88: Chapter 88: Take the left pig, but we're on the right.
The Mega Particle Cannon charging is complete.
This is a powerful particle cannon shot capable of detonating a supergiant star!!
"xihe-class battlecruiser, Mega Particle Cannon, fire."
The main cannons at the bows of fifteen 500-kilometer-class steel behemoths lit up simultaneously with piercing blue-white light. The space around the muzzles began to warp and crease, as if unable to withstand the destructive energy about to burst forth.
Next was the "purple subtlety" dijiang-class star cruising battleship.
Ten enhanced Mega Particle Cannons charged even faster than those on the xihe-class. Almost at the same second the xihe-class main cannons lit up, the muzzles of the purple subtlety had already reached their energy peak.
"Requiem system, fire."
The "Ultra-Long-Range Multi-Phase Energy Cannon," hidden deep beneath the armor layers of the Sovereign-class, bared its fangs at this moment.
A ghostly blue sphere of light with a diameter of over five hundred kilometers, its internal energy phases constantly undergoing complex superposition, emerged slowly from beneath an armor plate of the "buzhou mountain" Sovereign-class.
Golden patterns like a neural network flowed across the sphere's surface as it rotated slowly, locking onto Leviathan No. 7 at the end of the channel.
Then, it "drifted" out.
Its speed didn't look fast, but each step crossed tens of thousands of kilometers. Even more bizarrely, it continued to absorb surrounding cosmic radiation energy during its flight, self-sustaining and self-strengthening.
"This thing..." Li Yuan watched dumbfounded, "How is it like a tracking missile, even charging itself?"
"Senior Brother Chu introduced it earlier; the principle of the Requiem is 'Phase Maintenance'," Elia explained beside him. "The fired energy mass maintains its form for a long time and continuously absorbs environmental energy during flight. Unless it's exhausted by an equivalent energy shield or hits its preset coordinates, it will keep flying forever."
"What if it misses?" Laya asked curiously.
"If it misses..." Elia thought for a moment, "It might fly to the neighboring galaxy and blow up some unlucky fellow's planet."
Li Yuan: "...Your human race's weapon design philosophy is truly bold."
"All weakness stems from insufficient firepower," Elia calmly quoted a military maxim of the Blazing Dragon Federation. "If a planet is destroyed because it was accidentally hit, it only means its defenses weren't strong enough."
Li Yuan opened his mouth, finding himself speechless.
Fine, you win.
On the human side, twenty-five Mega Particle Cannon beams, plus a slowly drifting "Requiem" energy mass, fired simultaneously toward Leviathan No. 7 at the end of the channel.
On the Zerg side, the reaction was also swift.
Leviathan No. 7 clearly knew it was being focused.
It didn't dodge—and couldn't—its hundred-thousand-kilometer-long body had near-zero mobility.
But it could tank it.
Ghostly green biological energy shields instantly thickened by three layers on its surface, and the energy patterns on its carapace glowed with a piercing light.
Centering on it, a dozen nearby Leviathans simultaneously adjusted their stances, linking their own energy shields with Leviathan No. 7's to form a joint shield network covering nearly half the battlefield.
Then, these dozen or so Leviathans opened their mouths.
Suffocatingly thick, ghastly green biological energy beams erupted from their mouths, clashing head-on against the incoming human Mega Particle Cannons and Requiem.
A beam struggle.
A classic, quintessential staple of interstellar warfare.
"Here it comes, here it comes!" Chu Xinghe was so excited in his fighter that he almost stood up—if his seatbelt hadn't been fastened. "A textbook beam struggle! Place your bets! I bet on the humans! The stake is Luo Lan's cafeteria chicken legs for the next month!"
Luo Lan: "Since ancient times, the left side loses the beam struggle, except for that pig Dyna—and we're on the right!!"
The twenty-five Mega Particle Cannon beams began to "converge" mid-flight.
This was the natural interference phenomenon of high-energy particle streams in a vacuum. Fifteen beams from the xihe-class fused first, forming a thick blue-white light spear over fifty kilometers in diameter;
Then, the ten beams from the purple subtlety joined in, causing the light spear's diameter to explode to eighty kilometers, and its color shifted from blue-white to a nearly pure white, blinding incandescence.
The Requiem energy mass followed unhurriedly behind the light spear's flank, like a veteran general overseeing the battle.
On the Zerg side, the biological energy beams from the Leviathans were not to be outdone.
The fused ghastly green pillar of light exceeded a hundred kilometers in diameter, its surface flowing with a viscous, almost living energy stream that caused slight "corruption" in space wherever it passed.
The two destructive energies collided violently in the middle of the fire channel.
Space is silent.
But an energy storm over a thousand kilometers in diameter exploded at the collision point.
Blue-white particle streams and ghastly green biological energy tore at each other frantically, annihilating and exploding with a light so intense that the viewports of the entire fleet automatically lowered their light transmittance.
At the storm's center, the spatial structure began to show visible distortion. Light was pulled into bizarre arcs, and occasionally tiny spatial cracks flashed by, swallowing nearby Zerg wreckage.
The beam struggle lasted about five seconds.
Five seconds later, the result was out.
The human race's Mega Particle Cannon + Requiem combo was slightly superior.
The ghastly green biological energy beam was "split" down the middle by the blue-white light spear, sliced in two like a watermelon. The divided energy streams dissipated to either side.
And the human light spear, after crushing the opponent's energy beam, continued forward with its remaining power, slamming hard into Leviathan No. 7's joint shield.
"BOOM—!!!"
This time, there was sound.
The thunderous crash of the shield shattering was converted by sensors into piercing alarms that echoed on the bridge of every warship.
The three layers of energy shields on Leviathan No. 7's surface overloaded and collapsed after only a few seconds of holding out against the light spear.
The other dozen or so Leviathans connected to the shield network shuddered simultaneously, countless tiny cracks bursting across their carapaces as ghostly green biomass blood sprayed out, freezing into bizarre crystals in the vacuum.
The residual energy of the light spear slammed squarely into Leviathan No. 7's main body.
Carapace melted.
Muscle vaporized.
Bone carbonized.
Leviathan No. 7's massive hundred-thousand-kilometer body was sent flying backward tens of thousands of kilometers by the impact, leaving a terrifying scar stretching from its head to its tail.
It didn't die.
But it was heavily wounded.
The nearest Leviathans were caught in the aftershock; their shields flickered violently, and scorched marks appeared across their carapaces.
"Tough bastard," Major General Zhao Yu said as he watched the heavily scarred Leviathan No. 7 slowly retreat on the hologram. "Take his life while he's weak. One more shot."
"We still have a trump card. Order the planetary warship."
"Guixu! Activate."