Chapter 218: Chapter 159, The Starting Point of the Road to Glory
The proximity firepower of the eleven Green Skin Ships made it very difficult for Wang Jiarong’s fleet to resist.
And their counterattack seemed weak and feeble.
Charging with their bows facing outward was inherently disadvantageous for firing, let alone when the enemy’s weapon systems came online, their close-range interception abilities were also activated. Whether it was their laser cannons firing or Colossal Cannon shells, a portion was locked onto midway and intercepted by the enemy’s firepower in the void.
Of course, the convoy’s interception systems were also at work. ‘Defender’ Kinetic Rapid-Fire Cannons and ‘Reflector’ Interception Laser Cannons were doing similar tasks.
But overall, they were without a doubt at a disadvantage.
Before they could fully extend the distance, they would likely be overwhelmed by the Green Skin Orcs’ firepower.
And a worse point was their speed… it seemed not even as fast as the Green Skins.
At this moment, when the orc ships’ engine systems began to accelerate at full power, despite a late start, they swiftly reached a high speed in a short time. Their lead advantage would likely be nullified before long.
Once the speed difference between the two sides was eliminated, the shrinking distance would further enhance the firepower advantage of the Green Skin Fleet.
Not to mention, the Green Skin Fleet had a particular preference during naval battles: boarding combat.
They could almost be considered, in this universe, the second race that enjoyed boarding combat in naval battles—the first being the starship warriors.
Landing pods, landing ships, even short-range warp… these were all means the Green Skins could employ. Once the distance became dangerous, they would use these methods.
The small landing pods and ships, closing in among a barrage of firepower and equipped with considerable camouflage to deceive the target ship’s interception systems, would approach the target ship at low speed, rendering the Void Shield ineffective and thus allowing them to attach to the ship.
Holes in the hull from previous naval battles that seemed trivial could become entry points for invasion; if there was no such entry, the various high-performance bombs and cutting devices that came with the boarding troops would find relatively weak spots on the ship and cut through.
These breaches in themselves posed little threat to the ship, akin to an adult being bitten by a mosquito. However, what was terrifying was the ‘venom’ that came with the bite. A substantial number of warriors would enter the ship through these breaches, engaging in intense combat within the hull.
Onboard the ship, there were no particularly spacious areas suited for deploying heavy firepower. Most of the combat environments were cramped, obstructed, and face-to-face.
Who, then, could stand against the Green Skin Orcs in such conditions?
Elites among the Green Skin ranks would wreak havoc inside the ship. Even if they couldn’t destroy or kill everyone on the starship directly, every casualty they caused would significantly degrade the warship’s combat capabilities.
If they reached the weapon systems and silenced some of the firepower, that was a win; if they got to the Thinker Array, they could cripple the ship’s automation systems, greatly reducing the ship’s departmental coordination; if they reached the engine room, a high-performance bomb detonated from within might paralyze the entire vessel. And if they made it to the captain’s quarters…
Boarding combat was certainly a high-risk, high-loss action, and in most cases, the landing pods and ships would be destroyed by interception fire before reaching the target. But even a small success could cause disruption; a big success could outright capture the ship.
The Green Skins weren’t afraid of dying.
In fact, at this moment, there were already some small drop pods flying over with the cannon shells.
However, up until now, no drop pod had managed to break through the interception network, estimating that a hundred or two hundred Green Skin lads had been lost in the Star Sea.
Yet, Wang Jiarong’s face was still pale.
It was good news that the Green Skin ground troops had not yet boarded the starship, but this good news was hardly significant.
Seeing the Void Shield had turned a purple hue and witnessing some shells piercing through the Void Shield, striking the hull of the starship, she could already feel the vibrations.
The Void Shield is a type of energy protection system, characterized by its ability to intercept solid projectiles, energy cannons, and missile weapons, especially high-speed approaching objects and energies. However, it is less effective against low-speed passing objects.
A fully operational Void Shield, that is, when it is blue, offers the best resistance; but when it sustains attacks beyond a certain limit and turns purple, some interceptions may fail, with shells and energy beams having a chance of slipping through.
At first, it wasn’t so bad; even if something slipped through, the attacks, weakened by the Void Shield, upon meeting the solid armor of the starship, would normally be withstood.
But when the Void Shield’s capacity reached its limit, turning red, the probability of shells slipping through would increase substantially, and the weakening effect on attacks would diminish, leaving it up to the strength of the armor and the ship’s structure to hold out.
Although the current state of the Void Shield was still changing towards purple and the starship’s armor was still reliable, the occasional attacks that got through the Void Shield had not yet caused severe damage.