Chapter 532, the first battle of the battle patrol
The blue-and-white-painted ‘Raging Owl’ slowly moved across the sky with the brilliant star Yuehe VII as the background.
Pieces of high-speed drifting space junk are pushed away by the void shield that gradually recharges and returns to its normal color; the slow-moving ones are destroyed by the occasional cannon fire and exploded into flying ash; smaller and slower-moving junk , then it doesn't matter, just bumping into it directly, it just leaves some scratches on the armor.
These space junks were all created by the 'Raging Owl' and its little brothers in the past five hours.
They originally belonged to one space ship after another, and were the pearls of the Queen's Star Domain.
And now, five hours later, they all turned into space junk.
The 'Raging Owl' moved through the garbage. The slender, good-looking, and even somewhat elegant figure of the Holy Grail class was surrounded by dozens of small warships of all levels, looking arrogant and majestic, as if it was inspecting its own victory.
It was indeed a quick and fruitful assault.
The angry owl was brought by Yan Fangxu. They arrived at the northern part of the Meng River Star Territory ahead of the main force, and joined forces led by Perbov who were struggling to resist the southward offensive of the Raging Flame.
Purbov was the frontline commander, and Yan Fangxu was the most senior general in the alliance army. This sortie was also given high authority by Gu Hang. The two of them have the right to assess the situation and decide on their own how to fight.
After analyzing the situation in multiple star sectors that were at war, they quickly formulated a plan focusing on the navy.
Of course, two generals with army backgrounds cannot formulate a complete naval combat strategy on their own. Their current identities are not limited to the army. Although in terms of military rank, one is an army general and the other is an army senior general, they command a war zone as army generals. Naval generals in the same war zone need to obey their orders.
This is very different from the rules of the empire. Within the empire, the Astra Militarum and the Imperial Navy are two distinct systems. There is no subordination between the two, and sometimes the Imperial Navy even refuses to carry the Astra Militarum into combat, so that the Astra Militarum has to find other ways to build ships and deliver troops to the battlefield.
Even when the cooperation is good, the two are just cooperation.
Since it is cooperation, there is no such thing as an order that must be completed. If you can help, do it. If you don't want to help, the other party has no choice but to argue, but it won't solve the problem.
Even if sometimes the Empire will send a senior general, or someone with a special status, to be the person in charge of the overall situation, the theater commander, but can this commander be a good balance between the Astra Militarum and the Empire that are nominally under his command? In the Navy, it depends on his personal level and the depth of his relationships.
After all, this kind of temporary subordination does not last long, and even the force of coercion is questionable.
But these problems do not exist in the alliance.
An alliance means there is a clear superior-subordinate relationship. As large as a war zone, the person in charge of the war zone has been determined. Regardless of whether he is from the navy or the army, the combat troops assigned to his command in the area must obey orders unconditionally. Anyone who violates orders will be dealt with according to military law.
The political commissar is watching.
As small as a temporary battlefield, if the theater commander designates a person in charge, then the person in charge will be in charge; if there is no designation, the two sides will discuss it. If the discussion is not appropriate, then each will report to the top. There will always be a person in charge or someone above. of the theater commander.
The theater commander here was Perbov before, and he became him after Yan Fangxu came. Of course, the Alliance Navy must implement the strategy decided upon by both of them.
Of course, it doesn't mean that the two army generals rushed forward in a hurry just because they wanted to fight. Specific operational goals will be formulated by professional naval officers among the staff of the headquarters.
After the goals are set, the navy's own captains and staff will formulate specific action plans based on the theater command's goals and then report them.
Once the action plan is approved by the command, it can be executed.
This is a complete process.
Of course, in war, accidents always happen frequently. This process may not necessarily be completed at every moment. In emergencies, you still have to improvise.
As for the present, it is naturally not an emergency.
After the process was completed, the captain of the Raging Owl, a rear admiral, participated in formulating the plan and personally executed it after assessing the situation.
The 'Raging Owl' set off with three cruisers, twenty-nine small and medium-sized ships of all levels, and a transport fleet.
They disguised themselves as a member of the transport ship and pretended that the star language information was exposed.
