Chapter 472: Ch
He muttered in disbelief. "Impossible... If that were the case, how did they destroy the defense installations and the patrol fleets on the southern side of the star system...?"
But before he could give it much more thought, the star chart trembled once again.
Multiple new signatures suddenly appeared.
The problem was that, this time around, they appeared from every direction throughout the star system.
They had completely encircled the entire star system...
Along with all of his forces.
"No... how... how did they... when did they encircle us?!" uttered Vael, now shaking. "Why didn’t the detection equipment pick them up?" He then frowned.
As he contemplated the situation, he watched with his own eyes as multiple attacks were launched once again by the enemy fleet—which now numbered at, if not a bit more than, thirty thousand ships.
The strikes hit the second and third layers of defense installations, destroying each in a single shot and rapidly shrinking the remaining defenses. Dammit, I have to do something! If I don’t, I’ll be put in an even worse situation than this—and the moon’s shield is already down.
"Everyone, mount the defenses! Charge the weapons and fire at will at the enemy ships!" he ordered, raising his right hand parallel to the ground.
At the same time, he looked at his direct subordinate and commanded, "You, go ahead and reach out to Central Command immediately.
Tell them we are being attacked by an unknown fleet—small-scale, but of formidable power. Tell them to send reinforcements as quickly as possible.
Also, have them check on the subordinate countries immediately. I have a bad feeling, seeing how they arrived this far deep without us even knowing, only to encircle us."
"Yes, Grand Admiral!" the subordinate replied.
The somewhat damaged moon fortress, along with every warship present within the system, immediately opened fire at the targets designated by the flagship without a shred of hesitation.
They launched a violent counterattack against the enemy that had ambushed them unnoticed—the very fleet that had struck without warning, dealing significant damage to their forces and killing many of their comrades.
Even the moon fortress opened fire at full force, unleashing almost two thousand Tier 2 and one hundred and twenty Tier 3 planetary-grade weapon systems simultaneously at the ships bearing the highest energy signatures.
These planetary-grade weapons, while far slower in rate of fire compared to normal warship-grade weapon systems, were significantly larger and possessed ten times the attack power.
This was due to the immense output their larger hulls could handle to generate and launch far more devastating strikes—capable of significantly damaging a planet and even destroying entire continents in just a few hundred shots.
An attack of such scale was something no fleet could defend against without suffering significant losses or using extraordinary means to withstand it.
All in all, Vael knew he would come out on top no matter what.
Either these enemies had no cards that could help them withstand an assault of this scale—produced by the star fortress, nearly sixty thousand ships, and roughly thirty thousand still-functioning defense installations equipping their own semi-planetary weapon systems of various kinds—or, if they did possess a trump card and used it to defend themselves, he would still come out on top.
Such cards were rare to begin with, and no one possessed a vast stockpile of them.
It was a different story for him, as he could produce this caliber of attack almost as much as he wanted, provided he was given enough time.
As for the possibility of them withstanding the attack without using a so-called trump card, Vael didn’t even entertain the thought.
Not only him, but almost every responsible high-ranking member of the Illyrian family in the Space Force dismissed it, as this was not something any Tom, Dick, or Harry could pull off.
Only a few Tier 3 powers could withstand this, and only Tier 3 superpowers could truly tank it without breaking a sweat.
Thankfully, this enemy couldn’t possibly belong to any of those seven superpower states, nor those Tier 3 powers hovering near superpower status. If they did, they wouldn’t have shown up with such a meager fleet.
Not to mention, these ship designs were completely unlike anything fielded by those factions.
And then again, if it were them, they would not be so sneaky in their approach. Instead, they would be far more direct—after all, what were they compared to such giants? thought Vael, as he looked at the battle chart showing the enemy ships closing in fast, alongside the salvo his own forces had launched just a second ago.
The void between the stars was instantly lit up with brilliant white streaks of hyper-velocity kinetic rounds and energy beams traveling at the extreme speed of light.
It was an attack truly capable of tearing apart a Tier 3, or even a Tier 4 planet. With the Illyrian Clan forces possessing this level of destructive power, Vael had every right to be confident that he would emerge victorious and unharmed.
Unfortunately, he had miscalculated. Had it been any other enemy, Vael’s estimates would have proven correct, and he ultimately would have come out on top. But this wasn’t just any other enemy.
It was the Grand Fleets of the Celestial Void Empire itself that had come to crush them—and equipped with a new power-up, making them even more formidable than ever before.
The brilliant white strikes of energy and kinetic rounds slammed into almost every ship of the Celestial Void Empire’s three Grand Fleets leading the charge, most of which were Titan-class destroyers.
Their shields flickered intensely as thousands upon thousands of attacks landed directly upon them without hindrance, dispersing all their kinetic and directed energy across the forward shields of the charging Titan-class ships.
A sea of fire erupted around the perimeter of all three Grand Fleets as the aftereffects of the collision washed over their encirclement.
Yet, that was all the Illyrian forces managed to achieve.
Combined, these attacks were potent enough to shatter even a Tier 4 planet—a world rich enough to cultivate highly sought-after Tier 4 resources, produce exceptionally talented beings, and serve as a sacred holy land.
Such a planet possessed its own world laws derived from the universal laws, alongside formidable defenses that no ordinary force could ever dream of breaking.
Yet, this coordinated barrage from the Illyrian forces was capable of destroying a realm of that magnitude, and even then, it failed to break through the shields of the Titan-class destroyers.
All it accomplished was heating up their shield generators and reducing their shield integrity by a maximum of 25 percent.
Even that damage was already restoring itself with every passing second. Within a few minutes at most, the shields would return to peak capacity.
Such was the advantage of the dual cultivation system that all the star pilots benefited from, enhancing both the overall quality and the recovery speed of their vessels, which directly boosted their combat endurance.
It was a massive advantage, to say the least.
Mav, Yuki, and Anky gave the Illyrian forces no time to recover from their stupor. Capitalizing on the shock they had just dealt their enemy, they immediately unleashed a counterattack—one even more destructive than before.
This time, instead of using their main force to target the static defense installations, they directed their full firepower straight at the warships of the Illyrian fleet.
Instantly, these highly charged kinetic and energy shells tore through space, impacting a multitude of warships simultaneously. They breached fully prepared shield systems like a white-hot iron ball melting through ice, rushing relentlessly toward their targets.
Upon slamming into the hulls of various ships, the rounds dispersed massive kinetic energy and extreme heat throughout their superstructures.
Some vessels bent unnaturally under the sheer force, while others melted across key sections before detonating in cataclysmic explosions, lighting up the dark void between the vast sea of stars.
On the capital world of the Oren Tol system—as well as on other nearby worlds—the populations looked up and witnessed a brilliant display of fire in the sky.
Some assumed it was a high-tech light show or celebration, even going so far as to cheer. Are they brain-dead?anyone would have asked, had they known what was actually transpiring.
One couldn’t help but wonder how these people would react when they finally realized this was no high-yield fireworks display, but their own warships being vaporized and blown apart by an enemy assault.
It didn’t take long for the horrifying reality to set in. A few stray strikes bypassed the fleet entirely and slammed directly into several orbital space cities and floating sky cities.
Violent explosions ripped through the structures on impact. As the anti-gravity platforms shattered, the space cities were dragged into the planet’s gravitational pull, turning them into a rain of burning meteors and flaming asteroid-sized debris hurtling through the atmosphere. Meanwhile, the sky cities hovering near the planetary surface began to plummet directly toward the sprawling land cities below.