In the ethereal space, the ethereal Immortal Interstellar Bundeswehr cruiser "Zhiyuan" spewed out a brilliant ionic tail flame, leaving the logistics supply fleet that was rapidly dispersed, and flying towards the direction of the Immortal spiral arm.

Luo Bo walked into his captain's room, and Chen Weiyin was floating in the weightless air at this time, staring at him condescendingly.

"Hello, Dr. Chen." Robb smiled and greeted warmly.

"Bastard, what the hell do you want to do?" Chen Weiyin asked emotionally.

"I just wanted to formally apologize to you. I apologize to you for my rude language earlier on board the space plane. Luo Bo said sincerely, looking up at Chen Weiyin. From this angle, Chen Weiyin, who is wearing a tight-fitting space casual suit, has a more wonderful bodyline, especially her chest is more round and prominent. Her bright face was not affected by anger, but her eyes were wide open and her skin was tight. Therefore, Robb looks at the girl in front of him more with admiration and enjoyment.

Chen Weiyin saw that his expression and tone were very sincere, and the anger in his heart subsided. But she didn't trust the other party, and warned in a threatening tone: "I warn you not to play any tricks!" ”

Robb stood still, spread his hands, and said, "I won't play any tricks on you." I really just apologized to you when I brought you. Then he apologized in a solemn tone: "I'm sorry, Miss Chen, I hope you can forgive me for my impulsiveness and forget my rude words." ”

"If you really are like you boast about, you shouldn't have treated me like that in the first place. Even if you have to apologize, you have to apologize to me in front of everyone. But you forced me to come here in an unbearable way, is there any sincerity in your apology? Chen Weiyin's dissatisfied eyes and tone showed that she did not intend to accept the other party's apology just like that.

Robb looked a little embarrassed and explained: "I'm an officer, and you're a prisoner, if I apologize to you in public, what will my subordinates think of me?" What's more, you and I were just joking at the time, and there weren't many people who knew that I threatened you, so would it do you any good to say it in public? Do you want the whole ship to know that I'm going to rip off your clothes, miss? ”

This last rhetorical question immediately aroused Chen Weiyin's anger again, and she waved her right arm furiously and slapped Robb in the face.

But Robb stood still, leaning down with agility and dodging her blow. However, Chen Weiyin used too much force, and the huge kinetic energy caused by the rapid movement of her arms and the sharp contraction of her muscles drove her body to flip up in the weightless air involuntarily.

Luo Bo calmly grabbed Chen Weiyin, whose posture was completely out of control, hugged her waist, and stopped her body from flipping. Then, in a provocative tone, he said, "Dr. Chen, I can see that you are too anxious. Not long in space, right? I tell you, I joined the Interstellar Marine Corps at the age of sixteen and spent two-thirds of my twelve years in space. It's not easy for a rookie like you to deal with me in a weightless environment. ”

"Let go of me, you bastard!" Chen Weiyin shouted angrily and hatefully.

Robb immediately pulled her back to the floor so that the electromagnetic boots on her feet could be attracted to the electromagnetic material of the floor, so that she could stand properly.

"I sincerely apologize to you." Robb then said seriously, "You should also know that in that tense environment, you are so stubborn and unwilling to cooperate, I can only scare you." Although I have offended you verbally, I sincerely apologize now. As far as I know, no Union officer has ever been so quiet about his captive, and you should be satisfied. ”

"If you let us go at once, I will be very satisfied, and even grateful." Chen Weiyin said sternly.

"It's impossible." Robb said solemnly, "I am a federal soldier, and since I have caught you, I can only deal with you in accordance with the laws and regulations of the Federation." So please don't waste your tongue and expression on this issue, I suggest that you and your colleagues still put your mind on the future and plan your new life in the Perseus Star Federation. ”

"Did you take me here just to listen to your hypocritical, meaningless words?" Chen Weiyin still maintained a dissatisfied and confrontational look and tone.

Listening to her question, Robb laughed excitedly and asked with interest, "Do you still want us to have more in-depth contact?" ”

"You ......" Chen Weiyin was suddenly so angry that he couldn't speak.

Robb didn't continue to play on the topic, and said, "Okay, Dr. Chen." Whether you accept my apology or not, I have officially apologized to you for my joke. You can go back to the cabin that was specially assigned to you. Of course, if you want to stay in my room I am also welcome. ”

"I have to accomplish one thing before I accept your hypocritical and contrived apology." Chen Weiyin said with an oath.

"What's the matter?" Before Robb's voice had disappeared, he knew what the other party was about to accomplish.

