From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 564 Fighting to the death
Randall was very surprised by the sudden space fluctuation. After all, he knew that Atlas had no other reinforcements.

If this unauthorized "transition signature code" appears in combat, it usually comes from the enemy or a third party.

"The Federation's reinforcement fleet? Or does the Empire want to get involved?"

Hearing Randall's question on the quantum entanglement command communication channel, Amber shook her head and replied:

"It's definitely not the Empire's. The Rubion galaxy has long been turned into the 'rear area' after the Federation's counterattack. Given the Empire's current problems, it will not allow the Royal Navy to send a fleet deep into the Federation's territory."

Having said that, Amber took another look at the 'jump signature code' information analyzed by the shipboard control personality, and simultaneously sent it to Randall.

"Look at the analysis of this signature code. Although we can't see the starting point, we can see that the jump distance is not far. From the time point of view, the jump occurred at the same time as the war started, which means that this force started from the Rubion galaxy.

I don't believe that the Imperial Royal Navy can send a fleet to lurk in the Rubion system in advance, and this is when we are on combat alert with the Federation Navy.

So this is most likely reinforcements from the Federation Fleet."

Although Amber and the others could not figure out who jumped in when they discovered the unauthorized space fluctuations and 'jump signature codes', these 'jump signature codes' developed by the forerunner civilization could tell them a lot of basic information.

The most important of these are the end time and distance of the jump. The former allows the fleet to prepare, while the latter allows the fleet to determine where the other party is coming from.

This is also why the Federation Navy and the Imperial Royal Navy have never carried out "long-distance decapitation operations" in battle, or directly jumped to the other party's capital galaxy to "burn the glass".

Because the longer the jump distance, the longer the jump takes, and the earlier the space fluctuations at the destination will appear, even up to a week.

Therefore, when executing a "long-distance decapitation operation", the first thing to consider is whether the fleet will be directly confronted by the enemy who is ready to fight after leaving the jump.
The jump that Amber and the others detected did not take too long, so their doubts were quickly answered.

In the flash of the end of the jump, one warship after another with the navy blue paint of the Federal Navy appeared 3 kilometers away from the left wing of the Federal Fleet.

The 14th Fleet of the Federal Navy arrived at the battlefield at this critical moment.

Amber: "See, I was right, they are indeed the enemy's reinforcements~"

Randall: "No. There's nothing to be excited about, asshole!"

After hearing Amber's voice, Randall almost vomited blood, and Cleves, who was following Amber on the bridge of the Dawn, asked with some confusion:
"Didn't we cut off the network of the Federation Fleet? And the Third Task Force has always been in an advantageous position in the previous electronic confrontation. When did the Federation Fleet send out the distress signal?"

"No," Amber shook her head, "They didn't send it. We helped them send it."

"Ah? We sent it for them?" Randall became confused when he heard Amber's answer.

"When we carried out the 'disconnect' operation and used electronic warfare to temporarily cut off the Federation Fleet's contact with the outside world, the enemy reinforcements knew that a fight had begun here, and perhaps they launched a collective jump as they had agreed in advance."

Cleves immediately understood what Amber meant:
"In other words, regardless of whether our First Fleet launches this surprise attack or not, the enemy's reinforcements will immediately jump in after the battle begins?!"

"That's right, because they most likely wanted to kill us, but they didn't dare to put all their chips on the table at the beginning, fearing that we would retreat in the face of difficulties, and thus fail to achieve the goal of annihilating us."

The current situation is naturally unfavorable for Atlas, because Amber really can't take out a single ship now.

Although there is an "artificial celestial fortress" that can change the situation of the war, it is not only a distant water that cannot quench the immediate thirst, but if it is activated rashly when LLS943823 is not fully prepared, it may bring about other problems.

Therefore, he could only rely on the three fleets currently on the field plus the crippled Third Task Force to fight desperately against the five fleets of the Federal Navy.

However, the good news is that under the crossfire attack just now, the losses of the first four federal fleets involved in the battle were even greater than the pre-war assessment. The opponent obviously did not anticipate the attack launched by the Atlas First Fleet from the bottom of the sky.

