after Adam's clone and its escort returned from the Starlight Megalodon towards the stealth frigate and returned to the bright republic.

during this time the 2 clones stayed on the main fleet of the bright republic as Ves and a select army went down planet side, with Adam got what he came for the clones went on auto pilot as Adam focused his energy on expanding his starship businesses, one in Benetheim and the other on the Verga system several lightyears away from the "Beyonder Gate"

aside from the small details canon continued as normal.

 

Back on both shipyards Adam has been building hundreds of transport and cargo ships anticipating trillions of 3rd raters going exodus in the wake of the Sandman fleet.

by this time 6 months has already passed since the entire adventure in planet Aeon Corona, and a 5th clone has emerged by this time the emergence of clones has become routine, outside of the Exodia mech and other key resource materials nothing else was cloned.

6 months after their return the Sandmen fleet from all over Komodo star sector came alive started attacking everything with energy signatures, starting from cargo ships to passengers ships to even some fleets patrolling their boarders.

one of the 3rd rate states that were first affected by the Sandman is the Coman Federation.

The Coman Federation was splintering apart. Having long adopted a superior attitude, the transhuman fanatics hadn't been able to solicit the Bright Republic or other neighboring states to assist in its defense.

The Comen had been left on their own to face the brunt of the sandman invasion. No matter how much they trusted their bionic augmentations, implants and artificial limbs hardly made any difference in fighting off the sandmen!

In fact, the sandman devoured the heavily-augmented Comen much more eagerly than normal people!

Engulfing flesh and blood hardly yielded anything useful to the silicon-based lifeforms. They would much rather eat energy sources and valuable metals, something which most bionic augmentations possessed in spades!

Something unexpected happened. The sandmen devoured the Coman Federation with much more fervor than anyone initially expected! Their eagerness to wipe out the Comen led them to attack their star systems with a bit more urgency than normal.

The increased pressure was too much for the Federation. Not only did the increased pressure led to a greater number of desertions and flight, the Comen also lost their star systems at a rapid rate.

Within a month, the Coman Federation as an independent state ceased to exist! All that was left was a collection of splintering star systems which became engulfed in total chaos! Every Coman left behind desperately tried to flee their crumbling homes, but all the starships of the Federation had already left by now!

Countless Comen died from the tides of sand every day. The messages and recordings transmitted by the sobbing civilians flooded the galactic net. It was as if almost every doomed person wanted to leave proof of their existence.

Even if they died, they would not be forgotten! Their names, faces and voices were all included in a virtual memorial that continuously registered an alarming influx of entries!

Due to the rapid collapse of the Coman Federation, the Bright Republic began to experience more than a couple of sporadic sandmen fleets.

The Bright Republic's war against the sandman had commenced in earnest.

During the initial battles, existing rifleman mechs formed the Republic's mainstay. These mechs already existed long before the crisis and their mech pilots spent years to get in tune with the machines.

Only some of the new rifleman mechs saw battle. Nonetheless, their performance during these initial battles already proved that they were sufficient for the job.

Against the sandmen, the quality of the mech did not matter as much. As long as a mech could fly in space and fire out kinetic or ballistic rounds, then they were already useful!

Having learned from the lessons of the states that fell before, the Bright Republic allocated most of its resources into defeating the sandmen in space. While the government still fortified the surfaces of important planets such as Bentheim, it largely gave up on reinforcing the surfaces of lesser planets.

It was just too difficult to defeat the sandman under the various limitations of landbound combat!

Everyone started to put more emphasis on spaceborn mechs that could fight the sandmen at a distance.

In one corner of the Bright Republic, a half-company of Desolate Soldier mechs calmly fired at the sandmen in steady, synchronized volleys. The sandman vessel they targeted continually lost significant chunks of sand as the explosive shells blasted them out into space!

However, the scale of the explosions paled in comparison to the mass and volume of a sandman vessel!

Not only that, but there were six of them orbiting an even greater sandman mothership!

The only upside to fighting a standard sandman fleet like this was that their ranged offensive power was very poor. Though the sandman vessels fired powerful lasers, their firing rate left much to be desired.

This gave the twenty or so Desolate Soldiers plenty of time to whittle down the advancing sandmen.

"Keep up the fight, men." A mercenary captain shouted over the communication channel. "There's a vulnerable planet behind us! If the sandmen reach the surface, all of the people who are living there will die!"

