Chapter 294: Infiltration and Reconnaissance Before Jumping Into the Face

Every time the Focusing Iris shines, it means that thousands of lives are lost in space.

At least until now, there is nothing wrong with this statement.

When Duke Hastings ordered the main gun of the Gospel Fortress to fire, a very long "Sky River" passed by the position of the planet in the target area after nearly 2 minutes of flight time.

When irradiating at ultra-long distances, the Focusing Iris will strengthen the interference level of the magnetic field and adopt a "convergent irradiation" mode with higher accuracy and more concentrated power.

At a distance of 2.6 million kilometers, there is a relatively large delay whether it is for detection or attack.

So after the gravitational wave radar array caught this federal fleet that was taking a high-speed maneuvering formation, the Focusing Iris actually aimed at a pre-aiming point calculated by the fortress control personality based on the opponent's activity trajectory.

Unfortunately, perhaps due to lack of experience and too little reference data, the pre-aiming point calculated by the Celestial Fortress Control Personality was still a bit conservative.

When the heavy metal ion jet that crossed 2.6 million kilometers arrived, only the "tail" of this federal fleet was left at the pre-aiming point.

Fortunately, this ultra-long-range 'sniper' actually successfully hit the target.

The original intention of Duke Hastings was more to carry out a deterrent shooting, and let the federal fleet know that the Focusing Iris can attack at a distance where they cannot fight back while 'drawing a prize'.

So when the tactical information coordinator reported 'covering the tail of the enemy fleet! ', Duke Hastings even felt that this was a 'surprise'.

"The irradiation is over!"

"The energy circuit has been cut off, and energy redistribution has begun."

"The Focusing Iris begins forced heat dissipation, the main weapon unit begins self-checking, and the autonomous detection terminal and manned engineering machinery are dispatched!"

A large number of engineers and machinery inside the Gospel Fortress have started to move. This full-power irradiation is only the third time for this fortress.

After the first two irradiation tests in the weapon experimental galaxy, the Gospel Fortress has never waited for the opportunity to use the 'Focusing Iris'.

So just now was also the first main gun attack of this fortress in actual combat.

"My Lord Duke! It is estimated that the second irradiation can be carried out in 2 hours."

"Got it. Speed ​​up the progress of the operation. After the basic inspection is completed, carry out the maneuvering change according to the predetermined plan. Remember to notify Duke Artesia to follow up."

--

"Report! 112, 131 Light Cruiser Detachment, 221 Cruiser Detachment are all destroyed! 220 Cruiser Detachment is severely damaged!"

"Leave a small number of medical ships to collect survivors, and the fleet will continue to go to the predetermined coordinates and use the planet for shelter."

After hearing the casualties, Kane, the commander of the Eighth Fleet, felt uncomfortable, but still took the fleet to hide behind the planet according to the predetermined plan.

In the previous combat meeting, Kane, who drew the task of "luring the enemy to fire" by drawing lots on the spot, which was "all up to God's will", felt that his luck was really bad.

But after seeing that his old rival, Major General Valdi, the commander of the Tenth Fleet, also drew the task of "luring the enemy to fire" from another direction, Major General Kane was relieved.

As the commander of the main fleet of the Federal Navy, both Kane and Valdi knew the importance of this battle.

After Trafalgar explained the tactical plan, they knew the necessity of the two of them to carry out the "luring the enemy to open fire" mission.

Since they had already received this mission, Kane and Vardy had nothing to say.

For combat missions, "not resolutely executing is resolutely not executing", so even if the fleet is completely destroyed, Kane will resolutely complete the task assigned by Marshal Trafalgar.

Fortunately, although he has suffered losses now, at least it is still within his acceptable range of fleet casualties.

"Reconnaissance ship report! Signs of another imperial celestial fortress opening fire have been observed, and the landing point is located in the luring enemy maneuvering area of ​​the Tenth Fleet!"

Hearing this news, Kane couldn't help but hold the armrest of the captain's seat tightly, and the blue veins on his forehead also betrayed his inner tension.

Although he is his biggest competitor and old rival in the exercise on weekdays, Kane couldn't help but pray for the Tenth Fleet in this situation.

"Come back alive, Valdi. We still have a lot of accounts to settle!"

——

The main gun irradiation of the artificial celestial fortress is a very spectacular sight, so spectacular that the fleets around this war zone and the civilian units passing by can observe this phenomenon by various means.

With the area where the main fleet of the empire is located as the center, the circle with a radius of 350,000-600,000 kilometers is the middle-level warning area of ​​the two celestial fortress battle groups.

In this area, a new long-range penetration reconnaissance ship of the Federation Navy, the 'Vulture Class', is maintaining the 'covert action' mode, quietly lurking in the deep space under the cover of optical camouflage and black body coating.

