The constant pressure exerted by the Protoss on the other side of the Abyss finally forced the Fallen Apostles to deploy more of their forces to the distant borders. Regardless of the internal problems of the Fallen Apostles, it seemed that their military mobilization and external defense mechanism were still operating normally. There might be some decline in efficiency, but at least they were still able to respond effectively to the Protoss invasion.
But this did not have much of an impact. Even if the Fallen Apostles' defense mechanism was still operating, they could not possibly withstand the attacks from both the New Empire and the Protoss at the same time.
The Protoss were adept at sustained combat and stable advancement. Even though their movement speed was not as fast as the Shiring Apostles, they had powerful battlefield recovery capabilities and the ability to resist pressure. The more fleets the Fallen Apostles sent to face the Protoss army, the deeper they would be trapped, and the less the Imperial Army would be able to retaliate once they began to move. The enemy commanders definitely knew this, but they had no choice but to constantly push their fleets to the forefront of the Protoss's attack. If they did not do so, the Abyss would soon be breached by the Protoss.
Under enough pressure, the Fallen Apostles would also misjudge and underestimate the threat of the New Empire. That was the time for the Imperial Army to move.
Following Sandora's command, the massive Empire fleet slowly broke away from the spaceport's lockdown field and jumped into the void in batches, charging towards the Abyssal Rampart that had been blocking the Imperial Army for years.
"The First Legion is approaching the Abyss identification zone. The vanguard and the main fleet are executing the Order Field separation … separation complete. The vanguard and the main fleet have deviated by 35%. They will make contact with the enemy outpost ahead of time."
"The Fourth Legion has deployed the Void Disruptors. Deployment complete!"
"Abyssal reaction detected in the identification zone … Confirmed to be the Fallen Apostles' frontline outpost! Expanding the Order Field, executing a quick kill! "
The reports from the various fleets were gathered at GHQ, and the commanders of each fleet decided on their own battle plans. GHQ was personally overseen by Sives and Sandora, coordinating all the fleets. As they approached the Abyss, the intelligence that the Empire Admiral's command hall had to process increased at a visible rate. However, the most outstanding frontline commanders and generals of the Empire were gathered here, and the sea of frontline intelligence was being processed in an orderly manner without any disorder.
I knew that it was best not to interfere with things that I did not understand, and so I waited quietly by the side, my eyes never leaving the holographic projection before me. The ship's mainframe had translated the abstract Void routes into a diagram that was easy to understand, and I had a general grasp of the fleet's current situation and the progress of the crossfire zone.
The Abyss on the diagram was like a mass of tangled cotton, with large patches of shadows clustered on one side of the image, representing a distorted zone that was completely unknown to the Imperial Army, and the edges of these shadows were messy and uneven wavy lines. These wavy lines were not actual 'defensive lines', but interference belts formed by a large number of Void outposts and Void fortresses. These interference belts formed by Void facilities extended endlessly, shrouding the entire Abyss in a dense fog. It was precisely the erratic information they emitted that caused the Empire to be unable to accurately scan the situation within the Abyss, and also unable to accurately pinpoint 99% of the physical world there. As long as these Void outposts were still operational, they could continuously disrupt the Empire's Void engines, preventing us from charging into the interior of the Fallen Apostles. That was why the Imperial Army was now gradually destroying these outposts.
Void outposts were set up outside the world, and they were surrounded by a constant field of Order, which was why they could be permanently deployed in the Void. Void outposts were usually not large in scale, usually only equivalent to a small spaceport. These outposts were mainly used for surveillance and warning, as well as acting as interference towers. Their combat capabilities were sufficient to deal with small invading forces, but they were clearly inadequate against the pressure of a large army. The method that the Empire used to deal with these small outposts was simple and violent, and that was to expand the fleet's field of Order, and directly charge over.
The small field of Order of the outpost would be swallowed in an instant, and then the outpost itself would be strafed by the fleet's secondary cannons at very close range, and under normal circumstances, it would only take a round of strafing to turn them into ashes.
