Text 20036, this is impossible

Attention, attention, red alert, red alert," a whining siren sounded from a ship, "All personnel, all in place, every lightning starfighter that can take off, immediately dispatch to intercept the incoming Imperial starfighters, this is not a drill ......"

"All pilots get on your planes at once, and get ready to start the ion engines!"

"Get out of the way, get out of the way, take that away, quick, quick, move so slowly, like an old woman, how do you usually train? Now is the time to put the results of your hard work to the test. ”

"Unfastening...... Close the canopy...... Ion engine start-up ...... Glide with the signal...... Left, left, a little more left, OK, OK, stop! ”

In the hangars of every space carrier, every fast battleship and cruiser, the ground crew began to plunge into the last frenzied busyness, which was likened to "methodical busyness". Mechanics, taxiing signalmen, stevedores, firefighters, ejection controllers, and others hurriedly ran away, each in place, and the hangar was filled with the roar of fighter planes' ion engines and the hoarse roars of people, and the large lightning fighters lined up one after the other, ready to go out.

"Thunderbolt squadron, dispatch immediately." The stern voice of the control officer reached the fighter jets who were on standby in the launch tunnel.

"Understood, Raider, this is Thunderbolt One, just wait for this moment, Thunderbolt One, let's go." The pilots, who had been waiting impatiently, immediately perked up.

"Thunderbolt II. Now to strike......"

"The Black Wolf squadron calls the Liberator, and we are ready to request a sortie."

"Let's go, pilots, good luck and happy hunting!"

"Yes, sir, Black Wolf Three. Sortie ......"

...........

Countless similar scenarios take place on all ships with starfighters on board. Due to the large number of ships with the ability to carry fighters. So the lightning fighters were dispatched extremely quickly, and in a short time twenty or twenty lightning starfighters left their mothership and appeared in front of the fleet, and these fighters quickly formed a battle formation, and under the guidance of several keyhole warning and control aircraft, they pounced on the incoming Imperial aircraft group, and behind them. A larger wave of lightning interceptors is on the way, and when they are grouped, they will catch up and join the previous wave of interceptors.

If you have a sensor with a range far enough, it's easy to see the current situation on the screen: two huge waves of light spots are rapidly approaching each other, and it won't be long before they collide and burst into intense sparks.......

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Colonel Craigot was the commander of the first wave of attack aircraft in the Empire. He has been one of the most veteran flying veterans in this fleet since the Union War. After many years of war experience, his desire for victory was less urgent than that of many young men and fanatical junior officers, and he had more of a mind that could calmly analyze and judge problems. and an ordinary heart that can calmly face victory and even defeat, which is one of the important reasons why Major General Piper is optimistic about him and appoints him as the commander of the first wave of attack aircraft.

Contrary to his commander's optimism, after several encounters with the rebels, and a game of cat and mouse in these two unknown star fields, he had a faint admiration for this opponent in his heart, although the rebel fleet to attack this time should not be as elite as their previous colleagues, but he would never think that this battle was an easy battle, and it turned out that the rebels can often burst out with amazing energy in times of crisis, often catching the empire by surprise and suffering a big loss.

In addition to having a clear understanding of the rebels' capabilities, he was also a little uneasy about another problem, which had been with him since the commander ordered the fleet to turn around and meet the newly unidentified rebel fleet, and this question was the strength and size of the unknown rebel fleet.

He had carefully asked the commander, and the commander's explanation was indeed very reasonable, the rebel fleet was speculated to be only two or three space carriers at most, but no matter how reasonable the speculation was, it was still speculation, belonging to a state of uncertainty, although the colonel had accepted this conclusion in his heart, but seeing was believing, he had not seen it with his own eyes, he was still a little unsteady in his heart, and there was also some uneasiness in his heart, although it was only a little, but after all, it has always existed.

The unmanned surveillance cameras in the Siberian system failed to see the size of the rebel fleet, and the keyhole early warning and control aircraft only spotted the rebel reconnaissance planes, and the reconnaissance planes sent out to search for the rebel fleets had not yet approached the enemy fleet

Intercepted by the opponent's patrol and alert planes, it was not easy to intercept a few reconnaissance rebel fighters, and they were close to a sufficient distance, but unfortunately, they only had time to clearly report the location of the rebel fleet, and the communication was jammed by the rebels' electronic storm jammers, and then the content of the communication became ambiguous, and then they simply lost contact with those reconnaissance planes - anyone who understood knew what was going on, and the reconnaissance planes were all shot down by the rebel fighters.

