The Empire begins with the Fourth Scourge

1615. Deadly Swarm

The fleets of both sides were advancing extremely fast, and the fighters they took off were even faster.

When the distance between the battleships of the two sides was 1 light minute, countless fighter jets had strangled together!

And at this time, the fighter pilots of the Republic saw clearly what the enemy they were facing!

It was a cloud that covered the sky and covered the sky!

Countless small drones swarmed like a swarm of bees, densely packed, with almost no gaps! But when the anti-aircraft artillery fire passed, these drones were able to dodge immediately, as if a hole suddenly appeared in the dark clouds along the direction of the anti-aircraft artillery fire.

Seeing such a scene, commanders at all levels of the Republic, including Gideon Tarkin, were all speechless. Because of this kind of action, it shows the excellent flight control system of these drones!

You know, the reason why these drones can avoid anti-aircraft fire is because their mothership provides them with the turret steering data of the Republic fleet.

This is a very large project, because there are thousands of turrets in the entire Republic fleet, and these turrets are constantly rotating, and the battleship is also constantly moving. To avoid shooting, it is necessary to judge that the steering angle of one of the turrets is a threat to your own drone, and then communicate it to the drones along the turret shooting angle, and then start to dodge.

Even dodging is not just a simple dodging, otherwise such a large number of drones, and such a dense anti-aircraft fire barrage, once dodging in the wrong direction, it will undoubtedly end up being blown to pieces.

So before that, almost all drones used artificial intelligence to deal with this problem by themselves. To put it bluntly, the drone was turned into a robot, which is the origin of the vulture robot fighter.

It's just that because of the limited carrying capacity of fighter jets, the artificial intelligence carried can't deal with these problems in many cases, so the performance of these robot fighter jets on the battlefield is very rigid. In contrast, the Galactic Republic adopts the mode of pilot + navigation robot, but it is the most scientific mode. The combination of intelligent creatures' impromptu decision-making and artificial intelligence's data processing, the combat effectiveness displayed is to crush all kinds of robots warplane.

This model was also referred to in later improved models, including the Ghost Fighter of the Fourth Civilization. It's just that the scientists of the fourth civilization did not separate the navigation robot, but built it into the electronic system of the fighter jet, which is equivalent to giving the fighter jet two sets of control systems.

In this way, the Wraith fighters can continue to confront the fighters of the Galactic Republic.

War, in fact, is a process in which the warring parties learn from each other, understand each other, and then kill each other. The Fourth Civilization and the Galactic Republic, unknowingly, each other's technological research and development have been influenced by each other.

But now, what is displayed in front of the naval commander of the Galactic Republic is the flexible flying posture of these tens of thousands of drones, which are not only flexible, but also scientific. This is an evasion strategy based on the unified planning and consideration of tens of thousands of individuals!

A simple evasive action has thrown off the Galactic Republic's own flight control system for at least ten years!

And such an action was actually made by those countless tiny drones!

These drones are no more than two meters in size, not even as tall as a taller person, and the main body of the drone is the engine installed on both sides, and there is a gun barrel in the center, which is also the only weapon. The size is huge for a drone. On the whole, this drone looks like a telescope.

And they are really small!

Flying in space with such a size, if you don't pay attention, even if you fly in front of those fighter pilots, you may not be able to see it.

"Any results from the scan? What drone model is this?" Gideon Tarkin asked over his shoulder.

"General! It was scanned. This is indeed a drone, but from a structural point of view, it is very unscientific... The engine occupies too much space, and the space reserved for the central processing unit and weapon system is very small. Such an drone Do man-machines really have combat power?" The radar soldier said doubtfully, "In addition, these drones have shield responses, which means they have a shield system. This is impossible! Such a small drone, how can it be possible? Can it hold so many systems?"

"Get the third batch of fighter jets ready for battle. If the situation is not right, take off immediately!" Gideon Tarkin stared at the holographic screen and said in a deep voice.

While talking, I saw those swarm-like drones suddenly start to accelerate, and their speed has not reached the limit just now! These drones accelerated again in a short period of time, and they have entered the center of the Republic fighter formation!

Then, it was a nightmare!

I only saw the countless swarm drones passing by at an extremely fast speed. Such speed and flexibility made the Republic fighter pilots completely unable to react! Then at the moment when the two sides staggered, a plasma ray was instantly fired from the barrel of the swarm drone.

This beam of plasma rays directly caused violent ripples on the fighter's shield, and the pilot's cockpit immediately started to alarm! Before he could react, the second and third drones attacked, and three consecutive plasma rays hit directly!

The shield of the V-wing fighter was suddenly overloaded, and the pilot woke up like a dream at this time, and hurriedly turned to evacuate. However, the performance of the V-wing, which is known for its flexibility, could not get rid of these drones. The three drones had already completed their turn and flew over again. Unable to aim.

Three plasma rays directly penetrated the cockpit of this V-wing fighter!

More than 20,000 swarm drones ruthlessly shredded the formation of the Republic fighter formation, and then strangled them relying on absolute numerical superiority!

The speed of these swarm drones is unexpectedly fast, the firepower is unexpectedly ferocious, and under the control of a very advanced flight control system, the combat is also unexpectedly flexible.

Almost as soon as the battle started, hundreds of fighter jets from the Galactic Republic were shot down!

"Retreat! Retreat! Ah..."

"Can't aim! I can't aim! They're everywhere!!"

"This is Huozhi 3, I can't catch up with them! The target is lost!"

"Huojian No. 3! Behind you! Behind you!"

"They have shields! Can't be knocked down! Can't be knocked down!"

The pilots' communications were full of desperate noises, and the elite pilots of the Republic were at a loss as to what to do in the face of this opponent they had never seen or experienced.

