Chapter 220: Chapter 160, Brilliant Explosion
Hearing the so-called “starting point of the path of glory,” Yelisia snorted coldly, looking disdainful and not wanting to bother with Gu Hang. She turned her head and continued to busy herself.
She kept issuing orders, constantly listening to the reports from various departments, responding and making judgments accordingly, forming commands that were relayed downwards.
She seemed somewhat nervous, struggling to remain focused. Indeed, she was not an experienced veteran of the navy, nor had she had proper combat experience, but her outstanding academic record at the Naval Academy was not faked. If her grades hadn’t truly been excellent, how could she have become a captain, especially when the Fufana Family had more than just her in its younger generation?
In her mind were all the tactical maneuvers she had learned at the Naval Academy, which she now combined with the real-time situation on the battlefield, responding in a standard manner and issuing orders.
This might appear somewhat rigid, but it was less likely to result in errors.
During her school days, Yelisia had come up with many bizarre naval tactics, but after gaining practical experience, she found her early whims were purely self-indulgent. Only a few solid and seemingly effective strategies appeared viable under the current circumstances.
But she dared not use them.
Who knew if untested methods would turn out to be ingenious or give away an advantage?
The most important thing for her to do under the current situation was to avoid making mistakes, relying on the strong firepower and defensive capabilities of the “Quintet” cruiser to fight steadily.
She would rather fight in a more rigid manner.
Gu Hang watched Yelisia’s serious expression and a smile appeared on his face, his mood relaxed slightly.
How to later ease the tension with this female commodore was a matter for later; for now, they had to get through the current difficult situation.
A conflict had almost erupted between the two just a moment ago.
After Gu Hang boarded the starship with nearly twenty thousand warriors, the “Quintet” reached the jump point of Tunnel One in the Rage Owl Star System.
Before this, Yelisia had attempted to have the Star Speaker on the starship send a message to “Beautiful Girl” to warn Wang Jiarong to prepare in advance. However, the message failed to send, likely because the other party was traversing the Star Realm Tunnel. In such a state, it is difficult for a Star Speaker to locate the target of the message and transmit it.
Thereafter, they gave up on sending messages and let the ships quietly stop in the void.
Muting all communication signals, other than the necessary energy supply, they turned off most of the engines’ power…
The starship floated silently in the void, indistinguishable from a speck of dust on the scale of tens to hundreds of thousands of kilometers. Even if the enemy began scanning the surroundings immediately after emerging from the Star Realm Tunnel, it would be very hard to detect them.
Yelisia was strictly implementing her previous idea; she was crouching here, waiting for events to unfold.
If they could fight, they would fight; if not, they would flee.
And after seeing the Green Skin Fleet chasing after the Beautiful Lady Convoy, Yelisia found herself in a bit of a difficult position.
Those escort ships can be set aside for the moment, as their small-caliber weapons would find it tough to penetrate the defense systems of a main cruiser.
But those four destroyers couldn’t be ignored. The medium-caliber firepower they carried could indeed pose a real threat.
Yet, when it came down to it, it wasn’t like there was no chance of victory. The Beautiful Lady Convoy still had four ships, and with their help, the chance of victory was there, even quite substantial—sixty or even seventy percent.
However, a sixty to seventy percent chance of victory was not enough for Yelisia to take a gamble.
Betting and losing everything was not worth it when compared to retreating now, gathering reinforcements, and easily eliminating the Green Skins with the entire Tianma Fleet assembled.
What about the safety of Rage Owl Star?
Forget it, a planet with an annual tax quota of five million wasn’t worth saving.
The cost of building one escort ship, even the cheapest ones, starts at half a billion. Rage Owl Star would have to pay taxes for a hundred years to afford just one escort ship.
But for Gu Hang, the concept was completely different.
If Yelisia withdrew, Rage Owl Star would be doomed.
He strongly urged Yelisia to engage in the battle.
The conflict between the two arose just like that.
Yelisia was not keen on it, and during the argument, Gu Hang didn’t state it explicitly, but he implied that he had twenty thousand warriors on the starship.
Yelisia’s face turned dark.
Even if it wasn’t stated openly, it was a threat.
She had wanted Gu Hang to bring his troops on board as a precaution. The Green Skins favored boarding tactics in space naval battles, which was written in the naval military doctrine. Although there were already marine troops on the starship, having an additional twenty thousand warriors would certainly make her feel more secure.
Yet who would have expected that at this time, it would become a tool for Gu Hang to threaten her with?
If an internal riot broke out on the starship, regardless of whether her marine troops could suppress Gu Hang’s twenty thousand warriors, there was no doubt it would result in a lengthy fight.
And internal strife on the ship would pose a fatal threat to the safety of the “Quintet.”
Gu Hang could see that Yelisia was cornered.
He didn’t continue to push the issue with a hard stance.
A pyrrhic victory would be a cause for the rivaling Green Skins to rejoice.
Subsequently, he softened his tone, talking about defending the empire, protecting the convoy, eliminating the alien threat, and painted a picture of how if they really managed to annihilate this Green Skin fleet, Yelisia would, beyond doubt, have made a significant achievement.