For a long time, the Incubator accumulated a lot of resources.

It did not indiscriminately devour every piece of trash it came across. In fact, the longer it existed, the more the Voribug Organic Battle Moon grew picky about the salvage it devoured.

The Goliath Hive clearly wanted to feed the best quality resources to the unknown entity gestating inside its core.

Throwing low-quality materials in the mix would force the Incubator to sort out the good from the bad and waste a lot of time and energy in the process.

It was due to the very deliberate discernment of the organic megaconstruct that the opposing humans so easily managed to deduce the Goliath Hive's intentions.

Even if the Ascended Giants did not complete their costly reconnaissance mission, the Rubarthans would have put the clues together eventually.

However, it was exactly because of the advance warning given by the giants that the defenders had time to figure out a number of countermeasures.

Not all of them were acceptable. The Rubarthans still hesitated whether to employ the most powerful planet crackers available in the Philaster Crestia System.

Knowing that such superweapons existed yet deliberately denying their usage must have been an agonizing decision to the local commanders.

Due to the resilience of the VOBM, there was no option of employing lighter and more constrained weapon systems.

Conventional arms produced very little results so far. The proportion of mid to high-quality materials of the battle moon was high enough for it to be able to withstand the bombardment from the remaining Rubarthan assets all day.

Perhaps the story might have been a little different if the orbital defense networks and other defensive units had not gone through hours of grueling attrition warfare.

The heavy voribug assault at least managed to accomplish this much.

Combined with the sudden kidnapping of over a dozen expert pilots and expert mechs, the defenders possessed very few cards that they could use to destroy the Incubator!

At this moment, the emissions generated by the Voribug Organic Battle Moon had grown significantly compared to before. Heat and other energies constantly leaked from its structure.

Part of it was generated by the organic cannons that were spread across its surface. These guns expended a significant amount of energy and matter in order to fend off attackers and exert pressure onto the orbital defense network.

However, Rubarthan data analysis suggested that all of this surface activity only accounted for a third of the energy emissions of the Incubator.

This meant that the Incubator was doing a lot of other stuff!

Nobody knew how much effort it put into generating a more powerful Goliath than the hive had produced in the past, but the consumption had to be astronomical.

None of this reassured the remaining defenders.

As the Ascended Giants regrouped around the Dark Apostle and the Divine Harpoon, numerous of them looked clueless and directionless.

They had been raised into phase lords for the express purpose of beating the native aliens at their own game.

Entering into battle with the mutated voribugs already threw them off their game. The fact that red humanity possessed very little intelligence about the true depth of this new enemy caused them to feel even more lost.

The bizarre existence of the Incubator vastly exceeded their imagination. Let alone defeating it, they did not even know how to inflict damage onto its structure!

"We are not equipped to fight against a battle moon of this level." The Divine Harpoon plainly stated. "Up close, the battle moon will devour us. Our superdimensional armor may be able to delay this process, but the fleshy cage will be able to crush our protection sooner or later. From a distance, our firepower is nothing special. All of the cannons and other ranged weapons that we can employ are worse than the gun batteries of most warships. I do not take pleasure in telling you this, but if we cannot make any useful contributions, it is best to retreat in advance."

The strategies made a well-reasoned argument, one that most Ascended Giants would never think of making. This was also exactly why Ves and the Dark Apostle appreciated the presence of the centuries-old military officer. They truly needed the expertise of a professional soldier.

"Retreating without making a serious attempt to defeat the Goliath Hive's scheme disgusts me." The Dark Apostle scowled. "We are not going to slink away like ineffectual cowards. There are 29 of us here. I refuse to believe that so many giants cannot do anything to the Incubator... or the Goliath that is growing inside. Perhaps... we will have our chance once the latter has spawned."

The mention of that discomfited the giants even more.

"Whatever Goliath is brewing inside is obviously bad news." One of the Faceless Giants commented. "Do we have to stand by and let our enemy complete its scheme to fruition?"

The Divine Harpoon maintained a stoic demeanor. "The decision not up to us. We have already tried and failed to damage the Incubator. Since none of our attacks so far has significantly hindered its activity in any way, we should be frank and admit that staying here will not lead to anything productive."

"Let us not be too hasty." The Dark Apostle said. "It is true that we cannot do much against the Incubator, but its primary purpose is to grow a powerful Goliath. Once it has fulfilled its mission, it will likely be discarded. Our only remaining enemy should be the Level 8 Goliath."

"The question is whether we are qualified to fight against such an opponent. I am not too optimistic, sir. The scale of the Incubator suggests that the new Goliath will be at least two orders of magnitude larger than us. The agglomeration of high-quality biomass alone will make it extremely difficult for us to inflict significant damage in a reasonable amount of time."

