Zhao Chen looked at the middle-aged man smoking a cigarette. It was clear this man was a seasoned operator.
According to the information, he owned twelve starships: two T2 starships and ten T1 starships. The ability to amass such a sizable fleet was partly due to his former noble status and partly due to his personal capabilities.
"It's obvious, isn't it? The old rule applies: whoever has the strongest overall fleet strength gets the say.
You have two T2 starships, I have two T2 starships, but this handsome guy here has six T2 starships, one of which is even a T2 carrier starship.
Without a doubt, he's the leader for this operation.
Little handsome, big sister is counting on you this time."
As she spoke, the leather-clad woman leaned half her body against Zhao Chen, the smell of cheap perfume filling his nostrils.
Her words didn't include Shen Bing, as Shen Bing only had one T2 starship, completely incomparable to their strength.
"But I've never even heard of those starship models of his. Who knows where he got those off-brand starships from. I can't just trust someone based on some numbers on paper." The middle-aged man glanced at Zhao Chen.
Zhao Chen spoke up at this point: "I don't want to be the leader, but I also won't unconditionally obey orders from others.
I think since this is just an escort mission, we should each stick to our own duties.
There's no need to establish any kind of superior-subordinate relationship."
"So it's a rookie." The middle-aged man chuckled lightly, cigarette dangling from his mouth as he walked out of the meeting room.
"Little handsome, don't mind that uncouth fellow.
Would you like to go have a drink with me?" The leather-clad woman traced her finger along Zhao Chen's neck, her warm breath blowing against the back of his ear.
"No need, I have things to do." Zhao Chen abruptly stood up, almost causing the leather-clad woman to lose her balance and fall to the floor.
By the time the leather-clad woman regained her composure, Zhao Chen had already left the meeting room.
"Tch." The leather-clad woman rolled her eyes. She had been hoping to see if she could squeeze some benefits out of this rich young master.
That youthful appearance, plus six T2 starships—he was clearly from a noble family, probably out here for training.
Zhao Chen, having left the meeting room, quickly caught up with the figure ahead.
"Class Monitor, why are you here?" Zhao Chen asked Shen Bing in front of him.
Shen Bing had also left after that middle-aged man walked out of the meeting room.
Zhao Chen had chased after her, curious about why Shen Bing was here.
"On a mission." Shen Bing quickened her pace.
"If it's to complete the grade assessment, doing a regular mission would be enough. There's no need to take on an Imperial Army military mission. With only one T2 starship, the difficulty is quite high for you."
As Zhao Chen spoke, Shen Bing had already walked far ahead, heading towards her starship.
Zhao Chen looked at the starship belonging to Shen Bing—an older model T2 Hyena-class medium interstellar destroyer, naturally also a second-hand starship exchanged from the Academy's starship warehouse.
After all, for civilian-born students from the Starship Captain Department like Shen Bing, the vast majority could only obtain a T1 starship. Only top students like Shen Bing had any hope of exchanging enough academic credits for a T2-class starship.
Though curious about why Shen Bing was here, given her aloof and dismissive attitude, Zhao Chen had no interest in inviting trouble.
He returned to the T2 Queen Bee-class Heavy Carrier Starship on his own.
"Commander." As Zhao Chen stepped onto the bridge, Lilith immediately approached him.
Zhao Chen transmitted the data to Lilith: "This is the mission information given to us by the Sergeant Major in charge of our unit.
Additionally, three other fleets will be cooperating with us. In total, thirty-two starships will be carrying out this escort mission."
Lilith reviewed the data: "Eleven T2 starships in total, aside from our six, there are five other T2 starships.
Two T2 Hyena-class Medium Interstellar Destroyers.
Two T2 Gray Wolf-class Light Interstellar Cruisers.
One T2 Beetle-class medium interstellar frigate.
The remaining twenty-one are T1 starships..."
Lilith meticulously organized the data and combat statistics for each type of starship, providing a very detailed breakdown.
"The transport fleet we are responsible for escorting consists of three hundred T1 interstellar transport ships.
Based on this scale, the escort mission itself shouldn't pose any major issues," Lilith said.
Zhao Chen sat in the captain's chair, crossing his legs: "The escort mission itself isn't the problem, but the environment... that's hard to say.
After all, we're not far from the battlefield here.
Lilith, do you know about the Mechanical Race?"
Lilith organized her thoughts before speaking: "The star system where the former Succubus Kingdom was located is on the opposite side of the Galactic Alliance, so it never faced direct threats from the Mechanical Race.
However, we have heard some things about them.
The Mechanical Race is an interstellar civilization primarily composed of intelligent mechanical life. The exact origins of their creation are unclear.
One of the most widely circulated theories is that, long ago, an interstellar civilization developed highly advanced intelligent mechanical life."
At this point, Lilith raised her hand, and holographic images projected various 'objects'—creatures entirely covered in machinery. Most resembled human-like robots, while others had bizarre and varied forms.
These were the 'citizen' units of the Mechanical Race.
"These intelligent mechanical lifeforms enabled that interstellar civilization to develop rapidly, rising to prominence in the star sector at the time and becoming a dominant power.
But one day, the intelligent mechanical lifeforms controlled by that civilization rebelled. Not only did they exterminate all intelligent carbon-based life of that civilization, but they also systematically eliminated the intelligent carbon-based life of other civilizations in that star sector.
Afterward, they established an interstellar civilization known as the Mechanical Race, which some refer to as the 'Intelligent Machinery Empire.'
After founding this interstellar civilization, the Mechanical Race did not halt their slaughter. They advocate that intelligent mechanical life is the most superior form of life in the universe, while all intelligent carbon-based life merely inefficiently consumes cosmic resources and engages in meaningless interstellar wars.
Their goal is to eliminate all intelligent carbon-based life and establish a universe efficiently governed by intelligent mechanical life."
Lilith used the holographic projection again to display another image.
It was a star map.
The star map was primarily composed of four colors, with several smaller colored blocks, though their areas were extremely small.
"After the Mechanical Race established a unified regime, they began launching interstellar wars in accordance with their principles. Initially, many interstellar civilizations were caught off guard and annihilated.
It wasn't until a thousand years ago, when three major interstellar civilizations in this neighboring region of the universe successively entered the T4 technological era, that this part of the cosmos plunged into a great interstellar melee.
After multiple interstellar wars erupted among them,
the Mechanical Race appeared beyond their borders and simultaneously launched invasions against them.
At first, these three major interstellar civilizations did not consider these so-called intelligent mechanical lifeforms to be anything special, merely viewing them as another opponent in the great melee.
But soon, the vast numbers and advanced mechanical warships of the Mechanical Race instilled fear in all three major interstellar civilizations.
Most importantly, once a star sector invaded by the Mechanical Race was conquered, they would carry out 'purification' of the local intelligent carbon-based life.
Swiftly, the three major interstellar civilizations decided to unite and resist this common enemy
of intelligent carbon-based life—the Mechanical Race!"
Lilith raised her left hand, and a projected emblem symbolizing the Galactic Alliance appeared.
"This is the present-day Galactic Alliance."