Proxima Centauri's northern star field.

This is an incomparably vast pure star field, with no meteors shuttling in the dark night, no large and small celestial bodies wandering aimlessly in the universe, and no colorful nebulae scattered and drifting away like smoke clouds. The contrast between the pure black color and the stark red glow of Proxima Centauri in the distance makes it seem as if one can find the exact route to Othello with just one's own eyes.

For Cecilia, who is accustomed to the complex routes of the solar system, such an empty route is undoubtedly a paradise for piloting, allowing her to raise the engines of the TR-735 to the limit without any scruples, so that this behemoth can run freely in this pure starry sky at sub-light speed.

However, Cecilia's demeanor during the voyage was not as relaxed as expected, after switching the driving mode to autopilot, she focused all her attention on a set of navigation data, and relied on the dynamic image simulated by the ship's computer to find the navigation defects hidden in this set of data.

This set of sailing data is the real-time data collected during the simulation not long ago, and through this set of data, Cecilia found that the situation of the simulated battle this time is not optimistic. With only a cursory observation, she found three navigational deficiencies that had to be modified immediately.

Of these three flaws, the most fatal one comes from the dynamic changes in the hull during the emergency launch of the space shuttle.

Since the TR-735 is a non-combat type of 'Catfish' type 3 transport ship, and it does not have the function of launching a shipborne space shuttle, at first, when the F-6 space shuttle was equipped, in order to reduce the impact of the space shuttle launch on the ship's navigation, the space shuttle launch capsule was deliberately placed in the tail of the hull, so that the propulsion generated by the space shuttle during launch can be consistent with the ship, so as to reduce the instantaneous kinetic energy generated during the launch of the space shuttle. Therefore, in terms of the hardware facilities of the 'Catfish' 3 transport ship, equipping a carrier-based space shuttle is actually the limit of the TR-735 ship.

However, in the current situation, the TR-735 ship has been upgraded from a simple transport ship to an armed transport ship, and the hull armament has been enhanced at all costs, so that the TR-735 ship has increased the number of aircraft guns and ship-based missiles at the same time, and has increased the number of carrier-based aircraft to five. These additional burdens and large-scale modifications have affected the balance of the hull of the TR-735, and when five space shuttles are launched at the same time, the instantaneous kinetic energy generated will cause the hull under sail to tremble violently, and even appear to be out of control for a short time, which is undoubtedly a fatal flaw in the actual combat where every second counts. In addition, due to the light weight of the TR-735 hull, the space shuttle cannot get the reverse ultimate propulsion force after launch, so that the space shuttle needs five to eight seconds to enter the real air combat speed in the initial period.

Similar to this is the launch of ship-based missiles, the TR-735 ship has a missile launch port located at the far front of the ship, which can launch two shipborne missiles at the same time. At the Marseille Space Fortress, the TR-735 was armed with short-range Tomahawk ship-based missiles. The Tomahawk shipborne missile is the strongest of all types of missiles, and although its attack range is relatively short, its launch speed and penetration are the strongest among all types of missiles. Under normal circumstances, the Tomahawk missile can even severely damage the hull armor of any spaceship below 100,000 tons after an accurate hit, and it can also produce extremely considerable destructive power against a combat spaceship with strong defensive armor such as frigates. In addition, the Tomahawk shipborne missile can be equipped not only on spaceships, but also on some heavy space shuttles similar to the F-5. Therefore, during the simulated battle, Cecilia first test-fired the 'Tomahawk' ship-based missile.

However, through this test launch, she found that when the hull of the ship was maintained in a horizontal position, the "Tomahawk" missile launched would offset the hull due to its strong propulsion, so that the "Tomahawk" missile would lose its target lock. Only at low speeds, when the bow is moved up to a horizontal position by 25 degrees, can the Tomahawk missile keep its target locked.

The 'Trident' medium-range ship-based missiles purchased by Robin at the Hermes spaceport do not have such a problem. Compared with the 'Tomahawk' short-range missile, the 'Trident' medium-range missile has a longer attack range, and after approaching the target within a certain range, the 'Trident' medium-range missile will separate three warheads on its own and attack at the same time. This multi-warhead attack mode makes the 'Trident' medium-range missile a great threat to the enemy's spaceship, but in terms of the penetration power of a single warhead, the attack power of the 'Trident' missile is not comparable to that of the 'Tomahawk', and as a special anti-ship missile, the 'Trident' missile cannot pose a threat to the space shuttle, which is extremely mobile.

Through this comparison of simulated actual combat, the 'Tomahawk' short-range missile and the 'Trident' medium-range missile have their own advantages and disadvantages in terms of their surname. In terms of destructive power and maneuverability, the 'Tomahawk' missile undoubtedly has an absolute advantage, but the range and simplicity of the 'Trident' are also incomparable to the 'Tomahawk' type.

