Him and their stars.

Chapter 2006 seems to have no effect on me at all.
Perhaps to increase his persuasiveness, Yu Lian then looked at Fei Fei and Gongsun Qing: "Colonel Li and Miss Gongsun know this."

Feifei shook her head and said, "I only knew that it was a trap to catch fish, but I didn't expect it to be such a big fish."

She was genuinely surprised; her expression even showed a hint of delight.

Gongsun Qing's surprise was even more obvious: "I was just thinking that we could drive the enemy away without suffering any losses, but I really didn't expect that we could turn the tables like this!"

This news will probably take some time for everyone to process. A moment of complex silence fell over the room.

Seconds later, Captain Nemo raised his arms and shouted, "All glory to Commander Yu!"

His cheers naturally drew responses from many of his subordinates.

Who exactly is this mythical creature? Apart from Deng Zhengqing and Banner, who looked completely bewildered, the rest of the Lionheart Society members expressed their admiration for this person with silent sighs.

However, setting aside the slight discomfort with Captain Nemo's way of providing emotional support, everyone was swept up in jubilation. No one had witnessed Yu Lian's victory firsthand, but no one questioned it either. They even felt that compared to the victory that severely damaged the High Priest of Norddos, their capture of a fortress and the incidental expulsion of the Imperial fleet was nothing of great significance.

And so, amidst cheers of "Glory to Commander Yu!", the brief victory celebration began.

This is both a celebration of the meeting of the two armies and a celebration of the change of ownership of the Gate of Glory.

Since the start of the war, the Blue Star Community has been constantly beaten and defeated. Although, thanks to the "Dragon Whose Name Cannot Be Mentioned" and the "War Magician," the Imperial Army's losses and casualties have gradually surpassed those of its opponents, this is merely a matter of tactics.

Strategically, it was Earthlings who were always on the defensive, it was Earthlings who were always losing territory, and it was still Earthlings who ultimately gave up their capital.

Now, a year into the war, the Galactic Empire has finally gained a vital stronghold in the hands of the Commonwealth. Isn't this a historic victory?
What? You're saying the community is gone? That's alright... it's even better!

In short, the glory belongs to Commander Yu!
Commander Yu, now basking in glory, was naturally happy to share the spoils with his subordinates. And so, not a single ounce of the more than 1500 tons of dragon meat from Fortress No. 1 was wasted; it was prepared in every way imaginable – from frying and stewing to cooking – even half an ounce was spared, all transformed into a whole-beef feast and served to everyone.

With the all-powerful Bifangyuan Rolling Machine around, there's no need to worry about a shortage of cooks. The little robot-turned-chef machine probably can't make food look reflective, but the average taste is still fine. The quality of the ingredients is what it is; as long as it's cooked thoroughly, even with little oil and salt, it's enough to stimulate dopamine secretion in the average person.

Thus, apart from the 500,000 imperial prisoners imprisoned at the lowest level, everyone was immersed in the happiness created by the delicious food, and their morale and physical strength were fully restored.

During their meal and conversation, Yu Lian finally managed to piece together what Eleanor and the Wayne fleet had been doing during this period.

They both left the combat zone of the Dawn Starfield one after the other via the branch route of the Demon Eye.

Objectively speaking, Yang Xiyi's fleet's actions in the heart of the Dawn Starfield attracted almost all of the Imperial Army's attention, which objectively served to cover them.

Thus, the three separate fleets of the Blue Star Community left on the New World, although unable to communicate in real time as they did on the mainland, achieved the effect of coordinated combat thanks to the quality of their commanders.

Horatio Wayne's fleet was smaller, a smaller target, and easier to maneuver. They even got close to Dawn Pass, where Unity Fortress used to be located, and saw a massive construction site.

The Galactic Empire is apparently preparing to rebuild the "Unity Castle".

Yes, in the occasional intercepted communications from the Imperial Army, they still referred to the fortress as "Unity," showing no intention of changing its name, highlighting its calm, natural, and magnificent nature.

Horatio witnessed firsthand that the original ancient fortress had long since been transformed into a solid, massive iron mass due to the spatial collapse during the war, resembling a shockingly large cemetery. Yet, the Empire's engineering ships were rising and falling on that twisted iron block, which was as large as a dwarf planet, clearly treating it as a high-quality natural mine.

They seemed completely unconcerned that the iron block contained the remains of hundreds of thousands of imperial soldiers, as well as a distinguished elector.

