"The patrol ship's last signal is here." Following the intelligence officer's voice, the large screen in the starship bridge switched to an area and zoomed in.
It’s just that the picture on the screen is jittery, distorted and blurred from time to time, and sometimes even disappears temporarily.
The captain stared at the screen, but could see nothing but rolling storm clouds. In fact, it is impossible to find the target by sight at this distance. Not to mention a patrol ship, even the largest war mothership cannot be seen at all.
"This damn place!" the captain cursed. Under the influence of storm clouds, most conventional scanning methods on the starship are unusable.
At this time, a somewhat stiff synthesized voice sounded in the bridge: "Go forward for reconnaissance and expand the search range."
The captain frowned and said to himself: "Are we going to use optical communication already? This is still in high orbit." He raised his voice and gave the order, so the starship began to move forward at a faster speed, while gradually lowering its orbit and approaching the surface of the planet. .
After a search, although the officers in charge of intelligence were almost blinded, nothing was found.
The captain started the fleet communication and said: "The search in the designated airspace has been completed, and nothing has been found. In view of the current harsh environment, it is recommended to occupy outer space first and carry out planetary landing and replenishment."
The reply in the communication channel: "Agree."
The warships in this mixed fleet spread out in all directions and took up warning positions. Then the landing ships and several transport ships in the fleet began to descend and sail into the storm clouds one by one.
The captain of the reconnaissance starship saw this scene through the porthole, shook his head and said, "Poor guys."
The intelligence officer next to him said somewhat thankfully: "Fortunately, we are a battleship and don't need to land. Otherwise, we might have been sent to this damn planet."
"Battleships are not necessarily safe. Didn't you see what happened to the Herring? It disappeared and there's no trace of it."
The intelligence officer pondered, and then asked: "Could it be a defection?"
"Where can they escape?" The captain disagreed, "There is a possibility of encountering an ambush."
The captain and the intelligence officer chatted wordlessly until they watched the last transport ship disappear into the storm clouds. No one noticed that there was a small unmanned spacecraft moving quietly in orbit close to the storm clouds. Using the cover of storm clouds, it successfully evaded detection and flew to the other side of the planet.
At this time, a transport ship shaped like a silkworm chrysalis flew out of the storm clouds. The unmanned aerial vehicle approaches and is recovered by the transport ship.
In the transport ship, Li Ruobai placed the unmanned spacecraft on the engineering platform as usual, while recovering data, opening its shell and replacing the new battery.
"Is this the only way to collect information now?"
Chu Jungui's voice sounded in his earphones: "Isn't this great? The Federation can't find us either."
"Living in such a secluded environment is like returning to primitive society. There is no entertainment and no idea of what is happening outside. I hope the Ninth Fleet has received our news... Oops!"
"What's wrong?"
"The Federation fleet is here! It's on the other side of the planet now, where we ambush the patrol ship."
"What about the fleet composition?"
"Two destroyers, four frigates, two high-speed reconnaissance ships. In addition, there is a landing ship and four transport ships. Landing ship?"
Chu Jungui flew over from the front cabin and watched the images brought back by the unmanned reconnaissance spacecraft with Li Ruobai. This is one of the three unmanned detection spacecraft they released. They use fully passive observation and fly almost close to the storm clouds. The trajectory of each spacecraft will pass near the location where the patrol ship was last destroyed.
Li Ruobai judged that the federal fleet would definitely come to explore the whereabouts of the patrol ship, and the first step to search was the location where the patrol ship last disappeared.
The images were recorded until the landing ship began to land on the planet's surface. Chu Jun calculated it silently, then reported the coordinates and said: "Their landing point is at this location, and maybe another base is also here."
"It's really on the other side of the planet. What should we do? Should we go around and beat them up? On the ground, the Federation is no match for us."
Chu Jungui shook his head and said, "Renovate the battleship first."
Li Ruobai felt something was wrong, "You don't want to fight with the entire fleet, do you?"
"Of course not. Let's get to work!" Chu Jungui patted Li Ruobai, flew into the rear cargo hold, opened the outer hatch, and flew towards the half-modified starship, dragging a box of armor plates.
Li Ruobai shook his head and said in the communication channel: "Come out to work." Then he also dragged a box of armor plates and flew to the starship.
The hatch at the rear of the transport ship opened, and dozens of people flew out in groups of ten. They dragged out the power furnaces from the transport cabin and began to install them according to the blueprint.
Dozens of people worked together, and the construction progress was greatly accelerated. At this time, a light spot flashed in the deep space in the distance. Chu Jungui looked there and saw a federal reconnaissance ship flying past quickly. He lowered his head and continued working, unmoved. At this distance, it would be difficult to detect the starship under construction unless a high-power optical detector was used to repeatedly scan the area. In the eyes of the federal reconnaissance ship, Chu Jungui's starship was just a pixel on a cluttered background.
The scout ship was very fast and disappeared into the depths of space in a moment.
Chu Jungui inserted the armor plate in his hand into the designated position, then fixed and sealed it. Then take a new armor plate and continue to install, fix and seal it. The entire process was done meticulously. In his mind, the modification progress of the entire starship is advancing slowly and steadily, 35%, 36%... Until the armor plate and four power furnaces on the entire transport ship have been installed, the modification progress has reached 52% .
There was another flash of light in the distance, and a small high-speed starship flew close to the storm clouds, pointing directly at the location of the starship's transformation.
"It's the Ninth Fleet!" Li Ruobai recognized the directional laser sent by the opponent.
A moment later, the starship sent by the Ninth Fleet stopped, the hatch opened, and Li Ruobai and Chu Jungui flew into the starship, entered the artificial gravity range, and landed on the ground.
The captain had already come forward and said with a smile: "We received the news from the Tianyu Fleet before its retreat, so we made a special trip here. According to the needs conveyed by the Tianyu Fleet, we specially brought 100 tons of high-performance alloy materials. "
"What does the Ninth Fleet need now?"
"Metallic hydrogen, or other high-energy materials; it would be better if it could be made into semi-finished explosives or warheads. In addition, we also need a large number of planetary surface defense weapons. Or materials that can make weapons." The captain said He spoke with a long list of needs.
Li Ruobai looked at the detailed list of alloy materials they sent over, handed it to Chu Jungui and winked.
Chu Jungui took a look and knew that most of the materials sent by the Ninth Fleet's remaining troops were materials for construction or equipment, and all they needed were ammunition and weapons.
