Chapter 555: Fierce Fighting and Damage Control

As the first super flagship of the Atlas Group, the crew of the 'Infinity' are all elites drawn from the combat fleet, or veterans with high loyalty to the group.

In the eyes of these crew members, it is an honor to be selected as a crew member of this super flagship.

As a symbol of "absolute force" on the battlefield, from the first day on board, the crew members have always believed that the "Infinity" should be like a sharp knife, rushing to the front of the battle line under any circumstances. .

Therefore, at the critical moment of the previous attack on the Lubion system garrison fleet, after Randall issued the 'Z flag' and ordered the flagship assault, the crew of the 'Infinity' did not have the slightest fear or hesitation. Instead, it seemed as if they had been waiting for this order for a long time. Same.

The final result was just as they expected. The Infinity was like a giant rushing into a kindergarten, sweeping away the surrounding enemy warships, completely tearing apart the front line of the Lubion system's defense fleet, and establishing victory.

This also brought the pride and confidence in the hearts of the crew of the Infinity - whether they were crew members, HCPs, or pilots and pilots of the heavy armored combat craft squadron to a new peak after this war.

When facing the current encounter with a more powerful enemy and hearing Captain Randall once again issue the order to 'fight to the death without retreating', everyone accepted this order extremely calmly and calmly, because they all I believe that this super flagship will lead them to victory again.

"This is the ship-wide broadcast. The ship is about to carry out continuous emergency maneuvers. All front-line personnel are requested to maintain their combat positions. The second-line backup personnel immediately complete their own immobilization and activate the anti-load function of the cabin service according to the order!"

"This is a ship-wide broadcast."

Three consecutive ship-wide announcements made everyone stop what they were doing and immediately check their fixed measures.

After the crew members who were already in the fighting position confirmed that the seat belts on their seats were fixed correctly, they continued to focus on the work at hand, while the second-line backup personnel or maintenance team members in other positions quickly moved the tools in their hands and around them. He fixed the small gadget, then fastened his own safety rope and held on to the nearest armrest.

After doing all this, everyone also activated the 'pharmacological anti-loading mode' that they took in the cabin. The minimally invasive injection system at the limbs and heart and lungs will soon inject the first wave of drugs that increase the body's anti-loading ability.

This agent can greatly improve human beings' tolerance to G forces in all directions. This kind of tolerance is not only needed by HCP pilots and heavy armored combat boat pilots, but also the abilities that battleship crews need.

Because when a large warship makes some emergency maneuvers with the whole-body attitude nozzles activated, the pressure on the crew is also great.

Especially for a super flagship with a long hull like the Infinity, it is very common for the crew members at the bow and stern to have "red vision" when making large axial adjustments.

As the three ship-wide broadcasts ended, the 'Infinity' jumped out from above the 'light ball' like a giant whale. Under the influence of vector propulsion, it directly inserted itself between the Third Task Force and the Federation Fleet.

At this time, the straight-line distance between the two fleets was 8,000 kilometers, and it was still shrinking. When the distance between the two fleets reached 4,000 kilometers, it was also the closest distance for the federal fleet's high-speed raid.

When the Infinity crossed the ray axis of the Federation fleet like a madman, it happened to be the moment when the fleet launched a salvo. A gorgeous light rain suddenly appeared between the two fleets, and this ship came from the ray axis. The super flagship passed by quickly, and not surprisingly, it blocked many attacks from the battleships behind it.

The 'traverse' route chosen by Randall was very particular. This route basically covered a large number of light cruisers and drove away these ships, which were extremely vulnerable to fleet fire. A lot of the attacks were taken by the 'Infinity'.

After supplying nearly half of the ship's energy to the deflection field, the 'Infinity' actually entered the 'fortress mode' conceived by the design team.

A large number of deflection force field generators arranged at the front end of the battleship, with the supply of excess energy, also increased their respective force field generation areas. This made the 'Infinity' hold up a huge umbrella like a big sister. Deflection force field.

The Federation battleship on the opposite side just watched this super flagship use vector control to scurry around in front of the fleet to attract firepower - this was indeed effective, because after the appearance of the 'Infinity', the shipboard control of the Federation fleet battleship Personality sets it as a 'high-risk target'.

In the conventional shipboard control personality combat logic, this kind of 'high-risk target' needs to be dealt with with priority, so in the second round of salvos, a large number of attacks from the federal fleet were chasing the Infinity. However, due to the latter's coquettish maneuvering, the effect of this round of concentrated fire was not very good, and it could not even overload the deflection field of this giant ship.

If the design team of Infinity and Saleh saw this scene, apart from feeling that it confirmed that their design ideas were correct, there would not be much fluctuation.

After all, in the 'fortress mode' they conceived, whether it is the 'Infinity' or her sister ship 'Dawn' - that is, the entire Infinity-class super flagship, its defense ceiling is ridiculously high.

If half of the energy supply of the whole ship is used to generate the deflection field array, and forced cooling is carried out without restrictions, this giant ship will have to withstand at least one salvo of the entire fleet.

Although the Infinity was facing two federal fleets, the other side did not concentrate fire, so even if she used herself as a shield to block the front of the fleet to attract firepower, she was not panicked at all.

