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Rear Admiral Piper walked non-stop on the bridge of the flagship Wyvern, pacing from one end to the other and back again, and the Imperial staff officers and officers who knew the commander's temperament well were all focused on him, waiting for his decision.

They all know that the current situation is a little delicate, and it can even be said that it is not good, and the staff officers have analyzed the situation, but their opinions are not necessarily unanimous, and now they are waiting for His Excellency the Commander to make a final decision, and the reason why it is difficult for the major general to make a decision is because he not only has to consider the military aspect, his staff officers have to consider this aspect, and he has to consider other aspects, non-military aspects.

While it is unclear the size of the rebel fleet that broke into the Siberian system, it is clear that the rebels are here for their fleet. The rear admiral felt a faint fear in his heart, although his fleet temporarily lacked escort ships such as cruisers and fast battleships, but after all, it still had four intact space carriers and nearly four hundred and fifty carrier-based aircraft, he never expected that the rebels would hit the head of such a powerful fleet, but now, the strange actions of the enemy force made him have to start thinking about this possibility.

The rebel fifth independent mobile fleet he chased before, the Black Tulip fleet, has an Imperial-class space carrier with an estimated number of aircraft in about a hundred, and among the new rebel fleets, at least one space carrier is certain, but if there is more than one, there are two. Or even more? The rear admiral gasped, even if the new rebel fleet only has one space carrier, even if the Raider-class fast space carrier has a small number of ground-based aircraft, but with the carrier-based aircraft in the escort ships, it is not impossible to have hundreds of heavy starfighters, and together with the rebel Fifth Independent Mobile Fleet that he is chasing, the two enemy fleets he will need to face have more than two hundred heavy starfighters, considering the high quality of the rebel pilots - he has seen it in the chase battle these days. Then the rebel fleet has barely possessed the strength to compete with his greatly weakened fleet.

This is still the most optimistic estimate. What if the new rebel fleet had two, or even three, space carriers? If that's the case. The total number of rebels he needs to face is the strength of three or four space carriers, and the number of carrier-based aircraft exceeds three hundred or even four hundred, even more than his current fleet. The rear admiral's face turned a little pale, and the rebels' space carriers are currently estimated to be only six at most, which means that the rebels have transferred most of their fleet forces to deal with him, which is no longer a place where his seriously weakened fleet can compete alone.

This is still a minor issue. If it is peacetime, there is no need for such a headache, it is common for the troops to be inferior to the opponent, and the battlefield situation is ever-changing, how can it be possible to defeat the enemy in every battle? When the army is defeated, you can retreat, you can temporarily avoid the enemy, or you can call for reinforcements...... Even if the battle finally starts, even if the side has suffered heavy losses in the battle. But under the conditions of confronting the enemy's superior military strength with inferior forces. I'm afraid no one can be too harsh on this.

But he was different, leaving him with limited options, as he had previously suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the rebels. The responsibility for this defeat is very serious, it all depends on the general's wrist to temporarily suppress the responsibility for this defeat, the commander gave him this opportunity, and he also understands that it is to let him take the credit, so that he may be able to explain the past after the war, otherwise, his future is basically over, and his future may be destined to serve as an idle post in a remote small base, or, even worse, such as in prison.

As soon as he thought of this, the major general felt unbearable, options such as avoiding battle and retreating were absolutely unacceptable, and he was a loser no matter what; A decisive battle with the rebel fleet is imperative, and it has to be won, but winning with less is easy to say, but in fact it is not so easy to do, and from this point of view, those rebels in the past have done really well.

The reinforcements were coming, and he knew that he had received the warning from the unmanned monitors, and so had Admiral Callaghan, and that the damned rebels had interfered with the subspace communications, but they still had a way to break through the jamming in a short period of time, and he had already had a brief conversation with the Admiral before the rebels' jamming blocked the communications again.

The arrival of the reinforcement fleet is not entirely a good thing for him, although it can reverse the current unfavorable situation facing the fleet, but for him personally, it is not so worthy of celebration, after the reinforcement fleet arrives, it is easy to steal his limelight and combat dominance, and even most of the credit, even if he wins a big victory, others will not think that it is his Piper's record, on the contrary, it may be easier for people to remember that his fleet was almost in trouble and annihilated by the rebels, fortunately the reinforcement fleet arrived in time, to reverse the unfavorable situation and complete the great reversal (it seems that this is more in line with the facts, but the major general will not admit it).

