One ship after another. Even after exposing their vulnerable sterns, the pirate fleet's situation showed no improvement; the rate at which they were destroyed only increased.
The pirate gunboats' large turrets were especially devastating. Each salvo could sink several ships, and some Pirate Pursuers caught in a crossfire were blown to pieces in violent chain explosions.
Just as the outcome was becoming clear, an alarm sounded on the radar. Far away, 6.5 light-seconds from the Meteor Fleet, a new pirate fleet appeared in the direction of Dakan I—reinforcements from the Pirate Base!
Without a doubt, the pursuit fleet's crushing defeat had drawn the Pirate Base's attention. The reserve fleet originally kept behind to guard the base had also been dispatched, approaching the Space Battlefield. Now it had finally shown itself.
"Tianyi, take command. I'll be right back!"
Seeing signs that the fleeing pirates were regrouping, the Tengshe suddenly accelerated, becoming a streak of light as it shot straight through the retreating fleet and charged toward the reinforcement fleet.
The Tengshe's movements naturally caught the pirate fleet's attention. Once the reinforcement fleet received the intelligence, it immediately adjusted its formation and prepared to spread out.
But by then, it was too late. Sublight speed tore through space, dodging incoming beams and shells, and the Spacetime Shockwave erupted once more!
The moment the Gravity Beam left the warship, it began to spread. The cone-shaped shockwave was like a tornado, sweeping up swathes of starships.
One violent explosion after another tore a huge gap in the once orderly pirate reinforcement fleet. Nearly a hundred starships exploded, plunging the imposing fleet into brief chaos.
The reinforcement fleet was clearly smaller than the pursuit fleet. From Lin Zhichen's estimate, it had at most 500 pirate ships—and one-fifth of them had just been destroyed!
The battered pirate fleet descended into brief chaos. Some ships scrambled to avoid fragments of shattered hulls, while others, terrified by the Spacetime Shockwave, tried to evade the distorted space.
Although the pirate fleet's commander had received the intelligence in advance, even he couldn't keep the disordered fleet under control. With a few minutes to regroup, things might have gone very differently—but the poised Tengshe was already ready.
The second Spacetime Shockwave destroyed another seventy or eighty pirate ships, tearing the fleet apart even further.
Then came the third, and the fourth.
Only then did the despairing pirate commander understand why the enormous pursuit fleet had been routed less than an hour after the battle began.
As time passed, fewer and fewer pirate pursuit ships remained in retreat, and the pressure of death grew ever greater. By the time they finally reached the battlefield where the reinforcement fleet was stationed, they found not a mighty friendly fleet or a hope of survival, but a pitiful mass of damaged hulls.
At last, the last straw they had clung to snapped. The first Pirate Pursuit Cruiser to surrender shut down its engines and drifted in space like a lamb awaiting judgment.
Then came a second, and a third.
The dozen or so surviving pirate ships finally surrendered. The Meteor Fighter Swarm circled around them like flies, but they made no attempt to resist.
Meanwhile, the heavily damaged reinforcement fleet—having lost most of its warships—fled desperately toward the Pirate Base, with the Tengshe pursuing at an unhurried pace.
"Zzz—"
Energy surged. A basketball-sized Alloy Projectile shot out at sublight speed, precisely pierced the Deflection Shield, and destroyed the engine at the stern of a Pirate Butcher, setting off its fusion reactor.
In the ensuing explosion, the beast became a broken iron coffin drifting in space.
One ship after another. When they were only ten light-seconds from Dakan I, the last Pirate Butcher was destroyed, bringing the intense space battle to an end.
"Big brother, we won." Back within the fleet's radar range, the holographic projector displayed excited images of Link and the others.
This battle was unlike any they had fought before. It was the first fleet battle the Meteor Mercenary Group had experienced involving more than two thousand ships, and also their first fleet battle in the Dark Galaxy.
Nearly 300 of their own starships had joined the battle, against a pirate fleet of more than 2,000. Yet the result had been a one-sided slaughter: the Meteor Fleet had come away unscathed, while the pirate fleet had been wiped out.
"Also, we've captured some spoils—a batch of ships: five Pirate Butchers and eight Pirate Pursuit Cruisers!" Wu Tianyi placed a projection of a Pirate Butcher on the holographic projector.
"By ship class, the Pirate Butcher should be considered a Battlecruiser, on the same level as a Battleship. Its advantage is greater speed, and its disadvantage is thinner armor, but the two are about evenly matched in firepower."
