Chapter 219: Chapter 159, The Starting Point of the Road to Glory_2
However, all this was extremely bad news.
From the moment the Green Skins began their counterattack, the situation rapidly deteriorated.
What was more crucial was that Wang Jiarong could not think of any way to change the current state of affairs.
“Gu Hang, oh Gu Hang! This time you really got me killed! I shouldn’t have come to this godforsaken place…”
She muttered in her heart, her face drained of color.
And just then, the Star Speaker suddenly reported a message, “Captain! We’ve received a communication signal from the Quintet!”
Wang Jiarong was startled, then burst into joy, “Connect it quickly!”
The next moment, Yelisia Fu Fana’s voice filled the entire bridge, “I am Commodore Yelisia Fu Fana of the Empire Navy Pegasus Fleet, captain of the Quintet.”
Her clear voice sounded like a savior to everyone aboard the “Beautiful Girl.”
“Yelisia! Thank heavens! Finally, we’ve made contact! Save us quickly!”
Wang Jiarong was so happy she was nearly crying.
“I’m right beside you,” Yelisia said. “Now, you need to get your fleet to turn around and fire full force at those Green Skin ships. We are going to annihilate them here, before they can build up their speed!”
Wang Jiarong was momentarily stunned.
What did she mean by “right beside you”?
Had Yelisia anticipated encountering the Green Skin Fleet here and set up an ambush in advance? Was that why there had been no response earlier when the Star Speaker tried to contact, because the Quintet was lying in silent ambush?
But why? How had she received the message in advance?
Wang Jiarong’s mind was a whirl of confusion, but these thoughts only spun around in her head for a short while before she stopped dwelling on them.
Following Yelisia’s instructions was the only chance for survival.
Immediately, the four ships of the Beautiful Lady Convoy began to turn their hulls sideways as Yelisia had requested, unleashing their full firepower.
Without external assistance, this was tantamount to seeking death.
Presenting the broadside to the enemy was dangerous.
Doing so would enable the full deployment of the ship’s firepower, but also presented the largest target area; at a sufficient distance, when firing at each other to decide the course of the battle, when both sides were separated by over 100,000 to 150,000 kilometers, facing the enemy broadside or head-on made little difference in terms of the firepower endured, but the capacity of our own firepower could be at least 30% lower.
However, also in a broadside position, the ship obviously couldn’t remain motionless. Side-moving ships were easier to dodge cannon fire.
Overall, this was a balanced offensive tactic.
And at that moment, the charging Green Skin Fleet was unmistakably employing an aggressive offensive tactic. Shortening the distance, their cannons would greatly increase in power and accuracy, and for this, they were even willing to sacrifice 20-30% of their firepower.
But even so, the firepower advantage of the Green Skins was still much greater than that of the “Beautiful Lady.”
They didn’t know why these shrimp-like ships all of a sudden adopted a posture as if they were ready for a big battle, but it obviously excited them even more.
Their firepower became more ferocious, and they released even more landing capsules.
However, at that moment, from some previously dark and empty void, hundreds of missiles suddenly shot out.
These missiles were targeted at a Green-Skin Destroyer.
And the next moment, two giant Colossal Cannon shells streaked across the void, slamming ruthlessly into its energy shield.
The arrival of two heavy cannons simultaneously also had a huge destructive power against starships.
The energy shield of the targeted Green-Skin Destroyer, which had been a calm blue, suddenly flashed a dangerous purple. Then out of the hundreds of missiles, seventy penetrated the Void Shield and bombarded the destroyer.
The seventy explosions that suddenly erupted on the hull of the destroyer severely damaged the vessel.
The Energy Shield Generators might have been impacted by the explosion, as the originally purple Void Shield vanished momentarily.
If they had had a little time, just a few minutes, it would have been enough for the energy generators on the Green Skin ships to restart or switch to auxiliary power.
However, there was no chance for that.
