Blizzard Zero Bridge
"Report, the swarm on the front battlefield has begun to retreat one after another, preparing to come for us." The Bridge crew reported.
"Don't worry about it. Continue at full speed!" Charlotte was personally navigating the starship at this moment, controlling every navigation angle and trajectory herself. This was usually handled by specialized Bridge helmsmen. But today, General Charlotte, after many years, took the helm again!
Because she knew very well the danger of this combat mission; a slight mistake—being hit by the Zerg Hive Mothership's bio-plasma cannon, or being caught by those swarms—would result in death. The navigation routes and trajectories had been calculated countless times in her mind.
"It will take some time for the main Zerg swarm to retreat." Charlotte murmured, her gaze searching the interstellar sand table as if looking for a target.
Currently, the Blizzard Zero could skillfully escape and evade, partly due to its astonishing speed, and partly because the number of T1 Flying Bugs and T2 Hydralisks left behind at the Zerg Hive Mothership was extremely small, unable to form an effective encirclement around the Blizzard Zero. However, once the main Zerg swarm, which was originally engaging the Imperial fleet and the T2 Bee Queen-class Heavy Carrier Starship, retreated, the threat to the Blizzard Zero would greatly increase.
Time passed bit by bit.
"Report, the T2 Heavy 1200mm Devil Crocodile Cannon has been reset and is ready to fire!" The crew member in charge of the weapon system reported.
In fact, no report was needed; these figures were already imprinted in Charlotte's mind. And at this moment, the Blizzard Zero, by coincidence, had its bow pointed directly at a T2 Zerg Nest Mothership. This T2 Zerg Nest Mothership might have also sensed the danger and began to continuously retreat, while simultaneously firing plasma cannons at the Blizzard Zero, but it simply couldn't hit this high-speed starship.
Charlotte stared at the aiming reticle.
She only had one shot! Not to mention killing the T2 Zerg Nest Mothership with one shot, but at least severely damaging it. The Zerg swarm was controlled by the Zerg Hive Mothership; although the destruction of the Zerg Hive Mothership would not directly cause the Zerg swarm to die, it would drastically reduce the Zerg swarm's combat effectiveness. It was like an army without a head—leaderless.
"Now! Fire!" Charlotte roared.
A shell from the T2 Heavy 1200mm Devil Crocodile Cannon's muzzle streaked at an extremely high speed in a comet-like trajectory, finally landing on the side of that T2 Zerg Nest Mothership's abdomen.
Boom!
A huge explosion directly flipped over that T2 Zerg Nest Mothership, which was a full kilometer in size; only chunks of flesh drifted in the universe. And after this explosion, another even larger explosion occurred in the T2 Zerg Nest Mothership's abdomen, this time directly splitting the T2 Zerg Nest Mothership in two, declaring its demise in this part of the universe.
Captain Victoria Shaw and Commander Elena Vance, who witnessed all of this, were stunned.
Previously, they had severely damaged a Zerg Hive Mothership using a sneak attack, yet even then, they couldn't destroy it on the spot. But this starship, with just one shot, caused its demise. This was simply too incredible. Moreover, that T2 Zerg Nest Mothership just now was clearly also killed with one shot.
"This… this shot… killing a T2 Zerg Nest Mothership… could this be a T3 starship?" Commander Vance was incredulous.
Captain Shaw quickly understood the reason: "It hit the organ where the Zerg Hive Mothership stored its bio-plasma elements. That's equivalent to our starship's ammunition depot or starship engine. Once hit, it will produce an effect similar to a sympathetic detonation, achieving several times, even dozens of times, the power!"
"But hitting twice in a row… is that possible?" Commander Vance questioned.
Captain Shaw stared at the Blizzard Zero, which had begun high-speed maneuvering again on the screen: "It's not about whether it's possible or not—it's that this starship did it!"
In ten minutes, destroying two T2 Zerg Hive Motherships was already a very excellent combat result.
"Report, more than half of the enemy's Zerg swarm forces have retreated, and the remaining Zerg swarm forces are unable to break through our firepower blockade." The crew member reported.
Captain Shaw couldn't help but exclaim, "It's too crazy—truly a lunatic-like combat plan. But it… truly achieved the strategic objective of delaying time. This way, it can at least delay for another hour or more. Even two hours would be no problem!"
Commander Vance was speechless at this moment; she recalled her previous mocking remarks about the two starships and truly felt as if she had been slapped in the face.
"But whether this Blizzard Zero can safely retreat now is a problem," Captain Shaw said worriedly.
At this moment, after destroying two T2 Zerg Nest Motherships, the Blizzard Zero had already begun to withdraw. But how could the Zerg swarm, whose home had been raided, tolerate this culprit escaping? Swarms like black whirlwinds began to encircle this interstellar warship. Their numbers were dozens of times greater than at the beginning. It was like a large black hand trying to crush a small mosquito.
"Report, according to the starship system's calculation, if we continue in the current direction, our chance of escaping is only 16%!" The crew member reported somewhat nervously.
Charlotte closed her eyes. At this moment, she seemed to return to her time with the half-orc rebel army, where they were outnumbered and outmatched. But every time, she was able to turn the tide.
"Turn around!" Charlotte suddenly ordered.
This order caught all the crew members on the Bridge off guard. Originally, the Blizzard Zero's withdrawal direction was the other side of the main battlefield; turning around now meant heading toward the main battlefield. Turning around now—wasn't that walking into a trap?
But Charlotte's words were commands on this starship!
The Blizzard Zero executed an extremely agile direct turnaround.
"Full speed ahead!" Charlotte said sternly.
After a brief turnaround, the Blizzard Zero's speed once again increased to one hundred knots.
At this point, Charlotte summoned a virtual operation interface, entered a string of numbers, and said, "Lift the starship engine limit. Continue to accelerate!"
Lift the starship engine limit?
The crew member in charge of navigation was stunned, then worriedly said, "If we lift the starship engine limit and continue to accelerate, the engine will be too overloaded!"
"This is an order! Keep accelerating!" Charlotte said intently.
"Yes! Lifting the starship engine limit. The starship continues to accelerate. Speed 103… Speed 106… Speed 110…"
The speed setting for each starship engine was not its peak speed, but its optimal speed—meaning that at this speed, the engine life would be best; exceeding it would cause some navigation problems and greatly reduce engine life. Therefore, starship engines usually had an engine limit lock, and only the captain or vice captain had the password to release this limit.
"Report, engine is starting to overload!"
"Report, power system is starting to operate at overload!"
"Report, current speed has reached 120!"
All the crew members on the entire Bridge felt their hearts tighten.
And the Blizzard Zero's sudden turn, coupled with the sharp increase in speed, caused the Zerg swarm that was originally encircling it from all sides to instantly fail to react, being thrown far behind.
As the saying goes, the most dangerous place is the safest. The current battlefield was divided into two areas: one was the main battlefield of the Imperial fleet. The other was where the recalled Zerg swarm forces were besieging the Blizzard Zero. Under normal circumstances, everyone would assume that the Blizzard Zero would flee in the opposite direction, so the Zerg swarm had already begun to deploy their encirclement early. On the contrary, the number of Zerg swarm heading toward the main battlefield was the smallest!
However, unfortunately, there was also a T2 Zerg Nest Mothership and a small group of Zerg swarm right in the path of the Blizzard Zero!
"Report, speed is too fast! We cannot make a large turn now!" The crew member reported nervously.
Charlotte suddenly smiled. This was the first time she had smiled so freely since coming to Zachary Chase's side.
"Then we won't go around! Full speed ahead—ram through it for me!"