Xyrin Empire
Chapter 419 - Chapter 419 Chapter 419 Accidental Discharge

Chapter 419: Chapter 419 Accidental Discharge Chapter 419: Chapter 419 Accidental Discharge Two colossal fleets stood off in the silent expanse of space, and despite being hundreds of thousands of kilometers apart, the tense atmosphere had already infiltrated the bones of everyone involved.

“Zeratul, are these your kindred?”

Although I had a basic understanding of the situation, I still asked the Dark Templar beside me.

“If we speak from the Protoss’ perspective, they are my kindred,” Zeratul’s voice sounded low and slow, “but perhaps the Taldarim would not acknowledge us exiled heretics as their brethren.”

What a headache of xenophobia, I sighed to myself after hearing Zeratul’s words.

The internal splits within the Protoss had been mended through the united efforts of Zeratul and Tassadar, but it seemed that the Taldarim faction still couldn’t accept those considered “heretics” from the Dark Templar returning to the tribe’s embrace. These secrets, hard to come by in the original “plot,” were indeed eye-opening–as if proving the old saying, “The ones who hate you the most are often your own people.”

“What are your demands?”

I had already made up my mind, but I casually exchanged pleasantries with the opposition. The Prothos mistook this inquiry for a sign of weakness and immediately responded with an uptick in their tone, “Leave our holy land immediately, hand over our divine artifacts, and you, as the leader of this force, must come to our warship personally to repent for your reckless actions!”

“Ground forces, continue operations.”

I shrugged nonchalantly and issued the command. Instantly, the halted survey ships resumed their scanning and analysis of the Protoss sanctums.

I’m not the type to sacrilegiously desecrate others’ beliefs or cherished items. So even without the presence of the Taldarim, I wouldn’t have rashly destroyed these Protoss ruins but rather explored these mysterious structures as carefully as possible. Even Zeratul himself had no objections to our harmless investigation. Yet, to the zealous and xenophobic Taldarim, perhaps our mere presence as “aliens” on their ancestors’ sacred ground was already a significant desecration. For such an unreasonable theory, I believed indifference was the best response.

Damn it! If it weren’t for Uncle Z’s sake, I’d have already ordered sanctions under the one-sided Protoss Human Rights Act, and they’d be extinct before long!

Our ground forces’ actions immediately enraged the Taldarim fleet, situated tens of thousands of kilometers away, facing off against the Imperial Fleet. The enemy commander, named Prothos, issued a declaration similar to a final ultimatum with a stern tone: “Foolish and barbaric aliens! You must pay for your ignorance! Your fragile ships will be reduced to flames, appeasing the sins you’ve committed against the Protoss ancestors!”

As Prothos finished this fiercely threatening ultimatum, a high-energy reaction alarm sounded immediately on our mothership’s main computer. I hadn’t anticipated their patience to be even shorter than I had imagined–they decided to disconnect and start the fight after a mere two or three exchanges!

As the most technologically advanced race in this star zone, the Protoss fleet was naturally unparalleled compared to human ships, not to mention the enemy’s numbers totalled nearly ten thousand vessels. When their main cannon charging began for a moment, the mothership’s main computer issued an urgent alarm.

“Warning! Warning! High energy reaction detected ahead! High energy reaction detected ahead! Warship shield power increased! Counterattack weapons ready to fire.”

The thousand-plus spindle-shaped warships following behind the Divine Race’s mother ship turned out to be exactly as I expected–the infamous Void Ships. Of course, they also go by another name: Curved Light Ships. I think the second appellation is more fitting. After all, once I understood the real meaning of the word “Void,” it seemed somewhat of an overstatement to name these warships after it.

Through the holographic projection in front of me, I could see the mechanical arms at the front ends of those spindle-shaped warships slowly spreading apart. A series of focusing prisms on their inner side began to glow with a bright blue-white light, charging up from hundreds of thousands of kilometers away, yet the energy had not been launched. This indicated that in the real interstellar world, the Curved Light Ship’s charging did not necessitate a continuous attack on a specific target–this significant difference from the game settings endowed the Energy-Gathering Photonic Cannon with an even more formidable threat, similar to how the Insect Race that could create mobile incubation pools and one-time Flying Dragons on the front line seemed to surpass the projections from Earth by more than just a notch.

