Chapter 396 Battle

"President, our side is ready and ready to fire at any time." Sophie sent a message to me after the fleet preparations were completed.

"You are the fleet commander now. I am just here temporarily as a scout. If you have any decisions, you can make your own decisions without asking me."

"Okay then." Sophie was not polite to me and directly accepted my suggestion, and then began to direct the fleet operations.

Because the distance between the two sides was actually quite far, Sophie did not move the fleet sideways in pursuit of maximum firepower density, but still kept the fleet on its current course and speed. After all the battleships indicated that they were ready, Sophie immediately ordered the No. 1 main turret of the Kristina to conduct calibration firing.

"Main turret No. 1, firing order confirmed. Load new standard ammunition, one round, fire immediately."

As the order was given, the automatic loader in the turret immediately started rolling. A small-looking shell was pushed out of the loader and then entered the conveyor belt behind the barrel along the slide. A mechanical arm pushed the cannonballs on the conveyor belt into the gun barrel that opened the gun door in front.

This shell is a calibrated guided shell specially used for school firing. It does not use liquefied magic crystal steam sticky sheet as the explosive, but is filled with a very powerful magic gel. This kind of thing is like all-purpose glue. No matter what solid material it touches, it will stick to it immediately. Cleaning it off requires a very troublesome process and is very time-consuming.

The purpose of this gel is of course not to stick the enemy's warship in a certain place and prevent it from moving. After all, seawater itself does not have the ability to fix it. Even if the gel covers the warship, it cannot stop the opponent's progress.

This gel actually has three functions. First, save costs.

The price of liquefied magic crystal steam is very expensive. Even if the guild's cannon is very accurate, it is unlikely that the first shot will hit during the calibration process. Therefore, the first shot will almost 100% miss. So, since the shells are destined not to hit the target, it is obviously unreasonable to continue to use expensive liquefied magic crystal steam shells. so. This super cheap gel has become the preferred ammunition. After all, compared to the liquefied magic crystal steam shells that cost thousands of crystal coins per shot, this kind of shells that cost less than ten crystal coins per shot is really expensive. Too cheap.

In addition to the price advantage, this gel also has a special feature, that is, it has strong shrinkage. This type of artillery shell specially designed for school firing is filled with explosive agent, which can explode in the air. After the explosion, the power released by the central charge will expand the gel. But because of the gel’s super adhesive power, it won’t blow away completely. Instead, it will become a huge unfolded film covering it. When any point on this adhesive film touches the battleship, other surrounding parts will be quickly pulled to the battleship and completely covered due to the characteristics of the colloid itself. In other words, as long as this gel touches a little bit, it will completely cover a battleship, thus ensuring maximum effectiveness of hits.

Of course, it is useless to hit it with light, because in addition to being particularly difficult to clean, this gel itself is firstly non-toxic, secondly not corrosive, and thirdly, it will not explode. In fact, such a thing itself does not have much deterrent effect. But. We also add a few other things to the gel. This thing is a magic-strengthening crystal made from scraps produced during the magic crystal production process. Because this kind of crystal is originally made from leftover materials, the particles are very small. After being evenly added to the gel, it can be fixed in the middle and will not fall off. When the gel is covered on the battleship, these crystals will be stuck together on the surface of the battleship, and because of the characteristics of the gel, the enemy will need to enter a shipyard and work at least several days to get these crystals off. It is basically impossible to get it off on the battlefield.

Originally, it wouldn't be a big deal if the battleship was covered with some crystals, but these crystals have very special abilities. Everyone knows that magic crystals actually absorb free magic energy in nature to replenish their own energy, but low-level magic crystals have no self-charging ability. It's not that they can't absorb energy, but it means that they don't absorb energy as fast as they dissipate it, so unless they are in a high energy field. Otherwise, the total energy is always decreasing.

