Special Forces: At the beginning, An Ran pulled him to get his certificate.

Chapter 1434 Fatal Attack

On the high seas, Goryeo Navy Captain Gang-neung gripped the bridge railing tightly, his fingernails almost digging into the painted steel.

He watched helplessly as the warship on his flank turned into a rolling fireball and thick smoke on the sea surface within three minutes. The dense black dots were like a swarm of locusts from the Grim Reaper, attaching to, exploding, and tearing everything apart.

Now, a portion of that chilling "black cloud" has split off and is surging toward his flagship.

"Stop them!" Jiang Ling's voice was hoarse and cracked, drowning out the shrill alarm in the bridge. "Full air defense! Missiles! Close-in weapon systems! Shoot those black dots down from the sky!"

His commands were resolute, his eyes bloodshot, sustained by the will of a captain. However, the battlefield does not appreciate lone courage.

The response to his will was the continuous, tooth-grinding explosions as the first wave of drones struck the ship.

boom! boom! boom! boom!

The explosion wasn't a single massive roar, but rather a dense chorus of hundreds, even thousands, of small and medium-sized blasts, crackling and popping, instantly engulfing the warship's foredeck and superstructure. Jiang Ling felt a violent tremor beneath his feet, and the shockwave slammed him against the control panel. Thick smoke and a pungent odor instantly flooded the bridge, and firelight flickered through the portholes, casting illuminating faces on and off.

A second wave of attacks followed. Deeper, more muffled explosions came from inside the ship, from the engine room and the nearby ammunition depot.

The entire warship groaned under the strain, its metal twisting and breaking, and it tilted sharply to the right. The lights went out abruptly, leaving only the emergency red lights and the flashes of explosions outside the windows. Icy seawater poured in through the breached passageways.

The commander slipped on the tilting deck, hitting his forehead and bleeding profusely. In his last moments before his consciousness faded into darkness, he saw through the broken porthole another wave of drones, like crows returning to their nests, swooping down on the already heavily damaged and inflamed warship.

Then, a massive, continuous explosion engulfed everything.

The destroyer, weighing several thousand tons, along with its stubborn captain and hundreds of sailors who were unable to escape, was completely engulfed by explosions and flames within minutes, breaking into several pieces and quickly sinking to the cold seabed, leaving only a huge whirlpool of oil, debris, and bubbles on the surface, as well as scattered floating, burning wreckage.

The same fate befell three other Goryeo warships that were targeted in a very short period of time. No matter how they maneuvered or fought back, they could not escape being pulverized by the almost endless swarm of drones. The pride of steel was extremely fragile in the face of "ant swarm" tactics.

In just ten minutes, five ships of various sizes on the flank of the once well-organized "Anti-Yan Kingdom Alliance" fleet had been reduced to torches and sunken wreckage on the sea. The burning flames illuminated a patch of water, thick smoke rose, and the listing, broken hulls slowly sank. The screams and cries for help of the soldiers falling into the water were drowned out by the waves and distant explosions. A hellish scene of modern naval warfare suddenly unfolded.

Chaos and panic erupted in the coalition's communications channels. Finally, someone recognized the true face of death amidst this sudden destruction.

"Those black dots! Those little black dots! Those are Yan's weapons! A type of drone!" A voice, shrill and distorted with fear, rang out on a certain channel. "They've attacked! They've really made their move!"

"Damn it! They warned us before! Why didn't anyone take it seriously?! Damn America, their intelligence said it was just a show of force!" Another voice was filled with anger and regret. "What do we do now? How are we going to explain this back home?!"

"Retreat! Everyone turn around! Leave this area! Retreat now!"

Rear Admiral Park Jung-hwan, commander of the remaining ships in the Goryeo flotilla, was ashen-faced. His ship, the "Sejong the Great," hadn't yet been directly attacked, but the constantly disappearing friendly signals on the data link and the large black dots re-emerging at the edge of the radar screen, seemingly heading towards him, filled him with dread. All his previous hesitation, observation, and wishful thinking vanished in the face of this existential threat.

"Order all units to immediately turn 180 degrees, at maximum speed, and withdraw from the combat zone! Repeat, withdraw immediately, do not engage the enemy again!" Park Jung-hwan roared into the communicator, his voice decisive and without the slightest hesitation. The instinct for survival overwhelmed everything.

……

Inside the control center, Chen Jun stood with his hands behind his back, his posture as upright as a javelin. On the huge panoramic tactical screen, real-time images and data streams intertwined. The red symbols representing the enemy were frantically changing direction, while the blue dots representing friendly drones, like a school of deep-sea fish with a collective consciousness, calmly adjusted their formation in the air.

