“Hm, there’s no opening to exploit……”

It’s been about twenty hours since Captain Serena suddenly started getting agitated.

Ultimately, I ended up going for two rounds with Captain Serena. When the counter-nanomachine formulation finally got synthesized, she quickly used it and left the Black Lotus soon afterward.

We made it to the front lines in time, but we found the Graccan Empire and Vereverem Federation space forces in a tense deadlock.

A stand-off in outer space? Yeah, I get what you’re trying to say, but as long as there’s enough distance, even optical weaponry firing projectiles at the speed of light won’t be able to properly hit targets that keep shifting positions constantly. Also, even though laser bombardment suffers from far less attenuation in outer space, it’s not like the projectiles don’t attenuate at all.

It takes too much time to close the distance using normal propulsion methods instead of FTL Drives, and there’s a limit to the effective range of laser bombardment.

If they do close the distance using FTL Drives, the side that did so will be left vulnerable to attack the moment they deactivate FTL navigation. They would simply serve as sitting ducks for the other party to shoot down, so both sides found it hard to use their FTL Drives as a result.

In addition, the Imperial Space Force that’s on the defending side had deployed anti-FTL trap ships. The powerful gravitational waves generated by these anti-FTL trap ships would bend laser projectiles through the gravitational lens effect, so they also had the effect of greatly diverting the course of long-range laser bombardment. The distance was too great after all, so even a slight deviation in the trajectory of the lasers would cause them to miss their mark by a lot.

“And so, in an ultra-long-range laser bombardment battle, the Imperial Space Force currently has an advantage due to the limited range of laser projectiles.”

“I see. Through the effect of the anti-FTL trap ships coupled with suppressive fire, the accuracy rate of the Imperial Space Force’s ultra-long-range bombardment is currently higher compared to the other side.”

“But thanks to that, we can’t use FTL Drives to launch an attack either. The powerful gravitational waves generated by the anti-FTL trap ships don’t discriminate between friend and foe.”

“So, for now, will it continue to be a stalemate?”

Kugi tilted her head to the side with her fox ears twitching cutely.

“Yeah. But I don’t think this situation will last long. That side is probably making huge sacrifices in order to secure the sectors near this system’s hyperlane entry points in order to build a bridgehead. In other words, we can expect a constant stream of reinforcements to come from the enemy’s rear lines. On the other hand, the Imperial Space Force is currently unable to use the gateway due to the handiwork of Earl Ixamal’s men, so our side’s reinforcements would be delayed. It looks like they cobbled together additional forces by enlisting the garrisons of the surrounding star systems, but compared to the formal Imperial Space Force squadrons, they are quite a bit more inferior……”

The star system garrisons that maintain the security of individual star systems basically used obsolete ships that the Imperial Space Force has retired from service. In terms of overall capabilities, they were two or more levels behind. The skill levels of the actual troops also varied per system.

“……Um, so?”

“In other words, once they assemble a force that’s enough to rout us, it’s likely that the Federation military would conduct a charge regardless of the losses they’d suffer.”

“Isn’t that…… bad?”

“Real bad. The current situation of the Imperial Space Force is akin to desperately trying to hold back water that’s overflowing from a dam. Uh, was that analogy a bit hard to picture? Let’s see. It’s like using emergency measures to plug a big hole in a ship’s hull that’s leaking lots of air.”

In other words, currently, the Imperial Space Force has little chance of winning. And even if they do manage to persevere, the resulting losses would be so great that they wouldn’t be able to withstand another wave. But they probably weren’t fools who’d simply accept such an outcome.

“From the looks of it, the number of ships that were sent by the star system garrisons is clearly on the smaller end. Maybe the rest are making some sort of preparations somewhere else. Maybe they’ve simply given up on trying to plug the flow. I think there’s a high chance of them retreating to the next defensive position.”

“But…… is that really okay?”

Mimi tilted her head while displaying a frown. Perhaps, as an imperial citizen, she found the act of yielding imperial territory to the enemy improper for the prestigious Imperial Space Force.

“Isn’t it fine as long as we win in the end? As long as we hold out until the gateway is restored and the main imperial forces arrive, we’ll be able to launch a counter-offensive. It’ll also serve to bait the enemy forces deeper into imperial territory so we can repeatedly get in their way and gradually bleed them out. It’s a common strategy, but it’s become common exactly because it’s proven effective.”

It’s the so-called defense in depth strategy. By yielding space and territory, it allows a defending force to buy time and gradually thin down an enemy force.

The variables to look out for, however, were the vastness of outer space, the performance of various sensors, and the range and impact speed of optical weaponry. If you lured an enemy with a half-baked force, there’s a chance they’d adapt quickly and shoot down your side before suffering any meaningful damage. Well, I suppose the Imperial Space Force elites were capable of pulling off the strategy decently at least.

