From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars

Each irradiation of the Focusing Rainbow means thousands of lives are dissipated into space.

At least until now, there is nothing wrong with this sentence.

When Duke Hastings ordered the main cannon of the Gospel Fortress to fire, an extremely long 'Galaxy' passed by the planet in the target area after a flight time of nearly 2 minutes.

During ultra-long distance irradiation, Focusing Rainbow will strengthen the interference level of the pointing magnetic field and adopt a 'convergent irradiation' mode with higher precision and more concentrated power.

At a distance of 2.6 million kilometers, there is a relatively large delay whether it is detection or attack.

Therefore, after the gravitational wave radar array captured the federal fleet in a high-speed maneuvering formation, the Focusing Rainbow actually aimed at a preview point calculated by the fortress control personality based on the opponent's activity trajectory.

Unfortunately, perhaps due to lack of experience and too little reference data, the preview point calculated by the control personality of the Celestial Fortress is still a bit conservative.

When the heavy metal ion jet that spanned 2.6 million kilometers arrived, only the 'tail' of the federal fleet was left at the preview point.

But luckily, this ultra-long-range 'sniper' successfully hit the target.

Duke Hastings's original intention was more to execute a deterrent shot, to 'get the prize' and at the same time let the federal fleet know that the Focusing Iris could attack at a distance where they could not fight back.

So when the Tactical Information Coordinator reported 'Covering the rear of the enemy fleet! ’, the Duke of Hastings even thought it was an ‘unexpected surprise’.

"Irradiation is over!"

"The energy circuit has been cut off and energy distribution has begun again."

"Focusing Rainbow begins forced heat dissipation, the main weapon unit begins self-checking, autonomous detection terminals, and manned engineering machinery are dispatched!"

A large number of engineering personnel and machinery inside the Gospel Fortress were moved. This time, it was only the third time that the fortress was irradiated with full power.

After the first two irradiation tests in the weapons experiment galaxy, Gospel Fortress never waited for the opportunity to use the 'Focusing Iris'.

So just now was the first main gun attack of this fortress in actual combat.

"Your Majesty the Duke! It is expected that the second irradiation can be carried out in 2 hours."

"Understood, speed up the work progress, and after the basic inspection is completed, carry out maneuvering according to the scheduled plan. Remember to notify Duke Artesia to follow."

——

"Report! 112, 131 light patrol detachment, and 221 cruise detachment were all destroyed! 220 cruise detachment was severely damaged!"

"Leave a small number of medical ships to gather the survivors, and the fleet will continue to the predetermined coordinates, using the planets for cover."

After hearing the casualties, Commander Kane of the Eighth Fleet felt uncomfortable, but he still led the fleet to hide behind the planet as planned.

In the previous combat meeting, Kane, who had won the task of "inducing the enemy to fire" by drawing lots on the spot and "all relying on God's will", felt that his luck was really bad.

But after seeing that his old enemy, Major General Vardy, the commander of the Tenth Fleet, had also been assigned the task of "inducing the enemy to fire" from another direction, Major General Kane was relieved.

As the commanders of the main fleet of the Federation Navy, both Kane and Vardy knew the importance of this battle.

After Trafalgar explained the tactical plan, he understood the necessity of the two of them to carry out the task of "inducing the enemy to fire".

Now that they have taken on this task, Kane and Vardy have nothing to say.

For combat missions, 'if you are not resolute in execution, you are resolute in not executing it', so even if he is trying to destroy the entire fleet, Kane will resolutely complete the mission assigned by Marshal Trafalgar.

Fortunately, although he has suffered losses now, at least he is still within the acceptable range of fleet casualties.

"Reconnaissance ship report! Signs of another imperial celestial fortress firing were observed, and the impact point was located in the enemy decoy maneuver area of ​​the Tenth Fleet!"

After hearing the news, Kane couldn't help but hold on to the armrest of the captain's seat, and the veins on his forehead betrayed his inner nervousness.

Although he is usually his biggest competitor and his old enemy in exercises, Kane couldn't help but pray for the Tenth Fleet under such circumstances.

"We have to come back alive, Vardy. There are still many unsettled accounts between the two of us!"

——

The main gun illumination of the man-made celestial fortress is a very spectacular sight, so spectacular that fleets around this war zone and passing civilian units can observe this phenomenon through various means.

With the area where the empire's main fleet is located as the center of the circle, the circle with a radius of 350,000-600,000 kilometers is the middle warning area of ​​the two celestial fortress battle groups.

In this area, a new type of "Vulture-class" long-distance penetration reconnaissance ship of the Federation Navy is maintaining its "covert action" mode, quietly lurking in deep space under the cover of optical camouflage and black body coating.

In the entire galaxy, this long-distance penetration reconnaissance ship should be the closest federal ship to the target location that can currently observe the focusing rainbow illumination scene.

