Captain, your ship has exploded again.

Natal was unaware that her identity had already offended Wu Kedi. After several unsuccessful attempts to persuade her, he could only speed up the repair of the Executor.

At this moment, Zhao Wanyang, who was hurriedly adjusting her weapons inside the Death Star, Natal, who was commanding the cyborgs alone in the command room, and General Wu Kedi, who had a cold gaze in the space fortress, all looked in the direction of the enemy's vanguard at the same time.

"Three, two, one, torpedo hit! 3,183,000 torpedoes passed the target, 86% hit rate. We succeeded!"

When the reporter shouted, a loud cheer echoed through the fortress command room. It wasn't that these officers were not composed, but rather that the enemy's long-range attack had thrown them off balance, and they were simply letting it out.

Just as General Wu Kedi's adjutant couldn't help but clench his fists, General Wu Kedi suddenly shouted, "Double the shield's output!"

At the same time, the radar operator shouted, "High energy ahead! Prepare for impact..."

Before the sound could fade, a powerful energy beam suddenly appeared in front of the space fortress. General Wu's space fortress only had time to increase the output of its shields before it was directly hit by the attack.

The strong and sustained impact caused the 100-kilometer-long space fortress to deviate from its original trajectory.

"Report to the captain: The Huaxia command post has been attacked by a high-energy ion beam."

The cyborg's report made Natal frown.

"Why were there no attack trajectory alerts? How did they bypass the fleet defenses in front of the fortress?"

Regardless of the situation, the command post is always at the very center of the formation. Since the enemy can bypass other defensive fortifications, they may also be able to bypass the warship's shields. Natal must know the reason for this.

"Tianwen is reconstructing the scene at that time, and the calculation results will take time."

Natal looked at the progress bars under the control panel with some annoyance. Whether it was the Executor's maintenance or the Death Star's internal communication connection failure, both made her feel unusually irritable.

Just as Natal was on the verge of a mental breakdown, she punched herself in the forehead.

"Tsk, really, how can a federal soldier become so vulnerable after just one battle fought alone?"

A trickle of bright red blood flowed from the cut on his brow bone, dripping down his brow and onto the armrest.

Having figured everything out, Natal angrily got up and called General Wu Kedi again.

"General Wu, in my capacity as the pre-battle supervisor appointed by the China Strategic Committee, I order you to lead the fleet to jump to Assembly Point Two and readjust the fleet formation."

Many people in the space fortress were injured by the sudden impact. As one of the humans who had been most deeply modified, General Wu Kedi was not injured in the impact. Instead, he regained some clarity during the enemy's attack.

He didn't respond to Natal immediately, but instead asked the radar operator, "Report enemy numbers. What are the Daggers doing?"

"Number of enemy vanguard...number."

The radar operator's hesitation indirectly answered General Wu Kedi's question, but it did not satisfy him.

"Soldier, tell me the number!"

"The enemy numbered 834,000, but only 103,000 of their ships were lost. Our short sword unit was completely wiped out."

More than 20 million heavy torpedoes, even the smallest of which could destroy the old Ford-class aircraft carrier in one shot. Although it was just a matter of making a nearly 50-meter-high hole in the 340-meter-long body, it would only reduce the mass by about 20,000 tons.

However, an attack of this scale that only destroyed 100,000 enemy ships was not something Wu Kedi could accept.

"General Wu, if you do not respond, I will use my authority to have your adjutant take command in your place."

Seeing that General Wu Kedi did not respond, Natal's tone became anxious. She did not know when the enemy's second attack would begin. Although she had a high level of authority in China, it was only because Zhang Xun was backing her up. Once she was put in command of the Allied Fleet, she would be completely useless.

General Wu Kedi waved his hand and said in a somewhat heavy tone, "No need. You take the fleet and retreat. I will command the Greedy Wolf Fortress to block the enemy!"

Natal said irritably, "Do you think I can command those 'idiots,' or your adjutant? Humans have only been in space for a short time. Compared to those old guys who have been fighting in space for millions of years, humans are no different from babies."

"If we're talking about covering the rear, I don't think any fleet is more suitable than our own. After all, the Death Star's power core is enough for it to make multiple short-distance jumps."

Many people misunderstand jumps. It is not true that the shorter the jump distance, the less energy is consumed, because the energy required to initiate a jump is constant, unless it is an ultra-long-distance jump, in which case the energy consumption increases exponentially.

Otherwise, a short-distance, rapid jump to a mass like the Death Star would not consume much less energy than a jump of half a light-year; in fact, the shorter the jump time, the more energy it would consume.

