122: Everyone, stand to one side, because I jumped to the very center.

"Tianjin Seat has arrived."

Another star marker slid past the side of the Warship, then grew smaller and smaller in his field of vision until it gradually disappeared, Xi Hai murmured softly.

He would land at Tianjin Seat V91.10, rendezvous with the fleet originally left at Aquila Seat V77.198, and after completing one last resupply, fly straight to the transportation hub of his fief—Tianjin Seat V89.77.

Evidently, the local governor here had already received news of his arrival; as soon as the storm landed, it was escorted by barges that had been waiting for a long time to a designated berth in the Node Space Station.

In the Starport nearby, a fleet led by four eternal storm and three new constantine the great was quietly docked, undergoing fuel replenishment and material resupply.

Just then, the communication console rang; it was a holographic transmission from the general manager of Tianjin Seat V77.198.

After connecting, deep blue photons quickly took shape in mid-air, and a person with graying hair and a mechanical arm appeared.

"Greetings, Grand Duke Chusiro."

"I am the interim administrator of Tianjin Seat V77.198, Woot."

"Your itinerary has already been notified to me from above. I will send you the situational star map of Tianjin Seat in a moment—however, that is from a month ago."

"I still suggest you find the local branch of the Imperial Tax Administration Department; they should have the latest situational map."

The eyes with which Woot looked at Xi Hai were actually filled with awe—

He did not know about the convoluted schemes from above; he only knew that Tianjin Seat, which had been in dire straits for several years, had finally received reinforcements.

In his eyes, this Grand Duke who arrived leading a fleet had come here without hesitation to care for the border that the empire could not look after, preparing for a long-term garrison.

Looking at that passionate gaze, Xi Hai felt a sensation he didn't know how to describe...

Could it be that the entire space is filled with people from Chengdu?

As soon as this thought popped up, it gave him a fright.

"Very well, I will go apply to the Taxation Department later."

"Then, may I ask if Mr. Woot has any special situations that need to be reported?"

Woot nodded, his expression slightly troubled as he said;

"Respected Grand Duke, there is indeed a rather urgent matter."

"Just three years ago, an Alien Fleet that escaped from the end of the Military Alliance Tiankan Seat - Tianjin Seat defensive line ran into your fief."

"And... they are always elusive. Every time we attempted to encircle and annihilate them, it ended in failure—and in most cases, we suffered heavy losses."

Upon hearing this, Xi Hai thought, elusive?

That's not right, is it?

Could it be that the aliens have researched curvature travel, which humans haven't managed to unlock for tens of thousands of years?

Damn! Then things are really serious!

"What kind of elusive?"

He asked quickly,

And after Woot deliberated for a moment, he said, choosing his words carefully:

"It's just that they inexplicably appear in a certain star system, and then inexplicably disappear."

"Every time after a battle, as soon as that group of aliens falls into a disadvantage, they immediately flee and hide."

"And then they cannot be found."

"Furthermore, the speed at which they flee between star systems is also not right; it clearly exceeds the travel speed of the Gravity Conduit."

"In short, the entire Tianjin Seat V89—and even the surrounding areas—are deeply disgusted by this group of aliens yet are helpless against them."

"If you are going there, you must be very careful about being ambushed."

"Alright, thank you for your reminder."

"I will take note."

With an incredibly bewildered mood, Xi Hai hung up the communication.

...

Soon, the current situational map requested from the Taxation Department was sent over.

Xi Hai opened it to take a look,

Whoa, out of over five hundred star systems, over three hundred were marked in red.

At first, he thought those were areas with severe alien activity, but upon asking, it turned out those had already been lost.

The remaining two hundred or so in green were the ones with severe alien activity.

For a moment, he didn't even know where to start complaining.

What was even more fatal was that because the reinforcements requested for over three years never arrived, the Imperial Navy here didn't even think about retreating or counterattacking; most of those three hundred lost star systems had self-destructed their star markers, locking down the Void Channel.

So much so that even if they wanted to retake them, they were powerless to do so.

After being speechless, Xi Hai, under the recommendation of night lamp, first chose Tianjin Seat V89.57 as the first foothold.

