652 A New Round Of Competition

No... It was impossible!

Xiao Se forced himself to dig deeper, then suddenly jerked his head up as he finally thought of something. 

"Li Hong, I can finally see sense in it. The X-6 mission was a lure. They have exposed their position to the Zergs, but when the Zergs get there, it will be Samantha's armada waiting for them."

Li Hong's eyes lit up with realization. "Balls! What a great move and how conniving! This way, she will claim all the credit for herself, and no one would ever be able to challenge her position."

"What did they say about women and poison? She had distracted us using Wang Tong the same way as she would the Zergs using the X-6 units."

"That's right! The dimwitted dark one would never expect to walk into a trap. Let me check their current location of the X-6 units. They are...on the other side of Saturn!"

"That's about right. They are luring the Zergs closer while giving Samantha some time to lay the trap. I knew she had something planned. She wouldn't have gotten the admiral position because of her pretty face."

"Sneaky! What should we do? We can't sit around and let her claim fall the credit."

Xiao Se heaved a sigh after Samantha's ploy was revealed to him. He knew something was amiss when she acted so out of her character as to directly confront him. It was all for a show to deter them from joining her.

"Well, we are obligated to follow admiral's order. Move out!" Xiao Se announced. 

"But...are we risking giving up our influence in the armada and hand it over to Samantha?"

"Li Hong, we are soldiers of the Confederation first. Don't let the faction politics stop you. Samantha has done everything she could for the greater good, and so should we."

"Haha! Very well! Let's help her." Li Hong announced with a relieved smile.

Over the years, they had both gotten tired of the political infighting. Sometimes, they wished they were not in such a position in their factions so they wouldn't have to be forced do the things they didn't want to. Samantha's operation had given them an opportunity to fulfill the oath they swore when they first joined the military: to protect humanity.

"Principal, the rest of the fleets are on the move as well... Strange!" Lumi put in. She was the head of the intelligence department, and therefore, she was the first person to learn about the movements of the other ships.

Samantha smiled knowingly, "Ok, noted."

Lumi didn't press Samantha for more questions, but her confused look didn't leave her face. Samantha said, "Don't worry, everything is fine. Order the soldiers to get ready."

Li Hong and Xiao Se didn't disappoint Samantha. She never expected the two to stop fighting for their factions; after all, they were just doing what was the best for the people who were loyal to them. However, at this critical moment, they united with the rest of the crew in solidarity. This battle was not going to be easy for Samantha while she commanded only half of her armada. However, with the combined might of all the ships in the armada, Samantha was confident that she could crush the Zergs. 

The X-6 mission had given Samantha plenty of data to analyze the Zergs' fighting habits. She soon realized that the Zergs' attack units often consisted of no more than one fleet. It was a perfect size for Samantha's armada to deal with. It was just big enough to make the Zergs' feelings hurt, while it wasn't too big to pose a threat to the Confederation Armada.

Samantha was very impressed by Flash and Karl's abilities. They had achieved feats that she had ever dreamed of, a sign that she needed to dream bigger.

"Why are the humans still inactive? I have already risen to their bait." Zhoudi said. "Are you sure about the route that Patroclus tipped us off?"

"I am. There had been human activities reported along that route."

"Haha. What does Patroclus want in return?"

"The life of all A-level immortals."

"Is Wang Tong there yet?"

"That chicken-sh*t didn't join the rest of the X-6 until recently. I bet he is afraid of fighting in space."

"Haha! Cowardice is human nature."

"Hehe…In order to play along with his game, we lost over two thousands ships. Now, they are finally convinced that we have taken the bait and have set up an ambush in the Saturn steroid belt. What a ridiculous idea! Order our fleet to continue our plan…Make sure that the human remains convinced of their victory."

"Yes, my lord!"

"I have no idea why Patroclus would help us this time, but anyway, I will take it," Zhoudi said.

Zhoudi had ordered his fleet to keep playing along; however, he had moved his entire force behind the fleet that the humans were expecting.

Meanwhile, in the immortals' fleet, captain Maris was listening to the report with a joyful smile.

"If the dark ones still fail to capture Wang Tong this time, perhaps they do deserve to be eliminated." Lights ran off his blond hair that tumbled to reach his waist. He was perplexed by Patroclus' decision to help the dark ones. They had carefully installed a spy inside the Confederation fleet, hoping to put him into good use later. However, the most useful information he had collected had benefited the dark ones. 

"I believe the divine lord has something else planned. Perhaps he thinks we need the dark ones. "

"I agree! However, it's obvious that the dark ones have lost control of Mars. Sooner or later, the immortal army will have to swoop in to save the day."

"You don't say. We have helped them all we could, and the mother supreme no longer should have any qualms about giving us the full power."

"Yes, we are the real masterminds behind this operation. The dark ones are merely doing our bidding."

"The thought of those human shooting themselves in the foot makes me want to laugh."

The immortal generals were all amused by the situation. Maris was in his late thirties, one of the first humans who had willingly joined the immortals. He didn't do it to save his life; instead, he had firmly believed in Patroclus' vision. His loyalty and devotion had quickly helped him rise among the ranks and become Patroclus' most trusted adviser in matters relating to the space battle. Before he joined the immortals, Maris had already been a renowned fleet commander; and after he became an immortal, he was given the responsibility of commanding the immortals' armada.

"Don't forget that without the spy, even we would still be oblivious about Wang Tong's plan. We had all been focusing on Wang Tong himself, and didn't expect his team members to have been quietly set up a trap for us."

"Even if it is a trap, it would be useless against the immortals' fleet."

"It's good to be confident, but never conceited. These human fleets are of average strength, but they are very mobile. It's difficult to deliver a solid blow at them before they can slip away."

"Their scouts are everywhere as well. A cautious bunch!"

"Hehe... overly cautious, and that is why they were doomed to fail."

"Haha! let's toast for our victory!"

"Cheers in the name of our divine lord!"

…

"Haha, Flash, I have beaten you by thirty more ships!" Karl said with a smug smirk.

Flash cracked a smile. "Get over yourself, please. We have just received the coordinates from the main fleet. We need to move."

"No problem, but I haven't had so much fun in years!"

"It's time to go. We have a much bigger game to play." Flash said with a serious face.

Anyone who had seen Karl in action at the cockpit would have assumed that he had split personalities. How could someone so foolhardy, if not outrightly stupid, have such a great sense of strategy and level-headedness?

Many times when the X-6 fleets were surrounded by enemy ships, Karl was able to steer the ships to skin through the cracks in between enemy fleets and come out unharmed. Not only were they able to get out of any perilous situation alive, but they had also managed to destroy many of Zergs' space depots. 

As the X-6 moved toward their final destination, the Zerg fleet was hot on its heels. When the human fleet had lost the Zergs, Karl would stop and wait for his pursuers to catch their whiff again. Slowly but surely, the X-6 units coaxed the Zerg fleet toward the ambush.