182: Chapter 182 Staggering Battle Losses

Deep in space, there was neither wind nor sound.

The expeditionary fleet of the Spark Alliance, cobbled together from countless modified merchant ships and standard river-class vessels, collided head-on with the overwhelming vanguard fleet of the Tyranids!

The engagement distance between the two sides was forcibly compressed to less than 50 kilometers!

On the scale of the vast universe, a distance of 50 kilometers was akin to two heavyweight boxers pressing their foreheads together, trading blows in a close-quarters brawl!

The reason Lin Li adopted this near-suicidal 'face-to-face' tactic was primarily due to the uneven firing ranges of the player fleet.

Currently, apart from the sea breeze no. 9, which was equipped with the 'Ridge Peak Electromagnetic Cannon' built with Golden Age technology, most of the ships built by players lacked weapons capable of long-range strikes over hundreds of thousands of kilometers.

Most of the weapons mounted on their ships were live-ammunition cannons similar to Galactic Empire Macro Cannons, as well as space torpedoes loaded with high-explosive chemical charges.

The power of these kinetic weapons was decent, but in the vacuum of space without gravity, the trajectories of live-ammunition cannons became uncontrollable once the distance increased.

Not to mention the remaining plasma secondary guns and anti-aircraft laser cannons. Once the distance was too great, the beam energy would suffer severe attenuation and scattering in space, failing to even scratch the target.

This is why, in the Warhammer universe, Galactic Empire warships usually prefer to fight face-to-face. Because the effective range of lances and Macro Cannons is truly limited.

Fifty kilometers away, hundreds of bio-frigates surrounded a small purple-black hive ship, along with countless spore cysts hovering around them like gravel in a sea of stars.

The small hive ship at the center alone reached a suffocating length of four kilometers!

The entire hive starship resembled the terrifying giant nautiloids from Earth's ancient oceans.

Its front end was wrapped in layers of thick, jagged chitinous armor, like an indestructible biological shield, while the dozens of thick tentacles at its rear swayed slowly and powerfully in the cold void.

The escorting bio-frigates were also quite large. Although their sizes varied, their average length was about one kilometer.

They lacked metal gun barrels; in their place were bio-plasma exhaust ports on their backs, glowing with an eerie green bioluminescence and writhing frantically.

On the Spark Alliance side, the largest ship was the knock-off Star Destroyer, one kilometer long, hand-built by the Galactic Empire Stormtroopers players.

But this imposing-looking behemoth was stuffed with barracks and life-support systems, essentially just a large space troop transport, with only a few pathetic anti-aircraft laser cannons mounted on its surface.

Other player-made ships were at most a few hundred meters long.

As for the flagship sea breeze no. 9, at just over two hundred meters, it looked like a small green bean placed next to an egg when parked in front of that four-kilometer-long hive ship.

"Fleet! Fire at will!" Lin Li's voice exploded in the communication channel.

The second the order was given, all player ships, including sea breeze no. 9, poured out all their long-charged firepower without reservation!

The dark universe was instantly illuminated! Orange-red firelight flickered continuously in the void.

Space high-explosive torpedoes and Macro Cannon armor-piercing shells, each weighing several tons, were pushed out of launch tubes; eerie green plasma beams poured out like a dense rain; and beams of azure high-energy laser fire wove into a net of death.

Countless artillery fire and energy ammunition poured into the swarm's formation like a rainstorm.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Violent fireballs expanded briefly in the oxygen-free space before rapidly contracting.

The high-temperature scorching of various energy weapons slammed fiercely into the writhing tentacles and key parts of the bio-frigates and the hive ship.

The Tyranids living ships did not have the Void Shield that uses Warp folding like Galactic Empire warships.

Their defensive means in space could only rely entirely on their thick, layered chitinous shells that had undergone countless genetic evolutions!

Under such shameless close-range firepower coverage from the players, many huge spore cysts on the periphery of the swarm were blown to pieces by stray fire.

The biological plasma and unhatched eggs inside were instantly frozen and shattered in the vacuum.

Those thick tentacles, hundreds of meters long, were also severed by high-explosive torpedoes, losing power and floating silently in space like decapitated vipers.