Although the characteristics of low-level magic crystals such as white magic crystals determine that they are almost impossible to reuse, we can use its scraps to produce different effects. Those crushed crystal fragments are themselves small pieces of white magic crystal, so they will absorb energy in the same way as large pieces of white magic crystal. Moreover, the speed at which white magic crystal absorbs energy actually only depends on the surrounding energy density and its own surface area. Related, but the speed at which they dissipate energy depends entirely on their own mass. Therefore, for the white magic crystal. The larger they are, the faster their magic power is lost, because the ratio of their surface area to the total mass of the magic crystal inside is low. On the contrary, the magic power of small pieces of magic crystal will be lost much slower. Even if the white magic crystal fragments are small enough, it can even reach a balance, so that its own magic power is always stable on a horizontal line without rising or falling. .

The crystal fragments we added to the gel are stable magic crystal fragments that are small enough to achieve a balance between absorption and loss of magic energy. Because the surface area of ​​these fragments is relatively large relative to the internal volume, they absorb magic energy relatively quickly, and because the speed of internal absorption and dissipation is at a balance point, this kind of magic energy The crystal fragment becomes a small magic field generator that continuously absorbs and releases magic energy.

When a mage uses magic, it can be sensed by other mages in advance. This is achieved by relying on magic power fluctuations, and these magic crystal fragments that continuously absorb and release magic power are equivalent to small magic power fluctuations that continuously release magic power fluctuations one by one. Generator, and all the battleships in our guild are equipped with special magic wave capture equipment. In other words, as long as the opponent's warship is attached to this magic crystal fragment, we can track and locate its exact position from a long distance.

Based on these things, you can know that our school-fired gel bomb is actually an automatic tracker. Although it can be cleaned, the cost is extremely low, and at least in this battle, the enemy cannot clean it. dropped. Therefore, this kind of thing can be said to be very useful.

As Sophie's order was issued, the NPC gunner operating the electromagnetic railgun immediately pressed the switch next to it, indicating that the loading was completed. Then the operators in the combat-only room below the bridge began to follow the shooting parameters. Adjust the angle and direction of the cannon.

The Kristina obviously inherited the consistent design features of the guild's large battleships, that is, all cannons have two operating systems. One set is located inside the bridge, protected by heavy armor. Next to the communications room, this is the combat core of the battleship. During normal battles, all the firepower on the battleship is controlled uniformly from here. Of course, if the place is destroyed or there is a problem with the wiring, the personnel in the turret can also use manual operation.

Now the Kristina has not officially participated in the war, so there is naturally no problem with the operating system. The battle command system remains the responsibility of the Battle Command Center in Cambridge. As the green light indicating the reload is complete comes on, the operator quickly adjusts the firing parameters. Then he pressed the launch button directly.

As the trigger button was pressed, the bottom of the barrel of the electromagnetic cannon on the left side of the No. 1 turret suddenly lit up with a circle of blue runes, and then the blue rune lines began to quickly follow the inner wall of the barrel. Spreading forward, finally, dense blue runes lit up from the bottom of the barrel to the muzzle. With the appearance of these runes, a buzzing sound gradually began to appear inside the entire barrel, and a large number of arcs jumped and flickered back and forth in the inner wall of the barrel, as if it would erupt at any time.

This state sounds complicated, but in fact it only takes a little more than a second. When all the runes light up, the bottom of the cannonball. A green magic circle was suddenly lit up, and the cannonball that had been sinking in the lower part of the barrel suddenly floated up, suspended on the central axis of the barrel and began to tremble slowly. After the cannonball was completely suspended in the air, the green color at the bottom suddenly began to become brighter and brighter. At the same time, the cannonball began to spin slowly on the spot and the speed became faster and faster. After two seconds, the suspended cannonball had entered a state of high-speed rotation, and at this time, the blue runes inside the entire barrel suddenly flashed. A large number of dazzling electric arcs appeared behind the projectile in an instant, and at the same time, the projectile seemed to turn into a bolt of lightning and flew out of the body, spanning a distance of dozens of kilometers and flying over the fleet in front.

boom. After a not too strong explosion, the suddenly appeared shell exploded directly in the air, and the scattered yellow gel suddenly opened up and turned into a large hole-filled hole with a diameter of at least more than 200 meters. Continue forward and fly diagonally towards the sea at a 45-degree angle.