"Big brother, these are the first capital ships we've ever captured!" Link's excitement was plain to see.
Unlike a Light Aircraft Carrier, which mainly relied on its carrier-based fighters for combat, its greater role in the Meteor Fleet was to provide a much wider field of view, give early warning across the vastness of space, track enemy ships, and carry out other support missions.
Although Battlecruisers were inferior to Battleships in hull strength and armor, that was only in comparison with Battleships of the same class.
"If we make Battleship-grade external armor for them out of BC-106 Superalloy, the Pirate Butchers' armor could be even stronger than that of standard Battleships!" Wu Tianyi suggested.
BC-106 Superalloy was a superalloy that Li Heng had reverse-engineered from a relatively common superalloy on the interstellar market. It was far stronger than Universal Alloy. Aside from its high cost, scarce materials, and demanding manufacturing requirements, it had almost no other drawbacks.
"Li Heng is a materials scientist, and his work is too important for him to spend all his time building external armor for warships. That would be a waste of his talents."
Lin Zhichen frowned slightly. Someone with such strategic value should be put to better use, perhaps by pushing forward the industrial-scale production of superalloys.
"Big brother, you might not know because you haven't been keeping up with this, but in fact, we can already smelt BC-106 Superalloy on a small scale," Wu Tianyi explained.
"Li Heng and the regiment's engineers are working on the technology for industrial-scale production of BC-106 Superalloy, and they've already made some progress.
"During the process, some superalloy will be produced experimentally. It's piled up in the warehouse right now, so we might as well process it into external armor for Battleships. We can improve our metalworking techniques at the same time—two birds with one stone!"
"That's a good idea. Go ahead with it." Hearing this, Lin Zhichen finally agreed.
Of course, all that would have to wait. The most important thing now was to capture Dakan I and Dakan Ia. The pirate bases must already be on alert, and might even be asking other pirate groups in the star system for help.
For all they knew, countless pirate NPC fleets were gradually closing in through the dark reaches of space. If they waited too long, something unexpected might happen.
"Big brother, about attacking the Pirate Base—" Wu Tianyi started to say, but Lin Zhichen cut him off. "I'll take command myself from here!
"You bring the fleet in slowly. I'll go knock on their shell first!"
Watching the Tengshe speed away, Wu Tianyi and the others couldn't help but smile wryly.
They had originally hoped to follow and help, but Lin Zhichen's meaning was clear.
"We're still too weak!" Link sighed, feeling the urge to train in seclusion.
He had awakened his Psionics more than half a year ago, but was still stuck at the Apprentice stage, with advancement to the elite ranks nowhere in sight. He couldn't help feeling frustrated.
With no pirate fleet to interfere, the Tengshe once again advanced toward Dakan I. On the two molten planets, blazing Particle Light Spears streaked through space, striking the Psionic Warship.
"Zzz—"
A projectile shot out, easily tearing through the Deflection Shield. One dazzling Particle Light Spear went dark, and a gap was torn in the beam net that had nearly formed.
Breaking through, the Tengshe cut across space, braving a dense rain of shells and Laser Beams as it closed to within 0.5 light-seconds of Dakan Ia. A powerful gravitational surge erupted.
"Boom, boom!"
The Spacetime Shockwave spread out, perfectly covering half of Dakan Ia's cross-section. The powerful Gravitational Wave expanded, warping space and tearing apart the entire side facing space, along with every Pirate Base distributed across the planet's orbit.
As the radar waves spread, his Psionic sensing brought the planet's entire surface into view. Five pirate bases had been hit: three small bases and two medium-sized ones.
Unlike bases built on the surface, these Space Bases, which relied on a planet's gravity, had an inherent limitation. Once the total mass of the bases in orbit reached a certain threshold, they could no longer expand, because exceeding that limit would destabilize the planet's gravity,
increasing the risk of them falling.
As a result, NPC Bases built in space were effectively prevented from growing. No matter how much time passed, they would remain the same size.
Under the shockwave's distortion of space, the Energy Shields covering the pirate bases took the brunt of the impact and were torn apart. The surge of overloaded energy immediately destroyed the Shield Generators, triggering a chain of explosions inside the bases.
But the pirate NPCs had no time to worry about that. When the Energy Shields were torn apart, the air inside the bases was sucked out at once. The shockwave that followed ripped through the alloy. The enormous, sturdy Starports shattered like glass struck by a heavy blow, breaking into
tens of thousands of fragments that fell toward the molten planet.
