Lure the Enemy Deep

Upon receiving the order, the Second Fleet quickly found an opportunity to break away from the pulling formation. Under the powerful thrust of Heavy Nuclear Fusion and the pulse propulsion of Cold Nuclear Fusion, the 1,250 warships made a sharp turn in space and headed towards the Second Planet.

The Artificial Intelligence Consciousness clearly noticed the departure of the Second Fleet, but it seemed unconcerned, as its Great Fleet continued to engage in a tug-of-war with the Allied First and Third Fleet.

It likely believed that the Second Fleet, like the previous Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Fleet, could only achieve a one-to-four ratio of casualties, even though its individual ships were more powerful.

The Second Fleet only has 1,250 warships. Even if they fight with all their might, they can only kill a maximum of 5,000 warships in their own squadron.

Currently, their own fleet still has nearly nine thousand warships. Five thousand of them can be sent to deal with the Second Fleet, and another four thousand warships can be used to attack the Second Planet. This is more than enough to handle the situation.

Once the Second Fleet is destroyed or defeated, the 32,000 warships of our main fleet can be split in two: one part can be sent for resupply, while the other part can continue to engage in harassment. After the resupply is completed, we can use our numerical advantage to launch a surprise attack and pursuit on these two fleets that are currently moving like eels.

In short, according to its calculations, the advantage in this war lies with it, and it is completely impossible to lose.

In fact, the best Artificial Intelligence Consciousness is its ability to lead its Great Fleet to chase and attack the Second Fleet, preventing it from safely harassing its own landing operation fleet.

However, the results calculated from the data obtained from the database did not support it doing so, and thus it missed an opportunity to reduce the loss.

Of course, in order to conceal their strength, the Second Fleet led by Man Yuemei did not launch a surprise attack after arriving near the Artificial Intelligence sub-fleet. Instead, following Yue Yuan's instructions, they harassed the AI sub-fleet from a distance of about 15 light-seconds.

The objective was simple: to prevent this fleet, controlled by Combat AI programs, from dedicating all its warships to Orbital Bombardment of the planet's surface turrets.

The concept of a diversionary tactic sounds easy, but it's not so easy to execute in practice.

The difference is first evident in maintaining distance. Since the maneuverability of the two warships is not that different, under normal circumstances, they can maintain a certain distance for attack. If the other side is determined to rush over, it will get closer and closer due to its maneuverability, eventually entering the efficient strike range of the Electromagnetic Railgun, thus triggering a fierce battle.

However, the coalition forces clearly knew the weakness of the Artificial Intelligence fleet: its warship cluster could not be too far from its command ship, because if it was too far away, the communication delay would be too great. In that case, those warships that could not be controlled in time would become fish on a chopping board, at the mercy of others.

The Combat AI program created by the Artificial Intelligence Consciousness is clearly intended to be responsible for the conquest of the Second Planet, so its command ship must be in Low Earth Orbit.

This gave Man Yuemei a good opportunity. She could have her fleet harass the Landing Ship from a distance without restraint. If a large number of enemy warships came after her, she could create some distance. If they followed, she could launch a counterattack.

Fish on the cutting board is better left uncut.

However, the Combat AI program of the Artificial Intelligence Consciousness obviously did not give her this opportunity. It simply ordered some warships to turn their guns around in Low Earth Orbit and engage in long-range firefights with the Second Fleet.

Anyone with a basic understanding of military affairs knows that this behavior by the Combat AI is completely wrong, because it is essentially fighting on two fronts.

But in its calculations, it is taken for granted.

Based on the data obtained from the current situation, it judged that by engaging in a firefight with the Second Fleet on one side and continuing Orbital Bombardment of the planet's surface on the other, there was a greater than 90% chance that it would successfully eliminate the ground defenses and complete the task set for it by the Artificial Intelligence Consciousness.

As for its own losses, they are nothing to the Combat AI program, nor to the calculations of the Artificial Intelligence Consciousness. After all, as long as it occupies the Second Planet, it can use the resources on it to continuously produce more warships.

Its reaction was exactly what the Second Fleet wanted, because as long as it didn't engage in close-quarters combat, the Second Fleet wouldn't be afraid to reveal its true strength.

Moreover, and most importantly, at a distance of 10 to 15 light-seconds, the Laser Energy Cannon of the Artificial Intelligence fleet would be completely unable to burn through the armor of the Second Fleet.

The Positron Cannon, which could directly damage the armor of the Second Fleet, could be completely ignored due to the presence of the Magnetic Shield. Therefore, it can be said that the harassment operation by Man Yuemei this time was just like target practice.

And so, a space battle began.

Judging from the battle between the Second Fleet and the Artificial Intelligence landing fleet, this combat style seems to be reminiscent of Tier 1 Civilization.

