From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 612: Destroying the Enemy Without Injury
In the ME-13 star sector, in the Shasta galaxy, the Renaissance Alliance Fleet and the Shasta Galaxy Independent Fleet are confronting each other in space.

From a bird's eye view, the size of the two fleets facing each other is actually not that different.

The Renaissance Alliance mainly consists of the former Rubion Galaxy Garrison Fleet, plus some of the remaining warships of the five federal naval fleets purchased from the Atlas Group, a total of nearly two full fleets.

As for the Shasta Galaxy Independent Fleet, it was directly derived from the "peaceful evolution" of the former garrison fleet, so its organization is relatively complete and is the size of two fully staffed fleets.

Unlike other galaxies, these garrison fleet warships were not seized by different forces during the galaxy's civil unrest and were destroyed in the meaningless internal power struggle.

This is also why Nagrand, the former commander of the Shasta Galaxy Garrison Fleet, the current leader of the Shasta Galaxy Independent Alliance and commander of the Independent Fleet, and the self-proclaimed "Admiral", was able to put forward higher "interest demands" for cooperation with the Renaissance Alliance at the negotiation table, and after the first round of negotiations failed, he had the confidence to lead the fleet to confront the Renaissance Alliance.
The fleets of both sides are similar in ship configuration. The only advantage of the Resurrection Alliance may be that the ships captured from the Federal Navy have undergone the latest software and hardware upgrades and are in better condition.

But in the opinion of the 'Admiral' of Nagrand, these factors cannot determine the outcome of a fleet battle.

Through his own information channels, Nagrand knew that the fleet combatants of the Renaissance Alliance actually had very complex sources - some were trained by themselves, some were hired through Atlas, and some were surrendered federal navy.
But most of them are actually new recruits who do not have much combat experience. It is questionable to what extent these people can help the two opposing fleets to exert their strength.

At least Nagrand has noticed that the coordination between the two fleets is not very good through observing the tactical maneuvers and formation changes of the Renaissance Alliance Fleet. In some complicated situations, warships even fell behind.
"Given the quality of their personnel, we don't even need to start a serious fight. If we force them to make a few more tactical maneuvers, their formation might just fall apart. Hahahaha~"

The adjutant beside Nagran sneered disdainfully and started to mock.

"We are considered the tallest among the short ones, but we still can't take it lightly."

Nagrand stopped his adjutant's ridicule. He knew very well that the training level of the garrison fleet could not be compared with that of the regular army of the Federal Navy. But no matter what, the fleet had been running in for so long, so there would not be any major problems in basic coordination.

Unlike the other side, which was simply a fleet assembled from various corners.
"If the remaining local fleets in other galaxies of the Federation are of this level, I don't think I have no chance to get a piece of the pie in this mess, right?"

This idea that suddenly popped up in his mind made Nagrand's 'Admiral' feel much more energetic. He couldn't help but start imagining many things that he had not dared to think about before.

But at this moment, the intelligence officer on the bridge floated up to him.

"General, we have discovered an unidentified ship in a space area 35 kilometers away."

"35 kilometers away? It's almost close to our outer warning circle." Nagran frowned, "Why did you find out now?"

"Report to the General. Um. Our outer reconnaissance force is insufficient, and most of the ships have been called back to join the confrontation, so the 30-kilometer warning circle information is not updated in time, and..."

Nagrand: "And what? Don't be so fussy!"

"And we didn't discover the target by the reconnaissance ship. We discovered the characteristics of the gravitational wave radar first. The radar operator reported that it seemed that the opponent's long-range detection unit had been locking on us, but it was the first time he had seen it locked on at such a long distance."

"Long range detection unit? Locked?"

Nagran suddenly had a bad feeling in his heart. He looked at the star map above the holographic projection platform in the center of the bridge, where the approximate location of the unidentified unit had been updated.

But the distance of more than 30 kilometers made the former garrison fleet commander unable to imagine what the other side could do at this distance.

