The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge.

Chapter 2632 The Battle of Bilbulin (Part 5)
2632. The Battle of Bilbo Nimbus (Part 5)

On the battlefield of Bilbulin, two Eternal-class supercarriers have finally been deployed!
Strictly speaking, these two Wangu-class supercarriers were only prototypes, trial versions, not the final models.

The Archon-class supercarrier is actually a successor to the Archon-class aircraft carrier. Its basic structure, viewed from the front, is L-shaped. The lower part is essentially an enlarged version of the Archon-class aircraft carrier, serving as the hangar, while a massive, full-volume island superstructure stands atop it.

The hangar and island are arranged in a 90-degree L-shape. The entire towering island is like a small town, containing all the systems and personnel needed to support the aircraft carrier and its carrier-based aircraft in combat.

On that massive, full-volume island superstructure, not only was an additional antimatter energy reactor installed, but the flight control command center, crew quarters, aircraft factory, and additional weapon systems were also moved there. This freed up more space in the hangar below to deploy carrier-based aircraft, allowing the prototype Eternal-class carrier to carry up to 1000 aircraft!
To enhance the combat capabilities of the Banko-class supercarriers, command pulse wave projectors were installed on the warships. This equipment can remotely link all carrier-based aircraft launched from the ship, and depending on different combat situations, it can choose to provide additional voltage coating to the carrier-based aircraft's armor, assist carrier-based aircraft in target locking, or provide carrier-based aircraft with additional shield capacity.

With the help of the command pulse wave projector, the entire carrier's aircraft formation is completely integrated and can receive assistance from the mother ship at any time.

Meanwhile, the Banko-class supercarriers have also enhanced their electronic warfare capabilities, enabling them to launch EMP pulse waves at targets to jam enemy ships' electronic systems. They are also equipped with long-range sensor jammers; if friendly aircraft are targeted by enemy fire control radar, this device can use directional jamming to allow the aircraft to break free of the enemy ship's lock-on.

Furthermore, the Eternal-class supercarrier is also an armored carrier. It is equipped with thick, electrically clad armor, giving it protection capabilities approaching those of the Divine Revelation-class battleships. This formidable defense allows the Eternal-class to conduct fighter take-off and landing operations in extremely harsh combat environments.

The Dawn Kingdom's operational requirements for the Eternal-class supercarrier are that this warship can provide solid support for fleet operations in highly complex battle situations. Most importantly, it should not require a portion of its forces to be diverted to protect the carrier during combat.

This requirement stems from the Dawn Kingdom's Supreme Command's understanding that, currently and in the future, the Dawn Kingdom's fleet will often find itself in a numerically disadvantaged position, or in a counterinsurgency environment where the enemy is in the shadows and we are in the open.

The Dawn Kingdom's current hypothetical enemies include the Galactic Empire, the Rebel Alliance, the New Republic, the Yuzhan Vong, and the Kylik, all of whom will pose a fatal threat to the vulnerable aircraft carriers to varying degrees, thus forcing the Kingdom to send additional warships to protect them.

Therefore, enhanced protection capabilities allow the Vango-class aircraft carriers to meet most of their operational needs.

Furthermore, the finalized Eternal-class supercarrier should be a Titan-class warship with a length exceeding 8000 meters, capable of carrying up to 5000 aircraft! A single such true supercarrier would be sufficient to support the operational needs of the entire star sector.

The two prototype Eternal-class aircraft carriers currently in use are actually for technical certification. Their length of only 4600 meters is because they are upgraded and modified from two Archon-class aircraft carriers. A total of five fully-fledged Eternal-class supercarriers have been officially approved for construction, and they are currently located in five different shipyards within the Dawn Kingdom.

However, even the prototype Eternal-class supercarriers changed the course of the battle as soon as these two warships arrived at the battlefield on Bilbrin planet, guided by the hyperspace beacon of the Divine Messenger Titan warship!

Upon arriving at the battlefield, the two Eternal-class supercarriers immediately turned sideways, using their towering island superstructures to block the view from the front. Meanwhile, inside the hangar platforms, within the ten catapult launch hatches, rows of fighter jets were already lined up, ready for takeoff at any moment.

