Upon receiving Yang Ying's intelligence, the Coalition Fleet dared not delay. Li Xuan dispatched the Qianfeng to annihilate the incoming drones, which included both military fighters and mercenary craft, while Yang Ying also committed ten squadrons of Ghost Fighters to join the fray.

In that span of time, all manner of fighters revealed themselves. As the saying goes, you don't know the quality until you compare; through this live combat simulation, the advantages and disadvantages of each fighter type became vividly apparent.

The Ghost Fighters under Yang Ying’s command were unrivaled. Even when not utilizing stealth, they remained the highest-performing mass-produced model in the Solar System.

In terms of acceleration, maneuverability, firepower, and energy efficiency, the Ghost Fighter far surpassed other fighter types.

The Dragon series fighters commonly used by the Earth Military boasted fierce firepower. The Night Owl series fighters were highly agile, but compared to the Ghost Fighter, they held little appeal.

The weaponry equipping the reconnaissance drones sent by the Ancient Legion was unremarkable; only their speed and agility posed a challenge, as they were inherently designed for escape.

The standard Dragon I fighters equipped by the Earth Military could not keep up with the reconnaissance drones; only the Night Owl 7 could barely manage, while the Night Owl Ming used experimentally by the Caesar Mercenary Group was faster and more agile than the Night Owl 7, capable of pursuing the drones with relative ease.

However, it was clear to many that the Ghost Fighters belonging to the Tran Mercenary Group were superior to the Night Owl Ming in both speed and agility, chasing down the reconnaissance drones as if at play.

In a mere quarter of an hour, hundreds of reconnaissance drones were completely wiped out, yet more waves of drones from further out were continuously streaming into the interference zone.

Consequently, the escort fighters did not return to their warships but continued the hunt for the remaining drones.

The fighter pilots, accustomed to sweeping across the cosmos in their craft, were proud individuals with towering aspirations. As the engagement wore on, it gradually devolved into a competition among the pilots, each vying to shoot down the most drones.

As time passed, numerous fighters with inferior capabilities and less skilled pilots were eliminated. Eventually, the contest boiled down to a duel between the Night Owl Ming and the Ghost Fighters—a showdown between the Caesar Mercenary Group and the Tran Mercenary Group.

Yang Ying, Howard, and a host of staff officers observed this spectacle from the bridge.

Howard turned his gaze toward Yang Ying, seemingly inquiring about his proposed course of action. If this continued, wouldn't the situation escalate severely?

“Let them compete,” Yang Ying stated with firm conviction. “This is a prime opportunity for us to exit the Asteroid Belt and formally step into the Solar System. We have nothing to fear now. With the Ancient Legion pressing into the Inner Solar System, the Apes remain humanity’s greatest problem. Anyone attempting to incite civil strife now would be universally scorned. The external environment dictates that we should use this mission to fully demonstrate our capabilities, secure military contracts, and allow Tran Corporation to deepen and accelerate its roots.”

Howard nodded, and one of the staff officers seated below relayed Yang Ying's decision to all deployed Ghost Fighters.

Thus, the competition between the Ghost Fighters and the Night Owl Ming intensified.

The two mercenary groups were old rivals. The Caesar Mercenary Group had previously suffered a heavy, humiliating loss at the hands of the Tran Mercenary Group—two Crown Fleets had been nonsensically turned into cosmic dust, forcing Caesar into signing a two-year peace accord. Such proud fighter pilots found this outcome utterly unacceptable.

Moreover, among those two annihilated Crown Fleets were their own comrades, some even friends from the same training cohort. They had completed their training, been assigned to the two Crown Fleets led by the Golden Flame and the Iron Hammer, and the next time news reached them, it was that they had been destroyed in the void by the Tran Mercenary Group, leaving no remains.

Although the Caesar Mercenary Group forbade its mercenaries from direct retaliation, this did little to quell their animosity. The Caesar pilots were unwilling to be defeated by the Tran pilots in front of the entire Joint Fleet.

Unfortunately, reality did not bend to their will; the Night Owl Ming was inferior in performance to the Ghost Fighter. The Caesar pilots were also generally outmatched by the Ghost Fighter pilots, with only their absolute top few capable of matching the skill of the Tran pilots.

With both inferior hardware and software, if the Caesar pilots could still win, it would defy all logic.

After the Joint Fleet broke through the minefield via the passage, statistics revealed that the battle results achieved by the Caesar Mercenary Group's Night Owl Ming equaled the combined total of all fighters sent by the other three military fleets and dozens of large mercenary groups, excluding the Tran Mercenary Group!

And the results achieved by the Ghost Fighters were three times that of the Night Owl Ming!

This meant that sixty percent of the reconnaissance drones were eliminated by the Ghost Fighters, who constituted only ten percent of the thousand-plus fighters deployed by the Joint Fleet.

