The flagship of the Hawk fleet, the Sun, was not allowed to travel too far from the battlefield because it did not have the technology to communicate over long distances. If it was too far away, the signal delay would have a huge and fatal impact on the manoeuvrability of the ship, and the ship's flexibility would be greatly reduced. In such a fierce battle situation, a ship that lost its flexibility would be a target in space.
Right now, the Sun is 50,000 kilometres from the main battlefield and most of the ships are within a fifth of a second of the delay, a delay that is barely acceptable.
After confirming his safety under the monitoring of thousands of microsatellites, Hawke threw the escorting Voyager and forty other reserve ships into the fray. The Sun was still sitting in the rear.
In any case, the Sun could not take part in the battle. Although the Sun was the ship with the fiercest firepower, the most perfect defence, the largest tonnage, and the largest size. Because the Sun was Hawke's flagship and had to be protected most closely, Hawke would not allow the slightest accident to happen to the Sun. If something happened to the Sun, Hawke would be back to his old self after thousands of years of hard work.
With the forty ships led by the Voyager also joining the battlefield, the battle became even more intense.
However, with the addition of the Voyager, Hawke was still unable to suppress the other side in terms of high-end combat power.
The reason was that the other side's flagship was simply too fierce. Both the Voyager and the Sky Court were 200,000-ton ships, but the other side's flagships were at least half the size of the Voyager and the Sky Court, which meant they were at least 300,000-ton ships, and even one size larger than Hawke's largest ship, the Sun.
Most importantly, the other ship's flagship was equipped with a new type of weapon. The launcher was similar to Hawke's high velocity machine gun, but instead of a bullet, it fired an ethereal blue mass of energy that was so fast that, according to Hawke's rough estimate, the speed of the strange projectile was at least 30 percent of the speed of light, or 90,000 kilometres per second.
At such a speed, there was no way Hawke's ship could have dodged it. It can even be said that at least half of the ships lost by Hawke were destroyed by this strange weapon.
If it wasn't for Hawke's extremely precise control of his fleet, which was barely holding him down, Hawke doubted that he would have been wiped out by his opponent.
Fortunately, however, the weapon did not seem to be able to fire over long distances, was extremely energy intensive and required a lot of preparation time before each launch, otherwise Hawke, who was at the rear, would have had to worry about the safety of his flagship, the Sun.
"This, I think, is the prototype of the energy weapon." Hawke made a lot of calculations and came to this conclusion.
Energy weapons at this stage still only existed within Hawke's theory and had not been developed by Hawke. In Hawke's estimation, in the next phase of space warfare, energy weapons would replace conventional cannonballs and bullets as the main weapons in the battlefield.
At present, the main weapons in the battlefield are bullets made by electromagnetic acceleration, which are accelerated to terrifying speeds of several thousand kilometres per second by means of high-powered electromagnetic coils, relying on the powerful kinetic energy to kill enemy ships. However, this type of weapon has its limitations: it is still too small to rely solely on kinetic energy to kill.
Nuclear missiles are powerful but too slow, bullets are fast but less powerful. Laser weapons are the fastest, but can only be used for precision strikes.
"If only we could get the technology for manufacturing energy weapons ..." Hawke thought silently.
The battle, so far, had been going on for three hours.
On Hawke's side, six hundred and fifty ships, there are still four hundred and sixty left, out of the one hundred and ninety ships lost, one hundred and sixty ships were destroyed by the enemy, the remaining thirty ships were severely damaged and were urgently recalled to the rear by Hawke to begin repairs.
The enemy, with over five hundred ships, now had three hundred and fifty-two ships left to throw in the continuing battle.
Four hundred and sixty ships to meet the opponent's three hundred and fifty-two ships. Hawk was at a disadvantage.
"Ai, soft strength I surpassed the other side by too much, but hard strength ... my airships are really no match for the other side, protection, firepower, maneuverability, all are a bit worse. The other side has already stepped into the research comprehension of energy weapons, but my technology has not yet developed to this step."
Hawk sighed and continued to manoeuvre his ship with full concentration as he engaged in a fierce battle with his opponent.
The battle continued for another hour, and the enemy showed signs of retreat. It was clear that the battle, not only was it damaging for Hawke, but it was equally a little too much for the other side to bear.
