Banner of the Stars, Volume 5 by Hiroyuki Morioka

Author:Hiroyuki Morioka [MORIOKA, HIROYUKI]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: J-Novel Club
Published: 2021-02-06T00:00:00+00:00

The Watchguard Fleet had closed ranks into a single group and was squaring off against the enemy fleet. Since each sub-fleet formed a single-line formation, the Watchguard Fleet as a whole formed a rectangle made up of eight columns.

The enemy fleet fired innumerable mobile space-time mines; the swarm of mines became a torrent and surged toward the Watchguard Fleet.

Though they were technically single-line formations, each space-time bubble contained three patrol ships. The heavier the bubbles, the lower the mobility. It was impossible for three patrol ship bubbles to avoid the nimble bubbles of mines. What they lacked in mobility, however, they made up for in defense. They didn’t even need to be protected by defense ships, unperturbed by the likes of space-time mines.

Consequently, the Watchguard bubbles took on all the enemy mine bubbles. The surplus mass generated as a result of space-time fusion with the enemy mines was released in the form of space-time particles. That was why a flow of space-time particles swelled and swirled near the Watchguard Fleet.

Through the storm, the Watchguard Fleet slowly made progress toward the enemy. The Star Forces Flagship Gaftnochec was located slightly behind the center of the rectangular formation, between the sub-fleets Surh Sétuch and Laucec Sétuch. The Gaftnochec shared a bubble with two patrol ships under the Empress’s direct control, the Baïcaü and the Autcaü. The enemy mines were rushing toward that bubble deep inside their lines, too. In fact, they were aiming for it precisely because it was deep inside their lines, a fact of at least some obvious significance. However, the three ships, including the Gaftnochec, were able to repel the enemy mines without issue.

The bubble’s interior was brightly lit. The laser-pierced mines kept detonating.

The blasts subsided for a moment, but the reactions caused by the leaking antimatter fuel annihilating against the debris persisted for a long time, and the sparkling lights would not abate.

The Gaftnochec’s Throne Bridge was quiet. Lamagh was seated on the Jade Throne, straining her frocragh to perceive the mines emerging endlessly from the bubble’s frothing interior surface.

The Exploration Officer broke the silence: “Distance to enemy: 100.”

“Switch to Formation 11,” Lamagh decreed.

A short inter-bubble communication ran through the raging streams of space-time particles. All at once, the Watchguard Fleet switched to single-ship bubbles, after which they began assuming their new formation; the process ended spellbindingly quickly. Eight sub-fleets each formed a diagonal line, the sub-fleets connecting in pairs to form rough upside-down Vs, or mountain-shaped arches. There were four such mountain-shapes, and taken as a whole, the formation was akin to a row of arrow feathers. Like a volley of strung arrows, their points were pointed at the enemy.

Many of the enemy mines’ bubbles were left behind due to the sudden increase in the speed of the Watchguard Fleet. Owing to their artificial intelligence, the mines changed course in order to give chase, but more than half exploded in vain due to a lack of fuel. Of course, the enemy immediately corrected their aim, but this had created a window whereby the flow of mines attacking the Watchguard Fleet took a slight hit.

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