Chen Weiyin quickly slapped Robb, although not as hard as just now, but still made a crisp and loud sound on Robb's left face.

"Hooligans!" Chen Weiyin, who had finished slapping him, scolded viciously, glared at Luo Bo, and left.

"I tell you, I won't slap you in vain!" Robb screamed behind her.

After ending his entanglement with Chen Weiyin, Robb returned to the bridge. The crew also completed the overhaul of the "Zhiyuan", successfully stimulated space fluctuations, entered the speed of light, and began the voyage of 4,000 light years to the capital of the Immortal Interstellar Federation, Andromeda.

On the other hand, on the "Cyrus the Great", the flagship of the Central Fleet of the New Roman Imperial Army, the officers of the Imperial fleet were in a heated debate. Although the shadow of defeat hung over everyone's heads, the Imperial officers were still fighting over whether to regroup and fight back to the "Yi" Star Field, and the main battle faction and the retreating faction were formed at once.

Those who insist on returning to the battlefield are more out of a nihilistic sense of honor, while those who oppose it cling to the comparison of enemy and enemy forces.

Admiral Mohammad Ahmaiti, who was the chief of these people, sat at the end of the conference table and listened to his men's arguments with a stern expression. Originally, he convened the commanders of his detachments at all levels to discuss a more comprehensive and reasonable retreat plan, but he did not want it to turn into a struggle between his subordinates.

In his heart, General Ahmat hoped to lead the ship back to the "Yi" star field. His personality and consistent philosophy made him look forward to leading the fleet to another bitter and happy battle with the enemy. Although the hope of victory is really slim, he longs to die vigorously in battle and realize the destiny of a fighter. On the other hand, however, he was, after all, a general, the commander in chief of the entire "Cyrus" detachment and the special fleet of the border fleet, and he had to take responsibility for the lives of the more than 600 warships and nearly 60,000 officers and men that remained under his command. When there is no hope of victory, saving life is the key.

Jiang Ziyue, who had been ignored by commanders at all levels of the Central Fleet, did not join the controversy. But his heart, like Ahmaiti, longs to return to the battlefield. It's just that his motives are different from Ahmaiti's idea of dying to save his honor, and he wants to get revenge on his enemies after losing Chen Weiyin.

He suddenly said loudly, "Princes, please listen to me. It's up to my cruisers to launch a space storm to scatter the enemy's forces, and we'll break them down individually. This will definitely defeat the superior enemy. ”

"Good, it's a good tactic! It is completely possible to neutralize the enemy's superiority in forces. Supporters immediately embraced it, and Jiang Ziyue's proposal gave the main battle officers a new hope.

"The sheriff of the Frontier Fleet is going to be ashamed too!" The opponent raised a voice of disdain, "Your space storm only blows the enemy away from the battlefield, it can't destroy them at all, and it can't fundamentally reverse the enemy's severe situation twice as much as mine." ”

"That's right." Someone immediately chimed in, "It may seem easy to blow up the enemy's formation, but victory can only be achieved by destroying the enemy." If we are not careful, we will be caught in a hopeless war of attrition, and we will be dragged to death. ”

"And you've used your tricks many times, do you think the enemy will let you succeed easily?" Some even directly questioned his tactics.

"We can blow up the enemy's formation first and form a local advantage, and then we can annihilate them smoothly." Jiang Ziyue stated his opinion loudly, "If we can't cause a space storm for a while, we can lure the enemy and create opportunities through constant maneuvering. ”

"This will still be bogged down in a war of attrition!" Opposition remains loud.

"I didn't even have the courage to try new tactics, so I left the planet I defended and fled! How can we be worthy of the Senate and the army of the Roman people? The main battle faction shouted.

"Touching a stone with an egg without reason is not a tradition of the Senate and the Roman people's army!" The retreating faction also made a big difference.

Once again, the focus of the debate has evolved into fighting style and historical traditions.

"Okay, don't fight." Ahmaiti shouted to stop the argument among his subordinates, and then said to Jiang Ziyue, "Major Jiang, tell me what you think." ”

"Yes, General." Jiang Ziyue stood up and replied. Among the commanders and fleet staff officers present, he was the lowest in rank and the only one from the Frontier Fleet. But now, he's the center of everyone's attention.

"First of all, the 'Cyrus' fleet assumed the posture of fighting to the death with the enemy, luring them to rearrange the long linear formation, and then I directed the cruiser formation to carry out a surprise attack from the enemy's flank, launch a space storm, and blow up as many enemy formations as possible."

