On February 25, 833, at 15:00, the marauder army officially entered the borders of the Commonwealth's New World sector. Naturally, since they were on a forced march, they had no time to let their troops loot. They merely destroyed the interstellar gravitational-wave beacons and a handful of unmanned sentry guns along the way, leaving the distant orbital mining and research stations behind as they barreled toward New Lüshun.
That was why the marauders never noticed that all the staff aboard those stations had already been evacuated.
The marauders didn't know that Earth's main fleet already knew they were coming. Earth's main fleet had to pretend it didn't know they were coming. And the civilians and officials in New Jade Gate, hundreds of light-years from New Lüshun, knew even less about any of it.
At most, they knew a war was coming.
The bigwigs were naturally packed into Tulong Port, scrambling to evacuate. The problem was that most of the port's facilities were now being used to transfer the steady stream of military supplies. Passenger ships and civilian freighters had to crowd into a cramped corner.
As a result, this modest-capacity seaport and spaceport was hopelessly congested. Even Governor Jiang himself was stuck at the port, unable to get out for the time being.
"Didn't we say we'd expand the port? Why wasn't it done before?" Governor Jiang stared at the crowded spaceport and flew into a rage.
"We did have plans for that, of course. But the governor's office has limited funds. In the end, we decided to expand the office building and council chambers first, and increase administrative spending. Just look—everyone has climate control and a rooftop garden in their office now, and the civil servants' cafeteria even serves imperial palace cuisine now and then," said Secretary-General Bernard Wood.