Chapter 56.2
After Ye Pei and Mondrian left, Qi Yan stood in place for a moment before retracing his steps back to his room to sleep.
Qi Yan was awakened in the middle of the night by Pojun. The room was dimly lit.
“What’s the matter?”
Pojun replied, “The General wants me to take you to the command room.”
Qi Yan’s voice was still slightly hoarse from just waking up, but he was fully awake now, “Has the battle begun?”
“Yes.”
When Qi Yan arrived at the command room, the meeting inside had just begun. Lu Fenghan was the first to notice him enter and gestured towards an empty seat behind him.
Qi Yan didn’t pay much attention to the various appraising looks directed at him. Following Lu Fenghan’s indication, he sat down beside him.
Lu Fenghan got straight to the point without any small talk, “The new detection system provided by ‘the other side’ has been successfully debugged. The mission this time is codenamed Salvo.” He looked up at a middle-aged soldier and asked, “Is the Pingning fully equipped?”
“Commander, the Pingning and its escort ships, as well as the comprehensive supply ship, are all fully equipped!”
“Hmm,” Lu Fenghan instructed, “Pojun, show me the Pingning.”
The next moment, a hologram appeared above the circular conference table, displaying a starship before everyone.
The front of the starship was equipped with high-energy particle cannons, with forty-nine missile thrusters on the left, and thirty-six highly sensitive turrets and laser beams on the right. Its entire body was black, resembling a shadow in space.
Lu Fenghan: “Internal view.”
As soon as he spoke, the shell of the starship quickly peeled away, revealing forty destroyers and twenty small reconnaissance ships inside.
Lu Fenghan nodded, scanning the room. “Prepare for action. May you all be victorious.”
The people around the table all stood up straight, heels clicking together as they saluted Lu Fenghan and quickly left the command room.
Once the command room cleared out, Lu Fenghan took off his military jacket and draped it over Qi Yan’s shoulders. His voice, compared to just moments ago, seemed to have thawed a layer of ice. “Just woke up?”
“Yeah, felt a bit tired, so I slept.” Qi Yan could still feel Lu Fenghan’s warmth lingering on the clothes draped over him. He gently sniffed it and, for some reason, felt the urge to talk more with Lu Fenghan. After a moment of thought, he brought up, “I ran into Ye Pei and Mondrian when I came out of the equipment room.”
Many new recruits had arrived this time, and Lu Fenghan only had a general idea of their formations and training progress.
“Are they in the Technical Department?”
“Yes, with recommendation letters from Professor Fu.”
Hearing these names, Lu Fenghan suddenly felt as if he had flipped through hundreds of pages of a calendar.
Looking out the porthole again, he couldn’t help but keenly realize once more that this was indeed the front line of the Southern Cross Region.
At this moment, the Pingning had already begun to slowly sail out. Despite its massive and cumbersome hull, it moved with remarkable agility, silently gliding into the depths of space.
Seeing Qi Yan gaze out of the porthole, Lu Fenghan explained, “The battle plan is quite simple this time. The Pingning will serve as the main force. First, we’ll clear out several of the enemy’s resource supply stations, then use the high-sensitivity particle cannons to blast a few small asteroids. Once Donald receives the signal, he will naturally lead his troops through the wormholes.
“However, there are many wormholes, and we can’t determine which one they’ll come through. That’s where the ‘Windcatcher’ comes in. Wherever there’s a high-density heat signal, we’ll set up an ambush at the jump point ahead of time, using the time difference to our advantage.”
Vincent flashed a grin, revealing a set of white teeth. “This time, we spared no expense in preparing gifts for Donald. We’re just waiting for him to bring his main force over so we can open fire to welcome them!”
It wasn’t long before reports started coming in over the communication channel.
“Commander, Supply Station F-074 has been destroyed!”
“…Supply Stations F-075 and F-077 have been destroyed!”
“……”
“Defense network of Mining Star K-N765 has been damaged by 98%.”
“Landing ships in position…”
Just over half an hour later, five planets on the virtual starmap already had the shield and sword banner replanted on them.
At that moment, Pojun alerted, “General, the detection system has picked up a high-density heat signal at Jump Gate Y801. Estimated force: two main battleships. Time until exit: 2 minutes and 21 seconds. Jump Gate Y806 shows a weaker signal. Estimated force: one medium-sized ship and twenty destroyers. Time until exit: 2 minutes and 55 seconds.”
Judging by the distribution of forces and the time difference, Donald was employing a pincer attack.
Lu Fenghan issued simultaneous orders, “Escort ships, unload bomb reserves to 20%. Main battleship, reduce to 50%. Once unloaded, retreat in an E-shaped path to thirty firing ranges away. Pingning, turn the cannons towards the exit of Y806. If anyone comes out, bombard them with missiles. Don’t hold back. Destroyers, prepare to assist.”
“Yes!”
Two minutes later, before the rebels could react after leaving the wormhole, the bombs placed at the exit were triggered!