His words gained more strength due to the collective auras working together to amplify their sense of duty.

Compared to the other units resisting the sandmen that invaded this rural star system, the half-company of Desolate Soldiers immediately distinguished themselves.

The Rescue Particle Generator module placed at their 'hearts' caused them to look especially valiant. While the mechs themselves weren't very impressive, the orange modules released bright red vapor trails that marked their passage in space.

With around twenty trails forming in unison, the half-company of Desolate Soldiers clearly attracted the most attention!

Their performance stood in stark contrast to the other units participating in this battle. Only the small detachment from the Mech Corps fought the sandmen more valiantly than the commercial mechs!

"We are the light in the dark! We shall not let a bunch of commercial mechs upstage our military machines! Fight harder!"

The competition from the Desolate Soldiers spurred the detachment from the Mech Corps to fight even harder!

However, not every unit was doing so well right now.

Even if the other units were made up of more expensive mechs, the fear and stress of battle against an implacable foe such as the sandmen took a significant toll on their courage.

Lasers struck out every couple of minutes. These bright red beams were far stronger than the typical laser beams fired by mechs. They were so powerful in fact that the beams often melted through the torso of a mech, instantly wrecking it and harvesting the life of the mech pilot inside the vaporized cockpit!

"Larry! No!"

"Hang on, Cassie! Keep firing your rifle! Larry wouldn't want you to break down in the middle of a battle!"

Every mech pilot participating in the current battle had to keep their composure. That was getting harder and harder to do as the strain on them increased.

Each bright laser beam that lit up the battlefield promised guaranteed death upon getting hit!

Just as a formation of mercenaries began to grow increasingly more ragged, a couple of Desolate Soldiers arrived.

The reinforcement of a couple of mechs ordinarily wouldn't achieve much of an effect. In fact, adding unfamiliar elements to another outfit was usually a recipe for disaster!

No one liked to fight too close alongside strangers!

Yet this time, the beleaguered mercenaries did not react too negatively at the addition despite their lack of consent.

Why? Because the auras they brought instantly relieved some of the pressure subjected to them! Each and every mercenary suddenly became more resilient.

The pressure subjected to them didn't feel so bad all of a sudden!

"So the rumors are true! Those strange mechs that are on the news all the time really do help in battle!"

"Focus on your mission, men!"

"Yes, sir!"

Soon enough, the sandman vessels were whittled down one by one. Numerous mechs met their end after a giant laser passed through their frames, but even so the survivors never wavered in their discipline.

At the cost of eleven mechs and eight precious mech pilots, the defense force managed to repel the sandman fleet.

By itself, the battle ended up in a massive victory for the humans. The sandman fleet possessed a lot of power, but its poor configuration and battle tactics meant that much of its potential had never been utilized!

Nonetheless, this was just one of many sandman fleets about to batter the Bright Republic. The opening act had just begun, and thousands of sandman fleets would soon arrive to devour every single occupied star system!

With so many battles in store, the attrition would become unimaginably brutal.

Almost no battle ended without at least a couple of casualties! No matter how well the defenders fought off the sandmen, at least a number of mechs and mech pilots lost their lives!

With how immense the sandman civilization measured, the aliens had more than enough sandman fleets to overrun entire states!

Now that the sandmen have begun to attack the Bright Republic, a solemn mood had swept over the entire state, many Brighters began to deploy to the front.

The star systems facing the defunct Coman Federation were very clearly next. While a small number of sandman fleets might skip the star systems at the border in favor of going deeper, most sandmen admirals preferred to take more immediate hops.

As a result, the fighting at the border between the Bright Republic and the former Coman Federation had already begun to flare up! Hundreds of mechs and mech pilots already started to fall as the sandman race began to bleed the state of vital assets.

Losing a mech wasn't so bad. The government freely spent its money to encourage every mech manufacturer to produce as many mechs as possible.

The real problem was that mech pilots weren't so easily replaced. The Bright Republic had already lost many precious mech pilots during the previous war, and now the brave warriors and soldiers had to put their lives on the line yet again!

If too many of them died, then eventually who would be left to pilot the mechs? There was no way a state could resist the sandmen once their stock of mech pilots ran out.

Already, the Mech Corps had begun to draft numerous potentates who quit their training or dropped out of the mech academies for whatever reason.