While passing through the astral tunnel in River Crossing VII, the enemy took the bait.
Several of the Princess's destroyers thought they had found prey and pounced on them.
Then, they were horrified to see the slender and graceful figure of the 'Raging Owl'.
The princess's ship, filled with dead souls, turned around and ran away.
But when the fish has taken the bait, the angry owl, which is on its first battle, is not willing to give up its prey at all.
If replaced by an ordinary battleship, it might not necessarily be able to catch an enemy who wants to escape.
But the Holy Grail-class battlecruiser with its high-speed characteristics obviously does not belong to the clumsy category.
Rapid pursuit, precise artillery fire, and super-standard artillery are lethal to small and medium-sized ships...
These characteristics combined mean massacre of the enemy.
Five 'Doomsday' light spears and five 'Wrath of the Faithful' light spears, firing in succession, had already beaten the rebel destroyers to flashes of red light, and the energy shields were rapidly overloaded; One hit can instantly destroy the enemy!
After these destroyers that were preparing to hunt were counter-hunted, the rebel fleet that stayed near the orbit of the planet Yuehe VII.3 also learned about what happened at the jump point.
They were quite shocked for a moment.
Before that, they had received information that the Alliance army had set off. But it stands to reason that it will take at least two months for the alliance's main army to reach the main battlefield in the northern part of the Menghe Star Region.
As a result, new ships have arrived now?
It's still a Holy Grail class, a battlecruiser...
In the southward offensive of the Raging Flame Chapter, there are larger main warships. The battle barge of the Raging Flame Chapter was equivalent to a battleship; at the same time, there was also a serious Retribution-class battleship that also participated in the battle.
But none of them are in River Crossing VII.
In this star system, the strongest rebel ships are only two cruisers.
After receiving the news of the arrival of the Furious Owl and the loss of several destroyers, the rebel ships slowly left the planetary orbit of Cross River VII and were about to evacuate the galaxy.
Stay and wait for death.
However, even if he wanted to run away at this time, it was already a little late.
The Furious Owl moved forward at full speed. Instead of going to the Yuehe River VII.3 planet, it went directly to the enemy's northward escape point to block it.
In terms of distance, the Furious Owl was definitely far away, but under full speed pursuit, the Furious Owl caught up with the rebel ships before they could make the jump.
Those two moon-class cruisers were running too slowly.
Of course, the Furious Owl traveling at full speed is equivalent to abandoning its accompanying ships. Those three moon-class cruisers definitely can't keep up with it.
Only a few Mad Shark-class destroyers, desperately trying to run their ships' engines to full capacity, could barely keep up.
The enemy ship was obviously quite surprised.
The Holy Grail level is indeed uncommon in the empire. The battle cruiser itself is no longer common. Wherever there are conditions for a battle cruiser, they are usually willing to bite the bullet and get a serious battleship.
Among the rare battlecruisers, the Dragon Snake class is more common, which is the kind built by Jindi Star. Holy Grail level, that is even rarer among battle patrols.
Everyone knows that battlecruisers are fast, but they didn't expect that the Holy Grail class is the fastest among the fastest.
The prediction was wrong and the rebel fleet that failed to escape was even a little confused for a while.
After leaving the ship intact, the other ships forcefully jump away and escape?
Spread out and run away, who gets arrested and who is unlucky?
Or... fight head-on?
No matter what kind of entanglement they had, when the 'Raging Owl' appeared in front of them, it was already time for them to make a decision.
And their choice seems to be to fight for their lives.
This is also an understandable choice.
No matter what level of warship it is, it is always part of the war and part of the fleet. The Battle Patrol is fast and powerful, but it also has the disadvantage of being squishy. Just like a battleship, it has great frontal combat capabilities but suffers from a lack of flexibility.
The shortcomings of a single ship do not necessarily have to be made up for by oneself. That cost would be very high.
Since it is a fleet operation, you should complete your responsibilities well and leave the tasks you are not good at to other ships that are good at it.
But now, the alliance's battlecruiser has lost touch with its own fleet in order to pursue it rapidly. Only a few destroyers are following it, so it doesn't seem that it can't be fought.
