Chapter 73: Unexpected Capture

“What’s the casualty report?”

Inside the battleship’s bridge, Guo Kai raised the question.

“The 67th Heavy Orbital Drop Regiment lost 37 soldiers and had 129 wounded securing the large ship. The 132nd Regiment lost 89, with 345 injured while handling the medium vessel.”

“Even the heavy assault teams took heavy losses?”

Guo Kai let out a quiet sigh.

These were two warships already battered and broken. Most of the Klein onboard were dead and the rest were badly injured.

Especially on the large ship—other than the bridge, everywhere else was uninhabitable after the life support systems failed. Still, somehow, there were 166 casualties.

If they’d sent in a standard light infantry unit, they’d have lost 500 men before even gaining a foothold.

The truth was, Klein’s personal weapons were primitive, but their sheer fighting ability far surpassed any Federation soldier. In fact, a single Klein could take on three, maybe four, fully equipped heavy drop troopers.

They really could stand toe to toe with three or four of the Federation’s best.

Which is exactly why the Klein’s assault corvette tactics had been flagged as the Federation’s most dangerous threat.

After all, the number of Klein warriors packed into a single corvette was enough to unleash chaos inside a warship.

And those ships could take a beating, usually launched by the hundreds—sometimes even thousands—at once.

“How many prisoners did we take?”

“Not a lot. Most of them fought to the last. Usually, we only get a chance to capture them if they’re already wounded. But this time, there was a bit of a surprise.”

“Oh? What kind of surprise?”

“Inside the large ship, we caught a female Klein. It’s the first time we’ve ever seen one!”

“A female?”

Guo Kai’s eyes widened.

In all previous battles, even while searching wrecked Klein warships, they’d only ever found male corpses.

Interrogations of early Klein prisoners had revealed that women had absolutely no standing in their civilization—viewed as nothing more than surplus machines.

So it was impossible to imagine any woman serving in their military.

Yet here they were, with a live female prisoner, found right on the bridge of the enemy flagship.

Could it be that this Klein woman had a special status?

Was she someone important?

“What’s the status of the female Klein prisoner?”

“Compared to the male Kleins, she’s much weaker. Physically, she’s about on par with an average adult human, so she was easy to subdue. Just a few scrapes, nothing serious.”

“Good. When you bring her back, put her in solitary. Turn all the prisoners over to Colonel Lin Yu, have him take them back when he returns.”

“Yes, General!”

——

A few hours later.

Guo Kai handed all seventeen prisoners over to Lin Yu, then pulled a company from the 67th Regiment to board the Zhulong as a precaution.

After all, Lin Yu’s fleet didn’t have a heavy infantry force like this at hand.

Standard security detail just wasn’t enough in this situation.

No telling what kind of trouble those Kleins might kick up along the way.

With all preparations finished,

Lin Yu’s Fourth Sub-Fleet began the trip home.

Meanwhile, Qin Xuan’s First Sub-Fleet was still busy towing the two captured Klein warships and would head back later.

On the third day of the journey, Lin Yu made time to check in on their female Klein prisoner.

He had to admit—he was curious.

What did a Klein woman even look like?

The answer was…

A huge letdown.

Just like the men, she was wrapped head to toe in an exoskeletal suit—even her face was hidden.

So, for Kleins, appearance barely mattered—male or female, their looks were totally obscured.

Still, from her build, you could tell she was a woman.

In fact, body-wise, she could probably give Serena a run for her money.

At the same time, Shivana watched Lin Yu through the cell bars.

She rattled off a string of foreign words Lin Yu couldn’t make heads or tails of.

Not that it really mattered. Ever since the Fourth Fleet brought in Klein prisoners a year ago, the Federation had been researching their language.

Of course, to enable communication, language studies had been top priority.

With the Federation’s resources, cracking a new language and building a translation device was no big deal.

Moments later, Lin Yu pulled out a metal patch and something that looked like an earpiece.

He pressed the metal patch to his throat and hooked the earpiece behind his ear.

“You can speak now!”

Lin Yu spoke Mandarin, but what came out matched Shivana’s Klein language perfectly.

This was exactly what the device was made for.

“I want to meet the fleet commander—the human who defeated me!”

“Wait, defeated you? So you’re the Klein fleet’s commander?”

Lin Yu stared at her in shock.

Weren’t Klein women supposed to be banned from joining the military?

But here she was, a fleet commander, right before him.

Was the previous intel just wrong, or—

“That’s right. My name is Shivana, first daughter of Klein Patriarch Tumelo, and I was in command of that fleet you faced.”

“The Klein Patriarch—Tumelo?”

Lin Yu wanted to be sure.

After all, the intel teams had seen Tumelo’s name pop up plenty of times during debriefings.

He was the current Patriarch—the king, really—of all the Klein.

If this was his daughter, by human standards, wouldn’t that make her—

A princess?

Or was it royal heir?

“That’s right. Tumelo is my father. So, can I meet your fleet’s commander now?”

“You’re talking to him.”

Huh?

Shivana froze for a moment.

But then it clicked.

“You?”

“What, do I not look the part?”

“It’s not that. See, my father has captured plenty of humans, and we’ve learned a lot about your kind. Judging by your appearance, you can’t be older than twenty, right?”

“You can tell a human’s age just by looks now?”

Lin Yu raised an eyebrow, a bit surprised.

Guess the Klein really had done their homework on humanity.

“That’s right. I’m nineteen.”

No point hiding it, Lin Yu just told her outright.

“From what I was told, even in your smallest fleets, commanders are usually at least thirty—most even over forty.”

“But seeing your skill in command, I guess it makes sense. Nineteen and already leading a fleet… that’s impressive.”

“So tell me—how did you see through my plan? How did you deduce where I was?”

That’s what Shivana wanted to know the most.

Even now, as a prisoner, even if execution was waiting tomorrow,

She still wanted the answer before her life ended.

She needed to know!