"Have you ever seen a drone formation?"
Aboard the flagship, Xi Yan's projection stood before the floor-to-ceiling window in the center of the bridge, gazing at the scattered stars ahead.
"No. What's that?"
Ningdi Lingling stood beside Xi Yan, tugging nervously at the hem of her uniform, straightening her perfectly unwrinkled women's commander uniform over and over.
A nostalgic look entered Xi Yan's eyes. "It was a primitive form of entertainment two hundred years ago. Large numbers of drones arranged themselves into shapes in the sky to improve cohesion and happiness."
"What a backward form of entertainment." Ningdi Lingling's eyes darted around. Unsure what to do with her hands, she could only keep adjusting her clothes.
"Seeing these fleets reminds me of them. Their formations look just like those primitive drones back then," Xi Yan murmured, watching the masses of M'tok ships emerge from the hyperlane.
So he was taking a roundabout jab at the M'tok Union!
Seeing the M'tok Union's vast fleet leave the hyperlane, Ningdi Lingling snapped out of her daze and immediately grabbed her communicator. "Enemy fleet sighted. Prepare to engage!"
"Then I'll go command the battle, Marshal."
After taking a few steps back, Ningdi Lingling turned to speak to Xi Yan again.
"Mm. Relax." Xi Yan waved her off with a smile.
Once she entered the battlefield, all the timidity Ningdi Lingling had shown before Xi Yan vanished. She straightened her military cap with one hand and tapped the bridge console with the other, bringing up a three-dimensional projection of the entire battlefield.
Elite commander Ningdi Lingling was online!
Xi Yan turned around with a smile, studying the M'tok Union's patchwork fleet.
This battle might decide the fate of the entire M'tok Union.
If he won, M'tok would collapse completely. Even if it survived being swallowed