Chapter 323: A battle transcending s.h.i.+p grades!
The planet that Windchime resided on was in a state of destruction. There were billowing clouds of black smoke everywhere as if it had recently been ransacked.
An emergency alert blared the instant the Impaler exited its wormhole.
“Alert! Unknown wars.h.i.+ps rapidly approaching our current position.”
Xia Fei hastily glanced at the radar system and noticed that there were two frigates swiftly accelerating toward him.
“Activate the energy s.h.i.+eld and have all weapon systems at the ready. Lock onto all enemy targets.”
*Shum!*
The plume from the Impaler’s engine burst out, very quickly doing a complete about-turn with its powerful propulsion, making a burn straight for the two frigates which were heading toward him.
The radar system indicated that the two were Amarrian Tormentor-cla.s.s frigates, possessing decent firepower and defense, though their speed and maneuverability were lacking.
“Charge up to them and give them a sound beating!” Xia Fei barked out his orders.
The enemy had surprisingly discovered that Xia Fei did not just stand his ground but also accelerated into a charge right for them. They could not help but be somewhat shocked, even as they made a sudden split to the left and right in an attempt to increase their distance with Xia Fei. The Impaler was not a model of wars.h.i.+p commonly seen in the alliance, so the enemy had never encountered such a s.h.i.+p before, which was why they had their misgivings toward it.
“Thinking of running away? Not so easy. Activate the warp disruptor as well as the stasis webifier. Hold them in place!”
*Zing!*
The disruptor and traction beam shot out. Xia Fei watched as the speed of the two Tormentors rapidly dropped, slowing down to a tortoise’s crawl in a brief moment.
This was one of the features that the Impaler boasted; it was able to stall three targets at once before unloading its full a.r.s.enal upon these targets and killing them.
In battle, firepower was but one aspect of combat, while being able to ensnare the enemy was another.
If a wars.h.i.+p lacked the capability to catch its opponent within range of the attack, it would not matter how superior of a firepower it possessed. As long as the opponent could do an emergency warp, it would be capable of evading the attack.
As a heavy-a.s.sault cruiser which possessed the firepower of a battles.h.i.+p, the Impaler’s firepower could not only be deemed insane, it could also hold its own when it came to ensnaring enemy s.h.i.+ps. Therefore, unless they were able to keep the Impaler from coming near them forever, anyone who might find themselves within range of its disruptor or traction beam could only find death awaiting them.
Thus, the Impaler could be called the king of battles within its radius.
Unfortunately, these two Tormentors had no clue about the characteristics of the Impaler, so it was as if they had gotten themselves caught on a venomous spider’s web, with no hope of ever escaping from their fate.
*Thum thum!*
Both Tormentors realized the danger they were in and began attacking at the same time.
The white glows fired from their pulse laser cannons scored across the Impaler, but it was nothing but an ineffective struggle in the throes of death.
The Impaler was a T2 elite heavy-a.s.sault s.h.i.+p, and there was no way these two puny frigates could break his defenses without a battles.h.i.+p-grade firepower.
“Keep closing in on them and fire at will the moment they are within range,” Xia Fei ruthlessly commanded.
“Alert! Another unknown wars.h.i.+p is attempting to get a target lock on us.”
Xia Fei lowered his gaze to the radar and he subconsciously felt his heart skip a bit.
A battles.h.i.+p.
An Amarrian Armageddon-cla.s.s battles.h.i.+p was closing in on him fast.
The Impaler defeating a battles.h.i.+p two grades above its own was just a theoretical possibility, and it had never been attempted in reality at all.
The data and actual combat were two different things altogether; after all, immediate response to an ever-changing battlefield was one such factor that cold and hard data could not comprehensively calculate.
“Alert! Another fleet is attempting to close in on us.”
“Another?” Phantom could not help but moan out loud. Another fleet of small wars.h.i.+ps had appeared in the distance. They consisted of three Mittal Rupture-cla.s.s cruisers and two Caldarrian Ferox-cla.s.s battlecruisers. It was evident that they were a fleet with these other wars.h.i.+ps.
