From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 470: Fortresses and Fortresses Cannot Be Generalized
"Duke and William are moving. What should we do? Should we respond to their actions?"

Inside the Tranquility Fortress, Duke Artesia frowned as he read the message from Duke Duke: "They are quite radical. They are directly attacking the Federation's mobile fortress."

"It's not unusual to change homes. If I were in this situation, I would do the same."

The voice of the Duke of Hastings came from the direction of his holographic image. Perhaps it was because the distance between the two fortresses was too far, and the quantum entanglement communication device equipped in the fortress was still an old product provided by Atlas before, so his holographic image still looked a little flickering.

In fact, when Atlas Communications Group was assisting the Star Dragon Empire in establishing a quantum entanglement communications network, Amber specifically reminded them that the real-time communication transmission capacity of early products was limited, so it was not recommended to use fancy real-time holographic images, otherwise the communication quality would be affected to a certain extent.

But it was obvious that the top brass of the Imperial Royal Navy did not listen. Fortunately, although the holographic image flickered a little, the voice quality was not greatly affected, and the voice of the Duke of Hastings was still clear.

"'Heart of Oak' has been confirmed to have been attacked, and two other frontline starports have lost contact, which means that the Federation Fleet has invested a lot of offensive power in these three points, otherwise it would not be possible to suppress the starport and the surrounding fleet so quickly.
Although the Federal Navy's fleet has been replenished during this period, the warships are built one by one in the dock, not created out of thin air by magic. Therefore, the Naval Intelligence Department and several other intelligence agencies can still roughly calculate the opponent's shipbuilding speed, and further infer the approximate number of ships currently in the Federal Navy.

We can also roughly judge that the main force of the Federal Navy is allocated to these three "attack points", which also means that their defensive strength in other parts of the front line will inevitably become weak.

In this case, taking advantage of the opportunity to knock out their mobile fortress is indeed the best option."

The Duke of Hastings paused for a moment. His eyes seemed to have passed through the boundless starry sky and saw the Federal Navy Marshal who was somewhere unknown: "It was this Marshal Trafalgar who 'helped' us make the choice."

Listening to the Duke of Hastings' explanation, the Duke of Artesia nodded thoughtfully.

Although she is the only female among the five dukes of the empire and is not from an academy, and is not proficient in naval warfare, she is still better than most people in this regard after having been in control of the Celestial Fortress Battle Group for a long time.

"If this is the only option the Federal Navy Marshal has left us, I believe that in addition to the mobile fortress in public, he must have other cards hidden in secret.

Otherwise, if we launch an attack with the strength of two celestial fortress battle groups, the poor imitation of the mobile fortress will not be able to hold out for too long. I estimate that a round of simultaneous attacks by the two celestial fortresses using the "Focusing Rainbow" will be able to completely penetrate its defenses. If there are no other trump cards to cooperate, these two mobile fortresses will not even be able to delay for enough time."

"That's right!"

The Duke of Hastings cast an approving look at Artesia. This Duchess was not only his "political ally", but also his student in naval fleet command.

A sharp light flashed in his eyes, and then he said: "Trafalgar is not a fool. The number and quality of the Federation's mobile fortresses are far behind ours, so he can't deploy them in this way. I guess that in addition to the coordinated defense fleet, they should have deployed another strategic weapon."

"Proton annihilation bomb?"

Duke Artesia raised her eyebrows. She and Duke Hastings were deeply impressed by this weapon of the Federation.
"But how can they deploy them effectively? Previously, they could use unmanned fleets to carry out suicide attacks. However, after the conflict with the Atlas Group on Pyra IV, the Federation Navy urgently sealed all the remaining unmanned fleets and transformed them into manned semi-automated fleets. It is impossible for them to use a manned conventional fleet to carry out suicide attacks this time, right?"

"This is also the biggest doubt and anxiety in my heart." Duke Hastings took over the conversation and said, "But now we don't have time to do more reconnaissance. We can only take one step at a time. Even if we know that there is a trap ahead, we must be fully prepared to go and break through it."

