Inside the battlecruiser's hangar, ground crew were busy performing pre-sortie checks on the mechs.
"Captain Scott, are the mechs ready?" Adrian Vale, who had just changed into his pilot suit and entered the hangar, shouted.
"Commander, ready!"
"Good, board your mech. We're going to rescue Deputy Officer Sterling!"
"What? Commander, we can go, but you must stay on the flagship—"
"Shut up! Obey orders!"
Captain Scott immediately panicked when he heard Adrian intended to personally lead the rescue mission for Lena Sterling. What if something happened? That would be disastrous!
But just as he was about to try and persuade him, Adrian directly cut him off. However, Captain Scott still hesitated.
"Do you want to be put in solitary confinement by me? Why are you still standing there like an idiot? Let me tell you something, I have a nickname that no one else knows: Humanity's Strongest Mech Pilot!"
With that, Adrian vaulted into a mech and closed the cockpit.
Adrian wasn't exaggerating. After completing the temporary Mission 3 given by the system, his mech piloting ability had reached A-rank, which could be considered ace among aces among current humans. After all, ordinary human physique couldn't compare to Adrian's. Even with the best talent, they would be affected by their physical limitations and unable to perform at their limit.
For example, the limit for ordinary human reaction time is 100, while Adrian's is 350. This meant that even if there were A-rank mech pilots among humans, they would be weaker than Adrian, who was also A-rank, due to physical differences.
Captain Scott, standing nearby, saw Adrian enter the cockpit and immediately reacted. The Commander himself was going? What else could be done? He immediately signaled the other 9 assembled mech pilots to board the remaining ten mechs.
Three minutes later, eleven mechs launched from the battlecruiser and flew rapidly towards Lena Sterling's coordinates.
At the same time, the more than 2,000 retreating Ochus rebel fighters on the other side had clearly received a signal. About 100 of these fighters immediately turned around and flew towards Lena Sterling's escape pod.
Adrian checked the tactical panel. It would take approximately 10 minutes to reach Lena's location. However, the Ochus rebel fleet had already begun to move, heading towards the 101st Task Force.
Who was Adrian? A human with 24% brain development. Let alone multitasking with two things, even three or four wouldn't be a problem for him.
While piloting his mech forward, Adrian watched the tactical panel fixed in front of him and issued orders to the fleet in an orderly manner.
However, their current position wasn't ideal. The chosen negotiation point was a relatively open area within the asteroid belt, with few usable environmental features.
But it wasn't entirely without options, because Adrian noticed a significant problem with the Ochus rebel fleet's formation.
Firstly, there were only 2 battlecruisers, 10 carriers, and not many cruisers, only 16. The remaining 300-plus ships were destroyers and frigates. It was highly probable that the battlecruiser captains were Marshal Adams's confidantes, so the so-called First Prince's people could only infiltrate smaller warships, primarily destroyers and frigates.
Furthermore, the fleet coordination was clearly poor; even minor formation changes appeared chaotic. However, Adrian considered that since this was a temporary fleet assembled by infiltrators, such poor performance was entirely understandable.
"The fleet will form an assault formation with the battlecruisers as the arrowhead, advancing at maximum combat speed, directly breaking through the center."
"I will rendezvous with the fleet en route!"
"Remember, you must prioritize concentrating fire to take out the enemy's only two battlecruisers."
"Understood!" The tactical officer's voice came through the comms.
Immediately, the 101st Task Force began re-grouping. The battlecruisers were at the forefront, carriers in the middle, and cruisers, destroyers, and frigates protected the carriers. The entire fleet's formation re-organization was estimated to be completed in ten minutes.
Several minutes later, inside the escape pod, Lena Sterling was looking out the viewport.
What she saw chilled her to the bone: a squad of red-glowing Ochus rebel fighters rapidly approaching, their mounted laser cannons already illuminating.
Lena knew that in the next second, the fighters would fire, and her escape pod would definitely not withstand the shot.
At that moment, the first person Lena thought of was Adrian Vale, whom she somewhat disliked—the scoundrel who had promised to marry her as a child but didn't recognize her as an adult. She wondered if he would feel a hint of sadness after seeing her die, if he would remember who she was.
Thinking this, Lena instead showed a faint smile, ready to embrace her final moment.
However, looking out the window, she didn't see the red beam of light shooting towards her. Instead, she saw a green beam flash past from the left, directly piercing the fighter preparing to fire.
Immediately after, a mech appeared before her, filling the entire viewport.
"Who is it?" Lena couldn't help but ask herself.
"Lena Sterling, are you still alive?"
"Uh, I'm still here. I've seen the rescue mech."
"Excellent. Put on your helmet, exit the pod, and enter the mech!"
"Understood!"
Adrian, while using himself to shield the escape pod, fired 6 consecutive shots, directly eliminating 6 approaching fighters.
"Captain Scott, you cover me! I'm going to pull Deputy Officer Sterling out!"
"Understood!"
Adrian immediately shouted when he saw Captain Scott leading 10 mechs approaching.
Captain Scott also immediately made arrangements, leaving 2 mechs to protect Adrian, and taking the other 7 mechs to fly towards the continuously approaching fighters.
These mech pilots on Adrian's flagship were no ordinary individuals; they were all at least B-rank, elite mech pilots from the entire fleet, specifically responsible for protecting the flagship. Even ordinary mech pilots could handle 3 to 5 fighters per mech, not to mention the elites Captain Scott brought.
However, Captain Scott admitted that even though he was an elite, he couldn't achieve such incredible shooting, and he completely believed Adrian's statement before the sortie that he was Humanity's Strongest Mech Pilot.
Seeing Lena open the escape pod's hatch and float out, Adrian also turned around and opened the cockpit's canopy. Although there was only one seat in the cockpit, the space was relatively ample, and having another person beside him wouldn't be a big problem.
Through the pilot's transparent helmet visor, Lena saw someone who shouldn't have been there: Adrian Vale.
Ten seconds later, Adrian closed the cockpit and turned to look, finding Lena somewhat dazed.
"Don't space out. You don't have a seatbelt for protection. Hold on tight to me. We're still in combat!"
Lena, snapping back to reality, directly straddled Adrian, hugging him from the front like an octopus.
Uh... I did tell you to hold on tight to me, but this action is a bit too embarrassing... Adrian really wanted to complain, but considering it felt quite good, he decided against it for now.
"Captain Scott, retreat! Otherwise, we'll miss the warship!" Adrian turned and casually eliminated two fighters with his laser gun, then shouted to Captain Scott.
"Yes, Commander! Everyone, retreat!"