From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 539 We must sink it even if we have to hit it!

Rear Admiral Kimmel, who was sitting in the captain's seat with a serious expression, fell silent after learning that only one message was sent out urgently.

He didn't know how the 3th and th Fleets of the Federal Navy would react after receiving this urgent message. Even if they decided to come to support, it would take at least three days for the two fleets to arrive.

But Major General Kimmel knew that it was uncertain whether the garrison fleet could last for three hours under the current circumstances, let alone three days.

More than 80% of the crew members in the reorganized garrison fleet are new, which makes the fleet look complete, but its combat proficiency is not very high.

Especially when being attacked first, the fleet's on-the-spot reaction and combat resilience were quite poor.

Kimmel could see clearly from his captain's seat that after his flank was attacked and he ordered an emergency turn, the response speed and command completion time of each ship in the fleet varied greatly.

As the Atlas fleet charged towards this side at high speed, and it seemed that they wanted to fight bloody battles at close range, the fighting will and morale of the garrison fleet began to be affected.

In a conventional combat environment, this newly formed fleet can deploy its troops and engage in an artillery battle with the enemy at a distance of 10,000 to 20,000 kilometers. However, if it is forced into a hand-to-hand combat within a few thousand or even hundreds of kilometers, its overall combat effectiveness will drop sharply.

In other words, the current human naval forces do not actually like to engage in close-range combat, because this will greatly reduce the advantages of the advantaged side in terms of numbers, firepower, and power.

The battle, which could have been ended with minimal cost through long-range artillery bombardment, became an uncertain outcome after it turned into close-range hand-to-hand combat.

What's more, after being hit twice by the Atlas fleet's salvos, the morale of the Rubion galaxy garrison fleet, which had already suffered heavy casualties from the sneak attack, was declining.

After discovering that the fleet's air defense network was torn open by the enemy after a short period of time, and then seeing the "mud truck" rushing at high speed in the distance, if they did not know what the military's duty was and were not bound by military law, some captains of the warships might have ordered a retreat.——
"General, maybe we should consider withdrawing from the battle and gaining some distance."

The fleet operations staff, who was also the current duty officer, quickly confirmed the current status of the fleet and the enemy and our combat situation, and then made his tactical suggestions to Kimmel in accordance with his duties.

"Although we still have an advantage in terms of fleet numbers, the fleet's efficiency in executing tactics in the chaos has wiped out this advantage. So I suggest that the fleet engage the Atlas fleet at maximum speed. After the two sides cross, continue to move to a safe distance and then reorganize the battle!"

"Are we just going to withdraw from the battle in disgrace without even fighting back?" Major General Kimmel said unwillingly.

In his opinion, it was a great shame that the fully-strength fleet he led was beaten so badly in the previous rounds of attacks by a fleet with far fewer ships, especially battleships.

If he considered withdrawing from the battle without fighting back now, Kimmel felt that it would be a permanent stain on his command career.

"If we get into a tangle, our losses will be even greater. It's better to have a life than a fire, General."

The fleet operations officer paused, then continued:

“And after we’ve distanced ourselves from the enemy’s electronic warfare interference range, we can continue to ask for help from the Federation Fleet and tell them the actual situation of the Atlas Fleet.

Only if we get in touch with the Federation Fleet can we prove that we are worthy of support. Otherwise, unless the commanders of the two fleets are rare "good guys" in a century, the other side will definitely not choose to come to support us after receiving the only message we just sent."

Kimmel actually agreed with the fleet operations staff's suggestion, and he knew very well that compared with his own life, that little "stain" in his command career was nothing.

So he was actually just waiting for others to give him a reason to order his troops to withdraw from the battle.

Since the fleet operations staff had already proposed it, and the bridge officers including the captain of the flagship beside him had also cast hopeful glances at him, Kimmel felt that he had no reason to reject the proposal.

If he still had a fleet in his hands, he would still have a say no matter what the situation would be like later. But if all his fleets were destroyed in this battle, then he would have nothing.
It can be said that Major General Kimmel's "warlord mentality" exists not only in the garrison forces of various galaxies, but also in the regular army of the Federation. It can be regarded as the "glorious tradition" of the Federation Army.

The garrison fleet commander did not think for too long. He quickly agreed to the fleet operations staff's plan and ordered:

"All fleets, shrink your formation around the flagship, and advance at top speed!"

