From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 530 The Admiral’s Decision

The garrison fleet on guard at the 'jump departure point' had already had multiple confirmation communications with the federal fleet in the previous few days.

This confirmation communication, which exceeded the normal confirmation frequency, also made Major General Kimmel, commander of the galaxy garrison fleet, very unhappy.

In his opinion, the commanders of the federal fleet hiding in the distance were not so much "veterans" who had fought all the way since the war began, but rather a group of guys who were frightened by the war.

The space of the Rubion galaxy, except for a few large colonies and industrial satellite cities, is currently basically controlled by the galaxy garrison fleet. Theoretically, there are no hidden dangers.

Moreover, the opponents were two fully staffed main fleets of the Federal Navy, not a tourist group carrying a bunch of rich old men and women. If there were any problems, the thousands of heavy particle cannons in the two fleets would not be used for fireworks.

Although Kimmel complained to the autonomous government many times that the federal fleet was doing useless work, dragging the main force of the garrison fleet here not only made the rebellious warships more and more daring, but also failed to form an effective deterrent to the Atlas fleet.

However, the autonomous government still repeatedly emphasized that the garrison fleet must act in accordance with the instructions of the federal fleet, and warned Major General Kimmel not to act on his own.

Because of the attack on Secretary of State Davis on Rubion V, it has not yet been determined who did it, and the backgrounds and identities of the soldiers killed in the anti-aircraft vehicle are completely unknown.

It's even clean to the point of being abnormal.

Therefore, the Lubian Autonomous Government is still digging for clues, and even took the initiative to invite the Federal Central Intelligence Agency to participate in the investigation in order to prove its innocence.

And this is just one of the "combination punches" thrown by Alex, the administrator of the Rubion galaxy, to prove his innocence.

After the incident, he immediately contacted the federal government to explain. After that, he lowered his stance significantly, which was unusual, for fear that if something went wrong, the federal government would call him directly.

So in response to Major General Kimmel's complaint, he directly cursed back in the precious encrypted real-time communication channel.

The Federation has never dispelled its suspicion of the autonomous government. You don't do what they ask you to do, but instead let the other side's fleet directly enter the battlefield. It will be funny if the federal government thinks that the garrison fleet is trying to "lure you into a trap".
-
"How long is it until the next agreed time to confirm the communication?"

"One hour and twenty-eight minutes, General!"

After hearing the answer from the captain of the flagship, Fleet Commander Kimmel first felt a little relieved because the time was shortened, and then felt secretly happy because of the title of "General".

Especially since this title came from his former 'old rival' - another officer of the same period who was competing with him for the position of commander of the Rubion Galaxy garrison fleet.

Both of them were colonels and captains of battleships in the garrison fleet at the time, and were among the two candidates finally confirmed by the autonomous government.

However, since Kimmel was good at dealing with people and was close to some of the main officials in the autonomous government, including Alex, the responsibility of the fleet commander finally fell on him.
"'General'. What a wonderful title~"

Kimmel smiled secretly in his heart, and he didn't think there was anything wrong with his method.

To be fair, there is no gap in business capabilities between him and his competitors, and it makes no difference to the garrison fleet who takes the position.

He believed that handling interpersonal relationships within the autonomous government was an ability that a fleet commander should possess. Otherwise, why would so much funding be allocated to the fleet every year?
After a brief moment of secret joy, Kimmel returned to his normal state. After being nervous for two and a half hours and still not finding any trace of the Atlas Group fleet, the commander of the garrison fleet slowly let go of his worries.

He even began to doubt whether the other party had already jumped out of the galaxy. After all, the scale of the Atlas Group fleet that came to the Rubion galaxy was so small that facing two federal main fleets and a galaxy garrison fleet was tantamount to hitting a rock with an egg.

Moreover, he believed that with the Atlas Group's intelligence acquisition capabilities that could monitor the entire world as "rumors said", it must have received news of the upcoming arrival of the federal fleet.

Therefore, it is very likely that the other party will decide to withdraw the fleet at the last minute, otherwise it will not be so easy to leave once the federal fleet arrives.

Thinking of this, the commander made a decision in his heart:
"Notify the various clearing squadrons in the orbit of Rubion V to conduct another reconnaissance of the area between the Earth and the Moon and the lunar orbit. Do not..."

But before he could finish his order, he heard a warning from the tactical information coordinator.

"Report! Long-wave radar detected a large number of unidentified units in the G9 area! The distance is too far to be identified with the feature library for the time being, but the shipboard control personality determines that it is suspected to be a large fleet!"

