Chapter 531: Mantis Stalks Cicada

As the in-ship broadcasts of each battleship sounded, everyone in the garrison fleet moved.

Needless to say, the crew members who were already on duty at their respective battle stations, and those who were taking a rest in the rest area or eating in the cafeteria, immediately dropped the energy drinks or tableware in their hands and went directly to their respective battle stations. The bit flew away.

The crew members in the crew cabin who were catching up on their sleep according to their shift schedule immediately got out of their sleeping bags after the battle alarm sounded. While putting on their work clothes in the cabin and connecting to their personal combat terminals, they moved around with flexible hands and feet. Rush towards your standby area.

Since the semi-automated fleet of the Federation Navy is still under construction, the garrison fleets authorized by these galaxy autonomous governments are naturally worse in this regard, so the number of sailors on the garrison fleet battleships is still relatively large.

However, having so many crew members on a battleship does not mean that there are really so many positions that need to be operated at the same time. Most people are actually responsible for the same position with several other people.

The space fleet is the same as the previous navy in many places. Every time it leaves its home port and sets sail, whether it is a cruise or regular training or exercise, it takes a long time.

The shorter ones are at least a week or two, while longer missions are common for more than half a year.

Human energy is also limited, and this energy will be consumed faster in a closed space battleship.

Therefore, most of the combat positions on the ship are on a rotational basis, and at worst they are in "three shifts". Some of the crews who require higher energy and concentration even work in four or five shifts.

When a battleship sounds the battle alarm, the crew member on duty at the battle station usually continues to be responsible for the work of the current battle station, while the others are on standby and responsible for other auxiliary work. Once the crew member at the battle station is sacrificed, The next person in the same team will immediately take over his job.

But even so, because the weapons of battleships are relatively powerful, in fleet battles it often happens that after the battleship is damaged by an attack by an enemy ship, all the team members in several battle positions are also killed.

Especially for damage control teams, it can be said that it is not uncommon for organic members to be killed in battle.

This is why the Federation initially considered developing an unmanned fleet.

As long as the intelligence and computing power of the shipboard control personality are strong enough, then as long as a warship is not directly disintegrated, it can continue to fight under the control of the shipboard control personality, and the "combat toughness" of the entire fleet will be much higher than that of the manned fleet. .

However, after Lilith 'waved her hand' and took away the three unmanned fleets, the Federation Navy had to seal up the remaining unmanned fleets and began to develop in the direction of a 'semi-automatic fleet'.

It's just that the galactic autonomous government's garrison fleet is still far away from these new technologies, and the crew configuration is also the configuration of conventional manned warships.

Fortunately, the autonomous government has not relaxed in terms of crew training. Although there are a large number of new recruits in the entire garrison fleet, they are still very calm in the face of the battle alarm at this moment. Everyone is following the instructions engraved in their bones during the training. Ask for it and do what you should do.

When the main force of the garrison fleet under Kimmel re-completed the axial adjustment and began to increase the power of the main propulsion train for acceleration, each battleship in the gnaku was organized into the first wave of attacks before the war. The HCP has also entered the final stage of preparation.

"The subcritical reactor self-test is completed! The output power is stable!"

"Self-inspection of the entire machine's circuit system and superconducting battery is completed!"

"Weapon unit self-inspection completed! External assistance inspection passed!"

"The deflection force field generator has been activated and the instantaneous test is completed!"

"The rapid test of the blue-green laser communication and neutrino communication units is completed, and there are no abnormalities in the communication channels!"

"The plasma propulsion array self-test shows no dead pixels, and the external visual inspection is completed!"

"The electromagnetic muscle bundles and electromagnetic joints have been activated, and the operating power is normal!"

"The control operating system is online for inspection. Attention, pilot, please follow the instructions of the maintenance officer!"

In the background of the "sizzling" motor operation and the tightening and expansion of the electromagnetic muscle bundles, the HCPs on the Gnaku preparation platform also began to follow the actions of the maintenance worker holding the light stick in front of them. Start making some small test moves according to the checklist.

Soon, the indicator lights on each maintenance platform turned from 'yellow' to 'green', which meant that the HCP on this maintenance platform had passed all inspections before the attack.

"After the entire system inspection is completed, all control of the aircraft is handed over to the pilot."

The maintenance officer responsible for directing the self-inspection turned around and ran away for a distance, then turned around and saluted again.

"Good luck, Lieutenant!"

The HCP, which had completed loading weapons and equipment according to the fleet battle configuration, quickly walked off the maintenance platform. Then it raised its mechanical arm and saluted in response to the movement of the pilot, and then walked towards the sortie waiting area without looking back.

