1495 A Complete Wipeout!
Under Xia Fan’s control, the Otter-cla.s.s dreadnought turned its fortress of a body, bringing to bear its planet-annihilating Star Destroyer Cannon, and began to fire on the Murder Shrine fleet!
Canon exchanges were among the most miserable scenes that might be seen in a war. These s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps were made with advanced technology and were carrying multiple systems designed for war. One such system was a warp disruptor. Once a warp disruptor locked on, a warp engine would lose its effect, so the s.h.i.+p would be unable to leave and have no choice but to fight to the finish.
At this time, Xia Fan had used the warp disruptor on at least twelve enemy s.h.i.+ps, and the enemy had used the warp disruptor on Xia Fan. No one could leave until this battle was decided!
With awesome rumbles, the enormous cannons howled, the sounds of the explosions shook the universe and lit up the river of stars!
!!
Xia Fan had made up his mind to fight the enemy to the death!
The Star Destroyer Cannon let out a b.e.s.t.i.a.l roar, its blast aimed at a battles.h.i.+p in the center of the enemy. The enormous force tore the s.h.i.+p in half, and then the heavily armored h.e.l.lfire battles.h.i.+p blew up from the inside, turning into a dazzling explosion. The more than a thousand crew members aboard it were instantly turned into dust.
Xia Fan’s tactics were extremely simple: target killing!
The Otter-cla.s.s dreadnought had only one main cannon, so Xia Fan could only target one s.h.i.+p at a time. But the Star Destroyer Cannon was so immensely powerful that it would destroy any enemy s.h.i.+p it hit!
The Murder Shrine was using group tactics, swiftly closing the distance like killer bees and unleas.h.i.+ng all their firepower in order to swiftly wear away the dreadnought’s defenses.
—
It was soon clear both sides’ tactics were working successfully. The energy s.h.i.+eld of Xia Fan’s dreadnought was quickly destroyed. If its armor was destroyed as well, Xia Fan would only have the structure left on defense.
But Xia Fan’s pa.s.sivity was only somewhat obvious in the first ten minutes of the battle. That period of time had truly been dangerous. With more than one hundred s.h.i.+ps hammering away, the energy s.h.i.+eld had dropped like it was on a roller coaster. But as Xia Fan killed the enemy s.h.i.+ps off one by one, the Murder Shrine’s firepower began to falter.
Both sides suffered heavy losses. If this tempo kept up, even the twelve-kilometer-long s.h.i.+p wouldn’t be able to last for long!
“We’ve already lost half of our armor!” Jin Yu shouted worriedly, staring at the numbers on the screen.
His face was very pale. As someone who had learned how to command capital s.h.i.+ps, Jin Yu knew very well what it meant for half of the armor to be lost. After all, this s.h.i.+p was enormous and clumsy. It would never be able to escape the vicious barrage. Things were different for the Murder Shrine’s light wars.h.i.+ps, which could flee using their superior speed and maneuverability if the situation turned sour.
The table seemed to be turning against Xia Fan’s side. Although he had destroyed the enemy’s main wars.h.i.+ps, the faster and nimbler small wars.h.i.+ps remained annoying, like mosquitoes, constantly sucking his blood.
Xia Fan naturally understood that the situation was getting worse, but he had no reaction to Jin Yu’s warning, continuing to control the capital s.h.i.+p alone. At one second, Xia Fan would be in the fire control center, and in the next second, he would be turning the torpedo launcher controller. He was doing what normally required an entire crew to do!
“Armor loss is at sixty percent!” Jin Yu shouted again, fine beads of sweat beginning to appear on his forehead. He was clearly nervous to the extreme.
“Curses! The enemy s.h.i.+ps are all at their ideal firing range. They’re concentrating their fire on the stern engine compartment!” Thousand Ink shouted from another control panel. He was looking at a screen that displayed the locations of the enemy.
The engine compartment contained the s.h.i.+p’s extremely powerful reactor. If it was destroyed, it would trigger a series of huge explosions. The enemy had seemingly found Xia Fan’s weakness and had begun to rip and tear away at the most vulnerable spot on the s.h.i.+p.
But when Xia Fan heard Thousand Ink’s words, he smiled playfully. The smile left everyone dazed. None of them understood what Xia Fan was planning, but it seemed like he wasn’t afraid that the enemy was concentrating fire on the s.h.i.+p’s stern.
Jin Yu had turned ashen, his chest rising and falling as he started to pant.
Although the Star Destroyer Cannon was bringing down the number of enemy s.h.i.+ps rapidly, the simulations from the main computer indicated that if the trends remained the same, the result would be that the dreadnought would be lost and the enemy would still have twenty-some s.h.i.+ps surviving!
Jin Yu’s eyes were streaked with blood, and he felt like his chest was tearing itself apart. The tactics he had learned at command school were telling him that this situation wasn’t just unfavorable. On the contrary, his side was already in desperate straits!
The Star Destroyer Cannon was on the front of the dreadnought, but the enemy s.h.i.+ps had all moved to the stern and were attacking the s.h.i.+p’s weakest point. Although the dreadnought had medium-range defensive cannons in the center and rear, they weren’t particularly effective.
This pa.s.sive situation was because of the dreadnought’s role. Of the two kinds of capital s.h.i.+ps, it was the carrier that was praised for being top-cla.s.s in both offense and defense.
