From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 427: Pick, Pick Anything
After initially discovering the Forerunner's 'large mining and refining core' from the asteroid that served as a base, Amber assigned part of the authority to the miner leader George after completing the 'binding' of the core.

After all, it is impossible for Amber to stay in the asteroid base every day and operate the advanced creations left by the forerunners to carry out mining operations, so George, who is responsible for coordinating the asteroid mining work, becomes the best choice.

After such a long time, George's proficiency in operating the 'Large Mining and Refining Core' has also improved from being awkward and cautious at the beginning to being able to 'steer with one hand' like an experienced driver.

It was at this time that Amber discovered that the miner he rescued from the pirates had creativity beyond his imagination and completely broke many people's stereotypes about miners.

After becoming proficient in controlling this Forerunner creation, George found a way to separate the control core through his own exploration, and finally set up a core control room in the asteroid base.

The refining components of the 'large-scale mining and refining core' are placed in the ore refining workshop.

As for the most important mining component, thanks to the Forerunner's highly free combination mode, George reorganized it into a "decomposition ray generator" that can move with the mining fleet.

The basic working process is that the decomposition rays will first break down the huge asteroids into small pieces, and then the mining fleet like a school of fish will be divided into groups to surround them for mining.

George controlled the decomposition components and stood by near the mining area. Occasionally, when he encountered some asteroid debris that was difficult to mine, he would respond to the call of the mining ship and fire another shot at the target.
Over time, George gradually gained some experience in the use of decomposition rays, but they were basically aimed at mineral mining.

This was the first time that disintegration rays were being used against a large fleet attacking an asteroid base.

In other words, it was the first time that decomposition rays were used to attack.

Before this, due to its remote location, the A.Bava.Ku asteroid base had never been discovered by anyone else.

The mining fleet rarely encountered pirates, but because of the existence of the escort fleet, there was no danger, and the decomposition rays had never been "weaponized."

But today, the 'weaponization' of the decomposition ray has become one of the key points of this battle. Even though George is already very familiar with the control of this thing, he can't help but feel a little nervous.

"Target settings. Added custom mode for decomposing targets. New type: ship."

George fiddled nervously on the virtual screen, and at the same time uploaded the enemy fleet's characteristic data just sent from the command room to the database of the 'Large-Scale Mining and Refining Core'.

Since the 'Large Mining and Refining Core' does not have the traditional attack capability, if you want to attack with a decomposition ray, you must input the target's characteristic information in advance and set it as a 'mining target' so that it can pass the verification before the decomposition ray is launched.

The forerunner's creations can be said to be very friendly in terms of "user experience". They can not only directly recognize human language, but also directly receive various information and data transmitted by humans, and use them after simple compatibility.

This is also the reason why George can easily control the 'large-scale mining and refining core' even though he does not know the Forerunner language.

While he was making the settings, the decomposition ray emission channel that was temporarily built under the guidance of Saleh was also completely opened.

After adding the energy control technology provided by Saleh, the decomposition rays released through the launch channel can reach an attack distance of about 10,000 kilometers.

Therefore, in the combat plan, Atlas' counterattack was launched after the combined fleet advanced 1 kilometers.

"This is the core command room. The enemy fleet is currently 15000 kilometers away, with a relative speed of 80 kilometers per second. It is expected to enter the 1-kilometer attack zone in one minute!"

"Received. The decomposition ray has completed preparations for launch and can attack as planned!"

"Core Command Room received. Once the enemy enters the attack range, open fire freely."

After receiving George's response, Guterres glanced at the time and then issued the order for the outer fleet to begin the jump.

The three unmanned fleets that had been on standby in deep space for a long time did not hesitate at all after receiving the order, and quickly entered the hyperspace in the form of "fleet attack jump".

One minute passed quickly, and when the combined fleet crossed the 1-kilometer red line, they took the lead in attacking A. Bawa. The main guns of more than 1 warships fired at the same time, making the entire universe light up briefly. Then, the arc that suddenly lit up outside the asteroid base directly lit up the universe.

Since the asteroid itself cannot withstand the fire of heavy particle cannons, even with internal structural reinforcement and additional armor plates on the outside, A. Bava Ku focused on the construction of a deflection field in terms of defense.

The Pioneer's energy management technology has increased the output efficiency of the 200 fusion reactors built into the asteroid base by at least 60%, which also ensures that the large number of deflection field generators deployed in the asteroid base have sufficient energy supply.

In addition, although the Combined Fleet has a large number of ships, the number of battleships, which are the main output force, is not large, far lower than the proportion of battleships in the regular army fleet.

So it was no surprise that this first round of salvos was completely blocked by this huge deflection force field.

When the flashing arc disappeared and the intact A. Bawa. Ku reappeared on the main screen of the bridge, the commander of the combined fleet, Megan, took a deep breath.

"What level of deflection field is this? Can it withstand such a salvo?"

He stared at the potato-like asteroid base on the screen with wide eyes, but quickly came to his senses and issued new orders.

"All fleets, begin to slow down, while continuing to fire at the target with all guns!"

Noticing the gaze of the adjutant beside her, Megan continued without turning back:

"Even if the deflection field of this level can keep up with the energy supply, the deflection field generator is still limited. Even if our salvo cannot break through the defense, it will still put a huge pressure on these generators. As long as we do it a few more times, we will definitely overload these generators."

To be fair, Megan's judgment was not wrong, and she even overestimated A. Bawa. Ku's deflection force field array.

In fact, after the first round of salvos from the combined fleet, the fortress's deflection field was on the verge of overload. More than 30% of the generators in the entire deflection field generator array were directly overloaded and burned out under the previous attack.

This means that even if the deflection force field can be propped up again, its strength will not be as high as before. If the coalition fleet launches another round of salvos, the entire force field may not be able to absorb all the attacks and will collapse directly.

Fortunately, George had completed the final preparations at this time. When the decomposition ray generator locked onto the combined fleet that entered the attack range, he launched the attack without hesitation.

"Decomposition ray generator, full power irradiation begins!"

The entire asteroid fortress shook slightly at this moment, and the attitude control nozzles arranged in various parts of the fortress kept flashing to stabilize the attitude of this "big potato".

At this moment, a tremendous amount of energy was released and transformed into a green ray that swept towards the location of the joint fleet under the control of a special energy field.

Unlike the short pulse irradiation of heavy particle cannons, or the several seconds of irradiation of high-energy lasers and charged particle cannons, the decomposition rays shot straight into the right side of the fleet's formation in a form visible to the naked eye, and at the same time swept from right to left like a whip while the asteroid base adjusted its posture.

Although the irradiation area of ​​the decomposition ray was not large, this green ray directly produced a kind of "splitting" effect after entering the formation range of the combined fleet and hitting the target, directly affecting the surrounding ships.

The decomposition rays used to mine the rock walls of asteroids are also very effective when facing laminated armor plates. After being swept by the decomposition rays, these laminated armor plates and deeper titanium alloy frame structures began to disintegrate.

This directly caused many warships that were slowing down to twist and bend uncontrollably under their own force.

The loss of pressure caused by those gaps not only scattered numerous debris and crew members into outer space like garbage, but also caused the entire ship's posture to become completely unbalanced.

When the one-minute exposure time ended, the formation of the Combined Fleet was visibly cut into two parts as if it had been cut by a big knife.

(End of this chapter)