Chapter 75 Decision

The Federation battleship re-lit up the plasma propulsion array and once again dragged out a long blue wake, which was immediately captured by the optical and infrared observation equipment of the Imperial Fleet.

On the bridge of the Dawn Sword, Colonel Raphael and other tactical staff were confused.

The Federation Fleet's approach was completely unexpected.

Generally speaking, restarting the main propulsion array occurs when the two sides are about to meet at the end of the exchange of fire.

Because when the plasma propulsion array is maintained, the battleship fusion reactor cannot meet the full power operation of the deflection force field, and the firing rate of the heavy particle cannon and the acceleration of the plasma will be greatly reduced.

This is why before entering the battle, the battleship commander will choose to shut down the main propulsion array after obtaining the combat speed, so as not to lose the wind in the subsequent exchange of fire.

After all, the energy supply of the battleship is limited, even if the main battleship is equipped with multiple fusion reactors.

Because multiple fusion reactors often mean larger ships, more and more complex weapon units, more powerful deflection field generators, and plasma propulsion arrays with more array points.

So the operation of the Federation Task Force to reopen the main propulsion array at this time is meaningless except for gaining more speed advantages.

Although higher relative speed and angular velocity will reduce the accuracy of the fleet's artillery fire, this effect is two-way.

The accuracy of the Federation Fleet's artillery fire in a high-speed raid will also be reduced, not to mention that they have fewer warships and the amount of firepower delivered during the salvo is not as good as that of the Imperial Fleet.

So the current situation is that this Federation Fleet is ready to enter the disengagement procedure after suffering a round of double salvos in vain.

"Enemy fleet, relative speed 162 kilometers per second, continuously accelerating, straight-line distance 18,632 kilometers, expected to intersect in 108 seconds!"

"108 seconds."

The information reported by the tactical information coordinator again made Raphael know that he had little time to make a decision.

He knew that no matter how incompetent the commander of the federal fleet was, he would not make such a dizzying decision as running away directly after being hit in vain.

The other party must have other plans.

But the time that kept passing by second by second forced Raphael to make a decision immediately.

In the end, he adhered to the tone of "executing fleet defense operations" set by the Marquis of Ascania.

Raphael, who had just boldly issued the "double salvo" order, decided to be conservative at this moment.

"The third and fifth drive escort detachments, three rounds of defensive tactical hydrogen bombs, ten seconds apart, pay attention to the coverage range."

In the space war of this era, the deployment of large-yield thermonuclear weapons has become a conventional defense method.

The ultra-high temperature ion fireball produced by the nuclear bomb explosion can ablate and distort the physical ammunition projected by the electromagnetic reconnection gun, thereby changing its trajectory, and the programmed warhead will lose its function under ultra-high temperature.

After the explosion, the electric field in these airspaces will be filled with a large number of elementary particles.

Heavy particle cannons or charged particle cannons, which are directed energy weapons that essentially attack through charged particles, will be severely interfered with and even unable to penetrate.

Soon, a wall of light rose again in front of the Imperial Fleet.

When this wall of light was about to go out, the second and third walls of light lit up in sequence.

The warning systems on the Federation warships issued three consecutive "high energy warnings".

When the scene outside the panoramic porthole was covered by dazzling white light, Commodore Duville finally showed a smile on his face.

He, or everyone at the pre-war meeting, bet right.

The ion fireballs produced by the explosion of large-yield thermonuclear weapons obscured the vision of both sides.

This obstruction was not only reflected in optical and infrared sensors, but even long-wave radars were interfered by the electromagnetic pulses generated by the explosion of tactical hydrogen bombs.

In other words, before the effect of the ion fireball disappeared, the fleets of both sides were like two boxers forcibly pulled apart by the referee, and no one could launch an attack.

But the Federation task force did not intend to engage in a shootout with the Imperial Fleet from the beginning.

A few days ago, a reconnaissance ship equipped with optical stealth and radar wave cancellation devices, under the command of a bold captain, reached a position about 80,000 kilometers away from the Empire's Eighth Expeditionary Strike Group.

After conducting reconnaissance through the ship's optical observation equipment, the reconnaissance ship sent back two messages to the task force.

First, many battleships of the Imperial Fleet were docked in Lansford Military Port, but there was no sign of the space elevator operating.

Second, the Imperial Fleet had been intermittently carrying out orbital strikes and orbital airdrops on Robert IV.

It was these two pieces of information that made the officers attending the combat meeting make a bold guess.

That is, the surface of Robert IV has not completely fallen.

A young officer attending the meeting even proposed the bold hypothesis that the Empire may not have yet controlled the space elevator.

As the only earth-like planet in the Robert galaxy, Robert IV has the largest population and number of stationed troops compared to other gas planets, rocky planets or satellites with inhabitants in the galaxy.

In addition to the early warning and rescue message sent from Robert IV.

This made Brigadier General Duville and other commanders believe that the federal forces on the planet were still resisting.

And the Imperial forces may not be able to take over the planet in a short time.

In the end, the plan for this operation was unanimously approved at the operation meeting.

So from the beginning, Commodore Duville did not intend to fight to the death with the huge Imperial fleet.

This high-speed raid battle was more to get close to Robert IV, find out the strength of the Imperial fleet, and prepare for the possible arrival of the Federation main fleet in advance.

At the same time, it was also to broadcast the entire area at a certain moment when approaching the planet, so that friendly forces on the surface knew that there was a fleet fighting above their heads.

Of course, if it was just to achieve this goal, the task force could raid from other directions of the planet, and there was no need to contact the Imperial fleet so closely.

But in that case, the Imperial fleet would not enter the state of fleet battle like this, and would not recall the orbital attack ships cruising in the planet's orbit, thus failing to reduce the pressure on the ground forces.

So, when the light wall formed by the ion fireball gradually disappeared, the various sensors and radars of the ship resumed work.

Colonel Raphael, the tactical staff, and the Marquis in the captain's seat saw the federal task force intersecting at high speed from a distance of less than 2,000 kilometers in a straight line from the fleet.

These warships, which had shut down their main propulsion arrays again, were keeping their normals unchanged and relying on the vector nozzles on the hulls to keep the warships' axes pointing toward the imperial fleet.

At this moment, Colonel Raphael finally realized that he had been tricked.

Because he saw that in this fleet that was passing at high speed, two destroyers did not adjust their axes, but broke away from the fleet and rushed towards Robert IV in the dazzling blue light of the plasma propulsion array.

The federal fleet had no intention of conducting a high-speed raid at all. All the other commander did was just to send the two destroyers into the prograde orbit of Robert IV.

At the same time, the federal warships, which had been beaten for almost the entire game, opened fire again.