Although this battleship weighs over a hundred tons, it is still the smallest battleship in Tom’s plan, serving as the most basic combat unit.
Tom named this class of battleship the Mercury-class.
Mercury is the closest major planet to the sun; from the inside out, they are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
In the future, when Tom builds larger and more powerful battleships, they will be Venus-class, then Earth-class, and so on.
This Mercury-class Battleship carries seven Clones.
Two Clones are machine gunners, specifically operating two machine guns; two Clones are autocannon operators, specifically operating two autocannons.
There is also a missile operator, responsible for controlling eight interstellar missiles, and a ship pilot, responsible for piloting the ship while also controlling its attitude, as well as a communications officer.
Communication between Tom and the Clones naturally does not require instruments, but the ship itself, along with numerous logistics support equipment and friendly forces, also involves a large amount of information exchange. This information also requires a dedicated communications officer to handle.
He will continuously determine the ship’s position coordinates during flight, and also measure the coordinates of enemy targets relative to his own, friendly forces’ coordinates, various coordinates transmitted by superior combat units, etc., uniformly converting them into parameters for his own battleship, and providing them to the pilot, machine gunners, autocannon operators, and missile operators for reference.
Besides these, there is also a logistics support personnel.
Within the ship’s cabin, he is not only responsible for first aid, emergency repairs, and logistics, but should any other Clone be severely injured and unable to perform their duties, he also needs to step in and undertake combat missions.
Thus, there were a total of seven Clones.
Originally, a captain would also be needed, responsible for uniformly coordinating and commanding all other crew members, but with Tom, a captain was, of course, no longer necessary.
At this moment, the ship pilot Clone heavily pushed the ship’s control stick.
As the command arrived, in an instant, the output flow of the liquid oxygen tank and methane tank reached its maximum.
Surging liquid oxygen and methane separately entered the combustion chambers of the ship’s six engines and began to burn fiercely, instantly generating a massive amount of high-temperature, high-pressure gas, which violently ejected from the already adjusted nozzles.
Amidst the immense reverse thrust, the Mercury-class Battleship, weighing over a hundred tons, suddenly accelerated, almost linearly breaking free from Loshen Star’s gravity field, flying straight into the depths of boundless space.
Approximately 150,000 kilometers from Loshen Star, a discarded cargo ship serving as a target was slowly moving at a speed of 1.6 kilometers per second.
This Mercury-class Battleship rapidly pursued it, and when it came within 500 kilometers, its speed had already reached seven kilometers per second.
Upon reaching the designated firing position, the communications officer quickly observed and calculated the positions of various targets, determining the firing parameters. Thᴇ link to the origɪn of this information rᴇsts ɪn N0v3l.Fiɾe.net
Without needing to speak, this information was synchronized into Tom’s mind, and then from Tom’s mind to the minds of the machine gunners and autocannon operators.
According to these parameters, they quickly operated the dashboard, and the two thick machine guns on the ship’s outer shell precisely adjusted their firing direction under the action of the automatic controller.
The two autocannons also completed their aiming simultaneously.
The ship pilot quickly began to adjust the angle of the ship’s nozzles and the fuel consumption, setting it to synchronize with the recoil.
The machine gun switch was immediately pressed.
Instantly, the two machine guns, with a maximum rate of fire of two thousand rounds per minute, simultaneously began their bombardment.
A large number of projectiles, at one kilometer per second of their own speed plus the ship’s own speed of seven kilometers per second, ultimately rushed violently towards the target ship at eight kilometers per second.
At the same time, the ship’s engines also started synchronously, and hot gases ejected from the nozzles at a relatively gentle speed; although unable to propel the ship, they perfectly offset the recoil caused by the machine gun firing, while maintaining the stability of the ship’s hull, preventing it from shaking.
Before the torrent of bullets reached the target ship, the autocannons also began firing.
Two massive shells blasted out of the barrels at a speed even greater than that of the bullets.
Their recoil was stronger. Although they had a specialized low-recoil design, meaning the shell’s exhaust would spray in the direction that cancels recoil, it ultimately could not be completely eliminated.
And this unavoidable recoil would cause violent shaking to the ship.
But it didn’t matter.
In the design, Tom had already considered this point.
The ship’s attitude control system, born from the space laboratory, then came into play, with the ship’s thrusters synchronously activating and spraying in the opposite direction, with just the right amount of force, once again perfectly offsetting this recoil.
Thus, the target ship was first riddled with tens of thousands of bullets. Afterward, two shells arrived, directly blowing it into pieces.
Having completed the first exercise, this Mercury-class Battleship did not pause, immediately initiating a turn and acceleration, and under the premise of its original inertial speed, flew in another direction.
The communications officer continued to report various parameters, and the pilot adjusted accordingly. Before long, another target ship came into view.
This target ship was a bit faster, but it didn’t matter, as the battleship’s speed had also increased by now.
It was once again subjected to a fierce artillery barrage, and it was again shattered into pieces.
Then came the third, the fourth...
By the fifth one, the situation was different again.
This fifth target ship possessed quite strong propulsion. Under the battleship’s pursuit, it desperately accelerated and continuously performed random maneuvers to evade the bullets and shells fired at it.
Several rounds of machine gun fire missed.
Then an interstellar missile was suddenly launched.
Propelled fiercely by its tail flame, this missile, on top of its existing speed, suddenly accelerated by another three kilometers per second, and was still rapidly increasing.
Not only that, with the help of its automatic tracking unit and external guidance, it firmly locked onto the desperately fleeing ship.
The target ship made a sharp turn, and the interstellar missile also turned with it, and turned faster, and moved faster!
Finally, the interstellar missile caught up to it.
In the instant before impact, the 150KG of high explosive loaded in the missile’s warhead detonated with a roar.
Although there was no shockwave here, the intense heat and flying shrapnel still instantly destroyed this target ship.
Tom had previously set up a total of 12 target ships.
These ships were in various states. Some were fleeing quickly, some were maneuvering desperately, some were releasing interference, and some were equipped with heavy armor.
But regardless of their state, under the attack of this Mercury-class Battleship, in less than five hours, all 12 target ships were destroyed!