Attacking Each Other

The Dulu had no intention of striking first.

When two civilizations meet in space, anything can happen.

However, just as their internal operators began entering battle stations, the Zerg suddenly made a move.

In an instant, the small leviathans and Floating Escorts all opened their side hatches, and swarms of Devourers and scourges flew out, quickly spreading across the void.

Despite the absence of air, these terrifying creatures still beat their wings, creating the illusion that they were flying through an atmosphere.

In just two short minutes, the number of Devourers surrounding the warships exceeded two thousand, while the number of scourges reached as many as one hundred thousand.

The Dulu watched this scene in disbelief.

The fleet marshal quickly realized that the Zerg were showing signs of launching an attack and immediately ordered, "All fighters on the ships, take off! Prepare to engage."

In reality, in terms of sheer numbers, their small flight units were far fewer than those of the Zerg.

From their hulls, only about 1,200 small combat aircraft could take off, averaging one hundred per ship.

Small combat aircraft were vital sources of firepower in space. Some were even equipped with nuclear missiles. Once they closed in, they could use their flexibility and maneuverability to launch devastating strikes against an enemy's massive hull.

As the massive, dense cluster of dots appeared on the space radar, many of the Dulu felt a deep sense of dread.

They had never seen such an eerie civilization.

The Zerg ships were like terrifying biological entities, and the way the Devourers separated from them looked as if new individuals were crawling out from within a living body.

Before the pilots on the ships could even fully board their fighters, the Zerg fleet was already surrounded by countless small units.

The core still consisted of six small leviathans.

The fifty-one Floating Escorts surrounding them were actually similar in size to an Overlord.

Of course, the structural strength and precision of a Floating Escort were countless times greater than that of an Overlord. After all, an Overlord was essentially a hollow shell used primarily to house other bugs. In contrast, the Floating Escorts were packed with advanced technology, such as highly miniaturized fusion engines.

Just as the Dulu fleet was preparing for an emergency fighter launch, the Zerg struck first.

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh...

Twelve Fusion Missiles were the first to detach from the small leviathans, hurtling toward the target ships.

Almost simultaneously, a blinding light flashed from every Floating Escort. Driven by immense electrical power, the bioelectromagnetic cannons installed on them charged and fired, instantly launching metal spheres into the void.

The initial velocity of these electromagnetic rounds reached thirty kilometers per second, and they maintained a steady speed as they flew toward the distant enemy vessels.

Given the distance of over ten thousand kilometers, an electromagnetic round traveling at a mere thirty kilometers per second should have been easy to predict and avoid.

But...

These Zerg electromagnetic rounds were no ordinary projectiles. Upon approaching their targets, they would activate compressed thrusters at the rear to perform emergency turns, achieving a degree of tracking.

In the conflicts of space warfare, if electromagnetic cannons were not modified in such a way, they would be easily countered.

In an instant, thousands of metal shells began streaking toward the enemy.

And this was only the first wave.

In the ten seconds that followed, at least eighty thousand shells formed a dense, massive net, almost completely covering the enemy's entire fleet.

...

"Not good! The enemy has attacked!" the Dulu fleet marshal shouted.

At that moment, the equipment on every ship detected alarming energy fluctuations, and piercing alarms rang out.

"Warning: Unknown fleet attack detected. Automatic evasion enabled."

The engines of each ship ignited forcefully.

Unfortunately, due to the constraints of curvature flight... the startup was slow. Furthermore, it could not be initiated at will when high-energy units were nearby due to the risk of explosion. Therefore, no matter how dangerous the engagement became, they could not use that method to evade.

As for the fusion engines, they required an acceleration process. Not only did they have to account for energy conversion efficiency, but they also had to consider whether the biological lifeforms inside the ship could withstand the extreme acceleration.

Thus, the actual evasion was far less flexible than one might imagine.

The twelve ships began to turn and scatter.

However, to their frustration, as the ships turned, a portion of the distant shells also began to micro-adjust their direction.

"The enemy shells will arrive in just over three minutes! In that time, we can only accelerate by five kilometers per second at most. We can't break their lock!"

Seeing the red warning dots flashing across the screen, the marshal was at his wit's end.

Eighty thousand rounds at once? What kind of massive expenditure was this?

The biggest problem wasn't even the electromagnetic cannons, but the missiles flying ahead of them.