Chapter 218: Xianyang's Bombardment
“Executive Officer, the enemy ship that docked is showing a decrease in heat from its heat sinks. We estimate its reactor power is being lowered. It will take some time to raise power again!”
Inside the Xianyang’s bridge, Jubian turned and reported to Lu Yuan, who was in the captain’s chair, his voice barely concealing his excitement.
This meant an opportunity had arrived!
The enemy fleet, having fallen into a trap due to their greed, dared to stop, putting themselves at their lowest point of maneuverability.
The eyes of over twenty players around them all converged on Lu Yuan, and many felt their hearts pounding in their throats.
Whether their warship’s debut would be successful, whether its combat effectiveness could be verified in actual combat, and whether the disadvantage of losing the wormhole space station and fighters could be reversed, depended on the upcoming decision!
“What’s the situation with the three enemy ships surrounding cangyuan one?”
Lu Yuan’s tone was unchanged from usual.
“Their energy signatures haven’t changed. They didn’t fall completely for it.”
“Understood. Keep an eye on their movements, then, begin.”
Ha! As expected of the Executive Officer, his composure was as calm as if it were a drill!
Jubian looked confidently at Caoyuan, who was seated at the fire control officer’s station, responsible for operating the main cannon, and gave him a thumbs-up.
“Commence bombardment!”
“Received!”
Caoyuan put on his gunner’s helmet display, pressed the “Load Ammo” virtual button on the holographic control panel with his left hand, and gripped a joystick with his right, calmly adjusting the angle.
At this moment, he had taken control of all the ship’s engines and attitude control thrusters. Under his operation, the warship would make extremely precise azimuthal adjustments to align the axial main cannon’s muzzle with the target.
In the mid-to-rear section of the hull, below the tail of the heavy electromagnetic cannon, a hatch slid open.
A robotic arm reached into the liquid nitrogen cold storage behind the hatch, retrieved a 4-meter wide, disc-shaped sabot made of superconducting alloy, and loaded it between two long acceleration rails.
Simultaneously, another robotic arm retrieved a 0.1-meter diameter, 3.5-meter long tungsten alloy rod from the ammunition depot on the side of the cannon’s tail. It inserted the rod into the annular clip in the center of the disc-shaped sabot, joining the two tightly to form the ready-to-fire ammunition.
The entire process was automated and filled with mechanical beauty, which Lu Yuan found pleasing to watch on the monitor.
This was a Male God’s romance…
Meanwhile, Caoyuan had already selected the target with the assistance of the ballistic computer. After placing the crosshairs on the infrared signal source with the highest heat signature, he took a deep breath, flipped the safety off the joystick with his right thumb, and pulled the trigger with his index finger.
At this instant, the fully charged capacitor array was connected, releasing a massive current in an extremely short time. From left to right, it formed a circuit through the disc-shaped sabot, simultaneously generating a powerful magnetic field.
The immense current and the additional magnetic field, when superimposed correctly, immediately unleashed a million-ton-level Ampere force.
This force propelled the sabot and warhead forward, accelerating them to an astonishing 120 kilometers per second in less than one-hundredth of a second.
Such a powerful current should have instantly vaporized the sabot, but multiple complex superconducting technologies ensured that this would not happen.
Superconductors have no electrical resistance, thus generating no electrical heat.
Additionally, the Entropy Zero Element Furnace further eliminated the frictional heat generated by the sabot’s movement on the rails.
As for the physical friction marks left on the guide rails, there was no need to worry; they would automatically repair themselves before the next bombardment.
Besides superconductivity, the material used to make the guide rails also possessed memory characteristics, being a “living” metal.
This was the technological advantage!
It was these “black technologies” from Emerald Star that allowed Cangyuan to overcome the heavy electromagnetic cannon technology, which Star Alliance had never fully mastered, in a very short time.
The moment the main cannon fired, all players on board felt a strange dizziness.
“What’s with this dizziness? Did the electromagnetic cannon leak electricity?”
Male God’s thoughts were as erratic as ever.
“Stop messing around,” Jubian almost laughed, “The engine is just counteracting the recoil, it’s normal.”
The heavy electromagnetic cannon’s recoil was enormous, capable of causing an instantaneous overload of nearly 200G on the 12,000-ton warship and an approximate 5 meters per second change in flight speed.
It was like hitting an invisible wall.
