Alliance Army Patrol Fleet!
Qingyang and the others immediately broke away from the surrounding firelight rats and retreated to the Starport.
The densely packed firelight rats, having lost their target, immediately turned their attention toward the Starport and charged forward without hesitation.
[Detected severe distortion in the gravitational field]
Qingyang looked toward the distorted region of the gravitational field. Through Taiyi's surveillance equipment, he clearly saw a black-blue metal sphere suddenly appear hundreds of thousands of kilometers away.
Extremely complex energy circuits gradually lit up, and the surrounding gravity grew increasingly distorted along with them.
Finally, the first firelight rat was pulled backward toward the sphere.
In an instant, the entire swarm collapsed like dominoes, surging endlessly toward the sphere.
Even meteors and asteroids several kilometers in diameter were swept up among them!
Even those Level 4 star beasts could not escape the gravitational range. Ripples spread around several Level 4 star beasts before they vanished.
Apparently, these firelight rats wanted to enter subspace and escape, but their subspace-jump organs had been completely disrupted by the warped gravitational field.
The instant the swarm moved tens of thousands of kilometers away from the Starport, hundreds of flashes appeared between the swarm and the Starport.
They were warships several kilometers long, brimming with mechanical aesthetics. Their silver-white exteriors were covered in energy circuits.
The warship in the center was even thirty thousand meters long, surrounded by dense orbital ship cannons.
Conventional warships!
Yet their energy levels far surpassed those of T8 Starships. Even T8 Battleships could not compare with any one of them.
At minimum, a T7 Battleship would be needed to match even the most ordinary warship among them.
The Alliance Army, the regular military!
The patrol force seemed to be a local garrison force, right?
The moment they appeared, the cannons of the massive central warship began to glow, releasing terrifying energy.
Qingyang was startled. A planet-destroying weapon far beyond ordinary standards—its energy level had to be at least three hundred thousand, right?
In an instant, a brilliant radiance howled into the swarm. There was no explosion; the gathered swarm simply disintegrated.
Not a single remnant was left behind.
"Report! The spatial scanner has detected life signs. There is a high probability that it is a sky shuttle rat!"
On the flagship bridge, the officer nodded. "Battlecruiser 07, calibrate the main cannon on the sky shuttle rat. Fire three rapid shots!"
Light gathered again, and three slender beams bombarded the same section of space in succession.
Violent spatial fluctuations rippled outward. They had clearly hit the target.
"Report! The sky shuttle rat is escaping!" the sergeant reported.
The officer's expression did not change. "Its energy level has dropped by 90%. An estimated forty percent of its body has been shattered. Those are fatal injuries.
Record the situation, then request an escort fleet to strengthen this Starport's defenses."
"Yes!"
Within the Starport, Qingyang's gaze flickered as he watched the patrol fleet's final attack.
In the end, he gave up on pursuing it.
The sky shuttle rat was certainly tempting, but it was ultimately a powerful species comparable to a Level 6 star beast.
Even heavily wounded, it could still cause casualties. Besides, the entire Eternal Fleet was currently damaged.
The Eternal Protocol's automatic hull restoration rate was 5% per hour. It would take at least half a day to fully recover.
"If only the automatic restoration could be calculated at all times instead of only after leaving the battlefield."
Qingyang muttered.
With the crisis resolved, the Starport authorities opened the shields after conducting inspections.
The Stargate in the northern district had suffered a sudden attack from the firelight rats at the very beginning, damaging quite a bit of equipment.
It would probably take another day to fully repair it.
Otherwise, reinforcements could have arrived quickly through the Stargate instead of jumping directly through space.
Other than fearless beasts like star beasts, nothing within Alliance Territory would dare set its sights on a Starport.
"Good thing I had no hope of promotion to begin with, or I'd have suffered a huge loss."
The person in charge of the Starport could only shake his head helplessly. He had actually encountered the one-in-ten-thousand chance of a star beast attack.
Qingyang gave the crew several days off and went alone to the Star Network's academy section to look up information.
The Commander Academy in high school only taught some basic knowledge and identification of common items, covering roughly tens of thousands of biological and material categories.
