In this vast universe, if you want to sail across galaxies, the most important thing to rely on is the astral tunnel.

A stellar tunnel connects the two galaxies, compressing the distance of hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of light-years into a range of days, ten days, or at most about a month.

Spaceships and starships that have the ability to enter the astral tunnel essentially enter a hyperspace state after entering the tunnel.

The norm for a starship to sail through the universe is to sail within a star system at sub-light speeds, flying from one hop to another, and then entering the astral tunnel, coming to another galaxy, and finding the next hop......

This requires a star map, as well as a navigator.

The latter are specially trained psionics.

Only they can distinguish the specific location of the Astral Tunnel Hop Point in the cosmic void, and guide the ship through the tunnel to the opposite side of the tunnel.

At the same time, the so-called star map also has meaning.

The Star Chart shows the many star fields connected by the Astral Tunnel. Two adjacent galaxies can be very different in physical sense. Maybe two star systems that are physically close to each other are only a few dozen light-years apart, but because there is no direct connection between the star tunnels, they need to jump through multiple star tunnels to travel between them, so they are far apart; In the physical sense, two star systems may be separated by tens of thousands of light-years away by a star tunnel, so they are two similar places on the star map.

In the human empire, the physical distance between galaxies is of little significance. Without a stellar tunnel, relying only on the power of the ship itself, traveling at sub-light speeds, communication between the two closest galaxies is unrealistic.

Of course, physical distancing can't be completely ignored. Some cows, ghosts, snakes, and gods can really stand up to the time of I don't know how many years, slowly fly from the void of the universe, and they can really kill them.

In the territory of the empire, it is divided into four layers: the universe, the star field, the star region, and the galaxy, all according to the star map. The dense astral tunnels are like a huge network, connecting the entire empire's borders.

In the Raging Owl Galaxy, there are three astral tunnels, Tunnel 1 connects to the Koroga Galaxy, Tunnel 2 connects to the Black Arrow Galaxy, and Tunnel 3 connects not to the Pegasus Star Zone, but to the Shenjun Star Zone next door. The Pegasus Star Region and the Shenjun Star Region both belong to the Dragon Eagle Star Domain, and both are under the jurisdiction of the Eastern Celestial Domain.

Wang Jiarong's caravan came from Tunnel No. 1, and they had just finished a business in the Koroga system.

Originally, there was no such a poor country as Raging Owl in her plan for this voyage, didn't Yelicia convey her cousin's needs to her?

After pondering for a while, it was not a big problem to take a detour to the Raging Owl Galaxy, then go from Tunnel 2 to the Black Arrow Galaxy, then turn back to Koroga 3, and then return to the capital Flying Wings.

Running more distance, running two more planets, it shouldn't be a loss - at most, I can't make much, just support my cousin who played together a lot when I was a child.

Jumping from the Koroga system to the Raging Owl system, the fleet travels through the Astral Tunnel for five days. The first four days were nothing serious, and as always, I could see the strange scene outside the window, but in fact, as long as I didn't leave the range of the ship, and didn't let out any detectors or anything like that, there would be no danger.

But on the fifth day, the navigators on the Pretty Girl reported that they had detected an anomaly in the Tunnel of the Border, and that there seemed to be a fleet of people following their butts and also traveling through the Tunnel.

This made Wang Jiarong very uneasy.

The tunnel from Koroga to Angry Owl was a deserted and uninhabited waterway, and even the Empire didn't bother to build any checkpoints at the hops on either side.

Outside of the ruins of the Angry Owl, this has been going on for hundreds of years.

Who else, besides her fleet, will pass through here?

Going to the Divine Horse Zone next door?

That's not realistic, the prosperous nest capital world Koroga has a direct route to the Shenjun Star Zone. No one will go from the Raging Star to the Shenjun Galaxy, and no one will do anything that is detouring and costly.

So what's going on with this fleet?

In interstellar travel, all anomalies need to be vigilant.

Within the Empire's Celestial Domain, it's not really that safe.

Pirates are the most common threat, and there are no fewer threats from other aliens.

The Empire refers to all non-human races as Xenomorphs, and is committed to exterminating all intelligent races except humans.

Not to mention that when traveling through the Astral Tunnel, it is easy to run into some ...... Paranormal events. For example, a scrap ship that crashed in the Astral Tunnel, in the process of sailing, there are dozens or hundreds of people on the ship, and sometimes there are even dozens or hundreds more......

These things are even a little commonplace.

And now, when they clearly perceive that there is more than one ship behind their butts, in the same astral tunnel, they can't help but be careless.

After completing the astral jump, they didn't dare to stay longer, so they chose to switch engine mode immediately, gradually accelerating, trying to pull the speed to the upper limit of sub-light speed, and headed towards the angry star.

Wang Jiarong knew that Yelicia's cruiser was docked in the orbit of the Angry Owl. After joining the Quintet, her merchant ships were heavily secured.

To that end, she also ordered the ship's Star Whisperers, which are also psykers' specially trained professions, to try to communicate with the Quintet.

However, the Star Whisperers brought her rather bad news: they couldn't contact the Quintet.

The Star Whisper message had been sent, but there was no response.

This situation further deepened the anxiety in Wang Jiarong's heart.

If they can't get in touch, there are only two reasons: either their star message is blocked and can't be transmitted, or the 'Quintet' can't receive their message.

None of them is good.

When the ship is out of the transition state, it will take a certain amount of time for the engine to accelerate again, and it will take a certain amount of time for the engine to accelerate.

All she wanted now was that the accelerated process would pass quickly, and for that reason she had repeatedly urged the mechanical priest in charge of the engine.

At the same time, she also ordered that the entire fleet should enter a state of first-level combat readiness and must be ready to face the enemy at all times.