Because the shell appeared too suddenly. Therefore, the fleet here is completely unprepared. The gel that suddenly opened hit the stern of a battleship in less than a second. Then the remaining gel automatically contracted due to the tension and covered the tail of the battleship. Not only did it successfully cover the stern of the battleship, , actually got entangled in the propeller of the battleship. As a result, the battleship began to slow down visibly to the naked eye, and gradually began to break away from the formation.

There was no semaphore communication in the fleet group below, but the fleet responded. Immediately, several ships began to break away from the formation and formed a new formation with the slowing down warship, while other warships moved closer to form a main fleet and continued to move forward.

Obviously, the other party has some kind of communication method that can communicate in place of semaphores. But if you think about it, you should. Our guild's crystal communicator has been used for such a long time. Others must have discovered some useful communication technology. It is just that it is difficult to find communication technology that is as flexible and changeable as ours for the time being. However, battleships are large enough that even bulky communication equipment should be able to be installed on them.

When the other party just started to adjust the formation, I already informed Sophie of the changes here. Of course, Sophie immediately started giving orders to the ships.

The three front main turrets of the Kristina began to be equipped with liquefied magic crystal steam shells at the same time. Different from the previous calibrated projectiles which were obviously much smaller than the barrel, this time the shells were replaced with real liquefied magic crystal steam shells, which were at least seven or eight times larger than the previous shells. The diameter of the previous artillery shells was only more than 30 centimeters. Although it was very large for artillery shells, it was still too small compared with this 1.65-meter barrel. The liquefied magic crystal steam cannon loaded this time is different. This is a regular large-scale cloud burst bomb used against battleships. Each round is more than one meter in diameter. The shell has no eggshell or propellant, just a warhead, and the length is more than two meters. Such a large cannon weighs several tons, and is filled with liquefied magic crystal steam. You can imagine how powerful this thing is.

"Loading completed." After receiving the notice, the combat command center did not launch immediately. Instead, it directly asked Sophie in the bridge overhead.

Sophie did not hesitate and directly ordered to fire. The operator below immediately pressed the launch button. Immediately afterwards, the six main guns on the three turrets fired one after another at intervals of 0.5 seconds. After the six flying blue arcs, the fleet on the opposite side was hit almost simultaneously.

The speed of the electromagnetic railgun is completely different from that of ordinary artillery. The speed of the cannonball is very amazing. Although it is incomparable to the speed of light, on earth, this speed is actually the limit.

Because the power of the shells is not yet known. So this time, the six front main guns of the Kristina were all aimed at one target and firing. The result was that the six shells hit the marked warship almost in no particular order.

Hovering over the enemy fleet, I first saw six relatively small explosions. Then, the surroundings of the battleship suddenly turned into a vast expanse of white, which was a cloud of magic crystal vapor diffusing from the high-density liquefied magic crystal vapor. Then, I saw the cloud-like thing suddenly flashing, and a circular swell spread out instantly on the sea. The intense bright light made me have to cover my eyes with my hands for a moment. When I looked down again, I only saw a huge white mushroom cloud rising slowly into the sky. It was a cloud formed by vaporized seawater. And below, only a few black metal fragments were left of the battleship. sinking slowly.

There was no damage, no breakage, and no explosion. The explosive force of the liquefied magic crystal steam cannonballs actually blasted the opponent's warship directly into the seabed. I didn't even see how the opponent's warship was damaged. This kind of power can no longer be said to be huge, this is simply insane!

"President, how is the effect? ​​Did you hit it?" Since I had not reported the situation for a long time, Sophie couldn't help but take the initiative to ask.

I recovered from the shock after hearing Sophie's words, and then I swallowed a little before I started to say: "All six shells hit. As for the power...it was just like a small nuclear bomb. The opponent's warship was directly shot into On the bottom of the sea, I didn't even see how it sank! The power was really terrifying. Just for a second. I blinked my eyes and the entire battleship disappeared!"

