Hawke's purpose, had been achieved. To do so, Hawke even sacrificed an entire planet, and a star system that was still in its infancy.
All the ships, which had left ε Eri a, were out of the reach of the force field generators. But Hawk was still surrounded by Lucan civilization ships. Even to escape, Hawke was wrapped up in these ships.
To escape the enormous energy released by the collision of the ε Eri a and the ε Eri galaxy, these ships had to fly outwards. And by flying outwards, they would have met up with the returning Paulding. That meant that instead of taking three hours, it would only take about two hours for Hawke to wait for the Paulding's support.
Even the numerous concealed batteries and controlled mines that Hawke had placed there would come in handy if they had to pass through the asteroid belt.
Everything, everything was going in a good direction.
The war continued while they fled. It seemed that their own tenacity had surpassed the Lucan civilisation's expectations, and in the midst of their escape, a slight break in their fleet was seized by Hawke, who broke through the encirclement at the expense of a thousand ships.
The London, at last, rendezvoused with the larger force. In the moment of rendezvous, Hawke breathed a sigh of relief from the bottom of his heart.
This meant that he was completely safe.
Freed, Hawke's spirits were lifted and he commanded the 23,000 ships still left to fight the 3,000 Lucan ships. Although he outnumbered the Lucca ships by a factor of eight, he was still at an overall disadvantage. However, it was only a disadvantage. This situation would be completely changed when the three City ships, Baoding, Tangshan and Langfang, as well as more than 10,000 smaller ships, returned to help.
"It's just a pity that the ε Eri a. I've poured hundreds of years of my life into the ε Eri a. It's just gone." Hawke's mood was, somewhat, sombre.
The ε Eri a had entered an irreversible phase. Under the strong gravitational pull of the ε Eri system, it would inevitably crash up, and no force could save it. At least, Hawke was not in a position to do so.
The battle, once again, was at a stalemate. And the Paulding, carrying three thousand escort ships, was not far from itself.
At the ε Eri b defences, because of the large number of ships drawn out, the eight hundred remaining Lucan ships there had not been annihilated until now. But Hawke did not intend to wipe them out. For in Hawke's mind, a little something else was born.
"This time, my loss is so big, how can I not make up for it a little? How about ... just stalling them and not letting them escape, and when I've wiped out the large force, I'll capture the small group of ships. The Lucan civilization, must take their technology and population as compensation for my losses."
Hawk thought viciously.
In the darkness of space, the two fleets, attacked each other as they fled towards the outer star system. As Hawke's fleet rejoined the Paulding, the scales of victory finally tipped a little in Hawke's favour.
The Paulding was intact and well-stocked. It was like a big, fierce fish rushing into a calm pond, and as soon as it joined, it destroyed a Luca County-class ship with dull energy shields.
The result of this battle lifted Hawke's spirits.
The two fleets, already entangled in each other, had come to the asteroid belt. But the Lucca civilisation had very cleverly left the zodiacal plane and started to flee towards the bottom, trying to bypass the asteroid belt.
"Think you can get away with that?" Hawk thought with malice, directing the hidden turrets in the asteroid belt to begin firing.
The controlled mines would not be effective until they entered the asteroid belt. But it didn't matter, there were countless other turrets that could be used as a means of attack.
With the addition of the hidden turrets, Hawke's side's attack power was once again increased. In the few minutes it took to cross the asteroid belt, Hawke had destroyed at least three hundred Lucca ships.
At this moment, in Hawke's calculations, the ratio of strength between the two sides finally became fifty-one to forty-nine. Hawk was fifty-one, and the Luka civilization was forty-nine. In other words, Hawke's combined strength had finally surpassed that of the Lucca civilisation!
Hawk had the strength to win this war. But Hawke's aim was not simply to win badly. There were too many variables, and he could even be dragged to his death by his opponent. What Hawke wanted was a beautiful victory!
The two sides chased each other through the darkness of the universe. There were only four hours left before the Tangshan and Langfang returned to help.
It was at this point that the ε Eri a crashed into the inside of the ε Eri galaxy.
Looking at the ε Eri galaxy from here, its luminosity was only a little brighter than the Sun's. Through the filter, Hawke began to observe the ε Eri galaxy directly with his optical instruments.
Hawke saw an amazing sight.
With the bright and dazzling ε Eri galaxy as a background, ε Eri a looked like a small black dot. It was slowly approaching the ε Eri galaxy, and then, this little black dot, plunged headlong into the ε Eri galaxy.
At the moment of impact, the luminosity of the entire ε Eri galaxy increases tenfold, like a giant in a sudden rage.
