Chapter 138

  Rufipul General's Third Fleet, with a total of 13,000 warships, the flagship is "Ku.Helin". Currently stationed in the ancient star system of Rujing.

  "Alpha-4.1, beta 3.6, gamma 4.8! Distance 1.9 light seconds! Multiple ship shadows appearing! Imperial fleet!" The officer on the bridge of the flagship "Ku. Huerlin" shouted loudly.

  "Steady! Quickly identify the enemy's numbers and quantity! All ships prepare for battle!"

  "The enemy fleet's hull numbers are now visible. It's the Imperial 17th Fleet! The number... ...the number is over 18,000!" The bridge officer's shout was laced with a cold tremble that swept through the entire command center.

  "That ferocious 'Dragon' fleet. The entire fleet is in defensive formation!" General Lufei muttered to himself before giving the order, "Prepare to retreat......" he whispered at last.

  "Our side has 18,000, the scattered idiot on the opposite side has 13,000. Even based on the oldest Lanchester's equation, they are bound to lose! Order the fleet's right wing to advance and form an oblique firing line! General Selner von Dark will lead 1,000 high-speed destroyers on the left wing, waiting for orders to launch a flank attack on the enemy's right wing!" Fafnir lazily gave the order to his chief of staff, General Schtukart. "Begin!"

  "I say, why do the Allied fools disperse their forces? They distribute each fleet to a star system like scattering pepper. Fortunately, our Golden Hair is also a fool. If he had concentrated two fleets to attack one of the enemy's fleets, at least four of the opponent's fleets would have been crippled or heavily damaged without much loss. The final battle would be easy to fight. But he insisted on one-on-one...". Fafnir and other Shutekka commanders conveyed the order, shaking their heads, "Now it's interesting, only my fleet can guarantee absolute victory, the others are almost evenly matched with the enemy, due to previous miscalculations, the enemy's combat strength won't be weakened much."

  "Rudolf, you're absolutely right. It seems that blondie really has a low IQ halo around him. Look at those generals who joined his marshal's office, I've seen a few of them before, and they were all decent on the battlefield, but after entering that place, they can't even remember elementary school math...". Shuttkraut laughed in response. The two didn't care about the artillery exchange that had already begun.

  Innumerable spears of light sprinted through the void, manufacturing flowers of light in the universe, each representing death. The Fafnir fleet formed a diagonal firing line with its warships as the most prominent right-wing spearhead, and the rest of the ships were neatly arranged in a slanted firing formation, opening fire on the Allied forces' array as soon as they entered range. Due to their numerical disadvantage, the Allied forces could not concentrate their firepower on the Imperial fleet that first engaged them, but instead had to form a general stalemate due to the continuous entry of Imperial ships into effective range. As the Imperial fleet continued to enter the battlefield, the power of its numerical superiority began to manifest, and in the first three hours of battle, both sides suffered only triple-digit losses, roughly evenly matched. However, by the fourth hour, as the Imperial forces' numbers began to exceed those of the Allied forces on the battlefield, the Allies' casualties suddenly skyrocketed, far exceeding those of the Empire. By the fifth hour, the Allies had accumulated over 3,000 ships lost, while the Empire had temporarily lost only over 1,000 ships on the front lines. At this point, Fafnir ordered: "Alright, I'm tired of messing with them! The time is almost up, order Dark to quickly cut in from the enemy's right flank!"

  Dark's thousand high-speed destroyers had been patrolling the right flank of the alliance, and at first the third fleet of the alliance also had a considerable number of ships on alert to monitor them, ready to respond to Dark's offensive at any time. However, as the pressure on the front line grew greater, the monitoring ships were repeatedly reduced and withdrawn into the front-line battle, and now the Alliance army in front of General Dark was no longer worth mentioning.

  "Full speed! Charge! Charge!" Dark yelled, "Send them to hell!"

  However, Lufypp was no incompetent as the commander of the Third Fleet of the Alliance. He laid a trap for General Dark - in the rear of the right wing, Lufypp quietly concentrated one thousand flagship cruisers to prepare for a concentrated fire.

