The frequent activity of the Reichs' reconnaissance ships and notification ships baffled Brigadier General Nicholas Wolfensohn of the Bundeswehr.

"The enemy launched a counterattack so quickly?" Nicholas Wolfensohn asked, confused.

It had only been a day since the Imperial Task Force had managed to escape right under their noses, and they were ready to fight back.

"I think the enemy must have received reinforcements." Lieutenant Colonel Gunther Oswald speculated.

If the reinforcement fleet of the Imperial Army has arrived, then the other side should be very clear about its own strength, and there is no need to use more than a dozen reconnaissance ships and notification ships to operate at a distance of only a few astronomical units. If reinforcements from the other side do not arrive, then with its strength, it is unlikely that a counteroffensive will be launched.

The Federation fleet has absolute superiority in numbers and firepower, and even the most talented commander must take this disparity of power seriously.

If you just want to monitor the Federation's movements, there is no need to send so many reconnaissance ships.

Brigadier General Wolfensohn shook his head, rejecting the idea of his chief of staff, saying: "Have we tracked down the enemy fleet?" ”

"Not yet, but the appearance of these reconnaissance ships shows that they have not gone far."

"Send more reconnaissance to continue the search, closely monitor the enemy's reconnaissance ships and report on the movements of the ships."

"Are you going to send warships to drive them out?"

Wolfensohn hesitated slightly, nodded and replied, "Okay, send a few cruisers to wipe them out." ”

Unbeknownst to them, the work of the Imperial Army's counterattack was ready.

Eight supply ships are deployed in a vast space, ready to replenish and maintain the cruisers engaged in "faster-than-light raids" at any time.

The unmanned reconnaissance ships dispatched by the four reconnaissance and communications carriers had already started operations, and the notification ships successively changed from the faster-than-light state of the third and fourth levels of Akuberi to inform the Imperial Cruiser of the enemy situation.

The deployment of the Federation fleet around the "Yi" planet made Jiang Ziyue very satisfied. The distance between the four detachments distributed in the four tracks was more than 150,000 kilometers, and he was even more overjoyed that the battleship group was placed on the outermost periphery. His intention was to defeat the opponent's most powerful battleship group first.

Although the risk of attacking a battleship with a cruiser is quite high, once it is successful, the losses and blows inflicted on the opponent are also the heaviest.

A detailed command was transmitted via encrypted radio to the captain of each of the cruisers of the Task Force IX of the New Roman Empire. A surprise attack on the enemy fleet at a distance of 1,500 astronomical units was immediately launched.

Human Standard Time (Earth Standard Time) 23:00 on May 19, 2918.

"Attack!" With an order, the Imperial cruisers sped away from the advance point.

Jiang Ziyue commanded the flagship "Siegfried" to take the lead, spewing out a magnificent ion trail and a blazing hydrogen-oxygen combustion tail flame, rushing to half the speed of light, firing the Akuberi engine, and entering the speed of light.

This was followed by the cruiser Nezha, commanded by Captain Lota Stoldt, and twenty-nine other cruisers quickly followed suit and sailed faster than light.

About eight minutes later, Siegfried, which had flown 500 astronomical units at the speed of 0.2 at Akuberi, changed to a superluminal speed.

The notification ship waiting in this space sent a telegram from a distance of more than 300,000 kilometers to report the latest enemy situation received from another notification ship that specialized in transmitting intelligence.

The "Siegfried", which received information about the enemy situation, again entered the speed of light. After a little more than eight minutes, they flew over 500 astronomical units, changed their speed of light from the predetermined space, and communicated with the pre-arranged notification ship here.

The intelligence that the notification ship received from the reconnaissance ship was up-to-date, so here the parameters of the specific attack target and the last faster-than-light change position on the attack route were determined.

A series of complex calculations are completed in just a few seconds to determine the goal.