After all, in all previous fleet battles of mankind, this distance was at most the contact between the outer guard forces of both sides, and it was still a long way from the real main fleet launching an attack.

"Keep monitoring these three unknown units and report any abnormalities immediately! At the same time, have the electronic countermeasures team try to break away from the opponent's lock."

Nagrand couldn't think of any other solution for the time being, so he could only use conventional ideas for the time being. At the same time, his eyes were fixed on the Renaissance Alliance fleet that was already 100,000 kilometers away in front of him.

"I want to see what the hell you are up to!"

As soon as this thought appeared in Nagran's mind, before he could think about what to do specifically, the ship's onboard control personality of the battleship under his feet suddenly appeared in mid-air and issued a warning in an extremely anxious voice.

"Warning! High energy reaction detected!"

When the first blue-purple beam touched the battleship, everything seemed to happen in the blink of an eye.

As the flagship of Nagrand, the Kraken-class battleship named 'Nagrand Admiral' is slightly inferior to the Federation's latest improved version, the Kraken-class, in various configurations, but it is still a proper battleship anyway.

However, the deflection field, which is the main protective measure, was not activated when attacked by high-energy lasers, or even if it was activated, it did not have much effect.

After all, the main function of the deflection field is to defend against charged particles. It is obviously useless when facing pure high-energy lasers.

Therefore, the high-energy lasers fired by the three Starlight-class battlecruisers directly shone on the metal shell. The temperature at the contact point suddenly soared to tens of thousands of degrees Celsius, and the metal surface instantly vaporized.

In this case, the working fluid cooling water under the black body covering had no time to transfer any heat, and even directly caused a strong steam explosion, causing the surface material of the ship to evaporate and peel off continuously.

As the surface material evaporated, the laser beams penetrated further into the underlying structure. In addition, the distance between the emission point and the contact point was too far. Even though the three Starlight-class battlecruisers used the forerunner black technology called "local space curvature stabilization" to anchor themselves, the three high-energy lasers still moved uncontrollably away from the initial contact point.

High-energy lasers transfer a large amount of heat in a very short time, causing the internal materials to quickly heat up to above the melting point, and metals and other solid materials begin to melt, forming a gradually expanding molten pool.

The highly focused nature of the laser beam causes this process to occur over a very small area, resulting in rapid destruction of the localized region.

The molten metal flowed along the cracks, expanding the scope of damage, and the heat spread to a wider area, causing damage to adjacent structures. Some flammable or explosive materials caused secondary explosions due to overheating, aggravating the extent of the damage. In the silent space, each explosion was like a silent roar, and the firelight reflected the chaos and despair inside the battleship.

Because the three high-energy lasers not only completely penetrated the ship's hull, but also cut off the titanium alloy frame inside the hull, the stability of the 'Admiral of Nagrand' was seriously affected, and large-scale deformation and fracture began to occur.

But this unlucky ship, or the first battleship in human history to be sunk at a distance of one light second, did not wait until the moment of its own disintegration.

"Hit! A super-large-scale high-temperature plasma fireball has been detected. It is suspected that the target superconducting battery stack has been detonated! We are waiting for damage confirmation!"

The excited voice of the Tactical Information Coordinator sounded on the bridge of the 'Starlight Class No. 1 Experimental Ship' where Amber and Guterres were.

Although the final destructive effect has not yet been confirmed, hitting the target across a distance of 1 light second and causing objective damage in actual combat has already met everyone's expectations for this operation.

"Continue to monitor the target, urgently refrigerate the main weapon unit, have the damage control team check each module, and prepare for the next round of attack!"

Guterres responded calmly, and although he was also very excited inside, he forced himself to suppress it.

On the outside of the three Starlight-class battlecruisers, immediately after the irradiation ended, they each deployed three pairs of large-area heat radiation panels and began to dissipate excess heat.

But for the heat generated by the 'Spectrum Destroyer' during the irradiation process, the heat that the heat sink can dissipate is just a drop in the bucket, so this set of conventional cooling units is more for other systems on the battleship.

