The battlefield situation shifted instantly.
The main force of the Federation Fleet, which had maintained an attack formation and continuously poured firepower onto the Abuja Ring, now resembled a precisely meshed gear assembly whose switches were simultaneously flipped.
The massive Battleship group began slowly adjusting their bows, with broadside auxiliary thrusters emitting brief bursts of flame to adjust their posture.
Cruisers and Destroyers swiftly converged toward their respective Capital Ships, forming standard cruising formations.
The Swift fighter groups, which had been hunting transport ships and clearing remaining enemies in the outer areas, almost simultaneously received recall orders from their carriers.
The pilots halted pursuit without hesitation, maneuvering their fighters into smooth arcs to exit the chaotic airspace.
They accelerated back toward the locations of the Fire Qilin and Jade Qilin carriers, like flocks of birds returning to their nests.
The thunderous assault abruptly ceased, leaving only sporadic flames from sympathetic detonations within the Abuja Stellar Ring itself and floating debris that still narrated the recent carnage.
In the fighter return formation channel, the clamor of tactical reports gradually subsided, replaced only by the hum of engines and slightly heavy breathing.
Xie Zhixing's voice cut in, carrying a hint of relaxed teasing.
"Chick, how do you feel?"
Ma Xiaoyuan's voice immediately followed, faster than usual, tinged with an excitement that hadn't yet settled.
"Reporting, Captain!
It's completely different from simulations!
Seeing those targets explode under firepower… turning into fireworks.
My body seemed to move on its own, with just one thought in my mind.
Lock onto the next one, take it down!"
"Hah!"
Xie Zhixing chuckled softly.
"Remember that feeling, but don't get carried away.
Maintain calm excitement…
Maybe my squad will really produce an ace pilot."
After a brief silence, Ma Xiaoyuan asked with obvious confusion.
"Captain, I don't understand.
We could have completely destroyed that Abuja Stellar Ring, cleaned up all the remaining transport ships.
Why did we suddenly withdraw?"
"Kid, getting addicted to fighting and now managing strategy too?"
Xie Zhixing laughed and scolded, then his tone turned serious.
"Let me test you. Do you think it's more troublesome for the Empire to have an Abuja Stellar Ring completely blasted into fragments by us,
or one that's half crippled by us, leaking everywhere but not completely dead?"
Ma Xiaoyuan instinctively replied.
"Of course, completely destroying it!
Make it utterly unusable for them!"
Xie Zhixing said with a laugh.
"So I say, you're not cut out to be a Commander."
Ma Xiaoyuan was somewhat surprised.
"Ah?"
Xie Zhixing explained.
"A completely destroyed ring leaves the Empire with no second choice besides cursing and sending fleets to chase us.
But a half-dead ring that looks salvageable?
They have to send troops to rescue it, and engineering teams to repair it.
They'll expend massive amounts of manpower, resources, and time here to mitigate losses."
Ma Xiaoyuan paused briefly, then suddenly understood.
"I get it!
Leaving this mess behind is more effective at tying them down than wiping it clean!
The person who devised this combat plan is truly a genius!"
Xie Zhixing's voice carried undisguised pride.
"Undoubtedly!"
The one capable of devising such a plan, making the Empire's frontline command headquarters dance to his tune...
Is our Commander.
Senior Colonel Qin Bei Wang!
Twenty-two years old, a carrier fleet commander!"
The channel fell silent for a moment, with only the sound of fighter craft flying.
Ma Xiaoyuan and the other new pilots who heard this conversation were deeply shaken.
"All units, prepare for docking with the carrier."
Xie Zhixing's voice returned to normal.
Outside the viewport, the massive stellar carrier Jade Qilin gradually came into focus, its open hangar bay resembling the maw of a giant beast.
One by one, Swift fighters decelerated under the guidance of directed beams, sliding precisely into their respective berths.
In the distance, the Pluto Fleet, having completed the evacuation of the main force, had transformed into a few faint clusters of light against the backdrop of the stars, quietly fading into the predetermined depths of darkness.
The flames of the Abuja Stellar Ring gradually shrank behind them, like a still-bleeding bait hanging silently in the void.
Much later.
In the outer airspace of the Abuja Stellar Ring.
The two Imperial Duke-class Fleets, Pastor and Steel Claw, saw the glow from their overloaded engines gradually fade as their massive hulls hovered at the edge of the battlefield, littered with debris and silent flames.
Before them lay the Abuja Stellar Ring, as if gnawed by a giant beast.
The massive breach in the docking cylinder segment was horrifying to behold, its edges still glowing with a dark red hue, continuously emitting tiny fragments and condensates.
The surface of the ring was covered in scorched craters and torn marks, with many berths twisted and deformed, and defensive turrets reduced to charred bases.
Wreckage of transport ships mingled with fragments of the ring structure, drifting and rotating slowly in the void.
A deathly silence prevailed, broken only by the low, metallic groans of the stellar ring's structural stress adjustments, faintly transmitted through the hulls.
There was no sign of the Federation Fleet—not a single ship.
On the flagship bridge of the Pastor Fleet, Commander Lieutenant General Hunter Nolan wore a grim expression.
He established an emergency communication with the highest-ranking official of the Abuja Ring.
Henry Wright, the Stellar Ring Administrator.
"Administrator Wright!"
Nolan's voice restrained his anger.
"Where is the Federation Fleet?
In which direction did they retreat?"
On the holographic screen, Wright appeared somewhat disheveled, his face pale.
In the background, emergency lights flickered, and personnel hurried about.
He replied urgently.
"General Nolan!
They... after their attack ceased, the entire fleet turned and headed... headed toward Nadler Star!"
"Nadler Star?"
On a nearby communication sub-screen.
Lieutenant General Zane Harrison, commander of the Steel Claw Fleet, furrowed his brow.
"That hydrogen gas giant?
It is indeed an ideal temporary hiding place.
The dense atmosphere and intense magnetic field interference are enough to mask a fleet's energy signatures and conventional scans."
He looked at Nolan, his tone analytical.
"If they are truly hiding there, to dig them out, we would have to disperse the fleet and search deep into the edges of the gaseous cloud layers. It would be inefficient and prone to ambushes.
But what's more troublesome..."
Harrison's gaze swept over the shattered stellar ring.
"If our main force leaves to hunt them down at Nadler Star...
Would that elusive Federation Fleet, like vultures,
turn back again and deliver a fatal blow to the Abuja Ring?"
These words struck Administrator Wright's deepest fears like an ice pick.
"No!
Generals, please, you must not leave!"
Wright's voice suddenly rose sharply.
Filled with terror and pleading, his voice almost distorted.
"Abuja... the Abuja Stellar Ring can't withstand any more blows!
Please, station troops here!
You must station troops! Otherwise, we're all finished!"
He feared the two lieutenant generals might be tempted by the pursuit of Military Merit.
He hurriedly revealed the most crucial information, trying to increase his bargaining chip.
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