Ye Wenlin stood at the door: "Reporting."

"Come in." Zhao Youxuan's aged voice came out. He was wearing reading glasses, head lowered studying a 3D star map with many parameters and annotations in small text. He hunched over, face pressed close, looking a bit strained.

"Young man, pour me a glass of water," Zhao Youxuan handed over his museum-worthy tea mug, rubbing his eyes. "Our supply ship has arrived, right?"

"Yes, preparing to dock, requesting your authorization."

Half an hour ago, General Zhao had led three special forces teams, each reduced to half their men, in a rebellious sneak attack on the enemy command. This attack had a legendary quality.

Like men with nothing to lose, they abandoned all supplies and activated the never-before-used latest version of the warp drive on the scout ship.

Warp drive technology is to space what nuclear weapons are to Earth - something that can overturn traditional modes of warfare. Every country is racing to research it, and in recent years there have been successive breakthroughs, but it's still not mature.

A batch of experimental drives were installed on small scout ships for testing - because scout ships have the lightest mass.

Unfortunately, before the experiments could officially begin, war broke out.

The facts proved that Ye Wenlin's judgment was completely correct. At least in terms of warp drives, Earth was ahead of the other star system.

After unloading most of the energy and supplies, the scout ship's mass shrank to a point where quantitative change led to qualitative change.

The speed increased to an extreme, the time axis of relative motion showed a large deviation, and special relativity descended miraculously at this moment, adding blessings from antiquity to this front-line dagger. Someone must have burned incense to the quantum mechanics textbook before setting out. Under the blessing of their fellow Earthman Einstein's departed spirit, they luckily completed a "jump"—the calculated results showed that with current technology, the probability of this happening was less than one in a thousand.

This was a big step forward for mankind in the history of science, and an unexpected major turning point on the battlefield.

Old General Zhao perfectly interpreted that ancient saying - "To grow old but not die is to be a thief". When he found himself appearing out of thin air at the enemy headquarters in the blink of an eye, not only was he not flustered, he even became excited.

This old rogue, with his undiminished killer instinct and cunning, vicious eye, recognized the enemy command ship at a glance and charged straight at it like a man possessed.

While the other side was caught off guard, he ruthlessly fired over a hundred nuclear missiles, clearing out the entire weapons inventory with the wild abandon of a man with no tomorrow. At extremely close range, with a 100% hit rate, he caused huge damage to the enemy attack ships and successfully turned the enemy command ship into a soft, porous honeycomb briquette.

The reaction of the human fleet from the other star system embodied another saying: the tables have turned.

Before they could even clear the wreckage from the first sudden attack outside the Space Fortress, they were assaulted again. Under the brutal assault of the enemy vanguard that descended like a plague from heaven, they were smashed to pieces.

However, unfortunately, whether it was energy or weapons, this special attack fleet was facing the problem of insufficient supplies. A single jump nearly made the energy of the entire fleet light up red, and General Zhao and the others were also at the end of their rope. It was impossible to take advantage of the victory to pursue.

Even more unfortunate was that the enemy commander was a demon.

With the command ship caught unprepared and smashed to bits, this unknown commander actually organized all personnel to take small escape pods and leave the command cabin in an orderly manner in batches in an extremely short time. He also successfully used the cover of other warships in the chaos and fancy maneuvering to avoid the keen eyes and ears of the scout ships, and thus escaped without a trace.

It was simply the creation of a miracle.

After the entire battle ended, the three special forces teams had already gathered to discuss it several times, but they couldn't figure out the reason.

Even when down on his luck to this extent, the mysterious commander on the other side did not lose his composure in the slightest. His psychological fortitude was terrifyingly strong, and he knew both himself and the enemy extremely well. He immediately understood that the enemy's sneak attack was just good luck and that a larger force could not possibly "jump" over as well.

As soon as the commander of the humans from the other star system left the life raft and boarded their ships, he immediately brought the situation under control.

Zhao Youxuan immediately gave the order to retreat - the strategic significance of their attack had been achieved, and if they delayed any longer, they would be the ones to suffer. The many powerful warships lined up at the enemy headquarters could crush them, this exhausted group of raiders, like stepping on an ant once they got the upper hand.

And they didn't even have the energy for a second jump!

Zhao Youxuan had the rear team become the front team, and under the eyes of the enemy, retreated at a pace that he estimated the battleships of the star people of the other star system could catch up to, unhurriedly withdrawing a section at a time. If he found that the other side had not caught up, he would even change vectors, alter formations, or take a detour, as if to lure them into a chase.

In the eyes of the fleet from the other star system, although this detestable raiding force seemed to be only putting on a show of strength, would Earthlings really do this so openly?

What if the insufficient supplies were another trap? What if the main force of the Earthlings was just waiting for them to walk into the net? Who knew if Earth's communication system was completely broken... Earth's foundation as the main base of humanity was who knew how many times more robust than the asteroid bases of the other star system...

Zhao Youxuan knew well the mindset of a military commander - for people in high positions of authority, the most important job was not to think about what could be done, but what could not be done.

In this situation, even if the mysterious commander on the other side had a 90% certainty, and Zhao Youxuan was only playing out an empty city strategy, he still could not possibly take the risk of chasing after them.

