Chapter 532: Battlecruiser's First Battle
The blue and white painted 'Angry Owl' slowly crossed the sky with the brilliant star of Yuehe VII as its background.
Pieces of space junk drifting at high speed were pushed away by the void shields that were gradually charging and returning to their normal color; those at low speeds were destroyed by the occasional firepower and turned into ashes; as for the smaller and slower junk, it didn't matter at all, as they would just crash through them and leave only a few scratches on the armor.
These pieces of space junk were created by the 'Angry Owl' and its minions in the past five hours.
They originally belonged to space ships one after another and were the pearls of the Princess Star Region.
And now, five hours later, it has all turned into space junk.
The 'Furious Owl' was traveling through these garbages. The slender, beautiful, and even elegant figure of the Holy Grail class was surrounded by dozens of small warships of various levels. It looked arrogant and seemed to be inspecting its own achievements.
This was indeed a swift and fruitful assault.
The Raging Owl was brought by Yan Fangxu. They arrived in the northern part of the Menghe Star Region ahead of the main force and joined the troops led by Perbov who were struggling to resist the southward offensive of the Raging Flame in the local area.
Perbov was the frontline commander, and Yan Fangxu was the highest-ranking general of the Alliance Army. Gu Hang had given them high authority for this attack. The two of them had the right to judge the situation and decide how to fight.
After analyzing the situation in several star zones that were at war, they quickly developed a naval-based plan.
Of course, two generals from the army could not formulate a complete naval combat strategy by themselves. Their current identities were not limited to the army. Although one was an army general and the other was a senior army general, they were commanding a war zone as army generals. The naval generals in the same war zone needed to obey their orders.
This was very different from the rules of the Empire. In the Empire, the Astra Militarum and the Imperial Navy were two distinct systems. There was no subordinate relationship between the two, and sometimes the Imperial Navy would even refuse to carry the Astra Militarum in battle, so that the Astra Militarum had to find other ways to get ships and send troops to the battlefield.
Even when the cooperation is better, it is just cooperation between the two.
Since it is a cooperation, there is no such thing as an order that must be completed. If you can help, then help. If you are not willing to help, the other party has no choice but to argue, but the problem will not be solved.
Even though the Empire would sometimes send a senior general or someone with a special status to be the person in charge of the overall situation and the theater commander, whether this commander could well integrate the Astra Militarum and the Imperial Navy which nominally belonged to him depended on his personal level and the depth of his relationships.
After all, this temporary subordination will not last long, and even the strength of its enforcement is questionable.
But these problems do not exist in the alliance.
The alliance has a clear hierarchy. For a large war zone, a person in charge of the war zone is appointed. Regardless of whether he is from the navy or the army, all participating troops in the area must obey his orders unconditionally. Those who violate the orders will be punished by military law.
The political commissar is watching.
As small as a temporary battlefield, if the theater commander designates a person in charge, then the person in charge will be in charge; if there is no designation, the two sides will discuss it, and if the discussion is inappropriate, they will report to their superiors, and there is always a person in charge or the theater commander above.
The commander of the theater here was Perbov before, and he became the commander after Yan Fangxu came. The strategy decided by the two of them must be implemented by the Alliance Navy.
Of course, it doesn't mean that the two army generals will rush forward in a hurry when they say to fight. The specific action targets will be formulated by the naval professional officers among the staff of the headquarters.
After the goals are set, the captains and staff of the navy itself will formulate specific action plans in accordance with the goals of the theater command and report them.
Once the action plan is approved by the headquarters, it can be executed.
This is a complete process.
Of course, accidents often happen in war. This process may not be completed at every moment. In an emergency, you still have to adapt to the situation.
As for the present, it is certainly not an emergency.
After the process was completed, the captain of the Furious Owl, a rear admiral, assessed the situation, participated in the formulation of the plan, and personally implemented it.
The 'Furious Owl' set out with three cruisers, twenty-nine small and medium-sized ships of various types, and a transport fleet.
They disguised themselves as members of the transport ship and pretended that the astropathic information was exposed.
While traveling through the astral tunnel of Yuehe VII, the enemy took the bait.