After hearing this, the captain next to Kimmel immediately turned to look at him. Although he was a little unhappy about losing to Kimmel in the competition, the captain still maintained 100% cooperation in the battle.

"Did the optical and infrared/ultraviolet surveillance images reveal anything?"

"Sorry General! This area is facing the star 'Great Rubion'. Optical and infrared/ultraviolet surveillance units are temporarily unable to identify it!"

Hearing this, Kimmel immediately looked at the holographic projection platform in the center of the bridge. On the three-dimensional model above, a yellow mark representing "unknown unit" had been marked in the G9 area.

The garrison fleet, the yellow mark and the Big Rubion star are also in a straight line at this time, so the cosmic background captured by the optical and infrared sensors is not cold and black, but the 'Big Rubion' that looks like a large searchlight.

In addition, under the influence of the light radiation emitted by the stars, the surface of these "unknown units" will also heat up rapidly, which also makes the identification effect extremely limited.

"A large fleet. Could it be that Atlas' main fleet has arrived ahead of time?" The captain of the flagship suddenly asked.

Faced with this question, Kimmel couldn't give an accurate answer now, so he could only shake his head helplessly:
"I cannot give a definite answer without definitive evidence, but from an analytical point of view, it is indeed possible."

Kimmel paused, as if thinking about a countermeasure for a few seconds, and then he directly gave the order from the seat of the Fleet Commander:

"Synchronize the information. At the same time, the second escort squadron will leave the fleet formation, approach the G9 area and be on alert! The entire fleet will adjust its formation to a box formation. The heading remains unchanged, and the axis of the ships will be adjusted 30 degrees toward the target area."

Under Kimmel's command, the main force of the garrison fleet, which had been cruising along a fixed route, came back to life and adjusted its formation like a school of sardines in the sea.

Almost at the same time as the entire garrison fleet completed its axial adjustment, the tactical information coordinator also reported a new message:
"The Fourth Cleanup Squadron reported that they found a communications relay satellite disguised as wreckage in the high orbit of Rubion V and intercepted a communication from the Atlas Fleet!"

Kimmel's eyes lit up when he heard the news: "Have you completed the decryption?"

"Report to the General, the Fourth Sweeping Squadron has used the ship-borne control personality 'parallel' decryption method to violently crack part of the information!"

"read."

"Flagship Assault. Star Backlight Attack Feint Direction Plan C"

The tactical information coordinator reported a string of intermittent key words. Although the words later in the report had become completely incomprehensible, the key words decrypted earlier still made Kimmel and the captain of the flagship beside him look more and more serious.

"Are you going to attack us after all?" asked the captain of the flagship.

"The premise is that the disguised satellite discovered by the squadron is real, and the intercepted communication is also real." Kimmel squeezed out the word "chuan" between his eyebrows, and at the same time, he always felt that something was wrong:
"Don't you think that the process of intercepting and decrypting this communication was a little too smooth? Moreover, such an important combat deployment was discovered by us so easily?"

The captain of the flagship also nodded: "It is indeed too easy, and it happened to happen at this time. Is it really such a coincidence?"

Kimmel's 'defeater' also realized that something was wrong, but before he could continue thinking, he heard Kimmel suddenly say:
"Palau, what did we do after discovering the unidentified target just now?"

"You sent a escort detachment to conduct reconnaissance, and at the same time ordered the fleet to adjust its formation and adjust the axis of the warships without changing the course, etc!"

The captain of the flagship named Palau suddenly realized something. He looked sharply at the three-dimensional model on the holographic projection platform and immediately asked the shipboard control personality to substitute some parameters for calculation.

Soon, a red virtual route began to extend from the direction of Rubion V, and with a barely noticeable arc, it hit the blue battleship logo representing the garrison fleet.

Judging from the last known position of the Atlas fleet, assuming that the other party had been maneuvering in this direction after entering the covert operation state, it was possible to bypass the "predetermined jump exit point" during the period after losing its trace.

Looking at the track line calculated by the shipboard control personality on the holographic projection platform, the flagship captain looked at Kimmel again:
"General, if this intercepted communication is used to confuse us, then it is very likely that the direction of Grand Rubion is the feint direction to attract our attention, and the direction of the fleet just now is the enemy's real main attack direction!"

After hearing Palau's words, Kimmel did not immediately confirm it, but gave a new order:

"Communications staff, synchronize the calculated enemy's predicted track to the left-wing squadron, have them realign the battleship's axis, and then release tactical probes to form a detection matrix to conduct reconnaissance on the direction of the track!"

"Yes, General!
Attention Second Squadron, this is the flagship Balkanist."

The communications staff officer in charge of fleet communications immediately synchronized the relevant information, and then conveyed the instructions from the fleet commander to the Second Squadron on the left wing in the directional communication channel.