Swarm drones are extremely numerous, and despite their tiny size, they pack a ton of firepower. The gun barrel installed on the drone is even a bit incongruous. Only two or three shots of the plasma ray fired from it can destroy the shield of the V-wing fighter, and it only takes one shot to penetrate their fighter armor!

And these drones have their own shield system. Although this shield is not very powerful, it can almost resist a single shot from a V-wing fighter. However, V-wing fighters often do not have a second chance to fire. Either they are destroyed themselves, or they are directly run away by swarm drones.

The scariest thing about these swarm drones is their speed!

Just by looking at the engines on both sides of these drones, which occupy almost two-thirds of the volume, one can tell that they are designed with speed as the main focus. When these drones are flying at full speed, the acceleration can even be close to 400G! This is a terrifying speed that the pilots of the Republic cannot achieve even with the most advanced decompression protection devices!

At such speeds, V-wing fighters simply cannot catch up to each other. Whether to fight or run, all are controlled by swarm drones! Even if a concussion missile is launched, the drone locked by the missile can escape quickly, creating an opportunity for other drones to intercept the missile!

Such a result is a nightmare!

"No way! Our fighter jets are no match at all! Retreat! Let them withdraw!" On the bridge of the flagship of the Republic, the adjutant saw the tragic battle and could no longer care about the relationship between superiors and subordinates. .

And Gideon Tarkin stood there with a livid face, and did not stop his adjutant's action that could be sent directly to the military court, he acquiesced.

Because of the massacre that happened in front of him, he himself was a little terrified. But as the supreme commander of the fleet, he couldn't show it.

"All fighter formations retreat! Return to the fleet's inner air defense network, and don't attack rashly! The third wave of fighter jets takes off immediately and covers their retreat!" Gideon Tarkin finally issued an order.

More V-wing fighters took off and began to cover the fighter formation that had been defeated in the previous engagement.

At this time, under the command of Matt Horner, the fleet of the Principality of Dawn did not give the opponent a chance to breathe. They began to continue to close the distance. At this distance of about 1 light minute, the hit rate of the disaster-class battlecruiser's particle light spear has reached a terrifying level!

The Republic warships were constantly being hit by particle lances, and they could only keep maneuvering fast. And the result of this is that the formation of the fleet is constantly being disrupted, and the tight defensive formation deployed by Gideon Tarkin before is quickly pulled apart!

After the Republic fighter formation paid the loss of more than 700 aircraft, it finally returned to the air defense circle of its own fleet. But this is not over yet, the swarm drones are constantly chasing and have swarmed in! Tens of thousands of swarm drones began to attack the Republic Fleet!

I only saw a hunter-class battlecruiser being stared at by thousands of drones, and the surroundings of this battleship were almost completely enveloped by the rays of light from countless plasma rays. I can't even see the body!

The close-in defense gunfire on the Jaeger-class battlecruiser continued to fire, but with little effect.

As long as these swarm drones are hit, they will immediately start to retreat with full power, and more drones will come to fill the gap immediately, and there is no chance for the Republic's air defense firepower to achieve effective destruction!

In fact, except for being hit by heavier firepower or missiles, the level of ordinary close-in firepower is simply impossible to destroy the swarm drones with one blow!

Almost at the beginning of the battle, Gideon Tarkin was cornered!

He never thought that his fighter formation would be defeated so quickly! In this way, all his strategic and tactical deployments were broken!

For a long time, that large and extremely elite fighter group has always been the proud existence of the Galactic Republic. Countless flight academies all over the inner and core circles of the galaxy have provided the military with countless excellent pilots, and after the Ruusan reforms, the construction and development of large warships were restricted. On the contrary, the field of fighter pilots became a It has always maintained a high level of arms.

Therefore, when Willix Blissex, who was still working at the Kuat Power Dockyard at the time, fully considered the advantage of the Galactic Republic when designing the Jaeger-class battlecruiser, he made the Jaeger-class a ship. An aviation battleship can actually fit 400 carrier-based aircraft into it!

So after the Jaeger class became the most important battleship of the Galactic Republic Navy, almost every time it was dispatched, it would be accompanied by tens of thousands of excellent pilots.

These pilots take off in groups, and in many cases, their numbers can even be compared with the vulture robot fighters of the Federation of Independent Galaxy.

All along, these huge and elite fighter jet clusters have been the magic weapon for the Galactic Republic to win. Even in every previous battle between the Fourth Civilization and the Galactic Republic, even if the Wraith fighter with the stealth system was much better than the V-19 Torrent light fighter of the Republic at that time, it was basically unable to gain air supremacy. .

It is because the number of pilots on both sides has at least a tenfold difference in each battle!

The Fourth Civilization will bring a large number of Guard-class anti-aircraft destroyers to each battle, and the Reckless-class/Spearman-class frigates that have just withdrawn from the front-line combat forces are also full-time fighters against the Republic, and the Cole-class battlecruisers are equipped with a large number of anti-aircraft The reason why the artillery crew uses so many methods is precisely because of the powerful fighter force of the Republic.

And now, with the entry of the V-wing fighter, the Galactic Republic originally planned to further expand its advantages through this excellent fighter.

But no one would have imagined such a result now! !

Gideon Tarkin took off two waves of fighters, more than 2,600 fighters, and more than 1,500 of them were state-of-the-art V-wing fighters. Such power can easily destroy tens of thousands of vulture robot fighters!

However, the result was the defeat of the fighter formation of the Galactic Republic!

In front of the tiny swarm drones, the fighter formation that the Galactic Republic was proud of was almost powerless to fight back. Less than half an hour after the battle started, they suffered heavy losses and had to retreat.

In this way, Gideon Tarkin's fleet can only directly face the tens of thousands of swarm drones!