The next ten slightly smaller Colossal Cannon shots followed, with six hitting their mark and mercilessly pounding the target. The damage inflicted by these six shots was even more dreadful than the previous seventy missiles, instantly turning that green-skinned warship into a huge fireball.
An expensive destroyer was thus completely destroyed.
And the unexpected assault’s achievements did not stop there.
Another ten Colossal Cannon shots were fired at a green-skin escort ship, with four making impact, turning its energy shields abruptly red.
The strength of the shield generator on the escort ship was much weaker compared to that of the destroyer.
…
On the bridge of ‘Quintet’, after the Thinker Array faithfully relayed the battle imagery and confirmed the results, Yelisia made no exuberant cheers or leaps for joy—that would be unsteady and not befitting of a captain.
Still, she couldn’t help but throw a punch excitedly.
The green-skinned warship that had been destroyed could actually be considered the first real combat naval achievement of her captaincy.
And this feat alone was enough to surpass the accomplishments of many captains from the Tianma Star Sector.
Since the establishment of the Tianma Sector Fleet, there haven’t been many instances of it being used as a support unit by the Imperial Navy, deployed to form larger fleets for combat operations. Besides those veterans who formed temporary United Fleets, the younger and less experienced ones mostly stayed within the boundaries of the Star Sector, at most eradicating interstellar pirates in the surrounding Star Sectors.
What capabilities could those interstellar pirates possibly have? At best, they might have an escort-ship-level pirate ship, which would be quite decent, and many would just use an ordinary spaceship to perform robberies, daring to attack only ultra-small convoys.
In the past, Yelisia never even managed to achieve the feat of eradicating petty pirates, which was one of the reasons she was ridiculed behind her back.
But from now on, no one would dare to laugh at her again.
Even those seasoned captains who’ve been assigned to other high-intensity combat zones and witnessed larger battles don’t all have a record of destroying an enemy destroyer.
Getting an assist would be considered brag-worthy for many years to come.
And today, she, the commodore who was often derided as having connections and a rapidly promoted rank, had accomplished it.
Not only was it not an assist, but she had also been an exclusive main force.
What about an ambush from ambush?
That’s called tactics!
However, after the initial excitement, Yelisia immediately returned to her calm demeanor.
One of the enemy’s three destroyers had been destroyed, which certainly counted as a heavy blow to the green-skin fleet, but they had plenty of ships and ample resources left.
The battle was far from over.
Especially now that the advantage of a surprise attack was gone, without the element of surprise, the next barrage of firepower would not so easily achieve the same results as before.
The orc fleet had already discovered their whereabouts and would not allow them to strike unabated. Advanced ship maneuvers would ensure more shells missed their targets; close-range anti-air firepower on high alert would intercept some of the Colossal Cannon shots or deflect them.
Of course, as a main cruiser, ‘Quintet’ had ample weaponry, particularly the two L-scale ‘Wrath of Loyalty’ Colossal Cannons, which wielded destructive power against ships of the escort level.
Just one hit and those escort ships’ energy shields would immediately overload.
On ‘Quintet’, slave workers and technicians were now working at breakneck speeds to load cannon shells for the next round of gunfire; the Thinker Array was striving to observe and lock onto targets that were actually moving rapidly.
The firing attack needed preparation time.
Before it was ready, ‘Quintet’ would have to withstand a round of enemy fire.
The ‘Defender’ Rapid-Fire Cannons and ‘Reflector’ Interception Lasers started operating to counter the orc ships’ firepower, and at the same time, vast expanses of blue light emanated from around the cruiser.
That was the sight of the Void Shield activating when the ship was under attack.
The naval battle had thus entered an intensely heated phase.
At this point, the previous achievements of destroying a destroyer and overloading an escort ship’s energy shield no longer seemed as important.
At that moment, Yelisia couldn’t help but turn and look at the man standing not far behind her on her side.
She sighed and said, “Gu Hang, if we lose, you’ll truly have let me down.”
Gu Hang smiled and replied, “If we win, this will be the starting point of your glorious path.”