The moment Lysara arrived on the flagship, she was escorted to the Admiral's office.
-Fleet commander Lysara reporting as ordered.
She said immediately upon entering the office and saluting the admiral.
-At ease, Commander, take a seat.
Arien said, raising her eyes from the holo-screen and pointing to the chair opposite her desk.
-First of all, you are not in any sort of trouble, so you can relax a bit in this regard.
Arien continued seeing how nervous the elven commander was despite her efforts to hide it.
-There are multiple reasons I called you over here.
The first is to let your second-in-command have a taste of true command and assess his abilities; so far, he is doing a good job.
The second reason is that I wanted to give you a bit of advice and show you some things I wish someone had shown me before I was sent into combat.
Lysara relaxed slightly, hearing this, as she was almost certain that the admiral wanted to chew her out for her mistake of letting the enemy take the initiative the moment her fleet entered combat.
For the next hour, Arien focused her whole attention on educating the young fleet commander, who, to her complete surprise, didn't resist and actually appreciated the lesson.
Lysara knew that she was stubborn to a fault, but she never rejected advice.
She didn't always do as she was advised, but at least she listened.
In this case, she also had to admit that what the Admiral told her made a lot of sense, and she decided to use this knowledge to her advantage.
Additionally, she learned how the admiral knew her ships were losing their shields, and she planned to implement the same command structure across her entire fleet, as it was too valuable a skill to ignore.
The trick was simple.
The Admiral left the command of the battle in front of her to her second in command while she focused on tactics and logistics.
This allowed her to have an eye not only on the state of her fleet's shields, but also on their fuel and ammunition reserves.
All that was added with the help of an AI, and explained how the admiral could control her whole fleet of thousands of ships while also keeping an eye on an allied fleet.
-Admiral, could you plug the hole in the defenses for a few minutes?
I need to adjust the fleet formation and the command structure.
The fleet commander asked over the comms as soon as she returned to her flagship.
-Of course, take as much time as you need.
Arien responded with a hint of happiness in her voice.
She never expected the young elf to take her advice to heart, but it seemed that she was wrong, which made her happy.
A moment later, the Lantean fleet simply slaughtered the enemies that were coming through the hole they left for the elves and bottled up the enemy forces once again.
Seeing this, Lysara got to work, implementing everything she had just learned and even adding a few touches of her own.
She contacted her fleet and divided it into groups formed around the cruisers, essentially dividing it into squadrons, with each cruiser as a flagship of its own group.
Following that, she installed the program that Arien shared with her and instructed the captain of her flagship battleship that, from now on, he would be taking control of the battle.
The whole fleet was confused at the total overhaul of their formation and command structure, but they did as their fleet commander ordered.
The whole thing took more than two hours to be done.
-I'm sorry it took this long, Admiral, but we are ready now.
Lysara apologized to Arien.
-It's better to take longer than to do a sloppy job, Commander.
The admiral smiled with approval at the changes the young elven officer introduced into her fleet.
-We are opening the hole once again.
She added, and soon more Kinokian vessels slipped through the gap provided by the imperial forces.
This time, however, they didn't get to open fire first, since as soon as the first ships appeared, the elven fleet opened fire, destroying them on the spot.
At first, the enemy could fire off a shot or two from the heavier ships that went through, but soon enough, the hole was plugged once again.
This time, however, it was not the Lantean fleets doing, but the elven fleet, and once they plugged the hole, they kept it that way.
-Great work, Commander.
Arien said over the comms.
-Thank you, Admiral.
Lysara said with a slight smile.
She was beyond impressed by how well her fleet reacted to the changes and how easy it was to plug the hole, once everything started working and her subordinates got used to the new command style.
The fleet commander was not the only one impressed, as Teleren and Andrew were also surprised and impressed by the changes and the increase in the elven fleet's effectiveness in such a short time.
-It seems that you have achieved your primary goal for coming here.
The emperor said, seeing as the elves got better and better at blowing up Kinokian ships left and right.
-Yes, I did, but if you don't mind, I'd like to keep this fleet here for a bit longer.
If for no other reason than to let us get used to such defensive battles.
In the end, the next time such a portal might be opened in the Moon elf star empire.
Teleren answered.
-I see no problem with that, and I appreciate the help.
Andrew smiled.
He didn't mind having this fleet helping his own.
-Unfortunately, your idea had worked a bit too well.
Tanera interrupted their conversation.
-I just got word from the guild that the Kinokians are mobilizing one of their border fleets.
We can expect at least three million ships, and none of them below tier seven.
She said when the two men looked at her in surprise.
-But there is also good news.
Since this fleet is coming our way, the border it's supposed to guard will be weakened, and the enemies of the Kinokians were already notified about it and are mobilizing as we speak.
-That doesn't help us much over here.
Andrew stated dryly.
He expected the Kinokians to pack up and go home when they noticed that they were not fighting one but two empires.
However, it seemed that the mushroom bastards decided to escalate instead.
-Vulcan, can our fleets keep them at bay if they send their fleet through the portals?
Andrew asked a bit worried.
-If the imperial fleet continues to block the portals as it is doing now, then the addition of these three million ships should not have much impact on the overall situation, as the vessels coming through the portals can't have active shields.
This fleet would only become a problem if the enemy opened more than twenty more portals into our empire, which would stretch the imperial fleet thin and potentially create conditions for the enemy to gain a foothold.
The AI analyzed.
-Additionally, the enemy will be under the pressure of time, as deployment of this fleet makes their own territory vulnerable to attack, and as Tanera said, their enemies are already mobilizing.
Taking all this under consideration, I think they want to try to overwhelm our defenses and crush us as quickly as possible, and if it fails, then they will retreat to defend their territory.
Dorothy chimed in.
-Or, there is a small chance that we are not the target this time.
The analyst added, hoping that this was the case.