From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 745: Crown Fortress
Under the leadership of the officer of the Princess's Guard, Monton and others continued to move forward and soon came to a heavier explosion-proof door.

This alloy explosion-proof door was also deformed due to external impact, but it still remains operational.

A dozen soldiers of the Princess's Guard were squatting behind the temporary shelter at the door and the heavy weapons. After seeing Atlas's troops and the Guards officer leading the way, their tense nerves relaxed a little, but they still remained vigilant enough.

"I am Monton, the commander of the 1st Heavy Combined Brigade of Atlas. I am here to pick up Her Royal Highness Princess Agnes according to Mr. Amber's order."

Monton took a step forward and sent the IFF code as before.

The soldiers of the Princess' Royal Guards behind the bunker carefully checked and confirmed that the accompanying Royal Guards officer did not send out any danger signals. Then they nodded and said in the internal communication channel: "It's the troops of the Atlas Group! They are here to pick up Your Highness!"

Soon, with a burst of complex mechanical sounds, the deformed alloy explosion-proof door slowly opened, revealing a spacious circular space.

The Imperial Princess Agnes stood in the center, her dress covered in dust but still maintaining her royal dignity.

Finance Minister Jacques Kohl and other senior officials stood beside her. There was dust and blood on their faces, and they looked quite disheveled.

"This is Commander Monton."

Agnes looked at the big hairy man in front of her. Although she was still curious about these Roma people from the Atlas Group, her good expression management made her face calm. She took a step forward, her voice calm but full of majesty.

"It seems that Mr. Amber has kept his promise between us."

As Roma, Monton and Telak actually didn't have any special feelings towards the princess of the human world. Compared with the "respect" to the superior, it was more of a courtesy to high-end customers.

So at this moment, the former looked more like a front-line salesperson receiving a customer: "Reputation is the business card of our Atlas Group. Your Highness, the situation outside is critical. We must evacuate to a safe place immediately."

"Where is Mr. Amber? And where is the star dragon?" Agnes asked directly.

"What a coincidence! Mr. Amber is luring away the Star Dragon, and that's why we can take this opportunity to break into the Grand Palace area," Monton answered briefly, unwilling to say more about this almost suicidal action.

Agnes's eyes flashed with worry when she heard his words, but she quickly regained her composure.

"I understand." She turned to the Chancellor of the Exchequer and other officials. "Everyone, we cannot waste this opportunity created by Mr. Amber. Follow me and evacuate immediately."

Naturally, no one would object to evacuating from this damaged shelter to a safer place, and everyone was eager to leave immediately.

So under the arrangement of Monton and Terrak, the medical platoon began to treat the wounded in critical conditions, while the special operations team escorted Princess Agnes and these important imperial officials to the central location and began to withdraw.

"Your Highness, we will escort you to the airdrop fortress group." Terrac explained to the princess, "There are sufficient defense forces and medical facilities there."

Agnes nodded. "Lead the way."

After taking all the wounded and destroying the sensitive information in the shelter, the evacuation team began to move in an orderly manner. They passed through the twisted metal passage and returned to the ground.

The noon sun was so bright that everyone squinted their eyes. Outside this shelter, the heavy armored units of the frontline attack team had formed a temporary defense position, waiting for the princess and her entourage.

Under the guidance of Monton, Agnes, Natalia, Jacques Cole and several soldiers of the Guards boarded the heavy infantry fighting vehicle with additional armor. Other officers were assigned to different armored vehicles, and the wounded were taken away by medical vehicles.

"Retreat! Return to the fortress! Have the follow-up troops prepare to pick us up!"

Monton, half of his body sticking out of the top hatch of the armored command vehicle, shook his hairy arms and gave orders. The heavily armed team immediately adjusted their formation and began to move towards the airdrop fortress group.

On the way, Monton also reported to Hogg and others in Fortress No. 1 that he had received the 'VIP'. The latter breathed a sigh of relief and immediately contacted Agnes through the communication channel.

"Your Highness, I'm glad to hear that you're safe." Hogg's voice came from the loudspeaker. Although it sounded calm, Agnes could still hear a hint of joy in it.

"Thank you for your assistance, Mr. Hogg. How is the situation now?"

Hogg: "Your Highness, according to the judgment of the boss, Mr. Amber, the star dragon may have completely regained its autonomous consciousness. Now it is simply venting its anger on humans."

“Regained self-awareness”

Agnes closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I understand."

She didn't ask about Frederico's situation, but she already guessed the answer.

