Chapter 561 Amber, You Are Not Behind the Comet at All!

Amid the "eager anticipation" of many forces, the real large-scale fleet battle between the Atlas Group and the Federation finally kicked off.

In the electronic attack phase before the two sides officially exchanged fire, the four fleets under the almost completely suppressed Federation Grand Fleet actually began to experience communication confusion.

Afterwards, the quantum entanglement communication equipment in the four fleets also failed at the same time.

This also made these federal fleets lose the ability to communicate with the Federal Navy Headquarters and other friendly forces in real time.

However, this kind of "network disconnection" situation was expected by Major General Stoner and others. After all, this set of ultra-long-distance real-time communication technology was developed by the Atlas Group.

After the Federation and Atlas completely tore their faces and even went to war head-on, it was normal for the Atlas Group to restrict this aspect.

This is also an important reason why the Federation wants to take down the Atlas Group this time-that is, it wants to remove the "tight hoop" of its own quantum entanglement communication technology. Otherwise, as long as the Federation cannot make a breakthrough in this regard, it will be subject to the Atlas Group.

The Federation Fleet, which was at a disadvantage in the electronic warfare of the "pre-war appetizer", could only rely on blue-green lasers and light signals to communicate with nearby friendly forces for a long time. This also made the coordinated attack of the entire fleet largely dependent on the combat deployment before the battle began.

At this point, whether it was the joint work of the four fleet commanders or the implementation of the combat deployment by the four fleets, the nearly 1,000 warships of the entire fleet did not appear in any chaos after launching the attack.

As the two sides entered a distance of 50,000 kilometers, the fleets on both sides also began to enter the final formation adjustment.

The distance between the warships of the two fleets began to become larger and larger, leaving space for each other to maneuver and evade, and all the light cruisers, destroyers and frigates began to shrink to the side and rear of the formation.

After all, in a fleet battle of this scale, the survivability of such non-main ship has reached an extremely low level. Even the naval researchers of the Federation and the Empire have begun to conceive the possibility of the future naval fleet being "all-main ship".

Soon, the four fleets of the Federal Navy formed a huge cone formation. The huge warships flashed a grim light under the starlight, and the weapon units on the hulls were like the authority of the gods in mythology, exuding a chilling breath of destruction.

The center area of ​​the cone formation is composed entirely of battleships, heavy cruisers and other main battleships. The flagships of the four fleets are lined up in a row. This will also be the key area for output and defense, and the center of the storm.

The two unmanned fleets on the Atlas side are like silent steel ghosts, quietly floating in the universe to form a similar formation, but in terms of scale, they are nearly half smaller than the cone formation of the Federal Navy.

Although these unmanned warships are modified from various warships currently in service, no matter who sees them for the first time, they will feel the difference between them and manned fleets.

The lines of each warship are simple and rigid, exuding a cold metallic luster. The only "intelligent life" on the ship - those high-level shipborne control personalities, they have no temperature of life, nor emotional fluctuations, but just accurately execute the preset procedures. They are the coldest executors on this battlefield and the best choice for the "line-resistance" mission in the Atlas combat fleet.

Behind the unmanned fleet, the third task force is temporarily on standby here.

Although the warships under Randall's command are scarred, they still exude an unyielding atmosphere. The warships covered with scratches and pits are tired but still majestic.

The lights of the portholes on the warships flickered in the darkness, as if the unyielding souls of these steel giants were burning. Every bullet mark left by a kinetic warhead is a memory of a battle, and every gap torn open and then repaired by a heavy particle cannon is a test of life and death.

The oldest destroyers among these warships can even be traced back to the "Battle of the Three Idiots".

They have charged into battle on the battlefield of Atlas many times. Now, these warships are once again at the forefront of the war, ready to burn themselves out for this battle that will determine the future of Atlas.

"Ten seconds to enter the 40,000-kilometer engagement distance!" Selina's voice sounded on the bridge of the "Infinity".

On the flagships of the four fleets of the Federal Navy, the shipboard control personalities of each reported the same information almost at the same time.

"Attention everyone, prepare to meet the enemy!"

Randall's voice sounded in the communication channel, steady and powerful.

After the training on vocal skills provided by the elves, his voice was like the sound of a war drum from the depths of the universe. He was firm and full of confidence, as if telling every member of the Atlas combat fleet that they must win this battle.

"10987654321!!!"

"Fire!"

The countdown returned to zero, and under the command of the commander-in-chief of both fleets, the battle broke out in an instant.

In a fleet confrontation of this level, the killing effect of using high-energy lasers or charged particle beams is already very general, so both sides did not hesitate at all and fired all the main guns of the entire fleet at once.

The energy generated by nuclear fusion in the battleship fusion furnace is absorbed by heavy metal particles by bombarding special alloys. Then, under the constraint of the directional magnetic field, it is accelerated by a long track and pointed directly at the target tens of thousands of kilometers away with the momentum of destroying the world.

The dense blue-white "beams" produced by the salvo of a large number of heavy particle cannons streaked across the dark space like a meteor shower and attacked the position of the opponent's fleet.