The field of Order was the only thing that spaceships relied on to survive in the Void, and it was also the prerequisite for all conventional equipment and observation methods to function normally. Due to the unique nature of the Void, the concept of 'observation' did not exist where there was no field of Order, and that was why we could not 'see' anything outside the field of Order without the aid of Void radars, even if it was' clinging 'to the field of Order. Within the range of the Void,' clinging 'and' infinitely far 'were the same concept. That was why when the Empire's fleet swept through the Void outposts of the Fallen Apostles, an abyssal facility would suddenly appear in the Chaos far away from the fleet, and all warships at firing angles would fire their secondary cannons at full force, and the overwhelming firepower would instantly destroy that small outpost.
Simple and direct — but that didn't mean that we were unstoppable. The Void Outpost was just the most basic warning unit at the border. Just like the automatic machine guns outside a fortress, it should be easy for a fleet to destroy them. The true large-scale counterattack had yet to appear.
The Empire's fleet was not swarming towards the Abyss — that would be no different from reckless fools seeking death. In fact, each fleet had different combat missions, and even in the special environment of the Void where cannons could not be fired, each fleet had various tactical maneuvers.
The First Fleet was responsible for the direct assault, and they were divided into three tiers: the vanguard, the main force, and the rear. The information deviation between the three tiers was thirty-five percent, to ensure that the Orderly Field of the vanguard would not interfere or fuse with the rear, and to prevent the enemy's Void Disruptors (a dangerous weapon that could reduce the stability of the field of Order) from posing too much of a threat to the entire fleet. Void Disruptors were the most commonly equipped defensive weapons at border outposts, and even though most of the enemy outposts did not have the time to use them, once they were deployed, they would pose a fatal threat to the Empire's fleet, and the vanguard was also clearing out these things while dealing with the Void outposts. Meanwhile, the main force and rear forces of the First Fleet were constantly changing battleships with the vanguard fleet. They had built a battlefield facility similar to the World Gate in the Orderly Field, which was used for rapid travel between the Orderly Fields. If the Orderly Field was seen as a simplified version of the universe, then jumping from one Orderly Field to another would, of course, require the help of the World Gate.
The First Fleet's ships were constantly rotating between the three Orderly Fields, swapping out the damaged ships of the vanguard to ensure that the spear was always sharp and invincible.
There was also another purpose for dividing the fleet into several small Orderly Fields: the smaller the size of the Orderly Field, the less information it contained, and the faster it "moved" in the Void. If you think of a fleet as a file, and the process of moving in the Void as cutting and pasting, then obviously the smaller the file, the faster it moved. What we need now is speed: before the Fallen Apostle's counterattack escalates, we must find a material world that we can occupy and use as a bridgehead. Otherwise, the fleet will not be able to display its combat power in the Void.
Dividing a fleet into several Orderly Fields, constantly jumping between these Orderly Fields to ensure that one of the fleet's combat power was full, and while making full use of the speed advantage of the small Orderly Field, it also ensured that the entire fleet's advancement speed and frontline combat power. This tactic was Pandora's favorite. She was also the one who invented it. She created it 1,260,000 years ago, and it was still very effective. In a situation where one had the advantage of numbers and surprise attacks, this tactic could magnify the fleet's advancement speed to almost the limit.
Of course, this tactic also had its drawbacks, and that was that it was very risky. If the rear did not have enough reinforcements to arrive in a short time, or the enemy's combat power was too strong, this spear that emphasized speed and sharpness would easily break. After all, it needed to split the entire fleet into several parts, and while the fleet increased its speed, its ability to resist attacks would also decrease.
In any case, it was really in line with Pandora's pig-like character.