Both sides were anticipating and firing at their opponent from a distance.

The Combat AI modules of both sides were clearly the busiest part of the battle, oh, and the busiest people on the human fleet were also the Fire Control Officer.

They were the loudest voices on the bridge of every warship; every time their Laser Energy Cannon an enemy warship, it would trigger a burst of boastful laughter.

The atmosphere was quite cheerful.

As for the other warships in the Second Fleet that were not equipped with Laser Energy Main Cannon, they were even more idle. All these warships had to do was follow the entire fleet in formation and circle around, since they didn't need to fire.

Therefore, after the harassment battle began, the two types of warships in the Second Fleet whose main guns were Electromagnetic Railgun and Positron Cannon were essentially just there for show. The warships equipped with Positron Cannon were alright, occasionally firing a few token shots, but the warships equipped with Electromagnetic Railgun were truly just there for show. Their captains and crews were so bored that they turned on Video Communication with friendly warships to watch the combat process of the Laser Energy Main Cannon warships.

Whenever they saw a shot miss the target, they would jokingly mock the Fire Control Officer on the warships.

Overall, because the Allied fleet's warships were divided into three types, the intensity of this harassment operation was not high, and it was far less intense than the landing operation on the other side.

However, the Artificial Intelligence fleet had to allocate some warships to deal with them, otherwise it would not be a long-range firefight, but a real stand-and-fighting exercise.

The harassment lasted for more than ten days.

A dozen days later, the outcome of the battle was just as the Artificial Intelligence Consciousness had calculated: its fleet successfully destroyed all the ground defense turrets and successfully landed.

However, the squadron also paid a heavy price; of its ten thousand warships, only four thousand remain today.

Nearly half of the warships were destroyed in this battle. Of these, about four thousand were destroyed in Low Earth Orbit by various ground-based defensive weapons. The Second Fleet did not engage in much harassment, with only a few hundred ships involved.

However, they themselves suffered zero casualties.

The fact that not a single warship in the Second Fleet was destroyed was anticipated by the Allied Forces Command when they set out. After all, it was a harassment battle, and with the formidable defensive capabilities of human warships, any losses would be unexpected.

The Allied Forces Command believed that this outcome would not reveal the true combat strength of the Second Fleet. The reason was that, at this distance, the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Fleet could theoretically also maintain casualties of fewer than one hundred warships.

Therefore, the Artificial Intelligence Consciousness would most likely conclude that the Second Fleet was more elite due to the zero casualties, coupled with the fact that the main attack direction of the Landing Ship was amphibious operations.

This Artificial Intelligence Consciousness has a major flaw in its form of existence. Although it possesses the powerful military production capabilities and tactical coordination abilities of mechanical civilizations, it only has one Main Consciousness. Unlike those Artificial Intelligence that can replicate themselves and then enslave their replicas, it cannot recklessly deploy countless sub-fleets for ultra-long-range pursuits.

This weakness was fully exploited by the Allied Forces Command, leading to these various attrition tactics.

After receiving news of the fall of the Second Planet, Yue Yuan, the Commander-in-Chief of the allied forces, pondered for a while before instructing his communications officer to send orders to the Second Fleet and Third Fleet to begin the next phase of the plan.

The loss of the Second Planet means that the Artificial Intelligence Consciousness will soon have ample supplies, and with supplies, it will be able to mass produce troops here.

Therefore, what the allied forces need to do next is not to fight a protracted war, but to deal with the Artificial Intelligence Consciousness as soon as possible. Otherwise, if it drags on, the Artificial Intelligence Consciousness Fleet will only increase with each battle.

However, the number of warships in the Artificial Intelligence Consciousness Fleet is still quite large. According to the battle damage data, the Allied Forces Command roughly calculated that its main fleet still has about 32,000 ships, and there are about 4,000 warships currently docked and landed in the Second Planet's orbit.

That adds up to 36,000 ships.

The number of ships is much less than the nearly 50,000 that were deployed at the beginning.

However, compared to the three complete fleets of the Allied Forces, it is still ten times more.

Faced with a huge numerical disadvantage, Yue Yuan did not want to take risks or cause too much loss to humanity. Therefore, even though he was confident of victory by concentrating the strength of three fleets, he did not want to fight in this starry sky.

Therefore, the Second Battlefield plan continues, the question being how to lure the current Artificial Intelligence fleet to the Second Battlefield.

The original plan was to have the returning Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Fleet charge again, then feign defeat, and then drag the First, Second, and Third Fleet along to the Second Battlefield.

However, some changes occurred in the first phase of the battle. The Fourth Fleet was lost, and the Fifth Fleet and Sixth Fleet suffered heavy losses. They have now moved to a planetary base on the other side of the Red Dwarf Star for repairs and are clearly no longer suitable for missions.