Chapter 510 Confrontation Drill

A. Bawa Ku asteroid fortress, fleet training airspace.

A mixed fleet consisting of three heavy cruisers, eight light cruisers and a escort detachment is quietly moored at a virtual mooring point outside the airspace.

This is a common configuration of small mobile fleets in the Atlas combat fleet. It is generally used to perform tasks such as fleet peripheral warning patrols, early warning air defense, armed reconnaissance, and rapid response within the defense zone.

However, because the fleet battles that Atlas encountered before were basically a "stud" fleet battle mode between both sides, various types of small fleets basically had little use.

Under the combat fleet organization, the few small fleet groups are basically responsible for daily patrols near mining areas and fortresses.

But in fact, in the view of Guterres and Cliffs, if the fleet battles that Atlas Group will face in the future will become routine, then various functional fleets will definitely be indispensable.

As for the small mobile fleet, there is another 'applicable scenario' in the federal navy's usage habits.

That is, after being strengthened in other aspects, as the vanguard of "forced intervention", it enters the target galaxy and serves as an outpost.

Therefore, the final actual combat training subjects for these 'trainees' in the Lubion system were simply arranged in the Atlas Combat Fleet, a small mobile fleet that was also undergoing formation training.

At this moment, the fleet, which had just finished a coordinated attack training, was resting at the mooring point and conducting routine inspections.

Taking advantage of this time, the people in the fleet who were idle began to gather around to watch a practical drill and confrontation between HCPs.

The two sides in the confrontation were the 'Ruby Team' led by the 'genius' Johnny Letting, and a carrier-based HCP wing within this fleet.

This actual combat exercise simulated an encounter between two destroyers responsible for patrolling high-risk areas after discovering each other.

In theory, such a battle should occur between ships such as long-range reconnaissance ships or infiltration destroyers.

It's just that Atlas's combat fleet does not have the luxury to recall these two special ships for regular training.

Moreover, even for the Federation Navy and the Imperial Royal Navy, which have more complete naval fleets, such special ships are often not enough in many cases. It is actually a routine operation for conventional destroyers to perform similar tasks.

Therefore, this confrontation exercise was temporarily replaced by two destroyers.

Both sides have a destroyer + a carrier-based HCP squadron. However, the protagonist of this confrontation is actually the HCP. The destroyer serves more as a background board and supporting firepower.

The goal of both sides is also very simple. The first to sink the opponent's destroyer, or the first to destroy all twelve HCPs in the opponent's carrier-based HCP squadron will win.

However, in the eyes of veterans, there is not much difference between these two goals in actual combat.

Having lost the HCP squadron as the 'mother ship' and the destroyer that escorted the HCP, it was only a matter of time before it was wiped out by the enemy in the cold universe.

"Team Bucky and Team Rogers will launch a pincer attack from the lower half of the left and right hemispheres as planned!"

"Team Thor, stay near the destroyer to assist in defense, with the defense of the ship as the top priority! Intercept the opponent's HCP who is trying to launch an assault, no matter the cost."

Stark, the squadron leader from a certain carrier-based HCP squadron under the Atlas Combat Fleet, coldly ordered on the squadron communication channel.

The description "regardless of the cost" does not only exist in exercises. Even in actual combat without a "second life", all HCP squadron leaders, including Stark, will issue the same order.

Although Amber has always required all combat units to prioritize ensuring their own safety and not to make unnecessary sacrifices while completing combat missions.

But the HCP pilots of Atlas, influenced by Amber's 'hit and dash' fighting style, have all become life-threatening macho men.

In other words, Atlas's HCP unit is also the unit that has the most serious "personality worship" of Amber among all combat units.

In their subconscious, it seems that only by completing the mission at all costs can they be worthy of driving the HCP to charge beside Amber.

"I will lead the team to provide mobile support, and when the time is right, I will serve as the third attack team to attack the opponent's destroyer!"

"Everyone, cheer up! The opponent does have an 'ACE'-level genius, but no matter how evil he is, can he be more evil than a macho guy like Boss?"

