Chapter 7318: Too Many Goliaths

Ves did not quite understand why the first-raters insisted on using weapons worth hundreds of thousands if not millions of MTA credits when guns worth dozens of MTA credits could already do the job.

It seemed as if the mechers, Rubarthans and Cybers had become so arrogant in their technological and economical superiority that they could not conceive of an instance where it was better to make use of low-tech armaments.

Of course, they had their reasons to stick to their existing tech.

Their entire R&D, logistics and infrastructure was geared towards high-tech products. Switching to low-tech products en masse would generate colossal disruptions in many different sectors. Entire supply chains might collapse depending on the abruptness of the changes.

Another reason why the first-raters felt reluctant to downgrade to second-class or third-class weapon systems was because they were convinced that they could eventually develop first-class armaments that were truly effective against the mutated voribugs.

Only a short time had passed after the outbreak of the Voribug War, so it was not too surprising that the defenders were still stumbling in their attempts to counter the latest foes.

Everyone was looking for the magic bullet. Ves was no exception to this. A large number of mech designers and developers were brainstorming their own solutions to the problem. While most of them had yet to make any meaningful progress, they should definitely be able to deliver useful results in a couple of years.

Red humanity just had to last long enough to benefit from this collective research endeavor.

As the orbital battlefield continued to rage in every direction, Ves continued to examine other mech units in action.

The Gamma Scorchers were not the only unit that made a splash once they participated in the battle.

There was one Rubarthan elite mech unit stationed not too far away that also performed quite conspicuously.

The first-class multipurpose mechs were armed with large belt-fed shotguns that kept launching razor-sharp flechettes at a high frequency.

The dispersal angles of the flechettes were quite big, enabling them to clear away a large number of cannon fodder bugs with every shot.

What was interesting about their performance was that they kept firing their weapons without any regard for conserving ammunition.

Ves could tell that the mechs made excellent use of the Brownstone Modular Mech Ecosystem.

While this was not the only mech unit that made use of this handy automated resupply system, its priority was much higher.

The combat mechs were even accompanied by a dedicated company of support mechs!

The latter provided various services such as remote shielding, field repairs and gravitic repulsion.

With the help of the support mechs, the elite mech unit advanced unhindered and was successfully able to relieve a damaged orbital fortress that was under heavy attack.

As soon as the elite mech unit arrived, a storm of flechettes engulfed the cannon fodder bugs while also inflicting considerable damage on ranged voribugs.

When Ves observed the remarkable performance of this Rubarthan elite mech unit and turned his gaze to the Ascended Giants, he felt awfully disappointed.

He belatedly realized that the Ascended Giants lacked robust battlefield support services.

It was not a good idea for his latest subordinates to deploy into battle without adequate support.

Although it was difficult to provide meaningful support to human phase lords that were much stronger than the average mech, the help was not entirely useless.

From intelligence gathering to evacuating wounded champions, the Ascended Giants would find it much easier to complete their mission if they had adequate helpers at their disposal.

Ves briefly glanced back at the current controller of his true body.

Just as expected, the Dark Apostle remained ignorant of the differences between his Ascended Giants and the Rubarthan elite mech units.

Since the Rubarthans were fighting within their territory, they had ample opportunities to provide extensive support to its mech units. It was only due to attrition problems that they were unable to assist every mech unit in need.

Guest units such as the Gamma Scorcher contingent lacked such robust support. Their performance reflected this reality. The Cyber mechs were doing their best in this battle, but it was quite clear that they were unable to focus fully on inflicting damage without abandon.

Ves inwardly sighed. The Ascended Giants were not without support of their own, but he did not evaluate their effectiveness highly.

The Bluejay Fleet's firepower had experienced an increase, but the addition of so many Ascended Giants to the Bluejay Fleet had diverted the original reinforcements upon his promotion to a tier 2 galactic citizen.

At this stage, the dearth of true capital ship-grade firepower heavily limited the Bluejay Fleet's hard firepower. The various sub-capital ships could inflict sustained damage against most Goliaths, but Ves found it hard to appreciate their contribution.

The only other form of support were the mixed groups of qi cultivators from the Moloch Squadron.

While they were technically composed of the more formidable professionals of the Red Collective, their lack of accumulation was really obvious.

The various formation masters, curse masters, elementalists and etc. were practically infants compared to the Ascended Giants!

While Ves did not underestimate their potential, much of it remained unrealized for the time being.

They sorely needed additional time and cultivation resources to boost their power and methods.

At this stage, they were only able to provide marginal assistance. All Ves could say that it was better than nothing. He only truly valued their ability to provide intelligence at this time. Anything else was still too weak to make a difference at a battle of this level.

In summary, the Ascended Giants still had a long way to go before they could match the roundedness of a true combined arms force.

"You are distracted, Ves. What are you thinking about at this time?"

"I will tell you later. It is not critical for the time being. Focus on the matter at hand." Ves responded through his possession of Blinky. "Let's see how many Goliaths will assault our lines."

