Chapter 153 Half an Hour Ago

Half an hour ago.

In a desolate asteroid belt far from Beacon Star, a Kundu fleet jumped out of a stargate. They quickly split into multiple groups, entered warp drive, and headed towards Beacon Star along different routes.

After the devastation caused by the Radiant Federation and the Arcane Church, the Red Empire had expanded the warning perimeter around Beacon Star several times over. This Kundu fleet was discovered by the region's spatial monitoring devices shortly after it appeared. However, the Kundu fleet ignored it, paying no attention and advancing straight ahead.

The bridge of the flagship was dominated by crystal blue and deep grey, with various consoles designed for use by crustacean-like beings. The fleet commander was a large lobster-like creature, noticeably more robust than his average brethren, with fiery red stripes on his carapace.

The Kundu were divided into different subgroups. One subgroup had a unique trait: certain parts of their carapace would change color according to their emotions. Red stripes indicated anger and excitement. The commander was currently in a state of rage, and the object of his anger was the enemy, the Red Empire.

Yelü, a hardline Kundu officer known for his aggressive tactics, had volunteered for this attack. He and most of the fleet's crew knew that there was an eighty percent chance they wouldn't return, but they were still determined.

"How far are we from Beacon Star, according to the star chart?"

"Reporting, Commander, approximately four hours."

"Increase speed."

Yelü's tone was filled with murderous intent, wishing he could immediately unleash the ship's payload on the enemy's heartland.

The Kundu had only acquired complete stargate technology and advanced warp engines a few years ago. Even with the strong production capabilities of a cluster-level civilization, they couldn't mass-produce ships on a large scale. Naturally, they lacked experience in using these two technologies and couldn't pull off many tricks. Even now, many Kundu soldiers were not accustomed to these new technologies.

Four hours of travel time naturally wouldn't achieve a surprise attack, but that was the best the Kundu could do. Their stealth units could only discreetly place the stargate in this location; any closer, and it would be impossible to hide.

However, the fleet didn't care about being discovered; they were adopting a forceful assault plan.

The data from the crashed ship marked the location of Beacon Star and its approximate warning range, declaring it as the Red Empire's command core. After targeted remote observation, the Kundu confirmed the truth of this and devised a sneak attack plan: taking advantage of the Red Empire sending most of its forces to attack them, they would try to launch a fierce assault on the Empire's rear.

In a head-on battle, the Kundu knew their chances were slim, so they had to take a risk. If they could destroy the enemy's command core, they would gain a strategic advantage, and the enemy would inevitably lose a vital retreat route.

The fleet carried a large number of original arcane energy weapons. The Kundu were confident in their power. As long as they got close to Beacon Star, any hit on the planet would achieve their strategic goal. Original arcane energy ignored defenses, and most shields would be assimilated, providing energy for its expansion.

Although they knew this journey was fraught with peril, the crew of this fleet, including Yelü, were steadfast in their belief and unafraid of death.

On the one hand, there was anger and hostility towards the Empire. On the other hand, there was a deep-seated fear, and the reason for their fear was closely related to Han Xiao.

Originally, due to their inferior combat strength, the Kundu were very careful to hide their location. As long as their territory wasn't exposed, they could do many things with the strategic depth of the Light Dust Star Cluster.

However, the Red Empire's army had been marching for half a month, and they hadn't done much scouting, heading straight for their territory. This disrupted the Kundu's plans and threw them into a panic.

The exposure of their civilization's territory would invalidate most of the Kundu's preparations and put all their troops in danger. Countless people were grateful that they had sent away most of the civilians early, otherwise, they would be even more passive.

Out of desperation, the Kundu had to activate this pending sneak attack plan. As the saying goes, all tactics lead to the home. Since their base was exposed, the Kundu attempted to use a surprise force to destroy the Empire's rear.

The originator of all this was Han Xiao, who provided intelligence, saving the Empire a lot of effort and forcing the Kundu to take a gamble.

...

In the Beacon Star command center, Tarrokov and all the remaining officers gathered in the command room, jointly watching the star chart on the virtual screen. The red dot marking the Kundu fleet was slowly approaching, and the upper right corner showed a countdown to the estimated time of arrival.

