BATTLE FOR STARS

Something extraordinary happened. The unmanned fighter drones nearly brushed past the mine layer, yet not a single missile was fired. Landon’s gamble had paid off—the drones had not been given orders to attack.

“What… how is this possible?” Oscar asked, eyes wide.

“I suspect these drones were not authorized to engage us,” Landon explained. “Once they lose control, they won’t attack.”

“Oh, I see. They want to capture us, not destroy us.”

“7852, launch the interference devices and deploy the mines. Set the mines to detonate on a six-minute timer,” Landon ordered, without further explanation to Oscar, as they weaved between the drones.

The interference devices followed the drones, emitting powerful jamming signals that blocked remote control. Due to this strong interference, drones were generally only used for reconnaissance and short-range combat near their motherships.

The mines were a different defensive weapon. Small and floating in space, they were normally used to defend against incoming missiles. When a missile passed nearby, the mines would accelerate to attach to it, detonate on contact, or explode along its path. Individually, they weren’t very powerful, but several could destroy a single missile, making them effective for defending fixed spatial zones.

Under normal circumstances, the chance of attaching to a missile was low, as missiles were fast and small. But this time, the drones were much larger and slower than missiles, making it easy for the mines to latch on.

The Confederation drones passed the mine layer without deviation, following their preprogrammed paths, while Landon guided the mine layer swiftly in the opposite direction to escape.

However, the Confederation assault ships quickly realized what had happened. Before the mine layer and drones had fully separated, the flanking assault ships changed course to continue pursuit. Sure enough, a third assault ship appeared ahead. Since the mine layer hadn’t yet “walked into the trap,” the ship was now pursuing in frustration.

Minutes later, the third assault ship approached the drones, regained control over them, and resumed the chase.

On the tactical map, the newly arrived third assault ship was now the closest to Landon. The other two flanking assault ships, aiming to prevent lateral escape, had taken “optimal” interception routes, paradoxically leaving them farther away.

Landon glanced at the pursuing ship and smiled. “Oscar, if this assault ship focuses solely on chasing us, it’s going to get into trouble.”

“Ha! That’s very possible,” Oscar laughed. He couldn’t believe that a disadvantage from just twenty minutes ago had been completely reversed. At their current speed, it would take the assault ships some time to catch up again.

Just as he spoke, the pursuing assault ship suddenly slowed.

“Ha! Looks like they were too hasty. They didn’t check carefully before reclaiming the drones,” Oscar said.

At that moment, the mines attached to the drones detonated. Though the explosions were minor, they startled the pursuing assault ship. Almost simultaneously, the other two flanking assault ships also stopped.

“Why did these two stop too?” Oscar asked, puzzled.

“Given their distance and speed, catching up to us would take over an hour. By then, our nearest reinforcements should arrive. Besides, until they understand the damage sustained by that assault ship, they probably won’t dare continue the pursuit,” Landon explained.

Landon turned to Oscar. “If we continue fleeing for a bit longer, we should reach a safe distance, and they will likely abandon the chase entirely.”

“Understood. 7852, maintain course at full speed,” Oscar commanded. He looked at Landon, whose calm expression never wavered. Now he finally respected Landon—not as a fresh graduate from the academy, but as a capable comrade.

“You’re incredible. Not only did we escape safely under these conditions, but we also struck back at the enemy. No wonder you’re a top cadet at the Military Academy,” Oscar said. Though he had known of Landon’s achievements, he had never truly appreciated them before. To Oscar, campus exercises and real combat were entirely different matters. Today, however, he began to believe that Landon was far more than a theoretician.

“We were lucky. If they had used manned fighters, things wouldn’t have gone so smoothly,” Landon admitted.

“I think they trusted their plan too much. They assumed the drones alone would be sufficient, which gave us the opening,” Oscar said.

“Yes. But this must be reported to headquarters immediately. I have a bad feeling about Confederation assault ships appearing here,” Landon said.

“I’ll report this battle as fast as possible. You’ll hear the good news soon,” Oscar said, patting Landon’s shoulder.

With this record of combat, promotion would be inevitable. As for Landon, Oscar would write the best possible evaluation for the academy. With this real battlefield achievement, Landon would become highly sought after by all fleets.

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In a remote sector of space, dozens of motherships and over ten thousand combat vessels of various types floated silently. They seemed to be waiting for something. Their insignia revealed them as Confederation ships, marked with the hexagonal star emblem.

A colonel entered the command center of one of the capital ships, where a group of soldiers stood at their stations.

“Vice Admiral Mack, the operation has been canceled,” the colonel saluted.

“I’ve already received the notice,” said Vice Admiral Mack, nodding. He turned to the colonel, frustration in his eyes. “After all the effort to plan and execute this operation, it’s been ruined at the last moment.”

“It was an accident. We didn’t anticipate that a single mine layer would cause the failure,” the colonel explained.

“This assault fleet is nearly half unmanned… sigh. Who knows when we’ll have such an opportunity again,” the admiral said, annoyed.

“It won’t be long. Next time, more unmanned ships will be deployed,” the colonel reassured him.

In recent years, the Confederation had lost hundreds of inhabited border planets and entire star systems due to constant Hill Empire incursions. Shortages in personnel prevented effective counterattacks.

It wasn’t until six months ago, with the deployment of new unmanned ships, that manpower problems were largely alleviated, allowing the Confederation to plan this operation. Yet, an unexpected event at the last moment had spoiled the plan.