From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 555: Fierce Fighting and Damage Control
As the first super flagship of the Atlas Group, the crew of the Infinity are all elites drawn from the combat fleet, or veterans who are extremely loyal to the group.

In the eyes of these crew members, being selected to become crew members of this super flagship is an honor.

As a symbol of 'absolute force' on the battlefield, from the first day on board, the crew members have always believed that the 'Infinity' should be at the forefront of the battle line like a sharp knife under any circumstances.

So at the critical moment of the previous attack on the Rubion galaxy garrison fleet, after Randall raised the 'Z flag' and ordered a flagship assault, the crew of the 'Infinity' did not show any fear or hesitation, but instead seemed to have been waiting for this order for a long time.

The final result was just as they expected. The Infinity rushed into the kindergarten like a giant, sweeping away the surrounding enemy warships and completely shattering the line of the Rubion Galaxy's garrison fleet, thus securing victory.
This also made the pride and confidence of the crew on the Infinity - whether they were crew members or HCPs, pilots and drivers of the heavy armored combat boat squadron - reach a new peak after this battle.

When facing a more powerful enemy and hearing Captain Randall once again give the order to "fight to the death", everyone accepted the order calmly and calmly, because they all believed that this super flagship would lead them to victory once again.

"This is a ship-wide broadcast. This ship is about to conduct a series of emergency maneuvers. All frontline personnel are requested to guard their positions. Second-line backup personnel are requested to secure themselves immediately and activate the anti-gravity function of the cabin suits according to regulations!"

"This is a ship-wide broadcast."

Three consecutive ship-wide broadcasts caused everyone to stop what they were doing and immediately check their own fixing measures.

After the crew members who were already at their combat positions confirmed that the seat belts on their seats were properly fastened, they continued to devote themselves to the work at hand. The second-line backup personnel or maintenance team members in other positions quickly secured the tools in their hands and the gadgets around them, and then tied their own safety ropes and held on to the nearest handrails tightly.

After doing all this, everyone also activated the 'pharmacological anti-gravity mode' they were wearing in the cabin. The minimally invasive injection system at the limbs and heart and lungs would soon carry out the first wave of injections of drugs that would increase the body's anti-gravity capabilities.

This drug can greatly improve humans' tolerance to G-forces in all directions. This tolerance is not only required by HCP pilots and heavy armored combat boat drivers, but also an ability that warship crew members need to possess.

Because when a large warship performs some emergency maneuvers with its full body posture nozzles activated, the pressure on the crew is also very high.

Especially for a super flagship with a long hull like the 'Infinity', it is very common for crew members at the bow and stern to experience 'red vision' when making large axial adjustments.

As the three ship-wide broadcasts ended, the Infinity leaped out from above the "light ball" like a giant whale and, under the effect of vector propulsion, directly inserted itself between the Third Task Force and the Federation Fleet.

At this time, the straight-line distance between the two fleets was 8000 kilometers, and it was still shrinking. When the distance between the two fleets reached 4000 kilometers, it was also the shortest distance for the federal fleet's high-speed raid.

When the Infinity passed through the beam axis of the Federation fleet like a madman, it happened to be the moment when the fleet launched a salvo, and a brilliant rain of light suddenly appeared between the two fleets. As expected, this super flagship that passed quickly through the beam axis blocked many attacks for the warships behind.

The 'lateral movement' route chosen by Randall was very particular. This route basically covered a number of light cruisers and destroyers, which were extremely vulnerable in fleet confrontations, and also caused the 'Infinity' to absorb a lot of the attacks originally directed at these warships.

After supplying nearly half of the ship's energy to the deflection field, the 'Infinity' actually entered the 'fortress mode' conceived by the design team.

The large number of deflection force field generators arranged at the front end of the battleship, with the supply of excess energy, also increased their respective force field generation areas, which made the "Infinity" like a big sister holding an umbrella, holding up a huge deflection force field.

The Federation warships on the opposite side just watched as this super flagship used vector control to run around in front of the fleet to attract firepower - this was indeed effective, because after the "Infinity" appeared, the shipboard control personality of the Federation fleet warships set it as a "high-risk target".

In the conventional shipborne control personality combat logic, this kind of "high-risk target" needs to be solved by concentrated fire first, so in the second round of salvos, a large number of attacks by the Federation fleet were directed at the Infinity, but due to the latter's agile maneuvers, the effect of this round of concentrated fire was not very good, and it even failed to overload the deflection field of this giant ship.

If the design team of the Infinity and Saleh saw this scene, apart from thinking that it confirmed their design ideas were correct, they would not be too shocked.

After all, in the 'fortress mode' they had envisioned, the defense ceiling of both the 'Infinity' and her sister ship the 'Dawn' - that is, the entire Infinity-class super flagship - was ridiculously high.

If half of the ship's energy is used to supply the deflection field array and forced cooling is not restricted, this giant ship will be able to withstand at least one salvo from a full fleet.

Although the Infinity was now facing two federal fleets, the other side did not concentrate their fire on her, so she was not at all panicked even if she used herself as a shield in front of the fleet to attract fire.

