Chapter 1344: A Backhanded Tactic

“Rain it down on them.”

“FIRE!”

“FIRE!”

“FIRE!”

The order to fire went down the chain of command and the entire Hypercruiser lit up with bright lights as they unleashed hell on the enemy.

Redstone the Hypercruiser was not the only ship that was part of the sixth wave. Along with Alexis’ personal ship, his personal fleet consisted of Redstone, 7 Destroyers, 12 Corvettes, and 43 Upgraded Patrol Ships.

With such a large force, the Federation’s few Corvettes were not enough to even be considered as target practice. That being said, only the Corvettes, Destroyers, and Redstone were firing their cannons, while the other patrol ships were zooming around clearing the smaller enemy vessels.

In just a single wave of attack, all the Corvette class ships left behind by the Federation Chief Commander were eradicated.

“Cease fire. Prep cannon charge,” ordered Alexis.

…

“We’ve been fooled. To think that they sent junk to distract us!” said the Chief Commander of the Federation when Alexis’ fleet appeared and destroyed what was left of the defending fleet.

“My lord, what are your orders? Do we retreat or do we continue heading towards the blockade?” asked the Vice-Chief Commander.

“We’ll—,” the Chief Commander wanted to continue towards the blockade but before he could finish his sentence, the Admiral chimed in.

“No. We’ll turn back now. There’s no two ways about this. Either we destroy them or we’ll be pinned by a pincher strategy.”

“Yes, sir,” said the Chief Commander as he immediately ordered the entire attacking fleet to turn back.

Since the forces at the Valsalrian blockade were not showing any signs of mobilizing, the Federation decided to turn around and deal with the blitz attacking force.

…

“Commander, the enemy is turning back. Do we attack?” said one of the Fleet Commanders who was stationed at the blockade.

“No. We need to take this time to consolidate our forces. Lord Aino’s reinforcements will arrive soon. We do not need to worry about the fleet behind the Federation,” said a Chief Commander who was a Valsalrian like Alexis, but a rather plump one.

This was the person who had ordered Alexis to strike behind the Federation fleet. Lord Aino was the High Chief Commander whose son’s death had started the war.

“Aye, Chief Commander,” said the Fleet Commander.

The entire fleet that formed the blockade started to consolidate their fleet instead of providing support to Alexis’ fleet.

…

“Commander, the enemy is heading back towards us,” reported the captain of Redstone.

“Calm down, ready the cannons and fire on my command,” said Alexis as he paid close attention to the radar counter on the screen.

The air around him became dense as he slowly clenched his fist without realizing it.

When the Chief Commander of the Federation fleet left the rear battlefield, they had merely travelled for about ten minutes when Alexis showed up and destroyed the rear defense. It took them another ten minutes or so to turn back and close the distance between Alexis and the main attack fleet.

Although Alexis had decimated the defense fleet with ease, the Federation’s main attack fleet was far, far larger than Alexis’ entire fleet. They had more than seven Hypercruisers that were hidden away from fight and radar detection.

Be it in attack or defense, Alexis’ fleet were merely wooden houses against the devastating force of the tornados that was the Federation’s fleet.

As soon as the radar background hue turned green, Alexis jumped to the front and quickly ordered the attack.

In that instant, all large ships that were mounted with large cannons opened fire.

After merely firing a single round, Alexis quickly gave another order.

“Cease fire now! All ships are to immediately initiate Hyperspace jump to the coordinates XXXX, XXXX, XXXX!”

All weapons were quickly shut down as every ship diverted their power source to their Warp Core to prepare for an emergency Hyperspace jump.

…

“Why are they so aggressive?” said the Chief Commander of the Federation fleet.

The timing of the attack by the Valsalrian fleet was extraordinarily accurate. Had the Federation fleet been only a few seconds slower in stopping, they would have sustained substantial damage to a portion of their fleet.

“Engage Hyper Mega Particle Beam Cannons, that should give us a wide range of attack…”

The entire Federation fleet cautiously held their position and started charging their long-range cannons.

A few ships were attacked but because they were extremely far away, the condense particles had dissipated by the time it reached the ships, greatly lowering the attack potency.

Although it wasn’t enough to penetrate their shields, it was enough to ‘push’ a few of the leading ships out of formation. That being said, none of the ships sustained any damage.

Just when the Federation fleet had finished charging their weapons, Alexis’ entire fleet disappeared into Hyperspace, leaving the rear sector now barren.

“What?! Where did they go!? WHERE DID THEY GO?!”

The Chief Commander was greatly distrubed. He had underestimated his foes and lost a fleet of tens of Corvette class ships. Just when he was about to return the favor, the enemies fled the battlefield, leaving the now pissed off Chief Commander alone with no one to vent his anger on.

“Chief, should I start calculating their jump location to intercept them?” asked the the navigation operator of his Hypercruiser.

“No!” yelled the Chief Commander.

He took a deep breath to calm himself down.

“The enemies might be expecting us to follow them. There could be a trap waiting. Turn the entire fleet around again. We are going back to the blockade!” said the Chief Commander.

He assumed their strategy was to bait and divert the entire or even just a portion of the fleet to reduce their numbers. Little did he know that Alexis was actually running for his life.

While the Federation returned to their initial position, Alexis’ fleet was now enroute to a safe location.

“Prepare the long distance communication system. Report back to base that the 13th Division has participated in the attack on the Dommix System and defended our allied fleet against the attacking Federation.

“We have diverted fire away from the allied forces and in the overwhelmingly outnumbered battle, we managed to destroy 19 Corvette class enemy ships while sacrificing 22 patrol ships of our own.

“After ensuring the safety of the allied fleet, the 13th Division has successfully fled the enemy who tried to pursue us,” said Alexis once he was sure that they were not being followed.

Jiang Fei could not bring himself to say anything. He was still trying to digest what just happened. As he entered the Dommix System and faced the entire Federation fleet, he understood that Alexis’ fleet was ordered to be cannon fodder by someone on Lord Aino’s payroll.

Alexis had managed to turn the tables around, but even when they managed to sink the defending fleet, the allies of the blockade refused to act as support. Even so, Alexis had done what he could and fled the scene when the fleet was taken down, buying the blockade some time.

While Alexis’ accomplishment deserved to be commended, the blockade fleet would not be forgiven for their inaction. Alexis was only paying back what they had thrown at him. He was not at all concerned about the war going on in the Dommix System!

The entire blockade fleet was made up of either Aino’s own men or men in power who had been bought over by him. Alexis had already been kind enough not to throw them under the bus for trying to use him and his fleet as cannon fodder.

“Father, what should we do next?” asked Sarila.

“Cease all communication and bring us close to orbit on any nearby planet. We will regroup and reform our fleet. Three days… we will return in three days,” replied Alexis.

He predicted that Aino would be furious about what he did and if he were dumb enough to stand out, someone would no doubt come for him with orders for a suicide mission.

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