Chapter 1,478 Plan

The sovereign hub of this world is a small artificial galaxy. Since it is an artificial thing, it naturally does not conform to the rules: this galaxy has no stars. It consists of a pair of dark twin stars and a pair of dark twin stars deployed around the twin stars in a complex orbit. It is composed of a large number of space fortresses. Not counting those that may be hidden in the folds of space and ready for cold shots, there are currently thousands of large defense stations that can be identified. These large space facilities look like several stacked flying disks. Larger than an Eternal-class mothership, it relies on a large number of drones and heavy-duty fortress missile launchers to operate. They run in the high orbit of the sovereign hub. The fire coverage area of ​​each space fortress is at least equal to that of at least five others. The fortresses intersect directly, and there is no gap to penetrate even without using hyperspace firepower. These behemoths are the defense system of the sovereign hub itself. They are strong, durable, and powerful - their drone swarms can effectively deal with fast-moving assault ships and the like. Invasion forces, and heavy fortress missiles can cause considerable damage to motherships such as the Eternal class. At the same time, there are some special types of scanning towers hidden in the hidden force fields of these space fortresses. The stealth bombers we sent out Almost suffered heavy losses as a result.

The mobile troops of the fallen apostles cooperated with these solid space bunkers to form an additional line of defense for the sovereign hub. The enemy fleets equivalent to three integrated legions all gathered in the low-Earth orbit of the twin stars. The rough and fleshy space The fortress intercepted almost all the Imperial assault ships, so the enemy fleet could huddle behind the defense line and use its main guns to fight us with peace of mind.

The dazzling beam of the Galaxy's main cannon frequently illuminates the deep and dim space. The Imperial Fleet is facing off against the enemy's defense line at a distance of more than 1.2 million kilometers from the sovereign hub. I think I have to announce something different now. Good news:

I underestimated the defensive capabilities of the Fallen Apostle's space fortress. These stupid-looking space facilities were as hard as Ilson's golden turtle shell! Moreover, the Fallen Apostles have also deployed a large number of shield push towers and amplifiers around each space fortress. These amplifier devices have no other function. They are to continuously create mothership-level shields. When they are gathered together, they create something similar to a joint shield. The effect of the shield is that every space fortress is equivalent to being protected by a joint shield, and it is difficult for the Galaxy main gun to shake it. Only fleet salvos can overload these fortresses and destroy them instantly.

However, the enemy has deployed thousands of such fortresses over their sovereign hub. Even if the Imperial Army can clear them out one by one in seconds, the Fallen Apostle's purpose of delaying time will be achieved.

What's more, their main fleet has now retreated behind the defense line formed by these fortresses. After we kill all the fortresses in high orbit, we still have to deal with those guys - I'm afraid that by then, the imperial army's numerical advantage will be gone. .

Our initial battle plan was as follows: rush into the abyss with a sufficient number of elite troops, and then capture the next world as quickly as possible. After the battlefield is stabilized, we will transfer the Celestial System Fleet and Sandora's Revenge Fleet from the empire to use the Celestial System System. The fleet began to expand the front for the outpost. This last point is particularly important, otherwise how could we possibly sweep across the abyss with the legions we have now.

If the sovereign hub of this world cannot be removed as soon as possible now, then the entire plan will be stuck.

"It seems that we have picked a bone that is not easy to chew. It is really bad luck," Sandora frowned and whispered, "This universe should be a fortress world. It must be an important node on the border of the fallen apostles, and may even be Defense headquarters for other universes.”

"Think on the bright side, if we knock this place down we can open a bigger gap." I wanted to give Sandora some psychological comfort. "Look at the number of these crazy space fortresses. The Sovereignty Hub must be an important node. Maybe there is a key to other universes - just like our key worlds that can lead directly to the capital. As long as we take down this place, how much time can we save..."

Before I finished speaking, I saw a glare flash on the holographic projection in the center of the command hall, followed by a vibration under my feet.

"What happened just now?" Sandora asked immediately, and Bubble's voice replied on the ship's broadcast: "One-third of the enemy's fortress fired a salvo of heavy missiles at us, but fortunately the joint shield It's strong, only some nodes are overloaded, nothing serious."

"Are those fortresses special models?" Sandora looked at the disk-on-disk space structures on the holographic projection in confusion. "In such a fierce exchange of fire, they were able to conserve their firepower and secretly prepare a volley..."

"Attention, the drone swarm is approaching!" the early warning radar warned again. When I looked up, I saw an overwhelming number of small aircraft swarming out of the enemy's space fortress. These aircraft were slightly smaller than individual fighter planes, and their appearance It's like a football with four pairs of swept wings. They poured out from the upper ejection nests of each space fortress. They looked like a swarm of bees preparing to go out for a carnival. They continued to accelerate with short jumps during their flight, and arrived in an instant. The Imperial fleet approaches. Then start bombarding our combined shields with a common death.

