Chapter 94: The Rise of the Sixth Experimental Fleet

A month slipped by quietly. It had already been more than five months since Lin Yu left the Fifth Fleet.

Thanks to the Federation pouring in all its resources and having every related department working non-stop around the clock, progress reached a frenzied pace.

What would normally take four or five years to build during peacetime—the Zhulong-class warship—was completed more than half a month ahead of an already insane schedule.

When you really put everything on the line to accomplish something, what you used to consider impossible turns out to be…

Nothing but a joke.

A core team pulled from various fleets, combined with thousands of new recruits trained just for this moment—a force of over ninety thousand people—

Now boarded the eighteen Zhulong-class heavy cruisers docked at the port, one by one, in perfect order.

When it came to naming these eighteen warships, Fleet Headquarters gave full respect to Lin Yu’s preferences.

So…

The flagship of the Zhulong-class Fleet, as expected, bore the name Zhulong.

The other seventeen ships were all named after mythical creatures from the Classic of Mountains and Seas. For example, Ship Two was Yinglong, Ship Three was Bifang, Ship Four was Dangkang, and so on.

As for the official name of the fleet itself, it was decided to be—

The Federation Fleet’s Sixth Experimental Fleet.

According to the Three Leaders, the moment humanity defeated the Klein and reclaimed control over the Solar System—while also securing the entrance to the Cosmic Current hidden in the Kuiper Belt—

They’d immediately launch a true interstellar age and begin colonizing systems beyond the Sun.

In this process, the Federation Fleet would have to keep expanding, and Lin Yu was already set to become the commander of the future Sixth Fleet. As soon as the battle ended, he’d be promoted to brigadier general.

That’s why a directly managed Headquarters fleet was named the Sixth Experimental Fleet.

To put it plainly, the so-called “experimental fleet” was actually the backbone of what would be the future Sixth Fleet.

You didn’t have to read between the lines—the message was clear.

All Lin Yu had to do was avoid any disastrous defeat in these final stages of the war.

As long as he managed that, his command over the postwar Federation Sixth Fleet was set in stone.

Meanwhile, the Warstar promised to Lin Yu had finished the design phase and was already being built.

It too followed the next-generation warship model, supported by three Zero-Point Modules. Its firepower would even surpass the Federation’s current total of four Warstars.

After all, this was a purely energy-based next-generation Warstar.

Of course, it wouldn’t be ready for this decisive battle. Even with an accelerated schedule, the best estimate was three years to completion.

——

“Commander-in-Chief!”

As the call connected, Mu Xingchen’s holographic image appeared before him.

Lin Yu snapped off a salute.

“How’s the situation with the Sixth Experimental Fleet?”

“Everything’s perfect. We’re ready to hit the Klein fleet head-on!”

Lin Yu brimmed with confidence.

Nineteen ships in total—all Zhulong-class heavy cruisers. Even against a thousand Klein warships, Lin Yu trusted their superior range and overwhelming firepower to whittle down the enemy in a running engagement.

That wasn’t an exaggeration.

Seventy-six massive ion beam main guns with a striking range of 0.6 light-seconds, plus 3,192 heavy ion beam secondary guns with an astonishing range of 1.67 light-seconds.

With this level of firepower, they could force the enemy to fight on their terms.

If the Zhulong-class ships ran their engines at full power, even the Klein’s assault corvettes wouldn’t be able to keep up.

Equipped with the latest engines and a tremendous energy output, the Zhulong-class could accelerate to nearly 300 kilometers per second.

Though the assault corvettes were still a touch faster, the difference wasn’t much.

With that tiny lead and the fleet’s heavy firepower to rely on, the corvettes stood little chance of catching them.

Almost no chance at all.

Unless the Klein released thousands of assault corvettes at once, willing to lose half along the way just to close the gap.

But Lin Yu wasn’t stupid. He wasn’t about to stick to a straight course and let the corvettes get an easy attack.

Without slower ships dragging them down, a fleet made entirely of Zhulong-class heavy cruisers was terrifying in combat.

This is exactly why all eighteen new Zhulong-class ships were given to Lin Yu to form a whole new fleet, and not distributed piecemeal to each existing fleet.

Otherwise, even setting everything else aside, the Zhulong-class’s speed alone would be slowed by other ships.

“Don’t worry—I’m here to hand you your battle orders!”

“Understood, Commander-in-Chief!”

……

Three minutes later.

After hearing Mu Xingchen’s orders, Lin Yu’s fists tightened hard.

Even with his nails trimmed, he nearly pierced his skin—leaving deep imprints.

“Commander, I’ll move out immediately!”

“Alright. I’m leaving Qingxue in your hands!”

“Yes, Commander!”

——

At the same time—

1.7 AU from Jupiter, about 255 million kilometers away.

Right now, the Fifth Fleet was in serious trouble.

A month ago, when Tumelo realized the human fleet wasn’t headed straight for Saturn anymore but began doubling back toward Jupiter—

He changed tactics.

No longer chasing with a massive fleet, he broke the Klein armada into over twenty smaller squadrons.

Each of those squadrons only had a few dozen ships or less.

But the real problem was—

The Fifth Fleet still didn’t dare to stop and fight any of these groups head-on.

For a simple reason.

If they stopped to engage, they’d be tied up instantly—and who knew if the remaining 3,000-plus assault corvettes were hidden throughout the fleets or all massed in one group?

What if they stopped and ran into the worst-case scenario right then?

Even if they could win a battle quickly, trying to wipe out seventy or eighty Klein ships would still come with a cost.

Losing three or five ships in the process wouldn’t be surprising at all.

After all, the entire fleet only had about 140 warships left, and plenty were still damaged from last time.

Especially the Qiongxiao. If a fierce battle crippled its engines before schedule—

That would be disastrous. So the Fifth Fleet stopped trying to overwhelm smaller enemy groups bit by bit despite their split formations.

But even so, major problems remained.

Tumelo’s dividing his force was all to trap Mu Qingxue in a ten-sided ambush.

After a month of this deadly game of cat and mouse, the encirclement was tightening, getting smaller by the day.

If things kept going like this, in another month or two, there was a real chance they’d be completely surrounded by more than twenty Klein squadrons.

Forget luring the enemy into the Federation’s trap—escaping the noose themselves was starting to look doubtful.

No one could say for sure if they’d even break through.