Starting from the Planetary Governor

Chapter 1051: Chapter 574, Blown into 5 Pieces

After Phoenix withdrew, Gu Hang only ’looked’ at them briefly, then ceased paying further attention.

The losses were still deeply painful.

Eight hundred went, only five hundred returned. Everyone was injured, and among them, there were dozens of critically wounded.

Though these critically wounded were beyond saving by mortal standards, for the Interstellar Warriors, the situation was different.

If a warrior truly couldn’t be saved, they could still be placed into the Fearless Iron Coffin, continuing their service to the Legion and the Alliance in the future.

Of course, in actuality, the Alliance also supported allowing severely injured warriors to retire, offering strong life-support systems so they could enjoy a different lifestyle after retirement. After all, Interstellar Warriors live extraordinarily long lives and could still have plenty of ’good days’ ahead.

Truth be told, being placed into the Fearless Iron Coffin was not a comfortable experience by any stretch, especially since once inside, there was no coming out for the rest of their lives.

Yet, thus far, there hasn’t been a single Phoenix Warrior who opted for retirement after being critically injured—all have chosen the Iron Coffin.

The three hundred Interstellar Warriors lost weren’t necessarily all killed in action. It’s possible some surviving Phoenix warriors were scattered across Alfonso II and engaged in combat at various locations. Due to the insufficient time for assembly, they couldn’t make it back in time.

But there was genuinely no way to manage this now.

When Matins breached the main gate, Gu Hang’s power, through their deep connection as Interstellar Warriors, could stealthily infiltrate the Progeny Chamber.

Dubo, who was absent from the control panel, had a significantly lower sensitivity to Spiritual Energy. He failed to notice Gu Hang’s power slipping in.

Then, pinpointing and precisely severing the restraints and controls binding the Neuron Progeny to liberate it presented a real challenge. Gu Hang had to carefully identify the weak points of the energy bindings on the Neuron Progeny and sever them one by one.

During this process, Gu Hang needed to operate his power with pinpoint accuracy from such a vast space distance while remaining completely undetected—a task of considerable difficulty.

Any misstep, if detected by Dubo and prompting him to return to the control panel, would spell major trouble.

However, throughout the entire process, Gu Hang performed flawlessly.

No errors, no hesitation—Gu Hang accomplished what he needed to do.

But it wasn’t over yet.

Freeing the Neuron Progeny merely neutralized the entity that had been engaging in relentless psychic combat against Gu Hang.

Dubo, the supreme commander, was presumably dead; the War Ark onboard was now overrun by the rampaging Neuron Progeny. Simultaneously, the Valor Spirit Legion unleashed by Gu Hang hadn’t retreated, leaving the War Ark in a severely crippled state.

As the flagship of the Mechanical Fleet, it could no longer fulfill its role as a command vessel, because it couldn’t issue effective orders to the other ships within the fleet. Moreover, as the most formidable warship in their fleet, it was rendered impotent amidst the chaos, unable to act as the backbone of the operation.

Conversely, as the War Ark was effectively immobilized—despite its Void Shield—it was now under tremendous risk. Without movement or maneuvering capability to evade incoming fire, it became a sitting target incapable of absorbing sustained bombardment, even with its Void Shield.

To protect the flagship, many Escort Ships—and even a Retribution-class Battleship—closed in, attempting to provide cover. They used their firepower systems to intercept some of the Alliance’s incoming projectiles, and when necessary, even positioned their own hulls to shield Alfonso II.

This proved immensely helpful for Alfonso II, but within the broader context of the fleet’s decisive battle, the overall combat power of the Mechanical Fleet suffered greatly. Those vessels that diverted to protect the flagship rendered themselves essentially insignificant threats to the Alliance Fleet.

As a result, the Alliance experienced a dramatic reduction in firepower pressure.

The sacrificial boarding operation carried out by the Valor Spirit Legion and Phoenix had achieved its value here.

Furthermore, this was merely the immediate benefit to the Alliance Fleet.

The greater significance lay in the developments that followed.

The sacrifices of the Interstellar Warriors had created such an invaluable tactical opportunity—how could Gu Hang possibly let it go to waste?

Initially, Gu Hang planned to deal with the War Ark first to avoid prolonged complications. However, since other vessels dared to intervene, targeting those first became a viable option.

Without further obstructions, Gu Hang unleashed his Spiritual Energy power without restraint.

The Retribution-class Battleship that dared to shield Alfonso II instantly became Gu Hang’s target.

The Void Shield didn’t last long before it was completely torn apart.

Then, the Alliance Fleet, far superior in operational coordination compared to the Mechanical Fleet, immediately launched focused volleys of attacks.

The sheer number of projectiles was one thing, but in this instance, the main assault came from the Zhuge-class Aircraft Carrier ’Eagle Horse.’

Three patrol ships were launched and propelled forward at near-bullet speeds, only marginally slower than actual artillery shells, directly delivering them to the enemy battleship.

Conventionally, the Alliance’s Blackfish-class patrol ships accommodate around 1,200 crew members. The specially modified Blackfish launched at the enemy, however, carried only about 400 crew.

This number barely sufficed for minimal operational staffing and was slightly inadequate; for sustained operations, it wouldn’t even cover essential positions that require constant monitoring—after all, humans do need rest.

Today’s battle situation, however, required no such considerations.

Even vessel control itself was largely irrelevant at this critical juncture.

As long as the weapons systems functioned properly, that was sufficient.

Another noteworthy point was that every crew member aboard carried the designation of a death soldier. Each one was prepared for the reality of never returning.

Launching small ships at point-blank range toward a battleship was already an extremely dangerous mission. Even though Zhuge-class Aircraft Carriers were equipped with recovery systems to retrieve launched small vessels, the likelihood of their survival was low.

And their task was straightforward: to fire all the missiles onboard the specially modified Blackfish before their destruction.

Missile-based weaponry posed an inherent disadvantage—it was easier to intercept compared to artillery shells or laser spears.

By placing aircraft and patrol ships in close proximity to enemy vessels, the Alliance aimed to resolve this issue: firing at point-blank range reduced the interception difficulty drastically.

Moreover, Blackfish-class patrol ships were significantly larger than even the largest Dragon Elephant War Machines. The suicide-modified Blackfish ships underwent customization solely to maximize missile capacity, disregarding everything else.

Each of the three Blackfish carried 18 Scorching East Wind missiles and required only two firing cycles to offload their entire payload—a process that wouldn’t exceed six minutes.

This meant that each Blackfish simply needed to survive for six minutes to accomplish their mission.

From the first salvo, 27 Scorching East Winds missiles were launched successfully.

Six were intercepted, while 21 struck squarely against the Retribution-class Battleship whose Void Shield had been torn apart.

Twenty-one colossal explosions bloomed on the battleship, inflicting catastrophic damage.

Soon after, one of the Blackfish ships was destroyed, but the remaining two launched their second round of Scorching East Wind missiles—all 18.

The Retribution-class Battleship was blown into five fragmented sections.

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