Once he sensed that the tension had reached a peak, he continued, “As a result, conflict erupted between the two sides... and by the end of the day, we achieved victory,” as he was saying that, he could almost hear the collective sigh of relief from those who had feared they were losing the fight.He paused his speech as a short video played behind him. It began with Xalthar demanding the emperor’s surrender, then shifted to the opening shots fired at the massive ship. The footage showed breaching forces making their way into the vessel, capturing it meter by meter until every section was under control. The video concluded with footage of the recovery process, where captured aliens were being collected and sent back to their ship. As the video ended, the feed returned to focusing on Aron.“With that, I have both good and bad news to deliver,” he said, pausing for emphasis. “The good news is that we won the initial contact and captured the majority of the enemy alive, allowing us to ex
Time has a way of moving at exactly the wrong speed, especially for those who find themselves in a moment of anticipation. For the inhabitants of the solar system, it felt like time was speeding by when they desperately wished for it to slow down. In the blink of an eye, twelve days had passed, bringing them to thirteen and a half days since Xalthar had sent out his message. The countdown was almost over.Despite all the preparation, no one in the military felt confident that things would unfold as planned. Their extensive VR training had shown them that when facing the unknown, unpredictability is inevitable. This awareness kept everyone on high alert, a state they were able to maintain with ease due to their rigorous training. It also helped that they had already entered their military pods a week prior, ensuring they were mentally primed for the upcoming confrontation.To humans, death evokes a tangle of emotions. Sometimes, we long for it to rescue us from despair, while other ti
A brief silence fell over the battlefield as both sides took in the data that was still being collected by their sensors, with the other side immedialtely realizing that Xalthar the person who brought them here has already being captured, making their work harder than inntiatily expeted as not matter where he is they had taken an oath to rescue him and they had to keep that oath no matter what.At the same time they were also surprised by the sheer numbers displayed before them as despite it being lower than them by maginiutes it was still beyond their expectations. The only one unfazed was Aron, who stared passively at the massive number of enemy forces without a hint of emotion on his face as even if the number on the other side doubled it would still be within his expectation."Start sending the broadcast signals," he instructed calmly, aware that this was the only window he had before the chaos began. Once the other side finished analyzing their surroundings and pinpointing allie
In the next five seconds, silence gripped the Conclave forces as they struggled to process what had just occurred. The concept of a black hole was something they had only studied from afar, a distant cosmic phenomenon at the center of the galaxy, safely observed but never experienced. Now, faced with the unimaginable reality of being caught in its devastating force, panic set in. The terror was overwhelming—horror-inducing, will-breaking, and utterly impossible to combat.Ten seconds later, the urgency hit them. With only fifteen seconds left to respond or face another round of annihilation, chaos erupted. Frenzied shouting filled the air as soldiers and commanders alike screamed for their leaders to surrender. Discipline, rank, and years of training were forgotten in the face of imminent death, as the overwhelming fear of being obliterated consumed them.They were prepared to sacrifice their lives for their civilization, their organization, or any cause they believed in—but only if t
The imperial first-line fleets reacted instantly as the incoming missiles and spells entered the point of no return. They launched their own counterattack, deploying smaller missiles, which were accompanied by a barrage of sleek, black spheres. These spheres spread out in all directions, tasked with intercepting the incoming threats from every possible angle, given that the attacks were converging from multiple vectors in space to bypass potential defenses.While the missiles handled the initial phase of interception, the sleek spheres communicated and coordinated seamlessly with each other. Each one generated a hexagonal shield, which linked together to form an interlocking barrier around the fleet. This network of shields braced for impact, prepared to handle the incoming mana-powered attacks that could not be countered through conventional methods alone.The first attack to challenge the hexagonal shields was an immense ball of fire, burning with such intensity that it could melt m
From a two-dimensional perspective, an observer witnessing this conflict would see two sides engaged in entirely different battles as a result of the ongoing attacks. The imperial forces remained focused on thwarting waves of incoming assaults, while the Conclave forces were also caught in a defensive struggle against attacks that seemed to emerge from thin air.The invisible enemy skillfully capitalized on the gaps created by the Conclave forces, who had spaced themselves apart in preparation for a potential rush after the imperial forces were defeated. Their attacks, launched from these positions, caught the Conclave by surprise, throwing them into a scramble to respond effectively.As the Conclave struggled to counter the incoming assaults, they faced the daunting task of not only stopping the initial attacks but also preventing breaching pods from infiltrating their ships. At the same time, they had to focus on eliminating the stealth forces that were orchestrating the offensive.
The breaching pods launched by the stealth forces, despite being accompanied by missiles, weapons, and their own defenses, still had a very low success rate due to the advanced multi-target tracking systems of spacefaring civilizations. To counter this, the empire employed a tried-and-true strategy: overwhelming those systems with sheer numbers. This tactic was only possible thanks to their atomic printers, allowing them to mass-produce breaching pods and launch them to their almost certain destruction without risking any lives of their soldiers in such an operation.As a result of the numerous obstacles, only an average of one percent of the breaching pods successfully penetrated ships without being destroyed. Some forces experienced a higher number of breaches, while others, like the Shadari, had almost none. The Shadari's advanced detection systems allowed them to identify the pods from a greater distance, providing a buffer zone that enabled them to intercept and eliminate all of
‘This is very weird,’ Seraphina thought to herself as she gazed at the scattered remains of the enemy soldiers now littering the floor. Fragments of metal, bone, roots, and remnants of mana floated in the air, their strange compositions scattered after the soldiers had exploded. She had effortlessly eliminated each one as they emerged from the breaching pod, but something felt deeply unsettling about the encounter. It wasn’t the act of killing—she was long accustomed to that—it was the way the enemy reacted. There was no fear, no panic, almost as if they weren't concerned about death at all. It was as though dying was a game to them.Before Seraphina could ponder further, she was alerted to another breach elsewhere on the ship. She needed to respond immediately. Turning on her heel, wings began materializing from her back—elegant, yet powerful, forming in a mere two seconds. With a single, mighty flap, she vanished from the room. The only evidence of her presence was the aftermath: un