But before these metallic "meteorites" could hit the surface, the shockwave that followed twisted and tore them apart even further. After repeated impacts, they became fine metallic dust.
On Dakan Ia, the side hit by the Gravitational Wave Impact immediately surged with great waves of scarlet magma. Like an earthquake caused by colliding tectonic plates that stirred up a tsunami, the blow shook the magma sea across half the planet.
The violent magma tides rolled furiously and surged into space, only to quickly fall back under gravity. In the span of a single rise and fall, several pirate bases exposed in the magma sea were torn apart, then swallowed up by a chain of explosions.
"..." Lin Zhichen fell silent as he watched. He hadn't expected the Spacetime Shockwave to cause such severe damage when it struck a planet.
Of course, that was also because Dakan Ia was so small, with such little mass and a weak gravitational field. It was simply too poor at resisting gravitational attacks. If it had been Dakan I, at most the magma sea would have been swept up.
There was no doubt that one side of Dakan Ia had been completely cleared. Not only had all the pirate bases in orbit been wiped out, but the bases hidden beneath the magma sea had also been destroyed.
After all, Dakan I—the planet he wanted—wouldn't be completely destroyed. Besides, the large pirate bases in the magma sea were incredibly sturdy. Ordinary attacks couldn't destroy a base buried dozens or even hundreds of kilometers beneath the crust,
which was to say, even if they were destroyed, it didn't matter. In his estimation, as long as one remained, it would be enough to support the regiment's development for some time.
The Tengshe darted rapidly through space, dodging the Pirate Base's barrage.
Perhaps stunned by the earlier attack, the surviving pirates had been driven mad by their mounting fear. The bases' entire firepower network opened up, and even the point-defense cannons, though virtually useless, were activated, just to inflict even the slightest damage on the Tengshe.
Lin Zhichen activated his Psionic sensing. With the Psionic Crystal's amplification, his danger-sensing ability rose by several levels. He easily evaded one Destruction Beam after another, weaving through them like a fish until he reached a suitable angle and released another Spacetime Shockwave.
The powerful Gravity Beam activated once more. Incoming beams were torn apart, and Electromagnetic Projectiles were destroyed. The cone-shaped shockwave spread out, completely covering the other half of Dakan Ia.
The planet's low mass meant a weak gravitational field. Once again, clouds of flame soared from the attacked world. Whether it was the orbital Spaceports or the hidden bases buried in the magma below, all of them exploded under the violent gravitational impact.
The Tengshe slipped through the pirate bases' firepower network. When it emerged into space again, Dakan Ia had returned to its original state.
The magma sea held no more secrets. Everything had been buried in flame.
"Just two shockwaves..." Lin Zhichen murmured as he looked at Dakan Ia on the radar.
Sometimes, the right tactics alone could easily dismantle an enemy that seemed powerful. To be honest, he hadn't expected things to go so smoothly before the battle began.
Before, if he'd relied on the Tengshe's ability to break through, he would have had to pick off the Pirate Base's defensive turrets one by one, then send in ground troops.
Not only would that have taken a great deal of time and effort, but it would also have involved considerable risk—whether from pirate reinforcements that might or might not exist, or from the pirate NPCs destroying their own base in desperation and causing casualties. The danger in all of that would have been impossible to gauge.
"Now it's Dakan I's turn." Lin Zhichen looked toward the other, much larger molten planet. Dakan I was dozens or even hundreds of times bigger than Dakan Ia in both volume and mass.
The Pirate Base's counterattack continued. Particle Light Spears swept uselessly through space, while dense volleys of shells streaked into the dark depths.
With his considerable combat experience, Lin Zhichen needed only a moment's thought to reach a conclusion: if they attacked head-on with a fleet, they would need a standard fleet of at least ten thousand ships—and have to be prepared to lose half of it!
Of course, that was when the enemy was at full strength, supported by two thousand pirate ships, and the pirate bases on Dakan Ia still stood.
The planet's defenses were strong enough to repel a standard fleet in a direct assault. No wonder the Federation military, despite its enormous fleets, rarely launched attacks.
If taking one planet was already this difficult, what about an entire star system?
There were so many Dark Galaxies in the Milky Way Galaxy. If they had to take them one by one, no number of fleets would be enough to fill that bottomless pit!
Before you continue