Ajax waited for the enemy mechas to enter the atmosphere; that was the perfect window of opportunity to shoot at will and weaken his forces. He was equally calm; under his command, there were two hundred combat mechas, his pilots were the elite of the Navy. Those enemy mechas could do little to overcome all the difficulties.
The first surprise was when they didn't use the most logical approach trajectory for ships that weren't supposed to have orbital engines. The fuses entered almost vertically, closing the exposure time to enemy fire and thus reducing the danger.
But more surprising was the skill of the pilots who descended; not only did they avoid the lasers, but also their headings for when the electromagnetic missiles detonated were calculated for those scarce three seconds until their systems started again.