Chapter 12

'But we don't have any extra shuttles left." Edward scratched his head and said, with the big battle at hand, he was also unwilling to pour cold water on others' wariness.

The shuttle instructor waved his hand and said, 'That's a small matter, as long as Your Excellency agrees, then I'll go prepare." After saying that, he ran back to the team of pilots in a huff, picking one of them up and walking him over to Edward.

'His name is Milk, his eyes aren't very good, but he has a good grasp of the timing of his shots, so please, Your Excellency, place him in the secondary gun attack position." The shuttle instructor introduced the teenager he was carrying in his hand to Edward.

Edward was speechless, he had just wondered what the shuttle instructor had up his sleeve, but it turned out that this shuttle instructor had just kicked out a pilot to make room for himself.

'Alright Milk, you come with me." Edward led Milk towards the outside of the hangar bay.

Milk followed quickly and asked, 'Your Excellency, may I ask who you are?"

'I am Edward Alec." Edward said.

Milk didn't expect it to be the Captain and he said excitedly, 'Your Excellency! Please do send me to the main gunnery position!"

Just then, alarms sounded throughout the ship, and Edward's communicator popped right up to the dialog screen without waiting for him to connect.

'Sir Captain, enemy fleet detected on bearing 151.69.81, please come to the bridge and command the battle at once."

Edward hung up the communication and said to Milk, 'Follow me first." Then made a mad dash towards the bridge.

Not long after the intercom on Edward's wrist rang again, he pressed the talk button and Elina's anxious face appeared on the screen.

'Edward, the stance neutralizer is ready! It's too late to test it, hurry up and get someone to help me transport it to the main gun! Also, this thing has limited range you pay attention to that when you use it."

'Milk! Go to the lab and find Elina and follow her orders." Edward said to Milk as he ran.

'Yes!" Milk answered and ran in the other direction.

A short while later, Edward arrived at the bridge where everyone was talking about something around Coshawn, Edward walked closer and said, 'How's it going? What's the distance?"

Coshawn stood up and saluted and said, 'Reporting to the Captain, I was just using gravitational shear measurements to map the battle zone we are about to arrive in.

As a result, several high speed moving objects have been detected, deduced by the ship's analytical department to be an enemy fleet, 0.2 light hours away."

Surprised that the enemy fleet could be detected so early, Edward asked, 'So have we been detected?"

'I don't think so, the enemy fleet isn't accelerating, but it's only a matter of time before it's detected according to the reversible law of probing." Coshawn said.

Edward stood in front of the command deck overlooking the entire star field nearby, then he slowly nodded and asked, 'Is there any way to make the other side realize that we've detected them?"

Coshawn was very surprised by the Captain's words and said, 'That's easy, just fire a detection beam at the enemy, but then our position would be revealed!"

Edward thought for a moment and then asked, 'How many enemy ships are there."

'This, at the moment, based on the reports from the gravitational detection, we can only know a few of the enemy's larger targets." Coshawn replied.

Edward was not in doubt as he calmly gave his orders, 'Then, Communicator, connect me to each ship's command system and prepare for battle."

Within moments, the faces of several captains appeared on the screen.

Edward looked at a few nearby drifting cold stars on the star map, a few icy stray planets, also called orphan planets, who had been thrown out of the galaxy to wander here after the gravity of the stars in the galaxy gradually failed to offset the centrifugal force generated by their revolutions over the course of many long years.

He composed himself. Said, 'All cruisers, go to standby behind the cold star near area A marked on the star map.

All destroyers, go to standby behind the pile of rubble in area B marked on the starpath.

All ships stay put when they arrive in position, let these celestial bodies block the enemy's detection beams, move quickly, and if anyone is detected during the operation, close in on my side.

When the Lucchese arrives at area C marked on the star chart, I'll have her initiate a detection beam to draw the enemy to your neighborhood.

You prioritize hitting fire on those cruisers and destroyers with weak protection, and leave the enemy's flagship to the Lucchese.

You must take out those enemy cruisers and destroyers within thirty minutes and come back to support us.

All ships, move in!"

At this moment, on the bridge of the Tyndall, the commanders were staring at their commander in disgust, and Serki was oblivious to this.

