"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!!"
The highest-priority alarm blared repeatedly across every channel. Every ship in the Empire Fleet erupted with shrill air-raid sirens as soldiers rushed from their rest areas to their stations. The Empire Admiral's shields flashed with dazzling blue light, their rapidly rising strength making the ship shine like a blue sun for one thousandth of a second. Amid deep rumbling, the flagship and the several second-generation Avenging Angel-class warships around it began charging their weapon systems. Blue psionic radiance flowed through the formation of ships in space, as though a vast patch of azure sparks had suddenly blossomed across a black velvet tapestry.
The enemy's first wave struck before even sixty percent of the ships had fully entered combat readiness. Several thick energy beams streaked with black-red patterns abruptly tore through space and charged toward our warships. They were swift, savage, and steeped in violence—the kind of devastating bombardment only the former Empire Fleet, now tainted by abyssal fury, could unleash. Several small escort ships were reduced to warped, half-molten metal before their shields could even flicker, exploding into orange-red spheres in space. The souls of hundreds of Imperial soldiers were directly uploaded to the Regeneration Factories aboard the nearest motherships. The Abyssalized Star River Main Guns, still carrying their remaining force, immediately struck the motherships behind the escorts. Three Avenging Angel-class motherships and the Empire Admiral's longitudinal arm were hit at once, dangerous pale-white ripples spreading across their shields. This was partial shield weakening, caused when the attack exceeded the shield recharge rate. It meant that the damage sustained per unit area had surpassed the critical threshold. A few more strikes like that, and the shields could be breached.
But the Avenging Angel-class was, after all, a super warship further enhanced from the Eternal-class Warship. Its