276: Chapter 274 Children, I think I'm not dead.

"The dark mamba hangs low ～ The Great One on the ground withers ～"

"Mamba flies ～ Mamba flies ～"

"What can I say?"

The alarm sounds gradually faded into the distance, and the scene on the Bridge slowly blurred. In the void, some strange yet hypnotic music rang in Roy's ears — it was as if something in the distance was calling out to him.

"Commander? Commander!"

"Order the ship abandoned!"

Suddenly, the adjutant's shout beside him yanked him out of the hallucination, causing him to shudder in place. Only then did he regain his senses. Oh, so I'm not dead yet?

He turned his head to look at the adjutant and asked softly: "Are the lifeboats still operational?"

The adjutant opened his personal terminal directly, handed it to him, and replied: "Report! Lifeboats one through four on the Bridge have been checked and are operating normally! They have been emergency launched."

"Lifeboats five through seven are experiencing launch anomalies and are currently undergoing troubleshooting."

Roy took another look out the window, thinking to himself, it's ruined, everything is ruined. The mission is a total failure, and the fleet is almost completely lost. Although the loss of the fleet is insignificant to the Empire, the damage this failure brings to the Empire far exceeds just this one fleet — on one hand, it delayed the opportunity for battle and failed to achieve the planned objectives; on the other hand, the Empire made no contribution in this suppression of the riot. He could already foresee his position melting away like butter.

"Abandon ship," Roy nodded, then shook his head. "Broadcast to the whole ship, everyone fend for themselves. Lifeboat access has been set to public."

"You, organize the Bridge crew to board the lifeboats. That is an order. Go."

"Yes."

Although he had given the order to abandon ship, Roy himself had no intention of leaving. He even suddenly sat down on the command chair behind him — he didn't want to run anymore.

He didn't even know where the Warship beneath his feet was, or what the state of the surrounding area was. He only knew that in the immediate vicinity, at least within the travel range of the lifeboats, there were no man-made facilities. Moreover, there were bugs behind him and unknown attackers in front. Even if he abandoned ship, he would only live a little longer before dying somewhere else. It was better to just stay behind; at least it would be quick.

After thinking it through, Roy took a deep breath, held it in his chest for a moment, and slowly exhaled. A smile appeared on his face—one that looked like relief but was actually resignation. His gaze looked through the Bridge window into the distant deep space.

The distant stars shrank into flickering dots of light, blinking one by one, as if responding to his gaze. It was beautiful, but...

Why were there so many stars, and why were they so neat? They were even flying in formation?

No! That's the engine fire of a Warship!

Damn! Hunting him down? Did he commit a heavenly crime???

Suddenly, Roy felt his vision go dark; he nearly fainted.

But, they were already at visual range, so why weren't they firing? Doubt buried itself in his heart, but no one came to answer him, until — — — — a communication was sent...

So, what were those surrounding warplanes doing at this moment?

This has to start from half a minute ago — on the Bridge of the flagship of the 19th Mobile fleet, which was responsible for this area, the Commander of this fleet — a man holding the rank of Lieutenant General — was verifying information with the fleet Chief of Staff:

"Did the hacking fail?"

"The enemy Warship's electronic systems are almost completely paralyzed. The night lamp hacked into their system, but it is completely unable to run."

"Understood — what about expanding reconnaissance?"

"Currently, no traces of other Imperial Warships have been found within the reconnaissance range."

"Something's wrong, very wrong." The Lieutenant General frowned, and the Chief of Staff standing beside him continued,

"The technical department has conducted multi-faceted comparisons on the two Imperial Battleships we discovered. They have confirmed that these are two relic Battleships — the core of the Imperial fleet sent out this time."

"Their positioning should be to output damage under the cover of a large number of supporting Warships, not acting independently as a two-ship formation — to take a step back, even if that Imperial Commander were stupid, it's impossible to use such non-renewable resources as cannon fodder for pathfinding."

The Lieutenant General listened, rubbing his chin with his right hand, as if asking a question or confirming his own thoughts.

"You mean these two Warships likely encountered some accident and became disconnected from the main force of the Imperial fleet?"

"Very likely."

