From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 629 Crush
"Report, hyperspace fluctuations detected! Characteristics determined to be fleet-level jump, distance 0.9 light seconds! Composite reconnaissance unit is being activated!"

"Report, the long-wave radar has completed target acquisition, and the infrared and ultraviolet detection teams are following up to confirm that it is a large fleet-level target, with a scale of about 3-4 fleets!"

"Report, the target's radar and infrared signals have disappeared. It is suspected that radar wave cancellation and black body overlay have been activated. The shipboard control personality is predicting the target's track based on the last position, direction, and speed. It can be confirmed that the target fleet is on the ecliptic plane!"

One after another, information reports were broadcasted on the bridge of the Kraken-class battleship BrahMos. Several people in the command area of ​​the bridge and some holographic figures around them all frowned, and their facial expressions became less calm.

These rebel leaders from various forces - or in their own words, 'rebel leaders' and 'revolutionaries' - are gathering on the slightly messy bridge of this temporary flagship through a holographic conference.

The lights on the bridge, which automatically adjust their brightness according to the amount of light entering the panoramic portholes, shine on their faces, which are either anxious or cunning, outlining a series of vivid and complex expressions.

"He is indeed an old fox. His fleet is also elite enough. With just one tactical maneuver, he entered the advantageous attack position on the ecliptic plane."

A rebel fleet commander who was a former garrison fleet general spoke up, and the faces of the people around him became even uglier after hearing this.

"We must enter the ecliptic plane, otherwise this battle will be impossible to start. The mobility advantage of the Federation Fleet there is too significant."

Another general who had a lot of actual combat experience frowned and spoke anxiously, his eyes revealing a hint of helplessness and deep anxiety. He knew in his heart that this was an extremely difficult task for the current "combined fleet", but in the current situation, he seemed to be unable to find a more appropriate response plan.

"Then let our friends from the Freedom Front and the People's Choice lead the team. Your fleet is better trained, and the rest of us can maneuver behind you."

The commander of the Workers' Union Fleet, who initiated this joint operation and summoned these fleets here, spoke:
"With you two here, I believe this won't be a difficult task for our 'Combined Fleet'. We have finally gained an absolute advantage in manpower this time, and we must make good use of this opportunity to kill Trafalgar!"

The two generals with more experience in fleet warfare in the combined fleet looked at each other after hearing this, and then one of them spoke:

"In fact, entering the ecliptic plane is not the biggest problem we are facing now."

"The biggest problem is how to deploy when we meet the enemy, and what are the combat objectives and plans afterwards?"

The commander from the People's Choice spoke up. He was quite straightforward, so he continued without any disguise:
"Which one will be the first to reach the front of the formation? The training levels of our fleets are already uneven. If there is a problem with the battle formation and the fleet is out of touch, it will be like a sheep walking into a tiger's mouth!"

"That's right. Our fleet will not move unless this issue is resolved!"

After hearing the words of the Popular Front commander, another general agreed without hesitation, his eyes full of vigilance and unwillingness.

He secretly wondered how the little fortune he had accumulated with so much difficulty could be consumed so easily. In this chaotic and disorderly rebel camp, the people around him were not as easy to talk to as they seemed during the casual chats these days.

Once you lose your strength here, it means you lose everything and become a fish on the chopping board of others.

His words made everyone look at each other in bewilderment. For a moment, the command area of ​​the bridge fell into a deathly silence. Only the faint sound of electricity from various instruments, like the whisper of a ghost, echoed faintly in the dull air.

The experienced general of the Freedom Front couldn't help but sigh inwardly:
"It's just a mob that was put together temporarily, and everyone has different plans in mind. I'm afraid that the battle has not even started yet, but it's doomed to fail. Moreover, the Federation Fleet is far superior to us in terms of the number of warships, the strength of its firepower, and the quality of its soldiers, and it is commanded by Marshal Trafalgar himself."

Thinking of this, the commander also looked up at the "enemy fleet" marked with a frame on the panoramic porthole.

"This battle is very dangerous and the future is uncertain."
-
In the cold and deep space of the Lisidius galaxy, which seemed like an endless abyss, the federal fleet that had broken away from the jump maintained a tight formation, like a giant steel dragon lurking in the sea of ​​stars. After successfully completing the tactical maneuvers personally formulated by Marshal Trafalgar, it quickly and accurately sent the entire fleet into the ecliptic plane.

On the ship's hull, indicator lights of various shapes and colors flashed alternately, and the dark blue tail flames ejected from the plasma propulsion array pushed the warships to glide gracefully across the ecliptic plane, just like performing a magnificent and orderly interstellar dance. Their maneuvers in outer space seemed so calm and comfortable, as if the entire universe had become their stage for wanton galloping.