“Zeratul, I’m sorry, it looks like I will have to battle your kin.”

The sudden downturn in the situation caused even this battle-hardened warrior to struggle. Having had certain contact with Imperial Soldiers, he had nearly grasped a sense of our strength, especially the two astonishing strikes from Lilina that made him hold our mysterious powers in awe. Even though his understanding was still quite superficial, it was sufficient to make him realize that the Protos Fleet tens of thousands of kilometers away didn’t necessarily hold any advantage in this confrontation. Once the battle commenced, the outcome would likely be terrible. Still, in the end, he could only let out a long sigh.

At this point, nothing could stop the outbreak of battle.

“Imperial Fleet, initiate full-scale anti-phasing! Subordinate units, enter the mother ship’s protective force field! Warship main cannons, charge. Energy Raiders, target–all enemy energy attack equipment!”

After receiving my clearance for combat, the mother ship captain immediately issued a series of precise commands adeptly, and the Imperial Fleet, which had always been as silent as a beast lurking in the shadows, revealed its terrifying fangs in response to Taldarim’s provocation.

Strictly speaking, although there had been a skirmish with a fleet from the Independent Federation before, it was merely a personal crushing game by Pandora and Visca. Thousands of human warships were nothing but playthings to the two Strategic Level young ladies. Today’s encounter was the first true confrontation between the Imperial Fleet and an Alien Fleet; therefore, I ordered without reservation, starting up all the impressively named devices one after another.

A staggering flow of energy surged through every pipeline of the gigantic warship, with the whistling sound of energy movement ascending sharply like the whistle of a rapidly approaching train. Led by the Eternal-class battlecruiser as the flagship, the cooling grates at the aft of every Xyrin Spaceship flashed instantaneously from dark red to blazing white. Powered by the combined energy of three Other Space Ghost Energy Wells, the Galaxy Main Gun at the bow of the Eternal-class ship slowly manifested sparkling starfires. The charging process of this unprecedentedly powerful Energy-Gathering Cannon even caused the bridge we stood on to tremble–or perhaps it was my illusion. Honestly, just watching through the holographic projection was thrilling enough.

Complex lights flickered in Zeratul’s eyes. On the one hand, the Taldarim’s zealous heretics were enemies of the Dark Templar, launching senseless attacks on the Protos natives of Shakuras more than once. In many instances, they also treated every Dark Templar they encountered as heretics to be “purified.” But on the other hand, the current situation involved an unfamiliar “Imperial Army” opening fire on his own kin. This caused Uncle Z to feel deeply conflicted.

At that moment, the charging phase of the enemy’s thousand-plus Curved Light Ships was finally complete. Our apparently unflinching response might have sown a small seed of doubt in the Prothos, but it did nothing to stop their resolve to attack us.

The distance of tens of thousands of kilometers was as good as instant for the lightspeed Energy-Gathering Cannons, and the core computer aboard the Eternal-class, known as preternaturally powerful by any Imperial battleship’s central computer, was even faster than light itself. Just as the thousands of massive Photon Jets were about to strike the vanguard of the Imperial Fleet, a synthesized female voice filled the bridge, “Anti-phasing initiated!”

Like a disturbance in the reflection on the water’s surface, the massive Imperial Fleet flickered uncertainly for a moment, as though it had turned into an insubstantial image.

The thousands of Photon Streams, which had taken the enemy so much effort to muster, passed right through the Imperial Fleet that had already turned into mere images, not even managing to injure the maintenance robots polishing and servicing the flagship’s exterior.

But this was just the beginning of the Taldarim Fleet’s descent into horror.

“Activate the Energy Raider.”

I nodded to the captain beside me.

