45 minutes after the battle started.
From this time on, a number of support teams, including Bai Yi's, arrived at the Leo Star Gate one after another.
The first batch of spacecraft that arrived were mainly frigates and some fast destroyers. Although their arrival could not reverse the situation, they could still provide some regenerative power for the defense forces.
However, unlike the ships of the police force and the Second Fleet, the ships built by the Border Guard, while using the same classification system, were not designed with over-maneuvering in mind. By forgoing most of the active cabins and life support systems, Border Guard ships of the same class tended to have a more compact structure and smaller size.
But these advantages come at a price. Besides the higher construction costs, the performance of onboard AI has always been a problem. Although today's AI has been trained to a very high level, its performance is still greatly reduced when encountering unexpected situations outside of the training library.
In addition, due to their own limitations, human members sometimes make sudden changes depending on the situation. But AI cannot do this. AI is accustomed to having a bird's-eye view of the overall situation. They cannot go against the calculated optimal results, which makes their behavior more predictable to a certain extent.
In the current situation, these are not serious problems.
The border defenders each led their own spaceships and quickly joined the battle.
The entire battle unfolded within a sphere with a radius of 300,000 km centered on the stargate. Due to the number of ships on both sides, the density of artillery fire was not very high. Lasers occasionally streaked through the dark night sky, landing on the surfaces of the crystal ships.
Unlike the Galactic Alliance, Crystal Storm ships lack shields, using the hard crystal clusters on their bodies as armor. These grown crystals are indeed excellent armor materials. They are strong yet lightweight, able to withstand the impact of railguns of the same level. At the same time, the translucent refractive material is also very resistant to various lasers.
Under the full force of the Galactic Fleet, the Crystal Cannon ships were confined to the vicinity of the Stargate exit. Before launching laser attacks, these ships would first accumulate energy within their bodies. The brightness of the crystals would then change accordingly; the brighter they appeared, the more powerful the attack would be.
It was thanks to this discovery that the Galactic Alliance fleet was able to maintain a stalemate despite being relatively outnumbered.
But as the battle continued, the stalemate began to tilt in favor of one side. Although the tilt was small each time and could always be pulled back by support fleets from all over the star field, it was still an extremely dangerous signal.
Bai Yi's third batch of support fleet arrived at the battlefield. This was the last batch of assistance he could provide. These ships were mainly composed of armored cruisers, and because of their slow speed, they were arranged in the last batch.
The other border defenders had settled in earlier and had a solid foundation, so they had some extra fleets that hadn't been deployed yet. But newcomers like Bai Yi, who had just arrived, were still focusing most of their energy on building their own fortifications and really couldn't afford to deploy more fleets.
Next to be depleted was the local police force.
The police were already small in number, and their equipment was uneven. In this intense frontal battle, their attrition rate far outstripped their replenishment. With the police unable to effectively contain enemy fire, the pressure on the 12th Squadron and the Border Guard fleet increased significantly, and their rate of defeating the enemy also slowed.
This creates a vicious cycle.
Because the speed at which the crystal storm enters the field is constant, when the firepower of the Galactic Fleet is weakened, the number of crystal ships on the field will only increase, and more crystal ships will only further reduce the number of Galactic Fleet.
As one side gained strength while the other lost, some crystal spaceships had already reached the edge of the battlefield and were about to break through the already loose defense line of the Galactic Alliance.
As the average distance between the two warring parties narrowed, some crystals began to collectively change their attack methods.
Their appearance changed from purple to blue, and they no longer emitted laser rays, but instead used an attack method that looked like electric arcs.
This arc was later called sky-cloud lightning.
These lightning bolts can effectively penetrate the Galactic Alliance's shields, and can also penetrate the gold-ceramic armor to a certain extent. Part of the energy in these arcs will directly act on the internal structure of the spacecraft, causing serious internal damage.
This is tantamount to a disaster for small spaceships that do not have the conditions to use more advanced armor.
Even more deadly, if two ships were too close to each other, the arc would penetrate one ship and then jump to the adjacent ship, causing secondary damage. Although the intensity of the second attack was weakened, it could still paralyze some non-critical components with insufficient protection.
The police force, which was already good at close combat, suffered alarming losses under the attack of Tianyun Lightning and had to withdraw from the battlefield for rest in just a quarter of an hour.
In comparison, the situation of others is better, but not much better.
Bai Yi's drones had already been destroyed, and his main force now consisted of only a dozen cruisers, and destroyers and frigates totaled only about thirty. However, because all of his ships were configured for long-range firepower, his losses were the smallest among all the others.
In the center of the battlefield, inside the star gate wrapped in red by the crystal storm, Chief Engineer Chang Renfei has completed the replacement of the rectifier, and they are now making intensive preparations before closing the gate.
The crystal ships didn't attack the stargate; they simply surrounded it, as if they were rounding up a high-value target.
"It'll take another three hours for the energy to flow back," Old Chang shouted into the communicator. "I can try to divert the diversion tube to the pressure relief valve, but that will also take more than an hour."
"There's no time left." Nolan's attention was completely focused on the screen in front of him. The red dot representing the abnormal gravitational source of the subspace was gradually approaching the star gate.
The Crystal Storm spacecraft's approach speed slowed down instantly. They left most of the star gate area empty and only transported spacecraft outward through the corners, giving the already declining defense forces some breathing space.
The red dot continued to approach, its mass influencing space, and had already passed through the Stargate barrier. Even before the actual crossing began, the light curtain at the Stargate entrance and exit had already been affected. The light curtain began to vibrate widely, like a pot of boiling water.
After the boiling reached its peak, a small tip emerged from the center of the door.
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