Resurrection Empire

Chapter 1438: Chapter 542: Black Hole Cannon, Decades-Long Ambush

However, just as his flagship began to issue orders, attempting to have the rear fleet turn around, the fleet of the Pacquiao Pirate Group, surrounded in the front by the circular line of the Red Peak Army, suddenly fell into a strange situation.

The engines of the Pacquiao Pirate Group warships, spewing extra-long tail flames from their rear medium engines and rushing to retreat, suddenly inexplicably stalled, no longer accelerating, only maintaining inertial forward motion.

This situation started with the pirate warship closest to the Red Blade Expeditionary Army’s central direction, then spread forward at the speed of light.

One warship after another stalled, and even the laser communication emitters that were constantly flashing on the surface of the ship simultaneously extinguished.

These pirate warships seemed like space meteorites, becoming dead objects.

Some pirate warships closer to the inner wall edge of the circular line did not experience this unexpected situation.

Yet these people were not relieved as they had to endure the fierce firepower attacks from the nearby circular formation of the Red Peak Army on one side, and on the other, they were scared out of their wits by the bizarre situation of the warships below.

They hurriedly tried to contact the companion fleet trapped in the silent state, but regardless of the method they used to send messages, how they switched communication targets, the communication requests sent seemed to be lost in the sea, completely unanswered.

These surviving pirate warships tried to use laser methods to send intelligence to the rear main base, intending to remind the rear main base to be cautious.

Yet even before sending the message, these people actually harbored no real hope in their hearts.

The spread speed of the weird phenomenon is the speed of light, and their intelligence flight speed is also the speed of light.

It is already... too late.

Fudin Pacquiao finally realized a longing he had never achieved since the battle began, to receive real-time information without delay.

The reason is simple; he himself had become a part of the battlefield situation.

Without any warning, he suddenly noticed his heart rate uncontrollably accelerating, and then the lights in the flagship command room’s bridge hall suddenly went out, becoming completely black.

It seemed as though all the equipment within the ship simultaneously suffered a severe malfunction, unable even to maintain basic lighting.

He picked up the communicator, trying to speak to the Staff Department.

But the communicator was hot to the touch, causing him to instinctively toss it away, which landed on the ground with a thud.

Fudin Pacquiao began to shout forcefully, "What happened? Huh? What happened!"

He shouted several times, but no one answered.

Fudin turned his head towards the position where he remembered his deputy to be, "Where are you? Speak!"

Yet still, there was no answer, eerie silence surrounded him to the point where even the drop of a pin could be heard, making him fearful.

He opened his mouth once more, intending to curse bitterly, but mysteriously felt a sweetness in his throat, a sticky and metallic-tasting liquid surged up from deep within his throat.

Pfft! Fudin Pacquiao instinctively spat it out.

His mouth and nostrils were instantly filled with this viscous liquid.

Fudin reached out to touch, then rubbed his fingers, noting some stickiness, slightly adhesive.

This was blood.

He tried to smell the scent to confirm again.

But it was a futile effort; his nose couldn’t inhale any air, completely blocked.

Wave after wave of intense pain began spreading from his lungs, causing him to collapse weakly to the ground.

This acute pain traveled throughout his body within a few minutes, as though countless serrated knives continuously cut his flesh.

Fudin Pacquiao lay on his back powerlessly, his lungs heaving violently.

He wanted to breathe fresh air, but only exhaled bubbles, no inhaling.

He didn’t know what kind of attack he suffered from, encountering a bizarre means of destruction he had never dealt with and wasn’t mentioned in any military system analysis reports.

Fudin Pacquiao could only curse resentfully in his heart.

How foolish, how pathetic.

What kind of adversary are we facing?

Can Grue escape?

Does the Pacquiao Pirate Group and Augustus family have a future?

Besides praying, what else can I do?

At the end of his life, Fudin Pacquiao unbelievably began to care about his true surname.

He recalled the teachings of his ancestors.

The ancestor said that he left the Southern Nine Star System because he foresaw the decay of the Augustus family. His purpose was to ensure that one day, when the Augustus family fell, his own legacy as the once-glorious Viscount Augustus on the battlefield could continue in the Shattered Star Ring.

But all of this was predestined.

Grue Augustus, who had been flying along a straight trajectory, was unable to escape the information interference zone in time and found himself in the same predicament as Fudin.

Although the speed of light is no longer the fastest speed in the universe, at this moment and in this environment, the speed of light still holds an overwhelming advantage.

On the other side of the battlefield, after confirming the results, Ying Zhenshan clenched his fist tightly and, with an excited heart, sent a communication request to Ren Zhong.