Moreover, under Randall's order, the giant ship was still jumping up and down to perform evasive maneuvers, and once it found that there were warships in that area that might not be able to hold on, it would immediately rush over and use its own ship body to block all the opponent's beam axes——

"What kind of jumping up and down 'Iron Turtle' is it here to disgust us?!"

Stoner, on the flagship of the 18th Fleet, looked at the giant ship marked as a 'high-risk target' in the purple frame in the panoramic porthole, and couldn't help cursing.

At this time, Stoner and Benelli finally figured out the true size of the Atlas fleet on the opposite side.

Although it was difficult for them to believe and accept this fact, they had to admit that the enemy in front of them did not even reach half of the full-scale fleet.

After the other commander had played all his tricks, he succeeded in making the two of them afraid to act rashly.

But it was too late to know this now.

After all, both fleets were currently in a high-speed raid. Not to mention that if they forced to slow down, they would need to turn around and use the main propulsion array to slow down, which would expose the sides of the fleet completely.

Even the plasma torpedoes and heavy anti-ship missile clusters that had already caught up from the rear made them completely afraid to slow down.

The warships at the rear of the formation might not be saved now. Would they want to send all the warships away by slowing down the entire fleet?

So the two commanders of the federal fleet could only find a way to make the fleet's shooting cause the greatest damage during this short "attack window" during the high-speed raid.

"Pass my order, all warships ignore the opponent's flagship, and attack the conventional warships of the opponent's fleet first!"

Bernelli and Stoner immediately issued two similar instructions, and the shipboard control personalities of the 17th and 18th fleets also immediately adjusted the attack priority, directly removed the "Infinity" from the lock list, and began to concentrate on attacking the third task force behind it.

This approach also immediately achieved results, because no matter how large the deflection force field of the "Infinity" can support, the area covered is also limited, and it is impossible to protect the entire third task force behind it.

So when the federal fleet began to ignore this super flagship and concentrate on attacking other warships behind it, the warships on the Atlas side immediately suffered losses.

The heavy cruiser "Sun Reward", which joined the third task force as a supplementary force and also carried a large number of Renaissance Alliance trainees, was rubbed by several battleship-level heavy particle cannons on the side after the deflection force field was overloaded.

Fortunately, the Sun Reward was not hit by plasma torpedoes or heavy anti-ship missiles, which were weapons with strong oxidizers and metal hydrogen charges, so the secondary damage it suffered was not great.

But unfortunately, being hit by a direct attack such as a heavy particle cannon was not much better.

At nearly 1% of the speed of light, each gram of heavy metal particles carries 150,000 megajoules of kinetic energy, so if there is no deflection force field to scatter and twist it away, being hit by a heavy metal particle jet on the outer armor plate is also a very terrifying thing.

Although it was only "scratched", a terrible wound was torn on the port side of the Sun Reward heavy cruiser, and a large amount of wreckage, debris, ship debris, and unlucky crew members were ejected from the gap to the rear like a garbage bag breaking.

If it weren't for the 'Fifty-Year Veteran' class shipboard control personality upgraded by Lilith, which used the authority of 'override control' to allow the attitude control nozzle in another direction of the ship to work at the moment of the hit, the heavy cruiser would probably be unbalanced by the attack, and even collide with other warships in the current dense formation of the fleet.

After discovering that the 'Sun Reward' was severely damaged, another heavy cruiser in a better condition nearby immediately stepped forward and hid the 'Sun Reward' behind itself, allowing the damage control personnel on the heavy cruiser to have time to deal with the warship urgently.

This is also a common practice in fleet battles. After all, a warship that can be treated urgently and put back into battle after being damaged plays a greater role than a warship that sank in battle due to serious damage.

When the 'Sun Reward' got a temporary respite, the damage control personnel who had been on standby at various places on the central axis of the warship immediately rushed to the damaged area marked by the shipboard control personality with the 'worker bees' assigned to their group.

In addition to the marines on board, these damage control personnel are the only crew members who need to wear combat exoskeletons.

Because in the damaged area of ​​the warship, these combat exoskeletons with armor plates and additional auxiliary power are more durable than cabin suits, even hard-shell cabin suits.

There will no longer be a situation where a team of damage control personnel enters the damaged area and is wiped out by flying metal fragments.

Such experience is also gained by the human navy in actual combat with fresh lives after entering space, so no one will think that these experiences are useless, even the Roma serving on human warships are no exception.

For example, Hearn Bloodhoof, the damage control commander on the ‘Sun Reward’, this strong minotaur regards these experiences as a guide.

After the 'Solar Reward' stabilized its posture, he first confirmed whether the damage control team and the 'worker bees' were damaged by asking the shipboard controller's personality, and confirmed the damage to the ship.

Then he immediately ordered all the control teams to dispatch according to the guidance of the shipboard control personality 'Fanny'. At the same time, he also led the direct control team around him and rushed towards the B2 area on the port side which was the most severely damaged.

In a combat situation, it is actually difficult to tell that Hearne Bloodhoof, wearing a combat exoskeleton with yellow and black diagonal stripes, is a tauren.

