From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 666 One Pot
'Stonehenge' defensive area.

The news of Marshal Trafalgar's death eventually spread throughout the Federal Fleet, and for a time the morale of the entire fleet was greatly affected.

Under such circumstances, the joint fleet of Atlas and the Renaissance Alliance also changed its tactics. They no longer launched fierce attacks, but while occupying attack positions, they continuously sent small forces to attack the transport supply fleet of the Federal Navy.

Although the 'Stonehenge' defense zone is backed by the Federation's important deep space mining area, after a large number of fleets are concentrated here, the demand for logistical supplies is not as simple as food and water - in fact, most of the basic materials can be replenished by the mining area.

The transport and supply fleet is mainly transporting replacement parts, special alloys, fusion reactor replacement cores, superconducting batteries and other items. These important spare parts are the biggest loss for the fleet, especially in wartime.

Therefore, as more and more transport fleets were annihilated by Atlas's small fleets, less than 20% of the important materials could be successfully replenished to the "Stonehenge" defense zone, and various derivative problems gradually began to emerge.

The first thing that is manifested is the frequency of fleet mobilization, especially the frequency and distance of the reconnaissance fleet in performing tactical reconnaissance are restricted, and the frequency of the ship-borne HCP on the reconnaissance ship performing CSP (Combat Space Patrol) missions is also reduced.

The consequence of this was that the Federation Fleet's surveillance of the movements of Atlas and the Renaissance Alliance Fleet was no longer timely, and for the sake of stability, Commander-in-Chief Griezmann was unwilling to take the initiative to attack, so the entire fleet could only hold on in this huge asteroid belt.

Guterres, the fleet commander of the Atlas side, was naturally well aware of the behavior and command style of his old colleague. When the reconnaissance results reported back by the progressive reconnaissance unit were almost the same as what he had guessed, a new round of attack by the Atlas side began.

During this period, after Saleh led an increasingly large team to continuously "manually rub" the "Spectrum Destroyer" battlecruisers, several additional laser battlecruisers arrived at the front line one after another and merged with the previous six "Spectrum Destroyers".

Then, these high-energy laser patrols began their daily "roll call" work.

A large number of reconnaissance ships distributed around the "Stonehenge" defense zone mark out a number of targets on the periphery or within suitable range every day, and the task of the "Spectrum Destroyer" strike formation is to select suitable targets from these targets, and then use high-energy lasers to penetrate the dust and rubble in the "Stonehenge" defense zone and finally hit the target.

As the number of battlecruisers continued to increase, the efficiency of "roll calling" continued to increase. Later, it was even divided into two teams, each with five battlecruisers, and began to attack with double the efficiency.

The federal defenders received reports of casualties almost every day. After all, the Stonehenge defense zone was just an asteroid belt, not an airtight iron plate. In addition, the attack range of the Spectrum Destroyer battlecruiser was extremely long, so these federal warships did not know when they would be attacked. They could only pray every day that they would not become the unlucky one.——
"Where are the fifteen ice crystals that have adjusted their trajectory and are heading this way now?"

In the combat meeting room of the Infinity, which was moored in a safe area, Amber, who had just arrived the day before, asked.

At this moment, in addition to him and Guterres, Randall, Cleves, the fleet commander of the Renaissance Alliance, and even Franklin were also present in the conference room.

Because this meeting was also a combat seminar for the joint fleet of Atlas and the Renaissance Alliance to launch a general attack on the Stonehenge defense zone and completely destroy the remaining fleet of the Federation Navy. Hearing Amber's question, Guterres, who was in charge of the operation of the entire joint fleet, answered: "Boss, according to the data updated before the meeting, ice crystals 22 to 36 will collide with the Stonehenge defense zone in five days."

Amber nodded. "Fifteen ice crystals collide with us. Even if they can't cause direct damage, the chaos they create should be enough to cause trouble for the Federation Fleet, right?"

"Boss, based on my understanding of Griezmann, he will definitely adjust the fleet deployment within these five days, and there is a high probability that he will withdraw the fleet to the core area of ​​'Stonehenge' for back-to-back defense, forcing us to enter the interior of the asteroid belt to attack."

As Guterres spoke, he unfolded a combat star map on the holographic projection platform and zoomed in on the "Stonehenge" defense area.

"When this defense zone was originally included in the planning of the Federation Navy's important defense nodes, I also participated in the planning, so I am relatively clear about how the Federation Navy will deploy its formation in actual combat."

Seeing that everyone at the meeting had focused their attention, Guterres continued:
"Based on my understanding of Griezmann, he will definitely conservatively follow the standard plan. This will effectively affect the attack of the 'Spectrum Destroyer'. If these battlecruisers want to continue attacking, they will have to approach this defense area to find a suitable angle.

If the main fleet wants to launch an attack, it must enter the asteroid belt and fight them at close range. This is exactly what Griezmann wants to see. Only with such a melee can the federal fleet's advantage inside the defense zone be truly established."

Randall: "So, we have a chance to take advantage of their gathering at the core of the defense zone and wipe them out?"

"In theory, that's right," Guterres nodded, "but I can't guarantee that Griezmann won't come up with some unexpected moves. After all, my predictions are based on his behavioral habits."

"It's not a big problem~"

After listening to his description, Amber thought for a moment and quickly came to the conclusion: "It will be over if they collide directly. Fifteen ice crystals with a diameter of 8-10 kilometers will hit at sub-light speeds - and they will hit the core area where the asteroid debris is more densely distributed. The chain reaction it triggers alone will be able to disintegrate most of their resistance.

It just so happens that we can observe the actual combat effect of the "Icebreaker" plan in advance this time. After all, when the remaining ice crystals fly into the capital star system of the Federation in three months, the defense and firepower density there will only increase. "

After that, Amber looked at the fleet commanders of the Renaissance Alliance who were attending the combat seminar. His eyes swept over these spirited young officers, made eye contact with each of them, and saw the spirit in their eyes.

But he didn't have much eye contact with Franklin.

(End of this chapter)