After several hyperlane jumps, upon entering the Golden Pass Star Sector, the Tianma Fleet was actively seeking the latest frontline news.
But no messages came back.
The Yunluo Fleet, the Northern Fleet, both were unreachable.
In the movements and battles of the Space Fleet, since ships spend most of their time in high-speed motion or even traversing the Star Realm Tunnel, coupled with the varying specifications of Star Language Towers and the proficiency of Star Speakers aboard each vessel, it was quite common to be out of contact.
However, when two entire fleets, without a single ship able to communicate, remain out of contact for several days, that begins to feel terrifying, frightening.
Moreover, shortly after they entered deep into the Golden Pass Star Sector, they unexpectedly encountered Iron Tooth Orc vessels!
Green Skins should not appear in the Golden Pass Star Sector.
From the fallen regions to the core location of the Golden Pass Star Sector, the most central points are White Fog Star and Silver Pass III. To enter the Golden Pass Star Sector from the fallen regions, these two star systems are mandatory passageways.
These places haven't been lost yet, so how could the Green Skins have made it through?
They still harbored a bit of wishful thinking, suspecting that it was merely a small raiding party of the Green Skins.
A star system, such a vast place, generally has only one, two, or at most three or four developed colonial planets. Even with the construction of star fortresses, space stations, and even megastructures, the area they can cover is still limited.
But in the universe, it's the empty void that is most abundant. Gazing at the night sky, those sparkling stars indeed attract the eye, so much so that they make one overlook the vast expanses of darkness in the background.
The only way to fully secure a star sector, not to let even a mosquito through, is to seal off the jump points in the star system's Star Realm Tunnel.
The scale of the universe is so immense, with distances of hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of light-years. Without the Star Realm Tunnel, without the spatial leaps, the time it would take to reach different star systems is excessively long, so much so that it's nearly considered impossible.
However, sealing off jump points is quite difficult in reality.
A jump point, although referred to as a 'point', is relative to the cosmic scale. In fact, it's a very large area. The small ones are comparable to the size of several stars combined, and the large ones can be as big as hundreds or thousands of stars. As long as you're within that area, you can make a jump.
How difficult is it then to enact a blockade?
Some particularly important star systems, such as the Solar System where the Holy Terra, the capital of the Human Empire, is located, would indeed establish multiple star fortresses at all jump points to ensure that the entire range of the jump point is encompassed within the defenses of the star fortresses, guaranteeing that no one could sneak through.
But most star systems simply cannot construct such immense, remote space fortresses away from the planets.
Not to mention the difficulty and cost of construction, the ongoing maintenance is an even greater expense.
Having a space station near the jump point, where people are permanently stationed and serve as an observation platform to monitor the jump point, is already quite good. Many star systems don't even have the conditions for this.
In such situations, it's normal for small groups of enemies to slip past the defenses in the vast and boundless void and jump from one Star Realm Tunnel to other places.
In the past, didn't Yelisia also work with Gu Hang at Rage Owl Star to annihilate a small Green Skin Fleet? It's possible that those Green Skins sneaked over in such a manner, not expecting to be able to conquer planets but mainly aiming for raiding, slaughtering, and harassing the trade routes.
The Tianma Fleet destroyed several small fleets they encountered.
The largest was just the size of a destroyer, and most were just ordinary patrol vessel level.
The Green Skin's junk ships were still junk. Generally speaking, under the same classification, they couldn't beat the ships of humans. And, because of their inherent nature, the Green Skin junk ships generally had thin armor but heavy firepower, making them painful to bombard only for a few shots, but on the flip side, hitting them with a single salvo often shattered both their shields and ships.
While clearing out these small bands of orcish pirate vessels that had invaded the Golden Pass Star Sector, the Tianma Fleet continued their unrelenting efforts to obtain the latest situation on the frontline.
On one hand, they continued calling out to the Northern Fleet and the Yunluo Fleet, and on the other hand, they actively dispatched patrol vessel squadrons towards the frontline battlefield, trying to figure out for themselves what exactly had happened.
Finally, the new message arrived.
A squadron of Rapid Patrol Vessels, after venturing out two star systems ahead, finally received a message from the Yunluo Fleet.
They didn't see them; they were simply in the same star system, and the Star Language system was finally able to break through the interference and make contact.
This was devastating news: the Yunluo Fleet had been decimated and was retreating to regroup. The Northern Fleet was either completely annihilated or soon would be—it was finished either way.
According to this new branch of the Yunluo Fleet, they had lost a battle at Silver Pass III. Their initial mission had been to rescue the Northern Fleet, but just as they had jumped into Silver Pass III, they were ambushed by a Green Skin Fleet that had been lying in wait. The number of the enemy's vessels was roughly equal to theirs, and under normal circumstances, with the capabilities of human ships, they should have been able to win.
However, for some unknown reason, the human fleet's observation systems did not alert them to the ambush. No warnings from the augury, no alerts from the Thinker Array, and no signs from the squadrons that had jumped into Silver Pass III ahead of them indicating that everything was normal, which led to the occurrence of this ambush battle.