Hope in the Instant the Shield Broke

This forced exit from warp marked the beginning of Dynamic Image Civilization's nightmare. The human warships gave it no further chance; the other vessels had seemingly been preparing for the moment the Planet Destroyer Cannon struck. Before this Level 5 Civilization probe spaceship could reset its warp system and push its warp controls to the limit again, the follow-up attacks arrived.

Nearly a quarter of the human warships were in its vicinity, and all of them had come prepared. Some had even launched predictive attacks in advance.

For a time, Antimatter Bombs, antimatter missiles, Neutron Kills, and Neutron Bursts came screaming in. Gravity Bombs, whose effectiveness was uncertain, were also hurled at the Level 5 Civilization vessel. The nearby warships that were outside the enemy vessel's main gun arcs went even crazier, using even their Close-In Weapon Systems in the attack.

Nearly every weapon that could be brought to bear was poured onto the enemy spaceship.

At once, all manner of rays crisscrossed the area around the Level 5 Civilization vessel, brilliant flashes blazed, and the Gravity Bombs threw spatial curvature into utter chaos. Yet Level 5 Civilization technology was worthy of its name. Relying on its Real Shield, the vessel actually withstood everything.

At that moment, it raised an oval shield like something out of a movie, enveloping the entire vessel. The shield was like an eggshell with extraordinary elasticity; no matter how fiercely humanity bombarded it, it remained unmoved.

If one observed it closely, one would find that this Real Shield was not simply enduring all the explosive damage head-on. Instead, it guided the violent energy along the shield's curved surface, dispersing the force. Though it was called guidance, it was not the traction-based guidance people normally imagined. Rather, something akin to sine-cosine wave resonant frequencies appeared across