Worlds Apart
And so, this pleasant two-way journey began.
The Second Battlefield planned by the Allied Forces Command is actually quite far from the location of the Red Dwarf Star. At the current speed of the fleet, it will take at least seven or eight hours to reach it.
So the two sides continued their verbal sparring from time to time during the voyage. The Artificial Intelligence Consciousness seemed to enjoy the process; whenever the Allied Forces Command sent a plea for mercy, its response became quick, and judging from the translated wording, it seemed quite excited.
The Allied Forces Command did not know why the Artificial Intelligence Consciousness was behaving this way, but it welcomed the outcome.
I was originally thinking about how to lure the Artificial Intelligence Consciousness to the Second Battlefield, but I didn't expect it to cooperate so well. It's so satisfying.
Soon, six hours had passed. At this point, the speed of the three allied fleets was about to be accelerated to about 11% of the speed of light. They were still quite far from the pre-designated Second Battlefield area. However, at this point, the allied fleets could no longer accelerate.
If we keep accelerating, then there will truly be no turning back.
After all, the fleet was heading towards the Neutron Star. If it continued to accelerate, it would be impossible to brake before reaching the limits of the warship's tolerance.
Therefore, we must slow down at this point.
In fact, computer calculations show that this position is already at the edge of the Second Battlefield. During the deceleration process, the three coalition fleets have "slid" into the pre-set battlefield area.
It refers to a region, not a single coordinate point.
It's easy to imagine that Starry Sky Battlefield can't be a single point, so the pre-set battlefield is a very vast area. And there's no standard answer for this area; as long as the environment is so harsh that the warships can hardly withstand it, it meets the standard.
The Artificial Intelligence Consciousness chasing behind became even more excited when it saw the Allied fleet begin to Attitude Adjustment, and at that moment it even sent a sarcastic message to the Allied Forces Command.
They said things like, "If you adjust your attitude and slow down, you're doomed. If you have the guts, keep accelerating and rush towards the Neutron Star," and so on.
However, the moment the information was sent, it sensed something was wrong. Well, "sense" isn't quite the right word; it should be that it suddenly discovered some abnormalities in the parameters of its fleet's instruments.
In particular, the energy supply system supporting the Magnetic Shield experiences extremely high values at this time, and sometimes fluctuates wildly like a roller coaster.
This phenomenon not only occurred on the other warships it controlled, but also on the warship where its own computer was located.
It quickly activated its consciousness and performed a rapid calculation and analysis of the abnormal data collected by the various detectors. The conclusions it drew caused its CUP to surge significantly, and its self-awareness within its consciousness also became much clearer.
It turns out that due to the increasing proximity to the Neutron Star, the Magnetic Shield of each warship were affected by the strong magnetic field of the Neutron Star, resulting in phenomena such as magnetic field intertwining and fluctuating movement direction.
However, it still did not believe that the Allied forces had deliberately come here. On the contrary, it believed that it had found the reason why the three Allied fleets were Attitude Adjustment and slowing down at this time.
Presumably, the three fleets also noticed the unusually strong magnetic field here, and therefore had to slow down.
In order to avoid destroying its entire fleet under the strong magnetic field of the Neutron Star, the Artificial Intelligence Consciousness had better do the same thing as the allied fleet, adjusting its posture and slowing down.
As a result, in the following period of time, because both fleets tacitly turned their exhaust flames toward the Neutron Star, a rather interesting scene unfolded.
It's as if the roles of pursuer and pursued have been reversed.
That was indeed the case. However, the Artificial Intelligence Consciousness had not yet realized this, so instead of slowing down to zero and then accelerating to escape this star field, it chose to have its fleet readjust its posture after the speed dropped to a certain level, and to meet the approaching coalition fleet head-on.
In its mind, the Allied fleet, like itself, must have had to slow down due to environmental factors. Since they were the same, it still held a numerical advantage.
Even in this star system today, it is already very difficult for warships to move around with their Magnetic Shield activated. If it is difficult for their own fleet to move around, the same is true for the allied fleet.
What the Artificial Intelligence Consciousness never expected was that the only one in the allied fleet that was similar to it was the Third Fleet. Well, not exactly the same, at least the Third Fleet had far more information about this star system than it, which meant that even though the Third Fleet also had difficulties in operation, it was far more precise than it in evasive maneuvers and firing its cannons.
Needless to say, the other two human fleets' superior warship performance was fully demonstrated at this point; the difference was Worlds Apart.
"Good timing! We'll annihilate the Artificial Intelligence fleet today!" As the battle was about to begin, Yue Yuan was also making his final pre-battle communications with the Commander of the second and Third Fleet. "Man Yuemei, your fleet will break through below the ecliptic plane of the Neutron Star and try to block its escape route before the Artificial Intelligence Consciousness can react."
