The battlefield situation, which had originally leaned towards the army, was suddenly reversed.

The pressure on the military front increased suddenly, and they immediately shrank their formation, reduced the area they faced the enemy, and protected the small outposts behind them more closely.

The small outpost does not have powerful firepower and shields like the pirate space station, but is just a space building similar to a mining space station.

In terms of combat, it can be said that it was lagging behind the four cruisers.

So in order to face the afterglow troops attacking from another direction, we had to protect the outpost from being attacked.

After the military had contracted its defense line, it immediately turned a Ruler-class ship around and took the other small ships that had received orders to head towards the second Afterglow Fleet that was attacking.

The four large load-bearing points of the Ruler class are equipped with two Storm Needles and two Inferno Cannons that fire high-speed plasma heavy warheads and have terrifying destructive power against armor.

There are also three medium-sized missile mounting points in front of it. The missiles launched can be detonated directly midway in a two-stage propulsion method, triggering a large cluster of high-speed kinetic energy spike warheads to shoot forward, which has the same terrifying destructive power on the shield.

Such powerful frontal firepower forced the newly joined Afterglow cruiser to choose to avoid its edge.

Relying on its own maneuverability and weapon range advantages, it continuously consumed the Ruler-class ship through the three tachyon spears.

Although it is a bit strange to choose a combat method that focuses on consumption for a raid mission, Chen Ming fully understands the current choice of the Afterglow Cruiser.

Because military ships have some very obvious characteristics.

Thick armor, sufficient firepower, but relatively poor mobility.

Therefore, it would be a very irrational decision for most ships to engage in a head-on firefight with military ships.

Pulling the battle line through mobility is actually a good way to deal with military ships.

And because most of the designs of military spacecraft focus on armor and firepower.

As a result, other aspects of the ship, such as shields, are also relatively backward besides maneuverability.

When hit by the same attack, the radiation energy generated by the military ship shield will be much higher than the radiation energy generated by the afterglow ship shield being hit.

Therefore, exchanging the radiation energy used by weapons for the radiation energy hit by the military spacecraft shield is definitely a win-win for Yuhui.

The shield consumes more radiation energy, so the weapon can use less radiation energy, and it can also reduce the pressure of frontal firepower in disguise.

As long as the Afterglow Cruiser can take advantage of the military ship's shield disadvantage and quickly break the Ruler-class shield, the time lost now can be made up immediately.

The two cruisers began a tug-of-war, while at the same time, on the other side of the military outpost.

The four Afterglow cruisers are also constantly putting pressure on the military after one of the military cruisers left.

Because the military was missing the firepower and shield of a cruiser, the battle line was being eroded by the afterglow and was constantly retreating.

But their retreat was much slower than Chen Ming had expected.

He saw the problem right away.

It is because the battle line has shrunk, resulting in a narrower combat surface and a smaller battlefield, that the fighter jets flying out of the aircraft carrier can play a greater role.

Although the large ship was advancing step by step, the small boat below was being restrained, causing Yuhui's advancement to be delayed.

If it weren't for the smaller battlefield and the increasing consumption of fighter jets, the military might be able to regain some advantages locally.

The reason why the fighter jet can perform so well is actually very obvious.

Chen Ming directly asked the Gamma AI: "Don't you have any defensive weapons on Yuhui's ship?"

Facing Chen Ming's slightly sarcastic question, Gamma AI did not make any special comments, and answered normally as before: "Normally, there are. For example, the Refraction class I control has two small point defense weapons."

"But before carrying out this raid, most of our ships were modified, with all defensive weapons removed and all equipped with offensive weapons."

"Only auxiliary ships like mine are equipped with a small amount of point defense."

Chen Ming took another look at the scene on the sensor showing the Yuhui ship being harassed by fighter planes, and asked, "When you modified the ship, didn't you consider the existence of the military's aircraft carriers and a large number of fighter planes?"

Gamma AI explained: "It is the commander's job to consider these things. I cannot be sure of his thoughts and his command intentions, but I can try to guess."

"We had already conducted an attack on a military outpost some time before we began our assault on the space station."

"In that attack, the military outpost used a total of three cruisers, not including the Mora-class aircraft carrier."

"The command may have believed that the human military had no other ship reserves, so they made this decision."

"This was a failure of intelligence and tactics, and the command must bear responsibility."

"But at least the overall situation on the battlefield is still in our favor."

As soon as the Gamma AI finished speaking, Chen Ming saw that the Tachyon Spears of the Afterglow Cruiser he was following, which was exchanging fire with the Ruler-class, began the second round of shooting.

The torrent of high-energy particles hit the Ruler class accurately.

The concentrated fire from the three tachyon spears in the front and rear could hardly withstand even the space station's shields, let alone a cruiser like the Ruler class.

