Chapter 215 Jump Point “Lost”
Long journeys are always tiring. By the time the Apollo-Galan Punishment Fleet finally arrived in the “Assassin” System after nearly a month, many crew members in the fleet were already experiencing low morale.
They were dejected and lacked energy.
Although they rotated shifts normally every day and rested on time, they couldn't fall asleep on the hard, sticky hot bunks.
After learning about this situation, Gerald, Apollo’s commander, suggested that the fleet rest for at least a day, and the mess hall should try to prepare delicious hot meals so that the sailors could get sufficient rest before passing through the Jump Point into the Li Star System to cleanly complete the predetermined combat mission.
However, Vice Admiral Xige of Galan’s Third Fleet rejected this proposal.
“Mr. Gerald, campaigning and fighting are like this. We have experienced longer journeys, and it doesn’t prevent us from immediately engaging in war at all,
Nor does it prevent us from winning battles! Haha!”
Xige didn’t feel tired at all, and his mental state was excellent.
When ordinary sailors needed to work in two shifts and share a bed of less than 2 square meters, he could enjoy a captain’s suite of over 100 square meters by himself, plus four personal male valets who had followed him since childhood to attend to his daily needs.
“I know that, Vice Admiral. If Apollo doubted Galan’s strength, it wouldn’t have extended an invitation this time. But please listen to me, the Li Star System is at the end of the navigation route, and we have already blockaded the only Jump Point. The people inside can’t go anywhere, so we have plenty of time.”
“Tsk tsk tsk, no no no no no~” Xige raised his right index finger and shook it from side to side, “Our Prime Minister Nadi needs to establish an advantage in the election as soon as possible. We can’t waste even a second now.”
Gerald looked coldly at the video call image on the screen, wishing he could rush in and break that finger.
“Then at least wait until after the next meal.”
“No! Didn’t I say it already, not a second can be delayed! Don’t worry, the Third Fleet has far more combat experience than you Apollo, I guarantee you, the battle will be over very quickly!
“Regardless, we are going through the Jump Point. You can follow along, or you can watch from the side, hmph hmph.”
Since the operation began, the confident smile on Xige’s face had not disappeared.
This smile particularly disgusted Gerald from the bottom of his heart.
You attack weak merchant fleets, and defenseless colonies and space stations. What kind of combat experience is that!?
In this Star Alliance space, Galan’s high-ranking citizens enjoy one of the most pampered living environments.
They grew up being flattered by servants, never experiencing hardship since childhood. Because their lives were so comfortable, a confident smile became etched onto their faces.
Specifically, for the military aristocrats who held the second-class citizen rank, they only needed to apply to a military academy and enlist after coming of age. After a few years, they would be promoted to high-ranking officers and lead troops to bully other weaker factions.
After winning a few battles in a row, they naturally accumulated the capital for promotion and could also become national heroes.
Xige, from a naval family, was only 36 years old this year, yet he was already a Vice Admiral.
This unique growth experience made it impossible for Galan’s high-ranking officers not to be confident.
To them, life was like an endless celebration, with new gifts appearing before them every day, and they could win every day.
Gerald cursed under his breath and led his three warships to follow.
Soon, the Punishment Fleet arrived before the Jump Point. Galan’s 5 destroyers and 3 frigates lined up in a row. The hangar doors on all warships opened simultaneously, releasing 12 space fighters.
These fighters were the cheapest and worst-performing models in the Star Alliance. Their pilots were all 5th-class citizens of their country, the so-called “untouchables.”
“Advance, Long Live Galan!”
Xige stood up from the captain’s chair, his left hand on his hip, his right index finger pointing straight ahead, looking very proud. Seeing this, his sycophantic first mate quickly took a photo for him as a souvenir.
The fighter squadron crossed the Jump Point and arrived in the Li Star System.
They were quickly detected by the radar of the nearby Wormhole Space Station. The latter had no living personnel inside and began defensive operations according to the automated program previously set by Cangyuan.