Wayne originally intended to disrupt the Imperial Army's construction projects—no matter what the Imperial devils wanted to do, he couldn't let them have their way; that was the self-discipline of a qualified Commonwealth soldier.

Of course, Wayne, though fierce, was still rational, and he had his old buddy Kent by his side. After assessing the strength of both sides, they very rationally chose to give up.

However, it was precisely because the Empire rebuilt that the Dawn Route and the New World Route appeared quite prosperous. Various transport fleets and large engineering ships were moving in and out of the route, which objectively served as a cover.

At least, the Imperial Army wouldn't rush towards the sea lanes like sharks smelling blood just because they occasionally caught a trace of gravity.

As for Eleanor Bonaparte and Ina Hilica, their presence as battlecruisers and carriers made them even more of a target. She hid in the Dawn Channel for a while longer and coincidentally made her way to the terminal system of the channel, where she even found a uniquely designed Enlightened One ruin, resembling an abandoned ancient shipyard.

At this point, Yu Lian suddenly had a gut feeling that this Enlightened One's Ruins might be connected to him, but he had no proof.

In the deserted old shipyard, the senior student and Eleanor's haul was not ideal, consisting of a nearby star map, a set of repair robots that "recognized their master" after being restarted, and a bunch of "chargers".

The ancient shipyard has ports that look like oil guns, which change shape to match the energy ports of the warships and inject energy into them.

Thus, after months of fighting without supplies and having already depleted half of its energy reserves, Eleanor's fleet was able to set off again with renewed vigor.

The only pity is that these peculiar "chargers" are fixed to that old dock and can't be taken away.

"I've already encrypted the galaxy location and sent it to Commander Yang. Hopefully it will come in handy," Eleanor said to Yu Lian.

Yu Lian nodded, stroking the stubble growing on his chin as he pondered, "...I always felt that if there were a usable supply point outside the Dawn Channel, Teacher Yang might actually have the guts to attack Iris Cross Fortress!"

Eleanor and Wayne exchanged a glance, but it was Ina Hilica who stood up, her voice filled with pride: "Sir, the Iris Cross Fortress has been taken by us."

"..."

“Of course, we took it down and then lost it. But we did blow it up before leaving.” Yu Lian glanced at Fei Fei again.

The latter confirmed, "Such information does exist in the Imperial Army's internal database, but it was from last year and is a very inconspicuous text message."

“Very good. Now that the Iris Cross is empty and the Gate of Glory is in our hands, Teacher Yang will surely reclaim the Southern Heavenly Gate next, right?” Yu Lian said.

After a brief silence, Captain Nemo suddenly stood up and said proudly, "As expected, I knew it. Since he is Commander Yu's closest comrade-in-arms, Commander Yang is not only a brilliant strategist who can make any plan, but also a fierce general who can make any army retreat! Perhaps in the near future, we will hear news of his attack on Marshal Farrell's Imperial fleet? Glory will surely belong to the people of Earth. Under the leadership of our wise leader, we will surely achieve victory steadily!"

The captain is good in every way, except he's too emotional, or rather, excessively emotional. Since he's already gone to such lengths, if Yu Lian still insists he was joking, wouldn't he just make himself look incredibly foolish?

The Iris Cross system is indeed located in the middle section of the New World Highway. To the right is the Commonwealth's New Jade Gate Colony Sector, and to the left is the Empire's L3 Sector. However, due to the Empire's consistently domineering style, control of the New World Highway has always been firmly in the Empire's hands, and the so-called middle section of the route is essentially its border.

Following the Battle of Judgment, the Dawn Starfield flourished to the north of this star system, while to the south lay the Lanza Star System, which the Empire and the Commonwealth had explored together. This star system instantly became the most important transportation route in the New World.

Of course, given the Empire's financial resources, it was impossible to actually undertake large-scale construction on all major transportation routes. The size of the Iris Cross Fortress remained unremarkable and was no more advanced than the expanded military starport of New Port Arthur across the river.

Even so, it was still a fortress.

Logically, even if Eleanor Bonaparte's fleet captured the fortress, it would suffer heavy losses. However, the Imperial garrison in the New World was far removed from the meat grinders of the homeland and lacked contingency plans for dealing with various new types of weapons.

The hundreds of Red Phantom fighters launched from the Enterprise proved incredibly effective at this moment. They easily penetrated the thin network of fire and dropped space bubble torpedoes onto the outer walls of the fortress.

