Chapter 296 A Tragic Victory Is Still a Victory (Combined Chapter)

The man-made celestial fortress will naturally be equipped with a garrison fleet.

Although the man-made celestial fortress will generally not be dispatched alone, but will form a "celestial fortress battle group" with other fleets, there will still be no shortage of garrison fleets.

The composition of the garrison fleet is basically the same as that of a main fleet, except that there will be fewer battleships and more more functional ships such as light and heavy cruisers.

After all, the firepower of the Celestial Fortress is already strong enough, so a few more battleships are of little significance, and the main role of the garrison fleet is to assist in air defense and protect the wings and rear of the Celestial Fortress.

The Duke of Hastings's trump card, in addition to these two garrison fleets, is also two reserve strike groups parked inside the two celestial fortresses.

Since setting off from the Empire, these two reserve strike groups have never appeared and have been on standby inside the Celestial Fortress, in order to prevent the Federation from misjudging the Empire's troop allocation.

In the battle meeting before the battle, Duke Hastings considered the possibility that the Federation might launch a surprise attack here when he saw the narrow gap in the middle of the 'Turtle Formation' composed of two celestial fortresses.

In order to ensure sufficient maneuvering space, the distance between the two celestial fortresses must be maintained at least 40,000 kilometers, and normally the distance will be maintained at 60,000 kilometers.

A 'gap' of this size is theoretically enough for multiple fleets to jump in at fixed points, and Duke Hastings also believes that the other party must have relatively high control over the astronomical conditions and coordinates of the galaxy within the territory.

So he was always on guard.

The garrison fleet and reserve strike group, which have already completed preparations for dispatch, have been waiting for this moment.

The reserve strike group and garrison fleet, equivalent to four full fleets, immediately strangled the unmanned fleets that entered the scene one after another.

Their mission is also very simple and clear, which is to prevent these unmanned fleets from destroying the rear propulsion array of the celestial fortress at all costs.

On the other side, Marshal Trafalgar, who was the first to enter the First Fleet, also learned that the unmanned fleet was entangled.

At this moment, he had to admit that the Duke of Hastings on the opposite side was quite capable of hiding. He had the combat power equivalent to four full fleets, but he had to hide it until now.

The six unmanned fleets that originally planned to enter the scene as "surprise forces" were now forced to start a close-range "mincing" with these new forces that emerged.

Although there are more unmanned fleets in number, the empire's reserve strike group and garrison fleet can be supported by defensive weapons from the two celestial fortresses, so they are not completely at a disadvantage.

Marshal Trafalgar's idea for this operation was to use the 'strongest punch' to hit the enemy directly in the face, so he did not retain any reserves when making combat deployments.

At the moment, 21 fleets, including the Eighth and Tenth fleets that implemented the plan to lure the enemy, as well as the escort formations that performed the "deportation alert" mission in the outer security circle, have all joined the battle.

Counting the various fleets of the empire, in addition to the two celestial fortresses, more than 8,000 warships of various types gathered in this battlefield.

Such a 'grand scene' never happened even in the last war 80 years ago.

Although in the last war, the number of warships invested by both sides during the war was still larger, but now such a large number of warships are concentrated in a galaxy, or even in a space near a planet.

It's really the first time I've done this.

This battle has entered a fierce stage from the first round of salvos fired by both sides.

The salvo strategies adopted by both sides are also relatively consistent. In the same fleet, 50% of the firepower is concentrated on one or two battleships, and the remaining 50% of the firepower is selected by the target for output.

On the one hand, while ensuring that each salvo can stably kill one of the opponent's battleships, all battleships on the opponent's front line must keep the deflection field turned on.

Marshal Trafalgar, who was on the bridge of the Federation Navy flagship 'Dreadnought', and Duke Hastings in the Gospel Fortress combat command center, looked at the chaotic battlefield and said in unison almost at the same time. :

"It's so fucking ugly."

To an outsider, the various lasers and rays flying randomly in this space, as well as the silver-white arcs of deflection force fields, as well as the firelight of the battleship being hit and exploding, can be said to be a 'splendid scene' in space.

No panoramic movie or game picture could be as shocking as the scene of the two sides fighting at this moment.

But in the eyes of soldiers and senior military officials such as Marshal Trafalgar and the Duke of Hastings, the scene of the fighting between the two sides could be said to be extremely ugly.

Because the current battle has become a war of attrition without any skill or 'artistic'.

What the two sides are fighting for is to see whose capital ships are exhausted first, or whose fleet's morale is destroyed first.