Before the second round of Tachyon Spear laser beams ended, the Ruler-class shield was completely unable to withstand the attack and was forced to shut down.

The aftermath of the particle spear left a blazing white molten mark on its front armor.

However, the Ruler class was not destroyed, nor did it suffer any critical damage, and was even able to continue firing and counterattacking.

But the Afterglow Cruiser has another function, flashing.

When the Ruler-class shield is about to be shut down due to overload, the hull itself is at its most vulnerable.

The flashing engine at the tail of the Afterglow Cruiser was activated, causing resonance and driving all the surrounding Afterglow ships, including Chen Ming's Refractive-class ship, to instantly disappear on the front line maintained by the Ruler-class.

Appeared between it and the outpost behind it.

After flashing into position, a portion of the Afterglow ships headed straight for the military outposts.

The other part, together with the Afterglow cruiser, stabbed the military from behind.

The Ruler class began to turn as soon as the Afterglow Fleet disappeared, but its maneuverability was not enough to support it to complete this action in just a few seconds.

The ship's most vulnerable engine port is already being attacked by a large number of afterglow ships.

The urgent situation forced this Ruler-class ship to open its shield directly.

This was a wrong decision made by a ruler-level commander.

The Ruler-class's main shield is not a full-width shield like the Refraction-class, but a directional shield with a larger range that can only be deployed from the front of the ship.

Although the directional shield has a larger range than the full-width shield, the angle of the Ruler-class directional shield is not enough to cover its entire body.

Therefore, in this case, it can only open the more flexible but less effective backup full-width shield.

However, turning on the backup shield is actually worse than not turning it on.

The Afterglow Cruiser didn't even continue to attack the Ruler-class's engine, but instead attacked its newly activated shield.

Almost instantly, the Ruler-class, whose shield was about to be overloaded because the radiation energy was about to reach its limit, was completely overloaded.

Huge amounts of electric arcs covered the entire ship, and all systems failed and shut down.

In an instant, he was completely overwhelmed by Yu Hui's subsequent attacks.

This Ruler-class ship was eliminated.

Next it's a five-on-three situation.

At this time, many Afterglow ships had broken through the outpost's firepower network and began to attack the outpost itself.

Yu Hui should be sure to win.

With such a strong tailwind, Chen Ming doesn't even have to do anything now and just wait for the battle to end.

However, Gamma AI suddenly reminded Chen Ming at this time: "We need to try to capture one to three ships. If we don't gain anything after a battle, we may be held accountable by the commander and arouse suspicion."

Chen Ming thought about it and felt that there was nothing wrong with what Gamma AI said. After all, the advantage was so great. It was indeed a bit outrageous that Qu Guang failed to capture a single military ship.

"So what needs to be done?"

In response to Chen Ming's question, Gamma AI directly sent a refractive-level operating manual to the Iron Ore, which made Chen Ming a little overwhelmed.

"Forget it, just do what you think is right."

"receive."

The diopter started moving and began to fly very purposefully towards the nearest place where spacecraft were fighting.

At this time, the overall battle line around the outpost presented an interlaced ring.

On Chen Ming's side, Yu Hui is inside and the military is outside.

On the other side, the military is inside and Yuhui is outside.

The small military ships that had just been bypassed by Flash were desperately counterattacking to protect the safety of the outpost.

On the other side, the army that found itself on fire also retracted its formation and sent out a group of small ships to come to the rescue.

Such a complex battlefield situation made the battles between small boats more frequent, more complicated and more chaotic.

Such situations are very suitable for diopter-level operations.

And just around the Refractive class, there are already a number of military ships that could be used to attempt to capture them.

Chen Ming also found several ships that interested him.

So Chen Ming took the initiative to ask the Gamma AI: "What will you do with the captured ships?"

Gamma AI responded while controlling the refraction level: "Only those worth scanning will be handled by the captors themselves. Those with special value, such as your ship, will be arranged to be handed over later if captured successfully and sent to our colony for more detailed analysis and research."

"What about these ships of the army?"

“Basically only worth scanning.”

"That means I only need to salvage a few ships, scan the data and hand it over. I can keep the ships themselves."

"Yes."

Chen Ming nodded slightly.

He absolutely cannot miss the opportunity to get benefits.

It just so happened that he was planning to transform the Refractive Class into a miniature dock, so now with the convenience of the Afterglow and the Refractive Class, it would not be a bad idea to control a few frigates and keep them ready.

Moreover, Chen Ming is now on the battlefield where Yu Hui is fighting against the human military.

The quality of the spacecraft that can engage in combat here is definitely guaranteed, and they are definitely not castrated versions of spacecraft sold to ordinary people.

Chen Ming can even take the initiative to capture those military ships that he likes or those models that may be useful in the future.

