Rebirth of the Super Battleship-Chapter 155: Ultra-Miniature Starships
During the time Xiao Yu was constructing, the Swarm Queen did not send any large-scale assault forces. Instead, only small bands of harassing Swarm units appeared. These units were swiftly annihilated under the assault of the over one hundred thousand starships controlled by Xiao Yu.
In fact, purely in terms of Xiao Yu’s fleet strength, any Swarm numbering under one hundred million could only be considered harassment. This was not the surface of a planet, with all sorts of constraints. Here, energy cannons, laser cannons, and high-yield hydrogen bombs could be used without restraint.
Xiao Yu speculated that the Swarm Queen probably had no idea what he was trying to do. After all, a hybrid of a Technological Civilization and a Mechanical Civilization was extremely rare in the universe. The Swarm Queen had likely never encountered such tactics before. So it was normal for it to feel uncertain, and to miss the best opportunity to stop him was understandable.
Now that Xiao Yu had obtained primary-level full manufacturing capabilities, trying to stop him was no longer so easy.
Construction progress of the Supercomputing Center had reached ten percent, with over a thousand supercomputers already in place. These computers immediately took on the bulk of computational tasks, accelerating Xiao Yu’s building progress once again.
The speed of the Swarm Queen creating spawn mirrored Xiao Yu’s accelerating construction. After it arrived near planet three and received sufficient fuel resupply, Xiao Yu saw that the speed at which it was generating spawn kept increasing—from just over one million per day at the beginning to nearly twenty million per day now, and still accelerating.
At that rate, it would take only five days to produce a massive force of one hundred million bugs.
However, it had not launched a full-scale attack, and instead kept spawning bugs, scattering them around itself. Xiao Yu knew this was likely a defensive response, preparing for an attack from the Hebei.
Xiao Yu’s production capabilities were just as formidable. With the combined efforts of the Supercomputing Center and countless robots, he spread massive manufacturing plants across the surface of this moon in less than three months. After producing his first ultra-miniature combat starship, Xiao Yu’s factories began expanding to the other moons.
Both sides were building up their strength, preparing for the cataclysmic battle ahead.
This was a unique style of warfare between an Infinite Proliferation-Type Alien Beast Civilization and a Mechanical Civilization. In such wars, even legions composed of several hundred million individuals could only be considered small-scale forces. Other Alien Beast Civilizations or Technological Civilizations could hardly imagine a war on this scale.
Xiao Yu’s basic combat unit was the ultra-miniature starship, each only one to ten meters in diameter—roughly the same size as the Swarm’s spawn. Corresponding to their tiny frames was their extremely limited combat capability. Due to size constraints, their energy could only support very weak energy shields. Their weapons were mainly micro energy cannons and micro laser guns. In terms of combat strength, they were far inferior even to Village-Class starships, let alone Town-Class ones.
But Xiao Yu could manufacture these ultra-miniature starships in massive quantities—unlimited quantities! These ships were all managed centrally by the Supercomputing Center. Under its command, they would engage the endless sea of Swarm bugs in batches numbering in the tens of millions.
“Are there many spawn? No matter—my ultra-miniature starships are just as numerous.” Xiao Yu sneered inwardly.
This planet’s surface was covered in massive factories. At the base of the supply chain were various mining bases. The mining bases extracted and processed ores into raw materials, which were then transported to foundries for further refinement. After being mixed with various elements in specific ratios, they were forged into specialized steels, electrical materials, chips, hulls, and more. These were then sent to final assembly factories, processed into components, and assembled into ultra-miniature starships.
Meanwhile, countless resource-gathering ships shuttled between planet two and the base, transporting enormous quantities of nuclear fusion fuel. Numerous robot manufacturing factories continuously supplied abundant labor. In the skies above, turrets and large starships provided a secure environment for construction…
With Xiao Yu overseeing the grand strategy and the Supercomputing Center managing the details, everything proceeded in perfect order.
Today was the day the first batch of ultra-miniature starships would depart for combat.