"Ha ha ha ha."

Everyone in the communication channel was immediately amused by the squadron leader's words, and they quickly thought of Amber's performance in the battle.

Especially in the final stage of the previous defense battle of A. Bawa Ku Fortress, the scene where the 'Sword of Victory Oath' was held high and led the HCP cluster to attack the enemy fleet.

After thinking about it like this, everyone in the squadron also found that the young boy in front of them who had "something" seemed not so troublesome.

As the squadron leader, Stark was naturally very satisfied with everyone's reaction, and then continued:

“This Mr. Johnny Redding is indeed a good ‘seeker’, and he is also a member of our Atlas ‘big client’ revival alliance, so we should play the role of a good teacher.

In the actual combat training, let him know that not everyone can decide the course of the battle by personal bravery like Boss, so as to avoid losing his life in vain on the battlefield in the future."

"Received, Captain~" ×N

Amid the serious responses of the crowd, the twelve HCPs of the 'Avengers' squadron quickly dispersed and entered combat status in accordance with Stark's command.

The HCP teams responsible for attacking from the lower half of the two hemispheres, after confirming that the friendly teams and destroyers had entered combat positions, lit up the plasma propulsion arrays and attacked the target warships.

The rays of different colors emitted by the directed energy weapons, mixed with many orange-red ballistics, accurately swept in the direction of the two teams' assault.

But for these HCP pilots who survived the defense of the A·Bava·Ku asteroid fortress For the HCP, such interception firepower is almost a joke. You have to know that when they followed Amber to charge, they faced the anti-aircraft firepower of an entire fleet!

Looking at the tracking close-up on the big screen, these HCPs, mapped by the control system, seemed to be like cosmic dancers, making various evasive actions flexibly and naturally.

Even those trainees from the Rubion galaxy who were looking forward to the "genius" Johnny Riding winning again, couldn't help but exclaimed.

Soon, the two teams, with a total of 6 GAT-X303 "Sacred Shields", approached the final warning circle 7,000 kilometers away from the target destroyer from the left and right.

In addition to the standard space combat configuration of each aircraft, the two attacking teams also had an HCP each towing a plasma rocket with a carbon fiber cable. missile launch box.

After entering the attack range, the HCP responsible for towing untied the carbon fiber rope, and while keeping up with teammates at a faster acceleration, it also issued an attack order through the blue-green laser.

Nearly a hundred laser-guided plasma rockets quickly broke away from the launch box, and then after receiving the laser guidance from the HCP, they quickly rushed towards the target destroyer.

The whole process was smooth, and just as most people, including Captain Stark, predicted, the Rubion trainees who lacked actual combat experience quickly fell into a passive position in this non-simulator actual combat confrontation exercise.

In space combat, fighter planes are fleeting, the initial distance between the two warships is fixed, and the acceleration performance of the HCPs on both sides is similar.

So even if the distance between the warships of both sides is getting closer, the first acceleration is The HCP squadron that launched the attack can still get closer to the enemy's warships after meeting the enemy.

This also means that they can attack the enemy warships at a faster speed.

At this time, the enemy's HCP can only choose to return to defense, or bite the bullet and attack the target warship that is still some distance away.

In a large-scale fleet battle, this is not an advantage, because this little distance advantage and first-hand attack time are just a drop in the bucket in the confrontation between hundreds of warships and thousands of HCPs.

But in this small-scale fleet battle, especially in a single-ship encounter, it is different.

For these "trainees" in the Rubion galaxy, the situation at this moment is even more difficult, because they do not have such rich "combat experience" to tell them to use "XX methods" to deal with "XX situations".

So once they fail to seize the window period for launching an attack first, then they can only passively defend around their own warships.

Just when everyone thought that the Rubion trainees were going to be suppressed by the Avengers squadron that had already deployed their attack formation, three yellow flares exploded in space, causing the onlookers on the warships to exclaim in surprise.

Because this meant that three HCPs of the Avengers squadron were destroyed in the battle.