Starting from the Planetary Governor - Chapter 629

Chapter 627, You Can Pull

. This moment was probably the most stressful in Ye Lishia’s life.

She had been a marine for quite some time, but before joining the Alliance Navy, she had only ever been captain of a single ship. In the Alliance, she became an admiral of the Imperial Navy, commanding the Alliance’s vast fleet.

Battleships, aircraft carriers, battlecruisers… all were under her command.

This was almost the pinnacle of an Imperial Navy commander’s life.

Could an average admiral command such a powerful fleet?

Probably not.

Even an admiral wouldn’t be able to do so, though a grand marshal might be just as capable.

However, while Ye Lishia had commanded many of the previous operations, Gu Hang’s role could not be ignored. Although her husband did not directly interfere with the fleet’s operations, the greatest factor in the fleet’s victory was undoubtedly Gu Hang’s psychic power. The fleet’s actions were dictated by his psychic power.

Often, the fleet’s firepower would be directed at the enemy ship whose shields Gu Hang had breached, without Ye Lishia having to worry too much.

While victory after victory became a badge of honor for her as a naval commander, and something to be celebrated for, she also understood that those things weren’t entirely hers, not earned solely through her own abilities, but rather through the help of Gu Hang.

Of course, she wouldn’t be so naive as to ask for a chance to prove her abilities.

Warfare was no joke. Even if a ship’s void shield was hit by a single shell, the cost of spell shield energy was significant. Even if the armor was hit by a single shell, the resulting dents and cracks would require repairs in a shipyard, requiring the use of massive engineering machinery to repair the ship’s surface.

That all cost money!

Nothing in the navy came cheap.

But putting aside practical considerations, she had harbored similar fantasies.

She had always been strong-willed and eager to prove herself.

And now, caught off guard, this opportunity presented itself.

Without psychic power, Gu Hang was completely absorbed in the battlefields of another dimension, unable to focus on the naval battles of the real universe, and he fully delegated authority and placed his trust in her. She was now the supreme commander of the entire fleet, her will at every turn.

And what she faced was a monumental challenge.

An enemy far more formidable than the Alliance Fleet, facing a disadvantageous headwind… How could she possibly fight this battle?

When such a challenge presented itself, she regretted it, preferring not to have such an opportunity.

Wasn’t there something wrong with a simple victory?

But a challenge was a challenge; it was something she couldn’t change at will; it was something she had to meet.

And she was pragmatic.

This battle was unwinnable. Even if she did,

it wouldn’t be worth it.

While she didn’t know Gu Hang’s situation on the other battlefields, or whether he could quickly achieve victory and return to the real universe to help, she couldn’t pin her hopes on that. She had to make the right decision independently.

Rather than using her inferior naval forces and making huge sacrifices to stall the battle until Gu Hang was free, or even to secure victory, Ye Lishia decided to err on the side of caution.

She decided to retreat.

But she certainly wasn’t about to just turn around and run with the fleet.

Otherwise, countless ships would be lost on the way back to Aramita, pursued by the enemy.

The entire fleet, under Yelicia’s command, maintained its formation. The coordination between the ships was relatively tight, as the fleet circled, ensuring direct firepower against the enemy while simultaneously increasing the distance between them.

The greatest advantage of this strategy was that the greater the distance between the two sides, the less effective the firepower. When a macrocannon shot took a long time to arrive, even the most advanced auspex arrays, psychic calculation arrays, and trajectory calculations would still have a low accuracy rate.

Light spears would be slightly better, potentially less affected in accuracy, but the long range would significantly reduce the power of energy weapons.

In short, the greater the distance, the less intense the naval battle.

Once they were far enough away, they could disengage from the battlefield and return directly to Aramita. Even if they were constantly being attacked, as long as the intensity of the naval battles subsided and the losses to their ships were manageable, it wasn’t uncommon for such a naval battle to drag on for ten days or even half a month. With this entanglement, wouldn’t they be able to retreat back to Aramita while fighting?

