It was a colonized planet at the edge of the galaxy, orbiting a young and passionate star. In this galaxy far away from the capital, there were very few such colonized planets, and the nearest colony was dozens of light-years away. The high temperature and remoteness of its position meant that it was not a suitable place for enjoyment and habitation, and the purpose of its existence was to serve as the hub of the local space defense system. It was one of the countless military bases built by the Melovans in this universe. Now, it was unknown, but it was once glorious and illustrious a thousand years ago, and the Melovans had defeated the last resistance of this universe here. That intelligent species that once ruled this universe was just one step away from realizing the Void Realm beyond their universe. Their progress stopped when the Melovans invaded, and their last fleet was wiped out in this remote star system. Now, a small portion of those wreckages were still wandering the gravitational boundary of the star, waiting in the long journey to be captured by the star, or drifting into the endless darkness of space.
But no one would care about those wreckages, just as no one would care about the whereabouts of the former master of this universe. For this faraway military base, today was a normal day, and no one would worry about things that did not concern them. Its armed satellites surged with power, the planetary defense cannons in orbit were filled with psionic energy, and the huge Commander Class Carrier was just about to depart from the spaceport at the gravitational equilibrium point for its weekly deep-space patrol. The Melovans clenched their weapons, waiting for the boring day to end in the orbital station and military base on the surface. Their hearts were filled with pride and confidence, believing that they had ascended to the peak of civilization evolution. After the collapse of the once indescribably powerful Empire, they believed that they had replaced it and become the new peak of the mortal races — no, they believed that they had already surpassed the peak and become gods. When they looked down at the earth and into space, the belief in their hearts was even firmer. With such confidence, the commander of the orbital observatory decided to conduct another scan of deep space.
In truth, there was nothing worth scanning. This universe … or even all universes have no enemies. The Melovans smiled in satisfaction. He firmly believed in that. The second scan was just to show the power of the gods. When the Melovans' scanning signal swept across space, every channel would send back a tsunami of cheers. The inferior races that were hundreds of light-years away regarded the Melovan Empire patrol signal they received every day as the inspection of the gods, and their response to these signals was one of the only daily entertainment in this boring orbital station. The Melovans looked at the radar terminal in front of him, waiting for the soldiers beside him to complete the follow-up operation of the scanning station.
However, there was only silence. When the scanning device was activated, there was no response, not even any information from space. The powerful radar station seemed to have thrown all its energy into the endless Void, and there was only gray mist on the terminal in front of him, and a kind of buzzing noise echoed in the observation room.
"What's going on? The radar is not activated? " The Melovans frowned in dissatisfaction and looked at his soldier. This soldier was not smart, and could even be said to be very stupid. The number of mistakes he made was almost equal to the number of days he had served. Even though they were all minor mistakes, it was enough to accumulate enough dissatisfaction for the commander. But this soldier was a pure-blooded Melovan, a descendant of the vanguard who had led the rise of the race in the past. His bloodline allowed this soldier to receive a good treatment as an attendant in the office of the orbital station. Thinking of this, the commander decided to soften his tone. He believed that the pure-blooded Melovans had nobler genes in their bones, such as himself. It was just that in this soldier, the advantage of this noble race had not yet fully manifested. "Try to switch the multiplier module to the forward mode."
"Yes … Oh no, Sir." The soldier's forehead was a little sweaty as he quickly switched all the channels, his tone full of confusion. "It's not a problem with the multiplier module, the radar station is also working normally … Sir, we seem to have encountered trouble, all the channels are being interfered with … I've never seen this kind of interference, not even in the military school … Our scanning signal seems to have been lost. After they left the star system, they all fell into a blank zone. There is no feedback signal, and the non-delay detection device is warning because it thinks that we are sending in a direction that does not exist …"
"Nothing can interfere with the Empire's radar station." The commander impatiently waved the soldier away from the console as he turned over himself. "You must have gotten the warning threshold wrong and fell into a blank zone? This kind of interference does not exist at all … "
The commander suddenly paused mid-sentence as some vague memories emerged from the bottom of his heart. He remembered that this kind of interference did not really exist. Yes, there was once a civilization that had mastered this technology, a technology that could make any information disappear into thin air. Using this technology to create a jammer, any information sent by a conventional radar would be deleted midway, and in the eyes of the radar operator, it would be as if their own signal had fallen into a blank zone, just like the scene before them.
Officer Melovans shook his head forcefully, throwing these unpleasant memories out of his mind. This was a groundless worry. They no longer existed, along with their incredible technology. Now that the remaining taboo knowledge was in the hands of the Melovans, if this kind of interference really reappeared, it would only appear in their own equipment list. Could it be that the Sacred Imperial Army had finally cracked another set of blueprints, and one of the higher-ups was using this kind of method to play a joke on their subordinates?
