Chapter 223: Spreading the News of Victory
In the post-apocalyptic era, things truly fell apart.
“Quick, make them stop! Don’t mess around.”
Inside the Xianyang’s navigation bridge, Lu Yuan quickly gave the order.
What the hell is this sincerity? Are you hitting Apollo’s ships? Those are my ships now!
The nine “owls” received the order and performed a beautiful aerial maneuver, then used lasers to disable all of the Shiva’s electromagnetic turrets.
Afterward, the Xianyang and Chang'an lowered their electromagnetic cannon output, firing a large number of small tungsten-steel armor-piercing rounds in non-superconducting mode, precisely destroying the external weapon systems of the remaining enemy ships.
Xian Yu also commanded the two missile frigates in the fleet to launch dozens of interstellar torpedoes with low-yield warheads, damaging the enemy ships’ tail nozzles with minimal damage, rendering them immobile.
At this point, the battle entered its final boarding and cleanup phase.
The Galan warships moved to parallel the enemy ships, maintaining the same course and speed, and used laser cannons to cut openings in the armor plating for the Marine Corps to enter.
The elites of the First Battle Group, who had long been ready, and the second wave of Marines left their warships through airlocks, activated their rocket flight packs, and swarmed into the final battlefield, engaging in close-quarters ship capture.
Seeing these assault troops in power armor, adorned with beast teeth and claws, the Galan had no thought of resistance and immediately raised their hands in surrender.
Apollo’s side was more courageous.
They resisted for a while at first, but after seeing their comrades dying in droves under “Dragon Breath” shotguns and plasma melee weapons, they completely lost their will to fight.
The Galan boarding party had already developed its unique style through the trials of the Emerald Star’s first mate’s copy.
With long-Ran Ge fire teams providing cover, heavy armor clearing paths in the corridors, and then melee assault troops charging from behind heavy tower shields, the battle could be declared over.
Apollo Sailors armed with firearms were immediately helpless once these swordsmen and axe-wielders got close.
Seven hours after the start of the galaxy defense operation, and 55 minutes after the start of the asteroid belt ambush, two boarding teams separately stormed the bridges of the “Soulstealer” and the “Shiva,” capturing Apollo and Galan’s commanders alive.
The players immediately reported the good news to the Executive Officer.
Lu Yuan remained calm, ordering the boarding teams to ensure control of all personnel on board, and to carefully scan for any suspected self-destruct devices.
After another ten minutes, seven boarding teams successively sent messages confirming safety, and only then did Lu Yuan pick up the communicator and broadcast to all participating personnel.
“The operation has concluded successfully. We have annihilated the invaders.”
A wave of cheers instantly filled the entire channel!
On the six Galan warships, everyone jumped up from their positions, clapping, hugging each other, and then taking photos to commemorate this beautiful and unforgettable moment.
We won a space fleet battle! We took a substantial and important step towards the goal of spreading military might across the stars!
For Galan, this was definitely a complete victory.
The losses incurred included one Apollo wormhole space station, 20 captured Apollo “razor” fighters, one “bóláo niǎo” light fighter, and one Star Alliance fighter purchased from the Wealth Key merchant fleet.
Three “owl” fighters sustained minor damage and are expected to be repaired within three days.
The four escort warships commanded by Xian Yu also sustained scattered damage, but nothing serious.
Overall, apart from the bait intentionally used as a pawn, the remaining battle damage was negligible, almost ignorable.
However, for the Joint Punishment Fleet, this operation was a complete disaster! A nightmare!
During the fleet battle phase, a total of four warships were sunk, all of them blasted into fragments by heavy electromagnetic cannons, with a total of 403 crew members on board, none of whom survived.
A total of 71 carrier-based aircraft were shot down, 122 pilots were killed, and another 8 film and television professionals who were shooting promotional videos lost their lives, which was very unlucky.
The Soulstealer suffered friendly fire from the Shiva, resulting in 4 deaths and 8 serious injuries.
During the boarding phase, another 60 Apollo employees died in combat.
Setting aside the factional opposition, their performance could be considered brave, but unfortunately, brute courage alone cannot lead to victory.
After the operation, Lu Yuan instructed the players to inventory the spoils of war.
To his surprise, the initial investigation results quickly came back.
“Boss,” Male God’s voice sounded very pained, “I don’t think there’s any need to repair and salvage the remaining four Galan ships. Let’s just dismantle them all and melt them down for raw materials!”
“Why?”
