Sky-cracking Rider
Chapter 1042 - 1042: Section 1027 - Main Battlefield Shift [Illustration]

The light stealth assault ships and super-caliber space railguns were successively deployed into battle, with the far side of the seventh planet becoming the main battleground for the star system's defense war ahead of schedule.

Attack and defense, back and forth, both sides were locked in fierce combat.

The weapons deployed by the Blue Star Humans on the battlefield mainly consisted of directional energy beams, magnetic rail bullets, and space missiles. The missiles uniformly adopted vector thrusters, eliminating tail fins and air-breathing configurations. The parasitic species' space weapons also included directional energy beams, along with high-pressure jets and mechanical ejection explosives. The explosives mainly comprised strong acid bombs, flame bombs, shattering armor bombs, and parasitic bombs. The parasitic species, moving with exceptional agility and flexibility in space, often chose to self-detonate upon collision, achieving mutual annihilation with the enemy.

A crisscross of energy beams, missiles dragging faint tails of flame, silent biological bombs, and continuous explosions of flames composed the theme of the seventh planet's back. The night zone shrouded in darkness was illuminated by the flames of war. Debris and fragments of varying sizes filled the near-Earth orbit, either circling the globe or being instantly cleared by the violent eruption of blue light mist. Only a small portion of debris and fragments had the chance to enter the thin atmosphere of the seventh planet, leaving trails of thin white streaks.

Chen Fei, realizing immediately that plans couldn't keep up with changes, promptly mobilized the battle mothership group deployed near the sixth planet, ordering them to proceed to the temporarily modified main battleground.

Simultaneously, he released 50 battle motherships held in the "spatial branding" as a reserve force near the seventh planet, converting the rear into the front line, launching a surprise attack on the seventh planet's back.

S-Class Space Ability User Heseman Brown, along with Chen Fei, retrieved another battle mothership group stationed near the fifth planet's orbit one by one into the "spatial branding," then brought them together near the seventh planet.

Such "manual transportation," although laborious, allowed more battle motherships to arrive at the battlefield in the shortest time.

Opportunity lost will never return.

On the battleground at the back of the seventh planet, every additional battle mothership could suppress the overall combat power of the "Sagali" space fleet slightly, tipping the scales of victory in favor of the Blue Star Humans.

Even moving short distances hundreds of times, a final long-distance teleportation left Mr. Brown exhausted, gulping down magic potions in tons, to ensure having enough strength left to escape with Chen Xiao'er.

[Illustration: Battle Mothership (AI-generated image) (Spent money on Midjourney, still exploring. Qidian also has Tencent's AI, it's free but feels clumsy and hard to use.)]

The Starlight Cannon, far near the constant star, was out of reach, and the high-density energy beams were easily obstructed by celestial bodies.

The impact celestial body, though it roared past, never returned, with the acceleration gained from the gravity slingshot impossible to recover through human effort.

The barely noticeable light stealth assault ship was like a fleeting moment, killing eighty enemies but losing eighteen hundred itself. The carried Element Annihilation Bombs didn't meet the expected results, but still successfully consumed a large number of parasitic species, effectively weakening the "Sagali" civilization's space fleet to some extent, laying the foundation for subsequent combat plans. It could be considered a strategic gain, despite initial losses.

After all, in warfare, situations change endlessly, and plans going off track is entirely normal. Ensuring the enemy acts in line with one's objectives requires highly advanced planning and command artistry, and such talents throughout the history of Blue Star Human civilization remain few and far between, even countable on one's fingers.

The really Rookie-like Chen Fei managed to fight the defense battle in such a manner that military leaders enduring war report delays far away in "Atlantis" were thankful enough.

The super-caliber space railguns didn't suffer much loss, thanks to firing from afar, spaced out and spread, despite lacking strong defenses and having limited firepower, it wasn't easy for the biological space mothership's released parasitic species to find and eliminate them in a short time.

Yet, just these combat units successfully halved, even more than halved, the number of the "Sagali" space fleet that had intruded aggressively into the star system.

So when the battle mothership group appeared, the biological space mothership group, already in dire straits, immediately became highly vigilant, unleashing parasitic species without reserve. Among them were not only the most common black-tentacled water drops but also some new distinctly characteristic space-adaptive organisms. A large black cloud of parasitic species gathered to intercept the incoming battle mothership group.

The battle motherships also immediately released their main combat units, the shipborne tactical jets.

Each battle mothership carried 2000 tactical jets, with port and starboard featuring 20 hatchways each, launched via magnetic rail acceleration, all deployed within ten minutes, forming a similar massive display.

The simplified tactical jets didn't require complex maneuvering capabilities, not even considering aerodynamic properties, solely focusing on ammunition capacity, with rocket nests and missile bays loaded beneath the wings. Their combat targets were never the several-kilometers-long biological space motherships but the thousands of parasitic species surging toward them, launching most of their ammunition once within attack range, then using onboard railguns to alternately fire high-explosive bombs and armor-piercing shells. If they survived until expending all ammunition, the tactical jet itself became a formidable physical impact weapon, never considering recovery once deployed.

Except for the Starlight Cannon, abandoning maintenance and recovery designs, and even omitting loading mechanisms, simplifying numerous unnecessary complex components, was favorable for explosive soldier production in limited time; anything capable of explosive production was generally a cheap good (just like the AK-47, not as excellent as rumored, only needed to outlast a soldier's lifespan).

