Of course, the last ten percent of the design work was the part that took the longest out of everything. It was the refining, the precision fitting, and the attunement process that made a Custom Mecha into a work of art.
There was no way to cut corners on it, even if everyone was worried about the next attack and when it might happen. The Galen had been resoundingly defeated, but it was the first battle, and traditionally those were used to sound out an enemy's strength, not as a deciding factor for an entire conflict.
Even if they thought that the humans were working with the Darklings, they would almost certainly be back. It might be an ambush or a hit-and-run sneak attack intended to deal as much damage as possible before their ships were boarded and cleaned out by the Darklings, but Max couldn't see a scenario where the Galen simply didn't attack again.
He kept them to a regular development schedule, though, eight-hour work shifts so that they had time to work on their personal research as well. You never knew when a new development or breakthrough could happen, and if it happened here on the ship, it could totally change the design of the Mecha that they were working on.
They didn't get much time for study, though. On the third day of the Chassis refinement, the Galen fleet was back.
[Incoming vessels.] The Duty Captain called, sending Max and Nico running for their Mecha while the design team took out the helmets and sealed their Augmentic Armour.
The Galen had a different plan this time. Their ships had taken massive damage last time, and they had lost two full crews to the Darklings, so this time, they came with a large transport ship and began disgorging their boxy little attack fighters everywhere.
As soon as he was free of the cargo bay, Max unleashed an Orbital Lance at the transport ship, which was overtaken by a Warp Speed projectile from Nico's Mass Driver. She only held back a little bit today, and the projectile was a Fusion Detonation and not antimatter, but the impact was at Warp 10 and hit the energy shields hard enough that the power completely blew out on the vessel.
Max's Orbital Lance tore it to shreds, but the debris field showed that there was very little left in it.
"A disposable transport ship." He mused.
That meant that they didn't expect to get any of these fighter craft back. It was a sad fate for the Pilots, he thought. Well, right up until Nico let out a whooping cheer, and the fighters began to turn on each other.
"They're DRONES. They sent DRONES to attack us." She laughed.
Sending them against the Arisen was a recipe for disaster, but there was no way that they could have known that sending them against Nico was just a Christmas present come early for the ecstatic cyborg.
The fighters began to turn on each other, and it caused the programming of the drones to go crazy. Max was still searching to see if they were just remote piloted and not autonomous, but there were so many signals and weapon signatures in the area that he couldn't pick anything in specific out.
Nico's [Drone Controller] skill was serving her well today, and she had been improving it at a rapid pace, Max decided. Out of the thousands of Drones, over a hundred at any given time were under her control, causing Chaos in the ranks.
Since she could switch in an instant, Max didn't even try to avoid targeting them if they were near a cluster of enemies. He simply fired on wide dispersion and wiped them all out, allowing Nico to pick more Drones to commandeer.
The new Line Mecha was doing a wonderful job, and the small Mass Drivers were filling the area with explosions as the proximity detonated rounds went off when the shots missed their targets.
Their accuracy might need some work, but even the detonations were taking out the drone fighters with ease, and the upgraded shielding on the new Mecha had prevented the level of casualties that they had taken last time.
There were only a few Mechas damaged by the time the drones were beginning to thin out, and Max still hadn't moved from his spot by the cargo bay. This attack was just another probing strike, seeing their capabilities.
Because they used different Mecha than the first time, it would confuse the Galen Fleet, and they would have to spend some time deciding what the humans' actual power level was. Max was hoping that would buy some more time, enough that they could finish Nico's new Mecha and begin their own hunt for the Galen Fleet.
Once the battle was nearly over, Nico started self-destructing the Drones, leaving nothing but scrap on the battlefield.
[Not keeping any for research purposes?] He asked.
[Nope, they're all broadcasting live somewhere, so I'll just destroy them all before they have time to figure out how we hijacked their attack craft. I fended off their cyber attacks a few times during this strike, so I don't think they know how I did it.] Nico replied happily.
She might not have gotten much of a fight, but she got to play orbital bumper cars with someone else's attack craft, and that was a new one for even Nico.
[Alright, the show's over. Hit the scrap with Disintegrators until it's dust. The enemy is tracking various parts of those craft, and we don't want to leave anything for them to recover.] Max directed.
The Destroyers sent out a small group of shuttles, which used gravity beams to pull the scrap into clumps for the Mecha to finish destroying before everyone returned to their hangars.
They would have to take the fight to the Galen soon. Leaving the Koleska in danger because some random dying species was mad at the humans for existing wasn't an acceptable course of action, even if the Koleska would gladly join them in the fight.
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