No matter how deplorable they performed, as long as they could interface with a mech and point the muzzle of a rifle in the direction of a sandman, that was enough!

this is also one of the reason Ves Larkinson created the Desolate soldier mech. to shore up the numbers in their fight against the sandmen, its exclusive "aura" that instills loyalty to the surrounding area is just a little too effective to pass up, especially when most soldiers are prone to running away.

yet despite all this the sandman race are still too much for 3rd rate states to resist that they are forced to use an age old human wave tactics using an outdated starfighters.

The concept of small spacecraft or starfighters enjoyed mixed success during humanity's ascendance and dominance over the galaxy.

Swift, agile and cheap, starfighters performed fairly well as cheap weapon platforms that could harass large, sluggish targets from a distance.

In fact, humanity initially deployed drones to serve this role, but they became too prone to hacking. Any rival with a bone to pick could sneak in and sabotage the AIs controlling the donres, causing them to fire on their allies instead!

This meant that piloted starfighters actually played a respectable role during the Age of Stars and Age of Conquest.

Yet when humanity finally started to fight against the big boys of the galaxy, the downsides of fielding starfighters became very prominent.

Their small size meant that they became exceptionally vulnerable to massive, ship-scaled armaments with huge areas of effects. In fact, detonating a few nuclear missiles or anti-matter bombs in the middle of a formation was enough to wipe out hundreds of them at a time!

Casualties mounted to such an extent that the romanticism surrounding starfighters quickly faded. Deploying starfighters in the middle of a battle between huge warships was as idiotic as deploying infantry in a battle between mechs!

Just a few powerful weapon discharges was enough to kill huge swathes of annoying ants!

Even after the end of the Age of Mechs, the rise of mechs eclipsed every other weapon platform during the Age of Mechs.

Certainly, starfighters were more viable than before. The absence of warships in most of human space meant that smaller weapon platforms could actually play a role.

Sadly, when starfighters were pitted against mechs, the latter always gained the upper hand.

The advantages of mechs over starfighters were very clear.

Mech pilots were practically born for the job. When paired with a suitable mech, they made their machines come to life. Skilled mech pilots distinguished themselves by directly controlling many functions of a mech to make the most of their machines.

In contrast, starfighters piloted by norms lacked the advantages of a man-machine connection. Though cheap, the dependence on automation and the lack of fluidity in employing starfighters meant that they always fared worse against an equal force of mechs.

States stopped pumping money into making starfighters because the costs outweighed the benefits. War during the Age of Mechs had subsided into smaller, more focused conflicts centered around conquering territory and pushing ideologies.

Once the Age of Mechs took off and everyone began to fall in love with mechs, the Mech Trade Association began their fatal assault on alternate weapon platforms!

A whole swathe of weapon platforms such as starfighters, defensive platforms and the like were subject to numerous restrictions!

Their use in human conflicts had to be constrained at all costs!

Certainly, the MTA made a very persuasive argument for their case. When the outcome of a conflict solely depended on mechs, the damage inflicted to the parties involved was a lot less severe than if other weapon platforms entered the mix!

The benefit of mechs on the other hand was that its numbers were always finite. The amount of mechs a state could field would always be limited by their limited pool of manpower.

Only around 3.5 percent of humans possessed the right genetic aptitude to pilot mechs. Of that 3.5 percent, only a portion of them actually became mech pilots.

By narrowing the scope of human infighting to battles between a small number of highly-trained professionals, much of human vigor would still be preserved after the end of a war.

In other words, less people died.

Scarred by the mass deaths and genocides that characterized the latter days of the Age of Conquest, many humans embraced this logic.

The approval of the masses, the power wielded by the MTA and the tacit consent of the CFA all supported the new policies.

Since then, the restrictions on starfighters and other competing weapon platforms came into force!

 

the launch of the Starfighter Corps would definitely result in a huge success. The brutal attrition that the sandmen relentlessly inflicted on their victims would become a lot less effective once it shifted from mechs to starfighters!

The only complication was that the effectiveness of starfighters might drop when deployed against abnormal sandman fleets.

Aside from the basic configuration, newer varieties emerged for quite a while now. Though rare, the Komodo Star Sector witnessed enough of them to form loose categories.

From the titanic monolith configuration to the incredibly insidious swarm configuration, dealing with them always demanded a different response.

