Super Mothership
“Is this the legendary… true Iron Head Technique?”
Aboard the Fallen Angel, Nie Yun stared in shock at the astonishing scene on the screen.
The Jinlok Consortium fleet, which had just been arrogant and domineering moments ago, had mysteriously lost more than half its numbers in just a few minutes—after barely a dozen passes by that unknown flying object.
The remaining ships scattered in panic, attempting to reduce the object’s killing efficiency by spreading out their formation. But in just a few minutes, how far could they really escape?
“The image is ready!” Catherine pulled up an enlarged, processed visual on the main display.
Due to the long distance and the object's extreme speed, its original form could only be reconstructed using optical stitching technology, so the image wasn’t very clear.
However, one could vaguely make it out—a dark-colored, entirely metallic spherical body, covered in sharp spikes.
If one had to describe it… it looked a bit like a meteor hammer.
“Its speed… seems to be decreasing?” Nie Yun stared intently at the trajectory simulation on the screen and immediately noticed something unusual.
Compared to earlier, this secret weapon of the Gemini had slowed down by nearly a tenth.
“Conservation of kinetic energy…” Nie Yun quickly grasped the issue.
Although it was unclear how the object could ignore inertia and change direction instantaneously, the energy loss from collisions clearly still existed.
Even though the mass of the Jinlok Consortium’s ships was negligible compared to the object’s massive size, the cumulative effect added up. The more enemies it destroyed, the more kinetic energy it lost—and naturally, its speed declined.
A speed close to 270,000 kilometers per second was still terrifying…
But it also meant—this thing was not invincible!
Once its speed dropped below half the speed of light, the success rate of evading its attack paths using a warship’s radar and maneuvering systems would increase dramatically!
Moreover, its attack precision… was honestly rather poor. At best, it was just bombarding wildly around a general coordinate.
“It’s the ‘Reaper’! That must be our most mysterious battle star—the ‘Reaper’!” shouted Emilia, captain of the Fallen Angel, in excitement.
Everyone turned to look at her.
“People of our generation may have heard little about it, but in my parents’ time, there was a rumor about a ‘ghost celestial body,’” Emilia began to explain.
“It’s said that smugglers traveling along hidden routes would occasionally encounter a strange, ultra-high-speed wandering object. Radar couldn’t detect it—people could only see a fleeting signal flash by.
But when they tried to follow its trajectory to find it, they would never be able to locate it again. So many started calling it the ‘ghost celestial body.’
Some speculated that this ‘ghost celestial body’ might actually be the elusive battle star ‘Reaper,’ but no one ever found any proof.
Now it seems… those stories were very likely true!”
So that’s how it is!
With these clues, Nie Yun quickly pieced together the most plausible truth.
The Gemini possessed a secret artifact capable of instantly altering an object’s trajectory…
They had installed it onto the battle star Reaper, which constantly patrolled remote and untraveled hidden routes…
By expending astronomical amounts of energy, Gemini gradually accelerated it to near light speed—holding it in reserve as a trump card against unstoppable enemies…
Once its speed dropped, it would require immense time and energy to accelerate again. Therefore, for this strategic weapon to remain combat-ready at all times, it absolutely could not afford to slow down easily.
Just like chewing gum that never loses its flavor—it simply couldn’t stop…
Thus, it wandered through the universe, leaving behind nothing but its legend…
As for why Gemini kept its existence such a strict secret?
Though immensely powerful—capable of annihilating enemies without a trace—it also had glaring weaknesses.
If an enemy learned of it in advance, they could easily prepare countermeasures—such as placing large, high-density asteroids within fleet formations, or choosing complex environments as battlefields…
Once it lost its speed, its threat level would drop to below even that of a single warship.
Like a white dwarf bomb, a weapon with such obvious weaknesses could only achieve maximum effect when used unexpectedly for the first time.
And the fact that Gemini only deployed this ultimate weapon as a last resort showed that it wasn’t something that could be used freely—it must come with enormous limitations.