According to the analysis of the movement data of the opponent's current battleship formation, the "Siegfried" will change its position to the speed of light and fix it at a distance of 300,000 kilometers on the side of the battleship formation deployed by the opponent on the outermost orbit.

However, Jiang Ziyue changed the order before entering the speed of light: "Recalculate, position it at a distance of 100,000 kilometers on the side of the enemy fleet!" ”

"It's too dangerous, sir." Lieutenant Benjamin Alfrec, the new navigator who replaced Omar Azaei, who had already died, was shocked by the commander's thoughts, and warned Jiang Ziyue worriedly: "We will most likely crash into the enemy ship!" ”

"Lieutenant Alfryck, it depends on your level." Jiang Ziyue's tone seemed to be full of indifference.

The earlier creative use of Space Storm to escape from the clutches of his enemies had already shown Benjamin Alfreck the extraordinary wisdom of his superiors. Now, Jiang Ziyue's order made him know the other party's extraordinary courageous side. But this extraordinary courage did not immediately arouse Alfrec's fighting spirit, but on the contrary, it made him tremble.

Sensing the new navigator's fear of the dangerous "faster-than-light raids," First Officer Captain Joseph Dietrich deliberately exclaimed, "Benjamin, if you feel embarrassed, I can handle it." ”

Dietrich's words were spoken on the public channel, and the entire bridge was heard.

Alfrek was immediately embarrassed and really lost face. He glanced at everyone, although he couldn't see everyone's expressions because everyone was wearing space combat suits and closing their dark protective helmets. But he could still see everyone sneering at him with contempt.

"Sir, I'm up to the task!" Lieutenant Alflake shouted excitedly, and Dietrich's words clearly stirred up his fighting spirit.

"Very well, Benjamin, Akuberi speed one level!" Jiang Ziyue happily gave the order.

Siegfried once again emitted positive and negative hydrogen particle velocities, causing space fluctuations and entering faster than the speed of light. This time, the faster-than-light speed reached the fourth level of Akuberi's speed, and in about fifty seconds, it could appear in front of enemies five hundred astronomical units away.

With the data on the stereoscopic image in the bridge constantly beating and the situation of friend and foe changing, the cruiser's central control computer issued the last ten warnings before changing to faster-than-light sailing: "In the last ten seconds, change to faster-than-light." Nine, eight, seven......"

“…… Two, one. Change to faster-than-light. ”

The Akuberi engines stopped working, the spatial fluctuations disappeared completely, and the image of the bridge of the "Siegfried" was all the huge battleships of the Federation fleet.

This heroic and fearless battleship actually changed to the speed of light in a space of only about 100,000 kilometers on the opponent's side. Suddenly appeared on the side of the Federation battleship formation in the outermost orbit of the planet "Yi".

However, its size and mass are relatively small, and the tidal force generated by the faster-than-light "warp bubble" before disappearing is not enough to attract enemy warships in front.

If it were a battleship that could easily reach thousands of meters, it would inevitably collide with the enemy ship.

As soon as the speed of light was changed, the wedge-shaped hull of each reverse rocket thruster immediately activated to reduce the speed.

"Fire!" Jiang Ziyue ordered loudly.

The "Siegfried" erupted all its firepower in response, and the laser beams and particle beams poured on the nearest battleship "Draco". The ship's electromagnetic cannon and missile bay all fired a salvo, smashing homing munitions and missiles with metallic hydrogen warheads at each other.

The long-striped old battleship "Draco" did not have time to react at all, and was suddenly beaten with light and violently jolted. The intense light emitted by the high-energy particles intercepted by the electromagnetic shield converged with the light from the bombardment of the ceramic alloy armor, enveloping the entire battleship.

The annihilation of anti-hydrogen particles and ordinary matter and particles caused strong spatial fluctuations, leaving the unsuspecting warship in a stormy sea.

Before the report of the enemy's appearance spread, a second Imperial cruiser appeared at a distance of about 200,000 kilometers behind the "Siegfried".