This was an absurd hypothesis, but the officer decided to believe in his own guess. He smiled as he left the console and reached out to pat his soldier. "Don't worry, everything is normal. You should learn to become a truly qualified and noble divine descendant …"
Before he could finish his sentence, and before he could pat his hand, the entire rail station shook violently. The sudden shaking shook everything around it, scattering debris all over the ground. The soldier fell clumsily and exclaimed, "Sir! The rail station is going to crash! "
"Idiot! You're a soldier! Check the power unit immediately, one of the units may have exploded! " The officer barely stabilized himself in the shaking, and immediately slapped the soldier who had lost his composure at the critical moment to wake him up. "I heard an explosion in the lower zone …"
"Warning, the rail station's shield has been penetrated, the lower zones three to seven have been hit, the second structure has been completely lost … The rail station's artificial gravity is chaotic, the material leakage index is over 30%, the psionic reactor is not producing enough power …"
A low explosion came from a closer area, and the officer found that the direction of gravity in the room was tilting, which made it even more difficult for him to stand up straight. The violent shaking had turned into a frenzied shaking, as if this huge space entity the size of a town was being grabbed by a pair of giant hands and shaking violently. He found it difficult to breathe, and realized that it was because the air pressure in the room was dropping. Material leakage, the rail station must have a large hole that far exceeded the repair capacity, and soon the air pressure here would drop to a critical value, but perhaps he would not die of suffocation. Yes, the Mellowans were powerful, and the countless enhancements over the millennia had allowed the current generation of Mellowans to survive in the space environment for a long time, but the officer still felt a great fear surging in his heart. He was sure that the rail station had encountered a powerful attack, and this attack was even more dangerous than the strongest counterattack he had encountered when he led his army to wipe out the original intelligent races of this universe. Until now, the tactical system had not been able to report where the attack came from!
"Sir! A distress signal! The other rail stations have sent distress signals! All the rail stations are being bombed, we have lost half of them … Sir! The Commander-class aircraft carrier and frigate fleet docked at the spaceport have been ambushed by something, the warships have suffered heavy losses! "
The panicked voice of the soldier came from nearby, and the officer barely stood up in the tilted and fluctuating gravitational environment — perhaps not very straight. He tried to ignore the discomfort brought about by not being able to breathe. Suffocation alone would not kill the immortal Mellowans, he told himself as he calmed down a little, and then he saw the status of the rail station displayed on the holographic projection and gasped.
The rail station was a frame structure connected by multiple crosses, and now the center of the structure had completely disappeared. Something had hit here before the warning system could react, directly penetrating the station's psionic shield and leaving a horrifying hole through which the radiance of the star could be seen on the other side. Broken metal beams twisted and protruded out of the hole. The material leaking out of the orbital station was like blood and internal organ fragments splashing out of the giant hole in the hurricane caused by 1.2 atmospheres of pressure. Continuous explosions were spreading across all the structures of the rail station, and the flashing flames in the distance told the officer that it was the entire planet's defense circle that was under attack … No, even the entire planetary defense circle!
"Requesting reinforcements, we are under attack!" The soldier was calling every emergency channel according to the methods taught in the school handbook. The explosion was getting louder and louder, and the loudspeaker system in the observation room was a squeaky white noise. The officer kicked the seemingly useless soldier away. "Idiot! Our communication system is finished! Get the Admiral's aircraft carrier that has already left the spaceport to return to the city, with their combined shield we can still hold on for a while! Go, run, you idiot! "
The soldier stumbled out of the observation room, and the officer held the equipment platform that had fallen to the side and returned to his seat. This place would not explode for the time being. He knew that the observation room was protected by multiple layers of combined shield and rechargeable armor at the top of the rail station, and it had an independent energy system. Even if the rail station was now penetrated, it could still hold on for a while. But he was also sure that it would not be long — maybe fifteen minutes was the limit?
"Warning mainframe, bring me the surveillance footage of the closest point of impact before the attack."
"Yes, great god, retrieving the surveillance data … starting playback."
The officer felt that some of the words of the warning mainframe had given him a little comfort. Before the rail station exploded, he wanted to see what had destroyed the shield and the core area. The short video footage was less than three seconds long. He saw the dark space background, the pale gold and silver armor of the rail station, and then the explosion … He replayed the footage over and over again, and finally even patiently played it frame by frame in slow motion. The communication system in his ear was calling out, and people were frantically reporting in the emergency channel that something had been destroyed, that the Admiral's aircraft carrier had returned to the star circle, and now they were being blown to pieces by the psionic torrent from deep space and the invisible warhead, like swatting flies. The officer felt that those things were already far away from him, and nothing else mattered. All his attention was focused on the surveillance footage in front of him, the pitch-black space, the pale gold and silver armor layers, and a huge conical shadow that suddenly appeared on the screen.