Listening to the words of his ally and 'teacher', Duke Artesia said with some sighs and self-mockery:

"I have to say that Marshal Trafalgar is very confident in his command and the execution of his troops. Otherwise, he wouldn't have launched multiple attacks on such a long front. Moreover, all the fleets are under his command. Although he can't command them as if they were his own arms, at least his command efficiency is much higher than ours."

"Don't think too much, Artesia. Some things can't be changed in a short time. Let's focus on the battle."

The Duke of Hastings spoke in comfort, then marked the star system where another federal mobile fortress was located on the star map.

"If you don't have any other suggestions, let's prepare to launch an attack. After all, there is really no better option at the moment."

Duke Artesia nodded and said, "Tsk, I don't have any objection. I'll give you the joint command for the time being. But I always feel that I'm being 'commanded' by those two this time, and I have no choice but to cooperate with them in the battle."

Hearing the Duke of Artesia's complaint, Hastings smiled and said nothing more on this issue. Instead, he gave the order:

"Gospel Fortress Battle Group, Tranquility Fortress Battle Group! Target the star system where the Federation Mobile Fortress No. 2 is located, prepare for a collective jump!"
-
"Marshal, we have completed the suppression of the Empire's 'Heart of Oak' starport and the surrounding fleet. The starport's defensive weapons have been offline, and the remaining enemy ships have also sent out surrender signals and adjusted their ship axes!
Currently, the Marines have taken control of all the deployment bays and fusion reactors in the starport, but there are still some enemies in the crew living area. The Marine commander asked whether to launch a strong attack? "

On the bridge of the Federation Navy flagship, the HMS Dreadnought, the results of the battle were being reported to Marshal Trafalgar.

The 'Kraken' battle group, which launched a surprise attack with the help of the nebula cover, completed the attack without much effort.

Although the Empire also deployed three standard fleets near the starport of Heart of Oak, one of the fleets was still carrying out port operations at the time, resulting in the only two fleets that could immediately enter the battle being those that had completed assembly.

The huge difference in troop strength and the swift attack of the Kraken battle group under the command of Trafalgar made the temporary defense organized by the imperial defenders basically useless.
Just like the raids they had practiced countless times before, the three fleets responsible for the attack quickly completed the deployment of the artillery formation. During this process, several heavy cruisers with the highest "proficiency" crews opened fire and destroyed the external communication unit of the "Heart of Oak".

If the captain on duty at the Heart of Oak Combat Command Center had not made advance deployments, the news of the attack on the starport would not have spread so quickly.

The three fully-strength fleets that had completed their bombardment formations and deployed them quickly gained the upper hand in the artillery battle with the two hastily-armed Imperial fleets, even with the latter having the support of starport defense firepower.

Not to mention the other two fleets that launched a pincer attack from the left and right hemispheres. Their main gun beam axes were all "fat" warships with sides that lacked deflection field protection. Under such crossfire, the defending Imperial fleet was quickly defeated. After all, in addition to the above disadvantages, the "Kraken" battle group they faced was also the strongest in the battle sequence of the Federation Navy.

The fleets in the battle group were all "veterans" who had followed Marshal Trafalgar from domestic defense to the counterattack of Operation Supernova, and then all the way into the Star Dragon Empire.

Whether in terms of fighting will or technical and tactical level, it is no longer comparable to the pre-war Federal Navy fleet.

This can be seen from the ship-based HCP squadrons and the Marines on the assault boats released by the two fleets that launched the pincer attack.

The internal defense capabilities of the 'Heart of Oak' starport are obviously not comparable to those of the A-Bava-Ku asteroid fortress.

It is no exaggeration to say that the difficulty of the strategy can be said to be the difference between a '40-person random group' and a '20-person epic difficulty'.

When the assault boat carrying the Marines crashed into the deployment bay in the starport, it took almost no effort to dismantle the defense of the area and even wiped out two defense forces that had hurriedly rushed in from other areas.