“Let me see just how powerful Taville’s latest achievement is–the Energy Raider, developed and prototyped with extensive manpower and resources based on my Special Ability. Though it cannot completely replicate my Ability, it has already rendered all conventional energy attacks completely ineffective.”

The Imperial Fleet, which had entered a Void state, made a slight adjustment to its formation. Instead of evading the massive Photon Jets, the ships met the enemy’s attack head-on and began to gradually re-materialize.

“The anti-phasing effect is about to end, the Energy Raider has successfully activated, target energy sample acquired… Energy channel is being established… Channel established… Energy Raider power increasing… Experimental data ready to record.”

A blue halo swept over each of the Xyrin spaceships under the attack of the Curved Light Ships, and the entire Imperial Fleet simultaneously disengaged the Void state. Thousands of fully charged Photon Jets finally hit their tangible targets, and in an instant, dazzling white flames erupted on our ships, causing the Taldarim Fleet, still in shock, to push the output power of their Curved Light Ships even higher–until they realized that all the energy in their ships was out of control.

The beams connecting the Energy-Gathering Crystals of the Curved Light Ships to the Xyrin spaceships grew at a visible speed, exceeding the maximum power of a normal Curved Light Ship in just a few seconds. Brilliant blue and white energy sparks began bursting from the Energy-Gathering Crystals at the bows of the Curved Light Ships, and then spread across their entire hulls. Due to it being an internal loss of control, the Plasma Shields that the Protos Natives took pride in were utterly useless, and within ten seconds, the shields of those Curved Light Ships were already faltering–their last remaining energy was being drained to depletion by the Energy Raider’s siphon.

The captains of those Curved Light Ships attempted to cut off the power supply to the Focusing Prisms, but the energy channels established by the Energy Raider had already spread throughout their entire hulls. Any conduit that could transmit energy was precisely included in the energy channels by the Eternal-class mainframe, making their resistance utterly futile.

Quickly, the previously faint blue halos of the thousand plus Curved Light Ships dimmed, and their streamlined hulls were covered with dense energy sparks. These completely drained Protos warships began to distort and deform as the Energy Raider extracted the Crystal Energy from their structure. The Prothos tried to contact the warriors inside those ships, but all they received were harrowing screams–thirteen seconds later, the Energy Raider began to absorb the Spiritual Energy from the bodies of the Protos Natives.

Ultimately, when the soul of the last Curved Light Ship captain was thoroughly wrung dry, not sparing a single joule of chemical energy within their cells, the Energy Raider finally completed its gluttonous feast. It released over a thousand dim and twisted metallic wrecks from the force field, allowing them to crash haphazardly onto the surface of Bump Star.

“Energy Raider fully charged, energy form transformation in progress… Galaxy Main Gun firing for the first time…”

Accompanied by such a bland mechanical female voice, the “Galaxy” Main Cannon, now charged to an unprecedented triple capacity, released a colossal energy torrent several kilometers in diameter. At my behest, it avoided the Taldarim’s three Aircraft Carriers but made an “S” shaped cut through the thousands of Escort Ships in their formation.

Facing this amped-up version of the “Galaxy,” which could slice a small planet in half, the Plasma Shields might as well have been non-existent. In the formation of the Taldarim, a series of explosions illuminated the cold, dark expanse of space.

Just as the first attack was completed, the mechanical female voice echoed through the bridge again: “… Energy form transformation in progress… Galaxy Main Gun firing for the second time…”

“… Galaxy Main Gun firing for the third time…”

“… Galaxy Main Gun firing for the fourth time…”

Giant swaths of light cut through the enemy Fleet, now an S, now a B…

Until the Galaxy Main Gun’s entire energy conduit system severely overloaded–the fact that this strategic-level weapon could fire continuously like a machine gun was only possible because we had the foresight to install a secondary buffer system.