Of the current known modes of sandman fleets, some people could already tell that the starfighters would fare especially poorly against the swarm configuration.

This was basically a sandman admiral's attempt at imitating mechs. Deciding to fight fire with fire, they split up their huge and cumbersome sandman vessels into tens of thousands smaller sandman 'drones'.

Though small and fragile, their sheer numbers and the fact that they were all capable of firing weak lasers meant that defense forces were always heavily outnumbered!

It was the best configuration the sandman race came up with to counter mechs. Its relative success compared to other configurations meant that more and more sandman admirals adopted this trend!

Of course, the swarm configuration also suffered from a critical weakness. The sandman admiral no longer enjoyed excellent protection. It had to hide itself by hiding itself in a regular drone.

Destroying this camouflaged drone would always guarantee that the rest of the swarm lost cohesion!

Naturally, the chances of this happening was not very large. The drone carrying the sandman admiral was always positioned away from the enemy.

Many other fortified star systems came under threat. While the sandmen dispersed their forces along the entire length of the border, their numbers seemed inexhaustible.

If not for the first and second line of defense slowing down the sandman offensive, the Bright Republic wouldn't have been able to bolster the defenses of the border system.

Along with the plentiful amount of orbital defensive platforms, the gradual reinforcement of starfighters granted the overextended Mech Corps a great amount of relief.

Casualties among mech pilots had plummeted! Even though their lives had only been preserved at the cost of the lives of hastily-trained starfighter pilots, the Bright Republic didn't care.

The state could draw from an immense pool of manpower to replace the lost starfighter pilots.

By simplifying the designs of their starfighters and automating many complicated functions, even an office worker could be turned into a suitable starfighter pilot!

Though their training standard was barely better than a kid who casually played an immersive starfighter game, that was enough to resist basic sandman fleets.

Yet.. what if the sandman fleets adopted a different configuration? What if the sandman admirals that followed their directive to sweep through human space became more inventive?

In one star system defended by the Apocalypse Heralds, a humongous sandman monolith advanced indominably towards a planet populated by billions!

With so many lives at stake, the Apocalypse Heralds were just one of many forces assigned to defend this critical border system.

Yet the immense firepower unleashed by their numerous medium to heavy artillery mechs caused them to take on the leading role in this battle!

"Unleash the apocalypse on the sandmen! Let them know that their extinction is at hand!"

The Apocalypse Heralds modified their powerful heavy mechs to better cope against the aliens. All of their laser weapon mounts had been removed and replaced by kinetic or ballistic weaponry.

Though it was very cumbersome to modify so many heavy mechs, the Apocalypse Heralds employed sufficient mech technicians to transform all of their mechs in time to defend against the main waves of sandman intruders!

With the help of their immense ammunition capacity, their ranged mechs had become the worst nightmares of many of the sandman fleet that intruded in this star system!

"We are the bane of the sandmen! We are the doom of every alien!" said by the pilots as they pumped themselves into battle

Ever since a detachment of Apocalypse Heralds arrived at this border system, the sandmen never managed to cross into the inner system. The heavy mechs unleashed such prodigious firepower that not even the biggest sandman mothership could last against weapons powerful enough to annihilate entire asteroids!

Unfortunately, this time was different. The latest sandman fleet to barge into this border system adopted a very different configuration.

Not only did the fleet combine the strengths of at least nine sandman admirals, they all adopted a different configuration.

"The sandmen have adopted a swarm configuration!"

"Damnit! There's too many of them! My sensors can't even track how many of them are buzzing around!"

An immense swarm of small, shuttle-sized sandman drones advanced relentlessly towards the inner system. The first defenders already tangled against the swarm, but aside from swatting a large number of inconsequential sandman drones, they failed to affect the overall strength of the swarm.

Only until the defenders consolidated their forces did their attacks begin to hurt the sandman swarm.

Yet their preliminary success did not cheer up the mech and starfighter pilots.

Instead, a feeling of creeping doom built up in their hearts as they waited for the inevitable.

This was not the first time humanity encountered the swarm configuration.

Different from basic sandman fleets, the swarm accelerated much faster than normal.

One of the lessons that sandman admirals learned when fighting against human forces was that speed mattered! The faster they moved, the easier it was for them to engulf the mechs, starfighters and carriers that hindered their invasion.

