Cyber ​​Heroes

Chapter 1206 Clashing Iron Streams

Chaldea Guardian Lilik was the first to regain his composure from the tremors.

The Chaldea's internal network had collapsed. He had just been organizing the last soldiers' evacuation from the camp when he felt a violent tremor. He saw a crack rushing past him, alloy plates tearing and flipping, and then he saw the starry sky outside.

A storm poured out of the city, and the gas resources accumulated over many years flowed into the near-vacuum of space. Lilik followed the storm into space, then turned around and found that the upper part of Chaldea had evaporated.

These are traces of the warship's main gun.

After suffering damage from the great war and deteriorating for over a century, the wreckage of these warships is no longer what it once was. Furthermore, there has been a century of technological advancement in offensive weaponry.

The impact portion instantly dissipated into plasma into space, its spreading shockwaves tearing apart the city's structure. Later-installed fixtures were the first to break, completely unable to support the structure. The violent deformation affected the entire city.

He is only alive now because King Agni's shot was slightly off target.

After all, the shot was fired over a distance of two to three light-seconds. With current human technology, it's impossible to completely eliminate the divergence angle between the particle beam and the laser. After the particle beam exited the muzzle and traveled nearly a million kilometers in space, the diameter of the main kill zone had expanded to the kilometer level. A small amount of energy still remained on the periphery.

It was these spillover effects that tore apart the urban structure of Chaldea.

—He actually chose to take his anger out on us…

Lilike suddenly turned around.

He saw two rows of stars suddenly brightening in the direction of the sun. Due to the great distance and the large size of the objects, what should have been a straight line appeared to Lilike as two smooth curves.

"The Celestial Star Fleet is slowing down..."

Lilike felt a deep sense of fear.

This is one of the most dangerous situations in modern naval warfare.

The clash between the two fleets resembled a duel between two invisible, heavily armored knights. These knights seemed to have stepped out of mythology, possessing indescribably towering figures. They were clad in heavy armor, the armor seamlessly integrating man and horse, even perfectly concealing the horse's legs. Once these humanoid tanks charged, they were incapable of turning, let alone reversing.

Although they sprinted for a kilometer, the only real window of opportunity for them to compete was that one moment when their paths crossed.

Only in that instant can the lance be thrust out.

That's what fleet confrontation is all about.

If it weren't for serving a larger strategic objective, almost all fleet commanders would avoid engaging in battle in this manner.

Although both sides confirmed the time and location of the exchange of fire several days in advance with the assistance of the observatory, the actual moment of the exchange of fire was only a few dozen seconds after they arrived at the combat zone and entered the range of the main guns.

It is often only enough for the main gun to fire once or twice.

Given how precious each attack was, King Agni still spared a cannon shot to execute such insignificant and disloyal subjects...

“How…laughable…how terrifying…” Li Lik murmured.

A white line flashed briefly in his field of vision. Because of its position, it appeared as a smooth curve dividing the sky—Lilike knew it was a straight trajectory.

That was the line formed by the vaporization of all matter along the path of the warship's main guns.

Metallic fog used to jam radar, large metal foils to hinder passive observation, deep-space booby traps, disposable emplacements, and jamming signal sources...

All matter located along this straight line is transformed into plasma, which slowly radiates energy in space.

One, two... more than forty "white lines" flickered in the starry sky, overlapping and intersecting like tangled threads. Since the divergence angle of the warship's main guns was indeed "negligible," Lilike couldn't tell which direction the attack was coming from.

A light shone from a direction far from the sun. Was that the Black Ship's Righteous Army? Or... had one of the heroes been hit by artillery fire?

Li Like unconsciously clenched his fist. The next moment, he realized that it was not a momentary flash, but a row of pale blue light spots.

The heroes are also slowing down!
The outcome is still uncertain!

Another Chaldea first-level warrior hurriedly grabbed Lilik, his voice filled with fear on the communication channel: "Are you out of your mind? Get out of the city!"

“The ancients said that a crater is safer than the surrounding area… This place won’t withstand a second shell.” Li Like clenched his fists and roared into the communicator, “That bastard! I curse him… I curse him to perish right here! Right here!”

....................................

