87: Chapter 87 All weakness stems from insufficient firepower

The battle had reached a point where both sides were quite 'chivalrous' in their own way.

On the Zerg Swarm's side, it was: 'I have more bugs, so I'm right.'

On the Human side, it was: 'I have more cannons, so I'm justice.'

As for who was more right or more just—it depended on who could grind the other down first.

"At this rate of efficiency," Chu Xinghe wiped sweat from his brow in the cockpit—though there was no sweat in space, he had to do it psychologically—"by the time the Zerg Swarm is wiped out, the bugs we've killed alone could pave a floor of insect corpses around the North Star's equator."

"And then we'll be sued in interstellar court by environmental organizations," Luo Lan added calmly over the channel. "The charge will be 'illegal dumping of biological waste polluting near-earth orbit'."

"Then let them sweep it up themselves." Chu Xinghe pushed the joystick, his fighter skimming past an acid bomb. "I'm a soldier, not a sanitation worker."

The two were still playing a deadly game of 'catch me if you can' with Tyranid Warriors on the left flank of the Zerg Swarm.

Those ten fighters piloted by the Light Guardians had already silently racked up an absurd score: "Mutalisk kills: 5,721; Bone-eating Skate kills: 467."

As for how many kills others had picked up on the sly, there was no telling.

And all of this was just the appetizer.

The real main course was back with the main fleet.

...

The bridge of the purple subtlety.

Major General Zhao Yu stood before the tactical holographic table, arms crossed, staring at the sea of red bugs on the screen.

"Report energy reserves," he spoke.

"Stellar Furnace output is stable, energy pool storage at 98.7%, expected to peak in three minutes," the energy officer's voice was steady.

"Status of the main cannons on all ships?"

"xihe-class battlecruisers, fifteen ships, Mega Particle Cannons fully charged."

"Requiem system?"

"Ultra-long-range multiple-phase energy cannon, 99.3% charged, ballistic calculations complete, target locked: Enemy Leviathan No. 7."

"Genesis array?"

"Six hundred gamma-ray laser cannons, 100% charged, ready to fire at any time."

Zhao Yu nodded, swiping his fingers across the holographic table to bring up a real-time simulation of the battlefield.

On the map, between the Zerg Swarm and the human defensive line, was a 'dead buffer zone' about three light-minutes wide. In this area, the density of Zerg units was at its highest, and the human artillery fire was most concentrated. The two sides were like two tough guys spitting at each other, neither able to out-spit the other.

"Need to clear the field," Zhao Yu muttered to himself.

An adjutant leaned in. "General, the Genesis system is in place. However, according to design parameters, gamma rays have average penetration against energy shields; I'm afraid they won't break through the Leviathan's shields."

"I wasn't counting on it to break the shields." Zhao Yu glanced at him. "I told you to read more. What does Chapter 3, Section 7 of the 'Interstellar Warfare Regulations' say?"

The adjutant froze, subconsciously reciting: "'When facing an enemy with numerical superiority, priority should be given to clearing their light units to create an unobstructed firing lane for our heavy firepower...'"

"You've memorized it well," Zhao Yu interrupted. "But your execution is like shit."

Adjutant: "..."

"The purpose of Genesis," Zhao Yu pointed to the area on the hologram where the red was most dense, "is to clear out these small fry. Clear a clean firepower lane so our Mega Particle Cannons and Requiem can be shoved directly into the Leviathan's face—understand?"

"Understood!" The adjutant straightened his back. "It's sweep the floor first, then smash the wall!"

"A crude metaphor, but accurate." Zhao Yu waved his hand. "Notify all ships: Genesis system, three-round volley, target areas marked A1 to A3. After clearing the field, all xihe-class and Dijiang-class main cannons are to aim at Enemy Leviathan No. 7 and fire simultaneously."

He paused, then added:

"Requiem follows along too. In a group fight, the point is to use more people to bully the few."

Orders were passed down through the ranks.

The fleet formation began to shift slightly.

Six hundred 'Genesis' gamma-ray laser cannons—the ring-shaped structures distributed on the surfaces of the two Sovereign-class ships that looked like giant satellite antennas—slowly rotated their bases, their muzzles pointing at the three most densely packed sectors of the Zerg Swarm.

