From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 379 Calculation
Under the command of Lieutenant General Guterres, the 13th Federation Fleet began to gradually disperse from the dense assault formation and switch to the arc-shaped artillery formation.

The battleships and heavy cruisers, which were the absolute main force in the bombardment, also opened up the heat sinks that were originally stored on both sides of the rear half of the battleships.

Compared to the gorgeous "Angel Wings" of the Star Dragon Empire Royal Navy, the radiator panels of the Federation Navy ships appear to be relatively plain, at least in appearance they do not have the same "gorgeous" feeling as the other.

In this process, the relative speed of the entire fleet and the Atlas fleet will be affected and even reduced.

However, in Guterres' view, his fleet does not lack this little time for pursuit.

After all, Atlas' fleet is now pinned down in the planet's orbit, which is basically equivalent to meat on a chopping board. If they want to leave here and try to make a jump, the first thing they have to do is change orbit to a higher orbit.

But if they do so, the fleet will be within the attack range of the Federation fleet for a considerable period of time.
According to the information on the enemy and our fleets obtained by Guterres, if the Atlas fleet dares to do so, it will definitely suffer heavy losses under the salvo of the federal army.
At this moment, the commander of the opposing fleet has obviously realized this, so he has been leading the Thirteenth Fleet of the Federation in circles in orbit, obviously trying to delay time.

Now that it has come to this point, they probably realized that they can’t drag it out any longer, so they are ready to throw in the towel and fight to the bitter end.

Guterres believed that he had completely grasped the mentality and thinking of the other fleet commander, which gave him a sense of confidence that "everything was under control".

Although there had been emergencies in previous battles, and even a flotilla of orbital attack ships was watched helplessly as they were being destroyed by a single aircraft despite being escorted by cruisers.

But he believed that there couldn't be many such incredible beings in Atlas' fleet, otherwise they wouldn't be being chased like they are now.

In addition, the 'God of Death' has now penetrated the atmosphere and headed for the surface, so the next headache will be for the ground forces. He and his naval fleet only need to enjoy the pleasure of completely crushing the enemy.

"Report! Anti-ship missiles and torpedoes launched by the enemy have entered the fleet's air defense circle!"

On the bridge, the voice of the tactical information coordinator interrupted Guterres' thoughts. Looking at the torpedoes coming head-on and the anti-ship missiles coming from other directions with the help of attitude control engines, the Vice Admiral of the Federal Navy shook his head with disdain.

"I thought he had some new tricks to fight torpedoes, but he can use them. Destroyer formation, start air defense operations!"

The destroyers and frigates of the Thirteenth Fleet were distributed to the outer circle of the fleet after the fleet deployed into an arc-shaped artillery formation.

After receiving the command from the flagship, they immediately "swimmed" like a school of fish, and while continuing to disperse, they began air defense operations according to their assigned air defense blocks.

Compared with air defense operations in the atmosphere, air defense operations in space are much simpler in terms of the entire process and complexity.

The clean cosmic background and the extremely long engagement distance make it possible for weapons such as missiles and torpedoes, as well as independent combat units such as HCP, to be discovered from a long distance and attacked by directed energy weapons.

Just like now, the periphery of the 13th Fleet is constantly flashing with thin laser beams and charged particle beams, as if it is shrouded in a wide range of light rain.

In the front hemisphere of the fleet's course, fireballs continued to explode, announcing the failure of the anti-ship missiles and torpedoes to penetrate.

When directed energy weapons become extremely popular, the probability of traditional anti-ship missiles and torpedoes breaking through the front of the fleet's air defense network has approached zero.

Therefore, in many cases, this type of weapon is used more for "drawing prizes" after both sides enter the shooting stage.

Anti-ship missiles equipped with rocket engines that can maintain continuous acceleration are generally used to find weak points in the air defense network from other directions for breakthroughs.

Weapons such as torpedoes, which were originally used in the ocean, have retained certain characteristics of their ancestors after entering the era of space warfare.

