Unfortunately, things did not develop as they had hoped. The Ji race thoroughly searched the wreckage, which constituted two-thirds of the entire warship, multiple tis, even using weapons to clear it out, but found no trace of the Swarm Empress.
On the other side at the XM768 star gate, the mysterious organization had destroyed so facilities, preventing the Ji race from restarting the star gate. The fleet guarding the star gate, consisting of only a few dozen ships, had been internally sabotaged by their people and forced out of the battle sequence.
There were also ground forces stationed at the starport. Upon learning that the mysterious organization used disguised rchant ships at the star gate, they temporarily requisitioned so rchant vessels to provide support.
However, just a few thousand kiloters after leaving the starport, they were suddenly attacked. Several unidentified ships, with unremarkable styles, gradually revealed their forms.
rchant ships were, after all, civilian vessels. Even if ard, their weapons were mostly for dealing with obstacles like teorites. Moreover, this area belonged to the mid-ring civilizations, and most trade ships passing through were of this level or lower.
Their enemies, though appearing ordinary, based on observable data, clearly reached the level of inner-ring civilizations and nearly matched the performance of the Ji race’s warships.
Facing the mysterious organization’s warships, even the mid-ring civilization warships would struggle, let alone their ard rchant ships. Over a hundred requisitioned rchant ships were individually targeted and exploded into fireworks in the deep void without any chance to fight back or escape.
This was the overwhelming superiority of technological levels. These warships of the mysterious organization could severely damage a mid-ring civilization and annihilate over a hundred civilian ships with ease. This was why the Ji race stationed only a small fleet here; they believed these ships were sufficient to maintain order.
In fact, there were still many Ji personnel at the starport, whether law enforcent or others. Rounding up several dozen to a hundred ships’ worth of troops would be effortless.
But without a way to breach the mysterious organization’s blockade, a reckless attack would simply be suicide.
At the star gate, there were also nurous Ji ard personnel. However, the mysterious organization similarly deployed a large number of personnel. Under normal circumstances, the more advanced Ji soldiers, leveraging their familiarity with the terrain, should have been able to slowly wear down the enemy’s forces despite being outnumbered. Especially since the mysterious organization’s ard forces were at a nurical disadvantage, they should have had a significant advantage.
Yet, the situation on the ground was the opposite. The Ji soldiers were forced into retreat and even abandoned several important strategic locations. The reason was that although the Ji soldiers had the advantage of superior weapons and terrain, they couldn’t withstand betrayal from within their ranks.
Previously, whenever the Ji teams gained the upper hand and were about to push forward for the victory, their once-reliable comrades would suddenly betray them, collaborating with the enemy to annihilate the team.
After several such incidents, the soldiers realized that there were quite a few enemy spies around them. However, these spies didn’t want to expose themselves either. Having lived among the Ji race for so long, they surely had certain social ties and didn’t want to give up easily. Moreover, continuing to hide gave them opportunities to execute future missions, so why not?
Thus, the Ji soldiers beca wiser. They maintained a stalemate, neither pursuing victories aggressively nor making things look too bad.
In this manner, the ard forces of the mysterious organization occupied several key passages. The automatic repair robots of the star gate needed to pass through these areas to reach the malfunctioning zones, but the mysterious organization naturally wouldn’t let them through.
The star gate couldn’t directly transmit reinforcents. The garrison forces at the starport and the star gate either withdrew from the battle, pretended to maintain order, or dared not move at all. Left with no choice, the Ji race had to call for reinforcents from farther away.
Fortunately, there were plenty of caras installed on the star gate. Although the mysterious organization had destroyed many, the smaller half of the bow wreckage never left the Ji race’s sight.
“Look!” Suddenly, an advisor in the Ji command room shouted.
Since even after losing many caras, the remaining number was still substantial, they couldn’t monitor all angles by themselves. Thus, each person was assigned to watch one screen.
The shout drew others’ attention, and so noticed abnormalities in their assigned screens.
Two ard personnel wearing unmarked single-soldier exoskeleton power suits pushed a hibernation pod out from the damaged bow wreckage. Around them, several other ard personnel provided cover.
Although their exoskeleton power suits bore no markings, at a glance, they gave the Ji military commanders and advisors a very familiar feeling.
“Selina, zoom in on the details!”
Multiple enlarged images were quickly pulled out. After seeing so details, the Ji personnel’s expressions darkened.
“Selina, compare them with the K-3 single-soldier armor!”
Even though no markings were found upon enlargent, much could still be inferred from visual data and their structure.
Sure enough, the comparison data was imdiately displayed. Based on external data, they completely matched the Ji race’s latest model K-3 power armor.
Considering previous events, the Ji commanders easily deduced that these were their own armants.
“After this affair, we must conduct a thorough investigation!” One Ji commander was sowhat enraged. The production lines for these power suits had just been assembled not long ago, and less than twenty percent of the Ji forces had received the new equipnt. Yet, the ard personnel of this mysterious force enjoyed them before most Ji soldiers.
“It seems they prepared ticulously, paying attention even to such details.” Though on the screen, the ard personnel pushing the hibernation pod appeared relaxed, it was because the warship had been hit by an EMP bomb earlier and then severely damaged, causing its gravity system to fail for a long ti.
Otherwise, considering the weight of the hibernation pod, even soldiers wearing K-3 exoskeleton power suits would need two people to lift it. For quick movent, four people would be ideal.
“They are risking their lives now, so of course, they planned ticulously.”
“It seems the occupant of this hibernation pod is our target. Selina, make a comparison!” Although the ard personnel of the mysterious organization tried to form a circle to obscure the specific appearance of the hibernation pod, the Ji race had too many cara angles. From gaps during their movent, they still captured quite a bit.
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