At this point, Ye Lishia had to be thankful that the Alliance’s previous strategy on Aramita had been quite effective.

If they hadn’t quickly captured the area, seized the orbital defense system and the ground-based orbital artillery fortresses, and stationed five army groups totaling hundreds of millions of Alliance troops on the planet, the situation would have been truly disastrous.

Now, they at least had a solid backup to rely on.

Back in Aramita, with the support of the orbital system, they wouldn’t have to worry.

While the Varuk fleet was stronger, it wasn’t on the same level. It was impossible for them to attack the Alliance fleet under the cover of the orbital defense system. If they dared to advance so recklessly, Yelisia wouldn’t mind a head-on defeat, earning herself a few more prestigious medals.

And if the Varük fleet chose to encircle and cut off their external supply lines, that wasn’t a concern either. As long as the Alliance’s main fleet suffered minimal losses, they could maintain the initiative. The Mechanicus fleet couldn’t act too recklessly, or Yelisia could strike at any moment and deliver a resounding blow.

The overall strategy was sound.

The problem lay in its execution.

Would the Mechanicus fleet allow them to do so?

It seemed they wouldn’t.

They sped up and advanced, pursuing.

To halt their pursuit, Yelisia had to ensure she had sufficient deterrent power.

The firepower of the main fleet was crucial, as was the six hundred Space Marines previously ordered to attack.

The latest news Yelisia received was that they had successfully landed.

However, they encountered stiff resistance within the fleet.

Ultimately, only one of them succeeded.

Those two hundred Shadow Legions did the job. They detonated the enemy ship’s engine compartment and power bay, triggering a massive explosion within the vessel!

This blast directly destroyed the Serpent-class battlecruiser.

In fact, over a hundred Shadow Warriors, just before the explosion, seized the Mechanicus’s attached small craft, or recovered their own landing craft, and fled back.

However, the fate of the other four hundred Space Marines was far more dire.

They had only partially accomplished their mission, destroying 60% of the enemy’s weapons systems and briefly occupying the bridge, but they were unable to destroy it.

While the hundred or so survivors of the Shadow Chapter had returned, the four hundred warriors of the Fury and New World Torch had remained stuck at their current stage.

They were likely not all dead yet, as the New World Torch’s Second Captain, Erich, still led a considerable number of Space Marines in a fierce resistance inside the enemy ship.

However, the losses sustained in the battle within their ships were too great. With their numbers drastically reduced, the possibility of completing the mission became increasingly slim.

Furthermore, they had virtually no chance of evacuation.

At this point, they could essentially be considered utterly destroyed.

The total loss of five hundred Space Marines was a significant loss. But in Yelisia’s view, this sacrifice was both worthwhile and necessary.

It directly resulted in the destruction of one enemy battlecruiser and the disarray of another. Even if their subsequent ship damage control department could repair some of the enemy’s firepower and command systems, the immediate repairs would likely be ineffective, and the ships’ combat effectiveness would inevitably be severely impacted.

Destroying one and disabling one of the enemy’s six battlecruisers significantly reduced the pressure on their side.

This wasn’t limited to the direct engagement within the fleet.

Yelisia’s plan was to maneuver, distance themselves, and reduce the intensity of the battle. However, the greatest threat in this plan wasn’t actually the two mechanical arks and two Retribution-class battleships in Varuk’s fleet.

While these four massive ships were undoubtedly formidable in frontal combat, they were also unwieldy. The real trouble lay with the six Serpent-class ships.

The battlecruisers were fast, so they could engage the enemy fleet first, delaying and harassing it. They could even temporarily break away from their own formation and circumvent the Alliance fleet’s path, intercepting and delaying it.

While Yelisia had some contingency plans, the risks were undoubtedly significantly increased.

Taking out two of them immediately would be ideal, as it would significantly reduce the subsequent pressure.

Yelisia even considered trying again,

even sacrificing another five hundred Space Marines to eliminate two enemy warships.

