Him and their stars.

Chapter 2091 Advancing Regardless of Everything
King Werrent admitted he genuinely didn't understand either. After being freed from the protection of that ghost warship, weren't the remaining Earth warships just remnants of defeated troops withdrawn from the New World? If we exclude the torpedo ships—whether this new type even qualifies as a warship is still quite controversial—there were only about thirty of them, big and small.

The largest warships were just regular aircraft carriers.

However, they did indeed split their forces.

The Silent Ship, like a knight charging towards a dragon, charged relentlessly towards the fortress, seemingly ready to stage a heroic feat of single-handedly taking on the fortress. However, the other warships began maneuvering along their orbits in the outer space of the seventh planet, as if they were running a marathon.

“If they circle around another halfway, they’ll enter the range of Gravity Well No. 2. Are they trying to escape back to Shengyuan via the Breeze Path? That’s fine, they’ll run straight into General Nobof’s fleet,” King Werrent laughed.

This was, of course, the most logical conclusion. However, he also knew that every Earthling who had fought their way here was a loyal and courageous person; every one of them was prepared to fight to the death. How could they possibly abandon their commander and flee?

"So, the plan is to have the Ghosts destroy the fortress, while they are responsible for fighting our fleet?"

This is certainly a deduction that aligns with reality, but it simply doesn't make sense.

Yes, the vast empire was "out of troops," and the imperial fleet deployed at Chenxiao Fortress was less than ten times the size of that small fleet, seemingly rather meager. However, this was, after all, a mobile fleet composed of large and medium-sized modern warships! It consisted of six carriers and twelve battlecruisers!

There is still the mighty Abyss Dragon Titan.

Even if you are enemies, you can't insult the glorious Imperial Space Fleet like this, can you?
Or is there another ghost lurking in your fragile little fleet?
Thinking about it this way, it seems we really can't ignore this possibility! At this point, King Werrent couldn't help but shudder. Looking at General Yelik opposite him, his expression seemed even more grave; he must have been thinking of the same problem.

"It is indeed possible, but it is probably impossible," the veteran general reassured the Dragon King with a dry laugh.

King Werrent glanced at the old knight commander again, but the latter's expression remained quite calm, and he even encouraged him with a spirited look that was completely out of character for a centenarian.

"Go for it! Be bold and do it! A true dragon king should believe in himself, especially on the battlefield." He conveyed this meaning with his eyes.

Go, Yukiko the Demon King! Where can I even cheer her on?

Of course, the above is all King Werrent's imagination, but he felt that he had guessed it pretty accurately.

He finally made his decision: "Have Admiral Parosson closely monitor the enemy fleet's movements. Have the battlecruiser and carrier groups monitor the enemy. Also, the Yuanlong must not make any rash moves!"

He ultimately did not adopt the suggestion of allowing the "fleet commander to make his own decision."

However, both General Yelik and Knight Commander Migakke naturally accepted the order and showed full respect to King Werrent, the supreme commander.

Even so, King Wei still felt a sense of defeat. If he were Brunhilde, wouldn't he have made a more decisive and resolute decision?
But I could only react to their moves and had to divide my forces, feeling like I was dancing to the tune of the enemy.

But all I could do was console myself that against such an enemy, minimizing losses was a victory in itself. As long as I held firm, there would always be a way. Besides, I didn't necessarily have to…

No, if it were Brunhilde, she would have already led her fleet into battle herself. Even against that ghost ship, she would never be afraid to engage in hand-to-hand combat with warships.

Or rather, it is precisely because they are ghosts that they have value in bayonet fighting on warships.

Even as a political enemy, King Velent had to admit that if a born dragon king truly existed, it would be her.

"...But, Brin, times have changed!" Who could have imagined that what should have been a small-scale war of conquest would evolve into the prelude to a great era for the entire universe? How could the Galactic Empire remain unaffected?

"Your Highness?"

King Werrent heard the old knight commander calling him and quickly regained his attention: "Where are the enemy ships?"

"She is still approaching at a speed no less than that of the third charge. She has already moved out of Thor's Pestle's firing range. To avoid losses, I have moved Thor's Pestle towards sector A."

"Well done!" The Emperor Elector said calmly and methodically, "Order all Type 3 turrets in the fortress to enter combat readiness and concentrate in the D sector."

At this moment, he finally showed some of the qualities of a wise and decisive military commander.

