The concentrated fire of three speed particle spears in two rounds strained the Space Stationâs shield. Needless to say, it was even more challenging for a Ruler Level cruiser.
During the second round of the speed particle spearâs laser beam, the Ruler Levelâs shield couldnât hold up and was forced to disengage.
The aftermath of the particle spear left blazing molten marks on its frontal armor.
However, the Ruler Level was neither destroyed nor critically damaged and could even return fire.
But the Dusk cruiser had another function, flashing.
When the Ruler Levelâs shield shut down due to imminent overload, leaving the hull extremely vulnerable.
The flashing engine at the tail of the Dusk cruiser activated, triggered resonance, and, with it, all surrounding Dusk ships, including Chen Mingâs Refraction class, instantly vanished from the line maintained by the Ruler Level.
Reappeared between it and the outpost behind it.
Some Dusk ships rushed directly at the military outpost after flashing into place.
While the others, along with the Dusk cruiser, stabbed the military from behind.
The Ruler Level began turning as soon as the Dusk Fleet disappeared, but its maneuverability wasnât sufficient to complete the move in just a few seconds.
The most vulnerable engine opening was already under heavy attack by the Dusk ships.
The urgent situation forced the Ruler Level to activate its shield.
This was a wrong decision made by the Ruler Levelâs commander.
The Ruler Levelâs main shield wasnât an all-angle shield like the Refraction class but a larger directional shield that could only spread from the shipâs front.
Even though the directional shield has a wider range than the all-angle shield, the Ruler Levelâs directional shield angle wasnât enough to cover its whole body.
Thus, it had to activate the more flexible but less effective backup all-angle shield.
However, turning on the backup shield was worse than not turning it on at all.
The Dusk cruiser didnât even continue attacking the Ruler Levelâs engines and instead aimed at the newly activated shield.
Almost instantly, the Ruler Level, already close to its energy upper limit and shield near overload, fully overloaded.
Massive arcs covered the whole body of the ship, shutting down all systems.
Instantly, it was completely overwhelmed by the subsequent Dusk attacks.
The Ruler Level was declared out of the game.
Then it turned into a five-on-three situation.
And many Dusk ships had already broken through the outpostâs fire net, starting to attack the outpost itself.
It seemed that Dusk was sure to win.
With such a favorable wind, Chen Ming could even do nothing and just wait for the battle to end.
But the Gamma AI suddenly reminded Chen Ming: "We need to capture one to three ships if this battle results in no gains, command might question us and arouse suspicion."
Chen Ming thought for a moment and felt the Gamma AI had a point; given the huge advantage, it would indeed be odd if the Refraction didnât manage to capture any of the militaryâs ships.
"So what should we do?"
Facing Chen Mingâs question, the Gamma AI directly sent a Refraction class operation manual to the Iron Ore No., causing Chen Ming to slightly lose his composure.
"Forget it, just follow your own plan."
"Received."
The Refraction class began to move, purposefully heading to the nearest spot where ships were engaged in battle.
The overall battle line around the outpost formed a crisscross ring.
On Chen Mingâs side, Dusk was inside, and the military was outside.
On the other side, the military was inside, and Dusk was outside.
The small military ships which were just bypassed by the flash were desperately counterattacking, trying to ensure the safety of the outpost.
The other flank, noticing the flames on their tails, retracted their formation, sending a batch of small ships over for rescue.
Such a complex battlefield situation made the fights between small ships more frequent, more complex, more chaotic.
This situation was very suitable for Refraction class actions.
And right around the Refraction class, a number of military ships viable for capture had already appeared.
Chen Ming also identified several ships that piqued his interest.
So Chen Ming proactively asked the Gamma AI: "What will happen to the ships captured by you?"
While controlling the Refraction class, the Gamma AI responded: "Ships with only scanning value are handled by the captor, those with special value, like your ship, if successfully captured, arrangements will be made to hand it over for more detailed research at our colony."
"And those military ships?"
"Basically, they only have scanning value."
"So I just need to capture a few ships, scan their data to fulfill the task, and I can keep the ships."
"Yes."
Chen Ming nodded slightly.
He didnât want to miss the chance to reap benefits.
Conveniently, he planned to transform the Refraction class into a micro dock, so taking advantage of Dusk and Refraction classâs capabilities to control a few frigates wouldnât hurt.
Moreover, Chen Ming was now on the battlefield between Dusk and the human military.
The ships capable of engaging here certainly guarantee quality and definitely wouldnât be market-down versions sold to the public.
Chen Ming could even actively choose from military ships or models that might be useful in the future for capture.
With the overall battlefield leaning towards Dusk, carrying out such tasks wasnât too difficult.
And from Chen Mingâs observation, there were just the two kinds of military frigates among them that piqued his interest.