"Bang, bang bang..."
Accompanied by the dull sound of the electromagnetic projectile leaving the accelerating track and the slight vibration transmitted to the feet, Arak, as the supreme commander of the Everlasting Fleet, stood beside the battlefield projection in the command room and frowned slightly. It was obvious that the battle situation was not ideal.
When the detector discovered and tracked the enemy fleet, he learned that reinforcements were on the way and ordered the fleet to speed up and catch up without any hesitation. The other party also did the same thing after realizing that their own fleet was launching a surprise attack from their side. The behavior he expected was to speed up and run away.
However, the jump point to the Zorn system will not move, and it is common sense among the navies of major civilizations and empires in the galaxy not to engage the enemy while the hyperspace engine is warming up.
No commander with a formal naval education would risk being torn apart by a disturbed hyperspace slipstream by force-jumping to the next system unless absolutely necessary.
The strength of the People's Alliance fleet was not weaker than that of our own fleet, and even vaguely surpassed it. Therefore, after realizing that the two armies would collide sooner or later near the jumping point, the commander of the other side decisively chose to turn around and use the capital ship as the core of the fleet. They also began to adjust their positions for the upcoming artillery battle, ensuring that their muzzles were always aimed at the enemy and not friendly forces.
At this point, even if Arak didn't really want to have a large-scale head-on conflict with the People's Alliance Fleet right now, facing the emerald-green laser beam coming from millions of kilometers away, he knew that this battle was inevitable.
Due to the stardust particles and gas masses rich in alien gas in the nebula, the power of laser weapons when fired at long distances is weakened to an almost invisible level.
Therefore, it didn't take long for the two sides to reach a consensus. After shooting each other with ultraviolet lasers and X-rays for a while, they began to quickly close the distance and planned to use other types of ship-based weapons to decide the outcome. .
The time required to cross millions of kilometers was only a blink of an eye with the help of sublight speed propellers. In just a few minutes, the distance between the empire and the federal fleet was less than 10,000 kilometers.
Before the main ship's gun group let out a shocking roar, Arak divided and deployed the small and medium-sized warships in the Never-ending Fleet except the main ship according to the tactics he learned in the Imperial Academy and the situation.
Except for a small number of cruisers that needed to stay in the large fleet to assist the main ships in bombarding and acting as screen guards, he dispatched almost all the lightning strike ships in the fleet, and split up the troops under the cover of a small number of conventional destroyers and frigates. Attacks were launched against the People's Alliance Fleet from all directions.
Arak did not have high expectations for these low-cost old thunder strike ships. In addition to sharing the opponent's firepower and seducing the light warships in the People's Alliance Fleet, his only expectation for the thunder strike ships was that they could be destroyed after being destroyed. Previously, all the fusion missiles and space torpedoes in the ammunition depot were destroyed.
In his opinion, as long as they can do this, the naval soldiers on the Thunder Strike Ship will be worthy of the military expenditures allocated to the Outer Rim Navy by the Empire over the years.
As for whether these missiles and torpedoes can complete their mission and cause considerable damage to enemy ships, Arak is not optimistic. Because even his Everlasting Fleet has professional point defense warships specially equipped for capital ship groups. The dozens or even hundreds of laser point defense cannons mounted on them can be regarded as the wall of sighs for any missile weapon.
Before all the point defense ships of our own and the enemy are destroyed, I am afraid that even if thousands of missiles and torpedoes are fired, they will not be able to reach any capital ship in the fleets of both sides.
In this era when the doctrine of big ships and big guns prevails, battles between fleets will ultimately be decided by the cannons of the capital ships.
After Gu Jian started a fierce fight with the small warship at the head of the fleet, the battleships on both sides, which were still getting closer and closer to each other, entered full fire mode, firing hundreds of large-caliber electromagnetic projectiles and countless dazzling beams. The laser beam began to bombard back and forth between battleships.
The ferocious firepower of a battleship entering a state of bombardment cannot be compared with conventional warships. Even a destroyer with a length of 400 meters will be instantly torn into pieces when it reaches the densest barrage, leaving no chance to struggle. .
As the battleship clusters on both sides gradually approached, the hit rate of electromagnetic weapons also began to increase. From the beginning, dozens or hundreds of projectiles could only hit one shot, to now, ten rounds can hit one shot, and the number continues to increase. The hit rate is also putting increasing pressure on the battleship shield.
Just when Arak's face was uncertain and he was undecided about whether to temporarily evacuate, the Imperial battleship "Alamutson", which had recently used a large-caliber electromagnetic coil gun to destroy a People's Alliance destroyer, had a blue exterior. The colored deflection shield suddenly began to flicker, and it felt like it would be overloaded and disappear in the next second.
"General Arak! This is the 'Alamutson'! Our reactor has a serious malfunction and must be repaired immediately, otherwise the energy output will not be enough to support us to turn on the shield and weapon system at the same time! We request to temporarily withdraw from the battlefield! "
Sure enough, it didn't take long for Arak, who was sitting in the command room of the flagship battleship "Alangro", to receive a communication from the captain of another battleship in the fleet. Through the other party's excited tone and the reactor data sent, Arak He knew that the captain of the battleship had not deceived him, but that there was indeed a big problem with the reactor responsible for powering the entire ship.
Moreover, the backup reactor located at the rear of the battleship could not be activated due to disrepair and insufficient spare parts, putting the nearly two-kilometer-long battleship into an embarrassing situation of insufficient energy.
Arak, who felt his thoughts were a little confused, quickly made a judgment through the battlefield projection after receiving the request - the real main force of the Neverland Fleet was only his ship and the other three battleships of the same level. He had been in contact with people since the war started. The fleet's four battlecruisers were in a one-on-one situation.
If the "Alamutson" was allowed to withdraw from the position at this time to avoid the edge, he could not guarantee that the other party's commander would take the opportunity to attack his own ship or the former fleet flagship "Arantala" which was in extremely poor condition. "Tower" concentrated its firepower. By then, not only would the "Alamutson" be unable to return to its position in time, but even his commander would be in danger.
Arak, who thought he had clarified his thoughts, suddenly thought of the majestic face of Emperor Sazha XXII. After touching the General Medal on his chest, which represented the honor of the Fleet Commander, he gritted his teeth and issued an order. An order that he regretted deeply,
"The request is rejected! The 'Alamutson' must not withdraw from the battlefield at this time! The reactor cannot power the shield and naval guns at the same time? Then turn off the shield! A qualified Imperial battleship only needs naval guns and armor. enough!"
"Here, I..." "Execute the order!"
Before the disgraced battleship captain in the projection could struggle for a moment, Arak unilaterally hung up the communication with the battleship "Alamutson", and then stared at the battlefield image as the outside of the battleship slowly dimmed until After the deflection shield disappeared without a trace, he slowly let out a breath, thinking that he had stabilized the battle situation.
But what he didn't know was that after the shield of the battleship "Arammutson" was closed, Sir James, the commander of the AFC Kraken fleet, immediately issued an ecstatic order to activate the final operation of the Roger Jr.-class battlecruiser. Strong weapons instructions.
After the instructions were conveyed to the command level and fire control room of each battlecruiser, several looming holes soon appeared on the sides of the four battlecruisers facing the Qian Empire fleet. In these holes, it seemed that There is also a bit of strange and unsettling green.
The broadsides that these capital ships can only equip are the crystallization of the People's Alliance military industry. They are powerful weapons with unimaginable power against physical targets such as armor and ship structures - proton launchers.
