Chapter 546: Reinforcements will arrive tomorrow
Then, Guterres, a former federal navy vice admiral with extensive fleet command experience, reported to Randall based on the current situation and the fleet casualties that had just been counted. Made his own suggestions.
After the battle just now, although the Third Task Force defeated the main force of the Rubian System Guard Fleet and captured a large number of ships, it also suffered losses.
The flagship of the fleet, the super heavy battleship 'Infinity', although it survived the radical tactics just now, the damage to the ship was still unavoidable.
Randall is still a little scared when he thinks about using the deflection field to collide with the ship. Moreover, although the collision was successfully completed, 65% of the deflection field generator array on the bow of the ship still appeared. The equipment is overloaded.
Among them, 30% of the generators are directly scrapped and need to be replaced urgently.
At the same time, some shipwrecks that passed through the deflection force field and hit the bow of the ship also caused damage to the gun doors of the 12 heavy particle cannons.
It can only be said that it is fortunate that the 'Infinity' closed all the main weapon gun doors before the impact. Otherwise, what would have been damaged might have been the acceleration track, which was more difficult to repair.
At the same time, the electromagnetic reconnection gun's 'overload firing mode' also caused damage to part of the electromagnetic gun's acceleration track and required urgent replacement.
While each ship is recovering HCP and heavy armored combat boats, the 'Swarm' on the 'Infinity' has already been dispatched to start repairs and replacements.
As for the six battleships of the battleship squadron, four were slightly damaged and two were seriously damaged.
Among the two seriously damaged battleships, the more seriously damaged one was the 'Kenem II' class battleship captured from the joint fleet of the military-industrial complex. The captain had even reported the possibility of abandoning the ship. .
According to reports from the ship's engineers and the damage control team, the battleship was not properly maintained in the hands of the military-industrial complex, leaving many hidden dangers that were not discovered during routine inspections.
As a result, just after the battle intensity increased, when the battleship used its own better protection as a 'human shield' to cover several of its own battleships that were under enemy fire, the deflection field generator Overloaded.
The final result was that the bow of the ship was almost torn off by several heavy-duty anti-ship penetration rods, and the middle section of the ship was also swept by the heavy metal particle jet of a heavy particle cannon, leaving a large area outside The armor was completely stripped off, and even the cabin behind the armor was beaten into a 'hole' shape.
If this were the case, the captain of this battleship would not consider abandoning the ship.
Because the damage control and self-sustainability of these space battleships are much stronger than most people imagine, and such extremely expensive battleships do not just abandon the ship.
After all, fighting in space is different from fighting in the atmosphere. There are no restrictions on aerodynamic shape. If the ship is drilled with several holes, there is no need to worry about water intrusion. Just close the airtight door of the adjacent cabin. That’s it.
This is why every time after a large-scale fleet battle, among the fleets that withdraw from the battle, you can see that many external armors have been basically smashed, and even warships with most of their bows swept away can follow. Keep sailing and leaping.
But the reason why the captain of this 'Kan II' class battleship considered abandoning the ship was mainly because after part of the hull was grazed by the heavy particle cannon, it also had some impact on the fusion furnace, and the output power has been It is steadily declining, and there are also problems with the 'environmental control equipment' of the superconducting battery stack.
According to the calculations of the shipboard control personality, if it cannot be repaired in time, the battleship may completely lose power in 8 hours.
And if it needs to be repaired, the entire fusion furnace must be dismantled for inspection. But obviously the Third Task Force does not have the ability to do this.
So Randall finally agreed to the battleship captain's application, and asked other ships to assist in the evacuation of personnel, and finally let the battleship perform the self-destruction procedure.
As for the remaining types of cruisers, destroyers, and frigates, they also lost a lot in the battle. From 10 heavy cruisers before the war started to 7 now, there are still 18 light cruisers left. , a total of 58 destroyers and frigates are left.
It’s just that this casualty situation is actually much lower than the predictions made by Randall and the fleet combat staff before the war.
And in this case of lower-than-expected casualties, the Third Task Force can be said to have completely defeated the main force of the Rubian system defense fleet.
