CH 249

Intuition

With the missile vessels joining the fray, the Calencians immediately gained the upper hand. Meanwhile, the auxiliary ships such as destroyers and small-sized cruisers which were supposed to prevent this kind of attack already had their hand full not getting caught up by the bombardment from the battleships.

As a result, most of the Noredian battleships were either half-destroyed due to the flood of missiles. They couldn’t possibly get out of there safely with that many missiles fired at them. A number of them were sunk while the few that managed to stay safe chose to withdraw.

“Fumu, our side is doing better than I expected huh. Nah, maybe our enemy is just too naive?”

Without celebrating their win, Diaroze lightly muttered to herself. Her gesture looked like she was caressing a whip in her hand but she soon realized that she didn’t actually carry one and let out a bitter smile. After all, she had already given her favorite whip to Kisei.

With nothing for her hands to play with, Diaroze started stroking Kisei’s hair. Her touch was like she was handling a precious treasure.

“They really are not motivated for this huh………..their strikers have already withdrawn too. Should we head back to support our fleet?”

The troops that had been engaging Kise’s group until a while ago had already retreated with tails between their legs when they saw the situation. Thanks to that, he’s bored to death. Moreover, with his mission being the interception of enemy strikers, he can not give chase to the fleeing enemies.

“It would be pointless to expect loyalty from commoners and lower aristocrats. That said, they will give it their all with a reward dangling in front of them or when their hometown and livelihood is threatened……..in such cases, the Noredian army is truly strong.”

It was very convincing coming from Diaroze who was on the invader side not too long ago. Kisei made a bitter smile at such a turnover.

“Still, these aristocrats are just a part of the opening act. Rather, we should be careful in time like this…….”

It was the moment Diaroze said that. Kisei’s expression suddenly turned severe and he immediately powered his thrusters. Due to the sudden acceleration, Diaroze accidentally bit her tongue and is now in tears.

“Ouch ouch………”

“Ah, sorr-……..”

“Kisei-san, what’s the matter!”

Faster than he could finish apologizing, Schleer’s puzzled voice came in through the comm line. Schleer and Valentina were with Kisei on the mission to fend off the enemy strikers and destroyers. It was not a mission the commander herself should be doing but it couldn’t be helped since they missed their chance to return to their fleets.

“More of them is coming! I have to stop them before they reach our battleships…..!”

“What!?”

In a hurry, Schleer immediately scanned her radar. There is no enemy reaction but the Noredian’s stealth technology can not be underestimated, not to mention the heavy communication jamming they are under. There is a good chance that the enemy managed to slip through and is approaching them as they speak so she elected to trust in Kisei’s intuition. Thinking so, Schleer accelerated her striker, flying after Kisei with Valentina following behind her.

“This is bad, our ships are moving in to pursue the fleeing enemy!”

“New enemy huh. With this kind of timing, no matter how I think about it it must be Mother…….the fleets under the direct control of the Empress. Their number aside, the quality of her soldiers should be incomparable to these riffraff aristocrats.”

“We can not afford to take a counterattack at this time. Chief, stop pursuing the enemy and withdraw the fleet immediately!”

The Calencian main fleet is on the offensive pursuing the remnants of the Angel fleet. If the enemy flanks them while they are doing that, the damage will be catastrophic. Panicked, Schleer gave a withdrawal order.

“Anyway, we have to stop the enemy’s advance. Which direction are they coming from?”

With their technologies unreliable, they can only depend on Kisei’s 6th sense. Schleer asked with a small growl.

“From I-field…….sorry but I can only tell that much.”

“That’s plenty. However, I’ve stationed some of our allies in the I-field. The fact that there’s still no report coming from them……..”

“Maybe the enemy is jamming the communication, they might even get annihilated before they could warn us.”

“Ugh, if that’s the case then it’s truly the Empress after all.”

If Diaroze is correct, they should expect the enemy to be fairly strong. Even their battle against the Angel fleet was not that one-sided.

“In any case, we need to do a recon to ascertain it right? I’m going.”

“Umu……some common recon unit would be wiped out in an instant after all. It’s a pain but we will have to do this ourselves. To be honest, it would be best if we can switch Schleer and my foolish sister with 2 from the 4 Heavenly though.”

“Hmph, I can handle a simple recon mission just fine.”

Unamused by her sister’s comment, Valentina replied. On the other hand, Diaroze simply shrugs in silence.

“The 4 Heavenly are too far away right now……we can’t communicate with them using laser comm either. Rather than going back and wasting time, it would be better for us to go.”

Schleer is right. If they keep loitering around, they won’t be able to intercept the Empress’s fleet in time. With a small sigh, Kisei stares off into the distant cosmic sky.