Ten seconds later, a burst of continuous lightning burst out on the battle lines of both sides. It was the "light curtain" formed by the deflection force field of the warships of both sides when they were activated to resist heavy metal particles.

The full-port salvo of the main guns of the entire fleet at the beginning of the battle can basically be regarded as the strongest punch thrown by a fleet, and such a punch is destined to have the desired effect.

So next, there are "fireballs" that keep appearing on the battle line. Each fireball symbolizes that a battleship was unfortunately sunk in the first round of salvos.

The two unmanned fleets, which were at an absolute disadvantage in terms of the number of warships, were obviously not as good as the federal fleet in terms of firepower projection capabilities. Therefore, the Atlas side's battle line, when the warships were sunk, the "fireballs" that exploded were obviously more than the federal fleet.

But for the commander of the unmanned fleet, the command-type artificial intelligence "Selene", these sunken warships were just updated numbers in the loss list.

"Begin to alternate cover and adjust your respective positions."

As her cold orders were issued, those warships that were lucky enough not to be sunk after the first round of salvos had their deflection field generators overloaded, while sending out the "worker bees" inside the hull for damage control and began to use liquid helium coolant for emergency heat dissipation, while under the action of the attitude control nozzle, they began to exchange positions with another warship in good condition.

The precise and swift characteristics of the unmanned fleet were fully demonstrated in the more than 20 seconds before the second round of salvos began.

The third task force, which was still behind the unmanned fleet, was surprised to see the front of the two huge fleets in front of them, with nearly 500 warships, completing the "battle position switching" very smoothly as if it was a preset program.

These steel giants relied on the exquisite control of the attitude control nozzles to "pass by" friendly ships dozens of kilometers away at the shortest distance. The whole process was smooth and there was no sense of sluggishness, let alone any accidents.

So when the second round of salvos from both sides began, the main battleships at the forefront of the unmanned fleet that had urgently adjusted their battle positions were all in the best condition.

On the other hand, although the four fleets of the Federal Navy would also perform the "battle position switching" operation in battle, it was not something they could do at the moment.

Because warships controlled by humans obviously could not complete this series of delicate and dangerous operations within 20 seconds, let alone in a large fleet with thousands of warships.

Soon, the fleets of both sides began the second salvo of the main guns, and the entire battle space once again became a world of light.

Even on Rubion V, if you are in the hemisphere facing the battlefield at this time, as long as you look up at the sky, you can find that there are stars flashing in a certain position.

And those "spectators" driven away by the outer ships of both sides, although they are very far away from the warring universe at this time, can still capture the movement of the two fleets firing at the same time.

However, when they wanted to pass the message to the outside, they found that the quantum entanglement communication equipment on their respective ships had been suspended.

The equipment workbench popped up "Due to technical reasons, the Rubion galaxy and some surrounding universes are temporarily suspended. If you have any questions, please contact your sales consultant~", such a prompt also made the reconnaissance ships and spy ships of various forces have to suffer this loss

After the second round of volleys, groups of fireballs of warships exploded again on the battle lines of the two fleets.

But this time, the fireballs on the battle lines of the federal fleet obviously began to increase.

"The 17th Fleet, the Steadfast and the Daring were sunk!"

"The 23rd Fleet, the Holy Grail, the Exile, and the King of Propulsion were sunk!"

"The 24th Fleet, the Eagle Point and the Samira were sunk!"

"The 18th Fleet, the Quetzalcoatl and the Budd were sunk!"

On the main screen of the bridge of the 18th Fleet's flagship, the Galileo, messages about the loss of the fleet kept flashing. Rear Admiral Stoner, sitting in the captain's seat, looked at the messages with a serious expression and remained silent.

At the same time, the voice of the fleet communications officer sounded in the command channel:

"Report! The deflection field generator of the 24th Fleet flagship "Revenge" has reached the critical value. In order to ensure that the fleet can continue to be commanded on the spot, the fleet commander Major General Barak applied for a battle position adjustment with the battleship "Utah"!"

Stoner said calmly: "Adjustment is allowed. There is no need to notify the flagship to adjust its battle position in the future. It can be adjusted according to the real-time situation."

"Yes! General!"

Whether in the Federal Navy or the Imperial Royal Navy, the flagship is the command core and "morale maintenance tool" of a fleet. Generally speaking, it will not leave its battle position unless it is absolutely necessary.

So the flagships of each fleet, although they are all active battleships, have been greatly upgraded in terms of protection and communication.

From the perspective of the model, performance, and power of the deflection field generator alone, they are much higher than the same-class ships. In the process of fleet-level shooting, the survivability is actually very strong.

But it was only the second round of salvos, and the deflection field generator of the flagship of the 24th Fleet, the Revenge, was close to overload, which meant that the Atlas battle fleet on the opposite side not only obtained the position of the flagship, but also consciously carried out high-intensity concentrated fire.

The extremely high accuracy of the unmanned fleet's artillery fire also caused a large number of warships on the federal fleet's side to lose the protection of the deflection field in the first round of salvos and had no time to adjust their positions.

And these Stoner and others did not expect it. On the contrary, they had already judged that this situation would occur at the pre-war meeting, so he was not surprised.