He said as he scribbled an animation of the telemetry on the conference table.

"I reckon that the enemy should also know that they have twice the superiority in my forces. However, due to the previous battle, our side effectively used the space storm to blow up their formation, and then formed a local advantage over the enemy, annihilating one of their ship groups in the first place. So, once we reappear, there is a good chance that they will concentrate all their forces on a decisive battle with us, trying to destroy us with overwhelming superiority. As a result, we are likely to achieve better results than we did before. That is, although I have only more than eighty cruisers left, under ideal conditions, we can still blow off half to two-thirds of the enemy's ships. ”

"Major, you said 'should', 'maybe', 'could'. There are so many uncertainties and too risky. Some of the retreating faction immediately put forward their opinions on Jiang Ziyue's idea.

"Of course, it's not possible to calculate everything right now. I have only proposed an operational direction, and the specific implementation will depend on reconnaissance and response in the event of war. Jiang Ziyue responded.

At this time, Ahmaiti said: "In the current comparison of forces, it is unrealistic to want to completely annihilate the enemy. Our goal should be to crush our opponents and make them unable to hold out in the Yi field. Major Jiang's idea inspired me to blow away the enemy with a space storm, annihilate a part of them locally, blow their confidence, and eventually cause them to collapse. ”

His words amounted to a decision. On the contrary, there are still people in the opposition faction who have raised their opinions: "Sir, if the enemy's tenacity exceeds our expectations and we are entangled to the end, I am afraid that the result will be extremely unfavorable to us." ”

"Won't we be entangled in the end?" Ahmai asked sharply, "The hope of victory is still there, and we can't give up." With the determination to die, you must fight to kill the enemy and save the honor of our imperial soldiers! ”

Admiral Ahmaiti reprimanded him like this, and the officers who were both fighting and retreating were silent. In this way, the Imperial Army made up its mind to counterattack and prepared to launch a counterattack on the Bundeswehr fleet in the "Yi" star field.

When Jiang Ziyue glided through the wide passage on a self-propelled pole and was about to leave the flagship, a colonel manipulated the self-propelled pole to catch up with him. This man was none other than Colonel Gus Whitehead, commander of the 6th detachment of the "Cyrus" fleet and captain of the battleship "Gustav II". He has frosty hair in the same sense as his last name, Whitehead. Squeezed into the ranks of quasi-senior officers like colonels, Gus, who paid attention to appearance, did not shave their heads like other officers and soldiers, but retained their characteristic white hair.

Gus is only four years older than Jiang Ziyue, but he has already become a colonel, and he has become the captain of the new battleship "Gustav II" of the "Commander" class, young and energetic. But during the argument just now, he remained silent and did not express any opinion.

"Major Jiang, do you want us all to be martyrs?" Gus Whitehead's tone was rather heavy, but his flushed face was smiling.

"What do you mean, Colonel?" Jiang Ziyue asked puzzled.

"Major, with all due respect." As a colonel, Gus politely said, "It is indeed desirable and commendable to win more with less, but it is not the norm of war after all. Your ideas are bold and new, but I must warn you that it is not you who are the commander-in-chief, but General Ahmat. ”

Gus's roundabout way of speaking did not win Jiang Ziyue's favor, but on the contrary, he felt disgusted. He said bluntly: "Colonel Whitehead, if you have any advice, please say it directly, okay?" ”

Gus Whitehead smiled, then said with a serious expression: "Major, the new tactic was proposed by you, and if this counterattack is commanded by you, maybe the hope of victory still exists." But, after all, it is General Ahmat, not you, who holds the fate of all of us in charge. You have inadvertently misled General Ahmaiti, and you will surely lead us to the abyss of destruction. Do you think that the illusion that the enemy is twice as large as ours and that we are still fantasizing about being able to defeat each of them is realistic? ”

"I have that confidence." Jiang Ziyue said firmly, "Fighting a war is based on the mind, not just by data. ”

"If you are confident, it does not mean that the general has confidence, it does not mean that the officers and men of the whole army are confident, and it does not mean victory." Gus said unceremoniously, "Didn't you listen to what the general said at the end?" Redeem the honor of the soldiers of our empire. This time he fought back, he was just fighting for honor, a veteran who lost the battle, apart from honor, what reason could he continue to fight? ”

"Major, you and I are both a new generation of imperial soldiers, unlike generals who grew up in the shadow of the heroes of Marshal Du Yimin and General Su Yu, our character is more of an unrestrained, free and independent quality. Therefore, if we have a more rational and agile mind, you will create the unheard-of space storm tactic, and I will realize the fatal danger of counterattacking under this disadvantage. Like a psychoanalyst, Gus gushed about comparing himself and Jiang Ziyue to the old general.