After receiving support from the follow-up troops, the front-line attack team, which had been transformed into a "VIP escort team", returned at a faster speed than before and soon saw the outline of the airdrop fortress group in the distance.

These huge steel fortresses stand quietly on the ground, as if they have always been here.

As an imperial princess, when Agnes saw the Atlas fortresses standing on the imperial capital, she felt a little uncomfortable, but she also knew that she had to act in an emergency. If Atlas had not forcibly sent an entire army down, she didn't know what the situation would be like now.
When the 'VIP convoy' drove into Fortress No. 1, everyone in the convoy and the fortress breathed a sigh of relief.

Agnes and the others were quickly led to the fortress's command tower, where she saw Hogg and Van Fleet, both of whom were staring at the big screen, which was showing a chase in the sky.

"Your Highness." The two men saluted her.

"No need to be polite."

Agnes walked to the screen naturally as if she had returned home, "Is that Mr. Amber?"

On the screen, a small red dot was flying at an astonishing speed, and behind it, the huge dragon-shaped figure was chasing it relentlessly.

"Yes, Your Highness," Hogg explained, "Mr. Amber is trying to lure this star dragon away to buy us some time."

"Can he get away successfully?" Agnes couldn't help but ask worriedly when seeing the huge disparity in strength and size.

Hogg and Van Vleet looked at each other and exchanged a worried look: "We hope so."

At this moment, the communication channel was suddenly connected, and soon Amber's voice came from the command tower: "Hogg, Van Fleet, what's the situation now? Have you found the Regent and the Archbishop?
"Boss, the frontline is still searching and attacking. The remnants of the Imperial Guards and the Martyrs' Legion are resisting tenaciously. So far, we haven't found the Regent and the Archbishop!"

"Keep looking. If possible, make sure to control these two people first."

Hogg nodded: "Yes, Boss!"

"What about the princess?" Amber asked in the communication channel: "I saw in the command interface that the vanguard of the First Heavy Combined Brigade has returned to the fortress."

"That's what I was going to tell you, Boss!" Van Fleet replied excitedly, "Monton and his men have safely sent Her Royal Highness the Princess and her companions back to the fortress group."

"That's great." Amber's voice was filled with obvious fatigue and a hint of relief. "Where is the princess now?"

Agnes: "I'm in the command tower, Mr. Amber."

"Your Highness, I need you to get to orbit and meet up with the fleet as soon as possible." Amber said directly after hearing Agnes' voice without any greetings.

Agnes frowned. "In orbit? The two fleets are fighting right now. It shouldn't be safe there."

"Believe me, it's much safer there than on the ground. And have you forgotten? According to the process you told us before, the sixth artificial celestial fortress will arrive at about this time. Your Highness, whether you go to this fortress or to the fortress where the Duke of Hastings is, it will be safer!"

Agnes quickly understood Amber's intention, and she also realized that it would be safer if she could go to the Celestial Fortress.

"I understand, but the airports near the imperial capital are probably already damaged."

"Don't worry, Your Highness." Amber's voice was firm. "Our Atlas airdrop fortress has the ability to launch heavy-duty space shuttles. The relative position of the ground and the fleet is also relatively suitable, so we can send you up directly! And I will also try to lead the Star Dragon out of the atmosphere. If you want to annihilate it, you may need to use fleet-level firepower to do it."

When they heard Amber's last words, the expressions on the faces of Agnes, Jacques Cole and other high-ranking officials of the empire were actually a little unnatural.

After all, for these serious imperial people, sending a fleet to destroy the symbol of the empire is somewhat unimaginable.

Many people even secretly wondered if the empire should consider changing its name if the princess could succeed to the throne.
Amber didn't say anything more, and soon cut off the communication and continued to devote herself to the fierce "racing race".

After thinking for a moment, Agnes turned to look at Hogg and said, "Mr. Hogg, please have someone prepare the shuttle. I will head to orbit immediately according to Mr. Amber's advice."

"Your Highness, are you sure you want to do this? I feel this fortress is quite safe right now." The chancellor of the empire asked worriedly. The elderly man really didn't want to bother with this anymore. Agnes smiled slightly and said, "This is Mr. Amber's plan, and at least so far, his plans have never let me down."

Her gaze returned to the small red dot on the screen. "Mr. Amber is using his life to buy time for us. We cannot let him down."
-
In the outer space of Saint-Saunière, Duke Hastings stood in the middle of the core command room of the Gospel Fortress, holding the handrails tightly with both hands, his eyes fixed on the tactical star map above the holographic projection platform.