His orders were quickly relayed.

A minute later, dozens more spherical devices, each large enough to fill half a celestial stadium, rose from the fluid metal layer on the surface of Chenxiao Fortress, like hemispherical reefs growing on a calm "sea." Although enormous, they were all silver, perfectly matching the color of the "sea," even appearing somewhat integrated with it.

They quickly converged on a certain area, still exuding a certain aura.

However, when they actually concentrated in a certain area, they all stopped moving forward.

During this period, the ever-advancing Silent Ship had already completed its third and fourth salvos at the fluid metal outer wall of Chenxiao Fortress.

An invisible aura of energy had already stirred up a tsunami on that heavy sea of ​​metal, but no one knew how many floating turrets that couldn't retreat in time were silently destroyed within it.

In those brief two minutes of attack and defense, Chenxiao Fortress was even in an awkward, passive position, constantly on the defensive.

However, the subsequent two rounds of shelling, while seemingly boiling the fluid metal, significantly reduced the direct damage. The fortress's main structure, hidden beneath the metal layer, remained completely unscathed.

During this process, the No. 3 turrets, which had just surfaced, were cautiously approaching the range of the arc guns. This was a process of adjusting the firing arc, and the target could only be the approaching Silent.

Meanwhile, the Enlightened One had already informed the commander of the new developments.

"We have captured the latest developments of the enemy fortress."

The image clearly showed the hemispherical devices swimming in the sea of ​​liquid metal. The Silent One's advanced sensing system clearly outlined each of them, leaving them nowhere to hide.

Eleanor watched the scene on the screen and felt like she was a group of archerfish.

However, although they look a bit comical, they are probably the most dangerous group of archerfish.

"This is a new type of Type 3 floating turret with an optical coating, giving it a certain degree of stealth capability," Deng Zhengqing explained.

"They're trying to launch a sneak attack." Captain Nemo gritted his teeth. "Those Imperial devils are so despicable!"

Strictly speaking, Commander Yu's favorite tactic now is to use the Silent Ship with its stealth field and mass dissipation field to lurk in the distance and launch surprise attacks with the arc cannon, but the captain never thinks it is despicable.

This is not a double standard, but a fact, a relationship between justice and injustice.

In short, as a new type of weapon of the Empire, it is not limited to the ability to traverse liquid metal layers. Nor does it fire concentrated light spears and floods of ion beams; instead, it emits sustained and intense pulses of gamma rays, essentially a large number of miniature "Thor's pestles." Given their smaller size, it is only natural that their power is unremarkable.

However, since it's a salvo, the combined power is not to be underestimated, and the extremely high rate of fire will naturally last for a longer period. Once a salvo occurs, it will probably instantly create an artificial supernova storm.

The above are, of course, simulation results from the Silent Ship's onboard tactical terminal.

Then, the tactical terminal displayed a new image on the screen, composed of various simple yet clear lines, which at first glance looked like a high school geometry problem.

Several cone-shaped three-dimensional fan-shaped projections appeared from the spherical icon representing the fortress, but they remained outside the predetermined orbit of the Silent Ship.

"Given the current position of these turrets, even if they were to fire, it would be difficult for them to hit us directly."

"The extent of the energy storm's spread is difficult to estimate, but even if it does hit the warship's armor, it will at most cause some degree of burning."

Everyone is already very familiar with the performance of the Silent One. The so-called "a certain degree of burning" obviously refers to "burning that can be directly repaired by nanomechanics".

To put it bluntly, the actions of these No. 3 turrets were less about preparing for a sneak attack and more about using artillery fire to block all possible evasive maneuvers for the Silent Ship.

Eleanor was well aware of this: "Where is the enemy fortress's main gun?"

"We've left Area C. However, at our current speed, we'll be within 60 seconds of the anti-aircraft secondary guns."

In fact, the Silent One is now within range of sub-light-speed missiles.

Missiles, armed with various deadly warheads, swarmed in from all directions like a frenzied swarm of wasps. However, when they were still quite a distance from their target, they were all caught in the invisible light bands constantly circling around the Silent One and immediately exploded on the spot, unable to even get close to the defensive circle formed by the robots.

Explosions continued to rise not far from the Silent Ship, illuminating the starry sky and even blowing away much of the mosaic tiles still dancing on the ship's hull.

