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Although it still looked calm on the surface, the officers and officers on the bridge could sense the anger beneath the calm surface of Rear Admiral Piper in the oppressive and dreary atmosphere, and the commander was actually angry, very angry, almost on the verge of going berserk.

Another loss of a reconnaissance plane, again, this word made him hate!

Although this reconnaissance plane, codenamed Blackbird II, belonged to the old auxiliary aircraft, and it was only one, compared to the huge number of several starfighters, this loss was not worth mentioning at all, but the rear admiral did not see it that way, and he believed that the biggest loss was his face, the honor of the fleet, and the morale of the soldiers.

Isn't he without setbacks, and he has mixed up with the role of a major general (who should have been a lieutenant general), can he have less life experience in this area? But it was the first time he had encountered such a setback as this one: he had pursued the rebel fleet all the way down, and the other side had knocked out nearly 10 reconnaissance planes and search patrol planes, but he still didn't even see the shadow of the opponent, which was simply a big slap in the face.

As a rule, the discovery of rebel fighter activity should indicate that the rebel space carrier is near this position, but the cunning rebels do not intend to make it so easy for themselves to find the location of their fleet, and as long as the rebel fleet is not actually found, this explanation is unreliable. This has been amply illustrated by the events of recent days, when the anxious Major General Piper was ecstatic when he first received the news that one of the reconnaissance planes had been attacked by rebel fighters and did not wait to verify the information. The first wave of attack planes was immediately dispatched, and as a result, the attack planes searched the vicinity of the rebel fleet in the predicted location, but there was no trace of the rebels, and the pilots, who had been frustrated for several hours, were full of grumbling and resentment.

After a similar situation occurred again, it became clear that the reconnaissance and patrol planes were not intercepted and attacked because they were close to the position of the rebel fleet, but more likely to encounter patrol detachments sent by the rebels to carry out safari and strike missions. To trace the location of the rebel fleet from these combat contacts. It's simply impossible. The sensors on the rebels' lightning heavy starfighters are better than those of their own fighters, and the lightning speed is fast, which not only creates great convenience for the rebels to ambush or sneak attack their own fighters, but also makes it extremely difficult to track their movements.

After suffering several losses, he also learned to be obedient, and after the news of the attack on Blackbird 2 came back, he ordered the attack aircraft group to prepare for sortie. But he was not in a hurry to let his fighters take off, but immediately sent a squadron of Super Banshees and several reconnaissance planes to the location of the attack for final verification, and he estimated at that time that when his starfighters arrived at the ambush site, it was unlikely that they would find anything.

As he had predicted, the planes circled around the site of the attack and searched the gravel belt carefully, except for the ejection bay of the hapless pilot. Nothing can be found anymore. The rebel fighters had long since left the ambush site and fled.

Another account, which he wrote down for the time being. Later, when there is a chance, they will be returned to the rebels tenfold. His teeth clenched.

The imperial general walked quickly to the tactical star map, he looked at the star map for a long time, the center of this three-dimensional star map is the current position of the other fleet, in the front area of the fleet, there are a few small red dots, these are the space positions where the contact battle with the rebels has occurred in recent days, has been carefully marked on the star map by the crew, it is obvious that the rebel fleet is somewhere in front of him.

His attention was focused on the large light blue bright area in front of the fleet, which was the most likely area of activity of the rebel fleet that his staff officers had deduced based on the location of the attack, the problem was that the scope of this area of activity was still too large, although his staff officers had made a plan to reconnoiter and search this light blue area piece by piece, but he still felt that it was too inefficient and time-consuming, and the rebel fleet would not stupidly stay there and wait for them to find it, and wait to find the current location of the rebel fleet, By that time the rebels had already been transferred.

"General, the pilot of the Blackbird II, Second Lieutenant Ivana, has been rescued, and he has reported an important piece of information." An Imperial officer hurried into the bridge with a blank piece of paper in his hand.

"Say it." The rear admiral said casually, he didn't particularly care, his attention was still focused on the light blue bright area, at the moment he was most concerned about the location of the rebel fleet, and the fighter plane sent out to reconnoiter the attack site had sent back a report, no trace of the rebel fleet had been found, Ensign Avana, a downed reconnaissance plane pilot, what other special information could he have that was worth his interest?

"Yes, sir, Second Lieutenant Avanner reported that although his reconnaissance plane was shot down by the rebels, the second lieutenant also recognized the identity of the enemy plane that shot him down, thus letting us know which rebel fleet we were facing." The Imperial officer read out with a blank face and a blank look, "Black Tulip, fifth."