Fortunately, the most critical information - the exact location of the rebel fleet has already been obtained, so most people are not particularly concerned about the rest of the messy communications, and the attack aircraft group will soon reach the target location, knowing that it does not make much difference.

However, from the intermittent communication, Colonel Craigot still discerned some useful information, according to the location of the reconnaissance aircraft and the content of the report, the rebel fleet should have two space carriers and two or three fast battleships, plus the cruiser's carrier aircraft, it should be correct to have more than two carrier-based aircraft in the rebel fleet.

He did not know that the reconnaissance planes had only discovered the Seventh Fleet of General Martin and the Ninth Fleet of General Alfred, which were in front of the Allied Mixed Fleet, and that the Fourth Fleet of General Wu Ming and the Third Fleet of General Kirk, who had been slightly pulled behind, were not discovered by the reconnaissance planes, or that the reconnaissance planes were shot down before they could discover them or perhaps before they could report it. Because General Martin was only temporarily assigned to command these four fleets, and did not merge them, the four fleets still maintained their relative independence, and adopted a separate formation formation and a certain distance from each other, which also reduced the danger of being attacked.

After the two groups of planes got closer and closer, the keyhole early warning and control aircraft that accompanied the advance behind the group finally discovered the rebel fighters that came to intercept them, and the keyhole aircraft immediately reported the number of rebel interceptor fighters: twenty or twenty, which is not very far from the estimated number of rebel fighters, and the rebels should have left some fighters behind.

The commander's guess was quite accurate, which made Colonel Craigot breathe a sigh of relief, his uneasiness gradually dissipated, and his confidence gradually grew, although the rebels were more numerous than his own first wave of fighters, but there was a second wave of attack planes not far behind him, and while the rebels were busy dealing with his first wave of attack planes, the second wave could take advantage of the situation and launch a deadly blow.

However, the Empire's fortunes began to reverse at this point.

The first bad news was reported by the Imperial Keyhole Early Warning and Control Aircraft: since the fleets and warplane groups on both sides were moving in opposite directions, the distance was shortened very quickly, so even the keyhole behind the attack strike group quickly detected the second wave of interceptor aircraft that was attacking and grouping in front of the Allied fleet, and Colonel Craigot, who was in a good mood, was stunned at once, even though the second wave of the Allied interceptor group had not yet been dispatched, but the keyhole had already detected the rear of the first wave of twenty or twenty interceptors, There are more than one or forty Lightning, and there are more Lightning Starfighters joining this wave of interceptor aircraft in the future, and a rough calculation shows that not counting the follow-up fighters, there are at least thirty or sixty Starfighters of the rebels, and the colonel is inclined to think that the rebels' Starfighters may reach more than four, which is really an astonishingly huge number.

Two or three space carriers? Hell he, two or three space carriers can carry more than four starfighters? Each space carrier of the rebels can only carry two wings of starfighters, and even with the number of aircraft carried by the escort ships, this number is a bit too large, and Colonel Craigot has dared to painfully affirm that there are definitely more than three space carriers in the rebel fleet as originally judged.

Bad news followed, confirming his judgment, and it didn't take long for Keyhole to report again that the sensor array had detected the size of the rebel fleet, and the voices of the controllers of the Keyhole warning and control planes were trembling: four Raider-class space carriers, five Führer-class fast battleships, thirteen Sabre-class cruisers, and twenty-five destroyers and frigates.

Even after going through the test of many battles, the colonel's heart is still tightening, and his breath is short, at this scale, this rebel fleet will have more than six starfighters at full strength, even if it is not satisfied with the establishment because of battles or other reasons, but having nearly five starfighters should be almost the same.

My God, the size of this fleet, unless the fleet does not have any losses, it is fully organized, then it is possible to contend with it, and most of the time it is still at a disadvantage, and now, after the loss of all the cruisers and battleships.......

I must be dreaming, this can't be, absolutely impossible. The colonel muttered in his heart.