Space Odyssey from Abandoned Mining Space Station

Then there's only one reason left that can be explained.

Chen Ming possesses the ability to even control the fleet of Dusk, and that Lumin of Dusk has been under Chen Ming's control, anchored in some unknown space.

The fleet organized by Chen Ming likely includes several ships from Dusk.

As for whether Chen Ming can control the Dusk AI Core installed on the ships, the commander would rather believe the answer is yes.

Because the significance of humans being able to completely control Dusk is something every single person in the Empire is acutely aware of.

The commander had already made up his mind, no longer considering pointless matters, and directly connected with the communication room, saying, "Activate the emergency contact device and transfer the permissions to me."

He intended to send the complete intelligence on Chen Ming back to the legion, including his own analysis of Chen Ming's abilities.

Chen Ming's value was even higher than he had previously thought.

While compiling the message to send to the legion, he listened to his deputy explaining Chen Ming's subsequent whereabouts.

"After killing the pirate, Chen Ming went to the Star Realm Capital to collect the bounty."

"In the interval when the government was verifying the identity of the pirate brought by Chen Ming, he attended a government auction where the Armor-Piercing Level was the main auction item."

That matches up.

The commander could now ascertain that it wasn't someone from the government causing trouble, though he still had some questions to clarify.

"I have some impression of this matter, but I remember that there was an issue at the auction?"

"Yes, Luder's Zuo Jing attacked the auction as part of their cover for the space elevator raid."

"How long ago was that? He should still be under investigation as someone involved in the incident."

"He should indeed be, but someone got him out."

"Who?"

"Wu An."

The commander's expression shifted for the second time, saying, "Wu An of the Spiritual Ability Association? In this godforsaken place? Is Chen Ming also part of the Spiritual Ability Association?"

Without waiting for his deputy to answer, the commander denied his own thought, saying, "No, he's not; he's just a psychic with a certain relationship with Wu An."

"If he were, he'd have the ability to directly halt our current mission, and there's no way he would have fought me here for so long."

"Forget it, whether he is or not, let's keep fighting."

The commander then saw a Destroyer destroyed by the Armor-Piercing level's automatic pulse laser.

He knew he could no longer be distracted figuring out Chen Ming's affairs.

Chen Ming is a really promising talent, someone he wanted, and someone the legion would certainly want too.

But if they lose this battle and he ends up dead, not catching the person would be the real issue.

Furthermore, while he was somewhat distracted handling Chen Ming's affairs, there were several points along the military's line that were about to be overwhelmed by the suppression from the Armor-Piercing level.

He must immediately begin to command the fleet more precisely and implement the strategy he had just devised to counter the large-scale weapons of the Armor-Piercing level.

Under Chen Ming's control, the Armor-Piercing level was currently using a slow-firing mode to continuously create pressure on the entire line of military ships.

And the best method to counter such an attack pattern is clustering.

Under the commander's guidance, the military fleet began to form small groups of three to five ships, maintaining the battle line as much as possible while forming more than a dozen tight small battle groups.

Automatic pulse lasers are a type of binding energy bullet weapon, which means their bullet speed is not as fast as laser beam weapons.

The attacked ships still had a certain amount of reaction time.

Though humans could react, the ships might not be controlled in time, but at least they could struggle a bit.

If they could dodge, they would; if not, they would find ways to share some of the damage among the other ships in a cluster.

This method could ease the pressure from the slow-firing mode that Chen Ming was executing on the battle line.

As long as this output could not instantly break through the military line, under the commander's meticulous operation, any chance to catch a breath would become an opportunity for his counterattack.

The changes on the military's battle line were clearly seen by Chen Ming.

He could immediately detect the downsides of having only a single Armor-Piercing level performing the slow-firing mode.

And he quickly realized the commander's ability to seize opportunities for counterattacks and destroy several frigates that advanced due to the impending overload of military ships' shields.

So in the end, Chen Ming could only give up on suppressing the entire battle line and chose to have the Armor-Piercing level utilize a burst output with a cooldown of around fifteen seconds to destroy military ships.

Engaging in a large-scale battle line, Chen Ming was definitely no match for the commander, so he decided to rely on his own strengths to respond.

On the other hand, the commander also understood that this approach could not prevent the Armor-Piercing level from destroying ships with every shot, but the attack efficiency of the Armor-Piercing level was indeed somewhat reduced.

Originally, an automatic pulse laser burst, if hitting entirely, could instantly destroy two destroyers.

But with cluster assistance, many times it turned into destroying one while leaving several ships with shields close to overload.

There is still a significant difference in this.

Though this method seemed like a stopgap measure, with the Armor-Piercing level still able to destroy military destroyers with terrifying efficiency unlike any other ship,

but the commander's reason for doing this wasn't solely for that purpose.