"We need information about the warship where the Artificial Intelligence is located!" Man Yuemei replied.
"Yes, no problem." Yue Yuan nodded, looked at the Grand Governor of the Nier people on the screen, and continued, "Grand Governor, success or failure depends on this battle. You must fight well. The hydrogen bombs planted earlier only destroyed the landing ships of the artificial intelligence consciousness. Its main force, the Lake-class warships, were not lost. So, there is still a nearly tenfold difference in numbers between the two sides."
Now that we have the advantage of timing and location, the final step—human resources—cannot be compromised. If we fail to exert ourselves and allow the Artificial Intelligence Consciousness to escape, the consequences will be dire.
"Rest assured, Commander-in-Chief, this artificial intelligence entity has the blood of our Niel people on its hands. We will certainly not fail at such a critical moment," said the Grand Governor of the Niel people.
Seeing this, Yue Yuan opened the fleet-wide channel and said, "Very well, I hope you all will fight bravely against the enemy!"
As he spoke, he sent the information about the warship where the Artificial Intelligence Consciousness was located to the Second Fleet of Man Yuemei, and then pressed a button on his seat to firmly fix himself in place, preparing to start the battle.
The location of the Artificial Intelligence Consciousness entity was determined by the delayed reactions of the outer warships in the Artificial Intelligence fleet during the previous raid by the fourth, fifth, and Sixth Fleet. It is currently located on a warship in the middle of the fleet.
Information obtained from the Nair People suggests that this form of Artificial Intelligence Consciousness cannot be transferred via wireless network. This was discovered when the Nair People's Third Star Region first began its war with the Artificial Intelligence Consciousness.
If Artificial Intelligence Consciousness wants to transfer its physical body, it can only do so by controlling a robot to move the new equipment over and then physically connecting the old and new equipment.
Therefore, as long as we capture the warship where its main body is located, it's equivalent to capturing it.
However, this is not easy. It is currently on a warship, and if anything goes wrong, it may create another Combat AI to control the fleet in battle, and then make its escape.
After all, once the main warship escapes, the Nair Civilization, a Level 2 Civilization, can easily find a desolate planet to rebuild its strength.
Therefore, Yue Yuan ordered the Second Fleet to infiltrate and keep a close eye on the warship where its main body was located.
Battle is imminent.
The first to engage the enemy was the First Fleet, which took the lead. When the two sides closed the distance to 10 light-seconds, a Lake-Class Warship at the bow of the Lyra opened fire first. Its main gun was a super-large Laser Energy Cannon.
A high-energy laser beam, visible only through partial light scattering, roared out from its muzzle. Ten seconds later, this straight high-energy laser successfully ignored the Magnetic Shield of an Artificial Intelligence warship. Unfortunately, its final impact point deviated from the target warship by several hundred meters and eventually disappeared into the deep starry sky.
Another Lake-Class Warship, named West Lake, also opened fire in the next moment, but its main gun was a Positron Cannon. Because the West Lake was equipped with Positron Cannon, it had to simultaneously change the parameters of its Magnetic Shield before firing, so that the direction of the Magnetic Field Lines of the Magnetic Shield would change. The purpose was to ensure that the positron beam it fired would be fired in the direction of the Magnetic Field Lines of its own Magnetic Shield and would leave the range of its own Magnetic Shield.
Of course, these parameter changes have all been integrated into the fire control system, so there is no need to perform any fancy operations before firing each shot.
However, after leaving the range of the West Lake's Magnetic Shield, the positron beam began to deflect. Instead of shooting straight at the target, it took a sharp turn within the powerful magnetic field of the Neutron Star, tracing an arc in the sky before heading towards the enemy warship on the other side.
The saying that bullets can curve is right here.
Perhaps because they had prior knowledge of the direction and strength of the Neutron Star's magnetic field in this star field, the West Lake's Positron Cannon shot was quite accurate. After tracing an arc through the starry sky, the positron beam struck its target precisely.
Unfortunately, the target warship was still using its Magnetic Shield. At a distance of 10 light-seconds, the probability of Positron Cannon hitting the target precisely in the direction of the Magnetic Shield's Magnetic Field Lines was far greater than that of a meteorite falling from the sky and landing right in the hole of a millstone.
So, unsurprisingly, this Positron Cannon was deflected by the enemy ship's Magnetic Shield.
At the level of Level 2 Civilization, the role of Positron Cannon has shifted from a core combat capability to a support role. Therefore, following their initial strategic adjustments, humanity's fleet reduced the number of Positron Cannon it carried.