Him and their stars.

Chapter 1909 Qingtian is back, and peace is back

It was already July 7th when Sobek left his fleet and set out from the New Solomon System on the "light ship" called the Rabbit.

Probably because they wanted to show their abilities to the bigwigs in the Privy Council. This Galactic Empire's newest battlecruiser, under the command of the (self-proclaimed) best captain, Colonel Peggese, ran at the speed of the Galactic Speed ​​Champion, as fast as a meteor, with a silver saddle shining on the white rabbit.

Even the two stops on the way for supplies and maintenance were shortened to less than 36 hours. Based on this alone, all the damage control and boat workers on the Royal Rabbit are qualified to find a high-paying job in a championship-level rowing team.

The Rabbit arrived at the Nor 9 system in the Helot sector on September 5, at least ten days earlier than the requirements of a certain strict electoral prince.

"You are very good and live up to everyone's expectations. Lieutenant General Sobaek, I hope you will not disappoint these expectations." The one who greeted him here was Admiral Nerno, an imperial general who was sturdy, elegant, serious, and had a scholarly demeanor.

He was also the Chief of the Imperial Stables at the Grand Marshal's Office, equivalent to the Chief of Equipment of the Imperial Army.

In the starport of Nol 17, he handed over the command of the three Barbarossa-class dreadnoughts to Sobek, saying that his subsequent task would be to command them to complete the later cruise, formation and weapons training.

"Then, these warships will be put into service. A group of young generals who have made many achievements in recent battles should be given new flagships. Vice Admiral, do you understand what I mean?"

Even if Sobek was a thick-skinned person, he could understand the subtext. Therefore, even a Buddhist like him couldn't help but have some wild thoughts.

But is that all there is to it?

"Also, Vice Admiral Olivia Rowentour is currently operating in the Sumoe sector. One of the ships, the Barbarossa, is confirmed to be her new flagship. She will keep you in touch at any time."

Sobaek always felt that perhaps he had understood something new.

"Do you mean that, when necessary, I should obey the orders of Lieutenant General Rowentour?"

If this is true, it is exactly what I want. For a person who lives a Buddhist life, what he fears is not someone pointing fingers at him, but having no leader above him and no one to blame.

Admiral Nerno looked at the young general with a look of joy on his face, and nodded with satisfaction after making sure that the other party had no grudges.

"But at least you are a young man with an open mind, and you will not sacrifice public interests for personal gain. If there is anyone that Rowentour can cooperate with, it is probably only someone like you."

It seemed as if the general had misunderstood something again, but Sobaek really didn't know what else to say.

"The recent Helots star zone is actually far from peaceful. It is up to you to figure out the root cause and what to do next." Admiral Nerno patted Sobaik on the shoulder and left in a cool manner.

In this way, Vice Admiral Jaeger Sobek once again had a battlecruiser, three dreadnoughts, a robot repair ship, a supply ship, a medical ship and two work ships under his command, and he could finally call himself Admiral Sobek again.

The number of fleets under his command is small and the organization is extremely extreme, but on paper its combat power is definitely the most powerful fleet he has ever commanded.

After a short rest, a two-week fleet exercise began. Specifically, it was a round trip between the two star systems of Hanshi 12 and Nor 17. When encountering asteroids on the way, the machine guns were used to test weapons and aiming.

It would be great if we could encounter a smuggling ship passing through, or a slave ship escaping. That would be the best opportunity to conduct actual combat tests.

In short, according to the original plan, this battleship test will last at least one month.

But at this moment, Lieutenant General Yeager Sobek received a wide-area distress signal from a patrol fleet.

Without further ado, he ended the exercise early according to the Imperial Military Manual and quickly rushed to the scene.

This time, it took him an extra week to rush from the exercise site to the scene of the incident in Channel 4 of the Iron Trail, which also included the time he spent at the Steel Rock Fortress and the side quest of casually replacing the fortress commander.

...As for why there is such a side quest, I can only say that when Jaeger Sobek was officially valued by the ambitious King Suliuka, it was necessary to do some quests.

Look, besides the old brothers, there are also many new faces on the bridge of the Uto.

Thinking about it carefully, I have been running non-stop in the past three months. In total, I have traveled more than 10,000 light years.

When he thought of this, even Sobek himself was deeply moved by his professionalism. He felt that he should have overdrawn all his diligence in this life. But he could see with his naked eyes that he could not escape from all this. Whenever he thought of this, he felt extremely depressed and even wanted to lie down.

However, even with Admiral Suo's professionalism, who is both civil and military, he is still a step behind.

In this system called ST-A-782, Sobek's fleet has docked near the rescue site.

"There was supposed to be an asteroid here, but it's gone now," the navigator reported to Sobek.

"The battle is so fierce?" Sobaek was shocked.

"Or maybe there must be something fishy." Miss Sellu felt that there must be something fishy.

