Chapter 714: The First Clash III
Out of nowhere, the booming battlezone in the stream had been silenced by ten enormous dark red beams fired at the defensive station.
The viewers could only stare in utter horror at the ten red pillars engulfing tens of wars.h.i.+ps in their way.
It didn"t matter if they were wars.h.i.+ps from the royal family or the anti-royality alliance...The dreadful red beams penetrated through everything and anything indiscriminately.
A split second later...BOOM! BOOM! BOOM...!!
A long string of explosions rung throughout the battleground. Not a single wars.h.i.+p survived after being touched by the beams.
The worst part, they were merely the side dish.
The real target was the defensive station that had been directly hit by all red plasma beams at the same time!
The toughness of their alloy was absolutely useless in front of red plasma beams.
It was able to defend against orange plasma beams just fine, but red ones?
Even the artificial symbiote skin had difficulty defending against them.
Felix"s weapon sword of judgement that was attached to his s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p was able to fire red plasma rays...He spent over 500 million SC for it to penetrate the artificial symbiote skin of Mr. Gama"s s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p.
At this moment, in front of the universe watching, the royal family showed their deep pockets by modifying a mother battalion to hold into ten red plasma weapons when it should have just one or two at best!
[What the f*ck has just happened?]
[Oh lord! The defensive station is f*cked!]
[Did the royal family just hit their own troops or am I tripping?]
The viewers were left dumbfounded by the newest development in the war zone.
They were just enjoying wars.h.i.+ps trading fire between each other before everything went to s.h.i.+t.
Wars.h.i.+ps were scattering away from the center of war zone like bugs. Metallic sc.r.a.ps were flying around the defensive station after getting hit in multiple areas.
When some viewers zoomed on the gigantic holes left behind, their blood went cold in horror at the sight of people getting sucked outside!
The image of their bodies getting frozen solid while floating in nothingness had finally made some viewers wake up to reality.
This was a war not a reality show to watch s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps firing at each other.
Peep Peep!
Inside the defensive station, alarms were going off through multiple floors and sectors. When added to the screams and painful bellows, it was difficult to not feel overwhelmed.
The staff and soldiers inside the operation center had been overwhelmed alright as they watched the ongoing horrors within the defensive station.
There were staff members holding into their dear life while the wind keep getting sucked through the blasted holes.
Some were lying dead on the floor after getting penetrated by a gla.s.s shard or a metallic sc.r.a.p from the blast.
Some were heavily injured without the ability to even stand up and get away from the breached areas.
Zosia was watching all of this happening without blinking once.
"Great Commander! We need to send bots to start the reparation as fast as possible!"
"This is bad! One of our power plants has been hit and blew an entire floor to smithereens!"
"Two hundred confirmed deaths already, and it"s climbing rapidly! Commander we need to move now!"
The experienced director and the staff were the first to break from their daze due to their extensive training.
The first thing they did was report the aftermath of the attack and seek orders from Zosia.
Unfortunately, Zosia seemed like she was completely shaken from the attack.
The generals shook their heads after seeing her reaction.
As experienced veterans in warfare, this sudden attack sure shocked them, but they recovered almost immediately from it.
As leaders, it was their job to be the only ones with a leveled head no matter what happened.
Zosia had just displayed to them that she didn"t have what it took to be a leader.
"I apolo..."
Just as one of the generals wanted to take advantage of the situation and step up to the helm, Zosia took a deep breath and started firing orders one by one with a composed expression.
"Send out the bots and seal off the exterior breaches."
"Pump back oxygen the moment they get sealed."
"Send firefighters squads to deal with the burnt equipment."
"Send the rescue crews to the floors with the heaviest casualties after the breaches get sealed."
"Prepare to fire XR-401 and XR-241 at the mother battalion."
"Inform the captains to stay away from the center but keep hunting the enemy wars.h.i.+ps. They must be unfocused after surviving getting hit by their own people."
Just like cogs in a machine, the staff members began following her instructions without wasting a single second.
Meanwhile, the generals merely stared at Zosia with stunned expressions, not knowing what to think.
As for the general who wanted to step up? He quickly closed his mouth shut and lowered his head, too scared at the thought of being found out by Zosia.
Army hierarchy was strict and what he tried to do almost costed him his head.