Jeanne sensed Li Wenyang's thoughts. As a temporary member of the staff, she did not leave the virtual space at this moment, but maintained online mode, temporarily lending her thoughts to the fleet's acting commander.

She could sense the deep-seated surprise and doubt in Li Wenyang's heart, and feel the commander's entire process of overcoming fear.

Li Wenyang stood before the radiant "Decision Tree." Several of the larger branches on the once-glowing tree had gone out and were gradually dissipating into dim particles of light.

Each branch represents a rejected tactical maneuver, a path that can no longer be followed.

Tumor-facing mountain's distracting thoughts seem to be "it's actually free material for the engine."

But these distracting thoughts could no longer cause a ripple within the fleet's system. The distracting thoughts of all the staff officers converged, like a stream flowing around Mount Tai, trickling and never ceasing, but unable to shake their unwavering hearts.

In the flow state enjoyed by the acting commander alone, decisions were being made at breakneck speed.

The branches were discarded, some were misappropriated and pieced together, and then sent to different ships.

The entire virtual space where the staff group was located seemed to be driven by this silent speed of decision-making. Every staff member's thought process was involved, and a massive number of choices swept across the surface of consciousness, refreshing like a waterfall, leaving no time to remember them.

Jeanne could only catch glimpses of it, like fleeting traces of a wild goose leaving footprints in the snow.

King Agni's deceleration meant he would inevitably be unable to arrive on time. Without additional propellant replenishment, a few tens of seconds of unplanned deceleration would cause a delay of several days. The moment the Celestial Star Fleet ignited its frontal thrusters, the Black Ship Righteous Army's first strategic objective was essentially achieved.

King Agni's destination from Earth was the battlefield on Jupiter. Why did he make this choice?

It is not difficult to deduce the maximum mass of propellant that the Black Ships could carry from their appearance. Even if the Black Ships turned around immediately, they would not be able to accelerate again and catch up with the Jupiter battlefield.

Or is it simply that they don't want to put the Black Ship Legion into the inner solar system, so they intend to annihilate the Black Ship Legion here as much as possible? Or is it just a facade?

All of the above doubts flashed repeatedly within two seconds, and then were directly pierced by Li Wenyang within one second.

The heroes chose to slow down.

In small-scale battles in the universe, "absolute speed" (or "relative speed to the sun") is not a very important resource, while "relative speed between the enemy and ourselves" plays the role of both "resource" and "advantage of terrain" in the era of Earth's armies.

Relative speed determines the duration of the current combat engagement and the difficulty of aiming.

Absolute speed only affects the timing of a fleet's journey to the next battlefield.

Black Ship Yi never had the chance to participate in the war outside the solar system, so it was determined to inflict as much damage as possible on the Celestial Star Fleet in this battle.

The local residents and the chivalrous individuals created a negligible obstacle. The disruption they caused, if converted into tactical value, was roughly equivalent to a smudge on a sniper's scope.

This tiny "stain" is spreading rapidly and will soon become "negligible"—requiring only a tiny bit of data correction.

Perhaps it can only help the knight gain an advantage in the first round of attacks.

But you only need to seize those few seconds!
Fire! Fire! Fire!
Artillery fire and artillery fire.

Jeanne felt pain. Part of the fleet network had disappeared, and the warning signal, a moment later, echoed like a delayed pain.

A staff officer reported: "At the twelfth second, Zaidan was severely damaged and lost its ability to fight."

The other person immediately spoke up: "At the twelfth second, the 'Tragic' is severely damaged and no longer capable of combat."

"Thirteen seconds, Real, severely damaged, unable to fight, but may survive."

Li Wenyang simply nodded slightly, seemingly unmoved.

On the decision tree, several subtle branches vanished simultaneously. These were the contingency plans for the three ships that survived the initial engagement and were required to undertake combat missions.

In that instant, Jeanne saw a new vision. She seemed to be looking down on the Black Ship Legion from an infinitely high place, from God's perspective.

Within three seconds, numerous points of light appeared on the opposite side. Some straight lines connected these points. More straight lines extended from the opposite side. The particle beam traveled at the speed of light in the vacuum, leaving no trail, but its path was marked by the faint glow of ionized rarefied gas.

Artillery trajectory, friendly damaged ships and enemy ships.

