Strictly speaking, the battle at the gravitational boundary couldn't even be called a battle. It was more like a chaotic chase. The high-speed battleships of the Vengeance Army that we had separated had split up into more than a dozen formations. Each formation was specifically thrown into disarray as they flew around the boundary. Their speed was astonishing, and they were constantly warping within a few light seconds. They were like thousands of locusts that moved in the blink of an eye. They had already given up on fighting in groups. That was because the pilots of the small spaceships knew that without the support of the mothership, the small spaceships would never be able to face the enemy's mixed fleets head-on no matter what tactics they used. Our intercepting troops could only follow the enemy's maneuvers, jumping and making all sorts of sharp turns along the enemy's general path. In the deep space, bright blue and white flames constantly flashed. Those were the main cannons of the assault airships and individual battleships firing. However, in comparison, very few battleships were directly hit. Most of the high-energy light beams brushed past the enemy's side, and many battleships teleported away right before they were hit. It was evident from the ferocious reaction speed of the automatic evasion system created by Schilling's technology. Of course, the pilots of the battleships were also very skilled. I wasn't familiar with the soldiers of the Vengeance Army, but the soldiers of the Empire's New Army were all fierce characters who could race with the traffic police in the city center in a three-wheeler … Cough, cough, I know that this analogy isn't very appropriate in this situation, but what I mean is that the scene of two high-speed spaceships constantly warping and shooting at each other in space was much more exciting.
This chaotic chase would probably last longer than we had anticipated.
"Fortunately, we separated their escort troops from the mothership fleet." Sandora sighed softly. "Half of them were the elites of the former royal guards. If they hadn't been separated and all of them had been teleported to the ambush area, they would probably have been able to organize an effective counterattack after our first round of attacks. By then, even if the ambush troops were able to win, they would have suffered many losses."
"It seems that these escort troops are just small boats with weak shields, right? What use would they be if they were surrounded and bombarded with saturation fire? "
After being with Sandora for such a long time, I also had some military deduction abilities, so I immediately asked her out of curiosity. Sandora shook her head lightly. "If it was an ordinary army, they would be bombarded the moment they completed the teleportation. Their lightweight escort team would definitely be wiped out. However, I was once part of the Royal Guards, so I have confidence in dealing with such a situation. They would instantly warp the mothership formation to the periphery of the battle line to form a joint shield and protect the escort formation. After the first round of bombardment, they would release the high-speed ships and let them attack the enemy motherships that had just completed the bombardment and did not have time to recharge. At the same time, they would interfere with the ambushers' second attack. When the cannon fodder escort formation was almost completely annihilated, the mothership formation should have finished recharging, and all that was left was for the warships to fire at each other. This way, even if the entire escort team is annihilated, they will be able to unleash as much of their combat power as possible when they are ambushed. "
I opened my eyes wide as I listened to Sandora's explanation. I couldn't help but be astonished. "Just how ferocious of a reaction speed is that … From the moment they fall into the ambush to the moment the ambushers open fire, is there even a difference of 0.1 seconds?"
"With short distance warp equipment, even a difference of one microsecond can be grasped. Any Emperor's Royal Guards should have the ability to turn things that are theoretically possible into reality. The Royal Guards that Pandora formed for you are skilled in using more and more cannons to crush your enemies. No matter how much damage they receive, they will be able to continuously increase their combat power. On the other hand, my army is skilled in surprise attacks. They can use all kinds of tactics that you would never think of. The more elite an army is, the more crafty and strange they will be. "
I looked at Sandora speechlessly, thinking that I really hadn't realized that Sandora's military style was actually this … Er, weird. Perhaps this was in line with her personality to a certain extent?
At this time, the pursuit at the gravitational boundary was almost over. In the end, our interception team was only able to stop less than half of the enemy's small gray aircrafts. The speed of those ambushers was just too fast, and they were also skilled in all kinds of anti-encirclement tactics. First, there were about ten assault teams that were trying to flank the Divine Fog Planet from all directions. They were warping here at several times the speed of light, and they would switch positions midway, making it impossible for our fire control system to accurately aim at them. In less than the time it took to pop a lollipop (which was equivalent to the time it took to smoke a cigarette — Editor's Note), groups of red dots appeared on General City's radar.
