Sky-cracking Rider
Chapter 863 - 863: Section 857 - Deep Space

"The first transport ship has taken off. This is truly thrilling!"

Miyoshi Xuesen gazed out the porthole as a large, elongated airship slowly entered the "wormhole cloud," barely able to hold onto his teacup.

The precious landing window would not last long; both sides were racing against time, trying to shift the situation in their favor as much as possible.

"The hard fight is about to begin!"

Chen Fei maintained two views in front of him, one on Midway Island and the other on the opposite alien planet through the "wormhole cloud." Burning craters filled with monsters had numerous breaches, with flames forcibly extinguished and numerous traces of white frost.

As expected, the parasitic species were not without actions. They had played their counter hand accurately. War was a back-and-forth affair, rarely a one-sided massacre.

Huge beetles, entirely white, appeared on the distant horizon, swarming in like tides at remarkable speed. They crashed through dense, tall fern plants, spewing white fumes that extinguished the raging flames. Their high, sharp horns easily flipped over the piled charred bodies and stormed into the area cleared by thermobaric bombs.

Each white beetle was about 20 meters long, resembling a small hill, capable of effortlessly overturning Blue Star's current infantry armored vehicles.

"What do you see?"

Monk knew Chen Fei was using different perspectives. This wasn't a special ability but technology.

However, even if given a hundred times the courage, he still wouldn't dare let Artificial Intelligence AI take over and interfere with his visual neural signals. Who knew whether what he saw would be real?

"Better to share joy together," Chen Fei generously said, "'Adam,' 10-kilometer radius, 45-degree angle, holographic projection, add recognition tags."

The next second, a holographic three-dimensional image with a radius of ten meters was projected within the bridge cabin.

The surface of the alien planet corresponding to the "wormhole cloud" was mostly still burning. Part of the breached body was now a ring-shaped mountain of corpses. Beyond it, the fern forest burned even more intensely.

Blue Star had sent over numerous reconnaissance drones, thus acquiring a vast amount of information, not just optical images but also electromagnetic and laser scans.

At a distance of 7 kilometers from the "wormhole cloud," the first large transport ship fully emerged, its side and lower hatches opening simultaneously, and combat units swarmed out.

Unmanned tactical aircraft continuously rushed into the sky, forming many small three-aircraft formations headed in all directions. They were the main aerial forces in the early landing stages, no less powerful even against those "fighter bugs."

After all, both were expendable: one from an industrial assembly line, the other from a biological assembly line. Even self-sacrificial clashes didn't cause any hesitation—casualties of the intelligent species equaled zero.

The thermobaric bomb that previously exploded sent shockwaves that either blew up the hovering "fighter bugs" in mid-air or made them fall like dumplings. Only two or three that were not threatening were left, clearing the sky entirely.

The transport ship's close-in railguns began intensive firing. The tidal wave of white beetles was pierced by high-explosive rounds fired from the railguns. Their thick exoskeletons visibly couldn't withstand internal explosions, breaking into numerous cracks, some even shattering on the spot. The ultra-low temperature fluid inside gushed out, freezing the moisture in the air into ice.

Despite their enormous size and impressive impact force, the white beetles had clear disadvantages. Once their comrades in front were killed, the bodies became obstacles for those behind. Although the sharp horns could flip the bodies, their momentum was repeatedly hindered, making it difficult to regain speed.

Numerous incendiary bombs were dropped by unmanned tactical aircraft onto the white beetle swarms, advancing layer by layer like raindrops into their depths.

The oxygen-rich atmosphere became an advantage for the incendiary bombs. Flames originally orange-red on Blue Star now burned a higher-temperature blue, enough to turn land into lava in a very short time, skipping the glassification stage entirely.

Though the white beetles could spew freezing gas to extinguish the flames, it couldn't withstand the continuous heavy incendiary bombs with enhanced burning temperatures.

In the distant sky, numerous "fighter bugs" appeared, both first-generation "01" and second-generation "02," the numbers exceeding ten thousand.

The battle for air supremacy between the two sides began in an instant.

By then, the first large transport ship had already landed, and various light and heavy equipment were deployed. The second and third large transport ships had also burst out of the "wormhole cloud," with even more tactical drones pouring into the sky.

"First stage: 30 minutes, 25 minutes remaining!"

