From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 552: Shining Light Ball

Stoner's question stumped Bernelli.

The latter immediately realized that he might have been misled by the other party's arrangement.

For naval warfare of this era, before entering the final stage of close combat and shooting, the commanders of both sides were actually playing a "guessing" game.

Although the naval fleets that roamed the oceans in ancient times actually had to play some games of "intrigue and deception", the area for fighting on the sea was limited anyway. After various detection methods of mankind developed, the detection of the ocean became more and more perfect.

By the end of the surface fleet era, the navies of various human forces were basically fighting in an "open" manner.

Because once the fleet sets out from the port, it will be discovered by the opponent and monitored throughout the process, making it basically difficult to commit strategic deception.
This is the same for both parties.

Therefore, during that period, the battles between naval fleets became more and more pure and direct. After both fleets were dispatched, they would find a calm sea area and start a fair fight.

However, when humans dug out the prototype of the jump engine from the forerunner ruins and entered the Age of Discovery overnight, the detection means that they were once proud of, which were enough to cover the entire planet, seemed so insignificant in the face of the vast universe.
This also led to humans establishing a space fleet and classifying it as a "navy".

This military branch with a long history has once again returned to its former state.

Various tactical and strategic deception methods have been developed by fleet commanders like mushrooms after rain.

What is now recognized by the naval historians is that the first famous space fleet commanders.
All of them are 'Old 6'.

"So Atlas's battle fleet wants us to misjudge the number of their fleet so that we can launch a rash attack, and then let the lurking fleet give us a fatal blow?"

Major General Benelli slowly came back to his senses, and then he saw Stoner on the other side nodded and said:
"That's right. Otherwise, it's impossible to explain the fact that the enemy annihilated the Rubion Galaxy's garrison fleet."

Obviously, neither Benelli nor Stoner realized at this moment how much role a super flagship like the Infinity could play in the war.

Their current state and thinking direction, just as Amber and Randall expected, were based on the fact that the Rubion galaxy garrison fleet was completely wiped out, and they had seriously misjudged the size of the Atlas combat fleet.

This also caused the federal fleet to abandon the plan of directly breaking in and launching an attack at the first moment, and instead continue to carry out the previous "high-speed raid" operation.

Ever since the strategic decisive battle with the Star Dragon Empire ended and the two sides began to contact and negotiate a ceasefire, the Federal Navy has attached great importance to its fleet.

Because during the "strategic decisive battle", one-third of the warships of the entire Federal Navy were sunk, and less than half of the remaining warships were intact.

Therefore, fleets like the 17th and 18th fleets, which have been supplemented and have become relatively complete in organization, have become the rare "fresh forces" that can be deployed quickly in the Federal Navy.

But a more contradictory point is that the Federal Navy also attaches great importance to these "fresh forces" used to support the situation, and does not want them to be easily damaged in battle.

Before Bernelli and Stoner set off, Marshal Trafalgar repeatedly warned them to be extremely cautious and not to engage in a head-on confrontation with the Atlas fleet unless absolutely necessary.

Even if we must fight, we have to wait until the follow-up support arrives and the federal fleet has an absolute advantage in numbers before we take action.
This is also the reason why the two commanders of the 17th and 18th fleets are so cautious.

Because they also know that the main fleet of the Federal Navy can no longer afford to squander it at will. In order to deter the Star Dragon Empire and the "rebels" throughout its territory, the Federal Navy must always maintain a certain size.

That is to achieve the effect of the so-called 'existence fleet'.

If the two of them got carried away for a moment and crippled or even destroyed the two main fleets in the Rubion galaxy, it would be possible that the Federation would be plunged into complete civil strife or even destroyed.

So in order to avoid becoming the "eternal sinners" in future history textbooks, Bernelli and Stoner finally chose a more stable approach. The caution of the federal fleet made Randall and others on the other side feel relieved.

After confirming that the opponent showed no signs of changing formation or trajectory, and continued to approach with the momentum of "high-speed raid", Randall knew that the opponent was most likely being fooled.

Between the enemy fleet forming a battle formation and showing an attitude of annihilating all of them, and the enemy fleet assuming a posture of high-speed raid, Randall decisively chose the latter to deal with.

Moreover, the dense formation of the fleet under high-speed raiding also makes it easier for plasma torpedoes to hit~
Soon, after confirming that the federal fleet had not changed its mind, Randall issued new orders again.

"All fleets, pay attention to the flagship signal, and prepare to activate the 'visible light band jammer'. Selina, once the Federation fleet enters the practical detection range of optical and infrared, you will be the first to release the signal."

"Understood, Captain! Observation in progress!"

At this moment, the relative speed between the federal fleet and Atlas's "bait fleet" has reached 100 kilometers per second, which is almost the same as the relative speed of the real combat fleet where Randall is.

Therefore, the distance between the two sides was shortened very quickly. 30 minutes after the federal fleet entered the radar detection distance of 25 kilometers, it entered the practical observation distance of 15 kilometers for optical and infrared detection equipment.

At this distance, these devices can basically observe the target clearly, and combined with the images synthesized by the radar equipment, they can basically generate real-time monitoring images.

That is, after the federal fleet entered this distance and, under the orders of Bernelli and Stoner, started visible light observation.

The scene that caught the eyes of all the observation teams was a huge "light ball" that appeared behind the fleet that had just been discovered.

There was such a densely packed group of warships that even if the radar wave cancellation device was turned off, it was impossible for the radar to distinguish them.

Not to mention the flashes in the optical and infrared channels that were enough to blind the observation team's eyes, making the Atlas fleet a real 'disco ball' hanging next to Rubion V.

Looking at the images sent back by the observation team, which showed the Atlas fleet buried in a large ball of white light, Benelli and Stoner suddenly felt that their brains were not enough.

They were not unfamiliar with this visible light band jammer, as it was also equipped on the warships of the Federal Navy.

But there are too few scenarios where it can be used in daily life.

After the fleet was deployed, the interference caused by this jammer to the enemy warships was not as great as the developers imagined. Instead, it provided guidance to the enemy's attack targets.

However, with the support of the Atlas fleet's current 'dense spherical array', the visible light band jammers really turned the fleet into a 'blinding light ball with no blind spots in all directions', and completely thwarted the federal fleet's attempt to observe through optical channels.

In addition, the dense formation made it impossible for radar to effectively judge the scale, which directly led to Benelli and Stoner only knowing that a new fleet had been discovered.

However, there is no information about how many ships this fleet has and what its specific configuration is.

"Damn it, if there are mobile fortresses here, we can just fire a barrage of cannons at them! I wonder if they dare to deploy such a formation!" Major General Benelli excitedly hammered the armrest of the captain's seat, his face full of happiness.

"Well said, but don't we have it?"

Major General Stoner also sighed, obviously not expecting this situation at all.

"So the question is, what should we do next?"

(End of this chapter)