Earthsplitter Cannon

"A lightsaber, quite a cool weapon," Augustus commented briefly, then turned to Kerrigan and said.

"Still in the experimental stage?"

"A prototype of an energy sword, which can only be activated by Psionics. The one in the Valhalla Weapons Laboratory is nothing more than a glow stick. The Terran Confederacy doesn't seem prepared to invest more in the research and development of such individual Psionics weapons," Kerrigan replied.

"The designers drew inspiration from the Protoss ' Psionics blades, so the color of the lightsaber is determined by the user's Psionics type. The blade's edge is only one molecule thick, capable of cutting through armor and energy shields."

"How long will it take to develop the first prototype lightsaber that can be used for testing?" Augustus asked.

It wasn't just the seemingly novel Psionics lightsaber on the screen; there were also blueprints for many other weapons, including electrical pulse weapons, plasma weapons, and viral weapons, some of which would be groundbreaking even by today's standards.

"It depends on the funding and the team's actual progress," Kerrigan said. "Right now, the concept of Psionics weapons seems too advanced. And ordinary soldiers without Psionics can't use such weapons."

"Or Protoss Phase Technician Karax can help us?" Augustus wondered.

"Hmm, the Protoss must be experts in this area." Kerrigan shrugged.

"Most of the weapons here are not suitable for mass production. They are either designed for special operations forces like Psionics agents, or they are too expensive." Arcturus's gaze stopped on a super cannon called the "Earthsplitter Cannon." The description on it intrigued him: 131km range, capable of moving mountains and filling seas, reducing enemy ships to ashes! Build the Earthsplitter Cannon, and the fate of billions of lives will be in your hands!

According to the design blueprints, these epic super cannons will be unprecedented in both size and caliber, representing an unbelievable increase in cannon caliber. The director of the Valhalla Weapons Laboratory considered this weapon so incredible that he described it as the Caesar Cannon.

Although this device, called the Earthsplitter Cannon, doesn't even have complete design drawings yet, and is only at the stage of the designer's routine boasting.

"To fight against increasingly powerful enemies, the weapons of the past are clearly outdated." Augustus pointed to the design drawings of the Earthsplitter Cannon: "I think this can continue to be developed."

"Yes, if we could build two thousand or even more super cannons in Korhal." These words struck a chord with Arcturus, who harbored a fanatical obsession with the destruction of Korhal.

"Get all the weapon designs together as soon as possible. I want to see them in the captain's cabin on the Hyperion tomorrow," Augustus. "Then I'll pack them up and give them to Swann and Kaczynski, and let them worry about it."

"Confederacy warship has been spotted in the Sigmaris System, at coordinates M7, 118, approximately four astronomical units from the Hyperion," a bridge observer reported.

"They've finally arrived." Augustus said calmly, "How many warships do they have?"

"Seven ships, and more are appearing and uploading radar scans," the observer replied.

A few seconds later, radar scan images of several Terran Confederacy battlecruisers appeared on the Hyperion's main screen.

"Which Confederacy squadron is it?" A glint flashed in Arcturus's gray eyes.

"It's Delta Squadron," a crew member reported.

"According to reliable intelligence, the most powerful Confederacy squadrons, such as the Omega Squadron, are guarding Tarsonis, but a considerable portion of the naval Fleets is also patrolling the outer perimeter of the Confederacy's core star system," Augustus.

"This means we are delving deeper into the core of the Confederacy's world."

"Perfect timing." Images of generals such as Horace Warfield, Edmond Duke, and Jack Haller appeared on the main screen.

"My Hyperion leads the way, full Fleets assault formation." Augustus dressed in a long, dark gray military uniform, even the cuffs of his trousers were ironed straight.

"Defeat Delta Squadron head-on!"

The bridge of the Hyperion tilted to adjust its direction, and hundreds of frigates, destroyers, Avenger, Wraith, and Hercules passed by the bridge windows. Two Revolutionary Army Behemoth-class Battlecruiser with gold and red paint schemes approached from one side.