On the 'Beautiful Girl', it is equipped with 11 M-class 'hot hammer' cannons ready to go. The other three frigates are also equipped with 15 S-class 'defending' rapid-fire guns and 3 M-class 'Retribution' cluster laser cannons.

These naval guns, as well as the operators behind the naval guns, the contemplative arrays as fire control systems and navigation systems, have also entered the highest state of combat readiness.

The so-called Contemplative Array refers to the collection of 'wet pieces' composed of specially trained psionics, and even ordinary people, under the contemplative technology, with basic mechanical calculators, to assist ship operations and artillery calibration and firing.

But despite all the pre-war preparations, Wang Jiarong is still praying to the emperor, hoping that bad luck will not really befall her.

It is definitely best if nothing happens, and as for the tension and extra preparation at the moment, it doesn't matter if it is in vain.

However, not every prayer can be correspondingly good.

"They came out......" The navigator's voice sounded in Wang Jiarong's ears.

She quickly returned to the main console, and the screen cut to the opposite direction of the starship.

In the void, many ships are gradually showing their shapes.

In fact, the distance between the two sides has been more than 50,000 kilometers.

However, this distance is still too close in space.

Zoomed in to the virtual image in front of them through the Ponderor Array, the identities of the ships that followed them, crossed the hop point, and were entering the real universe were already very obvious:

Fleet of greenskinned orcs!

This can be distinguished from their exaggerated, chaotic, and random appearance like a pile of garbage spliced together. Only the battleships of the green-skinned orcs will grow into this virtue.

However, ugliness is ugly, the paint is messy, there is no beauty in the traditional sense, and the appearance is rough and does not look like a technological product...... However, it was indeed a serious starship.

"One, two, three, four...... Twelve Greenskin Battleships...... Can anyone tell me why there are so many green skins here? ”

Wang Jiarong was a little out of shape.

However, no one was able to answer her questions.

The middle and high-level managers of the caravan on the console are not uninformed. These orc ships that appeared behind were not easy to deal with.

In the starry sky, there is one most intuitive way to judge the strength of a starship: look at the size.

That, of course, is not 100% accurate, and there are countless exceptions to prove it. However, in the case that the technical level is not so large, on the whole, the larger the battleship, the stronger is the information that is valid in most cases.

And right now, four of the twelve greenskin warships are the size of destroyers in the human imperial fleet; There are eight left, also at least the size of a frigate.

And the huge, outwardly ostentatious artillery on these ships also adheres to the style of the green-skinned orcs: caliber first!

Wang Jiarong tried to keep herself calm and gave orders: "The engine crew is accelerating at full speed, we must try to get rid of these green-skinned orcs before the fleet is at speed." ”

"All fireteams, fire all at the Greenskins! Concentrate your firepower on a single target! Cause as much damage as possible! ”

"Yes!"

The whole ship, who doesn't know now that the critical moment has arrived? No one dares to be lazy when their lives are at stake.

Putting a distance and trying to escape, it's certainly the right thing to do.

The Pretty Girl is a bit larger than the average capital destroyer, but most of the space is used as a cargo hold. The strength of the Void Shield and the strength of the ship's armor itself can barely reach the level of a destroyer, but the firepower may be less than half of that of a normal destroyer at most.

The other three frigates were normal frigates, with some cargo at most.

Against the 4+8 configuration of the Green Fleet, there is no hope for a head-on confrontation.

Firing is just a dozen idle and nothing, the key is to watch running.

And in the case of fleeing at full speed, it is certainly impossible for them to adjust the hull of the ship so that all the fire can be directed at the enemy. In fact, if you fire behind you at this time, only a third of the firepower can be used.

However, the green-skinned ships had just left the Celestial Tunnel. The energy shield on the hull had been activated, but apparently it hadn't had time to reach its maximum power.

When I just jumped out of the astral tunnel, it was when the starship was relatively vulnerable.

Because of this, the concentrated firepower of the three rounds directly damaged a greenskin frigate.

The green-skinned starship's energy shield was overloaded, and in the blink of an eye, it turned from a blue glow to a dangerous red. A large number of shells passed through the overloaded energy shield and hit the hull. The armor was shattered, the hull was badly damaged, and even if you zoomed in, you could see a lot of green-skinned orcs flying out of the broken parts of the hull.

The greenskin frigate has largely lost its combat capability. If the Greenskins win the battle, they might be able to recover the ship and repair it, but at least the frigate won't be a threat in this battle.

With the victory, Wang Jiarong was somewhat invigorated, and the morale of the entire caravan was also slightly improved.

However, this is almost the only good news for the rest of the year, and the bad news is one after another.

By the time they shifted their focus to the second Greenskin, the Greenskins had emerged from the fragile state they had just completed their move. This not only means that the energy shield on their ship has begun to operate at full power and is not so easy to penetrate, but also that the weapon system on their ship has also begun to operate normally.

Eleven green-skinned starships that are still functioning are firing at the same time.

Kinetic artillery, green-skinned laser cannons, all fired violently.

The style of the greenskinned ships is in keeping with the style of their entire race. The number of various types of artillery fire on ships is generally much higher than that of human warships of the same class, and the general caliber will be larger. But at the same time, the characteristics of the fact that the accuracy is generally much worse than that of human naval guns, which are also perfectly inherited.

But the distance between the two sides is too close, and the distance between the kung fu at this time will be about 70,000 kilometers at most, but this can still be regarded as a face-to-face bombardment for space naval warfare.

The human side will suffer a great loss.

On the four ships under Wang Jiarong's command, almost at the same time, there was a flash of blue light around them at the same time, which was what the Void Shield would reveal after being exposed to a fire strike.

In the blink of an eye, the Void Shields around the four ships showed signs of turning purple, which was a sign of imminent overload.

(End of chapter)