"Why is there a person wearing the emblem of the Empire in the communication screen?"
The commander-in-chief of the Fifth Fleet, the spiritual being known as Cocokina, suddenly changed his tone and spoke in a low and solemn tone. The three eyes of this spiritual being had become brighter than before, and they even had a faint purple glow to them. What kind of emotional change did this behavior signify? Surprise? Fear? Anger? Confusion? Or a combination of both? We didn't know for the time being, but we could be sure of one thing, and that was that the situation had really become complicated.
None of us were wearing the uniform of the Empire, but Tawil's communication screen was floating beside the 'parliament'. She was wearing a uniform, and from the angle of the communication device, Cocokina could clearly see Tawil in the uniform of an Empire researcher. So, in his eyes, the parliament was maintaining contact with the Fifth Fleet while simultaneously communicating with the Empire … Alright, this was actually the truth. However, it really wasn't the right time to expose this truth.
"Leonard parliament, I don't think that those monsters who have lost their rationality will become your new allies, but you do need to explain yourself." Cocokina finally couldn't help but break the silence after the parliament didn't reply for a long time. However, before the parliament could open its mouth to explain, Sandora stepped forward and took the initiative to say, "Commander Cocokina, it's a pleasure to meet you. Let me introduce myself. I am Emperor Schilling. Sandora Kelvi? Kelvi? Ulysses, one of the rulers of the new Empire. As you can see, the Empire is now standing together with the Fourth Fleet. We are on the same side. "
No one (including me) expected Sandora to suddenly step forward and state the matter so clearly. Not only was the parliament and the high-ranking officers of the Fourth Fleet in a daze, even Cocokina, who was on the other side of the screen, was dumbfounded. I reckoned that he wasn't mentally prepared to accept this at all. After Sandora finished speaking, he began to flash around. In the end, he spread out his "hands" that were much wider than a human's and made a gesture of confusion towards us. "What's going on? Has the Fourth Fleet finally fallen into your hands? "
"You'll have to make things clear sooner or later. If the Fifth Fleet were to evacuate to the border of the Empire before they discover those Empire military depots, I'm afraid things will be even more troublesome," Sandora turned her head and whispered to the 'parliament' before looking at the communicator again. "No, it's the opposite. We've just protected the Fourth Fleet from the monsters you mentioned."
Cocokina leaned his upper body towards the communicator, and his erratic 'face' was magnified on the holographic screen. "Man of the Empire, what are you trying to say?"
"The Empire in your memory has been destroyed. It has completely collapsed," Sandora replied in a calm tone. "Now the country is gone, and the surviving Shiring Apostles have been divided into two groups. One group is the fallen who hunted you in the past. To us, they are the rebels. We are the second force, the New Empire that has been rebuilt. Unfortunately, we are alone, and most of us have only woken up from our long hibernation a few years ago. We can't do anything about what happened to you. Now, the New Empire is gradually rising, and we are committed to eliminating the rebels who have joined the Abyss. At the same time, we are doing everything within our power to provide protection to the worlds that have been invaded by the fallen. The Fourth Fleet is already in the New Empire's camp, and not long ago, they received your distress signal. That's why they came up with this rescue plan. This is all the answer you want to know. "
It was difficult for me to read any expression from a face that had three more light bulbs than jelly. Cocokina's body language was also baffling to us, so no one knew if he was doubtful or simply refused to believe what Sandora said. The erratic spiritual energy on his body contracted three times in a rhythmic pattern before he focused his attention on the 'parliament'. "Leonard Parliament, I hope to hear your testimony. The credibility of this matter is really questionable. "
Actually, it was meaningless for him to seek confirmation. The 'parliament' was already on our side, so the former's answer was obviously yes. However, he still hoped to hear the confirmation from his old friend. Thus, the 'parliament' nodded firmly. "I can swear by the ancestors of the Naders that every word of Your Majesty's is true."
At the same time, we heard the explanation of the 'parliament' through our mental link. "For the Allen Eldar, the highest attitude to show credibility is to swear by the spirits of their ancestors. Regardless of whether this oath is as heavy for the other races as it is for the Allen Eldar, this is already the most powerful action to show my attitude. "
Cocokina's eyes flickered, and the three lumps of light finally froze in a very dim state. "Due to many reasons, I should believe you. Also, those monsters in the past would definitely not use such a rational attitude to talk to me, and there is no need for them to set up any form of deception … Then, trust is temporarily established, Your Majesty of the New Empire. "
"Wow, the plan worked out so easily?" Shallow Shallow's noisy voice echoed at the crucial moment as usual. She was holding a gigantic Rubik's Cube in her hands, looking as though she was ready to spend most of the day with it. "I've already prepared my toys, and you're just going to tell me this?"
The corner of Sandora's mouth visibly twitched, while I hurriedly coaxed Shallow Shallow to the side. Actually, I was rather surprised that Cocokina believed our words so quickly, but it didn't take long for me to understand the reason. In fact, strictly speaking, there was no mutual trust between us at all. Cocokina's current behavior was completely due to — he had no other choice.