Fleet warfare, which requires precise calculation and deployment of tactics, has turned into a simple and cruel mathematical problem.

80% of the tactics used in fleet operations are no longer useful at this moment, because all the fighting forces on both sides are fighting within a distance of 5,000 kilometers, and some have even entered a distance of 3,000 kilometers.

At this engagement distance, the battleship's heavy particle cannon has only a "flight time" of more than 1 second, which is basically a state where the fire is guaranteed to hit.

All tactics and maneuvers have become meaningless at this moment.

All the captains of the warships concentrated most of their energy on the main guns and deflection force fields. While following the fleet commander to call out the enemy warships, they prayed that their warships would not become the target of the enemy's "calling out".

In the case of saturated concentrated fire, neither the "Kraken Class" of the Federation Navy nor the "Requiem Class" of the Imperial Royal Navy, the two most resistant main battleships, could survive the salvo.

But as the initiator of the attack, Marshal Trafalgar did not want the battle to become such a war of attrition, so he quickly issued new instructions according to the battle plan.

"All fleets, full speed to close the distance! All carrier-based HCP pilots boarded and prepared to board!"

The order from the fleet's highest commander was issued through shortwave, laser and light.

In a chaotic battlefield, using a single communication method is very unreliable.

Because the chaotic and responsible electromagnetic environment will affect shortwave communication, and the battlefield full of wreckage and continuous high-speed maneuvers will also make laser communication intermittent.

So the light signal has become a bottom-line means.

When the shipboard control personality "sees" the light signal sent by the friendly ship, it will interpret it in an instant and control the communication light group of the ship to transmit information.

Soon, all the federal warships that received the order increased their speed and began to advance.

Those warships that did not receive the order for various reasons, when their captains saw that the tails behind the surrounding friendly warships were getting longer and longer, they quickly realized what was happening.

Under their orders, the helmsmen pushed the car clock to "forward three" without hesitation.

Suddenly, the approach rate of the two warring parties increased again, and the distance between them was greatly reduced.

On the other side, after observing the movement of the federal fleet, even without waiting for the Duke of Hastings to issue an order, the captains of the warships of the Imperial Fleet also issued the order of "prepare for full-deck attack".

After wearing heavy hydraulic anti-gravity suits, all pilots boarded the HCP and walked to the exit area of ​​the hangar under the guidance of the maintenance team.

There is no need to eject in boarding battles, because the efficiency of ejecting HCPs one by one is relatively low.

At present, the common practice in the naval fleets of the Federation and the Empire is to let HCPs pass through the regular disembarkation channel and then stand on the deck of the warship on standby.

After entering the boarding distance within 500 kilometers, the entire squadron will rush up at the same time.

The formation of this tactic is more derived from the operations of the navies of both sides in the usual encirclement and suppression of pirates.

Although this style of play is very barbaric and full of flaws, both sides cannot find a better way for the "boarding battle" for a while.

When an HCP pilot comes to the deck of the warship through the regular disembarkation channel, if he is not destroyed by the flying "stray bullets", then the first thing they see is the "lit up" starry sky.

In the field of vision is an unprecedented huge fleet, and a large number of enemy and friendly signs almost cover the screen of the full-circle cockpit, but the combat assistance AI quickly reacts and begins to filter out those units that are too far away.

But even so, countless beams, ballistics, and flames from explosions are still intertwined between the fleets of both sides.

The deflection force fields in front of all the warships are now activated, and the dancing electric snakes seem to be twisting endlessly, because in a fleet battle of this scale, the warships are almost under attack from the enemy every moment.

Once the deflection force field of a warship is overloaded or fails, what awaits it is that it will be pierced by a heavy metal particle jet or a charged particle beam swept from nowhere in the next second.

3000 kilometers, 2000 kilometers, 1000 kilometers

A series of huge "light balls" lit up between the fleets of both sides. They were the "defensive hydrogen bombs" released by the attacking federal fleet.

The huge "light wall" formed by the explosion of these massive hydrogen bombs almost covered the front of all the attacking federal fleets.

If the physical warhead cannot fly over the ‘light wall’ formed by the high-temperature plasma fireball, it will be melted. The heavy metal particle jet and charged particle beam will also be interfered by the chaotic electric field after the nuclear explosion, making them inaccurate.

The advance tactics formulated before the war were firmly implemented by the fleets of the Federation Navy at this moment. Whenever the ‘light wall’ in front of them began to gradually extinguish, the multi-functional launch silos on each warship would throw out a new round of nuclear bombs and form a new ‘light wall’ after detonation.

At this time, the Federation Fleet was like a Spartan warrior charging with a heavy shield, regardless of how the Imperial Fleet in front of them would respond.