Sure, if Zosia was truly out of it, no one would hold it against him if he voiced his orders and fixed the situation.
Thankfully, Zosia didn"t have time to waste on him. She kept voicing her instructions and asking for updates each minute.
"Weapons ready?"
"Ten seconds!"
"How many bots are working outside now?"
"84 bots. The rest either have it to arrive to the breaches or has been destroyed during the attack."
Although she was just a holographic image, Zosia kept releasing an authoritative pressure that made everyone work even harder without bulls.h.i.+t.
"What are you doing here?" Zosia suddenly turned to the generals and glared at them coldly, "I don"t need spectators. Make yourself useful and go help with the rescue."
"Yes, Commander!"
Not a single general or soldier dared to remain inside the operation room after seeing her dreadful glare.
They knew that she was beyond p.i.s.sed and was looking for someone to vent.
How could she not be p.i.s.sed?
Hundreds had been killed due to her failure in predicting that the royal family didn"t have a bottom line or honor in the war zone.
The moment she saw the ten red plasma brightening up, she knew that her gut feeling was right all along.
From the very start of the battle, every single movement was following a placed down strategy!
Even Zosia"s counter-tactics were for the sake of this result.
Without seeing the progressive formation, she would have never changed her troops formation and activate the anti-plasma s.h.i.+eld.
When the anti-royality alliance used everything to destroy the s.h.i.+eld, she knew that something was missing, but she couldn"t say no to a free counter-attack.
If she didn"t send out the wars.h.i.+ps to thin down their troops, everyone would have bashed her for being stupid and lack the correct judgement.
The moment they were sent and started blowing up wars.h.i.+p after the other, the same bad feeling resurfaced since everything was going too smoothly.
She never considered that the mother battalion would use the red plasma weapons at them because they would end up hitting their own people as well.
That was the mistake she made.
If she thought that commander Edward would stoop so low to kill his own soldiers willingly, she would have never sent out her own troops to skirmish with theirs or give up on her anti-plasma s.h.i.+eld.
If she kept it, they would have never used the red plasma cannons since it took at least half an hour before they cool down after each attack.
In addition, the fire sequence was noticeable.
So, the instant she spotted the red lights, she would have activated the anti-plasma s.h.i.+eld to cover the defensive station.
"Red plasma weapons are ready Commander!" The director shouted.
Upon hearing so, Zosia opened her eyes and stopped chiding herself over this failure. She knew that it wasn"t time to face her mistakes.
"Return the favor please." Zosia said frigidly.
The instant he was given permission, the director pressed on a red b.u.t.ton and watched two gigantic long cannons began to brighten up from a holographic screen.
Meanwhile, commander Edward and his subordinates managed to spot the two glittering red lights from a far.
"Activate the anti-plasma s.h.i.+eld." Commander Edward ordered calmly.
General Creed and the staff snickered in amus.e.m.e.nt as they watched mother battalion getting s.h.i.+elded from the front with the same blue hue s.h.i.+eld.
The sides were left exposed but no one seemed to worry about it since they knew that the defensive station could not move freely like them.
It was able to only strike what in front of it with those two cannons!
"Motherf*ckers! They even added anti-plasma s.h.i.+elds to the battalion!" Gabriel"s expression turned nasty as he eyed the d.a.m.ned s.h.i.+eld.
Compared to red plasma weapons, the anti-plasma s.h.i.+eld was ten times more expensive. That"s why it was used only on defensive stations and important structures instead of battles.h.i.+ps.
Yet, the royal family modified one in their battalion...Which was totally unexpected and honestly quite wasteful...Especially when they protected only the front and left the sides open.
It would be absolutely useless when the reinforcement arrives and bombard the battalion from all sides.
"Sigh, they really went all out to leave an impression." Zosia could only ma.s.sage her temples and watch the two fired red beams get absorbed by the s.h.i.+eld.
They did not manage to breakthrough it, but they still weakened it significantly.
Unfortunately, by the time their weapons cooldown, the s.h.i.+eld would be restored fully just like theirs...
It might seem like the entire interaction from the start to the end had resulted in a few casualties from both sides, but Zosia knew that she had lost something more pivotal to the rest of this war.
Her credibility as The Great Commander of The Alliance Forces....