It was the Nezha under the command of Captain Lota Stoldt. Without hesitation, she gave the order to launch a bombardment on the already hit Draco.

The first salvo of the "Nezha" was fired almost simultaneously with the second salvo of the "Siegfried". Nearly 100 high-energy particle beams and laser beams hit the "Draco" from the side in an instant, arousing more intense light and spatial fluctuations.

Subsequently, in the space around the "Nezha", more points of light appeared - the other cruisers of the Empire's Task Force Ninth changed to the speed of light one after another and launched a salvo.

Dense directional energy firepower rained down on the Federation fleet.

The battleships that were hit in the loose battleship formation of the Federation were suddenly shrouded in color.

"Order the fleet into combat mode!" Commodore Nicholas Wolfensohn, commander of the Federal Fleet, stared at the stereoscopic image in the tactical command center and shouted.

"At three o'clock, the ships opened fire freely! Get ready for a steering maneuver! Gunther Oswald was quick to give specific orders.

The Federation fleet engages the enemy on the flank, and the power of the "Akuberi cannon" on the front, and the particle cannon and laser cannon on the other side cannot exert its power. Therefore, each ship activated the jet port of the attitude control system one after another, turned the bow of the ship, and met the enemy ship.

But Jiang Ziyue's cruiser formation was ready to launch a second salvo.

"Concentrate your fire and bombard the nearest battleship!" Jiang Ziyue's calm order came from the radio communication circuit.

A cruiser with a length of only two or three hundred meters is far inferior in firepower and protection to a battleship that is several kilometers long, and the effect of dispersed bombardment is quite poor.

Under the clear instructions of the commander, the second salvo of the Imperial cruiser formation hit the nearest "Draco". It's like a school of ferocious sharks attacking a huge killer whale from the side.

The "Draco", which had not yet launched a counterattack, was bombarded by hundreds or thousands of particle beams and laser beams, as well as a considerable number of kinetic weapons, and was completely submerged in a large area of flash of light and frequent spatial fluctuations.

The electromagnetic shield generator mounted on the surface of the hull was quickly destroyed, and the ceramic alloy armor in many parts began to crack.

The officers and men of the Federation Fleet, who were caught off guard, did not even have time to put on their space combat suits at this time, so they rushed into battle positions one after another, preparing to counterattack.

Unfortunately, before the federal soldiers could even open the gun door, the fire of the third salvo of the Imperial cruiser formation penetrated the damaged armor shell and poured into the hull of the "Draco", melting through the hull structure and setting off an irresistible energy frenzy.

Flashes of light constantly appeared inside the huge "Dracon" and threw a large amount of debris, indicating that its interior was beginning to explode.

However, for Imperial cruisers, the battleships of the Federation were simply behemoths that were difficult to conquer.

The "Dracon", which came under intensive fire from thirty-one cruisers, still did not completely lose its combat effectiveness. Some particle cannons began to enter the battle, spraying a light of resistance at the enemy ship formations on the sides of the battleship.

"Retreat!" Seeing that the enemy fired back, Jiang Ziyue lost no time in ordering a retreat.

The Imperial cruiser formation immediately adjusted its course and fired at full speed, accelerating towards the space above the Federation battleship formation while blasting the huge "Draco" with a directional energy weapon under the belly that could still shoot directly at the enemy ships.

The "Siegfried" also raised the bow of the ship, swept over the "Draco" at high speed, and flew into the void.

More and more Federation battleships are thrown into the ranks of the return fire. Deathly rays of light flew in the direction of the retreat of the Imperial cruiser formation.

After about half a minute, the Imperial cruiser formation completely disappeared into the upper left of the Federation battleship formation.

The hull of the "Dracon" was heavily damaged.

Because it was too late to put on a space combat suit, the loss of personnel was even greater. Only seven of the ninety-three members survived.

Most of them died from the drastic decompression caused by the rupture of the ship's hull. Bursting corpses, congealed blood cells, and shattered muscles floated in the ruined hull of the ship, which had completely lost air pressure, and it was a terrible sight.

