Chapter 59: I’ll Let You Fight
Instead of acting as a single unit, these Mercury-class Battleships adopted a strategy of splitting into 50 smaller teams.
Each team consisted of only 10 Mercury-class Battleships, accompanied by a larger cargo ship serving as a supply vessel.
These 50 teams each chose different trajectories, dispersing and accelerating from 50 different directions.
Watching these Mercury-class Battleships depart, Tom’s heart filled with a cold sneer.
He knew very well that if he could send probes to God-Enemy Star, then the opponent, possessing more advanced technology, had no reason not to send probes to Loshen Star.
Therefore, his current actions would certainly be observed by the opponent.
So... what choice would you make?
Your main army is deployed, leaving your rear defenses vulnerable.
I certainly can’t win a defensive battle for Loshen Star. Since that’s the case, I won’t defend. With your rear defenses exposed, I’ll attack where you must defend! I’ll directly attack your home base too!
Moreover, I’m adopting a multi-pronged approach, making it impossible for you to intercept me midway!
If you intercept one path, I still have 49 left!
To prevent your home base from being attacked, your only option is to temporarily abandon your assault on me, return all forces to defense, and once all 50 fleets reach their destination and launch their attack on your side, annihilate all 500 battleships before planning an attack on my homeland.
This is the only logical plan.
After all, he only had 500 battleships; once annihilated, he would be completely defenseless. At that point, the enemy could boldly abandon their rear defenses and launch their attack.
It’s just a delay of one or two months, what’s there to fear?
Tom was certain that the opponent would choose this plan.
They had no reason to refuse.
Indeed, when the second probe reached the vicinity of God-Enemy Star, Tom saw that the enemy ships, which had already traveled some distance, all returned, deploying around their mothership and ground base.
Numerous cannons pointing skyward and radar-like structures appeared on the ground base, seemingly prepared for defense.
God-Enemy Star was silent and grim.
A cold sneer once again surfaced in Tom’s heart.
At this moment, the Loshen Star base cluster’s frantic gun and bullet manufacturing was still proceeding at full throttle.
In addition to the existing gun and bullet production capabilities, Tom undertook extensive new construction and renovation, dedicating all available resources to frenzied production.
As a result, the original daily output of approximately 140 million bullets was already quite staggering, but now, bullet production surged again, directly tripling to 420 million bullets per day!
Of course, these bullets were specially made and differed from conventional ones.
Their bullet heads weighed only about 0.5 grams, but the primer charge was not reduced at all, and even increased. Thus, they presented a peculiar ’large body, small head’ appearance.
Gun production was also accelerating. Originally, several thousand guns could be made in a day, but now that number had also increased severalfold, reaching twenty thousand a day!
The firearms were also specially made, designed to fire those ’large body, small head’ bullets.
Although the production capacity for both firearms and bullets had reached extremely high levels, this was just a starting point; their manufacturing speed continued to increase rapidly.
All this production was taking place on the surface of Loshen Star. Due to the factory buildings obstructing the view, Tom knew that the opponent could at most perceive that he was engaged in large-scale production activities, but they could not know exactly what was being produced.
And, with a major war imminent, engaging in frenzied production activities was a very normal thing, and Tom was not at all afraid that his plan would be exposed.
Once he confirmed that all the opponent’s battleships had returned and adopted a defensive stance, waiting for his fleet to arrive, Tom decisively ordered all 50 accelerating sub-fleets to stop accelerating, maintaining their current, still somewhat slow speed, and slowly flying forward.
Why not delay if he could? The more time he delayed, the greater his chances of winning.
Yes, Tom’s purpose in sending out these 500 Mercury-class Battleships to attack God-Enemy Star was simply to buy time!
Time slowly passed as the 50 fleets advanced at a leisurely pace.
Their current speed was only about 2 kilometers per second. At this leisurely pace, they would need a full eight months to reach God-Enemy Star.
After waiting for some time, the probes observed that the enemy fleet near God-Enemy Star finally made a move.
They seemed to be attempting to depart again, sending a portion of their fleet to attack Loshen Star while another portion remained to defend their homeland.
After all, at their current speed, even if they first annihilated his forces and then returned to defend, they would still have enough time.
This was unacceptable to Tom.
So, when the enemy fleet made its move, Tom gave the order again, and his 50 fleets simultaneously initiated another acceleration, increasing their speed once more.
After the speed increased, if they wanted to destroy his forces first and then return to defend, they wouldn’t have enough time. And relying only on the remaining defending fleets, while they could certainly destroy his fleet, ensuring that their base and mothership remained unharmed would likely be less certain.
Therefore, the enemy ships that had just flown out a short distance had no choice but to stop accelerating and return to their homeland, resuming their patient wait.
Seeing this, Tom decisively ordered the fleet to stop accelerating again, maintaining the previous state of inertial flight, slowly and leisurely moving forward.
When the enemy fleet moved, his own fleet would accelerate, forcing them to stay put and defend patiently;
When the enemy fleet defended and waited, Tom would stop his fleet’s acceleration, continuing to advance slowly and unhurriedly.
After several repetitions, the enemy fleet began to grow restless, seemingly falling into anger and impatience.
Tom sneered inwardly.
He knew that anyone facing such a dawdling, indecisive opponent would likely become agitated and angry.
But...
If you have the guts, then don’t defend, right? Don’t have the guts? Then stay there obediently and wait for me to arrive!
Thus, after a full five months, Tom’s 50 fleets arrived in batches near God-Enemy Star.
The first half of the battleships, about 250 ships, completed their assembly and resupply, and finally, without further delay, began to accelerate at full speed towards God-Enemy Star.
At this moment, Tom saw the opponent’s battleships rushing towards his fleet like tigers descending from a mountain or a flood breaking through a dam, eager to engage.
Before even entering engagement range, their weapons had already been activated.
"Been holding it in, haven’t you? It’s alright, don’t worry, I’ll let you fight."