Another lesson they learned was that this was no time to conserve their energy!

As a race that depended highly on energy, inexperienced sandman admirals tended to be very conservative in their energy expenditure.

Even as their sandman motherships fell apart, they were highly unwilling to waste more than fifty percent of their energy reserves.

The story was different once they faced how difficult it was to defeat their human opponents on the battlefield.

If the sandmen didn't put in their full effort, then they could forget about winning the battle!

The sandman swarm the Apocalypse Heralds and their allies faced today held nothing back.

Even if the swarm depleted 90 percent of its energy reserves, it could easily recoup its losses by devouring the rich energy sources of the highly-developed planet orbiting the inner system!

"Wait for it! Get ready, men! The real fight starts at any moment!"

After an agonizing wait, the sandman admirals finally issued their latest command!

The entire swarm unleashed a swathe of weak but incredibly numerous laser beams!

Thousands of mechs and starfighters had been struck by these lasers!

Fortunately, the power behind these laser beams were very weak compared to the massive strikes that could easily take out an entire mech.

The sandman drones couldn't fire anything stronger. It was already admirable enough for them to match the power of a light laser rifle.

The problem was that their firing rate was very prodigious!

Every dozen or so seconds, the drones unleashed another salvo of laser beams, striking thousands of machines yet again!

With their machine-like accuracy, only a portion of their laser beams missed!

"We're taking too much damage!"

"Fire at will! Whittle down the swarm as much as possible! The more drones we knock out, the more mechs and starfighters we'll save!"

Facing a sandman fleet in a swarm configuration was one of the worst nightmares of the soldiers and warriors at the frontlines.

Their increased mobility not only allowed them to close the distance faster, but also made them very hard to hit with projectile weapons.

Even though the drones were so fragile that one or two knocks could take it out, they were so darned agile that even light mechs had to admit defeat!

Not only that, but their incredibly loose formation meant that the powerful cannons of the Apocalypse Heralds wasted the bulk of their firepower.

Against a larger sandman vessel, their heavy mechs could easily damage ten or twenty drones worth of sandmen!

Yet because the sandman admirals dispersed their strength into tiny, disposable drones, each and every round wasted the bulk of their damage potential!

Due to all of these reasons, the swarm configuration was actually superior in firepower, mobility and defense! Against a large but cumbersome unit like the Apocalypse Heralds, its effectiveness skyrocketed!

Unlike the Stripes of Humanity that gave the civilians hope, the swarm configuration's shower of laser beams impacted the defending forces like a rain of death!

The worst-off in this engagement were the starfighters!

Small, cheap and fragile, the starfighters lacked the mobility to confuse the sandman's targeting methods and the resilience to withstand too many attacks.

Even though the sandman drones only fired very weak lasers, their volume and firing rate was incredibly powerful!

Casualties mounted rapidly as the starfighter regiments faced their natural counter!

Even though the mechs and starfighters hit back hard, too many lives and machines were being lost!

The Starfighter Corps reaped what it sowed. By pursuing a strategy of fielding as much cannon fodder as possible, their pronounced weaknesses exacted an incredibly painful toll in this battle.

Hundreds of starfighters succumbed after absorbing five or more hits!

In fact, some starfighters even collapsed entirely if the sandman drones just happened to penetrate their poorly-armored cockpits!

With the rapid rise in losses, the formation of defenders began to destabilize. The poorly-trained starfighter pilots especially broke down first!

They were too green and barely better than a civilian! Against an ordinary sandman fleet where victory was almost assured, they easily remained confident even if a number of unlucky starfighter pilots got shot down.

Yet now that a sea of laser beams pelted their fragile starfighters at a very worrisome frequency, their morale quickly dropped to rock bottom!

Already, more than fifty starfighter pilots lost their nerves and turned around to flee the battle site, leaving their comrades in the dust!

Even though they couldn't flee very far due to their limited reserves and lack of FTL capability, humans who broke down a battle didn't pay attention to logic anymore.

They only obeyed their primal instinct to flee!

With the sudden and chaotic departure of so many starfighters, the formations they left began to destabilize even further!

"This is bad! We have to bolster the starfighter regiments before their pilots crack!"

