Three women clutched their heads and scrambled into my arms, suddenly remembering they were on a spaceship. A sharp rap landed on my head: "What are you hiding for? Hurry and pilot the ship into the asteroid field so they won't spot us!"

I initially felt a bit casual, just wanting to tease the three women, but as the artificial craft on the screen grew larger and larger, I was rendered speechless. Obediently, I concealed the ship behind a cluster of asteroids, synchronizing our movement with their orbits.

Zhou Ni looked at the screen and said, "Their ship is huge, like a long stick, hundreds of times the size of ours."

I replied, "They must be furious and sent a battleship. We're done for this time."

Linglong said, "Master, all our hope rests on you. Don't lose confidence so quickly."

I said, "We had better hurry back to report this. Whether those armored vehicles are effective or not, we need to prepare for a fight; it will at least scare them off."

Yun Yao had been staring intently at the screen. Suddenly she exclaimed, "Brother Zhao, quickly divert the monitoring system far away. Look there—a wormhole!"

Yun Yao and the others had seen a wormhole before, and naturally, I recognized it too. As the distant view on the screen gradually came into focus, the previously vague, dark maw, like a devil's mouth, materialized. Who activated the wormhole? Could it be Xiao Yudii and the others coming through? That's wonderful; we can finally reunite! But I certainly hope they don't suffer amnesia too; that would be a huge hassle.

It seemed my worries were unfounded. What emerged from the devil's mouth was not the Hope battleship, but another long, stick-shaped alien warship just like the one we saw earlier. They were launching a full-scale invasion; I suspect they won't stop until they've wiped out the three human factions.

I aimed the camera at the nearest alien warship and activated the monitoring analysis system. Now was the perfect opportunity to understand their strength. Soon, a block of data appeared on the side of the screen. The iron armor of these alien stick-shaped interstellar warships was over a meter thick, constructed from an alloy unknown to us, possessing extremely high resistance to radiation and impact. More importantly, within a hundred-meter radius around the ship's exterior pulsed an energy wave, wrapping the vessel securely—it was a configuration similar to my own energy shield.

Linglong could only read a few Chinese characters, so Yun Yao read the data aloud to her. She puckered her cherry lips and whispered, "Heavens, they have energy shields too! How are we supposed to fight this battle?"

I said, "That's not all. Look at their weapon systems. The bore diameter of the main guns on the turrets seems even larger than our ship's. If they are also using energy cannons, we’re in for an even worse time. A single shot from a shell of this size could vaporize us down to dust."

Linglong suggested, "Shouldn't we choose to evade for now? Fighting them head-on will only result in losses."

The ship's alarm system suddenly began to shriek urgently. I exclaimed, "Too late, we've been discovered! Their weapon guidance system has locked onto our ship. Run for your lives!"

I immediately switched the ship’s autopilot to manual control. With a pull on the stick and a stomp on the pedal, the ship shot out from behind the hiding asteroid. We had been so preoccupied observing the black hole that we hadn't noticed the first warship had maneuvered to our side sometime earlier. They spotted our trace and, without a word, fired a volley of shells. These aliens are certainly ruthless; they could have at least given us a warning.

Zhou Ni observed the trajectory of the pursuing shells on the rear monitor: "Brother Zhao, you guessed right, they really are energy projectiles, and they have automatic tracking. We can’t shake them off! Even the smallest caliber shells seem larger than those on our battle vehicles."

I gritted my teeth, "Let the asteroid field deal with them. We'll treat it like a game. Watch this!"

The ship possessed an internal gravity system, so no matter how I banked or flipped the vessel, the occupants wouldn't experience zero-G effects. This asteroid belt was densely packed, exceeding a hundred kilometers in thickness. The largest pieces were likely many times the size of the alien warships. The smallest visible to the naked eye were no bigger than a fingertip. They were all moving rapidly. If I mishandled the controls, even a fist-sized rock could breach the hull, as we certainly didn't have energy shields.

I piloted the ship through the asteroid field at top speed. The pursuing energy projectiles occasionally collided with the passing rocks. The explosions in space were spectacular. The resulting cloud of debris didn't dissipate as widely as it would on a planetary surface, but it was strikingly defined and lingered for a long time, almost like computer-generated special effects.

Seeing no more shells pursuing us, I felt a surge of pride. "Well? Impressed by your husband's skill?"

Linglong was far more anxious than Yun Yao and Zhou Ni. If this were a ground battle, she would certainly be calmer than the other two, but this was space. She had no concept of what space truly entailed. In this environment, suspended between nothingness, the mind can easily slip into terror. Her eyes were locked on the screen, not daring to relax her focus for a moment.

"Master, watch out! There's a warship ahead!" Linglong suddenly commanded me.

I was about to turn back to seek praise from Yun Yao and Zhou Ni, but glancing at the front screen, I saw it: the warship that had just emerged from the black hole was blocking our path. The asteroid field here was dense, but it also allowed us to witness the defensive capabilities of the warships. Some asteroids, large as small mountains, either shattered like foam or were deflected aside upon striking the outermost layer of the shield, continuing past the vessel. Any larger ones were vaporized by energy cannon fire from the ship's automated turrets from a distance, becoming smaller fragments that posed no threat to the shield.

