Chapter 148
Total Annihilation
Lucas grinned as his tachyon cannon ripped a hole through the the enemy cruiser. So far, he had lost only one battleship and twenty fighters. The battleship had been destroyed by the enemy ramming it with three of their own battleships and the fighters had been lost to defensive fire.
The enemy, on the other hand, had lost over half of their forces, including all carriers and over 90% of their fighters.
Lucas frowned as he glanced at the map of the battlefield. The enemy was fleeing the battlefield. Of course, the AI had warned him that there was a ‘91.32% chance’ that the enemy would flee. He had been expecting it. He ordered all ships to create a path for the enemy and to disperse back towards the fifth planet.
Next he informed the others about his plans. They weren’t too happy about it, especially Aslo, but they still took his advice and piloted their ships back to their original resting place.
He activated the FTL probes that he had scattered throughout the system. The sniper drones could hit any target in real time from anywhere in the system. Unfortunately though, their scanners would start to lag as distance grew between them and their targets.
By the time the targets reached the sixth planet, there would be a delay of three seconds. This may not seem like a lot, but remember that a s.p.a.ceship can easily cover 50 miles in one second. If they were diving and rolling to avoid being hit, they could easily miss their target.
As a result, real-time targeting data needed to be relayed by his probes. Over 20,000 sniper drones flew out from behind the planet as the rest of his fleet flew back to their hiding place. Immediately, tachyon cannons fired, invisible tachyons lancing towards the enemy.
He grinned as thousands of holes appeared in the helpless ships as they tried to flee this death trap. Their numbers was instantly reduced to half of their remaining forces. Instantly, the remaining ships tried to dodge.
Their ships rolled, weaved, ducked, bobbed, looped, and corkscrewed. A couple explosions occurred as their ships accidentally rammed into the derelict husks of their former comrades.
It didn’t help. The probes shared their targeting information and the tachyon cannons relentlessly tracked the fleeing ships. Hole after hole appeared in the enemy, explosions filled the void as reactor containment failed.
They didn’t stand a chance. Not even ten minutes pa.s.sed before they were wiped out. Lucas surveyed the drifting hulks of the previously intimidating fleet.
He gave a s.a.d.i.s.tic grin before calling his destroyers in for clean up duty. The destroyers used their plasma cannons and turrets to annihilate the enemy fleet, not letting anything remain.
This was also in accordance with the orders he had received from the AI. The reason he was given was to not let the enemy be able discover what had killed their ships before. The AI was still trying to keep their advanced technology a secret.
As the destroyers were busy, Lucas deactivated the simulation program. His was different than everyone else"s since he was a cyborg and not a human. He didn’t need a simulator in order to fly a ship. All he needed was to activate the simulation program. No other fancy machine was needed to plug his brain into virtual s.p.a.ce.
Everyone else had already detached from the simulators and was waiting for him. Aslo was grinning like a maniac. He slapped Lucas on the back once he got close enough. “That, my friend, was amazing! Being able to fly like that… It was beautiful, all those explosions and the stars. I can’t wait to do it again next week.”
Chu Shen, on the other hand, was a bit puzzled by something. “Hey Lucas, we wiped the entire fleet out with those sniper drones the second they wanted to retreat, right?”
Lucas nodded. “Of course! They were no match for my fleet.” He boasted proudly.
Chu Shen nodded before asking the question he had thought of. “So why didn’t we just annihilate them whenever they jumped in? I mean, we could have easily wiped them out in a matter of minutes. Why risk ships when we can destroy them before they even get in range?”
Lucas grinned. “Well, we could, of course, destroy them with the sniper drones. I could easily produce millions of sniper drones every week, if I decided to only manufacture them. I could do all that, except…”
Chu Shen waited, but Lucas didn’t seem like he was going to continue. “And? You could do that except what?”
Lucas nodded at them. “Why, you guys, that’s what!”
Chu Shen shook his head. “I don’t get it. You mean, you didn’t do that because of us?”
Lucas grinned. “Now you get it. You see, if we did that, then we wouldn’t be able to pilot the dreadnoughts, fighters, and battleships. We’d be picking off targets from so far away that it wouldn’t be worth piloting the drones. To put it simply, we would all be super bored. This way, it’s really exciting and we still have the little ace in the hole, the sniper drones.”
Aslo nodded. “I see. So essentially you just want some excitement.”
Lucas coughed. “O-of course not. I just don’t want you guys to get bored or anything. I mean, it was really exciting, wasn’t it?”
Aslo nodded. “Yep! I wouldn’t trade it for anything else.”
“Alright. Then don’t question it anymore, capisce?”
“Fine.”
Chrissa seemed slightly shaken up though. Chu Shen sidled up next to her. “Are you alright Chrissa?”
She slowly shook her head. “So many of them died. Why do they have to die like this? Why can’t they just leave this planet alone?”
Lucas, who had overheard the conversation, immediately tried to cheer her up. “Actually Chrissa, no one died. The enemy? They’re all drones, just like the ones we’re using. They must have some sort of really developed AI or be very good at programming since they don’t appear to have FTL comms.”
Chrissa blinked. “You mean, everyone is just robots?”
Lucas nodded. “Yep. So far, it’s just two robot fleets duking it out. No one has died, so you can rest easy, okay?”
Chrissa sighed. “Thank you Lucas. I think I will sleep well tonight.”