The arrival of the new warships prompted the Galactic Empire's fleet to begin bombarding the two Eternal-class vessels. However, all attacks were blocked by the towering island superstructures, and powerful deflector shields rippled with energy waves, neutralizing the energy of the attacks. They couldn't even budge the warships an inch!
With Admiral Trench's order, the captains of each ship also issued the order to attack!
All that could be seen was a 200-meter-long electromagnetic acceleration corridor that began to light up section by section in a catapult launch hatch. Immediately afterward, a Sabre-type fighter jet began to accelerate. After 20 electromagnetic accelerations, its acceleration reached 100G, and it was launched like a cannonball!
With such a takeoff speed, coupled with the protection of the island superstructure, the taking-off fighter formations would have no chance of being locked onto by enemy ship fire. It's important to understand that in interstellar warfare, the actual engagement distance between the two sides is less than one-tenth of the maximum range of their respective weapons.

For example, the Galactic Empire's ancestral XX-9 heavy turbolaser cannon has a maximum range of ten light-minutes, but generally, the battlefield in fleet operations is within one light-minute, and most of the time it's around five light-seconds. Therefore, under such circumstances, there are almost no true rear guards on the battlefield.

Unless you can fire with a particle lance from tens of light-separated distances like a catastrophe-class or a Paladin-class, that's what you call being in the back row.

Therefore, at this moment, carrier-based aircraft that have just taken off from the aircraft carrier are already within the enemy's fire range, making them extremely vulnerable. Their speed hasn't picked up, and their takeoff position is relatively fixed; who else would they target but them?
Early warships hadn't considered this issue, so many carrier-based aircraft were destroyed shortly after takeoff. Therefore, during the Clone Wars, Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker invented a unique method to compensate for this shortcoming: positioning the hull of the Jagdpanzer-class battlecruisers forward to provide cover for fighter takeoffs.

His opponent at the time was none other than Admiral Trench, the current commander-in-chief of the Northern Fleet of the Kingdom of Dawn.

Later aircraft carriers, such as the Tracker-class of the Galactic Empire and the Sova-class and Archon-class of the Dawn Kingdom, began to use electromagnetic acceleration to allow fighters to launch directly at a faster speed, reducing the disadvantage of being locked on immediately after takeoff.

The current Eternal-class supercarriers simply use their towering island superstructure as a shield.

The Eternal-class can launch 10 fighter jets at once, with only about 20 seconds between launches. After entering the battlefield, it quickly launched more than 500 fighter jets within minutes. These fighter jets, which were already accelerated to almost the maximum speed that the pilots could withstand, quickly joined the battle.

This is also the most fatal moment!
The Galactic Empire's first wave of fighter squadrons had just completed an attack, exhausting their shock missiles and proton torpedoes, and were on their way back!

Their first wave of fighter squadrons, now numbering around 1100, is frantically speeding back to their mothership for resupply and maintenance before preparing for the next wave of attacks.

These fighters and bombers, having just completed numerous tactical maneuvers during the previous attack, including a 180-degree turn after firing all their ammunition while simultaneously evading anti-aircraft fire, are now generally only around 20G to 30G, less than a third the acceleration of carrier-based aircraft launched from the Eternal-class supercarriers! The first batch of fighters includes 150 Sabre fighters, 100 Ghost fighters, 100 Viking fighters, and 50 F-41 Claymore fighters.

This setup is clearly aimed at the Galactic Empire's fighter squadron!

The Sabre fighters were the fastest, catching up with the Galactic Empire's fighter formation in less than three minutes after takeoff. These fighters were all ace pilots who had joined the Rebirth Project, seasoned veterans, some even having died multiple times. In almost a single exchange, dozens of Galactic Empire TIE advanced fighters were shot down.

Immediately afterwards, the Sabre fighters charged into the Imperial fighter formation like tigers among sheep, unleashing a completely asymmetrical massacre!

In modern air combat, systems reign supreme! The Sabre fighter jet is not only equipped with the most advanced intelligent auxiliary AI, but also with advanced sensors, fire control radar, and electronic countermeasures systems.

