Chapter 1 The Situation

More than a month passed in the blink of an eye.

Military deployments continued across the explored universe, especially in the Flickering World, where heavy forces were stationed. With the construction of engineering fleets and various planet-remodeling packages, large war zone facilities were rapidly completed. Military factories everywhere were operating around the clock, producing countless starships of various models every day.

The All-Star Sea draft, led by the three major civilizations, was also in full swing, recruiting a large number of Supers from various races and recalling a massive number of reserve soldiers who had previously served, for further military training at military bases everywhere. This supplemented the troop shortages at various military posts, and compulsory entry-level military training was carried out among the interstellar population to expand the source of soldiers.

The speed of war mobilization in the interstellar era was beyond the imagination of ordinary people. Under the unified dispatch of the three major civilizations, the war machine of the explored universe was operating with high efficiency, and various resources were invested into corresponding gaps for efficient utilization.

The construction of the frontline interception circle was also progressing rapidly. Although the World Tree's strong attack failed, it did not stop harassing with small units, and clashed with interception forces many times. As the space stabilization anchor rails laid by the three major civilizations extended further and further, the World Tree civilization's jump points also continued to move back, further away from the interception circle.

Therefore, the World Tree also regarded destroying the space stabilization anchor rails as an important combat objective. It repeatedly dispatched vanguard troops to attack different sections of the space stabilization anchor rails, unsealed different jump points, and redeployed reconnaissance legions at these coordinates.

As the World Tree's reconnaissance troops continued to divide their forces, the overall structure of the space stabilization anchor rails resembled a three-dimensional tree-like model with many forks, constantly extending. Countless streamers representing the fleets of both sides jumped between the "branches," colliding from time to time and erupting in local battles.

The global monitoring strategic radar screen of the main base of the three major civilizations' interception circle constantly showed high-intensity energy sources representing the points of engagement. The World Tree forces occasionally succeeded, repeatedly blowing up branches of the space stabilization anchor rails, which needed to be repaired, and chasing the new batch of reconnaissance legions deployed by the World Tree at these jump points.

As the interception circle and space stabilization anchor rails expanded, the loopholes left for the enemy would also increase accordingly, which was an unavoidable trend, but the troop strength of the three major civilizations could still cope with the current scale of defense.

"The World Tree's harassment is endless. Although this is an effective method, it will take a long time. They must have made two preparations, brewing a new offensive behind the scenes to carve a huge gap in our defense line and strip us of our control over the interception circle."

In the war room of the main base of the interception circle, Simon and a group of commanders and staff were discussing in low voices.

In the past month or so since Black Star's absence, there had been constant small frictions between the two sides, but no large-scale battles. The overall situation was still relatively stable, and the number of times the Super-A Grade group had been dispatched was very few.

The monitoring channel of the Sons of Destiny, managed by Hela, had also not reported any major actions by the World Tree. The two sides were temporarily in a stalemate, with mutual offense and defense, and the enemy had not made much progress.

Simon and the others naturally understood that the World Tree would not continue to entangle with them like this. In the past few days, he had a strong tactical intuition that some variables would appear in the near future.

"According to data statistics, the frequency of World Tree attacks on space stabilization anchor rails has decreased by 37% in the past five days, while the number of reconnaissance troop deployments has increased by 73%. Furthermore, we have discovered a large number of topological space orientation targets left by the World Tree forces near the anchored rails. It is speculated that the World Tree civilization is attempting to deploy beyond-visual-range strike weapons at jump points not covered by the rails, remotely destroying various rail branches."

Simon pressed his hands on the command table, his expression solemn.

Another commander nodded and said, "The anti-beyond-visual-range radar is already activated around the clock. If the World Tree adopts this plan, the Empire's beyond-visual-range anti-particle base cannon, the Arcane's psionic star-destroying light beam, and the Voidlings' psionic sniper beam can all lock onto the source of the attack in reverse and execute counterattack missions."

"I'm just afraid the World Tree will deploy the Raelbo Space Protection Belt. That would be bad."

Simon shook his head.

Beyond-visual-range combat is also a major form of interstellar warfare. In this regard, the three major civilizations are strong in offense and weak in defense, but the World Tree is different. According to the intelligence provided by Black Star, the World Tree civilization possesses a special defensive weapon at the level of a cosmic treasure for beyond-visual-range combat, called the "Raelbo Space Protection Belt."

This defensive technology has a similar function to the psionic restriction ring, like a portable and smaller version, twisting the cosmic constants in an area, making energy-based remote weapons, including beyond-visual-range strikes, unable to penetrate it, forming a protection zone.

However, this restriction is bidirectional. External energy attacks cannot pass through, and attacks from the inside out will also be blocked. Therefore, fleets that open the Raelbo Space Protection Belt find it difficult to launch attacks on the outside. Because the Raelbo Space Protection Belt cannot move with the ship after it is deployed, it is basically not used in mobile warfare. It is generally used in positional warfare to protect certain important facilities.

