant role in the battle in orbit, we are much more able to affect the defenses on the surface since many of them are located in densely populated settlements. Just watch and see."