Chapter 364: War!
Venal Galaxy was 3.9 million lightyears away from the capital. A single Caladarian Scorpion-cla.s.s electronic warfare battles.h.i.+p was on its usual patrol route, searching for any abnormal signals nearby, monitoring each wars.h.i.+p pa.s.sing by.
Electronic warfare battles.h.i.+ps were not equipped with too much firepower as their primary role was to disrupt and search for enemies. Their high-tech electronics system made it so that they were able to detect suspicious s.h.i.+ps in the surrounding 100,000-lightyear radius easily or detect any strange energy signatures in the universe.
All of a sudden—
Flas.h.i.+ng dots rapidly appeared across the Caladarian Scorpion’s radar, increasing in number like a sudden heavy snowfall, across the display. In a matter of minutes, the entire top left corner of the radar display was stained white.
The preemptive warning system let out a piercing klaxxon, the indicator lights flas.h.i.+ng wildly, bathing the entire command deck red and black glows.
“Captain, a large number of unknown wars.h.i.+ps have appeared somewhere 714 lightyears away from us!” cried the radar operator in disbelief as he stared at the display screen.
“What are their numbers? s.h.i.+p models? What fleets are they from?” the large bearded captain, who had been drowsily leaning back on the command chair, leaped to his feet, rus.h.i.+ng to the radar system and staring at the screen with puzzlement as he issued a series of commands.
“The radar system indicated that they are of unknown signatures. We have no way of knowing the wars.h.i.+p signals of the other party or whom they belong to. Their numbers are currently at 1139 and counting. Oh, my G.o.d—this is a superfleet! It even has capital s.h.i.+ps! MANY CAPITAL s.h.i.+PS!”
The bearded captain abruptly became dazed. The war in the Death Tri-region had not yet settled, while the wretched insectoids had been gathering plenty of wars.h.i.+ps right by their borders. The defense of the Pan-human Alliance was at an unprecedented level of shakiness. Perhaps this was an emergency combat exercise that the military attempted, for only the military had permissions to hide their wars.h.i.+p signatures, making it so that electronic systems would be unable to scan their s.h.i.+p model and ID.
After a pause, the bearded captain gave another order. “Communications officer, immediately contact the defense headquarters; I want to know if the military is doing a drill. Everyone, don’t panic yet. Remember: The capital is near, so if they’re really enemies, there’s no way our allies won’t have known that these ent.i.ties managed to encroach deep into the core of the Alliance.”
The young preemptive warning system operator nodded as he kept his eyes glued to the screen.
“Captain, the defense headquarters has confirmed that there are no authorized fleets near our vicinity. That is to say, these fleets we have spotted do not belong to the Alliance!” The communications officer hurriedly reported the response from the headquarters loudly. Despite his standard defense force uniform, he could still clearly make out his heart pumping intensely, seemingly about to burst right out of his chest.
“Can you say that again.” The bearded captain was bewildered. He could not believe the message from the defense headquarters.
“These aren’t our fleets.”
At that moment, the bearded man could only feel his blood roll inside him, dizziness overcoming him. He uneasily staggered two steps backward as the color on his face turned whiter than snow.
“Captain, the number of enemy wars.h.i.+ps has already broken five thousand; what do we do?”
“What can we do?”
“Captain, let’s just warn the headquarters in advance first.”
The bearded captain held out his thick palms and gave himself a slap, forcibly sobering himself up.
“Everyone shut up!” He was nearly bellowing. “Report to the defense headquarters, Admiralty, Ministry of Military Affairs, Alliance Defense—send them all a warning. A SSS-level warning!”
The soldiers were all rooted to the spot. Under normal circ.u.mstances, the highest level of warning was code red, yet the captain had just ordered them to give a SSS-level warning—a level of warning not within the usual range but instead the ultimate wartime alert across the entire Alliance, codenamed Destruction. Anyone knew that hearing the code signified the coming of armageddon as it was the most severe warning level.
“Connect me to the headquarters.” The bearded captain wiped his forehead off sweat as he said this. It had merely been a minute and he was already drenched in sweat.
“Headquarters, I am captain Ritters of Guardian 17, an electronic warfare battles.h.i.+p. I am requesting a jump to a point of anomaly to engage in close contact confirmation,” the bearded Ritters said in a somber voice.
The soldiers on the command deck were all nervous hearing that. A close contact confirmation meant that their wars.h.i.+p would directly warp into the center of that ma.s.sive fleet. If they were truly a fleet belonging to the enemies, this one jump would mean their deaths.
“Guardian 17, the headquarters has authorized your request to engage in close contact observation. G.o.dspeed.”
The military’s command was cold and emotionless, and that final send off was something the communications officer on the other end could not help but offer. Everyone knew that such an order to a battles.h.i.+p was like sending a thousand warriors off to h.e.l.l.
Dead silence permeated the command deck. It was as if the air had instantly frozen.
“Everyone, you’d better sober up!” The bearded Ritters bellowed his rebuke. “Activate the warp drive; I wanna see just who were so bold to appear so close to the Alliance capital, unannounced.”
This was when the radar operator, who had only recently joined the army, reported in a hoa.r.s.e voice, cracking as he was nearly on the verge of tears. “The number of the unknown wars.h.i.+ps has already broken twenty thousand. The review of their signatures through the distributed radar has just indicated that these are insectoid wars.h.i.+ps. They’re insectoids.”
“I don’t care what race they are! We’ve already been given our orders, which I am relaying to all of you; we’re going to get a closer look.” Ritters’ reply was almost hysterical.
