"Report!" The communications officer shouted.
Horatio and Farida quickly turned their heads to look at the communications Captain again.
"The bridge of the Sacred Will battlecruiser has exploded! We've lost all contact with the bridge!"
Farida felt her head instantly empty as if hit by a whirl torpedo.
Her long legs instantly lost strength, and her body collapsed, sitting on the ground.
Her face flushed red as if suffocating, and veins bulged.
"Farida!" The process was so fast that Horatio didn't have time to help her up.
Farida's knees were together, sitting in a duck-like posture, her eyes vacant and expressionless, staring at the tiny distant fire.
Her hair was disheveled, and large tears instantly streamed from her eyes, uncontrollably sliding down her beautiful cheeks.
She had no reaction, her heart was dead, and even her breathing had almost stopped.
Horatio knew that this was the manifestation of a person's extreme grief, showing no joy or sorrow, and a complete cutoff of perception.
Eight years later, the curse of fate once again brought suffering upon this young girl who had never had an easy life since childhood.
"Horatio, take Midshipman Hood to rest!"
"Yes!"
Horatio scooped Farida up in a bridal carry, as if holding a motionless blonde doll.
"It might just be a short-circuit explosion in the combat command center; it's still dozens of meters away from the fleet command throne..."
Horatio carried her into the elevator, continuously comforting her.
But Farida had no reaction, her pupils dilated; if not for her faint breathing, she would be indistinguishable from the dead.
[God Emperor...could Vice Admiral Hood...]
Horatio dared not think. His comfort for Farida had no persuasiveness whatsoever.
Commodore Peru gasped, and all the officers on the bridge felt uneasy in their hearts. No one knew what had just happened on the Sacred Will.
—
Dozens of battlecruisers formed an expeditionary-level force, completely surrounding the Retribution-class Battleship.
During this time, small aircraft shuttled back and forth, boarding.
There were still sounds of gunfire on some decks, but overall, things were calming down.
However, the end of the suppression of the mutiny did not mean the end of the entire affair.
Officers and soldiers of the Imperial Navy were extremely busy.
Damage control teams from various supporting battlecruisers, and those who survived on the Sacred Will, wearing void fire-resistant suits, fired extinguishing shells at the fire and sprayed water shields with high-pressure water guns, pushing through the scorching flames to rush in and then cut off the fire source.
The search team stepped through a mixture of grey-black extinguishing foam, searching in the dark bridge.
Inside was a mess, only ashes and debris.
All the central sensors of the entire combat center were scrapped, and the Machine Spirit crackled continuously as if it had lost its mind.
Although the massive void battlecruiser was externally intact, it had essentially lost its combat capability.
A huge explosion had ripped through the entire bridge, pulverizing dozens of decks, forming a terrifying abyssal black hole that extended straight to the bottom hold.
"Have you found any trace of Vice Admiral Hood?" Admiral Venuska Katalia, whose face was pale in the holographic image, asked sternly.
"The bridge experienced a structural collapse. Vice Admiral Hood's fate is unknown... But given the situation inside... survival is almost impossible." Several principal officers of the interception fleet reported in the holographic communication channel.
"We will have people search all the blown-open decks. Although it will take some time, we will definitely find traces of Vice Admiral Hood... even if it's just a corpse." Elphinstone Leadership Academy promised.
Vice Admiral Alexander Hood's elder brother, Vice Admiral Samuel Hood, said nothing.
Under immense grief, this naval luminary could not utter a single word to express his feelings at that moment.
From the day he and his younger brother boarded the battlecruiser as youths, he had been prepared for sudden death or disappearance.
He knew very well that due to the immense power of the enemy and friendly naval ship-borne weapons, a body might not necessarily be found.
But he didn't expect it to be so sudden, and not even during a fleet engagement.
The renowned Vice Admiral Alexander Hood thus disappeared in an explosion.
He could not accept such a reality.
"God Emperor..." Admiral Kataria rubbed her temples with her thumb, saying with extreme bitterness:
"What a terrible day. Even if Vice Admiral Hood's fate is unknown, the expedition must continue. The Bastion Fleet needs us."
"I will lead the fleet forward." The most senior old general, Rodney, snorted:
"Do these chaotic scumbags think that by blowing up the Commander of the expeditionary fleet, they can stop His Holy Navy?! Absolutely not!"
The old general, whose face was weathered by time, adjusted his collar: "I hope that when I return triumphantly, Abyss Port will have changed completely and emerged from this terrible situation."
"We will do our best." Admiral Kataria saluted Admiral Rodney: "When you are ready for the expedition, proceed to Lucius to rendezvous with the fleet."
"I am ready now. Farewell then, colleagues, I will sail directly to Lucius." The old general said resolutely.
The other Commanders stood up from their command thrones and saluted Admiral Rodney.
—
Farida lay on the bed in the bedroom, her head covered with a blanket.
From time to time, the sound of sobbing could be heard from inside.
Horatio sat leaning on the sofa by the bed, accompanying her.
As the stimulating effect of the medicine wore off, a sense of fatigue and sorrow, accompanied by the intoxication of alcohol, left him in a state of etherealness where dreams and reality intertwined.
Even so, he was still paying attention to the search messages in the communication.
He didn't believe Vice Admiral Hood had died just like that.
Today they had put in so much effort, done so much.
Did His Majesty the God Emperor truly not wish to open his eyes from the Golden Throne and look upon them?
It was clearly a glorious victory, but why was there no sense of honor or joy?
The hidden enemies and backstabbing, the treacherous conspiracies and methods, made Horatio feel as if he had lost a battle, unable to feel at ease.
Using the alcohol and his unexpressed emotions, he softly hummed and sang, gently stroking her back to soothe her sorrow, and concentrating his own emotions and increasingly scattered attention.
Those lyrics from "Mobius."
For some reason, they unconsciously surfaced in his mind at this moment.
"Suddenly, my paradise collapsed, falling into the abyss"
"I will never see the winner in this game"
"Everything has changed"
"Everything I do is for a better tomorrow, for all of us"
"When I leave, please think of my moment of brilliance"
"I will burn all the excellent qualities that still exist within me"
"I will destroy this dark Mobius strip"
As the anger surged in his heart, the more he sang each word, the colder his gaze became.
His teeth were clenched, grinding, and his fists were tightly balled.
"They stole my happiness"
"Everything is gone now, hatred brings me the only warmth"
"Never forgive"
"Must regain my focus, as long as I find a better way"
"Hope, will roar against the storm, until all this changes from the inside out..."
Under Horatio's oath-like humming, Farida's sobbing unconsciously ceased.
Her emerald eyes were wide open, staring blankly into the darkness of the quilt.
These emotionally charged sentences gradually lingered in her mind, like a guiding light, gradually forming a clear and distinct thought.
'They stole my happiness... hatred brings me the only warmth... never forgive...'
'Tears solve nothing. I will take revenge... revenge on all who shattered my family.'
Her eyes widened, and surging anger burned fiercely within them.
Horatio secretly swore in his heart that he would personally kill all enemies, both overt and hidden.
How much anger and disgust those scumbags had brought him today.
Tomorrow, he would retaliate tenfold, making them feel the terror of punishment, the most desperate pain and torment.
"Farida, trust me."
His lips twitched, and he said terribly through gritted teeth:
"I will break this dark Mobius strip, and solve all of this in the only correct way."
To reiterate, as readers know, I don't write tragic endings; Vice Admiral Hood is not dead.