Planet Master

Dian and those who followed him had the entire Virya Star System under exploration progress. Dian often communicated with Chikara about the progress of her unit's exploration.

“Wait! I mentioned that there is a strange planet, right? I think that is not a planet.” Chikara said with a tint of fear.

“You mean, it is possible that the Planet Behemoth or something related to be there?” Dian tried to confirm this but Chikara’s unit suddenly went off whenever they approached that planet.

The possibility of it being a Planet Behemoth was little. On the other hand, it could be something like the egg of the Planet Behemoth that was there, consuming those who dared to approach it.

That was the difference between the egg of the living organism and one of Planet Behemoth.

The threat level suddenly increased with the appearance of such a thing. But they also needed to clear any threat from the star system, otherwise it could threaten the lives of the races on the star system.

Dian could not let that happen and so the operation to neutralize the threat began.

“Now, what is the best course of action we need to take?” Dian asked.

“We need some massive firepower to suppress the threat. Preferably with the help of the Fixed Planetary Fortress.” Chikara said.

“We don’t know at what stage the threat is, so we'd better eliminate it before it could develop into a bigger threat.” Frie said with a frown, seemed a bit dissatisfied with the plan and the information known.

“Furthermore, which one should we deploy? The Fixed Planetary Fortress may be the greatest weapon in our arsenal but it moves slowly. It needs a lot of time just to get into position. We need to be able to move fast to eliminate the threat at the earliest convenience.” Leif added.

“Send the entire space fleet to the location. With the help of the Gling, we pave the way to break through the Asteroid Belt and reach the destination. I believe that our spacefaring capability is superior now, and this could be the first training opportunity for the races.” Mazdari said.

Dian could only nod at the suggestion. The threat needed to be neutralized as soon as possible so the faster they neutralized it, the better.

And so, the operation to eliminate the threat at the furthest planet began to form.

-

The spaceship carrier was the first of its model that could accommodate spacecraft. It could store up to fifty spacecraft Silpheed SP-01 which function similarly to aircraft on an aircraft carrier.

Now, the spaceship fleet was sent to the planet beyond the Asteroid Belt, where the Gling reigned supreme. With the help of the Gling biological spaceships, the Federation Fleet could safely reach the outer ring of the star system.

“Thank you for helping us in your territory. Although this can be rude, we need to go through your space to reach the source of the threat.” The human captain of the spaceship carrier said to the Queen of the Gling.

“We share the same destiny in this. It just so happens that the planets on the outer ring give my unit another chance to become something more powerful so I can grant this favor since you allow my race to be here. Furthermore, the threat there may affect all of us in the star system so eliminating it is also helping my race.” The Queen replied in her Overlord Ship.

The Federation Fleet consisted of one spacecraft carrier with numerous types of spaceships escorting it. With the newly developed Warp Engine, they could move faster and faster, theoretically reaching the limit of speed, the speed of light.

Even so, it still took the fleet a week to reach near the location where even the Gling lost contact with its scouting fleet.

When the fleet got closer, they decided to stop just a short distance from the place. This place was further from the Violet Sun, so much so that the sun was just a violet point in the dark sky.

Other stars tried to contest for the brightest star in this location but the fleet was not focused on that. When they looked at the planet’s location, the captain’s eyes shook as he saw something unbelievable.

Even the escorting Gling biological spaceship sent the view to the Queen through the Hive Mind.

“It is confirmed. That thing is not a planet. Instead, it is made up of tendrils of flesh according to our sensors.” The human captain read out aloud the result of the first scan of the thing in the distance.

“According to the information we have at hand, that thing is likely to be an egg of the Planet Behemoth. Exercise caution when you approach it. No, treat it as hostile.” The Queen said decisively.

“How should we attack it? Given its behavior toward our units so far, anything that dares to approach it will be attacked immediately. We can only do a long-range attack. Battleship, prepare your cannons. Other ships, prepare your weapons. Target, egg of Planet Behemoth!” the captain said immediately.

This served as a probe attack as well as testing the reaction of the entity in front of them.

Biological plasma cannon and bow cannons are both prepared to attack the egg. Energy gathered on the cannons before being launched toward the egg.

The egg was actually formed from numerous large tendrils which could serve as its outer shell. When the plasma cannons hit them, some of them were disintegrated right as the plasma attack approached. But its interior persisted and only suffered light burn wounds.

“Saturation attack, now!” the captain knew that dozens of ships attacking was overwhelming but the captian did not want to give the egg any chance at recovery so he immediately ordered a saturation attack.

Soon, another plasma cannon attack landed on the egg, causing tendrils to finally spread outside. The thing finally changed form and there was actually a small entity with elongated limbs. Its six fingers were long and so were the claws. Its size was large enough to cover an entire continent but it was only as big as the core of a planet.

