The engines of sixty-five starships simultaneously erupted with blazing light.
The massive torrent of steel began to accelerate, like a breached flood, surging toward that smoke screen barrier.
Soon, the foremost starships passed through the smoke screen barrier.
On the bridge of the Iron Spine, Zhao Rui watched the Imperial Fleet beginning its charge on the tactical screen and grinned.
"They're here."
He murmured softly, as if speaking to himself, or perhaps to the self of decades past.
"Marshal Qin, what you taught me, I'll use it today."
He opened the fleet-wide communication channel, his voice unnervingly calm.
"Everyone listen, our mission isn't to win, it's to delay.
Delay until Commander Yang Shao's main force arrives, delay until the Pluto Fleet bites the enemy's rear.
So, don't aim for kills, aim for disruption.
Hit their vanguard, hit their engines, hit their formation.
Slow them down, throw them into chaos."
"Understood!"
"First volley, target the Brown Bear Fleet flagship. Fire!"
The moment the command was given, the Iron Spine's main cannons roared first.
Two thick energy beams tore through the smoke, crossing 1.5 million kilometers of void, accurately striking the heavy cruiser at the forefront of the Brown Bear Fleet.
The ship's shields flickered violently, its speed noticeably faltering.
Immediately after, all escort ships of the Uranus Fleet opened fire simultaneously.
Twelve starships, twenty-four main cannons, plus hundreds of missile launch units, unleashed the first wave of firepower upon the Imperial Fleet's vanguard within three short seconds.
Explosive lights flared one after another at the edge of the smoke screen.
Three heavy cruisers of the Brown Bear Fleet suffered shield overload and hull damage.
An electronic warfare ship of the Fire Fox Fleet was struck on its broadside by missiles, tumbling off its course.
But the Imperial Fleet did not stop.
"Continue forward!"
Wells's roar echoed through the Imperial communication channel.
"Do not return fire! Do not slow down! Charge through!"
Sixty-five starships pressed on, enduring the Federation's firepower, continuing their charge forward.
They were like a wounded yet frenzied behemoth, crashing its flesh and blood against that thin defensive line.
Soon, the distance between the two sides closed to 900,000 kilometers.
And it was at this moment that the Fire Fox's electronic warfare ships came into play.
When the Fire Fox Fleet deployed its electronic jamming array, the first anomaly noticed on the Iron Spine's bridge was an inconspicuous yellow warning icon at the edge of the main tactical screen.
[Fire Control System Warning: Auto-Calibration Module Signal Anomaly]
[Current Calibration Deviation: +0.3 arcseconds, increasing]
The weapons officer looked down at his console, frowning slightly.
0.3 arcseconds.
At an engagement range of 900,000 kilometers, this meant the aiming point would deviate from the actual impact point by roughly a hundred meters.
For a battlecruiser several kilometers long, this deviation was still within an acceptable range, but...
"The deviation value is continuously increasing."
He reported.
"0.5 arcseconds now... 0.8... 1.2..."
Increasing by 0.3 arcseconds per second.
Zhao Rui walked over behind him, staring at the line of constantly changing numbers.
"Can manual calibration correct it?"
"Attempting now..."
The weapons officer's fingers slid rapidly across the touchscreen, but three seconds later he shook his head.
"Negative. Jamming signals have infiltrated the calibration circuits. Manually input data gets altered during transmission."
"Our targeting scopes are now like... like a pair of misaligned glasses. What we see has a subtle displacement from the actual positions."
By now, the deviation value had exceeded 2 arcseconds - at a distance of 900,000 kilometers, this translated to an 800-meter positional error.
The first salvo was fired under these conditions.
"Fire!"
The Iron Spine's main cannons unleashed two blazing beams of energy.
Three seconds later, sensor data returned.
Both shots had hit the Brown Bear Fleet's flagship, but the impact points deviated from the intended aiming points.
Strikes meant for the bridge and main power core had instead landed on the most heavily armored section of the bow.
Shield readings: Target vessel's shield strength decreased by 18%.
"If those were precision hits, that volley should have taken down at least 40% of their shields," the Gunnery Chief said through gritted teeth.
"The jamming has cut our damage effectiveness in half."
Data from other Uranus Fleet escort ships' salvos began streaming in.
Real-time statistics popped up on the right side of the main tactical screen:
[First Salvo Total: Main Cannons 24 rounds, Missiles 32 units]
[Hit Rate: 67%]
[But...]
[Precision Hit Rate (struck intended aiming points): 12%]
[Glancing Hit Rate (struck target but missed vital areas): 55%]
The subsequent analysis was even more concerning.
The system quickly evaluated the actual damage effect of each successful hit.
Results showed that since impact points generally deviated 100 to 800 meters from aiming points, strikes that should have penetrated shields and crippled internal systems mostly caused only superficial damage.
"They're not jamming our vision!" Li Wen stared at the analysis report, his eyes narrowing behind his glasses.
"They're jamming our ability to focus. We can see where the enemy ships are, but the fire control system can't accurately determine where to aim, nor guarantee where our shots will land."
Just then, data from the second salvo refreshed.
[Hit Rate: 61%]
[Precision Hit Rate: 8%]
[Glancing Hit Rate: 53%]
The hit rate was declining, while precision hits had plummeted.
The deviation value had now increased to 3.5 arcseconds.
"Jamming intensity continues to intensify," reported the Sensor Supervisor.
"Fire Fox Fleet is adjusting their jamming patterns. They're now specifically targeting our trajectory prediction algorithms with deception signals."
"Our fire control system believes the target's movement trajectory looks like this..."
He pulled up a comparison animation.
The left side showed actual course data of the enemy vessel captured by sensors.
The Brown Bear Fleet flagship was moving in a straight line at a constant speed of 15 kilometers per second.
The right side displayed the data "received" by the fire control system.
That ship appeared to be performing irregular zigzag maneuvers, with speed randomly fluctuating between 10 to 20 kilometers per second.
"So when we aim..." the Gunnery Chief's voice was filled with frustration.
"The system calculates completely wrong leads. We're aiming at a virtual, randomly moving phantom, while the real enemy ship easily evades our fire by maintaining simple linear motion."
This was the terror of electronic warfare jamming.
It doesn't blind you - it just slightly distorts everything you see.
It doesn't let you miss completely, but makes you miss the vital spots.
Like a master swordsman who doesn't parry your blade, but merely deflects the tip by a few inches, turning your lethal strike into a meaningless graze.
Third salvo.
Hit rate: 58%.
Precision hit rate: 5%.
Deviation value: 4.8 arcseconds.
By now, the Imperial Fleet was less than 500,000 kilometers from the Uranus Fleet's defensive line.
The Brown Bear Fleet's Heavy Cruisers began returning fire.
In an almost interference-free environment, their Fire Control System was terrifyingly stable.
In the first salvo, 12 Main Cannons from 4 Cruisers targeted the three foremost Cruisers of the Uranus Fleet.
"Enemy Main Cannon lock detected!" The sensor alarm blared shrilly.
"Emergency evasion!" Zhao Rui roared.