What surprised me was that Sophie was not too surprised by this result. Instead, he nodded directly and said, "It looks pretty much what I thought."

"Do you know this is the result?"

Sophie admitted: "I have seen it before when testing artillery. This situation is also reasonable."

"Then you still use six cannonballs at a time? There is no charge for liquefied magic crystal steam?"

"I don't know the actual combat effect. Do you want to practice it?"

"Then you have practiced it now. In the future, when dealing with enemy warships, the most you can do is to fire a salvo with two guns. Don't do this kind of concentrated fire. It's a waste of ammunition!"

"Okay, President. Oh, by the way, President, I have something else to report."

"whats the matter?"

"The designers of the Kristina said that our warship has not yet passed the command system test in complex naval battle situations. So we may not attack again for a while."

"Not attacking? Are you waiting to be beaten?"

"No, we want to bring the fleet closer and then conduct mixed operations with multiple battleships."

"You decide this yourself. As I said, I'm just making a temporary cameo. You are the fleet commander."

"Oh well."

The so-called test of the command system is actually to see whether the command system is busy when the warship is attacked from both sides. Because the battleships of our guild take the elite route. Therefore, the number of warships of those first-line guilds has never been suppressed in terms of quantity. Although the warships of our guild are indeed very large compared to those of small and medium-sized guilds, compared with the large guilds of real maritime powers, the number of our warships is not actually superior. Of course, not having an advantage in numbers does not mean that we do not have an advantage in combat effectiveness.

Because all the battleships of our Frost Rose Alliance have a unified command system, their combat effectiveness during battle is far greater than that of the enemy fleet. Moreover, the warships of our guild have always had an advantage in artillery range, so we can usually fly kites outside the enemy's range, and then directly knock out the opponent's warships one by one with a rain of cannonballs. Anyway, the opponent's range cannot hit us, but we can hit them, and their speed is not as fast as ours.

Precisely because our guild's fleet has always used this tactical method of attacking more with less, our fighting method has always relied heavily on our command system. In beyond-visual-range attacks and battles in which fewer defeat more, command is very important, so our warships must test whether this command system can adapt to the combat capabilities of new warships.

Because testing this command system required the fleets to get closer, the two sides temporarily stopped fighting. certainly. To say that it is both sides means that we have stopped shelling, because the other side does not even know where we are until now.

Although we don't know our specific location, the opponent has sunk one battleship after all, so the remaining battleships have all entered a snake-like maneuver state. Although this way of sailing will increase the range and slow down the ship, it is very beneficial for avoiding long-range strikes. After all, if the warship keeps snaking, the course will be unpredictable. And if the flight time of the cannonball is long, the probability of miss will be greatly increased. certainly. The opponent actually doesn't know that this is useless, because our warship uses an electromagnetic rail gun. At the speed of this thing, at this distance, the time from the shell leaving the muzzle to hitting the target will not take more than five seconds at most. In such a short time, there is really nothing that can be done at the speed of the battleship, so they thought that their snake maneuver forced us to give up long-range bombardment, but in fact it was us who took the initiative to stop the bombardment in order to test the command system.

As the distance between the two sides got closer, the other side's lookout finally saw our fleet.

"Report, target found directly ahead." On the flagship of the fleet. The lookout responsible for observing the enemy's situation suddenly shouted.

Because our guild's fleet and the Japanese fleet have fought many large-scale naval battles before, guilds from all over the world are now paying more attention to our guild's fleet. For example, there is no way to keep things like the extremely large-caliber sighting equipment installed on the top of our guild's battleship. After all, the thing is too big and can be seen directly from a long distance. Our battleships are all over the world. Naturally, many people know that our battleships are equipped with this kind of sighting system.

