Encountering the powerful firepower of warships above level 30 from both the Seven Phoenix Civilization and the Borke Civilization, it seemed extremely difficult for the Swarm Ships to achieve Bai Zhongqi's set goal of breaking through the heart of the enemy formation and carving through their ranks.
Bai Zhongqi didn't particularly care about how many Swarm Ships were lost; regardless of the damage, he could always replenish them later, without the concern of human life. In fact, on such a battlefield, to secure a significant victory, Bai Zhongqi would indeed use lives to ensure a win if necessary.
"It looks like I have to play the third card a bit sooner," thought Bai Zhongqi.
Among the first two cards, the combination of Split Shield Beetles and Divine Mechs had caused quite a bit of trouble for the Star Alliance Fleet and had ultimately forced Xiao Yu to aggressively push forward with Star Alliance warships, disrupting the deep, interlocking defense strategy designed by Su Shuang; by performing wormhole jumps to the middle of the two enemy fleets, using the sector-severing abilities of the decisive stars, and by splitting and targeting the key parts of the enemy forces, namely the Council Alliance Fleet.
However, the strength of the Council Alliance was slightly beyond Bai Zhongqi's original plans. He didn't like seeing three-quarters of the 30,000 Swarm Ships damaged before achieving their combat objectives, as dragging out the time could have serious implications. Moreover, if the frontline situation were to change, it would greatly affect the outcome of the battle on the rear front.
Su Shuang remained very composed when faced with Bai Zhongqi's sudden assault, and he was particularly earnest when commanding the fleet against the Swarm Ships. Bearing the name of a Divine General, Su Shuang was not one to have a reputation that outweighed his abilities. Underestimating the enemy at the strategic level while taking them seriously at the tactical level was a universal principle.
"Massive wormhole reaction detected, direction six o'clock from our main formation!"
Upon hearing the combat officer's shout in the bridge, before Su Shuang could speak, Suo Erxiao slapped his forehead and said helplessly, "Again? Which part of the fleet is he trying to bring behind us this time? He's not planning to pull over the warships from the front line, is he? Hey, if those warships were gone, the Star Alliance ships would definitely break through the battlefield barriers established by devouring stars."
Su Shuang furrowed his brows; this battle was proving to be one of the most difficult he'd fought in his many years of military career. Not only because he didn't have direct command of the main forces on the battlefield, resulting in various minor coordination issues, but in terms of advance and retreat scheduling, Su Shuang admitted that he was outplayed by the star-devouring forces. But on the side of the star-devourers was the Swarm, which was under a single will.
The star-devourer had many tricks Su Shuang could not have anticipated. The ability to traverse wormholes was something that not even one of the ten top civilizations had fully mastered, making its difficulty apparent. Yet, the star-devourer could frequently create wormholes, appearing anywhere on the battlefield he wished to, and in the end, the star-devourer could even flee immediately upon failure, with no one able to stop him.
Clearly, as the previous founder of the Star Alliance, the star-devourer was not lacking in command and military prowess. His control over the battle situation and his strategies were beyond reproach, which also made Su Shuang somewhat admire his counterpart.
Suo Kexiao said, "Dispatching a fleet to attack us from behind is undoubtedly an attempt to thin our firepower. But the registered gap is huge. Even if some of our firepower is tied up, the Swarm Ships still don't have the capacity to shake us."
Finally, warships emerged from the wormhole.
The number was not large, only about a hundred or so. These warships were unlike the Swarm Ships, the Four Military Lords' warships, the Star Alliance warships, and certainly not akin to the Council Alliance's warships. These vessels, which appeared moderately sized and shimmered with a metallic luster, didn't exhibit any particularly special features. The two Divine Generals could tell just by the appearance that such a design didn't even seem to equate to a High-Level Civilization's warship, but rather resembled an ordinary Mid-level Civilizations' cruiser.
That was until those hundred-odd silver warships opened fire.
The blinding white light suddenly shot out from tens of thousands of kilometers away, thick beams issuing like terrifying columns of light, blasting forth from the prows and other gun positions of these silver warships.
The Incandescence Cannon, one of the most powerful shipborne weapon systems in Bai Zhongqi's arsenal.
Only on Battleship Commands like the Blade Empress were a few Incandescence Cannons installed, as other Swarm Ships simply did not carry such technically challenging and energy-consuming weapons.
Yet, this type of weapon was present on each of the over one hundred silver warships, with the largest caliber ones mounted on the prow and slightly lighter ones at other positions; still, their power was immense.
As this all-Incandescence Cannon fleet bombarded the Council Allied Fleet, Su Shuang immediately felt tremendous pressure. The rear-guard warships of the Council's fleet started shaking violently, their shields and even physical structures impacted, with some power components suffering severe damage.
"How... How could there be ship cannons with such great power? Are these laser cannons?" Even Suo Kexiao, who had always been carefree and nonchalant, couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the rear-guard fleet get almost swept away by this not-so-large fleet group.
Although no warships had been directly blasted to pieces yet, as many as fifty-three had their shields breached.
Chi Jia sat high in the captain's seat, it had been over a decade since he last commanded a warship from this position in battle. He missed this feeling deeply, not to mention, he was now commanding a fleet group capable of turning the tide of battle, and it was the strongest on the field.
Cui Zhihao was now so excited his face was flushed red, he shouted with a thick neck, "Fire, fire, take them all down!"
This fleet was the very Elder Race warship fleet stored in the bottom hold of the Golden Great Sail Ship. Bai Zhongqi was uncertain if this fleet was created by the mysterious celestial collector, but he was well aware that this fleet, uniformly equipped with Incandescence Cannons, could crash through anything on the battlefield, unstoppable in its path.
Unfortunately, he had not trained enough crew teams, only able to support a fleet group of a little over a hundred ships. Yet, even a force of this size had already struck terror into the enemy.
Su Shuang immediately ordered the rear-guard fleet and several reserve fleets to engage simultaneously, concentrating firepower to counter this silver fleet. Consequently, the fleets facing Xu Lanzhou's commanded Swarm Ships from the front became fewer and their firepower much weakened, which made the Swarm's assault on the central formation stronger.
A barrage of shells bombarded the silver warships, but this time not even ripples could be seen on their shields; it seemed as if the shields absorbed every single shell.
This only meant one thing: the little bit of shield depletion from the attacks was less than the shields' own regeneration rate, so there was no noticeable erosion of the shields.