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People like Branch Director Raymond Billingsley-Larkinson found it difficult to understand why the Larkinson Clan should even take part in such a risky venture, but Ves had made his voice clear!

He understood quite well how controversial this decision might sound. Not many people signed up for the Larkinson Clan with the intention of helping Ves pursue his vendetta against a powerful state-level entity.

Even if the Friday Coalition was not that big of a factor in the Red Ocean, it still possessed much greater resources than many other pioneers!

Although it was not quite fair for these Larkinsons to get caught up in a game that they never wanted to play, Ves was determined to go through with it. The opportunities were too great and the profits he could earn from this bold action were immense!

The secure meeting chamber turned turbulent for a while as a small group of more risk-averse Larkinsons such as Raymond Billingsley-Larkinson and Chief Minister Novilon Purnesse openly voiced their doubts to the necessity of this action.

"Every battle is inherently dangerous." Novilon Purnesse stated. "There are no certainties on the battlefield. No matter how well we know the Fridaymen, there is always a chance that they have a surprise or two up their sleeves. The damage we can suffer may be far greater than we anticipated. Our capital ships may be put in danger as well, which would have calamitous consequences to the family who reside on them. Is it truly worthwhile for us to participate when it means that we have to put our friends and children under the crosshairs of the Fridaymen?"

He raised an important point. Participating meant that the Golden Skull Alliance would have to deploy with its full expeditionary fleet, which included several non-combat vessels such as the Dragon's Den and Vivacious Wal.

The alliance could not leave them behind in Davute or in a hidden corner because the valuable vessels would become way too vulnerable to attacks!

The civilian vessels were safest if they accompanied the main fleet, which in effect meant that they would have to take part in the offensive operation as well!

If the Larkinson Clan was larger, stronger and more established, then this measure wouldn't have been necessary. It was a pity that the clan was far from reaching this point.

This was why the civilian side of the Larkinson Clan did not support this course of action. Hundreds of thousands of noncombatants, many of which became Larkinsons only recently, would get a rude reminder that their patriarch tended to drag his own people along wild and crazy adventures!

"General Verle, you are known to be a sensible leader. What do you think about the possibility of participating in a major assault?" Raymond Billingsley-Larkinson asked. "What is the stance of the Larkinson Army? Are you truly supportive of launching an attack against a formidable and competent opponent that has hundreds of thousands of mechs at its disposal?"

The highest commanding officer of the Larkinson Army did not give Raymond the answer he wanted to hear.

"The attack is viable as long as the Hex Federation takes the lead in this assault." Verle stated his opinion. "It is not my place to determine whether we should fight alongside the Hexers in a possible operation against the Gauge Dynasty. I can merely observe that if the Hexers are at least willing to match the numbers of the Sundered Phalanx, the addition of up to 27,000 mechs can prove to be a decisive factor in a possible attack. This is especially the case when we have obtained the support of an ace pilot in the form of Patriarch Reginald Cross. He and his Mars alone are worth at least an entire mech division in terms of combat power."

Normally, the defending side enjoyed a considerable advantage, but the intelligence gap was so immense due to the leaks that it was the Gaugers who were in trouble this time!

Only a moderate numerical advantage should be enough to defeat the colonial defense forces outright or at least conclude a devastating raid!

"If you are so eager to attack one of the important strongholds of the Gauge Dynasty in the Red Ocean, shouldn't we select a target where our assurances of victory are higher?" Raymond asked in a skeptical tone. "I cannot understand why you have decided to attack Pima Prime without much discussion. The colonial capital is not easy to reinforce due to the fact that it is a port system, the intelligence also makes it clear that it is guarded by an ace pilot and an ace mech! Why must we challenge the most difficult colony when we can pick on considerably easier targets such as Rotes Cewma or New Rammes?"

Novilon Purnesse nodded in agreement. "From an infrastructural perspective, both Rotes Cewma and New Rammes are almost just as valuable as Pima Prime. If the Hexers can break open Rotes Cewma, they can destroy all of the large, valuable and difficult-to-replace mining machines and industrial processing plants. This will immediately shut down the bulk of the supply of raw materials to Pima Prime and New Rammes, thereby crippling the Gauger colonial ambitions. Meanwhile, New Rammes holds a majority of the Gaugers who have emigrated to the new frontier. Capturing them or neutralizing them will not only deal a severe morale blow to the coalition partner, but also set back the long-term growth of their colonies."

The argument that Novilon Purnesse tried to make was that if Ves and the others were out to do as much damage to the Gauge Dynasty as possible, they could achieve the same magnitude of effects by attacking the softer colonies.

There was no need for them to throw themselves head-first into the defenses of Pima Prime, the crown jewel of the Gauge Dynasty!

General Verle most certainly knew all of this, but his perspective on the matter was different from what the naysayers expected.

"I believe that there is additional merit to targeting Pima Prime over the other two colonies." He said. "According to the leaked information as well as other sources of intelligence, the Gaugers have invested the most into fortifying their new port system. They have allocated less resources to the defenses of Rotes Cewma and New Rammes, but is this truly the case?"