"Colonel Whitehead, you have said all this to make a point that even with my new tactics, under the command of General Ahmaiti, I will still fail?" Jiang Ziyue summarized the other party in the form of rhetorical questions.

"Personally, I'm quite appreciative of your new tactics. But the new tactic must be executed by someone who understands it in order to be effective. He did not directly answer the other party's question, and tactfully added.

"Then why didn't you say a word just now, and didn't stop the general's final decision?" Jiang Ziyue was impatient with his speaking style, and questioned with a dissatisfied tone.

After listening to Jiang Ziyue's questioning, Gus, who kept a smile, looked at Jiang Ziyue with interested eyes and asked, "Major, will you put yourself in the shoes of General Ahmaiti?" When there is no hope of victory, should you lead a group of defeated soldiers back to the planet Iserlohn and bear the humiliation of defeat and the infamy that threatens the national strategy, or should you die heroically in the death of the enemy and keep an ethereal and brilliant reputation? ”

But he obviously didn't expect Jiang Ziyue's answer, and immediately after asking, he said: "We have become a pawn who can't turn back. I just want to remind you that we pawns are worth far more than sad sacrifices and empty honors. After all, there is a saying that 'the pawn who crosses the river tops the cart'. You and I are both pawns, but you and I are both big chariots, and we can also gallop across and lead the opponent's army. ”

"I'm a little obscure, but I hope you understand what I'm struggling with. Farewell, Major, I hope to see with you the dazzling light of the two gods of war. After Gus finished speaking, he accelerated his self-propelled pole and overtook Jiang Ziyue.

Jiang Ziyue could understand his last sentence. That phrase was a greeting from many Imperial soldiers before the decisive battle, which meant that they hoped that they would not die and return to the planet Iseron alive together to see the light of the two stars, "Whitzilopochtli" and "Shakti".

Gus's white head and black uniform stood out in the passage of the "Cyrus the Great", but soon disappeared around the corner at the end of the passage. In fact, his words also clearly pointed out that the commander of the fleet, Admiral Mohammed Ahmat, did not have the confidence to win. Jiang Ziyue's advice strengthened Ahmaiti's determination to die, so that he found a grand reason to counterattack and persuaded his subordinates to accompany him to the funeral.

Not to mention General Ahmat, he wants to kill him and fight to the death with the enemy. What Ahmaiti lost was an "easy" planet, and he Jiang Ziyue lost the landing team of the scientific expedition team and his beloved woman. For a man, this is often more motivating than failure.

Almost all living things are struggling to survive and reproduce, humans need territory for survival, and women need for reproduction. Now that the territory is lost, and the women are also lost, if they don't fight to the death, do they still have to survive.

Gus can understand Ahmaiti's feelings, but he can't understand Jiang Ziyue's distress. Of course, even if the counterattack is now defeated by the federal army and the interstellar planet "Yi" is recaptured, Jiang Ziyue has no possibility of seeing his "ex-girlfriend" Chen Weiyin again. Until now, Chen Weiyin can still be regarded as uncertain about life and death. Therefore, he can only vent his worries and longing for the enemy, hoping to relieve the pain of losing his lover.

What Gus didn't expect at all was that he persuaded Jiang Ziyue not to become cannon fodder for General Ahmati, who had lost his mind, fighting for the empty honor, in fact, Jiang Ziyue's psychology had also been blinded by anger and revenge.

Ahmat readjusted the configuration of the "Cyrus" fleet in accordance with the new tactics proposed by Jiang Ziyue. Nearly 500 battleships will form a capital ship group, which will assume a decisive posture in front of the Bundeswehr. In order to make Jiang Ziyue's space storm tactics more effective, Ahmat transferred the remaining more than 100 cruisers, plus half of the strength of the cruiser that was originally guarding the rendezvous point, to Jiang Ziyue's direct command. In this way, Jiang Ziyue had nearly two hundred cruisers under his command.

The space where the Imperial Army was assembled was busy. Huge supply ships spread out to dock warships, deliver ammunition and energy, and repair machines, while aerospace planes shuttled densely between warships to transport supplies and personnel. All are fully prepared for the upcoming battle.

After the Imperial fleet finished replenishing and resting for a short time, it dispersed and prepared to pounce on the interstellar planet "Yi" star field.