Captain, your ship has exploded again.

Natal believed that the Cybertronians, having lost their fleet, no longer posed a threat and began defensive probes against the unknown enemy at the edge of the solar system.

"Remote probe launched!"

With the launch of the first wave of over three thousand small probes, Natal began searching for the unknown enemy.

In technological warfare, locking onto the enemy first means half the battle is won. Since the enemy is not attacking blindly, it proves that the battle is still ongoing.

After the fleet moved away from Cybertron, it went into stealth mode. As a tactical mastermind of the regular army, Natal had already launched a large number of space mines while moving and stealthily.

Even with this probe launch, the coordinates were immediately changed after launch to ensure the enemy had no chance to fire first.

"Do we need to be so nervous? The enemy can't even detect nuclear missiles launched from Earth."

Wang Ge didn't quite understand Natal's excessive caution. His side had forty-nine Star Destroyers and one nearly Doomsday-class Executor. He felt that Natal was being overly cautious.

"Instead of speculating that the enemy could not detect the inertial nuclear bomb, I am more inclined to believe that the enemy encountered a nuclear attack when they jumped out. As for why they did not evade, I am more inclined to believe that the enemy intended to fake the nuclear bomb impacting the asteroid belt."

Natal had her own understanding, and there was one more thing she didn't say: judging from the location of the nuclear explosion alone, the enemy warships were definitely not small, and their numbers far exceeded those of their own side. As for disguising the nuclear bomb as an asteroid belt, she was more inclined to believe that the enemy warships were not their own.

Although this is just speculation, Natal thinks it's more likely.

The basis for this argument is that China's nuclear weapons include cluster-type missiles. Even if the Executor were to directly withstand the attack with its shield, it would be blasted to a pulp, not to mention the chain reaction.

Yu Qilan immediately reported: "Uranus's orbit has recently fluctuated (27 billion kilometers), exposing the probe's position. We are forcibly conducting an anti-stealth scan!"

Marcus and Yu Qilan reported simultaneously: "The detector lost 378 units in 4 seconds, and the enemy's location was forcibly determined!"

"Twelve seconds after exposure, 1,132 detectors were lost, enemy firepower increased, the second phalanx of the enemy fleet appeared, and the number of enemy fleets increased to 37!"

It is not hard to see from the enemy's reaction that the response was very rigid. Although there was some splitting of the fleet, it did not create much of a gap.

"Data from detectors in other directions!"

After giving the order, Natal immediately tried to contact Zhao Wanyang again. The situation was very tricky. The enemy's exposed warships were at least ten kilometers long, and the large warships had exceeded the Executor's length, reaching twenty-five kilometers in length.

In terms of length alone, they have no chance of winning.

Wang Ge turned to the command console and said, "Natal, activate advanced privileges and forcefully summon Zhao Wanyang!"

It wasn't that they weren't worried. Since Zhao Wanyang had shut down her communications, it proved that what she was doing was extremely dangerous. Even the slightest distraction could lead to irreversible consequences.

The main reason for this situation is that everyone's subjective perception is too strong.

Seeing Megatron and Optimus Prime in the movie, I thought the biggest enemy was Quintessa at most. I never imagined that Transformers 5 wasn't even finished filming and that there would be even stronger enemies to come.

"No, we can't gamble. If something goes wrong with Zhao Wanyang's experiment, Mars could be blown up."

This wasn't just Natal exaggerating; the main problem was that Zhang Xun had given the other party far too many powerful technological weapons, and no one knew which one they would accidentally trigger.

Yu Qilan said, "The number of enemy ships has increased to sixty-three. They are all in the same direction and no trace has been found in other directions. The enemy formation shows a high-energy reaction, which is suspected to be a high-energy scanning system. The second wave of detectors was destroyed at a distance of 230,000 kilometers!"

The appearance of this data made everyone present tense.

It's not that small fleets of warships can't reach that far; all human long-range attacks are bound to face two problems: balancing distance and attack power.

High-powered energy weapons do not necessarily have a long attack range.

举个日常简单的例子，wifi的信号有2.4G和5G两种，其中5G的功耗远超2.4G上网速度也远超2.4G，可传播距离和绕障能力却弱于2.4G。

Energy weapons and conventional gunpowder weapons have an inverse relationship in terms of increased range. Conventional gunpowder weapons, as long as they are used to pile up propellant charges and the barrel can withstand the damage, can theoretically fire at the speed of light (even if the projectile breaks apart, it will still be at the speed of light). However, energy weapons may exhibit the opposite behavior.