Moreover, as soon as the fighter jets took off, they received a command pulse wave boost from the Wan Gu-class aircraft carrier, allowing the super photonic computer on the Wan Gu-class supercarrier to share computing power with all carrier-based aircraft, improving the combat effectiveness of the auxiliary AI, and at the same time providing these fighter jets with an additional energy shield through remote energy transmission!
With such assistance, the Sabre Fighter is practically a god of war! The Galactic Empire's TIE advanced fighters, whose performance far surpasses that of the TIE/LN light fighters and is much stronger than the Dawn Kingdom's Ghost fighters, are almost stationary and transparent in front of the Sabre Fighter!
Fireballs erupted, and TIE advanced fighter jets were blown to pieces.

Now, the Imperial fighter squadrons are not even able to pick up speed. After the first wave of attacks shot down hundreds of fighters, the Dawn Kingdom's fighter squadrons were even able to rush ahead of the Imperial fighters at three times the speed, turn around, and launch a second wave of attacks head-on!
This time, the losses of TIE advanced fighter jets were even more severe!

Although the face-to-face attack allowed the TIE advanced fighters to fire back, the vast majority of their shock missiles were intercepted. With the command pulse wave enhancement from the Eternal-class supercarrier, the Dawn Kingdom's fighter formations provided alternating cover, making intercepting incoming missiles a piece of cake.

However, the blast cannons fired by the TIE advanced fighters were all blocked by the energy shields of the enemy fighters! Not only was the long-range shield of the Eternal-class supercarrier enhanced, but at this moment, the Taotie Titan warship also deployed its fleet shields once again.

The pale green light screen that appeared simultaneously on all warships and fighters within range was a light of utter despair for the pilots of the Galactic Empire!
Meanwhile, the Ghost fighter squadron was targeting the Galactic Empire's bomber squadron. This included TIE bombers and a small number of Y-wing bombers carried over from the Galactic Republic's naval armament during the Clone Wars.

The advanced TIE bombers were alright, as their protection was still quite good. But the thinly armored and heavily fortified Y-wing bombers were complete sitting ducks at this time!

The escorting TIE advanced fighters were overwhelmed by the Sabre-class fighters and unable to provide much cover for the bomber formation. Even the outdated Ghost fighters were rendered obsolete by the enhanced command pulse waves from the Eternal-class supercarrier, making them a completely outclassed threat.
Witnessing this horrific scene, Galactic Empire Admiral Holster-Stretch immediately ordered his fighter squadrons to scatter and flee, while simultaneously launching a second wave of 800 fighters to reinforce them. He also ordered the 40 Defender-class heavy cruisers in the squadron to advance rapidly and provide fire support for his fighter squadrons.

Meanwhile, within the frigate formation, Admiral Streich also ordered 100 DP-20 anti-aircraft gunboats and 100 VT-49 assault gunboats to provide reinforcements.

These warships are equipped with light firepower and state-of-the-art fire control systems, enabling them to effectively counter enemy fighters.

By this time, the Empire's first fighter squadron had lost more than half of its units, and the sky was filled with fragments of fighter planes and the twisted corpses of pilots.

What drove the remaining Imperial fighters to despair was that their firepower was inferior to their opponents, their defenses were inferior, and their speed was far superior. Their only fate was slaughter.

After the third round of attacks within the Imperial fighter formation, more than 700 aircraft had been destroyed. Most of the remaining Imperial fighters had lost their original formations and were fighting independently, scattering and fleeing.

So far, the Dawn Kingdom's fighter jets have suffered only a mere 50-odd losses! And the losses of the Sabre-type fighter jets are zero!

After the damaged fighters retreated, the remaining fighters, under the command of the most advanced flight control system, quickly regrouped within seconds, then dispersed to encircle and rush towards the Galactic Empire's capital fleet.

Holster-Stretch's anti-aircraft warships launched a full-scale interception, while the Dawn Kingdom's fighters did not linger in combat. They began a wide-ranging maneuver, attempting to evade the anti-aircraft warships' blockade. Even if those warships tried to catch up, once separated from their formation, they would be slaughtered by the Dawn Kingdom's fleet!

After eliminating the threat of enemy fighters, Admiral Trench reorganized his fleet in preparation for adjusting the battlefield situation.

At this moment, the fourth wave of reinforcements has arrived!

Two more Prophet-class battleships arrived, and as always, they charged straight to the front of the battle line and activated their battle formation.

The situation began to improve, and General Trench finally gave the order, "Tsk tsk tsk tsk... Doomsday weapon, begin charging!!"