This is the signal received by the passive observation device within three seconds. It represents what happened within three light-seconds of the frontal space, and also the enemy's position three seconds ago.

Jeanne simultaneously observed the postures of the three damaged ships. Two of them were directly hit, and their main structures, at the instant of impact, crossed all phase transition boundaries—solid, liquid, gas, and plasma—directly transforming into a cloud of particles spreading at sub-light speed. The collisions generated by the particle cannon at the microscopic level produced an effect similar to the interior of a star, triggering localized fusion reactions in the fuel.

There could be no survivors.

Part of the Real remains. After a portion was shaved off, the remaining part exploded and disintegrated. The wreckage of the Real is moving away from each other at a relative speed of hundreds of meters per second—based on their rolling forward at one-hundredth the speed of light.

From the perspective of the other ships, as seen from the Black Ship, the wreckage of the True had not fallen behind. They were still rolling on the edge of the formation, still charging toward the Celestial Star Fleet with the same momentum.

Even the wreckage could not escape the charging torrent of iron.

Or rather...

The spirits of the first batch of martyrs have not yet left the ranks of those charging into battle.

But at this moment, Li Wenyang was only focused on the miserable state of the situation and quickly analyzed the location of the artillery fire.

Displacement preceded the calculation. Before the fleet received the results, Jeanne's cybernetic body felt the vibration. The ships activated their lateral thrusters, causing the gunboats to shudder as a whole.

Modern deep-space warships are very strong at resisting positive acceleration, but their lateral acceleration is not so good; excessively violent movements can even risk breaking themselves.

All ships are undergoing irregular displacement. The enemy is probably doing the same.

Passive reconnaissance methods can only confirm what the enemy looked like seconds ago—while active reconnaissance methods allow the opponent to know your intelligence much more in advance. Active radar is only meaningful for the very last moment of the final attack.

A dim light separated from the trajectory of the enemy's artillery fire, sweeping across the space and forming an irregular cone.

This is "probability," a probability cloud representing the likelihood of an enemy attack.

As the warship moves, the network of cause and effect is constantly updated.

The cooling system was operating at full capacity, drawing heat from the gun body. The metallic hydrogen used as ammunition was being forced into the stripping chamber, but it still needed to wait for the ionization system itself to cool before it could become the proton source for the main gun.

The outlet valves opened sequentially, and the magnetic field guiding device compressed the waste heat sink into a thin jet. If someone were observing from Chaldea with infrared vision, they might be able to see a faint trail.

At that very moment, King Agni's observer spotted the heat emissions from the Black Ship Legion. Li Wenyang's observer also spotted the heat emissions from the Celestial Star Fleet at the same instant. This was a two-and-a-half-second interval between their observations.

The local area network is transmitting the final correction parameters level by level.

The second wave of attacks will be many times more dangerous than the first.

Fear also accelerates within the local area network. Just as charged particles constantly gain speed by passing through an accelerator cavity and from a high-energy electric field, a fearful thought can be accelerated by the cumulative effect of many people's thoughts.

At the same second, everyone had the same thought—they would die.

When everyone inevitably experiences a moment of fear about something, such a collective command system amplifies that distracting thought.

But Li Wenyang remained unmoved.

He declared: "I have seen it..."

His confident thought flashed across everyone's minds: "The day the Celestial Star Fleet is destroyed!"

Like blindfold chess, the two commanders were playing against each other across a chasm the speed of light. As if their souls were colliding, Li Wenyang felt the oncoming aggression.

This chivalrous figure, not known for his individual prowess, displayed extraordinary cultivation in that instant. He dispelled the fear that echoed through the fleet's collective thoughts.

The probability of virtual attacks is shrinking, and the possibilities for attacks are narrowing.

The first-level martial artists left the ship ahead of schedule. The value of a first-level martial artist is equal to that of a main warship; a powerful martial artist can even defeat a fleet under certain conditions. This was to mitigate risk.

At the same time, most of the Black Ships' warships released functional units—not for combat or escort missions, but to serve as sources of radar signals.

Legend has it that in ancient times, some fish would carry their offspring in their mouths to protect them from predators, then spit them out in a safe place. The giant steel fish in deep space does the exact opposite – it's for combat.