The shadow was a little unfamiliar, but the words on it finally evoked the memory of the Melroy officer.
"X-3, Gravedigger … X-3, Gravedigger … They're back …"
The officer raised his head in a daze and found that the outside had calmed down. All the explosions and shouts in the emergency channel had stopped, and the orbital station was slowly falling toward the gravitational pull of the planet. The planet was not like the one he knew. Its surface was covered with lava ravines and a dark red luster. Everything had been burned to a crisp, and countless wreckages like his own orbital station were slowly falling toward the melting ground. The sudden attack and the downtime of all communication channels had turned the planet's defense facilities into molten metal before they could even fire. Space was filled with wreckages, and there was no longer any sound of life in the gravity sphere.
Except for his own heartbeat.
This space station was not attacked by the second X-3 Gravedigger, but the officer did not think that it was some kind of mistake. 'They' never make mistakes. 'They' were more precise than anything else. Under the order of extinction, the death was precise down to every single person, so he knew that he and the slowly falling rail station were deliberately left behind. So he tried to call the mainframe. "AI, are there any escape pods left?"
"Yes, great god, the number of escape pods available … one. AI suggests that you evacuate immediately."
Yes, the number of surviving lives in the entire star ring was one, and the number of escape pods was also one. 'They' were as precise as before.
Officer Melroy raised his head and looked at the already pitch-black projector.
"Activate the escape pod, I … I don't want to die …"
Officer Melroy looked up and stared at us. His expression was fixed on the image. After that, he left the battlefield in the escape pod. We did not intercept him, and even specially opened the gravitational blockade zone.
This was a spy image sent back by a Sentinel Probe that had sneaked into the rail station. The Melroy people had been peaceful for too long. They may have been excellent warriors, and may still have a fierce reputation, but their basic forces had inevitably become lax. They did not expect that the Sentinel Probe would so easily enter the defense command post of a military planet. The level of defense here was simply incomparable to that of the Holy Kingdom. This made the hot-blooded Pandora and Visca a little disappointed: the battle was already over before they could even rush out themselves.
"Not a bad side show." Sandora elegantly put down the black tea, her gaze still on the image. She saw the Melroy officer's performance throughout the entire process as an entertainment show, and Princess Warsong also had some wicked tastes. "Now we have destroyed all military bases in this universe with a level of alert below III, and the Imperial Army has found a foothold at the edge."
"The next battle is the real show." Lin Xue looked at the flickering star map in front of her. I was sure she could not understand it at all, but it was just like drawing two tarot cards during a prophecy or holding a large glass ball and chanting the Great Compassion Mantra. This was the pretentious style of a young lady. She felt that as a general of an army, if she did not have a strategic map in front of her when she spoke, she would be letting down the military emblem on her chest — although she did not even like to wear a military uniform. "Soon, the Melroy people will know what happened in these places, and they will organize a regular army that can really fight to face the enemy. What we have destroyed now are just some old and young soldiers who have not been trained enough to enjoy their old age."
"It's okay, we have accurately calculated the enemies we will face." Sandora looked at the clock beside her. "When is my meal ready?"
I looked at her silently. "… Do you really want to eat twelve meals a day? Half an hour ago, you just … "
"Ah Jun, you have to know, after this meal, I will not be able to eat for almost a month." Sandora's expression was very serious, as if what she was talking about was as important as world peace. "I promise, after this meal, I will transform …"
I was speechless.
According to the pre-agreed tactics, the Imperial Army would first launch a surprise attack at the main edge of Melroy's world, destroying a large number of the enemy's military targets at the same time, causing great chaos in the Melroy people. After that, the Empire's fleet would then take advantage of the enemy's chaos to build a fortress in the Prime Material Plane and carry out subsequent military operations. So far, the first phase of the battle was very successful. The spy footage showed that the star system of this military node was destroyed under the personal attack of the Imperial Army. However, this kind of surprise attack could only be so successful the first time, the Melroy people would have to be more vigilant after this.
After a few consecutive stealth jumps, the fleet arrived at the Melroy military node that had just been destroyed. The structure of this star system was still intact, but the original Melroy facilities on it had become ruins. We did not use large weapons that could destroy the structure of the star system, in order to preserve such a natural bridgehead. This star system with many planets could allow our motherships to unfold and enter the process of a surge of troops faster. Moreover, the Melroy people would not expect that the Imperial Army would suddenly return to a destroyed ruin to build a base. They would most likely be busy in space where the Imperial Army launched their attack for a while. This amount of time would be enough for the Bubble that we brought with us to build a house.
The war had already begun.
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