132: crushing

A silent roar blossomed in the void, accompanied by brilliant sparks.

The frigates of the Kulha Star System First Fleet were Grade 7 starships that had undergone secondary refits, with their alloy plating and protection systems upgraded to a certain extent.

But faced with a direct strike from the Grade 8 "legend generation ii" fleet, they appeared incredibly fragile.

Under the bombardment of "small hyper-pressure gravity bombs," the Ion Shields running at full power lasted only three seconds before breaking, and the thickened plating of the frigates that stepped forward turned into debris in the starry sky once again.

As the aftermath of the explosion swept through the rear, many cruisers and command ships were also destroyed.

Given the vast disparity in technological strength, a single volley destroyed hundreds of starships.

However, the sacrifices of these brave soldiers were not without value; the remaining fleet finally finished charging, and beams of energy weapons erupted outward.

For a moment, the artillery fire from both sides formed a dense rain of light with almost no gaps.

Everything in the area—meteorites, debris, and lifeforms—was vaporized and pulverized.

However, both in quantity and quality, the "Wings of Freedom" legion held an absolute advantage. The protection system, which fused the abilities of the SS-Class Star River Beast "Mirror Shadow Demon" and the SSS-Rank Star River Beast "Shadow Spider King," displayed its superiority at this moment.

Almost the instant the attacks arrived, the starships in the front instantly vanished into the shadows.

The dense beams bombarded the shadow space, immediately reducing the damage by more than half. The few beams that barely managed to penetrate struck the raised shields, only to dissipate after creating slight ripples.

Conversely, the "Wings of Freedom" fleet, under the command of the Statue of Liberty, achieved perfect attack distribution.

She knew the specifications of these Star Alliance starships better than anyone.

With every attack, the first strike would perfectly breach the protection, and then the attack from the second starship would follow immediately to destroy the hull.

The Kulha Star System First Fleet was rapidly diminishing at a visible rate.

"How is this possible!"

Seeing the fleet he had spent a huge price to build prove completely vulnerable, the First Fleet Commander widened his eyes.

The strength of this group of enemies was far greater than he had imagined.

If he hadn't seen with his own eyes that the configuration of the "Wings of God" fleet was completely different from this, he would have thought he had encountered an ace fleet of the Star Alliance.

"We can't fight this; there is a comprehensive gap in performance, command, and quantity. Continuing to fight is just suicide. It's better to preserve our strength and notify Lord Elo to prepare. Damn it, where on earth did these guys come from!"

He made a decision in an instant.

As a core member of the Yalik Family, there was no need to make a meaningless sacrifice.

He summoned a subordinate and quickly ordered:

"Adjutant, I am now handing over command of the fleet to you. You must block the enemy as much as possible."

"I will do my best. Take care, sir."

The adjutant nodded solemnly, his eyes devoid of fear, filled only with the determination to die for his cause.

Having been promoted from a commoner to the deputy Commander of a fleet, he had long been prepared to sacrifice himself for his superior at any moment.

"I will take care of your family."

The Commander patted the other man on the shoulder, making a promise, and then, taking a few trusted aides and high-ranking officials, quickly piloted an escape ship to retreat into the interior of the Kulha Star System.

Watching his superior leave, the adjutant walked to the command console with a blank expression:

"Switch to guerrilla formation and lead the battlefield away from the Kulha Star System."

In fact, in such a disadvantageous position, forcing a change in formation would only lead to a faster collapse, but in order to delay, he had no choice.

"It seems their Commander has run away."

On the other side, Zhang Huaiyuan looked at the feedback on the detector and the change in formation, and immediately guessed roughly what happened.

"Do you need to split off a fleet to pursue, sir?"

"No need, let's finish off this fleet first."

"Understood."

Even the most excellent Commander cannot avoid making mistakes when changing formations.

Facing an opponent of the same level, it might be inconsequential, but facing an intelligent lifeform of the Statue of Liberty's caliber, it was a fatal flaw.

Countless artillery fire precisely bombarded the weak points of the defense, and the Kulha Star System fleet, which was already retreating steadily, suffered heavy losses once again.

In the end, the brave adjutant even wanted to activate the self-destruct sequence and launch a suicide charge.

Unfortunately, given the vast disparity in strength, he was annihilated in the artillery fire before he could even get close.

There was not much surprise on Zhang Huaiyuan's face.

In interstellar warfare, battles with a technological gap end exceptionally easily and simply.

But if the levels are similar, it becomes a protracted tug-of-war.

Not to mention the gap in starship grades themselves, he knew all the opponent's information clearly, and the detection network they relied on was controlled by his own people; it would be strange if they could resist.

He reached out and turned the "empowerment stone," and a large integrated space station was constructed from the void.

"Leave a squad to collect all the usable debris, and the rest keep the formation and continue the attack."

Following Zhang Huaiyuan's order again.

The entire fleet passed through the shattered defensive line and flew toward the interior of the Kulha Star System.

Looking at the planets displayed on the star map, just like when attacking the "Peaceful Passage" before, he quickly warped over engineering robots.

After being improved many times by Zhang Huaiyuan, their performance had made significant progress.

It only took a few minutes to quickly survey a planet with a diameter of about 10,000 kilometers, then within two hours, it could mine enough resources, set up an automated industrial platform, and assemble more companions.

In one day, it could build a complete modern industrial structure of civilization and start producing simplified versions of combat robots to put into battle.

Time is money.

For Zhang Huaiyuan, it was impossible for him to spend energy conquering planets one by one; he only needed to defeat the enemy's main force, and the rest would be left to these rapidly spreading engineering robots to solve.

"Asroth, I leave this legion of engineering robots to you to control. When attacking life-bearing planets, after defeating their armed forces, follow the old rule and offer a chance to surrender once. If they are stubborn, I authorize you to act at your own discretion."

Zhang Huaiyuan said indifferently.

There is no mercy in war, but these ordinary people were, in a sense, his future subjects. Plus, with the edification of the Statue of Liberty, they probably wouldn't resist too much, so there was no harm in giving them one chance.

"Understood, Master."

"Hmm."

Zhang Huaiyuan nodded slightly and looked at the next main enemy garrison point fed back on the star map.

"Pass on my order: continue the attack."