For the final, last-minute attack—that is, the next round after the second round.

And now...

The two fleets, separated by the distance between the Earth and the Moon, launched their second salvo at that instant.

Jeanne did not see the flashbang from the other side immediately.

It took her a tenth of a second to realize that not seeing it was the right thing to do. The particle stream from the main cannon takes more than a second to arrive. If you saw a flash during that time, it only means you've been hit by the enemy.

A mysterious river of light swept across the distance. A forward-deployed radar aircraft happened to be within the cross-section of the beam. The radar aircraft transformed into flames, and then vanished in the next instant like a blown-out candle, as if it had never existed.

Jeanne suddenly felt a chill. She was used to measuring the battlefield by the standards of individual warriors on the ground. But what she had just witnessed... the trajectory of the enemy's main gun was only tens of kilometers away from the Black Ship Righteous Army's flagship.

Less than 100 kilometers! In terms of battlefield standards, that's "almost a hit".

The flagship of the Black Ship Righteous Army almost evaporated just now.

Casualty reports suddenly flooded in like a waterfall. A massive influx of reports poured in from the left flank to the right.

Li Wenyang, however, directly disabled the alarm window.

He wasn't concerned about casualties. His thoughts weren't even on the fact that the flagship had almost been hit. The contingency plan already included a complete command handover process in the event of the flagship's destruction. Even if the succeeding commander was less capable in judgment, the brief engagement window wouldn't allow for a deviation that could alter the course of the battle.

It won't be too different.

He only cared about the casualties of the Celestial Star Fleet.

Another second passed before the sky in front of us began to twinkle.

It was like a dazzling stage effect.

"Attack results confirmed..."

He gave this order.

The Tianxing Fleet has suffered nearly half of its losses at this moment?

The Tianxing Fleet's formation simultaneously lit up with far more explosions than expected. Some were ammunition explosions triggered by main gun hits, while others were caused by residual propellant exploding uncontrollably after being grazed by the thrusters.

There are some more...

It directly completes the phase transition from solid to plasma, leaving only a cloud of particles that is spreading outward as a spherical shock wave.

The Black Ships were probably similar.

The probability cloud begins to shrink again at this moment.

The artillery trajectory, deduced from the extent of their own damage, was also marked.

The two invisible, heavily armored knights finally reached the moment of face-to-face combat.

Amidst the crisscrossing lines... and within the matrix of cause and effect and game theory, the advisory group began its final calculations.

Only time for fine-tuning.

Approximately 30,000 kilometers. At this distance and speed, the accuracy of the previous battlefield model was insufficient to support an effective salvo. The feature phone released its radar beam. The active signal swept through the void at the speed of light, reflecting back onto the surface of the enemy ship.

Live-fire weapons were also released in that instant.

Throughout the entire collision process, these weapons with insufficient acceleration only have a chance to hit the target at this very moment.

And at that very moment...

Li Wenyang's decision-making process has finally narrowed down to just one line.

The commander gently grasped the finalized contingency plan.

—To win…

Jeanne's virtual body even clenched her teeth involuntarily—something she had never done in her decades-long life.

—We must blast that old dog down…

This idea resonated with the widest range of people.

This idea resonated widely. Generally, commanders strive to avoid a direct confrontation between fleets. Only when both sides are heading towards the same location before the battle begins, and are unable to slow down due to the limitations of their propellant, will the battle escalate into a direct confrontation.

In this crude, almost primitive tactical form, even the most mediocre commander has the opportunity to directly destroy the enemy's flagship.

"We must bring down that old dog..." The entire staff silently chanted this.

The resentment that has accumulated within Jupiter's gravity well over the past 150 years is burning fiercely. The pent-up anger of the former three righteous followers over the past 130 years is also churning.

—We must bomb that old dog!

This thought even transcends the fear of death!
then……

A violent tremor.

Perhaps it was the wreckage that swept past, or perhaps it was a direct hit. In that instant, the local area network signal snapped. A signal as sharp as pain dragged Jeanne back from virtual reality to her metallic body. Her vision blurred. She didn't know if the brain tumor had finally strained the resources needed for visual processing, or if she was already dead. The scenery on the bridge was dreamlike, with boundless white light streaming in through the portholes, casting extremely long shadows.