"Fire a few shots and run away, what kind of tactic is this!?" Nicholas Wolfensohn shouted with anger and hatred.

A day earlier, this wave of enemies had almost completely fallen into the encirclement of their own side, but they had insidiously created a "space storm" to disrupt their formation, and successfully escaped. Now, he had the audacity to use the speed of light to risk to attack the vicinity of his own fleet, and the battleship "Draco" was heavily damaged and fled.

"Guerrilla warfare?" Gunther Oswald asked his commander in a stern tone, "The enemy is completely inferior in strength and firepower, and does not dare to engage in a decent fleet decisive battle with us, so he harasses us by such obscene methods." ”

Oswald had not yet realized how much of a threat this "nasty" "harassment" posed to them.

Instead, Wolfensohn realized the seriousness of the problem and said: "One harassment can inflict heavy damage on one of our battleships, and now we have only twenty-six battleships left to fight." Let them do it a few more times, and our capital ships will all be finished, floating around this dark planet forever. ”

Recognizing the serious threat of the enemy's new tactics, Wolfensohn had little effective response.

Lieutenant Commander Gunther Oswald immediately suggested: "Sir, I propose that the whole fleet be arranged in a spherical formation. But be sure to stretch the distance to about a thousand kilometers. ”

Nicholas Wolfensohn nodded in agreement. He himself has no good way to deal with these "rogues". The Federation tracking fleet has captured the planet "Yi", so the most important task is to hold this interstellar planet suspected of being related to "Antnest" and wait for the arrival of the expedition team and the subsequent fleet.

In this way, their hands and feet are greatly tied. The Federation Fleet, which was originally in absolute superiority in strength and firepower, could only respond passively in the face of the "faster-than-light raid" of the Imperial Army's Ninth Task Force, and did not dare to take the initiative to attack.

When the four battleships and supply ships in different orbits left their respective positions and prepared to form a spherical formation, Jiang Ziyue led the Imperial Army cruiser fleet to fight out of the faster-than-light state again.

This time, Jiang Ziyue picked the unlucky new battleship "Cuthbert Collingwood".

A day earlier, during the "space storm" caused by the fleet he led, the "Cuthbert Collingwood" was damaged by the "Drake" in the tragic collision of the "Great Skewer", and some of the attitude control system thrusters were damaged, and the reaction propulsion system also suffered serious failure. As a result, the new battleship was slow to move in the process of regrouping.

By order of Lieutenant Commander Oswald, the supply ships and the wounded battleships were all placed in the center of the sphere. However, the sluggish Cuthbert Collingwood did not reach its new position in time and instead fell to the outside of the ball formation.

At a distance of 300,000 kilometers, the formation of Imperial cruisers that jumped out of the "warp bubble" sprayed intensive fire on the damaged ship from the side.

However, the Cuthbert Collingwood belongs to the latest class of battleships in the Federation, the "Famous General", and its firepower and protection are much more powerful than the old "Draco". Its electromagnetic shield has more backup generators and more power. In addition to the entire hull of the ceramic alloy armor, an additional layer is also installed around each key compartment.

Therefore, even if the wounded Cuthbert Collingwood was subjected to a volley of intense fire from the opponent, it was not as seriously damaged as the Draco was as quickly as it was.

After the Imperial cruiser formation launched a salvo, the Cuthbert Collingwood calmly launched a counterattack.

"Retreat!" Seeing the strength of his opponent, Jiang Ziyue did not dare to fight, and quickly ordered to withdraw from the battle.

The cruisers of Task Force 9 launched a second salvo and then swept past the Federation fleet, which was about to complete its formation, and entered the speed of light, returning to the point of advance.

The tenacity and strength of the Federation fleet forced Jiang Ziyue to stop the third attack and renegotiate the tactical configuration with the captains.

