Rebirth of the Super Battleship-Chapter 74: Force Field Coverage!
In interstellar warfare, intelligence is not the conventional type, such as information about enemy troop movements or logistics. Instead, it refers to real-time battlefield intelligence. This includes details such as the number of remaining enemy ships, their combat capabilities, current positions, next attack directions, and weaponry.
Even the trajectory and energy level of a single enemy projectile, as well as the potential damage it could inflict on a specific ship, are all part of real-time battlefield intelligence.
This real-time intelligence is gathered by monitoring satellites scattered around the battlefield. In terms of processing real-time battlefield intelligence, Xiao Yu far outperformed the Luka Civilization. This was a unique ability born from the integration of intelligent life and electronic systems—an ability no one else could replicate.
It was with this ability that Xiao Yu had won his war against the Moluton Civilization. Now, Xiao Yu hoped to once again rely on this ability to defeat the Luka Civilization.
This capability would fully manifest once the two sides entered close-quarters combat.
After both sides unleashed their energy weapons, less than 30 seconds passed before the energy projectiles approached the opposing fleets.
Thanks to superluminal communication, Xiao Yu began evasive maneuvers in advance. Despite this, 432 of his ships were destroyed, including three County-Class ships.
“The enemy’s energy weapons are faster and more powerful than mine. As expected of a Level 3 Civilization,” Xiao Yu thought with a sense of alarm.
“Still, my results shouldn’t fall short of theirs. After all, I attacked them with a laser network coverage,” Xiao Yu mused, turning his focus to the enemy fleet.
Tens of thousands of shimmering azure energy projectiles surged toward the Luka Civilization’s fleet. Xiao Yu saw dozens of energy projectiles simultaneously strike a Town-Class ship comparable in size to his own. Upon contact with the ship’s energy shield, the projectiles detonated violently, causing the shield to emit a brilliant flash that vanished in an instant. Xiao Yu even noticed faint plumes of smoke rising from the ship’s rear.
“Is it the power supply system for the energy shield that’s been damaged?” Xiao Yu speculated silently.
Energy shields required a continuous energy supply. Though Xiao Yu had not yet developed such technology, this did not stop him from analyzing it. Xiao Yu understood that when subjected to an attack exceeding its energy tolerance, the shield’s power system would overload and burn out. Once this happened, the shield itself would dissipate, leaving the ship vulnerable.
Clearly, this Town-Class ship was struck by dozens of energy projectiles simultaneously, breaking its energy shield. Without the shield, its fate was sealed—it disintegrated amidst the overwhelming energy aftershocks.
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This was the first Town-Class ship Xiao Yu had destroyed. After its explosion, Xiao Yu observed a County-Class ship struck by over 300 energy projectiles. After a brief burst of white light, it too exploded violently, the resulting shockwave destroying two nearby Village-Class ships.
“Good job!” Xiao Yu couldn’t help but cheer.
Xiao Yu had fired more than 30,000 energy projectiles of varying power. On average, each enemy ship was targeted by 40 projectiles. However, since Xiao Yu fired them in a coverage network pattern, most of the projectiles were wasted. Even so, in this engagement, Xiao Yu destroyed over 100 enemy ships, including three County-Class ships.
“In this wave of combat, I lost 2% of my ships, while the enemy lost 1.7% of theirs. This can already be considered a victory!” Xiao Yu was greatly encouraged by these results. After all, the fleet at Tianyuan C represented only one-fifth of his total forces.
The exchange of energy projectiles marked the final round of long-range attacks. Its conclusion signaled the imminent start of close-quarters combat—the phase with the highest ship casualty rates. This phase would ultimately decide the victor.
Xiao Yu harbored no hope of winning this engagement. In his strategy, Tianyuan C was merely the first line of defense, intended to deplete the enemy’s strength. Tianyuan B, the asteroid belt, the solar sails, and the main base at Tianyuan A were where he planned to eliminate the enemy forces.
The distance between the two fleets had shrunk to just 60,000 kilometers. In the void of space, this distance could be crossed in mere seconds.
This signaled the onset of the most brutal and intense phase of combat—close-quarters battle.
Xiao Yu, brimming with fighting spirit, had made all the necessary preparations.
The exchange of energy projectiles continued unabated, with ships constantly disintegrating and erupting into clouds of ash. Both sides had blanketed the surrounding space with a dense network of satellites. In this area alone, tens of thousands of satellites from both sides were present, waging another kind of battle.
