Chapter 551: Unknown Battle Group

Chapter 551: Unknown Battle Group

Under the fierce firepower of the two battle barges, the three Alliance battlecruisers were damaged again.

The opponent did not prioritize starting the engine and shield, but chose to concentrate on turning on the firepower system first to complete target locking and concentrated fire, which was very short-sighted.

But, it works.

After suffering the damage, Bai Qifan, as the fleet commander, realized that the situation had almost reached a desperate point.

Although the three battlecruisers started their engines and shields afterwards, the Wing, one of them, suffered serious damage in the previous attack.

And, unfortunately this time, the damage to the Wing did affect its speed.

The three battlecruisers started their engines and fled. The two battle barges of the Fury Fleet chased them closely and opened fire fiercely before they were left far behind.

Of course, the three battlecruisers did not just run away without fighting back.

Didn't you take a risk by turning on the firepower and engine first, causing the shield to open slower?
This is also a good time to fight back.

The two battle barges also took several heavy hits.

However, the flagships of these two regiments were no worse than regular battleships in terms of armor. Even without shields, one was hit by one shot and the other was hit by two shots, but there was no particularly obvious situation.

And then, when the shield is up, that's even more true.

This further proved that Bai Qifan's previous judgment was completely correct. It was impossible to confront the enemy head-on by relying on three battlecruisers.

But what’s worse is that during the subsequent chase and escape, the Alliance’s damaged Wing not only failed to solve the problem, but the power loss was becoming more and more serious!
According to the report, in the recent shot, not only was one power compartment damaged, but the area where several damage control technical teams were located was also affected by the internal explosion, resulting in serious casualties.

Due to the lack of time to deploy manpower, the loss of ships could not be controlled in the first place, and even with the intense operation of subsequent ships, the loss became more widespread.

At this point in the situation, Bai Qifan is faced with a very painful choice: should he give up the Flying Wing?
If the Raging Owl, which he was riding, and the Koroga next to it went at full speed, they could escape the pursuit of the Raging Flame Fleet. But if that happened, the increasingly damaged Flying Wing would be left behind and would surely die.

But if they continued to cover each other, the entire fleet, whose speed was seriously slowed down, would probably be entangled by the two Space Marine battle barges all the way to the jump point, with no way to get rid of them.

Before the jump point, it is estimated that it can barely stay within the enemy's range, so the enemy's hit rate is generally not high. But when it reaches the jump point, enters the jump state, and switches the engine, that is the fatal moment.

If we can’t get rid of the enemy, all three warships might be destroyed!
How to do?
Should we give up one ship and save the other two, or take the risk and go with all three?

The anxiety in Bai Qifan's heart made him feel his body numb.

But then, an unfamiliar communication request was received.

"Are you an Alliance ship?"

A hoarse voice with a strange accent rang out in the center of the bridge as the signal was connected.

At the same time, in front of Bai Qifan, the speaker's "face" appeared on a virtual screen.

The reason for the quotation marks is that the other person is wearing a helmet and his face cannot be seen; however, the helmet itself is very recognizable:

That is the helmet appearance of Space Marine MK.8, Aquila type power armor.

However, this paint job was something Bai Qifan had never seen before.

The most numerous and only Space Marine he had ever seen was naturally the Phoenix. Each of his three battlecruisers had a hundred of them.

At this moment, what appeared in front of him was a figure with only the head exposed, so the whole body paint could not be seen. One could only see that it had a silver-gray helmet with a touch of blood-red on the forehead on the top of the helmet.

The strange space warriors and their emotionless and cold words made Bai Qifan feel a little nervous, but at the same time, he also had some hope in his heart because of this special change.

He admitted: "Yes, we are an alliance, please..."

Before he could finish his question, the opponent interrupted him and asked the next question: "Are the two traitors, the Fury and the New World Torch, chasing you?"

Hearing the word "traitor", Bai Qifan felt more at ease.

He replied, "Yes, please..."

But this time, he still couldn't ask his question because the other party silently cut off the communication.

