The artillery duel soon began in earnest!

The heavy artillery mechs holed up inside the many bunkers placed on the hulls of hundreds of carriers all let loose their heaviest armaments!

The space between the two fleets lit up with a combination of searing beams and heavy projectiles!

The Destiny Hammer artillery mechs securely ensconced on the Forward Momentum silently roared to life! Their gauss cannons did not fire rapidly, but every hit inflicted telling blows to every vessel they struck!

If the elite Fridayman heavy mechs managed to land a direct hit on one of the lighter mechs of the expeditionary fleet, then the latter would certainly be taken out of the fight!

Even though the defenders had not exposed many of their mechs, the Larkinsons assigned to pilot the budget second-class mechs were already shaking in their seats.

The oppression exerted by the Destiny Hammers

was wholly disproportionate to their numbers. Now that they had begun to fire their main cannons, their destructive capacity was beginning to hurt the starships they targeted for real. Hull plating cracked, compartments became exposed to space and all manner of surface components were being swept at an alarming rate.

The Vanguard Group's premier heavy artillery mech regiment fully deserved its stellar reputation!

Ves was already starting to regret his decision to commit the Larkinson Clan to fighting against the Fridayman elite mech troops.

He underestimated the extent in which the Coalition partners invested heavily in these units. By combining superb mechs, exceptionally-trained mech pilots and well-developed martial traditions, the Fridaymen produced an all-round end product that was able to compete against the best of what the surrounding Star Sectors had to offer!

If not for their relatively limited numbers, Ves would have ordered his clan to forget about the fight and abandon the entire fleet except for the Spirit of Bentheim!

There was no way the Larkinson at its height could defeat the Destiny Hammers if they brought their entire mech regiment! Just 80 of their mechs were already chipping away at the morale boost that Ves had managed to instill in his men with his speech.

The worst part of all of this was that the Destiny Hammers weren't even the scariest elites the enemy strike force had in store!

Through direct and indirect observation, the sensor and intelligence personnel slowly identified additional Fridayman elites among the incoming fleet.

The Auralis not only carried a detachment of Bloody Herons, but also hosted the 1002nd Holvein Grenadiers!

The Holvein Grenadiers was a renowned elite mech regiment with an all-round orientation. They fielded many different mech types, allowing them to utilize combined arms to achieve great synergies.

As their name suggested, the Holvein Grenadier mechs were also known for carrying a plethora of grenades.

It didn't matter whether they were swordsman mechs, space knights, rifleman mechs or auxiliary mechs. As long as they wore the colors of the Holvein Grenadiers, they definitely carried at least a couple of expensive grenades with varied effects!

This made them a nightmare to fight against in close range. Whenever the Grenadiers wanted to unleash a surprise, they whipped out a grenade and expertly threw them in a way that dealt the most damage to their opponents!

The grenades couldn't easily be guarded against. Even if their exterior shells all looked exactly the same, they possessed many possible effects. Some of them possessed plain high explosive payloads. Others unleash a shower of plasma. A rare few detonated an intense EMP blast.

While these potent grenades may cost as much as a mech, the Gauge Dynasty continually supplied the Holvein Grenadiers with replacements. This had turned all of their mech pilots into explosion artists!

Anytime the Hex Army encountered the Holvein Grenadiers in battle, the normally-aggressive Hexers instantly suspended all of their plans to push forward. They would rather fight the Grenadiers at range than fight up close!

There was more. The Konsu Clan contributed their elites as well. Hundreds of swordsman mechs trailing close behind the Amagi. The Glory Seekers eventually identified them as the 125th Silent Swords!

This was yet another trump card of the Friday Coalition!

Every mech pilot of the Silent Sword took on a vow of silence. While that did not preclude them from communicating with friendlies in other ways, they rarely did so. Whenever they fought on the battlefield, they relied on their impeccable teamwork and strong battle sense to coordinate with each other and advance in unison.

They were almost just as coordinated as the Bloody Herons, but without relying on any technological solutions such as neural networks!

Due to their extreme diligence and discipline, the Silent Swords weren't only some of the best swordsman mech pilots of the Friday Coalition. They also cultivated minds of steel. The elite Konsu clansmen were so exceptional in this aspect that they were effectively immune against any suppressive glows!

"The Glory Seekers estimate that the Amagi is carrying up to 400 Silent Sword mechs. That's 8 mech companies, sir." Major Verle's projection spoke to Ves on the bridge of the Spirit of Bentheim. "The Silent Swords are the shock troops of the Fridayman strike force. The enemy will likely hold them back until our mechs are tired and exhausted from fighting the other elite mechs. Once the enemy commander judges that we have exhausted most of our strength, the fresh and fully-prepared Silent Sword mechs will likely swoop in and roll us up with unstoppable momentum!"

While the Fridaymen might not necessarily employ the Silent Swords in this manner, it was what the Larkinson Clan would do if it was in the place of the enemy.

The Silent Swords were famed for their combat prowess up close, but possessed obvious shortcomings at range. At this stage of the battle, it did not make sense for them to enter the stage.

In fact, the Larkinsons also intended to keep Venerable Dise and the Swordmaidens in reserve for the same reason. The only difference was that there were a lot less of them! Too little time had passed for the Swordmaidens to train up additional mech pilots, so they were only capable of fielding a single mech company at this time.