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The real cooling system for the Spectrum Destroyer is the Zero-Point Energy Cooling System that Saleh has extracted from the Forerunner's technology library. As the name suggests, it extracts cold energy from the vacuum zero-point energy to provide continuous and efficient cooling for high-power lasers.
Therefore, the 'Starlight-class' battlecruiser is not only the first warship owned by mankind that can strike at a distance of 1 light second, but also the warship that has used the largest number of Forerunner technologies in human history.

Amber had to admit that many technologies of the Forerunner civilization were simply difficult for humans to understand, and might even seem like fantasy.

But when Saleh and the research team assigned to her really reproduced these technologies, the technological level of Atlas - especially the military technology that is the focus of development - has shown a significant leap.

Many subsystems on the Starlight-class battlecruiser that are related to the Forerunner technology can not only be used on mass-produced ships of the same class in the future, but can also radiate and affect all future Atlas ships, and even make some old warships "rejuvenate".
"Damage control team reports that the weapon unit inspection has been completed and no abnormalities have been found!"

"The weapons team reports that the rapid heat dissipation of the Spectrum Destroyer has been completed and a second attack can be carried out!"

"Observation team reports, confirming that the target fleet's flagship was sunk in the first round of attacks!"

A series of reports came in on the bridge one after another. Amber saw Guterres, who was in charge of the command, tightening his fists and showing more excitement on his face with every piece of news he heard.

Soon, after signaling to Amber, the old navy man, like a big child who got a new toy, almost couldn't wait to give the order to "continue attacking."

The dazzling light appeared again at the front of the three "Starlight Class" battlecruisers, followed by three "Spears of Light" stabbing towards the direction of the Shasta Independent Fleet.
-
At this time, the Shasta Independent Fleet was thrown into chaos in an instant.

No one expected that the flagship, which had just issued orders to the fleet, would disappear in the blink of an eye.
The surrounding warships didn't even know what was happening. The crew members on the bridge also received a warning about the "high-energy reaction" from the shipboard control personality, and the next second the position of the fleet flagship turned into a huge blue-white fireball.

"Where did the attack come from? Did the opposing fleet open fire?"

"No, no, the attack seems to come from 30 kilometers away? Ultra-long-range sniping?!"

"One light second? What are you kidding?"

"boom!"

Three high-energy laser beams suddenly appeared and pierced through the second warship that was hit. Soon, like the fleet flagship just now, it disintegrated and exploded under the irradiation of the high-energy laser.

Then came the third and fourth rounds of attacks.
Irradiation, cooling, module inspection, target locking, irradiation, the cycle is repeated.

It seemed that they realized that the attack power of the "Spectrum Destroyer" was a bit excessive, so under Guterres' order, starting from the third round of irradiation, the three "Starlight-class" battlecruisers no longer fired in salvos, but marked their targets on their own and began to attack freely.

For the Shasta Independent Fleet that is under attack, this is definitely a torturous period. Although there are only three high-energy lasers shining from 1 light second away, all the attacks so far have successfully hit the target.

As long as the warship is hit by these three blue-purple high-energy lasers, it will at least be penetrated, not to mention the 3-second exposure time, which is enough for these deadly lasers to cut the hull and cause greater damage.

For the Renaissance Alliance Fleet facing the Shasta Independence Fleet, they will also be shocked at this time.

Franklin and the fleet commander, who were personally in charge of the flagship, had already known that Atlas would send ships for support. However, after receiving the report that only three warships appeared and were located 30 kilometers away, the two of them could not figure out what Atlas was up to for a while.

Until the high-energy laser spanning 1 light second lit up in the cold universe.

Until the enemy fleet's flagship was turned into a fireball in an instant.

Franklin realized that sometimes the "gap" can be so big that it cannot be described by conventional methods.

While most armed forces in the Federation were still gloating over the formation of one or two fleets, Atlas was already studying how to "annihilate the enemy without injury" at a distance of 1 light second.
Thinking of this, Franklin sighed imperceptibly: "There are only three of them."

(End of this chapter)