"The Delta Squadron has more battlecruisers than the standard requirement for a formation, a total of twenty-seven." Duke's tone was somewhat sarcastic, and it was unclear whether he was being envious.

"The scans show that part of this Fleets comes from Beta Squadron," said an observer from the Hyperion.

"The flagship of Sigma Squadron, the Thanatos, has jumped in. More than thirty-five Confederacy battlecruisers are approaching our Fleets."

"Activate the shields and advance at full speed," Augustus ordered.

"This is likely the largest Fleets the Terran Confederacy has besides the one guarding Tarsonis," Kerrigan said.

"The Confederacy didn't originally deploy this Fleets to deal with us," Arcturus speculated. "I suspect they may have encountered Earth Fleets before, and this disorganized composition is proof of that."

"It will take us some time to find out which star system the Terran Confederacy and the UED just fought in," Augustus. "What we need to do is take this opportunity to completely annihilate this Fleets."

"However, the Confederacy's Fleets is almost the same size as ours, and their battlecruisers are clearly more advanced," Kerrigan said worriedly.

"Kerrigan, you can't judge whether a war is evenly matched by numbers." Arcturus's tone toward Kerrigan was noticeably more friendly than toward the other Ghost operative.

"If we were playing chess with a naval commander from the Terran Confederacy, you wouldn't have to follow the rules at all. You can take back a move, you can add more pieces, and you can even flip the whole chessboard."

After all, this young woman is likely to give birth to a powerful Heir for Augustus. Even considering only this, Kerrigan should be credited with a great service to the Mengsk Family.

Of course, if Kerrigan's womb doesn't produce a suitable wife, Arcturus wouldn't mind finding a suitable replacement for his brother. At the same time, Arcturus also harbors doubts about Augustus's Heir possibly being a Psionics, which often causes him to waver between Kerrigan and other candidates.

"Half of the Fleets's Behemoth-class Battlecruiser are now equipped with Yamato Cannon and shields; only a few Leviathan- class and older ships haven't," Augustus told Kerrigan.

"We need an inspiring victory to convince the supporters of the Revolutionary Army that the dawn of victory is just around the corner."

The newly built warships at the Revolutionary Army shipyards were equipped with Yamato Cannon during the construction process. After Augustus borrowed them from Tassadar and the Protoss Khalai phase engineers, led by Karax, fully upgraded the shield technology and related production lines of the Revolutionary Army warships, the combat power of the Revolutionary Army warships was much higher than that of the Terran Confederacy.

The Confederacy Navy still did not equip itself with large numbers of Yamato Cannon because their Yamato Cannon, which were mainly modeled after those of the Revolutionary Army, were not yet technologically advanced enough to be easily modified on a large scale. The Confederacy also built too many new warships and did not have enough shipyards to modify their massively produced older models.

The battle between nearly eighty battlecruisers and tens of thousands of warplanes and warships was magnificent and awe-inspiring. Humanity's most prized steel warships clashed in the center of the Sigmaris System in the most brutal and savage manner.

The Hyperion, the flagship carrying Augustus, was positioned at the very front of all the Revolutionary Army warships and naturally suffered a salvo from at least eight Confederacy warships. However, all the attacks were completely absorbed by the Hyperion's raised golden shield, and the warship even shuddered as if it had let out a burp.

Without any warning, several Revolutionary Army battlecruisers, led by the Hyperion, began charging their Yamato Cannon. Within minutes, like orange lightning tearing through the dark abyss, the Revolutionary Army Fleets's first salvo hit eleven Confederacy battlecruisers.

The first salvo from the Yamato Cannon knocked seven Confederacy warships off the battlefield, while the rest were severely damaged. The Hyperion's main guns even destroyed a Delta Squadron battlecruiser, almost completely obliterating its bow.

By the time the commander of this Confederacy Fleets realized that their chances of winning the battle were dwindling, they were already mired in the quagmire of war.

