Legacy of the Void Fleet

Its core parameters for both attack and defense were now a thousand times more lethal and fortified than they had previously been.

And that massive leap in performance didn’t even account for the staggering new manufacturing capabilities installed within its core.

With its newly integrated industrial capacity and self-sustaining production lines, the fortress had been transformed into an independent military hub.

It could now churn out automated defense grids for dozens of surrounding star systems simultaneously, locking down an entire sector without requiring a single additional human operative to oversee the process.

All of this could now be handled by EVE until further orders—a huge relief to the fleet command.

After all, they couldn’t just leave their armada stationed here indefinitely to guard a single star system, could they?

Seeing that all repairs and preparations were complete, Mav issued the command. "To the next target—everyone, move out!"

With that, the Lance of the Void took the lead, and the rest of the fleet followed in tight formation. Their powerful propulsion engines flared bright, and within seconds, they slipped seamlessly into hyperspace.

They left the star system behind in the hands of EVE, who grew slightly less energetic watching everyone depart.

Nevertheless, with the massive task at hand, she quickly refocused, delegating sub-AIs to oversee and direct all automated equipment and construction drones.

To forge the components needed for the multi-system defense grid, EVE required raw materials.

While her current reserves were low, the surrounding Orentol star system was rich in celestial bodies laden with high-grade resources—including top-grade Tier 3 alloys and vast veins of Tier 2 metals.

Fortunately, she possessed more than enough mining and refining units to process these ores into usable construction materials. Without delay, she deployed swarms of bots to mine, refine, and forge.

Meanwhile, across other sectors, the rampage continued.

The fleets of the Celestial Void Empire left no star system untouched. What had unfolded in Orentol was repeated across nearly forty more star systems over the next three and a half days.

While the pace of the initial onslaught had intentionally slowed compared to their earlier reckless charges, their march remained completely unstoppable.

Each Grand Fleet was now operating at peak efficiency.

As the officers and crews grew intimately familiar with the total capabilities of their warships, they developed and perfected seamless combat formations at both the squadron and fleet levels.

Given a little more time, they would drastically reduce the time it took to obliterate enemy armadas numbering over a hundred thousand vessels alongside their planetary defense grids.

All the while, complete information blackouts were strictly maintained. To prevent the Republicans from alerting neighboring systems, the Lance of the Void Grand Fleet and the other three strike fleets deployed signal-jamming arrays and obliterated localized sub-network relay stations the moment they dropped out of hyperspace.

Only then did the harvest—or rather, the slaughter—begin.

Deep within the Zeta Vor Cluster—one of the most heavily fortified and secluded territories of the Bright Moon Republic—lay a sector hidden from the eyes of the galaxy, completely sealed off from public access for years.

Stationed within this star system was a formidable armada of thirty thousand warships clad in pitch-black armor.

This fleet belonged directly to the imperial royal bloodline of the Star Empire, answering solely to the Star Emperor himself, who had deployed them here for a classified objective.

At this moment, the imperial fleet had split into three tactical prongs of ten thousand ships each, with a massive Dreadnought anchoring the rear of each formation as they clashed directly with the vanguard of the Lance of the VoidGrand Fleet.

Even though these royal imperial forces held a three-to-one numerical advantage and possessed significantly stronger armor and firepower than the standard Republic forces, they were still being brutally battered by coordinated human strikes.

The most maddening issue for the royal fleet was the unrelenting harassment from the Void Human starfighters.

The human bombers and interceptors struck with surgical precision, unleashing devastating salvos before vanishing back into the void, completely immune to interception. The imperial gunners couldn’t lock them down, let alone destroy a single human craft.

Stuck in a grinding battle of attrition, taking heavy losses, and unable to transmit a distress signal to call for reinforcements, sheer frustration and creeping panic began to choke the imperial command.

They tried different tactics to break out from this situation, yet they were helpless. No matter what they did, they were beaten so badly that they could only stay in one place and take the beating.

They tried to break through the human fleet formation, but they were beaten back till they were blue and suffered even greater losses, forced to pull back with pale faces.

They tried to concentrate their attack at one point to create a breakthrough, but again, they were similarly targeted and beaten till they couldn’t raise their heads and just took the beating.

They found the device that was blocking them from sending or transmitting a distress signal and tried to target it, only to have one of their command ships—a dreadnought—targeted and sunk instead.

Now, the imperial family fleet command dared not do anything. Instead, they tried to plead and even surrender willingly.

But their surrender and pleading were not heard, and they were beaten—slowly being crushed.

Soon, they knew that nothing would be left of them, and what would remain was but a shell of the grand fleet that was once one of the superior fleets.

That they had even fought a battle was a thought Mav, Ritika, and Ritik shared. Before they began mounting an attack in the truest possible sense, they had begun deploying systems that were not yet battle-ready, fully tested, or vetted.

They deployed an energy distortion field surrounding the imperial fleet across the three prongs that they had divided themselves into.

It created a distortion grid that manipulated mana in such a way that it began to affect the working of the ships’ internal and external systems.

The imperial family fleet found their shields—which were the only reason they were still standing—beginning to suffer as their integrity collapsed.

Not long after, their shields collapsed under the coordinated attack of starfighters and ships. Even their weapon systems suffered failures, and the power generators across the whole fleet fizzled out suddenly, while some surged and blasted on themselves.

This move suddenly turned the fleet into actual sitting ducks. Meanwhile, the Lance of the Void Fleet remained unaffected by their own field.

Using this opportunity that they created for themselves, they moved through the mostly frozen fleet like reapers through a field of wheat. They used their weapon systems to pierce through the starships, dealing with them all very easily.

Such fleets were encountered by Yuki and Anky’s fleets as well, and they were mostly dealt with similarly—just with different kinds of experimental weapon systems.

Yuki, on one side, used a spatial distortion missile which contained a small, unstable dark star hole. Once exploded, it created a vast spatial collapse around the designated area, eating up the fleet and leaving not even scraps behind.

Meanwhile, Anky released a similar kind of annihilation-class missile, which likewise contained a small, unstable dark star.

Once exploded, it created a vast gravity field within the space with such a heavy presence that it immediately collapsed all the ships in the fleet in on themselves under this immense gravitational pressure.

For example, if a normal human were placed on a planet with ten or even a hundred times normal gravity, they would not be able to bear it and would instead be crushed under it; a similar effect was visited upon these ships.

By the fifth day, the truth about the three imperial families—including Illyarin—being wiped out, along with all those Tier 2 powers, could no longer be contained by the Celestial Void’s three grand fleets.

It wasn’t that they let anyone escape to leak intelligence about their attack; rather, it was caused by the complete lack of response and communication received by the remaining three Tier 3 powers, and even the Star Empire, for four days straight. Anyone they tried to reach out to could not be contacted at all.

On the fourth day, they received shocking news when one star system belonging to a Tier 2 power was detected to be completely desolated, with everything inside destroyed. Following that, a few more responses flooded in, making these Tier 3 powers realize that something was terribly wrong.

This was confirmed further by the Bright Moon Empire during a meeting where two of the supreme families were present alongside the Republican President. Suddenly, the projection belonging to the Targer family disappeared as their connection was disrupted, and no matter what they tried, they couldn’t reach them at all.

Because of this, the Republican President sent a fleet to check on them. When the fleet arrived after a day, they were met with a powerful attack launched by the Targer family’s own Moon Fortress.

At first, they thought the Targer family had betrayed them.