His tattered fleet was being pursued, and if they couldn't find a way out, they would definitely be wiped out. On our side, we could at least give him a ten percent chance of survival.
At the same time, just as he said, the completely irrational Fallen Apostles wouldn't use such a troublesome method to set up a trap for him (he still didn't know that those irrational lunatics back then had really turned into a bunch of sly villains who would resort to any means necessary). Moreover, the Arnard Council was willing to use its utmost sincerity to vouch for Sandora's words. Under such circumstances, it was obvious whether he would choose to lead his fleet on a rampage or cooperate with us.
As for the feud between the Shiring Apostles back then and the like, it naturally wouldn't disappear under such circumstances. It was just that both sides were smart enough not to discuss such a problem at this critical juncture. I believed that after the Fifth Fleet had successfully escaped from danger, that would be the time to put this problem on the table to be discussed.
"Now, I want to know the overall situation of your entire fleet, the parameters of the void warp device, and your precise location."
After both sides had established a basic level of trust, Sandora immediately changed the topic to support for the Fifth Fleet and inquired in detail about their current situation. From what I could see, it was basically impossible to send reinforcements to the Fifth Fleet. The distance was simply too great, and even the most advanced void development squad of the Empire wouldn't be able to offer incense sticks to the soldiers of the Fifth Fleet in time.
Of course, Sandora knew that as well, which was why she had already eliminated the option of sending reinforcements to the Empire's fleet, and instead tried to guide them to shake off their pursuit.
"We've already started uploading the fleet's technical data, and it's estimated to be completed in two minutes. I must first say that the void warp system used by the Fifth Fleet has been in disrepair for years, and it's hard to guarantee how long it can operate at full power. Right now, the slowest large warship among us has a data offset of six percent per warp, and the jump interval is eight seconds, so the fleet can only move at this speed. We've lost almost half of our supplies in the attack. They were originally on our home planet, and only a small portion of them were moved when the attack came. That's why many of the ships are advancing with empty cabins, relying on the ecosystem to sustain the lives of the crew. However, the ecosystems of the large warships have all just been rebooted, and they've been shut down for a hundred years before this. Although there are no problems at the moment, there's a high chance that the ecosystem will suddenly shut down … "
As Cocokina relayed the current situation of the Fifth Fleet to us, Sandora and the Tawil scientists who were online were also analyzing the starship data sent over. Although there were many technical terms that I didn't understand, I could tell from Sandora's expression that the situation of the Fifth Fleet itself wasn't optimistic. She suddenly waved her hand and interrupted Cocokina. "I've seen the data of your ecosystem. Some of the systems in the Alpha-class starships are in a very dangerous state, and these systems provide life support for almost a third of the fleet."
"… Yes, our engineers have discovered three dangerous malfunctions, and they're trying their best to rescue the failed atmospheric regeneration towers. However, we lack spare parts, and they're all left on our home planet."
Sandora frowned as she looked at the holographic projection next to her, which displayed the data of the Garden of the Departed.
"The distance is too far, and the positioning signal isn't strong enough. Furthermore, you're crossing the quadrant boundary, and with the current transmission stability, we can't even send the smallest rescue equipment over … Unprovoked transmission requires a stronger guidance signal."
Cocokina didn't seem to have any expectations of receiving reinforcements from the Empire, and so he wasn't disappointed. He simply nodded calmly and indicated that the ecosystem could still hold on for another day or two — meaning that if they couldn't shake off their pursuers and find a safe docking world in a day or two, the Fifth Fleet would have to abandon almost a third of its crew.
Unlike the Empire, they didn't have the 'Double Jump' technology that could directly teleport units from one ship to another in the void, and the current state of their starships couldn't maintain a large enough orderly field in the void to use small transport ships to complete a large-scale personnel transfer. Unless they could dock in a safe world, the crew of the starships that were on the verge of ecological collapse would have no hope. All in all, the Fifth Fleet was now in a much worse state than the Fourth Fleet when we encountered them.
"Either way, the fleet is now moving forward according to the navigation information you provided. We haven't found any signs of pursuers, but they definitely haven't given up." Cocokina glanced at a certain Information Terminal beside him, his low voice indicating that he wasn't optimistic about the current situation. "Still, it seems impossible to evacuate to the nearest safe zone you've marked. Our retreat all those years ago had coincidentally crossed the borders of the New Empire, and while it wasn't heading in the opposite direction, the 'distance' between the two is simply too great."
Tens of thousands of years ago, when the exile fleets had decided to split up and retreat, every fleet had chosen different Void quadrants as their target. The Fourth Fleet's target was coincidentally close to the borders of the New Empire, which was why they could mistakenly enter the Macro World passage. On the other hand, the Fifth Fleet's route had coincidentally deviated from every world of the New Empire (well, at least they didn't choose the Second Fleet's route. According to the 'Parliament', the Second Fleet's route was completely opposite to the borders of the New Empire, and if the Fifth Fleet had taken that route, they probably wouldn't have made it back in millennia). Perhaps the entire borders of the Empire were not as far as the 'distance' between us and the Fifth Fleet.