  "Imperial army! Concentrate your attack! Turn the Empire's old men into cosmic dust!"

  Dark's fleet charged head-on into the ambush, and in just twenty minutes, over 300 ships were sunk. Dark was drenched in cold sweat, "Don't stop, charge straight through! Try to disrupt the enemy's front line! Don't mind the flank fire!"

  "Dark seems to have fallen into a trap? What are you going to do? Do you want to give him support?" Schuttker reminded.

  "No need, start the frontal assault! Launch the missiles! Get the Thunderbolt ready!" Fafnir said, still sitting paralyzed in his chair. "Dark is a reckless guy, as long as he's not dead yet, he'll definitely keep charging forward with all his might, and that's all the time I need."

  The Imperial fleet suddenly began accelerating.

  "Damn it! Order the rear fleet to start withdrawing, full firepower to cover the central battle group's withdrawal!" General Ruprecht quickly gave orders.

  However, the numerical disadvantage ultimately ended the efforts of the lieutenant general - the front began to collapse, and the Imperial Army continued to break through the Allied array, releasing a destroyer to give the already fragmented Allied line a final blow, at which point Lufy was powerless to annihilate the Dark fleet that had already been pushed to the brink of destruction. "Charge! Charge again! Is the enemy flagship in front?! Good! Ram it!" Dark was in a state of frenzy, his fleet reduced to just over 200 destroyers, but fortunately discovered the flagship of the Third Fleet, Lufy's "Ku.Helin" which happened to be retreating.

  "Imperial Navy destroyer! Extremely close range! We're in trouble! They've opened fire!" The observer let out a wail, just as the flagship's escort warship moved up to cover them, using its own flank to block the Imperial destroyer's line of fire. A massive explosion and flames filled the entire bridge observation window, and with the fading light, what was left of the warship's hull crashed heavily into the "Kühlin", destroying the flagship's propulsion system, sending both ships plummeting towards the planet...

  On October 12, the Third Fleet of the Alliance was dealt a devastating blow by the Imperial Fawfnir fleet, with General Rutford killed in action. Only three thousand ships from the entire fleet managed to escape the battlefield, while six thousand were destroyed, and the rest either surrendered or were captured. In contrast, the Fawfnir fleet lost only two thousand ships, many of which could be repaired, and Fawfnir was able to quickly restore his fleet to its original strength of eighteen thousand ships through repairs and vessels preserved from the earlier rebellion.

  On this day, the Allied fleet that was attacked was not only the Third Fleet. The Fifth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, Twelfth and Thirteenth Fleets were all attacked by the Imperial Fleet. However, the Imperial Fleet did not gain much advantage. The old general of the Fifth Fleet, Bikuku, faced off against Roshantal, but Roshantal was completely unable to annihilate Bikuku's Fifth Fleet. The numbers on both sides were roughly equal, and neither commander made any low-level mistakes. In the end, Roshantal's fleet was slightly more energetic and forced Bikuku's Fifth Fleet to retreat, resulting in a 40% loss of troops for the Fifth Fleet. However, Roshantal himself also lost 30% of his troops, rendering him unable to stop Bikuku's withdrawal.

  The Seventh Fleet's Heward was attacked by Gilfeather, who used a successful flanking maneuver to crush the Seventh Fleet with his high-speed warships, pursuing and killing until the remnants of the Seventh Fleet fled the battlefield. Gilfeather emerged victorious, annihilating 70% of the Seventh Fleet's forces and capturing General Heward.

  The Eighth Fleet's Admiral Apton and the Meklinger fleet both retreated after suffering losses of about 30% each.

  The Ninth Fleet of the Alliance, led by Admiral Yar Shalem, was battered by the Imperial forces' Middlearth storm and continued to retreat. Admiral Shalem struggled to prevent the collapse of the command system.

  At this time, the pursuit of Midway was too rapid, and the vanguard troops of the pursuing Imperial Army and the rear tail group of the Allied Forces were mixed together, creating a strange scene where the ships of both sides were side by side and driving at the same speed. The soldiers on both sides who saw the enemy's flag close at hand through the porthole were all shocked.

