Scenes from the battlefield flashed rapidly before his eyes. This battle had come under strange circumstances—the mixed fleet had warped into this star system, only to be attacked almost immediately upon arrival. The coincidence was too perfect.
Liu Hai pulled up the local star map, and a projection of the star system appeared before him. With a few swipes of his hands, the system's planets appeared and disappeared alongside sparse detection data.
"Gas giants?" Liu Hai scanned the star system. Though the rudimentary scans provided no deeper information, it was enough for him to form a basic understanding.
"Scan those gas giants for energy signatures," he emphasized, marking two particularly massive ones—each over 50,000 kilometers in diameter and orbited by multiple moons.
"Sync this intel to the commander." Even while assessing the enemy, he didn't forget to relay critical information to the fleet's leadership.
They had just arrived in this star system, and with so little intel, they were at a disadvantage in terms of terrain and timing. Unity was already shaky—every scrap of information they gathered could mean another chance for the fleet to fight back.
"Energy signatures detected at target locations—likely Energy Extraction and Conversion Devices."
Liu Hai immediately pulled up the scan data and realized with horror that the gas giants were covered in dense clusters of red dots, like a face pockmarked with chickenpox.
"Damn it!"
The realization struck him like a bolt. He immediately contacted Li Yali: "This star system is their power station! There must be a defensive network here—we need to leave now, or we're dead once their fleet returns!"
Li Yali, who had been directing the fleet's fighting retreat, was stunned by the message. What kind of luck was this? A single warp jump had landed them right under the enemy's defenses!
The fleet immediately veered off course, abandoning any thought of using the planets for cover. Instead, they made a desperate dash for the edge of the star system. At the same time, Li Yali decisively abandoned the tens of thousands of Fighter Mechs they had already deployed.
Let the mechs keep the enemy fighters and turrets occupied—the fleet needed every ounce of speed to escape.
The enemy commander quickly realized their intent to flee and abandoned the plan to herd them into an ambush. From within the asteroid belt, hidden gunships shed their disguises, their metal barrels swiveling to lock onto the mixed fleet.
After a brief charge-up, thousands of energy beams lanced out, engulfing the fleet in a blinding storm of light so intense it eclipsed the central star.
"Corvette Three has detonated!"
"Destroyer Five has lost propulsion—Reactor Force Field collapsing! It's going critical!"
"Cruiser Fifteen's Shields are down! Outer armor compromised—emergency repairs underway!"
"Destroyer Two's thrusters are destroyed—it's dead in the void!"
"Damn the Katun Civilization!" Li Yali cursed inwardly, though her expression remained ice-cold as she issued orders.
"All crew on damaged warships—abandon ship immediately. Friendly vessels, prepare for rescue operations."
Several cruisers immediately turned back, firing Tractor Beams to secure the Escape Pods jettisoned from the crippled ships. They locked onto the pods with force fields and began hauling them in, all while accelerating at full power toward the unstable region beyond the star system.
Liu Hai watched as several of their warships were lost under the enemy's asteroid turrets in such a short time—these were the hard-earned assets he had painstakingly accumulated!
"Damn it, don't let me run into you again in the future. I swear I'll beat the shit out of you for revenge."
After enduring three rounds of artillery fire, the fleet had accelerated to twenty percent sublight speed. Under free maneuvering, the enemy turrets' targeting efficiency had dropped to a safe threshold.
During the fleet's exit from the star system, aside from the turret interceptions in the asteroid belt and sporadic harassment from hidden fighter groups, they encountered no heavy assaults from the enemy. This allowed the fleet to leave the space-stabilized region within a few hours, making warp drive possible.
Just as the fleet was preparing to activate warp and depart the star system, an unexpected piece of intelligence led Liu Hai to order a temporary halt to the warp drive operation.
"Take a look at this detection report. The analysis from the staff suggests it's an energy tide caused by a fleet battle. What do you think?" Liu Hai sent the data to the others for their input.
"What's your take on it?" Irina had also detected the energy signature on the opposite side of the star system. But intelligence was just intelligence—unverified information could easily lead them astray.
Liu Hai was deeply frustrated. They had set out with twenty-two ships, and now five were lost in a single battle. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. None of their previous engagements had been this costly.
"My idea is to send a ship to scout the situation. If it benefits us, we'll strike. I won't rest easy until we've taken some interest back."
"Sending a warship to scout is fine, but we're not entirely out of danger yet. To avoid being encircled by the enemy fleet, we need to find a secure position first." Irina believed self-preservation was paramount—reckless aggression didn't serve their interests.
Liu Hai had no objections. He immediately dispatched a corvette to warp to the opposite side of the star system for reconnaissance, while the rest of the fleet activated warp drive to escape enemy detection range within the system.
Two hours later, the corvette transmitted detailed information back. Only then did Liu Hai realize the truth—it wasn't that the enemy lacked a fleet, but rather that they were too preoccupied to deal with him.
On the opposite side of the star system, Du Jia, a pioneer from Jingmen, was leading his fleet in battle against the Katun Civilization's exploration fleet, the rulers of this star system. The two sides had been fighting for nearly a month.
The space beyond the star system was littered with wreckage from hundreds of warships. Both sides had deployed five to six hundred vessels, with Du Jia's forces boasting three light carriers. His main base was in a star system five light-years away, equipped with a rudimentary processing center, so he had no qualms about expendable losses like fighter jets.
The sudden appearance of the mixed fleet in the star system led the Katun explorers to believe their strategy had worked—they had successfully lured Du Jia into splitting his forces to attack the star system's energy conversion base. Upon detecting the fleet's presence, they launched a full assault, hoping to deliver a decisive blow while Du Jia's forces were divided.
But Du Jia had a surprise for them—he hadn't split his forces at all. Millions of fighter jets suddenly surged forth, tangling with the enemy's hastily advancing fleet.
In just a few short hours, the Katon Fleet had already lost nearly a hundred warships. By the time they realized the situation was unfavorable and attempted to retreat from the battlefield, it was too late.
Without the support of the star system's defensive network, the Katon Fleet's long-range strike capabilities plummeted while they found themselves besieged by swarms of fighter jets. Every capital warship was relentlessly assaulted by tens of thousands of fighter jets, their thick Energy Shields on the verge of collapse within mere minutes under the swarm's sacrificial attacks.