A furious space battle raged forth in space. Hundreds of laser beams and numerous projectiles filled the dusty space, though few of them hit their targets.

Task Force Predator clamped down on yet another pirate outfit lurking in Wreckage Paradise!

The Larkinson Clan already chewed through half-a-dozen mid-sized pirate gangs after defeating the Rust Grinders.

With each defeat, the Black Cats harvested more intelligence which helped them identify and locate the task force's next meal.

Through sheer repetition, the cooperation and battle tactics of the various mech forces in the clan improved.

Though their mech pilots exhibited plenty of clumsy errors at first, they no longer happened as often now that the clan soldiers accumulated some actual battle experience!

The continuous battles against the cunning and ruthless pirates caused a lot of Larkinsons in the fleet to mature.

The most remarkable growth came from the three elite squads led by their respective expert candidates.

Candidate Joshua Larkinson and the Bright Companions rapidly gelled together into a cohesive assault element that could smash through any defense!

His girlfriend Jannzi and her Shieldbearers became more astute at placing themselves where their defense was needed the most.

Tusa Billingsley-Larkinson and his Speed Demons not only became more proficient at reconnaissance, but also excelled at running interference and harassing rear elements.

The rest of the Larkinsons deserved mention as well.

The Ingvar siblings may not have attracted as much attention, but that was because the Bright Warriors they piloted and led overshadowed much of their accomplishments.

Captain Casella Ingvar knew she was very fortunate to receive the right to lead the Second Spaceborn Company of the Avatars of Myth.

As one of the few mech companies that fielded a full complement of Bright Warriors, she commanded one of the strongest elements of the clan!

It was easy to become accustomed to the enormous strength disparity between a bridge mech and a third-class pirate mech. Yet Casella knew that she could never let down her guard no matter how weak the pirates appeared!

The battle taking place at the moment was a typical example. The Avatars along with the other mech forces all dispatched a mech company each in order to test their cooperation.

With less than 200 mechs, they were tasked with defeating a pirate force that fielded around the same amount of mechs.

Normally, the Larkinson Clan mechs should have been able to run through the same number of measly, low-quality pirate mechs.

The problem was that the so-called Mountain Kings were famed for their defenses!

They not only took control of various asteroids and mashed them together into several defensive bulwarks, but also littered the space in between with devious traps!

The sheer amount of mines and pop-up turrets the attack force had encountered severely halted the momentum of their attack.

Casella gritted her teeth as the Solar Warriors held their shields to defend the more vulnerable rifleman mechs of the Sentinels and Battle Criers.

Even if the Larkinson mechs used the surrounding asteroids as cover, they didn't last very long against the large ballistic artillery cannons used by the Mountain Kings!

"Hold together and use your frames to block the incoming attacks if need be! They can't punch through our armor!"

The Mountain Kings installed so many turrets on their asteroid that the sheer volume of fire posed a considerable threat to the more vulnerable mechs of the clan!

The other configurations of the Bright Warrior such as the Illuminating Warrior and the Shining Warrior were also forced to use their frames as a temporary wall against the incoming firepower.

If the entire task force or just the Penitent Sisters attacked at once, the elaborate defense matrix of the Mountain Kings wouldn't have lasted so long.

However, that defeated the purpose of this exercise!

"C'mon!" Imon Ingvar shouted to her over their private comm channel. "I don't see why we are holding back all this time. My mech's sword is aching for pirate blood! Can't you let us go in already?!"

"No." She forcefully said. "Major Verle already told us to stay put, and he makes a good point. These Mountain Kings prepared way too many traps. Who knows if some of them are powerful enough to threaten our Bright Warriors? We have already encountered plenty of surprises from the previous pirate groups we attacked!"

If there is one lesson the Larkinson Clan had learned, it was that many pirate groups prepared some surprises!

With the amount of accumulation and defenses the Mountain Kings prepared, there was a very high likelihood that they too prepared some sort of huge countermeasure.

Therefore, even if maintaining distance and engaging in an extended firefight sounded frustrating, it was the safest method to grind down the Mountain Kings.

With the amazing defenses of the Bright Warrior mechs, the Larkinsons possessed an undeniable advantage in battles of attrition!

As the battle slowly progressed and the defensive bulwarks slowly lost their teeth from the steady and methodical ranged attacks, the Mountain Kings finally couldn't take it any longer.

They were done with acting as the Larkinson Clan's pincushions!

"Uh, sis? Is it me, or are those fortified asteroids moving?"

The sensors of her mech blared an alert, and the command center in the main fleet probably became befuddled as well.

What were the Mountain Kings doing? Why were they sending forth and splitting up their battle fortifications?

The highest command channel suddenly transmitted Major Verle's voice to every Larkinson mech.

"RETREAT! OUR DEEP SENSORS HAVE JUST PICKED UP RADIOACTIVITY FROM THOSE ASTEROIDS! THEY ARE PACKED WITH NUCLEAR BOMBS!"

Though weaker nuclear ordnance did not necessarily pose a threat to the Bright Warriors, the weaker mechs might not be as well off. If the Mountain Kings enriched the nuclear bombs with dangerous exotics, then the resulting explosions might very well be able to accomplish something that no other pirate had managed!

