Chapter 527 The Third Task Force

After hearing the answer she didn’t want to hear from Cliffs, Amber sighed softly.

He knew that Randall's plan was an extremely dangerous one, but it was indeed what he had to do at the moment to avoid a worse situation.

"When did Randall become so bold? This is too dangerous."

Hearing Amber's words, Cliffs also smiled bitterly: "Senior, he has actually always had the dream of becoming a fleet commander, but he has never had the opportunity after graduation. After transferring to a position like the Star Port Operations Command Center, he is getting further and further away from this dream."

Amber: "So his character has become the smoother one he is now? It does fit the character of a 'rear officer'"

Cliffs nodded, and then looked at the hologram The three-dimensional model of the Lubion Galaxy on the projection platform said, "But the senior's decision this time shows that he still retains a trace of passion in his heart, so he knows that the battle will be extremely dangerous, but he still has to buy out enough time for us. "

"Three days and eight hours," Amber murmured. This is the remaining time for the two unmanned fleets that had previously set off from the A. Bawa Ku asteroid fortress to arrive in the Rubian system. .

If Randall can successfully delay the arrival time of the federal fleet, even if it allows them to jump to other backup 'arrival coordinates', they will persist until the two unmanned fleets of Atlas arrive. , that counts as success.

Because after the attack on Federal Secretary of State Davis, Isabel led the Intelligence Analysis Center and, with the help of Lilith, obtained an extremely important piece of information - there may be more than just the third person the Federation wants to send to the Lubion system. Seventeenth and Eighteenth Fleet.

According to the information provided by this highly credible intelligence, in addition to the two fleets used as Davis's "negotiation trump card", the Federation is very likely to send a fleet that has an "indissoluble bond" with the Atlas Group. The 23rd Fleet participated in the operation to control the Rubian system.

Another piece of information that has not yet been fully verified is that if the 24th Fleet completes the replenishment of ships and the preparation of the entire fleet before an unclear time point, this fleet will be the same as Ah The fleets that the Truss Group has dealt with may also be dispatched.

That is to say, at some point in the future, this galaxy will gather three to four full fleets of the Federation.

If they are allowed to complete the assembly before the main force of the Atlas Combat Fleet arrives, then Amber and the others will need to face this federal fleet that is well prepared and has a force that greatly exceeds their own. This will make the next The battle became a bit difficult.

But this is not the main reason why Randall is so eager to attack

What really made him determined to launch an attack was the Atlas transport fleet that was about to arrive in the Rubian system.

I don’t know whether the federation specially estimated the arrival time of this transport fleet, or whether they were lucky. All in all, this transport fleet will also arrive near Rubian 5 in the next two days. .

Unfortunately, neither Randall nor Amber could issue a warning to the fleet. Even if a message was sent, the transport fleet could only receive the message after leaving hyperspace.

And the current ship cannot temporarily interrupt the jump process after entering hyperspace through the jump drive.

If the jump drive is forcibly turned off, the ship can indeed escape from hyperspace, but in the few cases currently known to mankind, these ships that have forcibly escaped from the jump have reappeared in parts

This is like entering a highway on the planet with only two openings, 'one in and one out'. After entering the highway, the vehicle can only leave safely through the exit. If it forcibly hits the guardrail at high speed, it will only be left behind. A devastating outcome.

So if we do not interfere with the actions of the federal fleet and allow the 17th and 18th fleets to successfully arrive in these two days.

With the high speed and powerful strike capabilities of warships under normal navigation, Atlas's transport fleet of 30 heavy-loaded cargo ships is likely to have no time to enter the jump again. Will suffer disaster.

And the key is that on this batch of transport fleets, there is also a batch of new equipment that the Renaissance Alliance is preparing to replace, as well as a large number of critical spare parts and large fusion power plant components that they urgently need.

This made Randall have to find a way to deal with this problem.

After thinking for a while, Amber asked again: "Cliffs, what do you think Randall will do with the troops he has?"

"Based on my understanding of the senior, Judging from the previous exchanges with him about fleet warfare, he should use the Infinity as the core to cause casualties to the Rubian system's garrison fleet as much as possible, and create an illusion that 'it is not safe here'. Forcing the commander of the Federation fleet to adjust the jump plan"

Cliffs recalled while saying:

"The attack capability of the super-heavy purification beam generator on the 'Infinity', the Federation fleet is I have learned from experience, so as long as the opponent's commander is not a fool, he will not let the fleet jump directly into the face of the 'Infinity'.