After our attack commenced, the Protos Fleet, which had momentarily descended into chaos due to a thousand Curved Light Ships being drained dry and crashing within twenty seconds, swiftly organized an effective counterattack. However, from our perspective, this retaliation seemed rather feeble; perhaps the Protos, accustomed to bullying humans with their superior technology in this star zone, hesitated for a moment when they encountered the unfamiliar forces of the Xyrin Empire for the first time and suffered such a heavy blow. It was this momentary hesitation that allowed our assault ships and Gravity Trap Effect Ships to completely seal off the battlefield with a space jump, utterly preventing the enemy from using their favored space transmission tactics to escape–although I dare not ascertain the extent of their space technology.

The retaliatory firepower from the Taldarim Fleet finally came crashing down on the Imperial Fleet for real. Initially, they were mere inconsequential probing attacks–it was clear they were still fearful of the spectacle of a thousand Curved Light Ships being drained by the Energy Raider, dreading to become the next victim of such a dreadful weapon. But soon they realized that the vicious device had become ineffective.

After all, it was a prototype, absorbing such a vast amount of energy in one go and then channeling it all through the Void to the Mother Ship’s main cannon; it was inevitable that it would need to cool down.

“Shield strength of the third squadron decreasing… Space jump… Formation adjustment complete… Mother ship firepower at full capacity…”

The electronic synthesized female voice reported the battle situation in a neither hurried nor slow manner. Although the attack from these Protos warships could cause some damage to the Imperial Fleet, unless they could surround us with overwhelming numbers, with such firepower, it would be a miracle if they could even breach our shields–in the space broadside, the Imperial Fleet had one of the most troublesome tactics, known as “Jump Maneuver.” Every unit in the entire Imperial Fleet, even an automaton responsible for replacing the engine’s filter, was capable of space jumping. In interstellar-level combat, our entire fleet could instantly change formation through space jumps. A squad that was focused-fired by enemy weaponry could switch places with a rear unit that was intact within a millisecond. We were constantly engaging the enemy with fleets in their prime–and this was predicated on our warships being far more powerful than our opponents.

Bright laser beams crisscrossed in space, each flash signifying an energy burst powerful enough to obliterate countless lives. The Imperial Fleet formed a vast Joint Shield, blocking most of the enemy’s attacks outside the shield. Apart from some fragile unmanned vessels and disposeable units piloted by Combat Puppets being destroyed while blocking the enemy’s deadliest assaults, our losses were almost negligible, whereas the Protos warships began to suffer massive damage after their Plasma Shields were depleted.

In fact, I was already surprised that their Plasma Shields could withstand the first volley from the Imperial Fleet.

“What are their aircraft carriers doing?”

Just as we were toying–cough, countering the enemy, Lilina suddenly reminded me. Only then did I realize that the three Protos Aircraft Carriers, which had shown no intention of attacking since the start of the battle, were highly suspicious–were they calmly watching their own fleet set off fireworks?

“Those halos just appeared,” Qianqian frowned, pointing at the layers of halo-like objects that had suddenly appeared under the enemy aircraft carriers, shown on the holographic projection. With her Superpower still active, she analyzed in her unique cold manner, “They have yet to attack, possibly accumulating energy for a surprise attack. The Galaxy Main Gun will be ready to fire again in a few minutes; we’d best destroy one of their aircraft carriers to keep these guys quiet.”

However, it seemed the enemy was not willing to wait a few more minutes. With the sudden alarm from the Mother Ship’s main computer, we instantly detected a widespread anomaly in the surrounding space’s gravity.

The next second, the bow of the Eternal-class Ship, where the main cannon was located, had been surrounded by thousands of small fighter jets that had suddenly emerged.

The Protos Aircraft Carriers… actually used space jumps to deploy their shipborne fighters?!

This had never occurred to me, and it was far too different from the “setting information” I had in mind. If I had known the enemy had this trick up their sleeve, I should have kept a Gravity Trap Effect Ship near the Eternal-class!

As I was reeling in surprise, those thousands of fighters, using space technology to transport directly to the position of our main cannon, were already sparking with crackling electric flames and brutally collided towards the “Galaxy,” which had just started recharging!

They were trying to detonate our main cannon! (To be continued. For more information, please visit www.NovelFire.net. More chapters are available and support the author by reading the licensed edition!)

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