"If we can recruit these guys, the Imperial Army's tactics will be greatly improved," Sives couldn't help but say. I hurriedly coughed twice. Sandora was going to be depressed again.
At this moment, the enemy's assault ships that we had scattered with our traps had split up into many groups and were now within the range of the Divine Fog Planet's close-range cannons. The latter's accuracy was obviously far superior to the long-range cannons, and the enemy's agile small aircrafts were finally beginning to suffer heavy losses under the high-speed anti-air cannons. If nothing unexpected happened, the Divine Fog Planet's high orbit would be the greatest result of their suicidal assault. However, they continued to charge forward without any fear of death, and they had no intention of retreating at all. Not only that, we once again witnessed the Divine Fog Planet's most revered battle tactic: self-destruction, all kinds of self-destruction.
At this moment, even Shallow Shallow could tell that the Divine Fog Planet's escort fleet had already lost. If they continued to charge forward, it would only be a matter of time before they were completely wiped out. However, not a single one of them retreated. Even if they were constantly reduced to smoke under the pincer attack of the interception fleet and anti-air cannons, they still ferociously charged at the Divine Fog Planet's defense line, which was nearly impossible for their small aircrafts to destroy. Saturated attacks followed by concentrated self-destruction — this was a battle tactic that didn't seek victory but instead sought to survive. At first, I couldn't understand why they didn't retreat, but now I somewhat understood the enemy's commander's thinking.
That's right, if they scattered in all directions, some of these high-speed aircrafts would still be able to escape. After all, gravity traps were only effective within a certain range, and it was impossible for us to place such traps everywhere within a radius of 1.5 light years. That was why as long as the Divine Fog Planet's escort fleet could shake off the interception fleet and activate hyperspace jump, at least one-third of the Divine Fog Planet's aircrafts and aircrafts would be able to escape this battlefield. Although the Shiring Apostles weren't afraid of death when attacking, and it wasn't as if they didn't know how to retreat when they needed to retreat, they didn't do so — because they wanted to protect the secret of their main base.
As long as they retreated, it was possible for the enemy to capture their spatial trajectories, which would expose their main base. The Divine Fog Planet's escort fleet was different from those motherships that were trapped in another world. The latter would need to pass through a world barrier when retreating, which would block any possible tracking signals. However, the Divine Fog Planet's escort fleet was fighting on home soil, and it was right under our noses. As long as they turned around and ran, it was possible for them to be tracked.
The Divine Fog Planet's commander (we still didn't know how the Divine Fog Planet's commander was currently operating, but let's assume that they still had a commander, and this commander was rational) knew that he was up against the Imperial Army, which had the same level of technological prowess, so he didn't dare to take the risk. That was why all of the Divine Fog Planet's members chose a suicidal attack method. They would rather all self-destruct in their base than turn around and run in the direction of their main base. Of course, they also couldn't allow us to capture them alive.
Pandora and Visca had already joined the battle, which meant that this short exchange of fire was about to come to an end. Even the fastest fighter aircrafts wouldn't be able to escape from these two 1.2 meter fire-control units. When these two lunatics summoned a sky full of floating cannons, the enemy's largest unit couldn't advance another meter. It was as if they had crashed into an invisible barrier — a net of cannon fire created by the sisters. The fragile fighter aircrafts were basically destroyed in an instant when faced with this net of fire. In several other directions, the Divine Fog Planet's members were also blocked by the local interception forces.
In the end, everyone fell silent when they saw a blinding white flash in the high orbit. The scene had still happened … After breaking through the net of firepower, the few hundred damaged Divine Fog Planet's assault aircrafts had self-destructed.
I really wanted to curse at the enemy for charging through 1.5 light years in such a bloody manner just to disgust us, but in the end, my curse turned into a sigh.
Just as the small-scale battle on the Divine Fog Planet's defense line (compared to the other universe's defense line) ended, a message from the sealed universe entered the command link. The captain of the Death Star Fortress reported, "Your Majesty, the battle has ended."
