From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 430 Dirty, too dirty

"The optical sensor has captured the target. It's a large machine painted red! It matches the characteristics of the 'Red Devil' that the Federation shared earlier!"

Amber's plane was quickly captured by the combined fleet and quickly identified by the feature database.

After the conflict in the Pella Galaxy ended, according to the agreement reached between the Federation and Atlas, they eventually took away a group of senior officers including Van Fleet and Guterres and the remaining capital ships.

As for the remaining ships, ground troops, and ground equipment, there was no plan to go back, and of course no order was issued for the ground troops to surrender.

It was obvious that the intention was to leave these things to Atlas while disgusting them. This kind of rogue operation naturally made everyone in Atlas feel very disdainful.

In the battleship sent back to the Federation, all kinds of information about the 'Red Devil' stored were quickly extracted for research. The final result was that in addition to allowing the Federation to begin research on this large-scale HCP specialized in space warfare, the characteristic recognition data of the 'Red Devil' was sent over before the joint fleet was dispatched.

At this moment, although the fleets of each company seem to be fighting on their own, the communication and command within their fleets are still smooth.

After discovering the enemy attacking from the zenith direction, a large portion of the quantum encryption communication bandwidth, which was already stretched to its limits, was immediately allocated to the air defense command posts of each ship, allowing them to complete networking and summarize the information of each ship.

Under such circumstances, the air defense commander with the longest service automatically became the air defense commander of the entire fleet and began to guide the destroyers and frigates responsible for air defense missions to attack.

The middle and senior officers in each corporate fleet are basically officers poached from the Federal Navy or graduates from the Naval Academy. The Federation does not require graduates from the Naval Academy to serve in the military, but it is obviously more attractive to join the Federal Navy than to join the corporate fleets, so the graduates from each company are basically the last-place students.
This composition of middle and senior-level officers allows these federal corporate fleets to be consistent with the federal navy in many operational procedures, including current air defense operations.

Although fleets from different companies were all busy, and the speed of air defense operations varied depending on the level of personnel training, at least no fleet had failed to complete this step, so Amber was soon intercepted by the fleet's air defense network.

"The satellite missile group begins to attack! The second wave of penetration teams and combat boat brigade prepare to attack!" While controlling the aircraft to perform evasive maneuvers under high G-force, Amber also issued new instructions.

Soon, at the edge of the 'entrance and exit' of the debris belt through which the combined fleet passed, the asteroid debris that had been floating quietly in the universe, with diameters ranging from hundreds of meters to several kilometers, began to move.

Several camouflage tarpaulins on the surface of the rock were removed, revealing an array of solid rocket boosters with extremely thick inner diameters that looked "full of ejecta". Under the spread of Lilith's signal, they quickly erupted with a surging tail flame.

At first, the thrusters used by these "satellite missile groups" were actually solid-liquid hybrid thrusters or high-energy liquid thrusters with higher specific impulse, but they were quickly rejected by Amber.

This is because this "satellite missile swarm" is essentially pushing asteroid debris to collide with the enemy. It does not explode itself. It is a low-tech, energy-saving weapon that relies purely on its huge mass to directly collide with the enemy.

Moreover, Amber never had any expectations for their accuracy. The tasks of these "satellite missile groups" around A. Bawa. Ku in the battle were more to create chaos for the enemy forces and attract some anti-aircraft firepower.

Although the chance of a direct collision is very low, the worst that can happen if they are hit is that they will be severely damaged, so the enemy cannot really ignore these "little cuties".

Under this positioning, the lowest-cost solid rocket booster becomes the final choice.

"Report! A large-scale low-mass object has been detected around the fleet, and it is moving towards the fleet's current track!"

The attack of the satellite missile group naturally could not be concealed, so it was quickly discovered by the ships of the Combined Fleet. When the squadron commanders and air defense commanders saw that these fragments had been accelerated to a higher relative speed and were still rushing towards their position firmly after the tail flames behind them were extinguished, they couldn't help but panic.