Only physical weapons such as interstellar missiles, as well as close-range ship assaults, can ignore the effect of the Raelbo Space Protection Belt. Other energy weapons are basically ineffective. Since the vast majority of beyond-visual-range weapons are energy weapons, this technology is often used in beyond-visual-range combat. The protection belt is retracted when firing and deployed when cooling down, making it difficult to suffer losses in beyond-visual-range duels.

Just as a group of senior military officers were discussing, the global monitoring radar, which covered all space stabilization anchor rails, suddenly issued an alarm. Hundreds of red lines representing high-energy strikes suddenly broke into the edge of the radar's field of vision, quickly hitting different forked rails.

The three-dimensional radar model in front of everyone reacted, and hundreds of strike points spreading red ripples suddenly appeared. Reports of rail destruction quickly came back.

"Confirmed to be beyond-visual-range strikes. The World Tree really did it."

Simon's expression froze. Speak of the devil, no sooner had he mentioned beyond-visual-range strikes than the World Tree's wave of attacks arrived. His recent intuition had come true.

The jump points from which the World Tree launched its beyond-visual-range weapons were outside the coverage of the global monitoring radar, and their distance was unknown.

"Analyze the attack trajectories and give me a counterattack," Simon ordered in a deep voice.

The anti-beyond-visual-range radar began to operate, quickly analyzing the curvature, deflection angle, star positions along the way, and other factors of the enemy's hundreds of beyond-visual-range attacks. The auxiliary intelligence quickly calculated the massive amount of data.

Beyond-visual-range strikes are generally not linear. Under various cosmic environmental factors, the attack trajectory will exhibit different deflections. Just as a sniper needs to measure wind direction, distance, ballistics, gravity, and other conditions, beyond-visual-range strikes are the same, requiring the measurement of more parameters and the correction of the strike direction. The calculation model is very complex, and reverse locking is the reverse deduction of these factors to obtain the coordinates of the attack source.

Soon, the final results were transmitted to the beyond-visual-range weapons deployed by the three major civilizations via quantum communication.

Kala la—

A row of giant, linked gun barrels extended from a massive planetary fortress, the base slowly rotating, the muzzles turning as if aiming at the empty starry sky. In fact, the beyond-visual-range crosshairs had already locked onto the spatial coordinates calculated by the intelligence.

Immediately afterward, starting from the base of the gun barrels, the energy circuits lit up section by section. Bluish-purple particles rapidly gathered from all directions, accumulating energy at the muzzle, and blooming with a dazzling light. When the power accumulated to its peak, the color changed from blue to red, and beams of energy with huge diameters were suddenly released, disappearing into the vast starry sky in the blink of an eye.

However, this round of counterattacks was like a stone sinking into the sea, with no news.

Simon and the others waited for a while, but what they got was the second wave of beyond-visual-range strikes from the World Tree, and hundreds more rail branches were destroyed. The source of the attacks was exactly the same.

"The counterattack doesn't seem to be working. Maybe you're right, they used that kind of protection technology…" A commander next to him glanced at Simon, secretly slandering his crow's mouth.

"Continue firing, volley attacks, don't stop," Simon frowned slightly.

The beyond-visual-range weapons of the three major civilizations began to fire in endless shifts. Although the strike effect could not be observed, the enemy's beyond-visual-range attacks also stopped.

"Even if the World Tree has deployed the Raelbo Space Protection Belt, our firepower at this frequency is enough to suppress them, preventing them from having time to retract the protection belt, so they won't be able to launch an offensive against us," a staff officer said.

Simon tapped the table and shook his head. "This is just a temporary solution. If we want to solve the problem once and for all, we still have to send a fleet to carry out a field assault and destroy their artillery strongholds… Call some Super-A Grades to accompany the operation, and try to collect the Raelbo Space Protection Belt and bring it back for research."

Not long after, many Super-A Grades waiting on standby at the base were summoned to the war room. After listening to Simon's explanation, they quickly understood the situation.

Kexiu E stroked his chin and asked thoughtfully:

"Since we have to destroy the other party's artillery stronghold and collect their special equipment, then Melson or Kant should lead the team. How many people are needed?"

"It's best to have more than ten Super-A Grades, and bring a batch of Thrones along the way," Simon nodded.

"Isn't ten a bit too many? We shouldn't encounter World Tree powerhouses on this trip." Hunter-Day turned to look at Hela. "Can your monitoring channels see the situation at this artillery stronghold?"

"No," Hela shook her head.

The World Tree did not use prophets for this stronghold, and the Sons of Destiny could not spy on the composition of their personnel. Therefore, everyone knew almost nothing about the situation at this stronghold. At present, they only grasped the direction calculated by the anti-beyond-visual-range radar as a clue for tracking.

