～Join my Patreon to read 40 advance chapters.
------------------------
The first to respond to the incoming threat were the various AA Missiles. Long before the Valkyrie reached the clear spaces surrounding the ship, they had already reacted. The Flesh-bonded Launchers turned individual missile launchers into independent living entities. While they occasionally devoured a reckless cultist that wandered too close, they also allowed for rapid self-response to threats.
A bright point, shamelessly revealing its presence, entered the observable range of the fire control radar, speeding toward it.
The eager AA missile launch components emitted excited low growls or howls as dozens of missiles of various sizes, firing from launchers stationed across the ship, ignited with trails of flame as they sped into the sky.
They initially flew level for a short distance after firing, then, using adjustment thrusters, made their first turn, curving upward in a perfectly vertical line. Once they reached a certain altitude, they executed a second adjustment, aligning their guidance systems toward the descending Valkyrie.
In the dark sky, dozens of bright spots surged forward.
Under normal circumstances, aircraft could never outmaneuver missiles and had to rely on flares or other countermeasures for guidance.
Within the atmosphere, these little things could easily reach overloads of hundreds of Gs, even Imperial aircraft couldn't handle such insane maneuvers.
But evidently, this Valkyrie was not normal.
Rather than choosing to maneuver or launch flares, it directly executed a 180-degree roll, flipping into inverted flight as it pointed its belly skyward.
This allowed its multi-barrel laser cannons to aim upward.
With the buildup of crimson energy, the first beam of laser struck true, slamming into the foremost missile, igniting a fireball that illuminated the sky.
Immediately following that, dozens of equally precise lasers struck the incoming projectiles, turning them into fireworks in the sky.
This method of interception… could only be described as theoretically viable—by physical standards.
However, since it was actually happening in the real universe, there was no room for the enemy to be shocked or surprised.
Firing dozens of AA Missiles at once was not the limit of the ship's air defense system, but given the Valkyrie's speed, since the first wave of missiles underestimated it and were fully intercepted, it would be meaningless to launch a second wave.
There simply wasn't enough time left for the missiles to complete their acceleration and targeting processes. Next, they could only rely on short-range interceptors.
As she exited the street, the Valkyrie performed a barrel roll in inverted flight, tracing a backwards number six in the air, utilizing the brief charge time of the energy weapons to dodge several interception lasers aimed at her previous position.
Simultaneously, during the maneuver, the onboard fire control system accurately detected the laser cannons that had just fired, their residual heat still radiating.
The counterattacking crimson beams erupted from the multi-barrel laser cannons, slamming into the barrels of the intercepting laser weapons and melting those fragile components, temporarily neutralizing their threat.
After completing the roll, the aircraft had returned to an upright position but not completely aligned.
As part of the maneuver's end, the Valkyrie activated hover mode. While it temporarily didn't reduce her speed, it allowed the craft to complete a 180-degree turn without wasting time on a full rotation.
Although the point-defense guns fired rapidly, their projectile speeds could never match that of laser weapons, requiring extensive lead calculations when targeting high-speed objects.
This made it relatively easy to avoid these weapons—just by constantly varying her speed.
After executing the turn, the opposing thrust, combined with aerodynamic drag, caused the Valkyrie's speed to drop suddenly, sending a barrage of rounds from the point-defense guns flying wide of their mark.
Typically, this kind of air combat tactic would be considered counterintuitive. After all, in air combat, extreme energy loss was almost equivalent to death.
But for this Valkyrie, the thrust was so overwhelming that she could easily compensate for the loss of energy, akin to an investor in the stock market with infinite funds, freely conducting a series of spontaneous acceleration and deceleration maneuvers, even continuing to close in on the ship's hull amid it all.
In the night sky, those two trails of fire left behind despairing traces, much like a soul unbound by the laws of physics, or the tip of a careless brush, as dozens of dense beams of light tried to reach her, only to find it futile.
However, the Macro AA Cannon was now fully prepared.
These large-caliber anti-aircraft guns were generally employed against assault vessels spanning dozens to nearly a hundred meters in length, but after being fitted with specialized air defense shells, they proved effective against smaller targets as well.
At least that was what the macro cannon operators believed.
This sentiment carried on until the next miracle occurred.
Before describing that miracle, it's necessary to briefly introduce the type of anti-aircraft shells used by the Macro Cannons.
Unlike regular proximity fuzes, these shells employed time fuzes that would only detonate after reaching a preset distance as time elapsed, thus preventing them from being triggered by any decoy standing in the way.
With a large-caliber weapon, a deviation of several dozen meters was insignificant, and using a proximity fuze would only increase the risk of interception.
However, this also posed a problem—if I fly directly toward the shell, what should I do when it nearly brushes past me?
As the booming of the macro cannon erupted alongside a flash of orange light, a massive shell was hurled at the Valkyrie in the sky.
Yet, akin to her previous, unexpected behavior in the face of missiles, the Valkyrie made yet another decision beyond ordinary reasoning.
She accelerated directly towards the direction of the approaching shell, engulfed in wind and turbulence. In that moment, she nearly brushed against the rapidly flying iron mass, her belly's colors almost reflecting against the metal of the macro shell.
It was like two cavalrymen charging toward one another mid-air, their lances glancing off armor just at the last moment.
At that moment, the Valkyrie had forcibly penetrated the last layer of air defense, showing no intention to slow down—as if, even at this point, she was still not satisfied, directly charging toward the breach in the ship's hull.
———— 🌟🌟 ————
ps:Support and join my Patreon
patreon.c@om/chenc11 [Remove @]
You can read up to 40 premium chapters.