However, when the smoke cleared, Legion Commander ikun True Fan, sitting on the bridge of the Star Destroyer, looked at the images transmitted back by the optical sensor and couldn't help but slam the table and curse loudly.

"Holy shit! With such a dense volley, we only scratched the surface? How are we supposed to fight this?!"

In the image, those hundreds of bio-frigates that had been baptized by artillery fire were pitted and had many severed tentacles, but their thick cuticles had not been completely penetrated! The hive ship was completely unscathed!

The only objective, fatal wound caused by this round of saturation strikes was from the Ridge Peak Electromagnetic Cannon on the bow of sea breeze no. 9!

The solid adamantine shell, accelerated to the limit by the electromagnetic rail, carried terrifying kinetic energy and forcibly punched a blood-red hole several dozen meters wide between the root of a frigate's tentacle and its thick hull!

Green biological fluid gushed out, and the frigate began to roll in agony in space.

Use Fire Punch shouted in the channel:

"What are you panicking about! Bugs are designed to have thick blood and high defense! I saw in the background info that their long-range firepower in space is relatively singular. If we open up the distance and fire a few more volleys, we can eventually scrape them to death!"

ikun True Fan gritted his teeth:

"At the end of the day, our hand-built weapons are just too weak! Caliber is justice! After this battle, I'm going back to the workshop no matter what to weld a few more bad-ass heavy cannons onto the ship!"

"Don't we already know how to hand-make nukes?" Flame Fist suggested,

"Why don't we just make a few hundred high-yield nukes, use intercontinental missiles as carriers, and fire them all at once?"

ikun rolled his eyes:

"That's a good idea! But if we did that, wouldn't this warship I worked so hard to build just become a missile boat? No, no! We still need large-caliber electromagnetic Macro Cannons to be romantic!"

Just as the two legion commanders were arguing endlessly about the Missile Cult versus Big Ships and Cannons, Player Pi She, who was standing by in another compartment, suddenly looked out the porthole and shouted:

"Stop arguing! Look! They're counter-attacking!"

In the void fifty kilometers away, the massive hive ship and hundreds of frigates in the Tyranids fleet simultaneously opened the abyss-like giant cracks on both sides of their bodies!

Countless thick launch tubes extended from the flesh membranes.

Following a sickening biological pulse contraction!

"Poof! Poof! Poof!"

Thousands of bio-plasma spheres emitting eerie green, blinding light were ejected like a meteor shower!

At the same time, those huge spore cysts hovering on the periphery began to contract, firing large amounts of acid-filled vesicles at the human fleet.

The overwhelming green barrage drew deadly trajectories in space and slammed into them instantly!

ikun True Fan watched helplessly as most of the dense attacks locked onto sea breeze no. 9 and his own largest knock-off Star Destroyer!

"Boom boom boom!"

Dozens of huge bio-plasma spheres smashed into the void around sea breeze no. 9.

However, no explosion occurred.

A layer of transparent spatial ripples, like water waves, suddenly appeared in the space around sea breeze no. 9!

That was the complete Golden Age Void Shield equipped on sea breeze no. 9!

This thing was not some barely cobbled-together semi-defective product that could only take hits like the current Galactic Empire warships.

A complete Void Shield could directly create a micro-Warp folding zone around the ship!

When the massive bio-plasma barrage hit the Void Shield, all the energy and matter were instantly converted and transferred into the Warp!

The silver hull of sea breeze no. 9 remained safe and sound inside the shield, without even a tremor.

But just because sea breeze no. 9 could take it didn't mean ikun True Fan's knock-off warship could.

His Star Destroyer, forcibly cobbled together from scrap metal from merchant ships, didn't have that kind of high-end Void Shield.

It didn't even have the most basic deflector shield!

Moreover, because the knock-off Star Destroyer was one kilometer long, it was the largest ship on the Alliance side.

The Hive Mind's simple physical logic likely mistook this exaggeratedly shaped triangular warship for the true flagship of this fleet!

Therefore, it received several times more concentrated firepower than sea breeze no. 9!

