Chapter 219: Apollo's Black Technology

The Prairie's second shot accurately struck Galan's other destroyer, the “Bombay.”

The tungsten rod, traveling at 120 kilometers per second, effortlessly penetrated the warship's side armor and then fortuitously hit the warship's fuel compartment.

Due to the extremely high impact velocity, the tip of the tungsten rod generated ultra-high temperature and pressure upon penetrating the fuel compartment, reaching the critical value to trigger a nuclear reaction, directly igniting the nuclear fuel inside.

The next instant, a dazzling nuclear flash engulfed the mid-to-aft section of the Bombay’s hull.

Although this explosion could not compare to a true nuclear detonation due to the lack of fuel confinement, the energy released still far exceeded that of the tungsten rod itself, which had pierced through the warship's fuel compartment.

The Galan sailors whose battle stations were near the fuel compartment were instantly killed by the shockwave and plasma flames that surged into the pressurized compartment.

The Galan officers on the bridge temporarily escaped harm, as layers of airtight doors shielded them from the nuclear flames and shockwaves.

Before these officers could even react to what had happened, the Xianyang’s second shot struck, completely pulverizing the remaining intact hull into debris.

Twenty seconds after the White Bull sank, the Bombay also completely lost combat capability, and at the same time, a fourth heavy electromagnetic cannon shot came from another direction.

This time, the attack was launched by the 102 Chang'an, which had been quietly tailing the Galan fleet.

The tungsten rod struck the “Varanasi” destroyer at a steep angle, immediately tearing off a large section of its side hull and compartment structure, gutting the giant war beast.

Countless tiny objects were blown out from inside the hull by the pressurized air.

Xige, like all other Galan crew members, stared blankly at this scene. From the scattered objects, he distinguished the ship's furniture, daily necessities, and, of course, humans.

The eyes of those thrown into space nearly burst out as they desperately clutched their throats, struggling helplessly in the vacuum, blood mist spewing from their orifices before rapidly freezing.

The next two shells struck the Varanasi from different directions, severing it into three pieces.

Afterward, the heavy electromagnetic cannon's muzzle turned towards the large frigate “Abbad,” which had reacted the fastest and was the first to activate its main engines to escape. Both the 101 and 102 ships fired simultaneously, launching a total of 6 unguided shells, with the latter three successfully hitting, turning the Abbad into a pile of continuously burning and spreading debris.

Thus, the 240-meter-long White Bull, the 205-meter-long Bombay and Varanasi, and the 150-meter-long Abbad were all sunk within 90 seconds of the start of the battle, without firing a single retaliatory shot.

Xige's mind went blank, unable to issue any commands.

The Galan Navy, known for picking on weaker opponents, had not lost a single ship in battle for over a decade.

Now, facing these unprecedented and heavy losses, his mind was surprisingly not on how to evade or counterattack, but on how to shift blame upon returning home and how to ensure it wouldn't affect his promotion to admiral.

“Lieutenant General, we must retreat! The enemy is not barbarians; we’ve been ambushed!”

Fortunately, the warship's pilot was not an idiot and had already steered and turned, beginning to accelerate away.

He believed that the fleet's heavy damage was not caused by some Li Star natives at all; within the entire Star Alliance space, only the Super Democratic Empire's navy could approach an opponent so stealthily and then launch such powerful kinetic projectiles!

“The Super Democratic Empire has betrayed us! They have betrayed the largest democratic alliance in the entire universe.”

Finally, after the initial shock, the remaining four Galan warships began to scatter and flee like a frightened flock of sheep.

“Launch three rounds of guided projectiles, then transfer all reactor energy to the kinetic shield and Entropy Zero Element Furnace. Observe the opponent's movements and await further instructions.”

Lu Yuan issued commands based on the changing battlefield situation.

“Understood!”

“Mr. Gerald, are we really being attacked by the Super Democratic Empire? Do they also want to occupy this place? Should we activate warp speed and quickly retreat?”

On the bridge of the Apollo warship “Soul Reaper,” all officers looked at the silent Gerald in horror.