Looking at the star map alone, it was the transportation hub of the entire existing area of Tianjin Seat V89, and also the necessary path for him to reach the nine industrial star systems Kelaifu mentioned.

Soon, the fleet completed resupply, gradually departed the port, and assumed a ready-for-battle stance in mid-air. Fighter jets waited for launch in the hangar of new constantine the great, and all weapons were in an activated state.

Subsequently—

"Channel locked, aircraft in good condition."

"Depart!"

The fleet maintained formation and slowly sailed into the entrance of the Void Channel.

...

This time, the travel time in the Void Channel was very long, lasting a full ten-plus hours. And when they landed at the Tianjin Seat V89.57 node, what greeted them was not resupply or comfort, but overwhelming distress broadcasts.

Thus, the fleet that had just landed almost immediately entered the curvature state again, followed by another ten-plus hours of travel.

Of course, as expected, when the fleet led by Xi Hai had just exited curvature travel,

That classic voice sounded again:

"Multiple fleets are firing at us!"

"Battle array formed, beginning tactical suppression."

"Boom! Clang!"

Before the Warship had even steadied, and the spatial fluctuations from exiting curvature had not yet disappeared, a loud noise came from the storm beneath Xi Hai's feet, as if something had slammed into the outer armor of the Bridge—

It was a strangely shaped small craft, but in less than a second, a pulse beam struck, easily splitting the small craft in two at the waist.

The sounds in the Bridge of the storm also disappeared along with it.

Only then did Xi Hai have time to pay attention to the surrounding situation. Countless tracers from shells and exhaust flames from missiles streaked past him; a large number of pulse beams and laser beams flashed by, and there were even dense swarms of units suspected to be Boarding Craft flying back and forth—

Clearly, he had intruded into a head-on bombardment.

Although intelligence gathering could not be conducted in a combat state, the fleet's observation field was enough to cover the full picture of the battlefield.

The Imperial Navy fleet was automatically marked by night lamp in lake blue, representing friendly, while the other fleet with a bizarre appearance was marked entirely in red—clearly, this was the group of aliens that the interim manager named Woot had spoken of on the way, at least a small portion of them.

In that instant, target acquisition was completed. The first to roar were the bow guns of the eternal storm and the "Gamma storm" ion projection device of the new constantine the great.

The beams illuminated half the battlefield, causing both sides of the engagement to pause. Several large Warships rapidly disintegrated under those beams, turning into floating molten metal and parts.

Immediately, the morale of the Imperial Navy fleet soared.

Moreover, in the fortress nearby, several Imperial Navy soldiers heard the "Reinforcements Arrived" broadcast and their jaws dropped—

"How come it's so fast this time? Reinforcements came after only requesting help for a day or so?"

Another sergeant then bitterly joked:

"Not necessarily, maybe this is the reinforcement called by our seniors three years ago!"

"Actually, that's also very fast."

...

After suffering a major blow, those red-marked Alien Fleet immediately entered a brief pause, and their fierce offensive momentum instantly vanished without a trace.

Replacing it, they began a desperate retreat.

The small Boarding Craft seemed to have become abandoned pawns. After failing to impact the storm several times, they turned their targets to those five uniquely shaped brownish-green frigates in the formation, seemingly treating them as special command-type units.

Then they slammed into them fiercely.

That's right, it was those few modified norma m470 landing ships.

It's unknown what reaction they would have after jumping in and discovering a large group of big blue guys...

But that's not important; under the air combat coordination of mistral and vesta a021, a large number of Boarding Craft were destroyed.

The sky quickly returned to being clean.

(mistral: Tell me loudly, to whom does the sky belong?)

Meanwhile, Xi Hai couldn't care about anything else; he quickly pulled up the star map and began the operation unique to setting players: following the retreating fleet to find the enemy base—

(In the intelligence gathering of setting, there is such a heaven-defying function: as long as another person's fleet sails through your field of vision in any form of navigation, you can know its complete navigation route and destination.)

And under the traction of countless thin lines, the final answer pointed directly to—

Tianjin Seat V89.91.

...

(Classes are full these two days, will continue to add updates starting tomorrow.)