What really surprised him was that after the second round of salvos, the Atlas fleet on the opposite side did not suffer more losses.

The attack assessment team concluded that the losses suffered by the other side in the second round of salvos were basically the same as those in the first round. It is suspected that a large-scale alternation of positions was carried out in the interval between the two rounds of salvos.

"Is this the real use of the unmanned fleet?"

The federal navy rear admiral who had fought side by side with the unmanned fleet said silently in his heart.

Because in the battles he had experienced with the unmanned fleet before, these cold warships were used to perform auxiliary attacks or suicide attacks in most cases.

"Why does the commander of Atlas seem to be more familiar with these unmanned warships than us?"

A series of questions came to Major General Stoner's mind, but he quickly suppressed them because he had to focus on this battle at the moment.

Generally speaking, after the second round of salvos, the warring parties will temporarily stop using the main guns and take the opportunity to perform other tactical actions, such as releasing HCP or activating electromagnetic reconnection guns, or launching plasma torpedoes and heavy anti-ship missiles.

So Major General Stoner also issued new instructions as in the previous battles.

"Each ship adjusts its position according to the status of the deflection field generator, and continues to fire after the main gun has finished cooling!

At the same time, launch torpedoes and anti-ship missiles according to the combat plan, and the HCP units of each ship are ready to attack!

After crossing the 20,000-kilometer contact line, the fleet will immediately carry out a "full-deck attack" and attack from both wings!"

"Yes, General! The order has been conveyed!"

Immediately afterwards, Major General Stoner turned his head to look at the duty officer beside him and asked:

"Where is the target comet? Has the astronomical observation team found anything?"

The duty officer seemed to have guessed that Stoner would ask this question, so he had already prepared and replied at the first time:

"Report to the general , Comet Hyakutake is about to pass the closest position to Rubion V, but we have not yet found any trace of the enemy fleet near the comet and the comet tail! "

Speaking of this, the officer on duty hesitated for a moment, then quickly glanced at Rear Admiral Stoner's expression, and said cautiously:

"According to the judgment of the Fleet Joint Command Center, Atlas' fleet may not be hiding behind the comet. Of course, there is another possibility that the huge fragments of the comet tail interfered with our reconnaissance. Perhaps we need to continue the reconnaissance for a while to draw a definite conclusion!"

"I know. Keep reconnaissance."

Major General Stoner said lightly, but his heart had begun to become uneasy.

Because he expected that Atlas' fleet would not rush out from behind the comet tail when Comet Hyakutake passed Rubion V.

Although the Fleet Joint Command Center has not made a final judgment, Rear Admiral Stoner knows that Atlas' fleet is likely not to approach with the help of the comet.

"Where will they appear? Did they just give up the battle and flee?"

This thought only lasted for less than a second in Major General Stoner's mind, and then he immediately dismissed it.

Although he had never seen the 'boss' of the Atlas Group, nor had any contact with him, he could tell from the intelligence sent by the Navy Command that the 'boss' on the other side would never do such a thing.

When the two fleets were fighting head-on in space, the tens of thousands of kilometers between them was actually very short, so before Major General Stoner could come up with anything, the Federation Fleet had already crossed the 20,000-kilometer contact line.

Soon, each warship released all the HCPs it carried. In addition to leaving a group of HCPs to carry out air defense operations with the ship, the other HCPs quickly formed two attack clusters on the left and right. At the initial speed given by the warship and the electromagnetic catapult track, they lit up their plasma propulsion arrays and rushed towards the two wings of the Atlas fleet.

It was like a large group of fireflies on a summer night.

Just as gorgeous and short-lived.

But not so romantic.

No one knows how many of these HCPs will be able to return after the war, not even the HCP pilots themselves.

These pure soldiers from the Federal Navy now have only one goal in mind - to do their best to break into the enemy formation, attack the side of the enemy fleet, and add another weight to the victory of this battle.

However, at this moment, a message from the tactical information coordinator made Major General Stoner freeze in his command seat in an instant.

"Report! The fourth drive escort detachment outside the lower half of the formation reported that a target suspected to be a fleet was found in the nadir direction! It is approaching at high speed!"

The next second, the communication from the flagship of the 17th Fleet was also connected. As soon as the face of the fleet commander Major General Benelli appeared on the communication screen, he spoke impatiently:

"Stoner! A target suspected to be an enemy fleet was found directly below my fleet!"

The word "below" does not seem to be suitable for use in space, especially in complex space activities.

However, due to the traditional human cognition of space, and in space operations, the fleet generally establishes a coordinate system with itself as the center of the circle and confirms the directions of X, Y, and Z.

Therefore, the "up, down, left, right, front, and back" that humans are more accustomed to also appeared again in the colloquial report of space activities.

Immediately afterwards, Rear Admiral Mueller of the 23rd Fleet and Rear Admiral Barak of the 24th Fleet also reported the same information.

At this time, Stoner also realized that he had made a huge misjudgment.

He looked at the "unknown target" approaching from "directly below" on the three-dimensional battlefield situation map, and a familiar yet unfamiliar term suddenly popped up in his mind.

"This is...'Vertical offensive tactics on the ecliptic plane'?!"