Several seconds later, the anticipated explosion and the deafening impact of a hull strike never came.
Instead, Liu Lili's voice, filled with surprise and joy, reached her ears.
"It's Zhao Chen's carrier starship!"
Shen Bing opened her eyes. Through the images captured by her ship's sensors, she could see a T2 carrier starship now positioned directly above her T2 Griffin-class heavy stellar destroyer.
Simultaneously, a translucent star shield materialized, standing between the two starships and the enemy.
The attacks from the Mechanoid interstellar warships merely created a few ripples upon the star shield's surface.
Then, five T2 Black Rhinoceros-class interstellar heavy assault frigates surged forward, weathering the incoming fire from the opposing Mechanoid starships as they charged straight into the fray!
Beep beep beep beep
At that moment, Shen Bing's handheld terminal vibrated several times. She opened it to look.
It was a message sent by Zhao Chen.
He instructed her starship to withdraw from the battlefield, leaving the situation here to him. He also added a final note, asking if her communication system was malfunctioning.
"Our communication system is broken?"
Shen Bing checked the communication system. Sure enough, due to the successive artillery strikes they had just endured, the system was now in a faulty state.
Even the starship radar system was experiencing issues.
No wonder she hadn't received any alerts about Zhao Chen's fleet's arrival for support.
"Whew... whew... Shen Bing... I was so scared... I thought I was going to die just now! I haven't even had a boyfriend yet!" Liu Lili suddenly burst into tears, the tension that had gripped her finally releasing.
Shen Bing looked at Liu Lili and the other bridge crew members who seemed to have been granted a new lease on life. A faint smile appeared on her usually indifferent face.
She lifted her head, gazing at the image of the carrier starship that stood above her vessel like a protective barrier.
An indescribable sense of security filled her heart.
"Has it been less than twenty minutes? Zhao Chen's battle is already over?" Shen Bing wondered, using the deep-space telescope to observe the other battlefield area Zhao Chen's fleet had been responsible for.
What she saw was astonishing.
In that sector of the cosmic battlefield, scattered starship wreckage was visible. Some pieces were shattered into fragments, others cleaved in two. A few, luckier ones, retained the basic framework of their hulls, but their starship armor was riddled with the marks of bombardment, full of holes.
All ten of the Mechanical Race's T2 interstellar warships had been annihilated.
Not a single one survived.
What terrifying combat capability, achieved with just one T2 carrier starship and five T2 star escort ships.
After all!
Who had ever seen a T2 carrier starship equipped with a star shield?
Or T2 interstellar frigates daring to confront a stellar battlecruiser head-on?
"Where on earth did Zhao Chen get these monstrous starships from?" Shen Bing couldn't help but mutter to herself.
First, there was the Zero Blizzard, capable of reaching 100 knots stellar speed and armed with 1200mm heavy artillery.
Then came the T2 Black Rhinoceros-class interstellar heavy assault frigate, which made a name for itself by single-handedly challenging a stellar battlecruiser of the same class at the North Star Starship Military Academy.
And now, before her eyes, this unnamed, unclassified T2 carrier starship possessing a star shield.
This man... he no longer seemed to be that bookish noble young master who had spent three years buried in his studies.
Perhaps because he had become familiar with the combat style of the Mechanoid interstellar warships, Zhao Chen took less than ten minutes to completely annihilate these ten Mechanoid interstellar warships!
Witnessing this, Shen Bing and the crew on her bridge were utterly stunned—it was too shocking!
"Report, the second wave of Mechanoid interstellar warships has been eliminated.
The T2 Queen Bee-class Heavy Carrier Starship has consumed 67% of its ammunition and supplies, with stellar drone losses exceeding 30%!
Star shield energy remaining at 41%, and the ship hull has sustained no damage."
Secretary Officer Lilith promptly reported the fleet's status, and after detailing the condition of the T2 Queen Bee-class Heavy Carrier Starship,
she immediately brought up the status of the five T2 Black Rhinoceros-class interstellar heavy assault frigates.
