Chapter 80: Crushing
In the vast expanse of space, Tom’s only Venus-class Battleship was currently undergoing a full-load acceleration test.
First, the four thrusters on one side of the spherical spaceship simultaneously propelled at full power, accelerating it rapidly at 30 meters per square second. This continuous thrust lasted for 2 minutes, increasing its speed to 3.6 kilometers per second. After that, the four thrusters on that side shut down simultaneously, and the four thrusters on the opposite side fired, decelerating it violently.
Yes, this spherical spaceship has engines on every side!
On the entire spherical surface, Tom had installed a total of 12 high-thrust methane-oxygen engines, which could be conveniently activated at any time, anywhere.
This saved the time required to change its orientation. These 12 engines worked in conjunction, allowing for an immediate reaction regardless of which direction it needed to maneuver.
An acceleration of 30 meters per square second would generate approximately three times the gravity of Earth. As the Venus-class Battleship rapidly accelerated and decelerated, the Clones, secured by seatbelts in the cabin, were alternately pressed firmly against their seatbacks, then pushed towards the control panel in front, and then pressed against the ceiling.
Fortunately, each Clone was strapped in with a seatbelt, which kept them firmly fixed in their seats.
During this intense rapid acceleration and deceleration, the Clones exerted their full effort to control the instrument panels in front of them, cooperating to control the entire spaceship’s movements.
After some time of such maneuvering and once the test was largely stable, the weapon system test commenced.
In front, more than twenty retired old Mercury-class Battleships appeared.
The radar detection systems of these Mercury-class Battleships had been fully activated, meticulously scanning all surrounding space.
The scanning range of this first-generation radar could reach approximately 5,000 kilometers.
At this moment, the distance between the two sides was still about 12,000 kilometers. The Venus-class Battleship had not yet entered the radar scanning range of the old Mercury-class Battleships.
But even at such a distance, the radar on the Venus-class Battleship had already scanned those Mercury-class Battleships.
The detection range and precision of the new generation of high-speed scanning radar were indeed outstanding.
The next moment, the Venus-class Battleship began to accelerate with all its might. Simultaneously, on the spherical outer shell, 50 dark muzzles appeared on the side facing the Mercury-class Battleships, and a large number of bullets instantly poured out.
The firing rate of these new machine guns reached 3,000 rounds per minute, and the muzzle velocity reached approximately 3.1 kilometers per second!
With the spaceship’s own acceleration, these bullets gained an additional boost of approximately 200 meters per second on top of their original 3.1 kilometers per second.
Thus, their speed reached 3.3 kilometers per second.
Almost in an instant, tens of thousands of bullets surged towards the distant Mercury-class Battleships. Before long, one of the unsuspecting Mercury-class Battleships was directly blown apart.
Only after being attacked did the remaining Mercury-class Battleships frantically return fire.
Their radar still hadn’t detected the opponent’s silhouette, but by observing the bullet trajectories, they could barely pinpoint the opponent’s direction.
So, more than twenty Mercury-class Battleships, with a total of 40 machine guns, simultaneously began a fierce counterattack.
However, after firing for a short while, the Mercury-class Battleships had to slow down their rate of fire.
The reason was simple: their bullet reserves were almost depleted.
Yet, the attack from their opponent continued, showing no signs of slowing down!
The Venus-class Battleship had more machine guns, a total of 100 across its entire spherical surface, so its bullet consumption should be even greater, and thus its sustained firing time should be shorter.
But that was not the case.
Each Venus-class Battleship had a standard bullet carrying capacity of 40 million rounds, averaging 400,000 bullets per machine gun, which was double the amount available to a Mercury-class Battleship, which only had two machine guns!
At the same time, thanks to a brand new design and more advanced technology, while the muzzle velocity of these new bullets increased, their overall mass was greatly reduced.
Each bullet weighed only 5 grams, so 40 million bullets amounted to a mass of 200 tons, which was entirely within the Venus-class Battleship’s carrying capacity.
After a brief exchange, the more than twenty old Mercury-class Battleships were completely defenseless, and three of them were directly blown apart in no time.
The remaining Mercury-class Battleships scattered in unison, attempting to attack the opponent from multiple directions.
But this tactic, which had been tried and true in the past, also lost its effectiveness at this moment.
The reason was simple: the Venus-class Battleship was spherical. Its 100 machine guns were distributed in every direction on its spherical surface.
It had no blind spots for attack!
As a result, more machine gun muzzles were exposed, simultaneously firing fiercely in all directions.
Five more Mercury-class Battleships were blown apart.
The remaining 15 Mercury-class Battleships finally gave up and retreated with all their might.
At this point, the Venus-class Battleship changed its tactics again.
The machine gun firing stopped, and a total of 10 autocannons distributed on the spherical outer shell revealed their murderous muzzles.
Shell after shell flew out at a faster speed than bullets.
These were not ordinary shells that relied purely on inertia after leaving the muzzle; instead, they were rocket artillery shells with a certain degree of trajectory adjustment capability!
Although they couldn’t compare to the strong trajectory adjustment capabilities of interstellar missiles, they had low mass and were more numerous. As long as they were aimed in a general direction, if the target didn’t deviate too much, they could automatically lock onto the target and approach it.
In a single volley, 8 out of 10 rocket artillery shells hit their targets; four were destroyed, and the remaining four were severely damaged, which were then finished off with a single machine gun volley.
Only the last 7 Mercury-class Battleships remained!
By this point, they had escaped a considerable distance, and it was difficult to cover the targets with just machine guns. The same was true for rocket artillery.
But it didn’t matter.
The cover on one side of the Venus-class Battleship’s outer shell opened, revealing the new type of interstellar missile inside.
Propelled by the latest type of thrusters, these interstellar missiles accelerated to over 15 kilometers per second in a very short time, and they flexibly changed direction in space, always firmly locking onto their targets.
After more than ten minutes of pursuit, the missiles accurately hit their targets, and in an instant, several huge fireballs erupted in space.
The entire live-fire exercise lasted less than an hour, and all twenty-odd old Mercury-class Battleships were annihilated!
Yet, this Venus-class Battleship had not even used its full power. It did not use its superior maneuverability to pursue the targets, merely eliminating the enemies through long-range attacks.
Having completed the exercise, the spaceship rapidly accelerated again and returned to the ground base.
A group of Clones rushed over and meticulously inspected it, observing that although it had been hit by at least a thousand bullets during the battle, its armor showed no damage other than some tiny dents.
Tom sighed with satisfaction: "This is the battleship I wanted."