Despite being motherships, the tactical characteristics of human side's space motherships and "Sagali" side's biological space motherships were largely similar, utilizing carrier offspring to harass opponents, break through defenses, exploit weaknesses until gaining a superior position, or relying on the main body to deliver a powerful decisive strike.

Nearly regardless, where the motherships were, the front line was, fully justifying the definition of war fortresses.

However, the hastily produced battle motherships exhibited some quality issues; while they could fight hard in the short term, as time passed, various shortcomings would inevitably surface, particularly energy issues.

Besides the Starlight Cannon directly utilizing the constant star light source as the main energy source, other combat units faced energy storage restrictions based on crystalline block specifications.

If not for the "seed nest" McKenny referencing Magical Beast Crystal Cores to urgently spawn and hatch a batch of creatures specialized in nurturing Energy Crystal Cores, using alchemy from the Silan Dynasty as a temporary substitute for crystalline blocks, compensating quantity for quality, Chen Fei wouldn't have had enough energy sources to simultaneously power so many combat units.

Using Holtz plasma thrusters in the Starlight Cannon and light stealth assault ship to some extent was also a compromise alternative due to insufficient crystalline blocks.

Even with geothermal resources from Antalu Planet as a supplement, serving as an energy conversion "seed nest," McKenny to rapidly produce enough Energy Crystal Cores exhausted massive vitality, causing numerous creatures to perish amidst wailing, causing the once-thriving underground "Little World" to wither temporarily, with even its edges undergoing irreversible withering petrification.

This is the tremendous cost paid to gather the energy needed for this defense battle.

Combat motherships are continuously being deployed onto the battlefield, carrying tactical jet fighters by the thousands, forming an overwhelming formation.

The biological space mothership of the opponent is also unleashing all its parasitic species without reservation, while simultaneously incubating more of them with full effort.

"The number of 450 combat motherships is still too few!"

Chen Fei and the S-Class Space Ability User, who is ready to retreat at any moment, are aboard the "No. 2-1 Cooperative Ship" in the day zone of the Seventh Planet, separated by only one planet from the fiercely contested night zone.

"We are still too close to the Seventh Planet right now!"

With a pale face, Heseman Brown frowned, gulping down a magic potion that was not his field of expertise. It tasted awful, and though its effectiveness was halved, it was better than nothing.

Immersed in the real-time combat updates, Chen Fei casually said, "I need to grasp the latest situations immediately."

Staying on the surface of the Fourth Planet with "Atlantis" to remotely control the battlefield would indeed be safer, but intelligence delayed by several minutes can't handle the rapidly changing combat.

Tens of thousands of kilometers away, near the bright atmosphere, occasional flashes of light would quickly appear and disappear; these were parasitic species sometimes drifting to the day zone along the orbit, quickly detected and locked on, destroyed immediately.

Ten Super-Caliber Space Railguns and twenty Light Stealth Assault Ships, along with 100 tactical jet fighters, quietly surrounded the "No. 2-1 Cooperative Ship," ready to engage in combat at any moment.

The Cooperative Ship itself is a fire support ship, and its combat capability is not weak, making it perfectly suited to serve as the vehicle for Chen Fei and Heseman Brown.

"Sagali's mothership is too tough; we can't budge it!"

Unable to persuade Chen Fei once again, Heseman Brown had no choice but to focus on other matters.

Within the cabin, three-dimensional holographic projection interfaces of various kinds floated in the air, along with real-time constructs behind the Seventh Planet; a multitude of detectors were deployed around the Seventh Planet, keeping a close watch on the area of combat between both sides, missing no movement.

"Number 99! The effect of the Elemental Annihilation Bomb is good, but opportunities are too few."

Chen Fei shook his head. If the Sagali civilization's space fleet hadn't hidden behind the planet so early, he was confident that he could reduce their current number to below 50.

The awkward reality at present is that the Starlight Cannon, best suited for a war of attrition, can't find any opportunity to be used. After all, beams can't bend; among the five battle weapons, only four can be deployed, making it frustrating.

Wait!

It's true beams can't bend, but it's not said they can't refract.

Feeling discouraged, a flash of insight suddenly occurred to him, as if he returned elementary knowledge to the teachers.

What to use to reflect light?

Of course, it's mirrors!

Too inexpensive.

Calculate the angle and preset the strike area, first-degree refraction, second-degree refraction, multi-degree focusing, even if there is loss due to refraction, as long as the numbers stack up, it doesn't matter.

"Got a way!"

Under the puzzled and uncertain gaze of Heseman Brown, Chen Xiao'er started acting mischievously, inexplicably heading toward the corner. Is he going to... face the wall in repentance?

Tens of thousands of tons of metal melted into the structure of the "No. 2-1 Cooperative Ship"; visibly, the ship swelled more than a notch.

In the next second, fine cracks appeared on the bloated hull, and a disc over a hundred meters in diameter slowly separated. Then came the second and third disc, peeling off like scales, with over a thousand curved discs flying out of the airship. Each piece's concave side was impossibly smooth, exhibiting an extremely mirror-like surface. A faint blue light bloomed from the center of the reinforced beehive structure on the back, pushing these large mirrors along the orbit of the Seventh Planet, using planetary gravity to create a gravity slingshot effect, aimed into the void behind the planet.

Chen Fei was still reluctant to waste these precious energy points at a low cost-efficiency, even though, no matter how frugally used, over 20,000 energy points were inevitably spent for this star system defense operation, with the "Wall of Sighs" action force practically dismantling the entire "Atlantis" to level ground, the displacement of the sea-floating city on water sharply reduced, unable to replenish the consumed energy points in time.