Several of the Princess' destroyers, thinking they had caught their prey, pounced on them.
Then, they saw with horror the slender and graceful figure of the Angry Owl.
The princess' ship, filled with the ghosts of the dead, turned around and fled.
But now that the fish has been hooked, the Angry Owl, which is on the battle for the first time, is not willing to give up its prey.
If we use an ordinary battleship, we may not be able to catch an enemy who is determined to escape.
But the Holy Grail-class battlecruiser, with its high speed, is clearly not one of the clumsy ones.
The swift pursuit, the precise artillery fire, and the deadly lethality of super-standard artillery to small and medium-sized ships...
These characteristics combined together mean massacre of the enemy.
Five 'Doomsday' light spears and five 'Wrath of Tadashi' fired in succession, causing those rebel destroyers to flash red and quickly overload their energy shields; the X-level 'Heavenly Punishment' light spears could instantly destroy the enemy with a single hit!
After these destroyers that were preparing to hunt were counter-hunted, the rebel fleet that was staying near the orbit of the planet Yuehe VII.3 also learned what happened at the jump point.
They were quite shocked for a moment.
Prior to this, they had received information that the Alliance army had already set out. But logically speaking, the Alliance's main force would need at least two months to reach the main battlefield in the northern part of the Menghe Star Region.
As a result, new ships have arrived now?
It's also a Holy Grail-class battlecruiser...
In the southward offensive of the Fury Corps, there were larger main battleships. The Fury Corps' battle barges were equivalent to a battleship; at the same time, there was also a serious Retribution-class battleship that participated in the battle.
But none of them are in Yuehe VII.
In this star system, the strongest rebel ships are only two cruisers.
After receiving the news of the arrival of the Furious Owl and the loss of several destroyers, the rebel ships slowly left the planetary orbit of Yuehe VII and prepared to evacuate the system.
Stay here and wait to die.
But even if I wanted to run away now, it was already too late.
The Furious Owl was moving at full speed, not heading for the planet Yuehe VII.3, but heading directly for the enemy's jump point for escaping to the north.
In terms of distance, the Raging Owl was definitely farther, but under full-speed pursuit, the Raging Owl caught up with the rebel ships before they could teleport.
Those two Moon-class cruisers were running too slowly.
Of course, the Furious Owl, traveling at full speed, was equivalent to abandoning its accompanying ships. The three Moon-class cruisers would definitely not be able to keep up with it.
Only a few Crazy Shark-class destroyers, who had to run their engines at full capacity, could barely keep up.
The enemy ship was obviously quite surprised.
The Holy Grail class is indeed rare in the Empire. Battlecruisers themselves are already rare, and places that have the conditions to build battlecruisers are usually willing to bite the bullet and build a proper battleship.
Among the rare battlecruisers, the most common are the Dragon Snake class, which is the type built by Jindi Star. The Holy Grail class is even rarer among battlecruisers.
Everyone knows that battlecruisers are fast, but no one expected that the Holy Grail class is the fastest of the fast.
The rebel fleet, which had miscalculated and failed to escape, was even in some confusion for a moment.
Leave one ship behind to cover the rest, and have the other ships force a jump and escape?
If they run separately, whoever gets caught will be unlucky?
Or... a head-on fight?
No matter what kind of entanglement they had, when the "Furious Owl" appeared in front of them, it was time for them to make a decision.
And their choice seems to be to fight for their lives.
This is also an understandable choice.
No matter what level of warship, it is always part of the war and part of the fleet. Battlecruisers are fast and powerful, but they also have the disadvantage of being fragile. Just like battleships have superb frontal combat capabilities, but lack flexibility.
The shortcomings of a single ship do not necessarily have to be made up by oneself. The cost would be very high.
Since it is a fleet operation, we should fulfill our own duties and leave the work we are not good at to other ships that are good at it.
And right now, this battlecruiser of the Alliance has become disconnected from its own fleet in order to pursue rapidly, with only a few destroyers following it, but it does not seem that it cannot fight.
Even at the cost of some losses, if we can destroy this Alliance battlecruiser, it will be a huge achievement!