"As you all see, the enemy is launching an attack on Beacon Star and will arrive in just over three hours."

Tarrokov stood with his hands behind his back, surveying the crowd with a calm expression, showing no pressure.

Everyone's expression was normal, and they weren't surprised.

This situation was a possibility they had deduced and had prepared contingency plans. In Tarrokov's strategic sand table, the enemy had almost no chance of winning in a head-on battle, so the probability of taking a risk was as high as 95%.

During the Exploration Era War, the Red Empire had been ambushed countless times. They were experienced, and the officers present weren't panicking. They even wanted to laugh.

Compared to this group of seasoned drivers, this native civilization with little war experience was too naive. Every move was within their expectations.

Without a high-dimensional Apocalypse Transporter, they still wanted to sneak attack?

They didn't have the fate of the Radiant Federation, but they contracted the Radiant Federation's disease.

Beacon Star was disaster-prone. To be honest, they were used to others attacking them directly.

After the last lesson, even after sending out a large force, Beacon Star retained enough fleets. Furthermore, the expanded warning range meant that the enemy needed more time to warp to Beacon Star. Several hours were enough for Goroo, Reynold, and Crown Ring's allied forces to arrive through the stargate. Even the large army sent out could warp back along the stargates built along the way.

"Everyone is aware of the situation. The only threat from the enemy's surprise attack is the original arcane energy weapon itself."

Tarrokov paced back and forth, slowly saying, "We have plenty of time to prepare. We must intercept and destroy all incoming forces in the middle. If any enemy ship gets close to Beacon Star and launches an original arcane energy bomb, we will be in trouble."

"I request to use original arcane energy. Just like Black Star said, it's only polite to return the favor," a hardline officer sneered.

"Hmm, allowed," Tarrokov nodded.

The explored universe explicitly prohibited the use of original arcane energy, but since the enemy had already used it, the Empire wouldn't hold back anymore. Anyway, it would be contaminated sooner or later, either by you or by me, so there was nothing to worry about.

However, while allowing the use of this powerful weapon, Tarrokov had other plans. He said in a deep voice, "The destructive power of original arcane energy is too great. If possible, try to use conventional weapons. Capture enemy ships and people. This is a good opportunity to obtain information about the enemy. Don't forget, we still know almost nothing about this civilization. Also, put the virtual mechanic troops on standby. We should be able to use them."

The Empire itself had a large number of virtual mechanics. When dealing with this native-level civilization, they didn't plan to rely on the power of Super-A Grade allies... after all, Black Star's appearance fee was a bit high these days.

...

After detecting the enemy's surprise attack attempt, Beacon Star used stargates to summon garrison troops from various locations, rapidly assembling an army, and then sending them out to intercept the surprise attack fleet from the Kundu.

Soon, the two sides encountered each other in the desolate asteroid belt near Beacon Star. This time, it wasn't as friendly as the conventional naval artillery duels in the explored universe. Both sides were frantically throwing original arcane energy at each other, like throwing shit bombs.

In space, the expansion speed of original arcane energy was slightly slower because there wasn't an entire planet's worth of matter for it to convert and devour. However, it was still dangerous because it wouldn't dissipate.

One by one, original arcane energy light clusters remained in the battlefield for a long time, turning into obstacles that were almost instantly lethal. Spaceships could only avoid them in a thrilling manner, and the arcane energy clusters were still expanding, releasing huge attractive forces, swallowing various broken spaceship parts, like miniature black holes.

In such a complex battlefield environment, everyone was wary of the opponent's long-range attacks, and the frequency of boarding actions increased. The Empire mainly initiated them, while the Kundu only wanted to bombard and were the ones being boarded.

"Reporting, Commander, ships 078, 075, and 102 have been boarded by the enemy. The guards on board are completely unable to resist."

In the Kundu flagship's command room, the virtual screen played images of espers unilaterally slaughtering Kundu armored soldiers.

Yelü watched this scene and said in a bad tone, "These are the so-called espers in the data? There is a way to obtain extraordinary power without genetic modification?!"

