270: Chapter 268 As long as the attack is launched...

75 versus 150,000; the numbers were real, and the gap was massive.

Until they were hit, everyone on the Coral Sea, as well as the entire fleet she led, only thought this was a suicidal charge filled with ignorance and absurdity—

This fantasy lasted until a scorching, bright white ion stream broke through the darkness.

Accompanied by the white light, the first round of seventy-five pitch-black, twisted lines pierced through the entire fleet.

Three seconds passed, the first round of fire ended, and the captain of the lead ship of the AIO-class strike group immediately shouted into the formation channel:

"Activate curvature immediately, return to the Swallow Return point!"

In less than a second, the ship's computer finished processing the command and emitted a cold, mechanical voice:

"Retreating."

A flash of white light passed, and the 75 AIO-class ships flickered in the distorted space before disappearing into mid-air.

Immediately after, without leaving any spare time, the next batch of AIO-class ships followed closely behind.

The second batch, the third batch... each batch consisted of a fixed 75 ships, with a 15-second interval between strikes; after unleashing an overwhelming salvo, they would immediately vanish without a trace.

Row after row, wave after wave, the AIO-class ships that had performed the 'Swallow Return' maneuver rejoined the battlefield after adjusting their parameters—

That scene was like the Polish Winged Hussars charging at the Ottoman army back in the day, overwhelming and unstoppable.

Countless violent impacts poured into the formation of the coalition's 150,000 Warships, catching them off guard.

Under the impact of those bright white ion streams, the armor of any coalition Warship was like paper, easily melted, pierced, and then disintegrated.

Suddenly, a magnificent fireworks show began among the coalition.

However, there were only a few hundred AIO-class ships launching the attack, so the coalition Warships that could be attended to by the ion cannons were, in the end, a minority—

Even if the density of the Warships was high, the base of 150,000 Warships meant the coalition fleet covered an incredibly large area; by comparison, the field of fire of the AIO-class ion cannons could only cover a small area at most.

But it didn't matter; for those Warships that weren't greeted by the ion cannons, or didn't even know what was happening, these ion cannons were just an appetizer:

The real weapon of mass destruction was hidden in the darkness—

That was the countless thin black lines spanning across the battlefield,

The "paradoxes" left behind after the AIO-class ships' bow-mounted Eternal Paradox Curvature Strike Systems fired.

That's right, there was a second stage.

They were like those polymer cutting lines from the "Guzheng Operation" in a certain work...

No, even more terrifying than that.

At least those thin polymer lines in the Guzheng Operation required force to be applied in the opposite direction, while those thin black lines, upon the slightest contact, would generate a suction sensation like a python constricting.

If surrounding matter were sucked in, it would be twisted and pulverized by the manic, volatile space within less than a second.

Simply put, touch it and you die.

So don't laugh; if you were here, you wouldn't be able to pass the second stage either.

Moreover, these black lines showed no signs of slowly disappearing; instead, they accumulated more and more with each round of strikes from different directions, weaving into a net that constantly tightened, locking a large number of coalition Warships tightly within a small area.

And now, this area was still constantly shrinking—

"Mayday! Mayday!"

"We've been hit!"

"Warship is disintegrating for unknown reasons!"

The communication channels were in complete chaos.

At the center of the encirclement, on the flagship Battleship Coral Sea, Gaius was staring at the rapidly deteriorating battle situation on the tactical display with a bewildered expression.

A question that had plagued countless FPS players surfaced in his mind at this moment:

"Where am I being hit from?"

Yes, this wave of attacks had completely stunned them, to the point that the coalition's right wing, which suffered the main impact, took heavy losses, yet the main force hadn't even reacted yet.

However, even if the coalition fleet was mediocre, the officers within were at least professional soldiers with formal training.

Although the fleet was in chaos at the moment, it was only due to being caught off guard by a surprise attack—

The command and communication systems were still functioning; at least they hadn't fallen into systemic collapse.

Gaius was among the first to react; after the third wave of impacts, he finally steadied himself, stood at the command position on the Bridge, and shouted:

"Chief of Communications! Quickly tally the integrity of the fleet formations!"

