The offensive initiated by the black mechs had never been about wiping the Violet Estates from the map.

Their overriding mission had always been to crush the members of the Purnesse Family!

Once the Larkinson Clan recognized this truth and moved to evacuate the trapped Purnessers, the black mechs went crazy!

They no longer played cat and mouse against the Avatar and Vandal mechs flying in the air. Instead, they swam around the island and tried to throw as many attacks towards the departing combat carriers as possible!

Kinetic shells kept bouncing against the hulls and vulnerable components of the escaping vessels.

The attacks exerted a considerable degree of pressure towards the combat carriers.

If the six ships were still in their prime, then they could have easily resisted the attacks for a time.

Yet right now their surface integrity was not only compromised, but they were also being hit in the rear where the hull plating was relatively weaker and where their main thrusters were prominent weak points!

The crews and captains of the retreating vessels quickly adjusted to the situation. The Larkinson Clan deliberately assigned the most intact of the six to carry the survivors of the Purnesse Family.. This vessel flew at the head of the formation.

In the meantime, the other five combat carriers all escorted this critical ship and used their own hulls as shields against the increasing amount of projectiles launched by the black mechs.

In order to prevent their main propulsion systems from being taken out of action too early, the combat carriers flew in oblique angles behind the VIP vessel. This caused most of the incoming firepower to hit the vessels on the flanks and at an angle, which effectively mitigated much of the damage that they accumulated.

The plan was working!

The Hexer-built combat carriers that the Larkinsons bought second-hand from the Hexadric Hegemony were several decades old, but that did not mean they were faulty. Far from it. After receiving constant attention from their new owners, the vessels all ran smoother than before. Many of their structural issues had been addressed and their nature as combat vessels ensured that they were still tough enough to endure all kinds of difficulties over their lifespan.

Even if one of their sides started to incur serious damage, the combat carriers merely spun around in order to present another side towards the enemy ranged mechs!

In fact, even if the incoming fire started to batter the insides of the combat carriers, their high degree of redundancy and compartmentalization ensured that they would still stubbornly remain in working condition even if entire ship sections began to collapse!

"Our ships are still holding!"

"They're not capable of returning to orbit, though. They've incurred too much damage!"

This was the only downside to the improvised plan of the Larkinson Clan. It took a lot of effort for these heavy ships to fight against the powerful gravity pulling down their ships and increase their altitude. Much of their propulsion systems were either compromised or only partially effective.

Though the chief engineers of the respective vessels did not completely rule out the option, in their professional judgement, the risks were too great to make the attempt.

"We need to wait for the second wave of combat carriers to arrive." Vivian Tsai explained to Ves and General Verle. "The combat carriers that are arriving next will enter the atmosphere under more gentle conditions. If we ease up their trajectory further, chances are high that they will remain intact enough to ferry the VIPs back into orbit."

Once the Purnessers reached orbit, they could transfer over to a more defensible vessel like the Spirit of Bentheim or the Graveyard.

Taking down a capital ship was many times more difficult than taking down a single combat carrier!

As long as the enemy didn't dispatch at least an entire mech division or something, the mission to save the Purnessers would pretty much be in the bag!

In order to accomplish this, the first wave of combat carriers had to hold on as long as possible. Even as they exhausted all of their energies towards increasing their altitude, their progress was still too slow for the Larkinson Clan's liking.

However, the black mechs had lost all of their initiative after the latest developments. The amphibian mechs tried to keep up with the escaping combat carriers by traversing closer in their direction.

Hundreds of amphibian mechs surged forth like waves of metal. The melee mechs stuck close to the ranged mechs, preventing any Bright Warrior of Ferocious Piranha from assaulting the important machines.

"Avatars! Focus all of your efforts on taking down the ranged amphibian mechs! As long as they lose their ability to attack from a distance, they can do nothing to stall our departure!"

Commander Melkor had already made peace with the fact that his Avatars wouldn't be earning supreme glory today. Though he really wanted to stick around and crush these opponents, the mission always came first, and completing it would provide enough proof that his men were not weak.

The Avatars and Vandals both coordinated their actions in order to neutralize the ranged potential of their foes. The aggressive posture of their melee mechs rarely resulted in takedowns, but it still forced the black mechs to dip below the water, preventing them from launching attacks towards the escaping vessels.

Meanwhile, the remaining ranged black mechs that were trying their best to complete their primary objective were being bombarded by a torrent of energy beams!

Two Bright Warriors performed noticeably better in this ranged duel.

Isobel Kotin was one of the many mech pilots who became an expert candidate after the traumatic but extraordinary Battle against the Abyss.

Compared to the colorful personalities of other expert pilots and expert candidates, Isobel was rather boring. She was a quiet and analytical person by nature, and that usually caused her to attract little attention back when she was a regular mech pilot.

However, her diligence and constant effort towards improving herself seemed to have paid off. After taking her first step on the road to becoming a demigod, her skill and confidence rose by leaps and bounds.

