The movements of the Lillian-Stella fleet were bizarre, yet there was an unmistakable sense of intent behind them.
Ares had no intention of carelessly charging in. A meaningless retreat didn’t exist. Naturally, he suspected a trap. Yet, the enemy’s movements didn’t seem like they were luring him in, either.
If anything, their formation was a basic defensive one一clustered tightly together, increasing the density of their shield ships.
But this formation had its weaknesses. They couldn’t hold out against attacks forever. Their shields would eventually decay.
There were ways to compensate for those weaknesses, the simplest being synchronizing and amplifying the electromagnetic fields between shield ships.
Though straightforward, this method was highly effective. If deployed in sufficient numbers, they could withstand even nuclear blasts or hundreds of direct hits from heavy particle cannons.
Still, that didn’t make them invincible. Maintaining such a formation meant continuously draining energy.
Surely, they understood that.
“Are they planning to whittle down our shields with long-range artillery fire? No, that can’t be it. They don’t have enough guns. A handful of salvos wouldn’t be enough to break through一our shields would recover before they could fire again. What’s their goal?”
Every inexplicable move had a hidden motive. Figuring it out was necessary, but with so little intel, no clear answer presented itself yet.
“Delan, what’s the enemy fleet doing?”
Delan’s carrier-based squadrons, having completed their initial strike, were beginning their return. That attack had also doubled as reconnaissance一meant to observe how the enemy would react rather than actually destroy their ships.
“They’ve locked themselves down tight. Their anti-air defenses are thick as hell. Lost three of mine. What a waste.”
Grumbling, Delan still shared detailed data on the enemy fleet’s formation.
“Basic textbook defensive formation, right?”
“Yeah, nothing suspicious about it. So then, what’s their play?”
“How do you interpret the fact that my carriers have been under concentrated fire since earlier?”
Both Ares and Delan had noticed the enemy fleet targeting the carriers with their artillery ships.
But at extreme range, the shots lost too much power一hardly enough to even scratch their shields.
“They’re probably trying to locate your flagship. If they think it’s a high-value target, they might assume you’d reinforce its defenses.”
The Ares-Delan fleet was split into three divisions: the right-wing carriers, led by Delan’s flagship, and Ares’ battleship positioned at the center.
Even so, Ares had ensured balanced defenses across all units, with no obvious weak points.
Delan operated similarly, coordinating his fighter sorties with the left-wing fleet, which was mostly under automated control.
“Delan一I know you don’t want to talk about it, but how exactly did you lose to Stella?”
“……The complete opposite of this. She dispersed her fleet like a spider’s web. Every destroyer and cruiser’s guns were positioned with perfect spacing一close enough to cover each other but far enough that firing at full power wouldn’t cause collateral damage. My fighters got picked off one after another, like flies caught in a net. Of course, I tried countering. Each of her sub-fleets was small, so I pushed for concentrated bombing runs to break their formation and secure a solid attack.”
Space bombers carried heavy anti-ship torpedoes. Though slow, their firepower was devastating一capable of crippling entire fleets if used right.
But their sluggish speed proved fatal.
“And then? Her main battleships wiped them out in a one-sided barrage. It was chilling. No matter where I struck, she countered perfectly一like she was reading my mind.”
Delan’s face paled as he spoke, his voice uncharacteristically tense.
Describing it was easy, but unless you witnessed it firsthand, the sheer terror of it was hard to grasp.
Even Ares struggled to believe it一”Delan, a genius with carrier tactics, completely outmaneuvered?”一was almost unthinkable.
If Delan’s fighter wings were in play, smaller enemy forces should’ve been toyed with and crushed in moments. Hearing that he couldn’t only left one reaction: “That’s impossible.”
But the real issue wasn’t that.
The problem was that Delan’s experience held little relevance in this battle.
Their enemy fought differently.
“Fascinating… though now’s not the time for that.”
The battle had only just begun. Both sides were testing the waters.
The one who rushed would lose. For now, they needed to stay patient and observe.
“Delan, prep the next strike force.”
“Didn’t need you to tell me. So一where do we hit first? I’m leaning toward Lillian.”
From the earlier attack, Delan had already deduced which fleet belonged to whom.