Bai Qifan was confused. What was going on?

He could now roughly judge from the word "traitor" that this group of unknown Space Marines who suddenly appeared out of nowhere should be from his own camp.

But other than that, he knew nothing.

Who are they? Where do they come from? What is their purpose? How strong are they? Can they help me?

It's all unknown.

But the unknown also has its benefits.

Given the current state of the fleet, any help would be welcome.

Five minutes after the communication ended, the Astropathic Psychic sent a message: a fast fleet was detected and suddenly appeared on the side of the ships of both sides.

On these silver-gray painted ships, there is a large blood-red shark profile pattern.

They didn't have many ships, only eight, but there were almost no small boats. The leading ship was a giant shark that really looked like a shark swimming in space, which should be a battle barge. The other seven were all Space Marine strike cruisers.

The Alliance also has some strike cruisers, which belong to the Phoenix Regiment sequence and are directly allocated to the regiment for use, but they must accept the joint leadership of the Alliance Navy, so Bai Qifan recognized this type of ship.

The strike cruiser is superior to the moon-class cruiser in terms of firepower, maneuverability, etc., and as a ship exclusively for Space Marines, it is also equipped with equipment that can only be neurally connected by genetically modified Space Marines.

Except for the fact that the armor thickness may be slightly worse than that of the Moon class, the strike cruiser is almost superior to the Moon class in all aspects.

The moment this fleet appeared, its target was very clear: it was heading for the Raging Flame Fleet behind it.

Bai Qifan was overjoyed!
Saved!
But then he fell into hesitation again.

Even so...can we win?
It’s really hard to say!
In this way, excluding small and medium-sized ships, if we only look at the main large ships, it is now four to two. Three of our battlecruisers can fight against one battle barge, and this group of unknown space marines who have just arrived can trade one for one with another.

From this perspective, the strength of both sides is roughly equal.

However, the number of the enemy's Moon-class and strike cruisers was greater than that of the Unknown Regiment, and they also brought more than thirty destroyers and fast frigates.

In a confrontation, it is not just about the comparison between the main battleships, but also the strength of the entire fleet. We are inferior to them.

Moreover, Bai Qifan did not forget that the enemy still had a battleship and a larger fleet, but they were struggling to catch up due to their slow speed. But if the current battle lasted a little longer, and the two sides were pulling back, it might really be possible to delay the enemy's battleship to arrive at the battlefield.

At that time, the situation on the battlefield will change instantly.

In that case, looking at the unknown warship rushing towards the enemy without hesitation, does that mean... we can escape first?
In the communication just now, they neither reported their identities nor asked for any cooperation from the Alliance Fleet, right? Then it seems that it is no big deal for us to withdraw.

While this unknown regiment was fighting the enemy, he led his team to flee quickly. Wouldn't that be safe? Wouldn't that achieve his most desired goal of preserving three battlecruisers at the same time?
However, Bai Qifan felt embarrassed that others were helping him while he led his team to escape and betrayed his allies.

Although it is common sense that a general should not be merciful. He should cut off his arm when necessary, especially since it was his friend's arm that was cut off, not his own...

However, from the perspective of profit alone, this is not appropriate.

On the one hand, it’s a matter of the league’s reputation;
On the other hand, if they sold this unidentified but seemingly friendly force, would the Alliance ships be safe? If the Fury Fleet destroyed or repelled this unknown war group at a relatively low cost, they would probably have to continue to pursue them. With the Flying Wing already lame, it might still be caught up.

Besides, if I ran away, what would I do if that unknown group saw that the Alliance was so disloyal and stopped fighting?
What's more, if this were friendly forces, we could have an additional fleet with a battle barge as the core, and a group of unknown number of Space Marines joining our camp to fight against the Fury Legion together, which would be of great help in future battles.

If you help, you will gain, if you don’t help, you will lose; helping has risks, if you don’t help, there are also risks.

After weighing the pros and cons, Bai Qifan put aside his hesitation and made a decision:

Fuck you!

