Admiral Martin stood in front of a circular porthole on the outside of the bridge of the fast battleship Liberty, quietly admiring a faint blue star in the distance, which he rarely had to worry about, but now he didn't have to worry about it anymore. Everything is going on a normal trajectory, the wounded of this operation are being treated, the tired crew and pilots are getting rest, the technicians and researchers are analyzing the prototypes of the lightning fighters and the crystal data disks that they brought back in advance, the fleet in a line is heading to a space jump point in this star field, and the eight Banshee fighters are on guard patrol on the left and right wings of the fleet, and the speed of the fleet has been greatly reduced in order to take care of the several badly damaged destroyers. But it didn't matter, they had already left the Empire tracking, and after two more space jump points, they were about to return to the KJZ-11 space station.

He heard hurried footsteps behind him, but the general didn't pay attention until the hurried footsteps came to a stop behind him, and he turned back, and Captain Ralph's anxious face appeared before his eyes.

"General, something is wrong, it's a big problem." The captain said hurriedly, his eyes full of unconcealed concern, "Captain, tell you to return to the bridge as soon as possible. ”

"What's the matter? Ralph? ”

"It's the Odyssey, sir, they didn't make it to the coordinates." The captain lowered his voice and whispered.

"What?" General Martin was startled, his nerves immediately tensed, the Odyssey, a rebel cruiser has a problem is not a trivial matter, what is more terrible, this cruiser is the ship that Firefox is responsible for responding, if it goes wrong, it means that the results they have achieved at a heavy price before are likely to be lost.

When the general strode back to the bridge with a meteor, there was no longer the same leisure and relaxation in the bridge, and there was a tense and busy atmosphere everywhere. As soon as he saw the general returning, the captain of the Liberty immediately stood up from the captain's chair.

"Report the situation."

"Yes, General. According to a report from the Yasen base transferred from the KJZ-11 space station, the Odyssey encountered an Imperial fleet in the Alpha-14XY star field on the way to the receiving point, and the Odyssey failed to escape, and the cruiser was sunk. ”

"Alpha-14XY star field? How could an Imperial fleet appear in such a remote star field? Yasin base? It's very close to the place where the attack was attacked. General Martin was a little confused.

"Why the Imperial fleet is there, we don't know, General." The captain shook his head. "However, it is true that the star field is very close to the Yasen base, and the space station is now in a hurry, preparing to retreat in case of a surprise attack by the Empire."

"Alpha-14XY?" The general muttered twice, and he suddenly became angry, "From there to the receiving point, with the speed of the Odyssey, it will take at least ten hours to arrive, that is, at least ten hours before the start of the operation, we should know the news of the attack on the Odyssey, although we emphasized the need to keep the communication silent, but such a serious matter, the communication silence should be broken anyway to notify the parties, why didn't anyone notify the fleet?" At that time, we should still be able to make the necessary modifications, adjustments, or even cancel the operation. ”

The general's angry roar echoed repeatedly in the bridge, everyone lowered their heads in silence, and there was silence in the bridge.

"General, the Yassen base also received the news just now, a shuttle on a mission at the Yasin base happened to find the wreckage of the Odyssey when passing through that star field, and also rescued the two injured crew members of the Odyssey nearby, and it was only from their mouths that they learned that the Odyssey had encountered the Imperial fleet." The captain smiled wryly, "According to the two crew members, the Odyssey once issued an attack warning, but the communication was disrupted by the GANs, and the Imperial fleet also salvaged all the Odyssey's escape pods, and the two crew members were lucky not to be discovered by the Imperial fleet because the escape pods were wrapped in the wreckage of the ship's hull. It's strange that the Empire doesn't usually do that. ”

"I don't have time to worry about this now, I'll leave these things to investigate later." General Martin waved his hand in annoyance, he needed to be calm, he needed to think calmly. There are two most pressing questions now, one is whether the Imperial fleet is here for the Yasen base, and the other is that since the Imperial has discovered the Odyssey ten hours ago, it is reasonable that it should have issued a warning to the TAU-7 space station? However, the space station and the Imperial military base in the New Lyon system did not seem to have received any news. The other is the problem of receiving Lieutenant Nigaul, and we must send another receiving ship as soon as possible.

"General, I think the Imperial fleet may have other missions, not specifically for the Yasen base." After listening to the general's question, a staff officer boldly speculated.

"Oh, why?"

"Because of the time, if the Imperial fleet had come for Yasen, they would have arrived at the Yasen base in ten hours, and the base has not yet been attacked by any kind, which is enough to explain the problem. As for why the Imperial fleet didn't warn the space station, General, I think, it was the delay in the Empire's warning or they didn't know about the operation at all, they just discovered the Odyssey, maybe they didn't know about the Odyssey's mission, I believe in our people, even if the Empire captures them, it won't be so easy to dig up information from their mouths, I can't guarantee that they won't say everything in the end, but the Empire may not be able to do it in just a few hours. ”

General Martin was silent for a while, he did not doubt the staff officer's words, he himself agreed with this conclusion, he was only a little worried about the safety of the various bases of the Resistance League, especially the Yasin base, from which the Odyssey had departed, and the cruiser had visited several other Resistance bases before.

"Does the High Command have any orders for a possible raid on the Empire?" He asked.

