Space Octopus

Riken Race warship, thousands of meters long, would be a colossal object within a planet's atmosphere. But in space, it would be nothing more than a tiny speck in the desert.

Even if the projectiles, having traveled 600 million kilometers, correctly locked onto the Riken Race warship because they were the last to be launched, the probability of them hitting the target is extremely low due to the various forces they encounter during flight and the more than one day of travel involved.

In addition, the Riken Race fleet made a last-ditch effort to evade, and hundreds of shells flew over it. In the end, only one warship had its left armor shattered and had to retreat to the rear for emergency repairs.

Although this round of bombardment yielded few results, it disrupted the defensive formation of the Riken Race fleet. In the emergency evasive maneuver, some of the gun emplacements were unable to lock onto their previous targets due to the angle of the fire.

Space warfare is a three-dimensional combat environment. Not only must you consider enemies from all directions (up, down, left, and right), but you must also consider the angle of your own ship and the cover provided by friendly forces. There are simply too many factors to consider.

After a series of calculations, the artificial intelligence turrets rotated and, based on the current formation, reassigned their respective targets.

"Fire!"

"Emission!"

The moment the unidentified flying object entered its effective firing range, the Riken Race fleet opened fire simultaneously. More than 300 warships and over 2,000 high-powered main gun turrets fired in several salvos, unleashing tens of thousands of energy beams.

For a moment, dense beams of light streaked across the starry sky, creating a spectacular sight.

The locked-on "shells" did not give up easily. Amidst flashes of blue Electric Arc, their Plasma Engine organs worked at full capacity, and the "shells" also carried out a round of evasion.

This left the Riken Race completely dumbfounded.

"Damn, what are these things?"

"The distance is too great, and they are extremely agile; long-range interception attacks are ineffective!"

"Then we'll just have to wait until they get closer."

A few minutes later, the Riken Race launched a second attack.

This time, due to the much closer distance and the fact that the Riken Race had learned from the first round and optimized their algorithm, the "cannonballs," despite their best efforts to evade, were still hit by more than ten of them.

Several fireworks exploded, and then the "cannonball" that was hit also "exploded." From its body, a large number of octopus creatures spewed out, some only a few meters long and some tens of meters long. They scattered in all directions like exploding "slurry."

Then, their bodies flashed with blue Electric Arc, and in a flash, they darted onto the nearby "cannonballs" before disappearing from sight.

"What is that?!" This is probably the most frequent question uttered by the Riken Race in the past two days. Like ignorant bumpkins, they kept asking surprised questions.

"Could this be one of their warships?" an advisor speculated uncertainly.

"You mean they fired their warships at us?"

"What's inside their bellies?"

"Driver?"

"Although they look very similar, the size difference is too great."

A series of questions arose among the many Riken Race, but this did not stop them from ordering the attack to continue.

After several rounds of attacks, more than 200 of the incoming "shells" were destroyed, but more than half of them still managed to break through the fire blockade and reach the Ricken fleet 50,000 kilometers away.

Furthermore, much of the contents of the "shell" escaped, so the actual damage was not as great as it appeared.

At this point, the incoming "shells" had entered the attack range of the medium-range weapons. There were many more of these smaller secondary guns, numbering in the tens of thousands, and correspondingly, their power was slightly less.

Several times denser energy beams were unleashed. Although the incoming "cannonballs" tried their best to dodge, as the distance closed, their bodies, over 500 meters tall, became slightly clumsy. Coupled with the overwhelming firepower of the Riken Race, the "cannonballs" were eventually blown apart one by one.

These Ancient Class Space Octopus had their Electromagnetic Cannon Component removed before departure to increase their carrying capacity. Therefore, they are now merely transport units. The battle will only begin after they are destroyed.

The "cannonballs" were all destroyed before they reached within 30,000 kilometers of the Riken Race fleet, but the Riken Race faced an even larger-scale attack.

Although all the large "cannonballs" were destroyed, several times, even dozens of times more, smaller "cannonballs" followed closely behind. They were covered in blue arcs of Electric Arc and rushed toward the Riken Race fleet at extremely high speed.

Even at their maximum acceleration speed, Space Octopus could cross 30,000 kilometers in just over ten minutes. And the energy they have stored is enough to sustain a low-intensity war at that distance.

However, it is clear that the scale of the current war is far greater than this intensity, so energy must be used sparingly.

Due to the extreme output of their own energy, they could no longer remain invisible, and the Riken Race saw the true appearance of these things for the first time.

"What exactly is this thing?" Multiplied by N

"Are these the combat troops of a biological civilization? They appear to be alive."

"Stop analyzing, they're coming! Space torpedoes ready!"

The Riken Race fleet possessed a tight defensive network, long-range main guns, medium-range secondary guns, medium-to-short-range torpedoes and missiles, and close-range attack arrays—it had everything.

While torpedoes and missiles are not the mainstream technology of the Riken Race, they can provide considerable attack and defense capabilities within a certain range, and also have tracking capabilities. Therefore, Riken Race warships are equipped with a large number of these weapons.

On the warship, the concealed cover of each launch hatch was opened, and slender missiles were launched. As they flew out, their tail thrusters ignited, and the Fire Control System at the front of the shells, with the help of the warship's artificial intelligence, locked onto their respective targets.

Then, trailing long plumes of smoke, they flew toward their respective targets.

Although these space torpedoes fly at high speeds, they are still too slow compared to the speed of an energy beam, and not much faster than Space Octopus, so their attack effectiveness is not good.

The Space Octopus is equipped with dynamic vision that surpasses the limits, making it very adept at dealing with slow-moving weapons. When missiles get close, they can even dodge them with a quick movement, dodging the missiles while simultaneously wrapping their tentacles around them.

However, for a civilization of the Riken Race's caliber, missiles don't just need to hit to explode; attaching a detonator to a missile is not a difficult task.

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

Brilliant fireworks lit up the sky in space, while some Space Octopus performing their maneuvers were blown to pieces or injured.

During battles, the Space Octopus are controlled by Knight. Although they lack creative thinking, they are in no way inferior in other aspects, and are even more outstanding.

Upon witnessing this, they immediately moved away from these long, stick-like objects with their rear ends on fire.

At the speed of Space Octopus, dodging these things is not difficult.