"Sir, Snake Pit has opened fire on our forces!" the radar officer shouted. "Twelve railgun rounds and forty-two missiles detected."
Well, it was a mobile fortress, after all. At least its firepower was truly ferocious. And it really did live up to its name as a snake: above all, it was petty. I'd only fired a few probing shots. Did it really have to respond with more than triple the firepower? At this distance, it couldn't hit me, and I couldn't hit it. Yu Lian shook his head slightly.
Of course, it was clear that the missiles launched by Snake Pit were probably far more advanced than the Gungnir long-range missiles used by the Commonwealth. Even across such an enormous distance, they could reportedly track targets with great precision. They could continually correct their trajectories, adjust their speed, automatically evade interception fire, and were quite maneuverable as well.
However, the cruisers had already deployed mines fitted with concussion bombs, forming a barrier. They still managed to stop all the incoming fire beyond visual range.
Obviously, Snake Pit hadn't expected its barrage to threaten Earth's fleet. After completing its first volley, it temporarily ceased fire and continued drifting toward the Earth fleet like a gigantic space phantom, in a posture that was both bizarre and strangely spectacular.
By then, its enormous drone swarm had also stopped harrying the patrol fleet. Instead, the drones returned to Snake Pit and hovered around the mothership, almost motionless. Gathered together, they formed a vast, faintly shimmering mist around the giant silver mushroom cap, creating quite the atmosphere of a cosmic horror film.
"Could this mean those unidentified fighters have a fairly limited combat radius?" Chief of Staff Mkawa asked, sounding tentative. "If so, our crewed fighters have a clear advantage."
As soon as the chief