I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship, so I Became a Space Mercenary - Chapter 454

Chapter 454: Isn’t It Fine as Long as We Win?

Hm, theres no opening to exploit

Its been about twenty hours since Captain Serena suddenly started getting agitated.

Ultimately, I ended up going for two rounds with Captain Serena. When the counter-nanomachine formulation finally got synthesized, she quickly used it and left the Black Lotus soon afterward.

We made it to the front lines in time, but we found the Graccan Empire and Vereverem Federation space forces in a tense deadlock.

A stand-off in outer space? Yeah, I get what youre trying to say, but as long as theres enough distance, even optical weaponry firing projectiles at the speed of light wont be able to properly hit targets that keep shifting positions constantly. Also, even though laser bombardment suffers from far less attenuation in outer space, its not like the projectiles dont attenuate at all.

It takes too much time to close the distance using normal propulsion methods instead of FTL Drives, and theres a limit to the effective range of laser bombardment.

If they do close the distance using FTL Drives, the side that did so will be left vulnerable to attack the moment they deactivate FTL navigation. They would simply serve as sitting ducks for the other party to shoot down, so both sides found it hard to use their FTL Drives as a result.

In addition, the Imperial Space Force thats on the defending side had deployed anti-FTL trap ships. The powerful gravitational waves generated by these anti-FTL trap ships would bend laser projectiles through the gravitational lens effect, so they also had the effect of greatly diverting the course of long-range laser bombardment. The distance was too great after all, so even a slight deviation in the trajectory of the lasers would cause them to miss their mark by a lot.

And so, in an ultra-long-range laser bombardment battle, the Imperial Space Force currently has an advantage due to the limited range of laser projectiles.

I see. Through the effect of the anti-FTL trap ships coupled with suppressive fire, the accuracy rate of the Imperial Space Forces ultra-long-range bombardment is currently higher compared to the other side.

But thanks to that, we cant use FTL Drives to launch an attack either. The powerful gravitational waves generated by the anti-FTL trap ships dont discriminate between friend and foe.Updated chapters on novelbin(.)com

So, for now, will it continue to be a stalemate?

Kugi tilted her head to the side with her fox ears twitching cutely.

Yeah. But I dont think this situation will last long. That side is probably making huge sacrifices in order to secure the sectors near this systems hyperlane entry points in order to build a bridgehead. In other words, we can expect a constant stream of reinforcements to come from the enemys rear lines. On the other hand, the Imperial Space Force is currently unable to use the gateway due to the handiwork of Earl Ixamals men, so our sides reinforcements would be delayed. It looks like they cobbled together additional forces by enlisting the garrisons of the surrounding star systems, but compared to the formal Imperial Space Force squadrons, they are quite a bit more inferior

The star system garrisons that maintain the security of individual star systems basically used obsolete ships that the Imperial Space Force has retired from service. In terms of overall capabilities, they were two or more levels behind. The skill levels of the actual troops also varied per system.

Um, so?

In other words, once they assemble a force thats enough to rout us, its likely that the Federation military would conduct a charge regardless of the losses theyd suffer.

Isnt that bad?

Real bad. The current situation of the Imperial Space Force is akin to desperately trying to hold back water thats overflowing from a dam. Uh, was that analogy a bit hard to picture? Lets see. Its like using emergency measures to plug a big hole in a ships hull thats leaking lots of air.

Gunununu Those duplicitous, blasted nobles. Just as I thought, one can never trust those whove adapted to a system as barbaric as a feudal aristocracy.

I inwardly let out a sigh as I looked at His Excellency, the Federation Space Force Admiral, whose face was bright red with apparent rage. He was fuming red with rage, but I personally think there was practically no difference between him, who rose to the rank of the Federation Space Forces vice-admiral thanks to his lineage and connections despite his complete inability to command a starship fleet, and the imperial nobles he was criticizing so vehemently.

Or rather, imperial nobles tended to be looked down upon within the Federation due to them adhering to the aristocratic system, but when you actually faced them, a lot of them tended to be quite honorable and skilled. Once youve become a fleet commander like myself, youd get plenty of chances to come in contact with such fellows.

I was told wed be able to reach the gateway without much resistance but if things continue like this, my career history will be in jeopardy!

Currently, our Federation Space Force had a numerical advantage and was slowly making inroads into the territories of the enemy nation, the Graccan Empire, despite suffering quite a number of losses in the process. His Excellency assured us that we would be able to reach the gateway without much trouble thanks to an insider, but this was the result.

The enemy resistance does seem relatively weak though.

Then we should push harder! Lets seize that damned gateway quickly!

The empires commanders are quite cunning. If we force it, we might suffer a severe retaliation.

Im the admiral here! Just do it! Use the asteroid belt as a shield and advance forward! Since we outnumber them, we should be able to overwhelm them with the difference in firepower as long as we can get close enough!

We can certainly get the enemy ships in range if we do that, but theres a high risk of suffering an ambush

And Im telling you to do it.

Sir.

Its definitely not going to turn out well I muttered to myself as I relayed the order to every ship in the combined fleet while warning them to be wary of ambushes. Once we go full-throttle, Id be too preoccupied with the operation, and the resources Id be able to allot to support would be very minimal.

Im getting a headache. Its been a long time since Ive engaged in a prolonged campaign. The cyberchip installed within my brain was so overloaded that it felt like it was going to burn out. I also felt a stinging sensation on all my nerve connection terminals that were currently jacked in.

How impertinent for a mere tin can I better change it for something new once this operation is over.

This bastard. Did you forget that youre also connected to the ships network? Do you want me to fake a power surge and fry your brain nice and crispy, you damned pig?

FTL Drive synchronization complete. Advancing to a point where we can utilize the asteroid belt as a shield.

Dont mess up.

Even if I dont make a mistake, we are still screwed if you, as the one giving the commands, messes up instead. Dammit. I hope there arent any ambushes.