From Titan Corporation to the Empire of Man

Chapter 273: Confrontation "Traditional Naval Battle" Thunderous Snatch
Eridana c, in low Earth orbit on the sunward side.

The jump vortex emitting blue-green light appeared not far in front of the Freedom Liberation Fleet, as if it had torn apart the physical universe.

Then, the ten-kilometer-long Teruki-class dreadnought battleship was the first to leave the jump space.

Then came the two Paris-class and the four Fides-class.

In addition, these six frigates are equipped with the Reaper civilization's energy shield generators, and their jump engines have been upgraded and debugged by the engineering team. They are among the latest models of ships.

In terms of single-ship combat capability, Atlas' frigates are already superior to UNSC's cruisers, and can even compete head-on with the Covenant's CCS-class battlecruisers.

After all, in the original timeline of "Halo", the electromagnetic accelerator cannons of human warships can effectively break and penetrate the shields and armor of Covenant ships, but the defense of human warships is too poor.

Therefore, during the nearly thirty-year-long Resistance War, human warships usually relied on a 3-to-1 tactic, which meant sacrificing friendly ships in exchange for the victory of sinking Covenant ships.

But in terms of human wave tactics, the size of the Covenant far exceeds that of humans.

If the elites had not "woke up" and chosen to assist humanity at the end of the war, as well as the second and third generation Spartans led by the Master Chief, and countless unsung heroes, the only fate for humanity would have been destruction.

At this moment, after noticing something was wrong, the Freedom Fleet immediately adjusted its formation, preparing to deal with the Atlas Fleet, which was coming with ill intentions.

And inside the bridge of a heavy cruiser that is over 1.5 kilometers long;

"Captain! After AI scanning, the blade-shaped ship is ten kilometers long! And our fire control system cannot accurately lock on it!"

A radar observer was looking at the control panel in front of him and reporting to the captain who was sitting in the main seat.

"ten kilometers"

These words, coupled with the huge creature that could be seen from afar outside the observation window with the naked eye, made the crew members extremely stunned.

The most powerful ships currently owned by humans are the Epoch and Carthage-class aircraft carriers.

However, those two levels of ships and the blade-shaped warship in front of them did not seem to be products of the same era at all.

In addition, why would the UNSC's Paris-class frigates rush to the galaxy under their jurisdiction along with the blade-shaped battleships?

Could it be that these are new UNSC ships, and they are planning to use them for testing?

Thinking of this, the bearded captain turned his head to the right and ordered the communications officer:

"Notify the captains of all ships to prepare for a salvo of artillery fire."

"Yes"

Phew——!
The communications officer was about to follow the order when he was interrupted by a burst of electric current. The lights and holographic screens inside the bridge began to flicker like a scene in a horror movie.

? ?
"What's going on?!" the captain asked quickly.

"The navigation system is out of order! This ship cannot make a jump!"

"The shipboard AI is also stuck!"

"Captain! Our core data is being manually uploaded!"

???

Manual upload?

Is there a mole?
The bearded captain's expression suddenly became serious, and he wondered "who" was leaking their core data.

But the captain didn't have the time to analyze it carefully.

The data leak indicated that the party with the blade-shaped battleship was about to obtain information about the new star-level nuclear bomb, so he gave another order:

"Notify the shipboard forces and immediately prepare for an exchange of fire inside the ship!"

"Yes!"

As soon as the words were spoken, the communications officer immediately took action and conveyed the order to the rebels on the ship.

At the same time, the crew discovered through the observation window that the blade-shaped battleship, the Tabiru-class, had released a large number of metal prisms.

Then, the beam secondary guns on the "back" of the Sojourner-class began to charge up energy.

Ri~————! !

The blue-green energy glow seemed to light up the universe.

And those metal prisms also began to be connected in series with the main gun, forming a hexagonal " " beam matrix.

Swish————! !

The next moment, after the cyan light beam was shot out instantly, it began to "split" and "disperse", and in a "Z"-shaped twisted trajectory, it headed straight for the tails of all the Freedom Liberation ships.

In the blink of an eye——

boom! Boom boom! !
The extremely high-energy blue light beam, which seemed to have automatic tracking capabilities, immediately destroyed the main engine of the Freedom Liberation Fleet.

The process of generating and hitting the beam matrix is ​​extremely fast. Moreover, the old-fashioned ships have no means to block it unless they have energy shields that are equal to those of the forerunner civilization.