For Amber and the others, the enemy's chaos at this moment is their best and last chance.

Thinking of this, and looking at the three-dimensional battlefield situation map, where the federal fleet was pressing forward step by step, Amber couldn't help but sigh:
"The federal government really thinks highly of us. I never thought they would send out five main fleets at once, and one of them even conducted a 'stealth maneuver' with such a high degree of secrecy. Speaking of which, this should be the last mobile force they have at the moment, right?"

"To be precise, it should be the last batch of organized mobile forces."

Cleves interrupted:
"Except for the two garrison fleets in the capital system that will never leave unless the country is destroyed, the rest of the mobile forces are basically in a semi-disabled or severely disabled state, or are collectively queuing outside the dock waiting for maintenance."

Soon, Amber ordered the First Fleet to speed up the attack, forcing the other fleet to allocate part of its forces to defend the nadir direction, thereby reducing the pressure on Randall's side.

But even so, Randall and his team had to hold out for more than 20 minutes, and in many classic battles, the victory or defeat was often determined by those few minutes.
When Johnny Riding learned that they were about to face enemies that far outnumbered them, although he was afraid, he had no choice but to attack at this critical juncture.

After all, if he lost this battle, not only would he die, but the Renaissance Alliance on Rubion V and his family would also surely be liquidated by the Federation.

So now they have reached a point where they can no longer retreat. Moreover, Atlas and other people who have no direct relationship with the Rubion Galaxy have come to fight desperately, but they, the "natives" of the Rubion Galaxy, are hiding behind. This is unacceptable.
"Pilot, please note that the electromagnetic catapult track is electromagnetically stable, prepare for launch!"

The voice of the flight deck controller sounded in the communication channel, and Johnny Riding immediately focused his attention on the battle area in front of him.

"We're ready and can eject at any time!" Johnny Riding replied after confirming that all monitoring data of the aircraft were normal.

Since the "full deck attack" was carried out under extremely tight time, the flight deck controllers of each ship did not hand over the ejection authority to the pilots as before, allowing them to control the ejection timing by themselves, but the ejection control room made unified arrangements. After confirming with the controller, Johnny Riding fine-tuned his body into the "ejection posture", and the control system detected his body movements and judged his thoughts, so it tightened the seat belt and let Johnny Riding's back lean against the back of the chair.

In the cold, dark universe before his eyes, there were only some scattered starlights as embellishment. The heavy cruiser "Sun Reward" under Johnny Riding's feet should theoretically be advancing towards the federal fleet at a relative speed of tens of kilometers per second.

However, due to the lack of reference objects and the fact that the distant stars were hanging still and motionless in the sky, Johnny Riding would occasionally have the illusion that the ship was stationary.

From time to time, a burst of "stars" flashed on the cosmic background directly in front of them - that meant that the federal fleet had launched another round of salvos. After a few seconds, a large number of light beams of different colors swept past, but fortunately, the "Sun Reward" was not hit in this round of attacks.

"I don't want to be the unlucky guy who dies on the ejection track!" Johnny Riding thought to himself, and as if in response to his thoughts, the voice of the flight deck controller sounded again.

"Prepare to eject. 54321 eject!"

A huge push on the back came instantly, pressing Johnny Ridden tightly against the back of the chair. As this red-painted 'Fully Equipped Aegis' left the battleship and flew towards the battlefield, this 'genius boy' quickly adapted and pushed the throttle forward one gear again.

"CTM Federal Army, I'm coming!"

"Why are there so many CTM federal troops?"

When Johnny Riding saw the dense red dots of light on the full-circle screen, representing the enemy units, he admitted that he was a little scared.

If the gap between us and the enemy in the previous battle with the Rubion Galaxy Garrison Fleet could be made up by the equipment quality, personnel quality, and tactical coordination of the combat units of both sides, then the current battle is purely the federal fleet using its absolute numerical advantage to "defeat ten with one force."

Johnny Riding must describe his feelings, that is - the stars in the sky are enemies
"Unit 3, report status!" After seeing the icon of his team's Unit 3 glowing red on the command interface on the multi-function screen, Johnny Riding immediately asked in the communication channel.