Led by two Moon-class cruisers, a total of more than thirty ships launched a siege on the Furious Owl.
The Angry Owl turned sideways and did not collide with the enemy fleet. Instead, it moved sideways and maintained a certain distance.
The 'Sky Punishment' light spear fired first and directly destroyed an enemy frigate.
Immediately afterwards, 12 L-class heavy artillery pieces and 24 M-class artillery pieces began firing one after another.
The firepower of one of its ships is almost equivalent to that of an entire enemy fleet!
The enemy's two Moon-class cruisers only have six L-class guns in total.
Of course, this level of firepower can actually pose a threat to the Angry Owl.
After all, battlecruisers are thin-skinned and cannot withstand much more damage than normal cruisers.
However, the extremely high speed and flexibility will cause the enemy ship's firepower to be largely ineffective.
On the contrary, it is almost impossible for the Moon-class cruiser to actively avoid the attack of the Furious Owl.
Of course, the combat distance between the two sides is actually quite far, and the hit rate of each side will actually be reduced.
This naval battle lasted for about an hour.
The sixth rebel ship destroyed by the Furious Owl was one of the enemy's two Moon-class cruisers. The void shield of the other ship had actually turned red, having been hit by a celestial punishment from the front.
At this point, the enemy fleet was completely discouraged.
They began to retreat.
I didn't dare to evacuate the jump point forcibly. If I did that, once the void shield and energy shield were turned off, I would be a sitting duck on the eve of completing the jump. I didn't know how many of them would be killed.
They could only split up and flee in more than twenty directions: left, right, up, down, etc.
No matter how fast the Angry Owl is, it can only chase in one direction.
Of course, I would choose the biggest one to chase.
First, it chased and killed the remaining Moon-class cruiser, then turned the ship around and changed direction. Relying on its excellent speed and flexibility, it captured three more ships before the enemy disappeared.
Two of them were destroyed by the Furious Owl, and the remaining frigate chose to surrender.
Turn off the energy shield, shut down all weapon systems, and let the Furious Owl's guns aim at it.
The Marines boarded the ship and took control of it.
...
In the naval battle of Yuehe VII, the Alliance won a great victory.
This was also the first battle of the Furious Owl, and also the first battle of the Holy Grail-class battlecruiser built by the Alliance.
Although the intensity of the battle was not high and they were just fighting against "little kids", this also showed the characteristics of the battlecruiser: the king of bullying weak enemies.
If we use battleships or battle carriers, we won't be able to achieve the same effect. I'm afraid the enemies will all run away before we catch up.
The enemy still had more than 20 ships, which disappeared in the vast space of the star system. Even the star communication tower on the ship, which was constantly searching for signals, could only occasionally capture information, and it would soon disappear again.
If you chase and hunt according to this information, you should be able to gain something.
But playing hide-and-seek like this will inevitably take a long time.
The Angry Owl doesn't have that ability.
The three Moon-class ships that could not keep up with it went directly to the planetary orbit of Yuehe VII.3 and successfully established contact with the ground forces.
Under the guidance of ground forces, more than twenty Alliance ships launched a three-day orbital strike on the surface.
The ground forces of the Princess Rebellion were simply unable to withstand this kind of orbital bombardment.
The remaining space stations in orbit will not help them intercept firepower or threaten ships; they do have orbital guns that they seized and controlled after occupying the surface, but they are only in the single digits and have almost no impact.
After getting rid of the aerospace threat, the Alliance troops on the ground also became active. After the orbital bombardment, they quickly carried out the final cleanup of the enemy's manpower.
The coalition forces launched a counterattack across the globe.
On this planet, the total number of the Alliance Army and the Allied Forces is more than 50 million; the number of the Princess's rebels has reached more than 70 million.
These 70 million rebels would certainly not be completely wiped out in a short period of time, but their losses would certainly be severe.
What was even worse for them was that they had to semi-actively abandon their organization in order to avoid orbital bombardment.
Once the army is dispersed, the loss of combat effectiveness will be serious.
In just three days, the situation on the ground had been turned around.
(End of this chapter)