Most foundational starship knowledge consisted of procedures under standard conditions.
The Eternal Fleet had already drifted further and further from those standards.
He needed to make up for this at the Commander Academy, at least so he would not have to ask Bellia, a research scholar, about everything.
There had to be commanders who could recognize the signs of a sky shuttle rat's appearance at a glance.
Of course, learning was a long process. Even if it only took seconds to read information on hundreds of items through the Star Network, it would still take a very long time.
The universe was too vast, and the body of knowledge related to commanders was equally immense.
Three days later.
Qingyang exited the Star Network and confirmed that all crew members had arrived.
"Changxi, fleet status." Feeling a slight swelling in his head, Qingyang frowned.
It would take at least two days to fully adapt to all that massive information.
Changxi's projection appeared with a radiant smile. "The shields, armor, and hull have all recovered. Supplies are sufficient, and the lost combat units have been replenished."
Noticing Qingyang's discomfort, Changxi's pale golden eyes paused.
She immediately floated lightly behind Qingyang and pressed her slender fingers against his temples.
Before Qingyang could react, the somewhat chaotic information in his mind rapidly became clear, and the discomfort vanished as well.
"Hm?"
Qingyang was puzzled, not because Changxi could help organize the information in his mind, but because she could actually touch him?
Changxi explained with a smile, "Data Life is life too. Data carrying life and will is high-dimensional power. Materializing is not difficult, though the current consumption is a little high."
Noticing that Qingyang had fully recovered.
"Commander, continuously absorbing knowledge at high speed through the Star Network is not good for you right now."
Changxi withdrew her hands, smiled faintly, and gave a slight bow before dissolving into particles of light.
Qingyang rubbed his head. It felt like he had just been lectured?
He caught sight of a figure snickering out of the corner of his eye, and his expression turned stern.
"Ahem. Guxue, where is Guxing?"
"Hehe, he thinks his combat experience is lacking, so he's figuring out how to use his abilities more efficiently," Guxue answered.
Qingyang nodded and spread out his mental power.
Nine warships began leaving the docking area and sailed toward the Stargate.
The additional ship was a Xuanjia Cruiser exchanged with the military merits earned this time.
The Eternal Fleet's current composition was already fairly complete. It had seven cruisers in total: two Xuanjia Cruisers, two Longstride Cruisers, and three Hardblade Type Cruisers. Without exception, all were powerful high-end warships.
There were two core warships: the Huiyue Type Battleship and Taiyi.
After passing through the Stargate, the fleet immediately entered the Stargate route. Stargate routes were technology that altered the spatial structure of the main universe.
They could cross hundreds of millions of light-years in just a few days, though because the routes were fixed regions, they lacked the flexibility of Dark Space.
The Star Ring Channel was even faster. It could cross ten billion light-years in just one day.
Unfortunately, there were no Stargates or Star Ring Channels that led directly to the frontier. They would need to transfer dozens of times at minimum to arrive.
For the final few transfers, they would even need to use military Stargates and Star Ring Channels.
Guxue lay sprawled across her chair, propping up her face with both hands. "Where are we going next?"
Qingyang looked up. "To the largest Star Lake along the route to the frontier—Qian Sen Star Lake!"
Qian Sen Star Lake had another name: Thousand River Star Lake!
Thousands of galaxies bordered Qian Sen Star Lake, and its territory spanned over a hundred million light-years.
Countless cosmic wonders and special regions lay within it, and its danger level was terrifying. Even a T6 Fleet only dared wander around its outer edges.
P.S. Brothers, I looked over the setting again. The Alliance's setting is a little complex, and it is difficult to fully explain it in the normal story.
There are currently two options.
One: mention it gradually in future chapters, though some things definitely will not be fully explained through plot progression.
Two: naturally supplement the Alliance's general background in a chapter through a conversation between Qingyang and Guxue, while specific details are mentioned later as the plot progresses.
If you choose option two, I will use a chapter around forty chapters from now to add it in. It will not count toward the word count of paid chapters, but it will still count as part of the main text because it needs to connect the plot between chapters.
Before you continue