175: Chapter 175 The Decisive Strike: Capturing Order Amidst Chaos
In the sea of stars, the chaotic fireworks of energy slowly dissipated, revealing "the piercer" behind it, which appeared somewhat "disheveled."
Its hybrid shields were covered in scorch marks of varying depths, with remnants of pale red, bright white, and deep blue energy flowing everywhere like spilled paint.
Two of its recently generated white gun barrels had noticeably dimmed, and the silver-gray metal on their surfaces had begun to crack.
Even its overall flight posture showed an imperceptible sluggishness—although it was only a lag of a fraction of a second, under "Nuwa"'s millisecond-level monitoring network, this momentary flaw was clearly captured and magnified!
" 'Nuwa' reporting!" The synthesized electronic voice rang out on the bridge, rarely carrying a hint of hurried data stream noise. "The chaotic attack is highly effective! The target's adaptive system is showing signs of overload! We have detected rhythmic disturbances in its energy field coordination 0.42 seconds after the attack peak—the repetition cycle is about 1.7 seconds, with a duration ranging from 0.08 seconds to 0.15 seconds!"
"Rhythmic disturbances?" Long Zhantian perked up, his eyes locked onto the several energy reading dips highlighted by "Nuwa" on the main screen.
Those dips were like abnormal fluctuations on an EKG, appearing once every 1.7 seconds; though brief, they were exceptionally clear!
"It can't hold on!" The Chief of Weapons growled excitedly. "Our chaotic attacks have overloaded its 'processor'! It's scrambling to deal with attacks of different frequencies, unable to handle everything at once!"
"It's not just an overload." "Nuwa" quickly added, simultaneously projecting a high-speed analysis animation onto the center of the tactical table. "Based on the phase characteristics of its energy field disturbances and the subtle changes in its liquid metal flow patterns, we have reverse-engineered its behavior. The target's adaptive algorithm has an inherent flaw: when performing high-intensity, multi-threaded frequency parsing, it requires an extremely brief 'memory defragmentation' or 'cache clearing' cycle, otherwise the parsed data will interfere with each other. This cycle is its 'Achilles' heel'!"
The animation clearly demonstrated the operating mode of "the piercer"'s energy field: when multiple vastly different energy frequencies acted upon it simultaneously, its eerie adaptive system would, like a multi-tentacled octopus, extend countless "tentacles" to sample and analyze them all at once.
However, the data streams collected by these "tentacles" eventually had to be aggregated to a core processor for integration, imitation, and counterattack—and this aggregation process required an extremely brief "pause" every 1.7 seconds to clear the previous round of data cache and recalibrate!
This "pause" was that 0.08 to 0.15-second window of disturbance!
"Found you!" Long Zhantian clenched his fists, his knuckles turning white.
But he didn't let excitement cloud his judgment. This window was too brief—around 0.1 seconds. In space warfare, where speeds are measured in kilometers per second, any slight delay in targeting, charging, or firing would cause the opportunity to vanish in an instant!
" 'Nuwa'!" Long Zhantian's voice was as steady as iron. "Calculate the optimal attack timing! I need the Thunder Department main guns to hit its energy core precisely with a complex modulated frequency that it finds hardest to parse, at the exact moment the next disturbance window opens—the margin of error cannot exceed plus or minus 0.01 seconds! Can you do it?"
This was handing the decisive move entirely over to the artificial intelligence. The reaction speed of human crew members, even those who were genetically enhanced elites, could not precisely control a battle opportunity on the 0.1-second scale.
"Calculating..." "Nuwa"'s electronic voice did not hesitate. "I need to take over the main gun firing authority down to the millisecond level. Simultaneously, the secondary guns and interference projectiles must maintain suppressive chaotic attacks to force the target to remain in a high-intensity adaptive state, ensuring that its disturbance window appears according to the predicted cycle."
"Authority granted!" Long Zhantian did not hesitate. "Attention all hands! The secondary gun array is to maintain fully automatic suppressive fire, use mixed ammunition mode! Fire another round of interference projectiles! Create an opportunity for 'Nuwa'!"
"Understood!"
