From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars

"Welcome aboard, Captain~"

Lilith's virtual image appeared on the bridge's holographic projection platform.

This time her image is not the previous JK suit, but a more sci-fi looking ship pilot costume.

Of course, in Amber's opinion, this outfit is essentially just a leather jumpsuit, but with a lot of unexplained decorations on it, giving it a high-tech feel.

The shipboard control personality of this Imperial Confession-class frigate was confiscated by Lilith while it was in a dormant state. At this time, it had been formatted to the point where not a single byte was left.

Everyone on the bridge was no longer surprised by this person who appeared on the bridge and treated Amber respectfully.

After all, in their opinion, compared with other things that Warrant Officer Amber did, hacking a shipboard control personality and then replacing it was already an uninspiring move.

"Leah."

Amber on the captain's seat looked at Lilith's virtual image. To be on the safe side, he gave Lilith a temporary alias as a disguise.

"What's the reactor temperature?"

"130 million Kelvin, it is expected to take another 15 minutes to increase to the ship's operating temperature."

"15 minutes." Amber clicked a few times on the right armrest of the captain's seat. It looked like a decorative sculpture, but it was actually a touch panel.

After mastering the corresponding methods, imperial captains can perform many quick operations here.

That is to say, only an 'admiral' like Amber, who has reviewed countless ships, can adapt to the empire's somewhat perverted design.

If it were a traditional Federation captain, he wouldn't be able to operate it for a while.

Under Amber's control, a thumbnail of Port Lansford and the surrounding airspace was projected.

Through the interconnection between the ship and the military port network when it is parked, and with the authority of Major Randall, Amber can view the port entry situation in real time on the ship.

At this time, the small-scale imperial fleet that had just appeared had completed its deceleration and started the entry process after the entry request was approved.

1 cruiser, 2 destroyers and 2 frigates.

In terms of scale, it is actually not worthy of the name of a fleet or a squadron.

Amber estimated that these ships should be the surviving ships of the Empire's fleet that had just fought with the Federation squadron in orbit.

Now that I saw the federal escort detachment slipping away, I followed them back around.

According to the system's estimation, the first ship will complete the entry procedure in 15 minutes.

If these battleships discover that something is wrong at the port and intercept Amber's frigate, then he and others will be in trouble.

"It's too late, start the ship's emergency activation procedure."

Amber finally made a decision, and then skillfully called up the monitoring windows for the operation of various subsystems of the Penance-class frigate.

"Yes, Captain, start injecting plasma beam into the fusion furnace."

At this stage, the degree of automation on ships with regulatory personalities is actually relatively high.

Taking this Confession-class frigate as an example, in theory, only the captain, helmsman and radar and navigation operators are needed to start the ship.

Add a gunner and you can carry out the most basic combat.

If the control authority of the shipboard control personality is turned to the highest level, then only one person needs to be left on the bridge to have the frigate orbit the planet and be on standby.

This was also a method commonly used by some small player guilds in previous lives.

These small groups, which are not very strong in terms of number of members and guild strength, usually consist of a dozen members plus a small frigate or destroyer.

In addition to controlling the operation of ships on weekdays, players also have to become marines during ground combat missions.

In this case, the vice president is usually asked to stay on the ship and work with the shipboard control personality to keep the ship maneuvering in orbit and on standby.

The president led others to land on the surface of the planet to fight.

Sometimes, some vice-presidents who are more skilled and courageous will control the battleship to lower its orbit to the extreme position, and then launch several missiles or plasma torpedoes to the ground for "local low-Earth orbit support."

"During plasma beam injection, the magnetic field constraint is stable, and the temperature rise rate of the fusion furnace does not exceed the red line."

Lilith's words brought Amber back from her thoughts of flying to the horizon.

As the fusion furnace startup progress bar on the monitoring data came to an end, Lilith also spoke simultaneously:

"Captain, the fusion furnace has entered fusion mode and has been started!"

"Very good. Cut off the energy loop of the superconducting battery stack. From now on, the host will provide power to each system. The entire system will be online and the plasma propulsion array will be activated."

As if something suddenly occurred to her, Amber quickly added:

"I almost forgot! Disconnect from the berth quickly!"

Amber patted her head. She hadn't sailed a boat for a while, and some of the procedures were already unfamiliar.

As the fixed limiters and various cables between the berth and the frigate were disconnected one by one, the imperial frigate was completely disconnected from the berth.

With the help of the adaptive attitude maintenance system, the attitude nozzles throughout the ship's body spray out tiny blue lights, stabilizing the ship's attitude while preventing it from hitting the fixed devices on both sides of the berth.

The current sailing mode of the ship is 'port sailing mode'. In this mode, the plasma propulsion array at the stern is only in a preheating state and does not generate thrust.

Movement within the port mainly depends on the attitude control of the nozzles at various points on the ship's hull.

Amber looked at the helmsman's seat on the bridge. Major Randall was wearing an auxiliary integrated head-mounted display and was nervously setting up the control panel.

"Major Randall, you can begin exiting the berth."

"Copy that, sit tight. I haven't sailed a ship in almost ten years. The key is that this is an imperial warship."

The major's voice was trembling. At this moment, his perspective was a 'third-person' image synthesized by external sensors.

In the center of the screen was the Penitence-class frigate, and as his head turned, the perspective would shift to the corresponding direction, allowing him to observe the situation around the ship.

Of course, this kind of comprehensive head-mounted display is generally only used when entering and leaving the port and the space is relatively small.

After entering outer space and sailing, the helmsman usually drives directly according to the parameters of the ship.

Randall moved the gear on the clock on the right hand back, from 'stop' to 'slow reverse'.

Although it is still the same as the traditional navy, a device called a "car clock" is retained on the ship.

But in fact, the function of this thing has long since changed from 'giving instructions to the engine room' to directly controlling the power of the main propulsion array and the bow attitude control nozzle.

Fully automatic, easy to drive and easy to use.

Everyone in the bridge felt the ship shake a little, and the scene in the panoramic portholes began to recede forward.

Randall kept turning his head to look at the situation around the ship. When nearly three-quarters of the ship had exited the berth, he turned directly down and began to retreat to the right rear.

Seeing this scene, Amber's heart skipped a beat.

Normally, this would be an illegal operation.

Because under normal circumstances, the ship is required to completely exit the berth before adjusting its orientation.

However, in this emergency situation, it is impossible to fully comply with the rules and regulations of safe driving.

But Amber actually doesn't care about the violation, but cares about Randall's skills and whether he can complete such an operation.

I don’t know whether it was the major’s driving skills that had not been completely lost, or whether he was just lucky, but the bow of the ship almost brushed the left side of the berth and retreated.

Amber on the captain's seat was relieved. If there was really no one else who could drive the ship, he would not let Randall, a guy who had not touched a ship in ten years, be the helmsman.

"The berth has been exited and the orientation has been adjusted. The parameters of each unit and subsystem of the ship meet the requirements for departure."

"Port control has approved the departure application, and departure channel No. 04 is open."

Lilith's voice sounded in the bridge, and all the ship's values ​​on the holographic projection panel in front of Amber's eyes turned green.

Suppressing the excitement in her heart, Amber calmly said:

"Major, maintain the harbor navigation mode and proceed at a slow speed."