Legacy of the Void Fleet

It was the first time in his life he had ever experienced such a feeling.

And it was not a good feeling at all.

"The intentions of our enemy are now absolutely clear. They did not come here with peaceful intentions. They are targeting not only our military, but our common people as well."

His expression turned colder than ever. "This... is something we must never allow to happen again, no matter what."

He drew a deep breath before raising his hand toward the main tactical display. "Everyone! Charge with me at the same time! Let us break through their encirclement!"

His finger pointed directly toward the massive enemy flagship at the center of the formation. "Target that lead ship! That is where the majority of their communications are passing through."

His aura erupted even further as his killing intent surged throughout the bridge. "Die if you have to... but no matter what, this encirclement must be broken! And that enemy flagship must fall, no matter what!"

Even though Vael and no one in his fleet had any idea where the actual flagship of this enemy was, yet based on that alone they were able to detect vast amounts of transmissions passing through one particular ship.

It was rather large and somewhat well protected, so he thought it was that ship that was the center of the enemy fleet.

This was even though there were other ships in other locations that were dealing with almost a similar amount of transmissions.

But Vael knew he didn’t have much time nor much choice.

For he had already heard from his subordinates, whom he had told to reach out to Central Command and have them dispatch support, that they were actually not able to send any kind of communication beyond the encirclement area.

Just hearing that, Vael already had an idea that not only had these enemies surrounded them, but they had also placed some kind of transmission blocker that prevented any kind of communication beyond this encirclement from reaching beyond this star system and letting anyone interfere.

And because of that, he was more than certain this enemy was here to finish every one of them.

But it was still not enough to make him go this berserk.

Yes, many billions of his own race—kids, young people, older people, and so on—had died right in front of his eyes, leaving him helpless. But it was still not enough to shake him into going berserk.

For he didn’t just become a Grand Admiral of such a powerful force without seeing similar kinds of events.

Some of them he had even caused himself, though those had been against enemy races. So he knew these kinds of things weren’t uncommon and, in fact, happened mostly in cases when the opponent had every intention of carrying out a racial annihilation and bringing the complete end of their enemy race.

Putting these things aside, the reason why he was so shaken and appeared to be berserk was, in fact, to hide his own fear.

Fear of death.

For he got to know that from the Shadow Units who had tried to leave the star system while in stealth through hyperspace and warp space.

But they found something even more terrible. Just as they were about to enter hyperspace or warp space, they were quickly pulled out of it and remained in real space, completely unable to enter hyperspace at all and this happened in multiple locations.

This made Vael more terrified than anything else.

That was because the enemy had literally created a gigantic hyperspace field-blocking device, causing none of the Shadow Units to leave. In fact, they were detected and quickly taken down by enemy attacks.

But the death and destruction of the Shadow Units wasn’t something that made him despair. Rather, it was the realization that they were, in fact, trapped inside a giant prison with absolutely no escape.

That was what truly terrified him and filled him with despair.

For now, in a situation that he felt was already desperate, there was very little chance or hope of turning things around without any reinforcements.

Having witnessed the power of the enemy, who had come with every intention of completely wiping out any living organism they might find in this star system, and with a total encirclement already in place along with all kinds of preventive measures deployed by the enemy, he knew there no longer existed any escape route that he could take to flee with as many people as possible while the fleet held the enemy back for as long as they could.

That had been his initial intention.

But he knew now that the hope of achieving it was almost next to impossible, and even if there was a chance, the odds were not high at all. Yet that was also the only option left, something Vael realized and accepted almost immediately.

He knew he needed to do everything to ensure that he could open up and increase those chances. He had to give it his all, and that mostly depended on his fleet.

This was something Vael came up with in the moments when his subordinates on the bridge had erupted into despair. It was only out of necessity that this speech came about.

He knew that, with the way his people had become, their chances would become even lower unless he mobilized their inner will.

And how could he succeed in that?

Of course, he had to bring all the Illyrain people into the fold. He needed them to realize that they were the only hope that trillions of people had. If they let themselves fall into despair, they would only watch those trillions vanish right before their eyes.

Was that something that would be acceptable to them?

It should not be.

After all, many of their own families, in fact, lived there, since the deployment in this Orentol System had been quite long.

And indeed, this achieved exactly what he had wanted.

The already cold blood of most Illyrain soldiers immediately began to pump harder and heat up as their spirit and will, which had taken a heavy hit, quickly solidified once again, this time reaching an even higher level.

Indeed, the saying was true.

At the end of the rope, if one is given the right push and the right cause, it can bring forth a far deeper level of strength. Even if it is only for a brief moment, that strength still remains.

And something exactly like that happened throughout the entire Illyrain Defense Forces.

"Charge!!"

Seeing that the effect he had hoped to bring had come—and not only that, but had exceeded even his expectations—Vael knew this was the time to bring his hammer down and act.

He roared.

And along with his roar, every single Illyrain soldier across the fleet roared as well.

Together, they surged forward toward the section of the enemy fleet that Vael had directed them to attack.

Be it heavy-class ships like battleships, battlecruisers, and even dreadnoughts, or lighter-class ships like destroyers, frigates, and smaller craft such as starfighters and even mechs, all of them rushed toward that single point in the enemy encirclement, which happened to be the position that Mav was overseeing.

As the Illyrain forces charged, they unleashed everything they had.

Missiles erupted from countless launch pods while weapon batteries spat streams of particle cannon fire, blazing plasma lances, and devastating kinetic rounds.

The void itself lit up under the sheer volume of firepower as countless streaks of energy and metal tore across the battlefield toward the enemy formation.

It was a complete display of a desperate charge.

Yet at the same time, it was also a magnificent sight of martial pride, one that drew out a far deeper level of strength from within their very souls, as every warrior fought to protect and safeguard their people, even at the cost of their own lives.

"Sigh... what a surprise," Mav sighed as he manipulated the Lance of Void.

All weapon batteries, be they main or secondary, targeted only the heavy-class ships that were charging straight toward his fleet’s flank, while his interceptor batteries prepared themselves to immediately engage and neutralize the incoming attacks.

Along with them, the missiles within the launch pods were already loaded and ready to be launched at a moment’s notice.

He was indeed surprised by how these people had reorganized themselves, regained their spirit, and were even able to bring out a higher level of strength that supported their ships in their own capacity by infusing their mana with them.

Though this was still rather limited.

Most of the Illyrain ships were not built from Hyper-Class alloys, and thus were unable to properly support the application of mana.

Only a small portion of their fleet could truly benefit from such enhancements.

But it was only a surprise. Nothing else.

"If you think that is enough to bring down my fleet and create a hole through which you can escape..." Mav’s eyes turned cold as....