Even Amber and the Empire's naval generals, seeing this scene, had to praise the training level of these three elite federal fleets.

However, in the opinion of Marshal Trafalgar and Admiral Carroll, if these three most elite fleets of the Federation Navy cannot achieve this level, then it will not be worthy of the efforts the Navy has put into them.
On the other hand, the rebel fleet is in a difficult situation.

Although they were led by the two better-trained fleets, the Freedom Front and the People's Choice, the other rebel fleets still had difficulty in the current tactical maneuver, which required them to keep a distance from the enemy while withstanding the gravitational pull from other directions and sending the fleet into the ecliptic plane.

As those warships tried their best to maintain their maneuverability, they looked like a group of tired travelers carrying heavy burdens and moving forward with difficulty.

The hull trembled slightly, as if groaning in pain, and the dull roar of the engine seemed to be feebly expressing the heavy pressure brought by the additional power demand.

In addition, the previous tactics regarding formations did not produce any results, so in the end the fleet commander of the Workers' Union simply had everyone line up in a row - in his opinion, his own fleet was more than twice the size of the enemy's, and lining up in a row would maximize the firepower advantage and avoid the debate within the combined fleet.

But he still underestimated the bottom line of these mobs he had gathered.

When the tactical maneuver order was issued, the commanders of each fleet had ulterior motives and secretly made their own calculations. They secretly ordered their fleets to slow down their maneuvering speed so that their fleets could fall to the back.

This also caused the originally barely neat and tight battle formation to gradually become loose and messy, as if it was being pulled by an invisible but extremely powerful hand. The distances between the warships were uneven, and there was no tacit understanding at all, like a pile of loose sand, tottering in the strong winds of the universe.

As the distance between the two sides shortened, the federal fleet quickly deployed reconnaissance ships in advance and obtained the movements of the rebel fleet.

When seeing the fleet already scattered before even approaching the ecliptic, Admiral Trafalgar on the bridge of the Dreadnought laughed out loud.

"Humph, they are indeed a mob."

Admiral Carol looked a little solemn after seeing the number of rebel fleets, but he couldn't hide his excitement and said:

"This opportunity is simply delivered to our doorstep." Marshal Trafalgar nodded slightly, his expression cold and resolute: "That's right, and they only knew to follow us into the ecliptic plane, but ignored that we were maneuvering along the direction of the ecliptic plane, while they were completely the opposite. I estimate that it will take until the two sides officially start fighting before these rebel fleets will find that they simply don't have any extra energy to move from the power unit."

Seeing this, the Federal Navy Marshal no longer hesitated and gave the order in an unquestionable tone:

"All fleets, use the ecliptic plane to accelerate, target the rebels' left wing, and attack at full speed!"

In an instant, the engine power of the Federation fleet's warships increased dramatically, and the light became brighter, as if brilliant new stars suddenly exploded in the universe. The fleet, which was already approaching the rebels by orbiting the ecliptic, was now like an arrow shot from a bow, rushing straight at the protruding 'left wing' of the rebels with an unstoppable momentum.

If the rebel fleet really has this "left wing"...
The battle started somewhat suddenly. Even Trafalgar and Carol did not expect that the exchange of fire between the two sides would be so sudden.

After two hours of confrontation and approach, when the rebel fleet discovered that the three fleets of the Federation Navy had left their stealth mode and entered the maximum effective range of their main guns at an extremely fast speed, they opened fire almost impatiently in accordance with the principle of 'fire first'.

Open fire early, reload early, and launch the next round early. This is the core plan of the rebel fleet for this battle.

But even though the order to fire in unison was issued by the flagship, the seven rebel fleets, when attacking, were like fireworks that were connected to the wrong circuit, firing here and there without achieving the effect of a salvo at all.

Even Marshal Trafalgar only ordered the fleet to make a simple emergency evasive maneuver, and actually avoided more than half of the attacks. This would never happen in a serious fleet battle.

It also made Marshal Trafalgar and Admiral Carroll deeply aware of the extent to which the daily training and maintenance of these local fleets within the federal territory had been neglected.

"During this period of time, such a group of people have been allowed to act arrogantly within the Federation."

Marshal Trafalgar shook his head with a complicated expression. It was hard for him to accept that his previous plan could not be carried forward because of such a group of people.
Not long after, the rebel fleet's second round of salvo attack was ready. Although they were puzzled as to why the federal navy fleet had not launched an attack, they could not care less now. Since the enemy was standing there to take a beating, they naturally would not be polite.

Soon, the rebel fleet launched a second round of salvos. This time, the consistency of their attacks was significantly higher, and the coverage of the federal fleet in the target area was also much more accurate.

