Both sides' antimatter bombs contained anywhere from tens to hundreds of grams of antimatter. Once they lost containment, the antimatter would annihilate with the ordinary matter containing it, releasing enough energy to destroy a city. If the warships had not been tens to hundreds of thousands of kilometers apart, even a small fraction of those bombs could have destroyed every fleet in the battle.
Relying on their small size and excellent maneuverability, the human warships threaded through the gaps between the energy released by the antimatter bombs and raced toward the Sand Python fleet. The Sand Python warships had also evaded the first wave of human antimatter bombs and were charging at the human fleet.
The two sides clashed. High-energy lasers, gravity bombs, antimatter bombs-the war between the two civilizations lit up the entire expanse of space. A Stealth Killer closed to within a hundred kilometers of a Sand Python warship and nimbly dodged its laser fire before launching more than a dozen antimatter spheres at it along electromagnetic rails. The spheres, each containing grams of antimatter, reached the Sand Python warship almost instantly. The antimatter immediately annihilated with the ordinary matter in its armor, and the immense energy sent the warship tumbling hundreds of kilometers away. The blast tore a huge crater in its armor, but did not put it out of action. The Sand Python warship quickly stabilized itself and attacked the Stealth Killer again, bathing it in a massive spot of light tens of meters across. The lasers' energy levels were high enough to affect space, and the Stealth Killer's force-field full-space defense lost some of its effectiveness. Under the powerful laser beam, the Stealth Killer broke apart in space.
Another Stealth Killer seized the opening while the Sand Python warship was attacking, circled around to one of its conventional engine exhaust ports, and fired an antimatter bomb. A burst of flame erupted at the Sand Python warship's stern, and the enormous vessel began exploding section by section, breaking into fragments in space. The loss of the two warships made no difference to the overall battle, but scenes like this were playing out throughout the expanse, affecting the situation across the entire battlefield.
"Kill them! Kill them all! Throw out every last bit of antimatter!" Ma Meng roared furiously.
Upon receiving the order, the Sand Python warships once again released antimatter bombs en masse. The bombs locked onto the Stealth Killers and refused to let go, bringing their offensive to an immediate halt. The Sand Python warships could rely on their thick armor to withstand human antimatter bombs, but the Stealth Killers' small frames left them no choice but to evade the Sand Python fleet's bombs. Moreover, the Sand Python fleet's antimatter bombs contained hundreds of grams each, and the Stealth Killers could not be sure of escaping such powerful blasts intact.
Antimatter bombs, gravity bombs, high-energy lasers, high-energy electromagnetic cannons, exploding warships-the expanse had descended into utter chaos. Neither the Stealth Killers nor the Sand Python warships dared enter curvature flight recklessly. Unstable space would cause uneven gravity distribution in their curvature engines, tearing the warships apart, while the increased gravity would also draw nearby bombs onto them. Both sides relied on conventional engines to maneuver in battle, making the small, fast-moving antimatter bombs even harder to evade.
The Sand Python fleet's antimatter reserves were clearly far greater than humanity's. The Stealth Killers had no choice but to maneuver around the Sand Python warships with long strings of antimatter bombs trailing them, while also dodging the laser beams that attacked them incessantly.
"Use antiphon weapons to attack their antimatter bombs!" Wen Zhonghua ordered from the operations command room on the first planet.
Antiphoton weapons were another form of antimatter weapon. Unlike antimatter bombs, antiphotons were generated on the spot and could not be stored. They too could annihilate with ordinary matter, releasing tremendous energy. Inside a modified Deep Blue holographic battle command ship, millions of people wore special glasses, their hands constantly making all kinds of movements. Anyone who did not understand what was happening would have found it a very strange sight, but they were in fact linked to the Stealth Killers through the four-dimensional network, controlling them holographically as though they were there in person.
Once everyone understood, the antiphoton beams stopped attacking the Sand Python warships like ants gnawing at tree bark and instead targeted the troublesome Sand Python antimatter tracking bombs on their tails. Antiphoton beams had difficulty destroying Sand Python warships, but destroying antimatter tracking bombs was easy. As bursts of flame flared up, the beams disrupted the bombs' balancing structures, and their antimatter immediately annihilated with the ordinary matter of their casings.
The antiphoton beams neutralized most of the Sand Python fleet's antimatter bombs, but those bombs also exacted a heavy price from the Stealth Killers. Countless Stealth Killers were destroyed not by the antimatter bombs pursuing them, but by collisions with the extremely dense concentration of bombs in the surrounding space. Group after group of operators could only take off their glasses in regret and leave the Deep Blue dedicated to controlling the Stealth Killer fleet.
The battle began to turn against the Sand Python fleet. Both sides' antimatter bombs had become almost useless, and they had nearly exhausted their supplies. The Stealth Killers used their small size to carry out harassment attacks across the battlefield. The energy levels of the Sand Python fleet's laser weapons had reached a truly terrifying point. Data transmitted back by Stealth Killers that had been hit showed that the lasers' temperature exceeded 500,000 degrees, a temperature no matter could possibly withstand. Very few laser beams actually managed to hit the Stealth Killers, however, and their gravitational field defenses diverted some of the energy, leaving the Sand Python fleet with little to show for its efforts.
On the human side, the only weapon the Stealth Killers still had in large numbers was the antiphoton beam. Although the Sand Python warships' armor was tougher than humanity had expected, enough ants could bite an elephant to death. The Stealth Killers picked out weak points on the Sand Python warships, such as conventional engine exhaust ports and the interfaces for external weapons and instruments, all prime targets for attack. Not many Sand Python warships had been destroyed, but the number that had lost their offensive capability was already enough to send Ma Meng into a rage.
Ten million.
Eight million.
Seven million.
The Sand Python warships were being lost at an unsustainable rate. By this point, eighteen million Stealth Killers remained, a much lower rate of loss than the Sand Python warships had suffered. They owed this advantage entirely to their force-field defense technology, which bent space into irregular shapes.
"Old Hu, at this rate, we'll be able to wipe them out soon. There's no need to detonate Alpha Centauri's third star."
"Wait a little longer. They'll soon detonate Tau Ceti because they can't bear the losses. Since they dare do that, it means their warships can withstand it. Of course, we can withstand it too. Now it comes down to whose defenses are stronger. As soon as they detonate Tau Ceti, we'll detonate Alpha Centauri's third star. I don't believe they can withstand the fury of two stars. Even if they don't detonate Tau Ceti, as long as the battle line moves a little closer to the third star, we'll detonate the third star too and end the battle as soon as possible."
"Aah! Damn humans! Detonate Tau Ceti! Let them taste the fury of an exploding star!" Ma Meng was nearly mad. Half the warships had been lost in a short time, far beyond what Ma Meng had expected.