From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 657 Detonation
The Federation Navy Fleet would not compromise on executing Marshal Trafalgar's orders, so after sending one fleet to continue pursuing the Atlas fleet, the remaining two fleets accelerated directly towards the 'Eternity'.

However, after having a cordial exchange with Trafalgar, Amber was no longer panicked. Like a truck driver, she leaned calmly in the captain's seat and watched the images sent back by the observation unit at the rear of the ship on the screen.

That is to say, the driving of the Eternal has now been handed over to Cerise, otherwise Amber would have to sit in the helmsman's seat and steer the ship with one hand.
At the same time, the main fleet in the distance also entered the final stage of the jump. Although the federal fleet caught up and entered the attack distance and began to attack with charged particle cannons and high-energy lasers, the huge and complex ionized environment of the outer layer of Alpha Serpens also caused most of the light beams to deviate from the established orbit.

The few high-energy lasers that hit the target could not cause enough damage in a short period of time at this distance, so a series of flashes caused by space fluctuations appeared at the location of the Atlas fleet a few seconds later.

Amber: "Finally, 52% were successfully evacuated. Tsk, this loss is still too great."

Before Amber could finish her sigh, the pursuing federal fleet began jumping without hesitation according to the received jump signature code.

Judging from the size of the fleet, Amber also guessed that Marshal Trafalgar should have sent the fleet with the least casualties among the three fleets.

Without the support of the 'Eternity', the remaining half of the Atlas Fleet was indeed no match for the fully staffed Federation main fleet.

This has nothing to do with tactical confrontation, personnel training, hardware configuration or the like. It is simply a simple math problem. The gap in power and firepower projection between the two sides is so large that it cannot be made up for in other aspects.

Of course, this is under normal circumstances.

And since Amber dared to let this half of the remnants of the army escape with a full fleet, it must be because the situation in the destination galaxy was not normal.

But Amber didn't have time to worry about the problem of this half fleet. When this area of ​​space outside Alpha Serpens returned to peace, the final drama of this battle finally began.

And he and the "Eternity" became the final protagonists of this drama.
-
"Marshal, the reconnaissance ship has confirmed that there are no other ships in the space near Serpens Alpha. It seems that the fleet of the Atlas Group has really abandoned their supreme commander and fled."

On the bridge of the HMS Dreadnought, Admiral Carroll looked at the reconnaissance report that had just been sent back, and quickly and concisely informed Marshal Trafalgar of the key points.

Who knew that after hearing this, the latter frowned and said with a complicated expression:

"Carol, you know, I still can't believe that he really stayed alone. This approach is completely different from the big corporate controllers I know."

"Indeed. Those people don't have the guts to fight us to death."

Admiral Carol couldn't help but sigh. If such a person was placed in the Federal Navy, he would naturally be very happy, but the problem is that now they are enemies to the death, which is very frustrating.
"So we have to kill him today to avoid any more trouble."

Marshal Trafalgar said this in a decisive tone, staring intently at the main screen, where the 'Eternity' was escaping quickly in front of the fleet.

"Quick! Boys, hurry up! Catch up and tear this ship into pieces!"

On the other side, under Amber's order, the "Eternity" also took all weapon units offline, and the deflection force field generator array of this super flag was also shut down. After all, as the orbital altitude gradually decreased, the complex atmospheric environment of Alpha Serpens became the most natural shield.

All other unnecessary subsystems were also shut down, and all the ship's energy was now concentrated on the power unit and the ship's cooling system. While struggling to use the gravity of this huge gas planet to play a game of chase with the federal fleet, it was also constantly resisting the increasingly high temperature.

So in the eyes of Marshal Trafalgar and Admiral Carroll, the desperate 'Eternity' didn't know whether it was captured by the gravity of Alpha Serpens or its power unit was temporarily repaired. In any case, it was accelerating again to try to get rid of them.

However, the Federal Fleet, unwilling to be outdone, increased the output power of its power units, whether its warships were injured or intact, under the order of Marshal Trafalgar, and headed straight for the "Eternity".