"Secondary guns, fire!"
"Interference projectiles, launch!"
Commands echoed throughout the bridge. The broadside of soaring heavens once again spat out a colorful barrage of "junk"—high-explosive shells, armor-piercing shells, electromagnetic pulse shells, and even makeshift "shotgun" shells packed with metal shards. These attacks might not have been very powerful, but their frequency characteristics were bizarre and varied, slamming into "the piercer" like a rainstorm.
The light on the surface of "the piercer" flickered crazily, and the silver-gray liquid metal churned like boiling water, constantly moving across the hull, repairing and generating temporary small shield nodes. It was clearly stunned by this "unprincipled" flurry of wild punches, its adaptive system running at full power, attempting to process hundreds of different threat signals simultaneously.
Now!
Inside "Nuwa"'s core processor, time was sliced into nanosecond fragments. It synchronously monitored the real-time changes of the 3,700 energy reading points across "the piercer"'s body, inputting several petabytes of data per second into the predictive model supported by the "Fuxi" matrix.
The countdown ticked silently in "Nuwa"'s logic core.
1.5 seconds... 1.6 seconds...
The energy field fluctuations of "the piercer" began to show the familiar "precursor ripples."
1.65 seconds!
In the Thunder Department main gun array, inside the barrels of the four giant cannons, energy began to converge in an extremely bizarre pattern. This time, it wasn't just a simple color change, but—the charging frequencies of the four guns were completely different! The first gun was a high-frequency sawtooth wave, the second was a low-frequency square wave, the third was a medium-frequency sine wave overlaid with random noise, and the fourth... actually mimicked a bit of the distorted frequency characteristics of the Ripper's "Void Beam" (reverse-engineered based on CR-7 wreckage data)!
Four completely different, even contradictory, frequency patterns were charging at the same time!
1.69 seconds!
The energy field coordination reading of "the piercer" suddenly showed a steep decline—the disturbance window was about to open!
"Fire!" "Nuwa"'s electronic voice exploded through the bridge speakers; it wasn't a request, it was a declaration!
Hum—Boom, boom, boom, boom!!!
The roar of the four main guns almost overlapped into a long, strange boom! Four energy beams, completely different in color, brightness, and trajectory jitter, lunged toward the same target like four evil dragons breaking free from the abyss, baring their fangs and brandishing their claws!
But this time, there was a subtle difference in their attack timing.
The first to strike was the high-frequency sawtooth wave energy beam from the first gun, which slammed hard into the localized shield that "the piercer" had just raised, erupting with a piercing sound of energy erosion, like metal grinding against metal. The shield flickered violently.
Immediately following was the low-frequency square wave energy beam from the second gun, which struck the same area in almost the same millisecond. The heavy impact of the low-frequency energy combined with the sharp erosion of the high-frequency energy caused the flickering frequency of that shield area to experience a bizarre "resonance disorder."
Just at the moment when the localized shield defense experienced a physical lag—the third and fourth energy beams arrived!
The medium-frequency noise-overlaid energy beam from the third gun, like a drill, seized the gap in the shield's disturbance and fiercely "drilled" in! Meanwhile, the dim beam from the fourth gun, carrying the distorted frequency characteristics, slithered in silently like a viper along the tiny gap torn open by the third gun!
All of this happened within 0.05 seconds.
The energy core area of "the piercer"—that dark structure located toward the rear-center, which had been marked multiple times by "Nuwa"—suddenly had the flowing shadows on its surface freeze at this moment!
The next second.
There was no earth-shattering explosion.
There was only an extremely blinding, pure white light that seemed capable of searing the soul, bursting forth from within "the piercer"! The light was so intense that the optical sensors of soaring heavens had to instantly lower their sensitivity.
In the light, the hideous hull of "the piercer" seemed to be pried open from the inside by an invisible hand, and countless fine cracks, originating from the energy core, instantly spread across its entire body! The silver-gray liquid metal tried to rush to the cracks to repair them, but as soon as it touched that pure white light, it was like ice meeting a soldering iron, instantly vaporizing and dissipating!
It was a silent disintegration.