He swallowed all the bitter fruits, the fruits of victory

People enjoy and make wedding clothes for others, so his fate will not change after the war, maybe he doesn't have to go to prison, but the possibility of transferring out of the real power department, rising and falling in the dark is very large, and he can't swallow this breath.

Reinforcements are necessary, and he can't stop them, but he can't let the reinforcements steal his limelight, they should, and can only play a supporting role, and he must get the best of both worlds before the reinforcements arrive, and he must achieve results that are impressive and no one else can ignore, and he must restore his reputation and wash away the shame brought to him by the rebels, which is really a good way to have the best of both worlds.

Hmph, he sneered in his heart, the total strength of the fleet assembled by the rebels should be quite a lot, but unfortunately, they have not converged yet, and his fleet is located in the middle of the two rebel fleets, although it is temporarily in a disadvantageous position, but from another point of view, it may not be an advantage, which gives him an opportunity to make full use of the advantages of internal combat and annihilate each one.

Most of the examples of winning more with less are not more in the true sense of the word, the winners of those battles are often at a disadvantage in terms of total strength, but in the local battlefield, they can gather the relative advantage of the enemy's forces relative to the enemy in front of them, so as to achieve the goal of each breakdown, those rebels are experts in this area, their fleet strength has never reached the level of competition with the total strength of the imperial fleet, but when it comes to a certain battle, it is often more to fight less, This is also an important reason for the repeated defeats on the part of the Empire.

So, now it's his turn to play this hand as well, but who should he deal with first?

He was a little hesitant, and he also knew the general operational principles of concentrating superior forces, attacking the weak enemy first, and annihilating each other, but the situation he was facing at present was that he was not particularly clear about the strength of the newly emerged rebel fleet.

According to the principle of leniency for the enemy, he tends to judge the strength of this unknown fleet as a maximum of two or three space carriers, and his judgment is by no means groundless, the rebel fleet has a maximum of six space carriers, this is basically certain, there is a space carrier in the rebel Fifth Independent Mobile Fleet that he has been chasing these days, General Cassin has severely damaged a space carrier before, this damaged space carrier should also be excluded, The rebels who attracted Admiral Callaghan also had at least one space carrier, three out of six, so this new unidentified fleet would not have more than three space carriers at most, and this was his conclusion assuming that the rebels had assembled all of their space carriers, in fact, he was more inclined that the rebel fleet might have two space carriers.

(It's a pity that the rear admiral still underestimated the Alliance's determination, but if the rear admiral knew that there were four space carriers in that rebel fleet, then he probably wouldn't even think about it, would he have and dare to think of other options?) ）

Then, he should first destroy the weaker Fifth Independent Mobile Fleet, but unfortunately, if he had a way to find and eliminate that cunning fleet, he would not have to wait until now, although this fleet is called a black tulip fleet, but it is said that the person who commanded that fleet was a young woman, and his brows furrowed a little when he thought of this, no wonder it was said that women were the embodiment of fox spirits, and they really inherited the cunning and deceitful characteristics of foxes.

Continuing to chase this fleet, it doesn't seem to be a wise idea, the key point is to find the enemy fleet, this star field is still very unfamiliar to him, the enemy fleet is like a fish in water in this, he has been chasing for several days without success, it is impossible to destroy the rebel fleet in a short time, and if he can't find this slippery fleet in a short time, when the new fleet of the rebels arrives, the rebel forces converge, and his own reinforcements have not arrived, then it will be his turn to be unlucky.

Individual breaks? If you can't hit it, how can you break it?

It seems that we still have to shift our attention to the unknown fleet, although its strength is stronger, but his four space carriers can still have the upper hand, the rebels' Fifth Fleet wants to escape, let them run, leave it alone for the time being, although it is a pity that they failed to eliminate the black tulip, but this matter is more important, and there are several other advantages to turning around and attacking the unknown fleet, one is that they are now quite familiar with that star field, and they are on par with the rebels, and they also know the location of the space jump point, If the rebel fleet really came for him, he estimated that he could encounter it on the route of the two space jump points, which was much stronger than the current aimless search for the Fifth Independent Mobile Fleet, and the second point, U-turn, meant that they were also closer to the Siberian system, which meant that if the situation was not good, they could also withdraw to the Siberian system, which meant that the reinforcement fleet could also arrive faster......

Major General Piper's pace was getting slower and slower, and the expression on his face was becoming clearer, and finally, when he stopped, the staff officers and other Imperial officers couldn't help but feel a sense of urgency, they knew that, for better or worse, their commander had already made a decision, and it was time to act....