196: Should I avoid his sharp edge?

The night sky was pitch black.

Occasional flashes of starlight were stretched into long lines, streaking past the window from time to time—

They were as beautiful as the "meteors" observed from a planet's surface.

But the people inside the window had neither the mood nor the time to appreciate this beautiful scenery,

because they were fleeing for their lives.

Indeed, their current location was within the Gravity Conduit between Tianjin Seat V89.233 and Tianjin Seat V89.234,

and these people were the remnants of the so-called Tianjin Seat V89 Central Mutual Aid Association—

No, to put it more accurately, they were more like a group of private soldiers kept by the two guys in general's uniforms on the Bridge of the Battleship in the middle.

"Kyle, have we confirmed following Route Plan No. 7?"

At this moment, on the Bridge of that Battleship,

after reading the route report handed over by the communications officer, the general with three stars on his shoulders turned his gaze toward the other one with four stars and asked.

"It's confirmed, Loz."

Kyle—the man with four stars—nodded, then shook his head,

"Plan Seven is dangerous, but it is indeed the fastest path for us to leave the Legion's projection range."

"Once we reach those star systems without star markers, we'll be safe."

As soon as Loz heard the word "Legion," his face darkened with misfortune—

Because of those damn guys! A bunch of shameless warmongers!

Two weeks ago, he was still a high-and-mighty general—

even if this "general" title was self-proclaimed, and the fleet was something he had scraped together through extortion and graft.

"Don't mention those guys; just hearing those two words makes me furious!"

"Can't they just continue being half-dead?"

"The massive legacy we built up! It'll probably be gone in a single night!"

Kyle shrugged. With a look of utter indifference, he looked at Loz and said:

"Then you could just not run?"

Loz, who was complaining just a second ago, immediately changed his tune:

"You can't say it like that. Curse them if you must, but run when you have to,"

"Surviving isn't something to be ashamed of."

"You know, of all the things we've done before, which one did we actually clean up properly?"

"If even one of them gets exposed, you or I—we're both finished."

While listening, Kyle picked up the cup beside him and took a sip of water.

After setting down the cup, he looked at Loz,

"So you do know how serious this is?"

"Who was it! Every single 'transaction'! It had to be so obvious!"

"Who was it! Every single 'commodity'! The loose ends were never tied up!"

"Who was it! Fucking using public accounts for asset transfers!"

"Who the hell was it? It was fucking you! You!"

"And you have the nerve to complain in front of me!"

Loz's face stiffened, his hand stopping mid-air, and then he instinctively retorted,

"Hey, you can't say that!"

"I clearly handled it quite cleanly!"

"Those 'goods' and those 'deals'—I was the one who pulled the strings!"

"Without me, do you think we could have grown so large?"

"Maybe by now, we wouldn't even have been able to scrape together this many Warships!"

Kyle sneered a few times,

"Whatever you say. Anyway, we're both in the same boat now."

"I can only tell you that our dirty laundry has long been known inside out by our colleagues."

"If the results of the negotiations between the Legion and them come out—"

"Then, guess what? Will we be the ones they make an example of?"

"You've made quite a few enemies over the years."

"And!!!"

"You keep fucking saying the loose ends were handled, but do you fucking know!"

"Among the goods you sent to those aliens the month before last was Marshal Alak's fucking illegitimate daughter!"

(Of course, titles like "General" or "Marshal" among these people were all self-appointed within their own makeshift organizations.)

"Even if the Legion hadn't come, he was planning to deal with you!"

Yes, the "business" of the two included human trafficking—

they sold almost everything that could be sold to the aliens.

Human Slave Laborers, production technology, weapon data... and in exchange, they only received a bit of energy currency from the aliens, some "high-end goods" and "luxury items" that were better than nothing, and a few joke-like "promises".

Loz seemed to know about this as well. He pressed his hand to his forehead and said:

"This... forget it. I didn't know about this at the beginning either,"

"I've been screwed over by my subordinates."

"Alright, enough talk. Is the gravity coefficient normal? I feel like we're overspeeding a bit..."

"Boom! Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom!!!"

Before he could finish his sentence, the Warship beneath them suddenly let out a loud bang, followed by a super violent tremor.

The alarm lights across the entire Bridge went off almost simultaneously,

indicator lights flashed wildly, and a large number of loose small items were thrown into the air but did not fall back down—

Indeed, the artificial gravity settings on the Warship had failed.

When Kyle saw the gravity coefficient on the main control console fluctuating wildly like a roller coaster,

an expression of terror finally crept onto his face—

He shouted with all his might:

"Gravity interference device! We've been intercepted!"

Then came another violent shake as a large portion of the hull's external structure was torn apart by violent gravitons, and alarms for decompression in various compartments rang out continuously across the Bridge.

Finally, after three minutes of hellish shaking, this fleet—

if those things, no different from wreckage and debris, could still be called a fleet,

they were finally pulled completely out of the gravity lane.

After feeling the vibrations stop completely, Loz, who was clinging tightly to a pipe, tentatively let go.

He wiped away the warm liquid flowing from his forehead that obscured his eyes, smearing it aside,

and then he immediately scrambled to the window on all fours, staring intently at the darkness outside and the shadows continuously emerging from it.

When Loz saw clearly what those shadows were, he collapsed directly onto the floor, his eyes losing focus, completely drained of strength—

"It's over..."

In front of him was a full-strength fleet... First Mobile Fleet, Third Interception Group,

They had just received a request for assistance from an ally:

A small-scale Alien Fleet was using the Gravity Conduit between System 233 and System 234 for long-distance travel.

Thus, this small interception group, equipped with one southern cross, one eternal storm, two new constantine the greats, eight Chimeras, and a hundred small Warships,

was just waiting there, plain as day, on the path Loz and Kyle had to take in their flight.

"Report! The interception device is active!"

"We have intercepted a fleet! The size is approximately between 4,000 and 6,000 ships!"

At this moment, on the Bridge of the southern cross-class Marshal-level carrier protected in the center of the formation,

a guy with the rank of captain looked at the submitted report and then glanced at the images retrieved by the scouts.

He was wondering to himself, wasn't it supposed to be a small-scale fleet of a few hundred?

Could some big fish have surfaced?

The first officer leaned in and asked,

"Group Leader, the number is different from what was in the intelligence; their numbers might be a bit high,"

"even if they've gone through graviton turbulence, they still have some combat capability,"

"Should we..."

"No."

The captain interrupted the first officer directly and said,

"Mere aliens, and I should avoid their edge?"

"Get lost!!!"

"The enemy-to-us ratio is only ten to one! It's not like we haven't fought this kind of battle before!"

"All carrier-based aircraft, take off! Give them a hell of a beating for me!"

"When meeting on a narrow path, the brave shall prevail!!!"

"Yes!"

...