Chapter 120: Strategic Retreat.
At the last node of Ceres Corridor, Sierra.
Various beams of light as well as energy bombs were constantly flashing through the void. The firefight between the two sides was exceptionally intense.
At the exit of the Star Path, 200,000 Io Federation warships were fighting to stop the invaders while another 100,000 warships were quickly rushing to the Star Path defense line. They were trying their best to deny Viles the opportunity to establish a bridgehead at the Star Path.
After all, Sierra was not Horton. The Star Path between Sierra and Ceres was wide enough to support thousands of warships at the same time.
If the defenders could not clear each wave of invaders, the invader's warships would accumulate in the Star Path, eventually forming a solid bridgehead.
Once a bridgehead was formed, Viles could easily defeat the Io Federation's Fifth Legion by virtue of his higher numbers and stronger warships.
[T/N: Changed the Fleet to Legion, hence Fifth Legion]
At the same time, in the virtual conference room.
"No! The enemy has already established a bridgehead at the mouth of the Star Path, I can only last for 2 hours at most!!"
Joanna wore a bitter face. The current situation was clear, the other side wanted to continue attacking regardless of their casualties. Joanna was most afraid of this, after all, she couldn't match the other side be it the number of warships or the performance of her warships.
There's also the problem of morale. They were facing a demon after all.
In this Star Path, there are not many tactics to speak of. Once the attacking side formed a bridgehead, the battle would turn into whose firepower is stronger and whose will is more determined!
Unfortunately, among all these aspects, Joanna's Fifth Legion were at the disadvantage.
"Commander Joanna, I suggest you retreat and abandon Sierra for now! If you insist with the Fifth Legion there, you won't get anything! It will just cost the lives of many angels for nothing!"
Li Cangdou looked at the scene in Sierra's Star Path that Joanna had shared and spoke.
He could already see that if this situation continued, the Fifth Legion would eventually be doomed to total annihilation, and would only be able to eliminate 150,000 to 200,000 warships of Viles' Legion at most.
"Retreat? If I retreat, the back would be a defenseless area!"
"Then, if you continue to hold out for 2 hours before being completely wiped out, will that change the back having no defense?"
"That's..."
Joanna wanted to retort, but didn't know couldn't find anything.
She understood that what Li Cangdou said was true, and that continuing to hold on would not lead nor change anything!
But as the commander of the Io Federation's Fifth Legion, asking her to retreat just after the fight started was really...
"Commander Joanna, I remember that your warships still have some advantages over the Ochs Empire's warships and one is speed!"
That's right, although the Io Federation's warships were significantly weaker than the Ochs Empire's warships in terms of both attack power and defense.
In terms of speed, the former was faster than the latter by a large margin, reaching up to 8000 kilometers per second. This speed was even faster than the current Human Federation's Snow Leopard Battlecruiser that's only at 2000 kilometers per second.
"What do you mean?"
At this time, a figure appeared in the conference room. It was the new Queen of the Io Federation, and the former commander of the Third Legion, Alfie!
"Li Cangdou, this is the current Queen of the Io Federation, Her Majesty Alfie!"
"Greetings, Her Majesty Queen Alfie!"
"There's no need for courtesy, the situation is urgent. You seem to have an idea on how to break through in the situation, please seize this opportunity to say it!"
Even though Alfie became the Queen, she still kept the same style she once had as a commander.
"Yes! Currently, the Fifth Legion is holding the fort in Sierra. According to my estimation, they will be completely wiped out in 2 hours at most, and will only be able to eliminate about 150 to 200 thousand warships of Viles' Legion which is very unwise from a war point of view."
"My idea is that Commander Joanna can use her warships' speed advantage to retreat."
"According to the map, there are 2 Star Systems connected to the rear of Sierra, namely Circe and Mihodon, which are 0.2 and 0.3 light years away from Sierra respectively."
"Commander Joanna can lead the Fifth Legion to retreat to Circe and re-establish the defense line. Currently, Viles wants speed, so his next target should be Circe. But to make sure, Commander Elena can lead her fleet to Mihodon immediately!
"Our side will depart for Circe, of course, we may not be able to catch up. After all, it will take about 27 days to get from here to Circe!"
"But it doesn't matter, if Viles arrives at Circe before us, then Commander Joanna could just use the Star Path advantage to destroy tens of thousands more of his warships and continue to retreat further when the other side has established a bridgehead."
"Everyone needs to see our advantage, which is having strategic depth, backup, and supplies!"
"And what about Viles' side? He can only advance all the way, no rear, no supply, and even less support! He only has 500,000 warships, well, it should be 420,000 now!"
"Therefore, we shouldn't fight fixedly. If the first line of defense does not work, then we go to the second, and if the second does not work then the third, and so on. Even without us, the Fifth Legion alone can use their speed advantage and set up defenses in each Star Path to slowly chip off Viles' Legion bit by bit."
Li Cangdou finished his plan in one breath. In fact, his plan was very simple and direct. Since their side has options and they could afford to do things, why not take advantage of it?
With this, even if they and the Third Legion of the Io do not go, the Io Federation's Fifth Legion would be able to consume the Viles' Legion!
Not to mention that the loss of Sierra out the entire Miracle Starfield as a high-risk starfield. They can use this to convince the angels that were willing to evacuate the place.
Most importantly, since Viles wants speed and to break through as fast as possible, he simply does not have time to waste in destroying a planet.
For the Io Federation, it's just a matter of giving up some territory for a short period of time, and then reclaiming it in a few months. There won't be much actual loss.
After listening to Li Cangdou's words, Alfie pondered for a while and then said to Joanna.
"Commander Joanna, I order you as the Queen to immediately lead the Fifth Legion to retreat to Circe and rearrange the Star Path defense!"
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