Star Ocean: Starting from the Abandoned Mining Space Station

Chapter 69 Capture the Ship
As the fifth cruiser belonging to Afterglow's side appeared within the sensor range of both warring parties.

The situation on the battlefield that was originally tilted towards the army was reversed in an instant.

The pressure on the military front increased sharply, and they immediately shrank their formation, reduced the area facing the enemy, and protected the small outpost behind them more closely.

A small outpost does not have powerful firepower and shields like a pirate space station. It is just a space structure similar to a mining space station.

In terms of combat, it can be said that it is holding back the four cruisers.

Therefore, in order to face the afterglow troops that raided from the other direction, the outpost was protected from being attacked.

After the military tightened its defense line, it immediately turned around a ruler-class ship, and with other small ships that had received orders, they faced the second afterglow fleet that came in for a surprise attack.

The four large load-bearing points of the ruler are equipped with two storm needles and two inferno cannons that fire high-speed plasma heavy warheads and have terrifying destructive power on armor.

Moreover, there are three medium-sized missile mounting points in front of it. The launched missiles can be detonated directly in the middle in a two-stage propulsion method, stimulating a large cluster of high-speed kinetic energy spike warheads to shoot forward, which has the same terrifying effect on the shield. Destructive power.

Such powerful frontal firepower made the newly added Afterglow Cruiser choose to avoid its edge.

Relying on its advantages of mobility and weapon range, the three tachyon spears continued to consume the ruler-class ship.

Although it is a bit strange to choose a consumption-based combat method for the raid mission, Chen Ming fully understands the Afterglow Cruiser's current choice.

Because military ships have some very obvious characteristics.

It has thick armor, sufficient firepower, and relatively poor mobility.

Therefore, it would be a very irrational decision for most ships to engage in direct firefights with military ships.

Drawing the battle line through mobility is a good way to deal with military ships.

And because most designs of military spacecraft put a lot of effort into armor and firepower.

As a result, in addition to other aspects of the ship's maneuverability, such as shields, it also lags behind.

When hit by the same attack, the radiation energy generated by the military's ship shield will be much higher than the radiation energy generated by the Afterglow ship's shield being hit.

Therefore, it is definitely profitable for Afterglow to exchange the radiation energy used by the weapons for the radiation energy hit by the military spacecraft shield.

The shield consumes more radiation energy, so the weapon can use less radiation energy, and it can also reduce the pressure of frontal firepower in disguise.

As long as the Afterglow cruiser can overcome the military ship's shield disadvantage and quickly break through the ruler's shield, the time lost now will be earned back immediately.

The two cruisers began a tug-of-war, and at the same time, the military outpost was on the other side.

The four Afterglow cruisers are also constantly putting pressure on the military after one of the military's cruisers left.

Because the military lacks the firepower and shield of a cruiser, the battle line is constantly being eroded by the afterglow and retreating.

But their retreat was much slower than Chen Ming expected.

And he saw the problem at a glance.

It is because the battle line has shrunk that the battle surface has become narrower and the battlefield area has become smaller. Therefore, the fighter jets flying out of that aircraft carrier can play a greater role.

Although the big ship was advancing step by step, the small ship below was being restrained, causing Yuhui's advancement to be delayed.

If it weren't for the fact that the battlefield is getting smaller and the consumption of fighter planes is increasing, the military might be able to regain some local advantages.

And the reason why the fighter plane performs so well is actually very obvious.

Chen Ming directly asked the Gamma AI: "Don't your Yuhui's ships be equipped with defensive weapons?"

Faced with Chen Ming's slightly sarcastic question, Gamma AI made no special statement, and answered normally as before: "Usually, there are, for example, the diopter level I control, there are two small dots. Defensive weapons.”

"But before carrying out this raid mission, most of our ships have been modified, all defensive weapons have been removed, and all offensive weapons have been installed."

"Only auxiliary ships like mine will be equipped with a small amount of point defense."

Chen Ming took another look at the scene of the Afterglow ship being constantly harassed by fighter jets displayed on the sensor, and asked, "Didn't you consider the existence of aircraft carriers and a large number of fighter jets in the military when you refitted the ship?"

Gamma AI explained: "It is the commander's task to consider these things. I am not sure of his thoughts and his command intentions, but I can try to guess."

"We had already launched an attack on a military outpost some time before we started the attack mission on the space station."

"In that attack, the military outpost used a total of three cruisers, which did not include the Mora-class aircraft carrier."

"The commander may have thought that the human military did not have other ship reserves, so he made such a decision."

"This was a failure in intelligence and tactics, and the command must bear responsibility."

"But at least the overall situation on the battlefield is still in our favor."

As soon as the Gamma AI finished speaking, Chen Ming saw the tachyon spear of the Afterglow cruiser he was following that was engaging in a firefight with the Dominator class begin its second round of shooting.

