The low hit rate and firing speed, the significant improvement of the survivability of the starships due to the new plate armor of composite materials, the multiple airtight gates, the internal defense rune arrays, and the liquid metal repair materials, and in other words, the starships were weak in attack but strong in defense. There were also the shortcomings of the starships such as directness and inaccuracy in turning due to the super high speed of the starships. As a result, the space battles were similar to the era ten thousand years ago when human beings had just invented crystal cannons and mystic ray guns and taught the training techniques to the ordinary warriors so that the ordinary people could wield flying swords.
In the early years of the modern Cultivation civilization, the crystal cannons and mystic ray guns were still "new toys" whose hit rate and firing speed were very low and whose power was very questionable. The flying swords driven by the ordinary people, on the other hand, were even more erratic and unpredictable without any precision or damage at all. As a result, when faced with the human rebels who were armed with the shabby weapons, the demon suppression troops often burst into laughter and scorned them as "mobsters".
However, the human rebels soon came up with new tactics to cooperate with the new magical equipment and the new troop structure.
They arranged the troops as neatly and densely as possible. The commander of the Cultivators walked in the front, and everybody stepped into the battlefield solemnly, solemnly, and without any disorder. Following the command of the commander, the soldiers walked to the nose of the enemy despite the fiercest attacks of the enemy before they launched their swords at the same time in order to make up for the lack of hit rate and damage by projecting the maximum firepower within a unit area.
The slightly clumsy and even hilarious tactic soon revealed its astonishing power and was proven to be a tactic that only the truly fearless, hot-blooded men were bold enough to use. The people of the future gave the tactic a very vivid name — Line Up and Shoot!
In the tens of thousands of years, the form of the war had changed all the time, but the fundamental mechanism remained the same. To win, one had to concentrate the most powerful firepower in the shortest amount of time and pour as much destructive energy and ammunition at the enemy's head as possible!
Therefore, when the number of the starships of the two parties exceeded a thousand and neither party backed down, a "Line Up and Shoot" with the cannons as the basic unit would take place in the sea of stars!
The Heaven's Origin Fleet and the Black Wind Fleet were like two classic armies that were holding ancient guns of mystic rays. Stomping on the drums that were inaudible in the vacuum but stirring everyone's heart, they aimed their sharp bayonets at each other's eyeballs and approached slowly.
The Black Wind Fleet maintained a steady speed of three thousandths of the speed of light. It was not a very fast speed, and Heiye Ming was deliberately keeping the pace down.
On one hand, the shield starships deployed at the vanguard of the battle formation could only maintain the highest efficiency of the spiritual shield, the interferential force field, and the fog of spiritual energy at such a high speed. On the other hand, he did not want to rush too fast, because if he passed by the Heaven's Origin Fleet, it was very possible that he would fall between the Wall of Heaven's Origin and the Heaven's Origin Fleet, the near-ground defense system, and be bombarded by the enemy from both sides.
Although the Black Wind Fleet was not scared of such a blow, an experienced commander would still not make such a risky decision easily.
For the Heaven's Origin Fleet, the best strategy was to accelerate without bothering about anything and try to pass through or bypass the enemy's battle formation so that they could attack the enemy from both sides together with the Wall of Heaven's Origin.
But they had their concerns, too. The starships of the Heaven's Origin Fleet were small, their defense was weak, and their internal structures were simple. If they were too fast, it would be difficult for them to turn around. Even if they could pass through the enemy's battle formation against the fierce cannon fodder, they might not be able to turn around in time to bite the Black Wind Fleet's ass.
The agility and the quality of the pilots of the Black Wind Fleet were obviously better than that of the Heaven's Origin Fleet. If they did pass through each other, it was hard to say which one of them would bite the other's ass!
The battle had just begun. Neither of the commanders of the two parties was willing to risk everything. On the scale of the universe, the two fleets were moving even more slowly and cautiously, entering the textbook state of 'Line Up and Shoot'.
"One light second away from the enemy's starship!"
One light-second was a very meaningful distance.
It meant that most of the mystic ray weapons could hit the target within one second, if the interferences of the target's spiritual shield and the spiritual fog were not taken into account.
The Black Wind Fleet's starships were sturdy and their cannons were sharper. Their shooting range was obviously further than the Heaven's Origin Fleet's. However, their cannons remained silent and did not attack indiscriminately. Instead, they continued pressing close like a rolling dark cloud, indicating that they were about to collapse the city.
The Black Wind Fleet did not open fire. The Heaven's Origin Fleet and the Wall of Heaven's Origin Fleet, which was providing firepower support in the rear, gritted their teeth and remained silent, too. The two parties watched the most dazzling flames of spiritual energy surging out of the barrels and rune arrays of the enormous cannons on the opposite side, like springs that had been pressed to the limits or burning bayonets that were getting closer and closer to their eyeballs. All the soldiers of the two parties felt that their hearts were being squeezed repeatedly.
