Ch.335Let’s gooooooo! (1)

Regardless of whatever commotion was happening in the gallery, there was no way for me to know about it right now.

While I was checking the gallery, I was formulating a proper plan to conduct a cozy battle together with Arcadia, who had been operating the fleet alone. Of course, since neither of us were ordinary users, but top-ranked players at 3rd and 4th place.

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<Event-exclusive Chat Window>

-[How many of your ships were lost?](Icarus)

-[Apart from three destroyers escorting the cruiser that got taken out by flamethrower splash damage, no other issues](Arcadia)

-[Good](Icarus)

-[I’ll do a feint by rapidly advancing my fleet and pretending to charge in]

-[Icarus, you should circle around and strike from behind](Arcadia)

-[Sounds good, but one of my cruisers can’t maneuver, so I’ll position it somewhere suitable and use it as a bunker](Icarus)

-[If you don’t have enough forces for salvage, I’ll give you three of my destroyers]

-[For this feint, the five cruisers take priority over destroyers anyway](Arcadia)

-[*sniff* Thank you](Icarus)

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After quickly assessing the damage situation and smoothly planning our next operation strategy,

I decided to keep moving the fleet while maintaining regular communication with the scout ships sent for advance reconnaissance, both to get a clearer picture of the NPC fleet containing that damned Ouroboros and to avoid getting hit by those terrible concentrated fire again.

Now, you might wonder about the scout ship that just took that photo earlier.

Unfortunately, that scout ship was so focused on photographing the Ouroboros that it failed to properly identify the fleet composition.

As a result, we couldn’t accurately determine the exact size of the NPC fleet at present.

And about 10 minutes later…

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<Event-exclusive Chat Window>

-[Icarus]

-[Scout ship #3 has sent the exact fleet composition](Arcadia)

-[Oh](Icarus)

-[I’ll send it to you]

-[<NPC Fleet Complete Image.jpg>](Arcadia)

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Through the image Arcadia sent, I was also able to grasp roughly how powerful the tentatively named “Ouroboros Fleet” was.

But looking at the composition, I couldn’t help but let out a sigh…

“Ah hell, we’re screwed.”

“What’s wrong, Commander?”

“One super battleship, five battleships, and 20 heavy cruisers.”

“Ohhh.”

“Excluding the scout ships, that’s really about 850 points by our standards.”

While we were totaling 400 points between the two of us,

Their side was consuming a whopping 2.5 times that at 1,000.

Moreover, their capital ships alone consumed about 850 points.

And at this point, I realized that the super battleship seemed to be calculated based on the point value of my Neranjara-class.

Anyway, after assessing the situation, I decided this round would be quite challenging and committed to fully supporting Arcadia’s plan.

And through that plan, I also harbored the ambition to NTR that Ouroboros which had destroyed my precious cruisers.

==========

Shortly after.

Perhaps because we had desperately deployed all our reconnaissance forces to avoid being sniped by Ouroboros after it located our fleet position…

“Reporting, sir. No movement detected from the enemy fleet.”

“Hmm, nice.”

We confirmed that the NPC fleet remained on standby at its initial position, having failed to track our fleet’s location after the first sniper attack.

Accordingly, we maneuvered stealthily using surrounding “debris” to get our fleets as close as possible to the enemy fleet.

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<Event-exclusive Chat Window>

-[I’ll make the first attack]

-[I’ll just draw their attention with a surprise attack, then you can charge in according to plan](Icarus)

-[Yeah ok](Arcadia)

-[And after you charge in and do a hit-and-run, I’ll lead my entire fleet to gang up on Ouroboros](Icarus)

-[Got it. Good luck](Arcadia)

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Following our original primitive plan, my and Arcadia’s fleets immediately began their offensive against the NPC fleet.

Of course, the “first attack” mentioned above was naturally the space torpedoes fired by our Neranjara advancing in subspace dive mode.

Due to the nature of space torpedoes, which only emerge from subspace dive moments before impact, by the time the NPC fleet detected the torpedoes…

BOOM! BANG! BOOM!

“All torpedoes hit!”

Before they could respond, all 14 space torpedoes fired by Neranjara collided with their ships and exploded.

Naturally, in response to my attack, the enemy fleet attempted counter-fire toward the direction the torpedoes came from while adjusting their defensive formation.

Of course, given the scale of the attack, not all ships focused solely on our direction.

The moment some of their forces moved toward the direction Neranjara was attacking from…

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<Event-exclusive Chat Window>

-[Now]

-[Go go go go go go](Icarus)

-[Confirmed](Arcadia)

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Targeting the “relatively weakened” defense line, Arcadia’s fleet began charging at maximum speed from among the debris.

Of course, no matter how fast they charged, I thought fleet speeds were all roughly the same…

I ordered Neranjara to fire another salvo of 14 space torpedoes targeting Ouroboros to divert their aggro.

But the speed of Arcadia’s fleet, led by the flagship Hood-class cruiser, was at least twice as fast as I had expected.

Before Ouroboros could snipe them, Arcadia’s cruisers were already engaging the enemy fleet in close-quarters combat.

Of course, since Arcadia’s plan was ultimately a “hit-and-run”…

Just before the cruisers and cruiser-destroyers “collided” with the enemy fleet,

They unleashed all their firepower in a full salvo, then immediately reversed course and retreated.

By the time the enemy fleet’s front line was being hit by medium torpedoes from the pursuing destroyers…

“Wow.”

“That actually works.”

The retreating cruisers artistically used their attitude thrusters to perform 180-degree turns in place.

Then they rapidly accelerated again, firing their main guns to suppress the enemy battleships and heavy cruisers.

Seeing this high-mobility tactic that I had never tried or even considered using myself,

I could understand why Arcadia’s Justice Clan emphasized mobility in combat.

Of course, due to the rapid stops, accelerations, and sharp turns characteristic of such maneuvers, the fleet’s accuracy was truly abysmal.

“Commander, that looks cool and all… but hardly anything is actually hitting the enemy fleet.”

“Hmm.”

Since they were firing without giving the targeting radar time to align the gun barrels, just shooting at whatever they could see,

Out of 100 shots fired, 90 were journeying into the distant void of space rather than hitting the fleet.

But well, what mattered was that “hits” did exist among all that indiscriminate firing.

And while particle beams and railguns used as main ship weapons might be different, missiles still had their guidance systems intact.

Unlike what we observers felt, it was very clear that the opposing fleet must be experiencing utter chaos.

And along with that…

“Commander, Ouroboros is turning toward Commander Arcadia’s fleet!”

“Ah, finally.”

They probably couldn’t fire anyway since their own ships were in the way, but perhaps because Arcadia was the only visible enemy.

When I received information that Ouroboros, which would be the most troublesome during our approach, had completely turned its hull toward Arcadia,

Around the time Arcadia was beginning her third charge…

“All fleet, charge! Target: Ouroboros-class!”

“Understood, Commander!”

KIEEEEEK!

This time, I also mobilized all my forces except for Cruiser No. 2, which was being salvaged by three of Arcadia’s destroyers due to its destroyed propulsion system.

I began executing a deep-dive straight toward the enemy fleet.