"Yes!"

On the command-specialized Bridge, the area specifically responsible for information transmission gradually recovered, and the previously chaotic communications were sorted out one by one.

"Report! The Duke-class Battleship Duke has lost pressure on the port side! The core cylinder structure in section A is detaching! The bow has lost pressure! The captain is requesting permission to abandon ship!"

"Report! Formations 11 through 13 on the fleet's right wing have all lost contact!"

"Report! Formations 03 through 08 on the right wing have all broken formation! Radar shows they are fleeing the battlefield!"

"Report! A total of 82 Warships in the second formation of the third-class Battleships have been confirmed lost or abandoned!"

"Report!..."

With every "Report" the communications officer uttered, the veins on Gaius's forehead became more prominent, especially when he learned that half of the only thirteen first-class Battleships in the fleet had lost combat capability; he had just caught his breath, but almost lost it again.

"Where is damage control! Tell the captain of the Duke, do not abandon ship! Have the Coral Sea's damage control team take a Shuttle to help!"

"Have the remaining fleet restore formation! Deploy into a combat array!"

"Draft the reserves! Fill the gap on the right wing!"

When mentioning the right wing of the fleet, Gaius shouted his orders with a flushed face:

"The damned enemy has been lurking among us for so long! Open fire on those deserters!"

Orders were transmitted along the command lines to the Bridges of each ship, and the chaos within the fleet gradually ceased—

Of course, this also had something to do with the AIO-class formation stopping their strikes.

However, since there was a second stage, who could say if there wasn't a third stage coming?

At this moment, certain gray little sterilization machines would hold their beloved little rockets, jump out, and shout, "Come again! There's more!"

That's right, at this moment, in the heavily damaged right-wing formation of the coalition, the radar of a large number of Warships suddenly started beeping—

"Report! A large number of small targets detected on the starboard side! Approaching at high speed!"

"Oh no!!! Missiles incoming!!!"

"Report, Commander! The results of the first wave of AIO-class strikes have been confirmed!"

"The strike results far exceeded expectations!"

On the Bridge of the Thunder, the department responsible for observation looked at the outrageous data on the instruments and jumped up to celebrate loudly:

The AIO-class cruisers, which had been given high hopes by Lord Chusiro—though they were more accustomed to treating them as battlecruisers—had achieved results far higher than expected in their first battle; how could they not be excited?

"Good!"

Watching the excited observers, Oran nodded to them, responded, and then asked:

"How much longer until the chaotic space left by the AIO-class main weapon strikes disappears?"

"Report, Commander! About another half hour!"

"Half an hour, huh?" Oran thought for a moment.

Half an hour was enough for them to do a lot of things—for example, letting the Vitas A021s savor the hooks... oh no, the engines of every super capital ship on the other side.

(Vitas A: Avoiding one ship counts as a bomb.)

"Tell the other mobile fleets to pay attention; take turns launching carrier-based aircraft in two batches."

"Notify the Eternal Lamp (the former temporary acting flagship of the First Mobile Fleet, see Chapter 206); have them take a portion of the Warships and push forward to pressure the enemy and force them to make a choice."

"The number of enemies this time is huge! Do not let your guard down until they are completely annihilated!"

"Everyone! From now on, it's the aviation corps' home field! Continue the battle! Strive to end the combat within 24 hours!"

"Understood!"

...

Unknowingly, fourteen hours had passed.

For the several mobile fleets of the Guardian Angel Legion, these ten-plus hours were simply launching fighters, recovering fighters, and then launching new fighters.

But the coalition fleet trapped in the encirclement had a rough time—

As early as the first three waves of strikes, the over 100,000 sorties of Vitas A021s had already paralyzed the power systems of all the large Warships in the coalition.

So they could only sit there in an awkward position, getting bombed wave after wave.

During this, observed by several flight formations, the coalition fleet seemed to have had infighting—a large number of Warships on their right wing, even while paralyzed in place, were recklessly bombarding each other, to the extent that they had barely woven any anti-aircraft network.

