154 Sneak Attack (Requesting Monthly Votes)

"Captain..." Everyone in the main control room turned pale with shock, standing up from their seats to block him.

"Captain." The deputy captain, standing closest to Zhang Haokun, grabbed his arm and pleaded, "You are our supreme commander; how can you court danger so lightly? We still need you here to hold down the fort."

"Hold down what damn fort," Zhang Haokun snapped, shaking off his grip. "The enemy's flagship has already entered their striking range. How many of their collective salvoes can the Wushan and the Songshan withstand?"

"Get out of my way, all of you!" Zhang Haokun roared, his eyes wide as copper bells and every hair bristling. The deputy captain took several steps back with a pained expression.

Amid everyone's watchful gazes, he walked out of the main control room. Before stepping through the door, his figure paused for a moment. "If things truly reach a point beyond redemption..." He then walked out.

Everyone in the main control room exchanged glances. Although the captain had not finished his sentence, they all understood the meaning behind his words: if the situation became irretrievable, they would surrender.

"Blazing Fire, my old partner, after being away from the battlefield for so many years, you must be trembling with excitement now, aren't you?" Inside the mecha launch bay, Zhang Haokun stroked the dark red mecha secured to the mecha rack, a look of nostalgic affection in his eyes.

"Today, let us fight side by side once more." A surge of towering ambition rose in Zhang Haokun's heart as he boarded the elevator and entered the mecha's cockpit.

He transmitted a "ready" signal to the launch crew. The stabilizing brackets on the mecha were retracted, and a massive transport vehicle carried the mecha onto the launch platform.

The countdown began, "Nine... Three, two, one, launch."

Propelled by a tremendous force, the mecha sped forward along the launch track, gaining speed rapidly. Suddenly, the scenery before his eyes changed. The mecha ejected from the flagship and entered the expanse of space.

The moment he cleared the hatch, Zhang Haokun expertly engaged the thrusters. With a sharp vector shift, he drew a sickle-shaped arc through the void and charged back toward his retreating forces.

"Congratulations, Captain." On the command ship of the Hongxian Federal Fleet, the deputy captain smiled as he saw the enemy's main formation scatter. "This is a flawless and magnificent victory. At the banquet celebrating the occupation of the Wol planet, Mr. President will surely award you the Purple Gold Medal in person."

The commander-in-chief shook his head. "The Davor people have yet to surrender; it is still too early to speak of such things." Despite his words of caution, his face beamed with radiance, evidently well-pleased by the remarks.

The Purple Gold Medal was the highest honor for soldiers of the Hongxian Federation, bestowed only upon generals with extraordinary military achievements. Because there had been no war for over a millennium, the medal had effectively ceased to be awarded.

For any soldier aspiring to this honor, the current war presented the ultimate opportunity.

Naturally, the other members of the main control room would not miss this chance to flatter their superior. They immediately rose to offer congratulations, and for a moment, praises and eulogies echoed endlessly, as if they had already trampled all of Davor and were holding a victory banquet within the presidential palace of Wol.

They certainly had the capital to feel this way. The current situation was crystal clear; the Davor forces were destined for defeat, and the Hongxian Federation held an overwhelming advantage. Even the most conservative commander would not believe the Davor forces had any chance of turning the tables under such circumstances.

Celebrating a little early at this juncture hardly seemed arrogant.

"An unidentified energy reaction at a distance of 1,000 kilometers in the direction of port side 101.302.125." An abrupt voice shattered the festive and harmonious atmosphere.

The entire main control room fell dead silent. Amidst their awkwardness, everyone felt a trace of displeasure and turned to look at the owner of this tactless voice. It was a spirited and arrogant young man of about thirty. Judging by his location, he was a cadet staff officer.

Normally, he had no right to speak in such a setting, yet he had tactlessly chimed in—and had done so precisely at a moment when the commander-in-chief was enjoying such rare and soaring spirits.

"What is it?" The embarrassment on the commander-in-chief's face flashed and vanished as he asked with a solemn expression.

"Captain, I have been keeping an eye on the sensors. Just now, there was an unidentified energy reaction 1,000 kilometers away at port side 101.302.125," the young man reported, standing straight with a powerful tone.

"Hmm." The commander-in-chief walked over with his hands behind his back, staring at the massive data screen. After watching for a moment without seeing anything unusual, he said in a deep voice, "Turn the sensors to maximum power and lock the coordinates onto the sector you just mentioned."

"Yes." A flicker of excitement crossed the young man's eyes as he sat before the console and began operating the equipment.

The others looked at one another before stepping up behind the commander-in-chief to gaze at the screen.

After a brief moment, the commander-in-chief's expression underwent a drastic change. He shouted wildly, "Everyone back to your stations! Execute emergency evasive maneuvers!"

Although the others also perceived some anomalies, their reactions were not as swift. Upon hearing the command, they reacted as if out of reflex, scrambling back to their respective stations and beginning tense operations.

Though no one understood what was happening, they could tell from the commander-in-chief's expression that the situation was grave.