Seeing that General Wu Kedi still wanted to say something, Natal scratched her head in annoyance and said, "This is really troublesome. Tianwen will take over the Greed Wolf Fortress and command the other fleets to begin the warp evacuation. At the same time, our fleet will take over the remaining defensive fortifications and prepare for battle."

Natal's command wasn't due to a sudden blissful infatuation or an attempt to curry favor with Zhang Xun by using his vast wealth. She simply didn't believe that Zhang Xun's fleet could withstand a battle worth hundreds of millions.

The reason for General Wu's withdrawal was to better deploy troops, avoid a situation of counterattack, and transform the original defensive battle into a mobile battle.

As for why not use their own fleet for mobile warfare? Don't be ridiculous. Even in the various classic mobile warfare scenarios on Earth, I've never heard of anyone fighting a mobile war in open terrain with a two-hundred-fold numerical disadvantage when they were at a disadvantage in terms of weaponry and personnel quality.

Despite Zhang Xun's formidable military strength, compared to the alien empire that has been fighting for millions of years, the overall combat quality of his troops is still far inferior. It's just that his fearless fighting style can break the enemy's morale in non-warship battles by disregarding losses.

Tianwen, which was soon forced to allocate computing power, quickly took over most of the equipment in the Greed Wolf Fortress. Although the implanted virus could only control the situation for a period of time, it was still possible to impersonate General Wu Kedi and issue orders before the problem was fixed.

As the main fleet of the Human Alliance began to retreat, Zhang Xun's 600,000 warships took over the defense. Of course, the enemy did not stop firing during this period. On the contrary, as the number of Human Alliance warships decreased, the frequency of attacks became higher.

"The left side of the fortress is 11% damaged and is shifting its angle. The repair crew is taking over the hemisphere. The Death Star Convergence Beam Cannon is warming up. Shall we retaliate?"

Marcus's simulated personality reported the situation to Natal.

During the time the two fleets were changing shifts, the enemy did not launch another of the previous overpass attacks, which clearly required a considerable amount of energy.

"Fleet conventional weapons, retaliate!"

As the order was given, more than five million beams of energy were fired at the advancing enemy vanguard.

Apart from some that were deflected or dissipated due to enemy attacks, three million of the attacks successfully hit the target.

However, due to the distance of 190,000 kilometers between the two sides, they were unable to even penetrate the other side's energy shield.

"Continue firing, prepare the range extenders, and when the locals reach 150,000 kilometers, the main guns will begin charging. When the ship reaches 140,000 kilometers, the entire ship will use the range extenders to attack!"

Feigning weakness to the enemy is a method favored by the vast majority of Chinese military strategists. Whether it is to lure the enemy in or for other purposes, it can greatly increase the success rate of the subsequent decisive strike.

A one-sided light show of being attacked quickly continued to play out on the human front, even though the human side left a fortress 200 kilometers in size for defense.

But for aliens who believed they had a complete grasp of human capabilities, the Death Star was simply a bigger target.

"The enemy ships are 170,000 kilometers away. The enemy fleet's speed is starting to decrease. We have one minute left!"

The simulated Yu Qilan personality shouted loudly, and the reason for the slowdown of the enemy fleet was that the three main space fortresses of the Human Alliance had completed their withdrawal, and most of their forces had left the combat area. Although the withdrawal caused some losses, their combat power was not reduced too much.

When the enemy was undecided, the Death Star II, which was out in the open, became the best target.

Yu Qilan's blue holographic figure turned around and shouted, "Enemy ships have entered 150,000 kilometers!"

"Starkiller Cannon rapidly recharged, fire the main cannon!"

In order to avoid the range extenders being blown up, the fleet's main guns fired first. Except for the two large main guns on the Death Star II, the main guns of the other warships went through the range extenders.

Aside from a few range extenders that exploded due to stray bullet damage, the vast majority successfully brought the fleet's main guns together and fired at the incoming alien fleet.

Just when Natal thought she could severely damage the enemy fleet, the ion beam that had attacked the Wolf Fortress reappeared next to the Death Star, and even the Death Star, which was of such a size, was shaken by the impact.

This caused Zhang Xun, who had his hand on the wall, a lot of trouble. Because of the sudden tremor, Zhang Xun's sore arm was pulled away from the laboratory wall. At the same time, the breakthrough point that had reached the metal fatigue point also used this force to break through the wall.

"Damn, that idiot is playing with the ball!"