Chapter 217: Chapter 158, Star Realm Tunnel_2

For this reason, she ordered the Star Speakers on the ships—also psychics who had undergone special training—to try and make contact with “Quintet.”

However, the Star Speakers brought her some rather bad news: they couldn’t get in touch with “Quintet.”

Star speech messages had been sent out, but there was no response.

This situation deepened Wang Jiarong’s anxiety even further.

There were only two reasons for the lack of contact: either their star speech messages were being blocked and intercepted, preventing transmission, or “Quintet” was unable to receive their messages.

Neither scenario was good news.

It took some time for a ship to come out of warp and resume regular sub-light speed travel, as it needed time to accelerate its engines.

She now only hoped that this acceleration process would pass quickly, which is why she had repeatedly urged the Mechanical Priest in charge of the engines.

At the same time, she ordered the entire fleet to enter first-level battle readiness, making sure they were prepared to face the enemy at any moment.

“Beautiful Girl” was equipped and ready to fire with eleven M-class “Hammer” Colossal Cannons. Each of the other three escort ships was armed with fifteen S-class “Defender” Rapid-Fire Cannons and three M-class “Avenger” Cluster Laser Cannons.

All of these ship cannons, as well as the operators behind them, the fire control systems, and navigation systems were part of the Thinker Array, which had also entered the highest state of combat readiness.

The so-called Thinker Array referred to a “wetware” collective formed by psychics, or even ordinary people, who had undergone special training under Thinker technology, along with basic mechanical calculators. It assisted in ship operation and helped the cannons with calibrating and firing.

Despite all the war preparations, Wang Jiarong still prayed to the Emperor, hoping that misfortune would not truly befall her.

It would be best if nothing happened, and the current tension and extra preparations, even if they turned out to be in vain, would not matter.

However, not every prayer results in a favorable outcome.

“They’re coming out…” The navigator’s voice rang in Wang Jiarong’s ears.

She quickly returned to the main control console, switching the screen to the position opposite the direction of the starship’s travel.

In the void, many ships were gradually revealing their shapes.

In reality, the distance between them was already over fifty thousand kilometers.

However, this distance was still too close in space.

On the virtual screen enlarged by the Thinker Array in front of her, the identities of those ships that were trailing them, crossing through the warp point, and entering the real universe, became very clear:

The Green Skin Orcs’ fleet!

This could be determined from their exaggerated, haphazard appearance, looking like a pile of trash haphazardly put together. Only Green Skin Orc warships would have such a look.

But as unattractive, with random paint jobs, and lacking conventional aesthetic sense they were, and as rough in appearance as to not seem like products of technology…they were indeed bonafide interstellar warships.

“One, two, three, four… twelve Green-Skinned Warships… Can anyone tell me why there are so many Green Skins here?”

Wang Jiarong was somewhat distraught.

But no one could answer her question.

The higher-ups of the merchant fleet at the control console were not inexperienced: the Orc ships that appeared behind them were not easy to deal with.

In the starry sky, there is a most intuitive way to judge the strength of a starship: look at its size.

“`

Of course, it is impossible to be 100% accurate, as countless exceptions can prove this point. However, when the technological levels are not vastly different, as a general rule, the larger the warship, the stronger it is.

At the moment, of the twelve Green-Skinned Warships, four are as large as the destroyers in the Human Empire Fleet; the remaining eight are at least the size of an Escort Ship.

And these ships are armed with huge, outwardly ostentatious cannons, embodying the Green Skin Orcs’ style: caliber is king!

Wang Jiarong struggled to maintain her composure and gave her orders, “Engineering, full speed ahead! We must try to escape before the Green Skin Fleet has a chance to accelerate.”

“All gunnery crews, fire at will at the Green Skin Fleet! Focus fire on single targets! Try to cause as much damage as possible!”

“Yes, ma’am!”

Who on the entire ship didn’t know that this was a critical moment? No one dared slack off when their lives hung in the balance.

Increasing the distance and attempting to flee was obviously the right choice.

The “Beautiful Girl” was slightly larger than the typical mainline destroyer, but most of that space was taken up by the cargo hold. The strength of its Void Shields and the ship’s own armor could barely match that of a destroyer, yet its firepower was at best only half that of a standard destroyer.

The other three Escort Ships were indeed up to normal specifications, carrying only a small amount of cargo.

Against the Green Skin Fleet’s configuration of 4+8, a head-on confrontation was hopeless.

Firing was just something to do when there was nothing else; running was the key.

While trying to escape at full speed, it was impossible for them to adjust the ship’s position to allow all guns to fire at the enemy. In reality, if they fired backwards now, at best only a third of their firepower could be utilized.

However, these Green Skin Ships had just left the Star Realm Tunnel. The energy shields on the ships were activated, but it was clear the power hadn’t been cranked up to the maximum yet.

Just after emerging from the Star Realm Tunnel, the starships were at their most vulnerable.

Because of this, three volleys of concentrated fire directly disabled a Green-Skin Frigate.

The energy shield of the Green-Skinned Warship overloaded, swiftly changing from a blue glow to a dangerous red. A barrage of fire went through the overloaded shield and struck the hull. The armor was shattered, the hull severely damaged, and if one zoomed in closer, one could even see numerous Green Skin Orcs being ejected from the broken parts of the ship.

This Green-Skin Frigate basically lost its combat capability. If the Green Skins were to win the battle, they might be able to retrieve and repair the ship, but at the very least, in this battle, the frigate was no longer a threat.

With an initial victory, Wang Jiarong was somewhat invigorated, and the morale of the entire convoy improved slightly.

However, this was almost the only good news, as the bad news just kept coming one after another.

When they shifted their focus to the second Green Skin Ship, the Green Skin Fleet had already overcome the vulnerability of just having completed the jump. Not only did this mean that the energy shields on their ships were fully operational and not so easily penetrated anymore, but it also meant that the weapons systems were also up and running.

The eleven remaining operational Green-Skinned Starships opened fire simultaneously.

Kinetic Cannons, Green-Skin Laser Cannons, all fired fiercely.

The style of Green Skin Ships, in keeping with the overall style of their race, typically features a larger number of guns of higher caliber compared to human warships of the same class. However, they also continue the trait of generally much less precision than human Navy cannons.

But the distance between the two forces was just too close: at this moment, the gap had widened to around seventy thousand kilometers at most, which in space warfare was almost considered point-blank range.

The human side was set to suffer greatly.

Aboard Wang Jiarong’s four ships, blue lights flickered all around almost simultaneously, indicating the Void Shields activating at the impact of incoming firepower.

In an instant, the Void Shields surrounding the four ships began to show signs of turning purple, signaling an imminent overload.