Move the fleet. ”

"What?" A sharp look flashed in the major general's eyes, and he snatched the Zhang Zhang from the officer's hand and carefully read it from beginning to end.

It was quiet inside the bridge, and the eyes of the staff officers and officers were looking at Major General Piper, who was carefully looking at the report, Black Tulip, the name of this man, who among them had not heard of it? Although the authorities have repeatedly kept the information tight, how can the rebel propaganda be overwhelming, describing this man as almost as exaggerated as a god and as omnipotent as a god? The internal grapevine has long since spread throughout the fleet.

From this point of view, the disaster of the total destruction of Commodore Wang's advance fleet can only be blamed on the bad luck of the brigadier general and His Excellency the commander, who actually ran into this man and his fleet. (It is said that the acting commander of the Fifth Independent Mobile Fleet is Yao Feilun, but there are not many people in the empire who know that Yao is the commander of the fleet, and most people are accustomed to simply equating the Fifth Independent Mobile Fleet with black tulips, often ignoring Yao Feilun, Sonia, Jessica, Schneier, Yasilia, Annie, Hua Yunlong and others who are around Ruisen, without their concerted efforts, no matter how strong Ruisen is, he is just an interstellar fighter pilot, even if his personal number of downs is high, Compared to the huge number of starfighters owned by the Imperial fleet, that loss was also insignificant. ）

"Sir, what are we going to do now?" A more daring staff officer asked.

"What else can I do? Of course, find out the location of the rebel fleet as soon as possible and launch an attack to eliminate them. The Major General snorted.

He jerked his head up, stared into the eyes of the somewhat frightened staff officer, and said word for word, "Send all our reconnaissance planes and all the search and patrol planes that can be dispatched, and let Keyhole also participate in the search operation," he said, pointing to the bright pale blue area, "and find out the location of the rebel fleet in the shortest possible time." ”

"Sir," hearing this order, the imperial officials in the bridge couldn't help but be surprised, "The biggest role of the keyhole is early warning and control, its speed is too slow, it is not suitable for use as a reconnaissance aircraft and a search patrol aircraft, and the keyhole itself is too expensive, once it encounters a rebel fighter, it is impossible to escape at all, it can only be shot down, and the loss is really not worth it." ”

"Nonsense, the speed of the keyhole is slow, but its sensor array has a large search range, and it can detect the rebel fighters long before they get close, and even if you pay the price of losing a few keyholes, as long as you can find the location of the rebel fleet, it will be worth it." He spoke sharply, and at the end he slapped his palm on the table, startling everyone, and they involuntarily avoided the commander's vicious red eyes, as if anyone who opposed the commander's proposal was his enemy.

Seeing that everyone had no opinions, all of them were silent (even if they had opinions, they could only swallow them in their stomachs), Rear Admiral Piper was satisfied, his anger calmed down a little, and he softened his tone, "Keep three keyholes on guard around the fleet, and keep two keyholes ready to accompany the attack aircraft group, and all the other keyholes are sent out, each keyhole is escorted by two fighters, no more, understand?" ”

"Yes, General." Everyone stood up together, the commander's last words seemed to be his biggest concession, his concession was barely acceptable, although some people still had reservations or different opinions, but the past experience had taught them not to be stupid enough to jump out and offend the commander's tiger power at this time.

The staff officers and officers under his command were busy carrying out the orders of the major general, and the general glanced at the piece of paper in his hand, shook it, sneered, and suddenly crumpled it into a paper ball in the palm of his hand.

It was really too timely, the rear admiral thought about it, this time he entered the new star field to pursue the rebel fleet, he gained nothing, neither found the retreating rebel transport fleet, nor found the location of the new space jump point, empty-handed, but suffered one after another from the rebels, he had no way to explain to the general, if he retreated like this or continued to work in vain, sooner or later he would be held accountable for the previous losses, even the admiral could not protect him.

Now, the most famous figure in the rebel army has appeared, and this is his chance, if he can be eliminated, the fleet that destroys him will not only wash away the shame of the total destruction of the advance fleet, but also be enough to offset the mistakes he has made before, and it can also deal a heavy blow to the rebels, which is a great feat.......

But only if he had to find the location of the rebel fleet first, he prayed that his men would give him a fight.......

His prayers were fulfilled, and a few hours later, a keyhole warning and control plane sent back a report that had left him ecstatic and hopeful.