From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 577 Harvesting the Fruits of Victory
The federal fleet of the Rubion galaxy was ultimately defeated.

Although Vice Admiral Verne, commander of the 18th Fleet, quickly took over command after the deaths of four other fleet commanders, he was still unable to reverse the morale of the federal fleet, which had already fallen to the bottom.

Due to the instantaneous loss of a large number of main fleets, although the remaining federal warships still outnumbered the Atlas combat fleet, it was obvious that the secondary ships were in a leaderless state and could not maintain the battle line under such circumstances.

Some captains who were more flexible in their thinking and less afraid of the Naval Court of Justice immediately commanded their warships to leave the formation, and then after the main propulsion array was operated at super power to quickly increase the speed, they entered the jump and left the battlefield.

According to previous human regular military fleets - whether it was the Federation or the Empire, warships that left the battle without permission generally had only three outcomes.

Or they can voluntarily "surrender" and provide various reasons to request a lighter punishment.

Or they would be discovered by the military, captured with their boats, and given the maximum punishment.

The rest of them just became pirates or joined a rebel army.
The command of the Atlas combat fleet, including Amber, naturally discovered that the federal fleet was gradually disengaging.

There was not much that Atlas' numerous warships could do about this situation because they did not have enough warships to intercept.

Therefore, they could only rely on some nearby warships to attack and try to intercept the enemy. After all, Amber and the others could not determine whether these warships had run away or went to other areas to reorganize their formation.

Fortunately, as the fleets pressing in from two directions continued to compress the space of the Federal Fleet, it became increasingly difficult for these warships to make jumps.

When Amber drove the spare machine of 'ATLAS Kai', holding a 'light saber' big enough to cut down ships, and brought a large number of HCPs and heavy armored combat boats, she broke through the interception of the Federation fleet with ease and killed the only remaining flagship 'Legality' in one breath.

The final commander, Vice Admiral Verne, finally ordered the entire fleet to surrender, and ordered his flagship, the 'Legal', to be the first to fire three white flares representing surrender.

"Fuck! We won! We really won!"

The moment he saw the 'Legitimate' sending out the surrender signal, Randall excitedly jumped up from the captain's seat of the 'Infinity'. If it weren't for the safety belt connecting the seat to the back of his cabin suit, he might have rushed directly to the ceiling of the bridge.

But the others on the bridge paid no attention to the actions of the commander of the Third Task Force, because the entire bridge of the Infinity was already immersed in the ecstasy and excitement of victory.

Cheers, screams, sobs, these sounds that had been suppressed in previous battles were finally released and vented at this moment.

After the communicator broadcast the situation to the entire ship, it quickly spread throughout the super flagship, and the entire battleship suddenly became boiling.

Next came the other surviving warships of Task Force 3, HCPs, and heavy armored combat boats.
After a bloody battle, Murat leaned back in his chair and let out a long sigh after seeing the white flares rising like a rain of light from the distant federal fleet in the cockpit of his machine.

The 'ATLAS-Mass Production Type' he was driving had no intact outer armor on its body, and its huge body was covered with traces of being hit by various weapons.

However, under Murat's control, these unavoidable attacks only caused minimal damage to the machine, which allowed him to continue fighting until now, instead of going to Valhalla to "report" to Baninger and his team.
I don’t know whether this is good news or bad news.
-
36 hours later, the Atlas combat fleet completed the suppression and temporary supervision of all enemy ships in the battle area, and also rescued all the survivors as much as possible.

Amber also saw the battle report completed by Cleves, Randall, Isabel and others with the assistance of Lilith in the combat meeting room of the Dawn.

Although the Atlas Group ultimately won this battle, which was a matter of life and death and future, the Atlas combat fleet, which was the main force in the battle, suffered heavy losses.

The two unmanned fleets, which had barely managed to gather nearly full strength before the war, served as the main "anti-line units" of the Atlas side in this fleet battle. After the battle, their casualty rates exceeded 50%.

Among the remaining 50% of unmanned warships that were not directly sunk in battle, there are actually many "badly damaged" warships that have basically lost their combat capabilities, and if they are not repaired in time, they may even be scrapped directly.

Although facing the attack of four full-strength main fleets and being able to hold out for so long with half of the warships surviving is unprecedented in the history of human fleet warfare, Amber still felt dizzy when she saw the battle damage report.

After all, these unmanned warships are built with real money, not blown by the wind.

Fortunately, the losses on the unmanned fleet side were very simple, with only the warships lost. The high-level shipborne control personalities on board were all safely returned to the virtual space created by Lilith before their warships sank.

Theoretically, as long as Atlas builds new warships, these high-level shipborne control personalities can regain combat effectiveness in minutes, and they will be in the form of "reliable veterans" who have experienced fierce battles.