Therefore, the warship’s main engine had to perform a synchronized burst of thrust. Only then, with two opposing forces canceling each other out, could the personnel inside the ship avoid being thrown forward like in a car crash.
The two forces were not entirely equal; there was a slight error, which is how the minor dizziness occurred.
The instantaneous heat generated by this engine burst, which counteracted recoil, already exceeded the maximum heat that the Entropy Zero Element Furnace could eliminate.
Furthermore, when the electromagnetic cannon fired at full charge, it would emit strong electromagnetic radiation into the surrounding space.
This meant that at the moment of the main cannon’s firing, the Xianyang’s stealth measures were deactivated, and it would definitely be detected by the enemy.
The ambush, too, ended here.
“Mr. Gerald, a strong electromagnetic pulse radiation has been detected 1700 kilometers away! The waveform… matches the characteristics of an electromagnetic cannon firing!”
Gerald’s radar operator was the first to notice the anomaly.
“What are you saying?! Where’s the location?! Did you eat it?!”
This military academy “ace student” still had his damnable old habit; he just couldn’t finish a sentence at once, as if he had a screw loose in his brain.
But this time, it was different from before.
Besides being scolded, he would also have to pay with the lives of his Galan allies.
The operator quickly provided the coordinates, and Gerald immediately shared them with the Galan fleet.
But it was too late! By then, 8 seconds had passed since the Xianyang fired, and the shell had already traveled 960 kilometers through the dark space.
The second shot was nearing full charge, and Caoyuan aimed at the next target, pulling the trigger again.
“What electromagnetic cannon? Are you crazy?
Vice Admiral Sige, lacking true combat experience, and Apollo’s idiotic radar operator were a pair of 'Sleeping Dragons and Phoenixes,' and he also made a fatal mistake at the most critical moment.
He should have made a judgment quickly, but in a state of extreme relaxation, believing his side had already won, he uttered a string of nonsense.
“We scanned that coordinate direction, and there was clearly nothing there—how could there be a reaction in the infrared band? Another 4 seconds of precious time were wasted.
“Idiot! Tell your men to evade quickly!”
Just as Gerald shouted this, accompanied by a strong flash of light, Vice Admiral Sige saw a sight he simply could not comprehend.
The “White Ox” destroyer, located 10 kilometers to his front-left, suddenly exploded completely.
Its bow section remained intact, but from approximately 50 meters back, the damage to the hull became progressively more severe.
From surface armor plates cracking, to the hull expanding and disintegrating, then to everything, large and small, shattering into a mess, with secondary explosions occurring one after another…
The ship’s engine section even pulverized into a fine powder, spreading uniformly in all directions…
Xige was completely stunned.
Gerald also froze for two seconds, then realized what had just happened.
The White Ox had been hit by a heavy electromagnetic cannon.
The shell entered through the bow, instantly piercing the external armor plating.
Because its speed was too high, its kinetic energy didn’t have time to be released, so it didn’t cause much damage, only leaving a small, glowing red hole 10 centimeters in diameter.
Subsequently, the shell penetrated the warship from front to back, effortlessly piercing through structural bulkheads, missile launchers, reactors, and engines along its path, like Candied Haws .
It encountered resistance, constantly decelerating, and gradually disseminated all of its kinetic energy to the surrounding hull structure at an increasing rate, causing increasingly severe damage along the line.
Finally, when the tungsten rod projectile exited the White Ox’s stern, an energy equivalent to 800 tons of TNT explosive was released internally into the warship.
This was akin to a tactical nuclear bomb imploding, causing devastating damage.
The White Ox instantly lost contact, all communications ceased, no one called for help, and no one reported damage control status.
In just an instant, it was sunk.
Xige’s mouth hung open, and he clasped his hands over his head.
Even now, he still couldn’t understand or believe what was happening before his eyes!
The White Ox was the newest and largest destroyer in the Third Fleet, delivered from Paradise Island just three months ago. This was its first military operation; it was practically brand new.
Now, the newly acquired warship, without having achieved any battle merits, had become a pile of worthless junk.
Before this operation, Xige had intended to make the White Ox his flagship, but he had given up on the idea because the captain’s quarters hadn’t yet been decorated to his personal liking.
As soon as he thought of this, his face instantly turned pale, and his legs trembled uncontrollably.
Just then, there was another strong flash of light outside.