Chapter 160, The Starting Point of the Path of Glory
The close firepower of the eleven green ships made it very difficult for Wang Jiarong's fleet to resist.
But their counterattack seemed weak and powerless.
Their bows were facing outward, which was not conducive to firepower projection. Moreover, when the enemy's weapon system was online, the close-range interception capability was also online. Some of the laser cannons and macro cannon shells they fired were locked in mid-air and intercepted by the enemy's firepower in the void.
Of course, the interception systems in the merchant ships are also playing a role. The 'Defender' kinetic rapid-fire cannon and the 'Reflector' interception laser cannon all do similar work.
But overall, they are undoubtedly at a disadvantage.
Before they could completely put some distance between themselves, they would probably be knocked down by the firepower of the green-skinned orcs.
What’s worse is that their speed...seems not even as fast as the greenskins.
The engine system of the orc ship started to accelerate at full speed at this moment. Although they were latecomers, their speed increased to a very high level in a short period of time. It was estimated that their advantage would be wiped out in a short time.
When the speed difference between the two sides is eliminated, the increasingly closer distance will allow the greenskin fleet's firepower advantage to be further exerted.
Not to mention, the greenskin fleet has a special preference during naval battles: boarding.
They are almost the second most fond of boarding during naval battles in this universe - the first being the Space Marines.
Landing capsules, landing ships, and even short-distance jumps... these are all things the greenskins can use. Once the distance reaches a dangerous level, they will use these methods.
Small landing capsules and landing ships approached the target with a large amount of artillery fire, and there was a considerable degree of camouflage on them to deceive the interception system of the target ship. After approaching the target ship, these landing capsules and landing ships will sail at a low speed, making the void shield unable to produce a defensive effect, and thus get close to the ship.
Certain harmless holes in the hull caused by naval battles will become entrances for invasion; if there are no such entrances, all kinds of high-performance bombs and cutting devices that come with the boarding troops will find relatively weak positions on the ship and cut openings.
These holes pose little threat to the ship itself, equivalent to an adult being bitten by a mosquito. But the scary thing is the "venom" that comes with the bite. A considerable number of soldiers will enter the ship through them and engage in fierce combat inside the hull.
There is no particularly open area on the ship that is particularly suitable for the deployment of heavy firepower. Most combat environments are narrow, closed, and face-to-face.
Who else can compete with the green-skinned orcs in such an environment?
The elite greenskin team would go on a killing spree inside the ship. Even if they could not directly destroy or kill all the people inside the starship, every time they caused a certain amount of casualties, the battleship's combat capability would drop significantly.
If they reach the weapon system and silence a part of the firepower, that would be a win; if they reach the Thinker array, they could paralyze the ship's automation system, greatly reducing the coordination of the ship's various departments; if they reach the engine hangar, a high-performance bomb might explode from the inside, paralyzing the entire ship. What if they reach the captain's room...
Of course, boarding operations are high-risk and high-loss operations. In most cases, landing capsules and landing ships will be destroyed by intercepting firepower while approaching the target ship. But as long as they succeed a little, it will be a disruption; if they succeed greatly, they can simply seize the ship.
Greenskins are not afraid of death.
In fact, at this moment, some small airdrop capsules have already flown over along with the artillery shells.
However, up to now, there has been no airdrop capsule that can pass through the fire interception network. It is estimated that one or two hundred green-skinned guys have been buried in the starry sea.
However, Wang Jiarong's face was still pale.
It is certainly good news that there are no green-skinned marines landing on the starship, but this good news is too insignificant.
Seeing that the void shield had turned purple, and seeing some shells passing through the void shield and hitting the hull of the starship, she could already feel the vibration.
The void shield is an energy protection system that can intercept physical shells, energy cannons, missile weapons, especially objects and energy approaching at high speed. However, it is not very effective in blocking objects flying at low speed.
When the Void Shield is in its complete state, that is, when it is blue, its blocking effect is the best; but if the attack it sustains exceeds a certain limit and turns purple, it will fail to block the attack, and there is a certain probability that shells and energy rays will leak in.
