Overall, the situation wasn't complicated. The joint Catfolk and Birdfolk fleet had ten heavy cruisers and five light carriers, plus more than thirty support ships of various sizes. Its total strength was nearly three times that of the Thirteenth Fleet. Although the Earthlings had two large carriers and a Dreadnought, they still had a fighting chance if it came to battle—at the very least, they could buy themselves some time.
The Katai and Bakvi commanders on the front lines figured the Earthlings were merely making a show of force and wouldn't actually start a fight, so they prepared to face off against them across a single star system.
Though the Katai and the Bakvi were both dogs kept by the Empire, dogs still fought over bones. Without an imperial general to command them both, the two sides could hardly be expected to cooperate in a joint operation.
And so the heavy cruiser fleet led by the Katai and the carrier fleet led by the Bakvi were supposedly mixed together, but they looked more like two separate formations—and, in fact, that was exactly what they were.
But just then, the Earthlings of the Thirteenth Fleet seemed to seize their opportunity and launched a dishonorable sneak attack. They suddenly came rushing in with an assault as swift as the wind and fierce as fire. They had only just completed their jump, and their fleet hadn't even finished regrouping into a tactical formation before they headed straight for the Katai heavy cruisers.
That alone would have been bad enough. The real problem was that the Earthlings' two carriers—one of them an imperial Unicorn-class—launched all their fighters as they charged in. Among the hundreds of swarming fighters, four of a never-before-seen model spread wings of condensed light like angels. They streaked across the heavens