The scout team had already begun their retreat from the sector.
If an anomaly occurred in Observation Drone No. 3, there was a 90% chance the enemy was present.
In that case, lingering there served no purpose. Their squadron consisted of five units, one of which was unarmed. No matter how agile their fighters were, lacking firepower made them useless. And they still didn’t know the enemy’s exact composition.
“Delan. Tell Albero—just fire all the space torpedoes they have left into Drone No. 3’s sector. But set them for timed detonations to maximize the shockwave spread. The distance should be just past the drone. Hitting anything would just be a bonus.”
“Got it.”
Before retreating, Stella had proposed a preemptive strike.
Relayed through Delan, Albero agreed but argued that firing now might not inflict any real damage.
[Firing torpedoes is fine, but wouldn’t it be better to confirm the enemy first?]
“No, Albero. We’re not counting on these torpedoes for damage. Right, Stella?”
Delan had already grasped Stella’s plan.
[What do you mean, Delan? You’re not saying we’ll use the explosions to expose their numbers, are you?]
“That’s one idea, but no. The moment jamming started, the enemy showed fear of the drone. Staying hidden was pointless—they had to jam it.”
Observation drones were slow, fragile, and large for their kind, making them easier to detect than asteroids.
Yet they remained active because the enemy likely wanted to avoid revealing their position via cannon fire trajectories or light signatures.
“Listen, Albero. The enemy panicked. If these were unmanned, they could’ve just charged recklessly like last time—which would’ve been bad for us. But this time’s different. The enemy’s nervous. You fighter pilots know—panic makes movements sloppy, revealing ingrained habits. They’re manned craft.”
[So we’re inadvertently ambushing them instead.]
“Exactly.”
Even as they debated, Albero’s team had already prepped the torpedoes.
Not only that—Tiberius had sent the scouts tactical data.
[This is Lilian of Tiberius. Navigation Chief Mirei has calculated the enemy’s predicted position. Make use of it.]
[Much appreciated. Alright, listen up! Everyone, check the nav chief’s projections and the drone’s position. We’re firing torpedoes just beyond the drone, here!]
Albero’s target was closer than Mirei’s prediction but farther than the drone—creating a wall of explosions. While space would dissipate the blasts instantly, this wasn’t about damage, as the commanders had said.
The reasoning was unclear, but orders were orders. At least someone smarter had thought it up, and Albero had no better ideas.
The four fighters unleashed all their missiles, then turned—along with the recon plane—toward Tiberius.
“All units, high-boost ignition!”
At Delan’s command, the squadron activated high-boost for top-speed acceleration. It wasn’t warp, but it covered long distances fast. The downsides? No mid-course corrections, unusable in debris-heavy zones, and a five-second limit.
The boost pushed them to Mach 51, but safety protocols prevented higher speeds, even in space.
“Now, let’s see how the enemy reacts.”
If they faced a fleet of dozens, fighting was impossible.
Hoping otherwise, Delan muttered as the high-boost’s lightscape blurred past.
“No, we’ll be fine.”
In the brief five-second window,
Stella answered.
“The enemy… I think there are few.”
“That’s awfully specific.”
The boost was ending.
“Because… I’ve…”
As their speed dropped,
Stella noticed Drone No. 3’s destruction signal.
The enemy may have grown impatient and started attacking. At the same time, the jamming must have been deactivated. With nothing left to block the signal, the drone continued to send the remaining observation information as if to fulfill its last task.
Stella scanned the data and spoke.
“I’ve seen that enemy before. A long time ago… when I was little…”
Enemy Count: Three Ships. Two are the destroyer types that attacked the ship recently.
And the remaining one. Based on its signature, it’s large—but not as big as Tiberius.
Lilian didn’t have confirmed intel, but if she had to guess, the last one was probably a cruiser.
A highly mobile, terrifying opponent.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT GADGETIZEDPANDA.COM
The alarm blared through Tiberius. Most of the students would probably prefer never hearing it again, but now that it was ringing, there was no stopping the battle from beginning.
Bracing against fear, nausea, the urge to wet themselves—suppressing every negative emotion—the students had no choice but to fight.
Because they all knew—if they didn’t, there would be no tomorrow for them.
The same went for the bridge. Facing their second real battle, many were trembling again.
Weltall was no exception, his fingers unconsciously gripping the armrests of the captain’s chair.
The only one who remained calm was Lilian.
Not that she felt no fear—but somewhere along the way, her sense of life and death had warped. Combat exhilarated her, made her feel truly alive. That said, she wasn’t so battle-crazed that she wanted to fight all the time.
(It’s going well, I’m on a roll. Let’s leave it at that.)
Smirking inwardly at her own bad habit, Lilian kept her composure.
At the same time, Tiberius received reconnaissance data. The display showed the enemy’s approximate numbers, ship types, and relative distance. The remaining operational drones continued long-range observation. The scouts were unharmed, having finished their high-boost and were now heading to the rendezvous point.
Lilian shared the intel with the second and third bridges before turning to the captain.
“Captain, recon report. I recommend accelerating Tiberius to regroup. Also, I’d like to propose a coordinated strategy with CIC. Permission to proceed?”
After receiving the report, Weltall nodded.
“Go ahead. Debonair, open a line to CIC.”
“Yes, sir.”
Ares’ face appeared on the edge of the main monitor.
[This is Ares. What’s up?]
“Ares, I have a proposal—listen.”
Before he could respond, Lilian continued.
“I want to temporarily hand over main gun control to you.”
“Hey, hold on—!”
Cowen reacted, but Lilian ignored him.
“You’ve seen the enemy intel?”
[Three ships. Fast-moving formation.]
“But they’re in a fleet. You’re Ares, the master of defense and mobility. Don’t you know exactly what kind of attack they’d hate? What defensive maneuvers they’d take?”
Whether he took it as a light taunt or not, Ares’ expression stiffened—just slightly, barely a few millimeters.
[Real combat’s different from simulations… but fine, I’ll show you.]
“Perfect. Keep the line open with Delan. You two know how to sync up, right?”
[Is that sarcasm because you beat us before?]
“It’s called faith. If it’s too much, the captain or I can take over.”
[Unnecessary. I get the gist of your plan. Cowen, you hearing this?]
Ares then turned his gaze toward Cowen.
[I’ll leave the finishing blow to you.]
With that, Ares remained online and took command of main gun control.
“Recon squad—request from Delan. He wants the torpedo squadron launched.”
As Debonair confirmed Delan’s transmission, Weltall immediately issued orders.
“Launch all fighters—but hold position. No attacks until my direct order. Timing is critical for this operation.”
The instant the command was given, tension aboard Tiberius peaked.
Also check out my friend Localizermeerkat for more LN translations!
BUY THE SOURCE MATERIAL TO SUPPORT THE AUTHOR !!!
Kindly click on the green button above and contribute to filling the green bar if you’re interested in having another LN from the request page translated. Also, every donation is being used to purchase the source material and to fund more English translations.
Please consider joining my Ko-Fi membership. By becoming a member, you’ll also gain access to 2-10 additional chapters of all of the novels from this site translated into English. Last but not least your support will also assist me in upholding the translation quality and speed. For more information, please follow the link.
Donation for faster release is always welcome
Additionally, I am now accepting translation requests.
