Chapter 96 Prelude to the Final Battle

For safety reasons, except for the temporary crew members in charge of various positions, Lieutenant Colonel Dallas did not load anyone onto the Pelican where Amber was.

Instead, he loaded the collected ammunition, fuel, battery packs and other supplies.

After all, if these supplies were gone, he could find a way to get them again. If a ship of soldiers was driven into the sea by Amber, Lieutenant Colonel Dallas would have nowhere to cry.

As the loading of supplies and personnel equipment was nearing completion, the only remaining integrated reconnaissance vehicle in the entire synthetic brigade also reported a message to Lieutenant Colonel Dallas.

In their monitoring of the planet's atmosphere, they found the phenomenon of charged particles and heavy metal particles bombarding the atmosphere, so they speculated that there might be a fleet battle in outer space, and it was even still in battle.

Thinking of the sudden orbital strike just now, which only landed two warheads in the end, Lieutenant Colonel Dallas felt that no matter what the cause of this fleet battle was, it at least hindered the operation of the Imperial Orbital Attack Ship.

It also means that the Imperial Fleet may be in battle at present, resulting in a significant reduction in monitoring and support for the surface of Robert IV.

So now is a perfect time for a "strategic shift".

The distance from Blue Bay Port to Jabra, where the space elevator is located, is less than 3,000 kilometers by sea, and it can be reached in less than five hours at the speed of the "Pelican".

If they set off immediately, they can take advantage of the fierce fighting in space to cross the ocean and reach their destination.

"All units! Speed ​​up the loading. After the loading of Big Bird 1, 2, 3, etc. is completed, set off immediately!"

Under the urging of Lieutenant Colonel Dallas, the officer in charge of the loading of the three "Pelicans" accelerated the progress and put all the things that could be taken away on the ground effect flight carrier platform in the shortest time.

The sorting and classification work was temporarily skipped, anyway, it would be ready for unloading in a few hours.

As the three "Pelicans" completed all the preparations, Big Bird 1 and Big Bird 2, which carried all the personnel, vehicle equipment and some supplies, started one after another.

Propelled by ten high-power turbofan engines, the two huge ground-effect vehicles left the port, and produced ground effects as they continued to accelerate, and were finally lifted by the "air cushion" to the air about 15 meters above the water surface.

"Big Bird 3, you can set off, be careful."

"Received, Big Bird 3 is leaving the port."

After hearing the voice of Lieutenant Colonel Dallas on the communication channel, Amber responded, and remembered the scene where Lieutenant Colonel Dallas was forcibly dragged away by the staff, and couldn't help laughing again.

This tough lieutenant colonel was originally going to stay on this ground-effect vehicle with Amber and the others.

But he was dragged away by the deputy brigade commander and the staff on the grounds that "the driver was inexperienced and there was a risk of crashing."

Amber expressed great understanding of this, after all, if it were him, he would not dare to sit in a car driven by a novice.

However, with the help of Lilith, Amber, who was driving a giant ground effect vehicle for the first time, was not nervous at all. She even had the mind to make a few jokes in the communication channel:

"Lieutenant Colonel, you can actually tell the staff that they don't have to worry so much. We psychic agents have to learn everything in the military academy, and ground effect vehicles are a piece of cake for us."

"Hahahaha, if you successfully drive Big Bird 3 to the destination, then next time in a similar situation, I will let the staff sit in the vehicle you drive."

The lieutenant colonel's hearty laughter came from the communication channel, and there were protests from the staff such as "Lieutenant Colonel, you are taking human lives lightly!"

With the low-power operation of the turbofan engine, Big Bird 3 smoothly moved out of the berth and drove away from the port to the area where it could take off and land.

Then, relying on the guidance of Lilith, who was disguised as a driving assistance AI, Amber pushed the throttle to the maximum thrust position, and then controlled the direction and angle with Major Randall at an increasingly faster speed, and finally took off with the help of the ground effect.

After leaving the water, the "Pelican" quickly accelerated to a speed of 600 kilometers per hour without the resistance brought by the sea water, and caught up with the Big Birds 1 and 2 that set off first.

Three giant ground-effect flying carriers formed a triangle formation with a spacing of 20 kilometers, and rushed straight towards the final destination of the temporary 83rd Composite Brigade-Jabura.

The fleet battle in space also came to an end after several hours.

In the end, it was the Empire's Eighth Expeditionary Strike Group that relied on its advantage in firepower projection to obtain a higher exchange ratio and forced the Federation Task Force to withdraw from the battle.

Although he won the battle, Marquis Ascania still felt as sick as if he had eaten an alien mosquito.

The Federation Fleet's attack, like a "harassment war", did not actually cause much damage to the ships of the Expeditionary Strike Group.

However, this harassment still had a significant impact on the fleet's orbital strikes and airdrop operations, seriously interfering with the support for ground combat and the efficiency of troop deployment.

When the orbital attack ship returned to low orbit, it quickly sent back to the flagship the news that Blue Bay was "empty".

Obviously, under the interference of the federal fleet, the temporary 83rd Composite Brigade, the remnant of the federal army that had been targeted by the Marquis of Ascania, once again escaped their surveillance.

However, after this attack on Blue Bay and combined with the intelligence obtained previously, both the Marquis, Raphael and the staff team made the same judgment.

The next destination of this remnant of the federal soldiers is 100% the Robert IV space elevator.

"This move is a bit counter-intuitive, but I have to say it's a bit clever. If they hadn't chosen to attack Blue Bay, I wouldn't be sure that the goal of these federal remnants was the space elevator."

In the battle meeting, Marquis Ascania took a sip from his wine glass.

After noticing that he was in a bad mood, Raphael brought him a glass of soothing imperial ice wine.

"Yes, Lord Marquis, we thought they would keep going in circles in the North Continent, but this also shows that the key to the space elevator is probably in their hands."

Raphael looked at the planet plan on the holographic projection platform with a calm expression.

"And they also calculated that we don't want to destroy the space elevator. As long as they can reach the vicinity of the space elevator, then our orbital strike will be a bit of a trap."

"Yes, if I were the commander of this force, I would consider maneuvering to the space elevator after getting the key, and then wait for the support fleet to arrive before cooperating in the operation."

Marquis Ascania nodded, and then continued:

"How many troops do we have near the space elevator?"

"Originally, there was an orbital paratrooper regiment and some heavy-duty troops that subsequently arrived via aerospace transport aircraft. However, after it was confirmed that the space elevator could not be used for a short period of time, these troops were gradually transferred to other areas to fight."

Raphael opened his personal terminal and found out the details of the current deployment of ground troops.

"Currently, there are only two battalions left in the space elevator base area."

"Hmph, now we are a little passive."

Marquis Ascania muttered:

"Stop the deployment of follow-up troops, and first use all air and space transport aircraft to urgently transport some heavy-armed troops already on the ground as quickly as possible."