This was a covert contest—a competition of intelligence-gathering capabilities. The objective was to detect and destroy the opponent’s satellites as quickly as possible, a test of technology and combat effectiveness.
Xiao Yu found himself at a disadvantage. His satellites, designed for stealth, had to sacrifice size. This reduction in size meant less energy capacity, rendering them incapable of offensive operations. They could only gather intelligence.
In contrast, the enemy’s satellites managed to retain offensive capabilities despite maintaining stealth. In this side skirmish, Xiao Yu was at a significant disadvantage, with his satellites frequently detected and destroyed by enemy satellites.
This reflected the efficiency of the enemy’s energy utilization, highlighting the technological disparity between the two civilizations. Xiao Yu had no choice but to divert part of his fleet to target enemy satellites while accelerating satellite production in his factories. Constant launches of new satellites barely allowed Xiao Yu to maintain his intelligence network.
Amid the azure flashes of energy projectiles, the distance between the fleets dwindled further to 40,000 kilometers. At this range, Xiao Yu suddenly noticed something amiss.
The hulls of his ships were heating up, and sparks began flying inside, as if circuits were shorting out.
“What’s going on?” Xiao Yu quickly began an investigation, and the results left him stunned.
“This… is this a Level 3 Civilization’s weapon? How is such an absurd attack method even possible?” Xiao Yu realized that a special force field had been emitted from the enemy’s flagship, enveloping an area spanning tens of thousands of kilometers.
This force field functioned like a magnetic field. As Xiao Yu’s ships moved within it, an inexplicable energy was generated on their hulls, which then spread throughout the ships.
It was akin to a generator on Earth: when a conductor cuts through magnetic field lines, electricity is continuously produced. Here, Xiao Yu’s ships, by cutting through the magnetic field lines of the enemy’s force field, generated this mysterious energy.
Xiao Yu could not identify the nature of this energy, but its effects were already evident.
Hundreds of Village-Class ships had their hulls heated to a glowing red, with internal circuits damaged by the heat. Even the fusion reactors were affected. Xiao Yu watched in horror as five Village-Class ships exploded into fragments.
At last, Xiao Yu understood why his bullet storm had failed to reach the enemy earlier. The enemy fleet had been shrouded in this peculiar force field. The high-speed movement of the bullet storm through the field rapidly accumulated energy, prematurely detonating the nuclear warheads before they could reach their targets.
Yet, Xiao Yu observed that the enemy’s ships moved freely within the force field, seemingly unaffected.
“What kind of technology is this? How am I supposed to fight this war?” Xiao Yu muttered in frustration, his mind racing for a solution.
“No matter how miraculous this technology seems, it cannot defy basic physical principles. My ships and theirs are within the same force field. It doesn’t make sense that my ships are affected while theirs are immune. Currently, there are only two possibilities: one, their ships are made of materials immune to force field attacks, but that seems unlikely; or two, their energy shields are insulating them from the force field. That seems far more probable. Damn it, this is just bullying because I don’t have energy shield technology!”
“I need to find a way to counter this… Otherwise, as long as my ships move, they’ll be affected. This spells certain defeat for me. Their flagship, huh? Sturdy energy shields? Let’s see how you handle my newest weapon.”
The enemy’s largest ship measured 1,500 meters long, 400 meters wide, and 50 meters high. It was a true behemoth, even larger than Xiao Yu’s largest ship, the Shijiazhuang.
Such a massive ship undoubtedly had an ample energy supply, which meant its energy shields were exceptionally durable. But Xiao Yu was confident he could breach those shields and destroy the ship.
Because he had a trump card: Droplet Hull Fragments.
“Modified energy cannon, 100-shot barrage!” Xiao Yu commanded.
Using energy weapon technology, a single energy fragment could achieve ten times the power of a conventional energy projectile. A 100-shot barrage involved firing all 100 Droplet Hull Fragments equipped on a City-Class ship in one go.
What kind of power would this unleash? Xiao Yu had never tested it before, so he didn’t know for sure. But he believed that with two City-Class ships simultaneously deploying a 100-shot barrage, they could break the flagship’s energy shield and destroy it.
“If we’re going big, let’s go all out,” Xiao Yu resolved. “Tianyuan C, six armed satellites, and twelve energy weapons are in firing position—I’ll fire them together! Take down their flagship and break that force field!”
