T3 Phoenix-class Heavy Carrier Starship · bridge.
Zhao Chen worked the captain's chair and drifted over to one department of the bridge.
"How is it coming along?" Zhao Chen asked.
"Reporting, Commander — we're carrying out electronic jamming on the target warships. Target One has not yet begun; Target Two and Target Three are in progress." The department officer reported.
At this point, a crew member called out, "White Phoenix No.1, electronic jamming begins!"
"White Phoenix No.2, electronic jamming begins."
"White Phoenix No.3 is now moving in…"
……
"The target T3 Flame Lion King-class Heavy Interstellar Battlecruiser's shield system is now under our control."
"The target's main-gun system is now jammed by us and cannot be operated."
"The target's point-defense-gun system is now fully paralyzed."
"The target's energy system is in a stalled state."
"Within the next five minutes, the target ship's comm network will be paralyzed."
Zhao Chen looked at the three simulated holographic images before him. Two of them were precisely the two enemy fleets' flagships, the T3 Flame Lion King-class Heavy Interstellar Battlecruisers. Around each of these two target ships, five T3 White Phoenix-class electronic-jamming interstellar drones circled; they'd already subjected the target ships to high-intensity electronic jamming, destroying or seizing control of a great deal of the enemy's electronic equipment and electronic programs. And the one remaining target that hadn't yet begun — that holographic image was, plain to see, the slaver starport itself! 10 T3 White Phoenixes circled and watched over its surroundings, ready to launch the attack at any moment.
Meanwhile, around the first two target ships, two T3 Blizzards apiece were closing in on the targets at tremendous speed.
The slaver's Second Fleet · flagship.
Number Two, Skinny Monkey, sat on the bridge, looking at the light sources of the whole bridge that had all at once gone dim, and at the malfunctions that had appeared across every operating screen, his whole face a picture of astonishment.
"What in the world is this?" Number Two, Skinny Monkey, at once demanded of his subordinates.
"We seem to have come under high-intensity electronic jamming; a good many pieces of equipment can't run normally! Even our energy system has fallen into a stall!" the subordinate said in a panic.
Electronic jamming?
Wasn't that a technology and equipment that had only just begun to be militarized, by rumor — and one that only T4 warships were fitted with? Among T3-grade technology there was research on it, true, but it could still only be installed in an extremely small number of large military starports. How could it appear here?
"Report — we've photographed five unknown interstellar drones hovering around us; it's suspected that they're precisely the ones subjecting us to the electronic jamming!" A subordinate uploaded several images.
Number Two, Skinny Monkey, looked closely at those images — one flat-bodied, but somewhat large, interstellar drone after another. And there surfaced, at once, in his mind, a notion that even he himself found hard to believe. Could it be the miniaturization of electronic-jamming technology?
Impossible! Though he'd heard the Starlight Empire had been researching it, up to now it simply hadn't been achieved.
What in the world was going on? These people who'd attacked him — just what was their origin!
Number Two, Skinny Monkey, felt his hair stand on end all over. Set against a powerful enemy, the fear of the unknown made a man's heart quail all the more.
Boom.
Suddenly, the sound of the hull taking a bombardment came through the hull armor, and the whole bridge shook violently.
"Report — our hull seems to have taken a bombardment! The hull's right-side armor has been breached!"
"Report — unknown craft have invaded our warship!"
"Report — requesting the mobilization of the ship's mobile force!"
One piece of news on the heels of another left Number Two, Skinny Monkey, with simply no idea how to deal with the shambles before him.
And at this moment, outside, one could see the bow-cannon glow of the two T3 Blizzards dimming down. The T3 Flame Lion King-class Heavy Interstellar Battlecruiser they'd attacked had had its hull armor blasted straight open into one great gaping hole. Thereupon, gate after gate opened along the T3 Blizzards' hulls, within which were arrayed the T2 Black Knight mecha, in a state of standby.
"Black Knight First Squad, prepare for boarding combat!"
The T2 Black Knight mecha raised their arm-limbs and took aim at the position of the enemy ship's breach; then, using their externally mounted metal-chain guns, they stabbed a chain-claw into the breach in the enemy warship. Thereupon, power nozzles appeared on the underside of the T2 Black Knight mecha, along with a blue tail-flame. These T2 Black Knight mecha swiftly boarded the target warship.
"Black Knight First Squad has boarded the target warship." The mecha pilot opened the electronic map — this was the internal architectural diagram of the T3 Flame Lion-class Medium Interstellar Battlecruiser. Save for a few top-secret positions that couldn't be determined, positions such as the bridge could still be pinned down. And on this map, a red-zoned position had been marked out for them well in advance. Their task was to invade this zone and seize a thin target man in the lower-right of it. Though they didn't know why this thin man was to be seized, this was the order the Commander had given. What they'd learned at the Goddess Academy made them obey the Commander's every order, at any moment, without condition!
"Go! Go!" The Black Knight mecha of the mecha squad took up a combat formation. The Black Knight mecha in front had temporary alloy shields fitted to their arm-limbs, and wielded Black Knight light-swords at the same time. The Black Knight mecha at the rear held up 38-barrel Gatling-style laser machine cannons apiece.
Before long, a resisting force appeared along their line of advance. It was a squad of a mobile force in single-soldier exoskeleton combat armor, attempting to strike at the mecha squad. But set against interstellar combat mecha, exoskeleton combat armor was for all the world like a crisp, brittle cookie. First came one round of machine-cannon sweeping fire, destroying every moving unit in sight, and then the front-row Black Knight mecha went in, light-swords in hand, to reap. Before long, the whole engagement was over in under a few dozen seconds.
As they kept moving, they soon reached the position of the bridge. And as they blasted open the bridge doors, the scene before them left this mecha squad's captain much at a loss.
"Sorry — our Second Squad completed the task ahead of you." There, within the bridge, a Black Knight mecha squad had arrived early and had already brought the target figure under control. Black Knight First Mecha Squad looked at the great hole violently blasted open above the bridge, and could only shake their heads helplessly, then began coordinating with the Second Squad to withdraw, carrying the target off.
"Who the hell are you!" Skinny Monkey, penned up within a prison-cage, screamed like a madman.
The very next second, he went quiet. Because a Black Knight mecha had trained its machine-cannon on his cage. Were this machine-cannon to fire, the end he'd come to could well be imagined.
"Don't be impatient — you'll soon know," the other party said quietly.