The shadow swept across a patch as fast as the second hand of a clock, then repeated itself.

—Is death...this feeling?
The loss of local area network signal seemed to cause the temporarily assimilated staff to experience a pain akin to "losing a limb."

The ship's frame seemed to be groaning.

The next second, Jeanne was refreshed back into virtual reality.

The crowd was clearly divided into two lines. Jeanne stood with the staff officers, with Liu Xiangshan beside her. Li Wenyang gazed at the soldiers opposite him, his eyes filled with complex emotions, a mixture of sorrow and joy.

"I'm alive?"

Tumor sighed towards the mountain: "What about the farewell ceremony? Half of them are already dead, only cache files remain."

"what?"

“A cache file, stored locally, is a virtual intelligent entity that records the last thought of the individual who uploaded the information,” Liu Xiangshan sighed.

Jeanne asked incredulously, "So I'm... the one who's alive?"

Before Liu Xiangshan could speak, more than a dozen people stepped out from the opposite formation. Jeanne recognized their virtual avatars and quickly realized that they were the captains of the Black Ship Righteous Army.

This includes the captains of the three ships that disappeared in the first wave of attacks: Zaidan, Beichuang, and Zhenshi.

The captain of the Zaidan stepped out and relayed orders. His movements were clean and efficient, just as they had been in life.

"Attention, all! Salute!"

Their postures were perfectly synchronized.

"May our comrades win this battle. May our fellow soldiers be victorious in the future. May humanity achieve freedom for every individual."

Li Wenyang raised his hand to eyebrow level and said softly, "Farewell, comrades."

Then he said, "Farewell, my friends."

Although they appeared capable of reacting, these were merely the last instructions given by those who had fallen just seconds before. They lacked true responsiveness, only able to react to a few questions. They were already dead. Dead the instant the main guns pierced their hulls.

These gestures, this command, were written into the queue while they were still alive. When the signal was interrupted, the system automatically backed up the last uploaded command stack. This farewell ceremony, lasting only a few seconds, would only begin after the acting commander determined a temporary victory. This data would be removed from high-frequency use areas to free up resources for the fleet command system.

As he ascended towards the mountain, he spoke up, "Actually, you could also call it a 'temporary farewell'..."

Li Wenyang looked at the ascendant.

The Ascended One said, "With the advancement of technology and the revolutionization of concepts about life and death, humanity will inevitably rewrite its views on life and death—but this is a process I cannot foresee. You might want to keep an eye on the latest developments on Mars. Leave these local cache files. Nothing reveals a person better than their 'final moments'."

Li Wenyang did not directly express his opinion. The lingering sorrow of the deceased transformed into golden light particle effects amidst the smile, gradually disappearing.

"First, remove the collision box, then gradually make the model transparent, and add special effects at the same time..." Fei Sheng Xiang Shan sighed with emotion: "That's it... These special effects and expressions aren't free materials from over two hundred years ago. Are they really suitable as an important part of the culture? For example, that 'smiling' expression, once or twice is fine, but having half the fleet doing this is a bit..."

The slight upturn at the corner of the deceased's mouth was free. The level of detail is insufficient.

Li Wenyang, however, thought it was just right.

“Our generation has never seen a genuine smile. You know, most of us were born in the frigid outer reaches of the solar system, and we started using cybernetic implants from a young age to conserve resources.” Li Wenyang shook his head. “Moreover, this culture of reconstruction currently only exists within the Three Righteous Clans, and we don’t have many opportunities to discuss this with the old heroes outside. The expressions in spam messages… how should I put it? We can’t even distinguish between solemn and insincere expressions…”

“Building a strong organizational spirit is also very important,” Xiang Shan said, pointing to the walls. “At least we shouldn’t end up like we were in the beginning…”

Information is converging. More intelligence is being gathered.

The damage control system was integrated into the mountain. The Black Ship's flagship alone had several penetrating wounds, all caused by small fragments. The tremors Jeanne felt originated from this.

As for the white light, it was naturally the explosion of enemy ships and plasma. The plasma cloud passing through the Black Ships severely interfered with communications, causing the local area network to temporarily go offline. The signal transceivers on some ships also overheated.

