Chapter 221 Amber’s Fangs
“Attention of the entire Atlas fleet, the special ‘dissuasion’ operation has officially begun!”
Sitting on the captain’s seat of the Hermes Cliffs, suppressing the inexplicable sense of humor in his heart, gave a serious order to start taking action.
The helmsmen of the five battleships also simultaneously pushed the bells to the 'forward three' position.
The blue tail of the battleship's main propulsion array is getting longer and longer as the power continues to increase. On the display screen at the helmsman's position, the relative speed value to the target point is also getting higher and higher.
At the same time that Atlas's fleet began to take action, the commander of the Timler family fleet located in the 'center' of the battlefield also made a decision.
"The entire fleet, adjust the axis clockwise, lock the enemy ships in the right hemisphere, and prepare to start the attack."
"All HCP squadrons are dispatched, and half of the HCPs are divided to protect the rear hemisphere of their respective warships. , intercept the enemy assault! The remaining HCP followed the battleship to launch an attack!"
The Timler family's fleet once again fine-tuned the formation and began to adjust the axis of the battleship, aiming the main gun ray at the 9 in the right hemisphere! an enemy warship.
If the fleet commander at this time is a pure novice, he may make the decision to divide the fleet into two groups and adjust the axis toward different hemispheres.
This seemingly safe and conservative approach is actually the worst approach in the eyes of experienced players.
The unified adjustment of the axis of the fleet is a very simple operation, and it is easy to achieve unified action of the entire fleet.
But adjusting the axial direction separately is different.
Even the most elite fleets in the Federation or Imperial Navy will be out of touch when the fleets are divided into two groups and adjust their axes in different directions.
Especially in this back-to-back situation, if you want to maintain the tightness of the formation, you can only rely on vector nozzles to exert force.
If it is a fleet that has never undergone targeted training, it will easily become separated into two 'squadrons', and then be interspersed and divided by the enemy fleet in close combat.
As the commander of the Timler family, Ron Schneider would naturally not make such a decision.
But he also knew that after the entire fleet turned to one side, the rear hemisphere exposed to the enemy's guns would become precarious.
What he can do is order the HCP squadron to dispatch and rely on the 'deflection field formation' method to block the guns of their warships and protect the fragile main propulsion array.
The entire fleet must also rush into the enemy squadron and fight with them within the time these HCP pilots have bought with their lives, and quickly destroy this force with stronger firepower projection. enemy.
At the same time, after entering the close range strangulation, this situation of 'you are among me, and you are among me' will also make the remaining enemy ships dare not open fire easily.
Luo made the decision En Schneider was very nervous. After all, his decision was based on the safety of all members of the fleet, including his own head.
But the two commanders of the combined fleet were more nervous than him.
Because the fleet is divided into two groups, it is equivalent to "drifting" in the asteroid belt at this moment.
This is a very dangerous behavior.
If the warships in the previous fleet could still use the bow deflection field and main armor plate to withstand the impact of asteroid fragments incoming at high speed.
Now each battleship has exposed its relatively fragile sides.
Soon, the first victim appeared.
On the holographic projection platform, a frigate at the end of the fleet formation on the right was marked with a 'red cross'.
The sensor images behind the Financial Freedom were quickly projected onto the main screen of the bridge.
Antonio and Raven looked at the frigate that had turned into a huge fireball with heavy expressions.
This unlucky battleship was a step late due to emergency maneuvers, and was hit by an asteroid fragment about the same size as it at a relative speed of more than 10 kilometers.
The huge kinetic energy impact directly broke the entire battleship in half. The superconducting battery stack arranged at the rear of the ship exploded, and quickly formed a huge high-temperature plasma fireball that swallowed the entire battleship.
But Antonio had no time to mourn for the crew of this battleship, because at this moment, the main gun beam of the fleet had coincided with the location of the Timler family fleet.
"All fleets! Fire freely! HCP squadron and heavy assault module begin to attack!"
The next moment, the United Fleet warship located directly in front of the Timler family fleet launched a salvo.
Dazzling white flashes and charged particle beams sweeping through the asteroid belt intertwined into a beautiful yet dangerous rain of death.
At the same time, the multi-functional launch silos of each ship also began to launch anti-ship missiles one after another.
This kind of weapon used for beyond visual range strikes on the planet has become auxiliary firepower only used in the stage of hand-to-hand strangulation in space.
The launch silos arranged on the top or bottom deck of each ship send these missiles into the upper and lower hemispheres of the battlefield respectively.
With a distance of less than 3,000 kilometers, these missiles with too long flight time finally have a place to be used.
They attack from the upper and lower hemispheres of the battlefield, making the already complaining air defense commanders feel as uncomfortable as eating arsenic.
