From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 527 The Third Task Force
After hearing the answer from Cleves that she didn't want to hear, Amber sighed softly.

He knew that Randall's plan was an extremely dangerous one, but it was something he had to do in order to avoid a worse situation.

"When did this guy Randall become so bold? This is too dangerous."

Hearing Amber's words, Cleves also smiled bitterly: "Senior, he has always dreamed of becoming a fleet commander, but he never had the opportunity after graduation. After transferring to a position like the Starport Operations Command Center, he is getting further and further away from this dream."

Amber: "So his personality has become more smooth now? It does fit the character of a 'rear-line officer'."

Cleves nodded, then looked at the three-dimensional model of the Rubion Galaxy on the holographic projection platform and said, "But the senior's decision this time shows that he still has a bit of passion in his heart. So even though he knows that the battle will be extremely dangerous, he still wants to buy us enough time."

"Three days and eight hours," Amber murmured. This was the remaining time for the two unmanned fleets that had set out from the A-Bava-Ku asteroid fortress to reach the Rubion system.

If Randall could successfully postpone the federal fleet's entry time, even if it was just to make them jump to other backup 'entry coordinates' and hold out until the two unmanned fleets of Atlas arrived, it would be considered a success.

Because after Federal Secretary of State Davis was attacked, Isabel led the Intelligence Analysis Center and obtained a very important piece of information with the help of Lilith - the Federation may send more than just the 17th and 18th fleets to the Rubion galaxy.

According to the information provided by this highly credible intelligence, in addition to the two fleets that serve as Davis' "negotiation trump cards", the Federation is very likely to send the 23rd Fleet, which has an "inseparable relationship" with the Atlas Group, to participate in the operation to control the Rubion galaxy.

Another piece of information that has not yet been fully verified is that if the 24th Fleet completes the replenishment of ships and the preparation of the entire fleet before a certain unspecified time, this fleet that has also dealt with the Atlas Group may also be dispatched.
This means that at some point in the future, this galaxy will gather three or four fully staffed fleets of the Federation.

If they were allowed to assemble before the main force of the Atlas combat fleet arrived, Amber and his men would have to face this well-prepared federal fleet with a much larger force than their own, which would make the subsequent battle somewhat difficult.

But this is not the main reason why Randall is so eager to launch an attack
What really made him decide to launch an attack was the Atlas transport fleet that was about to arrive at the Rubion system.

It is not known whether the Federation had specially estimated the arrival time of this transport fleet or whether they just got lucky, but in any case, this transport fleet would arrive near Rubion V in the next two days.

Unfortunately, neither Randall nor Amber were able to warn the fleet. Even if a message was sent, the transport fleet would only receive the message after leaving hyperspace.

Moreover, at the current stage, after a ship enters hyperspace through a jump drive, it is impossible to temporarily interrupt the jump process.

If the warp drive is forcibly shut down, the ship can indeed escape hyperspace, but in the few cases known to humans, these ships that were forcibly escaped from the warp drive all reappeared in a state of parts.
This is like entering a highway on a planet with only two entrances, one in and one out. After entering the highway, vehicles can only leave safely from the exit. If they force their way into the guardrail at high speed, the result will be the destruction of the vehicle and the death of people.

Therefore, if the actions of the federal fleet are not interfered with and the 17th and 18th fleets are allowed to arrive successfully in the next two days.

Thanks to the high speed and strong strike capability of warships under normal navigation, Atlas' transport fleet consisting of 40 heavy cargo ships and more than 30 light cargo ships will most likely not have time to enter the jump again and will suffer a devastating disaster.

And the key point is that this batch of transport fleets also carries a batch of new equipment that the Renaissance Alliance is preparing to replace, as well as a large number of key spare parts and large fusion power station components that they urgently need.

This forced Randall to find a way to deal with this problem.

After thinking for a while, Amber asked again: "Cleves, what do you think Randall will do with the troops he has?"

"Based on my understanding of the senior and the previous discussions with him about fleet warfare, he should focus on the Infinity and try to cause as many casualties as possible to the Rubion system's garrison fleet, creating an illusion that 'it's not safe here', in order to force the commander of the Federation fleet to adjust the jump plan."

Cleves said as he recalled:
"The Federation Fleet has experienced the attack capability of the super-heavy purification beam generator on the Infinity, so unless the enemy commander is a fool, he will not let the fleet jump directly into the face of the Infinity.

