The Milky Way hangs upside down, the stars are like waterfalls, and somewhere in the Kunde front line area, a surviving Kunde main fleet is slowly cruising in the universe.
Not long ago, the fleet code-named "Sea Flag" experienced a fierce battle. It was raided by an imperial general. The command ship and the escort desperately broke through and escaped by breaking their tails.
Now there are only more than 20 escort battleships left next to the command ship, and the other battleships will either be annihilated or scattered.
The Hai flagship team is affiliated to the Kunde Third Space Corps. The commander of this fleet is the famous general of the Third Corps, Olierte, who is known as the rising star of the Third Corps. A few years ago, the third The field marshal of the corps had reached retirement age, and Oliert was seen as the first candidate for the position of marshal of the 3rd Corps.
However, due to the receipt of the information about the crashed spacecraft a few years ago, the high-level decision was made to mobilize the war. All officers delayed their retirement and all recruited, and this matter was delayed.
At this moment, the Hai flagship team, which had just suffered a defeat, was sneaking away while waiting for the next step of the command.
In the bridge of the command ship, the atmosphere was silent and dejected, and everyone was immersed in the grief of defeat and loss of comrades-in-arms.
Oliert stood silently in front of the front porthole, leaving only his back to all the operators and adjutants in the room. The color of his carapace was mixed with sad green and angry red.
In the war just now, he was almost led by the opponent's commander-in-chief, and he lost the war partly because of his reasons.
Everyone knew that the commander was the most stressed person, so they didn't dare to bother him.
The adjutant hesitated for a long time before plucking up the courage to walk to Oliert, and said softly, "Sir, we..."
"Needless to say."
Oliert turned around, his body gradually turned back to a calm blue, and slowly said: "This is not my personal failure, but the failure of civilization, what I lost to was not the opponent, but the entire civilization of the enemy. ."
Oliert knew that his commander-in-chief was no match for the imperial generals, but he believed that it was not just a matter of personal ability, but the difference also came from the heritage of civilization.
In the fight, he made the most delicate operation and decision-making so far. Asking himself about this performance, he could even be regarded as an important course case by the Military Academy. However, what shocked him was that the enemy's reaction was unbelievably fast, almost instantly. Seeing through his arrangement is like playing chess on both sides, and the enemy can see through his backhand, who has racked his brains and ambushed ten moves later, just like memorizing chess records.
Encountering such an opponent is a heavy blow to the commander's confidence.
It doesn't mean that Oliert's level is not good. In fact, he is already a famous general by the standards of the Kunde people. The surface reason for this is that the ability of the famous imperial generals far exceeds him, but the deep-seated reason is that differences in cultural heritage.
The rise of the three major civilizations is accompanied by the mourning of countless races. They have come step by step from the flames of war. All war cases are written in the curriculum of the military academy. Therefore, no matter what the situation is, officers can instantly come up with corresponding solutions. Thinking is more flexible.
The Kunde people have experienced too few interstellar wars, and the war cases are far from being compared with the empire. All the tactics used by the officers are old things that have been eliminated from the universe for many years. This is the difference in the background.
After the actual combat, Oliert was pessimistic. He could not see the possibility of winning the local war at all. Now the step-by-step defeat of each fleet is the best proof.
In fact, he is not alone. Different from the radicalism of the Kunde high-level people, the soldiers who are fighting on the front line are basically pessimistic about this war.
They resented that their homeland was coveted by the enemy, but did not think that sacrifice in this war was necessary. However, the military orders were like mountains, and the high-level orders were the will of the soldiers.
Sighing secretly, putting away these pessimistic emotions, Oliert looked at the adjutant and asked in a deep voice:
"Has the command from the headquarters come?"
"Uh... Just sent it over. He asked us to stand by here, recover the scattered fleet, and then go to join the main fleet of the Third Corps to plan an attack on the enemy Stargate."
Hearing this, Oliert slammed the table and said angrily: "Bullshit! Not retreating yet? Is the command really crazy?!"
We have just been broken up, and we still have to stay in this dangerous area to find our old team. Will the enemy not chase after us!
And the main fleet has been defeated like this, and they have to forcibly converge to attack the enemy's Stargate? This is to send us to death!
Many officers in the room felt that there was something wrong with this tactical arrangement, but they dared not speak out. They all stared at Oliert, waiting for the commander-in-chief's decision.