"Evasive maneuvers! Full rudder to evade!" ikun shouted hoarsely on the bridge.

But the flat, triangular hull of the knock-off Star Destroyer had too large a hit area, and with its heavy inertia, it couldn't dodge in time.

"Boom! Boom!"

Over a hundred bio-plasma shells with extremely high temperatures, as well as huge vesicles filled with highly corrosive acid, slammed into the left wing armor of the ship without any obstruction!

Under the dual explosions of terrifying high heat and acid capable of melting adamantine, the two-meter-thick left wing armor plate of the knock-off Star Destroyer was instantly blown to pieces and turned into molten iron! A corner of the ship was blown off, a horrific sight.

Fortunately, that location was mainly the life-support system storage area, not the core magazine storing nuclear fuel and ammunition. The ship did not suffer a fatal chain reaction explosion.

But the bad news was:

"Warning! Left hull damaged! Life support system offline! Oxygen is leaking rapidly!"

Amidst the violent explosion and shaking,

ikun grabbed the console to steady himself, looking at the screen full of red lights, his face filled with despair.

"Damn it, movies get people killed!"

ikun was on the verge of tears,

"The shape of this triangular Star Destroyer is purely a living target that eats damage! It looks good but is useless!"

The adjutant, Shushu Failed the Exam, shouted while putting on a pressure suit:

"Commander! Our ship's life support system has been blown away, the backup oxygen can only last for half an hour! What do we do now?"

ikun's eyes were red as he stared at the massive hive fleet less than fifty kilometers away.

"What else can we do?!"

ikun slammed his fist onto the console, "Send a signal to the boss! I don't want this ship anymore! Full power acceleration! Ram it directly into them!"

Subsequently, he issued a hoarse roar on the ship-wide broadcast channel:

"Brothers! Everyone put on your Power Armor! Get your weapons ready!"

"The ship is toast! We're crashing straight into the bugs' nest! Start a boarding battle! Let's blow these aliens up!"

In the standby cabin,

The Brotherhood of Steel members, who had also been knocked around by the explosions, cheered immediately upon hearing the broadcast.

"Haha! Here comes the work!"

Flame Fist put on his heavy armor and drew his humming two-handed greatsword,

"Brothers! We can't stay on this broken ship anymore! Let's go! Let's take a walk inside the bugs' ship!"

...

Lin Li stood in front of the holographic tactical projection, feeling a sense of scalp-tingling dread as he looked at the battle damage report fed back after the first round of engagement.

"Good grief, in the first round of probing fire, we lost nearly one-tenth of our ships!"

Lin Li looked at the extinguished light points on the star map,

"And the largest knock-off Star Destroyer was directly crippled. The bio-firepower of these bugs is a bit over the top."

Chief Commander Ushtan reported with a steady expression:

"Lord, members of the Galactic Empire Stormtroopers and the Brotherhood of Steel are currently reorganizing inside the damaged warship; they intend to engage the enemy in a physical boarding battle."

"The surviving soldiers from the other destroyed ships have also boarded rocket drop pods and are forcibly rushing toward the hull of the hive fleet, preparing to board."

Lin Li nodded.

This was the suicide tactic formulated before the battle.

Although player ships were fragile, as long as the clone body wasn't dead, even if the ship was destroyed, they would use escape pods or shuttles to forcibly board like leeches.

"The tactics are fine."

Lin Li stroked his chin,

"I'm just a bit worried about how much our players' individual ground combat strength actually lags behind these space bugs that evolved for slaughter."

Just then,

Iron Man 73, acting as the radar officer, issued a warning again.

"Creator, please pay attention to the optical screen!"

73's mechanical arm operated rapidly on the console,

"The giant spore cysts on the periphery are frantically spewing billions of micro-spore cysts and high-concentration biological waste gas!"

"These substances have formed a dense cloud layer covering thousands of kilometers in the vacuum. It is expected that in the next round of firepower exchange, the penetration effect of the laser cannons equipped by our fleet will be greatly reduced, with power attenuation of nearly eighty percent!"

Hearing this news, Lin Li's face grew even darker.