So, after simply firing some more bullets and miniature missiles from behind, destroying three of the other side's ships, Hawke let the other side leave and did not pursue them. For one thing, he wasn't sure if it was a trap, and for another, he needed time to recuperate.
Hawke's ships were down to about four hundred, and with those not in the rear and those undergoing overhaul, the total was less than six hundred. The other side, on the other hand, had escaped back with less than three hundred ships from the five hundred or so that had been there at the beginning.
"Ai." Hawk sighed and began the intense work of ship repair.
"From one thousand and seventy-three ships at the beginning when they set out from the solar system, to less than six hundred ships now, only half of the voyage has been completed, and so many ships have been lost." Hawk's mood was, somewhat, sad.
This was even after having already exploded over a hundred nuclear bombs over the enemy's planet before, dealing a serious blow to the enemy, Hawke still received such a heavy blow.
"This can't go on, my losses are too severe." Hawk pondered darkly, "Gotta think of a way to end the battle as soon as possible."
"Exterminate this civilisation! It must be exterminated in its entirety! I've consumed too many supplies, if I can't exterminate them all and get enough supplies from this planet to replenish them, even if they let me go now, there's a chance that I won't be able to reach the Sky Court IV star system."
After the fuel was depleted, Hawke would be unable to make course corrections and slow down, which would be fatal for Hawke.
"Besides, how could I possibly give up on energy weapon technology ...? This kind of technology is impossible for me to research until I reach the Sky Court four star system."
"To exterminate the other civilization, it also has to land on top of the hydrogen bomb ... Facing a planet, laser cannons won't do much. Hmm? By the way, it doesn't have to be hydrogen bombs, I have the rest of the solution ..."
If Hawke still had eyes, right now, Hawke's eyes must be as bright as a light bulb.
For, there was a diabolical plan that Hawke had calculated.
This plan, if successfully implemented, would eliminate all the opponent's forces while at the same time will have no effect on the various equipment buildings. This would allow Hawke to take over the maximum amount of the other side's technology and material left behind.
"Well, since it's either you die or I die, it's a bit hypocritical to preach about mercy or anything else." Hawke thought silently, "But if we really want to implement this plan, we still have to try to weaken their starfighter forces, otherwise, it will be a big trouble if they launch a suicide attack after the plan is implemented, if they are desperate."
It had to be said that Hawke was already a bit shaken by the primary energy weapons equipped on the other flagship.
If Hawke occupied their planet, then the starfighters would not have a second choice other than a suicide attack. Because this was a different civilisation, surrender was out of the question. Escape? Where could they flee after leaving the planet base? This is a vast expanse of space, and the nearest star is five light years away.
To choose to escape would be to choose to wander to their death in the cold of space. I believe that any intelligent being with any sane logic would choose to come back and fight for their lives in such a situation.
Hawke sighed and began to add details to this plan while, at the same time, waiting for the second Starfighter encounter.
After a gruesome battle, both warring sides, needed time to lick their wounds.
During this time, Hawke did not sit idle, but would still fire a nuke or two over from time to time, to harass the other side as well. But since Hawke's exact coordinates were revealed, few of these bombs have been able to reach anywhere close to the enemy planet.
Since Hawk's position has been revealed, the opponent can focus on that one direction instead of the others, and the interception rate is naturally much higher. And Hawke could not launch his missiles with their own power systems to attack in another direction, as the flame and radiation from the engines would give him away even more clearly.
After finding that firing missiles had little effect, Hawke simply gave up on the idea of firing nukes and saving a bit of supplies.
Within the massive Sun, Sky Court, and Voyager, Hawke had built temporary docks with countless droids working back and forth, repairing the damaged ships and, at the same time, refueling them, adding ammunition, etc.
A dozen of these ships that had lost their repair value were dismantled in their entirety by Hawke, and what could not be used for the time being was first sealed away, and what could be used, was all taken by Hawke to repair other ships.
"I'm running low on supplies, so I'll have to implement this plan soon." Hawke thought with some egg on his face, "He, after all, can't compete with someone's entire planet. A planet, even if it's barren, is still much better than me."
"First of all, carry out the flagship sniping plan! As long as the flagship is taken out, without the flagship's central coordination as well as fire cover, and that terrifying primary energy weapon, their battle power must be reduced by at least 30%!"
"If the ... flagship sniper program is completed successfully, then we will proceed with the ... civilization extermination program!"