Grand Melee
Because that meant engaging in close-quarters combat, and for the first time since acquiring Alloy No. 1 and Alloy No. 2, the human fleet was at a disadvantage in close combat.
However, it is now unavoidable that the Lyra battle group must engage in close combat with this enemy fleet, as the consequences of turning to avoid it would be even more unacceptable.
Everyone on board the Lyra understood this principle.
"Maintain relative speed, pay attention to maneuvering and evasion, increase the priority of the Close-In Weapon System and increase the computing power allocation by 5 percentage points. The fleet will advance towards the center of the target area in a spherical formation." As soon as the two fleets made contact, Yue Yuan gave a simple order.
Although the instructions were simple, they were not easy to execute. However, when they first came into contact, the humans on the Lyra did not make any big moves, because at that time the warships that were approaching the enemy were all Unmanned Warship controlled by Strong Artificial Intelligence.
The two sides' lead warships had just approached to within 23 light-seconds of each other when the vanguard of the human warships began firing at their respective targets. The muzzles of over 700,000 warships flickered faintly, as if gathering lightning, before unleashing hundreds of thousands of powerful bolts of lightning.
These are the laser beams that hit the target, traveling through the Void at the speed of light, traversing a distance of 23 light-seconds, either brushing past enemy ships or causing them to light up bright Light Screen.
Under the light, the warships that were originally hidden in the darkness on the battlefield appeared one by one, as if they had suddenly appeared. The starry sky shimmered with silver light, and the originally dark Void seemed to be coated with a layer of shimmering silver metallic luster.
The light reflected from the illuminated Polarization Shield made these warships appear even more imposing and awe-inspiring. Seven million warships, each several kilometers long and wide, were so enormous that, although there were no reference points to show their size, the probes of the Lyra could still see the entire direction of their advance as a vast ocean of the enemy.
The dim battlefield was illuminated by the contact between the Polarization Shield and the laser energy beams. This was followed by the Polarization Shield being overloaded and destroyed, revealing the red-hot hulls of the warships illuminated by the Laser Weapon, and then their explosions.
After the previous battles, the Lyra battleship cluster has obtained the limit data of the Polarization Shield of the Interstellar Transaction Market. It can withstand about twenty laser weapons from human warships at the same time. This is the critical point. If this number is exceeded, the Polarization Shield will be overloaded instantly, and then the Polarization Shield system will be paralyzed.
It is simultaneous, not sequential.
If the attacks are delivered in succession with intervals, even if twenty lasers hit, the Polarization Shield system can gradually recover after the buffer period, thus withstanding these attacks.
Based on this data, each of humanity's current strike groups consists of more than twenty warships. When using laser Energy Weapon to strike enemy warships, they share data and aim their cannons at the same point of impact.
At a distance of 23 light-seconds, controlling over twenty laser beams to precisely hit the same point without error is extremely difficult; even humans rarely manage to do so when controlling a warship. However, under the coordination of Strong Artificial Intelligence, a human strike formation can achieve an accuracy of 1 kilometer.
Although the warships on the Interstellar Transaction Market are not exactly the same size as human warships, they are still Sea-Class, so a 1-kilometer error is not too big, and they can basically hit all targets with one hit.
Humans obtained data on the Polarization Shield of the Interstellar Transaction Market warships through previous battles, and vice versa. Therefore, the Interstellar Transaction Market side also used the same formation when attacking human warships at long range.
However, their firing squadrons consisted of far more warships than the humans, approximately 108 ships. They knew this number wasn't enough, as any more would compromise the squadron's flexibility. Therefore, they adopted a strategy of coordinated, sequential attacks across multiple squadrons.
The reason is not that human Polarization Shield are much stronger than theirs, but that the armor of human warships is simply too formidable.
The Interstellar Transaction Market has seen countless instances where a single salvo could shatter the Polarization Shield of a human warship, only to be withstood by the warship's armor.
Therefore, the formation strategy was changed this time.
In such long-range engagements, there are actually many tactical details that can be implemented. For example, when maneuvering to evade, try to keep the bow of the warship facing the direction of the enemy fleet.
This is naturally to reduce the area of our warships facing the enemy, thereby reducing the number of ships simultaneously irradiated by laser Energy Weapon and thus improving survivability.
Of course, such tactical details are very effective in long-range combat, but their effectiveness is greatly reduced in close-quarters dogfights, since no one can predict when or from which direction a laser beam will be fired at them.
Amidst the flashing light of exploding warships, the two fleets drew ever closer, with the second and third echelons of their respective formations joining the battle. At this moment, the Lyra, located at the very center of the formation, fired its first shot at the enemy fleet.
At this moment, the starry sky seemed to be ablaze with the lights of countless homes, or like the silent bursts of firecrackers in the dark night of the Lunar New Year, captured by an aerial photograph. Light and heat intertwined here, and steel and flames blazed forth.
The battle entered a fierce stage right from the start.
Here, there are no hospital ships like in the game, nor the various small ships with different functions; there are only warships with massive cannons, blazing in the starry sea.
The size of Magnetic Propulsion means that small warships cannot participate in such battles. Even if there were small warships, they could not catch up with the Sea-Class Warship equipped with Magnetic Propulsion, and their main guns could not penetrate the Polarization Shield of the Sea-Class Warship.
The life-or-death battle between two civilizations determines the brutality of war; there is no mercy, and no humanitarian Spirit Body whatsoever. You are forced to fight while simultaneously adhering to regulations and not firing on the so-called hospital ships.
It doesn't exist; everything is aimed at eliminating the other side.
As time went on, warships on both sides were reduced to cosmic fireworks under round after round of attacks. Each strike group had warships being destroyed one after another. As soon as a warship in these groups was destroyed, the Strong Artificial Intelligence would immediately replace it from other rear groups to ensure that its side had sufficient firepower.
The brief but intense exchange allowed the Lyra to quickly obtain data on the casualty ratio between the two sides. Similar to the North Sea battle group before, the Lyra battle group also achieved a casualty ratio of one to three.
In fact, at the beginning of the long-range battle, the kill ratio between human warships and the warships of the Interstellar Transaction Market reached 1 to 6. However, after the two sides entered into close-quarters dogfights and Nano Weapon were deployed, the kill ratio was reduced.
The Lyra and North Sea fleets originally belonged to the same human First Fleet. Their warships had similar performance and configurations, and their Strong Artificial Intelligence was also similar, so it was not surprising that they achieved similar results.