Doomsday: I Build a Space Fleet

Chapter 228 Discovery of the Insect Hive

At Lorraine's command, ten lighters began to fire, and a towering fire erupted.

Subsequently, the flagship launched two 240mm high-explosive incendiary bombs that accurately struck the large zombie lair, turning the 500-meter-diameter, 20-meter-high circular lair into a huge bonfire.

The crackling sound and scorching light of the flames successfully attracted the nearby zombies, who flew into the flames like moths to a flame, burning themselves to ashes.

Once the sun rose above the horizon, Lorraine summoned four fighter planes that were waiting at the airport near Port Jask.

Amidst the roar of aircraft engines, four fighter jets carrying a total of 12 heavy bunker buster bombs arrived over Shuixi Town.

Once the drone used a pulse laser to designate its target, the 12 heavy bombs detached from their racks and, with the assistance of tail rudders, accurately landed at their target locations. The 12 bombs, arranged in a phased array, fell over the abandoned mine.

"boom--"

A violent explosion rang out, followed by dust and smoke more than 10 meters high.

Immediately following was a sharp whistling sound as 14 240mm heavy electromagnetic cannons fired simultaneously, launching bombs weighing nearly 20 tons into the mine.

At this moment, the unmanned combat swarm carried by the amphibious assault ship had landed at a small dock in the river southeast of the town center. The 120mm self-propelled howitzer used specially made fire extinguishing shells to open a landing channel through flames for the unmanned combat swarm.

Immediately afterwards, 480 heavy-arms robot squads appeared next to the abandoned mine and set up their weapons. Behind these 40 squads were two combined arms combat groups.

24 30mm electromagnetic guns and six 105mm electromagnetic guns are already pointed at the mine.

As for the medium or even large scarabs that may appear in the mine, the flagship will handle them. Lorraine is now prepared to expose the flagship's levitation capabilities.

As the smoke cleared, a diverse array of small Zerg appeared before the unmanned combat zone.

The heavy-firepower unmanned squad opened fire first, with 10mm armor-piercing steel spikes, 30mm armor-piercing high-explosive grenades, and 120mm multi-purpose fragmentation rounds flying towards the swarm of insects. The 240mm smart terminally guided rounds arrived on the battlefield next.

These intelligent terminally guided munitions deploy their parachutes 400 meters in the air, then eject batches of bullets from the main body.

The ejected sub-projectiles, guided by tail rudders and lasers, fly precisely toward the target and then explode 2-3 meters above it, using large-caliber steel balls to deliver a devastating blow to all enemy units within a 120-meter radius.

The insect hive below quickly sensed the heavy casualties suffered by the regular insect swarm. Immediately afterwards, the number of small and medium scarabs increased, and the main gun of the wheeled assault gun began to roar, annihilating all the small scarabs within its line of sight.

Then the second wave of terminally guided munitions arrived on the battlefield. These munitions all used armor-piercing warheads and were equipped with navigation rudders and disposable plasma engines at the tail.

They lock onto enemy units below using optical or infrared sensors, then jettison the deceleration device at the rear, igniting the plasma engine to provide the projectile with an initial velocity of nearly 800 meters per second.

Using the tail rudder, these shells will accurately hit the top of the enemy target.

Subsequently, the impact fuse was activated, and the directional shaped charge between the cap and the armor-piercing warhead was activated, simultaneously activating the delayed fuse of the main charge of the projectile while penetrating the enemy's top armor.

0.01 seconds later, the delayed fuse activates the main explosive charge of the projectile, detonating more than one ton of high-energy explosive inside the enemy unit and tearing it into countless fragments.

After three rounds of rocket-propelled terminally guided missile strikes, all types of scarabs disappeared from the sight of the unmanned combat swarm, leaving only the blade beetles and acid beetles to continuously attack the unmanned combat swarm.

However, this uneventful tug-of-war lasted only 15 minutes before a large scarab beetle, 18 meters long and 12 meters tall, appeared in the sight of the unmanned combat group.

"boom--"

A destroyer located on the outer perimeter of the fleet and two destroyers in the port of Jask opened the vertical launch cells at the front of the hull.

After receiving information from enemy units via data link, a destroyer on the outer edge of the fleet activated a ChangKong-20 heavy anti-ship missile.

The compressed air launcher then activated, propelling the 352-kilogram missile out of the launch silo. Immediately afterwards, the solid rocket motor at the tail ignited, providing initial velocity to the almost stationary missile.

After ascending to a certain altitude, the yaw engine near the warhead ignited, causing the missile to make a 90-degree turn and fly towards the Zerg nest not far away in the dense atmosphere.

Guided by the radio guidance system, the missile accurately passed through the central crater and entered the insect nest hidden deep underground.

When the missile exploded, 56% of the solid fuel remained inside the rocket engine, while the ramjet engine responsible for mid-course propulsion consumed no fuel at all.

Driven by the thermobaric warhead, an extremely violent explosion filled the entire hive.

The extremely intense heat almost instantly scorched all the Zerg located at the bottom of the mine, near the opening blasted open by the missile.

The large scarab near the cave entrance also succumbed to the intense heat from the heavy anti-ship missile.

It lasted only three to five seconds longer than the Blade Bug and the Acid Bug before collapsing motionless in place.

Once the flames deep within the pit had gradually died down, Lorraine opened the data panel, which remained completely still.

The good news is that this operation eliminated a total of 3 large scarabs and 27 medium-sized scarabs.

The bad news is that a beetle, somewhere between a large and a medium-sized scarab beetle, flew out.

The optical observation equipment on the flagship device shows that the beetle has burn marks of varying degrees on the elytra of both its left and right wings.

Watching this insect swaggering through the air, emitting a silent roar.

Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) thrusters propelled the flagship backward at high speed, while the six 240mm electromagnetic guns on both sides of the flight deck, along with the eight 240mm electromagnetic guns on the heavy cruiser, locked onto the orange-red beetle flying in the air.

"Buzz—"

With a low, crackling sound, six armor-piercing discarding sabot rounds and eight high-explosive armor-piercing rounds were fired from the gun barrel, flying toward the beetle hovering in the air at a speed of 4 kilometers per second.

The first to arrive were six armor-piercing discarding sabot rounds. The six triangular steel spikes pierced the beetle, leaving plumes of green blood in the sky.

Following closely behind were eight armor-piercing high-explosive shells. The extremely compressed high-energy explosive jets penetrated its body and completely tore apart its left elytra.

Immediately afterwards, the unmanned combat swarm on the ground saw the insect roll and fall from the sky. The green blood flowing from its body emitted wisps of white smoke upon contact with the ground.

Before the insect could even struggle to its feet, 14 rocket-assisted terminally guided missiles were launched from the flagship and heavy cruiser and were rapidly descending from its top.