The harassment operation had entered its most crucial phase at this time!
The entire point of sending out the Spirit of Bentheim to the enemy fleet in advance and at great risk was to tempt the puelmers into separating their homeships from each other!
Stingray 1 was in a vulnerable position, but so long as Stingray 2 kept hovering around, the two vessels would still be able to support each other during a full assault.
The fact that the Spirit of Bentheim was able to weather the attacks of many alien warships including Stingray 1 and Stingray 2 did not mean that the firepower of the opposing side was weak.
The factory ship's abnormally high defenses combined with the additional protection granted by the Macharia Excelsia's Saint Kingdom were the only reasons why the ship and all of her crew hadn't been blown into pieces!