Voyage of the Stars

This type of shell is divided into two types, one is a conventional kinetic shell, and the other is a warp antimatter shell equipped with a warp engine.

The two have different initial launch velocities and different uses.

Shells equipped with warp engines generally have a slower initial velocity, only about 90% of the speed of light. It is not that the launch velocity cannot be increased. The main thing is that to achieve a higher speed, a larger acceleration force field must be applied in the barrel. A larger acceleration force field also leads to a larger acceleration and inertial force. If the acceleration is too large, the antimatter stored in the gravitational potential well may break through the restraint of the gravitational potential well and hit the matter behind it due to static inertia, thereby causing the annihilation of positive and antimatter and causing the barrel to explode.

There are two measures to avoid this situation. One is to improve the technical level of the gravitational potential well, and the other is to slightly reduce the force of force field acceleration. The first one cannot be completed overnight, so humans can only choose the second one.

For this reason, this type of shell equipped with a warp engine is not suitable for bombing planets. Its main purpose is to fight between warships, using the superluminal characteristics of warp propulsion combined with its own kinetic impact and antimatter annihilation power to strike the target warship.

It is considered a superluminal weapon.

The other star destroyer mode is now activated by humans.

In this mode, the shell equipped with antimatter warheads will first be pushed into the star destroyer cannon launch force field, where there are also force field restraint devices made of gravitational potential well technology. Then the shell will release its own restraint force field, and then the star destroyer cannon's own force field will restrain the antimatter as the warhead. The next step is to withdraw the "shell" that originally stored antimatter from the restraint force field and leave the antimatter in the barrel waiting to be launched.

Finally, the various acceleration components of the star destroyer cannon violently accelerate the shells that are completely antimatter. After accelerating for more than 140 kilometers, the antimatter shells are fired out of the muzzle at sub-light speed and bombard the target with super kinetic energy.

If we only look at it from the perspective of kinetic destructive power, the shells fired are at most a more powerful version of the electromagnetic railgun, but its power is not only kinetic energy, but also the powerful energy released by the annihilation of antimatter itself.

The reason why the Star Destroyer can destroy planets is because it combines these two forces, making it a destructive force that is greater than the sum of the two.

This firing mode of the Star Destroyer is not suitable for fighting enemy warships at a distance, but it is accurate for targets such as space fortresses, planets, and asteroids that are like targets.

It is definitely dangerous to use antimatter as a shell. After all, once antimatter touches matter, it will undergo an annihilation reaction. Therefore, when humans designed this gun, they added various protections inside and outside to prevent the explosion of the entire ship.

Of course, the Star Destroyer can actually use conventional matter as a shell, but then the Star Destroyer will become a kinetic weapon that only relies on kinetic impact to cause damage, so in general, it is actually three modes, but this conventional shell mode is generally not used.

It can be regarded as a multi-purpose cannon.

Star destroyers can destroy stars, but they can do more than just destroy stars.

However, now is the first time that humans have officially seen the power of star destroyers.

When the countdown reaches zero, the antimatter shell constrained by the force field is instantly shot into the acceleration force field. Then, the various acceleration components of the star destroyer burst out with a powerful stand-off acceleration thrust under the powerful antimatter annihilation energy supply, and the shell inside is suddenly accelerated from a relatively static state.

Under the unparalleled force field acceleration, the shell is ejected from the barrel in the blink of an eye, and it rushes all the way, like a stream of light that cuts through the darkness, bombarding a planet one astronomical unit away.

In the process of accelerating the antimatter shell, even though various anti-shock systems have been turned on in advance, and the tail nozzle propulsion device of the warship itself has been turned on, it can still make everyone on the warship feel that this Norda warship has a backward shaking.

The fact that a warship like an island can cause such a commotion shows the majestic power of the star destroyer.

The force is mutual. If it were placed on other warships, it would have fallen apart. Only the Tianqin, a warship built with a strong material frame, could remain safe and sound.

Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, the result of this shot was seen by humans more than nine minutes later.

Time is the time it takes for the shell to rush to the planet in space, because humans have placed a detector near the orbit of the target planet in advance, and the detector is equipped with a tachyon communication module, so the time it takes for the information to return to the Tianqin can be ignored.

It can also be regarded as an event that humans see outside their own light cone in the universe.

The speed close to the speed of light greatly increases the kinetic mass of the antimatter shell. When it hits a planet, it is no longer a light shell, but like an asteroid with a huge force. The powerful impact force directly smashed the crust of the target planet. At this moment, the huge target planet raised a wave of earth and dust around the world and rushed straight into space.

It was at this moment of contact that the antimatter with ultra-high kinetic energy instantly annihilated with the matter of the planet itself, and countless masses instantly turned into energy. At this moment, light, heat and shock waves became physical terms that could describe the impact point, and the turbulent shock waves and violent energy exploded instantly.

At this moment, in the slow-motion footage, people saw winding cracks appearing on the surface of the planet Nanodha, which spread out from the impact point to the outside of the sphere, and then the entire planet shattered in the subsequent incomparable powerful explosive energy.

Countless dust turned into material jets at this moment, stretching out into space.

And the planet, behind the light and heat of the explosion, exploded in space like cow dung stuffed with firecrackers. Under this powerful explosive force, small pieces of debris directly broke away from their original orbits and flew around, while larger pieces separated at a slower speed, and then continued to be bound to their original orbits and drifted around under the gravitational force of distant stars.

If humans do not go mining in the next step, these fragments will become the asteroid belt of this binary star system after a long time. Or some fragments will be captured by the gravity of other planets after billions of years of collisions, or become comets, or become satellites of other planets, or become insignificant meteorites that fall into stars.

Humans dismembered a planet in the most explosive way, turning it into a space mine that is convenient for mining.