And for those little flying sticks darting around everywhere, the right wing of the coalition fleet, without any anti-aircraft fire, was like it had pried itself open.

At this moment, the Bridge of the Coral Sea.

"How is the assault fleet coming along?"

The air on the Bridge was much heavier than usual, and everyone wore a heavy expression—especially Gaius.

"Report... they might still need some time to prepare."

A communications officer replied in a trembling, low voice.

But such a cautious tone, when it reached Gaius's ears, sounded incredibly grating.

"Prepare—still need to prepare?"

He suddenly roared, his expression extremely ferocious.

"How long have they been preparing!"

"Don't you understand? Time is not on our side! Every second we are sacrificing ourselves for nothing!"

"And that damned assault fleet, they still aren't ready?"

"How can they possibly justify the spare engines and damage control personnel gathered from the entire fleet!"

No one answered.

Gaius glanced at everyone, took a deep breath, sat down, and in a low voice, with a guttural tone, almost growled:

"Ten minutes, give them another ten minutes."

"They must depart in ten minutes!"

"Understood..."

The people below replied listlessly, but not a single person dared to look directly at him.

The assault fleet, the last batch of combat-capable Warships Gaius had scraped together from the fleet.

According to his plan, this fleet was supposed to open a breakthrough in the rear before the enemy's ambush encirclement completely closed, and then evacuate with the rest of his functional Warships.

For this, he had even called upon a large number of spare parts and damage control teams from the entire fleet, urgently repairing the engines of a batch of Warships located on the left wing.

Just to be able to break out successfully.

But clearly, things went against his wishes; a full three hours had passed since his planned time, yet there had been no news of that damned assault fleet being able to depart.

Calm... calm...

Gaius sat in the command position, holding his chest, silently chanting to himself:

"As long as the assault fleet launches an attack, everything will be fine..."

"As long as the assault fleet launches an attack, everything will be fine!"

Just as Gaius was talking to himself, suddenly, a discordant voice cut in—

"Report, Commander! There is no longer an assault fleet! They are unable to launch an attack!"

The voice was trembling, filled with a bit of sorrow and a crying tone; Gaius looked and saw it was the fleet's Chief of Staff.

"No! Impossible! How can you shake the morale of the troops like this!"

"There is no longer an assault fleet! Three hours ago, the enemy's fighters launched a surprise attack, and those Warships we concentrated have been completely annihilated!"

"Shut up! You scum who obstruct me!!!!"

"Scum!!!"

"How is that possible!!!"

Gaius finally couldn't take it anymore, howling loudly and questioning everyone on the Bridge.

But everyone just lowered their heads, not looking at him, and not saying a word.

"Fine—"

Looking at everyone on the Bridge, Gaius suddenly realized something.

"Fine!!!"

"You all knew! You all knew!!"

"You knew it long ago!!!"

"You all joined together to lie to me!!!"

"You treacherous things!!!"

"This is mutiny!!!"

Looking at the hysterical Gaius, the Chief of Staff only replied calmly:

"Commander, I know you are very angry, but our top priority is to find a way to resolve the current situation before their fleet comes over to crush us completely."

"Please give the order; at least we can save our own lives, can't we?"

Hearing the Chief of Staff's words, Gaius froze on the spot.

Give the order?

What does that mean?

Order a surrender?

Surrender?!

How can I surrender!!!

As a member of a meritorious family, as the fleet Commander, he had his pride! He had his honor!

How can I surrender!

But he looked at the eyes of the people around him, that look of a beast backed into a corner, about to lash out.

His whole body suddenly went limp—he realized that if he continued to resist to the end, the people under him would tear him to pieces before the enemy did.

Finally, his lips murmured twice, and he moved them with difficulty:

"Pass the order... shut down all ship defense systems, and use the public channel to publicly request communication with the enemy Commander,"

"Surrender."

After saying this, he collapsed heavily into the chair behind him, as if all the bones had been drained from his body.

And the people on the Bridge, feeling a sense of relief, immediately became busy.

...