"Immediately notify the other six mother ships to exercise caution against an attack originating from coordinates 101.302.125." Covered in nervous sweat, the commander-in-chief's voice nonetheless remained steady.

"It looks like they've noticed." Sitting in the captain's chair, Zhong Yun wore a grim expression. Watching Davor's fighters and mecha being shot down one by one filled him with profound sorrow; these were the nation's finest talents, yet they were destined to die here.

"Still, it's too late." Zhong Yun slowly exhaled, looked at the fully charged energy gauge, and issued an order brimming with towering killing intent: "Fire."

An energy beam over a hundred meters in diameter erupted from one of Mars's main gun barrels, hurtling toward the Hongxian Federal fleet.

The thousand-kilometer distance was bridged in an instant. A warship at the front of the formation was in the midst of turning, its colossal body appearing terribly clumsy at that moment. It managed only a half-turn before the incoming energy column struck its port side. The outer hull, reputed to withstand 50,000 units of energy damage, was pierced with effortless ease.

The energy column punched straight through the warship and continued with unabated momentum, turning any fighter jets or mecha in its path to ashes. Finally, it grazed the tail of another warship by a hair's breadth and vanished into the depths of space.

Leaving behind a terrifying, hundred-meter-wide breach, the flagship did not break apart immediately, but its thrusters sputtered and died. Fragments of metal and human corpses continuously spewed outward from the gaping hole.

Countless mecha and escape pods scrambled out from the flagship in a chaotic frenzy. Having suffered such severe trauma, it was only a matter of time before the warship exploded.

The sudden turn of events stunned both sides of the conflict—one side with joyful surprise, the other with terror.

Seeing one of the most advanced mother ships destroyed in such a manner, the commander-in-chief of the Hongxian Federation nearly fell out of his seat. He could hardly believe his eyes: the federation's most advanced and heavily armored warship had been pierced clean through by a single beam of light?

He hoped this was a nightmare from which he would never wake. The destruction of a flagship-class warship via a sneak attack would surely land him before a military tribunal.

"All mother ships, listen up!" the commander-in-chief roared, bordering on madness. "At will, fire! Tear the sneak-attacking enemy into pieces."

Zhang Haokun, who had just shot down his ninth enemy mecha, also witnessed this scene, his heart filled with shock. He had personally tested the durability of these Hongxian Federal mother ships; the secondary guns of the Wushan had left not even a scratch upon them. He estimated that even a direct hit from a primary gun might not cause severe damage.

To obliterate such a warship with a single shot—what kind of terrifying power was this!

An image of the young man flashed before Zhang Haokun's eyes. Who on earth was he?

"Trying to counterattack?" Zhong Yun detected the enemy's intentions on the detector and sneered. "How truly naive. Did you really think the Mars only had a single main gun?"

"Adjust headings," he commanded once more. "Prepare, fire."

Another light beam, exceeding one hundred meters in diameter, surged forth from a different main gun aperture. This time, it did not miss, striking the rearmost warship on the far left squarely in the center.

That warship was in the middle of calibrating its cannons when it was abruptly struck by the beam. The entire hull shuddered violently, followed by a blinding flash of intense light that swallowed the colossal vessel whole.

A fierce shockwave radiated outward from the warship as its center, obliterating every fighter and mecha within its vicinity with irresistible force.

Much like a giant boulder dropped into a tranquil lake, the surrounding space rippled outward from the exploding warship, spreading in all directions.

Gazing at the incomparably dazzling radiance produced by the explosion of a behemoth-class warship, everyone on the battlefield, friend and foe alike, was deeply shaken.

"No... impossible..."

Buffeted by the shockwave of the explosion, the command ship at the center of the formation rocked violently, pitching the commander-in-chief out of his captain's chair. As he watched the warship—built with countless fortunes—transform into a brilliant, blinding glare, his throat felt as though gripped by an invisible hand, leaving him dizzy and lightheaded.

What shocked him even more was that an energy cannon of this magnitude could fire two consecutive shots. Did such a weapon even exist in this world? Unless...

The implications of that hypothesis filled him with dread.

A cannon of this power could not possibly be manufactured by the Hongxian Federation or the Davor Republic. The attackers must either have an old-school mid-tier civilization standing behind them, or a high-tier civilization.

Whichever the answer, it was not one he was willing to accept.

Since they possessed such a powerful weapon, why were they hiding in the shadows, launching sneak attacks without daring to show their faces? Unless they had constraints.

The laws of the Greater Cosmic Federation stipulated that once war broke out between two nations, third parties were strictly prohibited from intervening directly.

Direct intervention was forbidden, but indirect assistance was an ever-present reality. Behind the Hongxian Federation lurked the shadow of an established mid-tier civilization. The attackers must belong to another nation entirely. The commander-in-chief of the Hongxian Federation quickly straightened out his thoughts.

"Retreat—" Issuing this command, he seemed to age a decade in an instant, his once-straight back slouching forward.