Chapter 7461  Choosing Responsibilities

As soon as the mixed alien fleets sent out almost a dozen lesser phase lords, one leader in particular repeatedly urged the Saint Commander to meet the enemy champions in combat.

"The enemy gods are right in front of us! Let us out and we shall show you how we deal with their ilk!" An angry female voice blasted over the command channel.

The Saint Commander remained unmoved even as she continued to control tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of individual pieces on the battlefield.

"Your time has not yet come, Fiery Axe." She spoke in a firm and unyielding voice, making sure to put additional authority in her response. "Our mechs and warships can already handle most of the opposition in this star system. Our high-ranking mechs can take care of the remainder. You and your Ascended Giants can provide greater value to the campaign by staying put until the native aliens have escalated their response further into the campaign. Remain on standby. Do not deploy without my express instructions."

The strategos of the Flesh Chopper Phalanx eagerly wanted to prove her strength against her alien counterparts.

Her pride and instincts screamed at her to disregard the human's orders, but her rationality held her back.

As a leader herself, the Fiery Axe knew how taboo it was to engage in direct insubordination.

The Ascended Giants did not lead this powerful fleet.

They were simply one among several combat groups. It was up to the Saint Commander to decide whether it was time to unleash the human phase lords.

Unless the mixed alien forces in this border system managed to hide a far greater surprise than the intelligence services had anticipated, Casella did not intend to expose the 30 or so Ascended Giants at her disposal.

The more cards she revealed to the enemy, the more extensively they could counter them in the next engagement. It did not make sense to go all-out at this early junction.

Besides, letting the human phase lords go loose would completely change the dynamics of the battle.

'Mortals' would no longer be able to play a significant role when their 'gods' grew too numerous and powerful.

The latter had the ability to completely dictate every outcome when they carried too much weight.

One of Casella's goals for this engagement was not to overrun all of the enemies in her way, but to deliver a satisfying opening battle to the troops so that they could maintain their confidence longer as they ventured deeper into enemy territory.

The mech pilots and spacers needed active participation in order to gain a stake in the success of this campaign. It would not do to sideline them right from the beginning and discourage them from stepping up when she needed their strength the most.

At this stage of the battle, the Saint Commander remained vigilant about any surprises the enemy held in reserve.

Although the Terrans collected extensive intelligence about the enemy troop disposition across the border, Casella would be a fool if she believed in its completeness.

The Red Cabal recently strengthened their resolve to break through red humanity's defenses. Who knew what they had brought to bear during this time.

So far, multiple well-armed and well-armored phase lords had already made an appearance.

The combination of 'martial' phase lords and 'erudite' phase lords presented a difficult challenge for most human forces.

Even if they were lacking in superdimensional equipment, the native aliens had clearly advanced the development of raiments.

The enemy had long grown familiar with the common traits of human high-ranking mechs. Their statues may be small, but their quality was exceedingly high. Their mobility was often superior, which allowed them to outmaneuver almost any phase lord in combat.

Therefore, the native aliens clearly made adaptations in order to give their native gods a better chance to survive an encounter.

With the help of stolen human technology and cosmopolitan mech designers, the native aliens constantly improved the capabilities of their raiments.

The enemy took full advantage of their relative abundance of phasewater and other resources and developed increasingly more impressive transphasic hyper energy shields, armor systems and auxiliary systems.

Their costs were high and the amount of resources needed to construct each individual raiment was significant due to the relatively larger scale of phase lords, yet the major races freely drained their formidable reserves in order to attain victory.

What impressed observers such as Ves and Gloriana the most was how much the development of native alien raiments began to converge with the development of human mechs.

Such a trend was already present in the design of raiments of Ascended Giants, but many people did not expect the native aliens to be so shameless about copying human tech and design principles!

"I liked the aliens better when they clung to their arrogance." Ves grumbled under his breath. "What do you think, Isobel?"

Since Saint Isobel Kotin still lacked an ace mech, Ves had invited her to witness the battle from the bridge of the Tarrasque.

She declined to sit on the spare observer's chair and remained on her artificial feet. Her posture showed that she was on guard for any threats or accidents.

Her domain field, though weak without the amplification of true resonance, conveyed a sense of anticipation. She was like a low burn that could quickly flare up into a conflagration on command!

"Dise and Stark alone can wipe out these lesser phase lords." Isobel judged. "It will take time, though. We will need to deploy more if we want to turn this into a painless victory. The phase lords can still pose a credible threat to the Tortuous Scream if they decide to disregard their losses."

"If you were able to deploy on the battlefield with the Promethea Mark II, which configuration would you prefer to have? Which key resonating material do you wish to have at your disposal?"

