747: Chapter 747 The Panicked Crowd

A combat officer nearby stared at the light screen, unable to help but mutter to himself, his tone full of confusion.

"Is this... pirates? Or... survivors from some civilization?"

In the common knowledge of Universe exploration, civilization survivors usually refer to forces whose home planet has been occupied and civilization destroyed, with remnants fleeing in starships, drifting aimlessly in the Universe, and barely hanging on to life.

Yet this fleet before them—with its dilapidated hulls, loose formation, weak energy signals, and lack of uniform markings—perfectly fit the typical characteristics of civilization survivors; no matter how one looked at it, it did not resemble an organized, premeditated regular combat force.

The Command Center fell silent for a moment, and everyone's gaze fell upon Li Yang, waiting for him to make a judgment.

Li Yang's gaze landed on that strange fleet with its dilapidated appearance and lack of standard markings, his expression calm and unruffled.

He turned to the side and ordered the officer standing by in a deep voice.

"First, try to communicate with them and find out who they really are and why they have rashly jumped into our airspace."

"Yes!"

The officer responded loudly and walked quickly to the communications control console, his fingertips tapping rapidly on the panel emitting a cold light.

The light screen continued to flash the "Connecting" prompt, waiting for a response from the other side.

Meanwhile, on the other side, inside the Command Room of that Imperial Fleet, which had deliberately disguised itself as a wandering fleet, the starships had just smoothly exited the hyperspace jump channel. The hulls were still vibrating, and a piercing red alarm suddenly resounded throughout the entire cabin.

A cold, mechanical voice repeated urgently, piercing enough to make one's eardrums ache.

"Warning! Warning! Detected that we have been subjected to omni-directional space lockdown! Space jump engines are forcibly locked, unable to perform any hyperspace jumps! Cannot evacuate!"

Flashing red light instantly flooded the entire Command Room. The crew members, who had been performing their respective duties, froze in place, dumbfounded and completely stunned.

The relaxed expressions they had worn after successfully completing the jump were instantly replaced by extreme terror and astonishment. Someone's data pad fell to the floor with a "clatter," yet they didn't even notice. Everyone's gaze was nailed to the lockdown prompt on the light screen, their minds completely blank.

"Oh no!"

A crew member responsible for navigation suddenly reacted, his face turning as pale as paper, his voice clearly trembling.

"Our fleet is disguised; the other side doesn't recognize us as friendly forces at all! They've treated us as invading enemies and locked down the space immediately!"

"Damn it! What time is it now, why are you still standing there stunned! Hurry up and contact them! Quickly state our identity!"

A staff member nearby shouted urgently, cold sweat instantly breaking out on his forehead, sliding down his cheeks and soaking his collar.

They knew better than anyone that the force on the other side was a complete, well-equipped main force of the Military Region, with starships lined up and powerful firepower.

Yet they only had a few dozen superstar-class starships and absolutely no strength to contend with them.

Once judged as the enemy, in less than a moment, their small fleet would be completely destroyed, turning into dust in the Universe, not leaving even a trace behind.

The crew member in charge of communications dared not delay for even a second, his hands frantically tapping on the communications panel, attempting to receive and respond to the signal sent by Li Yang's fleet.

But no matter how he restarted the System, switched frequency bands, or adjusted parameters, the communication screen only showed chaotic garbled signals, continuously flashing red error messages of "Signal Abnormal." He couldn't establish an effective connection at all, unable to even send a simple identity message.

"Why? Why can't I connect?!"

This communications crew member's voice began to tremble with anxiety, his fingertips digging hard into the edge of the panel, roaring in disbelief.

"We can clearly receive their communication request, but the signal just won't go out! Could the communication System be malfunctioning?!"

This sentence was like a thunderclap, instantly stunning everyone in the Command Room.

After a brief silence, a suppressed and panicked commotion erupted throughout the cabin.

Everyone looked ashen, their hearts wailing frantically.

"Are you kidding me! To have the communication System break down at such a life-or-death moment, when we're locked down in space with nowhere to go—this is clearly driving us to a dead end, not even giving us the last shred of a chance to explain and survive!"

"Quick! Stop staring at this communication console!"

The captain slammed the main console, his voice hoarse from extreme tension, yet he still forced himself to remain calm and give orders.

"Immediately switch to all backup communication frequency bands, contact the other starships in the fleet, and have them all try to connect to the other side! We must state our identity at the first opportunity and explain clearly that this is a misunderstanding!"

At this order, the crew members in the Command Room instantly snapped back to reality and rushed toward their respective operation terminals.

But the next second, exclamations erupted one after another, and the crowd, who had been holding onto a glimmer of hope, was instantly drowned in despair.

"It's no good! We can't connect at all! We've tried all frequency bands, the signals are all garbled!"

A crew member stood up while roaring, his fingertips still stained with the cold light from the panel, his face full of disbelief.

"Not only can we not contact the other side, but we can't even connect to the other starships within our own fleet!"

"Damn it!"

The captain clenched his fists tightly, his knuckles turning white, cold sweat sliding down his temples and hitting the main console, blooming into a small damp stain.

"It looks like the communication System of the entire fleet really has a major problem... But the other starships should have already started trying to contact the other side, right? Maybe it's just that their signals are also stuck, and they haven't had time to respond..."

He comforted them with these words, but his heart had already gone cold.

No one expected that, at this moment, the scene inside the Command Room of every one of the dozens of starships spread across the locked airspace was exactly the same as theirs.

Inside the Command Room of every starship, red alarms flashed wildly, all intelligent brain terminals reported errors, and the crew members were as anxious as ants on a hot pan, pacing back and forth in the cabin, roaring, and frantically tapping on unresponsive panels.

Some tugged violently at their collars, some beat against the hull casing, and some even collapsed onto the floor, staring hollowly at the "Signal Abnormal" on the light screen, completely devoid of any plan.

"The communication System has completely paralyzed! Whether it's contacting the Military Region force on the other side or our other partners in the fleet, we can't connect to any of them!"

A starship communications officer screamed in a breakdown, his voice laced with a crying tone, throwing the terminal in his hand to the floor with a crisp sound.

"Even the internal channels are locked down; messages just can't be sent out!"

"Intelligent brain! Start personal intelligent brain communication! Try tapping this!"

Suddenly, a crew member who reacted extremely quickly slammed the main console, a glimmer of faint hope flashing in his eyes.

"The communication System on the starship is broken, maybe the personal intelligent brain will work! Hurry up and try it!"