Large amount of explosive - the traditional warhead is replaced by a plasma warhead. If attacking from the side or stern of a ship, except for battleships, it can basically be paralyzed or even sunk with one shot. Especially when the plasma warhead hits the plasma propulsion array at the stern of the ship, it can cause devastating damage to some small boats.

Relatively good concealment - unlike anti-ship missiles that run on rocket engines and sprint all the way, fearing that others don't know their position, the thrusters of plasma torpedoes are only activated in the acceleration phase just after launch and the sprint phase of the final attack. At other times, they sail silently according to the preset trajectory, and only maintain their track through attitude nozzles powered by compressed gas.

In Guterres' view, the actions of the Atlas fleet on the opposite side were a helpless move.

Their fleet commander was obviously very aware of the difference in strength between the two sides and knew that there was no hope of winning after entering into a shootout.

That's why they use anti-ship missiles and torpedoes, weapons that can be fired from a long distance and don't need to be controlled, in the hope of stealing some distracted warships like "lottery" before they are chased into the range of the bombardment. If they are fighting against private armed forces or pirate fleets, this approach may really work wonders.

But when facing the Federal Navy's fleet, it will not do much except wasting ammunition and letting the other side know that you lack the courage to engage in a head-on battle.

No matter how weak the Federal Navy is, it is still far superior to civilian armed forces in terms of combat discipline, and the air defense combat procedures written in the combat regulations will not be ignored for the sake of convenience.

"It's really a private armed force. After dealing with other civilian armed fleets many times, do you really think that the navy is as amateur as those small fry?"

The fleet operations officer looked at the air defense operations being carried out outside the fleet and made a "sharp comment" in a disdainful tone.

However, he did not wait for the response he expected from fleet commander Guterres.

The fleet operations officer glanced at Guterres calmly, only to see a look of doubt and solemnity on the face of the vice admiral hidden behind the mask of his space suit.

“Something’s wrong”

"Mr. Lieutenant General, is there any problem?"

"The number of torpedoes is a bit too small. Look at the data sent back by the escort formation currently performing air defense operations. The enemy is estimated to have fired less than 412 torpedoes. On average, each ship fired two torpedoes?"

Guterres pointed to the group of intercepted torpedoes marked on the three-dimensional schematic diagram, and the wrinkles between his brows deepened.

"Maybe they're saving ammunition? Or maybe they don't have enough in stock?"

The fleet operations officer spoke with some uncertainty. Although the current situation was indeed a bit abnormal, in his opinion it should not be a big problem.

"Do you think that a fleet that has been forced into a desperate situation will save ammunition instead of firing at full force at the last moment? Or do you think that this company that can build such a large fleet and develop advanced weapons on its own cannot afford to equip it with plasma torpedoes?"

"This"

The fleet operations staff felt a little panicked after hearing Guterres' words in a slightly didactic tone.

Unfortunately, his panic was not because the actions of the opposing fleet were inexplicable, but because he was worried that his immediate superior would give him a bad review in his annual performance evaluation.
More than 20 minutes passed like this. When the Atlas fleet was slowly being chased to the bombardment distance and Guterres' doubts were growing, the tactical information coordinator reported a piece of news that made him feel nervous.

“天球北极84度、黄道21度、黄道面夹角18度方向，防空警戒圈G7区域，发现不明单位！数量63！直线距离3200公里！”

"what?!"

If it weren't for the restraints on the captain's seat, Guterres might have bounced directly onto the ceiling of the bridge in excitement.

He looked at the unknown units that suddenly appeared on the three-dimensional schematic diagram with disbelief in his eyes.

A fleet that was carrying out air defense operations was unexpectedly approached to the rear hemisphere by more than 60 unknown units, and the straight-line distance was only 3200 kilometers.

"What's going on? Is the air surveillance just for nothing?!"

"Report to the general, the commander of the outer escort formation has sent a message. This is a group of small units and they seem to be in a covert operation mode, so they were forced to this position. But he is now commanding the air defense operation."

The tactical information coordinator was interrupted by a series of alarms from the shipboard control personality before he could finish his words.

The next moment, huge fireballs caused by the explosions of more than a dozen ships appeared in the outer escort formation.

"General, the air defense command ship was sunk."

(End of this chapter)