The attack on the Cuthbert Collingwood showed that the Federation's new battleships were so resistant to blows that it would be difficult for these cruisers to be destroyed in just two or three salvos by their own firepower. It was clear that he did not have a good understanding of the capabilities of the enemy's battleships and had to immediately change the counteroffensive plan.

Moreover, the opponent's new formation also made Jiang Ziyue feel tricky.

Gunther Oswald's new spherical formation is actually a spherical "hedgehog formation", with all warships facing the bow of the ship. In this way, no matter what direction the enemy appears, the battleship that engages the enemy can be kept facing the enemy with the most powerful "Akuberi cannon" in front of the enemy.

In this way, the sudden appearance of the Imperial cruiser no longer had the advantage of striking from the flank. No matter which direction they appeared, they were always facing the frontal of the Federation warships, completely under the maximum fire of the opposing side.

For Jiang Ziyue, who was inferior in strength and firepower, the spherical array arranged by Oswald was almost an unapproachable "magic ball".

When the notification ship delivered the latest information on the formation of the enemy fleet, Jiang Ziyue couldn't help but praise the commander of the Bundeswehr who arranged the ship formation: "It's perfect!" ”

The spherical array of the Federation fleet looked a bit loose, and the ships were all over a thousand kilometers away, making them look almost larger than the size of the nearby interstellar planet "Yi". But it was still a fairly tight defensive formation.

Gunther Oswald placed the huge, inflexible supply ships and wounded ships in the core of the spherical array; The remaining 25 battleships that were still fully combat-ready were arranged on the outermost 25 vertices of the spherical array to form 25 firepower cores, and cruisers were arranged around them.

If the Imperial Army had attacked rashly, as it had done on the previous two occasions, it would have faced frontal fire from at least one battleship and dozens of cruisers of the Federation Army, no matter what point it appeared in front of the spherical formation. If the Imperial Army ventured to rush closer, as it had done the day before, it would have fired the Akberi engine, and used the dense space fluctuations to induce a "space storm" again, due to its large ship distance, the formation would be easy to dissolve, and it would not be easy to have the previous tragic collision.

In fact, with the strength of the Federation fleet, it is not necessary to bother to arrange such a formation that focuses on passive defense. Admiral Nicholas Wolfensohn could have taken the initiative and sent a large number of reconnaissance ships to find the enemy fleet and destroy it or drive it further away.

It's just that after experiencing the "space storm" the day before, General Wolfensohn's usual aggressiveness seems to have been seriously distorted, and the arrival of the "easy" planet made him willing to retreat next to the planet and stick to it.

Although the Federation fleet gave up the initiative and abandoned the offensive to defend, it still made it difficult for the Imperial fleet, which was inferior in strength, to attack.

Jiang Ziyue's previous "tactical advantage" seemed to have disappeared in the face of the Federation's new formation. With the current strength and firepower of the cruiser, it is not possible to give full play to the advantages of "faster-than-light raids". To crush the enemy, you have to pay a greater price.

Taking advantage of the opportunity to suspend the attack and accept supplies, Jiang Ziyue informed his captain of a new countermeasure - to create a "space storm" once again to disrupt the enemy's position and wait for an opportunity to attack.

Of course, this time will be different from the last "space storm". Further afield, the USS Olympus and the research ships were also asked to assemble at the forward point, and a total of ten supply ships would also be thrown into an early attack.

After the spherical formation of the Federation Fleet, the opponent did not dare to appear rashly, which made the Commander of the Federation Fleet, Brigadier General Nicholas Wolfensohn, feel much more relaxed.

He happily patted the chief of staff on the shoulder, smiled and praised: "Gunther, your formation is so perfect that even our Major Feng Jiang Ziyue is too scared to come out. ”

Lieutenant Colonel Gunther Oswald, who was praised by his superiors, did not smug his laurels, but said with some concern: "Sir, this is just a defensive formation, and I am worried that the enemy will create a 'space storm' again to disrupt our formation. ”

"Didn't you just say that this formation can effectively reduce the impact of the 'Space Storm'?" Nicholas Wolfensohn was puzzled by his subordinates' words.