So when Lilith found that Amber was a little dizzy because of the damage to the unmanned fleet, she whispered in his ear very considerately:

"Master~ Don't rush to faint."

Then, Amber saw the next item in the battle damage entry - the casualties of the Third Fleet and the First Fleet, which also included the personnel losses in these manned fleets.

The Third Task Force suffered heavy losses because it had experienced two consecutive fierce battles, with a combat loss rate of over 65%.

The few destroyers and frigates that survived the "Battle of the Three Idiots" will also be decommissioned and sealed after the battle and transformed into museums.
The losses on the First Fleet's side were relatively small, because the attack was launched from the nadir direction of the Federal Grand Fleet, and it did not encounter many counterattacks, with a combat loss rate of only 10%.

However, due to a round of "Death Charge" operations following Amber, the loss rate of HCPs and heavy armored combat boats in the fleet exceeded 50%.
"I can accept the loss of ships and equipment. As long as we have money, we can always replenish these things, but the casualties are still too serious."

After seeing the bright red number '19229' in the column of casualties of the Atlas combat forces in the battle report, Amber sighed with some disappointment.

Although the Atlas combat fleet has greatly reduced its personnel compared to the traditional fleets of the Federation and the Star Dragon Empire, the number of casualties in a fleet battle is still not small.

Amber also knew that the meaning of this string of numbers was not as simple as in the game, but represented a series of vibrant yet withered lives.

There are humans, Roma, and even a few elves from the Thousand Star Empire.
They came together in the Atlas Group with their different personal goals and dreams, and then left their lives forever in this dark and cold universe.

The above is what Amber's 'emotional side' thought after seeing the casualties.

Amber's "rational side" felt like her heart was bleeding after seeing this string of numbers.

Because this not only means that the Atlas Group has lost a group of experienced crew members, pilots, and drivers, but also requires a lot of time and energy to train them again.

It also means that the group will soon have to pay an astronomical amount of compensation.

But despite this, Amber still emphasized to Isabel, the HR director and the financial director that the pension must be paid out without any error, and that the families of the fallen soldiers must follow the group's "preferential treatment clauses for the families of the fallen soldiers."

Amber was extremely tough on this point and did not give others any chance to refute.

Of course, others didn't dare to refute him, especially when it came to these 'foundations'.

When discussing the preferential treatment for the families of the fallen soldiers, considering that the number of casualties this time was relatively high, he also asked some key questions.

"So, have the venue, teachers, equipment and other hardware and software facilities of Zhongsi College been prepared?"

"We're fully prepared. Master Ian Stormrage, who was previously responsible for training those young psychics, has also brought these children to the academy to conduct various tests for us in advance." The one who answered was Isabel, who was in charge of the preparations for Zhongsi Academy. After Amber's careful selection, she found that this noble lady was quite suitable for this project, and everything was arranged in an orderly manner.

“The first batch of teaching staff has been formed by personnel seconded from the Babel Tower Comprehensive Training Center, the Yuge Family Chamber of Commerce, Atlas United Industries, Atlas Mining, Atlas Private Military Company, and the Financial Business Center of the Group Headquarters. They completed pre-job training a month ago.

All the infrastructure needed by the academy, including the virtual reality training center, multi-functional comprehensive training ground, and multi-purpose workshop, have also been completed and accepted - by the way, George also reported that the mining team has reserved a good asteroid rubble, which can be allocated to the academy as a 'teaching aid'."

After listening to Isabel's report that all preparations for Zhongsi Academy had been completed, Amber nodded with relief.

This college, which is dedicated to the children of sacrificed employees of the Atlas Group, was also built by Amber.

As long as you are an employee of Atlas, no matter whether you are an ordinary staff or a fighter, as long as you sacrifice yourself for the company's cause, your family members can enjoy relevant pensions and welfare benefits, and your children can also choose to study at this Zhongsi Academy.

In this school, which is considered to be extremely strong in terms of "applicability and diversity" in terms of both faculty and hardware facilities, the children of the fallen soldiers can enter chemical engineering, manufacturing, mining, biomedicine, finance and combat-related majors after basic training and initial assessment.

After successful graduation, they will be directly divided up by the various companies under Atlas.

This means that as long as the children of the fallen soldiers enter Zhongsi College, they can directly enter the Atlas Group or its subsidiaries for employment after they reach adulthood.

You know, with the help of Lilith, the Atlas Group needs far less manpower than other companies. So after developing to this stage, except for combatants, the recruitment of new employees for other positions has become extremely strict, and it is often the case that tens of thousands of people compete for one position.
So from another perspective, after entering Zhongsi College, these children of the fallen soldiers have already reached the end point compared to other job seekers - if they are successfully "brainwashed" in Zhongsi College and set "dedicating their lives to the Atlas Group" as their life goal.
After finally finishing discussing the losses of the Atlas Group, the next topic made everyone at the meeting excited.

