At this moment, the ground crew in the battlecruiser's hangar were busy conducting pre-sortie checks on the mechs.
"Zhang Hu, are the mechs ready?"
Lin Fan, who had just changed into his pilot suit and entered the hangar, shouted loudly.
"Commander, they're ready!"
"Good. Get in. We're going to bring Deputy Liang back!"
"What? Commander, we can go. You—"
"Shut up. Follow orders!"
The moment Zhang Hu heard that Lin Fan intended to personally lead the rescue of Liang Xue, he immediately panicked.
What if something happened to him? That would be disastrous.
But just as he was about to try persuading him, Lin Fan cut him off.
Still, Zhang Hu remained somewhat hesitant.
"Do you want me to throw you in confinement? What are you standing around for? Let me tell you something—there's another nickname of mine that nobody else knows: Humanity's Strongest Mech Pilot!"
With that, Lin Fan vaulted into a mech and sealed the cockpit.
Lin Fan was not completely bluffing. After completing the system's temporary mission three, his Mech Piloting ability had reached A rank. Among humanity's current pilots, that made him an ace among aces.
After all, ordinary humans could not compare to Lin Fan in physical ability. No matter how gifted they were, their physical limitations would prevent them from reaching their full potential.
Take reaction speed, for example. The limit for an ordinary human was 100, while Lin Fan's was 350.
In other words, even if humanity had A-rank mech pilots, physical differences meant they would still be weaker than an equally A-rank Lin Fan.
Seeing Lin Fan enter the cockpit, Zhang Hu finally snapped out of it. The commander had already gotten in—what else could he do?
He immediately called for the nine other assembled pilots to board the remaining ten mechs.
Three minutes later, eleven mechs launched from the battlecruiser and sped toward Liang Xue's coordinates.
At the same time, however, the more than two thousand retreating Orc Rebel Army fighters had apparently received the signal as well. Around a hundred of them turned around and flew directly toward Liang Xue's escape pod.
Lin Fan checked the tactical display. It would take roughly ten minutes to reach Liang Xue, but the Orc Rebel Army fleet had already begun moving, charging toward the 101st Task Force Fleet.
Who was Lin Fan? A human whose brain development had reached 24%. Forget multitasking between two things—he could handle three or four at once without issue.
While piloting his mech forward, Lin Fan watched the tactical display fixed before him and calmly issued orders to the fleet.
Their current location was truly unfavorable. The negotiation site had been chosen in a relatively open area of the Asteroid Belt, with little terrain available to exploit.
But it was not entirely hopeless, because Lin Fan had noticed that the Orc Rebel Army fleet formation had obvious, serious flaws.
First, they only had two battlecruisers, ten carriers, and a mere sixteen cruisers. The remaining three hundred-plus ships were destroyers and frigates.
Most likely, the battlecruiser captains were all Adams's trusted men, so the people loyal to the so-called First Prince could only infiltrate smaller warships, mainly destroyers and frigates.
Furthermore, the fleet's coordination was clearly poor. Even minor formation changes became a complete mess.
Still, after thinking it over, Lin Fan understood. This was a fleet hastily assembled by infiltrators. Such poor performance was entirely understandable.
"Fleet, form an assault formation with the battlecruisers as the spearhead. Advance at maximum speed and break through their center directly."
"I'll rendezvous with the fleet on the way!"
"Remember, concentrate fire and take out their only two battlecruisers first."
"Understood!" The tactical officer's voice came through the comms.
Immediately afterward, the 101st Task Force Fleet began reorganizing. The battlecruisers moved to the front, the carriers took the middle, while cruisers, destroyers, and frigates formed a protective screen around the carriers.
The fleet formation was expected to be fully reorganized in ten minutes.
Several minutes later, Liang Xue sat inside the escape pod and looked outside through the porthole.
The sight made her heart sink, because she saw a squadron of red-glowing Orc fighters rapidly flying toward her. Light was already gathering in their mounted laser cannons.
Liang Xue knew that in the next second, they would fire, and her escape pod would never withstand the shot.
Yet the first person who came to Liang Xue's mind was Lin Fan—the man she somewhat disliked, the jerk who had said he would marry her when they were children, only to fail to recognize her after growing up.
I wonder if he'll be even a little sad when he sees that I'm dead. Will he remember who I am?
At that thought, Liang Xue actually smiled faintly and prepared to face her final moment.
However, instead of seeing a red beam shooting toward her, she saw a green beam flash past from the left and pierce straight through the fighter that had been about to fire.
Immediately after that, a mech appeared before her, filling the entire porthole.
"Who is it?"
Liang Xue could not help asking herself that question.
"Liang Xue, are you still alive?"
"Uh, I'm still here. I can see the rescue mech already."
"Good. Put on your helmet, exit the pod, and get into the mech!"
"Understood!"
Using his own mech to shield the escape pod, Lin Fan fired six times in rapid succession, directly taking down six fighters that were closing in.
"Zhang Hu, cover me! I'm pulling Deputy Liang out!"
"Understood!"
The moment Lin Fan saw the ten mechs led by Zhang Hu arriving, he shouted.
Zhang Hu immediately made arrangements, leaving two mechs behind to protect Lin Fan while leading the other seven toward the approaching fighters.
The mech pilots aboard Lin Fan's flagship were no ordinary people. Every one of them was at least B-rank, elite pilots from across the fleet tasked specifically with protecting the flagship.
An ordinary mech pilot could already take on three to five fighters alone, let alone the elites Zhang Hu had brought.
Still, after witnessing Lin Fan's earlier maneuvers, Zhang Hu had been deeply shocked.
First, Lin Fan had precisely destroyed a fighter from long range just as it was preparing to attack the escape pod. Then, after closing in on the pod, he fired six times in an instant without the slightest pause and eliminated six more fighters.
Zhang Hu thought, I may be an elite, but I can't pull off shooting like that. He now fully believed what Lin Fan had said before sortie—that he was Humanity's Strongest Mech Pilot.
Seeing Liang Xue open the escape pod hatch and float out, Lin Fan turned around and opened his cockpit canopy.
Although there was only one seat inside the cockpit, it was still spacious enough for another person to squeeze in beside it without much trouble.
Through the pilot's transparent helmet visor, Liang Xue saw someone who should not have been here—Lin Fan.
More than ten seconds later, Lin Fan sealed the cockpit and turned his head, only to find Liang Xue staring blankly.
"Stop spacing out. You don't have a safety harness. Hold on tight—we're still in combat, you know?"
Coming to her senses, Liang Xue straddled Lin Fan and clung to him from the front like an octopus.
Uh... I did tell you to hold on tight, but isn't this pose a little too embarrassing?
Lin Fan wanted to complain, but since it actually felt rather nice, he decided to let it slide for now.
"Zhang Hu, fall back! Otherwise, we won't catch up with the warships!"
After turning around and casually shooting down two fighters with his laser rifle, Lin Fan shouted to Zhang Hu.
"Yes! Commander, everyone withdraw!"
Before you continue