In the projection, two huge fleets were shooting at each other at a distance of about 5000 kilometers. The blue and green light spots represented the fleets of the princess and the Atlas Group respectively, and the red light spots represented the fleets of the regent and Duke Soren.

"The frequency of the Atlas unmanned fleet's formation changes has increased," said Duke Artesia, who was standing beside him. "They are further absorbing the firepower of the enemy's capital ships."

Duke Hastings nodded and turned his gaze to the three constantly changing blue light clouds in the center of the projection. Atlas's unmanned fleet did not look like cold war machines at the moment, but rather like a living organism, constantly adjusting its formation to disperse and absorb the enemy fleet's firepower.
The old duke, who had been roaming the starry sea for many years, could not help but exclaim: "What an amazing technology! Without the assistance of these unmanned fleets, our formation would have collapsed long ago."

However, this does not mean that the combat situation in orbit has improved. On the contrary, the disadvantages of the Princess and the Atlas Group's fleets are getting bigger and bigger.

The attention of the two Dukes, Hastings and Artesia, quickly turned to the scaled-down model of the artificial celestial fortress on the right side of the projection, which was flashing a warning red light.

That is the only remaining 'Fortress of Gospel' on the princess' side. Since the 'Fortress of Tranquility' owned by Duke Artesia is still under repair and cannot be put into battle, even the Duke can only stay with Duke Hastings to command at this moment.

At this moment, the battle-level deflection field of this artificial celestial fortress has begun to become unstable, and the energy output of the fusion reactor array can no longer keep up with the consumption rate of the stored energy in the superconducting battery pile.

Just as the two dukes were thinking about how to deal with it, an engineer with a tired face appeared on the communication screen: "Your Excellency, our campaign-level deflection field may not be able to hold on. The fortress engineering team is trying to redistribute energy, but the situation is not optimistic."

"How long do you expect to last?"

"In less than an hour," the engineer paused, "or in the next hour, the deflection field generator array may stop working at any time."

Hastings clenched his fists and said, "Try to keep the deflection field going for as long as possible. Once we lose this barrier, given the current gap in the strength of both sides, the battle line may collapse directly."

Before the old duke could finish, another group of tactical information coordinators suddenly exclaimed, "Your Excellency the Duke! The enemy fleet is closing the distance and they are pressing forward on all fronts!"

On the new tactical map, the group of red light spots representing the fleets of the Regent and Duke Soren began to approach, and the fleet's firepower density also increased sharply. Dense light beams and heavy metal particle streams intertwined into a deadly net, covering the princess's fleet.

Seeing this scene, Duke Artesia's face was solemn: "They should have realized that the deflection field of our fortress may have reached its limit. Is it Duke Soran who is in charge of the command? Or Duke Duke? These two old guys are really sharp!"

Hastings was too busy discussing the command level of the two dukes. He quickly gave the order: "Attention all battleships, prepare to overload the main gun array, use up all the coolant, and prepare for continuous irradiation! HCP squadrons of each ship go on deck! Once the enemy enters boarding distance, attack immediately!"

The atmosphere in the core command room of the Gospel Fortress instantly became extremely tense. The officers were busy conveying orders. The light spots on the tactical star map of the central area kept flashing. The blue and green light spots representing the princess and the Atlas fleet began to shrink and concave, while the red light spots representing the enemy stabbed straight at them like a sharp sword.

"Enemy distance shortened to 4800 kilometers!"

"4500 kilometers!"

"Front-line reconnaissance ship reports, optical unit detects enemy ship-borne HCP also starting to board the deck!"

Hastings' forehead was covered with cold sweat. He knew that once the enemy fleet got close enough, this fleet battle would be like the strategic decisive battle with Federal Marshal Trafalgar, and would fall into an uncontrollable close-range melee.

The enemy fleet, which has an advantage in manpower, will naturally have a much larger number of HCPs than ours.

Once the battle gets into chaos, these units, which were originally supporting roles and cannon fodder in fleet battles, will rush into the princess' fleet to engage in close combat, and will also play a role in determining the outcome of the battle.
At that time, the gap between quantity and quality will immediately become apparent, and the princess will be in dire straits.

"Your Excellency the Duke!"

Just as the Duke of Hastings was trying to find a way out, the communications officer suddenly said, "There's news from the Atlas Fleet that Her Royal Highness the Princess is on a spaceplane preparing to enter orbit."

"Wait! Why is Your Highness coming up at this time? Isn't this just causing trouble?!" The old duke no longer cared about respect or politeness.

