263

Rewind time to five minutes ago.

On the bridge of the Akagi, the commander of the 1st Patrol Squadron, Shao Si? Claude frowned and looked at his angry men. His face, which had almost entirely inherited his mother's Oriental roots, looked quite serious—but there were few times when he didn't.

"The enemy did this because they wanted us to divide our forces to hunt them down, so I objected to that." The captain of the Akagi retorted loudly to the chief staff officer of the fleet, "We have all seen the combat effectiveness of that ship, and if we divide our forces to pursue it, we may be defeated by each one." The enemy deliberately embodied such regularity in the warp escape route, and must have been prepared! ”

"But if we continue to pursue them endlessly, the fleets loyal to the Society or to the House of Belle may arrive, and then our plan will be utterly defeated, and even if they do not come, according to the calculations of our computers, the enemy will not be able to keep up with them if they warp like this fifteen times or so. That damn new ship is trickier than we thought, and we have to figure out how to do something! ”

"Enough!" Shao Si? Although modern humans have long since shifted most of their communication to the Internet, the most effective way to stop quarrels is always to raise the volume, show momentum, and do everything with a single drink.

Sure enough, the command network fell completely silent.

"We don't divide our troops, we have to pinch our fists together to have strength, you know!"

"But sixteen more warps, and the enemy ......"

"That can't be helped, can it? The responsibility on Mr. Lin's side will be taken care of by me. You have more important things to do in the future, and you must not hurt the peace here. Sincere cooperation is the most important thing, and the First Patrol Fleet is a mobile unit that Mr. Lin has high hopes for, and it will be entrusted with important tasks in the future! ”

"Warp is over."

The captain's words interrupted Shao Si? Claude's precepts. All attention was focused on the parameters displayed by the battleship's detection system.

"Confirm the enemy ship, the enemy ship's warp engine has been started, and the warp parameters are being analyzed!"

"Damn it!" The chief staff officer slammed the table hard, "They ran away again!" ”

"The parameter analysis is completed, and the warp speed parameters of the ship are set." The captain continued to perform his duties regardless of the feelings of the staff officers behind him.

Shao Si? Claude cleared his throat and drew everyone's attention to himself again. Only then did he say: "You should all be like me, Lord Lin Zhengxiong has the grace of knowing us, although we can't repay this kindness this time." But in the future, we will have the opportunity to repay even more. So this time ......"

"This ship, start sailing at warp speed." The captain's shouting interrupted Shao Si again? Claude's words.

The fleet commander took a deep breath, calmed down for a moment, and continued: "In short, don't worry too much about today's failure. ”

"Your Excellency, Commander. I don't think you should give up until the end. At least until we've finished the remaining sixteen warps. You know, if only one of these sixteen warps, the god of probability sends us close enough to the ship, then we have successfully caught it. ”

What the chief staff officer said is actually right, the accuracy of the human warp algorithm is still not enough, and the way out of the warp after the warp is over basically depends on the preference of the god of probability - but no matter what, it will appear within the pre-defined range before the warp speed. Because of this, the human fleet has to stagger the warp time a little when performing the fleet-level warp. Once in position, the warp damping field is spread out in the smallest range, so that the ships coming behind will not appear too close to the ships arriving in front of them and cause accidents.

The reverse is true. As long as Shao Si? When a ship in Claude's fleet was favored by the god of probability and appeared in a position just enough to cover the Enterprise in the warp damping field, the First Cruise Fleet's mission took a turn for the worse.

But Shao Si? Claude couldn't have been so optimistic.

Even if it does, what if it does? The ship was a prototype of a new weapon, supposedly powered by super-civilizational technology, and it fled during the von Brown battle without using that weapon, but that doesn't mean it won't be used now. The power and actual combat effectiveness of that weapon are unknown, so it would be nice if the entire fleet were in the vicinity of the enemy, but if only a single ship appeared around that ship, it might be used as a test of the sword.

Shao Si? Claude pursed his lips, trying not to imagine the situation.

At this time, the captain reported: "There are thirty seconds left to finish the warp." ”

The chief staff officer said: "Now that the enemy has almost finished the warp speed, maybe they have already begun to reset the warp parameters." ”

The staff officers on the bridge did not respond.

"Ten seconds before the end of the warp."

Shao Si? Claude suddenly wanted to have one, humans have long developed an alternative to tobacco, but there are also retroists who are obsessed with the "taste" of tobacco - in fact, they are obsessed with a feeling, but they will never admit it.