The warships in the vanguard position almost followed closely behind, deep into the atmosphere of Alpha Serpens, and also continued to chase the 'Eternity' while resisting the complex gravitational environment and high temperature. At the same time, another group of warships were moving forward at a higher speed in a higher orbit to outflank the left and right wings and the front of the 'Eternity', intending to occupy the 'wide side' shooting position while blocking all possible escape routes of the 'Eternity'.

Seeing this, Amber did not retreat as Trafalgar and others had guessed, and the "Eternity" did not adjust its course to break out of the siege with the help of the gravity of Alpha Serpens. Instead, it continued to descend in altitude and headed towards the atmosphere of this huge gas planet, never to return.

On the surface, it seemed that after the power unit was affected, it could no longer escape the huge gravitational force of the "Eye of Serpens" and embarked on a path of no return.
"Warning, the surface temperature of the ship is too high! The coolant currently remains at 62%50%48%"

"Warning, due to the influence of the planet's gravity, the current orbit has deviated and is being corrected!"

"Warning, the power unit has been running at high power for a long time, please pay attention to the operating conditions!"

Warning messages continued to sound on the bridge of the 'Eternity', and every time a warning was raised by the ship's controller Gatheris, she would start to deal with it at the same time. At this moment, the massive 'worker bees' and large engineering robots scattered throughout the ship became her hands and feet, and began to continuously repair the problems that appeared in various parts of the ship.

In fact, both the Infinity and the Dawn have this ability of 'one person controlling one ship', but the combat environment and content of the two ships before are still somewhat different from now, so there is no need to adopt this immature ability. If the shipboard control personality accidentally destroys the ship, there will be no place to cry.

Therefore, only at this moment when there is no need to use weapons, detection and other units, Amber dares to completely hand over the control of the battleship to the shipboard control personality.

Under the control of one person and one AI, the "Eternity" continued to lower its orbit. As the temperature rose, the outer armor belt at the bottom of the ship was affected first.

In fact, it stands to reason that the outermost armor belt of human warships has a high degree of temperature tolerance in order to adapt to the complex environment in space, but this tolerance is generally instantaneous, and the nano-memory metal material will also repair the lattice after being damaged.

But the current situation of being thrown into the 'oven' is obviously much more troublesome. The longer the 'Eternity' stays in the Alpha Serpens orbit and the lower its altitude, the lower the efficiency of repairing the nano-memory metal material will be, and in the end it may even go on strike.

Fortunately, at this moment, the only place on the "Eternity" that is needed to ensure human survival is the bridge.

Therefore, even if the bottom cabin of the ship was burned through, the actual impact on the Eternal was not as great as imagined.
Of course, Amber would not continue to take such risks. After all, he was really risking his life and there was no need to push himself to such an extreme.

"Lilith, Ceris, what's going on? Has the federal fleet entered the killing range?" Amber asked as she looked at the federal fleet getting closer and closer in the rear view.

"I guarantee it, Master. Launch all the tactical nuclear weapons that the Eternity is carrying. It will be enough to trigger an unpredictable and violent reaction. The entire gaseous planet will explode extremely violently starting from the core."

Lilith answered quickly, and then added as if to confirm:
"But Master, if it really explodes, Alpha Serpens might not exist anymore. Are you sure you want to blow it up?"

"Why should I care so much now?" Amber smiled helplessly, and then continued: "It's okay. At least in most people's observations, it can still shine for hundreds or thousands of years~"

Lilith couldn't help but pout after hearing these words: "Master, what you said doesn't make sense at first, and it's extremely irresponsible after listening carefully~"

As he was speaking, the Eternity suddenly trembled. Amber looked up and saw that the Federation Fleet had launched a round of long-range main gun salvos.

It seemed that they realized that they could not cause enough damage to the "Eternity" with charged particle cannons and high-energy lasers, so they decided to try their luck with the main guns.

However, the strong magnetic field in the atmosphere of Alpha Serpens completely scattered the high-speed heavy metal particle jets, and the vibration just now was just the sound of some "near misses" passing by the ship.

"It seems that the other party can't wait any longer."

Amber looked at the Federation fleet on the main screen of the bridge. From the front, they were still flashing. This was the secondary weapon group of the other warships trying to attack. "Okay, Lilith, use 'Flame Fist' on the Federation fleet!"

"Master, where did you get this old joke from?"

