Chapter 63: Frontline Decisions and a Daring Advance

The entire meeting dragged on for nearly three hours.

Most of that time was spent reviewing everything that had happened.

As for the second and third topics, they barely took any time at all. The outcome was one-sided across the board.

With Chu Wei’s incident, everyone agreed it needed to be handled far more seriously than usual.

After all, this was war!

They even considered making an example out of the whole thing.

As for Chu Wei’s grandfather, not a single person brought him up throughout the meeting.

When it came to Lin Yu’s promotion, though, there were a few dissenting voices.

But their issue wasn’t promoting Lin Yu to Colonel—they just thought he deserved even more responsibility along with the rank.

After all, he clearly had the ability for it.

The problem was, Lin Yu was already commanding a Special Mixed Fleet. What, were they supposed to just bump him straight to fleet admiral, or copy what the First Fleet did and suddenly add a deputy commander for the entire Fifth Fleet?

Besides, Lin Yu had just become a Colonel. That didn’t really fit.

Then someone suggested expanding the size of Lin Yu’s Special Mixed Fleet.

With just fifteen warships, even Lin Yu couldn’t fully unleash his potential. The limit was obvious.

At the very least, they should boost the fleet to the size of a standard detachment.

That idea got a lot of support, but Mu Xingchen and the other two didn’t finalize anything right then. They said they’d study it a little more.

Still, one thing was settled—Lin Yu’s promotion was confirmed on the spot.

Since he graduated, this was already the second time Lin Yu had received an exceptional promotion in just over a year.

No, if you count the initial special appointment to Lieutenant…

That makes three in total!

Most people never see an exceptional promotion in their entire lives, yet here he is…

Three times in one year!

First came the direct jump to Lieutenant.

Then came the special promotion to Major.

And now, once again, a special promotion to Colonel.

It’s honestly ridiculous!

In all 201 years of the Federation’s history, this has never happened before.

——

Asteroid Belt.

Two days had passed since Lin Yu buried 87 Klein warships out here.

Instead of withdrawing after the battle, he did the opposite…

A day ago, Lin Yu personally led the escort for the mining fleet back to their original work sector, continuing the mission they’d started before.

But this time, he didn’t stick around for protection. Instead, he left only a squadron from the 77th Mech Battalion, stationed around the area to maintain a perimeter.

As for Lin Yu himself…

He took his fleet and headed for the Klein outpost hidden deep within the Asteroid Belt.

The Federation had long since identified this place, but never attacked it. The reason? Over a hundred enemy warships were always stationed there.

If they sent two or three hundred warships to attack, the target would be far too obvious. There’d be no chance to launch a surprise strike.

Worse, the Klein would be alerted and reinforce from other directions.

In the end, it’d be a losing gamble with no payoff.

But if the Federation only sent a small task force, it’d be suicide. They’d just be handing ships over for free.

Now, however, the situation was different.

By all normal logic, Lin Yu should have been busy covering the mining fleet’s retreat by now.

After all, the last battle was a resounding victory already. There was no need to take another gamble.

Even Shivana thought so.

But Lin Yu? The guy never played by the rules. He led just fifteen warships deep into Klein-controlled territory, aiming straight at the outpost in the Asteroid Belt.

And on the Klein side?

Right now, the outpost only had twenty-two operational warships.

All of them were docked on one of the asteroids there.

So why had the Klein chosen this location for their outpost? Mainly two reasons.

First, there’s an asteroid over thirty kilometers across. That made it easy for them to quickly reshape it into a makeshift fortress, complete with an open-air spaceport for their warships.

Altering an asteroid like this was second nature to them—something they could practically do in their sleep.

Second, this sector of the belt was relatively open.

There were a few other asteroids scattered around, but not enough to block the view or provide cover.

That allowed the outpost to keep near-complete control of the area, without worrying about sneak attacks.

In other words—

If you wanted to capture this place, you’d have to go in head-on. There were zero openings for clever tricks.

And if you attacked head-on? Besides having to fight enemy warships—

You’d also have to deal with that thirty-kilometer asteroid-turned-fortress. A massive headache.

“Phase one, begin the assault!”

“Understood!”

The fleet was already prepared and raring to go.

Everyone’s spirits were high—they believed Lin Yu would lead them to pull off yet another impossible feat.

The moment orders came down,

the entire fleet sprang into action.

Fifteen warships pulled out of hiding and appeared just outside the Klein outpost—roughly 1.2 million kilometers away.

There was almost nothing in their path. Space ahead was wide open.

“Maintain second battle speed! Railguns: forget targeting enemy warships, focus everything on the fortress itself!”

“Zhulong: target enemy ships one by one with the main cannon. Start with the small ones!”

From Zhulong’s bridge, Lin Yu issued a rapid chain of orders.

With the distance over a million kilometers, he knew using railguns against warships was pretty much pointless.

By the time those slugs spent the fifteen or twenty minutes in flight—

the enemy ships would’ve moved long before anything hit.

Instead of wasting time shooting at ships, Lin Yu figured it was smarter to take out the external structures the Klein had built on the asteroid’s surface.

If they demolished that makeshift spaceport,

even if the Klein tried to rebuild, it’d take them at least two months.

As for Zhulong’s main gun…

It couldn’t quite one-shot the medium or large enemy ships.

So Lin Yu decided to concentrate fire on the smallest targets, certain they could bag a few that way.

A few seconds later,

four brilliant blue beams slammed straight into the asteroid’s docking bay.

There, a Klein small warship happened to be sitting at anchor.

It was immediately blasted with huge holes, debris flying everywhere. The ship was totaled, completely useless for battle.

The Klein might have been ambushed, but they reacted fast.

Ship after ship completed undocking procedures almost instantly.

They all rushed to the rear of the fortress.

This way, they could use the fortress itself for cover—even treating it as a massive shield.

Every so often, they’d pop out to fire a salvo or two, then dart back behind cover.

Meanwhile, the human fleet had no cover at all. They had to charge forward fully exposed.

It was obvious at a glance who had the advantage.

The Klein had twenty-two ships left: one large, three medium, and eighteen small warships.

Before they all finished undocking to hide behind the fortress,

Lin Yu managed to take out just five.

Which meant there were still seventeen enemy ships to deal with.

If this kept up, an all-out assault would get nowhere. As long as the Klein commander didn’t make some colossal blunder, they could easily rely on those ships and their fortress to fend off any attack.

But then, in the next moment—

The enemy commander realized something was off.

That was—

Why were the opposing ships moving so slowly, like they were out on a leisurely stroll?

While they fired at the fortress, they were inching forward at a crawl.

It almost looked like—

They were out for a sightseeing tour, weapons at the ready!