Oliert took two steps back and forth, and said with anger, "Contact the Marshal for me, and I will personally ask him what is going on with such a decision!"
The adjutant nodded and operated immediately. The communication interface popped up on the virtual screen. After waiting for a few seconds, the call was connected on the opposite side, and the figure of the Marshal of the Third Corps appeared on the screen.
"Oliert, I heard that you were attacked. Fortunately, you are still alive."
"There is a reason for luck." Oliert calmed down, "I received an order from the headquarters, we are planning to attack the enemy's Stargate?"
"Yes, this is the command's order."
"Don't you think there's a problem? The battle situation has deviated from the original plan. It's not time to continue fighting. That will only sacrifice more troops in vain."
"I know, and I also think it's time to retreat. I'm negotiating with the top management. Before that, please follow the orders."
Hearing this, Oliert fell silent and hung up the communication.
The adjutant asked cautiously, "Sir, what should we do now?"
Oliert glanced at him and suddenly said, "How many warships do we have?"
"Well, twenty-four."
"Gather the captains and pull them into the communication channel."
Hearing this, everyone immediately took action. Oliert stood with his hands behind his back and waited for a while. One after another avatars appeared on the screen, which were all the remaining captains.
At this time, Oliert made a gesture and spoke slowly:
"Remember, what I'm going to say next, I'll only say it once..."
He said a word of unnutritious encouragement, and repeated the command of the command. In the process, he kept making various gestures, and all the captains stared at him intently.
"Okay, that's all there is to say, let's act."
Finally, Oliert put down his hand and ended his speech.
The captain's portrait on the screen dimmed one by one.
At this moment, the adjutant glanced at another command screen and exclaimed: "Sir, all captains have turned off their intelligence cores and blocked all external information. We can't contact them!"
Oliert had expected it long ago, and nodded calmly, "Very well, you can also turn off the intelligence core of our spacecraft."
Everyone was shocked and suddenly understood something, and some couldn't believe it.
What does this mean... are you going to be a deserter? !
"This this… "
The adjutant was stunned.
"Why don't you go soon?!" Oliert glared, his tone suddenly stern.
The adjutant hesitated for a while, but went to make arrangements, and soon had the command ship's intelligent core turned off.
In this way, the remnants of this sea flagship team have become a ghost fleet that has lost contact with the outside world.
Oliert then slowly exhaled, looked at the puzzled people next to him, and explained, "Sorry, all of this is to act cautiously, if you guess correctly, our quantum network has been completely infiltrated by the enemy. ."
When this statement came out, everyone was shocked.
Taking a glance, Oliert said slowly: "I know the marshal very well, he is a rigid soldier, and he will never question the military orders of the high-level, although now is an extraordinary period, everyone may change, but we can't let it go. Any doubts, I suspect that the one just now was not a marshal at all.
The enemy may have infiltrated our chain of command. Everyone understands. I don't need to say more about the consequences. So the war is over, and I can no longer follow their orders. Now I can only save myself. The gesture I just made was a special set of secret codes that only a few people knew. I asked all captains to cut off the link. From now on, we can only rely on ourselves. "
Everyone was stunned by these words, unable to accept such a large amount of information for a while, and their minds went blank.
The adjutant gritted his teeth, summoned up his courage and said, "Sir, this is a deserter!"
Oliert didn't get angry, and gave him a faint glance.
"This is a battle that must be lost. No matter what you think, I will not send the remaining subordinates to die on the battlefield, deserters? No, maybe we are the Kunde people... the last survivors."
"Then where should we go now?"
"The farther away from here the better."
Oliert looked out of the porthole and into the depths of the starry sky.
…
"I think there might be something wrong with the route."
In a cramped spaceship room, several Kunde people dressed in ordinary clothes formed a circle.
This is one of the spaceships in the immigration fleet. It is carrying civilians. Most of the people on board are uneasy and confused about the future, and the atmosphere is low.
Because of the large population, each spaceship is a group of civilians crowded into a room, and the people living in this room are all brothers born in the same litter, and they are related to each other by blood.
"Brother, what did you find?" a short brother asked.
The eldest brother in this nest is a burly Pippi shrimp with a low tone:
"I have a friend who is a crew member on the guide ship. He told me an inside story. According to the plan, the fleet should arrive on a planet for a short rest yesterday, but it did not encounter a planet yesterday, and the fleet has been moving."