Unlike the Marines on the ground, since the exoskeleton often needs to be in a fully enclosed state during operations inside the ship, the two horns on the heads of these 'minotaurs' among the Roma are actually very obstructive.

At first, Eugene Koch, who was responsible for coordinating the design of the exoskeleton, and his team thought of wrapping the horns together with composite materials.

But this gives rise to two thorny problems:

First, the horns on each tauren's head are different, so the horn wrapping component must be tailor-made and cannot be mass-produced.

Secondly, although these Minotaurs among the Roma people stop developing their body bones when they reach adulthood, the damn thing is that the horns on their heads do not stop developing - this is why the Minotaur clan has always retained the 'Daily The tradition of "horn collision" is firstly to make the pair of horns stronger, and secondly, it is also used to polish the horns during the collision.

So no matter how you look at it, everyone in the Tauren clan is not suitable for working in the ship.

But the problem is that these tauren are extremely proud of joining the Atlas Group, just as they are proud of their own pair of horns.

So no matter how the Atlas Human Resources Department communicates, they hope to let some tauren serve on the battleship.

In the words of a respected tauren senior: "We would rather lower our salary, but we cannot lag behind other clans!"

As for the final solution, Amber was surprised by the determination of these minotaurs after looking at it.

Those tauren who completed the selection and were assigned to the battleships all chose to undergo the 'bone marrow resection surgery' to remove their former 'pride'

Then replaced with a pair of removable, customizable lightweight alloy horns.

Normally, they would carry this pair of 'art objects' turned out with a CNC machine tool. When they were ready for battle, they would remove the pair of alloy horns and store them away.

And these tauren who had their horns replaced not only did not feel sad because their "original pride" was removed, but instead became popular in the clan because they wore shiny horns.

By the way, after the Tauren clan took the lead in proposing this solution, many other horned Roma clans followed suit and adopted the same method to allow their own people to board the ship.

When Hearn Bloodhoof, who had removed the horns, led his direct damage control team to the B2 area on the port side, the first thing that caught his eye was the gap that was as huge as a 'canopy'.

Everyone could even see the blue-white, red-red, and deep-purple beams of light flashing continuously in the outer universe, as well as the silver-white arcs produced when surrounding warships were hit, and the explosive flames produced when anti-ship missiles were intercepted.

From a more intuitive perspective at this moment, the port side of the 'Solar Reward' was not torn open by the heavy metal particle jet, but a large number of external armor plates were directly blown away. This situation is far more troublesome than the former. .

"Boss, what should I do? The gap seems a bit too big and the standard titanium alloy plate may not be able to seal it!"

After hearing the inquiries from other members of the team, Hearn Bloodhoof also turned on the electromagnetic adsorption device on the foot of the combat exoskeleton, and then stood still near the gap to check the battleship's injuries.

But after a moment, his bull's-eyes wrinkled up, because the current situation was far more troublesome than what he had been trained to do.

But as the battleship's damage control commander, all he could do was try his best to save the damaged heavy cruiser.

"No matter how big the gap is, we have to find a way to plug it! If standard-sized plates can't be plugged, just use a few more pieces and weld them together to plug them!"

Hern Bloodhoof made a quick decision and then ordered:

"Class 1, take your 'worker bees' to the nearest damage control consumables warehouse and get all the titanium alloy plates that can still be used!

Class 2, stay where you are and wait for the plates to be in place to start the sealing operation!

Class 3, prepare to jump to the opposite cabin after me! "

After saying this, Hern Bloodhoof connected to the shipboard control personality again, and then said in a relatively gentle tone:

"Miss Fannie, could you please mobilize some more worker bees to help us? The damage in area B2 may not be stopped by our damage control team alone!"

"The request has been received and the nearest 'worker bee' is being dispatched. Captain Hearn, do you need to let the 'worker bee' approach from outside the ship?"

"Of course that's great, Miss Fannie! Thank you for your support."

Before Hern Bloodhoof finished speaking, he heard a member of the damage control team shouting in a horrified tone:

"Oh my god, look!"

Everyone looked in the direction of the damage control officer's finger and saw the 'skylight' that the 'Sun Pay' had been opened. Due to the movement of the ship's body, they could just see the stars passing by at high speed in the distance. Federation fleet.

At this moment, everyone saw a grand round of "space fireworks" set off behind the formation of the Federation Fleet. Blue and white high-temperature plasma fireballs exploded and expanded in the cold universe, and these dense fireballs were even spreading to the inside of the fleet formation.

Hearn Bloodhoof was a veteran who had experienced the "Pala IV Orbital Battle". Although the "Infinity" entered the field later, he also knew that the Atlas combat fleet had severely damaged the enemy through the tactics of plasma torpedoes.

It was exactly the same as the scene in front of him.

"It seems that our fleet's tactics have worked! Men, let's go all out! Victory is just ahead!"

"Yes! Sir!" ×N

While the surviving warships of the Third Task Force began to save themselves, Randall finally heard a long-awaited news on the bridge of the "Infinity".

"Report! Authorized space fluctuation characteristics have been detected! It is the jump signal of the second and third unmanned fleets!"