The last two weeks of September brought the Yang Fleet a mixture of joy and sorrow.
The good news, of course, was that the Yang Fleet had successfully rendezvoused with Horatio Wayne's fleet right under the nose of New Seaview, a major imperial colonial hub.
The rewards were even greater than anyone had imagined. They had expected the so-called "Horatio Wayne Fleet" to consist of a few battered but still serviceable small warships, along with three or five dazed survivors from the Ring of Miracles. In reality, what appeared before the Yang Fleet was five fresh Fletcher-class destroyers and two County-class cruisers—the ships of Horatio Wayne's original comrades. There were also two Brave-class heavy cruisers and two Orion-class cruisers, plus a Hyperion battlecruiser and a Lexington-class carrier. Those were all stragglers from the Ring of Miracles. Their ships were not in the best shape, but their crews were in fairly good condition.
"After successfully ambushing the Empire's Yarlach, we turned back toward the Ring of Miracles. On the way, we came across the Hyperion. Then we found supplies in a secret Marauder depot on Planet Three in the DL114 system," Horatio Wayne explained.
Some people looked puzzled, so Yang Xiyi explained that the depot's supplies had actually been captured during last year's Great Expedition. When Yu Lian and Brunhilde had charged through the stars like tigers, they had also discovered secret depots built by the Marauders on a few remote planets. Before their imperial "allies" could notice, they had hidden those depots away.
When Yu Lian had gone to the Alliance to report in, he had shared the information with Yang Xiyi. Before the war began, Yang Xiyi had in turn passed it on to Eleanor, Horatio Wayne, General Picard, and a few other trusted comrades.
"Had he already guessed