"Indeed, what weapon can destroy an asteroid? Titan ship? Fortress gun? But why is it necessary?" Captain Pegsay shuddered again when he said this: "I have a bad feeling."

His tone was so gloomy that the temperature on the bridge of the entire ship dropped by more than one level.

The scattered debris at the scene soon fell into the light curtain of the Rabbit. No one could find any complete ship parts, no lifeboat, and there was not even any basic life reaction.

"The patrol fleet has confirmed it. There are no survivors." said Captain Pegset.

"Then it definitely can't be the work of the rebels." Miss Serlu frowned and said, "The remnants of the Community guerrilla fleet that fled to Xumoe? No, they can't have such power. Then, the unknown Leviathan mentioned in the distress signal is the most likely one."

Sobek looked at the battlefield expressionlessly, feeling horrified. He also had a very ominous premonition, but since Captain Pegsay had already said this, it would be embarrassing if he said it again, right?

Captain Pegsay sighed, with a clear expression of irony on his face: "The Empire has conquered this starry sky for the second millennium. Our ancestors destroyed four intelligent creatures that entered primitive tribal civilization in Helots, established 4 orbital refining bases, deployed hundreds of fortresses and 36 patrol fleets, and stationed 200 stormtroopers and more than intra-galactic gunboats in various places to guard tens of thousands of labor camps. But until now, we can still find a new cosmic Leviathan? More importantly, this actually broke out after the war. Everyone, does it sound more like a ghost story?"

At this point, he subconsciously used a tone like telling a ghost story: "It's as if this war has resurrected the ghosts of the past~~~~ What kind of malice are we facing... Hey, sir, I was just saying it casually."

Under Sobaek's gaze, Captain Pegsay quickly shut up.

Afterwards, the heavy cruisers of the patrol fleet also took the initiative to welcome the arrival of Vice Admiral Sobek. These local patrol fleets belonging to the Helots galaxy were of course the first to arrive at the scene because of their proximity.

The most senior officer present was an old Letalin brigadier general who was estimated to be three times as old as Sobek - of course, by Letalin standards of life expectancy, he was still in the prime of life.

He expressed his admiration and longing for Sobek respectfully, with meticulous etiquette, but it seemed a bit routine: "I am nearby, less than 20 hours earlier than you, how amazing..."

The old brigadier general wanted to express his admiration for mobility, but Sobek's shamelessness was limited after all, so he interrupted directly and said, "Let's get down to business. Are there any new discoveries at the scene?"

"No one is alive." The old brigadier general was very sad, but the one who followed was puzzled: "Our fallen warships are too broken into pieces, and there is no intact lifeboat or isolation cabin. Moreover, all the ship fragments have traces of high temperature burning."

"all?"

"All of them, at least all of those we have checked so far." "...Heh, are these unknown Leviathans war hyenas that came out of nowhere? Do they want to loot after they've defeated the enemy?" Captain Pegset muttered in a low voice.

Although his voice was very low, the old man behind the screen seemed to have super hearing and immediately denied it: "No, Colonel, this should not be the effect of those space monsters. Or rather, it is not just them."

Captain Peggsai nodded awkwardly, then shut up.

The captain continued his explanation.

The Imperial fleet that lost contact was quite large, including heavy cruisers and light carriers, but it sent out a wide-area rescue signal half an hour after the attack. According to the Imperial Military Manual, this operation can only be carried out in a completely desperate situation where even a breakout and escape is impossible.

Even if all the pirates from the Abyss Nebula came here, they couldn't do this. Of course, the remnants of the Earth guerrilla fleet, who were nowhere to be found, couldn't do this either. As for the rebels, of course, it was impossible for them to have malicious intent.

But even this unencrypted wide-area distress signal was only transmitted three times before it completely disappeared.

"They can't do this even if they encounter an adult star-eating worm. Unless it is the legendary space dragon, which can release positron rays comparable to the main guns of the Skyfortress. There is also the legendary ancient dome whale, which can use mental control to instantly seize the will of all crew members." The old commodore explained seriously, like a very pedantic naturalist.

Sobek was stunned for several seconds before he said, "But, these are just legends, right?"

"That's true. Legends are just legends." The Brigadier General nodded very much. "So, I think it's more like they were hit directly by the fortress artillery. Of course, this is also my guess."

He told everyone that according to the analysis of the deformed fragments, although they showed signs of being burned and deformed by strong energy, the direction of stress was a bit strange.

The old commodore pondered for a long time before offering a metaphor: "It's more like an antimatter bomb ignited inside all the warships."

Everyone on the Royal Rabbit looked at each other in bewilderment, still finding it hard to imagine the scene at that time.

"Couldn't it be a space bubble torpedo carrying an antimatter warhead?" Sobaik asked with a frown.

The Brigadier General shook his head: "We can almost rule out this possibility. We did not find any traces of space etching on any of the fragments."