Starting from the core, the hull structure of "the piercer" peeled away, shattered, and turned into the most basic particle dust, layer by layer, piece by piece. There was no fire, no loud noise, only the most thorough annihilation of matter under extreme energy loss of control.
The entire process lasted less than three seconds.
When the pure white light gradually dimmed and dissipated, the void where "the piercer" had originally been left only a slowly expanding, thin cloud of metal particles and ionized gas, as well as some larger, twisted metal wreckage that had lost its energy luster and turned dim, floating silently.
The sea of stars returned to silence.
Inside the bridge of soaring heavens, there was dead silence.
Everyone held their breath, eyes wide as they stared at the empty starry sky on the main screen, and the readings fed back by the sensors representing "the piercer"'s life signs—zeroed out.
Several seconds passed.
"...Target...destroyed." The sensor officer's voice was dry, carrying an unbelievable tremor.
"Energy reaction vanished, structural signals vanished... confirmed destroyed." The Chief of Weapons added, his finger still pressing on the launch button, trembling slightly.
Long Zhantian slowly unclenched his tight fists, his palms covered in cold sweat. He took a deep breath, a breath so deep and long that it seemed as if he were trying to expel all the tension and pressure from his chest.
"Well done..." he said in a low voice, then raised his volume, broadcasting to the entire ship, his voice raspy with the feeling of having survived a catastrophe, and filled with irrepressible excitement. "Attention all hands! 'the piercer'—confirmed destroyed! We won!"
After a brief silence.
"Roar—!!!"
Deafening cheers started from the bridge and instantly swept through the entire soaring heavens! Every battle station, every cabin erupted with a sound wave like a landslide or a tsunami! Young crew members jumped up, hugging and pounding each other. Many had tears in their eyes—it was the ecstasy of releasing fear, the relief of having walked on the edge of life and death, and even more, the supreme pride of winning the first interstellar victory for human civilization!
Long Zhantian did not stop them; he knew how important this moment of catharsis was. But he quickly composed himself and ordered in a deep voice: " 'Nuwa', immediately collect all wreckage data from the engagement airspace and mark the locations of the larger debris! Damage control team, report ship damage! Navigation team, adjust course, maintain a safe distance for observation, and stay alert for the movements of the Ripper!"
"Yes!"
The cheers gradually subsided, and the well-trained crew quickly returned to their posts. The joy of victory still surged in their chests, but a more severe reality lay before them—there was still a more bizarre Ripper lurking in Jupiter's orbit, and no one knew how many more such reaper units were outside the Solar System.
Long Zhantian connected the communication to Bright Dawn base.
On the screen, the figure of Lin Mo appeared. The young advisor's face also carried an expression of relief, but his eyes were still as sharp as knives.
"Captain Long, well fought." Lin Mo spoke first, his tone filled with approval. " 'Nuwa's execution was flawless, and your suppressive attacks created excellent conditions. More importantly—we have obtained the data on its complete adaptive cycle, as well as the full readings at the moment its energy core was shattered! This data is invaluable!"
"It was your tactical guidance that was key." Long Zhantian said sincerely. "Without the discovery of frequency chaotic modulation and the disturbance window, we would still be grinding it out against it."
"We achieved this together." Lin Mo waved his hand, his expression immediately becoming serious. "But now is not the time to celebrate. The Ripper is still there, and according to the latest monitoring by "Fuxi", after "the piercer" was destroyed, its scanning activity suddenly stopped, and it is now in a state of complete silence... This is very abnormal."
Long Zhantian's heart sank: "Is it observing? Or is it preparing something?"
"I don't know." Lin Mo shook his head. "So soaring heavens cannot stay long. Immediately begin recovering valuable wreckage samples, then return at maximum speed to Guanghan Palace base for resupply and in-depth data analysis. We need to figure out more secrets of the reaper units to be able to deal with the next one—I have a premonition that the real test is coming soon."
"Understood." Long Zhantian replied solemnly.
He turned and looked at the main screen. In the starry sky, that cloud of wreckage belonging to "the piercer" was slowly drifting away, like a pale flower in a cosmic graveyard that had withered just as it began to bloom.