Starting with God's perspective, how to lose an interstellar war?

The engines of all sixty-five starships simultaneously emitted intense light.

The massive torrent of steel began to accelerate, like a flood bursting its banks, surging towards the smoke barrier.

Soon the leading starship passed through the smoke barrier.

On the bridge of the Iron Spine, Zhao Rui grinned as he watched the Imperial fleet begin its charge on the tactical screen.

"They're here."

He spoke in a low voice, as if talking to himself, or as if speaking to his past self from decades ago.

"Marshal Qin, I'm putting to use what you taught me today."

He connected to the entire fleet's communications, his voice eerily calm.

"Listen up, everyone, our mission is not to win, but to hold them off."

We'll stall until Commander Yang Shao's main force arrives, until the Pluto fleet gets behind them.

Therefore, the goal is not to cause damage, but to hinder progress.

Attack their forwards, attack their engines, attack their formation.

Let them slow down, let them create chaos.

"clear!"

"First salvo, target the Brown Bear fleet flagship. Open fire!"

The moment the order was given, the Iron Spine's main guns roared first.

Two thick beams of energy tore through the smoke, traversing 1.5 million kilometers of void, and precisely struck the heavy cruiser at the forefront of the Brown Bear Fleet.

The ship's shields flickered violently, and its speed noticeably slowed.

Immediately afterwards, all the escort ships of the Uranus fleet opened fire simultaneously.

Twelve starships, twenty-four main cannons, and hundreds of missile launchers unleashed the first wave of firepower at the vanguard of the Imperial fleet in just three seconds.

The flashes of light from the explosions lit up one after another at the edge of the smoke.

The shields of three heavy cruisers in the Brown Bear Fleet were overloaded, and the hulls were damaged.

One of the Firefox Fleet's electronic warfare ships was hit on the side by a missile, and the ship rolled off course.

But the Imperial fleet did not stop.

"keep going!"

Wells's roar echoed through the Imperial communications channels.

"Don't retaliate! Don't slow down! Charge forward!"

Sixty-five starships withstood Federation fire and continued their advance.

They were like a wounded but frenzied beast, crashing their flesh and blood against that thin defensive line.

Soon, the distance between the two sides was shortened to 90 kilometers.

Firefox's electronic warships also came into play at this moment.

When the Firefox fleet deployed its electronic jamming array, the first anomaly noticed on the bridge of the Ironback was an inconspicuous yellow warning sign on the edge of the main tactical screen.

[Fire control system warning: Automatic calibration module signal abnormality]

Current calibration deviation: +0.3 arcseconds, and continuing to increase.

The weapons officer looked down at the control panel, his brow furrowed slightly.

0.3 arc seconds.

At a combat distance of 900,000 kilometers, this means that the aiming point and the actual point of impact will deviate by about 100 meters.

For a battlecruiser several kilometers long, this deviation is still within an acceptable range, but...

"The deviation value is continuously increasing."

He reported.

"0.5 arcseconds... 0.8... 1.2..."

It increases by 0.3 arcseconds per second.

Zhao Rui walked behind him, staring at the constantly changing numbers.

Can manual calibration be corrected?

"Trying..."

The weapons officer's fingers swiped rapidly across the touchscreen, but three seconds later he shook his head.

"No. Interference signals have intruded into the calibration circuit, and manually entered data will be tampered with during transmission."

Our current aiming scopes are like...like a pair of glasses that's been misaligned; there's a subtle misalignment between what we see and our actual position.

At this point, the deviation had exceeded 2 arcseconds—equivalent to a positional error of 800 meters over a distance of 900,000 kilometers.

The first volley was fired under these conditions.

"Fire!"

The Iron Spine's main cannons unleashed two blazing beams of light.

Three seconds later, the sensor data was transmitted back.

Both shots hit the flagship of the Brown Bear Fleet, but the impact points were off-target.

The strikes that were meant to hit the bridge and main power core instead struck the bow, the part with the thickest armor.

Shield reading: Target ship's shield strength decreased by 18%.

"If it hits precisely, this attack can remove at least 40% of the shield."

The artillery sergeant gritted his teeth.

"Interference halved our hit rate."

Immediately afterwards, the salvo data from the other escort ships of the Uranus Fleet were transmitted back one after another.

Real-time statistics popped up on the right side of the main tactical screen:

[First salvo total: 24 main gun rounds, 32 missiles]

Accuracy: 67%

【but……】

Accuracy of hitting the target (accurate hit rate): 12%

[Grazor hit rate (hitting the target but missing a vital point): 55%]

What's worse is the subsequent analysis.

The system quickly assessed the actual damage effect of each hit.

The results showed that because the impact points were generally 100 to 800 meters away from the aiming point, most of the strikes that should have penetrated the shield and severely damaged the internal systems only caused surface damage.

"They're not interfering with our eyesight!"

Li Wen stared at the analysis report, his eyes narrowing behind his glasses.

It interferes with our eyes' ability to focus.

We can see where the enemy ships are, but the fire control system can't accurately determine where to fire, nor can it guarantee where the shells will hit.

Just then, the data for the second salvo was updated.

Accuracy: 61%

Accuracy: 8%

[Abrasion hit rate: 53%]

The hit rate is declining, and the accuracy rate is plummeting.

The deviation has increased to 3.5 arcseconds.

"The interference intensity is continuously increasing."

Sensor supervisor report.

"The Firefox Fleet is adjusting its jamming mode."

They are now specifically sending deceptive signals to our ballistic prediction algorithm.

Our fire control system interprets the target's trajectory as follows:

He brought up a comparison animation.

On the left is the enemy ship's heading data captured by the actual sensors.

The flagship of the brown bear fleet is moving forward in a straight line at a constant speed of fifteen kilometers per second.

The data "received" by the fire control system is shown on the right.

The ship was making irregular zigzag maneuvers, with its speed fluctuating randomly between ten and twenty kilometers per second.

"So when we aim..."

The artillery chief's voice was filled with frustration.

"The lead time calculated by the system is completely wrong."

We were aiming at a virtual, randomly moving phantom, while the real enemy ships were easily evading our fire with simple straight-line movements.

This is what makes electronic warfare jamming so terrifying.

It won't blind you, but rather it will slightly distort the view you see.

It's not that you can't hit it at all, but that you can't hit its vital points.

Like a skilled swordsman, he doesn't parry your sword, but merely deflects the tip a few inches, turning your fatal blow into a meaningless scratch.

The third volley.

Hit rate: 58%.

Accuracy: 5%.

Deviation: 4.8 arcseconds.

At this point, the Imperial fleet was less than 50 kilometers away from the Uranus fleet's defensive line.

The Brown Bear Fleet's heavily armored cruisers began to retaliate.

In environments with virtually no interference, their fire control systems are frighteningly stable.

In the first salvo, the 12 main guns of the four cruisers were aimed at the three cruisers at the forefront of the Uranus fleet.

"Enemy main gun locked on!" the sensor alarm blared.

"Emergency evasive action!" Zhao Rui roared.