Yu Lian had originally thought the first thing to appear before everyone would be that fearsome Star Eater. In theory, this thing was even tougher than a dreadnought—a natural-born tank. But the first ships to leap out of the gravity well were three medium-sized Marauder vessels.
They loitered near the gravity well's entrance for nearly twenty minutes, even sending out several small fighters. Yu Lian reckoned that Warlord Sazaka on the Marauder side was worried there might be an ambush waiting, so he had sent out a few ships to scout ahead.
But no matter how thoroughly they searched, it was pointless. In terms of numbers alone, their side was no match for the Marauder army.
Sure enough, the scouts soon let down their guard. It wasn't until 5:35 a.m. that the Marauder main force finally swaggered into the system.
The first to enter the battlefield still weren't the enormous space leviathans, but a fleet of Marauder warships and spherical drone carriers. Right behind them, triangular mining drones poured out like a swarm of hornets, then darted toward every light signal in the vicinity.
...All right, they weren't even as good as hornets. At least hornets knew to concentrate their fire when attacking an enemy.
The drones quickly spotted the clusters of unmanned turrets Yang Xiyi had already set up in the surrounding space. Each turret had been fitted with all kinds of colored lights, blinking on and off like festival lanterns. They were practically begging to be targeted on a battlefield. A sizeable portion of the drones were drawn to them and swarmed in that direction.
The first shots fired in the New Lushun campaign came from drones exchanging fire with one another.
The unmanned turrets purchased from the Iron Army Combine and the Toth Merchant State were among