Kimmel also played on the huge screen on the side of the bridge command level the images synthesized by the optical, infrared sensors and synthetic aperture radar detection units on the left side of the flagship.

After zooming in several times, everyone on the bridge soon saw that the ships of the Second Squadron were slowly turning in the designated direction as if they were circling in place, and then the distance between the ships was widened again.

Soon after, "small green triangles" were released from inside the battleships and formed matrices near their respective battleships.

Although everyone could only see the symbols automatically marked by the system, they also knew that this was the Second Fleet deploying a fleet-level detection matrix.

This large matrix, composed of all the battleship detection units of the squadron and the released combat probes, shines towards the "pitch-dark" front like a quickly assembled flashlight.

The detection accuracy of this fleet-level detection matrix cannot be said to be very high, but the extremely high detection distance and large detection area still make it a good helper for independent fleets when guarding against unknown airspace.

Because this kind of long-distance alert is more for allowing the fleet to detect targets at a long distance and be prepared to deal with emergencies, rather than to lock on the specific location of the target.

Moreover, as the distance gets closer, other more targeted sensors and detection units equipped on the warships will enter their "comfort zone" and then gradually come in handy.

Soon, the Second Squadron sent back news that made Kimmel and Palau somewhat excited.

"The Second Squadron reports that a large number of unidentified units suspected to be a fleet have been detected in the V6 area, and judging from the echo characteristics, it seems to be a fleet pointing axially towards us!"

At the same time as the tactical information coordinator reported, the radar imaging images sent back by the Second Fleet's detection matrix also appeared synchronously on a screen on the bridge.

Those white patterns that are highly similar to the features of the projection surfaces directly in front of or behind the warship are densely packed all over the screen.

"really."

Kimmel couldn't help but clench his fists. If he hadn't noticed the problem, he might have fallen into the opponent's trap and exposed the entire fleet's flank to the enemy's artillery.

He didn't even dare to think about what kind of disaster his fleet would suffer.
Palau beside him also breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that Kimmel had noticed something was wrong in advance, and continued to speak:
"General, this size is much larger than the Atlas fleet we detected before. Could it be that their support fleet has arrived ahead of time?"

"I don't know. After all, we haven't detected any movement of the enemy's support fleet entering the battlefield, but we can't rule out the possibility that the enemy has indeed entered the battlefield secretly."

Kimmel answered Palau's question, but in fact he began to worry about new questions.

What if that intercepted communication was real?
What if Atlas's battle fleet really attacks from the direction of Grand Luion?
What if the opponent's commander is a master of psychological warfare, and has "predicted" his "prediction" in advance, and deliberately set this trap for him to fall into?
When these questions came to his mind, Kimmel immediately became a little hesitant.

He found himself answering a multiple-choice question that affected the life and death of the fleet.

If I make the right choice, then the pre-war game of this battle will most likely be written into future textbooks, and I will also go down in history.

If you make the wrong choice.
They will still be remembered in history, but they will just become the background of the Atlas fleet.

Kimmel didn't realize that he was putting pressure on himself at this time. He just felt that his choice and the next order would become extremely important.

At this moment, the newly promoted major general finally felt the legendary "Admiral's decision" - what kind of experience is this critical moment that makes all naval commanders "haunted".

On the bridge of the Balkan, the flagship of the Rubion Galaxy Garrison Fleet, everyone realized that this was a critical moment that could determine everyone's future.

They all turned their eyes to Kimmel, who was at the most conspicuous part of the bridge. The entire bridge suddenly became quiet, with only the sounds of some operating instruments.

This tense atmosphere that froze the air lasted for an unknown amount of time. Just as some crew members had already unconsciously held their breath under the influence of this atmosphere,
Fleet Commander Kimmel finally made his decision.

"The Second Destroyer and Escort Squadron maintains vigilance over the G9 area and provides early warning of unknown units in the G9 area on the flank. The other fleets adjust their axes and keep pace with the Second Squadron."

Having said that, Jin Mei paused for a moment, and then said word by word:

"General Quarters"

When this short phrase, which was engraved in the bones of all navy officers, appeared, the bridge of the Balkanist was like a group of high-energy explosives thrown into a calm lake, and it exploded immediately after a moment.

Everyone immediately entered another state, focusing their attention completely on the workbench in front of them. The sound coming from the ship-wide broadcast of all the warships in the garrison fleet instantly made everyone on the ship tense.

"Everyone, stand by. Everyone, get to your combat positions. We are about to come into contact with a target that is suspected to be an enemy fleet."

(End of this chapter)