Chapter 182: Assault in the Heart of the Fleet

If you were the enemy fleet’s commander—

And the Houyi suddenly appeared right in the core of your formation—

How long would it take you to marshal enough warships, lock onto the Houyi, and open fire?

Wait, Lin Yu, what exactly are you planning here?

“If something like that happened, and you reacted instantly, you could have the nearby warships’ close-in defense weapons firing within ten seconds, and within a minute, the railguns would be calibrated, charged, and loaded.”

George gave his answer.

After all, this was deep space, not the surface, and you weren’t a lone person holding a gun.

You couldn’t just turn around and pull the trigger.

Aiming the turrets, charging the weapons, loading the ammo—all of it takes time.

And when George said a minute, he was basing that on the Sixth Fleet’s level of training.

If you asked Lin Yu, with Totran Kingdom’s training and ship performance, it’d probably be closer to 100 or even 110 seconds.

Besides, only the close-in defense weapons could respond quickly.

But for the Houyi, those weapons weren’t a threat at all.

It’d be like getting tickled.

“Commander, what are you really planning?”

“Nothing much. Just planning to dash right into the enemy ranks and drop off a super-sized quantum bomb!”

“A super-sized quantum bomb? Since when do we have something like that?”

George was completely stunned.

As far as he knew, quantum bombs only came in small, medium, and large. When did they add ‘super-sized’?

“We have one—and not just that, it’s a fully controlled quantum bomb.”

Now George was even more confused.

Quantum bombs existed specifically because they couldn’t be controlled, right?

If you could actually control them, would you even call them quantum bombs? Wouldn’t that just be a hyperspace eng—

Wait. Controlled?

“Commander, don’t tell me you’re—”

“That’s right. Exactly what you’re thinking!”

Lin Yu smiled, giving a little nod.

George looked like he was about to lose his mind.

“In theory, it works, but…”

“Bai Jun, lock onto Totran Kingdom’s flagship. Prestart the hyperspace engine and wait for my command!”

“Yes, Commander!”

Before George could finish, Lin Yu had already started giving orders.

Bai Jun jumped right into action.

Lin Yu was reckless, but Bai Jun was no slouch either.

He’d obviously overheard the plan between his commander and the adjutant.

Oddly enough, that just made him feel even more exhilarated.

Who said a helmsman couldn’t rack up some kills?

Today, he’d show everyone what piloting in the interstellar age was all about—

How about taking the enemy commander’s head right in the middle of a thousand ships!

This was…

Insanely awesome!

“Meng Fei, load all twenty-four railguns with large quantum bombs. When the time comes, treat them as our going-away gifts!”

“As for the ship’s main cannons…do whatever you want. Where we’ll be, you won’t even need to aim. Just fire at will!”

With Bai Jun set up,

Lin Yu turned to weapons officer Meng Fei.

Meng Fei licked his lips in anticipation. The excitement showed on his face too.

“Understood, Commander!”

——

At the same time—

Totran Kingdom fleet formation.

Central, toward the rear.

The flagship was tucked deep within the thick layers of the fleet, seemingly safe and sound.

But that security didn’t bring much comfort to Legion Commander Chris.

“Commander, that corridor the enemy carved out is so much wider than any ocean current. And their ships have more firepower, faster rate of fire, even thicker armor. At most we’ve got an hour before they fully gain their footing and launch an all-out attack!”

“I know. But even so, we have no other options. All we can do is fight to the end and whittle down as many of their numbers as possible.”

The second-in-command opened his mouth to say something, but in the end, kept silent.

Because he knew whatever he wanted to say, Commander Chris already understood.

Here, it didn’t matter how many enemies they took down. It was pointless.

The capital region only had a thousand warships stationed, not enough to hold back the tide.

And the whole kingdom didn’t have any more ships left to call up. Still—

Like the commander said, there really wasn’t any other choice.

He let out a quiet sigh.

And just then, a blaring alarm shattered the calm of the bridge.

The second-in-command sprang up in shock.

They were in the safest spot in the whole formation!

He tried to ask what was happening, but before he could, everything went black. He lost all sight—

And even—

His thoughts froze, ending right at that instant.

All the kingdom’s soldiers in the other warships stared in disbelief.

A crack suddenly tore open where the flagship sat. Then a swirling, electric-blue vortex—like a quantum gateway—appeared.

And the flagship perched in that spot was sucked right in, vanishing without a trace.

Not even a speck of dust was left behind.

It was as if someone had erased its very existence.

And it wasn’t just the flagship. More than a dozen ships within a thousand kilometers were also swallowed up, disappearing one after another.

The sight was so shocking that even as the Houyi burst out of the quantum gateway, most people hadn’t yet processed what happened.

Several seconds passed before cries of “Enemy attack!” finally rang through the bridges across the fleet.

And the Houyi—

Had already deployed its main and secondary guns, plus twenty-four dedicated railgun batteries before they even set out.

Now it was firing in all directions.

There was no need to aim—everywhere around them was packed with enemy ships. Not a single friendly in sight.

Ion beams cut through warships, while large quantum bombs exploded in waves, devouring ship after ship.

It was like hell itself had erupted in the heart of the enemy’s formation.

Panic was spreading fast.

A few of the steadier crews managed to deploy their gun positions and swing the barrel to target the Houyi together.

But that wasn’t something they could do instantly.

Just like George said, only the close-in defense weapons could fire back quickly.

But…

Those shells were tiny, their firepower weak—the only thing they had was rate of fire.

Against the Federation’s deflection armor, they lost most of their kinetic energy before even leaving a scratch. What little got through—

Might as well have been tickling the Houyi. Didn’t matter at all.

Still, even if close-in weapons did nothing, surely hundreds of railguns focusing their fire would crack them eventually.

That’s what everyone—every single soul on those ships—was screaming inside their heads.

But—

Before any of them could finish calibrating their guns, the Houyi tossed out twenty-four more quantum bombs, tore open another quantum gateway, and dove through it at high speed—gone.

What was left behind were countless Totran Kingdom soldiers—

Absolutely dumbfounded!