Chapter 79: Standoff in the Asteroid Belt

“Report! Twelve o’clock, elevation seven, distance 16.5 light-seconds! Numerous enemy signatures detected—total count…548!”

Both fleets had finished their arrangements, and it had already been three hours since Outpost Two entered the highest state of combat readiness.

The Klein vanguard fleet…

Had finally started to move.

But in this vast emptiness, the moment they appeared they were instantly spotted by Outpost Two.

“Initiate the area strike plan! All fleets and the defense network—commence continuous fire!”

“Yes, Commander!”

Just a few seconds later.

456 Federation warships, joined by over 400 defense platforms scattered on asteroids—more than forty thousand railguns in total…

All unleashed their barrage at once.

Countless projectiles shot out, vanishing quickly into the darkness of space.

Like assassins slipping through the night, they streaked straight toward their targets.

Five million kilometers—rapid as railgun shots were, each several times faster than a warship, it still took a full fifty minutes to cross that gap.

This first stage of war was doomed to be a slow battle of attrition.

Meanwhile, far on the other side.

One fleet was weaving through the most treacherous, high-density region of the Asteroid Belt.

On the bridge of the Zhulong, Lin Yu could even hear the groaning of metal under stress—a haunting sound as the starship’s hull flexed under the tug of local asteroid gravities.

This route was a nightmare to navigate, but the upside was clear…

Besides a face-to-face encounter, Klein forces had nearly zero chance of spotting them.

Because—

Normal sensors were absolutely useless here.

In fact, the chaotic gravity fields here could easily tear sensors to pieces.

Almost all communications were down, too.

Even the 5th Fleet themselves could only maintain basic ship-to-ship coord with short-range laser comms.

Thunk!!

A dull impact echoed through the hull.

It was obvious—the ship’s outer armor had just been struck.

Luckily, whatever hit them was just a piece of small debris—enough to scratch up the armor, but it wouldn’t cause real trouble.

“Report: Crack found in G2 outer armor section, but structural integrity is intact and combat readiness unaffected!”

“Got it!”

Lin Yu nodded in acknowledgment.

Things like this had happened so often over the past few days, he’d lost track.

That was just the cost of this route—relying on radar helped dodge the bigger rocks…

But those tiny ones…

You couldn’t avoid them all. Half the time, the helmsman’s job was to pick which ones to dodge and which to take on the shields.

Luckily, with the prodigy helmsman Bai Jun at the controls, the Zhulong had taken fewer hits than any other heavy cruiser in the fleet.

That alone proved just how good he was.

“Report: The frigate Jingbo’s engines have been destroyed—hit in the rear by an asteroid. She’s dead in the water now.”

“Qiongxiao has ordered all hands to abandon ship. Nearby warships will assist; our Zhulong will pick up three of the shuttlecraft.”

Just then, the comms officer reported a sudden incident.

A frigate had met its end, blindsided in the engine bay by a twenty-meter-wide asteroid—the exact spot you never wanted to get hit.

If the damage were anywhere else, they’d probably haul the frigate to safety. But now, abandoning ship was the only option.

But where were they?

This was the most perilous path in the whole belt—even stopped, you risked getting smashed every minute, and with no power, you couldn’t dodge at all.

And the fleet couldn’t wait on a single ship, let alone risk towing her out.

That was why Mu Qingxue acted quickly—ordering an evacuation and telling the nearest ships to take on survivors.

“Understood. Have the hangar get ready!”

“Yes, Colonel!”

Lin Yu let out a small sigh.

They’d seen this coming before they set out.

Still, losing ships without a fight stung in a different way.

The bright side was, it was just a ship lost—not lives. At least…

All hands got out safe.

“This route really is a killer… one slip and it’s all over for ship and crew.”

George couldn’t help but sigh as well.

“Yeah, but once we make it through the next two days, things should calm down. The second half isn’t nearly as bad.”

“Let’s hope… nothing else goes wrong these two days.”

——

While the 5th Fleet fought their way forward, the battle at Federation Outpost Two was heating up.

Wave after wave—over forty thousand railgun slugs, cast like a gigantic net—closed in on the Klein fleet.

After about fifty long minutes…

The first salvo finally crossed the gulf of space and struck the target fleet.

Even so, the hit rate was shockingly low.

But that wasn’t the worst part. Because—

Once impacts were confirmed, advisors in the command center rushed to assess the damage, but the report came back…

“Report: The first salvo had no effect at all!”

“What? Not a single hit?”

“No, out of over forty thousand rounds, 148 landed.”

“Then how could it do nothing? Even if we didn’t sink their ships, we should at least have pitted their armor!”

Mu Xingchen looked completely lost.

After all, in military protocol, ‘no effect at all’ is as strict as it gets. If they said not even a dent was made, it meant not a single mark.

But this…

How was that even possible?

“Commander, according to our data, they’ve reinforced their bow with at least five meters of armor, specially designed to counter our extreme-range railgun strikes.”

“So even though some rounds hit, they did zero damage to the actual hull—it was all soaked by the new frontal shield.”

Hearing this, Mu Xingchen’s frown deepened.

Railguns packed a serious punch—their speed was no joke.

But at the same time, each slug had very little mass.

Think about it: if a ten-meter asteroid took a railgun hit…

Would it shatter? Or just end up with a crater on its surface?

Sure, railguns were powerful—but the brute-force answer to them was simple: stack on enough armor and…

Suddenly, your fancy weapons don’t work so well.

And you don’t even have to wrap the whole ship—just thicken the bow.

Because you can only shoot in a straight line!

Right now, that’s exactly what the Klein vanguard was doing.

Over the past year, Klein command had scouted and converted asteroids into warships.

And besides that…

They’d shaped and processed huge slabs of asteroid rock to form extra-thick, perfectly fitted armor—then slapped them right onto the prows of their ships.

Of course, this wasn’t invincible.

Give them enough hits at once in the same spot and the armor would crack.

But now, punching through would be far harder than ever before.