"I understand," the Lieutenant General lowered his hand. He looked at the Chief of Staff and nodded, then turned to the communications officer and ordered:

"Notify the entire fleet to try to capture the remaining Warship — at least take its captain alive."

"Yes!"

Thus, hundreds of dark gray small aircraft swarmed up, maintaining their mobile formation while weaving into an airtight net.

"Is the other side still not responding to our surrender communication?"

On a kalilein-class ship slightly behind the encirclement net, several communication consoles using different communication methods were searching all public channels in real-time, but there was only sharp or smooth static; there wasn't even any fluctuation similar to communication.

"Report, Commander! We have already notified them three times, but the other side has shown no reaction!"

"Acting aloof?" The man addressed as Commander raised his right eyebrow slightly, his brows knitting together. "Giving me the cold shoulder?"

"This is no longer just ordinary provocation!"

"Commander, what are your instructions?"

"Kill — — — —!!!!"

"Slap!!!"

However, before the officer could finish shouting, he suddenly received a thunderous slap on the back of his head. The communication soldier next to him only took one look before withdrawing his gaze — the newcomer was wearing a crisp black uniform, a peaked cap, and an armband of a probationary Political Commissar on his shoulder; it turned out to be a probationary agent of the Inquisition.

"Kill your head! Thinking about killing, killing, killing every day, no sense of the big picture," the probationary Political Commissar looked at the officer in front of him.

"The order is to capture, to take alive! This is the military! Mind your discipline!"

"I know — isn't this just for the sake of saying it?" The officer rubbed the back of his head, baring his teeth, and said, "You hit way too damn hard!"

"What you call 'for the sake of saying it' is saying a highly emotional sentence in the tone and manner of an order while executing a mission?" The probationary Political Commissar said coldly.

"And your adjutant, how is he supposed to judge whether to execute the original order or your on-the-spot command when executing orders? Unclear instructions, confused authority... This is the part that the Supreme Director valued most when reforming the Legion!"

"There will not be a next time — otherwise, I will describe it truthfully in the duty report provided to the Inquisition."

The officer was silent for a moment, then sighed and waved his hand.

"Understood... it's just that the old habit is a bit hard to change..."

"People always have to look forward. We are no longer who we once were — at least, don't let personal emotions interfere with battlefield command."

"Old Cao, you have to know, a big reason why you haven't been promoted is that you can't change this temperament of yours."

Old Cao — the officer was silent for a few seconds before silently lowering his head.

"Understood, perhaps... what you said is right."

"Report! The balanced anderson reconnaissance unit conducting close-range reconnaissance has sent back image data!"

Seeing that the argument between the frontline Commander and the Political Commissar seemed to have ended, the communications officer interjected at the right moment and projected the newly received reconnaissance data onto the large screen on the Bridge — — — — it was a riddled Warship, full of holes, charred black, and there were even faint traces of deformation and cracking in the middle section. Obviously, it had just escaped from a high-intensity battle.

"What's going on?"

Seeing this image, the officer and the Political Commissar, who were just arguing, immediately got into the zone.

"Did our firepower reconnaissance bomb it?"

"It was not," the communications officer pulled up another report.

"The attacks we have carried out so far have only been the first firepower reconnaissance, launching four torpedoes, with serial numbers traceable."

Not them?

No — no! There's another expert!

At the same time, the communications officer continued to report the real-time situation:

"That Battleship has lowered its lifeboats — they are abandoning ship!"

"Report! Our recently sent surrender communication has been replied to!"

"They expressed willingness to surrender and apologized for not replying to us earlier. They requested that we accept them, and also said... that the Battleship over there is about to detonate?"

"What should we do? Commander?"

Old Cao snorted softly.

"What I hate most is apologizing after the fact —"

Then, he glanced quietly at the Political Commissar beside him, his tone softening significantly.

"Prepare an unmanned FG300, prepare to move forward to dock with their lifeboats, then see if the captain is inside, and then prepare for interrogation according to rank."

"Yes!"

At this time, on the other side, on the lifeboat, looking at the communication sent back, Roy suddenly had an expression of not knowing what to think.

At this moment, only one sentence remained in his heart: Children, I think I might survive? ...