Considering that there is no radar in the game and the effect of aerial reconnaissance is quite limited, everyone knows the benefits of this kind of observation equipment. Now that you know the benefits of this kind of thing. Other guilds are not stupid, of course they will imitate it, but it is a pity, because even our Frost Rose Alliance cannot produce the ultra-large-diameter lens used in the sighting equipment, and can only import it from the Iron Crusaders, so those In fact, the guild is unable to produce such a large scope.

The larger the diameter of the sight, the more light it receives. The target can be found at a greater distance. This principle is very simple, but the problem is that lens grinding is a non-high-precision work. So far, even our guild can only guarantee the production of observation lenses with a diameter of less than two meters. If it is larger, it will be purely It's a matter of luck. It is considered good if one or two qualified lenses can be produced from ten lenses. In comparison, the five-meter sighting scope of the Iron Crusaders is like a cheating device. We don’t even dare to think about how they made it. Other guilds are even more concerned about this thing. Helpless.

The fleet we are fighting on the opposite side is actually not a junk fleet. All their warships are equipped with advanced sighting systems. It's a pity that the diameter of their scopes is much smaller than ours. As a cutting-edge battleship, the Kristina naturally needs to use a special sighting system, so it is equipped with a six-meter-caliber sighting scope. Even Ashford and the others cannot guarantee the output of this thing. The production of one product is often accompanied by dozens or hundreds of waste products. Therefore, the price of this thing is absolutely shocking. However, just because it is large enough, the observation distance of this thing is by no means comparable to the opponent's sighting system. However, the other party also had a sighting system after all, so they finally discovered our fleet far enough away, but what they didn't know was that our fleet had actually been staring at them for a long time.

Upon receiving the report from his own lookout, a player in the opponent's flagship command room immediately shouted excitedly to the window of the observation equipment room above his head: "Report the parameters of the opponent's warship."

"Measurement parameters. The length of the opponent's warship...the length..."

"What's the length? Why are you stuttering so hard?" the fleet commander below urged anxiously.

The lookout swallowed before calming down a little and said: "The estimated length of the opponent's warship is more than 950 meters, not more than 1,050 meters."

"What?" There were exclamations in the command room below. Although the battleships in the game can generally be built very large, this kind of data is still too scary. What is the concept of a thousand-meter-long battleship? It is simply a floating island! You know, even if two aircraft carriers are connected end to end, they are not even a kilometer long.

"Are you sure you read the ruler correctly?" a commander asked loudly.

The lookout replied with certainty: "Yes, that's the data. Unless there is something wrong with the equipment, the readings are absolutely fine."

After hearing this answer, the officer immediately turned to the fleet commander next to him and said: "Hagers, I think the fleet we encountered this time is probably the Frost Rose Alliance fleet."

The commander named Hagers did not speak, but walked directly to his command position, sat down, and fastened his seat belt, and then said: "We knew it when we came out of the port. What is your purpose? Since we have met now, do you have to be frightened? This battle will happen sooner or later, why should you be timid just because it is a little early?"

Hagers' words caused everyone in the bridge to fall silent for a while. After a few seconds, one of the guys who seemed to be of high status suddenly turned around and walked towards the door. At the same time, he said: "Hagers is right, we knew it when we came out." There will definitely be friction with the Chinese this time, so we will have a battle with the Frost Rose Alliance fleet sooner or later. The ships that come out this time are our most cutting-edge warships. Even if the Frost Rose Alliance's warships have higher performance, they will not be as good as How advanced is our fleet, and have you forgotten it? What the Frost Rose Alliance warships are best at is long-range bombardment beyond visual range. Now that the opponent has entered our maximum range, we can already fight back. Such a result, you What's there to hesitate about?" After the guy finished speaking, he opened the door of Cambridge and walked out, then jumped directly from the spiral staircase, spread his wings and flew to a nearby battleship.

The remaining captains in the bridge here saw someone taking the lead and gradually recovered from the fear of the reputation of our Frost Rose Alliance. One of them said directly: "Everything is for profit. I will anyway." Follow what Haggis did. If any of you are afraid, just turn around and go back. Just don’t come back to talk to us about profit distribution." (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendations and monthly votes. Your support is my biggest motivation...)