"All nearby bases have been ordered to be put on maximum alert, all bases and outposts have been expanded to include fighter jets on patrol alert missions, and our agents lurking inside the Empire are also scrambling to understand what the Empire has gained from this encounter, but no action has been detected from the Empire yet."

"Okay." General Martin was slightly calmer in his heart, since the High Command had already made arrangements, then let it be so for the time being. Now it's time to think about the headache of how to send out the receiving ships. He shifted the subject to the second point, "So, how do we send a rescue ship as soon as possible?" Let's talk about it, what's the idea? ”

The reason why this problem is a headache is because he really doesn't have any ships to send now, and all the destroyers, cruisers or fast battleships that can be sent in the nearby star field have been put into this Firefox operation, and it will take at least six or seven days to transfer ships from other regions, who knows what else will go wrong in such a long time? Either he would order the fleet to turn to meet it, or he would have to order the nearest base in Yasen to send those unarmed, fragile, slow-moving ships or shuttles to it.

Obviously, neither is a good idea, the fleet has just gone through a terrible battle, only two fast battleships and five destroyers remain, the only cruiser has long been sunk, many ships are scarred, even the flagship Liberty is injured and needs to be repaired urgently, and there is no direct space jump point to reach from here to the star field of the contact point, it has to make a detour to several star fields, and the time is long, it is better to send a transport ship or shuttle directly from the Yasen base. However, they have just fought a fierce battle in the New Lyon system, and it is conceivable that the Imperial Army will definitely launch a rigorous search operation in the nearby star fields, especially the star fields adjacent to the New Lyon System, and it is almost certain that there will be an Imperial Army. If these barely armed ships encountered the Imperial forces, they would almost certainly die, and they had no ability to defend themselves, and they were so slow that they couldn't even run.

"My opinion is to send a transport ship or a shuttle from Yasen, what we need now is a covert retreat, not a fight." A staff officer voiced his opinion.

"What if it is discovered by the Empire? We certainly don't seek to take the initiative in battle, but once discovered by the Empire, it's quite possible, and the ships we send must have some self-defense capabilities, or must be able to escape from the Empire's pursuit on their own, and are rarely armed with slow transports or shuttles, neither. The other immediately retorted.

"If these two requirements are met, it can only be a battleship, but all our warships in the nearby star fields are here, and most of them are injured, and our fleet still has to go around a few star fields to get there, and even if we arrive, in case we are discovered by the imperial fleet and a battle occurs, we will still be no match for the imperial fleet."

"At least the battleship has a certain self-defense ability, and it still has a chance when it encounters the Imperial forces, so it will not be completely tied up......"

"Don't forget what we're going there for, the lieutenant is in a hurry to wait for our receiving ship, time is very important, we can't afford to delay the price, otherwise the empire will find the lieutenant first, everything will be over, even if the empire doesn't find the lieutenant, the longer the time drags on, the more likely the lieutenant will leave that stardust belt, the lightning fighter has the ability to jump in space, how can we find a fighter in a haystack in the vast universe? We have to take a gamble. ”

"It's unlikely that the lieutenant will leave the stardust belt, the Lightning Starfighter has a limited number of space jumps despite its ability to make space jumps, the lieutenant doesn't know the exact location of the Yasen base, and the number of space jumps required to return to the KJZ-11 space station is already more than the maximum number of space jumps the fighter can make, and I doubt that the lieutenant knows how to set the right course back to the space station. In that case, the best thing to do is to wait where you ......"

"But we can't rule out the possibility that Lieutenant Nigaul left the stardust belt to avoid the Empire's search, and he could find another star field, another complex place to hide."

"What better place to hide than that band of stardust that can seriously affect the sensor? And once the lieutenant leaves there, it will be very difficult for us to find him again, and he will not be able to find us either......"

..........

The fierce argument continued on the bridge, and General Martin frowned and sighed softly, it was his turn to make up his mind, he couldn't just listen to them arguing endlessly, the most important thing now was action.

"Pick me up the KJZ-11 space station and ask them to notify the Yasen base and send a shuttle." He finally made up his mind that although it was risky, he had no other choice but to take a gamble that the shuttle would not be discovered by the Empire.

"Wait a minute, General." Captain Ralph, who had been listening without speaking, spoke.

"Ralph, do you have any better advice?"

"Yes, General, I just remembered that we still have a cruiser to send from Yasen."

"And a cruiser? How did I not know that we still have a battleship at the Yasen base? The general asked in surprise, and he tried his best to recall that he still did not make an elephant, otherwise he would not have failed to put it into action, and he could not have made such a mistake.

"General, it's not our battleship, you forgot Sonia. Major Young? How did their Blue Angel squadron get through the Empire's defenses to the rebel base? The Archangel is currently anchored at the Yasen base, where most of the Blue Angels squadron members are located, and after Major Yang left for the operation, they were led by the deputy captain to train our own pilots. Captain Ralph reminded.

"Archangel, that's right." General Martin's eyebrows furrowed, and a smile appeared on his anxious face, "Captain, what a good idea, it's a shame that you want to get it." ”

"You've won the award, General, I've only been working with the Major a lot lately, so I can remember." The captain said humbly.

The general nodded, "Sonia at once. Major Young made a trip to the bridge of the USS Liberty. ”

"Understood, General."