From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 806: Damn, why are these elves so evil?

Salih's mind was in a mess. The sudden appearance of the elven fleet could hardly be called a coincidence. It meant that their actions had been exposed.

What's worse is that if there really is a Forerunner traitor among the elves, then Amber and others are now facing unprecedented danger.

Salih's spirit was constantly operating in the control center of the observatory. The data flow of the entire observatory poured into her storage device like a waterfall. All the information here was of extremely high value and might even directly affect the survival of human civilization, so she dared not slack off in the slightest.

"Data download progress is 62 percent." The system's prompt sounded in her ears, and the alarm from the 'Eternity' on the communication channel became more and more urgent.

"Commander Saleh, this elven fleet of unknown affiliation is still approaching us and has not responded to our calls!"

The voice in the communication channel was obviously a little nervous. The 'Eternity' and other fleets had just tried to identify this suddenly appeared elven fleet, but the other party had obviously made preparations in advance and erased the emblems that the elves liked to display on the bow, which also made it impossible to match it in the existing database.

The other party's behavior of remaining completely silent and approaching this side made everyone, including the fleet commander Ramos, realize that these elven warships were definitely not coming to have friendly exchanges with them.

Salih listened to the constant updates on the communication channel and forced herself to remain calm. She knew very well that the focus of this mission was not on a head-on confrontation with the unknown elven fleet, but on bringing the important intelligence discovered in these observation stations back to the human world safely.

If their fleet was completely wiped out here today, Amber and other human leaders would realize that something was wrong, but they would still be kept in the dark by the elves for a short period of time until the situation became completely irreversible.
Thinking of this, Saleh immediately issued an order to the fleet commander through the communication system:

"Ramos, listen carefully. Immediately send an early warning message to the Crown Fortress to inform us of the current situation, and warn Boss and his men that they may have fallen into a trap! Then prepare the fleet to attack, but remember - our goal is to evacuate successfully, not to fight a meaningless war of attrition here."

"Yes! Commander Saleh! The warning message has been sent out, and the fleet is ready!"

On the bridge of the Eternal, Ramos tightly grasped the armrests of the command chair, beads of sweat oozing from his forehead.

As a veteran who had experienced countless battles, he rarely felt so nervous, not because he was afraid of fighting, but because his opponent this time was the elves, an ancient civilization that was well-known in the universe.

The super flagship 'Eternity' and the escort fleet under your feet, whether it is the warships or the crew, are all veterans who have experienced many battles. Whether it is the performance of the equipment or the combat quality of the personnel, they are definitely the elite force in the current navy of the human world.

But they were still caught off guard as they were about to engage in a battle with the elven warships without any warning.

The most crucial and what makes everyone most nervous is the current situation of human beings regarding the fleet and tactical level of the elves. Apart from the opponent's main weapon, the 'purification beam, which is powerful and can wash the ground', human beings know very little, or nothing at all.

The main gun equipped on the 'Eternity' was obtained by Amber from the Thousand Star Empire on behalf of Ellenita. It is the same model as the 'Super Heavy Purification Beam Generator' used by the elves' battleships.

Therefore, everyone is also very clear about how powerful the main weapon of the elven warship, the "Purification Beam", is. At least the deflection force field, which is currently the main defense force of the human warship, has basically no significant effect on the defense of the purification beam.

After many actual combat tests, everyone found that the solid composite armor was more resistant.

But the problem is, based on the current mainstream battleship combat situations in the human world, when facing weapons with terrifying kinetic energy such as heavy particle cannons, warships choose to go the route of "shield resistance" rather than "armor resistance" or "structure resistance" in defense.

As a result, an armed force that almost ignores the "shield resistance" of human warships suddenly appeared, causing most human warships to be basically naked when facing the elven warships.
"Fuck, why are these elves so evil?"

Ramos couldn't help cursing in his heart, and the voice of his adjutant and tactical staff officer rang in his ears.

"Commander, what should the fleet do next? Please give the order!"

The adjutant's words brought Ramos back to his senses. His brain began to work rapidly, comparing all the information he currently knew.

Finally, the young man who was personally appointed by Amber to be the commander of this exploration fleet gave the order:

"Pass on my order. The entire fleet enters the first level combat readiness state. Each ship sets its focus on the approaching elven fleet. The entire fleet follows the Eternity and conducts coordinated maneuvers. Keep the distance between the two sides at more than 1 kilometers!"

