The tricolor particle cloud continued to expand and spread outward at an astonishing speed.
Like a deadly, silent, poisonous flower blooming in the cosmos.
Several Imperial Duke-class Fleets that were relatively close simply had no time to execute effective evasive maneuvers before being completely engulfed by the rolling waves of gray-blue-silver mist.
Inside the mist flow.
On the bridge of the Imperial heavy cruiser Silver Claw, piercing alarm sounds were almost continuous.
The sensor officer stared at the wildly flickering garbled codes on all the main and auxiliary display screens before him.
The rapidly decaying signal strength bars, and the screens that ultimately turned completely black or displayed constant static.
His face was deathly pale, his voice tinged with desperation.
"Report, Captain!
Full-band sensor failure!
Radar, optical arrays, gravitational wave scans... all experiencing severe interference, signals zeroed out!
This... this is likely a new Federation full-spectrum sensor obscuration weapon!
We... we're blind!"
Almost simultaneously, the communications officer also jerked his head up.
His tone panicked.
"Captain!
All external communication channels are experiencing powerful jamming and interference, signals cannot be transmitted!
Our communications with the flagship and neighboring friendly fleets...
are completely severed!"
Bad news kept coming.
The voice of the gunnery chief came from the fire control station, carrying a tone of incredulous frustration.
"Main cannon fire control system reports!
Guidance lasers cannot penetrate the interference cloud to lock onto targets; the inertial aiming system, lacking initial parameters and continuous correction, has extremely high error margins!
Captain, the main cannons... are temporarily unusable for effective fire!"
Captain Jeremy Perry stood before the command seat, his face ashen.
With over forty years of military service and dozens of campaigns large and small, he had never encountered such a bizarre and utterly complete blinding strike.
The enemy had not yet fired a single shot, yet his warship had already lost its eyes, ears, and precise fists.
He looked out through the main observation window. Beyond the viewport was no longer the familiar starscape.
Instead, it was a rolling, surging, metallic-hued silver-gray thick fog.
Interwoven within were faint, thread-like strands of unknown material emitting an eerie blue phosphorescence, writhing in the mist like living tendrils.
Visibility had dropped to almost zero; even the outlines of the nearest friendly ships were blurred and indistinct.
Only the occasional, extremely faint glow of navigation lights diffused into a small, hazy patch of light within the fog.
"Engines maintain minimum sustaining power!
Full ship silent running!
No unauthorized firing or maneuvering!"
Perry gritted his teeth as he gave the order, his voice unnervingly clear in the dead silence of the bridge.
"Moving blindly without observation carries a greater risk of colliding with friendly ships or obstacles than being hit by the enemy!"
He scanned the room. His subordinates' faces were all etched with confusion and unease.
In this all-devouring thick fog, their proud warship had become a blind man trapped in a tin can.
They had no way of knowing where the enemy was or what they intended to do.
An unprecedented sense of powerlessness, born of technological inferiority, coldly gripped the heart of every person present.
Not only the Silver Claw, but all Imperial starships engulfed by the tricolored mist stream were plunged into the same desperate plight.
Like a herd of giant beasts suddenly stripped of their senses, they spun aimlessly in the spreading poisonous haze.
Some were forced to a complete standstill, barely maintaining their posture relying only on the basic inertial systems within their hulls.
Just as Captain Perry's command left his lips, a sudden change occurred!
Outside the left observation window, the churning silver-gray mist stream was violently torn apart by a rapidly approaching, sky-blotting massive shadow!
Its outline—thick armor layers, protruding turret bases, massive thruster arrays.
It was unmistakably the enormous belly of an Imperial Tier 4 or even Tier 5-class battleship!
It seemed to have completely lost its sense of direction, bearing down directly on the Silver Claw's port side at considerable speed!
The distance was perilously close, with no room to evade!
"Evasive action!
Port auxiliary thrusters!
Engines at full power!"
Perry's eyes bulged, his voice a hoarse roar.
But it was too late.
The next second.
BOOM!!
A deafening, teeth-grating roar of metal twisting and fracturing violently transmitted through the hull structure into the bridge!
It wasn't an explosion, but a pure, savage impact of immense force!
The hard bottom armor of the out-of-control battleship, like a collapsing cliff face.
Crushed squarely onto the Silver Claw's relatively vulnerable port side superstructure and part of its main armor belt!
The Silver Claw's several-kilometer-long hull was violently thrown to starboard by the tremendous force.
The entire ship felt as if kicked hard by a giant!
Every unsecured object on the bridge.
Data pads, coffee cups, even several soldiers.
Were violently hurled by the savage inertia, then slammed against the starboard bulkhead and floor.
Lights flickered madly, emergency lighting instantly flared, and the acrid smell of scorched circuits filled the air.
Perry was thrown directly from his command seat, crashing heavily onto the cold alloy floor.
His head struck the floor with a dull thud, his vision swimming with darkness.
Before he could recover from the violent shock and dizziness, an even more terrifying impact followed!
From below!
Another large Imperial starship, completely lost in the thick mist, possibly attempting an emergency ascent or a frantic turn.
Its zenith axis (the top of the starship) rammed upward from below, slamming hard into the Silver Claw's hull belly!
THUD—!!
A dull, thunderous sound like a giant hammer striking an anvil, accompanied by a violent tremor shooting from the soles of his feet to the top of his head!
The Silver Claw was like being squeezed between two rapidly closing iron plates!
Above, the heavy crushing weight of the battleship; below, the ferocious upward ramming!
Heart-stopping metallic groans emanated from all parts of the hull—the keel and major load-bearing structures wailing under extreme stress.
Amidships, brutally squeezed by the two opposing colossal forces from above and below, visibly dented inward and twisted!
Armor plates tore and curled, internal piping and bulkheads crushed and burst open, tiny debris and sparks spraying from the cracks.
"Severe structural damage!
Midship pressure zone nearing collapse!"
The damage control officer's shriek sounded utterly desperate amid the alarm sounds.
Perry struggled to his feet, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, his forehead gashed open.
Through the distorted observation window, he saw the belly armor of the battleship above still pressing relentlessly against his warship's port side, grinding out blinding sparks.
And the continuous, crushing, shattering sounds transmitted through the hull declared that the Silver Claw could be snapped in half at any moment!
Comradeship, battlefield discipline—all were crushed to dust by the instinct to survive in the moment when steel was about to tear through flesh and the vacuum was poised to swallow life.
Perry's eyes were bloodshot as he mustered every ounce of strength, roaring into the communicator like a wild beast.
"Gunnery Chief!
Aim for that bastard's engine and Ammunition Depot up there!
Fire the Main Cannon!
Blow it to pieces!!"
"Yes, sir!"
The Gunnery Chief's reply held no hesitation, only the desperate, ruthless resolve of one with nothing left to lose.
Though the Main Cannon's guidance system had failed, at such close range—practically point-blank—aiming had become meaningless!