The Seventh Rapid Response Fleet's first battle came with extreme suddenness.
This fleet, having traveled from afar, had just passed through Star Gate No. 1 in the Iron Lion Star Cluster and was preparing to dock at a nearby Space Fortress for rest and resupply when countless flashes appeared behind it.
Nether Warships leaped out of the void one after another!
The Nether Race's Space Battleships possessed the ability to make ultra-long-range spatial jumps, but they had to use Star Gates as coordinates, so their jump points could only be near Star Gates.
To deal with the Nether Legion, the Empire stationed Space Fortresses and fleets in every Star Gate Area, controlling the Star Gates on one hand and resisting Nether Race incursions on the other.
Even so, because Nether Fleet Star Gate jumps gave no prior warning, their attacks were often extremely sudden, posing an enormous threat to the Empire's frontier star clusters.
Of course, after centuries of war, the Empire had come to understand the Nether Race very well, and the Space Fortresses in the frontier star clusters remained on alert every day.
The instant the Nether Warships appeared, the large-caliber main cannons deployed on the fortress began to glow faintly, charging at top speed.
The problem was that the Seventh Rapid Response Fleet happened to be positioned between the Space Fortress and the Star Gate. If the fortress cannons fired in a volley, they could very likely cause severe friendly-fire casualties.
Under such circumstances, fleet commander Zhao Kai immediately ordered the entire fleet to make an emergency turn to starboard, clearing sufficient Shooting Vision for the fortress cannons.
Yet just as the Seventh Rapid Response Fleet turned, vast numbers of Nether Warships unleashed dazzling Plasma Streams, launching dense bombardments against the Imperial Warships lagging behind.
Not only