That was an interesting question. Isobel had already been thinking on how she would respond to this situation based on what advantages she had at her disposal.

"If my Promethea Mark II fought alone or with just one or two friendly ace mechs by my side, then I would have preferred to pilot the version that has integrated Exsanguino." She said. " Since we are confronted by so many phase lords, I would not go for the kill, but instead focus on mass debilitation. Their defenses may be formidable, but my firepower should not be weak. I only need to launch concentrated attacks to create a single hole in order to turn their blood aflame. The subsequent pain and damage should frighten the phase lords to the point where their courage begins to waver. This will not reduce our losses, but also create openings for other forces to go for the kill."

That was a very realistic scenario. Under more ideal circumstances, it was not out of the question that the Promethea Mark II alone could scare away a dozen lesser phase lords!

"We are not quite sure how much pain the resonance effect of Exsanguino can create." Ves honestly said. "The Cybers could not test this extensively due to many reasons. They suspect that it is not light, due to the fact that the effect is essentially conceptual in nature. This is a very strong qualifier. Aside from that, I can tell you that as a phase lord myself, our blood is an extremely essential part of our existence. Our ranks are defined by the proportion of phasewater in our blood. Anything that directly harms our blood is equivalent to burning our soul. Whether phase lords can endure the basis of their existence being scorched at an alarming rate is dependent on their morale and mental resilience. Of course, your resonance strength also plays an important role. You still rank close to the bottom among junior ace pilots. There is plenty of room for growth, but that is a matter for the future."

This meant that there was no guarantee that phase lords would get scared into retreating if they got affected by Exsanguino.

Isobel frowned. She might not have the patience to wait until she could truly unlock the terrifying potential of Exsanguino.

"Triton-Remose-B is a less interesting option for me." She said. "You already said that its fear-generating effect is heavily discounted against high-ranking opponents such as phase lords and Goliaths. It is mostly a tool for frightening mundane enemies. If I chose to go with this resonating material, then I probably wouldn't bother with attacking the enemy phase lords unless I absolutely have no choice. My Promethea Mark II can probably suppress at least half of all enemy warships on the battlefield by herself."

Ves made a rueful smile. "The problem is that you may not have that choice. Our enemies will not always oblige with our demands. Cleaning up the regular enemies may allow our forces to concentrate our firepower on the phase lords that remain, but letting the latter rampage without constraint will never end well for our side. The Promethea Mark II that has integrated Triton-Remose-B is a combat platform that produces the greatest value when it is a part of a greater machine. Locking into this choice means that you have chosen to forsake personal honor to maximize your ability to meet strategic goals. You will have to make peace with the fact that you can only ever achieve full effectiveness when you are fighting alongside other champions."

A few seconds of silence passed. Isobel clearly felt troubled by these implications. As a powerful saint, she hated the thought of being limited in her ability to handle singularly powerful threats.

"You are making me like Triton-Remose-B less and less." She noted.

"Do not misunderstand me. It has its strengths. It is due to the current engagement that it is difficult to highlight it. The Minerva Mark II is currently doing a good job of handling the enemy naval assets. Your ace mech will shine much better if it is part of a force that does not include our command mech. That may still happen if we manage to finish the Promethea Mark II in time. The Saint Commander may decide to split our forces in half. Your ace mech will serve a similar role to the command mech. Both of them are great when it comes to eliminating regular enemy assets on a massive scale."

Isobel slightly bowed her head in thought. "I… do not hate this role. Someone has to do the dirty jobs. If I happen to be good at it, then I am not opposed to taking up this responsibility. However, it is difficult to give up the ability to handle enemy phase lords more effectively by giving up on Exsanguino. That other material, URI-2461-V6, may allow me to do both."

Ves turned at her and gave her an unreadable look. "That may be true, but you know what they say about jack-of-all-trades. That is not to say that the ability to imbue false life into your flames is a mediocre ability. It is just… different and less focused in application. You are giving up on a lot of alternatives in favor of gaining a large amount of flexibility. In the hands of a clever and experienced saint, you can potentially bully both enemy fleets and champions with your intelligent flames. You may even be able to exceed the normal limitations and achieve a breakthrough in methodology and power application that can bring your flames to the next level. However, this is absolutely a long-term investment. At the beginning, your applications will be severely constrained by your relatively poor resonance strength and comprehension of the fire element."

That troubled Isobel the most.

She was unwilling to limit her usefulness and settle for a more limiting choice. This was why she favored URI-2461-V6 the most out of the 3 options.

The only question was whether she truly wanted to develop her fighting style into a manipulator of flames.