"If they only cause spatial fluctuations from one direction, as they did last time, then the induced "space storm" can only disrupt a small part of our formation. However, if ......" said this, Gunther Oswald stopped.

He seemed hesitant. After suffering the first "space storm" created by the other side, he was keenly aware of the great value of the "non-mainstream" alternative tactic of creating a "space storm". So even if he has now come up with a method that seems to be able to prevent the damage of the "space storm" to the greatest extent, he is still skeptical, worried that the enemy, especially Jiang Ziyue, who has an elusive tactical thinking, will make some new reputation.

"Are you worried that they will create a 'space storm' from multiple directions?" Nicholas Wolfensohn saw the concern behind him.

Oswald replied, "Yes, but I think it will require more ships." Theoretically, if there are too few 'warp bubbles' at the speed of light, it will be difficult to form a 'space storm'. ”

"Yes." Wolfensohn agreed with his subordinates.

Gunther Oswald, however, did not dispel his doubts, and asked, "Sir, have you found a problem that we had neglected?" About creating a 'space storm'. ”

"What do you mean......" Nicholas Wolfensohn didn't immediately grasp his men's thoughts.

"The distance at which the 'Akuberi Engine' generates spatial fluctuations!" Oswald said aloud, a look of astonishment on his face. This conversation with his boss made him suddenly realize that he had made a mistake that was almost irreparable.

"The distance of the spatial fluctuations?" Wolfensohn hasn't reacted yet.

The rapid sound of the siren interrupted the commander's words: "This ship is involved in faster-than-light fluctuations and passively enters a faster-than-light state!" ”

The huge "Nimitz" suddenly hit something and shook violently, and the unsuspecting Wolfensohn and Oswald were thrown into the bulkhead of the tactical command center.

The spherical array of the huge Federation fleet was in chaos at this time.

About forty-one faster-than-light "warp bubbles" that could not be directly observed by the naked eye poured into the formation from all directions, bringing the battleships and cruisers in the outer layer into the superluminal speed and rushing towards the core of the spherical array. Ten of them are so large that their "warp bubbles" reach a diameter of nearly 10,000 kilometers (i.e., the distance between the vertex of space compression in front and the vertex of space expansion in the rear) according to their tidal forces.

These faster-than-light "warp bubbles" were emitted from Imperial cruisers and supply ships one astronomical unit away in multiple directions. Wherever the "warp bubble" passed, it immediately swept the surrounding warships into it, forcibly brought it into the speed of light, or instantly changed the attitude of the battleship with strong tidal force, forcing it to fall into an uncontrollable flipping state.

In the blink of an eye, forty-one spatial fluctuations surging from different directions converged at the core of the spherical array. After the space fluctuations in different directions met, they did not cancel each other out, but the various warships wrapped in the Federation collided and rebounded with each other, forming a powerful "space storm" again.

Unlike the previous "Space Storm", this time it radiated from the core of the Federation's spherical ship array, and the complex space distortions and fluctuations dispersed at five thousand times the speed of light with a large number of warships that were caught in it.

Among them, the warships far away from the "easy" planet in the original formation were thrown into the depths of the universe, and the battleships close to the "easy" planet were only subjected to the dual action of the "space storm" and the strong gravitational pull of the planet, and they rotated on both sides of the "easy" planet to draw strange curves, and finally were thrown from the space on the other side of the planet to more distant space.

Just a second later, the "space storm" dissipated, and around the "easy" planet, only more than 20 out-of-control warships of various types were left floating in the air. They have not yet recovered from the chaos and are violently rolling and flipping.

Thirty-one Imperial cruisers slaughtered from faster-than-light speeds, spewing out dense beams of lasers and particles. At that time, the Federation warships that were not swept away by the "space storm" were immediately bathed in the colorful light of death.