The result of mindless energy stacking is that a large amount of energy will be absorbed by the medium, which is a scattering phenomenon. In addition to increasing the energy density and reducing attenuation, the resistance of the target material to the divergence angle and the heat dissipation capacity of the equipment must also be considered.

Blindly using the main gun for ultra-long-range shooting will only give the enemy a light show, and will have no killing power whatsoever.

Marcus shouted, "Captain, the enemy's effective range has been calculated. It's within 180,000 kilometers and will cause damage to our armor. We need to increase the range of our main weapons."

In space warfare, blindly launching missiles before the enemy's defenses are breached is a waste of ammunition. Even in battles on Earth, missiles cannot be used to overwhelm the enemy (see Russia and Ukraine), let alone in space warfare that involves distances of tens of thousands of kilometers.

No matter how fast a missile accelerates, it can't reach the speed of light.

"Shen Yuexin and Li Zhuoyang have deployed the main gun range extender; we need to have a certain counterattack capability."

"Received" x2

Zhao Wanyang's calls went unanswered, and the Death Star was offline in the system. Clearly, this experiment was related to the Death Star, and Natal had no choice but to have the support fleet use the range extender kit.

This thing was developed after Star Wars, and its technology originated from the Empire's Starkiller cannon.

As an attack capable of traversing light-years, the Starkiller's main cannon's focusing capability is beyond doubt. As for why it wasn't directly installed on a warship, the main reason is that the focusing device of this kit is too large. If the heat dissipation equipment and material performance cannot meet the requirements in a short period of time, the kit would almost melt down after a few hits.

As Yu Qilan reported the numbers indicating the approaching enemy fleet, several large pieces of equipment were assembled.

"The oscillator is working properly. The particle separation device has been readjusted. Test 1 and Test 2 have been tested. The parameters have been successfully modified. The particle interception device is functioning normally."

"The strong gravitational beam is stable, gravitational clutter has been confirmed to be cleared, and the heat dissipation device has completed its pre-start."

Twelve large range extender units were quickly erected.

The principle is to filter out energy clutter and use gravity to force the particle beams to be directed in the same direction.

If there's any difference in effect between this and forcibly binding with a laser, it's that the emitted beam is dimmer, and the range extender's brightness is about three times higher than a normal gun muzzle.

The dimming of the beam is not simply due to a decrease in energy, but rather to the reduction in the number of scattered particles, which makes the attack appear much weaker.

As for why the range extender lights up, it's mainly because during particle noise filtering, a large number of particles and energy are forcibly intercepted by the range extender. These particles, which would reduce the range, are blocked, and the energy, while scattering in all directions, simultaneously increases the surrounding heat.

"Fleet activates gravity beams, target range extenders, the entire fleet moves stealthily and silently, advance."

Natal chose to move the battlefield away from Earth. Although it is now millions of kilometers away from Earth, once the enemy turns around and aims at Earth, even if the enemy's main guns are weakened, the damage to the Earth's ecosystem will be devastating.

Theoretically speaking, if the Earth's temperature rises by two degrees, corals will become extinct, and the melting of Antarctic glaciers will raise sea levels by seven meters. This energy is equivalent to 24 years of global energy consumption totaling 200,000 years.

However, for the six heavy particle cannons on the Executor, it would only take half an hour of continuous irradiation in lunar orbit to achieve this, and the subsequent heating would be even faster as heat accumulates within the Earth.

Ship-mounted cannons capable of burning glass off planets, even at greater distances, are achievable with increased numbers (see solar flares).

"At a distance of two billion kilometers, the enemy fleet has changed, and their formation has begun to shift."

Natal, sitting on the captain's chair, frowned deeply. She was very worried that the enemy might split up. Once the enemy dispersed, Earth, without a planetary shield, would have no chance of survival.

"Keep a close eye on the enemy's movements and continue launching probes. We must not allow the enemy to disperse!"

When the distance between the two sides reached one billion kilometers, the enemy fleet began to disperse.

Yu Qilan immediately reported: "The enemy ships have begun to disperse. In addition to the thirty-seven ships on the front, there are fifteen ships on each of the other two sides."

The four extra warships were discovered by the probes later using their numbers. If their whereabouts hadn't been forcibly exposed, these four warships would definitely have launched a surprise attack on Earth in the subsequent battle. This is also why Natal was worried about the enemy splitting their forces.

"All fleets, remove camouflage and form three triangular formations with the Executor as the core. Charge the main guns and fire at the enemy without using range extenders!"

Then, 150 heavy particle beams were fired straight at the enemy formation. Natal was willing to expose her own presence in order to stop the enemy from attacking Earth.