Chapter 290: The Thunder Rolls and the Storm Rages

At this moment, the total number of Manned Warships under Li Qingsong’s command had climbed to approximately 4.5 million.

Of these 4.5 million Warships, 1.8 million were stationed at the gas giant, Planet Three. The remaining two planets each had a garrison of 1.2 million, leaving about 300,000 to act as a mobile space fleet.

By contrast, according to Li Qingsong’s count, the total number of Warships on the side of the Intelligent Mechanical Calamity Alliance had also risen to about 4 million.

Now, the Intelligent Mechanical Calamity Alliance’s primary target was about to be revealed.

With both sides controlling their Warships via Super-distance Communication, Li Qingsong knew the enemy would most likely not attack all three planets simultaneously. Doing so would mean facing not only an equal number of Warships but also the pressure of three separate Unmanned Combat Systems.

‘The best strategy is to pick one planet and throw all your main forces at it. That’s what I would have done, and it’s what my opponent will do now.’

And so, after a period of preparation, Li Qingsong saw the Intelligent Mechanical Calamity Alliance’s fleet mobilize in force, heading toward Planet Three.

‘Planet Three… Of course, it’s that one.’

Planet Three had numerous moons, making its combat space much larger than that of the two rocky planets. This made it more difficult to defend and was more advantageous for the Intelligent Mechanical Calamity Fleet to leverage its technological superiority.

Having confirmed the enemy’s main target, Li Qingsong immediately began redeploying his forces.

The fleets originally stationed at the other two planets, aside from a small contingent left for essential defense, all began moving toward Planet Three.

‘In interstellar warfare, there’s no such thing as a sneak attack anyway. Any large-scale fleet movement is transparent. Even if the defenses there are thin, I don’t have to worry about the enemy suddenly diverting a massive fleet to attack.’

‘If that really were to happen, I could just move the fleet back.’

In just a few short months, Li Qingsong’s garrisoned fleet at Planet Three had swelled to 4.2 million Warships, a number that even exceeded his current simultaneous control limit.

But even so, the massive Warship production on Planet Three’s various large moons did not stop. A steady stream of new Warships was still being produced as reserves.

The Intelligent Mechanical Calamity Alliance, meanwhile, had mobilized a total of about 3.6 million Warships of all sizes. Likewise, back at their Flying Star and dwarf planet, they were also engaged in massive industrial production, constantly churning out new ships to supplement their fleet.

At this moment, in the vastness of space, millions of Warships and an even greater number of unmanned combat units decelerated in unison. Their engine trails merged, looking like a Galaxy pressing down, a sight that alone could inflict immense psychological pressure.

Facing this immense pressure, Li Qingsong’s heart was filled with gravity, but also with fiery passion.

‘I’ve waited thousands of years for this war…’

‘Come on. Let’s settle this, once and for all, right here and now!’

And with that, the colossal war began.

If the moment before was like dark clouds pressing down, threatening to crush a city, then this moment was the storm finally breaking.

In an instant, the grimly silent expanse of interstellar space was filled with a torrential downpour of Energy Cannonballs.

Large and small, fast and slow—in a single moment, tens of billions of them flooded this Star Domain.

Glowing with a dim, faint red, or a yellowish-white light, they crisscrossed space with unstoppable momentum. The moment they met an obstacle and their internal balance was disrupted, they would instantly release the energy hidden between their quarks, erupting in a brilliant flash like a nuclear bomb.

One after another, laser beams of various frequencies, wavelengths, and energy levels traversed space at the speed of light, indiscriminately scorching every target in their path. Due to their extremely high directionality, they were completely invisible unless one was directly in their line of travel. And for anything on that path, to see the beam was to be struck by it.

High-speed Interstellar Missiles of various models, equipped with fusion and ion-propulsion engines, streaked through space leaving long engine trails. In a short time, they accelerated from a standstill to speeds of several thousand kilometers per second. Some Interstellar Missiles, benefiting from the velocity of their launch ships, could even exceed 5,000 kilometers per second.

This incredible speed gave them formidable penetration capabilities. The high-yield nuclear warheads they carried would, with each detonation, obliterate all facilities within a radius of dozens of kilometers and vaporize any technological creation.

The Rocket Shells launched by the Energy Cannons were slightly slower, but they were smaller, stealthier, more agile, and far more numerous. Shell after shell flew like Grim Reapers, indiscriminately harvesting enemy targets across the battlefield.

Endless Interstellar Mines lay hidden in the vast, deep expanse of space like cosmic dust. Mine-Sweepers used their Energy Cannons and Laser Cannons for continuous clearing, capable of sweeping tens of thousands of mines in a single second. But the Mine-Layers were just as furiously scattering them, deploying tens of thousands more into space every second.

They lay there in silent ambush, swarming any target that came near. Even if a single mine could only inflict a tiny amount of damage, hundreds of thousands or even millions of them could destroy a Warship. Because of their extremely low cost, this was a highly favorable exchange.

Supported by countless Supercomputer Spaceships, the Wukong AI and the Red Dog AI controlled unmanned combat assets that outnumbered the Manned Warships dozens of times over. They engaged in an utterly brutal slaughter, a conflict even more vicious than the clashes between the Manned Warships.

Less than an hour after the battle began, Li Qingsong roughly estimated that both sides had already lost at least ten million tons of technological assets, either vaporized or reduced to scrap metal.

These were all high-tech assets that required sophisticated, cutting-edge technology to produce, not primary resources like iron or copper ore.

To produce these ten-plus million tons of technological assets would require at least ten times that amount in primary resources. Such a massive production demand would necessitate tens of thousands of giant factories working at full capacity for a year and would require tens of millions of Clones toiling day and night.

But in this battle, such an immense amount of material was completely consumed in just one hour.

And this was only the beginning.

Li Qingsong, who had already transferred his consciousness to Planet Three, gazed out at the twinkling, star-filled sky, his heart heavier than ever before.

Under his control, the industrial production efficiency of the Clones had been pushed to its absolute limit.

Dozens of large moons and scores of smaller ones were churning out astronomical amounts of materials at every moment, all of which were then thrown into the interstellar battlefield.

Tossing materials into water would at least make a splash, but tossing them onto the interstellar battlefield didn’t even make a sound.