Chapter 38: Trap in the Asteroid Belt

“Commander, what do we do now?”

“Isn’t it obvious? That kid Lin Yu wants to split up and scatter. Let them run—just chase down one ship!”

“Just one?”

“Are you dense? Of course the Zhulong!”

Wang Jianjun snapped, clearly annoyed.

Taking the Zhulong meant this whole battle would be over in an instant.

As for the other twelve ships trying to flee in every direction—he didn’t have time to bother with them.

If they want to run, let them run.

Even if those ships doubled back for a surprise attack, it wouldn’t change a thing.

Four destroyers, eight frigates. That’s it.

Without the Zhulong, those ships are nothing.

And it wasn’t arrogance—each of the three standard sub-fleets had a battleship, two cruisers, eight destroyers, sixteen frigates, plus three carriers: two small, one medium.

Four destroyers, eight frigates, and not a single cruiser with heavy firepower to back them up—they couldn’t threaten a battleship at all.

Not to mention, this battleship had two cruisers and—

twenty-six warships in total.

So as long as he kept a lock on the Zhulong, no matter if the others ran or tried a sneak attack, it didn’t matter to Wang Jianjun.

It just didn’t matter at all!

While the Second Fleet sped after the Zhulong—

Qin Xuan let out a string of curses on her own ship.

“That reckless idiot! All he thinks about is attacking. Can’t he see this is Lin Yu’s trap?”

She had no clue what Lin Yu planned exactly, but she was dead sure—it was absolutely meant for Wang Jianjun.

“Order the cruisers to take point, the rest to follow. Close in on the Second Sub-Fleet!”

“Yes, Major General!”

The adjutant quickly relayed the orders.

Then he leaned over, lowering his voice by Qin Xuan’s side.

“Major General, didn’t you just say this was a trap?”

“Exactly because it’s a trap, we have to step in!”

……?

Wait, wasn’t that even more confusing?

The adjutant was baffled—why would knowing it’s a trap make it more necessary to walk right in?

“If we follow them in, I can still pull the Second Sub-Fleet out if things go bad. But if we stay out—”

“Then once Wang Jianjun’s wiped out, we’re next!”

Qin Xuan felt the need to explain.

Though she didn’t voice her last thought—

If the Second Sub-Fleet was finished, she wasn’t confident she could defeat Lin Yu’s special operations unit with just double their numbers.

So she couldn’t just stand back and let Wang Jianjun get crushed by Lin Yu.

——

Asteroid Belt.

Sector N089.

A large warship cruised through the sector—the flagship of the Fifth Fleet’s special operations unit, the Zhulong.

The place was a labyrinth. Just the hundred-meter-wide asteroids numbered in the hundreds, and the countless smaller ones were impossible to count.

Especially the tiny ones, barely a meter wide—tens of thousands of them, everywhere.

It was easily one of the most dangerous zones in the belt.

Navigable passages? There was only one. And even then, no one dared to move fast.

Because that lone route twisted and turned endlessly. Anyone going through had to crawl forward, absolutely careful—any misstep—

could mean scraping a hull or outright smashing into the miniature asteroids, causing serious damage.

So as the Zhulong made its way through, the Second Sub-Fleet lined up single file, following carefully on its tail.

Wang Jianjun remained totally unaware.

Hidden behind the swarm of asteroids, an entire ambush force was lying in wait.

But these ambushers didn’t care about Wang Jianjun’s Second Sub-Fleet. They just watched them go right by, doing nothing.

A few minutes later—as soon as the Second Sub-Fleet had cleared the zone—

another fleet entered the sector, also lined up like a long snake.

“Bai Jun, move!”

The tactical channel, silent for ages, finally crackled with Lin Yu’s voice.

In that instant, the long-waiting ambushers sprang out from behind the asteroids.

Over a dozen Bai Ze Mechs—all set up for long-range fire.

They didn’t give Qin Xuan a second to react. They hit the lead two warships square in the engines with pinpoint shots.

One second later, the command center aboard the Qiongxiao confirmed: the two cruisers at the front of the First Sub-Fleet had lost all propulsion, their main engines destroyed.

The ships weren’t ruled destroyed, but they were dead in the water.

That was cold comfort for Qin Xuan, because—

With the two lead cruisers blocking the way, every other ship in the line was completely stuck.

Turn around? No chance. That passage was way too narrow for anything like that.

The only way out was to use attitude control thrusters to back out.

Keep in mind: those thrusters are meant for small adjustments and tight maneuvers, not for moving a full warship in reverse.

Sure, you could try to force it.

But those tiny engines just couldn’t give a ship much speed—so getting back out of that passage…

It’d take at least half an hour, if not more.

“Launch all carrier-based mechs. Find them and take them out!”

On the bridge, Qin Xuan gave the order.

She’d been certain from the start that this was Lin Yu’s trap.

She just never expected—Lin Yu’s real target wasn’t Wang Jianjun at all. It was her!

Qin Xuan honestly didn’t know if she should laugh or cry.

But it wasn’t game over yet. Lin Yu had hit her hard straight out of the gate, but Qin Xuan knew one thing for sure—

Lin Yu only had about seventy mechs in total.

Fighters?

Aside from some specially modified recon craft, Lin Yu had zero fighter planes.

Why?

Federation warships only start carrying aircraft from the cruiser level up—destroyers and frigates didn’t have the space.

Plus, even though there was a medium carrier in the special operations unit’s roster, it hadn’t arrived yet.

Right now, only the Zhulong in the whole unit had carrier-based mechs, and there were fewer than seventy.

Qin Xuan was sure of it.

As for her own First Sub-Fleet—

One battleship, two cruisers, and one medium plus two small carriers.

Carriers: the battleship housed three squadrons, each cruiser—light cruisers at that—had one squadron, and as for the carriers, the small ones held five squadrons each, the medium one had ten.

All told, that was twenty-five aviation squadrons. In other words, about six hundred aircraft.

Even just counting interceptors—not bombers—that was nearly five hundred.

So as long as she launched her aircraft, she might not wipe out Lin Yu’s 77th Mech Battalion, but she could hit them hard or at least keep them tied up.

That would give her enough time to pull her whole fleet out safely.

So—

It wasn’t over yet!

But just three minutes later,

as most of her aircraft finished launching and began forming up—

“Report! Latest battle damage from Command!”

“Read it!”

“Sector N089: The Blue Team has just remotely detonated 378 asteroids. Millions of fragments blasted out, destroying 92% of the Red Team’s carrier-based aircraft and damaging the hulls, engines, or weapons of every warship to varying degrees.”

……

……

Qin Xuan’s eyes went wide.

Hold on—Lin Yu had planted bombs all over those asteroids?

He’d just waited for her to deploy her entire air wing before blowing them all up in one go?

Qin Xuan almost burst into every curse she knew.

But this was only the start.

“Report!”

“What now?”

“At the sector N089 channel entrance, the frigate we just backed out was attacked—twelve enemy ships cut off the exit with crossfire.”

The entire bridge fell completely silent.