"The right arm is damaged, and the weapon container on the left has fallen off, but the remaining weapon units, power systems, and deflection fields can still support combat!"

"You can't even hold the heavy sword, and you're still holding on, you big head ghost! Get back to the mothership for emergency repairs!"

Johnny Riding rejected the opponent's request to continue fighting without hesitation, and sent an application to the nearest light cruiser in the rear that had the HCP heavy overhaul capability.

After quickly receiving the other party's reply of "can be repaired", Johnny Riding, who had already found the location of Unit 03, raised his HCP right foot and kicked the other party's shield hanging on the left side to force it away.

After finishing this, he then modified the 'combat responsibilities' of the three squadrons in his squadron on the command interface.

"Team Johnny, we are temporarily short of one aircraft. We will switch from forward combat to rear fire support!"

"Morabi team, keep the flank support unchanged, Mandela team will start to take charge of the forward and close-range combat!"

As Johnny Riding operated and reported the order on the squadron communication channel, the three teams in the 'Revival Alliance Task Force - 1st HCP Combat Squadron' under his command immediately adjusted their positions according to the order.

Four intact Holy Shields quickly rushed past Johnny Ridden and the remaining two members of the team, holding up their shields and maintaining the power of their plasma heavy swords, and rushed to the front of the squadron's combat formation.

After the last battle with the Rubion Galaxy Garrison Fleet, Johnny Riding was promoted by Fireline to the captain of the 'Renaissance Alliance Task Force - 1st HCP Combat Squadron' due to the death of his squadron leader and his remarkable performance in the battle.

Although this 'genius pilot' did have some skills in HCP driving and combat, combat command was completely unfamiliar to him, which led to him not being able to relax much after the last battle.

In addition to rest and daily training, the rest of the time was spent on catching up on the content of HCP squadron combat command. He also successfully became friends with the captain of the 'Avenger' squadron on the Atlas side, and received a lot of help and guidance from the latter.

But even so, Johnny Riding, who was commanding an entire squadron for the first time, was still a little nervous and a little flustered during the command process.

The only thing to be thankful for is that, although the squadron has withdrawn four HCPs for repairs so far, none of them have been actually lost and there have been no casualties.

However, Johnny Riding was very clear that with the next few waves of enemies coming, casualties were inevitable, so he had prepared himself mentally to deal with all of this.

"Relax, Johnny Riding, you are the 'Real Red Lightning' everyone is talking about! You can do it!
Major Murat and his men only have so few men, but they have to face the entire right wing of the enemy. The number of friendly forces on the left wing is much larger than theirs, so there must be no mistakes!"

Since the Third Task Force had a limited number of HCPs and heavy armored combat boats, and needed to face a pincer attack from the Federal Fleet, Murat and Jacob finally decided to take on the task of defending one side alone with a portion of their elite forces.

The other side is manned by a larger number of conventional troops and the "Revival Alliance Task Force".

Johnny Riding naturally knew how much pressure Murat and his team were under, and he also knew that he could only lead his team to do their best to hold back the enemy in order to live up to the other party's arrangement.
As the first wave of HCPs of the Federation Fleet had completely rushed to the front, the firefight near the Atlas frontal fleet immediately became fierce.

The light of directed energy weapons was like a sharp sword, piercing the darkness again and again. The anti-ship missiles and torpedoes with plasma warheads were like silent assassins on the battlefield, shuttling silently through.

The entire battle area seemed to be engulfed in a blazing sea of ​​fire, with flashing lights and explosions.
Johnny Riding's ability to become the "genius pilot" in Amber's impression is naturally not just talk. His learning and growth speed can be said to be like a monster.

Fighting round after round, he quickly became familiar with commanding the squadron.

And his innate "combat talent" also allowed him to quickly understand how to use the tactics and strategies he had been studying hard for during this period of time.

Under his leadership, the entire squadron was like an indestructible blade, galloping across the battlefield, invincible and quickly becoming the "star" of the left-wing front.

But on the battlefield, being a 'star' is obviously not a good thing.
(End of this chapter)