Counterfeit Hero

Chapter 1430: Chapter 119: Search and Patrol

The 6th Group Fleet ultimately couldn’t deliver the message to the bandit army in time.

Under the direct supervision of Commander Zheng Mengcheng, the communication team exhausted every emergency method to transmit the message, tried various signal codes of the Allies and Chuckna, and even risked activating a local electronic network secretly set up along the route, yet still couldn’t locate the bandit army fleet.

At this point, it was almost six hours since the bandit army fleet passed the Jump Point. Everyone knew that these efforts were made with a sense of hope against hope.

Resk was a war zone. In this airspace, the bandit army fleet was in a far more perilous situation than a moose strolling among a pride of lions.

Thus, maintaining necessary electronic shielding and communication silence was a must for the bandit army. After entering the route, they would disappear like a school of fish diving into the deep sea, unless they maintained a signal track or initiated contact; otherwise, no one could find them.

The flagship command hall was brightly lit. The 6th Fleet officers looked at each other in silence, praying in their hearts. The sound of the communication officer tapping the keyboard and the electronic tone of no response were exceptionally clear in this pin-drop silence.

In the vast starry sky, an asteroid belt quietly floated.

Next to a large rock with a scarred surface, a small, black recon satellite, resembling a stone, operated silently. Signals repeated over and over, spreading from the satellite in all directions.

There were many such reconnaissance satellites in the starry sky. They hid in the asteroid belt, cosmic dust, or the halo of stars, spreading signals to form a dense network.

However, the only response they got was the eternal silence of the universe.

——————————————

”The intelligence from the 6th Group Fleet shows the coordinates of the Western Alliance Fleet appearing in the airspace as 78322.93223.34315.9....” Carl closed the electronic folder in his hand, looking around at the solemn-faced officers in the packed meeting room and said, ”However, a reconnaissance ship has repeatedly searched this airspace and found no trace of the Western Alliance Fleet.”

He picked up another document from the table, glanced at it as he strode to the interstellar map, raised his head, and pointed along the green route on the map extending toward Leifeng Star, saying, ”Currently, the fleet is about to complete the fourth leg of the route and transition into the barrier zone at the tail of the Cigar Nebula. We predict that in the remaining legs, the most likely location for the enemy to appear should be the Bull Tail system in the 6th leg, the Red River Beach Barrier Zone in the 9th leg, and the Proxima System L5 Resource Planet in the 11th leg.....”

”Why not the AL-81 barrier zone in the 8th leg?” A Colonel ship captain from the Phantom Corps raised his hand and asked puzzledly, ”This route’s 81 zone is called a natural ambush area. If the opponent wants to control the logistical route, 81 zone is the ideal battlefield. Moreover, this position is closest to their appearing airspace.”

”Reconnaissance ships 2 and 9 have already thoroughly searched the 81 zone airspace and found no trace of the enemy fleet,” Carl replied.

”We should expand the search range,” suggested the Colonel ship captain.

”The fleet’s reconnaissance capabilities are limited, and we can’t explore the entire route. It took nearly two hours to just search the three key areas in zone 81,” Carl shook his head and said, ”If we conduct similar searches in every suspicious area, it would take a full month to reach Leifeng Star.”

The meeting room suddenly buzzed with commotion.

The previous intelligence from the 6th Fleet had already made many of the ship captains present unhappy with Fatty’s forced advance toward Leifeng Star. The only solace was that the enemy was known while they were hidden, allowing for a somewhat proactive stance. Once they figure out the opponent’s real situation, if they can’t fight or breakthrough, they can always consider other options.

But who knew the reconnaissance ships went to the coordinates given by the intelligence, only to find nothing. Now, not only are the enemy fleet’s designation, type of ships, and quantity unknown, their location is also unknown. How can this battle be fought? After all, our fleet just came through the Jump Point. Although space is vast, the Jump Point is fixed. As long as a reconnaissance ship watches the Jump Point, any fleet coming through becomes prey appearing clearly in sight.

The enemy known, we unknown, has become the enemy unknown, we known. If we continue to head towards Leifeng Star heedlessly, there’s no telling when those hidden enemies will leap out and seize the throat of this fleet!

Officers murmured and buzzed with discussion.

The Leray leadership and staff department members furrowed their brows, staring intensely at the interstellar map, pondering hard.

Not being able to find the opponent’s whereabouts renders anything said useless. In space combat, the defeat rate for the side being ambushed is as high as eighty percent. Even if this is an elite fleet personally established by Hastings, all warships are currently the most advanced in the Feiyang Military, and all officers and soldiers are experienced retired veterans of the Double-headed Eagle Unit, this does not guarantee victory if the advantage of time and place is lost.

In space combat, factors like formation during engagement, reaction time, and attack direction can each influence the balance of victory. When ambushed, the fleet first needs to adjust position and angle, change formation. Gathering the main formation and launching the Destroyer Group, releasing fighter jets from the mothership, all require time.

And there’s main cannon charging, officers and soldiers moving into combat roles, engines fully starting... if you add the need to seize favorable terrain due to an unfavorable location, even more time is required.