If there were only dozens or hundreds of these "kinetic bombs", each fleet could assign tasks and concentrate fire to quickly clear them out, but the number captured by radar and optical sensors is now 3415.

"Damn it, are Atlas so rich? How could they deploy so many of these low-efficiency, disposable weapons with low hit rates?"

Many air defense commanders were sweating. It was not that they had not conducted training on asteroid debris with overlapping attack paths, but the textbooks of the Federal Naval Academy and the Navy's combat regulations did not tell them how to deal with more than 3000 asteroid debris.
The onboard control personalities of each warship quickly worked together to calculate the path of the satellite missile group, but when those dense red lines covered the entire joint fleet like a big net, even Megan and Bell showed expressions as if they had eaten shit on their faces.

"Too dirty, how can someone be so dirty!" Fleet operations lieutenant Bell was the first to curse. As an outstanding graduate of the Federal Naval Academy, he was poached by the Nutao Group with a high salary after joining the Federal Navy. He is also an out-and-out "academic" commander.

So when faced with this completely unconventional tactic, his reaction was still very intense.

"This shows that Atlas has already regarded this conflict as a 'war'. In a war, do you still expect your enemy to abide by the so-called 'gentleman's agreement' with you and fight back and forth elegantly?"

Megan said without turning her head, while quickly thinking of countermeasures in her mind.

Although there were no similar battle examples to refer to, Megan still knew that there were only two best ways to deal with it at the moment.

The first is that the entire joint fleet quickly passes through this area, avoiding the asteroid debris while approaching the asteroid fortress.

Second, the combined fleet will shrink rapidly and then use a spherical formation to conduct all-directional air defense.

However, the prerequisite for the implementation of these two methods is that the entire joint fleet can obey his command and accurately execute every order he issued, but this is obviously impossible to do now.

The fleet commander had to admit that Atlas had timed the attack very well. First, the sudden appearance of the "Red Devil" put pressure on all air defense commanders, and then the impact of the asteroid debris.
Anyone who has seen the combat record of Pyra IV knows that in addition to the 'Red Devil', Atlas also has a new type of small combat boat that poses an equally high threat, so everyone has been on guard against these units that have not yet appeared.

But now the asteroid debris that threatens the fleet is forcing them to allocate a large amount of attention and firepower units to this side.

"If those combat boats also launch an attack at this time, the fleet's air defense network may not be able to stop them."

Just as this thought came to Megan's mind, the words of the tactical information coordinator made his premonition come true.

"All squadrons report that four more heavy HCPs have been captured in the zenith direction. Their features match those of the 'Red Devil' and they are considered to be mass-produced aircraft of the same series!"

"Wait, there are more than just these four heavy machines! There are also what appear to be heavy combat boats, 240 in number!"

After hearing what the combat information coordinator said, the only thought left in Megan's mind was "It's over."

This series of combined punches from Atlas would also cause considerable trouble if facing the regular Federal Navy, but at least under his command they would be able to respond and minimize the losses.

But unfortunately, the huge corporate fleet in this area of ​​the universe is still far behind the regular army. In addition, after being attacked twice by mysterious weapons, many corporate fleets have lost their will to fight.

Under such circumstances, it is simply a fantasy to organize a defense. It is already good enough if each fleet can barely maintain its own air defense network.

"Bell, contact the 23rd and 24th Fleets of the Federation Navy. We can only rely on them to turn the situation around now."

"Yes, sir!" Bell nodded, and then asked before leaving:
"What should we do before they arrive?"

"Let the squadrons that are willing to follow our command continue the attack and leave this dangerous area."

Megan Ford narrowed her eyes, looking at the disconnected Enterprise fleets on the three-dimensional schematic diagram, and said emotionlessly: "As for those who are unwilling to follow orders, 'life and death are determined by fate, wealth and honor are determined by God', so I wish them good luck."

(End of this chapter)