Their purpose was very simple, just to rush forward in one go.

The Imperial Fleet opposite them was also dumbfounded at this time. They never thought that ‘defensive thermonuclear weapons’ would be used like this by these Federation warships in the attack.

What’s more terrifying is that they couldn’t find any effective response methods for a while, and could only watch the Federation Fleet relying on the ‘nuclear bomb to open the way’ to advance to them.

"Attention all HCP squadrons, prepare to attack!"

In the command link, the voices of the captains of each warship gave orders almost simultaneously.

"3! 2! 1! Attack! Attack! Attack!"

When the distance between the two fleets was only 500 kilometers, all HCP pilots saw the arrow symbol representing the attack in the middle of the full-circle display.

The external solid fuel booster rockets were activated, and these HCPs standing on the battleship deck, which already had enough impact speed, rushed out at a faster speed.

Although the solid fuel rocket engine lasted for a short time and was completely inferior to the plasma propulsion array behind the HCP, these equipment with a long history of technology still played their role when a short burst of acceleration was needed.

One after another, HCPs, with bright tails behind them, swooped down on the enemy warships in front like eagles leaving their nests.

But how many of them could "return home" after the battle?

No one could answer this question.

The working time of the solid fuel rocket engine was only 5 seconds, but the powerful thrust made the pilots red-eyed one by one, and also brought the HCP to combat speed.

The pilots abandoned these working boosters without hesitation, and then drove the HCP wrapped like an iron box by the external armor plate and heavy shield, and rushed towards the attack point of their squadron with heavy particle cannons like lances.

When the light wall formed by the last round of nuclear explosions between the fleets of both sides extinguished, the first to rush through the barrier were the massive HCPs of both sides.

The HCP squadrons of the Federation and the Empire almost staggered at a distance of dozens of kilometers. Except for those squadrons that were hit on the attack route and had to open fire, the other attack squadrons simply ignored the opponents who passed by.

Their warships and some HCPs left behind were defending, so they didn't need to worry about it. Their attack squadrons had only one goal, which was to cause as much damage to the enemy warships as possible.

After releasing the warships of the HCP squadron, they also began to carry out the final tactical maneuvers at this moment. They all aimed at the enemy warships selected by themselves and began to adjust the axis, trying to catch the opponent's side and send them to heaven with a round of salvos.

However, when all the warship commanders thought so, the "two-person show" that had to be tasted in the space fleet battle began.

In fact, after the battle entered the real "hand-to-hand combat" stage, the progress of the battle had nothing to do with the commanders of both sides.

Whether it was Marshal Trafalgar or the Duke of Hastings, there was only one thing they could do at this time, and that was to wait.

Marshal Trafalgar was waiting for the commander of the Imperial Fleet to be unable to bear the casualties and take the initiative to retreat. If the other party had no intention of doing so, he would be ready to play his last trump card.

Marshal Hastings was also waiting. He was waiting for the number representing the loss ratio of both sides to get closer and closer to the line in his mind.

If it was the blue line, then he would choose to join forces with the Duke of Artesia to "all in" and find a way to eat up the Federation Fleet in front of him and create the greatest victory of the Imperial Royal Navy since the war began.

But if it was close to the red line in his heart, then he would have to consider withdrawing from the battle to preserve his strength.

After all, for him and the Duke of Artesia, the enemy was not only the Federation in front of them.——

Lieutenant Larry of the 809HCP Squadron of the Imperial Royal Navy did not have too much time to rest.

He felt that he had just crawled into his sleeping bag and closed his eyes, and the combat alarm sounded in the rest cabin.

After rubbing his face vigorously to wake up quickly, Larry took the rookie Jeff out of the sleeping bag and kicked him to the hatch.

As usual, Lieutenant Larry looked at Bob's sleeping bag, ready to call the middle-aged man as usual.

It was not until he saw the empty sleeping bag that he finally realized that this member of his team had died in the CSP mission just now.

However, the shrill battle alarm made Larry unable to care about sadness at the moment. Before leaving the cabin, he took Bob's notebook out of his sleeping bag and put it in the pocket of his driving suit.

"Let our team attack again, Bob."

Like other reconnaissance teams that hurried back from the outer warning circle, the commander of the reconnaissance team where the Speeder was located was also stunned by the scene in front of him.

With the joint efforts of the Federal Navy and the Imperial Royal Navy, the space where they were located has been "burning".

"Captain, what should we do now?"

"How the hell do I know? I've never seen such a scene before."