Soon, the first wave of ejected aircraft completed their assembly, and the two aircraft at the front of the queue also stood on the lifting platform.

When a formal attack order is received, these lifting platforms will send the aircraft body to the electromagnetic ejection track on the outer deck.

It was at this time that the sound of the ship-wide radio sounded again.

"The entire ship is paying attention to entering the battle-ready state. The air-tight doors of each cabin are closed and preparations are for air evacuation. The ship's energy is being reconfigured. The gravity of non-essential areas remains closed and inert gas is ready to be injected."

With the announcement on the radio, the gravity in the hangar soon disappeared.

However, the HCPs had already activated the electromagnetic adsorption device on their feet, and all the tools in the hangar were strictly placed in accordance with the requirements and fixed in various ways, so there was no floating around.

The maintenance personnel who had tied the safety rope in advance did float up quickly, but the safety rope behind them, which integrated the oxygen and power transmission lines, was also tied to the fixed point in advance according to the regulations.

Although there were also many new recruits in this garrison fleet, all of them had undergone a lot of training in a zero-gravity environment, so nothing went wrong for the time being.

Many pilots and maintenance personnel, in this state of "zero mistakes for all", even had the illusion that the garrison fleet might have entered the "first-class federal navy".

But only those veterans who had survived high-intensity battles knew that the smoothness and "zero mistakes" in this non-combat state did not mean anything.

Only when the fleet and the enemy officially engage in battle, and the warships continue to perform various emergency evasive maneuvers during the enemy's main gun salvos and HCP's surprise attacks, will the real test begin.

——

Between the garrison fleet and the unknown target in the G9 area, there is a rubble belt composed of countless rock fragments of various sizes.

This area seems to be a corner forgotten by time, with dim light and suffocating silence.

The huge rubble floats slowly in the dark space, like a huge iceberg hidden under the water, and occasionally a few smaller fragments reflect a trace of cold light under the faint starlight.

But in this seemingly dead airspace, a small rubble suddenly hits an air wall while floating, and the distorted light and shadow show a slender shadow at this moment-this is an "eye" secretly arranged by Major General Kimmel.

A modified reconnaissance ship with a modified appearance and all unnecessary protrusions removed as much as possible.

If you look closely, you can find that with the reconnaissance ship as the ‘center’, a large number of nearly transparent carbon nanotubes are scattered radially.

At the end of these carbon nanotubes, which are hundreds of meters short and several kilometers long, are connected to lightweight combat probes, an invisible net covering the entire gravel belt, waiting for any target that accidentally enters this ‘forbidden zone’.

Although the main body is just an ordinary reconnaissance ship, after being modified by Atlas during the ‘honeymoon’ cooperation period, the performance of this reconnaissance ship in all aspects, especially in concealment and reconnaissance, has been greatly improved.

On the bridge with blackout, only the dim red light vaguely illuminates the general layout of the bridge, and on a low-brightness virtual screen next to the captain of this reconnaissance ship, a composite image of the main force of the garrison fleet is being presented.

Watching the actions of the main fleet, the captain of the reconnaissance ship said:

"Our fleet has completed the axial adjustment. The general and his men seem to have determined that the target on the V6 side is the Atlas fleet observation group. Have you found any abnormalities in the monitoring of the targets in the G9 area?"

"Report to the captain, the monitoring effect of the target area is limited at the current angle. The long-wave radar maintains monitoring of the unknown target group. The other party seems to have been maneuvering along a certain route. From this feature, it is indeed similar to a decoy formation with corner reflectors, but due to the influence of the Great Rubion, other observation methods have no results for the time being!"

The observation group is responsible for air surveillance The crew responded immediately, then paused for a moment and continued to add:

"Based on the current track of the target, the target in the G9 area will begin to leave the influence of the Great Rubion in about 20 minutes."

The captain of the reconnaissance ship nodded after hearing this: "Understood, continue to monitor, and report any abnormalities as soon as possible. We are the most important insurance for the garrison fleet in this direction. If we can report abnormalities immediately, we can buy enough reaction time for the main force of the garrison fleet."

He looked at the huge rubble around him, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart that Major General Kimmel was actually more cautious than most people in the fleet thought.

In his opinion, this rubble belt not far from the 'scheduled departure jump zone' is an extremely suitable area for setting up a 'secret sentry'.

So when the garrison fleet began to be on alert for the 'scheduled departure jump zone', he secretly ordered this modified reconnaissance ship to lurk in this rubble belt to provide early warnings in multiple directions.

And now, Major General Kimmel's arrangement seems to have really played a key role.

"Report! Unknown targets in G9 area are moving! Captain, this may not be a bait."