He was currently looking at Raphael teasingly from the command seat and said, 'Raphael, we've already penetrated 0.5 light hours into the Pars starfield, but there's no sign of those guys from Dosas, there's a serious error in your judgment of the entire battle situation."

Raphael was fidgeting at this moment, he thought that it was impossible for Pars' starfield to be completely undefended, so he said, 'Please also give the order to prepare for war, Your Excellency, it's impossible for it to be completely undefended ah."

Serki grunted and said, 'Don't you understand by now? Dosas has been abandoned by the Free Federation, think about it, Dosas needs fleets to defend its borders and the Free Federation sends them a bunch of crap!"

'But it's entirely possible that Dosas could have asked the Free Federation to come and assist in the defense!" Raphael argued.

Serki laughed out loud and said, 'The Free Federation's fleet was hit hard in the Essoda system, they're too busy looking after themselves how can they spare time to care about Dosas."

Raphael was about to voice a retort when he was interrupted by a shrill alarm.

'Reporting to His Excellency Serki, we have just been swept by a detection beam, we immediately launched counter-surveillance and found one enemy starfighter."

'Good! The raggedy ship floated in front of us just as we finished talking about the raggedy ship, I command! Full speed ahead and destroy the enemy starfighter!" Serki said.

'Admiral! Shouldn't we send a destroyer over to scout the area!" Raphael attempted to stop Serki's arbitrary command.

'Raphael! Do what you need to do! Are you responsible if you let the other side get away?" Serki roared as he slammed the table.

'Reporting target gone!"

'Hey! Where did it go! Find it for me quickly!" Somewhat chagrined, Serki continued, 'Full fleet pursuit at full speed!"

On the bridge of the Lucchese, everyone was executing combat orders in a tense and orderly manner.

'The neutralizer is installed." Elina's panting voice came through the communicator.

'Good, you find a place to hide." Edward said.

'Next time you say something like that, I'll kick your ass! I'm going to stay at main gun position 15 to make sure the Neutralizer is working properly." Elina's voice carried across the bridge with the comms, causing the crowd to snicker.

Edward coughed awkwardly and began to give orders, 'Release all shuttles to stand by behind the nearby rocks, in a moment when the opponent's shield system is disabled all shuttles will begin to attack the enemy starship, priority targets will be the hangar exits, and secondary guns."

'In a moment after we take the initiative to expose ourselves immediately retreat to 147.68.78 behind Cold Star, all main cannons wait for the enemy starship shield system to be paralyzed and then open fire, priority target the enemy main cannons."

After Edward had finished laying out his combat orders, he looked at the busy crowd and actually found himself in a situation where he had nothing to do again, he wanted to physically beckon someone to pour him a cup of tea, but then dismissed the idea, when a cup of tea was placed on the command console in front of him.

'Your Excellency, I am Winchell, Operations Command Instructor for the Free Federation, let me serve as your orderly for the time being."

Edward looked back at the man with a slightly dark complexion and nodded his thanks, saying, 'I should have already arranged for non-combatants to stand by near the escape craft."

Winchell smiled slightly and said, 'How could anyone refuse to be in such a good position to see this great show."

Edward also smiled slightly and said, 'Would we in the Free Federation care about this little battle on the border?"

'Report! Have arrived at the designated position!"

Edward stood up and said, 'Combat begins!"

'Reconnaissance has been completed, the enemy fleet has a total of one starfighter, eight cruisers, and fourteen destroyers, our ship has been exposed."

'Our ship has completed maneuvering, the enemy fleet is accelerating towards us, target lost."

Outside the porthole, the massive body of the cold star was slowly crossing, Edward took a sip of his tea and silently listened to the battle report.

'Our cruiser has picked up the enemy!"

Edward put down his teacup and said, 'Let's go out, let the other flagship fire a few, token shots, and then back off."

The Lucchese went out forward, leaving the cover of Coldstar, and then fired a volley of main gun salvos towards the enemy flagship.

The explosion of the energy shells sent a ripple across the opponent's shields, and then the enemy flagship's return fire accurately struck the Lucchese.

Lucchese's fragile shields shook twice and dimmed significantly, Lucchese hastily retreated back to Coldstar's shield, avoiding the enemy flagship's firing boundary.