It had suffered under the long-range attack from the Federation Fleet. But it did not mean that it was just passively defending.

It extended both of its limbs toward the Federation Fleet. The Queen immediately sensed a huge energy gathering at the end of the claws of the being. It looked like the being had forcefully gotten out of the egg that protected it and now it sought revenge.

“Evasive maneuver, now!” The Queen used mind power to relay her order to not only her race’s units bt also to remind the captain and the other spaceships to prepare to evade things from the Planet Behemoth.

The fleet had to move in a manner that would not hinder the others and fortunately they did not skimping on training numerous maneuvers in space. This was just in case there was an attack strong enough to threaten the fleet.

Now that their training was paid off, they evaded the attack which came as quick as their plasma cannon. Thin green lines were appearing one after another and the spaceships were evading that now they knew what kind of attack came to them.

But one of the spaceships grazed the line and found that their shield dropped rapidly and changed their direction at the last second, almost hitting the attack.

“Shield dropped to 65%!” the technician shouted.

The shield system was recently developed so that the spaceship hull would not just hit random space debris and any asteroid. It could also serve as a first line of defense for spaceships since it could also withstand attack from plasma cannon.

The fact that just a graze dropped the shield so much meant that the main attack was deadly to both the shield and the hull of the spaceship.

This ship’s leader quickly contacted the captain and everyone else about this.

The captain frowned at the news. This was not good news since the Planet Behemoth could launch similar attack at certain interval. But their attack should not stop just because of that.

Resume attacking. Spread out so that the attack has lower chance of hitting the spaceships!” the captain ordered while also letting out a hologram panel to manually assign the spaceships its place in the formation.

They had to spread out to prevent from being hit at once.

After that, another salvo of plasma cannon resumed. The Planet Behemoth opened its maw and its serrated teeth became visible, it intended to launch another kind of attack.

This time, they were prepared and all spaceships spread out further to prevent the attack from concentrating on any single one of them.

The attack from the Planet Behemoth this time was numerous projectiles which was almost similar to human missile attack.

Dozens, hundreds even thousands of them were bombarding the Federation fleet without mercy. Shields were deployed to mitigate the damage. Fortunately, this attack relied on saturation so each spaceship only suffered minor damage to the shields.

Back and forth, the fleet attacked the Planet Behemoth while the Planet Behemoth countered.

But fortunately, the Planet Behemoth situation was worse than the Federation Fleet so they started to get the upper hand.

“Keep the barrage going!” the captain shouted in the communication channel.

Plasma cannons shot at the Planet Behemoth one after another, causing damage to the body of the Planet Behemoth. The counterattack from the Planet Behemoth was also starting to reduce and the captain increased the barrage intensity.

This was the first real combat for the fleet and the captain was satisfied with the way things were going. The fleet moved as if it were the extension of his own body, flowing well enough that the coordination between spaceships was excellent.

‘All that training is paid off.’ Everyone on the spaceships felt glad that they kept doing the drill over and over again.

The barrage would not stop even when the Planet Behemoth was not counterattacking anymore. The captain would not lower his guard just because of that and kept the barrage going to make sure that the threat was fully eliminated.

After a strong light of the plasma cannon hitting the Planet Behemoth one after another, the fleet stopped the barrage and saw that the Planet Behemoth stopped all activity.

‘But it doesn’t mean that it is truly dead. Perhaps it is just pretending to be dead to launch one final strike. Let’s just bombard it some more!’ the captain was cautious and decided to do one more bombardment.

“Charge the plasma cannon to the maximum!” the captain ordered the fleet that could do so.

Then the plasma cannon which was usually firing immediately upon being ready to be launched, gathered more and more energy before changing it into a plasma state. Then it accumulated and the cannon had to endure extreme heat.

Seeing that the charge had reached the maximum limit, the captain ordered one thing.

“Fire! It’d better be staying dead. Otherwise, this attack will teach it a lesson not to play tricks.” The captain stared at the distance through the bridge’s special viewing function.

Then the strongest attack came from numerous spaceships, unleashing an attack unprecedented toward the unmoving Planet Behemoth. Then the attack hit as expected, causing the Planet Behemoth to be forced to move.

It was truly not dead yet but its ruse was exposed so it tried to move. Sadly, it was too late since the bombardment had reached a terrifying level. Charging the plasma cannon increased its attack power and the long-lasting effect it had on flesh was something the Planet Behemoth could not recover in a short time, since it hampered its regeneration.

The Planet Behemoth let out a roar that could not be heard but those who saw it knew that it was dying. After dozens of plasma cannon-charged attacks, the Planet Behemoth was reduced to just its head and half of its torso.