There are high-speed processing plants in those battle fortresses. They can produce a batch of these suicide drones every ten minutes. The suicide drones are not equipped with any weapons. They only have a set of amazingly efficient propulsion devices and a belly full of instability. Psionic crystals, these cheap and annoying little devils are very fragile. Basically any type of anti-aircraft firepower can kill them in seconds. However, their huge number and the speed of their birth in waves are very troublesome.

What's more, the power of their self-destruction on the joint shield is not weak at all.

The Frontier-class fortress ships located on the periphery of the fleet opened their anti-aircraft armor belts, and dense anti-aircraft guns began to fire wildly at these little devils. The Expedition-class warships deployed a large number of warning turrets on the flanks in order to intercept these endless incoming attacks as much as possible. Self-destructing drones, while various motherships also opened their carrier-based hangars, assault ships and individual fighter jets began to rush out in groups to clean up these dangerous self-destructors. These overwhelming small explosions hit the joint shield Thousands of surges were generated on the computer, so much so that external monitors blurred under the intense interference. However, although those self-destructing drones are annoying, they are too fragile. Coupled with the abundant anti-aircraft firepower of the Imperial Army, this wave of attacks did not cause much harm to us after all.

However, after these batches of self-destructing drones were cleaned up, those space fortresses had already produced the second batch of drones... and the cycle started again, endlessly.

The second batch of drones will most likely be accompanied by a second round of heavy-duty Fortress missiles.

"Such a back-and-forth is not the way to go," I didn't expect that the Imperial Army, which had a numerical advantage, would be held back by the fallen apostle's tower defense tactics. His brows were furrowed almost like a Chinese knot, "Even if we can destroy their fortresses one by one, our reinforcements should have arrived by then... We still have several groups of fleets waiting in the Empire area to come here. As for teleportation, what can we do if we can’t defeat the bridgehead?”

"We must find a way to take those fortresses offline... The fallen apostles' biggest reliance now is those things," Sandora also frowned. She looked at the space fortresses and quickly queried something on her data terminal. Then the Sixth Fleet was suddenly connected, "Vincent, do you know what the weaknesses of those fortresses are?"

When the Sixth Fleet was first established, it was an "expert force" dedicated to combating fallen apostles. A considerable number of its senior commanders and combat advisors were former fallen apostles, and Vincent Carlo was naturally among them.

"This type of fortress was designed by the original chief technician Occam himself, and it is very different from the models of the old empire. Moreover, after Occam's death, these fortresses were improved many times by his successors, so now we also I don’t know what aspects they have evolved in,” Vincent’s face appeared on the communicator, “but their general framework should not have improved much. Compared with the models of the old empire, the most significant change in these fortresses is that they have been cancelled. All the phantom energy artillery and the vacated gun mounts have been converted into heavy missile silos. In addition, Occam also redesigned their internal structures, and the extra effective space is used to install new types of drone production lines and missiles. Assembly line…”

"Missile assembly line?" Sandora raised her eyebrows, "Even the heavy missiles it launches are processed on-site in the fortress?"

"Yes," Vincent nodded, "It has two sets of ammunition supply methods. One is a conventional hyperspace ammunition chain, which delivers ammunition from the ammunition depot through time and space transmission. The second set is a production facility. With Lower speeds are constantly assembling missiles on site, so even if their hyperspace supply is blocked, these fortresses will always have ammunition available—it’s just a little less efficient.”

"No wonder they can still accumulate the firepower of missile volleys after fierce battles. More launchers, more ammunition supplies, canceling artillery designs, and comprehensively enhancing the power of missiles... That Ockham really won't give it up even if he dies. People are safe." Shandora's mouth twitched slightly, "There must be loopholes to exploit, there is no perfect weapon in the world... Vincent, you said these fortresses do not have artillery. In other words, their attack speed and close range Will the defense capability be very low?”

"The attack speed is indeed affected. Without high-speed turrets, it is difficult to attack quickly by relying only on heavy missile launchers." Vincent nodded, "But the close defense capability has not dropped much. Occam uses a large number of drones to make up for it. Despite the lack of high-speed turrets, the defensive capabilities of these drones are also very strong. Currently, those fortresses are actively attacking with drones, but if the imperial army sends assault troops close to those fortresses, these drones will instantly switch to defense State, they are no weaker than anti-aircraft gun emplacements. We have tried this just now, and the assault troops cannot get close to the battle fortress at all."

"Those drones require a ten-minute production cycle," Sandora raised her eyebrows. "As long as all the drones produced in one round can be cleared within ten minutes, those fortresses will have a defense gap."

"It's 'close defense blank', Your Majesty." Vincent corrected him seriously. I believe everyone has not forgotten that Brother Carlo has language obsessive-compulsive disorder.

"Okay, let's take the close defense gap," Shandora waved her hand nonchalantly, "Now we have found a breakthrough point, Vincent, tell us your suggestions. If we can break through the fortress's close defense circle, how can we let these people Are you going to be temporarily disabled?"