The huge number disparity depressed Ves. If the Swordmaidens were able to field ten times as much mechs, then he wouldn't be so concerned about the Silent Swords!

As Ves and the other leaders worried about how to fight against the different Fridaymen elites, the soldiers did not think so much.

The ranged mech pilots were all focused on shooting at the approaching threats!

The Transcendent Punishers debuted in battle for the first time. Every bunker on a Larkinson ship featured the purpose-built artillery mechs. Their six thick legs sank deep into the slots of the bunkers. Anchoring the mechs not only brought exceptional stability, but also enabled much more efficient heat transfer.

Four out of six of their heavy cannons fired on a continuous basis. Their positron cannons fired incredibly powerful beams that stripped the layers of anything they struck. Their Xcordon gauss cannons immediately cracked and breached the damaged layers if they managed to land their shots on target!

Taon Melin concentrated fully on his duel against the Destiny Hammers. The higher had commanded the Transcendent Punishers to focus most of their firepower against the bunkers of the Forward Momentum.

It wasn't easy. The Fridayman deep strike carrier may be the weakest capital ship on the battlefield, but her acceleration and agility made it very difficult to achieve consistent hits on a single point along her hull!

The Vanguard Group had cheaped out when it came to cladding the Forward Momentum with armor, but the shipbuilders did not neglect her bunkers. Every shell protecting the Destiny Hammers against external attacks was extra thick!

Fortunately, the Transcendent Punishers were just as secure, if not more.

A volley of heavy gauss rounds impacted the energy shield erected before the group of bunkers that held the Prophet's Fist along with several other Transcendent Punishers!

The energy shields only blocked the initial shots before disappearing, allowing subsequent shots to impact the upper layers of the bunkers!

The bunkers held, if only for now. Despite the lack of thunderous sounds, Taon could practically feel the vibrations as a pair of kinetic rounds slammed onto the protective roof above the Prophet's Fist!

The mech would have been okay even if the bunker succumbed to the attacks. Heavy mechs weren't big and expensive for nothing!

Regardless, Taon couldn't help but regard the Destiny Hammers as his greatest foes. Out of all of the enemy ranged mechs, he instinctively felt he needed to annihilate the enemy artillery mechs before he was free to bring his guns to bear against other targets.

The Destiny Hammers evidently felt the same way because they had concentrated more and more of their fire onto the bunkers of the expeditionary fleet!

After pouring their fire onto the Spirit of Bentheim for a while, the Destiny Hammers eventually directed their fire elsewhere.

This was not because it was impossible for them to inflict meaningful damage against the bunker mechs aboard the factory ship. The enemy artillery mechs succeeded in breaching a couple of bunkers.

The problem was their progress was too slow!

The shield generators that constantly came online for a few moments mitigated a substantial portion of incoming fire. This weakened any attacks directed against the flagship of the Larkinson Clan.

The shield generator operators expertly activated and deactivated the energy shields in order to manage the stress onto their devices. The shields worked wonderfully against lighter attacks but could not bear the burden of blocking too many heavy attacks.

Each time a shield generator came under a heavy burden, they rapidly heated up. Some of their subcomponents also reached their limits. If the shield generator kept blocking more and more damage, they might fizzle out and forcibly enter an emergency cooldown cycle!

Skilled operators and engineers were capable of overriding this necessary cycle if they needed to. The shield generators would then be forced to erect wobbly, unstable energy shields that could still play a critical role at the right time.

This was very dangerous, though! Aside from risking breakdowns and explosions, overloading the shield generators also reduced their lifespans at decades at a time.

The Larkinsons obviously couldn't care about that at this time. The heavy-duty shield generators cost as much as hundreds of mechs, but they were ultimately machines in the end.

If their operators had to push them to their breaking points in order to lighten the burden on the Transcendent Punishers, then so be it. Lives could not be rebuilt as easily as machines!

Through the pure and sacred glow of the Prophet's Fist, Taon felt his purpose. Even without the mech's special ability, he still had Prophet Ylvaine by his side. The passive glow already expanded his awareness, allowing him to identify the best and most threatening targets he should train his guns on. His accuracy slowly increased as he became more in tune with his artillery mech!

Not every Ylvainan mech pilot was able to reach this elevated state of mind. Their closeness to their mechs might not be as good or they might be unaccustomed to piloting artillery mechs.

Another reason why the Transcendent Punishers weren't able to perform at their best was because of the pummeling they received!

After the Destiny Hammers learned that the Spirit of Bentheim was too well-protected to succumb to their attacks, the enemy artillery mechs trained all of their firepower on the bunkers of the combat carriers instead!

Devoid of shields and boasting thinner layers of armor, the incoming rounds and positron beams made quick work on the bunkers. The accuracy of the Destiny Hammer mech pilots were so high that not even rotating mechs stopped them from concentrating their fire onto individual bunkers!

The first Transcendent Punishers had already fallen when their bunkers collapsed and lots of heavy attacks slammed into their frames!

"This can't go on!" Taon screamed.

The higher ups agreed. Soon enough, the Ylvainan mech pilots finally received the order that they had been waiting for. They received orders to activate the greatest function of their new machines!