However, as a precaution, she ordered a smaller second wave.

New World Torch and Fury Flame still wanted to continue the fight, even hoping to send them to the warship where their brothers had fought so hard, both to complete their unfinished mission and to try to rescue a few more men.

However, Yelisia overruled her.

She quietly dispatched two hundred Shadow Regiments, targeting the third Serpent-class battlecruiser.

But this time, the results were less than ideal.

Again, they had fighters launched from the Hippogriff to provide cover, but this time, the boarding process suffered heavy casualties, with over fifty men being killed en route before even reaching the ship.

The 150 men who successfully boarded, aided by a small number of Marines, failed to execute their mission perfectly. They only managed to disable the enemy ship’s command system, failing to completely destroy it.

Furthermore, they were unable to withdraw.

Yelicia then realized that the previous success was likely a long shot.

She decided not to gamble again.

After all, not all Space Marines could be used for such a task.

The Varuk fleet was also attempting boarding. Those strange, anti-reconnaissance spawn-like spores, which could cling to ship armor and corrode holes to invade, were also quite disgusting. The previous incursions by the suicide squadrons had not yet been completely resolved, two standard Terran days after the start of the naval battle.

Furthermore, the Mechanicus is persistently sending these boarding spores in the opposite direction.

The Alliance fleet has significantly increased its vigilance and strengthened its interception efforts. However, just as our own boarding torpedoes can land on enemy ships, these boarding spores cannot be completely intercepted.

In fact, their probability of landing is quite high, at least higher than that of conventional boarding torpedoes and boarding craft. Currently, only a few occasionally drift by, causing minor trouble, but can we rule out the possibility of a large-scale enemy deployment?

Probably not.

In this case, the Space Marines will have to board small boats and rescue each of the invaded friendly ships.

We need to be on guard.

So far, they have already used the Space Marines’ boarding tactics to destroy one battlecruiser and significantly reduce the combat effectiveness of two other battlecruisers. This is sufficient.

As the battle distance increases, and they even engage in a battle-and-retreat strategy, the threat posed by the remaining three Mechanicus battlecruisers will be limited.

They also attempted a circumventing interception, but suffered a significant loss. It did delay the Alliance fleet slightly, but the price paid was a Serpent-class battlecruiser severely damaged, nearly destroying it.

After being repelled, they attempted another high-density wave of boarding spores. However, while these spores offered advantages in stealth and a high success rate, their speed was notoriously slow.

During the Alliance fleet’s high-speed maneuvers, over half failed to land at their intended locations, forcing them to be awkwardly retrieved by the Varuk fleet.

Of the remaining spores that arrived at their intended locations on time, they proved effective. Aside from those intercepted, a significant number successfully landed and released their half-mechanical, half-insect servitors into the Alliance ships.

However, they were met with a fierce counterattack.

Ye Lishia’s reserve trick came into play at this point.

The Honor Guards, the Battle Sisters, and the Space Marines—three of the Alliance’s elite forces—had already boarded various small ships and fighter planes upon detecting the approaching large-scale boarding spores.

Transferring between their own ships was certainly a small risk. Being hit by distant enemy fire… there were indeed cases, but they were rare and only occurred to the very unlucky.

In the vast majority of cases, the transfer was completed smoothly.

They were a rapid-reaction force, deployed to the ships most severely infested by boarding spores, assisting the Marines aboard and resolving the invading enemy.

The entire process was about speed.

Even so, this crisis was overcome.

Later, the Mechanicus fleet launched a rapid all-out advance, but the bulky mechanical arks, accompanied by two Retribution-class battleships, simply couldn’t move quickly.

Eventually, they seemed resigned to their fate. They

even stopped pursuing Yelicia’s ships and turned their attention directly to Aramita. “

You Alliance want to return anyway, don’t you?

Then wouldn’t it be better if I were faster than you and intercepted them at their destination?”

But this time, they failed.

Part of the Alliance fleet returned to Aramita first.

(End of Chapter)