With the overall battlefield situation leaning towards Yuhui, it was not difficult for him to do so.

And according to Chen Ming's observation, among the military frigates there happened to be the two types of spacecraft that he was interested in.

One of them is a heavy frigate with thick armor and powerful frontal firepower. It is a model that Chen Ming has never seen before and his specific name is unclear.

The other type, in appearance, looked very much like a type of frigate that Chen Ming knew, called the Gladiator-class frigate.

However, although the overall design of this type of ship under the military is somewhat similar to the Gladiator class, it is very different from the Gladiator class that Chen Ming knows in some key places.

Chen Ming remembered that the Gladiator-class ships were like most military ships, with thick armor, powerful firepower, and relatively poor maneuverability.

But although the current military system also has two advantages, its disadvantages have almost disappeared.

Chen Ming was very curious about this ship that he had never seen before, so he put forward his requirements for the capture target to the Gamma AI.

Immediately gave up on capturing a military ship that was within reach.

Following what Chen Ming said, they began to look for opportunities to capture these two types of ships in every corner of the battlefield.

Opportunities are something you can always find if you look carefully.

The diopter level was only near the battle line for just a few minutes.

Chen Ming had already seen a heavy frigate that had been overloaded due to its destroyed shield. It was floating in the space with arcs all over its body and no ability to resist at all, and was about to be destroyed.

Before Chen Ming had time to warn, the Gamma AI had already sent a signal requesting assistance and suspending the attack to the nearby Afterglow ships that were causing the heavy frigate to overload.

Those Afterglow ships stopped immediately after receiving the signal from the Refraction class.

The Refractive Class was allowed to move forward, completely destroy all the electronic equipment of the ship through electromagnetic pulse, and capture it.

The people on board took advantage of the capture to board the emergency escape capsule and escape from the spacecraft.

Neither the Gamma AI nor the other Afterglow ships had any intention of actively attacking the escape pods, and simply allowed them to escape.

The heavy frigate soon joined the Iron Ore in the capture cabin.

Chen Ming had not had time to inspect the heavy frigate that he had just captured.

The opportunity to capture another ship was right in front of him.

This time the capture was much simpler.

Because the ship's engines had been paralyzed by the weapons of other Afterglow destroyers, the people on board had already fled in escape pods.

Only the ship itself was left there, and the Refractive class only had to go over and eat it up.

After Chen Ming fixed the second ship inside the cabin with electromagnetic chains, he asked the Gamma AI, "Do we have enough data for the two ships?"

"That's enough. I need to start the equipment to scan the two ships and upload the data to the command. This may cause some vibrations on your ship. I hope you understand."

"It doesn't matter, just continue."

The mechanical equipment inside the cabin began to move.

Surrounded by a pile of machinery, Chen Ming couldn't go out and contact the two ships directly, so he just stood by the porthole and watched.

At this moment, Chen Ming suddenly discovered that there seemed to be an escape pod stuck somewhere at the bottom of the heavy frigate and failed to be successfully launched.

Chen Ming immediately asked the Gamma AI to take down the escape pod and bring it to the front of the Iron Ore.

Through the translucent window of the escape pod, one could see that the person inside was dead. The inside of his protective suit helmet was covered in blood, and the surface of the helmet was completely shattered.

It looked like it was caused by a collision or something similar.

Gamma AI quickly completed the scan of the heavy frigate. There were no other bodies on the ship, so it should be just this one unlucky guy.

After waiting for the refraction class to complete scanning of the other ship and all mechanical equipment to be retracted.

Chen Ming took the initiative to leave the Iron Ore, came to the escape pod and opened it.

After a brief search, he found a personal terminal and a military ID card inside.

There is nothing else.

The contents of that personal terminal were locked, and Chen Ming didn't have the energy to crack it for the time being, so he put it away and would deal with it later.

At this moment, the Refractive class suddenly received a message from the Afterglow cruiser, asking the Gamma AI to report the capture situation.

Gamma AI directly sent back the information of the heavy frigate that had been scanned.

Then he responded, "The scanning process for the remaining ships is still in progress."

The cruiser simply sent a signal that the communication had ended and did not continue to ask questions.

But since it had time to confirm the capture of the Refractive-class ships, it means that the outcome of the battle should have been determined.

Chen Ming looked outside again.

At this time, half of the military outpost had been destroyed.

The warehouse had already been opened, and that batch of sky steel should have been obtained by Yuhui.

The three cruisers that were still able to move seemed to have completely given up on protecting the outpost and were gathering the rest of the fleet to protect their manpower, ready to retreat at any time.

Now Chen Ming really just needs to fish around the edge of the battlefield and wait for the remaining sporadic battles to end.

So Chen Ming put his hand directly on the hull of the heavy frigate.

Transfer control of the Sentinel.

Soon, the panel of this heavy frigate appeared in front of Chen Ming.