Seeing the retreat of the Goryeo fleet, Chen Jun's lips curled into a chilling smile. It was not a smile, but the cold judgment of a hunter when he sees his prey trying to escape back into the jungle.

"Only now you think of running?" His voice wasn't loud, but it carried clearly throughout the silent control room, with a metallic quality. "Too late."

"Order: First and third attack groups, concentrate firepower, lock onto the Korean forces that are turning around and breaking away from the formation, and continue attacking until they lose their maneuverability or are confirmed to be sunk." His finger tapped on the touchscreen, tracing a merciless path. "Execute the 'tail cut' operation. I want their escape route to become a dead end."

"understand!"

The command was translated into radio waves. In the sky, a deadly torrent of drones immediately split off and swooped down at an even faster speed.

"Why are they only attacking us?! The American aircraft carrier is in front!" came the desperate wail of a Korean officer over the public channel. "We're just following at the very back!"

However, complaining cannot change the fate of the steel being torn apart. Anti-aircraft firepower is woefully inadequate in the face of overwhelming numerical superiority.

In the ensuing barrage of impacts and explosions, the two fleeing Goryeo warships were reduced to burning coffins at sea. The explosions ripped the hulls apart, sending them, along with the despair of their crews, sinking into the depths. The remaining Goryeo fleet command structure collapsed completely, and the surviving ships scattered aimlessly, their formation utterly destroyed.

Almost simultaneously with the demise of the Goryeo fleet, another hunt was already underway.

The Peacock Kingdom task force, located in the rear of the Allied fleet, had its core aircraft carrier, the "Vikrant," whose massive hull was quite conspicuous at sea. Tens of thousands of drones completed a complex reorganization in higher airspace, like a black storm controlled by an invisible hand, silently and efficiently dividing into several attack waves, diving down from multiple directions.

The piercing air raid sirens blared throughout the Peacock Kingdom fleet.

"Not a single useful piece of intelligence! When did the Yan people acquire such a thing? Why are we getting involved in this mess?" The Peacock Kingdom commander roared at the intelligence officer beside him, his face filled with shock, anger, and regret.

“Sir…” A young staff officer beside him was pale and his voice trembled, “I…I promised my wife that I would go back to see her alive…We…we might as well…” The word “surrender” rolled in his throat, but he dared not say it.

Just then, a new, more concentrated attack arrived. Dozens of drones, like arrows that had spotted their target, crashed into the area near the waterline of the already damaged aircraft carrier at a near-vertical angle.

Boom boom boom——!

More intense and concentrated explosions rang out, and the ship shuddered violently and ominously. A larger explosion occurred near the starboard waterline, sending flames soaring into the sky, and seawater rushed in through the breach.

"Cracks have appeared on the starboard side of the hull! Severe list to starboard!"

"Power is waning! We are losing speed!"

Bad news came in like snowflakes.

The commander slumped in his chair, staring blankly out the window at the tilting deck, the burning wreckage of the planes, and the soldiers beginning to jump into the sea to escape. All the grand ambitions of a great power, all the displays of strength, became a bitter and ironic joke in the face of this brutal massacre carried out by countless cheap drones. He opened his mouth, and finally, with difficulty, uttered the order to abandon ship.

The commander aboard the aircraft carrier "Marty" witnessed the horrific scene unfolding on the "Vikrant," his eyes filled with disbelief and terror. "This...this is an aircraft carrier..." he muttered to himself, his faith seemingly crumbling. However, death gave him little time for reflection, as the next wave of drones had already brought his warship into attack range.

Panic spread like a plague across the coalition ships. Exclamations, curses, prayers, and cries in different languages ​​mingled on the communication channels.

"Think of something! Quickly think of a way to deal with these things! Otherwise, we'll all die here!"

"Too dense! Too fast! Missiles simply can't stop them!"

"God! I want to go home for Christmas! I promised my mother!"

The soldiers scrambled in terror across the shaking, burning deck, some already donning life jackets and preparing to jump into the sea.

At this moment, following the predetermined ruthless sequence, the tide of death finally began to surge towards the core strike group at the forefront of the fleet, led by the American carrier battle group. Chen Jun's tactical intentions were clear and cruel: first, "cut off the tail," block the retreat route, create panic, and squeeze space; then, from the outside in, peel away the layers of the coalition's defenses, and finally strike straight at the core.

Inside the control room, Chen Jun watched the screen as the coalition fleet, after suffering a series of attacks, attempted to organize and launch a saturation air defense counterattack with missiles, his face remaining indifferent.

"Fire," he ordered again, his voice calm and even.

"Yes!"

The red button was pressed. Tens of thousands of micro-drones, either having completed their attacks or were on standby, roared like a startled swarm of bees, unleashing a deafening collective screech as they launched a full-scale attack on the American carrier battle group. The sound ripped through the air, like the Grim Reaper sounding the charge.

