Him and their stars.

Chapter 2062 I am a snake

At this stage, although there is still some distance to go before the experiment is completed, it can already be considered a success.

The technical department then reported to the commanders: "At the current pace, we can take over the central control of the fortress in another two to three hours."

Of course, this is on the premise that the Empire does not resort to physical severance or incomprehensible mystical countermeasures.

The technical sergeants began to collect the generation formulas of the backend program, analyze port vulnerabilities, and record available permissions, as previously arranged.

They still clearly remembered that the commander-in-chief had said that this time it was just training, and the next time there would be a much more important prey.

Deng Zhengqing then relayed the latest results to everyone: "The plan is proceeding smoothly. We have cut off the turret power lines in Sector D. It will take them at least 30 minutes to restore power. Even if well-trained sappers brave artillery fire to manually salvage the situation, it will still take at least 20 minutes."

“That’s enough. Now we’ll have to see if your intelligence is correct, Commander,” Wayne said.

"Let's give it a try, there's no need to pay anything anyway." Without hesitation, Eleanor Bonaparte immediately gave the order for the fighter jets to break through the defenses.

The four squadrons of Crimson Ghosts, already prepared, unfurled their light wings and began to accelerate. As they charged, they were astonished to find themselves facing a much sparser network of firepower.

At this moment, the impenetrable porcupine finally showed a flaw.

Half a minute later, the Earth fighters' target appeared within range.

Those were a few inconspicuous air exchange vents on the outer armor layer of the fortress.

This is a minor structural flaw left by Imperial engineers in their pursuit of maximum heat dissipation efficiency during the design phase. Its internal piping network will eventually converge into the secondary cooling circulation system of the main reactor area.

The first salvo of the fighter jets knocked down all the turrets around the air intakes that were still trying to fire manually.

What followed was the real, fatal attack.

The fighter jet carrying the antimatter torpedo disengaged its wings and flew at an extreme low altitude, skimming the surface of the still-burning fortress. This was not a proper tactical maneuver and would have posed a significant safety hazard to both the aircraft and the pilot.

However, being a new type of Crimson Ghost fighter jet, the new operating system and auxiliary controls give it better maneuverability. More importantly, Commander Yu has now lavishly equipped each fighter jet with two or three Bifang (a type of weapon).

These round, versatile robots can serve as automatic close-in weapon systems, all-purpose repairmen and damage control personnel, and of course, the best "flight assistants."

At the last moment before reaching their target, the bomb bays under their fuselages opened, flashing with a cold blue light, revealing the imposing figures of antimatter torpedoes shaped like long shuttles.

They didn't even have a space bubble generator installed; they only had a low-powered thruster and a minimal-sized Bifang robot.

The tiny vector thruster propelled the torpedo away from the fighter jet, while the Bifang robot gave it an agile posture, precisely carrying its main body into the narrow ventilation duct entrance and disappearing into the depths of the fortress.

The Bifang robots endowed the antimatter torpedoes with unprecedented maneuverability. They moved as if they were being piloted, rapidly navigating the complex and labyrinthine internal pipes and avoiding internal obstacles.

A few seconds later, deathly silence descended.

Deep within the Xiamen base, a brighter and purer incandescent point of light, more dazzling than a star, suddenly burst forth! This point of light expanded, exploded, and destroyed at an unimaginable speed until it tore through the outer armor.

The external structure of Xiamen Fortress showed obvious deformation and distortion, and many of the armor plates were torn apart by an invisible force, leaving shocking cracks, as if they were fragile glass.

Only an hour has passed since the start of the battle, and this empire, which had undergone reinforcement of its level-three fortress, has begun to disintegrate.

To put it bluntly, if no one comes to the rescue, of the more than 40,000 troops defending the fortress, whose numbers had more than doubled, probably no more than a few would survive.

However, for now, the members of the remaining fleet can only express humanitarian sympathy on a temporary basis. They still have very important things to do.

"The enemy has deployed a group of automatic turrets near Gravity Well No. 2, and they have lost control."

"Begin mine clearance! Hurry, we only have sixty minutes."

"Now is not the time to rest. We'll set off immediately after the mine clearance is complete. We must cross the Xiayi Star Gorge before the Fifth Fleet arrives. Once we enter the Shengyuan System, the world will be our oyster."

