173: Chapter 172 The Battle of Arashiyama Star 4

No one expected that the Lux Aliens' goal from the very beginning was never to forcefully assault the defense platform.

The artillery fire filling the sky and the fleet clashes were all just a feint; their true killing blow was to cover that massive suicide ship, allowing it to slam head-on and shatter the core of the orbital defense platform.

The dream star immediately stirred like the final guardian deity, bringing the only two remaining cruisers by its side to charge straight into the vast, sea-like alien fleet opposite them.

The Lunar-class Cruiser on the right flank slammed its engines to full power, pointing its bow directly at the densest part of the enemy formation, forcibly pushing itself to the very front.

It wasn't trying to take a hit for the dream star; it was trying to tear a path through the impenetrable enemy formation.

A death corridor that would allow the dream star to strike directly at the suicide ship.

Two Lux light cruisers immediately charged head-on with a suicidal determination. The Lunar-class Cruiser blasted one to pieces with a torpedo, but the other slammed viciously into its hull, completely fearless of death.

Watching this scene, Xia Xingchen couldn't help but sigh. Space naval warfare in warhammer 40k was sometimes truly absurdly brutal; ships would just end up slamming into each other mid-fight, using their hulls as weapons and secondary explosions as the finale.

Fire and explosions surged outwards, centered on the Lunar-class Cruiser, but the Imperial warship's armor was simply too solid.

Under the siege of two light cruisers and countless escort ships, it remained like a pillar anchoring the sea, pushing forward against the artillery fire. The brighter the fire on its hull burned, the more ferocious its momentum became.

Seeing this, Lux IV cursed them as madmen and immediately ordered sharply:

"The 15th Squadron, stop it at all costs! Even if you have to throw your lives away, you must not let it get a single step closer to the suicide ship!"

Several Lux cruisers immediately broke formation, positioning themselves directly in the path of the Lunar-class Cruiser.

The lead alien captain stared at the human warship before him, feeling more and more that something was wrong.

This Imperial warship was acting completely insane; regardless of how many shots hit its hull or how many holes were punched into it, it just kept charging forward blindly.

Something was wrong, definitely wrong; it felt as if something terrifying was about to happen.

Soon, they saw blinding white light beginning to spill from the gaps in the hull. That light wasn't right; it wasn't the glow of shielding.

The Lux Aliens didn't know that this was the human captain overloading the entire warship's plasma core.

At this moment, the Lunar-class Cruiser was no longer a warship; it was a walking super-nuke.

The next second, a blinding white light exploded from the center of the battlefield, and a violent shockwave instantly sent all surrounding warships flying.

The aftermath of the secondary explosion forcibly plowed a blank vacuum zone through the dense enemy formation.

The dream star didn't hesitate for a second—or rather, it didn't need to hesitate at all.

That cruiser's sacrifice had already paved a straight ballistic path for it.

The Origin Cannon completed its charge at maximum speed, and a jet-black energy beam instantly streaked across the cosmos, accurately striking the suicide ship.

The massive suicide ship didn't even have time to detonate before it was blasted into countless fragments by the Origin Cannon.

"Now!" Lux IV watched the suicide ship get destroyed, but instead of showing any disappointment, he immediately ordered sharply: "Battleship, charge at full speed! Ram into it at all costs!"

The acting captain on the dream star saw this, and his first reaction was that the enemy wanted to ram the dream star and perish together.

He immediately ordered the warship to shift laterally to evade, and the battleship roared past, grazing the hull of the dream star.

But soon, everyone noticed something strange.

After the alien battleship swept past the dream star, it didn't slow down or turn; instead, it pushed its engines to the limit and charged forward like a madman.

The acting captain on the dream star was completely stunned.

This defied logic; why wouldn't the enemy battleship stop?

Any further forward, and it would be within the firing range of the orbital defense platform's main guns.

They had all forgotten another possibility: the battleship's target from the very beginning wasn't the dream star, but the planetary defense platform.

The previous suicide ship was the open card; this battleship was the trump card hidden until the very end.

What it needed to do was confuse everyone, making them all think it wanted to fight to the death with the dream star. In reality, it was the final insurance policy: if the suicide ship failed, it would use its massive hull to directly smash the entire space station to pieces.

"The Exterminator cannon, charge at full power! Destroy that battleship at all costs!" Inside the space station command room, Xia Xingchen's voice carried a chill.

The entire space station quickly condensed a scarlet energy orb, ready to make a final stand.

But the Lux Aliens had anticipated this; they had already made complete preparations.

Several heavy torpedoes were launched from the battleship, heading straight for the space station.

The space station had to make an emergency maneuver to evade, and the charging rhythm of its main gun was instantly disrupted.

Xia Xingchen stood before the viewing window, looking outside, knowing clearly in his heart.

The outer segments of the orbital platform could not be saved.

Between the local orbital platform and the core space station, he ultimately chose to preserve the space station.

The Exterminator laser cannon finally completed its charge, and a blood-colored beam traversed space, accurately slicing through the midsection of the battleship, splitting the entire warship in two.

Of the torpedoes launched by the aliens, three were destroyed by the orbital defense platform's point-defense fire, but the last one slammed solidly into the platform's armor. The damage wasn't enough to destroy the entire platform, at most crippling a few turrets.

But the scene that followed was far heavier than the torpedo impact.

The alien battleship, broken in two, slammed solidly into the orbital defense platform with immense inertia. The power of this impact was comparable to a small meteorite strike.

The entire segment of the orbital platform instantly snapped into two like a bent wire, and a huge gap was torn into the platform's structure.

But soon, the redundant design of the Iron Drill defense system took effect.

The connection structure between the damaged segment and the main orbit quickly automatically melted and disconnected, ensuring that the explosion and damage would not spread in a chain reaction to other orbital segments.

The orbital defense system had finally managed to preserve its core, but a huge gap had already been torn into the defensive line.

Lux IV seized this fleeting opportunity and immediately ordered all troop carriers to advance at full speed, landing on Lanshan Planet at all costs.

A large number of escort ships swarmed around the troop carriers, launching a desperate charge. Even while facing the orbital artillery fire and suffering heavy casualties, the Lux Aliens did not retreat a single step.

In this battle, they had bet almost everything.

Upon arriving in low orbit, the troop carrier hatches opened wide, and countless drop pods detached from the hulls, slamming down toward the surface like dense hail.

On the streets of the Lanshan Planet Hive City, the public looked up and could only see the sky filled with drop capsules falling like raindrops.

This scene also announced to all humanity on the entire planet.

The cruel ground war had officially begun.