Xiao Yu had built ten million of them. This initial fleet, under the command of the Supercomputing Center, set course for planet three.
This batch was merely a test. Through this battle, Xiao Yu intended to identify the weaknesses and potential improvements of these ultra-miniature starships. They were destined to be entirely destroyed by the Swarm—but Xiao Yu didn’t mind at all. With his current manufacturing power, this batch was merely a few days’ worth of production.
Sensing Xiao Yu’s move, the Swarm Queen dispatched a force of several tens of millions of bugs to intercept. The two forces met ten billion kilometers from planet three’s orbit, and the battle began.
These ultra-miniature starships were not equipped with kinetic weapons, as such weapons consumed too much space and had low firepower. Rather than loading them with bullets, it was better to use the space for fusion fuel. The energy from this fuel could power laser and energy cannons with far greater destructive power than kinetic rounds.
Thus, when the two forces were still a hundred thousand kilometers apart, the first volley from Xiao Yu’s fleet wasn’t kinetic fire, but a barrage of micro laser beams. Under the onslaught of tens of millions of laser beams, the Swarm suffered heavy casualties. But they didn’t submit to slaughter. Xiao Yu saw bluish flashes appear at the mouths of the advancing bugs—moments later, countless micro energy blasts hurtled toward the horde of ultra-miniature starships.
Tens of millions of energy blasts! As they struck, the ultra-miniature starship formation lit up like a sky full of twinkling stars. Xiao Yu knew those were the flares of shattered energy shields. Without the protection of energy shields, the hulls of the ships were not durable. As a result, his fleet began taking massive casualties at this stage.
Due to weapon range limitations, both sides’ long-range attacks ceased. What followed was close-quarters combat, as each side plunged into the other’s formation and began a brutal melee.
Xiao Yu watched as, in the void of space, countless bugs and ultra-miniature starships tangled and fought across a region millions of kilometers wide. In this chaotic region, Swarm bugs and starships clashed and tore into each other.
One ultra-miniature starship fired a laser beam, which combined with several hundred others to pierce straight through a bug’s head, killing it. But in the next moment, another melee-type bug leapt onto the ship. It raised its sharp forelimbs and brought them down savagely.
At that moment, the starship’s already strained energy shield finally shattered. The bug’s limb split the ship in two. The damaged miniature fusion engine’s auto-destruction system activated, triggering a fusion reaction in the remaining fuel. A massive explosion erupted, turning the ship into a fireball and taking the bug with it into death.
Each ultra-miniature starship was equipped with superluminal communication devices and intelligence-gathering instruments. Their environments, damage levels, remaining fuel, and other data were constantly transmitted to the main base. The Supercomputing Center continuously received this flood of information.
It would compile and analyze the data from tens of millions of ships to determine the most efficient combat strategies, then relay these instructions back—controlling every action of the fleet: when to fire lasers, when to launch energy blasts, what direction to attack, how long to fire, when to advance, when to retreat—every microscopic detail was within its grasp.
Xiao Yu monitored everything using millions of sensors and basic Intelligent Programs installed in the Supercomputing Center, ensuring no major errors occurred.
Staring at the oceanic flood of data, Xiao Yu was both awed and relieved—relieved that he had made the decision to build the Supercomputing Center.
Space combat was unlike ground combat. Controlling these ten million ultra-miniature starships required as much computational power as controlling one hundred million ground robots.
In this cruel yet beautiful starry sea, Xiao Yu’s ultra-miniature starship fleet rapidly diminished. After just five hours of intense warfare, all ten million ships had been annihilated.
The Swarm’s losses? Over thirty-six million bugs. A kill ratio of approximately 1 to 3.6.
“The result is acceptable. Hm… the propulsion and defense of the ultra-miniature starships still need to be enhanced a bit. Also, reduce the number of micro energy cannons and allocate more to laser cannons. After making these adjustments, the kill ratio will reach 1 to 4.”
Xiao Yu pondered silently.