"Yes! Commander!"

The adjutant who trusted Ramos unconditionally in the battle did not hesitate at all and immediately passed on his order. He knew that Ramos must have his own ideas for making such arrangements, and this was indeed the case.
Because the three super flagships had used the "super-heavy purification beam generator" many times before, the Atlas Group's combat fleet gradually understood the characteristics of this weapon during combat. Ramos, who was promoted to fleet commander, was the first to learn these contents during the commander's training and assessment.

Although the lethality of this weapon of the Elven fleet is indeed extremely terrifying, it also has a fatal weakness. That is, in the "fleet combat mode", the lethality of the purification beam will drop sharply after exceeding the effective range!

The effective range of the purification beam's 'floor-cleaning mode' and 'fleet combat mode' is vastly different.

In the 'scrubbing mode', since the warships remain relatively stationary in low orbit, the elven warships will concentrate all their psychic energy on the weapon system, and scrubbing attacks have basically no requirements for accuracy, so in this case the range of the purification beam is sufficient to support them in launching attacks from low orbit.

However, all this changed completely after adjusting to the 'fleet combat mode'
The 'super-heavy purification beam generator' equipped on the Infinity-class super flagship is the current model in service on the Thousand Star Empire's main battleships. The Federation Navy, which has experienced its power at close range, has given it 'zero negative reviews'.

But the problem is that this thing has an effective range of only 5000 kilometers. Although Alanita said when she helped Amber get this thing that its performance could not meet the military standards of the Thousand Star Empire, Amber also knew that the actual data was actually not much different.

Therefore, from the perspective of "forecasting the enemy's attack", the advantageous combat distance of the elves' battleships when using main weapons in combat should be around 6000 kilometers.

The human fleet has developed extremely rapidly in actual combat in the past two years. The continuous large-scale fleet battles, coupled with the technological development trend led by the Atlas Group, have continuously improved the power, range and attack accuracy of the main weapons of naval warships.

The heavy particle cannon, which is the main weapon of the fleet, has actually increased its practical attack range from the early 3000-5000 kilometers to the 8000-10000-kilometer range. In addition, there are "near-light-speed weapons" such as high-energy laser beams and charged particle cannons. Therefore, in Ramos's view, the human fleet theoretically has a range advantage over the elven fleet.

"Commander, the escort fleet has completed synchronization with the Eternity and deployed a battle formation!"

The adjutant's voice sounded again, but there was a hint of hesitation in the second half of the sentence.

"But, do we really want to open fire on the elves? Boss, they are still visiting the Thousand Star Empire."

Hearing the adjutant's words, Ramos's face darkened. This was the core issue that troubled him - if a conflict broke out with the elven fleet here, would it make the situation of Amber and others in Eldarram even more dangerous?
But it is impossible for the fleet to be attacked by the enemy without fighting back. This is not the style of the Atlas Group.

"Maintain our maximum attack distance!" Ramos finally gave the order, "Once the enemy ship enters the range, open fire immediately, but remember, our first priority is not to engage in a fleet battle with the enemy, but to ensure that the entire fleet can evacuate safely with the 'high-value target'!"
-
Inside the observatory, Saleh monitored the progress of data download while beginning to clear traces of her own operations.

Her psychic energy constantly shuttled through the observatory's control center, deleting access records, modifying system logs, and trying to erase all clues that might expose their actions.

"Eighty-five percent." The download progress bar climbed slowly, and every second seemed particularly long.

Saleh suddenly thought of something, and then began to try to modify the threat assessment data of the observatory through the background permissions she had obtained.

Although this is a crude and simple method, if it can reduce the threat level of humans and elves, it may be able to delay the activation of the Forerunner civilization's intervention mechanism.
Her psychic power began to penetrate deeper into the core of the system, looking for key nodes in the evaluation algorithm. However, the security mechanism of the observatory was more stringent than she had imagined - even exceeding the security level of the think tank. Every attempt she made to modify the system was eventually automatically intercepted by the system, and the permission verification failed again and again.

"Damn it." Salih cursed softly, and beads of sweat from her forehead dripped onto the control panel, but time waited for no one, and she had to give up the plan in the end.

