The warship's engine nozzles adjusted, their deep blue exhaust flames suddenly brightening as the massive hull began to accelerate.
Like a school of sharks scenting blood, they surged toward the abruptly appearing shadows of the Federation Fleet ahead.
Hamilton could almost picture the scene: their concentrated firepower tearing through the enemy formation, the opposing forces scattering in panic.
The distance was rapidly closing.
Two point five million kilometers…
Two point three million kilometers…
Two point one million kilometers…
Yet, at that very moment.
"Alert!
Alert!
Multiple capital ship-grade weapons from the enemy have locked onto us!
Energy readings spiking dramatically!
It's… it's main cannon-level targeting!"
The fire control officer's scream was nearly distorted, filled with terror.
"What?
Locked on?"
The ferocious grin on Hamilton's face instantly froze, transforming into utter disbelief.
"The distance is still two million kilometers!
How could they possibly…"
Before he could finish his sentence.
Against the pitch-black backdrop of space, at the center of the Federation Fleet's array.
Several exceptionally massive dark silhouettes erupted with dazzling energy radiance from their bows—far surpassing the conventional charging intensity of standard main cannons, and utterly unnerving!
The light was not diffuse but highly condensed, with extremely precise directional focus.
Like several lethal lances of light suddenly ignited in the void, piercing through the darkness.
Their energy fluctuations even disrupted the normal readings of some of the Demon Claw Fleet's sensors!
"Energy peak confirmed!
It's… it's overload charging prior to main cannon firing!
Range… range calculation…"
The sensor officer's voice trembled.
"The enemy's main cannon effective range… exceeds two million kilometers!"
"Two million… kilometers?"
Hamilton felt as if struck by lightning, his entire body rigid in the command chair, the color draining from his face.
The maximum effective range of the main laser cannons or particle cannons on the Empire's most advanced active-duty T5-Class Battleships.
After countless optimizations and field testing, had a theoretical limit of only one point eight million kilometers!
This gap of two hundred thousand kilometers might seem insignificant on a cosmic scale.
But in fleet confrontations, especially in preemptive exchanges of fire, it meant a chasm between life and death!
The enemy could calmly aim, charge, and was about to hurl destructive beams at them from a distance where his own side still fell just short of being able to fire!
"Evade!
Emergency evasion!
All ships disperse!
Concentrate shield energy to the front!"
Hamilton snapped out of his shock, roaring the orders hoarsely.
All prior excitement and confidence vanished, replaced only by icy dread and unexpected panic.
But it was already too late.
Those terrifying energy beams, gathering strength to their peak, were like the sudden release of Death's ultimate gaze.
Tearing through the void at nearly light speed, they thunderously charged toward the Demon Claw Fleet, which had just begun to make a panicked turn and adjust its formation!
The advantage of two hundred thousand kilometers in range.
At this moment, transformed into the most ruthless preemptive death sentence.
Almost simultaneously with Brigadier General Hamilton's roar of the evasion command.
Those blinding energy beams that tore through the void, harbingers of death, had already crossed the final hundreds of thousands of kilometers, crashing down like divine punishment upon the forefront of the Demon Claw Fleet's charging formation!
The three most massive and terrifyingly energetic beams among them struck squarely against the Venom Fang's forward energy shield, which had flared to its utmost intensity at the last moment!
Boom——!!!
A deep, low-frequency roar powerful enough to shake the battleship's keel erupted before the Venom Fang's bow, accompanied by an explosion of blinding light.
This was no simple explosion.
It was a direct clash of extreme energies, a violent friction and annihilation of the physical world's laws at their limits!
As an Imperial T5-Class Battleship, the Venom Fang's Wall of Sighs-type multi-layer composite energy shield system was pushed into an overloaded state at the critical moment.
The shield generators frantically drew power from the ship's core, instantly constructing dense layers of energy barriers before the hull, shimmering with patterns of deep blue and pale gold.
The first layer evaporated and dissipated like a fragile soap bubble the instant it made contact with the beams.
The second layer held for less than a tenth of a second, warping violently before shattering into a shower of energy fragments.
The third layer—theoretically the strongest inner shield—collided head-on with the residual energy core of the beams!
Piercing energy overload alarms blared throughout the ship.
The energy readings on the shield interface plummeted like an avalanche.
Visible, almost tangible shockwaves rippled and spread across the shield's surface, violently hurling stray high-energy particle streams and radiation into the surrounding void.
This created a brief, dazzling, yet lethally beautiful halo of sympathetic energy detonations around the Venom Fang.
On the bridge, violent tremors made it impossible for anyone to stand steadily.
Sparks flew from instruments, and the air filled with the smell of ozone and overheated metal.
Commodore Hamilton gripped the edge of the command console, his knuckles white, his eyes fixed on the shield status bar on the main screen.
The reassuring blue bar, which had represented near-full capacity, was instantly sheared off by a large chunk after the impact.
Its color shifted from azure blue to a dangerous orange-yellow, finally stabilizing at a heart-stopping level.
"Shield energy remaining... 65%!"
The shield officer's voice trembled with post-survival shock and disbelief.
"That last volley had at least three direct hits from Tier 5 Level main cannons! Our defensive energy expenditure was over 2.3 times that of the attack!"
They could only withstand one more volley at most. Maybe one and a half!
This conclusion sank the hearts of everyone on the bridge to the depths.
However, the Venom Fang and the sub-fleet's flagship, the main force battleship, were both Tier 5 Level starships.
Relying on their robust shields and armor, they barely survived this wave of beyond-visual-range death baptism, though at a heavy cost.
But the entire Demon Claw Fleet was not composed solely of Tier 5 Level capital ships.
The more numerous T4-class heavy cruisers, destroyers, and even some auxiliary vessels following on the flagship's flanks and rear had shield strengths and energy reserves far inferior to the flagship's.
When the residual waves of those main cannon beams, or the slightly lesser but equally deadly secondary firepower from the Federation Fleet...
Like a scythe of death sweeping across these relatively fragile ships.
Destruction was instantaneous and total.
The shield of a T4-class heavy cruiser was pierced as easily as paper, a thick particle beam penetrating without obstruction through the midsection of its hull where the armor was relatively thin.
Half a meter of titanium-crystal composite armor, capable of withstanding saturation attacks from conventional kinetic projectiles.
Yet under the bombardment of the particle beam, the surface layer of the armor instantly melted into liquid metal, sizzling and splattering outward.
Through the holes blasted open by the beam, white-hot plasma churned, and the close-in weapon system array at the bow was directly vaporized.
Along with three layers of hull structure burned through, the coolant pipes inside the compartments ruptured.
Ultra-low-temperature coolant, meeting the heat, transformed into white mist, mingling with the smell of scorched metal, surging wildly through the breached bulkheads.
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