The torrent of high-energy particles accurately hit the Dominator.

The two rounds of three-door Tachyon Spear's concentrated fire could not even withstand the shield of the space station, let alone a cruiser like the Dominator class.

Before the second round of Tachyon Spear's laser beam ended, the Dominator's shield was completely unable to withstand it and was forced to close.

The aftermath of the particle spear left blazing traces of melt on its frontal armor.

However, the Dominator class was not destroyed, nor did it suffer critical damage, and it was even able to continue firing counterattacks.

But the Afterglow Cruiser has another feature, flash.

When the Dominator-class shields are shut down due to imminent overload, the ship itself is most vulnerable.

The flickering engine at the tail of the Afterglow cruiser was activated and caused resonance, driving all the surrounding Afterglow ships, including Chen Ming's Diopter class, to instantly disappear on the front line maintained by the Dominator class.

appeared between it and the outpost behind it.

Some of the afterglow ships flashed in place and headed towards the military outpost.

The other part, together with the Afterglow cruiser, stabbed the military from behind.

The Dominator-class had already started to turn as soon as the Afterglow Fleet disappeared, but its maneuverability was not enough to support it to complete this action in just a few seconds.

The ship's most vulnerable engine port is already being attacked by a large number of afterglow ships.

The urgent situation caused the Dominator-class ship to directly open its shield.

This was a wrong decision made by a ruler-level commander.

The main shield of the Dominator-class is not the same full-width shield as the Diopter-class, but a directional shield with a larger range that can only be deployed from the front of the ship.

Although the directional shield has a wider range than the full-angle shield, the angle of the Dominator-class directional shield is not enough to cover its entire body.

So in this case, it can only open the more flexible but less effective backup full-width shield.

However, turning on the backup shield is even worse than not turning it on.

The Afterglow cruiser didn't even continue to attack the Dominator's engines, but instead attacked its newly activated shields.

Almost instantly, because the radiation energy was about to reach its upper limit and the shield was about to be overloaded, the ruler-class was completely overloaded.

A huge amount of arcs covered the entire body of the ship, and all systems failed and shut down.

In an instant, he was completely overwhelmed by Yuhui's subsequent attacks.

This Dominator-class ship was declared out.

Then it's a five-on-three situation.

And at this time, many Afterglow ships had broken through the firepower network of the outpost and began to attack the outpost itself.

Yuhui should definitely win.

With such a strong tailwind, Chen Ming didn't even have to do anything now, just wait for the battle to end.

However, Gamma AI suddenly reminded Chen Ming at this time: "We need to try to capture one to three ships. If we don't gain anything after a battle, we may be held accountable by the command, which will arouse suspicion."

Chen Ming thought for a while and felt that there was nothing wrong with what Gamma AI said. After all, the advantage was so great. It was indeed a bit outrageous that he did not catch even a single military ship.

"So what needs to be done?"

Faced with Chen Ming's question, Gamma AI directly sent a diopter-level operation manual to the Iron Mine, which made Chen Ming a little nervous.

"Forget it, just do what you want."

"receive."

Diopter started to move and began to fly very purposefully towards the nearest place where the spaceships were fighting.

At this time, the overall front around the outpost showed a staggered ring.

On Chen Ming's side, Yu Hui was inside and the military was outside.

On the other side, the military is inside and the afterglow is outside.

The small military ships that had just been bypassed by Blink were desperately counterattacking, trying to protect the safety of the outpost.

The army on the other side who found their butts on fire also shrunk their formation again and sent out a group of small ships to come to the rescue.

Such a complex battlefield situation makes battles between small boats more frequent, more complex, and more chaotic.

Such a situation is ideal for diopter action.

And just around the Diopter class, there have been many military ships that can be tried to capture.

Chen Ming also found several ships that he was interested in.

So Chen Ming took the initiative to ask Gamma AI: "What will you do with the ship after you capture it?"

While controlling the diopter level, Gamma AI responded: "Those with only scan value will be handled by the captors themselves. Those with special value, such as your ship, will be arranged to be handed over later and sent to ours if the capture is successful. Colonies for more detailed analysis and study.”

"What about these ships from the army?"

"Basically just scan value."

"That is to say, I only need to pick up a few ships and scan them for data exchange. I can keep the ships themselves."

"Yes."

Chen Ming nodded slightly.

He must not miss the opportunity to get benefits.

It just so happens that he plans to transform the Diopter Class into a micro-shipyard, so now with the convenience of Afterglow and Diopter Class, there is nothing wrong with controlling a few frigates.

And Chen Ming is now on the battlefield where Yuhui is fighting the human military.

The quality of the spacecraft that can be fought here is definitely guaranteed, and it will definitely not be a castrated version of the spacecraft sold to ordinary people.