While signaling the Immortal combat entities in the observatory to prepare to evacuate, Saleh invoked the authority she had obtained and started the observatory's deep self-inspection program.

This is a function originally used for regular maintenance. It will put the entire observatory into a dormant state for one to two hours. During this period, the observatory will not respond to the outside world unless it is directly attacked.

Saleh did this so that everyone could evacuate as quickly as possible without any worries.

"System self-test started, estimated duration: 127 minutes."

A mechanical reminder sounded, and the main systems of the observatory began to enter sleep mode one by one, followed by another reminder sound.

"The selected information has been downloaded!"

Seeing the transmission of the last data packet completed and lying safely in the storage partition of her soft-foot-like tentacle, Saleh finally breathed a sigh of relief. She quickly disconnected, stood up from the recliner, and gestured to the immortals waiting on the side.

"Mission accomplished, evacuate immediately!"

The combat elements immediately took action, escorting Saleh quickly through the corridor of the observatory. In the quiet observatory, only their footsteps could be heard echoing on the metal floor.

In the maintenance passage, Saleh took a last look at this Forerunner facility that carried countless secrets. Millions of years of silence were about to be broken, and the information she took away might very well determine the future fate of this universe.

As the group came out of the maintenance passage, the assault boat kept its hatch open and floated to just below the maintenance port, and Salih and the Immortals followed suit and filed in.

The moment the hatch closed, the immortal in charge of driving directly put the power unit into full-power operation.

"Warning: About to enter overload propulsion state."

First there was a mechanical prompt sound, and then the internal broadcast of the assault boat sounded: "This is the captain of this flight. This flight will enter a high-speed flight state due to various reasons. All passengers are requested to prepare for the impact. I wish you all a pleasant journey~"

Saleh had no time to complain about the "captain's broadcast" at the moment. After quickly securing herself to the seat, she held on to the armrests tightly, and in the next moment she felt a strong acceleration pressing her against the seat.

The bad news is that she is the only one among all the assault boats that needs to withstand the test of acceleration.

But the good news is that the physical fitness of the Jeram people is far superior to that of humans and elves, so this assault boat can now sprint at high speed.

Through the multiple external sensor images in front and the lenses synchronized from the "Eternity", Saleh saw that the outline of the observation station behind was shrinking rapidly, while the approaching light spots in the distance were becoming clearer and clearer.

There were forty-two elven biological warships, and their appearance was like giant creatures in the deep sea, and their surface was covered with some kind of organic armor that seemed to be able to breathe. Each warship emitted a light green biological fluorescence, which looked both beautiful and deadly against the dark background of the universe.

At this moment, the tense atmosphere on the bridge of the Eternal had reached its peak.

Ramos stared at the tactical display screen, watching the elven warships surround him like a pack of wolves. Their maneuvering patterns in space were full of the fluidity of living creatures, which could be said to be completely different from the traditional maneuvering methods of human warships.

"Relative distance is forty thousand kilometers. Thirty-eight thousand and thirty-five thousand." The tactical information coordinator's report became more and more urgent.

"Commander, Commander Saleh's assault boat has left the observation station and is approaching us!" a communications officer reported, "But the speed of the elven warship is faster than we expected!"

Ramos gritted his teeth, he knew he was facing a difficult choice - to open fire immediately to seize the initiative, or to wait for the opponent to attack first.

The former may save Salih's life, but it will also completely tear apart the diplomatic relationship between humans and elves; the latter may have a moral advantage, but may lead to tactical passivity.
"Commander, the elven fleet is dispersing its formation! They seem to want to surround us!"

"Commander, the relative distance is 28,000 kilometers, and we are still getting closer!"

"It has been detected that the enemy warships have begun to release a large number of small targets, suspected to be ship-borne combat units!"

Reports continued to be heard on the bridge of the Eternal, and finally, Ramos' voice finally echoed in the communication channel:
"Attention all fleets, weapon units unlocked! Prepare to attack!"

At the same time, Amber, who was far away in the Elf King's Court, suddenly felt a palpitation. Just as he was wondering how this feeling came about, an urgent message from the Crown Fortress came to his personal terminal.

"The Saleh fleet was attacked by an unknown elven warship!"

(End of this chapter)