Under the baptism of this round of "light rain", the deflection force fields of the outer warships of the Federation fleet were finally activated on a large scale. For a moment, the periphery of the entire fleet was "lit up", and the arcs caused by the heavy metal particle jets on the deflection force fields almost connected into one piece in the universe.

Unfortunately, although the hit rate of this round of salvos was much higher, due to the long distance and the fact that the rebel fleet had not accurately reached the theoretical "ecliptic plane" at this time due to technical reasons, the rebel warships allocated a certain amount of energy to the power system to maintain a certain degree of closeness between them and the federal fleet, while resisting the additional gravity from other directions, so the main guns did not use the highest power to fire.
On the Federal Fleet's side, the relatively vulnerable light cruisers, destroyers and other ships were arranged inside the formation, while the periphery was filled with heavily armored battleships.

This also directly led to the rebels' second round of volleys, which also failed to score a single point.

After firing two bursts of rapid fire, the battleship's main gun will inevitably have to enter a long cooling period to prevent the overheated main gun acceleration track from malfunctioning during subsequent attacks.

The commander-in-chief of the rebel fleet finally made up his mind and directly ordered all battleships to use limited liquid nitrogen coolant to quickly cool down the main guns and shorten the fire vacuum period.

Although the others were somewhat reluctant, they also knew that they could not be stingy at this time, so they also asked their battleships to cool down quickly.

But the two consecutive wasted volleys of fire were, in a sense, their death sentence.

The federal fleet, which was withstanding the firepower, rushed into the advantageous attack range of the heavy particle cannon unscathed at this moment. The originally tight assault formation of the three fleets was quickly deployed in a pleasing manner in an instant.

Even inside those ships with the longest maneuvering distances and the highest angular velocities, all crew members were gritting their teeth and using various methods to withstand the acceleration brought by high-speed tactical maneuvers, but these elite members of the Federal Navy still completed the deployment of the artillery formation within the specified time, just like in their daily training.

"Cover the target enemy fleet's left wing! Each ship selects its own target, and the main guns fire double salvos from all gun ports! Fire!"

Following Marshal Trafalgar's deafening roar that seemed to tear the universe apart, violent jets of heavy metal particles rushed out from the battle line of the Federal Fleet like surging and endless rivers of water in the sky.

The moment the three fleets fired at the same time, they released terrifying energy wantonly, causing the surrounding space to distort and deform.

The precise and orderly shooting caused thousands of blue-white light beams to directly cover the entire left wing of the rebel fleet.

Wherever the particle jet passed, the deflection fields of the warships on the rebel left wing were shattered one after another due to overload. Then the torn outer armor plates also broke into countless pieces in an instant, flying everywhere, just like a gorgeous but deadly rain of fireworks.

The metal hull of the ship seemed to be kneaded by a pair of invisible but powerful giant hands, making a teeth-grinding crunching sound, and then it turned into countless glittering metal fragments, floating in the universe like flowers scattered by a fairy.

Immediately afterwards, a high-speed strike formation composed of a large number of heavy cruisers and destroyers broke away from the main battle line of the Federal Fleet, and with the help of the acceleration brought by the ecliptic plane and the control of its own vector nozzles, began to approach at high speed from another angle.

This is a new strike tactic developed by Marshal Trafalgar during many battles. It uses the advantages of high speed and high firepower to allow the strike formation composed of these two types of ships to approach from another angle. The heavy cruiser is responsible for firepower output, while the destroyer and the HCP it carries are responsible for providing anti-aircraft firepower for the strike formation.

This tactic, which has been proven to be effective in battles with the Imperial Fleet, is still effective today.
Or rather, it worked wonders.

The rebel fleet had obviously never seen such tactics before. Their formation was already in disarray due to the heavy attack on the left wing. The attacked fleet wanted to retreat, and the fleets in other positions had no intention of rushing up to cover their friendly forces.

And when the strike formation targeted the already riddled left wing of the fleet like a group of bloodthirsty sharks, the formation of the rebel fleet began to become increasingly chaotic.

After a rebel battleship was hit on the side by multiple heavy particle cannons, countless tiny holes instantly appeared on one side of the hull. The air pressure inside quickly leaked out, and various objects and personnel were sucked out of the ship by the strong air pressure. Then the hull began to disintegrate and collapse.

And not even one of the surrounding warships was willing to send out transport boats and HCPs to try to rescue some of the survivors.

Those crew members who managed to survive and float into outer space because they were wearing cabin suits could only watch as the giant steel ships around them slowly moved away one after another, leaving them floating in despair in the universe waiting for the oxygen in their cabin suits to run out and then die in pain.

(End of this chapter)