Chen Ming can even take the initiative to select models of military ships that he likes, or that may be useful in the future, to capture.

It was not too difficult for him to do this when the overall battlefield situation was leaning toward the afterglow.

And according to Chen Ming's observation, there are exactly two types of spacecraft that he is interested in among the frigates belonging to the military.

One of them is a heavy frigate with thick armor and powerful frontal firepower. It is a model that Chen Ming has never seen before, and the specific name is unclear.

The other one looks very much like a fighter-class frigate known to Chen Ming.

However, although the overall design of this kind of ship under the military's command is somewhat similar to that of the Fighter-class, it is very different from the Fighter-class that Chen Ming knew in some key places.

Chen Ming remembered that the Fighter class, like most military ships, had thick armor, rapid firepower, and poor maneuverability.

But now in the military, although two advantages can be seen, almost all the disadvantages have disappeared.

Chen Ming was very curious about what was going on with this kind of ship that he had never seen before, so he asked Gamma AI for his request for a captured object.Gamma AI has no objections.

Immediately gave up on a military ship that could be captured immediately.

Following what Chen Ming said, he began to look for opportunities to capture these two ships in every corner of the battlefield.

Opportunities can always be found if you look carefully.

The diopter only stayed near the battle line for only a few minutes.

Chen Ming had already seen a heavy frigate whose shields had been destroyed and overloaded. It was floating in space with no ability to resist, covered in arcs, and was about to be destroyed.

Before Chen Ming had time to issue a warning, Gamma AI had already sent a request for assistance and a signal to suspend the attack to the several afterglow ships nearby that overloaded the heavy frigate.

The several afterglow ships stopped immediately after receiving the signal from the Diopter class.

Let the Diopter step forward, completely destroying all the electronic equipment of the ship through electromagnetic pulse, and capture it.

The people on the ship took advantage of the gap in the capture to get into the emergency escape cabin and escape from the spacecraft.

Neither the Gamma AI nor the other Afterglow ships had any intention of attacking the escape cabins and just allowed them to escape.

And the heavy frigate soon stayed in the capture cabin with the Iron Ore.

Chen Ming hadn't had time to inspect the newly captured heavy frigate.

The opportunity to capture another ship had already appeared in front of him.

This time the capture was simpler.

Because the ship's engine had been disabled by the weapons of other Afterglow destroyers, the people on the ship had escaped early in the escape capsule.

Only the ship itself remains there, and the Diopter class only needs to go over and eat the ship.

After Chen Ming fixed the second ship inside the cabin through electromagnetic chains at the Diopter level, he asked Gamma AI: "Is the data of the two ships enough?"

"That's enough. Now I need to start the equipment to scan the two spacecraft for abnormalities and upload the data to the command. It may cause some vibrations on your spacecraft. I hope you can understand."

"It doesn't matter, just keep going."

The mechanical equipment inside the cabin began to move.

In a pile of machinery, Chen Ming couldn't go out directly to contact the two ships, so he just leaned by the porthole and watched.

At this moment, Chen Ming suddenly discovered that there seemed to be an escape capsule stuck somewhere on the bottom of the heavy frigate and could not be successfully launched.

Chen Ming immediately asked Gamma AI to take down the escape capsule first and get it to the front of the Iron Ore.

Through the translucent window of the escape cabin, you can see that the person inside is dead. The inside of his protective suit and helmet is covered in blood, and the surface of the helmet is completely broken.

It looked like it was caused by an impact or something similar.

The Gamma AI quickly completed the scan of the heavy frigate. There were no other corpses on the ship, but this one should be the only one.

After waiting for the diopter class to finish scanning the other ship and recover all the mechanical equipment.

Chen Ming took the initiative to leave the Iron Mine, came to the escape cabin, and opened it.

After a brief search, he found a personal terminal and a military registration card inside.

Nothing but that.

The contents of the personal terminal were locked. Chen Ming did not have the energy to crack it for the time being, so he put it away and dealt with it later.

At this time, Diopter suddenly received a message from the Sunset Cruiser, asking Gamma AI to report the capture situation.

Gamma AI directly sent back the information about the heavy frigate that had been scanned.

Then he responded with "The rest of the ship scanning process is still in progress."

The cruiser just sent a signal indicating the end of communication and did not continue to ask questions.

But since it has time to confirm the capture of Diopter-class ships, it means that the battle situation should have been determined.

Chen Ming looked outside again.

At this time, half of the military outpost had been destroyed.

The warehouse has already been opened, and the batch of sky steel should have been obtained by Yuhui.

The three cruisers that can still move seem to have completely given up on protecting the outpost, and are gathering the remaining fleet to protect the effective forces, ready to retreat at any time.

Now Chen Ming really only needs to fish on the edge of the battlefield and wait for the remaining sporadic battles to end.

So Chen Ming directly pressed his hand on the hull of the heavy frigate.