Bang—bang—!
At this time, the Freedom Liberation Fleet also launched a counterattack against Atlas.

Electromagnetic main guns, traditional secondary guns, and various missiles were all launched.

However, as the radar observer had said, their fire control could not lock onto the Sojourn-class, so they had to launch an attack on the Paris-class and the Feddes-class.

However.
This volley counterattack still failed.

The Atlas fleet had already prepared for the response and had also adjusted the power of the energy shield to maximum.

However, without the shield in place, all the free-fire volleys would miss the target.

! !
Upon realizing this, all the crew members were shocked.

Could it be that the Paris and Feddes class also have some kind of jamming device? ?
"."

But the captain sitting in the main seat vaguely realized that their shipboard AI had malfunctioned or even "rebelled".

Otherwise, the disorder of core data and fire control system cannot be caused by human insiders alone.

Before the bearded ship could make any adjustments, its central console automatically displayed a holographic image of Melissa.

Although it was just copying data, the intelligent AI still had some consciousness. It looked around at everyone present and said in a cold tone:
"Everyone, your weapons are ineffective against us, please surrender immediately.

Note that this will not be repeated. "

"Surrender?! Our liberation will never be easy"

Seeing Melissa's "arrogant" attitude, the bearded captain was about to start scolding her.

"I see. Good luck to everyone." But he was interrupted by Melissa.

After the intelligent AI finished speaking, the holographic imaging disappeared.

The radar observer was not as calm as the other party, and hurriedly reminded:
"Captain! A large number of enemy transport aircraft have been spotted!"

At the same time as the loud warning was shouted, the radar observer also marked nearly a hundred red dots on the flashing holographic center console, which were rapidly approaching their location.

Then, the holographic image also showed the Atlas transport planes, with a slightly blurry appearance. Most of them were Pelicans and Herring Gull IIs, but the cross at the front was a more compact inverted "T" shape.

The fuselage is about 2 meters long, which is equivalent to 3/ of the Pelican. Its wings, engine and cockpit are placed at the tail, while the cabin door is at the nose.

It looks like a landing craft from World War II, but its appearance is much more sophisticated and advanced, and it is not an outdated product.

This is the special "boarding" aircraft specially developed by the Research and Development Department for Atlas' combat forces, especially the carrier-based forces.

The official name is Thunder I assault boat.

Due to the aggressive fighting style of the Atlas's carrier-based forces, the original Sea Sparrow multi-purpose transport boat was completely unable to perform boarding missions.

In order to ensure the safety of the boarding personnel and the sturdiness of the boarding vehicle, the "hardness" and protection of the vehicle must be maximized.

So the Research Department prepared the "Powerful Flying Brick", using dwarven steel to build the body and wings, and added three modified engines of the White-legged Falcon carrier-based aircraft.

In deep space, the speed of the Thunder Raider is as fast as, or even faster than, most of Atlas' carrier-based aircraft.

While within the atmosphere, it is possible to use a room-temperature superconducting magnetic levitation engine to transform it into units such as airships.

In addition to these, the Thunder Raider is equipped with two 105mm hard-light main guns on both sides of the cabin, as well as a disposable, replaceable energy shield generator.

All of this is to serve the Emergency Response Team (AECS) that will soon be reorganized into the "Auxiliary Army" and the combat-crazy Orbital Commando Team (ODST).

Through the holographic screen and portholes, they saw that the ten Thunder Raiders stood out and would collide with the cruiser they were operating in less than half a minute.
Without the captain's order, the gunner activated the close-in defense gun.

Ri~buzz buzz buzz!!!
The noise from the rapid-fire close-in weapon system was transmitted to the inside of the bridge through vibrations.

Because of the tracer bullets, the crew could see the overwhelming "barrage" rapidly rushing towards the Thunder assault boat.

However, perhaps due to the hacking of Melissa's copied data, or the "rebellion" of the ship-borne AI, the close-in defense guns were unable to effectively intercept the Thunder Formation.

Then, ten Thunders were lined up in a row, and the hard-light main guns on both sides flashed bright red energy-generating brilliance.

Whoosh—whoosh—!!

Boom—boom—! !

The sound of the hard light beam shooting and exploding instantly was also transmitted to the bridge through vibrations, indicating that the Thunder Raider had melted through the cruiser's external armor and "drilled" into the interior of the ship.