"The damage rate is close to 60%. Half of the ships are gone forever, and the surviving ships are basically only scratched," Li Wenyang sighed.

As for the casualties of the Celestial Fleet, it is difficult to quantify at the moment, because all the wreckage is traveling at a low sub-light speed towards the outer reaches of the solar system.

Unless they approach a stronghold like a space city, no one would attempt to stop the wreckage. Even if the heroes lacked metal, they wouldn't bother with it; the resources required to intercept it were terrifying. Just slowing it down to a point where it was relatively stationary relative to the planet would consume enough propellant for half a fleet battle.

They will fly past Pluto's orbit in a few days, and then spend hundreds of years traversing the Oort Cloud.

The wreckage of the Black Ships will hurtle towards the Sun. Within an Earth day, some of them will plunge into the Sun. The rest, whose orbits deviate slightly from the Sun's direction, will cross the Oort Cloud from the other side a century later. The Sun's gravitational well will not be able to recapture these wreckages.

If it didn't hit anything else.

“This is simply…” Li Wenyang paused, seemingly hesitant.

"what?"

“A miracle,” Li Wenyang mused. “I estimated that the damage rate of the Tianxing Fleet was about the same as that of the Black Ship Righteous Cavalry. This is simply… unbelievable. He actually made us achieve a near-equal exchange ratio, and we even had a slight advantage.”

Tumor Mountain laughed: "Ha, what's so unbelievable about that? Perhaps your current strength has already far surpassed that old dog's?"

"Judging from the information gathered in that instant, I even think the damage rate of the Celestial Star Fleet exceeds 65%, essentially losing its ability to suppress the fleet," Li Wenyang pondered. "But I don't believe King Agni is limited to that. If that's all he's capable of, it's clearly impossible for him to have driven the Sixth War God and the Old Three Righteous Ones into a corner..."

A faint sense of regret welled up in Liu Xiangshan's heart. It was a pity that times had changed.

In theory, a combat unit will be severely weakened if it loses more than 30% of its offensive capability, and will be on the verge of collapse and unable to undertake combat missions if it loses 60%. However, this is only theoretical. For example, most theocratic forces active in West Asia and North Africa in the early 21st century could withstand losses exceeding 100%. And this is still not the limit of human capability.

The constructs of righteousness, faith, and ideals can enable a group to easily transcend this limit.

In this era, technological means have replaced these spiritual forces.

The power to interfere with people's thoughts can eliminate fear and wavering at the level of thinking. Integrating regulations into the underlying intelligent system elevates it to the level of military law itself—a true military police force. The vast majority of the Tianxing Fleet's power is concentrated in that old dog Hartman himself.

No matter how many men are lost, as long as the flagship of the Tianxing Fleet does not sink, the soldiers can be quickly replenished.

The soldiers of the Protectorate were not much different from standard parts produced in the factory.

On the contrary, chivalrous forces cannot "use" their soldiers in this way.

"A small victory is a defeat" is a fundamental principle that the chivalrous movement must always remember. In a single encounter, even if the Black Ship Righteous Cavalry suffers a 30% loss while the Celestial Star Fleet suffers a 70% loss, the Celestial Star Fleet will be the first to recover its fighting strength.

A dangerous clash is something a chivalrous person could never afford to engage in.

Unless it's for a greater victory on a larger scale.

Tumor Xiangshan then looked at the other Xiangshan who claimed to be his ascended self. He pointed to another version of himself: "Where's that ascended me over there? Did you include him?"

"The twelfth Martial God... or rather, the Ascended One, only improved our operational efficiency," Li Wenyang said. "They either rely on building a skill stack through prior accumulation or consume massive amounts of computing power to generate iterations. Otherwise, the Ascended One shouldn't generate power out of thin air. If the Martial God didn't possess the skills of fleet command before ascending, then there would be a process of acquiring them afterward. At least in my understanding, the Martial God only improved our original efficiency by a certain margin."

Of course, this doesn't mean it's mediocre. "Being able to directly improve work efficiency" is already a remarkable achievement.

But... can this be used to defeat the strongest human warrior in a military formation?

