Chapter 22 Interception

'We're advancing slowly in front of the main control room, about half an hour." The battle was scorching on Winter's side, explosions firing along with his voice. 'Too long to wait, Marines prepare for a landing battle, Rifleman full speed ahead, target Star Fort Andre." General Walter's voice was calm, as if the cloud of explosions in the starry sky couldn't affect his emotions. The Star River Empire's Grand Fleet did not disorganize itself after the flanking raid. With the command of the flagship Hussar, they gradually drew together, forming a defensive barrier around the outer side of the starships with strong protective shields, alternately withstanding the enemy's firepower while carrying out methodical counterattacks. The Hussar starship had a huge volume unlike other warships, and it and the flagship of the Free Federation, the Gun Cavalry, were also products of the former imperial era, far superior to other similar warships in terms of protection and firepower. But this is such a war weapon is hanging in the center of the barrier, it sends out a scheduling command through hyperspace to manipulate this huge fleet barrier to do the action of vacillating and flipping. At this moment, the fleet was like a lion avoiding mosquito bites, no matter how it jumped and twisted those bloodthirsty bloodflies also followed him, and would tear off a piece of flesh from them if they were not careful. 'This is a real pain in the ass, can't we reach Andre's Starfort yet?" The communications module commissioner on the bridge aboard the Hussar, inquired the fleet's Chief of General Staff, Gigme Pry. 'Still no contact, I've tried various encrypted bands and can't get through to communications." The commissioner said as his hands kept busy with his work. Commander-in-Chief of Fleet Mark Vaal said, 'We must consider the possibility that Star Fort Andre has been taken over." He said, giving a series of scheduling commands on the control panel, and the massive fleet wall slowly turned and arced against the ever-flickering energy blasts. Gigme walked over to the control board and stared in amazement at the series of travel routes and steering coordinates in disbelief as he said, 'Commander-in-Chief, are we abandoning Andre's Star Fortress?" 'We are only making this gesture, it will be slow if we maintain the current defense formation going forward, if the star fort cannot save itself within two hours we will cross the star bridge to save the main force of the Grand Fleet." The Commander-in-Chief said and slowly sat down signaling his orderly to make tea. 'There are problems with you doing this, point one, abandoning the Star Fortress the forces of the Free Federation will be unstoppable and point two, our Grand Fleet will not be able to hold out for two hours under this level of siege." Gigme said. 'I'll explain it to you Gigme, you're a good lad and I like to tell you more about it." The Commander-in-Chief said, taking the tea handed to him by the orderly and squeezing a small spoon to stir it gently. He said, 'On the first point, if the Star Fortress is lost then preserving the strength of the Grand Fleet is the best containment for the Federation. It's not like the star fortress can be moved, all we need to do is repair the other side of the star bridge then surround the exit, even if the star fortress is lost we can block the only path for the Federation fleet to enter the Empire's hinterland." He took a sip of his tea as he finished speaking. 'But then it would become a long-term starship garrison, which would be a great burden on our supplies, and when the time comes, the ones who are dragged down by a protracted battle would become us instead." Gigme said. 'Then do you have another way?" The Commander-in-Chief finished putting down his teacup and smiled helplessly. Gigme also smiled miserably, thinking, there really is no other way. 'On the second point." The Commander-in-Chief raised two fingers and shook them while saying, 'You have to have faith in me, with this kind of iron barrel formation, the outer battleships will exchange positions with the inner battleships at the right time and return to the inner side to repair. Although the firepower is self-limiting with only the outer battleships being able to fire freely, I don't think it will be a problem to hold out for four hours. If the Star Fortress succeeds in their self-rescue, we can immediately spread out our formation for a counterattack, and if the Star Fortress fails in its self-rescue, the cost of our arrival at the Star Bridge will only be the loss of half of our starships." 'Lose half!" Gigme was startled by this deduction and said, 'Can a large fleet with only half of it left hold the Starbridge exit?" 