A bright channel appeared in front of the wars.h.i.+p, and the bright glowing reflected off the hull of this Scorpion-cla.s.s battles.h.i.+p, which had served the Alliance for decades. This wars.h.i.+p was well-maintained, and it looked brand new.
Captain Ritters walked back to his captain’s seat somewhat unsteadily. There was no living human, even heroes, who would not feel fear with death looming before them. There would always be all sorts of heroes shown in films, able to ignore their fate as they were facing the grim reaper, sans the slightest hint of timidity, but that was only something that existed in films. In reality, even heroes were just men, and they too would feel fear. The only difference was that heroes would be able to show greater fort.i.tude than the average human beings in such situations.
“Those with family, send off an email while you can; tell them to escape as soon as possible,” Ritters said in a low voice.
They very quickly got through the wormhole. Guardian 17 steadily exited, and every single one aboard the battles.h.i.+p stared out a porthole, praying to their non-existent G.o.ds, but they were soon disappointed. No. It was more of despair.
Seeing the tens and thousands of insectoid wars.h.i.+ps before them, this was the first time Captain Ritters felt how miniscule his Scorpion-cla.s.s battles.h.i.+p was in comparison, just like a drop of water to a vast ocean. It was simply an indescribable juxtaposition.
“Send this live feed to the headquarters,” Ritters ordered. “Send it across all channels along with a warning to the enemy s.h.i.+ps.
“Lock onto the nearest insectoid wars.h.i.+p. Prepare to fire the guided missiles.”
The skinny soldier in charge of operating the weapons system initiated the warmup even as tears rolled down his cheeks. He responded with a cracked voice, “Captain, this is futile.”
Captain Ritters glared at him even as he let out a growl, “This isn’t about futility! We are soldiers, so our mission is our duty. The Alliance Honorary Defense Force, patrol code article 13: When a patrolling wars.h.i.+p locates an enemy, a warning must be issued and a counterattack must be executed on the spot.”
The soldiers were all shocked. What Ritters had said was the truth. Their mission was indeed to eliminate any enemy that dared to invade the Alliance. There was no difference if it was a single enemy or ten thousand of them.
The four FURY cruise missiles blazed into fiery trails as they flew toward an insectoid battles.h.i.+p. It was weak and ineffectual, like a child using their tender fists to beat a giant. Just as these missiles were fired, countless gloriously radiant lasers were unleashed, instantly disintegrating that battles.h.i.+p, Guardian 17, into dust.
It was 6:08 a.m., Venal time. The second war between humans and insectoids had officially begun…
…
On the Impaler’s command deck, Xia Fei was sipping tea as he leisurely gazed at the tens of thousands of insectoid s.h.i.+ps outside.
Suddenly, Xia Fei’s right arm vibrated, and the teacup in his hand spilled all over his pants.
“What are you doing?” Phantom ridiculed Xia Fei. “To think you could spill tea all over your pants just trying to drink it. To think you proudly called yourself a high-ranking speed ability user.”
Xia Fei set the teacup down and pulled out a handkerchief to wipe himself, mumbling, “I suddenly had this very bad premonition today, as if something is about to happen.”
…
Phantom laughed. “It’s your amazing intuition acting up again. You’re only a special ability user who has a fully opened seventh brain region, not some precog.”
Xia Fei shrugged and did not comment. However, the heavy sensation he had felt in his heart was getting heavier. It was a very strange feeling, as if he had accidentally lost something that he would miss greatly.
He looked up and glanced at the multi-time zone clock hanging on the wall of the command deck. It was around 6 a.m. in Venal, which was most likely a time when Avril should be asleep. He had no idea if she was having a restful sleep, wondering whether she would occasionally toss her bed covers over or maybe drool slightly as she slept.
Xia Fei was somewhat amused by this thought, his lips curling into the slightest of smiles as he thought to himself, ‘A drooling Avril must be a very lovely sight, right?’
Suddenly—
The display system automatically switched on. It was an emergency transmission from the military, using their supreme authority to establish a connection with everyone unceremoniously.
Xia Fei was surprised by this as he took several steps closer to the holographic screen. All he saw was General Williams bearing a very grim expression, a look of seriousness that Xia Fei felt the man had never shown before.
“Three minutes ago, an insectoid fleet had suddenly appeared in the Venal Galaxy, some 4.9 million lightyears away from the Alliance capital, and destroyed a reconnaissance s.h.i.+p of ours. Fifteen minutes later, the president gave a speech, officially declaring war on insectoids.”
Everyone’s mouth hung agape, flabbergasted. The situation had developed well beyond their expectations. Who would have thought that the insectoid fleets would actually abruptly appear in the heart of the Alliance without any preamble? Just how did they succeed in doing this?
A distance of 4.9 million lightyears might sound far, but to a wars.h.i.+p equipped with warp engines, it would merely take four days to descend upon the capital ring. Given how the main fleets of the Alliance were all garrisoned defending the borders of Endaro Star Region, the capital defense force would hardly be able to put up any effective defense for long.
This was an extremely diabolical move—a singular a.s.sault that would strike right at the weak underbelly of the Alliance.
There was but a brief pause. Williams did not even bother waiting for anyone to ask any question when he anxiously continued. “We’ve fallen for the insectoids’ trap. The Alliance’s main fleets are now here by the borders, while their main fleets have already gone for a surprise attack; the military is immediately holding an emergency meeting, so there’s no way anyone can take care of you. Best I can do is inform you all about this through the Black Bat radar.
“The enemy is yet unaware that we have learned of their maneuver. Escape while you still can right now. May you rest in peace if you fail,” said Williams in a solemn voice, offering his parting words with a measure of guilt.