Chapter 68: Unfinished Score

“Lady Shivana, our harvest this time was quite abundant.”

“We wiped out more than twenty enemy main warships and over a hundred resource mining ships, at the cost of just a single small ship.”

“I’m sure once the Patriarch hears of this, he’ll be thrilled.”

As for Shivana’s fleet, almost all of its crew were personally loyal to Tumelo.

Even though the belief that women shouldn’t command fleets ran deep—just like everywhere else—before departure Tumelo had given strict orders: everyone was to obey Shivana’s every command without question.

So, while they might grumble, when it came to the crunch, these people actually listened and followed orders to the letter.

Watching her officers buzz with excitement,

Shivana, however, couldn’t really share their joy.

Now, everything she did, she couldn’t help comparing to Lin Yu’s achievements.

And the truth was, compared to Lin Yu, she still came up short.

After all, Lin Yu only had fifteen ships but took out eighty-seven enemy warships without a single loss. And that was just the beginning.

As for herself, she had faced off against thirty human warships, lost one, and had more than ten others damaged—even if most were just lightly scratched.

No matter how she looked at it, she had lost this round.

Still, so what if she lost this time? She’d win it back next time—no matter what.

“Any valuable intel?”

Shivana asked aloud.

“In human-controlled territory our surveillance is almost nonexistent. The only actionable intelligence we’ve got is here.”

A Klein officer pointed at a spot on the star map as he spoke.

“And what’s this?”

“It’s a human frontier outpost still under construction—about seventy-six standard hours ago our scout ships stumbled upon it. Other than work ships and personnel, there are around sixty warships on guard, and the surrounding space is thick with mines. Launching a surprise attack is basically impossible.”

As the officer explained, he brought up several more reports.

A flood of surveillance images appeared in front of Shivana.

“Yeah, it’s a tough nut to crack, but hardly impossible.”

“Order the fleet: set course for this target.”

Wait, what?

She really planned to attack this place?

The reporting officer felt his mind go blank.

Not because he thought a frontal assault was hopeless, but right now they had only half the number of ships the humans did…

Sure, inside the Asteroid Belt their ships had some one-on-one advantages, but outnumbered as they were, and after seeing those reconnaissance shots—it wasn’t just the warships, the enemy had weapons deployed all around the nearby celestial bodies too.

If they slammed in head-on, never mind whether they won in the end—

The losses would be huge.

This really didn’t sound like a great idea.

“Lady Shivana, should we call in another fleet for backup?”

“No need. Involving fleets that can’t follow orders is pointless. In fact, they’d just drag me down!”

“But…”

“No buts. I’ll handle it when the time comes.”

“Alright then…”

The officer nodded,

since Tumelo had made it clear—they had to obey Shivana, no matter what.

Soon, the fleet was once again under way.

They were expecting to reach the target area in about twelve days.

For Shivana, the logic was simple…

They had attacked her outpost before and failed to take it, so if she succeeded here, she could finally prove herself better.

That was it—the motivation was just that simple and direct.

She just wanted to prove she was a better commander than that human.

Only if she could do that would she truly win her father’s approval—and escape being treated as nothing but a tool for childbirth.

For that, she’d risk anything.

Of course, this couldn’t really be called reckless.

With the way the human outpost was built, storming it with just a bit over thirty warships would be tough.

But looking at the outpost’s layout, Shivana had spotted some exploitable weaknesses.

Seventy percent chance—no,

Shivana figured she had an eighty percent shot at taking the place with minimal casualties.

——

Aboard the Zhulong.

Right now, Lin Yu was holding a strategy meeting.

Not just George, Qin Qiong, and Andrei—every one of the other fourteen captains in the fleet was there too.

He briefed them on the Second Fleet’s ambush, and revealed that the attackers were those same opponents who’d tangled with them for two days straight.

Then it was time to decide which entry point they’d use to enter the Asteroid Belt.

After all, the belt was huge—it whipped around the sun in a massive ring.

If they picked the wrong point to jump in, they could end up months away from the enemy. No joke.

So, since the whole mission was to track and wipe out this enemy fleet, their top priority was to guess what the enemy’s next move would be.

Only then could they pick the right entry spot and plan their route through the belt.

“I think they’ll probably head back to Jupiter. With all the mining fleets recalled, they’ve got nothing left to hunt. Their only option is to run and try to escape the sweep. With barely thirty ships, they’d be stupid not to.”

That was Andrei, their operations advisor.

Most of the assembled captains nodded in agreement.

It was common sense—there were no easy targets left. Why stick around just to get hunted themselves?

Their smartest move would be to retreat now and strike again later.

But Lin Yu wasn’t so sure.

“Andrei, you’re missing something!”

“What?”

“From the enemy commander’s point of view, there are still viable targets: the three outposts, plus the fleets joining the sweep from within the Asteroid Belt.”

Everyone looked at Lin Yu, caught off guard.

Sure, it made sense when he said it, but would the enemy really try something so risky?

After all, those sweep fleets were on highest alert—ambushing them would be nearly impossible.

Worse, if their position got exposed, they’d be surrounded and trapped almost instantly.

Once that happened, things would get ugly quick.

And as for attacking an outpost…

Was he kidding? Who’d be dumb enough to charge at a fortress with just thirty-six ships? That’d be pure suicide.

That was what pretty much everyone was thinking.

But then, a few of them shot Lin Yu uneasy looks, as if remembering something.

Because there did exist such a ‘dumb’ commander after all.

Not long ago, their own commander had taken just fifteen ships and launched a strike on an outpost fortress too.

If Lin Yu had had thirty-six ships that day, he might not have just tried a feint—he might’ve taken the fortress outright.

So the question was: would the enemy really dare try the same play?

Maybe…

Maybe they really would.

After all, this was the same commander who’d gone up against Lin Yu for two days, and come away losing just one small ship.

That took real skill.

“I think the enemy’s next target will be right here!”

“Outpost Three!”

Lin Yu stood up and stabbed a finger at a spot on the tactical map.

His voice was low but firm.