Sure enough, at the last moment before the energy of the scouting fleet was exhausted, the human warships from the other star system withdrew in an organized and defensively sound manner.

And at this time, the main force from Earth had not yet arrived, and General Zhao and the others had already turned into a bunch of stalled space flotsam.

The thrilling experience made even a veteran like old General Zhao heave a long sigh.

In any case, from now on, the dogma that technology determines everything in space warfare has entered the garbage heap of history.

Ye Wenlin relayed General Zhao's permission to dock through the communicator on his ear, but did not leave immediately, instead hesitating on the spot for a moment.

Zhao Youxuan: "What, is there something else?"

"They asked me to request your permission, everyone wants to send down a few salvage ships..."

They hoped to find any traces or remnants left by Jiang Jin and the others in this constantly moving cosmic desert.

Zhao Youxuan paused, took off his hat, revealing a head of grizzled white hair.

"Go ahead," he sighed softly, "It's always good if something can be found, but...don't force it either."

Ye Wenlin acknowledged and quickly left the command room.

His surging emotions had not yet subsided.

Ye Wenlin used to just consider Old General Zhao as an ordinary superior who didn't manage much, and didn't have much reverence for him - in fact, he didn't revere anyone. Although Ye Wenlin seemed to make a living out of putting on airs and scrounging meals all day, and had high EQ and was quite likable, with his talent and experience, it was unlikely for him not to be a bit arrogant.

Until this moment.

Ye Wenlin realized that the Hawk faction leader of the other star system, Adolf, was not the "idiot" he had casually called him in front of his junior sister. And the old fellow in front of him who looked ready to retire was actually a truly low-key master general.

Humans, mortal flesh, no taller than two meters, no heavier than a few dozen kilograms, easily killed by trace amounts of cosmic radiation - how much energy could they have?

Yet in the confrontation just now, these people were able to sway an entire war on the scale of trillions of tons and percentages or even tenths the speed of light.

Ye Wenlin let out a long breath, put on his flight suit, and prepared to board the salvage ship. He sighed softly, "I'm just that armchair strategist Zhao Kuo..."

After communications were restored, the turn of the war situation caused a lopsided tilt in the struggle for dominance in space and on Earth. Under the brutal losses, the global pro-war factions could finally represent their respective countries and attend the UN strategic command meeting.

And the ground forces that had been at each other's throats were also basically purged of dissidents and order was restored.

Twenty minutes later, the reinforcements General Yang spoke of indeed arrived. The Security Department swiftly dealt with the remnants of the surrendering faction blocking the entrance, sent people to tightly protect No. 23 Signal Station, and professional signalmen also took over the station's daily operations.

Yang Ning disguised the remaining nine mechs as military trucks again. Fu Luo had never felt the usually unremarkable military trucks looked so endearingly clumsy before.

"Your mech operation has a very personal style," a voice suddenly came from behind. Fu Luo turned around and saw that Yang Ning had changed into a new uniform at some point. "Very impressive, it left a deep impression on me."

Fu Luo was stunned, not knowing how to respond.

Faced with Yang Ning, she had the respect one has for the strong, as well as an instinctive wariness. In any case, she could no longer regard him as the kind and gentle superior in her memories.

Yang Ning leaned on the second floor railing of the signal station in a very relaxed posture, looking down at the busy signalmen below.

He wasn't wearing a hat, having changed into a new uniform with the top two buttons undone. He had just washed his face, which still had traces of water on it, looking a bit disheveled. A few damp strands of hair fell down, making his pale and delicate profile seem even more so. The corners of his eyes curved slightly with a smile, and his lowered gaze was extremely gentle.

Every cell in this person's body was the embodiment of the phrase "appearances can be deceiving".

"It was Political Commissar Wang who transferred you to the Ground Forces, right?" Yang Ning said knowingly, as if he was a close confidant. "Although parents mean well for you, it must have felt quite stifling."

...That little bit of stifling now felt like a lifetime ago.

"Do you want to consider coming back to the Second Department with me?" Yang Ning suddenly turned his head and asked her. Before Fu Luo could reply, he added, "No need to answer so quickly, I won't be returning to make my report until tomorrow afternoon. Just let me know before then."

He finished speaking, took off his glove, pulled out a tissue, and wrote a string of numbers on it, "Contact me when you've made up your mind, I know you all secretly use civilian signals."

Fu Luo blurted out, "Is it okay to use up signal bandwidth at a time like this?"

Yang Ning couldn't help but laugh, "It's fine, besides ground-to-air, we originally built an 'ether communication system' using air-to-air as the carrier. Civilian signals should be mostly restored by tonight."

Fu Luo took the soft tissue with mixed feelings. She indeed really wanted to go to the front lines and had even consulted Senior Brother Ye on how to get there.

Space, that was where she had always dreamed of being.

Although she didn't know why Yang Ning extended an invitation to her, now that both sides had declared war, with Colonel Yang's background and capabilities, returning to the Second Department would undoubtedly make him one of the frontline commanders...

This...was like skyrocketing in a single step.

"Let's go," Yang Ning said, "The ground staff office is paralyzed now, so there's no point in going there. I'll give you a ride and take you home first."

Fu Luo responded and quietly followed behind him.