Chapter 77 Battle

Chen Ming thought very well about the rewards of the mission.

However, he might not be able to really pay attention to avoid these goods when the battle really starts.

And because he has few ships, there are more issues that are more worthy of attention in the battle than these goods.

So he determined the pirates' return route in advance, as well as the locations where they might be encountered at different times.

And came here early and made some arrangements specifically for them.

These arrangements will be reflected on the battlefield immediately.

At the same time when the Centurion-class sensor scanned the pirates.

The pirates obviously also noticed the three spaceships blocking their way.

Fighter Kai, Centurion and Shimmer.

Fighter Kai is controlled by Gamma B.

Centurion and Shimmer are both under Chen Ming's personal control.

Although he had to operate two spaceships at the same time, Chen Ming was not awkward at all when he actually did it. Instead, it was like he was controlling his own hands and feet, very smooth.

It was almost the same when he controlled the Iron Ore before.

Although the various functions on the Iron Ore are complex and diverse, it is not a mess to actually control them. This is also one of the hidden benefits brought by the panel.

At this time, the three ships are keeping a certain distance from each other, blocking the pirates from continuing to move forward along the hyperspace channel.

Although the three lonely frigates are a bit shabby compared to the configuration of two destroyers and six escorts on the pirate side.

But the pirate leader on the pirate ship did not dare to act rashly at this time, and only dared to frown and observe the front.

The reason lies in this strange ship configuration.

This Yuhui ship mixed into the suspected military fleet, which is strange and wrong no matter how you look at it.

Before figuring out the details of these three ships.

The pirate leader directly ordered the fleet to slow down, deploy the shield, and send a communication request while slowly advancing.

But their communication request was like a drop in the ocean without any response.

Seeing this, the pirate leader almost knew what these three ships were here for.

At this time, a pirate beside him couldn't help but said: "Boss, do you want to do it directly?"

The pirate leader waved his hand and said: "Don't worry, it's a bit difficult to deal with the two military ships, and the fighter seems to have some problems."

"Try it first, we are not in good condition now, it's better not to fight if we can, even if we fight, we must keep a retreat first."

"What's the situation outside the channel now?"

The voice of a pirate came from the communication device next to the pirate leader's ear: "No abnormality, the sensor didn't scan anything, you can go out at any time."

The pirate leader was not relieved by this good news, but felt that something was wrong.

"Only these three ships? Then why do they come to us?"

"No, keep getting closer, keep sending communications, and see what they want to do."

The pirates wanted to try to contact Chen Ming, but Chen Ming didn't accept it at all.

Instead, he directly gave orders to let Gamma B play on its own, and at the same time turned on the shields of the other two ships.

At the moment the shield was turned on, Chen Ming saw that the amplitude energy values ​​on the panels of the two ships had continued to increase by more than ten points.

However, this increase in the amplitude energy value to maintain the shield was immediately offset by the amplitude energy dissipation of the ship, and the amplitude energy value remained at zero.

Only when the actual battle began would the amplitude energy value rise again.

After confirming that the most basic and important function of the combat ship was fine, Chen Ming also let the two ships start to accelerate and prepare for the battle.

The pirates, after noticing the movement of the ship, also knew that this battle must be fought.

Their two destroyers plus six escorts, against three escorts, the advantage was on their side, what was there to be afraid of.

And they also planned to confront Chen Ming head-on.

Chen Ming was not afraid at all. When both sides were about to enter the range of the exchange of fire, he gave the order to the refractor class that had been hidden outside to enter the hyperspace channel.

A few seconds later, the refractor class suddenly appeared in the hyperspace channel, behind the pirate fleet.

The sharp blade in his hand stabbed out from behind the pirate's buttocks.

Even if the Refraction is an auxiliary ship, its combat capability is guaranteed.

A ball of electromagnetic pulses with violent arc flashing was instantly emitted from the opened electromagnetic capture cabin, paralyzing the three ships closest to the Refraction.

Two ordinary frigates and a Mule-class destroyer.

The outer side of this Mule-class ship is not loaded with cargo, so it should not be the leader's ship.

However, this does not affect anything. Being able to directly paralyze a destroyer, no matter which one it is, is worth the price Chen Ming paid to arrange it in advance.

You should know that his Iron Ore was affected by the electromagnetic pulse of the Refraction last time, which directly caused many equipment on the ship to be completely damaged and needed to be repaired.

But the pity is that these pirate ships all have military subsystems, no matter how good or not, suitable or not, they can be started anyway.

Being able to start up means that the radiation energy system can relieve the pressure of electromagnetic pulses on the equipment.

Before the arc ball actually touches the spacecraft, it can only temporarily paralyze some of the spacecraft's equipment, and it only needs to be restarted and simply maintained to work again.

However, the refractive class can launch more than one arc ball, and the arc ball is not the only attack method on the ship.

