Chapter 178: The Turning Tide at the Interstellar Current

Interstellar current mouth.

Five Seawolf-class warships emerged at once.

But in the very next second, they were left utterly stunned.

A radar sweep revealed fifty thousand large-scale targets—warships—and over thirty thousand medium and small targets—space defense platforms. All packed densely around the current’s mouth, forming a hemispherical defensive ring stretching out for 150,000 kilometers.

There was serious calculation behind that distance.

After years of fighting the Ziyang Empire, the Blue-Eye Tribe had already figured out everything about the Seawolf-class. They knew its ion weapons had a maximum range of only 80,000 kilometers.

Of course, the enemy’s railguns were even more advanced than their own, but the advantage wasn’t absolute.

So as long as they kept close enough, but just outside the opponent’s ion weapon range, they could neutralize any overwhelming advantage.

One hundred fifty thousand kilometers.

That was the ideal distance for defending the interstellar current, a figure they’d calculated over years of war.

You didn’t have to be a genius to see in that kind of firepower, the earliest waves of Seawolf-class might hold out at first, since it still took time for those railgun projectiles to reach the mouth.

So, they clung to life for a little while.

But as soon as the first wave of projectiles hit, everything changed.

From then on, every few seconds a dense barrage of projectiles rained down.

Within minutes, not a single warship could even maintain its position.

Every time, five warships broke through, and within seconds they were riddled with holes. They never even had a shot at forming a defensive line, let alone establishing a beachhead.

If this kept up, they’d lose all twenty thousand warships, yet the Blue-Eye Tribe would probably lose fewer than a hundred.

This news reached Parlo in no time.

He was utterly shell-shocked.

“The Blue-Eye Tribe has fifty thousand warships?”

“And they built over thirty thousand defense platforms at the Resk current?”

This had to be a joke…

But then, after a moment, he remembered what Lin Yu had told him earlier.

His mood calmed a little.

Right, things were bad, but the Federation was joining the fight. So—

He still had a chance.

But when would the Federation Fleet show up? How would they get involved?

Should he try to contact them, maybe give a little nudge?

No, no way…

Parlo shook his head at once.

Hurry the Federation along?

Better forget it. Annoy them and maybe they’ll just decide not to come at all.

Then who’d be left to clean up the mess—him, crying his heart out?

Meanwhile, somewhere in hyperspace—

“Commander, we’re about to arrive at our destination. We’ll drop out of hyperspace in 192 seconds.”

“Bai Jun, the warship’s yours once we’re in. With no friendly ships around, do as you please.”

“Understood, Commander!”

Bai Jun, chief helmsman of the Houyi, could barely contain his excitement when he heard that.

Usually, fleet operations left him no room to improvise. Space was tight, and they had to keep formation.

But this time it was a solo mission. According to the plan, they’d arrive 500,000 kilometers behind the enemy’s line.

The enemy could fight back, sure, but over such a distance? Hitting them with railguns from that far away…

As long as Bai Jun and the radar officer worked in sync, the Houyi could dodge pretty much everything they threw back.

“Target location reached!”

“Quantum window’s open! Exiting hyperspace now!”

“Reporting in. We’ve exited hyperspace and our position is spot-on!”

“Radar sweep shows 52,000 warships and 30,000 space defense platforms dead ahead at 500,000 kilometers.”

“Reporting…”

One report after another echoed through the ship.

Lin Yu paused for a moment, then let out an incredulous laugh.

Good grief—fifty-two thousand warships?

If he hadn’t shown up today, Parlo’s entire expeditionary fleet would’ve been wiped out, no question.

“Meng Fei, our little brother’s getting pummeled out there. What are you waiting for?”

“Understood, Commander!”

Weapons officer Meng Fei nodded and went right to work.

“Houyi, main and secondary guns, quantum bomb launchers—deploying now…Deployment complete!”

“Commence attack!”

At his command, hundreds of blades of blue ion energy slashed through the void.

Twenty-four enhanced railgun arrays launched basketball-sized quantum bombs one after another.

Wave after wave, the barrage never let up.

Right then, the Blue-Eye Tribe’s fleet also spotted the uninvited guest behind them.

They immediately dispatched hundreds of warships to wheel around and engage.

Given their numbers, this was already taking the intruder seriously—after all, it was just one ship.

What they didn’t realize yet was, even that wasn’t nearly cautious enough.

Not by a long shot!

Blue ion beams kept blasting warships to pieces.

In just a few minutes they’d destroyed more than eighty ships—insanely efficient.

Aboard the massive flagship—

Labeil’s eyes burned with fury.

“Divert ten thousand warships to encircle and destroy it. I want it gone!”

“Your Majesty, are you sure about ten thousand?”

A Blue-Eye subordinate, still on his knees, piped up nervously.

“You idiots! Have you all forgotten how that thing appeared out of nowhere, and how every inch of it is bristling with energy weapons?”

“What can three hundred warships do? Against that kind of firepower, you won’t even get close before you’re dust!”

Labeil erupted, cursing them out.

Why did he always get stuck with such a useless lot?

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

But just then—

Before the order could even be sent, chaos—

Had already broken loose.

The first wave of quantum bombs hit!

Inside the crammed defensive array, clusters of sapphire-blue, bubble-like phenomena appeared out of nowhere.

Each one lasted only a heartbeat—not even a full second.

But wherever they faded, all that remained was a hundred-kilometer-radius void, perfectly empty.

As if the warships that had been there were only an illusion.

That kind of destructive power would have been terrifying under normal circumstances, sure—but not utterly unimaginable.

But right now, the Blue-Eye Tribe’s fleet was packed tighter than ever, forming an ultra-dense defensive shell around the current.

Each quantum bomb wiped out at least two or three warships—sometimes four or five.

Just one volley of twenty-four destroyed over eighty ships—already matching a dozen rounds from the ion cannons.

And that was only the beginning. Things were just heating up.

Because these were railgun-launched, not just energy attacks.

Their firing interval—

Was brutally short.

A few seconds later, before anyone had even processed what happened—

Another wave of quantum bombs swept through, erasing more warships in an instant.

Panic erupted across the fleet.

Even Labeil was screaming his head off inside the flagship.

“What is that thing?”

“What the hell IS that thing?”

“Why are you all still bunched up? Get those ships spread out—scatter, now!”

“Move! Hurry!”

The Blue-Eye crew, stunned into inaction, finally snapped out of it at Labeil’s roar.

Orders flew out instantly.

But they’d forgotten one thing.

With their ships packed so tight, the more they tried to scatter quickly, the less they could actually do it.

In fact—

That order might even bring—

Something even worse.