Of course, if you want to do it, you don't have to be stupid and turn your head around and charge back, or fight brute forcefully.

It still requires strategy.

As for battlecruisers, they should still give full play to their own advantages. It is quite foolish to engage in a head-on battle with an enemy that is obviously stronger in frontal combat capability than themselves.

The three battlecruisers began to maneuver and gradually distanced themselves from each other.

The Koroja protected the damaged Flying Wing and cruised together at the edge of the battlefield, engaging in extreme distance pulling and firing. As long as the enemy's target was not on them, they would suddenly close the distance and attack the enemy with stronger firepower, making it impossible to ignore their threat; but once the enemy's target turned to them, they would immediately move away, using mobility and avoiding the enemy's best range to exchange for higher survivability.

This kind of pulling and tugging style of attack is a classic tactic developed from the characteristics of battlecruisers.

This tactic was contemptuously called the "fly tactic" by naval theorists of the "decisive battle doctrine".

It doesn't sound good, but it has some image.

The fly tactic is not only applicable to battlecruisers. Any ship or formation that lacks frontal combat power but has excellent maneuverability can adopt this tactic.

However, if the battlecruiser is a fly, then this fly is a bit big and when it bites people, it is not as light and harmless as flies and mosquitoes.

As for the other alliance warship, the Angry Owl, which was commanded by Bai Qifan himself and served as captain, it broke away from the previous formation and moved behind the gray fleet.

This is another use of the battlecruiser.

No matter what kind of ship it is, except for aircraft carriers, the closer the distance is, the stronger the firepower it can exert.

After all, it takes time for the firepower to hit the target, and the result is not immediate as soon as the fire is fired, even for the light spear.

The closer you are, the more accurate the fire lock will be, but it also means there is less room to dodge.

Battlecruisers are relatively fragile and have less firepower, so how can they take advantage of their firepower?
near.

But when we get closer, the room for maneuverability becomes smaller and the problem of vulnerability is magnified. What should we do?

Find a big brother who can carry the load to lead the way.

The best condition is of course to have a battleship in the front, so that the battlecruiser can attack unscrupulously from the back, exerting the firepower of half a battleship without getting hit; if that doesn't work, find a bunch of frigates to support it in the front. Although the frigates will be lost, it is cheaper than letting the battlecruiser get hit.

And now, Bai Qifan is going to do this.

He treated the battle barge of the Gray Fleet as his big brother.

He wanted to turn the Angry Owl into the enemy's 'shadow', accompanying its movements and increasing its firepower.

The Angry Owl would follow the Gray Fleet's battle barges wherever they were targeting them, and in coordinated operations, they would aim to quickly reduce the enemy's numbers.

In order to achieve better coordination, Bai Qifan tried to contact the Gray Fleet many times.

If both parties can maintain communication at all times, the collaboration between them will definitely become better.

However, almost all of his communication requests were rejected.

However, the Gray Fleet did not make any resistance to his arrival.

He looks like: You can do whatever you want, just don't expect me to cooperate with you and just don't get in my way.

Bai Qifan felt a little helpless.

This unknown group that suddenly appeared is really... unique.

But he had no other choice.

Now, I have to accept the favor and try my best to cooperate.

Do the best you can.

The Raging Owl followed the Grey Fleet's battle barges and focused its firepower on the Triumphal Flame, the flagship of the Raging Flame Regiment.

In addition, the Koroja and the Flying Wing, which were engaged in a tug-of-war in the distance, were also aiming to attack the Triumphant Flame. Although, due to the problem of the fly tactics, their firepower was not concentrated and the hit rate was not high, but as two battlecruisers, they definitely had a role to play.

The Fire of Triumph will definitely try its best to fight back.

Another flagship of the New World Torch, the Torchlight, was also fiercely attacking the flagship of the Gray Fleet. However, their firepower only lasted for a short while before it suddenly stopped halfway.

The entire ship's movements became confused and slow, as if it was sick or drunk.

----

There is one more chapter, probably later.

(End of this chapter)