Chapter 741: Chapter 414, Jump Point Naval Battle_2 Chapter 741: Chapter 414, Jump Point Naval Battle_2 Moreover, what people found most strange was that when those Green Skin Orcs launched their ground assaults, they barely used orbital firepower.
All calls for help mentioned this detail: although the orcs came in great numbers and their offensive was fierce, catching them off guard and leading to heavy losses, they indeed suffered very few orbital bombardments.
Even on the planets of the Golden Pass Star Sector, most of the orbital defense firepower remained intact; some starports hadn’t even been overrun.
Why was that?
It certainly wasn’t likely that the Green Skin Orcs were showing mercy.
Green Skin Orcs don’t know the meaning of “mercy.”
So where did the enormous fleet of orcs go?
The answer to this was also quite evident.
Either the Northern Fleet hadn’t been completely wiped out, and even though they had lost contact, perhaps they were still somewhere tying up a large number of the orc ships; or another part of the orc fleet was chasing the Yunluo Fleet, heading deeper into the Dragonhawk Star Domain.
Of course, there was also the possibility that a considerable part of the fleet was on its way to the Eagle Horse Star Sector.
In such a case, could they hold out on Steel Wing Star for forty-five days?
Moreover, the forty-five days mentioned by Gu Hang was only the time it took for the main forces of the Alliance to depart.
Even if they were to assemble from the nearest Fatches Star System and set off, it would take five jumps through the Star Realm Tunnels to reach Steel Wing Star, at least half a month’s journey.
Waiting for the arrival of the main forces of the Alliance could well mean a wait of up to sixty days.
However, after having an in-person exchange with Gu Hang, Gu Hang’s quite calm demeanor made him accept the reality: this was indeed the most extreme limit for the Alliance to mobilize all its forces and issue a mobilization order before departing.
They couldn’t expect the Alliance to come over immediately; such a deployment of ships would pose problems, and bringing just one hundred million ground troops wouldn’t suffice without a series of heavy equipment, in addition to untold amounts of ammunition, bullets, food, and other supplies all needed.
After all, the troops were being sent to fight a war, not to be sent to their deaths.
And Gu Hang was indeed very sincere.
The first advance fleet had already departed.
This fleet consisted of twenty transport ships, accompanied by a part of the armed merchant escort fleet.
They primarily transported various types of weapons, ammunition, food, and the like, enhancing the reserves on Steel Wing Star in terms of materials and preparing for the arrival of the main force.
Among these ships, the most important thing for the Tianma Fleet was the technical crew that came with the ships, as well as some vital ship components.
The Tianma Fleet was in desperate need of these.
After all, they had been through six years of war.
Although there had been some basic maintenance in the Golden Pass Star Sector during that time, the damage to ships and parts from such prolonged combat was inevitable.
The arrival of a group of professional technicians would allow for the replacement of severely worn parts, and the entire fleet’s condition would see a significant improvement.
Looking at these technicians, Tilermungs even recognized some familiar faces.
These were some of the old technicians from the Flying Wing Star Shipyard.
This made him realize that Gu Hang was indeed very sincere, as well as strategic and rational in doing the right thing.
But even so, it didn’t alleviate his deep concern.
According to intelligence reconnaissance, his earlier guess had largely come true: the Green Skin Fleet did not provide cover for their ground troops during the attack but continued to amass forces, spreading the flames of war throughout the Dragonhawk Star Domain.
A Green Skin Fleet had already reached the Temir Star System of the Golden Pass Star Sector.
Within this star system, there were three Imperial planets.
The Green Skin Fleet conducted a bombing spree, destroying some of the orbital defense systems, deployed batches of Green Skin legions, and then moved on.
Their next target was the Eagle Horse Star Sector.
The Temir Star System’s Star Realm Tunnel directly connected to Steel Wing Star.
This meant that Tilermungs’ long-awaited opponent had finally arrived.