At the moment of paralyzing three spacecraft, the ion beam and pulse laser cannon on the refractive class also concentrated their firepower on the engine of the mule class.

Intend to completely destroy its ability to escape.

However, the ion beam itself is only an auxiliary type of weapon, so the actual damage effect is not ideal.

However, the pulse laser cannon that fires multiple energy shells is very effective when hitting the hull.

Groups of shuttle-shaped energy aggregates fired at high speeds constantly peel off the armor of the pirate spacecraft at the location of the hit, and also destroy the engine of their spacecraft.

Even if the firepower of the refractive class is really not enough to destroy the target in a short time.

The arc balls alone could have paralyzed the three ships until the refractor ran out of fuel.

And all this happened in just a few seconds.

It was only now that the pirate leader realized that they had suddenly lost communication with the three ships and noticed the refractor behind them.

"What's going on? Why is there a new afterglow ship coming to attack us?"

The pirate Mule-class driver saw the appearance of the refractor clearly on the camera screen outside the ship, and his expression looked a little panicked.

He immediately reminded the others loudly: "That's an electromagnetic capture ship! It has an electromagnetic shielding device on board, which shields all sensor signals. Even now our sensors have not detected it."

"That electric ball can create EMP in a large area, and it must not be approached."

Listening to his men's narration, the pirate leader's expression was a little ugly. He knew very well that they were in trouble now.

Just the afterglow electromagnetic ship, which used technology that was much more advanced than theirs, was enough to make them suffer.

Not to mention the three frigates in front that had problems at first glance.

If they are attacked from both sides, it will definitely be a big problem.

So their only choice now is to temporarily abandon the three ships that have been controlled and find a way to break through the current situation of being caught in the middle.

Then consider whether to fight or run.

Since they have decided to do this, it should not take too many choices to break through a 200-meter destroyer with a powerful electromagnetic pulse device and three frigates that are less than 100 meters in total.

The pirates' choice is very clear and correct.

But in actual action, things may not develop as the pirate leader wants.

Facing the pirate fleet that is rushing over and there is only one ship left to drive away four escorts, Chen Ming directly controlled the Centurion to rush up with the shield on.

Rushed into the firepower range of the five pirate ships head-on.

The two tearers and six light needles that Chen Ming specially installed and modified were the first to enter the range.

A large number of high-explosive armor-piercing shells and high-speed needles rushed straight to the fleet.

Immediately, the shields of the two frigates at the front began to fluctuate violently.

The two frigates were forced to slow down and shut down their shields, hiding behind other ships.

Then the pirates' counterattack followed.

As pirates, their ships can be bad, but their weapons must not be bad.

Although their spaceship weapons were not as good as Chen Ming's carefully modified weapons.

However, the concentrated fire of the remaining few spaceships still caused the Centurion's radiation energy value to soar by hundreds of times the moment they engaged in a firefight.

The panel that Chen Ming had been keeping in front of him could easily show the power of this round of concentrated fire.

[Radiation Energy Capacity: 877 (806) / 900]

The Centurion's radiation energy capacity was almost fully utilized, and there was an extra value in brackets.

When the Centurion's radiation energy was dispersed in the gap between the pirate ship's firepower and reached the value in the brackets,

the radiation energy value did not continue to drop, but was completely stuck here.

Because spaceship radiation energy is actually divided into two types.

One is the radiation energy that the spacecraft actively increases.

That is, the radiation energy generated when the spacecraft maintains the shield and uses high-intensity weapons.

The radiation energy produced in this way can be discharged unconditionally on the premise that the spacecraft itself is deliberately designed.

It is generally called soft radiation energy.

In addition to soft radiation energy, there is another kind of radiation energy.

It is the radiation energy that passively increases when the spacecraft shield is hit.

This part of radiation energy is not in the initial design of the spacecraft, and these radiation energies will also produce different fluctuations according to the type and angle of the weapon hit, and cannot be prevented in advance.

Therefore, such radiation energy cannot be quickly discharged during the operation of the shield, but will continue to accumulate in the spacecraft power grid.

Only by completely shutting down the shield system can this part of the radiation energy, which is usually called hard radiation energy, be dissipated.

Therefore, when the Centurion was almost hit to the radiation energy limit by a round of firepower, Chen Ming directly shut down its shield and symbolically launched a missile.

Then he activated the Centurion's built-in damping position device.

Although it must shut down the shield and stop using weapons when it is started, it is indeed a device independent of the radiation energy system.

Therefore, when it is turned on, the Centurion class can continue to dissipate radiation energy normally.

Before the time that the damping position device can last ends, it is enough for the Centurion class to dissipate radiation energy to a safe level.

Then continue to take the next round of damage.