Everyone witnessing the battle within the Joint Fleet was stunned. The Tran Mercenary Group’s Ghost Fighters had not seen extensive action, yet they possessed such overwhelming superiority?

Although the Tran Mercenary Group had long enjoyed the reputation of a Super Mercenary Group, that reputation was built upon past achievements; the precise extent of Tran’s current strength had always been shrouded in mystery.

Now, a mere corner of that iceberg had been revealed. The performance of the Ghost Fighter clearly surpassed existing fighters by a wide margin, and the events of this short period were likely enough to prompt serious reconsideration from many quarters.

However, regardless of their internal shock, the most crucial task at this stage remained the evacuation of the ten colonies distributed across Jupiter’s four major moons.

After leaving behind sufficient fighters to deal with the continuous stream of trailing reconnaissance drones, the real mission commenced.

“Disperse, according to the plan, each team seeks its own objective.” Following the flagship’s command, the Joint Fleet instantly broke apart, dividing into ten sub-fleets, each escorting a space city toward its designated target moon.

Yang Ying’s fleet also peeled away from the Joint Fleet formation, reforming with allied units assigned the same target under the plan. Once gathered, they locked onto Callisto City on Europa.

Approaching Jupiter at close range, one could observe the giant planet’s broad, circumferential bands, like hoops encircling it, inspiring awe. Remarkably, the coloration and pattern of these bands resembled wood grain. Was this...

South of the Jovian equator, there was a massive Great Red Spot, an area equivalent to three Earths—a colossal, never-ending storm whose sheer scope suggested unimaginable power.

Jupiter itself was unsuitable for habitation; it was a gas giant with no solid surface, and factors like gravity and environment severely restricted any human colonization efforts.

Fortunately, Jupiter’s moons were quite promising, requiring only minor modification to potentially host colonies. Europa was the best-situated of all the Jovian moons. Long ago, scientists had even speculated about the possibility of life existing there.

As they drew nearer to Europa, Yang Ying could see the moon’s appearance through the forward viewport of the bridge.

It was a white-to-yellowish celestial body, due to a thin icy shell covering its surface, beneath which lay liquid water and a rocky mantle. The environment on the surface resembled Earth’s South Pole, only colder.

While Yang Ying was observing Europa, a staff officer’s voice interrupted him: “Sir, Major General Adrian of the Second Fleet requests a comms channel.”

“Connect him,” Yang Ying said calmly, drawing his gaze away.

A Caucasian officer in his fifties appeared on the main screen, standing rigidly before a command console. He stood perfectly straight, appearing taut, his expression fiercely serious, conveying an air of absolute adherence to protocol—a first impression that Yang Ying found reasonably positive.

“This is Major General Adrian. I will be overseeing the evacuation of Callisto City. We are likely facing an unrelenting forty-eight hours ahead; I hope you are prepared,” Adrian stated.

“Of course,” Yang Ying replied with certainty. “We are fully prepared.”

Yang Ying knew that forty-eight hours without sleep would be trivial for him, as an Awakened one, he could go a week without slumbering and feel no fatigue. As for his clone subordinates, they had arranged for rest during transit and were currently at their peak mental state; going two days without sleep would be manageable for them as well.

Major General Adrian seemed satisfied with Yang Ying’s response. His initial severity stemmed from reports describing mercenaries as an unruly lot. Seeing Yang Ying's commendable spirit of cooperation, coupled with the earlier demonstration by the Ghost Fighters, the sternness on his face softened slightly. He continued:

“For security reasons, the space city can only be brought this close. We need to dispatch transport vessels to Europa to ferry the civilians up. The military has prepared the transports, and barring unforeseen circumstances, they should suffice. I request that you dispatch a ground contingent to accompany our personnel down to maintain order within the city.”

“Certainly.”

Major General Adrian nodded. “I am sending the schedule to you now. The first wave of landing troops will assemble in ten minutes, and then we descend together. Good luck to you.”

“And to you,” Yang Ying responded.

After the communication ended, Yang Ying turned to Howard. “Prepare the ground troops. And send Colonel Blade down with them.”

Howard raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t Colonel Blade also a member of the Arbitration Council?”

“I said it was a concurrent post; of course, it’s not a problem,” Yang Ying replied with a slight smile.

Once the orders were relayed, the warship’s hangar bay became a hive of activity. The ground contingent primarily consisted of Marines, supplemented by a small number of other infantry, along with some armored units.

Five minutes later, the hangar doors of the three flagship-class vessels opened, each releasing two squadrons of transport ships.

A total of six squadrons, seventy-two transports, converged, meeting up with the space marines dispatched by the Second Fleet’s sub-fleet, as well as the ground forces from other large mercenary groups.

Then, this first wave of ground troops departed toward Europa.