From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 96 The Prelude to the Decisive Battle

For safety reasons, except for the temporary crew responsible for various positions, Lieutenant Colonel Dallas ultimately did not load anyone onto the Pelican where Amber was located.

Instead, they loaded up the collected ammunition, fuel, battery packs and other supplies.

After all, if these supplies are gone, you can still find a way to get them again. If a ship of soldiers is driven into the sea by Amber, Lieutenant Colonel Dallas will have no place to cry.

While the loading of supplies, personnel and equipment was coming to an end, the only remaining integrated reconnaissance vehicle in the entire combined brigade also reported a piece of information to Lieutenant Colonel Dallas.

While monitoring the planet's atmosphere, they discovered the phenomenon of charged particles and heavy metal particles bombarding the atmosphere, so they speculated that there might be a fleet war going on in outer space, and there was even a war going on right now.

Thinking of the sudden orbital strike that only landed two warheads in the end, Lieutenant Colonel Dallas felt that no matter what the cause of this fleet battle was, it at least hindered the operations of the Empire's orbital attack ships.

It also means that the Imperial Fleet may be currently engaged in a battle, resulting in a significant reduction in surveillance and support of Robert IV's surface.

So now is an excellent time for a 'strategic transition'.

From Blue Bay Port to Jabra, where the space elevator is located, the sea route distance is less than 3000 kilometers, and it can be reached in less than five hours at the speed of the 'Pelican'.

If they set off immediately, they can take advantage of the intense fighting in space to cross the ocean and reach their destination.

"All units! Speed ​​up the loading speed. Once the loading of Big Bird 1, 2, and 3 is completed, set off immediately!"

Under the urging of Lieutenant Colonel Dallas, the officer in charge of loading the three Pelicans sped up the process and got everything that could be taken away onto the ground-effect flying platform in the shortest possible time.

The sorting and sorting work is skipped for now, since we will be ready to unload the goods in a few hours anyway.

As the three 'Pelicans' completed all preparations, Big Bird 1 and Big Bird 2, which carried all personnel, vehicle equipment and some supplies, were launched one after another.

Driven by ten high-power turbofan engines, the two huge ground-effect aircraft left the port, and continued to accelerate to produce ground-effect aircraft. They were finally lifted into the air about 15 meters above the water by the 'air cushion'.

"Big Bird 3, you are ready to go, please pay attention to safety."

"Roger, Big Bird 3 is starting to leave the port."

After hearing the voice of Lieutenant Colonel Dallas on the communication channel, Amber responded and remembered the scene where Lieutenant Colonel Dallas was forcibly dragged away by the staff team just now, and couldn't help but laugh.

This macho lieutenant colonel was initially planning to stay on the ground-effect aircraft with Amber and the others.

However, the deputy brigade commander and the staff group forcibly towed it away on the grounds that the driver was inexperienced and might be at risk of crashing.

Amber understood this very well. After all, he would not dare to sit in a car driven by a novice.

However, with the help of Lilith, Amber, who was flying a giant ground-effect aircraft for the first time, was not nervous at all. She even had the guts to joke a few words in the communication channel:

"Lieutenant Colonel, you can actually tell the staff so that they don't have to worry so much. We psychic agents have to learn everything in the military academy. Things like ground-effect aircraft are a piece of cake for us."

"Hahahaha, if you successfully drive Big Bird 3 to its destination, then next time a similar situation occurs, I will let their staff team ride in the vehicle you drive."

The lieutenant colonel's hearty laughter came from the communication channel, accompanied by comments from the staff such as, "Lieutenant colonel, you are taking human life lightly!" 'A protest of sorts.

With the turbofan engine running at low power, Big Bird 3 smoothly pulled out of the berth and drove away from the port to an area where it could take off and land.

Then, relying on the guidance of Lilith disguised as a driving assistance AI, Amber pushed the throttle to the maximum thrust position, and then controlled the direction and angle with Major Randall at an increasingly faster speed, and finally at Soared into the air with the help of ground effect.

After leaving the water, without the resistance brought by the sea water, the 'Pelican' quickly accelerated to a speed of 600 kilometers per hour, keeping up with Big Bird 1 and 2 who set off first. Three giant ground-effect flying carrier platforms formed a triangular formation at a distance of 20 kilometers and rushed towards the final destination of the temporary 83rd Combined Brigade - Jabra.

The fleet battle in space also came to an end after a few hours.

In the end, it was the Empire's Eighth Expeditionary Strike Group that relied on its superiority in firepower projection to obtain a higher exchange ratio, forcing the Federation task force to withdraw from the battle.

Although he won the battle, Marquis Ascania still felt as sick as if he had eaten an alien mosquito.

The federal fleet's attack, which was like a "harassment war," actually did not cause much damage to the ships of the expeditionary strike group.

However, this kind of harassment still had a considerable impact on the fleet's orbital strikes and airdrop operations, seriously interfering with ground combat support and the efficiency of troop delivery.

When the orbital attack ship dropped back to low orbit, it quickly sent back the news to the flagship that the Blue Bay was "empty of people."

Obviously, due to the interference of the federal fleet, the temporary 83rd Combined Brigade, the remaining federal soldiers that had been targeted by the Marquis of Ascania, once again escaped their surveillance.

However, after this attack on Blue Bay and combined with the previously obtained intelligence, both the Marquis, Raphael and the staff team made the same judgment.

The next destination of this remnant of the federal soldiers is 100% the Robert IV space elevator.

"This move is a bit counter-intuitive, but I have to say it's a bit clever. If they hadn't chosen to attack Blue Bay, I wouldn't be sure that the goal of these federal remnants was the space elevator."

In the battle meeting, Marquis Ascania took a sip from his wine glass.

After noticing that he was in a bad mood, Raphael brought him a glass of soothing imperial ice wine.

"Yes, Lord Marquis, we thought they would keep going in circles in the North Continent, but this also shows that the key to the space elevator is probably in their hands."

Raphael looked at the planet plan on the holographic projection platform with a calm expression.

"And they also calculated that we don't want to destroy the space elevator. As long as they can reach the vicinity of the space elevator, then our orbital strike will be a bit of a deterrent."

"Yes, if I were the commander of this force, I would also consider maneuvering to the location of the space elevator after getting the key, and then wait for the arrival of the support fleet before cooperating in the operation."

Marquis Ascania nodded, and then continued:

"How many troops do we have near the space elevator?"

"Originally, there was an orbital paratrooper regiment and some heavy-duty troops that subsequently arrived via aerospace transport aircraft. However, after it was confirmed that the space elevator could not be used for a short period of time, these troops were gradually transferred to other areas to fight."

Raphael opened his personal terminal and found out the details of the current deployment of ground troops.

"Currently, there are only two battalions left in the space elevator base area."

"Hmph, now we are a little passive."

Marquis Ascania muttered:

"Stop the deployment of follow-up troops, and first use all air and space transport aircraft to urgently transport some heavy-armed troops already on the ground as quickly as possible."

(End of this chapter)