Moreover, under Randall's command, the giant ship was still jumping up and down to perform evasive maneuvers, and once it found that a warship in that area might not be able to hold on, it would immediately rush over and use its own hull to block all the opponent's beam axes -
"What the hell is this 'iron turtle' jumping up and down? Is it here just to disgust us?!"

Stoner, on the flagship of the 18th Fleet, looked at the huge ship marked as a 'high-risk target' in a purple frame in the panoramic porthole and couldn't help but curse.

By this time, Stoner and Benelli finally figured out the true size of the Atlas fleet on the opposite side.

Although it was hard for them to believe and accept this fact, they had to admit that the enemy before them did not even have half a fully staffed fleet.

After using all his tricks, the other commander succeeded in making the two of them afraid to act rashly.

But it's too late to know this now.

After all, both fleets are currently in a state of high-speed raiding. Not to mention that if they forcefully decelerate, they will need to turn the axis and use the main propulsion array to decelerate, leaving the sides of the fleets completely exposed.

Even the plasma torpedoes and heavy anti-ship missile clusters that had caught up with them from behind made them dare not even think about slowing down.

The warships at the rear of the formation might not be able to be saved now. Are you trying to kill all the warships by slowing down the entire fleet?
Therefore, the two commanders of the federal fleet could only find a way to make the fleet's shooting cause maximum damage during this short "attack window" during the high-speed raid.

"Pass on my order. All warships should ignore the enemy's flagship and prioritize attacking the enemy's regular warships!"

Benelli and Stoner immediately issued two similar orders, and the shipboard control personalities of the 17th and 18th fleets also immediately adjusted the attack priority, directly removing the "Infinity" from the lock list and began to concentrate on attacking the Third Combined Fleet behind it.

This approach was immediately effective, because no matter how large the deflection field that the Infinity could support was, the area it covered was limited, and it was impossible to protect the entire Third Task Force behind it.

So when the Federation Fleet began to ignore this super flagship and focused on attacking other warships behind it, Atlas' warships immediately suffered losses.
The heavy cruiser "Sun Reward", which joined the Third Task Force as a supplementary force and also carried a large number of Renaissance Alliance trainees, was grazed on the side by several battleship-class heavy particle cannons after the deflection field was overloaded.

Fortunately, the "Sun's Reward" was not hit by plasma torpedoes or heavy anti-ship missiles, which were weapons with strong oxidizers and metal hydrogen propellants, so the secondary damage it suffered was not great.

But unfortunately, being hit by a heavy particle cannon's direct attack is not much better.

At nearly one percent of the speed of light, each gram of heavy metal particles carries 15 megajoules of kinetic energy, so if there is no deflection force field to scatter it away, being hit by the jet of heavy metal particles on the outer armor plate is a very terrifying thing.

Although it was only a "scratch", a terrible wound was torn on the port side of the "Sun's Reward" heavy cruiser. A large amount of wreckage, fragments, debris from the ship, and the unfortunate crew members were ejected from the gap to the rear like a garbage bag breaking.

If it weren't for the 'Fifty Year Veteran' class shipborne control personality upgraded by Lilith, which used the 'override control' authority at the moment of the hit to allow the attitude control nozzle in the other direction of the ship to operate, the heavy cruiser would most likely have been unbalanced by the attack, and even collided with other warships in the current dense formation of the fleet.

After discovering that the 'Sun's Reward' had been severely damaged, another nearby heavy cruiser in better condition immediately stepped forward and hid the 'Sun's Reward' behind it, allowing the damage control personnel on the heavy cruiser time to deal with the battleship urgently.

This is also a common practice in fleet warfare. After all, a warship that can be treated urgently and put back into battle after being damaged will play a greater role than a warship that sinks due to severe damage.
When the Sun's Reward got a temporary respite, the damage control personnel who had been on standby at various locations along the battleship's central axis immediately rushed to the damaged area marked by the ship's control personality with the "worker bees" assigned to their group. In addition to the marines on the ship, these damage control personnel were the only two crew members who needed to wear combat exoskeletons.

Because in the damaged areas of the warship, these combat exoskeletons with armor plates and additional auxiliary power are more sturdy and durable than cabin suits, even hard-shell cabin suits.

No more damage control teams entering a damaged area and being wiped out by flying metal fragments.
Such experiences were gained by the human navy in actual combat after entering space with many lives, so no one would think that these experiences are useless, even the Roma serving on human warships are no exception.

For example, Hern Bloodhoof, the damage control commander on the Sun's Reward, is a strong tauren who takes these experiences as his guiding principles.

After the "Sun's Reward" stabilized its posture, he first asked the ship's onboard control personality to confirm whether the damage control team and the "Worker Bee" were damaged, and confirmed the damage to the ship.

Then he immediately ordered all control teams to move out according to the instructions of the ship's control personality "Fanny". At the same time, he also led the direct control team around him and rushed to the B2 area on the port side which was the most severely damaged.

In combat mode, it is actually difficult to tell that Hearn Bloodhoof, wearing a combat exoskeleton with yellow and black diagonal stripes, is a tauren.