Of course, the "geographical advantage" prepared by the asteroid belt warriors also had some influence. King Agni was unaware of the shape of the interference cloud, resulting in some deviations in the first two bombardments. The Black Ship's retinue, on the other hand, had slightly smaller errors.

"And then what happened next..."

The Black Ships must continue to slow down. Otherwise, it won't be long before they leave the light-speed highway and rush into an area with a higher density of small celestial bodies. The Celestial Fleet doesn't carry much propellant, and if it doesn't replenish itself in the inner solar system, it won't be able to sustain the energy expenditure of the return journey.

However, "how to supplement" is indeed a difficult problem.

Generally, refueling stations are located near planetary orbits around the sun, at speeds roughly matching those of the planets to avoid gravitational disturbances. When the Protector's fleet needs refueling, these refueling stations will proactively accelerate their fuel storage tanks to a speed similar to the fleet's to replenish it.

The chivalrous forces fleet, on the other hand, must first slow down to a similar speed.

Otherwise, even if they manage to get fuel, they won't be able to replenish it.

Decelerating and re-accelerating also come at a cost. If the point of ending deceleration is not chosen well, it can easily lead to an attack by the enemy fleet.

Ascending towards the mountain path: "I recommend the vicinity of Mars. We have already completed the liberation of Mars, and due to David's personal preferences, there is a sufficient stockpile of fuel in the Martian region."

Li Wenyang nodded and noted down the suggestion.

"Furthermore..." The Ascended pointed towards the mountain and then at Jeanne, "I have something else to say about this young lady. Her ordeal was due to the illegal experiments conducted by the Six Dragons Cult. Now the Six Dragons Cult has been reorganized. I have taken over its leadership. Give me some time, and I can resolve her issues."

"Huh?" Jeanne was taken aback. "What do you mean?"

"Hey, hey, hey, investigating other people's privacy and reading their memories, do you have no bottom line at all?" Tumor Xiangshan shook his head.

"These are all memories of 'Xiangshan,' which are my own memories."

Tumor Xiangshan clicked his tongue in amazement: "Even by Xiangshan's standards, you're incredibly crazy."

"In short, even if Commander Li's target isn't Mars, young lady, you can choose to go solo. The cost of slowing down a solo mission is far less than slowing down a fleet. Give me a few dozen days, and I can guarantee I can reverse your condition," Xiang Shan said. "Without any cost. Consider this a compensation plan for the victims of the Six Dragons Cult."

Since he had inherited the memories and identity of the Six Dragons Cult Leader and wanted to completely change the Six Dragons Cult organization, Xiang Shan felt that there should be such a plan.

Jeanne was stunned again.

She came here prepared to die.

But now...

So he doesn't have to die?

An unprecedented emotion left her frozen in place. The virtual avatar's face kept twitching, as if there was a bug.

Liu Xiangshan patted Jeanne on the shoulder: "Congratulations, girl, congratulations. Remember this feeling, this is the true 'taste of victory'."

"I……"

Li Wenyang had already pulled up the space map of the inner solar system and begun his next step of thinking.

Just then, a captain strode up to Li Wenyang.

"Acting Commander, the Curiosity rover has been intruded upon. The number of intruders is unknown, but their individual combat capabilities are extremely high. Their identities have not yet been confirmed. Please take precautions."

"And comrades, I wish you victory in this battle."

After saying that, he lost all expression. All the officers on the Curiosity rover respawned at the edge of the field.

This is a signal confirming death. The system would not be set up this way if death had not been confirmed.

Li Wenyang paused for a moment, perhaps a hundredth of a second. He suddenly exhaled and said, "I see..."

Jeanne pressed, "What happened?"

“So that’s how it is… No wonder they had the upper hand…” Li Wenyang said in a low voice, “During the last wave, the Tianxing Fleet did not have any guards.”

Guardians can anticipate and deflect oncoming missiles from a distance. The mass a warship can carry is precious, and non-light-speed weapons have limited applications; therefore, only a minority of ships are equipped with kinetic energy projectiles. Missiles relying on warheads are far more common.

Top-tier warriors can thwart a small portion of a warship's offensive.

Because the relative speed was close to one percent of the speed of light, and the combat range was too open, and the warriors of the first level of heaven had excellent camouflage capabilities, the Black Ship Yi was unaware that the Heavenly Star Fleet lacked warriors.