“The port side anti-aircraft firepower is too weak! What is the air defense team doing?!”
The anti-aircraft commander of the Timler family fleet and the destroyer Thunderfire Sword sat in the virtual cabin, anxious He looked at the several HCPs breaking through the warning circle in the upper hemisphere direction and the anti-ship missiles catching up at a faster speed.
“Apply for shipboard control personality to intervene in air defense operations!” The air defense commander connected to CIC’s communication, hoping to use these powerful shipboard AIs to help guide the target.
"The application is rejected. The current shipboard control personality has reached the computing power occupation threshold. If the computing power is reallocated, there is a risk of downtime."
"Boom!"
Tactical Action Before the officer finished speaking, the entire battleship was enveloped by a violent explosion.
When the air defense commander came to his senses, he discovered that communication had been interrupted, and only the words 'signal lost' were left on the virtual screen.
There is only one scenario in which this situation occurs for direct communication within the ship.
That means the entire CIC has been praised.
The shocked air defense commander hurriedly opened the three-dimensional model of the entire ship, and sure enough he found that the bridge and the location of the CIC had been shrouded in red light.
A heavy-duty anti-ship missile, which arrived first, luckily broke through all the interceptions of close defense weapons and hit the top armor plate of the battleship almost vertically from the zenith direction of the upper hemisphere.
This heavy anti-ship missile launched by the light cruiser USS Financial Freedom not only has a huge charge, but the warhead is also designed specifically for the multi-layer armor plate structure of the warship.
Just one shot sent everyone on the bridge and CIC into the sky.
The large hole blasted by the anti-ship missile also allowed the inert helium filled in the ship to find a 'vent'.
The large amount of gas spurted out has turned this place into a super-large 'vector vent'.
The battleship lost control and plunged towards the lower hemisphere of the battlefield, exposing its fragile hull.
"It's over. Madam, children, I love you."
The air defense commander only had time to think of this thought.
The next second, a jet of heavy metal particles hit the middle section of the battleship that was not protected by a deflection force field.
The surging heavy metal particles violently tore apart the outer armor plate, and were then shunted away by the internal armor of the multi-layer composite structure. A large number of sandhole-like pores appeared on the hull structure.
But this 150,000 megajoule attack still directly broke the titanium alloy structural frame inside the battleship.
The battleship that was punched through finally disintegrated into two pieces after struggling for a moment.
Although the fusion reactor and superconducting battery stack were not detonated, the two hulls still rolled irregularly.
In this case, even if there are other survivors on the ship, they have actually been sentenced to death.
The combined fleet's counterattack not only killed the destroyer, but also blew up another frigate on the spot.
But they themselves were not feeling well, because the two light cruisers of the Timler family fleet also began to exert force.
Led by these two light cruisers, other warships of the Timler family also followed the light cruisers' shooting targets and began to focus fire.
The light cruiser's dominating firepower on this battlefield directly disabled the deflection field generators of the two destroyers.
The concentrated fire attack that followed directly sank the two destroyers that had no time to maneuver to the rear of the friendly ship.
The entire battlefield began to set off ‘fireworks’ faster than before.
There are ships that are constantly being hit, or bursting out with a series of fires, or being in a larger fire, directly turning everyone on the ship into a 'cosmic ghost'.
But more often than not, it was the HCPs and heavy assault cabins that were like moths to a flame, waltzing with the enemy's attempts to intercept the HCPs amidst the intensive anti-aircraft firepower.
Then in this universe, it turned into a ball of ashes swallowed up by a plasma fireball.
When the battle entered this stage, the commanders on both sides knew that there was no possibility of stopping.
Fleet hand-to-hand combat is not like conventional shooting or raiding combat, where one can exit the battlefield relatively calmly.
When dozens of warships began to strangle at close range in this chaotic asteroid belt, both the fleet commanders and their crews and pilots were all red-eyed.
There is only one way to end the battle, and that is to use all your strength to kill your opponent and become the last person alive.
Just as the battle entered its most intense stage, the tactical information coordinators of both sides' flagships almost simultaneously reported a message that made the commanders on both sides have their hearts stop:
"Zenith direction! Detected. Unknown warship, number 6!”
“The heat source emitted by the unknown warship is detected, and the infrared signature is determined to be HCP, number 17, approaching at high speed from directly above the fleet”
“Wait! Wait, this action is indeed HCP, but how is it possible in such an asteroid belt?”
The tactical information coordination officers of both sides’ flagships looked at the chaotic asteroid belt on the screen in front of them. The voice of the heat source that was performing inhuman maneuvers changed its tone.
"The first aircraft is approaching the target at three times the speed of the following aircraft!"
(End of this chapter)