Chapter 60 Total Annihilation

In the vast and profound expanse of space, set against the backdrop of the dark red planet Nemesis, a fierce battle commenced.

Yet, this battle appeared somewhat bizarre.

Li Qingsong’s "Mercury-class" warships seemed to care about nothing other than plunging blindly forward, ignoring everything else.

They launched no counterattacks, performed no tactical evasions, conducted no interstellar reconnaissance, and did nothing at all.

They merely charged ahead.

Consequently, the projectiles from those unknown warships rapidly struck these two hundred and fifty "warships."

The next moment, a dozen or so warships erupted into explosions, shattering into fragments.

Li Qingsong felt not a twinge of heartache. Enduring a communication delay of over four minutes, he concentrated with all his might to control those clones, sparing no effort to gather combat data on the unknown warships.

"They also use projectiles as their primary offensive method. However, these are clearly not gunpowder bullets. Gunpowder bullets cannot achieve such speeds."

The maximum speed of a gunpowder bullet was only around seven or eight kilometers per second, and it was utterly impossible to break ten kilometers per second.

The reason was simple: the detonation velocity of gunpowder maxed out at around seven or eight kilometers per second; how could it possibly impart a velocity of ten kilometers per second to a projectile?

Yet at this moment, the projectiles launched by the adversary and observed by Li Qingsong were traveling at a speed of at least forty kilometers per second or higher!

This was clearly not a gunpowder bullet. Based on Li Qingsong's understanding of human technology and his future outlook, he quickly made his judgment.

These were electromagnetic railgun projectiles!

Adopting a propulsion principle similar to high-speed ion propulsion technology and using electromagnetic fields to accelerate the projectiles, the bullet's speed could be boosted to around forty kilometers per second at this very moment!

Although the mass of a single projectile was very small, their velocity was sufficiently high. With high velocity naturally came high kinetic energy, and consequently, high lethality.

Thus, compared to gunpowder bullets, electromagnetic railgun projectiles simultaneously achieved multiple advantages: high speed, high lethality, and small mass making them easy to carry.

If a single bullet of Li Qingsong's weighed ten grams, carrying four hundred thousand bullets would result in a total mass of four tons. In contrast, a single electromagnetic railgun projectile could be made as light as 0.5 grams; four hundred thousand such bullets would have a mass of only two hundred kilograms, drastically reducing the spacecraft's payload.

Furthermore, the destructive power of electromagnetic railgun projectiles was even greater.

However, electromagnetic railgun projectiles demanded an extremely high electrical power supply. At the same time, high-speed ion propulsion technology shared this exact characteristic.

Therefore, the enemy's warships must possess an exceptionally high power generation capacity. Such colossal power consumption could simply never be supplied by chemical fuel.

Even nuclear fission reactors would fall short.

Then...

It was highly probable that they used miniature nuclear fusion reactors as their energy source!

Yet another technology that the human civilization of the peak era had never mastered!

A generational gap! The warships he currently possessed existed in a generational gap of more than just a single era compared to his opponent's warships!

The difference was akin to holding a Maxim machine gun during World War I to fight against an armada of airplanes, artillery, missiles, and drones!

There was simply no way to fight this war!

It did not matter, however, for Li Qingsong had never intended to fight in the first place.

Even without a generational gap, his main body was on Lu Shenxing, while the battle was taking place at Nemesis, resulting in a round-trip communication delay of about four minutes. How was one supposed to fight?

So he simply decided not to fight! Was it not fine if he just went to throw his life away?

Thus, a short while later, the majority of Li Qingsong's two hundred and fifty "Mercury-class warships" were destroyed. The remaining small fraction took advantage of the enemy's failure to close in and directly initiated self-destruction.

At this point, the adversary seemed to have sensed that something was amiss.

Through spy satellites deployed in the distance, Li Qingsong observed the subsequent actions of the enemy.

They maneuvered their warships forward at a leisurely pace, beginning to salvage the debris of their own fallen warships and initiating an analysis.

This opponent was truly rather bizarre; faced with an attack, they neither dodged nor parried nor counterattacked. Were they genuinely here to throw their lives away?

With such doubts lingering, it was entirely normal for them to conduct follow-up inspections. Nor did Li Qingsong expect to keep them in the dark indefinitely.

That was right, the so-called "Mercury-class warships" he had dispatched to attack the stronghold at Nemesis were not warships at all!

The machine guns, autocannons, missiles, radars, and other equipment mounted on them were actually nothing more than hollow shells—mere superficial facades that served absolutely no purpose.

They were merely cargo ships he had refitted with new outer shells for the sake of deception.

The genuine Mercury-class warships were still safely concealed within the ground-level manufacturing plants at this very moment!

They were merely obsolete, dilapidated cargo vessels; if they were meant to be sent to their deaths, then so be it. Li Qingsong cared not in the least.

As long as they could buy time, that was all that mattered!

Within the view of the spy satellites, Li Qingsong watched as the few warships that had come to inspect the battlefield returned to their mother ship looking somewhat exasperated.

If they were not exasperated, why else would they have vented their frustrations by firing a few more salvos at the debris?

Having discovered they had been deceived, what would they do now?

Li Qingsong continued to watch closely.

Several days passed, and those unknown warships still lingered near the mother ship without departing, causing Li Qingsong to finally breathe a sigh of relief.

He knew that he had guessed correctly once more.

The enemy had indeed chosen to continue defending, to continue waiting, waiting for his second fleet to arrive.

Li Qingsong considered this choice by the enemy to be entirely reasonable.

After all, although the first fleet possessed zero combat capability and was a complete sham, who could guarantee that the second fleet would likewise lack combat capability?

Perhaps that was precisely what his opponent was plotting: using a fleet devoid of combat power to trick them, making them assume the second fleet was also a deception, thereby causing them to abandon the defense of their homeland?

Since they had already waited for several months, what harm was there in waiting a little longer until the second fleet arrived as well? Whether warships or disguised cargo ships, they would annihilate them all cleanly, and then they could embark on an expedition to the opponent's homeland without a single lingering concern.

Under these circumstances, Li Qingsong dawdled for another month or so before the second batch of twenty-five small fleets finally arrived in the vicinity of Nemesis, completed their assembly, and launched another charge.

It was not that Li Qingsong did not want to dawdle a bit longer, but he simply could not stretch it out any further. If he dawdled any more, the enemy might actually dispatch everything regardless of the consequences.

It mattered little, however. By this time, back on Lu Shenxing, he had already completed the subsequent preparations and finished everything that needed to be done. This second fleet could now go and meet its end.

The course of this battle remained equally devoid of suspense. The two hundred and fifty cargo ships disguised as warships were completely wiped out in the span of just a few hours.

Through the vista of the spy satellites, Li Qingsong witnessed the subsequent actions of the adversary.

A total of forty-five warships, all gathering around the mother ship with an ultra-high efficiency never before witnessed, completed their resupply in the shortest possible time, finished their assembly in the briefest duration, and in the next instant fired up their engines simultaneously, eager to embark on their expedition to eradicate their detestable opponent.

Yet in the very next moment, Li Qingsong saw these forty-five powerful warships—surpassing his own by at least two eras—simultaneously halt their propulsion and, with a trace of panic, retreat back toward the mother ship once again.

Even though there was no information exchange whatsoever between the two sides at this moment, Li Qingsong could almost hear the roar of their mingled shock and fury.

"What is going on? What is the situation?!"