Since this area of ​​the universe is currently subject to wide-area electronic interference from the Infinity, the garrison fleet's conventional means of communication have basically all failed. At this time, the ships are relying on blue-green laser information and light signals to exchange information and convey commands.

If the response and tactical command execution efficiency of the Rubion galaxy's garrison fleet were very low after being attacked by the Atlas fleet, then the efficiency immediately increased after receiving the news equivalent to "the whole army broke through".

All the warships that could still move, after towing the damaged warships that were still worth repairing, lit up their main propulsion arrays and moved towards the position of the "Balkanner" and formed a long and thin spindle formation again.

Naturally, such an action was immediately captured by Randall and his team, and the command core on the "Infinity" came to the conclusion almost instantly - these bastards were trying to escape.

"Stop them, don't let any of them escape!"

Randall ordered without hesitation:
"The entire fleet begins to slow down to extend the fire window before the two fleets intersect. HCP and heavy armored combat boat units will break into the enemy fleet and do their best to create chaos!
"Infinity" prepares to fire all its heavy particle cannons at once, targeting the enemy flagship "Balkan"!"

"Roger that. Infinity, prepare all heavy particle cannons to fire!"

As the order was given, the gunnery officer immediately began directing the 40 heavy particle cannons at the bow of the Infinity to prepare for a salvo fire.

After the warships of the garrison fleet detected the strong electric field reaction in the direction of the Infinity, they finally remembered that in addition to the devastating golden purification beam, the other weapons of Atlas' super flagship were also threatening.

Kimmel knew very well that the Infinity's move was directed towards him, so he immediately ordered the warships around the Balkanist to increase the power of the deflection field to the maximum, and then maneuver to the front of the Balkanist to execute the "flagship escort" order.

This order actually meant for the surrounding battleships to act as "meat shields" to protect the safety of the flagship.

Although the captains of these capital ships knew that this mission was to put themselves in danger to protect the flagship, they did not have time to think too much at this point.

Because one thing that can be confirmed at present is that if the flagship is sunk by the enemy, the morale of the garrison fleet may be "emptied" in an instant, and at that time there will be really no way out.
Soon, the first round of heavy particle cannon salvos from the Infinity swept over, and 40 thick blue-white light beams completely tore apart the two battleships on the Spindle Tip of the garrison fleet in the first place.

Under the surging energy, the human race's giant steel warships were like beef strips being torn apart by diners, and were strangely twisted into several shapeless strips.

However, behind these two battleships there is a "shield wall" formed by other warships. The "Balkan Man" is hiding in the center of the formation at the moment. If you want to hit it, you must first clear out the outer meat shields.

But in the opinion of Kimmel and others on the flagship bridge, the time before the two fleets completed the intersection was not enough for the "Infinity" to break through the defense line formed by the capital ships.

Unfortunately, they didn't seem to know that there was a 'gadget' on the 'Infinity' that no other warships were equipped with - the battle module.

This "gadget" developed by Saleh, which uses the energy storage and conversion technology of the Forerunners, has the greatest effect of greatly increasing the firepower and protection level of the "Infinity" in the form of "double" after activation. Of course, the price is that the energy circuits of the main propulsion array and the jump drive will be temporarily cut off, which means that the "Infinity" has only two endings after activating the battle module.

Kill your opponent.

Or be killed by your opponent.

Obviously, Randall and the others wanted the first ending.

So not long after the first round of salvos, the 40 main guns were recharged and fired again, sinking two battleships and damaging four other warships.

This was followed by the third, fourth and fifth rounds of full-gun salvos.
At the same time, other warships in the Atlas fleet that were within the best range also launched an attack on the Rubion galaxy garrison fleet in free-fire mode.

However, in front of the Infinity, these attacks became just embellishments of supporting roles on the stage.

"Wait. What the hell is this?!"

The violent output of the Infinity stunned Major General Kimmel and other officers on the bridge. They had never thought that a warship could fire five full salvos within the time it took a conventional warship to fire two salvos.

And judging from the warnings from the ship-borne control personality, this giant ship was still preparing for the sixth round of salvos.

"This is unscientific!" The fleet operations staff said somewhat irrationally, pointing at the surveillance screen of the infrared sensor.

In infrared imaging, the bow of the Infinity in the center of the Atlas fleet was red to white, as dazzling as a torch in the dark night.

