“Our preliminary reconnaissance couldn’t have been wrong. The Molian Civilization couldn’t have started laying traps back then. Which means that, counting the reinforcements they’ve brought in since, Star System Number 2 should have no more than five hundred thousand ships. Among those, their small vessels are about equal to ours in performance, but their large ships, lacking Four-Dimensional shields and space weapons, are significantly inferior. Based on the current situation, either the Molians have hidden some kind of powerful superweapon inside the system… or they’re playing an empty fort trick.”
After a discussion between the Military Committee and the social psychology scientists led by Luka Two, they reached this conclusion and reported it to Xiao Yu.
“An empty fort trick? Or a powerful superweapon?” Xiao Yu pondered quietly, maneuvering the Nation-Class United States formation to advance with greater caution. Still feeling uneasy, he ultimately decided to halt the main force of the United States formation here. Instead, he sent a Province-Class vessel, accompanied by about thirty thousand warships, forward to continue the advance.
These thirty thousand ships were to serve as the mine-sweepers. Xiao Yu intended to use them to fully probe the situation inside Star System Number 2. Even if all thirty thousand were lost, it was a loss he could accept.
In the silent void, the thirty thousand warships advanced in battle formation, creeping forward at a tortoise’s pace of one hundred kilometers per second.
Along the way, they came under continuous attack from automated defense systems, but the firepower was so weak that Xiao Yu simply ignored it. On the rare occasions it became irritating, he sent a County-Class detachment to sweep the defenses aside, and that was that.
“Up ahead is the orbital path of the outermost planet… let’s take a look.” Xiao Yu made up his mind.
Most of his forces stayed back, tightly on guard and ready to provide fire support at any moment, while the thirty thousand ships pressed forward.
The incoming fire intensified. The thirty thousand ships immediately returned fire.
Then Xiao Yu noticed something odd. On the planet’s surface, there were clearly numerous defensive emplacements and weapons. These weapons were indeed firing vigorously, but their attack patterns seemed… off. Stiff.It didn’t feel like the work of intelligent beings at the controls, more like they were operated by automated intelligent programs.
“Let’s smash them first and talk later.” Xiao Yu decided.
Against defenses run by AI, Xiao Yu found it easy enough to deal with them using tactical coordination and a few small tricks. After all, if they truly were AI-controlled, their reactions could never be as adaptive or flexible as those of an intelligent pilot.
The results proved his guess correct. The thirty thousand ships punched through the seemingly intense fire with ease, breaking through to the planet’s vicinity. Then, a large-scale bombardment began. Gravitational bombs, burrowing antimatter bombs, material disintegration beams, negative matter cannons, all unleashed at once, plowing through the planet from end to end.
The process went smoothly. Every defensive emplacement on the planet was destroyed. With Xiao Yu’s current technology, burrowing bombs could penetrate to a depth of one thousand kilometers underground. Even if there had been any hidden fortifications deep inside the planet, they would have been destroyed and rendered useless.
“One planet… taken just like that?” The ease of it left Xiao Yu almost in disbelief. After all, taking control of a planet meant gaining ample material supplies, something of critical importance in interstellar war, especially in a battle for control of a star system. Just imagine, one side forced to rely solely on the supplies they carried with them, while the other could resupply endlessly from local resources, the advantage was obvious.
Yet the reality was just that unbelievable, Xiao Yu had taken this planet of immense strategic value with only thirty thousand ships.
“I don’t believe that’s all. Keep moving.” Xiao Yu thought to himself, pulling several tens of thousands of ships from the main fleet into orbit around the planet. At the same time, he dispatched large numbers of robots for further detailed observation, while the original thirty thousand ships continued their advance.
As the fleet pushed deeper, the thirty thousand encountered heavier resistance. Swarms of interstellar mines began to converge, and clusters of negative matter cannons powered by solar energy within the system began firing intensively. These weapons did cause some trouble for Xiao Yu’s fleet, but again, their attacks seemed to lack a certain vitality, not like something piloted by intelligent beings. This allowed Xiao Yu to break through their defensive perimeter with relative ease and keep moving forward.
