Ch.166166. The Fall of Truia

In truth, Truia’s fleet had a fatal weakness.

Their completely spherical ships possessed high durability through stable structures, making them excellent at ramming attacks and area denial against fighter craft by firing in all directions.

But perhaps as a trade-off for these advantages, Truia’s vessels had evenly distributed energy emission points across their surface for area control, resulting in lower firepower against targets of the same class.

In other words, they were inherently disadvantaged in the line formation firepower exchanges that dominated current galactic warfare. The reason other elder races didn’t use spherical spacecraft wasn’t due to conservatism.

Take human angular spacecraft, for example. They hang various secondary weapons along the sides to project maximum firepower at once, and mount the main guns facing forward for easy targeting.

And the Leviathan ships, which could be considered the originators of this design, faithfully employed the same principles—

On the battlefield where ships formed battle lines and poured all their firepower like infantry formations, the Leviathans’ lasers and plasma overwhelmed Truia’s green energy.

Of course, Truia’s ships weren’t inferior in terms of raw firepower.

Their green energy, which caused only physical damage without the race-specific additional effects, had excellent fuel-to-energy efficiency and could project uniform firepower in all directions without blind spots.

However, this weapons system simply wasn’t particularly effective against Leviathan vessels.

The Leviathan fleet used three types of long-range weapons, faithfully following their original configuration: lasers, plasma, and bio-torpedoes.

First, lasers. Due to their light-based nature, they were easy to aim and maintain in a straight line, making them primarily used as main guns and anti-aircraft weapons.

Their characteristics—increasing power and range with size, simple yet easy-to-maintain structure, and straightforward output control—made them common throughout the galaxy, especially in the Human Federation.

Plasma, on the other hand, was slower than lasers but had the highest instantaneous firepower among current weapons. With speeds easily exceeding the speed of sound, plasma weapons were commonly used as side-mounted secondary guns.

While range issues made them less useful in long-distance engagements spanning thousands to tens of thousands of kilometers, nothing matched plasma weapons in close-range combat at distances of a few hundred kilometers.

Broadside firing from side-mounted guns at close range could easily shoot down ships of the same class.

Finally, bio-torpedoes, the missiles and small flying craft of space warfare, were the Hive Fleet’s unique characteristic.

In other interstellar civilizations and the Human Federation, missiles and torpedoes were rarely used because the Hive Fleet’s bio-EMP pulses interfered with guidance systems, and guidance devices effective at such distances were prohibitively expensive.

At most, they used large numbers of small, high-speed craft carried by carrier ships to fire at extremely close range. In contrast, the Hive Fleet’s bio-torpedoes completely ignored these chronic problems of guided weapons.

The EMP pulses were friendly fire and meaningless against biological entities, and the cost issue of guidance electronics was irrelevant since the bio-torpedoes themselves were living organisms.

Moreover, torpedoes that had accumulated enough experience through death and rebirth could perform almost divinely inspired evasive maneuvers before impact, making them unparalleled weapons for the Hive Mind.

The common and most prevalent bio-plasma torpedoes, bio-field torpedoes specialized in penetrating armor and turning ship interiors to mush, anti-psychic torpedoes that could instantly demolish thick psychic shields.

Cruise torpedoes for ultra-long-range strikes, cyclone torpedoes that created artificial psychic storms, and even nuclear warhead torpedoes that were rarely used due to unintended mutation problems from radiation.

Armed with this truly diverse array of torpedoes, the Leviathan fleet moved organically, as if controlled by some transcendent being from a third-person perspective (which was actually the case).

With the flagship at the very front, followed by massive super-dreadnoughts forming a battle line to withstand and counter Truia’s bombardment, meanwhile some destroyers and fighter craft supported by cruiser-class space jumps approached the Truian fleet’s flanks.

Already at a disadvantage in terms of firepower even when concentrating all their efforts on the frontal battle line, the Truian fleet had no capacity to deal with these additional miscellaneous forces.

