91: victory

January 1, 2036, New Year's Day.

Before the first ray of New Year's sunlight could illuminate the azure arc of the Earth, the largest and most brutal space battle in the history of Human Civilization erupted suddenly in the lunar orbit, just 380,000 kilometers from their home.

Thousands of steel behemoths engaged in a life-or-death struggle on this cold and silent cosmic stage, a battle that would decide the fate of their civilization.

"All fleets, attack!"

Accompanied by the roar of General Wang Quanjin, Commander-in-Chief of the Earth Defense Force, filled with determination and murderous intent, over three thousand warships—representing the pinnacle of Human Civilization's military power—poured out from the gravitational shadows of Earth and the Babel Space Station, actively charging to meet the surging, tide-like rebel fleet.

Without any warning or probing, the war instantly entered a white-hot stage in the most direct and violent manner.

The rebel fleet continued to employ their tried-and-true opening tactic.

At the very forefront of their fleet formation, hundreds of silver-white warships saw the bows of their ships light up simultaneously with an eerie glow, resembling black vortices.

Hundreds of "Black Lines," spatial weapons capable of cutting through space itself, crossed tens of thousands of kilometers in mere seconds at extreme speeds, descending upon the leading assault formation of the human fleet like a web of death woven by the Grim Reaper himself.

Facing this kind of dimensional strike that had once caused them heavy losses and was nearly impossible to defend against.

This time, however, the formation of the human fleet underwent a strange change.

The hundreds of starfish-class frigates charging at the very front suddenly activated mysterious devices located on both sides of their hulls.

These were the spatial stabilization devices kindly provided by the "allies."

Hum—!

An invisible, massive barrier instantly unfolded in front of the human fleet.

This barrier could not block any physical attacks, but it could effectively maintain spatial stability. The essence of the "Black Lines" was to use a certain force field to fold or truncate space, preventing the constituent parts of matter from joining together; the function of the spatial stabilization device was to weaken and deflect the force that such a field exerted on space.

The moment those hundreds of deadly "Black Lines" made contact with this barrier, their trajectories clearly underwent a slight deflection and instability.

Although dozens of unfortunate frigates were still directly hit, turning into cold space debris in a silent dismemberment.

The vast majority of the "Black Line" attacks missed the main force of the human fleet due to this slight deflection, shooting off into the empty space behind them.

Humanity had successfully neutralized the enemy's first, most lethal strike!

"We did it!"

On the bridge of the voyager, everyone who witnessed this scene couldn't help but let out suppressed cheers.

This tactic had been proposed by the AI consultants from Paradox Technology. They had somehow obtained the devices from the Faleim regular army and customized this tactic based on this "artifact" capable of neutralizing the opponent's strongest weapon.

Although the spatial stabilization device only weakened and slightly deflected the path of the "Black Lines," in a large-scale fleet battle, even causing the enemy's muzzle to deviate by a thousandth of a degree was enough to create a massive shooting deviation over a distance of tens of thousands of kilometers.

Having withstood the first, most ferocious attack, the morale of the human fleet instantly reached its peak.

"Second and Third Fleets, flank from both wings! Fourth and Fifth Fleets, press forward from the front! Particle cannons, volley fire!"

Captain Li Zhenhua's voice echoed through the command channel.

The muzzles of thousands of human warships lit up simultaneously with blinding white light.

Tens of thousands of high-energy particle clusters, accelerated to near the speed of light, poured down like a violent thunderstorm, overwhelming the rebel fleet that had lost its greatest trump card!

The rebel fleet immediately deployed their energy shields.

But when faced with this kind of particle beam attack, which contained immense kinetic energy and high-energy radiation, their shields were no different from paper.

Every hit sent ripples violently across their shields.

Under the cost-no-object saturation fire from the human fleet, the shields of many small "rebel warships" were completely overloaded and pierced within just a few minutes.

Immediately after, their hulls were pierced by countless high-energy particle beams, then dissipated into a mist of silver-white smoke.

However, the rebel fleet was not a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.

After losing the advantage of their spatial weapons, they immediately switched tactics.

Those nearly two thousand warships quickly dispersed, forming hundreds of small combat groups consisting of three to five ships each.

Like the most agile wolf packs, they utilized their mobility, which far exceeded that of the human warships, to engage in a brutal close-quarters battle with the massive human fleet.

An unprecedented, massive melee unfolded fiercely in lunar orbit.

Lieutenant Colonel Zhang Lei, captain of a starfish-class frigate, was staring intently at the tactical screen in front of him.

On the screen, three red dots representing enemy ships were rapidly approaching him in a tricky " product" formation.

"Hard to port! Overload engine power to 120%! Shake them off!" he roared at the helmsman beside him.

Under his control, the warship traced a strained arc in space like a clumsy dancer, narrowly dodging the opponent's first volley.