They charged forward aboard their giant ships, still like willow leaves fluttering in a storm.

If it were someone else, they might actually be so thrilled by the danger of navigating through mountains of knives and seas of fire that their movements would become distorted.

However, the Earth soldiers on the Silent One were already used to this.

They walk through danger and fear, and they laugh at everything to their faces.

They had been working with this imposing Enlightener for a long time. They were also well aware that, from any perspective, there was really no danger at the moment.

"Keep moving!" Eleanor calmly ordered. Yu Lian had already told herself what to do before leaving.

Unless a crisis arises that could sink the warship on the spot, the course of action is to advance, regardless of the consequences, to reach the designated position.

At this moment, in the fortress's C sector directly in front of the Silent Ship, a dozen or so turrets still floated up from the thick metal layer and began firing. They were the survivors that had been swept away by the four rounds of fierce arc cannons, but almost every cannon's hovering base was still flashing with electric sparks, giving them a tragic sense of being heavily wounded but still fighting on the front lines.

Even though it was hiding in a thick sea of ​​metal, it was still attacked by high-dimensional energy. That's what makes the arc cannon so terrifying.

They were still alive even after being hit by four rounds of artillery fire; that's the mystery of the arc gun.

They finally opened fire, with everything from railguns to particle cannons, though the firepower was somewhat sparse. In fact, until now, the Silent One had not entered the effective firing range of these "common" secondary guns, but according to the Imperial Military Manual, once it entered the effective attack range, the bombardment could begin.

This serves as a deterrent, pressure, and denial to the enemy, and also effectively limits their mobility.

However, despite the shelling, the Silent One continued to advance. It seemed that it had already convinced that the main guns of the fortress had been bombarded and dared not show themselves, so it simply ignored the attacks from the secondary guns and began to move in a straight line.

The giant ship began its charge, as if entering the fiercest phase of a fleet battle. However, the target of the charge was not another enemy ship, but a well-defended fortress.

Isn't that a bit too overconfident? And is this a straight-line charge without even putting on an act?

The secondary gunners, perhaps feeling insulted, continued their futile but vigorous shelling, adding a tragic element to the atmosphere.

A few energy clusters and railgun shells eventually approached the still-moving behemoth, but were deflected by the invisible shield long before reaching a safe distance, failing to slow the target down even slightly.

"What a brave gunner!" Captain Nemo couldn't help but praise, then, with a face full of satisfaction, commanded, "Nanometer Hive Missiles, fire!"

He acted as if "the fiercer the enemy, the more excited I am," and he wasn't even pretending anymore.

This time, what emerged from the front of the Silent One was no longer the undetectable spatial ripples and the invisible energy python, but hundreds of missiles.

They are only the length of an adult's arm, yet they carry powerful warheads. More importantly, each missile contains a guidance and propulsion system made of nanomechanical components. Rather than ordinary sublight-speed missiles, they are more like the cell divisions of the Silent One, naturally making them more accurate and farther-reaching.

So who says the Silent One only uses its long-range arc cannon to bully others? All the weapons she carries can shoot farther and are more powerful than others.

The circular turrets that launched a tragic counterattack against the charging giant ship were thus destroyed in the sea of ​​liquid metal.

By this time, the brilliant silver "sea" had turned red, not only reflecting the red light of the distant nebula, but also covered with the remains of a large number of melted turrets, like thick red paint.

Of course, there are also light curtains formed by gamma rays that suddenly rise from a greater distance.

The boiling energy, appearing purplish-red in the vacuum, suddenly rose from beneath the "sea level" of the metallic fluid, transforming into a curtain of light that ignited the starry sky, like hellfire polluting heaven from the abyss.

Meanwhile, on the bridge of the Silent, the intelligence officer reported: "High-energy reaction detected in Sector D. It's the recently assembled Type 3 turret group, firing in unison!"

However, while such a salvo was spectacular, it could not cause any direct damage to the Silent Ship.

And that was indeed the case. Just as the ship's onboard terminal had analyzed, the temperature inside the warship did rise slightly, but that was all.

"What is this...?" Captain Nemo had just begun to ask in confusion when Eleanor had already realized what was going on.

Where is the enemy fleet?

Before she could receive a response, the automatic shipboard alarm on the bridge suddenly blared, followed by a report from her subordinates: "High-energy reaction at 4 o'clock! It's a light spear cannon!"