On the bridges of ships 101 and 102, everyone shared Lu Yuan’s question.
These four warships should still be in good condition, only their turrets and engines were damaged, and there were even 100 unlaunched Moras missiles in their vertical missile launch systems. Why couldn’t they be salvaged?
“Because it’s so damn stinky in here!”
“Ah? Hahahaha!”
Everyone paused for a second, finding it really hard to hold back their laughter.
“Male God! Is your nose too sensitive? Did you raise your perception too high?”
“No—don’t laugh, I’m serious! This stench is—it’s just hard to describe, you know? It’s not a dry stink, but a mix of sweat, feces, sewage garbage, and cheap perfume and food spices! Holy crap—it’s soul-penetrating. This Galan specialty, you have to experience it!”
“Alright, alright, stop describing it. You can experience it yourself.”
Black Smoke told him to stop immediately.
“Um, everyone, listen to me first,” Ye Xing interjected.
“Quickly send me the combat footage from before, the fleet bombardment, the fighter jets, and the boarding—I want all of it, give me everything!
“Try to pick the exciting ones, with explosive visual effects! I’ll edit them further and send them to the New Hope branch as soon as possible, so they can cause some trouble with it!”
Half an hour later, Ran Ge of New Hope Space Station received the combat video edited by Ye Xing through the player community.
He immediately called Anya of “Purgatory” as per Lu Yuan’s instructions.
“The battle between the Punishment Fleet and Galan is over. Well, we won. Apollo and the Galan people were completely wiped out. I have video evidence.”
There was a long silence on the other end of the phone. Ran Ge seemed to hear Anya and her assistant whispering.
“Okay, I understand.”
Half a minute later, Anya extended an invitation: “I’ll send someone to pick you up now. Let’s discuss this in detail at ‘Purgatory’.”
Another 10 minutes passed, and a luxury car, along with two “Purgatory” bodyguards, appeared at the entrance of the Galan New Hope branch.
This was a considerable luxury in a space station with limited living space. Even high-ranking citizens usually only used moving sidewalks or orbital transport that circled the space station’s ring structure, stopping every kilometer.
Ran Ge called for Qun Qing, the big sister who had gained fame in the exchange rate negotiations, and came to the “Purgatory,” which was always lively regardless of the time, handing her pad to Anya.
Anya calmly took it and clicked play.
She sat with her legs crossed, eyes lowered, intending to watch the entire video without a ripple, maintaining her persona of “secretly controlling everything and never being surprised by any changes.”
However, upon seeing the new warship White Bull being blown into popcorn, seeing the Galan shells turn into extremely thin metal discs before the Chang'an, and seeing Galan’s air force elites being herded and slaughtered like cattle—she completely lost her composure!
Is it real or fake?
Anya’s pupils visibly dilated due to excessive concentration, and even her breathing unconsciously became rapid.
Actually, victory or defeat was just an expected outcome. Conflicts were constantly unfolding in the Star Alliance, and this battle was merely a bit larger in scale.
But what she saw in the video was Galan’s current technological level and its almost perverse speed of evolution.
This faction, which only had space fighters two months ago, now had six warships appearing in the video, plus the captured and newly built warships after this battle. She quickly realized a terrifying issue:
If nothing unexpected happened, Galan would, in the near future, change the political landscape of the Star Alliance like a passing storm!
If this was true, then maintaining any kind of persona in front of these people was an act of utter foolishness. It was time to show sincerity in cooperation—this was the way of survival for the pragmatic.
Her assistant couldn’t help but glance at Anya again. She knew that the other party was extremely skilled at hiding her emotions and hadn’t been like this in many years.
After watching the video, Anya took a few seconds to compose herself, then looked at her assistant.
The latter nodded, meaning the video showed no signs of forgery and could be trusted.
“I apologize, esteemed guests, I was not hospitable enough earlier,” Anya stood up. “Shall we go to my office to discuss this in detail?”
In the office, Anya’s tone, and even her gaze, were much softer than before.
“What a glorious victory! So, what do you need me to do?”
“No, you misunderstand,” Qun Qing smiled and stepped forward. “We are not using this victory as capital to make ‘demands,’ but rather to offer a win-win opportunity, and to return the favor for your protection at New Hope.”
“Oh? I’m very interested.”
“We would like to trouble you to provide this video to the major Star Alliance media, and before that, we will once again supply a large amount of Galan electronic cryptocurrency to the foreign exchange market.”