Inside the space station, the nuclear reactor’s output power rapidly increased, and a large amount of electricity was allocated to the X-band phased array radar previously left by Apollo.
Although Galan’s fighters also adopted radar stealth design, their detectable range was still directly proportional to the radar’s illumination power.
In terms of anti-stealth, brute force can work wonders.
The Wormhole Station was only a hundred kilometers away. At such a close distance, the fighters had nowhere to hide and were immediately locked on by the fire control system.
Immediately after, hundreds of intelligent missiles whistled out from the space station’s vertical launch system, Pounce Galan’s squadron.
“We’re locked on! The enemy has launched missiles!”
The pilot shrieked.
They were consumables specifically trained by Galan to assault wormhole defense points, often desperate individuals who, after layers of selection, entered the Galan Navy simply to earn a salary and allow their families to survive.
Their vehicles were essentially suicide planes, so costs had to be kept to a minimum.
If they died in battle, the pilot’s family would receive 300,000 Star Alliance credits in compensation, which was a huge sum for 5th-class citizens.
However, there was severe corruption within Galan. Families had to first find the military officer responsible for distributing compensation and bribe him with 150,000 Star Alliance credits before they could receive the compensation.
For the poor, this money naturally could only come from private usurers. After deducting interest, only about 80,000 credits truly reached their hands.
But 80,000 was enough to risk one’s life for.
This was a well-known unspoken rule in Galan society; the high-ranking officials knew, but they didn’t care.
“Calm down~ Just ordinary missiles. Can’t you intercept them? But before intercepting, you must first launch Moras!”
Xige issued a superfluous order.
Although the fighters were outdated, each carried one Moras, and they had all been jettisoned long before Xige gave the order. Otherwise, carrying this 8-meter-long behemoth would severely impair the aircraft’s maneuverability and affect its ability to survive.
After the missile engine started and flew normally for three or four seconds, spatial ripples appeared around it, entering warp travel mode, and its speed suddenly increased to sixty percent of the speed of light, or 180,000 kilometers per second.
The next moment, Moras appeared less than 5 kilometers from the Wormhole Space Station.
Accuracy cannot be guaranteed in warp mode; it must complete the final leg in conventional mode.
Because the warp mode lasted less than a thousandth of a second, to bystanders, the missile seemed to have used a “blink” ability to instantly teleport.
This is the charm of warp combat!
There were more intelligent missiles for anti-air interception in the Wormhole Station, but it was already too late.
Multiple Moras hit directly, and the high temperature of the nuclear warheads directly vaporized the titanium alloy armor plates, like several invisible mouths, gnawing out several spherical wounds on the space station and heating the remaining parts into an unrecognizable mass of molten metal.
“Report! Target destroyed! Attack squadron — three survivors —”
The surviving expendable pilot reported with a crying voice.
Not bad! The attrition rate is only seventy-five percent, this result is much better than I expected!
In Galan’s combat philosophy, using the lives of 5th-class untouchables to clear mines is always a quick and efficient combat method!
Xige picked up the communicator, his tone arrogant.
“Was the combat process just now filmed?”
“It was, Vice Admiral!”
“Excellent! This will all be material for Prime Minister Nadi’s election campaign. Mr. Gerald, I apologize, but I had to destroy your company’s assets, haha~”
What the heck are you laughing about? “We had already decided to abandon that space station,” he suppressed the anger in his heart, “Since the threat has been eliminated, let’s quickly cross the Jump Point!”
The 11 warships passed through the Jump Point one by one, finally all arriving in the Li Star System.
They activated the ships’ super-powerful radars and large-caliber infrared search systems, meticulously scanning the surrounding space, and found no enemy activity.
It seemed very safe.
However, what the Joint Punishment Fleet did not know was that at this moment, the 102 Chang’an was quietly observing the direction of the Jump Point from 5 million kilometers away, like a ghost.