Gerald faced a difficult choice.

The warp engines of his three warships had already completed charging.

Now, he had to choose between joining the battle to rescue the utterly bewildered Galan people or betraying his allies and fleeing at warp speed. Only one option was possible.

There was only one chance!

“Jump into the middle of the Galan people and rescue them!”

After a brief consideration, Gerald made a decision that required both courage and rationality.

“But, sir—”

“The opponent's main weapon is at least ten times more powerful than ours, and their stealth capability is more than ten times! Do you think such a warship wouldn't be equipped with warp engines!? Where do you plan to escape to? There's only one Jump Point in this star system. Can you really escape!?”

Gerald's reprimand silenced his subordinates, who dared not retort.

“Still not obeying orders?!”

—Yes!”

In this battle, fighting to the death might offer a chance of survival; if they chose to flee and morale collapsed, then all would be lost!

“Executive Officer, the three outer enemy ships have activated warp mode, heading towards—the very center of the battlefield!”

From the radar observer's position, Ye Xing promptly reported.

“The three enemy ships have finished warp travel and have appeared in the middle of the fleeing Galan warships. I’ve sent you the coordinates!”

Oh?

It must be said, this was somewhat impressive.

In this situation, not only did they not flee, but they dared to charge forward. Putting aside other things, their courage was indeed commendable.

Lu Yuan's intuition told him that those three warships did not belong to the Galan Third Fleet; they should be Apollo’s ships!

“Prairie, pause main cannon bombardment and return warship control to the helmsman.”

“Yes! Control transferred!”

“Helmsman, emergency turn, change to an orbital path, brake and decelerate, do not continue to approach the enemy ships for now.”

“Understood! But doing so will expose our side to the enemy and increase the hit area.”

“I know, just do as I say for now. We are restoring stealth status, only visible in the visible light spectrum. As long as we don’t continue to approach, we shouldn’t be discovered and locked on.”

Compared to the infamous Galan people, Lu Yuan was more wary of those three Apollo warships.

The reason was simple.

The “Dark Sun” pirate group's activity range likely overlapped with the “Ruined Star” indicated by the system. They might have obtained some golden age technology from there, and the plasma shotgun might be one of them.

And Lu Yuan hadn't forgotten that Apollo and “Dark Sun” were actually one and the same.

In this battle, the enemy might have prepared some “surprises.”

After completing the 100-kilometer warp “jump,” the three Apollo warships simultaneously opened their hangar doors, and a large number of oddly shaped space drones, somewhat resembling crustaceans, swarmed out from the hangars.

They immediately split into hundreds of groups, forming specific formations in the surrounding space. While flying in orderly formations, their internal jamming and imaging equipment also began operating at full power.

“If you want to live, shut down your engines immediately!”

Gerald shouted to all surviving Galan people.

At this moment, from the perspective of the 101 and 102 warships, whether in the visible light, infrared, or radar spectrum, the monitoring screens suddenly showed a large number of warships!

“They are decoys!” Jubian turned to Lu Yuan, “The enemy has created a large number of decoys around themselves. The exact principle of how they are faked is still unclear, but these decoys are very realistic and difficult to distinguish!”

As expected, there was a backup plan…

“Is it electromagnetic interference?”

“Our ship's radar is indeed under active directional suppression, but it hasn't reached the point where we can't distinguish between real and fake targets,” the player in charge of electronic warfare replied.

“As for infrared signals, we are passively observing this, so it's unlikely the enemy can suppress our optical receiving equipment. It can only come from other heat sources disguised as warships!”

“The guided projectiles hit the targets, but no corresponding explosion damage was observed!” Prairie shouted, “Our firepower was drawn to decoys!”

“Okay, I understand—”

With the assistance of his excellent employees, Lu Yuan quickly clarified the current situation.

He knew the opponent had deployed an effective defensive net, so the next step would surely be an attempt to counterattack!

It didn't matter; the enemy had a backup plan, and he was also prepared.

The most urgent task was to figure out how the opponent was faking the targets so he could address the problem effectively.

“First Air Squadron, sortie.”