After all, in the most critical three minutes after the jump, if the fleet happens to be within the attack range of the Infinity, it will become a target and be shot at."

“But this doesn’t solve the underlying problem.”

Amber shook her head, then used hand gestures to control the three-dimensional model of the Rubion system to zoom in to the location of Rubion V and display the equatorial plane of the planet.

"There are too many places on the equatorial plane that are suitable for escaping the jump. If Randall just wants the fleet to harass, based on my understanding of the Federation Navy, they will only adjust to other backup coordinates and will still launch attacks normally.

Moreover, after alerting the enemy in this way, the Federation Fleet may abandon the plan of direct jump, and instead enter other areas of the Rubion galaxy before making a round of short-distance jump.

In this case, because the distance is too short, the noise caused by the jump drive tearing through space will not be so obvious, and Randall can only find the opponent after the opponent arrives, which makes him more passive. "

The 'short-range jump' that Amber mentioned is a common tactical maneuver of the human navy.

Due to some characteristics of the jump drive that humans have not yet figured out, the longer the distance of a jump, the louder the noise the jump drive will make when tearing open space at the destination, and signs will appear long in advance.

A jump distance of more than ten days will allow the destination to quickly detect abnormal space fluctuations, thereby knowing that a ship has jumped over.

For civilian ships, this is not a problem. After all, most of their ships have to report every jump to the relevant departments in advance.

But for warships that need to pay attention to stealth and suddenness in certain situations, this abnormal space fluctuation is undoubtedly holding up a loudspeaker to tell the enemy: "Hello, I am here."

This is also the reason why the Federation and the Empire cannot organize fleets to directly jump to each other's capitals for a real "change of homes".

If anyone dared to do this, after leaving the jump, they would see an extremely large fleet that had already completed the deployment of a super-large artillery formation. Maybe they could also see a celestial fortress quietly pointing its main gun at this side.
Therefore, when conducting some military operations, the naval fleet will first jump to a coordinate that is several hours' jump distance away from the final destination, and then make a second jump after the jump drive is ready.

In this case, by the time the enemy detects the abnormal space fluctuations, the fleet has actually entered the end of the jump and will leave the hyperspace in the next second.

"That's true."

Cleves nodded in agreement, and then continued:

"And I suspect that the Federation Fleet most likely did not intend to make a long-distance jump from the beginning. Instead, it will arrive at any coordinates on the ecliptic plane of the Rubion Galaxy in the next two days, and then arrive via a 'short-distance jump' after contacting the Autonomous Government's garrison fleet and confirming that there is no problem."

Cleves's expression became uglier as he spoke, because from the current analysis, Randall's situation was most likely a dead end. As long as he couldn't stop the two federal fleets from entering the jump, they would basically be doomed.

In other words, this sudden situation really caught Atlas off guard.

Amber and his men had indeed anticipated that the Federation would consider intervening in the galaxy situation, and had begun deployment in advance, but the death of Secretary of State Davis directly disrupted Atlas' deployment. Even though Amber quickly ordered two unmanned fleets to weigh anchor and set sail after receiving the news, it still caused a brief "troop vacuum" in the Rubion galaxy.

The Federation was also unlucky, and at the end of this "military vacuum" that was about to end, it began to take action
However, he still looked at Amber with hope, hoping that this boss whose strength was unknown but became stronger when facing stronger opponents would think of other ways to turn the tables.

Amber did not disappoint him. After recalling several battles in which the Federation Fleet was reduced to a "background board" in her mind, she spoke again:

“There is one last solution.”

"What's the solution, Boss?"

Amber: "That means Randall must take the initiative to attack as soon as possible in the next ten hours or so and complete a 'destructive strike' on the autonomous government's garrison fleet. It would be best if we could fight a swift and efficient annihilation war!"

"War of Annihilation"

Cleves muttered the word quietly, frowning as he pondered, but soon the "Chuan" between his brows slowly relaxed, and his originally troubled eyes lit up.

"Boss, you mean to use this 'annihilation war' to make the commander of the Federation Fleet afraid to act rashly?"

"That's right~" Amber snapped her fingers and continued:

"If you were the commander-in-chief of the Federation's 17th and 18th Fleets, and before you were ready to start the operation, you suddenly discovered that the garrison fleet that had opened up a 'safe zone' for them near Rubion V, where there should not have been many enemies, had lost contact and was suspected to have been completely destroyed, what would you think?"