  The chaos was eventually brought under control by Midway's order to slow down, but for the Allied forces, this only meant that the enemy's pursuit was reorganized again, and they suffered from the Imperial Army's artillery fire at a distance where they could maintain their range, losing ships and lives one after another.

  The flagship, INS Eilat, was also damaged in seven places, and Commander Yair Shalit broke his ribs and was seriously injured. Deputy Commander Mordechai Gafni took command, and with difficulty rallied the remaining troops to begin the long retreat.

  The Imperial Army's General Kampf was left with nothing, the originally scheduled Allied 13th Fleet had vanished without a trace. By the time he heard news of the 13th Fleet again, it had already merged with the 10th Fleet and severely damaged the Beatty Fleet.

  The 10th Fleet of General Wulangfu faced the Imperial Fleet of Bitenfeldt, but it was not just him who faced Bitenfeldt - Yang's 13th Fleet had merged with him ahead of time. When Bitenfeldt launched a fierce attack, Yang gave him an unforgettable memory - after absorbing Bitenfeldt's impact with the fleets of Wulangfu and Yang, he counter-attacked Bitenfeldt from both wings. Bitenfeldt himself led his flagship squadron to escape death successfully, but he lost as many as 80% of his subordinates. Despite this, Bitenfeldt still caused losses of 30% for Wulangfu's fleet and 20% for Yang's fleet.

  Then Ulanfu and Yang Shun rescued General Borodin of the 12th Fleet, after repelling the Imperial Army's Ruz attack. The three fleets joined forces to annihilate Ruz's fleet, but Ruz himself escaped with his life. However, the energy and missile losses of the three fleets had already reached their peak, and they began to retreat.

  During their retreat, they encountered the fleet of Gylfi Arisen. Faced with three Alliance fleets, two of which had already suffered significant losses, it was not a force that Gylfi could match. After exchanging a long-range cannon fire, both sides withdrew from the battlefield.

  On the bridge of the Imperial flagship Brünhild, Reinhard listened to Oberstein's report. Then several people were silent for half a beat.

  "The enemy may have retreated in defeat, but they still maintain order, as if heading towards the Amritsar star system to regroup."

  "But our army has also lost the fleets of Bitendorf and Rutz! We've lost more than 20% of our total forces!"

  "Your Excellency! General Fawneil, First Class, on the line!"

  "Oh, Lord Marshal Rohm Klam! Our forces have annihilated the enemy's 3rd Fleet, 7th Fleet and 9th Fleet, and also inflicted considerable losses on other fleets. Congratulations to you... ...But why didn't you let our two fleets attack one of the enemy fleets? In that case, at least the enemy's 8th Fleet would not have escaped, and the 5th Fleet and 10th Fleet would have suffered even greater losses, and we wouldn't have lost two fleets either. Never mind, let's not talk about this anymore. Next step, are you going to engage in a final decisive battle with the Allied Forces in the Amrilza star system?"

  Fawkes didn't open his visual options, lest he die laughing at the sight of Roshan Khr's face, and also avoid being locked up again on charges of contempt for superiors.

  The star Yamtzar constantly emits silent roars. In the ultra-high temperature of nuclear fusion, countless atoms collide, split, and regenerate, a process that repeats endlessly, with massive energy radiating out into the void. Various elements emit flames of different colors, jumping in units of 10,000 kilometers, either red, yellow, or purple, dyeing human vision into a kaleidoscope of colors.

  The Fifth, Eighth, Tenth, Twelfth and Thirteenth Fleets of the Allied Forces formed up below Yamriz after replenishment and repairs. The morale of the Allied Forces was still okay, although they had lost three fleets, but also annihilated two Imperial fleets, which can be said to have temporarily fallen behind in exchange ratio. The original frontline combat fleet with a scale of one million ships now only has about 500,000 ships left, while the number of Imperial forces facing them is approximately 650,000 ships, excluding the Fafnir Fleet.

  The final battle is about to begin.