Chapter 102 Change of plans.

Simon was in his quarters reading the reports from all the fleets and then special operations groups.

He hated the paperwork but as an admiral he had to know what was going on and he also had to sign a staggering amount of documents.

The operation to exterminate the alliance was almost finished and there were only some survivors left to mop up.

Now they would be reassembling all five fleets into one armada and going after their most powerful opponent.

The Urakari were the dominant species of the federation as they were the most numerous and had enormous influence.

Simon did not doubt that the moment they attacked the Urakari home system,the bugs would call upon all the species of the federation for aid.

The bug fleet was already over a million ships strong and added with the federation fleets they would be over a dozen million ships.

No matter how advanced the Confederation fleet was,there was no way for them to win in a fight where they were outnumbered at least a hundred to one.

So they devised a plan that would allow them to destroy the Urakari without having to fight with the entire federation.

-You're going through the plans again?

Athena entered the quarters in her organic body.

-Yes,I'm trying to decide which plan to use to minimize the losses on our side.

He said while she sat down next to him and gave him a hug.

-You are over a century old and you still overthink things.

She said with a smile.

-I was always like that and I don't think I will ever get rid of this habit.

Simon agreed with his wife.

-Then let me help you with this problem.

Athena said.

-Be my guest,but right now there are only two plans that I'm considering as they are the best in my opinion.

Simon showed her the files.

The first plan was a quick attack that would use the element of surprise and their main target would be the planet and the fleet would be the secondary target. 

After eliminating the urakari queens on the planet they would do as much damage to the enemy fleet as they could and then retreat.

The second plan was to cut all communications and destroy the fleet first and then eradicate the planet afterward.

Both plans had their pros and cons.

The fastest way to defeat the Urakari was to kill their queens as they were responsible for increasing their population and most queens were located in their home world.

There were some in their colonies but they could be dealt with after their home planet was destroyed.

-Why don't you split the fleet and assign a part of it to bomb the planet and the rest to destroy the fleet?

Or an even better solution would be to assign all of the fleet to destroy the enemy and use the main cannon of Thanatos to get rid of the planet.

Athena came up with alternatives.

The main cannon of the Thanatos was an enormous energy weapon that the ship was built around.

It took time to charge but once it was fired,there was nothing that would survive the hit.

They tested it once on an uninhabited planet and the planet was blown to pieces after just one hit.

The Urakari planet was even smaller than their test target so it would most definitely not survive.

The weapon was so destructive that as a safety measure it had to receive five codes from five admirals to even activate it.

In other words he would have to convince the rest of the fleet admirals to submit their codes and that would not be an easy task as some of them were against using such a weapon or even creating it in the first place.

-The second solution is almost impossible as I doubt that we can convince the rest of the admirals to submit their codes.

Simon said after a while of thinking about it.

That plan had a very high chance of success and minimized the damage to the fleet but he really didn't think that he could convince the admiralty to allow such action.

-Then the first option is the best one as you don't need a hundred and twenty thousand ships to glass a planet.

According to my calculations we can bomb them using nukes and turn the planet into an irradiated desert with around a hundred ships and it would take around an hour to do so.

Athena presented her plan of action.

-Actually I prefer to destroy their fleet first and then send some asteroids to finish the job especially since they have many underground cities that are way too deep for the nukes to reach them.

Simon said,explaining his point of view.

-Then disrupt their communications and wipe them out just like we did to all other targets.

Athena said she was not happy that her ideas were rejected.

-Then we will use stealth drones to destroy any relays in range and their home system relay as well,but we will destroy them only once we are in position and also we will mine all we can in their system especially their harbors and shipyards.

Once we destroy their infrastructure the fleet will open fire on every enemy target in range and hopefully destroy their fleet before they can fully mobilize.

Simon said.

-This plan is good but if they manage to mobilize then we will suffer heavy casualties since they have around seven hundred thousand ships in the system.

Athena found a weak spot in the plan.

-If we can surprise them then we will win for sure but if they manage to discover us before our attack then we will have to fight them in an open battle and even if the odds are in our favor,we will pay a heavy price for the victory and this is not our last target so we have to minimize the damage to our fleet.

Simon explained.

Athena was analyzing the reports that their scout ships sent and the plan that simon just explained and from her analysis she deduced that there was something not right with the urakari as they had to receive the information that their alliance was wiped out and even the Elani were destroyed.

But the scouts and drones they sent did not indicate any preparations to repel the attack or any mobilization in their fleet.

She could find only two explanations for this situation:

The first one indicated that it was a trap and if they attacked the system then they would most likely suffer heavy casualties or even be destroyed.

The second one was that the bugs did not consider them a serious threat which would be a stupid thing to do especially after they managed to wipe out over a dozen species in only three months.

Athena learned from the humans and always assumed that the enemy was at least as smart as she was so the trap theory was most likely the correct one.

She shared her concerns with Simon and he was also concerned with the bugs lack of activity.

-Change of plans,we will attack their colonies first and take out their home world later.

I seriously doubt that they will expect this approach since we always took out the home worlds of our targets first.

Simon explained.

After some more planning and ironing out the details the orders were sent about the change in their plans.