"This is all for the sake of insurance," Simon explained. "The other party may have built this stronghold not only for remote bombing but also as an outpost. We cannot sit idly by as the World Tree builds a bridgehead. We must take the initiative to attack and constantly push their line of defense farther away."

The group discussed a few words and quickly decided that Kant would be the leader of this trip, leading the other nine Super-A Grades to attack, with a mixed arrangement of Association members and civilization direct lineages.

Because it was estimated that there were no World Tree powerhouses among the targets to be subjugated, Aurora did not need to follow and remained on standby at the main base.

Soon, Kant and others formed an expeditionary force with an army group and arrived at the edge of the radar's field of vision through the high-dimensional Apocalypse Teleporter, heading toward the World Tree's temporary base.

…

After sailing for a period of time, the armed fleet of the three major civilizations arrived at the target location.

A cluster of interstellar bases floated in this area, surrounded by a hazy, glowing space in all directions. It was the Raelbo Space Protection Belt.

Beyond-visual-range light beams continued to shoot from behind this fleet. This was the firepower suppression that the three major civilizations had maintained for several days, but once they entered the Raelbo Space Protection Belt, the speed of the energy cannons suddenly became as slow as a turtle's crawl. At the same time, the light beams quickly shrank until they dissipated, and all their power was annihilated, as if they had entered an energy restricted area.

"This is it. The target is correct." The electronic eyes of Kant's main body flashed, transmitting the image back to the main base.

At the same time, the warships of the three major civilizations fired interstellar missiles, dragging their tail flames into the Raelbo Space Protection Belt. The physical missiles were not affected in any way and went straight to the central temporary base cluster.

But the next moment, the armor on the surface of the base slid open, and a row of close-defense turrets rose, sputtering out a metal storm, forming an impenetrable barrage, and blasting all the interstellar missiles halfway, detonating a series of fireworks.

Energy weapons were ineffective, and physical missiles could not penetrate the barrage. It was as difficult to deal with as a tortoise shell.

"It's not easy. It seems we have to break through inside. Let the fleet cross the Raelbo Space Protection Belt to facilitate an effective strike against their base cluster," the fleet commander said on the channel.

The Raelbo Space Protection Belt could not isolate quantum network communication. Kant opened the quantum network vision and tried to invade the base cluster and seize control, but was blocked by the firewall.

"There's a force protecting their firewall. I can't get in."

Kant retracted his vision and hesitated:

"I feel like it's a trap."

"Well, it's a bit strange. Assault Teams Two and Three, go in and take a look."

The fleet commander waved his hand and ordered a batch of assault warships to approach the other party's base cluster, while the main force remained around the main ship, holding back. Anyway, the other party had opened the Raelbo Space Protection Belt and could not launch external attacks.

"Dududu—"

But at this moment, the shipborne radar suddenly issued a piercing alarm.

Hundreds of large-caliber star-destroying light beams suddenly shot from the starry sky in another direction, heading straight for the armed fleet.

"Situation! Defense!"

Kant's expression changed, and the mechanical legion rushed out, forming shields, while the armed fleet also activated its own shields.

The next moment, hundreds of light beams bombarded them, causing the shields to sway precariously, arcs of electricity to flash, and cracks to spread.

This wave of beyond-visual-range strikes killed a small number of troops, and the rest of the power was blocked. However, before everyone could stabilize, large-scale beyond-visual-range strikes came from all directions at the same time, immediately blasting the fleet back and causing dangerous situations.

The image was synchronously transmitted back to the war room of the main base, and the expressions of Simon and the others changed slightly.

Melson tapped the metal chin of the main body and said:

"It seems that the World Tree has built a beyond-visual-range encampment of unknown size in the area that our radar has not reached, covering each other with beyond-visual-range strike ranges, guarding each other. I'm afraid the goal is not only to establish an outpost but also to use the Raelbo Space Protection Belt to imitate us in creating a fire coverage area to wear down our military strength…"

"What can you do?" Simon turned his head and asked.

"If Black Star's monitoring channels cannot get the coordinates of these bases, then as long as the bases don't fire, they are invisible to us. And the Raelbo Space Protection Belt is too棘手, remote strikes are almost ineffective, and if we fill it with troops, we will fall into the opponent's trap… This is not easy to handle."

Melson slowly shook his head.

The three major civilizations do have ample cosmic treasure reserves, but the World Tree has conquered one civilization after another, and its background is even more amazing. There are also many strategic weapons, which should not be underestimated.

Hearing this, Simon's expression was solemn. He was a little unsure and pursed his lips, sighing in his heart:

'It's a pity that Black Star, this special advisor, isn't here, otherwise, I could ask for his opinion…'