Chapter 295: Breaking the Formation and Hastings' Back-Up Plan

"Threat detection ended. A total of two threat targets were found."

"The light patrol detachment closest to our ship has a straight-line distance of 120,000 kilometers. It is expected to be attacked by the opponent within 15 minutes after being exposed."

"The other escort detachment has a straight-line distance of 180,000 kilometers. After the ship is exposed, it is expected to be attacked by the opponent within 25 minutes."

After completing the threat detection, the shipboard control personality quickly reported the surrounding imperial units that may cause danger.

At the same time, on a shabby-looking virtual screen in front of Brownie, the best path for emergency evacuation of this long-distance penetration reconnaissance ship was drawn.

Yes, in order to minimize unnecessary energy consumption and compress the size of the bridge, the standard holographic projection platform on conventional warships has also been castrated by the R&D team of the Naval Equipment Manufacturing Bureau.

"Why does it take 15 minutes to enter the jump? Is it such a coincidence?"

Looking at the calculation results given by the shipboard controller, Captain Browne couldn't help but raise his eyebrows.

Now, this long-distance penetration reconnaissance ship is really going to dance on the edge of a knife.

After thinking for a moment, Brownie decided to take action immediately. Every minute and every second now was precious. He must pass on the precise coordinates as soon as possible so that the assault fleet could better jump in the face of the enemy.

Otherwise, once the coordinates are not received back when the attack starts, the assault fleet will have to use extremely risky 'estimated coordinates' and make an extremely dangerous blind jump.

In this case, it may even happen that it directly hits the celestial fortress after the jump.

"No wait, the whole ship is attentive! All units prepare quickly. This ship will send intelligence 30 seconds after the broadcast ends. At that time, our ship's position will also be exposed, so we will enter the emergency jump procedure immediately after the intelligence is sent! "

After the ship-wide broadcast ended, the long-distance infiltration reconnaissance ship, which had not many people on it, fell completely silent. Although the crew members were all very courageous guys, they still couldn't help but become nervous at this time.

30 seconds usually seems like a blink of an eye, but in the eyes of these crew members, every second seems so long.

The electronic clock seems to use all its energy to jump from one number to the next.

"87654321"

"Send intelligence packet now!"

"The optical camouflage on the entire ship has been lifted, the axis has been adjusted 180 degrees, and the main propulsion array has been lifted from restrictions on super-power operation!"

The empire's celestial fortress battle group is extremely strict with electronic reconnaissance within the middle warning circle, so the moment this long-distance penetration reconnaissance ship sent intelligence, it was located by several electronic reconnaissance ships at the same time.

The ship of the nearest light patrol detachment quickly captured the position of this long-distance penetration reconnaissance ship based on the positioning information provided by the electronic reconnaissance ship.

Then the dozen or so light cruisers looked into the optical lens. A battleship with a slender hull and a very small front projection made a sudden somersault and rushed towards the periphery.

"Quick! Stop it!"

The light patrol detachment, which was originally performing a warning patrol, did not hesitate at all. It immediately increased the power of the plasma propulsion array and pursued the location of the lone ship.

"Try to attack with high-energy lasers and charged particle beams! There is no need to pursue absolute accuracy, just shine them first!"

The distance is 100,000 kilometers, and both sides are maneuvering at high speed. Under these conditions, even "light speed weapons" such as high-energy lasers and charged particle cannons cannot actually guarantee the hit rate.

But these light cruisers can't control so much now. Just like the commander of the light patrol detachment said, let's shine the light first.

Even if you don't hit, just make the opponent nervous.

For these ships responsible for security missions, it would be fine if they did not find such an enemy ship lurking under their noses, but if they let the other side escape in the end.

Losing face is a trivial matter, maybe even this military uniform will be lost.

After entering the chase, time seemed to speed up again. For the crew of the long-distance infiltration reconnaissance ship, it felt like more than ten minutes had passed in the blink of an eye.

As the ship was about to enter a jump, the high-energy lasers and charged particle beams directed at them were getting closer and closer.

"What's wrong with the AI's estimation? It will take fifteen minutes. Damn, I feel like I'm going to be blown away in the next second."

Captain Browne, who was pressed tightly on the captain's seat, still found time to complain in this situation.

However, complaints were complaints, and he kept staring at the virtual screen in front of him, watching the ship's various indicators getting closer and closer to the jump standard.

When the green words 'Allow entry to jump' lit up, Captain Browne could no longer suppress his nervousness and shouted:

"Quick, enter the jump!"

The jump drive of this long-distance infiltration reconnaissance ship immediately began to operate, and space collapsed directly in front of the ship.

