The first wave of death came from the full volley of all capital ships within range of the Imperial Fleet.
Twenty-six heavy particle beams, thicker and with more terrifying energy reactions than before, tore through space almost simultaneously, once again slamming mercilessly into the eight Federal T5-class Battleships that had just endured a round of punishment and whose shields had not yet fully recovered.
This time, the firepower was more concentrated and more lethal.
Among them, over six annihilation beams, as if guided by the fingers of death, converged precisely and simultaneously on one of the eight ships—the Terrestrial Might Star Battleship!
The Terrestrial Might Star's shield system had just endured an overload impact, and its energy replenishment was far from complete. Faced with these six particle torrents capable of piercing through asteroids, the supposedly indestructible indigo energy barrier could not hold for even a second.
Upon contact, the shield completely collapsed and disintegrated in a blinding flash of light, scattering into drifting energy fragments.
Stripped of its final protection, the six annihilation beams penetrated the Terrestrial Might Star's massive hull unimpeded and with full force.
The Dragon-scale Adaptive Reactive Armor melted away like butter under the billions of degrees carried by the particle streams. The beams tore through the hull, creating four terrifying, transparent holes hundreds of meters in diameter on both sides, their edges glowing with molten glass.
But this was only the beginning.
As the high-energy particle streams pierced the hull, they also surged wildly into every compartment, passageway, and energy pipeline along their path. Damaged circuits erupted with lethal electrical sparks, igniting flammable materials in the air and directly triggering explosions in nearby ammunition storage points.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!—
A series of ghastly white sympathetic detonation flames erupted uncontrollably from various parts of the Terrestrial Might Star's hull, like firecrackers ignited inside a giant beast.
The hull convulsed and twisted violently.
Finally, the thickest particle beam, after penetrating several decks, struck the main fusion reactor core located in the midsection of the hull with pinpoint accuracy.
Critical overload—irreversible.
There was no sound, yet all witnesses seemed to hear the silent shriek as the laws of matter and energy were utterly torn apart.
The Terrestrial Might Star's massive metallic frame, stretching thousands of meters long, began to swell outward from the struck core as if filled with a sun from within!
In the next moment, the entire warship silently exploded.
Not a fracture, but complete disintegration.
A white-hot sphere, brighter and more violent than a star, abruptly emerged at the explosion's center. It rapidly expanded, instantly consuming most of the Terrestrial Might Star's mass, converting it into pure energy and high-velocity flying debris!
A powerful Federal T5-class Battleship, under the Blood Locust Fleet's furious saturation volley, lasted less than ten seconds before being reduced to cosmic dust, along with the thousands of lives aboard, utterly erased.
This brutal scene struck the hearts of all Federation officers and soldiers like a heavy hammer.
However, the situation of the other seven T5-class Battleships was not much better.
The shield of the Terrestrial Excellence Star barely withstood two hits from T5-class Main Cannons, but the fourth blast directly struck its starboard side.
A massive, charred breach was torn open on the starboard side.
The remaining Battleships also suffered significant damage to varying degrees.
Yet, there was no time for anyone to grieve.
Because the Blood Locust Fleet had not ceased its attack, and a dense barrage of fire continued to rain down upon them.
Starboard side, Close-In Defense Turret No. 7, Terrestrial Flight Star Battleship.
Inside the cramped spherical turret, red lights spun and flashed frantically.
They illuminated the face of Sergeant Jian Congnan, smeared with sweat and grime, twisted with exhilaration.
The muscles in his neck were taut, his head swiveling rapidly as threat markers flooded the tactical interface inside his helmet.
His hands gripped the icy control sticks with white-knuckled force, while the Dual-mounted Pulse Laser Turret beneath him rotated and made minute adjustments in dizzying synchronization.
Outside the viewport was no longer the starry void, but a symphony of death.
Countless Imperial Missiles trailed pale wakes, mingling with the dense projectiles silently fired from Railguns.
Like a storm of metal and energy, they poured down upon the massive hull of the Terrestrial Flight Star.
"Come on! Imperial scum!"
Jian Congnan's hoarse roar echoed within the sealed turret, drowning out the high-speed whine of the turret base's servo motors.
"Taste your Grandpa Jian's lasers!"
His pupils contracted, locking onto a missile signal rapidly enlarging on his screen. His finger slammed down on the trigger.
Zzzzt—!
A brilliant blue Pulse Laser Beam erupted from the gun muzzle, tracing a brief, straight path through the vacuum to precisely intercept the missile mid-flight.
Boom!
The missile detonated prematurely, blossoming into a brief, blinding sphere of orange-red fire.
"Haha! That's the stuff!"
Jian Congnan let out a wild, exhilarated shout, as if he had personally snuffed out a single breath of the Reaper.
His peripheral vision caught the tactical sub-screen showing an abnormal firing interval from the adjacent turret.
He immediately switched to the internal comms channel, roaring at the operator of that turret position, Wang Jitong.
"Wang Jitong!
What are you spacing out for?!
Shoot!
Don't you dare conserve energy for me!
The shells won't take a detour just because you hesitate!"
Wang Jitong's slightly strained breathing came through the channel, followed by a low growl.
"Yes, Sergeant!"
The next moment, the Pulse Lasers of the adjacent turret also roared back to violent life. Dense beams transformed into several frenzied blue serpents of fire.
They swept across a cluster of incoming projectiles, turning several missiles and Railgun Projectiles into blossoming flowers of flame mid-air.
"That's it! Just like that!
Give 'em hell!"
Jian Congnan's roar mixed with the violent tremors transmitted through the turret during firing, thundering within the confined space.
He felt his entire body's blood burning, every cell trembling for this dance of destruction.
Just then, a minor yet brutal interlude suddenly occurred in the battlefield situation.
In the distance, a turret on the broadside of a Cruiser was precisely struck by a lone Imperial Anti-Ship Missile that had slipped through the defenses.
Boom!
A violent explosion tore a ghastly, charred breach in the thick turret armor.
The merciless terror of the cosmic vacuum—absolute zero and zero pressure—instantly flooded the turret interior through the breach.
The soldiers inside the turret didn't even have time to scream, let alone grab onto anything for support.
As if seized by an invisible giant hand, they were violently sucked out through the breach by the terrifying pressure difference between the cabin's atmosphere and the vacuum outside, hurled into the cold, silent expanse of Deep Space.
There was no sound, only a silent, bone-chilling tragedy.
Those ejected soldiers, exposed to the extreme cold of over two hundred degrees below zero and the near-absolute vacuum, had their lives frozen in an instant.
Blood boiling?
No, there wasn't even time for that.
Their bodies stiffened and contracted in grotesque postures, their skin and superficial tissues rapidly dehydrating and freezing, taking on a ghastly waxen pallor tinged with bluish-purple.
Within mere seconds, they transformed into twisted, pale humanoid ice sculptures, floating near the wreckage of the warship.