"They said they wanted to transfer Her Royal Highness the Princess to the safer Gospel Fortress or the upcoming sixth artificial celestial fortress. They also said Mr. Amber was trying to bring the Star Dragon into orbit?"

The communications officer's words were a little hesitant, and he even wondered if the Atlas fleet had sent the wrong message under high pressure.

"The Crown Fortress? The Star Dragon?"

The Duke of Hastings was also stunned. He finally shifted his attention to the chaos on the ground in Saint-Saunière. Although the news that a giant star dragon crawled out from under the Grand Palace was indeed shocking, he had been commanding the fleet in battle and had no time to pay attention to it.

"Yes, Your Excellency the Duke! According to the Atlas Fleet, the other party seems to want to 'divert the trouble to someone else' and use the power of the Star Dragon to break the situation."

The Duke of Hastings and the Duke of Artesia looked at each other, and they suddenly realized that the chaos on the ground, which they had previously ignored, seemed to have an impact on the battle situation in orbit.

The old duke frowned, looking at the briefing about the star dragon wreaking havoc on the ground that he had not had time to read, and said: "If the combat power of this star dragon is indeed as described in the briefing and Atlas, then it is indeed capable of muddying the waters."

"What about the Crown Fortress?" Duke Artesia asked. "If I remember correctly, this fortress has not even been fully staffed. It should not have formed combat effectiveness yet, right?"

"We may not be able to count on their combat capability, but from the perspective of their protective capabilities, we can indeed allow Your Highness to take refuge."

"Your Excellency the Duke! Authorized space fluctuations have been detected! An extremely massive object is approaching!"

Hastings turned his head sharply: "Authorized?! Could it be..."

"The transition signature code has been matched! It's the Crown Fortress!"

There was an irrepressible commotion in the core command room of the Gospel Fortress. At the rear edge of the holographically projected tactical star map, a huge blue spherical unit was forming. It was the empire's sixth artificial celestial fortress.

It was also the Crown Fortress that was originally scheduled to be officially handed over to Her Highness Agnes for command during today's coronation ceremony.
-
At the same time, the atmosphere in the command room of the Glorious Fortress where Duke Soran was located was equally tense.

"My lord, the battle-level deflection field of the Princess's Gospel Fortress may collapse at any time. Our fleet's vanguard will be within boarding distance within 10 minutes!"

Hearing the words of the Tactical Information Coordinator, Duke Soran nodded: "Very good, once we enter, this battle will be over."

Standing next to him, Duke, who was made up of a holographic image, also breathed a sigh of relief at this moment: "It's finally over. Those Atlas unmanned fleets are too difficult to deal with. Their formation changes almost perfectly dispersed our firepower, allowing the other side's Gospel Fortress to hold out for such a long time."

"No problem~"

Duke Soran waved his hand and said, "No matter how sophisticated the formation changes and casualty control algorithms are, they cannot match the absolute advantage in military strength. We have two celestial fortresses, and they only have one. And it is already unable to hold on. This is a simple math problem, and math will not lie."

At this moment, the alarm suddenly sounded in the core command room of the two artificial celestial fortresses.

The tactical information coordinator also exclaimed: "Your Excellency the Duke! Unauthorized space fluctuations have been detected! The mass detector has also detected an extremely high abnormal mass growth. The coordinates are behind the princess' fleet!"

Duke Soran frowned upon hearing this. He looked at the tactical star map and saw a huge red sphere taking shape behind the princess' fleet. Its huge size could only be an artificial celestial fortress.

"Crown Fortress."

Duke on the other side also looked unhappy at the moment: "The sixth fortress arrived at this juncture."

"Don't panic, Duke."

There was no change in Duke Soran's voice, he had calmed down again.

"According to our intelligence, this celestial fortress is not fully staffed, and many tests have not been completed. It was originally only prepared to go through the motions during today's ceremony, and cannot provide any combat power to the other side."

The Duke was very calm and confident, and under normal circumstances there was nothing wrong with his analysis.

But sadly, these are not normal circumstances.

"Your Excellency the Duke, the Crown Fortress has completed the jump, and the other party is deploying a battle-level deflection field?!"

"What?! How is this possible?"

"No, in addition to the energy characteristics of the battle-level deflection field, a directional energy conduction was also detected?!"

The tactical information coordinator's voice finally lost control at this moment: "Oh my God, the Crown Fortress is coordinating the energy supply for the campaign-level deflection field of the Gospel Fortress?!"

(End of this chapter)