Lilith started to complain as she listened to Amber's words, but she understood Amber's example at the speed of light. As soon as the latter finished speaking, she and Ceris, who maintained the "three no" attributes, began to deploy tactical nuclear weapons.

As the Renaissance Alliance occupied more and more galaxies, the Atlas Group also obtained a stable source of nuclear weapons, just as Marshal Trafalgar had guessed.

With the help of Saleh, the "interstellar robot cat", Atlas engineers also improved these nuclear weapons, and eventually turned them into "Catastrophe-class" tactical nuclear bombs loaded into the "Infinity-class" super flagship.

Six fusion warheads are wrapped in lithium chloride armor using a special process. When this nuclear bomb is detonated, it will compress the fissionable material to the density of a neutron star and greatly increase the energy generated by the thermonuclear nucleus. This technology, which is already outdated for the Forerunner civilization, will be extremely terrifying for the enhancement of the power of human nuclear weapons.

Soon, 312 tactical nuclear bombs that had already been transported to multi-purpose launch silos by transfer devices were launched towards the core of Alpha Serpens at certain intervals.

The atmosphere of the gas planet Alpha Serpens is mainly composed of hydrogen and helium, with a density that increases gradually from the outside to the inside, and is thicker than you can imagine.

As these tactical nuclear bombs with boosters struggled to pass through, they rubbed violently against the high-speed, turbulent undercurrent-like gases, leaving behind long flame trails like comet tails, which were particularly eye-catching against the dark backdrop of the universe.

The federal fleet, which had shortened the distance between the two sides to 6000 kilometers, also detected the action of the "Eternity".

After seeing this scene, Marshal Trafalgar immediately understood what Amber wanted to do. The hairs on his body stood up and he couldn't help but shiver.

"This guy wants to drag us to be buried with him?!"

"Marshal, should we make an emergency jump and evacuate?"

Admiral Carol was also panicked at this time. He never expected Amber to do this.

But Admiral Carol didn't know that Amber was not the only one who could do this.

He has another one beside him.
Marshal Trafalgar was holding the armrests of the command seat tightly with both hands. If it was his true heart, he would rather die with Amber than not make sure that this great enemy of the Federation died completely.

But he is not the only one here. There are also nearly two fleets of the Federal Navy. They are all living beings. If they die here because of his "great sacrifice", it would be too selfish.

The few seconds of struggle between the conscience and the man seemed as long as dozens of minutes to others. This tense atmosphere continued until Trafalgar sighed and gave an order.

"All fleets, maximum speed, leave Serpens Alpha orbit, prepare for emergency jump!"

"Report! Affected by the planet's gravity, the time it takes for the fleet to escape orbit will be greatly increased! The current speed increase rate is only 50% of the normal rate!"

The navigator's words made Trafalgar and Carol fall silent. They realized at this moment that Amber had been seducing them from the beginning. At this moment, the federal fleet had already penetrated too deep into the orbit of Alpha Serpens. The vanguard pursuit warships had even rushed into the upper atmosphere and could not escape for a while.

But that's not the only bad news.
"Report! The enemy ship has begun to accelerate significantly! Space fluctuation characteristics have been detected. The enemy... The enemy ship is going to make a jump?!!"

"What? How is this possible!"

This time Admiral Carol cried out in surprise, and then he and Marshal Trafalgar saw a scene they had never expected to see on the optical composite image on the main screen.

The "Eternity" was like a dragon taking off its armor, continuously discarding large numbers of modules and fragments, and in the process increasing its speed with an unimaginable efficiency.

The multi-purpose silo module that had emptied all its ammunition, the anti-aircraft weapon group of the entire ship, the storage module on the lower side of the middle section of the ship, the hangar module, and even the deployment bay module were gradually detached in the process of disassembling like building blocks, directly exposing a large number of titanium alloy frames inside the ship and the external protective layer of the fusion reactor group. The entire battleship looked like a giant whale with all its flesh and blood removed.
The total mass of the ship continued to decrease during this process, and the power units running at full power maintained a steady output, which made the acceleration higher and higher. Eventually, the super flag ship "Eternity" rapidly raised its orbit in a way that stunned the Federation fleet, and then disappeared in a violent space fluctuation.

However, the 312 "disaster-level" tactical nuclear bombs that penetrated deep into the core of Alpha Serpens also happened to reach the detonation point in the core of the planet at this time.