This stellar system had three planets in total, all rocky worlds. The second planet was captured as smoothly as the first, the process virtually identical. Aside from a volley from a system-grade negative matter cannon that destroyed several City-Class ships, none of Xiao Yu’s medium or large ships suffered losses. A few County, Town, and Village-Class ships were lost, but those losses could be ignored.
Up ahead lay the last remaining planet that Xiao Yu had yet to take. Once it fell, the entire star system would be his. With these three planets as strongholds, Xiao Yu could fortify the system into an ironclad bastion.
“Advance.” Xiao Yu ordered, directing the thirty thousand ships once more into the fray.
Ships took off from the planet’s surface and quickly formed a battle formation. From their flight patterns, it was obvious they were piloted manually.
“Finally, someone’s here?” Xiao Yu thought, with a trace of doubt, maneuvering his ships to meet them head-on. The battle broke out instantly, but it was not particularly intense, with fewer than forty thousand ships engaged, there was a limit to how fierce it could get.
Taking this planet proved slightly more troublesome. With the support of ground-based defenses, the ten thousand Molian ships put up a strong fight. Even with triple their numbers, Xiao Yu’s forces nearly forced to retreat. He knew this was the advantage of the defender’s position.
“But… where are the rest of their ships? Only ten thousand here? Where are the other four hundred thousand? Where are they hiding? What scheme are they planning?” Xiao Yu’s mind was filled with questions.
Thirty thousand ships meant little to him at this stage. So while the battle was tough, Xiao Yu pressed forward recklessly, ignoring casualties, and ultimately won. The ten thousand enemy combat ships were destroyed, and the last planet was bombarded until all surface defenses were gone.
Yet the four hundred thousand-plus hidden ships never appeared.
The star system contained only three planets and one asteroid belt. The belt could not hide anything too large, even a County-Class ship hiding there would be easily found by Xiao Yu. If they weren’t in the belt, then they had to be on the planets. If not on the surface, then… inside the planets?
But who had ever heard of hiding ships inside planets? Even setting aside the issue of gravity, how could something as massive as a City or Province-Class ship be concealed underground?
That left only one answer, the four hundred thousand ships Xiao Yu had suspected were long gone, having left Star System Number 2. Before leaving, they staged the entire defensive setup to make the system look heavily defended, playing a grand empty fort trick that had kept Xiao Yu’s eight hundred thousand ships tied down here for over two months.
It really was that simple. After taking the last planet and bringing Star System Number 2 fully under his control, Xiao Yu quickly realized the truth.
The system’s supposed powerful military force had been fake, its only purpose was to delay him.
“I’ve been played?” Xiao Yu thought in disbelief. “An empty fort trick? Where did their ships go? What’s their goal?”
“Judging by Molian culture, they couldn’t have simply fled. Even the performance of the ten thousand manually piloted ships left here rules that out completely. They must have gone to carry out some strategic mission. Hm… there are only two possible objectives at present. First, escorting the mineral transport ships, but that’s impossible, since I’ve already captured them all. That leaves only one possibility, they went to escort that one billion population.”
“But… with over four hundred thousand ships, nearly half a million, would they really need so many just for escort duty? Then there’s only one possibility left, they’re lying in ambush for me!”
The moment Xiao Yu realized this, his mind tensed sharply. Almost reflexively, he issued urgent orders to the Nation-Class Japan formation, which was still scattered, searching for the Molian retreat fleet.
“Abandon the search! Regroup immediately and hold position for reinforcements! Star System Number 4 defense forces, move out at once to support the Japan formation! Russian Nation-Class ship formation, turn back! United States Nation-Class ship formation, detach five hundred thousand ships and proceed at full speed to reinforce!”
A string of commands went out, but it seemed too late. The Japan formation’s ships were spread far too thin. The moment after Xiao Yu gave the order, reports came in, several hundred ships had already been destroyed by unidentified attackers.
“So… they really were lying in wait? I never expected the first major battle since the war began to unfold under circumstances like this…”