Keep Them at Range and Kite Them

Upon learning of the devastation suffered by the Fourth Fleet, the Fifth Fleet and Sixth Fleet immediately accelerated their engagement and changed their attack formation from Cone Formation to a square.

The main purpose of this is to increase the contact area and the number of warships in close proximity to the enemy, creating an atmosphere of increased firepower engagement, thereby drawing the attention of Artificial Intelligence to our side and relieving the pressure on the Fourth Fleet.

"Squadron 35, follow the navigation parameters below and, together with this ship, take down those arrogant warships at coordinates XXX, YYY, and ZZZ. Commander has ordered that our Fifth Fleet adjust its original course and create an opening in this corner of the Artificial Intelligence fleet. If we fail to complete the mission, we won't be returning!"

"Ship No. 965 received!"

"Received, Ship 966!"

"Ship 967 understands, let's destroy this damn Artificial Intelligence!"

Due to the different navigation methods, when the Fourth Fleet had passed halfway through, the Fifth Fleet also began to exert its strength and rush towards its own target.

At the same time, the Sixth Fleet, in another location, began close-range combat with the Artificial Intelligence Consciousness Fleet.

Because the Artificial Intelligence fleet is controlled by a single, multi-threaded Main Consciousness that controls all the warships, the formation it sets up is not very wide, taking only about 3 light-seconds from one corner to another.

From the outside, it can be considered a spherical formation.

A distance of 3 light-seconds means that if the main Artificial Intelligence Consciousness is located on the middle warship, then its control of the outermost warship will take about 1.5 seconds.

A delay of less than two seconds will not have a noticeable effect when fighting at a distance of more than ten seconds. However, when both sides are close together and the battlefield is dominated by Electromagnetic Railgun, the harm of a 1.5-second delay becomes apparent.

Often, after a warship belonging to Artificial Intelligence fires a salvo, it needs to transmit battlefield information back to its host for data processing. The command data processed by the host is then transmitted back to the warships at the edge of the battlefield.

This causes the Artificial Intelligence warships to occasionally experience a three-second lag period.

Upon discovering this phenomenon, the Fifth and Sixth Fleet immediately took action, assigning observers to specifically monitor the Artificial Intelligence warship formations. Once these formations showed signs of completing a set of instructions, they were immediately attacked.

After this phenomenon occurred, there were significantly more bright explosions in the starry sky, indicating that the Fifth and Sixth Fleet had achieved good results.

In addition, the terrain advantage gave the Nair People civilization's warships a more precise strike capability, so once the two fleets officially began to fight, the losses of the Artificial Intelligence fleet increased sharply.

As the three fleets charged out from their respective positions, the kill ratio between the three Nair Civilization fleets and the Artificial Intelligence fleet increased from 1:2 at the beginning to 1:4. Once the three fleets were completely out of the range of the Artificial Intelligence fleet's laser cannons and energy cannons, the fleet Commander made a statistic: in this charge, the three Nair Civilization fleets lost a total of 864 warships, while the Artificial Intelligence fleet also lost approximately 3,400 warships in the process.

Such a casualty ratio gave the Commander of the three fleets hope for victory.

Because they knew very well that among the Allied fleets, their three fleets were the weakest in combat power, and even the weakest of them could achieve such a kill ratio. If it were the Third Fleet, with its armor made of 1 alloy material, to take the field, the results would definitely be even greater.

Moreover, they heard from rumors that the two human fleets were even more formidable, apparently equipped with an alloy material even stronger than the Alloy No. 1 they had sold before.

It's said to be called Alloy No. 2. The Commander of the Fifth Fleet once heard some news about this alloy when he participated in a joint command exercise. It was said that even the most powerful Electromagnetic Railgun Armor-Piercing Shells at present could not penetrate that kind of armor.

It is so powerful that it inspires despair.

The Commander of the Fifth Fleet couldn't understand how humans, also Level 2 Civilization, could possess such advanced materials technology.

"Commander, all ships in my fleet have disengaged from the battle!"

"Commander, we have detected that the Artificial Intelligence fleet is contracting its formation. It seems to have realized the signal delay issue due to the large distance!"

"Commander, the Fourth Fleet and the Sixth Fleet have sent communications regarding their next formation changes and tactical deployments!"

Just as the Commander of the Fifth Fleet was thinking about the human fleet several Astronomical Unit away, a voice from the bridge of the warship interrupted his thoughts.

"The Artificial Intelligence fleet's move to shrink its formation was within the Commander-in-Chief's expectations. Our fleet, as originally planned, has deployed into Skirmisher Large Rolling Drum Formation and, together with the Fourth and Sixth Fleet, has widened the distance to begin the second phase of the mission: to launch a patrol and strike tactic against the Artificial Intelligence fleet's outer warships!" The Commander of the Fifth Fleet vibrated his abdominal vocal cords and gave orders to his fleet.

The three fleets, like three sharp knives, pierced through the outer edge of the Artificial Intelligence Great Fleet and then emerged.

Then it made a sharp turn in space, circling from the front of the Artificial Intelligence fleet to the rear, and then, at a precise distance, bit into the Artificial Intelligence fleet's rear.

This shift made the Artificial Intelligence Consciousness very uncomfortable.

Because the Artificial Intelligence fleet was heading towards the Second Planet, the initial contact was a head-on collision between the two ships, but now it has become that the sterns of their own warships are facing the bows of the other ship.

It's important to understand that because the main guns of warships are so large, interstellar warships cannot be designed with turrets like tanks. Instead, a large cannon barrel extends from the bow of the ship, and even if it can move, it's only at a small angle.

Therefore, now that the battlefield situation has become like this, if the Artificial Intelligence fleet wants to avoid being attacked from behind, it must turn its bows back and fire at the Nair Civilization fleet.

However, the battle is still ongoing. Although the distance has changed to 12-15 light-seconds, if the warship rolls and turns without any acceleration or deceleration, it will inevitably become a sitting duck for the enemy's Laser Weapon.

However, if we maneuver laterally and then turn, it will delay our arrival time on the Second Planet.

What's most infuriating is that after making a large circle turn, the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Fleet even used the same direction the warships were turning to launch a space dive attack.

Warships are not fighter jets, so the so-called dive attack is not a dive from high altitude. Instead, the three fleets form a large drum formation, and the warships outside the drum take turns firing at the Artificial Intelligence fleet.

After each squadron fires one or two salvos, it will, much like a fighter jet after a dive and bombing run, rapidly change its attitude and turn away from the Artificial Intelligence fleet.

At this moment, the Artificial Intelligence Great Fleet seemed to transform into a huddled school of fish, while the three fleets were like three carnivorous fish, rushing out from the outer edge of the school, tearing at the fish, then turning and running away. After swallowing a fish, they would circle around again to launch another attack on the school.

Arrogance comes at a price.

The Artificial Intelligence Consciousness thought it could continue its unstoppable advance towards the target location as before, but it never anticipated that things would be different this time.

Its progress was hampered by this series of tactics.

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