Although Xiao Ran had officially taken command of those five warships, they consisted of only one Magellan-class warship serving as the flagship and four Salamis-class cruisers. Each of the five ships could only be considered cannon-fodder grade. Xiao Ran could easily wipe them out even in a Zaku II, and they offered him no sense of security whatsoever.
Fortunately, all five warships had been modified. Each could carry four MS, which was also their maximum capacity. However, these ships had not been designed for MS deployment, so they had no catapult bays at all and relied entirely on grab-and-launch methods. Compared to Transport Aircraft that could simply open their cargo doors, this was far less convenient.
Thus, all the MS remained loaded inside the Transport Aircraft and were not transferred onto the warships. Aside from the inconvenience of deployment, there were two other reasons. First, Xiao Ran would soon be descending to Earth, and only those five Transport Aircraft could make the descent. The five warships were little more than decorations for this Odyssey Operation.
Second, it was for the sake of secrecy. The M1 Astrays had not yet been delivered, and Xiao Ran had no intention of truly handing them over to the Earth Federation. If they entered those warships, they might come into contact with Earth Federation Technicians and expose the mechas' true intelligence.
Although Xiao Ran had taken over this squadron, he knew nothing about it. He did not even have a single confidant among them, much less complete control over the squadron. To truly take it into his hands, time was indispensable.
But he was about to descend to Earth, and Xiao Ran had no time to learn more about the squadron. He allowed the original commanders to continue handling their duties while he led the