A civilian gunner stared intently at the Swift fighter craft approaching on his screen, his finger poised over the firing button.
"Die!"
He pressed it.
A laser beam shot from the gun muzzle.
But the fighter craft pulled up sharply just before he fired, executing a Cobra Maneuver.
The beam passed beneath its fuselage.
It shot straight toward another Imperial Starship in the rear.
The bridge of that starship was pierced by the laser.
The observation window shattered, and the commander inside was vaporized before he could react.
The civilian gunner froze.
He stared at the friendly ship disintegrating on his screen, his mouth agape.
"I... I didn't mean to..."
But no one heard his explanation.
There were survivors on the starship that had been hit.
They looked at the wreckage of their bridge, at their comrades who would never wake again.
Then they turned their gun muzzles.
Aiming at that allied vessel.
"Boom—!"
The first shot.
The civilian vessel that had accidentally struck an ally had its stern blown apart.
Before it could react, the second and third shots followed in quick succession.
It began to return fire.
Two Imperial Starships that should have been fighting side by side now exchanged fire in the void.
All of this, just to avenge that one shot.
Further away, on the bridge of another starship, the atmosphere had grown eerily tense.
Several crew members stared at the star police officers behind them holding guns, dangerous glints flashing in their eyes.
The star police sensed something was wrong and raised their weapons.
"What are you trying to do?"
No one answered him.
But someone moved.
A burly crew member lunged forward, punching him in the face.
The star police officer's gun flew from his hand, tumbling through the air.
Another person caught it.
The muzzle was now aimed at the star police officers.
"I was drinking just fine at the port, and you had to drag me into this war!"
The crew member holding the gun had bloodshot eyes, his voice hoarse.
"And now you bastards are pointing guns at us!"
"Go to hell!"
He pulled the trigger.
A blue laser pierced the star police officer's chest.
The remaining star police tried to resist, but the crew members had completely lost their minds.
They pounced, using fists, wrenches, anything they could find, beating the star police officers to the ground.
On the bridge, only heavy panting remained, along with the bodies lying motionless on the floor.
A crew member looked at his hands, covered in blood.
He froze for a second.
Then he turned and looked out the window at the friendly ships still exploding in the distance.
His voice was raspy, carrying an indescribable complexity.
"We..."
"What do we do now?"
No one answered him.
Because no one knew.
The chaos continued.
The civilian-converted military ships were still killing each other, still accidentally striking allies, still firing wildly in fear.
No one noticed that the Pluto Fleet in the distance had begun to move.
They were no longer hovering silently in the rear, observing the battle.
They were gradually advancing.
Pluto Fleet, vanguard destroyer group.
"Torpedo bay preheating complete."
Destroyer Tengshe.
The torpedo bay supervisor's voice came through the bridge communication channel.
"Magnetic lock disengaged."
"Target lock acquired."
"Launch preparations complete."
The captain stood before the command console, staring at the screen where the Imperial fleet group drew ever closer.
The corner of his mouth lifted slightly.
Then he shouted swiftly.
"Fire."
The moment the order was given.
The torpedo launch tubes on both sides of the destroyer simultaneously erupted with dazzling blue light.
That was the sign of the electromagnetic acceleration rails activating.
The next second.
Torpedoes gleaming with a silver metallic luster were violently ejected from the launch tubes.
Accelerated to their maximum speed at the end of the electromagnetic rails, they detached from the hull and plunged into the void.
Their tail thrusters ignited simultaneously.
Blue tail flames traced over a hundred straight streaks of light in the darkness.
Those streaks, like a hundred tentacles of the Grim Reaper, extended toward the direction of the Imperial vanguard array.
The first torpedo struck the broadside of a modified cargo ship.
Without shields or armor, the cargo ship was utterly defenseless against these torpedoes.
The ship split in half, the two wreckage sections continuing forward by inertia before being completely shredded by subsequent torpedoes.
More and more torpedoes struck those chaotic, panicked, defenseless civilian-converted military starships.
Explosions linked together, illuminating the once-dark airspace.
A starship engaged in mutual bombardment with allied forces was struck from behind by a torpedo.
Its stern exploded, thrusters extinguished, and the hull began to tilt slowly.
A cargo ship that had just lost its bridge was simultaneously hit by three torpedoes.
It was torn to pieces in the explosion, wreckage scattering in all directions.
The slaughter continued.
But it was not a one-sided massacre.
It was an absurd destruction.
Qin Bei Wang also knew the enemy was deliberately using these subpar starships to wear them down.
Thus, most of their attacks were carried out by destroyers and Swift fighters.
Yet, it was these eighty destroyers and seven hundred Swift fighters that utterly routed those eight hundred Imperial starships.
In less than half an hour, the original eight hundred starships were reduced to fewer than a hundred.
Seventy percent were destroyed by the Federation, while the remaining thirty percent were casualties caused more by their own collisions, friendly fire, and deliberate retaliation against each other.
Battleship One-Eye, Bridge.
Lieutenant Commander Fox stared at the tactical screen, the muscles on his face twitching slightly.
Eight hundred.
Eight hundred starships, reduced to fewer than a hundred.
Utterly annihilated by the enemy's eighty destroyers and several hundred fighter craft.
Without taking down a single enemy destroyer.
Not one.
His fingers clenched tightly on the edge of the command console, knuckles white from the force.
The bridge was terrifyingly quiet.
No one dared to speak.
Captain Anderson stood beside him, head bowed, even his breathing softened.
Fox remained silent for a few seconds.
Then he spoke.
His voice was not loud, but cold as if dredged from an ice cellar.
"Send more."
A glint of cold light flashed in Fox's eyes.
"This time, send a thousand."
A collective intake of breath echoed through the bridge.
A thousand.
That was a quarter of their forces.
Fox's gaze fell on the tactical screen.
His voice continued, each word deliberate, as if carved into everyone's heart with a knife.
"Even if we have to ram them with our hulls..."
"We must hold them back."
The bridge grew even quieter.
A silence that was suffocating.
Fox's gaze shifted from the tactical screen, sweeping over everyone present.
His voice grew even colder.
"Eight hundred Starships, and not a single one managed to take down even one enemy Destroyer."
"What a disgrace to our pirate fleet."
No one dared to respond.
Fox continued.
"And one more thing..."
He drew out his words.
"Anyone who shows fear and hesitates to advance..."
He paused for a second, then spoke each word deliberately.
"...will face Artillery Execution."
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