Therefore, after combining the characteristics of these two missiles and the actual combat situation, Robin and Cecilia decided to immediately change the missile launch sequence. The 'Trident' missile, which does not affect the sailing speed, is placed as the first sequence of the missile launch port, while the launch sequence of the Tomahawk missile is relatively backward, ready to be used for precision strikes at close range.

This arrangement tactically allowed the TR-735 to enter purely attack mode, rather than the passive defense mode of the usual armed transport ships. While the equipment squad urgently changes the sequence of missile launches, Cecilia must also adapt herself to this aggressive way of sailing, and become proficient in the corresponding tactical maneuvers that the ship must make when launching missiles.

While Cecilia discovered many problems through this simulated actual combat, the space shuttle fighter formation led by Angus also found many problems that must be solved immediately.

Among them, the first is the newly modified 'J-9' space shuttle.

Compared with its prototype, the J-9 space shuttle modified by Old Jack has undoubtedly greatly improved its weak attack power and weapon system. At the beginning of the simulated battle, the 'J-9' space shuttle's newly equipped aviation cannon and short-range 'Meteor' missile showed surprisingly excellent ability, and if it weren't for the pilot's pilot's piloting skills and a little rough, the 'J-9' space shuttle's combat ability at close range had even surpassed the Raymond Federation military's ace fighter F-5. But immediately after the test firing of the "Sparrow" medium-range missile and the "Sidewinder" long-range missile, the problem began to erupt in a concentrated manner.

Through his own surname test, Angus found that when using the J-9 space shuttle to launch the "Sparrow" medium-range missile, it needs to make five subtle tactical movements in a row to achieve accurate launch. The launch of the 'Sidewinder' long-range missile requires three large-scale tactical actions.

If the J-9 space shuttle were to be piloted by an experienced pilot, then these problems could be completely ignored. But the problem now is that all the others in the entire fighter formation except Angus are rookies, and with their current level, they are simply unable to accurately complete these tactical moves, which makes Angus have to overturn the original combat policy and immediately formulate a new combat plan.

Therefore, after many considerations, Angus decided to temporarily abandon the medium and long-range attack capability of the 'J-9' space shuttle, and equip the 'J-9' space shuttle with a large number of 'Meteor' short-range missiles to further enhance the 'J-9' space shuttle's close-range combat capability. The long-range strike missions are all completed by the F-6 space shuttle he pilots.

The emergence of many problems has plunged the TR-735 ship under sail into unprecedented busyness, and the mechanical and equipment squads are operating in full force under the leadership of Old Jack, and they must make new adjustments to the hull and space shuttle before the appearance of enemy attacks. The pilots and alternate pilots involved in the actual combat carefully studied the previous flight videos over and over again, looked for their own flight errors, and worked hard to overcome the technical shortcomings.

At the same time, in the training cabin of the TR-735 ship aviation marine corps, Robin and others, who had just finished the simulated operation, were further familiarizing themselves with their Type 3 infantry armor and carefully studying the many differences between aviation warfare and ground combat.

Beside them, Andrew and the others, who accompanied the training, were extremely tired and unloaded the Skywalker 2 aviation armor they were equipped with, and looked at Robin and the other three who were still equipped with Type 3 armor with awe.

In the simulated operation just now, Robin mainly tried the ship's outward defense and assault warfare in the sailing state. Robin, Drow, and Lee, armed with Type 3 armor, engage in an out-of-body battle with Andrew, two other infantry officers, and Andy's cannon crew, equipped with Skywalker 2 armor.

In terms of equipment, Andrew and the other two infantry officers are equipped with Skywalker 2 aviation armor for space warfare. Compared to the Defender 2 and Patriot 2 that Robin once equipped, the Skywalker 2 aviation armor dedicated to aviation combat is much larger, with a height of about 2.8 meters to 3 meters after it is equipped. And because it is fighting in the weightless environment of space, the armor does not need to think too much about the weight of the problem, therefore, the firepower is far superior to the commonly used type of marine heavy infantry armor, in addition to the heavy loader special MX8-modified assault machine gun, the shoulder position on both sides of the armor is also equipped with a grenade launcher, and the left arm is even equipped with a small-caliber rocket launcher. In terms of firepower alone, the Skywalker 2 aviation armor is completely a combination of a heavy loader and a fireman, and its instantaneous burst of combat firepower can even be comparable to a carrier-based cannon.

In comparison, the Type 3 armor equipped by Robin and others is slightly shabby in terms of firepower.

When equipped, the height of the Type 3 armor is roughly between 2.2 and 2.3 meters, which makes Robin and his wife look like children standing in front of giants. The difference in design concept makes the Type 3 almost non-existent with any of its own armament, and all firepower comes from the portable 'MX8-Modification' assault cannon and other armor-specific weapons, which makes the Type 3 armor look almost indistinguishable from light infantry armor.

However, after the real battle against it, Andrew and the others thoroughly realized the horror of Type 3 armor, which was already a completely different level of combat from them.

(To be continued)