Destruction

In space warfare spanning tens of thousands of kilometers, even for a warship thousands of meters long, achieving a precise hit at that distance is extremely difficult.

The two fleets were less than 60,000 kilometers apart at this time. Although the flight time of the Ancient Class Electromagnetic Cannon railgun shells had been reduced to 12 minutes, it was still an extremely long time.

At the speed of the Riken Race warship, twelve minutes is enough time to fly thousands of kilometers. This is equivalent to shooting a cheetah running at full speed from tens of thousands of meters away with a sniper rifle. The difficulty is unimaginable.

However, the energy weapons of the Riken Race only take about a minute to fly at this distance.

A thick, red energy beam streaked across the sky. More than 800 warships, each with 12 main cannons, fired nearly 10,000 energy beams in a single salvo. This was significantly more than the combined salvo of 5,000 Ancient Class warships firing 8,000 projectiles at once. Moreover, the energy beams were colored, making them far more impressive than Electromagnetic Projectile, which had little visual or auditory effect.

One minute is enough for the Ancient Class to fly hundreds of kilometers, and the first round of artillery fire from all the Riken Race did not achieve any results.

However, this was merely a test firing to collect relevant data. Soon, the speed, direction of travel, lead, and other relevant data of the Ancient Class were calculated. After the main guns were angled, the second round of shelling was fired.

A minute later, the energy beam passed through more than ten kilometers in front of the Swarm army.

Without acquiring any combat units from the Swarm, the Riken Race developed an instrument to monitor the energy accumulation of the Swarm's Electromagnetic Cannon based solely on theory. Meanwhile, the Swarm, having captured so many Riken Race warships and equipment, and possessing an even more powerful research team, naturally also had biological organs to monitor the Riken Race's energy weapons.

These organs are of various types and are integrated into the bodies of the Ancient Class. When the cannons of the Riken Race warships rotate, they transmit relevant data to the Biological Intellect, which then calculates their trajectories.

Because the Swarm captured many Riken Race warships and possessed relevant parameters of their weapons, the calculated data was quite accurate.

When the Riken Race warships opened fire, the monitoring system immediately sounded an alarm. Under Blade's command, the Ancient Class fleet immediately slowed down slightly to avoid the barrage.

However, all of this was within the calculations of the Riken Race. Their warships' main guns recharged very quickly, and a few minutes later, the third round of bombardment, after angle correction, was fired at the Swarm forces.

Meanwhile, the speed of the Ancient Class cluster had not yet been restored. Although the Blade ordered a temporary halt to the charging of the Electromagnetic Cannon and used all their energy for engine output, they still could not completely avoid the third round of shelling from the Riken Race.

Although the energy weapons of the Riken Race were significantly weakened after traveling such a long distance, and the Ancient Class had good resistance to such energy attacks.

However, this only applies to one-on-one or small-scale battles. In group combat, that defensive capability has extremely limited effectiveness.

In the lower left corner of the Swarm, more than thirty Ancient Class Zerg were directly blasted apart by a dense energy beam. Some of the Mature Form and Larval Form inside were also paralyzed by the blast. The remaining Zerg, carrying the Atomic Furnace inside the Ancient Class Zerg, escaped into other Ancient Class Zerg.

After several rounds of bombardment, the Swarm had completed the data collection. Soon after, the Swarm launched its own bombardment.

Unlike before, this time the firing was not directed all at the same direction, but rather targeted a specific area at an angle.

The Riken Race fleet initially failed to notice the difference in this barrage, and by the time they realized it, it was too late. Despite their best efforts to dodge, a small group of warships located to the side and below the fleet were bombarded by projectiles.

Three warships were directly destroyed, and several others, though in slightly better condition, were also severely damaged, with their internal systems destroyed and their speed visibly reduced.

Left with no other choice, they had to withdraw from the battle ahead of schedule under the cover of the fleet.

This bombardment was quite impressive, leaving Hamis, the commander of the First Fleet of the Riken Race, somewhat stunned.

It's important to understand that the calculation difficulty of a twelve-minute lead time is completely different from that of a one-minute lead time. The fact that the Swarm was able to hit the Riken Race fleet based on data obtained from just a few rounds of shelling, while partly due to their own negligence, is still somewhat unbelievable.

This made Hamis realize that their previous assumptions about the backwardness of Swarm supercomputing technology had been completely wrong, and they had already paid the price for it.

If Arther of the Third Fleet were here at this moment, he might not care about any of this and would still carry out the previously formulated battle plan.

But Hamis was cautious by nature, and the fact that one aspect of the Swarm had exceeded expectations suggested that their other assumptions might also be incorrect. He believed that all the battle plans needed to be re-examined.

After transmitting the message back to the operations command, Hamis ordered the fleet to temporarily retreat.

But this is war, Riken Race doesn't have an absolute technological advantage; they can't just unilaterally withdraw.

As the Riken Race warships receded into the distance, their intentions were immediately detected by Sarah and the other Intellect. Although the increased distance multiplied the computational workload, the Riken Race still had a few cumbersome vessels.

The Ancient Class fleet ignored the intact warships and instead focused its fire on the previously damaged ones. Although they had fled beforehand, their reduced speed meant they hadn't gone very far.

Furthermore, the reduced speed prevents them from performing fancy evasive maneuvers, and their retreat direction is basically locked in a small area, making it easier to calculate their lead time.

Faced with the Swarm's bombardment, Hamis initially did not want to abandon them, but after calculations by the ship's onboard artificial intelligence, it was determined that if the ship wanted to save those few warships, the entire fleet had to stand behind them and withstand the Swarm's bombardment head-on.

While they might be able to save those few damaged warships, the entire fleet would suffer even greater destruction and more casualties. If this cycle repeats twice, the entire fleet would be wiped out.

After a mere 0.1 seconds of deliberation, Hamis decisively abandoned them and ordered the remaining warships to advance at full speed and disengage from the battlefield as quickly as possible.

Several damaged warships received the legion commander's order and, with no time to complain, the entire crew evacuated immediately. Numerous escape pods were launched from the warships.

Unlike the Proxima Star System, this is the Mother Planet of the Riken Race. If these escape pods are not directly hit by the Electromagnetic Cannon, their chances of escaping are still quite high.

Under the control of artificial intelligence, the warships continued to advance, making every effort to evade, but the coverage area of 8,000 projectiles had already covered all their evasive routes.

More than ten minutes later, the shells arrived, carrying immense kinetic energy, and struck the warship. The warship's armor was compressed to its limit and torn apart. Then more shells arrived, blasting it apart.