After the ship-borne HCP forces destroyed the defensive weapons outside the starport, annihilated the defending HCP and seized control of the sky, more and more Marines safely broke into the starport. With the support of the multi-legged tanks that arrived at the same time, the defense forces in the starport were beaten back.

Soon they lost almost all the important nodes, and finally they could only rely on the relatively complex structure of the crew living area to resist.

"Forget it. There's no need to continue the attack. This place is not worth the sacrifice of so many Marines. Let the Marines place the explosives in the core energy area and then withdraw." Trafalgar said, summoning a virtual screen.

"Several long-range reconnaissance ships in nearby star systems have just sent news that several Imperial fleets are coming to support us and have already entered the warp phase. So we don't have much time left. It would be meaningful to render this frontline starport 'harmless'."

Admiral Carroll nodded after listening to Marshal Trafalgar's words. "So what should we do next?"

"The battle group is ready to jump to the confidential coordinates within the galaxy, and then let the long-range reconnaissance ships continue to monitor this area of ​​the universe." The old marshal showed a hunter's smile on his face.

"If it's appropriate, we can make a comeback and leave."
-
When the two celestial fortress battle groups of Sorrow and Chaos led by Duke Duke and Duke William arrived at the target galaxy and exited the jump, they also received the latest macro battle information.

"Wow~ Old guy Hastings is so cooperative this time. This is really not his style. I thought he was going to have a good 'communication' with us again."

After seeing that the two celestial fortress battle groups, Gospel and Tranquility, mentioned in the macro battle information also set out to attack another mobile fortress, Duke William raised his eyebrows in surprise.

“It’s not that strange actually.”

After hearing what Duke William said, Duke Duke said, "Although Hastings is the princess's man and has always been at odds with us, he is still able to distinguish right from wrong. He must also know that attacking the mobile fortress and trying to destroy it is the only way for us to turn the passive situation into the active one."

"Okay~" Duke William shrugged, and then continued: "There is one more thing. The Federation Navy battle group that attacked 'Heart of Oak' is a bit complicated."

"Yeah, I saw it." Duke nodded, and his voice became serious.

"They dared to fight back while the support fleets were arriving one after another, defeated the two support fleets that arrived earlier, and lost their tracks before more support fleets arrived. I can only say that both the courage of the battle group commander and the technical and tactical level of this battle group are not simple."

Duke William: "Could it be that Trafalgar himself was in charge?"

Duke thought for a moment after hearing this question, and then replied: "It is very likely, and the fleet under his command is probably the one with the most combat experience in the Federation Navy."

"If you say so, won't the rear be turned upside down by this battle group?"

"That depends on the situation of the reserve fleet. If they can't stop this battle group, it will be a bit tricky." Duke changed his tone and continued, "But it may be good news for us. At least when we launch an attack, we don't have to worry about such an elite battle group jumping into our faces for a while."

Just as Duke was about to say something, the voice of the tactical information coordinator sounded in the core command room of the Fortress of Sorrow where he was.

"The reconnaissance ship detachment reports that the target mobile fortress is conducting a drive-out alert in the space area where it is located with the cooperation of the surrounding fleets. Currently, the front-line reconnaissance ship detachment has suffered heavy losses, and the remaining reconnaissance ships have retreated outside the drive-out alert range!
At the same time, four federal fleets have assembled near the mobile fortress and have deployed a defensive formation! "

"It seems they know we are coming." Duke William said with some regret, "I was thinking if I could give them a surprise."

Duke: "If they can't even detect the collective jump of two celestial fortress battle groups, we should just tow this mobile fortress of the Federation back and dismantle it."

After saying that, he turned his head and glanced at Duke William 'beside him'. Although the latter saw a holographic image, he still clearly saw Duke Duke's malicious smile.

"I heard that the Chaos Fortress upgraded its entire external defense unit after the overhaul. How about you take the battle group ahead and test the firepower of the other mobile fortress. At the same time, you can also see if the liquid metal armor is as powerful as the Imperial Military Academy claims?"

(End of this chapter)