“We have finally defeated the Planet Behemoth for good.” The captain sat on his chair as he sighed in relief. Fortunately, he was cautious enough not to let the fleet got closer when the Planet Behemoth was faking its death.

“Please send your unit first to confirm that there is no activity from the Planet Behemoth.” The captain said to the Queen of the Gling.

“Sure. But we need to discuss how to share this Planet Behemoth later.” The Queen replied before sending her scout units to the remains of the Planet Behemoth.

This time, there was no surprise as the Planet Behemoth was not reacting to anything that came near it. The Queen could see that the body of the Planet Behemoth was worth studying and could even elevate her race to new heights.

But she also knew that the Hinon Federation also wanted to study the remains of the Planet Behemoth so she suggested negotiating later before proceeding.

-

Dian and the others saw the process of the fleet eliminating the Planet Behemoth. There were several choices when it came to treating the remains of the Planet Behemoth but most of the time, it was better to carry some research regarding the physiology of the Planet Behemoth to study.

This not only improved the Technology Tree but also affected Transcendent Tree. For Dian who wielded both, it was an opportunity that rarely came since it was hard to find a Planet Behemoth. It did not mean that it was impossible, just that it was not common to encounter it.

“They are doing a good job not to underestimate the Planet Behemoth.” Dian commented as he needed to send another message to let the scientists study the remains of the Planet Behemoth, at least what was left of it.

“Development! Further development is good.” Chikara commented. Dian knew that she was likely drooling at the sight.

Encountering Planet Behemoth at its infancy was rare since it was hard to detect. Unfortunately for it, the civilization under him had found it first and it could not develop fully into a proper Planet Behemoth that the Planet Masters were wary of.

“Lucky for us. We now have something that can boost our research speed at both Technology and Transcendent Tree.” Leif commented while stroking his beard.

“But this also means that this place is suitable for the Planet Behemoth to develop. I am afraid that there will be mature ones trying to lay their eggs on our star system.” Mazdari said.

“I have sent the relevant message to our races. They will have to decide which way they will develop from now on. I expect that they will develop weaponry for the spaceship to be more effective.” Frie said.

“Then I also send a message to my Star Child.” Dian did so and it was received immediately.

‘Develop more weaponry for both infantry and the spaceships?’ Tatsumi received it and was a bit confused as to why Dian strongly suggested this.

Dian explained the situation to Tatsumi. Only then did he understand that the battlefield on the outer ring of the Virya Star System was against a Planet Behemoth in its infancy. If it were a mature Planet Behemoth, not even the civilization could rival it.

‘Alright, I will relay this to the relevant department.’ Tatsumi left with a sigh.

“Now that we are done with the matter of the Planet Behemoth, we should be able to fully bring the star system to become our exclusive territory.” Smirth said as he pointed to the map on the display screen that everyone shared.

In it, the entire Virya Star System was shown from the Violet Sun to each planet, Asteroid Belt, celestial objects, etc.

Then the map enlarged and covered the one hundred light-years from the Cerulean Planet’s location, showing other star systems surrounding the Virya Star System.

“Now, we are officially conquering heaven.” Dian said as an opening for their new plan.

He had hoped that the civilization under him could expand beyond their own home star system, reaching other star systems and eventually conquering the entire galaxy.

“What’s the general plan for this?” Frie asked.

“We still need to participate in the Star Battle of course but it become the source of development. Only when there is a threat does civilization improve and innovate. Without it, the development entered the accumulation stage while during conflict, it changes to the explosive development stage. Controlling these is the key of our own development, so pay attention closely from now on.” Dian said a bit lengthy since this was of utmost importance.

“Ah, that is why you decide when the suitable time for Star Battle is.” Ghylea nodded in understanding.

“But now, how should we decide that? The development of the spacefaring technology is still in its accumulation stage and the next Star Battle will be the one where new idea will bloom but it comes with the risk of being defeated by a superior enemy.” Chikara commented on something good.

“Actually, the accumulation for the civilization is more than sufficient to enter the Star Battle. But…” Dian said while he enlarged a window panel for everyone to see.

“…our weaponry is insufficient. The weapon for the infantry has not been developed for two decades. They are still wearing the old models for armor and rifles. If this issue is not solved, there will be a hidden danger. Even the Gling has developed the Primarch variant so by development, the humans should develop more of their infantry weaponry.” Dian explained the problem.

Although the Transcendent Tree developed so well, it also somewhat affecting the Technology Tree development. Since everyone was transcendent, the need for infantry weapons stagnated and Dian did not want this to happen.

There would be time when transcendent energy was exhausted and the race needed weaponry that was free from dependence on transcendent energy.

Now, that was the real problem that they needed to tackle and Dian wanted to discuss this with them.