"Ahhh!"
On the posts of many artillerymen, the soldiers of the Federation who had never experienced such a large-scale battle of starships moaned vaguely. They would rather stay in the flames of destruction than suffer the torment of silence any longer!
When the vanguards of the two parties were only 0.8 light seconds away from each other, the commander of the Black Wind Fleet seemed to have heard the moans of the poor guys on the opposite side and met their request generously.
"Soldiers of the Imperium, reap them!"
From the mist of war that covered the front of the Black Wind Fleet, tens of thousands of pillars of light shone at the same time. Like the longswords of gods, they swallowed the space within 240,000 square kilometers and pierced toward the battle formation of the Heaven's Origin Fleet!
Naturally, the Heaven's Origin Fleet boasted spiritual shields and magnetic disruption technology, too. They were fighting on home territory. A large batch of defensive space torpedoes that could neutralize the vibration field of the mystic rays had even been deployed in front of the fleet in a hurry. A series of enormous light balls expanded as if they had been filled with air. The pillars of light shot by the Black Wind Fleet all dispersed after they hit the light balls, turning into a mist of light that dispersed around the fleet!
The colorful mist illuminated the space where the Heaven's Origin Fleet was, making it look like a paradise on earth. However, one only needed to examine the temperature and the intensity of radiation to know how dreadful the 'paradise' was!
The space shuttles and the Crystal Suits that did not leave the range of the motherships in time were all shaking unsteadily like boats in a surging ocean. Some of the unlucky Exos who were directly hit by the mystic ray cannons were vaporized into smoke even though they were at the edge of the protection range of the spiritual shields. Even the crew members inside the starships who were protected by more than ten layers of armor such as strengthened alloys, fibers, and high-hardness ceramics felt that they had been bashed in the temples and the heart by invisible hammers. They were so frustrated that they almost vomited blood!
"Heaven's Origin Fleet, fire quickly! Fire!"
The Heaven's Origin Fleet's counterattack began. All the mystic ray cannons, particle cannons, and crystal cannons were roaring. Although the pillars of light that they pierced into the depths of space were thinner and dimmer than those of the Black Wind Fleet, there were obviously more of them. More than a hundred thousand glittering 'sharp blades' were almost ripping apart the universe that looked like black velvet!
Once the mystic ray cannons were activated, the destructive rays of light could last for more than ten seconds. Therefore, the 'line up to be shot' in space looked more like the competitions of spears in the age of ancient Cultivators. The more than a hundred thousand pillars of light from the two parties were like a hundred thousand long spears. The long spears were as dense as a forest, piercing into each other's body and refusing to be retracted even if they were killed!
Both parties boasted a rather tough defense system. Even though tens of thousands of pillars of light were bombarding each other crazily inside their battle formation, they could not cause any damage easily, at least not in the first three minutes.
Only the mottled, flickering mist of war and the electric arcs that were blossoming from the mist of war could tell everybody how powerful the energy of death around them was!
Shooting at the same time, the two parties pressed forward. Three minutes later, the first batch of metal bullets pushed by the crystal rails of the two parties smashed into each other's faces overwhelmingly, giving another blow to the spiritual shields that were already on the brink of collapse!
Finally, on the Heaven's Origin Fleet's side, the spiritual shields of some starships were running out of strength. The super alloys that were several meters thick and the strengthened ceramics embedded with defense rune arrays were all pierced through by the mystic rays. Explosions were echoing nonstop. Fireballs were rising at a visible speed like hideous tumors. Wherever the 'tumors' reached, dozens of lives were vaporized instantly. The broken limbs and the miscellaneous items on the starships all spurted out and floated in space, either vaporized instantly or reduced to cold dust!
Even so, as long as the warehouses of crystals were not hit by accident, those starships would immediately spurt out tremendous gels and liquid metals to repair the damaged cabins.
In the meantime, they were still launching counterattacks without sparing any effort, trying to throw out as many 'spears of light' as possible before they were completely ripped apart!
The same scene was happening on the Black Wind Fleet's side, too. Although they were technologically more advanced than the Federation, they did not have overwhelming advantages. The dense barrage of the Heaven's Origin Fleet and the few giant cannons on the Wall of Heaven's Origin still caused some trouble for them.
A space battle could not be concluded in a moment. At such a moment, the toughness of the two parties, the rigor of the battle formation, the commanding ability of the commanders, and the performance of the starships would be the most important factor.
However, more often than not, the most critical factors were …
"Soldiers of the Imperium, slaughter them!"
"For the Federation, march forward bravely!"
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