Wellington Star System, Star System Laswell.
As the gateway to Wellington, where the imperial capital was located, the Starry Sky Defense Network had been built to a fairly comprehensive standard.
Of course, that depended on what kind of opponent it faced.
If it were merely pirates or ordinary rebels, there would absolutely be no problem.
But the enemy now was the newly formed Rose Fleet under Lance, and its commander was Xiwet, one of the few truly capable figures among the nobility!
With nothing more than the range advantage of the five billion Federation warships under his command, he could have destroyed the entire defense network without suffering a single loss. It posed no threat at all.
Naturally, in pursuit of the overall strategic objective, Xiwet did not do so. Instead, he kept those five billion warships hidden in the rear as a trump card and reserve fleet, without sending them into battle.
Yet even without the Federation warships, the fleet commanded by Xiwet was still not something fleets haphazardly commanded by those incompetent nobles could contend with.
With nothing more than a few minor psychological tricks, he had lured all the defenders beyond the attack range of the defense network.
The outcome needed no further explanation. Under the command of that group of nobles, even a sure victory would be squandered.
It was like a bewildered child being repeatedly brutalized by a famous general. The utterly one-sided battle left everyone dumbfounded as 25 billion warships beat one trillion warships into a miserable, panicked rout.
Of course, in order to achieve the primary goal of drawing Imperial fleets here as reinforcements, Xiwet had not deployed the Federation warships, even though he knew they could have taken the battle without losses. Instead, he had used Imperial warships to maneuver against them.