211: Chapter 212 The Power of the Mass-Energy Cannon

"One, ten, a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand... Holy crap! Ten million Core Points?!"

Lin Li's breathing grew heavy, and his eyes seemed to be sparkling with gold.

That string of zeros was just so pleasing to the eye, making him feel completely at ease!

With this many points, how many blind boxes would he have to draw? How could he ever spend them all!

Beyond this massive amount of points, what really made Lin Li's scalp tingle was the additional reward attached at the end—[Incendiary Weapon Core Etching Plate]!

If he had this thing, it meant that the Matter Constructor in Shelter could basically start mass-producing incendiary weapons on an assembly line!

These incendiary weapons were serious business in the Warhammer Universe!

Their principle wasn't about firing lasers or solid projectiles, but rather emitting a high-temperature thermal beam capable of breaking molecular bonds!

Upon hitting a target, this thermal beam could instantly incinerate and vaporize any organic matter into ash!

Furthermore, the terrifying high temperature it generated would spread like a plague, instantly igniting everything in the vicinity.

If the dense formations of the Tyranids were hit by incendiary weapons, it could even trigger a massive chain reaction of explosions among nearby units!

Currently, these noble, lost weapons were usually only possessed by the high-ranking Tech-Priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus on Mars, or the very few Custodians guarding Terra.

"Once I get this etching plate..."

Lin Li calculated frantically in his mind, "I can start mass production in minutes! In the future, if everyone has one of these, even an ordinary grunt will be able to one-shot a heavily armored Space Marine or Tyranid warrior!"

With these ten million Core Points and the ultimate weapon blueprint as a safety net and bait, Lin Li's previously conservative tactical thoughts were thrown to the winds. He now just wanted to let loose and go all out on this job!

"My Lord!" Commander Ushtan, wearing a tactical headset, reported loudly, "Just received confirmation on the fleet-wide channel! The joint fleet of all clone players, as well as those mutant greenskin aircraft, have all arrived at the designated orbital coordinates! The entire army is in position!"

Lin Li closed his system panel and took a deep breath. His eyes burning like torches, he stared at the holographic sand table and ordered in a deep voice, "Very good! All fleets, load up on engine propellant! Advance! Follow the predetermined plan, spread out the formation, and conduct segmented interception!"

"Yes!" Ushtan immediately relayed the order to all warships.

"Boom!" The massive ten-kilometer-long orbital fortress, The Guardian, saw its huge main engine array at the bottom erupt with blinding blue light!

Violent, high-temperature propellant jetted out, pushing this magnificent metal pyramid like a moving mountain of steel, slowly advancing toward the direction where the Tyranids were pressing in from deep space.

Lin Li stood before the command console. He looked at the holographic tactical table, at the dense red dots on the opposite side pressing in like a wall of viscous blood; then he looked down at his own side, at the sparse, pitifully few green friendly markers.

Even with the powerful The Fourth Calamity and the orbital fortress, faced with such a staggering disparity in numbers, Lin Li still felt a heavy weight of pressure in his heart.

But regardless, there was no turning back from this battle. This was a pure struggle between two races over survival and consumption.

In the dictionary of the Tyranids, there was absolutely no room for communication or compromise. It was either you die, or I do!

"If it really comes down to the wire, where all the players are dead," Lin Li gritted his teeth inwardly, "then I'll just unlock the highest permissions for Iron Man 73! Clear all industrial production restrictions, have it activate the World Forger, and start mass-producing troops recklessly! I'll burn through the resources of the entire galaxy to buy space to survive!"

Of course, that was a last-resort "flip the table" tactic, to be used only if absolutely necessary. It was better not to use it if possible.

Moreover, for this decisive battle, Lin Li had far more cards up his sleeve than just that.

In short, victory would completely open up living space in the sector and settle the outcome in one battle; defeat would mean the entire Yuanwang Star System would be devoured into a dead zone.

This epic war, which concerned the survival of billions of lives in the entire Yuanwang Star System, naturally attracted unprecedented attention on all the planets in the rear of the galaxy.

