Chapter 562: The Destruction of the Glassian Planet (II)
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Usually, high-tech warfare was swift, accurate and deadly. One shot and you would be gone, there would not be any breathing room left for the opponent.
In the old days of Iraqi warfare, when the war began, it completely destroyed Iraq's regime. All it required were 21 days for all the territories to be brought under control. In that short time frame, a total of 128 American soldiers lost their lives. 110 of them were K.I.A. and 18 were killed in accidents. In the past, the general forecast was that a war would usually last for one or two years at the minimum.
As for the current warfare between Mankind and the Glassian civilization, although the battlefield spanned across the interstellar systems, the beginning until the end of the war lasted only 20 hours.
Although the war was over, the battlefield was still not cleared yet. Following the destruction entire residential planet of the Glassians, Mankind had totally secured the victory.
When Mankind began withdrawing their war-fleet, there were a total of 14 vessels. Only 11 of those vessels had successfully left the war zone, another 3 warships would forever stay in this part of the star system. A total of 120 ships and their crews had been sacrificed on the eve of dawn.
The vast distance would have a delaying effect on optical imagery, the human war fleet could not determine the outcome of the battle. No one could guarantee the precision and accuracy of the star charts. The question whether or not the attacks hit their targets lingered in their minds. In high-speed travel, even the slightest mistake, regardless if was it a millisecond of miscalculation, that mistake would be amplified after traveling at light-speed for six times and the difference would be at least 1.8 kilometers of difference.
The fleet's commander, Hou Shuwen had established a video conference link to all other warship captains and after all of them had a moment of silence in respect to those who had bravely sacrificed themselves during the battle. All the attendees decided to proceed according to the original plan to clean up the war zone.
A minute later, ten thousand space fighter jets jetted out from all the warships into space. The jet engine shot out ion flames that spanned a few kilometers in length, flying to every corner of the nearby space.
As compared to the third generation of space fighter jets that had a dazzling performance in the previous battle against the Glassian, these type of fighter jets had been developed into a fourth generation.
With the front end of the fighter jet being sleeker, the aircraft's length spanned only 150 meters and its wingspan was at 65 meters. Even if this version of a fighter jet was much smaller, it did not mean that they were weaker than their previous generation.
On one hand, they were just like the warships, using the same anti-matter power furnace. Alternatively, it was this model that had thoroughly scrapped the railguns, resulting in the light speed energy attacks being the only weapons left onboard. This decision had saved up significant space to store their ammo.
The railguns were powerful and simple to build, they could even carry anti-matter missiles as well as all sorts of powerful warheads and even A.I. guided tracking warheads. Its major weakness was obvious, the weapons system required a huge space to operate, requiring a long acceleration rail and the materials used to build the cannon barrel played a major role on the weapon's effectiveness. On top of that, its power would not be like the energy weapons that could overlay their energy an infinite amount of times to further amplify its power through quantum energy transfer.
As for a civilization that had just entered the space age, the level of their energy weapons was not advanced enough but it might be an advantage. However, it already began to seem tasteless for Mankind.
Plus the usage of the anti-matter power furnace had greatly raised the space fighter jet's energy output by a few energy levels, allowing the energy attacks to be comparable to an anti-matter warhead. Due to these reason above the flawed rail-guns had gradually retired from the list of weaponry that humans carried.
…
When the space fighter jets entered combat, they had already begun clearing the remaining Glassian autonomous defense forts. Previously Mankind was still unable to determine the Glassian's technological advancement level because the Reactionless Drive warfleets were a technology that no one could fully understand, it surpassed both civilizations' understanding. However, at this moment, when the pawns of both sides collided, the technological difference between the Humans and the Glassian could easily be determined.
Regardless if it was the Glassian's autonomous defense fort weapon reaction speed or the object movement trajectory lock-on predictor, it was still not fast enough to follow the speed of the space fighter jets. Shots after shots had been fired from the fort but the space fighter jets had long since acquired their targets and vaporized them immediately with a high-intensity energy ray.
The space fighter jets had excellent mobility and the ability to change its trajectory path at any given time. This was because they had thousands of Gs, allowing sudden acceleration as well as sudden braking or slowing down its speed. Within seconds of the jets flying in a straight line, they could suddenly be turning a corner at a 60° sharp angle while they had the equipment to countermeasure the stationary defense facilities. The fights were completely one-sided and the failure rate of each space fighter jet was exceptionally low.
It was as if they were a swarm of locusts that constantly gnawed on the solid defenses of the Glassians, gradually pushing the inner circle of the star system closer.
…
"The war is already over!" Luo Yuan recollects his vision from the fourth dimension, his heart was filled with indescribable feelings.
The Glassians were high and mighty in the face of Mankind when they first appeared. They were so tall, they could cause people to suffocate. For that, Mankind was forced to abandon their home planet and engage themselves in the great escape.
Yet, thirty years had passed and the situation had reversed. Humans had taken up habitat where the Glassian civilization once was and a once a prosperous civilization had been wiped out.
There was a saying that went, "30 years in the eastern river, 30 years in the western river."
…
When midnight struck, there was only silence in Space City. Luo Yuan suddenly had an idea, one that gave him the desire to go to the front line of the war zone to witness everything. This civilization that gave him tremendous stress when he first met them... If he could not witness what they were like in close proximity, it would be his greatest regret.
Moreover, the distance was only 30 light years away. He could travel a round trip within a month.
When he had made up his mind, Luo Yuan left a short message in Virtual Reality before turning into the void and appeared in space within a blink of the eye. After a few more teleports, he had already left the Barnard Star System.
He then immediately prepared for travel. When he had the thought, the surrounding environment started to change vigorously and the powerful spatial waves caused a kind of spatial tidal wave nearby.
After all these years, his Will had strengthened more than ten times compared to what he previously had. Now, the manipulation of the spatial dimensions were as simple as moving an arm. It was as if it was his natural talent. At that moment, the space-time bubble formed around him and began to push his body with an amazing speed.
10 minutes later, his speed had reached 300 times the speed of light. A high concentration of light-speed photons collided with the front end of the bubble constantly and an incalculable amount had begun to pile up, almost taking a physical form.
Ever since he had reached the Barnard Star System 20 years ago, Luo Yuan had only engaged in this kind of space travel one time. All these years, he only used this method of traveling one single time. When he used this type of violent acceleration, he could not help but to feel a little nostalgic. Within ten minutes, he had achieved the top speed of his space-time bubble.
Luo Yuan was too close to the star system, unlike the dark zone in between systems, these photons were unusually dense and he felt like his body was gradually melting. A huge amount of atoms had been lost from his body due under the bombardment of photons. Traveling at 300 times the speed of light, it was his body's limit. If he went any faster, it would vaporize his entire body.
However, Luo Yuan did not even have the slightest intention to slow down. He pondered for a moment and in the next moment, part of his Will was used to maintain the space-time bubble while the remainder was used to fortify every atom on the surface of his skin. The surface of his body had undergone some changes and it had totally destroyed the atoms. The core of every single atom had been forcefully compressed and the electrons had been turned into free electrons. However, all these were blown apart by light-speed photons in the blink of an eye.
Now, the surface of his body had become extremely dense and was more reflective and shiny than a mirror.
The cores of the atoms had formed a lump under the tremendous compression and were tightly bound together. The molecular movement and the vibrations of the atom core had thoroughly stopped, causing the surface of his body to be at absolute zero. The high temperature he was experiencing was no longer a problem.
No matter how the light-speed photons collided with the surface of his body, it would no longer cause a single dent.
His speed had gradually become faster to the point it reached 1,500 times the speed of light before it finally stabilized.