Chapter 17

'Ah yes, you guys don't take off your multi-functional uniforms when you go down there in a bit, the AI will automatically detect your vitals, if you can't adapt to that gravity the AI will call the police, and when the time comes there will be someone who can help you get back to the ship."

Winchell said, putting his military cap back on.

'That's not ice is it, in space because of the low pressure the ice will sublimate in an instant." Edward said putting his hat on as well.

'Uneducated, I told you to study hard a long time ago, for example, a comet, for example, is basically made up of ice, but he's big enough that it creates enough gravity to bind the water molecules so that they can't escape."

Elina said straightening her uniform and then asked, 'Winchell, what's the gravity here?"

Winchell said, 'About two standard g's."

After he finished speaking, he took the lead and walked out of the hatch, leaving the two of them stunned where they were.

Half a day later, Edward and Elina stood panting in front of the massive archway of the Star Mansion, just a two-hour ride in the flying shuttle had taken all of their strength.

'It's exhausting to even sit down." Elina complained.

'Yeah, let's go report first." Edward said.

With Winchell leading the way, the duo walked through a corridor eventually arriving at a hall.

'Let's get ready first, the Marshal of Rolbo will be here to see you in a few minutes." He said and looked at his watch, then said, 'In about half an hour, I'll report back to Operations first."

Elina answered and slumped into the couch without moving, while Edward hooked up to his portable computer and cast the prepared star chart in the middle of the hall, he began to study it, preparing to go over the dangerous plan in his head one more time.

Two old men appeared in the doorway looking in, unnoticed by Elina in the couch or Edward, who was so lost in thought that he was oblivious to the old men standing next to Edward.

'Is this the area around the Essoda system?" The blonde old man asked.

Edward was startled and looked back at the two old men, seeing that they were dressed in ordinary clothes he put his heart down and said, 'Ah yes, may I ask who you are, Your Excellency."

The blonde old man waved his hand and didn't answer then asked, 'The star map is well labeled, it seems you have your own source of information."

Elina, who was paralyzed in her seat, opened her eyelids and glanced at them, then closed them again and said, 'That's right, those encrypted communication waves of the empire are nothing to me."

The two old men looked at each other and smiled, the dark haired old man was just about to step forward to speak when he was stopped by the blonde old man, who said, 'Young man, let's assume that you are the Supreme Commander of Andre's Star Fortress, and I am the Supreme Commander of the Free Federation, and we will have a battle of offense and defense."

Edward didn't know who the visitor was and was about to open his mouth to ask again when he heard the blonde old man say, 'Since the Empire is now on the defensive, I'll attack first.

First, we will concentrate our first, third, ninth and thirteenth fleets, purge the enemies in the Essoda system, send troop carriers to land and take Essoda and start building planetary star fortress fortifications."

'I'll hold off and shrink all combat ships back to within range of Andre's starfort's fortress guns." Edward said.

'Hmm? You're just going to watch the Federation build a star fort?" The older blonde asked in disbelief.

'It's been at least five years since this star fort was built, Essoda circles its star every two standard years, and it's closest to Andre's star fort is a mere 0.5 light hours.

Although my fortress cannons are just out of reach, I can use them as a backstop to hit fleet power against Essoda.

Due to the presence of the Fortress Cannons, our side does not have to worry about being outflanked in a roundabout way at all, and can use our tactics with relative freedom." Edward had his chest full of ideas, these previews had been played out in his mind countless times.

'Hmph, so what, I will hit the fleet power to keep the Imperial fleet out of Essoda." The old blonde said.

'Currently the ratio of warships between the Empire and the Federation is three to two, the skillful use of tactics is one of the few advantages of the Federation, if we were to fight head on then wouldn't the Federation be cutting off one of its own arms? It is simply no match for the Imperial fleet."

Edward spoke stoically, 'If the Federation retreats to free up space to set up tactics, then I will split the fleet into three, or more, to carry out an attack around the flanks to attack Essoda from the rear.

Even if the Federation splits their forces, there must be a weak spot, after defeating this weak spot, they can destroy Essoda's unfinished fortifications, and after the combat objective is accomplished, all the ships will immediately withdraw back to within the range of the fortress guns."

