Twenty minutes later, the last twelve thousand soldiers of the Breaker Fleet boarded seven green-skinned-style Earth warships, taking all the supplies and weapons still available. They left the "Bazan City," which they had operated for nearly half a year, resolved to die, and headed for the far side of the galaxy.
What Deng Zhengqing and his comrades didn't know was that, in the very same star system, behind the brownish-yellow desert-like terrestrial planet in the fourth orbit, a hive ship as large as a cruiser was silently watching their movements.
The Overlord who shared the hive ship's vision watched the human vessels disappear into the dust of the Diamond Nebula. The sensory tendrils it had left plunged into the hive ship's interior, vibrating at a high frequency.
At almost the same moment, in a star system more than two hundred light-years away, another, far larger Leviathan hive ship began to vibrate at the same frequency.
The Swarm Leader rose inside the hive ship, sensing the high-frequency vibrations that human hearing could never detect. In its mind, it rapidly pieced together the complete report.
"...I see. Those Earth fleets have deployed too? You saw it with your own eyes, right?"
"Only seven warships left? When we encountered them before, they still had ten. Can that ragtag bunch beat a single heavy cruiser?"
"And they didn't even bother to conceal their jump signature? Aren't they deliberately announcing their presence? I understand. They're doing it on purpose. I've been studying military strategy too."
"They're committing suicide. But why would they do that? I'm thinking aloud; I don't need your opinion. A diversion? What diversion? For the rebels? For me?"
"I understand. You can transfer to the TR-17 system as well. There's a frozen terrestrial planet there. Beneath the ice, there may be tundra