An advisor reported, "No signs of the martial artist accelerating have been detected..."

"It was probably released at the other end of the solar system. After decelerating and cooling down there, it rushed along the inner edge of the asteroid belt," Li Wenyang pondered. "The bodies of first-level martial artists are very small, so the need for a light-speed highway is lower, and the cost of deceleration is also smaller."

"I see. King Agni's 'decisive battle stance' was probably for this purpose from the beginning. He wanted us to slow down to a speed even slower than that special squad. That way, they could sneak up on us silently..."

If the Black Ship's elite troops were to charge at full speed, this special operations team could also make a final acceleration. However, this would greatly increase the chances of being discovered.

The New Star Fleet was also a pawn to King Agni.

Ascending towards the mountain, he fell into deep thought. He was pondering something else.

"What exactly is that old dog Hartman doing this for? His strategic goal is..."

Without waiting for the ascendants to finish their thoughts, Li Wenyang immediately ordered all first-level warriors to move towards the flagship.

The acceleration costs for small mechs are much lower than those for fleets.

The enemy is a concentrated force of elites, and even first-level warriors cannot fight individually. All first-level warriors must be united as one.

Li Wenyang knew the correct way to deal with this kind of attack.

because……

This is precisely the tactic that the Sixth Martial God excels at.

Lure the enemy to change speed, the martial arts team silently approaches, and finally decapitates them.

Once they gather most of the first-level warriors in the entire fleet together, they can quickly destroy the fleet's command center.

At this point, the first priority is to protect the command center of our own fleet.

The Protector fleet even considered the option of "immediately destroying propellant and single-unit ammunition upon realizing that a rogue had boarded the ship." If the rogue tasked with the decapitation strike couldn't acquire enough propellant, even a successful strike might not guarantee their return.

The amount of propellant a single unit can carry is also limited.

However, Li Wenyang cannot replicate this tactic now.

If too much propellant is lost, the Black Ship will have to rely on non-propellant microwave propulsion for a slowdown that will take years to complete.

The other side also has portable supply depots.

This is space. The resupply of these squads could very well be kept at a relatively low speed due to inertia, just like the Black Ship Legion.

About ten minutes later, Jeanne saw Asgard back in the virtual space—she was piloting an auxiliary machine outside providing support.

Li Wenyang's face was extremely ugly.

The captain of the flagship, the "Launch," also came before him and said his farewells. Because the "Launch" was on guard, its crew was still putting up a fight, but it was only a matter of time before they were all wiped out.

At the same time, the entire space began to flicker.

But a few seconds later, the entire virtual space returned to calm.

"Luckily, I'm a cut above the rest." Xiang Shan nodded. "I'm now a complete replacement for that Zhu Xinyu."

In other words, the useless Ascended are no longer useful.

Li Wenyang looked on with a questioning gaze, while Xiang Shan explained, "They released some very new Gu curses, probably that old dog's trump card. But I defended against them all, that guy should be dead by now..."

If Xiang Shan hadn't been there, this attack would have likely forced the Black Ship Righteous Cavalry to reload their command system. While they wouldn't have been wiped out instantly, it would have certainly delayed their opportunity to strike.

At this moment, Jeanne noticed that the warriors on the other ships were all flashing, as if the signal was faulty.

Soon, someone reported: "A nuclear bomb reaction was detected on the outer casing of the engine."

Jeanne looked again at the captain of the Starter.

All the warriors on the launch ship have been deployed to the outer perimeter.

Xiang Shan immediately realized something: "Could it be that Old Dog's purpose is..."

If I had to make an excuse, it would be that a major life event happened during the May Day holiday: "meeting my girlfriend's parents." In short, I'm very sorry.

However, the train of thought seemed to make sense all the way to the end.

Sigh, I wanted to write an excellent space warfare story, so I crammed on some military and science fiction novels, but this is the best I could do in the end. This is probably the limit of my abilities.

I originally thought it should at least have the sense of urgency and destiny of the Battle of Yaoshan in "Shao Song" by Egg Spirit Emperor, but it still can't satisfy me right now.

Finally, here's a no-prize guessing game: how many days from now will the next update be?