"Five rounds of heavy particle cannon fire from all gun ports. The acceleration track of this ship did not overheat and melt down? Could this acceleration track be Forerunner technology?"

Although the fleet operations staff's words were only spoken out of emotional release, in a sense, he did speak the truth.

Because the Infinity's acceleration track does use the pioneer technology.

This technology is just a material branch project under the pioneer's "energy storage and conversion technology".

This material was originally used for efficient conduction and storage of heat. After hearing Amber's need for sustained firepower on the Infinity, Saleh directly used this material on the acceleration track of the heavy particle cannon.

This is why the acceleration track of the heavy particle cannon of the Infinity is somewhat different from that of the conventional heavy particle cannon, as if there is a layer of "shell" outside the track.

When the heavy particle cannon launches a jet of heavy metal ions under the action of a directional confining magnetic field, this material will quickly absorb the heat from the acceleration track and eventually conduct it to the 'thermoelectric conversion node'.

That is to say, every time the heavy particle cannon of the Infinity fires a shot, it will recycle some of the electricity.
Therefore, in the infrared sensor imaging of the "Balkanner", the whitish bow is not the heat generated by the acceleration track, but the condition of the "heat conduction unit" outside the acceleration track when it is working.

"Whether they are pioneer technology or latecomer technology, it doesn't matter now. What matters is that we must break out alive, otherwise all the efforts will be in vain!"

Major General Kimmel waved his hand and interrupted the fleet operations staff. Just as he was about to issue the next order, the voice of the tactical information coordinator came again.

"The 'Long Beach' exploded, the hull structure was broken, and the survivors were urgently abandoning the ship!
The superconducting battery stack of the 'Panshi' is at risk of 'loss of superconductivity'. Damage control and technical personnel are carrying out emergency repairs, and the main propulsion array has to be temporarily shut down!

The captain said that if he could not keep up with the fleet's actions, he would let the crew abandon the ship at the last moment, and he would stay on the bridge to complete the last firing.

"."

Major General Kimmel fell silent, because he found that although his fleet had many problems, it still had a group of brave crew members who were able to face sacrifice.

But as the fleet commander, despite the superior fleet strength, he let the battle turn out like this, and was unable to take these respectable crew members away.

The operations officer seemed to have noticed Kimmel's mood swings. Knowing that the fleet commander must not have any problems at this time, he immediately leaned over to Kimmel's ear and said:

"General, we don't have much time left. The survival of the entire fleet is in your hands."

"I know"

Major General Kimmel raised his head abruptly, and his eyes no longer had the previous luster.

"Pass my order, all fleets' main propulsion arrays are running at super power, and the interleaving is completed before the next salvo from the enemy fleet arrives!"

When this order was issued, half of the surviving warships of the garrison fleet realized that the most critical moment had arrived, and the main propulsion arrays at the stern of each warship burst out with a light far exceeding that before.

The entire fleet accelerated once again and rushed straight towards the Atlas fleet.

On the Infinity, an anxious Randall suddenly realized that the opponent's fleet's fighting spirit was actually stronger than previously expected, and that they had begun to "explode" in desperation. If this continued, even if they fired two more rounds of salvos, they might not be able to destroy the flagship of the garrison fleet.

Randall knew that if the other fleet was allowed to complete the staggered disengagement, there would definitely be big problems.

Not only the Third Task Force, but also the subsequent transport fleet and the two unmanned fleets will be in extremely dangerous situations.

If the commander of the Federation Fleet was a little smarter, he could have taken advantage of the time difference to severely damage the Atlas battle fleet that arrived in the Rubion galaxy in batches.
The situation Randall faced at this time was the same as that of Major General Kimmel. The survival of the entire fleet was in his hands, and he also had reasons why he absolutely could not lose!

So in the next second, this 'new commander' of the large-scale fleet battle chose a tactic that perhaps only Amber would use.

"Pass on my order, the other warships in the fleet remain in the same state and continue to attack the enemy fleet!
The Infinity shuts down the battle module and redistributes the energy output of the fusion reactor group!

Deflect the force field generator, concentrate the force field just in front of the bow, prepare to overload!
Plasma propulsion array and vector control nozzle operate at super power!

Helmsman, the clock goes forward three!

Even if we have to ram the enemy's flagship, we must sink it!!!"

(End of this chapter)