At that moment, Jaeger Sobek suddenly felt everyone on the bridge looking at him.
He understood perfectly well why. His fleet—twenty-four warships and their twenty-eight thousand crew members—was in a rather awkward position. If the Earth fleet had come with hostile intentions and attacked them from another direction, his forces would have faced annihilation. Or they could have taken an even darker approach, hiding off to the side and watching the two sides fight, then striking once both were badly weakened.
In a situation like this, it fell to the Empire's commander to make a wise decision.
Sobek was caught between two choices. Reason told him that war wasn't just about fighting and killing; it was about human nature and the way people dealt with one another. The Empire and the Community hadn't fallen out, so the Thirteenth Fleet across from him should still be an ally. But as someone who was content with a peaceful, ordinary life, he truly didn't dare stake everything on the other side's character.
Fortunately, he didn't have to hesitate for more than a few seconds. The Thirteenth Fleet didn't even move toward his forces. It headed straight for the drone carrier instead.
At the same time, the Aurora and several Ranger-class cruisers launched high-intensity photon jamming flares at the target.
"Well, the Earthlings are still our allies," Selulu sighed. "Just as you said, they have warriors who care about their honor and won't take advantage of us when we're down. Still, we can use this opportunity to see whether they're really testing some new tactic. And there are those new assault ships, too."
Unfortunately, although the eight new assault ships formed an independent combat unit, they stayed on standby near the two large carriers. The Earthlings' high-intensity photon jamming flares also did their job,