The dreadnought was only good at attacking! While the Star Destroyer Cannon could tear through all enemies, its defenses were poor. Its greatest vulnerability was small enemy s.h.i.+ps getting close. After all, once the enemy s.h.i.+ps were close, the dreadnought’s main cannon wouldn’t hit them regardless. Thus, in most battles, dreadnoughts would pull back some distance before firing, doing their utmost to avoid close confrontations.
Suddenly, just when everyone was at maximum tension from the extremely unfavorable situation, Xia Fan suddenly made a shocking move !
He pushed a b.u.t.ton, releasing twelve high-energy ion bombs!
Ion bombs were a kind of s.p.a.ce mine. When thrown out from the bomb compartments, they would float in s.p.a.ce, waiting for a signal from their mothers.h.i.+p to detonate.
Normally, mines were laid across paths enemy s.h.i.+ps would have to come through, and then blow up when the enemy wasn’t expecting it. But Xia Fan was throwing out the mines right next to them!
Utterly horrifying! It was like someone grabbing a hand grenade and putting it in their chest rather than throwing it away!
Xia Fan’s next order had everyone almost vomiting blood! “All ion bombs, detonate!”
Rumble!
Rumble!
The twelve ion bombs just released by the dreadnought exploded only a few kilometers away!
Xia Fan was crazy! He was blowing himself up, together with his enemies!
It was a reckless and ruthless move, killing one thousand at the cost of eight hundred of one’s own!
As the explosions bloomed, the command center shuddered, and the screens started to go black. The shockwaves made everyone sway, forcing them to grab the handholds on the deck.
A few moments later, the explosions finally stopped. Jin Yu and the others hastily looked at the radar screens and saw that the small s.h.i.+ps that had been buzzing around them like flies had almost all been turned into floating wrecks!
Their dreadnought was also severely damaged. The energy s.h.i.+elds had been completely disabled, the armor plating was lost, and even the structure was down to sixty-three percent…
Such a bitter price! But the enemy losses had been even more bitter!
The crazy self-detonation had left behind more than a hundred wrecks in s.p.a.ce. Only three destroyers with thicker armor had managed to barely survive Xia Fan’s suicidal attack. The rest, whether they were interceptors or electronic warfare s.h.i.+ps, had all been blasted to bits!
After all, the bombs had been too close. The enemy had never imagined that Xia Fan would blow himself up along with them. No commander with an ordinary brain would do that!
The three badly damaged destroyers began to stagger their way out of the battlefield.
Their commanding officers had probably been scared half to death by Xia Fan’s madness. They had seen reckless people before, but never anyone that crazy! If Xia Fan’s calculations had only been slightly off, like if he had released two more ion bombs, he might have gone down with them! Only someone of immense daring and an even sharper mind would dare to do such a thing!
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
The most dangerous moment had pa.s.sed, so Xia Fan very casually used the dreadnought’s remaining medium-range cannons to attack the fleeing destroyers. After three barrages, the last three destroyers were also destroyed. In the blink of an eye, they became dazzling fireworks in s.p.a.ce.
“Hurrah!” Upon realizing that they had won, Thousand Ink and the others cheered wildly, joy on their faces. They hugged each other and celebrated, and even their hostage Anyo seemed happy that he had survived.
Xia Fan hadn’t just scared the enemy half to death, he had badly frightened his own brothers, though perhaps not so badly that they would wet themselves.
It was a very close call, but the results were unimaginable. Xia Fan had used one dreadnought to destroy an entire enemy fleet!
More than one hundred s.h.i.+ps of various sizes had come, but not even one had escaped!
It was a complete wipeout! An amazing battle worthy of the textbooks!
—
“Whew!” Xia Fan exhaled in relief. As he sat down on the wide captain’s chair, he could feel the veins in his temples throbbing.
‘That was pretty good. Although your speed isn’t as crazy as your dad’s, at least you can compare to Xia Fan given your command on the battlefield,’ Bright Pearl said telepathically.
Xia Fan shrugged helplessly. Bright Pearl had probably gotten used to the crazy battles of the Skywings, so she wasn’t at all surprised that Xia Fan had won, giving him only a decent evaluation.
After resting for a few seconds, Xia Fan regained his composure. His usual smile on his face, he looked around at his comrades.
“So refres.h.i.+ng!” Luo Jiuyi waved his fists around as he shouted excitedly, “We killed all the enemies, so now, we can finally go back with our heads held high! Not only did we find the Demon Chasm, we even destroyed a Murder Shrine fleet! My dad will definitely be happy when I tell him this!”
“Tsk, it was all Xia Fan’s effort. You lazy cat, what did you do?” Jin Yu teased Luo Jiuyi with his sharp tongue. Jin Yu then ran over to Xia Fan’s side and put an arm around his neck. “Xia Fan, have a good rest. Leave the rest to me. I’m no good in battle, but I can definitely deliver us safely home.”
Jin Yu was saying that the rest of the voyage could be left to him and that Xia Fan didn’t need to trouble himself anymore. But Xia Fan smiled and shook his head. “There’s no rush. Let’s wait a few more minutes for the reactor to recharge the main cannon.”
“Recharge?” Jin Yu blinked in confusion. “There are no more enemies, so why are you recharging the Star Destroyer Cannon?”
Xia Fan raised his arm and pointed at the nameless yellow planet. “There are no enemies in s.p.a.ce, but there are still some on the planet.
“Since we’ve already killed so many, we might as well clean them out!”