As I mulled over the situation, an encrypted military transmission came in. I quickly decrypted it using the encryption key they distributed before the operation and checked the contents.

“Our next move is apparently to hold the enemy force back near the asteroid belt. It’s a pretty nice ambush point.”

“But will the Federation Forces really go out of their way to approach such a perfect ambush point?”

“It seems they are planning to make use of the anti-FTL trap ships to effectively control the movements of the enemy forces. Ships smaller than corvettes like ours as well as carrier-based fighter craft will hide within the asteroid belt, and the larger ships will conduct suppressive fire and act as diversions. Then we’ll find the right moment to conduct a hit-and-run ambush against the enemy large-class ships.”

“But we’ll probably suffer a lot of casualties with that tactic……”

“That’s why we’ll be conducting a hit-and-run. I sure hope nothing unexpected happens though.”

The Antlion was also going to participate in the ambush. It held quite a bit of firepower despite its size after all. It wasn’t that speedy though, so it’ll have to make tracks immediately after unleashing an all-out barrage.

“It would be a problem if the enemy forces have equipment similar to the Antlion’s Gravity Jammer.”

“It’s the Imperial Space Force’s latest classified tech, so I think it’ll be fine. But if something like that does exist, we’d need to destroy the Jammer wielder first, or we’d be in trouble.”

Even carrier-based fighters and combat ships that are smaller than corvettes were capable of doing damage to large-class ships as long as they were close enough, but they’d eventually be rendered vulnerable if they continued to hang around the large-class ships in bunches while exposed to anti-aircraft fire. That’s why it’s necessary to strike a good blow and escape immediately before the large-class enemy ship can retaliate in earnest. They’d suffer tremendous damage to their ranks if their escape was somehow prevented.

Come to think of it, wouldn’t those Gravity Jammers also be effective as counters to ambushes by small-class ships and carrier-based fighters in battles like this? Would the Imperial Space Force also employ them in that way?

“There’s no use worrying so much. Let’s just stick to the plan.”

The star system garrison squadrons that had been summoned were probably busy dispersing decoys and mines. Using all these means in order to successfully goad the enemy forces to enter the ambush point would be a great test of a commander’s skills.

“Gunununu…… Those duplicitous, blasted nobles. Just as I thought, one can never trust those who’ve adapted to a system as barbaric as a feudal aristocracy.”

I inwardly let out a sigh as I looked at His Excellency, the Federation Space Force Admiral, whose face was bright red with apparent rage. He was fuming red with rage, but I personally think there was practically no difference between him, who rose to the rank of the Federation Space Force’s vice-admiral thanks to his lineage and connections despite his complete inability to command a starship fleet, and the imperial nobles he was criticizing so vehemently.

Or rather, imperial nobles tended to be looked down upon within the Federation due to them adhering to the aristocratic system, but when you actually faced them, a lot of them tended to be quite honorable and skilled. Once you’ve become a fleet commander like myself, you’d get plenty of chances to come in contact with such fellows.

“I was told we’d be able to reach the gateway without much resistance…… but if things continue like this, my career history will be in jeopardy!”

Currently, our Federation Space Force had a numerical advantage and was slowly making inroads into the territories of the enemy nation, the Graccan Empire, despite suffering quite a number of losses in the process. His Excellency assured us that we would be able to reach the gateway without much trouble thanks to an insider, but this was the result.

“The enemy resistance does seem relatively weak though.”

“Then we should push harder! Let’s seize that damned gateway quickly!”

“The empire’s commanders are quite cunning. If we force it, we might suffer a severe retaliation.”

“I’m the admiral here! Just do it! Use the asteroid belt as a shield and advance forward! Since we outnumber them, we should be able to overwhelm them with the difference in firepower as long as we can get close enough!”

“We can certainly get the enemy ships in range if we do that, but there’s a high risk of suffering an ambush–”

“And I’m telling you to do it.”

“……Sir.”

‘It’s definitely not going to turn out well’ I muttered to myself as I relayed the order to every ship in the combined fleet while warning them to be wary of ambushes. Once we go full-throttle, I’d be too preoccupied with the operation, and the resources I’d be able to allot to support would be very minimal.

I’m getting a headache. It’s been a long time since I’ve engaged in a prolonged campaign. The cyberchip installed within my brain was so overloaded that it felt like it was going to burn out. I also felt a stinging sensation on all my nerve connection terminals that were currently jacked in.

“How impertinent for a mere tin can…… I better change it for something new once this operation is over.”

This bastard. Did you forget that you’re also connected to the ship’s network? Do you want me to fake a power surge and fry your brain nice and crispy, you damned pig?

“FTL Drive synchronization complete. Advancing to a point where we can utilize the asteroid belt as a shield.”

“Don’t mess up.”

Even if I don’t make a mistake, we are still screwed if you, as the one giving the commands, messes up instead. Dammit. I hope there aren’t any ambushes.