While the Centurion was already exchanging fire with the pirates, the Gladiator class controlled by Gamma B also broke into the battle area from the flank in the gap between the pirates' firepower.

The target it wanted to attack was naturally the core of this group of pirates, the Mule class with several cargo holds mounted on the outside.

The Gladiator-class approached the Mule at the fastest speed it could reach in the channel, and the two Cyber ​​SRM missiles that had been prepared were fired one after another.

Rushed to the Mule protected by the shield and other ships.

The pirate ship immediately activated the point defense weapons on their ship, trying to destroy the missiles halfway.

But the Cyber ​​SRM missile, like the Gladiator-class, is a product of tachyon technology.

The sensor system on the missile body allows it to automatically trigger the second stage explosion when it detects that it is about to be intercepted and destroyed by the point defense weapon.

A large number of high-speed needles will fly out with the secondary explosion of the missile.

It has a strong lethality to the shield.

The target of the missile, the Mule-class, its energy system and shield system removed from the frigate instantly produced the same performance as the Centurion when facing this attack.

The shield has an unnatural vibration and may be overloaded at any time.

Chen Ming specially re-set the missile launch bay of Cyber ​​SRM and repaired it with the combat supplies he prepared before setting out for hunting.

A new warhead instantly appeared in the launch bay, ready to be launched again at any time.

As long as one of them can hit, the Mule will be directly overloaded.

However, Gamma B did not launch the second round.

Instead, it immediately activated the plasma thruster installed when the Tachyon Technology transformed the Gladiator after the first round of missile launch.

The tail engine of the Gladiator was instantly activated at full power, and a large amount of bright green plasma was splashed out of the tail flame outlet.

The skyrocketing maneuverability allowed it to instantly distance itself from the pirate fleet.

Once the distance was widened, the missile weapons were not easy to use.

Chen Ming knew that Gamma B did not do it on purpose, it was just a mistake in coordination caused by their unfamiliarity.

The problem was not big.

Because in addition to the Cyber ​​SRM missiles, the Gladiator also had two ion beams that continued to attack the Mule.

Although the ion beam on the refractive class performed poorly just now, it was because it did not encounter the right environment.

And now.

I saw that while two ion beams hit the Mule-class shield.

There were also a lot of arcs flashing where the ion beams hit, and the arcs and indirectly generated electromagnetic pulses were constantly damaging the Mule-class ship's hull.

This is the special effect of the ion beam.

Its beam can stimulate this part of the hard radiation energy while the hard auxiliary energy of the spacecraft rises, generating these arcs that can directly penetrate the shield.

This arc and electromagnetic pulse instantly paralyzed the Mule-class weapons, and the flashing arcs were still spreading to the side.

Possessing a very terrifying suppression ability.

However, the pirates are not fools. After clearly noticing the special effect of the ion beam, they immediately turned off the shield.

They chose to let the armor withstand the attack of the ion beam, which has a weak destructive ability.

The limitation of the ion beam itself was once again reflected.

However, there is another thing on the Gladiator class.

High-energy focusing system module.

Chen Ming had deliberately not let the Refractor class, which also had this module, use it before, just to prevent the pirates from being prepared and to be able to play its role in more critical places.

The moment the Mule class closed its shield, the high-energy focusing module of the Gladiator was immediately activated.

The ion beams at the two medium-sized load-bearing points on the outside of the hull showed energy fluctuations visible to the naked eye, like ion balls.

The ion beams, which could only slowly damage the ship's armor, instantly thickened several circles.

The place where the outer side of the Mule class's armor was hit even had metal explosions, and a large amount of molten iron was squeezed and cracked and splashed out due to the temperature difference between the inner and outer layers.

However, such power and destructive speed are still a bit slow for a Mule class ship with a length of about 130 meters.

With the cover of other ships, the Gladiator class could not directly attack the engine.

Before the radiation energy value of the Mule class was dissipated, such an ion beam was not enough to paralyze it.

If the shield is turned on again, the next wave will not have such a good opportunity to get close to the fighter class.

But Chen Ming actually prepared another thing on the fighter class.

Overload power grid.

This is a modification that Chen Ming chose to install on the fighter class after thinking about it two days ago.

After all, the explosion of all aspects generated in an instant is really useful.

Moreover, the overload power grid installed by Chen Ming is the overload power grid technology that he found on the Internet after thirty years of development and improvement.

And when checking the new overload power grid technology, Chen Ming also realized where he had seen the term Lude before.

It was on his terminal, in the name of the professional book that recorded the overload power grid and a series of other dangerous transformation technologies.

The overload power grid modification was made by the people of Lude Zuojing.

They seemed to be using these technologies to announce their existence to the outside world.

However, apart from the updated professional book, Chen Ming did not find any other records about the people of Lude Zuojing.

Chen Ming did not know what the people of Lude Zuojing were like, but their technology was indeed useful.