"Commander, the battle is not in our favor. What should we do now?"

Hearing this, Yelü looked at the overall situation. There was a gap in warship technology and military strength, and the fleet had suffered heavy losses.

Although this operation was similar to a suicide attack, they hadn't even seen the shadow of Beacon Star and had already lost so many people. It was obviously difficult to move forward.

Everyone looked at him, seemingly prepared for something.

Yelü gritted his teeth, slammed the table, and said with a ferocious tone:

"It is my honor to fight alongside you... All troops, listen to my command, activate the space-time shearer!"

...

On the other side, when the battle began, Han Xiao received the news and projected his image remotely onto Beacon Star to observe the battle.

The Empire's interception of the Kundu fleet could be described as overwhelming. The enemy had almost no ability to resist. The difference in warship technology was not so easy to make up for.

In the command room, Tarrokov calmly commanded the overall situation, while Han Xiao stood by and did nothing.

Seeing that the battle was going well, Han Xiao was a little puzzled.

"Strange, the Kundu seem so vulnerable... How did they cause trouble for the Empire in my previous life?"

The current situation was different from what he had expected. In his opinion, since the historical background of his previous life wrote that the Kundu caused trouble for the Empire, then at least they should have fought back and forth, right? How could the enemy be so weak?

A group of virtual mechanic troops were working hard to crack the quantum network firewall of this Kundu warship, and progress was gratifying.

In another ten minutes, they might be able to capture an entire fleet without him even having to take action.

"The Kundu have no chance of turning the tables. They are being beaten down all the way. Strange, strange..." Han Xiao muttered to himself.

Just as he was thinking, the virtual mechanic team next to him suddenly let out a cry of surprise, with puzzled expressions. They hurriedly spoke,

"Reporting, Commander, we have a problem here."

Tarrokov looked over, puzzled, "What problem?"

"This... Just a moment ago, the quantum network nodes of the enemy fleet disappeared. We can't receive any signals, and the virtual intrusion was automatically interrupted. It's not a network outage,"

Before Tarrokov could think about it, a strange scene suddenly appeared on the battlefield.

Suddenly, all the Kundu fleets seemed to freeze, stopping in place.

The Imperial army would not stand still with them. They gathered their firepower and instantly blew up most of the warships, including Yelü's flagship.

At this moment, an anomaly occurred!

The exteriors of these destroyed warships showed static and subtle spatial distortions. Before everyone could react, these ships suddenly became intact, returning to their state before being hit. At the same time, their positions shifted forward a large distance, without any process of movement, and they were in a state of pause.

The Imperial fleet hesitated and fired again, blowing up these ships. However, the same scene was repeated, and the position of the Kundu fleet shifted forward again by a large distance.

This time, the Imperial fleet did not attack. After a few seconds, the Kundu fleet suddenly jumped again, and the position jumped forward again, also without any movement process, as if skipping frames.

"What is this..."

Tarrokov, who was watching remotely on Beacon Star, was immediately surprised and uncertain.

Buzz buzz buzz—

At this moment, an ear-piercing alarm sounded in the room!

"Detected drastic fluctuations in space-time coefficients, unknown degree of distortion, matching database models... matching failed, database has no similar models, creating new archive..."

At the same time, the Imperial front-line fleet also tried their best to attack, but no matter how many times they blew up these warships, they could always return to their original state and move towards Beacon Star in a frame-skipping manner, unable to be stopped.

Seeing this, Tarrokov's eyes changed slightly. He took a breath, quickly adjusted his mentality, shook his head, and said, "It seems we underestimated them. Ha, we really can't underestimate any civilization."

The crowd looked at each other, their expressions varied.

They originally thought it would be an easy battle to beat the opponent, but they did not expect that this native civilization would pull out an unknown black technology from their crotch, which seemed to be related to space-time. No one knew how they climbed the technology tree.

While a group of officers were surprised and uncertain, Han Xiao on the other side was also a little stunned and subconsciously lowered his arms.

This technology... he knew it!

He just didn't expect it to come from the Kundu. In the historical background of his previous life, there was no description of this at all!

This move was one of the trump cards used by the explored universe to fight against the World Tree!