This was to say that Xia Fei was about to take on eight enemy s.h.i.+ps, with one of them being an Armageddon-cla.s.s battles.h.i.+p.
The Impaler would have a tough time just taking on the battles.h.i.+p alone, and just what sort of outcome could he expect now that he was facing against eight different wars.h.i.+ps?
Knitting his eyebrows together, Xia Fei decisively gave the order. “Do a hard burn over. Continue the attack.”
*Whoos.h.!.+*
The Impaler immediately flew right up to a Tormentor, and all seven of his enhanced neutron blasters fired simultaneously.
*Boom boom boom!*
Something unexpected had happened.
The Impaler took three salvo of fire before it took down a Tormentor.
A bright big ball of fire engulfed the s.h.i.+p.
The range of the enhanced neutron blasters was short, but it had a very quick fire rate!
Every 1.5 seconds was another salvo, which meant to say that it took not even five seconds for that Tormentor-cla.s.s frigate to be brought down once the Impaler was within range of it.
“To think the Impaler has such impressive firepower!” Xia Fei could not help but exclaim loudly. “Neutron blasters sure live up as the alliance’s top firepower output.”
With this experiment completed, Xia Fei’s confidence soared greatly.
“Lock onto that Armageddon-cla.s.s battles.h.i.+p with all our warp disruptors and stasis webifier. I want it completely stalled in place,” Xia Fei commanded.
Phantom curled his lips, feeling incredulous. “You can’t possibly be thinking of using a battles.h.i.+p as a test target, right? That’s a proper killing machine; just its size alone is several dozen times ours.”
“Shut up! When a commander is in command, n.o.body is allowed to express their opinion,” Xia Fei arrogantly snarled.
Phantom felt wronged, but he did not protest. It was a huge taboo for anyone to bother a commander when they were in the middle of taking command of a battle. On the battlefield, a soldier’s responsibility was to heed the orders given; even if the commander gave the order to climb a mountain of blades, it was the soldier’s task to charge forward without any hesitation.
“Close in on the second Tormentor and unload all guns on it.”
*Boom boom boom!*
Three thunderous salvos of blasters fired, and another glow of fire appeared against the darkness of s.p.a.ce.
Xia Fei did not celebrate, for he knew very well that the two frigates were just the appetizers for this course; there was still a powerful battles.h.i.+p, which would prove to be the true challenge of this fight he had to take on.
The Impaler was only the size of a cruiser, and the head to head against the heavily armored and insane firepower of the Armageddon-cla.s.s battles.h.i.+p was on the cusp of breaking out.
The range of pulse laser cannons was far greater than the enhanced neutron cannons that the Impaler was equipped with. This was why, before Xia Fei could get anywhere near it, the enemy battles.h.i.+p already fired off their first volley.
The rumble of the cannonfire was deafening.
The sound of the large pulse laser cannons was so loud that it was akin to the dull clap of thunder.
This one volley from the battles.h.i.+p struck the waist of the Impaler, and the s.h.i.+p interior instantly rocked violently from the attack.
“What a strong firepower! Give me a damage report, stat!” Xia Fei did not wait for the wars.h.i.+p to settle before he yelled his order.
“Energy s.h.i.+eld suffered thirty-one percent damage. Hull completely intact.”
“Very good!” Xia Fei could hardly contain his excitement. A heavy-a.s.sault cruiser was not only battles.h.i.+p-grade in terms of firepower, even its defense was up to par.
To lose merely thirty-one percent of its energy s.h.i.+eld against a volley of cannon fire from a battles.h.i.+p, such an outstanding defense was simply hard to believe.
“An a.s.sessment of the enemy’s energy acc.u.mulation estimates the next volley to arrive in about 8.7 seconds!”