Upon learning that a Green Skin Fleet was traveling from the Temir Star System in the Golden Pass Star Sector to Steel Wing Star, he initiated the strategy he had already envisioned: the main force of the Tianma Fleet rushed to the system’s jump point to await the approaching enemy.
The two sides collided at the jump point, as was expected.
The Tianma Fleet intended to ambush them here, and the Green Skin Orcs could actually predict this.
Although these beings appear reckless, warlike, impulsive, and seemingly simple-minded with a penchant for relentless action, they are in fact quite cunning and cruel enemies endowed with significant battle wisdom.
Ambushing them without difficulty was a tough task.
That’s why it was a battle that was anticipated, and it was brief yet fierce.
Highly experienced, Tilermungs had roughly predicted where the Green Skin’s junk ships would appear, down to the minute and second, before they even materialized.
The prep fire was already amassing, waiting to unleash a barrage of intense firepower on the Green Skin ships the moment they came into view.
The first wave of Green Skin Ships to jump in was large in number.
They had expected the Human Fleet to intercept them here, immediately deploying dark green energy shields and preparing to fire as they emerged.
However, the heavy artillery of the humans gave these rampaging Green Skins a hard hit on the head.
Under focus fire, a large number of Green Skin Ships were destroyed as their energy shields couldn’t ramp up to full power quickly enough.
Then, amidst the exchange of fire, the Green Skin Fleet, having just completed the jump, even if they had been preparing their firepower as quickly as possible, was still slightly lacking in their counter-attack.
The key was that their ships were still moving at the speed they had before the jump, a velocity difference that Tilermungs exploited.
The Green Skin Fleet burst out as soon as they appeared, but the Tianma Fleet grazed past them at an oblique angle and started circling around the Green Skins.
This caused much of the Green Skins’ firepower to miss, giving the Human Fleet some advantage.
After a dozen rounds of exchange, at least fifteen Green Skin Ships of various classes had been reduced to space junk while, by comparison, the Human Fleet emerged virtually unscathed, only losing an Escort Ship.
There was no doubt this was a victory.
Then, the Human Fleet immediately retreated.
Before the battle, Tilermungs hadn’t entirely dismissed the fantasy: if this wave of the Green Skin Fleet was not too numerous or powerful, and if they responded poorly, the humans might be able to secure significant victories at the outset, perhaps even attempting to completely annihilate the invading enemy right there.
If they could achieve a decisive victory, even if the Iron-Tooth Clan still had many ships, at least it would significantly reduce the pressure and push back the arrival of the Green Skin tide.
But alas, fantasies are just that, fantasies.
The number of Green Skin Ships coming through the jump point swelled and quickly exceeded three hundred, with clearly more to come.
Although the quality of the individual ships in the Tianma Fleet was much superior to the Green Skin junk ships, their numbers barely reached a hundred.
The gap in strength between the two sides was still evident.
If it came to a real fight, leveraging the initial advantage, they might achieve good results in the early stages of the battle, but it was clear they couldn’t achieve a rapid annihilation.
As time dragged on and the Green Skin Ships made their adjustments, that advantage would gradually fade, and the struggle would come down to brute force.
By then, the Tianma Fleet’s chances of victory would, at best, be around thirty percent.
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While the enemy in sight was no doubt part of the main Green Skin Fleet, and winning would certainly be a major victory…
To risk the entire Tianma Fleet on a thirty percent chance…
Forget it.
Tilermungs wasn’t that reckless.
After gaining the advantage of fifteen ships, it was time to make a quick exit and retreat to Steel Wing Star.
There, a complete orbital system awaited, with the ground equipped with numerous Anti-Orbit Cannons, making it a more suitable place for a decisive battle.
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Today, I went back to my hometown for the New Year’s celebrations and then back to my own house.
By the time I got home, it was already very late…
I’ll try to make up for it with more updates tomorrow!
Owing so many updates, if I don’t start making them up soon, I’m afraid I might end up repaying them all the way into June…