Vincent thought about it seriously and then raised his head: "Your Majesty, we can consider taking these fortresses offline temporarily. This kind of planetary defense facility operates automatically and is controlled by the fortress host, and these hosts use In a distributed network, each bastion host can be regarded as a host in the planet's defense circle, and at the same time they are all terminals. All bastion hosts are equal in the entire defense system - that is, the highest command host is eliminated. This This design was originally intended to improve the survivability of the planet's defense circle. Since there is no supreme command host, all fortresses will not be out of control due to the destruction of the control center. No matter how many distributed hosts we destroy, its remaining computing power will always be able to To ensure the operation of the planetary defense circle, this distributed network has a flaw: although it cancels the highest command host, it still requires a 'source' that can issue the highest command, and this 'source' can be contaminated."

Sandora showed an interested look: "This 'source' doesn't actually exist, right?"

"Yes, it is something similar to a protocol package, which is widely present in the network of the entire planetary defense system." Vincent nodded, "Each fortress host has this protocol installed. When the fortress group needs to fight externally, They use a random host as the highest command source and rely on a series of complex forwarding methods to achieve coordinated actions across the entire network. When the fortress where this random host is located is destroyed, the network will immediately generate a new host to fill the vacancy. This The process was also designed by Occam and is theoretically foolproof.”

"Theoretically," Sandora smiled, "most of the theoretical things can be broken through. So, do you have a way to stop these fortresses from forwarding attack plans to each other?"

Vincent pointed to his chest: "I am a senior general of His Majesty Harlan, and His Majesty Harlan was one of the great warlords in the Abyss. We have had many such fortresses, and we know its end Key."

I was suddenly surprised: "These things also have brakes?"

"It's not a brake, it's a stop key," Vincent corrected me very seriously, "Every weapon should have an insurance, and of course this kind of automatic and powerful defensive bunker must have one. The stop key can make the fortress All hosts are shut down for system maintenance or network protocol upgrades."

At this time, another violent vibration came from beneath the feet: the enemy's space fortress once again bombarded the Imperial Army's joint shield with heavy missiles. Same situation as before. The enemy's attack still cannot break through the defenses of the imperial army, and in turn it is difficult for us to destroy the sovereign hub in a short time. This shock once again made everyone realize that the current tug-of-war must be broken. Sandora looked at the communicator Vincent glanced at him: "Then there is one last question - you have left the Fallen Apostles camp for a long time, how can you ensure that this key can still be used? If I were the chief of defense of the Fallen Apostles, once a key officer like you falls When it gets into the hands of the enemy, the first thing to do is to reset the passwords of all the hosts on the defense line."

Vincent smiled confidently: "Of course they will reset these keys. But I am sure to crack it. I have worked with Occam for many years, and was responsible for managing these battle fortresses, so I know this set of rules." The rules for solving the key. And cracking the key is not the hardest part in the first place - the hardest part is knowing which part of the defense system this set of keys works on, and my subordinates know this clearly."

"The difficulty is not matching the key. It's finding the keyhole..." Sandora nodded, "You have to sneak into those fortresses to hack them, right?"

"There is no other way," Vincent replied, "We have lost the ability to control the equipment in the Abyss through the mental network. The only feasible solution is to enter the interior of those battle fortresses. Just crack one and the distributed network will take care of it. leftover."

"Okay, this plan is feasible," Sandora stood up, then frowned and looked at the space fortresses that started to release drones again, "The trouble is those drones...the big spaceships can't carry the fortress missiles. , the small spaceship cannot withstand the drone swarm, and all the drones must be eliminated within ten minutes to find an opening to send people in. Vincent, if you charge hard, I'm afraid your people won't be able to get through at all."

I heard from the sidelines that now, I couldn’t find a chance to intervene in those professional things before. At this time, it finally came to the part where I threw my arms and fought hard. I knew that the time had come for me to take action. Isn’t that what I, the Great Void Clan, have to say? Motto: If you are indecisive, go big, or be undecided and give away a tower... Now this should be regarded as giving up a tower, right?

Oh, this statement seems not very auspicious...

"I will escort the experts over." I stepped forward and patted Shandora on the shoulder. "You will definitely not find a bodyguard more resistant to beatings than me. In the first few minutes, you worked hard to eliminate the drones and wait for those little When the number of gadgets was about the same, I personally escorted Vincent's people there. With such a big battlefield and such a big space, I don't believe how difficult it would be to send a handful of people there."

Shandora glanced at me, presumably trying to persuade me, but she quickly remembered my habit of throwing my arms around myself. In the end, she didn't say anything, but squeezed my hand hard: "Don't worry. Be careful, if you fail to break through, pull back immediately. We can't break through this line of defense using conventional methods...it just takes a little longer. I don't want you to let me go back and stay as a widow for tens of thousands of years, waiting for you to read the note. resurrection……"

I smiled and patted Sandora's hand: "Don't worry, I am a man who creates miracles. Leave this to me. I will definitely come back alive. After this battle is over, we will..."

Just when I was halfway through speaking, Xiao Xueteng jumped up next to me. She pressed my mouth and jumped up and down: "Dad, you can't be such a bad character! Void creatures can't seek death, okay..."

Me: "..." (To be continued...)