"Lock onto the one on the left flank! Particle cannons, triple burst!"

The main cannon at the bow roared, and three high-energy particle beams accurately struck the enemy ship that was performing a lateral maneuver.

The enemy ship's shields collapsed instantly after flickering violently a few times, and half of its hull was blown into silver-white smoke.

However, before Zhang Lei could rejoice, the other two enemy ships had completed their flanking maneuver from above and below him. The crossfire instantly engulfed his warship completely.

"Alarm! Hull structural damage exceeds 70%! Reactor about to overload!"

The piercing alarm sounded throughout the bridge.

Zhang Lei looked at the two enemy ships on the screen that were about to deliver the final blow, a flash of determination in his eyes.

"Everyone still alive, enter the escape pods immediately!" he issued his final command over the internal communication channel.

"Helmsman! Ram them! If we can take one out, we take one out!"

His warship, billowing with thick smoke and electric sparks, turned its bow like a scarred bull and launched one final charge at the nearest enemy ship.

...

Scenes like this were playing out in every corner of the battlefield.

Human soldiers used their fearless courage and iron will to make up for the slight gap in single-ship performance against the enemy.

Sometimes they could manage a one-for-one trade, sometimes two-for-one, and some inexperienced squads had to trade three-for-one.

They were slowly exhausting the enemy's effective strength in the most primitive and tragic way.

At the very center of the battlefield, the true ace duel had begun.

The voyager, this flagship, escorted by three hundred frigates, flew straight toward the rebel fleet's command core—those few capital ships that were significantly larger than the other warships.

"Main cannon charged!"

"Target locked—enemy formation, capital ship designated A-3!"

"Fire!"

A positron beam, brighter than the sun, once again tore through the pitch-black universe.

It struck the several-kilometer-long "rebel" capital ship with unrivaled precision.

However, this time, the capital ship was not killed in one hit like its predecessors.

A thicker and stronger energy shield lit up on the surface of its hull, forcefully withstanding the terrifying energy of the positron beam—enough to melt anything—and deflecting it.

Although the shield was close to collapse after flickering violently, the energy of the positron beam had been exhausted; fortunately, after being deflected, it still hit an escort warship next to that enemy capital ship and blew it into ash.

"The shield strength of their capital ship is more than three times that of the flagship we encountered before!" The analyst's voice was filled with shock.

Before they could even recharge, the rebel fleet's capital ships began their counterattack.

Hundreds of launch ports slid open on both sides of their hulls.

Thousands of drones and high-energy plasma shells poured down on the voyager like a deluge.

"Activate point defense systems! All secondary batteries, free fire!"

The massive hull of the voyager instantly turned into a hedgehog.

Dozens of close-in defense laser cannons and electromagnetic rapid-fire cannons opened fire simultaneously from every corner of the hull, forming an airtight net of lethal firepower around the voyager.

Any drone that attempted to approach was torn to pieces in an instant, while the shells left craters of varying depths on the armor of the voyager's hull.

The flagship formations of both sides thus engaged in the most primitive and violent artillery duel in space.

But the war situation remained grim.

Although the human fleet had temporarily stabilized its footing by relying on its numerical advantage and fearless spirit, the rebel fleet's superior flexibility and stronger single-ship performance still put them at a disadvantage in the exchange ratio.

If they continued to fight like this, the losses to the human fleet would undoubtedly be devastating.

And just then, the third party on the battlefield—the "Faleim regular army allies" controlled by Grey Wind, which had been floating quietly beside the voyager all along—finally moved.

Those several super-giant ships, over ten kilometers in length, moved.

They were like sharks rushing into an aquarium; wherever they went, all the rebel fleet's warships were blasted into ash by the various weapons on their hulls.

Soon, the main cannons at their bows began to shine with the light of charging energy. Ten seconds later, several white beams that illuminated the entire starry sky shot straight toward the capital ships of the rebel fleet.

As the white beams swept across, those capital ships didn't even leave a shred of debris behind.

This god-like strike instantly changed the balance of the entire battlefield.

Having lost their command core and strongest firepower points, the rebel fleet clearly fell into massive chaos and panic.

The human fleet, morale boosted, launched the final general offensive under the leadership of the voyager.

The scales of victory finally tipped irreversibly toward humanity at this moment.

After experiencing over a dozen hours of brutal, bloody fighting, the last rebel warship still resisting was also destroyed by the concentrated fire of several starfish-class frigates.

When that last burst of explosive fire slowly extinguished in the pitch-black universe, the entire battlefield fell into a dead silence.

Only countless warship wrecks and the cold corpses of sacrificed soldiers floated quietly on that once fiercely contested battlefield, silently recounting the cruelty and tragedy of this war.

Humanity had won.