novelraw Chapter 431: Tactics
Chapter 431: Tactics
Millions of Moraise civilization and Tom’s battleships had all deployed into space, positioned around the gas giant that the allied forces considered their main base. Every larger moon was densely packed with ground-based and space-based air defense bases.
Over a hundred Jupiter-class battleships belonging to Tom and the Moraise civilization were stationed at various critical spatial nodes, forming a meticulous net with other combat facilities, fully preparing for the brutal battle that was about to unfold.
Just as time was always set aside for Tom to recover after every war, this time, too, the Star Beasts only arrived leisurely after Tom was fully prepared for battle, with all his manned and unmanned battleships, various automated combat facilities, and industrial systems completely built, and his strength truly restored to its peak.
Even with his strength restored to its peak, Tom dared not show any complacency against this wave of Star Beasts.
After all, this was a Star Beast Disaster that had truly reached the pinnacle of gravity! Even in the most suitable state for technological development, it would take him at least several millennia to reach this stage!
What new technologies and new tactics would the development of ’technology’ bring to this group of Star Beasts standing at the pinnacle of gravity? Could he... truly withstand this wave of attacks?
He had to, even if he couldn’t! He had no other choice, no retreat!
Just like the previous Star Beast attacks, this Star Beast offensive still had no preamble, no superfluous actions, and no tactical arrangements. As soon as millions of colossal Star Beasts entered the solar system, they immediately charged towards the gas giant where Tom’s allied forces were located, and both sides subsequently plunged into a chaotic battle.
As soon as the battle began, Tom immediately felt the immense power of this group of Star Beasts.
Just as he had predicted, an acceleration of hundreds of meters per second squared, ultra-high-intensity energy and Gravity Shields, pulling forces exceeding 2,000 times Earth’s gravity, and projectiles with an exit velocity of 100,000 kilometers per second...
Less than ten days after the battle began, Tom’s side suffered heavy casualties.
There was no alternative; these figures represented a tangible technological gap. It was simply too vast, no longer something Tom could compensate for by relying on more integrated and refined coordination and tactics.
Even if Tom treated Jupiter-class battleships as consumables, throwing them to the front lines without regard for cost, he still couldn’t prevent the defense line from weakening day by day.
Furthermore, Tom noticed something even more terrifying.
From the current situation, it seemed that these Star Beasts, standing at the pinnacle of gravity, did not show any fundamental difference from him in terms of tactics and strategy, apart from their weapons performing better.
Both sides seemed to employ the same tactics: conventional assembly, charge, tear, and maneuver.
By analogy, it was roughly like a modern army with cold weapons fighting a feudal army also equipped with cold weapons.
But this seemed somewhat illogical.
The reason is simple: the development of technology and the improvement of weapon performance will inevitably lead to changes in tactics. Just as warfare in the age of cold weapons was necessarily dominated by mass charges and melee combat, when weapon technology advanced to the modern era, with various artillery and missiles, the tactics of mass charges and melee combat were inevitably eliminated.
However, Tom did not observe such an improvement or change in tactics from these gravity-pinnacle Star Beasts.
The previous wave of Star Beasts could be explained by their technology not being too far beyond his, thus not causing fundamental changes in tactics. But what about this wave of Star Beasts?
Were these Star Beasts still holding back?
Tom dared not be negligent, concentrating on the battle while rapidly thinking.
Just then, Tom suddenly noticed that the rate of damage to his various manned and unmanned combat facilities had been continuously increasing in recent battles.
In the previous month, he had lost a total of over 120,000 manned battleships of various types. This month, the rate of loss for manned battleships increased to over 140,000.
"What’s going on?"
With this doubt, Tom re-examined the entire battlefield and saw that the Star Beasts were still continuing their previous tactics—various charges, coordinated attacks, maneuvers, etc.—without any change.
So why did his battleship damage rate increase when the tactics and combat forces remained unchanged?
By the next month, Tom tallied again and was somewhat horrified to find that this month, his manned battleships suffered a total loss of over 150,000.
Another ten thousand increase!
During this period, facing the Star Beasts’ frenzied assault, he could still barely hold on by relying on his unimaginable industrial strength, frantically producing and deploying various combat facilities to the battlefield.
But even with his industrial strength, there was a limit. If it continued to increase like this, he feared that within a year, the rate of combat facility deployment would not be able to keep up with the rate of destruction!
This was somewhat unacceptable.
After some thought, Tom decisively pulled about 1,000 supercomputers from his already strained supercomputing base, then input all battle data from the entire battlefield to conduct a large-scale comprehensive study and calculation.
The final result appeared before Tom about two months later. Looking at the result, a bitter smile appeared on Tom’s face.
"Indeed, the advancement of technology and the improvement of weapon performance will inevitably lead to changes in tactics. It’s just that the tactical improvements of these gravity-pinnacle Star Beasts are too significant, even exceeding the limits of my current military technology, so I couldn’t detect them for a while..."
At this moment, facing the grotesque and colossal Star Beasts in space, Tom’s heart grew heavier, even more so.
The calculation results showed that these Star Beasts were not merely executing conventional tactics like "maneuvering, charging, and pinpoint demolition."
Beyond these tactics, they were also constructing a kind of overall "system."