Chapter 234: The 'Divine Weapon' Moras
Today was a good day for the media industry, as New Hope's major TV stations successively entered a 'frenzy'.
Reporters stumbled into spacesuits, risking being caught in the crossfire, and entered outer space through airlocks. Their cameras focused on the Cangyuan warships in the distance, greedily beginning to film.
It must be said that to create a big news story, they were extremely daring and dedicated.
Inside the space station, on the exterior walls of buildings in bustling areas, in port waiting rooms, and inside orbital trains, public display screens paused all commercials and entertainment programs, instead broadcasting major breaking news—real-time footage of the sky above the dock area.
Only a massive and complex disk-shaped port could be seen, its former bustle long gone. Large and small ships quietly lay dormant in their berths, motionless, as if fearing to draw fire.
In the camera, only five Galan warships ignored Cangyuan's warning and ascended, leaving the port.
Inside the space station, the highly agitated Jialan looked up at this scene playing on the large screen and instantly erupted.
“My invincible Galan! Long live! Go forth! Engage in battle!”
“These scoundrels actually delivered themselves to our doorstep? They actually dared to challenge the Galan Navy, which has maintained an undefeated record to this day?! How dare you?! Who gave you the courage?!”
“Moras! Moras! Moras! Moras! Blast them to pieces! \(.)/ o /(. )/”
The crowd excitedly waved their fists, shouting in unison like fanatics.
Only a very small number of the most intelligent Jialan felt a deep sense of unease.
Domestic news clearly stated that Cangyuan's fleet had been eliminated, so why were they suddenly here now?
Sure enough, they lied again, why did I say again…
Moreover, Cangyuan could have fired at our warships long ago; the reason they didn't was probably just to avoid accidentally damaging the space station!
They were absolutely confident in this battle!
This is bad…
The few wise ones were swept up by the surging public opinion and dared not voice their doubts. They either lowered their heads in silence or numbly went with the flow.
Even the diplomatic team, which had been preparing to flee, after carefully observing the surroundings, one after another raised their right fists, weakly chanting, “Moras, Moras…”
At least at this moment, they shared a common fate with the low- and middle-ranking citizens of their country around them, becoming ants on the same rope.
Only by winning this battle first could they possibly board the earliest passenger ship and leave this accursed frontline of war.
Finally, amidst the Jialan's thunderous cheers, the three warships that had gone forward to meet the enemy completed their target lock and collectively fired their ultimate decisive weapons—over 60 massive Moras missiles.
“Oh yeah!!!”
The missile's tail flame illuminated the live TV broadcast, revealing a beautiful halo. The Jialan, bathed in this brilliant light symbolizing victory, spread their arms, roaring and screaming, as the atmosphere reached its climax.
Previously, they could only hear news reports of their fleet's victories, which wasn't satisfying enough! Now, they could be there in person, witnessing the actual war with their own eyes—it was worth dying for!
“Moras! Moras! Moras!!! Hahaha!!”
The Galan Navy relied heavily on Moras missiles, even to the point of supernatural superstition.
However, in reality, aside from having a warp-speed flight mode, the Moras missile's performance in other aspects was mediocre.
It even had obvious flaws, such as abnormally poor short-range combat capability, inferior to even common interstellar torpedoes on the arms market.
Initially, when the Galan Navy purchased the intellectual property for this missile from the Super Democratic Empire, high-ranking officers were actually well aware of its numerous shortcomings.
They had also planned to continue purchasing high-power laser or electromagnetic cannon technology as a supplement to anti-ship measures.
However, these plans ultimately fell through, and the problem lay with the supreme commander, the great Prime Minister Nadi.
To boast about his political achievements, this 'iron-blooded leader' heavily mobilized domestic media to promote the Moras missile with exaggerated and false propaganda, severely overstating its actual combat performance.
He deeply intertwined this weapon with patriotism and nationalism, prohibiting domestic experts from questioning Moras. Violators were arrested and given heavy sentences, and he even secretly obstructed plans led by the opposition party to import more advanced weapons.
A lie repeated a thousand times becomes 'truth'.
Tragically, such lies often poison one's own people first!
