Space Odyssey from Abandoned Mining Space Station

Chapter 151: Chapter 82: ”Black Market” and ”Armor Piercing”_2

Continuing to read further would take too much time on the road.

So Chen Ming turned back to the place where spaceships were sold, starting from the opposite direction to step by step confirm what he needed.

First off, buying a spaceship is definitely off the table.

Since currently, Chen Ming’s spaceship situation is actually quite good.

Three Destroyers and six Frigates are already enough to deal with many situations.

Any more than that would be unmanageable.

However, in terms of weaponry, Chen Ming felt there was a need to add new ones.

Because the weapons he had in hand were a bit skewed.

The medium load points had energy weapons like the ion beam and tactical laser cannon.

Solid bullet weapons included the Tearer, ”Noise” cannon, and assault chain gun.

The only small energy weapon was an instant HPD laser cannon, which is just a point defense weapon.

The best small solid bullet weapon was the military’s Light Needle.

Others, like the Mule Level’s light assault cannon and Vulcan point defense cannon, were better than ordinary civilian weapons but only slightly better.

Adding to that was the Electromagnetic Spear adapted from individual weaponry.

Remaining were missile-type weapons.

There were two kinds of small missile weapons: Fire Snake focused targeting missiles that could adjust their trajectory, track the spaceship’s exhaust flame, and hit the engine, causing engine paralysis or even damage.

Another type was the Death God Torpedo, which wasn’t very practical in use.

Although the medium ones only had one type, at least they possessed Cyber SRM Missiles from the Warrior Level with strong shield-breaking capability.

Overall, Chen Ming’s current weaponry was limited to this.

They seemed numerous, covering various necessary combat environments.

But in reality, lacking a type capable of terminating spaceships after breaking the enemy’s shields.

Energy weapons certainly don’t count.

Because energy weapons rely on excellent output and Radiant Energy amplification ratio to gain advantage.

Unless energy output exceeds a limit, like the Speed Particle Spear, otherwise it’s hard to have substantial destructive capability.

So to end a spaceship, one can only rely on solid bullets and missiles.

At least for Destroyer and Frigate level ships, in most cases, they are the means to terminate spacecraft.

Nearly all weapons Chen Ming had were used for breaking shields and armor.

But to destroy a ship requires an approach completely different from breaking shields and armor.

Weapons good at piercing armor aren’t necessarily good for the ship’s structure.

Just like the ”Noise.”

This is a kind of multi-barrel rotary cannon firing small high-speed armor-piercing shells.

While ensuring kinetic energy weapons are effective against shields, it also has strong armor-breaking capability.

Then, there’s nothing more to it.

The design of armor-piercing shells means they can only pierce armor and cause slight damage to the ship’s outer structure, making it hard to inflict substantial damage internally.

Another weapon, the Tearer, uses armor-piercing explosive shells, so it’s better than ”Noise’s” armor-piercing shells.

However, precisely because they are armor-piercing explosive shells, they fall short in destructive power and armor-piercing capability compared to purely single-type weapons.

Shield-breaking ability is somewhat lacking due to the piercing design.

So Tearer is effective against weakly armored or structurally fragile pirates, but not great against Heavy Armor and shielded targets.

Unless fighting pirates, otherwise the possible outcome could be the enemy ship’s shields are broken, armor shattered, but yet unable to completely destroy the ship, allowing the enemy to catch a breath.

Just like that previous encounter Chen Ming had with pirates.

Due to the Centurion suffering front-line fire attacks from six ships, it could only activate the damping field defense and couldn’t use the Tearer to counterattack.

Thus, Chen Ming could only rely on the Warrior’s outstanding performance and the Radiant Energy System nearly matching a Destroyer, using Cyber SRM Missile’s shield-breaking and the ion beam’s shield suppressing capabilities to break the pirate Mule Level ship’s shields.

Then the issue arose in handling the engine.

Chen Ming had to rely on reinforced ion beams with Overload Grid and High-Energy Focusing Device combined just barely to damage the Mule Level’s engine, not even destroying it.

Moreover, the Warrior and Centurion were just one ship, very easily restrained.

When the ship number increases in fights later, there would be no chance for Chen Ming to specially maneuver to flank the engine.

If the engine can’t be crippled, Chen Ming’s fleet’s terminating capability is further diminished.

Even a slight mishap with pirates could cause problems.

This further illustrates Chen Ming’s current lack of rapid destructive, terminating type weapons to harm ship structures.

Although Death God Torpedo could be considered one, with a resounding name.

But it’s scarce, its actual combat power is enigmatic, and its full playability is luck-dependent.

Actually, Luder’s suicide ship is well-suited for terminating attacks against ships, but its cost surpasses any attack means combined, at best kept as a trump card, impossible to combat relying solely on suicide ships.

So after experiencing combat and realizing the issues within, Chen Ming urgently needed such excellent terminating type weapons.

And Chen Ming’s terminal note indeed recorded some valuable weapons.

Among them, the one fitting all Chen Ming’s needs precisely happened to be the Energy-Charging High-Air Cannon using Speed Particle Technology.

A half energy, half solid bullet weapon, each projectile is a grenade loaded with special charged materials.

During firing, the projectile undergoes rapid charging, upon actual impact not only has the grenade’s explosive impact but also generates an arc when the internal charged material is destroyed.