While the First Fleet was clearing the outer layer of the Abyss, the Fourth Fleet was responsible for constantly releasing Void Disruptors. These temporarily deployed Void Disruptors were weaker than the fixed equipment equipped with the Void Outposts, but they were still a considerable threat. They were actually a small Orderly Field device, but unlike a normal Orderly Field, the Orderly Field produced by the Void Disruptors was oscillating rapidly. It had sixteen different Orderly Groups, each of which could be seen as a 'worldview' (if the Orderly Field was seen as a simulation of a self-consistent mathematical system, then it was essentially no different from a small world, just a self-explanatory set of formulas). The Void Disruptors would quickly switch the form of their Orderly Field according to a certain code, and when they came into contact with other Orderly Fields, these little things would break into a binary system and forcibly read hexadecimal code, destroying the surrounding laws. We know that the main reason why the Orderly Field could keep a fleet safe in the Void was that it was a self-circulating, self-explanatory 'rule book'. If there was something in the rule book that could not be explained, then naturally the entire system would be stuck.
Void Disruptors were such things. They would disrupt the Orderly Field locally and reduce the stability of the system. When the number of Void Disruptors reached a certain level, the latter would be stuck. For a fleet navigating in the Void, this was fatal. Therefore, the Void Disruptors were seen as the only effective 'weapon' in the Void. However, although these things were very useful, they could only be used for defense. In the Void, 'firing' weapons were not allowed. You could not shoot such a disruptor at the enemy like a cannonball, because you could not create a fire-control device that could accurately lock onto and track other Orderly Fields. Therefore, the greatest use of these disruptors was to deploy them around yourself, to create a safe zone for yourself.
The Sixth and Seventh Fleets did not have any combat missions for the time being. What they needed to do now was to follow the First Fleet and the Fourth Fleet together with the Royal Fleet. They would preserve their strength and activate concealment until we came into contact with the Fallen Apostle's material universe. These two fleets would be our main forces to capture the bridgehead.
The other second-line forces (such as the reserve echelon) were in their respective Orderly Fields, maintaining a thirty-five to seventy-five percent information offset with the Central Army. Their combat mission was to adapt. If the enemy's main forces appeared, they would be responsible for meeting them. If we reached the enemy's material universe before that, they would be responsible for bombarding them. In short, we had to preserve the combat effectiveness of our ace forces as much as possible.
The figure of the First Fleet's commander-in-chief appeared on the communicator. "It has been confirmed that we have made physical contact with the Abyss. The number of enemy void outposts has increased rapidly. A large number of void fortresses have been detected ahead. The vanguard forces have encountered strong resistance."
The holographic image next to the communicator showed the situation of the First Fleet. They could be seen fighting an 'indescribable' thing. A series of sudden explosions erupted from the bodies of ships, or they disappeared into the Orderly Field. This was the result of colliding with the enemy's void disruptor. The power of the disruptor had caused part of the Orderly Field to collapse. Those ships that were unfortunate enough to be hit were either severely damaged or thrown into the void.
As the enemy's counterattack grew stronger, the black and red self-destructing drones and suicide warships also began to frequently barge into the First Fleet's Orderly Field. They suddenly appeared on the monitor screen and then madly pounced on all the large ships. This reckless attack was effective. The First Fleet's cleaning speed was slowing down. If this continued, Pandora's' three-team rotation 'strategy might not be able to keep up with the fleet's speed of depletion.
"The Fourth Fleet has gone to support you," Sandora said calmly. "Continue to maintain the cleaning speed. Hand over the void fortresses to the reserve echelon assault team. We must immediately land in the material world."
"The void environment is really troublesome," Visca muttered a little anxiously. "We can't even use the main cannons."
Just as Sandora had said, the Fallen Apostles did not let down their guard against the New Empire just because of the Protoss's attack on the other side of the border. Most of their troops in the inland might have been added to the battlefield against the Protoss, but the number of troops on this side of the line of defense had not decreased much. As the Imperial Army continued to advance into the Abyss, we began to encounter stronger and stronger counterattacks.