"Results," Sandora said simply. She was no longer in the mood to use rhetoric and subject-verb-object.
"I'm sorry, Your Majesty, we didn't achieve the expected results," the commander — I really couldn't remember who he was — said apologetically. He then began to explain the situation. "The enemy might have activated the Combined Shield the moment they realized that the coordinates were wrong. The ambushing troops' first round of attacks weren't able to wear down the shield as planned. The Death Star's' Fury 'attack had a parameter error, and the last shockwave was only released after a delay of 1.375 seconds. The Divine Fog Planet took the opportunity to escape the encirclement."
Sandora frowned. "Results? Just tell me the results."
"We left behind about a quarter of the enemy's battleships. They all self-destructed in the end. Forty percent of the enemy's battleships are confirmed to be heavily damaged and won't be able to return to the battlefield for the time being. The remaining sixty percent have unknown damage. They might become a threat again in the near future."
In other words, after the ambush, we had actually only destroyed a quarter of the enemy's battleships. This was far less than what we had expected. Our original plan was to use the ambushing fleet to weaken the enemy's shield and then have the Death Star use its ultimate ability to instantly kill a large number of the enemy's battleships. However, we never expected the enemy commander to react so quickly, and the Death Star Fortress even dropped the ball a little.
As for the report that said that about forty percent of the enemy's battleships were heavily damaged, this didn't mean much to Sandora and me. Everyone knew just how insane the Xiling Empire's productivity was. For a battleship that had the support of a base, as long as it could survive the battlefield, it wouldn't matter how heavily damaged it was. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that even if a carrier was destroyed to the point where only a piece of its windshield remained, as long as it was sent back to the factory, the excited Empire technicians would be able to put it back together in no time. Of course, you could also say that they had found another carrier that just happened to be missing a piece of its windshield and replaced it …
But no matter what, this was still a great victory. The enemy's casualty ratio had reached an unprecedented one to five, and most of the casualties were the small spaceships that were responsible for intercepting the escort fleets. This was already a very impressive achievement when the enemy was an Empire fleet of the same power level. Of course, everyone knew that this was due to Icetis's insidious tactics and her long experience in ambushing the enemy. That was why it wasn't worth celebrating. In fact, ever since the ambush on planet Divine Fog, any military victory we had obtained in this universe wasn't something worth celebrating.
The command center was still busy with post-battle statistics and all sorts of dispatches. But for those of us who didn't need to participate in the specifics, there wasn't much to be busy about. Sandora lightly tapped her fingers on the table. Her expression didn't seem to relax at all. That was because we all knew that today was only the beginning.
In fact, I didn't even want to call today's battle a true "battle." The past hour was filled with traps, ambushes, and conspiracies. Although it was said that there was never too much deception in war, it was undeniable that the Avengers had been tricked by us due to their carelessness. That was why they surrendered victory to us. We had completely avoided the enemy's true power and tossed them into Icetis's hooligan style of Taijiquan (I was specifically referring to her "wrath". I would fight anyone who said "cough"!). The only true direct confrontation was the interception of the Avengers' escort ships. The Avengers' mother ships decisively chose to retreat without any resistance. It could be said that the Imperial Army had relied on 30% luck and 70% scheming this time. Next time, they wouldn't be so lucky. After all, ever since I went to Uncle Zhao's house in the countryside to steal some fruits when I was young and got beaten up, I knew that I wasn't fated to be a main character in a YY novel.
And so, I tapped the table and said with a serious expression, "This crisis has passed for now, but we can't continue like this. Sooner or later, we'll have to fight the Avengers. Next time, changing the coordinates at the last minute won't work."
Everyone agreed with what I said. There was no lack of people with long-term vision. Everyone understood that this "victory" sounded nice, but in reality, it was just luck and slyness. Sandora also said that this kind of coordinate concealment could only be used once. Next time, the Avengers would definitely use some method to block our false signals. We still had to fight a hard battle.