"What do you mean by that, General?"

"Put yourself in the place of a Gauger leader. If you think that the Hexers may eventually be willing to commit an assault on one of your core colonies, do you think those women will be crazy enough to attack Pima Prime or settle for the easier targets?"

"You are relying too much on speculation and assumptions…"

General Verle smirked. "Much of warfare is based on guesswork and assumptions. The difference is whether you know the enemy better than the enemy knows you. Think about how the Hexer raiders have behaved up until now. They have spent years harassing the outlying colonies of the weaker coalition partners in the Magair Middle Zone. They have never deviated from this pattern even though a lot of weaker colonial settlements have pretty much been hollowed out due to suffering repeated attacks. What does this tell you about the Hexers?"

"That… the Hexer raiders behave like bullies that pick on the weak but fear the strong?"

"Exactly. According to this pattern, the likelihood that the Hexers would actually choose to attack the Gauge Dynasty is low. However, if this unlikely possibility ever comes true, then the Hexers will not stray too far from their previous pattern and opt to attack either Rotes Cewma or New Rammes. Personally, I think the former is most likely because crippling the supply of raw materials will delay the development of the Friday Colonies the most. I believe it is possible that the Gaugers may have deployed secret forces on those planets that might give us all an unwelcome surprise in battle."

"That… sounds a bit out there, general…"

"This is a plausible theory." Marshal Ariadne Wodin supplied. "The Fridaymen like to be clever. They think us Hexers are easy to fool. This leak may even be a part of a deep, multi-layer ploy that is meant to weaken both us and the Gauger. Well, this ploy won't work because the Hex Federation agrees with the decision to target Pima Prime. Since it is already known that it is the most fortified star system in the Friday Colonies, the Gaugers probably expect that we are deterred from ever launching an assault on it. The only way to fight against an ace mech is to bring another ace mech, but to do so, the Hex Federation would have to bring one of their own, thereby making one of their key colonies vulnerable to attack. That is unacceptable."

Ves openly chuckled. "That is what makes our participation so helpful. The assumptions of the Gaugers are correct as long as the Hexers can only launch an assault by themselves. The picture becomes a lot different once we get involved. Our willingness to bring forth an ace mech of our own makes it a lot more viable to target the Fridayman core colony that should be the least likely to get attacked. The Gaugers will not be psychologically prepared to fight an actual battle in Pima Prime, and the odds that they have prepared a hidden layer of defenses should be low as well!"

In other words, this was a big mind game.

Since Pima Prime was so strategically important, the Gaugers fortified it the most. The idea was to make the prospect of attacking it so costly that the Hexers would be deterred from ever thinking about launching an attack.

However, the Hex Federation along with the Golden Skull Alliance wanted to take advantage of this thinking pattern by acting exactly against the expectations of the Gauge Dynasty!

If their gambit succeeded, then the Hexers as well as the Golden Skullers would not only win one of the largest and most dramatic battles in the Magair Middle Zone, but also set the Gaugers back the most!

"I am certain that the Gaugers have stockpiled a lot of valuable assets in Pima Prime." Ves enthusiastically said. "Even if we can't plunder them all, we can bombard them into pieces, thereby causing untold losses to the Fridaymen. However, our true prize from this victory is the glory and prestige we can attain from a decisive victory. Our Golden Skull Alliance will not only make a greater name for ourselves, but remind our allies and rivals that we have lost none of the fire that made us great in the first place!"

Ves cared about this a lot. Earlier on, the Golden Skull Alliance was able to earn a lot of respect and deter many potential rivals from acting against it due to its short but rich track record of vanquishing numerous powerful opponents.

The passage of time had caused that illustrious record to lose some of its luster. Though the Larkinsons and Crossers had made sure to display glimpses of their strength by undertaking many different mercenary missions over the years, none of them ever involved major battles like the ones the alliance fought in the past.

An assault on Pima Prime would completely refresh the Golden Skull Alliance's battle record!

Not only would Ves and the others be able to demonstrate how much stronger they had grown over the years, they would also demonstrate a willingness to put it into use by launching a risky assault!

This was a mad calculation that was bound to stir up a lot of unrest in the Larkinson Clan.

It did not matter whether Ves' justifications sounded a bit feeble.

The fact of the matter was that the most powerful individual combat asset of the Golden Skull Alliance had only set his eyes on Pima Prime since the projection displayed the map of the Friday Colonies.

"I will not agree to take part in any assault on the Gauge Dynasty unless we target Pima Prime." Patriarch Reginald Cross forcefully declared. "Rotes Cewma and New Rammes are defended by pushovers. I take no pleasure in crushing hostile expert pilots. The only opponent worth fighting is the sole ace pilot that has taken up residence in Pima Prime. Fighting him is the only way I can test my new strength and prove my enduring convictions. It is Pima Prime or bust!"