Global Crossing: Empire of Stars

Gabriel watched the fleet react with lightning speed, his heart on guard. There was no fourth-tier Hive Lord among them, so this was clearly only a detachment fleet. The two sides were at a huge disadvantage in intelligence gathering, and that was why he had the confidence to face an enemy a hundred times his size with a fleet of a million ships.

The Great Devourer truly lived up to its reputation as a calamity said to have destroyed multiple Galactic Arms. Its response was impressively swift. Spreading out reduced the fleet's chances of being hit, and arranging themselves in a netlike formation would let them maneuver around and encircle the enemy, threatening the Imperial Fleet in turn.

"Launch the Space Fighter Group!" Gabriel ordered, immediately taking countermeasures.

Space fighter groups feared nothing more than an enemy fleet huddling together defensively. The Close-in Weapon Systems between the ships could link up to form an airtight anti-aircraft fire net, a nightmare for any group of fighters.

By contrast, when a fleet spread out, each individual ship had weaker anti-aircraft firepower and some gap in its defenses. That made it much easier for fighters to break through.

At the order, the Imperial Fleet opened its launch bays one after another, catapulting fighter after fighter into orbit. The massive numbers of fighters circled briefly before gathering into groups and launching an attack on the swarm dozens of light-seconds away.

Dozens of seconds later, the fighter groups dropped out of faster-than-light travel and entered the swarm's position at sublight speeds, quickly selecting their targets.

One Antimatter Torpedo after another streaked along a straight trajectory through space, hurtling toward its target. At light speed, they pierced the Biological Warships' eighteen-layer field defenses and detonated inside the living vessels. The tremendous energy released by the matter-antimatter