There wasn't much time left for discussion. Sandora showed her resolute side. She casually activated the barrier of the officer's platform and turned the place we were in into an independent conference room that wouldn't be disturbed. Then, she pointed a few times in the air, and a densely packed star map appeared in front of everyone. I was no longer the naive young man from back then who would look at the star map in a daze for half an hour. After seeing the star map, I only felt slightly dizzy. I nodded solemnly and pointed at a specially marked spot on the star map. "Yep, the Mobrador System, right?"
Sandora silently glanced at me. "This is an outpost …"
I thought for a while and decided not to speak for a while.
Of course, I knew about the outpost, but I didn't recognize it. Speaking of which, the star maps in space were densely packed like sesame cakes. How could an ordinary person recognize it? When we had just led the army into this universe, we had already separated our main forces. According to Lin Xue's suggestion, they had built a base far away from Mobrador. It was a primitive air mass with a harsh environment. The surroundings were empty and desolate. There wasn't a single conspicuous celestial body within ten light years. In the two battles with the Avengers, the outpost had never been exposed. This was our greatest relief. As long as it wasn't exposed, with the Shiring Apostles' unnatural ability to summon troops, we would soon be able to obtain a solid frontline fortress in this universe.
But the only thing that worried me was, could the speed at which we could summon troops compare to the Avengers?
At present, there was still no evidence that the Avengers had a main base in this universe. Our probes had almost reached the boundary of the universe, the space warp layer, but they hadn't found a single operational Empire Munitions Factory. However, the two armies that they had gathered couldn't have appeared out of thin air. The Avengers had definitely used some method to hide their main base. I had no doubt that this main base far surpassed our outpost's ability to summon troops.
Currently, the Empire Munitions Factories in the shadow space, the Kuiper Belt base, the Kepru base, the secluded universe base, and other places had already entered a state of overtime. They had accumulated a considerable number of mass-produced fleets and war puppets for the war. However, they wouldn't be able to rush over to support us in a short period of time. We needed a large and more importantly, a stable world gate. It wasn't a temporary passage like the Crystal Teleportation Peak. Building a world gate required time.
Time. It was time again. It was time to race against the Avengers.
"The outpost and the Divine Fog Star defense line. These two places are currently our only strongholds in this universe." Sandora zoomed in on the star map and displayed the overall layout of the galaxy in front of us. The Divine Fog Star defense line and the outpost instantly became two dots of light that were smaller than pixels. "We are alone. We are now facing the regular army of the old Empire. Furthermore, there might be a large number of bases from the old Empire era. If we were to fight head-on with our production, we would soon be faced with the endless frontal assault of the enemy. We wouldn't be able to hold on for long."
No one spoke. Everyone was waiting for Sandora to continue. Everyone knew that the Imperial Army was at a disadvantage, so they wanted to know what kind of plan Sandora, the former commander of the Avengers, would have to turn the situation around.
"In the past few days, the outpost has been rapidly building and expanding its military strength according to the original plan. It has already begun to take shape. If something as dangerous as the first ambush on the Divine Fog Star happens again, they can immediately organize a fleet that is enough to completely suppress the enemy and rescue them. Of course, this is only a hypothesis. There is an eighty percent chance that the outpost will be exposed prematurely. Furthermore, the number of fleets that the Avengers might gather when they attack again will definitely be much larger. Now, the outpost is already our largest source of military strength. Before the stable world gate is built, it might also be our only reliable source of military strength in this universe. Therefore, the outpost must not be used directly in battle. Even the battleships that it manufactures must be divided into small batches and sent to the Divine Fog Star. Then, the Divine Fog Star defense line. This giant planet has now become a strategic location. It is the bridgehead for the Mobrado Star System, and the Mobrado Star System is an important site to find the truth behind the Avengers' loss of control. We must not fail here. "
Sandora had only stated two unchangeable facts, but the big sister seemed to have understood something. She drew circles on the table. (Did you feel a chill in your heart?) She said, "So, we have to think of a way to make the battle erupt on the battlefield outside of these two places?"
"Also, we have to divert the Avengers' attention and make them think that it is our main base," Sandora nodded and added.
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