The next instant, the doubts in his mind were shattered by the increasingly shrill, piercing alarms.
Without any warning, the once-powerful enemy ship signals suddenly vanished into the dense, murky yellow smoke!
"Alert!"
"Enemy ship signals lost!"
At the same time, an emotionless synthesized voice rang out in the command center!
The Little Gray Men commander, a veteran of countless battles large and small, realized what was happening the instant the enemy ship signals disappeared!
"Stay alert!"
"All starships, retreat at full speed! Widen the encirclement!"
"Launch Giant Flares!"
"They're trying to break out!"
The orders went out.
Enormous flares shot from the starships' gun barrels.
They traced bright, flawless arcs through space.
Finally, they erupted with brilliant light inside the encirclement.
Thanks to the Smoke Bombs released by the Human Fleet, the light from the flares underwent countless diffuse reflections amid the endless dust, successfully illuminating this region of space!
A cloud of "stardust" glowing a murky yellow suddenly appeared in the pitch-black universe!
At the same time, dazzling light blazed from the sterns of the Little Gray Men's starships, which had ceased firing their Laser Weapons and were flying along their designated trajectories!
Extremely powerful Hall Thrusters, coupled with thrust-vectoring nozzles, allowed these starships to change course rapidly.
But no matter how powerful their thrusters were, turning and retreating on such a massive scale would take considerable time.
Would the Human Fleet let this perfect opportunity slip away?
The answer was obviously no.
Just as these starships turned around and prepared to retreat-
A fleet with scattered scorch marks on its armor pierced through the murky yellow smoke!
A closer look revealed that the scorch marks on these starships were slowly fading.
Although they were fading rather slowly, this meant one thing!
They could repair themselves to a