Eight T5-class main cannon beams from different directions met with almost no substantial resistance.
One of them, with a single strike, evaporated Tiger Claw's frontal Energy Shield as easily as a hot knife cutting through butter.
With this final barrier gone, the carrier's massive yet relatively fragile hull was completely exposed to the cold barrage of fire.
Subsequent Heavy Particle Beams and dense volleys of electromagnetic railgun shells mercilessly poured onto its unprotected hull.
The bloated hull was easily pierced and torn apart by the beams, leaving behind terrifying holes with molten edges.
Thick Armor Plates, under the continuous bombardment of hypervelocity electromagnetic cannon shells, twisted, shattered, and peeled away like steel plates struck repeatedly by a heavy hammer.
Inside the carrier, fighter craft yet to take off, stockpiled ammunition, and Energy Pipelines were successively detonated under the baptism of fire.
Explosions erupted from various parts of the hull, quickly linking together, ultimately transforming into a grand and cruel blossom of flame that engulfed the entire leviathan.
The fate of Leopard Claw was nearly identical.
Under the dense Firepower Coverage, along with any possibly remaining Carrier-based Craft and personnel inside, it became another cloud of violently expanding and then gradually cooling metallic debris and dust in the cosmos.
As the stellar carriers Tiger Claw and Leopard Claw turned into two magnificent yet fleeting colossal fireballs, the remaining Imperial Wyvern Fighters on the battlefield, like infants with their umbilical cords severed, completely lost their home and supply.
The communication channel fell into a deathly silence at first, then was filled with desperate and frantic low roars and curses.
There was no route of retreat; returning had become an illusion. Fuel and ammunition were being rapidly depleted. The only outcome seemed to be exhausting their last bit of energy in the cold Void, becoming floating coffins.
The commander of the Imperial Falcon Squadron, Lieutenant Colonel Victor Griffin, watched the signal representing the mothership disappear completely on the tactical panel, then scanned the radar where the dots representing friendly craft were still dwindling.
A surge of emotion mingling sorrow, rage, and resolve breached the final dam of reason.
He abruptly opened the squadron-wide communication channel, his voice hoarse yet carrying a nearly burning calm.
"Gentlemen! The mothership is destroyed! There is no chance of return!"
Suppressed panting and the grinding of clenched teeth came through the channel.
"The time to serve the Empire has come!"
His voice suddenly rose, filled with the fierce determination of burning bridges.
"Follow my lead! All units, adjust course, maximum combat speed!"
His gaze locked onto the most massive and dazzling core of the Federation Fleet in the distance, especially that mountain-like Flagship.
"Target, the Federation fleet flagship! Use our final light and heat to tear open a path! Avenge our fallen brothers!"
He roared with what seemed like the last ounce of his life's strength, shouting that most extreme slogan of Imperial soldiers.
"Kill these Federation dogs—!!!"
"Yes, sir!"
"For the Empire!"
"Revenge!"
The communication channel instantly erupted with responses mixed with sobs and roars.
The remaining hundreds of Wyvern Fighters, like moths drawn to flame, abruptly turned their noses around.
Their engines spewed unprecedented, near-self-destructive overload plumes.
Toward the heart of the Federation Fleet—the flagship Kunlun Shan - Modified—they launched a suicidal charge destined to be a one-way trip.
However, in the face of the Federation Fleet with its intact formation and fully activated anti-aircraft systems,
this tragic charge resembled more of a one-sided, meticulously calculated slaughter drill.
First came the pulse laser net.
The Federation destroyer group responsible for outer perimeter defense was the first to react.
Across their hulls, countless hive-like turrets rapidly rotated and locked on.
In the next instant, thousands of faint blue beams—almost imperceptible to the naked eye and flashing at high frequencies—erupted abruptly!
These were not traditional continuous-beam lasers, but a rain of death emitted in pulses at a frequency of nearly two thousand per second.
They did not aim for single-shot destruction, but instead wove a dynamic interception net with almost no gaps
across the possible advance paths of the fighters, achieving an unbelievable density.
A Wyvern Fighter at the forefront had just executed its first evasive roll when its fuselage side was simultaneously grazed by seven or eight consecutive pulse beams.
The high-energy pulses instantly burned through the protective coating and internal circuitry of the wing.
The fighter shuddered as if it had crashed into an invisible, spike-covered wall, then spun out of control.
Under the sweeping fire of more subsequent pulse beams, it disintegrated mid-air, exploding into a fireball mixed with metal debris and plasma.
Then came the second, the third...
They were like mosquitoes charging into a torrential downpour.
Amid the dense shower of faint blue light, they flashed and exploded one after another, blooming brief yet cruel death blossoms.
"Donaldson!!"
A shrill cry rang out in the communication channel, only to be drowned out by more explosive static and screams.
"Watch out for the light rain on the left!"
"My shield is overloaded!
Ah—!"
"Charge through!
Don't stop!"
Next to greet them was the nanocloud swamp.
The few Wyvern Fighters that had miraculously avoided being shredded by the first wave of laser rain, or had narrowly slipped through with exceptional skill and luck,
had no time to rejoice before colliding head-on with an even more bizarre blockade.
From the launch tubes of several Cruisers, a batch of inconspicuous shells was fired.
These shells exploded mid-air in the predetermined airspace ahead of the Fighter Group, with no flames, no loud blasts.
Only rapidly expanding patches of gray mist, shimmering with an eerie metallic sheen under the starlight.
Nanocloud blockade shells.
Each shell contained hundreds of millions of micrometer-scale intelligent nanomechanical insects.
Upon activation, they spread like living metallic dust, forming large cloud clusters under controlled conditions and exhibiting strong adsorptivity.
Several Wyvern Fighters that had charged too fast plunged straight into the gray mist.
Instantly, alarms blared madly inside the cockpits!
Sensor screens turned to static, radar echoes became chaotic, and optical lenses were covered by countless tiny metallic specks.
Even more critically, abnormal vibrations and power attenuation emanated from the engine nozzles.
Countless nanobugs were attaching to the inner walls of the nozzles, replicating and accumulating frantically, attempting to clog the high-temperature plasma jets!
The surface armor of the fighters also emitted faint sizzling sounds—the nanobugs attempting to decompose and corrode the metal surfaces.
The engine of a fighter craft finally sputtered out completely, leaving it trapped like a fly caught in a spider's web, struggling in vain as its speed plummeted.
It was promptly blown apart by the pursuing pulse lasers.
The Empire's fighter craft that managed to break through both the laser net and the nanite cloud were now few and far between, most of them battered and bruised, their maneuverability severely diminished.
What awaited them was the final, and most lavish, feast prepared by the Federation Fleet for those who slipped through the net.