The captain of the reconnaissance ship said in a daze, and then he quickly realized the location of their reconnaissance teams - the rear of the federal fleet.

"Fuck them!"

"Ah? Captain, what did you say?"

"I say, let's fuck them!" The captain of the reconnaissance ship waved his hand and continued:

"Contact all the reconnaissance teams and escort detachments that can be contacted around. Now there is only one way to meet up with friendly forces, that is to break through their defenses and pass through! If you have the courage, join us!"

"Yes! Captain!"

The communications officer quickly began to try to contact other friendly forces around, although this was not an easy task in a complex electromagnetic environment.

And at this moment, a 'Sky River' once again crossed this cosmic domain.

Under the order of Duke Hastings, the Gospel Fortress launched the second round of irradiation without waiting for the Focusing Rainbow to complete the full process of self-inspection.

Although only 50% of the power was used this time and the irradiation time was shortened to 5 seconds, with the cooperation of the "God Gunner" and the fortress control personality, a federal fleet was successfully irradiated.

This federal fleet, which had not yet fully entered a state of close combat, was forced to wipe out more than 80% of the warships under the attack of Focusing Iris, becoming the largest loss since the beginning of the "Supernova Burst" operation. A federal fleet.

But for Gospel Fortress, this round of attacks also paid a price. The result of skipping nearly half of the self-inspection procedures and forcing the fire was that Gospel Fortress's Focusing Rainbow was directly forced offline.

The main gun cannot be used again until it returns to a safe area for thorough self-inspection and repair.

The entire battlefield seemed to be peaceful for a moment under the deterrent of the Focusing Iris, and this blow that seemed to penetrate the stars also greatly improved the morale of the Imperial fleet.

The peripheral reconnaissance teams, including the Speeder, no longer waited, and accelerated towards the rear of the nearest federal fleet in front of them, and released all the shipboard HCPs.

The battlefield situation seems to be changing at this moment due to the attack of Focusing Iris.

Seeing this scene on the bridge, Marshal Trafalgar sighed. No matter how well-prepared the Federation fleet was, the Celestial Fortress was still a gap that could not be crossed in a short time.

It also forced him to use the ‘trump card’ he had prepared for this battle.

"Give me the order to remotely detonate the proton annihilation bomb carried by the First Unmanned Fleet."

"Marshal! If it is detonated now, a large part of the six unmanned fleets will be affected!" A combat staff officer raised an objection.

Although he did not want to jump out and sing a dissent at this juncture, if Marshal Trafalgar's orders were followed, more than 80% of the unmanned fleets fighting with the enemy's four fleets would be destroyed by proton annihilation bombs.

And this was not his only idea. Everyone on the bridge and in the CIC were looking this way.

"Of course I know, but if our unmanned fleet is gone, we can still rebuild it, and the fleet command AI can also be quickly mass-produced!"

Marshal Trafalgar pointed to the surrounding Imperial fleet and continued:

"The enemy is different. The ships needed by the four fleets may be produced quickly, but the required crews, HCP pilots and fleet commanders cannot be trained so quickly.

Trading machines and AI for professional soldiers who have been trained for a long time is not a loss-making deal, do you understand? ! "

Seeing the young combat officer in front of him nodding responsibly, Marshal Trafalgar didn't bother to tangle with them anymore.

"Now that you understand, execute the order immediately!"

——

The purple ball of light rapidly expanding in the universe seemed to be the response of the Federation Navy to the Focusing Iris shot.

The huge purple ball of light swallowed up more than 80% of the unmanned fleet in an instant, as well as the two garrison fleets + two reserve strike groups that were fighting with them, a total of four imperial fleets.

After detecting abnormal energy fluctuations, the two celestial fortresses directly started emergency evasive maneuvers.

The proton annihilation bomb that 'erased' the Robert IV was deeply remembered by the Imperial Navy. The relevant characteristics were immediately reported to the rear and added to the characteristic database of all ships and fortresses.

So when the proton annihilation bomb was detonated again this time, the control personalities of the two celestial fortresses reacted quickly.

After seeing this huge purple ball of light and the four fleets marked with a 'red cross' in the fleet list to indicate comprehensiveness, the Duke of Hastings's expression finally changed.

"Madman. You are truly a madman, Marshal Trafalgar.

In order to achieve the combat goal, you will do whatever it takes. You are indeed the purest soldier. "

At the same time, Duke Artesia also sent a message.

"That's it for now. If Hastings continues to suffer losses, it will be difficult to deal with later."

The Duchess's expression at this moment was no longer as relaxed as before, and was replaced by a solemn look.

"Well, I understand."