If it was within the borders of the Empire, each world was connected by World Gates, and even the largest Void voyages could be reached almost instantaneously. However, outside the borders of the Empire, without World Gates, relying on ships to warp bit by bit would take an astonishing amount of time. I brought up the map of the void that Tarver had created and inputted the coordinates of the Fifth Fleet into it in an attempt to find a closer route. This map wasn't a "map" or any other graphical interface that most people would imagine. It was something like a table made up of countless points with footnotes. Since it was impossible to determine the location of anything in the void, it was naturally impossible to draw a map of the void like a map. Every point in this table that represented a world could only be represented by an "information offset" relative to the capital universe. And under the Fifth Fleet's point, I could only see a long string of numbers, with a series of ellipses at the end …
I even suspected that they might not even reach the borders of the Empire in a few years.
"Retreat according to the predetermined route for now. I'm thinking about how to let you cross this distance without any delay." Sandora curled her index finger and propped it against her chin. She seemed to have an idea. "Maybe there really is a shortcut … Give me some time."
"Who are you being hunted by? Is it … the vassals of the Old Empire?" My sister definitely couldn't help us in terms of technology, so I could only ask other questions that we were equally concerned about.
"It's them — those minions." Coco Kina's voice was filled with uncontrollable excitement, but she quickly calmed down. "I don't know who they are, but I'm certain that they are the vassals of the 'Old Empire' that you mentioned. We saw something that looked like a Crystal Cross emblem on their spaceships, but … I think you'll be interested in these images. They are different from the normal symbols of the Empire. "
As Coco Kina spoke, she sent a set of images to me. They seemed to have been taken from the battlefield in high orbit. The background was basically a large piece of broken spaceship wreckage, and we could see the edge of the planet on one side of the images. Due to the high-speed movement, the images were a little blurry. I couldn't tell which of the images were from the Fifth Fleet and which were from the pursuers. In the images, the most eye-catching ones were some spaceships with a curved shell and a large piece of golden paint. These golden, round battleships looked a little like charlatans. They were the pursuers that Coco Kina had mentioned. My sister zoomed in on the clearest image. Finally, we found the Cross emblem of the Empire on the bow of these battleships. Strictly speaking, it was something that looked like a Cross emblem.
The original form of the emblem was obviously the emblem of the Imperial Army, but its color had changed from blue to pale gold, and the sharp crystal spikes had been modified into a crescent-shaped spade. On the background of the emblem, we could see the pattern of two crossed scepters.
The entire emblem looked a little out of place to me. My sister furrowed her eyebrows. "How did they change the Imperial Army emblem to this?"
"They changed the Imperial Army emblem without permission … A normal servant would never do that. It's a huge taboo." Shadora awoke from her reverie and stared in surprise at the incongruous golden emblem, while I suddenly felt someone grab the hem of my dress.
When I looked down, it turned out to be Pandora.
Speaking of which, this girl's sense of existence was really too low. She had obviously followed us here, but because she hadn't said a word from start to finish, she was ignored like a porcelain doll placed in the corner of the room. Her sense of existence wasn't even as high as her sister's. Visca had been ordered to sit on a chair and not run around ten minutes ago because she had tried to remove parts from the data machine next to her. Many people were on guard against her, so her sense of existence was quite high.
"Brother, those spaceships … I know them!"
Under my curious gaze, Pandora finally spoke. She was as concise as ever. "The Melovans!"
I thought for a while and patted Pandora's head. "Can you say one more word?"
"Fifteenth Sky District, Servant Army, Melovans!"
Everyone quietened down. Yep, everyone who knew what the Fifteenth Sky District was, quietened down.
I was stunned for less than two seconds before I finally reacted. I immediately called the chief scientist who was on standby online. "Tawil, immediately search the database. Search for information on the Melovans in the newly added data after the concept split."
"Yes, Your Majesty!" Tawil replied. A few seconds later, a large amount of information began to appear in the holographic images around us. Clear pictures and text information from the Old Empire's database listed in detail the information on the vassal race of the Old Empire known as the "Melovans". Those luxurious and impetuous battleships with round shells and gold paint occupied more than fifty percent of the images.
"The Melovans, vassal race of the Old Empire's Fifteenth Sky District. One of the oldest vassal races of the Empire. They had experienced the Great Pioneering Era and survived all the wars. Their overall strength was the highest among all the vassal races of the Old Empire. After the Old Empire collapsed, all information on this vassal race was lost. They are temporarily considered extinct. "
The synthesized voice of the system read a simple introduction about this race for us.
Sandora shook her head slowly. "No … they are still alive, and … they might have already betrayed us."
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