After all, in the most critical three minutes after leaving the jump, if the fleet happens to be there. If it is within the attack range of the Infinity, it will become a target and be strafed."

"But this does not solve the fundamental problem."

Amber shook his head, and then used gestures to control the three-dimensional model of the Rubian system to zoom in to the position of Rubian 5, and displayed the planet's Equatorial plane.

“There are too many places on the equatorial plane that are suitable for escape jumps. If Randall just lets the fleet carry out harassment. Based on my understanding of the federal navy, they will only adjust to other backup coordinates. Still The attack will be launched normally.

And after alerting the enemy in this way, the Federation fleet may give up its plan to jump directly, but will first enter other areas of the Rubion system and then conduct a short jump. 
In this case, because the distance is too short, the movement caused by the jump drive tearing up the space will not be so obvious, and Randall can only find the other party after the other party arrives, which will be even more passive. "

The 'short jump' Amber refers to is a routine tactical action of the human navy.

Due to some characteristics of the jump drive that humans have not yet figured out the principle of, the longer the distance of a jump, the greater the movement of the jump drive tearing up space at the destination, and signs will appear long in advance. .

A jump distance of more than ten days will allow the destination to quickly detect abnormal space fluctuations, thereby knowing that a ship has jumped over.

For civilian ships, this is not a problem. After all, most of them must report every jump to the relevant departments in advance.

But for warships that need to pay attention to stealth and suddenness under certain circumstances, this abnormal space fluctuation is undoubtedly holding up a loudspeaker to tell the enemy: "Hello, I'm here."

This is also the reason why the Federation and the Empire cannot organize fleets to jump directly to each other's capital for a real 'change of homes'.

If anyone really dares to do this, after leaving the jump, he will see an extremely large fleet that has already completed a super large artillery formation and may even see a celestial fortress installed. Quietly point the main gun of the fortress here

So when conducting some military operations, the naval fleet first jumps to a coordinate that is several hours away from the final destination, and then waits for the jump drive to complete After preparation, make the second jump.

In this case, by the time the enemy captures the abnormal space fluctuations, the fleet has actually entered the end of the jump and will leave hyperspace in the next second.

“That’s true.”

Cliffs nodded in agreement, and then continued:

“And I suspect that the Federation fleet probably did not intend to make a long-distance jump in the first place, but will arrive in the Rubian system within the next two days. At any coordinate on the ecliptic plane, wait until you have contacted the autonomous government's garrison fleet and confirmed that there is no problem, and then arrive through a 'short jump'."

Cliffs' face became more and more ugly as he spoke, because Judging from the current analysis, Randall's side is likely to be in a dead end. As long as he cannot prevent the two federal fleets from entering the jump, it will basically be a disaster.

In other words, this sudden situation really caught Atlas by surprise.

Amber and the others had indeed anticipated that the Federation would consider intervening in the galaxy situation and had begun deployment in advance. However, the death of Secretary of State Davis directly disrupted Atlas's deployment. Even though Amber quickly ordered the two unmanned fleets to pull anchor and set sail after receiving the news, there was still a short-term "force vacuum" in the Lubion system.

And the Federation was still alive, and at the end of this 'military vacuum', it began to take action

However, he still looked at Amber with a hopeful look, hoping that this A Boss whose strength is unknown and who becomes stronger when he encounters a strong one doesn't have any other comeback points.

And Amber did not disappoint him. After recalling several battles he knew in which the federal fleet was used as a 'background', he spoke again:
 "There is one last way."

"What can we do, Boss?"

Amber: "That is for Randall to take the initiative as soon as possible within the next ten hours or so and complete a 'destroying blow' to the autonomous government's garrison fleet. It is best to Can fight a swift and efficient battle of annihilation!"

"War of annihilation"

Cliffs muttered this word in a low voice, frowning and thinking, but soon his brows were filled with tears. 'The words slowly unfolded, and the originally tangled eyes lit up.

“Boss, what do you mean, through this ‘battle of annihilation’, to make the commander of the federal fleet put the enemy on the line?”

"That's right~" Amber snapped her fingers, and then continued:

"Suppose you are the commander-in-chief of the 17th and 18th fleets of the Federation, and before you prepare to take action, you suddenly find that there should not be many enemies. What would you think if the garrison fleet that created a 'safe zone' for us near the Lubion 5 lost contact and was suspected of being completely wiped out?"

