"It's nothing but a patrol fleet lurking around where they put down slave laborers in Black Labor Town. A bunch of overseers who only know how to swing whips can hardly be called warriors... Er, what I mean is, the Imperial fleet on the other side reported being attacked by an unknown swarm of space worms. Sir, since they sent an open distress signal, the surrounding Imperial fleets should be swarming over. The Empire's new main fleet, which is holding exercises in Cold World 12, might come too."
Since the exercises included newly built dreadnoughts, this had to be an operation by the Imperial Guard fleet. These weren't the motley crews of some local fleet; every one of them was elite and fierce.
"But we're here to fight the elites," Annie Romanova added abruptly.
"Exactly! We're here to fight the elites!" Captain Nemo boomed in agreement. But when he noticed Yu Lian's gaze, he quickly put on a stern face. "Er, well... What I mean is, for safety's sake, we should move out quickly. According to the patrol schedule and deployments on that star chart, the nearest reinforcements should arrive here within six hours. But if we move right now and take a detour through Gravity Well 4 and the Tx404 system, we might avoid at least three patrol fleets and reach Steelrock Fortress at least twenty-four hours sooner."
He looked as if he were being strictly professional, but his eyes held a hopeful gleam, as though he were eagerly waiting for the commander to issue some other order.
Yu Lian did pause briefly to consider it, but two seconds later, he gave a new order. "Keep the whole ship in stealth mode and prepare to charge. The moment the enemy fleet enters the effective range of the arc cannons,