"I would suspect that the main force of the 'enemy' has arrived ahead of time. After all, the number of garrison fleets is not small. If we jump over at this time, will we be ambushed by the enemy?"

Cleves spoke subconsciously, but soon he hesitated.

"But how can we convince the Federation Fleet that our main force has arrived? If the garrison fleet is attacked, it should warn the Federation Fleet and inform it of the basic information of the attacking enemy. If the enemy finds that the number of ships is not as many as they expected, will they still choose to launch an attack?"

"Cleves, you hit the nail on the head. This is also what I am most worried about."

Amber sighed with some uncertainty, and then continued:

"Randall must launch a perfect surprise attack that only exists in theory. He must organize the entire process of pre-war maneuvers, tactical deception, electronic warfare suppression, and surprise attacks without any errors. Only then can he destroy the enemy before they send out a warning message."

"Hiss." Cleves took a breath after hearing this. "Boss, if you say that, I am now worried whether the senior can do this. After all, he has never commanded a battle of this level."

Amber shrugged somewhat helplessly, and then joked in a humorous way:
"Don't talk about you. I'm also worried about this. If there is a Dragon God Cult prayer hall on the Dawn, I will definitely go in and pray for Randall for three days and three nights.

Then kneel down and pray to the Dragon God to bless our warships in the Rubion system, so that the electronic warfare virus they release can penetrate the enemy's firewall, cut off their communications and other electronic equipment, and bless the warship's main guns to fire and hit the enemy ship's central fusion reactor."

"Is it too late to build one now? There are several places on the Dawn that can be converted into prayer halls. If we use the honeycomb core on the hangar to release worker bees, it will take only a few hours to build one."

After listening to Amber's words, Cleves actually stroked his chin and really thought about this plan seriously, which fully demonstrated what it means to "try anything possible when in a hurry".

"What are you thinking? What's the point of just building a church? Where can I find the Dragon God maids and the choir?"

Amber didn't know whether to laugh or cry, so she kicked Cleves to make him come back to his senses, and then continued:

"If you have the time, you might as well deduce Randall's success rate. Oh, and how many troops does he have?"
-
Atlas Combat Fleet, Task Force 3 (TF) Organization Chart
Fleet flagship: Infinity super-heavy battleship
Battleship Division: Truth-class battleship × 4, Kraken II-class battleship × 2
Cruiser Division: Hellfire-class heavy cruisers × 6, Hydra-class heavy cruisers × 4, Griffin-class light cruisers × 22
Destroyer and escort squadron: It has three destroyer and escort squadrons, with a total of 3 destroyers and frigates of various types.
These are all the ships currently available to Randall, including a small mobile fleet carrying the first batch of trainees of the Renaissance Alliance.

The Truth-class battleship among them is actually the "Project 08" battleship designed, manufactured and officially finalized by Atlas Shipbuilding Heavy Industries.

The Hellfire-class heavy cruiser is another pure self-use warship of Atlas Shipbuilding Heavy Industry in addition to "Project 12" and "Project 08". Its performance is slightly better than the Hydra-class and Aurora-class currently in service in the Federation and the Star Dragon Empire.

Randall, sitting in the captain's seat of the Infinity, stared expressionlessly at the fleet organization chart in front of him for a long time without saying a word. No one knew what he was thinking.

Until a somewhat lazy voice sounded in my ears.

"I'm not saying anything, Colonel Randall, but even if you play around with the organization table, we can't get any more battleships."

"You are just like your master Amber, you are both very talkative."

Randall curled his lips speechlessly, and glanced at Murat who was leaning on the captain's seat. He couldn't help but frowned when he saw his posture.

"Look at you, the commander of the Atlas HCP force. You're already a major, but you're still as lazy as before. No, I remember when you just left Robert IV, you were quite serious and hardworking. You must have learned bad things from Amber."

"There's a big war coming up, so I just want to keep a good attitude~"

Murat smiled sheepishly, stood up with his hands behind his back, and asked:
"So, Colonel, you've been staring at it for a long time. What did you see?"

"Alas, what else can you see? You see that there is no bright future and a dead end~"

Murat: “.”

“But there are some things we have to do.”

Randall turned his head and looked at Murat and Jacob, who had been silent beside him.

"There are no cowards in the Atlas Group, and there are even fewer cowards in TF3."

(End of this chapter)