2806. A Thousand Miles of Collapse (Part 2)
"Assault! Assault! Assault!" General Grievous stood on the bridge of Invisible Hand, roaring and waving his arms.
The Protoss Purifiers fleet launched an indomitable charge!
The Imperial fleet formation has not yet been fully deployed, but the Purifiers drones are already swarming like silver swarms. And this time, they are charging together with the aircraft carrier!
In the previous battles, the Purifiers warships had always stayed far behind and only launched drones to fight. Coupled with the powerful firepower of the Purifiers drones, Imperial Intelligence Department had never recognized the aircraft carrier as an ordinary aircraft carrier.
Because a normal aircraft carrier requires a large number of Hangar Platforms, and also needs to accommodate various supply stations and repair stations for pilots and ground crews. It also needs Flight Control Systems on the bridge, a chain of command, a guidance system, etc. Such a series of support is needed to bring out the maximum combat effectiveness of an aircraft carrier.
That's why the number of aircraft carriers is so small, because their cost is simply not comparable to that of gunships.
In fact, aircraft carriers can indeed exert combat capabilities that far exceed those of ordinary warships. In the simplest move, bombers taking off from an aircraft carrier can bypass the strongest point of the enemy warship's shield and directly attack the engine. This is unmatched by any weapon, including missiles.
Therefore, after realizing the powerful power of aircraft carriers, Galactic Empire also vigorously developed aircraft carriers for a time. However, due to the increasing advantages of Kingdom of Dawn's fighter jets, it returned to the combat combination of giant ships and cannons + professional air defense warships.
Therefore, according to normal understanding, after an aircraft carrier is equipped with so many systems around fighter jets, it is impossible to have much space to install other weapons and equipment.
But Intelligence Department of the Galactic Empire didn't know at all - they had no way of knowing that Protoss's use of energy had already reached its peak level. Moreover, their aircraft carrier did not require traditional hangars and pilots at all, and only had a production line for drones, nothing more.
Therefore, the aircraft carrier Protoss actually has weapons installed...
Ten Purifier aircraft carriers rushed towards Imperial fleet's formation at extremely fast speeds. Under the command of Gideon-Tarkin, Imperial fleet rushed to the battle, but after all, they had already fallen behind.
A large number of Purifiers Interceptor drone have begun to attack those imperial warships, followed closely by Purifier Scout.
Immediately afterwards, the captains of Imperial fleet discovered that the firepower of those Purifier Scout, which was more than 30 meters long and looked like heavy fighter jets, was beyond imagination!
These reconnaissance aircraft are all equipped with anti-matter missiles, and they are anti-matter warheads refined and compressed by Protoss technology!
Being attacked by these anti-matter missiles, even the shield of Imperial-class Star Destroyer was fluctuating violently. Some of the reconnaissance planes even used the cover of drones to attack the rear engine of Imperial-class Star Destroyer.
The scene suddenly became chaotic. Even at this time, the sub-shield of the Engine Department of Imperial-class Star Destroyer was penetrated, the engine spewed countless flames, and finally the reactor exploded.
The Star Destroyer was destroyed, which shocked the captains of Imperial fleet.
You must know that this is a strength comparison of 150:10! This is not a simple two or three times the number, this is a full fifteen times!
In such a comparison of numbers, the party with the larger number was the first to experience attrition! This was a devastating blow to the morale of Imperial fleet officers and soldiers at all levels.
But, this is just the beginning.
Taking advantage of the chaos caused by numerous drones and reconnaissance aircraft among Imperial fleet, the Purifiers aircraft carrier has also broken into Imperial fleet's formation.
The speed of Sublight of these aircraft carriers is much faster than that of Imperial-class Star Destroyer, and now it is a surprise attack. This means that Imperial fleet does not have enough distance and time to exert its numerical advantage and concentrate its firepower on those Purifier aircraft carrier.
Not only that, these aircraft carriers also moved forward without heeding the attacks of other warships.
The shields of several aircraft carriers were broken, and a large amount of light blue flames spewed out from the hulls. However, due to the continuous cover of drones and reconnaissance aircraft, these aircraft carriers were not attacked by concentrated fire.
And at this moment, the formation of Purifier aircraft carrier has approached the flagship of Gideon-Tarkin!
"Purification Beam! Fire!!" General Grievous gave the command in an extremely ferocious manner.
The bows of ten aircraft carriers suddenly deployed a huge beam emitter, and then a series of terrifying Purification Beam shot out instantly!
That's right, this is the weapon used by Protoss Carrier to perform purification tasks, that is, to Orbital Bombardment the planet - Purification Beam!
This powerful beam can cause devastating blows to the surface of the planet, but its disadvantages are that it takes a long time to charge, has a very short range, and because it is an axis-based weapon, it can only be aimed by turning the battleship, so it is basically not used in fleet battles.
But this time, General Grievous was directly used to attack Gideon-Tarkin!
He has always given the Imperial Intelligence Department door an illusion, that is, these aircraft carriers are very cowardly and cannot engage in close combat with Star Destroyer, and all the fighter jets are on Interceptor drone.
This makes Imperial Intelligence Department preconceptions that these aircraft carriers are traditional aircraft carriers and do not have any weapons.
In a sense, they are actually right. Protoss Carrier is indeed a traditional aircraft carrier, and Purification Beam cannot be used in fleet warfare.
However, General Grievous cleverly created the conditions for himself to launch an attack with Purification Beam.
First, he secretly went to Lothal Planet to have a meeting with Lin Nanyi, and it was only the highest-level summit, with only three or four people attending. Then he told Lin Nanyi that he would not participate in any affairs of Eastern Territory, including military affairs.
This made him an invisible person in Eastern Territory, making it impossible for the Imperial Intelligence Department to judge his command style.
It is indeed true. If Gideon-Tarkin knew that General Grievous was commanding this aircraft carrier formation, he would not have left only 150 capital ships after being killed!
Because the name Grievous means ruthless assault and cunning sneak attack!
At the same time, Grievous also kept giving Imperial Intelligence Department the impression that he was just trying to harass the opponent's logistics supplies. This made them never think that Charos IV Planet, who had gathered heavily troops, would be directly attacked.
Even Gideon-Tarkin believed that the purpose of these aircraft carriers was to cut off the supply lines of Charos IV Planet, because these aircraft carriers began to be active in the logistics hubs Balamak Planet and Toglia Planet.
But he did not expect that the reason why these two planets became logistics hubs was because of their convenient transportation and the navigation of transport fleets.
However, if it facilitates the navigation of the transport fleet, it will naturally also facilitate the navigation of the raiding fleet!
In the end, General Grievous made a time lag. After the opponent discovered that the aircraft carrier fleet had disappeared, it only left Gideon-Tarkin 10 minutes of reaction time.
The location of Gideon-Tarkin's flagships, and even part of their combat plans, were all discovered by the wandering Protoss observers!
Ten aircraft carriers were extremely close and launched Purification Beam at the flagship of Gideon-Tarkin!
This Imperial II-class Star Destroyer completely exploded in less than ten minutes and exploded into countless pieces.
This explosion also destroyed Imperial Twelfth Army...