In the darkness of the universe, it was exceptionally difficult to spot a fleet that had maintained radio silence and was not emitting any visible or invisible radiation. At least, Hawke did not spot the Lucan fleet that was silently following him until it released its energy shield, resulting in the emission of visible light.
It was probably because he had suddenly assumed battle formation that the Luka fleet thought he had been exposed, so they stopped hiding and instantly released their energy shields and quickly attacked Hawke.
Hawke observed the power of this Lucca fleet. It was a huge fleet of about 60,000 ships, among which, there was an unusually large ship, much larger than the City ship, whose mass level reached at least tens of millions of tons, which in Hawk's classification, belonged to the provincial ships. In addition to this provincial ship, Hawke saw at least twenty other ships that were equivalent to City ships.
A huge fleet consisting of one provincial ship as the flagship, twenty City ships as the elite, thousands of county ships and tens of thousands of village and township ships!
And, the very moment Hawke was attacked by the Lucca fleet, Hawke had a very familiar feeling. Immediately, inside Hawk's ship, countless faint sparks began to erupt, and the temperature of the ship's shell rapidly rose. Hawke instantly understood that this was the force field generator and that he was covered by a force field.
Within the force field coverage, Hawke's ship's combat power would be reduced by fifty percent. Moreover, even though Hawke had also mastered the energy shield technology, and the ship technology pair had greatly improved compared to before, the average battle power of Hawke's ship was still no match for the Lucca civilization.
Another point is that by talking with Luca 1 and Luca 2 and speculating on the next possible response of the Luca civilization, Hawke knows that the Luca fleet is likely to carry another super weapon.
With the combination of these conditions, Hawke immediately made a judgement of strength that he was no match for the Lucca fleet here, in the void of the universe, and that he had no chance of winning.
The attack came with extraordinary ferocity, and with one flurry of fire, Hawke's 120,000 ships were destroyed by about a thousand.
"Good heavens, I haven't done anything heavenly, have I, how did this Lucca fleet find me? And how did I get so unlucky as to run into the Ghosts here?" Hawke roared in despair.
Ahead, it was the Ghost Nation. In the mouth of Lucca II, it had to be at least a level four civilization to fight it. Behind, the Luca fleet. Before the second powerful weapon had even appeared, Hawke was no match for this fleet.
"Don't fight, don't fight! There are Ghosts up ahead! Let's join forces and take out the Ghosts first!" At this critical moment, Hawke suddenly remembered something and immediately sent a message over the radio waves.
The Lucca fleet should not have found any sign of the Ghosts ahead. Then, it was necessary for Hawke to alert them.
This was Hawke's only chance of survival. Since the Ghosts were the common enemy of all civilisations, there would be a high chance that the Lucca fleet would join forces with itself and take out the Ghosts first. In this way, Hawke would have a chance. Hawke would have the possibility to look for an opportunity to take out the Luca fleet during the course of the joint battle.
Hawke had no hopes for this Ghost Race he had encountered. Although, Hawke was already basically certain that the Ghost Race that had appeared in the Third Sector, as previously stated in the Guardian Civilisation's broadcast, had come out of the Solar System and was the one he had currently encountered, Hawke did not dare to hope that they still retained their spiritual intelligence. This was evident from the Jupiter spirits' frantic attacks on themselves.
If they attacked Hawke, Hawke would not hesitate to strike back, just like how he had destroyed the Jupiter spirits at Jupiter, without reserving any mercy. It's like in some post-apocalyptic movies, where one's family and friends turn into zombies, and then one has to kill them to make sure one doesn't turn into a zombie again.
Hawk had never been able to separate reason and emotion very clearly.
"True God! Why do you have to treat us so cruelly? Why did you let the Mother Civilization's fleet appear here at the exact moment when the Ghosts appeared? Not only will they not be able to save us, they will be wiped out here themselves! O true God, do you no longer shelter us?" Through the surveillance system, Hawke saw Luca II howling madly there.
"Idiot, a Luca traitor like you is just as good as being eaten by the Ghosts." Hawke thought viciously, manoeuvring the robot and knocking it out in one fell swoop.
Although he had gotten a lot out of Luca II, Hawke was still quite disgusted with some of its behaviour.