The Rubarthans already formed a good estimate on the quantity of Goliaths that the enemy hive was about to deploy, but it was harder to ascertain their levels.

It was not until they had emerged from the middle of dense voribug swarms that it became clear just how many Goliaths the enemy had accumulated in the Philaster Crestia System up to this point.

Once the planetary command relayed the information to every commander, many people's mood immediately fell.

Though they still maintained their fighting spirit, they all felt a heavy cloud of oppression from the enemy.

"Over 200 Goliaths!"

"Agh! We don't have enough expert pilots and ace pilots to block their advance!"

"Is our effort doomed to fail?"

This was the frightening aspect about the voribugs. They never had trouble building up their numbers.

It was only after receiving follow-up information that the mood among the commanders recovered.

While the quantity of Goliaths was absolutely a lot, many of them consisted of relatively weak organic monstrosities.

Most of them consisted of Level 3, 4 and 5 Goliaths. These were clearly hastily grown in the past week or two. The weakest among them could be blasted apart easily enough through sustained firepower alone. The remainder could be beaten by expert mechs so long as they weren't mobbed.

However, the numbers disparity was still too great. The strategic importance of the Philaster Crestia System was not the highest, so it was already good for a couple of dozen of expert pilots to be stationed in this location.

This meant that they were all outnumbered. It would be difficult for them to win if they lacked enough fire support from other friendly units.

What was worse was that multiple Goliaths

Ace mechs could get rid of the weaker Goliaths with relative ease, but they did not have it easy either.

The Goliath Hive invested enough resources into nurturing Level 6 and Level 7 Goliaths to keep the meager amount

of ace mechs occupied for the time being.

This also included the brand-new Riot Mark III.

As much as Ves valued Saint Rosa Orfan's advantages, she had not yet settled into her new state.

He also questioned whether the Withering Sting and other hasty adaptations gave her the edge she needed to turn into a nightmare for the mutated voribugs.

While the ace mechs could not avoid the fate of getting outnumbered, Ves did not think that they were at risk of

falling today.

However, if they had to prioritize survival over killing, it would take much longer for them to defeat the Goliaths!

The best everyone could hope for was for the ace mechs to keep the high-level Goliaths occupied.

Seeing the Goliath Hive deploy so many megavoribugs put the defenders in a bind.

"Without our assistance, the high-ranking mechs are forced to fight while heavily outnumbered." Ves analyzed. "It is impossible for them to defeat all of the Goliaths in a reasonable amount of time. In fact, the disparity in numbers is so great that expert mechs and ace mechs are at significant risk of falling."

The odds were too slim. Even saints would not begrudge the decision to abandon this battle and retreat. Honor was important, but it did not compel them to needlessly throw their lives away.

Yet would the expert pilots and ace pilots retreat in the face of this onslaught?

Ves did not think they would do so. They all understood the importance of defending this star system.

More importantly, they all knew that there were 28 Ascended Giants fighting by their side.

So long as all of the human phase lords joined the fight against the Goliaths, most of them would probably get

crushed.

Yet diverting so many of them to this threat left the Voribug Organic Battle Moon virtually unopposed!

If the Incubator was allowed to advance without serious opposition, then it would smash right through the orbital defense network and crash onto the planet!

At that point, it did not matter much if the Goliath embryo resting in its center remained unborn.

The Incubator could simply spread out all across the industrial planet and devour all of the high-quality alloys and machines that were present on the surface!

The VOBM needed to be opposed by more than a simple bombardment.

Ves and the Dark Apostle both felt troubled by this difficult situation. The mutated voribugs came in order to win this battle. This was why the Goliath Hive invested so much resources into spawning so many Goliaths!

What should they do? Should they go all-out into eliminating the Goliaths and hope that they had enough time left

to block the VOBM?

Or should they leave the high-ranking mechs to fend for themselves while the Ascended Giants did everything they could to stall the Incubator?

Nobody knew what to do. The adversary left them with hellish choices, each of which came with dire consequences and implications.

The wrong decision could easily spell the demise of many promising heroes and billions of citizens!

"Polemarchos." Jovy contacted the Dark Apostle directly through a command channel. "System command has chosen to gamble with everyone's lives. They urgently request you and your Ascended Giants to split up and fight against both the Goliaths and the VOBM."

"What?!"

Both Ves and the Dark Apostle possessed the exact same reaction to this half-baked plan!

To describe this strategy as a gamble was an understatement!

From their perspective, the Rubarthans could not stomach the dilemma presented by the adversary and tried to

have it both ways.

They wanted to defeat all of the Goliaths while at the same time block the VOBM from crashing into the planet!

The obvious issue with this plan was that diverting powerful combat assets to achieve both objectives risked a

complete failure!

Not only that, but spreading out the Ascended Giants meant that the Goliaths had a greater chance of killing their adversaries, thereby allowing them to deliver more high-quality 'ingredients' to the Incubator!

This meant that the plan chosen by the Rubarthan commanders greatly increased the probability that the Incubator would succeed in its mission and spawn a dreaded Level 8 or Level 9 Goliath!

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