But at the last moment when the transition channel was about to take shape, a blue charged particle beam accurately hit the middle of the ship, and then swept through the superconducting battery stack during 2 seconds of continuous irradiation.

"I'm so lucky."

Before Captain Browne finished his last complaint, the entire bridge was completely swallowed up by the rapidly expanding high-temperature plasma fireball.

When this huge plasma fireball appeared in the dark starry sky, the people of the light patrol detachment finally breathed a sigh of relief when they saw the prompt of "target destroyed" in front of them.

——

Gospel Fortress, combat command center.

Duke Hastings had received the report of destroying the enemy's "suspected reconnaissance ship" unit in the middle warning zone.

And not one, but three.

Three new federal reconnaissance ships lurked under the noses of the battle group for an unknown period of time, and just sent out intelligence one after another before being destroyed by the patrol fleet.

"It seems that traditional warning patrols are no longer enough. It turns out that only the blood shed in actual combat can improve the technical progress in this area."

This thought flashed through Duke Hastings' mind, just when he was about to let the patrol fleets in the middle warning circle do another detailed screening.

The alarm of the combat command center sounded.

[Warning! Unauthorized space collapse detected! ]

[Warning! Abnormal mass growth detected in space! ]

The fortress control personality quickly began to solve the problem, and after a few seconds, it gave a series of "jump exit point" coordinates.

When seeing these dozen coordinates that were no more than 5,000 kilometers away from the celestial fortress battle group, everyone in the combat command center was sweating coldly.

They were jumped in the face.

In a minute at most, there will be more than a dozen federal fleets in front of them.

But unlike the reactions of other people in the combat command center, Duke Hastings's face showed a "relieved" expression.

At the same time, the communication of Duke Artesia was also received. The first sentence of the duchess was:

"Boarding battle, you really guessed it right."

"After all, this is one of the few ways to break our "turtle formation".

Unfortunately, this is not good news. The other party is obviously well prepared and has high morale. Otherwise, it would be impossible to carry out such a combat plan with a high casualty rate."

Duke Hastings's face did not show any joy for guessing the other party's plan, but a solemn face.

He and the Duke of Artesia had received a secret letter from the rear, and learned that the old emperor Frederico Rosa Leon was critically ill.

If it was before, the Duke might have had some thoughts in his mind, after all, it meant that the princess he supported was one step closer to the throne of the empire.

But this unexpected news came only after he and the Duke of Artesia replaced the "friendly forces" and led the Celestial Fortress Battle Group to arrive in the Federation.

Thinking of this, the Duke of Hastings couldn't help but think of the "troop rotation" suggestion that the Regent had taken the initiative to propose at the regular meeting of the Imperial Army.

At that time, whether it was him, the Duke of Artesia, the Princess, or even the neutral Duke of Soren, they were all very surprised.

Now it seems that this is an open conspiracy.

"Duke Artesia, prepare to implement Plan C. If the battle situation and our losses reach the level we agreed on before, I will consider the suggestion you made before."

"Thank you for considering my suggestion. I wish you good luck."

"You too."

When the two dukes finished their brief exchange, the A and B celestial fortress battle groups also prepared for battle during this period.

The red light representing the battle alarm has been lit, and the CIC of each warship has also entered a blackout.

All electricity will be concentrated on firepower and defense systems, and some places that are not related to the battle will be cut off.

For non-combat units such as pre-positioned ships and medical ships, while the fusion furnace is running at the rated combat power, the superconducting battery stacks on the ship are also emptied to reduce possible secondary damage.

These batteries used to maintain the daily low-power operation of the warships will be plasma bombs placed inside the ship if they are not emptied during the battle.

Soon, one after another, the fully staffed main fleets of the Federation broke away from the jump and appeared in front of the eight imperial expeditionary strike fleets.

The farthest one was 5,000 kilometers away, and the closest fleet was only 3,000 kilometers away from the enemy in front of them.

There was no countdown, no pre-war speech, and the entire airspace lit up in an instant.

The warships of the Federation and the Empire fired their main guns at full gunport almost at the same time, just like the code name of the Federation's combat operation, emitting a light like a supernova explosion.

All the warships also adjusted the power of the deflection force field to the highest. When countless heavy metal particle jets pierced the target, the flashing lightning on the battle lines of both sides almost formed a huge "halo" in this universe.

But this is just the beginning. The combat command center captured six jump features again.

This time, the coordinates were located in the narrow gap of less than 50,000 kilometers between the two celestial fortress battle groups in the "back-to-back" state.

When the warships of the unmanned fleet left the jump, the two celestial fortresses of "Gospel" and "Tranquility" opened all the exit channels at the same time.

"Backup strike group, fortress garrison fleet, go out."