Super Mothership
There were two separate messages: one was a public announcement issued by Isabel through a full military broadcast, and the other was a private message sent by Gustav using his personal authority, addressed solely to the three sub-fleet commanders of the Sea Clan fleet.
Isabel’s announcement left all the officers from both sides utterly stunned, and the Sea Clan fleet in particular was thrown into immediate chaos.
As the supreme commander of their fleet, Gustav had long enjoyed high prestige within the Sea Clan navy. More than half of the senior officers had been personally promoted by him. When they first received the news, they were shocked and skeptical.
They all rushed to contact their superiors for verification. But all communications were like water sinking into the sea—no response from Gustav, and even his flagship suddenly went dark.
Then came the bombshell: the flagship had attacked their own fleet—an event that sealed the coffin lid on this mutiny.
Everyone was dumbfounded. Could Isabel have been telling the truth?
The Sea Clan officers were deeply shaken. After confirming Gustav was unreachable, the three sub-fleet commanders, following emergency wartime protocols, assumed control of the fleet and immediately exchanged the information they each held.
They promptly convened an emergency internal meeting...
“Isabel claims that Commander Gustav has defected. Now we’ve also lost contact with the flagship—this whole situation is way too strange!
But no matter what, I absolutely refuse to believe that the Commander would betray us. We’ve followed him for years. Everyone here knows the kind of man he is. To say he defected? I just can’t believe it!”
The speaker was the commander of the First Sub-Fleet—Gustav’s most trusted confidant and top general.
He had followed Gustav for many years and considered himself intimately familiar with the man. From the beginning, he refused to believe Gustav could ever defect.
A conspiracy! There had to be some massive conspiracy behind all this!
With such a belief firmly ingrained, he naturally defended Gustav fiercely.
“If someone had said Gustav had defected before today, I wouldn’t have believed it either,” said the Third Sub-Fleet commander, responsible for wormhole defense, frowning. “But the series of orders he issued recently were undeniably strange. The battlefield situation on our side has rapidly deteriorated! How do you explain that?”
Regardless of whether the defection was real or not, Gustav’s recent orders were highly suspicious.
Twice, he had ordered fleet redeployments that gave Unity of All Things the perfect opportunity to act at both the wormhole and on Planet Kara. That much was undeniable.
Looking back now, it couldn’t have been mere misjudgment.
“Besides, the flagship has clearly defected to Unity of All Things and has even sunk our own warships. Without a doubt, the flagship is now under enemy control. And the only one capable of doing this so suddenly and without warning… might be Commander Gustav himself.
All current evidence points to the possibility of Commander Gustav’s betrayal...”
This claim, however, was once again refuted by the First Sub-Fleet commander.
“No, I believe there’s another possibility… What if the commander was just careless, and our operational plans were leaked again, allowing the enemy to turn our strategy against us?
Or maybe, the enemy first activated that high-level spy and somehow directly took control of Commander Gustav—then impersonated him to send us two false orders.
But when they used the flagship to attack our own forces, Gustav finally resisted in a rage and risked everything to send us a final warning.
I’ve investigated it—his message was sent through a separate, independent communication system aboard the flagship. That means the main control AI was no longer under his command, and he himself was probably being physically restrained.
Judging from the tone of that last message, it’s likely the enemy would have discovered the act quickly. Which means... Gustav may already be... in grave danger!”
The three of them fell into silence.
In their minds, they all pictured the tragic image of Gustav with bloodshot eyes, sending out a final brief warning under the threat of countless gun barrels—before being swallowed up by a torrent of laser fire…
Yes. That did sound like something their commander would do.
That was very much Gustav.
“But if that’s the case, then could the true mastermind behind all of this really be—as the Commander warned—Isabel?”
Beware of Isabel! That was Gustav’s final warning to them.
“Why is it impossible? Our legion's internal intelligence defenses are like they don’t exist—like a sieve constantly infiltrated and plundered by Unity of All Things. Military arms and high-tech secrets show up in enemy hands again and again. What level of officer would it take to enable that?
And why was it that during the previous electronic interference, only the Winged Clan came out completely unscathed? We’ve suffered repeated defeats on the battlefield and got berated by high command, while some fledgling officer from the Winged Clan gets promoted three ranks in one go, soaring effortlessly!
Now, we've even lost our own commander, yet they’re still trying to dump the blame on us!
Why? Why is it always our Sea Clan taking the losses, and always the Winged Clan reaping the benefits?
And now Isabel wants to take over command of our fleet—how do we know she’s not trying to lead us all to our deaths in this neighboring star system?”
Faced with such indignant fury, the other two could only remain silent.
Gustav’s alleged betrayal didn’t just deal a heavy blow to the Sea Clan fleet’s reputation—it carried more serious consequences: it could ruin the future of everyone in that room.
Soldiers who served under a traitor—even if they weren’t implicated—would still face harsher political scrutiny and colored stares from those around them. Their future promotions would be many times harder than those of their peers.
Even for selfish reasons, they’d rather believe Gustav died heroically than defected.
“But… this could also be a classic enemy ploy—a divide-and-conquer tactic meant to throw us into disarray and turn us against the Winged Clan.
And now that we’re leaderless, Isabel has preemptively declared Gustav’s betrayal and seized the moral high ground. Besides Gustav’s lone warning message, we have no solid evidence pointing to Isabel as the problem.
According to military law, we now have to follow Isabel’s command. If we defy orders now, and this is investigated later, we could all end up in a military tribunal.”
“…That…” The First Sub-Fleet commander looked pained.
“I think we should nominally accept Isabel’s authority—for now. But behind the scenes, we must remain vigilant and cautious!
If she really does try to throw us into a deathmatch with Unity of All Things while sitting safely behind the lines, then we’ll just go through the motions and hold back our real strength.
She’s the top commander now—whatever the final outcome, she’ll be the one held directly responsible. At worst, we’ll be accused of underperforming. We can just blame it on a missing superior officer and low morale.
The situation is unclear. Preserving ourselves is the best choice for the fleet at this point.” The usually quiet Second Sub-Fleet commander finally voiced his thoughts.
“Hah! I always knew you were the most scheming one here—figures you’d say that! But alright! I’m in!”
“…Yeah… I agree too.”
The three cut off communications, but their thoughts were already in turmoil…
Though they’d agreed on a course of action, none of them revealed their true feelings.
No one who makes it to the rank of commander is a fool—they all have their own suspicions and thoughts.
Some of those thoughts can be spoken out loud. Others must be buried deep inside.
Among the three, one was Gustav’s most loyal follower. If Gustav really had betrayed them, then what about him? Was he another of Gustav’s hidden pieces still embedded in the military?
Nie Yun’s earlier hints and provocations had finally begun to bear fruit. That final, unfinished warning Gustav left behind sparked endless speculation—far more effective than a lengthy explanation would have been.
Now the Sea Clan no longer trusted Isabel. Isabel didn’t trust them either. And the Sea Clan had even started distrusting each other.
The entire military force had fallen into a deep crisis of trust...
TL Note- Trust....
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