That's about the takeaway from this battle.

Although Atlas had indeed just experienced the biggest loss since its establishment, its post-war gains were definitely not small. The active federal warships recovered from the battlefield alone were enough to allow the combat fleet to "recover".

The captured capital ships were enough to equip 1.5 full-strength fleets, while the other light cruisers, destroyers, and frigates easily exceeded the number that should be in two full-strength fleets.

That is to say, after this battle, Atlas captured almost two fully staffed federal fleets.

Amber did not hesitate at all and immediately decided to "keep the ship but not the people".

Those who are willing to stay and join Atlas, especially maintenance personnel and HCP pilots, can be selected after identity review and assessment.

As for the other crew members and officers, Amber would simply "pack up" them and send them back to the Federation. He didn't want to help the Federation support so many people for free.

The remaining warships will be directly converted into unmanned warships while being repaired at the dock and then added to the two unmanned fleets that suffered heavy losses.

The severely damaged Third Task Force was directly merged with the First Fleet to become the only manned fleet of the Atlas Group as its main mobile force.

Compared to the visible and tangible "surface gains" such as battleships, Amber actually pays more attention to the "invisible" hidden gains.

The biggest hidden gain is that after the war, the control of the Federation and the galaxy autonomous government in the Rubion galaxy was almost wiped out.

From this moment on, Atlas became the largest armed force in the Rubion galaxy - and an unshakable one at that.

So Amber directly split the relatively complete First Fleet into several squadrons, and then dispersed them all.

Their goal is very simple and clear, which is to quickly suppress other forces in the galaxy that possess space armed forces, and then control all important infrastructure in the galaxy, such as all collection stations, deep space refining stations, docks, industrial space cities, and colonial satellites.

For facilities with few people, the Marines on the battleship can basically handle it by conducting a boarding operation.

The guards in these facilities had low fighting spirit and chose to surrender with almost no resistance.

As for the colonial satellites with more personnel left behind and slightly stronger defense capabilities, Atlas' warships simply adopted the means of siege and cutting off external contact, and then slowly captured them after the arrival of the large force.

Within 3-5 days after the end of the fleet battle, the armed forces of the Atlas Group controlled more than 80% of the deep space infrastructure of the Rubion system, completely gained control of Rubion V, and began to support the ground forces of the Renaissance Alliance to launch a new round of offensive.

At this point in time, it can be basically announced that the Rubion Galaxy is completely under the control of the Atlas Group, and this is also the first galaxy that Amber actually controls.
However, after receiving these reports one after another, Amber did not relax, but turned around and ordered the garrison forces of Pella IV and A. Bava. Ku Fortress to enter a state of combat readiness.

After all, no one knows whether the Federation has other hidden powers, nor does anyone know whether Marshal Trafalgar will choose to "change homes" like he did in the strategic decisive battle with the Empire.

Moreover, Pella IV, which is located within the territory of the Star Dragon Empire, must also be on guard against the Star Dragon Empire.

Because when the news of the Federation Navy's defeat spread, Amber could not determine whether the Empire would try to take back Pella IV while the Federation's main force suffered heavy losses and the Atlas Group's main force was transferred away.

It is true that Princess Agnes did extend an olive branch to Amber through Baron Basf, and was even willing to hand over Pyra IV to Amber and Atlas.

But the plot planning and copywriting of "Starry Sky OL" taught Amber one thing, that is, never believe in the "promises" of those high-ranking officials in the Federation, the Empire, or even the Thousand Star Empire.

Before the power of both sides is completely equal, unconditionally believing in these so-called "promises" is no different from putting your head into the noose.

However, a report received on the fifth day after the fleet battle still made Amber feel a little amused and helpless.

"What? You said that Baron Bassef also brought his fourth wife to the A. Bava Ku Fortress?"

"Yes, Boss," Shikoti on the other side of the screen nodded with a helpless smile.

"I was told to release the application three hours ago, and the person arrived at the fortress gate two hours ago."

"So you just bring the person here first and wait, right?"

Amber raised an eyebrow and asked a crucial question.

"Does Baron Bass or the Empire or the Princess already know the outcome of our fleet battle with the Federation?"

Shikoti: "Boss, we gradually shut down the quantum entanglement communication services in the Rubion galaxy and nearby areas after the battle began. To enter the nearest communication service area, the fastest distance is five jumps. In other words, five days. If nothing unexpected happens, this message should have been sent out not long ago."

"In other words, Baron Basf brought his wife here without knowing the outcome. And it is said that this 'fourth wife' is quite familiar with Agnes?"

"That's right~"

"interesting."

(End of this chapter)