Just as an entire wing of starfighters showed signs of succumbing to the fear of death by laser, an astounding heavy mech with glowing wings positioned right in front of them! Its massive polarized tower shield soundly resisted the weak lasers targeting the craft piloted by the wing commander!

"Come on! We have to hold! Billions of innocent Brighters will die if we don't hold!"

While the casualties among the starfighters reached the hundreds, the swarm configuration did not fare that much better. The number of drones visibly dropped with each passing second. Their rain of lasers grew lighter, thereby reducing the pressure on the defenders.

Yet because so many starfighters had fallen and more were getting struck every moment, the intensity of the battle was still incredibly high!

As long as the starfighter regiments held formation, the sandman swarm would inevitably run out of drones.

"We have to endure! Don't give up too early! We've almost reached the light at the end of the tunnel!"

Unfortunately, the shaky starfighter pilots, most of whom used to be laborers, shuttle pilots, customer service representatives and the like, had already reached the brink of their brittle courage.

Just as the surviving starfighter units reached their tipping point, the Desolate Soldiers that used to fight in the center of the formation had finally dispersed to cover the bulk of the starfighters!

A surge of duty and obligation filled every shaky starfighter pilot's heart. The glow affecting their moods banished some of the terror that threatened to overwhelm their minds.

"Do your duty, pilots! The battle is not yet done!"

Though the Desolate Soldiers couldn't prevent every starfighter pilot from breaking down, their intervention nonetheless prevented a complete route, at least for the moment!

With the Desolate Soldiers propping up the shaky starfighter units, the defenders persisted long enough to strike a number of sandman admirals, thereby severely weakening the already-diminished sandman swarm.

The battle had turned for the better!

"We've won!"

It was a costly victory. At the end of the day, the starfighter regiments lost over a thousand spacecraft.

The Bright Republic hadn't lost so many machines and pilots in the Sand War until this battle!

If not for the crucial intervention of the Desolate Soldiers deployed by the local Planetary Guard, the battle could have taken a much more awful turn.

The Bright Republic learned a very painful truth after waging several costly battles against the sandman fleets that adopted the swarm configuration.

The Starfighter Corps was not a silver bullet.

Against the wrong configurations, the many weaknesses of starfighters became very pronounced.

Without costly exotics to fortify their armor systems, their mundane armor plating was barely better than that of a commercial shuttle!

Their designers cut so many corners in their design that their armor plating was only really good enough to resist spacedust, micrometeorites and the occasional space junk floating in deep space.

They fared poorly against high-volume firepower!

Not only that, but their starfighter pilots were hardly as professional and disciplined as actual soldiers.

By far, most starfighter pilots were young and poorly-educated citizens of the Bright Republic or the fallen border states.

Before the Sand War, they might have been students or laborers. None of them envisioned a career in the military. As norms, there was no glory in serving in an auxiliary regiment.

Though a number of professional soldiers and officers from the auxiliary regiment had been transferred to the Starfighter Corps to make up a somewhat competent cadre, that was hardly enough!

Against an overwhelming sandman opponent, there was little an officer could do to prevent their ill-trained subordinates from panicking.

Several instances of routing had already occurred, leading to severe losses among the mechs and starfighters that held their ground.

Even though the cowards had all been caught and executed within a matter of days, the problem was still in place!

Until the Starfighter Corps managed to train their pilots to a higher standard, instances like this might occur at any time.

Fortunately, the proliferation of Desolate Soldiers managed to stem the bleeding in many cases. A lot of battles could have ended off worse if not for their miraculous glows!

Their ability to stabilize the morale of starfighter pilots and encourage them to do their duty in a moderate range was very helpful in preventing many potential collapses.

These interventions already saved the lives of mech and starfighter pilots. Though not infallible, the Desolate Soldiers were still effective enough to warrant an even greater level of interest from the government.

The brass realized that the Starfighter Corps wasn't nearly as dependable as they thought.

In their enthusiasm to deploy as much cannon fodder as possible to consume the firepower of the sandman fleets, they failed to account for the consequences.

Starfighter pilots weren't dependable at all!

Due to the immense demand for cannon fodder, over a hundred-thousand starfighters were being produced throughout the entire state.

All of those machines were only useful when paired with actual human pilots.

Faced with an acute need for lots of starfighter pilots, the Bright Republic and every other state that employed these spacecraft were rushing through their training.

Three weeks of hasty training was not enough to transform a civilian into a soldier!

