Chapter 1068: Chapter 1067: A Completely Different Style
This is humanity’s final battle!
If this were in a movie, animation, or comic, this heroic line would be accompanied by many intense battle scenes. Even facing an invincible opponent, humanity would muster the courage to fight.
However, reality is far crueler.
"The Fifth Fleet is out of contact, the left wing has collapsed!"
Upon hearing this, Admiral Goto closed his eyes helplessly. They had given their all, but couldn’t even penetrate the enemy’s protective barrier. Faced with the near-hopeless disparity between them and the enemy, Admiral Goto was at a loss for words.
In fact, the entire warship command room was also in deathly silence.
The only thing they could do now was to watch as those terrifying steel creatures relentlessly destroyed their last line of defense, drawing closer step by step.
For some reason, Admiral Goto suddenly felt a sense of relief deep in his heart.
Perhaps dying here isn’t such a bad choice, at least... at least he won’t have to witness humanity’s final fate.
However, just as despair arose among the people, suddenly a voice rang out.
"This is Mobile Battleship Nadesico! Is anyone hearing me? Respond if you can hear!"
"Nadesico?!"
Upon hearing this familiar voice, Admiral Goto was startled. For a moment, he thought he was hearing things, but soon he quickly activated the communication link.
"Yurika?! Is it Yurika?!"
"Dad?"
Upon hearing Admiral Goto’s response, Goto Yurika excitedly called out.
"Dad, are you okay? How is Earth now? Is it still safe?"
"I’m okay..."
Facing his daughter, Admiral Goto showed a slight smile. When he first learned that Nadesico had lost contact, he thought his daughter had already sacrificed herself. But unexpectedly, they appeared again.
"Earth... forget it, my daughter, you might still not know, Earth is no longer defensible, you should leave here and run as far as possible!"
Though unsure of its usefulness...
Yurika’s response left Admiral Goto astonished.
"What? Have the Reapers already reached Earth? Dad, wait, hold on, reinforcements are arriving soon!!"
"Wait, Reapers? Reinforcements? What are you talking about?"
Upon hearing Yurika’s words, Admiral Goto froze for a moment. As a Federation Army admiral, he wasn’t ignorant. From his daughter’s words, Admiral Goto immediately sensed something wrong. Until now, the Earth Federation didn’t know where these creatures came from or what they were called. But from his daughter’s tone, she seemed very familiar with these creatures?
Also, what reinforcements?
"Admiral!"
At this moment, the operator in front suddenly shouted loudly.
"Direction two o’clock, unknown high-energy reaction detected!"
"What?"
Upon hearing this, Admiral Goto quickly raised his head and looked at the screen. Then, he saw a moment he would never forget.
In the pitch black depths of space, suddenly several points of light flickered. They were dazzling and tiny, like some sort of flashlights. Yet in the next moment, dozens of massive metal warships, in a manner beyond their understanding, suddenly raced towards them from afar, appearing right before them!
The transition from extreme motion to extreme stillness was shocking. Just the previous second, they saw those massive warships charging at them with almost uncatchable speed. Yet, in the next moment, those massive warships slowed down instantly, gradually hovering in place.
Then, the crowd just felt a flash before their eyes and a giant mushroom-like golden warship suddenly appeared amidst the fleet. Admiral Goto then saw unparalleled golden energy condensing and gathering at the top of the golden mushroom. In the blink of an eye, it transformed into an energy torrent, aimed at the faraway Reaper army.
Under the crowd’s watch, they saw those Reapers, which they couldn’t break through no matter how hard they tried, completely explode under this single strike!
"What is this?!"
At this moment, Admiral Goto couldn’t sit still anymore. He stood up, wide-eyed, lost for words at the spectacle before him.
But this was only the beginning.
As the massive "golden mushroom" fired, the other warships rapidly launched an attack on the Reapers. Beams of light shot out from the turrets on their ship hulls, targeting the Reapers. Simultaneously, those Reapers realized that this suddenly appearing fleet was difficult to deal with, quickly abandoning their invasion of Earth and turning to fight this fleet.
"Where did this fleet come from?"
Admiral Goto clenched his fists, dumbstruck. He could be sure this was definitely not a fleet he was familiar with! Because the fleet appearing before them — the style was simply not right!
In this world, warships from any force, though varied in appearance, still follow certain templates. They are generally designed with "ships" as the base model. Even the Archangel Ship and Nadesico are similar, with weapons typically installed at the front and top side, with the front used as hangars.
But these warships were almost all flat, three-dimensional structures, with turrets installed on the sides of the ship hull and entrances located at the belly — a completely different design concept.
Moreover, these warships themselves were massive!
Warship sizes in this world generally ranged from two hundred to three hundred meters. However, in this fleet, the smallest warship is comparable to their largest, and the even larger warships gave Admiral Goto a feeling as if he were piloting a small fishing boat, while aircraft carriers were sailing beside.
And most importantly, their battle tactics.
In this world, warship duels aren’t particularly significant. Many times, warships perform the role of "aircraft carriers." Their function is to reach the destination, release MS, and facilitate mechas in battle, with the ship providing cover and support.
However, these warships didn’t use humanoid weapons like MS. Instead, they used mostly laser weapons and torpedoes, and even the massive carriers didn’t deploy humanoid weapons, but large pitch-black carrier-based aircraft!
All these factors indicated the opponents were entirely different!
Where did these warships originate? What power do they belong to?
The battle continued, but this time, facing the formidable Reapers, the Earth Federation Fleet finally encountered its abyss moment. Admiral Goto watched firsthand as those Reapers fired their most powerful weapon, a red beam, at this fleet. Admiral Goto was very familiar with this; every time that beam appeared, one of their warships was sunk.
But in front of these mysterious warships, the red beam was completely ineffective. It didn’t even hit the targets, being directly blocked by the shields that appeared outside the mysterious warships.
Conversely, the mysterious warships attacked the Reapers with such precision; their continuous beam attacks swiftly broke the Reapers’ shields, completely obliterating them.
As for those troublesome drones, they posed no threat at all. The carrier-based aircraft from the mysterious fleet encircled and destroyed the drones with unimaginable speed and agility.
"Dad!"
Just as Admiral Goto watched the battlefield with bewilderment, he finally saw a warship he recognized — the white Nadesico wobbled out from that fleet, heading towards him.
"Thank goodness, you’re safe!"
"Yurika!"
Seeing his daughter’s smiling face on the screen, Admiral Goto finally felt relieved, but soon he turned serious.
"What is going on? Where did this fleet come from? What exactly happened?"
"Yes, Dad."
Upon hearing Admiral Goto’s inquiry, Yurika’s expression turned serious as well.
"Regarding this matter, I will explain it to you in detail!"