I estimated that crashing the ship into one of those would likely result in instant annihilation, so I swiftly turned the ship back toward the black hole. The alien warships were massive; turning sharply like our small craft was impossible for them. However, this behemoth also seemed clumsy. Although it didn't fire at me, it deployed a swarm of things resembling mosquitoes. As they approached, I realized they were space fighters shaped like mosquitoes. Their weapons were armor-piercing rounds about the size of a child's fist, capable of punching through standard ten-centimeter-thick steel plates.

Zhou Ni observed, "We've stirred up trouble this time. I doubt we can escape even with all three of us working."

I comforted the three women: "Don't be afraid. These fighter's armor-piercing rounds can't harm us. My ship has been specially reinforced; they think the Adamantine Alloy is just for show? Besides, we have a medium-sized laser cannon and two newly installed energy cannons on board. It's a perfect chance to test their performance."

Zhou Ni moved to the co-pilot seat: "I'll operate the two energy cannons. Let's see just how capable these aliens are. I've watched five or six episodes of Star Wars; finally, I get a chance to experience it."

Those mosquito fighters were small and fast. In no time, they caught up and completely surrounded our ship. A barrage of armor-piercing rounds, as dense as the asteroid field, rained down. After a few near misses, we took several hundred hits. The ship tumbled several times from the impacts, but the super-hard Adamantine Alloy didn't shame the Earthlings of a million years hence; not even a scratch appeared on the surface.

It was a blessing that my wives and I had been thorough before setting out. If we only had the 3X alloy layer inside the ship, we'd have been riddled with holes by now. I should have ordered a ship made entirely of Adamantine Alloy from the start; then, even the main drive shaft couldn't have broken.

With a slight adjustment to the nose, my controlled laser cannon and Zhou Ni's energy cannons fired simultaneously. The 'mosquitoes' directly in front of us began to fall. The medium-sized laser cannon mounted on the ship had a diameter no more than fifty centimeters; judged by the pace of Earth's technological advancement, it would only be considered a small laser cannon now, but its power was overwhelming for the mosquito fighters. Even the two smaller-caliber energy cannons were sufficient to destroy them.

From this, it was clear the aliens weren't overwhelmingly powerful—if we disregard their fortress-like interstellar warships. As the battle progressed, we drew closer to the black hole. After easily eliminating another swarm of 'mosquitoes' ahead, I said, "Wives, why don't we slip through and check the situation? I really want to return to Earth. With the wormhole right in front of us, I can't control my emotions."

"No!" the three women rejected in unison. "If we leave, what about the others? We can't be so selfish."

Zhou Ni added, "Besides, have you considered this: alien warships are emerging from the wormhole now. Did they come from Earth? That means the other opening of the wormhole isn't between Mars and Earth, but possibly in another star system. We know nothing about the properties of wormholes. I think even if we brought everyone, we’d need to cross cautiously; otherwise, not only might we fail to return to Earth, but we could end up in an entirely different world, which would be a huge problem."

Cold sweat broke out on my brow. Thankfully, Zhou Ni reminded me; otherwise, I might have recklessly dragged my wives through the vortex with my head swimming. But given the technology of the binary star system, forget researching wormholes—just defeating these damned aliens would be a blessing.

Linglong exclaimed, "Everyone, look! More warships are about to emerge from the wormhole! I wonder how many more they have. We need to find a way to stop them, or if their numbers increase, we'll have no chance against them."

Indeed, the black hole, which had never closed, showed the head of another stick-shaped warship poking out. There were already two outside. Just two would be enough trouble for us; more arriving now? That would be fatal! As Linglong said, we must stop them!

But their shields and armor were incredibly thick. How could we break through the layers of protection to hit them? As I pondered this, Zhou Ni shouted, "The little mosquitoes are gone, but the big mosquitoes have arrived! Our firepower seems much weaker! Husband, evade! They've switched to energy cannons too!"

The little mosquitoes, which had been defenseless against our fire, all retreated. Around us, some large 'crickets' had appeared out of nowhere. Their eye positions housed two energy cannons, likely comparable in caliber to the two on our ship. I suspected that even if the Adamantine Alloy could withstand the bombardment, we wouldn't endure the shock from the explosions. Furthermore, there were too many of them. As the saying goes, overwhelming numbers can defeat a master. We had to flee immediately. Thus, I pushed the ship's nose down, dodging a volley of energy cannon fire, and rapidly angled toward the black hole.

The three women cried out anxiously, "What are you doing? You aren't actually trying to go through, are you? If you insist, we won't talk to you anymore!"

I replied, "No, we need to figure out a way to destroy the warship currently emerging. Preferably, we can jam it right in the mouth of the black hole, preventing the ships behind it from coming out for a while, and then we can focus all our strength on the other two."

Yun Yao exclaimed, "They have shields; our energy and laser cannons can't touch them... Huh? Everyone, look at the analysis data! The enemy's energy shield has vanished!"

At that very moment, a dozen large cricket fighters in pursuit fired a volley of energy projectiles. These 'crickets' weapons, like the mosquitoes', shared one characteristic: the energy shells lacked automatic tracking. After I evaded them, the projectiles flew straight ahead toward the warship. The massive vessel, already nearly halfway out of the black hole, was struck by the incoming shells as if they were flying through empty space, impacting its thick armor and exploding. This was definitive proof: the warship mid-transit had no defensive capabilities, perhaps unable even to activate basic automated defenses. Ha! Heaven helps those who help themselves! Thinking back to when I crossed over, all my superpowers were drained. Could that energy shield even function inside a wormhole? I hadn't even considered that possibility earlier.