With some losses, if we can kill this alliance battlecruiser, it will be a considerable result!
Two Moon-class cruisers took the lead, and a total of more than thirty ships launched a siege on the Furious Owl.
The Raging Owl turned sideways and did not confront the enemy ship group. Instead, it moved sideways and maintained a certain distance.
The 'Heavenly Punishment' light spear fired first and directly killed an enemy frigate.
Immediately afterwards, 12 L-class heavy artillery and 24 M-class artillery began to fire one after another.
The firepower of one of its ships is almost equivalent to the enemy's entire fleet!
The enemy's two Moon-class cruisers only have six L-class cannons in total.
Of course, this level of firepower can actually pose a threat to the Raging Owl.
After all, battle cruisers have thin skin and are not much more durable than normal cruisers.
However, the ultra-high speed and flexibility will make the enemy ships lose a lot of firepower.
On the contrary, it is almost difficult for the Moon-class cruiser to actively avoid the attack of the Raging Owl.
Of course, the combat distance between the two sides is actually quite far, and their respective hit rates will actually suffer losses.
This naval battle lasted for about an hour.
The sixth rebel ship destroyed by the Angry Owl was one of the enemy's two Lunar-class cruisers. The void shield of the other ship was actually already turning red, as it was punished by a shot from the front.
By this point, the enemy fleet was completely frightened.
They began to retreat.
Don't dare to forcefully evacuate from the transition point. If you do that, you will be a living target just before the void shield and energy shield are cleared, and you don't know how much you will be bombarded before completing the transition.
They could only split up and escape in more than twenty directions, left, right, up and down.
No matter how fast the angry owl is, it can only pursue in one direction.
Of course, pick the largest ship and chase it.
First, it chased and killed the remaining Moon-class cruiser, and then turned the ship's bow in another direction. With its excellent speed and flexibility, it captured three more ships before the enemy disappeared. .
Two of them were destroyed by the Raging Owl. There was only one frigate left and chose to surrender.
Turn off the energy shield, turn off all weapon systems, and let the Raging Owl's naval guns aim at it.
Marines boarded the ship and took over the ship.
……
In the naval battle across the river VII, the Alliance won a complete victory.
This was also the first battle for the Raging Owl, and the first battle for the Holy Grail-class battlecruiser built by the Alliance.
Although the intensity of the battle is not high, and they are all fighting 'children', it also shows the characteristics of the battlecruiser: the king of abusers.
If you change to a battleship or a battle carrier, you won't be able to achieve this effect. I'm afraid they'll all be gone before you can catch up.
There were more than twenty enemy ships that disappeared in the vast airspace of the star system. Even the astrology tower on the ship, which was constantly searching for signals, could only occasionally capture the information, and it would soon disappear again.
If you follow this information and hunt, you should be able to gain something.
But playing hide-and-seek like this is bound to take a long time.
The angry owl doesn't have this skill.
The three moon-class ships that could not keep up with it went directly to the planetary orbit of Cross River VII.3 and successfully made contact with the ground forces.
Under the guidance of ground forces, more than twenty Alliance ships carried out a three-day orbital strike on the surface.
The ground forces of the Princess Rebels simply cannot withstand this kind of orbital bombardment.
The remaining space stations in orbit will not help them intercept firepower or threaten ships; there are indeed railguns captured and controlled by them after they occupied the surface, but they are only in single digits and have almost no impact.
Alliance troops on the ground also became active after getting rid of air and sky threats. After the orbital bombardment, they quickly carried out the final clearing of the enemy's active forces.
Alliance armies launched counterattacks around the world.
On this planet, the total number of Alliance Army and Entente Army is more than 50 million; the number of Princess Rebels has reached more than 70 million.
Of course, these 70 million rebels will not be wiped out in a short time, but their losses must be serious.
What was even worse for them was that they had to semi-actively abandon their organization because they had to avoid orbital bombing.
After the army is dispersed and organized, the loss of combat effectiveness will be serious.
In just three days, the situation on the ground has been turned upside down.
(End of chapter)