Chapter 221: An Extremely Resilient Ship
Gerald never dreamed that a commander would use such a crazy tactic.
He personally saw a warship he had never seen before, using short-range warp travel, jump to a location less than 30 kilometers from his fleet.
30 kilometers!
What concept is this?
Through optical magnification equipment, Gerald could even clearly see the '102' designation on the warship's hull, as well as the 'Cangyuan' logo.
This tactic is too aggressive! Have they been blinded by temporary success?
Simply courting death!
Gerald could now confirm that the opposing ship was an 'axis cannon' vessel, with its main gun integrated into the ship's structure, because he didn't see any rotatable kinetic turrets on the hull.
Axis cannon ships are usually very powerful, that's true, but they have a weakness: before firing, they must first rotate the hull, and for every target change, the entire warship needs to adjust its angle.
This series of operations takes a lot of time!
And on his side, the Galan people had regrouped under the protection of their drone swarm, the four warships that had been fleeing in disarray reformed their formation, and resumed coordinated maneuvers with his three warships, ready to fire at any moment.
Time is on my side, and the advantage is also on my side! How can you win?
This is an opportunity handed over on a silver platter!
"All ships, pay attention! Immediately use laser cannons to fire on the target! Vice Admiral Sige, launch your Moras missiles, quickly!"
"But—"
Xige hesitated.
The enemy ship was too close to him, less than the minimum distance for the Moras missile to activate warp mode; if launched now, it could only fly to the target in conventional mode.
"What are you waiting for!? Waiting for the enemy's muzzles to point at us!!"
Gerald's temper flared up again.
At this moment, the survivor Xige lost his previous arrogance and his decisiveness.
No matter how arrogant he was, he had just been genuinely saved by Gerald.
"Damn it! Launch Moras! Each warship must launch at least 20!"
The surviving Galan warships carried varying numbers of these high-power missiles, ranging from 40 to 60 per ship.
Xige believed the enemy only had two electromagnetic cannon warships, so, allocating about 40% of the missiles to one of them, though a spur-of-the-moment decision, was also quite reasonable.
Unfortunately, the moment he blindly followed Gerald, the outcome of failure was already sealed.
Hundreds of Moras missiles roared out of the vertical launch tubes, heading towards the 102 Chang'an.
They spewed long tail flames, bursting with 7G acceleration under the propulsion of their propellant engines, which seemed formidable at first glance.
But in reality, even if it could maintain this acceleration, it would take a full 30 seconds to hit the Chang'an.
30 seconds, in the ultra-fast pace of line-of-sight combat, could even be described as 'long'!
After the missiles were launched, they were instantly detected by the Chang'an, and the players on board, while operating laser cannons for interception, sent the battlefield situation to all friendly forces.
Upon receiving the message, Xian Yu immediately directed the two destroyers to come to help; the number of laser cannons they carried was even more than on the Chang'an, and their primary job was anti-air defense!
On the three warships, more than 50 laser cannons of various sizes, intercepting 100 large-bodied missiles that were not particularly fast and not particularly far away within 30 seconds, was simply as easy as pie.
The Moras missiles, symbolizing Galan's pride, turned into fireballs in mid-air, one after another.
One-third of the nuclear warheads were not cut by the laser and remained intact; upon detecting deviation from their trajectory, they immediately detonated prematurely according to pre-set procedures.
At this moment, the vision of all warships on the battlefield was engulfed by the dazzling nuclear flash.
"It hit!" Xige jumped three feet high from his captain's chair, "It's finished!"
Moras carried a 5-megaton nuclear warhead.
When exploding in space, these nuclear bombs, although unable to produce shockwaves due to the lack of air, correspondingly, the light radiation would be greatly enhanced.
Even if an explosion occurred 3 kilometers from the enemy ship, the average square meter of the hull would still receive a total energy of over 100
terajoules of light radiation! Enough to raise the temperature of a 20-centimeter-thick armor plate by 100 degrees Celsius!
And according to previous observations, Xige saw that at least 6 nuclear warheads exploded at this distance; that ship without heat sinks would be heated into a giant oven by the light radiation, and everyone inside would be roasted alive!
Ha! It actually doesn't have heat sinks! Is the designer of that warship an idiot?
However, what Xige could not understand was that none of this mattered to the Chang'an.
First, its anti-laser coating also had good reflective properties against nuclear explosion light radiation, with a reflectivity of 80%.
Second, on Cangyuan warships, the Entropy Zero Element Furnace had completely replaced the primitive heat sinks, with heat dissipation efficiency dozens of times higher, capable of timely eliminating some of the nuclear explosion heat absorbed by the hull.
After the nuclear explosion, the Chang'an was unscathed, adjusting its hull angle in an orderly manner, and began charging its main cannon.
The internal temperature of the ship did indeed rise considerably.
But Cangyuan's crew members were not as relaxed and careless as the Galan people; they had long since put on combat suits that were resistant to high temperatures and flash explosions, following the training content of real-world navies, and at this moment, they did not feel hot or uncomfortable, nor were they injured.
