CHAPTER 252: CH 247 MINOARA STAR -5 (REFINED)

Helran knew the counterattack was nothing but a display of will from his captains. They were delaying the enemy as much as they could, keeping them from focusing on the main battle line and directing their attention to the flanks instead.

What confused him was that despite their strength, the enemy was not letting the flanks get even a little bit closer to their own flanks, even though it wouldn’t do them any harm. They also weren’t taking them down instantly.

Helran switched off these thoughts. He knew they were pointless. He focused instead on the plan he had been thinking of since the Star Fortress shields were taken down. He believed now was the time to execute his plans, as there would be no better opportunity.

Just as he was about to give the order to proceed, there was a sudden commotion on the command bridge of the Star Fortress. A few officers monitoring the battleground shouted in unison, "INCOMING!"

The word jolted Helran, and he focused on the attacks racing toward them, toward the main battle line.

He quickly ordered his fleet to prepare the shields and try intercepting the enemy’s attacks with their own defensive targeting systems. He followed up by ordering the second line of the formation to be ready to take the spot if any of the ships were in danger.

Despite the efforts Helran had made, both now and before the start of the battle, they all still failed. The damage was heavy.

The Vanguard’s attacks that had been able to pass through the sea of flames were now racing toward the Minotaur’s main battle line, their first layer of forward-sweeping formation. They quickly struck various battlecruisers and destroyers in the center of the formation.

And that was despite the efforts of the Minotaur clan’s defensive systems. They were unable to track the trajectory of the attacks the Vanguard had launched, and therefore, they were unable to mount a counterattack. The defensive system that had never failed the Minotaur in countless battles they had fought in the Galactic Rim was unable to do anything. It even fried as it tried to counter an attack that was over its capacity and limitations.

Boooooooom!

Booooom!

Boooom!

Multiple rounds of explosions erupted across the first layer of the Minotaur formation as energy and kinetic attacks struck the shields of battlecruisers and destroyers instantly. The individual shields of the battlecruisers and destroyers flared up to protect the ships, holding for only a few seconds before they were torn apart by the combined force of the kinetic and energy attacks.

Within just a few seconds, what began as a skirmish had turned into a full-scale battle. The Minotaur forces were struck again, this time with real and actual losses of both assets and lives. As the shield systems of the battlecruisers and destroyers began to fail, the very hulls of the ships groaned under the immense pressure.

A creaking noise could be heard by those inside the ships under heavy fire, as well as those under moderate fire who were undergoing the same process, albeit at a lower rate. Within one of the battlecruisers, the captain—or whatever position the Minotaur held on the high command chair—was clutching the arms of the command seat.

The entire ship rocked violently under the immense pressure of countless attacks. "She’s holding well, but this won’t last long," the Minotaur captain thought as he looked at a display in front of him that projected his shield integrity decreasing by four to five percent with every passing second.

This battlecruiser, along with others in its class, was among the luckiest. Some destroyers, however, were not as fortunate.

One particular destroyer, located in the fourth forward position just beside one of the battlecruisers, was under a great deal of pressure. It was unlucky enough to be targeted by a continuous barrage of attacks. The command bridge, though clean, was far from stable.

To say the situation inside was chaotic would be an understatement. Many Minotaur officers were shouting through the comms, relaying orders from their captain as they shifted and rotated their weapon systems to target the Vanguard ships.

They also communicated with the second line behind them, ordering them to hurry and rotate themselves as their shields were under a much heavier attack.

The destroyer’s shield integrity was decreasing at a rate of about six percent a second. They had no more than sixteen to seventeen seconds to rotate before they would fall. But as luck would have it, fate had other plans for this particular destroyer and its crew.

Their systems were still functioning normally, but they were unable to detect an attack far more powerful than the ones currently hitting their shields. Before they could think or process anything, a crimson sphere of energy struck the ship’s shield, creating a rippling effect around it. The entire shield became visible to the naked eye for a moment before it cracked, shattered into pieces, and began to fall away like shards of glass.

The red sphere of energy didn’t stop. It continued its way and struck the ship’s hull in a millisecond.

The Minotaur inside didn’t even have a chance to process what had happened. It took less than a second for the attack to destroy the shield and strike the ship’s hull. They were unable to process anything at all.

The crimson bolt of energy struck the hull with such force that the ship’s structure bent and collapsed inward, crushing the crew into a paste. They didn’t feel pain or anything at all; before they could think, they were crushed by the hull of their own ship, and the light in their eyes faded instantly. The destroyer then burst into a flaming shower of fire as multiple components and hull structures were thrown here and there.

This happened throughout the first line of the Minotaur’s main battle formation. Multiple destroyers and even some battlecruisers met the same fate. Some of the strikes were so brutal and slow that the Minotaur inside felt the sounds of their ship’s structure bending slowly under the pressure before collapsing and crushing them like a can of drink.

But there were some instances where, even under such an attack from the crimson bolt of plasma, a few ships were able to survive. This was one of them.

The same crimson bolt of plasma, a concentrated sphere of elemental fire energy, struck the shields of another battlecruiser at the very forefront of the formation. Just like the others, this battlecruiser’s shields began to waver slowly.

On the command bridge, officers and crew finally noticed it when their entire ship rocked violently as the crimson attack made contact. One officer bellowed the obvious, then gave information that made his comrades shiver with fear and break out in a cold sweat.

"Captain!" the officer shouted, his voice shaking.

Sweat accumulated on his forehead at a pace that made others wonder if he was standing in the rain. "The frontal shield is down to sixty-one percent integrity and is going down even faster!"

Before the Minotaur captain could process the information or do anything, another officer yelled, his voice filled with the same fear and nervousness. "Captain! Our ship’s hull integrity is down to eighty-six percent of its structural integration!" He pointed at a holographic display showing the battlecruiser’s hull structure with a red tint on the front part of the ship’s cylindrical head, which was slightly bent inward.

Once again, the Minotaur captain shivered. But before he could issue a command, the same officer who reported on the shield’s integrity roared with intense urgency. "Captain! The shield integrity is at forty-nine percent and it’s still going down! The attack is still connected to our shield!"

"What?! What?!" the captain roared. "Hurry! Focus all of our shield power and divert it to the frontal side! Moderately defend the other areas, dammit!" he shouted desperately. The shield operator immediately accepted the order.

He didn’t even say anything, already working to divert the ship’s shielding power forward.

The captain’s mouth twitched, but he didn’t say anything, knowing his subordinate was doing exactly what he would have ordered anyway—after all, his life was at stake, too.

Shaking his head, the captain watched as the shield integrity on the left and right sides of the ship began to fall until they stabilised at twelve percent. The same happened for the ventral and dorsal shields. He then focused on the frontal shield.

It began to climb from its already low thirty-nine percent to forty-five percent instantly, before dropping back to forty-three. It then climbed to fifty-eight percent, came down to fifty-three, and then climbed to eighty-five percent.

From there, it only decreased by one point a second. As ten seconds passed, the shield was once again down to forty-eight percent.

Every Minotaur on the command bridge watched as the red bolt of plasma cracked against their shield, its power fading. In a few more seconds, it finally dissipated, leaving their shield down to twenty-eight percent.