On the bridge of the aircraft carrier, Commander General Dawson looked at the overwhelming beams of light on the radar screen and the tragic sight of friendly ships sinking one after another behind him, which he saw through the data link. He finally put aside the subtle contempt he had shown when he observed the destruction of the Korean and Chinese ships.

Cold sweat beaded on his forehead, and his fingers trembled slightly.

"All frigates forward to intercept! Activate all close-in weapon systems! Launch chaff! We absolutely cannot let them get close to the aircraft carrier!" Dawson shouted frantically into the communicator, trying to grasp at the last straw.

However, the effectiveness of the orders was greatly diminished by the panic that swept the entire ship. On deck, the sailors watched the rapidly enlarging black dot on the horizon, like an apocalyptic cloud, and listened to the increasingly close, nerve-wracking buzzing sound. Discipline crumbled rapidly before the instinct for survival. Many abandoned their work and frantically rushed to the edge of the deck, scrambling for life-saving equipment, or even jumping directly into the sea.

"Get out of the way! Get out of the way!"

"Jump into the sea! Jumping into the sea still gives you a chance!"

Chaotic scenes of escape unfolded on the massive aircraft carrier deck. Meanwhile, death descended from the sky.

The first wave of drones slammed into the aircraft carrier's flight deck and island superstructure like hail. Boom! Boom! Boom! The explosions started at the bow and spread towards the stern, turning the entire deck into a burning path of death in a flash. Sailors who couldn't jump overboard or take cover were engulfed by the flames and blast waves. The massive carrier trembled violently under the barrage of explosions, like a giant being hammered by countless iron hammers.

Two minutes later, a series of internal explosions occurred. A deafening roar, far louder than before, came from deep within the ship. The keel of the aircraft carrier seemed to groan as it broke, and the hull began to list at a visible speed. Aircraft wreckage and equipment on the flight deck slid into the sea.

But this was not the end. In the air, numerous drones still hovered, like vultures eyeing their dying prey, gathering once more and launching a final dive towards the broken, burning, and listing aircraft carrier. An even more violent explosion tore this maritime behemoth to shreds, accelerating its descent into the abyss. The massive wreckage broke into several pieces, tumbling and sinking, forming terrifying whirlpools on the sea's surface.

Of the three main American warships deployed to "lead" this operation, one, a crucial aircraft carrier, was lost shortly after the operation began.

On his frigate, Admiral Dawson watched the final sinking of the USS Lincoln through his binoculars, frozen in place, his face a mixture of shock, anger, and bewilderment. He had indeed previously believed that the defenses of the Korean and Chinese navies were weak, but now, harsh reality told him that even the most powerful navy was vulnerable to this new and terrifying mode of attack.

"Missiles! Launch all the missiles that can still be fired! Aim at those black dots in the sky!" Dawson snapped back to reality, his eyes bloodshot, his voice hoarse with excitement. "Notify all coalition ships to open fire! Fire all your missiles! Are you just going to sit here and wait to die?! Counterattack! Counterattack immediately!"

This was the only solution that could be thought of in this desperate situation—to launch a saturation missile attack in an attempt to tear a hole in the drone swarm, or at least slow down their offensive pace.

The order was urgently relayed. Driven by a fierce will to survive, the remaining Allied ships managed to put together a desperate salvo. Various types of anti-aircraft missiles rose into the sky, leaving trails of fire, blasting through the air and creating a spectacular display of fire.

Inside the control room, Chen Jun closely monitored every change on the battlefield. Seeing the coalition forces' near-desperate missile barrage, the cold smile on his face seemed to deepen.

"Order: All drone swarms, disperse immediately and adopt high-maneuver evasion. Execute the B-3 harassment contingency plan." He quickly issued the order.

"Yes!"

In the sky, the previously densely packed swarm of drones instantly disintegrated, scattering like grains of sand blown by the wind in dazzling trajectories, while simultaneously releasing a large amount of jamming signals. Most of the missiles hastily launched by the coalition forces lost their stable targets, either self-destructing under the interference or futilely chasing decoys. After the first round of interception, the results were meager, with only a dozen or so drones shot down.

The dispersed drone swarm did not go far. Like ghosts, they circled and regrouped higher above the allied fleet, adjusting their formation. Their black silhouettes against the smoke-filled sky resembled the Grim Reaper's scythe, temporarily sheathed, ready to strike again at any moment. That silent circling was more suffocating than a direct charge.

At the control panel, Chen Jun watched as the enemy fleet revealed more weaknesses and chaos after their salvo, and slowly uttered a new command, his voice calm yet containing an iron will:

"Continue. Lock onto all valuable targets and launch a saturation attack. I want to make this sea their eternal nightmare."