At most, they could only present a facade of discipline and dedication during fair-weather circumstances.

Whenever a battle turned difficult, their many deficiencies became acute liabilities, threatening to collapse an entire formation and inciting panic among the better-trained mech pilots!

The very welcome glows from the Desolate Soldiers helped a lot, preventing most wavering starfighter pilots from abandoning their duty.

As this valuable solution became more and more evident, Ves and the LMC earned more and more acclaim.

Their Desolate Soldiers were increasingly being regarded as a necessity!

No defensive force at the front and rear was complete without at least a handful of Desolate Soldiers.

With the advantage given by their glows, the Ministry of Defense estimated that the Bright Republic would have lost at least eight minor star systems and three major star systems at this time!

However, aside from the loss of a few emptied star systems, the Bright Republic fared incredibly well considering the opposition they faced.

No one rested easily, however. The sandman invasion was far from over. There were many more sandman fleets on their way to raze the territories of the Bright Republic, each of them more clever and tricky than before.

The average intelligence and experience level of the sandman admirals increased by a worrisome rate. They grouped up more and more and shared their insights with each other, causing them to adopt very strange and unusual configurations.

Though many people looked down on the sandmen as a stupid, bot-like race, the truth was that they followed a different trajectory of development.

By far, most of the sandman admirals that commanded the fleets had been elevated to their positions rather recently. The leader castes of the sandman empire sacrificed a lot to produce so many sandman admirals, so it shouldn't be much of a surprise that they started off as amateurs.

Yet even if they started at the lowest level, the sandman admirals actually possessed a frightening ability to learn from their experiences and mistakes.

One such example assaulted a fortified star system.

Three enormous monoliths that exceeded the size of CFA battleships advanced indomitably towards one of the three populated planets in the star system.

While the monolith configuration was not as scary as the swarm configuration, they still proved thorny to fight, especially when their sandman admirals stopped conserving energy.

Ordinarily shaped in humongous spheres of sand and other animated matter, they advanced like battering rams.

Though slower than other sandman configurations, the spherical monoliths chained their sandman in a way that made their outer layer incredibly resilient!

What was more, their interior wasn't entirely solid. Instead, the sandman admirals adopted a very hollow wireframe that limited the damage of explosive and concussive weaponry!

Though disparagingly called balloons by some combatants, this huge but largely-hollow configuration was incredibly resilient to damage.

What was more, they possessed a variety of means to hit back!

Every sandman admiral developed their own favored means to attack. While some stuck to firing their heavy laser strikes, others adopted more versatile solutions.

The three monoliths that simultaneously invaded this star system showcased the creativity of the sandman admirals when they had time to develop.

One monolith took cues from the high volume of fire it encountered in a previous battle and unleashed a storm of lasers from its surface!

Just like a swarm configuration, the swarm of lasers unleashed by this humongous monolith damaged over a hundred starfighters with a single salvo!

What was worse was that this monolith quickly began to fire continuously! Even though the swarm monolith consumed an enormous amount of energy, the casualties it inflicted upon its opponents were just as frightening!

In the command center of a fleet carrier, Mech Colonel Ark Larkinson observed this alarming development with hardly any change in emotion.

His solid demeanor did much to maintain the morale of his subordinates. The entire 1st Havensworth Division remained absolutely stable despite the flood of lasers striking their mechs.

"Link up these elements." Ark commanded, manipulating the projection of the battlespace with his hand. "Break up these mercenary and Planetary Guard units and spread out their Desolate Soldiers among the starfighter units as planned. Every starfighter squadron should be basking in the glow of at least one Soldier mech."

The defenders responded smoothly to his orders. As an expert pilot and a mech colonel, Ark Larkinson possessed an immense amount of authority and respect among the defenders of this star system.

Even the starfighter pilots didn't dare to disobey this famed war hero!

Nonetheless, the losses mounted fairly quickly. While the starfighters performed their job as cannon fodder, many of them barely got their shots off before a bunch of lasers melted through their thin and feeble armor plating and struck the delicate internals!

"Alert! Monolith Beta is showing signs of activity!"

The second sandman monolith began to show some unusual changes on the surface. A hole opened up in the side facing the Brighters and began to emit some very alarming energy signatures.

After a few more seconds of charging, the monolith launched a substantial projectile that rapidly traversed the battlefield!