Unlike the marines on the ground, the two horns on the heads of these Roma "minotaurs" are actually very troublesome because the exoskeletons often need to be in a fully enclosed state during operations inside the ship.

At the beginning, Eugene Koch and his team, who were responsible for coordinating the design of the exoskeleton, thought of wrapping the horns together with a composite material.

But this raises two thorny issues:

First, the horns on each minotaur’s head are different, so the horn wrapping component has to be tailor-made and cannot be mass-produced.

Secondly, although the bones of the Roma minotaurs stop growing after adulthood, the horns on their heads never stop growing - this is why the minotaur clan has always retained the tradition of "daily horn collision", in order to make the horns stronger and to polish them during the collision.
So no matter how you look at it, the people of the Minotaur Clan are not very suitable for working inside the ship.

But the problem is that these minotaurs are extremely proud of joining the Atlas Group, just as they are proud of their own horns.

So no matter how Atlas' Human Resources Department communicates, they hope to be able to allow some Minotaur to serve on the warship.

To quote a respected Tauren elder: "We would rather reduce our salary than fall behind other clans!"

As for the final solution, after seeing it, Amber was surprised at the determination of these minotaurs.

Those minotaurs who completed the selection and were assigned to the warships all chose to undergo a "bone horn pulpectomy" to remove their former "pride"
Then they were replaced with a pair of detachable, customizable lightweight alloy horns.

Normally they carry this pair of "artworks" made by CNC machine tools. When they are ready for battle, they will remove the alloy horns and store them away.

These minotaurs who had their horns replaced were not sad about the removal of their "original pride". Instead, they became celebrities in the clan because of the shiny horns.

By the way, after the Minotaur clan first proposed this solution, many other horned Roma clans followed suit and adopted the same method to allow their people to board the ship.

When Hearn Bloodhoof, who had plucked the horns, rushed to the B2 area on the port side with his direct damage control team, the first thing that caught his eye was the gap that was so huge that it looked like a "sky curtain".

Everyone could even see the blue-white, scarlet, and dark purple beams flashing constantly in the universe outside, as well as the silver-white arcs produced when the surrounding warships were hit, and the explosions produced when the anti-ship missiles were intercepted.

From a more intuitive perspective at this moment, the left side of the 'Sun Reward' was not torn open by the heavy metal particle jet, but a large number of external armor plates were directly blown away. This situation is far more troublesome than the former.

"Boss, what should we do? This gap seems a bit too big and a standard titanium alloy plate may not be able to fill it!"

After hearing the questions from other team members, Hearn Bloodhoof also activated the electromagnetic adsorption device on the foot of the combat exoskeleton, and then stood near the gap to check the damage to the warship.

But after a moment, his eyes narrowed, because the current situation was far more troublesome than what he had been trained for.

But as the battleship's damage control commander, all he could do was try his best to save the damaged heavy cruiser.

"No matter how big the gap is, you have to find a way to fill it! If the standard-sized plate can't fill it, just take a few more pieces and weld them together to fill it!"

Hern Bloodhoof made a quick decision and gave the order:
"Squad 1, take your 'Worker Bees' to the nearest damage control supplies warehouse and fetch all the usable titanium alloy plates!

Shift 2, stay where you are and wait for the plates to be in place before starting the sealing operation!
Class 3, get ready to follow me and jump to the opposite cabin!"

After saying this, Hearn Bloodhoof connected to the ship's control personality again, and then said in a relatively gentle tone:

"Ms. Fanny, could you please mobilize some more worker bees to assist us? The damage in area B2 may not be repaired by our damage control team alone!"

"We have received the request and are dispatching the nearest 'Worker Bee'. Captain Hearn, do you need the 'Worker Bee' to approach from the outside of the ship?"

"That's great, Miss Fanny! Thank you for your support."

Before Hearn Bloodhoof could finish his words, he heard a member of the damage control team shout in a horrified tone:

"Oh my god, look!"

Everyone looked in the direction of the damage control officer's finger, and saw the "skylight" opened in the "Sun Reward". Because of the movement of the ship's hull, they could just see the federal fleet passing by at high speed like stars in the distance.

At this moment, everyone saw a grand round of "space fireworks" starting to be set off behind the federal fleet formation. Blue and white high-temperature plasma fireballs exploded and expanded in the cold universe, and these densely packed fireballs were even spreading to the interior of the fleet formation.

Hearn Bloodhoof was a veteran of the Pyla IV Orbital Battle. Although the Infinity entered the battlefield later, he knew that the Atlas fleet had dealt a heavy blow to the enemy through the tactic of using plasma torpedoes to bypass the enemy.
It's exactly the same as the scene in front of me.

"It seems that our fleet's tactics have worked! Men, let's go all out! Victory is just around the corner!"

"Yes! Sir!"
While the surviving warships of the Third Task Force began to save themselves, on the bridge of the Infinity, Randall finally heard the news he had been waiting for for a long time.

"Report! Authorized space fluctuation characteristics detected! It is the jump signal of the second and third unmanned fleets!"

(End of this chapter)