Since the Spark Alliance had taken over the communication networks everywhere, citizens could now not only hear the battle reports transmitted back from the front lines with a delay via radio, but could even watch some real-time deep space footage captured by the front-line fleet on giant TV screens set up in the plazas.

Of course, considering the fragile psychological resilience of ordinary civilians, the disgusting and terrifying close-ups of the Tyranids were naturally cut out.

And due to the distances involved in interstellar travel, the transmitted video signal also had a delay.

At this moment, it was the weekend rest time on Mobius Prime. However, the Hive City's bottom-level plazas and major cheap taverns, which should have been quiet, were packed with people!

The vast majority of civilians, who couldn't afford home televisions and had just escaped the subsistence line under the Alliance's new policies, all spontaneously crowded the streets and alleys, staring at the giant public display screen flickering above the plaza.

Everyone knew this was a matter of life and death for them.

But there were also some timid people who dared not come to watch the footage of such a decisive battle. They preferred to hide in their narrow, dark shacks, hugging their families, silently enduring the torment of waiting for judgment.

In the plaza, the giant display screen was split into four segments, each filmed by drone scouts from four different angles within the fleet.

One of the angles seemed to be filmed from high above the rear of the fleet.

Under this wide-angle lens, the civilians could see the complete joint fleet that the Spark Alliance had cobbled together!

In the footage, at the very center was that massive, pyramid-shaped fortress, The Guardian, which looked like a creation of the gods and shimmered with a cold metallic luster; on its flanks were swarms of Scourge Legion River-class destroyers; on the other side were the many standard triangular knock-off Star Destroyers of the Galactic Empire; and at the very front of the formation was a massive biological warship, the golden armor, emitting a blinding golden light! Surrounding them were dense, chaotic swarms of various modified spaceships and greenskin junk ships.

Inside a luxury tavern box located high up in the lower hive, Marshal Miller held a glass of strong liquor. Watching the magnificent fleet on the plaza screen outside, he couldn't help but let out a heartfelt sigh.

"It's truly unbelievable." Miller shook his head, "In just over half a year, that young man actually managed to raise an interstellar force that has developed to such a terrifying degree!"

"If there had been more preparation time to let him continue to digest those resources, I believe he could definitely have built even more terrifying war machines. But... these damn bugs never give anyone time."

Standing next to Miller, the former Governor Cromwell was also staring at the screen. He remained silent for a long time, the muscles on his gaunt face twitching slightly.

"If this complex and completely unruly fleet wasn't being used to fight bugs, but instead to act as space pirates..." Cromwell said in a dry voice, "I'm afraid every imperial governor in the entire sector wouldn't be able to sleep peacefully at night!"

Just as the two were lamenting, Marshal Miller's sharp eyes suddenly narrowed, and he put down his glass: "They're here, the Tyranids of the Great Devourer!"

As his words fell, the previously noisy tavern and the huge plaza outside instantly fell into a deathly silence!

Everyone held their breath, eyes wide, watching the terrifying presence on the screen—a dense, oppressive mass like black, rotting flesh devouring the starlight!

Many timid civilians, upon seeing this scene of pure cosmic catastrophe, felt their legs go weak, fell directly to the ground, and began to tremble violently and uncontrollably.

"Is this... the main force of the Tyranids?" Miller clenched his fists; even through the screen, a fine layer of cold sweat seeped from his forehead.

Realizing his lapse in composure as a commander, Miller hurriedly closed his eyes and silently recited two sacred prayers of the Empire, forcibly suppressing the physiological fear born from staring into the abyss.

In the various plazas where the video was broadcast, many mentally fragile civilians, the moment they saw the Tyranids appear, found their sanity on the verge of collapse, and some even began to scream in despair.

Fortunately, Archon Elena had a contingency plan. A large number of Adeptus Arbites riot squads were immediately deployed to maintain order at the scene.

At the same time, Ecclesiarchy priests on various high vantage points began to loudly chant soothing prayers to the Emperor through floating sonic array skulls. They managed to barely suppress the impending riot, but the panic in the hearts of the crowd continued to spread.

It was in this desperate, dead silence that the giant screen suddenly erupted with blinding flashes of light! All kinds of firelight representing destruction lit up simultaneously in the dark, deep space!