The first nuclear bomb was detonated first. In the extremely high temperature and high pressure environment of the planet's core, the explosion of this nuclear bomb was like a speck of dust thrown into a raging sea, instantly stirring up a thousand layers of huge waves. Then, like a domino effect, the second and third bombs exploded.
The tremendous energy was like a prehistoric beast that had broken free from its thousand-year confinement, wreaking havoc and impacting everything around it without restraint. The gases such as hydrogen and helium in the planet's core were instantly ionized under the impact of this devastating energy, forming a hot, roiling ocean of plasma in the blink of an eye.

Driven by the madness of energy, these plasmas spun wildly and churned violently at an extremely high speed close to the speed of light, stirring up terrifying energy vortexes. Since the hydrogen content in the core of the gaseous planet is extremely high and has been in a critical state of high temperature and high pressure, the energy caused by the nuclear bomb explosion is like the fuse that ignites a powder keg, accurately triggering a large-scale hydrogen nuclear fusion reaction.

The planet's core, which was not very stable to begin with, now became a giant powder keg that was constantly shaken by countless huge forces. The energy generated by the nuclear fusion reaction grew exponentially, like a surging tsunami, hitting the planet's gaseous shell wave after wave.

Under the influence of this overwhelming force, the gases on the surface of the planet were violently thrown into the vast universe, instantly forming huge gas eruption columns that covered the sky and the sun.

These eruption columns spread rapidly at an astonishing speed in the vast space like a group of ancient dragons breaking free from their restraints, roaring angrily towards the endless darkness.

As the energy continued to be released without restraint, the pressure inside the planet rose sharply in a straight line. Finally, the planet could no longer withstand this terrifying force that was enough to destroy the galaxy. A loud noise that broke the eardrums of the universe sounded silently.

This giant gas planet, once so magnificent and dubbed the 'Eye of Serpens', exploded like a fragile balloon being gently pinched by an invisible giant hand from the depths of the universe.

At this moment, the federal fleet in the planet's orbit suffered a devastating disaster. The super-strong energy wave generated by the explosion was like a huge sickle, sweeping across the fleet in an instant.

The vanguard warships that had already entered the atmosphere were the first to be hit. The moment the energy wave touched them, their outer armor plates quickly melted and deformed like butter burned by a high-temperature blowtorch. Metal droplets splashed everywhere. The powerful energy impact caused the circuit system inside the warships to short-circuit instantly. Countless electric sparks burst everywhere in the cabin, causing a small explosion. The crew members were staggered by the sudden impact, and before they could react, the scorching flames and thick smoke quickly spread and swallowed them up.

The situation on the flagship 'Dreadnought' located in the center of the formation was equally critical. The violent impact caused the bridge to shake violently, and various workbenches and electronic equipment screens exploded instantly, with debris flying everywhere.

Marshal Trafalgar tightly grasped the armrest of the command seat and tried to issue the final order, but the communication channel had long been out of order and his voice was blocked in the helmet of the cabin suit and could not be transmitted out.

Immediately afterwards, the fusion reactor of the "Dreadnought" exploded violently, and the huge battleship was torn into pieces by the powerful energy almost instantly. The huge wreckage rolled in the space and gradually disintegrated.

The thick gas shell of Alpha Serpens was also blown to pieces at this moment, turning into countless tiny molecules that flew everywhere. The large amount of matter that was originally tightly gathered around the core was also thrown out frantically.

Countless high-temperature fragments, wrapped in hot and dazzling plasma, were splashing wildly in all directions at an unimaginable high speed. Wherever they went, all matter was instantly vaporized.

In the core area of ​​the explosion, an enormous energy vortex slowly took shape. It was like a world-eater that could never be filled, greedily devouring everything around it.

At this moment, light, energy, and matter intertwined, collided, and merged, forming a picture that was extremely gorgeous but also terrifying. This explosion wave, which was powerful enough to overturn the universe, spread wildly into the vast universe. Wherever it passed, whether it was a tiny meteorite, the huge dust cloud of the "Pillar of Life", or other celestial bodies near Alpha Serpens, everything was ruthlessly destroyed, leaving only a dead and silent void.

(End of this chapter)