! !
Realizing that his own ship was being imitated by the enemy in a boarding battle that was popular several or even dozens of centuries ago, the bearded captain immediately stood up and shouted to the communications officer in a hurried tone:

"Notify the carrier-based combat forces to ensure the safety of the Nova-class nuclear bomb! Then notify the carrier-based aircraft squadron to prepare to transfer the nuclear bomb to the surface base!
Also! Notify everyone again, even if it means ramming, you must sink that blade-shaped warship to buy space for the carrier-based aircraft squadron to escape!"

"Yes!"

Upon hearing this, the communications officer immediately contacted the combat troops and the carrier-based aircraft squadron.

At the same time, the bearded captain gave such an order because he suddenly realized that Atlas could have directly destroyed their freely liberated fleet with the help of the Sojourner-class, but chose to engage in a thankless boarding battle, which obviously had some ulterior motive.

As for what made Atlas go to so much trouble, it was the Nova-class nuclear bomb placed in their cruiser.

If their ship is "sunk" directly, the gravity of Eridana C will drag the wreckage into the atmosphere, and then the Nova-class nuclear bomb will be destroyed.

At this time, the left side of the cruiser's hull;
Boom——!
A loud explosion echoed in the large cafeteria during the break time.

call----!!

Then, the explosion melted a gap with a diameter of fifteen meters, causing the pressure difference to cause a strong airflow surge.

"Oh my god! Help!!"

"Grab the table legs! Grab them!"

The sudden unexpected situation forced the canteen staff who were cleaning here to be "sucked" towards the gap.

Some of the staff members who reacted quickly tried their best to grab the legs of the table.

Those that reacted more slowly, after being "dragged" by the airflow for more than ten meters, finally managed to grab the table legs around them and stopped.

Boom——boom——!!

Then, a Thunder raider rushed through the gap and came into the cafeteria.

When the docking was completed, a large number of soft spheres were ejected from both sides of the Thunder's cockpit.

When the sphere flew to the gap along the air flow, it exploded again, expanding rapidly like a balloon, blocking the gap and then quickly solidifying.

At this point, the air pressure in the cafeteria returned to normal.

However, before the staff could rejoice in surviving the disaster, the hatch installed at the front end of the Thunder was quickly opened under the control of the pilot and formed into a pedal to facilitate the deployment of the ODSTs in the cabin.

Tread!

The sound of special military boots stepping on the metal floor began to spread.

The helmets were still of classic style, but the mechanical skeletons were fully covered. The weapons in their hands were also changed to hard-light firearms. Two ODST tactical teams rushed out of the Thunder cabin quickly and formed a semicircle formation to guard the surroundings.

An Assault Tyrant (a little over three meters tall) carrying a rotating hard-light machine gun in one hand moved out of the cabin in a half-squatting, half-kneeling position and took the initiative to walk to the front of the formation.

!

On the other hand, when the staff saw the fully armed soldiers and a "giant", they immediately raised their hands to show that they posed no threat.

Seeing this, the ODST sergeant with red shoulder armor waved his hand.

After receiving the signal, several ODSTs immediately aimed their guns and pulled the trigger.

! !
"Don't kill us!"

The staff begged for mercy again and again.

Ta-ta-ta! !

However, the clear gunshots unique to the Hard Light series still echoed throughout the large, empty cafeteria.

"what!"

"my leg!!"

However, the ODST did not choose to shoot their compatriots who raised their hands in surrender. Instead, they just broke their legs and continued to move quickly towards the area where the Nova-class nuclear bomb was hidden according to the ship blueprint provided by Melissa.

Boom. Boom.!

The Assault Tyrant took heavy steps and rushed to the front of the team.

Fortunately, the deck corridor has a height of more than three meters, so the pilots far inside the Paris-class ship do not have to worry about the top of their heads.

As they moved forward, a large number of rebel members, equivalent to the Marines, tried to stop them.

But for ODST, only unarmed compatriots are worth wasting time and accurately avoiding vital points.

Therefore, those rebel members who tried to stop them were either "torn to pieces" by the Tyrant's rotating machine guns or shot "painlessly" by the ODST.

In addition, more and more ODSTs and AECSs that were carrying out boarding missions completed their rendezvous and reached the hangar almost unimpeded, ready to seize Nova-class nuclear bombs for the company that were powerful enough to change the surface of the planet.

(End of this chapter)