"You may have a point, Divine Harpoon, but we are not alone in our struggle. The remaining orbital defense network can still provide enough fire support, and there are enough ace mechs left to take the lead, chief among them the Riot Mark III."

The mention of the Riot Mark III generated a bit of concern among the Divine Harpoon and other giants.

They had seen or heard about Saint Orfan's loss of control. While her fury had not risen any further, it had not subsided either. She remained affected by the Middle Demon that had almost managed to take over her body and

soul.

"The Riot Mark III is undoubtedly the best and most appropriate combatant to take the lead against this possible Level 8 Goliath." Ves spoke through Blinky. "However, don't count the rest of us out either. The Rubarthan ace mechs are not weak and should be powerful enough to pressure the Goliath. It is too bad that they are all piloted by junior ace mechs."

The Philaster Crestia System was ultimately not important enough to receive reinforcements in the form of senior ace pilots or a precious god pilot candidate.

This should have been fine, but it was bad luck that the Goliath Hive chose this very specific star system to debut its Incubator. Now, the only asset that was theoretically able to contend against a Level 8 Goliath was a certain superdimensional ace mech, but its pilot had yet to regain her rationality.

This left the rest of them in an awkward position. Eventually, the Divine Harpoon chose to end the discussion. "We are the Ascended Giants. We should not grow reliant on letting others carry us to victory. We can excuse this behavior to an extent because we are still starting out, we must produce our own heroes among our ranks. If we do not possess the capability to defeat Level 8 and eventually Level 9 Goliaths without the assistance of human ace mechs, then what is the point of our existence? Our lack of preparation against the mutated voribugs is not a valid excuse. New enemies may appear at any moment, and none of them are friendly enough to give us time to study them and develop effective counters."

The strategies of the Faceless Giant Phalanx made a very good point. The giants needed to justify their own pride in themselves, and they cannot do so if they keep looking up to human ace mechs for help.

Of course, pride was a luxury that was best reserved for the future.

Neither Ves nor the Dark Apostle wanted to throw away the lives of their subordinates just to make a point.

Minutes passed by in relative peace. While the voribugs had not ceased their fighting, the large-scale withdrawal of Goliaths and swarms produced a relative lull on the battlefield.

Many human groups took this opportunity to replenish their supplies and conduct emergency repairs and maintenance.

Whether any of these mechs, warships and orbital facilities could accomplish anything useful in the next phase of the battle remained to be seen.

Even if they ended up too weak to make any meaningful contributions, they could at least be used to escort an evacuation fleet out of the sun system.

The giants maintained contact with the Rubarthan military during this time.

The Divine Harpoon began to confer with his Rubarthan counterparts about possible cooperation and contingency plans.

Ves and the Dark Apostle continued to exchange information with Lord Richard Brownstone over another private communication channel.

"Now that the Incubator has come so close, our most powerful orbital scanners have been able to gather more clues about the suspected Goliath that is growing inside." The Rubarthan scion said. "We have obtained more data that indicates that we are dealing with a larger and tougher version of any of the existing Goliath strains. Once it emerges from the battle moon, we will not be confronted by anything known and familiar such as an Abedo, Korcho, Ekstrom or Harcul. We will likely have to designate a new name for the unknown but undoubtedly

formidable entrant."

That was not good news.

"Based on the gathered data, can you tell us anything useful about this new Goliath? What is its size? How thick is its exoskeleton? Is it focused on melee or ranged combat?"

Lord Richard sighed. "We cannot provide any conclusive answers to you at this time. We are wondering about these matters as well, you know. I have studied the data myself. I cannot call myself well-versed in exobiology, but in my personal judgment, the creature that is growing inside is unusually well-armored. Large quantities of mixed high-grade exotics are being combined into curved organic plating. All of this organic plating is subsequently used to create chambers containing muscle, organs and other important biomass. I am sure whether the Goliath is a pure melee unit or has gained mixed attack capabilities, but an entity as powerful as this should probably be capable of both."

"What are your best estimates of its size?"

"It is much smaller than the Incubator, that is for certain. We believe this is not just because the Goliath Hive is limiting itself to using high-quality resources. It is also so that the Goliath is able to maintain strong control over every single organic cell of its body. As you phase lords already learned, bigger is not always better. Perhaps the Goliath Hive is taking cues from more modern alien phase lords as well as our ace mechs. The scale of the Level 8 Goliath will likely reach the scale of a large city, but likely not any further than that. This will make it large enough to resist numerous attacks. We cannot say how sluggish it will be. If it does not employ any special solutions, then any ace mech should be able to outmaneuver it for the most part. If it does gain any mobility enhancements, then its threat level is absolutely high."

Mobility was the greatest uncertainty about the Level 8 Goliath.

This was a crucial data point.

A powerful Goliath that could keep up with the maneuvers of an ace mech was absolutely a nightmare to fight

against!