From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars

Robert IV in outer space, the temporary anchorage of the 8th Expeditionary Strike Group of the Royal Navy of the Star Dragon Empire.

On the bridge of the strike group's flagship, the Dawn Sword, the Marquis of Ascania was sitting in the captain's seat, listening to the reports of the tactical staff.

"Currently, Robert IV's garrison fleet has been completely defeated in these three days of fighting."

"The three 'Monster' class battleships and 15 'Hydra' class cruisers belonging to the garrison fleet have all been sunk."

"A small number of destroyers and frigates that have not yet been sunk have also signaled to surrender. The commando team has completed the boarding and has taken control of all surrendered ships."

"We have sunk 12 frigates and 8 destroyers, and two heavy cruisers need to be overhauled."

"Lansford Military Port is currently under full control, but the space elevator connected to the ground is now locked with the highest authority. None of the captured military port personnel have the authority to unlock it yet."

The tactical staff member who reported the report paused for a moment, as if he was planning his words, and then continued.

"According to the accounts of the captured personnel at the military port, this locking authority is currently transferred to a federal navy lieutenant commander who is on tactical duty in the command center."

"We checked the surveillance at Lansford Port, and Major Dimaria Randall should have gone to the ground through the escape capsule."

The tactical staff member was about to continue speaking when he saw the Marquis raising his hand and interrupting him.

"Escaped to the ground? In other words, you have the authority to unlock the space elevator, and you are still on this planet?"

"Yes, Lord Marquis."

The Marquis of Ascania narrowed his eyes. He looked at Lansford Military Port 5,000 kilometers away through an enlarged picture on the bridge's 'panoramic porthole'.

At present, all the capital ships in the Eighth Expeditionary Strike Group except the Dawn Sword, as well as a large number of heavy cruisers, are anchored in this military port.

Making repairs in the port is only a secondary purpose. What is more important is to use the super computing power of the capital ship-level shipboard control personality to find ways to crack the lock of the space elevator.

Major Randall had previously joked with Amber that the Empire would move 10 supercomputers to do the cracking.

Now just looking at the number of ships in the port, the computing power of these shipboard control personalities is probably much higher than that of 10 supercomputers.

Although the Marquis of Ascania doesn't know much about this technology, he also knows that the time it takes to crack it simply by relying on these shipboard control personalities is completely unpredictable.

After the space elevator was locked, the efficiency of the Empire's landing troops was indeed greatly reduced.

Coupled with the previous nuclear explosion in the atmosphere, and the large number of warship wreckage currently orbiting the planet at a speed of nearly 2,000 kilometers per second in the planet's low-Earth orbit.

The use of orbital airborne and aerospace transport aircraft has been greatly restricted.

Thinking of this, the Marquis couldn't help but put his hand on his forehead and sighed.

"So many of your staff officers never thought before the war that the space elevator might be locked?"

"Forehead"

The tactical staff officer in charge of the report suddenly froze on the spot. He kept gesturing to several colleagues around him with his eyes, hoping that they would say something to save the situation.

But several tactical staff around him didn't know what to say at this time.

They really didn't expect that the people in Lansford Military Port would actually lock the space elevator while escaping.

It's as outrageous as if someone broke into your home through the window and you locked the door before trying to escape through the window.

"Forget it, you guys, don't think about trying to smooth things over at the last moment."

Marquis Ascania looked at the staff officer in charge of the report.

"Evaluate it for yourselves. Is it faster to wait for these dozen shipboard control personalities to be cracked, or to find this naval lieutenant commander on the ground?"

"After the evaluation is completed, just choose the best plan and implement it directly. There is no need to report to me specifically."

"As you command, Lord Marquis."

Soon, the tactical staff reported on the battles over the past few days.

The Marquis also turned and left the bridge, leaving only the highest-ranking tactical staff officer behind him.

The two quickly arrived at an independent conference room, and the people waiting in the conference room immediately stood up.

"Your Majesty, you are here."

The middle-aged man who spoke first was not wearing the uniform of any military branch, but was wearing clothes common to imperial nobles.

There is a golden badge on his chest, engraved with the image of a giant dragon holding a star.

This is the symbol of the Defense Intelligence and Security Department of the Star Dragon Empire.

"Sit down and talk."

Marquis Ascania nodded, sat directly on the main seat in the conference room, and said straight to the point:

"The people you sent out are gone?"

The Marquis' words made the middle-aged man from DRSD visibly stiffen.

However, he still maintained his expression control and nodded.

"The Mongoose special operations platoon that was airdropped to the ground has been out of contact for more than 48 hours, and it is now basically judged that the mission has failed."

"So what do you want me to do for you when you come to me?" Marquis Ascania looked at the intelligence officer in front of him with a complicated expression in his eyes.

"It should be said that it is mutual cooperation." The middle-aged man paused and continued:

"I know that the Marquis is worried about the space elevator being locked. It just so happens that we at DRSD have a plan that can relieve your worries."

"Huh, keep going."

Hearing these words, a smile appeared on the middle-aged man's face.

He opened the conference room screen and presented an analysis report.

This analysis report mainly describes three seemingly unrelated events.

The defection of Imperial spies at Yassin Base, the loss of contact with the Mongoose Special Operations Platoon, and the escape of those with locked access to the space elevator to the surface.

After making path planning predictions through a large number of battle records, losses, and the areas where these three events occurred, the imperial ground forces were used.

The intelligence personnel of DRSD came to a seemingly fantasy conclusion.

Those are the latter two incidents, which are most likely related to the defected imperial spy.

"You see, this is the location where the defected spy last appeared based on the analysis of the on-site situation by the lurkers at Yassin Base."

"This is the location where an orbital paratrooper team lost contact and their last report was that they were ambushing a federal force."

"This is where the Mongoose Special Operations Platoon completely loses touch."

"Finally, this is the area where we predict the military port escape capsule may land."

The Marquis, who didn't pay too much attention at first, couldn't help but stand up after glancing at the analysis on the screen.

"Based on the analysis results of AI based on battlefield situation, terrain, distance and other factors, we have reason to believe that this series of events are related to the defected imperial spy."