Zheng Jing had many been through so much while he was on planet 4, but the stakes had never been as high as they were now. 2 carriers of WW2 origin were now targeting his position, not to mention the endless waves of other fleets that were all coming towards him with murder in their eyes. The two husbands were busy dealing with the other forces that were encroaching on their location so they would not be able to help him out.
At least, not in the foreseeable future. He was right in between them so that their sides were extremely well defended, but this just allowed their center to be targeted more. The perimeter that Zheng Jing had set up was now in a head-on clash with the enemy forces, even his elite guard had gone to help out in the front lines.
Going by how the battles were going, things were slowly rising in terms of intensity. Zheng Jing was not a fool when it came down to naval warfare, in fact, he could very well be one of the tops within the Chinese community, but he still paled in comparison to Zheng He, the leader of the Vesper faction.
He had to push out all of these thoughts as he willed himself to think of a counter to everything that Zheng He was throwing at him. Every second counted, and with the forces, he had been given, he estimated that he would be able to last through the day assuming Zheng He did not plan anything larger than the two carriers that were hiding in the back.
Half an hour into the battle, a messenger had informed him that the smoke-screen that the Vesper's had set up had now expanded even further, skewing the parts of the battle that they were able to see even more. As of now, the parts that they could see Zheng He knew that his forces were able to keep up the Vesper fleets. That is, until the military aircraft showed up. These aircraft ran through the skies unimpeded and were doing quite a bit of damage to his ships. To counter this, he ordered that all of the ships that were under him were to use half of their firepower to take down these aircraft.
Fighters, bombers, and a multitude of other aircraft were shot down one after another with the combined concentration of the Forever Pirates' guns and missiles. In fact, they were so successful that only after about an hour after this order, the planes were signaled to retreat due to the grievous losses that they had taken. Though this respite was a welcome one, they had to now focus on the ships in front of them, dealing with the planes would have to be pushed back to whenever they decided to come back into the fray.
The fighting ensued for another hour before another major incident took place, the fog that enveloped the majority of Vesper's forces was beginning to get even bigger. Normally, having this big of a smokescreen would lead to both armies suffering confusion, but this was most likely not the case this time as the Vespers had probably planned out their attack this way. If all of this was done under the supervision of Zheng He, there was likely some other huge part of a plan that was taking place at the moment.
Surprisingly, the two husbands took this opportunity to send some aid to Zheng Jing by having some of their own ships sail to Zheng Jing's position through the fog. Of course, this was a risky move since if they were caught, they would have sent their men out to be slaughtered. However, the two husbands had their fair share of experiences and were able to correctly guess where there was likely no chance of encountering enemies and sent their ships through those paths.
These ships emerged out of the fog in a surprise ambush on the forces that Zheng Jing's frontline was struggling with holding back. This was no time to celebrate though, with the arrival of reinforcements, morale surged as they saw their comrades immediately sink a couple of ships upon their arrival. It took a little while, but the Forever Pirates were able to eventually set up a zone where they would be able to comfortably push back their enemies.
Another few hours of fighting later, the enemy reinforcements retreated as the sun was setting. Oddly enough, the fog would continue to stay up all through the night and into the next day. The elders, as well as the two husbands, stayed at their positions and radio messaged each other.
(H1) "Zheng Jing, how was the fighting on your end today? Nothing too bad was it?" The first husband asked.
(ZJ) "Alright, for now, I'm just glad that they didn't pull off anything big for today. Aside from the carriers of course. It's a really good thing that one of them went down before the battle even began." Zheng Jing responded to his superior.
(H2) "Hey First, have you released the sea mines from their chains? Or do you plan on doing that later?" The second husband asked.
(H1) "Not to worry Second, there is no need to rush releasing them. We will do it when the time is right."
(H2) "Alright."
------------------------------
On the other side of the fog in the Vesper camp.
(ML) "Looks like I grossly overestimated these pirates. They aren't really worth my time after all." A mysterious lady talked to herself annoyed that she took the time to set up this trap for a bunch of unskilled strategists.
(M) "But, miss. Zheng He has given you instructions to-" the messenger said before being interrupted.
(ML) "I don't care what he says. Here, these are instructions for you, follow them and you will be rewarded appropriately. I'm leaving and taking the majority of the fleet here with me. You deal with the rest." She said as she handed a piece of paper to the messenger and immediately left with 70% of the fleet, including the two remaining carriers.