The one that had almost predicted their movements and adjusted its guns accordingly? That had to be Stella. So he’d deliberately shifted more of his strike force toward the other fleet.
“Well… if we’re breaking through, that’s the spot.”
Ares stared at the main monitor again.
“Hey, doesn’t something feel… off?”
“You’re saying it doesn’t feel like Lillian, right?”
“You noticed too?”
“We were classmates, same training course. This isn’t like her. That idiot charges in like a bull. But not this time. Honestly一for a second, I thought I’d mixed them up. Even now, part of me wonders if the fleet I think is Lillian’s is actually Stella’s.”
“What do we do? Hold the attack and see how they move?”
“Nah. That gives me a bad feeling. We’ll rattle them with the bombers. I need more intel anyway一… Huh?”
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An alarm blared.
The enemy fleet wasn’t retreating一it was advancing, slowly but surely.
Yet their formation remained unchanged. They were moving forward in defense mode. Their attacks were monotonous, barely enough to chip their shields.
“What’s their plan? Are they coming at us as a single mass, or will they scatter?”
Either option was manageable, it’s fine whether the enemy fleet approaches in formation or disperses. There’s a strategy to crush them either way. Splitting the fleet into three parts wasn’t just because there were three aircraft carriers. By showing the fleet divided into three, the intention was to demonstrate to the opponent the option of encirclement using three separate fleets.
(What will they pick? A concentrated assault on one flank? Then we envelop and overwhelm them with saturation fire. If they split their fleet, they’ll divide into two or three like us. They’d want numerical parity一four divisions would spread them too thin.)
Delan’s bombers launched, fighters escorting them.
The enemy showed no signs of scrambling interceptors.
Their formation held.
Gradually, Delan’s strike force closed in.
“Ares, enemy’s moving. Looks like they’re splitting in two.”
Delan had sharp eyes. To most, the fleet’s movements would seem imperceptible一spacecraft were simply too vast.
But missing even the slightest shift was unacceptable for a fleet commander.
“How close are the bombers?”
“Not yet in range, but almost. Torpedoes will be viable soon. What’s the call? We can cut off their retreat if we adjust firing angles.”
“Do it.”
Now, how would they respond?
Ares kept his eyes locked on the monitor.
(Are they splitting vertically?)
In space, “up” and “down” were arbitrary concepts.
Yet humans一and their ships一operated with artificial gravity, creating an inherent sense of orientation.
So, in the end, the concept of up and down exists in the fleet members based on the flagship. The bridge was always “up,” and fleets adjusted accordingly.
So if the enemy seemed to be positioning above and below them, that meant a vertical split.
In response, Ares deliberately widened his fleet’s formation.
If the enemy wanted to spread out, he’d just tighten the net.
“All ships, fire long-range torpedoes. Heavy particle cannons on standby. Prepare for evasive maneuvers.”
“Bombers are about to engage. Launching torpedoes.”
The decision wasn’t wrong.
If anything, it was the correct response. Neither Ares nor Delan expected this to decide the battle一it was just the battlefield shifting.
At best, they hoped to deal some damage. Spacecraft weren’t fragile enough to be sunk so easily.
And the distance was still considerable一barely within cruiser artillery range. Plenty of time to regroup.
Which was why neither Ares nor Delan could comprehend what happened next.
“What the一?!”
Alarms. Damage indicators. The simulation pod shook from simulated impacts.
A direct hit?
Impossible. From where?
Ares checked the radar.
And what he saw made him doubt his eyes.
“…What is this…?”
Enemy markers oWeltallapped with their own fleet’s positions.
That shouldn’t be possible.
“They’re inside our formation!”
The moment he shouted一
The simulation pod flooded with white light.
a short time earlier.
While Ares and Delan were deliberating, a quiet exchange was taking place aboard the Lillian-Stella fleet.
“Delan will likely deploy bombers next. He’ll try to weaken our shields with sheer firepower. But he isn’t aiming to destroy us一he’s oWeltally cautious right now, and that’s blunting his usual aggression.”
“Because you’ve beaten him before?”
“Yes.”
Stella answered without hesitation when certain.
She’d claimed not to know Lillian well一and the feeling was mutual.
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