Under repeated propaganda offensives, the general public and lower-ranking officers of Galan were first brainwashed, believing Prime Minister Nadi's nonsense. They genuinely believed that Moras was the best missile in the universe, capable of destroying all enemies.
With Moras, war was a piece of cake!
After the war began, they just needed to press a button to lock onto the target, then press another button to launch the missile, and then they could sit in their positions, happily picking their toes while waiting for victory!
War was that simple!
Afterward, politicians also began to believe the lies. In terms of anti-ship combat, they no longer sought new military project collaborations and no longer supported the self-reliant scientific research of domestic institutes.
Ten years, after two prime ministerial terms passed, even Galan's high-ranking officers were tragically brainwashed by Nadi.
They fell into a state of self-deception, feeling that the missile flaws they were informed of during procurement were just minor imperfections that could be ignored in actual combat; they believed it was merely a marketing strategy by the Super Democratic Empire, aimed only at luring them to purchase more expensive, advanced missiles!
These high-ranking officers became increasingly arrogant and underestimated their enemies.
Ultimately, the fatal impact of the 'Moras lie' on everyone in Galan, from top to bottom, finally erupted on the battlefield that concerned the nation's fate.
The adverse consequences were irreversible.
The reason these three warships dared to confront Cangyuan directly was not due to exceptional courage, but because they were personally fooled and set up by the great Prime Minister Nadi, led to the execution block by his lies.
On the battlefield, these three warships and the two Cangyuan ships were no more than 15 kilometers apart, at a visual 'bayonet charge' distance.
At this point, if Moras missiles were to approach the target at warp speed, they would need to complete the transition from entering warp to exiting warp in one ten-thousandth of a second.
This far exceeded the time interval limit for warp engines to create and eliminate warp bubbles.
In other words, the missile's warp mode could not be used.
The correct tactic should have been to first try to increase the distance to over 100 kilometers, allowing the Moras missiles to barely utilize their range and warp advantages.
But, pitifully enough.
Because they had long lost any accurate understanding of Moras's true combat effectiveness, the officers and sailors on the three warships, like idiots, launched these highly anticipated missiles at an extremely disadvantageous combat range!
And before the launch, the 10 'owl' heavy fighters carried by ships 101 and 102 had already been circling and waiting 1500 kilometers above the battlefield.
When the Galan fire control radar illumination was detected, the grassland immediately ordered the First Air Squadron pilots. Upon receiving the order, they immediately activated warp speed, dived downwards, and exited warp at an altitude of 35 kilometers.
At this moment, in front of them, the Moras missiles that had just left their launch tubes hadn't even begun to accelerate.
For the four high-precision, high-power laser cannons on the 'owl' fighters, these missiles were as easy to hit as stationary targets.
With the assistance of ballistic computers, the skilled elites of the First Air Squadron intercepted nearly 50 Moras missiles in just one dive.
Afterward, they swept past the sides of the Galan warships at extremely high speed, incidentally taking out the close-in defense laser cannons on the hull.
The Galan warships then activated their last resort for air defense, launching a large number of small smart missiles, but these little things were easily detonated by the 'owl' fighters, which had re-entered warp speed, losing their targets and turning from smart missiles into idiotic missiles, scattering aimlessly in outer space…
Cangyuan had obtained samples of Moras missiles and was too familiar with their performance.
The AI could even now target the structural weaknesses of the missiles, using as little energy as possible to disable them.
Nearly 50 fireballs appeared in the news broadcast. Due to their proximity to their own warships, the nuclear warheads on the missiles triggered their safety mechanisms and could not even detonate automatically.
A few seconds later, the remaining dozen or so Moras missiles were also intercepted by the laser cannons mounted on the two 'Qinling' ships.
“What's going on—did our missiles malfunction? Why is Cangyuan completely unharmed?”
Inside the space station, the Jialan looking up at the large screen simply couldn't believe what they were seeing.
What about the promised invincibility?
What about the promised strongest missile in the universe?
The cheers instantly died down.
“It shouldn't be a malfunction! How could so many missiles malfunction at once!”
This person at least had some sense.
“Then what exactly is going on!?”
“Tactics! It must be special tactics! Shut your mouths, and stop making unfounded comments! How can you low-grade types understand military matters better than our soldiers?!”