Seeing that the commander took out a cigarette case, the chief staff officer immediately took out a lighter in his pocket and was ready to light a cigarette for the commander. His firebolt was purchased specifically for this purpose, and it was purchased online for fifty credits, which is so expensive because the store claims that it is a famous brand of origin on Earth.

Shao Si? Claude put the cigarette in his mouth and held it.

The chief staff officer put the lighter on the head of the cigarette, opened the lid of the lighter, and tossed the roller vigorously to ignite the oil.

That's when the warp is over.

The Chief Staff Officer was still trying to make a fire - he should have practiced a few more times beforehand, these antique designs were really not easy to use!

Shao Si? Claude's cigarette clattered and fell on the table.

"Commander?" The chief staff officer asked in surprise.

He noticed that the commander's eyes were furious, staring deadly ahead.

Only then did the chief staff officer notice that there was already a wail in the command network.

Then he downloaded the data from the command network of the battleship's detection system, and the horse was like dead ashes. He turned and joined the others in looking at the gas giant on the main screen, which was expanding dramatically.

At this time, the communication system received the communication from the enemy ship, and no officer had time to deal with this communication, so the main engine of the battleship took it upon itself to report the communication to the command network.

"Text communications were sent from enemy ships that read: 'This is a gift from McCluskey.'"

And at this time, the figure of the enemy ship disappeared from the detection range of the Akagi's detection system in an instant, and it obviously entered warp sailing.

At the same time, the rapidly expanding giant's journey of destruction entered the sixth phase, and the expansion rate suddenly increased thousands of times, completely engulfing several of its moons and the three human ships in orbit.

**

The bridge of the Wyvern.

The captain, who had just been scolding the captain for making a mistake, looked at everything in front of him in amazement, and thanks to the captain, they appeared about 210,000 kilometers away from the other ships of the fleet, which was already much higher than the planet's high orbit, and the power of planetary destruction was not so terrible, and the Wyvern was barely blocked by its shields and hull structure - at the cost of losing all heat-resistant materials and electronics on the planetary side - all of which were destroyed by intense optical and electromagnetic radiation.

"About fifteen hundred people were seriously wounded," the first mate reported in a loud voice, "and another six hundred and fifty-six were directly roasted to death." We've had about 700 holes in the flying rocks since the shield was overloaded, and we can't continue our mission, Mr. Captain. ”

"The enemy will only have more holes in his body than we do." Captain Mautenpass shouted angrily, "We have just had three of our comrades killed by the enemy with this despicable trick! If we stop the pursuit at this time, we will be haunted by the souls of our dead comrades for the rest of our lives! Sail long, are the enemy's warp speed parameters recorded? ”

"It's recorded, and the flagship Akagi also used Ansebo to send its own recorded data at the last minute to help us correct it."

"That's right! Your Excellency, Commander, this is how you have entrusted us with the responsibility on your shoulders! ”

"But, sir, history ......"

"Go to the special history! This time, the Enterprise didn't have Yorktown to block it, and there was no South Dakota to protect it! It's a battle of honor, and we're going to catch up and go head-to-head. ”

"Will the enemy really go head-to-head with us?" The staff officer asked another question.

"Yes," replied Mauteempass confidently, "he will, because he has to make sure that no one is tracking him, so it doesn't matter if we arrive a little late, because the ship will be waiting for us at the destination of this warp to confirm our victory." ”

"In that case," said the staff officer with a worried expression, "shall we rush over like this?" At least fix it here and be prepared......"

"Idiot! We are not sure how long the enemy will wait there! What exactly are you afraid of? According to intelligence, they don't even have carrier-based aircraft, and they can only engage in close combat to win against us! The advantage is on our side! Moreover, Mr. Lin Zhengxiong gave us the name Flying Dragon because he wanted us to use our own actions to break the groundless superstitions in the Space Army! ”

As Mauternpass said this, everyone on the bridge subconsciously looked at the screen, where the destroyed planet was collapsing.

Of the six large cruisers of the First Cruise, three had been destroyed, two had been held back by Task Force XVII, and one lone Wyvern was left, and now its commander was planning to direct it to face the enemy's large cruiser alone, which was still called the Enterprise.

The officers on the bridge looked at each other.

At this time, the first mate stood up, pulled out his gun and pointed it at Mauteempass's head: "According to the combat regulations of the Space Army, when the supreme commander loses his mind, the junior officer can remove the commander from his post by voting, and the voting adopts a one-vote veto system. Now the 18 officers of the ship above the rank of major are invited to vote. ”

There was one negative vote.

Mautenpass laughed and gave the order to start the warp. (To be continued......)