From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 425: Cut off one arm before the exchange of fire

Megan and Bell were stunned when they saw a sudden reply in the communication channel. They both thought that they were tired after a long sailing and therefore saw it wrongly, and the fleet's adaptive electronic warfare module did not sound an alarm.

However, in the communication channel list, each fleet's name was preceded by the company's logo, and the additional 'Atlas Combat Fleet' also had that impressive geometric logo in front of it.

The military-industrial complex is no stranger to this LOGO recently, and some people are even almost stressed.
Megan, who was born in the Federation Navy, immediately realized that the huge joint fleet had come under electronic warfare attack.

He had anticipated this situation before the battle, because the intelligence obtained by the military-industrial complex pointed out that Atlas had strong network information warfare and electronic warfare capabilities.

But he really didn't expect the attack to come so quickly. The fleet didn't even get close to the target asteroid base and was still in the tactical maneuvering phase when it was hacked.

"All fleets, conduct electronic warfare countermeasures immediately! Check all network ports and communication frequency bands! Shipboard control personnel immediately conduct electronic warfare virus detection! Fleet communications switch to the backup D4 encrypted line!"

Megan immediately issued a new order, and the Hood's electronic warfare command unit began to command the electronic warfare modules of all warships in the fleet to start working. This is a mode similar to "beyond command", which can skip some unnecessary steps in an emergency and minimize the waste of time.

As the order was passed down, Fleet Commander Megan also realized that the course of this battle might not be as optimistic as he thought, because the Atlas on the opposite side was obviously an opponent who did not play by the rules.

According to Megan's previous experience in corporate warfare, there are still some differences between fleet decisive battles between companies and battles between regular armies. In theory, before the exchange of fire begins - that is, at this point in time, there should be a final round of negotiations.

After all, more than 90% of the reasons for the initiation of corporate wars are simply commercial competition between the two parties. It is only because the competition becomes increasingly fierce that it gradually transforms from "commercial competition" to "commercial war", and finally becomes a real fight to the death.

To put it bluntly, it’s all about interests.

Therefore, generally at the last minute, both sides will have a so-called "final negotiation" as insurance to minimize the losses caused to both sides after the war.

In most cases, the defending party is at a disadvantage in terms of strength. At this time, as long as the attacking party takes a very tough stance and shows sufficient strength, the "final negotiation" will achieve certain results.

But Atlas doing this now means they are too lazy to even talk.

"They are going to fight us to the death," Megan said.

"I guess so, and they should have guessed it. Even if we negotiate, we won't let them go easily."

Adjutant Bell nodded and added:

"After all, the boss and his men are determined to completely crush Atlas this time."

While the two were talking, the Combined Fleet also began electronic jamming countermeasures, and the onboard control personalities of each ship also cleared the virus that was secretly implanted into the core system - at least that's what it seemed for now.

Atlas's first round of electronic warfare attack was more of an exploratory move, so it was just a light attack and did not directly use the "hard stuff".

However, this electronic warfare attack, which did not trigger the adaptive defense unit at all, was enough to arouse the vigilance of Megan and others, and made Megan decisively order to switch to the backup encrypted channel.

The protection of these encrypted channels is indeed better, but the biggest common problem is that the encrypted conversations are not stable after multiple translations. It is okay for ordinary conversations, but it is easy to have problems when transmitting some complex information. For example, at this moment, Megan ordered the pirate fleet in the distance to attack from another direction, first go around to the other side of the asteroid base, and try to "lure the snake out of the hole" while seeing if it can contain part of the Atlas fleet.

However, the equipment on board the pirate fleet's ships was not very advanced and had been in use for too long, so when using the encrypted channels of the joint fleet, they became "incompatible".

The Hood called for a long time, but the pirate fleet could only translate some intermittent text and garbled codes.

At this time, the enthusiastic Atlas appeared again, and a new user appeared in the encrypted channel that had just been switched.

Atlas Battle Fleet: "The flagship is asking you to switch to the G6 track and go around the other side of the asteroid base. The specific path has been highlighted for you. You're welcome~"

Megan, Bell, and everyone on the flagship bridge were dumbfounded.

Not only them, but the pirate fleet on the other side was also dumbfounded after seeing this message. For a moment, they didn't even know whether to follow this "instruction".

"Entire fleet, close all regular communication ports and network ports, physically cut off the communication module and perform a full virus scan in a safe state, and switch the fleet's communications to quantum encryption communication mode!"

Megan, who was somewhat exasperated, slammed the armrest and gave orders loudly.

"Sir, if we directly activate the quantum encryption communication mode, the fleet's communication bandwidth will be greatly reduced, and the communication efficiency will also be greatly affected. Are we going to 'cut off one of our arms' before the battle even starts?"

There was some hesitation in Bell's tone. Although he understood Megan Ford's approach, he still felt that this "one-size-fits-all" approach would likely affect future operations.

"Do you think I want to do this? There is no other way."

Megan said with some disappointment: "If there is any other way, I will not do this, but Atlas's electronic warfare attack capability is really unprecedented. Our previous response experience may be completely useless. If we let the other party attack, I suspect that the entire joint fleet will be solved without bloodshed."

After hearing Megan's words, Bell knew that there was really nothing he could refute, but he still had other questions in his mind.

"How did they do it? Attacks of this scale cannot be solved by technology alone. The computing power and resources required of the attacker are definitely not low."

"This just proves that the intelligence from headquarters is correct." Megan suddenly said,

"Atlas' large data center and server array are most likely located in this asteroid base. This is truly their home turf, and the advantages it brings are enormous."

As they were talking, the communications of the joint fleet of the military-industrial complex also switched to the quantum encryption communication channel. Although the amount of information exchange between ships dropped like a cliff, at least there was a relatively safe and confidential communication environment.

Under such circumstances, the Atlas attack seemed to have come to a temporary halt, and the combined fleet successfully completed a long-distance tactical maneuver, bypassing the asteroid debris belt that served as a "barrier" and entering the predetermined attack launch position.

(End of this chapter)