Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
In a space battle, thousands of starships would have glamorous competitions with all their barrels glowing. It was the most brilliant, splendid, blood-boiling, and soul-stirring form of war in the history of mankind!
The universe was a boundless place. Both human beings themselves and the warships, the seemingly enormous war machines created by them, were nothing but insignificant specks of dust in the grand universe.
If two fleets did not intend to run into each other, they would be like two needles floating in an ocean. It would be practically impossible for them to detect each other, much less hunt each other and get involved in a fight.
The Imperium of True Human Beings had gathered a lot of troops in the past thousand years to capture a tiny Firefly, but none of the attempts had succeeded, which was the best example.
However, the hide-and-seek where neither party could see or catch each other was entirely meaningless in most cases, because the space suitable for the survival of mankind was only less than one billionth of the entire universe despite its vastness. The only ‘oases’ that could provide warmth for human beings in the cold sea of stars were the strategic locations for any civilization.
In a certain glorious moment that would decide the fate of billions of people, in order to take over the resource planets, the critical sailing routes, the important industry and training bases, the prehistoric relics or the stable jump points, the main forces of two parties jumped out at the same time and communicated with each other with their bullets as their words in an open, epic fight. That would be a real space battle!
It was exactly the case for the battle today, which was a classic confrontation due to the competition over jump points.
The three space gates around the home planet of the Heaven’s Origin Sector were the critical locations that controlled the entrance and exit of all the mobile forces in the Heaven’s Origin Sector and the other six Sectors. They were equivalent to the ‘pass’ in the ancient times.
At this time, most of the warships of the Black Wind Fleet and the Burning Prairie Fleet were not in the Heaven’s Origin Sector. They required the navigation of the space gates in order to jump over quickly in an orderly fashion for reinforcement.
Whoever controlled the three space gates would control the passes to enter and exit the Heaven’s Origin Sector. The follow-up troops on their side would be able to arrive at the place incessantly and completely annihilate the available forces on the enemy’s side!
Without the navigation of the space gates, although space jumps were not entirely unavailable, given that both parties had the star map and the coordinates of the Heaven’s Origin Sector, it would be like sailing into a port without the guidance of the lighthouses. The precision and time of such space jumps would be difficult to control. It was quite possible that the warships would jump to a random point in the vast area of the Heaven’s Origin Sector.
It was like tossing a stone from an altitude of hundreds of thousands meters. No matter how precisely one aimed, it would still be meaningless. Because of the disruption of the wind and storm in the four-dimensional space, the landing point of the ‘stone’ might be a thousand meters away from where it was aimed at.
Faced with an organized space fleet that had been unfolded into a battle formation, the starships that were strewn dozens of lightyears away from each other were only a tray of loose sand. They could only wait to be destroyed by the enemy one after another.
It would not be reinforcement; it would just be suicide.
Therefore, the space gates were the key to the outcome of the battle!
The vanguard of the Black Wind Fleet, which had just arrived at the Heaven’s Origin Sector, and the Heaven’s Origin Fleet, which had realized what was going on after the initial shock, both locked onto the No. 1 space gate, which was the largest in scale and had the highest navigation level. They were getting closer and closer to each other!
Black Swirl, the flagship of the Black Wind Fleet, was leading the charge at the forefront of the battle formation.
Behind the flagship, the thousand starships that were in a rectangular distribution changed their shape slowly into quadruple sphere attack units that were as classic as described in the textbooks.
Every hundred starships constituted an attack unit. The cruising carrier, which was the largest in size, was at the center. Every carrier was at least ten kilometers long. The spacious room inside the carrier was devised into the storage and maintenance cabins for the space shuttles, crystal suits, Colossi, and even other starships. In the meantime, they boasted a very enormous arsenal of crystals, and ammunition, allowing them to supply the other starships in the battle unit with sufficient ammunition and energy.
In short, the cruising carriers were independent battle bases in the fleet. Their combat ability might not be high by themselves, but they were always the start and the end of an attack.
Of course, the deep, profound internal space of some of the cruising carriers was filled up by enormous crystal cannons or cannons of mystic rays. For the warfare in space, to rip apart the distance of hundreds of thousands of kilometers and pierce through several of enemy’s starships or even an entire war fortress, it would require gigantic weapons of unbelievable sizes.
Such giant cannons were like battering rams in ancient wars. Although it was inconvenient to move them and difficult to control them, and they could be easily destroyed, they would certainly become the enemy’s greatest concern after they were moved to the city gate of the defender!
Outside of the cruising carriers were the main forces for the starship confrontation—the arsenal starships!
As their name suggested, they were all awe-inspiring iron hedgehogs. Dense barrels had been established all over their body. All the internal space had been filled up with crystals and ammunition. There was not even additional room for a crystal suit or a space shuttle.