Bullshit!
Gerald realized he had made a terrible mistake.
He shouldn't have so rashly let the Galan people launch their missiles! The explosion distance was still too close!
But it doesn't matter, there's still a chance!
"Is the main cannon not fully charged yet!?"
"Report! It's already at 80%!"
"No more waiting, all cannons fire!"
With a single command, the 12 large laser cannons on the 3 warships, with an irradiation power of nearly 1 GW, opened fire on the Chang'an.
A 1 GW laser cannon is already quite terrifying; from an energy perspective alone, it's equivalent to 4 406mm naval artillery shells hitting every second.
12 laser cannons firing simultaneously at a target 30 kilometers away, with beam divergence almost negligible, should have immediately cut that damned enemy ship into a pile of metal and carbon fiber fragments.
However, what followed was a scene Gerald had never witnessed before.
The laser beams scattered on the enemy ship's surface; the point of impact became brighter than the sun!
Physical common sense told him that such strong illumination occurred because the armor reflected the laser.
This was a ghost story!
Since the reflective coating also has a tolerance limit, the Chang'an, upon discovering it was being illuminated by the laser beam, immediately began its 'whale roll' according to standard procedure, to spread the laser damage as much as possible.
After 8 seconds of continuous laser bombardment, its main body was completely unharmed, leaving only 12 charred laser ablation marks on its outer shell; the coating was damaged and needed repair, but the underlying armor was not penetrated.
Anti-laser coating!?
Gerald's heart skipped a beat; in his knowledge, this was technology only possessed by the Super Democratic Empire!
But even with anti-laser coating technology, one would need to know the frequency of our laser cannons in advance to achieve such good defensive effects. How could that Cangyuan warship know?!
At this moment, Gerald finally remembered the Wealth Key merchant fleet he had encountered on the way.
They weren't just passing by, but came to deliver a message!? By whose order, Anya?
There's an inside man in the company!?
Although his detailed reasoning was incorrect, his conclusion was correct.
Gerald felt a dizzy spell, his courage completely gone. Death seemed to be slowly approaching from a corner, ready to swing its scythe at him at any moment.
Apollo's laser cannons could adjust their frequency within a certain range to reduce the coating's effectiveness; but this adjustment required modifying the laser emitter and replacing the laser cannon lens, which would absolutely not be possible during combat.
"Xige! Are you still standing there! Fire immediately!"
He could only turn to the Galan fleet, which he had previously looked down upon.
Although the Galan people were wealthy, their military industrial level was very low; their warships were almost entirely purchased from Paradise Island, and Paradise Island had military technical cooperation with the Super Democratic Empire.
This led to Galan's warships also being equipped with some medium-level electromagnetic cannons.
On the other side of the battlefield, the Chang'an stopped its whale roll and was re-adjusting its ship's heading.
The Galan warships fired before it completed its aiming, with a dozen 5-kilogram projectiles shooting towards the target at an initial velocity of 20 kilometers per second, with a single kinetic energy of 1 GJ, which would certainly be fatal to general armored targets.
However, the last hope brought the deepest despair.
"Report! The ally's shells—all stopped about 50 meters in front of the enemy ship, and they all flattened into a metal pancake!"
What!?
The observer tried his best to avoid saying those four words, but Gerald knew, this was the effect of the legendary 'kinetic shield'!
That was something that could only be unearthed through archaeological excavation, and only a few capital ships were equipped with it! How could the other side... it really is that Cangyuan Future Technology!?
He couldn't help but retreat several steps.
At this moment, Gerald finally realized that he was fighting an opponent whose technological level completely crushed his own.
His lasers, kinetic projectiles, and even nuclear missiles, all failed.
The only black technology drone swarm disguise was also easily seen through due to the close distance.
He was like an ignorant bumpkin idiot, leading a fleet of wooden sailing ships to charge against the enemy's ironclads, with a slim chance of victory, completely seeking his own death. "Ship—carrier-based aircraft?"
Gerald instinctively grasped at the last straw, then his eyes went dark.
On the screen displaying the status of friendly forces, nearly half of the 24 thundercloud fighters, which should have had excellent tactical and technical skills and were considered elites among the Galan people, had now gone dark.
What about the promised valor? What about the advanced fighters?!
Gerald was utterly disheartened.
Just then, Black Smoke gleefully sent a message to the Executive Officer, reporting that all defensive measures on the warship were sufficiently reliable.
Immediately, the sister ship Xianyang, warped into the battlefield.
"Combat objective, change from annihilating the enemy ship to capturing the enemy ship."
Lu Yuan picked up the communicator, his tone calm and composed.
"All combat units, switch to non-lethal attacks, prioritize damaging the enemy ship's engines and turrets, and try to avoid the enemy ship's potentially built-in bridge, reactor, and fuel tanks.
"Marine boarding party prepare to board, over!"