It was okay at the beginning. Even if some of the damage was leaked in and weakened by the void shield, it could generally be withstood by the sturdy physical armor on the starship.
But when the carrying capacity of the void shield reaches its limit, that is, when it turns red, the probability of missing a shell will increase significantly, and the effect of weakening the attack will also weaken. At this time, it will probably be a competition of armor strength and hull strength.
Although the condition of the void shield is still in the process of changing to purple, the starship armor is still quite powerful, and the occasional attack that penetrates the void shield does not cause too much harm.
However, this is all very bad news.
Things started to deteriorate rapidly from the moment the greenskins launched their counterattack.
More importantly, Wang Jiarong could not think of any way to change the current situation.
"Gu Hang, Gu Hang! You really killed me this time! I shouldn't have come to this remote place..."
She muttered to herself, her face pale.
At this moment, the astropath suddenly reported a message: "Captain! We have received a communication signal from the Quintet!"
Wang Jiarong was stunned for a moment, then suddenly overjoyed: "Hurry up and bring it in!"
The next moment, Ye Lishia's voice rang out across the entire bridge: "I am Commodore of the Imperial Navy Pegasus Fleet, Captain of the Quintet, Ye Lishia Fofana."
Her clear voice sounded like a savior to everyone on the "Belle Maid".
"Yelisa! Thank God! We finally got in touch! Please save us!"
Wang Jiarong was so happy that she almost cried.
"I'm right next to you." Ye Lixia said, "Now, you have to make your fleet turn around and fire at those green ships with all your strength. We have to completely destroy them here before they can gain speed!"
Wang Jiarong was slightly stunned.
What does 'right beside' mean?
Could it be that Ye Lishia had anticipated that they would encounter the greenskin fleet here, and therefore ambushed them here long ago? Was the reason why the astropaths did not get a response when they tried to contact the ship because the Quintet was in a silent and dormant state?
But why? How did she get the news in advance?
Wang Jiarong's mind was in a mess, but these thoughts only flashed through her mind for a short while, and she soon stopped thinking about them.
Obeying Ye Licia's orders is the only chance to survive.
At that moment, the four ships of the Beautiful Girls Caravan, in accordance with Ye Licia's request, began to turn their hulls sideways and bombarded the enemy with all their might.
If there is no external help, it would be a death wish.
It is quite dangerous to face the enemy broadside.
This can fully exert the firepower of the ship, but the hit area is also the largest; when the distance is far enough, the two sides shoot at each other, and the direction of the war is determined by firepower, this is not a big problem. When the two sides are separated by more than 100,000 or 150,000 kilometers, the firepower hit suffered by the opponent from the side or facing directly is not much different, but the firepower projection capability of one's own side may be 30% or more different.
But at the same time, when the ship is sideways, it is impossible for it to remain still. A ship moving sideways is also easier to avoid artillery fire.
Overall, this is a balanced offensive tactic.
The greenskin fleet charging at this moment was, of course, an absolutely radical offensive tactic. As the distance shortened, the artillery of both sides would greatly increase its power and accuracy, and they were even willing to sacrifice 20-30% of their firepower for this.
But despite this, the greenskins still have a much greater firepower advantage than the Fair Maiden.
They didn't know why these small ships suddenly showed signs of wanting to have a big fight with them, but this obviously made them even more excited.
Not only did the firepower become more intense, they also released more landing capsules.
However, at this moment, hundreds of missiles suddenly flew out from a dark and empty void in the distance.
These missiles were heading towards a green destroyer.
The next moment, two huge macro cannon shells streaked across the void and slammed heavily into its energy shield.
The two heavy artillery pieces that arrived at the same time had enormous destructive power against the starship.
The energy shield surrounding the targeted green destroyer suddenly changed from calm blue to purple, which symbolized danger. Then, among the hundreds of missiles, seventy of them passed through the void shield and hit the destroyer.
Seventy explosion points suddenly erupted on the hull of the green destroyer, causing serious damage to the ship.