Deep within the muzzles, deep blue energy began to converge, compress, and rotate, gradually lighting up with an unsettling, ghastly white glow.

"Genesis system, final ten seconds to fire," the fire control officer's voice rang through the bridge.

"Ten."

"Nine."

Chu Xinghe's fighter squadron received the retreat order.

"Rookies, pull out, pull out!" Chu Xinghe shouted over the channel. "The big move is coming, watch the show from a distance—oh, and Li Yuan, call back those ten babies of yours too, don't want them getting caught in friendly fire later."

In front of the viewing window of the purple subtlety, Li Yuan watched as those ten Light Guardian fighters neatly broke away from their engagements, performing a beautiful collective barrel roll to exit the battlefield and fly back to the fleet's defensive zone.

He couldn't help but give a mental thumbs-up to the Customer Service Miss.

This piloting skill was indeed worth an SSS-rank.

"Eight."

"Seven."

The Zerg side had clearly sensed the energy anomaly as well.

The 100,000-kilometer-class veteran Leviathan, marked as No. 7, slowly raised its head. The bio-energy shield on its body thickened noticeably, with eerie green light flowing across its carapace in a dense network.

Surrounding units like Mutalisks, Bone-eating Skates, and Corruptors began to consciously cluster toward it, like chicks around a hen.

Unfortunately, they didn't know the humans were about to unleash a 'map wiper' this time.

"Six."

"Five."

Li Yuan leaned against the viewing window, his eyes unblinking.

Laya followed his lead, pressing her face against the glass, her breath blooming into a small patch of white mist. "Master, what are those big circles?"

"The Genesis system." Li Yuan recalled Chu Xinghe's previous explanation. "Simply put... it's a super-sized version of a UV disinfection lamp."

Laya nodded, only half-understanding. "Oh... so the Zerg are germs?"

"Way more annoying than germs." Elia's cold voice came from beside them. She stood with her arms folded, her icy blue eyes reflecting the ghastly white light that had begun to flicker violently outside the window. "At least germs don't pilot Leviathans."

"Four."

"Three."

The fleet formation was set.

In the muzzles of the six hundred Genesis cannons, energy converged to the critical point. The vacuum around the muzzles underwent large-scale ionization due to energy overload, and brilliant auroras bloomed around the barrels, like the smile of the Grim Reaper.

"Two."

Major General Zhao Yu raised his right hand.

Across the bridge, every screen, every instrument, and the eyes of every officer and soldier were focused on that hand.

"One."

His right hand swept down.

"Fire."

...

There was no sound.

But six hundred ghastly white gamma-ray lasers, each over a kilometer in diameter, erupted from the surfaces of the two Sovereign-class ships.

They were giant swords of light composed of pure destructive energy, slicing through the pitch-black starry sky and piercing into the three most densely packed sectors of the Zerg Swarm.

The moment they made contact, a massacre occurred.

The first to be hit were the Mutalisk swarms.

Those flying units that had been arrogantly spitting acid and blotting out the starlight with their wing membranes had their biological tissues instantly decomposed into elementary particles under the ultra-high energy radiation of the gamma rays.

One second they were living combat units, and the next they became grayish-white biomass dust drifting in the vacuum.

Next were the Bone-eating Skates.

Hydralisks, Corruptors, Brood Lords...

As long as it was a biological entity, if it was touched by that ghastly white light, the outcome was the same: carbonization, decomposition, dissipation.

The three sectors, spanning a vast space three light-minutes deep, were completely 'cleansed' within the ten seconds of the Genesis volley.

The once-dense red dots on the tactical screen went out in massive swathes, as if someone had taken an eraser and rubbed hard three times across the scroll of the stars.

After the erasure, it was clean.

Between the Zerg Swarm and the human defensive line, a wide 'firepower lane' appeared, almost entirely free of obstacles.

At this end of the lane was the human fleet's main cannon array, primed and ready.

At the other end were two hundred and forty-seven leviathan motherships, along with the sparse, remaining escort units around them.

"Clearing complete," the fire control officer reported, his voice carrying suppressed excitement. "Zerg unit clearance rate in areas A1 to A3... 99.7%."

Major General Zhao Yu nodded, his face expressionless.

Then he looked at the Leviathan marked as No. 7 on the hologram.

"Next, it's time to smash the wall."