In Yu Lian's eyes, Horatio Wayne was a simple, sincere man. Most of the time, he didn't seem particularly bright, but when it came to combat, his intelligence rose to the occasion. All in all, the red-haired fellow was a fiery, ferocious commander, but by no means a hothead. Even when leading a charge at the head of his ship, he would calmly assess where the enemy was weakest and where a massed assault could best break through the center.
In short, men like Wayne were born for the battlefield.
Even so, the future great commander wasn't yet the finished article, and he only had two destroyers at his disposal. He'd volunteered to pursue the enemy out of duty and courage, so Yu Lian had no reason to refuse him, but he'd still been a little worried. Only now, after hearing that Wayne had returned safely, could he finally set some of those worries aside.
Judging by the timestamp on Horatio Wayne's report, he'd returned to the DL18 system along the Devil's Maze route on August 4. There, he'd sent a detailed report by gravitational-wave signal. Since the system lay very close to the range of a source-matter wave terminal under the Commonwealth's control, the report drifted through the sea of stars for less than twenty-four hours before reaching the New Lushun base.
It was an extremely important report. Yu Lian considered it even more significant than the first-hand battle reports from the Devil's Throat front, so he hurriedly called a meeting with all the senior officers remaining in the rear. Lieutenant Generals Sayou and Carter, who were at New Jade Gate, and others such as Akina Mountain Hachiman also attended by video.
Of course, the two highest-ranking officers had their own reasons for declining to take charge. One said,