On the bridge of the missile cruiser Hunter, a stern-looking man stood before the cockpit's floor-to-ceiling windows.
His sharply defined features were resolute, and his jet-black hair was neatly combed without a single strand out of place.
His name was Zhao Tianhe. He was a colonel in his early forties, the captain of this starship, and the highest-ranking commander of its three thousand crew members.
He stared unblinkingly at the boundless stars beyond the window before finally speaking after a long while.
"Still not moving?"
A troubled expression appeared on the navigator's face.
"We've already entered the hyperspace corridor, but... for some reason, it seems like we've stopped."
He phrased it tactfully because he was not entirely sure what was happening himself.
Normally, when they entered a hyperspace corridor, the starry sky beyond the windows would instantly turn a deep blue-violet. After a violent tremor, a daylight-bright glow would emerge from the black region directly ahead.
But none of that had happened now.
What was even stranger was that the warp engine had clearly started, and all the readings showed that they were inside the hyperspace corridor. They simply seemed to be "stuck" at its entrance.
Zhao Tianhe said nothing. Beside him, a woman in her thirties wore a stunned expression.
"How is that possible? We entered the hyperspace corridor but didn't move... Can hyperspace jumps even stop? I've never heard of anything like this!"
Her name was Wu Mengke. She was the executive officer of the Hunter's First Department—the ship's command division.
Put simply, she was the captain's deputy, responsible for assisting him with the vessel's daily affairs and assigning work to the duty departments.
The Human Alliance Aerospace Force was organized much like the navies of the old era, though its specific functions differed somewhat.
Zhao Tianhe fell