If other reconnaissance ships performing infiltration missions have been discovered and destroyed.

But Brownie, the captain of this long-distance penetration reconnaissance ship, does not know the current situation of friendly forces at the moment, or he simply does not dare to take the initiative to contact other reconnaissance ships.

Because whether it is for themselves or for friendly reconnaissance ships, after the communication is intercepted and the ship is located, they have only a dead end.

"I finally found this position, so I can't overturn it at the end."

While Brownie was thinking this, he looked at the progress bar on the virtual screen on the left for precise positioning of the imperial fleet's coordinates - this was also the most important task for their reconnaissance ships to infiltrate in this adventure.

The Federation's mobile fortress is not in place, so it is impossible to deploy a large gravitational wave radar array to determine the precise coordinates of the Empire's celestial fortress battle group.

Although a fully-equipped main fleet can be deployed, it can turn the entire fleet into a huge long-distance detection array through networking and additional dispersion of probes.

However, the accuracy of this method is actually not enough, and it is generally only used to guide the fleet to launch long-distance salvos.

Secondly, doing this in front of the Celestial Fortress is really because they are worried that the empire will not be able to find an attack target.

Therefore, the task of obtaining the precise coordinates of the Empire's celestial fortress battle group fell on these long-distance penetration reconnaissance ships.

As for the outer security circle of the Imperial Celestial Fortress Battle Group, although it is indeed very tight, it can be called 'airtight'.

However, there are only so many reconnaissance teams that the opponent can send out. If they cannot allocate a large area of ​​​​the warning circle, there will always be some omissions.

In the relatively cramped bridge of the long-distance reconnaissance ship, the number of crew members is much smaller than that of a conventional battleship.

Moreover, each of them seemed to have no sense of nervousness at all under the eyes of the enemy, and some of them even stretched themselves from time to time.

However, Captain Browne does not find it strange. After all, sailors who are timid and have poor mental endurance will not be selected to become the crew of the long-distance penetration reconnaissance ship.

Although the name of this new type of warship sounds a bit similar to a 'long-range reconnaissance ship' or a 'reconnaissance ship', in fact it is completely different from these two ships.

Reconnaissance ships are the most numerous and common reconnaissance means in the fleet.

Long-distance reconnaissance ships are ships that are located one to two standard jump distances in front of the fleet during fleet maneuvers to conduct advance reconnaissance.

The ship's self-sustainability and maneuverability have been enhanced, making it a 'pro max' version of the reconnaissance ship.

But the key word for the long-distance infiltration reconnaissance ship is the word "infiltration".

This new type of ship, in addition to conducting reconnaissance far away from the fleet, is more importantly able to break through the outer warning circle of the enemy fleet and approach a dangerous distance for close reconnaissance.

In this case, these ships will not receive any support from the rear, and they can only rely on themselves.

Therefore, the Federal Naval Equipment Manufacturing Bureau has piled some new technologies on this kind of ship.

The latest covert action modules, the latest hull materials, a new configuration of ship fusion furnace and main propulsion array.

Coupled with the 'ship automatic control system' derived from the unmanned fleet - this system can significantly reduce the number of personnel required to maintain the operation of the ship.

After all, long-distance reconnaissance ships perform highly dangerous missions, so the fewer people on board, the better.

In addition, in order to control the size of the ship as much as possible, the ship is made as small as possible. This long-distance reconnaissance ship is not equipped with any weapons, nor does it carry any HCP or combat boats.

In the view of the research and development team, it is of little significance for the long-distance penetration reconnaissance ship to have combat capabilities.

You have been discovered under the nose of the enemy fleet, do you still expect to use one or two cannons or a few HCPs to kill you out?

Instead of doing this kind of useless work, it is better to develop in the direction of "stealth investigation" and achieve the ultimate in this route.

It was this research and development idea that finally created a unique product like the 'Vulture Class'.

"Captain, the real-time coordinates of the Imperial Celestial Fortress Battle Group have been analyzed. Do you want to transmit them to the fleet?"

The voice of the shipboard controller's personality sounded on the bridge. The AI ​​that had finished its calculations also re-projected its own avatar on the side of the captain's seat - a mature woman with a hot figure wearing a navy uniform.

It has to be said that the captains of the Federation Navy have a very high degree of unity in XP. 80% of the avatars of shipboard controllers are this kind of "sexy big sister".

"Wait first, conduct another round of threat detection, and calculate the fastest acceleration path to the jump."

Captain Browne tapped his fingers rhythmically on the armrest, and then added:

"What we are saying is that if you can go back alive, you should try your best to go back alive."

Everyone on the bridge suddenly laughed. For them, it is still very important to have a captain with a "big heart" when performing this kind of mission.