"My Lord Earl, we’ve succeeded. The high-mass fortress deployed on the surface of the black hole successfully triggered a superintense gamma-ray burst! The central and rear fleets of the enemy’s formation have been completely pierced! The performance of this black hole cannon is indeed as amazing as the Academy of Sciences experts said! The enemy has completely lost the ability to resist!"

Ren Zhong nodded with satisfaction, offering only a simple compliment, "Well done."

How could he tell Ying Zhenshan that he himself was the creator of this black hole cannon?

On the surface, you seem to be reporting the good news to me and taking credit on behalf of the Red Blade Science Academy, but in actuality, you are flattering me, catching me off guard.

Before formulating this expedition plan, Ren Zhong had already set his sights on this miniature black hole, ordering the First Expeditionary Army to dispatch a research vessel for close observation, thoroughly analyzing its parameters, and then transferring them to the Source Star Science Academy.

He then had the experts and scholars from Source Star collaborate on precise calculations.

Later, he personally took those calculations from the Source Star scientists and pretended to use the Red Blade Science Academy to turn them from theory into reality, creating an uncrewed superheavy war fortress and accurately deploying it on the surface of the miniature black hole.

Following this series of complex preparations, the result manifested in such a simple yet deadly strike.

With Fudin’s death and the total collapse of the Pakuiao Pirate Group, the Pirate Alliance lost its backbone, and the course of this space war irreversibly leaned toward the Red Blade Expeditionary Army.

The other four families of the Five Elder Clan, upon realizing the demise of Fudin’s flagship, were the first to respond, quickly changing course and preparing to flee.

It did not take much effort, and those warships surprisingly managed to escape.

It was not due to any sudden improvement in their strength, but rather because the Second Red Blade Expeditionary Army stopped the pursuit and even began to contract their formation.

As if, after crushing the Pakuiao Pirate Group and securing victory, the Red Blade Expeditionary Army suddenly lost its fighting spirit. Rather than pursuing relentlessly, the Red Blade Clan’s forces were more inclined to preserve their strength.

The fleeing pirate commanders were not puzzled by this.

This made sense.

Although the Red Blade Army achieved a great victory, they still sustained some losses.

No matter how strong the Red Blade Clan’s forces were, they could not escape their population disadvantage, so it was only natural to manage the casualty rate. This aligned with Earl Red Blade’s long-standing persona of keeping a low profile and quietly accumulating strength.

Nearly two hours passed, and the remaining Pirate Alliance fleet, with over 70% of its members surviving, had dispersed far in all directions.

Just as the Pirate Alliance commanders felt a sense of post-crisis relief, an unforeseen change occurred.

Suddenly, a terrifying number of large missiles encircled from above and below the combat zone, closing in from all directions.

The number of missiles was overwhelming, covering an extensive area, completely enveloping the dispersed pirate formations within their strike range.

Moreover, these missiles, after prolonged acceleration, had managed to reach 0.2 times the speed of light by relying on low-power space dust-adhering engines, making them extremely difficult to evade.

By the time the remnants of the pirate forces realized, it was too late.

The missile array, arriving almost simultaneously, exploded with a roar on the outskirts of the Five Elder Clan fleet’s formation as well as other Pirate Alliance fleet formations, creating vast zones of high-energy and high-temperature nuclear fusion radiation.

The cascade of nuclear fusion explosions linked up, seemingly conjuring an extraordinarily massive star out of nothing in space.

Contrasted with the chain fusion explosions used by the Red Blade Clan during the geomorphological transformation on South Nine C Star, the style was similar, but the scale was magnified countless times.

If a civilization several billion light-years away were to "see" this scene through a radio telescope billions of years later, its scientists might form an unsolvable cosmic mystery.

In a particular region, where once there was nothing, suddenly appeared an immensely massive star, only to explode through a smaller-scale supernova mechanism.

Is this a natural phenomenon of the universe or the mighty power of civilization?

If it is a natural phenomenon, what cosmic spectacle could teleport a star so instantaneously?

If it is the grand force of civilization, then which civilization relocated this massive star here?

What was the intention of this civilization and through what means was this achieved?

Such mysteries would likely permeate the entire history of the observing civilization, from its rise to decline.

But that’s a matter for the future. At present, the explosion shockwave dealt fatal blows to the Five Elder Clan fleet attempting to escape and the other Pirate Alliance fleet that remained oblivious to the events.

Only a handful of lucky ones barely managed to survive by being in the relative void areas formed by the overlapping nuclear fusion explosions.

A very few fortunate individuals not only survived but also recovered fragments of some missile components.

Within the populous Pirate Alliance, there were inevitably some intelligent and resilient individuals.

Those who found the fragments by great chance immediately conducted a radioactive half-life analysis and were alarmed to discover that these missiles had been manufactured at least fifty years ago and had been in space for over forty years.