The blonde old man was silent, Edward continued, 'The average battle loss ratio between us and the empire is 2:3, let's just do the projection as if the empire's side is divided into three, the empire will destroy Essoda's in-progress fortifications at a cost of sixty percent of the loss of the fleet.

This loss is something the Empire can afford, after all, there is an industrial machine as vast as the entire Empire behind the star bridge."

The dark haired old man spoke up at this point, saying, 'Three round trips like that and our industrial capacity won't be able to keep up."

'If the Federation is going to be victorious, it will either take Andre's Star Fortress or the Empire will disorganize itself." Elina said, trying to raise a hand, but failing.

'Taking Andre, I'm dreaming of it, tell me your solution." The old blonde said.

'And may I ask your honor?" Edward finally remembered he didn't know the old man's name.

'I am Akira Asimu, Governor of the Free Federation." The blonde old man said and pointed to the dark-haired old man behind him then said, 'This is the Commander-in-Chief of the Federation, Marshal Rolbo Rhodes."

Hearing the Governor himself, Elina struggled in the couch and tried to get up.

'Little girl you've just arrived, I see that you're not in a very good condition, so it's better not to move around." The Governor said with a smile.

'His Excellency the Governor, Lord Marshal, I am Edward Alec and this is my science advisor, Elina Campos." Edward stood at attention and saluted.

'Edward, the sandbox just now is the current situation we are facing, I heard you came with a solution, tell us about it?" The Governor said with a smile.

Edward pressed a few times on the operation panel to bring the field of view closer, and the four planets of the Essoda system appeared on the star map, with the outermost one having a circle of striking markings.

'The problem we are currently facing is how to capture Andre Star Fort, according to my intelligence, Andre Star Fort has a high degree of automation, and there are only forty thousand permanent officers and soldiers in the entire fort.

However, except for the actual operators who are only five thousand or so, the rest of the personnel are all rotational personnel or battleship reserve personnel."

Edward continued, 'The actual difficulty we face is how to drop twenty thousand marines into Andre Starfort."

'If we use the entire fleet to cover the troop transports, even if we scrape the fleet together it won't help." Marshal Rolbo said.

'Concentrate all the fleet around Essoda, make a show that we're going to build the starfort at any cost, and then we use it." Edward said pointing to the dwarf planet with the striking markings.

'Planet Menil, how do we utilize it?" Marshal Rolbo asked.

'As accurately calculated by my science advisors, it is currently approaching its aphelion, and it's aphelion is only 0.2 light hours away from Andre.

And it is on the verge of being thrown out of the Essoda system by centrifugal force, so we can build a propulsion facility up there to give it acceleration and use the slingshot effect to shoot him toward Andre's star fort."

Edward continued, 'Have the troop carriers follow the Menil's trajectory, dodging fortress cannon fire on the one hand, and avoiding detection by opposing radar and the like on the other.

When the Menil impacts Andre, have the ships fly into the large hole made by the impact for a landing battle."

'The Andre fortress won't be functionally destroyed by the impact, will it? We don't need a mass of scrap metal after all." The Governor said.

'It won't be devastating, Menil is a dwarf planet with one twentieth the mass of Andre's Fortress, and Menil doesn't rotate, we'll only need a handful of propulsion systems on it to use for course correction."

Elina said airily.

'What if Menil's Star is vaporized by the fortress guns on the way?" Marshal Rolbo asked.

'It won't, after known intelligence and repeated calculations, the entire trip will only be enough for the Fortress Cannon to chip away a third of Menil's Star's mass, the rest will be perfectly adequate, after all, all we need is a shield with a big hole in it."

Elina's multi-functional uniform let out a beep as she could no longer withstand the gravity of the planet and fainted.

Edward ran over to Elina and fumbled with his hands, pressing something on the control panel on her wrist.

'There's no need to worry, I've called for someone to take care of Elina." Before the Governor could say anything, several Konoha soldiers walked into the hall and took Elina away on a stretcher.

'Ahem, what a pie-in-the-sky plan." Marshal Rolbo said.

'It's a bit pie in the sky, but it's feasible, here's the feasibility report for both of you." Edward said handing over the prepared report.