For a light-wing fighter, bombing such a fortress is like attacking a clumsy arsenal ship—it's like bullying a disabled person.

The continuous explosions of the space-bubble torpedoes easily destroyed the fortress's gravitational structure, causing the fluid metallic outer shell to collapse instantly. Immediately afterwards, the alloy armor was also torn open with huge gaps.

The well-rested Marines entered the fortress. Instead of engaging the defenders in close combat, they planted more powerful cluster antimatter bombs at key structural points.

The medium-sized fortress of the Iris Cross system, along with tens of millions of tons of resources on its surface, were reduced to dust in the galaxy.

Then, before Imperial reinforcements arrived, Eleanor's fleet had already fled. Possessing the star map obtained from the Enlightened Ones' shipyard, they naturally knew where to escape and where to hide.

In short, under the influence of a certain invincible and strategist "battlefield magician," all the community fleets operating in the New World are probably quite adept at guerrilla warfare.

The fortress in the Iris Cross system was destroyed last July. Perhaps because it wasn't a particularly important military target, or perhaps because it was located in the New World, this devastating news was naturally kept under wraps by the Imperial Army.

As for Eleanor Bonaparte and Horatio Wayne, they did not meet until August 834 in the Troil T-77R system, 1500 light-years from the New World Highway.

This is a remote galaxy completely off the main course, hidden at the crossroads of the Iris Cross and Lanza systems.

It should be noted that this route was explored jointly by Lan Zhenren and Duke Sadulan. At least half of the route was still a dotted line on the star map, and the side gravity wells hidden under the light of various giant stars and variable stars were even more unknown to the enemy.

To avoid the Imperial fleet, which was rampaging across the New World Highway like a herd of angry bulls, the Community fleet, after rendezvous, lay in wait for another week. They tried to monitor the movements of the Imperial forces and the L3 colony while simultaneously devising their next course of action.

They naturally considered the possibility of directly attacking the Imperial L3 colony sector and striking directly at the Gate of Glory.

If they could wage guerrilla warfare deep within the Empire, like the Bazan fleet did, even if they were all wiped out in the end, it would certainly alleviate the pressure on the main battlefield. And if they could successfully penetrate the Prosperity Sector, which had once been part of the Empire's inner sphere, seven times in and out, the effect would be even more significant.

Having ventured out into the New World, they had not yet received news that the Imperial fleet had breached the entire Cherke and that the Seid Fortress had fallen.

Eleanor possesses a brand-new star map, which allows her to bypass the New World's highway security network and enter the L3 sector from a completely unexpected location. However, that's about it.

L3 is different from the Dawn Nebula. After all, the Empire has been operating here for almost half a century, with more than a dozen stable settlements, well-established signal channels, and of course, a very sophisticated surveillance network.

Compared to the primitive star systems that are open to development and dotted with asteroid belts, cave planets, nested planets, and even supergiant planets, the Dawn Nebula is relatively simple and direct. The star systems and planets are all normal, and there is indeed a lack of guerrilla-like geographical conditions.

Therefore, Kent, who was the rational and composed leader of the team, suggested that everyone should take a long-term view and at the same time make full use of all available resources.

“New Yumen? They’re stuck on a planet, but we can try to make contact. We can even maneuver from the direction of New Lushun and find an opportunity to strike the blockade fleet.”

“We have no chance of recapturing Xinyumen.” Eleanor shook her head and said, “The temporary garrison at Nantianmen alone is three times our size.”

“I know, but it’s okay to take a bite,” Wayne said. “Countless small victories can eventually turn into a big one.”

“That’s that person’s military thinking,” Kent laughed.

"I'm a pragmatic man," Horatio Wayne said with a straight face, indeed already showing the bearing of a renowned general.

“Very good. This is all we can do in the New World we are in now,” said Mihir Kent. “However, the power I’m talking about that can be unified is by no means just this.”

Eleanor and Wayne looked puzzled. Ina, however, immediately realized: "That little girl, Gumeia..."

That ancient Meya girl was none other than Agnes, someone's old comrade-in-arms. Her company, North Wind, was theoretically a planetary exploration company under the Human Federation, and the two actually had encrypted communication channels.

And so, as the Fortress of Sede fell, and Yu Lian led the captured dragon ships in a game of hide-and-seek in the distant nebula, covering his main fleet as they fought their way back towards the New Divine Continent, his companions were also constantly exerting their initiative in remote star systems of the New Continent.

It seems like it doesn't matter whether I'm there or not. Yu Lian thought.