Transfer control of the Sentinel.

Soon, the panel of the heavy frigate appeared in front of Chen Ming.

[Spaceship Panel]

[Ship name: None]

[Type: Centurion-class heavy frigate]

[Radiant energy capacity: 0/900]

[Radiant energy dissipation: 75]

[Fuel Reserve: 57%]

[Port side weapons: "Noise" cannon (damaged), light acupuncture (damaged) *3]

[Starboard weapons: "Noise" cannon (damaged), light acupuncture (damaged) *3]

[Missile mounting point: Fire Snake focuses on locking missiles]

[Armor: Military heavy-duty titanium alloy external armor]

[Engine: Military Guard Grade Standard Engine]

[Built-in cabins: captain's cabin, engine cabin, missile auxiliary operation cabin, ship weapon auxiliary control cabin, living cabin, storage cabin]

[Important equipment: control system module (damaged), landing module (damaged), hyperspace channel system module (damaged), simulated gravity module (damaged), directional shield module (damaged), target positioning system (damaged), radiation energy System (damaged), damping stand device (damaged), missile accessory module (damaged)]

Due to the overload and subsequent electromagnetic pulse effects, almost the entire Centurion-class ship was paralyzed.

However, as long as the spacecraft's equipment is not missing, Chen Ming will be able to repair it sooner or later.

Especially when Chen Ming currently lacks combat capabilities, this Centurion, which has two medium-sized load-bearing points and six small-sized load-bearing points, must be repaired as soon as possible.

But soon is not now.

Chen Ming borrowed some strength from the Centurion and approached another ship.

Controlled it and opened its panel.

[Spaceship Panel]

[Ship name: None]

[Type: Tachyon Kai·Fighter-class frigate]

[Radiant energy capacity: 0/1500]

[Radiant energy dissipation: 250]

[Fuel Reserve: 75%]

[Port side weapon: ion beam (in operation)]

[Starboard weapon: Ion beam (in operation)]

[Missile hardpoint (left): Cyber ​​SRM Needle Missile]

[Missile hardpoint (right): Cyber ​​SRM Needle Missile]

[Armor: Dolomite steel alloy external armor]

[Engine: Tachyon Guard-grade customized engine]

[Built-in cabins: captain's cabin, engine cabin, missile auxiliary operation cabin, energy circulation cabin, living cabin, storage cabin]

[Important equipment: control system module (in operation), landing module (damaged), hyperspace channel system module (damaged), full-width shield module (in operation), target positioning system (in operation), tachyon specialized radiation System (in operation), missile accessory module (in operation), simulated gravity module (in operation), plasma thruster (in operation), high-energy focusing system (in operation)]

After seeing the various data on the panel, Chen Ming suddenly understood that this Fighter-class ship turned out to be a new model of Fighter-class that had been improved by Tachyon technology.

By installing special equipment modules, the mobility problem that has always been the most criticized of the ordinary fighter class has been eliminated.

A large number of modifications have also been made to the spacecraft's radiation system.

The radiation energy dissipation efficiency of this escort-level ship is even close to that of a destroyer.

Unfortunately, under the siege of more Afterglow ships, this Tachyon-modified Fighter class failed to exert much influence.

But there is definitely no problem with this Fighter-class ship itself.

Just the modifications on it were enough for Chen Ming to spend some time studying, not to mention its own combat capabilities.

For Chen Ming, even if he can only get this ship, he is already satisfied.

What's more, in addition to this Fighter-class ship, there is also a Centurion-class ship parked next to it.

There are even Diopter-class destroyers further out.

As long as the battle is over, he can return to the pirate space station with his full harvest.

But many times things don't go as expected.

Even though Chen Ming was already hiding on the edge of the battlefield, he was still targeted by two spaceships belonging to the military.

A destroyer, a frigate.

These two ships could no longer return to the main force after the military's front was completely torn apart.

The three military cruisers that were already preparing to evacuate could not take the risk to rescue them, so the two ships were basically dead.

After the people on the ship solved the opponent and discovered this situation, they came up with the idea of ​​​​pulling a few afterglow ships to back them up before they died.

And because Chen Ming took the initiative to stay away from the battlefield to fish, there were no other afterglow ships nearby that could quickly support him.

So the two ships focused on Chen Ming.

The combat capability of the Diguang-class auxiliary ship is definitely worse than that of other destroyers, so Chen Ming did not want to fight it head-on.

Anyway, now Afterglow has the advantage, he just needs to drag other Afterglow ships over to help him.

Just in the next moment.

An extremely thick laser beam suddenly shot from a distance, instantly destroying the destroyer and frigate that were eyeing the Diopter class.

Immediately afterwards, the afterglow cruiser that fired the laser sent a message to Diopter.

"Submit analytical data as soon as possible."

(End of this chapter)