Though she had hardly become more assertive, she had become more dedicated to polishing her marksmanship now that she experienced significant improvements after surpassing her mortal limits!

Due to her status, she was one of the lucky few who received an upgraded luminar crystal rifle. The laser beams she fired seared through the thick armor plating of the amphibian mechs as if they were plasma cutters.

It didn't matter if amphibian mechs were able to pile up more armor than other mechs. Against more powerful laser beams that accurately hit the weak points of the enemy machines with very few misses, Isobel was able to destroy or cripple an opponent with considerably greater efficiency than her fellow Avatars!

The other mech pilot that performed extremely well was Mr. Mavelon.

In truth, all of the MTA mech pilots possessed extremely good marksmanship. First-class multipurpose mechs fought at both range and up close, but most of the time they relied on their large and varied integrated arsenal to defeat their opponents before they even had an opportunity to bring out their blades.

Though the Bright Warrior he was piloting lacked all of the advanced systems that could facilitate its ranged performance, Mavelon had to admit that the fundamentals of the mech model was quite sound.

The precision of his energy beams virtually matched that of Isobel Kotin. At some moments, the mecher's accuracy and effectiveness surpassed that of the expert candidate!

His excellent performance fully showed how extremely good training could elevate normal humans far beyond the average level of mech pilots. Whatever method the MTA employed to train its internal mech pilots, it was an incredible accomplishment to elevate their skills past what most of the mech community thought was the limit for regular humans!

Different from Isobel who mostly relied on raw talent, a budding will and superhuman intuition to gain the upper hand, Mavelon relied mostly on his enhanced intellect, his augmented response times and his extremely thorough systematic training.

As a result, his consistency was even higher! He steadily downed one enemy mech after another regardless of what kind of response they made. The black mechs that had become his targets even didn't manage to submerge beneath the surface before Mavelon launched his fatal attacks!

Mavelon's performance did not go unnoticed. Melkor and the other Avatars were already aware of the performance of one of the few non-Larkinsons in their midst.

"These guest pilots are no joke!"

At any other time, the Avatars would have paid more attention to the performance of their guests. As it was, the combat carriers still needed cover.

Through the constant efforts of the Avatars, the black mechs with ranged capabilities dwindled in numbers. No matter how hard the enemy tried to protect them, it was hard for amphibian melee mechs to block attacks coming from above!

The oceans might be the enemy's domain, but as the focus of the battlefield moved into the skies, the lack of flight capabilities of the amphibian mechs became a very great limitation!

As the combat carrier that contained the VIPs kept soaring higher, it became increasingly clearer that the black mechs had lost their shot at destroying the Purnesse Family.

Their ranged mechs had practically become extinct while their melee mechs swam helplessly in the water. Their sturdy legs and powerful aquatic propulsion did not allow them to fly into the skies!

Though Ves was happy to see this outcome, he soon remembered an important point.

"Everytime the Purnessers attempted to leave Trieden II, someone intercepted their escape vessels. Is the anti-air capabilities of these black mechs really that weak?"

In truth, the ranged prowess of the enemy was quite strong. While they didn't fare too well right now, under normal circumstances they possessed more than enough firepower to down any average shuttle or transport.

Yet these amphibian mechs were still limited. The enemy had to possess another solution.

Half a minute later, the situation changed. Some of the scouts in the vicinity detected a large amount of disturbance from beneath the water.

"We're detecting a lot of disturbance from below! Whatever is coming is rising to the surface at a rapid speed. Watch out!"

A volley of more than a hundred missiles jumped out of the water and soared towards the fleeing combat carriers!

The four escorting vessels did their best to surround and cover the key ship that carried the Purnesse family.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The missiles tore into the exposed and weakened sections of the combat carriers in question. Their smart guidance systems had already judged where they could inflict the most damage.

Two combat carriers shook in the air and lost so many systems that they were no longer able to increase their altitudes.

Instead, they were starting to tilt downwards as their remaining intact propulsion systems were overstraining their systems in order to compensate for the loss of other vital systems!

"Abandon ship! She won't be able to keep herself aloft much longer."

Escape pods shot out of the two crippled combat carriers in droves as the crew resolutely gave up the vessels they called home.

"Watch out! A second volley is coming!"

More missiles shot out of the water! Some of them hit the combat carriers that were already doomed, but most went on to hit the remaining three vessels!

This time, the vessel carrying the Purnessers couldn't escape punishment. The combat carrier violently shook as her battered surface endured dozens of destructive impacts.

The Purnessers stuck in the hangar bay screamed as they felt the vessel around them groaning and shaking under all of the attacks!

"This ship is close to falling apart!"

"We need to relocate to another vessel. Why hasn't the Larkinson Clan dispatched a proper vessel? This combat carrier is already on her last legs. How irresponsible!"

Most of the Purnessers had never been exposed to war-like circumstances in their entire lives. The only way they could process this crisis was by giving into their worst fears or complaining about how the Larkinsons were botching this rescue mission!

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