The Ghosts would cross paths with Hawke in a little over twenty minutes. And it was during this time that Hawke held back with great restraint from the Luka fleet's attack, largely refraining from launching a counter-attack. The reason for this was to convince the Luka fleet of his sincerity and to join forces with him against the Ghosts.
The Lucan fleet must have known that once they met the Ghosts, there was no point in running away until they gained the ability to travel at FTL, because they could not escape from the Ghosts who were travelling at the speed of light. The most sensible thing to do, then, is to unite any forces that can be united and take out the Ghosts first!
After all, no matter who was defeated by whom, the defeated side could still possibly survive, just like the Lucanians captured by Hawk, while the same could not be said of the Ghosts. Between technological civilisations and the Ghosts, it was never a case of you die and I live, there was no second chance.
Hawke trusted that the Lucan fleet would possess this most basic of judgements and would know what to do.
As if to verify the message Hawke had sent, after five minutes, the Lucan fleet's attacks all stopped and the ships immediately began to close in on Hawke's fleet, while a message was sent over.
Through the dictionary, Hawke easily understood the content of the message. Even though the message had been translated, Hawke could still read between the lines and felt an emotion called "anger".
"What the hell are you? You're a scourge! I've been tracking you for twenty years to find you, not here to die for the Ghosts! Damn it, if I can take out the Ghosts this time, the first thing I'm going to do afterwards is to kill you!"
Through this message, Hawk seemed to see a Lucanian commander with a big head, big eyes, fragile torso and thin limbs, storming around.
With anger churning in his heart, Hawke shot back, "Fuck you, if I wasn't trying to avoid your tracking, would I have come to this shithole? If I wasn't running from you, would I have come to this shitty place? Shit, are those 2,500 contribution points worth that much that you guys are biting me like dogs? Should I tear down your house or kill your whole family? If I can kill the Ghosts, I'll take you with me even if I have to die!"
After only ten seconds, a new message came through: "Fuck! You have emotions? You're not a mechanical civilization! What the hell are you?"
"What do you care what I am? Let's take out the Ghosts first, they're coming in fifteen minutes!" Hawk responded nonchalantly.
"Hahahahahahaha! It's the first time I've seen something with a mechanical body but a technological civilization's soul. If I can catch you and turn you in to the Alliance, that's at least 20,000 contribution points! That would almost sustain our civilisation to a level three advanced level! I would also gain high honour within the civilisation!" In the midst of this message, Hawk heard the arrogant laughter of Lucca's fleet commander.
A fire immediately rose in Hawk's heart, "Finish off the Ghost Race first, when you have a life to enjoy! Idiot x! I still have tens of thousands of your people in my hands, force me and I'll finish them off first!"
"They can be sacrificed for the sake of the progress of the whole civilisation." Somehow, the voice of the Lucca fleet commander had begun to turn cold. With a movement in his heart, Hawke immediately recorded the words and played them back among the New Homeworld.
Immediately, Hawk heard countless angry roars from the New Homeworld, "No matter what, we were captured for the Mother Civilisation, how can we be abandoned like this?"
"We have been abandoned by the Mother Civilisation! We fought in blood just so that the Mother Civilisation could be stronger, but instead, we were discarded without hesitation, like trash!"
"O true God! Why have you abandoned us?"
Hawke did so, completely subconsciously. If Hawke could carry through this crisis, by a little more means, Hawke would gain the loyalty of all the captured Lucasians without hindrance.
The message from the Lucca fleet commander continued to come through: "In short, take out the Ghosts first, after that, it's up to each of us to decide who wins and who loses! After all, it's only a second level Ghost, they're still very weak, so with our combined efforts, the force field generator, and the gravity cannonball, we have a 30 percent chance of winning!"
Both Hawk and the Luka fleet commander, both possessed exceptional intelligence, and in this situation, whoever was going to hide their selfishness any longer was just looking for death. Therefore, the cursing between each other did not affect the cooperation between the two sides in any way. That was why the commander of the Lucca fleet did not hesitate to reveal his true strength. Because, it had the confidence to defeat Hawk in a head-to-head battle.
Hawke's heart was overjoyed and he immediately replied, ''Good! It's settled! Let's finish off the Ghost Race first! After that, it's up to you to win or lose! You take the port side, I'll take the starboard side!"