In the entire galaxy, this long-range penetration reconnaissance ship should be the Federation ship closest to the target location that can currently observe the scene of the Focusing Rainbow.

If other reconnaissance ships performing infiltration missions have been discovered and destroyed.

But the captain of this long-range penetration reconnaissance ship, Brownie, does not know the current situation of friendly forces for the time being, or he dares not take the initiative to contact other reconnaissance ships.

Because no matter for themselves or the friendly reconnaissance ships, once the communications are intercepted and the ships are located, they will have no way out.

"I finally found this position, so I can't overturn it at the end."

While Brownie was thinking this, he looked at the progress bar on the virtual screen on the left that was in the process of accurately locating the coordinates of the imperial fleet - this was also the most important task for their reconnaissance ships to infiltrate in this adventure.

The Federation's mobile fortress is not in place, so it is impossible to deploy a large gravitational wave radar array to determine the precise coordinates of the Empire's celestial fortress battle group.

Although a fully deployed main fleet can be turned into a huge long-distance detection array through networking and additional probe dispersion.

However, the accuracy of this method is actually not enough, and it is generally only used to guide the fleet to launch long-distance salvos.

Secondly, doing this in front of the Celestial Fortress is really because they are worried that the empire will not be able to find an attack target.

Therefore, the task of obtaining the precise coordinates of the Empire's celestial fortress battle group fell on these long-distance penetration reconnaissance ships.

As for the outer security circle of the Imperial Celestial Fortress Battle Group, although it is indeed very tight, it can be called 'airtight'.

However, there are only so many reconnaissance teams that the opponent can send out. If they cannot allocate a large area of ​​​​the warning circle, there will always be some omissions.

In the relatively cramped bridge of the long-distance reconnaissance ship, the number of crew members is much smaller than that of a conventional battleship.

Moreover, each of them seemed to have no sense of nervousness at all under the eyes of the enemy, and some even stretched themselves from time to time.

However, Captain Browne does not find it strange. After all, sailors who are timid and have poor mental endurance will not be selected to become the crew of the long-distance infiltration reconnaissance ship.

Although the name of this new type of warship sounds a bit similar to a 'long-range reconnaissance ship' or a 'reconnaissance ship', in fact it is completely different from these two ships.

Reconnaissance ships are the most numerous and common reconnaissance means in the fleet.

Long-distance reconnaissance ships are ships that are located one to two standard jump distances in front of the fleet during fleet maneuvers to conduct advance reconnaissance.

The ship's self-sustainability and maneuverability have been enhanced, making it a 'pro max' version of the reconnaissance ship.

But the key word for the long-distance infiltration reconnaissance ship is the word "infiltration".

This new type of ship, in addition to conducting reconnaissance far away from the fleet, is more importantly able to break through the outer warning circle of the enemy fleet and approach a dangerous distance for close reconnaissance.

In this case, these ships will not receive any support from the rear, and they can only rely on themselves.

Therefore, the Federal Naval Equipment Manufacturing Bureau has piled some new technologies on this kind of ship.

The latest covert action modules, the latest hull materials, a new configuration of ship fusion furnace and main propulsion array.

Coupled with the 'ship automatic control system' derived from the unmanned fleet - this system can significantly reduce the number of personnel required to maintain the operation of the ship.

After all, long-distance reconnaissance ships perform highly dangerous missions, so the fewer people on board, the better.

In addition, in order to control the size of the ship as much as possible, the ship is made as small as possible. This long-distance reconnaissance ship is not equipped with any weapons, nor does it carry any HCP or combat boats.

In the view of the research and development team, it is of little significance for the long-distance penetration reconnaissance ship to have combat capabilities.

You have been discovered under the nose of the enemy fleet, do you still expect to use one or two cannons or a few HCPs to kill you out?

Instead of doing this kind of useless work, it is better to develop in the direction of "stealth investigation" and achieve the ultimate in this route.

It was this research and development idea that finally created a unique product like the 'Vulture Class'.

"Captain, the real-time coordinates of the Imperial Celestial Fortress Battle Group have been analyzed. Do you want to transmit them to the fleet?"

The voice of the shipboard controller's personality sounded on the bridge. The AI ​​that had finished its calculations also re-projected its own avatar on the side of the captain's seat - a mature woman with a hot figure wearing a navy uniform.

It has to be said that the captains of the Federation Navy have a very high degree of unity in XP. 80% of the avatars of shipboard controllers are this kind of "sexy big sister".

"Wait first, conduct another round of threat detection, and calculate the fastest acceleration path to the jump."

Captain Browne tapped his fingers rhythmically on the armrest, and then added:

"What we are saying is that if you can go back alive, you should try your best to go back alive."

Everyone on the bridge suddenly laughed. For them, it is very important to have a captain with a "big heart" when performing such a mission.