"Could it be that they adjusted their plans? Why don't you ask your friends again?"
"My friend has been unable to contact me, and I can't ask anyone." The elder brother said solemnly: "I think there may be something strange."
"Brother, could it be that you are too sensitive? If there is a problem, the above will definitely notify you."
"I have a bad intuition, I can't tell." The elder brother shook his head.
"Hey, what are you thinking about and can't help you, we just follow the arrangement of the fleet." One of the brothers said casually.
At this moment, the youngest brother next to him suddenly said, "Big brother is right, there is a problem with the fleet's route, and we are returning to the original road."
Hearing this, everyone looked at him.
"Don't talk nonsense, how did you find out?"
The younger brother pointed to the porthole, and everyone looked over, only to see simple graffiti on the porthole, drawing a series of circles, with diameters ranging from small to large, and at this moment, there was a planet outside the window, which was perfectly fitted into the middle one. on the circle.
Seeing this, everyone's expressions changed.
Living in a house, everyone has no secrets. Some time ago, a planet appeared in the fleet's field of vision. The younger brother used a paintbrush to draw the outline of the planet on the porthole every day. All are changing, representing the distance.
And at this moment, this planet actually coincides with the outline of a few days ago, and everyone understands what this means.
"I'll ask!"
Seeing this, the elder brother couldn't sit still, and everyone hurriedly followed behind.
The group hurried through the second half of the cabins, which were crowded like refugee camps, came to the passage of the cabin in the middle section, and found a few soldiers on board, reflecting the situation.
"You said there was a problem with the route?" A soldier took out his ear and said impatiently, "This is not something you should worry about, what are you worrying about."
"It's true, I can show you proof, I..."
"Okay, okay." The soldier waved his hand. "The guide ship has a star map. If it really deviates from the course, it will be adjusted immediately. You can go back and wait in peace."
The eldest brother was helpless, so he had to go back with a group of brothers and wait.
However, after three consecutive days, they stared at the graffiti on the porthole every day, and found that the fleet was still returning to the way it came, and there was no adjustment at all.
The eldest brother was in contact with the friend who revealed the inside story every day, and only contacted the opposite side on the third day, but the answer from the opposite side made him feel half cold.
"You said that you deviate from the route? No, no, our star map shows that the route is completely correct... Didn't encounter the supply planet I said? Oh, this is a long-distance observation error, the star map is not too inaccurate, we It has been reported to the above, the above has updated our star map, and it is no longer a problem... What graffiti record? Well, you may be mistaken, that is the new planet marked by the updated star map, not seen before The one I've passed, anyway, the navigator on my side shows that the route is always going forward."
With a cold face, he turned off the communicator, and the eldest brother was silent for a long time.
Suddenly, he seemed to make up his mind and said, "Do you believe in me, or do you believe in the people above?"
Many brothers looked at each other and hesitated.
"What do you want to do?" the little brother couldn't help asking.
"My intuition is getting stronger and stronger, there must be something wrong here, maybe the people above are sending us into the fire pit." The elder brother lowered his voice, "I don't want to stay on the spacecraft, I'm going to steal supplies and rescue capsules, we run away."
"Are you crazy?!"
Someone was stunned, "This is courting death, the fleet will definitely take us back, even if we succeed, the stolen materials will be used up sooner or later, there is no food, no fuel, what will we do then? And do you have a star map? I don't know the star map, so how do I run?"
"The star map and the rescue capsule permission, I can get it from a friend, as for the supplies... The medium rescue capsule has complete facilities, as long as you reach the planet, you can use the built-in collector to replenish the fuel inventory, which is enough for us for many years. . To solve the food problem, we need a greenhouse incubator, crop seeds, and a nutrient paste maker, which can be obtained on board, and during the cultivation of crops, we can use the freezer to sleep." The big brother whispered: "Three days. I've been thinking about the way back, it's not a decision I made with a slap on the forehead."
Everyone still shook their heads.
How many people ran away to survive in an unknown universe after breaking away from the clansmen who built a new home
Just thinking about it makes this plan crazy!
"I'll go with you." At this moment, the younger brother stood up and shrugged, "Brother, you know me, I don't like being bound by rules, and since I left my home, I don't plan to continue that kind of follow-up. The stable life of the flow, the universe is so big, I want to see it for myself, you can say that I like adventure or pursue excitement, in short, count me as one."