Looking at it this way…
“Order the fleet—accelerate and withdraw!”
Seeing that some were getting restless and seemed ready to turn around to beat a drowning dog, Nie Yun quickly issued the command.
At a time like this, if they didn’t take advantage of the enemy being distracted and escape immediately, staying behind would very likely result in being caught and devoured by the enemy’s remaining fleet.
Sure enough, ten minutes later, faced with a completely scattered formation and drastically reduced attack efficiency, the battle star Reaper seemed to receive some kind of order. After one final pass, it never turned back again.
At a speed exceeding 230,000 kilometers per second, it sped away into the distance, quickly disappearing from everyone’s radar.
In just those fifteen minutes, Kloros’s fleet had lost over a thousand warships. The remaining three hundred or so ships were still in shock.
Like frightened birds, they feared that this assassin—capable of striking once and fleeing thousands of miles—might emerge again from the depths of space to deliver a fatal blow.
Fortunately, Reaper’s rather “questionable” accuracy saved Kloros’s life—his flagship had miraculously survived. With odds of one in five, Kloros could be said to be extremely lucky.
“Damn it!”
Seeing that Nie Yun’s fleet was about to escape beyond their radar range, and knowing that pursuit was hopeless—while also fearing the enemy’s secret weapon might return—Kloros unwillingly gave the order to temporarily retreat.
Thus, this large-scale space war finally came to an end.
The battle had been full of twists and turns, with one reversal after another…
After both sides had played their trump cards… both suffered heavy losses!
Only after Nie Yun and the others’ remaining fleet retreated under military orders to the Storm Star System to hold their position and await reinforcements did they finally receive the true intelligence regarding the battle star Reaper.
Clearly, after this battle, there was no longer any need to keep Reaper a secret—especially not from “their own side.”
And Nie Yun finally learned some details about that “secret treasure”…
…
“Cosmic Relic”… as expected, this was the official designation given by Gemini.
Based on its abilities, Gemini had named it… the “Vector Engine”!
On Earth, fighter jets also have a concept called “vector engines.”
However, the “vector engine” here was fundamentally different from the secretive “Vector Engine” of Gemini.
A conventional vector engine refers to one that can deflect its exhaust nozzle to produce thrust in different directions—for example, the vertical takeoff and landing of the F-35B relies on such a system.
But the cosmic relic obtained by Gemini was entirely different… it possessed the almost fantastical ability to instantly alter an object’s motion vector!
In other words, an object equipped with this engine could go from moving forward to instantly reversing, drifting left and right, up and down with ease—and the change in direction would occur without any loss of kinetic energy or speed.
At first glance, such a vector engine might seem like nothing more than an ultimate racing tool.
And since it couldn’t be analyzed or mass-produced, at best it could only create a single super warship with extreme maneuverability.
Gemini had indeed tried this—but a single highly maneuverable warship had very limited impact on battlefields involving hundreds or thousands of ships.
Accuracy and shield strength—those were the most important combat metrics for interstellar warships.
And once the enemy’s AI understood the Vector Engine’s capabilities and switched to irregular saturation bombardment, even its unpredictable movements would struggle to evade attacks.
So Gemini thought outside the box again, attempting to combine ultra-high-speed warships with the Vector Engine.
But they later discovered that using such a system in fleet combat was a complete disaster. Due to “overspeeding,” the project was forcibly terminated after just three months—essentially due to catastrophic crashes.
Finally, after careful reconsideration, Gemini chose a different path: to maximize the “speed advantage” of the Vector Engine—by destroying enemies through collision, mastering the ultimate “iron head technique”!
However, if the mass of the object was too small, a single collision would reduce its speed by more than half. Reusing it would require a long time to accelerate again—making it essentially a one-time weapon.
Thus, the concept of the “lonely wandering assassin”… the all-metal battle star Reaper was ultimately finalized!
TL Note- Cosmic Assasin...
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