"I would wonder if the main force of the 'enemy' was ahead of schedule? We have arrived. After all, the number of the garrison fleet is not small. If we jump over again at this time, will we be ambushed by the enemy?"

Cliffs said subconsciously, but he soon hesitated. stand up.

“But how do we make the federal fleet believe that our main force has arrived? If the garrison fleet is attacked, it should issue a warning to the federal fleet and inform them of the basic information of the incoming enemy. If they find that there are not as many ships as they expected, will they still choose to launch an assault? ”

"Cliffs, you have touched on the most critical point, which is also what worries me the most."

Amber sighed with some uncertainty, and then continued:

" Randall must launch a perfect raid that only exists in theory, and organize the entire process of pre-war maneuvering, tactical deception, electronic warfare suppression, and raids accurately. Only then can it be possible to defeat the opponent before he sends a warning message. Annihilate. "

"Hiss" Cliffs took a breath after hearing this, "Boss, if you say that, I am now very worried about whether the senior can do this. After all, he has never commanded before. A battle of this level."

Amber also shrugged feebly, and then joked with pleasure:

"Don't talk about you, I'm worried about this now too. If there was a prayer hall of the Dragon God Cult on board the Dawn, I would have to go in and pray for Randall for three days and three nights.

Then I knelt down and begged the Dragon God to bless our warships in the Lubion system, so that the electronic warfare virus they released could penetrate the enemy's firewall, cut off their communications and other electronic equipment, and bless the warship's main gun to hit the enemy ship. "The central fusion furnace"

"Is it too late to build one now? There are several places on the Dawn that can be transformed into prayer halls. If the hive core carried by Gnakuri releases worker bees, it will cost a few dollars. It can be made in an hour.”

After listening to Amber’s words, Cliffs touched his chin and really thought about this plan seriously, which fully demonstrated what it means to seek medical treatment in an emergency.

“What are you thinking about? What’s the use of just building a church? Where can I find the Dragon God’s maid and choir!”

Amber, dumbfounded, kicked Cliffs to bring him back to his senses, and then continued:

"If you have this spare time, why not deduce the success rate of Randall's side? By the way, his hand How many troops are there?”

——

Atlas Battle Fleet, Third Task Force (TF3) Organization Table

Fleet Flagship: Infinity Super heavy battleship

Battleship detachment: Truth-class battleship x 4, Kraken II-class battleship x 2

Cruiser detachment: Fire-class heavy cruiser x 6, Hydra-class heavy cruiser x 4, Griffin-class light cruiser x 22 
Destroyer and escort detachment: It has 3 destroyer and escort detachments, with a total of 75 destroyers and frigates of various types

This is all the ships currently available under Randall, including those carrying the Renaissance Alliance. A small mobile fleet of the first batch of trainees.

The Truth-class battleship among them is actually the ‘Project 08’ battleship designed and manufactured by Atlas Shipbuilding Industry.

The Yehuo-class heavy cruiser is also another purely private warship of Atlas Shipbuilding Industry in addition to 'Project 12' and 'Project 08'. Its performance is also slightly stronger than the Kuzu currently in service in the Federation and Star Dragon Empire. Snake level and Dawn goddess level.

Randall, who was sitting on the captain's seat of the Infinity, looked at the fleet establishment officer in front of him with a blank expression and didn't say a word for a long time. He didn't know what he was thinking.

Until a somewhat lazy voice sounded in my ears.

“I’m not telling you, Colonel Randall, even if you look at the organization list, we won’t be able to produce more battleships.”

“You and your master Like Amber, her small mouth is very talkative.”

Randall curled his lips speechlessly, and glanced at Murat who was leaning on the captain's seat beside him. He couldn't help but frowned when he saw the other person's posture.

“Look at you, Atlas HCP force commander, you are now a major, and you are still as lazy as before. No, I remember that when you just left Robert IV, you were quite serious and diligent. Yes, I probably learned bad things from this guy Amber.”

“If a war is imminent, I just want to maintain a good attitude~”

Mura smiled sheepishly. He smiled, stood up straight with his hands behind his back, and then asked:

"So Colonel, you have been staring for a long time, what did you see?"

"Well, what else can I see? I see that the future is not bright, and I see that there is a dead end~"

Mura: "."

"But there are some things, we It has to be done."

Randall turned to look at Murat and Jacob, who had been silent beside him.

“There are no cowards in Atlas Group, and there are even less cowards in TF3.”

(End of this chapter)