Against the black curtain of space, a massive burst of flames erupted. The orange-red blaze even cast a faint glow on the dark surface of Pingning.
At the same time, aboard Donald’s command ship, countless dots representing starships vanished within three seconds, shocking Donald to his feet. “What’s going on? Confirm if it’s communication interference!”
Soon, the communications officer reported back, “No interference signals detected ahead!”
At that moment, Donald’s heart pounded like a drum. Not a single person in the command room dared to speak.
If it wasn’t communication interference, what did it mean for all the dots to vanish at the same time?
It only meant that the entire fleet had been annihilated by the Expeditionary Force in a matter of seconds!
At this moment, he pondered many possibilities. The most likely was that there was a traitor who leaked the jump point coordinates, and Lu Fenghan intentionally recreated the scene of their major defeat!
With a grim expression, Donald sat back in his chair, hands clenched on the armrests. “I need to know what just happened!”
Meanwhile, aboard the Expeditionary Force’s command room, Qi Yan was examining the incoming information from the front.
After comparing the data obtained from the new detection system with the data from three seconds after the rebels exited the wormholes, Qi Yan concluded that there was no margin for error.
Having dealt with the rebel fleet’s main battleships, leaving behind a few destroyers to clean up, the Pingning swiftly passed through the wormhole, heading towards the direction of Turin.
Lu Fenghan had seven-tenths of his focus on the battle, while the remaining three-tenths were fixed on Qi Yan. He saw him stifle a yawn discreetly behind his hand, tears of fatigue instantly dampening his eyelashes.
“Tired?”
Qi Yan shook his head.
In the six months they spent together in Leto, Lu Fenghan probably understood Qi Yan’s small expressions better than Qi Yan himself.
Without exposing Qi Yan, Lu Fenghan patted his own thigh.
Qi Yan hesitated for two seconds before moving closer and resting his head on Lu Fenghan’s thigh. Immediately, the coat he had been wearing was spread out and draped over him again.
Lu Fenghan covered Qi Yan’s eyes and whispered, “Go to sleep.”
Qi Yan blinked.
He couldn’t help but reflect that in recent days, his behavioral logic seemed to have gone awry.
With the new detection system confirmed to be functioning properly, he could easily go back to his room to rest. Even if he needed to stay just in case something happened, he could sleep on the conference table.
Why did he want to sleep on Lu Fenghan’s thigh?
However, he had slept like this before, more than once.
Whenever he had past memories to compare with, Qi Yan would simply stopped overthinking.
So, before long, Lu Fenghan noticed that Qi Yan’s breathing had become steady, indicating that he had fallen asleep.
The duration of the battle did not last long.
After dealing with the vanguard of the rebel forces, the Pingning swept through like a sharp bamboo knife, catching the rebels off guard while they were still trying to understand the situation. They didn’t even react when missiles were right in front of them.
Once the shield and sword banner was planted on Turin, Lu Fenghan gave the order, “Everyone performed admirably. Wrap things up. It’s time to head back.”
This battle served two purposes: to test the new detection system and to boost the morale of the Expeditionary Force with a victory.
Or rather, not just the Expeditionary Force, but the entire military and the entire Alliance needed such a complete and decisive victory.
On the Alliance’s Foundation Day, the loss of the capital star had already spawned countless rumors, such as ‘the rebels are invincible,’ to spread across the entire territory of the Alliance and fill everyone’s ears.
Such rumors could only be dispelled by a flawless victory.
Therefore, Lu Fenghan wasn’t planning to pursue further. Instead, after capturing Turin, he immediately called everyone back.
An hour later, as the fleet returned, countless repair robots swarmed in to begin repairing the damaged starships.
After delegating the follow-up tasks to Erich, Lu Fenghan bent down and scooped Qi Yan up into his arms.
Qi Yan’s eyelashes fluttered slightly, but he didn’t wake up. Just like before, he unconsciously gripped Lu Fenghan’s coat collar, like a frightened little animal afraid of being abandoned.
Lu Fenghan held him tighter.
Before leaving, Lu Fenghan turned to his adjutant, “The Alliance has moved the entire central command to Odin, but the Leto Daily is still around, right?”
Vincent nodded. “It moved too. When it first relocated, morale was unstable, and someone suggested renaming it to Odin Daily, but it was rejected. General Nie said that when we return to Leto in the future, we’ll have to change it back, which is a hassle.”
Vincent, mindful of the sleeping Qi Yan, spoke softly.
Lu Fenghan nodded. “Send the detailed information about this battle to the Leto Daily and have them write a front-page headline.”
Vincent continued, “Should we also make sure the people of Leto hear about this first victory?”
“Hmm,” Lu Fenghan looked through the porthole at the slowly moving hull of Pingning, “People always need a bit of hope to keep going.”
Just like during the six months on the Dawn planet, the person in his arms was his hope, his reason to keep going.
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