Dense, bright orange laser beams swept across the entire battlefield, hurling large amounts of wrecked ship debris toward the edge of the galaxy. Each twisted, burning piece of black scrap metal could potentially bury hundreds of Fleets soldiers.

At the height of the battle, the Revolutionary Army flagship Hyperion, braving the broadside fire of more than five Confederacy battlecruisers, approached the Delta Squadron's Nemesis. Its blue steel armor was covered with energy shields that burned like flames, resembling the surface of a burning star.

Powered by the core of a Protoss Ark Solar Core, the Hyperion resembled a blazing phoenix, leaving the Confederacy Navy sailors, who had never seen such a sight, utterly astonished.

When the Confederacy battlecruiser's laser cannons fired at the Hyperion, it was as if they were hitting a star that could absorb all energy. All their attacks were ineffective. The incredibly powerful laser cannons were like fish swimming in water, completely erased as if they were erased by an eraser, once they landed on the Hyperion's sun-like shields.

"I remember when the Umojan and I first salvaged the Hyperion from that desolate planet, it was an unrepairable ship, and even after being fully repaired, it was out of touch with the new technologies of modern battlecruisers." Arcturus had never seen the Hyperion's cannons roar.

As Augustus ordered the Hyperion's shield energy output to be continuously increased, the view outside its bridge windows became increasingly dazzling, as if a thousand suns were rising.

"Protoss technology," Augustus said, looking at Arcturus.

"For my sake, the Protoss have done me a little modification to the Hyperion."

Before Augustus could finish speaking, the Hyperion's main guns opened fire. If this weren't a vacuum, the roar would have been enough to make the entire city tremble.

A Beta Squadron warship was hit head-on, and a beam of golden light cleaved it in two, like a hot knife through butter.

"The Nemesis is only twelve miles from the Hyperion. Nine miles. Four miles. A collision is imminent," reported the radar observer on the Hyperion.

From Augustus's perspective, the Delta Squadron flagship, the Nemesis, was getting closer and closer, to the point that he could almost see the orange lights on its bridge and an ironic smiley face emblem.

"Who is commanding this warship? What does he intend to do?" Arcturus remained calm, almost laughing, "I've used this tactic before."

"Last year, I was with an exploration team searching for new high-energy gas deposits when we encountered pirates in a star system. At that time, I only had a few small boats that were not much bigger than canoes," he said.

"But the pirates aren't in much better shape than us. I ordered my pilot to ram the Viking pirate ship into its belly with a harpoon torpedo as the pirates tried to dodge."

"A life for a life."

"Charge it!" Augustus said, gripping the iron railing of the bridge connecting the ship to the main bridge. "Our shields and armor are tougher."

"Prepare for impact!"

Augustus extended a hand to Kerrigan, indicating that she could hold him, while Arcturus simply stared silently at the bridge window, as if no amount of tremor could shake his mountain-like, imposing body. "I'm wearing the latest magnetic boots designed by the Umojan, which can anchor me to any deck."

A blinding flash illuminated the entire bridge as the bow of the Hyperion collided head-on with the Delta Squadron's flagship, the Nemesis. The Nemesis's bow immediately tilted to one side, while the Hyperion remained unscathed.

The violent impact made Augustus's hands tremble uncontrollably, and he was only saved from falling to the ground by Kerrigan's help.

"The shield's energy is 75 percent depleted," the captain of the Hyperion reported to Augustus.

"It is expected to fill within one minute."

From the port window of the Hyperion, the Nemesis's completely dented and mangled bow passed by, its once sturdy steel armor now a mangled mess.

Even under these circumstances, the flanks of the Hyperion and the Nemesis continued to fire relentlessly, with orange-red laser barrages tilting at close range, seemingly intent on melting the armor.

The Nemesis suffered far more damage; its bow was almost completely reduced by ninety feet, and its armor was covered with burn marks left by the Hyperion's firing.

"Send down landing craft! I'm going to take down this warship!" Augustus shouted after regaining his footing.

Where is Tychus?