275 Hustle.
The people outside the room looked at the screens. The strength of the fleets they were given to fight within the simulation war did not exceed five thousand. Each administrator was commanding a thousand ships at the same time.
The screen displayed the scene as the two sides faced each other in space. The battle began with a beep sound. The federal team moved quickly, but surprisingly they had placed their five biggest ships in a pentagon formation with a meticulous arrangement of the smaller attack ships.
The ships were arranged quickly, but the other side focused on the center of the pentagon, which seemed to be weaker than the rest of the formation. Shi Lang peeked at the screen and understood what was going to happen so he closed his eyes again.
The rest of the team kept looking at the screen but they did not say anything and watched the proceedings calmly. The technician team also understood what was going on, and they would cast a gaze on what was happening with the enemy team.
The enemy team did not arrange their formation, they concentrated their canons at the center of the formation and began to fire. This was a logical choice, after all, the phaser shields of the smaller ships were weaker, and a pentagon would leave a great weakness in the middle of the formation despite covering a larger area.
The federal team, however, was going to defy this logic. They assumed this formation because they wanted to lure the enemy into targeting their weak part, Meanwhile, they initiated the spirit formation engraved in the ships. The effect was a spirit shield, that was strongest at the center of the pentagon. The next step was to counter the attacks they all faced.
The enemy was targeting and attacking while still resembling a swarming mess of spaceships. The administrators of the federal team used the combined firepower of the five warships. They did not target the defensive units in the enemy fleet but the attacking units.
They used a philosophy here, by crippling the attacking hands, they will be able to defend themselves better and at the same time, enter a battle of attrition. The combined attacks made it easier for them to take down the attacking vessels.
By the time the enemy found what was even happening they were down by ten percent of their firepower. Shi Lang could tell the result as the team was whispering to each other loudly enough for him to hear. He could not help but sigh, Ryan beside him shivered at this sudden sigh, he did not understand if the boss was energy and disappointed at the slow actions of the administrators.
The enemy had begun to guard the attacking ships even more rigorously. They were not fools to not understand the goal of the Federal team. However, this understanding will help them gain nothing. The federal team was ruthless. Since the defense of the enemy has shifted, they had begun to target the other loopholes in the swarm.
The quick and straight attacking policy had come to fail at this point. The onslaught was ruthless, and in just a few moments, the enemy was down by twenty percent.
The progress rate had dropped and the federal team had taken five percent damage. Then the federal team decided to do something even more surprising. They had all the ships fire together at one ship. This sort of attack directly destroyed a ship.
They followed this pattern and after ten minutes, the enemy has lost forty percent of the ship and the number was still climbing. The federal team had taken only fifteen percent damage and still stood strong. The damage was lingering around the warships, which had also weakened the defense formation.
However, it was still strong enough to hold on to the enemy and the federation team rushed the attacks. They had been quick in their actions and targeted the most crucial ships in the swarm, choking the enemy into suffocation.
In a total time of twenty minutes, the battle was decided, the federal team had come out victorious and the enemy had surrendered. Just as the teams came out of the room after exchanging a look of sportsmanship. Shashi got to his job and moved over to talk to his counterpart.
One had to agree that this man was really efficient. The other party had left him ways to contact and promised that they will send their team to the federation for a mutual exchange. Shashi had shamelessly given them an example of the Neomonian alliance.
Shi Lang and the team went back to the gathering hall where El congratulated the winners of the battles and told them to wait for the other teams and then the battles will carry on.
In one day, the federal team fought three battles, and by the time they were done, only two hundred and fifty teams remained. They had to play one squad battle, with five-on-five people on the ground. In this round, the frontal assault team overwhelmed the enemy and killed them when the enemy put on up a desperate struggle.
The last was a mecha battle, where Shi Lang took command of the mecha and dealt with the contender of the other side. They had decided to stage a competition between the captains of the teams and the winner will proceed. It was an arrangement to save the lives of their comrades and thus Shi Lang defeated the other person by leaving his mecha useless.
He spared the other party and shook hands with him in the end. Shashi had been busy socializing with the people they beat. He did not expect for his task to be so heavy during the competition. In his vision, although Shi Lang was strong, he was alone, and the team would probably leave after a couple of rounds.
Yet, sometimes it felt good to be proven wrong. Shi Lang and the team made a stop to the mess hall and after filling their stomachs to the brim they came back to their rooms. The technician team was left to repair the mecha used in the battle, as even if Shi Lang had defeated the opponent, his mecha did not take light damage.
When Shi Lang entered the room, he found OB-One sitting in front of a computer. He thought that the bot was quite dedicated. He asked with a faint smile, “OB-One, any progress?”
The bot turned his head to look right at Shi Lang and said, “Sir, if not for the fact that I am a machine, I would have liked to cry.”
Shi Lang was unable to hold back his laughter and asked, “What happened?”
OB-One was not a bot that displayed human-like emotions. This sudden sentence in a mechanical tone was really funny. The bot said, “Sire, I have been trying to look into the technical aspects in this place just like you said, and I have downloaded and broken down a lot of things, but they did not even amount to one percent of the knowledge in this place. I feel like I am nothing better than a tin can.”
Shi Lang laughed hard at this, he did not expect this bot to have such a side. The all-knowing OB-One had this day. He fell to the bed while laughing. After a few moments, he said, “OB-One, it is enough to have found the things that you did. You can find manuals and journals regarding technology and learn from them. Your learning capability is definitely better than a human so, go out, explore this place, and make an imprint of those books. Though do take Shashi’s advice first, he knows this place better.”
The bot nodded and after accepting the task, it left the room and went looking for Shashi. Shi Lang meanwhile sent a progress report to the federation and sent a message to Amelia regarding his safety and trivia. The galactic council had transponders spread throughout space, and they all acted like relays.
The speed of message transmission was quite fast. The next day was an off, for the candidates to rest and recover. Shi Lang took this day to explore and aid. He went to the holding bay, where the mechas were stored, and found the technician team working their ass off. He did not say much and put on a jumpsuit before he jumped into work.
The efficiency of the people increased and Shi Lang also got to learn about the advanced changes in mecha technology. His abilities did not shock Lucas and Jane, but the others were left stumped. They did not expect this demon to be so good at his work. At this moment, he was holding a plasma welder in his hand and connecting the shell on the torso of the mecha. Every movement was smooth and stable.
Jane whistled and said, “Lang, you should have entered research, it would have boosted the level of our tech by at least one point.”
Shi Lang replied without raising his head, “Blame Jenks for triggering my rage. Bastard led me astray, though I do not mind it now either.”
Lucas clicked his tongue and said, “Do you think we did not know, how you yearned for battles? Show-boat.”
Just when they were bantering, the communicator on Shi Lang’s wrist buzzed and he froze.