Zhao Chen glanced over them.
After two battles, although the five T2 Black Rhinoceros-class interstellar heavy assault frigates had taken some hits, none were severely affected.
The most heavily damaged one only had overall hull armor damage reaching 37%, with the most critical area just exceeding 50%.
Additionally, interstellar frigates have the lowest combat consumption rate, and each T2 Black Rhinoceros-class interstellar heavy assault frigate still retained over 70% of its ammunition and supplies.
They were more than sufficient to handle the remaining wave of Mechanoid interstellar warships.
"It seems we have this battle firmly in hand," Zhao Chen let out a long sigh of relief.
"Hey, kid! Now that you've taken care of your little sweetheart over there, don't forget about me here.
I've already lost two starships and really can't hold out much longer.
And there are already Mechanoid interstellar warships threatening the interstellar frigate fleet!"
Smoking Uncle's voice chimed in at that moment.
In the communication video window, Smoking Uncle had completely changed his previously hostile attitude, acting as if he and Zhao Chen were old friends who had known each other for years.
"Uncle, I haven't forgotten about you," Zhao Chen replied with a smile.
Although this Smoking Uncle had a bit of a temper, he was a decent person.
At the very least, he had done his duty in this battle.
In contrast, the leather-clad woman who had earlier wanted to get involved with Zhao Chen had fled in panic as soon as the battle began.
Smoking Uncle grinned foolishly and gave Zhao Chen a thumbs-up: "I misjudged you earlier, kid. You're the real deal! Impressive!
When we get back, I'll treat you to a drink."
Zhao Chen smiled without responding and began examining the current battlefield situation.
He focused mainly on the starship icons on the data panel.
Out of the thirty T2 Mechanoid interstellar warships, over two-thirds had turned dark, indicating they had been destroyed.
Two starships from Uncle's fleet had also turned black; the rest were red, representing the extent and location of hull damage.
Starships that remained undamaged were marked with blue icons.
Aside from Zhao Chen's T2 Queen Bee-class Heavy Carrier Starship, almost no other starships were undamaged.
The twenty T2 Mechanoid interstellar warships had all been annihilated by Zhao Chen's fleet.
Uncle's fleet had severely damaged one T2 Mechanical Guard-class medium interstellar frigate and one T2 Mechanical Dog-class medium interstellar destroyer.
At the same time, Uncle's fleet had suffered the loss of two T1 starships, with two more T1 starships severely damaged and one T2 Gray Wolf-class Light Interstellar Cruiser heavily damaged.
It could be said that this uncle's fleet had incurred significant losses in this combat mission.
Meanwhile, some Mechanoid interstellar warships had broken through the uncle's fleet blockade and directly attacked the Interstellar Transport Fleet.
Currently, twelve T1 interstellar transport ships had been destroyed.
This also caused some changes in Zhao Chen's mission data.
[Additional Mission: Preserve as many T1 interstellar transport ships as possible (288/300)]
"Support the battlefield on the uncle's side and end this battle as quickly as possible!" Zhao Chen issued the combat order for the third engagement of this Battle.
The replenished Interstellar Drone Swarm was deployed once again, ready to be thrown into another fight.
To encircle and annihilate the remaining ten Mechanoid interstellar warships.
Eliminating this Mechanoid interstellar fleet was far simpler than the previous wave, especially since it included heavily damaged Mechanoid starships that couldn't withstand the onslaught of the T2 Black Rhinoceros-class interstellar heavy assault frigates and the Stellar Drones.
In no time, only seven of the ten Mechanoid starships remained!
But at that moment, a larger red cursor than before appeared on the Starship Radar of Zhao Chen's T2 Queen Bee-class Heavy Carrier Starship.
"Report, a T3 starship energy signal detected! It is heading in our direction. At its current speed, it will enter threat range in five minutes!"
Zhao Chen's heart sank—this was a Mechanoid... T3 starship!
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