So Chen Ming didn't care who invented this technology.

It's enough to work and work well.

Just like now.

With the dual support of the overload power grid and the high-energy focusing system.

The intensity of the ion beam emitted by the Gladiator is enough to generate electromagnetic pulses by itself, bursting out a terrifying power that the Mule-class armor can hardly resist.

The armor was penetrated almost instantly, forcing other ships to stay close to the Mule-class to block the ion beam that can ionize almost everything.

At this time, the modified fuel ship that Chen Ming had been paying close attention to finally took action.

Although it only opened a very simple shield in front of the hull, and the armor on the side of the fitness looked almost the same as if it had nothing.

But its front armor is very thick and seems to be able to withstand most attacks from the front.

Chen Ming can probably guess why it has such a design.

It is to be able to rush to the target, and at the same time, this armor will become a fragment that amplifies the power of the explosion.

Just as Chen Ming thought, the fuel transport suddenly broke away from the fleet from the side away from the Gladiator.

It adjusted its direction and aimed at the front of the pirate fleet, the Centurion, which had just dissipated all the radiation and reopened its shield.

Chen Ming had noticed it in advance and had previously told Gamma B that the second priority target was it.

The Gladiator, which had just pulled away the pirate ship with its maneuverability and completely paralyzed the Mule, changed its target and prepared to deal with the fuel ship from the side.

But what Chen Ming didn't expect was that the tail of this heavily modified fuel ship suddenly spurted out a large amount of red-orange tail flames, just like the Gladiator starting the plasma thruster.

The surging flames pushed the fuel ship to produce an extremely exaggerated instantaneous acceleration, and it reached the fastest speed that could be achieved in hyperspace in less than two seconds.

It crashed into the Centurion.

Even if the Gladiator rushed back at the fastest speed, it would not have time to deal with it.

The Centurion, which had just recovered, had no time to speed up and avoid it. Its firepower was not enough to instantly penetrate the ridiculously thick frontal armor, so it could only withstand the self-destruction attack.

The fuel transport ship hit the Centurion's shield that had been activated in advance in an instant.

Under the high-speed impact of the large mass entity, the radiation energy of the Centurion class increased instantly.

Before Chen Ming could react, the radiation energy generated by the Centurion attack was close to the capacity limit.

Fortunately, there was a trigger device on the Centurion class that he had specially installed before.

It would be activated when the spacecraft's radiation energy was about to reach its limit, automatically shutting down the spacecraft's shield.

Unless there are more powerful weapons that can instantly cause the Centurion class's radiation energy to overload, the Centurion class will never be overloaded by the shield.

In addition, according to another design of Chen Ming, this trigger device will also activate the damping field device at the same time as it is triggered.

The next moment when the Centurion class's hull was covered by the damping field, the modified Drum class fuel transport ship took the initiative to detonate itself.

A ball of fire that was several hundred meters long suddenly appeared in space.

Chen Ming became a little nervous when he saw this.

His boss had warned him about the madness of Ludzuojing before, but he didn't expect that he would still be caught even though he was prepared.

However, he immediately noticed that the Centurion class was not disconnected from the spacecraft he controlled.

It had withstood this wave of explosion.

The three-dimensional imaging of the panel also showed the situation of the Centurion class in the fireball.

Its front armor mixed with Baiyun steel had been completely damaged, revealing a hull structure covered with a lot of melting marks and impact cracks.

Although the armor in other directions did not suffer the damage of the self-explosion head-on, it also suffered a lot of damage.

In addition, the internal equipment of the Centurion class also suffered many minor damages due to the impact of the explosion, and it may crash directly after running for a while.

But at least the Centurion is still running.

As long as it is not destroyed instantly, Chen Ming can rescue it.

Chen Ming immediately chose to repair on the panel.

A large amount of materials in the storage compartment of the Iron Ore melted into liquid, flowed into Chen Ming's palm, and disappeared in Chen Ming's eyes.

After consuming a considerable amount of mental power, these disappeared metal liquids appeared in the Centurion cabin in the fireball.

The damage to the hull, armor and weapons of the spacecraft was quickly repaired.

At this time, the damping equipment just stopped due to the impending overload, and the fireball also dissipated.

The fuel transport ship was self-exploded without any wreckage left.

But the Centurion class appeared in front of everyone and everyone who was not human on the battlefield without any damage.

On the Mule class, all the frigates protecting it had been penetrated by the Gladiator class, and the engine had been paralyzed.

The pirate leader looked at the scene numbly.

Feeling the atmosphere of despair in the spaceship, he slumped in his chair.

He knew very well that even a destroyer or even a cruiser would at least suffer some damage after being hit by the self-destruct ship modified by Ludzuojing.

There was only one possibility for the military ship in front of him to be unscathed.

"Psychic..."