Including the flagship 'Balkaner', more than 60% of the warships in the fleet were directly sunk in the battle. All the remaining warships also stopped resisting and surrendered at the speed of light.
Judging from the results, the third task force’s battle of ‘defeating more with less’ can be said to have exceeded the tactical goal.
Guterres: "Has the surrendered warship been controlled?"
"Yes, teacher." Randall nodded,
"We have dispatched the marines accompanying the ship to board the ship with the 'Soldier Bees'. The personnel on the ship are now divided into groups and isolated in different cabins. The shipboard control personality has also been replaced with the 'temporary personality' we brought aboard. "The original control personality must be 'cleaned' by the group data center before it can be put back into use." Randall explained the current fleet, including its own maintenance, rescue, and management measures for surrendered warships. After hearing the end, Gutre Si also had to sigh.
“It’s really convenient for you to control the surrendered ships now. You can just change the ‘temporary personality’ and drive away. If we wanted to control the surrendered ships before, we could only control the other party’s The personality is forced offline, and then the ship is operated manually."
"The times are developing, technology is advancing, and we at Atlas are also at the forefront in this regard~"
" Advertising words? ”
"Hahaha, I was discovered by you, teacher"
Randall scratched his head in embarrassment, and then heard Guterres continue to say:
"I took a look at you The plan you sent me is to jump to an asteroid belt next, but I just re-read the astronomical data of the Lubion system, and I suggest you change the jump target to here."
Guterre As he spoke, Si sent a new coordinate.
After Randall took a look at the new coordinates, he asked with some confusion: "This is...another asteroid rubble belt? What's the point?"
"The asteroid belt is not only a place to hide the fleet for repairs. If you choose the right asteroid belt, you can also make some additions to the fleet."
Guterres clicked on this Details of the new coordinates, and then said:
"There should be a large number of 'worker bee' robots on the 'Infinity', right? Other battleships are more or less equipped with some, right?
< br>There are a lot of ice crystals in this asteroid rubble belt, as well as a lot of comet fragments. You can send 'worker bees' to mine methane ice and solid water, so that by the time the entire fleet completes its rest, you will be able to recover at least 70%. "The working fluid water and refrigerant"
Guterres talked to Randall in detail about a lot of tactical decisions suitable for the moment. Randall also seemed to be back in class, concentrating. These suggestions were recorded and quickly compiled into new orders and issued.
After the Third Task Force completed the recovery mission and completely took control of the surrendered ships, the larger fleet than before the war quickly jumped to the new coordinates provided by Guterres.
Immediately, all battleships released their 'worker bees', allowing these robots equipped with 'collection modules' to mine the surrounding ice crystals and gravel.
Twenty-two hours later, when Atlas's new cargo fleet broke away from the jump, approached Rubion 5 and merged with the much larger third task force.
The commander of the cargo fleet finally figured out what happened, but he felt bad.
Especially after hearing that two federal fleets were eyeing him, and he didn’t know when they would come over, the black lines on his forehead became even more obvious.
"Don't panic, you've come here, you can't go back with so much cargo, right?"
On the bridge of the 'Infinity', Randall patted the cargo fleet commander who came to report. shoulder, and said:
"You send out all the air and space transport fleets, and then send down the Renaissance Alliance's most urgently needed supplies and key spare parts first - one-way tickets, these air and space transport planes are also bought by the Renaissance Alliance After coming down, it will be used as their own transport fleet in the future
According to our previous estimates, without the need to recover the aerospace transport aircraft, the entire cargo fleet can use the planet's autobiography to accelerate while launching the transport aircraft, 40. All operations can be completed within an hour, and you can just jump away at that time."
"What if the federal fleet comes over?" The cargo fleet commander was still a little nervous.
"Don't worry, there will be a high support when the sky falls. Even if something unexpected happens, our combat fleet will go up first to cover your evacuation."
Randall replied to the cargo fleet The commander looked like "I'm here, don't worry":
"Reinforcements will arrive tomorrow."
(End of this chapter)