Ch.603Storm Battle. (4)

“Evade!”

“Battleship, emergency evasion!”

“Evasion impossible…”

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

Naturally, the sudden surprise bombardment was an overwhelming blow that the soft underbelly of the Rio Grande fleet couldn’t handle.

It was an attack comparable to what pink-haired Betelgeuse would suffer at Marian’s hands.

“What the fuck?!”

With the Commander Rio Grande’s single scream, the defenseless exposed fleet suffered a catastrophe, instantly losing 20% of its remaining forces.

Actually, it would be fortunate if the attacked forces merely disappeared.

When ships hit by overwhelming energy weren’t completely destroyed…

Being pushed back by the reactive force was absolutely natural according to the basic physical law of action and reaction.

In other words, among the hit vessels, the “big and beautiful” ones that wouldn’t sink were pushed sideways by the impact, resulting in them ramming into smaller ships.

If this were normal times, the media consumed by personnel living inside the base would have published headlines like “Fleet Commanders’ Discipline Collapse – Can We Leave It Like This?” with plenty of room to spare.

Unfortunately, this was truly a wartime situation, so such stories couldn’t emerge.

Anyway, what mattered wasn’t the internal situation at Rio Grande’s base, but the fleet that was being ambushed in real-time and exploding with cries of “Owww, my tummy hurts!”

“Damn it! Turn the dreadnoughts and heavy battleships at the front toward the lower section! And return fire immediately!”

“Pegasus Mercenary Corps, all fleet units turn downward!”

“Large fleet signatures confirmed in the lower ion current! They’re surfacing!”

While hurriedly giving instructions and responding…

When he spotted the “Alcasar Defense Fleet” emerging through the ion currents that looked like clouds on his screen…

Rio Grande realized that Icarus had baited him, and slapping his head, he began making every effort to regain the upper hand.

———-

At the same time.

“All ships of the Alcasar Defense Fleet have surfaced! Attack the enemy fleet!”

“Commander, we’ve successfully ambushed the enemy fleet!”

“Excellent, there were some losses, but… this is a tremendous achievement.”

Although we lost one dreadnought, one heavy battleship, and two battleships before even fighting, just from moving through the lower region where nothing could be seen, relying solely on communications…

There was no major problem since the most important “Super Dreadnought” was safe.

And under the cool-headed command of Austria, who was closer to a Barbarian girl than someone missing pants, our hidden ace—the Alcasar Defense Fleet—received my signal, unleashed indiscriminate bombardment, and then…

Naturally surfaced through the lower ion currents, sending even more enemy ships to their doom.

“Now! Attack the enemy fleet with all firepower from the entire fleet!”

“Yes, Commander! All fleet units commencing attack!”

“Charge!”

“By Commander Icarus’s order, all monster fleets tear the enemy apart!”

I immediately mobilized all available fleets for a full-scale offensive against Rio Grande, who had been rushing forward thinking he was winning until he got punched in the gut.

However, in conducting this offensive, I couldn’t put the severely damaged dreadnoughts from the recent battle at the forefront.

So I positioned the dreadnoughts at the rear for artillery support and decided to lead with my small and cute three Krakens.

“Krakens, charge!”

“Avalonia Security Fleet, cover the Krakens’ flanks.”

And with the Krakens taking the front, I couldn’t possibly not use the recharged carrier-based aircraft.

“All carrier aircraft, launch! Launch!”

“My turn! All aircraft target the enemy capital ships’ weapons first!”

I decided to conduct a major air raid against Rio Grande’s fleet, maximizing Tiamat’s carrier-specialized buffs along with Spiraena’s light carriers.

And of course, I conducted this air raid simultaneously with our fleet’s attack.

Naturally, Rio Grande also tried to provide air cover by launching aircraft from his light carriers and aircraft carriers, but…

Rat-tat-tat-tat… BOOM!

“Friendly to enemy aircraft power ratio, approximately 1.5 to 1!”

“Our air power is superior!”

“Hmph.”

For some reason I couldn’t quite understand, he had sent out far more reconnaissance squadrons than usual.

Despite having many more carrier-based aircraft than Krakens (Kraken: 5,000, standard large carrier: 10,000), he was losing in air cover.

Thinking that luck was finally on my side, I decided to continue the offensive.

However, Rio Grande was indeed a high-ranker.

“Commander, large numbers of enemy aircraft detected from the rear of the enemy fleet!”

“How many?”

“Approximately 5-6 thousand? If those aircraft join, we’ll lose air superiority.”

“Tsk.”

By timing the return of his reconnaissance squadrons to the fleet, he was preventing us from enjoying air superiority for too long.

But no matter how much he struggled, the tide of battle had already turned in our favor.

Without Alcasar, the odds might have been 1:2, but now that the Alcasar fleet had all risen from the lower region to the middle, instantly wiping out 20% of his original forces…

And with my main force also attacking with Urongi’s 100% fully charged concentrated fire, fleet bombardments and missile showers, along with Hresvelgr’s strategic missile bombardment…

With all these special ships that Rio Grande didn’t possess, the power difference quickly shrank from 1:2 to about 1:1.

Moreover, while his forces were clustered on one side, our fleet was split in two, pounding them like a pincer attack.

As time passed, I could see the damage accumulating exponentially on Rio Grande’s fleet.

And during the battle, I was able to witness one particularly unusual combat method.

It was the battle of the Anchorage-class forced salvage ships, which had recently been suspiciously declining in presence to the point where their very existence was questioned.

To be honest, “forced salvage ships” didn’t even exist when I was playing the game.

And afterward, I tended to view them as toys for the Krakens or other “playthings,” so I had largely ignored them, not knowing how to use them properly.

CLANG! CRUNCH!

“Got one! A big catch!”

“Pull it in!”

But the captains and crews of the Anchorage-class were ultimately intelligent beings.

Consequently, they weren’t just sitting idle when I didn’t give them orders, but were using their bizarre weapons—the “wormhole harpoons”—to employ a very unconventional tactic.

And what was that?

SCREECH… CRASH!

“Damn, that battleship is using all its reverse thrust rockets.”

“Doesn’t matter, we’re stronger! Fix it with the gravity anchor and activate the winch!”

I knew they would fire harpoons through wormholes into Rio Grande’s battleship-class vessels, then forcibly pull them in to crush them through the wormhole.

But surprisingly, they were using other methods I hadn’t even thought of.

“Release harpoon lock, deactivate wormhole as soon as the harpoon returns!”

“It won’t matter if they try to change position.”

BOOM!

“Oh…”

The ion currents filling the current map wouldn’t cause significant damage to battleship-class vessels by their nature.

Unlike when breaking through with the help of dreadnoughts, if a ship got caught alone, it could cause problems with firing accuracy or evasive maneuvers.

For this reason, Rio Grande’s large ships maintained their formation at a certain distance from the ion currents to prevent such issues.

But the Anchorage ships were using their harpoons to forcibly drag these battleships into the flowing ion currents.

Naturally, even with their reverse thrusters at maximum, the battleships were being dragged along.

The Anchorage ships used this to their advantage—moving the battleship while it was firing beams to induce friendly fire.

They would place one ship in the line of fire of dreadnoughts or other large vessels that were in the middle of bombardment.

Or they would watch for moments when smaller ships were between large vessels and ion currents, then make the large ships push the smaller ones into the ion currents.

BOOM!

“Three enemy destroyers were pushed into the ion currents by their battleship!”

“Well done, whoever did that!”

“Wow.”

Like Neranjara, I felt my heart swell with pride watching the Anchorage ships and others developing unconventional tactics and conducting battle on their own.