The First Fleet's advance speed was no longer as fast as it was at the beginning. The 'three-team rotation' strategy would greatly increase the advancement speed and efficiency of the First Fleet (because it had always been using the best one-third of the fleet's vanguard), but its ability to resist pressure was not strong. When the Fallen Apostles gathered and began to counterattack, the vanguard began to suffer heavy losses. Sandora had already ordered the Fourth Fleet to support them. However, it seemed that it would be impossible for us to maintain the smooth momentum from the beginning.
But there was at least one piece of good news. Although the enemy's counterattack was fierce, we did not detect any signs of a large-scale transfer of troops from the inland. It seemed that the Protoss had indeed drawn all the attention of the Fallen Apostles to the other side of the line.
However, Sandora's brows were tightly knitted. Even though the current situation was all according to plan, she showed no signs of relaxing. I could not help but look at her curiously. "What's wrong? Do you feel that something is wrong? "
"The enemy's military strength shouldn't be this small." Sandora pointed at the map of the battlefield. The Imperial Army was like a swarm of bees, continuously approaching the Abyss. The black and red symbol that represented the Fallen Apostles was currently emerging from the Abyss. I saw that everything was normal, but Sandora discovered that something was amiss. "Even if the Protoss can draw most of the enemy's attention over, the Fallen Apostles would still not have no troops to send into the inland. Right now, the counterattack forces we are facing are all the enemy's border troops. If we are talking about an active defense, the Abyss has not sent any troops into the inland. If we are talking about giving up on this line … The intensity of the counterattack the First Fleet is facing is not something to be trifled with."
"Who knows? Maybe they really have lost everything in the civil war." I shrugged.
I understood what Sandora meant. The military strength that the Fallen Apostles had displayed was far less than what they had expected. Even if they were to take into account their losses in the civil war and the fact that the Protoss had pinned them down, the military strength that they had displayed was still insufficient. Her Majesty the Queen, who was used to carefully considering everything, felt a little uneasy at this moment.
"Lost everything?" Sandora smiled. "I really hope that's the case. It's a pity that I feel that the Fallen Apostles aren't that stupid. No matter how much conflict they have internally, they wouldn't go so far as to abandon their foundation."
Right at this moment, a report suddenly came from the command hall below. "Your Majesty! A physical universe has been detected within the warp range! Light Abyss contamination. The stability has met the landing requirements! "
Sandora immediately stood up. "The First Fleet, reorganize the orderly field and prepare for the second batch to land. The Fourth Fleet, set up interference belts on the world barrier. The Sixth Fleet, Seventh Fleet, prepare to charge in. Xiaoxue —"
Sandora turned her head to look at our Prophet. Xiaoxue, who had been pretending to sleep just a second ago, had now opened her eyes. The white light in the depths of her eyes slowly dissipated. "There are a large number of spatial mines around the landing point. First, send a batch of self-destructing drones to detonate those things. After we land, there will be a round of the strongest counterattack. Concentrate the firepower on the flanks of the Sixth Fleet. The Seventh Fleet's Throne of Judgement will go up and teach those lunatics a lesson with your Reflect Mode. Then, activate your shields. That's all."
— — This was the strength of a Prophet.
After Xiaoxue had explained all the things to take note of, I nodded at Sandora and waved my hand towards the command hall below. "All fleets, move out!"
The Sixth and Seventh Fleets represented the New Empire's two strongest fleets in the technological side and the mystical side respectively (the latter had to be represented because the mystical side currently only had one organized force). After receiving the order, they adjusted their orderly fields without hesitation and charged towards the nearest physical universe. The Fallen Apostles had set up a large number of interference and locking systems on the world barrier of this universe. However, under the concentrated assault of the Imperial Army's entire fleet, these defenses were quickly declared to have collapsed.
After less than half an hour of intense fighting on the world barrier, the Sixth and Seventh Fleets successfully landed.
However, the true battle had only just begun.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
