Chapter 96: Breakthrough Under Fire

“All hands, brace for impact!”

Inside the bridge, Mu Qingxue shouted out the order.

The next second—BOOM!

The entire Warstar shook like it had been slammed by a meteorite, violent tremors rippling throughout. Sparks and electrical arcs burst out from panels all over the ship.

To open a path for escape, Mu Qingxue directed the Qiongxiao Battle Group to charge headlong into the enemy formation, unleashing a barrage of fire.

After all, with the Warstar, several battleships, and over a dozen light and heavy cruisers, they had quite a few ion beam cannons at their disposal.

At such close range, their relentless salvo packed a serious punch.

To make things worse, the enemy seemed to want to play it safe. On Mu Qingxue’s path, they held back their assault corvettes, waiting for close combat before deploying them.

But what they didn’t expect was for the human fleet to play this crazy—charging straight through the center of their defensive line.

After that, it was full firepower.

In just moments, they’d taken out more than a dozen of Klein’s small ships.

But one of those ships, just as it was destroyed, happened to be heading right for the Qiongxiao.

Even riddled with holes, Klein’s warships were notoriously hard to blow apart completely—they just didn’t go up in one big explosion.

So, riding on pure momentum, and with the Qiongxiao unable to dodge in time…

In the end…

It scraped right along the Qiongxiao’s port side.

It didn’t do much damage to the hull, but the real problem was…

All the Qiongxiao’s main cannons were mounted on both sides—right at the spot where the Klein ship tore past. Every single one was ruined.

Not only that, but over a hundred railgun arrays were destroyed at the same time.

“Report damage status!”

“Reporting! Portside main cannons destroyed. 122 railgun arrays and 78 electromagnetic rapid-fire cannons unresponsive. Major hull cracks at Section Two, crew evacuating. Engine Four is offline. Overall propulsion down by thirty-seven percent. Main structure of the Warstar is intact.”

Hearing the report, Mu Qingxue’s heart gave a heavy lurch.

She could live with weapon damage, or even trouble at the Number Two spaceport. She’d expected issues like this from the start.

After all, with a decision to fight at such close range, these risks were always on the table.

But…

Engine problems—that was the one thing she just couldn’t accept.

The Qiongxiao had four main engines. Engines Three and Four had already been known to have internal fractures.

Thanks to Luo Xin’s efforts, they’d held out almost three months, but now…

Looks like they’ve reached their limit.

One engine was completely dead, and from the drop in power, she could tell the other three weren’t doing well either.

From here on out, even a new shock from enemy fire could knock Engine Three out for good.

The Qiongxiao had been limping along for months, already damaged and overworked. It simply couldn’t take much more punishment.

“Qingxue—are you okay?”

After the violent shaking, Ye Lingwei hurried to the captain’s chair.

“I’m fine. But the Qiongxiao won’t last much longer. We need to break through and get Qin Xuan and the others out, now!”

“But how?”

“Abandon all defense and counterattacks on every other front. Focus everything—every last gun—straight ahead, no matter the cost. We break a hole through, now!”

“Yes, Commander!”

With grim determination, Mu Qingxue gave the order. Ye Lingwei switched back to calling her ‘Commander’ without hesitation.

Moments later, the whole fleet shifted into a wedge formation—every ship aiming everything at the center ahead, concentrating fire into a mighty spearpoint.

It looked just like…

Smashing through a massive wall standing in their way.

At the same time, the three Klein fleets unleashed dozens of assault corvettes.

Combined, nearly three hundred of them swarmed forward.

At such close range, there was no time to intercept. Not that Mu Qingxue even tried—she just kept the fleet’s guns locked on the front and protected the First, Second, and Fourth Sub-Fleets tight in the formation’s core.

Assault corvettes slipped through, ramming into various ships one after another.

“The way’s clear!”

“Move out! Go—now!”

“Understood!”

Minutes later, even as brutal close-quarters fighting broke out aboard the ships, every captain on the bridge focused on carrying out Mu Qingxue’s orders.

The ship’s internal comms echoed with gunfire, explosions, and anguished screams.

Over fifty ships—three sub-fleets—were shielded in the center like newborns, bursting through the encirclement.

“Commander! Qin Xuan and the others—they’re out!”

“Good, but we’re not done. Order the fleet to halt. Turn around—prepare to face the enemy!”

“Yes, Commander!”

More than eighty ships surged forward in a frenzy.

Behind them, over fifty ships formed a defensive ring around the giant Warstar, holding back the Klein forces at all costs.

Some ships, with the enemy already storming toward the bridge, pushed their engines to the max.

They rammed themselves into Klein’s larger warships—a desperate one-for-one trade.

Even the Klein were stunned by such reckless tactics. For a moment, their fleets hesitated to advance.

After all, if the enemy carried out suicide attacks, they wouldn’t even have time to react.

——

Five hours later.

“Lingwei, how far have Qin Xuan and the others gotten?”

“Long-range radar’s down. Can’t pinpoint their location, but by the elapsed time they should be over seven light-seconds away by now!”

“The enemy’s out of assault corvettes and can’t threaten them anymore. The rest of Klein’s fleets will need hours to reach them—a safe distance…”

Mu Qingxue nodded, relief finally easing her nerves.

She knew there was no escape for herself anymore, but at least the Fifth Fleet made it out.

“How many ships do we have left?”

“Just before our last laser comms system went down, we counted seven ships left—including ours. Now, with comms totally dead, there’s no way to check on the others.”

“I see… What about Su Mu?”

“Right now, the 147th Heavy Orbital Drop Regiment is under Major Shen Yuan’s command, holding the A7 passage to the bridge, but they’re down to less than two hundred people.”

Ye Lingwei shook her head as she relayed the update.

Mu Qingxue’s gaze darkened. She knew exactly what Ye Lingwei meant.

Su Mu…

He’d already fallen.

As the flagship, the Qiongxiao Warstar had borne the brunt of Klein’s assault. Twenty assault corvettes had put over three hundred enemies onboard.

If Su Mu hadn’t led the 147th in disobeying orders and staying behind…

The bridge would’ve fallen long ago.

But as it stands, things aren’t much better.

All four main engines were destroyed. Weapons systems, radar, life support—

All offline.

Even without a final blow from Klein, it wouldn’t be long before…

The bridge ran out of oxygen.

Leaning back in her captain’s chair, Mu Qingxue didn’t know why, but in these final moments, Lin Yu’s face flashed through her mind.

She also thought of a conversation she’d had with Mu Xingchen a month ago.

Her grandfather had asked her a question back then—one that had startled her.

But now…

“If you could appear right now and save me, then…”

“About what Grandpa proposed that day, my answer is…”

“I accept!”

“But clearly you can’t show up, so… never mind.”