Tea Sipping Young Master

outer space, tens of thousands of electromagnetic jamming buoys, deployed on Luo Xiaoyis orders, were hard at work.

”In that case, send out courier launches! Two of them to each fleet! ”

As he shouted those words, a flash of light from the display screen turned the rear admirals face white for an instant.

The enemy attack had begun, their Prisma beam cannons firing synchronized volleys.

Their vast outputs of energy and the accompanying bursts of light were such that it seemed that the soldiers eyes might be scorched.

Flashes of sparkling, rainbow colored brilliance —the sparks that flew in those instants when enemy beams struck energy-neutralization fields— erupted throughout the alliances fleet.

Low-energy particles collided at terrific speeds, annihilating one another in a cannibalistic phenomenon.

”Vanguard formation, return fire! All ships, get ready for all-out war! ”

Arms waving wildly, the rear admiral shouted, Rear Admiral Chen Liangs order had not been intercepted, but on the bridge of the imperial fleets starship Artemis, ripples of cold contempt danced in Luo Xiaoyis blood-red eyes as he said to no one, ”Your responses are slow, you incompetent fool! ”

”Launch fighters! We
e switching to close-quarters combat! ” ordered Rear Admiral Yang.

A keen vitality shone in his face and resonated in his voice, born of the exultation of battle, coupled with a confidence that came of seizing the initiative.

”Even if the arrogant brat ends up taking the credit, the important thing is still to win! ” Rear Admiral Yang thought.

The single-seater, cross-winged fighter ships known as Valkyrie launched from their giant carriers one after another.

In the instant when they cut loose from their carriers, they had —due to momentum— already reached speeds exceeding those of the carriers; neither catapult nor runway was needed.

The Valkyrie were small craft, and so their firepower was not as great, but they excelled in maneuverability and were extremely effective in a dogfight.

The alliance also had single-seat fighters corresponding to Valkyrie, these were known as Archangels.

Flashes of exploding fusion furnaces ripped across every quarter, and maelstroms of unleashed energies shook the ships of both sides in chaotic swells.

New clusters of energy beams lashed across the area, and dodging between them the Valkyrie soared, four-winged angels of death clad in glistening silver.

The alliances Archangels did not trail the Valkyrie in fighting ability, but a terrible disadvantage dominated all beyond their nose cones, and they found beams awaiting them the moment they separated from their carriers, aiming to destroy both the Archangel and its pilot together.

The Valkyrie and Archangel Units were mostly handled by those who were in the Foundation Establishment and Spirit Core Realm.

The Cultivators of the Celestial Realm were capable of resisting the harsh environment of the starry skies and did not require Valkyrie or Archangel Units to traverse through it.

As such every Fleet had a faction of Celestial Realm Cultivators who were capable of easily taking over tens of Valkyrie Units on their own.

If this team of Celestial Realm Cultivators were to be sent to the battlefield, they could even turn the tide of the battlefield.

But that was as long as they survived the distortion in the space created when the Starships Fusion Furnace exploded.

There were even situations in which some of the Celestial Realm Cultivators had somehow managed to survive the explosion but didn dared to resist the enemy forces.

As by the time they recovered from the explosion, the battles results were most likely already settled.

One hour after the start of the battle, the Fourth Fleets vanguard had been almost entirely destroyed by the withering onslaught of the Imperial Navy squadron under Rear Admiral Yangs command.

Of the 2,600 vessels composing the vanguard, not even 20 percent were still participating in combat.

Many ships had been vaporized by fusion furnace explosions, others had avoided exploding but had been too severely damaged to continue fighting, and others still had light structural damage but now drifted uselessly through space, having lost most of their crew.

In this dreadful condition, the front lines collapse seemed not a half step away.

”What are you people doing?! ”

That cry was Rear Admiral Chen Liangs.

But the one who disdainfully murmured, ”What are you people doing? ” was Rear Admiral Yang.

Both had been looking on at that scene through the screens of their respective starships.

In the words of one was a cry of hopelessness and panic; the words of the other mocked, with all the confidence that comes from a comfortable margin.

The difference in those two voices was at the same time the difference between the circumstances of their respective forces.