Ch.334Ouroboros (3)

I felt an intense desire to possess the Ouroboros-class, even the “ship class” designation itself stirred peculiar emotions in me.

—

Title: Ouroboros-class Annihilation-type Siege Battleship

Author: Wiki Historian mk-25

Content: [Ouroboros-class Battleship Concept Art.jpg]

A chimera-like vessel nicknamed the “Big-F♡cking-juji,” combining elements of annihilation ships and siege battleships.

It was updated during the event when the Earth Federation launched large-scale invasions across space.

Initially, it was strictly for NPC use only, with players unable to access it.

Later, as the game’s popularity declined, it was released to players.

Anyway, what was its operational purpose, both during the event and now?

It was a ship operated by the Earth Federation for stronghold attacks or fleet-wide deletion when “invading” players and other factions.

So that’s roughly its purpose, but what about its armaments and performance?

First, excluding the special weapon attached to the lower hull, its own armaments are quite poor compared to its size.

Just the standard twin 3-barrel high-output particle beam turrets, 2 VLS systems, and some 250mm CIWS?

The VLS mostly contains self-defense anti-aircraft missiles, so it gets thrashed by ships not just of the same class but even one class below like battleships or cruisers.

But even those VLS and CIWS are insufficient in number for its size, so if left to defend itself, it gets pummeled by carrier-based aircraft.

Its self-defense capability is also quite pathetic—the average main guns of A to S-class medium cruisers can penetrate it easily.

Electronic warfare defense is surprisingly decent, capable of countering attacks from electronic warfare ships below A-class.

Maneuverability is good; despite its unbalanced appearance and size, it doesn’t seem that way.

As mentioned above, perhaps due to its thin armor, it shows remarkably nimble maneuverability for its size.

Looking at just this, the Ouroboros-class might seem like an oversized piece of junk.

But the actual performance of the Ouroboros-class can ignore everything listed above except maneuverability.

The official name is too complicated, so you can learn it later by looking at the concept art.

Just know that the “special weapon” I briefly mentioned above, nicknamed the “Flamethrower” by players, is the alpha and omega of the Ouroboros-class’s performance.

This thing is seriously powerful.

Annihilation ships already focus entirely on “firepower,” so even medium cruisers to battleship-sized vessels can inflict meaningful damage to stronghold walls.

But the Ouroboros-class’s firepower is truly insane.

The frontal armor of a regular “battleship” with armor reinforcement equipment can’t withstand it for even 30 seconds.

The longest-lasting was a shield fleet’s barrier-providing Xenovia shield equipment-beam coating-armor reinforcement-armor specialized dreadnought.

Even this couldn’t last a minute against full power.

Don’t understand the ship comparison?

At full power in focused mode, it can penetrate a level 7 stronghold’s outer wall in just 2 shots.

But the true value of the Ouroboros-class lies elsewhere.

The special weapon earned the nickname “Flamethrower” because of how it works.

It releases the focused energy state and literally “sprays” that enormous energy forward.

Like a spray or movie flamethrower, yeah.

Since it’s not focused, cruisers and above might just get their armor singed a bit.

They can withstand it.

But ships weaker than medium cruisers, meaning all small ships below light cruisers that aren’t armor-reinforced, just collectively melt when swept by that flamethrower.

And the range is incredibly wide.

When you spray energy capable of penetrating a level 7 stronghold wall without focusing it, like a fart blast,

A fleet of thousands of ships, even widely spread out, loses a third in one shot.

Of course, for balance reasons, the flamethrower can’t be fired rapidly.

After one shot, the armor plates forcibly open and heat sinks pop out, risking one-shot disabling of the flamethrower and ship destruction if hit by a lucky shot.

Anyway, it can wipe out a fleet in one go, right? That’s the gist.

Comments:

-[There’s way too much content here]

-[Where’s the 3-line summary?]

-˪[It’s a super powerful and huge glass cannon](Author)

-˪[You stretched that one line into 20 lines, you idiot]

—

Ah, what a beautiful term.

A “one-shot, one-kill (cannon)” type ship that any real man would desire.

Moreover, its firepower is insane—one shot can eliminate a third of a fleet spread out to its limits.

For average user or NPC fleet formations, it can wipe out at minimum 30%.

Maximum 50% in a single shot.

“Jessica, if we were to hit Tannhäuser with that thing…”

“It would be incredible. We could demolish the outer wall and take out the command center while mercenaries buy us time.”

“We could also massacre the enemy patrol fleets or the small ships in their main fleet that come rushing out.”

“Hmm, well, given the battlefield’s size, we couldn’t do it all at once.”

Of course, since a stronghold’s command center is characteristically located “deep” inside, destroying it would render the stronghold itself useless…

We couldn’t actually use the former method, but the latter “mass elimination” would be perfectly suitable.

Or, like what happened to me, we could use focused mode to wipe out clusters of enemy battleships in formation.

Anyway, the important thing was that if we succeeded in capturing the Ouroboros-class, our strategic options would become truly limitless.

So in this battle, I was determined to capture the Ouroboros at all costs, even if it meant sacrificing all ships except the Neranjara.

And along with that thought, another idea was creeping into both my and Jessica’s minds…

“By the way, Commander, I just had a thought.”

“Yes?”

“…If that enemy fleet had fired in spread mode instead of focused mode, our fleet would have been finished, right?”

“…It’s luck, just luck.”

Unlike our overall fleet that was spread out, our “main forces” were concentrated in the center.

Those NPC bastards fired in focused mode to target the main forces, so only a third of the fleet was lost.

No, combining my forces with Arcadia’s, only about a sixth of the total force was lost.

What if they had used “spread mode” instead?

Then we would have lost most of our small ships that constituted our numerical strength.

If the Neranjara’s “periscope” had also been destroyed, the game would have been over right there.

Thanks to this realization that we had barely survived by sheer luck, we could feel cold sweat running down our spines.

But that feeling didn’t last long.

“Well, the battle is still ongoing, so we need to focus on that.”

“Of course, Commander.”

Since we were still in the middle of combat.

To stop dwelling on unnecessary thoughts, I closed the gallery window and decided to focus on fleet operations.

…After all, how frustrating would it be if I got hit by a flamethrower because I allowed enemy reconnaissance while chatting idly?

—

Meanwhile, right after Icarus closed the gallery window.

Among the veteran players in the gallery, discussions about the “proof shot” Icarus had uploaded were quietly circulating.

Of course, this wasn’t proceeding as some sinister conspiracy.

—

Title: Honestly Shocked by the Ouroboros-class Proof Shot

Author: WantToPullTiamatsPantsDownAndFart

Content: [Ouroboros-class from Icarus’s proof shot.jpg]

I remember this thing costing like 150 or 200 points.

What the hell is this guy carrying that made this thing appear?

Comments:

-[What are you talking about?]

-˪[They said it appears at 2.5x in this event, meaning the ships are 2.5x stronger, not that there are 2.5x more ships](Author)

-˪[What?]

-˪[So Icarus has small ships that cost at least 50 points each?]

-˪[Yeah, that’s what I think](Author)

-[Icarus isn’t responding, must be in the middle of another round]

—

When a veteran player analyzed Icarus’s proof shot and the Ouroboros-class shown in it.

The existence of the Neranjara that Icarus had been hiding was now hinted at to other veteran players as “something’s there.”