Oakes's 90,000 warships surged toward the human fleet ahead at Adams's command.
"Commander Adams, 10,000 human warships are retreating. The remaining 5,000 have formed a defensive formation in place. It looks like they intend to cover the retreat!"
"Mm. Our warships are slightly faster than the humans'. Have the fleet destroy the human force in front of us at maximum speed, then pursue those 10,000 retreating warships!"
"Yes!"
At this moment, Adams believed his guess had been correct. It truly had been a chance encounter. It seemed Liang Xingchen's luck had finally run out.
In that case, he would wipe out humanity's last resisting force in one stroke!
Thus, Adams directly ordered all warships to press forward together and tear apart the enemy's rearguard fleet head-on with their overwhelming numerical advantage.
The distance between the two sides steadily closed, and they were about to enter firing range.
"Commander, a human fleet has appeared on our fleet's left. It has approximately 10,000 warships!"
"Commander, a human fleet has also appeared on our fleet's right. It has approximately 10,000 warships!"
"Commander, the 10,000 human warships that were retreating have turned around and come back!"
Listening to his subordinates' reports, Adams was momentarily stunned. What was going on? That made 35,000 warships in total!
Could humanity have been hiding its strength all along, just for this very moment?
Adams looked at the tactical display. Directly ahead of his fleet were 15,000 human warships, while another 10,000 warships were closing in from each flank. Before long, they would enter a three-direction crossfire zone.
No matter how he looked at it, the situation was extremely unfavorable.
"Quickly! Before we enter the enemy's firing range, have every warship turn 180 degrees immediately, then advance at full speed and break out of humanity's encirclement!"
Several minutes later, before the humans could bring them within range, the Third Imperial Guard Legion completed its turn and fled at full speed.
However, not every type of warship had the same speed. As they fled at full speed, the entire fleet's formation fell into disarray. It was only slightly better than a rout.
Adams did not care about that. As long as they escaped this three-sided encirclement, he could reorganize the fleet's formation. It was not a major problem.
Yet another unexpected development occurred.
"Commander, a human fleet has appeared off our front left. It has approximately 10,000 warships!"
"Commander, a human fleet has also appeared off our front right. It has approximately 10,000 warships!"
"What? That's impossible! Where did humanity get so many fleets? Including the ones from before, that's a full 55,000 warships already!"
"Commander, the human fleets at the front left and front right have begun crossfiring on the front of our fleet!"
"Ignore the casualties. Keep advancing in a straight line and break through first!"
Looking at the 35,000 warships steadily closing in from the left, right, and rear on the tactical display, Adams gritted his teeth and gave the order.
They absolutely could not stop now. If they stopped, they were finished. Once the three fleets on the left, right, and rear caught up to them, they would face crossfire from all five directions by a full 55,000 warships.
In that case, the Third Imperial Guard Legion would undoubtedly be annihilated. It was better to risk losing 30,000 or 40,000 warships and break out first.
Under normal circumstances, Adams would certainly have noticed sharply that the firepower from the front left and front right was clearly weaker than what 10,000 warships should have been capable of, not even reaching half their expected strength.
However, Duolun's death and the sudden appearance of 55,000 human warships had completely thrown his mind into turmoil, leaving him unable to calmly judge the details of the battlefield.
Thus, the 90,000 warships endured crossfire from two directions and fled in a scattered formation toward the gap between them.
At this moment, aboard the flagship Uranus, Lin Fan was communicating with Liang Xingchen.
"I have to admit, I'm starting to admire you, kid. You used mechs to disguise nearly 50,000 warships. Adams was rattled too; otherwise, fooling him would not have been easy."
"Mm. Duolun's death, along with the sudden appearance of more warships than expected—put those together, and I refuse to believe he wouldn't be unsettled. Psychological warfare is an important part of war too!"
"But the Oakes Empire still has too many warships. Completely annihilating them is still unrealistic!"
"Commander, we don't need to annihilate them completely. We only need to inflict heavy casualties on their fighting strength and scare them back to Jupiter."
"Mm, you're right. As long as we can destroy half his fleet this time, we'll have achieved our objective!"
"Commander, it'll soon be your time to perform!"
"Mm. I'll make my move once half of Adams's fleet has passed through your ambush point."
"Sigh, we still have too few warships. If we had another 10,000, we could definitely keep every last one of them here!"
"Enough. The Federation hasn't had it easy these past few years. We could only build a little over 2,000 warships each year. But now that we have your Industrial Robots, building 10,000 warships per year is no longer a problem. Things will improve from here on out. For now, focus on winning this battle!"
"Yes, Commander!"
While the two spoke, Adams was having an exceptionally miserable time.
"Commander Adams, one-third of the fleet has already passed through their crossfire net!"
"What are the current casualties?"
"We've lost approximately 7,000 warships!"
Adams's heart bled. Just like that, 7,000 warships were gone, and the fleet's Main Cannons had not even fired a single shot!
After all, attacking the enemy required turning, because Main Cannons could not rotate 360 degrees. At most, they could make minor adjustments within a fifteen-degree range.
That was why warships always had to face enemy vessels head-on when attacking.
But in their current situation, the two fleets at the front left and front right were unleashing crossfire upon them. They could only pass rapidly between them, then widen the distance.
If they turned to attack either fleet, their warships would inevitably slow down. And once they slowed down, the 35,000 warships chasing from behind would catch up immediately. By then, they would not be able to escape even if they wanted to.
Therefore, Adams could only retreat at high speed while returning fire with the Secondary Cannons.
Ten minutes later, two-thirds of the fleet had passed through the crossfire net.
"How are the battle losses now?"
"Reporting, Commander, we have currently lost approximately 15,000 warships!"
Mm, 15,000. That was far better than he had expected.
Adams had originally prepared himself to lose 30,000 to 40,000 warships to pass through the fire net. By now, they should have lost 20,000 to 30,000. Yet his subordinate reported only 15,000 lost, which surprised Adams greatly.
If the losses were this low, then perhaps after breaking out of the encirclement and widening the distance, they could still regroup and turn back for another decisive battle. After all, his fleet still outnumbered humanity's.
But why were the losses so low? A fire net formed by 20,000 warships had only destroyed 15,000 of his warships after firing for so long?
Before Adams could properly consider the reason, another sudden change occurred.
"Commander Adams, another human fleet has appeared directly ahead of our fleet. It has approximately 5,000 warships and has deployed a reinforced formation. It looks like they intend to block us completely!"
Before you continue