"We can definitely make it. Right now, even if the Imperial pursuers drive day and night at top speed until their engines wear out, they still won't be able to catch up."

"Very well, proceed accordingly. Take a short break, settle the initial and final details, and move out in 90 minutes," Eleanor Bonaparte finally ordered.

After the two sides merged, the senior naturally became the second-in-command of the fleet (excluding Fei Fei). The original second-in-command, Captain Ennemo, who had the same rank and more seniority, did not have any complaints but cooperated with all his might, which can be considered a fortunate thing.

The subsequent assignments followed naturally.

The space-shaking bombs were precisely deployed into the minefield, efficiently triggering a chain reaction of explosions in the minefield. The engineer ships, temporarily converted from destroyers, moved with greater speed and efficiency after safety concerns were eliminated, and began targeted elimination of the automatic turrets.

Those automated turret arrays were now like sweeping machines that had lost their command signals, just turning their turrets aimlessly in place, and naturally lost their threat under the same shockwave sweep.

Soon, under the gravitational vortex caused by the air-shaking bomb, a safe passage large enough to allow the entire fleet to sail smoothly was opened.

However, before the entire Yulian fleet could assemble and prepare to depart, someone brought new information. The person in question was Gongsun Qing, who had just returned from dragon-riding training and patrol: "Just now, it seemed as if something was spying on us."

After the commander and his wife "ascended," as the only saint and double-flower red stick in this fleet, Miss Gongsun Qing naturally took over the Star Dragon and would occasionally ride it for some guard duty and adaptation training.

Especially the "mountain" left by Yu Lian, the Sword Saint Miss said that she really liked this fat and big-looking four-phase dragon, and this time she rode it to attack.

Gongsun Qing told everyone, "I also have the power of war intuition and the Star River Sword Intent, and the Four-Phase Dragon's innate ability can always enhance my perception in the vacuum environment of the universe. In the battle just now, it was indeed something consciously spying on us from a distance."

"An Imperial reconnaissance ship? It actually appeared from this direction? That doesn't make much sense," Eleanor asked.

Gongsun Qing shook his head: "My feeling is that there is no obvious hostility. My Brilliant Flame did not generate automatically. It is more like a third party."

Seeing everyone staring at her with puzzled expressions, the Sword Saint shrugged slightly, a little embarrassed: "Well, I don't have any concrete evidence. However, a psionicist's intuition cannot be taken lightly, and I absolutely cannot say that those were just illusions."

“Of course it’s not an illusion.” Ina Hilica agreed with Gongsun Qing’s opinion: “An hour ago, my Star Eye also had a slight reaction, but it was within the realm’s range after all. At that time, my main attention was on the enemy fortress, and I didn’t dare to cause any trouble.”

Now, with Miss Sword Saint's confirmation, it's clear it wasn't an illusion. So, everyone activated the Silent Ship's automatically operating "Void Resonance Device" to collect the cosmological constant—a device that the Silent Ship had automatically unlocked after a long period of "break-in" following their passage through the Dragon's Nest. It automatically records the cosmological facts of the current star system during its voyage; it's essentially a kind of autonomous passive research device.

They analyzed the quality fluctuations during that period using these passive data through the core terminal and quickly discovered something unusual.

"There was indeed an unidentified flying object that observed us 67 minutes ago. The fluctuations lasted for fifteen minutes. They maintained a safe distance of at least two astronomical units from us and did not show any direct hostility," the technical department reported.

Indeed, in the mysterious universe, gravity and mass remain the most credible forces. And to make them into credible concrete models, mathematics is indispensable.

"Can the outline projection be reproduced?" Wayne asked.

Professor Eddington immediately adopted an expression as if he were sizing up a client: "This, I will do my best."

“There’s no need to force it. The entire fleet is on high alert, so even if the other side is hostile, it won’t pose a threat,” Wayne quickly added. Although his tone was stiff, he was trying his best to demonstrate his limited emotional intelligence, and his intention was commendable.

Eleanor looked Ina up and down with great interest: "...Your perception has improved again?"

“It’s probably because of the ship. The psionic array on this Enlightened One warship can amplify my senses, especially when I’m waiting in front of the gunnery command system on the bridge.” Ina looked at Gongsun Qing with admiration in her voice: “But, it’s all about senses, it’s all about mystical intuition, yet you are much more certain than I am.”

