From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 510 Confrontation Drill
A.Bava.Ku Asteroid Fortress, fleet training airspace.

A mixed fleet consisting of three heavy cruisers, eight light cruisers and a destroyer detachment is quietly moored at a virtual mooring point on the outskirts of the airspace.

This is a common configuration of a small mobile fleet in the Atlas combat fleet, generally used to perform tasks such as fleet perimeter surveillance patrols, early warning air defense, armed reconnaissance, and rapid response within the defense zone.

However, since the fleet battles Atlas had encountered before were basically all-in fleet duels, small fleets of various types were basically useless.

Under the combat fleet organization, the few small fleet formations are basically responsible for daily patrols near mining areas and fortresses.

But in fact, in the view of Guterres and Cliffs, if the fleet battles that the Atlas Group will face in the future will become routine, then various functional fleets will definitely be indispensable.

As for small mobile fleets, there is another "applicable scenario" in the Federal Navy's usage habits.

That is, after being strengthened in other aspects, they would serve as the vanguard of "military intervention" and enter the target galaxy to set up an outpost.

Therefore, the final combat training subjects for these "trainees" in the Rubion galaxy were simply arranged in the Atlas combat fleet, a small mobile fleet that was also undergoing formation training.

At this moment, the fleet, which had just finished a group coordinated attack training, was resting at the mooring point and conducting routine inspections.

Taking advantage of this time, the idle people in the fleet began to watch a real-life combat exercise between HCPs.

The two opposing sides were the 'Lubian Team' led by the 'genius' Johnny Riding, and a carrier-based HCP wing within the fleet.

This actual combat confrontation exercise simulated an encounter between two destroyers responsible for patrolling high-risk areas after they discovered each other.

In theory, such a battle should take place between ships such as long-range reconnaissance ships or infiltration destroyers.

However, Atlas' combat fleet is not yet luxurious enough to recall these two special ships for regular training.

Moreover, even for the Federal Navy and the Imperial Royal Navy, which have more complete naval ship organizations, such special ships are often not enough in many cases, and it is actually a routine operation for conventional destroyers to perform similar tasks.

Therefore, two destroyers were temporarily used as replacements for this confrontation exercise.

Both sides have a destroyer + a carrier-based HCP squadron, but the protagonist of this confrontation is actually the HCP, and the destroyer serves more as a background and supporting firepower.

The goals of both sides are also very simple. The first one to sink the opponent's destroyer, or the first one to destroy all twelve HCPs of the opponent's ship-borne HCP squadron, will win.

However, in the eyes of veterans, there is actually not much difference between these two goals in actual combat.

Having lost the HCP squadron that served as the 'mother ship' and the destroyers that escorted the HCP, it was only a matter of time before they were destroyed by the enemy in the cold universe.

"Team Buggy, Team Rogers, follow the plan and conduct a pincer attack from the lower half of the left and right hemispheres!"

"Team Thor, stay near the destroyer and make protecting the ship your top priority! Intercept the enemy's HCP that is trying to launch an assault, no matter the cost."

Stark, the squadron leader of a HCP squadron on board the Atlas combat fleet, gave a cold order over the squadron's communication channel.

The description of "regardless of the cost" does not only exist in exercises. Even in actual combat without a "second life", all HCP squadron leaders, including Stark, will issue the same order.

Although Amber has always required each combat unit to prioritize its own safety while completing its combat missions and not make unnecessary sacrifices.

But the Atlas HCP pilots, influenced by Amber's 'hit and charge' fighting style, turned into fearless warriors.

In other words, Atlas' HCP unit is the one with the most serious "personality worship" of Amber among all the combat units.

In their subconscious, it seems that only by completing the mission at all costs can they be worthy of driving the HCP to charge at Amber's side.
"I will lead the team to provide mobile support, and will serve as the third attack team to assault the enemy destroyer when the time is right!" "Everyone cheer up! The other side does have an 'ACE' level genius, but no matter how evil he is, can he be more evil than a tough guy like Boss?"

"Ha ha ha ha."