Xia Fei nodded. “While the battles.h.i.+p has a strong firepower, its attack speed is slow. It needs time to acc.u.mulate the energy needed after every volley, and that’s our chance!”
“Engage in pa.s.sive defense, prepare to brace for the next volley—GO GO GO! I want to get right up next to the s.h.i.+p in one go! Have the energy-s.h.i.+eld boosters operational at a hundred percent!”
*Boom!*
Sure enough, just as Xia Fei’s words escaped his lips, another volley came from the Armageddon-cla.s.s battles.h.i.+p. The s.h.i.+p interior shook violently once more, and everything that was not nailed down—water bottles, couches, or whatever else—flew everywhere!
“Damage report! Get the overclocking chip ready! Prepare to overclock!”
Due to how small the exterior of the Impaler was, the accuracy of the large pulse laser cannons was not exactly high. After all, the larger the caliber of the cannon, the greater the misalignment; not to mention that battles.h.i.+ps were mainly adjusted to target large wars.h.i.+ps.
The Impaler did not suffer any lasting damage from the two volleys, and it was instead able to agilely close in next to the Armageddon.
“Fire! Give it a thoroughly savage bombardment! Overclock at one hundred percent!”
After overclocking, the enhanced neutron blasters could reach up to an astonis.h.i.+ng 0.9 seconds per salvo!
A strange scene developed amidst the stars: A small heavy-a.s.sault cruiser had snared a huge battles.h.i.+p within its grasp and was now giving it a sound beating!
It was like a child whaling upon a muscular adult; anyone who saw such a scene could not help but be stupefied by what was happening, for it was simply far too bizarre!
The seven blasters kept firing brightly, and the intensity of the firepower was simply bewildering. There would be more than ten sh.e.l.ls landing on the battles.h.i.+p every second, and such a feeling was similar to setting firecrackers on the roof of a car. It was like a never ending fusilade.
On the other hand, the bulky Armageddon battles.h.i.+p needed more than ten seconds for each of its volley. It was like a short and small speed boxer facing up against a big and heavy heavyweight compet.i.tor. Logically speaking, it should be the heavyweight boxer who held the upper hand, but the reality of the situation had the skinny and small speed boxer pinning his opponent down on the ground and raining blows like a torrential storm with both fists.
“You are now in my world once we get into my range of fire. Fire! Keep up the relentless firing!” Xia Fei was consumed by his excitement. He slammed a punch on his command console as he gave the order.
“Alert! Three minutes until the enemy fleet gets into range!”
Xia Fei coldly snorted. “Three minutes is more than enough!”
The neutron blaster was a weapon that had a severe weakness, and that was its range, but the moment a wars.h.i.+p with neutron blasters equipped were to close in on their target, it would instead be a huge calamity for any wars.h.i.+p because of just how insanely high its overall damage output could reach!
The Impaler very nimbly circled around that Armageddon-cla.s.s battles.h.i.+p, using its speed to avoid the attacks coming from the enemy.
The large pulse laser cannons possessed strong firepower, but their accuracy became terrible once they were used on targets close to them. It was completely incapable of breaking the Impaler’s energy s.h.i.+eld even after three salvos of cannon fire, but of course, that was also due to the energy-s.h.i.+eld boosters playing a vital role in all this.
The Armageddon-cla.s.s battles.h.i.+p was slowly unable to hold out the attack as raging fire after fire erupted around its hull. Looking out, Xia Fei could even see the s.h.i.+p’s crew frantically fleeing in escape pods.
“Success! The combat prowess of the Impaler surpa.s.sed even my wildest imagination! Reality has proven that it is simply not even on par with battles.h.i.+ps but greatly surpa.s.ses them in actual combat! Heavens! A cruiser taking down a battles.h.i.+p—I wouldn’t even believe this if I hadn’t witnessed this with my two eyes!” Phantom was so thrilled that his two hands were tearing at his hair.
“One final pus.h.!.+ Sink this s.h.i.+p!” Xia Fei’s eyes were bloodshot as he gave this merciless order.