"After all, I am a Saint." The Sword Saint said proudly, "When you reach this level, Ina will see more and be more determined than I have."

Although everyone was basically certain that an uninvited guest had been secretly watching from the side, since it did not pose a direct threat, it was impossible to cancel the fleet's advance plan because of this.

Thus, the Yu Lian fleet still arranged itself into a sailing formation as originally planned, and with an indifferent stride, passed through the torn minefield and entered the latter half of the Yixia Star Gorge.

In this battle, they only suffered minor damage to four fighter jets during the attack, with no casualties. However, they dismantled the blockade that the Empire had spent two months building within two hours and also destroyed a fortress with a history of five hundred years.

In terms of casualty ratio, this battle even surpassed the one when Yu Lian personally commanded the troops.

It seemed that everyone was only then belatedly realizing that the Commander-in-Chief had not shown up at all during the entire battle.

"Where is Commander Yu?"

"He's probably meditating in the upper observatory. I've instructed that he not be disturbed."

"Shouldn't we inform him of the situation here?"

"The commander-in-chief is wise beyond words; our victory was certainly within his expectations."

Since Yu Lian is going to be the commander-in-chief, the most important thing is to perfect his image as someone whose word is law. From what we've seen so far, he's doing quite well.

Since it was agreed that most of their energy would be focused on killing the emperor, and that everyone would be fully responsible for the battle at Xiamen, they indeed did not show up from beginning to end.

"As for the spy from earlier... what about Miss Fina?"

"I'm doing some research in the small kitchen, preparing some pills and new medicinal teas. I want you to know that psionicists' pharmacology is essentially a form of alchemy, and it's not something a mortal like me would dare to interfere with."

"Then let's inform Madam first. She'll understand; she probably already knows."

In fact, Commander Yu, who "dared not disturb" the situation, already knew about it.

At this moment, he had just finished a journey through the galaxy of consciousness and opened his eyes surrounded by starlight.

In an instant, the magnificent starry sky pierced through the cold porthole and rushed directly toward him.

In that vast and boundless star field, a large expanse of flowing rosy light was extending infinitely in both the upper and lower directions with an incomparably magnificent appearance.

They outline a clear yet dazzling silhouette, like two sacred wings made of pure light covering half the sky. They pulsate slightly with the flow of light, transforming into the rise and fall, and outstretching of the wings.

The radiance was most intense at the wingtip, cascading down like a waterfall of light that merged into the deeper void. Countless fine threads of light, guided by the gravity of the universe, flowed out magnificent veins of billions of colors.

This is, of course, the origin of the Chamaejima Star Gorge, and one of the most magnificent starscapes in the entire universe.

However, high-level psionicists always know that magnificent and spectacular astronomical phenomena often enhance the application of mysticism.

That's why someone would dare to approach him so cautiously.

Yu Lian greedily admired the magnificent painting, but his senses had already clearly detected an aura from another dimension.

A special being, outside the barrier of natural space, gently touches its own spiritual senses, cautiously awaiting its own response.

Hmm, the local creatures of the Void Realm are getting more and more polite! If it were Master's little Xuanwu, would it even bother to "knock on the door"?

Yu Lian smiled slightly, expressing his goodwill.

In an instant, gentle ripples of space silently spread out in front of him, catching the brilliant sunset light that fell into the observatory through the porthole.

Those colorful halos seemed to be "woven" by an invisible hand, quickly taking shape.

Within seconds, a figure radiating soft white light and trailing a dreamy, colorful ribbon of light gracefully "swam" out from the "portal" where spatial ripples and rosy glow intertwined.

Its appearance was even accompanied by a melodious tinkling sound, like a wind chime, which resounded directly in Yu Lian's consciousness, as if it were using space to greet him.

It, or rather, it simply hovered in front of Yu Lian.

This is a creature covered in colorful scales, with a long, serpentine body that is over two meters long, topped with a large, round head. Apart from some fin-like organs, its head has almost no characteristics of reptiles or fish, but it has a pair of large, clear, and sparkling amethyst-like eyes, and a three-lobed mouth like that of a feline, which makes it look quite cute.

“Oh, what a beautiful seal… uh, no, seals aren’t that big. So, it’s actually a beautiful big fathead fish?” Yu Lian couldn’t help but say.

"I am a snake." The other person held up a sign with their fins, their emotions tinged with a hint of displeasure.