【Spaceship Panel】

[Ship name: None]

[Type: Centurion-class heavy frigate]

[Radiant Energy Capacity: 0/900]

[Radiation Energy Dissipation: 75]

[Fuel reserves: 57%]

[Port side weapons: "Noise" cannon (damaged), light needle (damaged) *3]

[Starboard weapons: "Noise" cannon (damaged), light needle (damaged) *3]

[Missile attachment point: Fire Snake focuses on locking missiles]

[Armor: Military heavy titanium alloy external armor]

[Engine: Military Guard-grade standard engine]

[Built-in cabins: captain's cabin, engine cabin, missile auxiliary operation cabin, ship weapon auxiliary control cabin, living cabin, storage cabin]

[Important equipment: control system module (damaged), landing module (damaged), hyperspace channel system module (damaged), pseudo-gravity module (damaged), directional shield module (damaged), target positioning system (damaged), radiation energy system (damaged), damping field device (damaged), missile accessory module (damaged)]

Due to the overload and subsequent electromagnetic pulse impact, almost the entire Centurion-class ship was paralyzed.

However, as long as the equipment on the spacecraft is not missing, Chen Ming will be able to repair it sooner or later.

Especially since Chen Ming currently lacks some combat capabilities, this Centurion with two medium-sized load-bearing points and six small load-bearing points must be repaired as soon as possible.

But as soon as possible is not now.

Chen Ming borrowed a little strength from the Centurion and approached another ship.

Controlled it as well and opened its panel.

【Spaceship Panel】

[Ship name: None]

[Type: Tachyon Kai Gladiator-class frigate]

[Radiant Energy Capacity: 0/1500]

[Radiation Energy Dissipation: 250]

[Fuel reserves: 75%]

[Port side weapon: Ion beam (operating)]

[Starboard Weapon: Ion Beam (Operating)]

[Missile attachment point (left): Cyber ​​SRM Stinger missile]

[Missile attachment point (right): Cyber ​​SRM Stinger missile]

[Armor: Baiyun steel alloy external armor]

[Engine: Tachyon Guardian Class Custom Engine]

[Built-in cabins: captain's cabin, engine cabin, missile auxiliary operation cabin, energy flow cabin, living cabin, storage cabin]

[Important equipment: control system module (in operation), landing module (damaged), hyperspace channel system module (damaged), full-angle shield module (in operation), target positioning system (in operation), tachyon specialized radiation energy system (in operation), missile auxiliary module (in operation), pseudo-gravity module (in operation), plasma thruster (in operation), high-energy focusing system (in operation)]

After seeing the data on the panel, Chen Ming suddenly understood that this fighter-class ship was a new model of fighter-class ship that had been improved with tachyon technology.

By installing special equipment modules, the mobility problem that has always been criticized in ordinary fighter-class vehicles has been eliminated.

In addition, a lot of modifications have been made to the spacecraft's radiation energy system.

The radiation energy dissipation efficiency of this escort-class ship is even close to that of a destroyer.

It's a pity that under the siege of more Afterglow ships, this Tachyon-modified Gladiator-class ship failed to exert much influence.

However, there is definitely no problem with this Gladiator-class ship itself.

The modifications on it alone are enough for Chen Ming to spend some time studying, not to mention its own combat capabilities.

For Chen Ming, he would be satisfied even if he could only get this one ship.

What's more, in addition to this Gladiator-class ship, there is also a Centurion-class ship parked next to it.

There are even more Refractor-class destroyers further out.

As long as the battle is over, he can return to the pirate space station with his full harvest.

But many times, many things don't go as we wish.

Even though Chen Ming had hidden at the edge of the battlefield, he was still targeted by two military spaceships.

A destroyer and a frigate.

The two ships could no longer return to the main force after the military's front line was completely torn apart.

The three military cruisers that were already preparing to evacuate would not risk their lives to rescue them, so their two ships were basically doomed.

After the people on the ship defeated their opponents and discovered this situation, they came up with the idea of ​​taking a few Afterglow ships with them as scapegoats before they died.

And because Chen Ming took the initiative to stay away from the battlefield, there were no other afterglow ships nearby that could quickly support him.

So the two ships targeted Chen Ming.

The combat capability of the Refraction-class auxiliary ship is definitely weaker than that of other destroyers, so Chen Ming didn't think about fighting it head-on.

Anyway, Yuhui has the advantage now, and he just needs to drag other Yuhui ships to come and help him.

But in the next moment.

An extremely thick laser beam suddenly shot out from a distance, instantly destroying the destroyer and frigate that were targeting the Refractive Class.

Immediately afterwards, the Afterglow Cruiser that fired the laser sent a message to the Refractive class.

“Submit the analysis data as soon as possible.”

(End of this chapter)