Before anyone could make sense of the launch, the insanely-fast projectile splattered against the exterior of a military combat carrier.

"The Hazy Dream has been struck by an unknown projectile! Initial signs of damage are minimal! Her armor has held!"

Ark grew suspicious and studied one of the projections depicting the Hazy Dream. He spread out the projection, magnifying it so that he could study the details.

The sand splattered over the exterior of the Hazy Dream seemed no different than the splashing of mud, but Ark soon noticed something very disconcerting.

The 'mud splatter' was still alive!

"The Hazy Dream has reported signs of intrusion! An unknown quantity of sandmen has entered the ship through its open hangar bay ports!"

The news coming from the Hazy Dream grew alarmingly more frantic as the bad news started to pour in. As long as just a modest quantity of sandmen managed to sneak into the interior of a ship, they could wreak untold havoc inside!

Just as Monolith Beta prepared to launch another 'mudball' towards another ship, the third monolith began to show signs of activity as well!

"Monolith Gamma is accumulating an enormous amount of energy! A powerful attack is incoming!"

Ark could no longer stay unmoved. He turned to his deputy. "Take over in my absence. My presence is required in the field."

The lieutenant colonel standing by his side acknowledged the order. "Good hunting, Colonel Larkinson."

After activating a command, a hole opened up in the deck. Ark fearlessly jumped inside in order to reach his destination as fast as possible.

The third monolith began to shake and glow as it accumulated a prodigious amount of heat and energy.

For an instant, most combatants who noticed the buildup of heat and energy began to have an impression that a CFA battleship was about to fire her main cannon at the defenders.

A ripple of fear spread out among the mech and starfighter pilots. Not even the experienced and hardened veterans of the 1st Havensworth Division could remain unmoved.

Not even the glows of the Desolate Soldiers could prevent them from wavering! In fact, if the mechs weren't in place, at least a quarter of the starfighters would have already fled in fear!

The only upside about this development was that the third monolith required a lot of time to prepare its attack. Though everyone could tell that it would probably be immensely powerful, the lengthy delay gave everyone the illusion that they could save themselves out of this predicament.

"Direct all available fire towards Monolith Gamma! Do not let it finish charging up its attack!"

Thousands of mechs and starfighters changed their targets from the first and second monolith despite their threats.

Though the first two monoliths were already threatening by themselves, the third one appeared to be planning to unleash almost all of its energy in a single, overwhelming attack!

Monolith Gamma began to adjust its shape as its energy levels neared its peak. A lengthy rod appeared in front as if to direct a powerful energy attack towards the human forces standing in its way!

Just as some of the energy began to transfer to this humongous rod, a single mech deployed from the fleet carrier situated in the center.

The mech threaded through the ships and mechs enveloping the fleet and rapidly accelerated towards the front!

"It's the Bright Star! Colonel Larkinson has taken to the field!"

An incredibly powerful flight system strained the Bright Star to its limits. External boosters installed a few days ago began to activate as well, accelerating the magnificent-looking hybrid mech beyond its usual parameters!

In addition, a very powerful resonance field began to excite the Bright Star and the surrounding space.

A glowing field began to form around the Bright Star, causing its acceleration to triple!

The upgraded inertial dampeners of the expert mech's cockpit did their best to preserve the life of the mech pilot, but Ark knew that he couldn't persist in this insane acceleration for long!

The Bright Star deployed with an ornate lance this time. It braced the weapon straight and closed the distance to the third monolith with an astounding level of speed!

As electric crackles began to surround the third monolith's rod, the Bright Star glowed as bright as a comet!

As everyone held their breaths, Monolith Gamma finished its accumulation just as the Bright Star crashed into the rod!

An incredibly bright explosion momentarily blinded every sensor!

Seconds later, the sensors readjusted, showing a half-destroyed monolith!

The rod failed to fire! The monolith's abortive attempt to unleash its firepower resulted in an immense backlash!

"Where is the Bright Star!?"

A quiver of fear shook the hearts of every human on the battlefield.

"Look over there! Venerable Larkinson is alive!"

The Bright Star had managed to punch straight to the center of the damaged monolith and only just exited before the sandman admiral could trap it inside!

Though its energy field had weakened and its lance was gone, the expert mech was intact!

Thousands of roars flooded the communication channels!