The eldest brother nodded and looked at the other brothers, "I know that everyone has concerns, the universe is too big, and if there are only a few of us, this will be the loneliness and fear that touches the deepest part of the soul, maybe it will prove me wrong in the end, But I'm not willing to wait passively, and I don't force everyone to come with me."
The second child hesitated for a while, then turned his heart and said, "Brother, I will follow you too. You are the person I trust the most, and I trust your judgment."
Hearing this, more people were shaken.
Someone shook his head helplessly, "Oh, forget it, let's go. From the moment I leave my home, I will treat my life as dead. What can I do if I take a risk, we are brothers and cannot be separated."
These brothers have grown up together since childhood, and have long been accustomed to holding a group. After a lot of entanglement, everyone finally agreed with the elder brother's plan. Miraculously, after making up his mind, the previous hesitation and anxiety disappeared and turned into unparalleled excitement and anticipation.
"Brother, I have a proposal. At least we should bring a girl."
As soon as this statement came out, everyone burst into laughter, the tense atmosphere dissipated, and the room was filled with a happy air.
"That's right, not just one, we should bring a few more."
"Haha, maybe we will become a wandering civilization in the future."
…
In the next few days, the brothers split up and used their personal connections to prepare quietly. Since the immigrant spacecraft carried a large amount of daily supplies, the things everyone needed could be found on the ship. The only problem was how to get them.
Courage, money, connections, and a little luck, everyone raised most of the materials they needed in various ways, and completed the spotting.
Soon came the day of hands-on, and the progress was beyond imagination. According to the information obtained from the stepping, everyone quietly sneaked into the rescue hatch, stepped on a medium-sized rescue capsule, turned off the intelligent core, and switched to the manual control mode.
The big brother's palm stopped above the launch button, and he didn't press it for a long time.
"Have you figured it out, as long as this button is pressed, there will be no turning back. If we are caught, we will be treated as prisoners."
"It's not much different from prisoners now. The people above look at us more like a group of hard workers." The younger brother smiled freely, "It's just changed the name, it's called population resources. I have long wanted to get rid of this identity. ."
"Bullshit." The elder brother shook his head and laughed, and tapped the button hard.
laugh
The rescue capsule suddenly fell and shot into the universe.
After leaving the spaceship, everyone subconsciously turned to look out of the porthole, but was suddenly stunned.
They saw that other spaceships in the immigrant fleet also shot out sparse rescue capsules, like scattered sparks, scattered away.
…
Half a month passed in the blink of an eye.
On another border of the Kunde territory, the core fleet where the Kunde headquarters is located jumped out of the stargate, and then turned around to recover the stargate for retreat.
"Okay, we have arrived at the target area. According to the last cipher order issued, all the surviving fleets will converge in this area."
In the headquarters, the senior Kunde people gathered together to check the messages sent by other troops before the last time the network link was disconnected.
"The scorched earth troops sent a report that the nether energy has been successfully detonated in various places, and the plan has been implemented... Other fleets sent reports and are retreating towards the direction we designated, huh, the situation is okay."
The Kunde leader breathed a sigh of relief.
Seeing this, everyone's spirit was a little better.
The situation is finally getting back on track.
Because of fear of information leakage, the headquarters did not dare to maintain a long-term link, so they gave up real-time communication. At the same time, they did not dare to transmit orders normally. They were afraid of being intercepted by the enemy, so they changed it to a special code.
However, before everyone could take a breath, the radar suddenly sounded an alarm!
"Attention, attention, an unknown large fleet is found ahead!"
The crowd was suddenly shocked.
"How can there be a fleet here! Is there an ambush?!"
"Let's see if it's the enemy?!"
Many high-level executives hurriedly conveyed orders, and after only a few seconds, the captain sent a report.
"Leaders, we have confirmed that the opponent is not an enemy, but our fleet."
Hearing this, many high-level executives breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that they were almost scared out of a heart attack.
"It scared me to death, it turned out to be my own."
"It should be that the troops who received the order to join together arrived earlier, and the speed was even faster than us."
At this moment, the captain spoke again, and his tone became extremely strange:
"Everyone misunderstood, the other party is not our armed fleet, but the immigrant fleet that has been sent out a long time ago. I don't know why, they all came back!"
The voice fell, and the audience became dead silent.
All the high-level executives here were stunned for a second, and suddenly became confused!