Everyone in the communication channel was immediately amused by the squadron leader's words, and they quickly thought of Amber's performance in the battle.

Especially in the final stage of the defense of the A.Bava.Ku Fortress, the scene where the HCP cluster attacked the enemy fleet with the "Sword of Victory" held high.

After thinking about it this way, everyone in the squadron realized that this young man in front of them who was "something" didn't seem to be that troublesome after all.

As the squadron leader, Stark was naturally very satisfied with the reactions of the crowd, and then he continued:
"This Mr. Johnny Riding is indeed a good 'seedling', and he is also a member of the Renaissance Alliance, one of Atlas's 'big customers', so we should play the role of a good teacher.

In actual combat training, let him understand that not everyone can be like Boss, who can decide the course of the battle by relying on personal bravery, so as to prevent him from losing his life in vain on the battlefield in the future."

"Received, Captain~" ×N
Amid the earnest responses from the crowd, the twelve HCPs of the Avengers squadron quickly dispersed and entered combat mode in accordance with Stark's command.

The HCP teams responsible for attacking from the lower half of the two hemispheres, after confirming that the friendly teams and destroyers had entered combat positions, lit up their plasma propulsion arrays and attacked the target warships.

Rays of different colors emitted by directed energy weapons, mixed with many orange-red projectiles, accurately swept in the direction of the two teams' attack.

But for the HCP pilots who survived the defense of the A.Bava.Ku asteroid fortress, such interception firepower was nothing more than a joke. You have to know that when they followed Amber's charge, they were facing the anti-aircraft firepower of an entire fleet!
Watching the tracking close-ups on the big screen, these HCPs, mapped by the follow-up control system, seemed like cosmic dancers, making various evasive movements flexibly and naturally.

Even the trainees from the Rubion galaxy who were expecting the 'genius' Johnny Riding to win again couldn't help but let out exclamations.

Soon, the two teams, with a total of 6 GAT-X303 "Aegis", approached the final warning circle 7000 kilometers away from the target destroyer from the left and right.

In addition to the standard space combat configuration of each aircraft, the two attacking teams also each had an HCP towing a plasma rocket launch box with a carbon fiber cable.

After entering the attack distance, the HCP responsible for towing untied the carbon fiber rope, and while keeping up with teammates at a faster acceleration, it also issued attack orders through blue-green lasers.

Nearly a hundred laser-guided plasma rockets quickly broke away from the launch boxes, and then after receiving laser guidance from the HCP, they quickly rushed towards the target destroyer.

The whole process went smoothly, just as most people, including Squadron Leader Stark, had predicted. The Rubion trainees, who lacked actual combat experience, quickly became passive in this non-simulator actual combat confrontation exercise.

In space combat, opportunities are fleeting, the initial distance between two warships is fixed, and the acceleration performance of the HCPs of both sides is similar.

Therefore, even if the distance between the two warships is getting closer and closer, the HCP squadron that took the initiative to accelerate and launch the attack will still be able to get closer to the enemy's warships after meeting the enemy.

This also means that they can attack enemy warships at a faster speed.

At this time, the enemy's HCP can only choose to return to defense, or bite the bullet and attack the target warship that is still some distance away.

In a large-scale fleet battle, this is not an advantage, because this slight distance advantage and first-attack time are just a drop in the bucket in the confrontation between hundreds of warships and thousands of HCPs.

But it is different in this kind of small-scale fleet battle, especially in a single-ship encounter.
For these "trainees" in the Rubion galaxy, the situation is even more difficult at the moment, because they do not have that much "combat experience" to tell them to use "XX method" to deal with "XX situation" when they encounter it.

Therefore, once they fail to seize the window of opportunity to launch an attack first, they can only passively defend around their own warships.

Just when everyone thought that the Rubion trainees were going to be crushed by the 'Avengers' squadron that had already deployed their attack formation, three yellow flares exploded in space in succession, causing the onlookers on the warships to exclaim in surprise.

Because this means that three HCPs of the Avenger Squadron were destroyed in the battle.

(End of this chapter)