They were like the sharpest blades. All they wanted to do was draw closer and closer to the enemy and then destroy all the stars in the universe with the roars of thousands of turrets!
“Attack is the best defense. Instead of wasting the materials and space to add a piece of plate on the outside, it is better to build another turret with those resources and install it!”
The captains and artillerists of all the arsenal starships held the same belief.
What made them so zealous and fearless, besides their faith in His Majesty and the Imperium of True Human Beings, was the third layer of the battle unit that loomed before them—the shield starships!
If the arsenal starships were the sharpest longswords of the Imperium, the shield starships would be the hardest armor. The war fog that covered the battle formation of the Black Wind Fleet was exactly their splendid performance.
What the shield starships counted on was not the thick and clumsy super alloy armor but the technology of spiritual and magnetic confrontation, force field disruption, and spiritual shield generation, through which they could construct a thick, dense interference belt that would render most of the energy and entity attacks from the enemy’s side useless!
Outside of the shield starships, at the outermost part of the entire battle unit, which sometimes even protruded out of the war fog, were crystal suits and space shuttles that were as dense as bees.
Before the confrontation of cannons, the crystal suits and the space shuttles would be projected, in case the starships that accommodated them were instantly shot by the enemy’s cannons, which would cause greater collateral damage if they were still on-board. It was common sense for space warfare.
Besides, the combat ability that many high-level experts in the Core Formation Stage or the Nascent Soul Stage could bring out was often as good as that of a starship!
The cruising carriers, arsenal starships, shield starships, and Exos constructed a perfect curve. Like almost thirty enormous meteoroids, they approached the No. 1 space gate solemnly, orderly, and unhurriedly, leaving colorful exhaust flames behind.
As for Black Swirl, a monstrosity dozens of kilometers long, which could only be produced after a hundred years of preparation even in the Imperium of True Human Beings, was the most dazzling star that stayed at the forefront alone, emanating the brilliance of destruction!
On the bridge of Black Swirl, Heiye Ming was like an iron statue, not moving at all. He simply allowed the cold light from the stars to sprinkle on his body.
But the passion in his eyes indicated his flourishing vigor and… appetite.
He almost could not wait to gobble up the stars.
On his opposite side, the Heaven’s Origin Fleet was reshaped into an equally clear rectangular formation. The Exos, shield starships, and arsenal starships were deployed, too.
The only difference was that they did not require cruising carriers because they boasted sufficient logistical support from the home planet of the Heaven’s Origin Sector. The roles of the cruising carriers were played by the nine asteroid fortresses, which served as solid bases.
Judging from the number, the Heaven’s Origin Fleet was much greater than the vanguard of the Black Wind Fleet. The exhaust flames that were triggered due to the high-speed movement and the spiritual shield that had been expanded to the maximum interweaved with each other into a wall of light.
But the tonnage and the quality of the starships were a different case, which could clearly be seen from the slightly sparse formation and uncoordinated trajectories.
In the 22.47.77 area, from the coordinates that were approximately one hundred light seconds from the Black Wind Fleet, the Big Bai Fleet, the other Deep Sky Fleet of the federation whose stance was ambiguous, was rushing close as fast as possible.
“Worthless.” Heiye Ming put on a cold smile. His eyes were so deep that he almost completely consumed the Heaven’s Origin Fleet that was reflected in them. He casually ordered, “Move at full speed and crush the Heaven’s Origin Fleet before the Big Bai Fleet arrives!”
…
Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!
Ear-splitting alarms were ringing inside every starship in the Heaven’s Origin Fleet. The flashing red lights added to the intense atmosphere in the cabin.
As a local defense fleet, none of the Heaven’s Origin Fleet ever thought that they would face the legendary Black Wind Fleet alone.
“Hurry up. All Exos, put on your crystal suits and prepare to break away from the mothership. You are going to free fight!”
If the Black Wind Fleet was confident enough to keep half of the Exos in the cruising carrier as mobile forces, it would be the most idiotic action for the Heaven’s Origin Fleet to keep even one Exo on-board. In the upcoming confrontation of cannons, the Heaven’s Origin Fleet was destined to suffer heavy losses. The Exos that were kept on board would be of zero significance other than dying together with the starships!
“Attack! Attack! Attack!”
In the extremely depressing atmosphere, somebody was praying in silence, someone took out the photos of their family, and some were mumbling to themselves nervously.
In a corner of the cabin, a muscular man whose scars covered his original face, in the meantime, was unhurriedly examining his crystal suit and his saber that was almost three meters long.
While whistling a weird tune, he was uttering voices that nobody could tell were cries or laughter.
“Wretched heavens, we are going to fight again!” The muscular man bashed the last magical equipment unit into the crystal suit and spat a mouthful stinky saliva. “You failed to kill me for a hundred years. I’m only getting closer and closer to the target. Will I be killed this time? Haha. Hahahaha!”
