The battle on the ground had already entered its final stages, but the decisive battle at the Lagrange point had only just begun.
In the deep, dark expanse of space, hundreds of long shuttle-shaped craft flew in orderly formations toward the Lagrange point. From afar, they resembled assault boats stretching across an ocean, their ranks extending endlessly.
It was called the Albatross, designation XTW-1. It was seven meters long, three meters wide, and shaped like an old-era rocket.
In fact, it had been modified from an old-era chemical rocket.
The only difference was that its chemical propulsion system had been replaced with more efficient plasma thrusters, while the multistage separation design had been removed.
More than half the craft's volume was devoted to its propulsion system. The rest consisted of a ceramic-steel crew compartment capable of carrying up to four combatants.
Once close to the target, the landing craft would fire its crew compartment like a shell, which would latch tightly onto the target spacecraft upon approach.
Then the landing pod's hatch would unlock, releasing combatants carrying cutting equipment to breach the target spacecraft's hull before storming inside with weapons.
It was no exaggeration to say that this was probably the smallest aerospace combat unit in human civilization's history since the Three-Year War.
That was, if missiles and neutron torpedoes were excluded from the count.
Of course, small was only relative when compared to starships that measured several kilometers long.
Against the Lagrange Point Space Station's radar searches, neither their small size nor radar-absorbing coating could possibly hide them.
Not to mention that these hundreds of Albatrosses had no intention of concealing themselves. They had flown straight over openly, even maintaining a neat aerial formation.
It was undoubtedly a provocation.
From the moment the fleet set out, the Lagrange Point