©Novel Buddy
The Strongest Interstellar Commander-Chapter 81: Battle Of Reo (Part 1).
Chapter 81: Battle Of Reo (Part 1).
At this time, the war between the Kabat Empire and the Ochs Empire had come to a boiling point.
After taking Viter, Grand Commander Hamid's confidence increased and he soon drew up a plan for the La Ceia and Reo raids.
Among the 1.2 million warships stationed in Viter, they would leave 200,000 warships to guard the Star Path of La Ceia, while the remaining 1 million warships were going to attack Reo!
At the same time, there were also the 2 million Kabat Empire warships stationed in Cecil that were already confronting Reo, bringing the total number of attackers to an appalling 3 million.
According to calculations, this battle will start in 2 years, after all, Cecil is 6 light years away from Reo, and it takes 2 years to travel through the Star Path.
The distance between Viter and Reo is only about 3 light years, so in order to match the attack time, they would depart 1 year later.
On the other hand, the Ochs Empire stationed 3 Imperial Legions as well as 1 Border Legion in Reo, with a total strength of 1.6 million warships!
Originally these 1.6 million warships, with the help of favorable conditions, had no problem defending against Cecil's 2 million warships in the Star Path.
But now that Viter fell, in order to deal with the threat from Viter, Reo's defenders had to arrange half of its warships to the entrances and exits of Viter's Star Path, thus resulting in the decrease of defense in the Star Path of Cecil. It only has 800,000 warships left on each side.
The most critical thing is that the two entrances are 2 AU away from each other, so the defenders on both sides cannot support each other in a short time.
As for the Fourth Imperial Legion, which is returning at this moment, it is on its way to Horton, and is expected to arrive in 3 years.
Horton is about 12 light years away from Viter. It is a node that the Kabat Empire can't bypass to attack the capital circle of the Ochs Empire, unless they travel halfway around the periphery of the Ochs Empire. But this is time-consuming and there was a chance that they may be intercepted by another Border Legion.
It was precisely because of this that Isa directly went to Horton. He was intending to wait for the rabbit there.
Two years later, in the 64th Year of the Federal Calendar, the battle in Reo finally started!
The first to appear in Reo through the Star Path was the Kabat Empire's fleet from Viter.
The strategy they used was the same as the raid on Viter. First, the Trap Fleet would make a quick breakthrough and tear a hole in the defenders' formation. The following fleet would then use this hole to enter and tear apart the enemy defense line.
If the plan went well, then it should play out like this. But the Ochs Empire is not stupid. They have already been briefed about what happened in Viter so they naturally know that the Kabat Empire has the Trap Fleet that consists of nearly 10,000 warships!
Therefore, the defenders of Reo paid exceptional attention to the Trap Fleet. At the forefront of the defense line, the 200,000-ship fleet immediately began to set fire.
One wave of attack caused the loss of more than 500 warships to the Trap Fleet.
However, the Kabat Empire was prepared for this. In Hamid's plan, the Trap Fleet was used as bait, ready to be buried here.
As long as the Trap Fleet could attract the defenders attention for ten minutes, the subsequent fleet would be able to stand firm at the exit of the Star Path. By then, they could overwhelm the enemy.
This is not the same narrow Star Path between Viter and La Ceia, ten minutes in this Star Path is enough for 200,000 warships to pass through.
Although there are 800,000 Ochs Empire warships in the Star Path defense line, not that many can attack at the same time, the maximum is around 300,000 warships.
If the 200,000 warships of the Kabat Empire pass through the Star Path and gain a firm foothold, then the 800,000 defenders are basically out of luck, because the rate of destruction of the warships on both sides is not as fast as the arrival of the follow-up fleets of the Kabat Empire.
So this time, Hamid is letting the Trap Fleet be the bait and draw all the fire.
In Hamid's strategic thinking, as long as the defenders of Reo were completely wiped out, the Ochs Empire's combat force on the border between the two sides would only be 1.8 million in La Ceia, while the Kabat Empire would have about 5 million.
Hence, regarding the remaining 8,000 warships of the Trap Fleet, if it could help the Kabat Empire get such an advantage, then why not sacrifice it?
Besides, Hamid remembered that Lin Fan had said that he would give more rewards as long as they took down the Ochs Empire.
Currently, the defenders of Reo are faced with a difficult choice problem.
-
Annihilate the Trap Fleet with all-out fire, but let the opponent's subsequent fleet build a bridgehead or;
-
Go about with the normal way of fighting and not focus exclusively on the Trap Fleet. But the consequence they would face is likely to be the same as what happened in Viter. The Trap Fleet would break through into their formation which would eventually lead to a total collapse.
Finally the Commander of the garrison in Reo gritted his teeth and made a decision.
For the sake of the ultimate victory of the Ochs Empire, no matter what, this Trap Fleet must be exterminated here, even at the cost of the fall of Reo!
This was his reason for eliminating the Trap Fleet first. Next, he would destroy as many of the Kabat Empire's warships as possible before his side would be completely destroyed.
Soon, all the Ochs Empire fleets on the defense line received the order and started to set fire at the Trap Fleet, ignoring the Kabat Empire's follow up fleet completely.
In the tenth minute after the start of the battle, the Trap Fleet lost more than 7,000 warships. Though the loss in the Ochs Empire's side was also very huge.
The Trap Fleet alone took out at least 20,000 Ochs Empire warships in the course of their assault. In addition to that, the nearly 200,000 warships of the Kabat Empire that sailed out from the Star Path in those 10 minutes were not just watching from the sidelines. As soon as they came out, they joined the attack on the defenders on the defensive line, taking out at least another 50,000 warships. 𝒇𝘳ℯℯ𝚠𝙚𝑏𝗻𝑜ѵ𝑒𝙡.co𝑚
At this time, as the Commander of the garrison in Reo had expected, although the Trap Fleet was crippled, it also allowed the other side to successfully establish a bridgehead, where nearly 200,000 warships of theirs had been deployed.
In the next moment, a meat grinder seemed to have been activated. The defenders no longer focused on the few hundred remaining ships of the Trap Fleet but instead began to cover the exit area of the Star Path. The Kabat Empire's fleet, which had already stood firm at the bridgehead, naturally returned fire with all its might.
On the battlefield, each minute, there would be thousands of warships that would be destroyed from both sides. When a warship is destroyed, another one will immediately come forward to fill its position, and both sides soon come into a stalemate. It was a battle of attrition.
The difference is that when this battle of attrition began, the Kabat Empire still had 1 million warships, while the Ochs Empire only had 700,000 warships.
When the Commander of Reo's garrison was considering whether to transfer 300,000 warships from Cecil to support him, the Kabat Empire's fleet in Cecil came to Reo through the Star Path at this moment.
The Commander of Reo's garrison knew that there were more than 2 million Kabat Empire warships in Cecil.
Although he doesn't know if all of them are here, it was obvious that at this time, he absolutely can't ask for support.