War is Raging
Dozens of hours have passed, and the chaotic battle continues.
As the detectors scanned down, the Lyra discovered that it was now surrounded by enemies on all sides—no, on all eight sides.
Because of the strategy of Strike at the Yellow Dragon at the heart of the enemy fleet, the Lyra, along with a group of guard ships, broke into the very center of the enemy fleet. The arrival of the Interstellar Transaction Market fleet from behind further increased the number of ships, leading to this situation.
Of course, the most accurate description is that the two sides' fleets are intertwined, with their warships mixed together. It's just that the number of warships is unequal, which is why there is a feeling of being surrounded by enemies.
Yue Yuan and even the Commander of the North Sea warship knew that this situation could not continue, because judging from the current situation, the casualty rate of human warships had already increased significantly. If this continued, the Interstellar Transaction Market would probably be the final victor.
The lag in Nanotechnology ultimately caused human fleets to suffer heavy losses in close combat. And by close combat, I don't mean boarding maneuvers, but rather engagements between warships that were stretched to tens of thousands of kilometers, or even hundreds of thousands of kilometers.
At this distance, the projectiles fired by Electromagnetic Cannon become extremely difficult to defend against. Even if the Close-In Weapon System is operating at full power, some projectiles can still penetrate the defensive firepower and hit the warship.
At the Level 3 Civilization, being hit by Electromagnetic Cannon is not as simple as a close-range hydrogen bomb; it means a war between Nanobots.
Many of humanity's warships were dismantled by these Nanobots in the Interstellar Transaction Market. Then, the stockpile of Nanomite Repair Robot was depleted, or the production capacity could not keep up with the rate of consumption, ultimately leading to the destruction of the warships.
Now, humanity has finally come to a profound understanding of why True Nano Technology is considered a hallmark technology of Level 3 Civilization. It is indeed the cornerstone of all technologies of Level 3 Civilization, and may even be the foundation for producing creations of Level 4 Civilization.
In fact, human Nanotechnology is already quite advanced. Take the 'Silver Mist Consciousness' that once terrified humanity, for example. If humanity were to encounter it again now, it would definitely be able to eliminate it with its numerical advantage, rather than being powerless to fight back.
The fact that humans can now directly compete with Interstellar Transaction Market using Nanobots is a testament to this.
"Commander Yue, we've found it! We've found it! That warship formation 370,000 kilometers away is most likely it!" At this moment, an excited voice rang out in the Lyra Command Center.
"Order all warships within 100,000 kilometers to converge on our ship. This time, we must destroy it!" Yue Yuan glanced at the icon marking our warship on the star map and spoke.
As they were speaking, an enemy ship 70,000 kilometers away was suddenly blasted open by a bright flash of light, leaving a hole more than 500 meters wide. It was then completely reduced to scrap metal by a series of explosions.
This was thanks to the Electromagnetic Railgun of the Lyra. Knowing that they were inferior to their opponents in terms of Nanobots, and that their opponents' armor could be easily penetrated, the human warship changed its previous strategy and replaced the warhead of the Electromagnetic Railgun with a hydrogen bomb.
This would save resources to produce Nanomite Repair Robot specifically for repairing their own armor, and also allow them to kill enemy warships more efficiently.
This change dramatically increased the close-combat firepower of human warships. Any enemy ship hit head-on, especially if it was unlucky enough to be struck in its fuel tank or engine room, would essentially be destroyed instantly. Of course, in many cases, the armor would be pierced with a hole tens or even hundreds of meters wide, which would then be promptly repaired by the enemy's Nanomite Repair Robot.
The hydrogen bomb, a simple and unadorned weapon, once again demonstrated its power thanks to its Armor-Piercing Shells warhead. This transformation allowed human warships to maintain a kill ratio of 1 to 3.1 in close combat with Interstellar Transaction Market warships.
Of course, that's not enough. The fastest way to win this phase of the battle is to destroy the warship equipped with Strong Artificial Intelligence.
Before long, the Strong Artificial Intelligence on the Lyra, following Yue Yuan's instructions, directed more than 30,000 nearby warships to approach the Lyra and, under the same formation command, accelerated toward the target once again.
370,000 kilometers is only a little over a second at the speed of light, and the same applies to information transmission. Therefore, the Lyra's movements were detected by the other side in less than two seconds.
The reaction of the warships on the Interstellar Transaction Market was also very interesting. This time, the warship that the Lyra had targeted did not try to evade it as it had done before, but instead made the same move as the Lyra.
The images transmitted back by the probe show that tens of thousands of red dots representing warships from the Interstellar Transaction Market are constantly converging on the target warship, and after forming up, they rush toward the Lyra.
It seems that this warship has also discovered that the human Lyra is the command ship of this entire human warship group, and also a warship equipped with Strong Artificial Intelligence.
In other words, as long as the Lyra is destroyed, the human fleet will be paralyzed, and victory will be theirs.
The idea was good, but the Interstellar Transaction Market seemed unaware that humanity possessed more than just one Strong Artificial Intelligence in this vast expanse of space. Even if the Lyra was destroyed, the Unmanned Warship originally controlled by the Lyra would be transferred to the North Sea.
However, humans have no obligation to tell them this information, and of course, humans are unaware that the other side is unaware that they have multiple Strong Artificial Intelligence. After all, once the war actually started, the meaningless verbal exchanges between the two sides were automatically stopped.
"When two armies meet on a narrow path, the brave will prevail! Charge!"
Seeing this, Yue Yuan focused all his attention on destroying the enemy flagship. With his shout, the Lyra and tens of thousands of guards charged toward the target without hesitation.
During this process, the Lyra was hit by dozens of laser cannons, but it still managed to lead the guards warships toward the target warship, while also having time to use its main guns to strike the target ahead.
The distance between the two flagships was quickly reduced to over 100,000 kilometers.
By this time, the Lyra's armor had long since turned from silvery to charred black, with some unrepaired craters and areas that had been fully repaired but were still clearly made of different materials.
The enemy flagship, however, remained brand new, and its hundreds of thousands of guard ships charged forward with unstoppable momentum.
At this moment, the Lyra was like a warrior covered in wounds. It broke through layers of obstacles and finally stood in front of the enemy flagship, raising its sword against an enemy many times its size without hesitation.
The Polarization Shield lit up again, then was shut down by the Strong Artificial Intelligence just before it was about to collapse. The Lyra's tumbling maneuver avoided most of the laser energy beams, but it was still hit by dozens of laser energy beams.
Twenty-eight Close-In Weapon System) were destroyed in this round of attacks, but that wasn't the end of it. Just as the news of the destruction of the twenty-eight Close-In Weapon System arrived, everyone in the Command Center of the Lyra felt a slight tremor from the warship.
Based on their previous experience of resisting attacks, they knew that the Lyra had been hit by the enemy's Electromagnetic Railgun again.
In an instant, the alarms blared!