"Fall back, men!" She desperately shouted. "Retreat, but make sure to cover for our weaker mechs!"

The Bright Warriors guarded the rear as the other clan mechs hastily made distance.

"Split up! Disperse your formation!" Major Verle ordered.

New orders transmitted from the command center gave each mech and squad a new heading. The mechs immediately began to spread apart in order to make it harder for a single powerful explosive to affect all of them at once.

So far, the asteroids weren't able to accelerate fast enough to catch up to the clan. Yet all of that changed when smaller portions of their surface broke off from the main body and rapidly accelerated towards the fleeing Larkinson mechs.

"Intercept them! Some of them contain potent fusion bombs!"

The mechs that possessed ranged weapons turned on their axis while their flight systems still propelled them away. They fired their rifles and other ranged weapons at the rapidly-approaching rocks.

Though their surface layers of asteroid material quickly succumbed at all of the focus fire, there were too many of them! Some of them even incorporated thick layers of wreckage salvaged from the surrounding space.

Even though the mechs and starship hull plating weren't very high in quality, it still took a lot of time to penetrate all of those layers!

Casella grew more nervous. The firepower of the attack force wasn't enough to defeat all of the approaching rocks! The Mountain Kings heavily invested in this nasty surprise!

She finally decided to issue a request to Major Verle.

"Please allow my Bright Warriors to fire their missiles at the approaching rocks, sir. Two missiles should be powerful enough to crack through their defenses even with all of the scrap metal in the way."

A brief pause ensued. "No, captain. Those high-quality missiles are valuable consumables that cannot be wasted on this scum. The clan patriarch has already instructed us to employ another solution."

The solution soon became clear as powerful laser beams and positron beams suddenly hammered the accelerating rocks!

Large and powerful volleys of energy beams continuously smashed through the rocks at a much greater degree of effectiveness!

The Penitent Sisters had finally moved into action!

Before this point, they had merely been placed on standby and guarded the main fleet against surprise attacks from the flanks or rear.

Now, a considerable number of their ranged mechs had flown forward and easily smacked down the rocks one by one with their incredibly powerful rifles!

The difference was like night and day as far as Casella and the other clansmen were concerned. They felt both relieved and ashamed that they needed to be bailed out in this way.

This was especially so when some of the rocks began to explode in nuclear fury!

Enormous balls of hot and concussive fury filled the space between the Mountain Kings and the retreating Larkinson mechs!

According to the sensors of her mech, those nuclear explosions were laced with enough volatile exotics to massively increase their threat at close range!

Even at this distance, the numerous explosions still managed to break or overload some of the sensors of their mechs while peppering the mechs with powerful spikes of radiation!

Fortunately, the armor of all of those mechs were sufficiently shielded against this level of intensity, but their surface layers all needed to be treated carefully after this battle!

The moment the Larkinson Clan activated the Penitent Sisters, the outcome of the battle turned into a foregone conclusion.

As much as the Larkinson Clan wanted to use the opposing pirates as target practice, that didn't mean that they wanted to suffer avoidable casualties.

When the ranged mechs of the Penitent Sisters annihilated the rocks that contained the nuclear bombs, they quickly turned their ire at the remaining pirate fortifications.

What took minutes for the Avatars and Sentinels to neutralize only took seconds for the Penitent Sisters!

Unbothered by the sensor-dampening dust clouds the Mountain Kings were spewing in the surrounding space, the Penitent Sister mechs accurately struck each and every turret and fortification. Their laser and positron beams were so powerful that they melted straight through every defensive fixture.

As for the pirate mechs? They lasted just as short when focused upon!

The pure devastation inflicted by just two mech companies of second-class mechs completely rendered the Mountain Kings helpless and impotent.

Soon enough, their last castle had fallen.

The entire sight caused every Larkinson who took part in the prior attack to feel frustrated.

"We failed." Imon told her sister. "We could have beaten these Mountain Kings if we learned of their trick beforehand. If this was a real battle..."

Casella Ingvar grimaced. "It won't be long before we will suffer our first true casualties. We're almost out of Wreckage Paradise. Once we enter Maynard Fields, none of the pirates we face are easy to deal with. That is when our true test starts."

Wreckage Paradise was too barren and too close to the border of the Nyxian Gap to attract the more powerful pirate groups. Even then, outfits with a relatively poor and obscure reputation like the Mountain Kings were already capable of annihilating any attacks with their hidden nuclear ordnance!

The Big Two's prohibition against weapons of mass destruction held no sway in this lawless region.

To many pirates, as long as they kept their controversial weapons secret, then they wouldn't suffer any consequences.

If any battle went poorly for them, then the pirates had nothing to lose by breaking the rules and employing taboo weapons!

After all, they were already destined to die anyway if they lost the battle, so they might as well go out and leverage every possible advantage no matter how much bounty the MTA put on their heads!

So far, Task Force Predator managed to maintain the upper hand by relying on their superior mechs. Yet it was clear to Casella that more changes were needed in order to keep the inevitable losses in the future as minimal as possible.

"We can't keep provoking every pirate group in our way." She muttered.

Even though the Nyxian pirates were anything but united, word of the Larkinson Clan's violent incursion into their space had already spread!