'It can, the starbridge isn't very wide after all, and beyond it are all the folds of space there can be quagmires all over the place." The Commander-in-Chief's calm tone was as if he had a plan. Gigme stood in place, murmured with unwillingness, 'That's Andre Star Fort ah, just like that ......" The Commander-in-Chief stood up, gently patted Gigme's shoulder, like an elder comforting a child generally said: 'Don't be discouraged, this is not yet lost. Star Fort's commanders must be fighting in a bloody battle at this time, cheer up, think about it, if Star Fort had been lost, it would have already opened fire on us." In stark contrast to these words of comfort, the Commander-in-Chief's heart had sunk to the bottom. On the Gun Cavalry, the commander in charge of the radar system shouted, 'One Imperial cruiser has been spotted, it should have lost power, it's spinning and sliding this way." 'Hmm? Is that the one that just rushed into the material stream?" Edward said as he stared at the wrecked hull on the screen that kept spewing out blue plasma. 'Judging by the signal signature it is." 'Give him a marker round and come back to rescue him after the battle, this commander is a man of courage and resourcefulness." General Walter ordered. A red glowing missile shot out towards this cruiser, drawing an arc and plunging into the hull. The slight impact caused the wrecked battleship to slowly flip over. The wide porthole of that bridge came into view, and the lock of chestnut-colored hair next to the face of one of the commanders floating on the bridge was faintly visible through the porthole and mask. 'Wait a minute! This man zoom in!" Edward shouted as if he had seen a ghost. After taking in the person's face, the eyes of everyone on the bridge except Elina fell on Edward. 'No way, Alphonse?" Elina cried out in disbelief as she stared at the both familiar and unfamiliar face on the screen. Edward explained simply to General Walter, 'Alphonse, my twin brother." 'Oh, so you two brothers are really something, both of you are courageous and ruthless." Walter said. At this moment, Edward had mixed feelings in his heart, the sadness was that he didn't know if his brother was injured right now, and whether they would be able to hold out until the end of the battle, and the joy was that his own brother was able to see where the loopholes in his plan were, and his heart was immensely proud of Alphonse. 'Command, we need support, we've been met with crazy resistance from them. They even resorted to suicide attacks, we also need technicians, we lost too many of them during the landing." Lieutenant Colonel Winter's words came through with the intercom, and along with it, the sight of the grueling battle, many Imperial soldiers even stood without combat uniforms in the narrow corridors using energy weapons to strafe wildly. 'Hang in there, we'll be there soon." Edward said and ran towards the tarmac area where the landing pods were located, he decided to once again disguise himself as a sand demon and join the marines in the landing battle. Arriving at the downtime area Edward took off his uniform and nimbly changed into his combat uniform, walking over to the weapons storage area he began stuffing various weapons and ammunition into his body, in no time he had transformed back into the heavily armed Special Forces soldier. Once he was ready, he quickly ran towards the nearest troop carrier and sat down on his butt in a seat near the door when a familiar figure appeared on the docking area, which he instantly recognized as Elina, who had chased him out. 'Go go go!" Edward urged at the pilot, he didn't want Elina to take part in that grueling attack. 'Sir, I'm waiting for General Walter's orders." The driver said without looking back. Edward covered his forehead in annoyance as Elina had rushed to the troop carrier and sat down against him. 'You're just going to go? At least change into your battle dress!" Edward knew he couldn't stop Elina and wasn't going to continue to do so. Elina jumped off the transport ship, ran to the ready area and started to take off her uniform. Her delicate and soft skin was exposed to Edward's line of sight as the uniform was taken off, and the figure caused a flurry of heat in his heart. Knowing that he couldn't afford to be stupid with a big battle on the horizon, he mumbled in his mind that she was a monkey, she was a monkey over and over again. Elina finished the whole preparation and sat beside him again, looking at the side of Edward's expression strange she opened her mouth and asked: 'What's wrong? What's this expression!" Edward blurted out, 'You're just a monkey." With a buzz, a burst of overweight from the acceleration pressed the two into their seats, at which point the ship's gravitational devices sensed the extreme change in gravity and also began to operate, adjusting the direction of the gravity to lessen the load on the members' bodies due to the ultra-high acceleration. 'Don't you dare leave me alone!" Elina shouted in exasperation, trying to make her voice penetrate the mechanical noise to reach Edward's ears.