The Spark Alliance fleet had opened fire! Dazzling plasma cannon beams, heavy Macro Cannon solid shells trailing long tails of flame, massive deep-space torpedoes, and railguns flickering with electric arcs! All the firepower was unleashed in an instant like a torrential rain!

Especially The Guardian at the center of the formation. Outside that massive pyramid, a full thousand large-caliber heavy Macro Cannons began to roar deafeningly, one after another! The huge fireballs ejected from the muzzles caused the four camera feeds to shake violently!

Miller gripped his glass tightly. He nervously watched those colorful flashes of fire, moving at different speeds and trajectories, slamming fiercely into the wall-like Tyranid fleet opposite!

After a few minutes of deep-space flight, the artillery fire made contact! The Tyranid fleet began to surge violently. Many small escort ships at the front were directly subjected to the barrage of solid Macro Cannon shells, blown to pieces of flesh and gore.

But what was most shocking was the scene in the center of the Tyranid line! Nearly a hundred massive Tyranid frigates and cruisers, after being struck by some invisible attack, suddenly erupted with dazzling, spectacular light clusters inside their hulls, like supernova nuclear explosions! They were blown into powder directly from the inside!

Just this first round of firepower delivery at the start caused casualties of nearly a hundred ships of various sizes in the Tyranid fleet!

The Tyranids' counterattack, unwilling to be outdone, followed immediately. Various green bio-plasma cannons and high-temperature corrosive acid sacs as huge as meteorites were launched in a counter-barrage with a terrifying density hundreds of times greater than the Spark Alliance fleet, covering the sky!

"Hum, hum, hum—" Facing the saturation strike from the Tyranids, the surfaces of most Spark Alliance players' ships instantly lit up with circles of azure deflector shields! Acid and plasma smashed into the shields, causing intense energy ripples, and the vast majority were forcibly deflected and blocked.

Of course, there were also some ramshackle ships, like the greenskin junk, that were hit directly because they lacked shields, their hulls corroded with large holes; or some ships whose shields overloaded because they suffered too many dense attacks at once.

But looking at it overall, the battle damage on the Alliance side in the first wave of engagement was not significant and was completely within an acceptable range!

Seeing this, Marshal Miller finally let out a long sigh of relief, his tense body relaxing.

And the civilians outside the taverns, in the plazas, and other places, upon seeing their fleet withstand the first wave of pressure, erupted into a fanatical cheer of survival!

Miller sat back in his leather chair. He looked at those dazzling light clusters in the footage, which looked like nuclear explosions, a flash of doubt crossing his eyes.

"Something's not right." Miller frowned, "Plasma cannons and Macro Cannons absolutely cannot produce that kind of terrifying power capable of disintegrating cruisers from the inside! It must be that mysterious cannon they previously deployed on the surface of Shelter, the one that once one-shotted a greenskin Titan stompa!"

"But... the classified intelligence sent back by the Intelligence Bureau clearly stated that they only had one of those strategic-level weapons!? How is it that as soon as the fighting started... a hundred of them suddenly appeared out of thin air?! This firepower depth is just too outrageous!"

The Guardian fortress, core combat command room. Lin Li stood before the huge holographic screen, watching with his own eyes as those one hundred Tyranid frigates and cruisers in deep space were silently blown into broken pieces of flesh, just like a nuclear explosion.

He was so excited his face was glowing, and he slammed a hand onto the adamantium shell of Iron Man 73 beside him. "Well done! 999!" Lin Li praised loudly.

Iron Man 73 slowly turned its mechanical head, which emitted a blue light, and said coldly in an electronic voice: "Creator, you are praising U-999. Why not go over and pat that crude pioneer robot that only knows how to fire cannons? Why pat me?"

Lin Li awkwardly withdrew his hand, which was suspended in mid-air, and coughed twice: "Ahem, isn't it busy firing cannons while connected to the data cable? Haha, I have to say, things from the Golden Age are just awesome! One hundred shots from the Mass-Energy Conversion Cannon, and one hundred Tyranid biological warships are totally scrapped!"

"999! Keep firing! Let's see how many more hundreds they have to lose!"