Therefore, they attempted to intercept the flanking strike force by deploying their reserve small fighter craft, but… they overlooked one crucial fact.

“…We’re screwed.”

“If we can see each other again, let’s meet in heaven, Captain.”

This flanking force wasn’t approaching to directly attack the fleet, but to unleash torpedoes packed to their absolute limit.

A total of 8,010,007,435 torpedoes. And these were high-intelligence cruise torpedoes specially produced for this operation by the Hive Mind, which typically disliked complex weapon systems and was willing to risk supply complications.

These “torpedoes,” with eyes and mouths resembling elongated sharks, carried the souls of veteran torpedoes that had lived as torpedoes for at least 3,000 years.

Consequently, the torpedoes rushing through the incoming barrage like pouring rain used each other as shields to ensure at least one torpedo would reach its target.

KWAAAANG—

In just 15 minutes, the 41,749,111th torpedo successfully broke through the defensive fire and invaded enemy lines, beginning by destroying an unfortunate medium-sized Truian vessel. From there, the Truian fleet was swept away by a wave of torpedoes.

Though their firepower was honestly below expectations due to their mobility and long-term operational capabilities, this was only in comparison to specialized high-firepower torpedoes.

A direct hit could tear off the outer walls of even the largest Truian ships, and they could forcibly penetrate mediocre psychic shields.

Furthermore, if targets abandoned attacks to deploy maximum-output psychic shields that couldn’t be penetrated, the torpedoes would either wait until the shield generators overheated or prudently harass other targets.

In this desperate situation, with massive battleships from the front and a deluge of torpedoes and medium-small high-speed ships pounding from the sides—

“CHAAAARGE!!!”

The Truian fleet initiated their final tactic, one that the manual specified should only be used when no conventional method could defeat the enemy: a full-force charge to strike the enemy lines.

In fact, this charge was actually quite effective for the Truian fleet.

Their perfectly spherical ships were specialized for ramming, minimizing their own damage while crushing the enemy, and of course, this wasn’t a mindless banzai charge like the Imperial Japanese Army.

KUUUNG—!

KUUUUUNG!!!

They fired green energy blasts at maximum output with almost no recoil for suppression, naturally supported by covering fire from some long-range specialized vessels.

Of course, now the chaotic battle caused by the Leviathans’ bio-torpedo swarms striking their flanks made it difficult to expect fire support from the relatively thinly armored bombardment-specialized ships.

Nevertheless, their mass charge was sufficiently threatening, and an ordinary fleet would have been overwhelmed by this shocking ramming attack resurrected from ancient times, becoming confused and picked off one by one in the ensuing melee.

[…Idiots. Orders: play along with them!]

That would be true if their opponent wasn’t the Leviathan Hive Fleet—the most proficient in close combat among all ships in the galaxy.

Like their long-range armaments, Leviathan ships’ close-combat weapons were divided into three types.

First, there was the mouth at the front, which doubled as the main gun barrel and, as befitting a living organism, could be used to bite and devour approaching enemies.

It was an extremely primitive and animalistic attack—biting and swallowing approaching parts, then incinerating the ingested components with lasers before consuming them.

Additionally, the pair of arms attached to either side of the mouth’s jaw, resembling dragonfly mandibles, were extremely effective weapons in close combat.

Though not particularly long, they could grab and hold targets with their sharp claws after ramming, buying time for internal troops to transfer, or simply use them as psychic claws if necessary.

Small nozzles in the wrist areas could even spray psychic flames, acidic solutions, or various poisons instantly concocted using internal organs within the arm sections… making words unnecessary.

And beyond these, the weapon that made Leviathan ships considered supreme in close combat was the tentacles with milky-white tips growing from the gaps in the ship’s carapace.

With these tentacles that could dissolve and melt anything they touched, the fate of the Truian fleet that had plunged into the melee was essentially sealed.

Thus, exactly 47 minutes and 11 seconds after the full charge began, the last Truian capital ship was torn apart and devoured, reducing Truia’s aerial forces to dust.