"Its troposphere has been broken. What follows will be a massive ejection of matter." Hawke thought silently as he directed the battle with the Lucca civilization.
At this moment, Hawk observed that the radiation intensity of the ε Eri galaxy was more than a hundred times higher than in normal times. In normal times, the radiation intensity of the ε Eri galaxy had reached thirty times that of the sun, and now, it was equivalent to the radiation intensity of more than three thousand suns.
This is an astonishing intensity. If Hawk's ship shell had not been strengthened by both the Jupiter Spirit and the Black Worm, as well as by the most advanced material technology, and had been deliberately strengthened against radiation, in this instant, all of Hawk's ships would have been destroyed by this violent burst of radiation. Even the central computer would have been destroyed.
Hawk saw that at the point of impact, a huge amount of stellar material began to be ejected. There was so much material that it was almost visible to the naked eye. Using only ordinary optical instruments, Hawke could see the long, thin tail curling up above the Epsilon Eri system.
The length of this tail gradually exceeded the diameter of the ε Eri system. This means that the ε Eri galaxy has ejected this material over a distance of several million kilometres. The matter will even reach the orbiting speed of the ε Eri galaxy, where it will not fall towards the ε Eri galaxy, but will form a "ring" around it.
One can imagine how intense the emission would be in the vicinity of the ε Eri galaxy. If we were within 30 million kilometres of the ε Eri system, Hawk would have been knocked out. Even if all the ships of the Lucca civilisation had energy shields, they would probably not be able to withstand the fury of a single star.
The mass of ε Eri a is insignificant compared to the ε Eri galaxy. They are compared like a pin, and a basketball. The basketball is infinitely larger than the needle, but the needle can easily pierce the surface of the basketball, causing the air inside it to be rapidly ejected.
Hawk knew that the ε Eri system would be in a constant state of rage for millions, if not tens of millions, of years to come. The blow to the ε Eri star system would be devastating. Even Hawk is a bit overwhelmed by it. In other words, in the future, the ε Eri system will become a real hell on earth. Here, it was no longer suitable for Hawke to remain here and develop technology in peace.
"ε Eri a, have a good trip. ε Eri system, sorry. When I am technologically advanced in the future, I will come and fix you." Hawk thought silently, and then, poured all his anger on his enemy, the Lucca civilization.
Hawk could clearly feel the current state of the Lucca civilization. It seemed that, after losing the Force Field Generator, their morale had fallen to its lowest point. There were continuous blunders, causing the battle damage rate of Hawk's ships to drop by six percentage points, while the battle damage rate of their ships, on the other hand, rose by eight percentage points.
This phenomenon made Hawke secretly rejoice.
Time, in the midst of the brutal battle, slowly slipped away. Finally, Hawke's fleet rejoined with the returning Tangshan and Langfang. At this moment, Hawke's total number of ships reached more than 30,000, while the Lucca civilization's ships only had about 2,500 left.
Strength, the gap had been widened.
Hawke was keenly aware of a problem.
From this moment on, the ships of the Lucca civilization no longer seemed to be hiding from the wrath of the ε Eri galaxy, but rather from ... themselves. In other words, they, it seemed, were running away.
"Are you afraid of being beaten by me? How could I have let you all slip away so easily? How could I possibly let you go without adequate compensation for the ships you broke, the equipment you damaged, and the ε Eri a that disappeared? Of course, I know you can't get compensation, so let's use your ships as the price."
Hawk thought viciously, manoeuvring his ship and speeding up his pursuit.
The direction in which Lucca's ship had fled seemed to be heading towards the ε Eri b defences, and by the looks of it, was trying to rendezvous with the few hundred ships remaining there. Hawke did not stop them, but let them go. For, himself, he needed to rendezvous with his own ships there as well.
There were still 8,000 ships of his own there! By then, Hawke's total number of airships would be close to 40,000.
From here, too, one can see how fierce and thrilling this battle is. The total number of Hawk's ships was 100,000, and up to now, only 40,000 were left, which was less than half of their peak.
However, the twelve thousand ships of the Lucca civilisation were now only about three thousand left. All told, their losses were much more severe than Hawk's.
Finally, each side reunited with their own side of the fleet. Then, the Lucca ships began to flee towards the outer reaches of the galaxy, while Hawke, in turn, launched a pursuit.
Even if this was a feint, even if they still had a trap, Hawke had to give chase, how could Hawke feel safe to start his escape without destroying them all?
In a vast universe, in a vast void, a great chase spanning trillions of kilometres was about to begin.