As the "Extraterrestrial Normandy" operation officially started, Chen Fei received the complete landing plan at the first moment.

The first stage was not a direct confrontation with the alien monsters but aimed to gain information control, with the core being satellite launches to monitor the entire planet from a strategic vantage point.

Before launching the satellites, reconnaissance drones had already reached an altitude of fifty thousand meters, capturing even more images from above.

At fifty thousand meters, biological activity still existed—giant jellyfish-like deep-space floating creatures with outlines over a kilometer wide, forming a large diverse biological settlement. The ecological nature needed further research to understand how these various sizes of creatures could survive and reproduce at this altitude.

At least one thing was clear: these large floating settlements showed little interest in reconnaissance drones from the Blue Star Civilization, unlike the purposeful "fighter bugs," which charged to fight as soon as they appeared in sight.

Therefore, scientists following the "Extraterrestrial Normandy" operation speculated that these might be native creatures of the alien planet, not the biological weapons cultivated by the "Sagali" species.

If this were true, the first stage satellite launch plan should proceed relatively smoothly, without interception and attacks during lift-off.

Even the parasitic species likely never expected their weapon-breeding planet to be counter-invaded, let alone rocket satellite launches to establish an extensive deep-space information network.

The data link for battles below fifty thousand meters altitude had already been formed, allowing high-altitude drones and others to track over a million targets in real-time, with each marked in three-dimensional projection. Attack prediction paths and allied missile trajectories crisscrossed, and damage estimates were displayed as three-dimensional spherical areas.

The clear and intuitive on-site simulation greatly reduced command pressure, even enabling real-time strategy game players from civilian backgrounds to handle it.

Not to mention, there was more than one remote real-time command team following the original plan, cooperating with each other to achieve anticipated tactical objectives step by step.

What was clearly an entertainment video game was imbued with the meaning of war—truly worthy of the Blue Star Civilization.

"Rookie, don't you feel like we don't have enough drones?"

Comparing the numbers of tactical drones to the incoming "fighter bugs," Miyoshi Xuesen found they had 2,000 drones versus 14,750+ "fighter bugs," a typical scenario of being outnumbered on enemy turf.

"It's like Tian Ji's horse racing," Chen Fei replied, glancing at the ground defenses around the "wormhole cloud." Numerous railguns set up, their muzzles pointed towards the sky in all directions, the largest caliber exceeding 1,200 mm.

The largest caliber shells could essentially level a football field in quantity.

Understanding professional battlefield jargon, even a novice like Monk quickly got it.

The number of tactical drones was limited, but the number of railguns was more than sufficient.

The drone swarm preemptively avoided the ground railgun attack paths. A vast barrage of large-caliber railguns fired in unison, sending countless 30-mm ceramic-coated steel beads shooting into the sky.

Another barrage quickly followed.

While railgun firing consumed huge amounts of electric energy, unlike firearms where chemical energy was pre-packed in the shells, continuous volleys demanded extensive power. Still, for crystal energy reserved for the entire operation, it remained within manageable consumption limits.

The "fighter bug" swarm engulfing the sky neither dodged nor flinched, charging straight into the barrage of 30-mm ceramic-coated steel beads, fireballs bursting continuously, clearing a massive space instantly.

The high oxygen atmosphere increased air friction combustion efficiency, posing less favorability to railgun's effective range. Hence, the projectile surface was coated with heat-resistant special ceramics.

Over a thousand railguns firing together was both an impressive and destructive sight. Swathes of "fighter bugs" were annihilated mid-air, similar to Blue Star's aircraft, possessing fragile interiors. The 30-mm caliber rounds could easily penetrate their bodies, causing high-volatility flammable fluids inside to leak, even exploding directly.

The real essence of modern warfare lay in low-cost high-efficiency slaughter. A 30-mm ceramic-coated steel bead cost just a few cents. A million-round volley cost how much? Probably not as much as a single short-range smart combat round wholesale for private military contractors.

The erected rockets spewed hot flames, vaporizing plenty of liquid water, spreading white steam in all directions.

One rocket launched 48 satellites directly into high-altitude geosynchronous orbit.

Some "fighter bugs" detached from their main force to intercept but had no chance of matching the faster rockets, quickly left behind, and soon engulfed by a wave of ceramic-coated projectiles.