The energy shield generators may have been affected by the explosion, and the purple void shield disappeared for a moment.
If they were given a little time, not long, just a few minutes, it would be enough for the energy generator on the green ship to restart or activate the backup energy.
However, there is no such opportunity anymore.
The next ten slightly smaller macro cannons came again, six of which hit the target hard. The damage caused by these six cannons was even more terrible than the previous seventy missiles, directly turning the green warship into a huge fireball in mid-air.
A valuable destroyer was completely destroyed.
But the results of this inexplicable firepower are more than just that.
There were also ten macro cannons fired at a green-skinned frigate, four of which hit it, and its energy shield suddenly turned red.
The shield strength on a frigate is much weaker than that on a destroyer.
…
On the bridge of the Quintet, after confirming the outcome of the battle through the battle footage faithfully transmitted by the Thinker Array, Ye Licia did not cheer or jump for joy. That would be too unstable and not what a captain should do.
But she still couldn't help it and swung her fist hard.
The destruction of this green battleship could actually be regarded as the first actual naval battle achievement in her career as a captain.
This achievement alone is enough to surpass the careers of many captains in the Pegasus sector.
Since the Pegasus Star Fleet was established, it has not been used as a support force by the Imperial Navy to assemble into a larger fleet for combat. In addition to the old captains who went out to form a temporary joint fleet, the other younger and less experienced ones were only in the star region, at most in the surrounding star regions, to eliminate some interstellar pirates.
What capabilities did those interstellar pirates have? At most, a pirate ship of the frigate level was considered quite good, and many even used ordinary spaceships to rob and rob, and dared to attack some ultra-small caravans at most.
In the past, Ye Licia had never even been able to obtain the credit for wiping out small pirates, which was one of the reasons why she was privately ridiculed.
But from now on, no one can laugh at her.
Even if they are transferred to other high-intensity war zones, not every experienced captain who has seen big scenes has the record of destroying an enemy destroyer.
Being able to get an assist is something you can brag about for many years.
But today, she, a brigadier general who has always been said to have connections and whose military rank rose rapidly, has accomplished it.
Not only is he not just an assist, he is also the only main force.
What happened to sneak attacks?
This is called tactics!
However, after the initial excitement, Ye Lixia quickly regained her composure.
The destruction of one of the enemy's three destroyers was certainly a heavy blow to the greenskin fleet as a whole, but they still had many ships and strong capital.
This battle still has to be fought.
Especially now that the advantage of the first-hand sneak attack is gone, without the advantage of surprise attack, it will not be so easy to achieve the same results as just now in the next round of firepower.
The Orc fleet had already discovered their tracks, so they would not let them attack without any defense. The advance maneuvers of the ships would cause more artillery fire to miss the target; the short-range anti-aircraft firepower was on full alert, and some macro cannons would be intercepted or deflected midway.
Of course, as a main battle cruiser, the 'Quinte' is well-equipped, especially the two L-class 'Wrath of the Loyalists' macro cannons, which have devastating power for ships of the frigate level.
If they were hit once, the energy shields of those frigates would be overloaded.
The slaves and technicians on the Quintet have begun working at a very fast pace to load shells for the next round of artillery fire; the Thinker array is working hard to observe and lock onto those ship targets that are actually moving rapidly.
Fire strikes require preparation time.
Before that, the Quintet had to face a round of enemy fire.
The 'Defender' rapid-fire cannon and the 'Reflector' interception laser began to operate to resist the firepower of the Orc ships. At the same time, large patches of blue light appeared around the cruiser.
That's what the void shield looks like when a ship is under attack.
The naval battle has now entered a white-hot stage.
The previous achievements of destroying a destroyer and overloading the energy shield of a frigate seemed less important at this moment.
At this time, Ye Licia couldn't help but turned her head to look at the man standing not far behind her.
She sighed and said, "Gu Hang, if I lose the battle, you will really hurt me badly."
Gu Hang smiled and said, "If you win, this will be the starting point of your glorious journey."
(End of this chapter)
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