When the space bubble generator neutralizes the armor made of matter, it is impossible for it to leave no trace at all. The unnatural distortion of matter at the molecular level is the so-called space etching.

"So, a direct hit from the positron cannon?" Captain Pegsay frowned.

"It is possible that the ion cannon and the light spear cannon penetrate from the outside." Miss Serlu pondered, "But to achieve this effect, it must be the positron main cannon carried by the Titan ship."

Sobek still had a tangled expression on his face. His common sense told him that even if the positron fortress cannon could cause energy dispersion and destroy the fleet at once, or even cause the warships to implode, it would be impossible to blow them to pieces.

"I know this is unreasonable, but there is really no other way to explain it." The brigadier general thought for a moment and said, "Of course, if there are some special abilities of Leviathan, everything is possible. The legendary space dragon that can spit out positron light explosions can even simulate the light of the sun. It should be able to do this, right?"

Sobek could see that the brigadier general was a fan of monsters.

"Let's talk about the unknown Leviathan. Have you found any remnants?"

The old brigadier general shook his head and said, "There are indeed signs of tearing on the fragments now, which is consistent with the effect of the flagellated amoeba, but this is not conclusive evidence. In addition, there is not even a trace of biological cell left, which is the first time this has happened."

As a result, the inference at the scene once again reached a dead end.

Sobaek pressed his temple, thinking that it was too unprofessional for him to do such a thing. He should at least find a well-trained investigative judge.

Then again, I have to travel, do tests, investigate cases, etc. What a busy life it is!

Viscount Serlu, on the other hand, heard the old brigadier general's subtext: "Are you saying that there has already been an attack by the so-called unknown Leviathan?"

The old brigadier general's eyes flashed with hesitation, and then he seemed to have made up his mind and nodded solemnly: "Before you came here, similar problems have occurred at least three times. However, just like this time, there is no evidence. There is no surveillance video, no witnesses. Therefore, the Star Region Executive Office and the Governor's Office did not report it."

"Every time, an entire patrol fleet is wiped out? Including aircraft carriers and heavy cruisers?" Sobaek felt his scalp tingling. This scene was becoming more and more like a concrete space horror story, and the most ferocious one at that.

The Brigadier General quickly shook his head and said, "That's not the case."

The three attacks were on two military stations guarding the mining sites on the planet's surface, and a small orbital monitoring station in a border star system. The total number of deaths was less than 200, but they were only part of the star zone guard team. Strictly speaking, they were just supervisors of the huge slave labor camp of Helots, and some of them were even slaves.

This is normal. Using slaves to monitor slaves is a traditional skill.

In short, since they were not the SA and armored grenadiers officially organized by the Grand Marshal's Office, their death would be easy to conceal.

Although there was little surveillance and eyewitnesses at the scene, there were still many traces of the destruction left behind.

Claw marks, lacerations, acid-corroded deformations, and a complete loss of living fungus-like tissue.

Naturally, there were rational officers who felt that something was not right and ultimately did not report it.

The old brigadier general hesitated for a moment, then continued, "However, it was later discovered that the surface military stations that were attacked had traces of the activities of the Primary Color Organization. Also, our investigators found remnants of space jumps at the monitoring station, and determined that an escape ship had passed through there. The higher-ups thought that these attacks were probably caused by psychics, who disguised them as biological attacks. Psychics belonging to the Primary Color Rebellion must be operating nearby, so they conducted a more rigorous... uh, investigation."

Everyone present knows what this investigation should be written as.

Of course, the Sector Security Command did increase the size of the patrol fleet, until the patrol fleet was attacked this time, and it was no longer possible to conceal it.

Sobaek shuddered again. His unpleasant premonition naturally became stronger and stronger. It seemed as if there was really a horrible monster hidden in the vast starry sky before him that could devour him at any time.

That kind of weapon can destroy heavy cruisers and light carriers in an instant, so does that mean battlecruisers and dreadnoughts are definitely safe?

Legend has it that to fight a space monster of this size, you need a fleet and a complete warning network. However, I only have these few battleships that are being tested.

Sobaek suddenly realized what he should do.

He raised his head and said to the Commodore of the Letalin people, "Commodore, I need to put your fleet into the escort sequence and temporarily obey my orders. Is that okay?"

The old brigadier general was slightly startled, and then struggled very briefly. Then, a moving light suddenly appeared in his eyes: "I obey your command."

He paused, his face full of emotion. "I have the concrete evidence that the Helots Star District Security Command and the Directory deliberately concealed military intelligence and killed innocent people. I can give it to you now."

...Wait, is that what I mean?

"General, your arrival means the coming of justice! Peace for the Helots has come!"

Viscount Sellu and Captain Pegsay looked at their commander's profile carefully, and after pondering for a moment, they suddenly showed an expression of sudden enlightenment.